Chapters Equestria was, indeed, a utopia. Candy colored clouds raced across the sky as it slowly faded into the plum of the night. The glorious sunset held the sky with a warm grasp over the apple orchard where fillies were playing hide and seek, their giggling penetrating the soft silence with a magical chime. As the mothers of Ponyville started calling their children inside, out of the heavy summer night, one pony lounged on a grassy hill that climbed over the trees, wanting nothing more than to be alone. Her teary eyes followed the shooting stars chase the earth in bright flashes, there one second and gone the next, like the memory of a dream. Her rainbow mane covered her face from the view of the fillies being ushered inside, sparing her any embarrassment for showing emotion. Maybe they would have understood. But it didn't matter to her if they did. She sure as hay didn't.
Applejack approached Rainbow calmly on the hill, the purplish light of the new night glimmering in her blonde mane. The orange pony smiled with the tenderness of a sister at her friend, for while Rainbow might try all she wanted to hide her tears, there was no concealing a bad mood from ol’ dependable Applejack.
“Sugarcube?” She startled herself with the loudness of her voice compared to the nearly silent hush of crickets and starlight. “Why aren’t you inside with everypony else?”
Rainbow said nothing, bowing her head so her mane covered her tearing eyes. “It’s called a sleepover for a reason, y’know. You got to sleep over there. You know… with the rest of us?” A.J. chuckled at her joke for a moment, but at seeing that Rainbow’s bad mood wasn’t budging, she sighed and plopped on the soft grass next to her friend.
“What’s going on, Rainbow?” she asked sweetly as the colorful pony quietly sniffled. “You… you haven’t been the same, and I got to say, that, well, you have me worried.”
Rainbow remained silent, her rosy eyes fixed on a lone dandelion among the sea of dark grass—vibrant and bright, but all alone. A tear dripped down her nose.
“I’m fine,” she muttered, almost indiscernibly. “Just… just allergies.” She winced at the sound of the lie leaving her mouth, tears escaping through the lashes.
“Oh, come on, Rainbow.” A.J. reached a caring hoof to the crying pony’s shoulder but it was shrugged off with a huff of hot air. “You can tell me. Whatever it is, we can get through it.”
Rainbow looked up at the freckled mare, anger and hurt in her red eyes. “I can get through it on my own,” she snarled. “No one asked you for help, Applejack. I don’t need you to swoop down every time I have a problem like Superpony with a magical solution. I’m big enough to handle my own issues. So leave me alone.”
Applejack glanced at the moon, almost too big and bright that night to look at without blinking five times. “I can’t do that, Rainbow. You’re my friend.”
“Yes. Yes, you can!” Rainbow Dash stood up and turned to look Applejack in the eye. “You can leave me alone. You just won’t. I’m sorry you don’t have wings or a stupid horn, but you don’t have to overcompensate for it by being extra-invasive! Believe it or not, A.J., I don’t need you to show your flank every time I have a problem, and I can survive just fine without you and your so called friendship!”
She had said it with the red-hot intention of hurting Applejack, and even though she had no real reason for doing so, and regretted the words the instant they left her mouth with a sour aftertaste, she had succeeded.
Applejack stared at the trees she had spent the previous week harvesting with Big Macintosh, her green eyes fighting tears she barely let fall.
“Well, Rainbow,” she whispered finally, her throat dry and creaky, “I’m going to head inside. The others will be waiting for me…” The tears streamed down her face silently as she clopped away a few feet and turned. “And Rainbow…. I don’t know what’s wrong with you, but you’ve changed. And if you don’t want my friendship anymore… I’ll try not to burden you with it any longer.”
The tears fell anew down Rainbow’s face as she collapsed to the ground again, emotionally exhausted. She didn’t know what was wrong with her either. All she knew is that she wanted nothing more than to be alone, away from all of them and their smiling faces. Applejack would rather be there anyways, she thought. Even I wouldn’t want to be around me right now.
She could smell Pinkie’s cake even from so far away, though it had probably all been eaten by now. Rainbow had barely eaten all day, but she wasn’t hungry. Her appetite had disappeared weeks ago, replaced by exhaustion and boredom with everything and everyone around her. Her usual vivacious manner of zooming across Ponyville to spread awesomeness one wing flap at a time was replaced with a heavy, moody demeanor. She thought of what Applejack had said; I’ve got to say, you have me worried. The fact of the matter was, Rainbow was worried too.
It was ripping her apart. This need for something new, for something fresh, for something raw, for something real; it was killing her. It felt at times like she was just a character in some cartoon, the result of an overactive imagination. As though none of this mattered. Like she didn't matter. She felt lost in all that she knew, and so small in the vast world that surrounded her.
They were all so happy. How could they be so happy? How? For as she sat on the hill, gazing at the clouds she had passed a thousand and one times, and the stars she had envied a thousand and one more, she had never felt so alone. Yeah, her friends were incredible. Pinkie kept her smiling, and Twilight kept her trying, and while all she wanted to do at times was tell Fluttershy to suck it up and be braver, she had nothing love, and even a certain respect for the way she just listened whenever she had to talk to someone. Applejack, who always stopped her from going too far (which she always seemed to do), and Rarity who was a, without a doubt, a gem that shone with a beauty that was almost enviable. She loved them. But they kept her grounded in this world where all she wanted to do was fly, fly, fly away.
The truth was that they were happy and she wasn't. They were all inside the house at Sweet Apple Acres, snug and smiling, Twilight probably blowing out the light as she finished yet another good book. But here she was-- Rainbow Dash, THE Rainbow Dash-- crying on a hill as the night chilled and the wind chipped at her nose. Feeling, even though she was filled to the brim with love for her friends, empty. So, so empty, and sick of the beautiful land that was her home. And yes, it was beautiful, and she couldn't imagine life without the fresh vast world around her. She had grown up here. Equestria was all she ever knew. All she ever needed was the wind rushing in her face and mane as she flashed across the sky, light as a feather and free, truly free, even if it was only until she touched the ground again.
That was it, wasn't it? She looked down at the grass bending in what looked like a dance to the wind. She was trapped. And only when she was soaring, when her wings felt the breeze kissing them and carrying her above the cage that was her life did she feel anything like freedom. It was shameful, to call this beautiful land and her friends (who were really more like family) a prison, but the emotion she was feeling, this heaviness that held her usual light spirit down, and the geyser hidden within that resulted in the tears rolling out her magenta eyes....It was hopelessness.
She was confined in the smiles, in the commitments she had made to every pony. The dependency they had on her were restraints, but not as hard to break out of as the dependency she had on them. To be in constant need of someone... she wasn't the same pony she was once ago. Once upon a time, she was alone, and it was just her and her wings and wherever they could take her. She needed no one. She loved no one. She felt weak, as though it was her fault for letting so many ponies into her life that she was in this situation.
Rainbow Dash sat still as the last tear crawled down her face, the breeze chilling her wet cheeks. The cold felt good. Being alone felt good. She looked to the sky for support.
“You could do this.” Rainbow Dash muttered it under her breath, so quietly she could barely make it out over the whispers of the wind.
With one last look at the apple orchard, she spread her wings and, with a running start, leaped into the air, the rustling of the leaves muttering good bye.
But mere seconds after her feet left the ground, while she angrily tried to push the images of her friends out of her head with any feelings of regret or second guesses, the world around her faded to black and she felt herself fall, as though she was awaking from a dream.
When she awoke, the air around her was filled with a scent unknown to her-- the scent of cigarette smoke, and she was surrounded by soft stinky white and black bags. There were metal walls around her, tall and cold and green, and a roaring noise that seemed to shake whatever box she was in every few seconds. She struggled to find a place for her hooves among the mushy and crunched bags, just enough so that she could peek over the edges of the container. What she saw left her more thrilled than she had ever been in her life.
Buildings of stone climbed to the sky, colorful lines of paint staining the red brick, the dingy windows smiling back at her. Roads of concrete stained with yellow dots and arrows paved the way for hunks of colorful metal zooming past her, blowing gray smoke in the air. Everything was so loud and fast and.... new. But that wasn't even the half of it.
