The Ballad of Rainbow Dash

by Ron Jeremy Pony

Chapter 3 When the Man Comes Around

GTA: The Ballad of Rainbow Dash

Chapter 3: The Man Comes Around

“There's a man goin' 'round takin' names,
And he decides who to free and who to blame.
Everybody won't be treated all the same,
There'll be a golden ladder reachin' down.
When the man comes around.

The hairs on your arm will stand up,
At the terror in each sip and in each sup.
Will you partake of that last offered cup,
Or disappear into the potter's ground?
When the man comes around.” Johnny Cash

(Niko and Dash’s Apartment – two weeks later)

Dash groaned as she got out of bed. The morning sucked, getting up sucked, and not lying next to a warm Niko sucked. Instead she was finding herself in the kitchen making some instant coffee. Niko had a coffee machine, and he did buy some gourmet coffee, but she was happy with some Taster’s Choice. Well, not really happy, but to be honest she wasn’t going to go through the trouble of making an entire pot of coffee. She finished her cup of the freeze-dried caffeine breakfast and looked out the patio door. The penthouse was nice. Granted it wasn’t as nice as the one Roman and Mallory had, but then she didn’t want all of the little decorative things that Mallory seemed to love hanging around in her home.

“Morning,” Niko said as he shuffled into the room.

“It’s a little cold today,” she replied.

“It’s winter, although this isn’t cold. Trust me, I’ve seen cold before,” he said.

He seemed to search around for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and letting out a slight groan.
“Feel like going to Panties?” he asked.

She laughed at the question. It was the name of the little breakfast place a couple of blocks up the road from them, but the name was terrible.

“Sure, I could use a small stack,” she said as she walked toward the bedroom, “Are you wearing that?” she asked.

“What’s wrong with it?” he asked.

“Well, for one you’re missing pants, and two, your boxers aren’t really covering everything up,” she replied.

He looked down and realized that he had pulled on a shirt, a pair of boxers, but he hadn’t grabbed a pair of pants. Grumbling he walked back toward the bedroom and found a pair of stonewashed jeans. He quickly pulled them on, and Dash stopped for a moment as he pulled the jeans up over a large bruise. It had happened yesterday. Some jerk with an attitude had jumped Niko and hit him in the back of the leg with a baseball bat. She had jumped him from behind and Niko hit the jerk in the throat.
It was obvious the bruise was still tender. She walked toward him and gently touched his shoulder.

“If you want to hang out here I can go and bring it back,” she said.

He shook his head and finished getting dressed. They took the elevator down to the ground floor and walked out to see the Dukes still sitting there. She walked toward the driver’s side and got in. He didn’t even have time to complain before she had it started, jerked it into gear, and peeled out into the street.

She drove hard toward the small breakfast restaurant. It was a nice place, quiet, peaceful, and usually the folks that owned it didn’t really seem to care about who ate there. She pulled up to it to see something odd. There was three sentinels parked outside, and from the inside a man was shouting.

“What do you think it is?” she asked.

“Protection,” Niko remarked.

She closed her eyes and growled. Celestia damn it she wanted a quiet breakfast. All she wanted was a little time to spend with Niko and eat a short stack with lots of butter. She looked over at Niko who was already checking to make sure that his pistol had a full clip in it.

“I’m not going to argue. It wouldn’t matter anyway,” he said.

She grinned. He was right. It wouldn’t matter. She would insist that they go inside and take care of this. Whoever this was they had already ruined the mood she wanted for her breakfast, and now they were going to leave, or she was going to make them leave.
“Let’s go,” she said.

The doors opened to a view that she had seen a few times before. The two owners of Panties were huddled together as two men aimed their guns at them. The sound of glass being smashed, pots and pans being thrown, and other noises erupted from behind them in the kitchen.

“Please, why are you doing this?” the older woman asked.

“You didn’t pay all of your protection costs,” one of the guys said.

They looked toward Dash as she cocked her revolver.

“What the hell do you think you’re doing?” one of them asked.

“I came to eat pancakes or kick ass. I don’t see any pancakes,” she answered.

Before he could say another thing she fired shooting his hand and causing the gun to be knocked away. Niko quickly fired on the other man standing there making him fall backward with a leg wound. He shot him once more and they waited as the door to the kitchen opened with four men standing there.

She had expected them to be smarter than what it appeared they were. Instead of having guns drawn they were holding baseball bats. One of them took a step toward her and found himself on the floor holding his knee. The other three stepped back.
“Get your friends and get out of here,” Niko said.

