Chapters The bell rang for the fifth time. Lunch hour! Johnathan Roger, a 13 year old boy in the City of Dremel School District, races down the hallway towards the lunchroom, going as fast as he can to avoid those who stop in the middle of the hallway, blocking it from anyone getting past. Unluckily, that already happened, forcing John to wait until the teachers cleared them out of the hallway.
Calmly walking into the lunchroom to avoid getting yelled at to not run, John steps up to see what's being served for lunch today.
"Beheaded Turkey Surprise?" Issac Kleiner, a friend of John says, walking up to inspect this strange food.
"Yeah, I know. And it doesn't even look live a turkey!" John replied back. Sadly, this was true. The "Turkey" didn't even look like an edible food, it looked more like glue.
"Whatever. Lets just get it, I don't want that Magnusson kid to take my lunch money again," Issac said with a sigh. "He's always in a fit because one time Freeman blew up his microwave casserole while he wasn't looking."
John never understood that Freeman kid. He was always so silent, but so devious. He one time threw a spitball the shape of a crowbar at the English teacher and he got suspended for seven days.
"Well, lets go. Umm, lunch lady, the sign doesn't say the price of this. How much is this lunch?" John asked the adult standing at the register, waiting for people to come up.
"Eight dollars, boy," the lunch lady responded.
The price was lower than usual. John took the ten dollar bill from his pocket and put in his pin, 2845. The lunch lady took the ten dollar bill and added it to his lunch account, minus the eight dollars. He sat down at an empty table, waiting for Issac and Freeman to show up. Issac sat down almost a minute John did, but it took Freeman several minutes to show up.
"Gordon, if you don't mind me asking, but where were you all this time?" Issac asked to Gordon.
Gordon simply pointed towards the general direction of where the school office was. "Oh, boy. What did you do this time, Gordon?" John asked with a bit of curiosity and excitement in his voice.
Gordon pointed at the school bully, which had shown up at the same time Gordon did, made a ball shape with his hand, and pretended to toss it. Issac and John nodded, understanding.
"Gordon, I'm sure that one day you're going to be a killer, just watch Issac. Unless we get killed by him," John said with confidence.
"Well, that's a theory I'd rather not test. Now come on, lunch is almost done and we haven't even taken a bite of our... uh... 'Beheaded Turkey Surprise', if I even want to," Issac responded.
The three look down at their lunch, with disgusted looks on their face. "Well, we did pay eight dollars. I guess we shouldn't waste it," John said, picking up his plastic fork. He began to eat, Isaac and Gordon watching in anticipation if he might like it, hate it, or simply puke.
"Psst, Issac. Five dollars on John barfing!" Gordon whispered to Issac.
"Oh, Gordon, you're so immature! Five dollars on him not barfing," Issac responded with a failed attempt to make a formal voice.
John swallowed and waited for his stomach to react. Satisfied that his stomach won't turn on him, he said, "It tastes like ham but with a texture like rock. What is this?" John said to Issac and Gordon.
Issac and Gordon decided not to eat it, what John had described made the lose their apatite. Heck, the school food always made them lose their apatite.
"Whatever. I'll see what I can do to get a homemade lunch," Issac said, dumping his lunch into the disposal bin, Gordon nodding and faintly saying, "Eight dollars down the drain..."
The bell rung, it was time for science class. Issac always made science interesting, one time he made a robot that ran only on Carbon Dioxide. How he did that, nobody will know.
"Well, seeyah later Gordon," John yelled to Gordon, halfway down the school.
He simply waved a goodbye, and walked into his cooking class. John still won't forget him starting a fire in there...
"Hey, John. This is science hour, not english hour," Issac called to John, making him shake his head and get his bearings again.
John always would daydream and completely miss where he was supposed to go, but he was never diagnosed with ADD or ADHD.
"Whoops, Issac. Good thing you reminded me or else I would have completely made a fool of myself," John replied, walking into the classroom he was supposed to be in.
"Today, class, I'm going to have you build a baking soda volcano," the science teacher said, causing a large "Ooooooooo" to erupt (Volcano puns for the win!) from the class.
Issac had quite a bit of deviousness in him as well. "Psst, John. Look what I got!" Issac whispered to John, slowly pulling a bag of powder out of his pocket. John was about to question if Issac was thinking about taking cocaine, when Issac explained what it was.
