> Rainbow Dash's adventure (temp. title)
>  by Mewzy
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> Ch 1: arrival
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         Rainbow Dash was hanging out in her room, doing nothing that would exceed her definition of ordinary. She was mostly just relaxing after a long day of hard work. Eventually, boredom won her over, and she started staring out her window; an action that would usually end in flying around. She could tell that a storm cloud was lingering about 500 feet away. She didn't remember the pegasi planning any type of rain tonight, so she was curious of it. She was about to fly out to it when a giant flash of red, yellow and blue lightning struck; the same colors as the bolt on her cutie mark. Afterwards, a small ball of light lingered where the lightning hit. 

"Oh, there better not be a forest fire I have to take care of." She thought to herself. She watched it, paying attention to whether or not it spread slowly. It didn't; in fact, the light moved upwards. Rainbow Dash was confused and concerned; it was heading straight towards her. It got brighter and brighter, until finally she was backing away from the window. She nervously backed herself into the wall. The sphere of light flew through her window and stopped. It slowly transformed into a…something. Slowly, the shape became much more apparent. It was a ghost-like version of… herself. Her mouth opened, but she didn't say anything. She was in awe, confusion, and fear at the same time. She was finally able to speak. "What are you- me doing here?!" The ghost looked at her with a smile, and even laughed a bit. 

"You're going to call me 'you- me? That could get confusing fast." Rainbow Dash held her mouth agape. She thought she was crazy. "You're not crazy. To answer your next question, yes, I can read your mind. I am you, you know." "But why are you here?" The ghost put a serious look on her face. "I'm going to send you somewhere you've never seen before. You will not be able to resist." The second the ghost finished its sentence, Rainbow realized her legs were stuck to the ground. The ghost split into 5 other forms- they each morphed into one of Rainbow's friends; Applejack, Twilight, Pinkie Pie, Fluttershy, and Rarity. The six ponies started spinning around Rainbow Dash at a high speed. "Wh-why are you doing this?!" 

Rainbow screamed.  "Because you must-" the ghosts were then cut off by the speed they were moving at. They were going so fast, the only thing Rainbow could see was a white line. From the line, lightning bolts of red, blue and yellow shot out and touched her. The amount of lightning striking her quickly increased, until it was almost a solid wall of electricity. She blacked out as she fell through a portal in the colors of a rainbow.




Rainbow Dash regained consciousness in a small forest. The whole thing was layered in a thin fog. "H-hello?" she said quietly. The trees were too thin to be of the Everfree forest. There was something about this place that she could tell was different. She had flown all across Equestria; it was required for a pegasi to know exactly where everything was. She had never seen this forest before, though. She thought for a minute, and then thought about what happened at her house. She realized she wasn't in Equestria anymore. Then something made Rainbow stop; the sound of a twig snapping. She backed up a bit, prepared for anything. She calmed down when she saw it was only a squirrel. The sight gave her a feeling of relief, and a new feeling of hope. Life was definitely here; she simply had to find it. She turned in one direction, and decided she would only fly in that direction until she found anything. She flapped her wings, and quickly became airborne. Then, she zipped off, avoiding every tree in her way. Something about the air made her feel relaxed. It was so… fresh. In Equestria, the air was fresh of course, but nothing like this. 

She flew for an hour or so, before she came to a medium-sized building. Rainbow Dash recognized it as a house, but it wasn't designed like her cloud home. She was able to open the door, so she went inside. It was a nice place, with a fairly simple layout. There was a kitchen, a living room, with a large black square on the wall, a dining room, and some stairs. She checked the kitchen out first. In it, she found a silver tube, which curved up and faced down into a small bowl. It had two handles; a blue handle and a red handle. She pulled on the blue handle and, much to her surprise, found a steady stream of water coming from it. She took a long drink from the stream, as the last time she drank anything she couldn't remember. When she was done, she turned it off. She wondered about the red handle, but she left it alone. She looked around for some type of food, but she couldn't seem to find anything. She had one more place to look; a large box with handles in the wall. She opened it up, and a burst of cold air flew out. Her mouth watered at the sight; there were all kinds of different foods. 

