Different

Luckily for you, the movie theater is not as crowded as you might have thought.

After your release from the hospital, 'Saving Pony Ryan' was nearing its end in the time of theaters, and as such, most of the ponies who had wanted to see it, already had. As such, you and your pegasine accompaniment were left a fairly large berth, yet you still sat next to each other-you did make occasional commentary, and boy, was it genius-she couldn't miss it!

The sounds of gunfire and frenzied screams echoed throughout the dark theater, and you found your eyes almost glued to the screen, completely enraptured by the action unfolding, so much that you took to eating popcorn without a single glance downwards; relying on your hooves instead of your magic-you didn't quite get 'out of sight' levitation yet. Yet, the instant you took a glance to your left, something seemed...off.

Rainbow Dash seemed to be watching you rather carefully, but rather secretly; each shift in her red upholstered seat, each shift as she squirmed about redirected her gaze to you. It...seemed rather odd, so you set aside the film for a brief second. "You all right?"

She jumps, realizing you noticed her, wings extending in sudden fright...but she relaxes just as quickly as she's startled, reclining back against the seat as calmly as possible. "Yeah, I'm...fine."

Shrugging it off, you turn back to the movie. Your popcorn shoveling resumes, but yet you keep an eye on her throughout. It's...rather odd. You could almost say she was scared of you...

You feel suddenly tired, and are definitely obligated to stretch your forehooves out, letting out a soft groan as you do so. At the peak of your yawn, however, you notice her...it's hard to describe, but...she seemed to tense up, more than she already had been. Shrugging, you return back to the movie again, though it's becoming progressively harder to concentrate.

It's only when a sudden, unexpected contact with your hoof occurs, startling you, that your attention finally drifts back away from Saving Pony Ryan. Rainbow seems to have accidentally bumped into your hoof while reaching for some popcorn. “Oh, uh, sorry-”

“Nah, it’s fine.” You turn back to the movie, simply shaking your head slightly to yourself. “Just watch the movie. And relax. Why are you so wound up?”

“Wound up?” The reaction seems as though it were a massive insult to Rainbow. “I am not! I’m...just, uh...restless!”

Sighing nearly silently to yourself, you glare back at the screen, though with the intent of ignoring the pegasus now. A simple plan to watch a movie and to hopefully relax with a friend...that was apparently a little too much. Especially for a pony like you. You could never get friends, could you? No, you were too different. You didn’t deserve to fit in, you didn’t deserve to be around the gorgeous mare-hay, you didn’t deserve Sunny, either. You didn’t-

You’re broken out of your spell by a tap on your shoulder, but you grit your teeth and try to ignore it. After all, you don’t deserve to be out of the hospital, you didn’t deserve to have had all that personal talking time with the pegasus, getting to know more about her progressively and only enjoying her presence more. You didn’t-

The tap became a full blown tug, leaving you staring at not an angry face-though quite honestly, you knew your features were contorted in rage by then-but one with eyebrows drawn low of concern. “Seriously. What’s up, Clarence? You look...different.”

Different. It was that bucking word again. She had the nerve to say it, to you of all ponies? To bring back that word that had brought you enough torment, that the wound was only healed when it ceased to be stricken wider? She dared to go there?

She likely wouldn’t be going any further.

Without a word, you rise from your seat, stomping as hard as it’s possible while not disturbing the other hoof-ful of ponies in the theater, heading straight for the exit. “What? What did I say?!”

The protests didn’t sound any further as regular conversation was, despite being spoken in a projected whisper, but you realize that she’s following you. Intending not to drop your fiasco, you stomp past the concession stand, past the ticket counter, and you’re sure you stepped on a bug before Rainbow finally flies in front of you, no longer concerned but angry herself. “What the buck is up with you?”

“What’s up with me?” You calmly reply-the malice and anger is out of your attitude, because you know you don’t need it. All you need is the cold certainty to finally crush upon her fatal error. “You’ve just re-opened some wounds that you shouldn’t have. I am not ‘different’, Rainbow, I’m normal.”

Rainbow sputters incredulously, stomping her hoof into the ground once, before shouting back at you (now that you were outside). “I just said you looked different, first of all! And second, what’s wrong with being different?”

