Chapter Two: A Rainbow in the Dark

Anthropomorphism

Chapter Two: A Rainbow In the Dark

You were woken up from your dreamless sleep by the sound of classical music. Yawning and rubbing your eyes, you turned and looked at the your alarm clock. 10:00am.

You wondered what time you ended up falling asleep last night, as it was excruciatingly difficult to keep your eyes open.

Sighing, you turned off your alarm clock and got ready for the day. Thirty minutes later, you had showered and gotten dressed, throwing on the first clothes that you dug out of your drawers. As you made your way down the stairs, you caught the smell of something delicious.

Waffles!

You followed the scent of freshly made waffles to the dining room. You saw a pile of the delicious batter cakes stacked atop of one another in the center of the table, along with maple syrup, whipping cream, strawberries, and every other topping imaginable. Your father was sitting at the table, an untouched plate of food in front of him, engrossed as he was by the newspaper that he held.

"Good morning, son," he said without looking up.

"'Morning, dad," you replied. "What's so intriguing in the 'Canterlot Times'?"

Your dad sighed and said, "Nothing that would interest you, kiddo." He folded the newspaper and pushed it to the side. He looked at you and smiled. "You look like a hungry Diamond Dog. Sit down and eat!"

Smirking, you sat down and loaded your plate with the greatest food known to ponykind. In-between mouthfuls, you asked, "Where's mom?"

"You just missed her. She went down into Ponyville around half an hour ago," your father replied as he started on his own plate. "Are you really going to go out dressed like that?" he asked.

You looked down at yourself. You were wearing blue jeans, a white T-shirt, and a black blazer. "What's wrong with it?" you asked, genuinely confused.

You father shook his head and grinned. "Never mind. Changing topics, I forgot to ask you last night: did you meet any of your future classmates?"

"Yes," you said, purposefully evading a more detailed answer.

Your father raised an eyebrow. "And?"

Grumbling, you said, "I only met four of them, yet I already know that school is going to interesting, to say the least."

Your dad laughed at that, but didn't ask for any more information, of which you were grateful for. The rest of your breakfast was eaten in silence which was only broken when your dad's cell phone started ringing.

Your father looked at the number and frowned. "Sorry kiddo," he said. "I've got to take this one. Say hi to your mother if you see her!"

"I will!" you called as your dad walked away, his phone against his ear. After you finished your breakfast alone, you trudged back up the stairs to your room. You grabbed your wallet and keys. You eyed your phone, wondering if you were actually going to need it. After a quick deliberation, you decided to bring it, thinking it was better to have and not need it rather than need it and not have it.

With your stuff placed in various pockets, you left your house and started to walk down the gravel driveway to Ponyville. As you walked, you thought about the four ponies you already met.

The baker pony—Pinkie, you remembered—confused you greatly with her actions. It seemed like she only reacted the way she did when she recognized something about you. You decided to unravel that mystery later.

Your thoughts turned slightly darker as you thought about the other pony, Rainbow Dash. You didn't like it when ponies had fights—whether verbal or physical—and argument between Rainbow Dash and Pinkie was of no exception. You wondered what the spat was based upon.

You looked up from your hooves briefly noticed that you were almost at Ponyville. You were glad that two of the ponies you met—Twilight Sparkle and Lyra—were both friendly and normal.

Your musing was interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey! Wait up!" somepony called from behind you. You turned around and were startled to find yourself face-to-face with a  familiar blue pegasus. From the ground up, she was wearing skate shoes, track pants, and a blue zip-up hoodie. She was also wearing a pendant that had a cloud with a multi-coloured lightning bolt coming out of it.

"Dangit!" you exclaimed as you took an involuntary step back, causing the pegasus to laugh.

"I'm sorry, did I scare you?" she managed to say before breaking out into a fit of giggles.

Feeling a bit miffed, you said, "You startled me, that's all."

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say," replied the familiar pony as she forcibly repressed a smile. Her rainbow coloured hair was wet, either from a recent shower or from flying through a cloud.

Wait a second... rainbow hair?!

"You were the one yelling at Pinkie yesterday," you stated simply.

