Chapter 72
January 5th 15 A.B.
Three years later
I stepped outside holding another tray of cupcakes, smiling as I watched the kids run around the party, weaving through the adults. Walking over to the main table, I placed the tray down, causing all the kids to rush to me and begin devouring the cupcakes.
“Damn kids, you’re acting like no one feeds you,” I chuckle, watching them take all the cupcakes and run off again, leaving a clean plate.
“Guess we need more snacks,” Lance commented as he walked over.
“That was it,” I replied, turning to him and rolling my eyes. “Little monsters.”
“They’re not that bad,” he laughed, looking around at the party around us. “Time sure does fly, doesn’t it?”
“Yep,” I frowned as I looked at my daughter as she gathered up a few of her friends and took off. “I just can’t believe she’s four already.”
He nodded in understanding as he looked at the banner above us. ‘Happy 4th Birthday, Shayla!’.
“Well you’re lucky,” he began, “you and your family are immortals, so it's not like you’ll have to worry about wasting time.”
“True,” I mumbled, still not use to the idea even after all this time. “Thanks to Bronwyn, Mallogory has her Sempiternal Body now, so I guess the only thing left to do is just live our lives.”
“Pretty boring huh?” he asked, smirking at me.
“It’s deathly boring,” I admitted, then laughed, “but I wouldn’t have it any other way. My wife and kid make everything worth it.”
Lance stepped forward and gave me a tight hug, “I’m so happy for ya, Scamp.”
“Thanks, Lance,” I said, squeezing him extra hard, causing him to let out a gasp.
“Okay, too tight!” he yelped, but I just snickered and squeezed harder. “SCAMP!”
ooo000<^>000ooo
“Come on, guys!” Shayla called out as she led her little crew of friends away from the party and into town.
“Where are you taking us now?!” Flippy Dew, Cody and Ditzy’s daughter, asked as they ran down the street together.
“Trust me!” was all Shayla yelled back.
“Last time you said that, we all got in trouble for almost burning down our house,” Nightstreak yelled back, looking at his sister Summer Breeze who had the same look as him. They were the fraternal twins of Fluttershy and Shadow Breeze.
“That was different!” Shayla called back, jumping over a fence and continuing forward. “It was your dad's fault! He shouldn’t have left those cool toys out!”
“Those were his Traveler tools, not toys!” Summer Breeze yelled back as they all jumped the fence, following after her.
“Are we going to get in trouble for whatever we’re about to do?” Roxxy asked, looking at Shayla, who was basically her sister.
“Nah!” was the only response she got.
“Whatever we’re doing,” Dude said as he performed a flip over a table they were passing, “I just hope it involves parkour!”
“Can’t we just do something normal for once? Like going to the movies or the park?” Flippy Dew asked, almost tripping over her hooves.
“That’s boring shit!” Shayla yelled as she came to a halt suddenly, causing all of her friends to run into her and bounce off as she held her ground, her claws digging into the cobblestone below them. “We’re here!”
“What? Here?” Summer Breeze asked, frowning.
“Didn’t your moms tell you to let this one go?” Roxxy asked, shaking her head at her sister.
“Yes,” Shayla admitted, but smirked, “but he gave me a melted ice cream sandwich, and refused to refund me or give me another! So this is just justified revenge!”
“This is just going to escalate things…” Flippy Dew muttered as they all crouched down behind a small wall.
“Well he started it, so I’m just returning the favor!” Shayla replied as she peeked over the wall and saw the Ice Cream van coming to a stop at its usual spot.
“What are we going to do?” Dude asked as he pulled out a piece of taffy rope and began to chew on it.
“Just a little payback, then we can go back to the party!” Shayla assured her friends, who just looked at her with uncertainty.
“This never ends well…” Flippy dew mumbled as she rubbed her face.
“We got this,” Shayla said as she held her hand out. “Ready guys?”
“We really need to come with a name for our crew,” Dude said, putting his hoof down on top of hers.
Shayla smirked as the others put their hooves down on hers as well, “Yeah? You’re right, we do need a name.” The sounds of someone screaming for ice cream got her mind back on track. “We’ll figure that out later. For now, we gots a mission to accomplish! Break!”
They all threw their hooves in the air and moved as one as they followed Shayla while she crouch walked around the wall.
“He knows I’m pissed at him, so he can’t see me,” Shayla said as they got closer to the Ice Cream Van.
“What’s the plan?” Dude asked, using his horn to keep shoving taffy into his mouth.
“Same plan as the time we raided the Game’s store,” she replied with a wink.
“Ah, lost filly with a hurt wing,” Roxxy muttered, causing Flippy Dew to groan.
“I hate that bit…” she grumbled, but everyone continued on anyway.
“Go!” Shayla exclaimed as she jumped into the air and flew up above the van, taking her position.
