A New World... For Jack.

Chapters

Arrival
Oh Shit
How Does One Heal A Broken Heart?
Nightmare Night
Christmas special - Not relevant to the story
The Stage Is Set
Getting Settled

Arrival

A New World…For Jack.

Chapter 1: Adjustments

After his vision returned, Jack saw the colorful world he was in. It was much brighter than Earth, it gave him a feeling that he shouldn’t worry too much. Jack shook his head to help get rid of the headache and felt something lying on top of him. Jack turned his head and saw that Rainbow landed on him, and was also a bit dazed. She opened her eyes and smiled at him, after regaining her ability to move, she got off him. Jack looked around and saw all the ponies lying on the ground except for the Princess; it seemed that the spell was natural to her. After a minute or two the ponies stood up, still a bit unbalanced. Jack also wanted to stand up, but he still hadn’t adapted to his new pony form, the only thing he could do was crawl.

“Erm… I can’t move.” Jack said, gaining the attention of the ponies. The Princess chuckled a bit and turned towards Rainbow.

“Rainbow Dash, you take your friend here and place him in your house, he’s a Pegasus, and so there won’t be any problem. I think it’s a bad idea to take him with us to Manehattan.” Jack felt a bit insulted that she thought he was useless, but she had a point. Rainbow nodded and trotted towards him. Jack grabbed the pictures of Hugo and his parents, the gun, and the bottle of Scotch. She placed herself above him, grabbed his chest with her front hooves, and flew towards her house.

“Rainbow, could you go a little bit slower, I’m scared.” Jack had to hold his belongings to his chest or they would fall. He looked above him towards her head, but she just shook her head.

“I’m sorry, but this urgent, you can calm down when we’re home.” She was silent for a moment and looked around. When she found what she was looking for, she spoke with the voice of a tour guide. “To my right you see the town of Ponyville, to my left you see the city of Cloudsdale and just in front of us is my home, our home now.”

Jack looked in all the directions she said. The town of Ponyville was a small town and everything and everyone was going on with their lives, nothing extraordinary. When he looked to the left he felt his jaw dropping, but he managed to close it. Cloudsdale was a giant city made of clouds, that wasn’t possible on Earth. The architecture made it look like it was from ancient Greece. Rainbow noticed his amazement.

“It’s beautiful, isn’t it?” Rainbow asked. Jack only nodded; he had no words for it. “Now focus, we’re almost home.”

Jack looked away from the amazing view and looked at the house in front of him, he was just as amazed as he had been just a couple of seconds ago. It was a giant cloud house with rainbow waterfalls; it was also built in the same Greek style as Cloudsdale. “Rainbow, that’s a cloud house.” She looked down at him with a confused expression.

“I don’t know if you realize it, but you’re a Pegasus now, you can walk on clouds.” She looked back up and after 5 seconds they arrived at her house.

They hovered above the cloud that was placed in front of her door. She let go of him and he thought he would just fall through the cloud towards the ground, but instead he felt something soft. Jack opened his eyes and saw that he was lying on the cloud and Rainbow was looking at him, a grin on her face.

“You really thought you would fall through the cloud, didn’t you? Don’t worry, you’ll adjust to this world soon enough.” She trotted towards her door and took a key that was hidden in a cloud, with the key she opened the door and grabbed him again under his chest. They flew inside, towards her living room and she placed him on the couch. “Now, there is a table near you where you can place your stuff. If you’re hungry, there is some food in the fridge and the toilet is in the hallway. If you need to go to these places, then you’ll just have to crawl, but don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to walk when I get back.” She came towards him, kissed him on the lips, flew outside, and closed the door behind her. Jack was now alone.

Jack looked around her living room and lay down on a red couch that could easily fit two ponies. The strange thing is that the couch wasn’t made of clouds; he’d have to ask Rainbow why the couch didn’t fall down. In front of him was a small table, he placed his stuff on the table and saw a picture lying on the table. Jack looked at it, it was a filly Rainbow Dash on the back of her father, but the mother wasn’t present. He laid himself back on the couch and looked around for any form of entertainment. There was no TV, no radio, hell he would have been surprised if there was electricity at all in Equestria. Jack went back to the table and picked up the picture of my parents.

“Mom, Dad, it has been a while since we talked. I just wanted to say that you two don’t need to worry about me, I may look different, but I’m fine. I’m now in a land called Equestria and it’s inhabited by ponies, there are no humans here. I also met this amazing mare, she’s fast, beautiful, and she’s everything to me. So don’t worry about me, I’m now in a better place and I’m sure you two are also in a better place.” He had to hold back a tear, it has been very long since he talked to his parents and that was weighing on him.

He placed the picture back on the table and to drown his sorrows he took the bottle of Scotch. He laid himself comfortable on the couch and opened the bottle with his mouth. After some time the bottle finally opened. “Damn hooves, hands were better.” He murmured to hisself. There were no glasses nearby and he didn’t feel like crawling towards the kitchen to get one. There was nopony nearby, so he placed the bottle between his hooves, brought it to his mouth and he drank. After a gulp he stopped and looked through a window, the sun was very high in the sky so it had to be around noon. He spent the rest of his afternoon and evening with his bottle and his memories.

*****

It was 10 PM when Rainbow finally arrived at her house. The disaster was a strange device, it wasn’t larger than a hoof and it seemed to have to do something with communication, it even had a small antenna sticking out of it. Celestia had taken it with her to Canterlot to inspect it and invited the mane 6 over for a talk about Earth. It was fun and Celestia had written the information down so that Twilight could write a book about it, her very first book. She opened her door and saw that Jack was drunk and that he was singing.

“Oooooooh, zay can you *hic* zeeeeeee by the dawn’zz early light *hic*.” He was singing the American national anthem. Rainbow had an amused look on her face, but then she saw the bottle.

“How much did you drink?” she closed the door and trotted towards him.

“Wa, who? Ah, Rainbow care to *hic* join me?” He raised the bottle with his hoof and looked at it, then he saw that the bottle was empty. “Oopzzz, better luck next time. Don’t you have any other drinkzz in here?” Rainbow shook her head and took the bottle from him then she trotted with the bottle towards the kitchen.

“No and I think you had enough. Seriously, if your cutie mark isn’t a bottle of alcohol then I don’t know what it will be.” She placed the bottle on her kitchen table and trotted back to him.

“That would be *hic* cool, my zpecial talent izz drinking boooozze.” He laughed and when he finally stopped he looked directly in those perfect magenta eyes. “Come here, I wanna tazte the rainbow.” Jack held his forelegs open and motioned her to come to her, she just shook her head.

“Oh no, you can taste rainbow when you’re sober.” He just crossed his forelegs and blew a raspberry at her.

“That’s no fun, I wanna-“ His sentence was cut off, because he fell asleep. He slumped forwards towards the cloud floor, but Rainbow had been just in time to catch him. She chuckled and laid him back on the couch. When she saw that he was comfortable, she laid herself on the couch and used his flank has a cushion. This was truly one hell of a day, but she had her coltfriend to be with her, always.

*****

Jack woke up with a giant headache and a sick feeling in his stomach. He felt some breathing on his flank. He slowly opened his eyes, adjusting them to the light and looked at it. On his flank was Rainbow sleeping with a smile on her face, he smiled also until he felt his stomach turning. Jack pushed Rainbow’s chest with his left hind leg. She slowly opened her eyes and looked at him, her smile never leaving her face.

“Rainbow, do you hate me?” Rainbow’s smile faded and this was replaced by confusion. She got off his flank and sat on her haunches on the couch.

“I don’t hate you, why would I hate you?” Jack slowly turned his head towards the ground.

“Because of this.” When he said that, he opened his mouth and threw up on the cloud floor. When he finally stopped he looked at Rainbow. She had an angry expression, but it was quickly replaced by a compassionate one.

“I can’t stay mad at you and don’t worry about the clouds, they clean themselves. Now rest, I think you need it.” He nodded and laid himself back on the couch. She got up, went to the kitchen and took a bottle of water. She came back and gave it to hiù. “Drink this, it will help to get that nasty taste away.”

“Thanks.” He opened the bottle, still struggling, but it gets better and drank it. He placed the bottle on the table and laid himself comfortable. He looked at Rainbow, she was again lying with her head on his lap, but he didn’t mind. “Tell me Rainbow, how is it possible that your furniture stays on the clouds?”

She smiled. “Well, furniture for cloud homes is a bit different than furniture from the ground. The furniture is magically enchanted to stay on the clouds, the unicorns enchanted it, but it is only available in Cloudsdale.”

“And is there any electricity here and a TV?”

“Yes I have electricity, otherwise the fridge wouldn’t work. As for the TV, I never really cared about that. Equestria has TV, but most of the ponies don’t need it.” Jack felt satisfied with the answers and almost drifted to sleep, but then another question struck him.

“I saw a picture of you with your father, but not with your mother. Would you like to tell me about that? If you don’t mind, of course.” He quickly added that last part as he saw Rainbow’s eyes watering and she started to look away.

“It still hurts, but I’ll tell you, because you told me about your parents. You see, my mother died when she was giving birth to me, I was left with my father. It seemed that he really didn’t like me, mainly because he blamed me for my mother’s death, but I know that deep inside he loved me. Last year he passed away. He was in a storm, it was too fierce and smashed him on the ground, and he was dead before he even knew it. He was the reason why I pushed myself to the limit and I never blamed him for it.” She was now crying her heart out, Jack grabbed her with his forelegs and laid her on his chest, his right forehoof going through her mane.

“I’m sorry I asked that, but if it makes you feel any better I’m here for you.” She was still sobbing, but she gave him kiss on the cheek.

“Thanks and I know you will always be there for me, but now let’s get some rest.” Jack nodded and laid his head back on the pillow, sleep was going for a walk with him.

*****

There was a man sitting at his desk, a cigar in his mouth. The room was dimly lit, so it was a hard to see the face of the man. In front of the man sat a smaller and younger man.

“Is the device in place?” The man with the cigar asked, no emotion in his voice.

“Yes sir, our MX-98 spying device has arrived in the other universe.” The younger man was nervous.

“Good, do you have any information yet?” The man still hadn’t any emotion in his voice.

“We know for certain that there are life sources there and from the occasional small talk our device has picked up we saw a word that always returned.” The young man was now beaming with pride.

“And what was that word?” The man came out of the shadows. He had short gray hair and some wrinkles, it was clear that this man was over his fifty years. He was eager to hear the response of the young man.

“Pony, sir.”

Oh Shit

Unedited

A New World… For Jack.

Chapter 3: Oh Shit

Thoughts color:

Rainbow: Cyan

Jack: Brown.

Monday

Jack awoke with a very sore feeling in his whole body. His little game with Rainbow was a mixture of pain, weird positions and lots of laughing. It was much fun, but it also brought much pain with it. Rainbow won of course, she always won. Rainbow was lying with her head on Jack’s chest and he was gently stroking through Rainbow’s mane with his hoof. Rainbow opened her eyes very slowly and smiled at him with a warm and amused smile.

“You’re lucky that you’re on dispatch today, I can see that you’re in much pain.” She raised her head off his chest and laid herself down on her side of the bed. It was a two-person bed made of clouds; actually everything in her house was made of clouds, except her furniture. Her bedroom was not that large, it had a two-person bed, some closets and many posters of the Wonderbolts. One would begin to suspect that Rainbow was an obsessed fan, but Jack knew better than to insult Rainbow.

“Remind me to never play Twister with you again.” Jack heard a quiet crack with every move he made; this pain was going to torture him for the rest of the week if he wasn’t going to do anything about it. Rainbow only laughed and turned Jack around so that he was now lying with his chest and belly on the cloud mattress. She then sat down on top of him.

“Don’t say you didn’t like my version of Twister.” Rainbow got the shivers when she thought back at the evening. It was one of the most sensual and pleasurable evenings she ever witnessed. “But I shall give you a massage to ease the pain.”

Rainbow got to work. She first massaged Jack’s back, her hooves went in a circular motion over his back and sometimes she pushed with all her might against his back to hear that crack that she was searching for. Jack sometimes grunted from pain, but most of the time he was in heaven and Rainbow’s hooves were like little angels dancing on his back. After a good amount of time Rainbow decided that it was enough; it was almost time to get to work. She got out of bed and trotted into the bathroom while Jack got out of bed, very slowly. They played Twister for quite a while and now Jack had to face the consequences, but with the help of coffee he could make it through the day. He trotted to the kitchen and made breakfast. He took some slices of bread with Nutella. I find it really strange that they have Nutella here, but I like chocolate so I’m not complaining. He also knew that Rainbow would eat cereal and so he made her a bowl of cereal and milk. He also made some coffee, because they both needed it badly. He sat down and waited for Rainbow to come to the kitchen. Jack never forgot his manners, his parents made sure that he didn’t forget them. After 5 minutes Rainbow trotted into the kitchen with a towel on her head.

“You didn’t have to wait for me.” She sat down and looked at the breakfast that was presented on the table. She was quite surprised to see that a bowl of cereal stood in front of her face. “And you also knew what I was going to eat.”

Now Jack felt a little bit of pride flowing through him. “What can I say? I have manners and I know what my mare likes.” He began eating his bread and it was very delicious, Jack really loved chocolate.

Rainbow stopped eating and looked at Jack. “Technically I’m not your mare, although not yet. If we’re going to get married then I’ll become your mare. I want to be married one day, but just not yet.” It sounded like an apology and Rainbow looked away, but Jack didn’t mind.

“I really don’t mind, Rainbow. I never thought of marrying you.” Jack saw that Rainbow let out a sigh and he instantly knew that he did something very stupid. “I mean so soon. I want to marry you, but not so soon, just like you.” Rainbow looked back up; her smile was also coming back. Phew, disaster averted.

“Oh good, I really thought you didn’t want to marry me. We’ll get married when we feel like doing it, but you have to propose me.” She winked and continued eating her breakfast, the awkward situation forgotten.

Jack had already finished with his breakfast and went to the bathroom; he needed a shower before he went to work. When he came into the bathroom he saw something he didn’t expect, but he did know that it was logical. The shower was just a cloud. He tried to figure out how to get the thing started, because there was only a button to control the temperature.

He heard Rainbow shouting from the kitchen. “Just touch the cloud with your hoof.”

Jack followed her instruction and touched the cloud with his hoof. Not a second later ice cold water poured down. Jack let out a little scream and he could hear Rainbow laughing from the kitchen. He quickly adjusted the temperature to warm and stood under it. All his soreness and tenseness disappeared and he completely relaxed. The thought that he had to hurry nestled itself into his mind and so he searched for some shampoo and soap. The only shampoo that was present was one for mares. He decided to just use the soap for his coat and he noted into his mind that he had to ask Rainbow for some shampoo for stallions. When he was completely clean and dry he left the bathroom, luckily the clouds cleaned themselves so didn’t have to clean the bathroom. Rainbow was also ready and together they flew to the weather facility.

*****

It was 9.50AM when they arrived at the weather facility. Jack was beginning to grow accustomed to his wings and so flying became easier for him, but he still wasn’t near the average Pegasus and certainly not near Rainbow Dash. They both walked into the weather facility and Jack was a bit amazed by the number of Pegasi that were present in the main hall. Breeze told him that there was a shortage of Pegasi, but this certainly didn’t look like a shortage. There were five receptionists sitting at their desks while answering the questions of the Pegasi. Jack and Rainbow stood in the queue and waited until it was their turn. They needed to wait 10 minutes before it was their turn. They were greeted by the same receptionist they saw yesterday.

“Ah, Mr.Jack. You’re here for your first work day, right?” Jack nodded and the receptionist gave him a paper he had to sign. The paper made him an official employee of the weather facility. Jack signed with his full name: Jack Mavis. Rainbow was the only one who knew his full name; he liked to be called Jack and not Mr.Mavis. “Okay, everything’s in order. Just follow the hallway on the right and you’ll automatically trot into in dispatch.”

Jack said his thanks and he and Rainbow trotted through the hallway. After a small trot they arrived in the room of dispatch. There were 20 desks with ponies sitting at it and all were occupied with giving orders to the captains of the weather teams. Breeze was also in the room and trotted towards Jack.

“Ah Jack, you’re here. Welcome to dispatch.” Breeze motioned at Jack to follow him and Jack complied. They trotted to the only desk that wasn’t occupied. It was Jack’s desk and there were already papers lying on it. “This is your desk.” Breeze turned back to Jack and he was greeted by Jack’s glare. “What?”

“You lied about a shortage of ponies, didn’t you?” Breeze held a serious expression for a few seconds, but he failed at it and burst out laughing. Jack turned to Rainbow, because he also heard Rainbow’s laugh. “And you knew about it.”

Rainbow managed to stop laughing. “Yes, that’s a prank my uncle plays on every new Pegasus. He makes a Pegasus do two jobs at a time, but don’t worry, next month you can decide what job you want.” Jack turned back to Breeze.

“So what do I need to do exactly?” Jack sat down on his chair and began to organize the stack of papers that were lying on his desk.

“Like I said yesterday, you give the orders to the weather team, do paperwork and occasionally you’ll need to do an errand. Now I’ll leave you to it.” Breeze trotted back to his office. Jack was still busy organizing his papers when Rainbow placed her fore hooves on his desk.

“So, what are my orders? You are the pony who gives my orders every day.” Jack took the papers with the orders for Rainbow’s weather team.

“There was a major storm created just a few days ago and now it’s heading towards Canterlot. Your weather team has to join three other weather teams and together you’ll need to stop it. When that’s completed you’ll need to place some rain clouds above Applejack’s farm, she requested some extra rain for her apples. The rest of Ponyville has to stay dry though and that’s it.” Jack gave the papers to Rainbow; she looked at it for a moment and gave it back.

“All in a day’s work. See you this afternoon.” She gave Jack a quick kiss and trotted away.

Jack continued giving orders to the captains that stood at his desk. It wasn’t that hard, but there was a pace in it and sometimes Jack found it hard to keep up. Around 11AM rush hour died down and Jack could finally begin with his paperwork. He just had to organize the papers and lay them onto the shelves they needed to be on. It was just your average desk job. Nothing else interesting happened and soon it was 4PM. Jack trotted out of the weather facility and was greeted by Rainbow who just landed in front of him.

They gave each other a kiss and flew to downtown Cloudsdale where they strolled through its streets. “How was your first day of work?” Rainbow asked while she looked at a shop that sold racing goggles.

“It was fine, but I think that job will bore me to death pretty quickly.” They both entered the shop and Rainbow tried on some of the goggles.

“You only need to do it for one month, then you can be a full member of my weather team. Here, try this goggle on.” She handed Jack a brown racing goggle that matched his coat and mane. He tried it on and looked in the mirror. “You look good in that, I’m going to buy it for you.”

Jack pulled of the goggle and gave it back to Rainbow. “I can’t even fly properly, let alone race. Why should I need a racing goggle?”

Rainbow trotted to the cashier and bought it, then she trotted with Jack out of the shop. “Because I can sense if a Pegasus will be a good flyer and I’ve sensed that you’ll be an amazing flyer, but you just need to give it some time.”

Jack snatched the receipt out of her hooves and looked at it. “Well I hope you’re right, because otherwise you’ve bought a goggle of 50 bits for nothing and from what I can tell 50 bits is a lot of money.”

“Don’t you worry, I’m right, you’ll see. Now let’s find something to eat, I’m starving.”

They trotted to a restaurant where they served pizzas. They both ordered a pizza margarita and had a wonderful evening, but then a certain yellow mare with an orange flamy mane and a saddlebag on her back trotted into the restaurant. Rainbow didn’t see her, because she was sitting with her back at Spitfire. Jack excused himself and trotted to Spitfire. Rainbow cocked an eyebrow and kept following Jack with her eyes until she saw Spitfire sitting a bit further away and she saw that Jack was trotting towards her. Spitfire! Jack, please don’t embarrass yourself. Rainbow wanted to fly to Spitfire and assault her with questions, but she kept seating where she was, she wanted to see what Jack was going to do. I’ve seen this mare on some of the Wonderbolts posters in Rainbow’s bedroom.

Jack touched Spitfire’s shoulder and she looked at him. “Hey, aren’t you… Sorry, I forgot, what’s your name?”

Spitfire smiled warmly and motioned with her hoof at the chair at the other end of the table, meaning that Jack could sit down. Jack complied and sat down. “I’m Spitfire, strange that you don’t know my name, I’m quite famous.”

“I’m not from here; I just arrived a few days ago.” He took a sip of the wine that the waiter had poured into his glass.

“I know who you are, Jack. I’ve read the newspaper and a recent poll has named you the most famous pony in Equestria, you’re quite the celebrity.” Spitfire gave him the poll that she had in her saddlebag. Jack took a moment to look at it. He was number one and he even defeated Princess Celestia who was number two. Jack gave the poll back and sighed.

“I really didn’t want all this attention; I’m just a human who turned into a pony.” Spitfire laughed lightly.

“Tell me about it. I wanted to become a teacher, but then I became the most famous Pegasus in Cloudsdale just by racing. You don’t choose popularity, popularity chooses you.”

Now it was Jack’s time to laugh. “You might be right about that. Hey could you do me a favor? Rainbow Dash is my marefriend and she really wants to meet you again, could you come to our table and say hi or something like that?” Jack pointed with his hoof at the table were Rainbow sat. Spitfire turned around and waved at Rainbow, Rainbow waved back with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

Spitfire turned back to Jack, took two pieces of paper out of her bag and gave it to Jack. “I’ve got a better idea. These are two tickets for the upcoming race in the arena of Cloudsdale, it’s this Sunday. They will grant you access to the VIP booth and a meeting with me and my team after the race, see it as a welcome in Cloudsdale gift and I’m sure you’ll make Rainbow Dash one happy mare.”

