Chapter Twenty Two:
Woke Up This Morning (Got Yourself a Gun)
In a far corner of the warehouse, Daylight stood completely still, staring blankly into it, not really seeing anything. Her minds eye was complete overwrought with visions of the near future; images of frightened ponies, young and old cowering in fear before her and her friends, the feeling of the massive explosion that would likely rock the entire building to its very foundations, the mind-boggling amount of money that is sure to be awaiting them in that vault... the sight of Princess Celestia staring them down at the end of firey, bloodstained street, her horn glowing with some kind of terrible killing magic... and Daylight herself, aiming down the sight of her weapon, right at Celestia's head...
Dammit! Get out of my head! That's not going to be the case! We've planned too perfectly for this!
Daylight hit her hoof against her head a few times in an effort to dispel these disturbing images. She was thankful that none of her friends had bothered to question her about her brief absence the night before. Most likely they all had too much else on their minds to be bothered by that trivial detail.
All around the warehouse the others went about their business of preparing themselves. OJ was currently absent though, as she had set out to once again grab some breakfast for the girls. This time she made sure everypony was awake and knew what she was doing before heading out to avoid another misunderstanding.
Hash was busy testing her wings out, making sure she they were ready for the brief flight she would have to take today. She managed to stay hovering for a fair amount of time, though it wasn't without great effort some minor pain. She was convinced now she had just slept on her wing wrong, most likely as a result of not being used to sleeping on a pad. No matter how comfortable Commodity's extra plush one was, for Hash, anything less than a cloud was no good. She would endure though, like she always did. Even the fact that she would be lifting one of her friends to a roof that had to be pretty high up did little to shake her confidence. How heavy could that bookworm be after all?
Commodity, meanwhile was doing her best to get her no longer well-kept mane to cooperate. The once elegant unicorn was not exactly looking up to her usual prim and proper standards. Both her mane and tail had lost a bit of their natural curl and were scattered with stray hairs poking out and split ends. Her once perfectly pristine ivory coat was splotted with light smudges of dirt, grime and sweat. Technically they were all pretty unkempt from all the running around, hanging out in decrepit old buildings, and getting tossed around in a rusty old van, but it particularly stood out on Commodity. It was impossible to tell which was more shocking: the fact that she was as messy as she was, or the fact that she didn't seem to care in the slightest.
Butterfly spent her moment of preparation examining her rifle. It was scary to her just how accustomed she had become to holding that tool of destruction in her hooves. She felt an almost natural urge to hold the silenced MP5 close to her a cuddle it like she would an injured or sick animal. It was weird of her to feel that way and she knew it, but that piece of cold, hard steel was the one thing that would be keeping her safe as the days events played out. She had friends alongside her too though, and she knew they'd never let any harm come to her. But ultimately, it was her skills with her own weapon that would be the deciding factor in whether or not she would be going home to her little Angel Bunny.
And then there was Candy, who was putting on a Razzie worthy performance of keeping her demeanor as bubbly and positive as she knew her friends would expect of her. Last nights revelations had been nothing short of harrowing for her. To keep something bottled up for so long, and to hide it all under a mask of utter bliss and contentment only for it to come pouring out of her so abruptly had taken an enormous toll on her mental state. Truthfully, she wasn't exactly feeling like Pinkie Pie at all in that moment, or Candy for that matter. There was another name she preferred to go by in situations like this...
The sound of the warehouse door swinging open drew everyponies attention. OJ came trotting in with the brown McDerpy's bag on her back. The girls gathered around her as she set the bag on the floor. "Eat up, ya'll," OJ said with forced vigor. "We're gonna need it.
Everypony grabbed what they could, not really caring what it was, and choked it all down as bes they could. Considering the situation, it was a miracle none of them threw up.
"So," Daylight began as she swallowed the last bit of her dandelion sandwich -one that went a little heavy on the mayo-. "Should we go over it all one more time before we do this thing?" Everypony nodded simultaneously, their full attention now directed towards the unicorn.
"Alright, first off, we get to the bank and Hash flies me up to the roof. You girls all enter one at a time, and be sure to space it out so we don't look like we're together. I'll watch from the roof until you're all in, then I'll knock out the power. Once it goes dark, get your equipment ready; your masks and weapons and whatnot. Try not to fumble with your masks in the dark and be very careful with your weapons. Just take your time and make sure everything's all set before you try anything else. Once you're all set, do whatever it takes to get the crowd under control; fire a couple warning shots if you have to, just make sure not to hit anypony.
