Rainbow After The Storm: Epilogue

Rainbow After The Storm
by milesprower06

A/N: I just want to take a short author's note, and thank you all for reading this story of mine. Also, I encourage everyone reading this to cherish each and every day of their lives, because you never know when it's going to end. Due to a serious truck accident and a brush with death, you truly don't know how it could've ended very differently, and you may have never gotten this last entry. So thank you.

Epilogue
The Rainbow After The Storm

SWEET APPLE ACRES

"Rainbow, I don't want you to give up your lifelong dream for me, d'ya hear?"
"Applejack, you helped me get through the hardest ordeal I've ever been through in my life."
"Yep, now you're through it, and now you can go after what you've always wanted."

Rainbow looked hurt.

"AJ, are...are you saying you want me to leave?"
"What? No! No, no. Sugarcube, you can do whatever you want. It's your decision. Mah' point is, Pinkie gave you an amazing, wonderful gift. She gave you a second chance to go get what you've wanted since you were a little filly."
"I don't know. I mean, I'm very, very happy to have my wings back. But, I'm not sure if it's what I want most anymore. I want to be with you, most of all."
"Rainbow, I really think you need to take a step back and look at the whole picture. You've wanted to be a part of the Wonderbolts for years. Our relationship is barely a few weeks old.
"And in that few weeks, I've realized how much you mean to me. I'd...I'd miss you."
"And I'd miss you too, sugarcube. But I really think you should go and give this a shot."

Rainbow turned to look out the bedroom window for a few moments, and then back at Applejack.

"You really think so?"
"If you don't like it, I doubt anything would stop you from flying back down here to the Acres, Rainbow. I just don't want you passing this opportunity up without even considering it. You'll get a lot more use from your wings up there performing than you would down here doing chores."

Rainbow smiled at her best friend. Taking her advice to heart, she nodded.

"Okay, Applejack. I'll try not to miss you too much while I'm up there."
"Sweetheart, I won't be surprised if you hardly think of me. You'll be too busy becoming the best Wonderbolt ever. Now get to writing that acceptance letter, ya hear?"

Rainbow gave Applejack a hug, and got to work on replying to Spitfire's offer.

Applejack got up from the bed and went to help make dinner. All the while, she tried to make her heart stop aching. The truth was, she would miss Rainbow terribly. But she didn't want Rainbow to turn her back on her dreams for a life on the farm. It just didn't seem right with the gift Pinkie had given her. The rest of the day went as it usually did. The family sat down to dinner, Applejack finished up some lingering chores around the farmhouse, and Rainbow took Gummy out to the lake for an evening swim.

The next morning, Rainbow had completed her letter to Spitfire. Getting up even earlier than Applejack, she gently woke her to let her know she was taking the wagon to take care of something in Ponyville, and she'd be back by late morning. With that, Rainbow went to the barn to get the wagon, got hooked up, and on her way out the front gate, slipped the letter to Spitfire into the mailbox.

PONYVILLE
TWO HOURS LATER

The town-wide recovery efforts from the quake had been slow and steady the past couple weeks. Damage had appeared light, but building inspectors wanted to be absolutely sure that no subtle structural damage occurred that might have dire consequences in the weeks and months to follow. One pony in particular, was glad to see the town's attention had turned towards recovering and repair, and away from him.

Marty's goal now was to try and prevent complete financial fallout, which would force him to move his family away from Ponyville. He figured his first order of business was aiding with recovery efforts. He began that task by donating all the fresh water and produce he had to volunteers working around town. The immense generosity had paid off. Slowly, as the days passed, he began to get customers back, as the townsfolk began to realize that he now honestly regretted his actions. But he didn't yet have enough money to repair his front display window.

So that morning, he was quite surprised to see Rainbow Dash waiting in front of his store with a cart. In the cart, carefully resting against one side, was a pane of glass.

"Uh, um...good morning, Rainbow. Can I help you?" was all he could muster into a greeting.

"Yeah, you can help me get this thing out of my cart so I can be on my way." Rainbow said, motioning to the pane of glass.

"But...why would-"

"Alright. I do not want to sit here and talk about this, okay? I'm not here to say you were wrong and I was right; none of that. I broke your window, here's a replacement. Now do you want it or not?"