"I created a powder that, when put into the baking soda mix in the volcano, causes a great boost in the eruption, making it splatter all over the ceiling!" Issac whispered in excitement. "The janitor is gonna so mad!"
A mischievous grin began to spread across John's face. "Alright, lets do it," John whispered back, not able to wait for the trouble the janitor would have to encounter. Although one thing, though.
"How did you know that the teacher would be having us make baking soda volcanoes?"John asked Issac.
"You mean you weren't listening when the teacher said it yesterday?" Issac responded with a surprised look on his face.
"Well, I guess you're the only one who did listen, because everyone else sounded like they didn't hear it either," John responded.
The teacher set down the body's of the volcanoes on each desk. He gave everyone the needed ingredients, and instead of giving directions to the students by paper, he started up an old tape of some show from PBS Kids that had how to create the volcano. John didn't feel something right about this tape, and then he realized why.
In 1997 when John was little, and his Mom wanted him to watch the PBS Kids channel, he would never forget the most horrific things in his life. Standing there, after each show, or in between them, three little creatures shaped as a "P" stood in a line, shouting, "This is PBS!" Because of this, John had nightmares until he was nine years old.
Returning to now, it was too late before they came on. John had a seizure, twitching and frothing at the mouth, blood coming out of his ears, soon to die of rabies, but only in his mind, that happened. After the little "episode," The instructions came on. Issac staring at John with a bit of concern for his mental stability, secretly switched the baking soda with his mystery powder. John returning from his mind spasm, looked at Issac with excitement. "Ready?" John's heart was pounding not from the horrific things, but what was about to happen with the volcano.
"I've never been as ready as before," Issac replied with just a much excitement as John.
"When everyone else does it." John said, stopping Issac from pouring the ingredients in.
Issac gave John a disappointing look, but understood why.
John waited until the strange creature from the instructions said, "Now, pour it in!"
As everyone else did, so did Issac. Issac and John waited in anticipation, waiting for the chemicals to mix and explode. They did, but not in the way they wanted it too. It did make a giant mess, oh yeah it did, but John and Issac were suddenly flying through a tunnel filled with rapidly changing dark colors.
John could barely hear Issac shout, "Oh no! I think this was the wrong powder!"
And then John lost consciousness.
If only Gordon was here...
Waking up, John first expected to be in his bed, having his alarm clock annoy him to death. But not hearing it, John sensed that something was wrong, and opened his eyes, He wasn't in his room, he was on grass! Taking a quick look around, everything here seemed to be low detail, like someone had taken a beautiful painting and made all the shades one color. John could see Issac laying about seven feet away from him, face down.
John got up, hoping that this was all a dream, and walked over to Issac. John started to shake Issac, and after about ten seconds, John could hear him groan. "Is it really morning already? I don't want to go to school today."
John was a bit startled to hear Issac say something like that. He seemed like one of those nerdy, know it all kids. Hearing him say something like this was a bit of surprise to him.
John said to Issac, "I don't know if it's morning, and I don't think we're anywhere near school."
Issac, hearing John's voice, immediately stood up, looking around. "Where are we?" Issac asked John.
"Hell if I know, we could maybe be In a soup can or something!" John said back to Issac.
"This isn't time for your sarcasm, John," Issac replied with annoyance.
"I know, Issac. I'm not being sarcastic. I'm just pointing out possibilities," John said.
"Well, they're overly stupid possibilities. I mean, how could be be in a soup can?" Issac replied.
"Well, you said you must have used the... *snicker* wrong powder," John said as he tried to hold back a laugh.
"Oh, shut up John! You know I don't do drugs at all!" Issac nearly yelled.
"Woah, woah. Who ever said I thought you were?" John decide to play around with Issac a little bit.
"You just said so! You said-" Issac was cut off by a rustling in the bushes. "John... Did... Did you hear that?"
"Hear what? I didn't hear anything." John replied back, looking at Issac strangely. "That powder must be getting to you, Issac. Although, it would be affecting me too, seeing how we both were in the blast radius of th-"
The rustling again, but this time John and Issac both heard it. They both looked at each other in shock, and John took a cautious step forward. Issac, following behind him. When John finally got to a point where he could touch the bush, he moved some of the leaves to get a look at what was behind it.