There were olives, lemons, cheese, cake, strawberries, apples, tomatoes, and so much more. She didn't know what strawberries were, so she grabbed a few and popped them into her mouth. The second the flavor touched her tongue, she felt she was in danger of drooling. She was completely speechless; they were the most delicious thing she had ever tasted. She chewed them for a while, and didn't want to swallow, but eventually she knew she had to. She grabbed a few more, before finally convincing herself to stop.

She walked out of the kitchen, into another room. It was the room with the large, black square on the wall. She walked up to it and found 5 buttons. The first button was largest, with a weird symbol on it. The next two were above a label that said "volume". The other two were over a label saying "Channel". She clicked the large button first. The square was instantly filled with light. Rainbow backed away a bit, but then realized nothing else was going to happen. She knew what volume meant, so she clicked one of the "channel" buttons. The screen became colorful, and she saw moving pictures of creatures doing different things. She found them entertaining, and even a bit funny. 

 She kept mental notes of which number was on the screen when her favorite channel was on, so she could flip to her favorites when she wanted. She watched for an hour, before she snapped out of her trance. It was dark out, and she was getting tired. Rainbow Dash wasn't finished searching the house, but she knew she needed sleep. She walked up the stairs. "If only this place had a good resting spot." She thought to herself. She walked into the first room she found. She found a small, cheap bed. It was just the right size for her. She couldn't feel more lucky. She lay down quickly, and though it wasn't the most comfortable bed she had ever slept on, it served its purpose. She closed her eyes, and eventually, fell asleep.
> Ch 2: New findings
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           Rainbow Dash woke up the next morning, cramped but rested. She had questions in her mind, like "Why is this place abandoned? IS it abandoned? If so, why is everything fresh?" She shook those questions out of her head while she ate breakfast; strawberries and an apple. She decided to take a walk today. She thought everything over several times over, but she couldn't come up with any good answers. Rainbow shook them out of her head again. She looked for some berries, or some other type of natural food in case she ran out of the food that was in the 'cold box'. Rainbow Dash only found a few small plants, but they were obviously not edible. 

One was purple with what appeared to be crumpling leaves. One was red, with small spikes coming from the stem. She couldn't find any flowers. The only thing close was a blossom on a tree. She walked home, and watched her favorite channels. Life was becoming easy, and she had her own routine somewhat planned out: breakfast, walk, entertainment, snack, entertainment, dinner, possible walk, bed. She was happy; she had a quiet home, and she could do whatever she wanted, whenever she wanted. She missed her friends, but she could survive a few days alone. She went to bed a little earlier than usual, as she was exhausted. As she drifted off to sleep, she almost couldn't believe that 2 days had gone by so fast.  


The next morning, Rainbow Dash got up and began her routine. Breakfast; followed by a walk. Today, she planned to walk far away enough that she would have to mark the trees as she passed them, in order that she could find her way back home. The branches were low, so she couldn't fly, though the trees were too close together to open her wings anyways. She had walked her hour, and was about to turn around, when a creature stopped her. It was about half her size, and light grey in color. It had four legs like she did, but it was obviously not a pony. It walked around her once, and then cocked its head to the side and stared at her for a moment. It was wagging its tail, obviously not a threat in her eyes. It bounced around and ran in a direction, and stopped. It was if the creature wanted her to follow. She cautiously walked towards it, and stopped when it began to growl. Before she knew it, she was surrounded by them; all mean looking, and barking or snarling at her. Rainbow then realized she fell into a trap. 