Marty decided to take the hint and shut up. He walked over to the cart and helped Rainbow lift the glass out of the back and gently set it against the front wall of his store.

"Thanks." he said to her as she got refastened in the cart.

"Yeah..." was all she said before departing. She didn't even look back. Marty, as confused as he was about what just happened, couldn't help but smile a bit.

When she got back to the farm, Applejack asked Rainbow if she needed help packing.

"Nah, I don't think I'm gonna be packing anything. I'll just take some bits. I really don't know what to expect, but I probably won't need my luggage. Besides, I'll always consider this my home."

Two days later, Rainbow was helping AJ with some apple dishes in the kitchen when there was a knock at the door. They stopped what they were doing, and went to answer. Rainbow opened the door, and there stood Spitfire, surprisingly not in uniform.

"Hey there, Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow wasn't quite sure how to respond. Conflicted inside, here she was, standing in front of one of her biggest idols, and also, knew that it meant that she would be leaving the farm shortly.

"Uh, hi Spitfire. I hope ya don't mind, but I'm not taking much along with me."
"Hey, it's cool. Just bring whatever you feel like. Even though we're foregoing the audition in your case, we start training in a few days for this next tour we're doing, so we've got to get you situated up in Cloudsdale. Then we'll discuss what we'll be doing for the show. Are you ready?"

At first, Rainbow nodded, then hesitated.

"I just...I just don't know. I mean, normally, this would be a dream come true. But...I just want you to understand my hesitation here. Applejack here has done more for me than anypony else. She's the reason I'm still here. And a small part of me feels that by joining up with you guys and following my dream, that I'm abandoning her here."

Spitfire nodded empathetically.

"Sugarcube..." Applejack began. "Please don't view it like that. Yeah, I'll be honest, I'm gonna miss you very, very badly, especially considering how far we've come the past few weeks. But knowing that you're out there doing what you've been dreaming of since you were a filly, that will make it hurt less, darlin'. I promise."

"Leaving your friends and family isn't easy, Rainbow. It's your choice. You wouldn't be leaving them for good, but I won't sugarcoat it for you. Our tours around Equestria usually take several months. We'd be thrilled to have you, but we'd certainly understand if you can't leave this behind." Spitfire told her, letting her know there was no pressure to her decision.

Rainbow swallowed, fought back the tears, then nodded again.

"I'll do it. I'm ready."

Spitfire smiled. "I'll give you a few minutes, then. I'll be waiting by the front gates."

The undressed Wonderbolt left the front door, leaving Rainbow and Applejack to their farewells. Rainbow went to their room, and tugged on her Wonderbolt hoodie, that Rarity had immediately offered to tweak for her by adding holes for her wings. She came back to the door, and gave Applejack a tearful hug.

"The first chance I get, I'm coming back here to visit." Rainbow shakily said.

"Ah look forward to seein' ya, sweetheart. Give it all ya can. I'll always be here for you if ya need anythin' at all."

With that, the two ponies released each other, and Applejack watched as Rainbow trotted down the front path to the waiting Spitfire, who gave her a smile, and they took off into the skies.

As the pair of Pegasi faded into the horizon, Applejack felt like she had lost a part of herself. Her heart aching, she went back inside, and continued her cooking in the kitchen to try and get her mind off Rainbow's departure.

CLOUDSDALE
WONDERBOLTS HEADQUARTERS

Rainbow stood in awe at the interior of the Wonderbolts HQ. When the Wonderbolts weren't on tour or didn't feel like going home when on a break, this was the place they came. To Rainbow, it was almost as impressive as the Cloudiseum. Portraits of past Wonderbolts lined the front halls. Framed newspaper clippings of record breaking sales or performances also lined the walls among them among them.

Spitfire gave Rainbow the time to look around, taking it all in, and then when she was satisfied, they continued down the west hallway.

"So when do I get my uniform?" Rainbow asked. She loved her hoodie that Rarity made, but she couldn't wait to see how she looked in an official Wonderbolt uniform.

