Don't Stop Believing

by R_O_Y_G_B_I_V


Chapter 8:

"Hey, Rainbow girl, wake up we got shit to do today..." Ray spoke in his regular sarcastic tone.

Rainbow heard a strange yet oddly familiar voice ring out to her from within the confides of the warm, comforting, not cold blanket fortress she remained curled up in. It came through as no more than muffled gibberish, yet she was sure it was addressing her. What could it be? What did it want?

"Wake up Jesse dear, you need to get up. You and Ray have a lot of things to do today." Florence spoke gently, her soft voice doing nothing but soothing the girl deeper back into her slumber.

Ray and Florence stood in front of the crumpled mass of sheets that lay on his couch trying to wake the rainbow-headed adolescent. Ray and Rainbow Dash had a doctor appointment they had to make and they had less than an hour to eat, wash up and get there. Well, Rainbow had less than an hour to eat and wash up. Ray had woken up two hours prior to the time he told Rainbow that she'd need to be up by. Which, by the way, she was half-an-hour late for.

Ray bent down onto his knee and started to shake the clump of girl that hid beneath the warm shield of cloth and wool tried -in vain- to rouse the girl out of bed and start the day.

"Réveiller, despertarse, okinasai, GET UP ALREADY!" Ray shouted as he rattled the girl before him.

'No, the outsiders, they're attacking! They're trying to steal my warmth! Well I'm not going going out without a fight!' Rainbow thought to herself, curling up into a tighter ball, willing all her might against the outside intruding force trying to rip away the bliss of rest from her. By the pillow she clutched she would go down fighting!

"Right then, back up Flo, desperate times call for desperate measures." Ray warned his sister who meekly nodded and moved away to the kitchen to try and make something quickly for the sure-to-be starving rainbow-haired tenant.

"Okay Dashie, je vais vous donner le compte de trois... Un, deux, trois... That's it, time to GET UP!" Ray raised his voice as he grabbed a hold of the blankets under Rainbow Dash and gave them a quick tug, sending the girl tumbling down to the hard wooden floor.

'What's this? A threat? I'll never back down.' Rainbow thought to herself. 'Oh no, they're attacking!' She mentally cried as her death grip on her pillow tightened even more than thought possible. 'Must retaliate!' She bellowed another war whoop, though this one actually come out of her throat.

"Aaaaaaaaaah!" A shrill cry rang out from the girl Ray had just dismounted from his couch as Rainbow Dash hooked her leg around behind Ray's knee and brought him down to her level with in a tumbling mess. She then reversed their positions and pinned the blonde boy by sitting on his chest with her hands pressed sternly against his shoulders, holding them to the ground and rendering Ray locked and at her mercy. Rainbow bore holes into his head with her glare and all Ray could do was stair blankly back at her.

It had all happened so fast that Ray had no clue what had actually transpired until it was all over and he lay under the not-so-crushing weight of the flaming tempered Rainbow Dash. He would never let it show on his face, but his heart spoke volumes about his surprise and momentary panic. And maybe a bit of excitement given their current position and Rainbow Dash's current... attire, consisting of very revealing boxer shorts and a spaghetti-strap half shirt... What he's a guy and she's a girl, these things happen...

Ray's and Rainbow's faces were but centimeters apart and Rainbow Dash held her glare at the boy. Ray momentarily averted his eyes as an unavoidable bit of red seeped its way into his face, and said "Well Mr. Miyagi, good morning to you to. Care for some breakfast?"

At the mention of food, Rainbow Dash forgot all about how her beauty sleep had been so rudely interrupted and immediately got up and ran to the kitchen, slipping and almost falling on her face on her way to the dinner bar.

Ray chuckled lightly at the display and walked over to the kitchen, opening the fridge and drinking straight from the milk bag. When he put the milk back and closed the door he noticed a plate full of eggs, toast and bacon sitting on the table in front of an ecstatic looking Rainbow Dash who eyed up the meal as if it had descended from the gods themselves.

"Little hungry are we?" Ray joked.

"Starving! And Florence is such a great cook, this all looks so great!" The rainbow girl exclaimed as she took a bite of eggs and tried a bit of bacon.

"Man this stuff is good, what is it?" Rainbow said as she held up a piece of bacon.

"That would be bacon Dashie, a gift from the heavens." Ray said dreamily as he snagged a piece off of Rainbow's plate without her knowing.

