//------------------------------// // Morning News Report and the Scheme // Story: Sunny with a Lasso // by xd77 //------------------------------// The next morning, Lasso had opened the lids of his bloodshot eyes and rubbed them, the blur from his tiredness adjusted, he could now see the lit room. However, he was quick to discover that he was the only one in the room, everypony else was gone, plus the skies out the window was dark and gray. He must have been the last one to wake up, since his nightmares kept him awake almost three times a night, but he did not seem to have any nightmares this time. He got up out of the sleeping bag, stretched his legs and exited the room. Once he was downstairs, he saw four from five of the main group, the ponies saw him come down and showed smiles. The first one to talk to him was none other than Izzy. "Good morning cowcolt, did you sleep well?" she asked, picking him up with her magic and holding him in her hooves. Lasso showed a brave face, despite everything he had explained to them last night, showing a smile. "Ah' slept well, Izzy." he replied, "Hey, where's Hitch?" "Oh, Hitch had to leave early this morning, so he did not have time to say goodbye, however, he did leave this for you." Sunny said, she then reached into a drawer and pulled out a replica of a sheriff's badge, giving it to him. "Thanks Sunny." "Now, let's go ahead and eat breakfast, shall we?" "Yeah, I sure am starving, what about you little sister?" asked Zipp. Pipp did not respond, because something caught her eye on her phone, something really bad from the looks of it. "Pipp, what is it?" Sunny asked. "Is there something wrong with your phone?" asked Izzy, but Pipp was showing too much shock, she then gave a look of horror to the group. "Girls, look at this, it is the morning news video from ZBS." answered Pipp, "It is coming out of Bridelwood!" Pipp turned up the volume on her phone for everypony to hear as they all crowded around. Lasso, being in confusion of ZBS in his home city, got out of his chair and joined as well. As Pipp adjusted the phone screen to the right length, the news video started up. "Hello, and welcome to a special edition report on ZBS." said a pony reporter, Izzy picked Lasso up again and held him to where he could see the video. "We are just getting reports of what appear to have been a magic attack in Bridlewood." "An attack in Bridlewood, how?" he asked as he looked at the screen, however, he was only responded with shushes. The reporter in the video continued "It would appear that two ponies were victims of a deadly poisoning, caused by an unknown figure." Unfortunately, the location of the news video, the one where they said the event took place, was one Lasso would be in shock to see. This event would soon change his entire life forever, the start of a bad adventure he would face. And it began when the camera shooting the video pointed to the location. Izzy quickly took notice of the location the news crew was at, and the house they were filming looked somewhat familiar. "Wait a minute, that looks like....." Izzy said, she was soon in utter shock, then gasped in horror at what she was seeing! "LASSO, THAT'S YOUR HOUSE!!!!!!!!!!!!" she screamed, Sunny, Zipp, and Pipp were in complete confusion. "WHAAAAAAAT!!!!????!!!!" Lasso screamed, looking closer at the paused picture, there was no way it was his house. No way could anypony have found a way to his home in a flash, but it happened, Pipp then resumed the video. "It happened late last night, as a dark figure somehow entered the residence of Granny Smith III and Lone Star Jr.'s home here in Bridlewood. The only evidence of their murder found what this empty jar, guards and contamination crews claim it contained a sample of toxic acid." "Toxic acid?" asked Sunny. "It don't matter, this cannot be right!" Lasso exclaimed, releasing himself from Izzy. He wasted no time into sprinting away from the group. "Lasso wait WAIT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Izzy screamed, but the cowcolt was already out the door. "Come on everypony, we gotta go after him!" Sunny said, Izzy took the lead, and the remaining four ponies soon followed him. Meanwhile, Lasso's adrenaline rushed through him, his eyes bloodshot with anxiety over the report he heard. He sprinted and sprinted, his heart racing with strength to get to Bridlewood as fast as he could. He figured if he could get there faster than never, that it would turn out to be a false alarm and his parents would be alright. Sadly, he would soon be in for the shock of his life and before he knew it, he ran out of adrenaline and quickly collapsed to the ground. But he had not found out sooner that Izzy and the others were right on his tail, because he soon found himself bathed in shadows. Lasso looked up to see Izzy and her friends looking at him with great concern, yet they were relieved to see he was not hurt though. "Lasso, don't you ever run out on me like that again!" Izzy exclaimed. "Y-Yes Izzy, Ah-Ah'm sorry!" Lasso said, wheezing from all the running. Izzy then used her magic to lift him up and put him on her back, this was the group's way of telling Lasso "If we do this, we stick together.". It took over a couple of hours, but the group did manage to make it to Bridlewood. However, once they reached the home of Lasso, it did not look good at all. To their right was the ZBS news carriage, and the reporter was still broadcasting in front of the house. It was not long before the reporter took notice of Lasso's arrival with the others, she had the camera turned towards them. The reporter stopped them dead in their tracks, then knelt down to Lasso's face, poor Lasso could not even get inside