Pills, Phonies and Popular Ponies
Firework:
Friday
9:20 A.M. - Between 1st and 2nd Period
The hallways were packed, larger ponies pushing the smaller ones, other pegasi were taking flight, unicorns were using their magic to shove others out of the way. Needless to say, it was survival of the fittest in the hallways, and I apparently wasn't one of the fittest, which was easy to understand when one’s face is being pushed into a locker. Normally I never got caught in the middle of the mad rush to the next class, but then again, today was Friday. More than that, it was the night that a Hoofball game was being played on our schools turf, and apparently it had our more ‘sports inclined’ folk on edge. So thats why I had a hoof behind my back as I was pushed against a locker by a large unicorn who apparently knew how to put ponies into a lock.
“What’s up, Firework? Having fun kissing the locker?”
The voice in my ear oozed of smugness, and before I could reply I felt myself dragged back slightly and slammed into the locker. I groaned and slipped down to the ground as soon as the grip on me was released. My forehead stung a bit, but I knew that it would barely leave a mark, if it managed to do that. The only thing hurt here was the smallest semblance of pride that I still had left to me, and I continued to lay on the ground, my ears flat against my head as I waited for the tempest of ponies to pass. It took an eternity for me to not hear hooves echo in the hallways, but as I picked myself up I heard the slow gait of a pony approaching me. Turning, I faced them with the hope that it wasn’t a teacher, and I was relieved as I saw a concerned and familiar face.
“Firework? Are you quite alright?”
To a pony who didn’t know him as well, they might have asked him to repeat the sentence at a speed that they could fathom. But from months of being around him, I tended to understand him better than most ponies could, I attempted to smile, but it faltered and devolved into a frown which made him sigh. Before I met Omega, I didn’t know that a pony could show how upset he was with one simple sigh, but he could pull it off so well that I was amazed he wasn't in theatre.
“I take that as a no then, old friend?”
He made a quick motion of his head to the side, I nodded and as he began to trot away. I followed him, albeit at a much slower pace. This was a common occurrence for us, trotting down the hallways into the wing of the school that was barely used. The art area, if you wanted to be exact. We often joked that you didn’t breathe air here, that you breathed dust and cobwebs, but I wasn’t exactly in the best of moods to bring up the old joke again. Apparently Omega wasn't either, as he rounded a corner and used his magic to turn a doorknob that must have been forged from rust.
“Oh! I didn’t expect to see you two here.”
Omega seemed to be surprised at something, and when I walked up to get a better look I felt a pain in my chest. Sitting on a couple of stools at a table were two more pony’s that I knew, working on a strange contraption that was resting in the middle of the table. If we were all here at the same time without agreeing to something previously, it must have been an absolutely terrible day for all of us. One of the ponies, a green stallion named Jolly Rogers, looked up from what he had been working on and gave a whimper when he spotted us before returning to his work. Next to him sat a mare who was obviously fuming, using one hoof to work on the project before them while using the other to prop up her chin.
“Goddammit, I hate those idiot Hoofball players.”
Well, Windstrom was probably the most honest and forward out of all of us, that much could be said. She gingerly began to tap the tool she had been working with, a screwdriver, against the table as her short tail swishing back and forth in agitation. I trotted past her and grabbed a stool on the other side of the table, brushing it off a bit before taking a seat. Omega did the same as he sat beside me. I was directly across from Windstrom, which made it much easier to see exactly how mad she was. It wasn’t necessarily that difficult to upset her, even we could set her off with only a few words. However, the look on her face probably could have killed someone in itself, so I knew it was very, very bad. Jolly still continued to work diligently and quietly on the project in front of him, but I heard a tiny sniffle as he began to wire something together.
“Hey Firework, you know what makes me mad?”
I instinctively gulped and lowered my eyes, but the gaze from my friend seared my face, so I had to look at her once more. Her sea-green eyes, though incredibly intense were steely, she definitely wanted a response from me.
“Hoofball players? The government? Those...uh...certain jokes?”
Her eyes narrowed as soon as the last part of my statement left my mouth, I was teetering incredibly close to a landmine here, pretty much tripping over it if I wanted to be exact with how much danger I was in.
“Yeah, all of those things certainly make me mad.”
The typically gruff voice that left her mouth stuttered for a moment after she finished her sentence. My heart went out to her, she probably had to deal with some of the worst problems concerning her reputation in the entire school, not just the Hoofball players. I attempted to come up with something to cheer her up, but before I could, she began to speak again.
