Around past eleven PM a young mare named Lily Valley was walking along a dirt forest trail with two full baskets of berries by her sides, she loved berries and every Saturday she goes picking for them and makes all sorts of food and dishes with them that she sales at the weekly Farmer’s Market. She usually goes to pick berries during the day but today turned out to be a bit different, she was busy helping a friend out by having her round up baby chicks that had escaped. Even finding the chicks turned out to be hard as she would never thought about searching atop rooftops, but luckily her friend suggested it as one chick nearly fell into a chimney.
Another was found under a house and if it wasn’t for the sound of a cat trying to catch the poor thing, they would never have found it in time. This unscheduled baby chick hunting lasted all day but she was glad to help her friend who wouldn’t have been able to do it alone, but by helping she lost a ton of hours. But still had just enough left to do a nighttime berry picking, which she likes to do on rare occasions. As she was walking down the path heading home she felt the gentle cold breeze hitting her face and while it made her shiver a few times, she was relieved to cool off after the stressful and hot day she just had.
Feeling her mane blowing in the wind felt so nice she couldn’t help but daydream about getting home, and taking a well needed shower to get the dirt and twigs out of her mane.
“How in Equestria did that chick get all the way up a tree?” She asked herself pulling yet another twig out, this time from her tail.
A few minutes went by and she couldn’t help but look over her spoils of the night, just thinking of all the stuff she’ll be able to cook with them just made her mouth water. Turning her eyes back on the trail she took notice of a few birdhouses, likely made by her friend, hanging in a few trees. It was then she suddenly realized something that made her fur stand out on ends, the forest was silent. Usually there would be a lot of animal noises that made the forest feel alive, even at night, but this night it felt entirely empty except for her.
No sounds of hummingbirds, no rabbit noises, no chipmunks, no woodpeckers not even the sound of insects, just silence. It felt awfully eerie to look around at the trees and notice the plain darkness with no sounds whatsoever being heard, save for her own hoof steps. She tried passing this feeling of sudden dread off by thinking the animals were somewhere else in the forest, maybe doing something or all were simply asleep. However she couldn’t shake the feeling of being watched, panning her head around and scanning the area she tried to see if an animal or pony was anywhere around.
She had hoped to see at least somepony but there was nothing besides trees, their leafs moving slowly in the cold night’s air, which only added to her sudden fear. She started to whistle to herself trying to keep herself calm, this usually always work but out of nowhere she started to feel light headed as if she was suddenly ill. Her head felt woozy and she felt nauseous to the point where she had to stop before she started throwing up, she wasn’t sure why she suddenly felt this way.
She ate bad berries before in her past trips here and knew they couldn’t make you feel this sick and lightheaded, unable to think straight she sat down rubbing both her belly and head. The nauseous feeling only got worse though, her eyes unable to see due to her head starting to ring in pain. She had prepared to throw up when suddenly she caught something in the corner of her right eye, it was so quick she almost didn’t notice it. She nearly overlooked it as her vision was so blurry it might’ve been just a tiny bug ,or her own mane as it had begun getting messy with sweat.
Forcing her eyes to see as straight as she could she panned over one last time and to her utter shock, saw something that once she had locked eyes on it, for a brief moment her senses had returned to normal. There standing just behind a tree was a tall and extremely thin figure, it was too dark and shadowy for her to clearly make out. But she could tell it looked ponyish in some ways, yet it was too tall to be a pony let alone a fully grown horse. The more she stared at it, the worse her feeling of nausea worsen, she shook her head trying to regain some of her senses and when she looked back the figure was gone.
She looked around but couldn’t find it anywhere, it was gone as fast as she had saw it. Thinking it was just a figment of her ill stricken imagination she pressed on hoping to get home and lay down, standing up wasn’t an easy task as it felt as though she would lose her breakfast at any given moment. Thinking hard on something else and trying to force the sickness out of her mind, she walked slowly but remained alerted. About a minute later after she had just started to feel better, it had returned, the same light headed feeling with her eyes going too blurry to see and was forced to stop.
This time however her head had began hurting like she had a terrible headache and it was unbearable, she tried to shake it off but couldn’t, instead it kept getting worse the more she moved her head. She held her head rubbing it just wishing she could get home already, as she tried getting the pain to die down a shadow was slowly being casted over her like an eclipse was happening. There was a faint whisper that made her eyes shot wide open as it startled her enough to jump, what was standing just a few feet in front of her scared her beyond words.
