“Thank you both for showing up,” Vice Principal Luna stated. “Skipping detention is grounds for much more serious punishment. It’s good to see some students taking responsibility.”
Night leaned on his arm while he shifted in the uncomfortable chair in the Vice Principal’s office. Why did he have to be here at all? He should be stretching with the team right now. This wasn’t right.
“So what are we gonna have to do?” Rainbow Dash asked. She was sitting immediately to his left.
“Well,” Luna began. “Ordinarily this type of disciplinary action is just a mandatory study hall. However, one of our janitors called in sick today.” Luna leaned forward in her seat. “So here’s what I’m going to propose: You two can decide to either serve an ordinary detention, or you may choose to sanitize all of the tables in every classroom in the 300 Hall.”
Night blinked several times. “I-I’m sorry, we can just… clean the rooms instead?”
“Yeah! Let’s do it!” Rainbow cried. “I don’t have any work to get done anyway, and I’d much rather be moving around. Besides, the faster we get the tables done, the sooner we can leave. Right?” Rainbow turned to Luna for confirmation.
“That is correct, Miss Dash. Provided you do a satisfactory job, of course. However, that’s only if you both agree to it. What do you think, Mr. Chase?”
Night glanced at Rainbow, who was giving him a look that said that she’d strangle him again if he answered wrong. Night shrugged. “Eh, sure. I’ve got plenty of experience wiping down tables anyway. Why not?”
Luna nodded. “Very well. The two of you can report to Room 301. I’ll be there shortly.”
Night and Rainbow stood and exited the office, then turned down the hall to the right and made their way to the 300 Hall. Rainbow Dash walked right beside Night, the two of them taking their time getting there.
Night shrugged. “I’d rather be moving around too,” he said simply, answering the unasked question.
The two said nothing more and entered the classroom. The 300 Hall was also known as the Science Hall. Every classroom was designed to accommodate certain fields of science, and all were equipped with the things necessary to perform labs. As a result, large, heavy, black tables replaced individual desks in most of the classrooms here. Night sat down at an uncomfortable plastic chair at the table nearest the door while Rainbow sat at the table next to him. The two maintained their silence as they waited patiently for the vice principal to arrive. Night tapped out a beat with his fingers while Rainbow leaned back in her chair and stared at the ceiling.
Once a few minutes had passed, Luna entered the doorway with two bottles of window cleaner and several rolls of paper towels.
“Do try to be conservative with the paper towels,” Luna said as she placed the supplies on the table in front of Night. “We don’t want to go through more than one roll.”
“Yeah, sure,” Night said absentmindedly. He stood up and grabbed a roll and a spray bottle. Rainbow Dash did the same.
“So, what, we just wipe off the tables in each room?” Rainbow inquired.
“In addition to the teachers’ desks and the few chalkboards,” Luna added. “If you’re quick about it, you should be done in about thirty minutes.”
“A’ight, cool,” Night remarked. “We’ll be back at a quarter ‘till.”
Vice Principal Luna nodded and left the room. When the click of the door being shut sounded, Night turned and faced Rainbow. The two stared at each other in silence, not really sure how to break the ice. After an awkward moment of shuffling feet, Night finally found his words and said something deeply profound:
“Um, I guess… I’ll get over there and… you can get here?”
Rainbow nodded. “Yeah, sure.”
Wiping the tables wasn’t a particularly grueling activity. Three sprays with the bottle on the table and two paper towels did the job nicely. Even though the tables were large rectangles, because they were narrow, Night could reach every spot when standing on one side.
Unfortunately, Night learned a bit more about the tables than he’d ever cared to know. The black surfaces hid dirt and grime well, as evidenced by the amount of the stuff that came off on the towels. Night made a silent vow to always take a personal bottle of hand sanitizer to any science class from that day forward.
It was in the middle of the third room that Night realized how bored he was. Sure, moving around helped a bit, as he’d suspected, but it was still uneventful. Having to do the task with a girl who was pissed at him certainly didn’t help matters. And the fact that it was Rainbow Dash with whom he was stuck…
Rainbow Dash was intimidating. Night knew that she could tussle with the guys, and those weren’t just rumors—he’d seen it for himself. She was competitive in every sport, and virtually everything else. She was always on some sports team throughout the year. Right now, she was the captain of the soccer team, hence her aggravation at her current situation, and was already preparing for the upcoming basketball season. Night had heard rumors that she had been playing on the boys’ team last year, but he couldn’t be certain. He’d never attended a game.
