“With us?” Doug echoes, slightly confused. He hooks his arms under Rainbow Dash’s forelegs and hauls her out from between his legs. He props her up on her rump in a very similar seating position to his own, hind legs awkwardly sticking forward while her forelegs tuck against her barrel. It looks decidedly uncomfortable for her, or at least unfamiliar.

“Yeah.” Rainbow Dash nods superfluously. Her hoof motions between Doug and herself. “With us.”

“Um, I kinda assumed we would get together. You know, you joining the herd.” Doug frowns as Rainbow Dash looks away. “Isn’t that something you want?”

“It’s not that I don’t want to,” Rainbow Dash says quickly, rolling to her side and staring at the horizon. She hates how much it hurts to say, like she’s ripping herself apart, but she doesn’t see another way. “I can’t join the Wonderbolts if I’m in a herd.”

“I thought you couldn’t join if you’re pregnant, either,” Doug counters, scooting forward so he can comfortably reach her. He places his hand on her barrel, just below the wing, and with light taps of his fingers travels towards her taut belly.

“Only if I can’t keep up.” Rainbow Dash sighs heavily, a hoof intercepting his hand before he can get all the way to her teats. “If you take the foal after she’s born, then I’ll be able to stay with the ‘Bolts. I’ll get back in shape, I won’t have to worry about taking care of her, and I can dedicate my life to becoming the best Wonderbolt that’s ever lived.”

“You’d abandon your foal like that?” Doug says, the question in his voice not quite masking the disdain.

“What else am I supposed to do?!” Rainbow Dash yells, whipping her head back to glare at Doug. “I can’t spend four hours a day flying back and forth to see her. I can’t do what Hondo Flanks does and come home every weekend just to see the mares and foals. You know how much practice time I would lose!? Why bother joining the herd if I’m never going to see her? Or you, or anypony else?!”

Rainbow Dash takes a deep breath, her glare keeping Doug from interrupting. “Herds are supposed to be there for each other! How am I going to do that for you if I’m never around?”

“Like you expect us to do for you?” Doug pulls his hand free, pushing on the lower part of Rainbow Dash’s belly. She doesn’t feel any different from two weeks ago, except for a light sheen of sweat from her flight.

“Rub it in deeper, why don’t you?” Rainbow Dash snorts harshly. “You want to tell me how terrible a pony I am, that I’d put my career over my foal? This wasn’t supposed to happen!”

Rainbow Dash goes to roll away, but is stopped by Doug’s hand. “But it did,” he says firmly, his other hand pressing against her head. He succeeds in getting her to look at him, even if it’s just a glare. “And you should be there for her.”

“But what if I can’t?! I can’t be both a Wonderbolt and the perfect dam! Or even a good one!” Rainbow Dash sniffs as she waves a hoof around like it might dispel all their problems. “My parents were always there for me; they came to every race, every event, big or small. They took all kinds of photos with me, like the first time I made it in the Junior Speedsters, the first time I made it to the pedestal, and every step to the top.” Her head sinks a little lower. “How am I going to do that for her?”

“I get that the long distance thing is hard,” Doug says quietly as the mare goes limp in his arms, her head resting against the ground. “And you’ll have to make tough decisions. You might not be there for every event. But you’ll be there for the important ones, for every one that you can. Or…”

Rainbow Dash turns to look at Doug. “Or?”

“Or you’ll have to make a choice,” Doug says, looking off in the distance. “My parents had to make a choice, too, about where they wanted to go with their lives.” He takes a deep breath, then sighs. “But maybe that’s a bad example.”

“Why?” Rainbow Dash asks, rolling over to her back. She finds it oddly comforting to see Doug struggling with something, and being able to be there to lay a hoof on his leg.

Doug smiles at the contact, fondly rubbing at the foreleg. “Because it doesn’t go the way you want to go.”

“I want to hear it,” Rainbow Dash says, stroking at his leg. The hairs, long compared to her own but nowhere near as dense, tickle at her hoof, and she can tell she’s tickling him a little, too. “You never talk about back home.”

“Well, that’s because I worry about what they’re going through, if I’m missing.” Doug bobs his head back and forth, just a little, as if deliberating what to say. “That and I don’t want to bring things up that I might have to explain, seeing how well that worked out for me before.” He chuckles to himself, shaking his head. “All my fault. Anyway, let’s see, where to start.”

Rainbow Dash smiles, especially as she sees Applejack and Rarity approaching from the southeast. Applejack turns and waves at a speck high in the sky, one of the weather pegasi - Clear Skies if she has a guess - waving back before hovering, obviously a little curious at what the four will be doing.

Doug turns, smiling at their approach. “Everypony’s here for storytime, apparently.” He raises a hand, lightly rubbing into Applejack’s muzzle before they exchange a soft kiss. He’s surprised when Rarity also steps forward, kissing him on the lips before reluctantly drawing back. He dabs at the wetness with his thumb and one finger, raising an eyebrow at the white unicorn. “What was that for?”

“I’ll tell you once you’re done with your story.” Rarity settles down next to Doug, making a half circle with Applejack on the opposite side of Rainbow Dash. “I promise it can wait.”

“And the hospital visit?” Doug glances between Rarity and Applejack. “Any news?”

“The test’ll take a little while,” Applejack says, prompting Doug with a light push from her muzzle. “Now start talkin’, ‘fore Ah get so excited Ah run mahself ragged.”

