> Rain
>  by Commando-Scarecrow
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> Day 1: Red Rain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Holy crap!" Those were my words of choice when I saw a red head knocked out by the side of the road. The night began normally enough. I was driving back to the motel room I rented after a weekly dinner I had at home with my mom and little sister. It wasn't until I saw a naked woman on the side of the free-way and beneath an overpass, her bright red hair reflecting my high-beams, when things quickly began to take a turn for the weird. I began to breathe deeply as I thought of what could have possibly placed her there. Most of them weren't things I liked to think about, but it didn't matter. She needed help.
I quickly pulled over, probably faster than I should have, and walked back to where the woman was lying down. She was beautiful, although I tried not to stare. “Sweet Jesus,” I mumbled to myself, trying not to take in the scenery. Being a perv was something I generally tried not to be. It was cold that night, and I didn't know the directions to the nearest hospital, so I chose to do something most people of a lower moral compass would have loved to do with an attractive and unconscious woman: I elected to take her to my motel room. I slowly approached her as though she were a deer, just to make sure not to wake her up. I honestly had no clue on hell what was going on. Her eyes struggled to open, but quickly fluttered closed. She was totally out of it. I sighed. This was going to be an interesting week for sure.
I took off my black leather jacket and placed it over her, being sure not to grab ANYTHING as I did so. Her eyes were an interesting color. Even in the darkness of that cold October night, I could see a vague violet in the irises. I very carefully placed my arms around her, maintaining a no groping policy and lifted her from the wet and cold grass. She was kind of heavy, but then I wasn't that strong. It took me a moment to gain some good footing, but after a few seconds I got everything balanced out and I took her to my car.
I opened the door to my blue saturn and placed her in the passenger seat, sure to buckle her up. I made my way back to the driver’s seat and started the engine. She stirred a little bit, but nothing too major.
The trip back to my room at the local Motel 6 went smoothly enough. Anyone who took a look at her in my car probably just though we were a couple on a road trip or something like that. What was really difficult was making sure nobody thought I was going to be doing something distasteful to the poor girl when they saw me taking her out of my car in the parking lot. I figured that it would better if I unlocked the door and then carried her in. As it turned out, I had nothing to worry about. There was no one around except for who was working there, and THAT guy was busy reading a magazine. As I scooped the sleeping red-head out of the car seat, I decided, even if she was knocked out, it might be a good idea to at least ask what her name was. So I did. "You got a name, Red?"
She didn't do much except breath, but it looked like I was gonna get at least that much out of her. She moved only a little bit as she mumbled something. "Rain..." she answered, mumbling more of what I assumed was her last name, or at least I thought she did. If it was her name, then it was sure as hell a pretty name. Then I looked at a set of new problems I had to contend with. There was only one bed in my home. Well, it wasn't really a problem per se. The choice of who got what was obvious. I laid her on my bed and did my best not admire anything, but I did notice that she was tall for a woman. In fact, she seemed to be close to my own six feet.
I went over to my drawers to see if there was anything that I could give her to wear so she wouldn't have to walk around naked. I found some old, blue, flannel PJ bottoms that wouldn't be too difficult to fit on her, and then one of my larger plain white t-shirts. "That'll do." I went over to her and felt all my blood rush to my face as I realized exactly what I had been tasked with. I gulped and decided that it would just be best if I tried not to look at or grab at her body. It wasn't easy, by any means, but in about three minutes, there was a clothed red head laying on my bed.
"Not bad, Miles. Not bad at all." At that point, I honestly wasn't sure whether I was talking about the girl or the job I did dressing her, so I just settled for somewhere in the middle and took a shower. I tried to make it cold, for obvious reasons, and it did work. I took as long in there as I wanted, my home being a motel and all, and considered what was going to happen now that I met the mystery woman. This was insane. A red head comes out of nowhere and into the side of the road, and here I was, finding her on the side of the road and giving her a place to stay. This was like something out of a bad fanfic. And trust me, I've read my share of bad fanics.
As I got out of the shower, sure to change in the bathroom just in case, I realized that I finally had a chance to take it all in. My heart raced as I wondered what would happen tomorrow, but in the end, I just decided to get some sleep. Grabbed a spare blanket and hit the chair. Taking one last look at the guest in my room, I said one last thing before I went to sleep. "This is crazy."

> Day 2: Breakfast of Champions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Getting any good sleep was near impossible that night. I knew it wasn’t the chair, because I’d fallen asleep in that thing a few times while watching movies and playing video games and been just fine, so it had to be my surprise guest sleeping in my bed. After several failed attempts at sleeping, I just gave up. “Screw it.” I found my I-pod and cranked up some soothing Mandopony. It was maybe four in the morning, so if I fell asleep by mistake, I’d gladly accept it, and if I couldn’t? Meh. It was nothing a Mountain Dew couldn’t fix.
After listening to song after song for maybe another two hours, I felt my stomach growl. Loudly. I looked to the left to see the fiery maned mystery woman in my bed, and decided that a warm meal might not be such a bad thing after being naked in a cold October rain like I found her last night. So I went off to McDonalds across the street. The prices were fair and the food was alright, so it seemed like a good enough idea. I got a couple of sausage McMuffins and hash browns, deciding to wait for them to be fresh before I got them. As an afterthought, I also picked up a couple of two cups of orange juice while I was there. Satisfied with the food I’d got, I headed back to my motel room, hoping that my guest hadn’t woken up yet.
By the time I got there, it looked like she wasn’t so much unconscious as she was just sleeping off what ever happened at this point. I could tell from her snoring… from OUTSIDE the door. I slowly opened the door and set her food on the dresser next to the furnished television. All the blankets were scattered and kicked across the bed and nearby floor. “Amazing”, I mumbled silently. Still asleep without any idea at all of what happened or how she got here. I decided to eat before her and did so as quietly as I could.
After I ate, I got my laptop and went You-Tubing, watching any video I saw that looked good.  That was, until, I saw movement in my bed.
Red headed Rain’s eyes began to open. Slowly at first, as if she was waking up in her own bed room. Then her eyes widened and she began to realize that something was off. “Oh, hell” were the exact words that entered my mind.
She sat up and quickly her eyes began to dart back and forth. I kind of expected this to happen. “Where in the hay am I?!” She still hadn’t noticed me yet, so that was something. She then grabbed at her shirt, not realizing until just now that she was wearing one. She she lifted it up, though, she did something that WAS unexpected. She lifted up her hands like she was totally unfamiliar with the concept of fingers. She felt her face, still acting like there were so many new features to her that she’d never had before. She jumped from the bed to the mirror, but missed entirely. Did I bring home someone from a mental hospital? She then landed flat on her face on the hard motel carpet. Completely un-phased, though. She got up and felt her back. “My wings!” Wings? She ran to the mirror in the bathroom, feeling her face her nose, then her… chest. All of these things seemed totally alien to the tall red-head. “My face! What the hay is going on?!” I don’t think she yelled loud enough.
That’s when I made my first mistake. “You alright, Red?” Asked nicely enough, but she responded with a swift punch to my face. “OW!” I staggered back and feel back ward to the floor as she looked at me with an acid gaze. She was angry and she was confused, so I decided to let that one slide.
“Where am I?!” She was stilling yelling, much to my irritation. “How did I get here?!”
“Easy, Red,” I picked my ass up off the floor and then proceeded to answer her questions. “You’re in a Motel Six room that I live out of. I found you knocked out and on the side of the road last night.” Then I looked to the dresser and remembered the food. “I got you breakfast and juice…” I held up the bag of fast food and orange juice. “McDonalds. The breakfast of champions.” I almost out right sang that last part, even knowing full well from being a former employee that McDonalds was most certainly NOT the breakfast of champions.