These … things were lurking around on two hooves or... well... whatever the hay they were. The males were in clothes that hung loosely on their bodies, and the females wore so little that their breasts were nearly overspilling. Rainbow Dash heard them shouting, screaming, yelling, laughing out of their ugly misshapen faces. The noise enveloped her and she was overwhelmed. Somehow, she had awoken in an entirely new world. And she didn't know if it was good or bad. She didn't know how to survive, or even if she could.
The one thing she did know was that she wasn't in Equestria anymore.
Chapter 2- A Detroit Welcome
Chapter 2
The buildings seemed to scratch the very clouds, their height intimidating and gray. But then again, the whole city seemed gray. Gray clouds and gray sidewalks and gray buildings and gray pavement. Even the air itself seemed to take on a dingy haze. Everything sounded so mechanical and angry.
Rainbow stared at the obscenities written in colorful lines on the wall across the dumpster she had awoken in. There were words she would rarely hear in Ponyville, some she had never heard at all. The smell of apple blossoms and the summer's night at Sweet Apple Acres was replaced with the sour, bitter stench of gasoline, garbage, and smoke that rose from whatever those sticks were in the odd creatures' hands.
Rainbow saw them everywhere: in capsules of metal on wheels zooming down the dark pavement; strolling near the buildings on the sidewalk. Rainbow Dash stared in awe, wondering how they managed to prance around on only their hind legs, wondering if it hurt their hooves to walk like that. Her eyes were fixed at the ones sitting closest on a bench at the mouth of the alley, sitting with their hands and eyes fixated on small rectangular handheld objects, each with an array of buttons and lit screens. She watched them, bewildered, unable to see just what was so special about these items or their small-worded screens. But everyone and their mother seemed to have one in their hands or pockets, with long black stringy wires hanging from the item to their-- were those ears?
Rainbow stifled a laugh at the sight of them. The floppy flaps of skin hung of the sides off their faces in a dopey fashion. She couldn't tell if they were aliens or some kind of weird animals. They were all so many different shades of brown—some so dark they appeared to take on a purplish haze, and some so light they nearly glowed; and many, many in-between. Their manes were all different colors from short and yellow to long and black, some brown, some red, even one with green. Their front hooves all appeared disfigured and split into five different pieces with stubby rounded claws—she wondered if they were detachable—and their back hooves were concealed in leather and rubber casings. They all appeared to have so many emotions, some of them laughing into their rectangular devices, some just staring at walls.
Had she awaken in a different planet, or perhaps even a different universe? An entire world of questions opened before her, and the answers were so close she could taste them, right outside the walls of her stinky dumpster. She didn't know why she was here, or how, or even where “here” was.
But she was ready.
So she pushed herself up on her front hooves, over the clanking metal walls, took her first big breath of this new world adventure, and plopped head over tail over the side and on the hard rocky ground.
“Well that hurt,” she muttered, rubbing her forehead. Perhaps it would be smarter if I stayed where these things can't see me. I wouldn't want to scare anyone. She couldn't see anypony else around, so she decided it best to just assume that they had no one like her.
Somehow, that wasn't scary at all, being completely alone. The solitude wasn’t intimidating. In fact, it was liberating, empowering. No pony to make sure she was okay, to keep an eye on her. And no pony for her to keep an eye on. She felt a blood rushing thrill she hadn’t felt in so long; in too long.
She broke off into a bullet’s run, her legs pounding the ground with a thundering clippety-clop. Her front hooves slammed the floor one last time before leaping into the odorous air, her lungs filling. This wasn’t like the night before (or whenever it was she had last been in the apple orchard). This time, she was happy, she was confident, and she knew that wherever she was heading, she would arrive alone and strong. She swooped over the creatures at the bench, all of them too engrossed in their handheld devices to notice the cyan pony dash inches above their misshapen heads. Only a small one, just a filly (if you could call it that) stared up in awe and wonder, tugging on her mother’s sleeve gently. But by the time the mother looked up from her purse, Rainbow was long gone in a dash of color.
There was no feeling to compare to soaring above a world, whether it be Equestria, or some place completely new. The wind pushed and pulled gently on Rainbow’s mane, as she zoomed higher, higher, higher than even the tallest cloud-poking buildings. The air was warm and humid as she rose to the sun, but she didn’t care—she was free. She relished the sticky warmth that carried her open wings.
The new world was completely open before her, the labyrinth of alleyways and roads snaking through the hedge-like buildings and skyscrapers and complexes. The sunlight glimmered against the thousands of windows, and the higher she got, the smaller she felt, as the vast world unfurled before her, crawling on with buildings and streets for miles and miles to the horizon’s end. And those things, or animals, or monsters, or whatever the hay they were—they were everywhere she looked. Hundreds, thousands, maybe even millions of them concentrated into one area. Some places had buildings as tall as mountains, some short as trees, and some places were just empty concrete spaces with those metal capsules organized in yellow painted grids.
She was fascinated with the size of it all; it was all so much, too much, too real. And she loved it. She flew farther and farther, but could still see no end to the path of skyscrapers before her, running on the floor like loose vines.
The farther she flew, however, the more intense a raw bitter stench grew. She couldn’t tell that it was coming from the factory so close, and that the smoke was everywhere. Her vision was gradually being more and more clouded with grey dust and the smell made it hard for her to think. Her head was hurting, pounding, and she started to get lightheaded. She had never experienced anything like this. Even when she had come to smoke, she could usually beat it away with her wings, but this… this was too much. The odor hurt her lungs, started to burn, and the last thing she felt before the blackness overtook her and she plummeted down was a pain in her head and limbs as she succumbed to a coughing fit.
Rainbow Dash awoke with a stinging pain in her left wing, one that seemed to pulsate. The base of the wing was swollen, and the pressure of the muscle against the cracked bone was too much for her. She started to literally shake, the agony overwhelming. She couldn’t move, at least not in a way that didn’t send a shocking pain through her entire body, from the tip of her head to the base of her hooves.
“Is it a robot?” She could barely make the wheezing voice over the pounding in her head and the pulses of raw pain.
“No, man. It’s breathing!” A nasally voice responded, and a scent unknown to her, the nauseating scent of marijuana hit her nose like a ton of bricks.
She opened her eyes barely, her head swimming. She saw a tall figure, one of the creatures from earlier pick a stick off the alley floor and walk closer. With a burning pain, it poked her wing, and the pain made her moan as tears filled her rosy eyes.
At the noise that left her mouth, one figure jumped, but Rainbow managed to make out the one holding the stick start to smile with her foggy swimming vision. He poked at her again, and as she started shaking with sobs, he chuckled to himself.
“St-stop…. Please…” she managed to croak the words out. Her lungs and throat still itched and burned with the ashes from the factory smoke.
The thing’s eyes opened wide at the words. “Hey, hey Jerry. Get over here.”
“What is it?” The one called Jerry started sulking back, his eyes blue and a little sad.
“I couldn’t tell you if I wanted to, but it fucking talks.” The one with a stick smiled wide, his canines glaring in the afternoon sun.
They were sheltered from view in another alley, privacy fence on one side and an apartment complex on the other. She was on the floor, gasping for breath through the overbearing pain, trapped with these monsters, one of which seemed incredibly amused with her agony.
It poked her again, this time right at the base of the wing, and she screamed a little. She struggled to get up through the devastation to her back, every movement like a needle to her spine. She wobbled on her front hooves, and just as she was about to unbend her hind legs, the monster kicked her down, and she fell face-first to the floor.
“Aww, it’s trying to get up.” The thing laughed at her, at her pain and kicked her again, a welt already rising on her belly. “Come on Jerry, this is fun.”
Tears rolled down her face. Normally, she would make them suffer; she would kick them and make them regret the day they even thought about messing with Rainbow Dash. But she could barely move. “Stop it! Stop!” She shouted as it kicked her harder, her legs barely able to twitch through the excruciating suffering.
“Steve, com on. Let’s stop.” The blue eyed thing, Jerry or whatever its name was, looked at her with pity in its eyes. Rainbow didn’t handle pity well. It left her pride more bruised than her stomach. She would have rather he kicked her too. “I think that’s enough.”
“Shut up, Jerry.” He kicked her in the face and she felt a deafening crack burst down her nose, tasted the coppery blood mix with the ash on the back of her throat.
“Steve, we got to go. Now. You’re dad’s gonna kill us if we’re late. Let’s go.”
