Rainbow Dash loved nothing more than flying.

In fact, flying was the one thing that kept her going. Her friends were often busy, and that meant that she had a lot more free time than she thought she did. Life seemed to have a set routine for her: wake up, go to work from 8-4, and sleep. Eating was necessary every now and again, and she managed to squeeze it in to her "busy" schedule. Life had become an endless rut, and nothing exciting was happening in her life. Excitement was something that she longed for, and was something that helped her be who she was. Something was missing, and that's all she knew.

She used to be pleasantly pestered by her number one fan Scootaloo, but even she managed to find other things to occupy her time with. She was doing well in school, and after Rainbow Dash agreed to be her honorary sister, she took that role seriously. Many nights she would invite the filly over, only to make sure that she did her homework and had someone to help her with general things in life that no one seemed to help her with - questions about being a girl, struggles she needed answers for, among other things. Lately, however, Scoots has been over at AppleJack's more often than not, crusading and helping out Apple Bloom with the farm chores. She sure was proud of her little sister and the pony she was growing into - but she still missed her.

Today was like any other. There she was, lounging on the cloud that she dubbed her nap cloud for the day. She stretched her limbs, fluttered her wings, adjusted her tail to act as a secondary pillow for her lower body, and was about to settle down for a good two hour nap. Then, just as she was about to drift off, she heard something peculiar. She heard humming coming down from underneath her cloud. Normally hearing humming wasn't so weird, since everyone in Ponyville seemed to keep in good spirits more than half the time. This humming sounded different though. It wasn't from a pony. It sounded much deeper, and very foreign to her.

She peaked over the edge of her napping cloud, and what she saw next she would never forget for her whole life. There, below where she was, a human being walked through the meadow. She had to rub her eyes and close her mouth for it hung agape; only to fall slack again as her eyes followed this person through the tall grass. Well, it was tall to the ponies. On a human, it went only up to the knees.

He was not what she had expected him to look like. He had long, dark hair reaching down to his upper back. He was a dark man, with his skin looking as tan as the saddle Granny Smith had in her broom closet. He was not as tall as she had imagined a human to be, either. See, in Equestria, humans were usually thought to be somewhat of a myth, seeing as how sightings were so rare. The last human encounter happened over 500 years ago according to pony time, and none had occurred since. This particular human appeared to be roughly around 6 feet tall, but lacking a few inches. He was quite stocky, as someone in a trade profession would be. Though his body structure could have been slightly intimidating, he had a kind face to him; looking nothing like the horror stories Rainbow had heard in urban legends. Ponies had been taught to fear humans, because they were known for enslaving ponies to serve their agricultural purposes, (a position Rainbow knew A.J. would not mind). Other rumors circulated about how the humans would remove the unicorn horn off of the unicorn ponies, and clip the wings of the pegasi. However, contrary to all of the rumors and stories, this particular human was different. He wore no shining impenetrable armor, drew no sword of desolation, and had no scowl of horror across his face. What he did have was a smile stretching from ear to ear, robes made of what looked like to be the whitest sheet of linen she had ever seen held together by a simple rope belt, and oddly enough no shoes on his feet. She couldn't get close enough for a good look, but she could have sworn there was something odd about his hands; but she figured she would blow it off for now. Her next objective: get in closer without being noticed.

She implemented her awesome agility as she jumped from cloud to cloud, trying as hard as she could to not be noticed by this oddly peaceful human. There were a few times where she almost lost her balance and had to lean the opposite direction to prevent herself from falling flat on the ground. However, she quickly recovered.

She was looking at him with such a studious face, that Twilight probably would have awarded her a PhD just for trying. She almost felt ashamed of herself for jumping had turned sloppy as she hopped from cloud to cloud as she tried to follow this man. She was not keeping in tact with her usual graceful form - but for now, practicality out weighted looks. She noticed he stopped to study a flower, so she figured she would try to stop too."Try" was the key word here; for she wanted to stop, but the combination of velocity that she had built up from jumping so fast and the slickness of the cloud kept her going longer than she wanted to.

So, she lost her hoofing on the cloud she was on.

Despite her efforts to open her wings and give herself a softer landing, she toppled head-first onto the ground, slowly getting up and lightly shaking her head and yet again trying to recover. However, her moment of painful bliss was interrupted whenever a large shadow cast over the sun that was gracing her, and she looked up;

It was him.

She sat frozen in place, not knowing what to do. Words tried to escape her, but to no avail - she simply sat there, eyes bulging from terror and shock, mouth agape, and her soul waiting for what could have very well been her death for all she knew. However, what happened next would burn in her memory for the rest of her life-

He extended his hand out to her, and laughed.

He had a laugh that seemed to shake the very ground around them. It was contagious, too. So contagious in fact, that after about ten seconds of listening to it, she started to grin. Then, sheepishly, she allowed a few of her own silly chuckles to escape. She had no idea what it was, but something about this man had suddenly captivated her.

However, her mind snapped back in place as she remembered where exactly she was and what her situation was. She returned to her paranoid state she looked up and saw he extended a hand out to her, and quickly retracted in instinctive fear. However, he never even flinched, as he patiently awaited for her to put her hoof in his hand. She cautiously extended her foreleg, and he pulled her back onto all fours. She finally saw what she had thought was off about his hands - they had holes in them. Perfect round circles in the wrists just below the palms. She stared curiously at them, but she was distracted by the feeling of hands brushing her coat, getting all of the loose dirt off. He even brushed his fingers through her mane, getting rid of the clumps of dirt that littered her gorgeous rainbow. He smiled warmly at her, and she smiled shyly back.

"Um...uh...thank you. I..I wasn't uh....yeah...I uh...", was all she could manage to say to him. He smiled gently as she continued to stammer on for another two minutes or so, before he finally spoke in that deep, but soothing voice:

"You needn't say anything. I've been expecting you, Rainbow Dash."

Author's Note

Well, here it is: the first chapter. I intend to make this a beautiful story about those who struggle with ruts in life, and to give God the good name He so deserves. There's so much evil in the world, I'm here to try and brighten it up. Constructive criticism and courteous comments are also welcome. Again, I'm not trying to push/force anything on anyone; I'm simply presenting. I might go back and edit a few things here and there, as I am continuously trying to improve my writing, so just a little bit of a heads-up as far as that goes. Thank you all, and may Jesus Christ's love fill your souls.