"I'll come down via the roof access stairs, hopefully you'll have everything under control by then. Once I've calmed the crowd down, we'll get through that one door through whatever means the situation may warrant. While Hash, Candy and OJ keep the crowd under control I'll head down to the vault with Butterfly and Commodity. Then I'll set the C4 charges, and maybe I'll give us a minute or so to get clear of the area before the explosion. Once we're in the vault, we load up our bags with as much as we can carry. Be sure to grab the higher value bits so we don't weigh ourselves down too much.
"Then we come to the problem of how we're going to get out of there. I... guess I kinda forgot to consider that." Daylight did a small facehoof and muttered quietly to herself, "Good one, Celestia's former protegé."
"Wha? We can't jush walk outta there 'r shomethin'?" Hash asked with a mouth full of hay fries.
"Well that wouldn't look odd at all now, would it?" Commodity said sarcastically. "Six masked mares with such heavy firepower come cantering out of the Bank of Equestria, dragging large bags of bits behind them. I'm sure most ponies would be able to put two and two together there, darling."
"Uhhhh, yeah I guess that would look kind of weird," Hash admitted. "But what else can we do?"
"Not much, I'm afraid," Daylight sighed. "Truth is, there's no way we can come out of the bank in a way that won't attract attention. But what I think I might do is bring the van around to the front of the building and we can load up faster that way. We'll still attract some attention I'm sure, but we'll be out of there much quicker."
"Daylight, I gotta ask, have you done this before or something?" Hash asked, clearly in awe of her friends intellect. "I mean, I knew you were an egghead, but this is just ridiculous. Is there anything you don't know?"
Daylight blushed at the praise, but quickly regained herself. "Trust me, Hash, I've learned a lot from reading, but I've been making most of this up on the fly. I'm just deciding to do whatever sounds like the most reasonable course of action. It's more like common sense rather than serious intellect."
"Eh, whatever Miss Modest," Hash shrugged as she downed the last of her sandwich. "You're still a total badass when it comes to this robbery stuff."
Daylight smiled briefly at that. It was always a good feeling when the brash pegasus gave her praise like that, especially considering how rarely it happened. "So anyway," she continued. "We'll take the van out of Manehattan and use it to get us real close to Ponyville. Then we'll ditch it somewhere out of the way and walk the rest of the way home. The bags will definitely be heavy, but we won't have to walk too far. We should be fine."
"Ah guess that sounds about as good as it possibly can," OJ said with a sigh. "When do we start?"
"As soon as everypony's done eating," Daylight answered.
Instantly, everypony set whatever was left of their food down and rose to their hooves. "Lets just get this over with please," Butterfly said meekly. "Every moment we drag this out, it just gets harder and harder for me to accept that this is really happening... and the chances of me chickening out get greater and greater as well."
"I agree," Commodity chimed in. "I'm ready to do this now, before I change my mind."
"I'm all set!" Candy announced with feigned excitement. "It's... it's party time, baby." Her excitement faded towards the end of that statement. "Woo..."
"Ah'm ready too, girls," OJ added. "About as ready as Ah'm ever gonna be fer somethin' like this."
"We're gonna rock this shit, guys!" Hash said as she leapt to her hooves. She seemed to be the only one not faking her excitement.
"Alright then," Daylight said as she rose along with the others. "Now if anything, anything at all goes wrong in there, and things get real ugly real fast, just follow my lead and do exactly as I say. I good at thinking on my hooves, and I'll do whatever I can to get us out of there unharmed."
Everypony nodded solemnly, with an added "I'll follow you anywhere, Day," by Hash.
After checking their weapons and equipment one more time, the group headed for the exit. Before heading outside, Daylight turned to take what she was hoping to be her last look at the shabby old warehouse that had served as their home for the past few days. In spite of all the ugliness that had occurred there, she felt a slight twinge of sadness in her gut. Surprisingly, she was going to miss this place. It hadn't been much, but it was home...
"So long, shithole," she muttered quietly before stepping out.
The sky was as grey and cloudy as ever; rain looked like a definite possibility later in the day. Hopefully they wouldn't be caught in it while hauling their loot back to the van.
One by one, the mares piled into the van. Commodity, OJ, Butterfly and Candy settled into the back while Hash took the passenger seat. Daylight slid into the drivers seat and started the vehicle up. She remained motionless for a moment and tried to let the low rumbling of the van ease her into a more relaxed state. Sadly, that monotonous growl was only succeeding at putting her even more on edge than she already was, if that was even possible.