now! "You are Lasso Lashes, Granny Smith III and Lone Star Jr.'s son right?" she asked. "Please, we really don't have the time to speak now." Sunny informed, but the reporter was not having it. "We need to know if he is their son." said the reporter, Lasso's brain raced though, the thought of seeing something better was quickly fading deeper and deeper into nonexistence for him. Hoping it would get the reporter out of their way, Lasso spoke into the microphone. "Yes, Ah'm Lasso Lashes!" he said with panic. "Are you aware that all this happened?" "Please, Ah' got to get in there!" he yelled. "We just need some info from you." Lasso snapped, his adrenaline pumping again, he managed to slip out of the way of the reporter and soon found the door busted wide open. What he soon saw really made his heart sink, his entire living room was crawling with unicorns wearing hazmat suits. Meanwhile the main four had taken over the interview with the reporter, since Lasso was in no mood to do it himself. They had managed to tell them that not only was he Lone Star's and Granny Smith's son, but also, they were not aware this had happened at all. "Thank you for your time, this is Cumulus Fluff in Bridlewood, ZBS news." The four then took off to join Lasso again. Back to Lasso's moment, he continued staring at his house from the entrance, when one of the unicorns noticed him. "Hey kid, you can't be here!" he said through his mask, walking up to him, "This house is contaminated!" "But what about mah' parents!?!" Lasso screamed. Just the mention of that sentence quickly brought a suspicion on the unicorn. "Wait, are you Lasso Lashes?" he asked, Lasso was really getting tired of the questions, because he wanted to know if his parents were at least just unconscious. He then sighed because he felt like he was being stalled from seeing his parents, "For the last time, yes Ah'm Lasso Lashes, Ah' just wanna see mah' mommy and daddy!" he whined. The rest of the hazmat crew soon heard what he said, but soon agreed with the lone unicorn. "Look kid, we can't let you inside, the house is fully contaminated with poisonous gases right now." one of them said. "Please leave." "But mah' parents....." he said with tears forming in his eyes. "Lasso, we're sorry, but your parents did not make it, the poison consumed their bodies, their magic was destroyed." "We hate to put it that way, but your parents died in their sleep from the poison." Lasso could not believe what they were saying, but sadly it was true. "Now kid, please go before the fumes spread out." one unicorn said, gently escorting him away then closing the door. As Lasso left what was his home, he looked back to see police officers sealing up the entrance with caution tape. Now no one could enter again, for now that was, until the entire home was de-contaminated of the remnants of the poison. Lasso quickly saw Izzy, Sunny, Zipp, and Pipp looking at him with great concern. "Lasso, was it all true sweetie?" asked Izzy. Lasso did not answer, instead he started tearing up big time, finally he couldn't fight his sadness anymore. He sprinted up to Izzy and jumped into her hooves, then buried his face into her chest. "Mah' parents are gone!!!!!!!!" he screamed, then cried endlessly as Izzy hugged him in comfort, Sunny, Zipp, and Pipp all joined in as well. Elsewhere in Equestria, at a dark castle........ A projection screen was in effect, as it showed the four ponies all comforting Lasso as he continued to cry. The sudden sound of evil cackling soon came into play, it was shown that Opaline was staring at the screen, showing an evil smiling face. Her plan, part of it, was going adequately, now it was time for the other half to take place. "Everything is going according to plan, now I must reveal my way of luring him here." she said, "Oh Misty!?!" Misty soon approached her throne chair and bowed to her adoptive mother. "Yes Opaline?" "I believe it is time I showed you my mirror." Opaline said, pointing to a mirror at the far-right end of the room. Misty turned to it with an excited look on her face, for months she wanted to know the secrets of the mirror and how it worked. It was the same mirror that Twilight Sparkle used to transport herself and Spike to the human world, but Opaline took it and remade it into a portal that led to any town she wanted to travel to. All she had to do was pick the town, and the mirror would lead her to it, then she would step through. When she wanted to return to her castle, she would find a regular mirror, whether in a store or a regular building. When nopony was around to see her, she would use a spell to turn the regular mirror into a portal and step back to her throne room as the regular mirror closed up. "You see Misty, this mirror is probably the best tool of trapping I have ever used in so long, you know why?" "Because it gets you places you want to be?" "Not only that, but I can also use it for luring ponies here as well, hence why I mentioned trapping." "I can take a good guess you are going to use it to lure Lasso here?" "You are correct my love." Opaline said, giving her daughter a hug, "Oh how I raised you to be so smart." "So, would this be enough to get me a cutie mark?" Misty asked. "Enough with the cutie mark obsession." Opaline ordered, causing Misty to back away. "I believe I shall start up this mirror and use it to my advantage." Opaline then turned back to the projection screen, it was now showing the group travelling somewhere else. Opaline and Misty showed evil smiles as they watched Lasso being alone from them. "Oh, poor Lasso, soon you will be safe...." said Misty chuckling. "AS OUR PRISONER!!!!!!!!!!!" Then they both let out evil cackles as the screen faded off.