It was the same figure she saw before but now she could see it much more clearly, but her head was still so fuzzy she at the same time couldn’t make out any features. One thing she could make out however, was that it was getting closer and she saw what appears to be limbs coming out of it’s back. Standing up as slowly as possible she kept her eyes on it trying to figure out what in Equestria it was. Was she imagining it? She knew her mind, as sickly as it felt, could never dream up something this terribly unnatural.
When she thought one of it’s many limbs had made a move towards her she let out a loud, terrified scream of fear and bolted off as fast as she could. Without even realizing it she ran forward instead of backwards, yet amazingly managed to get around the creature, it didn’t even try to stop her, almost like it was stunned she decided to run at it. Never in all of her years has she seen such a monster before, running at a full gallop with her heart beating faster and faster with each step she took, she didn’t even notice her sickness faded away as she just wanted to get away from that thing.
She panicked trying to reach the exit of the forest but nearly everywhere she looked she could see glimpses of the monster, she saw it seemingly appearing out of nowhere on either side and it just scared her more as she was fearing there was more than one of them, or it was the fastest thing she ever saw. She kept on running until she notices something very strange, she was now off the dirt trail. Coming to a complete halt and nearly tipping over, she scanned her surroundings to get an idea of where she had ended up.
To her disbelief she was lost with no idea where she was and how she managed to get off the path, she usually never gets lost but maybe she was so frightened she wasn’t paying attention to where she was going? The path was hard to miss though, let alone go off without noticing. Something wasn’t right here she could just feel it, with a sudden shiver she realized she doesn’t have time to think about it as she could feel the monster was still near. She couldn’t see it anymore but could feel it’s presence, it was watching her she could just feel it.
Not wanting to even lay eyes on that creature again she took a chance of faith by galloping in a random direction, all the while screaming as loud as she could for help. She just ran and ran as fast as she could, about two minutes of running and she could make out a sign in the distance that read Exit Is Straight Ahead which made her glimpsed of hope brighter as she found the path out faster than she had hoped. She galloped towards it passing the sign keeping her eyes fixed on the trail, but suddenly the creature came into her view so fast she swore it just popped out of thin air.
One moment the path was clear and then POP, there was the creature. Coming to a complete halt she nearly bumped nose to nose with it, she then darted off to the right without thinking while screaming for Celestia to help her.
“What was that thing!?” She thought outloud, it was behind her how could it possibly get in front of her so fast?
After nearly ramming face first into it she was more frightened as it appeared the monster whatever it was, has the ability to teleport without even making a sound or movement. She knew she needed to escape but it was so hard to see in the darkest of night, even though she went berry picking at night in the past it was always bright enough for her to see. She figured the trees were blocking the moonlight just enough to make it hard to see clearly, but it was bright earlier until she first saw that monster.
She knew she had no hope to survive if the monster kept appearing like that and forcing her to turn around every time, she was starting to feel hopeless as she kept running and her legs were starting to get tired. As she kept running she looked around and everytime she did she could barely see the monster just standing behind a tree, motionless like a still picture. If only she could how to fly or use magic, then she wouldn’t be in such a dangerous and frightening situation. It felt like she’s been running for hours and her legs were starting to get more tired, luckily the fear of being caught kept her going as she really didn’t want to run into that creature again.
Finally after what felt like hours she could see the trees up ahead were ending, she was almost out. Her heart was beating faster as she tried the best she could to gallop at a fast pace when suddenly she tripped over a tree root that sent her crashing down face first, dropping both baskets she was carrying in the progress. She cried out as her body was surging with pain, but she forced herself to brace through it and immediately saw all of her fleshy picked berries were scattered all over the ground.
She was sad she couldn’t pick them back up as she knew her life was more important right now, as she tried to get up she noticed a shadow casting over her. Gulping she turned around to see the monster was standing over her, held up on the limbs sticking out of it’s back from what she could make out. Screaming loudly she tried crawling away and to her confusion, it was just staring at her. The longer she stared back at it the more her vision became blurry and she could barely keep her thoughts straight, when she thought the creature finally made a moved towards her she snapped back to normal out of fear.
