Guess who gets to stay home on a Friday? I do!

My dad decided it would be best if I stayed home with Rainbow today and make sure that the press don't tear down our front door. You can probably imagine that my parents were damn furious when they arrived home to see nearly a hundred people in our yard and driveway.

So, here I am playing Call of Duty at eight in the morning with a cyan, magical pony that fucking fell out of the sky. Rainbow takes up the right side of my bed, while I lay back on the left, wasting my time playing video games. She's still asleep, but I don't mind as it means I can play without being bothered. Thankfully, because it's still a school day, there aren't many little kids on the game as usual, which means I don't have to hear about how they banged my mom last night every five seconds.

As soon as a round ends, I get a message from Alex, which surprises me since school should be starting right now.

"I heard the news, is it really true?" Alex says via message.

"Yeah, insane right? Anyway why are you at home?" I reply

"Sick as a dog. Why are you home?"

"Trying to keep the press from breaking down my front door." I say as I hear a knock on my door. I throw the Xbox controller down and run out my bedroom door. I rush down the stairs, only to see a news van in my driveway. Another knock comes from outside, but I just ignore it and head for the kitchen.

"Cereal and Milk it is..." I mumble to myself as I contemplate why I never learned how to cook. I slowly eat my cereal, still tired as hell despite being awake for almost an hour. A soft clopping sound emits from the stairs, and I see Rainbow almost fall down the second half. I struggle to hold in a laugh as she stumbles into the kitchen and plops down into a chair.

"Morning!" I yell as I stifle my laugh.

"Ungh... Why didn't your alarm go off?" Rainbow moans, face pressed into the table.

"I'm staying here today. Don't want the press to break in and steal you."

"Haha, I didn't know you cared Matt."

"I didn't know you were such a loud snorer, yet here we are." I say with a smirk.

"I do not snore!" Rainbow's head shoots up and she gives me an angry stare, though I can tell she's just joking because of her own smirk.

"You sound like a race car engine! It's a miracle that I got any sleep."

"What's a car?" Rainbow asks. I understand her curiosity as she hasn't been outside at all in the past two days to even see a car.

"It's like... a carriage, but it doesn't have to be pulled by anything. It runs on an engine and fuel."

"Huh. Does it go fast?"

"Depends on the model. If you have some shitty van from the fifties, then no, but if you have a more modern car, then yeah they can go pretty fast."

"Do you have a car?"

"I have a truck that I bought myself last year. It can reach well over a hundred miles per hour on the right terrain."

"Can I ride in it?" Rainbow asks with an excited expression. I think over my options before I respond. I told my parents I would guard the house while they were gone, but if Rainbow isn't here... then there's nothing to protect!

"I suppose we could go out for a while, but if we do you'll have to understand that people will probably swarm you if we get out."

"No problem! I love attention!"

"Yeah? Let's see about that." I say as I fish my keys out of my jacket pocket by the door. "I should probably go to the store, we're out of milk. You okay with that?"

"Buck yeah!" Rainbow says, jumping into the air and hovering. This is the first time I've actually seen her fly outside of the show.

"Buck?" I say with a confused expression.

"Oh, sorry about that." She says with a sheepish smile.

"I don't know what there is to be sorry about. That isn't a swear word at all. Besides, half my vocabulary is swear words!" I say with a chuckle as I head for the back door.

"Why are you going to the backyard?"

"There's a news van out front. We're going to sneak out the back."

"Oh... okay." Rainbow says, not really understanding the situation.

"Just follow my lead." I say as I slide the glass door open. "Okay, I want you to fly up above the house, and wait for me to get in my car. When you see me get in, fly straight for the door on the right side, I'll have it open for you.

"Got it!" Rainbow yells as she flashes upwards in a rainbow blur. I run around the side of the house and jump the fence connecting the backyard to the front yard. I sprint up to my truck and swing the door open, flinging myself inside. I reach over and throw the passenger side door open. Rainbow zooms down in the blink of an eye, and is sitting next to me before I know it.

Somehow the news reporter and her cameraman are still looking at our front door, oblivious to our escape. I start the engine and pull out of the driveway as fast as possible. I floor it down the street, watching the reporter rush back to the van at the sound of my tires screeching on the pavement.

"Yeah! We made it!" I yell as I turn a corner, losing the news reporters. "Hive five!" Of course I'm left handing as Rainbow stares at me with a confused expression.

"High... five?" She asks, her voice cracking in an... admittedly cute way.

"Right... no fingers." I chuckle as I come to a stop at a stop sign.

"Can I steer?" Rainbow asks eyeing the steering wheel. "It looks so fun!"

"Okay, first of all, you probably can't even reach the pedal. Second, it would be illegal for someone to drive without a license. Third, only people can drive, you are an animal, not a person." As the final words escape my mouth, I realize what I just said could be REALLY offensive.