“Thanks, I owe you one.” Jack left the table and went back to his own table. When he passed Rainbow he closed her mouth with his hoof.

“How did you make her wave to me?” Jack quickly hid the tickets in his own saddlebag which he got from work.

“I told her that you really wanted to meet her again, but she told me that she didn’t have time to meet you.” Jack had to lie, because the tickets were a surprise for Rainbow. She looked disappointed and sighed. “But she was going to make time for you soon.” This wasn’t a complete lie and Rainbow’s mood got better.

The rest of the evening went well and when it was 9PM they flew back home, Rainbow needed her sleep. It was 10PM when they lay in bed and it didn’t take long fall asleep.

*****

Tuesday

It was a normal morning. Waking up at 8AM, then breakfast, then showering and then leaving for work. Jack gave Rainbow her orders, today she had to soak Ponyville with rain. Jack still had some trouble adjusting to the pace of rush hour, but he figured that he would adjust pretty quickly. It was just after lunch when Breeze trotted towards his desk with a letter in his mouth. He laid the letter on Jack’s desk.

“Jack, you need to do an errand.” Jack took a look at the letter; it was just an ordinary letter in an envelope.

“Ok, what’s the destination of this letter?” Jack took the letter in his mouth and followed Breeze outside. When they were outside Breeze pointed with his hoof to the west.

“You need to go to the rainbow factory, the building has rainbows pouring out of it, you can’t miss it.”

Jack nodded and flew away in western direction. It didn’t take long, not even for him; the rainbow factory was just next door. It was a large building, larger than the weather facility. Jack landed in front of the giant cloud doors. There was a bell next to the door and he pushed on it. Not 5 seconds later a hooded pony opened the door, his face was hidden by his hood.

“What do you want?” The tone the pony spoke with wasn’t exactly hostile, but it wasn’t inviting either. Jack didn’t feel intimidated by the mysterious pony and kept his cool.

“I’ve got this letter from the weather facility.” His words were a bit muffled; he still had the envelope in his mouth. He took it out of his mouth and gave it to the hooded pony.

Jack could see the somewhat mischievous smile of the pony, that creeped him out a bit. “They’ll probably need some more rainbows. You look like a pony that could handle something, care to come inside?”

Jack shook his head; he wanted to get out of there as fast as possible. “No thank you, I’m currently working and I need to return to the weather facility.”

“Some other time then, you’re always welcome here.” The hooded pony closed the door. Jack just shrugged and flew back to the weather facility. I need to ask Rainbow about the rainbow factory.

Nothing else interesting happened at work that day and when it was 4PM Rainbow was already waiting outside the weather facility. They flew to Fluttershy’s house; Fluttershy had invited them over for dinner. Everything went well that evening, but then Rainbow asked Jack about his day.

“Well, I did an errand today. I needed to deliver a letter to the rainbow factory.” When Jack said that, both Fluttershy and Rainbow lost a bit of their color. “Everything alright?”

Rainbow regained her color first and was also the first one to speak. “Did you go inside?”

“Um… no, they did ask me to come inside though, they said that I was a pony that could handle something.” Fluttershy let out a silent ‘oh my’. Rainbow, on the other hand, stared deeply into Jack’s eyes.

“Promise me that you’ll never set a hoof into that building” Her tone revealed that this was going to be an important promise.

“Why?” Jack really didn’t know why Rainbow reacted that way.

“Just promise me, please.” This was the first time he heard Rainbow actually beg. It actually scared him a bit, Rainbow never acted this way. Something really strange must be going on in that factory if it makes Rainbow so upset.

“Fine, I promise I’ll never set a hoof into that building.” Rainbow accepted his promise and gave him a kiss.

What Jack didn’t know was that Rainbow had just saved him from a very traumatizing experience. When Rainbow still worked at dispatch, she also had to deliver a letter to the rainbow factory. A hooded pony had also asked her to come inside and she accepted it. She saw that they made little fillies and colts listening to dubstep. These little fillies and colts lost their colors due to the dubstep and so rainbows are made. The little fillies and colts would regain their color after a day. They told her she could leave if she didn’t tell anypony. She left and only told Fluttershy about it, because she knew that Fluttershy could keep a secret. She didn’t tell other ponies about the rainbow factory, because she was afraid that those hooded ponies would find her and punish her or something like that. It had scarred Rainbow for the rest of her life, but luckily she saved Jack from the same fate. They enjoyed the rest of the evening, but it wasn’t the same as before.

*****

Wednesday

This day Rainbow decided that it was again time for Jack to continue his training. 2 days ago they went to a pizza restaurant and yesterday they had dinner with Fluttershy, so Jack really needed to catch up with his training. She made him do exercises with an empty stomach and before showering. When Rainbow felt satisfied with Jack performances she allowed him to eat. It wasn’t much, just a protein shake and a little morning salad. Jack knew that he would be hungry again soon, but he also knew that he had to live with that. Jack and Rainbow took a shower, like their morning routine prescribed and got ready for work. After a couple of minutes of flying they arrived at the weather facility in Cloudsdale. Every day Jack got better at flying, you could now describe it as: not so embarrassing.

They landed in front of Storm, who was already waiting in front of the weather facility. Rainbow turned to Jack before she went inside the weather station to get her orders. “Our weather team consists of 3 ponies: Storm, you and me. This is the normal number of a weather team. Our bosses made the weather teams so small, because they want to make sure that the members of the weather team have a very strong bond with each other, in this job trust is very important.” Jack nodded and Rainbow left Storm and Jack alone for the moment.

When Rainbow was out of hearing range, Storm trotted to Jack, a slightly amused expression on his face. “So… how is she?”

Jack turned his head to look at Storm with a raised eyebrow. “Erm… I’m not sure I follow you.” Jack knew what Storm was trying to ask, but he just wanted to make sure.

Storm shook his head and rolled his eyes. “You know, the time you two make funny faces, the time full of bliss. How is she in bed?” Jack blushed a bit when he thought back at his moments with Rainbow and he slowly felt his wings extending. Storm noticed the extending wings and began to laugh a little. “That must mean that she’s good.”

Jack eyes grew wide and he looked at his wings with a worried expression, he quickly looked back at Storm. “How do I get them back to normal? Rainbow will kill me if she sees me like that, she’ll probably think that I looked at another mare.”

Storm had a hard time to suppress his laughter. “There are only two ways. The first way is having a wing orgasm, the second way is waiting.” Jack rethought his possibilities. I could make it easy for myself and just have that wing orgasm, but I’m in a public area. If I wait then things won’t be pretty. I guess I only have one choice.

“I guess I just have to wait and face Rainbow.” Jack sat down on his haunches against the cloud wall of the weather facility, he tried to hide his wings as much as possible. Storm sat down beside him with that same amused expression from earlier, together they waited for Rainbow.

After 5 minutes of waiting Rainbow trotted out of the building and walked over to Jack and Storm. Luckily Jack’s wings were back in their normal position. Phew, disaster averted… again. She sat down next to them, she was going to explain their orders and the basic way of weather manipulation to Jack. “Our orders for today are to remove the rain clouds that Storm and I placed above Ponyville yesterday.” She now turned her attention to Jack. “We manipulate the weather with our hooves. If you want to move a cloud, you grab it with your hooves and fly away with it. If you want to remove a cloud, you buck it. That’s all there is to it, just stay away from thunderstorms, they can be quite dangerous.” Jack nodded in understanding and they flew to Ponyville.

After a flight of thirty minutes they arrived in the sky above Ponyville. The clouds had stopped raining a while ago, but they were still blocking out the sun. Rainbow ordered Jack to take the western side of Ponyville, while she and Storm focused on the rest of Ponyville. Jack flew to the western side and immediately began to buck the clouds away. While he was bucking he had to focus on two things: the bucking and his flying. It sometimes happened that he focused too much on the bucking and forgot about his flying. That made him drop a few feet to the ground, but he was always in time to open his wings again. At the end of his work shift he was as tired as a sloth, but all the clouds were gone, he was proud of his work. He took a moment to regain his breath and he saw Rainbow flying towards him.

“Neatly done for your first time.” She gave him a pat on his shoulder.

“Yeah, but I’m very tired. Hey, where’s Storm?” Jack looked around, but the little black devil was nowhere to be found.

“He already left. Now let’s go to home.” Jack nodded in agreement, he really wanted his bed, he couldn’t even feel his wings. They both left Ponyville airspace and flew towards Rainbow’s house.

Jack wings hurt like hell when he arrived at Rainbow’s house. He immediately trotted towards the bedroom, but he was stopped by a question from Rainbow. “Aren’t you going to eat first?”

Jack shook his head. “No, I-“ A large grumble from his stomach protested his decision. “Maybe a salad.”

Rainbow smiled and made a salad for them. Jack devoured his salad like a wild beast would do to his prey, breakfast was the only thing he had eaten today and this meal was a gift from the Gods for Jack. After his little murder of his salad he went to the bathroom to shower, it would do him and his wings good. After his shower he quickly went to bed, he could fall asleep any minute now. He climbed into bed and a minute later he had already left for the Kingdom of Dreams. Rainbow took a moment to admire her sleeping lover before she also took a shower. After her shower she gave Jack a kiss on his cheek. She could hear Jack mumbling ‘I love you.’

She trotted to the bedroom door and whispered. “I love you too.” She silently closed the door and trotted to her living room, she was going to read a bit before she went to bed.

*****

Thursday

Jack opened his eyes very slowly. His head hurt like hell due to a headache, but the strange thing was that he didn’t drink before he went to sleep. He waited for his eyes to focus and looked around. He was lying on the top of a hill with Ponyville just visible on the horizon, the hill was frassy with some bushes nearby. I’m pretty sure that I got into Rainbow’s bed last night. If this is one of Rainbow’s jokes then I’m going to kill her. He shook his head and got up. He felt still a bit wobbly, but he managed to keep his balance. Jack noticed a pony sitting a couple of feet away from him. He was a completely black earth pony with a black mane and a black tail, it gave Jack a more or less depressed feeling. The stallion was looking at the rising sun that was slowly showing itself behind the mountains of Canterlot. Jack trotted to the mysterious stallion who seemed to be completely oblivious of Jack’s presence.

Jack sat down next to the stallion and looked at him, but the stallion kept gazing at the rising sun. After a couple of moments of silence the stallion broke the awkward silence. “Greetings Jack.”

Jack furrowed his eyebrows. “Um… how do you know my name, I’ve never met you.”

The stallion turned his head and stared at Jack with a little smile on his face. “I know all the names of everypony, it’s my job to know.” The stallion looked away again and this time he stared at Ponyville and his inhabitants that were slowly awakening from a good sleep.

Jack scratched the back of his head, he couldn’t make any sense of this weird situation. “So you’re an assistant of the Princess?”

The stallion chuckled lightly, making it only more weirder for Jack. “In a way.”

Jack was starting to lose his patience, nothing what the stallion said made sense. “Okay, what do you want from me?” He figured that if he got straight to the point the stallion would begin to talk clearly. Little did Jack know that it was going to be quite the opposite.

The strange stallion got up and began stretching. “Oh, I don’t want anything from you. I’m just here to warn you. Soon you’ll need to make a decision, your opponents are readying their cards and soon you’ll need to decide if you’re going to fold or you’re going to call.” The stallion stopped stretching, gave a little smile and began walking away.

Jack was still in deep thought. What does he mean by that? Am I going to play poker with somepony? Jack snapped out of his thoughts and looked around, but the strange pony was nowhere to be found. “Damn you.” He shouted at nopony in particular. He wanted more information, but the stallion was already gone.

Suddenly there was a voice that was carried by the wind. “Yes, many have. I’ll see you around, Jack.”

Jack began to fly with the hope that he could find the stranger, but it was to no avail, the stranger was nowhere to be found. He decided it was best to fly back to Rainbow’s house, he knew that he had to work today. He flew at his fastest speed to Rainbow’s house while he was still in deep thought. What in all that is holy just happened to me? I get abducted by that strange pony and now he’s talking about poker? And what did he mean with ‘I’ll see you around.’? Am I going to meet him again, I certainly hope not.

It took Jack longer than he had expected it to be. It seemed that he miscalculated the distance between the hill and Rainbow’s house. He knew that Rainbow would be awake by now and that he had to explain why he wasn’t in bed with her. Rainbow would declare him crazy if he told her that he was abducted by a strange pony and that the stranger told him about poker. Jack hated to admit it, but he knew he had to lie. He landed in front of her door and opened it with the spare key that Rainbow had hidden in one of her clouds in her cloud lawn. He stepped inside, closed the door and trotted to the kitchen. There he saw something he didn’t expect to see. Rainbow was eating her breakfast while looking at him with a smile on her face.

She stopped eating and place her spoon in her bowl of cereal. “You went out for a morning flight, but at least you could have taken me with you.” Her tone was amused and not really angry, it brought some relief to Jack.

He went to the table and saw that his salad was already prepared. He sat down and began eating. “You were sleeping so soundly that I decided to let you sleep.” Phew, disaster averted again… and again.

Rainbow let out a grumble and continued eating. “Fine, but next time you’ll need to take me with you.”

“I promise.”

The rest of the morning was just as routine as the other mornings. Eating, exercising, showering and getting ready for work. That was the routine and it was going to stay that way. Jack still felt somewhat uneasy the whole morning, the conversation with the stranger never wanted to leave his mind. He decided to just focus on his work and maybe the conversation would disappear. They both left the house and flew to the weather facility. Jack waited outside while Rainbow went inside to get her orders. After 10 minutes she trotted out of the weather facility.

Jack trotted to Rainbow, there was a question on his mind that he wanted answered. “Where’s Storm?”

“Oh, he has a day off today, it’s just the two of us. Today is what I like to call a nap day, we just need to make sure that there are no clouds above Ponyville. So today I’m gonna do my second favorite activity: napping.” She started to fly to Ponyville and Jack followed her, but on his pace.

After a flight of thirty minutes Jack arrived in the air above Ponyville. Ponyville was already full of activity, especially in the market area. Applejack, who was selling apples at her stand, saw Jack flying in the air above her and waved at him. Jack kindly returned the gesture and kept looking for Rainbow. After some time Jack found Rainbow lying on a cloud with her forelegs under her head and her eyes closed.

He silently flew to her and stopped when he was just behind her cloud. When he knew that Rainbow didn’t notice him, he nibbled her right ear. Her eyes shot open, but she kept lying still. “Well what do we have here? Sleeping while working? I don’t think your uncle will like that.”

Rainbow pushed Jack’s face away from her ear with her forelegs. “Cut that out, I told you that today was napping day. Now why don’t you lie next to me.”

Jack shrugged and did what Rainbow asked him to do. He lay down next to her on the cloud. The cloud was just large enough for two ponies and that brought a little bit of fear to Jack. He knew that if he moved a little bit to the left he’d fall off, Jack made a mental note that he had to lie as still as possible. After some time he became drowsy and due to that he forgot his mental note. He moved a little bit to the left and noticed a lack of softness under him, he knew exactly what that meant. Oh God. He opened his eyes and saw the ground under him and like every cartoon world it took two second before he started to fall down. Before he started his inevitable descent towards the ground he took a quick look at Rainbow, she had a smirk on her face. I knew he would fall off. AJ, you owe me ten bits. Luckily for him I placed this cloud above a hay-pile, so I can stay here for a couple of minutes before I go down to check on him. Jack was halfway in his free fall when he saw the hay-pile, he immediately knew that Rainbow knew that he would fall off. Still, he was very grateful for the hay-pile. He decided to stop struggling against gravity and to enjoy the air that was passing by his face. He knew that he landed in the hay-pile when he felt its soft resistance. He crawled out of the hay-pile and almost bumped into a little filly with an orange coat and a purple mane and tail.

She was looking at him with her purple irises that clearly showed concern. “Mister, are you alright? I saw that you fell down from that cloud over there,” She pointed with her hoof at the cloud that was still occupied by Rainbow, but Rainbow wasn’t visible from where she was pointing. “And that’s quite a distance.”

Jack sat on his haunches and shook his head, with that his eyes also stopped rolling in their sockets. “Yeah, I’m fine little one. I just need a moment, it was a long way down.” Jack took his time to calm down and while he did that he noticed that this little filly could be compared to a twelve year old girl. “Hey, how old are you?”

The little filly sat down on her haunches. “I’m eleven, but my birthday is next month. I’m Scootaloo by the way.” She held out her hoof. It was an odd gesture for such a little filly, but that meant that she had manners.

Jack shook her hoof. “Nice to meet you, I’m Jack.” Scootaloo’s eyes widened when he said his name. Oh no, another awestruck fan.

“You’re Rainbow Dash’s coltfriend.” She began jumping from excitement.

Jack arched his eyebrow. He really thought that he was going to be the center of attention, but this time it was Rainbow. “Um… yes, but aren’t you more interested in humans?”

Scootaloo stopped jumping and gave Jack a ‘really?’ look. “No, Rainbow Dash is much cooler. You must tell me everything about Rainbow Dash.” She quickly galloped to Jack and sat down next to him.

“Um… okay. Well, she’s kind, beautiful, a good cook, a-.” Jack was cut off when he heard a familiar voice from behind him.

“Don’t forget awesome.” Scootaloo and Jack turned their heads and saw Rainbow Dash standing behind them and with her trademark smile on her face. Sccotaloo immediately galloped to Rainbow and hugged her.

“Rainbow Dash! It’s so awesome that you come to say hello.” Scootaloo left the hug after five seconds and Rainbow ruffled her mane.

“It’s nice to see you too, squirt. I see that you’ve met my coltfriend.” Rainbow glanced at Jack who was glaring daggers at her and he mouthed the words ‘we’ll have words later.’. Rainbow stuck out her tongue and focused her attention back at Scootaloo who had followed the whole scene very silently.

“If you want I can go and leave you two alone, I’ll go the orphanage or to my friends.”

Jack stopped with glaring daggers at Rainbow and instead a concerned expression formed on his face. “You mean that you don’t have any parents?” Why is it that almost everyone I meet has no parents, that’s really strange if you ask me.

Scootaloo sighed. “No, my parents gave me to the orphanage when my mom birthed me.” A single tear left her right eye and splashed on the ground.

Rainbow came closer to Scootaloo and hugged her, Jack joined in moments later. When they left the embrace an idea formed in Jack’s mind. “Tell you what, you can spend the rest of the day with us. Oh and I read about Nightmare Night that will be held here next month, so I think it’s a good idea if Rainbow and I go candy hunting with you.”

Scootaloo’s mouth turned upside down and so a big, big smile grew on her face. “That would be awesome. Oh please say yes, Rainbow Dash.”

Rainbow held a hoof to her chin, she pretended that she was thinking. “Hmm, alright squirt, we’ll join you on Nightmare Night.”

Her little wings began to flap from joy, but her body never left the ground. “Yes, this is going to be so much fun, thank you so so much.”

Jack chuckled at the enthusiasm of Scootaloo and patter her on the head. “No need to thank us, it’s the least we could do. Now, where do you want to go?”

Scootaloo didn’t answer, but instead she motioned them to follow her. After a trot of 5 minutes they arrived at the playground behind a building that seemed to serve its purpose as a school. After a few hours 2 of her friends came over and joined the playing in the playground. Around 5 PM Scootaloo, Jack and Rainbow said goodbye to Applebloom and Sweetie Belle and trotted with Scootaloo to the orphanage.

When they arrived at the orphanage Scootaloo gave Jack and Rainbow a big hug. “Thank you, it has been ages since I had so much fun.

Jack left the hug and patted Scootaloo on the head. “The pleasure was all ours. Now don’t you forget to have a nice costume for Nightmare Night, alright?”

“I won’t forget. Until next time.” With that the happy filly trotted into the orphanage.

Rainbow and Jack smiled tenderly until Scootaloo was completely out of sight, then they flew back to Rainbow’s house for dinner. They had a ceasar salad for dinner, this was part of Jack’s training program and after the dishes they laid themselves down on Rainbow’s cloud lawn while looking at the sunset.

Rainbow had laid her head on Jack’s chest chest and closed her eyes. The only sound she heard was the slow heartbeat of Jack, that was until she broke the silence. “You know, you handled Scootaloo really well today. I normally have my hooves full with her.”

Jack tried to snicker as silently as possible. “That’s because she reminds me of you and I know how to handle you.”

Rainbow let out a long sigh. “Yeah, I know. We’re very close, she sees me as her big sister and I see her as my little sister.” She snuggled deeper against his chest.

Jack went through her mane with his hoof, he knew what Rainbow’s pleasurable spots were. “Ah, so that’s why she looks up to you, maybe she’ll also become a big mouth later.” Jack knew that Rainbow didn’t like what he just said, but he enjoyed to tease Rainbow once in a while.

Rainbow got off his chest and hit him lightly on his side. “I’m not a big mouth.” She tried to defend herself, but she knew that she sometimes liked to brag about herself.

A roguish grin formed on Jack’s face. “Oh no?” Jack cleared his throat; he was going to do his best imitation of Rainbow. “I’m Rainbow Dash, I’m the fastest flyer in Equestria, I can do a sonic rainboom in ten seconds flat and I’m also the most awesome Pegasus in Equestria. Do I need to continue?”

A blush of embarrassment had nestled itself on Rainbow’s cheeks, giving it a more purple color if mixed correctly with her cyan fur. “No. I know that I sometimes brag a bit about myself, but everything you said was true. I’m still the fastest Pegasus in Equestria. Um… do you mind my braggery?”