Now, if I didn’t know any better, I would have sworn that I saw a very brief and very wry smile after I said the word champion. But it quickly faded as fast as it appeared. “I don’t want your breakfast or your juice.” She crossed her arms, apparently feeling like being difficult. “But leave me the bag.”
“But…”
“LEAVE THE BAG!” She got all shouty again, so I left the food there on the counter, kind of afraid that she was going to punch me in the face gain.
“Alright, alright…” After a few more minutes of looking at her what I assumed to be a new face in the mirror, trying to get used to her face that she was supposedly born with, my mind once again raced with questions of who she was. This whole thing seemed to be eerily reminiscent of the movie, Thor, only with more fireworks and less hammers. Finally, as she finished eating her food, I tried opening up another conversation with the violet eyed woman. “So… you got any idea of how you got here?”
“YOU brought me here,” she snarkily stated whilst slurping the rest of her beverage. Then she started to mumble. She could have taken it worse, actually. “Freaking Lyra was right.” Wait a sec…
That’s when it hit me. “Would Lyra happen to be a sea-foam unicorn that wishes she had hands, would she?” The next part of the conversation would either get me beaten up by a girl, whom, in my defense, had the build of an Olympian, or we’d actually get somewhere in finding out how she got here.
She began to squint at me, undoubtedly unsure of how I knew that. Bingo. “Yeah… how did you know that?”
Then I pulled out my laptop and immediately found Youtube on my favourites bar. I found the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is magic and started from there. Finally, it all made sense. Not recognizing her face and fingers being a surprise to realizing that she didn’t have any wings. She was missing the rainbow hair, but I always figured she’d be a red head in real life. I turned my computer around and smugly put my hands behind my head. “Rainbow Dash, I’d hate to break it to you,” Actually, I didn’t. This was every bronies dream. “But I don’t think you’re in Equestria anymore.”
> Day 2: She wore a Superman T-Shirt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Wait..." Rainbow Dash replied after seeing enough of the first episode of My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic. "So you're telling me..." She was taking the remarkably well, considering she was such a hot head in the show. Maybe letting her view the show online wasn't such a bad idea after all.
"Yeah..." I waved my hand for the red head sitting on my bed to continue.
"That me and my friends..." She was getting there.
"Go on..."
"Are all in something you call a television show that's basically a movie in your house?" Bingo. We have a winner.
"Exactly," I waited a few more seconds for more questions, but none came at that time. "You mad?"
"Haha!" She let out a hardy laugh. Did not see that coming. "Why would I be mad? I'm a part of a worldwide phenomenon with millions of fans around the world! This. Is. AWESOME!!!" For a split second, I hoped she would make her infamous "wub" face. Kinda disappointed that she didn't, actually.
"Wow. So you're totally fine with being a fictional character here?"
"I'm real in my own world, right?" She had an excellent point.
I decided to move on to another topic. "So how did you get here anyway?" Seemed like a good enough question, I think.
She took on an excited grin, and if this was the same Rainbow Dash from the show, and it was, then it undoubtedly meant she was going to talk about her favourite thing: herself. "Well- What is your name anyway? You saved my flank last night and I don't even know your name."
I gave her my own smug smile. "Surely you've heard of me! My name is Miles Wilhelm!" I thumbed my nose cheesily. "Amateur writer extraordinar!"
"Miles, eh?" She smiled. A mood this excellent was not something I'd expected. I mean, after that time I read My Little Dashie, I thought for sure she'd take being a fictional character here as bad news. "Got a nice ring to it! Yeah... I can dig that!" Then she got back to herself. "So how I got here? It's a long and awesome story! There I was... taking on the Thunder Clap gauntlet in the middle of a storm!"
"The what now?" I'd seen every episode of MLP, some of them more than others, and I'd never heard anything about the Thunder Clap Gauntlet.
"The Thunder Clap Gauntlet is named after the legendary first executioner of the sonic rainboom!" I could see the stars in her eyes as she explained. Apparently, I'd played into her vanity. "It's an almost impossible obstacle course made completely of storm clouds in a lightning storm! Nopony had beaten it in hundreds of years, and I was about to prove them wrong! I was about to make history!"
"So what happened, then?" I interrupted her, but it was almost like she wanted me to ask more questions about her.
She just kept talking in stride. "Things... didn't go as planned." She even said that with enthusiasm. It was almost like even when she failed, she still won out somehow. "Right when I was breaking into a sonic rainboom, I was struck by lightning!" It made enough sense, as far as I understood time travel logic, at least. "And that was how I got here!"
"Uh huh," I only nodded. This whole thing was still far-fetched, even with MLP logic.
"You don't believe me, do you?"
"No, no. I do," I did my best not to come off like I was patronizing her. "If Pinkie Pie can make a clone army of herself by accident, then I'm pretty sure you can break apart a dimension with sheer skill, luck, and concentrated awesomeness."
"Heh," she scratched her face in embarrassment. "You're alright, Miles! Sorry for punching you in the face, by the way."
I left my chair for my clothing rack. "Don't worry about it. Chances are I deserved it for something, anyway." Finally at my clothes, I went through some things that might look good on her. An old belt and some nice jeans I'd outgrown. Then I passed by something that made me think. My old superman t-shirt. Hm... alright. "Here" I threw her the clothes I thought would look alright enough on her.
"What are these?" She sorted through them, not sure what to think of them. "And what's the "S" on this mean?" She held up the royal blue superman shirt."
"Clothes," I began sorting through some of my own clothes to find what I should wear. "Nudity is a- WHOA!" I turned around to see her in the middle of taking off her shirt in front of me. Luckily, I stopped her just as she reached her upper midriff Again, I'm no perv. "What are you doing?!"
"What!?" Being that she came from a world where not wearing anything was perfectly normal, I understood her confusion.
"I was just saying that public nudity is a taboo in my world!" I calmed myself down, almost giving myself a heart attack from the way I just acted.
She just laughed it off, completely oblivious that she'd done something wrong. "My bad!"
I began to laugh a little bit with her. "Don't worry about it, just," I was blushing from the embarrassment of what just happened. "I'll just go get dressed in the bathroom, then." And so I did. I gathered a pair of faded blue jeans and an orange tee-shirt. I then looked at myself in the bathroom mirror, running my hand through my thick but short brown hair. "What the hell have I gotten myself into?" I looked deep into my stormy blue eyes and tried desperately to answer that for a few minutes.
Luckily, the red-headed Rain in my motel room signaled me, so I didn't have to. "All clear, Chief!"  I left my bathroom, fully dressed to see her in my jeans and shirt. I loved that shirt, too, but the damn thing shrank in the wash. Always new I'd have a use for it, though. "So what do you think?" She extended her arms to try and give me a good look. For the first time, I allowed myself to indulge in it. Is it weird for a 21 year old brony to be turned on by a dimensionally lost pony-turned-human female with the Olympian-like build in a superman tee-shirt? Because I totally was. "Not bad, right?"
Poker face... your time to shine. "It's a good look." I shrugged. Smooth, Miles. I grabbed my spare brown hoody and threw it to her. "Jacket up, Dashie. We're going out!"
As I grabbed my own black leather jacket and opened the door to my motel room, she complied with my request, but curious where and why. "Where too?"
I closed the door behind us and she followed me to my car. "Shopping."
She grunted. As expected, Rainbow Dash hated shopping. "Why?"
"So you won't have to dress like a guy."
> Day 2: Out Shopping
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"So what are your friends like in real life, anyway?" I asked as I sat on the bench outside the fitting room in the nearest Wal-Mart. There weren’t any employees nearby, so we could freely ask each other questions about our worlds. And because of the... peculiar nature of how she got here, the privacy was well appreciated.