Steve looked at Rainbow and kicked her one last time in the gut, a smile spreading to his cheeks. “Fine… I’ll stop if you want to be such a pussy about it…. But man, we must be trippin’ out hard. Look at this thing. I mean, it’s like that freaking kid’s show my baby cousin watches. The one with ponies and shit.” He laughed and started walking away. “Man, I don’t know what was in that bud, but let’s go before we start seeing Bugs Bunny.”
He walked away, laughing to himself as he exited out the alleyway.
Jerry stared at Rainbow, his blue eyes full of tears, as a sudden recognition overtook him. “How did you get here?” he whispered.
He approached her slowly, his breath held and his pulse racing. He knew who it was, recognized the magenta eyes and rainbow pallet of long spiking hair. “Rain—”
“Jerry get your ass over here! Didn’t you say we had to go home?”
Jerry heard the call and followed, his head bowed, wiping his tears as he left Rainbow Dash scared, shaking, and in pain in the darkening alley.
Chapter 3- The Cruelty Of Reality
The cold of the night was just starting to set in. In a foggy alleyway in Detroit, Michigan, Rainbow Dash lay on the floor, her aching lungs contracting painfully with every chilly breath against her bruised and battered rib cage. The exhilaration of solitude she felt just hours ago had completely disappeared, for her body and pride had been both brutally attacked. She bent her left front leg slightly, seeing if she could handle the movement. Indeed it stung, but she fought through it, attempting to lift her devastated body. One hoof at a time, she supported her body weight into standing position. Well , she finally thought to herself, That was rude.
Everything hurt and throbbed unbearably. Rainbow Dash just stood there for a moment, crying and unable to move or accept what had just happened. They had broken her, for she was completely defenseless against these creatures, these complete and utter monsters. She was now alone and friendless. There was no way she could survive.You're Rainbow Dash , she told herself, as though that was all the reassurance she needed. So come on, just get dashing, darn it! Move!
She lifted one hoof at a time and moved it before her, and started limping out of the alley, one step at a time. She stopped at a puddle that beheld her reflection. Gosh, you look like you were hit by a stampede.
There was a stream of blood flowing from her muzzle, a knob of swollen flesh at the base of her nose. Her mane was disheveled and tangled with gray rocks, standing out like shrapnel in a rainbow. Purple bruises splattered her body like paint over the cyan coat, but the saddest part was the fear and sadness that was so out of place in her normally defiantly laughing face.
She sniffled, sending a shock of pain through her nostrils. But then, she saw her wings. No. Just no.
So now, what was she?
Just a crying broken pony in a grimy dark alley.
Careful of which hooves she distributed the most weight to, she fumbled out of the alley. She heard screaming and something like a Sonic Rainboom; a loud bang in the distance that resonated through the constant shrieking of sirens. What the hay was that? But she decided against investigating. The sun was setting and the city's true colors were showing in the dark. Through the separation of apartments on either side of her, she saw the world unfurl before her once more, only this time, there was no awe or wonder in it; just a fear of being hurt again.
To her left, she saw an open door welcoming her into one of the buildings. It was either walk out of the alley, into a street of monsters when she was more vulnerable than she had ever been, or head inside and take her chances in shelter.
Yeah, walk in front of them like live bait.... or nice warm building. It seemed like a no-brainer.
It was, indeed, warmer in the building, and while she walked deeper into the dark of the hallway, a sense of security lay over her like a blanket.
All I got to do is find a place to stay safe... just until my wing heals... if it's ever the same.
She froze for a second, shaking her head in an attempt to clear the terrible thought from her mind. No. It's gonna heal. I AM going to fly again.
As she passed by random doors in the maze of a hallway, she heard different voices, different sounds, from laughing children to roaring hard rock music.
At one door, she froze, hearing a noise like something being thrown repeatedly and sobbing screams. Someone was being hurt, but Rainbow Dash knew she was in no position to help anyone.
Just keep walking. Maybe back home in small safe Ponyville, she would have. But the world she fell into was dark and unpredictable; a world where one would hurt a pony for the fun of it. She didn't understand it, nor did she want to. They're sick, she decided. And they need help.
She limped to the end of the hall, and looked up to find a staircase before her, the steps way too steep for her hurt pony legs. Seriously? I can barely stand! How am I supposed to get up there?!
“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?”
She heard the scream from the door she had just passed. A female, but not an adult, rather a small filly. Rainbow Dash stopped in her tracks and looked back. No Rainbow. You got to keep walking. You can't just waltz in and help when you can barely help yourself! She kept telling herself this, like a repeated track of background music to her loud impulses to go in and save the day.
“I SAID SHUT UP!”
It was a male, shouting from the same door. The voice echoed right before a heavy slam and more shouts from the young female voice. Rainbow struggled to keep walking, knowing she was useless in this condition. She teared up a bit, but didn't look back.
She was about to give up right then and there and head back to the alley-- there was no way she was going to get up those stairs. But then, she heard a slam directly behind her. The door had opened.
She saw one of the creatures, this one dark brown, tall and rippling with muscles. There was a red hot anger in his eyes as his grip tightened on the arm of the younger one-- the female child Rainbow had just heard sobbing. Both of them had their brown eyes fixed on the blue pony.
“Rainbow Dash?” The little girl said it in so fragile a voice, like a fine crystal so close to breaking. The pony's eyes widened at the sound of her name, but then her eyes met those of the tall masculine monster and the bewilderment was replaced by fear.
“What the fuck is that?” He said in a loud booming voice, the stench of alcohol reaping from his mouth. He took a step towards Rainbow, dragging his daughter with an iron grip that bruised the young one's arm. “Daddy, no!” she screamed. “Don't hurt Rainbow Dash!”
The father took a pause to turn to his child. “Didn't I just tell you to shut up?”
Rainbow Dash bolted out of the hallway, through the father's wobbling legs as he ranted to his daughter in a cussing intoxicated slur. She barely noticed the bruises on the young one's arms as she ran back outside, as fast as her battered body would go. The pain was barely registered through the fear.
She ran out of the mouth of the alley, ignoring the looks of the shocked creatures around her, their eyes wide and small shouts escaping from all around. There was a blinding light at her right, and a blaring horn; she had just barely avoided being hit by one of those zooming metal capsules by mere inches. She ran to the sidewalk on the opposite side, flapping her right wing as hard as she can, though her left stuck to her side swollen and useless, trying to fly on one wing. She only managed to float an inch or two of the ground before plopping back painfully on her hooves.
All she could do at this point was run. Run until she was as far from these things as possible, run until she was alone, until she was safe.
The young one knew her name. She knew her name, and there was no reason that she should have. How did they know her, while she knew nothing of them?
Somewhere close by, she heard another shot of raw noise, a bang shook her inside out. She didn't turn to where it came from, ignored the sirens still cackling in the distance. She jumped, but kept running, as fast as if she was soaring, ducking beneath a highway underpass, out of the vulnerability of the streetlights.
______
The room he sat in was as dark and cold and lonely as his miserable mind, the gears of his brain relentlessly turning through their rust. There were no photos of loved ones to warm the walls, just hand drawings in crayon of stick figure colorful ponies, scribbled on the paint on the wall, as though drawn with all the skill of a three year old.
His eyes stared at the TV, his mouth mumbling something without moving his lips, his pupils dilated fully against the lime green irises.
It was when the blue blur appeared on the television that he awoke from his daze, blinking for the first time in hours, as he started to actually hear the words spoken by the anchor woman.
“... was found running through downtown Detroit, near Michigan Avenue, as seen by this cell phone footage, capturing the small horse. No one knows where the pony came from, but it appears to have been dyed or painted in a fashion similar to the fictional character 'Rainbow Dash' as seen on the popular kid's show 'My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic', complete with a set of glued on wings.”
The mans eyelid twitched as his green eyes watched with a nearly inhuman amount of attention, capturing every pixel of the cyan pony dash down a crowded Detroit street.
“It was a strange sight,” the anchorwoman continued, “and while no one has claimed ownership of the pony, Animal Control has been called to scout the area for it so that it may be released into a safer environment. Anyone who has information on the animal should call the number below so--”
The mad man heard no more, as he broke out into an insane cackle that echoed through the small apartment.
“It worked!” He screamed it in a nasally voice through his shrieks of laughter. “By God, It actually WORKED!” His cackles echoed through the building as nighttime consumed the city.