Rainbow Dash's face was impassive, but her wings fluttered nervously from your accusation. "Yeah, but that was only because she wasn't listening to me. Do you know what she was asking me?"

"Something about a sleepover," you replied.

"Exactly! I mean, we're in high school! Way too old to be having sleepovers!"

You thought about that for a moment. "Well, why don't you just tell her that? She seemed almost depressed when I talked to her..."

You saw Rainbow Dash's shoulders and wings droop slightly. "I don't want upset Pinkie..." She shivered and continued. "...Not after last time."

Bringing herself back into the present, Rainbow Dash picked up where she left off. "Pinkie is like a little kid: she's full of energy, doesn't take no for an answer, and is ignorant of the world around her." Rainbow sighed. "She's also my friend, but I don't want any rumours getting around..." she trailed off.

You raised an eyebrow, but didn't say anything. You weren't sure what she meant by 'rumours'.

She brushed some of her mane out of her face. "Sorry. I don't know why I decided to tell you all of that. Those are my problems, not yours." A slightly awkward silence manifested between us before it was broken by Rainbow Dash. "Anyway, the reason I flew over here was to ask if you wanted to hang out."

You blinked a couple of times, your brain not really comprehending what she just said. "You... want to hang out with me?"

Rainbow cocked her head at you. "Why are you so surprised? You seem like a pretty cool guy..."

You laughed. "Aren't we part of two completely different social niches? I'm just an average earth pony, while you're one of the athletic pegasus types."

Dash narrowed her eyes at you. "How do you know I'm an athlete?"

You were going to say 'Because I was looking at your nicely curved flank', but you realized that wouldn't be the wisest thing to say. Instead of saying that and possibly being punched in the face, you put on the best poker face you could and said, "Lucky guess?"

Apparently your poker face worked, as Rainbow Dash grunted an acknowledgement. "Well, that still doesn't explain why you don't want to hang out with me..."

You thought about how to put it into words. "Where I'm from, most of the different types of ponies kept to their own respective factions. Unicorns hung out with unicorns, Pegasi with Pegasi. Being an earth pony, I just kinda stuck to the background, not really associating with any one group over another."

Rainbow Dash nodded, seeming to understand. "I know where you're coming from. You just want to keep your options open and you don't want to be locked in with one particular group, right?"

Surprised by her comprehension, you replied, "Err, yes. That's pretty much it."

She grinned mischievously. "Here in Ponyville, the ponies aren't like that. You can hang out with whoever you want, with no consequences. So, unless you hate my guts, feel like hanging out?"

You were surprised by just how much weight was lifted off of your shoulders after being told that piece of information. Grinning in return, you shrugged and said, "Sure. Why not?"

"Cool! Follow me: I'll show you around town."

As you walked beside Rainbow Dash, you wondered what her ulterior motives were.

Unless, of course, ponies here really were that friendly.

Looking around, you caught a glimpse of the same bright pink building that was unlike any other. “That's the bakery, right?” you asked.

Dash laughed and flew ahead of you, hovering above the ground. “Yep! Pinkie works there after school.”

You thought that the building looked absurd; the walls were the only part of it that gave it any resemblance to a normal building. Looking up, you noticed that the shingles appeared to be made of gingerbread with icing along the outskirts of the roof. Absolutely ridiculous.

“Is this... thing... architecturally safe?” you asked cautiously, thinking that a building with a gingerbread roof would collapse from the first storm of the season.

Rainbow Dash laughed at you. “I doubt it, but none of the pieces have broken off, so I guess it’s sturdy enough. Are you going to stand there all day, or are you going to follow me?”

“Yeah, yeah,” you replied as you tore your eyes from the chaotic structure.

Rainbow Dash had already moved on, passing out of the main town area. “C’mon already!” she called. Swallowing your retort, you continued on.

“If you hadn’t already noticed, this is the park,” said Rainbow Dash as you caught up to her. There were several benches strewn about on a freshly cut expanse of grassy hill. “Little known fact,” whispered Rainbow Dash, almost conspiratorially. “This is one of the best napping spots in Ponyville.”

You briefly glanced around, noting the layer of dew on just about everything that hadn’t yet been burned off by the Sun. “Really? I would’ve never guessed...”

