//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Around New York in 10 seconds flat 
// by SoMuchRain 
//------------------------------//

As soon as I get on the train, I go to the bathroom to change clothes. There is a large mirror there and I get a better look at myself. Twilight had really outdone herself. I dig through the bag to find some clothes. I decide on one of Pinkie’s shirts, Twilight’s jacket, and some of Rarity’s jeans. After I get changed, I take off my cutie mark necklace, expecting it to appear on Twi’s jacket or Pinkie’s shirt, but it doesn’t. At first, I figure that it’s some kind of weird conflict, being that I’m Rainbow Dash wearing everyone else’s clothing. But then I remember that earlier this week, we had gone to the lake to wade in the shallow water. We were all wearing swimsuits, and it had gotten cold on the way back to the campsite. Twilight didn’t have a jacket so Applejack let her borrow hers. Even though it was Applejack’s jacket, Twilight’s cutie mark still appeared on it. I suddenly realize that Twilight had managed to make me so human, that my cutie mark has ceased to exist. I now couldn’t bear to put my necklace in my bag, so I put it back on and tucked it safely in my shirt. Then I left the bathroom and went to go find a seat on the train.
“Hey! You!”
I here a voice call as I sit down.
“Hey! That's my seat!”
I turn to see another girl walking down the aisle. She is wearing black skinny jeans that are bunched at the ankles, big black shoes that are untied, a white men's dress shirt that is way too big for her, a navy blue clip-on tie, a lanyard with two flash drives, and sunglasses. She has long, dark brown hair and a band-aid on her chin.
“I'm sorry,” I say. “I didn't know.”
“That's alright,” The girl says. “Just scoot over and I'll sit next to you.”
I scoot over and she sits down.
“Where are you going?” she asks.
“New York City,” I say. “You?”
“Same place,” The girl says, smiling. She extends an arm in my direction. “I'm Jacklynn.”
I search in my mind for a good name, every name that I think of isn't a normal sounding one. I finally decide on my middle name.
“I'm Jennifer,” I say, returning the handshake.
“So,” Says Jacklynn. “Got any friends in NYC?”
“Nope,” I say. “I'm new to that place. This is my first time going.”
“Well, I live there. I'm coming back from a trip. So guess what? You just made your first friend!”
She puts an arm around me and gives me a playful punch in the arm.
“I got lots of friends over there. You can meet them all when we get there.”
I smile. “Awesome!”
This was great! I had met my first friend, and she has other friends. I start to think that this was a good idea. But then I start to wonder about my other friends. How was Twilight dealing with the pressure of my secret? How was Pinkie dealing with the fact that I was gone? What about the others?
I couldn't stop thinking about it until lights out. I figured I could just call Twilight when I get off the train and see how things were doing.
________________________________________________________________________
Jacklynn and I step off the train at Grand Central Station. The place is huge with people everywhere. I'm so distracted by all the sights I didn't notice Jacklynn had already walked off. I turn to see that she's gone, and start looking for her.
“Jennifer!” I hear her call. “Over here!”
I see her and start to head over. She's standing with five other girls and two boys.
“Sorry,” I say. “This place is just so big!”
Jacklynn laughed. “Yeah, I know. That's how all new people feel.”
She turns toward the others.
“Guys,” She says. “This is Jennifer, she's our new friend.”
The others say hello and introduce themselves.
“I'm Micah” says a blonde haired girl, she has brown eyes and a pale complexion. She is wearing a pink dress with blue and pink leggings and black tap shoes. Her hair is in very long pigtails.
“Hey! I'm Dante!” says a black haired, blue eyed boy with a short, wispy beard. He's wearing a blue sweatshirt and red pants with green sneakers.
“Yorkie, nice to meet you.” says a grey-eyed, dark skinned girl. She has short, dark red hair with baby blue streaks and is wearing a sleeveless orange shirt with white pants and white sandals.
“I'm Nathan,” says a tan, scraggly red haired boy with green-blue eyes. He is wearing a white t-shirt that says “swag”, a blue jean-jacket, and black jeans.
“Dianna,” says a girl with long, black hair. Her eyes are an extremely dark grey, almost black, and she is wearing a green, turtle neck sweater and dark blue sweatpants.
“I'm Gina,” Says a girl with boy short brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. She is wearing a dark red t-shirt and black jeans.
“And I'm Harriet!” says a girl, bouncing towards me. She has extremely long blue hair tied in a side ponytail with a pink scrunchie and sparkling green eyes. She is wearing a long-sleeved purple shirt with the left sleeve torn off, yellow sweatpants that have huge holes in the knees, a red sneaker on her left foot, and a brown sneaker on her right foot. She reminds me way too much of Pinkie, and I begin to feel a bit homesick.
Yorkie seems to notice how I'm feeling.
“You okay honey?” she asks me.
“Yeah,” I say. “Just a bit homesick.”
“Aw, it's alright,” says Nathan, giving me a hug. “In a few hours, you'll be having so much fun you'll forget all about it.” He releases me.
“Trust us Jennifer,” says Jacklynn. “We know how get things started.”
“Oh! Oh! Oh!” Harriet starts to jump up and down. “I know where we can take her first!”
“Lead the way!” says Gina, laughing.
We leave Grand Central Station, with me wondering where we're going. Harriet is just like Pinkie, and knowing Pinkie, she would probably take us to a bakery somewhere. Great, more things to remind me of home and my friends.
“It's just around the corner!” Harriet squealed.
As we turn, I expect to see a huge bakery. But instead, we come to a large arcade. I'm relieved but at the same time confused.
Dianna laughs. “Harriet loves her video games!”
Harriet begins to bounce up and down again. “Come on! Come on! Let's go inside!”
