March 23rd, 2016 at 2:35 am
Midnight Iris Entry
Dear Journal,
It's been a long time since any of us have last written but I thought it was time for a big fat update; especially for what happened earlier today (22nd).
But before all that happens, I have to point out that Annie had her 8th birthday party last week. I managed to get to bed early and be awake earlier for her party. It was held on the Bermareda ship and was all decorated in old Valentine's day decorations as those best matched Annie's colors. It had occurred to Annie that maybe us land ponies and Griz, no longer knew how to swim in our new bodies so her party would be swimming lessons in the shallows before dinner. It was pointed out that me, Griz and Jazz could fly and thus didn't need to know how to swim; however, Patrick made a point. "What if one of the fliers got struck by lightning in the wing and fell into the ocean?" So needless to say, everypony got pony lessons; even Kathryn learned to doggy paddle just in case! When Annie blew out her birthday candles, I somehow knew she wished for her mom and dad back.
So my 22nd started around midnight and I was on night watch with Max. Nothing really exciting happened beyond watching a flock of bats do a fly dive in the near by marshes. Max had tried to chase after them but of course, bats (and all animals) were getting smarter and none of them fell victim. It occurred to me we might need to find some breeding dogs if we wanted to keep up with protecting the fields.
I hate to admit it but night watch has been really boring lately, especially when I had Max or Millie with me. So at some point, I flew Max up to one of the second story balconies of U1 and I fell asleep in the cool breeze. It turned out to be a fantastic thing because otherwise, I would have missed out. I woke around sunrise, realizing my mistake.
Of course, I ratted myself out to Kathryn when she arrived for breakfast. I was making a big pot of oatmeal with smaller dishes of a variety of toppings. When I told her, she simply waved her hoof. "No harm, no foul. Between you with Max, me with Raea, Millie with the animals and all the buildings locked at night away, we were fine. If you're that tired, maybe sleep a little longer?" I nodded at the suggestion, and then brought up the idea I had about breeding dogs. We all knew that Raea, Max and Millie were all fixed prior to event so we'd have to go out searching for any stray pregnant animals. "If we start at the animal control office, we could borrow their rescue vehicle and any cages & supplies. We could get Li and Jazz to set up another ground level office for a nursery," Kathryn said as she carefully set the table.
They all loved the idea of a doggy nursery for raising guard dogs. Ebony & Slate (the two barn cats found back at Halloween) were already doing a fabulous job at keeping the vermin out of the barn but they should not hesitate if they found a pregnant cat. Kathryn obviously nominated herself and Raea to go searching but she also invited me to go as back up. "You sleep so much during the day. It's time you finally got to hang out with us," she said.
Griz, Jazz & Li promised to have a pair of offices cleared out before we got back. Dr Jamie said he knew of a couple of small animal vet offices near by he could raid for more medical related supplies. "I'll take Max and a crossbow; don't worry about me," he said when Kathryn hesitated. Something is blossoming between those two.... I just don't want to bring it up and embarrass them.
Finding the packs of dogs was the easy part; Kathryn had gotten her hooves on a dog whistle and she filled the back of one of our junk trucks (use until fuel runs out) with bags of dog food, cutting it wide open. As the truck bounced along on some really bad suspension springs, much of the kibble tumbled out the back open hatch and onto the street. The truck's wind drag spread the smell of the food on the breeze behind them and dogs began coming out of the side alleys, tackling each other over the falling pieces. At one point, Kathryn gestured toward a hockey stick that was propped in the cab's open back window. I took it in my hooves and heaved down; this acted as a lever and dumped out the bag's complete contents. This riled up the dogs and even more of them came out of side alleys and abandoned buildings.
We drove for a little longer and eventually came to an animal rescue center. It had become obviously clear; this was no ordinary rescue facility. Griz had directed us to what appeared to be more of an aquatic animal rescue center, not unlike the one I saw in Kathryn's copy of "Winter's Tale" one night while bored. This place had two main buildings: one for the aquatics and one for the domestic animals.
Curiosity ate at us so we explored the aquatic side first. I won't say much of the dead animals we found in the evaporated-empty tanks beyond at how bad the whole place smelled. Going into the storage rooms with non-functioning refrigerators, we avoided opening any of them with meat warning labels.
