Author's Note

Like I said before, doing an overhaul with some of my stories. Hope you like it and enjoy

Operation One: Wings of Freedom

Operation One

WIngs of Freedom

“I don’t want to die.” That was all I could think of while running as fast as I could from the a-class Dionaea. Looking behind me I saw the abductor heading towards me as I took a left turn to an alleyway. I pressed myself against the wall hoping that it wouldn’t see me. To my luck and surprise, it worked as the abductor ran past me.

“Straight out bullshit. This was not how I wanted to spend my freedom. I had it all planned out. Buy as many supplies as I can get, head over to the secret oasis that I found underneath the abandoned city, and live out the rest of my days in the comfort of my makeshift home in that small haven. But no! I'm running for my life from a fucking abductor sent here from the people On High...fuck to make matters worse. If I don't leave this place, then they'll think I have something to do with it...and then it's back to being a sinner." I said before shaking my head to get my thoughts together. “J-Just try to stay calm Adelle. At least things can’t get any worse right?” While I was sitting there trying to collect my thoughts, I felt something wet hit the top of my head. I thought it was raining until I heard a low growl. I slowly looked up and saw it was an a-class Ramosa with blood dripping from its fangs and claws as it was looming over me from the building in the alleyway I was in.

"....I fucking hate this world!" I yelled before rolling out of the way of the abductor trying to pounce on me. The moment I recovered from the barrel roll, I countered by pulling out an assault rifle and unloaded a round into the robot's face. The moment I ran out of ammo and started to reload, the wall next to me exploded. The force behind it caused me to be sent flying backward and out of the alleyway leaving debris everywhere and revealing the Dionaea that ran past me.

I noticed that Dionaea opened its mouth and shot out a fireball at me. I didn’t have time to move out of the way as I switched out my binding thorn for my shielding thorn. I quickly formed a barrier of thorns around myself as the fireball crashed into it. To my surprise, the barrier worked well for a few seconds. The Dionaea swung its tail at me, and I was sent flying through four or five slabs of solid concrete sticking out from the ground. After going through the last piece of concrete, I was then flung through the window of a house as my body hit the floor.

"Aw...hell," I said as I tried to pull myself up, but soon fell back down and clenched my chest after hearing and feeling one of her ribs break. "Double hell...that attack could've killed me had I not used shielding thorns to boost my defense," I said before feeling the ground give out as I fell through the hole. My eyes widened as I saw that the house I was in was hanging off of a cliff. I quickly used my thorns to latch onto a nearby pipe sticking out of a building. I felt my arm dislocated the moment the length of the thorn reached its max length. I quickly released the thorns grip on the pipe as I fell on a nearby rooftop. I didn't have time to try and grab onto the roof to prevent myself from falling off it. I felt myself falling off the roof and landing on the roof of a broken-down car.

“Fuck that hurts!" I yelled as I tried to pull myself up. I soon looked over my broken arm as I winced from seeing it twisted with two pieces of her arm bone sticking out “Scratch that, this hurts more than landing on a car back first.” With my other working arm, I pulled out a first aid pill along with some painkillers. It helped to null the pain and fix my arm a little, but it was still broken from what I can tell.

“The universe just loves to screw around with me doesn’t it?” I grumbled as soon as I noticed something casting a shadow over me. Looking up I saw both Dionaea and Ramosa jump down heading towards me. “I need to keep my mouth shut.”

I quickly jumped off of the car I landed on and ran down the streets just in time as the two abductors landed behind me. There wasn't anything I could do given the situation I was in. My accessory was destroyed, my gear was only at level five, and most of the reinforcements were killed off due to the surprise attack from On High. It was like trying to fight against a tsunami...with a butter knife.

As I was thinking of a plan to escape, a sudden particle of Will’O passed by my vision. I looked behind me to see the Ramosa in the air firing Will’O shots at me. My eyes widened as I quickly tried to dodge the oncoming attack, but to my best effort, I was hit with a barrage of Will’O burst. I was once again sent flying as my body hit a metal wall. I slid to the ground as blood ran down my left eye. Guess my skull's been injured seeing how I could hear a slight ringing sound in my ears and my vision was getting blurry. Slowly, I began to stand up from the ground but soon kneeled after feeling a slight surge of pain from my femur snapping.

