At Canterlot High, Rainbow Blitz enters a new life, then meeting Rainbow Dash, a tomboy. They then hang out. Then creating a relationship between them. The most awesome love story now comes!
At Canterlot High, Rainbow Blitz, the new kid in school, goes through his new life, since his parents died. Now, he has to make new friends. And one of those friends? A tomboy named Rainbow Dash. He talks to her, and they become friends. Then, they start to hang out, then forming the most awesome couple there has to be!
Please check out my other stories, if you enjoyed!
Sigh. That's just it. All I could really do was sigh. I had to move recently. It sucks. Sure, nobody ever said that life would always be a ray of sunshine, but… I never thought it would suck this badly. My parents are dead, shot down by some goon, one I'll never forget, especially since I saw the murder with my own eyes... Nowadays, I have to live with my older brother Daze Deposit. He's pretty cool, even though he can be a bit irritating sometimes. But hey, that’s what bros do; antagonize each other.
My name is Rainbow Blitz. I’m a pretty awesome kind of guy: I ride a motorbike, I play guitar, and I write my own music in my spare time. Matter of fact, I'm known as 'Fallout Blitz' on SoundCloud, and I'm pretty popular. I am a big fan of punk/rock style music, and according to my fans on SoundCloud, I’m apparently 'bringing it back', whatever that means.
Appearance-wise, I’m pretty standard: a little under six foot, decently built, but nothing extreme. In fact, I’d probably blend into a crowd if it weren’t for my rainbow-colored hair. Why is my hair rainbow colored? Simple: I think it looks cool, even though people at my old school kinda thought it looked... well, gay. Not that it mattered to me. I liked my hair that way, so I kept it that way. Simple as that.
Despite the occasional ‘queer’ comment I got in passing, I was pretty popular back at my old school, and I hoped that I'd be popular in this new school as well. It certainly looked nice, at least. Who knows, perhaps I could even dig a girl at this one. I took a look at the school site, seeing all the stuff it has, and when looking at the sports and clubs and stuff, I did see some nice-looking girls. Maybe I'd get real lucky and have a girlfriend. I'm not really flattering, so I'll tell ya that. Yeah, not so good for me. Anyway, tomorrow’s my first day, so I might as well get to sleep already so I can enter the next day. I knew that tomorrow could be one of two things: it could either be Heaven or Hell. I was hoping Heaven. Anyways, night-night. I closed my eyes, and went to sleep.
Beep. Beep. Beep.
I woke up to the annoying sound of the alarm clock on my phone going off. I groggily grabbed the black phone from my bedside table and fidgeted with it for a moment until I'd managed to turn off the alarm. After that, I went to the bathroom to take a good look at myself. Messy and spiky hair? Loved it! Shirtless and showing my (slight) abs? Good, but not allowed. Why, dress code? I put on a dull, black shirt, put on a blue hoodie afterwards, then set upstairs to have a nice breakfast. Toast, nice and light.
My brother was there, albeit shirtless. He was getting ready to work at his bank job again, now putting on a grey shirt. "Glad to see you're up." he said. I nodded as I chewed on my toast. He watched me eat for a minute or so, then continued to speak. "Well, today's your big day, and also mine." He said.
I raised an eyebrow, then asked, "Why is it your big day? Is the bank giving you a promotion or something?"
He turned towards me, smiling widely as he did so. "Well, I could have the possible chance of that right here today. As long as I don't screw up, I can bring home a ton of cash!" He said excitedly.
"Hope you blow it." I joked. My joking managed to get a chuckle out of him.
"You wish, Blitzy." he said. I groaned; that little nickname of his really did drive me nuts.
"Blitz." I said seriously, "Just Blitz. I'm not a kid anymore." He rolled his eyes, wrapped my neck with his arm, and gave me a noogie. I pushed him off while he was laughing. "Oh! Dang, dude, quit it!" I said to him.
He laughed. "Just messing with ya, bro." he said while he chuckled, "Anyway, have a good day at your new school." He then left the house, got in his silver car, and drove off. After he left, I took a look at my phone for the time. It was 7:03. I smiled to myself; the bus wouldn’t be arriving for at least fifteen minutes, so I had some time to spare. I finished my toast, and just dilly-dallied on the TV. But those fifteen minutes felt like just five, and I before I knew it, I had to rush out the door with my black backpack.
I arrived at my bus stop, which was right next to a big rock. I sat down on the rock, got out my phone, and checked the school website. According to the site, it was the beginning of the second semester for this school. After I checked that, I listened to my rock playlist. AC/DC, Green Day, Linkin Park, all the good stuff.
It wasn’t long before the bus had arrived. I turned off my phone, took out my ear buds, and got on the bus. Once I was on, I took a look around. Everyone seemed to be doing their own thing, which wasn’t a problem. I saw a completely open seat near the back, and quickly made my way to the back and sat there. At first, I was enjoying myself. However, after a few minutes, I heard some crap behind me.
"So," a voice said behind me to someone else. "Did you see Alison yesterday?"
"Yeah, man." said another voice. "She’s ugly, man. Too much tan, like she just came out of a rejected Jersey Shore."
I shook my head in disgust. What was with these guys? They were making dick jokes, doing rude gossips about certain people, like this Alison person who was apparently too tan or something, and were just generally being asses. ‘Guess this is the 'cool club' of the bus.’ I thought to myself. I ignored them for a while, until a paper flew and hit me in the back of my head. I picked the paper up.
"Dammit, dude." said a new voice from the back. "Ya missed Rush!"
"Sorry, man." said another voice, the first one I heard from earlier. Oh, and he said it to his friend, not me, the guy who got hit by his rubbish. I looked back to see who these people were. They all looked like jocks, I'll tell you that.
"Hey, give it back, new kid." said the kid who said that the one guy missed Rush. He had a little messy mohawk, a pretty fat face, and he was big. Really big.
Some other guy was shaking his head. "No, don't give it to him." he said. "He's gonna throw it to me, but he failed to."
'Perhaps this guy is a poor victim bullied.' I thought to myself. When I took a look at him, however, that didn't quite seem to be the case. He seemed to be very athletic, and I saw him hold a trophy at the sports page on the school site. He was a football player now, but back then, where he held a trophy, he was a soccer player. He did seem to have that stupid jock look on his face, but maybe he's not bad. I handed the paper wad to him.
"Fuck you!" he yelled out, throwing it really fast at the one guy, then just laughing stupidly. "Got ya, bitch!"
Guess he really was that bad after all. I turned back to wait for our arrival, but he called me back. "Hey!" Rush yelled out to me. At least, I think he’s Rush; he was the guy who was supposed to get hit with the pathetic piece of paper. "What's your name?" I took off my hood, then answered.
"Rainbow Blitz." I replied. Almost immediately after I said that, I heard one guy snort, as if he was trying to hold back his laughter. "What’s so funny?" I asked, even though I already knew what he was laughing at: my name. Rush continued to speak.
"Where are ya from?" he asked. Before I could answer, he cut me off, "Coltville? 'Cause you sure look like it."
Well, that’s insulting. I came from Fillywood, a nice place, and not from Coltville, a place full of, believe it or not, ugly teens. Yeah, that seemed like an insult, considering him and the gang were laughing.
"Fillywood." I quickly answer. "Now, leave me alone." I turn back, and look out the window, until another stupid piece of paper hit me. I ignored it. Then another one hit me, this one being followed by laughter, as if they couldn't believe that I was just sitting there, letting them throw paper at me. Once again, I ignored it... Then another one hit me. Screw it.
"Leave me alone!" I yelled. That only made them all laugh.
"Calm your tits, dude." Rush said. "We're just messing with ya." Annoyed, I threw one of the pieces of paper back at them. Unfortunately, the bus driver noticed and began to yell.
"Hey!" he shouted. "Stop throwing paper at them, kid!" I felt my anger building as I slouched down into my seat. The group laughed again. What a great start, huh? After what felt like an eternity, however, we finally made it. Thank God.
We get off, with one of the guys from the back shoving me to go forward, like I was too slow for them. Funny, because there were people in front of me going as fast as they can to get out of this bus. Properly and nicely. Me? Roughly. After I got away from the jerks, I took a look at the crowd of kids moving towards the school, and in the mess of students, I saw a rainbow.
Wait, what? I looked again, just to make sure it was what I thought it was. No, it isn't a legit rainbow on the ground... but it's like all the colors of the rainbow, and it’s someone's hair color! I thought I was the only one... Huh. I moved over to this rainbow-haired guy/girl. Maybe he/she could be my friend? I hated the guys in the back, so they definitely aren't friends... maybe this person would be friendlier? Only one way to find out.
I made my way through the bustling movement, towards this new person, who seemed to be a girl now, considering I got a closer look. And no, I didn't get it by THAT, but by her face. It was a girl's face when she turned it a little and her voice was definitely a girl's voice. But anyways, when we slowed down a bit, I was next to her.
I took a look at her clothing. She was wearing a blue jacket with a white shirt underneath with a rainbow bolt on it, a pink skirt with white stripes going vertically, and a pair of red, yellow and blue striped sweatbands on her wrists. Her outfit was certainly colorful. I felt the urge to try and talk to this girl. However, at the same time, just the thought of talking to her made me feel weird. I began to feel slightly warm, and probably blushed. Nothing new; I always felt like that whenever I tried to talk to a girl. Even though I'm cool and awesome, I just get this feeling, and it makes me look more like a freak than anything.
I started to feel a wave of anxiety hit me as she turned around. "Oh, uh, hi." she said. The second she began speaking, I felt my brain go into overdrive as many thoughts ran through my head.
‘Oh my God, she's actually talking! Woah, take it easy, Blitz. Why are you freaking out about this?’
"Um...do I know you?" she asked with a confused expression on her face.
‘Crap. What do I say? I don't wanna make this weird, because this is already good, and I don't wanna screw up in making friends here!’
“Uh... no." I began, "I-I'm new here." I look at her, waiting for a response. She gives me an odd look, but doesn’t say anything. We walked together in silence awkwardly for a couple of seconds, before I decided to continue speaking.
"R-Rainbow Blitz." I quietly said as we slowly moved up to the doors.
“Huh? Can you speak up? I didn’t catch that.” She said to me.
"My name is... Rainbow Blitz." I said, more clearly this time. For whatever reason, the name caused her to smile a bit.
"Oh, cool! My name's Rainbow Dash!" she said.
'Really? Rainbow Dash? That seems pretty cool, you know, how we have the same first names... well, anyways...'
"Sweet." I said. "L-Like the name." I then gave her a small smile on the outside. On the inside, however I was slapping myself for saying the wrong thing. It wasn't until later that I realized that my face was red the entire time. She didn't seem bothered by it, though, which was good.
"Thanks." she said. "Your name is cool, too." I blushed a little harder, but I felt pretty confident regardless.
“Do you mind if I walk with you, Dash?” I asked her.
She shrugged her shoulders and said, “Fine with me.”
We walked together in silence, giving me a chance to try to get my blushing under control, and eventually entered the cafeteria, which was apparently where we were supposed to wait until all of the buses had arrived. After we had grabbed a table and sat down, Dash finally began talking again.
"So, uh, where did you come from?" she asked me.
"Fillywood." I said.
Rainbow nodded. "Just changed houses?"
My eyes widened when she asked that. "Uh..." I said, losing myself in trying to say words. It was far more complicated than just changing houses… it was because my parents were killed. Then again, should I really tell her that? I thought for a moment, then decided not to mention my parents.
"Well…technically yes." I said nervously. Right after I said that, Rainbow started to frown. I'm pretty sure that she knew something was up.
"What do you mean by ‘technically’?" she asked. I remained silent for a moment, hoping that I wouldn’t have to tell her about my parents. "Did... something bad happen?" she pressed. "I mean, it'll be alright if you say it." At that point, I sighed. I could already tell that she wasn’t going to stop questioning me until I told her, so I decided to just get it over with. I took a deep breath, and told Rainbow my story.
"Yes, Rainbow Dash, something did happen. Y’see, back when I was living in Fillywood, I lived with my parents. They were great, always taking care of me, keeping up with my activities, that sort of thing.” I began. Rainbow Dash nodded her head, but didn’t say anything. I continued. “But one night, while I was walking home from a party a few blocks away with them…things went wrong.”
“Wrong? How so?” she asked.
“It all happened so suddenly… it's a little hard to remember everything, but… I heard shots ring out. Three shots. Next thing I knew, my parents were falling towards the curb headfirst. After recovering from my initial shock of seeing them fall over like that, I knelt down and looked at them. They both had bullet holes in their skulls. I turned towards the direction that the bullets appeared to have come from, and that was when I saw him. The killer.”
Rainbow Dash’s eyes grew wide. “What did he look like?” she asked worriedly.
“I... I do. The porch light was on, which showed, only for two seconds, the bastard himself. He had his silver pistol, had a black hoodie, and his face, well, all I could see was his silver earrings and his one green eye. It gave me chills just looking at him. I think he would’ve fired again at me, but right before he could do so, the sound of a siren sounded off in the night. The second he heard that siren, he immediately turned around and ran as fast as he could down the road behind him, disappearing into the darkness almost instantly. Soon after he fled, a police car arrived where I was standing. The officer inside the car took one look at the scene, and immediately called for backup over his CB radio. After that, he said to me, ‘Kid, what happened here?’"
I coughed a bit. "I could barely speak; I was still trying to get over the shock of seeing my parents shot. After a moment, though, I managed to tell him that a man in black shot both of my parents, and told him that the man had run away down Bondrop Avenue after hearing the siren. After I had managed to tell him this, the sound of several more sirens rang out through the night. The cop told me that an ambulance was on its way, and told me that they would get to the bottom of this before driving down Bondrop in pursuit of the killer..." I said before stopping for a second. At this point, I could feel tears beginning to build up in my eyes. I tried my hardest to hold them back before I continued to speak,
"After that, I was brought to the police station, where I was asked if I had any family I could stay with. I told him that I could stay with my older brother. He's a banker and lived by himself, but ever since the incident, I’ve been living with him." I laid my head on my arms, which were now sprawled across the table. I then looked up at Rainbow Dash, who had a look of complete shock on her face. Her mouth was gaped wide open, her eyes were wider than dinner plates, and she was blinking a lot, as if she had something in her eye. After roughly ten seconds, she finally managed to speak.
"Holy crap, dude…" Dash said somewhat guiltily. "I'm…I’m so sorry, I made you say all that, Blitz... I get a little too nosy sometimes, and… I’m sorry I had you recount all of that…"
I looked at her. ‘Better not make her feel guilty over this’ I thought.
"It's alright. Life is going good right now, and hopefully still will be in this school. Don’t worry about it, Dash." I told her. Once I said that to her, she seemed to relax a bit more. She still looked a bit tense and shocked, but at least she didn’t look guilty anymore. With that, I opened up my schedule to see what classes I had. Before I could check, however, Rainbow Dash snatched the schedule out of my hands.
“Hey!” I exclaimed to her. She didn’t notice, as she was too focused on my schedule to reply. Just before I could reach over and grab it back, she suddenly put it back in my hands.
"You have me in English, gym, and music tech!" she exclaimed. I instantly smiled, then wanted to hide it so I wouldn’t scare her or creep her out or anything. But on the inside, I was pretty excited. ‘Seriously, I have her for three classes?! AWESOME!’
"Really?" I asked her. She nodded before pulling her schedule out of her backpack.
"See?" she said, showing me her schedule. And yes, she was correct. English, gym, and music tech. So, I have her like four periods, or half the day (English takes two periods)! "This is gonna be awesome! You can meet some of my friends, too!" she exclaimed. Friends? Perhaps this might be a good start of getting friends, after all.
"What other friends?" I asked. "Are they nice? They aren't, uh, people like... Rush? You know him, right?" I was pretty sure that this girl, who I'm pretty sure was an athlete of some kind, knew who this guy was.
She shook her head. "No WAY! They are nothing like Rush Down!" she exclaimed. I asked her if this guy had the freckles, the buff look, and the rest of details. She nodded. "That's him. Yeah, let's just say this guy isn't exactly my friend."
I tilted my head. "Were you his friend before?" I asked. She immediately frowned at me, crossed her arms, and refused to say a word. I could take a hint, and didn’t press the matter any further. The teachers in the cafeteria then told us to go to our class, and we all got up and went. I walked towards my locker, where I discovered that Dash is my locker buddy! Er, neighbor, I should say.
As I prepared for my first period classes, I heard the sound of Dash sighing next to me. I turned my head towards her and saw that she was already finished preparing and was staring at me, apparently waiting for me to finish. When she saw me looking back at her, she spoke.
"Listen, sorry if I got rude there." she apologized. "It's just... Rush isn't really nice and he’s really not a cool guy. At first, I thought he was, but now, not even close..." she said. She seemed to be keeping kinda vague about the whole thing, and part of me wanted to ask her for an elaboration, but I decided not to risk it, instead just nodding at her. She nodded back, before heading off to her first class. Soon afterwards, I followed suit, arriving at my first class: Science. It was decent. I got introduced, sat next to somebody, and did what the teacher said. Nothing special, but still leagues above the bus ride that morning. After that was done, it was time for English class. One of the classes Dash and I shared.
I walked in the classroom with my English textbook and folder. I walked up to my teacher, Mr. Ink. I asked him where I can sit. There was eight round tables in the classroom, each having four students, and there were three tables with a spot not used. He pointed at the table in the corner. "You can sit there." he said. "Welcome to English, Mr. Blitz."
I nodded and walked to the table. Once I had arrived, I discovered that this was the same table that Rainbow Dash sat at! Lucky? Certainly. I sat down in the chair that was vacant. "Sup?" I asked Rainbow.
She did a slight wave. As I sat down, I took a look at the other students at the table. To my left was a girl who looked like a cowgirl. She wore a cowboy hat, blonde hair with a long ponytail, and was wearing an outfit that just screamed ‘cowgirl’. The girl to my right, on the other hand, looked like the polar opposite. She had violet hair, and looked very stylish in her outfit, which consisted of a simple looking shirt and a purple skirt that extended to her knees. She seemed to be a bit more careful with her appearance than the cowgirl, considering that she was currently holding a mirror and putting on lipstick. We made for quite an interesting group, no doubt.
"Hey, Blitz." Dash said. "Welcome to English. How was science?" I shrugged.
"Decent." I said. Really was, to be honest.
Soon after I said that, the cowgirl tipped her hat. "Who's this round-em-upper?" she said in a legit Southern accent.
"Rainbow Blitz." I said. Once I said it, however, I noticed that Rainbow Dash was going to tell her for me. The cowgirl extended her hand out for a handshake, which felt awkward.
"Name’s Applejack!" she said, giving me a half-smile. "How do ya do?" I simply shrugged.
"Fine. I'm just a newbie here. You know, just got here and stuff." I replied. I didn't wanna talk about why I moved here again. It was such a painful memory for me, like a nightmare that was in reality; one that I could never escape. It's the entire reason why I was here, and that is not a happy memory to say out loud. I nearly cried when I told Dash, so I decided to just tell these girls that I just moved. "Just moved here." I told them.
"Ah." she said. "Well, welcome to the herd- uh, I mean group!" I chuckled a little bit, then turned to the diva. Surprisingly, she was still putting on her lipstick. Applejack introduced me to her. "And this here is Rarity."
Once her name had been uttered, Rarity finished her with her lipstick. She put it away, then looked up at me. She gave a small wave. "How do you do, darling?" she said. "Your name is, uh, Rainbow Ritz, right?"
I shook my head. "Blitz. Rainbow Blitz." I said.
“Blitz. Right. Sorry, Rainbow Blitz, I’m not the best with names, I’m afraid." Rarity said somewhat sheepishly.
I shrugged my shoulders. “It’s fine. Are you Rarity?" I asked her.
She nodded. "The one and only! The fashion diva of the school!" she said.
"And the drama queen." Applejack said with a slight grin.
"I am not!" Rarity said in a huff. "I... oh, never mind. I'm not going to start this again."
"I'm just kiddin' around, Rarity." Applejack said with a laugh before turning towards me, "Don't worry, Blitz. She's a nice person." Rarity nodded.
"We all are!" Dash said. "You'll do just fine as a friend of ours." I then paid attention to the teacher, who was starting to get class up and ready.
"Alright, class!" Mr. Ink shouted. "Let's get started here!"
We then started to talk about how our weekend was, he introduced me to the class, and I said some things about myself, like my profile on SoundCloud. After that was done, we started to talk about a project, where we were to write a story of some sort. A short story with teens involved, with ourselves as the main character. It doesn't matter what genre the story is, but he wanted it to be well-written. Now, these guys have learned a lot about story developing, but I didn't. However, I did know how to write stories since I did write some stories back then, and the actual good people liked it. The ‘cool people’, not so much.
So, I prepared my story idea. I was going to write a story called 'Depressed and Alone', which I planned to be about a teen suffering from depression in his life. I planned for it to be morbid, but very emotional, and heartwarming at the end. I felt I knew enough about the subject to pull it off. I was sure Mr. Ink would like it. After I finished planning my story out, I asked Dash what she was going to write, but she hasn't decided yet. Applejack said that she was going to write a book inspired by 'The Longest Ride' or something like that, and Rarity was going to write a 'better Twilight' story.
I started to write my first draft down. Rainbow was still scratching her head throughout, unsure of what to write. It wasn’t until I was two pages in that she got an idea.
“I GOT IT!” She shouted out, startling everyone in the classroom. Mr. Ink looked up from the papers he was looking over, and said, “Ms. Dash, don’t yell in class.” Rainbow Dash blushed nervously, and then lowered her voice as she told us her idea.
"Rock For All!" she said excitedly. "It’s a story about a guitarist! That's simply amazing!" she said giddily. For some reason, AppleJack and Rarity rolled their eyes after Rainbow stated her idea. I have no idea why. I mean, it sounded neat to me. Regardless, Rainbow Dash either didn’t notice or just didn’t care, and immediately started writing her idea down.
The time I spent writing flew by, and before I knew it, the bell rang, ending 3rd period. We had to move out to the next period, which was... Gym. Great, just great. Well, Dash was in gym; hopefully she could make it tolerable. Yeah, I'm athletic and stuff, but gym has always been a sickle to the neck for me. I sighed, crossed my fingers, and walked down to the gym, hoping that Dash’s presence would make the class go by quickly…
I took my first steps into the gym. Once I’d entered, I stopped to take a look around the gym. It was quite a bit larger than the one back in Fillywood, as this one was seemingly large enough to seat a couple thousand people in the bleachers. In addition, the myriad of banners across the upper walls showed that Canterlot High apparently had quite an impressive athletic record back in the 80’s and early 90’s, considering how many of the banners mentioned Canterlot High being Regional champions. It certainly was a nice looking gym, I’ll give it that.
Anyway, after I’d finished taking the sights in, I stepped into my locker room…and ended up running head first into someone. I took a step backwards to take a look at the person I’d run into. He was a giant: he was several inches taller than me, and appeared to be buff enough to bench press an entire class full of gym students. He was wearing a grey shirt that said 'Bent On Destruction', black shorts, and a large pair of black Nikes. I was pretty sure this was the gym teacher, Mr. Iron Will. He immediately bent down until we were face to face. It all felt like boot camp from there.
"Watch where you’re walking, Guppy!" he shouted out in a deep booming voice.
‘Guppy?’ I thought to myself.
"Oh, you’re that new kid I was told was going to be in my gym class this year, aren’t ya?” He asked. I nodded.
“Alright then. Your locker will be number 117!” He then pulled something out of his pocket, and placed it into my hand. I took a look into my hand and saw my lock, along with a small piece of paper next to it saying my combination. "Now, go get dressed right away! You have five minutes!" he shouted.
‘Right sarge, whatever you say. By the way, we have these things called breath mints. Try using them sometime.’ I thought to myself before entering the locker room.
Once I’d entered the locker room, I immediately started to change into my gym clothes. Before I could finish, however, I felt a finger poke my shoulder. I turned my head to see who wanted my attention. What I saw was a guy who was roughly the same size of me. He had sideburns, a goatee, and a black winter hat on.
"Oi, mate!" he said to me with a British accent. "What's your name? Never seen ya around before."
I cleared my throat. "Rainbow Blitz." I answered.
"Charmed. Name’s Griffon Guitar." he said, reaching his hand out for a handshake. This looked kinda weird, considering it was in a gym locker room and all, but I shook his hand regardless. "Nice meeting ya." He said.
"You, too." I said, as I prepared to head into the gym, now that I was fully dressed. "So, what's up with the gym teach?"
He shrugged. "Just a bit aggressive, I’d reckon. I don’t know. From what I’ve seen, Iron Will takes shit from nobody.” He walked right next to me. "But anywho, what do you do?"
"I just make music on SoundCloud, under the name of Fallout Blitz." I answered. Griffon's eyes widened.
"Fallout Blitz? You mean THE Fallout Blitz?" he asked. I nodded.
"Dude, I love your music! I totally make music on SoundCloud, too! I was inspired by you, dude! It’s so cool that you’re actually going to my school now!" he exclaimed excitedly.
Well, looks like I have a fan. "Well, glad to see I have a fan as a new friend." I said with a chuckle.
We walked around the gym, as we were supposed to, and kept talking. We continued the conversation, which taught me a lot about Griffon. For example, I learned that Griffon's profile was named 'Tenacious G', which was obviously inspired by Tenacious D. He said he just started, and asked for me to check him out later. I told him I would.
Immediately afterwards, I saw a beautiful character enter my field of view. It was Rainbow Dash. She was wearing her gym uniform, and it looked nice and tight. Her hair was all the way down, her legs were (slightly) more exposed with her wearing the blue shorts, and she looked simply amazing. Looks like I was right; she was athletic after all. I kinda daydreamed a little too much, as I quickly got a quick elbow nudge from Griffon. We were supposed to run now, I guess, considering EVERYONE was running.
We ran for a bit until the aggressive gym teacher told us to move to our spots. He called me over and pointed to my spot, placing me in between Dash and... Rush Down. Well, this was certainly a mixed spot. Rush Down, a man who's supposedly a jerk, as said by Dash, was on my left. I don't really know if fear should really grow here or what. He did have that kind of look. Not like a really big menace or anything, he just looked intimidating. I still wanted to know what went on between him and Dash.
After I’d arrived in my spot, we were ordered to do push-ups, jumping jacks, and various other exercises. Once that was finished, he then told us what we were gonna be doing today. Oh joy...
"Alright, class, listen up!" Will shouted. "Today, we're gonna play a good ol' game of basketball! Two teams will be made, and those two teams shall face each other in a game of basketball. Losers will face a suffering 30 push-ups, and I mean REAL ONES!" With that, he set up the teams. Odd rows vs even rows. He went horizontal, which led to me being on Dash's team, as well as Rush. I don't know what, but something seriously bugged me about that guy. Sadly, Griffon was on the other team, but in all honesty, I didn’t mind too much. It's just that he sounded cool, that's all.
I figured this would be fun, even though I wasn't really the best at basketball. Luckily for me, I wasn’t on the starting team, meaning I got to sit on the benches and wait for my turn to play in the game, along with Dash and Rush. Once I’d sat down, Dash nudged my shoulder to get my attention. "So, you any good at basketball?" she asked.
"Not really." I responded. "I'm a sucker at basketball. Miss the hoop every time I shoot."
Rainbow then responded back, "Well, I suppose not everyone is good at basketball. It doesn’t matter, though. You just try your best. I'm sure we'll whoop the other team's butt. It'll be won and done!" I wasn’t exactly sure about that, but Dash’s words managed to give me a bit more confidence.
After a couple of minutes past, we were called into the game. We were getting pounded at that point, with the score being 6-12. Still, perhaps we could fight back and get ahead. I positioned myself, ready for the whistle to be blown. Rush was in the center, and once the whistle was blown, Rush went on an absolute rampage. He swiped the ball, bolted to the other team's hoop, and shot the orange ball into the hoop within the course of a couple seconds. I wasn’t quite sure if that was just plain stupid luck or extreme talent, but I was pretty sure that it was the latter; Rush clearly had talent. I didn't know if the other members of my team were good or not, mainly because Rush kept that ball to himself at all times.
Some dude passes to Rush, there's someone right next to hoop in a beautiful, open zone, but Rush shoots and (luckily) makes it in. I'm open with a good shot, but he shoots and misses, costing us two points. RD is open with a perfect opportunity for a hot shot but Rush ignores her and misses his shot by a mile. All of his ball hogging was clearly getting to her, judging by the look of irritation she had on her face. After five minutes had past, she had only made one basket, and I had made none, mainly because I was never passed the ball. Not even once. I mean, sure I’m a scrub at basketball, but come on!
After another eight minutes had passed, we sat down on the benches again. If nothing else, Rush’s shoot first, pass the ball never strategy had payed off, since we were now ahead 24-18. After she took her seat, Rainbow rested her head on her chin.
"Well, seems like we got a shot. Thanks a bunch, Rush." Dash said sarcastically. "Yeah, just because he's the most athletic kid in the school, he thinks he can win the game all by himself. God, what a Jackass." She finished bitterly.
