PonyFall: Rainbows

by Silverness

A Trip Downtown

“I can’t believe you tried attacking the car,” I said after pulling Rainbow Dash inside and making her sit down in the back. She continued going on about the car being a monster, but I had to explain what a vehicle was to her; I lost her at automobile, much to my disappointment. Again, I had to explain it in a more simple manner so she could understand.

Rainbow huffed indignantly. “Hey, I thought it was a monster. Give me a break.”

I sighed and turned down the next street where Interstate 65 stood above us. “Well excuse me, I wasn’t the one who jumped on top of the car and tried to ‘slay’ it.” She grumbled something inaudible, but I ignored it, deciding that some music would be good right now. I pressed the power button on the radio and turned up the volume as the sound of a familiar radio talk show host filled the car.

... and win tickets to that concert! Anyhow, back to our regular programming.
You're listening to 94.7 FM, the Classic Rock Station!

Show me how to lie, you’re getting better all the time.
And turning all against the one is an art that’s hard to teach.
Another clever word sets off an unsuspecting herd.
And as you step back in the lie, a mob jumps to their feet.

I would recognize that tune anywhere. That was The Offspring’s “You’re Gonna Go Far, Kid

The next thing I knew, Rainbow Dash was up and out of her seat, glaring directly at the radio as the song continued. “Who is that? Who are you? Are you a spy? Huh?!” The radio didn’t answer Rainbow’s question, which made me wonder what her next action would be. I found out as soon as the thought crossed my mind. “Oh, a tough guy, huh? You think you can ignore me?” The song played on. “Alright, that’s it!” I couldn’t help but notice her face scrunch up and get flustered each time she didn’t get an answer. It was quite hilarious if you thought about it.

However, the scene quickly escalated into a huge mess as Rainbow Dash began jabbing and turning every single button and knob she could find on the radio dashboard. At first, it seemed she’d get over it, but she persisted, determined to defeat the “spy.” Comically, the radio decided to fight back against her attack by hitting Dash a few times with the CD tray. The numbers on the display fluctuated sporadically, the music replaced with a harsh, droning static so loud I couldn’t drive properly. I reached over and pressed down on the power button.

“Ha! I win!” Rainbow cheered her victory as the radio’s voice cut out. She looked over at me for approval of her conquest, but I just shook my head in disbelief. Her grin faltered once she saw my reaction and began to realize something was wrong. “Uh... I really don’t like spies?” she said, forcing a grin as she tried to appear innocent, but I wasn’t fooled.

“Rainbow Dash... what am I going to do with you?” I asked, making a left turn down Meridian St. 

“Heh, what are you going to do without me? I’m too awesome for you to get rid of,” Rainbow smirked, heading back into her seat. “Yeah, and you know that thing had it coming.”

I sighed. “Rainbow, I know you’re just too awesome for me to handle-” I began sarcastically.

“This is true,” she interrupted, smirking.

Irritated, I continued, “-but that thing you just destroyed was an expensive piece of this car.”

“Pfft, big deal,” Rainbow said, waving it off. “I saved your flank from that spy an-”

“Dash! That wasn’t a spy. It was something we call a radio? It plays music.”

“Yeah yeah, I know. We have those in Equestria too, you know.”

“You do...? I asked. “Then why’d you attack it, knowing that?”

“I don’t know, guess I was bored?”

“Dash!”

“Fine! I’m sorry, alright?” Rainbow apologized. She huffed out of irritation and crossed her arms. “I was just trying to lighten up the mood, eesh.”

I ignored her and continued driving the car into the downtown area. By now, we were reaching the tall buildings that loomed over the Indianapolis skyline. I glanced into my rearview mirror at Rainbow’s face looking upwards a few times at the buildings, her mouth agape as she struggled to form words about what she’d probably call monstrosities. She scratched her head in marvel, her face clearly showing her confusion, then she noticed the people. I had stopped at a red light and managed to get a clear, long side view of Rainbow’s face. She was clenching her teeth for some reason, but that was not what got my attention. It was behind her eyes. I saw something rare of Rainbow Dash: fear. Fear of humans would be my best guess.

I was about to say a few words to comfort her, but the light turned green and I had to keep driving. When I was able to stop at the next light, I noticed Dash’s expression had changed and she appeared to be thinking about something, but what?

