2 ~ Full Of Life

2 ~ Full Of Life

If Babs had to be honest, she hadn’t expected a scheme like this, even from a pony like Liberty Belle. The plan was more of a sketch, with badly drawn stick-figures substituting ponies and a mouth-writing that had to be every teacher’s bane. It was her luck that Liberty loved to sketch out everything she planned, so by this point, Babs knew exactly what was going on between the lines.

“You want us to actually kidnap a pony and threaten her into submission?” she asked deadpan, not really believing the words coming out of her mouth.

Weren’t they supposed to have fun crusading for their cutie marks? Wasn’t that the purpose of this group? Honestly, Babs had always thought Liberty an odd one, a bit on the evil side too, but there were jokes and then there was this. Just hitting Dust once would be enough, she thought.

“That’s why I’m calling you a softy. If you want a bully to stop, the best way is to scare them into not touching you again. And the best way to do that is to pretend we’re the mafia,” Liberty explained sagely, but Babs could only contort her face in disbelief.

“Your logic. It makes no sense,” she said, shaking her head slightly.

“Oh come on, we just need to get the armchair to that place where Miss Firefly makes her fireworks and that’ll be it for preparations. We blindfold your bully, carry her there, and then you sit in the chair, and we undo the blindfold and then you turn around in the chair, saying, “I’ve been expecting you,” and she’ll be like, “Ah, Babs Seed. My old nemesis. I did not expect to see you again,” and you can totally stroke a cat while sitting there.”

Liberty Belle nearly jumped out of the seat and on the table as she raved on about her plan. Flinging her arms about as she pretended to play both parts, clearly enjoying it far more than Babs Seed herself did.

“Belle,” she said, “we can’t get the chair out of here. Then, there’s this slight problem that I don’t want to deal with Firefly, because she. Is. Scary. Pomegranate’s parents even forbade her to go.”

A pout formed on Liberty Belle’s lips. “Well, the chair I can get, but really, does being a wuss run in your family’s blood? Are you telling me it’s destiny’s thread that ensures that generation after generation a bully is provided for every new foal?” She threw her arms into the air and smashed her hooves on the table again. “I’m only trying to help, you know, not– not–”

Tears appeared in her eyes and her lips quivered dramatically, as she looked at her friend the same way a starving puppy did when it was expecting food from its owner. Yet the only reaction she managed to provoke from Babs was her blowing the same strand of hair out of her eyes that always fell back.

“No,” she stated calmly. Liberty, once you got to know her, wasn’t all that adorable, and Babs was far too savvy to understand that this was just a ploy to get her to accept this ridiculous plan.

Her friend continued with her thing for a few more moments, but decided that she wouldn’t get a gratifying reaction from Babs and just retreated back into her armchair, crossing her arms and huffing, irritation blatant in her voice.

Babs Seed herself looked at the plan again. She didn’t really know what was worse, that they’d have to try to kidnap Dust or that they would have to go to Firefly’s shop for this. That pegasus was known all around the city for preparing the fireworks for every new year. The celebration of a year passing was a northern tradition, and considered almost as important as Hearth’s Warming Eve, so having a grandiose firework was really important. Firefly did the best ones in all of Equestria.

But she wasn’t a fun-loving, out-going mare, but a shut-in who despised pony’s visiting her shop over the year and did nothing all day but lounge around her house, rarely looking out at the window, silently cursing the world outside. Babs had heard the stories of why she remained hidden. Some said she roamed the streets at night, grabbing foals that hadn’t gone to sleep past their bed-time. Others spoke of her as a criminal who hid away so that the police wouldn’t find her. Even more said that she was a changeling, a vile creature lusting after pony’s lust and affection, feeding off it from her own place at home.

There were more explanations for why Firefly acted the way she did, but none of them sounded light. Babs had enough trouble in her life, so she made a point keeping any dangerous looking ponies out of it. She felt herself shaking just when she thought about meeting Firefly.  Well, I won’t now.

That was just the bit of good news she needed to tell herself. There was no need getting worried about stuff that wouldn’t happen, but they still had to think of a way to put all this bullying to a halt. She lifted her head and her mouth formed a start for a word, which one she quickly forgot as she spotted the lantern burning silently on the table and the chair empty.

