Running from the Past

Lloyd slowly opened his eyes to the room light. As his eyes readjusted to the sudden burst of light, he realized he was inside of the hospital. Upon further inspection, he realized he was on a hospital bed. He quickly got up and streched, thinking he must have been there for at least 4 hours. He heard someone coming, and the door came open.

"Ah, hello, you must be Lloyd." A red-haired nurse said.

"Yes, but how long have I been out?" Lloyd asked.

"About 6 hours, you must've gotten hit pretty hard."

"Yeah, anyways, what's your name?" Lloyd asked.

"I'm Nurse Redheart."

"Nice to meet you, Nurse Redheart." Quickly, the door burst open.

"Oh my gosh, are you okay?" A familiar cyan pegasus asked.

"I'm fine, Rainbow."

"Good, 'cause when they didn't let me see you, I was worried." Rainbow Dash said.

"It's fine, Rainbow, really..." Lloyd said.

"Thanks for taking care of him, Nurse Redheart!" Redheart simply nodded. Rainbow quickly left the hospital, Lloyd in tow.

"Rainbow, what were you doing flying at practically five billion miles an hour in the middle of town?" Lloyd asked.

"I mean, you must've been flying pretty fast if you knocked me out cold for 6 hours."

"I was uh- practicing, yeah, practicing that's what I was doing." Rainbow blushed and quickly looked in the opposite direction. *That's odd.....* It was about 9:00, everypony was inside of their house, probably getting ready for bed.

"Thanks for taking me to the hospital, Rainbow, I know it probably wasn't easy hauling around a person such as myself." Lloyd said.

"It wasn't a problem Lloyd, we were close to the hospital anyways, so it only took about 7 minutes maximum."

"Well anyways, thanks for looking after me, I appreciate it." Lloyd said.

"That's what friends are for." Rainbow said.

After walking for what seemed like 20 minutes, the two of them quickly reached the library. Just as Lloyd was about to go through the door, Rainbow asked him something.

"Hey Lloyd?"

"Yeah, Dash?"

"I was wondering if you wanted to hang out sometime?" Rainbow asked nervously. This wasn't the Rainbow Dash that Lloyd knew. Everyone, including Lloyd, thought that she was a brash daredevil, and was loyal to her friends, always. Sure, that was true, but Lloyd doubted that anyone had ever heard her ask something in a tone similiar to Fluttershy's.

"Uh, sure Dash." Lloyd replied nonchilantly.

"Great! I'll be waiting, just find me in town around 12:00!" Rainbow joyfully exclaimed.

"Well, goodnight, Rainbow." Lloyd nervously replied.

"Yeah, goodnight Lloyd!" Rainbow quickly flew away.

Lloyd then shut the door, walking up to his room. Twilight walked out of bedroom, realizing that Lloyd had just come home.

"Where were you, Lloyd?" She asked in an angry tone.

"Relax, I was just in the hospital."

"THE HOSPITAL?!?" Twilight yelled.

"Yes Twilight, the hospital, you see, Rainbow knocked me out cold after she flew into while I was walking into town."

"RAINBOW DASH?" Twilight was screaming now, you could hear her anger.

"Twilight, calm down, it was a complete accident." *Sure seems like she cares about you, buddy.*

"Shut up, brain." Lloyd muttered to himself. After Twilight calmed down, Lloyd told her he was going to go to bed.

"Gonna hit the hay, Twilight!"

"Alright then, Lloyd, goodnight!"

"Night, Twi."

Lloyd dropped onto the bed like a rock. It only took a few minutes for Lloyd to go to sleep. *Man, I'm beat bro, goodnight.*

"Goodnight, brain." Lloyd whispered as he drifted off into a peaceful sleep.

Lloyd was dirfting through Ponyville, although it was filled with snow. Nopony was outside, there were no lights either. He kept walking, and then saw something that struck him as odd. He saw another humanoid figure, although it was black. As he got closer, he realized that the...thing had tendrils coming out of the sides of its arms. It wore a hood to cover its features.

"Hello?" Lloyd asked. Slowly, the creature turned around, and what Lloyd saw was quite twisted. The creature's face was very pale, with large, white eyes without iris or pupils. It then opened it's mouth, and had many large, needle-like teeth. The creature then let loose an ear-splitting scream, causing Lloyd to wake back up, sweating.

"WTF WAS THAT?!" Lloyd yelled as he woke up. Luckily for him, Twilight was still asleep. Lloyd began trying to decypher the vision. *What could it mean? Am I going insane?* These were only a few of the thoughts racing through his head. He decided to worry about it in the morning, and decided to go back to bed.

"Whatever, I'll ask someone about it tomorrow." He drifted off.

Lloyd woke up at about 9:00. He had about two and a half hours to get ready before Rainbow Dash came. He quickly took a shower, and got dressed. He walked downstairs, to find Twilight making breakfast for herself.

"Morning, Twi."

"Good morning, Lloyd." Twilight replied.

"You sleep well?"

"Nah, I had some sort of nightmare." Lloyd replied in somewhat of a nervous tone.

"Really? Tell me all about it!" *Damn, I knew telling Twilight so soon wasn't the best idea.*

"Whatever, its fine Twilight, I'll tell you later." Twilight quickly frowned.

"Alright, fine." After a few seconds of awkward silence, Lloyd asked,

"Soooo, what's for breakfast, Twi?"

"Salad, some apples too." Twilight replied with a sigh.

"Listen Twilight, I'm sorry, I'm just not in the mood to talk, the nightmare was a bit- unnerving, to say the least."

"I understand, Lloyd." Twilight replied, with a hint of sadness in her voice. *Damn, Twilight must be quite eager to "study" me if she really wants to know about that dream so badly.*

"Besides, you're gonna tell me later today, right?"