"Well, that's the thing, Rainbow. Before we do that, we want to run an idea by you." Spitfire told her, before leading her into the cafeteria. There, at the single, large, round table were eight more Wonderbolts. Rainbow recognized them all. Soarin, Blaze, Firestreak, Fleetfoot, High Winds, Lightning Streak, Rapidfire, and Misty. Some had been the celebrity judges for the Best Young Flier Competition, and others she recognized from the VIP Section at the Grand Galloping Gala. With Rainbow and Spitfire coming to sit down, the table's occupancy reached ten Pegasi. Each greeted her with warm smiles.

Dash was beside herself. It took considerable and visible effort to not go into her usual fangirl mode. Here she was, sitting down to lunch with NINE Wonderbolts.

"Wow, wow, wow! I...I never thought I'd ever be here with you guys!" Rainbow said with a squee. Rainbow's demeanor brought some light chuckles from some others at the table. Obviously, this type of excitement among new recruits was nothing new, and veterans never tired of  it. They always appreciated the enthusiasm.

"So what's this idea you wanted to tell me?" she asked, sitting down in between Spitfire and Soarin, as the chefs brought out crispy hayfries and stormcloud soup.

"Well, Rainbow. I'll get right to the point. After we invited you to become a Wonderbolt, we decided we wanted to make this year's show about you." Spitfire told their new recruit. Rainbow's eyes widened, and her mouth dropped open slightly.

"A-about me?" she asked, dumbfounded.

"Yeah. Your story, your journey, and your experience over the past two months." Soarin added.

Rainbow smiled.

"Honestly, it feels like a lot longer than that." she said, thinking back to all that had happened since that night.

"So what do ya say, Rainbow Dash? Do you want to have your story told by the Wonderbolts?"

Suddenly, an epiphany hit Rainbow. This was her chance. She could tell the story her way. It would be on a stage that half of Equestria would see. But how could she put her experience into a Wonderbolts airshow? It was this last question that she posed to the nine Wonderbolts at the table.

"That's what this get-together is for. Toss around ideas and suggestions, and above all, make sure it fits in with how you want it to be told," Spitfire said.

Ideas and scenarios began flying through Dash's head. The first thing to come to Rainbow's mind, was that if they were going to actually pull this off, even with a team of Wonderbolts behind her, that the most crucial component was absent.

"Well, I have an idea, but it will require something that the Wonderbolts have probably never done before."

THE NEXT DAY

Applejack's curiosity had been piqued, to say the very least. Rainbow hadn't even been gone a day, and now here she was, with Twilight and Rarity in Twilight's weather balloon, ascending to the Wonderbolts Headquarters in Cloudsdale. Each of them had gotten a priority-delivered letter from Rainbow last night, saying she needed to see all of them about something important. So the next morning, Twilight gave each of them the Cloudwalker spell, and here they were.

"What do you think she wants?" Twilight asked.

"Ah haven't the faintest clue, Twi," AJ replied.

The weather balloon poked through Cloudsdale's bottom cloud surface, and Rainbow's directions were on the money, as they were right at the front steps of the very impressive-looking Wonderbolts HQ.

Rainbow awaited them at the top of the steps. She beamed upon seeing her friends. Applejack jumped out of the balloon, and galloped towards Rainbow. The farm pony threw her front hooves around the Pegasus.

"Long time no see," Rainbow joked, but AJ's reaction was understandable. They hadn't spent more than a day away from each other in over a month. They released each other as the two unicorns came up the steps.

"So what's this all about, Rainbow?" Applejack asked. Rainbow cleared her throat, and began.

"Guys, the Wonderbolts want to to this year's airshow about me; about what I went through these last two months."

"That's fantastic, darling. But, what does that have to do with us?" Rarity asked.

"Everything. I wouldn't be here right now if it weren't for all of you. I couldn't think of trying to make this show without having you guys be a part of it."

"But, what about Fluttershy?" Twilight asked.

"I sent her a letter too. She got back to me surprisingly fast. She appreciated the gesture, but she couldn't leave her animals. But I figured you could find a replacement librarian for awhile, Twi. Your knowledge of magic could make some seriously awesome special effects. Rarity, they want me to be the center of this show, and I can't think of anypony better who could make the most amazing, most stunning flight suit ever."

Lastly, she turned to Applejack.

