The next chapter would probably come out tomorrow or the next day but I'll release one at least every three days.
Anyway enjoy...
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Chapter 4: Saving Grace
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"Is that what happened?"
"Rainbow Dash, please I can explain. You have to listen to me." She continues to stare at you. You’re not sure what to do next. You half expect her to either fly off in a bath of tears or knock you out with a solid uppercut. You stand there, waiting covering your head with your hooves and almost down on your knees... Nothing happens.
You look up and see Rainbow Dash standing above you. She pulls you up and wraps her hooves around you. You feel her warm body against your cold one. Her cheeks radiating a soothing heat on your shoulders. This time, you return the hug, as you wrap your hooves around her body you feel somewhat blissfully happy even if our life has gone to ruins.
After a long minute, both of you pull out from the hug. You look at Rainbow Dash's face and notice she's battling conflicting emotions in her head. You feel confused and really bad for making other ponies feel like this...
Why is she doing this for me? Any other pony I knew would be marching down the streets with torches and pitchforks in hooves....
You whisper in a tone just hardly audible. "Why Rainbow Dash?" You feel tears start to well up in your eyes again, you don't suppress them. "Why me out of anypony?"
"Everypony deserves a second chance. A second chance to tell their side of the story." You see her face has a look of forgiveness. "One day, I got myself into some trouble, it wasn't even my fault. But nopony would hear me. I never got a chance to tell them what really happened."
You decide now was not the best time to press on about Dash's life story, even if you were really dying to know. She looks back at you, this time with an expectant look. "I've given you your chance, now you tell me what happened."
You take a deep breath and clear your mind back to earlier today. You take a seat next to Rainbow and clear your throat.
*ahem*
"You remember after practice when I nearly followed you into the locker room?" you notice a small smile spread over her face.
"Yeah?"
"Well, I went to the Colt's shower room myself to wash up but before I left I bumped into the one and only Dumb-Bell!"
"So?"
"Well, remember when Thunder stopped him in the cafeteria the other day" she nods "he said, if Thunder wouldn't back off, somepony's going to get it."
"And?"
"Who is the only other somepony besides me and you, Thunder knows?"
You can hear the gears start to turn in Rainbow's head. By now you've figured out how blunt Rainbow can be but you guess nopony's perfect.
"Fluttershy!"
"I knew something was going to happen so I tried to look for Fluttershy in the greenhouse." you continue to explain your story for the next fifteen minutes. The whole time, Rainbow Dash either nodded or answered with one word. You explain how you tripped over and fell on Fluttershy which suddenly also made Rainbow Dash squirm in her seat. You realise what you're about to tell her was going to make her uncomfortable. You decide to continue.
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"And then we have me coming back here, getting the door shut on me by Thunder and you showing up..."
By now, Rainbow looks to you with a serious face. You hope she can believe the truth but you prepare for the worst.
"You know nopony else is going to believe you, right?" You feel that sense of hope light up again.
"WAIT? YOU BELIVE ME?" She looks at you and nods.
"But to be honest, things aren't looking in your favour. First, this is Dumb-Bell were talking about. Knowing his brain, it couldn't have been him who set you up. Secondly, nopony's seen or heard from Fluttershy, and I guess only she's the only other pony who can protest you innocence"
Wow... I’m surprised you managed to work all that out Rainbow..."
"So what am I supposed to do?" you feel your heart begin to sink.
"Ok, I have a plan!" You look at Rainbow; she is furiously tapping her head in an attempt to fill her head with ideas. You've never seen her put this much effort into anything but flying and you wonder how smart she can actually be if she thinks.
"Step 1. We find Fluttershy and get her to talk!"
Sheesh... you make it sound like she's the bad guy
"Uhh... how exactly are we going to get her to talk? I hardly think she would just admit what happened to us."
"Simple we just bring her to Thunder Hoof!" you see Rainbows big grin on her face. You feel slightly left out of this plan.
"And how will that help...." Rainbow facehoofs. You can't help but notice how cute she looks when she does that.
"You're really terrible with mares aren't you?"
"WHAT?!?!?" you don't see how this has any relevance to the situation at hand.
"Can't you see? Thunder has a crush on Fluttershy. He can get her to talk" You think back to every time you've seen Thunder Hoof. You don't see any signs of him liking her. Either he doesn't show it or what Rainbow said was true.
"Next step?"
"We go find Dumb-Bell and beat the shit out of him!” your ears perk up slightly at the choice of language. Apparently like it when Rainbow talks dirty. You decide to let her continue
"Then we go find who the hell set you up and clear your name!"
Easier said than done...
