Touching Rainbows

Chapters

Dull and Dim
Wings
Flight
Good Things Only Last So Long
Good News, Bad News
Being Human
Dinner
A Griffons Tail
Wait
Chemistry
Discord
Party Crashers
Wounds
48 Miles
One Step At A Time
Eyes Wide Open

Dull and Dim

Autumn, a chill in the air, and certain dryness.

Autumns my favorite of the seasons I’d say, it’s the end of the year, it’s a sort of welcoming coolness. I’ve always loved watching as the leaves would change, and how they’d fall, creating an elaborate collage of color and diversity.

Not to mention I was born in Autumn, first season I’d ever experienced. It gives me a feeling of confidence, makes me want to take on a warm, cozy persona. It makes me think of things like love. The brisk air makes an embrace seem more appropriate, and the falling of the leaves makes me think that everything bad is blowing over. That once you’ve hit rock bottom. You can only climb up.

“Hey! Kit! Man, ya gotta get those headphones outta your ears man! You’re gonna hit a fuckin’ car or something!” it’s Collin, real good friend of mine. Kids got a great voice, sorta raspy, he stands at around 5 9” I’d say, sorta chubby.

“Man, my best ideas come with music! How’s it been brother, what’s up.” I say to him, it’s been a while since we’ve caught up, ever since he got a girlfriend, he’s been managing time around her, hell, he even dropped World of Warcraft for her!

“It’s been chill man, but ya gotta come check this shit out, so this like, little explosion of, I guess it’s lightning, just kinda blew up down by the Glen! Ya gotta come check it out! Tons of people there! I’m not about to let you go home and do whatever you do at home, not without a little excitement!”

“’Cuz what I do at home is absolutely horrid? Yes, all I do is vigorously masturbate to my little hearts content.”

“Smart-Ass, come on bro, you’ll regret it if you don’t go!”

“Fine, you’re probably right, lead the way Indie. So how’s things been with you and Amber?”

“Great man, like my life feels so full, if I’m ever bored, I can just call her right up, and ask if she’s down to go to the park and whatnot! It’s like, so stable, I don’t have to worry about anything!”

“Good for you man.” Well that’s depressing for me. Love has never been my forte, well, being sixteen, it’s not necessarily expected I’d say. Regardless, it sucks when you’ve only been cheated on and used as a toy of pleasure. However, being the son of multi-millionaire doesn’t help people treat you normally. However, it does make for awesome Pea coats!

The Glen approaches. Collin wasn’t lying, the place looked nothing short of scorched! You could easily pick out the origin of the explosion by the black charred earth beneath it, and the trees surrounding where burnt and smelled of smoke. The little stream did little to offset the scene of destruction.

“Shit dude, you weren’t kidding!” I say in surprise.

“Ya man, oh-boy! Take a look at the REAL surprise!” Collin says as he grabs my shoulder pointing to a group of girls on the other side of the Glen, who are also admiring the recent destruction.

There she is, Sara, absolutely beautiful, and not like the other girls who dress like tramps, she’s her own individual.

“C’mon, go say something! You’ve been eyeing’ here for over a year dude! Get your groove on, and go talk to her!” he presses.

“There’s no way dude,” I say this, and then instantly began to think about his words, no, I have to take some initiative. “Fuck it, you’re right, goin’ in!”

“There we go man! God speed to you!” he says as he gave me a push and a salute.

I’m going to do this, I’ve GOT to do this, I’m going to tell her that I’ve had my eye’s set, and that… My god… who the hell is that? Just in view, by the bush and trees, I spot a dirty, blue coat. My god, some animal must’ve gotten hurt in the explosion!

“Hey man, you head back to… whatever you’re doin’ these days, I’ve gotta handle something!” I’ve always been good with animals and tending to them, besides, times a nice thing to have, I can put off Sara for a few more days.

“You’re joking, fine whatever man, catch you at school Monday.” He says this, not sounding terribly pleased. Worth it for the little critter, speakin’ of which, doesn’t look too little, fuck, is it like a person? I get to the bush, reaching my had out to move the brush away.

My god… I move the brush and see this, thing, lying on its side shivering.

It’s… It’s a… She’s a… fuck, she’s like some cross between a person and a… pony? But she looks too… cartoony! I mean, like, she’s got fingers, okay, feet… and no… shirt or pants… WELL at least I can confirm she’s got most of what MAKES a human, in the case of reproductive organs! Anyhoo, teeth, hair, a tail? Damn, multi-colored hair and tail, rainbow themed. A blue coat, shit, she’s like outta some anime! Big eyes, a snout, pony ears, there’s a few differences. Is she some like government experiment, an alien, or something? She looks like she’s my age. Her coats all covered in soot and ash, same as her… mane, I suppose it would be called.

Okay, maybe she can speak? I gotta help her, regardless of species. I lay a hand on her shoulder.

“Hey, you wake? It’s alright, just, stay… Uhh… calm?” well, if she heard me, I sound like a dumbass.

She makes a little grunt, sorta reminiscent of that of a pony, who could’ve guessed… She rolls over onto her back and her big eyes begin to flutter open, ever so slowly. I slowly pull my hand back to me.

“Ohhh, what… where… AHH! My WINGS!” she cries as her back arks in the new pain. My god, I hadn’t noticed! She has WINGS!

“AHH! They hurt so much!” She says through gritted teeth, her back arching even more in attempt to release the pressure she put on her wings. I pull her to my chest, releasing her wings from the weight of her body, and she stops screaming, and starts to lightly cry.

“It’s alright! I’ll help you! Let’s just stay off those, I’ll uh, I’ll uh, get us back to my place! And I can tend to it!” I help her to her feet, only then do I realize, there’s bloody way she can make it back to my place without drawing a bunch of attention, my Dad isn’t the problem, he’s almost always been away since I turned 16. It was getting her to home. She was well… naked… I brought my head back and looked into her tender magenta eyes.

“Uhh, here, we’ll go over details later, but we’ve gotta get you out of here. I don’t know about where you come from, but we wear clothes, and you have none, so here.” I take off my pea coat and rest it around her, she pulls it tight around her, leaving the sleeves vacant. She stops crying, but she’s still tearing. I pull up the collar, and she nuzzles her snout into it. I stand and help her to her feet, I don’t think she’s ever walked before, she stumbled a few times before finding her footing. I’m around six feet, and had a heads worth on her, so the coat, fortunately, went down past her waist line, and an inch or so down her leg. I’m sure she’d pass for a person, just with some weird pants and hair.

“C’mon, we’ve gotta make our way to my place.” I say to her, she fondles the coat a bit, and fits her arms through the sleeves, and wraps her arms around me, her eyes fastened shut. I start walking, she moves with me.

There’s a little path back up to the street, not to many people driving, maybe a car or two every hour or so. And after we hit the private road to the property lot, we’re home free, literally. I guide us up the path, and onto the sidewalk, just a thirty minute walk to home.

“Uhh, you alright? Do you know what happened? Did you come from that explosion, or where you hit by it?” I ask. I really should lay off the questions for a bit.

“I… I don’t know… Somepony came around and started striking everypony with its magic, and… and… Oh god… I’m never going to get home!” She cries out.

“shh, it’s okay, tell me about that later, just calm down for me. What’s your name?” I try to sound as calming and soothing as I can.

“R-Rainbow Dash… My names Rainbow Dash…” She says, regaining some control in her quivering voice.

“Rainbow Dash, cool name, mind if I call you Rainbow?” I say, figure if I come off casual it’ll help her adjust, and calm down.

“Sure thing, my friends call… called me that…” She answers, gathering herself a little. “What’s your name?”

“My names Kit.”

“Thanks for helping me, Kit.”

These words seemed to ring in my ears. She nuzzles herself between my arm and chest, and rests her head on me.

Now everything’s silent. But her silence speaks, it echoes in my ears like a piano in an empty concert hall. Every little wince she makes from the pain in her wings, made me connect to her a little more. It feels like there’s a rope tying us together, slowly getting tighter and tighter as we walk. I’m feeling her pain through her, and it feels… right. The world slowly revolves around us, as if everything else is just some external factor in the grand scheme of things.

The house is in view now, and whatever bustle we heard before is now nullified by distance. Like an alarm clock under a pile of clothes, relevant, present, and annoying, but easily ignored.

“Rainbow, we’re nearly there. Once we arrive, I’ll try and treat your wings, and then maybe you can tell me a little more about. What, uh, happened?” Wow, if I don’t sound like an ass.

Huh, she’s not making any noise. She’s just still nuzzling herself onto me. Like she’s trying to sleep. How strangely serene. What’s it about her that’s making me so, full. She’s not even human, maybe that’s it.

The airs chilling, it’s starting to nip my sides, my cheeks feel solid and chipped, and my lips are beginning to dry up. Rainbow is clutching me more than before, squeezing her nose farther between my arm and chest. My hair begins to flatten against my head, it’s damp. It’s raining, not hard, a light drizzle, but chillness is nothing short of reviled. Thunder begins to clap in my ears like a kettle drum in an empty hallway.

The mansion is mere feet in front of us. Its stairway leading up to the large dark green wooden doors is coated with slickness from the water. The stonework has darkened from the rain and lighting, and it glimmers in the sunlight that’s powerful enough to penetrate the thick cloud layer above us. The windows are shielded on the inside with blinds, and the roof looks like a gelatinous substance from the rain flowing off its prism surface. The gravel of the earth beneath us cracks and shifts like a bucket of pebbles, and disperses like mud around our feet.

We climb the stairs, and I open the doors. They swing open, and the interior reveals itself to my new guest.

“Well, Rainbow, welcome, to casa de la Kit.”

Wings

The doors closed, and the patter of rain became dull, like someone tapping their fingers on a book. And the interior of my home became viewable. God I take this place for granted sometimes…

Marble tables, gorgeous mahogany furniture, imported couches and chairs, glass chandeliers. Ya know, it’s not much surprise some people really don’t like me, or feel comfortable around me. I mean, it’s just so much, it’s such a large house, filled with so much extravagant furniture and utilities.

Rainbow looks up, and glances around the mansion, taking in every minute detail. I guide us to the left, into a large room. The room has a tall ceiling with well decorated wallpaper. The room smells like a room would after a florist walked through. I guide her to a couch and lay her down on her stomach. I hear footsteps, quickly accelerating and growing in volume, like a one man stampede.

“Master Parmen! What—who is that!” Mrs. Harem says. She’s the house butler, like the mom I never had. She’s around 40, and looked a little like Mrs. Weasely from the Harry Potter movies. Maybe it’s just because of her accent and hair. I’d known her since I was a baby, so naturally I call her “Mum”, it just feels. Natural.

“Mum! This girl was hurt in some explosion, I don’t know what- Species she is, but she needs help. Can you grab the first aid?” I urgently say to her. She nods her head and runs out of the room to find the kit.

“What are you going to do?” Rainbow says softly, clearly exhausted from the recent occurrence of events.

“I’m going to try to find out what’s wrong with your… wings… And see if I can help.” I respond. Rainbow smiles, and closes her eyes, I sit down next to couch, facing her.

Her hand shoots up at blinding speeds, and she clasps my her hand to mine.

“Please help, it hurts so much.” She says, her voice quaking slightly like a fuzzy image on the television, coming in and out of clarity. My eyes begin to water, I don’t know what I CAN do. These are wings, not a leg, not an arm, not a neck, wings.

“D-Don’t worry Rainbow, you can trust me, I’ll fix you up.” I say, I’m not sure I believe it though.

“Master Parmen! I have the First Aid!” Mum says.

“Thank you so much Mum!” I say as I grab the First Aid kit. Immediately I search for the painkillers. Got em’.

“Here Rainbow, open your mouth and swallow these, it’ll help you pain.” I say moving my hand towards her mouth, she opens her mouth and pour the two painkillers in to her mouth.

Okay, there’s gotta be some injury somewhere on her wing, or joint connecting her wings and back. Okay, let’s take feel. I move my hands down to her right wing, and I lightly squeeze it from tip to joint. No winces, no sudden movement, no discomfort. I move to the next wing, and repeat. As I reach the joining of wing and back, she ark’s her back in pain like she had back at the Glen. I instantly release.

“Be careful Master Parmen, we mustn’t be careless.” Mum says calmly, reassuring me in a sort of backhanded way.

“I think she landed on it funny. It looks like it was twisted too far. I think all I can do is bandage it tightly once I position it in a way that it can heal.” I say as I reach back into the First Aid kit and grab some gauss, surgical tape, and elastic fabric wrap.

“Rainbow, this may hurt, a lot, but it’s going to help you heal, it’s all I can of to help.” I say to her, “I need you to stay as still as possible for me.”

“I-I’ll try.”

I take the gauss and put in around the joint, she winces a little. I then unravel the wrap, and hold it in my mouth, as I slowly move her wing into a more suitable position for the healing process to occur, I hope. She grits her teeth and her eyes fasten shut. I then, elevating the wing with one hand, take the wrap, and place it underneath the wing. I lower the wing, and then acting as quickly and as precisely as I could, wrap the remaining fabric around her wing tightly. She lets out a cry of pain, as he eyes shoot open and tears trickle from them. I fasten the wrap down with the surgical tape. Again, her hand shoots to mine and she grips it with great strength.

“Never said it would hurt that much!” she says through gritted teeth.

“Sorry! Really, I just didn’t want- I didn’t know- I thought maybe- If I-”

“Oh shut up, I knew it would hurt, I was just hoping for a better welcome wagon than that.” She says jokingly.

“Heh. You should be fine for now, but you need rest. You look cold and exhausted.” I respond.

“Pardon me, Master Parmen, but I do believe perhaps we should clothe her first.” Mum adds innocently.

“Oh, yes, correct you are! Do we have any clothing for her?”

“There’s plenty in the basement from the clothes drive. I’d say she qualifies as a legitimate candidate for the charity. And surely the will not miss the clothes they haven’t seen! Let me go grab some, I will be back shortly, you stay with her and comfort her, Master Parmen.” She says as she makes her way back out of the room again, in much less of a hurry this time.

I had completely forgotten about the lack of clothing. Got caught up in the moment of her wings and all. They’re absolutely magnificent, simply marvelous, they seemed to expand as she would flex them, and they did nothing to off balance her stance. They could contract to be as small as a back pack, and expand to be as long as her height! I wonder if she could actually fly with those, I wonder how fast.

“Back Master Parmen, I grabbed two sets for now, I figure that should suffice for today. We can collect more later for her, maybe even let her decide!” Mum says entering the room with a dark midnight blue hoodie, a grey tee-shirt, baggy grey cargo pants, and a pair of slim jeans.

“Thank you so much Mum, this is brilliant.” I say, reaching my hands out to retrieve the clothes, she blows right by me with a funny smile on her face.

“Uh-uh-uh! A strange man dressing up a defenseless girl, human or not, I’m not letting you get away with that!” Mum says in a perky tone. Rainbow went to sit up, a thousand thoughts rushed through my head, and I acted in the nick of time, I twirl around and face the opposite direction of Rainbow. Mustn’t look, it would be indecent, and Jesus Christ Kit she’s not even human! Well, let’s not be judgmental here, let’s stay open and more ambiguous.

“Done, lookin’ beautiful ma’am!” Mum says to Rainbow. I turn to face them both, Rainbow was wearing the cargo’s and hoodie, apparently Mum had cut some holes for Rainbows wings to exit from, rather well done for what was probably only five minutes max. Needless to say Rainbow looked great.

“Looking good! How do you feel? The wing I mean.” I say to her.

“Better, a lot better, thanks.” She smiles, wow, her smile shines brighter than her hair by a landslide. It did not matter that it was raining outside, there was no damper on the mood. She was dry in this rain anyway. Metaphorically speaking of course.

“C’mon, I’ll show you to the guest bed room ma’am” Mum says as she grabs Rainbows arm and guides her up the stairs. Wow, I think I really did something good today. I hope she gets a good sleep, If she’s rested it will be easier for her to try and tell me just where exactly she’s from.

Maybe we can shed some light on this. I head over to the couch and re-pack the First Aid kit, place it on the coffee table.

“Well.” I say to myself, “I know what I’m not gonna’ be when I grow up. A Doctor. It sucks.”

Flight

The rays of light press on my face with their light, heating my head and forcing me to awake.

God I love weekends.

Saturday morning, 12:30 PM, not bad, certainly not a contender in the record however, held by Collin standing at an impressive 3:13 PM. I sit up, chest barren of an undershirt, must’ve forgotten about it last night. I look around my room like many times before, I love my room. People are always surprised when they see it, not because of its surplus in size, because of its lack of size. My father and I give the nicest bedrooms to guests, and we sleep in smaller rooms, with less extravagant surroundings.

I’ve elected sleeping on the top floor, the ceiling slanted on both side, where I hang up posters of bands, Pegasus Bridge, Guns n’ Roses, Led Zepplin, Dave Grohl, Foo Fighters, and other bands of the sort. I also have this Phish blanket hanging on one of the walls. The room itself is probably no larger than an average attic. I have my cabinet of clothes on the side, and a chest full of extension cords, guitar pedals, midi keyboards and other things of the sort next to my bed.

I get up and walk to the doorway leading to the little hallway outside my room, where it splits into two other rooms, a studio, and a bathroom. I walk down to the bathroom and undress as I turn on the hot water faucet. I step in and feel the warm water pounding on my back, suddenly stimulating my nerves, okay, now I’m definitely awake.

I finish my shower and go back to my room with a towel around my waist, and select some clothes. A white grey undershirt, a tan sweater, and a pair of slim dark blue jeans. I throw on my Doc Martins and walk over to my window. I open it and go through to reach the balcony beneath it. I slide down the shingled roof, and land rather roughly on the balcony.

“Oh wow, hey!” Rainbow says to me in surprise. Jesus how the hell did she get here? She knows about this spot? I look down the length of the balcony, and see an open window, must’ve used the same methods as me.

“Uh, hi, you come through the window?”