By this point, I was really curious what Dash’s deal with Rush was. I mean, sure, his ball hogging was a little irritating, but I would hardly say that it would be enough to get Rainbow this riled up by itself. Clearly there was something else at work, and I really wanted to dive into it. I had a feeling that I would regret this, but I just had to know.
"Dash?" I said to her. She turned her head and looked at me, still frowing. "Listen, I’ve tried to keep quiet about this for as long as possible, but I just have to know: what the heck happened between you and Rush?" I asked.
She rolled her eyes and sighed. "You really wanna know?" she asked, with a slight raise in her voice. I nodded.
"How 'bout this: Since you really wanna dive into my business this much, I’ll tell ya after school. That okay with you, Mr. Nosy?" she asked me bitterly.
I began to feel anger building up inside me. "Excuse me? Did you just call me nosy??" I asked. I didn't even wait for her to respond before continuing, "Man, you're really funny, because I swear I seem to remember you pressing me to tell the horrible truth of why I came to this place. Remember that?"
Immediately after I said that, Rainbow’s eyes widened a bit, and she immediately turned her head away. I couldn’t tell what her expression looked like, but it was clear I’d struck a chord. She sat there in that position for a couple minutes, refusing to move or say anything, instead holding as still as a statue.
After a few minutes, she finally turned her head towards me, revealing that she looked rather… frazzled, I guess is the best word. "…Sorry, Blitz. I shouldn’t have snapped like that. It’s just… just thinking about Rush just makes me so angry that I feel like I’ll burst. I’m sorry, man." She said remorsefully.
I was a bit surprised to see her that frazzled. The only other time I’d seen her looking like that was when I told her about my parents. Clearly, whatever happened between them must’ve affected her worse than I thought.
"It’s that bad, huh?" I asked. She nodded.
"Okay then, I’ll meet after school and you can tell me about this little war between the two of you then." I gave her a little smile, and she smiled back. I didn't really expect her to smile back so quickly, but I suppose I was lucky she did.
"Alright. Thanks." she said.
"No problem." I said. "I'm just glad we can get along." Conveniently, right after I said that, we were called into the game again.
We were starting off in a nice position, holding a slight lead over the other team at 27-26. Rush was still being as big of a ball hog as ever before, but at least the other players were catching on to that and giving him the ball less. Not that that stopped him. At one point, Rainbow Dash got the ball and passed it to me. I started to dribble it up to the hoop, but before I could get close enough to shoot, someone stole the ball from me. At first, I thought it was the other team, but I quickly learned that was not the case, because when I looked up I saw Rush rushing past me with the ball. He powered his way around the other team’s defenses and dunked the ball, earning us two more points. Most of our team cheered, while myself and Dash just glared at the ball hog. 'Sweet one, hotshot. Glad Dash PASSED it to YOU.' I thought.
We continued the basketball game until Iron Will blew the silver whistle. "Game!" he yelled. He looked at the score. And... we won by one point! The final score was 35-34. I breathed a sigh of relief, happy that I didn’t have to suffer some any push-ups. Thank God!
As we made our way to the locker room, I heard Rush simply saying to two guys (and a girl), "You're lucky that I got those shots. We can simply say I won the game. Since I'm awesome."
'Sure you are' I thought. I took a look to my left and noticed that Dash had on a look of disgust. I guess she heard Rush’s boasting as well. I walked next to her for a second. "Well, he’s certainly humble." I whispered to her.
"Tell me about it." she said. We then split up as I entered the boy's locker room. After I’d gotten my clothes back on, Griffon came in, practically drowning in sweat.
"Ey, good game." he said, taking a breath. "We were so close."
I chuckled. "You sure were, man." I told him. "We just got lucky, I guess."
He nodded. "Yep." he simply said.
"Well, see ya." I said, as I walked out of the locker room, heading for my next class: History. As with Science, this class was decent, albeit a lot more interesting. After all, History has always been one of my favorite subjects. Not much else to say, really, I just enjoyed it more than Science.
Afterwards, it was time for lunch. Apparently, lunches here are split up by grade, given that only juniors were going to lunch. Kinda weird, given how my school had multiple grades in each lunch, but hey, at least this way I’ll have more time with Dash.
Lunch. Sure, it was a good time to relax, considering you had some free time to eat, drink, talk with friends, or whatever else, but still, I kinda had a bad feeling about it, probably because at my old school, lunch time was pretty annoying. Most of the lunch kids were usually rude, never listening to anyone with any sort of authority. More often than not, they were sent to the table I ate at, which I suppose was a sort of detention table for those misbehaving morons. Not like I was one, though; I just liked my seat there, even though it meant I was usually sitting next to idiots who felt about as mature as an average first grader.
But hey, that was all in the past. This was a different school, so maybe things would be different this time. At least, that’s what I was hoping…
I walked into the cafeteria and quickly got my lunch. I got a sloppy joe and applesauce, along with a refreshing Gatorade. (Who doesn't love Gatorade?) After that was done, I scanned the cafeteria, looking for a place to sit. Within a couple of seconds, I found one. I quickly jumped onto the seat that caught my eye, and began eating. Before I could begin to chow down, however, I heard Rainbow’s voice coming from a few tables away.
"Hey, Blitz!" she said in a fairly loud voice. I turned my head towards her. "Come on over here! Don't be shy!" she exclaimed. It didn’t take a genius to see that she was offering me a seat at a table with her. I looked over to see who she was with. Aside from her, there were Rarity and AppleJack from English, and a couple of other girls I didn’t recognize. I’d completely forgotten about Dash once I had gotten my food, mainly because I was really hungry. Once I had been reminded of her, however, I jumped to her table with my food.
"What's up?" I asked.
Rainbow Dash shrugged her shoulders. “Eh, nothing really. Geometry was just as boring as ever, y’know?” she asked. I nodded.
“I hear ya. I was never really into math courses either.” I answered. That made her grin a little. After that was done, I turned towards the two girls that I didn’t recognize.
"Who are you two?" I asked the duo. The first one to answer was a poofy, pink-haired girl wearing a t-shirt with a heart on it, along with a long skirt with three balloons on it.
"I'm Pinkie Pie!" she said happily. She immediately grabbed my hand and shook it really quickly. "Glad to meet ya! I may be a bit random, but trust me, I'm fun! Nice to meet you, mister..." she said quickly, before stopping. I quickly realized she was waiting for my name.
"Rainbow Blitz." I said.
Pinkie nodded. "Well, nice to meet you, Blitzy." she said with a giggle. She seemed pretty cool. I mean, she did seem kinda hyper, but it was fun type of hyper, the type that really made you excited whenever she opened her mouth. Anyways, after Pinkie had finished speaking, I turned towards the other girl I didn't know. She was a tan girl with crimson hair with golden highlights, which made her hair look like an inferno. She wore a leather jacket over a purple shirt with a sun on it, and a long, orange skirt covering her legs.
“What about you? What’s your name?" I asked her. The girl rubbed her arm and looked down and to the side, as if she was trying to avoid eye contact. After a couple of seconds of silence, I spoke again. "It's alright, I don't bite."
"My name's... Sunset Shimmer." she said quickly, before turning her head away just as quickly.
"Nice name." I said, trying to make her speak up and feel a little better. She just seemed pretty shy, that's all.
"Thanks." she said, growing a half-smile.
“You seem kinda shy.” I said after another moment of relative silence.
"Well... kinda. It's just that... wait a minute, haven’t you ever heard of me?" she then asked.
"Umm… no, I haven’t. Why would I have heard about you?" I asked. I was kinda confused on this part. Was I supposed to know her? Was she the principal's daughter or something? I mean, I was almost positive that she wasn't an athlete, considering I’d never seen her on the page. Wait, was she… Oh dear god, don't let this person be a popular freak...
"Oh, u-uh, ok." she said, stuttering a bit with a little blush of red. "I-I just thought you'd know."
I decided to give it a shot. After all, even if she didn’t talk, I could just ask Dash about it. "Why?" I asked her.
"I just thought you might've, uh, heard of me, that's all. But anyways, welcome to the school!" she proudly said. Guess that’s one more thing I’ll have to ask Dash about later.
"Thanks." I responded. "Gotta say, this place looks pretty sweet."
"I know, right?" Pinkie said with a smile. Quite a cheery person, I have to say.
"Yup." I stretched my back a bit, then continued. "Classes seem fine, the people, well, most of the people anyway, are pretty cool, and… yeah, neato." I took a bite of my sloppy joe.
"Trust me, it only gets better! When the events come, it'll be the best of the best!" Pinkie exclaimed with a wide grin, "I mean, yeah, the last two were pretty hectic, but my senses are telling me that this time, it's gonna be AWESOME!" She took a bite of her sloppy joe.
I raised an eyebrow at her choice of words. What did she mean by ‘the last two were pretty hectic’? What was so hectic about them? Did something bad happen in them? Well, only one way to find out. "What do you mean by 'hectic'?" I asked her.
Pinkie looked up at me and swallowed her bite of sloppy joe. "Well, our last event, the 'Battle of the Bands', was pretty fun, at least until these three girls showed up and tried to take over the school with their singing." My eyes widened.
“Wait, WHAT?!” I exclaimed.
Pinkie nodded, “Yeah, that’s how most new kids react to that. Still, if you don’t believe me, just ask anyone who goes here. Any of them will tell you that it’s the truth!” I looked around the table, and saw that the others at the table were all nodding, confirming Pinkie’s tale. Well, most of them were, anyway. Sunset looked a little bit nervous, and seemed like she was trying to hide herself. Kinda weird. Unless…
‘Wait, don't tell me that she’s…’ I began to think to myself, before Pinkie interrupted my train of thought.
"But we all defeated them, and saved the school from another takeover!" she finished excitedly.
‘Huh.’ I thought to myself, ‘Well, I guess Sunset couldn’t have been a part of those girls. After all, Pinkie did say that all of them defeated them. That would mean that Sunset couldn’t have been part of… wait a minute, ANOTHER TAKEOVER?!’
"Wait, did you say another takeover?? As in, more than one takeover?!" I asked in panic. Suddenly, this school wasn’t sounding too sweet anymore. Girls taking over the school with singing?! That sounds like some kind of witchcraft! Or magic, I guess. Call it what you will.
“Yeparooni, Blitzy! That singing girls incident wasn’t the first time somebody tried to take over the school with weird magic. You won’t believe this, but actually…”
“Pinkie!” I heard Sunset yell out. I turned towards Sunset, and noticed how scared Sunset looked. She was fiercely blushing and looking at Pinkie with a panicky expression on her face, as if something about all of this was really freaking her out.
Pinkie looked over at Sunset for a second, then back to me. Then Sunset, then me. Rinse and repeat. Afterwards, she turned back to me, and finished talking.
"Oh, it was nothing big. Just someone else trying to take over the school with, uh, magic. Don't worry, there’s no need to be scared of dark magic or anything else like that anymore! Or witchcraft as you call it." How did she know I- nevermind.
But, who was the one taking over? Wait, was it... Sunset? Wait, so if she was a villain- nevermind, screw it. I'll just ask Dash later. No sense risking losing friends this quickly. I had a certain feeling that, somehow, this involved Sunset. Either assisting, or being THE one taking over. Unless she was just really scared by the first takeover, which seemed unlikely.
"Anyways…" Pinkie said, completely getting off the following topic. "We have one more friend who’s usually supposed to be here named Fluttershy. And yes, before you ask, she's very shy, but she’s still nice. You'll like her." She gave another heartwarming smile once again.
"Where is she?" I stupidly asked. 'Dummy, she's probably absent.' I thought to myself. I gave myself a mental facepalm.
"Absent. She's got a cold." Pinkie simply answered. "But I'm sure she'll be just fine by tomorrow!"
"She's in our gym class." Dash said. "So, maybe tomorrow we can have a little introduction."
"Speaking of introduction," said Sunset, still a little rosy. "Where did you come from?"
"Fillywood." I answered. "It was a pretty nice place to live." I sat back as I ate the rest of my sloppy joe.
"Ah. Moved?" she asked. I nodded. I was seriously in no mood to go over it all again...
"That's cool." she then said. After that, I noticed the despicable prick of the day. Rush Down. I glared at him, as he was having a fun conversation with the gang from the back of the bus and some girls, who were probably popular.
My new friends quickly noticed this, and turned to stare at me. It took me a while to notice, but I eventually noticed the look on Pinkie's face, then noticed everyone else’s faces as well, before quickly snapping out of it. "Oh, uh, hey, what's going on?" I asked, with a nervous chuckle. I’m pretty sure the girls knew what was up.
"Rush Down giving ya troubles too, huh?" AJ asked. I sighed and nodded. "Well, can’t say I blame ya." she continued. "He's nothin' but a selfish jerk. Yea, I’ll bet he feels like he's adored by everyone, and matter of fact feared by everyone, but he ain't. We're not afraid of him." I gave a slight smile, happy that Dash and I weren’t the only people who hated this guy.
"Totally! He's absolutely no fun at all." Pinkie added in. "He takes things way too seriously and says that my parties... blow." Once she said the word ‘blow’ something weird happened to her hair: it actually looked like it was deflating like a balloon. "It hurts when people say that, you know?" she asked me. I nodded.
"No, Pinkie, your parties are amazing, darling!" Rarity said. "Rush Down just has no taste of real fun. Or class, for that matter." She rolled her eyes and took a look at her nails, which were painted blue. Kinda weird, considering that they weren’t that color in English class, but hey, maybe she just painted them after English. Either way, her expression quickly turned angry as she continued. "Matter of fact, last week both he and his fat bastard of a brother called me a no-good, make-up wearing, ugly slut! I swear, he wouldn’t know what manners were if they walked up, slapped him across the face, and stole his wallet!” she said angrily.
AJ put her hand on Rarity's back and patted it, which seemed to calm Rarity down.
"Basically, he's the total bad guy of the school." Sunset said. "So, I guess that's one thing we have in common." I nodded, and continued to eat. While I ate, I thought about everything I’d heard. However, there was one thing that I wasn’t sure about. Why did Dash hate Rush with such a burning passion. I mean, sure, these girls hated him for stuff he said and done and whatever, but Dash sounded more hateful, more aggressive, more angry at Rush than any of them. In addition, it was also kind of weird how she was the only one at the table who didn’t say anything about him. I took a look up at her, and saw that she was clutching her right hand around a Gatorade bottle so hard that her knuckles were turning white. She was trying to keep a calm expression up, but she wasn’t doing a very good job at it. It was clear that just hearing the guy’s name made her far angrier than I had ever seen her get.
But hey, that was later when I could ask her after school, along with the question about the one 'takeover' and Sunset.
After a while, lunch ended, and we headed out of the cafeteria, moving to our next classes. With school moving swiftly, I entered my last class with Dash, music tech. This is gonna rock!
Making music on a computer? Piece of cake! I’ve been doing it since I was in middle school! Not to brag, but I’ve been pretty awesome at it for years, and have only gotten better as time went on. No doubt about it; this class was gonna be fun.
I made my way into the band room, which was where the class was going to be held. Shortly after I had entered, a swarm of about thirty or so students shuffled in after me, filling the room up before I had a chance to really get a look around the room. Not that it mattered; I had an entire semester to get used to these rooms. No need to memorize everything on day one, after all.
Anyway, after we’d all entered the room and taken a seat, a man in a suit wearing glasses showed up.
"Hello, hello, class," he said. "My name is Mr. Beat. Tech Beat if you want my full name." He stopped to take a look at the class. As he took a look at the class, I looked around the room to see if I could find Rainbow Dash. It took a bit, but I found her in the far left corner of the room, seated in the corner of the room opposite the one I was at. I noticed that she was whispering something into Pinkie Pie’s ear, as if she was telling her a secret or something. Considering that Pinkie appeared to be trying to avoid giggling after hearing it though, it was probably just a joke or something. Didn’t matter to me though; honestly, I just thought it was kinda cool that there would be more than one person that I knew I liked in this class.
"Hmm. So this is my second semester class?" he said, raising a brow. He stared at us for a while with that brow raised, as if he wasn’t quite sure what to make of us, until he eventually broke out into a grin.
"Well, I must say that this looks absolutely delightful! I'm so glad to see so many bright young minds who want to make music. I’m sure you will all enjoy making your music... WITH TECHNOLOGY!” He said enthusiastically for a moment. He then briefly looked the class over again before he continued.
“Now, I love creating music with computers, and by the end of this semester, I’m sure you all will as well. I know that last semester’s class certainly did! I knew each of them well, and it was truly amazing how much variety each student brought to the table! It was a fantastic semester filled with some of the greatest tunes I’ve heard in quite a while!" He looked at us again. "But before we get started, how about we have a quick introduction, hmm?” He pointed at Dash. "Pardon me, my lady with the rainbow colored hair? Would you mind starting us off? We'll go horizontal from left-to-right, and get everyone situated, yes?"
Dash nodded, stood up and walked to where Beat once stood. She said her name, told us her hobbies, which she loved being an athlete and doing daring stuff, and a few other facts, such as her birthday (which wasn’t for another eight months). After Dash had finished, Pinkie bounced up to where Dash was standing, and quickly followed suit, stating her name, hobbies, and so on. We moved from guy-to-guy, girl-to-girl, until it was eventually my turn.
"Ahem." Beat coughed, getting my attention. I was in a daydream for a second there.
"Oh, yeah, right." I said with a chuckle. "Uh, my bad." I heard some chuckling and muffled laughter, but I wasn’t really bothered by it. I walked up to the spot, stood tall in a very proper manner, and told them about myself.
"Hello, uh, my name is Rainbow Blitz. Uh... I don’t think that any of you guys have ever heard of me. That’s because I moved here from Canterlot." I quickly slapped myself in the face, knowing that I screwed up.
"I mean, Fillywood." I corrected myself. More laughter. God, I was coming off stupid here...
"Umm, I make music, too. I make music on SoundCloud, under the name, Fallout Blitz. When I’m not doing that, I’m usually just hanging around and playing video games." I felt a bead of sweat rolling down my face, which I’m fairly certain was beginning to turn red from embarrassment.
"Um, my birthday is on March 16th, and uh… yup, that's it." I quickly rushed back to my seat, and hid my face.
Before you say anything, no, I'm not super shy. It's just... when you talk in front of crowds and stuff, it gets to you. There’s a ton of pressure. After all, if you screw something up, people laugh. Not the good kind, either. They aren’t laughing with you, but at you. I hate it... and people make fun of me for it. Bastards...
Anywho, we got situated really quickly afterwards. Each of us got a laptop, and went onto a site called 'SoundLoud', which was pretty much like SoundCloud, except the 'c' was dropped. It was very similar to the site. In fact, if it weren’t for the fact that this site had actual controls on it, I would’ve just thought that I was using SoundCloud. I quickly found out that there was a tab where a bunch of instruments were listed on the side, and you were able to drag and drop the instruments into the center to indicate what instruments you were planning on using. I smiled to myself. This was gonna be fun.
First things first, we needed to create a profile. According to Beat, it could be anything that wasn’t… inappropriate. Fine by me. So, I made my account the same as my SoundCloud account: Fallout Blitz.
After I had finished that, I checked around the site to see how many users this site had. Unsurprisingly, the site had quite a large number of people, most of whom were students at Canterlot at one point or another. I was surprised to see that almost all of those students who had already graduated still made music on here. Heck, there was one account that appeared to be nine years old that released a song called Battery only around a week ago. There was no doubt about it; I was gonna enjoy this site.
Beat went over the basics of the site, such as how to make an account, how to choose instruments, some basic music theory, and a few other things. It was really simple for me. Once he’d finally finished his tutorial, he gave us our first task: making a ringtone. We had to make a song with at least two instruments in it. In addition, we needed to have the ringtone say something in English. I’m pretty sure the only reason he made us do this was because he just wanted a new ringtone for his phone, but whatever. If he wanted a ringtone, I was more than willing to oblige. I tried to think of an awesome little tune to hear when some dude wants to have you over at their place. After a few moments, I snapped my fingers. HUZZAH!
I got a guitar and an electric keyboard as my instruments, and made the tune. As I developed the ringtone, I nodded my head, positive that Beat was going to like what I had planned for him. I played around with the instruments for a while, trying to make the guitar chords harmonize with the keyboard, until they meshed just right, at which point I assembled the future ringtone for Mr. Beat. At least I hoped it was gonna be his future ringtone. Well, I say ‘hoped’, but it was more that I felt that I knew he was gonna choose mine. I mean, not to boast or anything, but I’m pretty darn great at making music. Again, not boasting.
As I was trying to think of what I wanted the lyrics to my song to be, I heard the sound of the bell ringing. After saving my work, I quickly and carefully shut the laptop, put it away in the computer case, and left the room with my stuff. Instead of leaving for my next class, however, I stopped just outside the classroom doors and waited for Dash. It took a bit, since she was the last one to leave the room, but I eventually saw her walk out slowly, talking with Pinkie as she did so. I tapped her on the shoulder, which stopped her in her tracks. She turned towards me with a smile on her face.
"Hey Blitz! How'd you like music tech?" she asked me enthusiastically.
"It was pretty cool. I'm pretty sure that Beat and I will get along." I replied.
"Cool. Well, see ya later, Blitz!" she said before beginning to turn away.
"Okay. By the way, don't forget that you promised to meet me after school!" I reminded her. The second I said that, I wished that I had just kept my mouth shut, as the smile on her face quickly dropped. She quickly nodded her head without saying anything, before dashing away in the opposite direction. Something told me that I was gonna regret reminding her of that.
Soon afterwards, I made it to my final classes, Algebra and French. Just like the other classes without Dash, they were okay. I actually kinda thought that French would be awesome to learn, but the class was a little lame, considering the teacher seemed pretty dull. Hopefully it was just an off day of his. Not that it really mattered, because before I knew it, the classes had ended, meaning that it was time.
The time where I finally talked to Dash about Rush, and then Sunset...
I exited the school building, and waited for Dash in an open area that was a bit out of the way, so I wouldn’t risk being interrupted by any kids that might be rushing to be the first on the bus so they could grab their favorite seats. Not me. I wasn’t gonna take the bus this time, nor would Dash. After all, there was a lot that we needed to talk about...
Time slowly ticked on as I stood there, waiting for Dash to exit the school building. It felt like I was standing there forever, watching for Dash, and taking the occasional glance backwards towards the buses, just in case she ended up forgetting about our talk. It wasn’t until several minutes after the last bus left that I finally saw Dash walking out of the school. She noticed me almost immediately (not surprising, considering everyone else was gone by that point), at which point I signaled her over to me. She walked over to me.
“Hey Blitz! Sorry that I’m a little late. Mr. Bunsen held me after for a little while.” She said.
“It’s cool.” I replied. She nodded her head and started walking away, probably to her house. I picked up my pace, until we were side by side. "So, uh, before we get to this..." I said, scratching the back of my head. "You don't mind me walking you home, right?"
Dash shook her head. "No... it's fine, don’t worry about it."
“Cool. Glad to hear it.” I replied to her. We walked together in silence for a moment, as I tried to think of how I wanted to start this conversation. After a moment, I finally decided to just ask her the question straight up.
"Dash.” I said, getting her attention, “Now, I don't wanna hurt you, and if this brings back bad memories, I’m sorry. However, I really need to know." I took a deep breath. "What is up with you and Rush? I mean, yeah, the others hated him too, but none of them seemed anywhere near as angry at him as you. Clearly something's up, and I want to know what that is. No bullshit." I felt a little horrible for saying that last part.
Dash sighed in defeat. "Well, I guess it was only a matter of time before I had to bring this up again. I really don’t want to talk about this, but… after what I made you tell me this morning, I guess it’s only fair." She closed her eyes, then opened them again.
"It all began around a year ago. Back then, Rush seemed to be a pretty cool guy. I mean, he was big, popular, and just seemed so awesome. He seemed like the picture perfect guy. I might’ve... kinda… fell for him." She admitted.
‘I think I know where this is going…’ I thought to myself.
"You can probably already guess where this is going, but I just wanna get all of this stuff off my chest." She said to me. She then took a deep breath, before continuing.
"Yeah, I’ll admit it: I went for him. I did everything I could to get his attention. I flirted, I pushed myself in my athletic career, and I just tried to seem as awesome as I could. Not that I ever wasn’t awesome, of course.” She quickly stated.
“Of course.” I replied.
“Anyway, after a while of this, it started paying off. He started noticing me, and eventually, I had his hand around my waist. The people at school used to call us 'The Awesome Couple'."
I tried to cover my mouth to keep from laughing at the name, but a bit of laughter ended up getting out anyway. Dash apparently heard this, since she ended up spinning her head towards me with a stern look on her face.
I coughed. "Continue." She looked at me with a raised eyebrow for a moment, and then continued to speak.
"So, we hung out and all of that stuff. We’d go to each other’s games, and I remember really enjoying seeing him play. I was his biggest fan, being his girlfriend and all. But every now and again, we would go to some parties. More often than not, the parties we went to were filled with people I never knew. There were usually some drinks there, but I never took a cup. Screw alcohol."
‘That's my girl. Wait, what did I say?’ I thought to myself.
"But these parties… Usually while he was at them, he'd go off with his friends, more often than not completely forgetting about me until after the party was over. Since I didn’t drink, I usually had little to do there but wait for him to return, and see whether or not he ended up getting drunk. When he did get drunk, he usually ended up tossing an arm around me while clumsily saying whatever came to his mind at the time. It was funny sometimes, but other times it could get… bad. Not ‘I hate your guts’ bad, but just… loud and vulgar. The more times that we went to these parties, the less important I felt. Honestly, after a while, I felt more like a trophy than anything else: just something for him to brag to his friends about, before being forgotten about so he could go get drunk with them."
"I see." I said. "Well, I suppose you started questioning your relationship with him around that point, huh?"
She nodded. "Yeah, I did, but I never talked about it or anything. All I did was think about it.”
“Was there any reason you didn’t talk about it?” I asked her.
“I don’t really know. Maybe it’s because I didn’t want to lose him. I’d worked so hard to get him to notice me, and I still thought that there were things that I really liked about him at the time. Looking back, I’m not sure what I saw in him, but back then… there was something that kept me from wanting to leave him, y’know?” she asked. I nodded, which prompted her to continue.
“Anyway, things kept going like that until one day when we got on top of this hill that younger couples at our school just called 'Makeout Point’. I still remember that day...”
She coughed a little bit, before continuing, “I remember how he called me up one Saturday afternoon, and asked me if I was busy. I told him I wasn’t, to which he quickly responded by asking me if I wanted to go on a drive with him. He promised me that he wouldn’t go to any parties or anything, and wanted me to see something with him. I agreed, he picked me up, and we drove up to Makeout Point. Before long, we were kissing. Then we were making out. Then we... uh..."
"Banged?" I finished for her.
She raised an eyebrow, and turned her head towards me with a disgusted look on her face.
"What?! No! We didn't do- Oh god, no! That’s… Euggh…” I noticed her shudder slightly before continuing, “Well great, there’s an image I’m never going to get out of my head..." she finished. I blushed deep red when she started talking, as I pretty much sounded like a dirty-minded freak.
"M-my bad." I said. "It just seemed that you were leading up to it, that's all." I raised my hands innocently. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow for another moment, as if she wasn’t sure whether I was being straight with her or not, before finally continuing on with her story.
"We just... began arguing then." she said. "I think he said something about me being terrible at kissing or something, I responded by saying that maybe he wasn’t as good as he thought he was, and things just escalated from there. I brought up how he treated me at parties, he brought up something about me only thinking about myself, and we both called each other attention whores. Quite a few times, actually. I don’t really remember everything we argued about, I just remember it lasting for a while, and it getting loud. Like, crowded auditorium on game day loud. Thankfully, there were no couples next to us, because if there were, I’m pretty sure their special moment would’ve been ruined because of us!” she exclaimed.
“So… you guys broke up after that?” I asked.
Dash shrugged her shoulders, “Well, not exactly. After that argument though, things weren’t the same. Every time we saw one another, we both expected the other to apologize. However, neither of us did. As the days passed by, we got increasingly negative. After a while, though, I really began seeing Rush as nothing more than an egotistical jerk. Not only did he not apologize, but he didn’t even seem to consider that he had ever done anything wrong, and acted like he was the greatest thing since sliced bread! It honestly pissed me off to no end!" She crossed her arms. "After a while, I’d just had enough of him, so I did it. I broke up with him. He… didn’t take it well, and ended up doing… stuff.”
"Oh..." I said, before turning to take a look at her. Rainbow was looking down at the ground, as if something about what he did genuinely affected her. I decided that I may as well get the rest of the info from her.
"So... mind if I ask what he did?"
