Chapters “Are you kidding me?”
“No, and trust me I hate this as much as you do.”
“I doubt that very much.”
“Listen Angel, Rocky put me up to this and you wouldn’t want to disappoint him, right?” The green gator asked knowing Angel in fact wouldn’t want to upset Rocky.
Angel looked Gummy up and down before letting out a sigh “Well what exactly would you need me for anyway, don’t you think there’s a better option for the amount of cider you’re planning on smuggling?”
“I think in this particular case, your tunnels might come in handy the most. Using them we could easily sneak the cider underground where it’ll disappear and allow us to safely transport it to edge of the Everfree forest.” Gummy told, knowing it was in fact the best strategy he had.
“Well I suppose it’d be an easy enough job, as long as my guys stay out of sight when they’re above.” Angel replied. “Now, about my fee.”
“Don’t worry you’ll get your usual 30% with no arguments this time” Gummy knew the rabbit always got his fair share, and was probably the greediest of any creature he worked with. He’d usually put up a fight only allowing 20%, but would slowly meet his cunning associate’s demands at 30% of the cut.
“I’ll cut right to it, half. I want half the cut this time.” Angel replied
“Are you out of your mind?!” Gummy seriously considered turning his often debate partner into his late lunch, but thought about how bad it would look ending his time with Rocky while having to add ‘oh and I ate the rabbit in charge of the tunnel system, so forget about using that for a while.’
“I know it’s a lot, I’ll even admit it this time, but the guys I wanna use aren’t exactly cheap. This isn’t exactly taking a book or swiping some potion you know. You’re asking me to move as much cider as I can, as quietly as I can, and you want me to start the whole operation in just a couple of hours” Angel knew he had the rabbits to get it done but knew they wouldn’t work cheap.
‘Maybe I shouldn’t have laid in the sun all afternoon thinking so much about rocky’ Gummy thought to himself and although this left him with no room for his own cut.
“And why exactly would you hate to upset Rocky today more than any other day?” the rabbit wondered.
“Well I was keeping this quiet but I’m planning on retiring from the smuggling business, maybe settle down with a real owner. The smuggling may lead to the high life, but the town’s been growing, it’s getting riskier by the day, and I’ve seen enough of my friends go down to know that if I don’t quit soon I’m going down too.” Gummy answered.
“Well, you better be careful sometimes Rocky, you know, loses it.” With that the rabbit was off leaving Gummy alone to consider his thoughts.
‘With the plan set in action, there’s no better time than to let him know now’ He knew it was now or never as he made his way over to meet Rocky.
Gummy, now made his way over to Rocky’s nest, deciding it shouldn’t be a problem to convince Rocky of a clean break, at least he tried convincing himself of that. He knows how that bird gets, and has heard plenty of stories of Rocky’s disappearing associates.
‘But I’ve been doing work for him for years, he’s got to understand where I’m coming from’ Gummy thought.
After a little while Gummy reached the nest of his feathered friend.
“There you are kid, I was wondering how long I’d wait for the thumbs up that the missions a go. The mission is a go, right?” Before gummy could say anything the hawk flew down from his tree side nest to greet the small gator and await the hopeful ‘It’s all set’ response.
“Of coarse it’s all set, I got Angel to get his guys in position now for the grab. I figured using his tunnels would be our best bet, considering the size of the load.” Gummy knew he didn’t want sit there and chat about another mission, but he had to let the hawk know that all was set and ready to move.
“I knew you’d be able to set this up, kid this is the big one. Once we’ve got that cider in our talons we are set. Listen I’m not gonna keep this from you any longer, I want us to go full partner, with you by my side we can pull off bigger and better heists. I hear about a shipment of high-quality stones coming in from Manehatten, of coarse nothing is official yet, but I think we’d be able to pull off an entire heist this time, no more small change.”
“Wait,” The gator interrupted, he chose his next words as carefully as he chose his business partners. “I can’t do that. I can’t pull off these heists any longer.”
“What in Equestria are you talking about, we could get it done, sure it’d take more horsepower to make it smooth but.”
