"Tank! Where are you?"
Her shout was swallowed by the storm. How did she expect Tank to hear her in this? Dash's head still throbbed with pain, and now she felt wet and miserable too. Her face, especially, was wet – but that was just the rain, right? Of course it was. Rainbow Dash didn't cry.
"C'mon, Tank! I'm sorry!" Even if he couldn't hear her, she felt compelled to say the words. Rainbow Dash flew lower, weaving between the buildings of Ponyville, looking for her tortoise. It was hard to see – it was hard to think – with this storm raging around her.
Where would he go? Dash had checked her own house first, hoping that Tank might have just gone home to sulk. He hadn't, of course. Rainbow Dash scrubbed at her eyes with one hoof. Why did this stupid storm have to make her face so wet?
Normally, she'd have checked with Spike: Tank always liked playing with Spike and Owlowiscious. But that was pointless, of course: she had just come from there. She'd tried at Rarity's home – Tank and Opal got along surprisingly well – but she'd had no luck there, either. Gummy? No. Dash knew, somehow, that her story was at the heart of this. Gummy was Pinkie Pie's pet, and Pinkie Pie meant writing. Tank wouldn't have gone there. What about Ange—
Fluttershy.
Of course Tank would go back to Fluttershy if he was upset. Fluttershy had probably taken care of the tortoise for years before Rainbow Dash adopted him. Probably? You don't even know how long Fluttershy had him before you came along. You never cared enough to find out, did you? With a grunt, Dash tried to suppress the voice in her head. Becoming even more upset with herself wasn't going to get Tank back any sooner.
Fluttershy's cottage was well past the edge of town, near the perimeter of the Everfree Forest. The sky seemed to darken as Dash flew in that direction, as if whatever controlled the forest's weather thought it needed to show the town of Ponyville how a proper storm ought to be conducted. By the time she rapped her hoof against Fluttershy's door, Rainbow Dash was a sodden mess.
The door cracked open, revealing a pink mane and a blue-irised eye. "Oh, it's you Rainbow Dash." Fluttershy's voice didn't sound very inviting.
Dash gave a nervous chuckle. "Aah, heya Fluttershy. I was wondering if Tank was here, and if I could come in."
"Tank is here..." Fluttershy drew a deep breath and looked like she was trying to gather her courage. "But no, Rainbow, you can't come in."
"Aww, c'mon Fluttershy. I wanna see Tank."
"Well..." Fluttershy cast a quick glance over her shoulder and pulled the door wide enough for Dash to get a look inside. "Well, he doesn't want to see you. He's going to stay here tonight, okay? And... maybe tomorrow you can come see him."
Dash flew up a few centimeters to look over Fluttershy. She could see Tank, sitting in the back of the cabin next to Angel. The tortoise wasn't wearing his propeller or his goggles anymore, and it looked like Angel was trying to make him feel better. The little white rabbit turned for a moment and gave Rainbow Dash an angry look.
The blue pegasus dropped back to the ground, her own dejection painting her face. "Please, Fluttershy? I just want to tell him I'm... I'm sorry. I mean, I wasn't talking about him anyway, but... Oh, ponyfeathers!"
"No. Whatever you said, he's very upset right now. Maybe he'll let you see him tomorrow." There was a finality in Fluttershy's pronouncement, but she leaned forward and her face softened a little. "If I were you, I'd spend some time thinking about how to apologize. I've never seen him this upset, Rainbow. I don't know what to do... But I know he really, really, really doesn't want to see you right now."
Rainbow Dash sighed, scrubbing a hoof across her face again. When was that stupid storm going to stop? "Okay... Okay, I'll see what I can do. And thanks, for taking care of Tank." She scratched the ground with one hoof. "...I'm sorry, Fluttershy."
"It's oka—" Fluttershy cut herself off, shaking her head. "No. It's not okay, Rainbow. But... just try to figure this out, please? I don't like seeing either of my friends upset."
Dash nodded silently and turned her back on the cottage. How was she supposed to fix this?
The flight home was a lonely one, though the storm was finally abating. Rainbow Dash tried to think about ways to make up with Tank, but her mind kept drifting back to her story. She knew that was at the heart of her problem. When had Story Tank gotten so important? And when did she decide that Story Tank had to be cooler than Regular Tank? Wasn't the story supposed to be about showing how awesome Tank, her loyal little tortoise, already was?