She sighed. "Well, when I first told him that I was breaking up with him, he reacted pretty calmly toward it, almost as if he thought I was bluffing. He just told me that I’d be sorry if I did so. I didn’t really care what he would do at that point though, and did so anyway. For the next couple of weeks, things seemed about normal. And then… people at school started acting weird around me. The guys were staring at me even more than normal, and most of the girls looked at me like I was absolutely disgusting, and some of them refused to talk to me. It took a couple days, but I eventually learned that a rumor was going around the school saying that I was ‘easy’. I had no idea where the rumor came from… until next day’s gym class. Instead of entering the gym after suiting up, I took a glance inside the boy’s locker room after everyone else was gone… and immediately saw a couple sheets of paper with a bad photo of me on them taped to the opposite wall. I wasn't nude in the photo or anything like that; it was just a sexy photo of me in tight clothing that I ended up giving to Rush Down early in our relationship. As if that wasn’t enough, below the picture was some text that read ‘Rainbow’s fine, so get in line!’ When I saw those words, it took everything within me to avoid throwing up right there! It was just disgusting!”
I shuddered a little bit. Suddenly, her hatred of Rush Down was making a lot more sense. Regardless, she continued on.
"The second I saw that, I knew it was Rush’s doing. I shouted at him, told him to stop, and said that I’d be telling the school about his actions if he didn’t stop. Luckily for me, he did stop…" She smiled for a sec, then frowned.
"…With the photos. That didn’t stop him from spreading that rumor about how we supposedly ended up banging before I broke up with him. It took months before people at school finally stopped treating me like I was the school slut! Even after the rumor eventually died down, he still took every available opportunity to insult me, like how he called me 'Rainbow Crash' when I fell during running practice at gym. He and his friends just never let up!”
"Assholes." I said out loud, before noticing that I’d interrupted Dash again. "Sorry, continue."
"No, you’re right. They were. They ALL were. Treating me like trash and all sorts of crap. I hated him so much because of that. He's an asshole, and I never should’ve went for him!" She crossed her arms, and looked straight down. I looked at the side of her face, and saw a lone tear streaking down her cheek.
Damn... I should never have asked her that question... I didn't think it would get her like that... "Hey, Dash?" I said, and she turned her head a little towards me. "I'm sorry for asking that question."
She shook her head. "No, you deserved to ask it. After all, I did want you to tell me about how you got here. After what I made you go through, it was only fair." I nodded.
"Still, I never thought it would hurt you like this."
"Well, it's not that bad, it's just--- I dunno. It hurts. Never really cried over it, though since I don't really cry at all, being the tough girl I am, but still, it hurts me.” She said. I considered pointing out that tear I saw on her face just a moment ago, but I decided against it, instead letting her continue.
“So… yeah, I hate him. He was a bad person, and I should’ve seen it sooner." She folded her arms, and looked down, once again. "But hey, thanks for letting me get it off my mind. That's also the big reason why the girls don't like him. Yeah, Rush told them things that hurt them later, but the major reason is because of our little rivalry, especially after what he did to me after the break-up."
"Sorry." I said to her. We walked together in silence for another minute or so, before I remembered my next question.
"Oh yeah, I almost forgot: I have another question I wanted to ask you. I swear, this one’s not about you." She looked up. "Yeah, what?"
"What happened at this 'first takeover' thing? I remember Pinkie saying that there was another one before the whole 'Battle of the Bands' thing. Was Sunset a part of that?" Rainbow scratched the back of her head.
"Eh, I wouldn’t really say she was ‘part of it’. More like she was directly responsible for it.” Rainbow admitted with surprising ease. “She tried to take over, but she ended up losing. Now, she's not bad anymore, and she's been trying to get better so she can be forgiven for what she did back then." I opened my mouth to ask her what had happened, but she stopped me and answered, "She turned into a raging she-demon, made two guys her minions, and tried to control the entire school’s minds like zombies. And that’s not even mentioning some of the weirder stuff."
"Well then," I said. "You read my mind. And she's trying to be good now?"
Rainbow nodded. "Yeah she is, and she's doing a really good job at it. After she ended up stopping the Dazzlings…”
“Who?” I asked her.
“You know, those evil, singing girls back at the Battle of the Bands?” I nodded in response, allowing her to continue.
“Anyway, ever since then, she’s gotten quite a lot of respect from everyone. She deserves it." She then looked around her, as if she was hoping that nobody was watching or hearing her. "Just don't tell her I told you this, alright?" she whispered to me.
I saluted. "Secret's safe with me." I answered, before I did a motion like I zipped my lips. "She might know sooner or later, though, but hopefully she won't know it was you."
Dash smiled. "Yeah." Another moment of silence passed.
“So…” I began, which got her attention, “You said earlier that Sunset being a she-demon, and trying to enslave the school with mind control wasn’t as weird as it got, right?” I asked.
"Yeah, it wasn’t. I mean, that’s not even mentioning the pony princess!" she exclaimed. I raised a brow at that, and immediately began wondering if everything she’d told me today was nothing more than lies. Dirty, dirty little lies. She quickly noticed my look of disbelief, and explained.
"Long story short, she came from a dimension of ponies, was a human here, helped take down the villains from both takeovers, and she was awesome. Twilight Sparkle is her name." I shrugged. The whole idea kinda seemed a bit farfetched. Then again, it really wasn’t that much stranger than Sunset becoming a she-demon, or girls trying to take over the school with singing. I just shrugged. Maybe this was just a weird school.
After another minute or so of silence and walking, we finally made it to Dash's house. Dash spoke. "Well, we’re here. Wanna take a look around before you leave?" Now, as much as I wanted to hang out with her, I couldn’t at that point. “Sorry, Dash, but I can’t today. My brother wants me to be home by... oh shit.”
“Huh? Did you forget about something?” she asked me. However, I barely heard her, as I was too busy reaching into my backpack for my cell phone. I couldn’t believe I forgot to tell him that I would be late! I quickly grabbed my cell phone, but before I could call him, my phone began ringing. Looks like he was calling me first. Oh boy…
"Hellooooo?" I asked, worried he was going to-
"Where the hell are you?!" he shouted so loudly that even Dash could hear.
...yell.
"I'm sorry, bro. I-I was-"
"No buts, bro. You get your dashing ass home right now!" He ended the call, and I got scared. That cold, fearful feeling trickling down my very spine.
"Uh..." I said, trailing off and feeling embarrassed, since Dash heard it.
Dash smirked at me and chuckled, “So, forgot about your brother, huh?”
"Well… yup. Uh, see you tomorrow!" I quickly said as I made a mad sprint towards home. Oh, my brother's going to kick my ass...
I sprinted straight home, running at top speed like the devil was chasing me. Given what was waiting for me at home, however, he may as well have been. God knows what might’ve happened if I didn't report home sooner to my brother. Not that I had much time to think about that, because before I knew it, I had arrived back home! Where he was inside, waiting to chew me out... Oh goody...
I opened the door, and saw my brother in his suit, sitting on the couch, glaring at me. Clearly, he was pissed off.
"Where the hell were you?" he asked with a raised voice. This was something my brother did sometimes back then. When he was watching me when our parents went out for something, I'd go out, and more often than not, I didn’t come back in time. He usually yelled at me for that too. He's not an angry man who treats me like trash, though. He's a protective man who gets angry and worried when things don't go as planned.
"I was just out with somebody." I answered.
"Oh, really?" he asked. "And you didn’t bother telling me? What if something bad happened to you, man?" I rolled my eyes. I appreciated the fact that he cared and all, but I didn’t need him treating me like a seven year old!
"Yes, I was out with somebody. And NO, nothing bad would have happened, dude! Just... chill out about it! I'm home, I'm alive and I’m just fine! Happy now?"
"Not really, Blitz." He crossed his arms. "I can’t just let you go alone like that... I can’t have you walking around without me knowing!"
"Why?" I asked with a serious tone. "I'm not seven, you know. I know how to defend myself, and I'm strong like you! Why are you treating me like I’m the most vulnerable thing on Earth?!"
"BECAUSE I WORRY!" he shouted, startling me. It took me a second to recover, but once I had, I continued.
"Well, don't!" I said back. "I'm fine, and if something happens to me, it'll be my fault, man! Besides, the whole city is all nice and safe."
"You don't know that for sure." he said, crossing his large arms. “For all we know, some new killer or some crap like that could be walking around right under our noses!"
"Oh, for Heaven's sake..." I mumbled, facepalming. "It's not gonna happen."
"YOU DON'T KNOW THAT!" he shouted out loud, which once again startled me. Before I responded, however, I noticed that he was blinking a lot, as if he was trying not to cry. This was surprising, given how rare it was to see Daze crying.
"Listen, Blitz. I just... I just don't wanna lose you. Back then, it was just because I wanted to make sure that I didn't get in trouble, and because you were younger back then. Now... Mom and Dad are dead, and I don't want you to die, too." Daze slowly explained.
His words hit me pretty hard. Thing was, while Daze was strong and bold, he was also kinda overprotective of me, all cause he loves me so much as a brother. Sure, he messed around with me sometimes, but deep down, he really did care about me. He was, let's just say, a gentle giant. He was big, but very caring and sensitive. Even so, this was something I was not used to seeing. I’d never before realized how… absolutely broken and terrified he was when he’d heard that our parents were shot dead that one night. He was just as shattered as I was.
I heard his one sniffle... I heard his muttering... I came in for him... I became a brother for HIM. He was the best, and I appreciated it. Sure, we had our moments of teasing, wrestling, and other crap, but seriously, we loved each other like family. He was there for me, and I was there for him. Right then and there, I was there for him.
By that point, he had some tears streaking down his face as he silently cried. I sat next to him on the couch, and placed an arm around him, before pulling him into a friendly hug. I felt so stupid for some of the stuff I said to him. He cared so much, and while he did worry about me a little too much, I still treated him horribly. He needs to tone it down a bit, but I guess there’s nothing I can do about that.
"I'm sorry, bro." I said guiltily before looking down at the floor. Within a moment, I felt a large arm wrap around me. I looked up to see that Daze was looking at me with a small smile. He wasn’t crying anymore, and looked a lot better than he did a couple moments ago.
"Hey, don't feel bad, Blitz." he said in a gentle tone, "I shouldn’t have overreacted. After all, you’re not a kid anymore. You can take care of yourself, and I should trust you a little more. I'm just... still kinda shaken-up, that's all."
"Bro, don't say that. You were just looking out for me. That's what bros do, right?" I asked. He smiled, and nodded.
"Yeah." He replied. We were then silent for about a minute, looking at each other until he finally asked, "So, who's this guy you were out with? New friend you made?"
I nodded. "Well--- yes and no. Yes, I was out with a new friend I made, but she’s not a he."
He grinned and chuckled. "Oh, I see. A girl, huh?" Oh I see where this is going...
I nodded. "Yeah, why? Jealous?" I asked, even though I already knew that he had a girlfriend.
"No." he said, still grinning. "I was just curious. What's her name?"
I sighed. I knew it was gonna come soon...
"Her name’s Rainbow Dash." He nodded, as if he were impressed. Not really sure why, but whatever. I got off the couch and walked away, hoping to avoid-
"Aw, that’s real cute."
‘Oh great, here we go…’ I thought to myself.
"So, Little Blitzy's got a crush on somebody, eh?" He chuckled.
"No. She's just... a friend. That’s it." I said, although I was beginning to feel my face turn red.
"Sure, Blitzy. Sure” he said. He then paused a second, before saying, “You know, it's okay to have a crush on somebody. Especially since you two have the exact same name!" I turned back, and saw the dumbest smile on his face.
"What does that have to do with anything? I told you, she's just a friend, nothing more!" I yelled out, even though it was easy to see that I was lying.
"Come on, tell me a little about her." He said with a smirk. I didn’t say anything, and instead just stared at him in silence.
"Hey, at least it's not Dad asking ya." He sighed, and I chuckled as I held back laughter. I remembered the time Dad talked to Daze about his first crush, which was with his school’s most popular cheerleader. He just looked so embarrassed throughout that conversation, but he did manage to hang out with her, until she dumped him for a jock. Still, it was really funny to watch at the time.
"Alright, why not." I sighed, before sitting down on the couch.
"Hey, I already suffered through it. Now it’s your turn." Daze laughed, and patted my back. "So tell me, what does she look like?" I flashed back to earlier in the day when I first saw her, remembered how she looked, and smiled at the thought.
"Well Daze, it turns out that I'm not the only one with rainbow hair. She has it too." Daze nodded again, but didn’t say anything, so I continued,
"She's also an athlete. A very talented athlete, I gotta say."
"You have a crush on an athlete? What sport?" he asked. "I know mine was a cheerleader, though not too many people think of cheerleading as a sport."
"Like me." I said, grinning. "Anyway, the sport she plays is..." I had my finger on my chin, trying to remember what sport she plays. A moment later, it finally came to me.
"Soccer! That's right, she plays soccer!" I exclaimed.
"Soccer, eh?"
I nodded. "Yeah, she does. I kinda want to see how she is at it. She’s probably really great."
“Wait a sec, if you haven’t seen her play yet, then how do you know that she’s an athlete?” he asked me with a raised eyebrow.
“Well, we had each other in Gym, and she did really well in the basketball game we played.” I answered.
"Cool. Well, good luck, Blitz. Hope you and this girl hit it off." He said while rustling my hair.
"Alright. Thanks.” I said, before quickly changing the subject.
"Speaking of girls, how are you and Night Glider doing?"
He sat back and smiled. "We’re doing just great. We have a little date tomorrow, so… you’ll be on your own tomorrow. Any other questions?” he asked.
"Umm…” I began, trying to remember if there was anything else I wanted to ask him. It was only then that I remembered his big chance at his job that he was talking about earlier today.
“How was your thing at work? Did you get a promotion or something?" I asked.
"Nah, just a slight raise. Up by ten bucks." He replied.
"Hey, it's a raise. Better than nothing." I said in response. Daze simply shrugged.
"I guess. Well, anyways, as I said, you'll be alone tomorrow, you know, cause of my night out. So, feel free to do whatever the hell you want." He grinned at me. "Like hanging out with your little crush."
"Yeah, we'll see. Later Daze." I said as I got off the couch and headed into my room. Once I was finally there, I breathed a sigh of relief. I mean, I love my brother and all that, but there’s only so much teasing that I can take. I quickly opened my backpack, and began working on my assignments, such as putting the finishing touches on that ringtone. God, was that fun. Once that was finished, I decided to make some more music on SoundCloud, which took up the rest of my day. Once night time came, I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and fell asleep in bed.
The next day began, and before I knew it, I was back in school. It started off fine. I did my one reading story, which was going quite well, and time flew by quickly. I was kinda surprised at how quickly the day moved by, but I sure as heck wasn’t about to start complaining about it. Things proceeded much like they had yesterday, until it was time for Gym class. For whatever reason, I wasn’t too worried about Gym this time, probably because I was told by Dash that I would be introduced to her friend that wasn't there yesterday: Fluttershy. She has a nice name, I'll give her that. I entered the locker room and immediately saw my friend Griffon Guitar, who was already suited up and appeared to be looking at something on his phone. He looked up when I came in, and smiled.
"Ey, look who's here." He said to me. I smiled and gave him a high-five.
"Yo, what's going on?"
"Eh, nothing." he said, scratching his shoulder. "Just talkin’ with my girl. She's finally back from her absence. So, I guess you'll meet her!" I smiled. He had a girlfriend? Lucky…
"What's her name?" I asked.
He cleared his throat before saying, "Gilda. Gilda Grizelda."
'Neat name.' I thought to myself.
"So, I guess she's in our gym class?" I asked, to which he simply nodded.
"Alright," I said, putting on deodorant and then my gym shirt. "I'll meet ya in a snap." He exited, and I put on my shorts and gym shoes, before heading out into the giant gymnasium.
I quickly noticed Dash in her uniform, once again. 'Damn, she looks good...' I then turned my head towards Griffon and saw him wrapping his arm around a girl I had never seen before.
‘Probably Gilda.’ I thought to myself as I looked her over. She was a little buff, with short, spiky white hair with purple on the edge of the hair. Some of the hair covered her forehead, as it lurched forward. She had a pretty large bust, had some punk earrings, and had sharp, yellow eyes. Something about the way she looked made me think that she was a rebel. And I was probably right. After I finished looking the pair over, I headed over towards my spot.
"Hey, Blitz!" Griffon shouted once I’d gotten close. Once he said that, I noticed Dash looking back with a smile, before quickly turning away with an angry look on her face. The hell? Anyways, once I’d gotten close to the duo, Griffon quickly introduced me.
"Gilda, this is Blitz. Blitz, this is Gilda." he said. Before I could say anything, Gilda began smirking.
"Well, well, you a newbie?" she asked with a tough, punkish voice.
"Uh... yes." I replied. She chuckled a bit.
"Well, glad to see some young blood on school territory. Wanna hang with us sometime?" she asked.
"Maybe later." I said. I would like to hang out and play the guitar with Griffon one day, but I wanted to get to know my way around first. I looked over at Rainbow Dash, who was alternating between glaring at Gilda and looking at me with a… weird expression. It’s a little hard to explain, but the way she was looking at me seemed to be saying, ‘What the hell are you doing??’ I glanced back towards Gilda, and saw that she was glaring right back at Dash. ‘Well... seems like we have a bit of a rivalry on our hands...’
"Hey Gilda?" I asked, which got Gilda to stop glaring at Dash for a few seconds.
“Yeah?”
“Why are you glaring at Rainbow like that? Do you two…”
"Hate each other?" she finished for me. "Oh, not at all. Fact, we love each other. She joins me and Griffon in a threesome every now and again." I raised a brow, and looked at Griffon for a second, who was fiercely blushing.
“Really?”
"HELL NO! We aren't even close to friends anymore!" she loudly shouted, startling me a bit. Griffon looked at Gilda, then I spoke.
"Why? What happened?" I asked.
Griffon answered for her. "See, Gilda and Dash... they got in a big fight one day... with some girl named Dinkie-"
"Pinkie!" Gilda said strictly.
"Pinkie," Griffon continued. "The two shouted about it for a while, and they haven’t talked to each other since."
Gilda had her arms crossed, and huffed. We stood there in silence for a moment, before I began to speak,
"Well..." I said.
"What if you said you were Dash's friend?" she said, saying what I was just gonna say. I nodded. She stared at me for a minute, looking me over as if she was studying me. She then looked over at Griffon, who smiled and nodded. She then looked back at me, and spoke.
"Eh… I guess its fine. Just don't get on my bad side, ‘else I'll be hell on Earth." She replied. I nodded, then moved back towards Dash, reaching my spot right as Iron Will whistled for us to run. Dash quickly sprinted away, as if she wanted to put as much distance between herself and Gilda as possible. I sprinted after her, and eventually managed to catch up to her. "Hey, Dash!" I shouted, catching her attention. She slowed down to around a jogging pace, until we were side-by-side. Once I reached her side, I turned my head towards her to see that she was glaring at me.
“Um… what’s with the glare?” I asked her, even though I already knew why.
"Saw you talking to Gilda." she said in a very bitter tone.
"Hey, I didn't know you two had bad blood!" I exclaimed. Rainbow stopped glaring at me, but didn’t say anything. I waited a moment before speaking.
"…We're still friends, right?" I asked her. She sighed.
"Yeah, Blitz, we’re still friends." she said, a hint of anger in her voice. "It's just that I don't ever wanna talk about… no, I don’t even want to think about Gilda ever again!"
"Sheesh… That bad, huh?" I asked.
"Mmhmm." I heard a third voice say. I looked back towards the sound of the voice, and discovered that it came from a girl that was running alongside Dash. A girl with long, pink hair that had a white flower in it. She was yellow, skinny, and really small. I felt like a giant just looking at her. She had to be like 5'2.
"Is that Fluttershy?" I asked Dash. "Or whatever her name was?"
Dash nodded, then Fluttershy spoke. "Yes..." she quietly said in a voice that I could only barely make out over the sound of footsteps echoing throughout the gym, before quickly looking away from me.
"Heh?" I asked. "I can't really hear you well."
"F-F-Fluttershy. My name is Fluttershy." she said in a louder and clearer voice.
"She's kinda shy." Dash said. "Hence the name Fluttershy. But she loves nature, and is very sweet and kind." I quickly took a look at her, causing her to hide her face behind her pink hair. Dash quickly noticed, and spoke up.
"Hey, it's alright, Flutters, he's a friend." She said. Once she heard Rainbow’s words, Fluttershy stopped hiding her face and looked up at me.
"Oh..." she said, "O-okay. As long as he's a friend." I smiled. She looked kinda cute, but I didn’t look for very long, as my eyes quickly focused on Dash. She was athletic and everything. Fit, sexy, and pretty cool. There was still a lot about her that I wanted to know, but I decided that it would probably be better to wait until lunch.
As soon as our running ended, we got introduced to the day's activity. The second I saw Coach Iron Will walk in, I knew what it was gonna be.
He was carrying a large red ball. I groaned. I mean, what other sport could be played with a big red ball? Maybe kickball, but hey, who said the world is a fair and nice place, right?
"Alright Class, listen up! Today we’ll be playing Dodgeball!" Will shouted out loud. Oh goodie…
He went over the rules, although I honestly don’t get why he bothered. I mean, it’s not like Dodgeball is that complicated. After he was done blabbering on about how the game works, Iron Will picked two students to be leaders of the teams. Rainbow Dash was picked as the leader for the first team, while the other team’s leader was that asshole Rush Down. This would be interesting. I just hoped I would get the opportunity to knock that guy and his ego out. Hopefully, he wasn’t very good at Dodgeball.
Dash and Rush chose who was on their team. I was on Dash’s team, along with Fluttershy and a bunch of other kids I didn’t recognize. Rush's team had Gilda and Griffon. I was kinda bummed about that, since I didn't really wanna hit Griffon, but hey, that’s just the way the game works, I guess. Besides, it was awesome I had a chance to (possibly) mess up Rush Down's face. You know, if I stood a chance.
We lined up, and Iron Will blew the whistle. We all rushed towards the balls, which were kept in the middle of the gymnasium. Well, almost all of us did. Fluttershy didn't budge and stayed back, shaking furiously as if she was freezing. She looked as scared as a lost puppy. Kinda sad, really. Regardless, I didn’t let that distract me, as I quickly rushed for a ball, and threw it at a guy who was going for my ball, knocking him out. Soon after, I rapidly backed up, trying to get some space between me and the other throwers.
While we played, I occasionally shot a glance towards Dash, and every time I did, I saw the same thing: she was dominating the game, dodging balls like nobody’s business, and knocking out other players left and right. Unfortunately, the same was true with Rush Down. I swear I tried hitting that guy at least ten times, but every single time I tried, he dodged it effortlessly and usually threw whatever he was holding right back at me so quickly that I barely had enough time to react. I managed to dodge each of his shots, but a lot of my teammates weren’t so lucky, as Rush knocked player after player onto their backs. This went on for what felt like forever, until it was finally down to three players on each team. On our team, we had myself, Dash, and to my surprise, Fluttershy, while the other team was down to just Rush, Gilda, and Griffon. What a coincidence.
Anyways, it was a six-man showdown. Three vs three. And only one side could win. I just hoped it would be us, so I wouldn't have to taste what they had in store. We all had balls in hands, and shot eyes at each other, daring the other team to make a move. We all knew that if we took one step, a war on two fronts would break out. After we’d stared each other down for what felt like an eternity, I decided to take that first step. I stepped forward, and faked a throw. Griffon fell for my fake out, and hurled his ball at me. I quickly blocked the shot with my ball, which sent his ball hurtling into the air. I caught it with my other hand, eliminating him.
Gilda, however, didn't like this. Catching a ball from him was like I broke his nose to her. She threw her ball at blazing speed straight at me, and like last time, I blocked her shot with my ball. This time, however, the ball ended up bouncing right back at her. It landed next to her, and she grabbed it with her hands. Instead of going for me, she looked towards Fluttershy. Oh no...
She launched the ball at Fluttershy with breakneck speed, causing Fluttershy to drop her ball in panic. Something that she could've used to defend herself. Within a second, she was hit. I imagined that it would knock her onto her back, but to my surprise, it didn’t. She was hit in the stomach, but managed to remain standing. She walked towards the other guys who were eliminated, making it a two-on-two fight.
Dash became furious and launched the ball straight at Gilda, who didn't notice Dash’s shot until it had smacked her in the face, knocking her out. Gilda glared at Dash as she moved towards Griffon. Now all that was left against us was-
"You got them, Rush!"
Him...
"Two birds, one stone, Rush!" some girl shouted.
"Yeah, make them suffer!" came a boy’s voice.
"For the team!!!" Shouted a couple of other people.
"YEAH!!!" came the shouts from their entire team.
“Geez, how many fans does this guy have?” I said out loud. Dash heard my statement and quickly answered.
“A lot.” She replied.
We stood there, facing Rush Down, who was holding a ball in each hand. I held my ball, and Dash quickly grabbed another one. We were all armed to the core. I threw my ball from my sweaty hand, and was afraid I made a dumb move. He looked at me with a cocky smirk, quickly threw one of his balls straight down, wrapped his hands around the other ball, and slammed my ball back at me with his ball, sending it speeding right back at me. I jumped to the side, managing to avoid the ball I’d just thrown. I looked back towards him, and saw him grab his other ball out of midair. I quickly glanced back to get the ball, but felt like that made me vulnerable cause I wasn't facing him, so I stepped back until the ball was in front of me.
Once I’d gotten my ball, I saw Rush mouthing at me. 'Gay.' I rolled my eyes. I had heard that line enough times at my old school, and it really didn’t bother me anymore. He noticed that his line didn’t bother me, so he tried again.
'Little guy like you wants to beat me with his child-play hair? Idiot.' He mouthed to me. That one began to annoy me a bit. This guy was really beginning to get on my nerve-
'Mr. No Parents.'
...
‘That's it... THAT'S BLOODY IT!!!’
I threw my ball as hard as I could, sending it flying at Rush like a jet. If I threw that ball any harder, I swear it would've broken the sound barrier and created a sonic boom. I’d had enough of this guy, and I wanted him done, NOW! However, after I threw that ball, I began thinking about what he’d said.
‘Wait a second… how did he know that I have no parents? Did he…’
“BLITZ! LOOK OUT!!” Dash yelled, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up just in time to see a ball coming towards my face at full speed. The ball slammed me right in the center of my face. Hard. It felt like I’d just gotten my nose shattered by a bone-shattering soccer ball.
But you know what? I didn't care about my nose, which had just started to bleed, or the pain going through my entire body. The tears were held back like a great wall, I still had the strength to stand. I didn't fall down. I no-sold that bullet.
I walked back to the gang, who were shocked in surprise. Especially Fluttershy. I guess I must've looked like some sort of immortal out there, even though I really ain't. I'm athletic, sure, but I don't take fists to the face like a boxer. Honestly, I couldn't believe I was still standing myself. Iron Will called me over, before sending me to the nurse's office to get myself checked up really quick. Before I could leave the gym, though, I heard the bell ring, ending the period, and ending the dodgeball match in a tie. Not that I really cared about that at that point.
I rushed to the nurse's office, got checked, and soon found myself holding an ice pack and tissue box to stop my bloody nose. My face stung and hurt from that dodgeball, but hey who cares, right? I'm sure this will keep happening to me for a while...
I stood in the nurse's office for several minutes with that ice pack and tissue box in hand, waiting for my nose to stop bleeding. By the time it had finally stopped, lunch was about over. At that point, I’d decided that I’d had enough of standing there, and prepared to exit the office. The nurse tried to stop me from leaving, but I told her would be fine. That I could still live through the school day even with all of the pain vibrating through my whole face.
"Are you sure?" the nurse kindly asked me.
"Yeah." I said with a nod. "I'll b-be fine. I mean, it’s not like anything can get worse, right?"
The nurse raised an eyebrow, but reluctantly allowed me to exit. I walked out of the nurse's office, and headed for Music Tech class. All along the way, I got a lot of looks from the other students, and even most of the teachers couldn’t help but stare. As if they were looking at the face of a UFC fighter who just lost a fight. I didn't care, and I doubt I ever would. I just kept moving to Music Tech class. Hopefully, seeing Dash again would make me feel at least a little bit better.
I walked through the doorway and quickly saw Dash sitting in a corner, talking with Pinkie. I sighed, then walked over to the duo, sitting down next to them. Pinkie was the first to notice me, and spun her head towards me with a grin on her face.
“Hi Blitzy! I didn’t see you at…” she began, before gasping in shock.
“Oh my God, what happened to you, Blitzy?” she asked in surprise. I just rolled my eyes. I’d already heard this question several times today, and I was really getting sick of hearing it by now. Before I could answer her, however, Dash spoke up.
“Happened during Gym. Rush hit him in the face with a dodgeball. Blitz here took it like a champ!” Rainbow explained.
“Are you okay, Blitzy? I mean, it looks like it hurt.” Pinkie asked.
"I'm fine, Pinkie." I said back to the pink haired girl, annoyed. That was, what, the tenth time today that I got that comment?
"Dang, dude," Rainbow said, examining my face. "Looks like he got you good."
I shook my head. "Nah. I mean, he didn't knock me out." I said with a chuckle. "I feel great."
She smiled a little, then continued. "You know, you're pretty damn strong if you can hold yourself up like that. Although, I have to say, I didn’t expect you to go all nuts like that during the game."