Chapter 4- A Friend In The Gray?
Chapter 4
Everything hurt.
Her legs ached from the running and her left wing throbbed painfully against her back, swollen and purple. She was hoping she would awake in Ponyville, away from the terrible world she had mistaken at first as an adventure. But no, she was here, bruised belly and all; it was more real than anything that had ever happened to her in her life.
She snorted at the thought—two days ago, she had wanted something real. And now, the life she once had was a fantasy she could only wish to return to.
She groaned as she rose to her aching hooves again, her knees creaking as they unbent. Her stomach growled beneath the now dark green bruises. She hadn’t eaten since awakening in this strange world. She wondered.
She looked around before venturing out of the cover of the overpass. Keep your head, Rainbow. You can’t just prance out in broad daylight.
The wild eyes of the man who had beaten her, the one called Steve, stained her memory with a brutal vividness.
When she saw no one lurking about, she ducked through a large open wired gate to her left, into an alley that provided some shade and cover from the surrounding buildings.
Come on, I need to find something to eat. Anything. She sniffed the air for anything that might smell edible through the bitter smell of the city. She stopped in her tracks at a familiar scent—that of ripe fruit. It came from a dumpster nearby, and her stomach growled once more at the first whiff. She approached the massive metal box once more, jumping as high as her legs could take her in this condition, but still a foot too short. She began flapping her right wing painfully and frantically, begging for a few more inches of height, until she managed to get high enough to grab the edge with her teeth and swing a hoof over the side.
She flipped herself into the dumpster, and found herself in the same position she was yesterday: in a pile of sacks of garbage. She bit through one of them and the smelly trash spilled out of the stretchy hole in the plastic. She prodded through it with her nose until she found an apple core. With a pang of remembrance of Applejack, and the fight they had right before she appeared here, she gobbled it, seeds and all.
She again started digging lightly with her swollen muzzle until finding a loaf of bread, half of which was green. Now is not the time to be picky, she thought to herself as her nose crumpled at the sight of it. She nibbled on whichever parts she could find without mold before lying on one of the soft bags, shivering. There were no trees in sight so she couldn’t tell for sure, but it felt like autumn was setting in by the chilly breeze around her.
Rainbow Dash still had no idea how she even ended up in this world in the first place. She didn’t have a horn or anything, and unless some pony who could do magic transported her here, there was no explanation for the sudden change in dimensions.
She snuggled against the cold plastic, desperate for protection from the relentless wind, when she heard footsteps approaching.
In a moment of panic, Rainbow made herself as small as could be, ducking low away from the edge. She waited for the footsteps to fade away, but instead, they came closer and louder. And they were accompanied with a voice.
It was panicked and frenzied and even fuller of fear than Rainbow Dash was.
“Stop!” A female screamed as someone was thrown against the dumpster, the metal shook and echoed with the slam, and Rainbow jumped up before reluctantly peeking over the edge.
She saw two of the creatures. One was a tall female with curly black hair and brown eyes wide with fear, curled against the foot of the dumpster she was just shoved against. The other was a pale muscular male, his mouth curled in a malevolent grin.
“Please…” the female whimpered, lifting a brown purse as if it were a shield. “Take the money. Take whatever the hell you want. Just stop this; I won’t tell anyone! I won’t—”
“Shut up, bitch!”
Rainbow flinched as the male slapped the shaking girl in the face, the noise echoing between the walls of the alley.
The girl fell silent and shaking as he bent over her, shoving her face in the ground and pulling up her skirt. She kicked her legs, fighting and flailing uselessly beneath his body weight.
Rainbow Dash knew what she had to do. Don’t do it, she told herself in vain. Just mind your business. You don’t have to help any of these things. But of course, she couldn’t just do nothing; it wasn’t in her nature.
In a feat of sudden strength, probably induced with protective instinct, Rainbow Dash leaped over the edge of the dumpster, and ran into the fight. “Hey!” she shouted to the man, and the moment he turned, she delivered a swift kick to his face. He fell to the floor, unconscious as a rock.
The girl stared at Rainbow in shock, mascara rolling off her lashes, probably wondering if she should be happy, or just more afraid of the Pegasus before her.
“Well, what are you waiting for?” Rainbow shouted to the girl impatiently, shaking her colorful mane out of her eyes. “Get going, will ya?!”
The girl nodded, her eyes still open wide, and rose to her feet to run off with the clip-clop of high heals.
“You’re welcome!” Rainbow shouted as the girl turned the corner of the alley. The pony muttered, “Of all the ungrateful little…”
BAM.
A foot connected with Rainbow’s rump as she fell forward, realizing too late that the man had awoken.
“Who the fuck do you think are?” he shouted as she rose to her feet. “Or… well, what are you anyways?” he added in a mutter.
His foot narrowly missed her face as she ran got up and dodged quickly on her limping feet. She decided to take her own advice and run, but when she got to the end of the alley, the gate was closed. “Oh come on!” She shouted in frustration. “I give you a chance to get away and you lock me in with him! Are you kidding—”
She was cut off with a kick to her head, and she slid to the ground, her vision swimming. She was seeing doubles, triples of his form.
She made out his foot swinging back and braced herself for another kick, when the gate suddenly burst open.
“STOP RIGHT THERE!” The voice Rainbow heard was familiar, but she didn’t recall from where. “If you fucking hurt her, you’re going to regret it!”
She barely made out a figure leap over her and onto her attacker, punching him repeatedly in the face. Then, everything faded to black.
____________________________________
When Rainbow awoke, before she opened her eyes, she smelled something sweet in the air, much like apple pie. Her lips watered as she thought of the baked goods at Sweet Apple Acres. A glorious thought came to her; perhaps she was back home. She opened her eyes in a hurry. What she saw before her was much more disappointing.
She was in the cage. A metal cage, perhaps the size for a large dog. She could feel a bump on her head where the man had kicked her. Great, she thought. Another injury. Just what I needed.
She looked around for the source of the deceptive scent and saw a box before her labeled “Pop Tarts” with an image of a flat pastry of some sort. The pastry itself was in a bowl before her and she realized the scent came from whatever the hay it was.
She smelled it suspiciously, and it did seem edible, so she nibbled on it lightly. It actually tasted quite good, but it was hot.
“Ow!” she yelled and jumped a little as she burnt her tongue, and her head hit the top of the cage, directly with her bump. “Ow!” she shouted again, rubbing her head with a hoof.
“Careful.” The familiar voice spoke again from a corner of the dark room. “It’s hot. It just came out of the toaster. And I’m sorry about the cage, but you can’t just run around with Animal Control after you. And after seeing the headache you gave that guy, well, I just didn’t want you to panic and mess me up too. I really thought I was tripping when I saw you before, but then I saw the news, and well…” He sighed before approaching her cage, and Rainbow’s magenta eyes went wide with a sudden recognition.
“I’m so sorry, Rainbow Dash. I should have helped you before when I had the chance,” Jerry said, as he looked at her with amazement in his blue eyes.
“And,” he added as she shook her head and backed away in the cage, “Welcome to my home.”
Chapter 5- Apple Pop Tarts And A Home
Jerry looked at the pony in the cage before him with an onslaught of pity. There was a sadness in Rainbow Dash's magenta eyes that was so out of place; but even more imminent was the fear that he saw in her. The worst part is, he couldn't blame her.
He had just stood there, the day before when she was being beaten for the amusement for his cousin. Yeah, Steve was high as fuck, but that was no excuse for hurting an innocent pony! Or for just standing around and letting it happen, he thought to himself, his shame burning deep inside.
Jerry wasn't the sharpest tool in the shed, but he knew that a place to stay and an apple pop tart weren't going to be enough to make Rainbow Dash trust him. In her shoes, he wouldn't be so convinced either.
“Well.” He cleared his throat a little in an attempt to break the thick silence. “Is there anything that you want to eat? Carrots, chocolate? I'm pretty sure I have some Twinkies, somewhere, so if you're in the mood for--”
“I'm in the mood to get the hay out of here!”
She said it so full of anger and frustration, and it hurt him to see his hero like this. Every time he had envisioned his first conversation with Rainbow Dash the pony, he never imagined it would be in these circumstances.