"AJ...I know it isn't the easiest thing to ask of you...to find a replacement at the Acres for this long of a time. But you saved my life. You're the reason I'm here. You helped me start a life on the ground. I couldn't imagine telling this story without the most important mare in my life. And...Soarin's prepared to sweeten the pot. He sais if you can get him one of your apple pies after each show, he'll guarantee the Apple family a prime vendor spot for each performance."

Rainbow studied the looks of thought and consideration on the faces of her friends.

"So what d'ya say?"

CLOUDSDALE CLOUDISEUM
SIX MONTHS LATER

Rainbow stood at the curtain that separated the backstage from the main performance area. She felt like her whole body was on pins and needles.  She had never felt this nervous in her life. She looked over at the wall, at the poster for this year's show.

THE RAINBOW AFTER THE STORM
Airshow performance of Rainbow Dash's incredible story of survival, followed by freestyle.

"Nerves, Rainbow?" Spitfire asked, coming up next to her.

"Yeah, just a little," Rainbow admitted.

"You'll be fine. This is gonna be one of our greatest shows ever. I know it. You've come a long way these past six months. We all have."

Indeed they did. Twilight, Rarity, and Applejack had all agreed to participate in the airshow. Rainbow turned her head to look at herself, and the incredible outfit Rarity had made.

It was the same navy blue as the regular Wonderbolt uniforms, but there were a few key differences, seeing as how she was supposed to be the focus of this show. On the uniforms flanks, her own cutie mark had been expertly embroidered, the materials carefully chosen, so it almost seemed to shine. Then, Rainbow opened her wings, and looked at what was by far the most intricate and beautiful part of the outfit.

Rarity had painstakingly crafted a second pair of glass wings that acted almost like a sleeve to Rainbow's regular wings. Each 'feather' was an individual piece of glass. Rainbow had to practice for a couple weeks to get used to the added weight, but the glass wings could fold, unfold, flap, and move in any fashion her regular wings could, and was designed to serve as one of the show's most awe-inspiring special effects. Rarity was picky down to the last detail, as the last layer of glass feathers were a rich cotton candy pink.

"We're live in two minutes!" the stage director said. Rainbow gulped.

"You'll do fine, Rainbow. You've got your friends all here with you. Besides, we know you can. We've got this thing memorized."

"I can't believe I'm here. A flight school dropout at the center of a Wonderbolts show..." Rainbow said, as much to herself as it was to Spitfire, who scoffed.

"Pfft. You think you're the only dropout who became a Wonderbolt? You'd be wrong there, Dash." Spitfire said with a wink, and then trotted off to take her place. That little revelation did wonders to calm Rainbow's nerves. She sneaked a peak between the curtains. There, in the front row, she saw Fluttershy with Scootaloo, who was eagerly awaiting the performance. Then the Cloudiseum went dark, as stagehands brought cloud cover over the bright sunny sky, followed by black thunderheads, that began to rumble.

Rainbow took a deep breath. This was it. She got down into a hunched position. She heard the director count down "Three...two...one..."

With a leap and powerful flap of her wings, she bolted out of the curtains onto the main stage area.

Five more Wonderbolts were already flying in a circle formation, causing the clouds the stagehands were bringing in to spin into what looked like a considerable storm system. Had this not been an airshow with what promised to be very convincing special effects, the audience might have begun to seek cover.

Rainbow began her routine, as the stage got darker and darker as thunder continued to rumble. She wowed the spectators by doing all sorts of aerial maneuvers, weaving in and out of the flying formations of the circling Wonderbolts.

Slowly and subtly, sickly, crimson pink trails began to form in the wake of half of the Wonderbolts, and as Rainbow began to move her routine to the center of the stage, they began to swoop at her. With how dark the arena was getting, it seemed as if these flying pink lasers were attacking Rainbow, as she began to appear to lose focus, as her flight path wavered. The other two Wonderbolts had bright, lively pink trails behind them, and they tried desperately to intercept the sickly pink trails, to no avail.

But again, this was all part of the act. This was one of the more complex maneuvers. The Wonderbolts were actually appearing to impact with her. Then, out of nowhere, came a sixth. The brightest of the pink trails came from above, at a bomb dive towards Rainbow, who was floundering in midair.