"Hey, uh, I think this thing right here is a radio of some kind," Hash said, pointing to some sort of electronic looking device at the front of the van. "How about I flip it on? Give us a little something to ease the tension?"
"Hash, that actually sounds pretty wonderful right about now," Daylight said with a sigh of relief. The others just nodded in agreement.
"Heh, sweet!" Hash flicked the radio on and zipped through the stations. Most were either static or boring talk radio shows, which only added to Daylights tension and annoyance.
Eventually Hash managed to locate a station playing a rather bittersweet, melancholy tune...
"'Cause you had a bad day
You're taken one down
You sing a sad song just to turn it around
You say you don't know
You tell me don't lie
You work at a smile and you go for a ride
You had a bad day
The camera don't lie
You're comin' back down and you really don't mind
You had a bad day
You had a bad day"
Daylight stared blankly at the radio. Her eye began to twitch in utter rage at the sheer coincidence of happening upon that song.
"Fuck you," she muttered quietly to the radio before slamming her hoof into it at full force. The radio died instantly with a muffling staticy sound before going completely silent.
The other stared wide-eyed at her, Hash in particular looking like she wanted to berate her silly. But none uttered a word at the risk of setting off the dangerously powerful unicorn.
"I hate that song," Daylight said simply. And without another word she set the van to drive and pulled out, her friends just at a total loss for words.
The drive had been relatively easy, with Commodity offering directions to the best of her memory. The only thing hindering their progress was the slow traffic, which really seemed to get Candy on edge. She clearly wanted to take control of the wheel again.
The others spent their spare time checking their weapons and taping up their cutie marks. Hash worried for a moment that her prismatic tail might give her away, after all how many ponies in Equestria had a color scheme quite like hers? But then she remembered it would be dark in there, most likely dark enough that her tail wouldn't stand out too badly.
Other than that, aside from Commodity directing Daylight through the busy Manehattan streets, nopony spoke. What was there to say, anyway? There was no need to go over the plan anymore since they all pretty much had it burned into their memories by that point. Pointless small talk seemed offensively inappropriate at a time like that.
Oh, one more thing before we start, girls; Princess Celestia knows what we're up to. Actually she's been wise to this whole operation from the moment I first mentioned it to you in the Everfree. Anyway, she's watching us closely now, and if we make one little screw up that leads to fuckin' Armageddon, she's gonna deal with us personally. Just thought you should know that before we start, ya know, so you have a little more incentive to not blow this whole thing. Happy robbery to ya!
She very nearly burst out laughing there, mainly at the sheer ridiculousness of pretty much everything. But she managed to keep her hysterics in check. Thankfully.
Daylight, for the most part just tried to keep her anger under control and follow Commodity's directions to the best of her ability. Occasionally she would poke her head out the window and scan the skies for a certain all-powerful deity with the power to control the movement of the sun itself. Thankfully, she saw nothing out of the ordinary in the sky above her. And to add further to her relief, her friends never once questioned what she was doing sticking her head out the window all the time.
Eventually Daylight guided the van into a long, thin ally which, according to Commodity, should've came out onto Celestia Blvd. As it turned out, that was exactly the case as Rarity recognized certain landmarks easily. Daylight brought the van up close to the end of the ally and shut it down there; she wanted to keep it well out of public view as best she could. On top of that she didn't want anypony to see them coming out of it together.
The six mares exited the van and did one last once-over of their equipment. Guns, C4, masks, extra ammo... it was all there. Daylight poked her head out of the ally and looked up and down the busy street. Commodity joined her in doing the same thing. "There it is, right there," she said, pointing up the street.
Daylight followed her hoof until her eyes met an imposing structure a few blocks away and across the street from them. The Bank of Equestria stood slightly taller than most of the other buildings lining the street. It was a very government looking building: large white columns lining the front, the words "Bank of Equestria" displayed along the front of the overhanging roof, and at least a dozen ponies going in and out of it constantly.
It sure wasn't like the one in Ponyville...
"Gol-ly," OJ said with an awed whistle. "Looks like a damn fortress..."
"We'll be fine," Daylight said reassuringly. "Just remember the layouts and we'll be able to navigate this building blindfolded."