It was a rather generic-looking cartoon rabbit, white with an angry scowl on its face. It jumped up and slapped John, much to his and Issac's surprise, and it hopped away. John was about to chase after it when Issac held him back.
"John, you don't know what that thing could do to you if you followed it. Lets just sit here and think hard about where we might be."
"No, Issac! Don't you see? If we just sit here we're going to be ambushed!" John responded, fear in his voice. Issac just shook his head, more fear than John.
"Fine, you won't even know I'm here," Issac responded, deciding to follow John.
"Stop using that dialogue, and lets go," John said, wandering into a thick, dark forest. Issac followed about five feet behind, attempting to catch up to John who was almost running. This seemed familiar to John, what was about this forest? About the detail? Hmm...
Aha! He got it! This forest appeared in one of his nightmares, about that logo! John knew for sure that he was dreaming, but the pain from the rabbit slapping him disproved his theory. Issac catching up to him, said, "Dude! You just suddenly went into a sprint! What was that for?"
"Sorry, Issac. I guess something happened," John replied.
"Well, what was it?" Issac asked John.
"Something with this forest and my dreams..." John said back.
"Dude. You and those dreams. Well, I guess I can take that as a reason. Don't take off into a run again, OK?" Issac asked.
"Alright, I'll be sure not to," John responded. If only Gordon was here... He would probably be able to defend John and Issac from whatever may be in here. John confirmed him to be a future bad-ass.
John lost all faith in finding his home when he heard a strangely familiar voice.
"Oh, Angel. Don't go slapping things like that! You could have been eaten!"
That voice. John had heard that from something... Gordon. Gordon had some kind of obsession with this TV show called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic." He usually would bring his iPod touch to school and show Issac and John parts of this show almost everyday. John could have cared less, he never understood the fandom, but Issac seemed to hate it. He despised Gordon's iPod. It was a miracle that they were still friends. They were planning to be "science buddies," some day, John included. Apparently what Gordon had told them is that there was this kid from another school, "Barney Calhoun," that would watch the show with Gordon almost every day after school. John would immediately think of that show, "Barney and Friends," whenever Gordon mentioned him.
Issac gave a scowl. "John, do you have Gordon's iPod?"
"No, do you? I heard that too."
John and Issac both checked their pockets and found nothing. Issac was becoming worried, John was just staring into space pondering the facts of life. Issac was the first to see the yellow, winged, four legged creature that stood, looking right at John with wide eyes. Issac was out of eyesight for it, but the creature attempted to speak.
"Umm... He-Hello?"
John spun around to Issac. "Issac, dude! Stop messing around with me! I've had enough of it now!" The yellow creature shrunk away, slowly backing away from John. He noticed this, and soon both of their eyes were wide. Issac was unsure of what to do.
"Holy... Holy shit. Issac, are you seeing this?" John called out to Issac.
"Yeah, yeah, I am. Shut up," Issac responded.
"Oh, don't be a grumpy old fuck, Issac. I think that whats happening right now is extremely amazing! Issac, man! We're in a whole new universe! Don't you think this is awesome?" John asked Issac, the yellow creature already ran away, seeing Issac.
"Yeah, it would be awesome, if it wasn't in the fucking pony universe!" Issac screamed, heard by everything a mile away.
"Whatever. If Gordon was here he'd be freaking out right now, but in the opposite way you are," John said. "Anyway, lets see if there actually is a 'Ponyville'."
Issac grumbled a response, and started to follow John. As John was walking on a path, he swore he saw something weird out of the corner of his eye. But he disregarded it as a illusion from being tired. He was tired for some reason, he had only woke up half an hour ago, why was he tired?
John found an end to the forest, and he took a good look at what was past it.
There was a small town about fifty yards away from John and Issac. "Hey, look Issac, I guess there is a Ponyville." Issac grumbled something about Bad Luck Brian. John took a step forward, and a sudden blur filled Issac's sight, and when it left, John was on the ground, groaning, "No... not PBS..."
And Issac questioned if John was sane or not.
-•-•-
Fluttershy's hooves pounding on the ground made a loud crunching sound as she ran through dead leaves and trees. Ever since that encounter with the two creatures she had never been so afraid in her life. Well, except for that one time she-
She ran straight into a tree that had seemed to come out of nowhere. Dazed, Fluttershy quickly recovered and contributed on with her sprint back to her cottage. Once there, she quickly closed the door and looked out the nearest window.
