PonyFall: Rainbows

by Silverness

Rating: teen
Tags: Other, Adventure, Random, Slice of Life, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, Human, Rainbow Dash
Length: 35069

During a phenomenon, a human discovers a female with rainbow colored hair...

Cody Lofton is a 17 year old teenage boy living in the large city of Indianapolis, Indiana where he lives pretty much a normal life of a teenage boy. However, some strange phenomenon happens with the skies turning from sky blue to bright pink. What makes it even more strange is that he discovers a teenage girl lying unconscious in his own yard. What he does next would change his whole life from there on....

Part of the PonyFall Collaboration

AN: Just got Featured! You guys are so awesome!! :D

Published 2012-04-02 00:04:02 UTC
Last updated 2013-11-11 03:53:36 UTC

First Impressions

Ponyfall: Rainbows

Chapter Two - First Impressions

Edited by: Darth_Dash and J_Xayph

April 13th, 2012

The rainbow girl got up from the leather couch, slowly walking towards me. I could tell she really wanted to punch me in the face, but she seemed to be having trouble doing so. Her walking was terrible, almost as if she was barely learning. She had brandished her fists, but instead of closing her hand into one; she simply waved her hands in front of her. Even though she was doing all this so terribly, I wasn’t going to take any chances. I slowly backed away from her every time she took a baby step forward. Okay, who is this girl, and why the hell does she think I have anything to do with her friends?

Staring straight at her, she glared back, a strong blazing fire burning strong in her eyes, fueled by rage. She looked very angry and didn’t seem like she was about to stop. I continued backing away from her, knowing that my escape would be blocked by the dead end in the back of me. She wobbled forward, only to collapse on the floor. She sprawled around the floor as I curiously looked at her. Carefully, I decided to walk over to her while she yelled out some words I couldn't understand due to her aggressive behavior. When I reached her, I tried touching her right shoulder, but instead she spun around and kicked me in the leg.

“Ow!” Pain erupted throughout my leg as I fell to the ground, clutching it.

Groaning, I turned my head over to the girl, who picked herself up, turned around and walked over towards me on all fours. Wait... all fours? What the hell? Am I seeing things? I thought, surprised at the action. Apparently not. I watched as the girl stood over me, her expression showing that she meant business.

“I’ll ask again, where are my friends?!” she shouted, pointing a hand at me.

That voice… it sounds so familiar, yet I can’t put my finger on it.

“I don’t know what friends you’re talking about,” I replied, moving towards the wall. There was definitely no way out of this, unless I figured out a plan to escape.

The girl mumbled something and crouched down on all fours to get a better look at me. By the look on her face, she looked very curious about something, but what exactly? Her eyes darted all around me before she rudely said, “What the buck are you anyway? I’ve seen plenty of animals around Fluttershy’s place, but none of them look a thing like you.”

That name she mentioned rung in my head. Right there, I think I had the answer to my question. Oh God, she mentioned Fluttershy. That means… no Cody, that’s completely insane. This girl is probably mad, but it wouldn’t hurt to ask for her name...

“Well, I am a human,” I said, replying to her question. “So, this ‘Fluttershy’ you speak of, she’s a friend of yours um, miss?”

The girl stood up quickly, raising her arms into the arm and proudly boasted, “I am the one and only Rainbow Dash, winner of the Best Young Flyers competition, speedster and the best flier in all of Equestria!”

My hunch was proven correct: this girl was freaking crazy and was completely mad! I began chuckling, which seemed to provoke her. “Hey! Why are you laughing? You don’t think I’m the fastest flier?” she asked, her voice rising.

Laughing now, I couldn’t control myself. I knew the girl was getting ticked off by my laughing, but did she actually believed she could fly? That’s just impossible. Glancing back at the girl, my face turned white as I noticed she was tensing up, her face looking angrier than before. For the sake of my body, I stopped and said, “Of course I don’t think you’re the fastest flier; you don’t have any wings or feathers, and you certainly aren’t Rainbow Dash. You’re a simple human just like me. Well, except for that weird rainbow hair and rose colored contacts.”

She gasped and looked offended at what I said. I was surprised at her reaction. I would’ve thought she’d be angrier, but she didn’t seem fazed by that last comment. “What!? Of COURSE I'm a pegasus! Just look at me--” she answered, pointing a hand to her back where I could see nothing but pale, white skin.

She looked behind herself, screaming and began feeling her back for her imaginary wings. “My wings! My beautiful wings! Where are they?!” she cried out, collapsing to the floor. She seemed very heartbroken over her missing ‘wings,’ which didn’t make much sense unless she DID have wings.

I sighed at my predicament and looked over at the girl. She wore a bold face as she tried her best to keep cool. She might have done a pretty amazing job at it, had her emotions not been getting in the way of that and along with her being curled up in a ball. I looked away from her, but the sound of her stuttering voice made me feel guilty. I don’t know why I’d feel guilty, but I guess I just felt sorry for her. Should I comfort her? She does seem distraught over this situation.

Reaching a decision, I picked myself up and walked towards the girl. I placed one of my hands on her right shoulder and tried to think of something to say. When nothing came out, I sighed and listened to what she had to say. She stared blankly at the floor, stuttering to keep herself from going insane over her situation. “This isn’t happening; I can’t lose my wings! What happened to my awesome body?!” she stuttered, before her gaze switched towards me. She stared at me, a small tear coming down from her face. At that moment, I decided that she was calming down and I took my hand off her shoulder. Instead, she pushed me hard to the ground, sending a large amount of pain to my back and held me in place.

“What have you done to my wings!?” she screamed, trapping me under her. She clearly wasn’t thinking straight because this didn’t sound like a regular girl screaming. It sounded like she was insane.

I cried out in pain with the amount of force that was on my chest. How can someone so small hurt so much?! Above me, the girl was glaring daggers into my own eyes and probably thinking that I somehow took her wings. I tried pushing her off, but she stayed there like an unmovable force. Who knew naked girls who thought they were ponies could be so strong?

“Rainbow Dash!” I cried weakly. “Would you please get off of me... you’re killing me!” I didn’t know what else to call her.

“Not until you give me back my wings!” she yelled out, applying even more pressure on my chest.

I could feel my chest crying out in pain as if it were on fire, but I needed to do something and fast! Weakly, I grabbed her bony face, using whatever strength I could muster to push her off. Reacting fast, she held down my hands, crushing them underneath her own. At that point, she dropped her guard from her midriff. With that chance, I kneed her in the stomach and caused her to fall over. The pressure from her vanished and I quickly picked myself off the ground in case she tried that again.

“Ow, you’ll pay for that,” she growled.

The girl rose back up and stood up against me. She was definitely taller than me, which made me hope she wasn’t really thinking of fighting me. I backed away from her as she crouched into a combat stance on all fours. She inched closer each time, practically having me cornered in the hallway.

“Hey, can’t we work something out? I did save you an-” I raised my hands in efforts to avoid a brawl. Her response was a quick kick to my leg, sending a jolt of pain through it. I gritted my teeth, but shook it off. If this girl really meant business, then I had no choice.

I raised my fists up, ready to defend myself and the house against the insane pale white and rainbow girl. Hopefully, nothing serious would happen and cause us to go to the hospital. The girl smirked, raising her own fists or hands to her eye level. “You ready for this, wing stealer?” she asked.

“I didn’t steal your wings,” I grumbled, glaring at her. “I brought you into my house because I found you lying unconscious outside. If I have to defend my home against you, then so be it.”

“Likely story, but I’m impressed with your guts,” she said, raising her front hands in front of her. “Bring it on!”

I gulped, taking a deep breath. “For the house!” I shouted, running towards her without even thinking. She sent a punch straight at me, which I narrowly avoided only for her other hand to send me to the ground. I scrambled away before she had the chance to jump me, picking myself up and ran for my room.

“Hey!” she yelled behind me. “I’m not done with you yet!” She followed after me into the room, but I closed the door behind me. “Let me in!”

“Hell no,” I shouted back, my eyes darting around for anything to use. There were a few books lying around the shelves that I could use as a weapon. My laptop sat on a desk near the shelves, but I wasn’t going to throw that at her. That left my baseball bat lying against the wall. It wasn’t metal, thank God for that, but a wooden bat is better than anything right?

Deciding, I quickly rushed over to the bat and grabbed it. Just as I did, the girl kicked the door open, rushing inside and found me holding the wooden weapon. She retracted back as I moved forward, but smirked and charged towards me. I swung my bat down in hopes of it not hurting her that much. Instead, she jumped aside and headbutted me into my dresser.

“Ow...” I groaned in pain, looking up at the girl’s face.

“I was expecting more of a fight from you. I guess I was wrong,” Rainbow said, her disappointment clearly shown through her expression.

“Well...” I started before punching her in the face. “You thought wrong too.”

The girl stumbled backwards, dazed by the punch, but regained her composure and kicked me in the stomach. Instantly, pain shot throughout my entire body and my entire breakfast almost came up. I slammed my arm against her side, sending her into my bed. She winced, but again she came back up and jumped on top of me.

“Not again...” I muttered as she trapped me under her.

Rainbow raised a fist, ready to finish me off. “Give me back my wings or I’ll cream you where you stand,” she growled angrily.

I sighed, shaking my head. “I’m sorry...” I muttered sadly, which brought a confused look on her face.

“Sorry? Sorry for what?” Rainbow asked, lowering her first down a bit.

“For this,” I said, pushing Rainbow off. She fell to the floor, completely stunned at what just happened. I quickly picked myself up before she had a chance to regain her bearings. As she scrambled to pick herself up, I weakly brought myself over to her side and swung my fist at her. She turned towards me at the same time, eyes widening as my knuckles connected against her face. A sickening crack sound came from the impact while small amounts of drool came out of her mouth before she went down. I looked down, knowing my victory was secured.

“Thank god... Ow...” I mumbled a weak victory cheer, raising my arms up and collapsed beside the bed. I glanced over at Rainbow, crawling towards her.

“Yo, hothead, you there?” I asked, shaking her side. No response. “I know you’re faking it, now get up.” Still, the same answer as the last one. “Rainbow? Come on, wake up.” I placed a finger on her neck, checking for a pulse. There was a normal, calm beat coming from her neck. At least she was still alive.

“I’ve gotta say... that girl packs a punch,” I remarked, rubbing my butt from the pain it received.

I sighed, taking a look at Rainbow. She seemed rather peaceful with her eyes closed and not trying to threaten me. There were several black bruises all over her body, which would heal in no time. As well as bruises, there were a few small cuts here and there, and a red mark on her cheek that signified the punch I gave her. I felt somewhat guilty for punching a girl in the face, but I didn’t have much of a choice. I even gave her a chance to talk this through. I looked down at myself, noticing my own set of cuts and bruises. It looked like we both needed medical attention to heal the cuts we gave each other or else our injuries would get even worse.

“Ugh, I better go get the First-Aid kit in the bathroom,” I muttered, weakly picking myself up and walked towards the bathroom. She better be glad that I care about guests because she has a lot of explaining to do about.
_______________________

Time went by rather slowly as I wrapped a small bandage around the girl’s head. She was lying on the couch after the long trouble in carrying her back there. Her bruises were healing with the ointment I put on her, which was a relief. I didn’t want to cause any permanent damage to the girl’s body. Sure, she’s a crazy, loony girl who thinks she’s a pegasus, but that doesn’t mean you can hit her no matter what.

I sat down beside her, wondering when she’d wake up. Yes, I was going to trust her one last time and hope to God that she doesn’t go apeshit on me. That was pretty amazing though. Her fighting style looked like it was a karate technique she learned, but where she got it was a different story. I might ask her where she got it from, but first I need answers on her craziness.

“A crazy girl who claims to be a pony,” I told myself. “I never expected that to happen, but then again, what’d you expect from a girl who sounds like a mental ward escapee.” That reminds me. I think I might call the nearest one and ask if they’re missing someone. But, before I do any of that; I need to ask this girl some questions.

A sudden groan turned my attention back on the girl as she picked her head up. She was rubbing both her eyes, then her head before she noticed me. She didn’t look to be angry, only with a confused look on her face.

“Wow, am I still dreaming?” she asked, rubbing her head again. “There was this amazing fight and this thing called a 'human.' Then, he somehow beat me. Me, Rainbow Dash!” She looked pretty mad about me defeating her, but she thought this was all a dream? Yeah, I was hoping this was a dream too. I guess we don’t always get what we wish.

“Nah, you’re wide awake,” I answered, pinching her on her arm. She yelped, which seemed to confirm that she was indeed not dreaming. She stared at me, open-mouthed with those weird colored eyes of hers and blinked.

“So, you’re real,” she said, closing her jaw. “I thought you were some monster conjured by Discord or something.” Discord, another familiar name.

“Yup, real and in the flesh. I patched you up in case you haven’t noticed.” She looked down, noticing her bruises and felt the bandage around her head. The look on her face showed she was either amazed that I helped her out after beating the crap out of her or that she looked pretty banged up, what with all the bruises around her and small bump from the punch I gave her.

“You actually did, didn’t you?” she asked, feeling the bandage on her head. “Um, thanks I guess.” She looked away, staring off at something not important to get her bearings. If I were her, I would think that she’s sad about something, but I’m not sure what it is. I could begin questioning her. Besides, it would solve some answers.

“I know it’s a bad time to ask, but, you claim to be a pony turned human?” I asked one of my questions.

The girl continued staring off before sighing. “Yes, I’m a pony... Well, used to be. I just don’t understand what happened. It just seems impossible for my amazing wings to disappear. Now with no wings, I won’t be able to join the Wonderbolts… or perform a Sonic Rainboom,” she moaned in despair.

Even though she was trying to hide it, the girl was clearly torn up from the sudden lost of her supposed wings and pony body. Then I recalled that Rainbow Dash’s dream in the show was to join the Wonderbolts and famous for her Sonic Rainboom. All the evidence was pointing towards her being a real life Rainbow Dash. If I did accept the fact that she was indeed her, how did she even get here?

“Um, Rainbow Dash?” I asked her.

She glanced at me. “What is it? Can’t you see I’m trying to figure out how I ended up here. Twilight would be good in these kinds of situations right now,” she said, scratching her bandage.

Another name that was familiar. Twilight Sparkle, I thought, remembering the lavender unicorn, who was one of Rainbow Dash’s best friends. This is impossible. How can she be Rainbow Dash?! Even if I did deny it, there’s all this evidence. I glanced over at Rainbow as she scratched her head in thought. Well, I could ask about what she was doing before she woke up. Yeah, I’ll ask that.

“Rainbow Dash, if you got a moment, what exactly were you doing before you woke up from your sleep?”

Rainbow Dash looked at me for a second. “Hmm, it's kind of hard to remember... Oh! Yeah that’s right. The others and I were fighting against Discord after he escaped from the statue we put him in. At the time, I was heading towards the town square to join the others, but that’s where we saw Discord holding Princess Luna by the throat. I knew I had to do something, but just as I started flying over to stop him, Discord casted some kind of magic spell. He moved his hand... thingy over to the princess, but she shot magic from her horn. Their spells collided, creating some kind of shock wave. When it passed over them, they disappeared and I got caught up in the wave. The last thing I remember was hitting the ground really fast after the pink magic overwhelmed me. Wait a minute, where’s Discord? I need to make him pay for stealing my wings!” she recalled.

I nodded in acknowledgement after hearing her story. Discord, Luna, magic... I knew there must be some kind of explanation for this, but the evidence kept piling up. I didn’t want to believe this nonsense at all, but even her story checks out with everything from the show. This is just... insane! I’m probably going to regret this later...

Picking myself up, I stood up from the couch. “Well, you’ve somewhat convinced me; I shall help you get back your wings, and I guess you can stay with me here in my house,” I said. I was a bit reluctant at the ‘staying in my house part’, but she didn’t have anywhere else to go. I didn’t want to leave her out there so she’d have to fend for herself against the dangers in the city. Besides, if she really is a pony as she says, then I need to help her out.

Rainbow grinned wide. “Thanks, I hope you’re able to help me find Discord so I can give him a piece of my mind besides he might also know where the others are,” she said, punching her hand.

“The others?” I asked, cocking an eyebrow. I didn’t know the others were here as well.

She nodded. “Yeah, Twilight Sparkle, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, Princess Celestia, Princess Luna and Discord. I’m pretty sure they got transported here too.”

“What makes you so sure?” I asked, counting each of their names as she went by them. In total, there were seven ponies and one draconequus that were possibly on Earth.

“I’m pretty sure, okay? The shock wave caught Luna, Discord and me; it probably got the others too,” she answered, crossing her arms. Good point.

“Fine, so plus the wings we need to find your friends, the princesses and Discord, who could be anywhere on Earth?” I summed up.

She nodded. “Yeah, that pretty much sums everything up, but could I ask you something,” she asked.

A question? Alright then.

“Hit me,” I replied, prepared to ask any of her questions.

“What the hay are these?” she asked, gesturing towards her rather moderate, but round breasts.

Okay, I wasn’t expecting that question, and definitely not prepared for it. Stuttering crazily, I tried to regain my composure, so I could properly answer the question. Dash could see my reaction to her question and tilted her head, puzzled at why I was acting like this. I struggled, trying to think of a way to tell her without being perverted or sounding wrong.

“Dash! Please don’t point at those! They are called..." I grimaced. "Boobs. Humans have them and it’d be really awkward if you show them around, which reminds me; put some clothes on!” I managed to say awkwardly while forcing myself to look away.

Dash looked at them, then at me. “Wait, how come you don’t have any?” she asked. Okay... How the heck did I forget to mention the most important part?!

“Because,” I started, “Only females and fat guys have it.”

“Oh okay. Wait... fat guys?” Dash asked, wondering.

“You don’t want to know,” I said.

Dash nodded, but opened her mouth to try and say something except she closed it. I looked at her puzzled face, wondering what she was about to say. I guess she was about to ask why do fat guys have them... I still wouldn’t have told her, even the thought of it sounds very... weird and awkward.

“Anyway, now that we’re done with that, it’s time to move on and figure out what clothes you’re going to wear because I have no idea why you showed up in my yard naked,” I said.

I’m still not going to believe any of this until she performs a Sonic Rainboom or something... until then, she’ll be the crazy girl living in my house.

“What?! Clothes?! Forget that, I’m not wearing any clothes. They’re uncomfortable and I hate wearing them, period.” she argued.

“I’m sorry, but here on Earth, we don’t walk around naked. It’s indecent, and people will stare at you funny. I’m pretty sure it’s illegal too.” I replied, face in palm.

Rainbow Dash continued her rant, but I stood adamant with my answer. It took a while, but I eventually won. Frustrated, she crossed her arms angrily, muttering something unintelligible. “You say something?” I asked, proud that I had won an argument against the strong headed girl.

“Oh shut up,” she managed, still grumbling.

Chuckling over the victory, I got up and walked over to the counter in the kitchen. On top, I grabbed the notepad and pen. I came back with the two items as Dash watched me, curiously at my actions. “So, before we try and figure this out, there will be a set of rules that you’ll need to follow,” I explained.

“Seriously? Great, now you’re acting like Twilight,” she groaned.

I chuckled at her reaction and began writing down my list of rules:

“Hey, things are different here on Earth than in Equestria. Like I said, wear clothes at all times in and out of the house,” I started, writing it down on the paper.

Rainbow Dash only muttered in frustration knowing that she had already lost that argument.

“Please, refrain from messing up my house. I live here, and I do not like my possessions smashed, broken, or in any way harmed.” I continued, writing it below the first.

“Don’t worry, as long as I’m not angry you have nothing to worry about. I’m actually really careful when I need to be!” She said confidently, waving her hands as if to emphasize her point.

Just as she finished speaking, her hand accidentally hit a table lamp. The lamp fell to the floor, shattering upon impact with the hardwood. The small cracking sound made her flinch.

“Um… oops hehe”, she said, grinning big.

I glared at her. “This is why I don’t trust you with keeping my house intact,” I sighed.

How am I supposed to replace that?! It was my mother’s favorite lamp... oh well, it did look old anyway, I’ll probably buy one at the store later.

Rainbow grumbled as I ignored her, reaching my last set of rules.

