Author's note: I've had this idea for a while now, since around the Christmas of 2016 to be exact. Anyway, I finally decided to start it up, hopefully people like it, what is this? I like to see it as "My Little Dashie" meets "Toy Story", this is meant to have more depth than my previous story, featuring dry wit over lighthearted comedy and will feature heartfelt moments. And now, without further ado, Ages 3 and up.
Chapter One: The Arrival
Hello, my name is Johnathan, Johnathan Reed. Who am I? I'm just your every day, normal, average, run of the mill high school senior I guess. I make decent grades, I have a couple friends, I even take part in the school band, percussion section. Now, I guess there's one not quite normal thing about me, I'm a brony. And that's right about where the conversation ends when I meet most people. They immediately think I'm just that brony stereotype that originated from the depths of Reddit or 4Chan when the show first started, the kind who has a pony suit in his closet and cuddles up to a Twilight Sparkle waifu pillow when the night gets lonely. No, no that wasn't me, nothing against those who do enjoy those things of course, they just aren't for me. I was just a casual fan of the show, I watched the series, I awkwardly stood in line with girls half my age and their mothers who stared at me disapprovingly at the movie theater for the movie, and at times I would dabble in reading the fan fiction. But that was all, I didn't collect, I didn't have any apparel, none of that. Well, I guess that was about to change, I did have my first piece of merchandise on it's way in the mail that I stumbled across on Amazon, it was on discount so I thought it might be nice. It was from this Guardians of Harmony line, I guess it was Hasbro's attempt at making action figures for the franchise. The Rainbow Dash figure enticed me as she was one of my favorite characters so I bought her- it that night. It was kind of cute, came with little flight goggles and a little Tank figure to accompany her. I wasn't really sure what I'd do with it since I never took an interest in toys all that much in general so I had no place to display it, I'd probably have it on my nightstand or a little thing to fidget with at my desk. I guess I'd figure all that out soon, after all, this was the day it was supposed to arrive.
"Has the mail gotten here yet?" I asked my mother coming downstairs from my room.
"Should be, I haven't checked. Good morning to you too." She replied.
"Good morning Ma." I said giving her a kiss on the head as I passed by her to grab some coffee to start my morning.
"That's better." She said with a slight smirk. "So what's on your agenda for today?" She asked.
"I want to go see if my package arrived, then I"m probably going to get some of my calculous homework done for now, then I'll see where the day takes me." I said.
"Well, I hope you have fun with that." She said. "I'm still surprised you didn't want to come with us." What she was referring to was Muppecon, a weekend long festival dedicated to The Muppets, I don't know why she was surprised, I haven't liked them since I was six. But still, my parents loved them and so did my little brother.
"I'm sure you'll have plenty of fun without me." I said. "Tell William the Toad or whoever I said hello." I said while tightening the lid on my travel mug.
"That's not his name and you know it." She replied, defending that to her precious frog.
"I know." I said leaving the room, before I left I turned back. "His name's Jim, right?" I smirked before heading out the door.
"I love you." She shook her head, now alone in the kitchen.
As I walked down the road to the mailbox, I hummed along and looked around at the woods and farm house across the road. I was happy to live in a rural area, not many people lived nearby, it was quiet, and you could bury a body anywhere you wanted. I kid, I kid, well, you could, but it wasn't why I liked it here. I just enjoyed the serenity. It could be a pain sometimes, none of my friends were in walking distance, but I didn't mind much, I wan't connected with any of them, I happened to be a member of the group. I was kind of like most the significant other characters on Friends, I was technically in the group, but not friends with them, this of course without the benefits of being someone's significant other. Sorry, I tend to ramble. When I got to the mailbox, I turned the key and looked inside, all envelopes. I leafed through them.
"Bills, bills, chain mail... Never see that much as a letter anymore, and another bill." I sighed. "Great." I looked down as I turned around, down at my feet was a light brown shipping bag. I crouched down and picked it up. "Johnathan Reed of Passekeag New Brunswick, Canada." It was my package! I grabbed the rest of the mail and happily slammed the mailbox door. Package and mail in hand I made my way home.
