//------------------------------// // Holding Out // Story: New Perspective // by Arbiter Balemead //------------------------------// Ever felt like it's just you and your small group of friends against the world? That's how I feel. You make an enemy of the popular colt on day one, and suddenly all your peers treat you like public enemy number one. It really does feel like it's me, Shy, and G against the world sometimes. I've gotten that feeling for years. First hour was a disaster. The teacher rearranged the seating chart, and I ended up with Quick Silver sitting at the desk next to me. It was never easy to get used to somepony new for me, and it was especially hard to get used to a colt who, even though he was good friends with a jerk like Flash, insisted he wasn't like that. My opinion? If you're not like that, then you shouldn't be his friend. "Oh, cut me a break." He begged. "What, you need a break after all the time you've spent NOT saving foals from Flash's bullying?" "He's my friend..." "Some friend you've got there. Is it nice when he tells you what to do? Or maybe I've been doing it wrong by protecting my friends." "We grew up together. He wasn't always like that." "He is now!" "Miss Dash? Do you and Silver have something you would like to share with the rest of class?" The teacher asked. "Erm... no, Miss Skies, nothing." I answered. "Then please keep it down. I gave you this time to do some studying, not gossip and argue." "Yes ma'am." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ We went out to the track again and me and Gilda just sat and waited. Rainbow hadn't gone yet so we were a little excited. Considering that she'd broken the sound barrier before, we were sure she'd top this class. The names got called off leading up to her. "Prancer and Rainbow Dash." The coach called. We watched as Rainbow trotted up to the line, her head held high and her face indifferent. She bent down, ready to take off, as the coach raised his hoof for the signal. He swung his hoof down, and the world seemed to slow down. Rainbow flapped her wings hard, launching herself forward. She flew forward in a blur. I felt my jaw go slack as she crossed the finish line before Prancer had even gone halfway. It took the coach a moment to register what had just happened. He looked over at Rainbow, who had needed another thirty meters to slide to a halt, and called her time. "Eleven-point-two..." He said and then looked at his watch again. "A-and Prancer you got twenty-five-point-nine." I looked around at the foals around me. My entire class was staring, open-mouthed, at Rainbow as she glided slowly and landed beside me. "Sheesh, dude, I knew you were fast, but that was crazy!" Gilda commented. I couldn't speak. I wanted to say she was fast. I wanted to congratulate her, but for some reason my mouth wouldn't work. I just stared at her. "Was I really that fast, Shy?" I nodded. "Heh, well would you please stop staring at me like that?" Like what? I realized, suddenly, that my jaw was still slack, and my eyes were as open as they could get. I pulled my jaw shut and adjusted my eyelids. "S-sorry..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ In health class I was just sitting there, doodling from boredom when, wouldn't you know it? In walks Flash. *groan* He wasn't in here yesterday. What's he doing here now? He walked over to the teacher's desk and handed him a note. Teach read it and looked him over. After a moment he pointed over to a seat near mine. Great. That's twice in one day that one of the jerks of the class gets thrown at me. The worst part was that he could talk all he wanted because it was just a study hall thanks to the fact that this seemed to be the only teacher that was treating this like the first week of school instead of a test week. "Oh, hey there Rainbow Crash. What're you up to?" He asked mockingly. I glared at him and shut my notebook. "Go ahead and insult me. If that's how you deal with the sting of jealousy, who am I to judge?" I said grinning at him. "Pfft. Right. I'm jealous. And Celestia has a purple unicorn for a personal protege." I didn't drop my grin. He kept glaring at me, like it would ever get him anywhere. He suddenly broke into a devilish grin and turned to his notebook, seemingly jotting something down. "So how are things with your marefriend?" I could feel my face darkening. "Excuse me?" I asked warningly. "You know what I'm talking about. You and Klutzershy. It's really adorable. Do you get off feeling like her special protector? Is that it?" "Flash. If you say one more wor-" "You'll what? Deck me? I can't wait to see you in detention, then." A moment of silence. "Go buck yourself." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ The bell rang, signalling the end of my fourth hour. I got up and started for the door. "Miss Shy? Can you please stay after for a moment?" The teacher asked. I walked over to her desk and waited for the other students to leave. "Y-yes?" I asked once the other students were out the door. "I've only had you in here for two days, and I can tell you don't belong in this class. What did a smart mare like you do that got you put in a Special Education Literature class?" "I missed an entire quarter of a year..." "How did that get you in here?" "W-well... all those missed classes... I got held back a year. I guess somepony higher up thinks that I got held back because I'm stupid." "Which you're certainly not... Alright, I think there will be a way to get you into regular education, but it could take a while..." "O-okay..