“Don’t try to eat all the food from the fridge, it’s both of ours to eat,” I said, writing down the last set.

“Pfft, Don’t worry about that, I won’t eat everything in the fridge, unless you have something I like to eat,” she said, smacking her lips.

Yeah, I hope I don’t... or that’s going to be one empty refrigerator.

“Well that’s about it,” I finished, closing the notepad.

“Thank Celestia, I thought you were going to bore me to sleep,” Rainbow Dash said, yawning.

“Well, was it working?” I asked.

Dash looked down on the floor as if she was thinking. “Well, you almost did. I only stayed up because of all the long speeches Twilight used to say.”

I chuckled. “At least I tried, just make sure you go by those rules. I don’t want my parents to come home and find the entire house demolished."

“Hey! I told you I won’t destroy the house, I um... I Pinkie Promise,” Dash shouted, saluting.

“You do?” I said, surprised at the mention of the Pinkie Promise. I knew what it meant to Pinkie Promise. If you broke it, then Pinkie Pie would come after you. Uh... I really don’t want to see Pinkie Pie come to my house if she breaks that promise.

“I cross my heart, hope to fly and stick a cupcake in my eye,” Dash said, reciting the promise.

With that, I smiled. “Alright, I believe you, but we still need to get you into some clothes.” I said, motioning for her to follow me into my bedroom.

Rainbow Dash got up and walked close behind me. “Fine, but there better be something cool that I can wear,” she said.

“Whatever, so long as you’re wearing clothes.” I said.

“You don’t look like the kind of person who’d have something cool” she joked.

“Oh shut up.”

Author's Note

Another Chapter Improved

The Television

Ponyfall: Rainbows

Chapter Three - The Television

Pre-Read by Darth_ Dash & J_Xayph

April 13th, 2012

I’m starting to regret in believing this nonsense. What kind of idiot actually thinks...

My thoughts were cut short by the sound of falling objects coming from my room.

“Watch what you’re doing and hurry up in there!” I yelled through my bedroom door.

“Yeah, yeah, just hold on a minute!” Dash yelled back.

So yeah, Cody, you got a girl claiming to be Rainbow Dash, which I think is her nickname, in your house. Why did you believe her? Oh yeah, because if you didn't she would’ve beaten the crap out of you. Now, you're probably going to have to trust her until you figure out a way to help – My thoughts were once again interrupted by Rainbow Dash.

“How the heck do you humans put shirts on with these long, skinny forelegs?!” Dash yelled through the door. I heard scuffling noises and something heavy hitting the wall.

Great... I better go help her out.

I twisted the doorknob and went inside only to be greeted by a topless girl who was struggling with putting on a black t-shirt that read “20% Cooler.”

I quickly looked away and shook my head. “Dash...” After a moment, and a few quick peeks, it was safe to look again. She had the shirt inside-out and was trying to shove her left arm through where her head would go, and her head through the right sleeve. I had to hide my smile. It was too funny with how oblivious she was.

“What’s so funny!?” she shouted defiantly. She stopped struggling and crossed her arms, looking away as if it were no big deal. “So what if I can’t put it on?”

I sighed and walked up to her, pulling the shirt free of her body while making sure to look away from her exposed midriff. I slid the shirt over her torso, threading her arms through the sleeves. The shirt fit her well.

“Oh, right,” Dash said, blushing and grinning. “So that’s how you put it on. I’d have figured it out eventually.”

Groaning, I let my forehead fall into my palm. How can she not know how to put on a shirt? Either she’s an amazing actress, the real thing or just simply freaking crazy! I raised my head from the facepalm, and said, “So, you’re done now?”

She nodded faintly, then looked down at her clothes and scratched her head for a moment, frowning. Oh God, don’t tell me she’s thinking of trying more clothes on, I thought, stricken with fear.

“I guess these will do the trick,” she replied, scrutinizing her outfit. “But, I was hoping for something a little less... lame. No offense.”

I raised an eyebrow, but she maintained her grin so I stopped eying her and beckoned for her to follow me out of the bedroom. She tried to take a step and faltered, then moodily resigned herself to crawling on all fours.

“Okay, so I put on some clothes. Whatever. Are you gonna get off my back about being ‘naked’ now?” Rainbow asked as she jumped onto the couch.

I went to sit down beside her. “Yes, I’ll get off your b– Hey! No jumping on the couch!”

Dash sighed and rolled her eyes. “You sound like my mother,” she huffed sarcastically as she got comfortable.

Ignoring her remark, I grabbed the TV remote, pointed it at the TV and pressed the power button. Dash watched in awe as the television came to life and displayed some sort of talk show.

“How’d you do that?” she asked excitedly. She quickly changed her tone, however. “I mean, it was an okay trick, I guess...” She was clearly interested, but seemed as if she were trying to hide it.

“Oh, this is just one of the many things we use for entertainment. We call it... the television! It’s like a book that you can watch as events unfold,” I replied dramatically, deciding to have a little fun with this.

Dash looked at me, then the TV. Her interest seemed to have been piqued, but she asked, “Yeah, what’s so great about it?”

Well, shit, she got you there Cody... wait, I got it!

Quickly, I punched in the numbers seven and two: the Air Show Channel. Good thing I remembered this channel. She’ll probably like it because she likes the Wonderbolts.

The channel changed and I stood up beside the TV, shouting, “I present to you, the Air Show Channel!”

Despite her attempts at seeming disinterested, Dash’s attention was fully on the television. However, her facial expression quickly changed from excitement to boredom, and then disappointment.

“Air show? More like fail show! Boring!” she cried, crossing her arms and looking away.

What? I thought, bewildered. I turned around to look at the TV. “What the heck!”

Instead of the Air Show, the news was on talking about the latest incident with the pink flashing sky.

Great, there goes my fun. Wait – pink flashing sky?!

Quickly, I sat back down on the couch and turned the volume up.

“In other news, we have had reports of pink flashes appearing in the skies over the United States and Australia. It is unclear at this time if any other countries were affected, however there have been some reports of a loud boom coming from a small neighborhood on the outskirts of Indianapolis where one of the occurrences took place,” the news reporter, a lady with dark black hair, reported.

Australia too? That means that Dash’s friends could be anywhere on Earth, but at least at least they weren’t off in some other dimension. She’ll be very happy to hear that. Also, there’s the boom. Only in Indianapolis... it must have been the sound of a Sonic Rainboom, I concluded.

I looked over at Rainbow. “Rainbow! I got great... news?”

On the couch, Dash had her head slumped against one of the pillows, some drool dripped from her mouth and a small snore could be heard from her.

I managed a smile. She looked kind of cute like that.

Wanting to let her sleep, I turned back to look at the news, which had turned to the topic of the military.

Military... wait, what?!

“Yes, it has been confirmed that the United States Military will be coming to Indianapolis to investigate the loud boom in order to discover whether there is a connection with the pink flashes, or if they present a threat to national security. Now that we are done with that let’s head back to Phil, who will give us the weather today. This has been Rose Tyler, reporting to you live in Indianapolis, Indiana,” the reporter said.

Great... now the military is coming. Perfect. Just perfect! What next? A knock on the door?

Suddenly, as if my thoughts were answered, there was a knock on the door. Oh great... who could that be?

“Hey Cody! Are you there?” shouted a familiar voice.

Oh God... not him. Not now!

Gently, I scooted off the couch and left Rainbow to nap. Another knock on the door made me groan in frustration as I walked over towards the front entrance. I unlocked it and pulled it slightly open so I could see who was outside. A guy wearing a McDonald’s uniform along with a name tag that read ‘Bob’ stood outside.

“Tyler Wilkerson, what are you doing here?” I asked, shaking my head at the name tag he wore. How exactly did they even get his name wrong?

“Cody, you heard what was on the news, right?” Tyler asked. He then frowned slightly. “Also, why do you look angry?”

“Oh, nothing,” I answered. “And to answer your first question, yes I heard about the pink flashes and the military.”

Tyler nodded. “Yeah, that. Did you see the flashes? I totally saw them. Plus, the whole damn air smelled like chocolate or fudge at the same time. It’s like some kind of weird phenomena that nobody knew about.”

I tensed up a bit as he described precisely what I had seen and smelt just before finding Rainbow Dash. He looked at me just then and I tried to play it off, but it was too late. “Um, Cody, are you alright?” he asked suspiciously. “You seem... distracted.”

“W-what, me? Oh, I’m f-fine Tyler, just dandy, heh heh,” I stuttered and shifted my eyes toward my house to see if Dash was still inside the living room. Thankfully, she was still sleeping peacefully on the couch with no worries from what I could see.

I turned back around to find that Tyler was still looking at me, his eyes glaring straight into mine. “You sure? I’m pretty sure I heard you talking to someone through this door a few minutes ago,” he said.

“Oh, that? Well, I was talking to myself about what I saw on TV...” I said, hoping it wasn’t too lame of an excuse. There is just absolutely no way that he’s going to believe me. If he does, then I’m going to be amazed. Wait...

“Hey, what were you doing snooping around outside my house and listening at the door?” I asked suddenly.

Tyler thought for a moment, looking at me before he said, “Well, you talk to yourself really loudly. I mean, I was just going to knock, but then you were all ‘I present to you, the Air Show channel!’ and I just stopped and listened. You’d do the same thing if you were me, you know.”

Wow, he actually believed me. That turned out better than expected.

“Yeah, I probably would, too,” I said, trying to sound sincere.

Tyler smiled and stood there, tapping his chin as if in thought. He then looked at me and asked, “Hey, do you mind if I step inside for a while? I need to ask you a favor.”

“Actually, I do mind. Sorry, but if you want to come inside, you’re going to have to come back later,” I said, already closing the door in front of him.

Tyler placed a hand against the door, barely keeping it open. “Come on, Cody. I really need you to do a favor for me. Besides, it won’t take that long,” he pleaded.

I sighed. “Not now, but later perhaps? I’m kind of busy at the moment and I would like to be alone.”

“Are you sure?” Tyler asked, his eyes trying to peek into the house. “It’s nothing difficult, trust me.”

“Yeah, I’m sure,” I responded, quickly slamming the door before he had a chance to counter my own response. Tyler shouted in pain outside, saying a few curse words about his injured fingers. “Sorry about that, I’ll make it up to you with that favor or whatever you wanted to ask me later.”

“Fine, I’ll see you then,” Tyler shouted from outside, his footsteps leaving the entrance and onto the walkway. I waited until they fully disappeared before heading back into the living room where Rainbow was making herself comfortable on the couch. I smiled at the way she looked, all peaceful unlike the way she looked when fighting. Thoughts of the previous event came back, the horrendous feeling when she headbutted me into the dresser. I winced at the thought and headed into the kitchen.

Everything was how I left it the last time I came in there. I opened the fridge, checking for a jug of milk until I had found the last carton. I grabbed the jug and took a swig of the vanilla flavored liquid. Once I was satisfied, I left the jug on the counter and went back to the couch.

Alright, so nothing eventful went on today other than finding an Equestrian who almost beat me up, but who looks pretty peaceful sleeping right next to me... wonderful. I turned the television back on where the news reports were still going on about the pink skies. I listened in for a few minutes before changing the channel to the Sci-Fi channel. They were showing Stargate SG-1; the episode was about the ninth season or so because the new lead actor was coming out in this one. About halfway in, Rainbow Dash stirred in her sleep and finally woke up, startled by the sound of blazing gunfire on TV.

“What in Celestia’s name was that?” she asked, peeking out from under the pillow she covered herself with.

I laughed. “I thought you were braver than that. It’s just a show on television, silly.”

Rainbow raised an eyebrow and removed the pillow from her head. “Are you saying that I’m a coward?” She raised her head up close until her face was right in mine, glaring. With her so close, I could easily tell that she wasn’t wearing contacts – her eyes were naturally that color.

I raised my hands in front of my face, giving a nervous chuckle. “Calm down, Rainbow. I was only teasing you. Sheesh, I didn’t think that would anger you so much.”

“Right,” Rainbow said, glaring for another moment before turning away from me and staring at the TV, watching as Cameron Mitchell and Daniel Jackson fought on a ship. They were fighting off against the Ori, an ancient species trying to convert every sentient lifeform to their religion or face the wrath of their power. After a while I could see Rainbow staring intensely at the screen, making expressions to match what was going on and seeming to really enjoy the show. That was until a few people went down dead, which confused her.

“Um... aren’t they going to get back up?” she asked, not moving her gaze from the TV.

“Yeah, but they’re trying to make it realistic, which is why they appear to be dead,” I lied. Well, most of it was true; the characters died, but not the actors.

“Ah, that makes sense,” Rainbow said before pumping a fist in the air after the SG-1 team made their escape through the stargate.

When the show finally came to a close, Rainbow couldn’t contain her excitement any longer. “Did you see that?! That was awesome!” she shouted, jumping in the air. She landed back on the couch with a grin on her face. “That Lieutenant or whatever that guy’s name is was simply the greatest, I mean he and that doctor guy were truly the best characters there.”

“You mean Cameron Mitchell, former Air Pilot, and Daniel Jackson, lead specialist on the Ori, the Stargate, and former ascendant being?” I asked.

“He’s an Air Pilot? As in a flyer like me?” she asked, quickly putting together air with flyer. When I nodded, she only got more excited. “Sweet! He’s totally awesome! What about ascended beings? Who are those guys?” she added, giving me a quizzical stare.

“Oh, ascendant beings are what you’d call Gods or Goddesses in a way. Daniel Jackson died one time, and his body went up to be ascendant. Later, he came back reborn as the same man he was, which shocked everyone I’m sure. It sure did shock me when I found out he lived,” I explained, leaving Rainbow’s jaw hanging.

“Wow... that only makes him even cooler,” Rainbow managed to say, closing her jaw.

“And you thought television wasn’t so great,” I laughed, almost falling onto the floor. I could see Rainbow wasn’t laughing, so I stopped because I didn’t want to provoke her. “Wait until you see the other things you can do with it.”

“Oh? You can do more stuff with it?” Rainbow asked, her curiosity growing as if she was a kid discovering new things. “Is it as great as the show we just watched?”

“Even better,” I grinned, getting up from my seat and fixing my shirt, which was messed up from sliding down the couch.

“What can be better than Daniel Jackson in his amazing glory as he fights the Ori with his supernatural powers with his team of awesome soldiers, and Cameron Mitchell with his amazing skills as a flyer almost as good as me?” Rainbow exaggerated and made hand movements to emphasis how much she meant by ‘fantastic.’

“How about a virtual entertainment system which feels like you’re actually inside a show while trying to save the world?” I suggested, pointing towards my room. “I can go get it so we can play tonight if you want to che-”

“Yep! Go get it!” Rainbow quickly said, rushing to join me. “We’ll save the world while I play as Cameron Mitchell, who’s almost the best flyer ever, and you’ll be my somewhat amazing sidekick who will die countless times for the greater good.” She puffed out her chest, looking proudly at the ceiling.

“Alright then,” I said, heading down the hallway. “I’ll go get the Xbox and after I set it up, I’ll make some popcorn for us to eat.”

“So, this is like a sleepover or something? Because last time I had a sleepover, Twilight kept reading through books about how to have the best one,” Rainbow sighed behind me.

I shook my head. “Not exactly. It’s more like we’re hanging out with each other since you’re going to stay with me for a while. It’ll probably be awhile before you can get home anyway, so...” I stopped as I noticed Rainbow’s smile fade as she stared off into the distance. “You know what, never mind. I’ll just go get the system and popcorn.”

“Good idea,” Rainbow said, sulking back to the couch. I watched her sink down into her seat, her head hung low, and sighed, feeling a pang of guilt within my heart as I turned around to the task at hand.

Great job, Cody, I thought. You had to make her all depressed about her friends, didn’t you? I kicked the wall beside my door in frustration, but only ended up hurting myself. I limped inside my room where I saw my Xbox 360 lying right next to my laptop. I grabbed it and went over to the box where I had left everything for the system. Inside were the plugs for connecting and powering up the Xbox, one controller and my box of games, one which I hoped would please Rainbow. I took the entire box with me and headed back to the living room with only one thought on my mind:

Alright, then. Game on.

The Battlefront

PonyFall: Rainbows

Chapter Four - The Battlefront

Edited by: Darth_Dash & J_Xayph

April 13th, 2012

“Alright, I assume everything is ready?” I asked, settling down on the couch next to Rainbow Dash.

She mumbled something, having just stuffed her mouth with a handful of popcorn. Upon swallowing, she wiped the buttery grease from her lips and looked at me. “Sorry, I was kind of busy, you know, chewing,” she said with gentle sarcasm.

“Right. So...?” I asked again, waiting for a response while tapping my foot.

Dash leaned back on the couch and put her hands behind her head. “How would I know?” she asked. “You’re the expert aren’t you? You’re the one who put those wires into that black box thing, so you tell me.” She picked up a can of Coke and eyed it. “What’s this stuff, anyway?”

I looked over at the can of Coke, knowing that it was part of my emergency stash filled with soda and water. “That’s a soda. It’s a carbonated, flavored drink that is filled with amazing goodness. Usually, I drink some when I have nothing else, but be warned that it affects your body if you drink too much.”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow at me. “Yeah... okaaay. I don’t even understand half of what you just said, but I’ll take your word for it.” She raised the can up and held it briefly to her mouth, then moved it away and held it up, staring at it as if looking for a way to drink it. She quickly grew annoyed and started shaking the can in frustration. I sighed, took the can from her and opened the soda from the tab. Dark brown liquid and foam surged from the can and onto the floor.

“Here.” I handed the wet can back to Rainbow once it had settled down. She cautiously took it, eyeing the mess she evidently caused. “Most of the fizz is already gone, so you might want to drink it now. I’ll go get a towel for the spill.” I got up from my seat, and went into the kitchen to grab a napkin from the cabinet. I tore off a few pieces before heading back where Rainbow was chugging down the entire soda.

“Woah, hold your horses there,” I cautioned, taking the can from her. “You’re going to get yourself a stomach ache.”

“Hey! Give me that back,” she cried, reaching out for the can in my hands. I teasingly held it just out of her reach for a moment before giving it back to her. She narrowed her eyes, glaring at me as she resumed drinking.

I sighed. “Suit yourself then. Don’t come crawling to me for help when you’re stuck on the toilet,” I said. I wiped the floor clean and turned on the television. Rainbow watched from the couch, taking large sips of Coke every thirty seconds or so. “Here, take this,” I said as I tossed one of the two controllers onto her lap. She eyed it curiously, and finally left her drink on the table.

“What’s this thing supposed to be?” she asked, holding it from the side.

“That would be an Xbox 360 controller,” I replied, picking up my own. I held down the large Xbox button in the middle, which began glowing green on the top right side. Below, the Xbox hummed to life as the power ring turned on. I pressed a few buttons on the remote, and changed the input from Cable to HDMI 3. The TV was one of the newer flat screens with high-definition. Thank God Dad bought one at Best Buy before we moved up here.

The screen on the TV turned white, then switched to the normal Xbox loading screen before reaching the sign in menu. Rainbow Dash watched, her eyes never leaving the screen as she stared in wonder at the sight in front of her. I knew they didn’t quite have any of this type of technology – nothing this advanced, anyway – at home, which made it neat to introduce her to new concepts.

A small grin creeped onto her face as she watched the screen, the kind of grin that a kid with a new toy often has. I imagined that if I told her that she looked like a kid, she’d probably get angry with me, so I held back. Besides, anybody would be curious about new things, even Rainbow Dash.

“Yup, we’re going to play a video game; an old favorite of mine.” I picked up the box I brought with me from my room. There were few new games inside, but the original Xbox games were at the bottom. I rummaged through the pile and took out a few to reach the game I wanted and eventually pulled out the one I was looking for and showed it to Rainbow Dash. “It’s called Star Wars: Battlefront II. I love this game so much. It’s one of the few games I own that has multiplayer on it.” I began to drone on and on as to why it was the best game, pointing out all of the amazing things about it.

Rainbow took a sip of Coke and listened to what I had to say. When I was finished, she looked both curious and unamused, somehow. “Okay, so everything you just said made little sense to me, but I did get the part about this being some kind of story that can be controlled, and that it’s one that we can both use at the same time.” I opened the case and nodded at her, pressing the button to open the disc tray. When it opened, I placed the game into the tray and pressed the button again. The tray retracted and slowly went back inside as it read the disc.

