My breaths were ragged and the night air was increasingly colder by the minute. I looked around; every house within the neighborhood had a light shining in their front yard, including mine. I had left the house nearly an hour beforehand after I was sure all the girls had gone to sleep. My only worry was that one of them would sneak into my room later in the night like they sometimes tended to do, but I chose not to worry about it. It's not like I could just stay inside. It was game night.

My neighbor and second in command, Gavan, had met up with me earlier and we instructed our team to meet just inside the base. The base, much to other team's surprise, was the forest I had found the girls in. While it was on another team's turf, it still made a perfect base for us.

Now, I walked that way, nothing going through my head but fear of an ambush. The forest was so close; I could see its dark silhouette just a couple feet ahead of me. Luckily, the actual game hadn't officially started, so there was less of a chance of an attack.

"Hey, Chief," Gavan smiled as I approached the tree line, "Glad you could make it."

"Yea, not without luck," I grumbled, making my way into the trees for the safety of the darkness. When I got there, I was greeted with the sight of over half of our small team. Some of the older members that have been playing for a while we're talking amongst themselves, while the newer members were nervously holding their breaths.

"Okay, guys," I sighed nervously, "For some of you, it's just another game night, for others, it's your first time out of training. I'm not going to promise everything will be alright, because that depends on how well you take things."

The younger members looked up at me nervously, obviously beginning to have second thoughts. However, some of them looked up at me enthusiastically and ready to go out onto the streets for the first time. I sighed again and continued.

"But I can tell you this; you're only as strong as you think you are. You, all of you, have been through enough training to be here, and I believe you're ready. If I didn't believe that, then you wouldn't be here right now. Since I can tell you guys are nervous, we're going to have you play back for tonight."

The excited little ones groaned, while the nervous ones let out a large sigh of relief. The back players only jumped into the fight if there were enough down to need a replacement. They usually entered the game late in the battle.

"But remember what you've learned," I warned, "The later you enter the game, the more of an intense situation you're walking straight into. You have to be prepared to jump right into a fight. Also, you have a higher chance of capture."

The nervous ones held their breaths again. I sighed and messaged my forehead, "All of the new kids; pick up your equipment and take your position."

There was a relative hesitation until I yelled, "Go!"

With that, the majority of the younger looking kids ran to the back of the woods and picked up their equipment. It wasn't much; we were just kids, after all. Mostly home-made weapons of our own creation: sling shots made of sticks, water balloons filled with whatever we filled them with, air soft guns with home-made bullets that flew faster and hit harder, and plenty of others. The younger kids wore protection, which was a bike helmet and padding along with a nerf vest and a blue jacket and pants to cover them.

Once the younger kids were gone, I addressed the team I already knew, "Okay guys. I want section one to take left, two to take right. Ace will take front. Section 3; you guys take middle back. As for everyone else, you're on guard duty."

They all nodded in agreement, no one bothering to argue with my decisions. I had been playing this game for years, and I knew exactly what I was doing.

"I didn't want to say this in front of the newbies," I started, "But team four has been getting harsher. Recently they've been complaining about other teams on their turf. It's gotten to a point where they fight outside of the game."

"Screw the fours!" I heard one kid shout, which triggered a consecutive cheer from the rest of the team. I kept a solemn expression on my face and waited for them to calm down.

"It could get ugly out there," I started again, "So I want all of you to watch your back. You've won against them before, so I know you can handle this."

"Don't get sloppy this time," Gavan suddenly jumped in, "Sloppy fighting cost us four guys last time. They won't be back in the game until next month, meaning we had to pull four out of training early. You're putting newbies in danger."

"So you need to be even more careful this time around," I agreed, "We don't need early newbies going out into this battle. Of course, I know their ready, but they don't need to be introduced to that kind of battle yet."

The rest of the team shouted their agreements, and I took a deep breath, "I want all front players suited up. I know for a fact they'll be using new weaponry. Our information player has confirmed that it's more dangerous than anything they've used before. Anyone who wants to suit up is welcome to, but Ace, you have no excuse not to."

