The mad man hadn’t left his apartment in years. He had no need to—he always made arrangements for food and other necessities to be delivered right to his door. It was expensive, but he had his sources; his past was as fruitful as it was tragic.
Today, however, was a special occasion, and the reasons for reentering the world far outweighed those for staying inside. He was closer than ever to everything he had ever wanted—his own little pony.
To watch Rainbow Dash burst down the street on the evening news—it validated an entire lifetime’s worth of work in a single blue rush. How long had the cell phone footage even lasted? Three, four seconds? It mattered not, for those few seconds were all he needed to know that this whole time, while they had ridiculed and laughed at his so-called failures, he was right. He was right, and they were wrong, and they would all pay.
Sneaking into the TV station was easy enough. If you knew how to break a school laptop’s password, you could break a news station just as easily. In the middle of downtown Detroit, the station was bustling, and the journalists, assistants, makeup artists, and camera men ran around; almost none of them noticed the man with the twitching green eyes and the janitor’s uniform lurking about behind a computer.
Changing the words on the teleprompter was easy enough. Everyone was much too busy with their own trains of thought and courses of action to see him typing away at the phone number of animal control, changing the digits insidiously to his own home phone number.
He giggled at the simplicity of it all. “Call this number if y-you have information on the lost p-p-pony” he stammered through his chuckles and uneven breathing, until they burst into an unearthly cackle.
But of course, by that time, he was already out of the news station, limping home on his bad knee, his green eyes unblinking, and the gears in his head malevolently turning.
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Rainbow Dash was zooming through the skies of Equestria, faster than a bullet, towards the hard, rocky ground. The only question was: would she make it fast enough to stop Rarity and the Wonderbolts from falling to their untimely deaths? She didn’t worry. She didn’t think. All she did was fly, soar, dive! An explosion takes place as she breaks the sound barrier, rings of color flying from her! Less than a second before they would have hit the floor, she swoops down and picks them all up, rising to the cloud city once more. Of course, this had all happened so long ago, but her heart still did a back flip as she saw the action right before her on the computer monitor Jerry let her watch from.
The humans knew everything. About Celestia, Luna, Twilight, Applejack—all of them! There was nothing that was hidden. It seemed to all be displayed and archived in these technicolor “episodes”, as they were called. Did it confuse her? Yes. But at this point, watching Fluttershy actually cheer for her, and Twilight and the rest all smiling at her achievements, she was too preoccupied with nostalgia and missing better days to wonder about it. It all seemed so far away, though she had been there just days ago.
Jerry saw Rainbow beam as she watched herself save the day on the monitor. All it took to break her into a smile were a few videos on YouTube of the gals back home. It was obvious to him that she missed them, and how could he blame her? If he was best friends with Twilight Sparkle, or the trustworthy Applejack, or the bubbly Pinkie, he would miss them too. He couldn’t imagine how she must feel. To suddenly be gone from the world that she knew so well, from Equestria no less! Equestria had always looked to him as though it would be such a wonderful utopia. He had dreamt of travelling there himself; away from the mindless violence and away from judging others. The only problems they ever seemed to have were issues on friendship, that were all solved 20 minutes later.
A tear rolled down Rainbow’s cheek, but she wiped it fast as the episode ended. “So…” she croaked, “Are you sure you have no idea how I could have ended up here?”
“I’m sorry, Rainbow.” Jerry sighed. “I honestly have no clue. I mean, Equestria shouldn’t even exist. We had no idea it did in the first place. Everyone always thought that it was just a result of an overactive imagination. I mean, talking ponies?!” He trailed off into laughter, and Rainbow raised an eyebrow, obviously not getting why it was so funny.
He cleared his throat and continued, stifling giggles. “Well, maybe it’s not so weird to you, but to us, it is. If anything, you should be a fictional character. Sorry, but over here, that’s all you are. I mean, you saw the report.”
He had shown her what was said on the news, the footage of her running down the street on her limping leg. It had nearly two million views on YouTube in only a couple of days. The bronies were attacking it left and right, either claiming it was a fake or saying they were packing their bags to Detroit. A couple of them made some immature comments on raping the crap out of Rainbow Dash if they ever did see her: the kind of comments that Jerry would have normally laughed at, given different circumstances.
Rainbow took the fame very well, and as incredibly creepy as she found the rape comments, she took them as compliments. What she didn't take well was the chasing. It was annoying, needing to be trapped in this smelly human’s house, but at least he was treating her right. She lay back on the pillow he put on the ground for her. It wasn’t much, but it beat the cage, and she took it gladly above being back in that dumpster. The swelling in her wing had gone down dramatically, and it no longer throbbed against her back in pain. But it was still very much broken, and for the next few weeks, she should have to do without flying.
Other than that, things were great. Jerry brought her everything she wanted, and this people food wasn’t all that bad. Twinkies were incredible. A sticky golden dough stuffed with sweet whipped cream—it was better than anything she had ever had before. It even beat the sweets that Pinkie made! She had finished about three boxes of them, and just couldn’t get sick of the rich taste. She closed the laptop before her with her hoof, the green bruises on her foreleg almost completely faded.
“Jerry, can you get me some more of that Gate-aid, or whatever it’s called?”
He grinned at her. “Gatorade. And sure. I think we have some left.”
“Thanks.” She lay on her side on the pillow, comfortable against the carpet as he closed the door behind him.
The second the tumblers in the door knob clicked, his smile disappeared. This pony was eating him dry. He had emptied his wallet and pantry for her. There was probably one more bottle of Gatorade left, but he knew that his mom wouldn’t notice they were missing. It’s not like she noticed much of anything.