The others made one last check of their weapons and returned them to their saddlebags. The foreboding silence, broken only by the occasional car horn or profanity laced tangent off in the distance was really starting to grate on Daylight. She badly wanted to hear her friend's voices. She didn't even care what it was they were talking about, she just needed to hear them. Their silence was beyond unsettling. It was as if they were preparing for their executions and simply had nothing more to say. That was the last mental image Daylight needed at that time, right up there with Princess Celestia raining Tartarus upon them.
"Hey, Daylight," Hash said, oblivious to the lavender unicorns relief at hearing her voice. "I think I'm ready to fly you up there now."
"Are you sure?" Daylight asked.
"No, not really," Hash answered matter-of-factly. "My wing still feels like it's being stabbed at the base, but I'll just have to tough it out. It's what the Wonderbolts would do, after all. No more putting this off. Let's just get it over with."
Daylight gave a quick smile and nod to her ever loyal friend. She then took a brief moment to access the emotional state of the rest of the group. Naturally, they all looked more than a tad nervous. Butterfly, in particular, had lowered her head between her forelegs and was in the process of breathing deeply in and out.
"You alright, Butterfly?" Daylight asked in a rather emotionless tone.
"I'll... I'll be... fine..." Butterfly answered between breaths. "This just helps me to relax a bit."
Daylight nodded in understanding and faced the others. Sure, they looked scared... but they also looked ready. Ready as they would ever be.
"Okay, everypony," she began in a tone of finality. "This is it. Just try to look as casual as possible as you head in. Be polite to others. Don't do anything to arouse suspicion. You'll know what to do when the time comes."
Butterfly lifted her head back up. "I'm ready," she said with genuine confidence.
Daylight nodded and turned to approach Hash, who had lowered herself to allow the unicorn to climb on her back. She got as comfortable as she possibly could, then gave one last glance back at her dear friends. "Good luck, everypony..." she whispered.
With a determined groan, Hash leapt into the air with her passenger holding on tight. She was clearly in pain, there was no arguing that, and Daylight was really hating herself for having to put her through this, but Hash steadied on with a single word of complaint.
It was at this moment that Daylight realized just how cold it really was out there. Her mind had been so wracked with a million and one thoughts that she sort of just mentally shut out the freezing cold temperature. But now that she was riding the back of a pegasus flying at a pretty good speed, she was really starting to feel it, and it was flat-out torture.
"You okay, Daylight?!" Hash shouted back at her through clenched teeth. "It's pretty damn chilly up here!"
"I'll live," Daylight replied. Actually, no I won't. "What about you?"
"Fuckin' agony," Hash answered in a forced relaxed tone. "But I'll deal. It's not like we have far to go anyway."
Daylight felt a huge wave of admiration for the athletic pegasus. The fact that she had yet to make the Wonderbolts was proving to be more and more baffling considering what she was capable of. As far as she was concerned, Hash... no, Rainbow Dash... already was a Wonderbolt at heart. All she had to do now was pay the ridiculously high entrance fee.
As they neared the roof of the bank, Daylight chanced a quick glance down at the busy street below them. They were fairly high up, but Daylight had grown fairly accustomed to dealing with heights over the course of her crazy adventures with her friends. Plus she felt completely safe knowing she was in the care of the Bearer of Loyalty.
To her amazement, nopony in the busy street below had seemed to notice them, and if they did, they must not have any interest in them whatsoever. She remembered reading somewhere that a strange, unexplained habit of city ponies was that they rarely ever looked up. It was most likely due to the fact that looking straight up and seeing massive, daunting skyscrapers surrounding you on all sides could lead to a nasty case of vertigo, but nopony knew for sure. Maybe city folk were just weird like that...
Eventually, after a truly heroic effort, Hash came down successfully on the bank's roof. It was a bit of a rough landing, though, as Hash's legs pretty much gave out under her the second they hit the concrete. Daylight tumbled off her and quickly regained herself. She gasped a bit when she saw just how worn down Hash looked. She lay flat on her belly with all four legs splayed out in opposite directions and her wings completely limp. Her breathing was heavy and labored, not to mention more raspy than usual.
She barely looked capable of even standing up, and now she was about to hold up a bank full of hundreds of ponies?!
"Hash, are you alright? You're starting to look sick!" Daylight cried.