Those creatures were not there, it looks like they didn't follow her back. Sitting on her couch, she thought about what those things might be, until she realized something.
Her bunny Angel was still in the forest! He hadn't followed her back! Fluttershy immediately ran out to look for the white rabbit. Those creatures might take her, but they won't take her little Angel! She ran as fast as she can, dodging trees and sticks at a speed worth noting.
Coming to a stop at where the creatures were before, she took a good look around. Those creatures were not there anymore, and Angel wasn't either. Fluttershy desperately continued to search deeper into the forest, turning over every rock and log. Finally, Fluttershy ran into a crudely paved together building made out of stone. It was rather big as well. Fluttershy normally would have called her friends over with her to inspect this building, but she went in alone. Anything to get back her bunny!
It was dark, and the floor was made of dirt. Fluttershy continued to search through the building until a square hole appeared in the wall.
Startled, Fluttershy snapped her head towards the direction the hole was. Through it was a square creature looking through. "Oh, sorry. You using this place?" It asked.
"Uh... No?" Fluttershy answered quietly.
"Well do you mind if I take this down? I forgot to when I was moving," It said back.
"Um... No I don't," Fluttershy answered.
The creature continued tearing down the building with a pickaxe. "I had no idea what I was thinking when I built my house here. Monsters everywhere and barely any good finds. I moved somewhere else far away and that's when I realized that I forgot to take this down," the creature said while breaking the stone.
"Good finds?" Fluttershy asked the creature.
"You know, diamonds and emeralds, that sort of stuff," the creature answered back. "What's your name by the way?"
"Um... I'm Fluttershy," she said.
"My name's Steve? Nice to meet you, Fluttershy," Steve answered back to Fluttershy.
"Nice to meet you, too." Fluttershy replied with a hoofshake.
The creature finalized its destruction of the house. "Well, that's everything. I'll be on my way, unless you want to join with me. It gets lonely traveling miles every day with no company," Steve said to Fluttershy.
"Um... no. Actually I'm looking for my pet bunny, Angel," Fluttershy replied.
"Well, good luck on your search, you're going to need it, judging by what this forest had in plan for me," Steve answered back, Turning and walking away.
Fluttershy just stood there, attempting to piece together what just happened. She shook her head, and continued on with her search.
Issac sat on the grass for about an hour, amused by how John was acting so strange. Finally, John stopped and got up. "Well, that's that. Issac, If you see anything non-ordinary, somewhat P shaped, tell me OK?" John asked Issac.
"What, you mean that old PBS Kids logo? Blah, why would I see anything like that? It's not even real," Issac replied to John, wondering if this was one of his tricks again.
"Hey, we both thought that My Little Pony didn't exist either, but look where we are," John stated to Issac, looking around as if paranoid.
"Yes, but something as ridiculous as an old 90's logo has like a chance of nothing!" Issac argued.
"What if it took that chance?" John argued back, Issac just shaking his head. "Whatever, lets just find some stuff to make a small shelter."
"A shelter, is what you need?" A gruff voice asked out of nowhere. John and Issac jumped at the sound, snapping their necks and ending it all. their heads towards the direction of it. What was standing there was a tall, block-like creature, looking down right at them.
"Uh... Hello, there. Yeah, we're looking for a shelter, do you have one?" John was the first to speak.
Not at the moment, actually I'm moving to a new place. But I can give you the materials to build one, the creature said back to John, him looking at Issac.
Issac looked back at John, and slowly nodded. Whatever this thing was it was helpful, he shouldn't get scared at it, right?
"Yeah, that would be great. What do you have?" John asked the creature.
It looked in it's bag, throwing out random items, all while mumbling things like, "Wow, that's nearly broken," and, "Why do I still have this?" Finally, he took out some stone and wood, and set it down next to John. "Well, that's all I can spare right now. If you need anything else, just shout, OK?" John nodded. The creature walked away, not taking a look back.
"John... Did we get it's name?" Issac slowly asked.
"Nah, I don't think we need it," John replied.
** ** **
“Well, that’ll look like it will hold up for a while,” John said, admiring the work he and Issac had done.
“It looks sturdy, but I’m not sure if the material is durable,” Issac responded.