"Whatcha mean?" She asked from inside her fitting room. We'd found a few different shirts and pairs of blue-jeans, not to mention some underwear for her to where. Honestly? I couldn't imagine how uncomfortable it was just wearing denim.
"Well..." I gathered what would have made good enough examples, then continued. "Is Twilight and Rarity as OCD as the show makes them out? Is Spike really that head-over-heals about Rarity? Is Lyra really THAT obsessed with humans? And lastly, has anyone called out Pinkie Pie over, well, breaking reality?" Then I thought a moment, realizing the opportunity that I had. “What’s Applejack like in real life?”
I saw her arms come up as she started to pull over a long sleeve shirt. "In order?" She took a second to think, then answered. "Yes and kind'a. Hay yeah. A little bit, and no. But now, at least her breaking physics makes a lil’ bit more sense." I guess I caught her interest in the show and what the fandom is like, because that became the new topic of interest.  “And as for AJ… she’s real hard workin’ and stuff, but she isn’t really much fun.” I could see her looking up, apparently thinking on what SHE should ask me. “Am I lot like they show me on the show?”
I gave that a very careful thought, then smirked.  “Absolutely, although I could’ve gotten by with just the good parts.”
“Wassat supposed to mean? I’m all good!” From the looks of it so far, she was absolutely right.
I let out a chuckle, “Yeah, I’ll bet.”
Then she walked out of the dressing room, wearing a pair of relaxed fit blue jeans, a long-sleeve shirt with red, blue, and yellow stripes up and down the arms, and still wearing the superman t-shirt . "What do you think?" She didn’t really seem sure whether or not she was making the look work.
The shirt  gave her seemed to work with it really well and, if I remembered right, the blue, red, and yellow of the classic "S" shield in the plane of royal blue matched perfectly the lightning bolt on her cutie mark. "You're still rockin' the shirt I gave you?" I was actually kind of touched.
"Looks cool, don't it?" It actually did.
I did my best not to stare at her, but I still had to think it… hot damn. I nodded, fully admitting to it. "You know what? It really does." It was probably as close to a cutie mark as she was going to get while she was here, so I decided to not to hassle her about it. Besides, she looked good in blue.
She smiled, then went back into the room to take off all the stuff I hadn't paid for. As we made our way to the check-out counter, we tried to keep the pony talk to a minimum. Finally, we made our way BACK to the fitting room, where she put the clothes back on, along with a bra and underwear. It was kind of an annoying extra trip, but I really didn't care. I had the day-off, so I really didn't have anything important I had to get too.
As we exited the super-center, I couldn't help but see an infectious grin of anticipation on her face. I had to ask. "What are you so happy about, Rain?" By this point, we both knew I knew what he name really was, but I actually liked the sound of calling her 'Rain'. It had a nice ring to it.
In true Rainbow Dash fashion, she was taking point as we walked through the automatic doors. She spun around to answer. "We taking your car?" The concept of a horseless carriage with speed that measured in horse power naturally came to her something of an… exciting revelation.
I think I knew where that was headed. "Yeah..."
"We taking the freeway again?" I swear, as she asked that, her smile got to Pinkie Pie proportions.
I knew that was where she was headed. "Yeah..." It seemed like, even without wings or her former speed, she was still a speed demon deep down. You should have seen her when we were driving down the free with her window rolled down. She enjoyed it about as much as you might think.
"Can I drive?"
"Haha! No!" Shot down in her prime.
"Oh c'mon, Miles!" She whined. It was actually pretty funny, having never seen Rainbow Dash actually whine in the show. Actually? It was hilarious.
"Do you know how to drive?" Time to lay down the law.
"How hard could it be?"
"Do have a driver's license?"
"What's a driver's license?"
"That thing that makes it legal for you to drive." I knew she didn’t have one, but I had a feeling she wouldn’t take “no” for an answer unless I totally explained the situation.
"No." She said all disappointed. I would have felt bad, if letting her drive wouldn't have killed somebody, that is.
"Didn't think so." Then I perked up and took the lead to my Saturn. “Now come on. There was something else I wanted to do before we went back home.”
Her face turned to curious excitement. I knew she was going to enjoy this next part of the day a whole hell of a lot. “What are you…”
“Tell me, Rain,” I turned around, serious first, then taking on a mischievous smile. “Have you ever been paint-balling before?”
> Day 2: Pain-balling
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I honestly couldn't believe it. As I creeped passed the trees in the paintball field, I remembered well what she said in the Wal-Mart parking lot. "You're looking at the Cloudsdale junior paintball league champion!" I was incredibly surprised at that but, weirdly enough; I was less astounded by the fact that Rain was the junior league champion of Cloudsdale. "Four years in a row!"
Quickly moving past the strangeness of Equestria having a junior paintball league, I was abso-freaking-lutely elated at her answer. "Re-he-he-heally?!" I could barely contain my excitement on the matter, obviously. "Well then, Rain, things just got a whole lot more interesting, didn't they?"
It wasn't until we actually got out to the paintball field when I realized the hell I was in for. The game was a custom match. It was torso elimination, meaning that if you got hit within a specific target on your chest or back, you were out of the game. Camera's, speakers and referees made sure that no one played when they should have been taken out. Then a weird thought popped into my head. "I wonder if spending my money on stuff like this is the reason why I still live in a room at the Motel 6..."
As I mused that thought, I heard what WAS my team. They were covered in blue paintballs all over their upper body. "Dude," Tony called out as he walked me by. We started with 15 people on each team. I took five squad, and Tony took the other six for his own. I was the last guy on my sqaud, and, from the looks of it, the last one on my team.
"What happened to you?" I already knew full well what happened. Someone just got rained on.
"Your girlfriend happened," his visor was riddled with sky-blue paint, so he had to lift it up in order to see. I remember telling her that a colour like that would just make her an easier target. Her response? 'It's one thing to see me coming. It's another to do something about'. Turns out she was absolutely right.
"She's not really my girlfriend." Although it did make me think.
"Whatever man," I honestly wasn't sure whether or not he was more pissed off at how he just lost seven to one, or impressed at how badly he lost. "She came out of nowhere and ambushed us. We couldn't even touch her." He chuckled. "Dude, if you don't claim her, then I will."
Over my dead bo... wait a second. I didn't have time to respond to that comment before he left, though. My own squad was taken out bringing down the other fourteen of the Rain's team earlier. I guessed it was just me and her. "Great..." I muttered to myself as I continued to creep past the now techno-colored battlefield. The farther I walked, the more evidence I saw of Rainbow Dash's prowess in paintball. I think I passed by where Tony and the others got ambushed, because there was a lot, and I mean A LOT, of misplaced orange shots on the rocks and dirt and trees, with only a few traces of sky blue. She had to be nearby, I thought to myself. I checked my ammo count. I had one more paintball cartridge and one more paint-grenade. "Close enough."
As I investigated the area for Rain, I couldn't help but feel like I was being set up for a magnificent trap on my part. Not that bringing a champion paintballer wasn't a trap all in itself, but still. I darted between the bushes and trailers until, finally, I thought of a my own magnificent trap. I slowly laid my paintball gun on the cool tin floor of a trailer, and found a particularly thick stick, one that would make a noticeable sound when broke. I only sighed as I went through with it. "SNAP." Then I heard some rustling from a nearby tree. Bingo.
I quickly grabbed my paintball gun and searched for her, but she must have caught on, because, I didn't see her again. That wasn't, until, I saw her hanging off a tree branch upside down wearing sky-blue armour and brandishing double paintball pistols... to my left… where I wasn’t facing. Again... great. "You should NOT have brought me here, Miles." Swear to god, I could freaking HEAR her smile. "I've never been more in my element."