Jack gave Rainbow a warm smile. “Not one bit.” He patted with his hoof on his chest, indicating that Rainbow could lie down again. Rainbow complied and together they enjoyed the rest of the sunset.

*****

Friday

It was Friday, the last day of the work week and the beginning of the weekend. Jack followed his morning routine and got ready for work. The order for today was creating a light overcast in the air above Ponyville. They got some spare clouds from the cloud factory in Cloudsdale, placed them above Ponyville and so the day flew by. Storm said goodbye to Jack and Rainbow and promised Jack that he would pick him up around 7PM. Jack and Rainbow went home to enjoy dinner together. As a bonus Jack got some hayfries with his salad. The eating of hay still scared Jack a bit, because he knew that humans couldn’t digest hay. He pushed his fear aside and ate a hoofful of hayfries To his surprise the hayfries actually tasted quite good, maybe it was because he was a pony now. He shrugged and continued enjoying his bonus. He took a shower and just when he was done, a knock could be heard. Jack trotted to the door and opened it, Storm was that had knocked.

“Wait here, I’ll be right back.” Storm nodded and Jack trotted to Rainbow who was lying on the couch while reading a Daring Doo book. “Rainbow, I’m going out with the little black devil.”

Rainbow looked up and raised her eyebrow. “Who? Oh, you mean Storm. Alright, but don’t make it too late.”

“Alright, see you later.” He gave Rainbow a quick kiss and trotted back to the front door, only to see that Storm was gone. “Ugh… where is he now?”

Suddenly there was a voice behind Jack. “Right behind you.”

Jack jumped from fear and turned around; Storm was now lying on his back and laughing. Jack rolled his eyes and let out a sigh. “Let’s just go to wherever the hell you want to go.”

Storm got up and wiped some tears away. “That’s a classic, you should have seen your reaction, it was priceless. But I digress, I know a bar in Cloudsdale, it’s called ‘The Cumulus’.”

“Lead the way.” Jack said with a bit of hesitation. He was getting second thoughts about his evening with Storm, but could the evening become any worse?

Storm nodded and started flying, Jack closed the front door and followed Storm. Storm slowed down to Jack’s pace, because he knew that Jack still had some troubles with flying. After a flight of ten minutes they landed in front of the bar that was located in downtown Cloudsdale. They trotted inside and Jack was greeted by a change of light. The bar was dark, but there was just enough light to see where you were going. The bar had tables and chairs which were placed close to each other. In the middle of the bar stood a billiard table which was occupied by two stallions who were busy playing against each other. The back of the bar, near the toilets, was occupied by several slot machines. Jack and Storm sat down on a bar stool.

The barman noticed that he had two new customers and trotted to them. He was a gray Pegasus with some muscles and a long blue mane and tail. There were also some gray hairs between the blue ones, that meant the barman was evolving into old age. “So, what can ah get ya?” He had an accent like Applejack, but with a slight touch of a pirate accent.

Storm made his decision pretty fast. “For me a Stout.” The barman nodded and turned his attention towards Jack.

“Do you have Whiskey?”

The barman nodded. “Aye, that ah do. A new shipment arrived just this morning from Glascow. So, one Stout and one Whiskey?” Jack and Storm nodded and the barman went away to fetch the drinks.

Jack and Storm focused their attention to the two Pegasi that were playing billiard. It seemed that they were in a competition, the winner would get all the money the loser had bet. Storm nudged with his elbow against Jack’s side. “Who do you think will win?”

Jack took some time to analyze the game. “The Pegasus with the red mane, he has a better technique than the other Pegasus. Trust me, I played billiard with my father when I was younger.”

The barman came back with the drinks and began a conversation with Jack and Storm. He knew that Jack used to be human and he asked him about the variety of beverages on Earth. Jack also told him that Normandy in France was famous for its cider. They continued talking about Earth until they heard a loud cheer coming from behind them. It seemed that Jack was right, the Pegasus with the red mane had won and he bought everypony in the bar a drink. Jack turned back to Storm with an arrogant smile. “I told you he’d win.”

“Well let’s see how you do in a competition. The first one who drinks three bottles of Stout wins, the loser has to pay for the drinks.” They both spit on their hooves and shook them.

They told the barman to get 6 Stouts, he later returned with the 6 Stouts. All the eyes in the bar were fixated on Jack and Storm, the customers always enjoyed a drinking contest. It took Jack some time to finish his first glass, mainly because he didn’t like drinking Stout. Storm, on the other hand, was already busy with his second one. In the end Storm won and Jack had to pay for the drinks. Luckily Rainbow gave me a bit of money before I left. They said their goodbyes to all the ponies in the bar and trotted outside.

Storm needed some support from Jack, mainly because the alcohol was doing weird things with his feeling of balance. “Storm, you challenge me to a drinking contest, but you’re such a lightweight.”

“Meh, that’ll go over. Let’s go to another club, the night is still young.” Jack nodded and Strom lead Jack to a club 5 blocks away.

After a couple of minutes they arrived at the club. The club had a pink neon sign that read: ‘The Pink Mare.” The neon sign was accompanied by a poster of a mare in lingerie. The alarms in Jack’s mind began ringing. “Hey Storm, isn’t this a strip club?”

Storm looked up and saw the neon sign, a small smile formed on his face. “Now that you mention it. I didn’t know this was a strip club, a friend recommended it to me, but a little peek inside can’t hurt anypony.”

Storm began trotting towards the entrance, but he was stopped by Jack’s hoof. He turned around and saw the doubtful expression on Jack’s face. “I can’t, Rainbow is my marefriend, remember?”

Storm clicked with his tongue and rolled his eyes. “A stallion can get some time without his marefriend once in a while, am I right? Besides, she’ll never find out.” Storm flew to Jack’s rump and began pushing him with all his might.

You can pick 1 of the 3 songs: We Be Burning - Sean Paul Eric Prydz – Pjanoo Boy 8 bit - A City Under Siege

Slowly but steadily they entered the club. Storm had stopped pushing and Jack was now following Storm, he pushed his fears aside and decided to enjoy the night. They walked through a large hallway and opened the door that lead to the main area of the club. When they opened the door, Jack and Storm’s jaws almost fell on the floor. In front of them was a large room with fifteen poles and fifteen mares dancing very seductively around the poles. On the left side of the room was a large bar with two barmen, there were also some waitresses, dressed in lingerie, who picked up the orders from the customers.

Jack shook his head to get out of his trance and nudged Storm. “You enjoy your time with the mares while I grab a drink at the bar.” Storm nodded and was gone in less than a second. Jack shook his head with a small smile on his face and trotted to the bar while trying to keep his eyes focused on the things in front of him and not on the mares who were trying really hard to distract him. He eventually reached the bar and one of the barmen came to him for his order. “A whiskey, please.” The barman nodded and went away to get Jack’s drink ready. Meanwhile one of the strippers had seen Jack and left her pole to seduce him.

She sat down beside him and looked at him with a very seductive gaze. Her left foreleg began rubbing his back and that sent shivers down Jack’s spine. “Hey there, big boy. I recognized you, y’know. You’re that human, Jack.”

Jack turned his head to the right to look at his assaulter. She was a purple mare with a purple/pink mane and tail and a stripper pole as a cutie mark. A striper pole as a cutie mark? You don’t say. “Yeah, I’m Jack, but I’ve a marefriend and I don’t think she’ll appreciate it if I even look at you.

The mare chuckled slightly and planted a small kiss on Jack’s cheek. Jack blushed in response. “Oh don’t you worry about that, 80% of all the stallions who come here are either married or have a marefriend.” Wow, I guess Equestria isn’t so different from Earth.

Just when Jack was about to push the stripper away he heard the loud opening of the door between the hallway and the main room of the strip club. The voice he then heard was one he didn’t really want to hear. “Jack Mavis!!”

Jack turned around and locked eyes with a furious looking Rainbow Dash. “Oh Shit.” That was the last thing he said before he saw that she was storming towards him.

*****

The room was dark and filled with smoke from cigarettes and cigars. The only pieces of furniture in the room were 4 chairs and one table. On one side of the table sat the General and his assistant and on the other side of the table sat 2 members of the Russian Mafia. Both sides stared at each other and said nothing, the only sounds were breaths and the burning of the cigars and cigarettes. After minutes of silence a member of the Russian Mafia spoke. His English had a strong Russian accent. “So, you want three nukes from Mother Russia?”

The General nodded. His previous attempt to buy nukes from the Chinese Mafia was a failure and now he had his hopes set on the Russian Mafia. “Yes, we need these nukes for… a personal project. I think $200.000.000 will be enough? The normal price for a nuke is $64.000.000.”

The Russian thought for a moment and nodded. “Yes, $200.000.000 will suffice. If everything goes according to plan then the nukes will be delivered in three weeks.” The Russians took a file that was lying on the table and stood up, the General and his assistant did the same. The Russians extinguished their cigarettes and shook the hands of the General and his assistant. “Dasvidaniya, I hope to do business with you again soon. Another member of our mafia shall pick up the money tomorrow, when we get the money we shall start stealing the nukes from the Russian army.” The Russians nodded as a gesture of goodbye and walked out of the chamber.

The general took the other file that was lying on the table and turned to his assistant. “Johnson, get the money ready.” The assistant saluted and left the room. The General extinguished his cigar and walked out of the room with a mischievous grin on his face.

*****

A/N: Some days might seem a bit rushed, but I planned that. If I needed to describe everyday in detail then I would still be busy with this chapter. If you didn't notice it by now, I HATE dubstep.

The stripper:

The black stallion:

Storm

How Does One Heal A Broken Heart?

A New World… For Jack

Chapter 4: How does one heal a broken heart?

Thoughts Ponies:

Jack: Brown

Rainbow: Cyan

What is fear? Is it your heartbeat that suddenly quickens in pace? Is it the sweat that suddenly appears on your body? Is it the shaking of your body or maybe it’s your quickened breath? According to the dictionary, fear means a feeling of agitation and anxiety caused by the presence or imminence of danger. Could it be that? Danger? Was Rainbow Dash the danger that Jack feared? Maybe, but maybe he was afraid of himself? Why, you ask? Well, he knew that it was wrong of him to enter the strip club. He knew that he was disloyal and yet he gave in. One could label him as a monster and Jack couldn’t argue with them. He was a monster, in a way. But all of that didn’t matter right now; the only thing that mattered was trying to protect himself from Rainbow’s fury.

Rainbow had stopped storming towards him and was now just inches from his face. Jack locked eyes with Rainbow and he could see the rage and anger in them. They were little Olympic flames that would never extinguish; there was also the occasional eye twitch. Jack couldn’t look away, but he did feel that all the eyes in the club were focused on Rainbow and him. I always feel like somebody’s watching me. Oh Rockwell, now that was a good song. Jack focused his attention back on Rainbow; she was still staring at him with that never-ending fury. It was like a western movie; the two duelists just staring at each other, saying nothing and waiting until the other makes a move.

Jack decided it was imperative that he made the first move, but before he could do that the barman decided to change the music to something more fitting. Jack broke his gaze with Rainbow and glared daggers at the barman behind him. The barman just shrugged and smiled innocently. You can forget your tip, buddy.

He turned back to Rainbow and began to apologize. “Rainbow, I-“

Rainbow cut him off by giving him a slap on the cheek. “What are you doing here!? Who is this slut sitting next to you!?” The stripper looked shocked, but Rainbow didn’t pay any attention to her. “Why are you here? Am I not good enough for you?” Jack stared again at Rainbow. Her eyes were watery and her breathing was ragged. The fires in her eyes were extinguished just like that and her tears managed to roll down her cheeks. “I thought you were different, Jack, but I was wrong.”

Jack rubbed his cheek with his hoof; Rainbow really had some strength in her right hoof. “Please, allow me to explain!” He gave her a pleading look, but she wasn’t budging.

“I-I don’t want to know it, just don’t come home tonight.” She turned around and galloped away, the only thing she left behind were her tears that dripped on the ground.

Jack hung his head in defeat. It all happened so fast and Rainbow didn’t give him the time to explain. He paid the barman and began to trot towards the exit, but then he saw the pony that had caused all of this: Storm. Immediately his sadness disappeared and anger took its place. “Storm!! Wait ‘till I get my hooves on you.”

The pony in question did something that Jack didn’t expect. Instead of running for his life, he trotted towards Jack. “Now wait a minute before start hitting me. I know that I’m the one to blame and I’m gonna make it up to you and Rainbow.” Storm said while he shielded himself a bit behind his hooves.

Jack raised his eyebrow. “Clearly you didn’t pay attention. She doesn’t want to see me anymore, our relationship is technically over.” He began motioning with his forelegs to emphasize his sentence.

Storm chuckled lightly and led his ‘friend’ to the exit. “You’ll see tomorrow. Right now you’re going to find someplace to sleep and tomorrow you’ll make a beautiful dinner for Rainbow, then I come in and save the day.”

Jack rolled his eyes at Storm’s narcissism. Oh boy. “And you’re sure that will work?” Storm nodded his head in response. Jack groaned and rolled his eyes once again. If I’m going to keep doing that then my eyes will continue to roll and never stop. “Fine, I hope you know what you’re doing… but if you screw this up, I’m going to break every bone in your body, understand?” Storm nodded and saluted. “Well then, enjoy the rest of your night.” Jack said politely, but with a small touch of annoyance. He didn’t wait for a response and took off.

Why in God’s name did he do that? Why did he enter that damned strip club? How did Rainbow Dash know where he was? Wait, what? Yeah, that’s right. Rainbow normally didn’t know where he was, unless… unless… she had been following him! That’s it, Rainbow followed him. But why? Didn’t she trust him? Well technically it was a good thing that Rainbow had followed him, who knows what would have happened if that stripper gave him a private dance. In one way he was angry at Rainbow for following him, but in the other way he was very grateful. He pushed all those thoughts away and gave himself a destination: Ponyville Library.

*****

Jack landed in front of the library with relaxed thoughts. He didn’t know why, but the nighttime flight cleared his head; the flight had a relaxing effect on him. During the flight he had time to enjoy Equestria at night and it was magnificent. The ground was lightly illuminated by the moon that shone in the dark, but jeweled sky. Jack enjoyed looking at the moon; it was certainly more beautiful than the moon of Earth. He preferred the night over the day, just because it was relaxing for him. Then something happened that Jack really didn’t expect. He could hear a loud voice shouting: “WE THANK THEE!!” That startled him, but he quickly continued his flight towards the library. There was only one thing he could come up with in response: Miss, I’ve got to ask you to stop shouting. It’s making me nervous. Ha, loved that game.

Jack shook his head to dismiss those thoughts, he had more important things to do right now and that was convincing Twilight to let him stay in the library. From the looks of it Twilight was still awake; the lights in the main room of the library were still on. He trotted to the door and knocked while thinking about what he was going to say. What should I say? “Hey Twilight, can I stay here for the Night, Rainbow kicked me out.” NO, that’s just plain stupid. Maybe this is better: “Hey Twilight, is it possible for me to stay in the library for this night? Rainbow and I had a small argument and I decided to give her some space. Yeah, that’s better than saying Rainbow kicked me out.

“Um… Jack?” Jack shook his head and saw Twilight looking at him with a raised eyebrow. Wow, I was so deep in thought that I didn’t notice her opening the door. Jack took a moment to look at Twilight. Her eyes were half closed, there was a small smile on her face and her mane was ruffled. It was crystal clear that Jack awoke her from her sleep, but why were the lights on? It was then that Jack noticed something… embarrassing. Twilight slept with a pink nighttime cap that covered her horn. Jack couldn’t help it and a small amused smile formed itself on his face. Twilight saw that Jack was looking at her nighttime cap and a blush of embarrassment became visible on her face. She quickly teleported the nighttime cap to her bedroom, when that was done she focused her attention back to Jack. “So, why are you here at this hour?” She said with a small hint of annoyance. She went to sleep not long before Jack knocked on her door, but she could feel herself starting to dream. She was standing in a large library with bookshelves as far as the eye could see and they all asked Twilight that she would read them. It was when Twilight opened her first book that she heard a knock on her front door.

“Oh, sorry about that, but I’m looking for a place to sleep. Rainbow and I had a small argument and it was best to give her some space, you know how Rainbow can be when she’s upset.” It wasn’t exactly the truth, but it wasn’t exactly a lie either. Jack liked to call it a bending of the truth. Jack actually didn’t like to lie, but sometimes a small lie couldn’t hurt.

“What were you two arguing about?” Her eyes narrowed a bit and her tone became more… hostile, it was actually like an interrogation.

Jack mentally facehoofed for not thinking about that. “Um, I’d rather not talk about it, maybe when Rainbow and I settled our dispute then we could inform you.” He gave her a pleading smile and puppy-dog eyes that these ponies somehow managed to have.

Twilight rolled her eyes and got out of Jack’s way. “Fine, you can use the guest room. I do hope that you didn’t hurt Rainbow. She may be hard on the outside, but I know that she’s soft on the inside.” Twilight led Jack to the guest room, but was still trying to figure out what might have happened between Rainbow and Jack.

“I know that Twilight, and I also hope that I didn’t hurt her, I would never forgive myself.” He felt really bad about what happened, but the past is the past and the only thing he could do now was trying to make it up to Rainbow.

They arrived at the guest room and stood there for a couple of seconds, there was a tension in the air. Maybe this tension was caused due to Twilight not receiving many visitors or due to Jack, who was actually feeling miserable for his deeds. Twilight broke the silence, so that she could go back to bed and so that the situation didn’t get even more awkward. “Well Goodnight, if you need anything then go to my pet owl, Owlowiscious. He’ll help you.”

“Ah, so that’s why you leave the lights on at night, for the owl.”

Twilight shook her head lightly and chuckled, she was actually going to say something really weird right now. “Not exactly, Owlowiscious likes to do some reading at night and it’s better for your eyes to read in the light than in the dark. He’s a very intelligent owl.”

Jack nodded his head in understanding. “Ah, makes sense.” It actually didn’t make much sense, but much in this world didn’t make any sense. The moon and the sun are controlled by the Princesses, he heard a shout in the middle of the night and Pegasi are able to control the weather. He decided to stop worrying about that and got ready to enter his guest room. “Well, Goodnight.” And with that he closed the door and nestled himself comfortably under the sheets of the bed.

*****

It was Saturday afternoon and Jack was heading towards Rainbow’s house with a saddlebag full of ingredients for the dinner he was going to prepare. He had thanked Twilight for letting him sleep in her guest room and he wanted to pay her for it, but Twilight had said that it was just something between friends and friends don’t want money from each other. Still, Jack wasn’t a guy, or maybe now a stallion, that took no for an answer and he secretly left some bits on the bed in the guest room. Jack knew that Twilight would scold him for that when they would meet again, but Jack was a persistent one when it came to repaying favors.

After leaving the library he went to the market to get his ingredients. Before he went to sleep he thought about what he could make. He found nothing in his mind and so he decided to search Twilight’s library for some cookbooks. With the help of Owlowiscious he found three cookbooks that were ok for him.

As an appetizer he would make a double tomato bruschetta. He would need some Roma tomatoes, some sun-dried tomatoes, garlic, olive oil, vinegar, basil, a baguette and mozzarella cheese. Luckily for him Ponyville was an agricultural community, so they basically had every possible vegetable.

As main course he would make roasted chestnut & herb pesto pasta with mushrooms. He would need some cooked chestnuts, some mint, basil and parsley, some Parmesan, 2 garlic cloves, rapeseed oil, dried pasta, olive oil and chestnut mushrooms. The appetizer and main course would be Italian, but Jack had something very special planned for the dessert.

As dessert he would make a Moelleux au Chocolat. He would need chocolate, sugar, eggs, butter and flour. It only needs 30 minutes to prepare, but it is feared in many kitchens. A Moelleux is technically a cupcake or muffin of chocolate, but with liquid chocolate inside of it. There is a great chance that it might collapse or that it’s too hard, but if you do it right then you have actually a gift from the Gods.

So now Jack’s saddlebag was full of ingredients and the cookbooks which he borrowed from the library. His target became visible in front of him: Rainbow’s home. He silently hoped that Rainbow wasn’t home so that he could make it a big surprise, but if she was home then so be it. He decided to look through the windows to see if she was home. She wasn’t in the living room or kitchen, that’s good. The bathroom had no windows, so the only thing that was left was her bedroom. He looked through the window and saw a scene he didn’t expect. Her blankets lay unorganized on the floor, her alarm clock was smashed to pieces and her cloud pillow was soaking wet. A sudden feeling of guilt nestled itself in Jack’s brain, even more than yesterday in the strip club. He saw that he had hurt Rainbow even more than he thought. She wasn’t home right now, so that must mean she was flying somewhere to forget everything that happened yesterday. It was going to be very hard to win back Rainbow’s trust, even with the dinner. But then his mind reminded him of something. He still had those Wonderbolts tickets and he could use them to win back Rainbow’s trust, she’ll be so excited when she hears that Jack managed to get some tickets. With his newfound courage he entered the house through the front door, but first he grabbed Rainbow’s spare key out of the cloud in her cloud lawn.

He placed his saddlebags on the kitchen table and emptied them. He knew that it would take some time to cook all these dishes so he needed some entertainment. Rainbow had told him that the technology in Equestria is almost the same as on Earth, but Earth is a bit more advanced. Maybe Rainbow had a radio in her attic so he could listen to the radio while he was cooking.