The team let out a small groan, but did as they were told and suited up just as the younger kids had done. I followed in suit, pulling a nerf vest that was a bit too small over my chest. I chose not to wear a helmet, as did the majority of other members. They made it harder to watch around you.

"Now that we're all ready," I announced, stepping to the front again, "Let's get out there!"

A collective cheer rang out and the team ran out onto the streets.

I cautiously closed the garage door behind me and walked into my house into the dark, empty hallway. I had to admit, the battle had gone a bit better than I had expected. My team had fought much more cleanly than last time, so there weren't any guys lost. Still though, there were a lot of injuries.

I walked into the bathroom and turned on the light so I could look in the mirror. There was a large, bloody scrape down the side of my face, and my leg was fairing a lot worse than it had been that morning. I cringed; explaining this to the girls wouldn't be easy.

"O-Olly?" I heard a panicked voice call, almost reading my thoughts. I slowly turned to see Fluttershy standing at the top of the stairs, an extremely worried look in her eyes.

"Olly!" she shouted, speeding down the stairs and throwing her arms around me and squeezing tightly, "I-I couldn't find you! O-oh, I was so worried!"

"O-ow," I cringed under my breath, "its okay, Fluttershy. Really, I'm okay."

She finally took this time to look into my eyes. Unfortunately, this meant that she noticed the large scrape, and the blood leaking toward my right eye.

"…what happened?" she asked in an almost inaudible voice. I shuffled my feet and let out a sigh.

"It's… gonna take a while to explain."

"T-that's okay," she nodded, "Here, sit down. I'll clean you up; you can tell me while I work."

Normally, I would argue. But the situation was so awkward that I couldn't bear to upset her anymore. I allowed her to guide me over to the stool I kept in the bathroom, and she scurried off to the laundry room to grab my medical supplies. I took a deep breath, honestly not wanting to reveal our game to the girls. I just… didn't want them to know about all the fighting this world involved. Sure, they could know about all the wars and current politics. That didn't exactly affect them personally. However, I didn't know how they'd react if they knew I had been fighting in an organized fight.

"Okay," she came back in the room quietly. She knelt down in front of me and inspected my face, touching softly around the cut as she did so, "Is there anything else hurting?"

I hesitated, "My… my leg."

She looked concerned, "The same one as before?" I silently nodded, keeping my eyes glued to the floor. She sighed and positioned her hands on my pant-leg. She carefully pulled it up to reveal a large, green and purple bruise. She cringed, "Can you walk on it?"

I nodded again, explaining that I walked home with it a pretty long way. She reluctantly agreed and began inspecting it for anything sprained. I took a deep breath and looked up at the ceiling.

"It wasn't supposed to get this bad," I started quietly, "I mean, it has before but… I didn't expect this much to happen."

"Do… do you go out in the middle of the night… often?" she asked, not taking her eyes off of my leg. I sighed.

"About once every couple weeks. We play this game… well it started when I was a really little kid. We were all in an argument over a pile of sticks," I quietly laughed to myself about the memory, "Later, people started making bigger teams… and eventually it just turned into a big game."

"A game… about fighting?" she asked curiously. I cringed.

"Yea… basically," I stuttered, "But there are a lot of rules. That way we can make sure no one gets too seriously hurt. It's good and fun to fight once and a while, but not to seriously injure people."

She nodded silently, seemingly contemplating the information I had just given her. She suddenly smiled a bit.

"A lot of animals back home used to fight for fun…" she seemed to reminisce, "It was… just part of their nature."

I agreed, "Yea… it's kind of like that."

Suddenly, she seemed to touch a tender spot on my leg, and I let out a surprised gasp. Her head snapped up and she looked into my eyes, then she looked back down at my leg and, more gently, inspected the spot again.

"So… how did you get these?" she asked me, concentrated once again.

I sighed, "I'd rather not go into detail about it… I was kind of outnumbered…"

"Chief?" I suddenly heard a voice call through the darkness. I cursed under my breath as Fluttershy jumped in surprise.

"W-who's that?" she stuttered.

"A teammate," I sighed, then turned my attention towards the door, "In here, man! What do you want? And be quiet, I've got people sleeping."

