Chapter 9

Coach Crush's bright orange pelt glistened with sweat. Perspiration dripped off the tip of his muzzle in a steady stream. Inhaling and exhaling deep, arduous breaths of air. He tried to swallow but his mouth was dry. Feeling a tad dizzy, he shook his head, clearing away the cobwebs in his mind. The pegasus was tired. Since being trapped in the lounge the coach had been chopping away at the door, bucking to no avail.

He looked to the old intercom system in the corner of the Teachers Lounge in spite. He wanted to crush it. The aged speakers cracked with Quicksilver's cruel voice. Spitting disgusting lies and hurtful insults about her fellow Ponyville School girls, laughing and mocking, joyfully. The young unicorn's malicious slandering, drilling away at the schools spirit and heart.

"Lemon Blossom worships Nightmare Moon!" Quicksilver snickered. "She dances naked, under the full moons light! Praising the Dark Queen as her beloved Goddess. The sick filly is a filly lover!"

"And Coco, lets see what your file says here… why, oh my gosh! You have GREAT grades." Quicksilver gasped, "you must do a lot of brown noising don't you Coco? And this whole time I thought you were a natural caramel. Huh, well I guess now we all know the truth, hmm."

This enraged Coach Crush to no end. "I WILL CRUSH YOU LITTLE BRATS WHEN I GET OUTA HERE!" he roared. Rearing up on his front legs, arching his back, straining with every last bit of strength, and bucked. Sending his hooves crashing into the Teacher's Lounge door as hard as he possibly could.

SHHHH-WACK!

His back hooves smashed into the unyielding door, covered with deep hoof shaped gouges and welts. The door held firm and unfazed by the coach's determination.

"Coach Crush, will you give it a break," Mr. Bumble said irritated. "We need to come up with a better plan."

"Never! You waste your time figuring out whatever you need to figure out. But I'm going though this door, and I'm going to put that vile filly and Hawthorn in my personal hurt locker," Coach Crush said between heavy breaths.

"I-" the orange pegasus bucked at the door.

"Will-" bucked again.

"Not-" bucked feebly.

"Stop!"

His forelegs slipped out from underneath of him in a pool of his own sweat, landing onto the tile, chin first. The pegasus collapsed onto the floor in an exhausted orange mass. His wings flopped lifelessly to either side.

"Coach, you're not doing any one of us a favor by breaking your neck," Mr. Bumble said as he walked over.

"Oh, really. Then please tell me your grand plan to getting us out of here, if you even have one." Coach Crush stood up on week legs.

"We don't have one yet. Because somepony is making so much noise that we can't hear ourselves think." Mr. Bumble's mustache ruffled in frustration.

"I can't believe this! At least I'm DOING something, not just sitting around drinking the last of the coffee, watching this guy trying to save the day." He pointed to his chest, pressing his face up close to Bumble's.

"Yes, you are doing something. You're acting like a brutish, hoof dragging, cavepony!" Bumble growled.

Crush grabbed the whistle hanging around his neck and blew into it as hard as he could, right into Bumble's face with such force that the teacher's mane and mustache whipped side to side.

"HOW DARE YOU!" The gray earth pony pushed his forehead into Coach Crush's.

"GO AHEAD AND TRY ME!" The orange pegasus pushed back. The two ponies strained their neck against each other.

"Boys!" Miss Sweet Pea jumped in, prying them apart. "Stop fighting! We have to work together. The children are out there, on their own. For their sakes we have to find a way to help them."

Bumble shook his head. "Miss Pea, I'm afraid the only way to get out of here is if somepony opens this door from the other side."

"If I had a can of 'Whoop-Flank' then I'd bust this doorframe down in one kick," Coach Crush huffed.

Quicksilver's shameless ranting was cut unexpectedly short by Hawthorn's unmistakable voice. "Quicksilver, you've caused enough mental damage for one afternoon, get back to you're section and check on your patrol."

"I DON'T WANT TO TALK TO YOU!" Quicksilver shrilled. The loud sound of something glass shattered forcefully.