Jumping up into a gallop she screamed at the top of her lungs, without warning she bursted through the trees and outside into the open where she saw the welcoming sight of her home town and to her relief, saw some lights still on meaning ponies were still awake. Coming to a halt she finally allowed herself a moment to breath, something she hadn’t had time to do until now. Staring back at the forest she saw she had ran a fair distance away and best of all, couldn’t see the monster anymore. For the first time since she first saw it, she didn’t feel watched or light headed but felt completely normal.
Taking a few breaths she smiled feeling she had beat it, she was out the forest now and felt safer than she had the last couple minutes which still felt like hours to her. Turning around feeling as though she been away for weeks, she couldn’t wait to see her home and friends, hoping they would believe her story. But as she turned and laid eyes on the town she was suddenly met with tentacles that immediately wrapped around her face, she tried screaming but couldn’t as they had not only blinded her but gagged her as well. The next thing she knew after falling down was being pulled back so fast, it had ended before she could even progressed she had moved.
...One month later…
The Equestria train which was nearly full of ponies was on route to Ponyville from Fillydelphia at around high noon, among the bustling ponies who talked about their day one mare was sitting at a window staring outside at the passing surroundings. She had a grey coat with a yellow mane which made her stand out from the rest of the ponies in the cart who were more colorful than her, while the other ponies were talking among themselves she sat alone not seemingly caring about them. She spent a lot of time alone so it was natural for her, she was more than content with watching the scenery and was also thinking about what her new home would be like. So talking to anypony would only serve to distract and annoy her.
With help from her father she was reluctantly moving from her childhood home in Fillydelphia to Ponyville, a place she never been to before but heard so much about it she could swear it was a place right out of a fairy tale. As she thought about what it could be really like the most annoying thing ever had returned to her utter annoyance, her right eye started to feel itchy and she had to scratch it immediately.
“Ugh this thing is always itchy…” She tells herself as she scratched the bandage over her eye.
She had the same bandage over her eye for a few weeks and can’t wait to change it when she gets to her new home, it even began to make her ear feel itchy as that was the support that stopped the bandage from getting too loose. She wasn’t sure why she left this one bandage on for so long as she usually changes it once a week to once every two weeks, maybe she just couldn’t be bothered as she was very busy packing her things. The train ride itself didn’t offer many chances to change it as she would need to dig through her bags, which she didn’t feel like doing with everypony watching her.
After about a three hour long train ride she could finally make out a city in the distance and wonders if it was Ponyville or another stop on the train’s route, well after a few more minutes the train came to a halt as a voice said Welcome to Ponyville which answered her question. Hovering up from her seat then immediately landing she started to stretch her wings which were trying to fall asleep, after they were woken up she along with half of the ponies walked off the train onto the wooden platform of the station when suddenly she remembered her bags and immediately rushed back on.
She tends to be so forgetful at times when her mind wanders off, luckily no pony took her seat yet and her bags were still there. After picking them up and tying them around her she rushed back off the train, there she remained still for a few minutes watching the ponies either getting on the train or meeting with others and heading off somewhere else. But she had no pony waiting for her and as she had no idea how the town is structured, she had no idea which direction her new home was in. She was tempted to just walk around blindly when luckily she saw another pegasus who appears to have just finished seeing somepony off on the train, figuring she would know the direction she ran up to catch her before she flew off.
Who better to ask about a city other than a flyer she thought, when she caught up with the mare she asked “Um excuse me? Excuse me?” which got the blue mare’s attention just in the nick of time.
“Oh hiya, what’s up?” She asked the grey mare who as she never saw before thought was new to town and could already guess what she wanted.
The grey mare reached inside one of her saddlebags while asking “I’m looking for my new home, do you know where this address is?” before taking out a note she wrote the address on, it was written a bit messy but she was in a hurry and had only a few minutes to reach the train on time.
She handed the note to the pegasus who knew exactly where it was, “Sure I know where it is, want me to take you?” with the grey mare nodding at the kind offer, “Alright then! Just follow me.” the grey mare nodded again as she followed the pegasus.
As they began walking off and heading into town the pegasus asked the mare a simple question, “By the way, what’s your name?” looking at the grey mare’s Cutie Mark she could only guess what her name might be and gave her a slight giggle in her mind as they sounded weird, even for a pony with a bubble Cutie Mark.