“Yeah, wanted some fresh air. I think I got this whole new walking and grabbing thing down.” She says smiling.

“Heh, you catch on quick, how’s the wing doin’?”

“Feeling great, I tried flying this morning-”

“Holy hell you shouldn’t be flying yet! You gotta-”

“It’s fine, I feel great, really, I think I just twisted it, it feels a lot better now, honestly. The guest bedroom sorta a mess now though, didn’t think I’d make that much wind with a hover.”

Holy fuck she can fly. But jeez, she really shouldn’t be, I mean. She could hurt herself.

“You don’t look to happy ‘bout me flying. Here, let me set those worry’s to rest.” She says. She back up as far as she can go, and prepares to bolt.

“Rainbow, wait! You really shouldn’t” She bolts forward and leaps off the balcony. I rush to the edge and look over, she’s angled her body towards the wings are flowing with her fast descent.

“RAINBOW!” I yell as she accelerates even faster, nearing the earth beneath us.

Then, her wings expand and flex, sending her flying forwards at unimaginable speeds. The cargo pants and sweat shirt did little to slow her speed as she continued to gain speed with each flex of her wings. She angles her wings, turning herself around and she shoots herself towards the mansion. My eyes widen at her blinding speed, and as she approaches the mansion, she seems to brace, and upon what would be near impact, she musters her strength and redirects her path directly upwards towards me. I jump back from the edge, landing on my rum as she shoots high up into the sky, sending my hair back from her passing. She hovers after she was around 50ft above me. She looks down and smiles at me, she then fly’s down and gracefully lands a few feet in front of me.

“See, good as new!” She says, shifting her weight to one leg and resting her hand on her hip.

“My god Rainbow that was incredible!”

“Heh, thanks, normally I could go faster, but I don’t wanna go too hard on the wing. I’ve broken a wing before, no fun.”

“I would imagine, never really broken a bone in my body before, not looking forward to it. Hey, you eaten yet? I’ve only just got up, so I could go for some stuff.”

“Nah, I could use some grub.”

“Awesome, c’mon, let’s head downstairs.” I guide us back to her window, easier to get to then mine, and we climb through. Through the door, down the large staircase, and into the kitchen.

“What do you crave this morning?” I ask her in a joking tone.

“Uhh, a PB n’ J I guess.”

“Then a sandwich it is.” I collect the needed ingredients for this magnificent delegacy as well as some cereal for myself. I make the sandwich and the cereal, and as I do so, I see Rainbow in the corner of my eye watching me. As if taking in everything I’m doing like it’s totally unreal and incredible. I try not to let her know that I’m noticing. She just keeps looking at me in this incredible way, her eyes just pouring her soul out for me to see. I wish I could turn around and just look at her to; I haven’t had much of a chance to really take in her physique. Her beautiful cyan coat, her rainbow mane that just seems to flow with its colour, and her hands. Her hands were so soft, yet wielded some greater power in them.

Sandwich is done, I slice in half and turn to give it to her, she changes her expression immediately to one more casual.

“Thanks Kit, I’m starving.” She says as she begins to nosh down on the sandwich. I begin my cereal. Fuck, I’m gonna have to brake this mood. Have to find out where she came from. What she is, and how she got here. Fuck, but I’m totally diggin’ this! Goddammit. After this, I’ll get that goin’. After this… Man this is good cereal.

God I love Cheerios.

Good Things Only Last So Long

Good things only last so long. Like Cheerios, or a sandwich. Uhg, why do I have to find out, like… Fuck, I hate these kind of things.

Need to get this train moving. Okay, she’s just about done. Here it goes.

“Hey Rainbow, uh-”

“One sec buddy- still eating.” She says, cutting me off.

“Err, yea, sure.” I say, as she finishes her last bite, setting that plate on the table.

“So what were ya gonna say?” She says, as she reaches to wipe her mouth, misses, recalibrates and tries again, succeeding this time.

“Uh, well. We need to talk about… where you’re… uh, from…” I say, rather unsure of how to phrase the question of where the fuck did you come from?

“Oh, yea.”

“Here, let’s talk about it in the living room.” I say as I walk to the next room over, same one I fixed her wing in. She sits down, back on the couch as yesterday, I pull over an arm chair.

“So uh, where did you come from?” She looks at me a little funny, and I rephrase the question, “So what country are you from? Are you like, some secret experiment or something or like, I dunno.”

“I’m not an experiment buddy, and I’m from Equestria. But, this place looks a lot different. Not like that, like… The way things feel, and look. So gritty, and defined. Kinda ugly almost."

“I’ve never heard of Equestria, is it like, some island or something? Oh wait! I bet it’s in Africa!” I say, getting a little to exited over my second guess.

“Uhh, no, just Equestria. Actually, where is… Here?” She says, looking at me like I’m daft or crazy.

“We’re in America. Uh, can you, describe Equestria for me?”

“Well, it’s kinda awesome. We got all sorts of cool stuff there! Like Cloudsdale! It’s a whole city in the sky! You have to be a Pegasus to live there, otherwise you’d just fall right through the cloud layer. And we got this awesome city on the side of a mountain! Canterlot! The Princess lives there, and-”

She continues to tell me all about her home. Maybe she was an experiment after all, and got some pretty nasty brain damage in the explosion. That’s probably it. Suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, some sparks start to appear and disappear, as if trying to manifest themselves here.

“Uh, Rainbow, as much as I’d love to hear about your home n’ all… I think you got a visitor.” She turns her head to me, then the sparks. As soon as she does, the area where the sparks were explodes into a fury of lightning, forcing me to raise my arm up to shield my eyes.

Once I lower my arm, standing there, is a white haired man, with a long brown over coat with a red and a blue sleeve from different coats sewn in the place of the original ones. Under the coat he wore a white button down shirt tucked into a pair of brown dress pants with pink suspenders. He had mismatching sox, one bright pink, the other cyan, which went surprisingly well with his red and yellow convers. He’s looking down at a sheet of paper that appears to be levitating in front of him, he looks up and reveals his human face, good human. Sort of, his eyes are of differing colours, purple and green, he smiles at us, displaying his teeth, well kept, with the exception of a single tooth that droops like a fang out of his mouth.

“Ah, hello there, Rainbow Dash. I take it you’re enjoying your new home?” He says, his voice is quite legitimately the living definition of sarcasm.

“Discord?” Rainbow says, standing up, taking a few steps back, before raising her fists.

“Woah there friend, I’m not here to say hello, this is true, however I do not come with bad intentions.” Discord says, again with his sarcasm, perhaps it’s just how he speaks.

“Okay, enough of this, who are you, how did you get here, and how do you two know each other?!” I say, making sure I’m loud enough to pause any thoughts they had. Discord looks at me, the way a child would when he finds his favorite toy after a week of it being lost.

“Why of course, Earth dweller, you are in for an explanation. I am Discord, the God of Chaos, and I am here on a mission from Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria. That is where we, Rainbow and I are from!” I look at him rather confusedly, as does Rainbow. “Allow me to further explain why I am here. About nine months ago, Princess Celestia had found out about an alliance between the Griffin Kingdom, certain Dragon Colonies, and the Changling Empire. They were planning an invasion to take over Equestria to both expand land, and to release the sun and moon from the Royal Sisters. They seem to believe that the sun and moon do not need a little shove to orbit.”

“But, they don’t. You can’t control a satellite, let alone the sun.” I say, matter-of-factly.

“Allow me to elaborate, in this dimension no, they do not need assistance. In ours, things are a little different. So anyhoo, so this triple alliance was planning a large scale invasion. So the Princess decided it would be best to develop a contingency plan that would guarantee success. She released me from my stone prison, and bargained with me. She asked me to tour the realms of existence for a suitable habitat for the randomly selected ponies to be transported to. I found this dimension, a parallel universe, one without any echo of our realm.”

“Echo? What do you mean, echo?” I say to Discord.

“My goodness, I’m explaining a lot. Okay, so imagine a bubble, that bubble is what’s known as the main realm, and all other dimensions are attached to it. Like other smaller bubbles attached to the big one. Now, the main realm is funny in the way that it actually creates dimensions. If an idea is created, and enough people believe it, a collective energy is formed, and one of the infinite parallel dimensions begins to develop into that idea, which then makes it a realm, no longer a mirror of the main realm. So my realm is a creation of the main realm, so people there invented it, and then we are an independent realm. In the main realm we’re a TV show, and a lot of those events actually happened. Sometimes, those that are very active in delivering that idea, will get visions of the realm itself. So for example, when Rainbow breaks her wing in a flying accident, someone in the main realm had a vision of that, and made it an episode. So fear not, you still have freewill!”

“How nice, I have freewill. So what separates my realm from the main realm then?” I ask, this is hard to follow, but I’m getting the hang of it.

“Well, in the main realm there are plenty of fans of the TV show, and with that comes those who disapprove. So naturally, they began to all think about a place where there was no show. And enough of them wanted that, so their collective minds spawned your realm! One with no footprint of my realm! So of course I selected this realm as the best host for relocation.”

“Why am I here Discord, take me back!” Rainbow yells.

“Why I’d love to, honestly. But Doctors orders! Celestia selected those who she wanted away from this war, and had me send them here, along with some randomly selected citizens as well. Rainbow, you were one that Celestia demanded I have moved. It’s for your safety, and just so I save your breath, she also said that I could tell no one of who else has come with you.”

“Wah? Okay, whatever! But why do you look like Kit, when I look like a mix!” She yells.

“Well, I’m the one sending you here, so I’m the one that’s made the connection, dragging others along is difficult, and makes the conversion process get funny. When one travels from realm to realm, they inherit the dominant traits of that realm. Unfortunately, my magic is not powerful enough to convert people fully, whenever I bring somepony else over, that happens.” He says gesturing at Rainbows physique. “Look I’d love to stay, really, but I’ve got tons more people to have the same talk with. Not saying that I’m not looking forward to it, but time flies when you’re having fun!”

“Wait! So I’m here because Equestria’s under attack, so will I go back once the war’s over?” Rainbow says, almost desperately.

“Why yes of course, and to answer your next question, I have no idea how long it’ll be. Could be two months, could be two years. I really don’t know, I’ll be visiting again, fear not. But really now I must be off. Toodles!” He vanishes.

Rainbows eyes are fixed at where Discord was, expressionless, motionless. I myself am probably lacking emotion as well. Realms, war, other people like Rainbow Dash. Jesus, how the fuck am I gonna keep up?!

Good things really do only last so long.

Good News, Bad News

Who was he? What relation did he have with Rainbow? Why is there war being declared on a totally peaceful society? I’m sure some of these thoughts are rushing through her head too. I… I just gotta wrap my head around this whole thing.

She’s starting to regain some life in her expression, which is a relief seeing how she looked as if she had had all the color stripped from her hair when he left. But she looks defeated, I mean, I haven’t really seen much of her, but this just doesn’t feel right. Like, she just carries herself like she has pride, and courage, and this is just, depressing. It’s like the little spark of her personality that was starting to grow, was just smothered out by this. As if there really is very little left for her anymore.

She starts walk, very heavily at first, but then tenses her eyes shut and bolts towards the foyer.

“Rainbow, I-I…” I’m lost for words, I open my mouth and it’s as if dust fell out, but I have so much I want to say. I feel like an engine with no gas, begging to start up but just doesn’t have it in it anymore to keep going.

She’s by the door now, with a hand on it, knob already pulled. She’s just standing there, frozen in thought. She composes herself, tensing her body in one aggressive might and pulls the door open, running straight out, and leaps into flight.

“RAINBOW! WAIT! WE GOTTA TALK ABOUT THIS, RUNNING'S NOT THE ANSWER!” God, I don’t even know what we’d even talk about. But then she stops flying, she just hovers there, 70ft above the ground, looking out at what she must now get used to. She turns her head down to me, and makes eye contact. She angles herself downwards and shoots towards the ground, at 7ft from impact she adjusts and rockets towards me at blinding speeds, stopping inches in front of me. Her face reddened and wings expanded wide, making me feel like the small one, despite my normally greater size.

“JUST WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANNA TALK ABOUT, HUH? About how Oh my gosh, I’m so sorry about all this? You don’t get it! I don’t belong here! I BELONG AT HOME! And the worst part is, right now my best bet of getting home is some freak that expects me to trust everything he says. And I don’t really have that many choices here, do I!?” She starts to get that defeated look again, and stares at the ground to hide it. Her fists are clenched tight, and she looks like she’d rather be anywhere but there right in front of me.

“You’re right, uh, this is. Hard. But I think we have to look at this differently, you’re here because the P-Princess said she wanted you safe. This is what she thought was best right? Maybe we should, you should look at this form a different angle.” I say, trying to be as supporting as I can. God, I sound like a prick. She looks back up at me, her wings pulling to her back.

“So, you’re saying this is my new home for now? I stay here until the war's over, right? So that’ll be a while, so I’ll need to get to know things around here.” Her eyes are glistening with tears begging to fall. She holds them back, like a single Riot Control Officer holding off a mob, it’s futile. She starts to lightly sob, her voice shaking.

“This is my new life, everything’s behind me now. Everything. Gone.” Tears streak down her face, she buries her head in her hands. I move my hand to her shoulder, as soon as it ever so touches her, she jerks away.

“Everything I’ve known is gone! There’s nothing left, and now I have to learn this place. Hell, for all I know everything back home could be destroyed. Completely totaled by those stickin’ fucks!” She yelled, one hand still covering her face.

“Hey, you learn quick, used the word ‘fuck’ right.”

She stops sobbing, lowers her hand to her side, and looks at me sternly, keeping her head turned slightly away from me. I stare back, I feel some sting run down my spine. Her lower eyelid starts to twitch. Mine do too. The edges of her mouth twitch too. My cheeks begin to mimic it. And then she begins to chuckle, dried tears on her fur starting to disappear. I start to laugh myself.

“Thanks, for all this. Like, this is really great. Thanks.” She moves in and hugs me tightly.

“I-uh, of course. I-”

“D’AWWW, THAT’S ADORABLE!~” Discord yells from high above, Rainbow lets go and stares up at him, “I’m sorry am I ruining an important moment? I apologize, so I have some good news, and some bad news. Yes, I’m coming to you first with this news, I figured you’d want to hear it soon, so as soon as I got it I just-”

“Just spit it out will ya!?” Rainbow yells , clearly irritated.

“Fine, I get it, you only love me for my body. Anyways, this planet now has PLENTY of ponies on it, so naturally they’ll be all over media, so they’ll have to be integrated into society in some way. Preferably I’d say keeping the authorities away from it would be the best approach, I know that’s gonna be hard, but that’s life ain’t it. Oh yea, that’s it.”

I speak up, “He wait, was that the good or bad news?”

“That was both.”

There’s a small silence.

Discord breaks it, “All right, it really WAS both though! Honest! here, good news: Plenty of other ponies, you’re not alone, just keep your eyes peeled, they’ll be a regular sight soon enough. Bad news: You have to become a part of society, and by the way Rainbow, you’re sixteen, correct?”

“Yea, why?” She answers.

“Well, it’s required in this country that all minors attend school. So you’re going to High School! Fast Times at Human High!” I raise an eyebrow at Discord, “I know my humans! Anyhoo, I got to go tell thousands more this fantastic news! That’s punishment for ya! A little rough don’t ya think, Rainbow? I was in control for what… Maybe 4 hours? TOPS?! Anyway, love you all, have fun storming the castle!”

I look at him again, he shoots me a wink and vanishes. Again.

“Of all the ponies to be the messenger… It had to be Discord…” Rainbow says in a low disapproving tone.

“I dunno, I sorta like him.”

Rainbow looks at me the same way she did before, sternly. But it then breaks into a wide smile.

“Yea, he’s pretty funny I guess.”

Being Human

“It’s nearly dark, autumn doesn’t favor day much as dusk.” I say. Great, I’m getting poetic.

“Whatever right, darkness is sorta cool don’t cha' think?”

“Well, uh, yea but like, it gets damn freezing here, besides, I have an idea.” I say, starting to head back to the house.

“Wait- So what’s your little ‘plan’” She asks playfully, catching up with me.

“We’re going to watch the News, there’s no way you guys aren’t breaking news, stealing headlines left and right. And if we’re gonna learn about getting you integrated into society, where better to start than to look at who’s tried already!” I reply.

We’re on the steps now, and passing through the door, left open from not too long ago.

“So… how do you… watch… news…” She says shyly, as if this is something she should know.

“Oh- uh, well… We have these things called TV’s, and they uh, well, they’re like moving photographs that have ‘channels’ were we can select a station to view that displays a different program. If that makes any coherent sense whatsoever.” I say, unsure of how to explain a TV. I mean, I’ve never been asked to describe one before in layman’s terms.

We enter the living room, and I turn on the TV, and surf channels for a few seconds before stumbling on a headline on CNBC reading, ‘BREAKING NEWS: Live interview with new anthropomorphic visitor!’ I keep the channel on, put the remote down, and take a look over to Rainbow. She’s starring at the TV like it’s some absolutely freakish invention, then quickly accepts it’s bizarreness and turns attention towards the headline, her eyes widen.

I turn up the volume, and the anchor begins her introduction. She’s a blonde, pretty, wearing a black dress, and has her hair in a ponytail, going down past her shoulder a few inches.

“Hello citizens of America, Katie Frowling here on CNBC giving you one of the first few live interviews with out new visitors! Here talking to us all the way from Seattle is Alan Proctor, bringing us up to speed with what we know, and his thoughts on this interview.” The anchor says, in projecting, overly friendly tone. A second panel opens, and a video feed form Seattle establishes connection.