Instead, we passed into a locker room and found a caged section containing harpoons, rifles, expensive diving equipment and oxygen tanks. A quick buck with Kathryn's Earth pony strength took care of the padlock. She smashed the harpoons to smithereens and grabbed a rifle case to begin loading up. I used the claw tips of my wings to open drawers and scrounge around. The top one was just desk stuff like pencils, pens, rulers, etc and the second was paperwork files & manuals for the rifles (Kathryn took those). The bottom drawer was locked but i found the keys in the top drawer so I used my mouth to safely unlock it. Inside, I found a pair of hand guns (not sure why they were there....) and small bundle of diving knives inside of special arm band sheaths. I grabbed the knives bundle and placed them inside the rifle case. Kathryn raised an eyebrow as I unhooked one and pulled it up onto my back left leg. "Never know when it might come in handy....." My ears drooped, my head went down and my eyes all rolled by instinct for using an old human adage; Kathryn nickered behind a fore hoof but said no more.
I have to say, the black knife sheath looks incredibly rad on my leg with my 'hard core' bat pony look. I saw my full body reflection in a huge mirror inside the locker room and it was a bit of a shock. I'm no vampire so I knew I had a reflection but seeing it full body like that was still a surprise.... and a delight.
I've only told Dr Jamie so far, for medical reasons, but before the event, I was a transgender female. I had been out of the closet and taking hormone therapies for about ten years so I was well on my way to becoming a woman. But then the event happened and it gave me a mare's body. The pony was a surprise but the female part made me so happy. Maria Theresa really was my female name that I went by.... but then Midnight Iris seemed more fitting for a bat pony; I wasn't sure why when I picked it but I loved it and still do. I write it down in here so that the others might read it and understand me and accept me as they did for Griz.... I read the whole book from the beginning one night so yeah, I know that too. Now it was my turn to let go.
Getting back to the story....
Kathryn joked and said I looked "bad ass" with the leg sheath but made me promise I'd be careful with it. "You don't need to add any scars to your already awesome look," she said with a chuckle. "I dunno," I replied as I ran a fore leg over my bangs. "I really could use a mane cut." We shared a laugh again as we made our way to the second building.
Kathryn did manage to find one of their animal control trucks with all the air conditioned side cages and the keys had been left in the key slot but the engine turned off. "Someone must have been on duty at time of Event but came back to maybe drop off a patient?" I suggested. Kathryn shrugged; "We may never know."
Working quickly, we transferred a couple bags of dog & cat foods into one of the cages and Kathryn quickly swapped the foot pedal extenders from the old junker into this one. "Care to drive?" she asked, raising a hoof to the driver's seat. I shrugged. "Why the heck not?" I said with a chuckle. I knew she did that so she and Raea could walk along side, letting Raea sniff out any dogs. But insisted she carry the crossbow already rigged for pony use. "A fair compromise," she relented.
At first, we drove together to a downtown section of inland; Kathryn suggested we'd have better luck further inland, away from the ocean. When we came to a densely built area, Kathryn signaled to stop; she and Raea hopped out quickly and started trotting forward. I saw Kathryn give Raea some kind of hoof signal and a verbal command I could not make out at that distance. Raea's ears perked up and her nose went to the ground; either Kathryn had this dog extremely well trained or Raea really was getting smarter like the others were saying.
Bear in mind, I have been noticing peculiar changes in Merlyn too lately. (Merlyn is my falcon friend, just in case no one else has mentioned him before now.) He seems to understand our need for the farm fields to keep growing and has taken a habit of perching on a tree near the field, attacking any bird that tries to even get close. He's like those trained birds the humans used to use to keep other birds away from air strips so the birds don't get sucked into the air plane engines. Merlyn seems to take pride in catching a raven or crow that tries to make a break for the corn stalks or oat husks. He'll sometimes bring the bird to me or Griz to share with; other times, he'll drop the offending avian into the ocean where a shark will come by to claim a free lunch. I would have brought him with me on this trip but I was afraid he'd scare the mother dogs so I left him on guard duty in the farm field. He seems to have built a dark nest in one of the trees there so I don't mind that he didn't sleep with me like he did when we were traveling.
Slowly making our way through the empty city streets was very eerie and I was glad that this was not the middle of the night. It felt like that "Silent Hill" movie I watched back at Halloween with the other adults (Kathryn pointing out that part of it was filmed in the downtown section of her home city*); all foreboding, spooky and abandoned.