It took a few silent moments but she finally answered “...D-Ditzy Doo.” while trying not to sound too bored, she isn’t normally asked for her name but really didn’t care.
Maybe the rumors of this town being filled with overly nice ponies was a little true, but she hoped they weren’t. The last thing she wanted was ponies bothering her every second of the day leaving no alone time.
“I’m Rainbow Dash, nice to meet ya!” Rainbow Dash smiled. “Ditzy Doo is an interesting name.”
“Thanks...so is Rainbow Dash.” She almost would’ve guessed her name was Rainbow Zolt or something, having a rainbow styled mane and tail Ditzy thought it seems too obvious to have her name being Rainbow though. But Rainbow Dash seems to fit her Cutie Mark which was of a cloud shooting a rainbow lightning bolt.
“So...what do you do?” Ditzy asked wondering what her talent was, she was a bit curious as to what a cloud shooting a lightning bolt could represent.
Rainbow Dash smiled again being all the more happy to tell, “It’s racing and winning of course!” she answered with a wide smirk. “You see after my first race I discovered I had a serious need for speed, but I love winning way more.”
“So you're a racer? Like in the Wonderbolts’ Derby?” Ditzy asked with Rainbow Dash shaking her head no in a quick response.
“I work with the weather.” Rainbow Dash answered, Ditzy was surprised by that as she figured if she had a need for speed then she would have a job that involves speed. “Wait a second, YOU like the Wonderbolts!? I wouldn’t imagine anypony but a fan to bring up the derby.”
“I attended a few matches as a foal, but never had the interest to reattend…”
“Oh, well I hadn’t been able to attend one in a long time, they're so hard to get tickets for…”
Ditzy sighs with relief that Rainbow Dash interrupted her which meant she wouldn’t press the subject, it isn’t something she would tell random strangers.
“But I always dream of joining the Wonderbolts! Some day, I’ll be their leader and win all the derbys!” Rainbow Dash spoke in a self building voice.
“Oh, that makes more sense. (She said that after just hearing I had no interest? Self absorbed maybe?)” Ditzy replies and just couldn’t wait to get to her new home soon.
The next few minutes went by whether quickly due to Rainbow Dash going on about the Wonderbolts and how great a flyer she is, while Ditzy tried to hide her growing annoyance. But after a couple minutes of walking they finally arrived at Ditzy’s new home, which she couldn’t be more grateful for.
“Here we are.” Rainbow Dash spoke breaking their conversation, or lack there of as it was mostly her boasting.
Once Ditzy saw her new house she liked how it looked, the paint was bright yellow and had a brick pattern with other houses neighboring around it. From her view she could see a backyard that wasn’t too big nor too small, but just right for a loner like her.
“Well thanks for leading me here Rainbow,” she nodded thanking her, “I best get inside and get settled, sure you have stuff to attend too.” she added as she started up the stairs.
Rainbow Dash with a friendly wave said “Not really, but I should practice my training. See you later!” then darted off into the sky in the blink of an eye.
Ditzy sighed, she wasn’t sure if she liked Rainbow Dash or not but knew she really should stop boasting enough to let the other pony talk. Right now though she really should get settled in so she can explore the town looking for a job later, she didn’t want too but her father kept insisting she should. Upon entering the house she was overwhelmed by how neat it was, her father was always the neat freak in the family and it appears he visited doing all the work of setting it up himself. Ditzy didn’t mind this as it means less time she needs to spend settling in, upon inspection the house she saw no sign of her father besides a note on the fridge.
It read: “Dear Muffin, during my usual rounds I happen upon the street where your new house is and saw you still hadn’t arrived yet. The train ride can take hours to forever with all the stops they make, not wanting to waste my one and only stop I decided to do all the cleaning and putting new food in the fridge after my last package of the morning, I hope to stop by later tonight if I can manage it.
Lots of packages are awaiting me I’m sure, anyways I left the key to this house on the table to the left of the fridge along with one of the two spare keys we requested. The second one I’ll keep, always good for a parent to have a key to their child’s house. Hope you settle in well and expect a housewarming gift to be delivered by mail later.
From your loving dad, love you Muffin!”
Even though there was no pony around to be embarrassed by, Ditzy blushed bright red folding the note neatly before sitting it atop the refrigerator. “Well that explains why the door was unlocked.” She whispered to herself.