"Well… Rush kinda said a few things that set my trigger off..."
Dash tilted her head. "He did? What did he say? I mean, I didn't hear him say anything. All I remember is you suddenly lashing out."
I shook my head. "He mouthed a few words to me while I was staring at him. They were just a few ordinary insults I’d heard many times before. Kinda made me chuckle, honestly… at least until he got to a certain one..." I closed my eyes, and envisioned the dreadful moment that will scar me for life. Even if I were drunk, I would never forget that scene. It would always be as clear as hell. "He mouthed, 'Dead parents'."
Dash’s mouth dropped open in shock. "What?? H-he really…?"
"Did that? Yeah." I finished, before I walked towards my seat and got started on whatever the hell we were doing. "Yep… he really did..." I said to myself.
We went through class like a soft breeze. My little ringtone ended up tying with some other kid, and class went on with some other project. Honestly, though, I didn’t pay any attention. I didn't feel like talking, thinking, or much of anything else. All I could think about was how much I wanted to knock Rush's candy ass down to the ground... but I couldn’t. It would only get me in trouble. He’d just be a bitch and just make me look like the enemy, even though... Ah, screw it. I just wanted to get home.
Luckily, the rest of the day passed by incredibly quickly. Before I knew it, the final bell was ringing, and I was heading out the front doors. By that point, my ice pack had melted, and I threw it in the trash. Almost immediately after, I saw Dash, who was waving for me in the crowd of students. I walked over to her.
"So… ya wanna walk home again?" she asked me.
"Sure thing." I said.
She giggled softly. "Uh, is he alright with that?" she asked with a finger pointed towards my pocket. It took me a moment to figure out who she was talking about, but I eventually realized that she was talking about my brother.
"Eh, he's out of the house. He won't mind." I answered. "No random calls with shouting today!"
"Sweet!" she said happily. "Let's head on over to my place, then!"
We walked together in absolute silence for the next five or so minutes. I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to say to her, and she didn’t seem to have anything she wanted to say to me. It felt like forever before Rainbow finally broke the silence.
"So... are you a big sports guy?"
I shrugged. I didn't really know what I thought about sports. I really had no idea whether I wanted to actually play them or not. I mean, some of them were fun, like football, but there were quite a number of others that just weren’t fun at all, like badminton. Although, I don't really watch a whole lot like my father and brother. "Not really." I answered.
"Huh…" she said back to me. Another minute of silence passed.
"So... my soccer games are beginning soon. Not that I’m bragging, but we’re pretty good. Matter of fact, we’re so good that we ended up winning the regional championship last year!”
“Really?” I asked.
“Sure did! Matter of fact, it was yours truly who ended up scoring the winning goal in that game!”
“Wow… that’s awesome, Dash! I would’ve loved to see that!” I exclaimed. I knew Dash was a good athlete, but I had no idea she was that good!
“Heh… thanks.” She said, her cheeks turning a bit red while she said so. We walked in silence for another moment, before she finally continued to speak.
“So… I don’t suppose you’d wanna come to the first game, would you? We’ll be playing at home against our rivals, the Detrot Tanks!" I thought about it. I’d never been to a sports game in real life before... although Daze had told me that they're a lot of fun at high schools, and with Dash playing, I was positive I’d enjoy myself.
"You know what? Yeah, I'm in." I said to Dash. This caused her to grin to spread from ear to ear.
"Sweet! This is gonna be awesome!" she squealed, then blushed in embarrassment. "It's happening this Saturday. It's gonna be a big game, since they’re, y’know, our biggest rivals and all."
"Hey, I'll be in the stands rooting for ya!" I said with a smile.
“Awesome!” she said, before stopping where she stood. I quickly figured out why: we had just arrived at her house.
“So… anything else you wanna tell me?” I asked her. She remained silent for a moment, apparently thinking of anything to say. After about ten seconds or so, she finally spoke,
"Not really. mean, I told you about the game, and you’re coming. The only other thing that’s happening today is… Oh!" she said, snapping her fingers. "I almost forgot! Me and the band are gonna be practicing later. Ya wanna come?" Band? Oh hell yes.
"Yeah!" I screamed. "That's awesome! I’d love to hear how you guys play! Who’s in it?”
“The band consists of myself, Pinkie, AppleJack, Sunset, Rarity, and Fluttershy. Basically, the whole gang from lunch.”
"Sounds awesome! Count me in."
Dash giggled, hiding a smile behind her hand as she covered her mouth. "Sounds great. Just give me a minute to get my guitar, and then we can head there right away."
"Sounds good to me." I smiled wide. She nodded, and then rushed inside her house to get her guitar.
‘Maybe, just maybe... I can impress her with my guitar skills. I am pretty good at guitar, and can play some good metal and rock. Maybe this’ll get her to like me even more!’ I thought to myself. Soon after I thought that, Dash rushed back out of her house, holding a guitar case in her right hand.
"Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go!" she exclaimed.
We headed towards a stage near the high school. Once we arrived, we saw a couple of guitars already lying there on the stage.
“Huh. Looks like Sunset and AppleJack already made it. I guess they just had to use the bathroom or something.” Dash said to herself as she removed a blue guitar from her case. Soon after, she pulled out a guitar pick from her pocket, and started to play.
She strummed a few chords quickly and intensely, and within moments she’d started playing 'Ace of Spades'. I sat back and listened. There was no doubt about it; she was much better than I was. MUCH better. I mean, I’m no slouch on the guitar or anything. I can play quite a few difficult songs, but man, I was nowhere near as good as her. It’s hard to explain, but the way she played had a certain energy to it that made every note come to life. This girl really was something special. I mean, she looks awesome, she acts awesome, she’s awesome at sports, and she’s awesome at guitar as well? How much more awesome could this girl get?
As she finished, I clapped. "Great going!" I complimented. "That was simply-"
"Awesome?" she answered for me. "Yeah. Been playing the guitar for the last three years. You play guitar?"
I shrugged again. "Yeah, but you’re a lot better than I am." I said as I rubbed my arm. She remained silent for a moment, then walked up to me.
"Nah, I don't think so. And believe me, I don't say that often." She handed me the blue guitar, and held out her guitar pick in her hand, which I quickly grabbed from her grip. "The others aren’t here yet, so we have some time. Why don’t you show me what you can do?" She said as she took a seat on a nearby metal box.
"O-okay." I said, pressured. I played music on Sound Cloud and played it live at one point at a talent show. I’ve done it for quite a few people, and I loved it every single time. But this time… was different. This was for Rainbow Dash, a girl I really liked, who played that guitar like a badass. Kinda don't want to bore her or fail in front of her…
Eventually, I pushed past my nerves, and decided to just play. I mean, what’s the worst that could happen, right?
So, I played a small rock tune on the guitar, doing the first solo from 'Let There Be Rock' by AC/DC, and ended it there. Once I finished the solo, Dash just raised her eyebrow. "That's it?" She asked. I felt a couple drops of sweat roll down my face. That was definitely not the reaction I was hoping for.
"Come on, Blitz, I know your SoundCloud, and I heard it. You can play better than that. I know you can." She then grew a wide smirk on her face from ear to ear. "You’re not just holding back because I'm a girl, are you?" She bounced her eyebrows, smirking even wider.
My cheeks grew red, and I was out of it for a good couple of seconds. Once I finally snapped back into it, I immediately turned towards her. “W-what? No! That was just a warm up, Dash.” I said to her.
“Ok then, Blitz. Warm-up’s over. Time to show me what you’re really made of.” She responded, that smirk from earlier still on her face. I nodded, and began playing again. This time, I played the beginning of 'Everlong' by Foo Fighters, and kept playing until the end without noticing it! Four minutes felt like one as I continued to play, getting myself lost in the music. It was only when I finally finished that I heard Dash clapping, and saw her smiling. "That was... AWESOME!" she exclaimed.
I smiled brightly. "Really?!" I questioned. I was beyond shocked: I’d actually managed to impress her! I never thought I'd be that impressive...
"Totally! I mean, I knew you were good, but I didn't know you were that good!"
"Well, I’ve played it a lot. I’ve always loved making music with it." I gave Dash her guitar back, before sitting down on the stage. "It was one of those things that always helped me feel cool and calm. Daze played it back in his years, so I did the same. I guess you could call it a family tradition at this point."
"That's cool." She put her guitar back in its case, and then sat down next to me. After a few seconds passed, she turned her head and looked at me with a worried expression on her face. "Say, you're alright, aren't you?"
"What do you mean?" I questioned.
"About... uh... Rush?"
I frowned. "Hate that guy's guts." I said. "Thinking that it’s okay to make fun of someone’s darkest memories. ‘Parents are dead.' Ha..." I clenched my fists. "I swear, he's gonna get what's coming to him-"
"Hey, don't fight him!" Dash yelled. I looked back at her. "Listen, Blitz… I understand how much you wanna kill this kid. Believe me, I want to knock the smug out of him too, but you gotta hold back! Otherwise, you're gonna be the bad guy, not him! All it would do is make things worse for you! As much as it sucks, violence isn't the answer. At least..." she paused, and looked away from me, “…not in this case.” She finished. I took a look at her. She was staring ahead at nothing in particular, with a rather somber look on her face. It was easy to tell that the situation really made her feel down. I couldn't blame her.
"Fine." I said in defeat, "I won't fight him... Not unless he shoots first..."
"Honestly, I wouldn’t put it past him." Dash admitted. “I mean, this is Rush Down we’re talking about here. I know that punk well."
"Well, if he does strike, I'll be more than happy to-"
"Blitz." she said. "Just… don’t try to start a fight. I don't want you getting hurt and-"
"What? You think I'd lose?" I asked her. She didn’t respond, and instead just stared at me for a moment. She didn’t need to say anything though; her silence told me everything I needed to know. We stared at each other for what felt like forever, until the awkward silence was broken by the sound of a guitar solo from out of nowhere, causing both of us to jump a bit in surprise. After a moment, Dash recovered and fished her cell phone out of her pocket.
“Sorry about that, Blitz. Guess I set my ringtone a little too loud.” She said sheepishly, before she answered the phone.
“Hello? …Oh, hey Sunset! I was wondering where you were! …Huh? …No, I’m at the stage. Where are you? …Okay. …With what? …Again? Okay, how many this time? …That’s it? …No problem! I’ll be there before you can say ‘Rainboom’! …Don’t mention it. Bye.” Once she finished her conversation, she turned towards me and spoke.
“Sunset just called. She said that she and the others are helping Pinkie carry her drumset over here. She’s not too far away from here, so I’m gonna go help her get her last drum over here, K?”
“You need my help with anything?” I asked. She shook her head.
“No, I’ll be fine. There’s only one drum that’s giving them trouble. Just stay here and make sure no one does anything to our guitars, will ya Blitz?” she asked.
“Um… okay, Dash.” I replied.
“Thanks, Blitz. I’ll be back soon.” She said, before sprinting off the stage. After she was out of my line of sight, I turned back towards the guitars. As I watched them, I thought about what Rainbow said to me about Rush. Rainbow was right about one thing: it wouldn’t be smart to try starting a fight with him. Although I would’ve loved to give that kid a taste of his own medicine, I knew it wouldn’t do anything but make me look worse. Still, if he did decide to shoot first, I’d be more than happy to shoot back…
The sound of several girls laughing snapped me out of my thoughts. I turned towards the sound, and saw Dash and her friends making their way up the stage, with Pinkie’s drumset in tow. Once they’d arrived on stage, the group set up the drums, and within a minute, the set was complete. Pinkie breathed a sigh of relief.
“Phew, thanks guys. Those drums really can be a handful sometimes.” Pinkie said.
“Don’t mention it, Pinkie. After all, that’s what friends are for!” AppleJack said, before heading over to her guitar. The others each followed suit, and grabbed their instruments. Once they all had their instruments, Rarity spoke.
"So, I suppose we’re ready to play?" Rarity asked, smiling with her electronic keytar.
"Totally!" Dash said, before turning towards me and saying, "Ya wanna hear us, Blitz?"
I got off the floor and smiled. "Sure. I’m willing to bet that you guys are amazing. Especially if you really beat villains with music!" I sat on a wooden box on the stage.
"Glad to hear it!” Dash exclaimed, before turning towards Fluttershy.
“So, Flutters, got any new songs?" Dash asked Fluttershy. I looked at Fluttershy, and noticed that she was holding a small notebook with the word 'LYRICS' written on the cover in black marker. She flipped through the pages, containing lyrics of songs they have done.
She nodded in happiness. "Oh yeah! I wrote a new song in my notebook earlier today, and I think it might be great!"
"What might it be about, darling?" Rarity asked.
"It's a, uh..." Fluttershy trailed off.
"A what, darling?" Rarity asked, curious why Fluttershy trailed off.
"A romance song."
"Romance?!" Rarity questioned. "Oh, I just love romance!" Her eyes became starry and she squished her cheeks. "Fluttershy, whatever got you into thinking about romance?"
"Yeah," Sunset added in. "I never really thought of you as the romance type, Fluttershy."
"Well..." Fluttershy said with a light, pink blush. She trailed off.
"Come on, Flutters! Spit it out!" Dash said with a grin on her face.
"Well, I... maybe, I... perhaps... I possibly..." Dash raised her eyebrow, and Fluttershy blushed when she finally said it.
"Haveacrushonareallysupercuteguy." She closed her eyes and held her arms close to face, but slowly uncovered them within a couple of seconds.
"A crush?" Rarity questioned. “Who might this lucky guy be?" she asked, eyes full of stars and hearts. Fluttershy grabbed her arm and looked nervously to the side.
"I… I don't know his name...” She admitted sheepishly.
“You don’t know his name??” Rarity exclaimed in shock. Fluttershy looked away and nodded again. “…Well, do you at least know what he looks like?” Rarity asked after a moment of relative silence. Fluttershy turned back towards Rarity, and smiled a bit.
“Yes, I do. He has black hair, white eyes, and he always wears a suit."
"I think I know who you’re talking about. Is he about as tall as Blitz over there?” Sunset asked. Fluttershy turned towards me, and looked me over for a minute, before turning back to Sunset and nodding. This caused Sunset to grin a bit.
"In that case, yeah, I know who you’re talking about. His name is Cool Prez. Sunset explained.
“Cool Prez, huh?” Fluttershy said quietly to herself. Sunset nodded.
“Yep, that’s his name. He's pretty cool. Matter of fact, he’s one of my friends. Maybe I can hook you two-"
"NO! NONONONONO!" Fluttershy screamed, quickly jumping behind some nearby crates.
"I-I can't talk with him! He's way, way, way out of my league! If I talked to him…oh dear god…” She quickly rushed out from her cover, only to trip over a large box, causing her to land face first onto the stage. Dash quickly ran over to her and helped her up.
"Come on, Fluttershy." Dash said to her once she was up. "Nobody's out of anyone's league. How could he be out of your league when there’s no league in the first place?" she asked with a soft smile.
"Still, I-I-I can't. I'd just make a fool out of myself!" Fluttershy covered her face with her hands. "I mean, I'm scared of a light! A LIGHT!"
"Yeah, you are kinda scared of that..." Pinkie admitted, causing the others to shoot a glare at her. "Well, she is!" Dash rolled her eyes, then focused her attention back towards Fluttershy.
"Listen, Flutters," Dash said, resting her hand on Fluttershy's shoulder. "Whatever happens, it happens. Even if things don’t go your way, at least you gave it a shot. I know he'll like you. Plus, he's a little shy, too."
"R-Really?" Fluttershy questioned.
"Yeah, he is." Dash answered. "Why would I lie to you?" Fluttershy stood there in silence for a moment, thinking everything over, before eventually nodding her head.
After Fluttershy finished showing them all the song, and they’d warmed up a bit, they start playing the song, while I listened and watched. For the first thirty seconds or so, everything seemed fine; the song was catchy, everyone seemed to be playing pretty well, and the lyrics were actually kinda clever. And then… things got weird. Really weird.
Around the time they reached the chorus, I noticed something odd happening to Rainbow Dash. It looked like her hair was growing longer at a really fast rate. As if that wasn’t odd enough, within seconds, she had grown ears on the top of her head, like some kind of horse or something!
When I saw that, my mouth dropped open. What in the blue, everlasting Christ was happening to her? I turned my head towards the others, only to find that the other girls were beginning to change right in front of my eyes as well! Each of them started growing long hair and pony ears like Dash had, along with a tail. Fluttershy and Dash both went one step further and ended up growing wings. Wings, for God’s sake!
If my mouth dropped any wider, I swear it would be somewhere on the floor. I could barely even hear their song anymore. All I could think about was why they were all suddenly human pony hybrids all of a sudden! I only snapped out of my stupor when I heard Dash yelling out, "Oh God, we forgot!"
Once I heard her yelling, I snapped out of my trance and turned to look at them. The group quickly stopped playing the song, and the very second they all stopped, the pony ears, the long hair, the wings, and even the tail all just disappeared, as if by magic. All six of them looked at me nervously, unsure of what I was gonna do next. All I could manage to do was stare at them in shock, unable to say anything at all. After a while, Sunset spoke up.
"Uh... have we ever told you about our… um… singing magic?" she asked with a nervous chuckle.
"Uh... not that I remember..." I recalled.
"Well, this is how it works!" Pinkie said as she sprung out of her seat at the drums. "So, we sing or play instruments and for some super-duper crazy, scientific, strange, fun, and wacky reason, we get 'ponied-up'!"
"Ponied-up?" I asked. "Is that the magic with the pony ears, the tail, the long hair, and the wings?"
Pinkie nodded. "Yup! Still dazed and confused?"
"No." I answer. "It's just... weird."
"Well… this doesn't mess up our relationship as friends, does it?” Dash asked, tuning her guitar as she spoke. Even though she tried to hide it, I could hear a hint of nervousness in her voice.
"Of course it doesn’t! Honestly, it’s kinda awesome!” I exclaimed. Dash released a sigh of relief and smiled widely, before going back to tuning her guitar. I continued to speak, “But, before we just draft over this, is there ANY other magic or fairy stuff we need to go over?" I asked.
Sunset shook her head. "No... None that I know of."
"Know of?" I asked.
"Well, sometimes some magic spurts out here and there, but it's all good for now. If there is any magic that comes up, we'll notify ya."
Dash giggled a bit. "Blitz, I gotta say, your face back there was priceless!" she said between giggles. I slightly blushed.
"Hey, it's nothing to get worked up about. It was just funny, that's all. Besides, you’re not the only one who reacts like that. Everyone who first sees it reacts like crazy to our magic." Dash explained.
"Well," I said in a normal state. "Let's hear that song, eh?"
The group went back to their instruments, and began playing the song proper, this time all the way through. After I got over the shock of seeing them transform, I had to admit that the song they were playing was a pretty cool song. I was particularly surprised at how amazing Fluttershy was at writing lyrics. While not all of them hit bullseye, a majority of them did, and they were generally fairly clever. Honestly, I’d say that she was at my level, if not better. I noticed that Rainbow Dash was playing her guitar in a Foo Fighters kinda way. Given how the song sounded similar to Everlong, that made a lot of sense. It was a rock-love song, which was totally needed in this era. Overall, they were awesome!
"And I'll never leave you," sung Sunset on the mic. "Again... Never in a million years."
The song ended, and the magical ears, tails, hair and wings vanished once again. "So, what'd you think, guys?" Fluttershy asked nervously, shaking.
"It was awesome!" they all answered at the same time with a smile.
"That's an awesome song you cooked up, Flutters!" Dash commented. "Again, you should totally-"
"Again, Dash," Fluttershy interrupted. "One day, it might happen. We don't know if he likes me back or anything like that. But, I'll promise-"
"Pinkie promise?" Pinkie asked face-to-face to Fluttershy.
"Pinkie promise," Fluttershy continued, doing the pinkie promise. "That I will try to talk to him and not be shy. I'll give it a shot."
Everyone cheered, including me. She seemed like a sweet and nice girl, and I only hoped the best for her. I wondered, though... me and-
"Dash?" a high pitched voice asked from out of nowhere. I jumped up and looked to my side to see Pinkie next to me, smiling. I quickly covered her mouth with my hand and took a look towards the others. They were all standing a little distance away, just talking to each other. They didn't notice us. I breathed a sigh of relief, then turned to Pinkie.
"What about Dash?" I asked her. Pinkie rolled her eyes, a playful grin now on her face.
"Well, you had that look.” She said gleefully.
“What look?”
“Y’know, that look you get whenever you see Dashie? But you weren’t looking at Dashie when you got that look this time! So, I got a feeling you were thinking about her, about how you two might become the most awesome cou-" I quickly covered her mouth again.
"Pinkie! Don’t say that out loud!" I said through my tightly clenched teeth. Pinkie gasped, and her smile grew even wider.
"So, you DO like her!" she exclaimed. I slapped myself mentally for giving it away.
"N... Yes." I admitted. "I do. So what?" I walked a little farther away from the group, and Pinkie followed.
"So~" she said playfully. "I just wanna know! Why do you love Dashie so much?" I shot a glare at her.
"Why do you care?" I questioned. "Is it you loving Dash or me?" She was about to answer, but I did it myself. "Me. I love Dash, and it's none of your buisness why. Besides, if I did tell you, you'd probably just gossip."
"Gossip?" Pinkie asked in a hurt voice. "What kind of horrible person do you think I am? Only mean girls gossip, and I’m not a mean girl! I’d take it to the grave! I pinkie promise!" She did the 'pinkie promise', then smiled after a cupcake was stuck on her face.
I sighed. "Alright... but I’m warning you. IF you do tell her or anyone else, then you’ll have another thing coming." I warned. She nodded her head. I sighed deeply once more.
"Well… it all started back when I had just entered school here. The first thing that drew me to her were her looks. Her hair, her body, her voice… it just all fit together. I kinda ended up with a quick crush right then and there. It quickly grew as I got to know her. She’s cool, friendly, athletic, and a great musician! She’s like the perfect girl!"
"Aw." Pinkie said with a smile. "That’s so cute!"
"I guess. She’s just a really awesome gal. Honestly though, I don’t know if I’d have a chance with her, y’know?” I asked. She nodded understandingly, but didn’t say anything, prompting me to continue.
“So… do you think I’d have a chance with her?”
"Oh totally, Blitzy! I’ve seen the way she looks at you. It’s easy to see that she likes you. I bet you and her would make an awesome couple!" Pinkie said enthusiastically. I grinned a little.
"BUT…” she said in a loud and sudden voice that made me jump a little, “I’ll warn you now: it won’t be easy. After her little break-up with that big meanie Rush, she’s become a lot more... how should I say it?"
"Careful and precise?" I offered.
"Sure, let’s just go with those." she said. "If you wanna get her, you gotta be a couple of things. One: be tough. Dashie is a really tough girl, and if middle school taught me anything about her, it’s that there is no faster way to make her lose interest than by being a crybaby or a weakling. She really likes it when guys are tough. Probably why she hung out with Rush for so long way back when. Sure, he was a big meanie, but he’s an all-star football player who’s about as tough as they come.”
I scratched my chin. "I'm not really athletic at all, but I am pretty strong."
"Being pretty strong will make you feel strong!" Pinkie said cheerfully. "The other thing is this: be cute. She's a tough girl, no doubt about it, but she has a girly side, too. Everyone does. All you gotta do is make her laugh or blush. A little laughter really goes a long way. Plus she's even cuter when she doesn't admit she isn't girl. You get those two things down, and I’d be willing to bet she’d go for you eventually.”
"I can imagine." I said. "But, you think I have her? Like really?"
"Hey, why would she turn you down?" She put her hand on my shoulder. "Listen, I know we’ve only known each other for a couple days. It’s not like we were seven and were friends ever since like Dashie and I were, but trust me, you’ve got this, Blitzy. I can just feel it. Just like Fluttershy."
I smiled softly. "Hey, thanks, Pinkie."
"No problemo!" she said, giving me a thumbs up.
"Hey, whatcha doing back there, Pinks?" Dash asked, noticing the two of us.
“Just talking with Blitzy!” Pinkie replied.
"You two done yet?” Dash asked.
“Yep!” we both answered.
“Then c'mon over here! We got some more songs to practice!”
"Coming!" Pinkie said, before rushing over to her drumset. Before she got to it though, she turned her head back towards me and mouthed the words ‘you got this’ to me.
I took a deep breath. Pinkie’s advice really helped me calm myself down. I was already pretty strong, and I’d seen her blush around me a few times already. I had a chance! I believe I did, but like Pinkie said, it wasn’t gonna be easy. After what happened between her and Rush, I was positive that Dash would be really cautious about getting another boyfriend. Still, I was in the ball park. Nothing to do but try my hardest to get that home run. I’m up to bat ready to swing. It's only a matter of time until I find out whether I hit or get struck out...
It was around five o’clock when the girls finally finished practicing. Once it rolled around, the group started packing their instruments up. “Great practice, guys! We’re sounding just as awesome as usual!” Dash exclaimed as she packed up her guitar. I had to agree. Once I had gotten past the weirdness of seeing them ‘pony up’ every time they played together, I had to admit that they were all really talented musicians.
“Thanks, Rainbow. Same time this Sunday?” Applejack asked as she put her bass guitar back in its case.
“That’s fine with me. That okay with everyone else?” Dash asked the group. The others all nodded as they put their instruments away. “Alright then, Sunday it is! See ya then!” Dash exclaimed. Everyone nodded, and waved to say goodbye, before going their separate ways. The only two girls that stayed at the stage were Dash and Pinkie, who were quietly discussing something. After a minute, Pinkie walked over to me.
"Hey, Blitzy! Dashie and I are heading over to Sugarcube Corner soon! You wanna come?" Pinkie asked with a smile. She then mouthed, 'Say yes'. As if I needed convincing.
"Totally!" I said. Pinkie smiled, then headed back towards Dash. Dash pumped her fist in the air, and started walking, signaling for me to follow her. We headed to Sugarcube Corner, Dash in front of me and Pinkie. After we’d walked for a couple of minutes, Pinkie nudged me with her elbow.
"Come on." she whispered with a hopeful smile. "You got this, Blitzy. Remember: be cute, be cool." She gave me a wink.
I walked up towards Dash, and pretended to trip. "Woah!" I said, collapsing to the ground. Dash stopped walking and stared at me with a surprised look on her face.
"You alright, dude?" Dash asked.
"Me? Oh, I'm fine." I said with confidence, brushing myself off. “Say, it's a beautiful day today, isn't it?"
Dash raised an eyebrow. "Yeah... It sure is..." she said in a confused tone.
I felt a bead of sweat roll down my brow. I felt like I was making this really awkward. I looked back towards Pinkie. “You’re doing great, Blitzy. Just keep talking!" Pinkie whispered with a smile.
I slowly nodded. "So Dash, are you ready for your big game?" I asked her with a little smile.
She smiled back. "Of course! The first game is gonna be this Saturday! Unless they replaced their goalie with a brick wall, we’ve got this on lock!"
"Hope you do. Good luck." I said. Dash chuckled a bit.
"Thanks Blitz, but I don't think I’ll need it." She replied.
"It’s gonna be here in Canterlot, right?" I asked.
"Yeah, it will be." she answered.
"Coolio." I said out of nowhere. She turned towards me and looked at me with a confused look on her face.
"Coolio?" she asked.
I decided to play it cool. "Oh, it’s just something I like to say." I calmly replied.
"Huh... I kinda like it." she said. This surprised me a bit. Honestly, I thought it sounded stupid.
"You do?" I asked. She nodded.
"Yeah. It sounds kinda funny, but kinda awesome, too."
"Thanks." I said. At this point, we weren’t too far away from Sugarcube, but we continued to talk regardless. "So, I heard you and Pinkie were long-time friends?" I started.
"Yeah, we are! Been best friends ever since we were seven. How'd you know?" she asked.
"Pinkie told me." I responded.
"Huh. Well, aside from you and Sunset, I’ve known every single one of my friends since elementary. It’s part of the reason why we’re so tight."
"Sweet." I said. "So, uh..." I lost my words immediately. I really didn't know what else to say. Eventually, I decided to just change the topic. "How long have you been playing soccer?" I asked her.
"Ever since kindergarten. From the very first time I kicked that ball, I knew that I was born to play the sport. I’ve only been getting better ever since." she said with a cocky smile. "Hence the reason why I’m the captain of our school’s soccer team."
"Dang! I'm not really that good at soccer." I replied. She didn’t respond at first, and looked me over. After a moment, she chuckled to herself. “I doubt that, Blitz. You’ve got the body of a soccer player, and I’d be willing to bet that you have the mind of one too. I can tell. You might need a little more kick in it, and you'll do good." She nudged me with her elbow.
I blushed a little. "Nah." But then I remembered: Don't be negative. "Actually... maybe I might. Is there any time that you're free?" I asked.
"You wanna practice with me? Then meet me on Thursday. We can hang out and play ball." She answered.
"And maybe we can see if I'm awesome." I said with a smirk.
"Heh. We'll see." she said with a confident smile. "I'm warning you, I’m a pretty mean player. I won’t hold back on you."
"I'll keep that in mind." I said with a chuckle, which got a giggle out of her as well.