They all moved in towards her. "Wh- who are you?! What do you want from me?!" she asked them. They didn't respond; they simply snarled louder. She backed into a tree, and stared into their eyes. She looked up and realized that this was one of the trees she had marked. There was still a chance for her. She planted her hooves firmly in the ground, closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and sprinted away. Dash followed the marked trees, and was halfway home, when she felt a sharp pain flow through her back. Blood covered the ground at her sides, and she realized one was on her back. She slammed it into a tree, and though her injury burned, she kept running. She was more scared than she had ever been. She felt an occasional tear slip her eye as she ran. After what seemed like forever, her home was in view.


She had well lost the horrible creatures. She slowed her pace, and ran into a bush when she looked back to check for her assailants one final time. It was full of berries. This was the first luck she had all day, so she eyed it suspiciously. She ate one of the berries. It didn't taste too bad, but she didn't eat any more; she knew some were poisonous. When she walked inside, her fears were confirmed; the berry was not meant for her to eat. Her stomach yelled at her for hours, and cramped for even longer. She just layed on her bed in agony until she was too weak to writhe anymore, and she fell asleep.
> Ch 3: an unexpected guest
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          Three days past in her bed, and she woke up starving. As she got up, she noticed her bed was blood stained and she felt weak. Then she remembered the gash. She looked at her back. It was completely covered in dried blood. She felt stupid for eating something she had never seen, and for forgetting about the cut. She had lost a lot of blood, and started to bleed a bit more when she was moving. Rainbow Dash heard her stomach growl. She ran downstairs and ate a few strawberries. She noticed there was another handle on the "cold box". She opened it. The air that came out was freezing. She grabbed what appeared to her as a cattail on a stick. It was super cold, and she set it down constantly. She tried biting it, but was stopped by the rock hard surface. She then saw what appeared to be a mini version of the big black square in the other room. It had a lot more buttons, but also a start and stop button. The others had numbers on them. The device had a handle, so she pulled it open. It was empty. She threw the cattail inside, and shut it. She just wanted to test what it did. She hit a 3 and a 0, then start. It made a small humming noise, and then stopped. She opened it, noticed nothing different, and picked up the cattail. It was, to her surprise, warm and soft. She bit down, and chewed. It wasn't too bad.  She nommed the rest of it down, and threw the stick on one of the tables. She then sat in one of the chairs that was in front of the black square on the wall, and watched it until dusk fell. She went to bed and fell asleep. Things were finally coming back to normal for her.

Rainbow Dash woke up the next morning, went downstairs, ate, and then headed to the door for her next walk. As she stepped outside, she heard a low rumbling noise coming towards the house. She looked in the direction it was coming from, and saw a large metal object with a window on the front of it approaching. She sprinted inside, slammed the door, and quickly found a place to hide; in the bedroom closet. It was small, dark, and full of glass items. She tried to be extra careful not to bump anything.

Meanwhile, Steve had just arrived home from bronycon.  "Best vacation ever!" he told himself. He pulled into the garage, and walked into the house. He walked to the fridge for a snack, and surprisingly found the jug of strawberries half empty. He found a few apples gone too. "I knew I should have left the house alarm on!" he told himself. Then he thought about it again. What person would leave half of two types of food, and everything else? He considered maybe it was an animal, but what animal would open the doors, take some food, shut the containers and then close the doors? 

Rainbow's legs were getting tired, so she sat down. Unfortunately for her, a glass vase was right behind her. She bumped it, and failed to catch it before it smashed into a million pieces. 

Steve heard a loud smashing noise, and recognized it as one of his vases. He then took the thought in; his intruder was still here. He only kept glass in his closet, so he knew exactly where he/she was. He grabbed his airsoft gun, the only form of protection he had, and walked upstairs. He had cut off the orange tip to enhance the gun's realism. He walked into the room, and slowly reached for the door handle. He grabbed it, and ripped the door open.
> Ch 4: STEVE.
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        Rainbow screamed, he screamed, and before he realized who was in his closet, he had fired a bb into Rainbow's shoulder. "Ow! What the buck was that for?!" She screamed at him, grasping her bruised shoulder. He dropped the gun. Steve was completely speechless. As he reached for the words to say, Rainbow yelled at him again. "Hey, I'm talking to you! Who the hay are you?!"
He finally muttered out, "R-rainbow Dash?" her voice changed from anger to confusion. "That's my- wait, how do you know my name?" 
He had feelings of brony excitement welling up in him. He almost couldn't hear her question. "Rainbow Dash, is it really you?! It's such an honor to meet you!" "Yeah, I can tell by the bruise you gave me as a present."