"Mail's here!" I said setting the letters down on the table before running upstairs. When I shut the door I set the package down on the desk. I sat down and ripped open the bag and took out the box. Seems delivery treated it well, no rips on the card, the plastic blister the toy was in wasn't dented, and the figure itself looked great. Not that the packaging mattered really, I was going to tear it open anyway. Speaking of which. It was time I opened it. I tore off the cardboard and discarded it, I took out the accessories, which I put in the drawer in my nightstand as I had no use for them, except Tank, who I sat down on my desk before popping Rainbow Dash out of the plastic and took a look, the figure was a perfect representation of Rainbow Dash from the show. The front legs were posable at the top and at the knee, the wings could move, hind legs moves at the flank, the tail could move, and the head went up and down and side to side. It was a nice little figurine, a great representation of one of my favorite characters.
"Cute." I said setting the figure down on my desk, angling one leg with a slight bend as if resting one hoof. As I left the room I turned back and glanced at it. I chuckled imagining a little tiny Rainbow Dash flying around my room, the idea made me laugh. I glanced back once more and shut the door.
A few hours later
"Now you're absolutely sure you don't want to come?" My dad asked before shutting the trunk of the van. "Door price for admission isn't too bad."
"He prob'ly just wants the house to himself for the weekend." Bobby, my little brother said, already dressed up in his Animal costume, they were all going in costume, my dad was Sgt. Floyd Pepper and my mom was Janice, I guess they were members of the rock band on The Muppet Show, I couldn't remember.
"I'm sure." I said, ignoring my brother.
"Alright, if you need anything, just call." My dad said.
"And the neighbor's phone number is on the fridge, and your grandmother, let's see, 9-11, who else..." My mom said.
"Hon, he's 18." My dad reassured her. "He'll be fine, he's spent the weekend on his own." He turned to me. "No parties, and if you do, just have them cleaned up before we get back." He gave me a hug before getting in the van. "By Johnny, love you."
"Love you too dad." I said. "Love you mom! See ya squirt!" I called to my mom and Bobby.
"See you Monday afternoon sometime." He said before shutting the door. "Alright gang! Let's get moving right along!" He said before cranking the music, as the van left I could hear the three of them singing along loudly to "Movin' Right Along" from the first Muppet movie. I chuckled watching them leave before heading back inside. Now, if I were most boys my age, the first thing I'd do would be to call up half the school and throw a raging party. Thankfully for the property value of the land I wasn't like that. Instead I put two slices of bread in the toaster and made a sandwich. Then, I called up my friend and we talked on the phone while playing the latest "Call to Warfare" game online.
"So then, they were all like 'Come on Johnathan, come with us!' I mean, I feel bad for disappointing them, but I'm just not interested in spending the whole weekend surrounded by puppets." I explained to my friend, Matthew.
"You'd rather spend it surrounded by Rainbow Sparkle and Apple Pie or whoever those pony characters are." He joked, luckily for me, when I told him about me being a brony he was cool with it, he still zings me for it, but that's what friends do. "Watch out for that guy on your left." He warned. I shot at the player he warned me about.
"No more trouble out of him, until he respawns anyway." I said. "And I'll have you know it's Rainbow Dash And Applejack."
"Whatever man." He laughed. "Ready for that calc test next week?" He asked.
"I'm about as ready for that as you seem to be ready for that sniper up there." I said.
"What?" He asked, suddenly there was a fit of swearing from his end and a notification popped up on the screen saying he had been KIA. "Don't let anyone loot me, I need to respawn." He said.
"Fine, I'll guard you." I sighed going over to the virtual corpse.
"You'd better study up for the test then if you're only that ready." He warned me. "You don't want to get sniped by a bad grade."
