//------------------------------//
// Rookie: Blushin' Badly 
// Story: The Wallflower Blush Experience 
// by King Genesis 
//------------------------------//


~ ~ Volume 1 - Chapter 7 - Rookie - Blushin' Badly ~ ~

Note for fellow manga readers: 

If the name is in yellow, it means this chapter is the end of the volume! -SfS








19:45 PM - Day X + 2 - Sugarcube Corner



When I was about to pay for the smokes, I realized that I didn't have anything in my pockets. I didn't grab my phone when I got out of the apartment, and I also didn't have a single penny. I had to call Pinkie for help, she paid for the cigarettes and didn't say anything to me, but I saw her eyes freezing and shrinking when she looked at what I was buying.

She didn't say anything else.

Nobody in that car said anything until we stopped.

We are now at the Sugarcube Corner. Not too many clients were there by the time we arrived, so Coco could manage to get into the kitchen without attracting too much attention. We took that black trenchcoat off her, and she was only wearing a worn-out white t-shirt and brown shorts. Her arms were invaded by tiny, small bruises. Pinkie gave Coco her own shoes and she's now barefoot in the kitchen, helping Coco, informing Mrs. Cake about the problem and God knows what else. Mr. Cake is the only one working in the bakery.

I should help him but I can't. I am the only one from the staff who is outside, laying my back against one of Pinkie's car doors, smoking a cigarette, and holding the loose change Pinkie gave me. She didn't even want her own money back. Maybe her point of view of me has radically changed. I don't care, though.

I can say this day was my last straw in Canterlot. It's definitely the last one. They messed with Coco Pommel and I will never forgive them. Nobody will ever be forgiven.

The warm feeling Coco had when talking to her was something special. It came out of her hope, dreams, and positivism. When I hugged her today, I felt how all of that lovely essence of hers was gone. Nicotine tries to imitate that feeling but doesn't succeed. It's pathetic. It makes me laugh but I can't actually do it... my body is boiling like hot water. My brown sweater is all wet because of my sweat. My heart is beating like a time bomb. My brain is a match on fire next to a forest. 

"I have nothing to lose," I tell myself. Nothing. I can confirm that now.

I have a few days left as a Canterlot citizen. I need to get Canterlot out of my words immediately. I want to talk to my aunt right now... but I don't have my phone here.

I also need to quit my job. I have to, there's no choice. Shall I do it now? Shall I do it in front of Coco? I only have to get into the kitchen and tell Mrs. Cake I quit. That's it. It's the beginning of a farewell.

The smoke tastes gross and amazing at the same time... my aunt will not like this image of me at all.

What should I do?

Is there anything I can do to avenge Coco? To let that Blueblood bastard know what he has done, leave a message to him? A way to let this freaking city know I am tired, I'm done? How can I avenge Coco? 

Should I?

Mr. Cake is not even looking at me, I'm getting lost in the dark of 8 PM. He may not even recognize me because of my cigarette. I begin to look around the street and I find something that catches my sight. I never focus on the streets, I didn't care about them, and right now I don't even freaking want to see them... but that thing, far from me, in the middle of the following sidewalk in front of my torso, is something where I can start with what I want to do.

I ask myself what I want to do, actually. I don't know... but I want to do something. Shall I do justice? Fight against the city? I can start in that old phone booth I'm looking at. It has been there for how long? I swear I never saw it before, I thought it was just a random dude waiting for a bus. I don't even know if it has a telephone but right now, as I said, I don't have anything to lose. I throw the lit cigarette away, not even stepping on it to kill its fire and get the smoke out of my mouth as I cross the street. Nobody says anything to me, I don't hear Pinkie or Mr. Cake calling me out. I don't know what are they doing inside.

I'm crossing the street, alone (Alone again, naturally...), but right now I'm not trying to socialize with high school students or do something for them. Now I want to set off something for Coco and me. Turn on the radio.

I arrive at the blue booth and, despite I can clearly see that time has affected it, it still has its phone on the inside. The metal structure is pretty rusty and the inside is completely dirty. The floor is covered with dirt and dust. One of the windows, furthermore, has been vandalized. It has a drawing of a small dick with a text below that simply says: Fuck You. I think the same, unknown artist. I think the same. 

The yellow streetlights barely illuminate the phone but I can see it. It's an old telephone with a sheet of paper so old that it's not even white, it's brown. I read it, forcing my eyes to do it in the middle of the dark.


Citizen, insert your coin and then call the number. 
If your call is unsuccessful, the booth will give you back your coin.
50 c = 1 min
$1 = 2 min

Think about your time and don't take long. Other citizens are also waiting for the phone.