"You're a pretty cool guy, you know that?" she asked. I froze a bit. I honestly wasn’t expecting her to say that this quickly.
"Why's that?" I asked her. She rolled her eyes.
"Come on, Blitz! Do I really need to explain? You’re a great musician, you seem pretty funny, and you’re a lot cooler than most of the boys in school."
"Really?”
"Yeah, really. I mean, after what happened with that prick Rush Down, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t think that any guy at school would be cool at all.” She blushed a little after saying that. “I'm not saying every dude here sucks, but Blitz, to me you’re really some kind of awesome. And that's awesome." She said to me. I felt my cheeks turn red as I turned my head away from her. I didn’t want her to see how fiercely I was blushing.
Right then, I heard a loud thunk. I turned my head towards the source of the sound, and saw that Dash had apparently walked head first into a wall, which had knocked her onto the ground.
"We're here!" Pinkie said with a cheery tone as I helped Dash off of the ground. "Come on! Let's have a bite!"
"We're coming, Pinkie." Dash said as she rubbed her head. She gave off a soft smile and walked inside. "I'm gonna find us a seat. You can get me a vanilla cupcake." She turned to face me. "You want anything Blitz?"
"Uh... just get me chocolate."
"Blitz wants a chocolate." Dash said to Pinkie, who gave a thumbs up. "Okie-dokie, Dashie-lokie! I’ll have ‘em out in just a minute!" Pinkie said, before dashing into the back.
“Does she work here or something?” I asked Dash.
“Basically.” Dash replied as she sat herself down in a booth.
“Cool.” I said, sitting down in the seat opposite to her. We sat there quietly, waiting for our cupcakes, neither of us saying anything. After a moment of this, I finally decided to try and start up a conversation.
"So..." I said, getting her attention, “You heard my music?"
"Oh yeah! It rocks, dude! You've got some real talent running through your veins!" Dash complimented.
"It's something I do for a hobby." I said with a cocky smile.
"Well, keep it up, man! I feel like you could easily rock the stage one day!"
I felt my cheeks begin to warm up a bit. "Thanks Dash, but that's something for someone else. I don't think I'd ever be able to hit the big leagues like Canterlot Square Garden."
"Don't be so hard on yourself, Blitz." she said, "I mean, sure, it may seem like it’s out of your league, but hey, shoot for the stars, right? I mean, back when I was just starting out at soccer, I never thought that I'd eventually end up being the captain of the best soccer team in the entire region. Still, I aimed high, and now I’m the captain of the best soccer team in the entire region! If you aim high, and work for it, the sky’s the limit!"
I smiled. "Heh. Thanks, Dash.” I sat there for a moment, then remembered something she’d said earlier.
“Oh yeah, I almost forgot. Didn’t you say something about me joining soccer earlier today?" I asked. Dash nodded her head.
"Yeah, I did.” she replied.
“Why? Do you really think I’d be good at it?” I asked. She shrugged her shoulders.
“It’s possible. I mean, it all depends on how good you do against me. Still, you certainly have the right build for the job, and I really have a feeling that you might be awesome at it. After all, sometimes people can have talent in something without even knowing. That’s why trying is best. And who knows? If you are good at it, than you could easily slip onto the team."
"Really?" I questioned. "But I thought-"
"Tryouts would be cancelled? Nah. They will be in a week. It’s kinda weird, I know."
"Hmm..." I said, scratching my chin. "Well, I suppose I can always practice with ya."
"Again, if you're a good player who can kick." she said.
"True."
I turned my head away from Dash for a moment, and saw Pinkie carrying what looked like a pair of pineapples. It was only when she got closer that I realized that they weren’t pineapples at all, but rather two cupcakes that just happened to be rather large.
“Here you go, Rainbows! Hope you enjoy!” Pinkie said happily as she placed our cupcakes in front of us.
"Aw, sweet!" Dash said with a cheery expression. "Thanks, Pinks."
"No problem, Dashie!" Pinkie said, before retreating back to the kitchen.
"So... I guess I'll be there." I said with a smile. "Might be worth a shot. As long as my legs don't snap, I should be fine."
Dash quietly giggled. "Cool." she said, before biting into her vanilla-frosted cupcake. I picked up mine and took a bite as well. The very second I tasted the chocolatey goodness, my eyes widened, as my taste buds cried out in delight.
"Well, I'll be damned." I said, surprised. "She makes some real sweet sweets."
"See?" Dash said. "She's an expert at this. Her and the Cakes."
"The Cakes?" I asked. "Are they the owners of this place?"
"Pretty much." Dash said in response, "They're pretty cool, though. Being parents and all."
"Parents?" I asked. "They have child-"
"Come on, little guys." said Pinkie from the back, now scooting back. Then out came two cute-looking babies. One was a girl, with blue eyes, yellow skin, and tied-up orange hair. She had a wide smile. The other was a boy, with brown hair, brown eyes, and light-goldish gray skin. They both looked adorable. "Oh, Blitzy!" Pinkie noticed me. "Have you met these little guys yet?"
"Er, no." I answered. Honestly, I wasn't really fond of babies. Sure, they were cute and all, but they really weren’t that much fun to be around. They aren't easy to take care of, obviously, but also hard to keep in control and not go crazy. I mean, according to my brother, I was a pain in his behind, and I kinda had the same reaction for my used-to-be neighbor's sons, too.
"In that case, you’ve gotta meet these little cuties!" She handed me the babies and put them in my arms. Immediately before I could say something, they started tugging on my face. On each side, the babies pulled, stretching my face out. They giggled, while I tried to fake mine, almost having tears coming out of my eyes. "Aw, they like you!" Pinkie exclaimed. ‘Sure they do…’ I thought to myself as they continued tugging on my face. As she watched, Dash couldn't control her giggling, her hand covering her mouth.
"Oh I see. This is funny to you, isn't it?" I asked Dash, as I felt my face stretch even more. I was half expecting one of them to try and poke my eye out at this point.
"Maybe." Dash said, still giggling. I raised an eyebrow.
"Okay, yeah, it’s pretty dang funny, dude." Dash said between giggles.
"I can tell." I said. Pinkie then took the two out of my arms. As she held them, I rubbed my cheeks, trying to get feeling back into my face again. After a moment, Pinkie finally spoke.
"Oh, hey, Gummy!" said Pinkie with a wide smile. I was a bit confused by this part, since no one else was around aside from us.
"Gummy? Who’s Gummy?” I asked. Pinkie just rolled her eyes and pointed straight down. I looked down.
“Why are you… WAW!!” I screamed when I looked down, and saw that there was a small alligator on my foot! I tried to shake it off, but the critter kept a good grip. "Help! Get it off me! Get it off me! HELP!!" I screamed loudly.
At this point, Dash was well beyond giggling, and was laughing hysterically, while Pinkie spoke.
"Calm down, Blitzy! That's Gummy! He's a sweet little guy.” Pinkie said to me, as she grabbed Gummy off of my shoe.
“But… what if he bit me?” I asked. Pinkie rolled her eyes again.
“Don’t worry about that, Blitzy. Gummy here couldn’t bite you even if he wanted to. Check it out!" She opened Gummy’s mouth a bit and moved him close to me. I took a look inside his mouth, and saw that he had no teeth.
"See? He totally tooth-free! He’s as harmless as they come! Anyways, he’s my pet!"
"A pet... alligator?" I asked.
"It's Pinkie Pie. Don’t question it." Dash answered, now finished with her laughing fit.
“But… why an alligator?” I asked.
"Well, about a year ago, she found it in a creek, noticed he had no parents, and decided to take care of it as her own." Dash explained. I looked up at Pinkie, who had Gummy gnawing on her finger.
I finished my cupcake, along with Dash, and we threw away the wrappers. "Alright, we're heading out. Thanks for the treats, Pink!" said Dash.
"No problem! Good night, you two!" Pinkie said, with the babies in her arms and Gummy in her hair.
We exited the building. I looked up, and saw that it was a nice, dark night in Canterlot. The sky was black, with stars everywhere, and the city brewed with light, making it seem very nice and calming. Orange light surrounded the sidewalks as we walked. I texted my bro I was heading back, but before I left, I said goodbye to Dash.
"So, I'll catch ya later then?" I asked.
"Heh. Yeah." said Dash. She looked really nice with the light shining on her face. The orange light really made her face seem to glow, and showed slightly rosy cheeks. "I'll see you tomorrow." She waved goodbye, and I did the same. We then made our way back home.
"What a helluva night..." I said to myself, smiling and chuckling. "There really is a chance..."
After our get together at Sugar Cube Corner, life went on as normal. School work was being done, and I continued to hang out with Dash and her friends. Wednesday wasn't much at all, and neither was Thursday. At least, not until after school that day.
I stood on the soccer field outside of the school, admiring the view. School had just ended, and instead of heading home, I went to the soccer field. I’d already told my brother where I was, so once again, I won't have any interruptions or fights. I smiled as I looked around the-
"Blitz! Look out!" I heard Dash yell from behind. I turned around to face her… and immediately saw a giant soccer ball speeding STRAIGHT AT ME!
I ducked just in time, allowing the ball to fly over my head. It then hit the bleachers in front of me, and bounced back to Dash, who caught the ball with both hands.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed, "That's a helluva way to kick this off!"
"Heh, sorry about that, Blitz. I usually have more control of my shots than that." Dash apologized, her cheeks growing red in embarrassment. She balanced the ball on her right knee before continuing. "But, hey, I guess it’s pretty nice to see that I have some foot power!"
"No kidding, Dash. You’ve really got a lot of power!" I said. She chuckled to herself.
"What can I say, Blitz? Years of practice makes perfect." Dash said, now balancing the ball on her foot. "So, you ready to practice, Blitz?"
"Sure am. Show me whatcha got." I responded, giving off a cocky smile.
"Sure thing." she said, before tossing me the ball. "You go first, David Beckham."
I placed the ball down on the ground, and slowly started making motions with my foot. I soon burst, kicking the ball softly and moving forward.
Once I got close to Dash, however, she quickly reached her foot out and snatched the ball away from me before sprinting away in the opposite direction with it. I tried to catch up to her, but despite my best efforts, I couldn't catch up to her. After a moment, she kicked the ball hard, rocketing it straight into the goal at amazing speed. She threw her hands into the air.
"WOO! Score one for the girls back home!" she yelled.
I came towards her, panting heavily. "You... did… good, Dash." I said between breaths. She looked at me with a raised eyebrow.
"Geez, you’re tired already? We only just got started!" She held the ball and bounced it on my back as I was leaning down. "I’ll give you this, though: you did real good with your foot motions."
"Thanks." I said, giving her a thumbs up as I stood back up. She gave me the ball again. I shot a look at her. "Don't be too nice to me." I said with a smirk.
"Whatever gave you that impression, rookie?" she asked back with a cocky smile. The action commenced again.
I ran forward with the ball, doing the same foot motions as last time. Once I got close, Dash once again tried to take my ball from me. I wasn’t about to fall for that trick twice in a row. I quickly tapped the ball to the side away from Dash, knocking it just out of her reach before quickly running fast while kicking the ball forward.
Once I got close to the goal, I wound up, and with one mighty swing with my leg, I kicked the ball straight at the goal! I closed my eyes and smiled. GO-
"Miss!" Dash yelled, crushing my hopes and happiness as I opened my eyes to see that the ball had hit the edge of the goal post, bounced back, and rolled into my own goal instead. I put my hands down. "Friendly fire. You did it to yourself." Dash said.
I sighed. "This is gonna be a long game." I mumbled to myself.
"Hey, don't be so put down, man. It'll take time." Dash put her hand on my shoulder while holding the ball in the other. "I mean, jeez, you should've seen the first time I played soccer!”
“Why? So I could see that you were better than me ever since kindergarten?” I asked. Dash shook her head.
“Not at all! I'll admit this, but DON'T tell anyone, capiche?" I slowly nodded. She leaned in close to whisper in my ear, "I was exaggerating the other day when I said that I knew that I was born to play ever since I was a kid. The truth is, I was worse than you."
I looked at her in surprise. "Really?" I questioned. "Nah, you're over exaggerating. I blow nuts. You know I'm fine with taking criticism." I said, chuckling a bit.
"But no, seriously! I was really bad at soccer at first!" She sat down and played with the ball. "I was little, and I was clueless. I was like a little girl who just wanted to draw some sort of googly-eyed monster on paper with crayons. Whenever I played soccer at first, I fell, missed my kicks, and failed HARD at moving with the ball." She chuckled. "At least you seem to know what you're doing. I was just like, 'Soccer? What’' while I was in the game."
"Huh." I said.
"But, look at me now. I'm like Canterlot High's David Beckham, and the tomboyish bad ass!" I nodded. "And you know, the past was little me wanting to go draw crayon 'masterpieces'."
"I know, I know. But still, do you really think I have potential? To become some star in soccer?" I asked, facing her.
She shrugged. "Hey, if you try, you see. If you don't, you'll be blind to the possible future." I looked at the soccer ball, and surprisingly, I saw my own reflection. I saw myself smile on one of the black pentagons, and thought about it. "Again, your choice, not mine, but I'd like to see the best from you. Hey, my friend Twilight did a soccer duel with me, and between me and you, she was... well, sub-par. Borderline terrible, honestly. But at least she tried."
I stood up. "You know Dash, you can really work a man's mind." I said.
"So you up for more?" she asked.
"Unless you're done." I said immediately, cracking yet another grin. ________________________________________
After another kick after kick, goal after goal, we called it a day and drank a bottle of water. As we drank, I turned to her and said, "Good God, you're ridiculous!"
She tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean by that?” she asked.
“You’ve been running the entire time we’ve been playing! How do you keep going for so long?" I asked.
"Endurance." Dash said. "And about ten years of awesomeness." We were heading out of the field until suddenly, we saw someone holding a camera in the bushes.
Now it wasn't an adult by the look of it, considering the face was shown in the light, and plus he seemed to have the same height, but still, we were very aware. Dash yelled at the kid. "Hey, who are you?" she called out. Soon, the man jumped out of the bush, running away.
"The hell?" I question. "Who was that?"
Dash shook her head. "I dunno. Probably just some weird teen." She looked at me. "Wanna go on a walk?"
"Sure." We walked around the school, enjoying the nice breeze that blew. It wasn’t long before we began to chat. "So... you ready for that game?"
"You betcha." Dash said, smirking. “Detrot won’t know what hit ‘em! Plus, it'll be even more awesome with you by my side." I blushed a bit.
"Hey, I'll come." I said. "You seem like a girl worth rooting for." Dash also slightly blushed.
"Heh, Th-Thanks." she said.
"No prob." I said. "So, uh, how-"
"Hold it." Dash said, shutting me up and putting me up against the wall of the school.
"What's going-"
"Ssh!" We were at the corner of the school building, and Dash was right at the edge. She peeked her head out, taking a look at some people. People she knew all too well, sadly. "Damn it." She muttered.
"What?" I whispered. As it turns out though, I didn't need an answer, as I soon heard the voices from around the corner.
"Are you f*cking serious?" yelled a tough guy's voice. I recognized that voice. There was no question about it; that voice belonged to Rush Down
"Rush?" I questioned, in which Dash looked back at me and nodded. I obviously couldn’t see the company, so I didn't see who else was there.
"No, mate. She dug you up, buried you, and now she's in it for this prick." another voice said, though this one I couldn’t recognize. "Dude, I really feel bad for you."
"Yeah." said a deeper voice. "I mean, you're the all-star, dude! Rush Down! The NFL might as well put you in the hall of fame!"
"I don't give a damn!" said Rush's voice. "I care more about this. I mean, the hell is this? You had to have photo-shopped this during class or something!"
"What are they talking about?" I whispered to Dash. Dash peeked around the corner, certainly looking closely at the photo some guy was showing Rush.
"I can’t tell." she whispered to me. "We’re too far away."
"Then why not get a closer look?" came a voice from behind me. I looked behind me and saw a kid with brown skin and white, curly hair. He shoved me into Dash, making us stumble onto the ground, exposing us out of our cover. "Hey, Rush, my homie! Here's the couple of lovebirds!" he yelled with a smile.
"Lovebirds?" I ask, then getting a kick on the shin.
"Shut up, fool." the kid said. Rush approached us very fast. Within seconds, he was towering over us.
He shook his head in disappointment. "Tsk, tsk, Dashie. I see that you’re still hanging around with idiots as usual. Quite a waste, really. I think a guy like me can dig you up, huh?" He put his finger under her chin, but she slapped it away.
"What do you want, you idiot?" she asked.
Rush put his hands up. "Oh no, look out, guys! We’ve got a bad ass over here!" he said, prompting his cronies to start laughing. Once they’d finally finished guffawing, he continued to speak.
"Dash, seriously, so what if something... bad happened before? I won't let it happen again." He reached his hand out with a grin. "I promise." I decided to waltz in. "Hey, if the girl says no, she-"
"Shut the hell up, bitch. You’re not part of this conversation." Rush said, pushing me. I angrily pushed him back, making one of the guys chuckle.
"Who says I ain't?" I said. "Just leave us alone, dude. Why don’t you try to fail somewhere else?"
Rush gritted his teeth in frustration, before pulling up one of his sleeves. “You know, kid, I come over and try to be the good guy, but you never listen, do you?" He clutched his fist tightly and glared at me. I was a little intimidated, but I tried not to show it.
"Yeah, you can say that." I said, feeling like a smart-ass. "Got a problem with that?"
"Yeah." The other guys closed in on us. "We do, actually." He looked to his left, where the kid who got us in clear view was standing. "Hang his ass. Only his."
Everyone came after me, sending a wave of fear through my body. I put my fists up, but before anyone could throw a punch, a voice was heard.
"Hey!" yelled a voice. I looked to my right, only to see someone with very pale blue skin, and dark blue hair. "Looking for a fight?" he asked the group.
"Soarin!" Dash said. I was quickly grabbed by one of the guys, and was put in a nelson lock.
The man named Soarin got closer, then stopped. "I'm warning you." he said, clutching his fist.
The kid who pushed us lined up a punch, straight for my gut. However, before he could make contact, Rush pulled him away. "Dude!" the kid who was about to punch me said, "What the he-"
"Just leave him. He’s not worth it." Rush said, very sternly. The person behind me let go, and I fell to the ground. "Let's go!" The entire gang ran away, just like that.
I looked at the ground, seeing a shadow come closer to me. I looked up, seeing Soarin. He held out a hand. "You alright, man?" he asked.
"Yeah, I'm fine." I said as I was pulled up. "Thanks, man."
"No prob." he then said, smiling. He was wearing a blue jock jacket, and white pants. Soon enough, Dash approached him.
"Damn, man," she said, hitting his shoulder lightly. "Never thought you had it in ya."
"I try." he said. Soarin looked at me. "Hey, I don’t think I’ve ever seen you around before. What’s your name?"
"Rainbow Blitz." I responded. He slowly nodded.
"Cool. Name’s Soarin." We both shook hands, and after that, Soarin spoke again. "Listen Blitz, just stay away from those punks. They just mean bad business for you."
"No kidding." I agreed. "But, those guys got us."
"Oh, it's nothing new. Those guys'll grab anyone to fight with. Usually I'm the one to stop those fights." he said with a smirk. "Say, you think it'll be cool to head on over to Hayburgers? It's on me."
I shrugged. "Sure, I'm down with that."
"Sweet." he said, then turned to Dash. "You coming?"
Dash put a hand behind her head and blushed a bit. "Aw, thanks, but I..." she began.
"Aw, come on, Dash! Don't ruin the fun for your partner!" He exclaimed.
I choked up a bit. "Partner?"
"Soccer pals." Soarin answered immediately. Oh, thank God, for a second there... Man, I worry too much.
Dash stood there until finally, "You know what, Soarin? You win. I'll come."
He nodded. "Sweet. Come on, it's just around the block." Pretty soon, we set off to the Hayburger. Gotta say, though, Soarin... He's quite a bad ass.
We walked with Soarin for about five minutes before we arrived at Hayburger, which seemed to be a pretty run of the mill fast food joint. We grabbed a table outside of the building, and Dash rose up.
"I'll order for us. Just fries sound alright?" Dash asked. Soarin and I nodded, prompting Dash to give off a small smile. "Alrighty, then. Be right back!” she exclaimed, before disappearing into the restaurant.
I took a look at Soarin, and saw that he was looking at something on his phone. I stared at him for a moment, before I decided to try and start a conversation. "So, Soarin, huh?" I asked him. The second he heard me speak, he put his phone away, looked up at me, and nodded.
"Yeah.” He replied.
“Pretty cool name you got there.” I said back to him, causing him to smile a little.
“Thanks. It was a name my grandfather gave me. He’s been a pilot in the Air Force for the past thirty years, and he’s still going strong.” He laid back, his smile growing larger. "Yeah... wanna be like him one day..." He turned to face me. "What about you? What do you wanna do?"
I scratched my chin. "Well… I wanna become a music star.” I replied, after a moment of thought. Soarin nodded. “I’m already well on the way, too! You know Sound Cloud?"
"Yeah. I listen to some tunes on there sometimes. What, you're on there?"
I nodded proudly. "Totally. If you've ever heard of Fallout Blitz, that's me."
"Huh. Cool." he said. "You famous on that site?"
"Nearing five hundred thousand followers... so yeah." I answered. "Not meaning to boast."
"Don’t worry ‘bout it, man." he said. "What genre do you play? Do you just make a bunch of techno music, or..."
"No, I- Well, kinda." I said. "I have some techno in there, but I mainly rely on the guitar."
"Guitar?" he questioned. "Well, you’ve got some talent. I can barely play that thing. What else do you play?"
"Nothing else. Just guitar. Do you play any instruments?"
Soarin rotated his wrists. “Well, I can play a mean drum solo." He smiled. "Not too crazy about it, though."
"Drums?" I asked. "How hard?"
"Oh, very." he said. "I’ve played a couple of rock and metal songs, but it's really just a stress-reliever. I get tensed up, I go to the drums, and I rock the hell out."
"Really? I gotta see this." I said. Soarin quickly pulled out his phone.
"Oh, don’t worry, you'll see it. Just give me a sec." He pressed the Youtube app, and then searched for the profile 'WingDrummah999'. Before it even showed the results, Soarin laughed nervously. "Yeah, yeah, I know, it's a stupid name. I'm probably going to change it later."
He pressed the search button, and almost instantly a bunch of videos showed up in the feed. The first video had exactly 150,000 views, and showed Soarin on a set of drums. The thumbnail showed him in a black tank top, wearing green cargo jeans. "That you playing the drums?" I asked.
He nodded. "Only just a week ago." He clicked on the video, in which I noticed the title. 'Everlong Drum Cover- WingDrummah999'. He rubbed the back of his neck. "God, I really gotta change that name..."
Instantly, Soarin was shown playing with his drum sticks. From the background, looked like he was in a garage. The sound in the background played 'Everlong', and Soarin waited until his moment arrived. As the drums finally came in, he repeatedly hit the cymbals rapidly.
The video played on, and Soarin going wild on the drums. I was quickly left in awe at his abilities, practically hypnotized by how quickly his sticks moved. The video lasted a couple of minutes, but it felt like it ended within seconds. Once it was done, I almost started clapping. I was that impressed with it.
"So, yeah. That's my solo." he said.
"Nice. How long have you been playing?"
"About two to three years." He said as he closed the app. "Yeah, it's a little hobby thing I do. Decided to upload a video just for fun." He turned off his phone and put it away. "I mean, it’s nothing too big."
"Nothing too big? Dude, that was awesome! You know how many people manage to pull off that song?” I exclaimed. “You really haven't thought about going a little further with this? At all?"
Soarin shrugged his shoulders. "Well, back at the Battle of the Bands I was asked by Flash to join his band, but I declined. I mean, it's cool to drum, I guess, but I'm kinda packed up here. Being a soccer star here and all."
"Oh yeah, I forgot you did that." I said, rubbing my neck. "Actually, speaking of, are you and Dash soccer buddies or something?"
Soarin laughed. "Yep, we sure are.” he said. "If you wanna see a dynamic duo, you can take a look at us on the field! That's what brought us to the regional championship last year, baby!"
"So, I’m guessing that you and Dash are crazy out there?"
"You better believe it, Blitz." He said with a smirk. "When Dash and I are together on that field, you can bet your bottom dollar that we won’t be stopped." He breathed a content sigh, “Man, I love going crazy out on the field…”
We sat there in silence for a minute, waiting for Dash to come back with our fries. While we were sitting, I began to think about what Soarin said about himself and Dash. He really did emphasize that they were unstoppable together. Does Soarin…
"Hey, Soarin?"
"Yeah?" he said, looking at his phone.
"I got a question I wanna ask you."
He stopped and looked up at me. "Alright then. What do you wanna know?"
"Well, uh... You see, I... was… kinda wondering..." I trailed off, making the situation seem a lot more awkward.
"Yeeeeees?" he asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Do you like Dash?" I suddenly blurted out. Soarin's face was frozen in place, and stared at me.
"Do I like Dash? As in, girlfriend like?" he repeated. I nodded. He stared at me with a confused expression for a moment, before he finally continued. "No, I don’t.” he slowly answered. I quietly let out a sigh of relief. “What gave you the idea that I did?” he asked.
I felt my face warm up a little bit. “Well, you just… you really made it sound like you two were such a great duo on the field, so I just began to wonder…” I said as my voice trailed off. Soarin shrugged.
“Well, I like Dash as a friend, but she’s far from being the love of my life or anything like that. Besides…” he paused for a second, and fished his phone out of his pocket, "…I already have a girl." He finished.
I raised my brow. "Really? Who with?"
He smiled and chuckled softly to himself, before showing me his phone. It was on Instagram, showing a picture of Soarin with a yellow skinned girl in a dark blue tank top. The girl was wrapped in his arms, and had fiery orange hair that reminded me of an inferno. She wore a pair of goggles on her head, and had a physique very similar to Dash’s. I didn’t know for sure, but I had a strong feeling that this girl was just as athletic as Dash was. I took a look at the description: 'Having a blast with @Spittyfire. Love ya, babe! '
I looked up at him. "I'm gonna take an educated guess and say that's her?"
"Yup." he said. "Her name’s Spitfire. She's also on the team. She even used to be captain until last year, when she handed down the torch to Dash. She was a great leader."
"So, are you dating her now?"
He nodded. "She caught my eye. Been dating her since the middle of last season." He scrolled through more photos of them together. He showed me some more, like a picture of them on the beach, at the movies, at school, and even one with them in front of a fighter jet. To be honest, they made a really cute couple.
"I can see you two are having fun together." I commented.
"Yup, we sure are." He finished.
Right after he finished saying that, as if on cue, Dash appeared, holding three bags of fries. "Hey, guys." she said. "Got your order." She gave each of us a bag of fries, and we ate them. As the day passed on, we had a little chat about the game against Detrot. Both Soarin and Dash were really pumped up about the game, and they made it very clear that they weren’t about to lose it. After about a minute, Soarin suddenly blurted out, "Oh!" Dash and I jumped back a bit, surprised by the random blurt, then turned to look at him. He blushed slightly, "Oh, ahem... Sorry about that."
"What was that all about, Soarin?" Dash asked with a little laugh.
"Well, I just remembered something. The dance is coming up. I haven't asked Spitfire out yet."
"Dance?" I questioned. "What dance?"
"Oh, just a special dance being hosted by Vice-principal Luna. It's the first ever 'Midnight Ball'." Dash explained. "It's a ball that happens around, guess what time?"
"Morning?" I asked sarcastically. Dash’s eyelids lowered slightly.
“Really, Blitz?” she asked, a somewhat annoyed look across her face.
“I was just kidding, Dash. It’s at midnight.”
"Bingo. A lot of kids are looking forward to it, myself included." She said.
"Yeah. I still gotta find Spit and ask her out." Soarin scratched the back of his head.
"Wait," I said. "When is the ball?"
"Oh, like in three weeks." Dash answered.
"Huh... Should be plenty of time to find a date, then." I replied.
"Well, about that..." she said, scratching the back of her head as she spoke. "If you’re gonna get a date to that dance, you better act fast. A lot of the girls from school have already gotten a date, so just saying, it's gonna be hard. Heck, even my friends have gotten asked out already."
"Well, how long has it been since the dance was announced?" I asked.
"About a week."
I rubbed my temples. "I see. Well, I'm gonna try to get someone..." I slowly looked at Dash. ‘And I hope it's you...' I thought. ________________________________________
We just finished eating our fries, when suddenly, the wind picked up fast, and suddenly started blowing pretty hard. "Getting pretty windy." Soarin said, shivering.
"Yeah. I think it's a good place to end the day." Dash said, also shivering.
Unlike Dash and Soarin, I wasn’t shivering in the slightest. I was actually quite fond of cold weather, especially on windy days. Still, I didn’t see any problem with heading home at that point. "Alright. I suppose we can settle out." I got up from my seat and texted Daze to come pick me up. He quickly messaged me back saying that he would be at the school in about ten minutes. I nodded, and looked up at the others, who were both busy texting someone in between shivers. "I'm heading out. See ya guys later." I said, giving off a peace sign.