I moved first and opened fire at her. Each of the shots would have hit their mark, right in the center of her armour, if she hadn’t fallen from the tree and landed on her feet with almost cat-like grace and agility. She was fast, I thought. Too fast for me beat in a straight up match. "Is that right?" I called out to her, trying to buy time to come up with a plan.  I started to try to think of something, anything that could get me out of here without losing. Then another idea came to mind. "Well, maybe it's time this old dog..." I readied myself for what might take some split second reflexes against the former fastest flyer in all of Equestria. "Showed you some tricks!" I ducked and, as I did, she unleashed a barrage of double paintball pistols at me. I quickly fell to the earth, rolling and shooting wildly, hoping not to hit her, but to distract her so I could find some better cover. She was way better than I thought a person with a new body would be able to be. But, then, she IS one of Equestria's greatest athletes. Maybe hand-eye-coordination was just a natural gift for her.
"You are good, Miles!" she called out from the trees, jumping from canopy to canopy. The girl was a freaking paintball ninja. I couldn't tell if she was about to start bragging or give me a compliment, so I decided to wait and find out. "Too bad we're on different teams!"
I shook my head. "You sound almost disappointed, Rain!" I got her to start talking, which was good. It meant I could have more time to figure out the specifics of my plan. "You sad that I wasn't one of the ones watching your flank in this?!" And yes, I know full well about the double meaning of flank here.
Then I heard a voice coming from my immediate right. "Nothing totally whooping you right here couldn't fix." I looked to the direction that my paintball gun WASN'T in the direction of to find her. "Story of your life, Miles. Good, but not good enough."
Then I smiled at her. All according to plan. "See, you would think that wouldn't you, Rain?" She took the bait. Now it was time to show her that I was better than SHE thought. “Look at your paintball guns, now back to me. Back to your paintball guns, now back to ME!” I lifted up and primed an orange paintball grenade. “I’m holding onto a paintball grenage that’ll blow in six seconds.” Proud of myself, I gave her the cockiest smile that I could.
"You planned that, didn't you?" She was either annoyed about getting outsmarted, or impressed that I ended this paintball match with a ninja in a draw.
"Yeah, huh."
Then she was the one that smiled. "Not bad, Miles." And then we were both coated in an orange paint by a detonating colour bomb. She wiped the paint off of her goggles, as did I. "Not bad at all."

After that happened, we both hit the showers of the paintball field. Apparently, the concept of a shower came easy to her. Not surprising, seeing as how that was how she usually bathed in the show. Heading home, I could see her falling asleep to AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell”. I laughed a little on the inside. It was almost like rock’n roll was a lullaby to her. Though not quite asleep, she was hardly in any shape to pick herself up from the passenger seat of my car. I gave an amused smile and, as I made my to her side of the car in the parking lot, she started to finally talk. “What are you doing?” she asked drearily.
With expert skill and luck, I was able to place her on back, piggy-back style, and made our way to my room. “Rain, you’re exhausted.”
“I can still walk…” she mumbled, apparently in denial.
“Then why aren’t you?” I heard her mumble something but, for the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what it was. “I just assumed that she was either arguing with me or saying that she didn’t need my help. “Well, you should have thought about that before you started doing back flips in a paintball match.” I heard her growl, but I ignored it. It was nothing the infamous Rainbow Dash of Equestria couldn't deny. She absolutely LOVED showing everyone how awesome she was.
I opened the door to my room and laid her on my bed. Well, more like I dropped her, but tomato/tomahto, right? She fell asleep almost immediately after hitting the mattress. I took a look at the clock and saw it was only 7:00, so I stayed up for a couple more hours. All things considered, I thought to myself gleefully, today had been a great day.

> Day 3: Cops
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

I awakened the very next morning to hear two things. The first one was Rain's ungodly loud snoring. Seriously. She might be beautiful, but she sounds like a freaking fog-horn when she sleeps. The second sound I woke up to was a series of loud and obnoxious knocks on the door to my room in the Motel 6 I stayed at. Knowing that I wouldn't be able to go back to sleep after hearing both noises in unison, I chose to just get up and answer the door. The knocking progressively got louder, so I had to get loud right back. "Hold on!" I shouted. "I'm coming!" Even with all three noises in unison, Rain was still out-cold. As I opened the door, I was suddenly struck completely alert by the sight of my "guest" It was a police officer. Great... I rubbed my eyes, trying to get the sand out. "Anything I can do for you, Officer?"
"I'm Officer Dave," he extended his arm for a handshake, so I obliged him. The cop was shorter than me, maybe standing at about five feet, eight inches. He had brown hair and didn't look much older than me. Maybe 27 at the oldest. "We heard reports yesterday of a girl screaming about, and I quote "Where the hay am I?"." He looked at me with a suspicious face. "You wouldn't happen to know anything about that, would you, son?" Why was he calling me 'son'? He wasn't even out of his twenties.
Then a couple of different things crossed my mind on what I should tell him. You were called about that yesterday, and you just decided to stop by here today? You guys are terrible at your jobs! That was what I WANTED to say, but I didn't. Pissing off the cops was generally NEVER a good idea. But he was right about the yelling, so what I had to do was come up with a convenient, but believable excuse. Damn it, Miles, think! That's when something left my mouth that surprised both of us. "We were role-playing." WHAT?!
He looked about as surprised as I was on the inside. I had to keep a poker face, though, so that he wouldn't think something was up. "You mean like Dungeons and Dragons or..." he trailed off almost like he didn't want to actually say it. Well, I thought thankfully, at least I got him baited.
Now I only had to hook him and real him in. "Which one do you think?" I had to try and keep a straight face or at least a fairly convincing "you would not believe what I did the other day" face".
"But received reports of her shouting what happened to her face and body."
Alright, he was starting to believe the initial lie I told him. Now I just had to elaborate on the details. "Yeah..." I let out a fairly convincing chuckle. "That was a part of the game. You ever hear of Stockholm syndrome, Sir?"
He nodded like he was beginning to understand more thoroughly now. "Yeah, it's when a captive begins to identify and befriend the person that captured them." Then it dawned on him. "Ah." He began to write more notes down, apparently thinking this was going to make one helluva report to his CO. "Do you have any handcuffs to verify your story?" He continued to write more down on his note pad. Maybe he was taking notes for his own love life. That was another thing I wanted to say but didn't.
And luckily, I did have handcuffs. They were in my leather jacket. "Sure!" I picked my jacket up off the dresser and reached into the inner pocket. "See?" I took out a pair of stainless steel handcuffs.
He raised an eye-brow, no doubt confused why I had handcuffs in my jacket. "Son... why exactly do you have handcuffs in your jacket pocket?" I was actually surprised that he didn't ask how I got a pair of high-quality handcuffs, but I decided not to push my luck.
"I keep a lot of things in this jacket for just such an emergency." Heh, I actually had a reason for that one. "This jacket it crazy prepared, Officer. I keep everything in this thing." I then began to pull out all the things I kept in my jacket for just-in-case reasons. "Kleenex, flashlight, sunglasses, emergency $20, something to snack on, usually something like peanuts or candy corn, emergency flash drive, cheap emergency digital camera." And the thing was that I actually DID have all those things in my jacket. Batman, eat your heart out.
He then gave me an amused smile. "Alright, son, I get the idea." He began to depart to his patrol car, apparently weirded out by my apparent preparedness. "Just, eh, keep the antics down for your neighbors, alright?"
I gave him a two finger salute as he left. "Will do, Officer." I waited maybe ten seconds to be sure that he was gone for good before I closed the door to my lodgings. "Mother of God, that was close!" I collapsed against the door of my room, grateful that my extravagant lie had sent the cop packing. "I hadn't lied like that in YEARS." I looked around to see what time it was and, to my irritation, it was only 6:00 am. "Screw it. I'm going back to sleep." I still couldn't believe that a got that cop to believe that, but I just decided to accept it as luck. I already had something planned for Rain today, something awesome, but that was for later. Right now, I just wanted to catch some more shut-eye.