For how long has this booth been here? I never saw it in my life (I hardly see things around while being here too...). When was the last time somebody used this, actually? Does anybody enter here and call? The booth's floor is covered by dust, broken brown leaves, and dirt... I'm holding Pinkie's loose change in my hands. I have three pennies of 50 cents and two of $1.

Who should I call? ... Why am I here? A phone number instantly gets into my mind: 96-33622-XX. I memorized it. I freaking memorized it. It's the Stuntman... but no. I don't even know if this phone actually works. I've got to give it a try, first. Make a test call.

I have already another number on my mind. I need to do the test call with her, and I will use a 50-cent coin. I think she has to know that I may arrive late (I know this night will be pretty long and I don't want to discuss anything with her right now) but I don't want to tell her much.

I can barely see Pinkie's loose change inside the booth. I put my hand nearer to the window with a dick so I can see them better. The yellow light gives me a not so better response, but I manage to pick a 50-cent coin and put it inside the machine. 

I can hear the coin rolling down as I grab the dirty phone which I barely clean with my hand. It's my opportunity to find out if I wasted a 50-cent coin on a non-functional phone or not. I press the buttons. "Ninety." 

I can hear a sound from the phone, the tone, when I press the 9 button. I think it's working.

I keep moving. "Ninety-six... four, five, nine, two, eight..." I've heard it all. Every number I pressed responded to me.

Silence. I look outside, there's nobody around me. I'm still hearing the tone playing with my ear... but nobody answers. Will the machine give me back the coin? Or else...

"Hi?"

Oh, I stay. This freaking booth works, feels like magic... turns out I'm not so unlucky after all. It's also her voice... I don't have much time, I only have a minute to vomit what I have to say. I have to be fast. "Aunt?"

Second of silence. "What? Who's speaking?"

I begin to breathe faster. "Listen, it's me. Wallflower Blush, OK?"

"Wait... wait, what?"

"Listen, I don't have much time. I came out of the apartment an hour ago with my pink-haired partner because..." my throat trembles. I don't want to say it. "... a friend of ours, the designer, had an accident. We are now at the Corner. I may arrive late."

I lasted ten or fifteen seconds in saying all of that. A lot of time was wasted and she doesn't say anything. Come on! "Are you OK? What happened with the designer?"

"She had an accident at home and called us... I think she's fine."

"You think?" I can hear. "Where are you calling from? Are you calling me from your phone? Your name didn't appear on my screen."

"I'm calling you from a..." I stop speaking for a second. Suddenly I imagine Stripes looking at me from outside the booth. Shall I tell her about that too? About Stripes? "Wait, uh... I also have to tell you that, uh, how can I explain this? I don't have much time."

I may have five seconds left.

"What? Wait..."

"I told Stripes I am your niece, OK? so... we may have a long chat abo---"

I suddenly hear the telephone tone again. Her voice disappears.

The call has ended. I can barely look at my face reflected in the window with a dick.

The test call was great after all. The booth works. The phone does what I order him to do. 

I don't have anything else to lose. 

My brain has been repeating the number of Stuntman since I looked at the telephone. I want to know what is it. I have been telling myself to call that number since I grabbed that card. What is the worst thing that can happen to me if I call? I asked myself if the mysterious woman Caballeron mentioned this morning is the actual Stuntman, but what could she do to me right now if I call her? I'm calling her from a phone booth, not from my own cell phone. Would she want to kidnap me? Why? How? She may not even know who I am. Thorax and Ember may have told her about me... but, from what I know, she doesn't know my face.

Wait... I'm actually saying all of this to myself when I don't even know who is the Stuntman in the first place. What if this number actually belongs to Thorax?

...

I have an idea. It's excellent, beautiful. It might make me change myself for complete... I can't believe I'm seeing him as a salvation for what I want to do.

What if I ask Thorax for help? He likes me, he may do lots of things for me... what if I tell him to help me bring down Blueblood from United Cavalry? "Hell yeah." The urge to know and avenge Coco is about to stab me in every part of my body, my arms begin to shake and all of the coins and my box of cigarettes fall to the floor. I fastly grab a $1 coin from the dust that I can barely see and I insert it into the machine with my hand sweating.

9. 6. 3. 3. 6. 2. 2. 0. 0. I fastly put the phone over my ear, I don't even care if it's dirty now, I don't mind. My whole body is shaking. I'm sweating while grabbing my cigarette box. I don't care about the coins.

There's only one way to know who is behind this phone number. 

I'm waiting for an answer.

"Hello?"

Somebody answers, but it's not who I was expecting. I feel my whole skin losing its color, getting plain white.