He laughed a bit at her sarcasm, before the millions of questions he had for her started coming out all at once. "Why are you here? How did you get here? How" She cut him off again. "Hey, slow down! I can only answer one question at a time!" Steve threw the questions out of his mind that related to her arrival, and started focusing on treating his new houseguest. "Okay then, here's my next question; are you hungry?" She smiled at him for the first time. "Heck yeah I am! What are those little red things in the giant cold box? They're awesome!" 

For a brief moment, Steve was confused. "Red things? Cold box? Oh, you mean strawberries? I have to agree with you on that. I'll get you some." With that, Rainbow stood up and walked out of the closet. "Oh, and sorry about breaking that thing in there." If any other person or thing had broken the vase, he would have been upset. Of course, though, who could get mad at Rainbow Dash? "Don't worry about that. I'll deal with it later." They then walked downstairs, and Steve grabbed the strawberries out of the fridge. He handed a few to Rainbow, who shoved all of them in her mouth. He chuckled a bit at her. "Slow down Rainbow Dash! You're going to choke if you do that." She looked at him, cheeks bulging out. "Mmf?" She chewed and swallowed the rest. "Say again?" "Never mind, it doesn't really matter anymore." He said. Rainbow stood up and walked over to Steve. She showed her back to him. He dropped the strawberry container. 

"What happened to your back?!" he asked with extreme concern. "Well, I went on a walk far away from this house, and apparently I wasn't the only one out there." "So what exactly happened to you?!" she paused a moment, before starting her story. "I was about an hour away, when this little grey creature persuaded me to follow it. Then, before I knew it, there was a whole bunch of them on every side of me. As I ran to escape, one jumped on my back and tore a long gash." Steve took the thought in for a while, and finally said, "Wolves attacked you, they only hunt in packs, and they have one that lures their prey in for the rest to kill." 

Rainbow now looked horrified. "Th-they were going to kill me?!" "Yes. You're lucky you escaped with just this, and even luckier they didn't tear your wing off." She shuddered at the thought. She could have lost her wing, or her life. "Now, how about we get this patched up?" Before Rainbow Dash could respond, Steve had gone and grabbed some gauze and disinfectant. "Hold still, this might sting a bit, but it will prevent infection." He rubbed the disinfectant on the cut, and she cringed at how badly it stung. Steve then wrapped the gauze around her entire body, avoiding her wings, but covering her back. "Thank you." She said. "There's really no reason to thank me." He told her. It was getting surprisingly dark out, and Rainbow was exhausted from her day anyways. "I'm going to bed. I'll see you in the morning." With that, Rainbow Dash turned and walked upstairs.
> Ch 5:  learning new things
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            The next morning, Steve and Rainbow Dash walked downstairs, and began their normal routines. Rainbow Dash ate her breakfast, and started out for her walk. "Where are you going?"

Steve asked her. "I'm just going for a walk; I'll be back in a bit less than an hour," She replied. With that, she walked out of the door. The day was windy, and the clouds were a bit dark. Rainbow Dash could tell from her years as a weather pony that a storm was brewing. She could also tell when it was going to start raining, and shortened her walk a little bit to see if she could avoid it. Surely enough, not two seconds after she re-entered the house did rain start coming down. "You just barely escaped it." Steve told her. "Well, my years as a weather pony taught me to interpret about when it would start raining. There's a pattern in the shading of rainclouds, and when it repeats, it starts to rain. It's a really hard pattern to pick up." Steve went over to the couch to watch the TV.