"I'm fine... just a little tired," Hash replied though her heavy breathing. "That was just more effort that I put on my wings a minute ago than I have in a while. Plus, and no offense and all, but you're a lot heavier than I thought you'd be." Hash expected to receive an angry glare, but to her surprise Daylight's expression was more full of concern than ever. "Anyway, I just need a minute, then I'll head back down to the others and we can get this thing started. The flight back should be easier."
Daylight sighed. "If you're sure, Hash. I just don't want you pushing anything. If... if something goes wrong and you're not feeling well enough to take proper action... if something happens to you.." Daylight couldn't even bear to finish. The disturbing images in her head said more than words could.
Hash actually managed to smile and chuckle a bit. "Daylight... or actually, just this once I'll call ya Twilight. I love ya to death, but honestly, you gotta lose the negativity. You assume the worst way too much, and more often than not, the worst never happens. I'm gonna be fine. You're gonna be fine. We're all gonna be fine." Hash then briskly leapt to her hooves, looking surprisingly healthy again. "When we plan ahead, and know exactly what we're gonna do and how we're gonna do it, we're unstoppable! Not even the Princess's can stand in our way!"
A chill ran up Daylight's spine. "Let's not test that theory..." she whispered inaudibly. However, she was
Hash cantered up to her friend with, a renewed spring in her step, and wrapped her in a tight hug. "Just remember, we're with you no matter what. I'm with you no matter what. We live together. We fight together. We die together. Quote me on that."
Daylight, awed by her friends profound words, hugged her friend back, tighter than she had ever hugged another before. "You're fucking amazing, you know that?"
"Duh," Hash quipped. "Ready to do this?"
Daylight had only two words for that: "Fuck. Yes."
The two broke apart, and Hash took off at a gallop for the edge of the roof. Before leaping off, she turned and gave a powerful hoof pump towards Daylight, which the unicorn returned with just as much vigor.
Hash then leapt from the roof, roaring at the top of her lungs, "FUCK HARMONYYYYYYY!" And not a single pedestrian below her bothered to look up. As far as they were concerned, that phrase was pretty much Manehattan's motto.
Daylight took that time to tape up her cutie mark and double check her equipment. Everything was all set, a fact which granted her some small comfort. She then scanned the rooftop for where she hoped the generator would be. Sure enough, the big, grey, loudly groaning behemoth was sputtering away right it the center of the rooftop, next to what was had to be the doorway to the roof access stairs.
So far, so good. Everything working with the plan perfectly. Maybe Mr. Fate was finally done fucking her over...
Now all she had to do was wait for her friends to get inside. There was no need for hurry yet, so she took this time to relax herself, let her thoughts wander to something more calming. She thought of Spike, her little number-one assistant. She had forgotten to ask Celestia how he was holding up last night. She'd had a lot on her mind understandably, but it would've taken so much weight off her already heavy heart to know that he was doing okay.
... "Wait a moment," Daylight said to herself as a rather unnerving thought came to her head. "She hasn't told him we've been up to, has she?" Her eyes went wide with mix of fear and anger. "Oh, she better fuckin' not have... Oh fuckin' A! I swear if she did that I'm gonna fuckin'..." She took a breath to calm herself. "No. No, she wouldn't do that. There's no reason for her to do that. No reason at all. What would it accomplish anyway? It'd just get him freaked out for no good reason. Celestia may be a bitch, but she's not a fuckin' bitch.
"You just go ahead and have your freaky little LSD induced dreams about your dead friends coming back to bitch you out, Princess. But if you do end up seeing me in those dreams someday, I swear on the sun I'm gonna follow you back into the real world and haunt your flank there as well. Maybe I'll possess your sister and make her go all Nightmare Moon again; really give you something to cry about, huh? Ohhhhh, I am gonna torture you silly, you stupid, condescending, manipulative... um... okay, I really need to stop talking to myself now."
As Daylight scanned the road below her from the edge of the roof, she finally made out the familiar figure of OJ heading up the street towards her. How ironic that the last one to agree to go through with the robbery was going to be the first one in the bank to pull it off. She truly was about as trustworthy as one could possibly be.
Right before reaching the entrance, OJ gave a quick glance up to the roof. She barely managed to make out the lavender-colored face peeking down at her from over the edge. The two exchanged a confident nod, then the orange earth pony pressed on inward.
Keep cool, Applejack.
Daylight looked up the road again, and after a few minutes she could make out a bright pink earth pony bounding playfully towards her. It wasn't the most subtle way to get to the bank, but with the smile Candy was proudly displaying, it would be a bit of a stretch to assume she was about pull off a heist. Just like OJ had done, Candy quickly took a glance up to the roof before entering. Instead of nodding, however, she chose to flash her the widest smile imaginable, which Daylight couldn't even come close to matching in return. Without missing a beat, the pink pony hopped through the entrance.