“What really makes me mad, is when Spades decides he knows more about Rogers condition than the pony himself does, and proceeds to steal his medication.”
Rogers let out small sob and dropped a tool that he had been using, running his forehooves through his black and light green mane. The poor guy probably had the worse problems out of all of us, we honestly were the only ponies who talked to him besides the teachers, and even they did it by speaking gently with him or almost abusively.
“My mom is gonna be so mad if I have to go to the office and call her for more medication.”
In a slow, testing the waters sort of movement, Windstrom stretched out a forehoof and placed it on Rogers shoulder. The poor stallion couldn’t contain himself any more and scooted his stool closer to her so he could cry into her shoulder. Needless to say, all sense of anger seemed to evaporate from the air around her and was filled with discomfort, as she lifted a hoof to pat him on the back.
“We should honestly get back at these ruffians, is what I say.”
Omega tapped his hoof against the table, leaning forward as he stated his opinion. Windstrom, though she was attempting to comfort our crying friend, turned towards him with a frustrated look on her face.
“How do you propose we do that, Omega? Trotkwondo?”
There was the cynical and sarcastic mare that I was friends with. Relief flooded through me, usually whenever these incidents happened she almost turned into another pony entirely. A very mad and vengeance filled pony, that is.
“Well I was just saying so, Windstrom. I mean, I could probably trounce them in a bout of hoofticuffs or the great sport of polo. But we really need to embarrass them and make them run back to their mothers with their tails between their legs. Then they’ll stop bothering us, because their social standing would have been lowered while ours would have been raised to at least a level where others would converse with us...on a normal level.”
Three heads stared at the unicorn, all with eyebrows raised in disbelief. Well, there was the braggart that was hidden behind the accent showing itself again.
“Sure, Omega. You keep on dreaming.”
I sighed, resting my head on the available table space I had, a ‘hrumph’ left Omega’s snout as he turned away. Rogers had stopped crying, only letting out a few sniffles as he pulled away from Windstrom’s shoulder, which was now covered in tears and snot. With a sigh filled with more patience than I thought she had in her whole body, she hopped off of the stool and trotted over to a dusty sink to wash away Rogers sadness from her coat.
“I really, really hate this.”
I heard Rogers whisper as he picked up his tools again and began to work on the contraption in front of him.
*********
Jolly Rogers
Friday
10:45 A.M. - Middle of 2nd Period
Well, after about an hour and a half of working on my latest project along with Windstrom, the four of us had decided to go back to class. I was still upset about the situation with my pills, although having my friends talk to me about it and joke around a bit had improved my mood from how down I was earlier. Windstrom and I were incredibly quiet as we snuck through the hallways on our way back to the class we both shared.
“I hope to sweet Celestia that Mr. Hammer will be sleeping this class period.”
Windstrom muttered to me as we trotted up to the tech ed room, I took the liberty of checking the small window next to the door to see if Mr. Hammer was indeed sleeping so that we could make our way in. Well the thing sitting at the desk certainly wasn’t Mr. Hammer, nor was he even a pony. I reached out a hoof and attempted to stop Windstrom from opening the door, but she had already done so and was met face to face by the thing that had been sitting at the desk.
“Why, hello there my little ponies.”
Crazy looking yellow eyes with red pupils stared into hers, before she let out a yelp and scrambled backwards. I never knew that Windstrom was so easily frightened, but when I felt its gaze on me I also felt myself tentatively taking a step or two back.
“Well isn’t this a warm welcome. Why is it that so many ponies get scared of a little old draconequus like me?”
He was a jumbled mess of animal parts, a long body, with a lions paw and something like a birds talons for arms. A scaly looking leg there, a hoof there, and completing the look was an antler and a curvy head atop his pony-like head. From inside the classroom I saw most of the other ponies snicker, they were really enjoying the fact that we were in this situation. The draconequus snaked his head over his shoulder and lifted his talons with a malevolent grin, before snapping his fingers.
“Come on now everypony, you were just as surprised that I was here when you all galloped in.”
Noisemakers and air horns began to appear throughout the room, out of sight from the rest of the class. He pushed Windstrom and I out of his way a bit more, exiting the room before closing the door behind him.
“Excuse me, but what exactly are you doing here...uh...sir?”