As the screen changed to a loading one, I grabbed some popcorn from the bowl between us and munched down on a few pieces. The ACT II popcorn was always delicious, but the buttery kind was simply one of the best I’ve ever eaten. I guessed the same could be said for Rainbow since she had popcorn bits all over her shirt. Eventually, the game finally loaded and the title screen appeared.

I grabbed the controller and pressed the start button. “You ready to play?” I asked Rainbow, turning to face her.

Rainbow glanced over at me with a cocky, yet determined, smirk. “I’m ready for anything, but are you ready to lose against me? Because I don’t want to hear any complaints when you do. Besides, you won’t be the only one to have been defeated by the greatest flyer in Equestria,” she proudly boasted, a smug grin on her face.

“Right, let’s just get started,” I said, chuckling as the menu screen showed up with the Star Wars main theme. I pressed start button again and picked my profile where I was led to all the modes in the game. Conquest was one of the first ones on there and I picked it, taking us to the loadout screen where we could choose which era to play in. I decided on the Imperial era because the Rebel Alliance against the Empire would be a great battle to remember, just as in the movies.

“Rebels or Empire?” I asked her, bringing up the two choices on the screen.

“What’s the difference?” she asked, picking up the controller from her lap. She held it awkwardly, but stole a quick glance at how I was holding it and corrected herself.

“The Rebel Alliance is a group of people who fight to free the galaxy from the Empire. The main heroes of the group are Luke Skywalker, a Jedi Master; Princess Leia Organa, a senator and a leader of the Alliance; Han Solo, a smuggler; and a whole bunch of others that make up the group,” I explained briefly on the Rebels. “As for the Empire, they were formerly called the Republic, but the clones betrayed the Jedi for the Emperor and now control most of the galaxy by force. The main heroes or villains of the group are The Emperor, a Sith Lord and leader of the Empire; Darth Vader formerly known as Jedi Knight Anakin Skywalker, the Emperor’s right hand man; and Boba Fett, a bounty hunter paid by the Empire. Mainly artificial clones make up the group along with human officers and a whole bunch of other alien races that I can’t even remember most of their names.”

“Whoah whoah whoah,” Rainbow protested, raising her hands up. “Talk about information overload.” She thought for a moment from the way she looked at the ground before pointing towards the Rebel Alliance. “Look, I’ll just play as these guys. They’re the good guys anyway, right?”

I nodded. “Yup, they are. Now, just move your joystick to the left and press the green A button on the left.”

“This thing?” she asked, pointing down at the right joystick. I nodded and she moved it to the Rebel Alliance. A sign in was required, but I decided to put her as a guest for now. I’d make her a profile later. I moved my profile towards the Imperials, and we both pressed okay for our choices. That led us to the campaign map where our conquests would begin. The game told us it was time to start and it was the Imperials that would go first. I bought a Star Destroyer at Coruscant and moved it over to the right where Kashyyyk, Naboo and Mygeeto were. I ended my turn there, and Rainbow began hers.

“So, you just build one ship in any planet?” she asked, trying to figure out what to do.

“Not exactly, you can only build on planets that you control which are highlighted in blue. Those planets are Yavin 4, Hoth, Dagobah, and few others. You can also buy new classes to help you win more battles as well as upgrades whenever you need to use them.” I grabbed my controller, moving the joystick around. “That’s how you’ll move around the map, so give it a shot.”

She looked down at the controller, then at the screen before moving the joystick down. Her position moved towards Felucia, and went back up to Yavin 4. A notification told her she could build on one of her planets and she did. A Mon Calamari cruiser appeared above it. She managed to move it down towards Felucia, which was one of her own. Her turn ended after that.

This same charade kept on going until finally I decided to move my destroyer over Naboo, which triggered a land battle. None of us had bought any equipment, so this would be an equal match. Well, not exactly equal since Rainbow didn’t have any experience with this. I pressed the ‘start battle’ button and the battle began.

“Right trigger is to shoot your weapon, left is to throw or use whatever equipment you have such as grenades and mines. ‘Y’ is to switch weapons to whatever secondary you’re using and ‘B’ is to roll. The primary mission in a land battle is to control all the points on the map before you run out of troops, which is shown on the top of the screen. We all start with 200 soldiers in total,” I explained. “So... are you ready?”

She nodded her head hesitantly each time I explained something new. When I finished, she tried pressing the buttons I told her before grinning and turning to face me. “Aww yeah, I am so ready for this,” she said. The cockiness and determination that her face had shown earlier had returned.

“Alright then, here we go!” I said, picking the standard stormtrooper while she picked a rebel trooper and we began the game.

At first, the battle was evenly matched with both of us losing a constant number of troops each minute. For being a beginner, Rainbow Dash was a quick learner and made several quick kills with her blaster rifle before being killed by another soldier. As for me, I fought my way into the palace grounds where the heavy fighting took place. Most of my soldiers were already taking cover behind the plants and walls while Rainbow’s troops kept a firm grip on the western plaza. This, however, didn’t last long.

“Hayfeathers!” Rainbow cursed beside me. I glanced at her and saw that she was having trouble with her fingers. They were moving in awkward directions, which made her unable to use the controller properly. “Argh! Why can’t I do this right?!”

I couldn’t turn back and help her. I had a mission to do and that was to win this land battle. While she was fiddling with the controller, I moved in behind three of my own troops, and began picking off rebels one after another. The troop count slowly dwindled from one hundred fifty-two to one hundred twenty. Rainbow’s expression slowly changed from confident to uncertain as she saw her soldiers slowly die off one by one.

She tried to take control of the match by taking over the eastern and central plaza with her troops, but her difficulty with the controller caused her character to move awkwardly on the screen. At the same time, my troops took over the west. As soon as I was about to go take back the center, a soldier got a lucky hit on me and shot me in the head. I respawned shortly after, and made my way alone into the central plaza where a few rebels guarded the position. They began firing on me as soon as they saw me, but I took cover behind the walls. Once there, I fired shots at every single one of them until all of them were dead. By the time I captured the point, Rainbow’s troops had dwindled down to merely a six-man squad against ninety. She made a desperate attempt into the central plaza, but accidentally pressed the jump button instead of the barrel roll button before drowning in the water. The game ended as soon as she died with the Empire as the victors.

“What?!” she shouted, her face showing a mixture of shock and annoyance. “This thing... ugh!” Rainbow tossed her controller down into her lap and crossed her arms. “You got lucky,” was all she could manage to say.

“I won that battle and the planet. So now you have six of the thirteen total planets,” I smiled, and gave her a pat on the head. She pushed my hand away, and fixed her messy hair up before grumbling about how unfair that battle was. “Ready to continue, sourpuss?” I asked. Her only response was something inaudible, but she picked up her controller and pressed the A button to continue and so we did.

The game continued on with each of us taking our turns and buying new classes. Rainbow’s cruiser finally managed to reach Tatooine, which was under my control. The battle ended up coming very close, but amazingly Rainbow took the win and planet. I retaliated by capturing Kashyyyk, but not before the same cruiser came from underneath and crushed our force in Naboo. By now, Rainbow had two wins in a row, but that was only because she brought reinforcements to help her through the fight to basically win through attrition. I sent my star destroyer towards Naboo, which activated a space battle.

“Space battle? You mean we’ll be fighting way up in the sky like where aliens come from?” Rainbow asked, eyeing her controller and still trying to hold it correctly.

“Well,” I started off. “You’re right, Star Wars has many species in the galaxy. The common one would be humans since they are on almost every single planet. Only a handful of planets aren’t home to humans. Anyway, the Galactic Civil War was a war fought on all fronts and with every single species alike, so yeah.”

“Right. That makes sense, I guess,” Rainbow mumbled in agreement. “I always thought aliens looked different than... than this.” She motioned toward the screen.

“How exactly?” I asked, curious to know what she thought an alien looked like.

“Well... like a weird green pony with big dark eyes, I guess,” Rainbow explained. “Boy was I wrong...” She hung her head low and stared at her fingers in silence. I tried to figure out what I should do to cheer her up, but she suddenly gave her head a small shake and looked up at me. Her expression told me she was back to the same Rainbow Dash I knew.

I guess she’s beginning to realize that her beliefs and ideals might not be entirely accurate. I’ll need to remember to avoid bringing that up in the future.

I decided not to pursue the matter further and we continued our game. The game proceeded on with Rainbow losing the space battle and then the land battle commenced. She fought back bravely only to lose towards the end. She built another cruiser, which rushed its way towards Coruscant. By then, it was eight thirty at night and we had gone through two bags of popcorn and a case of soda, most of which was drunk by Rainbow herself. The tides seemed to turn around for me as I launched a surprise attack on Yavin 4 from Mygeeto, which managed to suppress an attack from Felucia. Rainbow’s frustration with the controller was growing more and more visible each time I took a planet.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me!” Rainbow splayed out her arms to emphasize her frustration before taking it out on the controller. “For the love of Celestia, why won’t you do what I want you to do!?”

“Maybe it just doesn’t like you,” I teased.

“Just start the land battle...” Rainbow grumbled, glaring back at me angrily.

The battle for Felucia ended up being a victory to the Empire, much to Rainbow’s chagrin, and that left her with Polis Massa, Dagobah, and Hoth. I wasn’t going to give up now, and knew that even with the unfair advantage that this was still all in fun. Well, maybe not for everyone, it seemed.

When Rainbow tried to take over Polis Massa from Hoth, I fought my way to the victory and attacked the rebel base. She lost the planet, but tried holding on with a hero ability. This victory helped me take down Dagobah easily, which left her with Hoth as her last planet. She had only one cruiser defending the planet to the four of my star destroyers. Much to my surprise, she held out the first attack only to be crushed by the second. That left the land battle to complete before total domination occurred.

I mashed all the buttons in a frenzy to stay alive while Rainbow’s troops took over each point with ease. Even without her, her reinforcements were actually doing well, but they eventually dwindled to nothing as her main force reached the center. I had a few soldiers as well taking cover, but judging by the number of troops we each had left, I would lose this battle. That’s if I didn’t have my trump card. As soon as the number reached eighty, I gained fifty more soldiers from my reinforcement card and we had the numbers to beat her back.

“Oh come on!” she yelled. She finally gave up trying to properly use the controller and resorted to wild button mashing in her frustration.

The battle began swinging in my favor with her troops losing ground by the second. As they lost ground, I lost more men from Rainbow’s trigger finger and her ability to stay alive better than her other soldiers. She had at least three dozen still left, but she was fighting through it all. I had to be amazed at her commitment to survive that long in the center because everyone was dying left and right. Our own numbers slowly crumbled to seventy, and that number grew smaller by the minute. I began freaking out as my numbers were reaching Dash’s and the realization of her actually making an underdog victory became so real.

“No! You’re not going to win this,” I shouted, frantically shooting my way through every single rebel soldier that stood in my path. They fell before they could fire their weapons, my troops rallying behind me. We easily took back the central point and pushed the rebels back to their own position, but there was no sign of Rainbow anywhere. Where is she?

Then, a stormtrooper beside me crumpled to the ground and another did the same. A sniper was shooting the remaining soldiers in my squad and our numbers dwindled to seven, then five. There wasn’t much time left and that last spawn point was the only thing keeping the rebels alive. My men charged straight forward into the entrance of the last rebel base where nine rebel soldiers covered a sniper who took out another clone. A name stood atop of the sniper, Player 2, which was Dash’s profile name.

I looked over her side as she did the same, her finger on the trigger. I realized that she was aiming for me and I quickly barrel rolled out of the way. The shot hit another clone, bringing the total to 20 - 5, but the other four clones killed a few rebels before being killed themselves. I backed away from the last four soldiers, killing two and almost another before Rainbow fired another shot from her sniper rifle and left me with critical health. How she managed that, I have no idea. She pulled out a pistol, which would seal my fate and the entire empire with it. I heard her press the trigger on the controller and the shot rang out from the TV screen before it whizzed past me. She missed, ha! With that miss, I shot the remaining rebels including Dash and sealed the fate of the galaxy with it.

“The Empire has made a crushing defeat against the Rebel Alliance on Hoth. The Rebels have been crushed from the galaxy and an era of galactic domination begins,” the voice announced from the game.

“Ha! I did it! I defeated the Rebels!” I shouted with delight, grinning widely. Beside me, Rainbow groaned in defeat and placed her head in her hands. “I knew I’d win.”

“Yeah!? Well... well you just got lucky!” she yelled, bristling. She then calmed down and shrugged. “It’s no big deal, really. Besides, it’s not like it was a real competition or anything,” she commented, trying to ignore the fact that she lost.

“Right, well you were a good opponent to face in battle, and very honourable too,” I said, trying to cheer her up. “Even with the unfair advantage of you being unable to move your fingers very well.”

“Well... thanks,” she said, managing a small smile. She put her hands behind her head and leaned back on the couch. “I am Rainbow Dash after all, so I guess my awesomeness just rubbed off of you somehow. Yeah, that’s gotta be it.” Suddenly, she stretched and yawned. “Is it already time to hit the hay? I didn’t realize how tired I am.”

I looked over at the clock, which read ten thirty in the night. “It is ten at night. What time do you usually go to bed?” I asked, not knowing a pony’s bedtime.

She suppressed another yawn. “Actually, that would be right about now. I go to bed early so I can get the extra sleep I need to clear the weather in Ponyville.” She stopped herself for a moment and looked away from my before continuing. “So... yeah, I guess I fall asleep around this time. I might as get to sleep.” Her eyes drooped as she placed a pillow on her side. I began to scoot to the side just as she rested her head against my lap, apparently deciding that my leg would act as a suitable pillow for now.

“Goodnight Cody...” she muttered softly before she went completely still. I stayed in the same position, not moving a muscle until I decided that it was safe to move. I gently scooted out of the seat, lifting her head up and placing a pillow underneath it. She seemed to smile at the new found comfort and made herself comfortable, digging into the seat.

I continued watching as Rainbow soundly slept. Her mouth was slightly open, an arm hanging out over the side. She did look cute when she was sleeping, but then, I shouldn’t have expected anything less when she looked cute as a pony anyway. I wondered how exactly she’d look as a pony here before leaving the living room to bring a blanket for Rainbow. There was a spare one left inside the dryer that I brought over to the couch and draped it over Rainbow’s body. She stirred in her sleep, moving the blanket closer to her before she stopped. I slowly lifted her arm up and placed it back on the couch. A small smile appeared on her face as she mumbled something, not sure what though. Maybe a thank you? I’m not sure, but I’ll just go with it.

“Anytime, Rainbow Dash,” I replied. I left her to her sleep and made my way to my own room. It was the same as I’d left it: clothes lying in a pile near my closet, my laptop resting on top of my desk, said desk full of notebooks and pencils. Beside all that, my empty rack of video games hung up on the wall since all my games and Xbox 360 were in the living room. If I hadn’t been so tired, I might’ve considered playing another game, but I didn’t want to fall asleep with the TV on. Besides that, I didn’t want to wake up the sleeping guest. Deciding for the best, I climbed into bed, covered myself with my blanket, and fluffed my pillow. Everything went quiet, leaving me to ponder the recent events.

I was just a normal kid in a normal neighborhood, who happened to find a girl from a fictional land named Equestria. How could I be lucky enough to find Rainbow Dash? I guessed I was, but tomorrow or the next day after that I needed to start the search for others.

I sighed, closing my eyes. Maybe I would dwell more on the situation tomorrow. Besides, the pillow was nice and fluffy, and my mind was already drifting away into sleep. I stopped thinking, letting my mind rest, and with that darkness slowly overtook me into a deep slumber.

Author's Note

Before anybody freaks out, I'd like to say that I'm refining the chapters and adding more to the timeline so the story can make sense and flow better. The good news is that most of the chapters are done for this phase, I was just considering when to post them. SO, this is the first one of the four chapters. Enjoy!

Midnight Talks

Ponyfall: Rainbows

Chapter Five - Midnight Talks

Edited by Darth Dash & TheSlorg

April 13th (Night)

A loud crash broke through my pleasant dreams of fighting the most powerful Sith ever. I grumbled in my bed, covering my head with a pillow before realizing what had occurred. My head shot up a few seconds later, and my eyes darted around the room, searching for the source of the noise. I didn’t have any clue where it came from, all I could tell was that it was near, and that it was inside the house. That could only mean one thing.

“Rainbow Dash...” I muttered under my breath, sighing as I pulled away the covers and sat upright on the edge of my bed. My brain throbbed for more sleep, but this was more important. I had to make sure my little guest was sleeping or else I’d have to search the house for her. Whatever made that loud crash would probably lead me to her, if I could find out what that thing was.

I got off the bed, rubbing the sleep from my eyes as I opened the door and entered the quiet hallway to the living room. There was nothing out of the ordinary from what I could see. I walked a little further, checking each door for a small opening or light. There were none, which made me worry. I continued into the living room, peeking over the couch where Dash slept. Only the blanket and pillow remained; the sheets were thrown to the side where she had woken up and got up to who knows where.

“Rainbow Dash? Are you there?” I called out, my drowsiness replaced with concern.

No response.

I quickly scampered into the kitchen, checking every single place she could’ve been in. The fridge wasn’t open and no sign of her could be seen around. I ran back and checked the bathroom, finding it unused since the morning. Stopping for a moment, I decided to take the opportunity to use it before going back to my search.

I searched all over the house for the Equestrian, but there wasn’t a soul to be found other than the quiet chirping of crickets in the night. There wasn’t even a sign of anything broken on the floor. I sighed, wondering where she could have run off to, when suddenly a soft, yet audible sneeze sounded from outside. Stopping in my tracks, I tiptoed my way over to the back door and looked through the screen.

There was nothing to be found on the porch steps. I scratched my head, again wondering where Rainbow Dash could have gotten off to. She wouldn’t have run away, would she? I had no idea, but if she did then I have to find her before she got into some kind of trouble.

I rushed back into the house and pulled open a few drawers inside the kitchen. I found the green flashlight my dad bought a long time ago, which had been useful in many situations. Uncapping the bottom, two batteries fell into my palm and I threw them aside. The drawer beside the one where I found the flashlight had a box full of C batteries. I took out a pair and replaced the older ones, then recapped the flashlight. It turned on as soon as I pressed the power button and I quickly darted back outside.

Rainbow Dash had to be around here somewhere. If she wasn’t here, then where was she?

________________________________

Rainbow Dash

*Minutes Earlier*

“Ugh, why can’t I open this?” I grumbled. “It’s bad enough that I’m stuck here, but this? This is just... humiliating.” The window sill shook with whatever grip I could get hold of, but the darn thing wouldn’t budge. I even tried pulling it open, but there weren’t any latches or handles. Nothing. Even when I pushed the entire thing, it didn’t help.

“Come on! Open up alread-”

“Huh? Watisitz?”

I stopped in my tracks and covered my mouth. Great, now I was in for it. Cody would come in here, ask me what I was up to, and force me to go to bed. Yeah, that was all I needed - somepony to stop my escape. What a joy that would be to explain to a guy trying to keep you locked in a house. Well, it wasn’t gonna happen this time. I was getting out of there no matter what.

A few minutes passed without any shadows appearing in the moonlight over in the hallway. Strange, did he fall back to sleep? I didn’t know, but I had to make sure. Moving as silently as a ninja, I crept over to the edge of the bathroom and peeked around the corner. Cody’s door remained closed and hopefully locked. I took a deep breath, thankful that he’d fallen back to sleep.

That was Way. Too. Close. Aaand a little reckless, even for me, I thought as I crawled my way back to the shower. The socks made the trip a little difficult and almost made me slip twice. Then again, they were comfortable, and they kept my hind legs and... feet... warm. Actually, I think I’m just gonna call them hooves for now since it sounds way better and I really don’t care for the word feet. Sounds lame if you think about it.

“Alright, window, listen up! You’re... going... to... open!” I grunted quietly, going back to the task at hoof. My ‘hands’ slipped from the side countless times, but that wasn’t going to stop me. I’d break the darn thing if I had to. The window would creak slightly, but wouldn’t move as my grip failed after each attempt, and I began to grow frustrated over how a dumb window was all that was standing between me and freedom.