Rolling her eyes at you, Dash flew up into the sky and disappeared into a passing cloud. “Who said anything about sleeping on the ground?” she called down at you.

You were slightly amused by her antics. “In case you haven’t noticed, I’m not a pegasus. In fact, I rather like it down here. On the ground.”

“Be there in a sec!” called Rainbow from above the clouds. You waited for her to fly down, but you didn’t see her. After a minute of waiting, you were getting impatient. You were about to shout at Rainbow Dash, but before you could, you heard her yell, “Incoming!”

A cyan blur made a hole straight through the clouds above you, a rainbow trail following in it’s wake. It took you a second to realize that it was Rainbow Dash with her wings fully outstretched, her body tucked into the streamlined position that Pegasi acrobats and stunt flyers had adopted. And she was coming straight towards you.

You raised your arms instinctively to protect yourself from the inevitable crash. Instead of being hit by a pegasus going at top speed, you were only met with rushing air. Cautiously lowering your arms, you saw Rainbow Dash landing beside you on a flat patch of grass. She shook her wings, causing all the accumulated water droplets to condense into a fine mist around her. The mist cast an ethereal rainbow around Dash’s head. An expectant smile was present on her lips.

You knew that Rainbow Dash was just showing off, but she did it really damn well.

“How the hay did you do that?” you asked in astonishment. “That was awesome!”

Rainbow Dash face flushed slightly from your praise. “Just a trick I learned by accident,” said Rainbow, who was making a visible effort to be humble. It didn’t last long. “Alright, it was pretty awesome, wasn’t it?”

“I’ve never seen anything like it,” you replied honestly. “Is that your signature move?”

Rainbow Dash tossed her now wet hair to the side and folded up her wings. “One of. I'm not a one trick pony! My name isn’t ‘Rainbow Dash’ for nothing!”

Chuckling, you asked, “So, where to next?”

Rainbow Dash thought for a second before answering. “Well, the school’s just down the road, so I’d say there.”

“Sounds good.”

\\\

A short walk later, you and Rainbow came within eyesight of your new high school.

"This is it: Ponyville High School! Whaddaya think?" asked Rainbow Dash as you walked along the sidewalk bordering the school.

"It... well, it looks like a school. Can't say much more without being inside..." you replied.

Dash rolled her eyes at you. "Yeah, yeah. Being a smart-flank is my job, not yours."

"Whatever you say, Dash," you replied as earnestly as you could manage. She glared at you for a few seconds. You returned it with the cheesiest smile you possessed.

"Well... that's pretty much Ponyville in a nutshell of for ya," said Rainbow Dash. "Any questions?"

'Why did you take time out of your Saturday to show the new kid around?' was what you wanted to ask.

Instead, you asked, "Yeah. Where can we go for lunch? I'm starving." Your statement was punctuated by a stomach growling. It took you a second to realize that it came from Rainbow Dash.

"Good call, newbie. Up for some corn dogs and hay fries? I know the best spot..."

"Sounds good, Rainbow," you replied as you followed Dash, who had already started to walk away.

After walking in silence for a few minutes while having the question gnawing on your insides like an angry cockatrice, you finally cracked.

"I've been meaning to ask," you said as you caught up to her, as Rainbow had a rather quick stride. "Why are you doing this?"

Dash gave you the most adorably innocent expression. "Doing what?"

You put your head in your hand. "This!" You motioned with your free hand around you. "Showing me all the hotspots, practically being my tour guide, and now lunch! You don't even know me!"

You saw Rainbow Dash's wings extend and flutter nervously. You wondered what it would be like to have your strong emotions reflected in the state of your wings.

"What? You don't believe me when I said that I thought you were a cool guy?" she asked with a nervous chuckle.

You gave her a bemused look.

"I... I can't tell you why. I promised not to..." admitted Rainbow Dash. "I'd like to tell you, but I just can't." Sighing, she said, "Please don't hate me for dragging you around town..."

You were surprised by this turn of events, so you tapped Rainbow on the shoulder to get her to stop. "I'm not angry, nor do I hate you. I'm just curious as to why you just appeared out of nowhere with the hang out offer. If you don't want to tell me, that's fine."

