Chapter 6: Mother Daughter Bonding

Rainbow didn't pay attention to where she was flying, nor did she care, all she wanted was to get as far away from Ponyville before she did anymore damage. She pushed away both her number one fan, and the stallion that loved her, if she stayed for any longer she was sure to push away everypony else. As Rainbow flew over the edge of the storm that was covering Ponyville she looked up, just in time to see herself run into the side of the Canterlot Mountain.

"Great! Now the world is attacking me!" Rainbow shouted as she peeled herself off the rock wall, giving it a hard kick as she started to fly away, managing to put a large crack in it. Without even knowing it Rainbow's shout and the echo of her kick managed to reach everypony in Canterlot, causing many of them to look up into the sky to see her flying overhead, many of them mistaking her for Celestia because of her pearly white coat. A few young colts and fillies that could fly came up to see her, but froze when they realized it wasn't Celestia they had been staring at. One of the small colts recognized Rainbow's cutie mark and flew up beside her, nearly getting blown back down by Rainbow's wings.

"Are you Rainbow Dash?" the colt asked, his voice squeaking a little bit because of how hard he was trying to stay beside her. Rainbow glanced over at him and saw that he had a poster sticking out of his saddlebags, but not just any poster. It was a poster that had her on it.

"Where did you get that?" Rainbow asked, slowing down so that the colt could keep up with her easier.

"My brother got it for me when him and his class went to the Wonderbolts Academy" the colt said with a smile, remembering how happy he was to get it, "They had them on sale because of the records you made when you were there" Rainbow's eyes got wide when she realized that the colt in front of her was a fan. While she was staring at the poster the colt looked down at his friends, nodding his head enthusiastically to show them that it was THE Rainbow Dash, the one that they all had posters of.

"Rainbow Dash is it really you?!" a young filly asked, her voice squeaking from excitement.

"Yeah, yeah, are you really Rainbow Dash?!" another filly asked, her eyes looking all over to see if it really was her.

"Look, she's got the same cutie mark!" some colt yelled from behind her, making Rainbow blush as all of the foals congregated around her flank to examine her cutie mark.

"Wow, she looks so cool in person!" a few of the kids chanted, making Rainbow want to shy away. Yeah, she liked getting a lot of attention, but right now she wasn't a big fan of it. If somepony from Ponyville finds out that she went to Canterlot and had a bunch of foals going gaga over her then it might be the last straw for both Big Mac, and Scootaloo. Although she wanted to get as far away from there as possible, the foals were making it hard for her to get away, but thankfully, her savior arrived, and just in the nick of time.

"Good evening Aurora, what brings you to Canterlot?" Celestia asked as she flew next to Rainbow, the Aurora name making the group that had congregating around look at Celestia in both surprise and confusion.

"Who's Aurora?" One of the fillies asked, making Celestia smile sweetly.

"Oh, my apologies, I meant Rainbow Dash" Celestia said, the foals accepting minds easily removing their suspicion after that. Obviously a few of them were confused about the different coat color and the horn that Rainbow had, but they were young and impressionable, so they passed it off as Rainbow messing around and having fun. For all they could care, she was in a kick ass costume and the name Aurora was actually part of the reason why Rainbow was wearing it. Once they foals had all flown back down to the ground Rainbow turned to Celestia, a sad look on her face.

"Is something the matter Rainbow?" Celestia asked, her motherly side coming out, which managed to surprise Rainbow. Yeah, Celestia was motherly to everypony, but seemed different, probably because she actually was Rainbow's mother. Rainbow was reluctant to answer her question at first, but something in the way Celestia was looking at her finally made her crack.

"Well, something happened in Ponyville..." Rainbow started, getting a nod from Celestia to follow her over to the castle so that they could talk in a more private area, mostly because the foals were still staring at them from down below. As Rainbow explained what happened Celestia just listened quietly, nodding when she had to, and giving short responses when it seemed like she needed to. Once they got close to the castle Rainbow finished explaining, finishing off with what had happened right before Celestia had shown up, prompting Celestia to finally say something.

"Rainbow, I know you're upset but you need to go back and talk to them" Celestia said, putting a hoof on Rainbow's shoulder so that Rainbow would look directly at her, "They're just as upset as you are now, and running away from them isn't going to make anything better"

"I know, but what if..." Rainbow said, trying to come up with an excuse as to why they wouldn't want to fix things as much as she did, but she couldn't think of anything. Celestia gave her a knowing smile before flying off towards the throne room's windows, one of which happened to be open for her. Once the window shut Rainbow looked back at Ponyville, seeing the storm clouds start to clear away, giving Rainbow a clear view of Sweet Apple Acres.

"Well, here goes nothing" Rainbow sighed as she started flying back to Ponyville, her fans watching her zoom past overhead with an amazing speed. As she flew Rainbow came up with a plan, and the first step was to see Big Mac, in private so that Applejack couldn't interrupt her. Thankfully, Rainbow was able to find Big Mac sitting out by the pond they had on the farm, by himself, but something seemed off about him. His shoulders were shaking, and he was hunched over with his head in his hooves...

He was crying.