"Well, what's bacon?" Rainbow inquired further.

"Pork" Ray replied absentmindedly as he crunched into the crisp browned meat.

"Ummm... what's-"

"Pork?" Ray interrupted having already guessed that the lunatic girl would ask that next. "It's pig, you know that pinkish fat animal raised on farms? Or did you not have those in Ponytown?" Ray continued sarcastically. Though it wasn't until he refocused his eyes on Rainbow Dash did he realize the look of sheer horror on her face.

"What?" Ray asked with growing concern.

"Th-this is... pig? As in the animal? Not some kind of weird pink vegetable or something?" Rainbow gulped audibly. Her face having lost all colour.

"Oh, oh god don't tell me you're a vegetarian?!" Ray nearly shouted, grabbing at his hair.

Florence gasped from across the room, eyes wide as saucers as she rushed over to the now shaking form that was Rainbow Dash.

"What? Was this a living creature? This is meat?!" Rainbow kept asking, starting to hyper ventilate.

"Jesse I am so, sorry. I had no clue you didn't even know what meat looked like. You should have told us earlier that you were a vegetarian! I'm so sorry" Florence spoke in a rush, smoothing Rainbow's hair against her back while apologizing profusely.

Ray simply paced around with his head in his arms. This was no small thing that had just happened, from the looks of it Rainbow had never even known meat was a food group, and here they were having fed it to her all week. Whatever he felt right now she must be feeling a thousand times worse!

"Look, Rainbow it's alright, it was an accident. It happens all the time in nature, so-" Ray said trying to calm the girl down a bit, but it only seemed to make things worse.

"What? You mean it's regular to kill for food here? Are you all savages?! How could you eat something that was alive?" Rainbow exclaimed briefly lifting her head up from within her arms to do so. You could clearly see that the girl was much less than happy about what had transpired.

Ray sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose saying, "Look, I'm really really sorry about this. I didn't have a clue that you were vegetarian, and clearly it's a big deal to you so from now on we'll only cook you vegetarian friendly meals. But you need to straighten up, seriously we have a doctor's appointment in less than half an hour and Cedric is on his way to pick us up, so you need to get wash up, get dressed and get ready to go."

"You're still going to be eating meat?!" Rainbow almost shouted at Ray.

"Look, seriously get in the shower, we'll talk about this later I promise, but we really do need to be going very soon, Cedric messaged me saying that he's about five minutes away and you're still in PJs. Get going!" Ray said hurriedly, pointing down the hallway to the washroom.

Rainbow averted her gaze to the ground, but silently consented with a wordless "Okay".

"Come on Jesse, I'll help you in" Florence offered the still shaken

Florence shot back a concerned look at Ray who only gave a shrug of the shoulders. After a few minutes of Ray sitting zoned-out of the couch, the buzzer rang by the door letting Ray know that Cedric must be here. So he hopped of the couch and made his way over to the door to see if it really was him, -not that Ray had been expecting anyone else but force of habit took over- and sure enough, the thick southern England accent that belonged to none other than Cedric rang through the microphone by Ray's door.

"Hey open the damn door right? It's damn well freezin' down 'ere!" Cedric shouted playfully into the microphone.

"Yeah yeah don't shit yourself chav boy, it's open" Ray responded sarcastically with a smile plastered to his face.

A few minutes later and a knock could be heard on Ray's door. He opened it up and in bounded Cedric, jumping into Ray's arms bridle style screaming dramatically "Catch me Ray, catch me and don't ever let me go!"

Ray just rolled his eyes and dropped his friend on the ground. He landed with a thump and sat rubbing his behind making a show of his pain and over-dramatizing the scene. Ray simply laughed at his friend's display and helped him to his feet.

Cedric was taller than Ray by about five centimeters, so they were close in height, and they were built similarly though Cedric was a tad leaner than Ray. Cedric had green eyes, fiery wavy orange hair and fair skin, and scare freckles along the bridge of his nose. Contrary to the stereotype, he had perfect, pearl white teeth =that Ray had always been secretly a little jealous of- giving him a bright smile that he showed off almost constantly. He wore a green wool sweater, brown corduroy pants and black skate shoes.