I asked gingerly before he wrapped an arm around me and put me up against the door, doing the same with Windstrom as well before he fitted himself like a puzzle piece between the both of us. Well, now I was concerned. What exactly was he doing here with all of those noisemakers and airhorns in the room? Why was I pushing back against the door?
“Poor Mr. Hammer accidentally broke one of his poor widdle forelegs, and even though I should probably be relaxing back in Ponyville right now, Celestia thought I should do something with my life. Such as inspire little ponies to be just as chaotic as I am.”
Well, I think we may have found somepony...er...draconequus more eccentric than Omega is. He reached out his paw to me and grabbed a hoof, shaking it vigorously so that my teeth chattered together. After doing the same thing to Windstrom, he put his fingers together again, as if he were going to snap them once more.
“Oh, and by the way. My name is Discord. Professor Discord, if you’re fancy.”
After that only heard the snapping sound before loud blaring sounds began to come through the door, making me lower my ears as I attempted to block some of it out. On the other hand, Windstrom seemed rather...well, she seemed kind of calm compared to me. Like she was in a trance of complete zen. Her head tilted up to look at Discord better and she offered him a hoof, which he shook much more gently after the loud noises had stopped coming from the room.
“I’m Windstrom, and this is Jolly Rogers. Pleasure to meet you.”
I couldn’t believe that she could form such a formal and pleasant sentence, this didn’t seem like the Windstrom that I knew. The draconequus smiled and opened the door, where the sound of many groaning ponies reached all of us. With another quick snap of his fingers an eyepatch appeared, which he proceeded to put onto his right eye. Was he...trying to make a joke about my name?
“Interesting names, I must say.”
He slithered back into the room and took a seat back at his desk, relaxing in his chair as the two of us made our way inside. I made my way to my spot and took a seat, while Windstrom grabbed the tools we needed as well as our current class project. As we began to get to work, I glanced up to see Discord playing with a bunch of balloon animals I assume he had conjured out of nowhere. My head turned back to my work as I picked up a hammer, but I caught a glance of the draconequus watching me and Windstrom with interest. I sighed and got to work.
Omega
Friday
12:15 P.M. - Lunch
Ah, it was time for the herd of my fellow ponies to indulge in a bit of gluttony for the day, which I certainly wasn’t going to be complaining about. The only thing I did in fact find was complaint-worthy was the fact that there didn’t appear to be enough tables for all of the students to find a seat, leaving some to eat on the outskirts or in classrooms. I’ve even seen some ponies taking their lunches into the bathroom to eat, which I found to be quite abhorrent. Why eat in a place where other ponies...well...that probably wasn’t the most intellectual of discussions to head into when one would eat soon.
“Hey, Omega!”
At the sound of my name, I rapidly moved my head back and forth, trying to pinpoint the exact location of my friends, my group, my fellowship, or as I once attempted to put it, ‘my bronies’. That term didn’t get the best reception though, and so I typically just stick to ‘friends’ instead now, and speaking of friends, I spotted them sitting at a table with an open spot right next to them. My my! They had managed to secure a table for us to sit at! Sometimes I’m amazed at their dedication.
“Coming!”
As I levitated my lunch in a small paper bag that was hovering next to my face. I made my way over to them with a skip in my step, maybe today wouldn’t be so bad after all, maybe we could eat in peace and discuss my idea a bit mor-
Well, It probably would have been a good day, if not for the rude hoof being strategically placed in front of my snout, clotheslining me to the floor.
“Look out next time, fancy boy.”
A large white unicorn and a smaller sickly green one passed by me as I attempted to regain my bearings, after the twittering birds had left my vision moments later I unleashed a terrible glare upon the green unicorn. His purple hair was slicked back, and he shot a malevolent grin at me. My eyes narrowed, decreasing my field of vision, I knew this unicorn well, and I didn’t like it. Spades, a prodigy if you would call him that, a master of card games and a pony who regularly went to tournaments and accumulated his prize winnings. With a twist in my stomach, I also realized that he was one of the ponies that Windstrom had revealed to have stolen Rogers medication.
“You gawking at me, fancy boy?”
Spades leaned in and tapped a hoof upon my snout, I let out a growl and immediately got to my hooves, once again levitation my slightly worse for the wear lunch before I proceeded to trot towards my friends once more, who wore angry looks upon their faces. Windstrom actually got out of her seat and walked around the table, passing me as I walked. My ears lowered instinctively, this wouldn’t end up very good if I let her talk to those buffoons.