> Day 3: Something Better
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Alright, Rain. We're here," I told her in the parking lot of a small town north of where I lived. We were heading to a special spot to show her something. She was going to love it. "Get out of the car. We'll have to walk the rest of the way." She got out of my car and closed the door behind her. Weird. She hadn't asked what where we were going yet. As we walked up a winding path up hill, I noticed something was off about her. She seemed upset ever since she got up this morning. We didn't make it that far before I decided to ask her what was up. Still, she looked really uptight. Screw it, I'm asking her what's up. "Rain? You alright?"
She looked bitterly to the side. "I'm fine." She most certainly was not."
"You sure?" We continued to walk a winding, barely paved path way up a hill. I didn't want anything to ruin what she was about to see. It was the second most beautiful this world had to offer.
"Yeah, it's nothing." Something WAS bugging her, and I WAS going to find out. The last thing I wanted was to see her like this.
"Because if you have something you need to get off your chest," I was egging her on purpose, hoping that she’ll eventually give up and tell me. "I'm all ears."
She sighed. Suddenly, I had a bad feeling about this. "Last night, when you were asleep, I went on your laptop and looked up pictures of..." she seemed to be trembling with something, although I honestly wasn't sure yet. "Of me and my friends." Oh no. "You know what I saw?"
I tried to remain as silent as I could, although I knew my silence would only provide it's own answer for her. "Rainbow Dash..."
"I saw me and my friends in...." Now I knew what she was trembling with. Anger. "Half the world thinks me and my friends are lesbians!" Tears began to well up in her eyes as she began a long and terrible tirade of sadness. "And I got the worst of it by far!" I slowed down my pace, now choosing to walk with her instead of ahead of her. I was her only friend in this world, so I had to be at her side in this. She deserved no less. "And you knew, didn't you?!"
"Rain, I was only trying to-"
"To what?! Protect me?!" Rainbow Dash never needed anypony defending her before, but still. I never wanted her to see what some of her 'fans' made her out as. "What makes you think I even wanted your protection?"
"I never meant to-" we'd since stopped on our way up the hills winding path so she could let it all out.
"And that's not even the worst of it, Miles!" She was so angry and so sad at the same time. Even in my wildest dreams, I never thought I'd see her like this. "I found pictures me and..." it was almost like she didn't even want to say it. "Of me and Scootaloo in ways that would make you sick! You have any idea what it feels like to have a bond like that ruined and turned into... UUGH!!!" She let out a shout of rage. All I could do now is wait for her to let it all out. "She's like my little sister, Miles!" I could see the tears streaming down her face and rage burning in her eyes. "What the hay is wrong with your world?" She almost sounded submissive when she asked that. Like she had lost something. "It feels like I've been..." Sadness was finally the dominant emotion of the moment now. Rainbow Dash had always been one of the toughest and strongest ponies in all of Equestria, and for her to be brought down to tears like this...
"Rain," I struggled to look her in the eyes, but did so anyway. She deserved my full and undivided attention. "You have to believe me when I say I never wanted to hurt you. Not in a million years did I want you to see what some people did to you and your friends," I took her hand and began to lead her. She was reluctant at first, but then finally surrendered, to distraught to fight back "And I'm not gonna lie, I wish I never saw a lot of those pictures either. But sometimes," she had to shield her eyes from a stray beam of light that hit her square in the face. I gave myself a smirk. We're close. "If you work through the hurt." More and more light began to buffet the former mares face. "If you find the right friends to help you through it, then you might look to find that you lost something you had before." Finally, we reached the top of the hill. And she was absolutely stunned by what she saw. "And see that you got something better, something beautiful, in its place." The amber autumn leaves melded flawlessly with the purple and red of the setting sun.
"Whoa..." It was the only word that could leave her mouth. A flicker of self-satisfaction entered my eyes as I saw all her rage and sadness seem to melt away in an instant. I thought she deserved to see the best sunset that my world had to offer.
"There are good people in this world, Rain," then I took a good long look at her face, the golden stream of light complementing her violet eyes and deep scarlet hair perfectly. She looked no less than flawless. "Even if we don't sometimes act like it." 
"I know," she pulled her gaze away from the sunset to return a look into my own eyes, wiping the tears away from hers. She took my other hand and then she kissed me. Long and hard. We took to sitting under a nearby oak tree together, watching the sinking sun and all the colours of the fall in the wind blend into a veritable rainbow river of pure and unrefined beauty, taking in the warmth of the sun as a refuge against the chilled October air. It seemed like we sat there for hours, just taking in a moment that was sheer perfection in its design. "Miles?"
"Hmm?"
"I just wanted to say thanks," she was still staring at the sun, now leaving room for the stars of the indigo sky of the night. "For this, and for everything. You've been awesome. And I'm sorry for yelling at you. I know you did what you had to."
I took some simple joy in hearing her say that. "Don't worry about it, Rain." As the night began to settle in, I took in everything. The night and stars and the sunset and the leaves. Even the unexpected kiss. "It's what I do."
Even sitting behind her, I could see the faint trace of a smile on her usually mischievous face. She was in the moment just as much as I was. All in all, even after all the hurt she felt earlier, I could tell from the expression on her face that she wouldn't have changed any of it. Not even for the world.

"GAAH!" I woke up in the middle of the night from a nightmare. It was Rainbow Dash falling through a cyclone or vortex or something. She was holding on to my hand with all her might, and just when it looked like she was safe, she turned back into a pony and couldn’t hold on any longer. I looked at the clock, then at Rain. She was still asleep. Good. I didn't want to wake her. I got out of my chair and put my coat on. It was time for a walk. I exited into the cold fall night, searching for solace. As I walked to the back of the Motel 6, I took some time to gather my thoughts. Finally, I stopped and just stared at the stars and constellations hoping to find some peace in their dim glow. "Damn it, Miles," but the real reason I came out here wasn't star gazing. It was to get my thoughts straightened out. "What the hell are you doing getting so attached to her? You've read My Little Dashie. You KNOW how this is going to end." I knew I did, too. "With her leaving you with nothing but a hell of a lot of heart ache." Regardless of how much I was starting to care for Rain, I knew Twilight and her friends were going to show up one day to take her back to Equestria, leaving me here. 21 years and I'd never known anything like what I felt for her. "I never meant for it to go this far..." Never in a million years did I think something like this would happen. I took a deep breath of the chilly night air. I really had no idea what tomorrow was going to bring, so I just resigned myself to appreciate the time I had left with her. I went back to bed, or chair, and fell asleep almost immediately. Tomorrow was another day.

> Day 4: All her Friends and Applejack
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I can't believe you beat up that guy over a pair of sunglasses," I said as we walked through the door to my motel room. I just got back from a department store and had gotten into a scrap over a pair of cool looking sunglasses that Rain said that she saw first. Someone else, of course, took exception to that.
She only gave herself a wry and egocentric grin as she followed me. "I can't believe that you took out that other guy that was twice your size with one punch." Hells yes, I did. A big guy tried to go after her, but I showed him
She took a seat in my chair and began to stretch. Meanwhile, I was digging into my mini-fridge. "Hey, anyone that's gonna mess with my girl is gonna get a taste of Miles Wilhelm!" I took out two Budweiser beers, placing one of them on my burning right cheek. It was still beat red and bruising from that big guy punching it.
She took on an almost ear to ear grin. "So I'm your girl now, huh?" I handed her one of the beers.
"Sure. Remember the romantic sunset last night? I was there. So were you. Good times?" I cracked open my drink and she did the same.