“How...” he started, avoiding the sadness of her eyes, “How did you get here? I mean, it's impossible. Equestria is--”
“What do you know of Equestria?” Her ears perked up at the mention of her home world and eyes went wide.
“W-well, it's on the HUB channel, and, well, I don't really watch it EVERY day, just from time to time and it's actually quite enjoyable, and, you see, well, I just...” He sighed, the nerves overwhelming. “It's hard to explain. The point is, there's absolutely no reasonable explanation for you being in the middle of freaking Detroit.”
“Detroit? Is that what this world is called?”
“Well, no... That's just this city. I'm well, I'm not really good at this type of thing... My name is Jerry, and I-”
“I know who YOU are! How about you tell me what I'm doing here?!”
“I was kind of hoping to get answers from you, Rainbow.”
“Are you kidding me?” Rainbow's voice was full of anger. “Why should I tell you anything? You kidnap me against my will, lock me in a stupid cage! Oh yeah, not to mention beating the hay out of me!”
“Hey, I'm the one who just saved you! And that wasn't me, it was my cousin! I didn't lay a hand on you!”
“Hand? What's a-- never mind. Maybe not, but you weren't exactly rushing to my rescue!”
Jerry looked down. This wasn't going to be easy.
“Rainbow Dash, I'm so--”
“And that's ANOTHER thing! How is it that every other one of you things in Detroy, or whatever the hay it's called, knows my name?”
“Because you're on T.V!” Jerry smiled a bit at the pony's bewilderment to all the recognition she's gotten. “You're actually even more famous now that you were on the evening news. Every brony from here to Ann Arbor is looking for you!”
“Brony? Is that what they call you ugly things?”
The remark made Jerry feel a bit insulted, put he put it aside. “No. Well, yes. Well, I am, at least-- but not really. I mean, I'm not THAT deep in it, but I kind of am... well, either way, we're humans.”
“I see. And are all humans this bad at answering questions, or just you?”
“Come on Rainbow! I know as little of what's going on as you do!”
“Will you stop calling me that?”
“That's your name, isn't it?”
“Yeah, but that doesn't mean you should know it! Just... just let me out of here, will you?”
He hesitated. “No. Y-you can't go out there.”
“So you're just going to keep me locked up here like a prisoner?”
“You're not my prisoner, Rainbow Dash. You're a guest. And this is my way of saying I'm sorry!”
“The cold metal cage is a nice touch!” she shouted incredulously. “What's next? An embroidered pillow that spells out 'Jail, sweet jail'?”
“Hey! I fixed your wing! The least you could do is be a little thankful!”
“You fixed my-- you.... huh?” She watched him grab a mirror off a desk and hold it up in front of her. What Rainbow Dash saw shocked her.
Her wing was put back in place in a splint against her side. She had barely noticed it before, but the pain wasn't nearly as intense. In fact, unless she tried moving, it didn't hurt at all. It was all patched up with a thin piece of wood and a neck scarf.
Rainbow Dash couldn't trust him. Not after what had happened. But if he was telling the truth, and these humans actually were after her, it didn't seem as though she had much of a choice. She looked in the mirror at her wing. This human, or whatever he was, had given her back her life. It never would have healed otherwise, but now.... The least she could do was give him a chance.
“Okay.” She nibbled suspiciously on the pop tart in front of her. It sure wasn't an apple pie, but it was better than nothing, and she had to admit, a diet of nothing was pretty awful. Her stomached gargled painfully on the moldy bread from earlier.
“What?” Rainbow looked at him, confused. “You act like you've never seen somepony eat before.”
“Well,” Jerry grinned, “I haven't. Not like you anyways. Ponies here don't have wings. Or talk. And they're not as.. well... blue.”
“Ponies don't talk here?”
“No.”
“How about the cows?”
“Nope.”
“Dragons?”
“We don't even have dragons.”
He giggled at her bewildered expression. I guess she doesn't really get out of Equestria much, he thought. “Actually”, he added out loud, “You're the first pegasus I've ever met. It's a shame you can't fly. I mean, for the last couple of years, all I've wanted to see is a Sonic Rainboom.”
She gasped with a smile. “You know about that?!”
“Are you kidding me?” he grinned. “Best episode ever! You were incredible!”
The term was new to her, but she was more flattered than confused. “Thanks! Hey, do you guys have milk in this world?”
He laughed a little. “Yes, Rainbow Dash. Would you like me to grab you a glass?”
“Yep, and get to it.” She laughed and lay back against the floor of the cage, hooves behind her head.
He laughed and headed downstairs, out of his room, never feeling so happy or excited than he was now. For the first time in his life, he felt like he was doing the right thing.
Chapter 6- In On The Secret
The mad man hadn’t left his apartment in years. He had no need to—he always made arrangements for food and other necessities to be delivered right to his door. It was expensive, but he had his sources; his past was as fruitful as it was tragic.
Today, however, was a special occasion, and the reasons for reentering the world far outweighed those for staying inside. He was closer than ever to everything he had ever wanted—his own little pony.
To watch Rainbow Dash burst down the street on the evening news—it validated an entire lifetime’s worth of work in a single blue rush. How long had the cell phone footage even lasted? Three, four seconds? It mattered not, for those few seconds were all he needed to know that this whole time, while they had ridiculed and laughed at his so-called failures, he was right. He was right, and they were wrong, and they would all pay.
Sneaking into the TV station was easy enough. If you knew how to break a school laptop’s password, you could break a news station just as easily. In the middle of downtown Detroit, the station was bustling, and the journalists, assistants, makeup artists, and camera men ran around; almost none of them noticed the man with the twitching green eyes and the janitor’s uniform lurking about behind a computer.
Changing the words on the teleprompter was easy enough. Everyone was much too busy with their own trains of thought and courses of action to see him typing away at the phone number of animal control, changing the digits insidiously to his own home phone number.
He giggled at the simplicity of it all. “Call this number if y-you have information on the lost p-p-pony” he stammered through his chuckles and uneven breathing, until they burst into an unearthly cackle.
But of course, by that time, he was already out of the news station, limping home on his bad knee, his green eyes unblinking, and the gears in his head malevolently turning.
______________________________________________________________
Rainbow Dash was zooming through the skies of Equestria, faster than a bullet, towards the hard, rocky ground. The only question was: would she make it fast enough to stop Rarity and the Wonderbolts from falling to their untimely deaths? She didn’t worry. She didn’t think. All she did was fly, soar, dive! An explosion takes place as she breaks the sound barrier, rings of color flying from her! Less than a second before they would have hit the floor, she swoops down and picks them all up, rising to the cloud city once more. Of course, this had all happened so long ago, but her heart still did a back flip as she saw the action right before her on the computer monitor Jerry let her watch from.
The humans knew everything. About Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Applejack—all of them! There was nothing that was hidden. It seemed to all be displayed and archived in these technicolor “episodes”, as they were called. Did it confuse her? Yes. But at this point, watching Fluttershy actually cheer for her, and Twilight and the rest all smiling at her achievements, she was too preoccupied with nostalgia and missing better days to wonder about it. It all seemed so far away, though she had been there just days ago.
Jerry saw Rainbow beam as she watched herself save the day on the monitor. All it took to break her into a smile were a few videos on YouTube of the gals back home. It was obvious to him that she missed them, and how could he blame her? If he was best friends with Twilight Sparkle, or the trustworthy Applejack, or the bubbly Pinkie, he would miss them too. He couldn’t imagine how she must feel. To suddenly be gone from the world that she knew so well, from Equestria no less! Equestria had always looked to him as though it would be such a wonderful utopia. He had dreamt of travelling there himself; away from the mindless violence and away from judging others. The only problems they ever seemed to have were issues on friendship, that were all solved 20 minutes later.
A tear rolled down Rainbow’s cheek, but she wiped it fast as the episode ended. “So…” she croaked, “Are you sure you have no idea how I could have ended up here?”
“I’m sorry, Rainbow.” Jerry sighed. “I honestly have no clue. I mean, Equestria shouldn’t even exist. We had no idea it did in the first place. Everyone always thought that it was just a result of an overactive imagination. I mean, talking ponies?!” He trailed off into laughter, and Rainbow raised an eyebrow, obviously not getting why it was so funny.
