Expectations of Reality

(One hour before the Incident)

The final bell of the day rang. Normally this would make Bini happy. It was her signal to disappear into the world until the next morning but today she had detention. Unfair detention in her mind as Trixie had it coming to her. She ignored the looked of hate as she passed students in the hallway. The news of her defending Sunset Shimmer had spread throughout the entire school by this point. People weren't throwing insults at her yet but she was sure if they spent enough time on the internet, someone would dig up something from her past to make fun of her.

She turned down another corner towards the detention room with a sad sigh. It was truly sad that her life had gotten to this po-

"BINI!"

Bini was tackled from behind. She yelled in alarm and hit the ground hard. She saw Chocolate pulled herself off of Bini with a wince, then grabbed her arm as she stood up. She groaned and slowly got off the floor as Chocolate ranted about something. Bini's head was spinning too much for her to really pay attention as Rocky ran over to join them, holding onto a guilty-looking Arone.

They all started talking at once. Chocolate was babbling about who knows what, Rocky and Arone broke into an argument that grew to involve Chocolate. Soon the three of them were yelling at each other until Bini swatted them in the back of their heads to get their attention.

"Hey, nutjobs. I need to go to detention so can you either give me the short version of what is going on or the long version when I am out of detention in an hour and a half on our group chat. Which one will it be?" Bini asked. Chocolate growled and tugged on Bini's arm as she pointed to a hallway leading to the front entrance...Well, what was left of the front entrance.

"Arone stole money from Rocky to get his drugs. He has a meeting with a new drug dealer today. We are going to offer him protection. You are too."

"Protection...Drug Dealer...Are you on drugs too?" Bini asked. Chocolate and Rocky, judging by the death glares they were giving her, really didn't appreciate that. "The only one who even has a chance of protecting Arone is Rocky."

"We are doing this to save Arone from himself. Maybe when he sees that his friends care enough to come with him, he will see the error of his ways."

"That's bullshit of a plan." Bini and Arone said at the same time.

"Besides," Bini announced as she adjusted her backpack strap on her shoulder. "Mr. Discord is in charge of detention today. I would rather I didn't get on that guy's bad side."

"Really? The drama teacher who wears those pooka dot orange suits?" Rocky said. "Now you have to skip. Come on. This will be much better than sitting in a class with that weirdo."

"That weirdo will tell VP Luna that I skipped," Bini argued. Rocky grinned and pressed a finger against Bini's chest with an evil grin.

"You are a chicken," Rocky concluded. Bini blushed.

"I-I We..Ex-Excuse me! I-I am not!" Bini stammered to her weak defense.

"So prove it." Chocolate chimed in as Arone rolled his eyes and pulled out his wallet to count his money. "Prove you're not a chicken. Chicken."

"Fuck you," Bini muttered as she zipped up her jacket and marched past her friends with a scowl towards the entrance of the school. "The bus to go downtown gets here in five minutes. Let's go."

Her friends scrambled after her, excitably chatting about their next plans.

Bini tapped her foot with nervousness. Unaware that she was starting to bite her nails as she stood with Rocky and Chocolate in an old abandoned building. They watched as Arone approached a shady character who Arone claimed was named "Crafty Crate." The guy was wearing leather of course with a five o'clock shadow beard.

Arone visibly gulped as he took another step closer to the man, then pulled out the needed money and handed it to him.

"Here is the money you asked for. Now. Where is-"

Arone was interrupted at the sound of a switchblade. Suddenly the man took a step forwards, getting in Arone's face with a knife pressed against his throat. Crafty grinned in delight to see the fear in Arone's eyes as he gestured the knife towards his friends.

"Give me all your money and I won't hack your friends' throat." He growled. The three friends looked at each other in fear unsure of what to do because if they were being honest with themselves, they didn't think anything bad would actually happen.

Each of them slowly pulled out their wallets. Rocky approached first, his mind was racing. Trying to come up with a possibility of how they were to escape that situation. As he set his wallet down at the enemy's feet, he jumped up and punched the man square in the throat.

"Son of a bitch!" The man yelled, yanking Arone closer to his chest. "You will fucking pay for that."

He yanked the knife into Arone's stomach. Arone screamed in pain when Crafty yanked it back out. About to issue more threats when Rocky kicked his square in the chest and Chocolate ran over to bite his arm that was holding the knife. He screamed and stumbled away as Rocky and Chocolate grabbed Arone by the arms and broke into a sprint. Bini grabbed their wallets and began running as the attacker chased after them.

The man stumbled, seeming to be out of shape as he chased after them. They ran as fast as they could into the street, Arone groaned and moaned as blood started to show on his shirt. Chocolate was yelling at Rocky to move faster as Bini kept looking behind them. They turned into another run-down street. The man started to lag behind but Bini couldn't stop herself from swearing-in pure fear.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit!" Bini yelled as Rocky and Chocolate stumbled into the nearest alleyway. Bini checked the streets for any sign that the man decided to come back to kill them. No one. She checked again. Then triple-checked. Tears threatened to spill from her eyes as she heard her friend crying out in more pain than she had ever heard.

"Do you see him?" Chocolate asked as she took off her black jacket and pressed it against Arone's stomach that had a knife wound with blood. Rocky gently laid Arone down, who groaned from pain at the movements. Bini frantically clicked the power button on her phone with no luck. It was dead.

"I think he is gone but damn it, my phone is dead!" Bini yelled to her friends as she clicked the power button over and over. Chocolate yanked out her own phone and dialed 911.

"Hello? Operator? Yeah, hi. My friend got stabbed by a drug dealer. No. No, I am not on drugs! I am perfectly sane! My name? Um, Chocolate Shadow. Address...I um...Bini! HEY! WHERE ARE WE?" Chocolate asked. Bini looked at the nearest street sign, having to squint her eyes to see the words.

"Um...Tirek Lane?" Bini slowly replied uncertainly.

"W-We're on Tirek Lane. Yes. I am aware. Well, I was trying to save my friend from himself but that didn't quite work! Soon? OK. OK."

"What's the nearest hospital?" Rocky asked as he lightly slapped Arone on the cheek to keep him awake and Chocolate pressed her jacket harder against his wound.

"Um...Chanterlot Royal Hospital, I think." Bini replied. Each of them looked back at Arone, who started to lose consciousness from blood loss. Bini wiped tears from her eyes as she looked back into the streets to see when the ambulance came as the 911 operator tried to calm Chocolate down on the phone.

"T-That's a good hospital, right?" Rocky asked, trying to not look down at his blood-stained clothes and hands. "Someone tell me he is going to be okay..."

"He has ten siblings and a mother who works in a secret intelligence agency. Arone can handle anything!" Bini said through small sobs before wiping her eyes again. "Damn it. Where the hell are they?"

Chocolate held a hand to her hair as she began to pace with her other hand holding the phone to her ear. She was ugly crying at that point, crying about the stabbing, crying about the literal blood on her hands, panicking about what her brother was going to do to her when he found out where she was.

Bini heard the distant sounds of ambulance sirens coming towards their location. She smiled despite the severity of the situation.

"Someone tell Arone that help is coming. It's going to be OK. It's got to be OK."

---End of Chapter Eight---