Of Rainbows and Men

Chapter Four

Fall winter friends part one

"GOOD MORNING!!!!" A scratchy voice screamed, causing me to jump twenty feet into the air.

I landed on the floor with a loud thud. Rubbing my aching head, I glared up at grinning Rainbow Dash.

I proceeded to open my mouth to say something which turned out to be a mistake as a launched bowl of mashed potatoes smashed into my face followed by sounds of laughter.

My vision was blocked but my hearing wasn't. I heard TWO sets of giggles. The second set sounded familiar....

Oh shit.

"RAINBOW QUICK HIDE!" I yelled as I quickly tackled the general area where the pegasus supposedly was resulting in me tackling my chair.

"Wow. You were right! He IS slow in the mornings!" The familiar voice said as the chair impacted with my face resulting in a shot of pain. The end result was me going head over heels over the chair and ending up on my back with a second bump on my head.

Stars circled my vision as the bowl was lifted to reveal a blurry figure leaning over the fallen chair.

My vision cleared revealing none other than one I knew to be Kate Wake, who giggled then said,"Good morning Ditzy Doo."

I just stared at her wide-eyed. I shook my head clear then tried to rise only to have my hand slip on fallen potatoes, sending me to the floor again.

"Need help?" She asked, stifling a laugh.

"No, no...." I replied trying to retain what little remained of my dignity (and my sanity). It was lost as I slipped again. "I got this." I then gripped the overturned chair and proceeded to pulled myself up. After finally succeeding. I inspected myself then groaned.

"You okay Ditzy?" Kate asked innocently.

I tried to glare at her. However, her being my crush and all, I simply couldn't.

"I'm going to go take my shower", I grumbled as I started my way toward the door. Then as an after-thought I added, "And don't call me Ditzy!"

I emerged from the bathroom refreshed and my thoughts in order for the first time this morning.

Okay. So somehow Rainbow and Kate met, befriended each other and now they are both in my bedroom.....

HOW THE HELL DID THAT HAPPEN!?!?

My mind tried its best to process the information life had inserted into my brain. After that I came to a conclusion: I'm going insane. The thought entered my head but was dismissed quickly. I then tried to recall the events of last night.

I ordered pizza, she came, I asked her out....then black.

WHAT HAPPENED!?!

Well whatever happened, I just had to try my best to roll with it. She is the girl of my dreams, so retaining my sanity should be possible right?

Best not jinx myself.

I entered my bedroom to find that the two had decided to make themselves comfortable. Namely reorganize my room. They were still talking with each other as I remained frozen in the doorway.

Everything was out of place. My bed was pushed against the shelf that held my random things of interest, the desk now lay under the window with the chair to its left (why the heck they had decided it was a good idea to put the chair there I'll never know) and my drawings, MY DRAWINGS! No,no,no! On the recently cleared-away wall, random sketches were pinned for all guests to see.

At this point they noticed me as my eye began to twitch.

"Umm you okay Zach?", Rainbow asked with a worrisome tone.

Kate then added, "Are you gonna fall into another coma? You look kinda sick."

WHAT!?!? ANOTHER COMA!?! If you could peer at my face at this moment you would see that it was a pale white, as my features were distorted in a mixture of pure anger and extreme horror. My left eye twitched erratically.

My humble abode had been destroyed, my reality shattered and somehow I had fallen into a coma. I wanted to scream. I wanted to tear everything apart. I wanted to rip my hair out. But none of that happened. All my thoughts were basically summed up into one word.

"Fuck." I whispered shakily. Before either of the two could respond, I screamed and ran out the door.

Snow.

It blanketed the world around me. The homes, the roads, everything. In addition, the air was crisp and everything was silent. Well, as quiet as it could be in this city. I enjoyed the winters. Even when they seem to surprise me out of nowhere due to my reality exploding.

No matter what goes wrong, no matter how confusing things get, winter is always there to bring my life back into order. When the snow covers the world it is as if we are given a clean slate. All the dirt of our mistakes washed away.

If only that were true.

The crunch of my shoes on the snow was audible among the morning silence. No one seemed to really be awake yet. I took a deep breath, full of the cool air, feeling it calm my senses. When I exhaled the visible vapors billowed forth, as if the morning's stress had taken an observable form and decided to take flight. The warmth of my black South Pole sweater kept me from shivering.

I closed my eyes briefly as I reflected back on the events of my life. Even before the light blue pegasus entered my life things had always been hectic at best; just one screw up after another followed by me scrambling to fix them. One might call my past a tragic one, but as bad as it was nothing could be done to change it now. Not a thing had changed since that day. Nothing will. My life will continue on its downward spiral and the events of today will be written off as strange occurrences in the book that is my timeline.

It makes me wonder if I ever had control in the first place; No doubt I didn't. Of course the true tragedy of it all was that I didn't care anymore. Like I have said before, when something bad happens people often tend to become desensitized to it and I am not immune to this fact. This is a world of chaos; nothing is certain. The only thing that is certain is that uncertainty.

Then a thought entered my mind:

Rainbow. More specifically, Rainbow Dash.

She came from a world of total harmony. Everything was predictable, even the weather. The sun rose and set at an exact time, even the stars' positions were planned. What was it like? To live in such a world. A world of near perfection. One where all problems could be solved by magic and if it couldn't, then it wasn't worth the trouble. A damn utopia compared to what this world is like. But there was one constant between this place of chaos and that land of harmony.

Death.

Magic or not, death came for us all. It was inevitable as much as it was unpredictable. Nothing could stop it. Not even the heartbroken pleas of a child.

It makes me wonder how my magical resident saw this world of which I live. Did she understand it? Does it scare her? I would have to ask.

How did she get here in the first place anyways? That is the thing that confuses me the most about her. It seems that life decided to throw me a second curve ball; but have I caught this one? Or is it still speeding towards me? Only time will tell.

At that moment a bird flew overhead and landed on a nearby tree. Normally I wouldn't have given any notice such an occurrence, but something was different about this bird. It was primarily a bright pure white with specks of black on its breast. It wasn't a pigeon, or a crow, it was something else entirely. Then something even more strange, amazing even, happened.

It began to sing.

It was low at first. Then its notes rose and fell as it sung its somber tune. There was something about the song that seemed to pluck at my heartstrings. It reminded me of.....something. Something I couldn't quite put my finger on. It was as though it was addressing a part of me that simply wasn't there.

I couldn't help but feel a sense of kinship with the bird. You know...a part of me knew, or thought, that the bird felt the same. For a fleeting moment I was drawn closer to it. We were two beings of imperfection, two souls dancing to the same somber tune. The song rose to a climax then flatlined. At that point it hit me.

A dove. That's what the bird was. A dove.

Suddenly struck by the muse of art I swiftly turned and began to walk away. A bird chirped and it found its way onto my shoulder. I glanced over at the white and black dove and a small smirk found its way into my face.

"Okay Muse. If you really want to come...", I said aloud.

The bird whistled in response.

I nickered, then began making my way to face the insane mess that was my home. Maybe I still had some semblance of control. Maybe.... It wasn't too late. Only time could tell.

TO BE CONTINUED....