On occasion, Kathryn would blow the dog whistle; Raea would stop and look back at her mistress but Kathryn would wave the dog on with a flick of her hoof. Eventually Raea began to ignore the dog call and just kept sniffing. The truck was going slow enough, every now and then, Kathryn would go to the back of the truck and take a scoop of the dog food with a steel bowl and dump it on a street corner. As we'd go by & a bit further down, some dogs would come out and investigate. Kathryn would eye them, use a pair of binoculars she liberated from the animal rescue and continue on if she didn't see what she was looking for.
At one point, she was walking on the driver's side of the truck. I clicked the electric window button to roll it down and asked her how she knew what to look for. She shook her head. "I don't but I can tell a male dog from a female. All the dogs I keep seeing are males," she replied. "Oh," I said back. There really wasn't much to say.
It wasn't until we got to poor parts of town.... aka, the Boonies, as Kathryn called them. Junkyard dogs, with huge thick collars and chains dragging down, charged down at Kathryn but Raea jumped in front every single time and defended her. Kathryn would then give the dogs some of the kibble; as they ate, she'd remove the awful heavy collars as a show of friendship. I swear, every single time she did that (collar removing), the dogs would do a full body shake and bob their heads in thanks before devouring the kibble pile. Raea would give a couple gruff and yips but the dogs would shake their heads and bound away. Kathryn explained to me later that she had instructed Raea to ask about any bitches with puppies in need of help. "The best way to find the moms is to ask the possible dads," Kathryn said, as if it was the most logical thing in the whole messed up world! LOL
Finally, after finding our fifth junkyard dog, Raea got a lead. When she gruff and yipped again, the dog didn't respond right away. He practically inhaled the pile first, then bobbed his head again and started walking away slowly. Kathryn gave me the hoof to stop the truck and join her. The dog, a large calm Rottweiler, paused at the entrance to a dark side alley as he waited for me, Kathryn and Raea to catch up. When we did, he lead us down the alley to a nearby backyard strewn with debris, lumber, overgrown weeds and an old wooden shed with a corner broken out of it. I could hear whimpering from inside; like a dog in distress.
While the Rottweiler stayed outside, Raea went in to investigate. She didn't come out for a while but when we heard a single bark, Kathryn went over and fully opened the shed's front doors. Inside, we found a female dog laid out on a pile of old blankets and newspapers, panting heavily, and very clearly pregnant. Next to her was a bowl of dirty rain water that had been dripping in from a hole in the roof and were the bones of her last meal. "It's a Pitweiler," I whispered. Kathryn looked at me confused. "A Rottweiler/Pit-bull cross," I replied. Kathryn carefully took the bowl of kibble that i kept balanced between my wings and placed it in front of the female. The girl practically dove her nose into the bowl and gobbled it down. As she ate, I took the water dish, dumped it, cleaned it as best as I could and replaced the water with some from a bottle. The girl gave an appreciated whine as her huge tongue lapped up the first fresh she's probably had in weeks.
Kathryn carefully stepped back out of the shed and pulled out a radio walkie. "Jamie, I think we got one. Midnight says she's a Pitweiler and the pair seem friendly enough. The girl is laying on her side and panting heavily despite being in the shade; and she's got a big belly." "That sounds about right. Bring them in if you can," came the reply.
Kathryn nodded to me and whistled to Raea to exit. The Earth Pony then knelt down next to the female dog and started talking about bringing them both back with us so we could take care of each other. "You help protect our colony, we keep feeding you and take really good care of your puppies," she said, looking each of them in the eyes. They seemed to hesitate for a moment, then Raea came over and rolled onto her side with some more barks and yips. Kathryn seemed to understand and she carefully folded back Raea's fur to expose her buck's antler's injury. The male saw that scar, came over and gently licked it. The female reached over and nuzzled Raea in a similar gesture I had seen other ponies do as a sign of comfort. "You won't be alone; we have Max & Millie already but none of them can have puppies. We will keep all of them together," I added. "We do have cats but they stick to the barn; and Midnight here has a falcon named Merlyn and he sleeps in a tree. We need you to help us guard the buildings, and the animals during the day." Kathryn gently petted Raea's head. "And any invaders you help us kill, you get to feast," she added. That seemed to tip the scales for them.