"I've already been accepted into college Matt." I scoffed. "Everyone uses the last semester of high school just to coast by till you graduate."
"I guess you've got a point, you were a real dummy picking it for your last semester." He said.
"I couldn't help it! First semester was all booked!" I replied. "What are you doing in the second semester class?" I asked.
"I wanted to do Outdoor Pursuits in first and the only period was also the calc period, then they wedged me in this one." He explained.
"Yeah, Outdoor Pursuits, so you can go to the Yale Institute of taking hikes." I quipped.
"Art class, so you can go to the Prometheus School of drawing ponies." He rebuttaled.
"Got me there." I chuckled.
"Speaking of which, I don't think Marie would be too thrilled about your little hobby." He said.
"Why would I care?" I asked.
"Maybe because you like her, a lot." He explained.
"No I don't." I said.
"You do! I see you in class, you stare more at her than you used to stare at the middle school cafeteria sloppy Joes." He laughed.
"That's a lie, and I never liked those either, they were icky."
"Is that what you say about her too?" He asked.
"Oh shut up." I said angrily. He was right though, I did have a pretty big crush on this one girl in a few of my classes, Marie. She was smart, pretty, kind, she was just overall completely wonderful, but at the same time I knew that she would never give me the time of day and even then, this coming fall we'd be off to college and I'd never see her again anyway, at this point I didn't see why I should bother telling her how I felt.
"Whatever man." He said. Before I could respond, I heard a loud noise from my room, it sounded like something hitting my window. I stopped and listened.
"Ping!"
"Ping!"
"Ping!" There it was, it just kept happening, I had no idea what was going on in there but I figured it was about time I found out.
"Man? You still there?" Matt asked.
"Yeah, I've just... I've gotta go for a second." I said. "Chat later." I said hanging up the phone. I walked up the stairs, curious about whatever the sound coming from my room was, it sounded as if a bird kept flying into my window. I creaked open my door and looked inside, at first I couldn't believe my eyes. It was my Rainbow Dash figure, she was... flying!
"C'mon!" She said angrily flying into my window once again, oblivious to the fact I could see her, Tank however, did notice me. With his propeller he flew up and tried to get her attention.
"What do you want?" She asked. "I told you I won't leave you behind, what is it?" He kept gesturing towards me. "Is something behind me?" She asked. She turned around to see what was behind her, when she saw that I was watching her she gasped and fell from where she was hovering onto my desk, once again motionless, Tank did the same. At first I thought I was just seeing things, as one would think after seeing something like that. I walked over to the figure and picked it up, examining it once more, I was sure it had just been flying through the air, but how?
"I saw you move, I know you did." I said to the now inanimate action figure. Maybe I didn't, maybe I'm going insane. I looked at the window, there was a small dent in it from where she- it. Where it had flown into the window, I ran my finger along the window, feeling the little chip in the glass. There it was, proof. Proof I wasn't insane, I couldn't have just been seeing things, there was physical evidence of what I just saw. "Listen you. I saw you, you can't just act like I didn't." I said. I guess it could, nothing was happening. "I guess you can." I muttered setting her-... it down again and leaving the room. This time, I shut the door and stood beside it, waiting, I shuffled my feet a few times to imitate stepping away. After a few seconds of silence, I heard the tapping once again. Aha! I wasn't crazy! I creaked open the door to check, sure enough, there it was, my Rainbow Dash action figure was flying about, charging at the window.
"Aha!" I exclaimed. "I knew it!" I said moving towards her.
"Oh no." She muttered to herself, seeing that I was moving towards her. She froze again and crashed onto the desk.