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I sat alone at lunch for a while today. I don't know what was keeping Fluttershy, but I'd heard that Gilda had gotten in a fight with somepony, and ended up in In School Suspension. I don't know what the fight was about or anything but it didn't sound like it'd gone well for her. I was just sitting there, eating, when a tray hits the table next to me. "Hey, Sh-" But when I looked over, I found Quick Silver sitting next to me. "Woah, what do you think you're doing?" "Making amends. Look I know you don't like Flash, and I know you don't like me, but if you'd just give me a chance-" "To do what? Stop being a jerk? Looks like you got that one down to me. What you need to do is not hang out with him. It's kinda obvious that you're not good friends." "I guess not, bu-" "So you know you're not friends, but you won't stand up to him? Or at least NOT hang out with him?" "I-... I don't know. What do you want me to say, Rainbow?" "Nothing. I want you to DO something." "Fine. What?" "Anything." "R-Rainbow? Silver?" I looked over to find Fluttershy standing, her lunch tray on her back, staring at the two of us. I put a hoof on his shoulder and slid him over so Shy could sit next to me. She set her tray next to mine and sat at the table, nervously glancing at Silver. "I *ahem* I should go..." "No. You can stay." Fluttershy murmured. I gave her a warning glance, but she just smiled warmly at me. Meh. If she's made up her mind on this, what do I care? "Fine. So, what took you so long, Shy?" "My teacher wanted to talk to me." "About...?" "It's nothing." She glanced at Silver... Oh... I see. She didn't want him to hear. She kept eating and awkwardly sitting there. "So... Silver." I started. "Yes?" He asked. He apparently got tired of leaning over the table so he could see me past Fluttershy, because he picked up his tray and moved to sit opposite me. "You gonna take my 'advice'?" I asked, quirking an eyebrow. "Maybe. By the way, I ran into him in the hall on the way here. He said you and him had a 'nice chat' about Fluttershy... what's he mean by that?" "Who's 'him'?" Fluttershy asked. I felt my face get all stony as Silver mentioned that 'chat', but I didn't bother trying to hide it. "Flash. He apparently got a transfer to my health class. Yeah we had a 'chat'. I don't want to talk about it." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ That's weird... She just avoided that as best she could. I've never heard her say she doesn't want to talk about something that didn't have something to do with book-smarts. Now she's focusing an awful lot on eating... Whatever it is she's not talking about, I'm sure it's not important if she won't tell me... Although... the way she said she didn't want to talk about it... "Oh.... Okay then. I guess it's not a big deal, then." "It's not." The way she said it made me think that it was, in fact, a big deal. The rest of my day passed without event. It was boring and slow...not to be mean, but... well it was. I mean, all my classes were just us doing nothing. I suppose that's because they were study and health. The teacher of my health just had us turn in our papers on kindness and then had us sit in silence the whole hour while she graded. The bell rang and I found Rainbow waiting for me outside the main doors. She kept looking around nervously, like she was worried somepony would see her. "What's wrong?" I asked. "What? Nothing's wrong." I quirked an eyebrow at her. "Okay, yeah, something's bothering me, but you don't need to worry about it." "B-but, I am worried." "Heh... uhm... it's nothing, really. Hey, G had to stay after for public service, so I think we should go somewhere to eat before heading back to the dorms." "Okay." We took off and flew towards a nearby fast-food place, CloudKisser's. It wasn't bad... I don't really enjoy tofu burgers, but Rainbow loves them. They aren't really that bad for you, and considering how much energy she exerts anyway, she doesn't really have to worry about that. We arrived at CloudKisser's and ordered a burger and a large salad to share. Once we had our food we sat at a table by a window in the corner. She ate her burger while I picked at the salad gingerly. She glanced at me and scrunched her eyes at me. "You know, you really should eat more than that. You make me worried you'll starve sometimes." "Oh, I'm fine. Really." I had to reassure her, because she was still scrutinizing me. Her eyes stayed scrunched up for a moment, but then she just shrugged and went back to eating her burger. I ate the salad quietly, and once she finished her burger, we shared the salad in a companionable silence. I looked around and noticed some of the ponies from my first hour sitting nearby. They kept glancing over at us, then they turned back to each other, giggling. "Rainbow? Is there something funny about us?" "Huh?" She looked at me, then followed my gaze and realized what I was talking about. "Oh... N-no... I'm sure it's nothing..." I looked at her curiously, but she wasn't looking at me. "*ahem* I'm good to go. You wanna get to the dorms or hang out somewhere else?" I looked outside. "I-I think I'd like to hang out some more." "Okay, cool. Where to?" "We could just fly around, if you want." We got up and walked outside and took off. I just followed her lead, not really caring where we went as long as I was in her company. I don't know why, but I just didn't really feel like there was much to worry about while I was in Rainbow's company. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ I'm getting sick of feeling so paranoid. I'm barely holding out against my stupid fears... No that's not the word for them... Irrational? Yeah, that's the word. It doesn't really matter, though. I'm still getting sick of them. I mean, how long can you last when you're afraid of being seen with your best friend? How long can you last if you're afraid of not being with that friend often enough? How long can you last if you're afraid of your friends becoming enemies? How long can you last if you're afraid of your enemies becoming friends? How long can you last if you're afraid of all those things at the same time? Not long...not long at all. I mean, I wanted to buck those foals just for giggling at us. That's why I wanted to get out of there right away. Plus, I'm getting scared of being as close to Fluttershy as I already am! How am I even making it through the day without crashing? Okay, deep breath, Rainbow. *sigh* I think I'm just over-thinking that 'chat' with Flash. What's he know? Nothing about fillies, that's for dang sure... I glanced over at Fluttershy, only a few feet behind me. She caught me looking and smiled contentedly. She was such a great friend. What do I care what other ponies thought of us? Just because we're good friends doesn't mean anything... Right? We flew around Cloudsdale for no reason in particular other than just to fly. She's been getting better at this, but she's still nowhere near as fast or as strong as me. We didn't have a destination either, now that I thought about it, but that didn't really matter, did it? I glanced at Celestia's Sun. It would be dark in maybe three hours. Plenty of time. "Hey Flutters." I started, stopping and turning to face her in mid-air. She tilted her head at me to show she was listening. "We have, like, three hours before it gets dark. Whadya wanna do?" "I-I don't know. What can we do?" "Officially? Head back to the dorms, sit on our butts, and chat..." "And unofficially?" She prompted. I couldn't stop a grin from breaking out across my face. "Just about anything that's legal." Hey, I may be a daredevil, but that doesn't mean I don't have standards, and the law is one of those standards. I just don't like school curfew, and they don't even enforce it unless you're on probation for doing something. Like G. Heh heh. "Well... uhm..." ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ What did foals my age do? I don't know. I'm something of a shut-in. It's not like I go out and hang out with ponies very much. And when it's Rainbow I'm usually just watching her play sports or practice stunts. We already had dinner, so it's not like we're going to stop at a restaurant again tonight. And she's asking ME what I want to do? this isn't easy to begin with. We just went flying, so isn't that the same as going for a walk? Well now we're just floating here in the air a little bit above Cloudsdale, quietly looking around while I thought hard for something to do. "D-do you want to keep flying o-or practice your stunts or... something?" "Nah. I just wanna hang with you. Come on there's gotta be something you like to do." Well.... There is one thing, but I can only really do that on weekends. I don't really get much of an opportunity to do that often. I mean, you try finding a chance to do this if you have a curfew and all this studying. Not to mention my peers would criticize me to every extent if they found out that this is my favorite pastime. "I kind of like to take care for animals..." "On the ground?" I nodded. "Okay... that's out. We don't have time for that. Anything else?" What do I do in my spare time? I read. I write sometimes, but even Rainbow doesn't know about that. Again I'm not very social. I don't really do anything with other ponies. "Okay, I guess if you can't choose then I do have something to show you..." I nodded slowly. "Gilda reads these?" "I know right?! It's hilarious!" Rainbow answered, laughing. "I never took her for the comic book type..." I said. "It's not really like her. Doesn't it seem..." "Nerdy? Yeah! But hey, she says they're cool. I don't really care, but whatever." I opened one up and looked at the first page. It was some weird action series about a super heroine. I flipped through a few of them only glancing at the pictures until I came across a scene in which the hero was getting 'close' with somepony. I gently put it down and tried to think about something else. "What? What is it?" Rainbow grabbed the one I just put down and flipped through it. When she found the 'dirty' page she broke out laughing. "Now I know why she likes them." She said with a huge grin playing across her lips. We played around with a ball, just chatting away about all sorts of things. I don't know how long it was before we both started to yawn. I checked the clock and noticed two things. It was after eleven'o'clock and Gilda wasn't back yet. We decided to head to bed, so I walked back to my room and hit the bed, asleep before my head made contact with the pillow. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Hanging out with Fluttershy never starts off well, but it always goes well. She's just hard to get to do things. Once you decide on something to do with her, the rest will be fine. I can't believe that I let it get to me that Flash thought we were dating. He's just an idiot from school. What do I care what he thinks? I got in bed and lay there for a moment, just thinking to myself. Besides, it's not like it'd be a bad thing if we were dating... Some voice in the back of my head noted. Wait, what? But before I could pursue that thought, I was fast asleep.