• Published 2nd Jan 2013
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Rainbow in the Dark - Sayer



A pony moves to Ponyville in search of a new life, and in the process finds the mare of his dreams

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Chapter 5: Dashing through the skies

Edited and revised by kalash93. Thanks for everything, pal!

Chapter 5: Dashing through the skies

Rainbow Dash was laying on my bed, inviting me with the sweetest voice I ever had to chance to hear before. “Draw me like one of your French mares, Brownie.”

I was dumbstruck, trying to avoid staring at her. “Yes, of course. Just let me get my pencil, and…”

As soon as I turned around, I was pulled towards the bed, facing Rainbow Dash as she embraced me. “You don’t need any tools. Just stay with me, forever…” A green aura surrounded her as she now turned into a changeling version of her original self. I tried to escape, but she didn’t budge an inch. “Your love will be mine forever!”

I leapt out of bed, screaming and covered in sweat as I tried to breathe. I searched frantically inside my night table’s drawers until I found my inhaler, placing the device inside my mouth and pressing the button as hard as I could. A small puff of air full of medication filled my lungs and got rid of my problems, but it was just a temporary remedy.

I was already accustomed to having asthma, but since I arrived in Ponyville, I’ve been trying my hardest to hide my problem from everypony, especially from Rainbow Dash. If she ever found out the truth, I bet she would stop being my friend. After all, she loves to race, and I can barely run for more than five minutes at full speed before getting winded. And even then, my top speed is that of a little filly.

Rainbow Dash materialized in front of me, full of hate and displeasure after finding out the truth with a tone of hate in her voice.

“How could you expect me to be the friend of somepony as slow as you? Even Fluttershy could beat you in a race!”

Her image disappeared quickly from my mind, returning my focus to the real world. She was the bearer of the element of loyalty. The only friendship she had destroyed was because her best friend was a bully, and I only have asthma. And the speed of a turtle and a level of stamina so low that even a little filly could defeat me in a race… I’m the exact opposite of what she loves to do.

Since the running of the leaves, I’ve been hanging out with her, although we still haven't had another race because I told her that I was afraid of fainting again if I tried to pushed myself too far. We’ve been very close lately, and even though it’s a bit hard for me to admit it, I think I’m really starting to like her, possibly as more than a friend.

Trying to avoid such thoughts, I plugged my earphones into my Walkmane and inserted my Iron Mane cassette. The guitar solos quickly released me from my troubles as I worked distractedly for a while on one of my commissions, but inspiration had abandoned me. Instead, I opted to pay a visit to the local arcade before meeting with Mecha to work on another design for her clients.

The place wasn’t very crowded; a few fillies were playing videogames and a unicorn stallion was playing Call of Cutie. I didn’t focus too much on him, heading straight to the Metal Bug cabinet. I owned this game back home, and after playing for so many years, I memorized the enemies’ positions and the bosses’ patterns so the result is that I can finish this game using only fifteen bits, more or less.

I inserted a coin and pressed the start button, ready to start a new game. I was quickly progressing through the first level, avoiding the enemies’ attacks as I diminished their ranks without them landing a hit on my character. In the middle of the fight where the enemies wouldn’t spawn, I heard the familiar voice of a certain little filly called my name. I turned around and saw a small orange filly.

The little pegasus looked at me with puppy eyes. “Hello, Brownie. Can I join?”

“Of course, Scootaloo. We’re gaming pals, remember?”

“Cool! I bet that if we finish this game, I’ll get a gamer Cutie Mark!”

“Well then, let’s find out, shall we?” The orange filly quickly inserted a coin into the slot and took her place as the second player. I met Scootaloo a month ago, presenting herself as Rainbow Dash number one fan, quickly confirmed by Rainbow Dash.

She appeared along with her friends, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, to try and see if they could get an artist Cutie Mark, but dismissed the idea after I told them that it took me thirteen years or so to discover my talent. The next time I met her, she was in this arcade trying to earn a videogame Cutie Mark, but her skills needed to be polished a bit. I felt bad for her and tried to help her, turning into her new videogame master.

We spent a few hours and a few bits on the machine until we managed to defeat the final boss. This was as easy as a walk in the park for me; unfortunately, Scootaloo had finally reached her limit, but she didn’t show any signs of defeat and continued to play. Finally, the last boss was defeated, and Scootaloo rejoiced.

“Yeah, we did it!” She quickly looked at her flank in search of a Cutie Mark, but to no avail. Her flank remained as blank as ever. “Awww… I’ll never get my Cutie Mark at this rate.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure that you’ll find it when you least expect it. I have to go to work, but we’ll meet another tomorrow, okay?”
She nodded so quickly that her head almost flew through the air. “That’s for sure, master!”

We did a brohoof before I headed to Mecha’s garage, ready for another day of work. Since everypony loved the design of the hot air balloon, Mecha had received some requests to decorate carriages and other vehicles. Naturally, she asked me to help her with the designs. Of course, I accepted, and now I spend almost all my time in her garage, coming up with new designs and giving a hoof with the paint job and outlines.