Time has stopped. This is not Thorax's voice... it's from a woman, but it isn't also Ember's. The red-eyed girl's voice is feminine but sounds like what she actually is, a young adult girl. This woman from the phone sounds like a real adult woman in her forties. It's deep, it's intimidating. It also has a weird way to pronounce words... I think her main language is not English. "Who is calling?" 

I'm choking myself while talking. "H-Hi..." I say while trying to hold my position by putting my back next to the closed door. "Hello."

I don't have much time. "Who is speaking? How did you get this phone?"

"I want to... I want to talk to... Thorax." A gasp can be heard from the phone. "...Is he there?"

I counted like eight seconds of silence that felt like an eternity until she answered. I could hear a sigh, which may have come out of her mouth before she asked me another question: "May I know who is speaking?"

"A..." What can I say? Shall I lie? "A friend."

"A friend?" her voice feels angrier. "Don't you have a name or something?"

I was about to say my real name but then I began to wonder if saying it would be better or worse for me. Should I lie to her? Shall I tell her I'm Ember or what?

"I see... there's no Thorax in here. Wrong number."

Wait, no. No!

I suddenly hear the telephone tone again and I fastly want to put another coin in the machine, but when I try to crouch and grab one of the pennies on the floor, I slip on the freaking floor and hit my head against the door, accidentally opening it. 

I fall to the ground and my back hits the sidewalk. That hurt. 

I think of myself as a painting once more. The lady who tripped over dirt inside a telephone booth and came out of it falling to the floor. 

Almost all of the cigarettes fell with me. I grab the box and I find I have only three inside the core... damn. How pathetic I am. Nobody is looking at me. Nobody shouted at me because of my show... I think no one actually saw this. I expect that to be true. 

My back aches right now but I don't care. Shall I call that number back? I easily found out that was not Thorax... is that the woman Caballeron told me about? She had a weird accent which reminded me of native yakkos trying to speak English. 

... Now I remember that dialogue I had with Thunderhooves.



"That is not your business. We are not talking about Yakkoslavia right now."

"Then what? That's why you want us to forget about you? Is it because you are yakkos and don't want equestrians to find that out?"



Was I right at that time? Did I actually say the truth to him? Are they yakkoslavic people trying to get out of here?

What if I tell that woman the truth? My truth? Will she do something to me? I pathetically crawl over the floor, thinking about it while grabing a $1 coin from the dirty booth. Nobody saw me, they may be still talking to Coco while I'm not present. She may be wondering where I am, but trust me, Coco... I'm trying to help you.

I'm afraid I'll have to cross out Thorax from the list of potential helpers who would work with me against Blueblood and Canterlot after my phone call... and I know I'm going to screw everything up for the worse with this other one... but guess what, I want to tie loose ends. I won't repeat again the phrase I have nothing to lose. I don't want to wear out my new catchphrases so quickly.

My back and right leg are still aching and I have a big scratch on my hand, where I'm holding the coin. I don't care. I fastly find out that pain only makes me stronger... I'm a superhero.

Insert coin. Insert number. Insert phone in the ear.

I'm ready for a rematch. Fresh air gets in my lungs. The adrenaline is making me feel like a completely new person. A Goddess on Earth.

Nobody answers.

Time is passing by. I see no one has come out of Sugarcube Corner yet. 

"Hi." It's the same voice with a weird accent, but this time she sounds way more serious and scary. I can even hear her breath turning into something heavier and faster.

I'm about to piss in my pants but I say it, almost aloud, while closing my eyes. "You are a yakko, right?"

I can't hear her for a second. "Excuse me?"

I begin to rave while speaking. "I found a card with this number last night. It was orange, had green text---"

"I'm gonna fuck you up." A shot of fear gets inside me. My throat and my lungs get closed and I can't speak. "I think I have an idea of who you may be. Be patient, little rascal."

"You..." I can't even speak. "But you..."

"If you call this number again, you are done."

She ends the call one more time.

I put my head in the guillotine for nothing.

This woman, yakkoslavic or not, might be the head of the table of something, and I called her twice like an asshole. Does she also have a dream? Is she the leader of people who share a dream? My dream?

I can confirm now that I won't ask Thorax for help. Should I do this alone? How? I don't even know where this son of a bitch Blueblood is staying.

I can call her again, but what can I do? Call her a yakko again? Sinking deeper into the guillotine? I realized mid-call that was a bit stupid... she got nervous though, did I tell her the truth?

I get out of the booth and look at something I didn't see before. There's half of a poster (it's ripped off in half) stuck onto the locked door of a lottery store. Woah. I remember the plastic cap. Cider cider!