Rainbow’s attic was a dusty, filthy, old room with much old Wonderbolts souvenirs. There were multiple shelves full of books about flying or comic books about Pegasi, but there was one thing that caught Jack’s attention and that was a crown. It was a fake-golden crown with a text engraved on it. ‘1st place Young Flyer Competition: Lightning Dash.’ Lightning Dash? Could that be her father? I’ve got to ask Rainbow that when she’s in a better mood. He placed the crown back on the shelf and trotted further into the attic. At the end of the room he found a rather old radio, but there was no visible damage on the radio. He trotted back to the door and closed it, leaving the crown back in the dark.

After 5 minutes Jack managed to get the radio to start. He searched for a good frequency and he found one instantly. The radio station was playing an exact copy of Moonlight Sonata, but it was a modern version. I can use classical music right now; it can help me relax when I’m cooking. He placed the radio on the kitchen table and began cutting the tomatoes for the appetizer.

*****

Rainbow had finished her tour above the Whitetail Woods. The flight had managed to relax her thoughts, but the events of yesterday never left her thoughts completely. She always wondered why Jack would do such a thing. Wasn’t she sexy enough? Was he beginning to have second thoughts about their relationship? She found no answers and she could only blame herself for not letting Jack explain yesterday. Oh Rainbow, you’re such an idiot sometimes. She still loved Jack, but now she didn’t know if Jack loved her. She flew back to her house so she could relax there; contact with ponies was something she didn’t want right now.

When she was just a couple of feet away from her house, she heard something and it sounded like music. She instantly knew that it was her old radio, because only that radio had noise during the songs it played. But how could that radio play if she wasn’t home? That must mean that somepony was inside her home. She opened the front door as silently as she could, so that way she wouldn’t get noticed by the burglar. She closed the door again as silently as she could and crawled towards the kitchen, the music seemed to be coming from there. She was ready to attack the burglar, but to her surprise the burglar was Jack who was cooking and he was singing at the same time.

“Coltifornia rest in peace. Simultaneous release. Coltifornia show your teeth .She's my priestess, I'm your priest. YEAH, YEAH… Oh, the guitar part.” He stood on his hind legs and began to play air guitar. In one swift motion he turned to the left, still playing air guitar, and saw Rainbow staring at him with a small smirk on her face. He instantly got back on all fours, while blushing, and turned back to his stove.

Rainbow dismissed the smirk on her face, replaced it with a more angry expression and trotted towards the stove. I do have to say that it was kinda funny for me and very embarrassing for him. “Why are you here? I told you not to come home, if we can even still call it your home.”

That was a stab in Jack’s heart. Did Rainbow really want to kick him out of the house and end their relationship? He didn’t want that and he really thought that Rainbow didn’t want it either, but now he had to face the facts, this relationship couldn’t be repaired. His last hope to make things right was once again apologizing. “Rainbow, I’m so sorry. I didn’t know any better last evening and I know that it was very stupid of me to enter that strip club, but I apologize for that. I love you, but if you don’t want to see me again then that’s ok with me.” Jack hung his head and waited for Rainbow to say something.

Rainbow, however, was startled by Jack’s apology. He still loves me; I knew that I had let him explain things yesterday. A warm small formed on her face. She knew that things were going to be alright, but that didn’t mean that she would forgive Jack so easily. She trotted to Jack and caressed his cheek with her hoof, that made Jack look up and he was greeted by Rainbow’s warm smile. “Hey, don’t worry; I’m not going to throw you out. Honestly, I thought you went to the strip club because you didn’t love me anymore.”

Rainbow was like a savior for Jack, a little angel who told him that everything was alright. First he felt relief, but then he felt happiness, because his story with Rainbow Dash wasn’t over yet and he wasn’t planning to end it soon. This happiness was quickly locked away when Rainbow’s words began to sink in and he could feel himself cocking a look of confusion towards Rainbow. “Why would I stop loving you, you’re THE mare for me. You’re loyal, funny, cool, beautiful and rather smart.”

“Flattery isn’t going to make the forgiving process go faster, but I appreciate it. Oh, you forgot to mention that I’m awesome. Now let’s turn our attention to something else, because this cheesy situation isn’t very good for my coolness.” Jack rolled his eyes at the immediate return of Rainbow’s narcissism. Almost every Pegasi that he had met, with the exception of Fluttershy, had a bit of narcissism, maybe that was a common trait for Pegasi? Jack didn’t have much time to think about that, because Rainbow turned her attention to the stove. “So whatcha cooking?”

Jack immediately stood on his hind legs before the stove so that Rainbow couldn’t see what Jack was cooking. Things were going good right now and it would only get better if dinner was a surprise. “If I told you that then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now would it? It’s my make-it-up-to-you gift. Just go to the living room and wait until I call you.”

Rainbow pouted and used her puppy-dog stare, but it didn’t work on Jack. “Please, just one quick look.” Rainbow said, still using her same tactic.

Jack knew that drastic measures were needed, because Rainbow was a very persistent one. He took a towel in one of his hooves and whipped it against Rainbow’s flank. She let out a small shriek of pain, but mostly it was from the surprise. It wasn’t that hard, but it was enough to get her moving. Jack motioned with his hoof towards the doorway that connected the living room with the kitchen. “Out,” Jack ordered sternly. “This is currently my kingdom.”

Rainbow snickered for a moment and saluted. “Yes sir!” She said like she was a soldier in an army. Who knows, maybe Rainbow did get some army training when she was in flight school. According to multiple ponies, Cloudsdale was a very militaristic city with an own army. Jack shook his head to get the thoughts out of his mind and focused his attention back on the stove while Rainbow trotted, with much reluctance, to the living room. Both had the same thought in their head: He/She still loves me; everything’s going to be alright.

*****

It only took Jack half an hour to cook the appetizer, so Rainbow didn’t have to wait long before the borders of the kitchen were open again. Rainbow had taken a bite and moaned while she was eating, clearly she found it delicious. Jack didn’t eat as much as Rainbow, because he constantly had to taste his food before serving and so his stomach was almost full when he started eating. He had also bought a bottle of Canterlot’s finest white wine. It had a light sour taste, but it left some tingling sensations on the tongue. He pushed Rainbow again out of the kitchen when he was going to continue to cook. After 15 minutes Jack yelled a loud ‘God Dammit’. Jack had burned his right forehoof on the stove and his fur almost caught on fire. Rainbow bandaged him and he continued to cook, dinner was going to be served even if it killed him. After again 15 minutes the pasta was ready and Rainbow was again allowed into the kitchen. She once again moaned and Jack deducted that Rainbow really loved the Italian kitchen.

After the main course it was time for Jack’s pièce de résistance: his Moelleux au Chocolat. He had tried to make it several times today and every time something was wrong. It collapsed, it was too hard or the chocolate wasn’t liquid enough. This time he said his prayers to Celestia and to God and he took the Moelleux out of the oven. At first glance the Moelleux looked good from the outside, but he had to cut one open to see if the chocolate was liquid enough. He took a knife, cut it in half and to his surprise everything was perfect. The outside was hard and the chocolate that was inside the moelleux was liquid enough.

With much excitement and happiness he placed Rainbow’s moelleux on her plate and his moelleux on his own plate. “Rainbow, you can come back into the kitchen.” He yelled with much excitement in his voice. He had made one of the hardest desserts known to mankind.

Rainbow trotted back into the kitchen and sat down at her side of the table. She took a glance at the deliciousness in front of her and arched an eyebrow. “A… chocolate cupcake?”

A shocked expression formed on Jack’s face. “Oh Rainbow, saying that a Moelleux au Chocolat looks like a chocolate cupcake is like saying that my mother looks like a whore.” They both snickered a bit at Jack’s exaggeration; so far Jack’s make-it-up-to-you plan was a success. “No, this is a Moelleux au Chocolat. This little dessert is feared by many cooks, but the taste is extraordinary. Try it, because there are actually no words to describe this wonder.”

Rainbow nodded and sniffed at the dessert. Her assumptions were right, it smelled like chocolate. She took the spoon that Jack gave her, although she found it weird that this dessert was supposed to be eaten with the help of a spoon. She took a small piece of the moelleux on her spoon and almost instantly the liquid chocolate flowed out of the moelleux. She mixed the hard part of the Moelleux that was now on her spoon, with the liquid chocolate and brought the spoon towards her mouth. The smell of the chocolate invaded her nostrils once again and she felt a small shiver going down her spine. She couldn’t wait any longer and ate the piece of the moelleux. Almost instantly she felt an explosion of chocolate in her mouth. Sure, she had tasted chocolate before, but this one really took the cake. She knew that Jack’s Moelleux would even make Pinkie and her cupcakes jealous. She swallowed the piece and sat there with a goofy smile on her face. “Good Heavens.” She said; the goofy smile still plastered on her face.

Jack beamed with pride. Sure, he had eaten many Moelleux before, but he never made one himself. It was good to know that his cooking skills didn’t poison anypony. “It’s good, eh?” Rainbow nodded in response, she was now continuing devouring her moelleux. Jack sat down at his part of the table, opposite of Rainbow and began eating his moelleux.

After 5 minutes both of the Moelleux were on their way towards the stomachs. Rainbow patted her belly and let out a small hiccup from eating too fast. “You know, this will certainly speed up the forgiving process. I don’t think I ever ate this good in my life.”

Jack smiled politely at Rainbow and a small blush became visible on his face due to the compliment. Now he was ready to shock Rainbow so hard that it could be possible that her stomach emptied itself. He trotted to his saddlebag and took out two tickets which he held in front of Rainbow’s eyes. “These, my dear Rainbow, are tickets for the Wonderbolts race tomorrow in the arena of Cloudsdale.” He said with a small smirk on his face.

Rainbow’s eyes widened in disbelief. “H-how? It’s been sold out since last month.” She stammered a bit, her mind couldn’t process it.

He gave one of the tickets to Rainbow and she gladly accepted it. “Spitfire gave them to me, but they aren’t normal tickets. No, they are VIP tickets.” His smirk grew larger and Rainbow’s eyes widened once again.

“V-V-VIP tickets? You mean we can look at the race from the VIP lounge?” She asked, looking at the golden ticket. She could feel it; she was going to pass out any minute now if there were more surprises.

Jack nodded. “Yes, but that’s not everything. Spitfire has invited us to meet her and her team after the race. He closed his eyes and waited for Rainbow to give him a kiss, but it never came. Instead he heard a loud thud. He opened his eyes and saw that Rainbow had fallen off her chair and from the looks of it she was unconscious, but she had a huge smile on her face. Jack rolled his eyes and dragged Rainbow to the couch in the living room. Then he went back to the kitchen, he had some cleaning up to do. Jack, you’re great at fixing things.

*****

Sunday

Jack and Rainbow were flying to the arena of Cloudsdale where the Wonderbolts race was going to be held. Neither of them spoke much to each other while flying, but occasionally Rainbow let out an ‘ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh’. She was very excited to see her favorite flying team preforming live and she could speak with them after the race. The lack of talking to each other made it possible for Jack to relive yesterday.

After he had put Rainbow on the couch, around 8PM, Jack started with cleaning the kitchen. It was a mess and most of the pony population would say that a bomb decided to explode in the kitchen. He gathered all the courage he could find, said a silent prayer and began to clean the kitchen. It had to be around 10PM when everything was finally clean and all of the energy that Jack had at the start of the day was now completely gone. Jack took off his apron with the words ‘kiss the cook’ on it and trotted into the living room. Rainbow was still unconscious, but Jack had a feeling that she was just sleeping. He heard a knock on the front door and trotted to it. That’s probably Storm, let’s see how he’s going to make up for it. Jack opened the front door, but nopony was there. He saw a dark silhouette flying away and he instantly knew that Storm didn’t have the guts to look in the eyes of a furious looking Rainbow. He did leave his gift in front of the door. It was a bottle of whiskey for Jack, a bottle of white wine for Rainbow and a small note.

Jack opened the note and read it aloud. “Rainbow, don’t hate Jack. It was my fault and I’m very sorry for ruining your relationship with Jack, please accept these gifts. ~Storm.”

Jack chuckled to himself; Storm was a really kind stallion when he tried to glue the shards together. He took all the items inside and placed them on the kitchen table, Rainbow and he could deal with that in the morning. He decided not to awaken Rainbow, she would need her sleep so she was extra attentive tomorrow, it was going to be a day to remember. Jack trotted to the bed in the bedroom and lay down on the bed. Finally, alone in the bed… it does feel kinda lonely without Rainbow. Meh, tomorrow I can sleep again in this bed with her.

Ha, that was what he thought. No, when Rainbow and Jack were eating breakfast she had told the punishment she had in mind for him. He had to sleep on the couch for a whole month, he had to cook for Rainbow for 2 weeks and he couldn’t kiss or do something else romantic with Rainbow for a whole week. To Jack this equaled torture, but to Rainbow it was going to be the most amusing month of her life. Just thinking about Jack begging for at least one kiss or for just a night in the bed to relieve his sexual tensions had put her into a good mood that morning.

He snapped back to reality when he felt a nudge against his side. It was Rainbow and she was pointing at the arena that was constantly coming closer. Jack took a moment to look at it in detail. It was practically the brother of the Coliseum in Rome, but this arena was still in fine shape and not a ruin like its brother from Earth. It was also a bit larger than the Coliseum and Jack figured that it had a capacity of around 50,000-60,000 ponies. He then focused his attention on the row of ponies that stood in front of the many entrances and all had a silver ticket in their mouths. Jack silently thanked Spitfire for giving him a golden ticket; the queue for the VIP booth was remarkably smaller than the queue for the regular seats. Jack landed, together with Rainbow, at the end of the queue and waited until it was their turn to show their golden tickets. While waiting Jack occasionally glared at Rainbow for the torture she had brought on him, but she countered it with a smirk. There was one thing that Jack had figured out about now, Rainbow was determined and she wasn’t going to budge.

It had taken half an hour for Jack and Rainbow to reach the mare that was checking the tickets. The queue might have been smaller, but there were those snob ponies who took their time with everything. So when they reached the stair that led to the VIP booth, some trumpets were heard. Those trumpets indicated that the race was going to start in about 5 minutes. Knowing the urgency of their mission Jack and Rainbow hurried up the stairs, sometimes passing those snob ponies who also took their time going up the stairs. Some of them let out a grunt of annoyance, but Jack and Rainbow didn’t care about that. Rainbow just wanted to be there in time so she could see the start of the race and Jack just wanted to see Rainbow happy, even if she had sexually grounded him. They arrived in time and took the two seats that were placed closest to the windows.

The room wasn’t that large. There was one wall completely covered with windows that made the racetrack visible for the ponies in the VIP section. There were tables placed against the wall opposite of the windows and these tables were covered with salads, snacks and drinks. There were around 10 other ponies in the room, all snobs and not even paying any attention to the race that was about to begin. They just kept talking to each other and acted like they didn’t see Rainbow and Jack. Jack glared at some of them and when they noticed that Jack was looking at them they quickly averted their gaze. Rainbow didn’t notice all of this and kept her eyes locked on the racetrack, her excitement was practically radiating off her. Jack focused his gaze back on the racetrack and after a short wait of 5 minutes Spitfire and Soarin’ walked out of the hallway that connected the racetrack to their changing rooms.

The race of today wasn’t with the complete Wonderbolt team. No, the race of today was the Race of the Titans. Soarin’ versus Spitfire and the winner would become the captain of the Wonderbolts for the next season. They both greeted the crowd and shook the hooves of some lucky ponies who were sitting near the racetrack. The crowd became ecstatic and there was one pony that began to froth at the mouth. After their little introduction to the crowd they wasted no more time and got to their starting positions on the racetrack. The whole race was 10 miles long and the racetrack was shaped into an oval. The pony that crossed the finish line after doing 10 miles would win and became the new captain. The crowd became silent, they knew that Soarin’ and Spitfire would need their concentration and the only thing that could be heard was the occasional splash of sweat on the cloud floor. Everypony looked with wide eyes at the two ponies and they exchanged cocky expressions with each other. And then, out of nowhere, the start shot was heard and Soarin’ and Spitfire began to fly like it was their last time that they would fly. The crowd, once again, began cheering for the pony that they loved the most. In the VIP room Rainbow began cheering for Spitfire as loud as she could, but due to the windows her voice never reached Spitfire. This, however, began to upset the other ponies in the room and they began to throw dirty looks at Jack and Rainbow. Jack smirked at them then joined Rainbow in her cheering, just so he could bully the other ponies.

On the racetrack Soarin’ and Spitfire had already begun with their last mile and it was still a neck and neck race, but currently Soarin’ was leading. Spitfire, however, didn’t want to lose this race. It was her race and she knew it. With renewed determination she began to flap her wings even harder than they were already going and she could feel it. She could feel that her wings were beginning to burn and she saw a small glimpse of the sound barrier in front of her. She knew that she couldn’t pull off a Sonic Rainboom like Rainbow Dash, but she was going to be damn close. Maybe if she won this race she could ask Rainbow to teach her the Sonic Rainboom, but right now she had a race to win. She slowly began to pass Soarin’ who was looking at her with an expression of shock. He was so sure that he was going to win this race, but now Spitfire was going to smash his future captain-hood to the ground. Oh, he wasn’t going to let her win that easily. He also began to flap his wings harder than ever before and he too saw a glimpse of the sound barrier in front of him. They both focused on the finish line that was just a couple of feet away and added just that extra bit of power in their wings to ensure victory. Both determined to win, both neck and neck and both saw the white flash… it was a photo finish.

The Pegasus who took the photo showed it to the officials. They took their time to look at the photo and the crowd became impatient, they really wanted to know who had won. The three officials looked at each other and nodded, they knew who had won.

An official took a microphone in his hoof and brought it to his mouth. The murmurs in the crowd began to die down, now everypony in the arena was sitting on the edge of their seat. “Mares and Gentlecolts! Today has been a wonderful day full of action, full of speed and full of excitement, but there can be only one winner in the Race of the Titans,” He became quiet, to build up even more excitement and looked at Spitfire and Soarin’ who had just recovered from their race. “The new captain of the Wonderbolts is… Spiiiiiiitfiiiiiire!!!”

The crowd, who had been quiet just moments ago, erupted into cheers and the clopping of hooves. There were ponies that weren’t exactly happy with the outcome, they had bet their money on Soarin’, but they applauded nonetheless. One of the officials flew towards Spitfire and gave her a bouquet of flowers and the insignia that showed to everypony that she was the captain of the Wonderbolts; it still needed to be stitched on her suit. Soarin’ gave her a small hit on her shoulder and smiled at her, he was genuinely happy for her. She smiled back at him and gave him a quick kiss; they both knew that their relationship wasn’t a big secret anymore so now they could be affectionate with each other in public. All the ponies in the arena let out a d’aww and some couples in the arena also began to kiss. Soarin’ and Spitfire waved at their fans and they both flew back to their changing rooms, they both really needed to hit the showers.

Rainbow was still cheering in the VIP room; her cyan furred body couldn’t contain her excitement. Most of the other ponies had already left the VIP room; they couldn’t stand it to be in the same room with those commoners. Jack really didn’t mind that they were gone, now he could just sit back in his seat and relax. He would have done that, but he was grabbed by Rainbow and kissed firmly on the lips. After a couple of seconds she broke the kiss and a very baffled Jack fell back into his seat.

After a few moments he slowly climbed out of his trance and shot Rainbow a confused look. “I thought you said that I was sexually grounded?” He asked her.

Rainbow snorted and gave him a playful nudge on his shoulder. “Yes, but this is an exception. You gave me such an amazing day that kissing you was the least I could do.” She explained while focusing her attention back on the arena in front of her. The ponies who sat in the normal part of the arena were slowly starting to fly towards the exits; maybe it was time to leave too.

Her thoughts were interrupted when Jack reminded her that the tickets did something else that just the VIP booth. “Are you ready to talk to Spitfire and Soarin’?”

Rainbow let out a silent gasp, she had almost forgotten that. How could she forget something as important as that? Still, it didn’t matter; the only thing that mattered was that she was going to meet her favorite team. “Ohmygoshohmygoshohmygosh… YES!!!” She quickly grabbed Jack’s left foreleg and began to fly with him towards the changing rooms. Rainbow was pulling him, but Jack still had to steer his body so that he didn’t crash into any walls they came across. Yes, they were made of clouds, but they were as hard as concrete walls. After almost colliding with three ponies they both finally arrived at the door that separated the changing room and the hallway.

Rainbow let go of Jack’s leg and Jack needed a moment to breath. After he calmed down from what must have been his most terrifying flight ever he raised his hoof towards the door. He looked back towards Rainbow and saw her determined expression. Knowing that Rainbow still had everything in control in her mind he quickly knocked on the door. The door opened a few moments later and Spitfire, with a towel on her head, stood in the doorway.

“Ah Jack and Rainbow, please come in.” She motioned with her hoof towards the changing room and the couple accepted her invite.

Rainbow was amazed by what she saw; it was the first time that she actually set a hoof in the changing room of the Wonderbolts. To her left were the lockers of the Wonderbolts, painted in orange and blue. Behind her was the door and a small table with refreshments. To her right were two massage tables with two masseuses standing next to the table and a small table with magazines about flying. In front of her was another door with a small sign that read: Shower. Rainbow was still amazed by the room, but she had suspected it to be a bit more luxurious. Maybe the Wonderbolts didn’t like all those unnecessary objects, maybe they just wanted the things they needed and nothing else. Spitfire shook Rainbow out of her thoughts with a ruffle on her mane.

“So, I heard from Jack that you wanted to talk to me. Why don’t you join me for a massage on the massage tables? Lily and Serene are excellent massagers.” Rainbow nodded and followed Spitfire towards the massagers. Spitfire looked back at Jack when she knew that she had forgotten about him. “Soarin’ will entertain you, but right now he’s still in the shower.” Jack nodded at Spitfire and she trotted towards the massage tables. The last thing Jack heard before they were out of hearing range, due to the noise from the shower, was that they were talking about Rainbow’s chance to join the Wonderbolts.

