• Published 3rd Apr 2012
  • 12,363 Views, 599 Comments

The 7th Element - thunderhawk7865



A young high school musician is transported to Equestria by Celestia. RD x OC

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The Gift

Chapter 7: The Gift

The next morning, Dan rolled over in bed and rubbed his eyes. Staring up at his hooves, he sighed, "No hands..." He sighed again and threw the covers off. "Guess that means this really is real."

As walked up the stairs and walking into the entryway of the library, he noticed Twilight setting out some breakfast for him. "Morning, Ace. How'd you sleep?"

Dan stretched, "Comfy bed you conjured up..." He yawned. "I haven't slept that well in awhile."

"I imagine not, being a Pegasus forced to travel by foot through the forest. Ugh..." she shuddered. "The forest is a horrible place. I'm surprised you managed to walk through unscathed."

"Heh..." Dan rubbed the back of his head as he sat down, "Yeah...that dang...uh..." "Magical creature, magical creature, c'mon! You played Age of Mythology, Dan! Magical creature!" "Hydra!" He blurted out. "That dang hydra clipped my wing as I was flying overhead."

Twilight gasped, "That hydra? Again!" She shuddered again. "Last I saw that monstrosity it was chasing us with it's tail between it's legs. You sure are lucky, Ace."

"Another home run!" Dan smiled at the thought, "Had a run-in with the brute yourself?" He asked, taking a bite of the toast Twilight had prepared.

"Sure did...almost ate Fluttershy in the bog."

"Poor Fluttershy." Dan said, gulping down the toast."Almost torn apart by three different heads..."

"Four heads." Twilight corrected.

"That's what I said, Twi..." Dan said, finishing up the toast. "Whew..."

*CRASH!*

A blonde-haired, grey pony head had broken clean through Twilight's front door. This shocked Dan and he fell backwards off the chair. "Derpy!" Twilight rolled her eyes. "Please knock next time!"

"Sorry, Twilight." The pony said, yanking her head out of the hole and letting Twilight open the door. Dan sat up and gasped. "Your eyes..."

"What about them?" Derpy asked with a wall-eyed smile.

"N-never mind..." Dan said, dusting himself off and setting the chair back up, snickering at the strange pony's name and face.

"You must be Blue Bass." The odd Pegasus said, floating forward, holding a package. "This is for you, from Canterlot."

"Canterlot?" Dan and Twilight both said at the same time. Dan took the package and eyes the mailing address. "The Royal Palace?"

"Thanks, Ditzy." Twilight said, closing the door and quickly repairing the hole she made with magic. "Sorry about Derpy...she's...different..."

"I could tell..." Dan said with a chuckle, opening the package and staring inside it. "Ohhohoh man!" He pulled out abrand new, freshly crafted Canterlot acoustic guitar.

Twilight gasped, "One of the hoof-crafted guitars of the Canterlot musicians!" The guitar was blue and had a bass mark on the bottom of it. A note was attached. "Dear Blue Bass..." Twilight read. "Here's a little something from me to you get you started down there in Ponyville. Yours, Princess Celestia."

Dan happily slung the guitar over his knee and strummed a perfect C major chord. "Wow...they didn't have any guitars like this in...Cloudsdale..." Dan finished abruptly before beginning to play a series of chords together, just strumming to his hearts content, humming along.

Twilight was in shock. "Why would Celestia be giving him so much attention?" She turned and saw Dan unloading a dark blue case out of the box Derpy had delivered as well. "Awesome!" Dan put the guitar in the case, shut it, and put it on his back. "I'm gonna go find a nice quiet spot and enjoy the morning... Care to join me?"

"This could be your chance Twilight. Your chance to see if Rainbow really does like him." Twilight shook her head, levitating a few books over to her. "Sorry Dan, I have to catch up on my reading. I'm a little behind after your arrival."

"Oh, ok..." Dan started to leave, but twilight slammed the door with her magic.

"You wanna know a reeeeally good relaxing spot you could go to, Ace?"

Dan cocked his head, "Where?"

Twilight pointed out her window. "Just a few blocks that way you'll see a hill with a big cloud floating above it. It spills out rainbows, but it's okay. It's a beautiful spot. Just don't put any in your mouth. It's way spicy."

Dan narrowed his eyes in confusion, "Sounds nice. I'll head that way then. Thanks!" Dan shoved open the door and left, heading for the hill in question.

Twilight used some magic to don her jungle exploration hat and smear camo over her cheeks. Spike came downstairs and rubbed his eyes, "What're you doing, Twi?"

"Getting ready for some field work..." She said, grabbing some binoculars and throwing them into her saddlebag.

"Spying on Rainbow Dash?" Spike said, cocking an eye.

Twilight smiled, "Oh yeah..."


Dash rolled over in her fluffy cloud bed, yawning. Blinking her eyes, she noticed the sunlight streaming through the opening that served as her window in her cloud dwelling. "Morning..." she muttered, rubbing her head. "Man, what a night last night..." She chuckled. "I almost allowed myself to actually like that new stallion." She closed her eyes and swiped her hoof out in front of her. "But no more will I let him get to me! No matter how much he-"

Just then, a sound coming from outside made her ears perk up. It was a... "Guitar?" She asked herself, raising an eye. Trotting to her window, she leaned out and looked around to see who has strumming the guitar in question. After scanning over the landscape, her violet eyes fell on a blue figure sitting on a hill below her dwelling, leaning up against a tree, and chewing the end of a wheat strand as he played.

"Ace..." she muttered, leaning on the window, listening as the stallion began to sing along with the song.

One more depending on a prayer...

And we all look away.

Ponies pretending everywhere...

It's just another day.