“You okay there, Dash?” I asked just as the light turned green. Driving forward, I kept my eyes on the road and ears on the conversation.

Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, I’m fine. I was just thinking...”

“Thinking? About what?”

“Well, I was thinking about all those people. I mean there’s so many of them and they all look so alike, but different. I’m not sure what I’m going on, but how will I find my friends if there are so many people walking around? And then there’s last night, that guy could be in one of those groups or it could be another person and the-”

“Woah, Rainbow. Calm down, you’re thinking too hard about this,” I said, gently taking hold of her arm. She stopped and looked up at me, her eyes wide. For a minute, I thought they were going to revert to the same old pony eyes Dash had. “I know you’re worried about your friends. I am too, but right now you need to calm down and relax.” I gave her a knowing smile, hoping I could reassure her. Rainbow’s lips curled into a weak smile; at least a weak smile was better than nothing. With that taken care of, I kept my foot on the gas until we reached the parking lot around Illinois St.

A toll booth barred the entrance to the lot. To its left stood a sign denoting an entrance fee of $1.50 for an hour. I glanced down at my cup holder where I kept my change and found a few assorted coins. I grabbed the necessary amount and paid the toll, lifting the gate. Returning the loose change to the cupholder, I heard Rainbow’s raspy voice beside me. “Um, are those bits?” she asked, leaning in from the back seat as she stared at the cup holder filled with coins.

“Not exactly. They are coins, but not your bits,” I explained, turning the car into the first level parking lot. To my surprise, most of the parking spaces were not taken, which was weird considering it was usually filled to capacity. I parked the car in one of those unused spaces before returning to Rainbow’s question. “You see, we use different kinds of coins for our currency unlike the golden bits you use. And we also use paper bills for expensive things.” I took out my wallet and produced a five dollar bill, handing it to Rainbow Dash. She grabbed it and played around with it, eyeing the details on it.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to use coins instead of paper?” Rainbow asked, handing back the bill.

I took back the five and placed it back in my wallet. “That would be true, but tell that to the whole world who uses paper money such as this.”

Rainbow arched an eyebrow at my statement. “Have I ever told you that your entire world is weird?”

“Oh you don’t even know the half of it,” I said dryly, shutting the engine off as I removed the keys.

Once I stopped the engine, Rainbow prepared to jump out the door, but the handle proved to be an unsurpassable obstacle for her. Her fingers tried to grasp the plastic grip, only to falter. I guess this explained why she had to escape through the slide window rather than the door last night. At one point, she got the handle to move halfway, but not enough to open it. She continued repeating the same process, each time getting more irritated than the last. Call me a sadist, but I was amused as I watched her struggle, until I got out of the car and pulled it open for her.

“You didn’t need to help me! I was doing fine on my own.” Rainbow grumbled her frustration, climbing out of the car.

I closed the door behind her and smirked. “Sure you were.”

“I was too!” Rainbow countered, her speech becoming more forceful with the flush of anger prominent across her face. I raised my palms in front of me for defense and stuck my tongue out. This only provoked her more, but I started chuckling before she could react. If not, then I probably would have been flying into the streets by now.

“Oh come on, Rainbow Dash. I was only teasing.” Her expression softened from the comment and her mouth opened to say something. When nothing came out, I placed an arm around the poor girl and began leading her towards the exit. “You sure are easily worked up, Dash. Has anybody told you that? I think you need to relax and chill out sometime.” She muttered something beside me, but kept it to herself. I speculated that it must’ve been about her pride so I decided not to push the matter.

I led her outside into the bright sunlight where a noisy crowd of people made their way down the streets of Indianapolis. Rainbow walked out after me, her eyes darting between every single person passing by. She gripped my arm tighter and I winced due to how tense she was getting. “Hey Dash, relax.”

“Huh?” Rainbow arched an eyebrow and turned her gaze at her grip. “Oh, sorry.” She released the pressure off my wrist and I rubbed the sore red spots where her fingers had dug into my hand.