“Hello Katie, well to start things off today, we have got a population count for these anthropomorphic beings in the states of New York, New Jersey, Maine, Connecticut, Washington, and California. Other reports are on their way, or are currently under progress. Here in Washington, we have a population of 5,600 visitors, and more seem to arrive every hour. The Census Bureau is under a lot of pressure to try figure out just HOW many of these visitors there are. And in other news, Humanitarian Organizations have stepped in, and prohibited the unauthorized testing of these visitors without consent from the visitor confirming that it is alright to performing experiments. As method of combating the testing of these new kind, social networks such as Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, Tumblr, and even Google Plus have exploded with “Pro-Anthro” messages demanding the equal treatment of these newcomers.” Hank concluded his report, and I look to Rainbow, her jaw open ever so slightly.

He speaks up again, “So here to put plenty of questions to rest, we have with us one of these ‘anthros’ for an interview.” A calm looking character enters the panel. She’s a dark heavy purple, with a pink, bunchy mane, and green eyes. She’s wearing a flannel shirt the same color scheme as her coat with a black tee underneath, and blue jeans. Hank opens his mouth to speak, “Here she is, now to the interview, she’s all yours Katie.” He exits the panel to the right, disappearing, and Katie begins to talk.

“So, you’re one of our visitors, so tell me, what’s your name?”

“My name is Cheerlie.” Says Cheerlie, in an almost dead tone.

“OH MY GOSH CHEERLIE!!!” Rainbow yells as she suddenly starts to make the connection between her old appearance and her new one.

“So tell us, do you know how or why you’re here, Cheerlie?” Katie asks.

“Both, actually. Uh, well… when I arrived here around three days ago, I was greeted by Discord, a very powerful man who explained why I’m here. My home, Equestria is in another dimension, and we are under attack, one we may not survive. So to protect our species our ruler, Princess Celestia began to move civilians out of Equestria to here. I can only assume this isn’t just an attack on Equestria, but rather a global threat. But currently all I know is that we are under attack by a horrid breed of monsters, and a nation we thought we had good relations with. So that’s why, and how is rather interesting as well. Discord used a spell to transport us to a realm where there was no echo of my realm. However, when being transported, typically you would adjust to your energy equivalent in the realm you travelled to, but here, seeing how we only hitched a ride, we only got half the transformation.” Cheerlie answers.

“Wow, that’s very interesting. Now, I’m sorry but we have other programs coming on shortly, so let me ask you, could you tell our world, something you think they should know, before making any further accusations.”

“I would like to tell them that we simply want to be equals I think. I just hope that we can coexist in harmony, and thrive off one another.” Cheerlie says, her tone, now displaying some emotion.

“Well said, thank you for your time, Cheerlie, best of luck to you and your kind in this new world, America welcomes you with open arms-”

I turn the TV off.

“’Your kind’? Yea right, welcome us with open arms and already make the separation.” Rainbow says disapprovingly.

“Yea, that was uncalled for, I mean… Well it’s justified to a degree, but still uncalled for.” I say.

“Justified? That was pretty much her saying ‘we’re different, and good luck in our country, alien.’ How is that justified!?” Rainbow retorts. I'm taken off guard.

“Well… to be frank… we are very different. Not to mention we’re actually from different worlds. Heh, I mean, harder to be more different, right? Look, not different in the superior ‘good luck’ kinda way, in the actual physique and origin way.” I say, speaking quickly to not offend. Rainbows glare ceases, and she looks back at the TV. This is probably hard for her, the only other pony she’s seen in this new world is across the country. We’re in New York, a few miles from the city, and this character is all the way in Seattle, Washington.

Rainbow opens her mouth, and there’s a second where only air sits there, and she closes it again. Clenching her fists, she opens her mouth again.

“Sorry, this just really sucks ya know. But like, so I need to know how to be a part of your world right, so why don’t we do that tomorrow.” She says confidently.

“Wha- wait, assimilate in a day flat?”

“Yea, problem?” she says, with legitimate concern, obviously oblivious to the fact that this would be rather difficult.

“Nothing… I mean… Its Sunday tomorrow… So yea actually why not, sky’s the limit… well, not for you, but you get the idea.” I say. Damn, I’m gonna have to toss out a BUNCH of phrases cuz’ of this. I continue, “And then I can ask Mum to maybe get you signed up at my school while we try, uh… Being human.”

“Awesome, can't wait! Hey, what’s for dinner, I’m starvin’.” Rainbow says, now excited from the possibility that just maybe, this won’t be that bad. Being human, I mean.

Dinner

I’m in the bathroom, I asked Mum if she could cook some food for us all to eat. Before I could object she had started planning, what I would call an over the top meal, but she insisted, “This is Rainbows first dinner in our world, and we should make it grand!” Her accent only made it harder to say it wasn’t necessary.

I’m still in the bathroom, except now I’m washing my hands… God I am so boring… I walk to the kitchen, and see on the table: a huge salad, a pitcher of water with ice and a few lemons, corn, and a full turkey.

Wait a minute…

Equine… Equine Human hybrid… No, she can eat it, it’s just…

I don’t think she’s ever eaten meat before in her life…

Rainbow walks in, and she gives out a smile, and takes a look at the food. I don’t think she’s seen the turkey yet…

“Wow, this is awesome! Thanks Mum!” She says.

She just called her Mum… Not even think about it, just said it like it was always her name. I think… she feels apart of this now, or maybe I’m jumping the gun. Rainbows eyes pane down the table, and then as expected, she sees the turkey. She just stares at it, as if she wants to ask it a question. I half expected her to say, “Are you REALLY a turkey? Or justa’ big chicken?”

Instead, she takes a seat, and says, “Dinners on?” Mum smiles and nods. And Rainbow tears a wing right off and takes a bite outta it almost instantly. Her eyes fastened shut, and her mouth working hard to chew. Her teeth are human so she can break it down, but she’s never used them like this before. She swallows, opens her eyes, and smiles. My mouth must’ve been at the floor, cuz Rainbow was shooting me this look that read, “That’s right, I ate it.”

“B-But… Y-You’re… You haven’t e-ever… that was meat… you just swallowed it…” I say, totally stunned, struggling to make words, I’m stunned. Like literally stunned, I can’t seem to do anything coherently.

“Yeah, I saw a commercial for McDonalds or something on the TV when you were in the bathroom. I figured you guys might eat meat, ya know, having a bunch of knives in the kitchen n’ stuff. I figured, ‘ya know what, I’m a human, I may as well not get all worked up about it and accept my new diet.’ And wow, this is awesome.” She says, very proud of her accomplishment, of not freaking out over the consumption of animals.

I have more control now, but can’t say anything, Mum and Rainbow are both laughing lightly, and continuing to eat. Rainbows tail waves back and forth, I’m guessing this is like when a dog is happy, except with her it seems to happen when she’s pleased. Hell, if I had a tail that’s how I’d use it, to fuel my feelings, and also ya know, snuggle with my tail. I would seriously rock a tail, I’d be so cute, honestly.

Mum, settles her fork and knife down, and looks up at Rainbow.

“So Rainbow, darling, you’re planning on going into town tomorrow?” Mum says to her.

“Yea, Kit and I were gonna try and get me used to this place. Meet some people maybe, learn the town. Oh, by the way, I think I’m gonna need more clothes. Back in Equestria we didn’t really get… dirty the same way… Like, my coat wouldn’t be as oily after justa day. So like, just how does this all… work… being clean n’ all.” Rainbow asks, her ears going flush against her, embarrassed at asking how to do such a basic task of hygiene maintenance.

“Oh dear, it’s not bad at all, honest. Every day, in the morning or night perhaps, simply take a shower and wash your ha- mane and tail. Actually, now that I think about it, you’re going to need plenty of conditioner and shampoo, your whole body is going to need equal treatment with shampoo. And your wings! Oooh this is no problem however, the shower down the hall of your room is quite large and should work just fine. And regarding clothes, Kit will help you pick out and buy some clothes when you’re in town. That would probably be the best time for it.” Mum says, picking her fork and knife back up, and starting on her salad.

Rainbow notices Mum using utensils and looks down at her. Eyes wide open, looking straight down at her utensils, her left ear and tail twitch. She then raises a hand to grab the fork, and lowers it, focusing as if she’s guiding a missile. Her hand reaches the fork, she picks it up and examines it in her hand. Her grip is primitive, holding it like a sword. She looks over at me for an example. I must look foolish. I’m hunched over my plate, cheeks puffed with food, and a fork with some lettuce near my face, entire posture locked as I stare back at her, unsure of what to do. Some dressing falls off my fork as we continue to stare at each other. She looks back at her fork, and changes her grip to mine, similar to that of a pencil, the curve of the fork pointing downwards. She then uses her fork to stab at a piece of lettuce, and brings it to her mouth carefully. She takes a bite, and retracts her hand. I’m still in the same position. She looks back at me. I look back at her. She looks at her fork, then her plate, then at the corn on the plate. She scoops up some corn, and positions her fork like a catapult. I remain motionless, holding the line from the enemy’s newly discovered artillery. She applies some pressure on the fork, it stretches back, torque building. Must hold the line. Mums’ looking at us like this is the battle of the century. Then, breaking the silence, Rainbow releases her tension and her artillery fly at me. MUST HOLD THE LINE.

IMPACT!

I still remain motionless, as her weapons merely bounce off my skin. But regardless to my impenetrable defense, both Rainbow an Mum shoot up in their chairs hands in the air applauding the successful launch. I blink, and look down at my food. There is no artillery available for me. I straighten my posture and shoot a look at Mum, a “not you to look”. She looks back giving a little rapid fury of claps, barely audible and says.

“She got you good! Your stony stance could only last so long! And she broke it! Ha!” She says, obviously very pleased with the fact that the corn ACTAULLY launched. They sit down, but not before giving each other a high five. I open my mouth and begin to speak.

“Ya know, I could very easily-” Rainbow launches another piece of corn, and it lands right in my mouth. Rainbow leans back in her chair, her tail swinging back and forth with glee at her second successful assault. Mum looks like she’s having the time of her life. I swallow the corn, and savor it’s taste.

“Very easily what? I believe you’ve met your match Kit.” Rainbow says.

“Ya know what, I admit defeat. I have never seen a fork ACTUALLY used as a catapult in my life with the exception of cartoons. And that shot was excellent. But I may warn you, should we ever be in an environment that promotes this silly exchange of delegacies, I will respond with a fiery vengeance of food.” I say comically. Lifting up my fork, and eating once again. Rainbow and Mum do the same, having more trouble rather, as a result of their laughing. Not after long, their laughing hysterically again.

Once all the food was done, and we cleared up the plates and mess, we all made our way up. It was around 9:30 I’d say, so not quite my ideal shut down time, however I wanted us to have plenty of time and energy for town tomorrow. Mum however, stayed downstairs, and watched some TV, and said that she was going to call Dad and fill him in on everything as well as try to sign Rainbow up with the school.

Rainbow was already in her room, doors open. I should probably tell her that we’ll waking up earlier than today so that she won’t be totally bummed when I wake her up. I stand in the doorway, she’s not in sight. Her room seems vacant, the bed is made, probably by Mum, the night stands untouched, ceiling fans off. Closet door closed to.

“Uh, Rainbow? Just wanted to te-” She shoots up from behind the bed. Naked. I turn, back towards her. “AH, I-I uh, didn’t see y-you there. Uhhh, I uhhh… I’ll be waking you up at- why are you naked?!” I say, so bewildered and embarrassed.

“I was going to take a shower… Didn’t think you’d come in…” She says meekly.

“With the door open?”

“Still getting used to this whole thing.”

“Okay, well uh, I’ll be waking you up at like, 9 or something if you’re not already awake, and then we can get the day started.” I say. My mind has entered process mode, simply focus on efficiency and GET OUT AS SOON AS POSSIBLE.

“Awesome- I mean- Yea- Sure, sounds good.” She says, “I’m gonna go take my shower soooo, can I… Go… Do that?”

“You’ll want a towel, there should be one in the closet.” I say, still in process mode.

“Awesome- I mean like- Yea- sure, sounds good. I uhh…”

“Don’t worry I didn’t see anything.” That is a lie, “I’ll be heading to my floor, sleep well and enjoy your shower.” I say, must escape.

“Awesome- I mean- Yea- sure, sounds good.”

I walk to the stairs as casually as I humanly can, and once out of view, bolt up the stairs. Isn’t it like, an unwritten law that a guy would be torn shreds if he didn’t make an effort to avoid that situation?

Anyway, I undress, and get in my bed. Must. Sleep. Must. Sleep. Must. Sleep.

A Griffons Tail

8:45, Sunday morning, the sun’s shining through my windows, as my alarm clock goes off, playing Do Ya Thang by the Gorillaz. Today Rainbow and I head to town to buy her some clothes, but more importantly, get her used to human social interaction.

Uhg, even for a good cause I don’t want to wake up.

But I have to.

But I REALLY don’t want to.

No, no, I should. I have to get us outta here, and into town…

But it’s only 8 o’clock in the morning!

NO, I have to wake up!

Okay, I just gotta… get… up… fuck… I can’t do it… NO! I have to! Ffffff-uck I really don’t want to.

No, okay, here we go, one foot out, second follows, almost done. Sit up… I know I can do it.

No, I can’t do it… I can accept that…

I just lay there, lying down on my bed, in the most awkward position. I lift my head up and see my doors open, and Rainbows standing the doorway, dressed in baggy jeans and a grey tee shirt, chuckling lightly to herself. Her mane, tail, and coat shining beautifully in the sunlight, her crystal clear lavender eyes blessing me with their stare.

“You are so bad at this! Even I could do it! C’mon, Mums already made us some bagels, let’s get goin’!” She says, still chuckling to herself, her wings slightly popping open from the laughter.

“UUuuuhhhhhhgggg, I really don’t wanna get up… I just wanna-” She throws a water balloon, and it lands clean on my head, popping, covering me in ice cold water. It felt like I was dumped into the arctic ocean, after tanning in a salon. I shoot up from my bed, and grab my pillow, forcing it onto my face in a futile attempt to dry myself.

“Mum said that would work, and I certainly wasn’t going to argue!” She says, laughing even harder. The memories came right back. When I was younger, I often wouldn’t wake up for school, so Dad and Mum would toss a water balloon on my head after I would refuse to get up. I always loved it then, now however. It’s only funny for the nostalgia, this honestly sucked so much. However, I am now wide awake.

“Well played, Rainbow. Well played. Okay, let’s get going, just let me get dressed.” I say, Rainbow nods, turns around and walks out, her tail waving as she walks away. I get dressed, putting on a white tee-shirt with a pale green flannel over it, and some worn slim jeans. Put my socks and shoes on and ready to roll.

I haven’t showered… Goddammit…

I take my shower, and barely remember doing so as I put the clothes right back on. I head downstairs, and enter the kitchen, Rainbows sitting at the table, watching King of the Hill on the flat screen pinned up on the wall. I see the bagel, take a seat at the table, and start to nosh on the bagel. It’s an everything bagel. I love the everything bagel.

Rainbows watching the TV still, no longer fascinated by its purpose, rather, she’s focusing on the show. King of the Hill isn’t really a laugh out loud show, you usually laugh about it later, not during the show. Unless you’re really into it, I dunno. I’m just focusing now on finishing this darn bagel, although in background I can hear Hank saying, “Dammit Bobby, you can’t just go around diggin’ holes in the back yard!”

Rainbow is focusing hard on the show. Until she finally says,

“I don’t get it, aren’t these thing supposed to be funny?”

“Don’t worry, in 2 hours it’ll be hysterical.” I say, finishing my bagel, “Okay, you ready to head out?”

“’Bout time! Let’s go!” Rainbow says, wings flaring as she stands up, “So I was thinkin’, let’s head down to town and you can show me around, and then we can get clothes an’ whatever.”

“Sounds doable, let’s go.” I say, getting up from my seat. We make our way out the door, Rainbow leading ahead, with a ginger step in her trot, some echo of her old walking style.

We start to make our way down the gravel paths, to the large gate fencing off our property lot.

Oh my god, it’s so cold. The suns out, but it’s just cold. The air is so chill and brisk.

I’m very envious of Rainbows coat, I still have to wear a jacket, while she has one on her already, boy can’t I wait until summer. That’ll be fun.

Rainbows still got a trot in her step, but then stops, and turns to me, with a very inquisitorial expression.

“So wait, how much money would it take to but like… A good pair of jeans?” She asks.

“Oh uh, well I don’t know how much it would cost at your home, but here maybe like, 20 dollars or something.” I say, she looks at me a little longer, then down at her jeans. I want to have conversation, but I’m just too bloody cold, honestly she is so lucky, why don’t humans have coats and wings.

We get to the gate, I open it, and we walk through, closing it on our way out. On the other side of the gate is a park, my Dad bought this land, and changed it from parking lot to a well-kept park.

“Well from here it’s easy, the park is property of my fathers, so we’re still on our land. If we keep straight on this path, we can quickly hit the streets and start our little adventure.” I say, gesturing down the path. The park isn’t too dense, so we can see just through to the streets ahead. It’s a bit of a walk but nothing to intense.

We walk down, Rainbows trot getting more and more hoppy with step.

We approach the exit, and can see the street and shops clearly. The street is lined with various stores, and people are bustling around on every side. We take more steps, Rainbows trot lost, her stance strong and confident, but she’s definitely less eager to make herself known now. No one seems to notice that Rainbows not human. Until one old lady stops by us, examines Rainbow, and almost has a heart attack. She looks like a classic old lady, big handbag, slight hunch in her stance, big coat, and pinned up grey hair.

“MY GOODNESS!” Her voice is one of an old lady’s to! Raspy and aged, rather high pitched, “I saw one of you people on my tele! How marvelous! So you’re real! Welcome to New York darling! Pardon me but, I know you may be nervous, and you’re right to be! I’ve lived too long to see someone as lost as you, not have some advice from one that has seen so much. This may come as odd, or rude, but not all of us will be as forgiving or polite, some are cruel and judgmental! So please darling just remember to-” I grab Rainbows arm, and walk us down the street.

“Thank you m’am, greatly appreciated, but we really must be going, have a great day!” I say, taking us down the street.

“What was that all about?” Rainbow says.