“What’s wrong with being different?” You find it hard to believe that she doesn’t know. “I’ll tell you! I’ve been tortured my whole life, because I was ‘different’! I liked things I shouldn’t have liked in their eyes, and I still do. It’s those jerks who made me afraid to even embrace anything, because the thought of doing so made me different! And I’m pretty sure you don’t want to be! You have to fit in! That, Rainbow Dash,” You spit. “Is what’s wrong with it.”

Despite your perfectly flawless argument, the rainbow maned pony seems to fight with herself, shrink back-and then proceed to snap right back at you. “I can’t say I buckin’ knew that, since we only talked once a week for 4 weeks, but come on! You are different-”

“Thanks.”

She glares back at you. “-but can’t you see through that thick skull that it’s good? You’re the first stallion-...OK, third that I've met like you, but still, who is a nice pony! You play the clarinet, and that’s your talent-the only reason you haven’t gone anywhere with it is because you’re scared of being ‘different’. I hate to break it to you, but all the famous ponies are famous because they’re different, and you are too! I am! If you just sat down, shut up, and used your humor, your music stuff, and your overall likeability, I’m sure those ponies would shut the buck up. All right?”

You snort, rolling your eyes before staring defiantly back into her eyes, which shimmer with both a fury and a frustration you’ve hardly known. “And why are you so much on my side? All of that means nothing! Who are you to say that all of that’s true!”

“I’m one of the six Elements of Harmony, for Celestia’s sake!” she cries, getting as far as to invade your personal space, leaving you but a mere inch to breathe. By now, the few ponies passing by had stopped to stare, as your peripherals reported. “I’ve saved Equestria...” she stops, counting on invisible hooves she doesn’t have. “...a minimum of 2 times! I may not be Honesty, but I’m gosh-darn Loyalty, and if that isn’t living up to my word when I tell you that it’s not a bad thing, and I stick to it, then I swear on my own life if it’ll make you shut up already!”

You sigh, shaking your head. She just doesn’t get it. “Why are you doing this...?” By now, you’ve given up arguing, instead having accepted the fact that she was as incredibly thick-skulled and prideful as she’d ever be. You thought you knew what she was going to say-’Because I have to do the right thing!’

But she doesn’t say anything.

Instead, Rainbow Dash simply shuffles, shutting her eyes tight as if battling an inner demon. She steps slowly back from your personal space, muttering quietly under her breath while taking deep breaths, which you’d learned not long ago was a way to control stress. Stress. You seemed to have gotten to her, whether for good or not. After a few long seconds, after which you’re sure you’ve won, she opens her eyes, searching you, as if planning her next strike. Every single ounce of defiance is gone, every ounce of anger, every sprinkle of sass. Each inch has been replaced by nothing but serenity, and a sense of apology to all of it.

And then she makes the move that wins the entire argument.

You expected many things, but what you didn’t expect was for Rainbow to close her eyes, and take one final breath before stepping back into your personal space, in a much less violent way than before. All of the confidence gone from both her step and her movements, she proceeded to lean in, raising herself slightly on all four legs to come up to eye level with you, before touching her lips to yours for only a brief second.

She says everything that she could have in just a single move of amazing tender contact and care, pulling away nearly the instant she starts, leaving you gawking with your mouth hanging open wide enough to allow an entire city to fit inside.

You’re still frozen inside a solid ice cube of shock when she steps back, lowering herself back to the ground, and stepping back to where she was. You also take note that, despite you being frozen, you can still hear the faintest sound off in the distance- “Ooooh!”

Despite the fact that somebody besides yourself is gawking at the spectacle, it soon passes as Dash finally opens her eyes again, attempting a smile before sighing, shaking her head, and turning it straight back into a frown. “It’s because I actually care about you that much.”

As if it weren’t enough that she had to up and...break boundaries like that, your jaw dropped from its current position on the ground, straight down to Tartarus. Not only was she...she...-but she...she...

Your silence seems to only further dent the confidence she’d lost right before you lost your composure, which still hovered 20 feet above the ground. “I know, I know...this is sudden, stupid, and...anything else. But I know when I feel something, and...I kinda’ do. You’re one of the few guys who has the courtesy to ask for a night like this, and to not make a single stupid, cliche, makes-me-want-to-puke-my-bucking-guts-out ‘moves’, or...well, any of that.”

