Bros With Benefits

Rainbow Dash used to be your childhood enemy.

As soon as you met her for the first time many years before now, she immediately began messing with you and playing rough. She would get overly competitive when playing football with you, establishing early on that she was easily better at it than you. Every time you scored your rare goal against her, she would get visibly upset and play against you extra hard. Rainbow Dash didn’t want to lose a single goal to you, or probably anyone she played against, for that matter.

As if that wasn’t enough, she then got mad when no one wanted to play football with her anymore. Meanwhile, all the girls in her group of friends didn’t even want to play football to begin with. Still, she oddly didn’t appear to be lonely as far as you could tell.

One of your friends stupidly challenged her to a race, and Rainbow Dash hung his loss to her over his head for weeks on end. She would not let him forget about it. And then when he challenged her again, everyone was hoping she’s lose this time and learn her lesson.

Nope, she went on to beat him by an even wider margin. Her sheer amount of smug spread like wildfire to the rest of your group of friends, including you, insisting that the rest of you were not too scared to even get into a foot race with her be cause you ALL knew you would lose.

It soon became apparent that the other girls were annoyed by her, but the boys were even more annoyed by her, because it was they whom she constantly tried to hang out with instead of the other girls.

About a year after that, your friend who had previously lost multiple foot races to Rainbow Dash decided it was a good idea to punch her in the face after being that fed up with her nonsense. He got her square in the nose, right in front of all the other girls and boys.

At the drop of a hat, Rainbow Dash was whaling on him before you could even figure out what was going on. She didn’t even hesitate in shock or pain, just went straight to landing punches onto him that were audibly harder than the single punch he delivered to her face.

The boys were begging their friend to rise to his feet and not let himself get beat up by a girl, while girls were cheering her on and chanting “girl power” or something to the affect of that.

The girls started chanting louder by the time Rainbow Dash sent the poor friend of yours running home in tears in a condition that would make his mother’s heart skip a beat the second she saw him. Rainbow Dash immediately turned to the chanting girls and shouted at them in the nastiest tone.

“SHUT THE FUCK UP!” Her raspy voice echoed throughout the trees behind them.

The other girls stood there in shock, frozen together like a group portrait hanging on a wall with a backdrop of trees where Rainbow Dash’s voice continues to echo as she continues.

“I’m NOT like you!”

“What are you yelling at US for?!” Protests one of Rainbow’s friends. “HE punched you! Not us!”

“I don’t care! None of you will ever understand!”

“We’re on your side, you idiot!”

“Well I don’t WANT you on my side! You’re all always so fucking lame!”

Meanwhile, you were still stuck at the part where you just witnessed a girl scream the F word. You and your friends stood there as your own befuddled group portrait, like a confused painting trying to figure out why the loud annoying girl always had to be so needlessly aggressive and reactionary all the time.

“None of you understand me! It’s not fucking ‘girl power’, that shit’s fucking stupid! All you do is play with your stupid little doll sets, and your smelly nail polish that gives me headaches and gets all over everything, and your…”

Rainbow Dash went on and on and on about how she was not like the other girls, while actively displaying that she might have a point.

It didn’t take a lot of brainpower to conclude that there had been something bottled up inside of Rainbow for a while by that point. It couldn’t have just come out of nowhere.

Regardless, you had just realized that the other boys began to back away and go home after the moment was spoiled, some of them opting to pay a visit to their injured friend’s house to see if he’s okay.

Or rather, to assess how badly Rainbow Dash beat the tar out of him like a cheap rug.

You were the last to leave the scene, which is the reason why she chose you to be the boy to lament to one last time as she wiped the tiny bit of blood from her own nose.

One of the adults heard Rainbow using inappropriate language like she just learned a new word, and started her way over from across the dingy grassy field making corny time-out gestures with her hands and arms.

“Why the fucking fuck won’t you just let me be your fucking friend already?!” Rainbow Dash’s voice was noticeably hinting at emotional pain by this point. “You guys at least do the cool things I like! I’m not like the girls, I don’t wanna play with them! I wanna play with you guys! Why the fuck do you hate me so much?”