Kathryn found an old wagon nearby and us two ponies used the top most blanket as a stretcher to get her up into it. Kathryn then wrapped her tail into the handle of the wagon and began pulling. "Something obscure I read about in an Earth pony book," she said to my raised eyebrow. As we walked back to the truck, we began thinking of names for them.
We were able to use a large piece of lumber as a ramp for the dogs to get up into the cages with. We told them this was the best way we could transport them safely back to the colony. We even lined the female's cage with her blanket so she'd be more comfortable; gave them each some more kibble and water before securing the doors and shoving the wagon into the truck's back storage slot (inside had been some ladders we could no longer use so dumped them on the side of the road).
I took the driver's seat again as we walked out of the Boonies and into more residential areas. A few more piles of kibble later, an actual pregnant female came up to a pile all on her own. Kathryn suspected this one was not as far along as the Pitweiler; this girl, a very pretty Labrador, was also very friendly as soon as she figured out where the food was coming from. And she was much more spry; she would jump around playfully as Raea approached her. After a quick exchange, the Lab bounded over and started licking Kathryn's face. Under the constant affection of this new dog and her laughter, Kathryn finally toppled over and dumped the second bowl of kibble.
It wasn't long before the Lab finished that pile and calmed down enough for Kathryn to check her out and spotted a pink collar under all the fur. The name on the tag said "Candy". We had just found our second female.
Having found two girls and a dad already, we loaded up and started back towards Campus City. We had come up empty on the pregnant cat front but we also knew that cats were even more aloof when with kittens so they'd be even more well hidden. We had our dogs and while the Lab already had a name -and probably a family at some point- the other two were clearly junkyard dogs, neglected and maybe even abused. The scars on the male's muzzle, something I didn't see until I was really close up, gave that kind of indication.
"If the Rott gets the Lab girl pregnant later, what will those puppies be called?" Kathryn asked me on the way back. "Labrottie," I replied. She eyed me... "You're making shit up!" she accused. "Nope... when we get back, I have a binder I brought with me from home. It's got all the cross breed names in it; researched it all myself back in the day from internet sources," I said with a smug look. "I've loved dogs my whole life and so I've researched everything I could. I wanted to be a dog veterinarian when I grew up; but then found out I'd have to deal with cats and birds and other critters.... so then I decided on dog rescuer/breeder instead. I ended up working with the Animal Welfare department of my local SPCA. I'd go rescue junkyard dogs like our pair; fighting dogs; neglect and abuse.... I specialized in large dogs; my strong human size worked to my advantage at the time."
When we got back to Campus City, Dr Jamie was waiting for us in the animal's building. While Candy & the male Rottie jumped down from their cages, we used a life guard stretcher (fabric with light weight poles) to lift the female Pitweiler down onto a lowered wheeled stretcher (probably liberated from the hospital). DJ explained that he had Li use her magic to attach a soft but strong rope to the one end of the stretcher. He then ducked under said rope, settled it around the front of his chest and began walking. As he did, his Earth pony strength took the strain and began walking the stretcher inside. The Rottie began following along side, just like a human dad might do with worry over a pregnant wife.
DJ led us through the main front doors of the building and to the left; to the right are the cow & chicken rooms. He led us to a near by conference room, clearly split in half; dogs on one side, cats on the other. I could tell this by the different set ups. The dog's side had huge cages, some covered in cloth, some not; the giant sized dog beds and even a few dog houses that looked like they had been taken from back yards. There were tug-of-war rope toys, stuffed animals, chew bones and even a large plastic fake fire hydrant. The cat side was littered with kitty litter boxes, scratch towers of every shape and size; small cages, some covered in cloth, some not; bell balls, feather mice, plastic springs and hanging pompoms inside cages and around a few of the towers. Slicing down the middle of the room was a huge clear plastic wall divider, about twice the height of a pony, with what appeared to be a door for both sides access. "Bloody brilliant," Kathryn whispered with a chuckle.
The female Pitweiler took an interest in the room she was now in. As soon as DJ stopped and lowered the stretcher to as far as it would go, the female stepped down on shaky legs, grabbed her blanket in her mouth and promptly hurried over to the closest dog house and laid down on her blanket. "What ever makes you comfortable, my dear," DJ chuckled as he shoved the stretcher over to the clear wall and left it there. I saw now that the mattress had been scrawled with "DOGZ" on the top and I saw another one on the other side -a child sized- labeled "CATZ". It was a smart move to keep these on hoof in case were needed.