He cautiously made his way to the bathroom, only to be surprised to see Fluttershy still looking over my leg. He shot me a confused look, and I rolled my eyes.

"Gavan," I started, "This is… Fawn. She and a few of her friends are staying with me right now."

Fluttershy's face shied into her hair, and she continued to inspect the bruise on my leg. I looked back up at Gavan, not wanting to deal with any more of the game tonight, "What do you want?"

"I worked up the numbers," he was back to his casual self, "No captures tonight. Looks like the new kids were ready after all."

"Thank goodness," I breathed a sigh of relief, "Any guys lost?"

"A guy from section three got caught by his parents when he walked in the door. He's grounded for a couple weeks."

"Damn," I brought my hand up to massage my forehead, "How many kids in training qualify to replace him?"

"Not very many," he replied regrettably, "You might need to come out and inspect them. Some of the kids who qualify aren't as prepared as others." I quietly nodded at this.

"I'll get it done before the next battle," I yawned, "That's all I want for now."

"Okay," he said casually, putting a hand through his dark blonde hair, "I'll see you later? Wanna hang out tomorrow and walk around town or something?"

"I'll think about it," I replied simply before he shrugged and made his way out the door. I turned back to Fluttershy quietly.

"The only way people are out of the game is if they get hurt badly enough for their parents to notice. The kid that got out probably went home with a limp or something."

"I see…" she pondered to herself, "Olly, I think you might have to stay off of this."

"Huh?" my eyes widened, "Why? Is it bad?"

"I think… I think there might be a bad sprain," she tried to say confidently while burying her face in her hair again.

"Oh… okay," I took a deep breath and leaned back against the wall. I closed my eyes and tried to think of a way to stay off my leg without actually staying off of it. Just then, I felt Fluttershy's hand pull my face forward. I flinched in surprise, until I realized she was just inspecting the cut, and then I relaxed again.

I felt her dab a cold towel around the cut, and I tried to think hard enough to distract myself from the stinging.

"It's a little deep," she whispered, bringing the towel away.

"I think I cut it on a rock," I yawned.

I felt the towel approach my face again, this time with some sort of medical cream. She spread it across the cut and then quickly placed a large band-aid over the top. I sighed a bit and waited a second before opening my eyes again.

"It's… really late," Fluttershy started to say. Before she could finish, I pushed myself off of the wall, careful not to land on my right leg too hard. I then hobbled towards the stairs and started my way up.

"Are you sure you should…" Fluttershy started again.

"I can do it," I grunted, cutting her off. Still, she had her arms out and ready just in case I fell backwards.

I made it to the top of the stairs and hobbled into my room, flopping face first onto my bed. Fluttershy quietly walked in behind me, and I lifted my head and raised an eyebrow.

"Fluttershy, it's late. Thank you for helping me, but I think you should go to bed now."

She smiled, "You left without letting me wrap your leg."

I sighed a bit out of embarrassment, but complied and carefully swung my right leg off of the bed. She smiled and knelt down to get to work. Once again, I closed my eyes, and began thinking hard enough to distract me from the faint pain.

"You can go to sleep… if you want," Fluttershy said suddenly, her words trailing off at the end. I nearly chuckled to myself and nodded. Normally, I would be up all night tending to these injuries myself. Maybe it was nice having her around to…

I quickly shook my head. What was I doing? I could take care of myself perfectly fine, and I didn't need them worrying about me when they were the ones stuck in another world. I had to get my priorities straight again.

Fluttershy began softly humming as she wrapped up my leg, I opened my eyes a bit to see that a genuine smile had spread across her face. I mentally sighed, how could I argue with that? I closed my eyes again and allowed myself to drift off.

"Just this once," I accidentally whispered out loud.

I dropped off my guitar case in the office and glanced back at my old wheelchair. A couple months ago, when I broke my foot, I had sat in that wheelchair every day for weeks. I smiled meekly at it and hobbled out of the office. I'd have to remember not to inform the girls that the wheelchair was still available.

"Heyy," Ryan smiled at me, already dressed in his outfit for the talent show later that night. I smiled at him and took my spot on the floor next to Brianna.

