Something ODDLY Familiar...

Something ODDLY Familiar…

“Rainbow Dash! Are you okay?” Twilight asked with great worry. Both of us moved to help the dizzy rainbow-haired Pegasus to her fee— hooves.

“Yeah… yeah, I’m good. Thanks Twilight. I was trying this new trick, and…?” She began to say as she snapped out of her daze. “Who’s this guy? Your new coltfriend?” she teased.

“What?? Uh, n- no!” Twilight hastily answered, blushing. “He’s new to this place, and I’m just showing him around.” Rainbow and I laughed a little at Twilight’s sudden loss of composure at Rainbow Dash’s question.

“I’m… Ponder Memoir,” I said. “And no, Twilight and I ain’t datin’. We’re good friends.”

“You two are good friends? How’s that possible if you’re new here? She hasn’t mentioned you before. Are you a friend of hers from a different city?”

“Hmm, you could say that. Mind if you introduce yourself?”

“Y’mean you REALLY haven’t heard of me? The fastest flier in Equestria? The mare who did not one, not two, but THREE Sonic Rainbooms? The savior of many a pony in this land? The aspiring Wonderbolt?” She boasted, getting uncomfortably close to me.

“…Uhh, no?” I flatly answered with a slight hint of annoyance as I moved my head back, staring at her with a cocked eyebrow. I had NO idea what she was talking about. “And what is a ‘Wonderbolt?’”

“Wow, you must be either living in a cave or from another universe if ya haven’t heard of your friendly neighborhood Rainbow Dash,” she insulted. “…let alone the Wonderbolts, the only Pegasi in Equestria with talent that rival, if not exceeds mine!” she pompously stated as she struck a heroic pose. Already, I could tell this girl had a knack for talking too much without thinking, as well as attention seeking, which instantly rubbed me the wrong way. However, her comment about me being from an alternate universe worried me.

“Hey, now who do you th—?” I began to angrily ask before I got a sudden mouthful of hoof from the lavender unicorn.

“Sorry, Dash. He’s just not very familiar around here,” Twilight interrupted, saving me from starting an argument before removing her dirt-covered hoof from my mouth.

“Thanks for the taste test, Twi, but I’m pretty sure dirt ain’t for eatin’,” I flatly said. “As for you, Miss… Rainbow Dah…” I trailed off as I noticed her Cutie Mark; a familiar-looking cloud with a rainbow lightning bolt coming out of it. “That mark… No way! How…?” I whispered in amazement as I scurried behind the now-confused Pegasus and roughly grabbed her flank with a hoof to get a closer look at her Cutie Mark. Man, was I glad to have good reflexes, because she would have knocked my head off with the kick she threw at me had I not ducked in time and backed away. “YO! What the hell!?”

“HEY, PERV! You’ve got some nerve pulling a move like that on me!” Rainbow angrily screamed at me as she quickly turned around to face me.

“Chill out! It wasn’t even like that!” I tried to explain, now realizing my foolish mistake. “It’s just that your Cutie Mark looks familiar! That’s all! I realize my mistake now, and I’m sorry! There ain’t no need to be kickin’ nobody in the head!”

“Yeah, sure!” She sarcastically remarked, not believing me for a second. “What the hay kind of stallion claims to not know who I am, then pulls a move like that just to say my Cutie Mark looks familiar!? Not cool, dude!” Although she raised a fairly good point, we exchanged glares of enmity as the air around us got eerily quiet.

“Rainbow! Calm down! I’m sure he didn’t mean it like that!” Twilight interjected, trying to bring the situation to a peaceful close.

“You’re actually defending him, Twilight? Wow, way to help a friend!” Rainbow brashly screamed at the unicorn. “The wrong one, at that! Whose side are you on!?” I was taken aback by her bullheaded hostility, especially towards Twilight. The sheer disregard for her friend’s concern in the wake of her anger at me appalled me.

“Rainbow, please!” Twilight pleaded. “I’m not picking sides, I—!”

“Whatever, I’ll leave you and your special somepony to have fun with each other! I’m outta here!” She interrupted as she began to fly away. The tears I saw forming in the unicorn’s eyes as she hung her head instantly drove me from irritated and a little guilty to outright pissed off.

“RAINBOW DASH!!! GET’CHO ASS BACK DOWN HERE!!!” I exploded, shocking everyone, including the Pegasus I was shouting at, as well as myself. Surely enough, Rainbow floated back down to the ground, not out of fear, but out of anger at me.

“You know, you’ve got SOME nerve talking to me li—!”

“I don’t wanna hear it! I want to make things clear between us!”

“…Fine, I’m listening.” She said. I was actually surprised she was going to lend me her ear, but I wasn’t going to let this go to waste. I closed my eyes and took a deep breath to cool myself down.