She scrubbed a hoof across her eyes again, and she noticed that the rain had stopped. The clouds were only light gray now. Okay, fine. Yes, Rainbow Dash, you've been crying. Now stop acting like a sad little filly and figure out how to clean up the mess you made.
And then it came to her. These problems had started because of that stupid story. Maybe she could end them the same way.
———————————————————————————————————
The Amazingly Awesome Adventures of Tank the Tortoise
By R. Dash
Chapter 8 - Tortoise vs. Hare!
A heavy two-legged kick slammed against Tank's shell, nearly rolling him onto his back. The tortoise pulled his legs facing Angelbunny back into his shell for a moment to correct his balance.
"Come now, is this really the best you can do, Tank?" The rabbit's voice was filled with derision. "And to think, you're supposed to be the best the League has to offer."
Tank didn't respond. This fight was not going well, and it took all his concentration and all his training just to defend himself from Angelbunny's attacks. The rabbit was just so fast! For all his training, Tank was just too slow to keep up. He'd hoped, early on, that Angelbunny might wear himself out attacking, but the rabbit seemed to have boundless energy.
Another kick rocked Tank sideways. He tried to retaliate with a kick of his own, but the rabbit was already gone. Angelbunny was hopping off Tank's shell as much as he was kicking, keeping him far beyond the tortoise's reach.
Hopping. Hopping. Tank scanned the room quickly. The fight had already led the two opponents all around the lab, and now he found himself near one of the vats of green goo that Tank had seen when he first entered. An idea began to form in Tank's mind. He pulled back from Angelbunny, retreating toward the glass vat.
The rabbit laughed. "Ah, so the great Tank the Tortoise is on the retreat. What would the Keepers of the Elements of Harmony say if they could see you now?" When Tank didn't reply, Angelbunny gave another laugh and advanced. "Still speechless, tortoise? Fine. I tire of this... distraction. It's time to end this."
Angelbunny launched a mighty kick, hitting Tank with a hammer of force. For once, Tank took the blow squarely on the shell. It rolled him over onto his back and sent him crashing against the wall of the vat hard enough to break it. Viscous, slimy goo washed over him as he tried to adjust his weight inside the shell. Tank's momentum shifted, and he rolled over again to land on his feet, standing in the remains of the now-empty vat. He strained his limbs, trying to hurry back to the fight and away from the puddle of green fluid on the floor of the lab. Moving through the goo was difficult, but Tank's weight and his thick feet helped him find traction.
"Surrender already, tortoise. You know you can't win this fight. When has one of your kind ever defeated one of mine?"
"I feel sorry for you, Angelbunny." Tank hadn't spoken since the beginning of the fight, but even as the words left him, he realized that they were true. "You've never understood, have you? It's not about winning. It's about fighting for what's right, fighting for a better tomorrow. You may be fast, and smart, and talented. But you don't know the first thing about guts. About persevering when everything is darkest. Surrender? I've already won."
The rabbit gave him an irritated glare. "Delusional to the end, tortoise." Angelbunny leapt forward, straight at Tank's head, and a metal spike glinted in his paw.
Tank had been waiting for this. He lurched forward with all his might, tucking his head and his front legs into his shell and standing tall with his back legs.
Angelbunny turned his attack into a kick, but as the rabbit's feet struck Tank's goo-coated shell, they slipped askew and Angelbunny himself slammed forward. Tank's shell acted as a ramp, launching the rabbit back a meter into the wreckage of the vat and the puddle of goo surrounding it.
As Tank turned laboriously, he heard the rabbit cursing, struggling to rise. But Angelbunny was too light to get traction in the slippery green slime. He tried to rise and fell back, only succeeding at further coating himself in goo.
With a thunderous crash, the doors to the lab slammed open and Spike and Winona rushed in. Both looked injured: Winona was limping heavily and scorch marks marred many of the scales on Spike's left side. Tank gave a deep sigh of relief. "Quick, I've stopped him for a few minutes, but we need to restrain Angelbunny before he can get away again."
Winona nodded wordlessly, pulling a length of rope from her battered purse and fashioning it into a lasso. She threw it around the struggling rabbit with an uncanny precision, pulling it tight and binding his limbs in place. Spike took the other end of the rope and tied it to his forearm to make sure Angelbunny wouldn't escape.