“Windstrom.”
I looked over my shoulder as my dark red pegasus friend approached the duo. They seemed to be waiting for her, expecting her with dark grins upon their faces.
“Tome, Spades.”
She looked from the white unicorn to the green one, giving a curt nod. I felt my heart stop for a moment, she was being incredibly courteous and polite to ponies she had just been bad mouthing a few hours ago. I wondered if she had perhaps lost her wits, or even her will, before the tall white unicorn leaned in towards her.
“Hello there, Windstrom. Pleasure to see you again.”
You could have heard a pin drop, every pair of eyes in the room was focused upon the show that was going on with the pegasus and the two unicorns. Some were snickering, such as the Hoofball players and the cheerleaders, but to my surprise and silent delight, some looked upon the situation unfavorably. I even saw a minty green pony speaking to his friends, almost looking like he was going to get up and defuse the volatile situation.
“So, I was wondering something.”
Windstrom looked down at the floor and kicked at it a little bit, almost as if she was pondering something. To me, she almost looked as if she was ready to pull back a hoof and absolutely throttle them as hard as she could.
“What were you wondering? About the pirate’s medicine? ”
He played right into it, he absolutely played into it. I felt a sense of pride and glee rise in my chest as Windstrom momentarily kept up her charade.
“Well, sort of...I was mostly wondering…”
She reared up on her back legs and placed her forehooves on either side of Tome’s head, almost pressing her snout to his. Her eyes burned with the intensity of raging fire, as she glared into his. Spades let out an ‘eep’ as he backed off a bit, but Tome stood about as rigid as a rock, glaring back at her with emotionless eyes.
“I was mostly wondering when you would stop being such a buckhead.”
Windstrom’s frown stretched into a crazy smile, her eyes narrowed as she glared at the unicorn. He continued to stand like a soldier, as their eyes waged a war against one another. Finally, he turned his head to the side and shook off her grip, allowing her to stand normally once more. On his seat with the other Hoofball players sat a black saddlebag, which became enveloped by gray magic. It flipped open and stopped glowing to reveal a small bottle of pills that Tome effortlessly levitated over to himself.
“Rogers pills!”
I whispered to myself, I almost felt like breaking into a dance. Windstrom had stood up against the bullies! She had told him right to his face about how she felt about him and his idiocy! I loved it, I really, really did. I watched as the bottle of pills was levitated in front of her face, and with a triumphant look upon her face she lifted a hoof to grab them.
Apparently Tome was very good at acting as well. Everything happened so fast that I almost couldn’t believe it until I saw the aftermath. With an upward tilt of his head, the pills almost kissed the ceiling before they began their descent back to the rest of us. Windstrom backed up, her wings flaring out as if she were to attempt to go after them, but the sneaky weasel, Spades, had placed a hoof in just the right place to trip her up. She had no balance, and landed on her back with a snarl as her slightly angled wings took the brunt of the fall.
“My pills!”
My friend Rogers was helpless as he watched the situation, he couldn’t fly, nor could he catch the pills with magic. But then I saw a turquoise blur of color take flight, and snatch the pills before they hit the ground, wings flaring backwards to slow down.
“Good show, Firework!”
I cheered loudly for my friend who wore a relieved grin on his face, cradling the pills in his hooves. He turned to face Tome and Spades, who seemed angry that the pills hadn’t been destroyed.
“Suck it, Hoofball players! Suck it, Canterlot High! WOO!”
Firework’s shout echoed loudly throughout the lunch room, causing all of us to give him blank stares, like the ones that the majority of the sports teams had in class. After realizing what he said, Firework blushed and shuffled out of the lunchroom, Rogers following him while carrying both of their lunches. I guess they were leaving me to deal with our leader, I suppose.
“Windstrom, come on, get off the floor. It’s dirty down there.”
She groaned as I prodded her with a hoof. It took a few moments, but she finally got to her hooves, although she held her wings in a strange way to her body. Tome and Spades had gone back to their spots with the other Hoofball players, silently taking a seat while the majority of the ponies in the room focused on the two of us. I trotted back to the table we had been sitting at and levitated both of our lunches, looking back to see her following me slowly, dragging her hooves slightly. We had almost made it out of the lunchroom, which had slowly begun to turn back to normal before the minty green unicorn I had spotted earlier trotted past us,
“Y-you may want to get your wings checked out, y-you landed on them rather b-badly.”