The fact that Rainbow was practically revered at Canterlot High School didn’t help matters. She and Pinkie Pie were the two most well-known students. And rightfully so. Rainbow and Pinkie were so outgoing that anyone who claimed to not know them was just lying, plain and simple. So if the details of their little confrontation got out, Rainbow was sure to have the support of the whole-.
“So how exactly did it happen?”
Night blinked and looked up from his task. Rainbow was looking at him quizzically.
“Um… what do you mean?”
“I mean, tell me about this morning,” Rainbow elaborated. “I’d like to hear from you how you ran into Fluttershy. I only heard her half, and she insists that it was an accident.”
“Next room, okay?” Night asked as he finished wiping the last table in the room. Rainbow nodded and the two exited into the hallway. “Truth be told,” said Night, “I really didn’t see her—you said her name was Fluttershy?—until the moment I ran into her. We just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.” The two of them entered the next room and looked in dismay at the filthy chalkboard.
Rainbow sprayed the nearest table with the cleaner. “Okay, but I really want to know how that happened. What were you doing right before you ran into her?”
Night raised an eyebrow. “Um… nothing really noteworthy. I was just walking to school with Minuette when she said something to make fun of me. So I started chasing her around the school grounds, and when I tried to tackle her, she dodged and my momentum carried me into your friend.”
“Oh, I see.” A mischievous grin spread across Rainbow’s face. “So you were fooling around with your girlfriend when that accident happened.”
Night’s eyes went wide and his face started heating up. “Wh-... no. No, Min ain’t my girlfriend.”
“Oh, really? Sounds to me like you two are already pretty close.”
Night stared at her incredulously. “Yeah… we’re childhood friends.”
“And nothing more?” Rainbow asked teasingly.
Night gave her a pitiful look. “No. Why’s that so hard to understand?”
“Okay, dude, fine. I believe you,” Rainbow said with a chuckle. “I’m just trying to find out more.”
“Well, she’s really got nothing to do with what happened. I ran into your friend, plain and simple. And I’m sorry about that.”
Rainbow put her hands up defensively. “Alright, chill dude. I was just messing with you. And I do believe you, so we’re cool, okay?”
Night let out a sigh of relief. “That’s good to hear.” He finished the table he was wiping as Rainbow got to the last one.
Could it really be this simple? Night had been hopeful that they could talk it out and resolve the issue peacefully, but he hadn’t expected it to be this easy. He figured that, as short-fused as Rainbow was, she would have been a bit more defensive. Yet here she was now, initiating the peace talks. It caught him off-guard, to say the least.
Rainbow grabbed her roll of paper towels and cleaner and exited the room, Night following right behind. He wanted to say something, but he wasn’t sure how to break the ice. His skepticism toward her already made things difficult for him.
Besides, how could he just talk to her casually like old chums when they had been fistfighting just a few hours ago? And over something as trivial as a misunderstanding.
...Wait, maybe that was it. It was just a misunderstanding. Now that they’d managed to clear the air between them, wouldn’t it make sense that Rainbow’s able to let it go? Why shouldn’t he be able to do the same?
As the two entered the next room to be cleaned, Night lightly punched himself in the head to reprimand himself for his foolish thinking. So long as he didn’t say anything completely stupid, things should be fine between them. So, what to talk about first?
As Night watched Rainbow begin to scrub the tables, he thought back to what their misunderstanding had been about. That girl. That was the immediate connection the two shared, albeit an awkward one.
“Hey, Rainbow?” Night finally said.
“Yeah?”
“I was wondering…” Night paused. He felt weird asking her. “Do you think you could tell me a bit about… oh, what was her name, Something-shy?”
“About Fluttershy? Why?” asked Rainbow.
“I dunno. It’s just that I think I’d like to know more about the girl I flattened,” Night chuckled. “Seriously, though, I still feel bad about the whole thing, so I was thinking it’d be good if I knew a little about her.”