"Oh, I love this thing! Question is, what is it?" "This is called a television, or just a TV." Rainbow Dash sat on the couch next to Steve. "A TV, what a strange name, yet I must say that this is a very, well…strange device. Speaking of strange devices, what was that thing you came home in?" "Are you talking about when I came home from vacation? That's my car. There's all kinds of them, wanna see?" he asked. "Sure. I'd love to." She replied. Instead of showing her real ones, Steve got on his computer and looked up pictures of cars. Though Rainbow Dash thought they were cool, she was more interested in the computer. "What is this thing? I wanna try it!"
she said. "The computer? I don't know about that." Rainbow lowered her head and sighed. "Alright, I guess that's okay with me." It hurt Steve to see her sad, and as she slowly left room, the he just couldn't take it anymore. "Okay, well, I guess you could try…"

She zipped back in the room, a giant smile on her face. "Really, you mean it?! Oh, that's awesome!" He let her sit in the chair, and he taught her a few basics of the internet. She dismissed every lesson with an ok that said 'come on lets go already'.  As he left the room, he felt a small surge of fear. He remembered reading a fan fiction story where a filly Rainbow Dash came into the world, and was raised by a guy. The Rainbow Dash in the story didn't remember her past, and when she found out, she left him. Steve knew she could remember her past, but how would she react to seeing it in the real world? Would she be excited by her fame, confused by the sight of her own face in a world like this, or fearful at the thought she was watched while without knowing it? He felt his fear well up inside him when Rainbow Dash called him into the room. He was expecting a computer covered in Rainbow Dashes, but instead found a maze waiting for him. "I can't get past this. Can you do it?" She asked. "I guess so. Are you having trouble?"
"Yeah, my stupid hooves make it too hard to move this mouse thing." Steve made it through the first two mazes. On the third, he accidentally hit the wall. A scary looking face popped up and a bloodcurdling screech came from the speakers. Both of them were on the ground. Steve was on the ground recovering from fear, and Rainbow Dash was on the ground…laughing. When Steve was up again, he wasn't happy at her. She brushed a tear from her eye and smiled at him. "Why did you do that, after everything I told you?!" "I didn't mean for that to happen, I just typed 'game' in and this maze came up. I'm really sorry; I just laughed because your reaction was priceless!"  He sighed at her. "Well, just be more careful, remember to call me in again if you aren't sure about something, ok?" She obediently nodded. "Okay. Wait, I have an idea! You know how random things come up when you type anything in? Well, let's go to the picture search thing and type my name in! Then, we can laugh when some random thing comes up!"
> Ch 6: Answers
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           Steve filled with fear and anxiety. He had done this same thing on the computer with his college roommates for laughs, but Rainbow Dash was a completely different story. Once she finished typing her name, she would see her face; about 5,000,000 times. He could only mutter one thing. "Wait." Rainbow Dash stopped typing her name in. She was on the letter 'h' in 'Dash'. "Why, is something wrong?" He couldn't tell her everything, so he stuck to questions. "Just to ask, how would you react if you saw yourself after you hit enter?"

She looked at him questioningly. "Well, I'm not going to see myself, right?" "Say you did, for some reason. Then how would you react to it?" "Even I don't really know the answer to that. If you're right, we'll find out." Steve left the room slowly, a million things once again racing through his mind. If, no, when she hits enter, what will happen? Will she be scared, or confused that she sees herself when she isn't expecting to? His questions were interrupted by Rainbow Dash's face, as she walked out of the room. Her expression was completely emotionless. She said nothing. She walked over to Steve, who was sitting on the stairs. She sat next to him, and with no emotion in her voice asked, "How...how did you…know?" He didn't respond to her. For a few minutes the two of them just sat staring at the wall. Finally, Rainbow Dash broke the silence. "I…I'm going to bed early." Steve finally responded to her. "I'll try to explain everything tomorrow." She didn't respond back, or even acknowledge that he had said anything. He went over and slept on the couch. He had a lot to tell tomorrow.