"The best!" We clanked our bottles together and began to the illicit beverages up to our faces and was about to drink the sweet lager.
"By the way," I asked just before her lips met the top of the bottle. I probably should have asked this before I gave her alcohol. "Exactly how old are you, anyway?"
"What?" She lowered the king of beers for a second.
"Well," I began to explain the situation to her. She was here for four days and I still didn't know much about her other than was demonstrated from the show. Maybe it was because she was so much more fascinated with a world that was new to her than her own. "The show never really said how old you and your friends were."
"I'm 20," she said lifting the bottle once again to her mouth. "Why does it matt- hey!"
I grabbed her beer. "Because you're under age and not old enough to drink... is why it matters."
She got off my chair and made reaches for the drink. "Give it!"
"Ha! No!" I smiled as I used my two inches on her to my advantage, keeping the opened Budweiser away from her at all costs.
"I said give it!" She reached higher and higher until she fell over... on me... on my bed... with my legs apart... yeah.
With a beer in each arm and my arms spread totally apart, we both stared at each, the breathing heavy on each others faces and both of our hearts beating faster and faster. Our eyes were almost totally parallel, violet to stormy blue, and her hands on my chest. Both of us were afraid to make a move away or towards the other.
"Um..." I said stupidly. I honestly was not sure how to go from here. That's when God must have taken mercy on me. We both heard the door knock a few times, breaking the several types of tension that filled the air, little as it was between the two of us. "I'd better get that!"
"And I'll, um..." She quickly got up, apparently just as nervous as I was. "I'll just go take a shower, then!"
"Yeah..." I got up and watched her enter the bathroom. The knocking seemed to get louder and louder, but I wanted to wait until Rain was in the shower good before I opened the door. That’s when I heard some familiar voices. "Wait a sec..." I opened the door to my room and, lo and behold, I laid witness to the impossible for the second time this week.
Before me stood five girls, all between the ages of 17 and 21. In the front was a girl that looked of about average height in a school girl outfit. She had purple eyes and brown hair with a proud expression on her face. To her left was a blonde girl with green eyes in flannel shirt and jeans and a cowboy hat. To her far left was a small and meek looking blonde in yellow shorts and a pink hoodie with blue eyes. To her right, there was rather upscale looking young woman in a white and silver shirt, expensive looking jeans, and to many accessories with raven black hair and royal blue eyes. And to her far right was a happy looking red, almost pink, haired girl with blue eyes, a pink shirt with balloons on it and relaxed fit jeans. I knew immediately who they were. "Greetings, Sir!" The girl in the school outfit greeted with almost infectious arrogance. "My name is-"
"Twilight Sparkle of Canterlot, number one student to Princess Celestia of Equestria," she had a shocked expression on her face, no doubt wondering how I knew who she was. I gave myself a mental grin. "With you are Rarity, Fluttershy, Applajack, and Pinkie Pie." I extended my right hand to shake. "It's a pleasure."
The young woman accepted my hand shake then proceeded to ask how. "How do you know-"
I opened my door all the way. "I'm Miles. Come inside and I'll explain everything." I took a deep breath. "We have a lot to discuss."
And so I explained how Rain supposedly got here, from Thunder Clapper's gauntlet to finding her on the side of the road. I even told them about the television show. They all liked the idea except for Applejack. Meh. I more or less saw that coming. AJ always did prefer her privacy. "That's what we saw on our end, too." The former unicorn said.
"What I'd like to know is why you guys showed up fully dressed and Rain-"
"Rain?" Rarity asked. "She allows you to call her 'Rain'?"
I sighed. "I found Rain unconscious on the side of the road and naked. I asked her name and Rain was all I heard at first, so I just stuck with that."
"And that didn't bother her?"
I shrugged while the fashion designer took on an all knowing grin. "She didn't speak out against it."
"Did you..." Applejack started now, looking like she was worried for her. "Did you touch her at all?" She seemed almost angry when she asked that, no doubt worried for her best friend.
"Please," her asking that actually pissed me off. "I'm better than that." Then I turned back to Twilight. "So how come you guys showed up dressed while Rain showed up... not dressed?"
"I used my magic!" Of course. A wizard did it. "I saw how clothes seemed to be a custom here, so I had Rarity use magic to make some outfits for us while in the vortex that brought us here and as we transformed into... humans?" I nodded, which made her happy. Twilight Sparkle always did take pleasure in knowing she was right.
"But if Fluttershy and Rain didn't get wings, how come you can use magic?" Seemed like a good question.
Twilight levitated the television remote to her glowing hands. "It's probably because a unicorns magic runs through the whole body but is channeled through the horn. But the ability to fly comes directly from the wings of a pegasus." Made sense. "You know why we're here?"
I nodded. As much as I knew it would come, it still didn't make it easy. "You're here to take Rainbow Dash back to Equestria?" I looked to the side bitterly, basically ruining any illusion I had of being alright with it.
"That's right." Then she took a closer look at me. "Miles... did you fall for-"
Then Rarity popped up with her enthusiastic accent. "How romantic! A love that spans different plains of reality." The blood began to rush to my face faster than AJ to a rodeo... that simile was an accident. Swear to God.
"Rarity," Applejack berated her friend. "You're confusing real life for a fairy tale by mistake again."
"Actually," I cut in to try and kill the tension. "I'd venture to say that she was totally in the right, given the context."
"Miles," Twilight started again. "You must have known that we'd come looking for her. You must have known-"
"Well maybe I did know and just didn't expect it to happen anyway!" They were all shocked by my outburst. "I'm sorry. That was mean of me." They all looked at me with pity, which I hated. But Rarity seemed to look at me with something more. Compassion maybe? "Would anyone like a drink?"
"No, we're fine. Miles-"
"Guys!" Then there stood Rain, fresh out of the shower in her clothes and her hair still wet. They all got in a six person group hug.
"Oh my gosh Rainbow Dash! We were so worried when we didn't see you after you were struck by lightning and disappeared." Pinkie Pie's words seemed to blend into one, intelligible string of incoherent and impossible to understand gibberish. "We were all worried that we wouldn't see you again and that you'd been blown to smithereens, but then Twilight was all like, "No, she'll be fine. We just need to find out where she is and bring her back." And here you are and here we are hehehehehe!" Yep. That was the same Pinkie Pie from the show.
Rain smiled more warmly than she ever had while she was here. With good reason, I'd imagine. It's not every day your friends cross space and time to find you in the motel room of some guy that finds you on the side of the road. Meanwhile, I just stood sat there. Watching all the tender love I could take, I tried to look away but couldn't. That's when Rain surprised me yet again.
"Guys," she sat down next to me and grabbed a hold of my hand. "This guy is Miles. He saved me from the side of the road and helped me out." All of her friends were shocked, but seemed to hold me in higher regard after she did that. Maybe it was since Rain's trust was hard to come by, or maybe it was for some other reason. "He's a pretty cool guy." That part made me smile.
"Well, anypony that Rainbow Dash likes is alright in my book!" AJ said in her southern drawl. Her mood seemed to suddenly lighten up, which put me at ease. The only pony in Equestria tougher than Rain WAS AJ, after all.
That's when I finally asked. "So when were you all leaving?" The room filled with an awkward and unyielding silence. Apparently, upon learning about me and Rain, nopony wanted to answer. "Well?" Rain looked down, unwilling to talk after that. Bluntness always was my specialty, after all.
"We were going to leave as soon as possi-" Twilight started before Rarity cut her off.
"But I suppose that we can give them one more night to say their goodbyes to one another." Twilight shot Rarity a dirty look when Rarity responded with a pleading one. "What would it hurt?"