Everything would’ve been so much easier as a pony. I could have opened those windows easily with a simple push. Heck, I could’ve done it even faster if I’d still had my wings. But no, I had these fingers, claws... or whatever the heck they were, and they were becoming a pain in my flank.

“Why... won’t... you... open?!” I asked the window, pushing it in another attempt. A small opening creaked out, but wasn't enough to see through it. I placed a hand on the side, making sure to get a good grip this time and pushed the window forward. When nothing happened, I tried sideways and it creaked open more. Finally, some progress. Why didn’t I think of this before?

My efforts were gifted when the window slid open after all my attempts. A cold fresh breeze greeted me, blowing strands of mane in my eyes. I brushed them aside, watching Princess Luna’s moon shine above me and into the bathroom. If you could squint enough, you could see a darker gray outline to it. I thought it was funny seeing Luna’s moon so far away instead of being close. I figured it looked better and way more awesome than it was now.

“Thank Celestia, the moon still looks the same,” I said, thankful for the familiar sight.

I stared up at the moon for a while, noticing it was in one of those phases Twilight mentioned during her stargazing experiment. Not that I really cared for it, but she did mention that the moon had nine phases. Or was that eight? Either way, the moon seemed to represent one of them since half of it was missing, but still provided the necessary light to create a beautiful night.

A smile crossed my lips as I looked up at window, suddenly remembering the task at hand. The window sill wasn’t that tall, but I was unsure whether I’d be able to fit through the opening. I knew there was no other choice since I couldn’t grab the doorknob in the kitchen or find another escape route.

I took a deep breath, heaved myself up, grabbed hold of the edge on the other side, and finally pushed myself through the window. Until something stopped my progress. I stopped and turned around to find that my flank was stuck.

“Oh, you’ve gotta be kidding me,” I grumbled, placing my hands on the wall to push harder. “Alright... one... two... th-”

Before I could say three, my flank plopped straight through the opening and I tumbled into a weird patch of grass. Instead of a soft landing, my head banged against a hard rock-like object that made a huge clanking sound. A sharp pain shot through my head like the times I slammed into the ground by accident, and I fell with a thud as two of those rock objects fell on top of me.

“Pfft! Ew, what is this stuff...” I spat out a few things I was unsure of; I’m not even sure I want to know. A few colorful boxes were strewn all over the place with other squishy substances that would’ve made Rarity faint. A banana peel rested on top of me head and stuck to my mane to create a sticky mess. Other used food, among other things, was scattered about. I could smell a strange odor coming from them.

I sniffed the air, jerking my head back in disgust. “Ugh, gross! This stuff is disgusting! Why do they even keep things like this in here?” I exclaimed, flicking a wrapper off me and shaking the banana peel off my head. As I did, a sharp pain shot forward and took me by surprise.

“Ow... My head.” I lifted a hand to my head, wincing when I touched the bump there. What did I hit? I thought, turning to the two fallen trash cans. “Oh.” I slapped one of the cans, hearing the same sound as before. “That explains my bump.” It could be worse. I could’ve broken a leg or bone. Maybe even a concussion, but thank Celestia I seemed fine.

I wasn’t expecting the grass to feel that soft. It must have been some sort of alien grass. I picked up a small patch, feeling the strands in my hands. It looked exactly like the grass in Equestria, only much smoother. The color seemed off instead of the bright green I was used to seeing. I brushed away the tiny pieces, watching them join their brethren on the ground. “Yup, alien grass.”

“Rainbow Dash? Are you there?” a familiar, yet unwanted voice came from inside the house.

I blinked in shock, raising my head up to the window where the voice was coming from. It sounded close, but with a distant echo from a large area. If that was who I thought it was, then I had no time to waste.

Slowly, I picked myself up on all fours, ignoring the pain from my head. Now wasn’t the time to be concerned about such injuries. Besides, I’m Rainbow Dash! A simple head injury won’t keep me down for long.

A door opened somewhere behind the house, followed by the sound of footsteps. I realized it would be a matter of time before Cody found me standing in that gross mess. And I knew for a fact that I wasn’t about to lose my new found freedom just yet.

Acting quickly, I scampered away from the house down the gray path. I didn’t care where it took me. Just anywhere but there. I didn’t stop, keeping my eyes towards the bright light in the distance. With every step, the ground felt harder than before and much more painful than I thought.

I slowed to a stop, shaking my hands from all the running. They were both red from the ground, but thank Celestia there wasn’t any blood. Behind me, the house became a distant memory of the past few hours. The lights weren’t on, which led me to believe that Cody was still searching outside. I took a moment to pull myself up onto my hind legs using one of the many big poles that seemed to be everywhere in this world. My legs wobbled uneasily and, as annoying as it was, I had to keep using the pole for support. How lame.

Finally, after much humiliation, I managed to stand upright on both legs. There wasn’t much to see from here, just the same old houses, fences, and yards. Nothing special, but the accomplishment was awesome enough. I looked up, raising my hands in the air to get a take of what the weather felt like. The same cold fresh air breezed down my face. I closed my eyes, smiled, and took a deep breath. It smelled weird, unlike the sweet Equestrian air I used to know, but air was air. A few strands of my hair blew into my eyes, but I didn’t care. I was finally free to go find the others for their own sakes.

I took a few steps down the road as I thought about what had happened that day. So much had happened in such a short amount of time, it was kind of hard to sort it all out. Cody seemed like an okay guy, but the fact was that my friends were somewhere out there, and I’d spent an entire day doing almost nothing about it. There was no way I was gonna leave my friends hanging.

There was also no way I was going to stick around at Cody’s house any longer. So, as I came upon a crossroad, I considered the three remaining paths before me. Each led to uncertainty, and for a moment I found myself wishing I had my wings. I really had no idea where to look, but any place would be better than here. I decided to head down one of the streets at random. All the confusing numbers and letters on the signs made it so I couldn’t tell where I was going, and I walked onward for what seemed like hours. Just when I began to wonder how I was going to find my friends in such a strange place as this, I noticed movement from the corner of my eye down a dimly lit alley.

The last thing I needed was for another one of those humans to catch me and drag me back to Cody’s place, so I hid behind a big metal box that, from the smell of it, was full of trash. I peeked my head around the corner and looked back down the alley.

It was hard to tell what was going on because it was so dark. The only light in the alley was a weak, flickering one attached to the side of some building. Loose pieces of paper and other trash littered the ground and scattered around whenever the wind picked up. The poor lighting cast long shadows over everything, and made the whole place look almost creepy.

Some of the shadows moved, and I quickly ducked back down to avoid from being seen. Not that I was scared or anything. It’s just that without my wings, and not being used to having long, skinny legs, I knew that I was nowhere near as fast as I usually am. It was best to be careful.

There were two of them. Both human, if I judged the shapes correctly. One was moving weird, using quick, silent movements to get closer to the other, who didn’t seem to notice. Kind of like a cat preparing to pounce on a mouse almost. I didn’t understand why a human would move like that towards another human, though. It was actually kind of... what’s the word? Fascinating.

Suddenly and without warning, the stalking human was on the other one. It moved one of its forehooves and quickly jabbed it into the other’s stomach. Once, twice, three times. The other one grunted, stumbled backwards and fell to the ground, where it remained unmoving.

Had I just seen a fight? Between two humans? If I had, it hadn’t been much of a fight. The second human hadn’t put up much of a struggle at all, it just kind of took the beating and gave up. The first human ducked down and started rifling through the other’s clothes, and I crept forward to get a better look.

That’s when I accidentally knocked into an empty can on the ground.

The human looked up, startled. It had seen me! But instead of rushing towards me to take me back to Cody, the human stood up and ran the other way, dropping something in the process. It fell to the ground with a metallic clink.

What the hay was with these humans? None of their actions made any sense to me. I prepared myself to move on, but I heard another small groan from the human who had lost the fight. He must have been pretty weak to go down so quickly. Or maybe the other one had been really strong. It didn’t seem right to leave him there when he might be hurt, so I slowly stood back up and crept down the alleyway.

“H-hello?” I called hesitantly. The only answer was another soft moan. “H-hey, you alright?”

What was I even doing out here for? I needed to be off and finding my friends, not checking up on some random human. But something made me keep walking anyway. Something didn’t seem right, the guy should have gotten up by now.

“Uh, hey. Did you get the wind knocked out of ya?” I asked as I approached the human. It was the only thing I could think of that might have kept anyone down for so long.

When I finally arrived, I was able to see the human more clearly. He was curled up into a ball and clutching his stomach where the other one had hit him. He looked up at me with grey eyes that I don’t think ever really actually saw me. The look in those eyes spoke of pain, fear, and disbelief. A moment later, they spoke of nothing at all as they glazed over, continuing to stare sightlessly at me.

The reality of what happened hit me just then. I looked down at where the guy was holding his stomach and saw blood. Nearby, the object that the other human had dropped glinted in the light. A knife. I hadn’t just witnessed a fight... I’d witnessed someone getting killed!

I lurched backwards, away from the body. How could this happen? Why would a human ever want to kill another human? For what? Were there warring tribes? Had I been sent to a world at war? How was I going to find my friends if I had to hide from every human in sight?

For the first time since arriving in that cursed land, I felt truly helpless. I hadn’t even helped the guy who got killed. If I had shown myself sooner... would that have stopped it from happening? Or would I have been killed too? If only I had my wings and wasn’t trapped in this ridiculous body, maybe I could have done something. Anything.

I hadn’t been fast enough to stop Discord, either. I’d had my wings then, but it hadn’t mattered. What use was I like this? I’d be no help at all to my friends. No help to anyone.

No.

That kind of thinking wasn’t going to get me anywhere. I’m Rainbow Dash for pony’s sake. I would find a way to help, even if it meant swallowing my pride and going back to the one human who I might actually be able to trust. But first, I needed to get out of that alley before the crazy human came back.

I scrambled back into the street and left the scene, retracing my steps to Cody’s house. Through the journey, my thoughts traced back to the corpse. His lifeless stare brought a shudder to my spine, serving as a reminder of what I had seen. The more I thought on the matter, the more it didn’t make sense. I tried to avoid the entire matter and buried it in my mind.

No matter how hard I tried, the scene would repeat again and show the human’s face. Everything would be clear. The attack, the guy’s final act, and the blood. Everything.

In the distance, I could see the crossroads I had gone through. The same wooden pole marked the direction where I could find Cody’s house. See? Landmarks were so much better than these confusing signs.

I approached the spot, turning onto the street I believed was Cody’s. Sure enough, the houses were similar to what I remembered. Beyond those houses, one stood out due to the light coming from the windows. That must be Cody’s house. There was no doubt about it.

As I reached the house, a shadow appeared from the side. I stopped in my tracks, taking a careful look at the human. He was examining something in his hands, a long tube of some kind. Nothing seemed odd about it, but the events of before screamed “death” all over. I slowly backed away from him, taking extra precautions to avoid the guy.

Crack!

Ponyfeathers. I carefully lifted my hoof, seeing the pieces of a broken twig. The shadow now looked in my direction and I froze. What was he going to do? Attack me like the other guy did? If he did, then he would be sorry he messed with Rainbow Dash. I waited for his reaction whether it was friendly or not. Finally, he raised the long tube he was holding and aimed it at my head.

Before he could do anything else, I rushed forward at the shadow and was prepared to tackle him to the ground. A bright light halted my attack, but not my course. I shielded my eyes from the brightness with an arm, trying to get a glimpse at the attacker before he could finish me off.

“Rainbow Dash?”

That voice... I stopped my advance after hearing the familiar voice ring nearby. When the light subsided slightly, I peeked from under my arm and checked to see who the man was. He wore a gray jacket and the same blue jeans from earlier . Dark brown hair matted his head and were the same color as his eyes. In his hands, a glowing tube -- where the light came from -- shined continuous light. Instantly, I recognized the person before me.

“Cody?”

__________________________

Cody’s Present

April 14th, 2012

“Cody?”

I stopped waving my flashlight around, turning around to face a young girl wearing blue jeans and a big t-shirt. Her rose eyes flashed concern, but also confusion in my direction. The polychromatic strands in her eyes were also a dead give away to who the girl was. “Huh? Rainbow Dash?”

Rainbow Dash shuffled closer, putting on a weak smile. “Yeah, what’s up?”

“Hey... nothing much,” I said. “Where did you go?” I didn’t know what else to add to the awkward silence. She didn’t even look happy or mad at me. She seemed more nervous than anything else based on the way she was looking at me, but her voice rang true of the cyan pegasus.

“Look, I-I um... The thing is...” Rainbow tried to say, but couldn’t find the words to complete the sentence.

Rainbow Dash took a deep breath. “I escaped the house by using the kitchen window where I got stuck. I pulled myself out, but crashed into these hard metal containers full of junk. Do you guys always keep trash in there?”

"Of course, it is a trash can after all. And I can tell based on the awful stench you have.”

Rainbow muttered under her breath, something about rain under a cloud. “Anyways, I ran off before you could find me and found myself lost. I walked for a while, but then I saw something and... I decided to check out what was going on, but....” She paused for a moment before continuing. “I ended up seeing a fight going on between these two guys and... a-and he just killed him!”

“What!?” I exclaimed. “Are you okay? What happened, when was this?”

I stared at her while watching her explain what happened. When she came to the end, I stood there, stunned in place as I realized the gravity of the situation. Rainbow Dash had sought to go help her friends on her own, but had ended up witnessing a murder.

“How could that even happen!?” Rainbow shouted, kicking the ground in frustration. “It didn’t make any sense. I was this close to taking matters into my own hooves.” She made a small gap in-between her hands. “This close! But I didn’t do anything, and now he’s dead. I should be glad that I didn’t get myself killed, but that guy? What did he to do to deserve that?!”

“Rainbow, I get it. You’re angry with what happened, but think about it. If you went in there, then you would’ve died.”

“No, you don’t get it! That person could’ve been me! It could’ve been you or maybe even somepony else, and I could’ve stopped it!” Rainbow argued. Her head drooped to the ground, her eyes staring at nothing in particular. “He didn’t even have a chance... she didn’t have one either...” she muttered.

“Huh? What was that?” I asked.

“Nothing! Look, just mind your own business! I don’t really want to talk about it,” Rainbow finished, crossing her arms.

“But, then how ar-”

“Drop it,” she simply answered.

“But?”

“Drop. It,” she said much more forcefully this time.

“Fine,” I sighed. I had no idea what to say or where to go from there, but Dash surprised me.

“I’m sorry,” she mumbled, eyes to the ground.

“What was that?”

“Don’t push it!” she growled. Then, noticing the look I gave her, she lowered her voice. “I’m sorry,” she repeated. “I guess I shouldn’t have run off alone. It’s just...” her voice became a whisper, “I wanted to find my friends.”

So that’s what it was all about. She just wanted to get back to her friends, and thought that she’d be better off trying it alone. What a horrible way to find out you were wrong...

“Hey,” I began. “Do you... well, would you be opposed to letting me help you?”

Dash continued to avoid my eyes, clearly ashamed of her actions. Or perhaps she was seeing the murder in her mind all over again. “Yeah. I’d like that,” she admitted finally.

From somewhere not too far off, the sound of sirens could be heard heading in our direction. Someone else must have spotted the body and reported it. I was torn between the fact that Rainbow could probably describe the murderer to police, but there was no way I could let her get involved. I’d just have to hope that the guy got caught without our help.

“Let’s go back then,” I said. “I’ll do whatever I can to help you find your friends, I promise.”

Hearing those words, Dash was finally able to look me in the eye. After a moment’s hesitation, she nodded and we made our way back home.

______________________

I sat down on my computer chair, already logged into the internet. I promised myself I wasn’t going to go to bed until I found evidence of another Equestrian for Dash’s sake. Before checking anywhere else, I decided to check the main pony sites to see if any of the bronies knew anything. My first stop was Equestria Daily. There was nothing of significance, besides talk of the skies and how the military was trying to start the zombie apocalypse. So I moved on. Next came Fimfiction. Maybe there was something in the chat where most of the gossip and fun was at.[00:21] *** Silverness has joined #fimfiction

00:21 the Season 2 finale will be a 2 parter

00:22 I know, sounds like it'll be pretty cool

00:22 I can't wait to see what happens

00:22 Hopefully Luna will be involved

00:22 I feel like that's given them more room to work with

00:22 probably, how can they have an hour without putting her in there

00:23 yeah

00:23 well, about an hour

00:23 so potatoes...

00:23 and ponies

00:23 they both have po at the beginning

00:23 we should make a potato pony

00:23 related

The IRC was expectedly a nest of mindless rabble. Potatoes and ponies, that was new. Strangely though, most of the users seemed to be idle. Let’s see if they know anything.

00:23 Hey guys

00:24 what's up

00:24 hmm?

00:24 potatos

00:24 and ponies

00:24 probably

00:24 what else would it be

00:24 Potatoes? Why potatoes?

00:24 because they are high in starch

00:24 why else

00:25 and very useful

00:25 Right... anyway, did anyone see those pink skies a few hours ago?

00:25 yeah...what of it?

00:25 yeah but i did just down 3 monsters and I thought i was high

00:25 so yeah

00:25 seems a likely cause

00:25 Did you notice anything strange happen? Also, why would you drink 3 monsters? I heard they could kill you if you drank two.

00:25 yeah i should probably see a doctor

00:26 I could have gone briefly mad so that is possible

00:26 ummm he had the help of magic, and friendship... but mostly magic

00:26 Um... I asked a question?

00:26 apart from the skies?

00:27 because pink skies are pretty odd...

00:27 but apart from that I didn't notice anything

00:27 Strange... are you sure?

00:27 why do you ask?

00:27 Are you positive? Nothing out of the ordinary?

[00:27] *** Cowboy_Appledash has joined #irc-ponies

00:28 yes, I'm certain... are you alright. You're not seeing like things flying around the room or anything... right

00:28 I'm sure I'm alright.

00:28 Which brings me to another question.

00:28 Howdy howdy ladies.

00:29 What would you do if you found a pony from Equestria?

00:29 umm, I am a man... I think

00:29 lolwut

00:29 Are you on dope Silverness?

00:29 umm... probably nothing. Don't really know

00:29 this brings back the crazy subject.

00:29 I'm quite sure I ain't.

[00:30] == Chase_Nimble [webchat@3f38bee0.24862c5a.res.rr.com] has quit [Ping timeout: 360 seconds]

00:30 Crazy subject? Like batshit crazy wearing funny jackets?

00:30 What about you mister um... Appledash, did you notice the pink skies today?

00:31 sounds pretty accurate

00:31 You sure 'bout that? Yeah, I seen pink. What of it?

00:31 Did you notice anything out of the ordinary?

00:31 Also smelled some kinda funky chocolatey shit. I figure it's some new weird fertilizer.

00:31 Yeah, fudge or chocolate right?

00:32 Not sure which, but probably fudge.

00:32 Pretty much yeah. Also found some weird broad in a cornfield. The best part, she was naked.

00:32 chocolate fertilizer, both disgusting and delicious

00:32 So what did you... do?

00:32 Wait... you found a girl in a cornfield?

Just like I did. I better pursue further.

00:33 Shoulda seen the rack on her man. Perfection. Also had a bunch of freckles everywhere.

00:33 Freckles... Um, did she have a stetson cowboy hat?

00:33 uh huh, well this is getting a bit more strange...

00:33 Yeah, I think she was high or somethin'. She's here at my place passed out on the couch.

00:33 I don't think so, didn't really stop to look for one.

00:34 Really now? Um, does she have blonde hair?

00:34 But if you think she needs a hat, I've got a George Strait Resistol she could probably wear.

00:34 Blonde hair is an affirmative.

00:34 Strong too, she damn near knocked me out.

Did he find? No, it can't be. Did he really find her?

00:35 Wow, must've been a very strong girl.

00:35 I'm pretty sure she was on drugs or somethin' cause she was claiming to be Applejack.

00:36 well that's a load of bull.

00:36 Gotta hand it to her, she's got the voice down pretty good.