"One thing...after another with me." Even with the painkiller dulling most of the pain, I can feel my entire body screaming in pain. All I could do was ignore it and pop another painkiller into my mouth and swallow it. Thank god they were fast-acting as I reached for my P.R.P and tried to send an S.O.S to anyone nearby for help. Unfortunately, because Panopticon systems were heavily damaged, connections to other people in different Panopticons were cut off. I soon heard the sounds of heavy metal footsteps making their way over to my location. "Seriously!? How are they able to find me so damn fast!"

I soon turned my attention behind me and saw them closing the distance between us as I began to quickly limp my way down the only path that was presented to me. I could hear their footsteps getting closer as I turned around and fired upon them with my rifle, hoping that it would do some kind of damage to them, but to no avail. While I continued to return fire, I suddenly felt my foot slip. I looked behind myself to see the edge of a cliff and a large pool of Will’O energy flowing down in the pit. Given how there were broken pipes and molten metal still visible. Someone must've overheated the chambers where the Will'O vat was being held and triggered an explosion. I continued looking down at the chasm full of Will’O, forgetting about my current situation. It was almost...calming in a way, what with the cool colors and stuff. Sadly reality brought me back when I heard the abductors walking toward me.

“Okay, I have three options. Option one, I go down guns blazing. Option two, commit suicide and hope I don’t feel anything from them ripping me apart. Option three, I fall into the chasm of Will’O energy and hope I survive long enough before the energy kills me.” I muttered to myself looking at my situation.

I let out a sigh of defeat, option one would work if I had a team and we were doing a final stand thing. Option two, I’m too much of a coward to blow my brain’s out. Option three was pretty much the only option that didn’t sound that bad, but I would still die just slow and painfully. Due to the amount of Will’O energy that I’m absorbing, it’s pretty much poison if not treated quickly.

“So….this is how it ends huh?” I said as I limped backward even further towards the edge. “Finally got my freedom and my reward is death.” I take one last look at the abductors that were preparing to attack me. I could feel tears running down my face as I softly smiled, leaned backward, and fell into the sea of Will’O. Ever so slowly, my vision was beginning to fade due to my injuries and possible loss of blood. “What will happen to me when I die? Will anyone remember me when I’m gone...or will I be forgotten? I guess it doesn’t matter seeing how they don’t care for us sinners.” The only thing I felt was my body hitting what felt like water, a tremendous amount of pain, and then, nothing.

"Ugh, w-where am I?”

From what I could gather when I woke, I was in a forest. This was odd even for me, because if I remember from what I read, all plant life was destroyed a long time ago. So why is there plant life here? Normally I would wonder where I am, but due to the splitting headache I have at the moment, I'll have to wait till I recover a bit.

“What the hell happened? I remember that I was falling to my death." I said while rubbing my head. "Everything went dark and then..." I stopped to wonder why I felt weird. To my surprise, my brown-colored skin was now replaced with gray fur. Looking down, I noticed that I didn't have any feet, only...stubs. "W-WHAT THE FUCK HAPPENED TO MY FEET?!” I screamed, wondering if someone painted my skin gray, cut off my feet, and left me for dead, or if someone was pulling a sick joke on me.

I'm starting to wish that it was a joke, that or it was just a dream I was having when I fell off that cliff. Because when I was crawling towards a running stream of water to get a good look at myself my face went pale. "I...I'm a....horse?" I said while still looking at myself in the stream's reflection. "How the fuck am I a horse? An anthropomorphic horse with bat-like features.......Yeah, this has to be a dream." I said while trying to walk with both legs or hooves….or whatever the hell you call them now. My legs felt wobbly for a moment before catching myself from falling with the help of a nearby tree.

"Ok Adelle, get yourself together, you probably just hit your head on something? Or better yet, you just fell into some kind of forgotten simulator room that people up top forgot and left to rust?” I then began to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming. "Okay I'm wrong, this isn't a dream. If it was a simulator, then it would’ve turned itself off when I died...Oh fuck, I'm in the middle of a forest in the body of a bat-like horse!" I screamed which caused some of the birds around me to scatter off into the air.

I soon slump to the ground with a defeated sigh. So many questions filled my mind. How did I end up in this place? Was this a hallucination from the Will'O poisoning? My mind began to race through the many possibilities of how I ended up here, but my thought process stopped as I looked up at the sky.