Behind Spike and Winona, Owlowiscious, Opal, and Gummy all burst into the room. They rushed forward, exclaiming over the scene of destruction in the lab.
Opal tried to throw her paws around Tank in a hug, but the goo had as much effect on her as the rabbit, and her limbs slid right off. "Oh, Tank! We were so worried!"
"Yeah, Tank! I know you're awesome and all, but Dr. Angelbunny? How'd you beat him!?" Gummy's eyes rolled wildly as he spoke.
Tank turned away from Commander Spike, Winona, and Owlowiscious. They could handle the rest here. He gave Gummy a grin and rubbed his head with one heavy, goo-laden foot. "The same way as always, Gummy: with persistence, spirit, and guts." He paused a moment, looking back at the other members of the league, wrestling Angelbunny into restraints. "And with a little help from my friends."
———————————————————————————————————
Rainbow Dash knocked on the door of Fluttershy's cottage.
After a moment, the yellow pegasus peeked out. "Rainbow, I'm still not sure if he's willing to—"
"Too bad." Rainbow shoved the door open, eliciting a squeak from Fluttershy and a number of angry chitters from the animals in her home. She spotted Tank, sans propeller and sitting by one of the windows, looking outside dejectedly. "Tank! I wanna talk to you!"
The tortoise turned, shooting an annoyed look at Fluttershy. He gave Rainbow Dash a deep frown and began to walk away.
"Wait..." Dash's voice was quieter than she might have wanted, but... she had things to say, and they weren't easy. "Please, Tank. I said I wanna talk to you."
Tank slowed, turning back to Rainbow Dash, but the frown never left his face.
Dash sat down in front of the tortoise, pulling a thick stack of pages out from under her wing and setting it on the ground. "Tank... I'm sorry. You know what I said last night, I wasn't talking about you..."
If anything, the frown on Tank's face deepened. He shook his head at her.
"Well, I wasn't! I mean... I just... I let the Tank in the story become more important than the real Tank. I only wanted to write the story because I think you're awesome, and cool, and..." Her voice trailed off weakly, and she ground her hoof against the wooden floorboards of Fluttershy's cottage. "And I guess at some point, me trying to show how awesome you were turned into me trying to make you more awesome. Or... no, not that. Awesome in different ways. Because you're already as awesome as a pet can be, to me.
"But then I got so caught up in the story, and in making Story Tank more awesome, that I started to get frustrated that I couldn't make him awesome enough. And..." She gave a heavy sigh. "And that I couldn't make you awesome enough either."
Rainbow Dash was still staring at her hoof and the floorboards, but something in Tank's expression must have changed. Fluttershy was speaking in her ear now, very quietly. "Umm, Rainbow, I don't think you're helping."
Rainbow looked up at Tank, but her eyes were starting to get watery and she couldn't see him well. "I know I screwed up, okay! Just... just let me read you the end of the story. The ending I wrote for you." She sniffled, looking down at the pages beside her.
Fluttershy's voice cut through the stillness of the cottage. "I didn't know you wrote sto—" Some of the other animals started chittering, cutting her off. "Oh. Oh, yes. Okay, Rainbow Dash, he'll listen. But we all want to listen with him, too."
Dash looked up, and saw the animals of the cottage gathering around. Angel had appeared from somewhere, and he was standing beside Tank now. Rainbow Dash scrubbed a hoof across her eyes, feeling a spike of irritation with herself, and nodded. And she read the story: the whole story, starting right at the beginning, with Tank and Angel and Fluttershy, and a gaggle of squirrels and songbirds all assembled to listen.
It took a little while, and the reading wasn't without its interruptions. Fluttershy was horrified when she found out Rainbow Dash had cast her precious bunny in the role of the story's arch-villain, and she spent a couple minutes vacillating between yelling at Dash and quietly sulking. Angel himself seemed quite pleased with the choice. By the end of the reading, he and Tank were play-fighting along with the story, to the excited tweets and chitters of Fluttershy's woodland friends.
After she finished, Rainbow Dash laid the pages aside and turned to Tank. "So that's it. I'm done. No more writing about you. My tortoise is awesome just the way he is. He doesn't need propellers, or special fighting lessons, or stories, or anything to make him cooler. And I wouldn't want to change him, not even one little bit, because my tortoise is the one that saved me from Ghastly Gorge, and that sat up helping me write and listening to my stories, and he even went to get Pinkie when he knew I'd done something dumb by trying to read her story without asking."