"Nope. Nuh-huh. Not this time." I grabbed the figure. "I saw you. You flew, you talked." I said directly to it. "Come on, I'm not so bad, I'm not gonna hurt you." I pleaded, okay, this was sad. I was pleading to a toy. "You don't wanna talk?" I asked. "Maybe I'll make you." I said, I looked down at the small inanimate Tank. "Sorry pal, if everything goes according to plan, she'll be okay." I said leaving the room with the toy. I went down to the kitchen and fiddled around in the junk drawer. "There they are." I grabbed the matches and the scotch tape. my next stop was Bobby's room to grab one of his firework rockets. "You like flying do you?" I asked. "Well you're about to fly alright." Truthfully I didn't want to do this, but I did want answers and I was prepared to get them, and so, outside, I taped the figure to the rocket a la Sid Phillips and angled it skyward. I fumbled with the match box and took one out.
"I don't want to do this!" I said holding the matchstick. I said nothing for about ten seconds just staring at it, I struck the match and slowly crept it towards the fuse. "I really don't!" I said. I held the match about an inch from the fuse. I closed my eyes as I slowly moved it closer until I heard a voice.
"Why in Celestia's name are you doing this!?" The small and angry voice said. I opened my eyes to see the figure, once again who was alive and talking. Her eyes glared angrily at me and she was struggling to get out of the tape.
"You are alive!" I said in astonishment.
"No duh." The toy growled. "Now take this tape off. Now!" She ordered.
"I'll take it off." I said. "As soon as I ask a few questions."
"Let me start with a question." It- She said. "Get me out of this thing!"
"That's not a question." I said.
"I don't care!" She said angrily.
"If I take this off, what are you going to do?" I asked.
"Well, after I buck you square in the eye, I'm going to get Tank and then we're out of here, that's what!" She spat.
"That doesn't create a very compelling case for me to let you go, after all, why should I?" I asked.
"You could see it as common courtesy after nearly launching me into space!" She sneered.
"I wasn't going to do it." I told her. "I just needed proof I wasn't going mad."
"Well now you have it!" She said. "Now lemme go so I can be on my merry way."
"No." I said. "I'm not going to let you just fly off. First of all, it is a dangerous world out there, and you, in case you haven't noticed are quite small."
"Newsflash." She sneered.
"Second, you belong to me, I bought you." I explained. "So whatever I say goes!" She just sneered at me.
"You had to go there huh?" She sighed. "Fine. Can you at least take me inside? Then let me go?" She asked.
"That I can do." I said going inside, holding the rocket with her taped to it. When I got inside and made sure all the windows in the house were shut, I carefully removed the tape from her. She immediately started flying around, doing flips in the air, gleeful to have her mobility back. She then noticed me again and flew right up to my face. After a second of angry eye contact, she bucked me square between the eyes, luckily, not actually in one like she told me. She then flew back up to my room to comfort Tank, who was probably terrified after the past few minutes.
"I suppose I deserved that." I muttered rubbing between my eyes, for a plastic figure she sure can kick! I decided it would be best to leave her alone, so I decided I'd get back to playing my game for a bit before I prepared dinner. After a little while of playing I turned it off to go prepare dinner, when the room was silent once more, I heard noise coming from my room again, but this was different, it sounded more like... crying. Curious, I made my way upstairs and listened through the crack of the door.
*sniff* "I don't know Tank..." I heard her say sadly. "I don't know what's going to happen to us..." *sniff* "I mean, you saw what happened today, who know's what could happen next?" She sighed. "This isn't what I hoped, this wasn't the plan..." She said before sniffling again. I slowly opened the door and came in. "Oh... It's you..." She said with sadness and some anger.
"Yeah... it is." I said. "Look... I just wanted to say that I was sorry I got so harsh." I apologized. "I shouldn't have done that."
"No kidding." She said, hiding her face.
"Listen, I understand if you don't want to speak to me." I said. "I just, I don't know what came over me, a heat of the moment type thing." I said.
"Mhm." She said without looking at me.
"Look, I'm about to make some dinner..." I began.
"I don't eat, genius." She said. "I am a toy."
"I... I know." I said. "I jst wondered, I don't know, maybe you'd like to talk or something during dinner?"
"You gonna strap me to a rocket to get me to talk there too?" She asked sharply.
