Pleasant Little Place
Rainbow Road.
Indeed a pleasant slice of the Equestrian Dream. Rainbow Dash was happy to have found a cute quaint neighborhood to call her home, ever since she left the familiarity of her homeland, it had been a few long weeks since she's had a good night's sleep.
Earth was a whole different animal compared to that of Equestria. Most areas were crowded with buildings that stretched far into the heavens or once pastel blue skies that were clouded by the darkness of odd smoke.
They called it smog, created by the destruction of nature and the hidden greed shared by most humans.
Yet this little patch of light had been untouched by the harsh reality of the world. This adorable area was an upcoming community, simply still under construction at the moment. Which meant to her surprise, that amongst the miles of lush vibrant green grass stood only one house alone.
Well not quite alone, her tiny puffy white cloud was across the street hovering in place waiting for her attention. Back home clouds were free real estate to lounge upon or even catch a few long naps, but on earth, they were pricey pieces of scenery that could be rented.
Again the whole greed thing, sometimes she felt earth was full of Spoiled Rich clones.
The turquoise pegasus flew down the open road at a moderate speed. Her neighbor's impressive two-story house coming into view, it was in absolutely pristine condition yet oddly enough painted the ugliest shade of grey she'd ever seen.
Shaking off the shadow of the mighty colossus, she swooped in for a landing atop her side of the street. Her smile beamed brighter than the sun as she lifted her head towards the sky. Her cloud wafted high above begging for a long nap, even better this whole area was dead silent.
Her violet eyes narrowed a tiny bit.
Perhaps too…
“Neighbor.” A gruff masculine voice boomed behind the tiny pony.
“Ahhhh!” Rainbow Dash released a loud whiny pouncing backward much like an oversized cat.
The male human behind her stood tall and intimidating. His hair was a taupe tangled mess with dark umber eyes that burned into the pony like hot coals. He wore an unzipped grey jacket, tattered shoes, and filthy pants.
His mere sight sent chills down her spine.
“You frightened…” she spoke with a quivering tone.
“Rooke…Johnathan Rooke.” His voice scoffed.
“I'm …” she was once more cut off by this odd rough human.
“This is your side, that is mine!” his hand flaunted behind his back in an ominous fashion.
“...” Rainbow Dash pursed her muzzle silently.
“I don't like visitors!” John slowly leaned inward towards the equine, his large hand roughly booping her upon the snoot.
The mare gave a shocked horse noise in reply. Soon her deviously shrouded neighbor was off with both hands in his pockets, rudely vanishing into his massive house of mystery. She just knew that psychopath was bad news! The less she would see of him the better, with a loud enraged snort the mare flew off into the sky.
Never noticing John's gaze watching her from behind a crimson red curtain.
The technicolor mare lounged upon her cotton cloud in a dreamy daze of pure relaxation. Curled up in a ball high above the ground, she watched the pastel blue sky in wonder enjoying a lovely little breeze caress over her coat.
Eyes lowered down below. The area was under construction off in the distance, but for the moment it was absolutely quiet. This was a place she could only dream of, which was something she planned to do tons of in the future.
With a giggle she lifted onto her hooves performing a feline-like stretch, popping her hind joints in a lax nature. Letting her gaze trail across the street she spotted an odd sight. No, if she were honest more of a glimpse.
It almost looked as if Rooke was carrying a pony in his arms out into his backyard. Rainbow quickly rubbed the sleep out of her eyes, the faint sound of his door shutting caused her ears to twitch.
It couldn't have been a pony?
He tossed it into his waste bin.
Unless?
Tapping tiny hooves together the pegasus bit her lower lip in curiosity. “Totally not a pony, I'm just seeing things.” She snorted with a belief that she was just letting her imagination run away with her. After all, it was just a glimpse.
“Oi, pony!?” Rooke yelled out angrily.
Rainbow squealed in horror nearly jumping off her cloud. Shooting her gaze directly below her to spot Rooke right under the cloud. “Yes, dude?” Rainbow tilted her head off to the side confused her heart thumping loudly inside her chest.
“Your grass needs watering.” He scoffed rudely.
“Um, I don't care? ~ I just need my cloud.” Rainbow rolled both eyes in plain view of the odd man.
“Well in this neighborhood, we keep up lawn care!” Rooke lifted up large hand pointing a finger to the pony, his hand-stained a dark crimson.
The pegasus scrunched her muzzle in awe of such a shocking sight. “Did you cut yourself, sir?”
“Nevermind that, just fix up this lawn!” He quickly hid his hand deep into a jacket pocket.
“But…” Rainbow stuttered the man quick to start walking away.
“If I come here again, you wouldn't like that!” Rooke huffed before vanishing like the wind, for such a tall man he was pretty swift on his feet.
Pouting Rainbow blew a raspberry towards her neighbor, taking a few cautious steps atop her cloud in hopes of catching another glimpse of something odd or sinister. “No we would…” she screamed in terror as she plummeted off the cloud by accidentally stepping off the side.
With a loud crash, she hit the grass below in a cartoonish cloud of dust. “Not...ow!”
Her ears pinned back as she took a much-needed breather. This Neighbor was up to something funny and she was going to find out what.
Even if it killed her.