A Rainbow Colored Heart

Chapter 6

It had been a few days since we had all arrived at Matthews’s house, although the power at my complex had probably turned back on; I figured Rainbow Dash would want to spend a little more time with Fluttershy which she happily obliged. Matthew and I had made a habit of teaching the two Pegasus some of the many tasks we did from day to day, Fluttershy took care of the mess around the house organizing Matthews apartment to the point of almost looking it brand new. As for Rainbow Dash she made a habit of answering the phone in our absence ignoring specific numbers such as telemarketers or relatives of ours that wouldn’t recognize her voice. I had also told her to avoid another specific number; the hospitals, in truth I didn’t want her to know about my heart condition, I’d find a way to tell her eventually.  Fluttershy also seemed to warm up to Matthew and me ever since the two of us began to teach her about the random tasks we had done around the house which she would often do whenever she had free time which left the apartment smelling of lavender instead of that weird smell of old food and dirty clothes it once carried before, Rainbow Dash would help as well but not as often, instead she stuck to the more “fun” tasks which consisted of mainly answering the phone but she would often re-arrange Matthews CD occasionally playing one while the two of them worked or were idle in the living room, she seemed to like the heavy metal songs however she also seemed to like rock and roll all together. She also made a habit of watching me and Matthew play Xbox which we didn’t do often since all the violence scarred Fluttershy.

The four of us sat around the living room, it was late in the day and we had just finished lunch, Matthew reclining on the leather lazy boy while I sprawled out on the couch with Rainbow Dash not too far away from my legs laying on the arm rest.  The sound in the room was the news channel that was on the TV not too far away from the couch. I was pretty tired and I could feel my eyes growing heavy. Soon I closed my eyes for a moment just as I heard the telecaster say; “That’s right Susan, in a result of unusual statewide blackouts, this local Kansas farm is one of the many to feel the result of the blackout which some are calling “The Worst Storm In Years”.

My eyes popped open and I immediately sat up, it had hit me; a power outage, but I wasn’t sure.

“Turn that up” I said.

Matthew reached behind him and grabbed the remote and turned the volume up on the TV. I could now hear the young female telecaster speak as she began to approach an older looking man dressed in a heavy coat and tightening up as if to keep himself warm from the snow blowing around him which made the whole conversation a tad harder to hear.

“Were here with Mr. Graham, owner of Regier Orchard, Mr. Graham how has this storm affected you at your orchard?”

“Well miss, it has been an old family tradition to plant some seed’s near the end of winter, December is when we usually try to prepare the ground to plant the seeds for the new trees that will be growing in the near future. However; die to this storm, me and my family have been unable to make any progress on clearing the ground well enough to prepare to plant in the near future.”

“And how does this affect the upcoming apple season?”

“Well due to this cold, some of the trees are dying, and if we can’t plant new ones, there will be no apple season this year for us. Actually, since we have lost power in the whole ranch, my family and I are going to have to leave for a few weeks until we can get the heat back on and figure something out”

“Interesting, is there any other reason you may be worried about your ranch during your absence?”

“Actually miss, this may sound crazy, but I swear I hear something out in the orchard during the day, and when I look nothings there, call me crazy but I think the farm is haunted” he said with a chuckle.

I sat back as the conversation went on for only a moment later until it flashed back to the main teleprompter’s came back on the TV beginning another story as if the one before it never happened.

I sat leaned back into the sofa before turning to Matthew who had the same face as me.

“Another unusual power outage, you don’t think-“Matthew began

I looked at Rainbow Dash, and then at Fluttershy, both seemed to be oblivious to where the conversation was going.

“Something seems off about the whole thing”

“So what do we do now?” Matthew asked.

“I say we take a look at that farm once the storm calms down a bit, I’m thinking the farmer was on to something.”

“You mean the farm being haunted?” Matthew asked.

“Haunted… like… ghosts” Fluttershy asked her face showing obvious signs of fear.

“Probably nothing that serious” I joked.

“So, were just supposed to just go off of some random coincidence, and travel in below freezing weather to search a farm to find something we aren’t even sure is even there” Matthew summed up.

“Basically, yes” I confirmed.

“Well, works for me” he said getting up from the couch and taking a peek out the nearby window watching as the snow fell down all the harder. “I don’t think that were leaving any time soon though, this storm is getting worse by the second”

“I can’t believe you guys can’t control the weather like us Pegasus ponies, with all this technology you guys have you’d think you’d be able to control something as simple as the weather” Rainbow Dash bragged.

I chuckled slightly, however Matthew reacted differently rolling his eyes in annoyance. Our group settled down as the storm raged on through the night each falling asleep at their previous spot in the living room, be it on the sofa or the leather recliner, the sound of the storm outside allowed me to sleep all the deeper.

By the time I woke up, the sound of the storm had died down and I could hear the soft snores of those around me, Matthews being the loudest however Rainbow Dash’s was oddly close. Leaning up I saw Rainbow Dash between my legs and the sofa her head resting on my shin, she must have moved there during the night. As slowly as I could I moved my leg from under her head letting it fall softly to the sofa cushion. This was out of her character; she never seemed to be the kind to ever let you get close let alone the kind that would fall asleep on you.