00:37 That's what I said. I called 'bullshit' at least twenty times.

00:37 Oh really now? Well that sounds like she was drunk.

00:37 I probably would have done the same

00:37 Nah, she didn't reek of booze.

00:37 Well, I thank you guys for answering my questions, but I need to get back to working at the grill

00:38 Still smells like that fudgey shit.

00:38 alright, make sure to see your psychologist

00:38 Yup, thanks

00:38 Later.

I decided to query this “Cowboy_Appledash” to see if he could clarify his answers. It would be weird spouting out more of this on the main chat because they’d think we’re crazy. Perhaps it's a little late for that.

00:39 Hey man

00:39 are you there?

00:40 Yeah...

00:40 Sorry about querying you, but since you mentioned finding a girl naked in a cornfield claiming to be Applejack; I had to ask.

00:41 Were you being serious there?

00:41 You gotta fetish for that kinda stuff?

00:41 Yep, serious as a heart attack. Why?

00:41 NO

00:42 I'm just curious

00:42 Uh huh... Pray tell, why are you curious?

00:42 Well, I'm not sure I should trust you. But, you answered my questions...

00:42 Shouldn't trust me? Dude, I resisted the urge to fondle a naked chick in a cornfield. I'm pretty sure that qualifies as trustworthy.

00:43 If you’re telling the truth, you’ve won some points, but that doesn't mean much.

00:43 Is there a specific reason for all of this?

00:43 I was curious because today behind my house I found a girl in my backyard.

00:43 Really now? Let me guess. She had purple hair or somethin' an was claiming to be a pony?

00:44 not exactly

00:44 I know April Fools day was a while ago but damn, I think these idiots are a little slow.

00:44 More like rainbow hair claiming to be Rainbow Dash

00:44 Bullshit... Did you bang her?

00:45 WHAT? NO!

00:45 I would, she sounds hot.

00:45 Wow, I think you're being serious.

00:46 RD is pretty awesome after all.

00:46 I'm always serious mate.

00:46 Yeah, she is.

00:46 So you ain't bullshitting me here. You found a crazy broad claiming to be the best pony?

00:47 I brought her into my house like you did, but... I think that was the wrong idea in a way.

00:47 Did she walk around on her hands and feet too?

00:47 No, I'm not bullshitting you. I found a girl claiming to be the best pony as you say.

00:47 Well, she did walk on her hands and feet, had a raspy voice, claimed to be Rainbow Dash

00:47 I swear dude, if she decked you like this one did me, we might have a bit of an issue.

00:47 Then proceeded to beat the hell out of me... sooo yeah.

00:47 Jesus Christ. This ain't right.

00:48 I know right, but she mentioned Discord as if I was with him.

00:48 If this shit is real, ain't no telling what'll happen.

00:48 Same here.

00:48 I'm not sure what to make of it; I had to knock her out, but I think I really hurt my fist doing that.

00:49 Thing is, I can catch a liar pretty damn quick, and she seemed to be telling the truth.

00:49 You punched the girl? You want me to whoop your ass now or later?

00:49 What the hell was I supposed to do?! She was beating me up as if I was trying to kill her!

00:50 Well, get around her. Don't punch her. Do like I did, and put her in a headlock of some sort.

00:50 I didn't hurt her that bad, only a small cut, which I fixed myself with the first aid kit.

00:50 Then you interrogate.

00:50 Actually, I already did that

00:51 Already did what? Interrogate?

00:51 She pretty much claimed to be Rainbow Dash, talked about Discord, what happened before she woke up and a small little agreement we made.

00:51 Which was?

00:51 I help her find her friends, she can stay at my house, unless you decides to trash it.

00:51 She*

00:51 I don't think I've gotten that far yet. So you actually think she's the real deal? If so, I may have to rethink my actions toward 'Applejack' here.

00:52 I still didn't trust her, but this other girl gave me a huge lecture about why would she lie if she's on an unknown world?

00:52 But yeah, I was pretty reluctant at first, thinking she was just a really good actress.

00:52 Yep. It's pretty safe to say that we may be dealing with the real thing here. Tell ya what, I'll talk to this girl some more an try to dig up some more information. If too many things mesh together, then we gotta find the others.

00:52 If that happens, we got a manhunt on our hands.

00:52 Or would that be ponyhunt?

00:52 Sounds fair and yeah, I think it would be a ponyhunt.

00:53 Ok then, well, I assume neither you or I will be on here all that much. How do I get a hold of you?

00:53 Um, I guess the chat would be fine, if not then email?

00:54 That'll work, I could probably give you my cell number as well since I tend to not check my email all that much.

00:54 alright

00:54 (555) 276-1565

00:54 There ya go mate.

00:55 thanks, here's mine

00:55 (555) 452-7412

00:55 I think I hear her making some noise upstairs, hit me up later. I gotta go find out what's going on.

00:56 By the way, before we both leave, um... how exactly does one apologize to Rainbow Dash after kind of lying to her?

00:56 Make up sex? I dunno. Later.

00:56 o.o okay then... later.

[00:56] * Cowboy_Appledash has quit

I sighed in relief at my findings. I was glad that I had found someone else, and in just one evening too. I knew Rainbow Dash would be very happy to hear the news. I’m not sure about that Cowboy Appledash guy though. He had Applejack, and from the way he spoke to me, he seemed quite knowledgeable in being an ass. I guess he was worried about Rainbow Dash’s safety and wanted to make sure Applejack was happy about that. Well, why else would he be acting the way he did on the chat?

I shrugged off it off, knowing that tomorrow was a big day and new surprises may be in store. Hopefully, nothing like today would be coming up in the days to follow or else I’d suddenly question my sanity. I yawned, checking the time and seeing that it was one in the morning, an hour after the talk with Rainbow Dash.

“Ugh, that explains my want for sleep,” I grumbled, slowly getting out of the chair and threw myself into the bed. I bounced up once before lying still on the comfortable mattress where my current thoughts were replaced by the relaxing thought of wonderful sleep before I drifted off into slumber once again.

Author's Note

Credit to Darth_Dash and TheSlorg for edited this chapter. Sorry that it took so long. And yes, major credit to TheSlorg for helping with the murder scene. If any of you just went straight down here to read the notes, then you just spoiled it for yourselves. Still need a few chapters before the timeline is completely fixed.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed this chapter. And for the IRC part, I blame centered alignment.

Outside Troubles

PonyFall: Rainbows

Chapter Six - Outside Troubles

Edited by TheSlorg & J_Xayph

April 14th, 2012 (Noon)

The first sight to greet me was a bright glare of sunlight piercing through the curtains. I grumbled about my eyes being blinded and covered myself with my blankets. My body was not yet fully awoken, seeing as it was a Saturday. Saturday and Sunday were the only days I could afford to spend time catching up on sleep, and I had to use every opportunity to do so.

With the blanket sufficient in shielding my eyes from the rays, a smile appeared on my lips and my consciousness began drifting back into the dream world. That wouldn’t last long as a familiar loud, irritating, and obnoxious buzzing decided to awaken me. I elicited a groan of annoyance, aimlessly trying to hit the snooze button on the alarm clock with my hand, but to no avail. After a few attempts, I sat up from my pillow and looked over at the alarm clock, which buzzed in an effort to wake me. I slammed my palm down on the button and was rewarded with silence.

“Thank God,” I grumbled, rubbing my tired eyes. My room looked the same from the previous night. Usually, it was this quiet during the weekend, but there was just one problem with that. That just wasn’t enough sleep for one person and my brain wanted more. My want for food didn’t do much to calm the the growing headache I was experiencing.

“Food...” I muttered, crawling out of bed, dragging my feet into the hallway leading to the living room. From there, I could hear the loud snores of a certain guest as she lay on the leather couch.

The snoring brought a smile to my face and, for the moment, made me forget about my headache. I reached the living room and looked over the couch to see the sleeping figure of Rainbow Dash covered by a blanket. She didn’t move and laid motionless with an opened mouth where a small drop of drool leaked out. Her snoring was light, and it was as if it grew lighter with each breath. I grinned at the scene, but that only worsened my headache. As I left the room and headed to the kitchen, I winced, rubbing my temples together to ease the pain.

I walked over to the fridge and took out a half-filled jug of milk. Eating or drinking always manages to calm me down whenever something bothers me. Whether it’s an entire meal or a simple box of juice, it helps relieve any headache as long as I eat something later.

I brought the jug to my mouth and drank heartily, enjoying the feeling of the cold milk as it flowed down my throat. It really hit the spot. Hopefully that would do the trick, otherwise I’d have to find something else to eat. I looked behind me where Rainbow slept. She still laid soundly asleep but, considering the exhausting events of the day before, I couldn’t blame her.

I guess she really needed the sleep, I thought. Fighting Discord, falling from the sky, not to mention having to knock her out to keep her from destroying the house, and the traumatic events of last night. I hoped she’s still alright from all that.

I couldn’t help but chuckle as Rainbow Dash let out another large snore. I know she was a heavy sleeper in the show, but I never thought it was that bad. Maybe a good breakfast would help her out. I reached into one of the cabinets and took out two bowls and a box of Frosted Flakes. I opened the box, poured them into each bowl before retreating to grab the milk... except there wasn’t any more milk in the fridge. All of it had been in that one measly jug.

Oh, well that’s just great. I took two spoons from the drawer and stuck them in the bowls. Well, you win some, you lose some.

I took a bite whilst carrying the other bowl to the couch. Rainbow remained asleep, her arm hanging off the side of the couch. I sat down on the side she wasn’t covering and kept the free bowl next to me for when she woke up. She stirred from her position, grumbling about aerial somersaults and Wonderbolts while I sat there chewing on my cereal.

It was a wonder how she was able to sleep this well. As I thought about that, another thought came to mind; she needed clothes. Not mine, but some that actually fit her. The shirt covered most of her body and sagged halfway to her knees almost. I guessed she probably needed a medium shirt of her choice, a new pair of jeans, and a new pair of shoes. Her shirt size could be confirmed after she woke up, speaking of which...

I gently shook her shoulder and she stirred. “Hey Rainbow, are you awake?” She didn’t respond. I tried again and was rewarded with a small groan from the Equestrian. “Yo Dash, it’s time to wake up.” She opened up one rose colored eye. When she noticed me, she frowned and shooed me away in attempt to go back to sleep. I sighed and shook her shoulder even more.

“Five more minutes, Mom...” she mumbled, pulling the blanket over her head.

I grinned and pulled the covers from her. She scrunched up into a fetal position due to the sudden loss of warmth. After a moment, she finally lifted her head, a huge scowl on her face.

“Ugh, can’t a mare get any sleep around here?” she complained, rubbing the sleep out of her eyes. She blinked once or twice before getting a look at her surroundings. “Huh? What are you staring at me for? Did I do something funny in my sleep?”

I stifled my laugh with a hand. “No you didn’t, Rainbow,” I said, moving over so she could sit up. She sat upright and stretched her arms. “I made you some breakfast. It’s nothing too big or fancy-like, but it’s something, right?”

Rainbow looked over at the bowl of cereal before taking ahold of it and tipping the cereal into her mouth. Even though it was just dry cereal without milk, she ate ravenously.

“So... what’s up?” she asked around a mouthful of cereal bits, some spraying out here and there. “You know, milk would help make this better. Do you have any?”

“Nothing much, I was just waiting for you to wake up,” I said, grimacing at the food still in her mouth. “Also, I did have some, but I kind of drank it all when I was trying to clear my headache. Sorry...”

Rainbow shrugged, tipping the bowl into her mouth. “Eh, it’s fine. I always prefer milk with my cereal, but I don’t mind. Just as long as there’s food.”

“Don’t worry, the fridge is and always will be stocked. Unless you eat everything in it,” I joked. Rainbow rolled her eyes. We ate in silence for a while before I finally spoke up. “So, are you feeling any better?”

“Better?” Rainbow asked through a mouthful. “Better from what?”

“You know, from last night?”

“Oh,” was Rainbow’s only response. She stopped eating, looking down at her bowl as if it something had caught her eye. “Yeah... I’m cool. Just trying not to think about it, that’s all.” From her response, she sounded unsure of herself, but it was a better answer than what I was expecting.

“Okay, but if you need anything don’t hesitate to ask,” I said with a reassuring smile.

Rainbow nodded absently and dove back into the cereal bowl. Had I been watching the show, I might have laughed at seeing Rainbow ignoring her spoon and stuffing her face into the bowl.

“Hey Dash, you know I was thinking...”

“Thinking of what?” Dash asked, not bothering to look up.

“You heading outside. I know you saw some of Indianapolis during the night, but how about during the day? I could show you parts of the city while we head over to buy you some clothes at Abercrombie.”

“Not interested,” she mumbled. A moment later she looked up. “Wait, Abercrombie?” she asked. She swallowed the rest of her food before she continued. “What’s that?”

“It’s a business chain located all around America. They sell clothes, perfumes, and other fancy necessities that are expensive. I figured that you’d like the type of stuff they sell there.”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow, clearly not interested in the fancy things mentioned. “What type of stuff do you mean? Do you mean the fancy cool kind or the fancy Rarity kind?”

I shrugged. “Oh you know, shirts, denim jeans, hats, awesome sports jackets, and other cool things. Then, there’s those colognes and perfumes the-”

“Woah, woah,” Rainbow interjected before I could finish. “That definitely sounds like Rarity’s type of store, not mine. I can’t stand those smells or fancy frou frou clothes. It’s not really my style you know, and I only wear those type of things whenever I really have to like at the Grand Galloping Gala.”

“Yeah, I figured that as much. That’s why we’re only going to buy what you want. And I mean anything you want there, Dash,” I said. “You could even get a sports jacket there while you're at it.”

“A sports jacket? What’s that?” Rainbow asked, my words finally catching her interest.

“Hm... Let me put it this way. Think of a Wonderbolt suit, but only covering your chest. More like the shirt you’re wearing, but it makes you look awesome and way cooler than before... probably like twenty percent cooler, I’d say.”

“Twenty percent...” Rainbow started, sounding annoyed. “What are you even going on about? Anyway... like the Wonderbolts, huh?” she asked, the beginnings of a smile forming across her mouth. “If I can be as cool as them, then why the heck not? Now I can be way cooler than before.” She smiled smugly at her statement. “I can see it now. Rainbow Dash, the coolest pegasus. And you can be my sidekick.”

“Wait, sidekick? This isn’t a superhero movie, Dash.”

“Well it should be. After all, who wouldn’t want to write about my amazing feats?” she smiled, proudly sticking out her chest as if she had done something amazing to prove her point. “See? I’m already this awesome. Why not more?” Her movements knocked both bowls of cereal to the floor.

Rainbow looked down at the two bowls she knocked to the floor, her grin turning into a nervous smile. “Uh, sorry?”

“Oh, no. It’s alright,” I said, restraining myself from sighing. Rainbow bent down to pick up her own mess, but I got to the bowl first. “Don’t worry about the mess, I’ll clean it up. Just head outside and wait for me. Besides, you wanted to head outside last night, didn’t you?”

“Yeah... outside...” Rainbow trailed off her words, turning her gaze elsewhere.

“Dash, are you alright?” I asked. She obviously wasn’t, but I thought talking about it might help.

“Of course I am. Why wouldn’t I be?” Rainbow said, her voice slipping at the end.

“You sure?”

“Totally,” she answered half-heartedly.

I raised an eyebrow at her demeanor, knowing for a fact that Rainbow Dash never acted like this unless something bothered her. That rarely happened in the show, but how else would you react if you saw someone get murdered in front of you? Eventually, I’d have to talk with her about this, preferably sooner than later.

“Alright, then. Just remember that I’ll be here if you need someone to talk to,” I reminded, giving her an honest smile.

Rainbow nodded, staying in her seat. I stood up from my seat to stretch my arms and legs. When I finished, I picked up the two fallen bowls and carried them to the sink. I promised myself I’d clean them later when I got back and went for a cleaning rag for the mess on the floor.

I walked back to the couch and wiped up the flaky bits that were still left. The rag became filthy from the crumbs, but I shrugged it off. This place had to look sparkly clean or else Mom would have a fit. When I finished, I left the rag on a coaster and went for my dark gray jacket hanging on the hook by the door. I placed my arms in-between the sleeves, zipping it up before placing a hand on the doorknob.

“So, you coming along?” I asked. Rainbow was still sitting on the couch, staring at the floor.

“I uh...” she muttered. I was going to have to somehow convince her that going outside was usually safe, and that her experience the night before was just an unfortunate coincidence.

“Well... okay,” I said. “You can stay here by yourself if you want to. Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll be able to pick out clothes that don’t make you any less cool than you are now...”

Rainbow looked up suddenly. “Whoah whoah, hold on,” she said, eyeing my clothes. “No offense, but I think I’d better handle that responsibility.”

Got ya, I thought.

I wondered how Cowboy Appledash was doing with Applejack. He must have been having a blast if she managed to retain the strength Dash had shown yesterday.

As soon as we departed from my house, I walked out behind Rainbow and closed the door, locking it with the house key in my pocket. It made a loud clink sound and indicated that it had locked. Behind me, Rainbow had her arms crossed as she took in her surroundings. A few times her eyes widened at the many houses and things layered around the community. I thought she’d show more appreciation out here for being a pegasus.

“What do you think? I know it’s not the same as Equestria, but it’s better than nothing, right?” I asked her.

“Hm... You’re right. It isn’t the same.” She paused for a moment. “Too many differences from Equestria and here, but...” She turned around to face me with a smile. “I’ll try to get used to it...”

“That’s good. I’ll make sure to fill you in on everything else when we’re in the car,” I said, heading towards the garage on the far side of the house.

“Car? What?” Rainbow asked, confused at the word I mentioned.

I didn’t answer her question as I took hold the garage door, pushing it upwards to reveal a sleek, but old Honda Civic lying inside. The keys for the car were already in my pocket along with my cell phone. I took them out, pressing the unlock button; the car beeped once in response. Rainbow stepped backwards on her four legs, surprised at the sudden noise. I chuckled and opened the driver’s door. The fluffy seat greeted me as I sat on the seat and turned the ignition on. The car roared to life with its engine running smoothly as I slowly backed the car into the driveway where Rainbow would be waiting for me.

A loud smack hit the car, making me slam down hard on the brakes. I gasped, taking a deep breath at the sudden sound. Before I could say anything, a series of hits began banging on the car, followed by a scowl and something jumping on top of it. I looked up at the ceiling where the person landed on and the head of Rainbow Dash popped up in front of the windshield. I stared directly at her, her eyes narrowed in anger at the windshield wipers she was trying to rip off.

“Don’t worry, Cody!” Rainbow exclaimed, her teeth gnawing on the black plastic. “I’ll save you from this metallic monster!” I restrained my hand from slapping my head and groaned to make up for it. Sighing, I pressing a button next to the door, which opened the window on my side slowly. I peeked out outside, watching Rainbow’s battle with the car. Her body was sprawled across the car as she fought an unwinnable battle to presumably save my life.

Ugh, this was going to be a long day...

Author's Note

Oh hey, I updated quickly. Hurrah! Time to write another for the sake of PonyFall and everything else that I haven't mentioned. In the meantime, I'm going to be a total dick and say this was all Slorg fault. You know why? Because he's awesome. And that is all.

A Trip Downtown

PonyFall: Rainbows

Chapter Seven - A Trip Downtown

Edited by Darth_Dash & J_Xayph

April 14th, 2012 (1:45pm)

“I can’t believe you tried attacking the car,” I said after pulling Rainbow Dash inside and making her sit down in the back. She continued going on about the car being a monster, but I had to explain what a vehicle was to her; I lost her at automobile, much to my disappointment. Again, I had to explain it in a more simple manner so she could understand.

Rainbow huffed indignantly. “Hey, I thought it was a monster. Give me a break.”

I sighed and turned down the next street where Interstate 65 stood above us. “Well excuse me, I wasn’t the one who jumped on top of the car and tried to ‘slay’ it.” She grumbled something inaudible, but I ignored it, deciding that some music would be good right now. I pressed the power button on the radio and turned up the volume as the sound of a familiar radio talk show host filled the car.

... and win tickets to that concert! Anyhow, back to our regular programming.