Unbeknown to the audience, this sixth Wonderbolt was nothing; nothing but a magical illusion, compliments of Twilight. And as the apparition flew directly down through Rainbow Dash, Rarity, hidden off on the side of the stage, used her magic to trigger the actuator on Rainbow's uniform, and the glass wings went fully erect, and appeared to shatter.

The audience gasped at the act. From their distance, the glass wings appeared real, and as the glass feathers proved the perfect distraction, Rainbow quickly drew in her real wings, slipping them into a hidden second layer of fabric in the uniform. For all intents and purposes, Rainbow appeared wingless as she plummeted towards the bottom of the stage, where she landed on a pitch black thundercloud, which appeared to swallow and envelope the Pegasus.

The magical thundercloud rumbled softly, mimicking a struggling and failing heartbeat, as Twilight levitated the individual glass feathers around the clump of thundercloud, like satellites in orbit.

Then the beating stopped.

The audience murmured as the stage went dead silent for a few moments as the  five Wonderbolts all scattered to the outside of the arena, and the glowing glass feathers slowly lost their glow and appeared to fall from the Cloudiseum.

Then came another player. A glowing white path of cloud appeared in front of the pony clad entirely in black, hiding their every feature. She ran for the center of the stage, towards the black thundercloud, and dove into it.

A spotlight came on above the stage, illuminating the thundercloud as it began to unfold, there laid Rainbow, who appeared wingless and unconscious, with the black anonymous pony sitting at her side, as it began to rain. It took a few moments for the audience to realize that a bowl of clouds had been placed at the floor of the arena in the darkness, and had begun to fill with water.

Scootaloo and Fluttershy smiled, as they knew what was coming. They had both been invited to rehearsals, and Scoots was quite proud of the fact that she had suggested this to Rainbow.

Down on the thundercloud, Rainbow slowly got to her feet. Hunkering down for just a moment, she leaped off the thundercloud with the black-clad pony down into the cloud bowl of water. When they hit the water, it was revealed where the Wonderbolts had gone, as the five of them erupted up out of the water, creating impressive geysers. They continued this pattern, flying up, over the crowd, out of the Cloudiseum, to fly down and under and up through the cloud bowl again, which was constructed of enchanted cloud that didn't leak when the Wonderbolts shot through them. Twilight used magic to keep the geysers formed, and soon, the Wonderbolts had created an intricate web of flowing geysers.

As the geysers slowly shrunk down, tree-shaped clouds materialized where they dipped back into the bowl. Together, Rainbow and her anonymous companion swam and leaped out of the water, dissipating the clouds one by one, as the Wonderbolts continued their geyser forming. Then, Rainbow's routine changed. As she kept leaping at the cloud trees, she grabbed a clump of cloud from them and then brought it to the center thundercloud, and began forming a structure. As they jumped through more and more of them, the pieces became clear – the memorial fountain in Ponyville. Twilight's magic assisted with having water flow in and out of it.

Then, lightning began to flash in the once-again-darkening skies above. A Wonderbolt with the sickly pink glow bombdived the cloud fountain, and Twilight assisted the maneuver with a bright, shimmering explosion as the flier shot down through the fountain, and then back up, as the arena appeared to shake violently. The Wonderbolt descended again, this time towards Rainbow and her companion.

Suddenly, a bright, vivid pink glow shot up from the fountain's remains, and collided head on with the descending Wonderbolt. A mass deceleration spell kept the appearance of a blindingly fast impact, but kept the two Wonderbolts unharmed as they went into a frienzied routine of midair combat. Rainbow and her companion looked on in awe, and the dark pink glowing Wonderbolt descended towards Rainbow, eluding the bright pink flier. Twilight charged up her horn, and just as the crimson pink Wonderbolt collided with Rainbow, a green pillar of flame shot up from the remains of the fountain, and arced towards the pair, seemingly happening in an instant. Enveloping the two, the fire spiraled up and out of the Cloudiseum. When it finally dissipated, Rainbow again lay motionless on the central black thundercloud, as the bright pink orb-disguised Wonderbolt slowly descended to them. The Wonderbolt dipped below the clouds, but the pink glowing orb stopped when it reached Rainbow. Twilight used a levitation spell to levitate the ragdoll Rainbow up into the air with the pink orb. It got brighter, expanded, and with a flash, dissipated, and in that moment, Rainbow spread her wings, and took off up into the air, quickly followed by the team of five Wonderbolts from below, causing five last geysers.