A few minutes later Soarin’ was ready to meet Jack. He had already dried his coat and mane and his uniform was safely stacked in his locker. He now looked like a normal pony. He saw Jack standing near the doorway and trotted towards him with a smile on his face. He was very eager to meet this Jack and certainly after he heard about Jack’s little endeavor in the strip club. Better yet, whole of Cloudsdale had heard about it and it wouldn’t be long before the news would spread itself around Equestria like a virus.

He stopped in front of Jack and shook Jack’s hoof. “Hey there, I’m Soarin’ and you must be Jack. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

Jack took a step back and looked at Soarin’ with a skeptical look in his eyes. “What exactly did you hear?” He already knew the answer, but just had to make sure. He didn’t really care about his reputation, but if the news about the strip club would spread around Equestria like a wildfire that could mean extra complications for him and Rainbow and Jack really didn’t want that. He came here to live a calm and peaceful life and not to be hunted by the ponies of Equestria or to be hated by Rainbow.

Soarin’ snorted in the same way as Rainbow. “Well, about a special kind of club.” Jack immediately tensed up; news was spreading really fast around here. Soarin’ saw that Jack needed a helping hoof so he placed his hoof on Jack’s shoulder. “Hey relax, it happens to all stallions and it even happened to me. Ponies will forget about it, don’t you worry. Now, do you want to go to a bar?”

The offer was very inviting and so was Soarin’. Jack had heard from Rainbow that Soarin’ was a bit of a goof, but his heart was in the right place. Soarin’s goofiness always made ponies laugh and it also made their day better. He could become good friends with Pinkie. Jack nodded. He was a bit hesitant to accept Soarin’s invite after what happened with Storm, but from the looks of it Soarin’ wasn’t as childish as Storm. Storm could also be quite fun at some times, but he saw everything like a joke. He could laugh in every situation, but he also knew when he did something wrong and then he would try to make things better. Storm was like a child, but he could be serious in some situations. “Alright, but please… no strip clubs.”

Soarin’ burst out laughing and pushed Jack towards the door. “Alright, no strip clubs.” He opened the door and they both left for what would be a fun afternoon.

Author notes: Here, have a culinary chapter. I bet you all want a moelleux right now. If you didn’t notice it by now, I have a subconscious tendency to make chapters as nice and warm as possible. You won’t see much dark and heart-breaking chapters from me, I just have a difficulty with writing them. This chapter is a rather calm chapter and there’s a little bit of character development in it. The next one will be about Nightmare Night and in the chapter after Nightmare Night the ‘fun’ will begin. And with fun I mean our antagonist will make a move. Also I would like to thank my super-duper amazing editor, TheTimberWolffe (self-plugs!) for editing this chapter.

Editor notes: He’s really good at this whole writing thing

Nightmare Night

A New World… For Jack.

Chapter 5: Nightmare Night

Timeline: A month later.

Nightmare Night, the Equestrian equivalent of Halloween. A night where pranks are very common. A night where the foals go trick-or-treating. A night where the foals can finally stay up past their bedtime. But for some ponies Nightmare Night was a night from Tartarus. It was scary and terrifying. So lock your doors and close your blinds, because tonight is Nightmare Night. MUHAHAHA!!!

*****

It was just a few hours before the start of Nightmare Night. The ponies in Ponyville were decorating their houses, even the ones who were scared of Nightmare Night. Jack-o’-lanterns were placed next to doors and sometimes accompanied with fake spiders or ghosts. For this special occasion the town hall had been painted orange and black. The river that flowed through Ponyville had been magically changed by Twilight. She had changed the blue color of the water to a red one, it was almost the same as blood. She had created a costume for herself with the help of her magic. She was going to celebrate Nightmare Night in an Ursa Minor costume. Secretly she hoped to see Trixie again so that they could settle things between them, but her mind told her that she wasn’t going to come back.

Rarity had been the costume creator the past couple of days. Everypony, except the scared ones, wanted a costume and she was the only fashion designer in Ponyville. She accepted all the commissions, but as the generous soul she is, she gave everypony a discount because it was for a special occasion. She created many costumes: ghosts, Timberwolves, devils and even a batmare. She created a Countess Flankula costume for herself. Fangs, cape and a black dress, which even rivaled the blackness of the night itself. She was ready for Nightmare Night.

Applejack and her brother bucked as many trees as they could before the start of Nightmare Night. The Mayor had appointed Applejack and her family as the ponies who were responsible for the food on Nightmare Night. She needed to make apple pies, apple fries, apples on a stick and so on. Now she and her family were busy cooking. Her costume was also ready. She was going to celebrate Nightmare Night in an apple costume, a big red apple. Rather silly, but it fitted her love for apples.

Pinkie Pie was the mare responsible for the games which were going to be played near the town hall. She was also responsible for the foals who were going to be trick-or-treating with her. Her costume was a cupcake with pink frosting. Yes, a real cupcake. She decided to go for a cupcake costume so that she could eat it after Nightmare Night.

Fluttershy helped the ponies with the decorations on their houses and in the town. She was afraid of Nightmare Night, but that didn’t stop her from helping other ponies. She attached some balloons to lanterns or placed a jack-o’-lantern on a good location. Due to Rainbow’s persuasion she decided that she was going to leave her house and try to enjoy Nightmare Night. Her costume fitted her love for animals. She was going to live a little on Nightmare Night in a brown squirrel costume. Her whole body was covered in that costume, except her eyes and her mouth. She even had the ears and tail of a squirrel. One could easily mistake her for a giant squirrel. It was the perfect costume.

Rainbow and Jack were responsible for the weather. They needed to make sure that there weren’t any clouds in Ponyville airspace. It was an easy job for them so that left them with enough time to try on their costumes.

Rainbow Dash’s choice was just a black cloak that covered her whole body and this was accompanied by a scythe that she could hold with her wings. She was going to celebrate Nightmare Night as the pale pony; as Death.

She walked around in her living room, showing off her costume, while Jack sat on the couch and looked at her. “So, whaddya think?” She asked while she once again hit Jack on his right foreleg with her plastic scythe.

Jack rubbed his right foreleg and pushed the scythe away. “Y’know, it’s really starting to hurt after the 21st time.” Rainbow pouted and lay her scythe on the ground next to the couch. “But I think you’re going to have one of the best costumes in Ponyville. If you just dyed your coat and mane white, then ponies will surely take you for the real pale pony.”

Rainbow shook her head. “Not gonna happen. My coat and mane need to stay natural or otherwise I’ll lose the shine on them.” She took off her hood and went with a hoof through her mane to empathize her ‘shine’. Jack just rolled his eyes. “Well,” Rainbow began. “Aren’t you gonna show me your costume?”

Jack stopped staring at Rainbow’s ‘oh so glorious’ mane and quickly got off the couch. “You’re going to love this.” He said while he disappeared into the bedroom.

He took the box that was placed under his bed and put it on the bed. He opened the box and laid his eyes on the prize. He had asked Rarity to make a suit the same as Slenderman. Or is it Slendermane? Before he went to Rarity he drew the suit of Slendermane on a piece of paper. His drawing was a total disaster, but he didn’t need his drawing. Rarity said she had heard of Slendermane and she even played the game, so she was familiar with Slendy’s suit. The game had scared the living hell out of her and she slept with Sweetie Belle for a couple of nights.

He took the suit out of the box and admired it for a moment. Rarity had done a really good job on his costume. His suit was black, which was going to cover his whole body except for his head, and his collared shirt was white, he also had a red tie just like the real Slendermane. He put on the suit and readjusted his tie so that it was perfect. Then he took another piece of clothing out of the box. It was a white mask that could cover his face. He put it over his head and looked at the mirror. Yes, he can see through the mask. It was then that he noticed the tentacles on his back. (Editor: I’ve seen enough hentai :P ) Before he went home with his costume he went to Twilight. He had asked her if she could put some magical tentacles on his back so that he looked more like the real Slendermane. She managed to do it and now there were tentacles on the back of the suit. He smirked, knowing that he had the perfect costume to scare somepony, and that pony would be Rainbow Dash. He quietly walked to the window and flew out of it.

He flew to the window of the living room and peeked through it. Perfect, Rainbow Dash was still with her back to the window and she was once again playing with her scythe. Jack soundlessly crept through the open window and walked very quietly towards Rainbow’s back. When he was just behind her he tried to control his tentacles and to his surprise it worked. He controlled the tentacles and very silently moved them towards Rainbow’s back. Rape time… Wait what? Oh no, I have a dirty mind. He dismissed those thoughts and focused on his tentacles. It was actually kinda weird to control appendages that weren’t really his, but he could control them and that was all that mattered… and scaring Rainbow Dash of course.

Rainbow felt a tap on her shoulder, but to her surprise the thing that tapped her wasn’t a hoof. From the edges of her vision she could actually see that it looked like a tentacle and she hated to admit it, but she was scared to turn around. Eventually she mustered up all her courage and turned around. She immediately was eye to… mask with the strange creature. She wanted to scream, she just wanted to scream her lungs out, but no word left her mouth. She just stared at… it, but nothing happened. She was fairly certain that she would die, but then the creature began to laugh. Her face that had an expression of fear, but it slowly began to change into one of confusion. She saw the creature and she thought she was going to die. She saw its white mask, completely covering its eyes and its emotions. She saw its black suit with the red tie. She saw its brown tail. Wait… brown tail? Laughing? No… Jack? … Oh no he didn’t. “Jack, is that you?” She asked, but with still with a bit of fear in her voice. She wasn’t sure if it was Jack so it could be anypony.

The creature briefly stopped laughing and pulled off his mask. It was then clear to Rainbow that Jack had pranked her. He met her furious gaze, but he couldn’t contain himself and began laughing again. She kept her furious gaze fixated on him, but after a few seconds she joined his laughing, because his prank was too damn funny. She really didn’t mind to be pranked, in fact she actually likes it once in a while. “Hohoho, you should have seen your face.” Jack managed to say between his laughs.

Their laughter slowly died down and they both sat on the couch. “Yeah yeah, but you just won the battle, that war is far from over.” She said.

Jack raised his eyebrow in an almost comical way. “Is that a challenge, Miss Dash?”

Rainbow nodded and spit on her hoof. “It is, Mister Mavis. The one who has pranked the other the most after one week wins. The loser has to… treat the other like royalty for one week.” She extended her hoof.

Jack hesitated for a moment, he knew how Rainbow was when she was in a challenge. She was like a Pitbull, once she had her teeth in something, she wasn’t going to let go and she was going to do everything to win. Nonetheless he liked taking a risk, so he spit on his hoof and hoof-bumped her. “Deal.” He answered.

Rainbow snorted. “You’re going to lose. Jack, mah boi, get ready for another week of being my slave.”

Jack stuck his tongue out. True, last month was hard, but he deserved it. “We’ll see, we’ll see. Right now I’m gonna take a nap, Nightmare Night starts around 8PM and it’s just 2PM. Wake me when it’s time.” He yawned and rested his head on the armrest and closed his eyes.

Rainbow got out of the couch and began to play with her scythe again. Not many ponies knew this, but she had a bit of weapon training in Cloudsdale when she was just a filly, so weapons interested her. “Fine, but try to keep those tentacles in your control, they scare the heck out of me.”

*****

“Where is it? Where is it?” Luna asked herself while she searched through her closet.

The whole afternoon she had been searching for one item that seemed to have disappeared into thin air. That item was a black cloak she wore when she wanted to celebrated Nightmare Night in Ponyville.

Two years ago was her first Nightmare Night in Ponyville and lets just say that things didn’t go the way she planned. But then that mare with the violet mane, Twilight Sparkle, helped her. She convinced the inhabitants of Ponyville that Luna wasn’t dangerous and that they just had to give her a chance. Of course Luna herself had to try a different approach to make friends with the inhabitants of Ponyville, but in the end they accepted her as a friend and now Nightmare Night was her favorite night. Last year she couldn’t attend Nightmare Night, because she was on a diplomatic mission in Zebrica. But tonight she was going to celebrate it, but only if she could find her cloak.

“Are you missing something, sister?” Celestia asked. She was standing in the doorway while wearing a slightly amused smile on her face. She always enjoyed seeing her sister when she was stressed.

Luna pulled her head out of the closet and stared at her sister, her eyes just small dots in her eyes. “Yes,” She quickly said. “We need our cloak or otherwise we cannot attend Nightmare Night in Ponyville. Thou must tell us where it is, we know that thou hast hidden it from us.” Her nostrils let out some steam, Luna was getting rather angry now.

Celestia just raised her hoof in a swift, calm motion. “Calm down Luna, and remember your grammar lessons.”

Luna sighed slowly and tried to calm down. “Please sister, where is our… my cloak?”

Celestia chuckled. “Oh I hid it alright, but it’s up to you to find it. I’ll give you a clue. The cloak you are looking for is somewhere here in your bedroom. Have fun searching.” She walked out of the bedroom and closed the door behind her. After 5 seconds she could hear Luna’s hoof smashing against the closet, probably to let off some steam.

“Sister, you’re such a troll.” Luna said when her anger disappeared.

She had searched everywhere. Under her bed, in the closet, in her bedside table and even on her roof, her cloak was nowhere to be found. She felt somber, due to her sister she couldn’t attend Nightmare Night. It was her sister who made everything difficult for her. It was her sister who had the easy way of living. Slowly her hooves began to change to a black color and when she saw that she immediately knew what it meant. She had to stop feeling resentment towards her sister or otherwise Nightmare Moon would come back and she didn’t want that. She began to think happy thoughts. Celestia was her sister and she knew that Celestia loved her. Her hooves stopped changing. Celestia liked to play with her. Her hooves slowly regained their dark blue color. Celestia was just playing a prank on her and they both loved pranks. Her hooves were dark blue once again.

She sighed, she had averted changing into Nightmare Moon. The elements didn’t destroy Nightmare Moon, they just locked her up and now she was waiting for a hole to break through. Luna had to keep herself under control if she wanted to keep Celestia and her subjects safe.

She closed the closet and walked around her room, her mind still trying to find places she hadn’t searched before. Then, in her mind, a light bulb appeared. She knew where her cloak was. She trotted to a part of her wall, near the door, and pushed on a special brick. That part of the wall opened itself and she laid her eyes upon the bananas in the secret compartment of the wall. Her sister kept a secret stash of bananas in every room in case of a banana emergency. Luna didn’t know why her sister had such an obsession with bananas, but all of that didn’t matter right now, because on the stack of bananas lay her cloak. She jumped for joy, she could celebrate Nightmare Night.

*****

8PM, it was time for Nightmare Night to start. Jack and Rainbow had held their promise and they met Scootaloo under their cloud house, together they were going to celebrate Nightmare Night. Scootaloo was wearing a chicken costume. She had to wear it, because she had lost a bet with Applebloom. Her original plan was to wear a Rainbow Dash costume, but now she was stuck in that chicken suit.

“Hah, I still can’t believe you lost a tug of war against Applebloom. You need to be stronger, squirt.” Rainbow said while she, Jack and Scootaloo walked towards the town. Her house was a mile from the town, so it took some time to reach Ponyville.

“Yeah, but it wasn’t my fault. A butterfly distracted me, it landed on my nose. Besides, Applebloom is an Earth Pony so it’s normal that she’s stronger.” Scootaloo tried so desperately to save some dignity, but it wasn’t working. Jack and Rainbow had laughed the whole time they had been walking.

Rainbow patted Scootaloo’s head. “Alright squirt, I believe you.” Rainbow said.

It was just a small sentence, but Scootaloo appreciated it. She didn’t let Rainbow down and she was so happy for that. The rest of the walk they talked to each other. Jack told Scootaloo that he had given Rainbow quite the scare with his costume and Rainbow blushed when he said that to Scootaloo, but now it was Scootaloo’s time to laugh which made Rainbow blush even harder. After that, Rainbow told Scootaloo that if she ever had a stallion that she would have to rule him with an iron hoof. She told Scootaloo about last month and told her that Jack was a very obedient pony. Now it was Jack’s time to blush.

They arrived in Ponyville around 8.30PM and the party had already begun. There was a giant stage where Vinyl Scratch was putting a record on her turntable. It was not the usual Vinyl song, but it was kind of electronic. Twilight was dancing, if you could call it dancing, with Storm who wore an Alien costume from the movie Alien VS Pony. Fluttershy, who actually looked rather relaxed, was talking with Rarity near the dance floor. They both seemed to have a good time. Applejack was busy selling her food, but occasionally her brother took over so that she could have a good time on the dance floor. Pinkie Pie… was nowhere to be found and there weren’t any foals at the games that Pinkie had created for them. That had to mean that she was trick-or-treating with them. Pinkie had the body of a mare, but still a filly inside. It was a nice thing to see. Ponies dancing, chatting with each other or just enjoying the night and forget about their worries for a time.

Jack lowered himself a bit. “So Scootaloo, you want to go trick-or-treating?”

Before Scootaloo could answer the music abruptly stopped, much to the dismay of the ponies who were dancing. Vinyl just shrugged, she also didn’t know why that happened. A record appeared out of nowhere and dropped on the turntable. Instantly the music, more fitting for Nightmare Night, began.

There was a lightning flash, followed by some thunder. Some of the ponies sought shelter under the roof of the town hall, in case it was going to rain, while others, like Fluttershy, cowered behind their friends. There was one thing that all ponies did and that was directing their gaze towards the sky. There they saw a chariot with two Pegasi with bat wings pulling it. The one who was controlling the chariot was none other than Princess Luna, who decided to visit Ponyville on Nightmare Night. Her cloak was covering a bit of her face, but most ponies could see that it was the Princess, so they got out of their hiding places or shelters. There were still some ponies who were scared of her, but with a bit of encouragement from other ponies, they too began to leave their shelters.

Luna had a smile on her face. “Ah Ponyville, it has been too long.” She silently said to herself. The chariot landed near the town hall, just next to the dance floor. She stepped out of the chariot and pulled off her hood, her regal mane again flowing in non-existing wind. She cleared her throat, she was going to use the Royal Canterlot Voice, just this once. “Ponies of Ponyville, it is wonderful to be here tonight and I-“ She stopped when she saw a brown spotted colt in a cowpony costume sitting on the bridge and with a smile on his face. That smile was clearly directed to her. She stopped her speech and flew over to Pipsqueak. “Pip, it’s so wonderful to see you again.” She grabbed the colt with her forelegs and gave him a bone crushing hug.

Pip desperately tried to push himself out of Luna’s hug, but she was too strong. “Please… can’t… breathe.” His head began to turn blue from not getting any oxygen.

Luna saw that she was almost killing Pip and quickly let go. He fell on the ground and took a deep breath. Luna lowered herself, so that she was face to face with Pip. “Oh Pip, I’m so sorry, sometimes I forget how strong I actually am.”

Pip waved a dismissive hoof at her and slowly got up. When his breathing was steady again, he spoke. “It’s quite alright, partner. A cowpony can take that kind of choking.” He came closer to Luna’s ear and whispered. “Just give me a pat on the head next time.”

Luna nodded quickly, she was really relieved that she didn’t give Pip any permanent damage. Her thoughts about harming Pip disappeared when her brain registered that he called her ‘partner’ and that he had a cowpony accent. She raised her head again and formed an amused smile on her face. “Are we a cowpony this time, Pip?”

Pip nodded. “That’s right, partner. Say, do you want to be my deputy and catch some bad ponies?”

Luna was silent for a moment. Nopony had ever invited her to play a game, most of them were still a bit scared. But Pip, he wasn’t scared and he was asking her to join his game. Of course she was going to accept it. “Gladly.” She made a mental note to invite Pip over for a sleepover party in the castle, just the two of them.

Pip jumped for joy. “Well, let’s get going, Deputy. A lot of outlaws are just waiting for us to catch them.” Pip said and ran away. Luna immediately ran after him, a little giggle escaping her lips.

Jack watched the display from a distance, but with a smile on his face. He had heard stories about Luna’s return and most of the stories tried to make ponies scared of her. There were still some ponies who thought that Luna was just Nightmare Moon in disguise and that she couldn’t be trusted, but there were others who accepted Luna. Of course, the scared ponies were around 80% of the population, but slowly more ponies would begin to accept Luna. To Jack Luna didn’t seem so bad, she was actually quite lovely. He had also heard her voice and he instantly connected that voice to the voice he heard when he was flying around midnight one month ago. He didn’t fully comprehend how Luna could have such a loud voice, but he also couldn’t comprehend how ponies could hold things with their hooves, so he decided to drop it. It would probably fuck his mind up.

He turned to Rainbow who was, as always, bragging about herself to Scootaloo. She stopped speaking when she saw Jack coming to her. “She seems nice.” He said. Truth be told, he wouldn’t mind having a talk with the princess.

Rainbow nodded. “She’s really nice, but most ponies don’t want to see that side of her. They just keep seeing her as a demon. It’s a shame, she can be so funny sometimes.” Her mind brought her to a night where she was having a sleepover at the castle together with her 5 friends and the princesses. Luna was good at telling jokes, some more explicit than others, and everypony had a good time. She really wanted to have a sleepover again soon.

“Yeah it is.” Jack agreed. He decided to take things the other way, before it became too depressing. “Anyways,” He turned to Scootaloo. “How about we get you some candy, because that’s why we’re here for, right?”

“Yeah, and I know just the place to get some candy.” Scootaloo said and began to gallop away. Jack and Rainbow followed her after shrugging to each other.