“That’s not what I mean.” Gummy interrupted again. “I can’t keep doing these heists any longer, I wanna retire, settle down. Maybe find a nice pony who could keep me as a pet” gummy said.
“You wanna be some ponies pet? You wanna be owned like some cat, being fed every so often, and taking shits in the corner.” Rocky replied, dumbfounded by Gummy sudden betrayal.
“Angel’s been telling me its not so bad, he’s been talking about his owner the yellow Pegasus, and how nice and caring she always is.” Gummy responded.
“You mean the Pegasus that owns the animal farm on the edge of the Everfree forest. She runs those creatures like slaves, and never lets them leave. Why would you want to live a life like that?”
“I think your wrong about that Pegasus, I think she takes care of those animals and heals them, and the only reason a lot of them end up staying is because they have such a better life on that ‘farm’ than out here in the wild.” Gummy knew Rocky was becoming more upset and decided to stop arguing, it was time to end it now. “I’m sorry Rocky I really am, but I’ve made up my mind a long time ago, I can’t do this forever, and if I don’t leave now, I might wind up dead. I’m sorry.”
Rocky just stood there as gummy walked away, not sure what was next, but knowing he would at least be safer.
Just then Rocky grabbed a heavy rock in his talons and flew fast above the alligator.
Gummy ignored Rocky as he heard the hawk soar into the sky behind him. But something felt off as gummy felt the rock smash into his head knocking him unconscious.
Blackness.
And stars.
Gummy’s vision is consumed by an array of stars, and blurred eyesight. He is slow to get up, and something feels off. Is it the pounding in his head? Or is it the sensation that everything feels slightly tilted and unreal.
“Let go.” A voice tells him.
Gummy barely makes out the words before the voice repeats itself.
“Just let go, Gummy.” The white voice repeats.
‘Let go of what?’ Gummy thinks to himself, it’s apparent he cannot talk, his mouth is in too much pain.
At that moment Gummy realizes he is holding Rocky by the wing, while hanging him off the edge off a cliff.
It doesn’t take much more convincing by the voice to drop the feathered fiend to his death.
Just then Gummy awakens from his unconscious state with that same pounding in his head and sharp pain in his mouth. He quickly realizes that he is lucky to have survived. Although he then recognizes that his teeth weren’t so lucky.
He gets up to realizes he is on the edge of Froggy Bottom Bogg and was probably left there for dead by his former associate.
‘I guess it’s time to return the favor.’ Gummy thinks as he slowly make his way over to the bird’s nest.
Gummy made his way over to Rocky’s nest, where he hoped the bird will be, and he knows he will only have one shot at making the bird pay, since Rocky thinks he killed the gator and left him for dead.
It’s hard to tell how long it’s been since he was attacked, but he can tell by the sunset that Rokcy’s latest heist must be under way by now. That kind of operation must take Angel and his team at least a couple hours to fully complete, and Gummy hoped that Rocky will have taken his place and overseen the operation himself. With any luck Gummy will be able to sneak over to Rocky’s nest and wait for the bird to return.
‘Finally a plan’ he thought to himself as he continued to make his way over to the nest.
That proved to be a bigger challenge than Gummy had expected. While Rocky wasn’t able to kill him, he sure came close and Gummy is starting to feel the full effect of the falling rock to the head as well as the open gashes from what must’ve been Rocky’s sharp talons.
He decided to double-time it to the bird’s nest, despite his quickly deteriorating condition.
The sharp pain he felt with every passing step is enough to make Gummy question why he ever wanted to leave Rocky in the first place. ‘Sure that birds a psychopath and sure I probably wouldn’t have lasted too much longer, but at least I’d be in one piece, hell I’d even have some cider coming my way pretty damn soon.’
With no time to second-guess himself. He’s reached the bird’s nest, well the ground beneath the bird’s nest at least. ‘Now what?’ he asks himself.
With no one else around to answer his question, he answers himself with an obvious ‘Now I climb.’
‘Mistake, big mistake, huge gigantic mistake’ Gummy told himself after every branch that he made a pathetic effort to ‘climb’.