The house was fairly small and cluttered. He walked down a short staircase to the living-dining-gaming-everything room. His mom was sprawled on the couch, barely breathing. She lay alone in her filthy clothes, and just by looking, Jerry could tell that she hadn’t bathed in what was probably weeks. He knew she needed help, but no where he had applied to had called back, and rehab was expensive. Getting employed was tough for a 17 year old in a city with almost no jobs available. He picked a blanket off the cluttered and stained carpet, laying it over his mother and kissing her forehead. He giggled as he found his old blue teddy bear on the floor amongst the rest of the trash. Blue always was my favorite color, he thought as he tucked the old thing under his mom’s chin. Because no one’s only companion should be a bottle of pills.
He walked over a pile of his little sister’s generic Barbie dolls, their heads popping off and hair falling out. He wondered where she was, figuring she was probably hiding from the cat in some corner somewhere. He entered the kitchen, sighing at the pile of dishes that had built up over the week. Jerry overlooked them and strolled to the fridge, ignoring the smell from the sink.
The fridge was empty, except for a bottle of expired mustard and a bottle of Gatorade. He checked his wallet again, knowing that the only thing in there was a dollar for the bus so he could get to school tomorrow.
“I guess I’m going to walk”, he muttered, making mental plans to buy his little sister a sandwich off the dollar menu at McDonalds for dinner. He then turned around and, avoiding the sad sight of his mom, walked up the stairs.
“Uhhh… Jerry?!!” He heard Rainbow Dash from his room, and rolled his eyes. He had explained to her to keep it down. But then he noticed that his bedroom door was open, and he heard another voice, loud and full of energy. Just like that, he knew what had just happened.
“Rainbow Dash! Oh my gosh! What are you doing here!?” His little sister Sabrina was hugging the pony with a deathly tight grip, smiling and jumping with excitement in her baby-blue eyes. Rainbow was struggling against the little girl, both confused and flattered.
“Sabrina, no!” Jerry lifted his little sister off the befuddled pony, while the little girl smiled and ranted: “JerryohmygoditsRainbowDashIloveRainbowsheisjustsoopretty!”
Overwhelmed, he placed a hand over Sabrina’s mouth, as she continued babbling her excitement.
“Can one girl be any more like Pinkie?” Rainbow giggled a bit at the sight of this big teenaged boy struggling to keep a hold of a girl that had to be no older than five. Finally, he put her down, and moved his hand, while she let out the end of her blabber. “….AND IT’S A PEGASUS, JERRY! OH MY GOODNESS IT’S A PEGASUS! WHY IS HER WING LIKE THAT? IS SHE OKAY?”
“SHUT UP!” He said it loud enough for her to hear, and she fell silent, giggling at the sight of the cyan pony with a rainbow mane in the middle of his brother’s bedroom. “Listen, Sabrina. You can’t tell Mommy about Rainbow Dash, okay? She’s hurt.”
“Why can’t you take her to the doctor?”
“Because the doctors only make medicine for people owies.” He ignored Rainbow’s face as she stifled a giggle at the word “owie” leaving his lips.
“Why can’t you take her to the vet?” Her eyes went wide with curiosity.
He rolled his eyes as he rattled his brains for an answer that would make sense to a five year old. “Well… because…. Uhhhh… the vet ran out of Pegasus medicine.”
“Oh.” She smiled and started petting Rainbow Dash gently. He grinned at his sister. She loved all animals, real or not, and he had gotten her into Greek mythology when she was three. She was one of the only five year olds who knew what a Pegasus was. In fact, they were her favorite animal. He shook his head and chuckled as she started petting the pony a bit too hard and Rainbow’s eyes started to water.
“Uhh, Jerry, get her off me, please.” The pony muttered. He held his little sister’s hand and led to the other side of the room.
“Listen, Sabrina. You can play with Rainbow Dash, but you have to be nice. She doesn’t like petting very much. Also, you can’t tell anyone. Not your friends at school, not your teacher, not Mommy or Stevie, or even Grandma, okay?”
The little girl nodded; her eyes were wide with excitement. A secret was something very hard for a five year old to keep, but he had to trust that she could. After all, it wasn’t like anything could be done now that she seen the pony in the flesh.
He turned to Rainbow Dash. “This isn’t going to work. We need a plan for when I’m not in here. I mean, we can’t just have you here with the door unlocked.”
“Well what do you suggest?” the pony blew a puff of air at her bangs to keep them out of her eyes.
“When I’m not in here, you’ll have to stay in the closet with the door closed. It may not be comfortable, but it’s something. Okay?”
She looked at the small closet and sighed. “I guess.”
He tossed the Gatorade across the room and she fumbled to open it with her hooves. Sabrina watched in wonder. “You like Gatorade?”
“Yep.” The pony gave the girl an endearing smile. The young one really did remind her of Pinkie Pie. “They don’t have it in Equestria.”
Those baby blue eyes expanded yet again and the girl started jumping. “EQUESTRIA? OH MY GOODNESS! WHATS IT LIKE THERE? HOWMANYPONIESLIVETHEREANDDO YOUREALLYCONTROLTHECLOUDSAND—”
The ranting was cut off by a knock at the door downstairs. Jerry gave Rainbow a look and she rushed to the closet, swinging the door closed behind her with her back hoof. He looked at his sister and put a finger over his lips, signaling her to be quiet, and to remember that it was a secret. She moved her hand over her lips like she was fastening a zipper and he sighed. That was all the reassurance he could get from her.
He headed downstairs and rushed to the door while his mom remained passed out on the smelly couch. Oh great, he thought as he saw the face on the other side.
“Hey, Cuz!” Steve smiled back at him and started towards the stairs before Jerry wondered how this day could get any worse.