You're listening to 94.7 FM, the Classic Rock Station!

Show me how to lie, you’re getting better all the time.

And turning all against the one is an art that’s hard to teach.

Another clever word sets off an unsuspecting herd.

And as you step back in the lie, a mob jumps to their feet.

I would recognize that tune anywhere. That was The Offspring’s “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid

The next thing I knew, Rainbow Dash was up and out of her seat, glaring directly at the radio as the song continued. “Who is that? Who are you? Are you a spy? Huh?!” The radio didn’t answer Rainbow’s question, which made me wonder what her next action would be. I found out as soon as the thought crossed my mind. “Oh, a tough guy, huh? You think you can ignore me?” The song played on. “Alright, that’s it!” I couldn’t help but notice her face scrunch up and get flustered each time she didn’t get an answer. It was quite hilarious if you thought about it.

However, the scene quickly escalated into a huge mess as Rainbow Dash began jabbing and turning every single button and knob she could find on the radio dashboard. At first, it seemed she’d get over it, but she persisted, determined to defeat the “spy.” Comically, the radio decided to fight back against her attack by hitting Dash a few times with the CD tray. The numbers on the display fluctuated sporadically, the music replaced with a harsh, droning static so loud I couldn’t drive properly. I reached over and pressed down on the power button.

“Ha! I win!” Rainbow cheered her victory as the radio’s voice cut out. She looked over at me for approval of her conquest, but I just shook my head in disbelief. Her grin faltered once she saw my reaction and began to realize something was wrong. “Uh... I really don’t like spies?” she said, forcing a grin as she tried to appear innocent, but I wasn’t fooled.

“Rainbow Dash... what am I going to do with you?” I asked, making a left turn down Meridian St.

“Heh, what are you going to do without me? I’m too awesome for you to get rid of,” Rainbow smirked, heading back into her seat. “Yeah, and you know that thing had it coming.”

I sighed. “Rainbow, I know you’re just too awesome for me to handle-” I began sarcastically.

“This is true,” she interrupted, smirking.

Irritated, I continued, “-but that thing you just destroyed was an expensive piece of this car.”

“Pfft, big deal,” Rainbow said, waving it off. “I saved your flank from that spy an-”

“Dash! That wasn’t a spy. It was something we call a radio? It plays music.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. We have those in Equestria too, you know.”

“You do...? I asked. “Then why’d you attack it, knowing that?”

“I don’t know, guess I was bored?”

“Dash!”

“Fine! I’m sorry, alright?” Rainbow apologized. She huffed out of irritation and crossed her arms. “I was just trying to lighten up the mood, eesh.”

I ignored her and continued driving the car into the downtown area. By now, we were reaching the tall buildings that loomed over the Indianapolis skyline. I glanced into my rearview mirror at Rainbow’s face looking upwards a few times at the buildings, her mouth agape as she struggled to form words about what she’d probably call monstrosities. She scratched her head in marvel, her face clearly showing her confusion, then she noticed the people. I had stopped at a red light and managed to get a clear, long side view of Rainbow’s face. She was clenching her teeth for some reason, but that was not what got my attention. It was behind her eyes. I saw something rare of Rainbow Dash: fear. Fear of humans would be my best guess.

I was about to say a few words to comfort her, but the light turned green and I had to keep driving. When I was able to stop at the next light, I noticed Dash’s expression had changed and she appeared to be thinking about something, but what?

“You okay there, Dash?” I asked just as the light turned green. Driving forward, I kept my eyes on the road and ears on the conversation.

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking...”

“Thinking? About what?”

“Well, I was thinking about all those people. I mean there’s so many of them and they all look so alike, but different. I’m not sure what I’m going on, but how will I find my friends if there are so many people walking around? And then there’s last night, that guy could be in one of those groups or it could be another person and the-”

“Woah, Rainbow. Calm down, you’re thinking too hard about this,” I said, gently taking hold of her arm. She stopped and looked up at me, her eyes wide. For a minute, I thought they were going to revert to the same old pony eyes Dash had. “I know you’re worried about your friends. I am too, but right now you need to calm down and relax.” I gave her a knowing smile, hoping I could reassure her. Rainbow’s lips curled into a weak smile; at least a weak smile was better than nothing. With that taken care of, I kept my foot on the gas until we reached the parking lot around Illinois St.

A toll booth barred the entrance to the lot. To its left stood a sign denoting an entrance fee of $1.50 for an hour. I glanced down at my cup holder where I kept my change and found a few assorted coins. I grabbed the necessary amount and paid the toll, lifting the gate. Returning the loose change to the cupholder, I heard Rainbow’s raspy voice beside me. “Um, are those bits?” she asked, leaning in from the back seat as she stared at the cup holder filled with coins.

“Not exactly. They are coins, but not your bits,” I explained, turning the car into the first level parking lot. To my surprise, most of the parking spaces were not taken, which was weird considering it was usually filled to capacity. I parked the car in one of those unused spaces before returning to Rainbow’s question. “You see, we use different kinds of coins for our currency unlike the golden bits you use. And we also use paper bills for expensive things.” I took out my wallet and produced a five dollar bill, handing it to Rainbow Dash. She grabbed it and played around with it, eyeing the details on it.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to use coins instead of paper?” Rainbow asked, handing back the bill.

I took back the five and placed it back in my wallet. “That would be true, but tell that to the whole world who uses paper money such as this.”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow at my statement. “Have I ever told you that your entire world is weird?”

“Oh you don’t even know the half of it,” I said dryly, shutting the engine off as I removed the keys.

Once I stopped the engine, Rainbow prepared to jump out the door, but the handle proved to be an unsurpassable obstacle for her. Her fingers tried to grasp the plastic grip, only to falter. I guess this explained why she had to escape through the slide window rather than the door last night. At one point, she got the handle to move halfway, but not enough to open it. She continued repeating the same process, each time getting more irritated than the last. Call me a sadist, but I was amused as I watched her struggle, until I got out of the car and pulled it open for her.

“You didn’t need to help me! I was doing fine on my own.” Rainbow grumbled her frustration, climbing out of the car.

I closed the door behind her and smirked. “Sure you were.”

“I was too!” Rainbow countered, her speech becoming more forceful with the flush of anger prominent across her face. I raised my palms in front of me for defense and stuck my tongue out. This only provoked her more, but I started chuckling before she could react. If not, then I probably would have been flying into the streets by now.

“Oh come on, Rainbow Dash. I was only teasing.” Her expression softened from the comment and her mouth opened to say something. When nothing came out, I placed an arm around the poor girl and began leading her towards the exit. “You sure are easily worked up, Dash. Has anybody told you that? I think you need to relax and chill out sometime.” She muttered something beside me, but kept it to herself. I speculated that it must’ve been about her pride so I decided not to push the matter.

I led her outside into the bright sunlight where a noisy crowd of people made their way down the streets of Indianapolis. Rainbow walked out after me, her eyes darting between every single person passing by. She gripped my arm tighter and I winced due to how tense she was getting. “Hey Dash, relax.”

“Huh?” Rainbow arched an eyebrow and turned her gaze at her grip. “Oh, sorry.” She released the pressure off my wrist and I rubbed the sore red spots where her fingers had dug into my hand.

After watching a few more people pass by us, she looked up at the tall buildings she saw before. She didn’t blink or move, just staring upwards at the monoliths. I took the moment to look around in case anybody was staring at us. Some people gave us second glances, but nobody stared except for the old fellow next to us who looked up from his newspaper he had and shook his head at Rainbow’s hair, mumbling, “Teenagers...” before heading back to his paper.

“This place is...” Rainbow took a deep breath of air. “Amazing... Ack!” At the precise moment she was taking a deep breath, a random 18-wheeler rushed by, backfiring a thick amount of smog into the air. Unfortunately, that happened to be mixed up with the air Rainbow was breathing. She began coughing, making choking gestures at her throat. I reached over and slapped her back a few times. She coughed and gagged a bit before spitting on the ground. “Ugh, this air tastes horrible! What, is there a colony of dragons sleeping nearby or something?”

“What? You mean the pollution?” When she didn’t answer, I slapped my head for not remembering. “Right, you guys don’t have that. Well, you could say that the air here isn’t exactly clean, but it is breathable. I’m breathing right now and I don’t have any problems with it.” I took a deep breath, air filling my lungs and exhaled l some of it back. “See?”

Rainbow frowned. “Wow, I can’t believe you guys can live like this. See, this is why you need pegasi. We’ll clear up weather any day at anytime, as well as create it.” She made an imaginary swirl with her arms, miming a pegasus creating clouds. I tried imagining it and the mental image appeared in my mind, a cyan pegasus forming a small tornado in the sky that would produce the finishing product.

“I think pegasi would be great for this world. If you don’t consider the people who would try to capture you.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at this, but didn’t pursue further. I shrugged it off, bringing my attention to the large building in front of us. We were a few blocks away from the Abercrombie store. It was just a short walk away. “You ready?”

“I was born ready! Let’s go!” Rainbow answered confidently. I nodded and we left the parking lot.

I led her into the busy crowd of people making their way into shops or simply trying to get to work. I held onto Rainbow’s arm, each time I could feel her clench her fist once we passed by a person. It was a complete madhouse here and I didn’t want to lose her through this crowd. Though, if I had to look, I’d find her easily since she’s the only one with rainbow hair.

Finally, after our small, but short walk, we made a turn down West Maryland St. and reached our destination. Three glass doors marked the entrance to Abercrombie & Fitch, right inside the Old Nordstrom Mall.

“Okay, now I’ve seen everything. Like seriously, I can’t believe you guys built so many of these skyscrapings!” Rainbow exclaimed, staring upwards where the Abercrombie & Fitch logo was.

“Yeah, we’re a growing society. Humans have done far more epic things, really.” I replied, placing my hands in my pockets. “And it’s ‘skyscrapers’, not ‘skyscrapings’.”

“Right... can we please head inside now? This air is really getting to me, like it’s clogging up my lungs with whatever that awful taste is. And no, I don’t want an explanation for it,” Rainbow sputtered out. A series of coughs followed after her question.

“Fine, let’s get you inside before you cough up a lung,” I smirked. She glared back, not saying anything and rushed ahead indignantly. I followed after her, watching other people enter and exit the store while the crowd continued moving throughout the streets. Rainbow waited at the door, tapping her foot as her impatience got the better of her. She rushed in as soon as I pulled open one of the doors.

When we entered, Rainbow stuck her tongue out in disgust over some fancy looking clothes hanging to our left. At the precise moment, someone decided to spray a perfume bottle nearby and caused some of it to linger around. Apparently that same scent managed to enter through Rainbow’s mouth and she started gagging from swallowing some of it. Laughing, I slapped her back and tried to fan away the smell. Rainbow gestured for a stop and backed off, giving her some breathing room. She coughed violently and clutched her chest before groaning against the coat rack.

“What in Celestia’s name was that disgusting smell?” Rainbow sputtered out through another series of coughs. “It’s even worse than the stuff Rarity uses. And let me tell you, the stuff she uses is strong. Plus, it smells way better than whatever that was.”

Before I could respond to her question, another voice butted in. “Um, excuse me? Is everything alright over here?”

We turned around to face a young blonde employee with bright blue eyes. She wore some fancy Abercrombie clothes, onyx colored earrings and a nametag. It read, “Anna.” If not for the clothes and tag, I’d had assumed she was a normal customer like we were.

“Yeah, we’re fine. My friend here had a little problem with perfume, that’s all,” I told Anna as Rainbow tried collecting herself.

“Oh... right, sorry about that. We’re testing out our new fragrances and cologne to the public. I did warn them not to spray so much since it spreads too quickly.” That’s when she noticed Rainbow’s hair. “Did your friend dye it or something? It looks very natural.”

“Yeah...” I said quickly before Rainbow Dash could argue back. “It’s alright, I guess. We just came by because my friend here needs some new clothes. Seriously, she really needs some.” I looked around to see if anybody was listening and leaned in closer. “If you’re wondering, she’s wearing my clothes.”

Anna stared at us inquisitively and looked over at Rainbow Dash to confirm what I just said. Taken aback some, she held her chin with her left hand, and her left elbow in her right hand. “Oh my,” Anna said, having trouble figuring out what to say. “Hmm... I guess I could help her find some clothes to her liking. What does she like, exactly?”

“Find me the coolest sports jacket you have and anything that looks awesome or cool. I really don’t care as long as it fits somewhere along those lines,” Rainbow asked, still coughing from the perfume. “Also, you need to get better perfume because that stuff just reeks.

Anna blinked once at her. She stared at Rainbow with curiosity, but based on her shrug, she decided not to dwell much about it. “Alright then... if you’d follow me, we’ll find you some quality clothes.” She walked past us and I swear I saw her shake her head slightly and mutter to herself. Rainbow followed eagerly behind with me taking up the rear as we followed her to the back of the room where a bunch of jackets hung on the racks.

For some reason, I had this odd feeling that this would take longer than I thought. It didn’t take long for me last time, but that’s because I knew what I wanted. Besides, Rainbow couldn’t possibly take more than an hour finding clothes. Though, more problems would arise with the other stuff I’d have to buy her, which could potentially deprive me of every penny to my name. If she took that long, then she’d really need some professional guidance in this.

“Um, Cody?” Rainbow’s raspy voice asked nearby. I turned around in her direction where she wore a blue jean jacket in the wrong places like yesterday evening. Her eyes pleaded at me for help while Anna tried helping her out with the problem. I had only one reaction to this, which would eventually cause everything else to take so long.

“For the Love of Celestia, help me,” I prayed, my face in my palm, and went over to help her with the problem.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long to fix the problem, but now picking something out became the main concern. Each time Anna brought out a pair of clothes, Rainbow would put them on and say they weren’t cool enough by a margin of 20%, or needed to be awesome like her. I groaned at the minutes trickling by, feeling sorry for Anna, but she didn’t seem to mind. She just kept running and grabbing clothes based on what Rainbow’s vague descriptions would tell her.

“So? How do I look?” Rainbow asked, showing off her outfit. “Yeah, I know. It looks awesome, right?”

Rainbow had a white shirt covering her torso, on top of that was a sleek blue sports jacket that almost matched her original coat color. She had a nice pair of blue jeans as well, wearing a white belt that seemed to match her shirt. On her feet, she wore a pair of black Converses that looked nice on her. Overall, I was finally glad she found something she liked after spending an two hours and forty minutes in a dressing room.

We paid for the clothes, which totalled around $70. Thankfully, most of the clothes Rainbow chose were on sale, or else I would’ve had to pay an arm and a leg for it all. I thanked Anna for helping us out before leading Rainbow in search of a place to eat. An hour later, we found ourselves inside a White Castle down on South Street. I stayed in line to order our food while Rainbow went to find us a table. When it was my turn, I got two Original Slider meals for both of us. The cashier handed me the receipt and the two medium-sized cups for drinks. I filled up our drinks from the soda fountain, giving myself Coke and Rainbow water.

When the order finally came, I had taken little sips from my drink out of boredom. The order sat on the counter once an employee placed the last box of fries on the tray. I left my spot and walked over to the tray and picked it up, placing both drinks on them. I made my way over to the table Rainbow claimed where a bored Equestrian waited, tapping her fingers on the table. She finally decided to lift her head and noticed I was making my way to the table.

“There you are! I’ve been waiting for ages,” Rainbow said.

I settled the tray on the table and took a seat in front of her. “Well excuse me. I was waiting for our food to come out and it takes time you know.”

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s just eat because I’m starving!” Rainbow grabbed a box of fries, eyeing one of the greasy, golden sticks before popping one into her mouth. Instantly, her eyes grew wide and she stared down at the fries. “OH MY GOSH, these are so good!” she exclaimed, popping another into her mouth.

I laughed at the sight and took my own meal from the tray. “I’m glad you like them so much. White Castle always makes great food whether you're hungry or not.” I opened the box filled with four sliders and decided to dig into my own food. As we enjoyed our meal, Rainbow fiddled with her first slider, picking up the bun to reveal a rectangular piece of meat with two pickles and chopped onions before taking a bite out of it. She got the same reaction out of it and began wolfing it down.

“Wow, this is amazing. I’ve never eaten anything like this before,” Rainbow said through a mouthful. “What’s in this stuff anyways?”

“Oh, it’s just some pickles and onions topped off with a thin slice of me- Wait a minute...” The word I was about to say quickly brought warning signs in my head. I looked to the slider Dash was eating, already halfway through it. Oh crap, why didn’t I realize it when I ordered?! Dammit!

“Uh, Rainbow... you might want to spit that out.”

“Huh. Why?” she asked, still chewing on her food.

“Well... because you’re eating meat...” I finally told her the truth.

Rainbow stopped herself from taking another bite into her slider. She looked down at the food and looked at the meat underneath the bun, then chewed whatever was left in her mouth. After a few seconds of contemplating the sandwich and my words, she sighed and dropped the sandwich back into the box. I thought she’d be mad at me for giving her meat, but she didn’t seem like exploding over it. In fact, she seemed somber over it.

“You know, I never thought I’d eat meat again. I even promised myself, but I guess I ended up breaking that one,” Rainbow muttered.

Her answer shocked me. “Y-You’ve eaten meat before?”

“Of course I have! I did have a griffon for a best friend who eats meat. She brought some to Flight Camp one day and I had forgotten my lunch back at home. I didn’t have any money to buy anything in the cafeteria so she decided to share her lunch with me. To be honest, I thought meat would be crunchy and taste weird, but in fact it was squishy and slimy. And that was the only time I’ve ever eaten meat... until now,” Rainbow told her story.

Well, I wasn’t expecting that. For Rainbow eating meat once, that must’ve been strange and surprising to the others who had watched her eat it as a pony. A part of me was disgusted by how a herbivore could eat meat, but the other part was glad that she didn’t kick my ass for it.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not too upset about it. I thought you were going to blow up and kill me, screaming ‘Why did you give me meat?!’ or something along those lines.”

“Oh, don’t be too sure about that. I’m pretty upset you decided to give me meat, but I’m not going to be a jerk and embarrass you in public. But... I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about when we get home,” Rainbow smirked, cracking her knuckles.

After that incident, we continued eating our food with Rainbow sighing and taking small bites out of her own burgers. She ate her fries one after another, however, and ended up eating my fries as well. It was my fault for giving her meat and I was in no position to protest. Afterwards, I took her around the city, showing her some of the historical sites nearby. I know she wasn’t interested in the subject, but it was only for sights and killing time. Afterwards, we took a break at the statue in the middle of the city.

“So Dash, what’d you think of Indianapolis?” I asked.

Rainbow lifted her head up and gave a tiny yawn. “Oh... it was pretty cool. Besides the fact that you gave me meat and all those boring explanations, I guess I’m glad you took me because now I have my own clothes and you finally let me see the outside instead of-” She yawned again, resting her head on her arms. “-being cooped up inside the house.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m always glad to help a friend,” I said, remembering the times before I moved to the suburbs of Indianapolis.

“Yeah. Thanks, Cody...” Rainbow’s voice trailed off at the end. I waited for the rest of the sentence, but found myself hearing the news broadcast on the radio. I glanced back, only to find Rainbow Dash asleep in a somewhat curled up position, stretched over the back seats.

I guess she’s all tired out, I thought, smiling warmly at the sight. With that, I began the long drive out of the city and back to the suburbs to end the day and begin a new tomorrow.

Author's Note

I hope you enjoyed the new chapter. Yes, Rainbow Dash has eaten meat because she had a griffon as a friend. It was bound to happen. Also, I hope the formatting didn't change shit or something because then I'll freak out and wonder how the hell did that happen. Either way, it's time to write another one before school starts.

Tyler's Favor

Ponyfall: Rainbows

Chapter Eight - Tyler’s Favor

Edited by Darth_Dash & J_Xayph

April 15th, 2012 (11:30 am)

“Yo, Rainbow Dash! Wake up! Your food is ready!” I yelled from the kitchen.

A loud groan came from the living room followed by the sound of blankets rustling around. “It’s too early... just five more minutes...” Rainbow Dash moaned.

I flipped a pancake out of the pan onto the stack piling up on a plate. On a second burner, a small bit of egg and bacon cooked separately. “Too early?” I scoffed. “It’s never too early for pancakes.”