“She’s not wrong, just… I don’t want to think about that. My philosophy is that, if we don’t treat anyone differently, then we can truly achieve equality. Be that ignoring racial stereotypes, as well as no racial handicaps. I think it may still apply here.” I say, sounding rather irritated. I don’t like hearing Rainbow being tossed into a separate category, as true as it may be, I just don’t like it. I’ll need time to come to terms with it, to make sense of it.

“Wha- never mind, look, like… I am different, and that’s fine, but whatever.” She replies.

“Sorry, sorry, I dunno, I just don’t want- no, this isn’t what we’re here to do, we’re here to have a blast. So let’s have a blast!” I say, gathering my spirits and optimism. There’s no way I’m going to lose this drive. Just have to stay strong, and keep my spirits up. “Okay, so I have a plan, it’s 9:20 now so let’s take a little tour and see what follows.”

“Awesome, so where do we start?” Rainbow says, sounding a little concerned, probably convinced that I’m bat-shit insane.

“We’ll start right here,” I gesture to the building right next us, it’s rather small, coffee house size, built of brick, “Ironically enough, this is the Red Brick! Awesome breakfast house and stellar lunches.” I walk us down the street a little more, more people noticing, none yet making an effort to acknowledge Rainbow, however, this side of the street only 15 people down its whole length, so maybe we’ve just gotten lucky. I point at a the new building, white concrete, and Spanish shingles on its roof. “This is Casa de la Gasee, heh, I love that name, makes me laugh every time.” Rainbow looks at me with a little smile, and an expression implying that I’ve totally lost it. “Nah you get it? Like, Casa de la GASEE, like delegacy!”

“That is the worst play on words I’ve ever heard. I mean, that’s worse than Twilights word plays.”

“Well I thought it was funny.” I say, a smile spreading across my face. God I love that name.

We continue to walk down the street, more people stopping to look, or avoid Rainbows wings, she doesn’t notice, or care perhaps. She’s just looking around, noticing all the kids and adults with their children, walking about, entering and exiting stores. Probably reminds her a bit of home, who knows, maybe I’ll really be able to make that comparison some time, when the war blows over. Nah, that’s a silly thought, anyways, that’s not what I should be thinking about right now. I do wonder what her home is like, if she has the same trot she does now back there, if she’s just as funny, or hot- what, didn’t say that. Never happened. Nope, nadda, nugatory, never.

Back on topic now, redirect attention to most relevant thing. Rainbow + Town = Social Performance Bonus, not really, just familiarity with the town. So why don’t we go buy those clothes, then we’ll meet some other people we can talk to, in a more direct manner. Then we could walk around the park a bit, and talk, or something… I should mention the clothes thing.

“Hey Rainbow,” I say, she turns a smile on her face, “I was thinking, why don’t we buy those clothes now, and then find out what to do next, at the store we can probably meet people easier.”

“Sure, sounds good! So where’s a good store?” She says, wings flapping slightly.

“Well actually, the one right there is real good for girls! Awesome customer service I hear.” I say, pointing to a store a few yards ahead, some teenage girls gossiping as they enter. The store looks like a Hot Topic, except with a little less black, and more vibrancy, not to mention the names Hit or Miss, I love that name.

“Okay, Hit or Miss, well that’s a 50% chance I’ll look good so let’s do it!” She says.

We speed up our walk, and get to the store. The insides bigger than expected, and I notice, there is quite a selection. Over by the counter, I see a woman cutting and sewing up some shirts, Rainbow gets sorta lost in the input from all these clothes and just sorta looks around, I go the counter.

The lady there is pretty, young, early 20s I’d say, she’s got spiky brown hair, pale skin, cargo pants, and a Black Sabbath t-shirt on. She looks up at me, and stops her work, leaning on the counter, arms folded.

“Hey, I was just coming in here with my uh, friend Rainbow, she’s lookin’ through clothes right now I think. And uh, well, she’s… just take a look, easier that way.” I say to her, she looks up, acknowledges Rainbows presence, eyebrows raise, and she turns back to me, and speaks, her voice clear and alto.

“Yea, I’ve seen her folk round all over the news. Supposed to be a part of our life now or something. Pretty damn cook if you ask me, but yea, I think I catch your drift. Clothes for her wings and tail, we’re all set.” She says to me casually.

“Wait, really?” I say, surprised at this, naturally.

“Well yea, I mean, the whole line up isn’t set up, but I’ve been workin’ my butt off getting some clothes ready for these new guys. Hopefully what she’s interested in is ready for purchase. Yea, it’s been interesting, but it’s opened up so many opportunities for designers, yea it’s a new pain, but it’ll be totally cool for them. I mean, the incorporation of tails and wings and horns is totally rad.”

“Wow, awesome, yea. I’m sure she’ll know what to buy, speaking of which, how are prices on average for her clothes?” I ask.

“For you guys, cheap. For one, stores are being kind to these new guys, and on top of that, the clothes we have prepared aren’t made like this from factory to store, the store individually has to make these changes, or just sell them. So to make it fair, we slash prices, but don’t worry, once they’ve been ere a while, everything will be back in swing. Besides, you’re the son of that rich guy, Mr. Parmen Price, aren’t you? Yea, you’ll be totally set, probably a whole wardrobe for her will be close to 120 bucks. Not bad for a full wardrobe.”

“Yea, that’s actually pretty good. Sweet. Uh, she’s only been here 2 days, so she may have no idea what she’s buying really, and I’m not the best when it comes to fashion advice. Do you think you could-”

“Of course, I get it dude, you’re not the first to have no idea how to help with this stuff, just lead me to your girl and we’ll get her an awesome wardrobe in no time.” She says.

“Oh she’s not my-”

“Sure she isn’t, besides, not my place, c’mon, let’s get goin’”

I walk us over to Rainbow, who’s currently looking at a bra like it’s the most peculiar article of clothing she’s ever seen. The lady from the counter goes over to her and explains.

“Hey there, I’m Casey, I’ll be guiding you around here helpin’ ya pick out some clothes. That’s a bra, it’s used to keep your boobs in place. Those things,” she says, points at Rainbows chest, who looks down, then at the bra. Here eyes widen a little and she makes an “oh of course” face. “so you’ll need a few of those, as well as panties and socks. Those are essentials I’d say, everything else is pretty flexible, so let’s select those, and then we can pick out outfits.” She concludes.

“Okay, cool but like, my wings, and tail-” Rainbow says.

“No need to worry, we’re pretty covered, I’ve been working my butt off getting these ready for your folk, believe me it wasn’t fun. But we’re pretty set.” Casey says.

“You’re pretty chill about me being, not like you.” Rainbow says, now looking through the bras for one that she liked, Casey doing the same.

“Well, I’m a pretty open person, my parents and I moved a lot when I was in school, so naturally I was pretty used to change. But man, when you guys started popping up, that took a little getting used to. My policy for this kind of change is easy, just roll with it, they’re different, but that doesn’t mean they’re wrong, and just treat them the way you see most morally just and ethical.” She says, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting a store worker to be that insightful, wonders never cease.

I figure it isn’t really my place to be watching girls look through undergarments, so I walk over to the footwear isle, and sit on one of the benches. The girls that entered before enter the same isle, and sit down on the bench on either side of me. Both pretty, but ones dressed in a black, Goth, turbo punk manner; piercings, shoulder length spiked black hair, pale skin, black lipstick, black skirt, netted leggings, and a white Rise Against t-shirt. Her friend next to me has long Blond hair, a grey New York sweat shirt, black Yoga pants, and Ugs on. How the hell are they not tearing each other apart, they’re legitimately polar opposites, punk and popular, this doesn’t add up.

“Hey, so is that your friend over there, the one with the tail and wings.” The girl to my right asks, she’s the punky one.

“Uh- yeah, what about her?” I ask defensively, I think I can rightfully be defensive, they’ve taken an aggressive position, surrounding me n’ all.

“Just curious. But like, how’d you find her? I mean, more like, why do you guys still hang?” She asks.

“I’ve taken her into my home, fed her, housed her, and now clothing her. She’s very important to me.” I say, I’ve never told anyone that before, why would I say it now!? I’ve never even told myself that before!

“Huh, cool. It’s just, ya know, kinda valiant to do all that. I mean, look at our society, it’s pretty fucked up, so what makes you different from the rest, make you want to take her in without any incentive?”

“Good nature, my father raised me with high moral standards, and I enjoy knowing I try to always do the right thing. I think every living thing deserves a fair chance, and as she was, she had little chance.” I say, the other girl leans in.

“So like, you found her, brought her in, and you’re taking care of her!? That’s so sweet! I heard that all the one like her will have to attend school! Ruth’s right, it’s a mean place, planet Earth, High Schools going to be rough for her!” The other girl says.

“Speaking realistically yeah it will, but why do you care, what do you want?” I say, trying to understand just what they’re getting at here. Ruth, the punk one, leans in to speak again.

“I just want to wish best of luck, and tell you, she’s not the only one in this town. There’s tons of em here. And not just ones like her. Different kinds, not many, but they’re here.” Ruth says.

“What are you talking about?” I ask. The blond leans back in.

“Well, that’s actually why we’re here, we met one, a Griffon. She says her names Gilda, we talked for a while, and she always spoke about this one girl named Rainbow Dash. Kept on saying about how she’s been so upset about some event that happened between them. They were classmates in flying school, then went their separate ways. But then they met back up, but they both had changed so much, and they just split up even further. Then a few days ago, we saw some blue wings in the sky, and some multi colored tail, and we ran to Gilda. She said that it had to be her, and asked if we could look around for her. It was the least we could do.” She says.

“What do you mean the least you could do? You owe her?” I ask, curious as to just why it wouldn’t be the other way around. Ruth gives a look at the blonde, who nods, and Ruth begins explaining.

“Well, Clara and I were out on a date,” Ruth says. My eyes widen, and I look back and forth between the two, Ruth continues to talk. “Yea, I know, we dress nothing alike. But anyways, as we’re walking back from our movie, we decide to take a short cut through Parmen Price Park, and some punks from the football team run up to us. Maybe 4 of them, and the Quarter Backs leading them all, Clara dated him. Didn’t like him much, in fact, she found out, she just didn’t like dick that much anyway. So then we happened. But anyways, these punks start yelling at us, and threaten to beat us up. I was getting kinda nervous, no way could I take on 4 dudes from the football team, and Clara’s no fighter. But then, bam, Gilda showed up. Just outta nowhere, and beat the living shit outta them until they ran off cryin’ like a load of pansies. So then we started to talk, and met up in the park regularly.”

“And now here you are.” I say.

“Uh-huh!” Clara says.

“Okay, well, I can’t say anything on this, not until I ask Rainbow. How about this, I just so happen to be the son of the owner of Parmen Price Park, and can get there with ease, so how about at 5 tonight you meet me at the snack bar there. I can’t make any promises as to whether or not Rainbow will be there, but I will.” I tell them.

“Well, please make sure she gets there, I get it if it doesn’t all fall through. I take it you’re gonna want to get back to her and the clothing biz. Catch ya at 5 then!” Clara says, as the two of them get up, and walk out of the store, hands in each other’s as they both open the door on their way out.

I look over at Rainbow who’s now looking at socks with the clerk, there’s three bags of clothes on the floor beside them, nearly filled. Oh boy, this better cost as much as the lady said it would. Rainbow takes a pair off the wall, they’re Rainbow stripped, she tosses them into the third bag, grabs them and gingerly walks over to me.

“Hey Kit, dude, this stuff is sick! Back at home we didn’t ever really wear clothes unless it was for some important event of something! This is totally awesome!” She says.

“Uh- Rainbow?” I say, gearing up for asking the question.

“And these socks are totally- yea, what’s up?” Her smile fading at my tone.

I open my mouth, and air just wheezes out of it. I try again, succeeding this time.

“Gilda’s here. We’ll be meeting her at 5.”

Her bags drop to the floor.

Wait

Rainbows bags hit the floor, thankfully nothing spilling out of them.

“G-Gilda?”

“Yeah, we’ll be meeting her in the park at 5, that all right?”

Rainbow continued to stare at me in disbelief, her wings hanging low, her eyes wide open.

“I-I haven’t seen her in, forever… How does she know I’m here?”

“Some girls from before came in and told me. Apparently they know Gilda, and said that she wants to see you again.”

“How- How long until we go to see her?”

“Uh,” I take my phone out of my pocket and check the time, “It’s already 2:30 now, so we’ve got 2 more hours to spare. Here, I have a plan, let’s go get you something to eat, and you can tell me what’s on your mind.”

“Sure, wait, how do you know there’s something on my mind?” She says, an eyebrow slightly raised.

“Just a hunch, c’mon, let’s pay for your stuff and head on out of here.”

I stand up, and two of the three bags, and walk over to the counter, the lady from before jogs over to the counter, and takes the bags. Quickly scanning them, she looks up at the two of us, Rainbow trying to sport a nothing-is-wrong-in-the-slightest face, which isn’t really working. I pull out my debit card, and give it to the lady, who swipes it and hands it right back. The silence is pretty damn weird, Rainbow is usually this silent. There’s got to be some history behind Gilda and Rainbow.

We grab the bags and walk out of the store, I gesture down to the park, I figure we can go to the snack bar ahead of time. We make our way down the street, feeling oddly similar to time we first met, when I carried her back to the mansion. The streets however are lively, and the sun is bright, rather than shadowed, but the feeling of misplacement is still lingering, looming over us like a cloud. The little imperfections of thee architecture of the stores, the little cracks, slitting out like tree branches on the pavement, and the undone collars of pedestrians all stick out amongst all the bizarre aspects of my life now, and hers I’d imagine.

I wonder what’s going through her head. I know there’s something reverberating in there, something looking for an answer.

We enter the park, and make our way down the path to the snack bar. The trees cover us with shadow here and there, speckling our bodies with rays of light. Rainbow looks up at the sky, and her wings clutched close to her, her steps narrow, and her tail flicking here and there. It’s like the sky speaks to her, and her to it. God, her face there, I can’t begin to explain it… It’s glowing, and everything around it’s dull, and just won’t compare in the slightest to it, her appearance demands total attention. And my eyes are more than willing to gaze upon her face, her eyes.

Woah. Too far, got a job here, let’s do that first.

“Rainbow, what uh, what happened between you and Gilda?” I say to her, breaking the silence. Rainbow doesn’t notice the question at first, then she turns her head down to me, looks me in the eye, and in a low tone, struggling to speak over a knot in her throat.

“Wha- well, we uh… we were friends back in Flight School, and we were real close. She was like, my sister almost, we did everything together.” She looked down at the floor, chuckled, and back up to me, eyes still fixed on the ground in front of her. “But uh, later, I left Flight School, and went to Ponyville. Then one day, Gilda came to visit, and well, that’s when it became sorta clear to me that something was up.” She looks me dead in the eye. “She’s totally gay for me. Like legit, totally gay for me. Like, hitting on me all the time, and I didn’t really get it at first, I never made the connection, not until after the little fallout.” She pauses, stares at the ground, and sighs before talking again. “When she visited, she was kinda, to put it lightly, an ass to everyone. So naturally, she ended up leaving, and I haven’t seen her since. But after that visit, I realized that she was totally into me, and I felt pretty bummed about it. I mean, I just totally shut off my oldest friend! And I only knew half her story. I’m not sure what she wants to talk about, but I just hope it doesn’t get awkward.” She says, clenching her teeth.

“Well, now it’s going to be super awkward, there’s no avoiding it now!” I say, trying to lighten up the mood a bit.

“I guess, but hey, there’s no fun in no drama right?” We keep walking down the path, and make it to the snack bar. I order us two sodas and a hot dog. I tell her about Ruth and Clara, and about how Gilda saved them.

It’s currently 4:55, nearly time for Gilda to arrive, we’ll give her 15 minu- there she is.

She’s tall, around my height, maybe a little shorter by an inch, she’s wearing worn baggy jeans, a white tee-shirt with a undone grey zip-up hoody over it. She’s not wearing any shoes, her feet are just like Rainbows, just feet with fur. But her hands, they’re real interesting. They look like they were talons or something originally, they look like they’re tough as bone, yet as flexible as flesh. Just like my hands, except her fingers come to a point. Her tail looks like a lions, except darker, her whole scheme is dark brown fur, yellow hands, and white head. Her wings are marvelous to put it lightly, huge and powerful, yet looking cumbersome. But her face, different than Rainbows almost entirely. No snout, a beak, that moves naturally like a mouth of flesh would. Rainbows mouth is like that in regards to not following what it should be able to do, but this is a hard beak, that’s stretching as it blows hair- er, feathers out of her eyes. It’s gonna take some getting used to that, but her hai- yeah, hair works, her hair is a whole new ball of wax. It swoops down over one eye, and frays purple at the end, and her eyes are surrounded by the same shade of purple, like purple flame emitting from her gaze. As her neck goes down, it seamlessly transitions to her fur. She walks towards us, looking nervous. A little farther behind, the two girls, Ruth and Clara, follow her.

“Well, now the fun begins.” I say to Rainbow, who looks at me wide eyed, and the slightest frown on her face.

“Yea… fun…”

Gilda walks over to the table and sits on the other side of us, the two girls throw their bags down on the table diagonal to us, and go the snack bar.

There’s some silence for a while, Gilda stares at the table, Rainbows silently observing Gilda’s new appearance, and I’m just sitting here waiting for the first word to be said. Rainbow should be the first one to talk to her, it’s her long lost friend, not mine.

Gilda blows her hair from her eye again, Rainbow follows. Gilda lefts up her hand and scruffs up her hair, causing it to fray up here and there, Rainbow mimics it. Gilda sorta notices and looks up, and sniffs, Rainbow follows. Gilda turns to us finally.

“You’re such an ass, Rainbow.” She says sarcastically.

“I try.” Rainbow says with a large smile.