The gathered up the other three and made their way out.

“We’ll be back,” one of them said.

The door closed and the couple got up. The old woman came toward Dash and placed a withered hand on her shoulder.

“Thank you. Those sons of bitches have been bleeding us dry for months now,” she said.

“It’s fine, but how about a little breakfast?” she asked.

The old woman nodded and pointed toward a table that hadn’t been thrown over and they walked toward it. They took a seat and Niko looked at the old woman as she started to walk back.

“Wait, you said that they’ve been bleeding you dry for months right?” he asked.

“Yes, and the last two months we’ve been changing how much we’ve taken in. To be honest my husband and I like working here, but neither of us want this kind of headache anymore. He’s been looking for someone to buy the place,” she said.

“Niko, what are you thinking?” Dash asked.

“Roman has been talking about owning a restaurant,” he said.

“I think that Harold said he wanted a hundred and fifty thousand. We want enough to break even and that’s it,” she said.
Dash looked at the older woman and then at Niko. She could already tell what he was thinking. It would be a legitimate business they could claim revenue from. That was smart, but she had a feeling that Roman didn’t know the first damned thing about running any kind of restaurant. It would come down to Mallory, and she was busy with their infant daughter. She could cook, a little, but nothing like some of her old friends.

That started a feeling she had stayed away from for so long. She couldn’t help but think about home. Her friends in Ponyville, Twilight, Apple Jack, Rarity, Fluttershy, and even a moment of Pinkie Pie came to the front of her mind. She pushed it back though. Pinkie had proven that nothing was ever what it seemed. The world was never as perfect as everyone would want to believe it was.
She felt a shutter move through her as she remembered the table she was strapped to. The insane laughter, and the feeling of those metal hooks through her wings. She first feel of the scalpel as it began to cut on her flank. She made herself forget it. Niko had shown up before she could get very far. She came to this world, and she had learned to love it.

Granted she didn’t have her wings. They had withdrawn into her, and it seemed that instead they had become tattoos that ran down the length of her back. Her cutie mark was a tattoo on her outer thigh, but she was safe. She wasn’t just safe, she was thriving. She had learned to live in a new way, and she loved it.

There was fast cars, amazing food, good friends, and then there was Niko. He was quiet, but there was something else about him. There was a kind of strength she had seen a very few times, and it drew her in.

“Dash?” he asked.

“Sorry, Niko are you sure that Roman could handle this?” she asked.

He nodded as he cut a bite out of now present pancakes before them. She followed suit, realizing that their food was finally here, and watched as he chewed.

“He could. Roman learned how to run the cab depot without anyone teaching him. He could learn to run a restaurant,” Niko said.
She shrugged her shoulders. Taking a bite she looked at the plate and then back at him.

“I’ve tried his cooking. Trust me, he would need someone else to do it here,” she replied.

Niko began to say something and then nodded.

“Roman would need to have someone else cook. He isn’t really able to even make coffee without problems,” he agreed.

“Does Paddy or Jacob know anyone who might be a cook, or at least have cooking experience?” she asked.

Niko thought for a moment and a grin spread across his lips.

“Dwayne, he told me that he worked in the kitchen on the inside. It was one of the few things he did that he enjoyed,” Niko said.

Dash raised an eyebrow at him. She had known Dwayne for a while, and to be honest there didn’t seem to be much the man actually enjoyed. He loved to complain about how things had changed, his father, his mother, and about how everyone is fake, but thinking that he ever enjoyed anything seemed a bit much.

“If you think that he would be willing to do it then I suppose that we could talk to him. Isn’t he running that club though?” she asked.
“He gets money from it, but there’s a manager that runs it. He just sits at home most of the time though. I think that he would like the idea of getting out,” Niko replied.

She nodded and watched as Niko walked toward the kitchen. After a few minutes the two owners came out and he sat down with them.

“Harold, isn’t this wonderful?” the older woman asked.

“Son, I don’t know if I should laugh or cry. It’s a blessing in a way, but then I think that I might be selling you a curse. I mean those boys will be back,” he said.

“I’m not worried about them, but are you still wanting to sell?” he asked.

The old man nodded.

“Good, I will come over with the money later,” Niko said.

The owners nodded and Niko shook hands with them. Dash watched and accepted, grudgingly, a hug from the couple as they exclaimed their excitement. They soon disappeared into the back and she looked at him.

“So, how are we going to do this?” she asked.

“Roman runs the business, Dwayne runs the kitchen,” he said.

“And Dwayne strangles Roman when he acts like an idiot,” Dash replied.