"It's weird...I've never seen the sky look so...clear." I mean, I've seen pictures of what the sky looks like, but I've never seen it in person. A lot of the time I'm stuck inside due to limited restrictions, or on the missions I'm sent it's either raining, cloudy or in a sandstorm. It was...relaxing. Though that relaxation slowly vanish upon hearing the howl of some kind of animal echo throughout the forest

"Right, forest. Almost forgot about that." I said before pulling myself together and crawling over to the stream once again to get a look at my new appearance. "Okay, horse ears, bat wings," I said before opening my mouth to see I have fangs. "Fangs similar to that of a bat...Okay, I might not be a horse...I think?" I said before looking over at myself a bit. “At least I still have my P.R.P and my clothes...would be awkward if I was naked, but am I able to walk with nothing but stubs? That's another question?" I started to lift myself by using the tree next to the stream to help support me as I stood up. "Ha! I can still walk, that's a good thing I guess? Now let's see if I can use my gear?”

Looking around I can see my weapons next to the tree where I was when I woke up as I staggered my way over to it. I grabbed them but not before I tested them on the tree they were leaning up against. So far they seem to be working right, but something seemed a little off when using them. I guess it’s because of my new body or something.

"Well, at least I know it still works even with this horse body I have. Now let’s see what I have in my inventory." I said before opening up my P.R.P’s inventory to see if all my stuff was still intact.

Inventory list:

999x First Aid Kit
500x AMMO Pack
200x Will’O Pack
Thruster board HS
250x Painkillers
300x Adrenaline
50x Frag Grenade
100x Bouncing Grenade
400x Sticky Grenade
100x Flash Grenade
300x Anti-Personnel Mines
200x Anti-Abductor Mines
Flare Knife
800x Cheeseburger
500x Fruit Punch

“Okay that covers my food and item supplies, now let’s check on my weapons.” With a press of a button, I open up my loadout screen to look at my gear.

Weapon 1:
After shadow - Gale Force
Lv. 5
Power: 864
Attack Type: Cutting
Rarity: 4
Impact Damage (%): -

Critical Chance (%): 1.0
Critical Multiplier: 2.5
Chance of Absorbing Health (%): -
Health Absorbed (%): -

Fire: 0
Frost: 0
Electro: 40
Will’O: 0

Weapon 2:
EZ Katze Kralle I
Lv. 5
Power: 822
Attack Type: Projectile
Rarity: 6
Impact Damage: -

Firing Mechanism: Full Auto
Clip Size: 120
Max. Round Carryable: 960
Effective Range (m): 22

Fire: 0
Ice: 0
Electro: 31
Will’O: 0

“Gonna have to upgrade my weapons, but I have everything. Now then let's see if I can find a town or city that can tell me where I am?" Just as I was about to look around, I heard a blood-curdling scream from over the bushes to the left of me. With not a second to lose, I slowly began to run to where the screaming was coming from. The moment I made it to the area where the scream came from, only to see that there was a blue anthropomorphic horse with a horn on her head wearing a mage-like outfit. Next to her was some kind of animal that looked like a mix between a lion and a bird wearing a black shirt with a skull on it, blue jeans, and black fishnet stockings.

“Man mother nature must've screwed up that creature next to that horse. If I was born looking like that I would walk towards the nearest living thing and kill it. But then again, I have killed abductors that were uglier than that thing.” I chuckled a bit, thinking about how a lion and a bird can have sex with each other. Though before I started to lose track of what was going on, I was called back to reality by a roar that almost sounded like a roar from a Ramosa. Looking over to my right, I saw the monster with the head of a lion, wings of a bat, and scorpion tail.

"I don't know what the hell that thing is, but something tells me that whatever that thing is, it's trying to eat that horse and lion bird thing." I started to walk back a little, took a running start as I appeared out of the bushes, and swung my sword at the monster's left eye causing it to reel back in pain. I turned my head slightly back to see if the horse and loin bird thing were ok. "Hey, are you two ok?" I asked, but they didn’t say anything. They just stared at me with shocked expressions on their faces. I couldn't blame them, seeing how I just appeared out of nowhere.