"Animal? What is that supposed to mean?" Rainbow looks at me with squinted eyes.

"That's... not what I meant..." I say as I awkwardly rub the back of my head.

"You do know that I'm not an animal, right?"

"Yeah... I know that. I consider you to be a person, even if you aren't exactly a human in body, you are in mind, and that's what matters." I say with a reassuring smile while messing her mane up with my hand.

"That's better." Rainbow says, her normal happy smile returning. "Now, let's get to the store! I want to see what your society is like!"

"Alright alright!" I say, flooring it towards the highway.

About fifteen minutes go by before we pull up to the local Walmart parking lot. I try to find a parking space while finishing up our conversation.

"...So you do have ponies here!?" Rainbow yells as I tell her about how I had ridden a horse this past summer at camp.

"Yeah we do... Move asshole!" I interrupt myself as some guy runs in front of my car. "Sorry, but yeah we have ponies and horses here. The thing is, they aren't sentient like you and me. They're just dumb animals like a cat or dog.

"That's so crazy to think that I'm the only smart pony in the entire world!"

"Well... I said sentient, not smart." I say with a chuckle as I avoid a hoof trying to slap me.

"You take that back!"

"Make me!" I yell as I pull into a parking spot and hop out of the truck. I walk around the back to open the door for Rainbow, when a high pitched voice yells out from behind me.

"Mommy! That's the guy from the news!" A little girl screams from a couple cars down. Her mother is stuffing bags into the trunk, but takes a second to look up at me. My eyes widen as I actually recognize the woman.

"Mrs. Laura!?" I yell as I rush over to greet her. Mrs. Laura was my chemistry teacher last year! What was she doing here on a school day?

"Matt?" She responds with a friendly smile. "Why aren't you at school?"

"You probably heard about the news yesterday, right?"

"Indeed. Is the poor darling with you?" She asks, her animal loving side coming out.

"Actually, yeah, come over here." I say as I return to my truck. I open the door and Rainbow falls out onto my chest, having been previously leaning on the window. I catch her and carry her back to Mrs. Laura's car.

"Hey! Let me down!" Rainbow laughs as she struggles in my grip, which I only tighten when she fights back.

"Nah, you're like a teddy bear! A really... heavy teddy bear. Gees you're heavier than I thought!"

"I am NOT fat!"

"I never said you were!"

"Mommy! It's Rainbow Dash! From the show!" The little girl screams. Mrs. Laura closes the car's trunk and gives out a little gasp at our approach.

"Oh my... it was true! I didn't believe it at first but now..." She says as Rainbow finally breaks free and lands on the ground with a loud clopping sound. Mrs. Laura's daughter runs up and hugs Rainbow around the neck, surprising her in the process.

"Can I ride her?" The little girl says, looking up at me with excitement flaring in her eyes.

"Sure, why not!" I say with a smirk as I pick her up and place her on Rainbow's back. Rainbow tries to look happy, but motions to me to kneel down to her level.

"You owe me." She whispers into my ear before she starts trotting around the car. While Rainbow gives the girl a ride, I catch up a little with Mrs. Laura. Turns out she was here to pick up some medicine for her sick husband, which explains why she wasn't at work. I explain to her how Rainbow had suddenly come into my life, which makes a great story to keep us busy while Rainbow starts to get dizzy from trotting in circles.

Eventually, we go our separate ways, much to the little girl's displeasure. We make our way to the front of the Walmart, getting many stares and camera flashes along the way.

"Okay... this is a little more uncomfortable than I thought it would be." Rainbow mumbles as we walk inside. The automatic doors open and she jumps back in surprise, her wings flaring out from her sides. "What the hay was that!? How did that door open on it's own!?"

"I would explain the technology to you, but since you barely grasp the concept of a television, I think I'll just explain later." After watching the show with Emily some more to understand Rainbow's world, it was made clear to us that their technology is basically useless compared to ours, so explaining every single new thing to Rainbow gets really annoying.

We enter the store, and we're hit with a blast of cold, refreshing air. We get surrounded almost instantly by people of all ages, asking for not only Rainbow's autograph, but also mine! Somehow, Rainbow can fucking write with her mouth, which somehow actually works. Never did I think that I would become famous overnight because of a damn cartoon character come to life.

We manage to push through the crowd, and we eventually reach the grocery portion of the store. The crowd has dispersed by this point, and the grocery section is pretty empty, so we can shop in peace.

"Ew..." I hear Rainbow half gag, half mumble behind me?

"What?" I turn around to see her looking at the freezer that contains the raw beef used to make hamburgers.

"Who in their right mind would eat this?" She says as she cringes away from it.

"Um... me? It's pretty damn good when cooked."

"That's just sick... Why can't you just eat flowers or hay or something?"

"Because we can't digest hay and some flowers are poisonous to us... I wonder how a pegasus burger tastes..." I say with the most evil smirk of all time.

