Chapter Fifteen
Rainbow Dash
The next morning, I woke up to Pinkie shaking me awake. “Wake up, Dashie!” she said. “I have a great idea!”
“Oh, come on, Pinkie,” I complained. “Just five more minutes.”
“Oh, come on, Dashie.” She kept shaking me so I just started to push myself up. I had forgotten that we were in another world and were humans, so I was surprised to see Pinkie in her form and that I had hands. I groaned again as I pushed myself out of the bed, looking around.
“Where is everypony else?” I asked Pinkie.
“Oh, Twilight is talking with Molly trying to learn how to use her magic, and Fluttershy went to the bathroom,” she said. “Come on, I’m going to throw a little party since we didn’t get to enjoy my party last night.”
“Sounds awesome, Pinkie, but don’t you think we have more important things to do?” I asked her.
“Well, we can’t really go do anything until Harry gets back,” she pointed out.
I groaned. “Why do we have to rely on him?” I asked. “I mean, he seems cool and all, but I hate having to rely on somepony else when we’re suppose to be looking for Discord and Chaogent. And we still have to find A.J. and Rarity.”
“Oh, come on, Dash,” she said. “We don’t know this place and we don’t know where to go to find them.”
When did Pinkie Pie become the voice of reason? I sighed. She was right, but it still made me feel like it was pointless for us to be here if we can’t do anything. I mean, I can’t even fly anymore. That was so uncool. It couldn’t be helped. So I just got up and followed her out of the room.
“So, I wanted to make a real party,” Pinkie started to say as we left the room together, “but I didn’t have my party canon and I used most of the decorations on the island. And it seemed that Molly doesn’t keep a lot of food here. She said that she’s not here long enough to keep a lot of food here. It’ll just go bad.”
“How long have you been up, Pinkie?” I asked as we joined Fluttershy, heading down the stairs. “Morning, Fluttershy.”
“Oh. Good Morning, Rainbow Dash,” she replied.
“I’ve only been up for a few minutes,” Pinkie replied. She lead us into a living room where Twilight was sitting there with a wand. She was trying to levitate something while Molly sat behind her.
“Morning, Twilight. Morning, Molly,” I said.
“Morning,” they both said at the same time.
“Are you two going to join us?” Pinkie asked.
“Maybe in a bit,” Twilight said. “If I want to help out while I’m here, I need to learn to be able to use the magic here.”
“Alright,” Pinkie said, happily. “We’ll save you some pretend cupcakes.” With that, she lead us into the kitchen.
I thought about what Twilight said. She was practicing using her magic so she could help. I was sure wherever A.J. was, she was working on how she could be helpful. I’m sure Rarity was learning how to use magic also, though knowing her, she’ll probably would be making us all outfits to wear. Pinkie was being Pinkie. Even if she didn’t fight or use magic, she could keep our spirits up. And though I can’t really say Fluttershy was much help, I was sure she didn’t mind sitting around doing nothing.
I’ll admit. I’m lazy when I want to be, but all I’ve done since I got here was kick some punks’ butts when I first got here. Since then, I just followed everypony around. I needed some action.
Pinkie had started playing some music off of what looked like Molly’s phone. I guess Molly helped her out with it. Pinkie started to dance, despite not knowing the music that was playing, and got Fluttershy and I to start dancing with her. It was nice, but it didn’t stop me from thinking about wanting to help out more.
I heard someone come in and voices from the other room before Harry walked into the kitchen with Molly and Twilight. It was about time too. I was ready to go kick some more butt.
"Hey, girls," Twilight called. "Harry's here with food."
It didn’t really hit me how hungry I was until she mentioned it. I didn’t eat last night, so I was pretty hungry. "Awesome!" I said, giving in to my hunger instead of my need to help.
"Food!" Pinkie called out and she rushed forward to get her share of food. There was only so much pretend food you can eat before real hunger sets in, I guess.