Rainbow looked up at the ceiling. “Wow, where to begin.” She was silent for a moment as she tried to think of what to say. “I suppose… she’s true to her name.”
“Shy and timid, huh? I think I figured that out with the two sentences we shared.”
Rainbow chuckled. “Yeah, she’s always been that way. I’ve known her for as long as I can remember. We’ve been best friends since we were toddlers, kinda like you with Minuette.”
Night frowned in surprise. “Really? That’s interesting. It seems like the two of you couldn’t be any more different. I wouldn’t have guessed you two would be so close for so long.”
“Looks can be deceiving,” Rainbow replied. Night chalked that phrase up to a generic cliche, but wisely decided to say nothing about it. “I know that sounds silly, but I’m totally serious. It can be hard to get through to her sometimes, but when Fluttershy makes up her mind, she’s one of the strongest-willed people I know.”
“Huh. How so?”
Rainbow sprayed the teacher’s desk. “Being as timid as she is, Fluttershy was always prone to getting bullied. I would always come to her rescue and chase off the jerks who were teasing her.”
Oh, Night thought. I guess that would explain it.
“But then one day, she surprised me.” Rainbow stared at the ceiling and absentmindedly wiped the same spot on the desk. “It was the first time I’d ever been bullied for being a tomboy. Not ashamed to admit that,” she added.
“Nothing to be ashamed of.”
Rainbow smiled. “Anyway, that’s when Fluttershy stepped in. She stood up to those guys on her own and told them to leave me alone. She actually called them ‘big dumb meanies,’ which, for her, is like the holy grail of bad words.”
“I can imagine.” Night and Rainbow laughed.
“It’s funny, but I don’t think I’d ever been more proud and honored to be her friend than at that moment.” Rainbow gazed to the side, completely lost in thought. “Anyway, she may come off as being super timid, but when push comes to shove, she knows how to hold her own.”
“Unless somebody literally shoves her,” Night chuckled.
“Hey, are you trying to get on my bad side?”
Night gave Rainbow a wide grin. “No, ma’am. I’ve already been there, and I can’t say I like it very much.”
The two shared a laugh for a moment before Rainbow finished at the teacher’s desk. “Okay, I think we’re done here. Next room?”
Night nodded and he and Rainbow walked to the hallway.
“So what does she like to do?” Night asked. “Aside from standing up to bullies and being quiet, I still don’t really know anything about her.”
Rainbow opened the door to the third-to-last room in the hall. This science room was different. Instead of tables, there was one large central structure that had natural gas faucets installed into the tabletop. Six work areas jutted out from the center, allowing for up to twelve groups to work on labs at one time. The two sighed when they saw the struggle they would face when trying to wipe every square inch of the surface.
As Night began spraying the tabletop, Rainbow spoke up. “Fluttershy has a really big thing for animals. Do you know the animal shelter?”
Night furrowed his brow in thought. “That… um…wait… isn’t that near the edge of town?”
“Yeah. Canterlot Animal Shelter. The thing is, she works there.”
Night did a double-take. “Wait, you mean she volunteers a lot of time there?”
Rainbow shook her head. “Nope. She actually works there part-time. She can’t do a whole lot since she’s still a student, but they’ve already reserved a place for her to get an internship there in a few years. She’s going to study to become a vet.”
Night was speechless. That was an incredible goal to be working toward, and so soon! It actually made him feel a bit inadequate.
“That… wow.”
“I know, right?” Rainbow grunted as she leaned on the table to get a hard-to-reach spot. “Fluttershy’s pretty awesome. It’s been her dream for a long time.”
“Her dream, huh?”
The two remained silent for a while after that. The ticking of the wall clock and rubbing of the tabletop were the only sounds that could be heard. This continued even as they finished up and moved to the penultimate room in the hall.
“So what about you?” Rainbow finally asked.
“Hm?”
“What do you like to do? Now you know about Fluttershy, but we don’t know about the guy who tried to kill her. So what’s your story, you lunatic?”
Night rolled his eyes at the playful jeering. “Well, first I escaped from jail. Then I sneaked into a costume store and got my hands on some lavender body paint, allowing me to infiltrate this school in disguise, hidden in plain sight.”