“Really, Issac? You go and say that stone isn’t durable?” John asked in disbelief.
“It doesn’t really look like stone…” Issac replied.
“Whatever. I’m just going to walk around,” John replied.
“Well, go ahead if you want to,” Issac responded, “Just don’t get hurt by anything.”
“Don’t worry, I’ll make sure I won’t,” John said as he closed that door, leaving Issac alone to his own thoughts.
** ** **
John looked up at the night sky. He admired it, but at the same time he thought something was off about it. It had to be the moon, it appeared to have no craters on it, but he dismissed it because of what they were in right now. He was about to go back to Issac when he heard a rustling in the bushes.
John turned around in an instant, making the bush emanate an “Eep!”
John became suspicious, and he walked over to the bush, looking at it. The bush began shaking, and John brushed the leaves on it away to reveal the same yellow pony he had encountered before.
Both stood still as a statue, not knowing what to do. John was the first to take a breath, as his being still as a statue cut off his breathing too. “Were you spying on me?” John asked.
There was no response from the yellow pony. John raised an eyebrow and asked again. Still, no response. Walking up to the yellow pony, John gave it a soft kick, seeing what it would do.
The yellow pony did nothing for about five seconds before it fell on it’s side with a thud, still no sign of moving. John gave an annoyed sigh before starting his walk back to Issac.
Five minutes had passed since John started his walk back. The house was almost in view when he heard multiple voices coming from somewhere to the left of him. John couldn't make out much of it, as it sounded far away. But he did get one sentence, though.
“What could it be?”
John was weirded out by what could be stalking him, so he sped up his walking. The house came into view, and John could see Issac sitting down on a small bed of grass and straw… outside?
John was about to call out at Issac, but then his vision went black.
** ** **
Issac was bored. Very bored. He had no idea what to do, so he decided to sit outside. Being inside this strangely square house creeped him out…
As he stepped outside, he admired how colorful the environment was now that he actually slowed down to look at it. He was tired, and he needed sleep. He decided not to sleep inside the house him and John had built and collected some grass. Laying it down in a rectangle, Issac sat down to test how comfortable it was. That’s when he heard John yelling his name. Issac got up, wondering what John could have done, until he saw that John was nowhere to be seen. Fearing the worst, Issac began searching for him all around the area. After thirty minutes had passed and he had seen no trace of John, Issac began searching in a broader area. He wondered about the town they had seen earlier. Could John have gone there? Issac decided to go and search for John around there. He was not about to survive in the forest without a friend.
** ** **
The first thing John thought when he woke up was, “Damn. I have a horrible headache.”
John immediately put his hands on his head and yawned loudly. As he opened his eyes, John was surprised to see that in fact he was not in his room, nor in the house he and Issac had built. Where he was, it was a mystery to him. John looked around, and spotted a few strange machines making quite a loud noise. John tried to sit up, but something was preventing him. Doing as best as he could to look, he could barely see that wires from the machine were connected to something on John’s head, as well there were arm and leg restraints attached to him as well.
Shaking his head violently, he was able to get the wires off of his head. The metal attached to the wires made a loud clanging sound, startling John. Soon, He heard the sound of walking from above. Frightened by what it could be, John faked sleep. He made sure to rest his head in a way that would normally have the pan of wires fall, and closed his eyes.
He heard a trapdoor open, and whatever it was walk down the stairs. It was very close now, John was scared to death, almost sure whatever was here it was here to kill him.
The walking sound got right next to him and stopped. As John was breathing slowly, he started choking on his own air, and coughed uncontrollably.
John was sure it was all over. He awaited for death when whatever it was called out, “Spike! It’s awake! Get me my papers!”
"John! John, where the hell did you go?!” Issac shouted. He had looked everywhere, and couldn't find John anywhere. He was to the point where looking for him would be pointless until he remembered the town. The town! John had to be there! But… there’s a bit of a problem if he wanted to go there. The town was inhabited by ponies. Issac hated them and they probably hated him back. He would have to be sneaky and get as close as he can to the town without the ponies spotting him. What could work as a cover? Issac thought about this for a while until he saw a rather big bush. That may just work, but how was he going to get it out of the ground?