Lightning bolts crackled in the wake of the Wonderbolts as they got in formation around Rainbow in a star formation, as they performed a vertical 180, and dove back towards the Cloudiseum. Due to the formation of Wonderbolts, the wake that began to form around Rainbow was much larger than when she did this maneuver at the Best Young Flier competition. Very impressively, the Wonderbolts began to spin their star formation, and the mach cone began to twist. Rainbow spun at the same speed, to keep the cone stable as they gained speed. Just before they came to the topmost row of spectators, the cone exploded into a much larger Sonic Rainboom, which spiraled wildly outward throughout the Cloudiseum. The entire arena filling with a vivid spectra, Rainbow rapidly decelerated, the Wonderbolts surging past her, as she slowed just in time to come to a rest on the thundercloud, her and her companion becoming surrounded by bolts of lightning.

Stepping in close to her anonymous rescuer, there lips met in a kiss, accompanied by a warm glow courtesy of Twilight., and the crowd began to cheer at an unbelievable volume. The five Wonderbolts came up as the two ponies broke the kiss. Twilight and Rarity came to center stage from the path of cloud, and together, they took a bow, as the Pegasi continued to cheer.

As the 'Rainbow After The Storm' show was a bit shorter than a traditional Wonderbolts airshow, what followed for the next 30 minutes was a looser, less routine freestyle performance, where even Twilight was allowed to experiment and have fun with illusion and light tricks. After that, they again returned to the center stage, and took a bow. As the crowd began to filter out, they all found themselves backstage again, thrilled at their first performance.

"That was incredible, Rainbow! One of our best shows yet," Spitfire congratulated her. Rainbow's anonymous companion removed her black concealing outfit, and it was indeed none other than Applejack.

"Nice swimming there, AJ," Rainbow complimented.

As they discussed favorite parts of the show, Princess Celestia came backstage to congratulate them on quite the performance.

"Especially you, Rainbow. Your wings are beautiful, by the way," Celestia complimented.

"Thank you, your Highness.

"And, if you like, there are a couple of ponies who want to say hi to you."

Rainbow nodded, and stepped forward, eager and excited to meet her two newest fans. Celestia drew back the backstage curtain ten feet away, and Rainbow's eyes widened, as the two ponies came into view, and for the first time since that fateful night, she laid eyes on her mom and dad.

"Hey there, kiddo" Stormcloud greeted. Upon looking into his daughter's eyes, his eyes teared up a bit.

"Hi, sweetheart" her mom added, both of them having hopeful expressions on their faces.

Rainbow said nothing, her mouth fumbling, stunned, and unable to find any words. Stormcloud took a single step forward.

"Rainbow...I...there are no words to truly express how sorry we are about that night all that time ago. You were crying for help, we didn't hear you, and instead we blamed you for standing up for yourself the only way you could. It's a grudge you've rightfully held the past few years. I'd...we...we'd like to know if there's anything...anything at all we can do to repair what's been broken between us. If you're not ready, just say so, and we'll leave without another word. You can come to us whenever you want."

Rainbow continued to stare at her parents, just mere feet from her. After all this time...she felt a lump begin to form and rise in her throat. She began to cry.

"Come on, hun. Let's go." Stormcloud softly said to his wife, and they turned to leave, not wanting to upset their daughter any further.

Rainbow's shoulders heaved as tears began to flow from her eyes.

"W-wait. Wait!" she cried. Her parents stopped, turned back to her, and Rainbow galloped to them as if she had been longing for them all her life. As she rapidly closed the gap in what seemed like slow motion, she felt all these years of grief, anger, and sadness melt away from her heart. With the speed she approached them, the ponies present thought she would knock them over. Tears streaming down her face, she threw her front legs around her mom and dad.

"I'm sorry...oh I'm so so sorry!" she sobbed.

"Sweetheart, you have nothing to be sorry for. Nothing." Firefly said soothingly, all three ponies in the hug crying.

"Yes, yes I do. I should've let you see me at the hospital. I...I didn't want you to see me like that."

