“I-I’m just not good enough…”

Those few words alone made Soarin realize that his own son was going to be the bitter opposite of his older brother, Fire Storm. After all, they were themed on opposite elements.

Arctic was four at the time… he was scared of heights, scared to fly, scared to even look down and was pressured into flying by Fire Storm, and when he did fly, he seemed to do surprisingly… great! That is… until an unplanned storm swept through the realms of Equestria.

This was no ordinary storm. This was the storm that changed Arctic’s fate forever. Afterwards, young Arctic felt he’d failed his mother… he hadn’t at all. Rainbow was more or less scared that she may lose him, but he eventually pulled through.

____________________________________________________________________________

A few months had passed since the incident. Arctic had only just borrowed some permanent markers from being in Spitfire’s office. He began thinking in perspective of his mother and drew on the freshly painted walls. Did this make Rainbow mad? Of course it did!

Not only had her own son did something he wasn’t supposed to do, but he wasn’t into flying…? I mean, how could the kid of THE Rainbow Dash take a pursuit in namby pamby art when he could do awesome stunts in the air and learn to race at an abnormally fast pace?

____________________________________________________________________________

Ten years later, nothing changed. Rainbow was still in great disbelief that Arctic was even her son at all! Fire Storm even joked about him being adopted. His sister, Spectral, on the other hoof knew she should stick by Arctic’s side through thick and thin, but didn’t always keep those promises due to Fire’s constant teasing and her putting even herself at risk due to her feisty and demeaning nature.

However, not everyone in his family was all bad. For there was one pony despite their differences that he respected and loved more than any pony else…

HIS DAD.

Arctic sat a few feet from his bedside, eyes getting all puffy and dripping out waterfalls.

Soarin flew up to him and sighed heavily. Just the presence of his father beside him made Arctic feel a whole lot better. He forced a smile on his face while he felt Soarin’s hooves wrap tightly around him.

The two sat quietly, silence taking their breaths away and surrounding them heavily.

Soarin was the first to finally speak up after all the moments of patiently waiting and settling in.

“‘kay, Arctic… what’s been going on?”

Arctic gulped. He knew he had to speak up. I mean, besides Spectral coming to defend him every now and again, his father was really the only one in the family who truly supported what he did. He couldn’t just let a little white lie slip. Not after all that Soarin had done for him.

“I-Im just not good enough…” Arctic spat out.

“What are you talking about? You’re amazing!”

“No I’m not!” Arctic sniffled. “I’m a disgrace to this family! I can’t even go a few inches off the ground without my wings closing up!”

“Arctic! You are NOT a disgrace! Do you even look at yourself, your art, your willingness? Difference is exactly what we need! This place would be boring without you.”

“Sh-shut up! You just want me to feel better…”

“Yes, yes I do. But I also see some pony who has worth. Some pony who can be awesome, but shine in a different way than the rest of us.”

Arctic paused, letting the words sink in. Before Arctic could squeak out another word, Soarin kept on going.

“Arctic… Rainbow and Fire are just in denial that you’re related to them because they don’t know how you’re so good at art and WHY you like it instead of flying. Even if they may seem like they’re not impressed, trust me, they are. They’re just hard eggs to crack! Of course they won’t admit it.”

Arctic sighed. “Maybe you are right, but that still doesn’t explain why they don’t really seem to bother with seeing me.”

Soarin chuckled. “Arctic… you have no idea! If you saw Rainbow’s attempt at drawing a circle and Fire’s attempt at drawing a simple line, you’d be laughing so hard that Celestia could hear you all the way from the Royal Castle!”

Little did they know, right outside the door, their sudden conversation had suddenly caught the interest of some pony.

“Yeah!” Spectral exclaimed.

Arctic and Soarin tensed up slightly.

“Eh… sorry if I scared you two a bit.” Spectral flushed. “Anywho, I think your art is better than awesome, Arctic. It’s AMAZING. All I can draw is stick figures! You should be grateful you have such a unique gift!”

“Th-thanks guys… you really are the best.”

“No probs, bro. Even if I don’t always understand WHY you like doing it or better yet, HOW, I still love ya anyways.”

Spectral flew out of the room in a flash, leaving Arctic and Soarin alone in the dark.

“See my point now?” Soarin asked.

“Yes.” Arctic replied.

Soarin had a snarky expression pressed upon his face. “Heh… you owe me a pie for that one.”

“Daaaaaddddddd…” Arctic whined.

“I’m kidding!” Soarin playfully ruffled his son’s multi-shaded blue mane. “You’ll always be good enough in my eyes though.”

“Thanks, dad. You’re the best.”

The two pulled in for a hug.

Little did they know … a trail of rainbow was jealously flying by.