"MATT!"

"I'm joking, I'm joking!" I say while losing my shit. "Now THAT would be sick."

"Oh... you had me for a second there." Rainbow says, putting a hoof over her chest.

As we shop, my mind comes up with a bunch of questions, some scientific, that I decide to bother Rainbow with.

"You know... You aren't physically possible."

"What? What do you mean?"

"Well, you're like what, half my size? And your wings are pretty small compared to the rest of you..."

"So?"

"So, you shouldn't even be able to get off the ground, much less fly as fast as you do. How do you explain that?"

"Magic, actually."

"Okay, but that doesn't really answer my question."

"I don't know! I think it makes pegasi lighter than we would be without it. Without magic, we wouldn't be able to fly. So yeah, I am physically impossible... but only without magic."

"Also, what the hell is up with your hair? It looks like a box of crayons threw up on you." A can of soup flies at me, but I dodge it at the last second.

"There's nothing wrong with my mane! I was born like this!"

"But that isn't how genetics work..."

"Just go with it! I'm unique, deal with it."

"Alright Mrs. gay pride."

We head to the cash register where I buy a gallon of milk, two bags of m&ms, and a bag of beef jerky. We head back to the car where we plan to snack on the candy, and I have a plan to freak Rainbow out with the jerky.

We enter the car, fortunate enough to have not been noticed by anyone, and sit back and relax.

"So... What are eminems?" Rainbow says, holding a bag in her hooves.

"It's M and M, not eminem, and it's a type of candy. It's basically just little pieces of chocolate wrapped in a layer of sugar." I end up having to open her bag because of her lack of fingers.

"How do you live without fingers?" I brag while wiggling my hand in front of her face.

"Hey, hooves are cool too..."

"Yeah? For what?"

"...Stuff"

"Ha, yeah. Here try these." I say as I place a couple of pieces on her hoof. She tosses them in her mouth and chews slowly. Then her eyes light up.

"Give. More. Now." She demands while reaching over to me.

"Whoa, hold your horses!" I say, pun definitely intended. We snack on our candy for a few more minutes while I make more horse puns that mostly annoy Rainbow with just how bad they are.

"Want some jerky?" I say deviously.

"Ew! Matt get that away from me!" Rainbow yells as I dangle the jerky strip in front of her face. "Matt please!"

"C'mon, it's good! See?" I tease her as I take a bite of the strip.

"How... How can you eat that."

"Because that's how I was born. Deal with it." I say, referencing her response from earlier.

After our little relaxation session, we head back home to spend the rest of the day playing video games and watching TV.

The time is now ten at night, and I'm making my way to the roof of my house to watch the stars. Every now and then, I like to sit back on the roof and look up at the night time sky, dreaming of what it must be like to be able to be up there. My uncle works down at NASA, and he's the one that got me interested in flight and space travel.

"What are you doing up here?" Rainbow calls out from behind me, giving me a mini heart attack.

"Star gazing... dreaming..." I whisper the last part just barely loud enough for her to hear. She sits down next to me and, to my surprise, nudges up into my side. "You're so damn lucky..." I mumble to under my breath.

"Me? Why?" Rainbow asks in confusion.

"You can be so free... My whole life, I've wondered what it would be like to just fly through the clouds, go wherever I want..."

"Oh... it is pretty fun. I wish you could go flying with me."

"Yeah well... The only way that would happen would be if I had a plane, and even then I would be limited to what I could do. But you... you can truly be free up there."

"Mhm..."

We sit in silence, just staring up at the stars for a good twenty minutes before another question arises.

"Rainbow... If you're so free like I said... Why are you still here?"

"Matt, you and I both know I can't go home. Not on my own anyway."

"No no no, I mean why are you still HERE, when you could go anywhere else in the world?"

"Because this is the only place I can call home on this crazy planet. I also made a really cool friend that I would hate to lose."

"Aw, c'mere!" I say as I pull her head under my arm and ruffle her mane. We laugh and mess around until we can't even keep our eyes open.

We crawl back into my room, tired as humanly possible. I fall down on my sleeping bag, but don't have the chance to fall asleep before a hoof jabs into my side.

"Matt, it's your bed... I want you to use it now. I'll use the sleeping bag." I don't even question her, and I crawl into my own bed and sink into the mattress.

A few minutes later, I'm stirred awake by a ruffling sound coming from the floor. I look over the edge of the bed to see Rainbow struggling to get comfortable on the floor.

"Ugh... C'mere..." I mumble as I reach down and pull Rainbow onto the bed. "Now go to sleep."

"Thanks Matt..." Rainbow whispers with a sigh.

"What are friends for?"

Author's Notes:

Merry Christmas!

Finally got around to writing this after being away on vacation for almost a week.

Anyway, like always, I hope you enjoyed!