DJ now came over with a pair of shiny new dog collars; both were camo designs, one blue and one pink. I had seen back in the hallway was one of those tag engravers from like, Petsmart or some such. "What are we going to name them. I saw the Lab already got a name." He nodded over to the female Lab, who was chewing on a bone. "Yeah, that's Candy. We think she was a house pet cuz of the collar. No idea on these two though.... I've been wracking my brain for any ideas." Kathryn placed a hoof on her head. "Arthur for the male; Guinevere for the female." I pointed to the dogs in reference; both Earth ponies looked at me in surprise. Kathryn looked at the two dogs and nodded. "It suits them," she said. DJ nodded agreement and went out to the machine to make the new dog tags. He came back a few minutes later and presented the dogs with their new collars. Guinevere took her's with a friendly lick to DJ's face & wag of tail; Arthur seemed to hesitate, until she gave an encouraging whimper, and he accepted.
"We'll let you all settle in for a while and introduce you to the others later," Kathryn said with some final pats to Arthur & Candy, who had come over to see the excitement. Arthur gave a huge yawn, walked over to Guinevere's cage and laid down next to her head. Candy trotted over to another cage, covered with a cloth and laid down herself; clearly claiming that one as hers. DJ told us that Guinevere could give birth at any time so we should leave the dogs in peace and check in on them later. We left plenty of food, water and a very large doggie door installed into the back wall out to the back of the building. "Please take your business to the trees, please," DJ had said, showing Arthur & Candy; leaving some newspapers down near Guinevere's cage in case she needed it.
By the time I had parked the animal rescue truck and made my way back to U1, it was already 4 pm! [By the way, I should mention, we abolished the Daylight Savings time thing back in November. Voted magnanimously to stop using it.] Entering the kitchenette in search of a snack, Jazz pointed to the fridge. "Griz made an extra fish sandwich at lunch and left it for you. Please eat it quickly so it doesn't stink the fridge," she said nonchalantly, slurping a juice box. "Don't be rude, Jazz. You're just jealous we ponies can't eat meat anymore," Kathryn said as she dropped the animal rescue's rifle case into the closet.
Li Lang came in at the sound of our voices and noticed my knife. "Nice bling," she said, nodding her head towards it. To be honest, I had totally forgotten about it and laughed. "Yeah, Kathryn says I look bad-ass in it," I replied as I took the sealed bowl from the fridge in my wing claws and took it outside. The fish had been BBQ'd and in the fridge a while but it was still delicious.
Some time later, Kathryn & Jazz came outside with Raea. "Raea needs a walk and you haven't been flying much so you two go for a low altitude flight along the beach or something. That's an order," Kathryn said as she took my tray despite the smell and huffed back inside, closing the door. It looked like Raea had taken one of the tug-of-war rope toys from the dogs room and was happily chewing it as she trotted in the direction of the beach, not waiting for us ponies.
An awkward silence fell over us as we took flight, about a pony & half height above the ground. Reaching the beach, every thing seemed to be in place. The waves gently crashed over a smaller section of rocks we had installed as a sea wall to protect the life guard tower from storms. And yes, DJ knew exactly where the human-made beach would end and so that as the beach is worn away, we'd simply move the rocks up as needed. From my inspection that day, we were still good for a while; Griz's maintenance notes told me she last moved them in early January.
As we walked on the stiffer, wet sand near the water's edge, a series of loud splashes and some yelling brought us to the section of rocks just north of the life guard tower. Raea sniffed the air, got all excited and made a be-line for the rocks. Jazz & I took flight and followed the dog, keeping a few body heights above her.
When we reached the rocks, we heard more high pitched excited squeals over top of the waves crashing. Raea came upon the scene first, me & Jazz performing a circle before landing. There, we found little Annie up on the rocks, using her teeth to try to pull an old fishing net off of a giant sea turtle. Sarah & Patrick were treading water a fair bit out at sea, yelling at Annie to come back but the filly could not hear them over the crashing waves. She used her own body to shield the turtle's head from the wave as she tried to work on removing the net.