Twilight Sparkle only sighed as a response, while the others seemed to almost beg her to let it happen. Even Applejack. In that instant, I took back everything I'd ever thought about her being my least favorite of the Mane Six. "I suppose one night in this world wouldn't kill us." Then I saw Rain's expression pick up and, without my knowledge, so did mine.
"Are you guys sure? Isn't there some kind of space/time fabric that could get messed up?" Not that I minded, but I'd read enough, and by that I mean not much at all, science fiction to know something like this might break physics.
"Haha!" Twilight laughed at me, to my irritation. "That's funny! Space/time fabric!"
"There are some stores that I could take you guys too," I suggested to them, even knowing they couldn't buy anything. "You can't buy anything, but at least Rarity might be able to get some ideas from them."
"Hmm... You know, a nice winter line could help my business!" Glad to see that she liked the idea.
"Well, we don't really need you for that, Miles," Always nice to hear. Twilight Sparkle was one of my favorite ponies, always has been, but I sometimes wondered "Does she know how she sometimes come off to others?". "I know a directional spell!" She pointed into the air rather extravagantly.
"Well what are we waiting for, Twilight!?" Rarity almost sang. Apparently the prospect of other worldly fashions seemed too good of an idea not to go check out. "It is so on!" And so they left the room, no doubt searching for a safe place to teleport. I only wished that I'd had the time to thank Rarity for letting me have Rain for one last night.

I closed the door behind them and poured all the beer from earlier down the sink. Alcohol would only our last night together. Rain had a rather somber look on her face. Almost exactly like mine. We BOTH knew that this was our last night together. "So what do you want to do, Rain?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well," I started out. Rainbow Dash, though not as smart as Twilight or Applejack, always had some sense of direction. She always knew her next move. "Did you want to go to the movies? Or go out to dinner? I still have some money left."
She was trying not to look torn up as hell. I know because I was doing the same. Damn. Thing. "Come to think of it, where did all that money come from anyway? And why haven't I seen you go to work once this week?"
"It was the first day of my vacation when I found you. I was going to take a trip the next day, but then you showed up. The money I'd been spending with you was the money I'd saved for that trip over the last few months." I didn't want to tell her that because she would feel guilty. I then took my old seat next to her.
I don't know if she her pride was hurt or whether or not it was something else. It seemed almost as if joy and sadness fought a war over her face and what would show more. "You didn't have to help me, you know. You could have just ignored me and drove on. You would have never had to see this end."
I turned to look her in the eyes. "I know." Then she faced me with her beautiful violet eyes. "But I wanted too. And besides, why would anyone want to turn their back on this? It was the best time I'd ever had, even knowing your friends would find you."
"Miles." She tried to stop me from talking, maybe to insert her own point, but that point never came.
"I helped you because, after all you and your friends taught me, I couldn't NOT help you," I took her hands in my own. "You and the others made me, are making me, into the man I WANT to be, not the ma-"
Neither of us ever got to hear the end of that sentence, because then she kissed me. Long and deep and passionately. "You talk too much." She went back to kissing and I responded in kind, moving her still wet and crimson hair out of the way and slowly moving my own kisses down the side of her neck, finding at last that her cutie mark had been next to her shoulder and bellow the base of the neck. She must have liked it because she allowed it more and more. Soon, it became more and more ferocious as we began to remove our clothing, revealing that I had been wrong about her body. It wasn't in the form of an Olympian, but of a Goddess. As she rubbed my pale muscles and as my hands traced her lightly bronzed skin, we looked into each others eyes one last time, and then we realized something. We both knew this would only make the hurt worse. And we both knew that this would only deepen the wounds later on when she left, but neither of us really cared about that. Essentially, we were saying "Screw the hurt". And so we did.
> Last Day: Let it Rain
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rain stood next to me the next day. All seven of us stood in one of the small grass plains behind the Motel 6 I lived in. It was funny. Watching me and her walk up to her friends like that, it almost felt like we were in an old western movie. The one about the gun fight at the O.K. corral with Kurt Douglas. Tomb Stone, I think it was called. You know the one. I was wearing my favourite orange t-shirt, the one with a winged star on the front and my favourite leather jacket. It was a cold and sunny October day with only a few clouds in the morning sky.
I'd never felt a lump so large in my throat, but I wouldn't cry. I know that Rain would do the same for me. She was wearing the first shirt she wore with the superman tee. The striped one. All five of her friends looked like they were about to do something that was unforgivable, but they shouldn't have. Rain was their friend and they were taking her back to their, her, world. As much as I wanted too, I couldn't blame them for that. "So this is it, isn't it?" I looked to Rain, standing to my left.
"I guess so, Miles," she responded. All of her friends stated silent as we said our final goodbyes to each other. "You know, Miles..."
She trailed off mid sentence. I knew where she was going with this, but I still wanted to hear her piece anyway. "Yeah, Rain?"
"I could stay here with you." She suggested that with such determination and optimism, as if she thought I'd say yes. "We could make that work." She seemed so sure of that, too. Like there was nothing we couldn't accomplish between the two of us.
"No, Rain," I shot her down, much to her shock and awe. I had no choice though. "No, we couldn't."
In a sad anger that seemed so familiar, she began to plead her case. "Why? Because this isn't my world?”
“Rain…”
“Because all my friends want me to come back home?!
“Rain.”
“What makes you think I'll let anypony tell me what to do like that?!" I only looked somberly to the earth as she continued angrily at me. "We could find a way, Miles! We're both wily enough to-"
I cut her off midsentence with a kiss, although it seemed to have been lacking something. At last settled down, I began to explain why it wouldn't work, fighting the tears every step of the way. "You talk too much." I fancied a quick look to her friends. Pinkie Pie was barely holding herself together, and Rarity would have been on the edge of her seat if she had one. Finally, Rain stayed quiet enough for me to tell her why she couldn't stay. "Rain, ever since you crashed into my life, you've been the best thing that's ever happened to me. I've never loved anyone like you before, but it just wouldn't work if stayed here. Regardless of how much we both want it."
"But-" I couldn't let her argue her case anymore because, if I did, I might end up letting her stay here.
"You could be so much more in Equestria than you can be here, and I can't give you what you deserve, Rain." The lump in my throat being barely kept in check. But barely would have to be enough. "I told you that this world has as much good as there is bad, but you deserve a world where there's MORE good than bad. And I can't," the tears kept trying to make their way out and I kept denying them. "I can't give you that, Rain. You're too good for this world."
"Miles," she seemed to have been having the same issues with her eyes as I had with mine. Finally, I heard Pinkie Pie's infamous waterfall tears. "You're not like any other guy I'd ever known. You've got..." it almost seemed like she couldn't find the right words to finish that sentence. "I- DARN IT!" She started tearing up. She just couldn't bring herself to say it.
I only smiled. "I know, Rain. I know." Somehow, I managed to leave even the infamous Rainbow Dash speechless. "Me too." Then I looked down to her right hand to see the familiar royal blue of the shirt I gave her. "You can keep the t-shirt, by the way." She smirked when I said that. If nothing else, I wanted to give her something to remember me by.
"Goodb-"
"Don't say goodbye, Rain," I gave her a look that was both joyful and sad. "I hate goodbyes."
"You're right, Miles," She grabbed me by the collar of my shirt. "Who needs words?" Then, as her last act in this world, she gave me a deep and long kiss that rivaled even the passion of last night. She was right. Words can go screw themselves. Finally, lost in the ecstasy of each other’s lips and as if from a dream I wished I would never wake up from, she let go. "Take care of yourself, Miles" She turned to her friends with a content look on her face. "Girls? Let's go home."
"Are you sure you didn't have anything else you wanted to say to him?" She smiled as she appreciated her friends concern. "You'll never get this chance again."