Dude, Nightstreak, and Summer Breeze moved to the back of the van and just stood there, acting like they were looking at the menu.
Roxxy moved into the small crowd of kids who were waiting in line to get their own ice cream.
“Perfect,” Shayla muttered as she saw Flippy Dew standing out of sight, holding her wing in her hooves as she prepared to perform her special talent. With a light pull, she saw her dislocate her wing and let it hang at her side.
Rubbing dirt into her face, the little filly stumbled out of hiding and moved towards the Ice Cream Van, crying loudly.
All the kids turned to see the dirty and hurt filly as she approached.
“Where’s my mommy?!” she wailed, putting on the water works.
“What’s this then?” the Ice Cream Stallion yelled, leaning out and seeing the hurt filly stumbling towards them. “Ah horseapples.”
“Come on,” Shayla muttered as she watched him lean back into his van. “Come on, ya asshole.”
The van shook as he stomped through it and opened the side door, stepping out and moving towards Flippy Dew, who was screaming about her ‘broken’ wing.
“YES!” she hissed as she performed a roll in the air and flew at an angle backwards, and with absolute grace, she flew through the open window on the van. She now stood in there with access to everything she could ever want.
Moving quickly, she rushed to the back of the van and unlocked the two back doors, pushing them open to reveal her three friends looking in at her. She gave them a thumbs up as she rushed to one of the freezers and opened it, lifting out a carton of treats.
As quickly as she could, she began to slide them across the floor to her waiting friends, who picked them up and started stacking them on themselves. Dude used his magic to speed up the process.
Glancing outside, she saw that Roxxy was trying to ‘help’ the Ice Cream Stallion figure out how to help Flippy Dew, but all she was doing was wasting his time as she kept asking stupid questions and making terrible suggestions.
“Going well,” Shayla muttered, opening another freezer and sliding the boxes towards her friends.
“That’s all we can carry!” Dude hissed at her.
“Gotcha!” she whispered back. She began to grab as many as she could in her own claws, wanting to get as many as she could.
“OH! Maybe her mom is around the corner! And we should GET OUT there and find her?” Roxxy’s voice suddenly yelled outside, the meaning clear to Shayla as she moved for the back of the van.
“Oi!” the voice of the Ice Cream Stallion yelled from the front of the truck, just as she was about to step outside.
“Shit,” she muttered, turning to see him glaring at her.
“What do you think… YOU!” he roared, moving towards her quickly. “You’re the little filly who threw her melted ice cream in my face!”
“YEP!” Shayla laughed as she sprang backwards, throwing a box of frozen treats into his face. This didn’t stop him, just distract him for a second, which is all she was trying to do as she threw another box at his hooves. With a yelp, he stepped on the box and lost his balance as the cardboard slid out from under him and caused him to crash into the ground.
“Later, stinky!” she yelled as she jumped out of the van and took to the sky, leaving the scene of the crime.
As she flew away, she saw her friends running below her, all moving as fast as they could.
ooo000<^>000ooo
“What’d I tell ya guys!” Shayla laughed, ripping open another frozen treat and tossing the paper onto the massive pile between them as they all sat in a circle eating their haul. The windows to the little club house they were in was covered, blocking out the sun and only allowing in a small amount of light.
“I mean, he saw you, so he’ll get you in trouble,” Roxxy pointed out, but the reptile-like pony just waved her off. “Your moms will kill you.”
“It was worth it,” she announced, ripping open yet another treat. “Got my revenge, and we all get to eat all this!”
“She is right, this is great!” Dude exclaimed, his face covered in melted chocolate.
Flippy Dew smiled a bit as she carefully ate her treat, trying not to get as messy as the others were, “as long as we all don’t get in trouble, I guess it was worth it.”
“Yeah, I’ll take the full blame,” Shayla chuckled, winking at her friends. “He only saw me, so don’t you guys worry.”
“No, you go down, we all go down,” Nightstreak stated, getting a nod from a few of the others.
She just rolled her eyes and shoved him over, “you sound like your dad. Just let me do my thing and we’ll be golden.”
“Your funeral,” Dude said as he reached for another treat.
The group continued to enjoy their prize, eating as much as they could since it’d all be gone soon due to the heat melting it.
“So, we need a name!” Shayla suddenly exclaimed, standing up as she shoved a ice cream sandwich in her mouth.
“Ooo, I liked the idea of Shadow Force!” Dude said, looking around excitedly, but only saw the others shake their heads.
“Ew, no,” Shayla said as she stuck her tongue out at him. “No stupid or nerdy names.”
“It’s not stupid,” he muttered.
“Valkyries?” Flippy Dew offered, but again, they all didn’t look on board with that one.
“Reapers?” Nightstreak tried, which seemed to set well with some, but they all eventually said no to that one as well.