Stay low key, Pinkie Pie.
Moments later, Commodity could be seen trotting elegantly through the crowds, drawing in a few second looks from the stallions in particular. Commodity paid them no heed and continued on with her head held high. She gave Daylight a small smile and wink before disappearing inside.
Just keep pushing on, Rarity.
Then came Butterfly, who, even from far away could be seen visibly shaking. She took a couple of rude shoves by two passing stallions, and it took all the resolve Daylight could muster to keep from leaping down there and tearing their heads off. When Butterfly gave her glance up to her friend, they made eye-contact briefly, and nothing more.
Be strong, Fluttershy.
And finally came the rainbow-maned Hash, who had apparently seen when the two stallions shoved Butterfly, and she made sure to trip them with her rear hooves when she passed them. Luckily, the two brutes seemed to stupid to know when they were being fucked with, and continued on their way as if it were just an accident. Hash no longer looked like she was suffering from her hurt wing. Perhaps the fact that they were finally getting this thing done was acting as a pain-killer for her.
She glanced up at Daylight and mouthed what appeared to be the words "Kick flank!" to her. But right before Hash could enter, she forced herself to stop to allow an older stallion and a young colt to enter first. Her confidence faded a bit when she saw how excited the little foal looked; probably heading in to open his first savings account or something.
While the older stallion headed right on in, the colt stopped and looked to Hash with a polite smile, clearly wanting to allow her to enter first. Hash managed to smile back and give a little nod towards the door. "Go ahead, buddy," she offered kindly. In her head, however, she was screaming for the kid to run away.
"Thank you!" The colt replied happily, and he trotted in after his father.
Hash sighed sadly, then slowly headed in. Daylight had seen the whole thing, and knew just what her friend was feeling. The pegasus had always had a bit of a soft spot for young foals, and could be extremely protective of them when she needed to be. This was particularly true with Scootaloo, though she couldn't stand to see any innocent young child being abused or mistreated in any way. Most likely it had to do with her own cruel upbringing, but it was also possible that maybe she was just a real softie deep down.
Daylight had always admired that secret side of her friend; it showed what a kind and gentle soul she was underneath her typical hard edge. But now was not the time to be soft, and she really hoped Hash knew that as well as she did.
Do what you have to do, Rainbow Dash.
They were all in now. It was time for Daylight to kick this thing into gear. No alarms had sounded yet, so her friends apparently hadn't done anything stupid. Daylight scolded herself internally for not having more faith in her friends. She knew they weren't idiots, but for some reason she really felt an urge to kill the power as quickly as possible, as if every second that passed brought them closer to certain destruction.
She set herself up in front of the rather decrepit looking generator and pulled her mask over her head. She took a few seconds to adjust her vision, then began letting her horn charge with her electronics scrambling spell.
A half-hour. Once I hit that thing, we're on the clock. No slacking off. No taking our sweet time. We gotta haul flank. They had all better fucking know that!
About a minute had passed when she finally felt the magical energy in her horn reach it's peak. It was time now. All she had to do was release it, and the proverbial demon hordes of Tartarus would be unleashed. Daylight took these last few precious seconds to relish in the calm before the storm. All those days of planning, preparing, and gradually losing their innocence were finally about to pay off.
Daylight remembered hearing somewhere that the Bank of Equestria was regarded as the safest, most secure bank in the land, and that nopony could even hope to challenge that.
Daylight just had to smirk.
Well then wait'll they get a load of us.
ZZZZZZAAAAAAAAPPPP!
Couple of things I want to say real quick. First off, I changed my pen name to match the one I have on fimfiction. I decided to put "Just a Friendly Game" on there and I didn't want them to think I was stealing someone elses story.
Also, I'm back in school now, and I'm afraid my school work has to come first. I'd have had this chapter up sooner if I hadn't been so preoccupied with school. Plus I wrote another Scootalove story that I just really had to get out of my system. Give it a look if you haven't already, as it's my first attempt at trying something sad.
I expect this to be about five more chapters, at least, and I really want to get it done before too long. This story is seriously taking a lot out of me, but I will finish it no matter what.
Anyway thanks for your patience and thanks for reading. Next chapter should be a blast... literally.