"Later, Blitz." they both said, waving goodbye. I walked back to the school, sat down in front of the building once I got there, and waited for my brother to show up. I didn’t have to wait long, as he drove up in front of me within minutes. I got in the car with him, and we drove home.
The beeping of my alarm woke me up, the irritating sound growing louder and louder with every passing second. "I'm up..." I mumbled, moving my hand towards the black digital clock. Once I pressed the button, the alarm immediately shut off. Immediately, I felt like sleeping again. "Come on, Blitz..." I said. "Get... Up..."
And then I fell asleep. I didn’t need to be up this early anyway. After all, it was Saturday. A day for being lazy. I felt so comfortable and relaxed within the covers of the bed, my back laying down flat on the mattress. I needed the sleep, anyways. So lovely... soft... swe-
"Bro!" shouted my brother. I immediately jolted out of the bed and crashed on the floor, which was everything that my bed wasn’t: cold, hard, and not so lovely. I slowly got up, groaning.
"The hell, Daze?" I said, annoyed and angry. If my brother was here in front of me...
"What? It's noon, ya bum." I merely yawned as I struggled to convince my eyes to open. “Besides, didn't you say you had a date or something happening today?" he asked.
My eyes full of crust immediately shot wide open. I looked at my alarm. "Woah..." Exactly twelve o'clock. "Game starts at, like, three." I stretched back. "Welp, I better get ready, then."
I walked into the kitchen, still wearing my pajamas, which was a black tank top with blue shorts. Quickly, I fetched myself a bowl of cereal, along with a couple of strawberries and apple juice. Upon getting myself fed, I looked at my brother, who was just heading out the door. "I'll catch ya later, Blitz!" he said. "Tell me how the game goes!"
I gave him a thumbs-up. "I'll make sure of it." I sighed, which quickly transitioned into a loud yawn. Today was the day I'd finally go to Dash's game, which was the start of the soccer season. I only wished to see Dash in action. Honestly, I was really flattered by how she played. She could get rough, sure, but through it all, she shows determination, confidence, and most importantly, sportsmanship. At least towards me and my weak skills.
I lightly chuckled remembering that day. Soarin and I had kept in touch via Instagram, and I usually talked to Dash during school. Not a ton had happened, but hey, what can you expect from high school? I started getting dressed, putting on my usual clothes, but this time wearing a Canterlot High hoodie bought straight from the school store. I decided to let time wander by laying on the couch and watching television. It would only be a couple of hours, so why not?
After a while had passed, I quickly checked the time. Forty-five minutes until game. I shrugged. "I think it'd be fine to go now." I got up, and noticed that Soarin sent me a text. I looked at it:
'Hey, you going to the game? Need a ride?'
I texted back:
'Yeah. Thanks, Soarin. I owe you one.'
I put my phone away, then waited around until Soarin came in whatever vehicle he was going to bring over. At first, I felt a little jealous knowing Soarin had his own car, and I didn't, but I just shrugged it off. All I wanted was to just get to the game and see the soccer team go AWOL on Detrot.
A couple of minutes passed by, before I heard the sound of a car horn beep. I looked outside, and saw Soarin smiling inside a regular, white Ford. I made my way outside, at which point Soarin rolled down his window. "C'mon!" he said, grinning. "This baby's gotta make it to the game!"
"I'm coming!" I yelled. I opened the door leading to the passenger seat, and buckled up. "Let's do this, man! Can't wait to see this!"
Soarin looked back behind him, going reverse out of the driveway into the calm street. He drove smoothly on the well-made street, passing by the trees and houses. "So..." he said, trying to start a conversation, "How's life?"
"Eh." I answered, shrugging my shoulders. "I mean, not much has really happened. I’m just really stoked I'm actually doing something now, instead of being stuck in the house watching the TV!"
"I hear that." Soarin said, nodding.
"How are you and Spitfire been doing?" I asked next. "You asked her to the dance?"
"Oh yeah, forgot to tell ya." Soarin smiled. "She and I have been doing great. She's amazing, and I'm just as excited as you are. It’s been a while since we've entered a game. God, it's gonna feel so good." He turned up the radio, which punk music suddenly played. Soarin bobbed his head up and down. "This is my jam! Woo!"
"Heh. You said it." I agreed, bobbing my head up and down as well. We smiled, enjoying the song and how ultimately good it was. "You know I couldn't handle fightin'!" I sung.
"And you know you handle truth!" he sung back. We then began singing in unison looking right at each other.
"And the people know they ain't got nothin' on us, cause they can't handle consequences when they come to screw with us! Give us the rights and we will drop the mic!" We zoomed down the street by this point, being in the small part of the city. "Join us, coward!" we continued. "You can't take it all, and we got the power, son! Figure it out, or else we'll give ya-"
CRASH!
I immediately felt my head fling to one side. I could barely see, as everything in my vision had quickly dissolved into a sketchy blur. I was able to make out the car from my side, and I sure as hell felt pain. My side felt crushed, as if someone had just been hit by a bulldozer, and my neck was sprained from swinging it to the left. Even with my blurry vision, I could tell that the car was spinning in circles uncontrollably. As my vision slowly started to fade, I turned my head towards Soarin. It wasn’t hard to tell that he was also affected by this, glass flying towards him from my side. I soon felt my eyelids forcefully shut, seeing nothing but black…
I opened my eyes again, only to see the sky. It looked a bit more… crimson-y than I was expecting. I felt something tugging on me, dragging me slowly away from the car. "You're gonna be alright." said a voice. Ignoring the pain in my neck, I looked a little more up to see Soarin. "Stay with me."
I still felt intense pain, my head aching like crazy. I took a glance around the area, and saw that there were some cars frozen in place a little distance away. I turned my head slightly to one side, and saw that a small crowd of people had congregated around the area. I turned back to our car, and quickly noticed the car that had smashed into us, which appeared to be a red Pontiac, the front of which was absolutely totaled. I felt my eyes beginning to forcefully shut again. I tried to keep them open, but despite my best efforts, they shut on their own once again.
My eyes re-opened again. I noticed a man running up towards us. "I'm so sorry, dude, I-I..." he stuttered. I couldn't see him clearly, but he looked... oddly familiar... "Dude, I- You just- I-I..." My vision faded to black again, right as I heard the sound of sirens blaring.
I opened them up one last time, only to see two men lifting me up to place me on a stretcher. The man was still stuttering, holding his head. "I-I..."
I could only faintly hear what the man was saying before Soarin start talking. "Calm down, man! Just calm-" That was the last thing I heard. After that, it was all white noise. I couldn't hear jack shit. I looked around, and quickly saw another man looking at me, on the side of an ambulance. As I was carried on the stretcher closer to the ambulance, I started to see a trickle of red come in front of my right eye. I really felt scared now. I tried to move my arm to wipe it out of my vision, but it was no good. No matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t get my arms to move at all. Not that I had much time to try, anyway...
My eyes closed for the last time... I didn't know what the hell would happen next, but whatever is going to happen... It’d better be good news...
Lights... There weren’t any. Not even a single ray. All I could see was darkness. And I couldn't help but feel a pulse on my head, and a slight stretch of pain on my right leg. I slowly opened my eyes, then closed them again as soon as a pitch of bright light caught my eyesight. I squinted into the light, allowing my eyes to adjust.
"The hell?" I muttered out. Once I had adjusted to the light, I glanced over to my side, where I saw some kind of machine beeping besides me. Besides the machine were three people. My vision was still blurry, so I had trouble seeing who exactly they were. I could tell that one was in all white clothing, while the other two appeared to be wearing blue. There was something very... familiar about them, though. As I continued to stare at them, the trio slowly started to become less blurry. After a while, my vision finally cleared up, and I saw... Soarin? Rainbow Dash?! D-Do... Doctor?
"He's awake." Dash said softly. The doctor in the white outfit looked at me, holding his clipboard.
"Ah, so he is." he said. "Well, I’m glad to see that he's alright."
I groaned, feeling like my body would crumble apart at any moment. "Wha…?" I managed to say.
"Mr. Blitz?" asked the doctor. "Can you hear me?" I gave him a nod. He held out two fingers. "Am I holding up two fingers?" I gave another nod.
"Okay, good, good..."
I turned my attention away from him for a moment, and back towards Dash, who was wearing her jersey for the soccer team, having blue shorts with yellow stripes on the side. Soarin, on the other hand, wasn’t wearing anything new; it was the same outfit he’d worn the last time I saw him. Back in the car...
My mind quickly flashed back to the car. Back to the last clear scene I had before being struck by another random car, my head thrusting towards the side, and I felt dizzy and had a throbbing pain shooting violently.
I took a look downwards, and saw that I was on a hospital bed. But that wasn't all, though. Held up high in a wrapped cast was my right leg, which, from what I remembered in my flashback, was where the pain struck most. I felt an ache in my head just thinking about it.
"What happened to my leg?" I asked, wanting an answer.
"Well..." Soarin said. "Something happened during the car accident…" I looked at the doctor, who took in a deep breath. "Mr. Blitz, it seems that your leg might've been... damaged right when the accident happened. Critically." My eyes widened.
"W-What do you mean?" I asked, starting to freak out.
"Relax Mr. Blitz. Now, it turns out your leg got pretty cleanly fractured, but…”
"But?" I asked.
"You have gotten pretty lucky that it wasn’t anything more serious. Now, of course you wouldn't have been paralyzed or anything like that even if the injury were more severe, but it could've very easily given you a limp that could last a lifetime. Luckily, that’s not the case." I nodded slowly. "Even so, your leg is in a poor condition right now regardless. As such, you’ll be required to wear a cast."
"For how long?" Dash asked worriedly.
"Well, judging by the x-rays and how the bones looked, we’ve concluded that it’ll be somewhere between eight and twelve weeks. If he’s lucky, his leg might be able to heal fully in about five to six weeks, but the chances of that are rather slim.” the doctor explained to Dash.
I felt my breathing intensify, coming in heavily. I was blown away by what I’d just heard! That was at least a month and a half with a busted leg! I looked over to my side again and saw a set of metal crutches, open for the taking, obviously meant for me whenever the hell I got out of there. Actually, come to think of it...
"When do I get out of here? Is there anything else damaged?" I asked.
The doctor looked through his notes for a moment, before turning to face me again. "Well, you had some bruising and some bleeding, but it was nothing major. Aside from your leg, the worst of it was a little bit of damage around the skull, but we fixed that while you were out. As for how long you’ll be staying here, it shouldn’t be more than a couple of days." He smiled, and looked at Dash and Soarin. "Hmm, well I suppose I shall leave the three of you alone to chat." He left the room.
I groaned, and Soarin sat on a seat next to me. "So… painful as hell?"
"Not really... Wait," I said, realizing something. "How the hell aren't you in a bed?"
"Oh, I got checked." he answered. "I got up and tried to teach that damn guy a lesson, but they took me away and check-"
"Wait!" I said, interrupting him. "What... What guy?" I rubbed the side of my head, feeling a little better on the little throb of pain around the area.
He lowly growled, and Dash had a worried expression on her face. "Who was it, Soarin?" she asked. "Was it someone you know? That we know?"
He sighed and shook his head. "No, he's just an idiot driver that should know what the hell she's doing." he responded. Dash slowly nodded, but I raised a brow in confusion.
'She?' I thought. 'No... No that isn't right, I remember that it was a man, the person even had a voice of one. There was no way it could've been a woman.' I told him, "You're lying."
He looked at me with his brow raised. "Pardon?"
"You're lying." I repeated. "You said 'she'."
"So?"
"I remember that you were yelling at a man. He even spoke with the voice of one." I brought up. "He was stuttering, looked scared, and started freaking out."
"I meant 'he'." he said. He shook his head in frustration, "Bloody idiot. Not only does he go and ruin my damn car, but he nearly gets us both killed in the process! God, what kind of…”
"Soarin," Dash said, resting a hand on his shoulder. "Just relax and tell us: Who was the driver?"
"Nobody! I already…"
"Soarin" she said in a stern and serious tone. Soarin opened his mouth, but slowly closed it. “Stop lying to us, and tell us who it was. Now.” Rainbow said sternly. Soarin pinched his forehead, before moving over to the wall across from him. Silence fell over the room for a moment, before he finally sighed.
"Fine, I'll tell you who it was." he said after a moment of silence, "You said it yourself..."
A moment of silence passed, and I was starting to get annoyed. "Soarin, who was-"
"IT WAS RUSH DOWN'S GUY, OK?!" he shouted, alarming the both of us. Dash sharply gasped.
I shook a bit in my bed, a little uneasy. "I'm sure it wasn't one of his guy-"
"Hey, remember the thug guy?" he suddenly interrupted. "You know him, right?"
I was about to shake my head, but Dash gasped. I turned towards her. She turned to look at me, and explained, "He’s talking about the guy who got us, Blitz." she said. "When we saw them, and then he caught us?"
I quickly nodded. "Him?"
"Yeah, him and his shitty vehicle crashed right into us, and you know what he does? Asshole starts begging for mercy." He chuckled. “'Oh, I-I-I'm sorry, man! Didn't mean to!'" he said, mimicking the guy's voice, “God, I swear I’ve seen more convincing performances in middle school plays!”
"Soarin, maybe he really didn't mean to do it." Dash brought up. "Maybe it really was just an accident."
"Going at 65 miles per hour in a place that allows only up to 30?" he questioned, eyebrow raised, "Oh yeah, that was totally ‘just an accident’!"
"Well how the hell would he know I was going to the game?" I asked.
"I don't know!" Soarin yelled. "But let’s assume that it was just an accident. He still shouldn't have been going that fast like he's a Delorean try-hard, dammit." He growled lowly. "Just… just give me a little room here." He walked to the corner of the room and sat down on a lone chair.
Dash looked at me as she sat on a chair beside my bed. She looked like a wreck. "So… did ya win the game?" I asked, chuckling.
She softly giggled. "Y-Yeah, we won the game." An awkward silence passed between us. "S-"
"BLITZ?!" shouted a voice. The door flung open, and standing there sweating bullets in his outfit was-
"Bro?"
He twitched a bit. "Are you alright?"
The doctor appeared in the doorway. "Yes, yes, he is fine." Daze looked behind him, some of the stress and worry on his face seeming to just melt away in the process. "I-I'll leave you be." he said, closing the door immediately.
My brother walked up to me, shaking his head. "What happened, Blitz? I mean, I heard that you got into an auto accident, but… how?"
"Driving to the game." Soarin said. "An asshole drove fast, crashed into us, and trashed us."
Daze nodded, before his eyes were drawn to the cast. "What's this?" he said in an even more worried tone.
"Relax, Daze, it's just a cast." I told him.
"For how long?"
"Couple of weeks." Dash answered. "He said six, at least." For some reason, she seemed to be a bit freaked out from seeing the way my brother looked and was acting.
"Don’t worry about it, bro. I'll be out in just a couple of days. It’s nothing too critical." I assured him.
He slowly nodded. "Nothing too critical. Uh-huh." he said, rolling his eyes. "Well, I'm just glad you're okay. Nothing else bothering ya?" I shook my head. "Neat... Good..." He put his hand through his hair, letting out a sigh of relief. "They putting you on any medications?"
"Not that I'm aware of. Honestly don't think anything like that is even necessary for stuff like this." I answered.
"Well, aside from painkillers and such..." He quickly hugged me, smiling. "Just glad to see you're in the clear. So, I'm just gonna hang around, if you guys are alright with it." he said, looking at the others.
"By all means, go ahead.” Soarin said, finally calmed down. "You're his brother." Dash nodded, but didn’t say anything.
"Heh, thanks." Daze said. "Well, I guess a few things are going to be a little different at home, huh?"
The days that followed were slow. Really slow. Sure, I knew that was how it was going to be (broken bones don’t just heal themselves overnight, after all) but for God’s sake, I didn’t expect each minute to feel like an hour! It didn’t take long before the atmosphere got to me, with the only thing to look at being the white walls of that stupid room. Seriously, would it have killed them to put a TV in there or something? The sounds I had to listen to were more interesting, but not by that much. More often than not, it was completely silent, with the only sounds I had to listen to being the sound of doctors and nurses walking through the hallways, with the occasional conversation between them thrown in every now and again. It was the same thing all day, every day! Half of the time, I felt like it was going to make me go crazy!
Thankfully, I wasn’t always alone in that room. I occasionally had some company, usually from my brother, who did a lot to help alleviate some of the boredom. On his first visit, he gave me a book to read so I could have something to do, and every time he visited afterwards, he always made sure to stay for a while, giving me someone to talk to for a while. Good old Daze; even with everything he has to be in charge of, he still finds time for me.
He wasn’t the only visitor, though. Every once in a while, Dash came to visit me as well. She never stayed for nearly as long as Daze did, since she always had something on her schedule on the days she visited, be it homework, soccer practice, or some other event that she had to do. Not a problem with me; school is more important, after all, and I was just glad to see her when she did show up. I wished that she could spend a little more time with me than she did, but hey, what can you do?
One of her longest visits was on Wednesday. I was just lying there in bed, whistling a little tune to myself while I closely examined the room. I had just finished reading three chapters of the book Daze had given me, and I wanted to take a break from reading so I wouldn’t finish it before I could leave this place. Normally, I would just use my phone, but its battery was under ten percent at the time, and I really didn’t want my phone dying at that point, so I looked around at the room instead. By that point, I was fairly certain that I had seen the darn room so many times that I could tell the exact layout to any random person who asked. The ceiling lights with the third light that needed replacing, the white tile floor, that little flower pot with four luscious red flowers in the corner of the room… it was all present and accounted for. After I gave the room another glance over, I reached for the book on the bedside table again, but stopped when I heard the sound of a knock on the door. My eyes shot towards the door allowing me to see that my doctor was peeping in.
"Mr. Blitz?" he asked. I nodded. "You have company." He moved to the side, revealing that Dash was standing right behind him, wearing her soccer uniform and a warm smile. The doctor nodded, and walked outside of the room, allowing Dash to walk in. "You know the drill, you two." The doctor said, winking to me before closing the door. Once the door was closed, Dash rolled her eyes as she pulled up a chair.
"Geez, does he really need to say that every single time I come to visit? I swear, it’s like he thinks we’re just going to start making out the second we’re out of his line of sight!” Dash said as she moved a chair to the side of my bed and sat down in it.
“Well, you never know...” I said jokingly. She chuckled at that before lightly elbowing me in the arm.
“Oh knock it off, Blitz!” she said, blushing slightly as she spoke. “Anyway, how are things going with you?”
"About the same as always.” I said, shrugging my shoulders. She nodded understandingly.
“Boring as hell?” she asked.
“Sure is.”
"Believe me, I’ve been there.” Dash said. "I’ve had my own fair share of emergency room accidents, so I know what it’s like."
I sighed. "I just wanna get out of here and do whatever the hell I can do with just this injured leg." I looked up at my leg, buried within the thick white cast. "I’m so sick of just sitting here and listening to other doctors talking!”
"Again, been there, done that." Dash added. "Don’t worry, Blitz, you'll be out of here in no time, and Pinkie told me that she had something planned for you when you are. The whole gang will be there: me, the other girls, Soarin, Spit..."
"Spit?"
"Spitfire." She answered. My eyes widened.
"Oh." I felt my face grow a little warm as I chuckled, rubbing the back of my neck while I did so. Dash giggled a bit. "Duh." I sighed as I looked over at my phone. "At least I can check through Instagram on my phone. That keeps me busy... at least until the phone dies."
Dash looked over at my phone. “It’s out of power?”
“Not yet, but it will be soon.” I answered. Dash stared at me for a moment, before reaching into her pocket and pulling out her phone charger.
“I’ll tell you what. Until you get out of here, I’ll let you borrow this.” she said as she plugged the charger into a nearby electrical socket within my reach.
“Really? Are you sure?” I asked.
“Of course! It’s already dull enough in here without having to worry about a dead phone, right?” She plugged the other end of the charger into my phone, causing the screen to shoot to life, revealing that it had only four percent power remaining.
“Thanks!” I said. Her lips curved upwards into a small smile before she responded.
“Don’t mention it, Blitz. Just make sure you return it once you’re out of here, K?”
“Deal.”
Dash smiled, before pulling out her own phone. “So, you’ve been on Instagram a lot, huh? Seen any of Soarin's pics lately?" she asked, handing me her phone. I took it from her and saw that she was on Instagram, looking at a picture of Soarin and Spitfire together.
"Yeah, I’ve seen them. They’re a pretty cute couple, huh?" I said to Dash while scrolling through the myriad of photos.
"Sure are. Lucky them, I bet they'll have an awesome life together." Dash replied.
"I wish them the best of luck with it." I said. Dash nodded, before silence prevailed. For the next minute or so, we just sat there in silence, sifting through the photos together. As we did, I occasionally shot a glance at Dash. Every single I time that I did, I saw the same thing: her looking at the phone in my hand, not noticing that I was looking at her. I couldn’t help but think about her. There was no point in denying it: I really liked Dash. Heck, I’d even go so far as to say I loved her. Still, I wasn’t sure if she felt the same way about me or not. Even so, I hoped that one day… we would be just like the couple on the phone. Maybe…
“Umm… Blitz? Why are you staring at me like that?” I heard a voice say, snapping me out of my thoughts. I looked up and saw Dash, who was looking at me with her head tilted to the side, as if she was confused.
I pushed these thoughts out of my head. There was plenty of time to see if she liked me back. In the meantime, I decided to just keep it under wraps. I just hoped that I hadn’t blown it here…
“Was I staring at you? Sorry about that, I kinda just zoned out a bit. My bad.” I said, chuckling nervously as I spoke. She stared at me silently for a moment, looking unsure about whether I was being honest with her or not, before shrugging it off and taking her phone out of my hand.
“Don’t worry about it. I zone out sometimes too. No shame in that.” She said as she put her cell phone back in her pocket.
“So… does anyone else miss me?” I asked, hoping to make things less awkward.
Dash shook her head. “I don’t think so. I mean, the teachers might care, but I don’t remember any students talking about it or anything. Y’know, aside from the usual suspects. If anyone does ask about you though, I’ll let ya know."
“What do you mean by ‘the usual suspects’?”
“Y’know who: Soarin, Spitfire, the rest of the band?”
“Okay…” I said, before I suddenly remembered something. There should’ve been one other person. One other person who I felt should’ve been asking about me... one other person who was there on the day of the crash…
Dash must’ve noticed my expression changing when I remembered that or something, because she quickly asked me, “Hmm? What’s the matter Blitz? Is something up?”
"Well… what about...” I began before stopping myself.
“About what?” Dash asked.
“What about… the guy who ran into us?" I slowly said out.
"Little Thug?" she asked, before scratching at the back of her neck. "Well... I haven’t paid him much attention, but from the little that I have heard, he's having problems of his own right now. Nothing about you, though."
"He still never said anything to me." I said in a tone that was halfway between angry and annoyed. "He damn near killed me. Hell, I don’t even remember him talking to Soarin about it! Seriously, the least he can do is apologize!"
Dash’s eyebrows lowered into a frown, “Oh don’t worry, he will. Or else he gets it.” She pounded her fist into her other hand, before her frown faded. “But yeah, that's about everyone. Just hang in there Blitz. It’ll get better soon, trust me."
"Hopefully." I said, before loudly sighing to myself. "Still, Rush Down might be bigger trouble than ever. You know, with him teasing me and poking fun at me and the like. That’s gonna be fun."
Dash softly put her hand on my shoulder. "Don’t worry about him, Blitz. If he does try something, Soarin and I will be there to help you out, and I’m sure the others will be there for you as well. You’re not alone on this one, Blitz.” She crossed her arms and began to frown again. "And if that son of a bitch DOES try and hurt you, then I'll..." Her words sputtered out at that point, leaving her in silence. "I-I..."
I looked over towards Dash, and saw her wearing an expression I’d never seen her have before. She looked… scared. Her eyes were wide, her mouth was curled downwards, she was gripping her hands together tightly, and she wasn’t moving at all. I was surprised to see her like that. If there was one thing I knew about Dash, it was that she never let herself look frightened by anything. She always tried to make herself seem like she was unflappable, so seeing her like this was weird, to say the least. She noticed me looking at her and quickly turned her head away, but it was too late. I already saw. She stared at the wall away from me for a good fifteen seconds in silence, before I finally decided to speak up again. "You'll... what?" I asked with my eyebrow raised. Dash still didn't answer. Heck, I’m not sure if she even heard me that time, since she didn’t move an inch after I spoke. I felt goosebumps run through my skin. I’d never seen anything that could intimidate her like that, so seeing her this apprehensive was really beginning to creep me out. I took a deep breath, and raised my voice to as loud as I could get away with before it would disturb other patients, "Yoo-hoo, Earth-to-Dash?" I exclaimed as I snapped my fingers, which got her attention right away.
"Y-yeah Blitz?" she asked, her eyes blinking rapidly.
"What will you do?" I repeated.
“What do you mean by that?” Dash asked as she tilted her head in confusion. I resisted the urge to groan as I begun to explain.
"Y’know, you were saying something about what you’d do if he hurts me, before you kinda just stopped. What were you gonna say there?" I inquired. Dash stayed silent for a moment again, but she at least moved her head and eyes around this time. She looked around the room for a bit, before turning towards me again.
"Well, if Rush or any of his guys hurt you in the state you're in, I'll...” she paused for a moment to look at the floor, “…I'll deal with them." she answered. I didn’t say anything, and just looked at her. Something about the whole thing just felt… off. I was tempted to say something about it, but kept silent. Even so, Dash must’ve noticed that I felt something was up, because she quickly turned towards me and asked, "What?"
I sighed. She knew I thought something was up, so there wasn’t a point in trying to hide it anymore. I just had to figure out how to say it to her. "Umm… you just said that." I began. "That's what you and Soarin will do if he says stuff towards me, not doing physical harm." Dash didn’t respond, so I continued to speak, "I was just wondering; are you going to do something different if he does attack me? I just found it strange, cause you just stopped while you were speaking."
Dash looked up towards me, "It’s just… I just got a little mad when I thought about it." she responded, shaking her head. "I mean, hurting someone when they’re on crutches?? That's just f'ed up!" She got up from her seat and looked outside the window. "I just kinda lost my words there for a second." I just stared at her as she looked out the window. I couldn’t help but feel that she wasn’t telling me the whole story. I knew what Dash was like when she was angry, and that wasn’t it. I wanted to dig a little deeper, but I decided to just let it go for now. Maybe I’d talk to her about it another time, but not right now.
"So, everything alright with you?" I asked, hoping to change the subject.
Dash turned away from the window and nodded, "Everything’s A-okay with me." She said, a soft smile returning to her lips. "Anyway, I just wanted to check with you." Dash headed towards the door. "If there’s nothing else you want to talk about, I guess I’ll be seeing you later.”
"Wait!" I shouted, making Dash shoot her head towards me. "I... You don't mind if you stay a little longer, do you?" I said, feeling the heat in my face return. "I just get bored from being here all day, y’know?"
Dash shrugged. "Sure, I don't mind. Practice doesn’t start for another hour, so I’ve got time." She went back to the chair. "Anything else on your mind?"
"Uh..." I said as my thoughts went dead. I completely forgot what I was going to say to her. After a moment, I suddenly remembered the dance she told me about a little while back, "Oh, um, about the upcoming dance... What was it called again?"
"The Midnight Ball." Dash answered. "What about it?"
"Well, when does it start again?" I asked. Dash put a hand to her chin as she thought for a moment.
"I’m not sure. It was supposed to be three weeks from now, but I heard that there are some staff problems with it being on that day. My guess is that it'll probably be moved to the week after." Dash wiped a strand of her hair out of her vision. "Why do you ask?"
I rubbed the back of my head. "W-Well, I was just a little curious...” She nodded in silence, before I suddenly burst out, “Say, you still got a date?" I nervously chuckled as I quickly realized how desperate that made me sound. 'You idiot' was the only thought that ran through my mind.
Dash deeply blushed when she heard the question. She clearly wasn’t prepared for someone to ask her that. After a moment, she finally said, "Oh, w-well not yet, but I-I'm on my way to find a guy. M-Maybe." Her face grew a deep shade of red, as her eyes locked firmly onto mine. "Why did you ask me that?"
I didn’t say anything. I couldn’t even think properly at that moment. I felt like my brain was going into overdrive. I felt like I was receiving so many signals from her. The blush, the locked eyes, the ‘Maybe on my way to find a guy’ bit… it didn’t feel like just a coincidence. I just couldn’t help but wonder… was she… hoping to ask me? I shook my head and attempted to speak again.
"I was just curious." I told her after I had found my voice. "I mean, I just remembered Soarin and his date, Spitfire, so I just assumed you already had one." I tried to put on a smile, "I mean, who wouldn't want to ask you out?" I felt the heat in my face returning in spades. I didn’t even need to look in a mirror to tell that I was as red as a strawberry. I wouldn’t have been surprised if there was no blue left in my face at that point.