The garage was as dirty as the last time I had stepped into this place, but this time, there were more carriages than I expected, and a pair of green legs was visible under one of them. Upon closer inspection, I noticed that they didn’t move, along with some kind of weird sound.

“Mecha?” No reply. “Mecha?” Still no reply. “Mecha!”

Her voice quickly replied from under the carriage. “Yeah, yeah. One moment, please!” The green pony quickly came out, staring daggers with her eyes. “Was it really necessary to scream like that?”

“Only if you fall asleep in the middle of the job and hide under the carriage so that everypony else thinks you’re still working.” After spending so much time working with this mare, I already knew all her tricks and routines.

Her face suddenly turned red like a tomato. “I wasn’t sleeping! I was examining the axel.”

I chuckled. “Yeah, right. And I’m Princess Luna.”

She quickly replied with a childish tone, “Really? Oh, Princess, thank you for paying a visit to such place.”

I did my best impression of the princess to continue the shenanigans. “What’s that? Laughter? When I was younger, there wasn’t laughter! I helped my sister establish the round table, where everypony would be equal. And then we bought flying chairs so we could stand above everypony and look down at them, because royalty isn’t supposed to sit in normal chairs!” I let my imagination flow, spilling as many crazy decrees as I could before I burst into laughter, quickly joined by Mecha. We laughed like hyenas for what seemed like hours before we finally calmed down.

I took a few breaths to get rid of the euphoria as Mecha tried her best to speak. “By Celestia, I almost choked to death from laughing too hard!.”

“Yeah, me too. Well, shall we get back to work?”

Mecha nodded. “We need to paint this carriage with the pattern you sketched yesterday.”

She pointed her hoof to the sketch I drew all over the carriage, now with some letters added inside each area. “I scribbled these letters to remind us what colors we have to use. Since the client requested it, we’ll have to comply. It’s not a problem for you, right?”

“Nope. This will be easy as cake.”

I brought the paint cans beside the carriage and sank the brush inside the pot, coating all the hairs before scribbling over the wooden boards. Slowly but steadily, they started to shift one by one, some of them requiring a few layers of paint to fuse with the carriage. The colors were blending with their neighbors, working together to make a colorful design and make me proud of their teamwork. We spent all the morning working on the paint job, but the final result was amazing, even for my current skills.

I packed my things and equipped my saddlebags. “Well, I’m leaving for now. I’ll come back tomorrow to finish the other carriages.”

“Alright then. And before I forget, here’s your payment for today.” She passed me a small bag full of bits, which I gladly took. “Have a good time.”

“Thanks, I will.” I left the workshop with a smile on my face and headed towards the fields outside of Ponyville and searched for a good spot in the middle of the green sea of grass, flowers and trees.

I laid down on the ground and focused my attention towards the blue sky, watching the clouds going by as I waited for her arrival, which usually happened around this time of the day. My view was suddenly blocked by the face of a pink pony appearing so suddenly that I almost died from a heart attack.

“Hi, Brownie! What are you doing here? Are you taking a break from your work? Or maybe you’re waiting for somepony? Oh, oh, can I wait too? Is somepony I know?” Ah, Pinkie Pie. You’re such a motor mouth.

“Yeah, I’m waiting for somepony.” As soon as I finished talking, a rainbow blur passed by, dashing through the sky. “Look, there she goes!”
Pinkie Pie quickly copied me, lying on the grass beside me. “Oh, oh, and what are we going to do? Are we going to watch her as she flies? Or maybe it’s a competition to see who lasts more time without doing anything?”

“Well, I don’t know about you, but I love to see how she flies through the sky. Her tricks, acrobatics, speed… It’s just so great that I could stay here my entire life watching her as she rides the wind.”

“I know, right? She’s so fast and cool and amazing, and...!” I stopped listening to her, focusing all my attention towards the rainbow-maned pegasus as she performed her tricks, her movements so subtle and smooth that for her, it probably felt as natural as breathing. I envied her for being able to touch the sky with the tips of her wings, able to break free from the bounds of earth and gravity. Rainbow Dash suddenly turned towards our position, falling like a rock before stopping her fall at about three meters up, descending in a slow but magnificent manner.

She smiled warmly at me. “Hello, Brownie. Having a good time?”

I nodded. “Yeah, Pinkie and I were watching your new tricks. They’re amazing!”

She looked at me, confused. “Pinkie Pie? But you’re alone.”

“No, she’s here with…” I turned around, and to my surprise, there was no trace of the pink pony. “But she was here a moment ago. She must have left when I wasn’t looking.”

“Yeah, that’s definitely Pinkie Pie. She appears and disappears at random, so don’t worry about it. So, enjoyed the show, did you?”

“Yeah. It was amazing! I still don’t get why the Wonderbolts haven’t invited you to join their ranks yet.”

“Well, I already went to their academy, but I still need to train a lot for the next year. They ask for very fast and skilled pegasi, you know?”