All you can manage is a weak groaning sound, as you were still trying to process the fact that you more or less traded saliva with a pony who stole rainbows and stuffed them into her mane.

The rainbow thief smiled sheepishly, backing up a bit, and letting the smile fade just as quickly. You can swear that, for the first time since you’d ever conversed with her, she seems to be...no, you can’t be sure, but...there seemed to be no other explanation...she was blushing. “I...I know I’m being sappy, and...well, tell you the truth, I only hate it if it’s...you know, less...like...this. But...I think this is one of the few times I’d be okay both with being called crazy, and sappy. I...just...” Rainbow throws her hooves up in the air, in a gesture of ‘I don’t even know’. “I just don’t know. All I know, is that there’s really somepony great hiding behind who you are now...and I kinda’ like him better. That’s why I...had to yell. I didn’t want to, but...”

She pauses. “I pulled a Pinkie, didn’t I?” You aren’t familiar with the term, but you’re not in the condition to either answer her question, nor to ask what a ‘Pinkie’ is. “Yeah, I...went on a ‘tan-gent’, or whatever it’s called.”

Your composure, if you ever had any during the kiss or directly after, vanishes for roughly the third time. Of all the things you might have imagined, and all the questions...they just won’t come out, no matter how hard you try to ask, ‘When did this happen?’, ‘You aren’t lying, right?’, and even ‘Why do you suddenly seem shorter?’.

“See, I...don’t know what I’m saying, except for this. Being different is good, because the best ponies accept you for you, not because you fit with a crowd. And trust me when I tell you that I’ve never felt so strangely strong about something in my life.”

Making a running leap, you finally manage to grab your composure before it transmorgifies into a rocket and shoots for the moon, and your senses finally come rushing back one by one. The first to return is touch, accurately described as feeling, and what you feel comes in two parts: one, the fact that Smokey the Pony would not approve of the forest fire that was enveloping your whole face. The other...

Well, you couldn’t quite catch what it was, but it was something that felt like you were having a heart attack, but in a good way, if it made any sense (which, honestly, it didn’t). Instead of passively staring into space, you become more aware of every single little quirk that the pegasus is displaying, even going as far as to tremble slightly-you’d thought she was afraid before, but she truly was now, at the thought of retribution.

The last to return, and the strangest one of all, is...taste. This causes a great deal of confusion, since A, the moment lasted a veritable second, and B, the fact that your mouth tasted perhaps just the tiniest bit like a really fresh mint of some sort was plain absurd, since the contact had not been that long. You also doubted that she’d slipped some gum into the time.

Your ability to speak, however, is at least functional. “But I thought you weren’t-”

“I’m not.” The simple presence of a response gives her enough courage to outright interrupt you. “It doesn’t mean I can’t take part of it, it just doesn’t mean I’m totally obsessed with it.”

You can only stare back after that, the silence growing more and more awkward (or perhaps it was just you). You, yourself, could definitely say that you enjoyed it when she was around...but like this? This...weird, medical-condition inducing type of affection that bloomed quicker than you ever thought possible? And yet, somehow, it felt...right, at the same time.

“So, uh...Igottagobye.”

In one simple move, true to her name, Rainbow Dash crouches low, before taking off in a trail of rainbow, seemingly taking everything you’d ever known behind. The brief window you’d taken to think, she'd noticed, and capitalized on. The sneaky little-

“Wait, come back!” Your shouts go unheeded, however-not even a simple speck remains in the sky. She’s already gone, far too much.

You drop your gaze back to the ground, suddenly taking notice of a circle of eyes staring at you. You never particularly liked it before, and now was no exception. Luckily for you, however, you had a tendency to play things off. “What? Just your...everyday argument-and-spontaneous-make-up-before-it-ends-just-as-it-started...thing!”

The ponies around you realize how stupid that sounds as well, but they all come to a silent agreement: there isn’t much use in staring at the only pony left, as if there were something wrong with them. The crowd quickly disperses, and you’re left standing alone in front of a movie theater, only a mere 15 minutes after Saving Pony Ryan began, However, you have a feeling that a movie is now the least of your worries.

