//------------------------------// // Likewise // Story: 404: Signal not found // by Royale With Cheese //------------------------------// Josh hears his name from above, he looks and sees blue and orange figure coming down at him really fast. He jumps out of the way and makes a run down the busy streets of New York "You're dead meat, Budd!" Spitfire calling out, flying slowly not trying to get anyone in her way injured. Twilight comes flying out of the library to also give chase. "Twilight here!" She says on her walkie talkie. "Joshua Budd is running down the New York Public library!" Josh is almost running out of breath and dives into the usual slow traffic of downtown New York and tries to sneakily get into a cab. Spitfire sees him "Oh, Josh, you think you're sneaky?" Spitfire snickers as she approaches the taxi cab. Josh then sees the pegasus approach the cab so he sneaks out and enters another taxi cab. Spitfire didn't notice, but is pretending to not know where he is until back up arrives. Soon then, Fleetfoot and Rainbow Dash come flying around. "Where is he?" Dash asks. "In that cab" she points. "What we're going to do is lift up the cab and take it to the roof of a building, so Josh doesn't can't go anywhere." The two pegasus' and alicorn nod and they all approach the cab and they lift it up and go up to the top the building with the yellow car. "Come on out Josh! You have no getaway!" Twilight says Soon then a distraught taxi driver gets out of the car "I'm not Josh! D-don't hurt me! He's not in here!" "Check the car" Twilight says to the pegasi. The check the front seat, back seats and the trunk of the car, no Josh. "Thpitfire, you thaid he wath in here!" Fleetfoot belts. "He was! He left after 10 seconds of being inside, I don't know where he went off too though" the taxi driver said. "Son of a bitch!" Spitfire angrily says. "Ok, let's get this guy and his cab back on the ground" The four ponies replace the cab from the roof to the ground. "I had him!" Spitfire says, the four ponies slowly fly in the air looking for Josh. "This is way tougher than I thought, he's escaped like three times now" Twilight exclaims. "Maybe, you should use your magic on him, like, shoot some laser beams at him" Dash said. "No, we can't. We need him alive, and plus, we can't do any damage to the city" Twilight says. "All we can do now ith to keep looking" Fleetfoot said. The four ponies nodded and split up. Meanwhile, Josh is in a cab. He told the driver just to drive. If he didn't think of sneaking off into another cab, he would've gotten caught. He told the driver to drive him to the nearest hotel, that was too much for one afternoon. The following week has been hell for Josh, almost getting caught chase after chase, it seemed like the ponies are getting closer towards catching him. He got cornered by a fairly shy pony with a yellow coat, pink hair and tail. "P-please don't hurt me, I-I just need to catch you so..." "You think you're gonna catch me? Please, in your dreams" Josh said wittingly Fluttershy trotted towards him. Josh walked up also and and gave a fake punch which caused Fluttershy to flinch. "One more step, you'll actually get it" Josh warned "O-ok, you can go" Fluttershy said while quivering. Josh then ran past the scared pony and went off. A few minutes later, Applejack, Rarity and Rainbow Dash came to her location. "Where did he go?" Dash asks. "H-he threatened to punch me in the f-face, so I let him go" Fluttershy said. "That bastard" Applejack angrily said. "Don't worry dear, we're getting closer to catching him every time, I almost caught him yesterday" Rarity said. "Yah, if ain't for yer little obsession for pretty dresses in windows, we could've had caught him" Applejack scolded. "Pardon me?! These dresses are giving me a bit of inspiration for me to make back at home!" Rarity responded. "And says the one who's worried about Applebloom back home" then she starts to impersonate Applejack. "'Oh Applebloom, I miss her so much, oh Applebloom! Oh Applebloom..." "At least ah care about mah sister more than you!" Applejack interrupted then acted like Rarity. '"Look at my pretty dress that I just made, a dress that is too ugly for anyone too buy!'" "How could you?!" Rarity gives Applejack a shove "Yer gonna regret that!" Applejack then tackles Rarity on the ground. "Guys, stop!" Rainbow gets Applejack off of Rarity. "You're making Fluttershy cry..." In the corner, Fluttershy is sobbing while watching the commotion. "Now, can