Sure Gummy could have sat there and counted his lucky stars that Rocky happened to pick a tree that most creatures could easily climb, or even that his nest was no where near the top. But that wasn’t the problem, Gummy knew he could climb that tree any day and had in fact done so before to get that birds attention. Rather it was Gummy’s overall health, falling so fast that he was wondering what his plan was once the bird got back.
Gummy even wondered how long he’d be able to live even if he was able to kill the bird. He’d been bleeding out most of the way from Froggy Bottom Bog and had only recently stopped bleeding so heavily. But the tree and many of its sharp branches made sure to reopen most of his wounds.
None of it mattered though, all Gummy wanted now was to kill that bird and then fall into a deep well deserved sleep, and in that order.
With that last piece of encouragement gummy found himself reaching the bird’s nest.
He sat there breathing heavily after his life-threatening climb to the nest. The nest was large enough that the alligator was able to easily hide among the many branches that made up the nest.
He then thought that in order to have any chance of beating the bird he’d not only need the element of surprise but a weapon. He doubted that he could use his once powerful jaws to ‘gum’ the hawk to death.
Now he waited for that bird to return.
Epilogue
Fluttershy went about feeding the chickens on her cottage in the warm glow of the afternoon sun, part of her daily routine, when a voice nearly startled her.
“Hey fluttershy.” The familiar voice called out.
Fluttershy turned around to see the familiar face of her pink party friend.
“Oh, Hi Pinkie.” She replied. She wasn’t expecting to see Pinkie today, but it was always a delight to see any of her friends.
“What’cha up to”
“Oh I’m just tending to the chickens, and then I have to feed the bunnies.” Fluttershy replied with a smile.
“Ohh, that does sound like fun. Mind if I help?” The pink pony was so eager, she was nearly bouncing with excitement.
“Sure Pinkie, it’s nice to have some help with feeding all the creatures.” Fluttershy said.
“Absolutely, I couldn’t imagine having to feed all these animals all by myself. I think I might go crazy. How many animals do you even have?” Pinkie Pie questioned.
“Well, I don’t really own them, I just take care of them when they come to me. So I’m not too sure how many I take care of. But I think it’s a lot, more and more creatures are coming by every week it seems.” Fluttershy responded.
“Ohhh, what kind of animals? Like lions and tiger and bears?” Pinkie put her hooves up to simulate a bear about to strike.
“Oh my no, mostly cute little bunnies and mice. Although I did just get some odd new animals this week. One was a hawk, Angel and some of the other bunnies brought him in, poor thing could barely move, he must’ve fell out of his tree. I tried to help him as best as I could, but I’m not sure if he’ll ever fly straight again. I wanted to keep him here longer, but I think he and Angel got into a fight because he flew far away after only a few days.” Flutershy told her pink friend.
“Wow that sounds like one unlucky bird, and what about the other animal?” Pinkie asked, now wondering what could be stranger than a hawk falling out of his tree.
“Well the other one was an alligator, he’s really adorable, but for some reason he doesn’t have any teeth. Maybe he was born that way, but I’m not sure what to do with him, he needs a lot of attention and I’m afraid that with all my other critters that I to tend to, that I won’t be able to give him enough attention.” Flutershy said.
“An alligator with no teeth, sounds fun. Could I see him?” Pinkie asked.
“Sure he’s in the bathtub, he like to take long bubble baths. Come on I introduce you two.”
They made their way over to Fluttershy’s bathtub. Pinkie Pie peered over the edge of the tub when all of a sudden a green alligator burst out of the water and clamped his jaws onto Pinkie’s mane.
“Ah stop it, that tickles!” she shouted.
Over the course of the next hour Pinkie and Gummy became best friends. Both of their silly, over the top attitudes blended well together.
Pinkie had told Fluttershy she wanted to keep the alligator as a pet, much to Fluttershy’s delight.
Gummy was just as excited to live with the party pony, as he realized he had, in fact, gotten his clean break.
‘This is it,’ he thought.
‘I’m telling Rocky today. No more excuses. Sure the pay is good. But it just ain’t worth the risk anymore.’