"What are you doing you crazy mare!? Get OUT!"

"I HATE YOU!" she screamed, followed by more glass shattering.

"OUT NOW!" Hawthorn ordered just as the intercom cut off dead.

Silence.

The teachers all looked at one another in disbelief. "Celestia, please look over our precious students," Miss Sweet Pea whispered.

Patch Work laid on the attic floor, bundled up in the unfurled roll of red fabric. She watched as a mouse scurried along the edge of the wall, disappearing behind the attic's miscellaneous clutter. "Wait little fella. Take me with you," she sighed lazily. Her warm breath raised in the frigid winter air.

She glanced at her failed escape attempt. A makeshift rope abandoned by the smashed attic window. Her plan was simply: climb out the window and down the rope. It would have worked brilliantly. Patch Work was about half way out the window when her fear of heights kicked in. Panicking, she had nearly fallen completely out.

"You're such a wuss Patches," she said, disappointed with her cowardice behavior.

Suddenly, the attic's hatch flipped open with a bang. Not but a moment later a ladder was produced and a pink unicorn appeared, looking around with timid jewel-blue eyes. Patch Work quickly pulled the red fabric over her head and hid quietly.

"Keep going," a colts voice urged from below.

Hesitantly, she made her way up, followed by Metal Hooves. "It's an attic?" she said questionably.

"This will be your new room for now. You better get used to it."

"How long will I be here?"

Metal Hooves shrugged his shoulders. "Till the boss says so. Don't expect to go anywhere soon, he has big plans for you two fillies."

"Two?" She repeated confused.

With his front hoof, Metal Hooves kicked the messy bundle of red fabric. A soft "ouch" yelped from underneath, more from the surprise than anything.

"Hawthorn will be paying you both a visit soon. Count on it ladies," he said, kicking the bundle once more – "ouch!" Patches squeaked – before walking back to the ladder.

"Please wait! Don't go. I don't know what's going on here. But you do and you know that none of this is right. We may not be friends, but I'm asking you to do what is right. Please," she said, holding out a pink hoof to the dark gray pony. Her golden eyes bright and intense.

Her words brought Metal Hooves to a halt. He turned to look at her and the hoof she held out to him. His mouth opened to say something, but words failed him. Patch Work peeked out from hiding to watch.

"I can tell you have good inside your heart. I can see it in your eyes. Please do what you know is the right thing to do." She smiled and extended her hoof from him to take. She mouthed the word 'please'.

His red eyes locked onto her brilliant blue irises, and for a moment there was a connection. A bond between the two unicorns, of unspoken words. A plea from a captive to her captor.

Metal Hooves looked down, letting his black emo style mane cover his eyes. He could no longer look at her. "Sorry, you've got the wrong guy," he said with a frown, descending back down the ladder.

"Well, then, don't expect me to help you or that Hogthorn guy," she yelled, slamming the hatch closed, just as Metal Hooves' face popped back up, about to say something. The heavy hatch hit him square on his head with a loud crack, sending him tumbling down the ladder and crashing into the floor below.

"OOPS! Sorry–yyyy." She held a hoof to her mouth, feeling terrible.

"It's okay," said the little tan filly under the fabric, "he deserved it."

"I–I think I just killed him." She glanced back to the hatch.

"Nah, colts like him take lumps like that and keep on ticking." She pointed a hoof to her head. "His head is full of rocks anyway. I'm Patch Work, but you can call me Patches! What's your name?"

"I'm Stunning Stitch. Despite these conditions, it's nice to meet you Patches." The pink unicorn smiled. "Why are you up here in this cold attic?"

"I threw a pencil at Hawthorn (Chapter4). He deserved that, too."

"Hawthorn? Me and Thespie have been calling him Hogthorn this whole time. But Hawthorn makes so much more sense. Because who would name their foal Hogthorn… you know?" Stunning Stitch smiled sheepishly feeling like she said too much.