I turned my attention to the monster, who was slowly recovering from the sudden sneak attack I did. The beast roared as it began to charge at me. As the monster charged at me, I reached into my inventory and pulled out a flash grenade. “You two might want to cover your eyes for a second or two,” I said as the horse and lion bird thing covered their eyes as I threw the flash grenade at the beast. The monster stopped in its tracks once the grenade went off as I used my binding thorn to bind the monster from moving.

While the thorns did their work in restraining it, I switched to my assault rifle and fired upon its front legs. As the monster kneeled face-first onto the ground, I pulled out a sticky grenade and threw it at its head. In a matter of seconds, the grenade exploded as bits and pieces of the monster’s head scattered around the area….including me. “Ugh, gross! What was I thinking when I did that? I should’ve moved away before blowing that thing’s head off.” Brushing off some of the blood and small pieces of monster out of my hair, I then turned my attention back at the two creatures behind me.

“Hey, are you okay?”

“Y-Yeah, we’re fine.”

“The great and powerful Trixie didn’t need your help...But she is fine, thanks for asking.” Trixie said as she looked at me up and down.

"How were you able to take down that manticore? So far I have never seen a pony let alone a bat pony take out a manticore like it was just a fly!" The lion bird girl said before hearing Trixie speak.

"Yes, Trixie is also wondering? How were you able to take on a manticore without so much as dropping a sweat? You will answer Trixie's question at once!" Trixie demanded as she slammed her hoof onto the ground.

“Normally it would be against the rules to tell someone from a different Panopticon, not to mention that I would have 100 years added to my sentence. But seeing how I’m not back at home, I might as well tell them who I am.” Before I could answer my stomach started to growl, causing my face to turn red in embarrassment. “I’ll tell you after I get something to eat.” I looked over at the remains of that manticore I killed. "Hey, think that I can eat that dead monster over there?" This took them both by surprise.

“You eat meat?!” Trixie asked as I nodded.

“Well yeah. Why’d you ask?” I asked..

"B-but you're a pony right? Ponies don't eat meat. The only species that I know that eat meat are griffons like her and dragons." She said while pointing a hoof towards the griffin girl.

"Oh, so that's what she is? I always thought griffons were mythical creatures that didn't exist." I thought as I shivered a bit at the thought of her killing me if I were to call her a lion bird by accident.

"This "griffin" has a name you know?" She said with a pissed-off look on her face. "The names Gilda by the way kid." She said as she extended her claw-like hand out towards me for to shack

"Normally Trixie doesn’t give out her name to anypony...But seeing how you saved me and her, my name is." Trixie’s horn started to glow as she jumped back. "The Great and Powerful TRIXIE!" Fireworks and sparklers shot out from behind her like she was some kind of celebrity or something.

"Right...Anyway, my name is Adelle Topaz, a former sinner of Panopticon in New York.” I replied while shaking Gilda's claw hand.

A few hours have passed since we decided to camp out here for today. Mainly because of what Trixie said about how far we were from the nearest town. It made sense, given how thick this forest is while I was dragging the dead body of the manticore I killed. If we were to try and make it to this town called Ponyville, then it would be about nighttime. So far from what I could gather from Trixie and Gilda, I'm in a country or...planet called Equestria. Its population is mostly consistent with ponies which are divided into three groups. Unicorn, Pegasi, and Earth Pony. Hm, best not call them horses less I might insult someone, but either way, I'm currently in a world where magic shouldn't even exist.

In return for telling me where I am, I told them where I came from. It's not like I'll get in trouble with the people back in New York given the state it was in before I ended up here. I only inform them about who I was, where I came from, how I ended up here, and certain aspects of how my gear worked. After cleaning the blood out of my hair and parts of my clothes, Gilda surprisingly made a fire and began cooking the meat on a rock in the middle of the fireplace she made.

"You know, I could've done that once I was done cleaning off," I said as Gilda smirked at me.

"Didn't know how long you would take to clean yourself off. Plus I doubt you know how to know which part of the manticore meat isn't poisonous."

"....Fair point," I said before sitting next to the fire where they were sitting.

"So you are a thing called a hue-men from a planet called earth?” Gilda asked as she flipped the manticore meat.

“And you used to be a criminal that served her sentence for her Panopticon?” Trixie said as she began to eat a salad she made from the surrounding wildlife.

“It’s pronounced human Gilda, and yes for your question Trixie," I said while looking at the fire. "Back on earth, I was pretty much sentenced for one million years for the crime of killing a man for trying to have his way with me.”