“God, I’ve missed you, I’m so sorry about the last time we saw each other, really. I just wa-”

“I get it Gilda, really I do. And besides, you think I’d hold a grudge against the FIRST pony- person I’ve met from Equestria here? Of COURSE not! Besides, I should’ve guessed it anyways.”

“So you know… Well, that sorta… puts us on the same page then.” Gilda replies, Rainbow smiles again, brighter this time, putting the sun to shame.

“Wait… So that’s it?” I say, finally speaking up, “No huge drama or even post drama just, all mature and all?”

“Uh, you wanted drama? I think it went well, besides, drama sucks, and there’s gonna be more, so hold your horses cowboy.” Rainbow says to me.

“All right, but one question, why’d you help those girls?” I asked Gilda, pointing to Ruth and Clara.

“Oh, well, they looked like they needed help.” She says quickly, a valid attempt at a dodge, however I notice it and shoot her a “that’s not all it is” look. She looks guilty, sighs and opens her beak to talk.

“Yeah, whatever… So I’m into chicks, I think you got that part down, and that’s not really a thing back home… Doesn’t really happen… And when I saw those two, just totally open about it, it just made me know that this change isn’t all bad, that this worlds pretty cool. Then I saw those punks following them, they didn’t look like they were out to get them, but they didn’t look like they wanted to buy them coffee either. Then once the girls got deeper into the park, the guys bolted ahead towards them, and I just… acted… I just ran up and hit the guy in front, I guess it hurt a lot, because he didn’t make any attempt to fight back after that… His cheek was bleeding from where I hit him.”

“You think it was because you have talons versus hands like mine or Rainbows?” I ask.

“I think so, I may have scratched him I’m not sure. Everything just went at twice the speed it should’ve and I just did it. There’s no way I would’ve let that happen to them, let alone anyone really, but especially them. I mean… I never really had a chance, and I didn’t want those two to be stripped of their chance.” Gilda looks back down at the table, then at Rainbow, who’s sitting there with an awestruck look on her face.

“You’ve changed so much, Gilda.” Rainbow says, some tears gathering in her eyes, which she quickly wipes away. “But ya still got your temper, but puttin’ it to good use! Puttin’ those jocks to rest.”

“Thanks,” Gilda says, smiling. “But uh, can Rainbow and I have a moment for a sec, that alright?” she says to me.”

“Yeah of course, besides, I don’t wanna know what’ll happen if I say no!” I say jokingly as I sit up, Gilda gives a smile. God I really suck at comedy. I walk over to the snack bar, the girls are still there, leaning up against the wall of it.

“Hey, ya know, seeing how this is my park, I should tell you guys you’re loitering.” I say jokingly, they chuckle. Not bad, some appreciation of my humor.

“How about you tell that your bar tender, hasn’t been here for ages! Well like, he was here earlier today but he’s not here now so that counts as ages.” Clara says.

“Really now.” I reply.

“Well to a lazy teenage girl, yeah, this is like, forever.” She says in humor.

Clara looks over to Rainbow and Gilda, we’re out of earshot.

“Hey, so like, we know about their past n’ stuff, but like, what’s going to happen after this. I mean like… Rainbows going to school tomorrow right? Or at least like interviews n’ all. Gilda’s already done hers.”

“Yeah, Rainbow should be getting an interview tomorrow. We’re all set up, just confirmation, introductions and tons of paperwork.”

“Cool.” Ruth says, as her expression changes to one of concern, “Well, uh… I think we gotta get going, nice catching up, Kit, right?” she says, nudging Clara’s arm, and speed walking off.

“Y-yea, uh, bye.” I say, as I turn around to look at Gilda and Rainbow. Gilda’s standing next to Rainbow, rests a hand on her shoulder, and walks off, tears streaming from her eyes, and trying to compose herself. Rainbows has her head resting on one of her hands, tears staining her coat as well. I run over to her, and kneel down next to her.

Her expression is dark and torn, like color was stolen from her eyes. I get up, and take a seat right next to her, putting an arm around her. Holding her close, I can feel her sobs. She grabs me back, holding close, as she tries to restrain the tears, trying to articulate words.

“K-Kit, Oh god. She was it, the only p-person from Equestria, and we’ll never talk a-again.” She says, burying her head in my chest, tears and sobs filling the gaps between her speech.

“Woah, what? What happened? What went wrong?”

“S-She said, that after all this she just can’t bear to s-see me. S-She says it hurts now, that after t-that stupid stuff in Ponyville, she was alone without anyone for ages, and now seeing me again, like this, in this world. It just can’t happen she said, she said this is a chance to start a new, a clean slate. O god, I want to understand, why does she have to be like this!” She sobs, pulling herself closer to me, “I just want to understand.”

I hold her tight, and turn my head looking for Gilda and the girls. There they are, Gilda’s starring back, tears down her face, but she nods her head, as she and the girls walk off into the trees.

She thinks this is the right thing for her, that she just can’t go on stabbing her heart every day, why do I totally get this.

“Kit.” Rainbow says.

“Yeah.”

“Promise you won’t ever do that. I know it’s for her best, but it hurts.”

I would never leave her if I had the decision, but I can’t make that promise, what about when the war ends. She’ll go back, and I’ll be stuck here… O god… No… That can’t, no there’s gotta be a way… No, that’s not what I should be worrying about now, no.

I hold her, and tears from her start to formulate in my eyes, and they fall form mine too.

“I’ll never leave you, Rainbow.” I say, sobs echoing in my speech, “I promise.”

She holds me tighter, and her sobs become more relaxed, and loose.

She’s lost her first friend, because she can’t hold onto her. It’s a silent rejection of acknowledgement, and she knows that it’s for the best, even if it hurts.

It’s no death, but it sure feels like one.

We continue to hold one another in the snack bar for a while longer, until Rainbows sobs end. She looks at me, her eyes red from tears, but her face has color again, the light that left returned. Our eyes lock, and the world dulled itself once more. Her hair, scruffy and slightly dampened from tear, blows lightly in the wind, I raise my hand, and run it through her hair, for the first time. She grabs my hand, with utmost delegacy, and pulls me to her, and our lips meet.

There, in that moment of ultimate bliss, we link and connect like nothing before. A single tear falls from her eye, and she kisses me harder. I kiss back, and then her entire form feels so loose and free. Her entirety, from lips to palms feel like velvet. It seems to last forever, then simultaneously we pull out, hands now linked.

Speech isn’t necessary now, we both see each other, I know, I can feel it in her hands, and I felt it in her lips. And her to me the same.

She stares back at me, a smile on her face, and she puts her other hand on mine. Her face is blushing crimson, she closes her eyes, and rests her head on my shoulder.

The world really can’t wait long enough for this.

Chemistry

She looked up at me, like I was an icon of faith. It felt so good.

That was yesterday.

And now today is beginning, and I know it’s gonna be good, I can feel it.

I mean yea, this is her first day at High School, but we've arranged her schedule, I gave her a rundown of the atmosphere and energy of the High School, and I think she’s got it.

We’re just finishing our breakfast now, Mum made us an omelet, which is totally delicious. Rainbow and I are both pretty wiped, her more than me, she doesn't seem too bummed though.

Even if she is just hiding it, she’ll forget once she sees the school and starts meeting people.

Rainbow looks up at me, she’s wearing a grey tee shirt underneath it, as well as a grey pair of slim jeans. And for the first time… shoes! Sneakers naturally, dark red. Her hairs looking scruffy, but clean and organized, and her eyes look relaxed and calm. She looks at peace, kinda blissful.

“Well kids,” Mum says, “you two best hurry up or you’ll be late to your first day of school!”

“Not quite the first day, Mum.” I say.

“Well for Rainbow it is, I’ll clean up your dishes, just get out that door! You’ll want to show Rainbow around a bit before classes start, maybe run through her schedule and get a look at her classes. I tried to arrange them to fit your classes where I could.”

“Thanks Mum.” I say, I look to Rainbow, who’s already taken her schedule out, and hands it to me. I look it over.

Block 1: Chemistry, Mr. McLaren

Same as me, cool.

Block 2: US History, Ms. Cantos

Same, right on.

Block 3: French, Madame Serge

Nope, I have Spanish… shit… Ms. Serge is a bat.

Block 4: Study, Cafeteria

Groovy, back on schedule… that was the worst play on words I’ve ever thought of..

Block 5: Creative Writing, Mrs. Polka

Right on, she’s awesome.

Lunch

Sweet, same lunch.

Block 6: Gym, Mr. Mender

Same Gym block, sweet.

Block 7: Algebra 2, Mrs. Curse

Ew, at least Serge is funny, but Mrs. Curse is just a witch. And we have different math classes to top it off, I’m with Mr. Fitzpatrick.

Block 8: English, Mr. Cenci

I have Mr. Hansen, but Cenci is super cool to.

I hand Rainbow her schedule back, stand up and throw my coat on.

“Your schedules pretty nice, I think you’ll really like it. I can help you get to your classes for the first two, but once Block 3 hits, I gotta sprint to the third floor. But then we meet back up, however, come 7th Block, we split for the remainder of the day. I can show you the way to most of the classes, but you may be running around a bit here and there.” I say to Rainbow, who is putting a tight grey converse jacket on.

She smiles at me, and we walk out to the foyer, I open the door and lay my hand out for Rainbow. She smiles, and hooks her arm with mine, and we walk out closing the door behind us.

She rests her head against my body as we walk down the path towards the gate. Her breath and mine crystalize in the crisp morning air. The warmth of her head on my arm fills me with a blissful joy, and from the practical aspect, combats the brisk air with warmth.

We reach the gate not after long, and we enter the park, vacant as it so often is Monday mornings. The occasional bird chirps, and rustles of branches make the space between noises more present and looming.

We exit the park, and the streets are sparsely populated by other students and across the street from us, I see my best friend. Collin.

He saw me first, rather he saw me and Rainbow first. He looked shocked, almost disgusted, and ran across the street to me. A few cars honking at him and screeching to halts as he runs across the road like a buffoon.

“Kit! Yo, I uh—“ he sees Rainbow and stalls, he’s just made it to the side walk and is just standing there like we just turned invisible. “Uhh, Hello there, I’m Collin,” He says to Rainbow, he looks down and sees our arms linked, his glare shoots right back up to me. “I uhh, I’m a friend of Kits, and well uh… I’m here to say hi! Uhh, bye, I gotta go do human things—fuck—that was rude, I mean earth things—Fuck—things—better, k bye!” He sputters as he runs off down the side walk towards the school.

“Are all human kids like that?” Rainbow asks in a chuckle, her tail bouncing with comedic surprise from Collins oddness.

“Hopefully not…” I say, mostly to myself.

We keep walking, other people look at us, some with approval, others with indifference, and some, not many, but some with disgust. As is expected, but all things aside, I’m rather impressed with societies attitude towards Rainbow.

After a few more minutes, we finally reach the high school, and see a bunch of kids outside surrounding someone, a girl, with a pretty high pitched bouncy voice. Rainbows ears perk up, maybe she knows her?

The people around laugh, and cheer as some act of comedy takes place from within the circle.

Then…

Jumping high above the crowds head, is a pink coated character with huge bouncy hair, and a smile that should be inhuman… oh the irony…

“PINKIE!” Rainbow yells in delight as she expands her wings, knocking me back, and flaps into flight directly towards the pink character, who I’m guessing is ‘Pinkie’.

“O MY GOSH RAINBOW DASH!” Pinkie yells in mid-air. She falls back down, and Rainbows gust blows more space in the center of the crowd where she lands. Pinkie gives her a big hug, and picks her up, saying something at hyper-sonic speeds that only she seems to be able to understand.

“I missed you SOOOOO much! I thought I might be the only one here in New York!” I finally here Pinkie say, perhaps the only audible thing I’ll ever here her say.

“I missed you to Pinkie!” Rainbow says, the rest of the crowd around them claps in approval. I am impressed with the way these guys are taking it!

They talk some more, but I can’t make it out over the noise of the crowd, now deep in speech, undoubtedly over something Pinkie was doing before or the reunion occurring right before their eyes.

I make out some speech in the crowd about Pinkies performance, something about how they never thought anyone could make their face ‘that crazy’, whatever that means…

Soon, the bell goes off, and the students hurry inside, one of them, a guy named Chris, goes over to pinkie, who’s in a blue t-shirt and white skinny jeans, takes her arm and runs her inside, I assume to show her where her class is. Sweet of him. I run over to Rainbow and do the same.

We get inside and I look around to find the route with less traffic, but then over the speakers, Principle Heightmans voice begins speaking.

“Students, Teachers, and Staff, please come to auditorium immediately, take a seat, and get comfortable.”

Rainbow looks at me rather confused, I give her a reassuring look, and take her arm as we turn left down a hallway.

Students around us are talking about what the assembly is about, most of them have come to the conclusion that it’s about the ponies. Others are talking to some of the other ponies in the hall making their way to the auditorium. Rainbow nudges me and start pointing at the ponies in the hall.

“I don’t know all of them, but over there is Pinkie Pie, you saw here before. There’s Lyra and Vinyl Scratch, uhh, that’s Braeburn, Thunderlane, I raced with him once. Oh, over there’s Cloudchaser, and uhh—” She’s cut off by the sudden transition into the auditorium. The room is large, and is shaped for acoustics, the seats in horseshoe formation, pun intended, and the stage wooden with its curtain drawn.

I rush up to the lower row seats, the better ones, and sit down, she does the same, Pinkie sits down right next to Rainbow, and Chris sits right next to me. Chris is a tall kid, long shaggy blonde hair, skinny in shape, and has a knack for charisma. Honestly, I’m not too surprised he gravitated to Pinkie to help, I mean, he’s a real nice kid, and would help anyone at a moment’s notice, but it’s pretty clear why he chose her. He looks to me, and why, just why, but he makes all of us a little gay for him… I have no idea what it is, maybe it was the perfect way he rolls his head, or his green eyes, or his lovely hair…

“Hey, Dreamy, I’m not good enough?” Rainbow says, punching my arm.

“NO! I was just! Nevermind!” I say quickly.

I was going to keep talking, but then the curtain pulls back, all the students are seated, and Principle Heightman is up on the stage. He’s shaped kinda like a large fleshy pyramid…

“Morning students, this is a very interesting time, as many of you may have noticed… we have visitors… now, the government has acted quickly, and has decided that they are to be integrated into our society, and culture. They are American citizens. And they are students. They will be receiving the same treatment you do, and will have no handicap, nor any negative treatment.”

He pauses, giving students some time to look over one another’s shoulder and comment to one another.

“We welcome you, new comers, and hope to give you a fantastic year here at—”

“HELLOOOOOOOO NEWWWWWWWWWWWWWW YORK!” A voice says, sounding a little too familiar.

“Allow me to introduce myself! I am Discord, God of Chaos,” Discord says, as he pops into appearance with an entourage of sparks and purple smoke. Students are stunned, and remain completely silent. Amateurs. Rainbow and Pinkie laugh under their breath. “And I’m here to clear some things up!” He says. Mr. Heightman speaks up at Discord.

“Just who in the name of—” Discord rolls his eyes, and snaps his fingers, turning Mr. Heightmans lips upside down, and reversing his speech. Mr. Heightman stops talking, looks down at his lips and screams, and then stops once he hears it come out backwards. He looks at Discord with sympathy.

“Just listen, and all will be well!” Discord says half laughing, rather pleased with his prank. Students from all across the auditorium laugh at Discords joke, as Discord smiles, clearly happy that some people appreciate his humor.

He continues to speak, “So probably the biggest social problem I’VE noticed would be the lack of a proper name for our kind! So I figured a good one would be Antro, being shortened version of what we are, anthropomorphic humans. Also, please, don’t pull our tails. On another note, we would like to perhaps have a little bit of help when it comes to housing, so please, open your heart and help our little ponies here. Finally, let’s try and make this experience a good one, shall we? No unnecessary violence, no slurs, nah I’m kidding. Those things will happen undoubtedly, just please be mature about it. So that’s all I have to say, gooooooood night Newwwww York!” He says, snapping his fingers, popping into purple smoke, and fixing Mr. Heightmans mouth.

The auditorium is silent in awe, Dash and Pinkie are holding their mouths to prevent outbursts of laughter. I notice myself trying to hold back chuckles, Discord is pretty funny I’ve gotta admit.

“Well, uh… I wasn’t prepared for that.” Principle Heightman says, looking franticly around the auditorium for some answer or explanation. I hear some rustling in the back rows, it’s Octavia standing up, she’s wearing a black blazer and khaki pants. She clears her throat and begins to speak, she has a calculated, upper class British accent.

“Essentially, treat us as equals, as a species a more or less ‘slang’ term for us is Anthro, and finally we apologize for any disturbance our un-nominated spokesperson, Discord, may have caused. Thank you.” she sits back down, and a few people give some light claps.

Mr. Heightman opens his mouth to speak again, “Uhh, thank you, one last thing though. The Parmen-Price Foundation has begun construction on an apartment complex for the uh, Anthros who wish to attend this High School, free of charge. Details, and location will be displayed on the bulletin board in the main hallway next to the Office. Uhh, that’t be all for today. Go to your Period 1 classes and have a great day.” He said, before walking offstage holding his head in disbelief.

“Wow, that’s great that your Dads doing that but… won’t that cost like… a lot of money?” Rainbow says to me getting up from her seat.

“Well yeah… But my Dads got a lot of that. His company, Parmen-Price Integrated, makes everything from war machines, to bikes, computers, and housing appliances. He makes plenty of investments that end up gaining income, such as the park, and now this apartment for Anthros.” I say to her.

“Just how much money does he have?”

“38 billion in NET worth.” I say to her, then I realize, NET worth doesn’t mean much to her. “How much money does it cost to buy an apple over there?”

“1 Bit.”

“He’s got 38 Billion apples.” This time her expression isn’t one of confusion, rather of impressment.

We walk down to the doors, and hear all the people talking about all this buzz. Once we hit the halls, the noise levels lower as students separate to go to their classes. I walk us down the hall to our first class.

Chemistry.