“Alright, fine,” Doug says cheerfully, scratching at Applejack and Rainbow Dash’s ears. At Rarity’s pout he rolls his eyes, hand leaving Applejack to muss the fashionista’s mane. She sticks her tongue out at him, smiling, as her hooves work to restore her mane to its former glory.

“So,” Doug starts, “my parents met at the Air Force Academy; it’s a secondary school a lot like the Wonderbolt Academy, but you take more than just flight classes.” Doug pauses for a moment. “Actually, do you even have colleges? The only school I’ve seen or heard of is the one between Sweet Apple Acres and Ponyville. And, from what I’ve seen, it’s for young ponies only.”

“I think one of Pinkie Pie’s sisters is getting some sort of fancy shmancy degree,” Applejack says, scratching at the back of her mane.

“A rocktorate,” Rarity chips in.

Doug stares at her for a brief moment. Then he sighs.

“She’s studying rocks,” Rarity adds.

“Of quartz she is,” Doug says, shaking his head, both at himself and the world in general. “I’d slate on all the puns, but you just take them for granite. Anyway. They got married after they graduated; she became a communications officer, while he flew fighter jets.”

“Wait, he flew?” Rainbow Dash says, cocking her head to the side. “Humans are weird. Unless jets are, like, those little nozzles at Aloe’s spa.” Rainbow Dash fiddles with her hooves, trying to mime something going into something else.

Rarity’s snickers, holding a hoof to her muzzle.

Rainbow Dash immediately shakes her head wildly from side to side, her eyes going wide. “Not that I know anything about that! It’s Weathercraft stuff they made us learn about in class! Honest!” She crosses her hoof against her chest, then jams her hoof in her eye.

Applejack and Rarity look around like they expect something to pop up from the ground and smite Rainbow Dash with a cupcake.

“No,” Doug says, stifling his mirth, “‘jets’ is another word for aircraft, except they are the much more powerful versions. The pinnacle of human mechanical engineering. Most of the big planes are jets these days, beating out props and turboprops in terms of performance and fuel efficiency and-.”

“Darling,” Rarity interjects, “if you explain every little detail we will be here for hours, and we’ll miss the unveiling of our test results, and we’ll have to wait until tomorrow to find out.”

Doug clears his throat. “Right.”

“Then what did he do?” Rainbow Dash asks, fascinated.

“Um, he didn’t do shows, like the Wonderbolts do. He trained other pilots, and was part of the military in case we did go to war.” Doug's lips tug to the corner of his mouth at the worried looks of Applejack and Rarity, though Rainbow Dash looks fairly nonplussed. “Which, thankfully, didn’t happen.”

“Yeah, yeah,” Rainbow Dash says, twirling a hoof. “What did happen?”

“So, he and my mom had their life planned out. He would finish his active duty years and they would go through the process of becoming instructors at the Air Force Academy. Which would take years to go through.”

Rainbow Dash spins her hoof through larger circles.

Doug rolls his eyes. “He got an offer to be stationed in Germany for six months. Which was a prestigious assignment, but would have meant that he and my mom would have been separated not just for the six months he’s gone but for the three years before their schedules got back in sync. I was pretty young at the time, and they didn’t want to stay apart for that long.”

“But they made it work, right?” Rainbow Dash asks, her head leaning forward ever so slightly. “They both got to live their dream?”

“In a way,” Doug says, sighing. “He resigned from the Air Force and flew commercial. For an airline. My mom also got out of the military, and worked as a consultant for various tech firms. They both decided that it was more important to spend time with us than it was to continue their careers in the military, even if they enjoyed that profession - my dad especially - a lot more.”

“Oh,” Rainbow Dash says, sinking down. “You didn’t want to tell me this story because it shows the long distance thing not working out.”

“That’s one way to put it,” Doug says diplomatically, yet he can’t hide his frown. “It’s an example of how even if you don’t make your dreams, life can still work out.”

“But I want my dreams,” Rainbow Dash says softly, trying to put up a good face in front of the other two mares. “I don’t want anything to hold me back from them.”

“I’m confident,” Doug says, fingers digging into Rainbow Dash’s scalp and ears, “that you’ll get those dreams. That you have the capacity to reach any dream you strive for.”

“How can you know that?” Rainbow Dash asks, magenta eyes staring into Doug’s with a fervor Doug wishes he could match. “How?”

“I don’t,” Doug concedes. “But that’s faith. You have to believe in you. Or, if you can’t do that, believe in the you that believes in you.” He winks at Rainbow Dash, then glances at Rarity, meeting her eyes. “Besides, believing in it makes it more likely to be true, right?”

Rarity smiles as Rainbow Dash huffs. “I guess,” the pegasus says, flopping back down. “But I don’t know what to do.”

“Then don’t make a decision yet,” Doug says, stroking her gently. “Take some time to think about it.” He rubs against her mane, slowly traveling down the colors. “I’ll still be here.”

Rainbow Dash sinks into her forelegs as she stares at the horizon, slowly letting out a long breath.

Doug turns to Rarity. “So, what did you want to say?”

Rarity glances to Applejack, both mares standing up. “Doug,” Rarity says somewhat formally, “I wanted to ask you this before I heard the news. And I want you to know, that no matter how the test turns out, I am still just as serious about this.”

Doug slowly nods as Applejack moves to his side, pressing against him reassuringly.

Rarity steels herself for a moment. “Applejack,” she formally states, “With your permission, I would like to join herd Apple, sire Doug.” She smiles, then adds, almost as an afterthought, “Graves.”

Next Chapter: Ch. 73 - Dream Fragments Estimated time remaining: 5 Hours, 60 Minutes