"Ryan… I still don't know how to play the guitar," I shivered nervously. He shook his head and laughed.

"We'll be fine."

I took a breath; the talent show was that night at seven. Both Ryan and I were staying after school to practice and hang out with the other members. The girls were taking the bus home on their own, and they'd be at the show later that night.

"But Ryan," I whined, "I don't KNOW how to play guitar."

"Like I said before," he groaned impatiently, "Just say it's a part of the act. We'll be fine."

"I wish I could go tonight," Brianna pouted, "Can someone record it for me?"

"I'm sure someone will…" I started.

"We will!" Pinkie practically sang, skipping over to us along with Twilight.

"Don't worry," Twilight clarified, "We've got it covered."

This made me flinch a bit; I was already nervous enough, and being on camera was just adding to the thought of messing up. But I wasn't really one to get nervous easily, so I took a breath and gritted my teeth.

"Hey Olly, Ryan," Gabby quickly scooted over to our group, "You guys want to go get Wendy's after school with me?"

"Yea, sure!" Ryan smiled. I nodded along with him. Gabby agreed happily and skipped off to who knows where. I glanced up at the clock and took another breath.

"Today's an A-day, right?" I suddenly asked, even though I knew the answer.

"Yep!" Pinkie announced happily. I nodded and started to get up from my place on the wall, "Then we've got German first. Where's Robin?"

"She said she was going to take a lap or two around the hallways," Twilight sighed, shaking her head, "She'll meet you in class."

I nodded, "Okay. Come on, Promise." At this Pinkie Pie jumped up and bounced behind me, followed slowly by Ryan.

We entered the small German classroom, and as usual, we were some of the first ones in there. There were a few others scattered about the room studying their vocabulary lists, but other than that, the tables were empty.

I sat down at my table and glanced over at Pinkie, only to see her repeatedly smacking her vocab list onto her forehead.

"…What are you doing?" I finally asked.

"We have a quiz today!" she shouted enthusiastically, not pausing for a second in her strange actions, "I gotta remember the list!"

"So, I take it you didn't look over it at all last night," I sighed, and she nodded, not looking disappointed in herself at all.

"See, Promise, this is where you shouldn't use me as an example," I messaged my forehead, "You need to go over it the day before the quiz, otherwise you won't know it."

"But you always know it," she pouted.

"Yea," I rolled my eyes, "That's because I was in Germany for two years. I already know the language. You don't."

Her eyes widened a bit, "Two years?"

"Yea," I answered simply, "It was a business trip my dad went on a while back. I was young enough that I could go with him back then."

"Even then, though," Ryan muffled a laugh, "It takes you a second to actually say things correctly."

"I do the same thing in English," I stuck my tongue out at him.

Just then, the door slammed open and Rainbow Dash jogged in, looking as determined as ever. Her Rainbow hair was tied back in a pony tail, and she seemed extremely restless. I raised an eyebrow at her.

"Don't tell me you actually ran around the hallways."

She laughed, "Nah, Mrs. Broski said I could run laps in the gym every morning as long as I didn't interfere with the other school's class."

She took her seat across from me and pulled out clean, yellow notebook. More people were filing in now, and our teacher, Frau Morath, started making her way to the front of the room.

"Guten Morgen," she said absentmindedly, writing our schedule up onto the smart board. I instinctively replied with a 'Morgen' and leaned back in my chair. Admittedly, I wasn't much for paying attention in German class. I usually let myself zone out unless there was something I needed to get done.

Dash had her feet up on the bar connecting our desks, and she was leaned back, playing with her ponytail. I muffled a chuckle at the irony of the situation, and then glanced over at Pinkie, who was still staring over-dramatically at the vocab list, and every so often smacking it against her forehead. I shook my head and looked at the board again.

Suddenly, a paper was pushed in front of me with a couple paragraphs of dialogue typed out on it. Tuning into her instructions, we were to team up with one other person and translate the paper. I motioned for Ryan to come over, and he quickly took the spot next to me. I looked up to see that Dash and Pinkie were partnered up across from us. I smiled and got to work, going through the paragraphs with extreme ease.