After a gallop of two minutes they arrived at a house which was built just next to the school. Scootaloo knocked on the door, her bag in her mouth, and waited for it to open. Jack and Rainbow just stood a bit further away, Scootaloo could ask the candy alone. The door opened and Ms.Cheerilee stood in the doorway. “Ah Scootaloo, here for some candy?” Ms.Cheerilee happily asked. Her name really fitted her personality, Jack could feel the happiness radiating off her.

Scootaloo nodded excitedly. “Yes Ms.Cheerilee and I even made my homework.” Scootaloo hoped that Ms.Cheerilee would give her more candy now that she had told her about her homework.

Ms.Cheerilee faked surprise. “Scootaloo, the most awesome filly in Ponyville, has done her homework? Well that deserves a reward, don’t you think? Wait right here.” Ms.Cheerilee trotted away from the doorway and she came back a minute later. On her back was a sack of candy and a book. She took the sack of her back and placed it in Scootaloo’s bag. “There you go, now for the moment suprême.” She grabbed the book with her mouth and gave it to Scootaloo.

Scootaloo placed the book on the ground and looked Ms.Cheerilee right in the eyes. PUPPY EYES MODE – ACTIVATED. “A-a book, Ms.Cheerilee? Why no candy?”

Cheerilee looked Scootaloo fiercely in the eyes, almost trying to glare the filly down. That was until she burst out laughing.”Haha, I got you there, Scootaloo.” Scootaloo just looked confused, but after a while Cheerilee stoped laughing and wiped some tears away. “Phew, it has been a long time since I had such a laugh. I might be a teacher, Scootaloo, but even I’m not that heartless. Here’s your extra candy.” She took the candy of a table that stood next to the door and placed it in Scootaloo’s bag. “There you go, Scootaloo, a good amount of candy. Now don’t eat everything at once or otherwise you’re going to pay Ms.Colgate a visit, understand?” Cheerilee had shifted back into teacher mode.

Scootaloo nodded “Yes Ms.Cheerilee.” She placed the saddlebags on her back, she could even smell the sweet aroma of the candy.

Ms.Cheerilee smiled. “Good, bye Scootaloo, bye Jack and Rainbow.” She waved at them and closed the door.

How Cheerilee knew that it was Jack under the mask of Slendermane, Jack didn’t know. Maybe it was teacher’s instinct or maybe it was because she knew that Rainbow and Jack almost always accompanied each other. Jack didn’t know it and he wasn’t going to pursue it.

The rest of the evening went well. Scootaloo got a good amount of candy and Jack and Rainbow occasionally pranked somepony who was standing near them. This night was one of the best nights that Jack ever witnessed. It was funny and scary at the same time. But every night has to come to an end and it wasn’t different for Nightmare Night, but before Jack and Rainbow dropped Scootaloo off at the orphanage, it was time for the grand finale.

“So tell me the plan again.” Rainbow asked when they stood in front of Lyra’s and Bonbon’s house.

Jack took a peek through the window and saw that Lyra and Bonbon were watching TV. Lyra was sitting like a human, but her hoof was lying on Bonbon’s flank, who was sitting like a normal pony would sit on a sofa. It was a heartwarming sight, seeing these two lovers enjoying each other’s company while watching CSI: Maneami. He turned back to Rainbow. “The plan is that you knock on the door and talk to them to keep them busy while I fly to the chimney and go into it. Then I will appear in their fireplace, which is not active by the way so don’t worry, and I quietly walk towards them. When I’m standing behind them, I’ll touch their back with my tentacles and they’ll have the scare of their life.” He grinned, almost diabolical, it just needed some evil music and a maniacal laugh to complete the picture.

“Sounds good to me.” Rainbow turned to Scootaloo. “Now, you just follow my lead and try to start a conversation with them. Oh, and don’t tell them anything about the prank.” Scootaloo just made a zipping motion, said nothing and smiled. She was clearly trying to show Rainbow that she wasn’t going to spoil anything and Rainbow loved Scootaloo for that. She always tried to impress her, to be as awesome as her idol and Rainbow knew that one day Scootaloo would become a shining star. Maybe not in flying, but she was sure that Scootaloo’s talent would be an astonishing one. She dismissed those sentimental thoughts and focused on the task at hand. “Now off you go, to the roof, and try to be silent.”

Jack nodded and took off. Flying with a suit was a bit harder than flying naked, but it was worth it. He landed as silently as he could on the roof and walked to the chimney. His ears perked up when he heard a knock, Rainbow had knocked on the front door. He listened intently. He could hear some murmur, clearly Bonbon and Lyra weren’t happy with the unexpected guests, and then he could hear the clopping of hooves on the floor. He dived into the chimney and again landed as silently as he could in the fireplace. He knew that his suit was covered in soot, but he didn’t mind. Rarity, however, would kill him. The door was opposite of the fireplace and he could see that Rainbow was doing a good job of distracting the two mares. He hovered above the floor, he really didn’t want to make any noise. When he was just inches from the backs of the two mares he landed and immediately and he began to caress their backs with his tentacles, it looked like he was going to rape them.

They froze, literally froze. Their bodies became cold and their breathing stopped. It almost looked like they died on the spot. Slowly they began to turn around and made eye contact with a mask and that’s when the screams began.

“Aaaaaahhh, it’s Slendermane. Quick, turn around before he knocks us unconscious.” Bonbon yelled. She had heard of Slendermane and how he caught his prey. Maybe turning around wasn’t going to help, since he was already behind them, but it was worth a shot.

They both turned around, so that they were facing Dash and Scootaloo again and saw those two lying on the ground and having the laugh of their life, Rainbow even had some tears coming out of her eyes. Confusion began to spread in their brains. It was also then that they heard some laughter from behind them. Their confusion changed into realization, they had been pranked. They once again turned around and saw Jack’s face, his mask in his hoof. He too was laughing.

Bonbon wasn’t happy that she had been pranked, her face immediately turned into a scowl. “Hey, that wasn’t-“ Her stomach grumbled. “Toilet!!!” She pushed Jack out of the way and ran to a room that was probably the toilet.

He had the perfect remark for this situation. “Well, I guess you can say that…” He took a pair of sunglasses from a table that was placed to his right and put it on his face. “I scared the shit out of her.” A YEAAAAAAAAHH followed, probably from CSI: Maneami.

Dash managed to stand up and cocked an eyebrow at Jack. “Dude, that sucked.”

Jack just shrugged. “Hey, you can’t blame me for trying.”

Lyra smiled, she actually thought that the prank was quite funny, even if she was the victim. “As much as I want to congratulate you three on a successful prank, I think I need to comfort Bonbon a bit. I hope you don’t mind, but I have to ask you all to leave.”

Jack nodded. “Of course we don’t mind. It’s your house and it’s getting late. See you later, Lyra.” He walked past Lyra and through the open door. He quickly turned back to her before she could close the door. “Here.” He tossed her the mask. “Keep it as a reminder.” A wink followed.

She looked at the mask, then at Jack and then back at the mask. Suddenly, an evil smirk formed on her face. “Bonbon will love this.” She smashed the door shut and Jack, Rainbow and Scootaloo could hear Lyra shouting: ‘Bonbon, I have a surprise for you.’

Scootaloo pulled with her teeth at Rainbow’s cloak. “Rainbow, if it isn’t too much to ask, but could I sleep at your place tonight. I think the orphanage isn’t open anymore, since it’s so late.” She wanted to use her puppy dog eyes on Rainbow, but saw that she wasn’t going to need it, because Rainbow as already nodding her head.

“Of course you can. Come on, hop onto my back. “She lowered herself a bit and a second later Scootaloo was lying on Rainbow’s back. “Jack will sleep on the couch this night.”

Jack nodded, but only because he hadn’t fully registered the sentence yet. “Yeah, I- I what?”

*****

The General sat at his desk, studying the invasion plans. The portal to the new universe was ready and tomorrow would be the day that he himself would start up the portal. The nukes had also arrived and had been equipped with a portal device. Basically that meant that when a nuke was launched he just had to push a button and the nuke would travel between universes. Still, he needed to do one thing before he started with the invasion and that one thing he would do tomorrow…

A/N: That’s it, the introduction chapters are over and now the real fun and action begins. I’m sorry for all my late chapters, but I have 3 other stories to attend to and school. I have a busy life.

E/N: >>Rape

Christmas special - Not relevant to the story

Christmas Special

It was a quiet, cold and a light breeze would occasionally hit Rainbow’s cloud house that was currently floating above the snow covered farmlands near Ponyville. It had been snowing for two days and the weather Pegasi had created the snow clouds for a very special occasion: Hearth’s Warming or in human terms: Christmas.

Jack was currently asleep in Rainbow’s bed with very thick blankets to cover him and to keep him warm. Equestria didn’t have heaters, so the ponies had to rely on blankets and fireplaces to keep them warm. The quiet morning in Rainbow’s bedroom was disturbed by a monster so awful, that even the mares in ponyville would scream: ‘The horror, the horror!’ That monster was Jack’s snoring.

He could feel himself awakening, turned his body around to Rainbow’s side of the bed and tried to feel her body with his hooves, but he could only feel a cold empty spot. Concerned about the lack of Rainbow, he opened his eyes and made eye contact with a little orange filly with a purple mane who had a rather disturbing large smile on her face.

“Good morning, Jack!” Scootaloo shouted as she began to jump on the bed. “Come on, get out of the bed, it’s Hearth’s Warming.”

Jack rolled his eyes and let his head fell back down on the pillow. “Good morning to you too, Scootaloo.” He murmured as he desperately tried to find his sleep again, but this filly wasn’t going to give up that easily and he knew it.

She began to push with her forelegs, and thus with all the might her body had, against Jack’s body, trying to get him out of bed. “Come... on, you shouldn’t be... sleeping on this day.” She groaned as she tried to push the giant out of bed, but she could clearly see that she just didn’t have enough power to push him out of the bed. Just when she was about to give up, she saw Rainbow Dash standing in the doorway, a grin on her face. She winked at Scootaloo and Scootaloo immediately got the message. She jumped off the bed and saw Rainbow walking towards the bed. There she got into bucking position and boom, she bucked the mattress and sent Jack flying.

Jack hit his head against the cloud ceiling, which hurt a bit, and fell back down on the mattress. He rubbed one of his hooves against his head and glared at Rainbow. “Why did you do that?”

She pointed at Scootaloo who had trouble to hold in her laughter. “Because you ignored this filly. I especially picked her up from the orphanage so she could celebrate this day with us.” She explained while ruffling Scootaloo’s mane. Needless to say, she didn’t like that.

“And this is my punishment, me hitting my head against the ceiling?” He, of course, didn’t like it that he was always Rainbow’s victim, but he knew that came with being in a relationship with her; he was the submissive one.

She rolled her eyes and clicked her tongue. “Aw, don’t be such a baby, the ceiling is made of clouds and besides, I could give you a worse punishment if you desire.” Jack could see that devilish glint her eyes and he was afraid to ask about the punishment, but eventually his curiosity won.

“What kind of punishment?”

She chuckled lightly. “Well, I could throw your present through the window or I could throw it into the fireplace. Which one do you prefer?”

Jack’s expression changed to a terrified one. “Neither!” He quickly answered her, trying to save his present. She could do anything with him, but she had to stay away from his present. “Go, I just need to comb my mane and tail, it won’t take long at all.” When he saw that Rainbow and Scootaloo were out of the room, he shouted with all the power in his voice, so that they could hear it. “And stay away from my present!”

****

Ten minutes and a nice combed mane later, Jack walked out of the bedroom and to the living room where the Christmas tree stood. Rainbow and he had decided to mix Hearth’s Warming and Christmas into one celebration, so that both cultures had equal values.

When he entered the living room, he was met by the warm air that originated from the fireplace and Scootaloo’s laughter. He looked around him and saw the Christmas tree standing next to the fireplace, but a safe distance away from it, and under it lay three presents. One for Scootaloo, one for Rainbow Dash, and one for himself. Rainbow had chosen his present, he had chosen Rainbow’s present and both of them had chosen Scootaloo’s present, a present she was going to love.

He saw Rainbow sitting on the couch and she had a wing draped over Scootaloo who was sitting to her right. It appeared that she was reading a book, which had to be a Daring Do book, aloud for Scootaloo. It warmed his heart to see such a beautiful scene, but what warmed him more was that today he was going to get a present. He felt like a boy again, once again reunited with his parents. The moment those thought appeared into his mind, he shook them away. Today was no day for mourning, today was a day of giving and receiving presents and love.

“Are you two ready for the presents?” He asked them when he heard that Rainbow had reached the end of a chapter.

Scootaloo immediately jumped out of the couch and ran to the Christmas tree. When she arrived there she took the present, which was rather large rectangle, with her name on it and waited for Jack and Rainbow to arrive at the tree. “Please me first, pleaaaaasse?” She begged when Jack and Rainbow had arrived at tree.

Rainbow chuckled and nodded. “Alright, squirt, you first.”

The moment that sentence had left Rainbow’s mouth, Scootaloo tore the wrapping paper, with reindeer design on it, to pieces. She just couldn’t wait to see what Rainbow and Jack had gotten for her. In less than a minute, the whole present was clear of wrapping paper and her eyes grew as wide as saucers when she laid eyes on her present. In her hooves lay a box, but the thing in it was more important and that thing was the SuperScooter 8000, one of the fastest scooters in Equestria. “Yes, this so awesome. Thank you, Rainbow” She said as she hugged Rainbow, but then let go and hugged Jack. “Thank you, Jack.”

Jack chuckled and lightly pushed Scootaloo away from him, so that he could breathe again. “It’s alright, Scootaloo, that’s what Christmas or Hearth’s Warming is for and of course being with your friends and family. Now why don’t you go back to the couch and assemble the scooter, so that you can go scooting after Rainbow and I open up our presents.” He ruffled her mane and off she went, to the couch with her new scooter. He then turned to Rainbow and smiled. “Now us?”

She nodded and took the two presents. “Now us.” She gave her present to Jack and kept Jack’s present at her side. When she saw that Jack was giving her a confused look, she smiled and gave his present to him. “Merry Christmas, you oaf.” She said with that warm smile of hers.

In an instant everything clicked inside Jack’s mind and he gave Rainbow’s present to her. “Happy Hearth’s Warming.” He rivaled her warm smile with one of his. Both of them waited for the other to open the present, but when Jack made the ‘continue’ motion with his hooves, she obliged and began to tear the wrapping paper off the rather small cube that was her present.

She opened the cardboard cube and laid eyes upon a present she was going to treasure until the day she died. Her present was an exact replica of the Wonderbolt suit and it was even signed by Spitfire. It read: ‘Just keep practising, love Spitfire. PS: Jack, you owe me one hundred bits for that suit.’ The last part was written in ink that you couldn’t remove, as it was just a reminder for Jack to repay his debts. “Ommygosh, ommygosh, ommygosh. How did you even get this? Not even I can get this, even if I begged Spitfire.”

“Drinking with Soarin has its benefits. Now my present.” He said as he rubbed his hooves together and looked at his small rectangle gift. He unwrapped it, opened the box and saw that the present was a twenty year old bottle of ‘Berry Punch’s whiskey: makes you drunk as a skunk.’ and with the present came two glasses. In each glass was a name engraved, the first glass read Rainbow Dash and the other Jack. “Thank you, Rainbow. I really like it, especially the glasses.”

Rainbow smiled, dropped the suit and came closer to him. “No, thank you.” She said and closed the distance between their lips, determined to show him how grateful she was. Their lips and tongues moved against each other, both of them wrestling for dominance, but neither won.

After a couple of seconds of kissing, they both could hear Scootaloo speaking. “Ewww, is that really necessary?” She asked as she stood next to her now assembled scooter. “Come on, I want to try out my scooter.”

They stopped kissing when they heard the filly’s voice, but with much regret, and stared at each other, both of their eyes filled with lust. Rainbow came closer to his ear and whispered with a lusty voice. “Tonight, you, me, the suit and the bottle of whiskey.” She then winked at Jack and walked to Scootaloo. “Alright, squirt, let’s try out your scooter, but first we need to clear the snow under the house.”

Due to his wingboner, Jack couldn’t fly down immediately, but he knew he was going to have one good night. It was officially his best Christmas ever.

Merry Christmas, y’all.

The Stage Is Set

A New World… For Jack

Chapter 6: The Stage Is set

Timeline: The next day

Lyra could feel the heat of the sun going through the windows and stopping to warm her body that was currently being kept warm by her duvet. It was the first of November, and she could feel that. The nights were beginning to become colder, as were the days, but the sun still managed to give a little bit of its warmth to the world and its inhabitants.

She liked autumn. She liked seeing the world change around her, the leaves becoming orange and brown, the animals searching food so they could start their hibernation, and the other ponies who were beginning to wear boots and scarves. Autumn was a season of changing; it was her season.

She turned around so that the sun couldn’t make her get out of bed. She enjoyed its warmth, but it didn’t have the right to tell her when to come out of bed. Thus, turning around was the best course of action so that the light couldn’t shine in her eyes and make her to get out of bed to close the blinds.

She was trying to rest one of her hooves on her marefriend’s shoulders but realized after a few seconds that she was grasping nothing else than air. She shrugged and didn’t bother to open her eyes; Bonbon was probably just in the bathroom or doing something else in the house. She didn’t care, she just wanted sleep to take her away again. She didn’t have to wait long since sleep had taken her away to the land of dreams in less than two minutes.

If she was awake, she would have seen the laptop lying next to her, right on Bonbon’s pillow.

*****

After 2 more hours of sleeping in, Lyra finally woke up because she had to go to the toilet. Those extra hours of sleep made her feel refreshed. She felt like she could handle all the things the world could throw at her.

Slowly, and with much resistance, she opened her eyes. She knew she had to start the day sometime and now seemed the perfect moment, even if there were some body parts of her that didn’t want to cooperate. She opened her eyes and looked to her left, maybe Bonbon had returned to the bed. But that wasn’t the case. Instead, she saw something else, a small metallic-like rectangle.

She began to study the device, maybe she could find a way to operate it. It was a small rectangle with the letters HP printed on it, and it seemed there was a way to open it. After a few seconds of trying to open it, she finally managed to open the locks and push half of the device open. She stared at a black screen, whilst the rest of the device had letters and numbers. She didn’t know how to operate it because she had never seen something like it. It was like a kind of technological breakthrough that had never been seen in Equestria. She closed the device, and when she heard that click, she got out of bed and walked to the bathroom. First she was going to do her morning ritual, then search for Bonbon in the house, and then ask around town about the strange device. Still, the thought that something had happened to Bonbon never left her mind.

*****

Jack awoke when he felt a kiss on his cheek, but it didn’t change his sour mood. Since Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash had occupied the bed, he had to sleep on the couch. He had voiced his opinion about Rainbow’s order, but she didn’t want to listen. Since he was a stallion, he had to sleep on the couch, so that Scootaloo and she could sleep in the bed. Mares and foals are more important, she had said. In a country where there are five mares per stallion this could be considered as gender racism, he thought, but he knew he couldn’t fight Rainbow. He just had to accept that he was the submissive one in their relationship.

He grumbled and turned around, now facing the back of the couch. He really didn’t like it that he had to give up his soft mattress and his fluffy covers to sleep on a hard couch with an old blanket. He would give Rainbow payback, one day she could expect payback.

Rainbow rolled her eyes. She knew Jack didn’t like sleeping on the couch, but she couldn’t make Scootaloo sleep on the couch, not now, not ever. “Come on, you can’t be that mad?” she asked as she trotted to the kitchen, she was going to get some apple juice.

Jack grumbled once again and said something Rainbow couldn’t comprehend, it was probably something she wouldn’t want to hear anyway. Jack could nag like an old mare when things didn’t go his way, but soon he would stop doing that, she was going to make him stop nagging. It wasn’t like she wanted blind obedience of him, but it was common in Equestria that the mares are dominant and especially if you’re from Cloudsdale. It might be different in his world, but he was in her world now and he had to accept the rules.

She returned a few minutes later with two glasses and a bottle of apple juice tucked under her right wing. She placed the objects on the table in front of the couch and poured the apple juice in the two glasses. She then took one of the glasses in her hoof and took a swig, downing the apple juice all at once. Her throat felt dry and she needed that. She let out a soft belch and placed the glass back on the table. She saw that Jack still hadn’t moved and walked over to him until she was just standing next to the couch. Oh, she was going to enjoy what was going to happen next and Jack probably too. She extended her right wing and began to tickle Jack’s right side. Almost instantly she received what she was looking for, his laughter.

“Hahahaha… Stop, please. I can’t take it. Ha.. Stop, I yield!” he yelled as he wiped some tears from his eyes and tried to push Rainbow’s wing away with his hooves. After a few more seconds of tickling, Rainbow pulled her wing away, and Jack could finally breathe again. “Ho. Alright, you got me. Happy now?” he asked her, that annoyed tone still present in his voice, but significantly less than a few minutes ago.

Rainbow nodded, she was glad that Jack was a bit more happy again. “Damn right I am, is it so bad to sleep on the couch for one night?” Her tone turned into one that was scolding a foal.

Jack lowered his head and took the glass in his hooves. “I guess not,” he said as he drank the liquid. The glass was soon placed back on the table.

Rainbow nodded. Jack could act like a foal sometimes, and then she had to pull him back to adulthood. “Good, now I want you to fly to Ponyville to get us some tomatoes, I don’t have enough to make us all a morning salad.”