“I can only imagine. They’re the best team of pegasi in all of Equestria.”

“Well, I was thinking that maybe you could join me for some race training, unless you have something else to do, like the million other times I've asked you.” The tone of her voice announced to me how angry she was at me for not wanting to run with her. After all, I already spent the past two weeks since the race avoiding any kind of physical activity, fearing that I could suffer an asthma attack if I overdid it again. I hadn’t suffered from too many of them, or had many bad ones since I was a kid, but I didn’t want to go through that cycle again.

My brain worked at full capacity, thinking as quickly as I could to come up with an answer. I’ve been declining her for the last two weeks with stupid excuses, and I've finally run out of ideas. About two weeks ago, I told her I had to finish some drawings, and the next day I told her I was going to buy some groceries. The next ones were about feeling ill, feeling tired, buying some comics, cassettes, games, and etceteros. I was backed up against the wall without any more excuses that allowed me to escape this situation; I had wasted all my arrows and the wolf was going to slash me with his claws.

“No, I don’t have anything else to do… I can race with you without any problems.”

Her mood quickly brightened. “Great! I'll wait for you at the place where we started the Running of the Leaves, alright? Don’t be late or I’ll kill you!” She probably didn’t mean it seriously, but I didn’t want to find out.

I made a quick stop at home to leave all my stuff and get my Walkmane to help make the race easier. Looking back at my night table, my inhalerr stared at me, like the pieces of a broken vase, waiting until my mother would find them and scold me; but this time it would be something far worse than getting scolded. I opened the upper drawer and buried it beneath a mountain of comic books that I kept for reading before going to sleep.

I wasn’t ready to meet her, but I couldn’t avoid her anymore. I had to grow a pair and face the consequences.

“I’m royally screwed.”

I made my way towards our meeting place, hoping that maybe she forgot about our meeting, but much to my chagrin, she was waiting for me, eager impatient to start our race. Her mood quickly brightened as soon as she noticed my presence.

“Hey, you finally showed up! For a moment there, I though you’d have some unfinished business with Mecha that wouldn’t allow you to come.” Her voice seemed to have a hint of annoyance, but I had been avoiding her for two straight weeks with lame excuses.

“Alright. So, where’s the finish line? I’m curious about how long will this race last.”

She pointed over the end of the forest. “The finish line will be the same as the last time, when we participated in the Running of the Leaves. Don’t worry, this won’t be a race to see who’s fastest, but more like jogging. You ever tired it?”

I skipped some details and went straight for the shortest answer. “Nope. I’m not a fan of running. How does it work?”

“Well, since it’s you, I'll go easy this time. We’ll run together through the forest at a good rhythm, and then we’ll keep going faster as we go on. Got that?”

I saluted her like in the military. “Ma'am! Yes, Ma'am!”

She chuckled a bit. “Alright then, let’s get started.” She took the lead, running at what I called normal speed, which was probably a snail's pace for her, considering how fast she can run – and I followed her closely, keeping up with her. So far, I was handling this pretty well, but I knew things were going to get very rough very soon.
Rainbow Dash loved to taunt me during the whole race. “Getting tired already? We've barely started!”

“Don’t worry, I’m just warming up!” Of course, I was lying.

The jogging session continued for a while, getting faster and harder with every minute, until I was pushing myself to keep up with her past my natural limit, just like the last time. By this point, I was starting to reach my limit, but I didn’t want to disappoint Rainbow Dash after avoiding her for so much time.

I was enjoying these moments with her, and I finally realized the truth: I was liking her as more than a friend; I liked her more than anypony else I've ever met.. Yes, a slowpoke like me was becoming infatuated with the fastest pony of all of Equestria, as weird as that sounds. I had always searched for someone who would be loyal,- who wouldn’t leave me behind and use me like a puppet, and Rainbow Dash is the greatest mare I could find. Being the bearer of the element of Loyalty was like an official declaration that she would never betray me, but I can’t force myself to tell her the truth.

I’m just a stupid coward.

Of course, this wouldn’t be a race with Rainbow Dash if she didn’t taunt me. “Come on, tortoise! I want to reach the end of this track before the moon rises!”

“I’m coming, I’m coming!” The goal probably wasn't too far from our position, but I wasn’t sure that I could make it. My lungs felt like a Parasprite was ripping them apart from the inside and my legs hurt, as if a legion of Diamond Dogs were gnawing them.

Her voice called to me, pushing me to finish the race. “Come on, we’re almost there! Don’t give up yet!”

I tried to reply, but words failed to escape from my mouth. Everything was fading away, my legs stopped responding to me, crashing against the ground. All I could hear before losing consciousness was Rainbow Dash desperately calling my name as I slipped into nothingness.

Author's Note:

Here's the latest chapter. What is going to happen now? Will he tell Rainbow Dash the truth, or maybe run away from Ponyville? Will she find out that he's a cyborg sent from the future to save her and is just faking everything? Stay tuned!