I approach the poster thinking about someone special. 


FRIDAYS OF DECEMBER - DON'T FORGET ABOUT CASINO NIGHTS!

If you are over 18 years old and haven't gone through your experience, it is your opportunity to take a step into Canterlot Platinum Casino!

Intersection between Bates St and Meadowbro--


It should actually say Meadowbrook but the poster only has its upper half.

I know what is this talking about. Canterlot Platinum Casino. I saw it twice in my life but never entered. It is right there, the intersection between Bates St and Meadowbrook Avenue. I don't have an idea about Canterlot's streets, but I can luckily say that one of the few things I actually know is that if I keep walking straight from Sugarcube Corner to the north, I end up somewhere inside Meadowbrook Avenue.

I'm thinking about someone who may have entered that place lots of times and may also be there right now.

I look at my reflection in the windows of this lottery store. I put my scratched hand over my jaw while looking at my gross aspect. I'm wet and my pants are covered with dust. 

What if I ask Caballeron for help? How often do I spend my salary? What if I give him a small amount of money and tell him to help me attack this man?

I'm dreaming. I may be dreaming with everything I'm saying but... who else can help me against him? Pinkie? Mr. Cake and Mrs. Cake? Coco? I don't think so.

What if I do it alone? Would I succeed? Wait, no... I need to do something with this.

My whole back is dirty. I have dust everywhere. I don't know what the hell I should do... but I need to do something. It may be stupid but I have to let the city know I'm tired. I want my dream to be true for five seconds.

"I'm tired," I repeat again. "I'm tired."

My fists begin to tremble again, and a sudden shot of adrenaline invades my body. Shall I go to the Platinum Casino and look for Caballeron? I can tell him I'll give him... $800 if he helps me. That's a lot, he would eventually say yes if he's unemployed. Helping me to do what? I don't know, but he will. Eight hundred bucks... he can't reject that.

I need to think, I need to go there.

... I hear voices. 

I can identify where they come from. Pinkie and Coco are now outside, next to the entrance door of Sugarcube Corner. They may be looking for me... but right now I'm busy. They can't see me now. 

Girls, I need to take charge of this. I'm sorry.

I hear Pinkie's voice nearer to me and I can see a hand waving in my direction, but my mind is gone. The night can't stop right here.

I'm sorry, Pinkie. I'm sorry, Coco. I won't run away from what I want to do this time. My legs suddenly stop aching and turn into imaginary rockets. Adrenaline invades my body again. My shoes (which should not be used for running) are about to witness the worst pain they will ever feel in their lives. 

My mind automatically starts playing a song in my head. How ironic.

Time to work.

"Wallflower!" I can hear from Pinkie. "We were looking for you, why are you standing he--?"

No.




WALLFLOWER BLUSH RUN MODE: ACTIVATED




I start running. I run away to the right. I can't stop. I run faster.

Faster. My legs feel like a sports car getting closer to its trophy. My feet are already burning.

"WALLFLOWER!" I can hear from behind me. "WAIT!" It's she. Pinkie is chasing me, I know she's a good runner. Way better than me, but I expect things to turn around this time. I never exercise, but my anger and adrenaline are carrying me alone right now like a queen. I'm feeling like a monster, my heart is about to come out of my mouth and my lungs are blowing up inside me.

I think I'm heading to the north, getting closer to the town center. I can see neon lights shining from far away but I can barely focus on them to know what they are. The streets illuminated by yellow lights are now pictures flying around me.

I'm a warrior. I see a car trying to turn the corner but I dodge it in time. I hear the horn behind me and I look back for a second to know what is going on behind me.

Pinkie is not there anymore. 

She is not following me. I can't see her.

I am alone now. I'm still running, my legs are still roaring. 

Am I on my way? Did I actually get off--? OH! HOLY---

I unintentionally make a misstep (running with these espadrilles was a really bad decision) while looking behind and I fall to the floor again... this time the results are worse. I hit the sidewalk and my body rolls three times until the motion stops.

Ouch.

That hurt. A lot.

And also my box with cigarettes has disappeared. Oh no.

I think one of my knees is bleeding. Double oh no. I try to get up but my whole body hurts right now.

There's a windowed door and I can see my own face. My lower lip is bleeding and I have a big scratch on my right cheek. Suddenly I wonder where is Pinkie Pie. Wouldn't she be already here, catching me in my nest? Why is she not here? I'm concerned. Did she stop running? Why? She's a better runner than me.

I try to stop bleeding but my legs hurt. I may have to make a better effort.

"Oh, miss!" I suddenly hear from behind me. "Let me help you!"