After watching a few more people pass by us, she looked up at the tall buildings she saw before. She didn’t blink or move, just staring upwards at the monoliths. I took the moment to look around in case anybody was staring at us. Some people gave us second glances, but nobody stared except for the old fellow next to us who looked up from his newspaper he had and shook his head at Rainbow’s hair, mumbling, “Teenagers...” before heading back to his paper.

“This place is...” Rainbow took a deep breath of air. “Amazing... Ack!” At the precise moment she was taking a deep breath, a random 18-wheeler rushed by, backfiring a thick amount of smog into the air. Unfortunately, that happened to be mixed up with the air Rainbow was breathing. She began coughing, making choking gestures at her throat. I reached over and slapped her back a few times. She coughed and gagged a bit before spitting on the ground. “Ugh, this air tastes horrible! What, is there a colony of dragons sleeping nearby or something?”

“What? You mean the pollution?” When she didn’t answer, I slapped my head for not remembering. “Right, you guys don’t have that. Well, you could say that the air here isn’t exactly clean, but it is breathable. I’m breathing right now and I don’t have any problems with it.” I took a deep breath, air filling my lungs and exhaled l some of it back. “See?”

Rainbow frowned. “Wow, I can’t believe you guys can live like this. See, this is why you need pegasi. We’ll clear up weather any day at anytime, as well as create it.” She made an imaginary swirl with her arms, miming a pegasus creating clouds. I tried imagining it and the mental image appeared in my mind, a cyan pegasus forming a small tornado in the sky that would produce the finishing product.

“I think pegasi would be great for this world. If you don’t consider the people who would try to capture you.” Rainbow raised an eyebrow at this, but didn’t pursue further. I shrugged it off, bringing my attention to the large building in front of us. We were a few blocks away from the Abercrombie store. It was just a short walk away. “You ready?”

“I was born ready! Let’s go!” Rainbow answered confidently. I nodded and we left the parking lot.

I led her into the busy crowd of people making their way into shops or simply trying to get to work. I held onto Rainbow’s arm, each time I could feel her clench her fist once we passed by a person. It was a complete madhouse here and I didn’t want to lose her through this crowd. Though, if I had to look, I’d find her easily since she’s the only one with rainbow hair.

Finally, after our small, but short walk, we made a turn down West Maryland St. and reached our destination. Three glass doors marked the entrance to Abercrombie & Fitch, right inside the Old Nordstrom Mall.

“Okay, now I’ve seen everything. Like seriously, I can’t believe you guys built so many of these skyscrapings!” Rainbow exclaimed, staring upwards where the Abercrombie & Fitch logo was.

“Yeah, we’re a growing society. Humans have done far more epic things, really.” I replied, placing my hands in my pockets. “And it’s ‘skyscrapers’, not ‘skyscrapings’.”

“Right... can we please head inside now? This air is really getting to me, like it’s clogging up my lungs with whatever that awful taste is. And no, I don’t want an explanation for it,” Rainbow sputtered out. A series of coughs followed after her question.

“Fine, let’s get you inside before you cough up a lung,” I smirked. She glared back, not saying anything and rushed ahead indignantly. I followed after her, watching other people enter and exit the store while the crowd continued moving throughout the streets. Rainbow waited at the door, tapping her foot as her impatience got the better of her. She rushed in as soon as I pulled open one of the doors.

When we entered, Rainbow stuck her tongue out in disgust over some fancy looking clothes hanging to our left. At the precise moment, someone decided to spray a perfume bottle nearby and caused some of it to linger around. Apparently that same scent managed to enter through Rainbow’s mouth and she started gagging from swallowing some of it. Laughing, I slapped her back and tried to fan away the smell. Rainbow gestured for a stop and backed off, giving her some breathing room. She coughed violently and clutched her chest before groaning against the coat rack.

“What in Celestia’s name was that disgusting smell?” Rainbow sputtered out through another series of coughs. “It’s even worse than the stuff Rarity uses. And let me tell you, the stuff she uses is strong. Plus, it smells way better than whatever that was.”

Before I could respond to her question, another voice butted in. “Um, excuse me? Is everything alright over here?”

We turned around to face a young blonde employee with bright blue eyes. She wore some fancy Abercrombie clothes, onyx colored earrings and a nametag. It read, “Anna.” If not for the clothes and tag, I’d had assumed she was a normal customer like we were.