***
There! Using leftover stone from the house, he was able to slowly but surely unroot the bush from the ground. He was about to start setting up the disguise when he saw something he would never believe. There was John, right there. He had walked out of the town, talking to ponies! He couldn’t believe it. What was John doing? This whole disguise is for nothing! Issac was about to walk up and give him a piece of his mind when he realized that they were walking towards the house! Forget yelling at John, Issac was out of here. He ran and hid behind the nearest tree, making sure he would be in earshot of what John and the ponies were saying. Ah, he could hear them now.
“So this is where you live?” Issac heard a female voice say. It sounds like it belonged to that yellow pony they came across.
“Sort of, I built it yesterday with my buddy Issac,” John responded.
“It’s so… square.”
“Why is that bush knocked over?” An unfamiliar voice asked.
“Huh, I didn’t see that before. And I haven’t seen Issac either…” John said.
Alright, enough of the hiding. Issac stepped out and walked towards John. A collective gasp could be heard from the ponies as Issac walked up to John and said, “John…”
“Yes?” John answered. He was confused as to what Issac was doing.
“What the fuck are you doing with these ponies near our house!” Issac nearly shouted.
“Woah John, settle down. These ponies aren’t here to kill us,” John responded, confused.
“Yeah, what’s your problem?” Issac looked at the source of the voice. It was a blue, rainbow haired pony.
“Oh, I don’t have a problem. I just have some sense, unlike John here,” Issac was getting angrier.
“Issac, I’ve never seen you act like this before. What the hell are you doing?” John asked Issac.
“John, don’t you see? The ponies are too friendly! Nothing is this friendly and stays that way! Once we trust them, they’ll backstab us!” a snort was heard from far away.
John turned around and whispered to a purple pony,, “He’s probably still stressed about the whole ‘scenery change.’”
The yellow pony overheard this. “Aww, does he need a hug?”
Issac backed away a little bit.
The pink pony that had been standing there doing nothing turned her head towards Issac and said, “Yeah, Izzy needs a hug!”
Issac backed away even more, becoming nervous.
The rainbow pony started to slowly fly towards Issac. “Sure, why not.”
“I don’t think that’s a go-” John was cut off by the pink pony. “GET HIM GIRLS!”
The pink pony jumped up and tackled Issac, followed by the yellow and rainbow pony as they wrapped him in an inescapable hug.
“Get them off! John! GET THEM OFF!” All John could do was laugh, he found this hilarious.
“Were not letting go until you calm down!” the yellow pony said.
"Ok guys, I think you should let Issac go now," John said holding back a snicker.
All at the same time, the ponies got off of Issac, but the yellow pony kept staring at Issac.
Now that everything was in order, John decided to show Issac around the town.
***
"And this is... Uh... What was it called again?" John asked Rarity.
"The Carousel Boutique, darling," Rarity answered.
"Oh right," John quickly responded. "Anyway, Issac, I think this is the place where you get your clothes fixed or get new clothes."
"Speaking of new clothes, John, I have an idea about making you a new jacket to replace that old one," Rarity suggested. "How about a jacket... with diamonds on it! You would look sooooooooo good with it!" Rarity squealed, obviously excited about something.
"Woah, this isn't Minecraft here," John said, surprised about what Rarity had said.
"Mine-Craft?" Rarity questioned.
"Don't even try, John," Issac said from the corner, keeping his distance from Rarity,
"It's nothing," John told Rarity. "Anyway, I don't think that a diamond jacket would be practical. Imagine someone trying to steal the jacket or something."
"Oh, darling. In ponyville nobody would DREAM of doing a crime!" Rarity exclaimed.
"Heh, ponyville, what a lame name," Issac chuckled to himself.
"Be quiet, John. We don't want these ponies on our bad side," John whispered to Issac. Turning back to Rarity, he cleared his throat and said, "Make it a deal." Rarity made a sound similar to a squeaky toy, and dashed off somewhere in the building. Before John and Issac left, John called out, "I forgot! How much is this going to cost?"
Rarity dashed back to John. "Oh, consider it free of charge, darling."
"WHAT?!" John and Issac both shouted
"Well, I am the element of generosity, " Rarity giggled.
"Say what now?" Issac asked.
Rarity giggled as she walked away. "Oh and Issac, don't think I've forgotten about you!"
John and Issac both left the building and looked at eachother.
"That was... strange," Issac said.
"Yep," John replied. He was still surprised at what Rarity had said.
And he was about to geteven more surprised...