He whispered as he looked at Windstrom out of the corner of his eye, stuttering as he passed by. She gave a small nod, continuing to follow me as we headed towards our meeting place. After we had made it out of the lunchroom fiasco, Windstrom let her wings drag against the floor, and from what I could see, they had already begun to bruise a bit towards where they connected to her back. That wasn’t what scared me though, what scared me was that our brave leader seemed to wear a gaunt look upon her face, as if she had lost her courage, her willingness to fight, and her pride.
*********
Jolly Rogers
Friday
3:00 P.M. - School Ends
When the school day ended, I quickly packed up all of my things from my locker and trotted down the hallway to find my friends. Today had been emotionally tiring and exhausting, not just for me, but for all of my friends. I checked my saddlebags to see if my pills were still there, and to my relief, the bottle was nestled between “Equestrian History” and “A Pony’s Guide to Household Repairs”. I don’t want to admit it, but I’ve literally been checking in 20 minute intervals to see if my pills were still there, I don’t want to have them stolen again.
“Ah, Rogers! There you are!”
I looked up to see Omega waving at me, standing near the front doors of the school along with Windstrom and Firework. The duo in question weren’t so much focused on me as they were on Windstrom’s wings, which were bandaged where they met her back. I gulped a bit and trotted faster so that I could catch up to them,
“Oh, hey Rogers.”
Windstrom looked up at me with obvious guilt in her eyes, before Omega had taken her to the Nurse’s office after lunch, she hadn’t even attempted to look at me. She simply ate her sandwich in silence, which is a first for her considering how much she usually goof’s around during lunch. I didn’t know what she was so guilty for though, I had my pills back and I would have two whole days of not having to be at school. It was a win-win situation to me.
“Hey Windy, are your wings ok?”
I asked as I reached out a hoof to feel the feathers though I half-expected her to recoil from it. She didn’t though, and I gently ran my hoof down the curve of her wing until the part where it was bandaged, where her wince told me it was a bit much.
“She bruised the base area of her wings, it probably hurts like hell, but she’ll be fine.”
Firework stated, giving a heavy sigh afterwards as Windstrom pushed him a little bit.
“I didn’t bruise them, Spades and Tome did.”
Apparently this was going to be a touchy issue for awhile, the basilisk glare from Windstrom told me as much. She carefully folded her wings against her lithe form and grumbled under her breath. Firework tapped a hoof against his chin for a moment before his face brightened up a bit,
“Hey guys, do you think you can come over and hang out at my house?”
I looked from Omega to Windstrom, their frowns had instantly turned into cheerful grins, and I suppose the look on my face wasn’t too different. I would have to contact my mother of course, but I don’t think it would be an issue with her, as long as I didn’t tell her that my pills got stolen of course. I trotted into the office of the school building, followed by Omega and Windstrom who were both going to call their parents as well. It took a little time, but when we had gotten our permission we were positively beaming at one another. We had tonight, and two more days off from school to relax and wind down. Two full days to get out of this hellhole and joke around and play games, days that I wouldn’t give up even if you’d offer me a million bits.
“Alright guys! Lets hail a carriage!”
Firework trotted out the doors quickly as we said our goodbyes to the stallion who was managing the front desk and checking some paperwork. He looked tired, but he smiled and gave us a little wave as we left before rearranging the paperwork into a neat stack.
“Hey Firework, I’ve never hailed a carriage before.”
Nervousness could have been my middle name, from how often I felt it. Usually I walked to Firework’s house for both the exercise and so that I didn’t have to talk to anyone. Firework did a little spin and shot a toothy grin at me before turning back around,
“Relax my dear Rogers, its easy.”
Well, if he said it was easy, then it probably was easy. We walked a bit of a distance from school, almost getting pushed off of the sidewalk from the mass of ponies that seemed to be going about their day, some dressed incredibly fancy and others very casual. When we had finally reached the street that had a lot of carriage traffic, Firework shook out his hooves a bit, preparing to get us our ride. He opened his mouth, but had a dark red hoof placed against the side of his face, and a loud whistling sound left Windstrom’s lips.
“Canterlot Taxi Carriage Services, where may we take you today?”
Wow, those carriage drivers were incredibly fast. I don’t know if it was because Windstrom had whistled or because they were just good at their job, either way I wasn’t complaining.
“Well Firework, it certainly was easy.”