“Yeah, we’re fine. My friend here had a little problem with perfume, that’s all,” I told Anna as Rainbow tried collecting herself.

“Oh... right, sorry about that. We’re testing out our new fragrances and cologne to the public. I did warn them not to spray so much since it spreads too quickly.” That’s when she noticed Rainbow’s hair. “Did your friend dye it or something? It looks very natural.”

“Yeah...” I said quickly before Rainbow Dash could argue back. “It’s alright, I guess. We just came by because my friend here needs some new clothes. Seriously, she really needs some.” I looked around to see if anybody was listening and leaned in closer. “If you’re wondering, she’s wearing my clothes.”

Anna stared at us inquisitively and looked over at Rainbow Dash to confirm what I just said. Taken aback some, she held her chin with her left hand, and her left elbow in her right hand. “Oh my,” Anna said, having trouble figuring out what to say. “Hmm... I guess I could help her find some clothes to her liking. What does she like, exactly?”

“Find me the coolest sports jacket you have and anything that looks awesome or cool. I really don’t care as long as it fits somewhere along those lines,” Rainbow asked, still coughing from the perfume. “Also, you need to get better perfume because that stuff just reeks.

Anna blinked once at her. She stared at Rainbow with curiosity, but based on her shrug, she decided not to dwell much about it. “Alright then... if you’d follow me, we’ll find you some quality clothes.” She walked past us and I swear I saw her shake her head slightly and mutter to herself. Rainbow followed eagerly behind with me taking up the rear as we followed her to the back of the room where a bunch of jackets hung on the racks.

For some reason, I had this odd feeling that this would take longer than I thought. It didn’t take long for me last time, but that’s because I knew what I wanted. Besides, Rainbow couldn’t possibly take more than an hour finding clothes. Though, more problems would arise with the other stuff I’d have to buy her, which could potentially deprive me of every penny to my name. If she took that long, then she’d really need some professional guidance in this.

“Um, Cody?” Rainbow’s raspy voice asked nearby. I turned around in her direction where she wore a blue jean jacket in the wrong places like yesterday evening. Her eyes pleaded at me for help while Anna tried helping her out with the problem. I had only one reaction to this, which would eventually cause everything else to take so long.

“For the Love of Celestia, help me,” I prayed, my face in my palm, and went over to help her with the problem.

Thankfully, it didn’t take long to fix the problem, but now picking something out became the main concern. Each time Anna brought out a pair of clothes, Rainbow would put them on and say they weren’t cool enough by a margin of 20%, or needed to be awesome like her. I groaned at the minutes trickling by, feeling sorry for Anna, but she didn’t seem to mind. She just kept running and grabbing clothes based on what Rainbow’s vague descriptions would tell her.

“So? How do I look?” Rainbow asked, showing off her outfit. “Yeah, I know. It looks awesome, right?”

Rainbow had a white shirt covering her torso, on top of that was a sleek blue sports jacket that almost matched her original coat color. She had a nice pair of blue jeans as well, wearing a white belt that seemed to match her shirt. On her feet, she wore a pair of black Converses that looked nice on her. Overall, I was finally glad she found something she liked after spending an two hours and forty minutes in a dressing room.

We paid for the clothes, which totalled around $70. Thankfully, most of the clothes Rainbow chose were on sale, or else I would’ve had to pay an arm and a leg for it all. I thanked Anna for helping us out before leading Rainbow in search of a place to eat. An hour later, we found ourselves inside a White Castle down on South Street. I stayed in line to order our food while Rainbow went to find us a table. When it was my turn, I got two Original Slider meals for both of us. The cashier handed me the receipt and the two medium-sized cups for drinks. I filled up our drinks from the soda fountain, giving myself Coke and Rainbow water.

When the order finally came, I had taken little sips from my drink out of boredom. The order sat on the counter once an employee placed the last box of fries on the tray. I left my spot and walked over to the tray and picked it up, placing both drinks on them. I made my way over to the table Rainbow claimed where a bored Equestrian waited, tapping her fingers on the table. She finally decided to lift her head and noticed I was making my way to the table.

“There you are! I’ve been waiting for ages,” Rainbow said.

I settled the tray on the table and took a seat in front of her. “Well excuse me. I was waiting for our food to come out and it takes time you know.”

