I quickly packed my bags on Friday afternoon. Rainbow wasn’t back from classes yet, but I had more stuff to gather than she did anyway. The weather in Ponyville was supposed to be pretty nice this time of year, so I was able to save some space by leaving my heavy coat.
A week off school was just what I needed. Just a refreshing little vacation. Rainbow and I had been planning for a while, and this year’s Spring Break would be something to remember.
My things were almost ready to go when Rainbow showed up. She tossed down her books and picked up the small bag that had been packed already. As her mouth was currently occupied with the bag, she simply stared at me expectantly.
“I’m just about ready,” I assured her.
With a final zip, my suitcase was closed and the two of us left the room. My car was waiting in the parking lot, and Rainbow got in the driver’s seat. I had consented to let her drive whenever we were going somewhere together. She needed the practice if she ever wanted to upgrade her driving permit to an actual license.
She was smiling and in a good mood. Not even the finicky seatbelts and not-pony-compatible seats damped her attitude. I knew how Rainbow felt. I was excited to visit Ponyville.
You couldn’t drive there of course, and I needed to make a stop at home anyway. Since we’d need to be driving so much to get to a dimensional doorway terminal anyway, the two of us had decided to spend the night at my house and continue the next morning.
As the engine started, the radio came on. Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Do you have to listen to this stuff?”
“Better than your tastes." I laughed.
She gasped in mock offense. “Pardon me, but whose favorite band won a Grammy last year? I don’t hear about any of your choices getting invited to play at the Manehattan Music Mingle.”
I could have thought about several counter comments, but decided it was better to watch Rainbow’s driving. She was getting better, but still scared me just a little. While she wasn’t a bad driver, I really didn’t enjoy riding in the same car as a natural-born daredevil.
With navigation from me, the two of us arrived at my parent’s house in time to have dinner with them. My whole family had grown much friendlier to Rainbow since their first meeting.
Dinner conversation involved no controversial subjects or inflammatory remarks. For that I was thankful. Having experienced it before, I can say that cross-dimensional political discussion is the worst.
That night, I offered Rainbow my bed, but she declined. “I can sleep anywhere.”
“Really?”
“Your floors can’t be that hard. Heck, I’ve slept on hardwood when it was still part of a tree.”
I shrugged. “If you say so. You’ll have to show me that trick sometime.”
“Sure. Applejack has lots of trees.”
I had heard that name before, when Rainbow talked about her friends. "Am I going to be meeting her?"
"Sure, I don't see why not. Twilight might take up a lot of your time, though."
After first being introduced to the unicorn, we had talked several times. She was doing a lot of research and sometimes had questions that only a native Earthling could answer, so I had sort of become her go-to human.
"What's Twilight working on now?" I asked.
"Something about an ancient conspiracy. You know, the usual. I just hope she doesn't go dragging you off to some far corner of the universe when I'm trying to hang out with you."
I smiled. "We'll see about that when we get there tomorrow."
It was just then that I realized I had forgotten the nicotine patches that I had become addicted to in place of smoking. Better for my lungs, but still kind of an expensive habit.
"Uh, Rainbow, do you remember how you threatened to make me go cold turkey on the smoking? I think you might get the chance after all."
She laughed. "Well, I don't think it will be easy to find those things in Ponyville, so yeah, you might be in for a rough time."
I could hardly wait.