Rainbow smirked as she stepped into the room. “Oh, really, tough guy? What were you in for?”
“I’m the most hardened criminal you’ll ever meet,” Night said slyly. “I tore the tag that says ‘Do Not Remove’ off of my mattress.”
Both Rainbow and Night burst into a fit of chuckles. “Okay,” Rainbow uttered between laughs. “You like to tell idiotic stories on a whim. I’ll keep that in mind.”
Night sighed contentedly. “Seriously, though, there’s not much to say. I run cross country. I’m pretty good, but not the best. I play video games. I like cartoons. I’m good at math and english. And I have a couple friends who put up with me for some reason. That’s pretty much it.”
“How long have you been running?”
Night shrugged. “Since seventh grade, so that makes this… hard math, I know… year five.”
Rainbow smiled and nodded. “That’s dedication.”
Night resumed working on the tables in the room. There were only a few in this one, so they were already halfway done. It was already 3:45, and they still had more than a room to go before they were finished. Night nodded and picked up his pace, which Rainbow noticed and accommodated.
“Be sure to tell your friend that the guy who attacked her was just some random loser, akay?”
“Nope,” Rainbow replied, which elicited a raised eyebrow from Night. “I’d be lying if I said that.”
Night was briefly caught off guard by the compliment, but quickly switched gears. “Okay, then. Be sure to say that he was a charismatic hunk of a guy who gets all the ladies.”
Rainbow smirked. “That’d still be lying.”
Night actually laughed out loud. It wasn’t easy to find people who appreciated his sense of humor, let alone played along with it. People like Minuette and now Rainbow Dash were one in a million.
“You ready to finish this up?” Night asked as he wiped down the last table in the room.
“Yeah. Tell you what, whoever finishes more tables in the last room wins.”
“You’re on.”
“Excellent job, you two,” Vice Principal Luna stated. “We appreciate the work you did. However, next time, try to use fewer paper towels, okay?” She held up a lone brown hollow cardboard tube that Night had handed her. There was a line of clear, dried glue along its length.
“Hey, whaddaya mean, ‘next time?’” Rainbow interjected. “I’m not planning on coming back!”
“Me neither!” Night said. “What, are you gonna start using students as free labor?”
A mischievous smile spread across Luna’s face. “You know, Mister Night, I hadn’t thought of that. That’s not a bad idea.”
“Ah, crap.”
“I was joking,” Luna laughed. “Anyway, my sincere thanks for your hard work today. I hope you two can get along now.”
Night glanced over at Rainbow who smiled back. “Yeah, I don’t think that’ll be a problem anymore.”
“That’s good to hear. Have a good day, you two.”
Night and Rainbow waved to Luna as they exited the office. With their backpacks in tow, they stepped out of the building.
“So, you heading to soccer?” asked Night.
“Yeah, I let the team know earlier that I’d be late, so it’s not too big of a deal. What about you?”
Night rubbed the back of his head sheepishly. “Well, coach doesn’t let us know ahead of time where we’re running, and it’s probably a long one today, so I honestly have no idea where they are.” Night chuckled. “So I’m thinking I’ll just head home early and work out a bit there.”
Rainbow adjusted the bag on her shoulders and turned in the direction of the soccer field. “Okay, then. See ya around.” Rainbow then began jogging away, so Night started walking toward the schoolyard exit.
“Hey Night!”
Night glanced back over his shoulder and saw Rainbow calling to him from the distance. “Stop by my lunch table sometime, okay?” she yelled. “I’d like you to meet everyone.”
Night smiled and nodded. “‘Kay!” he yelled back. “See ya!”
Night was glad nobody was angry with him anymore. In fact, if he wasn’t mistaken, he’d just made a new friend. Rainbow Dash, huh? She was pretty cool. Maybe she could introduce him to her friend—he’d already forgotten her name again. Flitter-something. Perhaps he could patch things up with her.
Night stared at the street before him. Except for a single car driving a ways in the distance, it was empty. Night started hopping in place to warm his legs up.
“Okay, let’s get home in ten minutes.”
Night sprang forward on the concrete and took off running.