I looked up at Dash, and quickly saw that Dash’s face had also changed shades. Instead of its normal cyan hue, her face seemed to have taken on a bright pink color that would’ve looked right at home on Pinkie. She chuckled and reached a hand behind her head, "H-Heh, thanks. That’s… that’s really sweet of you, Blitz. I mean... Really, I'm flattered." She brushed her long hair back.
I looked at her for a moment, and then continued to speak, "But it’s true! You’re absolutely amazing! You’re nice, talented, and an awesome athlete and musician to boot! Who wouldn't want to date such a stellar girl like you? Hehe..." I scratched at the back of my head nervously.
She smiled weakly. "You’d be surprised, Blitz. Not many people really say that sort of stuff about me. Other than my friends and..." Her smile died down. "Y-You know who."
"Oh…” I said. I wanted to say something more, but I couldn’t think of any words to say. Eventually, I said, “Well, I might be free when the dance comes along, assuming that this stupid leg heals before then. I don't wanna miss the ball."
"You got that right, Blitz." Dash said. "Pinkie told me that she’s helping to plan it out with the faculty, and believe me, there’s not a single person in this world who can plan a better party than she can. It'll be an unforgettable night, I can guarantee that."
"Well, let’s just hope that this leg heals up quickly, then." I quickly looked at my leg, then looked back at Dash. Oddly enough though, Dash wasn’t looking at me. She was looking off to the side with her arms crossed. It was clear from her expression that she was thinking really hard about something. After a moment, she closed her eyes and sighed to herself.
"Blitz..." Dash began.
"Sup?"
"Please tell me the truth." she said. I slowly nodded, and Dash took a deep breath. "I think I know why you asked me that question earlier. You…you want to ask me out to the ball... don't you?" At that point, her face was a bright pink color with a flush of red, and I’m pretty sure my face was that exact shade as well.
A flurry of emotions raced through my mind. I couldn’t think properly. My mind became a whirlwind of emotions, as I felt excitement, dread, panic, curiosity, joy, regret, and who knows what else rushing through my body. It took all of my effort just to get myself to speak coherently!
"W-Why now what do you mean? I-I-"
Dash raised a hand, and placed it softly over my mouth, quieting me down. "Blitz, don't lie to me." she said, still having the blush across her cheeks.
I decided to just spit it out. "I... Yes, I do." I admitted. "I actually... do." A long silence filled the room. I looked over at Dash, who was staring at my cast intently, as if she was deep in thought. I couldn’t help but feel like I’d screwed up royally. After what felt like forever, I finally broke the silence.
"I bet you probably don't want me there, huh? Well, I... I shouldn't have asked. I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have been so…"
"Sure." she interrupted.
"See, I kne- Wait, WHAT?!" I blurted out, shocked by what I had just heard, "Y-You actually will?"
Dash shrugged, a small smile on her lips, "Sure, why not? Better than not being asked out to a school ball at all, right?" She winked at me before continuing, "If you can quickly heal enough for the hospital to let you go, I'm down with having you by my side."
My heart pumped vigorously in my chest, as I felt my blood rushing up to my already burning cheeks. I honestly couldn't believe it. Could…could this really be real? I didn’t know if I was dreaming or not, but if it was a dream, I was hoping that I’d never wake up. "I-I'll be hoping the same thing." I said. "So... You're really with me on this? No joke?"
"Hey, you asked me out, how can a girl say no?" she said, letting out a giggle. I didn’t respond. All I could feel was an uncontrollable burst of ecstasy coursing throughout my body! She was really agreeing to this! It took everything within me to not scream in excitement right there, I was so excited!
Just then, I heard a buzzing sound coming from a phone. Dash quickly looked down at her phone, before her pupils widened in surprise. "Aw, shoot!" she said.
"What?"
"Coach is calling. Apparently, practice is starting a little earlier than I thought. Sorry Blitz, I gotta go!"
“Hey, it’s fine. Practice is important, right?” I said to her.
She let out a sheepish smile, "Yeah. So, I'll catch ya later?"
"Sure thing. I’ll see you later." I said as I gave her a peace sign. Dash smiled and closed the door behind her, leaving me alone. However, this time, I didn’t care. Unlike all of the other visits, where I knew the boredom would start again the second they left, this time I was too excited to even think about being bored! I tried to massage my cheekbones, but they were permanently stuck in an enormous grin.
"Damn..." I said to myself. "It actually worked..."
I looked down at my foot. Whether Dash agreed to go to that dance with me because she liked me or only did it because it was a nice thing to do was anyone’s guess, but at that point, it hardly mattered. I was going out to a dance with a girl I liked, and that was all I needed to smile. For the first time since the accident began, it felt like things were finally looking up…
The next few weeks slowly passed me by as I continued to lie there in that hospital. By then, I’d had my leg casted up for so long that I’d almost forgotten what it was like to walk around on two legs. Even though the visits from Dash, Daze, and all of the others didn’t stop, everything was still shady and pretty lonely for me. Trapped in that lonely, quiet room that was often eerily silent, confined to that old bed. It felt like an eternity, before I was finally released.
It all happened during my seventh week in that hospital. It was a bright day, with sunlight peering through the blinds. I’d already finished reading the book Daze gave me, and was busy looking through pictures on Instagram when I heard the sound of a knock on my door. I looked upwards to see the doctor enter my room with a clipboard in hand.
“Hey Doc. What’s up?” I asked him. The doctor chuckled as he looked through some of the papers on the clipboard.
"I think we both know what's up." he replied. I tilted my head a bit.
“…No, we don’t. I have no clue what you’re talking about, Doc.” I said back. The doctor looked up at me for a second, before flipping through a few of the papers on the clipboard.
“Well, Mr. Blitz, as it turns out, your leg has fully healed up!” the doctor exclaimed. My eyes widened as I nearly dropped the phone in surprise.
“Wait, really?” I asked hopefully. The doctor nodded, before walking to the side of my bed. He flipped through a few papers, before stopping on an x-ray image of what I assumed was my leg. Sure enough, I couldn’t see any sort of obvious breaks in the bone in the picture.
“Now, it seems like your leg has healed enough to be stood on and walked with, but just to be on the safe side, try to avoid any sort of strenuous activity with it for the next couple of weeks.”
"Yes, sir!" I responded eagerly. He looked at his papers, then put them aside.
"Alright then. Let me just give you a hand here…” He said, as he slowly unwrapped my foot… ________________________________________
I stood at the front doors, right outside of the building. I took a deep breath, allowing the cool, crisp morning air into my lungs as it blew gently around me. The doctor was correct in his assumptions: my foot felt as good as new! As long as I didn’t place too much weight on it, I was free to walk on it, and I have to say, I had never enjoyed walking as much as I did on that walk out of the hospital room. It felt great to finally be free to move wherever I pleased again, and just in time for the dance to boot! After I’d taken a deep breath of air, I texted my brother to pick me up. About a minute later, I felt my phone vibrating. I picked it up and saw that my brother had sent me a message.
‘That’s great, bro! I’ll be there in about ten minutes!’ he said.
‘Glad to hear it, bro. See ya then.’ I texted back. Once the text was sent, I decided to take a picture of myself for my Instagram profile, so the others would know that I was alright. With a smile and a perfect angle, a clear photo was uploaded to my profile. All that was left to do was wait for the others to see it. Turns out that I didn’t have to wait for very long, as my friends started clogging up the comments section almost immediately, saying that they were happy to hear that I was finally good to go.
A couple minutes later, I felt my phone vibrate again. I took a look at it and saw that it was another text message. This time, however, it wasn't from my brother. Instead, it was a text from Soarin.
'Hey, great to see you back in business, bro! Need a ride?' he texted.
‘No thanks. Daze is already coming to pick me up.’ I texted back. The phone vibrated again within seconds.
'Gotcha. I'll see you at the dance.'
'Thanks. Hope you and Spitfire have fun!'
'Will do. Same for you and Dash. ;)'
I prepared to text him back again, but before I could, I suddenly heard a familiar voice yelling my name out. I looked up from my phone, and on the other side of the parking lot, I could see Dash waving to me, wearing the same blue jacket, white shirt and pink and white stripped skirt that she wore when I’d first met her. I was shocked to see her standing there. I wasn’t expecting her to show up at all, especially not so soon after I’d posted the picture. I quickly put my phone away, and waved back to her. Soon after I waved back, she started running towards me. Within seconds, she had reached me, at which point she started to speak.
"Hey Blitz! Glad to see you're out of the hospital!" she said enthusiastically, before she looked down at my foot for a moment. “No crutches, huh?” she asked. I just shrugged.
“Well, the doctor made me use them a few times while I was staying at the hospital, but he said I should be just fine without them now.” I replied. Dash put a hand on her hip and smiled warmly at me.
“Really? You’re lucky, man. The last time I broke my leg, I had to use those crutches for over a month! I guess your injury wasn’t as severe, huh?”
“I guess so.” I replied. She nodded, and sat down on a nearby bench. I sat down next to her, and reached into my pocket, taking the charger she lent me out. “Anyway, you want your charger back?” I asked.
Dash spun her head towards me, her eyes wide for a second. Once she saw the charger in my right hand, she eyes returned to normal as she breathed a sigh of relief.
“Oh yeah! Thanks Blitz. Honestly, I kinda forgot that I’d lent it to ya, and just assumed that I’d lost it or something.” She said nervously as she put a hand behind her head.
“Don’t mention it. Catch!” I said, tossing it lightly towards her. She snatched the charger out of midair and placed it in the right pocket of her skirt.
"Thanks again, Blitz. So, ready for the dance?" she asked curiously.
“Wait, the dance is tonight? I thought it was gonna be reassigned to next week again!” I said with a smile to show that I was joking. She laughed a little bit.
“I know, right? This thing has been reassigned so many times that I was beginning to wonder if it would ever come!” she exclaimed.
"Definitely. Well, regardless of that, I’m ready. I may have cut it a little close, but I’m ready." I said, lightly blushing.
“Same here. Pinkie told me that she and the staff have come up with something that was… how did she put it?” Dash paused for a moment as she thought, before suddenly snapping her fingers.
“Oh yeah, I remember how she put it now!” she said, before continuing in a voice that sounded an awful lot like Pinkie’s voice, “It’s gonna be something super-terrifically-incredibly-funtastically AWESOME!!!” She squealed, waving her arms on her sides rapidly, as if both of her arms were quickly hammering a table that came up to her waist.
“Nice Pinkie voice.” I said to her. She cleared her throat for a moment, then responded in her normal voice.
“Thanks, Blitz. Kinda hurts my throat a bit to do that voice, but I guess I’m glad I can do it well. But yeah, that’s how she put it. Now, I know Pinkie is a little kooky, but when she says it like that, I can guarantee you that she means it. Whatever she’s got planned, I’m sure it’s going to be incredible!”
I chuckled. “I don’t doubt it. I’m just glad I’m gonna get to see it.” I said. Dash nodded silently. We sat there in silence for a little bit, before I decided to continue speaking.
"I’m a little surprised to see you here at all, Dash." I said to her.
"Oh, that?" she said. "Well, I kinda just got lucky, really. I was just going on my afternoon jog, when I got several texts from all of my friends at once telling me that you were okay. I wasn’t far from the hospital at that point, so I decided to see if I could see you in person before you headed out. Looks like I timed it perfectly, huh?” She said with a soft smile, as her rainbow colored hair glimmered in the sunlight.
“Sure did. I’m just glad to see you here, instead of in that stupid room, y’know?” I asked. She nodded.
"I hear you.” she said, before stretching her arms backwards. “Anyway, I think I’m gonna start heading back home soon. You don't need a ride, right?”
"Right." I said with a nod.
“Coolio.” Dash said with a light blush. "Well… I guess I’ll catch ya later?"
"Catch ya later." I said back. Dash rose to her feet. However, instead of running off immediately, she just stood there for a moment, almost as if she were paralyzed or something. “Um… Dash?” I asked after a moment. Before I was able to say anything more, however, I suddenly felt her arms wrap around me quickly, bringing me into a quick hug. The words in my mouth instantly died down. I’m not even sure what I wanted to say to her at that point anymore. I could feel nothing but my heart, which was once steady, but was now rapidly beating as fast quickly as a train. Maybe it was just my imagination, but for a split second, I think I felt her heart beating as well, going just as quickly as my own, if not quicker. I couldn’t speak at all. I felt as if I were frozen in place, completely unsure of what to do.
She soon released me from the hug and ran off. "I-I'll see you at the ball!" she shouted over her shoulder as she sped through the parking lot at a speed that was far faster than any jog I’d ever seen, and within moments, she had vanished from my view. I was taken back by her out-of-nowhere hug. Why then of all times? I didn't need one, I wasn't sad or down or anything like that. So, why did she? It couldn’t have been because of that… could it? I thought for a moment, before shaking my head. Maybe I was taking it a little too seriously. It was just a hug, not a kiss, so it could’ve just been her being friendly. Still… I couldn’t help but speculate. Did she… did she really feel the same way about me as I felt about her? These thoughts made my cheeks burn brighter and hotter, which must’ve looked rather odd to anyone who was passing by… or to the person who pulled up in front of me.
"Hey, bro!" said my brother after some time had passed. "Uh... You alright?" he questioned.
"Wah?!" I said, snapping out of it. "Oh, y-yeah, I'm good. Just lost for a second." How long was I standing there? I checked the time on my phone, and was shocked to see that I'd been there, taken petrified by a four second hug, for just under five minutes. Damn. Who knows how long I'd have stood there if Daze hadn’t come along.
I got in the front seat and fastened myself in. Once I had, Daze stepped on the gas and drove away. I looked up at him, and saw that he had on a tightly lipped grin, looking like he was trying not to burst out laughing.
"So… you look rosy. Something funky happen while I was driving?" He added a wink just to tease me.
"No." I said as I tried to get my blush under control.
"Well, were you thinking about something funky?" He added another wink. I shook my head. He simply chuckled. "Whatever you say, Blitzy. Whatever you say." We drove together in silence before he picked up the conversation again. "So, you excited for that dance of yours?"
"Sure am." I answered. "You’ve got the clothes ready, right?"
"Hey, I ain't leaving my bro without the fanciest clothes at a school dance." he said, bringing up a cocky smile.
"It’s a ball." I told him. He rolled his eyes.
"Ball, dance, shindig… it’s all the same in my book." he said. "I just hope you have fun. You know, hang with friends, dance like it's 1999, and especially, ESPECIALLY, have fun with your date." He smiled and winked.
"Dammit man, I told you, we're just friends!" I exclaimed. He chuckled to himself.
"So, asking her out as a date for a dance isn't anything above the level of 'friend'?" he questioned. I felt my face heat up again. I couldn’t argue with him on that one, so I just shrugged. It wasn’t a great response, but it was the only thing I had. His smirk grew even wider. "Gotcha. You two are a little couple.” he said. I braced myself, ready for the inevitable teasing that I was sure was going to come. However, to my surprise, it never came. Instead, he said, “You know what? That was a good move, Blitz."
"Heh, thanks Daze." I said, placing my back on the rear of my seat, watching the cars pass on by. It was weird, though; part of me felt like I should've been terrified of being in a car on the road, due to the accident that left me in a hospital, but honestly, I didn't feel anything like that. Maybe it was because of my conversation. Maybe it was because I was excited. Or maybe it was because of... her… ________________________________________
Once we got back home, I plopped down on the couch. Man alive, did I miss how soft that thing felt. Daze told me he’d get the outfit ready for me, and that I should just relax in the meantime. I agreed, and sat back for a bit, watching either television, my newest post get likes and comments, or just the window behind me as some people walk on the side of the road, either by themselves or with their dogs. I kept finding myself looking over at the clock, waiting for the time to hit where I wanted it to. Luckily, it wasn't anywhere near as dreadfully long as the hospital was. If it were, I’m pretty sure I’d have gone insane.
Soon enough, I heard Daze call for me, saying that my outfit was ready whenever I was. I headed over to my room, and almost immediately, I noticed the outfit, lying on my bed. It was very neatly folded and still appeared to be in great condition, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure it was a couple years old. I quickly fetched the outfit and locked the doors to my room. Once the door was shut and locked, I went to business, getting out of my old clothes and into the new ones.
Within ten minutes, I was fully suited up. I took a look in my mirror which showed that I looked even better than I thought I would. I was wearing a buttoned-down white shirt with a classic black bow-tie that used to be my brother's, neat, ironed black dress pants with a black, leather belt thrown around the waist, and another shirt, black and un-buttoned, to wear over my white shirt. It looked classy, but not so classy that it would look out of place. Good. I just hoped that Dash would like my outfit.
Soon after I was dressed, I wondered to myself how Dash would look. I wasn’t too worried about it, since I was sure that she would look great in just about anything, but I couldn’t help but wonder how she would dress for this thing regardless. Would it be stylish, or maybe something else? Sure, it was a ball, but I've heard that you can go in casual clothing, which I thought would be a bit disappointing. I began to wonder if Dash would end up going casual. In the few months I’d known her, she had made it clear that she preferred clothing that was really mobile, and easy to move around in, and if she were given the choice, she struck me as the kind of girl who would probably wear casual. She didn’t seem like the kind of girl who would wear a dress or anything like that… it just didn’t seem like her. Then again, maybe she was like that secretly, and I just didn’t know.
Well, whatever she came out in, I was down with it. Dress, casual, she'll still look nice. I walked on over to the bathroom and grabbed some gel. "Guess I can... style it up a little." I said, looking at the mess in the mirror that was my hair, which was strewn all over the place. I guess that's just what happens when you just lay in the hospital bed for a damn long time. Carefully, I styled my hair with a dab of the hair gel. I was aiming for looking nice, but not too nice. A little spike here and there, but not too many. It took a while, but in the end, I finished up.
"Good." I quickly pulled out my phone, and decided to take a mirror selfie. Standing straight with the phone below me, right up to my chest, I took a snapshot and uploaded it. "Stay classy." I said to myself as I typed it in the description.
Checking the time, I noticed I still had a couple of minutes to kill, so I just looked at everyone else's photos. Many of the photos there were of the various dresses and outfits for the school ball. Among them, however, I noticed a photo from Spitfire, which had both Soarin and her together, which stuck out to me. She’d planted her lips on his cheek while he smiled as she took the selfie. They both had very nice looking outfits. Soarin had on a dark-blue vest with a lighter-blue shirt underneath, and Spitfire was wearing a long yellow dress with a sharp orange flame like pattern near the bottom of the photo, as if the lower part of the dress was a raging inferno. Very nice. However, I didn’t see anything from Dash. I was still rather curious to see what she would wear to the ball… but before I could find anything, I heard Daze’s voice from the opposite end of the door.
"Ready?" my brother asked.
"Yeah, just give me a minute!" I replied. After I looked through a few more photos to find one from Dash, I suddenly received a new comment appeared on my photo. I checked my photo, and saw that the comment was from Dash.
'Nice. I like it!' her comment read. I felt a little red, but I was fine aside from that. At the very least, I felt a bit more confident now that she had confirmed she liked it.
I opened my bedroom door, and looked up at my brother, who was swinging a set of car keys around his finger. "Let's go." I said. He nodded, before heading off to the car. I hopped in with him, and with that, we were off to Dash's place...
Everything was calm as my brother drove me towards Dash's place. I sat back in my seat, wondering to myself how the night would go. Whether it would be fun or a bummer. Whether I’d dance a lot or stand around. Whether I’d get to be with Dash as a friend in the end... Or, just maybe, become someone more special... I look to my side, and saw some cars passing us by, most of them being occupied by men in very nice clothing and girls wearing dazzling dresses. I still had no clue what Dash was going to be wearing, but whatever it was, I was sure that it would make my jaw drop down to the floor.
After about ten minutes, we’d finally pulled up in front of Dash's house. Daze pulled the key out of the ignition, and sat back in his seat. He looked at his phone texts with his girlfriend for a moment, then looked up at me. "Well, what are you waiting for? Go get ‘em, Blitz." He said with a warm smile, before returning to texting.
I hopped out of the car, and walked up to her front door. Once I had arrived, I took a deep breath and rang the doorbell. Although the bell was loud, I still managed to hear a specific voice on the other end. One that I knew all too well. It was none other than Dash.
"Coming!" she shouted, the sound of footsteps from the other side following soon after. I braced myself, preparing to present myself. As the footsteps behind the door steadily grew louder, I felt my smile slowly grow larger and larger, until the door finally opened, and... Just wow…
It was Dash, and boy, did she look good. Her hair was still down, but a small, golden wreath was on her head. She wore a rainbow toga with little yellow bolts along the neckline, and she wore a golden bracelet on each wrist with the same bolt logo, although this time the bolts were black. Her tiny diamond studded earrings shined in the light given from her porch, and her white high-heels glistened. I felt my breath leave me for a second. She was... beautiful...
A light blush was on her cheeks, and she let out a little giggle. "H-Hi, Blitz." she said.
I snapped out of my trance, and nervously smiled. "H-Hey."
"So… you ready for the ball? Whole school's coming. Gonna be a big one, I bet." She playfully punched my shoulder, making me chuckle.
"I sure am.” I replied. She nodded, and looked me over once more. As she did, I couldn’t help but speak up about her outfit. “S-So, that’s a nice dress you’ve got there." I commented. Dash’s eyes shot upwards towards mine, a light blush appearing on her face. "It's really... unique and amazing. Kinda fits you in every way, you know, cause the rainbow... hair." I continued. I probably looked completely nervous, taken aback not only by Dash's shocking beauty, but just the fact I was, at that moment, taking her to the school ball! It was something any man would dream of! At least... for me, it was.
"Thanks." Dash said back, her right hand scratching the back of her head. "Rarity stitched it up for me. I mean, I was hoping for something cool, and she was eager to deliver exactly that. It just took a few times ‘cause I just thought it wasn't cool enough. Still, I really did appreciate her help" She bashfully shrugged. "Actually, I kinda wondered what you would think of this. I guessing we knocked it out of the park, huh?"
I scratched the back of my head. "Sure did. I bet the other guys will think so, too."
"Nah, I ain't that luxurious." she replied.
"Are you kidding me?" I questioned. "Look at you! Beautiful, bright, got an outfit that'll stand out, how could they not notice you?" I suddenly stopped and noticed what I’d just said.
Dash smirked. "Sure, and what about you, boy-toy? Think you’re gonna be hot stuff?" she teased. I shook my head, causing Dash to chuckle to herself. "Oh c'mon, Blitz, don’t be so negative. Who says you won't stand out in the crowd? You look real classy, I’d bet the girls can dig a man with as much class as you." She moved her hands toward my clothes to adjust my bow. "You’ll knock ‘em dead, believe me." She said, straightening my bow tie out.
"Eh, I guess." I said, as I thought that really just looked average, myself. "Anyways, how's your day been so far?" I continued.
“Eh, nothing much, really. After I got home from my jog, I just listened to some tunes and practiced shooting some goals in the back for next week’s soccer match. Trottingham won’t know what ‘em!" she said, enthusiastically punching her fist into her other open hand as she finished.
"You?"
"I just watched some television to help pass the time.” I responded. "Sure didn’t pass very quickly, I’ll tell you that much." This made Dash giggle again. "Gee, am I really that funny?" I asked.
"Maybe. Or maybe I’m just really quick to laughter. Doubt it, though." She looked down at my foot. “You think that you’ll be able to move around on that?”
I looked down at my foot, and moved it around a bit. "Probably. I mean, it doesn’t feel painful to step on it or anything."
"Ah." she said. "Well that's good. Are you pretty mobile?" I moved my foot around some more, showing signs of some decent mobility. "Eh. You’re gonna be just fine on the dance floor, Blitz."
I nearly laughed when I heard Dash suggest that. "Dance floor? Oh nonononono, Dash. I ain't a dancer, even if I tried."
"So what?" She gently smiled and leaned on the side of the door. "The whole school ain't a dancing community. A lot of people here suck at it, believe me. Even I’ll admit that I suck at dancing! But hey, it’s still fun to do." She put her finger to my lips. "But I swear, if you tell anyone I said that, then there'll be trouble."
"Not a word." I looked around the neighborhood, trying to think of something else to say. "You usually dress up?"
"Like this?" She asked. I nodded. She looked down at herself for a second, than started to burst out laughing, as if I had told her the most hilarious joke of all time. After about twenty seconds, her fits of laughter died down enough for her to continue, "Oh heck no! I’m a tomboy! I wouldn’t be caught dead wearing these sorts of things in my free time!" Her laughter finally subsided as she examined her dress. "It's just... tonight’s a special occasion, that's all."
"Sure it is." I said, teasing.
"Well you’re one to talk, Mr. Gussy-up! Aren't you usually the cool punk-ish guy?" she fired back with a smirk.
“Touché” I said, snapping my fingers. We both let out a small laugh. "Alright, you wanna head to the dance? Or you still got something to do before heading out?"
"Nah, I'm ready." I lent my hand out like a gentleman. "Oh, what a genuine man." she said in an incredibly over the top accent as she slowly placed her hand into mine. I chuckled at her behavior as I grabbed her hand gently, and we walked towards the car. "Nice car your brother has." she commented.
"I know." I said with a bright smile, as my brother waved us over.
"Come on in!" he said.
"Yeah, we're coming." I said. I opened the door for Dash, making her slightly blush.
"Heh, thanks, but I can do it by myself too, Blitz." She nervously chuckled, before leaning in towards my ear "To be honest, you’re kinda embarrassing me, here." she whispered. "Might even lose my daredevil license if someone catches me like this, y’know?"
"Hey, gotta be a gentleman, right?" I teased. "It’s only for tonight. First thing tomorrow, it’ll all be back to normal, and you'll be back to the same badass Dash that I know and lo- I mean, know." I nervously scratched the back of my head very quickly. "Uh, hehehehehe." I went inside and buckled up, nearly sweating bullets for the close call. Though at this point, would we be a couple? I doubted it, but hey, a man can dream, can’t he?
"Nice car you have here." Dash told Daze.
"Um, thanks." he said, as if surprised. "It’s just an ordinary car, but I appreciate the compliment." He looked at the rear-view mirror, lightly smiling. "We good?" Dash gave a thumbs-up. "Alright then, off to the school we go!" He hit the pedal, and we were off. "Hopefully, we’ll get there quick, before the horde of vehicles-"
Within a moment he’d suddenly stopped. Right in front of him, there was a line of cars. "Arrive." he finished, before placing his head on the steering wheel, most likely crying internally, due to his hatred for situations like these. "Why..." he whispered to himself.
After what felt like an eternity just waiting in a line of cars, we managed to reach the doors. My brother rested his head on the steering wheel. "Well, go on, guys." he said with dread in his voice. "Wish you two the best!"
"Wish you the best getting out of this." I joked. Daze slightly chuckled.
"Tell me about it..." We closed the doors and he drove off into the street... very slowly. Dash giggled in a cute tone.
"I feel kinda bad for him." she said, before turning to face the doors. She took a deep breath in and out, before turning to me and saying, "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's hit the dance floor!" She bolted in, I followed. Once we entered the building, there were crowds of people waiting for the doors to the gymnasium to open up.
“Oh great, looks like we’ll have to wait some more before we can get this party started.” Dash groaned, before looking around, “Oh well, I guess as long as we’re waiting, we may as well see if any of the others made it yet.”
We quickly looked around through the crowd of people in front of the doors, but quickly realized how fruitless it was, as the crowd was so large and tightly packed that pointing out anyone but the tallest students was all but impossible. We backed off from the crowd, and looked around the less crowded areas instead. It didn’t take long before we finally found someone.
"Hey, it's Sunset!" Dash exclaimed, as she pointed her out to me. I looked where she was pointing, and saw Sunset standing in a corner, wearing a simple purple dress with sun emblems adorning the lower half. She was completely alone, leaning backwards onto the wall as she looked towards the crowd. Not even any of our friends were there with her.
"She looks pretty lonely..." I pointed out.
"Sure does. Let's go talk to her." Dash suggested. "I mean, it’s not like we'll be going anywhere anytime soon." I nodded, and we walked towards Sunset. As we got closer, I got a better look at her facial expression, and noticed that she looked... sad.
"Hey, Sunset!" I said, waving. Sunset jumped in surprise and looked up at us. "Oh! Eh, s-sorry for scaring you."
"It's alright, Blitz. Don’t worry about it." she said in a low tone as she tried to force a smile. Dash tilted her head.
"Hey, is everything... alright?" she asked. Sunset’s forced smile immediately left her face. She crossed her arms, put her head down, and didn't respond. "Sunset?" Dash tried to place a reassuring hand on her shoulder, but Sunset moved her shoulder away. "Hey, c'mon, what's up?" Sunset dreadfully sighed. "I..." She shook her head. "…It’s nothing. I just got cramps, that's all."
"Pfft." Dash uttered as she rolled her eyes, "You're a terrible liar, you know that? Even I can tell something’s up!" Sunset went silent once again as she looked away from us. Dash put an arm around Sunset. "C'mon Sunset, I don't wanna see a friend so down on any occasion, especially not one as big as this! Please, just tell us what's wrong."