"It's all in the past now, Rainbow. We're so, so proud of you." Stormcloud told her.

Rainbow released them from the embrace, and turned to look at AJ, who was also visibly crying at the reunion. Rainbow waved a hoof for her to come and get introduced. Applejack walked to her, and Rainbow hugged her, and then turned to her parents.

"Mom, dad. This is Applejack. She's...she's..." Rainbow struggled to introduce the workhorse truthfully to her parents. She glanced at Applejack, who smiled with a look of encouragement.

"She's my girlfriend. She was the one that saved my life."

To Rainbow, the silence that followed seemed to stretch on forever. But in reality, it wasn't more than a few seconds.

"I'm so very pleased to meet you, Applejack." Firefly greeted. Her husband did more than that. He approached Applejack and gave her a hug.

"Thank you. Thank you for saving my little girl." he said.

"No thanks required, sir. Your daughter's somethin' special to me." Applejack replied, everypony in the group still quite emotional. "I wouldn't have had things turn out any other way. It was her running away that first brought her to my farm. She's simply the greatest friend I could ever ask for."

"And don't you two worry about what anypony else says," Stormcloud continued, releasing Applejack and addressing the both of them. "I can't pretend to understand it, but if you two make each other happy, then that's all the really matters."

Dear Princess Celestia

Over the past several months, I realized one of the most important aspects not just of friendship, but of family too. Everypony has their flaws, and everypony makes mistakes, even big, life-changing ones. It takes a real friend to forgive those mistakes, and through that, miraculous healing can take place, emotionally and even physically, and that's the most powerful magic of friendship. There are times where it truly doesn't matter what somepony has done. All that matters is that they are your friend, they are your family, and if you can look past any fault, amazing things can happen.

Your faithful subject,
Rainbow Dash

SIX MONTHS LATER

Dear Mom and Dad

I know that there's probably nothing I can write or say that will change the past three years. I know we all regret that night, and nothing we do will get us that lost time back. What's important is that we're back together. We're a family again, and we can start patching things up together.

Dad, I think you and I should just stop dwelling on who was right and who was wrong that night. You were busy with your job still trying to be the best father you could, and I was a stressed, angry, kid who was sick and tired of getting bullied. Maybe we should just leave it at that.

You don't know what it means to me that you accept Applejack and I for who we are. We mean the world to each other, and it makes me so happy that you're okay with that. The circumstances under which we found our love for each other could have been better, but what matters is that we found each other.

See you guys next time I'm home!

Love always, your daughter,
Rainbow Dash

Stormcloud smiled, reading the letter to himself as he had done numerous times since receiving it. He folded it back up, and placed it neatly back in his center desk drawer before getting up and going for the door, grabbing his hardhat before exiting his office to meet his guests for today.

DOWN AT THE FACTORY ENTRANCE

"Now class, it's important to stay in the group. We don't want anypony wandering off and getting lost. Once again, I'd like to thank Twilight for chaperoning, as well as providing the cloud-walking spell for the entire class."

"Thanks, Twilight." said the small class, at Cheerilee's beckoning.

"No trouble at all, my little ponies. Last time I was here, our tour was cut short because of the Best Young Flier's competition. I'm looking forward to seeing the rest of the factory, now that the Wonderbolts tour is finally over."

"Speaking of, where is Rainbow?" Scootaloo asked.

"She's with the rest of the team in Las Pegasus, celebrating their successful tour."
"Why didn't you go?"
"Oh, I'm not nearly enough of a party pony to adequately enjoy Las Pegasus."

"Good morning, everypony. It's not too often we get a class from down below for the tour of the Cloudsdale Weather Factory. We're glad to have you all here!" Stormcloud said, coming down the stairs to the tour starting area.

"I can't wait to see how the weather's made!" Scootaloo said.
"Yeah, imagine that. A Pegasus who's never been to the Weather Factory" Sweetie Belle commented, getting a chuckle from some classmates, and a glare from Scoot, who then decided to drop the matter.

"Mr. Stormcloud, are we really gonna see the entire factory?" Scootaloo asked the factory director.

"You bet, champ. Every bit of it."

With a quick check of the clipboard, he prepared to start the tour.

"And you won't believe how the rainbows are made."