The next morning, Steve woke up to Rainbow Dash, who was sitting inches from him, waiting to hear everything. She still didn't appear to have any sort of emotion on her face. Before Rainbow could ask anything, Steve spoke up. "Okay, what do you need me to explain first?" He was hoping to broaden what he needed to explain, so that the whole process could go easier. Instead of helping him, she answered, "I want to know everything." 

He decided to just start by explaining to her that millions of people watched and adored her. He told her about how everyone who loved her loved her friends too. He showed her a few episodes as an example, and every once in a while she would tell him what she was doing when she wasn't part of a scene. She also cringed when she saw things she regretted doing, smiled when she saw how awesome she really looked when she was performing tricks, and laughed at some of the things her friends did when she wasn't with them. Steve enjoyed it, and Rainbow Dash appeared to like re-living her memories. Slowly, the happiness the two of them had before returned to them. The one thing that troubled Steve was her return to Equestria. It wasn't about her leaving him; it was how she would react to her newfound knowledge of being secretly watched. Would her life become fake, with her new realizations of being watched? Would she tell her friends, and ruin the show he and so many others knew and loved? It bothered him enough to talk to her about it. She gave him a 'well duh' okay, and he wiped the thought from his mind again. He knew she wouldn't have thought of it herself, but of course Rainbow Dash always finds a way around admitting she's wrong. The day quickly darkened. They watched every episode there was, and by the time the credits rolled on the most recent episode, they were heading up to bed.
> Ch 7: Caught in a bad position
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	The next morning they both got up and began their routines once again. Rainbow Dash went outside and began her walk. Steve waited to begin his day until Rainbow Dash got back. She zoomed through the door, a lot earlier than she normally did. She was covered from head to toe with perspiration. "Did your walk turn into a sprint?" he asked. "No, I saw another human! He looked at me, aimed at me with some weird little box, and activated a small light on it. It was really weird, and I didn't know what to do, so I just ran." 

Steve's face went blank. The man had taken a picture of Rainbow Dash. There was no telling what he might do with this dangerous piece of data. A few seconds after the thought sunk into his mind, there was a knock on the front door. "Hide," he told her. She ran upstairs and hid in a closet. 

Steve opened the door, and was greeted by a man who was holding a camera. "I just saw Rainbow Dash run through this place! Have you seen her?!" Steve paused a second. "Why, yes, I did. She went out the front door. Hurry and maybe you can catch her." The man ran like a maniac towards the direction the front door was facing. Steve went upstairs and retrieved Rainbow Dash. "So now what?" she asked him. "We wait. We need to see if or when he uses the picture in a way that could ruin our lives." A few minutes later, Steve checked his e-mail. There was a headline on the homepage that made Steve breathless; 'Strange occurrence- new species or kids show character?'



He felt like he was going to panic. Instead, he clicked on the picture of Rainbow Dash. The link took him to the man's blog. The man obviously had long term memory. The address and location of Steve's house was all there- every little detail. Steve looked further through an article on another page about the guy. Unfortunately, everything pointed toward 'real photo'. The guy was a bad artist, Rainbow Dashes speechless face was a pose never used in the show. The guy was rarely known to lie to anyone at all, even a complete stranger. Steve took another good long look at the beginning of him and Rainbow's misery before shutting down his computer.  Things looked bad for their future.
> Ch 8: Uninvited guest
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	Steve knew obviously that someone would come and investigate. Unfortunately, upon thinking of the issue more thoroughly, he found that no matter what someone would end up finding more evidence in Rainbow Dash's existence. If someone came and Steve managed to keep her hidden, the focus would return to the man, named Dave, and his camera. Once scanned, they would find that his photo was legit, and the focus would go back to Steve; on a higher scale. As he pondered his options, he found that there weren't many to choose from.