Jack sighed. “Why don’t you do it, you’re way faster than me,” he asked her, and he received a frown in response. He instantly knew that he was going to be the one that had to fly to town to get those stupid tomatoes. “Ugh, fine, I’ll do it,” he said as he got off the couch and began to walk to the door.

“Jack, saddlebags and money?” Rainbow asked, shooting a grin at him.

“Oh… right.”

*****

“Excuse me, do you know what this is?” Lyra asked as she floated the device in front of Roseluck’s eyes. Roseluck had just opened her stall and was ready to begin selling flowers, but then Lyra came to her with the strange thing in the grasp of her magic, and thus she had to make time for one of her friends.

“No, I don’t think I’ve ever seen it before,” she said, as she cast a quick look at the device and went back to making sure her stall was perfect. Time was money, after all.

“Okay, thank you,” Lyra thanked Roseluck and walked to the fountain in the middle of the marketplace. She had asked at least twenty ponies about the strange thing, but all of them couldn’t answer her question.

She had also searched for Bonbon in the house, but she was nowhere to be found. It didn’t worry her that much, maybe Bonbon went for a walk, but it did give her an uneasy feeling. If anything had happened to her marefriend while she was sleeping deeply and warmly under the covers of her bed, she would never forgive herself.

Just when she was about to leave the fountain, she saw a brown stallion landing next to Roseluck’s stall. It was Jack, and he was one of the ponies she hadn’t asked about it. Maybe he and his knowledge of another world might give her the answer she desperately needed.

She trotted to him when she saw that he was folding his wings and making sure that his saddlebag hadn’t fallen off during his flight. “Hey Jack, can you spare a few minutes?”

Jack looked at the origin of the sound and saw Lyra trotting towards him with a laptop in her levitation field. He briefly wondered how she had gotten her hooves on a laptop since he didn’t see them in Equestria, but maybe the ponies were as technically advanced as humans. “Hey Lyra, what’s up? Bonbon still mad about me scaring her?” he asked and added a chuckle. It was hilarious at the moment and it still was.

“I don’t think so, I haven’t seen her today. I woke up alone, and she wasn’t in the house. But that’s beside the point, do you know what this is?” She levitated the device in front of his face, and to her surprise, he nodded.

“Yes, that’s a HP laptop. It’s a very common computer on Earth. Is it yours?”

Lyra shook her head and replied, “No, I just found it placed next to me in bed, on Bonbon’s pillow. What is a computer exactly?” A relieved tone could be heard in her voice, she was just so happy she had found somepony who could identify the ‘laptop’.

By now Jack knew that the ponies weren’t familiar with computer, thus some kind of freaky shit had happened, or otherwise the laptop wouldn’t be in Equestria. “A computer is a device that is like a…” he briefly though about a way to explain it to her and nodded to himself when he found the perfect explanation. “It’s actually a kind of mechanical brain. It can write, play videos, you can listen to music, play games, and countless of other things. It’s a human invention, and it’s very common on Earth because it helps us in our lives,” he finished and looked at Lyra who had her mouth slightly agape, and she had stopped blinking. He smiled because he knew that the ponies couldn’t comprehend human technology, or at least not that fast. “Lyra.EXE has stopped working?”

Lyra blinked and shot a confused look at him. “What?”

Jack snickered, even if his joke wasn’t understandable to these ponies, it was still damn funny to him. “Nothing, it’s a human joke.” He stared at the stand near the end of the marketplace, the vegetable stand, and realized that he came here with an objective. “Alright Lyra, I’m going to buy some tomatoes now, give them to Rainbow, eat my morning salad, and then I’ll go with Rainbow to Twilight’s library to send a letter to the Princess; she needs to know about this. Can you come to the library in about an hour?”

She nodded. “Yes, in the meantime I’ll continue to look for Bonbon. I’m just glad that I now know what this is, even if I don’t understand it completely.” She gave Jack a wave and trotted away, glad that the device wasn’t a bomb or something similar. Now she had to find her marefriend.

*****

“So if I understand correctly, you want to send a letter to the Princess because you found some kind of human technology in Equestria, am I right?” Twilight asked as she was sitting behind her desk, quill in her levitation field and parchment on the desk, ready to be filled with letters.

Jack nodded, he knew Twilight wouldn’t send a letter to the Princess because of a minor problem, but he had explained to her that laptops are a human invention, so somebody or something on the other side had sent it to Equestria. He didn’t have another explanation, but maybe the Princess had, and that’s why she needed to be warned about it.

“Yes, it’s absolutely necessary that the Princess knows about this, maybe she can help us with this little problem,” he answered and took a bite from the cookies that Spike baked for them. Lyra and Rainbow hadn’t said much about the laptop, so they began to talk to each other while he and Twilight discussed the problem.

Twilight nodded and began to write. “Alright, you win. I’ll send a letter to the Princess.” And so, she began to write the letter. It’s wasn’t that large; it was just a request that asked the Princess to come to Ponyville because of a strange problem. When it was finished, she gave the letter to Spike, and he enveloped it with a flame, sending it on its way to the Princess in Canterlot.

“So, how long do we need to wait?” Jack asked and took another bite from the delicious cookies Spike made. He could really taste the chocolate, and he loved chocolate.

Twilight shot a grin at him and gave him a wink. “Five… four… three… two… one.” Just as she said one, a golden glow began to show itself in the library, next to the couch Jack, Rainbow, and Lyra had occupied, and after a second, Celestia had teleported into the room.

She stood there in all her glory with a mane that flowed in a nonexistent wind, and regalia that covered parts of her body; Jack always had to rub his eyes when he saw the Princess, her beauty couldn’t compare to any woman on Earth, but no one was more beautiful that his Rainbow Dash.

“I hear there’s some kind of problem?” she asked, and looked around to make eye contact and give a smile to every occupant of the room. At first she didn’t want to go to her student’s library, mainly because she was just having her hooves polished, but when she read that her student had a problem, she knew she had to come. So now there she stood, waiting for a reply from one of the ponies.

Twilight coughed, attracting all the attention to her. “Well, I’m not exactly sure, it seems some kind of human technology has made its way to Equestria. I’m sure Jack can tell you more about it,” she asserted and nodded to Jack, signalizing that he could explain everything that was happening.

The Princess raised an eyebrow, but focused her attention on Jack nonetheless. When Jack was sure he had everpony’s attention, he opened the laptop, pushed the power button, and began to explain. “This is a laptop, it’s something we use on Earth to make our lives easier. It has many functions. You can write documents with it, play games, watch movies, stay in touch with everyone you know, and so on. But, that’s not important, what’s important is to find out how this laptop managed to get into Equestria.”

“That won’t be necessary,” a voice answered. It was a rather deep voice and it had a certain ‘age’ to it.

Jack turned his head to the origin of the voice and saw a man sitting on the other side of the screen. Since he was looking at the Princess, who was sitting next to him, he didn’t see the screen turning on and immediately starting a video chat.

The rather old man with gray hair and a cigar between his fingers began to grin and pulled at his cigar. After a few seconds, he blew the smoke out of his mouth. He liked surprised expressions, it gave him a feeling of power and control, he was the one in control and no one else. “Surprised or shocked?” He asked tauntingly, his grin never leaving his expression.

Jack just sat there on the couch, his mouth agape and his eyes not even blinking, he didn’t even register all the ponies in the room sitting now next to him to catch a glimpse of the intimidating human. After a while, his brain decided to work again. “But how?”

The old man chuckled, it was a mix of an evil chuckle and an undertone of ‘are you really that stupid?’. “Allow me to explain, because I see you all don’t understand a thing that’s happening right now. I’m General Jones and I have a business proposition and yes, we’ve sent the laptop to your world. Now, I understand there’s a monarch with you, can I speak with her?”

Jack looked at the Princess who nodded and levitated the laptop in front of her so she and the General could clearly see each other. She cleared her throat and began to speak. “First of all, General, aren’t you surprised to see talking ponies?”

“No, not at all. You see, we’ve been spying on your little world for quite a while now. I even know little old Jack here is actually a human, isn’t that right, Celestia?” Again that mocking tone in his voice.

Celestia knew by now that she wasn’t dealing with somepony who wanted to have a healthy relationship. No, the man on the other side of the screen had evil intentions, and she had to be on her guard or he could place her back against the wall. He wasn’t Discord, Sombra, or any other villain. No, he was a dangerous predator who wouldn’t back down from a challenge and neither would she, but she had to tread carefully and couldn’t afford making a single mistake.

“Alright, General, you had my curiosity, but now you have my attention. What is this business proposition you speak of?” she asked with some reluctance, she knew something wasn’t right here.

“Well, our people need oil, a resource that’s slowly running out in our world, but your world has plenty of it. Now, a normal person would set up a trade route, but I’m not a normal person,” he answered and tugged on the leash which was held in his hand. Two seconds later, a collared Bonbon came into view.

Back in the library, Lyra gasped like there was no tomorrow and tears began to roll down her cheek. “No, Bonbon!” she shouted.

The General arched one eyebrow and a few seconds later, he began to grin. “Oh, you all know this pony? Well, that’s even better. Now, this is my business proposal. You will not resist when my army invades your world and you will let us use your resources until they are depleted, in return you’ll get this lovely pony back. If you do not accept these terms, this pony will die, and we’ll invade with the necessary force to kill you all. A reasonable deal, no?”

Next to Celestia, Lyra began to scream as loud as she could, hoping for a miracle. She couldn’t live without Bonbon, she just couldn’t. Her life would be a black hole of depression, sadness, and anger. If Bonbon died, she would die too. She tried to jump towards the laptop, but Rainbow Dash held her back. She desperately tried to get out of Rainbow’s firm grip, but it was too strong, thus she ceased her struggling and began to weep against Rainbow’s coat instead.

Celestia had an intern fight. One part of her wanted to accept the General’s terms so she could safe Bonbon, one of her subjects she swore to protect, but her other part knew she couldn’t agree to those terms or else she would doom the pony race and even the whole planet. It was the life of one pony against that of millions. She knew the right choice was obvious; one must be sacrificed for the greater good. She sighed and lowered her head. “I-I can’t accept those terms,” she replied, knowing she had just condemned one of her ponies to death and hurt another one beyond measure.

The moment Lyra heard that, her body became limp and darkness surrounded her vision. Her monarch had just sentenced her marefriend to death and that took its toll on her mind and body. She collapsed in Rainbow’s forelegs and drifted to unconsciousness. Rainbow suddenly had to stop Lyra’s body from falling to the ground, and it was quite the struggle, but luckily for her, Twilight helped by levitating Lyra to one of the empty seats on the couch. Rainbow gave Twilight a nod and took place next to the unconscious Lyra.

On the other side of the connection, the General’s grin disappeared and a frown took its place, he certainly wasn’t happy to hear that. “So it’s going to be like this? Okay then,” He yanked at the leash and Bonbon, who was crying her eyes out, once again came into vision. “Take a good look, Celestia, because it will be the last time you see her.”

Celestia looked into Bonbon’s eyes. They just screamed for help, for some comforting, but their pleas fell on deaf ears, Celestia just couldn’t give up her race for one pony. A tear went down her cheek and she softly whispered, “I’m sorry.”

The General decided he had lost enough time already and gave the leash to the soldier who stood behind him. “Bring her back to her cell, I’ll be there shortly to finish the job.” The soldier nodded, took the leash, and began to drag Bonbon away. She resisted, but a quick kick against her ribs stopped that. The General smiled at the scene in front of him and turned his attention back to the computer. “You’ve made your choice, Celestia. Be prepared, because our invasion can start any moment and when it starts, you’ll know that your race will go extinct,” He gave Celestia one of his taunting smiles and disconnected.

Celestia closed the laptop, placed it on the coffee table, and sighed. She had done something unforgivable, something a pony should never do, but she didn’t have a choice. It was Bonbon or the pony race, and of course the lives of millions are more important than the life of one pony. She knew that it was a weak excuse and that Lyra would keep feeling miserable for the rest of her days, but like she said, she didn’t have a choice.

She stared at Twilight, Rainbow, and Jack, and they all stared at her with fear, sadness, and nervousness. “Everything that has been said in this room, won’t leave it, understand?” she asked them, and they all nodded in return. She gave them a small, sad smile and stood up. “I’m going back to Canterlot to prepare the army, tell Lyra I’m sorry and that she has to come to Canterlot a soon she can. I need some private time with her,” She gave her student a quick nuzzle and teleported to Canterlot, Luna needed to know about the imminent disaster.

It was quiet in the library, nopony said something, all of them were recovering from the shock and this kept going on for a couple of minutes. It was Lyra who snapped everypony out of their trance. “Was I dreaming? Please tell me it was just a very bad dream,” Lyra asked while she slowly got up. She scanned each of their faces, just to find a little glimmer of hope, but the only thing she could find was sadness.

“I’m sorry, but Bonbon is dead,” Twilight answered with a grim tone in her voice, she’d never suspected to say something like this to another pony.

Lyra lowered her head, almost giving up, but then memories began to invade her mind. Memories of the good times she had with Bonbon, like the walks in the park, their love for chocolate, and their plans for their wedding. It were those memories that placed a determined expression on her face. “No, I know she’s still alive, there’s still some time.”

Twilight cocked her head, not fully understanding Lyra, but she could guess where Lyra was headed. “You aren’t saying you want to save her, right?”

Lyra nodded, “That’s exactly what I’m saying, but I need some help.” She gave each of them a pleading look, but it was Jack who reacted.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa,” he began,” I like your confidence, but I’m not exactly willing to risk my life. They’re humans, my species, and the humans you want to confront have weapons which can kill you in less than a second. If I could, I would save Bonbon, but going back to Earth is a ticket straight to death. Besides, you don’t have a way to go to Earth, since Celestia doesn’t know of your plan and only she has the spell to teleport to my home planet,” He felt like a jerk, but he loved his own life more that Bonbon’s.

“Actually, that isn’t true,” Twilight remarked,” You see, when we got back from Earth, the Princess taught her spell to traverse between worlds and universes, one that is safe and won’t backfire,”

Lyra gave Twilight a little smile. “So, you’ll help me?”

Twilight nodded. “Yes, I know I’m risking my life, but Bonbon needs us. What about you, Rainbow?” she asked the very silent mare.

It was true, Rainbow hadn’t said a word since the Princess’ departure, but she had a good reason for that. She was conflicted between saving the life of a pony and her own life, but in the end, her element made her choice; it was her destiny. She gave Lyra and Twilight one of her trademark smiles and opened her wings, positioning herself in a fighting stance. “Let’s teach those hairless apes a lesson.”

Lyra’s smile widened, she’d never guessed she had such loyal and good friends who wanted to put their own lives on the line to save another pony. If they came out of this unharmed, she would repay them by offering them a dinner in Canterlot’s finest restaurant and even then she would still be in their debt. But, there was still one pony she had to convince, because he was the expert on humans. He was essential to the team. “Jack?”

Jack shifted his gaze between Rainbow, Lyra, and Twilight who were all pushing him to put his own life on the line. He really wanted to save Bonbon, but his fear held him back. From what he had seen, he had to fight against a General who had an army. The army had guns, fighting skill, and were larger in size. The only thing ponies had were wings and magic, and that wouldn’t help a lot. It was David against Goliath, it was a fight they were destined to lose. But then he looked at Rainbow Dash and her warm smile. He could sense her telling him that everything was going to be alright, that she was going to protect him. That was enough to push him over the edge. “Fine, you win. I’ll join your suicide mission. It’s sad really, I loved Ponyville so much, it’s a shame to-“ He couldn’t finish his sentence since Lyra had tackled him to the ground and gave him a hug.

Twilight smiled at the display and levitated her teleportation spell book to her desk. “Stand in front of my desk, everypony,” she ordered her friends and in less than a minute smiling, but determined Lyra, a loyal Rainbow Dash, and a very annoyed, but lightly smiling Jack stood in front of Twilight’s desk. “Alright, I don’t know the exact location, but if I follow the path the laptop has taken, we should arrive somewhere near its place of departure.”

Twilight closed her eyes and concentrated, trying to block out every source of magic so she could find the path easier. One by one every source of magic disappeared, and her mind placed her on the path. It felt strange. Normally she should have a connection with the path, but now she didn’t. There was only one solution, the path wasn’t made of magic, but it was created by an external device. That made things harder, because now her guide, the magic, was gone. It wasn’t a total loss, she could still see the path in front of her, but she had to be extra careful when walking on it, since one wrong step could place her miles away from her destination, or she could even end up in teleportation space with no way back to Equestria. With that in mind, she opened her white eyes and teleported her friends and herself to Earth.

A few minutes later, Spike came out of the bathroom ad saw that the whole library was empty. “Wha? Where is everypony?

Getting Settled

I know that much of you guys wanted an update, so here it is. Beware, it's not edited, not yet, but this should bring some satisfaction for the moment.

Thoughts color:

Jack: brown.

Rainbow: Light blue.

The General: Red.

Chapter 2: Getting settled.

Timeline: The next day.

Jack awoke when he felt something or somepony shifting on his flank. He opened his eyes very slowly, he still felt something light from his hangover and he didn’t like it. What did I do to deserve this? He rubbed with his hoof on his temple, trying to make his headache a bit lighter. When he felt satisfied, he fully opened his eyes and let them focus. He turned his attention towards his flank; he saw something he didn’t expect. Rainbow was still sleeping, but she held his left hind leg between her front legs. It looked like how you would cuddle a teddy bear. Go a bit higher and you touch my private regions. Not wanting her to do that, he slowly pulled his leg out of her grasp, but this alerted Rainbow and she slowly woke up. She opened her eyes and saw that she still held Jack’s hind leg in her grasp. She blushed and quickly let go. Well it can’t get any weirder now.

She sat on the edge of the couch and looked at Jack, still blushing. “I think I’m gonna use a quote from Rarity: Let us never speak of this again.” She spoke with a Rarity like voice.

Jack snorted and laid himself more comfortable. “Ha, my lips are sealed, but I do need to say that you looked very cute.”

She glared at him, her blush immediately leaving her face. Oh it is on. “I. Am. Not. Cute. Understand?” Jack only nodded; he was a bit scared of her intimidating form. “Good, are you hungry?”

Jack nodded again. “Yes, I’m starving.” A devilish smirk formed on Rainbow’s face. I don’t like her expression.

“Then why don’t you go to the kitchen?” Jack cocked an eyebrow. Did she forget that I’m technically crippled?

“Um… you know I can’t walk?”

Rainbow hopped out of the couch and walked over to Jack’s side of the couch. “Yes I know and now I’m gonna teach you how to walk, but you aren’t gonna like it.” Jack gulped, but before he could do anything he was pushed out of the couch.

“Ow, why did you do that?” He looked at her, but he only saw the devilish smirk on her face and a whistle around the neck. When did she get that?

She pushed him with her hoof on the ground, his face touching the cloud floor. “Shut up, do twenty pushups for me.” She took the whistle in her mouth and blew on it, it made a deafening sound.

Jack immediately complied and started doing his pushups; he didn’t want to feel the wrath of Rainbow Dash. I always make the best choices in ladies… um mares. She’ll probably stop after this. Jack was wrong; Rainbow didn’t have the slightest compassion with Jack. She let him do even more pushups, some sit-ups and some other exercises. God, you really hate me, what did I do to deserve this? After what seemed like an eternity for Jack, but actually it were only thirty minutes, Rainbow stopped her torture. If I need to do this every day then I’ll look like Rocky in no time, in pony form that is.

Jack was lying on the ground, heavily panting and his head was resting on the cloud floor. Rainbow lowered her head towards Jack’s face; she was only inches away from his face. “Now call me cute one more time.” Jack only shook his head in response. “Good.” She then kissed him on the lips; it was a kind of make up gift. While it wasn’t that romantic, the kiss certainly didn’t miss its effect, Jack immediately felt better. “Now stand up.”

Jack slowly stood up, the pain of the exercises was still in his body. When he felt that he stood stabile he spoke. “Okay, now what?”

Rainbow stood in front of him, she was going to demonstrate how to walk. “Well, first you take a step with your left foreleg, your right hind leg will follow a bit later.” She took a step and a bit later her right hind leg followed automatically. “Now you do the same with your right foreleg.” She took a step with her right foreleg and her left hind leg followed automatically. “That’s everything, it’s always the opposite hind leg that will follow.” Jack nodded and got ready to walk.

On his first try he lifted his left fore leg up, but he fell on his side. On his second try he stumbled and fell on his face. On his third try he fell on Rainbow, every try failed miserably and occasionally Rainbow facehoofed. When he finally got it right for the first time, Rainbow’s forehead wasn’t cyan anymore; it was red from her facehooving.

“How can anypony fail so miserably at walking?” She placed an ice pack on her forehead, she facehoofed so hard that she had a light headache.

Jack glared at her, but he did find it funny that Rainbow got a headache from facehooving. Maybe now she’ll stop with that. “Do you think it would be easy to walk if you changed into a human, I don’t think so.”

Rainbow put her ice pack down. “Alright, alright. I want to see if you can really walk. Walk to the kitchen.”

Jack looked at the kitchen, it was not very far away, but this distance would prove if all his trying was worth it. Here goes nothing. He slowly did what he tried to do the last hour and surprisingly enough he didn’t fall, it felt actually very normal to him. It seemed that his brain had adapted to four legs instead of two and he was in the kitchen in no time.

Rainbow wiped her eyes with her hooves, her mouth slightly agape. “Am I dreaming or did you just run towards the kitchen?” Jack walked back into the living room.

“I don’t know either, first I fail at every try and now it feels like I had been doing this for my entire life” Jack never felt more confident.