Gummy, lay in the warm glow of the afternoon. He had been there for several hours now contemplating his risky lifestyle, and whether or not it was finally time to give it up.
He then thought of his next run set for later in the afternoon. Rocky had told him about a small shipment of the apple family’s cider that he was able to get his talons on. He needed it to be transported from Sweet Apple Acres to the edge of Ponyville near the Everfree forest. It was a risk sure, but gummy knew every risk had its reward.
Every job was different, sometimes it’d be lifting a flawless diamond from a local dressmaker, other times it was some high quality foods shipped in from Canterlot, there was even a time or two where he’d be asked to snatch an important book from the Ponyville library. Every creature knew gummy was the gator to get it done.
He didn’t smuggle the stuff himself, at least not usually, and this was no different. Gummy’s job was to get the crew together, come up with the plan, and oversee the operation to make sure everything went smoothly.
Sometimes he had to get creative. Smuggling a rare gem was as easy as making sure you didn’t get caught. He’d use a mouse to get those jobs done, real fast and stealthy, and pretty easy to work with too, a mouse won’t argue about a price when they’re one bite away from becoming a snack.
But this mission was different he would need an animal capable of smuggling the most cider as quickly and quietly as possible, certainly not a job for a mouse. He had an idea, but he hated it.
‘The last time I worked with that weasel, he damn near got us all caught’ he thought. He sat in the sun and kept pondering if it was in fact his only option and came to the conclusion that it was.
He gave up the struggle and reminded himself that this was the last mission he’d make himself do and that if making this job go as quickly and smoothly as possible meant having to work with that rodent, he’d do it.
Gummy slowly got up and made his way over to Angel’s place.
He must’ve waited there for the better half of an hour before he finally heard someone, or more specifically somebird fly toward the nest.
When he landed in the nest Gummy’s heart was pounding fast, he was afraid the bird would hear him. Gummy was in luck though, as Rocky didn’t seem to notice the alligator hiding amongst his branches.
Gummy quickly stuck with a fury, knowing there’d be no better chance than now.
Gummy acted fast he pushed the now unconscious bird to the edge of the nest, with no way for the bird to wake up in the few seconds it took to plummet to the ground, Gummy knew this was be it for Rocky. ‘1,2, and..’
“Stop!”
Gummy heard the voice, but had no reason to listen to the unconscious, but somehow talking hawk.
“Let it go!” said the familiar voice. That wasn’t the sound of Rocky begging for his life. Who was it?
“Gummy, just let it go!” He turned and saw the white face of a former associate. “Don’t do it Gummy. I know he’d hurt you and even tried to kill you, but you can’t do this.”
Gummy now opened his mouth to protest, and for the first time he realized he couldn’t speak. In fact Gummy had never tried to speak since having his teeth knocked out, but immediately recognized that he couldn’t protest the rabbit as his voice was now gone.
“Listen I know what he did, and what he’s been doing. I knew he’d try to kill you, but you’re not a murderer.” The rabbit allowed, Gummy stepped away from the edge of the nest and gave Angel’s words some thought.
“I want you to know I’ve been planning on taking this bird out of power for while now, with Fluttershy filling the crucial role of taking care of the animals around Ponyville, Rocky has been losing power, and intimidation became the only was he could retain control over many of the animals.” Angel told Gummy.
Gummy never thought about how powerful it seemed Rocky was becoming, but Angel’s logic made him question why it’d be wrong to kill Rocky if he seemed like such a problem.
“Believe me kid, this bird deserves nothing better than a quick fall to his death, but if we kill him, than we’re no better than him. I promise you, he’ll be gone out of Ponyville forever, but we just can’t kill him”
Gummy knew Angel had a point; it wasn’t right to kill Rocky despite all he’d done. So gummy allowed the unconscious Rocky to fall into the nest.
Before Angel could say anymore, Gummy fell unconscious himself into the nest by Rocky, exhausted from the open wounds, sore mouth and worn out body.
Angel saw the sight of both Rocky and Gummy unconscious and near death, he realized there was only thing to do.