Pushing it into the back of my head as mere coincidence I walked over to the window pulling back the black curtains and starring outside. Snow was still falling however nowhere near as hard as yesterday, the previous night had proved to be quite the storm, snow more than just covered the ground, it was as if it nearly covered the first floor of the apartment, if we were going to make the trip it would have to be soon, if the weather continued the way it was the snow would be up to Matthews window within the week. I pulled out my phone clicking on a weather app on the front screen. Just as I feared another storm was well on its way, while nowhere close to the previous night it was safe to say it would be hitting us by the end of the day which meant we wouldn’t be able to go until tomorrow, leaving whatever was out at that farm to fend for itself during the storm. Matthews chair rested just around the corner to the kitchen, reclined back with his head near the top of the head cushion.

Reaching down I shook Matthew on his shoulder “Hey” I whispered. Nothing, not even a movement. “Hey, dickhead, wake up” I whispered again. This time he groaned and leaned his head back, I could see his eyes cracked open looking up at me. “We need to start heading to that farm, another storm is on its way” I explained.  Groaning, Matthew leaned up putting the footrest of the recliner down as he got up and walked down the hallway and immediately into the bathroom, he was still obviously half asleep and hadn’t quite gotten his balance.

Moving onto the couch I knelt down in front of Rainbow Dash who had moved to where I had been laying and was curled up against the pillow I was leaning against the previous night. I almost didn’t have the heart to wake her but I at least didn’t want to leave her at the house without any knowledge of where we were going. I placed a hand on her the base of her neck over her rainbow colored mane and lightly shook her.

“Hey, Dash” I whispered. Unlike Matthew she woke a little easier turning over and opening a single ruby red eye slightly to look at me.

I smiled as she yawned “five more minutes” she complained.

“We’re going to the farm, I wanted to let you know in case you woke up and wondered where we were” I explained.

“M’kay” she said in a tired tone, closing her eyes and then resting her head on the pillow again. Fluttershy was on the other side of the couch but I figured as long as Rainbow Dash knew where we went there was no use of waking the two of them up to tell them the same thing.

Matthew emerged from the bathroom a few minutes later, still rubbing his eyes as he walked back into the living room, he had changed into his winter jacket again  which was now zipped up.

“You ready?” he asked mid-yawn.

I got up and picked up my leather coat from the floor and zipped it up over the black “Gorrilaz” shirt I had on and began following him out the door almost immediately being hit by the cold snowy air which sent shivers down my spine. Although Matthews truck wasn’t far I still removed the gloves from the coat pockets welcoming what warmth they gave. Since the truck had been sitting out in the snow the inside was just about as freezing as the weather outside.

Although the farm wasn’t too far away the cold truck made the ride seem all the longer, the fact that we drove slower thanks to the ice didn’t help much either. By the time we actually made it out to the farm it had been at least an hour or two, the storm clouds nearly seemed to be getting closer. The farm was relatively basic; it had a big red barn and a farmhouse not too far away with a stable just outside that.

“Alright Dick Tracy, where do we start?” Matthew asked as he put the truck in park in front of the farmhouse which had no sighs of anybody actually being there.

I looked out at the orchard where the farmer had supposedly heard noises. “There” I stated pointing towards the trees as I opened the passenger door and stepped outside sinking almost knee deep into the snow.

Thankfully the orchard was small and didn’t carry a forest of trees as I had previously thought which made the orchard easier to search. Although I had no idea what I was looking for, I could feel something was amiss, as if something was out of place. A cold breeze reminded me of where I was and I pressed on through the remainder of the trees eventually meeting back up with Matthew near the back of the farmhouse by stable, like me he had found nothing which left two places, the house; which was probably locked, and the barn which had one of the two doors slightly opened.

“Alright Sherlock, where to next?” Matthew asked, just as snow seemed to be falling a tad bit harder.

“Follow me” I said leading him to the big red barn which offered a bit of shelter from the wind outside.

All around there was hay surrounding the empty stalls, a hay slide leading up to the second level. Matthew walked over and picked up a small object from the ground and examined it, then tossed it over to me. It was a small brown cowboy hat, too small to fit on the farmer on the TV, and since there was no sign of the farmer having any family the possibility of a young child was out of the question.

“There has to be something here” I thought

I walked up to each stall and peaked inside each, and all were empty. The sections between each stall carried no signs of life either. Then it hit me; the hay slide. Walking over I couldn’t find a ladder up to the second level, at least nowhere I could see. Whipping my wet shoes on the dry dirt in front of the slide I began to slowly make my way up the metal slide grabbing either side of the slide as I maneuvered up.

“What are you doing?” Matthew asked

“I’m looking up here; it’s the only place we haven’t checked yet.” I explained.

“You’re going to fall, and I’m going to laugh my ass off” he said.

Upon reaching the top, I turned around to face Matthew giving him the finger out of self-accomplishment for myself. Turning around I began look around immediately seeing two more giant piles of hay piling from the floor to the ceiling. Looking towards the window on the back wall out at the snow now falling even harder, something caught my eye; a small blonde tail wrapped with a single red tie near the end. I walked closer, it was moving, shivering, and it it seemed to have no idea I was even there.

“Anything there?” I heard Matthew asked.

I ignored him as I approached coming upon a small make shift hole in the hay, almost like a cave. Inside was a small orange pony curled up shivering violently. I began looking for a blanket all around the loft but to no avail. I had to get her to shelter and soon, there was no telling how long she had been out in the cold. I took off my leather coat and reached inside picking the small pony up and wrapping her up in the coat, leaving my arms bare, and victim to the cold air as well as the wind that blew through the open boards of the barn. The small pony tried sliding closer to my body trying to get warmth from body heat, I could feel her shaking. I carried her over to the hay slide and got down, sliding down slowly as not to disturb the sleeping mare, Matthew walked over and looked in my arms.

“I think we found the farmers ghost problem” I joked.