He cleared his throat and continued, stifling giggles. “Well, maybe it’s not so weird to you, but to us, it is. If anything, you should be a fictional character. Sorry, but over here, that’s all you are. I mean, you saw the report.”
He had shown her what was said on the news, the footage of her running down the street on her limping leg. It had nearly two million views on YouTube in only a couple of days. The bronies were attacking it left and right, either claiming it was a fake or saying they were packing their bags to Detroit. A couple of them made some immature comments on raping the crap out of Rainbow Dash if they ever did see her: the kind of comments that Jerry would have normally laughed at, given different circumstances.
Rainbow took the fame very well, and as incredibly creepy as she found the rape comments, she took them as compliments. What she didn't take well was the chasing. It was annoying, needing to be trapped in this smelly human’s house, but at least he was treating her right. She lay back on the pillow he put on the ground for her. It wasn’t much, but it beat the cage, and she took it gladly above being back in that dumpster. The swelling in her wing had gone down dramatically, and it no longer throbbed against her back in pain. But it was still very much broken, and for the next few weeks, she should have to do without flying.
Other than that, things were great. Jerry brought her everything she wanted, and this people food wasn’t all that bad. Twinkies were incredible. A sticky golden dough stuffed with sweet whipped cream—it was better than anything she had ever had before. It even beat the sweets that Pinkie made! She had finished about three boxes of them, and just couldn’t get sick of the rich taste. She closed the laptop before her with her hoof, the green bruises on her foreleg almost completely faded.
“Jerry, can you get me some more of that Gate-aid, or whatever it’s called?”
He grinned at her. “Gatorade. And sure. I think we have some left.”
“Thanks.” She lay on her side on the pillow, comfortable against the carpet as he closed the door behind him.
The second the tumblers in the door knob clicked, his smile disappeared. This pony was eating him dry. He had emptied his wallet and pantry for her. There was probably one more bottle of Gatorade left, but he knew that his mom wouldn’t notice they were missing. It’s not like she noticed much of anything.
The house was fairly small and cluttered. He walked down a short staircase to the living-dining-gaming-everything room. His mom was sprawled on the couch, barely breathing. She lay alone in her filthy clothes, and just by looking, Jerry could tell that she hadn’t bathed in what was probably weeks. He knew she needed help, but no where he had applied to had called back, and rehab was expensive. Getting employed was tough for a 17 year old in a city with almost no jobs available. He picked a blanket off the cluttered and stained carpet, laying it over his mother and kissing her forehead. He giggled as he found his old blue teddy bear on the floor amongst the rest of the trash. Blue always was my favorite color, he thought as he tucked the old thing under his mom’s chin. Because no one’s only companion should be a bottle of pills.
He walked over a pile of his little sister’s generic Barbie dolls, their heads popping off and hair falling out. He wondered where she was, figuring she was probably hiding from the cat in some corner somewhere. He entered the kitchen, sighing at the pile of dishes that had built up over the week. Jerry overlooked them and strolled to the fridge, ignoring the smell from the sink.
The fridge was empty, except for a bottle of expired mustard and a bottle of Gatorade. He checked his wallet again, knowing that the only thing in there was a dollar for the bus so he could get to school tomorrow.
“I guess I’m going to walk”, he muttered, making mental plans to buy his little sister a sandwich off the dollar menu at McDonalds for dinner. He then turned around and, avoiding the sad sight of his mom, walked up the stairs.
“Uhhh… Jerry?!!” He heard Rainbow Dash from his room, and rolled his eyes. He had explained to her to keep it down. But then he noticed that his bedroom door was open, and he heard another voice, loud and full of energy. Just like that, he knew what had just happened.
“Rainbow Dash! Oh my gosh! What are you doing here!?” His little sister Sabrina was hugging the pony with a deathly tight grip, smiling and jumping with excitement in her baby-blue eyes. Rainbow was struggling against the little girl, both confused and flattered.
“Sabrina, no!” Jerry lifted his little sister off the befuddled pony, while the little girl smiled and ranted: “JerryohmygoditsRainbowDashIloveRainbowsheisjustsoopretty!”
Overwhelmed, he placed a hand over Sabrina’s mouth, as she continued babbling her excitement.
“Can one girl be any more like Pinkie?” Rainbow giggled a bit at the sight of this big teenaged boy struggling to keep a hold of a girl that had to be no older than five. Finally, he put her down, and moved his hand, while she let out the end of her blabber. “….AND IT’S A PEGASUS, JERRY! OH MY GOODNESS IT’S A PEGASUS! WHY IS HER WING LIKE THAT? IS SHE OKAY?”
“SHUT UP!” He said it loud enough for her to hear, and she fell silent, giggling at the sight of the cyan pony with a rainbow mane in the middle of his brother’s bedroom. “Listen, Sabrina. You can’t tell Mommy about Rainbow Dash, okay? She’s hurt.”
“Why can’t you take her to the doctor?”
“Because the doctors only make medicine for people owies.” He ignored Rainbow’s face as she stifled a giggle at the word “owie” leaving his lips.
“Why can’t you take her to the vet?” Her eyes went wide with curiosity.
He rolled his eyes as he rattled his brains for an answer that would make sense to a five year old. “Well… because…. Uhhhh… the vet ran out of Pegasus medicine.”
“Oh.” She smiled and started petting Rainbow Dash gently. He grinned at his sister. She loved all animals, real or not, and he had gotten her into Greek mythology when she was three. She was one of the only five year olds who knew what a Pegasus was. In fact, they were her favorite animal. He shook his head and chuckled as she started petting the pony a bit too hard and Rainbow’s eyes started to water.
“Uhh, Jerry, get her off me, please.” The pony muttered. He held his little sister’s hand and led to the other side of the room.
“Listen, Sabrina. You can play with Rainbow Dash, but you have to be nice. She doesn’t like petting very much. Also, you can’t tell anyone. Not your friends at school, not your teacher, not Mommy or Stevie, or even Grandma, okay?”
He turned to Rainbow Dash. “This isn’t going to work. We need a plan for when I’m not in here. I mean, we can’t just have you here with the door unlocked.”
“Well what do you suggest?” the pony blew a puff of air at her bangs to keep them out of her eyes.
“When I’m not in here, you’ll have to stay in the closet with the door closed. It may not be comfortable, but it’s something. Okay?”
She looked at the small closet and sighed. “I guess.”
He tossed the Gatorade across the room and she fumbled to open it with her hooves. Sabrina watched in wonder. “You like Gatorade?”
“Yep.” The pony gave the girl an endearing smile. The young one really did remind her of Pinkie Pie. “They don’t have it in Equestria.”
Those baby blue eyes expanded yet again and the girl started jumping. “EQUESTRIA? OH MY GOODNESS! WHATS IT LIKE THERE? HOWMANYPONIESLIVETHEREANDDO YOUREALLYCONTROLTHECLOUDSAND—”
The ranting was cut off by a knock at the door downstairs. Jerry gave Rainbow a look and she rushed to the closet, swinging the door closed behind her with her back hoof. He looked at his sister and put a finger over his lips, signaling her to be quiet, and to remember that it was a secret. She moved her hand over her lips like she was fastening a zipper and he sighed. That was all the reassurance he could get from her.
He headed downstairs and rushed to the door while his mom remained passed out on the smelly couch. Oh great, he thought as he saw the face on the other side.
“Hey, Cuz!” Steve smiled back at him and started towards the stairs before Jerry wondered how this day could get any worse.
Chapter 7- The Suspicious Enemy
Jerry simply stood at the door as Steve barged in, wondering just how bad his luck could get. Just standing by while Steve messed things up seemed to be a pastime that he just couldn’t get out of. It seemed almost second nature to do nothing, to be pushed around, to watch whenever things were burning down. But he couldn’t just stand by this time. Rainbow was counting on him. And he couldn’t let her down. Not again.
At this point, he regarded Rainbow as his friend. Actually, his only friend. It wasn’t like he got out much, he had a sister to watch, not to mention a mom he had to babysit. Growing up, Steve was his only brother, them being only 3 years apart. But those three years seemed to make a big difference, at times. Maybe it was Jerry’s naivety (or as Steve called it, his “pussiness”), but he never got the point of the way Steve just enjoyed hurting people. If standing around was Jerry’s pastime, making Jerry cry like a baby was Steve’s.