"I'm sailing away," I sang loudly, gulping down some tea, then pulling the bottle away from my mouth to continue, "Set an open course to the virgin sea."

"What song is that?" Applejack asked casually, sitting at her spot at the lunch table.

"I think it's by the Styx," I shrugged, "I don't know it that well."

Riley and Twilight made their way to the table and sat down in their normal spots, which triggered me to continue.

"Cuz I've got to be free!" I gulped down some more tea, "Free to face the life that's ahead of me."

"Are you having fun?" Riley rolled her eyes. She was wearing a bright pink sweater, and her dark red bangs were neatly parted.

"Yes," I laughed, enjoying that I was getting on her nerves. I saw Kendall coming towards us with Dash and Flutters, so I wanted to take it a step further.

"ON BOARD, I'M THE CAPTAIN! SO CLIMB ABOARD! WE'LL SEARCH FOR TOMORROW ON EVERY SHORE!" I sang as loudly as I could.

"I thought ya didn't know it that well?" Applejack was extremely confused now, and Riley's head was placed in her hands.

"Why do I hang out with you?" she groaned.

"AND I'LL TRY, OH MAN, I'LL TRY," I jumped up onto the seat, "TO CAAARRRRYYY ON!"

"Sit down you dork," Kendall grabbed my hand and pulled me back towards the ground. I laughed and spotted Rarity leading Ryan and Pinkie into the room. I just couldn't resist.

I ran toward the door and grabbed both of Rarity's hands. She looked extremely shocked as I began swinging her around the room.

"I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise, they climbed aboard their starships and headed for the SKIES! COME SAIL AWAY, COME SAIL AWAY, COME AND SAIL AWAY WITH ME!"

"Damn it, Olly!" Ryan laughed, trying his hardest to ignore me.

Then I felt a hand on my shoulder, and another hand cover my mouth. I nearly fell to the ground laughing, and I looked up to see Twilight with an aggravated look planted on her face.

"Save your singing for the show tonight," she sighed jokingly, and dragged me toward the table.

"Aw no," she dragged my spirits down a bit, "The guitar…"

I slumped in my chair, bringing the tea to my mouth again and taking a long, emphasized gulp. Riley only shook her head and I heard her warning, "You're only making it worse. Now he's gonna drown out his sorrows."

I heard all the girls getting confused, so I started again, "I'm sailing away… set an open course for the virgin sea…"

"That's his 'drowning my sorrows' song," Ryan laughed.

"Don't be nervous!" Pinkie jumped up, "You've been up in your room practicing and practicing and practicing all week!"

"But I still can't do it," I groaned, gulping the tea once again, wishing it would be endless.

"You look like a depressed drunk," Kendall smacked the back of my head and tearing the bottle out of my hands.

"Ahh!" I yelled in agony, "Give it back! Give it back, Mom!"

"See what I mean?" she held back a giggle.

Seeing there was no way to argue even jokingly, I slumped in my seat again and started drawing circles on the table with my fingertip.

"Cuz I've got to be free…"

"Shut up!" I had pushed Riley past her level of tolerance, and I laughed whole-heartedly. If anything in this world could cheer me up, it was an annoyed Riley.

I sat on the bleachers backstage playing the four chords I needed for the song over and over again. Ryan happily sang his part along with me, assuring me that I knew what I was doing. At this point, I wasn't exactly nervous anymore, just really hungry.

"When are we going on?" I asked someone walking by, not taking my fingers off of the guitar.

"I think you guys are number eight," this kid, Jarrett, informed me. I nodded at him in thanks and continued to play my song.

I looked at who was on stage at that moment, and realized that they were number six. I took in a sharp, deep breath, and set down my guitar.

"I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea. Cuz I've got to be free. Free to face the life that's ahead of me. On board I'm the captain, so climb aboard. We'll search for tomorrow on every shore. And I'll try, oh man, I'll try, to carry on." I sang extremely quickly and jittery without even realizing it.

We started making our way to the stage entrance to prepare for our turn. Ryan threw a thumbs up at me, and skipped to the other entrance at the opposite side of the stage, causing me to gasp once again.