“Hey!” The lady finally made her way over from across the field. “Watch your mouth! Don’t be talking like that! What’s the matter with you?”

You had not registered this part of the situation, in the midst of you snapping back at Rainbow Dash and the absolute audacity of her to ask why the other kids hated her.

“We hate you because you fucking suck to be around!” You let it all spill out. “You’re loud and annoying and never just go away! We don’t wanna play games with you because you’re so fucking pushy all the time! You only ever brag to us about how you always win everything ev-”

“I said knock it off with the language! I KNOW your parents raised you better than that!” The lady continued.

The confrontation ended with Rainbow Dash storming off, almost looking like she was hiding the fact that she was fighting back tears.

~

That confrontation in particular had stuck with you, especially after you noticed a few days later that Rainbow Dash seemed to have cut her hair shorter.

Of course, it didn’t take long to figure out that Rainbow Dash’s parents were the kind of parents that enabled her way too much. Every little thing she did was an accomplishment, but she strived to always improve anyway and boast it to everyone. Very dangerous combination.

And now she had started to cut her hair shorter and go back to trying to hang out with the boys, but her pushiness and aggression overall hadn’t subsided. Due to this, none of the boys wanted to be around her any more than the girls did.

Rainbow Dash still avoided trying to hang out with you in particular, probably because of what you had said to her.

Oh, she definitely remembered that.

Every time she saw you again, she’d give you a dirty look then spitefully ask one of the other boys to play with her in front of you. Then when they said they didn’t want to ride bikes with her or play football, she stormed off again.

You don’t even remember if she ever got in trouble for beating up your friend or not; she really did a number on him.

Out of nowhere, her parents must have tried to get the boys in the neighborhood to play with her since she refused to play with the other girls. This was out of nowhere because you were surprised to see Rainbow standing at your front door asking if you wanted to play video games with her.

You obliged, to your own surprise, but only because you knew in the back of your head that she would never beat you at your games you would always play on your console.

This was it, the big payback to Rainbow Dash for all of the bullshit she put you and the other kids through.

Except, it turned out that she was almost as good at the games you had as you were, but you were still slightly better, and this ANGERED her.

It was simply not as easy as you had hoped it would be, but you finally hand-delivered the L to Rainbow Dash you always thought she deserved.

…And there went your game console.

Rainbow Dash stomped all over it, completely destroying it and rendering it permanently unusable.

Your parents hearing the ruckus from the other room kicked her out within the minute after watching what she did in real time, then promised to buy you a new console as soon as they could afford it.

Before, you simply disliked Rainbow Dash.

But now, you HATED her.

Even after she was forced to apologize, and really did express genuine regret for losing control of her gamer rage, you still wished she would just die or something.

And you KNEW she still hated you for what you said to her, and wholeheartedly believed that had to do with the extent at which she demolished your gaming console in cold blood.

If she hadn’t beat up your friend so badly, you’d have fought her… but you knew for a fact you’d be in for a world of hurt if you did that, not to mention how it’d look to your parents if you punched a girl.

You could forget about them buying you a new gaming console if that happened, that was for damn sure. Even though SHE was the one who smashed it until sparks and smoke came out between the gaps of the mangled plastic.

It was easy for all of your friends to tell that you were continuously upset about Rainbow Dash destroying your gaming console. A lot of your friends offered to let you borrow theirs when you wanted to play video games, or to just invite you over to their houses and play with them since you couldn’t on your own.

However, your beef with Rainbow Dash came to an abrupt ceasefire when she unexpectedly showed up to your birthday party uninvited, only let in because she brought a present for you.

You opened it, immediately expecting to be some sort of prank, which wouldn’t have strayed too far from what she did to a couple of other boys-turned-prank-victims you knew.

It was a brand new gaming console, identically the same as your old destroyed one, down to the very brand, series and model.

Inside the same present box was a game CD that was the exact same game as the one you also lost because it was inside of the console when Rainbow Dash pulverized the plastic under her tennis shoe.