We head inside. The first thing I notice about the arcade is that it's loud, very loud. The next thing I notice is all the neat games everywhere. Shooting games, basketball games, skate boarding games, skiing games, driving games, prize games, dancing games, but the one that catches my attention the most, is skee ball.
“I haven't played this game in forever,” I say.
“Don't you have arcades where you're from?” asks Harriet.
“We used to, but they tore it down to make room for a school.”
“That's too bad.”
I dig through my jacket pocket and manage to find enough quarters to play four games. I put them into the slot and the game begins. I'm just as good as I used to be, every ball I throw goes straight into the thousand point chute. Tickets are flowing out of the dispenser. Jacklynn, her friends, and everyone in the arcade are amazed.
“Damn!” says Dante. “I've never seen someone score so many points!”
“Amazing!” says Dianna. “You're a natural pro!”
“Three cheers for Jennifer!” Harriet shouts.
Everyone joins Harriet for the cheers; someone brings me a ticket cup. All I can do is stand there and grin. I decide to cash in my tickets for a remote controlled helicopter, a stuffed toy boa, and a giant teddy bear for Pinkie when I got home.
It's dark when we come out of the arcade. The city was beautiful the way it lit up. I hear Jacklynn laugh behind me.
“Time Square sure is pretty at night huh Jennifer?” she asks.
“Hey!” shouts Yorkie. “Anyone hungry? Hachi's isn't all that full tonight.”
I realize how hungry I am, I check my watch and find that it's seven, about six hours since Jacklynn and I arrived on the train.
“I could go for some food,” Nathan answers for me.
We start walking.
I guess when Yorkie said that the restaurant wasn't all that full she meant that there were only a couple thousand people. The place was packed!
“I thought you said it wasn't all that full,” I say to her.
“I did,” she says. “You really are new to New York City, aren't you?”
A hostess appears in front of us.
“Welcome to Hachi's Japanese Restaurant!” she says, “How many people are in your group?”
“Nine.” says Yorkie.
“Okay then,” says the hostess. “Right this way please.”
We follow her to a booth by a large window decorated with little dolls holding paper lanterns. We sit down and Jacklynn and her friends open their menus. I open mine as well.
“What gives?” I say. “There's only drinks on here!”
“Have you ever been to a Japanese restaurant like this?” asks Gina.
“I've never been to a Japanese restaurant. We don't have them where I'm from.”
“Well,” Says Dianna. “In a restaurant like this, you order your drink and the food is over there.” She points to a conveyer belt with little plates of food on it. “You get it yourself. You understand now?”
I understood. I start to look through the menu for a drink when my phone starts to ring. I'm surprised that, despite the noise in here, I can still hear it. I check the caller I.D., it's Twilight.
“Excuse me,” I say, getting up. “Someone is calling me.”
“Who?” asks Harriet. Like Pinkie, she wants to know everything.
“My sister,” I fib before walking off to find a quiet place to answer my phone.
I find one and answer it.
“Hello?” I ask.
“Hey Dash,” says Twilight. “How's everything going?”
“Great, I met a few people and we're having dinner at a Japanese restaurant. How's everything over there?”
“Not good. Everyone is wigging out, especially Pinkie. She thinks you're dead or hurt or something. And Celestia is really angry with you.”
“You didn't tell anyone, did you?”
“No, I didn't, I told them I didn't know where you were. But it's just making everyone more scared.”
“Oh my god...this....this is all...”
I can't believe myself. This is all my fault.
“The worst part,” says Twilight. “I think Applejack is catching on to us. You know she can tell when people lie.”
“Yeah I know,” I say. “Oh god Twilight, I'm sorry I'm putting so much pressure on you. I should have never asked you to keep such a big secret. Hell, I should have never done this in the first place.”
I can feel myself tearing up. I knew I would scare them, but I didn't know that it would be this bad. I can hear a little voice in my head, probably from my element, saying “I told you so! I told you so!” over and over. I want to go home so bad. I want to wrap Pinkie in a huge hug and apologize a million times for scaring her. I want...I want...
“Dash?” asks Twilight after a pause. “You okay?”
“Kind of,” I choke out. “Put Pinkie on the phone, I want to talk to her.”
“Are you sure?” Twilight sounds surprised. “Even if it means her finding out our secret?”
“She can keep it. I know she can. She's Pinkie.”
“Okay then, hold on.”
After a little while, I hear someone breathing hard on the phone.
“D...Dashie?” I hear Pinkie say. I can tell that she's been crying.
I almost start crying myself.
“Hey, Pinkie.” I say.
“Oh, Dashie! I'm so glad you're okay!”
“So am I.”
“Where are you?”
I knew that I would have to tell her.
“Can you keep a secret?” I ask.
“Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye.” says Pinkie.
I tell her everything. The walk, the waterfall, the idea, the transformation, everything.
“Please don't be mad at me.” I beg. “I just wanted to explore.”
“I understand.” says Pinkie. “I could never be mad at you for something like this.”
“Thank you, so much. I'm really, really, really sorry Pinkie. Honest. I should have told you, maybe taken you with me. Then we wouldn't be in this mess,”
“I'm sure Twilight can fix that.” Pinkie sounds like her usual, happy self again. “I've got an idea,”
“Okay then,” I say. “I have to go now. The people I'm having dinner with will think I ditched them.”
“Okay Dashie, I love you.”
“I love you too.”
I hung up. Satisfied, I went back to my table as Jennifer once again. No one seems to mind that I was gone for so long.
After dinner, and an extremely difficult chop-stick lesson from Yorkie. We head home. Jacklynn sets up the couch for me to sleep on in her apartment. I thank her and she leaves. I sit for a while, wondering exactly what Pinkie's plan is. But then I realize how exhausted I am and start to get sleepy. For the first time in a week, I fall asleep.