He could run away, but the police had dogs that could sniff him down. He could just hide with Rainbow Dash in the house somewhere, but of course the same factor that ruled out option one ruled out option 2. His next option; give up and accept what would come. The idea stuck for a moment, before he finally thought himself to rule that out. If he accepted it, his pride and joy would be taken away. As he pondered the rest of his options, there was a light tapping on the door.

Rainbow Dash walked upstairs and hid in the closet. Steve walked over to the door and opened it. Standing at about thigh- level was… a little girl. She was stroking the mane of a little pony toy. She broke the awkward silence that fell between them. "I- I heard that Rainbow Dash was here, and she's just my most favoritest pony ever! May I pwease see her?" Steve was silent for a moment as he stared into the eyes of the innocent little girl. How could he say no, but how could he say yes? He thought it through one more time before he finally said, "Well…why not?" 

Her face lit up and she ran inside. Her enthusiasm was quite overwhelming, as she ran through the house looking for her cyan hero. "Where is she?" the girl asked. "I have to talk to her. Stay where you are and I'll call you up when she's ready," Steve replied. With that, he walked upstairs and opened the closet Rainbow Dash was in. She looked him straight in the eye. "Well?" He smiled back at her. She could already tell that nothing bad happened, but that something had indeed happened. "You have a visitor." Her mouth fell open briefly. "So you just let some random person in who was looking for me?!" "It's not like that at all, Rainbow Dash! Trust me. When she comes up here, try to act your best." Rainbow Dash sighed and nodded gently. 

Steve walked downstairs and allowed the little girl to come upstairs. Rainbow Dash walked out of the room just as the girl started to near it. As soon as their eyes met, Rainbow Dash felt just like Steve had seconds ago, staring into the innocent face, while the girl felt…pure joy. She gave a deep gasp before practically choking Rainbow Dash in a hug. "Omigosh omigosh omigosh omigosh!" The girl screamed. Rainbow felt her heart warmed by the girl's embrace, but she also felt the need to breathe again. She quietly gagged and the girl loosened her grip. Rainbow deeply inhaled and filled her lungs with air again, before smiling at her obvious number one fan.


"It's so awesome to meet you Rainbow Dash!"  "What's your name kid?" Rainbow asked. The fact that Rainbow Dash was actually speaking to her made the girl even more ecstatic. "M-my name is Sally! I can't believe it! I'm actually talking to you!" Though it made Steve smile to listen to the conversation between Rainbow Dash and her biggest fan, it nagged at him that a person no older than 7 actually found his house. He finally couldn't take wondering how she found him, and he asked. "Hey, Sally, I hate to stop your conversation but, how did you get here?"

"Oh, I saw the picture of your house, and I passed it one time before. I thought, "Hey, I know where that is!" and I came. I have a question for you though; may I please take a picture with her? I just want one so I can remember." He started thinking every possibility through. Another picture could be dangerous, but if she keeps it safe, nothing will happen. "Okay, sure you can. Just promise me one thing; don't let anyone see it. It could get us in trouble." She smiled, and said, "Okay!" Steve took her camera, took a picture of them both, and handed it back. She ran downstairs, and out the door. "Thanks Rainbow Dash!" she yelled as she ran.
"Well… I'm glad that's over with. I understood why you let her in as soon as I first saw her, but I think maybe we should get something to see who's at the door before we let them in." "You mean like a security camera?" "If that's what you call it, yes." "I'll consider it." They watched the girl disappear into the distance before sitting down to watch TV until dark.
> Ch 9: Is trust an option anymore?
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	The next day started smoothly. Everything was normal until Rainbow Dash couldn't find Steve. She listened closely, only hearing the sound of the television playing in the living room. She went to turn it off, when she found him lying there, eyes opened wide and mouth dropped as if in disbelief. "Are you okay…?" She quietly asked. He simply pointed at the TV in response. She slowly turned to look, and then fell into the same state Steve was in.