After we ate, Harry passed out some clothes we could wear. After last night and dealing with the cold autumn air, I was glad to get something. Pinkie and I started to undress, but Twilight and Molly stopped us and pushed us into another room.
"Hey, what gives?" I asked them as we entered the other room.
“Rainbow, being naked isn’t really a thing here,” Twilight said.
“It’s kind of a modesty,” Molly said. “It’s of frowned upon by some people. Besides, men here kind of only have one thing on their minds. And if you run around naked and showing off the good stuff...well, it’ll attract attention you don’t need.”
“Oh,” I said and I felt my cheeks burn a bit. I guess it made sense here. But for human guys to think that way was kind of disgusting. It was...perverted. Then again, maybe it was all humans. Did Molly think that way too?
Now that I was thinking about it, I started to blush more. Maybe it was the thought of seeing someone else in that light...or maybe being seen like that. I started thinking what it would be like to see Thomas like that. Though now that I know what he was, I pushed those thoughts away.
We searched through the clothes, Molly helped us pick out stuff and even ran to get somethings of her own that we could use. I ended up getting some blue clothes that looked close to my fur. They were too large though and I had to add a belt, roll up the legs, and tie the shirt to make it fit.
Once we were all dressed, we headed out. I didn't like this "minivan." I would much rather fly. This was so dumb. I felt so restricted. Why did we get turned into humans? I guess it’s similar to a car on a train, but that at least had room for a pony to get up and walk around.
As we rode in the thing, Harry shared with us his plans. He had decided to pursue Discord. I didn’t like the idea of setting the search for A.J. and Rarity aside until we found Discord, but we had nothing else to work off of. As much as it pained me, I might as well go along with it for now.
During the ride, we learned about names. I never thought much about names, but it seemed here names were important. Magic here was a lot weirder, and I’m sure Twilight loved this. The way I understood it was that if somepony knew somepony else's name, they could control them. Did that mean Harry had control over me too? That was a scary thought.
We finally arrived at wherever we were going. It was about time too. The minivan had started dinging during the conversation about names and it was really getting annoying. We all got out and I looked at the building as we walked to it. Harry lead us down some steps into a pub.
The place was a decent size, but I noticed that it was oddly set up. The pillars that supported the ceiling had carvings on them and they were interesting to look at. With the pillars and tables, it seemed everything couldn’t fit in an organized fashion and was just placed randomly around the pub. We followed Molly over to a table and sat down while Harry went to talk with the man.
“This is annoying,” I whispered to them.
“Rainbow Dash,” Twilight protested.
“Oh, come on, Twilight,” I said. “Are you honestly enjoying sitting around and doing nothing?”
“Well, no, but there’s nothing much we can do right now,” she said.
“I understand that, Twi,” I shot back. “But it’s annoying that we’re not doing anything. We’re letting Harry do all the work.”
“Dash,” Molly said. “Trust me, I know the feeling of sitting in the back seat. I was his apprentice for several years. I wasn’t very helpful when he did his investigative work, but I did find ways to help him when he needed it. I’m sure by the end of all of this, you’ll be more help than you thought.”
I crossed my arms as I sat back, letting that sink in. It was true that I couldn’t do much now, but who’s to say that I’ll be useful later? I don’t have wings so I can’t fly. I certainly can’t make a sonic rainboom while I’m here. I could fight but there’s nothing to fight against.
We could hear Harry trying to get an answer from the owner, but no luck. Fluttershy, to my surprise, got up and walked over. It was with her help that we learned that this Sam Singer was really Discord.
As we left the pub, I felt like we accomplished nothing. Sure, we learned who Discord was portraying himself as, but how did that help us? This just got more annoying as it went on, and now we were going to some church to ask someone there about Discord...or Sam. Whoever we were going to ask at the church better know something. I was ready to get some action.
When we first reached the church, we met Molly’s father, Michael, there. As he lead us inside, he told us why he was here and not working like he was suppose to be. From what it sounded like, a dragonequus had tampered with his worksite. Could this be the work of Discord? Or Chaogent? There was no telling until we found one of them, but it was something I felt we should look into.
