//------------------------------// // Mind Off Matters // Story: Rarity's Colt // by Mocha Star //------------------------------// Rarity shook her head without looking back and left, closing the door after her. The warm air was a nice change from the scent of dragon breath and burning wood. She looked at Snickers and the mark along his side that was bald and blistering slightly. Her horn lit and the glow covered his wound, healing it quickly and regrowing some hair. She shushed him and took him down a nearby street, sat him down in some grass, and lay beside him. “What in Celesia’s name was that?” she asked coldly. “I’ve never seen little Spike so upset, what did you do?” Snickers pouted and scuffed the soil. “I… I just said I was gonna prank you. He went on this whole ‘Rarity’s a true Goddess’ thing and I tossed a book at him like Twinkle did, to get a laugh. Then he spat a fucking spitwad of fire at me and I went at him with a wicked right hook that took him down, then he slashed at me and I kinda slipped and didn’t get stabbed. Then you came and here we are.” Rarity lowered her snout to the grass and inhaled, hoping the green scent of grass would clear her mind from the nonsense she was living in. “So, Spike spoke highly of me and you attacked him?” “What?! No, you’re not listening to me. He spit green lava at me, I could’ve been killed!” “Only after you threw a book at him, regardless of what Twilight had to say about it being funny or not.” He sat up tall and glared at her. “You won’t believe me no matter what I say, you only care about that jerk dragon! Well, fine. Fuck you again!” he dug his hooves into the soil and kicked them at Rarity, getting her eyes lightly coated with dirt. When she screamed and looked away he got up and ran off again. “Fuck this place, and fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!” he shouted at mares as he passed getting typical reactions.  Wing flaps matched his pace and a shadow covered him. “Hey, what’s with the shouting? I could hear you from my cloud.” “Fuck off!” he shouted and turned a corner, trying to lose the fastest flier around. Her shadow stayed over him, making him madder as he went on. Finally he skidded to a stop by the town fountain. He leapt in and ducked under. Rainbow settled on top and looked down at him with a smirk. She knocked on the statue a couple times, then he came up for air.  “Hey, sport. You know this isn’t for bathing, right?” she asked, he’d dunked back under before she finished, but she still smiled and began knocking on the statue in a rhythmic beat, beatboxing to the tones she made. He came up for air again. “What’re you trying to do, hiding in a public fountain?” He glared at her and inhaled another deep breath. He dunked under and she resumed her tune making. Nearly a minute passed, then he broke from the water and shook her head. “Would you fucking stop that?!” Rainbow glided around the fountain and landed on the edge. “Stop what? I’m just wasting time, like you’re doing.” “You’re banging all over the whole fountain! I can hear it in my fucking bones and you’re… just… so annoying!” he screamed. He splashed water at her and she didn’t move. “Why won’t you just go away and leave me alone? Why can’t you be like everyone else and just abandon me to take care of myself?” “Dude,” Rainbow leaned over him, “I’ll never let a friend go, especially when they need me. You know,” she sat and dipped her hind hooves in the water, “I didn’t even know you were some troubled kid when we met. I thought you were just some punk that needed a minute with a mare to remind you that awesome still exists. “I showed you that portal thing because I didn’t think you’d ever be around here again and you’d forget in a day. But you taught me one thing since I met you yesterday.” “What’s that? That I’m a total loser fuck up?” She snerked and giggled. “No, that you’re fucked up, dude.” She ignored the gasps around them. “Whatever happened to you, I’ve gotta help you learn it isn’t your fault and that you’re life here is what you need to focus on.  “It doesn’t matter if you were a serial killer or you had to watch some ritual sacrifices like in Daring Do and the Curse of the Yellow Blood, you’re here now and none of that’s gonna happen ever again,” she climbed into the water and shoved him aside so she could sit beside him, even though there wasn’t a reason to do so.  “Look, kid, you talk like you’re tough shit. I’ve known plenty of mares that’ve been the same way, especially after everything crashed around them and they were lost and alone, kinda like you are now. A hug and some candy doesn’t fix them, and I know it won’t fix you. You’re like me, Snickers. You don’t need that sappy stuff, you need a good wrestle and fight to get your mind off the moment.  “You need a drink of good aged cider and a smoke of giggle grass. Hell, if you were old enough I’d do all that and get you laid… but you’re not, which sucks,” she winked at him and he looked away with a little blush, “but what I can give you is a pony to be real with, none of that Fluttershy sappy time, and a chance to do what a real colt should be doing.” “Yeah? What’s that supposed to be?” She looked past him and focused her attention on something. He followed her gaze and was shoved under water. He got to his hooves and was about to ask why she’d done that when his forelegs were pulled from under him and he went back under. At first he was curious, after the fifth time he was furious; trying to bite and swing at Rainbow, then at the ninth time he started to laugh. He got her pattern and when he went under he was able to grab one of her legs and pull her under, climbed over her, and hopped out of the water using her rump as a springboard. When Rainbow came up, coughing water, he laughed and ran away, looking back over himself to make sure she was chasing him.  They played and rough housed for an hour, finally ending just a block away by a residence with a lot of tomatoes growing around it. They were wet with sweat, sticky from dirt that had gotten on them and dried, tugging at their coats, and happy. Rainbow was on his back, holding him to the grass while using her wings to slap his sides and her forelegs tapped his ears, snout, and head. They laughed and ponies passed them, happy to see anypony having fun. “Say it, kid.” “No!” he giggled and squirmed. “Say it and I’ll stop!” Rainbow shouted and her wings stopped against his sides in warning. “Never, I’ll never break!” He replied firmly. They both stayed still, waiting for the next move. Snickers started giggling and screaming when four of Rainbow’s six limbs started tickling him across his exposed sides and neck. He kicked and tried to twist free, finally screaming ‘auntie’ several times to get her to stop. “I didn’t hear that, was that ‘auntie’, or ‘mount me’? Because they mean different things!” Rainbow shouted over his screeching. “A-u-n-tee!” Snickers managed finally. Rainbow flapped and hovered over him. “I thought you were too tough to give in, it only took me half an hour to take you down.” He shakily moved to a sitting position, eyes watching her, ready to react if she tried to tickle him again. He only had one plan if she did; scream and try to get away since he was defenseless against her in every way. Not that he’d admit it. “Psh, more like two hours. I thought you were way more awesome than that, but whatever.”  Rainbow grinned like a winner of a difficult race. “You know what?” He scooted back, grinning against his will. “What?” Rainbow waved a hoof at him. “You haven’t said a single bad word since we started, have you?” When he didn’t respond, she moved and bonked his head. “You don’t need to be mean or anything, you just need to have more fun. You’ve met the CMC, right?” He looked around him, finally seeing the ponies in the street looking at them as they passed, and Pinkie Pie in a lawn chair with a tub of popcorn a block away watching them. She waved when he saw her and then held up a foam finger that had ‘1 Hour!’ written on it. He shook his head. “Yeah, I’m in their club now.” “Cool, then go hang out with them, okay?” “Why? You’re here.” “Because I have a job and you can’t help me bust clouds or manage the weather. The CMC are your age, they’re rough and adventurous, and basically everything you need when you’re getting upset or down.” Snickers looked to where Pinkie was, only she was gone. “What about when they can’t hang out? They’ve got school and stuff, Rarity has her whatever, what about me?” “I can help with that!” Pinkie picked him up and tossed him into the air with a silent scream from the colt. She caught him and in a single turn held him like a baby in her forelegs. “I’ll hug him and love him and pet him and name him George!” Snickers looked at her smiling face and curled into himself in fear. Pinkie remembered that he didn’t like her being super close or happy around him and let him go, hopping back. “Sorry, I forgot.” Rainbow picked Snickers up and onto his hooves, dusting him off with her tail when she passed him. “What was that, Pinkie? I thought you were gonna be chill around him?” Pinkie took a bashful look. “I kinda forgot. But, not again. I Pinkie Promise to be tamer around Snickers and not scare any bodily fluids or squeaky noises out of him unless his life is in jeopardy or I have to do it. Cross my heart, hope to fly. Stick a cupcake in my eye.” Snickers had backed behind Rainbow and was looking around her flank to watch Pinkie. Pinkie lowered herself. “I’m really sorry, can I give you a ponyback ride back to Rarity? I helped her clean her eyes and after she was done screaming and fighting she went back home to dry herself and redo her mane and makeup.  “Snickers, do you know what a Juggalo is? Well, she looks just like one of those when she gets all wet on her face… see, Rainbow, how I covered that opening so he couldn’t get in it?” She sat up and swayed her foreleg. “Shoot, so close,” she said when Rainbow and Snickers started to giggle.