“Listen,” I began in a much calmer tone, looking her dead in the eye. “I’m sorry. I… I don’t know what kind of idiotic impulse came over me for me to disrespect your personal space the way I did. I’m not lyin’ when I say your Cutie Mark looks familiar, though. I’ve actually seen it somewhere before, but I honestly did not have a clue as to who you were until now. Twilight deserves none of your frustration. This is all my fault, and my fault alone. But I SWEAR to you, I meant NOTHING personal when I stupidly grabbed you the way I did, especially when I only just met you. In fact, if you still don’t believe me, I want you to give me a kick, right here.” I said as I lifted my chin up and closed my eyes. “If you still have any aggression towards me, kick me as hard as you can to let it go, and we’ll never speak o’ this again.” Again, everything went silent. Yet, there I stood, chin up, eyes squeezed shut, half-expecting Rainbow Dash to break my jaw into a million pieces. But what she actually did shocked me beyond belief. She gently touched a hoof to my cheek, causing me to open my eyes as I gasped and flinched. She chuckled a little at my fearful kneejerk reaction.

“Don’t worry, I’m not gonna hit you,” she said calmly, smiling. I sighed in relief as I lowered my head to meet her gaze. “Y’know, you’re the first stallion ever to willingly let me kick him if I didn’t accept his apology… That, I respect. I also find it pretty cool that you stood your ground, especially for a great friend like Twilight. And I do see your sincerity and I’ll accept your apology… under one condition.”

“And that condition is…?”

“You answer me this question…: Where have you seen my Cutie Mark before?” I normally would have been delighted to answer her question, but given that my answer would sound completely ridiculous, I hesitated. I stood there, staring intensely at Rainbow, worrying about my answer. “Well?” she said impatiently. “Where did you see it?” she asked again in a demanding tone.

“I…” was all I could manage to choke out before I went silent again.

“Listen, if you don’t answer me now, I’m going to take you up on your offer from before!” She shouted, beginning to lose her patience again.

*Sigh* “…Looks like I’mma hafta come clean with you, huh?” I reluctantly began. “What I’m gonna tell you, I want you to make absolutely sure it don’t leak to anyone else under any circumstance. Do you promise?”

“Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye,” she answered as she made strange motions, which I took as a “yes.”

“Ty, are you sure?” Twilight asked.

“Yes. She deserves to know, especially since iss part of my apology to her. Alright, Rainbow Dash…”

“Just call me Rainbow. Or Dash.”

“Duly noted. First of all, you were right; I’m not from this world. I really am from an alternate universe. That is the reason I’ve never heard of you or whatever it is you was talkin’ about before. Second, I’m here because Twilight brought me here to show me around this world after she teleported herself to mine and took a tour of it. Third, while I was showin’ her around my world, these three me— colts began chasin’ us because they somehow recognized her. One of the three had a… a Cutie Mark that looked strikingly similar, if not exactly like yours.” Dash gawked at me with such a look of surprise that I’d thought she didn’t believe me. But, her wings were flared in what I assume was interest.

“I-is that where that spell sent you for the last two days, Twi?” Rainbow asked Twilight.

“Yes… Everything he said is true. The spell I used to try and teleport to Manehattan actually wound up sending me to his world. Rainbow, I’m holding you to it that you don’t tell ANYPONY anything you heard. We don’t want to cause a panic or draw too much attention towards us.”

“I’m not the Element of Loyalty for nothing, y’know! You have my word. But still… uh…” She trailed off as she turned to me, which I took as her forgetting my name. But there was that thing about being an Element of something again… just like how Applejack was saying she was the Element of Honesty. Maybe they’re part of some secret club or something…?

“Call me Ty,” I said.

“Ty. You’re from an alternate universe, and yet my Cutie Mark exists there? Ohmygosh, I have SO many questions!” she stated with newfound excitement.

“Sorry, Rainbow,” Twilight began. “But as of right now, he’s here to learn about our world before meeting Princess Celestia. I’ve been taking him through town to observe, but so far, we’ve only gotten to see Applejack at Sweet Apple Acres before this little fiasco happened. I assure you, though; he’ll answer as many questions you have to ask as he can when the time comes. Speaking of time, we should really get going now.”

“Aw, what a bummer! I’d tag along, but I just realized my break time is up. I gotta get back to work! See you guys later! Nice meeting you, Ty!” she said as she took flight and flew away.

“Bye, Rainbow!” Twilight yelled.

“I hope we meet again, Rainbow! Under different circumstances!” I shouted.

“Oh, don’t worry! We will!” she shouted back as she turned, waved and smiled, then continued her flight until she was out of sight.

“My goodness, I done hardly been here a few hours and already, I blew my cover twice, and almost made an enemy!” I lamented with a face-hoof as we continued our trek through Ponyville.

“Well, at least you didn’t tell Applejack or Rainbow Dash that you were human,” Twilight countered. “All they know is that you’re from an alternate universe and, in Rainbow’s case, her Cutie Mark exists in your world. You did pretty well in leaving out any explicit details that would’ve REALLY given you away. And Rainbow's your friend now... I think.”

“Yeah, and the first time your cover was blown wasn’t your fault,” Spike added, owning up to his previous mistake. “But hopefully, they’re the only two to find out before we meet Celestia.”

“Yea, but can I REALLY trust ‘em to keep this on the down-low?” I asked.

“They’re two of my best friends. They’ll keep it safe,” Twilight assured.

“Alright, then… Where should we go next?”

“Well, seeing as we’re apparently making a trend out of seeing my best friends first, how about we head to a place called the Carousel Boutique to visit my friend Rarity?” Twilight suggested. If there’s anything I’d noticed at this point, it’s that almost every place here has some kind of horse-related pun in its name…