We finally met the guy we had came here to speak with. “Oh, Harry,” he said as we entered the room. “I was kind of expecting you, my son.”
“You were?” Harry asked.
“After what Michael had told me about his job site,” he said, “I had a feeling you might come here to ask some questions.”
I stood with the others, watching Harry talk with the guy. “Do you know who the guy that warned you about the coin was?” he asked.
“Not entirely. I just knew he was an Outsider,” he said.
I frowned as I looked around at the others. They just stood there, silently waiting. “And you didn’t think to tell me that yesterday?” Harry asked.
“He requested it to remain a secret,” the man said. “But I feel it might be time to break that promise.”
“It might have saved me a lot of trouble,” Harry said in an annoyed voice. “His name is Discord. And we are trying to locate him.”
“Well, he was suppose to come by yesterday,” he said.
“Right, I know that,” Harry told him. “But did he say where else he was going? Where he was staying?”
“Sorry, no,” the old man said. “He didn’t mention anything.”
“This is pointless,” I said, frustration getting the best of me. “We’re not getting anywhere.”
“Rainbow Dash,” Fluttershy said. “We have to try.”
“Come on, Fluttershy,” I told her. “It’s hopeless, we’re not going to find Discord. He’s gone.”
“Don’t say that,” Fluttershy said, raising her voice some. “We will find him.”
“Stop it, you two,” Twilight said, getting between us. “We’re not helping fighting with each other.” I folded my arms and turned away. “Harry, you know this city better than anyone, right? If Discord was looking for information, where he go to get it? News stand? Maybe a mayor?”
I growled, not listening to the conversation. I was tired of this. We came all the way here just to hit a deadend. We were on a wild goose chase, except the goose is out in Manehatten and we’re running in circles in Chicacolt. I was about to walk away when Harry pushed past us, followed by Michael.
I looked at the other girls and quickly followed after them, leaving Molly there to call Thomas again. As we reached the door we had entered, I heard Harry yell. “Son of a bitch!” he called from outside. We rushed forward. “Get inside!” he called and Michael came back in and closed the door.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Trouble,” Michael said. “Get back to the classroom.”
Forget that. I was tired of getting tied down. I decided to fight. I turned and ran down the hall, hearing my friends call out to me. I ignored them. I realized that despite not having wings and being unable to fly, I was still fast. This made me grin.
“I am so awesome,” I told myself, and ran through the front doors. I glanced around and started to run down the street, making my way around the building to get to whatever was happening.
As I came around the corner, I saw a man throw a block of ice on the ground and a woman jumped down behind him, kicking at him. I knew at once it was Applejack. The man tripped her.
I felt my anger grow and I ran down the street. I think if I had more room, I could have reached sonic rainboom, but as it was, I didn’t. So I tackled the guy. I came up from a roll and started to punch at him, yelling. He dodged me, but I was moving fast enough that he couldn’t counter.
Instead, he jumped back and pulled out some device. Whatever it was, he never got to use it. I heard Harry yell from behind me and I felt a rush of air go by me and the device went flying. As it did, A.J. stepped up and kicked at him. I saw what she was trying to do. He didn’t. He jumped back right into Thomas, who grabbed the man and slammed him to the ground.
Thomas held him, pushing a knife to his throat. The guy was practically begging us to stop. I guess he realized that this was too much awesome for him. It turned out that this guy was hired by Harry himself to kill him sometime ago. However, the way they were talking, it seemed the guy wasn’t trying to kill Harry at all. Was he testing Harry or something?
Regardless, Harry let him go. Surprisingly, I felt a lot better. It wasn’t much, but I helped fight somepony and we were rejoined by Applejack. Overall, we finally made some progress. What’s more, when we returned to the church, we learned where Rarity was. And if Harry was correct, not only would we find Rarity, but get more information on where Discord could be.