"No... No." I shook my head.
"So you aren't going to force me to do it?" She asked.
"No." I said. She hesitated for a moment.
"I... I guess." She said hesitantly. I went to pick her up but she stopped me. "I can fly by myself." She said flapping her plastic wings, hovering behind me as I walked down the stairs into the kitchen, all through preparing dinner she and I were silent. As I sat down and began to eat, she landed on the table and walked around it, looking at the various objects that were twice her size and more. After a while, she laid down on the table and let out a small sigh.
"Is something bothering you?" I asked.
"You wouldn't believe the day I had." She said. "Believe it or not, I had my life ruined and I was strapped to a rocket all in the same day."
"Hm?" I asked.
"Are you deaf?" She asked. "My life has been ruined!" She got up angrily.
"How has it been ruined?" I asked. "You've got a place to live, decent living space, you aren't stuck in a box, what could possibly ruin a toy's life?" I asked.
"You!" She pointed her small plastic hoof at me. "You ruined it!" She said furiously. "I... I heard... I heard about..." She began, sniffling.
"You heard about what?" I asked.
"I heard about... people like you." She said.
"What do you mean, people like me?" I asked.
"You know!" She growled. "You man-child type people who obsess over a little girls show!" She explained. "The type who creepily ogle at cartoon horses and do just ungodly things to plush toys!" She blurted.
"What on Earth makes you think I'm like that?" I asked.
"Because I know all about your kind!" She said. "Your kind was responsible for what happened to my friend!"
"What?" I asked.
"Ugh." She groaned. "I guess I have to tell you everything."
Shipping Warehouse, about a month ago
"I can't believe it Twilight!" Rainbow said happily through her package, "You're shipping out tomorrow, how are you feeling miss order 8105253?" She asked.
"I'm excited!" The Twilight figure smiled through her package. "I sure hope she likes me."
"She'll love you Twi! Don't worry about it!" Rainbow reassured her.
"You think so?" She asked.
"Sure!" Rainbow nodded. "I'm just bummed I'm not going with you."
"I'm sure your new owner will love you too when you find her." Twilight smiled.
"I sure hope so." Rainbow Dash smiled. The next day, Twilight and her said their final goodbyes and Twilight was shipped off, days passed, Rainbow Dash wondered how Twilight was doing. One day, the box Rainbow Dash's package sat in opened up and another box was put in, it was Twilight!
"Twilight? What are you doing back here?" Rainbow Dash asked. Twilight however, was in tears.
"Rainbow Dash... It was nothing like you said." She said. "He hated me."
"What? He? He hated you?" Rainbow Dash asked.
"He hated me, I guess it was something about my paint or something, I don't know... there were others Rainbow Dash, so many others there, some still in their boxes, others strewn about, it was terrifying, when he wasn't in the room the told me about the sick things he'd do... it was terrible." She said crying.
"Twilight... I'm... I'm sorry... Don't worry though! Maybe you'll be shipped out again! And this time it'll be everything you've dreamed of!" Rainbow Dash suggested. Before Twilight could respond, the box opened again and a hand grabbed Twilight's box.
"Hey Wilson! This the one you said was returned for the error?" The warehouse worker asked.
"Should be!" The other worker called. "I marked the package, is there a mark?"
"Yeah!" The worker holding Twilight called back.
"Yeah, may as well toss it!" Wilson replied.
"You got it!" The worker said.
"Twilight! No!" Rainbow Dash cried out as the cardboard was once again shut on the large box, leaving her in the dark, her best friend's fate decided over a matter she couldn't control, all because of that man. But Rainbow Dash decided that it wouldn't happen to her, she wasn't allowing herself to have the same fate as her friend. She was going to find a little girl who loved her, what she always wanted, what Twilight would have wanted. And if her new owner wasn't who she was looking for, she wouldn't rest until she found the right one.
Back in the present
"Oh my God..." I said sympathetically. "I'm sorry..."