You'd figure it out... eventually.

She looked at you suspiciously, her shoulders slumped. "Are you sure? I'd be pretty annoyed if someone did what I did to you."

You waved her guilt aside. "I already said it's fine. Now, are you going to just stand there, or are you going to show me where the bloody restaurant is?"

Her posture straightening, Rainbow Dash cracked a smile and continued walking down the sidewalk. You followed with a smile of your own, glad that you didn't scare off your first potential friend.

\\\

Five minutes later, you and Rainbow Dash were sitting in a cozy little booth, awaiting your food. Dash had lead you to an old-fashioned diner called 'The Sticky Wicket'. You didn't know what a 'wicket' was, but you liked the atmosphere of the place.

"So," began Rainbow Dash, knocking you out of your ponderings. "How do ya like Ponyville so far?"

You grinned at her from across the table. "It's... interesting, to say the least. I've only met like, four people here, but it already seems to be a great place to live." You paused for a moment, wondering if you should ask a question that had been bothering you ever since last night. You decided to go through with it.

"When I talked to Pinkie last night, her attitude completely changed when she looked at my face. She seemed... I don't know, excited? Do you have any idea why?"

Rainbow Dash burst out laughing, causing some disapproving stares to be thrown her way from some of the other customers. You nervously mouth 'Sorry' to them. Wiping tears from her eyes, Rainbow Dash managed to say, "Oh... oh my. You are in for a big surprise on Monday!"

"What?! What does that mean?!" you demanded.

"Sorry, can't say. Everypony new has to go through it. It's practically tradition," explained Rainbow Dash as she stifled her laughs.

You groaned. You could already tell that Monday was going to be absolutely stellar.

Your grim future thoughts were interrupted by a waitress approaching your booth holding two plates of food. "Here you go! Two corndogs with a side of hay fries. You kids enjoy!"

"Thank you," you said politely. Not wanting to be outdone, Rainbow Dash said, "Thank you very much." The waitress smiled and walked away, but not before giving you a wink. You weren't sure what that meant, though.

Grumbling to yourself about being unable to understand females, you delved into the food in front of you. Across the table, Rainbow Dash was doing the same. You were going to ask her what was next on the agenda, but before you could, you heard a loud, grating voice yell, "Hey look! It's Rainbow Crash! And she's got a coltfriend!"

You look over at Rainbow Dash who put her head in her hands. "Not them again..." you heard her groan.

"Are they going to be a problem?" you asked quietly.

"They never freakin' leave me alone!" she whispered back to you.

You sighed. Second day here, and you were about to make some enemies that would last much longer. You glanced out of the corner of your eye towards the three Pegasi walking towards your booth from down the aisle. "Who's your coltfriend, Rainbow Crash?" asked the leader of the delinquents.

"He's not my coltfriend! Leave me alone!" Dash responded.

The three Pegasi just stood there, grinning like idiots. You took matters into your own hands.

"I'm going to ask nicely. Go away."

The pegasus on the right, his colour a dull brown and his hair falling over his face, snorted. "We got a tough guy over here. Whaddaya gonna do about it?"

You grinned a smile that wouldn't look out of place on a Timberwolf. Dropping your voice lower so only he would here, you said, "Listen here, you degenerates: I just moved here from a town that wasn't a tenth as nice as this one. Ponies fought each other on a daily business, and ponies got hurt. You got by from sheer reputation and intimidation."

You leaned in closer to add even more weight to your words.

"And I'm not afraid to make an example of you three jokers."

As dull as they were, they were still bright enough to know when to quit. Backing away, the ringleader taunted you as they filed out the door. "Alright, you win this round! You better watch your back, though! Come on, bronies!"

You struggled not to laugh: your ruse had actually worked!

The reprobates piled outside. Shaking your head, you slid back into the booth. You felt a bit uneasy when you noticed that everyone, including Rainbow Dash, was staring at you.

"Umm. Sorry about that, folks. Carry on with what you were doing..." you replied shyly, just a tad embarrassed from all the attention. You heard a few chuckles come from some of the members of your audience which broke the tension that you hadn't realized was there. Everypony in the diner went back to what they were doing before the brief showdown. As you briefly glanced from face to face, you were given nods and smiles.