"Pinkie writes stories too?" Fluttershy's voice was full of wonder.
"Shh. You don't want to read them." Rainbow Dash turned back to Tank. "So whadda ya say? Will you forgive me? Please? ...I really miss you, Tank."
The tortoise gave her that serious frown again, but he could only hold it for a few seconds. After a moment, his mouth broke into a smile and he bobbed his head up and down.
"Yes!" Dash shot a look at the cottage's other occupants. "I mean... Awesome. Thank you, Tank."
Fluttershy was starting to tear up now. After a moment of not-very-cool sniffling, she gave up and threw her hooves around Rainbow Dash's neck. She burbled something into Dash's mane, but Dash couldn't really understand her. Not sure what to do, she gave the yellow pegasus's head a couple gentle pats.
After a moment, Fluttershy pulled her head away. "B-but... You're not going to write any more? But I liked that story so much!"
Rainbow Dash blinked. She what? "Umm... Well, I said I wouldn't write about Tank any more. I guess that doesn't mean I have to stop writing all together. In fact..." An idea came to her, like a firework exploding in her head. "...I've got a pretty sweet idea for a new novel, about a pegasus who's a really great flyer and who wants to join the Wonderbolts..."
Nice closure.
"Write what you know", eh, Dashie?
an excellent ending. A great story from start to finish.
i.chzbgr.com/maxW500/7006961664/hE559F467/
If you'll take suggestion on a sequel; Dash gets it in her head to write romance. The comedy and the shipping will be plentiful
So after all Rainbow Dash is just a big softy, isn't she? That was a one heart touching ending, good sir. Thank you for the beatiful story.
Oh and also cheers for Rainbow Dash and her amazing first work!
Woah. And in one fell sweep, you make this completely cannon. I am impressed.
Honestly, I had doubts when I first saw this story. I mean, a story about a beginning writer writing a story? But you surprised me. This was a masterful tale, with the story of Tank and the story of Rainbow Dash's writing lying parallel to each other, and coming together for a brilliant ending. I loved this, and will be looking forward to future work.
Thank you.
well done i say!
2143282
Thank you. I'll admit, I missed Rainbow's bit about her unfinished novel the first time I watched "Spike At Your Service". It's not one of my favorite episodes. But it came to my attention at some point, around when I was writing Chapter 2 or 3 I think, and I knew I'd want to situate it in time between "Canterlot Wedding" and "Spike At Your Service". I figure there's really no excuse for breaking canon continuity unless it's necessary for story purposes.
Similarly, Bell, Book & Candle was intended to be set between "Hearth's Warming Eve" and "Magical Mystery Cure", but I suspect I'm going to need to go a little ways into Season 4 to cover a late-story plot point that canon has now unexpectedly discussed. But as far as I'm concerned, that's more an opportunity than a constraint – anything with basis in canon helps ground a story more firmly. So on the one hand I'll have to deal with Twilacorn in-story, but on the other hand I'll have canon backing up my plot points.
2140769
I don't really have any intention to follow up on Rainbow's writing, but I'll admit I occasionally get hungry to write one-shots when I feel the need to exorcise some stray plot bunnies. Suggestion noted, though who knows whether anything will come of it.
It figures that Angel would like his role. Bravo, and good story.
Great ending.
Angel like it?!
It's only a matter of time before he becomes a real villain!
I mean, he's already the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered
rodentlagomorph you ever set eyes upon!Brilliant ending!
good ending and great story
Ending, A very nice Ending.
Glad to finish this way :)
great story Bradel
I just have one question about it
I know pinke pie used to work on a rock farm and all but...
WHY DID HER STORIES HAVE TO BE SO UNPINKEY!!!
2164223
Oh, that one's actually easy, and it'll be apparent in the first 50 words of my planned follow-up.
i11.photobucket.com/albums/a167/Yakaji/138798__UNOPT__.png
I like to play around with character interpretations. For myself, I like the idea behind Pinkamena but not the particulars of how it's often implemented. Pinkie's wonderfully happy and energetic 99% of the time, but there's that 1% where she goes back to straight-haired, rock-farm, slightly-unbalanced Pinkie. We also know she's really smart, at least in certain ways – she has an uncanny memory for life details of ponies around her.