“Liberty?” She asked a bit annoyed, but no answer came. All that was here was complete silence.

Babs frown lowered, as she turned on her chair, looking around. All she could see was darkness, yet what she could spot wasn’t important. Instead, the filly perked her ears, hoping to make a sound out. There was a lot of stuff lying around the office, so if Liberty made so much as a move, Babs Seed would be sure to hear it. Why she had hidden away, Babs did not get, but–

As she turned on her chair she spotted something, moving in the corner of her eye, though she couldn’t make out what it was. A claw? A pony? She took notice of its movements but that wasn’t really what got to her. There was lots of noisy stuff lying all around; broken metal, cans, trash, anything, but something was moving and it did not make a sound. Quickly she finished turning around herself, making to spot it, but as she did all she found was the lantern on the table, flickering. In the distance it probably still rained but all that rabble and the remaining walls silenced the noise..

“Liberty?” Babs asked once more, a bit more careful, but making sure not to sound scared.

This time, the movement didn’t appear in the corner of her eye. It happened in the spot where light and shadow met, melted into one, where it was impossible to spot a thing like the one she saw. A claw extended from the shadows and into them, a black hand with twisted fingers that was no different from its surroundings, and yet its very existence seemed to scratch at the fabric of her sanity. Babs felt as if it was touching her forehead, slowly tipping against the skin, trying to dig deeper, down to her skull and through her brain, ending her life just a moment later.

But that moment never happened, before it another quick movement came from below the table, launching upwards and making a loud noise, like a hammer hitting the table, just before the shout came.

“Boo!”

With a scream, Babs fell backwards, and Liberty Belle broke down laughing.

As she was lying on her back, her breaths came like a machine gun and her heart raced while sweat ran down her forehead. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, the manic laughter of her friend filling the hall. Babs proceeded to wipe the sweat off and yelled, “Dammit, Liberty!”

Her voice shook more than she wanted it to and she felt her eyes growing wet. Babs managed to fight the tears back fairly quickly, since she was used to that already.

“Oh sweet Celestia, your face,” Liberty managed to say before she broke down in another fit. “You’re scared of everything, aren’t you?”

Babs took a moment to stand up, but none to answer, “Am not.”

“Oh, but I know you do, that’s why you still–”

Babs threw her arms up, “No. You’re not going to say it,” she warned Liberty.

“I won’t say it if you admit that you’re scared of everything.”

“I’m not scared of everything,” Babs intoned, now stomping her hoof on the ground.

“Really? Well, how about you prove it, scaredy baby.”

“Yeah, sure.” Babs looked at Liberty, who was only smiling at her.

After a moment passed she realized that she had just gotten dared, and atop of everything else, she didn’t want her pride to be hurt by one of her friends. No, she would stand her ground. Her father was the baddest flank in Manehattan, and so she would finish Liberty’s belief of her being scared. Yes, yes, definitely.

And so another moment passed with them just staring at each other and the adrenaline slowly vanishing from Babs system, as she realized another fairly important factor if this dare was going to be a thing. “How?”

“Simple enough. We take the trolley up to the edge of the town.”

“Okay.”

“And there we’ll go into Firefly’s shop and you buy some fireworks from her.”

Babs Seed barely managed to force a smile. “Yeah, let’s do that,” she said and added in her thoughts, She’s seen right through me! I’ve never been to the edge of town alone, and I won’t even be back in time for dinner. Why did I accept this? Why?

She followed that up with internal screaming.

Liberty Belle was quick to blow the lantern out. “Come on, we need to make it before closing time,” she said, laughing. “And maybe we should also hurry up, don’t want you get too scared in the darkness.”

“Ha ha, very funny,” Babs snarked before she grabbed her bag from the table and both of them went out of the dark, strangely close by each other’s side.

Nonetheless, Babs thought nothing more of the scare. The rest of the sweat would get washed off in the rain, and so the filly didn’t bother looking at it. And so the drops of blood that she had wiped off her forehead would go unnoticed and she never looked at that spot again, where the boundary between light and dark remained and a shadow watched them walk up the stairs again.