“What about Phantasm?” Roxxy asked, getting a few looks.
“What does that even mean?” Shayla asked, raising an eyebrow at her.
“Uh…” her sister looked around, trying to recall the exact meaning. “Eh, it means something you imagined. Um, it also can mean deception, which is kinda what we do. A lot.”
“... I like it,” Shayla conceded, looking around as everyone seemed to also like the name.
“Kinda fits us,” Dude says, smiling as he grabs another treat.
“So, Phantasm?” Shayla asked, getting nods from everyone. “Then hell yeah, it’s settled! From here on out, we’re-”
“SHAYLA BELTOSH!” the very angry voice of Scamp yelled from the ground outside the club house. “GET YOUR ASS OUT HERE, RIGHT NOW!”
“... Ah shit,” she muttered, grabbing a blanket and trying to wipe the evidence from her claws and face.
“Oh you’re dead,” Nightstreak chuckled, getting a death glare from the filly.
Getting all the chocolate off of her that she could find, she let out a groan as she jumped through the door and glided down to her mother, who was standing below their tree, fuming.
“Hi, Mama,” she greeted her mother with a forced smile.
“You stole ice cream from an Ice Cream Van?!” she snapped, glaring at her daughter.
“What? No, we-”
“Don’t lie,” her mother said as she reached forward with a wing tip and rubbed it against her cheek, pulling back to reveal a bit of ice cream.
“Oh, THAT Ice Cream Van…” she said sheepishly.
“Yeah, THAT one,” her mother said evenly as she rubbed her face. “It’s your birthday today, and you chose to do something like this?”
“Am I in trouble?” Shayla asked in a worried tone.
“Big fucking time,” her mother said back, looking up at her friends who were watching. They all pulled back as she saw them. “And so are they once I tell their parents.”
“No!” Shayla yelped out, getting a raised eyebrow from her mother. “I mean, they didn’t help me. I did it all myself, they tried to stop me, but you know me, mama.”
“Shayla…” she began, but then a hint of a smile appeared on her face, but it was quickly washed away and replaced with a frown. “You did it by yourself? Then it looks like the punishment will have to match that. No more TV till I say otherwise, and you’re paying for all the stolen ice cream.”
“What?!” the filly yelped, a shocked look on her face. “Not the TV, mama! Spank me, put me to work, do anything! Just please, don’t take-”
“You’ll have to figure out ways to make bits till you earn enough to pay off your debt. I hope you didn’t take a lot, because it’ll take forever on the pennies you’ll likely be making,” her mother said, smirking at her daughter. “We can’t have you out here stealing and being a nuisance like this. You’re a good kid, Shayla. Don’t do shit like this.”
She hung her head and asked in a low voice, “can I please keep coming to Viper Claw classes?”
Her mother looked her over, then sighed, “for now. BUT! Do anything like this again, then I’m removing you from my classes. Do you hear me?”
“Yes, ma’am,” Shayla muttered.
“And do you UNDERSTAND me?”
Shayla looked up into her mothers eye and gave a sharp nod, “I understand, mama.”
“Good. Now head back to the party and act like the happy filly you’re supposed to be today,” her mother said, giving her a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll send your friends after you once I speak with them.”
“Yes, ma’am!” she replied, taking the chance to leave before she could get anymore punishments tacked onto her.
As she ran through the forest, she saw a stallion step out onto the trail up ahead. As she neared, she realized it was the prick from Wolverine Kamae, Kal.
“Young Shayla!” he called as she neared.
“Screw off!” she yelled, sticking to her mothers advice and avoiding him.
He held up a bag and smiled at her, “but I have a Birthday present for you.”
“Don’t want it,” she said as she walked past him.
“It’s money,” he said, getting her to stop. “Enough to pay off all that ice cream you kids stole, and then some.”
“What’s the catch here?” she said, turning to face him as he smiled at her, his eyes hidden behind the goggles.
“Catch? Kid there is no catch, it's a Birthday present. My Dojo gave your parents trouble in the past, so I’m just wanting to try and make amends,” he said, still holding the bag out to her.
Glaring at him, she stepped towards him and snatched the bag from him. Opening it, she found it was indeed filled with bits, more than she’d seen in her young life. Shifting them around proved there was nothing else in the bag.
“Just don’t tell your parents I gave that to you,” he said, holding a hoof to his mouth. “Take a few here and there and slowly pay back that debt so they don’t get suspicious. Then do whatever you want with the rest.”
“Hmmm,” she eyed him up and down. “Thanks.”
“No problem, Shayla,” he chuckled, giving a bow. “If you ever need anything, you can always ask.”
“Yeah, I won’t need anything else from ya,” she said, spinning around and taking off down the trail.
Kal just smiled after her, knowing he’d just planted the seeds for his success.