Looking at her friends, then back to me, she shook her head no with a weary and somber smile. "I'm sure, Twilight." Looking back at me, she seemed as ready as either of us was ever going to be. "We've said all we needed too." I think we've said all we needed to." She wiped her eyes as she said that. I disagreed with her. So much more could have been said but wasn't. It was my one regret. Twilight gave an understanding nod back to her friend, and then lifted both hands. It took some heavy concentration on her part, but eventually a violet vortex was torn open. Rainbow Dash went in first, looking back one more time like she wanted to say something, then went through the portal. Next was Applejack, then Fluttershy, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, and last was Twilight. The last thing I saw was of hers before the rift in time and space closed was the brilliant crimson hair of the woman I loved leaving my world forever. Then, almost by reflex, I fell to my knees and I let it rain. I let it pour.

To be concluded
> The Days After: The Answer
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Rainbow Dash sat alone at a table outside at Sugar Cube Corner, staring at the sky. It wasn't the first time she'd done that in the five days since she left Miles' world, and chances are it wouldn't be the last. She looked to the piece of royal blue cloth he'd given her. She smiled. He never did say what the "S" stood for, did he? Not that guessing now would change anything, but she still couldn't help but wonder. Was there more besides what a letter meant on a shirt that they could have said? Her greatest regret was letting him stop her from telling him how much she cared. That she loved him. A single tear ran down her cheek as she thought about that. "Well it's too late now." She thought about how he was doing right now and if he was taking it as hard as she was. She couldn't stop thinking about that half-cocked and wily grin of his.

"Breaks your heart seein' her like that, don't it?" Applejack broke the silence a few tables away from where their friend was sitting. None of them felt right about what they did to Miles or Rainbow Dash. AJ herself felt the worst about it. Rainbow Dash was her best friend and, even though they didn't always agree, she deserved a happy ending as much as any of them did. "I just... I just can't get over that goodbye and how it left her."
"I know what you mean, AJ," Twilight Sparkle agreed with her cowgirl friend. "But what was I supposed to do? We couldn't leave her there. I mean, she doesn't even exist there." She looked down sadly. "Miles did the right thing, regardless of how much it broke her heart. He did what he had to do."
"So what happened?" Spike asked from next to Rarity. They'd almost completely forgotten he was there and that he wasn't filled in on what happened with Rainbow Dash and her trip to another world. "Nopony ever tells me anything."
Pinkie Pie was the one who answered, allowing the mood get to her and resulting in a more sedated response. "Rainbow went into somepony else’s world and fell in love, but she had to leave him behind." She looked at the rainbow maned pegasus sitting alone. "He seemed like such a super-nice guy, too."
"I wonder if there was anything else they wanted to say before we left with her," Fluttershy finally gave her piece. It was a good question and everypony at that table was thinking the same thing.
"Well, no use thinking about it now, Fluttershy," Twilight practically ignored her friend, even knowing she was thinking the same thing. It seemed painfully obvious that she was trying harder than everypony else to push what happened out of her head. It was probably because she's the one who took most of the blame for taking her. Knowing that she didn't have any choice in the matter didn't make it easier. "I think it would be best if we just moved on like it didn't even happen."
"How can you be so heartless, Twilight?" Everyone was shocked to hear that come from Fluttershy's mouth. It seemed like the meek and mild mare finally found her spine. "Rainbow Dash is our friend and we've never ever seen her like this! She needs our love and support right now!"
It seemed like getting yelled at by the normally timid pegasus made Twilight feel even worse about it. "I know, Fluttershy. But we had no choice." She moved her drink back and forth, looking at a shaking red reflection of herself in the punch. "We really didn't..."
They were all shocked by the violet unicorns blunt and insensitive response, but none of them thought Fluttershy would be the one to go off like that. Even Fluttershy was angry with Twilight.
It seemed like an eternity passed at that table. None of them, except for Spike, touched their cupcakes or their punch. It was like someone had seen it fit to just silence all of them. And even as they looked at the rainbow maned pegasus, speechless in the bright and sunny Ponyville day, they all knew that they would have to move on eventually from this. But Rainbow Dash would never be the same. Not after Miles.
That's when Twilight Sparkle noticed something rather peculiar about her fellow unicorn friend, Rarity. "Rarity? Why are you smiling?" She almost asked that with a sense of malice in her tone.
She seemed genuinely shocked that her violet friend asked that. "Twilight! I am doing no such thing!" She was a terrible liar. "I was merely reflecting upon the joy that Rainbow Dash felt while with the young human, Miles!" She was keeping her best poker face, but even somepony as elegant as Rarity couldn't wear it right. "A mare does not simply find love like that."	Twilight Sparkle squinted at her friend. "Rarity... what did you do?" She just looked away, though, as she was unable to answer for two reasons. One was because she didn't want to, and two was because Princess Celestia had decided to visit them from out of nowhere.
"Hello, girls!" She announced with her usual jovial demeanor. All of them tried to put on a happier face, but they all failed extravagantly. Which alerted the princess that something was off. "What's the matter, my dears?"
Twilight sighed and began to explain what happened. Everything from the gauntlet to the goodbye. "And we all just feel terrible about it, Princess."
She nodded, as if she could possibly understand the ace flyers plight and pain. "I see. That is very sad. Oh!" Suddenly, she turned to Rarity. "Rarity, I looked into that problem you asked me to address a few days ago. I had to pull some strings, but it should be fine now. Thank you for telling me." Then, as if she could turn her remorse and joy off and on like a switch, she left. "Goodbye, girls! Happy Thursday!"
Perplexed, bewildered, and flabbergasted, five of Rainbow Dash's friends looked at Rarity with their mouths agape, practically begging her to tell them what happened. "Yes?"
"Rarity, why was the princess just here?" AJ asked. That's when the fasionista developed an ear to ear grin.
"Dear Applejack," the pristine white mare started with the utmost faith in her words. "I haven't the slightest idea what you're talking about."

Rainbow Dash was never one for brooding or wallowing in self-pity. She'd always thought it was for the weak, but now? Now she just wanted feel it all and take it all in. She wanted to slow down and take things slowly for now. That's when something happened that set her off. Somepony decided it would be fun to block her light while she was feeling sorry for herself. It was bad enough she had to leave Miles behind, but now there was some jerk blocking her sun. "Hey pal! You wanna move it?"
"Sorry, I didn’t know I was disturbing you," she turned to see an unfamiliar orange pegasus standing behind her. "You mind if I sit here?"
Rainbow Dash sighed. She really did mind, but she figured that she could use some fresh company. "Go right ahead."
As she went back to staring at the royal blue cloth, the colt's attention was caught. "What's that?" Rainbow Dash didn't want to talk about it. "If you don't mind my asking."
"I kind of do mind," she wanted to blow this guy off, but there was nothing particularly off-putting about him. "It was a gift from a friend I had to say goodbye too."
"Oh. I'm sorry, I didn't mean too-"
"Forget it," she almost spat those last words at him with acid. "What did you want, anyway?"
"I wanna answer your question." Question? Rainbow Dash didn't ask him anything. "If that's alright with you, that is."
"What are you talking about? I didn't ask you anything." This guy was really starting to bug her now. First he blocked her light, then he started prying into her personal life like he knew her. Like he was one of her friends. She felt her blood boil as this guy kept digging deeper into her business.
Then he gave an all-knowing grin. “The 'S' on the shirt?" Rainbow Dash's head perked up almost by reflex. "It stands for 'super'." The sky blue mare’s heart started beating faster and faster as everything, from the voice to the wily twinkle in his eyes, started to finally register. Exactly one tear trailed down the ace flyers right cheek. "I told you not to say goodbye."

(now would be a good time to YouTube the song "So Caught up in you")

The End