“Yeah, whatever. Let’s just eat because I’m starving!” Rainbow grabbed a box of fries, eyeing one of the greasy, golden sticks before popping one into her mouth. Instantly, her eyes grew wide and she stared down at the fries. “OH MY GOSH, these are so good!” she exclaimed, popping another into her mouth.

I laughed at the sight and took my own meal from the tray. “I’m glad you like them so much. White Castle always makes great food whether you're hungry or not.” I opened the box filled with four sliders and decided to dig into my own food. As we enjoyed our meal, Rainbow fiddled with her first slider, picking up the bun to reveal a rectangular piece of meat with two pickles and chopped onions before taking a bite out of it. She got the same reaction out of it and began wolfing it down.

“Wow, this is amazing. I’ve never eaten anything like this before,” Rainbow said through a mouthful. “What’s in this stuff anyways?”

“Oh, it’s just some pickles and onions topped off with a thin slice of me- Wait a minute...” The word I was about to say quickly brought warning signs in my head. I looked to the slider Dash was eating, already halfway through it. Oh crap, why didn’t I realize it when I ordered?! Dammit!

“Uh, Rainbow... you might want to spit that out.”

“Huh. Why?” she asked, still chewing on her food.

“Well... because you’re eating meat...” I finally told her the truth.

Rainbow stopped herself from taking another bite into her slider. She looked down at the food and looked at the meat underneath the bun, then chewed whatever was left in her mouth. After a few seconds of contemplating the sandwich and my words, she sighed and dropped the sandwich back into the box. I thought she’d be mad at me for giving her meat, but she didn’t seem like exploding over it. In fact, she seemed somber over it.

“You know, I never thought I’d eat meat again. I even promised myself, but I guess I ended up breaking that one,” Rainbow muttered.

Her answer shocked me. “Y-You’ve eaten meat before?”

“Of course I have! I did have a griffon for a best friend who eats meat. She brought some to Flight Camp one day and I had forgotten my lunch back at home. I didn’t have any money to buy anything in the cafeteria so she decided to share her lunch with me. To be honest, I thought meat would be crunchy and taste weird, but in fact it was squishy and slimy. And that was the only time I’ve ever eaten meat... until now,” Rainbow told her story.

Well, I wasn’t expecting that. For Rainbow eating meat once, that must’ve been strange and surprising to the others who had watched her eat it as a pony. A part of me was disgusted by how a herbivore could eat meat, but the other part was glad that she didn’t kick my ass for it.

“Well, I’m glad you’re not too upset about it. I thought you were going to blow up and kill me, screaming ‘Why did you give me meat?!’ or something along those lines.”

“Oh, don’t be too sure about that. I’m pretty upset you decided to give me meat, but I’m not going to be a jerk and embarrass you in public. But... I’m sure we’ll have a lot to talk about when we get home,” Rainbow smirked, cracking her knuckles.

After that incident, we continued eating our food with Rainbow sighing and taking small bites out of her own burgers. She ate her fries one after another, however, and ended up eating my fries as well. It was my fault for giving her meat and I was in no position to protest. Afterwards, I took her around the city, showing her some of the historical sites nearby. I know she wasn’t interested in the subject, but it was only for sights and killing time. Afterwards, we took a break at the statue in the middle of the city.

“So Dash, what’d you think of Indianapolis?” I asked.

Rainbow lifted her head up and gave a tiny yawn. “Oh... it was pretty cool. Besides the fact that you gave me meat and all those boring explanations, I guess I’m glad you took me because now I have my own clothes and you finally let me see the outside instead of-” She yawned again, resting her head on her arms. “-being cooped up inside the house.”

“Don’t mention it. I’m always glad to help a friend,” I said, remembering the times before I moved to the suburbs of Indianapolis.

“Yeah. Thanks, Cody...” Rainbow’s voice trailed off at the end. I waited for the rest of the sentence, but found myself hearing the news broadcast on the radio. I glanced back, only to find Rainbow Dash asleep in a somewhat curled up position, stretched over the back seats.

I guess she’s all tired out, I thought, smiling warmly at the sight. With that, I began the long drive out of the city and back to the suburbs to end the day and begin a new tomorrow.