You prepare yourself for the arduous task ahead and quickly notice the state your body was in. You were still bloodied and sweaty all over. Your wing feathers were all ruffled up and pars of your fur were in tufts. By now any energy left in your body had been sapped away in the last ten minutes. In short, you were a complete wreck.
"Uhhh... Rainbow? I think I might want to clean myself up first..." she hastily grabs one of your hooves and pulls you along. "Where are we going?"
"Well... you need a shower and I’m pretty sure your dorm's out of the question stupid"
oh right...
"Ready?" you return your focus to Rainbow only to notice she's ready to take off into the sky.
"Uhh... Rainbow, I'm way too tired to fly... can’t you carry me or something" your last comment made Rainbow's cheeks turn her signature deep rosy colour.
"YOU BIG FOAL" she shouts into your ear, you take a moment to regain your hearing. "Pull yourself together! I thought somepony like you could take the pressure. How do you expect to play wingball like this?"
Her tone was now filled with the authority of a drill sergeant. This sudden shock gave you the burst of adrenaline you needed to lift your wings and jump into the night sky. Rainbow quickly moves ahead of you and you follow closely behind her.
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You make the least gracious entrance to a scene ever as you essentially collapsed on Rainbow's front door. Your face smashes into the solid wooden frame and your entire body nearly flips over on itself. You quickly get up and follow Rainbow into her bedroom.
A quick examination of her dorm quickly surprises you. The room was half the size of yours and you notice that there was only one door at the other side of the room. You're taken by surprise at the state of the living room. Various bits of food, trash, magazines and other unidentifiable junk litter the room.
"You live like a pig Rainbow. In fact pigs are actually neater." you get a slap to the back of the head for your troubles but this time its light enough to not sting. You decide to change the subject. "Why do you get a whole dorm to yourself?"
"I like my privacy ...and if you haven't noticed, some ponies don't appreciate my lifestyle. The only downside is all my stuff and space is halved."
I see why you spend most your time outdoors then...
"You can use the shower in my room. It's to the left as you go in." You walk in between the mess hoping to avoid any wild creatures that may have made their homes in the clutter. "Oh, and by the way, use the shower for showering . No funny business in there!"
You
You enter Rainbow's bedroom and immediately notice the various posters and photos that line the small walls. Every inch of concrete was lined with showers of blue and yellow. You walk closer to one of the posters and immediately recognise it as the Wonderbolts. Not only that, compared to her commons area, her bedroom is spotless. Every available shelf or surface is filled with neatly arranged Wonderbolt’s memorabilia.
so... somepony's a wonder bolt’s fan ehh?
You continue to examine the room when suddenly, something catches your eyes... for some reason you take notice to the fact Rainbow Dash has a single bed. You try to shake any thoughts of sleeping in her bed of your mind.
I guess I’m sleeping on the couch tonight.....Damnit!
You finally decide to stop snooping around some mares personal room and head into the bathroom. You quickly head for the shower, forgetting to lock the door behind you.
What's the worst that could happen?
You're content with just shutting the door and hopping into the warm embrace of the rain shower. You let the day's events wash over you as you let your worries swirl down the drain.
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10 minutes later
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You emerge out of the shower sparkling clean. Your fur has a slight glossy finish to it thanks to the use of feminine toiletries though you also now smell somewhat like Rainbow Dash. Your mane and tail both return back to their original condition as you found out that Rainbow Dash uses the same shampoo you do. You don't know what you find more surprising, how tomboyish Rainbow is or the fact you use shampoo that may or may not appeal to mares.
You leave the steamy confines of the bathroom and notice Rainbow lying on her bed deeply engrossed in a Wonderbolts comic. She looks up at you with an unimpressed look.
"Took you long enough"
How long does she take to shower?!?!
You wave off her comment and sit by her desk, opposite her. "Anyway, it's too late to do anything tonight" you look up to her Wonderbolts clock and read the time...
*12:30AM*
You hear a faint yawn and turn to see Rainbow Dash starting to doze off on her bed. You promptly get up and nudge her slightly. "Huh?"
"Umm... where am I supposed to sleep?" You watch her as she quickly gets up. You can see her trying to hide her red cheeks. She struggles to form a sentence.
"W-where else! Yo-you’re sleeping outside on... on the c-couch!" There was no way you were spending a night in that unchartered land. Who knew what monsters were lurking within the depths of the junk.
"Two words.... NO, WAY!"
"Fine, you can sleep on the floor here I guess" she chucks a pillow at you. It hits your face and falls off, leaving an imprint of your head. "I don't have any spare blankets so you're going to have to just deal with it"
It was fine. It was summer anyway and you preferred to sleep without any covers on. By now you can feel the fatigue setting in on your body and you promptly collapse onto your pillow. You turn away from Rainbow's bed and face the bathroom door. It, like the rest of the room was covered in Wonderbolt's merchandise.