Sunset looked up towards me. "We're with you, Sunny." I told her in a serious tone.
Sunset sighed, "It's just... Today's a dance-"
"Ball." I corrected, which earned me a glare from Dash, "Er, go on."
"Today's a ball, then. It’s a special night where people dance and have some fun."
Dash was confused. "And… what’s the problem with that? It’s just harmless fun.”
"But... was it?" she questioned. "Was it? When that dance came? When... the Fall Formal happened?"
"Sunset, that's in the past-"
"So what?! Do you think it just goes away that easily?!” Sunset suddenly yelled, her voice starting to crack in the process. Dash jumped backwards in shock, surprised by the sudden yell.
“Woah there, Sunset!” Dash replied. Sunset looked up at her, swallowed a lump in her throat, and continued.
"Sorry for yelling at you, Rainbow. I know you’re just trying to help, but… that memory has always been a really hard one for me to live down, and even nowadays, I can't help but think back to it. And now that I’m here, it’s like I’m reliving that memory all over again. Another ball, dance, whatever the hell you call it, and I can't help but recall that awful memory flash back to then…" I heard her let out a sniffle as she fought back tears. "I ruined that day for everyone..."
I decided to step in. "Hey." I said. Sunset looked up at me, her eyes watery and ready to let the tears loose. "Sunset, I might've been away when this thing happened during the last dance. When you attempted to… y’know… conquer everyone and everything. But really, you have to listen to Dash." Dash looked at me, but I trained my eyes on Sunset. "I don't know how it feels and I probably never will know how it feels, but don’t forget that you’re not alone on this, Sunset. You have us. Applejack, Rarity, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, Dash, and even me, who just joined the gang not too long ago!" Sunset sniffled, as Dash spoke up.
"You're not the girl you used to be, Sunset. The others and I have seen that. Ever since that incident happened, we watched as you’ve been trying your damn hardest to be a new, better, friendlier person, and you know what? The effort shows. And as for the Fall Formal memory, I know it’s something that can be hard to forget, but you can’t let that affect you now. Don’t try to erase it, but don’t let it stop you from enjoying yourself now. Think about having fun, dancing with your friends, be chill, have a good time. Don't let the past paralyze you.”
Sunset rubbed her arm as she looked to the side. I spoke up, "I'm not an expert, but I promise you Sunset... this isn't the Fall Formal. This is a new event, Sunset, a new beginning. It’ll be way different than the last time, I promise." I gently smiled, and Rainbow joined me. Sunset looked up at us and stared for a moment, as if she was taking in everything we’d told us.
“…Thanks guys.” She said, as her lips slowly curved up into a smile. A weak smile, to be sure, but a smile all the same.
"So... wanna hang out with us for the night?" Dash asked.
"Isn't it supposed to be a special night for you two?" Sunset asked with a light laugh. Just what I wanted to hear.
"It may," Dash said, "But it wouldn't hurt to have a sidekick on our side."
With a small sniff, Sunset reached her hand out. "Alright, I'll join you guys."
"Awesome!" Dash said, then soon a teacher showed up in front of the doorway leading to the gymnasium.
"Attention, students!" she shouted. "We officially declare this ball... open!" Other teachers opened the doors wide open, and the crowds of kids stuffed their ways inside, everyone literally touching each other cause they were that close. I looked at Dash and Sunset.
"Well, I guess it's party time." I said.
"Guess so." Sunset said in a happier tone than before. We headed out towards the dance floor, where people were already smiling and starting to dance. It was time to get this party started. ________________________________________
Time passed as we drank some punch laid out on the table, had a chat with some people, did a bit of solo dancing, and occasionally watched as the other students made fools of themselves on the dance floor. It turns out Dash was right; most of the students at this school really were terrible dancers. Sunset got better as she hung out with us more, and Dash... she just kept smiling the whole time. I enjoyed myself enough, but at the same time… I wished that Dash and I could perhaps get some private time. Sunset had stuck with us for the entire first hour, and there wasn’t really anything wrong with that, but I kinda wanted to be with Dash for at least little bit...
It was around 1:30 when I finally got that chance. I was standing with Sunset near the back wall as we watched some of the people on the dance floor attempt to dance. Dash had taken a break from us, and was drinking some punch in the corner while talking with Applejack about something. I took a look over at Sunset, and saw her lightly bobbing her head up and down in time with the beat, a content smile on her face. I took a deep breath. If I wanted some alone time with Dash, I’d have to make my move now. "Um, Sunset?" I asked.
"Yeah?" she said as she turned her head towards me, still bobbing her head up and down gleefully.
"Is it alright if... me and Dash have some private time? You can still be with us, but would you please give us some time alone?"
She kept her smile and gave a thumbs-up. "No problem." Sunset walked away into the dancing crowd, but she turned to me. "Have fun with her." she said with a playful wink.
"Wha-" I cut myself off as she disappeared into the crowd. I shot a glance over at Dash and saw that Applejack had already walked away, leaving Dash alone with her drink. I braced myself, and proceeded.
"Hey." I said to Dash.
"Sup?" The tomboy took a long sip of her drink.
"So, uh... Nice ball, dont'cha think?" She nodded as she took another sip of her punch. Her expression looked calm and confident, so I decided to spit it out, "Say, you wanna hit the dance floor?"
Dash's eyes widened and she spat out punch. Her cheeks flushed the rosy color of red, her pupils were shrunk, she was thrown off. "U-Uh... D-Dance? Like… r-right now?" It seemed like she didn't expect this question. Or didn't expect to dance with me, at all. "Um, I don't think you wanna..."
"What do you mean?" I asked. "You were just dancing a while ago."
"Yeah, but that was a different kind of music."
"What do-" I stopped myself as I suddenly heard the music. Loud and... slow? It seemed like actual ball music now. I stared into the crowd of people... now holding hands... Uh-oh. "Oh. I thought-"
"The little party music was playing? Nope." Dash's cheeks were still deep red. "Now we’re into this slow-dancing thing or whatever. And... I'm not good at these things. At all."
"Really?"
She gave me a glare. "Do I look like the kind of person to slow-dance? I wouldn’t know the first thing about it!" she answered. "Honestly, this sort of dancing would be more Rarity’s thing than anyone else’s.”
"Gotcha." We stood there, unable to think what else to do. Everyone seemed to be having a good time doing the dance. Some looked great, some looked like crap, but they still kept a smile on either way. I couldn’t help but wonder… Could it be worth a shot? What will Dash think of this?
"Hey, Dash." I said, lightly nudging her.
"’Yeah?" she asked, turning towards me.
"Heh, would you mind if..." I glanced at Dash, her cheeks bearing the color of her eyes, in which her pupils were getting larger by the second. I continued on, "I share this dance with you?" I tried to do a little bow, but it felt really nerdy and geeky. I heard Dash giggle.
"Uh, hehe." Dash rubbed the back of her neck, thinking her decision. I lent a hand out, making her blush more.
"Just this once? I mean, it's my first time, too, so it couldn't hurt to do it together, right?" I nervously chuckled.
Her mouth curved upwards into a smile. A very happy smile. "Why, of course we could do this dance together." she said, in her over the top fancy accent, which got a chuckle out of me. She took my hand, and we walked to the dance floor, trying to find some room to ensure we don't interrupt anyone.
With her soft hand onto mine, it felt like the world around me got brighter. Like a scene from an eighties teen romance, the music filled my mind and Dash shimmered in the light. Her adorable smile made me smile, and my heart beat so loudly, I swear I was worried other people would hear it right then and there. The rhythm was much faster than the slow tempo as the blood rushed through me, my mind gathering everything that was happening. I was about to dance with Rainbow Dash.
I nearly squeed as we drew closer to the crowd, our hands still touching and gripped tightly. Finally, we stopped, and looked at where we stood. Her chest nearly touched mine, our toes barely touched, and our faces were so close, I could feel her minty breath on my neck. It felt funny, really. A ball is something you'd see in a cheesy romance movie, or read in a fable about a princess meeting her prince. Y’know, romance and stuff. It was just something that happened in a movie or book, though, not in real life. But apparently now, I guess it is. The situation was about to get as real as it could get.
I decided to make the first move. As I slowly took a step back, Dash took a step forward. Both our hands were held, one hand on each side. We continued doing small steps, until a little part of the song came on that I twirled her abruptly.
"Wah!" Dash yelped as she twirled, bent back, and got caught by my hands. I hoisted her back up, giving her a playful smirk. "Oh, I see..." Dash said. She snickered, and I lightly blushed. "Got any moves, dork?"
"Not with an injured ankle." I joked.
She lightly giggled. "You wanna bet?"
"Once it heals, I'll prove it." She nodded.
"Gotcha." she said. "We'll see..."
"We'll see, indeed." I did the twirl again, the same thing happening, where she bent back and I caught her. "Just to let you know, I'll win." I tossed her in the air, grabbed her, and spun around, slowly though because of my ankle. She laughed out loud, which almost threw me out-of-balance.
"Easy there, kid." she added with a chuckle. I felt heat and pressure pull right into me. Her beautiful eyes took me away. Dash made a cute squeak as I hoisted her up again. My heart paced quickly as I felt like the time was right. "What? Got more to show-"
"Dash?" I spoke. She quieted down as I took a deep breath. "Uh, is it alright if I ask you something? A little... personal?"
"Go on." I heard her breathing become faster and slightly heavier.
I just hoped I wasn't getting her worked up too much. "Have you ever... gotten a boyfriend before?"
"You mean aside from Rush? No." Right as she said that, I felt her skin growing warmer. "Why?" I saw her blush get brighter.
"F-Funny thing, Dash... Uh, well, erm..." I was losing control fast. I felt way too nervous, I was forgetting my words, even though I knew what I was going to do, my blood ran cold. I was paused in the moment.
"What?" she said very softly. A concerned expression was on her face as she got herself up. "I'm listening, Blitz. Whatever you gotta say, know that I won't think anything different."
"If you're sure..." Very swiftly, I asked, "Would you like to... be with me?"
The scene immediately went from very good to very bad. Her smile suddenly dropped, being replaced by a shocked expression. Something I feared. My heart and mind felt broken in seconds, for I knew what was heading my way...
"Blitz?" she questioned. My head went down. Full of shame.
'Stupi-'
"Could you say that again?" I noticed her voice wasn't something like upset or angry. She asked it casually, not in a negative tone, or at least any tone I didn't want to hear.
"Well, I..." Barely, I got myself back together to ask the question again. "Would you like to... bewithme?" The final three words came out jammed together, making it hard to understand.
"Would I like to?" A pause filled our conversation. I didn't want to say anything, especially not the same question again. "Heh, Blitz we're already hanging out." she joked.
"No!" I accidentally said very loudly. I covered my mouth, giving myself a second to think, "What I mean is: I like you, Dash." She still kept her expression. "Like, like-like you. As in crush like." I could feel the hairs on my arms and legs stand up, as my legs twitched in anxiety. "I... I wanna be your boyfriend."
Dash took a step backwards in shock, both of her hands gripped together over her chest, "Me..." she said quietly. "Me?" she asked louder. I nodded. She stared for a moment, before letting off a smile, "Blitz, don't be ridiculous."
"Honest." I said in a natural tone. "If I were lying, I wouldn't be this flustered." And she noticed it, all my blush and stood-up hair, me anxiously moving around in place. "Serious."
"Really..." she said in a nearly silent tone. Her usual up-beat tone had all but vanished, and she looked like she had no idea what to say as she faced downwards to the floor. "You actually... like me. You like me."
I couldn’t help but tilt my head. I was so confused on whether she was happy or sad, whether she liked the sound of it or not. "Is that a bad thing?" I said very carefully. Dash looked up to me.
"No." Her lips curved. "Not at all." Raising herself up by her toes, she reached up to my head and pressed on my lips. She kissed me. I was taken aback in awe. As I was just about to make a move, she did it instead. Easy-to-say, I was blown away. Her warm lips pressed onto mine, the texture so soft and gentle, like an angel from the heavens. My arms wrapped around her, feeling the smooth skin of her back. Her arms were around my neck, the warmth from her skin getting rid of the slight chill. I felt like I had gotten transferred into a fantasy: everything about it was angelic, dreamy, amazing.
And it was from her.
Slowly, we separated lips. My eyes didn't show shock, but rather enjoyment. It was miraculous how I could simply just stand there, not fainting a bit. I took a look at Dash, and saw a dreamy little twinkle glitter in her eyes. It was clear that she enjoyed it just as much as I had. Dash twirled a finger in her hair. "Not bad for a kiss, huh?" she spoke.
"First one." I said. "That was-"
"Awesome?" she said, raising a brow and keeping her smile.
“Yeah. Awesome.” I said back to her. She blushed a little, but only for a second.
"Thanks, Blitz. But… can I ask something?" I noticed her faintly dropping the smile as she spoke. The dreamy situation began to feel like it was slipping into a serious one.
"Sure, what?" I asked.
"Why?" She tilted her head. "Why do you want me? I mean, you don't really know me. It’s not like you have to be with me since first grade like Fluttershy or something, but still… we’ve known each other for such a short time, and I just have to know why you like me so much?" I took a moment to think the words right. "Don’t get me wrong, I'm not mad or anything. To be honest, I saw this coming. I mean, you're pretty easy to see through." I blushed embarrassingly. "But I legit need to know. I may not know much about love, but I do know it doesn't come instantly like a fairy tale."
"Dash," I reassured, "The reason I like you... it's because you look cool. You know, hot, beautiful, cute."
She puffed her cheeks out. "I'm not cute." she said.
"Aw, come on, doesn't hurt to admit." I said. Dash just rolled her eyes.
"Alright, I'll humor you. Let's just say that I am cute, even though I'm not. Even if that’s the case, that’s all just cosmetic stuff. Any girl can pull that off! C'mon, what else have you got for me?"
"Well, you're athletic, got a kick-ass attitude, unlike any of the girls I've seen, and you got some heart for others. Kind, passionate... You're just awesome." I brought up a smile, meaning every word. But...
"Heh, thanks." she said. She looked off to the side for a moment, as she rubbed her arm. After a moment, she finally spoke up, "Um, Blitz?"
"Yeah?" I listened very closely.
"I... I'm really thankful that you like me and all. Really, I am. And I know that I did just kiss you, but… I don't think... I want to." I felt my heart slowly slip down into my stomach as she continued to speak, "Blitz, you’re not a bad guy at all. You're awesome and cool and cute and all of that jazz, but I really don't think I want this."
"Oh..." I said, feeling a little down. But I had to ask. "Why?"
"Blitz," she said, "Believe me, it’s not you, it’s me. I mean, I really do like you, and I’m glad that I met you, but love? I don't want that... At least, not now." I sighed quietly, "I know it sucks." She placed a hand on my shoulder, "Please don't be down over it, though. I still see you as the same friend as you were when we got here. And, really, I'm happy I got myself someone to hang out with to a dance, for once, but I just don’t think I can handle another relationship so soon after the first one." I wanted to speak out, but decided not to. I didn't want to sound arrogant or rude, like if I don't want her to be this way. "We can..." Her hand gripped mine. "W-We could still be friends! Just like I said! And who knows, maybe I might be with you one day, but right now... It's a little early, don'tcha think?"
I nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Please don't be upse-"
"I'm not!" I reassured. "Dash, I'm alright with that! You don't wanna be with me, that's fine. Your choice is always acceptable. I’m just a bit... taken back, that's all."
"And I understand that.” Dash told me. "Maybe one of these days, we might be something. You're a great guy, Blitz, but I’m just not ready now." Quickly, she pecked me on the cheek. "Let's just stay friends." She lent out her pinkie. "Friends?"
I wrapped my pinkie around hers almost instantly. "Friends." Her mouth curved a smile. "For now."
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie came up to us. "Hey guys!" she said in joy. "You two doing alright?"
We both smiled. "Yeah." I answered. "We're cool."
"Awesome!" she said. "Well, I dunno about you, but I'm gonna hit up the beats again! You two still need some dance floor time?"
Dash looked at me, then back at Pinkie. "I think we're good, Pinkie." she said as a hint of blush grew on her face.
"Yeah." I agreed, blushing the same amount.
"Alright!" Pinkie then sped off towards the booth, ready to pick the beats back up. Meanwhile, I rubbed the back of my neck.
"So, if we were to get together… how long do you think it would be before we’d be a thing?" I asked. Dash tapped her chin.
"That, I wouldn't know." she said with a shrug. "Could be next month, maybe a couple, maybe a year, who knows. I'm just... kinda still recovering from my last relationship. I honestly need a break." She gave me a hopeful smile, though. "I seriously appreciate how you took that…" Her fist playfully punched my shoulder. "…Like a man."
I nervously chuckled. "Anytime." On the booth, as soon as the dancing music ended, Pinkie put on a record, playing some upbeat music. "Suppose it can't be bad to dance, right?"
"Of course not!" And from that point, everything was joyful. We danced, chat some more, talked to our other friends, and had the time of our lives. It wasn't quite the night I was looking forward to, but most of it was what I would call a dream come true. A kiss, dancing with Dash, but a relationship? No...
Monday. It was Monday already, as if the entire weekend literally flew by after the ball. I got up, and looked directly at the sky through my window. It was a clear, blue sky, one which made me grin a little as I kicked myself out of bed. While doing my things, brushing my teeth, putting on the right clothing, my mind buzzed with all sorts of memories. Memories of the ball flashed all through my mind: the talk with Sunset, some really good jokes with the gang, and especially, especially, that kiss...
It all felt so warm in a house that was usually so cold, especially in the morning. While we hadn’t become a couple, it was still an incredible night. One worth replaying in my mind over and over again... or at least it would’ve been, if the alert on my phone didn’t snap me back into reality. There were only ten minutes left until the bus arrived. I quickly fetched myself three pieces of buttered toast, quickly devoured them, and set out. ________________________________________
When I got off of the bus, I was quick to notice that the gang had beaten me there. They were all sitting at a table only a little distance away, smiling as they stared at me. No sign of Dash though, who I figured was probably just sick for the day. I walked over to the group.
"Hey guys! Where's Dash?" I asked.
Pinkie, bearing the biggest smile of the pack, quickly answered, "Dashie’s sick." Her smile faltered for a moment when she spoke, as if she were disappointed with what she’d said, before quickly returning back to normal, "But hey, at least you're here!" She said gleefully. She stared at me for a couple of seconds, and then suddenly made a squee noise. "Ooh… I can't take it anymore! HOWWASYOUR-"
AJ covered Pinkie's mouth. "Er-hem..." she said, "Before Pinkie begins playing fifty questions with ya, let me ask ya: how was your night at the ball?"
My cheeks almost flushed. "Pretty good, actually."
Rarity giggled. "Oh, I bet it was much better than that, darling." She giggled more. “Come on, tell us all about it!"
My cheeks flushed a bit. It felt weird having Dash's friends asking me that, especially while they were smiling like that, and the fact that they were all girls only made the situation feel even more unusual. Usually guys would talk about this with other guys, but that didn't seem like the situation here. But hey, odd or not, they were my friends, and I had no problem with letting them know the truth.
"Well, first off... we did kiss." Everyone gasped and cheered. "But it was just once, and nothing much happened after that." I clarified afterwards.
"Aw c’mon, there's gotta be more to it than that." Applejack said.
"No, really, that's about it." I responded. "It was just that kiss and then..." I trailed off, which only made the girls more interested in the conversation then ever.
"And then…?" asked Rarity, her eyes seeming to glimmer in anticipation.
"Did you kiss again?" Pinkie guessed with a giggle.
"Well," I said, recalling the words Dash told me…
‘Believe me, it’s not you, it’s me. I mean, I really do like you, and I’m glad that I met you, but love? I don't want that... At least, not now.’
I felt my heart drop a little as I remembered those words. I was perfectly fine with her decision, but even so... they still hurt to remember.
"She said she didn't want us to become a thing." The group suddenly grew completely silent. Most of the girls looked like they were shocked by what I’d said, some shaking their heads while others just stared at me in disbelief. I cleared my throat. "At least, not yet." I added.
"So… she denied you, huh?" Fluttershy said softly as she looked me straight on. Of all of the girls, she was the only one who didn’t seem particularly surprised by what I’d said.
"But how?" Pinkie quietly said as her hair slowly deflated. "That's… I mean… that’s just a little... silly of Dashie."
AJ just shook her head again. "I'm sorry to hear that, sugarcube." She said to me.
"I-i'm fine." I told them. "I really am. Remember, I said 'yet'. So, if anything, we could become something later." A small blush grew.
"Wait, did she really say 'yet'?" Rarity asked. "What do you- er, what does she mean by that?"
"She said she didn't want to be part of a couple again so soon, so she put us off as friends. Close ones. She did, however, say that maybe we could be a thing if we gave it more time. You know, after we’ve gotten to learn more about each other and all of that. None of us are at bad ends."
Rarity nodded, but didn’t say anything. The group then looked at each other for a second, before Applejack suddenly spoke up.
"Why do I have a feeling..." she began, adjusting her hat for comfort while she spoke.
"Feeling? What do you mean by that?” I asked her.
"Nothin'." she said. "It’s really nothing more than a theory anyway.”
"What?" we all asked at the same time. AJ shooed away a nearby fly, then continued to speak.
"It really ain't that complicated, honestly." She adjusted her hat again. "Just think back to that week after Dash broke up with Rush. Ya’ll remember how hard it was on her, right?" Everyone nodded except me.
“Yeah, I remember that. I never thought I’d see Dash that… broken” Sunset said as she looked over to the side.
"Broken? Was it really that bad?" I asked.
"Sure was." Applejack answered. "I wouldn’t say that it put her in a depression or anything like that, but she was clearly heartbroken over the whole thing. Flat out refused to talk to any of us for about a week."
“But… when I talked with Dash about that whole breakup, she sounded like she was fine with it until Rush put up those pictures!” I exclaimed.
“And is that really surprising?” Rarity asked me as she studied her nails, “I mean, you know how Dash is. You know how tough she is. Is it really that surprising that she would leave out a detail that would make herself seem so fragile, especially while talking to someone she’d only met that same semester?”
I paused for a moment as I thought about what Rarity had said. She certainly had a point; I had only just met Dash when she told me that story after all, and if there was one thing that I learned about Dash very early on, it’s that she took a lot of pride in how tough she was. It would certainly make sense for her to hide a detail that would make her seem weak.
“... Well, I guess that makes sense. How bad was her breakup?” I asked.
"Well… she wouldn’t let me talk to her after school until five days after the breakup." Fluttershy said. "And even when she did start talking, it was only for ten minutes, way shorter than our usual chat after-school." She winced, "I still remember how sad she looked. Definitely not the Dash we know and love."
"Ya got that right." AJ said. "Even when we did have a chance to talk to her, she barely added in the conversations. Most of them weren't even about the break-up at all, but it didn’t matter one little bit. For the longest time, she was just a shell of her former self. We all thought she was done by then."
I slowly pieced it together, getting what AJ was saying. "I think I get where you’re going with this... So what you’re saying is that Dash doesn't want to be with me because-"
"…She's still dealing with that break-up." AJ finished. "She may not harbor any love for him anymore. Heck, she hates him with all her guts, but after the way she was treated both during the breakup AND after it... I’d imagine that it made her really wary towards relationships. When you think about it that way, it’s kind of a miracle she even bothered with you, Blitz.” She rubbed her arms. "Don’t get me wrong, she's been doing a lot better since then, but I’d wager that the effect's still rubbin' on her."
"Poor dear..." Rarity said.
"Well, I'll give her as much time she needs, either way. Whether she does or doesn't have that still tearing her down." I said. My response made the others smile… well, most of them, anyway. Fluttershy didn’t grin after I said that, and was looking to the side with her arms crossed, seemingly deep in thought.
"Well… that's good." Fluttershy said with a nod. "But, uh, say..." she began, before motioning for me to kneel down a little. I did what she asked, at which point she started whispering in my ear, "If you do manage to get Dash to be your girlfriend, can you promise me that you aren't going to break her heart?"
I smiled and gave her a thumbs up. "You have my word for it. If I somehow do, you can hunt me down." I answered. I expected that to reassure her a little, but surprisingly, it seemed to have the opposite effect, as she spoke her next words very bitterly.
"You’d better not hurt her." Fluttershy said lowly.
"What?" I questioned, shocked by the sudden level of bitterness in her tone.
"Oh! N-nothing!" she said, blushing with embarrassment, as if she herself was surprised by what she had said. Before anyone could say anything, however, the first bell began ringing. "Well, I'll catch you guys later."
"Good luck, dear." said Rarity.
"Same 'ere." said AJ.
"Just... don't tell her I thought of-"
"No worries, partner." AJ said, tipping her hat. "Trust me, we won't be spoiling our chat 'ere, either."
"Alright." I made my way to my locker, but on my way, I couldn't help but notice a few people's faces. They were looking at me, but had no clear expression. No glare, no smile, nothing like that. Most of them just jerked to the side to catch a glimpse of me. I was confused by this, of course, but I didn’t really bother thinking about it too much. After all, it was just some quick glimpses.
I put my stuff inside my locker, all while people continued to stare at me. Even while looking inside of my locker, I could feel several pairs of eyes on the back of my neck. When I turned my head back, I saw a girl snap her head immediately away from me as soon as I looked. “What’s with everyone today?” I said to myself as I closed the locker. Sure, it wasn’t the entire school, as there were a good group of teens could care less, but I certainly wasn’t used to this much attention. Did I do something strange?
Suddenly, I realized what the deal with all of the stares was. I let out a long sigh. It had to have been the kiss. I mean, who wouldn't focus on the person who kissed one of the most popular students of the school, a star-stunning athlete that people wished they could be who hadn’t been in a relationship for months, and then all of a sudden here comes this new kid fresh off the streets, who just kisses her on a huge night that the entire school basically went to within the span of a few months. Who wouldn’t find that surprising? I mean, it wasn't like I was asking for any attention, I just kissed Dash cause, well... she's Dash. Beautiful, strong, amazing! As soon as she comes back, though... it might just be-
"Hey, loverboy!" said a male voice.
"Huh?" I said, turning around. And alas, it was a jock. School jacket, white shirt, and apparently low-hanging pants, the official uniform of a douche who just wanted to cause trouble. I could sense it all over him. His arms were folded as another man stood next to him, wearing a similar attire, though smaller. "Oh, well would you look at this?"
"Yeah, would you look at that..." said the man who called for me, "So, we heard that you had your dancing shoes on, huh?" I rolled my eyes.
"Yeah yeah, I get it. Rush Down wants to threaten me because of what happened last night, so he sent you two to scare me, and blah-di-blah-blah. I get it. Can we just skip to the point?"
The smaller jock leaned in to his friend's ear. "Are we really that obvious?" he whispered.
"Well," said the jock, ignoring his friend's question, "Seems to me like you’re a step ahead of the game. I guess you already know that Rush don’t take too kindly to what you've been doing with her."
"I guess you could say that." I answered. "And you know what, why does he care? Dash don't want him."
"But he wants her." said the smaller jock.
"Can it." the other jock said to his friend through his teeth. "Y'see, Rush can’t stand things going to waste, and a fine piece of ass like her with a scrawny thing like you seems like a pretty big waste to me."
"Salty much?" I responded. "Why don’t you go on back to Rush and tell him that she’s not my girlfriend?"
"But you kissed!" the smaller jock said out loud, making his friend backhand him.
"Yeah, but let's just say she wants to take time and not just get straight into it."
"Probably don't want none of you, then." the bigger jock spoke.
"She just wants to get to know me better first, that's all. By the way, you can quit the tough act already. It’s not fooling anyone." I said to him. His fist was almost clenched, but not fully. "Just let it go, already. If Rush really is this mad about it, then he can come over here himself and say it to my face instead of sending Dumb and Dumber over to try to scare me." I said bitterly. I heard what sounded like a low growling noise coming from one of the jocks. It sounded like I’d really struck a nerve with them.
"You’d better watch your mouth, pretty boy!" the jock snapped. "You have any idea what Rush could do to you if he came over here himself? He'd take your head and stamp it right through the top of the field goal post!"
"Overkill, much?" I questioned.
"Just watch it, kid." he warned. "Cause if you keep flapping that lip like that… your luck might just become very bad, very fast."
I rolled my eyes and turned my back. "Just get to class." I said, as I walked away from them at my regular pace. In a minute, I ended up in my classroom, but I thought back to the petty threat they gave me. I didn’t get it. What was Rush’s problem? Yeah, she kissed me once, but that didn’t change anything. She wasn’t my girlfriend! She just wasn’t! Whatever his problem was though, it didn’t matter. I was positive that he wasn't going to lay a single finger on me or Dash, no matter how big a game he spoke. Even if he tried, we're pretty well covered. We have Dash's friends, Soarin, and hell, Spitfire looks like she can floor a guy out. They wouldn't dare...
I continued on with the day. I still got a glimpse every now and again, but the annoyance wore off rather quickly. All I hoped was that Dash and I wouldn't be pressured or anything by all this... and hopefully, she won’t try to confront Rush Down or any of his team over it...
'