Cedric sighed and wrapped his arm around Ray's shoulder in a friendly gesture and asked "Well, how've you been doin' mate? Been holdin' up okay?" Cedric was one of the only people that knew about Rose aside from Dante, Florence and now Rainbow Dash. He knew better than anyone how Ray would still sometimes beat himself up over it.

"Yeah I've been doing good. I dun goofed though" Ray said nonchalantly. Though Cedric could tell it was bigger than he lead on.

"Oh? And what might said 'goof' have been?"

"Jesse, the girl we're taking to the doctor's, is a vegetarian apparently! And we've been feeding her meat for almost over a week now, though she only thinks that she ate it today when she had bacon." Ray explained, grimacing at the memory of that morning's incident.

"Sssss-aaaaaaah, that's a nasty bit a business you got there." Cedric replied, wincing at the revelation.

"Yeah, she was pretty shaken up about it. hopefully she'll be doing better soon enough" the blonde young-adult sighed and flopped back down on the couch in sync with Cedric, both lifting their feet onto the coffee table at the same time.

"Speakin' a which, where is the lady of the hour?" Cedric inquired looking over at Ray.

"Oh she's just getting ready. You know how girls are with taking hours for something so trivial." Ray waved off the question with his simple answer.

"If there's one thing I know, it's that" Cedric nodded in agreement.

Right after their little exchange had finished, right on queue, Rainbow Dash and Florence emerged from Flo's bedroom. Rainbow was dressed warmer for the cold weather, opting to wear dark blue/black jogging pants with some sort of logo running down the leg and a baby-blue long-sleeved shirt. The back of her hair was tied in a pony tail but the bangs stayed where the usually would be. Even though her attire was simplistic it still did a good job of making an impression on Cedric. And maybe, just maybe Ray thought it was kinda sorta a tad cute.

"Aren't you a stunner!" Cedric called out to Rainbow giving a wolf-whistle to show his approval. "And you're looking as fine as usual Flo love." He continued, winking at Ray's sister who blushed slightly at his bright smile.

Ray rolled his eyes with a smirk on his lips and said "Well as rude as it is to leave just after you got here, we really do need to get going. We can probably make it fifteen minutes late but anymore than that and I don't even want to think about having to schedule another appointment. We were damn lucky to get this one so soon." Ray hurried everyone to the door, grabbing his coat and bag of the rack as he waved goodbye to Florence.

"Flo, wake up Danny for me and tell him le gâteau est un mensonge!" Cedric said as Ray pushed him out the door.

"Man what is with you and that?" Ray said laughing lightly while fastening the buttons on his jacket.

"It gets him so riled up, I love it. I don't even know what it means myself!" Ray's red-headed friend laughed lightheartedly.

Rainbow Dash was still silent, though she smiled at the two friends' joking.

Once they were in the elevator, Ray and Cedric had quieted down and now stood in the metallic box silently, an air of awkwardness taking over the small closed space.

"Well, I think introductions are in order" Cedric said trying to lighten the heavy mood in the elevator. Rainbow just looked at him curiously, quirking an eyebrow at him. But Cedric didn't give up and continued.

"My names Cedric, Cedric Micheals, I'm Ray's friend, y'know the bloke who pouts a lot." That got Rainbow to smirk and chuckle a little. It wasn't much but it was something to work with.

"So, what's your name miss..." the man waited for Rainbow to fill in the rest for him.

"Rainb- I mean Jesse. My name is Jesse... Trudeau?" Rainbow said, trying to remember the alias Ray had given her. By the look on Ray's face when she checked to make sure, it looked like she had gotten it right.

"Trudeau huh? Another Frenchy eh? Oh well you seem alright." Cedric concluded.

"Ah, looks like we're hear." Cedric said as the elevator dinged and the door opened to the car park that Cedric had used.

"So many of them..." Rainbow Dash whispered to herself, but Cedric had accidentally heard her.

"So many what?" He asked.

"Huh? Oh, there's so many... auto-ma-cars here, I mean..." rainbow replied sheepishly. She got a strange look from Cedric, and when she looked over to see Ray she saw him with his hand in his head.

"What did you call them?" Cedric started but was cut off when Ray pointed out Cedric's car. It was a small black Volkswagen Jetta 98 model that looked a little worn for ware.

"Ah yes, your chariot awaits fair maiden" Cedric said, making a big deal of unlocked and opening the door for Rainbow Dash.