we just get along, but first... apologize to one another." Dash sternly said to them both. Rarity looks at Applejack "I'm sorry, Applejack, I should've not made fun of you loving your sister like that, that was very unkind of me" "Ahm sorry Rarity, this whole hunt has been stressing me out, ahm sorry for tackling you down to the ground like that, how about I bake you an apple pie when we get back home?" Applejack said "Any apology that has to do with an apple pie is an apology accepted" Rarity replied. Applejack nodded then trots towards Fluttershy. "We're sorry for fighting, Flutters." "I-It's fine" Fluttershy said as she looked at the time on her walkie talkie. "I think it's time for us to head to base camp" The four ponies then headed to basecamp. -8:15PM the next night- Josh had a scheduled meeting with Jordan and Ryder at a Hot Topic clothing store in downtown New York. Jordan was the guy who he insulted before the last bell rang for spring break. He wanted to talk about the ponies and how he can escape from them, but first, in order to do that, he needed to apologize. He also wanted to talk to Ryder on the process of the operation that's bringing the site up. He walks into Hot Topic and Ryder was at the front talking to an employee and the employee stops and looks at Josh. "Oh my god, you're the guy that's getting chased by the cartoon ponies!" she said "Glad to see I have fans" Josh replied. "Hey Josh" Jordan walks up. "Hey" Josh greets. "I just wanna apologize for what I said before spring break..." "Dude, its fine, by the way, the insults towards us bronies are kind of getting old now, so they don't bother us" Jordan interrupted. "Lets sit down at the benches where the shoes are" "Actually, I need some clothes, I've been wearing 2 pairs of clothes in the past 5 days, and I can't get back to my house." Josh said. "No problem, let's start with the pants" Jordan said. "So, what are some questions you have?" "What are some of the ponies' weaknesses? I mean, I've been almost caught from the past 3 days." Josh added. "Actually, I got off free from a pony who was a pretty big softy, yellow skin, pink hair and tail?" "Oh, Fluttershy, she's easy, she won't hurt anybody" Jordan said pulling out his iPad and having a page with all the characters on it. "Now tell me who've you ran into" Ryder comes from behind and points to a certain purple pony. "Hey, I recognize her" "Twilight Sparkle? She has no weakness" Jordan said. "How about a pony with orange hair and wears some like, blue track suit?" Josh asks as he takes a pair of pants from the shelf. "Oh, Spitfire. Captain of the Wonderbolts" Jordan exclaims. "Captain of the what now?" Josh asks walking towards to shirt section. "The Wonderbolts, they are some aerial acrobatics team, they're pretty fast flyers" Jordan explains. "Not fast enough for me" Josh chuckled as he looks at some shirts then peaks at the screen of the iPad and sees a long figure "Wait, scroll back. Who's that?" "Oh, that's Discord, I've only seen him once. I'm warning you, he can be anywhere" Jordan warned. "Looks interesting" Josh said. "He is" Jordan said as he sees a yellow color appear at the corner of his eye and turns to see a yellow shirt with a smiley face. "Uh, Josh, how about this shirt?" Jordan asks picking up the shirt. "The plain old original smiley face t-shirt? Why that?" Josh asks with a chuckle Jordan then looks at Josh with a look of confusion. "Jordan, what is it?" Josh asks. "You remember when I said that Discord can be anywhere?" Jordan asks "Uh yes..." Josh said looking around. "You saw him? Where?" "Josh, run..." "Where is he?" As soon as he asked that, the shirt started to glow. "JOSH, RUN!" Jordan shouted as a threw the shirt as far as he can but it didn't get very far. Josh then ran out of the store. The shirt then turned into the snake like figure and looks at Jordan "I have ears you know, and now, where did your little friend go? He's the life of the party right now" Discord said as he excited the store. Josh jogged down the street, not knowing that an aerial acrobatics group were above. "He'th right there!" Fleetfoot points down. "This is Spitfire, requesting backup in the middle of Times Square! I repeat, Times Square!" Spitfire then looked at both of her alternate captains. "You both better give a good formation to catch this guy" Both Soarin and Fleetfoot nodded and took off to different directions. "Oh, hey it's Josh! Josh, come here! Look at this huge cake in this bakery! Big