Along with all of this was a brand new console game that just came out, one you had been looking forward to getting. And to top it all off, a note reading “I’m sorry, Happy Birthday”.

The two of you shared a hug, and that was it.

You still never let her play video games with you again, though.

~

In fact, you never allowed Rainbow Dash to even get near you ever again.

She was still really loud and annoying, and all of your remaining friends who hadn’t moved away really did hate her, almost as much as you still did under a thin veil of politeness.

As far as you and your friends were concerned, Rainbow Dash was the antagonistic short-haired girl with the annoying raspy voice.

Every time you were riding bikes, and you happened to be riding past her house (if you weren’t able to avoid doing so), you picked up speed, not wanting a high probability of her looking out the window and seeing you. This is the only reason why you remembered where Rainbow Dash lived… so you could avoid any further confrontations with her at all costs.

Even your new friends you had just met and started hanging out with knew there was something up about her when they observed this. And you and your friends had to explain why. But even without this, they quickly caught on whenever happening to interact with Rainbow at any point in time, and gasped while you and your more longtime friends told the newer kids the stories about her.

The stories about the fight, the gaming console, the pranks, the football matches, the foot races, the ice cream shop incident you were glad you had only heard about, and more.

There was another past story only you knew about, one where you briefly saw Rainbow Dash's bellybutton multiple times while watching her play-fight with someone she was annoying.

You didn’t understand why you felt funny, nor did you even care at the time. You made sure to never go into the details of that story, not even to yourself.

But you made absolute sure to continue hating Rainbow Dash, going so far to even never directly talk to her again for a long time, let alone hang out with her.

Meanwhile, all of your remaining friends began to get growth spurts and become taller than you. Started to feel like they were leaving you behind, especially when more of them started moving away.

More and more of your newer friends were exclusively from school by this point, and didn’t live in the same neighborhood as you. Almost all of your old friends over the next couple of years ended up moving to somewhere where they were even in a different school district. As for the very few whom you still saw on occasion, they pretty much grew apart from you anyway, as they were also making new friends and moving on with life.

But Rainbow Dash was still there, but you and her were still reluctant to converse all that much. You had all of your newer friends at school and your video games at home, along with your even newer online friends you were beginning to make as you started getting into exploring the internet and starting gamer groups of friends there over more time.

By this point, Rainbow Dash preferred to go by RD, because it sounded cooler, by at least some amount.

She still went to school with you and made friends with a bunch of girls who actually wanted to hang around her this time. Which meant that she’d finally leave you alone.

About damn time.

Finally having a consistent group of friends actually helped RD kinda grow up a little bit too, got her to finally start acting more mature and less insufferable.

All of your own friends meanwhile started to really like girls more. All of those past rules you and them used to go by were suddenly flipped upside down as the lot of you finally reached that age.

Your friends were interested in girls at school like that snooty one named Rarity, or the quiet one named Fluttershy, or the more cheerfully loud one named Pinkie Pie, but they were all annoyed by RD. Unfortunately, the girls they liked also happened to be friends with RD.

And they started getting exclusive about who can hang out with them regarding other guys too; a clique was forming that you were already technically out of due to not being as tall or athletic as a lot of your new friends.

And these guys weren’t even any of your original friends anyway. The only original “friend” you had left was RD, whom you still didn’t hang out with, and she herself was always athletic from the get-go and still gave you an occasional sneering look anyway.

You had a choice to either try to befriend you current new friends all becoming jocks, or switch to hanging out with someone else you didn’t even know yet.

Your current group of friends still let you hang around but you knew you were now a shmuck to them. You never went to football practice with them because you didn’t play it at all, you always had to focus on your schoolwork first unless you were playing video games they weren’t interested in, and you just overall didn’t really vibe with them.

You inevitably grew apart from them and ate lunch alone at school before you would have predicted it. Sure you still had your online gaming friends, but it didn’t quite feel the same.

You decided to take drastic measures.

Becoming something almost like the Tommy DeVito of the group, you designated yourself as the chatty wise-cracker with the possible Napoleon complex, being extroverted to stay on top of your game.