"Hogthorn! That's a good one! I'll have to remember that," Patch Work laughed.

Stunning Stitch could not help but to laugh with Patches. It was a wonderful relief to laugh away her worries.

A strange chirping sound caught the attention of the giggling fillies. High up above their heads was a weasel looking back down at them through a vent in the ceiling.

"Oh look, a squirrel." Stunning Stitch cooed.

The weasel rolled her eyes and face–pawed.

"That's not a squirrel. I think that's Vintage Scripture's weasel, Pepper."

Pepper chirped and nodded.

"I don't see many animals in Manehattan."

"OH! I've got an idea! Pepper, don't go anywhere!" Patch Work dashed to an open box and began to dig through the contents. Sinking in further and further down, till only her rear hooves were sticking out of the top of the box, she shouted, "AH-HA! Got it!" Jumped back out, holding up a pencil in her teeth. Hastily she started to scribble a message on the back of an old math test that somepony had failed long ago.

"What are you doing, deary?"

"I'm writing a note to my brother. He's here in school too."

"I see, and you're going to have the ferret bring it to him, right?"

"Weasel. Once my brother finds out I'm trapped up here he'll come and save us." Patch Work finished the note and folded it up.

"Then we can help free the rest of the children," Stunning Stitch said. Her horn glowing bright pink, levitated the note up to the weasel in the vent. Pepper took a hold of the piece of paper and darted away.

The two ponies listened as the sound of little paws vanished far away. Stunning Stitch and Patch Work look at each other. "I hope this works."

"I'm sure it will. Nothing could possibly get any worse than this already is," Stunning Stitch said confidently.

Bramble danced around in a circle, admiring himself. Dressed head to hoof in the phony royal Canterlot messenger's guise. "Hey Bro, Look at me. I look pretty good, huh?" he giggled in delight.

With his mouth, Hawthorn tightened the mail bag strap around Bramble's waist. "Yeah, yeah, don't get too used to it, okay. Just deliver these letters and get your flank back here. No distraction!"

"Uh, what do I say to the parents?"

"Nothing you nincompoop! You don't open your mouth, got it. The letters explain everything (Chapter5). You'll just end up saying something stupid and mess everything up."

Bramble turned to face Hawthorn, with a serious (kinda) face and saluted him with an uncontrollable laugh.

"Just get going, feather-head." Hawthorn opened the office window. Bramble leapt out and flew high into the snowy gray sky.

The door burst open as a incoherent minion shoved his way into the office, out of breath. "Lord Hawthorn! Trouble, quick, classroom, fight."

Hawthorn raised one eyebrow and one ear. "What?"

The impatient minion paused, gulped hard, catching his breath and said, "classroom eight! They have revolted!"

A grin stretched across Hawthorn's face.

My way

XXX

I'm coming home finally! It's almost been one whole year since I've seen my family or the good ol' land of the United States. I'm so excited.

So if I don't message any of you right away it's because I'm spending much needed time with my wonderful family. I've got a lot of work ahead of me. Playing with my 4 year old and 6 year old daughters. Coloring with them in their My Little Pony coloring books, chasing them around the house, and kicking their butts in Mario Kart.

Thank you! thank you! thank you all so much for the positive encouragement you have all shown me. I owe you all so much. This is so sad for me, I feel like I'm saying goodbye for the last time for some reason. I feel like I'm about to cry. I will not forget about any of you. I'll be telling my family about all you great colts and fillies that I met on FF.

Novi and Fungus, you are both so wonderful! You're the best friends I could have ever asked for. In my heart you'll always be my sister and brother.

I'm so sorry that this is two chapters in a row that I haven't used any new OC's. But chapter 10 – the revolt – will have four new original character's to make their debut appearance in Bully War.

Together we can find a way to stop Hawthorn.

I'm going to go for now. I'll see every one of you when I've settled in back home. I promise more Bully War and Cinder Gold stories are still to come.

Love, peace and best wishes from my editor, Alison and I.

JackalFoxx~