“....I'm sorry...did you say you were put in jail for one million years?" Gilda asked as I nodded. "Geez, and I thought the Griffonstone’s laws were harsh.”

“Suck part about it is that your freedom is kinda limited when you start as a sinner. You don't have the right to move around in your cell unless you're given a mission, you can't run, can't talk, can't buy anything, can't even use the bathroom without claiming the right to do that. The list goes on."

"...You're joking right?" Trixie asked as I shook my head. "What kind of place would do something like that to somepony!?"

"Well given how my planet is pretty much a barren wasteland of broken-down cities, sand, and lord knows what else. People have to do whatever they can to limit and use resources wisely. Hense where the fucked up system comes into play. If you commit a crime, you're sentenced to one million years in jail no matter what it is. I think the most fucked up rule is if you have a baby born, then that baby is sentenced to one million years in jail for the crime of being alive and a drain on human resources." I said before noticing shocked expressions on Gilda's and Trixie's faces.

"What kind of world do you come from?" Gilda asked.

"One where life is barely holding on. Years of war and conflict in the past caught up to people like me in the distant future. You want your freedom, you have to undertake operations and donate materials to the greater cause for your Panopticon...I never believed that crap. I'm pretty sure the people in charge of this system use the resources just for themselves."

"Don't you have some kind of freedom while in jail? I mean, they can't just keep you locked inside and only let you out to do operations?"

"Not unless you're a level eight and claim the rights you lost upon becoming a sinner over time. Other than that, you're pretty much locked inside your jail cell."

“Trixie hates to live where you come from, though Trixie is wondering something?”

“How did I take down that manticore?” I asked as Trixie nodded. "Well back on earth, the missions I would be sent on were either taking down abductors that kidnapped people or fighting against the people," I said before bringing up a couple of digital images of what an abductor looks like. "The manticore kinda reminded me of a Ramosa. They’re kinda easy to take down if you know what you’re doing. Plus I've been doing this for the past four years.”

"...How old are you?"

"Seventeen," I said as they were taken by surprise by what I said. "What? I was fourteen at the time when I was sent to jail after what I did." I said before noticing the meat was done as I summoned up a dagger from my P.R.P to pick it up and began to eat it. Gotta say it tastes better than the artificial food they make back in the Panopticon

"...You're an odd human...you know that, right?"

"How come?" I asked.

"You're saying this stuff so casually like it doesn't affect you, you're talking to us like we're not a threat, and you're eating meat...bat ponies can't eat meat."

"Yes, Trixie must agree with Gilda on that...normal ponies would be affected if they were in your position. What makes you so different?"

“Those who are young are given special training to help build mental stability when facing your enemies." Which was a lie because they pretty much threw me into the field on the first day. "As for why I'm not sick from eating meat. Well, humans are omnivores so that pretty much means we eat both meat, certain plants, and fruits." After saying that, both Trixie and Gilda got a little bit nervous at me saying that humans eat meat. "But don't worry I don't eat ponies, griffins, or any sentient being of any kind."

"We'll...take your word for it," Trixie said as I nodded.

"Nice save Adelle." I thought to myself, it would have been bad if I just left it like that and they started running away. "But enough about me, what about you two? Why were you both out here in the middle of the forest, and almost becoming that manticore's lunch?” They both look at each other as if they didn't want to talk about the event that happened a few hours ago, but with a sigh from Trixie and Gilda, they explain what happened.

From what Trixie told me, she was running away from Ponyville after something called an Ursa minor attacked the town and was humiliated by some purple pony named Twilight Sparkle. For Gilda, she told me about how this pink pony named Pinkie Pie was pulling pranks on her and took her friend Rainbow Dash away from her. Judging by how she put it, I could only guess it was one of those ‘long time no see’ friends that just wanted to hang out with her old friend’ kinda deal.

"That explains the running into the forest bit, but what about the manticore thing? That doesn't give me a lot to go on, you know?" I said taking another bite out of the cooked manticore meat.

"Trixie was getting to that. Anyway, as I was running off into the Everfree forest after my humiliating defeat by that cursed Twilight Sparkle. I ran into Gilda, who was at first about to kill on sight. In my frightened state, I shot a magical beam at her face in self-defense but..."