"Well there you go." She said. "If it weren't for him, she'd still be around." She looked down sadly before turning to look at me. "But hey, not that you'd understand, you look at us and think 'hey, there's a hundred million out there just like them, what's it matter?' Yeah. I know that for a fact, why don't you go ahead and return me too huh? Start over with another one? Since I'm so replaceable and everything, we all are, all my friends. Guess you have it lucky." She said angrily before flying away.
I sat there in silence, yikes, I really got more than I paid for here. I felt terrible for her, I had no idea what she had been through, now things were starting to make sense, her resentment toward me, she was... scared. She was scared of me, she was scared that I would be all the things she had heard, she was worried she'd have a similar fate. Now it all made sense, well, as much sense as this whole thing could make after all. Truthfully I was still coming to terms with the fact that my toy was alive, let alone that my toy was alive and hated me. What was I going to do? I didn't want her to feel trapped and scared, I didn't want her to hate me, what was I going to do? I sighed finishing my dinner and putting the dishes in the dishwasher. Then, I had an idea. I made my way up to my room once more, I figured that she'd be there, sure enough, I was right. She was lying down on the windowsill, sniffling tearfully as Tank stood by her. When she heard me come in, she turned and looked at me.
"They still accept returns after being taken out of the package." She said sadly. "Shipping envelopes are pretty cheap, you did a number on the one I came in." She stood up. "I can grab my accessories, I saw where you put them." She flew over to my nightstand and opened the door. I said nothing, I walked to the window and opened it, nice and wide. The cool breeze of the May afternoon started to blow through. She stopped and looked at me as I stood, looking out the window.
"I'm sorry." I said. "I'm sorry that it was me. I'm sorry about what happened to your friend, and I'm sorry for what I nearly did to you."
"What are you doing?" She asked.
"I'm letting you go." I said. "You want that little girl who loves you, right? Well, I'm letting you find her." She flew up to the windowsill again, letting the breeze blow against her. She looked back at me.
"Why are you doing this?" She asked.
"Well. I didn't want you to be sad, long and the short of it." I explained. "You weren't happy with me. You were scared, sad, and you hate me, I heard you crying up here, I just thought that it would be cruel of me to force you to stay somewhere that you don't want, so I'm giving you a chance to find the home that you want." I concluded.
"Wow..." She began. "I didn't think that this would happen... Thank you." She said, forming something close to smile.
"You're welcome. I just want you to be happy." I nodded. "I'll be back to close the window later, goodbye Rainbow Dash." I said before leaving the room. Rainbow Dash looked out into the wide open world outside the window, Tank stood by her side and began to propel himself out the window. Rainbow Dash just stood there for a moment, all she had wanted all day was to leave, but then, after that conversation, she wasn't sure, she wasn't ready for that kindness. She was unsure.
About twenty minutes later, I came back to my room to close the window, when I got there, sure enough, she was nowhere to be seen, almost as if the day had never even happened. "Figured." I said to myself, shutting the window. I sighed and looked down at the box she had came in and chuckled. "Won't forget today, not any time soon that's for sure." I said turning to leave, on my dresser by the door much to my surprise, stood Rainbow Dash and Tank.
"Hi." She said slowly. I looked at her curiously.
"What? Why didn't you leave?" I asked.
"Well..." She began. "I feel like... Maybe... maybe... I was wrong about you. I judged you a little too quickly. I never got to see what you were really like before assuming the worst, I do have a history of that." She chuckled nervously. "So, I've decided to stay. At least until I can see who you really are." She said. I looked at her and smiled.
"Thank you." I smiled.
"Just until I can get to know you. Then, all bets are off." She said with a slight grin.
"I can take that." I nodded.
So that is our introduction to Ages 3+, I have some big plans for this story so I hope people like it, frankly I'm glad I took a year to write Equestria's New Comedian first so I could get a little practice before attempting something with more depth. Until the next chapter!