Discord

“SISTER, the front gates have been breached! The castle will be over run in minutes!”

“QUIET! I know, I watched as they killed the guards, they’re taking no prisoners. Luna we must leave, but not right away.”

The room echoed with deafening silence, reverberating throughout the castle, as faint blasts from the outdoors made their debut. Celestia was leaning against the wall, she was weightless, and had lost all ability to carry on from here. Laughs could be hear from outside, sick, twisted maniacal laughs, as blasts of green flew across the sky, and fire blazed across Canterlot.

“Sister… I have no solution to this issue, but I must insist that we act qui-”

“What was that?” Celestia interrupted.

“Pardon, Sister?”

“Who’s laughter is that?”

Celestia and Luna ran to the window, from there they watched in awe as Discord sped across the sky, striking enemies out cold with magic and chaos. However, not a single more that injured, just unconscious.

“What is he doing here!? He’s meant to be looking over our people in the new world! Does he not know of the new weapons the Griffons have!? Their technoqlogy is far too advanced for us! Canons the size of straws! It’s devastating, no magic can combat it!” Celestia yells, with both anger and fear in her voice.

Discord turns to the window and winks at Celestia. Griffons start to fly in at him, surrounding him, and Changlings come from the bottom, trapping him in a circle of enemies.

“HAHA! You think it’ll be so easy to capture me!?” He cackles.

The Griffons raise their machine weapons, and the Changlings begin to charge their magic.

Discord continues to cackle in hysterics at this attempt to intimidate him, he raises his hand and his single fang glimmers with his mischievous smile.

“DISCORD HELP!” yells Celestia as dozens of Changlings burst into the room.

Celestia fires off her magic at them, incinerating many into a purple ash, filling the entrance to the room with violet smoke.

CRASH

SNAP

Trails of smoke emerge from the violet mist as balls of iron and brass rain from the rooms entrance.

Claps of thunder fill the ears of Celestia, as her eyes shut tight from the shock. Eyes still glued shut she feels something warm against her chest. A great weight in her chest, and liquid dripping down her coat.

“NOOOO!” screams Discord in unharmonious agony.

Celestia opens her eyes, and stares at the blood staining her white coat, and the wounds before her.

“L-Luna.” She says.

Luna lay against her sister, littered with blasts from the machines of the Griffons.

Almost unrecognizable from the blasts, face covered in blood, eyeless as the balls of iron had replaced them. He jaw unhinged and dangling by a tendon. Ash and singes riddle her body from the holes left in her.

“Sh-She saved me… Goodness, why!?”

From the mist a figure approaches, initially shadowed by such smoke. A large Griffon, red in colour, uncovers himself from the mist. In his paw a war machine, long, and red like his fur, he raises it at Celestia.

“Goodbye Sun-Bearer, your cosmic tyranny ends now.” Says the Griffon, in a loud pronounced shout. His grip tightens and his finger press against the trigger of his machine-

BAM

“GAHHH!”

Discord grabs his eye in pain, “YOU FOOL! THAT WAS MY FAVORITE OCULAR VIEWING ORGAN!” he yells as he grabs Celestia and

Poof

He vanishes from the room.

Leaving only the Red Griffon, and Luna in the Castle.

“W-Where are you taking me Discord?”

Celestia says, her soft quiet voice rather noticeable in the tunnel of space-time.

“To where I took the others of course. You’ll be safe there.” Discord says calmly, still gripping his eye, blood flowing inconsistently from the wound. “First though, I want to tell you something. To help you. Something I realized when I was in the stone.”

Discord turned towards the wall of the undefined tunnel of space-time.

He emerged in the void, and flew slowly, taking in the vastness of the void. Distant bubbles everywhere, with thousands of little bubbles surrounding them. All linked to-

One

Large

Black

Sphere

“This is void, my darling, and that is the Main Realm. The only un-visit-able realm. You can only leave it upon death, never to re-enter. It is the mother of all realms, yet has no knowledge of them. Ya know, in the void you can always see it, no matter where you look? It’s a little maddening at first but you get used to it.

The realm I sent the ponies to is a good one, not perfect, and certainly not clean, it’s a step down in overall condition and cleanliness, but overall it’s very toughening and well rounded. It’s like going from a school arts and crafts lesson to the mud pit, it’s a bit of getting used to.

The people there are fine, probably more accepting then ours, so maybe they can all learn something. However, I think we can teach them all something to.

But enough of that. Let me tell you about what I think of our world. And now, of theirs.

One can only dream of how many people there are out in this world, and that world. How many people will listen to what you have to say, and actually be there when you need to say it? How when people are there for you, you just keep spilling confessions. Everything around us is just a sticky mess. Everything is glued to the next event, everyone is waiting for the next piece of debris to latch onto, and to be carried off with it, somewhere else. Anywhere else.

Who doesn’t want to be somewhere they’re not. It’s all just so cliché, can anyone really be fully satisfied with what’s given? Because we all want the next thing on our mind, which is rarely in the right place.

Right here, right now, we should just look up, and walk over to the best view we can get of the sky, and just think. Just how lucky we are, that there’s this invisible force gluing us to an Earth so vast and beautiful. Sometimes we just forget about it. But sometimes we also need to focus on the beauties of our lives. The simplistic beauties of love, and happiness, and sorrow, and depression, and of all other emotional comprehensions. Because the beauty of emotion is so vast, and expanding. It drives us to do great things, it’s what keeps us human and bonded to one another. The beauty of hate, and resentment. The beauty of good and evil. It all creates an amazing balance, an incredible equilibrium of an emotional collage that can’t survive the same without all its components.

It’s all very odd.”

“Discord, I don’t know what to think anymore.”

“That’s alright. I’ll do that for now. I can see it’s time for me to calm down a bit and re-organize. I will, but only until you’re on your feet, deal?”

“Deal, Discord.”

Discord smiles at Celestia, and looks out at the Main Realm. And then at the small, grey bubble, where Kit and Rainbow are having Chemistry class… unknowing, uncaring.

If only they knew… Too bad they will know soon… one way… or another…

Party Crashers

Finally schools over. I know nothing crazy big happened, I mean, at lunch a bunch of kids always would pester the more social anthros with questions and requests.

Rainbow and I were spared however, I think because well, I don’t have fantastic relations with people, rather than the rich kid having fake friends he had little at all. I suppose it’s better that way, at least they’re all honest. And maybe I’m a little paranoid, but hey, who cares.

Besides, we were invited to party after school in the park, second party I’ve ever been to! Well, not run adults that is. This is being held up by the Student Council… so maybe it is still pretty official… but again, who cares.

It’s a little formal, I think it’s starting at seven thirty and running till ten, being a semi school event n’ all it’s going to end early. But I know at this school, the second “dress nice” is thrown out, everyone decides it’s a bow-tie and red dress occasion. So I think I’ll get Rainbow and I something nice to wear for it, may as well show off, right?

Overall, today went pretty smooth, Rainbow met a bunch of new anthros, and sounds real excited about the new apartment complex for her friends. She said that Pinkie had already met every anthro, the funny part is she found every single one. Not like, she ran into them. No. She FOUND every single one, like she was on a mission.

Pinkie seems like she’s really going to be the life of the party tonight. And I’m real glad that she agreed to come back to the mansion with Rainbow and I! She only had like four outfits and they aren't necessarily flattering, so I thought it would only be right to offer some other outfits to one of Rainbows best friends.

Right now they’re in the next room over trying out new outfits, Pinkies asking for something more blue, but no no, not just “blue” it’s gotta be “bloooooooooh” like some super blue. The one blue to rule them all! Well not quite that specific, I think she’s just asking for a lighter blue, some cyan or sky blue. Girls and dresses, it’s a reoccurring thing, no matter how laid back they are, they always do care about the dress they’re debuting in.

I hear Rainbow in there arguing with herself with whether to sacrifice aerodynamics with looks. I mean, c’mon, it’s a party, not a racing event!

Pinkie knocks on the door from inside, signaling me to come in.

I turn the knob and open the door.

“Ta-daaa!” the two say in unison.

Pinkies in a light blue dress with a poofy skirt the flares outwards with nice, soft, light fabric all ending at a little above her knees. It complements her coat well. Her coat is much more light and poofy than Rainbows, and looks all fuzzy and soft. It marries her dress really well, especially where her shoulders and thighs show. Her tail and mane are looking shiny and alive, like it’s made of cotton candy. It’s all a great mix.

Not to mention her awesome breasts. Seriously, like, they can’t be overlooked.

Rainbows dress is a royal purple, lightly sparkled, glistening in the light of the chandelier above them. It’s a thin dress, one that makes her wings look regal and powerful, and complements her thin curvy figure. Her hair and tail are looking softer and more colourful than ever, carelessly flowing down past her shoulders, naturally not too conformed and combed.

She looks amazing.

“Wow, guys you both look great! I think you’ll be the two nicest looking at this party!” I say. I gotta work on not sounding so much like a kiss ass. Rainbow notices my personal neglect of word choice and giggles.

“Yea? Well you don’t look awful yourself, haha!” Rainbow laughs.

I don’t look too bad after all, I’m just wearing a black suit and bow tie, however it is a nice suit. I’m a little worried as too whether my convers will take away from the effect of the suit, but then I notice that Rainbow is wearing sneakers beneath her dress, which upon me noticing, she adjusts her dress to hide them bashfully.

“I know you’re doing it, but I’m supposed to look somewhat nice, right? I can’t wear anything else, it just doesn’t feel right, like, I can’t fun or anything!” Rainbow says defensively.

“HAHA! Yea! O my gosh me too! Except I’m not doing that right now but I’m like totally wanting to like totally wear something like really comfortable so that like I can bounce around but I can still bounce around everywhere without too much trouble cuz I’m me and I can bounce everywhere and that’s really no big deal and WHOA I’M EXCITED!” Pinkie says in one big gush.

“uhhh, yea cool! I’m excited too! The parties real soon, so why don’t we head on over!” I say, opening the door wider too let the two through.

“OMYGOSHOMYGOSHOMGOSH!” Pinkie squeals in delight as she bounces through the door, Rainbow lets out a playful sigh at Pinkie.

Pinkie starts to splurge again as she talks too Rainbow about something, I hope one day I’ll be able to make heads or tails of what’s going on between those two.

We make our way down the stairs, and soon enough we’re at the front door, Pinkie swings it wide open and laughs as the late fall breeze blows her hair back. She then bounces down the steps and stops, waiting for us to join her. Rainbow takes a step out, and looks side to side as she descends down the steps. She stretches her arms out and yawns, her wings shoot out and blinding speeds and stretch to what looks like 16 ft. The wings retract as Rainbows stretching and yawning subside.

I hop down the steps, hands in pockets, and catch up with the two. I put out an arm for Rainbow, which she declines, instead she takes my hand out of my pocket and links us. I must admit I like this more, I haven’t any gloves and her soft hands are warm and comforting. She smiles at me and I return it. Then Pinkie goes ahead and ruins the moment.

“AWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!! THAT’S SOOOOOOOOO CUTE!!!!” She giggles.

Rainbow whips Pinkies bum with her tail and grins as Pinkie spikes up back straight and hair frazzled, which soon deflates to a normal bounce.

“Ow! Dashie! You know I’ll have to get you back for that!” Pinkie says cheerfully.

The two laugh and talk a little between themselves, as I busy myself to my thoughts.

Soon enough we arrive at the party, a little late, but to no trouble, now we don’t have to wait for anyone to arrive! Rainbow lets go of my hand and rushes in as Pinkie drags her to all the people she met and wants her to meet. I laugh and look around the party. There’s a central tent, rather large and with plenty of activity and music. I see the anthro Rainbow showed me, Vinyl Scratch, she’s up there with George Martin, who’s a pretty nice DJ for a student. But it looks like he’s being out performed by Vinyl, and he looks fine with it, probably trying to learn from her a bit.

I see a bunch of girls talking to this one anthro, who by the looks of it is extremely classy, I’m not sure where he got his suit but my god it’s so… fancy! It’s like, top grade royalty fancy! No wonder he’s surrounded by all those girls, he’s probably the biggest chick magnet I’ve ever seen.

But then I see someone, an anthro, sitting on the sidelines, not really too well dressed, reading a book… here? Wait… is that? Holy fucking shit it is… it’s that girl Twilight Sparkle! Why isn’t she hanging out with Rainbow and Pinkie?

I run over to her, she doesn’t notice, once I reach her, I tap her on the shoulder, startling her rather much.

“AHH!” she yells.

“AHH!?” I yell.

“Sorry, uhh, I’m Kit, do you know that uh… two of your best friends are right there?”

“I’m sorry who are you?” says the anthro through a thick southern accent as she lowers her book, it’s not Twilight, there’s no horn… woops…

“I’m sorry, I thought you were Twilight, have you met her?” I say apologetically.

“O Twilight? Yes I have, only once before though, a long time ago! She showed up at my Apple family reunion! O boy she was a funny one!”

“Apple family reunion? O MY GOD! You’re a part of the Apple family!”

“Why yes I am! Applewit, at yer’ service!”

“O wow, that’s so interesting! Oh wow, well it’s an honor to meet a member of the Apple family! You guys I hear have quite a legacy!”

“Why yes we do! I’m sorry, but I’m readin’ up on cookin’ in this here book. It’s mighty diffent out here then at home!” She says to me gesturing down to her book. Cooking For Dummies. An excellent choice… sorta…

“O sure yea, have a nice night!” I say, as I walk off back to the party.

I take another glance around, and look up at the sky, it’s getting a little dark, some stars showing up… But now there’s a shooting star… But it’s too large, what is it?

Then

Faintly

I hear it… saying something…

“Meet you at the house, Kit Kat!”

Discord.

Wounds

“Shit.” I say to myself, seeing Discord fly overhead towards the house.

Alright… should I go get Rainbow? No no, she’s having so much fun over there, I can’t just tear her and Pinkie away for something like that! Besides it’s not like she’s necessarily ‘fond’ of him. I’ll just have to walk out. No one will see, there’s too much commotion.

I start to walk towards the edge of the party, narrowly avoiding conversation and activities. Eventually, I make it, and I think I managed to avoid all things blocking my path or things that could come back to bite me later.

I continued to walk away from the party, the music died slowly as I crept on towards the house. I could still here Rainbow laughing though, perhaps just in my head… I wish she could just be here, WITHOUT any weird shit like Discord and the war or whatever. God, what the hell is that war even about, honestly! Why did none of them speak until now!? Or fight rather. Whatever.

As the last sound from the party left earshot, I launched myself into a dash, running home as fast as I could. I saw the house in the distance as I passed the gates, Discord was outside, with someone else, wearing a white dress, tinted with gold. Who the hell is this? She’s pretty human, nothing like Rainbow or any other anthro… She’s like Discord.

POP!

I collapse to the floor, feeling uneasy, like I was just punched in the stomach.

“Gosh maybe that wasn’t such a great idea, hmm…” Discord says as he picks me up with his free hand, propping me on my feet.

He must’ve teleported me over here… I’m right next to him… God fucking dammit that hurt a ton…

“A little warning next time, who’s the girl?” I say impatiently.

“This,” Discord replies, “This is Princess Celestia, I had to bring her back here… Equestria’s fallen… Princess Luna was killed saving her sister, poor little Moona…” He sheds a tear, and sniffs sadly before continueing. “They won’t be staying here don’t worry, not at your home, no. Somewhere else, I’ll build a fortress where we can continue to plan a counter assault-”

“There will be no such thing.” Celestia says to Discord, still in his arms, “We have no power to do so…besides you’re injured.”

I look over to Discord, he doesn’t turn his head, I walk around him to face him. I gasp a little, seeing a destroyed eye. The whole right side of his head was destroyed, his eye obliterated, his skin scorched and tarnished, and his skull visibly cracked.

“It takes a lot to kill a god, Kit.” Discord says calmly. “The Griffons have weapons like yours, magic is only so effective.”

“W-Why don’t you just heal yourself? And then kill them with your magic?” I say frazzled.

“Quite simple, actually… Magic isn’t just silly incantations and potions, it all derives from ones aura, the thing responsible for your soul being bound to your body. Aura, is what determines you being alive. If your body is damaged, and your Aura isn’t trained, your soul isn’t as tightly latched to this world, and you’ll begin to transcend to Valhalla, or heaven have you. Aura is also what’s responsible for magic, seeing how your soul is an endless supply of energy. With a trained Aura, one can then channel their soul to create magic. If you have been injured, your aura isn’t as powerful, it must recover, which is difficult if you are still injured. The more injured you are, the less powerful your aura is. Celestia and I have very powerful and trained aura’s, but if we’re hurt, so is our aura. Our magic is limited by our condition, that’s why the Griffons teamed up with the Changelings, so that the Changelings can use magic, while the Griffons take the front lines and damage OUR magic. It’s quite clever.”

“A-alright, but can’t you still kill them?” I ask again.

“Well yes, but killing someone is very difficult with magic, you have to strip them of their aura, whether it’s by incantation or conjuration. However, doing it by means of regular combat is quite easy. See, no matter how powerful your aura is, your raw soul is always more powerful. And just doing what you’re doing now is all soul, no need for the aura to do anything. It’s marvelous.”

I sit down, and take a few stares at Discords injury, he doesn’t seem to mind. Then he starts to get a little a bothered so he starts to look around, and since there’s no eye there… the right side of his head is just flesh and muscle moving around. It’s rather disgusting, naturally I turn away, and Discord laughs to himself. Even when suffering a painful wound, he puts it aside for laughter.

“So what’s going to happen… Are you guys not going to leave? Equestria’s theirs for good?” I say curiously.

“No.” Celestia says through a musk of sadness and weariness, “No we will return, they can’t do this. They’ll soon see that Chrysalis can’t control both Sun and Moon.”

“But what if she can.”

“Well… Then we’ll simply have to take it back… It will cost us, but not as heavily as it will cost them. We can’t let our homeland fall to such barbarians.”

“How do you intend to fight back?”