What the buck just happened?

And why did it feel good?

Your walk back to your house, where you expected to attempt to sort out some sort of...anything, was one of the most boring, uneventful things you’d ever done. Perhaps it was the fact that your head remained down most of the walk (thankfully, you didn’t run into any rampant poles), and you saw little, or maybe the fact that you were so lost in your own thought, that you didn’t even notice how many times you almost walked head-first into a building.

Still, you managed to make it back to your fairly quaint home with no head injuries, at least for the time being. Head still down, you open the door after numerous attempts of pawing at it. Your first few steps are...well, steps, but right around the seventh, you make contact with something that’s not normally there. It hurts slightly, and quickly rolls away just as you make contact with it.

Befuddled by this development, you raise your head, taking in the label on the bottle. You aren’t really an enthusiast, but if you had to guess, it was most likely-

“Hey, look...look who’s back!”

The sudden sound of an unexpected voice startles you, and you jump back, before squinting. You’d say you needed your vision checked, but last time the thought came up, a simple visit to the optometrist (it was totally a routine visit), your vision was perfectly 20/20.

It was still hard to believe the fact that your roommate stood in front of you, though swaying as if she were a palm tree - scratch that, a palm tree in a hurricane; 20/20 vision or not. “I thought, you were...” Sunny pauses, hiccuping slightly and taking another second before she continues. “...I thought you were watching...a movie called, ‘Ponies Shoot Each Other’...or somethin’ like that.”

You’re confused briefly, slapping your forehoof as you have a feeling that you finally know the issue-empty wine bottle, unstable roommate...”Sunny, are you drunk?”

The pegasus shakes her head vigorously. “Am not!” She hiccups again after she finishes her emphasis, causing her to hop slightly into the air.

It’s obvious now, even if it wasn’t before. “Yes, you are.”

“Nuh-uh!” insists the yellow mare, stumbling uncertainly over to the kitchen, rummaging around briefly for a bit-so loudly that you consider following her to make sure she doesn’t kill herself from flinging a pot the wrong way-before emerging with a bottle, and tilting her head back before giving it a generous swig-you can now see that the bottle is similar to the one that you kicked, and is labeled ‘Hoofmaid’.

She takes one of the longest ‘sips’ you’ve seen-in fact, it’s more or less a frantic chugging-before she finally sets down the bottle, grinning a grin that seems like it was attempted by somebody missing half their facial muscles. “I’m drinking...not drunk.”

You have to resist the impulse to burst out laughing-because admittedly, that was a genuinely funny joke from Sunny-but it’s a remarkably easy thing. Probably because humor is the last thing on your mind-you’re too busy pondering your own existence, the mysteries of life, or specifically, what semblance of events had somehow led to the third biggest argument you’d ever had, followed by the quickest makeup to ever exist, and then...that.

“So you are...”

Your observation is reinforced as Sunny Wings once more raises the bottle to her lips, chugging for not one, not two, not five, but-

Well, actually, you aren’t sure how long she stays that way, but by the time she lowers the bottle, there’s only about two sips’ worth floating around in the bottle. Her eyes seem to cross, and she frowns. “Hey...c-...could you stop movin’ the world? Iz a little...disor...disseroi...dizzy-thing...”

And with that statement of pure and utter genius that Albert Einstable would be envious of, your roommate leans sideways, from the left, to the right, and seemingly overbearing to the left again...

Only to completely give up and instead fall backwards, crashing to the ground with both a thump and a clink as both her body and the wine bottle land at the veritable exact same time.

You sigh. It was no unknown fact that Sunny had a...you decided to call it a penchant for strong alcohol, though it might be particularly said that it almost always came in wine form. You couldn’t quite call her an alcoholic, since she didn’t do it quite often...but to keep it short: when Sunny Wings got drunk, she got the very definition of drunk.

Still, you were a little thankful for this fact, in a way-she’d passed out into a drunken stupor in record time, leaving you less time to deal with a verbally (and physically) inept pegasus. It...tended to get quite ‘interesting’ when she tried to fly.

Starting off for your room, you carefully step over her, being as careful as possible not to accidentally crush any of her bones. The sudden surprise of nearly being knocked off your hooves, however, was especially frightening, and you feared for a second that she’d somehow attained a state in which she could use telekinesis. But after you managed to regain your bearings, and took another look, you decided that you didn’t quite want to know any more than you came to know.