"Come sail away, come sail away, come and sail away with me!" I was nearly hyperventilating now.

Before I could even realize what was going on, I hear our names being called. There was an applause and the lights came on… but neither I nor Ryan came out onto the stage. The audience was confused, but Ryan and I both held back laughs. It was all part of the plan.

All of a sudden, Ryan did a cartwheel out onto the stage and sighed dramatically. This was my cue to walk out and start the act.

"What are you doing?" I asked him.

"Well… we were told to entertain them," Ryan replied, slumping his shoulders according to the script.

"Right, right… So uh, hi," I turned to the audience awkwardly, remembering my lines with ease, "So um… we're not really sure what we're doing… see we're a last minute replacement. Uh… well the act that was supposed to be up here, she's a good friend of mine. Her name is Riley."

I took a deep breath, noticing all my friend's places in the audience. I saw all six of the girls staring up at me with supporting smiles. Somehow, it gave me a new-found confidence and I continued.

"Real good friend of mine. She told me that her talent was 'pretending to be sick'… I don't really know what that involved but…"

I heard the audience let out a laugh. This completely boosted my spirits and I continued, "But it was really weird; a few hours ago we got a call that she was sick and couldn't make it."

The audience let out another, even louder laugh. I smiled and continued with the most confidence I'd ever had on stage before.

"So yea… can… can we get some stools out here? And… maybe a guitar? Is that cool?"

Gabby suddenly came out from behind the stage holding a stool high above her head, "Like this one?"

"Yea, yea that's perfect," I nodded.

Gabby then came out carrying two stools in front of her, and my guitar was strapped across her back. She happily set down the stools in their planned location and handed the guitar over to me.

"Gabby everybody!" I shouted as Gabby danced off stage. The audience applauded and then settled down once again as I sat down on my stool.

"All right," I said almost nervously, staring down at the guitar strings. I took a breath and calmly played the four chords of the song we were singing. There was a long pause after this, and I awkwardly stated, "…I don't know how to play the guitar."

All of a sudden, the sound of laughter emitted from the audience. I wide smile spread across my face and I started playing the best I knew how, which wasn't good. Ryan took a deep breath away from his microphone and started.

"We're gonna write a song without a rhyme so we can sing it for you. A song without a rhyme, yea that's what we're gonna…"

"Accomplish," I countered with a smile, triggering another loud laugh from the audience, "I know it's gonna be tricky, yea it's gonna take time. To make a song without words that end with a…"

"Repeated sound," Ryan winked.

We continued our song, and the audience laughed along with us. Even though the guitar was terrible, it now looked like it was a part of the act. I almost thought no one was noticing, which just boosted my confidence even more. Before we knew it, we were off stage and our turn had ended.

Ryan skipped down the hallways happily at intermission, and I excitedly hobbled behind him, ready to go greet our friends. We burst out of the backstage door into a large group of people.

"You guys were so awesome!" Our friend, Treasure, walked up to us and gave us each a high-five. We thanked her and continued trying to find our group of friends.

"Olly!" I heard a voice call out. I looked over to see Riley skipping towards me followed by the six girls and our friend Brendan.

"Way to go, dude!" Rainbow Dash cheered, holding her arm up for a high-five. I jumped up to it as best I could without hurting my leg.

"That was so great," Riley laughed, gesturing to both me and Ryan, "And it was even better because I was mentioned!"

I rolled my eyes, "Thanks, man, that was awesome!"

"And ya had no problem with the guitar," Applejack winked, "I knew ya had nothin' to worry about."

I smiled and listened to the rest of the praise from my friends. It felt good to have them all there with me. I looked around sadly, not seeing any sign of my girlfriend or her sister anywhere. I wasn't going to kid myself; she had told me she couldn't make it, but there was still just a little bit of hope.

"Didn't Liz say she might come?" Ryan asked me, reading my thoughts.

"Yea," I agreed, "But I doubt she did."