Except you were still pretty bad at being social by this point, which only made your interactions come off as incredibly awkward.

~

Before you know it, you were the annoying one now.

And the worst part is, you didn’t even realize it. You thought you were becoming dominant and “leading the conversation” while showing everyone how unique and interesting you were.

Nope, you just ended up coming off as an asshole, and disingenuously self-owning yourself as such doesn’t make it any less annoying, it turns out.

Thinking back, you can’t even recall a single moment where this was evident, but as time went on, it was definitely evident to a bunch of the other guys at school.

They trash talked you behind your back, spread rumors on purpose to mess with you, purposely set up their plans so you couldn’t work out a way to find time to hang out with them whenever you tried to bond with them.

All because of something you were completely unaware of.

However, you were made aware of it when you finally got into a fight with one of your classmates.

The fact that you weren’t as tough as the other guys finally caught up to you, because you got your ass beat harder than a bowl of egg yolks. And everyone watching cheered.

It was the most humiliating moment of your life, and it resulted in you getting suspended from school.

Yeah, the other guy got suspended even longer than you did, but he wasn’t the one with the black eye, or the busted lip…

The higher amount of time for which he got suspended from school only felt like a high score that beat yours. A certification that he clearly won the fight and got suspended from school longer for the clearly much higher amount of damage he had inflicted upon you.

The fact that the fight was so one-sided wasn’t really even debatable.

Grounded for a week, you sat in your room and mulled over it in your head.

RD was still around in your neighborhood, the last and final remaining childhood “friend” you still technically had contact with, but you still weren’t interested in talking things up with her.

And you knew she had to have heard about the fight you got into and lost badly.

Outside of that, you didn’t really think about her at all anymore.

~

~

Senior year.

You still hold a grudge against that guy who beat you up, even though it was kind of your fault for picking the fight with him.

You kind of have a grudge against a lot of the guys at school, some of them still being your “””friends”””. Two-faced about you to the point of spitting on your name behind your back but being well-wishers to your face as you all get ready to graduate.

And that’s only the upside of it.

The online gaming chatrooms got plagued by toxic politically-charged drama you want no part in, and those friend groups imploded and tore themselves and eachother apart in real time before your eyes on your computer screen. Long story short, those friend groups are now out of the question.

But the problem right now is actually something barely even related.

Regarding one of those girls from school you sort of focused on before, Rarity, you actually asked her out to prom recently. Multiple times, as a matter in fact.

She turned you down each time, but both of you were cool about it, no hard feelings.

But there is someone who wasn’t so cool about it.

That same classmate you got into that one-sided fight with. The one who absolutely pulverized you and showed you you weren’t as strong as you thought you were.

He’s been looking for you all day today in school after hearing that you asked Rarity out twice, and everyone who’s seen him says he looks really pissed off, and that you should probably avoid running into him at all costs. Lest he give you a proper beating again.

You don’t know why, but your luck turned out to be so bad that he immediately spotted you the very next period, in a dead-end hallway where you couldn’t just flee.

He gives you the look a man gives when he snarls at you to stay out of his territory; this guy actually turned out to already be Rarity’s prom date, and you somehow didn’t know about it.

As he approaches you, all your attempted funny side can think is one thing:

Welp, this is it. It’s gonna happen again, because your luck is somehow that bad. This is your life now, can’t wait until the next time after this time, eh?

Right as you were having that train of thought, the guy gets pulled back away from you by an initially unseen force from your perspective.

You’d have assumed you secretly had some sort of force-field superpower all this time that activated in your moment of danger, had you not recognized RD’s colorful short hair appear into view to you.

“What the fuck do y-” Is all the other guy manages to blurt out before RD shows everyone how much she’s improved at beating up boys.

The other guy’s attempt to fight back was about as useless as your former friend punching RD many years ago. His blow landing upon her cheek was quickly absorbed and delivered much harder right back to his own face sevenfold in a vulgar display of power.

He tried to say something but kept getting silenced by RD’s fists. A tooth landed on the floor and you better believe it wasn’t hers.

Several school staff members heard the deafening commotion of exhilarated students watching the most intense fight they’ve ever seen and will probably ever see in person.