Finding that ocean tack gear at the animal rescue place was a God-send because as Jazz acknowledged the two adults, I used my webbed wing's claw to draw my new knife from its leg holster and was just about to cut the line when Annie grabbed the knife from my wing grasp into her mouth. I was so shocked by her action; "she's a child and should not be holding that!" But when I looked in her eyes, something was off. Her eyes stared straight ahead with a blank look in them. Then, they started to glow a gentle white as she slowly approached the turtle. She placed one hoof on the turtle's head and the creature stopped squirming. The white glow from her eyes traveled down to the tip of the knife but her eyes retained the blank look. She then, with knife still in her mouth, slipped it under a single strand of the net and jerked her head up fast. The knife cut through that single strand like it was butter but every other strand ALSO BROKE at the exact same time! it was like she had thousands of invisible knives all poised to cut at the same time. She even got the tiny embedded lines that were hopelessly entangled in the turtle's neck!
As she placed the knife on the rocks beside her, she grabbed a hold of the single strand she cut and pulled. The magic from her eyes traveled to the net and it was like the whole thing dissolved into thin air. The turtle made a happy gurgling sound at Annie before turning around and dropping back into the ocean. Annie made a similar gurgle sound at the retreating turtle and then her eyes rolled into the back of her head & she fainted. Luckily, Jazz had made her way to Annie's other side and caught her; I grabbed up my knife and put it back into the holster.
I looked down to where Annie's flank would be and watched as a flash of white magic made a mark appear: a large crashing wave (facing toward her front), curling over top a dark purple medical cross.
The crashing wave that had been battering us suddenly stopped and the two adult merponies were able to approach the rocks. Sarah squealed with delight at the sight of Annie's cutie mark as Jazz flew Annie over to Patrick's back. Annie began to stir as a more gentle wave rinsed the sand and pebbles from her skin. "Take her home and let her rest for a while. We'll tell Kathryn what happened here and bring yourselves up to U1 for a celebration dinner. You all know how Kathryn gets," Jazz said with a wink. Sarah & Patrick laughed and waved before diving down.
Jazz & I returned immediately returned to U1 with Raea and told what happened. Li, Kathryn & Griz squealed with delight; my sensitive bat ears went back in an instinct reaction. And then I took a three hour nap before the special dinner but didn't sleep all that heavy, with Li working carefully on my knife & sheath on my desk.
Dinner that night was prepared with a seafood theme. We learned very quickly that ponies CAN eat certain things like clams, lobster and shrimp! "They're called crustaceans," Annie said. "Yes dear, they are. But we can also eat shellfish; things like oysters, scallops and mussels," Sarah said gently, using her magic to pass over a dish of clams to DJ. "So kiddo.... did you figure out what your cutie mark means?" DJ asked as he took the clams dish in his hooves and began taking a scoop out. Annie, with her mouth full of shrimp, nodded her head, finished chewing, swallowed and then spoke. "Yup! I'm an animal rescuer! When I need to I can use anything on hoof that will cut to solve a problem and rescue a trapped sea animal; I can even speak the animal's language so it will know I'm there to help and keep calm while I work," Annie said proudly, her cutie mark glowing slightly as she recited.
I got up from the table and removed my leg's knife sheath. It was the same knife Annie had used earlier but a few changes had been made. The black Velcro band had been replaced with a wide pink Velcro belt and her new cutie mark's cross (only) had been embedded into the sheath, handle and engraved into the blade. "It seems only fitting that you keep the knife you used on your very first rescue," I said as I gently wrapped the belt around her waist and secured it. Patrick seemed proud; Sarah showed uncertainty. "Promise me, you'll only use this for rescues and self defense. And you'll come to me if there's anything wrong with it?" I asked. Annie, at a loss for words, nodded vigorously and gave me a hug.
I stayed up much of that night, seeing the merponies back to the beach around midnight; Annie fast asleep on Patrick's back again. "She's getting to be a big girl... I won't be able to carry her for much longer," he said jokingly.
Flying around Campus City, I saw Arthur patrolling around the exterior of the animal building and Merlyn had just gone into a dive at another black bird trying to get into the corn field. Things are looking really good for Campus City.
PS. Don't worry! I've already replaced my leg knife with another one from the collection I tossed into the rifle case. This one is nicer because it has a black blade on it; about 20% cooler.
Somewhere in another plane of existence, Rainbow Dash had a weird feeling that something was just declared "20% cooler" but they didn't understand why; it had just felt right to them. "This must be what Pinkie Sense feels like," she muttered to herself, rolled over on her cloud and fell back into her nap.