She sighs, “Unfortunately with the requested aid of your nations power. We fear that they’ll expand once all of Equestria is under their control. But we have no such methods of infiltrating Equestria in this moment… It may come to inter-dimensional warfare…”

I bury my head in my arms, what on earth could happen? They won’t be able to take on our country? Right? They have magic, but Discord said that magic isn’t as powerful when damaged. We can take them, but all the death that will follow… Also they’ll have every able bodied person designing and building new weapons for them, so they may just be equally fitted for combat… Fuck… why me… Oh I know… because of her, because of Rainbow…

But why like this…

I look back up, they’re both gone, not even a trace of their being here.

“Hey Kit! Where’d you go off to!? I was getting worried you went off to go be emo or something!” Rainbow says in a laugh, as she runs towards me, much slower than usual, seeing how she’s in her dress.

I look to her, and I feel the weight and value of all I learned lay heavy on Rainbows shoulders. As soon as her eyes linked with mine she felt the weight of it, she made a few step closer to me before her knees buckled. She was a few feet away from me. She didn’t know what I had learned, but that is was something great, and laced with heaviness. She shuffled over to me, not breaking her kneel, and hugged me. I raised my arms, feeling heavier than before, and lay them around her.

If war came…

What would happen to us…

Where would we be?

“Kit, Oh man… It’s just one thing after another with you, isn’t it?” She said laughing. “I saw Discord fly off with Celestia, I didn't know whether you saw them or not, but I guess you did huh.”

“Yea… they told me about impending war… I hope we can avoid it…” I say to her, thousands of awful scenarios playing throughout my head of losing her to war. “If we win… Will you have to leave?”

I said it…

“I-I… I don’t…” She says, uncertainly, “I don’t think we’ll win… But I think we’ll stop them. We’ll still be here, I’m pretty sure.” She says, hugging me tighter.

I believe it… We’ll fight, it’ll come. But it’s not coming soon… I want to live until then, before we have to settle this conflict.

48 Miles

Shortly after Rainbow met me at the mansion, we decided to go up to the rooftop balcony to get some real fresh air.

After a lot of sorta halfway making our way past the kitchen without grabbing any MORE food we eventually made it to the staircase, and the rest was simple from there.

We finish the final flight of stairs, and turn down a large hallway to reach a window. Silently we open it and step through.

Rainbow goes first, her dress almost getting torn in the process. As soon as she exits, she stretches out her wings and yawns.

“Oh I’m boring you already?” I say playfully to her.

She finishes yawning before giving me a little punch in the arm, “Not yet, Kit Kat!”

“Kit Kat!?”

“That’s what I heard Pinkie call you, sorta has a nice ring to it, dontcha think?”

“Not really, it’s sorta lame.” I say to myself, remembering how Discord actually said that too me not too long ago.

“Ah man, you’re boring after all!” She said laughing.

“But hey,” She continued, “Don’t worry so much about me.”

She said it like she knew what I was thinking down there on the gravel…

“I-I uh.” I can’t quite articulate myself, I feel my skin go pale.

“It’s fine just, let’s not worry about that, I mean… Yeah, it’s not something we should ignore, really… but that’s not the deal right now. I mean, I would think that we might actually STAY here in… whatever this is called.”

“America”

“Yea, America. Like, by the time we win, if we win, everyone will be so apart of this world that leaving would be a punishment, maybe we’d be happier back home, but I know some people would want to stay… Maybe… Maybe a lot of us stay… And we all coexist… or something.” She finishes her sentence with hopeful eyes, shamefully looking up at me.

“Yea, maybe.” I say, a smile spreading across my face. I move in to her, and her to me, and we hold one another for a while.

All the repressed worries and stresses we have never get dealt with, and this was our way of dealing with it. It’s bliss.

I open my eyes a tad as I feel some wind brush across my face, I see her wings, shot upwards towards the sky, sorta like a… sorta like a… a wing-boner… haha, that’s fuckin’ brilliant.

Rainbow opens her eyes a little too, and sees my eyes fixed on her “wing boner” and she leaps back closing her wings tightly to her back in one quick SWOOSH.

She starts to blush lightly, trying to keep a tough guy front. Doesn’t work too well.

“Shut up! You don’t have wings you don’t know!” She says defiantly.

“I haven’t said anything yet.” I said smiling.

She smiles back.

--!--

“uhhh….” Twilight moaned.

She’s covered in dirt, face down in the ground naked, her coat is greasy and filthy, and her main is tangled.

“wha… where… where am I.” she says, more as a statement than a question.

She tries to stand up, but her arms and legs just don’t do the same things.

“Why can’t I stand up?” she says looking down at her body. She sees the arms and legs in the place of her old, equine legs. Too exhausted to react as suprised as she is, her eyes widen and she starts to breathe more deliberately … oh Celestia, what’s happened… everything's different

Twilight raises her head and looks around. She’s in a snowy forest with a bright but cold sun, the trees are tall and look like they tower over the sky, metaphorically speaking that is. She tries slowly bringing her legs to her chest, once she did it she leans back on them, kneeling to the world around her. She throws her head back and breaths heavily. She raises her hands to view them, perplexed more than shocked at her new form.

She closes her eyes, and lets her hands fall back down. She continues to breathe deeply trying to take in as much air as she can. Her stomach growls and she instinctively brings a hand to clasp over it. How long was I here? I remember being back at the library, talking to Spike, then some crack… that was it… Maybe I can analyze myself and see how old this magic is, after all it must be very powerful to do all this…

Twilight opens her eyes, and rocks her head back to an upright position. She looks around again, only with her eyes, to observe the location. She closes them again, straining to muster up energy to perform the spell.

“mmm… come on… gah!” a burst of magic exits her horn and begins to spiral around her. She opens her eyes and observes it. It’s much more… gritty than back in Equestria… everything is… I thought my magic would still be the same though… But now it’s like a mist, a distortion of air… interesting...

Once the spell dissipates, the forest returns to view.

“I was… teleported… out of my dimension… I didn’t even know we had separate dimensions… The magic started a while ago, but only completed now… Oh no… it was supposed to tell the user to come to me… But the spell only just was able to take me here, and this is even off target…” her eyes widen, and her breathing gets heavier as the fear of the event takes hold.

She tries to stand, pushing herself upright with her hands, and straightening her legs. She stumbles a bit halfway up, but regains balance. She straightens her stance, and wobbles in place.

“This is new… really new… I just gotta do it like Spike does… One step at a time…” Twilight says to herself.

She lifts up one leg, wobbling, and places it a little ahead of her. Her feet crunching the snowy ground beneath her. She feels every surface where her foot had landed, every little rock, separations between the dirt and snow. Everything. She moves another foot. And another. And another.

Slowly increasing her walk, she smiles lightly to herself. “Wow, this is pretty cool actually… I’m so far up from the ground, and I have these hands, just like Spike. I can hold things, and interact with things differently… that’s so cool! But Twilight remember, this isn’t a gift, this is something weird… Something’s not right… I just gotta figure out what…”

She keeps walking through the forest. It’s cold, and the sun piercing the trees doesn't do much to defeat the cold. Twilight clasps her hands to her chest, pushing her breasts in. Jeez, I almost forgot about those… this is really weird… I wish I just knew what they were! I mean… I sorta like them… adds some nice figure to this new body. Curvy and such. I wonder if these thoughts are… natural… I think so, I don’t know what else it could mean…

She continues to walk, arms tight around her, pushing onwards through the brush. The stone and cold dirt of the earth in themselves are enough to take Twilights attention, but the beautiful rays of light through the hardened white trees take her away. Her purple figure clashes with the surrounding world so violently that anyone could see her. Why hasn't anyone seen me? I’m not quite camouflaged, is this place even inhabited? Jeez I hope so…

She squints her eyes as she sees something ahead in the forest, the trees start to thin out. And the ground there turns more grey, not rock, it’s too smooth and uniform, but very similar.

She looks down at her legs. Maybe I can run… worth a shot, right? Twilight lifts one leg more aggressively, and slams it down pushing her forwards. She loses balance and gets launched forwards into the snow.

”gah, at least I hit snow… and not a tree or a rock…” Twilight says to herself. She stand up and bends her legs, trying to assume a position that spike would take when running. Then she springs forward, this time launching her other leg in unison with her other pushing the earth. Her second leg pounds the ground, and the other following it. She was in a sprint, a disorganized, wobbly sprint.

She could see the clearing getting closer, and she focused on her footing. Closer and closer, faster and faster, she could feel the pressure in her legs, like a spring being set and released in her legs.

This feels fantastic!

The clearing came sooner than she had expected, she turned her stance 90 degrees and planted her feet, trying to beat her momentum, she glided a little very gracefully, until she lost balance and fell forwards again, this time putting her hands out first, breaking her fall. Her hands hit the grey at the clearing with no absorption causing great pain in Twilights hands.

“Jeez, that hurt… wuh?” Twilight looked down at the ground beneath her hand. It was rough, organized, confined into one long road with a dual yellow line separating the “road” into two. She stood up and looked down the road. It was long, and seemed to have no immediate end.

But there was a sign, not too far up ahead, that read:

Portland MA

78 Km/48 Miles

“Well I guess that’s where I’m going… better get moving… I don’t want to starve after all…”

Twilight began to walk down the road, arms closed around her again, her tail swaying lightly as her hips swung.

This is going to be a long walk…

One Step At A Time

One step at a time, one step at a time, one step at a time.

“I’m getting pretty good at this.” Twilight says to herself.

Twilight walks down the road. Gravel and dirt shifting and crunching beneath her feet. Her arms where swaying by her side, her walk became more fluid, as a result more strut like. Her fur is a greasy mess, littered with dirt and little pieces of rock. Her tail is just as dirty as the rest of her. Her eyes where half closed and passively observing the surrounding woodland.

The forest wasn’t too dense, you could clearly see far into it, the cold rays of sunlight still echoed through the old worn branches of the forest. The white bark radiated with the suns beams and illuminated the surface of the earth with fabulous tint and pigment. Twilight however, had little appreciation for its glorious splendor, she was exhausted. Every step was a chore.

She had walked so far, and no Portland was to be found. A while before, she came across a fork in the road and took the one to the right. There was no sign saying which road led where. Since then she’s been walking. It’s too late to turn around. Not a single sign has been seen since. The condition of the road has dropped dramatically, no longer was it polished and uniform. Now the edges of the road were torn, and lost its solid grey tone to a paler shade. The road had more holes, and slowly got worse the farther she travelled.

Walking, walking, walking.

Yup, I sure can walk alright… Twilight thought to herself in attempt to battle the defeated feeling she has.

Her breath is slow, and consistently so. With each painful exhale misty breathe exits her mouth like a gentle wave in the air. She looks upward. The sun is setting, casting reds and oranges across the sky, making a beautiful splash of colour across the dying sky. The clouds had begun to gather more as well, not many, but a few as opposed to the perfect sky before. Twilight paid no attention to this, her state was beyond unreachable, her mind was focusing on movement and efficiency. Her stomach roared and begged for food.

Walking, walking.

The sun set more, and stars began to show their face on the theatre of night.

Food… water… sleep… any of those would be fantastic right about now… where is everybody… are they all dead? No, the road before was well kept and updated… how did I get so lost… where did I mess up… Celestia help me…

Her thoughts seemed to echo through the forest and bounce back to her as she walked. It’s maddening, nothing moved, nothing changed, just the sky. Just the untouchable, and more or less irrelevant sky. The concrete of the road ended abruptly, and the rest of the road was dirt and light gravel. Thebuilders must have given up after a while… oh no… does this road go anywhere? Of course it does… but to where?!

Twilights thoughts didn’t echo this time. They simply died. This was more maddening than the echo. It was lonely… dark and cold… afraid and concerned… frightful and nervous…

The road continued onward. The sky darkened further, no longer did the sun pepper the sky with gorgeous colours and hues, rather it left entirely. Simply night was left to the sky. Stars and clouds filled the sky with depth and art. And moonlight shone through the forest, filling it with nocturnal blue light, blasting serenity throughout the woods.

I… need… food… water… anything…

She kept walking. For however long she could. Time flew like a baseball. Fast and quick, but it felt like an eternity to watch it fly. The world around her was dark. Nothing moved. Nothing has. Only purple life inhabits the forest. Twilight keeps moving.

Walking.

Twilights strut dies, her motion becomes dead and laboring. Dragging her feet along with her, knees buckling every so often.

The sky's a dark blue, and the moon a peaceful white. Twilight looks up at it, as if it's the last night she'll ever see.

When she looks down...

Deep in the forest...

A orange light glows dimly.

Twilight gasps in joy with the energy remaining. She tries to speed up by straightening her stance.

Jeez, I wish I had saved my run for this... She tries to jog, but to little avail. Still moving, still walking, still going.

The orange light grew much closer, and Twilight can see what it belongs to. It's a cabin, small, probably only one room, but there's light.

Twilight forces herself to run, pulling her feet light weights across the earth. The cabin is getting closer, the light is shining brighter, and the silhouette of the building is clear. Twilights breath becomes heavy and dry, as her throat loses all moisture.

Still moving.

Still...

Moving...

Still...

She looks up. She's face first in the dirt and gravel. Bleeding from the lip and nose, her knees and hands scratched.

She tries to stand, but her knees won't allow it. Her hands and arms are too sore to move.

Her head falls back to the earth, dirt soaking up her blood adding colour to the brown, gray dust.

She looks up again, she's so close... the cabin looks like a 5 minute walk away. She tries to roll over, everything is scratched and sore. She looks to the cabin and tries to teleport there. But as her horn glows, her pain triples.

“Ahh!” She cries out in pain, but manages to flip over. She looks at the cabin. Takes a deep breath and yells out.

“Hey! Please! Help!” She takes another breath and goes to yell again, but only a scream exits her.

She blinks. Rather deliberately. Another light appears. A larger one, that reaches the earth, with a figure in the center of its aura. Twilight tries to raise a hand, as soon as it reaches its maximum height it collapses back to earth. The figure in the light jerks forward suddenly, and starts to run towards her. Twilights eyes close. And the world goes dark again.

“uhh...” Twilights eyes flicker open, which she quickly closes as orange light burns her eyes. Slowly she opens her eyes again, and she looks around.

She's inside the cabin, which looks slightly larger on the inside. It's walls are logs and where clearly laced with some form of finisher to prevent any decay. They were a deep brown, glistening lightly in the orange light. Where the cleavage of the logs met so did dust and rubble, not too consistent but dense.

Twilights eyes flicker again. Her breath is shallow and her throat stings with each intake of air.

She coughs, causing her whole body to shake. She looks to her left, there's a night stand with a lantern on it, the little glass door on it is open. On the night stand a little pad and pencil lay gathering dust. The pad had musical notes and lyrics scribbled all over it, almost illegible. She looked up at the rest of the cabin.

A door way, not too far ahead, allowed for a little table and a wooden armchair with some crude pillows to be seen. A fire place could be seen as well. The doorway was maybe 4 feet away, and the room ahead must have been at least 4 times as large as this room, which isn't too big.

The figure walked past the doorway, his silhouette blackened by the fire behind him. Twilight turned over again. There was something she didn't notice before. There was a window, with some minor frost lining it. It was dark out, not as much moonlight as before, practically none. The ground is littered with more snow and glistens in the remaining light. The road is so far away, it looks almost calm in the remaining light.

She turns back over. The character she saw before, is standing a little outside the doorway, leaning against it. Twilight is too exhausted to say anything.

“You're awake I see!” The figure says happily. It's a male voice, deep, and toned.

Twilight says nothing in response.

“Well uh... hate to sound rude but, what exactly are you? I don't think I've ever seen anything like you before, just a little curious is all.” He says it plainly, but happily to, making it sound like he is indeed genuinely curious.

Twilight says nothing, though she'd like to, if she had the energy to. Her foolish running had finally caught up with her, and it caught up fast and hard.

“OH, THAT'S RIGHT! You need food! Stupid, I should have thought of that immediately...” He says as he turns back around walking out of sight behind the doorway. “I apologize, you see, I'm not really used to guests around here. I've been living out here in the woods, on my own, for about... 3 months now? Made myself a cabin over time, slept here, made it comfortable. The people who HAVE seen it are shocked none of it's bought! Imagine that!” Now that he's had a chance to speak more, his accent comes out. It's British, not extremely heavy, but awfully present. Plenty of key words he says he accents, and adds a dip in the pitch, like a trumpet. He continues to talk, as pots and pans clank around out of sight. “You see, I'm a musician of sorts, I write acoustic songs, using my guitar and laptop. I lied a bit before, I do actually have some things bought, like my laptop, guitar, a little generator, satellite cell phone, pots and pans, and gasoline, for my car. I mean, I'm not going to live here alone with zero connection to the outside world now, am I?” More clangs emit from behind the wall. “Oh, by the way, you seem to be clever, of sorts that is, not to any offense, I've only just met that is, but uh... I'm guessing you have no idea who I might be? I mean, you're not really wearing any clothes now are you! But ehmm.... Well, if you have come in contact with a handy little device like a cell phone then I'm sure you've heard of Instagram? I'll assume not, allow me to explain. It's a little teenage phenominon where you can take a picture, and upload it as if you were updating your personal life! Fancy, right? And well, you see, I decided to put a project call 'Project Castaway' where I live out in the woods and do my thing, but in doing so, I end up challenging people to go out and do the same! So far it's really worked to! People are listening to my music, and my songs act like a journal of sorts for my life here. Well I'm boring you, I'll be right over, just finishing up here. I hope you like rabbit!” Those last words echoed in Twilights ear.

Rabbit.... rabbit... rabbit... o dear...

In Twilights head, Fluttershy appeared, crying as she watched Twilight eat Angel.

“AHH” Twilight yelled.

“AHHH?” the man yelled in response, “What's the matter? Don't like rabbit? Or something in the bed?”

“Is that?! MEAT!?” yells Twilight in horror.