He just shrugged and we continued greeting the rest of our friends who did show up. Not only were we getting compliments from our friends, but many of the adults who showed up came over to congratulate us as well. Apparently, we were one of the only entertaining acts. After a little while, Ryan gestured me back stage so we could get ready for the awards ceremonies.

"You guys were awesome!" Gabby ran up to us when we entered the back stage.

"Thanks," I smiled, "But the audience had a great reaction to Tyler… again."

The entirety of the backstage sighed; Tyler was the school's boy band type singer. Every nearly every female was in love with him, including half of the female judges. There was really no chance of anyone else winning.

"And they placed him last again," Ryan growled, "It's so unfair that he goes last every single year."

"Hey, at least next year he'll be a senior," I winked, "We got this after he's gone."

We all made our way onto the stage and stood in a line. I could see the girls smiling up at me from the audience, and I gave out a little wink. Rainbow Dash threw me a thumbs up, which Pinkie Pie quickly mimicked in her own excited way. I rolled my eyes.

"And the overall best of the night is…" the school comedian, Brock, announced, opening an envelope, "Tyler!"

Tyler simply shrugged and walked to the front of the stage to claim his prize. Ryan smiled at me, reminding me that we'd get him next year. I looked down at the girls to see them… they actually didn't look disappointed at all. They just stood there, smiling up at us and waving. A grin spread across my face.

"You can try this and try that, but you won't get it right. Work on and on, from morning till next morning!" Pinkie sang happily as we walked up the driveway. Ryan was allowing me to lean on him in order to keep pressure off of my leg.

"Hey, so much for not knowing how to play guitar!" Rainbow Dash elbowed me in the side. I laughed and continued hobbling up to the door.

"I don't know how to play the guitar," I chuckled, "I improvised."

"Don't tell people that!" Rarity caught up to me, "Darling, you looked like you knew exactly what you were doing. You don't want to ruin that image."

I laughed again, "I'll be sure not to. But, really, it wasn't all THAT great. It was just fun to do."

"But that's what made it the best!" Pinkie Pie shouted, "You were having so much fun that it was fun for everyone else too!"

"Huh," I pondered, "Never thought of it that way…"

"But then, why did Tyler win? He doesn't even care," Ryan rolled his eyes.

"It was pretty unfair," Twilight sighed, but then flashed us a smile, "In fact, we knew it was going to be unfair from the beginning."

I raised an eyebrow at her, and she just threw me a sly smile. She walked in front of me and opened the door.

"What in the world?" I shouted as I looked in the house. There were hand-made decorations lining the hallways that read 'congratulations'. Wide eyed, I walked through the hallway and into the living room. And there sitting on the table, was a trophy made out of paper.

"Surprise!" Pinkie shouted.

"We… thought you two deserved to win," Fluttershy explained, "Gabby told us at school that… Tyler won every year so… we put this together."

"Guys!" I laughed, "This is awesome!"

Ryan happily ran past me and pulled the trophy into his grasp, raising it above his head, "We won! Girl, we won!"

I laughed and joined in, "We won the talent show!"

We continued cheering, and some of the girls joined in. Eventually, it just turned into a fit of laughs, and the eight of us lying on the floor.

"Thanks, you guys," I finally said after I calmed down my laughter, "You're the best friends a kid could ask for."

"We're glad you like it, darling," Rarity smiled.

"Yea, ya deserve it fer how hard you've been practicin'," Applejack added.

"Well, what are we waiting for!" Pinkie jumped up from her spot on the floor, "Let's Party!"

I felt joy shoot through my chest as I heard Pinkie shout her signature line, almost identical to how she did in the show. I would never admit this to them, but Pinkie Pie had always made me the most emotional when watching the show.

I glanced over at Ryan who looked overly excited. Pinkie started playing music, and Ryan went straight into it. I laughed and joined them, not even caring what we looked like. All of us together like this, just dancing for the heck of it; I was really beginning to love having the girls around. I smiled at the thought and continued dancing, not allowing any bad thoughts into my head.

Hello! Yes, I know last update I said I'd update every week, and I still fully plan to do so. Last week I was kind of going through a hard time and just couldn't muster up the desire to write. But I'm back! And next chapter is planned to be even better than this one! Enjoy!