Jerry chased Steve up to his room, and took a deep breath as Steve swung the door open. “Hey, J! It’s that thing we saw in the alley!”
Jerry’s knees started to wobble and his heart almost stopped. Oh no, he thought. She isn’t in the closet! He stormed in ahead of Steve, pushing him aside as he rushed in to protect his rainbow-haired friend with the instinct of a mother bear striking to save her cubs. It wasn’t until he was in the middle of the empty room, breathing heavily, that he noticed what Steve was pointing at. Rainbow Dash was on the screen of his laptop that the pony had left on the floor, her imaged paused on in the video.
“Umm, yeah. It is.” Jerry looked to his feet awkwardly, his cheeks burning scarlet, while Steve laughed at his cousin.
“You still watch that crap?!” Steve sat on the bed shaking his head. “What else do you watch? Winnie the Pooh? Dora?!”
Jerry started to mutter the same things that he always said whenever someone attacked his inward love of ponies. “Well, the show is actually pretty good… if you just watch it…”
“Dude.” Steve stood up and looked Jerry in the eye. “Shut up. I don’t have ‘Fag’ scribbled on my forehead, do I? No. No one in the world cares about ponies. Okay?”
“Well, I—”
“EXCEPT for you. And the rest of those pony-porno watching idiots.”
“Steve, let it go, okay!”
Rainbow fidgeted in the cramped closet, trapped in the confines of smelly clothes and crumpled cardboard boxes. She struggled not to yelp in pain as her flank fumbled against a thumbtack. She didn’t like hearing Steve talking about her and her friends like that, even if in this world it was just a show. Even worse, she didn’t like hearing Jerry’s lame-o attempt to defend it. Come on, she thought, grow a spine, Jerry! She thought of Jerry just standing around while Steve hurt her. A surge of anger ran through her, down to the bottom of her hooves. She didn’t know which one of the two men she was angrier at.
Jerry sat on the bed next to his cousin, staring at the closed closet door, shoulders hunched with shame. Not shame at being a brony, or at caring about Rainbow, but of not being able to defend it, to defend himself, to defend her.
“What do you want, Steve?”
“What? A guy can’t just visit his cousin?”
“Not when it’s you.”
“Well, have you seen the news lately?”
Jerry’s heart stopped mid-beat and he felt his throat go dry. “Umm, no. Why?”
Steve grinned at his cousin. “That thing we saw in the alley. I don’t think we were tripping out! It was on the news, man. And those freaks who watch that Pony shit are all looking for it. I say we go back to that alley. It shouldn’t be too far. I mean, I fucked it up pretty bad.”
Jerry wanted nothing more than to punch that smug grin off Steve’s face. “Yeah… yeah you did,” he muttered quietly towards his shoes.
“So let’s go.”
“Go where?”
“To the alley, dumbass! Where we found her. Let’s turn her in. The website says there’s a reward.”
“Reward?” Jerry looked up from his feet to Steve’s smiling face.
“Yeah, J. I don’t know. It was actually just added on this morning. But they’re giving like $1,000 to anyone who calls it in.”
“Are you freaking serious?”
“Yes! So, come on!”
Jerry was speechless. $1,000 would be a godsend right now. It could pay the bills, get them a full fridge…. Get his mom the help she needed….
He looked to the closet once more. Rainbow Dash was in there. THE Rainbow Dash. His hero. His idol. His friend. And she needed him.
He shook his head and looked at the floor again. “Not right now, Steve. I still have some job applications to fill out.”
“You won’t need a job if you get this money!”
Jerry took a deep breath. “Steve, I’m busy. Now go home.”
“Stop playin’, Dude. Come on. Let’s just go and—”
“I SAID NO!”
Jerry was just as shocked at his own outburst as Steve was. He had never, as far as he could remember, spoken to his cousin like that. I guess Rainbow Dash is rubbing off on me, he thought with an inward grin. He had to admit, he was pretty proud of himself for yelling at Steve. But at the same time, he knew that he was in trouble. Steve was not the type of man you could just say “no” to. At least not without consequences. It was as though he ran on respect. Respect and fear. Jerry flinched slightly, waiting for a punch in the face, but Steve just sat there, confused and in shock, as though this was a situation completely unheard of.
“Okay.” Steve muttered something under his breath, following Jerry’s eyes to the opposite wall, to the closet door. Steve stayed quiet for a moment before pushing himself off the bed and looking at the closet for a second, eyes narrowed. “Okay, Jerry. Fine. Whatever you say.” He glanced at Jerry with a malevolent grin, the likes of which his cousin had never seen.
He kicked the laptop aside towards the closet as he lurked out of the bedroom door and into the hallway, shaking his head in confusion. Steven stopped at the sight of his aunt on the couch, chuckled a bit to himself and muttered something about “the strung out bitch”. He was about to walk out the front door when he noticed his cousin Sabrina scrawling a picture on a coffee-stained paper and singing to herself.
“My little pony, my little pony, la la la la la la la la….” She went on in an off key, yet adorable fashion, mashing the blue crayon against the paper, her baby blue eyes dancing with excitement.
“Hey, Sabrina.” Steve smiled as he approached her. “Whadya got there?”
She looked at him wide eyed and giggled to herself, moving her hand across her lips like she was fastening a zipper. He shrugged and picked up the paper, recognizing a stick-legged drawing of the blue pony with a rainbow tail he had seen just a few days before. The tail and mane were simply multicolored lines jutting out of the head and oval shaped body’s flank, and the eyes were two rose-colored circles. It was as hard to decipher as a Picasso. He looked up at his cousin’s room, shaking his head, unable to stop thinking about the way Jerry had looked at that closet.
“I don’t know what’s going on,” he muttered to himself, as Sabrina giggled and grabbed another paper, restarting a drawing with a blue oval, “but I’m going to find out what it is.” He crumbled the picture in his balled fist and walked outside, slamming the screen door behind him with a booming echo.
Chapter 8
“So let me get this straight.” Rainbow Dash’s face looked blushed and strained from the struggle of holding back a fit of giggles. “When he goes in the sunlight…. He sparkles?”
Jerry laughed. “Yep. Pretty much.”
“And the females in this world actually find that appealing?”
“Some of them do. Yes.”
“Even though the actor who plays his part in the plays or these movies or whatever they’re called, isn’t even remotely good looking by human standards?”
“Eeeyup.” He watched her mouth curl in a smile at the impersonation of her close friend.
Rainbow dash stared incredulously at the computer screen with her mouth wide open, analyzing the photo of Robert Pattison. Indeed, humans did have the oddest pop culture phenomenons.
“Humans are stupid,” she concluded, and Jerry burst into a fit of laughter.
“No argument there,” he managed through the laughs.
They had been going back and forth all day on some of the aspects of this world, things that were completely unheard of in Equestria. In comparison, to Detroit, Ponyville was heavenly bliss. Racism was one of the things that befuddled Rainbow the most. “I mean,” she had said with her eyes wide open, “It would make no sense. There are only, like, three white ponies that I know. Everypony else is ‘colored’. So the fight would be kind of one sided. Not to mention you guys are all different shades of brown, so what’s the point of this colored, not colored thing.” In five minutes, she had figured out what it took the country a couple centuries to figure out.
Jerry had never been happier in his life than he had been the last few weeks. Rainbow Dash had an effect on him he couldn’t fully explain. He felt stronger. More confident. He actually had a friend he could count on for the first time in his life, and he wasn’t about to let that go. She was funny, and, below the harsh exterior, really nice. Kinda. Sorta. Well… she wasn’t THAT mean. But above all, she was real. More real than anyone else in his life. The fact that she was really just a fictional character from an alternate dimension did nothing to change that.
The only damper on his parade was waiting for it to get rained on. He hadn’t seen Steve for a few weeks; much longer of an absence than ever before. Normally, that would be a good thing, but something about the note Steve left on last time made him feel a little uneasy, as though his cousin knew something. The threat of Rainbow Dash being found was constantly lurking in the background of this happy-go-lucky mood, and it seemed he was only waiting for all his happiness to go down the drain.