There's magic flying through the air...

And they just carry on.

We watch it happen over there...

And then just turn it off.

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

When we stand together...

Hey, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah...

There's no giving in...

As Ace continued the chorus of his song, Dash found herself leaning on the window pane, staring down at Ace as his sing-sing baritone voice blended near perfectly with the acoustic guitar chords. All the world seemed to go quiet except for the song Dash was now hearing, and Ace was the only thing she could see and hear.

At this point, Dan opened his eyes and gazed up at Dash's cloud and continued with the next verse:

They tell us everything's alright...

And we just go along.

How can we fall asleep at night...

When something's clearly wrong.

Dash heard that last verse and shook her head in disbelief, sighing. "I should go talk to him..."

What that, she floated out the window and started her descent towards the unsuspecting stallion.


As Dan finished the second verse, he stopped singing and started playing the bridge to the chorus over and again and hummed the tune instead.

"H...hey Ace..." A familiar voice resounded above him in a branch of the tree. Dan looked up and saw Rainbow Dash lying down on the branch, staring down at him.

"Oh, hey Dash." Dan said, going back to his strumming.

"What's that one called?" She asked timidly.

"What do you mean?" Dan asked confused.

She blushed. "The song?"

"Oh." Dan smiled. "One of my favorites on the guitar. It's called 'When We Stand Together'".

Dash leapt down onto the ground next to Ace and nodded, "It's pretty awesome, dude."

"Glad to know you like it." Dan said. He stopped playing and looked at her. "Something I can help you with, Dash?"

"Um yeah." She said, eyeing him. "That cloud up there is my place."

"Humina what?" "Really?" Dan eyed the cloud closely, the face-hooved. "Rainbows...should've known..."

Dash giggled slightly, "Yeah you dummy." She playfully punched him. "So what brings you to my humble abode?"

"I'm sorry, Dash. I just wanted to find a quiet spot to enjoy the morning. If you want, I can leave..."

"NO!" Dash interjected, but then seeing Dan's reaction to her screaming at him, she smiled sheepishly and said, "No...I don't mind at...at all." She pawed at the ground with left hoof and looked off to the side.

"Hey Dash?"

"Yeah?" She halfway looked at him.

Dan spit out the wheat tare and stood up on all fours. He had gotten the hang of standing on all fours, so his wobbling had stopped.

"Soon I'm gonna go talk to PON-3 and schedule a time I could go to one of her club gigs and work with her." Dan said, clearing his throat. "After that...how about that flying lesson?"

"Well, Dan...you might as well learn from the best..." An inner voice in his head sighed.

Dash perked up, taking on a sense of seriousness. "Are you sure, dude? Your wing-"

Dan held the wing up and flapped it a few times, "The wing's fine. I guess I just need help relearning how to fly." He smiled as he folded up the wing. "I'll send a letter through Spike to you giving you a time I'll be over here. There seems to be plenty of space." Dan inhaled deeply and took in a breath of fresh air. "Are you good all day?"

Dash nodded, "Oh yeah! I just have weather patrol all day."

"Work day, huh?" Dan half-frowned.

Dash saluted, "It's my job to keep the skies of Ponyville safe!"

Dan saluted back at her. "Keep it up, mon capitan!"

"You're crazy, Ace..." Dash giggled, covering her mouth with a hoof.

"Not as crazy as I hear you are." Dan said dryly before swinging the guitar onto his back and walking away, waving as he did and saying, "See you tonight!"

Dash leaned against the tree a waved back, "Yep...bye Ace."

As she watched Ace walk away, a wave of shock passed through her. "Did...did I just...?" She shook her head. "Get a date?"


Twilight Sparkle was hidden in a bush nearby. She watched the whole scene unfold since Dan sat down and began playing to when Dash's wave of shock about the date hit. Twilight put down the binoculars and giggled, "Dashie's got a date...with Ace." She scribbled a few notes down, saying aloud:

"New pony Blue Bass has attracted the attention of my friend, Rainbow Dash. Blue Bass, AKA Ace, also seems to have suppressed feelings for Dash as he has just asked her out on a date...in an indirect way, of course."

She watched Dash, with a smile, take off and begin her weather patrol duties happier than Twilight had ever seen her. "I've never seen her so-"

"Happy!" A voice from behind her made her jump out of the bush and land on her face.

"Pinkie Pie..." She groaned into the dirt.

The bubbly pink party pony jumped out of the bush after her and started bouncing up and down. "Oh oh! This is so EXCITING! Rainbow Dash has got a date with Blue Bass! Eeeeeeee!"

Twilight looked up in shock, "How do you-?"

"Know about him? Easy. I passed some mares yesterday talking about his gorgeous eyes and mane and whatnot and I figured 'Hm, where is this sexy hunk of stallion?' and they pointed at him and I was like 'AHHHHHHH!'" She imitated her expression of shock upon seeing Ace. "So I figured hey, he's new in Ponyville, let's throw him a party in a couple days!' so today I came looking for you to set it up and poof! I found you spying on Rainbow Dash just after she gets a date! Eeeeee-!"

"PINKIE PIE!" Twilight roared, making the crazy pink Pony's mane stand on end.

"Yes?" She smiled stupidly.

"One, be silent." Twilight said dryly, fixing her mane and getting up. "And two, NO ONE else must know about this date, okay? It will destroy Rainbow Dash if everyone thought she was...soft for the stallions..."

"Ooooohhhh okay." Pinkie said, bouncing again. "My lips are sealed! Pinkie swear!" She stuck a hoof over her eye to seal the deal.

"Good..." Twilight said, turning around to pick up her binoculars.


Song:

When We Stand Together, Nickelback