Windstrom said as she hopped into the carriage, followed by Omega and I. Firework grumbled a bit and told the carriage ponies his address, to which they nodded and set off at a brisk pace as soon as the blue pegasus had entered the carriage.
“So my good fellows, why don’t we begin to talk about how we will take these bullies down a notch, yes?”
Omega started the conversation on something that I really didn’t want to talk about, so I listened to the noise on the street instead. There was a peculiar sound coming from the front of the carriage, towards where the drivers were pulling it. I began to think off the top of my head on what could have been making it, before I was brought into the conversation.
“So, Rogers. What do you think we could do about our current school situation?”
My head snapped back to Omega, who was gazing at me intently. Windstrom and Firework on the other hand seemed that they weren’t into the conversation. The dark red pegasus looked out of the window at the passerby’s with a gloomy look on her face, her dirty blonde mane getting into her eyes. Meanwhile, the blue one was holding a book to his snout, intently reading about “Pyrotechnics throughout History”, eyes skimming the pages hungrily as he flipped them.
“Uh, well…”
I watched as Windstrom’s ear twitched, she may not have appeared to have been listening, but she was certainly paying attention.
“W-well...Windstrom already told Tome to his face that he should go b-b-buck himself…”
I was extremely nervous, and now it was screwing up my speech, but Omega nodded and placed his chin on his hooves. He definitely wanted to hear where this was going, and out of the corner of my eye I saw Firework set down his book. All eyes on Jolly Rogers, apparently.
“So, why don’t we try something a bit more...sneaky?”
I heard a soft clap of some hooves, and watched as Windstrom faced away from the window. She had a devious smile on her face, and I couldn’t help but feel unnerved by it.
“Very good, Rogers. If you can’t attack from the front, then you attack from the back or the flanks...let’s drop this for now guys, but I’ll start coming up with some ideas.”
Omega, Firework and I all looked to each other, our eyes wide and full of unease, but I also saw something else reflected there, a sort of relief. After the whole lunchroom thing had happened, Windstrom might have been attempting to stand tall, but I saw the weariness that seemed to have been dragging her down. She might have responded to a few of our quip’s and yet it didn’t feel at all like her, almost like it was forced from whatever ego she had left. But this was the real Windstrom in front of us, thinking and formulating a genius plan that would lead us to victory. After a few more minutes, the carriage stopped in front of Firework’s home, and as we all grabbed some bits out of our bags to pay the drivers, I whispered to them,
“You may want to check the bolts on the front of the carriage, the ones for the harnesses. I think that one of them may be loose.”
Both of the drivers looked surprised and they checked both of their harnesses, and as I trotted after my friends to get into Firework’s house, I heard a chuckle and the sound of a harness dropping to the ground.
“Hm, smart kid. Racer, grab the toolbox from the front, lets get this fixed and get on outta here.”
*********
Windstrom
Friday
7:45 P.M. - Firework’s House
Wow, did school absolutely suck today, well except for tech ed class that is. But I honestly should have called them up and told them to call in sick, though I suppose the faculty would’ve caught that their most picked on students all were absent on the same day. Well, what’s done is done I guess. The more important thing is going on now, which is me absolutely stomping Omega, Firework and Rogers into the ground in Maretol Combat. I originally had allowed them to beat me a few times, I wanted to see what they’d been doing for awhile and then get an idea of how I would beat them. As we play by the great rules of ‘loser passes the controller’, it didn’t take long for me to get another shot at playing.
“GODDAMMIT!”
I smirked to myself as Omega threw down his controller in a rage, his character being absolutely torn to pieces by my own after I had inputted the button combination. I let out a relaxed sigh and leaned back against Firework’s couch, crossing one of my back legs over the other and placing my hooves behind my back after passing my controller off to a surprised Rogers.
“But didn’t you win?”
He asked, though his hooves didn’t seem to care as he had already chosen another character to face off against Firework. I waved it off and went back to my relaxing position,
“I did win. It’s just that after you win a few dozen times you start to feel bad about it.”
Rogers smiled at me and turned back to the screen to fight against Firework, though I was getting incredibly bored of relaxing, and so I got to my hooves and purposefully stepped in Fireworks way so he couldn’t see the screen.
“OH MY CELESTIA, WINDSTROM! WHAT THE HELL?!”
“Oh, its nothing. Just going to your kitchen to raid your refrigerator.”