"It missed and ended up hitting a sleeping manticore that was sleeping behind a shade of bushes," Gilda said, picking up from where Trixie had stopped.

"So here's my question again. You’re a unicorn and you’re a griffin right?" They both nodded. "So why didn't use some kind of magic spell to get you both the hell out of there or fly the fuck out of there?"

“Well...you see...Trixie was about to escape, but she couldn’t because… she was drained of her magic after what happened in Ponyville. That and running away on hoof can tire a mare out.”

“I would’ve flown away….but fear pretty much got the best of me in this case.”

"So it seems that we all have no place to go back to then huh?" I asked as Gilda and Trixie agreed with me on that one.

"Trixie lost her home due to the Ursa Minor crushing it."

"And I can't head back home due to...family issues," Gilda said before taking a bite out of her food.

"Well then how about the three of us become friends then?" They both looked at me with questionable looks on their faces saying ‘The fuck are you talking about?’ "Look, hear me out for a second. We don't have money or a place to call home. If we were to go our separate ways, life would be twice as hard. So why not stay together and help each other out as friends?”

“Hm, you make a valid point. It would be hard to make a living given our reputations. Trixie doesn’t normally be friends with anypony less than her, but seeing how you saved her from a gory fate I will be your friend for the time being.”

“I guess I’ll be your friend too only because you saved my tail. Plus I’ll be able to rub it in Rainbow Dash’s face when I tell her I have a much cooler and more awesome friend than she is.”

“Okay, then it’s official. We’re friends, now the first order of business is figuring out how to get money.”

“Trixie doubts we could get jobs to get money. Especially after what happened in Ponyville for me.” It was then I noticed Gilda walk over to a wooden sign that was at a fork in the dirt road covered in vines. Looking back at me, she then pulled out a few flyers.

“Adelle right? Can I ask you something?”

“What’s up?”

“How good are you as a fighter? Because…” She then set a flier down and when Trixie and I looked at it, we were surprised to see that it wasn't a flier but a wanted poster with a dragon's face on it. “If you were able to take down a Manticore, I think being able to take down a dragon might help us.”

"Are you crazy, bounty hunting is illegal in Equestria!?" Trixie yelled as Gilda rolled her eyes.

"We're not going to hunt him, Adelle's going to kill him and we'll take his stuff," Gilda said, which caused me to burst out laughing while Trixie stared at her with a dumbfounded expression on her face.

“That's even worse!”

"I'm not against the idea, but let's try talking to the big guy and see if he would hand over some of his treasure," I said as Trixie gave me the same expression as she did with Gilda. "What? He's on a wanted poster, so why not kill him. I mean he's worth one million bits dead or alive." Upon saying that, Trixie's eyes widen before taking the wanted poster from me as she examines it.

“Oh my……me.”

“Don’t you mean goddess?” Gilda said as Trixie glared at her.

“You worship your thing. Trixie worships hers!”

“Ladies, focus, please? Even if we don't get the reward for killing the dragon, we can still raid his place for the treasure he might have stored away. This means we can get you a new wagon, Trixie, and whatever it is that you need Gilda.”

“Not to sound like a downer, but how can you take down a dragon? The ponies that I know that can do that are Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.” Trixie asked.

“If the dragons are anything like the Dionaea’s back home, then I’m sure I can handle taking them down,” I said as I pulled my assault rifle. “Plus if you haven’t noticed, I’m like a weapon factory so this pretty works in my favor.”

"And what's your plan to win a fight with the dragon?"

"I'm gonna shoot it in the heart or head with my gun, simple right?” I smile at them both telling them my plan. A moment of silence that lasted for a few seconds until both Gilda and Trixie started to laugh.

"T-Trixie has heard of many plans before b-but this, this is just a plan is s-stupid."

"Kid that's something Rainbow Dash would think of."

"Oh screw you guys I think it's a well-thought-out plan that will work."

"Okay Adelle, then let's see this plan of yours work out tomorrow. I'll take you to the cave where the dragon lives, and if the plan works then I'll wear a maid's outfit. But if your plan fails then you'll have to fork over those weapons of yours and tell me how it works, deal?" Gilda spat into her claw and extended towards me.

"Okay then, you got yourself a deal, Gilda," I said as Trixie extended a hand out toward me to shake it, which I did.

"Trixie believes this will not turn out well, but then again nothing ever does, doesn’t it?"