"Goodnight Lightning...."
"Goodnight Rainbow...." you quickly start to doze off as Rainbow Dash turns the light off. You shut your eyes and immediately start drift off into slumber land....
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The next morning
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You feel the burning sunlight penetrate through your eyelids and you try and turn a way from the light. No matter which side you were facing, the intense light just kept bombarding your face. You eventually open your eyes and remember you were sleeping in Rainbow Dash's room. Somehow you managed to end up sleeping with your head on the ground and your rear hooves on your pillow.
*ZzZzZzZzZz*
The presence of snoring suggests Rainbow Dash hasn't awoken from her beauty sleep. You get up and peer over the side of her bed. You see a very peaceful Rainbow Dash snoring in her bed, her hooves are hanging over the other side of the bed and you notice her mane was all ruffled from twists and turns in the night. Her face is partially covered by her bright rainbow mane. You decide not to wake her from her blissful sleep and head to get some breakfast.
On the way out you take note of the date and time.
*Saturday, 9:05 AM*
Seeing that it was the weekends you decided that you could have some extra special breakfast. You quickly take a deep breath and head out to the kitchen, carefully avoiding the mountains of clutter in Dash's dorm. By the time you make it to the little kitchen in the corner, you notice how oddly spotless it was. Neither a pot, pan nor spatula was out of place. Only a few empty glasses were scattered beside the sink.
Well, I guess Rainbow doesn't cook?
You flip open the cabinets in search of some sort of cooking ingredients. You quickly gather enough random ingredients to make you meal. The menu for this morning would be pancakes. You heat up your pan and quickly stir up a small batter of pancake mix. Remembering hat basic cooking skills your mum had taught you before you left, you lightly butter the pan before pouring the batter in.
*hiss*
You watch carefully as the bubbles rise to the top of the pancake and pop. You proceed to gently slide your spatula under and quickly flip it over. You decided not to try any fancy flips this morning thinking Rainbow Dash would not appreciate you burning down the only place she can stay.
well... she can bunk in our dorm...
You immediately wonder why your train of thought wandered over that direction but the slight smell of burning and pancakes quickly causes you to return to your hand at task. You scoop up the delicious little wonder and plate it beside you. Pouring more batter into the pan you are able to make a whole stack of pancakes in no time. You cut a lump of butter of the top and generously drench in syrup. You place the huge edible stack on the table and head off to cook another batch.
Now to make Rainbow's batch
By the time you finish plating up your second batch of pancakes, you had nearly perfected the shape and timing for cooking them. You turn to the dining table and suddenly notice a cyan Pegasus had been quietly devouring your whole stack of pancakes.
"NOO!! My babies!!!" You quickly run over to the table with a look of shock and dismay on your face.
"Mmmm... these taste awesome!" You manage to hear Rainbow cry you between mouthfuls. By now she had entirely polished off your first batch of pancakes.
"Those were mining..."
"Hey! They were getting soggy, plus that batch looks way better" you look back at the plate in your hooves and realise it was indeed more neat.
"Can I have some? PWEEEASEE?"
BUCK-ING-WHAT
"You’ve already had yours!" you say while trying to protect your little delights. You look back and to see rainbow giving the saddest and adorable puppy eyes you had ever seen. You feel your heart melt and tear away knowing you're depriving the poor pony of pancakes.
You eventually give in and split your stack in half. You give the top end to Rainbow who quickly proceeds to stuff her face with them...
DAWWW, somepony likes pancakes!
Both of you promptly finish of your breakfast and quickly go over the plan. Somehow, thinking over the plan you realise how un-thought out this plan really was...
"Soo?? Where will we find her?" you start to feel the impatience growing on you. You try to think hard, certainly, you should probably check her dorm first.
"Right! let’s go" both you and Rainbow head out in search of Flutter shy’s dorm. You fly alongside Rainbow Dash and she softly says something to you. You blush slightly at her compliment.
"Umm... Thanks for the pancakes by the way. But next time make it about 20% cooler..."
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Next Chapter: Will you expose who tried to set you up? And does somepony reveal their love?
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Sorry once again for the delay in chapters. I'm trying to post them consistently but like I previously said. I haven’t been in the author writing mood or the proofreading mood.
Do you like the use of pictures? Should I get rid of them? Please comment!
Link for all the pictures used. Credit to all the artists.
http://hellswolfeh.deviantart.com/art/Rainbow-Dash-Eating-Cake-258522842
http://iks83.deviantart.com/art/Rainbow-Dash-sadface-282001663
http://scotch208.deviantart.com/art/Angry-Rainbow-Dash-272696813