“Wait, did you say pancakes?!” There was a loud thud on the floor and a few seconds later, she appeared in the entryway with a blanket wrapped around her waist. It looked like she was stuck inside a cocoon after she made a few hops. “Why didn’t you say so earlier?”

“I did, bu- you know what? Nevermind.” I sighed, turning back to breakfast. It was too early in the morning to argue over such a simple matter. “Just take a seat and I’ll have your food out.”

“Gotcha,” Rainbow Dash said, plopping into a chair at the table, where a pitcher of juice was already laid out. I flipped the last pancake onto the plate and brought it over along with two glasses.

Rainbow Dash grinned at the sight and picked up one of the pancakes with her mouth. She had already gobbled it up before she noticed the incredulous look I was giving her. “What?” she asked.

“Nothing.”

Rainbow looked at me, eyes narrowed, before shrugging and returning to her breakfast. As she ate, I filled both glasses with orange juice. She glanced up from her half-eaten pancake, then watched as I grabbed my cup to take a sip. She tried doing the same thing, but much to her chagrin, she was unable to get a grip on the cup. I left her there to gather the remainder of our breakfast.

When I turned around, plates in hand, I could see Rainbow Dash gritting her teeth at her challenge. She tried again as I placed both plates next to the pancakes and watched her grab the glass at an irregular angle, managing to pinch the edge with her forefinger and thumb.

"I think you'd have an easier time if you tried using more than two fingers," I said, stacking a couple pancakes and a helping of eggs and bacon on my plate.

"Can you just leave me alone? I'm not used to any of this," she said, trying with both hands, but only pushing the cup away.

"Maybe if you could calm down and think for once, you'd figure it out?"

She turned away from the cup and shot me a glare. "Don't you tell me to calm down. I am perfectly fine by myself, and I don't need you to tell me what to do!" She shouted, grabbing the cup between her wrists in a furor. She lifted it up, and she shot me a look of mixed triumph and relief. "See? I don't even need any stupid fingers." Then, the cup slipped and crashed to the table, splattering her with orange juice. Her face reddened as she looked meekly at me, before turning away and mumbling to herself.

I patted Rainbow’s shoulder to calm her down. “Hey, don’t worry about it. We all make mistakes.” I picked the glass up and set it upright, filling it up again with juice.

“But how the heck am I supposed to drink it without grabbing it? It’s practically impossible!” Rainbow Dash argued.

“You’re right about that. How are you going to drink fro- Wait a second, I think I’ve got it,” I said, getting up from my seat. “Be right back.” I went to the counter where a plastic container held an assortment of bendy straws. I grabbed one of them and placed it inside Rainbow’s cup. “Here, this should work. Try it.”

“A straw, huh?” Rainbow said, looking surprised. “Well, alright then.” She grabbed the straw and took a sip from her glass. “Hm... it’s a little bland, but it tastes like oranges.” She sipped it again. “Eh, I like the orange juice from Equestria more than this one.”

“Oh yeah? What’s it taste like in Equestria then?”

We continued to converse on the topic of differences between fruit on Earth and Equestria for quite some time. From her knowledge, she told me that the oranges were much sweeter there. It only made me wonder more about how pure Equestria was.

“Hey, Cody,” Rainbow Dash said after we finished our conversation. She had mouthful of pancake hanging out of her mouth.

I forked another piece of egg into my mouth. “Yeah? What is it, Rainbow?”

“Is that machine supposed to be blinking?” Rainbow asked, pointing to the counter.

I looked over in the direction she was pointing at, and for the first time noticed the answering machine blinking red. Someone must’ve left me a message and I didn’t notice. Excusing myself, I got up from my seat to the counter and picked up the phone, pressing the button for messages. The machine told me there were two new messages. I pressed seven to listen to the first one.

“Hey, Cody. Pick up the phone. It’s your mother. I just wanted to call and tell you that your father and I will be spending a bit more time down here in Texas to keep an eye out on your brother. You know how he gets, always showing his enthusiasm somehow. Anyway, we both hope that you’re doing okay. We’ll be back by the 19th, no later than the 20th. Take care now, and make sure not to make a mess there. Okay? Call you later.”

After the message ended, I blinked a few times and rubbed my ear to make sure I heard right. My parents weren’t coming back for another four to five days? I had thought they were staying for just a few days, but it helped in the end, since Rainbow was staying for the foreseeable future. At least Mom called to make sure I was fine.

I proceeded to the next message.

“Yo, buddy. It’s me, Marco. You’re probably wondering how I got your number, right? Well, I asked your brother if he could give me it and he did. Good thing he did because everyone else wanted to know if you were doing okay up there in Indiana. Maybe we can catch up on Xbox Live, but it seems different without you here. The rest of the guys say hi an-”

“Hey, Cody! How ya doing there?”

“Marcos! Stop interrupting me, I’m trying to talk.”

“Well it isn’t fair that you’re doing all the talking, asshole.”

“Whatever, you’re garbage. Anyway, hope you’re doing fantastic out there. See ya.”

“Yeah, see y- Hey! Wait a minute!”

“End of Message.”

I smiled warmly. I hadn’t heard those two for a while. It’d been what? An entire year since the day I moved? I wondered how the others were doing down there.

“So, what was it?” Rainbow Dash asked from her seat.

I looked behind to see her finishing a pancake with her mouth. “Oh, it was a message from my mom and a couple of old friends.”

“Huh? A message?” Rainbow asked. “You mean that machine can be used to send messages and stuff?”

“Yup. It’s technology at it’s finest. I’d explain it to you, but I don’t know much about all that technical stuff,” I said, placing the phone back on the hook. “And besides, I’m sure you’d get lost in my explanation and not understand a single word of it.”

“Try me,” Rainbow Dash challenged, sounding confident and determined.

“If you insist,” I said, walking back to the table, “Again, I don’t know much, but I’ll just give you the brief explanation.”

My brief explanation turned out to be a long and complicated ten minutes, thanks to the many questions Rainbow asked. I didn’t have answers for most of them, but I tried my best. I was in the middle of explaining phone lines when she dropped her face onto the table.

“Too much egghead stuff...” Rainbow Dash muttered.

I shook my head, smirking as I took a drink from my glass. “Egghead stuff? I’m guessing Twilight would love to listen to my explanation no matter how bad it is.” Seeing Twilight Sparkle taking notes would be quite a scene.

“Yeah, you’re probably right. Twilight would have a field day and do stuff like write down notes for future references and all that,” Rainbow said, waving a hand around. “She does it all the time. Even with the littlest things, like that one time she forgot buy a present for Pinkie Pie’s birthday.”

“Oh really? How’d that go?”

“She basically went insane, scribbling down notes and steps on what to do. We all tried to tell her that Pinkie wouldn’t mind as long as she went to the party, but she wouldn’t listen,” Rainbow Dash continued. “So there we were, running around town to stop Twilight from blowing up over herself.”

“Damn. I can’t believe she got so into that,” I said, though I wasn’t surprised.

“Neither did I. She finally stopped searching for one after figuring out it was hopeless and we all went to the party after that. Pinkie greeted us at the entrance and we all went in, except for Twilight, who explained that she didn’t have a present. Instead, Pinkie Pie hugged her and said that she did get her a present; it was friendship. You should’ve seen the look on Twilight’s face after that. She was practically crying at that point, and we all joined in on the hug.”

“Wow, that’s actually a pretty heartwarming story,” I said, amazed that such an event happened outside of the show.

“Yeah, it’s one of those small moments where it’s good to be sappy.” She smiled, but then noticed the smirk on my face. “Not that I’m usually sappy or anything. It just seemed necessary at the time and you know tha-” she sputtered out, too quickly.

“I know, I know. You’re too awesome and cool for that kind of stuff,” I finished for her.

“That’s right,” Rainbow grinned. “You’re never as awesome as the incredible, daring, Rainbow Dash!”

“Mmhm. Y’know, you should eat more before your food gets cold.” I motioned at the remainder of her breakfast on her plate. My plate also had a few bits of uneaten food left, forgotten during the conversation.

“That, we can agree on,” Rainbow said, taking a bite out of her half-bitten pancake.

As I stuck a fork into my own, a series of knocks came from the front. I looked towards the door where the knocking continued. “Excuse me for a moment,” I said, getting up from my seat. I walked off, leaving Dash to her food and made my way to the door. The knocking didn’t let up, getting louder with each of my footfalls. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming,” I grumbled, irritated. I unlocked the door and opened it, revealing Tyler’s thin frame standing on my doorstep.

“Yeah, Tyler, what is it?” I asked, leaning against the doorway. “I’m having breakfast right now.”

“Now?” Tyler said, confused. “But, it’s twelve.” He pointed to the silver watch on his wrist. In bright digital white, the time read twelve forty-five. “See?” he added.

“I can see perfectly clear, Tyler.” Along with the watch, the sun was up at the point where it’d be noon. I stuck my head out and looked around the neighborhood. Nobody else was up or standing nearby. “Now, what is it that you want?”

“Um, do you remember the favor I asked about yesterday?” Tyler asked, triggering my memories of events from the day before. I remembered coming home from school, finding Rainbow Dash, getting my ass kicked by her, playing some video games, and having the biggest scare of my life. What else was missing?

“Oh, do you mean the time when you came over and tried to barge into my house?” I said, remembering that critical moment. “I know you asked me about helping at McDonald’s today or something.

Tyler nodded, confirming my story. “Yeah, that was it. If it’s not too much to ask, I could really use your help.”

“Um… help in what exactly? It better not be the toilets again.”

“What?! No, not that again,” Tyler said. “No, it’s just that we’re shorthanded one person and need someone to work the grill unt-”

“Pass,” I said, waving my hand dismissively. “I’m off today remember?” He must be crazy if he thought I was going to do all that crap on my day off. Sure, I had done it before, but why would I do it then? I was especially inclined to turn him down with Dash to take care of.

“Oh come on! Please?” Tyler pleaded, literally putting his hands together as if praying. “Do it for your ol’ pal. Like seriously, we really need help badly. Most of the regulars called in their vacation time and they were given a few days off, leaving us younger guys at work.” He paused for a moment before continuing. “And then we had three guys call in sick yesterday because of that flu outbreak. It’s just me, Sarah, the assistant manager, and a few other guys working there until six when the night crew takes over,” he finished explaining his situation.

“Can’t you get someone else to help you guys? What about Josh?” I asked, scratching my head.

“I’d love too, but everyone is either not answering their phone or in classes. And I think Josh is sick.”

“Seriously? You’ve gotta be kidding me. You couldn’t find anybody else?” I sighed. There were several dozen people he could’ve chosen. If he came to me of all people, then he must’ve ran out of options.

“Yeah... no. Sorry, but everyone else didn’t pick up,” Tyler said, nervously rubbing his neck.

“Ugh,” I groaned, rubbing my head in frustration. “Fine…. I’ll help you at the damn restaurant because apparently I can’t enjoy my time off from work.”

“Dude, you’ve been off for the entire week!” Tyler exclaimed. “You’ve had more than enough time to enjoy yourself.”

“Whatever,” I said, waving him off. I figured I’d have to take Rainbow Dash with me if I wanted to keep an eye on her. If I didn’t, she might disappear again and another incident might happen like the night before. “Do you mind if I bring someone along? I can’t go, if she doesn’t want to come.”

“Uh, no, I don’t mind,” Tyler answered, his face showing confusion as expected. “Who do you need to bring?”

I nodded. “Gimme a second, if you could just wait out here, I’ll bring her over.” As I finished, a warning signal rang inside my head. What if he recognized Rainbow? I hoped that he didn’t know anything about the show, in fear of him seeing the resemblance between the girl in my house and her pony counterpart.

I left him and ran back into the kitchen where Rainbow Dash was currently fiddling with a random piece of string to pass the time.

Rainbow looked up once she noticed my entrance. “Who is it? Is it some creep? I can get rid of him if you want me too.”

“No, it’s not some creep. It’s just Tyler from next door. He wants to know if I can help him out at work.”

“That’s all? That seems easy enough,” Rainbow said, not seeing the clear picture.

“I know, but if I go, what am I’m going to do with you? I can’t just leave you here unattended. What if you break something? Or hurt yourself?” I asked, worried that another appliance would fall victim to Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow laughed. “As if. I’m the most dependable pon- person you’d know. Why do you think I’m the Element of Loyalty? I’m just simply awesome like that.” She smirked as she stroked her own ego a bit.

“Right, and as much as I trust you to take care of yourself, I can’t take that chance now.” Rainbow’s smirk faltered and began turning into a frown. “But, if you don’t want to be bored, then you can come with me to McDonald’s and help out.”

Rainbow Dash shrugged. “Sure, I guess? I’m not sure what this ‘McDonald’s’ is, but it’s better than sitting around the house all day.”

“It’s a restaurant, like the one we went to yesterday, except it’s way popular and they’re everywhere,” I said.

“Oh really? Well, why didn’t you say so?” Rainbow asked, quickly bolting for the door. “Let’s go!”

“Woah, not so fast, Dash,” I said, gently grabbing her by the arm and pulling her into a halt. “Before we go, I need an explanation for you, since Tyler knows that a teenager girl doesn’t live here.”

“Right,” Rainbow Dash said. “So, got any ideas?”

“I do, but you’re not going to like it.”

“Try me,” Rainbow challenged, smirking as she did.

I explained my idea to her. As soon as I mentioned it, Rainbow slammed her hands against the table, the wood creaking slightly. Her mischevious smirk had turned into a scowl and she pointed her fist in front of my face, voicing her opinion on the matter. I assured her everything would be alright, but her expression stayed sour.

“We don’t have any other choice, Rainbow,” I said. Using the friend excuse would just raise suspicion over her being more than just a friend. The homeless excuse wouldn’t work either; partly since I’d have no reason to shelter a homeless person, and partially because Tyler would most likely mention it to my parents. There could be other options, but we simply didn’t have the time to find something more viable.

“B-but, ugh! Fine!” Rainbow Dash shouted, raising her hands for emphasis. “If I have to, then I guess I have no choice.”

With that done, I left our empty plates on the table for later and led Rainbow Dash into the living room. She still seemed pretty ticked off by my plan. To be honest, I didn’t like the entire idea either, but I had to play the game with the cards I was dealt, like it or not. So with that, I grabbed my uniform out of my closet and made my way back outside with Rainbow in tow.

“There you are,” Tyler said when we finally got outside. “I thought you were going to ditch me.” He looked over to Rainbow Dash. “And this must be the girl you’re bringing along. I must say, you have excellent taste.”

“W-wait, what?!” I sputtered out. “You’ve got it all wrong, Tyler. This is my cousin, Rebecca. From uh... Canada.”

Tyler raised an eyebrow and circled around Rainbow Dash, as if trying to to see the resemblance. As he did, I could see the irritated look on Dash’s face. Obviously, she didn’t enjoy him invading her personal space. “Uh... are you sure you two are related?” he asked, after finishing his examination. “I don’t see the resemblance.”

“We’re related, okay?” I blurted out.

“Okay, okay. Jeez, I was just checking,” Tyler said. He looked back at Rainbow Dash, eyeing her. “So... any reason why she has that cool rainbow hair?”

“I dyed it,” Rainbow said without hesitation. “It was pretty hard, but I found a way to do it. But who wouldn’t want cool hair such as mine?”

“Yeah, what she said,” I said, though I think my voice was slightly higher pitched than normal

Tyler scratched his chin and nodded slightly. “I see... Then you wouldn’t mind if I stole her for a bit? I’d like to know her a bit more.”

“W-Wait, what?” Rainbow sputtered.

“You know, just a talk to get to know you a bit since, your Cody’s a relative and all,” Tyler said. “After all, we’re practically best buds, he and I. Right, Cody?” he said, elbowing me.

By the tone of his voice, I knew he didn’t mean a regular chit chat. “Haha, yeah no. Not happening.” That was way out of the question. Seriously, out of the question! She was a damn pony for crying out loud, that was having trouble adjusting to her new life. I crossed my arms and glared at Tyler. “Nopenopenope, absolutely not! We’re going to McDonald’s right now.”

“But, I just want to talk with he-” Tyler tried to say.

“McDonald’s, now,” I growled, pointing to the Honda sitting in the driveway. He looked over and sighed, trudging to the car. Rainbow walked beside me, sending me a small smile of gratitude.

“Thanks for the save, but I think I can handle him,” Rainbow said, grinning.

“Oh really?” I unlocked the car for us as Tyler decided to take the passenger seat.

“Yeah, really. I am amazing and totally awesome, remember?” Rainbow said as I opened the back for her. “Oh and I kicked your flank once too.”

I winced at the memory, sighing as I remembered it all too clearly. “Just get in the car...”

Author's Note

Thank God... Here's Eight. Sorry about the huge delay. Sickness, Pneumonia, Essays, Tests, and other stuff caused this to be super late. Now, let me start on the rest. Enjoy!

Prologue

Ponyfall: Rainbows

Prologue

Edited by: Darth_Dash & J_Xayph

Ponyville - Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Dash’s day seemed almost perfect. She had stayed asleep in her cozy, warm cloud bed to enjoy her day off after a long week of keeping the Ponyville skies clear. Dreams of becoming a Wonderbolt kept her in a deep slumber, a thin grin plastered on her face as she slept. That was, until the warmness of her bed left her and she realized that she was falling through the air, her house flying off as if it had sprouted wings.

Dash had chased after it, her house flying dangerously over the small town she lived in. Finally, after a long chase across the skies, she caught it nearby Fluttershy’s cottage before it reached the Everfree Forest. By then, her house looked even worse than before with most of the rainbow water gone. Not only that, but Fluttershy’s cottage had disappeared. In its place was a big plump dragon with diamonds covering almost every inch of its scales. Fluttershy had been clinging onto one of its teeth, dangling from the dragon’s gaping maw. Her screams only made the situation worse, sending Rainbow Dash into action. With unparalleled speed, Rainbow dashed in, bucking the dragon square in the jaw, breaking off one of its teeth. That moment of blinding pain made it throw Fluttershy straight into the air, where she was soon caught by Rainbow. Together they flew off, having only suffered a few minor scratches and a couple slightly singed tails from dodging the random roaring jets of flame the dragon shot forth in retaliation.

Now, they were back in Ponyville: the epicenter of the chaos. Rainbow had a guess as to who was responsible from the start, based on all of the crazy stuff happening around town. She had seen this once before, a few months ago when she lost her true self. The culprit, Discord, the Spirit of Chaos, had almost won that day, but Twilight Sparkle ended up saving the five of them, and together they had defeated Discord... or so they thought. Clearly, they hadn’t done a good enough job, considering the fact that Dash could clearly see the draconequus right in front of her.

Discord stood in the center of town square, surrounded by floating boxes that were once buildings, circular flowers the size of large oak trees, and ponies seemed to be running about in the sky whether they were a pegasus or not. Dash looked at the wide grin across his face, concentrating on the pony he held within his claws. She couldn’t see who exactly the pony was, but she seemed to be struggling to free herself from Discord’s grasp. Another pony stood by her, majestic in her white coat, wearing a golden tiara above her celestial rainbow hair. It could only be one pony, but what exactly was Princess Celestia doing here? Had Discord done something bad enough to make come here and deal with him herself?

“Hey Applejack!” Rainbow called to her stetson-bearing, blonde-maned rival. “Don’t tell me I missed all the fighting.” She didn’t glance back at her, only staring at the situation unfolding before them. The pegasus frowned, waving her hoof to get Applejack’s attention. When that didn’t work, she grumbled angrily and walked over to her ear. “Hello! Anypony home?” No response.

“Hey! I’m talking to you Applejack! Can’t you se-” Before Rainbow could finish, Applejack grabbed her and turned her around to the scene unfolding before them. Princess Celestia and Discord were in a heated argument with each other. Discord laughed once the Princess stomped her hoof at the ground, apparently unphased by the sun goddess’s fury. At first, the pegasus couldn’t understand why they were fighting, but it all became clear when she caught a glimpse at who the pony struggling against Discord’s vice-like grasp was. It was none other than Princess Luna.