So I thought to myself, "Wouldn't it be fun if Pinkie had a well-sublimated darker side?" Not Crazy Cupcake Pinkie, but Pinkie who enjoyed stuff she knew was darker than what her friends might enjoy, like horror stories. It would be in line with her attitude in "Luna Eclipsed" where she talks about how fun it is to be scared. I actually have a friend that may have inspired this – sweet and unassuming as all get-out, but if you get to know her really well, it turns out she loves some very, very dark storytelling. I tried to be careful to show that my Pinkie's love for horror stories doesn't actually change her personality, though. She knows other ponies probably won't like her stories, but she's as bubbly as ever talking about them once it's out in the open.
I'm sure there'll be people who disagree with this interpretation of Pinkie Pie, but to me it feels like a very small twist that's still consistent with the canon characterization, and I think it opens up some fun writing avenues. One of my favorite bits of the story is Twilight going pale when Dash mentions wanting to read Pinkie's stories.
I don't know if you were expecting a big response like that, but it was a fun part of the story for me. I knew fairly early that I wanted to play around with Pinkie being a more experienced writer, but it took me a little while to decide how I wanted to play that out. Then I went and read (the incomparable) GhostOfHeraclitus' Whom the Princesses Would Destroy... (which was just inducted into the Pony Fiction Vault a couple weeks back, by the way – it's great stuff and deserves a read). Somewhere along the way, it just came to me. Of course Pinkie would be writing Lovecraftian cosmic horror. What else could she possibly write? It was a perfect match for her "secretly-brilliant", "fear-loving", and "occasionally-unhinged" personality traits.
It was, at least to me, both completely unexpected and completely in character. It had to be done.
1st funniest comic strip ever
2nd I thought it through and you are right it was a unexpected twist and all and it is pretty hard to hit the pinkie level of randomness
3rd ill have a look into that story you mentioned it sounded great
4th after reading your story an idea flashed into my head for my own story so I guess that sort of makes you a role model
5th I don't quite know how to do much on this website and my account was made yesterday so heres a question do I have to wait to upload chapters if not how do I do and if roughly how long will it take
p.s. going to bed now goodnight
2166592
Great to hear that you want to write!
One of the first things to look at, if you have some time, is the site FAQ. That has a lot of information on the whole story-creation process. You don't need to be a member for any length of time before sending in a story, though you do need to "submit" it to the site for it to show up on the new stories list and in the various ways you can search for stories. You also need to "publish" it once you're happy with it and cool with letting other people read what you wrote. (Publish, and then submit) To be submitted for the site, a story has to have at least 1000 words. Somebody from the site staff will then look over the story and make sure it doesn't break the rules in the FAQ (they're pretty minimal) and check to see that it's not a grammar train wreck – a few grammar mistakes are fine (though everyone will obviously like your story better if it doesn't have them); the site folks are just making sure that stories aren't so loaded down with easy problems that they become unreadable. So after a short time waiting on approval (usually a couple hours), your story will hit the "New Stories" box on the front page and you'll start getting readers.
Good luck!
The storm with RD's bizarre tantrum over tank doesn't work for me. I just can't picture RD ever saying a bad thing to tank, it just seems like twisting the character to fit into the story.
Way to bring it all to a close. Nicely done, I must say.
Ya sure do seem to love colons when linking independent clauses, though.
2181052
Ugh. I'm glad I'm back to using pre-readers now. I mean, there were only five of them. And they were only in adjoining sentences once. As soon as I saw that, I wanted to go and edit one out. I decided, instead, to leave it for posterity as a monument to the dangers of colon use.
Also, congrats on the EqD writing! Sounded like a pretty cool panel. Part of me wishes I could have been at the convention, but like you said, college isn't terribly forgiving of elective time use.
2140769
Not actually Dash writing romance, but I have to admit this comment is one of the reasons I came up with the idea for the new story I wrote, in case you haven't seen it yet.
No worries, it's not actually clop, just... highly suggestive Twiluna. But the title opportunity was really too good for me to resist. Far and away my favorite title out of the four stories I've done or am working on.
So AWESOME!!!!!