He tried to push it out of his head, as Rainbow dash sat before him, laughing her flank off at the ridiculousness of a vampire-werewolf-human love triangle being a bestselling novel. But the truth was, even if she was never was caught by the hundreds of pony-obsessed grown men still hunting her down (the hype following her arrival still hadn’t faded) she would still have to go home eventually. She didn’t belong there. Rainbow Dash was a Pegasus. And Detroit, Michigan was simply no place for a blue miniature winged horse with rainbow hair.
He pushed the sad truth out of his head, No, the thought to himself as he watched her shake a lock of rainbow fur out of her eyes. She’ll be fine here for a few more days. Her wing isn’t even healed for sure yet. Once it is we can focus on finding out how to get her home.
Of course, he was lying to himself in more ways than one. The only reason he was unsure that she was healed was because he hadn’t bothered to check. Chances were she was already healed and able to fly behind that makeshift splint he had made her so long ago. But how could he tell her that and not expect her to soar out of that window and out of his life? He couldn’t bear the idea… his only true friend, gone.
Rainbow scrolled down the list of bestsellers on the laptop, using her muzzle on the mouse pad. She had figured out how to use it pretty fast for a pony who had never even been exposed to such technology before.
“So, what’s 50 Shades of Gray?”
Jerry snorted at the sound of the book on his mom’s bedside table. “I’m not even going to start.”
“Why not? It seems popular. What’s it about?”
“Um, well—”
He was saved by the sound of three knocks on the door, and then a loud clapping sound. Oh, thank God, he thought.
“Come on in, Birthday Girl.” He smiled at the secret knock that Sabrina had made up so they knew it was her at the door and no one else. It was her idea. For a girl who was only just turning four, she was incredibly smart, Jerry thought of his mom, passed out in her room. She was missing so much of Sabrina’s life. Oh well, he thought to himself. At least I’m raising her okay.
Sabrina burst into the room, wearing her favorite chocolate stained pink dress and a plastic tiara. She slammed the door behind her, shouting “Rainbow!” She hugged the mare with a grip tighter than a boa constrictor. “Guess what happened in school today! Guess! Guess! Guess! Guess! Gue—”
“What happened, Sabrina Pie?” she managed through the vice grip as the human girl hopped up and down.
“Wehadballoonsandicecreamandcakeandmusicandgamesandwesanghappybirthdayandatecupcakesand—”
“Oh do NOT mention cupcakes around me!” Rainbow exclaimed, looking sick.
Jerry laughed, almost falling out of his chair. He really shouldn’t have shown her those fanfics.
Sabrina continued, oblivious to everyone and everything.
“And they sang some more and we did the hokey pokey and we played musical chairs and I pushed this meanie named Ryan off his chair and I took it so I won and he had more cake and I won you THIS!” She held out a rainbow whistle on a string and placed it around the pegasus’s neck. On both sides was an image of a cloud and a rainbow bolt of lightning scrawled messily in marker. “I drew your cutie mark! Do you like it? Do you like it? Doyoulikeit?Doyoulikeit?Doyou—”
“Like it? I love it, Sabrina!”
“Yay!
She threw her arms around the pony’s neck once more before skipping out of the room, leaving Jerry to chuckle at Rainbow’s wordless stammering.
“Wow,” she finally managed. “It’s her birthday, and she gets me a present. I wish I could get her something.”
“Are you kidding? Jerry Beamed. “The girl has a full-size pony with wings in her brother’s bedroom. That’s like, every four year old girl’s dream!”
“Yeah, but there has to be something I can do.”
His eyes faced downward with an odd sadness. “Your wing might be healed in a week or two. Maybe you could give her a ride or something.”
Rainbow would have normally scowled at the idea of being reduced to a petting-zoo ride, but the prospect of getting her flying back gave her a rush of overwhelming happiness.
“Yeah… yeah, I think I will.” She was beaming and her eyes had a twinkle he hadn’t seen in weeks.
When she turned back to the laptop, he gulped his guilt and fiddled his thumbs. Come on, he reminded himself. It’s only a couple of weeks. It’s not going to hurt anyone. If the fanfics are right, only a few hours have passed in Equestria anyways. She’ll be back home before they notice her missing. She’ll probably be back without incident if she ends up leaving even later than a few weeks. His mind went on rambling. I mean… well, it might take YEARS for her to find a way back. Maybe even longer. She might even have to stay for… well… forever.
He grinned at her puzzled expression at a stock image of Doctor Whooves. A question seemed to be on the tip of her tongue, but before she could spit it out, she noticed the time. “Holy Celestia! You only have, like, ten minutes before your job interview!”
He leaped and grabbed the computer from the floor. “What?!” The time read 5:50. No. Make that 5:51.
He grabbed a pair of wrinkled black dress pants from the “clean” pile and hopped into them on one foot. He had completely forgotten about this interview. Out of the hundreds of applications he only got bite, and he almost let the opportunity fly out the window; a cashier at a local dollar store. “I was supposed to be there five minutes ago!” he shouted, as he dug through the “somewhat clean” pile for a button down that didn’t smell like sneakers and cat food.
“Rainbow Dash, you know the precautions. If you hear anything or anyone outside that door, head for the closet. Okay? I’m hoping this will be over soon, so I could be back without incident, but—”
“Take your time. This is important to you. Don’t worry so much.” She rolled her eyes. “Nothing’s gonna happen to me.”
“You got that right.” He smiles at her as he fumbled with the buttons. “I promised you that I wasn’t going to let nothing hurt you again, and I’m sticking to it.”
He gave her an awkward hug goodbye before heading out the bedroom door. He stopped at his mom’s room to peer inside at her form sprawled out on the floor. “Just wait, mom. Everything’s going to get better.”
“Sabrina,” he shouted to his sister’s room. “I’m going out. There’s a hot pocket in the microwave if you get hungry. Don’t answer the door for anyone.”
She giggled and gave him a mock salute. “Aye-aye, Sir.”
He ran out of the house and caught the bus by seconds with nothing in his pockets but an empty wallet, a bus card, and a bucket-load of hope; feeling that maybe, for once, things were actually going to get better.
The second Steve saw Jerry burst out the door, he knew this was his only chance. His stupid cousin never left that room anymore, let alone the house.
In his haste of catching the bus, Jerry had forgotten to lock the door behind him. Steve knew there was something up, and if his hunch was right, than that money was as good as his. He tiptoed up the stairs to the room, and, making sure both his aunt and niece had their doors closed, he quietly opened the door.
There she was. The beautiful little pony was sitting in the center of the room, headphones in her ear, singing along off-key to Pony Rock Anthem. All he saw, of course, was a giant dollar sign. He closed the door behind himself and snuck up behind her. It was way too easy.
He took the sack out of his back pocket and just as she noticed his shadow on the ground next to her, he threw it over her head, quickly tying her in the bag. She struggled and her hooves flailed against his back through the bag, but they both knew it was doing nothing but annoying him.
‘You better stop that if you don’t want me to break your other wing!”
She shouted something that was muffled in the burlap sack, but no one would be able to hear her.
There was barely room for her to breathe in that sweaty sack, let alone move, and she started to panic. If there was one thing Rainbow Dash didn’t like, it was tight, confined spaces. She easily recognized Steve’s voice from her nightmares, and she knew she was in trouble. She begged inwardly once more for this all to have been a bad dream, for her to just wake up in Ponyville, to soar in those open, full, blue skies once more. But Rainbow knew it was useless. This dirty city was her home now, even though it was not where her heart was.
He ran outside the house, the sack flailing against him, and shoves Rainbow Dash into the back seat of his car. He slipped into the front seat and pulled out his cell phone, dialing the number he had written down and memorized from the newscast.
“Hello?” Rainbow barely heard him through the thick burlap and over her own scared, frenzied breathing. “Yeah, I got information on the blue pony. Actually, I got something even better….. All I need to know is when I will get my money.”
The mad man with the green eyes was startled at the sound of the phone ringing. Indeed, it hadn’t rung in weeks, and only then was it by some idiots who had painted a miniature horse in hope of getting the cash. They hadn’t even bothered to glue on fake wings. If you are going to try to fool a genius, he had thought, at least put some effort into it.
He strolled to the phone and picked it up. “Hello?” he muttered, and his green eyes grew wide. “….You’ll get the money shortly, sir…. Of course….. let me give you the address so you can drop off my…pet.” His green eyes twinkled and he knew that this was it. His life’s work was soon to be known. Everything was falling in place.