No! The Princess! Rainbow was barely able to contain herself as anger began to cloud her thoughts. She looked at the Princess of the Night, gasping for breaths in her struggle, and then at the evil fiend that held her captive. He seemed to be enjoying it. Nobody hurts my friends... Nobody!

Discord smirked and looked back at Luna, not giving the six ponies or Celestia any thought. “Do my words not impress you? What about my latest interpretation of Ponyville? Does it not just scream chaos?” he asked, imitating her fearful expression.

Nobody responded to his comment, the howling wind breaking the silence as Luna struggled for freedom. Instead, they stared angrily at Discord, whose expression changed to one of boredom. “Very well then. I suppose I’ll just have to make things more interesting for you all,” he said as his right paw flared with pink magic. Luna’s eyes widened in fear as Celestia watched in frozen horror. Discord only grinned, moving his glowing paw towards Luna.

Finally, Rainbow Dash couldn’t contain herself any longer. “Oh no you don’t!” she yelled. She quickly unfurled her wings and took off, charging at the draconequus.

Discord’s grin grew inch by inch as his paw slowly got closer to Luna. Rainbow Dash gained full speed, hearing her friends charge right behind her in an effort to defeat Discord. Before they could reach him, however, magic suddenly discharged from Luna’s horn, clashing with Discord’s, and caused a sudden shockwave of raw, unbridled energy expanding in front of them.

Rainbow watched, gasping as magic encased Luna and transformed her into a little filly. She looked around in all directions before vaporizing, leaving no trace behind. Discord also seemed surprised by this sudden change in events.

“What? Oh for the love of-” was all he managed to say before he too was engulfed by the magic.

The shockwave was gaining speed exponentially, heading towards her friends. Rainbow Dash gasped, fear tight within her throat as she tried fruitlessly to halt her charge. Come on, slow down Rainbow Dash! Slow down! she thought, panicking for dear life.

Her speed and movements were already at full throttle, unable to stop herself from heading right into the shockwave. She watched in horror as the magic overwhelmed her, suddenly slowing down to the point that she might be able to escape. Before she could even try in a desperate attempt, the magic left her completely immobilized.

Well, I hope the others make it out... Rainbow Dash thought, hearing her friend's urgent cries for her to turn back. Before she knew it, darkness overtook her, causing her to utter a small squeak and lie still as her body began sailing limply back to the ground.

Author's Note

New Prologue Improvement.

Lack: A bit of tell...

Pink Skies and Chocolate Fudge?

Ponyfall: Rainbows
Chapter One
Credit goes to Bridgebrain

April 13, 2012

Every morning was the same: I would wake up from my bed, take a quick, cold shower, get dressed and then head over to Memorial High School. I didn’t expect anything interesting or weird to happen in my life, but I guess fate has other plans. Classes ended at 12, which was pretty great, except for the part that involved running away from two football players who try to harass me.

“There you are you runt!”

Oh shit I gasped, noticing a hand reach out for my jacket. Instinctively, I kicked it away and ran for it. I looked back only to see Mike’s infuriated face as he started running after me. Behind him, Jack came out of the classroom, chasing after the two of us. I would say they’d make a great comedy act if they came bumbling out of the room, but they’re too serious.

Taking a swift left, I swept the sweat off my forehead before slapping my head. More trouble to deal with, great.

In my view, the tiny hallway slowly filled up with students that were either leaving or heading to their next classes. I uttered a small groan, searching for a way through before those idiots caught up to me. It wasn’t long before Mike’s voice reached my ears.

“GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE!” He roared behind me.

Ok, apparently he isn’t as far away as I thought.

Desperately, I went back to finding a quicker way out of this dilemma. There were too many students in the hallway for me to get through, along with those steel lockers all around the walls, then that left going back to face them or the deserted cafeteria.

A light bulb instantly lit up in my head. I knew what to do. Going with my plan, I dashed through the hallway, edging through a few guys who were busy going on about the Indianapolis Colts. They scowled at me for almost running into them and I continued on just as Mike and Jack turned around the corner. I could hear their footsteps getting closer, but I was already through the wooden cafeteria doors.

I pushed open the doors and ran in, only to smack into a trashcan. Reacting fast, I held onto the wall for support before taking deep breaths.

“Damn trash can,” I muttered, looking over at the plastic container filled to the brim with disgusting trash. Just as I was about to make my way out, another idea came to mind.

I stopped besides a table and considered the idea. When it seemed possible, I quickly turned back towards the trash can and picked it up. It slid against the floor from how heavy it was, probably because of this morning’s breakfast. I placed it right in front of the doors so that when they came in, they’d get a nasty surprise. That should slow them down I thought, grinning.

I wiped my hands of the filth with my jacket, and slowly took the time to look around. The cafeteria looked like a normal place to eat and talk with your friends. But, that wasn’t the case when it was lunch. I would always find myself using my tray to dodge pieces of food or chocolate milk during the daily food fights. It was rare when it was quiet in the cafeteria, which made some days seem better than they were. I chuckled after I finished looking around and found myself near the exit. Again, I heard Mike saying some stuff outside the cafeteria. Damn, I really must have pissed him off.

The sound of the cafeteria doors opening told me that they were inside. Seconds later, I heard a thud and the sickening sound of something splattering on the ground. My hand clutched the handle to the exit, waiting to see if the two would appear. It took a few seconds for them to show up. I took one quick look at them and covered my mouth to hold in my laughter. They were covered in what looked like egg and orange juice. A few bitten strips of bacon stuck to their hair while a pancake slid disgustingly off of Mike’s jacket.

“Get him you idiot!” Mike shouted, his eyes glaring at mine.

Turning the handle, I pushed open the door with full force and began to run out. I have to find a way to get away from them. I came across the huge crowd of students leaving the school for home and noticed a small gap. I squeezed in through the gap and went into incognito to see if this would confuse them.

“Where is that little punk?” I heard Jack’s faint voice throughout the crowd.

“Just shut up and find him!” Mike's voice, much louder than his compatriots.

As I caught my breath, I reflected on the situation. I really wish those two would grow up. They started teasing me when they found out about my love for My Little Pony, but it got worse when they found out my favorite pony was the polychromatic Rainbow Dash. I have nothing against gay rights activists, but they’ve kind of unfairly monopolized the rainbow, and being associated with them was not always pleasant around neanderthal football jocks.

I moved through the crowd, going slowly so I wouldn’t cause any mishaps that would alert those two buffoons. So far, my plan to escape into the crowd was working. The voices of Mike and Jack seemed to fade off. Perfect. I went through a few more gaps in the crowd before I finally reached the edge of the parking lot. Looking around, I tried to see if Mike and Jack were still following me.

They weren’t.

Pleased with myself, I slowed to a walk so I could catch my breath. I knew that running was a pretty good exercise, yet it was pretty tiring. I crouched down and started coughing. Ugh, damn allergies. My allergies would always act up when I would run for a long period of time. I guess I should get home before I get even worse. As long as I was away from those two buffoons, I would be alright. I picked myself up and started on my way home.

The walk home normally takes a long forty-five minutes. I glanced around the many shops that I pass by, seeing what items and food they sold. On the right, I could see the giant apparel shop that a bunch of girls I knew go to. I could smell all the fragrances even before I entered the shop. It's pretty amazing that I could, because I was standing on the other side of the street. On my left, another apparel shop, Abercrombie, which was filled with dozens of teens buying jackets and shirts that had the company logo on it. Sure, I liked the place, but a shirt that costs about 60 bucks? Really? I took one quick look inside, which smelled of strong cologne. Urk, too strong... I backed up, coughing again and gagged.

“Who sells strong cologne?!” I shouted. At first, I didn’t noticed that I shouted out loud, but when I did, I noticed a few people glaring at me. Oh, um... did I say that out loud? I think I better get out of here. I left the store whistling, hoping nobody noticed. Gladly, nobody cared about what just happened and I continued on my way. I turned around the bend to the street that would take me to my neighborhood and looked to my right. Now there was a place that almost enticed me to go inside. I stood staring at the small, brown building with colorful neon lights. On the roof stood a large milkshake statue. The business called itself “The Milkshake Club”.

If you have never heard of “The Milkshake Club”, let me tell you, it is THE greatest place to drink milkshakes, period. They sell all kinds of flavors for milkshakes: Vanilla, Chocolate, Rainbow, Oreo, Snickers, Cherry, you name it they’ll have it here. I know the owner, a Mr. Charles Brown, who told me that he started up the business when they first built the district seven years ago. It was only one year ago that I had decided to go into the shop and order a vanilla milkshake. My first sip was simply amazing. It was a delicious sensation and the taste would melt into my mouth. Ever since, I’ve been visiting the shop.

My mouth thought about whether it should drag me inside. Meanwhile, my aching body begged to go home and pass out. In the end, my mouth ended up losing and I continued dragging my feet on the sidewalk. Maybe next time I thought tiredly.

I continued trekking down the sidewalk and soon began to see the brown roofs of houses; signs that I was leaving the city and entering my neighborhood. My neighbors were, well... most of them tended to judge by first appearance. They usually didn’t judge people until they actually met them, but it seems that I don’t have that kind of luck. When I first moved here, the neighbors thought of us as strangers. Sure, I can understand that, but after a few months they still kept avoiding me. I asked my parents about it, but they didn’t see anything wrong at all. It seems that they were getting along well with the neighbors. Must just be me. I guess they didn’t like me?

I passed a few more houses, one which belonged to the Wilkersons. Tyler Wilkerson was my only neighbor that didn’t avoid me, and in fact, actually spoke to me. He usually came out and said ‘hi’ or ‘how’s it going’. He sometimes started up the conversation, so at least I knew he wasn’t just hiding his dislike, unlike everyone else. I guessed he was still at school because he wasn’t out there in his yard like usual.

I finally got to where my house was and took a look at it. It was a white brick house with a black roof on top. It had a lime-green fascia trimming as well, which made it look quite unusual, unlike the Wilkerson’s which was black. I finally managed a smile, glad to see my house after what happened earlier, and began walking on the small concrete path to the door. Just as I put my first step on the path, I heard a loud boom echo throughout the air.

I quickly turned around and scanned the area to see what had made the noise. In the corner of my eye, I noticed one of my neighbors, Mrs. Jackson, staring at the sky. I followed her gaze upwards and saw something that caused me to gasp in astonishment.

The sky flashed a bright, cotton candy pink. A cotton candy pink! A bunch of questions began popping up in my mind.

What the hell is this? How did this happen? Is this the end of the world? What strange thing could have caused this phenomenon? Why am I asking these questions? OH GOD... am I becoming crazy? Oh my god what the hell is wrong with me?! I ignored a few of those questions because they were pretty crazy, even for me.

A few of the neighbors came out of their houses, their mouths gaping open at what they saw. After a while, the sky seemed to return to its usual state and I shrugged off the whole event. Probably some random government experiment gone wrong I thought. That loud boom could have come from the military facility on the other side of town.

After shrugging the whole thing off, I took a step forward on the path. Just as I did, though, I noticed something out of the corner of my eye. It was a pink hue coming from the sky, which caused me to turn in time to see it flash pink again. Now, my jaw dropped down and this time, my eyes didn’t leave the sky. I smelled the aroma of fudge each time the sky flashed.

“What the hell is up with the sky today?" I asked myself. "What is up with this fudge smell anyways?!"

This flash lasted a bit longer than last time, and like the first it stopped moments later. This time, however, I kept my eyes on the sky, expecting to see another pink flash. When a minute or two passed, I decided to try and head back into the house. A flashing light came shortly after I looked away from the sky.

“Okay, this is getting really annoying,” I muttered, irritated that the sky kept flashing every time I tried to head into the house.

The flashing light came once again, followed by a loud scream, something I wasn't expecting at all. Was that a scream? I wondered. Both worried and curious, I decided to try and figure out where the sound came from.

I remembered hearing it close by, so I walked to check around the house. On the east side, I only found the long hose which was used to water the flowers in the back. I think everyone in the neighborhood has a hose like this because I saw one in the back of Tyler’s house once. I think most of the houses in the neighborhood were supposed to be built alike. remembering that the houses seemed to have the same design, roof and color. Good thing my house isn’t like that. Then, I remembered what I was supposed to be doing. I continued going around to the north side, only to find the porch and grass awaiting me. I then headed to the last side of the house, the west side, and found something that was even more surprising than the sky flashing and a random scream.

The surprise came in the form of a teenage girl, sprawled out on the ground. She was lying in my mom's flower bed, where there had been nothing but uncrushed flowers mere seconds earlier.

Oh my god, is that a dead girl?! Call 911! Call the police! Call Tom Cruise!!! Wait...what? I thought before realizing I'm crazy when panicking.

Before I decided to think any more insane thoughts about the girl being dead, I went over to see if she was alive. I put my hand on her neck to feel her pulse. The pulse felt normal, but slow, meaning that this girl was only unconscious. A faint smell of fudge lingered around her, which made me wonder if she had any connection with the sky.

“So, how the hell did you end up here?” I asked myself, shocked. I took a glance at her and noticed something odd.

The girl’s hair stood out more than anything. Sure, it's long and beautiful just like other girls hair, but the color is odd. It's neither black nor brown, nor any natural color for that matter. No, the colors of the girl’s hair spanned the colors of the rainbow. Awestruck with her hair, I crouched down to touch it. It felt silky in my hands, each color aligned from Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue and Violet. Either her hair was perfectly dyed or it was just a plain old wig. But, it doesn't feel like a wig at all.

Interested in finding out who this girl was, I put my hand on her shoulder and carefully turned her over so I could see her face. Her body appeared to be light, and when I flipped her over, it seemed I was right, for there wasn’t an ounce of fat on her.

“Okay, who are you, strange rainbow haired chick?” I asked myself as I looked at her face.

From her appearance, she looked to be in her late teens, tall, at least by the way she looked on the ground. She had no clothes on, revealing her entire body which made my jaw drop for a second. How did I not notice that she was naked!?... She’s kinda hot... NO! No ogling the naked girl! I thought awkwardly, quickly focusing on everything else, such as the garden.

“Wow… uh, she managed to destroy the entire garden,” I said, stuttering and trying to focus.

Suddenly, it hit me. Mom’s garden was destroyed. Ah crap, she is going to be really pissed off when she finds out. Wait…IF she finds out.

I looked around, checking to see if there was anybody watching. I knew that I had to do something before a neighbor decided to rat me out. I didn't want to find out that mom came home from her vacation because a neighbor called about "your son picked up a unconscious girl and brought her inside the house."

It seemed that everyone was too busy staring at the pink sky for the time being. Without further hesitation, I quickly scooped the girl up and carried her over to the porch. Wow, she is very light, I wasn’t expecting that.

I set her down for a second to open the back door, but it didn’t budge. I pushed harder and hoped that the door would open. The only other door was the front, and I wasn’t about to go carry her out where someone could see. Open dammit! I thought. Holding tightly, the door still didn’t budge, despite all the force weighing on it.

I stopped pushing the door and backed away. “Crap, what else can I do to open this god forsaken door?” I asked myself. Suddenly, a light bulb lit up in my head.

“I got it!” I said loudly.

The plan was so perfect; I just knew it would work. I looked at the door from where I was. It seemed as if it was taunting me, laughing at each time I failed to open it. Well not this time.

I started off my plan and ran towards the door. It was either failing or succeeding now, and failure wasn’t an option. The door got bigger and bigger as I moved closer to it. When I thought I was close enough, I raised my leg and kicked open the door. It made a loud cracking sound and flew open, the lock coming straight off.

“Whoa shit, I didn’t think I would knock off the entire lock,” I said, surprised.

I gazed at the broken lock, wondering how the fuck I managed that. I guess the door was done cheaply…

I finished there and picked up the girl where I had left her. I carried her inside and walked into the small living room, laying the girl on the couch. She seemed rather peaceful for the time being, and I smiled before heading into the kitchen. Once inside, I could see the familiar jar of salt on the counter, along with a telephone that my mom bought for the house. A notepad and pencil sat on the counter as well, just in case someone needed to write down numbers or information. Beside me, a stainless steel refrigerator stood and suddenly I got the urge to drink something. I opened the fridge, taking out a jug of milk and drank straight from it. That was when questions begin popping into my head about this mysterious girl. Who is this girl?’ ‘Why is she naked?’ ‘How’d she get here?’ ‘Maybe she needs help?

Deciding on what to do, I left the jug on the table and walked over to the telephone. I picked it up, dialing 9-1-1. The phone rang once and then, in a robot-like tone, someone spoke.

“We’re sorry, but all current phone lines are either down or busy.”

Crap… I slammed the phone back on the table, hearing the tiny click of the call ending. Great, just my luck for the phone lines to be busy. I thought back to my options and knew that if I were to pursue any of them, I would have to wake the girl up.

Heading back over to the living room, I stared at the girl. She had gotten into a comfortable position, sleeping with her hand hanging out and a bit of drool coming from her mouth. Chuckling, I picked her arm up slowly, and set it back on the couch. The girl seemed to smile, snoring softly as I thought of ways to wake her up.

How about poking her? She might be ticklish anyway. I lifted my index finger over to her side and poked it. No response. I poked her again, rapidly this time. I was actually having fun doing this because I wanted to see her reaction when she woke up, giggling and laughing. After a few attempts, however, I started to realize that none of this was working.

Saddened by the turn of events, I stopped poking her and went for another way to wake her up. Well, tickling didn’t work; maybe I could throw water on her? Sure, she’d get wet, but water always wakes up people.

Heading back into the kitchen, I opened up a cabinet, grabbing an empty glass pitcher. I took the pitcher over to the sink and waited until the pitcher was almost full. Grabbing the now heavy pitcher of water, I carried it over to the girl. I stood in front of her and held the pitcher over her, and slowly tipped it, watching as the water splashed onto her face.

The water rained down on her, her rainbow hair getting wet in the process. The pitcher soon splashed every last drop of water on her, leaving one final drop dribbling out. I watched patiently, waiting for any signs of movement; anything that would show that the water had worked. Each second, drops of water dripped from her hair and I began to realize that this didn’t work either. I was about to look away before I noticed a dark spot on the couch. Damn, I even got the couch wet seeing that the spot was where the water had seeped in.

“If mom finds out about the couch, then she isn’t going to be just pissed off, she’s going to kill me,” I said to myself.

I knew I didn’t have that many options left, but I thought that this one might just wake her up. I quickly ran back into the kitchen and grabbed the jar of salt. I carried it back to the living room and opened it. “Salt should wake her up, it has a small trace of ammonia gas that wakes up people that are unconscious,” I said, remembering my recent report on ammonia.

I held the jar of salt under her nose, letting the smell go into her nostrils. In a few seconds, the girl seemed to stir, bringing my hopes up. Ten seconds later, however, the girl continued snoring, which caused me to groan. Just when I thought the salt was working…

“Might as well go grab some towels to cover her up since I splashed cold water all over her,” I said as I decided to stop trying to wake her up.

I went into the hallway, opening the door to the left of me where the bathroom was located. I closed the door behind me and took a look at my bathroom. The bathroom looked pretty ordinary: white colored walls, a sink, a regular old toilet, a shower and a rack for towels. I could see four clean white towels hanging on the rack, waiting to be used. I grabbed one of them and slung it over my shoulder. Then I turned the knob on the sink. I put both of my hands together and place them under the sink to get some water. With the water I received, I threw on my face and rubbed on my eyes so I could get my vision back together.

“What a crazy fucking day… running from Mike and Jack, seeing the sky flash pink randomly, finding a strange, rainbow haired girl in my mom’s garden she’s still going to kill me if she finds out, the phone lines are down and what’s more I end up bringing the girl, who is naked and probably drunk, into my house and tried to wake her up. How can this day get any worse than it already is?” I asked myself, water dripping from my face to the ceramic floor.

My words were answered by a faint groan coming from my living room. Startled, I opened the door and run out, heading towards the living room. When I got there, I saw the naked girl sitting straight up and looking around, wide eyed and surprised. She turned in my direction and I saw her face. It showed shock and anger as she stared straight at me. Her eyes were kind of pink colored, no wait; they looked more of a rose colored than pink.

“Who the heck are you and what have you done with my friends?!” she shouted angrily.

Oh shit.