The picture that the girl had taken just the other day had made it to media, and now fed their eyes information they didn't want. The reporter's voice went through one ear and out of the other as they stared at the screen in utter dismay. They heard a knock on the door. Rainbow Dash got up. "Don't stop me this time. If they want to see me, take a picture and whatnot, at least they'll get what they came for and get out of here," she told him as she approached the door.


She opened to the little girl they had just met the previous day, who in turn grabbed the door and prevented Rainbow Dash from slamming it in her face. "Before you say anything listen to me. I know, with what you probably just saw, I'm the last person you want to see. I have an explanation for all of this. I sat down with my picture when I got home, still ecstatic over meeting you. I was on my bed in my room, and my mom came in. She saw how happy I was with the picture, and she grabbed it from me, because unfortunately I'm not really happy over any type of picture. She gasped at the sight of me and you, and she took it and posted it on the news website."

"So she just took it from you?" "That's exactly what happened." "Wow, kind of forceful if you ask me. May I ask you an unrelated question?" "Yeah, anything you want." "How come you aren't as excited as you were yesterday?"  "Well, everyone feels differently the second time they do anything. Don't get me wrong; I am deeply HONORED to be with you again. Haven't you ever done something fun, got a wonderful one-of-a-kind feeling from it, and then felt less of it the second time you did it?" 


Rainbow Dash took the thought into consideration, before answering. "Well, every time I perform the sonic rainboom, it feels just a little bit less exciting." The girl gasped at the sound of her favorite character talking about the sonic rainboom. Her entire life, the girl had wanted to see a real sonic rainboom. "I wanna see you do it!!" she begged. Rainbow Dash's eyes widened at the girl's request. "Y-you want me to do it now?! Right here?!" "Yes! It's my life's DREAM to see you do it!" "B-but... are you sure it's the best idea to do that HERE?" "Well, I don't see much of a problem with it!" Rainbow Dash sighed. "You're not going to take no for an answer here are you?" a defeated Rainbow Dash took a deep breath and let it out slowly.  "Fine. But this is the only time." she took a deep breath and began flapping her wings.

The girl squealed in delight. As Rainbow Dash began to gain height, the girl grabbed her camera and snapped a few pictures. Rainbow Dash was now where she believed to be all the height she needed. She moved far away enough from the house that the explosion would not shatter the windows. Rainbow Dash took one last deep breath, and closed her wings. She began to fall, moving faster and faster as the pressure around her got higher and higher. She neared the ground and as she shot out her wings to pull up, Rainbow Dash heard the boom that marked her success. As she zoomed over the girl, her picture was taken again. Rainbow Dash proceeded to circle the house with a rainbow.



Rainbow Dash landed in front of the girl, with a big smile on her face. The girl of course had a bigger smile on her face and she looked like she was about to explode with excitement.  "THAT… WAS… AWESOME!!" she screamed. She showed Rainbow Dash the picture she had taken the moment Dash had zoomed over her head. It was the best picture you could get; you could see Rainbow Dash's determined face stretched by the pressure she was under, her wings opened wide, a slight blur from her movement, and a long rainbow coming from her back. You could even see a bit of the explosion in the background of the picture. 

"That is one of the most dangerous photos anyone could get. No one can see it AT ALL; not your parents, not your friends, not ANYONE! Put it somewhere safe, and make a copy when no one is looking in case something happens to the original." She nodded, and opened a door in her camera. She placed the picture inside. "I'll keep it in here. Thank you again, Rainbow Dash!" she said. She hugged Dash, and ran off. Rainbow Dash went inside. "What was that explosion?" Steve asked her as she neared him. "Well, I kind of performed the sonic r-rainboom…" Steve felt complete shock the moment she finished the sentence. Was it really possible? His thoughts were interrupted by something on her back. "What's that thing in your mane?" he asked. She turned around, and grabbed it with her teeth. She dropped it to get a better look, and it flipped over revealing… the picture of the sonic rainboom that the girl had just taken. On the back, she found a little note. "I thought maybe you would like a copy; my camera makes two of every photo. Enjoy it! –Sally"