Rainbow timidly stepped in and immediately noticed how small and cramped it was. Ray had given her a brief explanation on what a car was and does, so she got the gist of what was to happen, but it didn't make her any less comfortable. The last self propelled vehicle she had seen was a giant golden apple, and that didn't turn out very well at all. So when Ray got in beside her she immediately grabbed a hold of his hand and held it in a death-grip, turning ray's hand white.

Ray winced a little and Cedric asked "What, no shot-gun this time? Usually pretty keen on that."

"It's her first time in a car." Ray explained plainly.

"Really now? That's strange, where do you come from some kind of car-less Rainbow cult compound?" Cedric teased.

"Haha funny, now start the car we need to beat traffic." Ray said motioning his hand in a rolling gesture.

"As you command Lieutenant Marcone!" Cedric mock saluted Ray and turned the ignition on, and with a roar of the engine -that sent Rainbow Dash quivering- started off towards the highway.

Once they were going, Cedric turned on the radio and cranked the volume, eliminating the need for any more awkward conversations between the three of them. Cedric had to admit to himself that he felt a bit like a third wheel. Though he was glad to sacrifice that much to see his friend happy again. Perhaps this is what he needed, he thought.

While they drove down the highway (about thirty clicks faster than the limit) Rainbow kept her grip on Ray's hand which had long since lost feeling. Pity to, he was starting to enjoy the closeness. He even so dared as to brush his leg up against hers, a daring move for one such as Ray. She responded in kind with leaning on Ray, to which Cedric had a clever tease ready for them.

The rest of the ride was ridden in comfortable silence (well, silence conversation wise, the music still blared) and soon enough they found themselves in the parking lot of St. Micheal's hospital. Cedric dropped them off at the door with the promise to pick them up in two hours if he doesn't hear from Ray sooner. And with that, the two rush in through the doors and make their way to the elevators.

Rainbow's mood had lightened up significantly since her run in with meat that morning, and she seemed to have almost forgotten about the experience entirely. Now she was just excited to see the inside of such a large building. All the hospitals in Equestria were fairly small and although they didn't necessarily have a bad feel to them, this place seemed just so much more... exciting! Everything in this world was exciting.

"Wow, this place is huge! How the hay are we gunna know where to go?" rainbow asked as she hopped about looking every thing and anything.

"First we gotta register. You don't have id so I'll have to sign you in myself." Ray explained, though Rainbow Dash seemed to barely be paying attention.

"Hey did you here me?" Ray made sure.

"Yeah, sign in, no id, you gotta do it, what's taking so long let's hop to it!" Rainbow said quickly and started running down the hall earning the stares of doctors and patients alike. Ray simply sighed and ran after her.

.....

Ray had finally caught up the Rainbow Dash and signed her in just in time to make the appointment deadline. Though that didn't seem to change the fact that they were now still waiting in the waiting room for their appointment as they had been for the last fifteen minutes.

At this point Ray was idly scanning through a pamphlet about influenza and fever while Rainbow Dash sat upside-down on her chair, twiddling with her bangs and lightly kicking her feet against the wall. She hadn't even shifted into that position either, she just sorta flipped herself onto the chair after exploring the floor they were on for ten minutes or so.

Ray was about to reprimand her for it when a nurse came out and called them over.

"Ray Marcone and Jesse Trudeau? Dr. Clarkson will see you now." The nurse smiled lightly and waved them over.

"Finally!" Rainbow Dash cried out, flipping back onto her feet from the chair and stretching her arms, a few patients laughing quietly at the girls eccentricity.

Ray sighed for the umpteenth time that day and resigned himself to following the nurse back to where the doctor's office was with Rainbow following in suit but touching everything she could.

Once they had reached the office they were let in by the doctor, a man with a frog-face and a white lab-coat over-top of a white shirt and dress pants. The office itself held all sorts of machines and medical mannerisms. It took all of Rainbow's focus to stay focused and not run out of the room shrieking in horror from all of the sharp things that littered the room.

The doctor looked up from a file he was reading and addressed the two formally. "Hello, my name's Dr. Clarkson."
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A/N: I know it ended a bit abruptly, but I had to give you guys something for waiting so patiently. I won't take as long next time for sure. A Big shout out to Azurini who is an awesome total bro. Go check out his story if you haven't already. Let me know what you thought of this chapter.