I heard a few more curses shot at me as I trotted out of his living room, whistling the Maretol Combat tune as I went. Omega followed me into the kitchen, which was gaming-convenient as it was right next to the living room. I opened the refrigerator and attempted to fish for something good within its contents.
“No Omega, nothing too smart off the top of my head at the moment. I was considering that we could crash the game or the after party tonight, but what with it being late and no prior planning I don’t want to try it. Look, I’ve had a long day, Rogers has had a long day, and so have you and Firework. I don’t even want to THINK about that place until its one minute to midnight on Sunday and I realize, ‘oh, thats right, I have school tommorow’.”
My foreign friend was very quiet after that. We continued to scavenge through Firework’s food supply until we found some hay chips and some dip for them. We toted them back into the living room where Rogers had jumped off of the couch and into the air, cheering for himself while Firework dramatically sobbed and curled up into a ball.
“Lose again, my friend?”
I asked as I sat down next to him on the couch, bag of hay chips in hand. Omega and I opened them and began to eat them, pretending to be oblivious to the death glare that was coming from the pony to the right of me. I looked towards him and did a small double take, then held out the bag of chips.
“Dude if you want some hay chips you only have to ask.”
“I hate you so much.”
The corners of my mouth curled into a smirk, and I felt my eyebrows raise up a little on my face. I proceeded to take the bag of hay-chips and pass them past Omega and over to Rogers, who took a few and began to munch on them.
“Sorry, what was that? Couldn’t hear you buddy.”
I put a hoof to my ear and leaned towards him a bit, waiting for the repeat of the five words he didn’t really mean. Color me surprised when he raised a hoof and bopped it on the top of my head in retaliation.
“You wanna go Windstrom? You wanna go?!”
“Hell yeah I wanna go.”
We must have read one anothers minds, because we snatched up those controllers to fast that we probably left burn marks on the carpet. Within an instant, our characters were chosen, and we began to fight once more, not with words but with the characters on the screen. An elbow pressed into my cheek as Firework attempted to play dirty, but my elbow went on the inside and pushed against his. Yep, we had a real battle on our hooves right here.
“Show him who’s boss Windstrom!”
“Annihilate her with gusto, Firework!”
We even had our own little cheering squads, how quaint.
“Dont sass me Omega!”
I retaliated, though the elbow pushing my face away from the direction of the screen was really taking its toll. I didn’t want to lose after all this, so I opted for a slightly more unsavory method. Putting the controller down and not trying.
“Omega, I think I’ve got an idea about what we should do to get back at the buckheads.”
The brown unicorn looked surprised, and obviously was listening to what I had to say. I put a foreleg around his shoulders and beckoned to Rogers with my hoof, and we huddled up while Firework was still intent on winning the game. I decided to continue pressing the jump button to keep him occupied for awhile.
“I know that its a bit late to walk into the after party tonight with no plan at all. But we can crash the next party, which should be in a few weeks. We’ll get something to put in the drink, I dunno, laxatives or something. Powdered, so that it dissolves faster of course. We might have to be a bit sneaky about it but if we can pull it off, we’re golden. Maybe we can go to one of the games after that...after Rogers completes his new toy.”
The two of us shared a knowing look, giving each other a swift nod. Omega looked back and forth from us, confusion written on his face,
“Wait, what new toy? I thought ponies in high school were too old for toys.”
Well, that was probably one of the dumbest things I’ve heard out of Omega’s mouth. But I patted him on the shoulder and gave a sigh anyways,
“Its okay, you don’t have to know yet.”
My eyes drifted over to Firework, who was still attempting to hit my forever jumping character. Damn, this was comedy gold to me, but I let go of the jump button and allowed him to get the last few hits in. The most ungodly sound to end all sounds exited his mouth as he dropped the controller and fell to his knees, his front hooves behind his head,
“I DID IT! I DID IT! BUCK YEAH I DID IT!”
Yeah, you do it Firework, you certainly did beat that forever jumping character. I grinned a little bit and chuckled,
“You sure did buddy, you sure did.”
Author's Note
Hey guys! This is my first story here on fimfiction, after being encouraged by my good buddy old pal old friend Cyneryk to post it (damn you Cyneryk) you now have the pleasure of reading this thing. So, uh...take pleasure in reading this thing?
Feedback is always appreciated and I will always attempt to take your ideas into consideration!
Sincerely,
Carmis
