//------------------------------//
// Part II 
// Story: Cold Rain 
// by MDNGHTRDHTLN 
//------------------------------//

	“Holy shit! Fucking hell! Twilight! How have you been?” Rainbow Dash asked.
“I’m okay. How are you?”
“I’m doing fucking great! Better, now that you’re here!”
“It’s good to see you too, Rainbow Dash.”
“You, uh… you haven’t been to the actual human world, have you?”
“No, I haven’t.”
“Okay. First things first. Here, you can’t call me Rainbow Dash.”
“Why not?”
“It’s not a name for a human. I go by Nicole now.”
“Nicole?” I had never heard of that name before.
“Yep. Do you like how you look, clothes-wise?”
I hadn’t actually looked to see what I was wearing. I was wearing a purple t-shirt, black jeans, and some Converse sneakers. I looked presentable. Like a normal person.
“Yeah, I look okay.”
“Good deal. You don’t have a place to stay, do you?”
“Nope.”
“You can crash at my place.”
“Really? I don’t want to intrude-,”
“Don’t worry about it. We’re friends.”
“Thanks.” I’m glad we were still friends, after being apart for so long.
“I’m guessing you want to see the others, huh?”
“Yes, I do,” I was very eager to do just that.
“Great. Pinkie frequents a nice little bar around here. A place called ‘Travis’ Bar and Grille’.”
“A bar?”
“Yeah. Pinkie loves her liquor, I guess.”
That can’t be good.
On the walk over, Rainbow Dash pulled out a small, white box. It said ‘Camel’ on it. She pulled out a small white cylinder with an orange tip. She put the orange part into her mouth, and pulled out another small, white box. This box, when opened, produced a small flame. She took this flame, and applied it to the other end of the cylinder. She put both boxes back inside of her pocket, and continued walking. She inhaled, pulled the small cylinder out of her mouth, and exhaled. Gray smoke came out of her mouth, floating up towards the black night sky.
“What was that?” I asked her. “The thing you just did.”
“This? Oh, it’s a cigarette. I smoke them.”
“Oh. By the way, I noticed you were a bit…rough with that guy back there.”
“Oh, that guy? Sick fuck pulls shit like that all the time. I do my best to keep the streets clean.”
“Isn’t that why we have the police?”
“Well, yeah…bur…you know…it makes me feel good about myself.”
I got the strange feeling that her goals weren’t as noble as she made them sound.
Up ahead, I saw a bright sign. It read, ‘Travis’ Bar and Grille’ in bright letters.
“Look at that. We’re here!” said Rainbow Dash.
We stepped inside. It was brightly lit, with a bright white countertop and clean tables all around. It was a nice place. The stools up against the bar were made of clean, red leather. And, on the third stool to my right, was not other than everyone’s favorite party animal, Pinkie Pie.
She was wearing a pink marshmallow ski jacket, with a black jacket underneath. She had black jeans on her legs, similar to Rainbow Dash’s jeans, but without the chains. She had pink, high-top sneakers on her feet.
“Travis. Another shot. Give me your best liquor here.”
A man, wearing an apron, came out of the kitchen behind the counter. “Don’t you think you’ve had enough, miss?”
“No. I think I haven’t had enough. I’m not the least bit drunk right now.”
“Miss, you’ve fallen off the bar stool three times since you’ve come here.”
“Shut up and take my money!”
“Pinkie?” I called out.
She turned to look at me. “Who’s asking? Wait…Twilight!” Some other patrons looked at us, probably intrigued by our strange names. Well, strange to them.
“Yes, Pinkie. It’s me.”
“Long time no see! Hey, Dashie. How have you been?” Pinkie asked.
“I’ve been okay,” Rainbow Dash responded.
“Good, good.” Pinkie took another swig of her beverage. She was slightly off-balance now.
“Pinkie, are you okay?” I asked.
“I… I am fine. Just a little…weird.” She looked at her watch. “Fuck, I gotta go home. It’s pretty late. See ya tomorrow, Travis.”
“See you tomorrow, Pinkie.” The bartender resumed his normal work.
“Pinkie, how are you able to use your real name here?” I asked her. “Rainbow Dash can’t use hers.”
“Most people think it’s a childhood nickname.”
“Oh. I see. You seem to drink a lot, Pinkie.”
“Of course I do, silly. Everyone needs to drink.”
“I meant alcohol.”
“Oh. Yeah. I like to drink alcohol a lot. Makes good memories better. Of course, most of your memories are better when you find them at the bottom of a bottle,” she painfully reminisced.
“Pinkie, let’s get you home, okay?” I said.
“Sure. My apartment is just down the street. Rainbow Dash and I share a place.”
“Really?”
“Yeah,” Rainbow Dash interjected. “By the way, Pinkie, Twilight’s gonna crash with us for a bit. Get settled in.”
“Okey dokey lokey!” Pinkie said. She seemed eager to have another friend with her.
“So, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash said, “when we get home, just take it easy, okay? I’ll get you a bed or something, and we can watch a movie or something. I say we watch Memento. You know, with Joe Pantoliano and Guy Pearce? It’s about this guy who has short-term memory loss, and he has to find his wife’s killer. It’s really good.”
“We can watch it, I guess.”
“Awesome!”
After some more walking, we finally arrived at the apartment. Rainbow Dash and Pinkie led me up to the apartment. When we got inside, I was glad to see it was clean. I’ve always disliked messiness to some extent. Now that I’ve seen a few episodes of How I Met Your Mother, I can say that their apartment looks exactly like Ted’s. The kitchen was in the corner, and a small step led up to the large window and bedroom. It was a nice place.
“Nice place, girls,” I complimented. “I could definitely stay here.”
“Great,” said Rainbow Dash. “I’m glad you like it.”
I have a feeling that life here will be good.