So. Um. I read this story (very very belatedly--I'm a bad pony, I know) and I just want to say just how...how...damn it, I'm all out of words. Embarrassing, really, considering. If only I could call upon another writer to...ah! I know. Rainbow!
Yes, you!
Never you mind how you can hear me. I need an assist in wordsmithing.
That's the spirit -- go for it!
fc05.deviantart.net/fs70/f/2012/167/a/7/so_awesome____by_tyto_ovo-d53nyab.jpg
Damn right!
Wow. It took me entirely too long to get around to reading this story. I read the beginning of the first chapter a while back and wasn't sure if I could get through 8 chapters of Rainbow Dash's writing. How silly I was. Not only does the meta-story end up being pretty awesome, but "Dash learning about the challenges of writing (and the dangers of fanfiction) with her mentor Pinkie Pie" is an amazing concept.
The chapter where Dash reads Pinkie's cosmic horror is the highlight of the story for me. From the flash forward framing structure, which instantly told me that the burning curiosity ignited by Twilight's reaction at the end of the previous chapter was going to be satisfied, to the fact that it's so believable and utterly hilarious that Dash would be so completely incapacitated by a scary story. She sure didn't mention that to Scootaloo in "Sleepless in Ponyville"! (Oh my, imagine if Pinkie had gotten a turn at the campfire stories.) I see you've committed to writing a more complete version of Pinkie's story in the future. I'll be waiting.
I've noticed that ponies writing fiction is a bit of a recurring theme in fimfiction. I suppose that's not all that surprising. They say to write what you know, and fanfics are, by definition, written by people who know what it's like to write fiction. (If not before, then certainly after) This is neat though, because it's not Twilight doing the writing, which is very common, but makes less sense than you'd think, and actually has a "writer's arc", because Dash learns about writing and improves throughout the story, which makes for a very interesting read.
I often comment that I don't tend to like it when authors make Pinkie do certain things, (usually because it's often completely irrelevant to the story) but I have to say, I just about lost it when Pinkie said "I do that all the time!" And the best part? She wasn't even actually breaking the fourth wall, but she was at the same time! That's the best kind!
This ended up being a touching story that even got all climactic and stuff with a letter-to-Princess-Celestia-worthy resolution. When was the last time someone sitting down and writing something was really dramatic? Outside of Death Note.
So that's it. I've now read everything you've published on FimFiction. That makes you number two, after Skywriter. Hmm. When I posted my wrap up of his work I also threw art at him. Guess I'll have to get on that. Perhaps I'll also defer further jabbering about things not directly related to this story as well.
I really enjoyed this one. It was a cute story and I could see this being an actual episode (with a little editing for time of course).
I kind of felt like some of the transitions between scenes were a little rough (for instance the last chapter just jumps right in with Dash suffering from a major headache and I was wondering if I had missed something important). But overall a very entertaining story. Bravo!
Story Title: The Amazingly Awesome Adventures of Tank the Tortoise (by R. Dash)
Author: Bradel
Reviewed By: ShootingStar159
This light-hearted story about Rainbow Dash’s first foray into the writing world is the perfect ‘light reading’ story for readers not looking for any kind of real emotional investment, but instead looking for some quick entertainment. The narrative follows Dash in her quest to better herself as a writer, but this is just a sideshow to the actual story she writes: a simple tale of the amazing secret agent Tank the Tortoise, and his mission to stop the evil Dr. Angelbunny.
While there are some slight characterization issues, and the plot’s conclusion is somewhat forced, this is a simple story that is well worth the read if you’re tired of the more serious side fanfiction has to offer.
Final Score: 8.75/10
Full Review (Slight Spoilers)
3012493 Thanks for the extended review on this. I'd gotten some earlier comments on problems with the Tank characterization, but they didn't go into the problem the reader had with it and I found myself kind of at a loss for the issue, but you make a very solid case here and I have to admit, I find myself agreeing. I'm not quite sure how I'd be able to fix things and make it work more smoothly with the established characterization, but it's very helpful, in any case, to have a better picture of what the issue was on that point.
3014176
Glad I could make the issue clearer.
And now that I'm not the reviewer, but the reader, I have to say that despite the problems, this is easily one of my favorite stories that I've read. I know I sounded very critical, but this really was a great read. It also scores high enough to be added to TECS's Hall of Fame. (Whenever we get it up and running)
She should have published the story, I think Tank would have liked it if she did...