You imagined that they have to pry RD off of him, but she was already finished whaling on him and walking away by the time a teacher grabbed her by the arm.

~

About a week later.

You know what they say: "The enemy of my enemy is my friend."

But you're still careful to apply this to RD, since she still hasn't changed a whole lot behaviorally even in recent years and months. You're only making an exception this time because of what happened.

Of course, you perfectly remember which house is where RD lives. That same house you always made sure to quickly pass by before she had time to possibly look out the window and you or one or more of your friends walking by. Red flags and warning signs go off in your head as you walk up the driveway and towards the front door, as you've been conditioned to never do this over the years.

But today is an exception.

You’re standing outside, waiting to be let in after ringing the doorbell. Thanking her in person is the least you can do, especially after all of this time of silence and lack of speaking between the two of you.

“Hey.” RD’s voice sounds through the door gap before it opens all the way. “It’s okay, you can come in. My parents aren’t home right now.”

As over-encouraging her parents seemed to be over the years, you wouldn’t be surprised at them for being overprotective of RD even while she’s at the age where that’s no longer necessary.

But she easily beat down the guy you stood no chance against in a fight, and you and her have known eachother since childhood, so there’d be no reason for them to be worried about you anyway.

“God damn, it’s so hot today.” She complains, stretching her noticeably toned arms up above her head while the hot air seeping in from the open front door briefly interrupts the coolness of the air-conditioned room. “What’s up? Long time no see. I don't think I've ever had you over before.”

"Yeah I..." You trail off, soon forgetting what you were about to say.

As RD was stretching, the bottom of her small tight clingy T-shirt slipped just enough up her tummy to give you a peek of her bellybutton. It sends a shudder up your spine seeing Rainbow Dash's bellybutton again, now the vibe completely different this time.

You just caught enough of a glance of it to see it’s vertically stretched with her soft skin of her smooth tummy accented by her slightly noticeable abs.

"Sucks everyone else is gone, huh?" Comments RD, referring to your original group of actual friends many years ago.

"Yeah."

There's another pause.

"I know it prolly doesn't mean much, but you still got me, eh?"

“I uh, wanted to thank you.” You have to do a lot to keep your eyes on hers. “Y’know, just real quick.”

“You didn’t have to thank me. I was sick of him and his bullshit too. Wouldn’t feel right if I didn’t stick up for you this time around.”

“You mean that?” You hide the surprised-ness in your voice.

She gives a slight hesitation but then continues to keep things cool. “I guess I kinda felt like I still owed you. And he did fuck you up pretty bad last time. I'll be honest, I think you're kind of a jackass, but you didn't deserve that. Let alone again.” She then changes her tone. "But don't think this makes me your bodyguard or anything."

"I won't. That's okay." You think about what she said about still owing you, trying to take the focus in your mind off of her lewd bellybutton. "...How's it going?"

"How the hell do you think it's going, dude? I'm still suspended for another week. I'm lucky I didn't get kicked off the team." RD gripes.

"Right, sorry."

"I'm bored as fuck, man. my parents didn't ground me, but I still can't do anything when everyone else is at school." She then gives you a look. "Wait... why aren't you at school right now?"

"Playing sick."

"Ah, I get it. Understood."

"Anyway, I gotta go."

“Aww, don’t leave just yet. I’ve been bored all week. Wanna play video games?” Pleads RD. "It's kinda hot up in my room though."

You hesitate, thinking twice, then three times.

"It's okay, we're playing on my console this time." She jokes. "Like... we're even enough now, right? You know, after everything?"

The two of you pause for the longest time, after having spoken to one another the most since at least 7 or 8 years ago or something.

"It doesn't have to be weird or anything." RD adds. "Just cause I'm a girl doesn't mean... uh, well..." She struggles to find the right thing to say for this. "I was wondering if... I dunno."

"If what?"

"I was wondering if we could kinda... you know... be friends now..."

After the longest pause, you finally nod your head. "That sounds nice. We can start off on the right foot this time."

"I'd really like that."