“Yea? What’s the matter? Little protein never hurt anyone! Well, except the little rabbit of course!”

“Not helping!” Twilight yells at him.

“Well calm down anyhoo it’s not as if food like this grows on trees!” the character says as he walks over to the bed and places the plate on Twilights lap. Twilights mouth is tight shut, and her eyes glare down at the food with disgust and curiosity. The character walk back out quietly mumbling to himself, he returns quickly with a bright candle and places it right on the night stand. His figure is finally illuminated. His face is thin and gaunt, his nose long and his mouth thin. His hair is shaggy and black, his eyes a vibrant green, and his body thin and an average height. He looks at Twilight concernedly and opens his mouth.

“Well, that’s dinner, and that’s what we got so go on and nosh down on it.” He looks at the food and back to Twilight. Twilight looks at him defeatedly, like the sparks out of her eyes. “Oh what’s the matter now? Fire in your heart run out?” she still looks at him the same way, but this time takes a breath in and starts to speak. Little tears growing in her eyes.

“You look nothing like me...”

“O dear… Well I would ask the same thing… you see, uhmm… I don’t really know what you eh… are either. Well, I’m a human… and you appear to possess some almost equine traits. I’m not quite sure how else to put it… Uhm… well, perhaps you’re some government experiment? I’m not too sure…”

“I’m not some experiment!” Twilight says angrily, the man takes one step back. “I’m a girl! And, and… and this is… wherever this is! I don’t know!” She says tears streaming down her face now. “I’m not an experiment…”

“Well dear… I don’t know what else you are… forgive my rudeness… besides that, eat up, I’ll drive us into town tomorrow, and we’ll figure out everything, alright?” He says calmly, without any of his usual humor in his voice. “we’ll figure this out just fine.”

Twilight looks back down at her plate, and retracts her head a bit, she looks back at the man. “How do you not know anything? At all… about me… I can’t be the only one…”

“Well dear… I utilize social networks for bringing my music out there, and delivering my little blogs here and there, but I actively avoided the world for a while… and I really haven’t been online in say… a month perhaps! Sorry dear. But you know what, I can still go look it up, give me a second, I’ll get my phone over here.” He says calmly.

“Wait.”

“Hmm? What’s up?”

“What’s your name? How old are you?”

“George Wellis! 18 years of age in 5 weeks! Most people expect something like 24 or 35 when they hear my little story! Well I’m originally from London you see, but I made a move to America! Here I’m doing my personal studies of music and nature! It’s a transcendentalist sort of deal. You see I had finished my required schooling at 17, and my music was already doing great, so by the time my schooling had ended I had enough cash to do something like this! And my career only got better! Talking to much, I apologize. What’s your name?” he says in one big breath.

“My name’s Twilight Sparkle.”

“Twilight, huh… pretty name, mind I just call you that?”

“Uhh, no of course. But umm… this food… meat?” Twilight says.

“Well, I figure you’ve eaten it before to have teeth like mine! Are you a Vegan?”

“Vegan? Oh, like only veggies, I guess, yes…”

“Well… if you’re anything like me, you need protein and probably like it to! Give it a shot! There’s some lettuce there to, I cheated a bit and stashed a lot of it before I came out here!”

Twilight looks back down at the plate, and takes the knife and fork in hand. She looks out the door again. She watches George walk to the arm chair in the other room, and pick up a little rectangular device that shines a white light, which he fiddles with. Twilight looks back down, and reluctantly stabs the meat with the fork. She screams as she does it. George shoots out of his chair and runs over.

“Everything alright!? What happened?” He looks and sees Twilight covering her face with her hands looking away from the food. “Goodness, it’s already dead may as well not let that death be in vain! Here, let me cut it for ya, then you can eat it.” He sits down on the edge of the bed and begins to cut. Twilight observes him, looking at his attire. He’s wearing a red flannel and some blue jeans, slim and worn.

Twilight opens her mouth and asks him something. “Why do you wear clothing?”

George jerks a bit, but resumes cutting the meat. “Well uh… I don’t have fur nor do I necessarily want to go around starch naked wherever I go. Speaking of which, I’ll get you some of my clothes for tomorrow when we head out to town.”

George sits back up and gestures to Twilights food. “Well, there ya go, eat up, I’ll go do some digging.”

Twilight looks back down at her food. It’s all cut neatly into little squares, little rabbit squares… She takes her fork in hand, and slowly approaches the food. Her fork reaches the meat, and as she presses in, the meat molds around the metal, until the fork pops into the flesh and sinks into the meat with ease. Repulsed, Twilight lets it sit there for a bit, until she raises her fork, and the little rabbit square with it. She brings it closer to her mouth, and stares at it for a bit.

“Staring at it won’t put it in your belly! Plop it right into your mouth!” George yells from his armchair.

Twilight looks over her brow crossed, George is there snickering lightly. Twilight turns back to the food, and closes her eyes. She opens her mouth and plops it in. Her entire figure stiffens and all her hair rises up as her eyes widen and her pupils shrink.

“Go on! Chew!” George taunts.

Twilight stiffly looks over to him, and then slams her eyes shut as she grinds her teeth against the meat. Her shoulders rise as she goes to chew again. Slowly as her chewing continues she loosens up.

“Come on mate… swallow.”

Twilight opens her eyes, pupils as small as ever, and she swallows. As she does she shakes with disgust.

“Goodness it’s not that bad now, it is?” George says.

“But it’s meat!” Twilight says defensively.

“Well, wasn’t it tasty?” George asks.

“I-I, uh… a little…” She says in disgust of her own words.

“Heheh, knew you’d like it.” George says. “Well, why don’t you finish that off, and we’ll get a start tomorrow once you wake up, I’ve learned quite a bit, but I’m going to keep digging. You can stay there, I’m plenty happy with my armchair. Put the plate on the night stand and put out the candle when you’re ready for some sleep. I’ll see you in the morning!”

Twilight looks back down at her food. It’s cut for her, cooked for her, she has a bed to sleep in, a roof over her head. And company… I have all this… just out the kindness of some strangers heart… I was alone… walking away from anything… and out of sheer chance I came across the nicest soul… tears built in her eyes, and a smile spread across her face. She wiped the tears away. He never even asked for a ‘thank you’ either.

“George.”

“Hmm? What is it, Twilight.”

“Thank you.”

George smiled, and nodded before looking back to the fire. Twilight returned to food.

She finished it rather quickly, and set it aside the nightstand, and blew out the candle.

Eyes Wide Open

Rays of golden light pierce the icy windows of the cabin, and bake Twilights now soft cheek. She stirs and turns over, there’s a little brush and comb with some purple and violet hair in it.

“I’m sorry dear, I hope you don’t mind… perhaps it was a little invasive, but I had noticed that you in fact are quite gritty and dirty, so I took the liberty of brushing off the dirt from your head and neck! Personally, I always hated it when my hair was all knotty! It’s a miracle you stayed asleep while I was un-knotting your hair!” George says, speaking with concern, and hint of guilt.

“You, you brushed my hair?” Twilight says, a little taken a back.

“I’m sorry, I should’ve waited until you were awake, I do apologize… please forgive me for that little invasion.” He says with guilt and shame.

Twilight lifts a hand up, and strokes her cheek, it’s as soft as silk. Her hands glide down do her neck, her fur clean and uniform. She raises her other hand to her hair, and sits up a little. She glides her hand up her forehead and runs her hand through her hair, it’s just as silken as her fur, her hands glide through her hair like a soft wave gliding past your legs.

“Thank you, it’s wonderful.” Twilight ways softly, still feeling the tangible beauty of her hair.

George carefully stares at Twilight as she runs her hands through her hair. He softly smiles. His thin lips tilt skywards in a grin, glad to see Twilight so happy.

“Can you…” Twilight considers for a moment if what she’s about to ask is acceptable, but after little thought, she determines it can’t be a wrong move, “can you… do the rest of me?”

These words echo in Twilights head, Georges eyes widen, and his lips now spread straight across his face, no longer a look of happiness and relief, but of semi-awkwardness. But as soon as the look came, he smiles again.

He slowly and rather gracefully gets out of his armchair, and walks over to Twilight. Twilight pulls the covers down, and swings her legs over the edge of the little bed, revealing herself to him. The golden light from the new sun beams down on her back.

“You’re glowing…” George says softly, in awe of this beauty. “The sun I mean… it’s… it’s making you glow…” He tries to recover his brutally honest comment. “You’re beautiful…” These words exit his mouth like the rays of light enter the cabin, as gently as possible. Twilight blushes, and stares into his green eyes.

George gets on his knees, grabs the brush, and inches towards Twilights legs. He reaches his hand behind her calve, and gently lifts up, placing the brush carefully on the end of her knee. He stares up at Twilight, she blushes again, but doesn’t break eye contact. George smiles, and then looks back down to her legs. He pushes the brush down against her legs, and strokes downwards, gently aligning her fur. He repeats this process five times for each leg, all around it.

His expression is one of gentle focus, so in sync with his actions that he has no need for anything else in the world. Twilight reaches a hand down, without quite knowing it, and runs the tips of her fingers through the perky ends of his long black hair, it feels just as silken as hers. She lifts her hand back to the bed, and looks down at her legs, becoming more and more silken as his hands work her fur clean.

George softly speaks, “I’ve learned quite a bit about you, about your ‘kind’ I would say… I was up all night reading about it, quite fascinating really.” His voice is soft and has none of its usual comedic ‘rise-and-fall’ swing to it. It’s almost enchanting, to hear him speak without his mask of sass and laughter, just listening to him replace that flare with vocal passion.

“You’re from a place called Equestria, in case you can’t remember,” George says calmly, “There are many more, really only in populated areas, primarily first-world countries. Not sure why… There’s been a lot of hype over you folks. So no fear, apparently you’re nothing out-of-the-ordinary. There’s quite a lot of new coverage as I’m sure you can imagine. Most of you come down to us in lightning strikes, which would explain the crack I heard yesterday.”

Twilight says nothing, she’s not sure what to say. Her eyes speak volume however, and George picks it up rather quickly.

“I can’t begin to imagine how this all feels… I’m not sure why you’re here… but you’re here, and that’s okay. You’re in good hands, this is a good country to fall into, we’ll figure this all out. Don’t worry.” George says as his brush raises up to Twilights thighs.

Twilights lips quake, and her pupils shrink, tears trembling in her eyes. George looks up, and sees her face, defeated and depressed. He climbs up next to Twilight, and holds his arms around her, pulling her close to him. He smells of the ash of the fireplace by the armchair.

“Oh sweety, it’s okay… shh it’s alright.” George says comfortingly. “Everything’s going to be okay…”

Twilights eyes give way, and the tears she’s been repressing, the fears, worries, and questions all come out of her in this sorrow. She buries her head in Georges shoulder, it seems fitting, and she feels safe with him, after all he’s done. George rests his head gently against hers, closing his eyes.

He begins to hum.

Twilight stops crying, the beauty of the gorgeous complexity his melody brings is overwhelming peaceful. She sniffles, holding the tears back, and pulls her head closer to his chest, feeling his lungs power this beautiful song. She hears his heartbeat, perfectly in sync with his hum. She holds him tighter. George keeps humming.

“It’s okay darling, it’s alright…” the next words exit his mouth without his knowing,

“I’m here…”

--{!}--

I open my eyes, I can feel Rainbows warm, steady breathe against my neck. She’s still in her dress, there’s a blanket over us… Mrs. Harem must’ve draped it over us last night. I can’t remember last night all that well. I remember crying… I don’t know why though… stress? Not really my style to cry though… Personally I just hold it in… I don’t want to burden anyone with anything…

Rainbows starting to stir, I should probably let her rest. The summer air is wonderful, which is ironic considering the recent news of turmoil on the edge of my world… I look at Rainbow… Why on earth are all these anthros being teleported here? Why aren’t they back home, fighting for their land, and families!? That’s how it is here… I wonder… So much of their lives are built off of happiness and love… I don’ think they’ve ever truly seen such violence in their lives… would they just fall and die in a war? But then… Well actually… that would explain why it’s primarily teenagers and kids here… the rest of the population must be fighting… or rather… dying…

Rainbows eyes open, slightly, she smiles as she sees me, she kisses my cheek and nuzzles her head on my chest, closing her eyes again.

Why are the Changelings and Griffons battling Celestia? Celestia and Luna commanded the Sun and Moon… but… how can just two people do that!? Isn’t that… I dunno… a little stupid? Like, surely they must’ve messed up sometimes… maybe that’s why, perhaps… oh wait… if the Equestrians control it… Then that means that they can affect the harvest of the entire planet… maybe… Maybe they use it as a weapon… That must be why… Still, it’s terrible to not try to settle the matter diplomatically, but perhaps the other species feel there’s not much use in diplomacy…

I look up, Discord is standing over me. “HELLO KIT-KAT! Oh wait! She’s sleeping! Isn’t that sweet, perhaps a little louder this time? Hmm?” he takes in a big breathe, “HELLOOOO KIT-KAT!!!!!”

Rainbow shoots right up and I get up to, “What do you want, Discord!?” I say angrily.

“Nothing, just dropping by!” He smiles. I shoot him a look of anger, “alright, alright! Celestia wants me to come here to let you know that I’m now being pledged to protect you.” What? Discord, pledged to protect me? Why?

I stare at him, he now has a bandage over the wounds on his face.

“Why are you protecting us?” I say pronouncedly.

“Because Kit-Kat, if war is a reality we may face here, in your world, we want you alive.” Discord says plainly.

Still doesn’t answer my question… Why!?

“I must go, I have important matters to attend to, and apparently I botched up a teleportation job… not sure who… and not sure where… so I must get to work figuring out where this little hiccups landed… Anyhoof! Good morning and goodbye!” Discord pops into nothingness again.

“Kit, why do you think he’s been told to protect you… I mean… It’s not like it’s out of the goodness of his heart… I mean… he’s been ordered to…” Rainbow says concernedly.

Discord pops right back to where he left, “Hello love-birds! Just in case you were wondering, I am in fact still protecting you, even when I’m gone, I’ll be dedicating some of my magic to that. Oh, and before I go, Kit, get practicing, you can do it, you just need practice…”

“What?” I say, but Discords already gone.

“Kit, what’s he talking about?” Rainbow says curiously.

I don’t reply, I just hold her hand. I think… he wants me to learn magic…

“magic…” I say quietly… “He wants me to learn magic… I don’t know why though…”

“Kit… maybe… it’s because you’ve learned so much about us… you probably know more than anyone else does about us.” Rainbow says, as if she has the answers.

“Why do I have to get involved in this!” I snap. Rainbow lets go of my hand and looks at me a little repulsed.

“What the matter with you?! What’s happened, why are you yelling!” Rainbow retorts.

“I don’t want this!!! I don’t want war, I don’t want to practice, I don’t want any of this!” I shout.

Rainbow stares at me… shock in her eyes. I realize what I’ve said… I look down at her hands, they’re shaking…

“Rainbow… I-“ but before I can finish my sentence she’s flown off. “Shit… you’ve done it Kit…”

I see her flying off… I need to go to her… I didn’t really mean any of that… I’m just scared. Discords being all cryptic, war could very well be coming, and now I have to learn to become some wizard… undoubtedly to fight for the Equestrians… or perhaps just to be able to defend myself… and Rainbow… fuck… I let my head get to hot… this hasn’t happened in a while. I run towards the edge of the roof. I feel my heart drop as I see her flying away… I have to fix this… I’m good at fixing things, right? Let’s hope so…

I think back to what Discord said… About practicing… Rainbows flying away, I need to catch her… I back up a bit and crouch, gearing myself to run for her. For her, I’m going to go to her, I have to prove myself to her, prove that I’m for her. I run.

My hearts hope fades as I take the last few lunges towards the edge. I see Discords eyes flash before mine, and I jump. I feel the wind against my face as I fall, I keep falling.

This is it.

What the fuck was I thinking…

I feel hands holding me up, and wind against my face as I’m propelled forwards.

“You are really as dumb as you look Kit, I hope you know that…” Discord says gruffly.

“I-I’m sorry, thank you, I don’t know what I was thinking…” I say.

“Well I do.” Discord says, as he speeds up racing towards Rainbow. “Do as I say, a lot of magic is really weird, not how you’d expect, don’t trust yourself, trust that if you don’t succeed, you will die. There’s a difference, one is arrogance, one is motivation. Now on three, you fly… one…”

“Discord, wait…” I say.

“Two.”

“Discord!”

“THREE!”

Discord throws me forwards, I raise my arms, and see the ground beneath me closing in, then I see Rainbows tail… and I see her, when she first took flight here, off the roof, leaping into new world.

In one swift burst I feel my body rise, without aid, and I rocket towards her. Within moments I’m alongside her, she wasn’t flying very fast thankfully.

“Rainbow! Please! Land! I can’t do this much longer!” It’s true, I’m nearly completely exhausted. Rainbow looks to me in disbelief, she yells to me.

“How are you doing that!?”

“I’m practicing!” I yell back, “I’m sorry, I’m truly really sorry, I wasn’t thinking, I was scared, this is so much, it wasn’t fair of me still though! To allow myself to become self-centered when it’s your life that’s been taken away from you!”

“It’s okay! I forgive you!” Rainbow replies.

“Really?! Why?!”

“Because you gave it back to me!” She says as a few tears stream behind her.

I reach my hand out and hold hers. I begin to fail in keeping my flight, but Rainbow notices and helps me back down. Once back on the ground, we embrace.

“Kit…”

“Yes Rainbow.”

“Promise you’ll talk to me, about everything, about you.”

These words echo in my head a bit… I’ve always neglected myself… I know this… but now… I have someone who cares about me, and they want to be there… even though they have it worse… they want to be here…

“I promise.”

“Thank you, I love you.”

This echos even longer… “I love you”, those words fill my heart and head with a feeling of weightlessness that I can’t begin to explain. It feels so right. Love feels so right. I pull her closer.

“I love you too.”