Had nobody seen a confrontation before? You turned your attention to Rainbow Dash, who was staring at you, her mouth agape.

"Alright, can you please stop that?" you asked. "Why is everypony acting like this?"

Rainbow Dash shook her head in what you assumed to be disbelief. "You... you actually stood up for me..."

You were confused. "I don't understand. I only did what a friend should do."

Her voice grew quiet as she spoke again. "Nobody ever stands up for me. I'm always the one to stand up for somepony else..."

"Well, at least I was here to do the job that nopony else would do, eh?" you said, trying to break Dash out of her stupor. Thankfully, it worked. Pushing the hair out of her eyes, she returned to her plate as you returned to yours.

"...Thanks."

You finished chewing before answering. "Don't mention it. Think of it as the first part in me paying you back for showing me around town."

Rainbow Dash finished her plate before asking, "What's part two?"

Instead of answering, you waved over the waitress that had served you the food. "Cheque, please," you said as she came within hearing distance.

"Will that be cash or credit, young man?"

"Cash," you responded.

The waitress handed you the cheque. After eyeing the total, you pulled out a twenty bit bill and said, "Keep the change."

Giving you another wide smile, the waitress said to you, "Thank you kindly, young man." She turned and addressed Rainbow Dash. "You be nice to him, Rainbow. He's a keeper!" she said before walking away.

Blushing, Rainbow Dash said, "C'mon, let's get out of here. I'm about to die of embarrassment..."

You motioned for her to go first, a grin plastered on your muzzle.

As you both exited the diner and started to walk down the street, you said with a sly smile, "Hey, guess what? Apparently I'm a keeper!"

Rainbow Dash punched you in the arm without looking at you. You struggled to not let out a pained whine; she hit you a lot harder than you were expecting. "Jeez, sorry! I was just kidding..."

Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to respond, but she was interrupted by someone yelling from across the street.

"Darling! How lovely to see you! Who's your new friend?"

Now it was your turn to put your head in your hands. You were starting to think that an ancient deity was screwing with you. "Hi, mom. This is Rainbow Dash," you said as you motioned towards Dash with one of your hands. Rainbow gave a weak wave in reply.

"I'm so glad that you've already made a friend, sweetie!" your mother exclaimed. She was wearing what appeared to be a new dress, but you weren't entirely sure. She had another bag of who-knew-what in her left hand. "Are you going to need a ride home, darling? I can call the li—"

"No-no-no," you replied quickly, cutting off your mother before she could ruin your social life before it had even begun. "I'll be fine with walking."

"Alright then! Bye sweetie!" called your mom as she walked down the sidewalk away from you and Rainbow Dash.

"Goodbye, mother." You pinched the bridge of your nose. That was too close... "Sorry about that," you said to the blue pegasus beside you.

"It's fine." She seemed to think for a moment before smiling. "I just realized that we're now even in embarrassing situations."

"That we are, Rainbow Dash. That we are..." you replied. You shuffled your feet, unsure of where to go from here.  "Err, thanks for showing me around today. You made it a lot less painful than it could have been."

"Thanks for standing up to those jerks at the diner. They've been bothering me ever since I crashed during flight practice. And thanks for... buying me lunch." She said the last sentence quieter than the others.

"It was my pleasure." You scratched the back of your neck. "Sorry, I'm really bad at saying goodbye. So goodbye!" you said as you turned tail and started to walk towards your house.

"Wait! Do you have a phone?" called Dash. You scoffed inwardly. Did you have a phone...

"Yes, I have a phone. Why, does Dashie want my number?" you teased.

She growled at you. Literally growled at you. "Don't make this any harder than it needs to be!"

"That's what she sai—" you started to say, but stopped abruptly when you noticed the death glare that Rainbow Dash was giving you. "Err, never mind. Here, pass me your phone and I'll put my number in."

Rainbow handed you her phone, one of the new 'Cyborg' variants that you've heard about. You entered in your name and number, then handed it back to Rainbow Dash. "Thanks," she said as she tucked the phone back into her hoodie.

"No problem. See you later!" you called as you continued the walk to your house.