"Of course, Twilight." Lloyd said with a bit of a chuckle.

After finishing breakfast and thanking Twilight for it, he went to go read a book.

"Hey Twilight, you mind if I read a book?" Lloyd asked.

"Yeah, go ahead, just put it back when you're done." After reading a bit of the history of Equestria (It honestly didn't take very long) Lloyd put the book back.

"You like books, Lloyd?" Twilight asked.

"Yeah, I always found them to be some sort of escape from reality, to be in a land I really am not, you know?" Twilight nodded.

"Yes, I feel very much the same way." After waiting around for about ten minutes or so, Lloyd thought it was about time to go outside.

"Hey Twilight, I'm gonna go outside."

"Wait, you don't-" Lloyd interrupted. "Oh yeah, Rainbow asked me if I wanted to hang out with her yesterday."

"Alright fine, don't be gone too long." Twilight said in a cautious voice.

"Once again, thanks mum." Lloyd said, laughing at his own joke as he left the house.

He quickly found Rainbow waiting for him right outside of the house.

"I was just about to knock." Rainbow Dash said.

"Yeah well, I beat ya to it."

"Let's go, this is gonna be fun." Lloyd and Dash then walked all around Ponyville, and visited many places. After visiting places like Sweet Apple Acres and the Town Hall, they went to Sugarcube Corner, where they found Pinkie Pie cooking some cupcakes.

"Hey Pinkie, how are you doing?" Lloyd asked. Pinkie got up from behind the corner, along with a mouthful of cupcakes.

"Mrrpph, mrrpph,mrrrrph."

"I'm sorry Pinkie, I didn't quite catch that..." Lloyd replied, Dash giggling at his joke. Pinkie devoured the mouthful of cupcakes in one gulp and then let out a large burp.

"Wow Pinkie, that must be a record!" Dash exclaimed.

"Meh, I've seen better." Lloyd said. He was quickly met with a hoof to the arm.

"Alright, alright, that was pretty good, Pinkie."

"So, what do you two want?" Pinkie asked.

"Actually, we were just-" Rainbow tryed to explain before Lloyd interrupted.

"I wanted to try one of your cupcakes, Pinkie."

"Alrighty then!" After waiting for only a few seconds, Pinkie pulled out a cupcake from under a counter, with pink frosting that matched her mane.

"Looks delicous Pinkie, hang on...." Just as Lloyd was about to pull out the bits that Celestia had given him, Pinkie interrupted.

"Free of charge, Lloyd." Pinkie quickly said in an upbeat tone.

"Oh, okay, thanks a bunch, Pinkie!" Lloyd quickly smiled and took the cupcake.

"Oh, and Lloyd?"

"Yes, Pinkie?" Lloyd asked suspicously.

"The welcome party is tomorrow night, I hope you come!"

"Don't worry Pinkie, I'll be there." Lloyd replied nonchillantly.

"Yay!" Pinkie quickly said.

"Bye, Pinkie."

"Goodbye Lloyd!"

As they walked out of the door, Lloyd decided to take a bite out of the cupcake. Quickly, he stumbled, unprepared for the rush of sugar that so suddenly entered his blood stream. From his perspective, everything was in slow-motion. He quickly had a sugar crash a few seconds after, hitting the ground like a rock.

"Helllloooo? Are you dead or somethin'? Rainbow Dash was right over his face, looking straight at him. *Little too close for comfort there, Rainbow...*

"What, yeah, I'm fine." Lloyd replied as he got up.

"What happened there?" Rainbow asked.

"Humans aren't exactly used to having that much sugar come from a little bite of a cupcake."

"Oh, ok....are you sure you're ok?" Rainbow asked nervously.

"Yeah, I'm fine, no problem." Lloyd replied as he stumbled. Dash quickly held onto his arm.

"Doesn't seem like it." Rainbow said cautiously. Lloyd then regained his balance and walked a few steps.

"See, I'm fine...." Just as Lloyd spoke, he slammed right into a wall. Facefirst, poor guy.

"Oh god, my face...." Lloyd said. He put both of his hands on his face and layed there on the ground, after he removed his hands, he saw Dash staring right into his eyes, a second time. *If anything, I should be the one staring, I mean, look at her magenta eyes!*

"Uhhh, hello?" This time Lloyd was asking the question. After a few seconds, Rainbow quickly snapped out of her trance.

"What, huh? Didn't quite catch ya..."

"Rainbow, is it something with my eyes?" Lloyd asked. You see, Lloyd had a very odd eye color. The area closer to the pupils were brown, to green, to blue. Fortunately, people didnt really see this from a distance, but when people were within a few inches of his face, they would usually stare at him. It was kind of annoying, to say the least.

"Whatever, it doesn't matter. I think it's time I go home, Dash."

"What, but it's only-" Rainbow quickly looked up, it looked like it was 4:30.

"Awww, do ya really have to go? Let's hang out a little longer!"

"Sorry Dash, I am just exhausted, I really am." Lloyd replied with a sigh. After a few seconds, Rainbow started to develop tears in her eyes. Just as Rainbow was about to cry, Lloyd quickly gripped her in a hug.

"Wha-" Rainbow asked before she decided to just not talk.

"Sshhh, don't cry, don't cry." Lloyd said in a caring voice. After about 5 seconds, Dash quickly broke the hug.

"You okay, Dash?"

"Yeah, I'm fine." Just as Rainbow was about to fly away, Lloyd quickly grabbed her arm.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to hurt your feelings Dash, I really didn't mean to."

"It's okay, Lloyd." Rainbow Dash replied quickly before flying away, but as she flew and Lloyd watched her, she smiled at him. Both of them then parted ways, going back to where either of them lived. *Time to go back home.*