With a quick glance at the table mentioned in the note there was indeed two keys attached to a round ring, picking them up Ditzy stuffed them into her saddlebag then she went upstairs. Making a turn to her right was a halley with two doors on the left and one on the right just between the other two, the first door on the left was the bedroom. The room was wide and the bed could fit three or four ponies tops, more than enough room for her tossing and turning nights that were so restless she could write a book about it.
The bed had orange sheets that she just adores and the sheet under it was white with puffy pillows on top, on both sides were nightstands with a lamp that were a little old fashion but she thought they’ll do. She wanted to just jump right into bed and sleep for the remaining hours the day had left, but the first thing she did was search through her saddlebag until she took out a portrait frame. In it was a photo of a mare and a filly about at the age of an early teen, both looked similar to Ditzy with the teen clearly being her. The mare however was noticeably different, her yellow mane was longer than Ditzy’s and flew in the wind more than her mane did at the time.
Her fur was sorta grey but more noticeably purple, the most notable feature of the two was their eyes. They shared the same exact eyes unlike she father who always says you have your mother’s eyes for literally no reason other than to remember her mother. With the portrait in hoof she walked to a lonely nail on the orange painted wall and hung it there, after making sure it was straight she stepped backwards looking at it.
“How do you like the new place? Do you like it? I do.” Ditzy speaks aloud as if talking directly at her mother, as she stares at the portrait for a minute or two her fond memories were suddenly interrupted by flashes.
She slowly remembers crowds panicking and screaming with her desperately trying to find her mom, suddenly a memory of pain to her right eye surged through her snapping her out of it. She places a hoof over her right eye and remembered her bandage needed to be changed, she searches through her saddlebag until she found the box of bandages she bought recently. Walking out and going to the bathroom directly across the hallway she removed the bandage she had on, threw it in the trashcan and looked in the mirror only to apply the new one all the while forgetting the flashbacks. Instead with her mind focusing on making sure her eye was fully sealed and covered.
“I hate these things…” She tells herself making sure it was as perfect as she could make it.
Suddenly she remembered Rainbow Dash didn’t take notice of her bandaged eye, or simply didn’t bring it up secretly talking among herself about it. Maybe she was out there right now saying there’s a new pony with a bandaged eye in town and making jokes about it. She wouldn’t put it pass her as they just met and don’t really know each other, whether she noticed the eye bandage or not she doesn’t really care. After applying the new one she walks out and back inside her room where she left her saddlebag, searching through it again she sat it’s contents either on the bed’s left nightstand or inside it’s drawer.
After it was fully empty she sat the saddlebag itself under the nightstand, turned the pony styled alarm clock to where it faces the bed at an angle she could see it from while in the bed, and from the door. She then hopped onto the bed and fell over onto her back, the bed felt like soft clouds and she was easily relaxed. There she stared at the ceiling before closing her eye a couple moments later, she dreaded job hunting and pounded on whether to do it tomorrow or to just go ahead and get it over with today. After a few minutes she reluctantly decided to do the latter, as she was about to sigh she heard a knock at the door. Leaning up with her eye open she waited a few moments, then heard the doorknock again.
Hovering herself out of bed she hovered down stairs up to the front door where she landed on her feet, without looking through the peephole or the windows she opened the door with two mares immediately greeting her.
“Hello there!” Spoke the one who had a very pale yellow fur coat with her mane and tail being a moderate raspberry with light raspberry streaks running through the middle of both, her eyes were pale, light grayish chartreuse green and they were the first thing Ditzy noticed as they were as wide as ever and were even sparkling a little.
“Hello, sorry if this sudden but we saw your father earlier then saw you arriving not long ago and just HAD to greet you!” Said the said pony whose fur coat was pale magenta with her mane and tailing being pale, light grayish lime green and almost similar to her eyes which were moderate spring green. Two greens that Ditzy thought didn’t go well with her fur at all.
Both stood side by side closely together with their bodies nearly touching the other, with the only thing between them being a hoof stitched basket with a white blanket covering it’s contents from view. “Um hello, nice to meet you…(I guess)” Spoke Ditzy who tried to not feel awkward or nervous by the two mares’ overly happy stares, “I’m Ditzy Do.” she introduces herself while trying not to sound too tired at the same time.
“Great to meet ya! I’m Roseluck but you can just call me Rose, and this is my BBF Daisy.” Rose spoke back in a happy tone with a warm smile.