\\\

When you arrived at your house, you decided to stay in your bedroom for the rest of the afternoon, only coming out for dinner. Your excuse was that your required socializing was already done for the day. You ended up reading more of the library book that you had rented, along with setting up your gaming console and computer.

"Everything's already unpacked, they said. It's all connected properly, they said," you grumbled agitatedly as you plugged the audio and video input wires into your television. The movers obviously had no technological experience whatsoever.

Your computer was set up even worse. It took you the better part of an hour to reattach the cables into their rightful places and set up the stereo system to your preferences.

You ended up going to bed early, as exhausted as you were from the fit of insomnia that had hit you the previous night. This night, however, you had no trouble falling asleep.

You grimly smiled as you finally obtained vision of your opponent. You had been followed your quarry for what felt like hours through dense foliage and urban wastelands alike. Your patience had finally paid off: your target was unaware that you had its head in your sights.

You quickly glance over at the target's statistics. Over eight-hundred feet away. Seven mile per hour wind coming in from the North-east.

You adjusted your sight to compensate for the drop and wind resistance. You held your breath, feeling your heartbeat pumping through your ears. Exhaling, you said, "'Nighty night, cupcake," as you pulled the trigger.

Your aim was true, the bullet hitting your target right between the eyes. The spray of red mist was accompanied by the shockwave generated by the supersonic round. Your target flew backwards, blood dripping from where its head used to be.

"How the hay do you keep doing that?! There's no way you can have aim that perfect!" screamed Rainbow Dash over the headset, which brought you back to reality. You leaned back into your comfy chair and placed your controller in its designated sleeve on the side of the chair, it's surface coated in sweat from hours of intense gaming.

"Patience, Dash. Patience," you replied. "'Pony Warfare 3' is called a 'tactical shooter' for a reason, y'know. You can't just run around without a sniper putting a bullet in your head from a mile away."

"That's thirteen times in a row! Are you using aimbot or something?"

"No, I'm just a really good sniper. Practice makes perfect," you replied, trying to keep the smugness out of your tone.

You heard a growl come from the headset. "Alright, you have to teach me how to be that good!"

You pushed the microphone away from your mouth and sighed. You weren't even all that good at 'Pony Warfare 3': Rainbow Dash was just really bad at it. Readjusting the microphone, you said, "No promises." You glanced at your watch. 10:12pm. "Sorry Dash, it's getting late. I'm going to go to bed."

"C'mon, one more match! Please!" pleaded Rainbow over the headset.

"That's what you said last match," you replied. "And the match before. I'm putting my hoof down this time. You should go to bed too, Dash. We have school tomorrow, remember?"

You heard a rush of static, which you presumed was Rainbow sighing. "Alright, you got a point. Don't want to miss first block again, I guess. See ya tomorrow!"

"See you at school," you replied as stood up and powered down your X-Station. You disentangled the headset from around your ear and placed it next to your stack of games. You left your bedroom and began the descent to the living room. As you walked down the stairs, you wondered if you did anything productive all day.

Let's see... you woke up at noon, finished the book that Twilight lent you, got a text from Rainbow Dash asking if you had an 'X-Station'... nope, nothing productive at all had been done on this day.

A grin came to your face as you thought a bit more on the topic. Sundays were made for lazing around, right?

"Somepony's in a good mood tonight," your father said. "Excited for school, kiddo?"

Your dad knocked you out of your reverie, making you notice that you were standing in the doorway to the living room. You weren't sure how long you had been standing there for, but you hoped it wasn't for too long. "You could say that," you replied. "I came down to say goodnight. 'Night mom, 'Night dad."

"Goodnight, son."

"Goodnight, sweetie. Have fun at school tomorrow!"

"I will." You hoped.

With the nights salutations given, you ascended the staircase once more, the fluffiness of the carpet warming your otherwise bare feet. You brushed your teeth, grateful for the fact that you had your own bathroom. Wearing nothing but boxer shorts, you crawled into bed. You felt your eyelids grow heavy as you stared at the ceiling, thinking about tomorrow.

As your eyelids closed of their own accord, you inwardly hoped that nothing overly crazy would happen at school tomorrow.