Sunny was, thankfully, still in her stupor, unable to reach up and drag you down into the earth in some sort of drunken haze borne of power (you also noted that you needed sleep). But a quick glance back over her revealed that her hooves hadn’t moved a bit, but instead, her wings were flared out to their sides, and she even appeared to be sleepily mumbling (or mouthing) to somepony in her sleep.

You found it best to leave her alone when her staggered breathing became a bit more vocal, namely, with the occasional groan thrown in.

Now hurrying as fast as you possibly could away from your roommate, not wishing to become a part of whatever that even was, you quickly walked into your room, being careful not to shut the door too loudly, only to realize that one did not simply wake up from a loud noise when passed out.

Sighing, you flopped onto your bed. The one place which could be called your sanctuary, always willing to welcome you with its soft, warm embrace. It was one of the two ways you could think without any interruption, or even knowledge of the world besides yourself and your idle actions.

Your mind was racing, however, so the notion of, ‘sleep it off’ was out of the question, so you set to the next solution: ask as many questions as you could, trying to answer them to the best of your ability.

Why?

That was your first question, the biggest and most...frustrating of all. Why had you decided to storm off like that? Why had Rainbow done what she did, and to top it off, ran away like she had after a foiled justification? You’d admit to yourself, and yourself only, that you knew hardly anything when it came to romantic affairs, but any pony who wasn’t aware that a kiss on the lips meant they felt something towards you, was likely not alive in any sort of way.

The answers all made no sense. Because she had been scared? No, she was fearless-you’d learned that fairly quickly. You briefly entertained the notion that she legitimately remembered an emergency, but you waved it aside (quite literally)-the departure wouldn’t have been quite so rushed or awkward. In fact, the only possible answer was anxiety, and it made no sense, yet. In fact, it might seem you were scared, of...everything, else you might not have stomped away at first.

Or better yet, you considered-why had it felt so...right? You could have only imagined what the right kiss could feel like, and you’d even remembered from one book you randomly read from what you told yourself was ‘boredom’ (and not curiosity), that it would likely come from who you least expected. And...all right, so it was your first actual kiss, because you had early on become enamored with the fact that you just weren’t interested in a relationship.

In fact, that’s what seemed so...puzzling about it. The strong protests that normally arose at the thought of such a thing weren’t there anymore. In fact, any sort of doubt, upon searching, seemed gone. It was as if she’d reached up, and snuffed out any sort of negative feeling in you besides confusion, which was largely ambiguous regardless.

With no more answers than you started with, you groaned, sandwiching your head between two pillows. It was just so...frustrating! So...complicated, so confusing, so...so...so appealing...

The last point you caught yourself making brought up the next big question-how?

More accurately, how was all of this even happening? You didn’t have any clue-one second, you walk into a pole, and six weeks later, you’re going to a movie and...things...happen. As for when...

All the questions were simply overwhelming, and yet each time, it kept drifting back to one question: why, why, why, why, why?

Why did you feel OK with it? You’d gone from ‘loose friends’ to...it wasn’t even clear anymore. Nothing seemed to be. It’d been weeks since you and Coconeru talked, and...now this. You were changing more than the world around you.

Despite such fact, you still didn’t see the reason behind it. Sure, you happened to like her eyes a fair amount, and sure, her mane looked absolutely stunning when viewed at the right angle. But that didn’t mean anything, especially how her overall completely opposite attitude seemed to be both the worst and best thing that you both loved and hated. Just like the fact that she was more or less the most perfectly toned mare you’d met, not quite as strong as you might expect her, but not really weak, either-she could definitely take care of herself. And once you got past all the bragging and chest-puffing that she did, she...actually seemed entirely different, loyal to the core, and with a nicer side to her personality that had only come out twice, to your knowledge: once after the pole tried to kill you, and the last time was...well, that’s exactly what you were fretting over right at the moment.

...OK, maybe it wasn’t nothing.

Still, the only question you could ask yourself over, and over, and over until you fell asleep, was one that followed you into your restless, fitful sleep that you forced yourself to fall into.

Why?