“Nice to meet you Ditzy, we hope you don’t mind but we brought you a housewarming gift.” Daisy went to tilt her head to Rose who was carrying the basket but Ditzy interrupts asking a question.
“You mention seeing my father? Do you know him?”
Not a moment later did they nod yes, “How couldn’t we? He visits like twice or three times a month.” answered Rose.
“He’s a real nice stallion, and if he enjoys these we’re sure you will too.” Spoke Daisy before nudging Rose to hand Ditzy the basket.
With a big smile she hands it to Ditzy who wondered what could be in it, pulling the soft blanket back she saw to her delight apples, bananas, loafs of bread and what made her nearly smile the most were strawberries. She and her mother used go picking strawberries all the time and made all sorts of stuff with them, one of her fondest memories was messing up the kitchen so bad her father fainted, but didn’t get in trouble for it as her mother helped a lot in making the mess. They used to laugh so much at the large messes and bonded so well back then, now she just makes the messes alone and it just doesn’t feel the same.
Without her mother helping or watching her, the joy of that tradition had since lost it’s luster but she wouldn’t lie about not wanting to make meals with the strawberries again. In fact, it’s been over a few years since she made anything truly good with them.
“Thank you, sure I can make something with them-don’t expect a party or anything, but thanks none the less.” Ditzy took the basket from Rose while trying to give the best smile she could.
“Your welcome!” Smiled Daisy being excited that she like the gift.
“So you do like it? Dusty Hooves always liked fruits and the like, so we assumed you shared that taste.” Said Rose who wasn’t losing her smile anytime soon as she grinned with joy.
“Yeah, dad always had the taste for stuff you can grow and not buy. Guess everything is grown here huh?” Asked Ditzy and the two mares nodded.
“It’s been nice meeting you and hope we can hang out sometime.”
“But we gotta get the rest of our fruits and vegetables ready for tomorrow’s Farmer’s Market.” Daisy spoke with joy as she looked forward to the Farmer’s Market every year, it’s a great way to make new friends and make money from your gardens you put so much time and effort into.
“Farmer’s Market?” Ditzy asked, where she grew up they rarely had Farmer Markets.
Too many ponies and not enough open room, ponies who did grew crops usually keep it to themselves or sold them to the veriest stores.
“Yeah, what never heard of one?” Daisy teased with Rose joining in on her giggling.
Ditzy didn’t know it was a joke, instead she felt a little insulted and blushed slightly as the two kept giggling.
“Don’t worry it’s just a friendly tease, don’t worry about it.” Daisy reassured Ditzy as he saw her blushing and didn’t want her to think she was being made fun of.
“Anyways got to head out, see you later!” Rose smiled one more time.
“Bye!” Spoke Daisy right before following Rose.
As they walked off Ditzy finally saw what their Cutie Marks were, as you expected Rose’s was of a simple looking rose while Daisy’s was of, well daisies. Taking a quick glance at her own Cutie Mark, which was of bubbles, Ditzy let out a sad sigh as she stepped backwards closing the door being sure to lock it. Making her way to the kitchen she tossed the basket on the table and intended to sort the contents out, but after a big yawn she just continued to walk until she reached the staircase. A couple steps later and with a turn into the hallway and another turn right she reached the bathroom.
After closing the door she went to the bathtub turning a knob which turned the shower on, reaching a hoof in to see how warm or cold the water was she was met with a small shiver. Turning the knob with an red H on it she waited until the water was at her prefered temperature, then threw the eye bandage off onto the sink and stepped in. It was normal for her to shower just before bed, mainly to wash the day’s events off. A couple minutes flew by to about fifteen or twenty until she finally felt relaxed after what was a tiring and stressful day, stepping out and after turning the shower off she dried herself off with a nearby towel.
She then rubbed the steam off the mirror and looked to see if she should brush her teeth, she decided against it and just headed to bed but not without picking the eye bandaged up by her teeth carrying it with her. Laying it on the nightstand she hops into bed covering up and found the best comfortable spot she could find, then drifted off to sleep while thinking Job hunting can wait until tomorrow, I’m beat and after a quick blocking out of today’s events, she began drifting off fully until she entered a dream.
Author's Note
Feedback would be nice, worked on this for months and just wanted to upload so I could start on chapter 2. XD