enough for us to share when I visit you in Canterlot Prison!" Pinkie Pie said as she was just about 20 feet away. "Shit!" Josh said as he crossed the street but is seen by the first pony he got chased after. "Come here you!" Applejack said while running Josh is running in slow traffic but is getting chased by the fast cowpony. He zigzagged through the traffic, the only thing he can do is find an alleyway to get to another part of the city. But down the road, is a whole bunch of other ponies. He turns down to the nearest alley way with two directions for escape. He goes straight but is stopped by a Wonderbolt as he lands a few feet away from Josh. Josh then turns around and turns the other way but is stopped by the teleportation spell of Twilight Sparkle. "It's over Josh! There's no escape!" Twilight warns Josh Josh then turns around again and tries to escape from the way he came from but is stopped by Applejack. "Shit..." Josh said in defeat "It's over Josh" Applejack said as the other ponies formed behind. A big white alicorn lands beside Applejack and with her magic, hands over Soarin handcuffs. Soarin takes the handcuffs and walks over to Josh. "Joshua Budd, I am arresting you for the suspicion under the special category of Equestrian Law, law rule section 7, category 1." Soarin then walks Josh out of the alleyway and onto the street of Times Square, which was already blocked off by police and spectators nearby. Soarin continues "You have the right to remain silent. Anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you under your choice" "I need to say bye to my family..." Josh looks around "We will send your family down to the Canterlot courthouse using a special teleportation spell on the day of the trial" Celestia appointed. Josh looked around for one last look at New York. It was night time and all the billboards and police sirens just lit up the the street. Celestia lit up her horn to send everybody back to Equestria but is interrupted by commotion. "Stop! Stop!" "Hey kid! Stop right there" an officer said trying to stop a teenage boy. Ryder ran up to the group of ponies and said "The signal... it's back up!" "Ya kid, we all know you're trying to defend your friend here... sorry, he has to go" Soarin said whilst placing a hoof to stop him from getting closer. "He's right" Celestia said with her horn glowing orange, and uses her magic to take off the handcuffs off of Josh. "Princess Celestia..." Twilight then gets interrupted by the hoof of Celestia. "We'll let you go off the hook this time Joshua, but if you commit another offense to our signal, you will be prosecuted, is that clear?" Celestia sternly asks. "Yes ma'am" Josh nods. Celestia turns to Twilight "Princess Twilight, you wanna have a few words?" Twilight nods "Mr. Budd, were, well, I'm not sure for all of us, but I think we're sorry for causing a huge commotion. But you know, it's our job to keep our place and the princess safe, as well, the signal. The signal is very important to us. You don't have to accept the apology and you can just walk off, but if you have a few words, please say them" Josh turned his head to the ponies a couple times, and shared his words "You know, I was actually just gonna walk off without saying anything, but I do accept your apology. Actually, I'm sorry for starting this commotion in the first place, it started off with fun and games, but somehow, cartoons actually came down to this earth. It's been a wild ride, I would've regretted it if I didn't accept your apology. I'll remember this past week for the rest of my life. I would relive it, to be honest" "Very kind of you to say that, Josh" Celestia said. "We have to go back to our respectful location." Celestia then stuck out her hoof Josh then wrapped his hand around her hoof and shook it "Josh, it'll be an honor for us all to be remembered by you..." Her horn started glowing and all the ponies started to rise up into the sky. "And hopefully, it'll be an honor you to be remembered by us." She said as her and the other ponies rise up into the sky. "As I remember a short quote I read, I forgot the figure's name though, but it said 'Stay hungry, stay foolish'" As soon as she finished the sentence, an explosion is heard in the sky. Rainbow colors all drifted through the air, matching with the colors of the billboards and police sirens down below. Josh, looking up with his hand still in the same position when it met with Princess Celestia's hoof, just simply smiling. "Likewise."