“Don’t get your head up in the clouds.” She looked at her cloud house. “Um… bad choice of a saying, but I will teach you how to fly after breakfast.” Jack gulped. Oh no, soon I’ll plunge to death. With shaking knees he followed Rainbow into the kitchen.

The kitchen wasn’t that large, but it was large enough for 2 ponies. Rainbow opened her fridge and took out some cereal, milk and 2 apples. She placed the food on the table, took 2 spoons and 2 bowls out of a drawer and sat down on her chair. Jack also sat down on his chair, but in a strange way for ponies.

“You know, you look like Lyra now.” Rainbow said while adding milk to her cereal. Jack looked at himself, he was sitting as a normal human person would sit, but it was quite uncomfortable.

“Humans sit like this all the time, but I think I will adapt to the way ponies sit, my back hurts too much.” Jack then sat on his haunches on the chair; this was a lot more comfortable. “Tell me Rainbow, why such a small breakfast?” He took some cereal and placed it in his bowl, then he added milk.

Rainbow was already done eating. Dang, she’s fast in everything; maybe she’s also fast in bed… What am I thinking? No mind, don’t go there, you're going to make me uncomfortable. Rainbow clopped her hooves together in front of his face, Jack immediately snapped out of his thoughts. “Good, you’re back. I said that this is a breakfast for somepony who likes to sport, wants to keep his or her figure and I think this breakfast could make you a bit more muscled.

Jack shook his head in disbelief. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, are you saying that I don’t have any muscles?” He was a bit insulted.

“No, not at all. You just have fewer muscles than the average Pegasus stallion. You’ll need to have more muscles if you want to fly decent and if you want to keep up with The Dash.” And there’s her ego again. Rainbow took a bite from her apple and Jack did the same with his apple, he figured he needed all the calories he could get his hands… hooves on.

He locked eyes with her, those beautiful magenta eyes. No, I’m still a bit angry at her. He broke eye contact and looked at his body. She’s right, I need some muscles. Jack hung his head in defeat “Fine, how will I create muscles and how long will it take?”

Rainbow thought for a moment. “With my training schedule that consists of exercises and healthy food, I think it will take two weeks tops. Ugh, two weeks of training, no wait, two weeks of hell. Rainbow had finished with her apple and so had Jack. She took the two bowls and placed them in the sink, she could do the dishes later. “Come on, it’s time for your first flying lesson.” Rainbow walked out of the kitchen and Jack followed her, his heart was beating in his throat.

She opened her front door and walked on her cloud lawn. It was morning so the air was still a bit chilly, this combined with Jack’s fear gave him the chills. He walked to the end of the clouds and looked down, Rainbow’s house was very high up in the air, if you fall off then death is inevitable. Rainbow sat down next to him.

“Alright, for your first lesson I want you to experience a free-fall. Jump off.” Jack looked at her with a horrified expression on his face. Rainbow couldn’t help it and found this funny.

“Um… Rainbow, I might be a bit strange sometimes, but I’m defiantly not suicidal.” He looked back at the ground. Because his gaze was fixated on the ground, he didn’t notice that Rainbow was now behind him.

“Don’t worry, I’ll catch you. Enjoy your free-fall.” With that she pushed Jack over the edge; he immediately fell towards the ground.

“Raiiiiiinbooow, I fucking haaaate youuu!!!” Jack looked around him; he figured that he had 10 seconds before he was just a puddle of pony remains on the ground. Oh fuck, fuck, fuck. Quick, I need to use my wings. He tried flapping his wings, but they didn’t move. Only three more seconds before he died. Jack closed his eyes and waited for the impact. Goodbye cruel world. He was prepared for his end, but it didn’t come. He opened his eyes and saw that Rainbow was holding him like she did when she was transporting him to her house.

“I told you I’d catch you. I’ll never leave you hanging.” While her words were comforting, Jack was still shaking from fear. She put him down on her cloud lawn. “Now the second lesson: Flapping your wings.”

Jack controlled his shaking and listened carefully. All he needed to do was extending his wings and then just flap them up and down. Jack did what he was told to do and after a while he was hovering inches above the clouds.

“Hey, I can fly.” He was still hovering in place, but he felt like he could take on the world. Never thought I’d see the day where I’m the one who does the flying and not an airplane.

“Good, now if you lean forward you’ll fly forward, if you lean left or right you’ll turn, but you can’t fly backwards.” Jack followed her instructions and so he flew around her lawn. When it was almost noon the training was over. “You fly even slower than Fluttershy, but you’ll get there eventually. Now we’re going to Cloudsdale.”

“Why?”

Rainbow took off and flew beside him. “We’re going to find you a job.” Jack liked this idea. Now I’m not useless, now I can do something for the pony community. Jack flew with Rainbow to Cloudsdale, at a snail’s pace that is.

*****

Normally Rainbow flew in just 5 minutes to Cloudsdale, but now with Jack it took her over an hour. Rainbow felt frustrated for flying so slow, but she couldn’t blame him, Jack was still learning how to fly properly and that was something she needed to take into account. They both landed in front of the weather facility.

“Wow, it was amazing to just look at it from a distance, but there are no words to describe this place, it might even be more beautiful than Paris.” Jack looked at the weather facility. It looked like a factory, but there wasn’t any smoke coming out of it like the factories on Earth.

“You should see the city and not just the facility, but what’s Paris?” Rainbow asked while they walked towards the entrance of the facility.

“Paris is a city on Earth, I find it the most beautiful city in the world. It’s also the city of love, la ville d’amour.” They walked into the facility. There was a mare with a white coat and a black mane and tail sitting at a desk in front of them, she looked like the receptionist.

“I don’t think that visiting Paris will be a possibility” They walked to the mare; she was busy with some papers. She was so busy with the papers that she didn’t hear them coming towards her, only when Rainbow coughed she looked up.

“I’m sorry Miss Dash, I was so busy with these papers that I didn’t notice you, did you have fun on Earth?” Rainbow and Jack blinked for a moment and shared confused faces.

“How… how do you know that I was on Earth?” Rainbow asked the receptionist. The receptionist took a newspaper that was lying on her desk and showed it to them.

“The Princess herself wrote an article in the Equestria Daily, she wrote that you and your friends were there for quite a time, but that Mister Jack here helped you through it. You, your friends and Mister Jack are quite famous.” Rainbow gave the newspaper back.

“Well Earth was fun, but can we speak to Mister Breeze?” The receptionist looked at a paper in front of her.

“Hmm… Yes, yes you can. He’s in room 14, just go to the hallway left of me, it’s the last room on the left.

Rainbow thanked the receptionist and then they walked towards the office of Mr. Breeze. “Who’s Mr. Breeze?” Jack asked to break the silence.

“He’s my boss and he’s also the one who decides what job you’ll get.” Rainbow was again silent; it seemed that she was thinking about what the receptionist just said. I don’t really mind the popularity, it’s fine to receive some recognition. Jack stopped Rainbow when they were halfway to the office.

“Rainbow what’s wrong, is it about your recent rise of popularity?” Rainbow hesitated for a moment, but decided to drop her ego.

“It’s just that I don’t feel like I deserve all this popularity. I enjoy popularity when I do something, not just because I was accidentally transported to a different universe. You, on the other hand deserve all this popularity. You helped my friends and me while we were on Earth and I did nothing.” This was the real Rainbow Dash, a pony who cares about others and not about herself, a pony who sometimes doubts too much about herself and a pony who uses an ego as a defense mechanism. Jack embraced Rainbow to make her feel better.

“Rainbow, I appreciate all your compliments, but it is you who is the real hero. If you weren’t there for me when I was tearing up about Hugo’s and my parent’s deaths, then there was a great chance that I committed suicide. Actually if you think about it, I was in a deep depression before you and your friends arrived and it is your friends and you that pulled me out of it, so I’m pretty certain that this popularity is well deserved.” Jack’s pep talk didn’t miss its effect, Rainbow’s mood immediately brightened.

“Thank you, you really are the best stallion a mare could get.” She wanted to kiss Jack, but he pushed her off him.

“Not here, I want to make a good first impression on your boss.” Rainbow nodded with a sly smirk and began to walk towards the office, her tail touching Jack’s face as an invitation for later. A blush appeared on Jack’s face, but he quickly suppressed it.

Rainbow knocked on the door and opened it. Inside was a stallion sitting at his desk, he was a black stallion with a red mane and tail, his mane and tail showed some silver hairs, this meant that he was starting to get older. He looked up from the papers that were lying on his desk; he quickly got up and trotted towards Rainbow.

“Rainbow, long time no see.” He gave Rainbow a quick kiss on the cheek. Jack just stood there, a baffled expression on his face. So this is how ponies greet their bosses. Jack coughed as an indication that he was still there.

“Oh yeah, I forgot for a moment that you were here. Jack, this is Mr. Breeze, my boss and my uncle.” Mr. Breeze trotted past Rainbow towards Jack and shook Jack’s hoof.

“Just call me Breeze, all my friends do and I know that you and Rainbow are a little bit more than just friends.” Jack just looked away and whistled a tune, but it was Rainbow that broke the silence.

“How?” Breeze motioned with his hoof to two chairs that were placed in front of his desk. Rainbow and Jack sat down on the chairs while Breeze did the same on his side of the desk.

“Call it intuition and besides, I was young too.” He answered with a wink. “But I’m digressing, tell me why you two are here, we can chat another time.” Rainbow wanted to answer, but Jack was quicker.

“Well sir, I’m looking for a job, I can’t always live on the expenses of your niece.” Jack was nervous, but who wouldn’t be nervous when they’re talking with a potential boss. Breeze searched in some drawers, when he was done he placed two papers on his desk.

“You might not know this but the facility has a shortage of Pegasi, so you’ll need to do two jobs instead of one. The first one is dispatch, you pass on orders to the weather teams and occasionally you’ll need to do some paperwork, this is on Monday and Tuesday, from 10AM to 4PM. Your second job is being a part of a weather team, Rainbow Dash’s weather team to be exact. Rainbow will tell you what to do. This is on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday also from 10AM to 4PM. You’ll get 1200 bits per month.” Jack nodded. “Tomorrow is Monday, so you’ll start tomorrow.”

“I’m okay with this, thank you sir.” Jack wanted to get up, but was stopped by a hoof from Breeze.

“Stop calling me sir or I’ll fire you.” Breeze let out a little laugh.

“Okay si… Breeze.” Breeze nodded and opened the door for Jack and Rainbow, when they were back in the hallway Breeze closed the door.

“Good kid.”

Meanwhile in the hallway: “Nice uncle.”

*****

Jack and Rainbow trotted out of the weather facility, they were talking about being a part of a weather team. Rainbow told Jack that he had to listen to her orders. She also told him that he had to take it easy for a few days, because he still wasn’t very good at flying. While they were talking, a black zebra Pegasus with a black/gray mane and tail and with bat wings landed near them.

“Hiya Rainbow, who’s your friend?” The voice was so unexpected that Jack jumped a couple feet in the air. Rainbow, on the other hand, just stayed her calm and cool self. Half an hour ago she doubted herself and now she’s as cool as ice, how does she do that?

“Hey Storm. This is Jack; he’s my coltfriend and a member of our weather team.” The two bumped hooves and Rainbow turned towards Jack who now mastered his sudden fear. “Jack, this is Dark Storm. He’s a zebra Pegasus with bat wings, the only one in existence. He’s also part of my weather team and while he might look a bit weird he certainly is a cool pony, but he’s not as cool as me.” Storm gave Rainbow a little hit on her shoulder and walked towards Jack.

“So you’re the famous Jack? You look like a cool dude, but to prove that we need to go out and grab a drink, let’s say this Friday 7PM.” Jack wanted to say no at first, but Storm seemed to have a special convincing power which made it very difficult to say no.

Jack let out a sigh, his resistance was futile. “Fine, but stop with those puppy dog eyes.”

Storm clopped his hooves together from happiness. “Excellent, you won’t regret it.” With that he flew off as quick as he came.

Jack and Rainbow continued their walk in Cloudsdale. They passed certain landmarks and they strolled through the shopping street. When they arrived at the arena Rainbow told Jack about the Wonderbolts, how good they are and that it was her dream to join them one day. They passed a clock tower and Jack saw that it was 3PM.

“Rainbow, is it alright with you if I go to Twilight now?” Jack knew that Twilight was a librarian and he wanted to look into some books.

“Yeah fine, I’m gonna catch up with some friends.” They gave each other a quick kiss and parted ways, but then Rainbow realized that she forgot something and she flew back to him. “Here are your keys to my house, I almost forgot it.” She gave him the keys and flew away.

Jack walked to a secluded spot at the edge of Cloudsdale. He looked over the edge; Cloudsdale was even higher than Rainbow’s house. Okay, don’t panic, Rainbow isn’t here right now, but remember what she said. Just flap your wings and lean in the direction you want to go. Jack flapped his wings until he was hovering just above the clouds. He leaned forward and flapped a little slower, that way he lost some height. After 5 minutes of very cautious flying he touched the ground. It was somewhat scary for him, but he managed to do it. I did it, I flew without Rainbow Dash. Jack let out a yes of happiness, but what he didn’t know was that there was a certain cyan Pegasus hiding in the clouds and looking at him with a smile on her face.

“He’ll be an amazing Pegasus.” She left her hiding spot very silently and flew back to Cloudsdale. Why do I feel that someone… somepony was spying on me?

*****

It took Jack a while to find Twilight’s house. He had to ask directions from different ponies and while some of them didn’t recognize him, most of them did. Some asked an autograph and some others wanted to talk with him for a bit. At first Jack really didn’t mind all the popularity, but now it was starting to get on his nerves. Man, now I know how Johnny Depp feels. I hope that this will die down soon. Most of the time Jack walked through the alleys instead of the streets, he wanted to avoid as much awestruck fans as possible. After his little endeavor through the alleys of Ponyville he arrived at Twilight’s house. He opened the door, since it was a public library, and he saw Twilight talking with a mint green mare with a lyre cutie mark. Jack coughed to get the attention of the mares.

“Ah Jack, I was just about to search for you.” Twilight motioned with her hoof to a cushion, indicating that Jack had to take a seat.

Jack walked towards the cushion but he felt creeped out by the green mare. She was looking at him like he was a test subject in one of her freaky experiments. “Why did you want to find me?”

While Jack was asking his question Twilight was pouring some tea in a teacup. With the help of her magic she gave the teacup to Jack. “The Princess gave me an assignment. I’m going to be the author of a book called: ‘Earth: the planet of the humans’. But I need some extra information about Earth and that’s why you’re here.”

Now it all made sense to Jack, but why the green mare was here, he didn’t know. “Okay, I’m happy to help, but why is she here?” He pointed his hoof to the other mare who was still eyeing him like he was a lab rat.

Twilight wanted to answer, but was cut off the mare. “Allow me, Twilight.” She turned towards Jack “I’m Lyra, I’m a musician, but I’m also very interested in humans. Other ponies made fun of me, because of my ‘obsession’ with humans, but I always knew they existed and now I’m right. I’m also here, because I help Twilight with writing the book.” Jack accepted the explication and nodded.

“Alright then, ask away.” Jack was ready for the bombardment of questions and this could also be a good way to pass the afternoon, so he really didn’t mind.

Twilight levitated her notebook in front of her and Lyra did the same. It was Twilight who began with a question. “Tell me how Earth was formed.” This made Jack think a bit. This is a question one would need a day to answer it.

“Okay, but I just give you the short version, because I don’t know everything.” He looked attentively at the mares, their quills were ready to write down everything he was about to say. “Our universe began with a Big Bang, no magic was involved. The earth was first a boiling planet full of lava. This cooled down after billions of years, the crust was formed and due to the gasses that were trapped on Earth by volcanoes an atmosphere was formed. This atmosphere was toxic. Water was brought here by asteroids and comets, this water condensed into clouds and these clouds created the oceans. Oxygen was formed in the atmosphere, making it non-toxic. Then all the elements were present to create flora and after a long time the first animals were created, they were just as big as a cell. But due to evolution these cells grew into bigger animals and then they grew into bigger animals and so on. Fun fact: Earth first had no moon. When Earth was cooling down it collided with another planet. Earth survived, but the other planet was diminished in size. Due to the gravity Earth possessed this piece of rock stayed around Earth and so the moon was formed and Earth has pieces of the moon on its surface.

When Jack was done with his little explanation the quills were still writing. These two must really have a good memory if they can remember every word that I said. Surprisingly enough Lyra was the first one that was done writing. When Twilight is done writing, she spoke. "tell us something about Earth itself.”

Waiting on Twilight didn’t take very long and so Jack began with his next explication. “Earth is the third planet in the Sol System; the Sol System consists of 8 planets. Earth is a planet with much variety. It has ice, jungles, mountains, tundra’s, deserts, fertile land and so on. There are over 200 countries on Earth and each country has its own culture. The earth also has 7 continents, 4 oceans and many seas.” Jack took a piece of paper and a pencil and drew the map of Earth as detailed as possible. It was quite detailed, because Jack was one of the best in geography class. He showed his drawing to Lyra and Twilight. “This is Earth.”

Twilight took the paper with her magic and looked at it very closely. “I will take this to a professional drawer and then this can be an illustration in the book. Now the next question: How were humans created?”

Now this isn’t a hard question. “Evolution, we’re technically apes. There are some people who believe that humans were created by a God, but science says otherwise. Humans are just very smart apes.”

Now it was again Lyra’s turn to ask a question. “Tell us something more about humans.

“If I need to compare humans to ponies, then humans are a violent race. Most humans hurt each other whether they want it or not. We are also a very warmongering race, we bring death with us. Right now humans are still fighting with each other. The Middle East is now a playground of invasions and civil wars.” Jack showed on his map where the Middle East was situated. “But humans also have a good side. Humans created architecture, music, art, in short: culture. And while humans have their differences, in times of need like a disaster or the end of the world, they will stand together and together they will face their fate or so I hope.” The end of Jack’s little explanation sounded more like a speech than an explanation.

Lyra clopped her hooves together. “Wonderful, you would make an excellent politician with a speech like that.”

Then came the questions about different cultures, about wars and about human procreation. Jack explained that humans procreated the same way as ponies, just with different positions. It was almost 9 PM when the questions finally died down. Jack wanted to leave, but a certain white alicorn hindered that. The Princess just teleported into the library.

“Greetings Jack, I just wanted to talk to you.” Her voice was as always very gentle, like little angels singing their song. Jack couldn’t help it and so a smile crept on his face.

Jack was still smiling like an idiot, but a little couch from Twilight snapped him out of it. “Oh, yes, of course. Why do you want to talk to me?”

Celestia levitated the communication device in front of Jack. “Your friends and I found this in the middle of Manehattan. My scientists studied it, but the only thing they discovered was its place of origin, that place is Earth. That’s why I’m here; do you know what this little device is?”

Jack studied the device for a moment, but he knew what the device was. “That’s easy, it’s a walkie-talkie. This device comes with two. You just need to push this button and speak into it; the person or pony on the other end of the walkie-talkie will then hear your voice. Jack took the walkie-talkie out of the levitation magic and pushed the button. “Hello, is anyone there? … Hello? … Anyone?” There was no response, just static. He gave the walkie-talkie back to Celestia.

“So that’s its purpose. Thank you Jack, I’ll let my scientists study it even further so that way we can make the same devices.” She said her goodbyes to everypony and then she was gone.

Jack also said his goodbyes to Lyra and Twilight and left the library, he figured that Rainbow should be home by now. Man, what a day. He slowly and cautiously flew to Rainbow's house, it was already going better. He arrived at Rainbow's house and opened the door.

“Rainbow, I’m home.” He closed the door and began to walk to the living room, but he was tackled by Rainbow who seemed to come out of nowhere. Jack was now lying on his back and Rainbow was standing on top of him.

“Do you have any idea what time it is, we need to work tomorrow.” Jack knew that Rainbow wasn’t completely angry, she loved him too much.

“It’s only 9.30PM, but how can I make it up to you?” Rainbow’s frown immediately disappeared and this was replaced by a more seductive expression. She got off him and began to walk towards the bedroom, her behind swaying left and right.

“Let’s play a game, you naughty boy.” Jack wings extended and he quickly followed Rainbow into the bedroom. This is going to be a good night.

*****

On Earth the general was in the communications room of the bunker, he heard that there was something urgent going on. He walked up to the sergeant who was monitoring everything.

“Sergeant, what the hell is so urgent that I had to come down here?” The general just had a meeting with some corrupt secret agents from Russia and the meeting didn’t go as planned, so it was normal that the general was a bit more frustrated than normal.

“General Jones, sir. We were recently contacted by these ponies through the spying device, of course we didn’t respond and we send out static.”

The general’s frustration left and now he was curious and concerned at the same time. “How, I though these ponies didn’t know about our technology?”

The sergeant scratched the back of his head. “Well, the pony that contacted us used to be human. We don’t know how he was transformed or how he was transported into the pony universe.”

The general was silent for a moment. “So it does work, we can be transported between different universes.” He said silently. The general turned towards the scientist who was standing next to the sergeant. “How long before the teleportation device is finished?”

The scientist looked through the notebook he was holding. “According to our calculations, we think it will be finished in about two months.”

The general didn’t like thinking, he wanted action. “Thinking is not good enough, I want it finished in two months.” The scientist nodded and the general left the room. Everything is going according to plan, soon the invasion will begin.

*****

Note: Phew, my biggest chapter yet, yay. Also, I want to know what you think happened in the bedroom. Come on, share your thoughts. I will reveal what happened in the next chapter.

Extra Note: Hardcore Gamer, this is just a small appearance of your OC, I still have many plans for him. MUHAHAHAHA, I like my evil laugh.