Niko looked at her and grinned. She smiled knowing that he had already thought of that. There was every chance in the world that Roman would piss off Dwayne, and when it happened there would be a slight exchange between the two.

She watched as he called Roman, talked to him, and then called Dwayne and asked if he wanted to run the kitchen.
“Good news?” she asked.

“They want in, so good news,” he replied.

They finished breakfast, paid, and walked out. It was a business that they could use, and it seemed the day was at least going to try to be bright. A sound behind them stopped the two of them from getting into the Dukes.

She didn’t even get to turn before everything went black.

She could hear the sound of a squeaking wheel in the distance and looked up to see a bright pink colored pony walking toward her.
“Goodie, you’re awake. Now we can get started,” Pinkie stated gleefully. She bounded into the darkness, and quickly reappeared pushing a small cart covered with a cloth.

“Pinkie, what’s going on? I can’t move!” Dash said urgently.

“Well duh, that’s because you’re tied down,” chided Pinkie, “That’s why you can’t move. I didn’t think you’d need to be told that.”
“NO! This isn’t real!” Dash screamed as she struggled to get free.

“Dashie, Dashie, Dashie, did you really think that that Colt of yours was going to take you away from me? We still need to make Cupcakes, and I need my ingredient, my special ingredient. He helped,” Pinkie said.

Dash looked toward the darkness and could see a pile of bones lying on the ground. They had been cleaned, bits of blood and muscle still stuck to them.

“But, I waited a long time for this,” Pinkie said.

Dash watched as the scalpel got close to her. She felt it press against her throat.

“NO!!!!” she screamed again.

“Dash!” a voice shouted.

She opened her eyes to realize that she wasn’t in Pinkie Pie’s basement, but instead she was in a dark room. She felt a hand holding hers and she squeezed back.

“Where are we?” she asked.

“Hove Beach, and the noise you make has woken my wife,” a raspy voice said as it came down the stairs.
She looked to see a tall muscular man. His face was riddled with scars, and it was obvious that he wasn’t afraid of pain, or threats of pain.

“My employer wishes to speak to you,” he said.

A moment later she heard someone else coming down the stairs, but like before she couldn’t see them until they came toward her. Instead she heard Niko growl in annoyance.

“Why? I did everything you asked last time!” he shouted.

“Mr. Bellic, you make it sound as if you aren’t interested in business,” the voice said.

“We had a deal, the file is gone, and I do not work for you anymore,” Niko spat.

“That’s true Mr. Bellic. You don’t work for me, but your little friend here isn’t a Citizen of the United States. Much like yourself she seems to be an illegal alien. That in and of itself wouldn’t pose a problem, or it wouldn’t except that she isn’t from any other country. We’ve kept tabs on your Mr. Bellic. When you began to shack up with your little friend we decided to look into her past. It’s curious to find that she doesn’t have one prior to arriving in Liberty City. So, it means she didn’t exist before now,” the voice said.

She watched as the owner walked around toward her. He wasn’t as physically imposing, but there was something else. He was threatening in a far different way.

“So, since you don’t exist anywhere else that leaves me to believe that your past is open to interpretation. Naturally I had some of our staff give you a past worthy of Mr. Bellic. Armed Robbery, prostitution, murder, possession of illegal substances with intent of sale, and a few of the other old but favorite crimes. There’s enough in your file now to make sure that you would never see the light of day, and imprisonment for a woman is far different than for a man,” he said.

“What do you want?” Niko asked.

“Good. I was hoping that you would see reason. I’ll be in touch with the jobs we need. Rest assured that when we’re finished I will hand over her file, and everything contained in it. There are no other copies, and Niko you know I keep my word,” he said before he started up the stairs.

“Andre, let our guests go,” he said back.

The large man cut them free and stepped back.

“Welcome back to being a patriot Mr. Bellic, and Ms, welcome to the United States,” he said.

Comments

[UNITLuna004]

This is a pretty interesting story. Keep it coming.

[redandready45]

this isn't a my little pony story: I mean even if you stretch the relationship between Niko and most of his friends as friendship, it's a twisted friendship at best. Otherwise it doesn't really relate to the show and it corrupts Rainbow Dash into a criminal. Still, it's not a bad read.

[Awesometacular]

So, Rainbowdash was murdered by an insane Pinkie from her Equestria and that somehow reincarnated her into the gtaverse. Okay, I'm enjoying it so far. Hope I'll later learn how Rainbowdash crossed paths with Niko when she got to Liberty City.