I don't recognize that voice but it weirdly sounds familiar at the same time. Seems like a young man in his twenties, but not so young as... I don't know, Thorax or Ember. I take a look at myself through the windows of that door again while trying to get up. There is a car right behind me, on the opposite sidewalk, and a man running towards my fall. His shape, his voice... they look familiar although I don't know him at all.

He stops next to me and stretches one of his hands to help. His purple eyes remind me of that feeling I had when Thorax observed me for the first time, being exposed, out the window. I wouldn't call myself crazy (although I already am a bit) if I say that both Thorax and this man have the exact same eyes. However, his dark skin and short purple hair make him a different person. Who is he? "What happened?" he says shocked while looking at me. "Were you running away from something?"

I always run away. I ran away from Pinkie, Coco, and Mrs. Cake today to find a way and I fell twice in half an hour. I realize that, despite being in an almost empty street surrounded by few bystanders, I was actually nearer to the neon lights that were blinding me from far away. Maybe I was getting in the right direction.

I can hear music far from me and much more voices. I grab the mysterious man's hand, trying to stand up, and he helps me to get up. He's helping me. My back is covered with dust one more time and there is a red stain on my pants, near my right knee.

I may be bleeding but I don't even want to check it out. I can see the neon lights getting nearer me while people walking around are looking at me, not saying anything. What are they looking at? At me? At my clothes? At my blood?

The man is still holding my hand. I'm trying to stand firmly but my legs and feet still hurt. I may have more than a scratch below my waist. I don't know if I can run now. I look at him while trying to clean my bleeding lip. "Sorry," is the only thing I manage to say while thinking about the casino. "I'm OK." Why would I say that?

"I don't think so," he says, pointing at my legs. "One of your knees is bleeding and you had a pretty bad fall. Were you running away from someone or something?"

I look behind me again, far from the neon lights, and I can't see anybody chasing me from the dark street... where is Pinkie Pie? Where is Coco? I shake my head at him. "I... I had a rush," the nerves strike me again when he lets my hand go. The lights of the stores from the town center get into my mind again. "I was trying to get somewhere into Meadowbrook Avenue."

"Well..." he is still looking at that red stain on my pants. My knee feels cold. "I was also heading to Meadowbrook Avenue." he nods his head with a grin. "I have to go to the casino."

Oh. My pupils shrink and I shiver when I hear that. Is this a coincidence? 

I can't run to the casino. I can barely walk with my bleeding knee and my hurt feet. What should I do? What if Caballeron is actually there? Will I run away from this casino night too? From someone that lives every day, every night inside a casino? My hands are literally shaking as I pant while looking at him. "Me too." I'm not thinking twice, I'm literally improvising.

His eyes shine and he raises his eyebrows, surprised. "Oh," starts chuckling. "Sometimes you don't have to waste time playing with money, right?" I only nod my head, not even smiling. "Well, if we have to go to the same place, let me help you. Would you? The casino staff will help you with your bleeding knee." Then he looks at my knee again. "Or else, I can take you home or to a hospital if you want..."

"No," I fastly shake my head. "I need to..." I begin to rave again, choking myself with my own thoughts while feeling nervous. "I need to get into the casino. I need to talk to someone immediately--" Fuck! I shouldn't have said that. It came out of my mouth very quickly and I let it go. He is looking at me, curiously.

"Really? Who?"

I shake my head, not trying to admit what I have done. "Um... A man."

The man squints his eyes at me and blinks. "Would you want to tell me which man? I know lots of men who play at those tables."

Mmh... I didn't like that so much. What if I make up a story? Set off an alibi? "I've got to..." I close my eyes while thinking. "I've got to settle things with a man. I have to be there on time or else..." I think about Mr. Cake. "You know, I've got to play a round. There's a bet in the middle..."

"Oh." The man nods and gives me a much more serious gesture. "I understand, I deeply understand." He nudges my shoulder and silently invites me to follow him. "I retired from those stupid games not so long ago, but when I was younger I used to waste all of my pennies in bets, bribes... most of them didn't work and that sucked." He slowly touches my shoulder and helps me to make a step. My legs hurt but I can still walk on my own. "You should leave that, though. It's dangerous."

"I know," I say, trying to end this conversation sooner or later. "This is my last one, I swear. That's why I want to be there... now." That last one phrase actually felt true.

He nods "Let me take you to the casino. I'm here with my car and I think I do have some peroxide in my glove box." I am now slowly walking on my own with him next to me. He takes his hand off my shoulder and gets his keys out of his pocket. "My name is Pharynx, by the way."

Pharynx. 

I think about what I'm doing while approaching his car... shall I trust him? I don't know. There's something in him that makes me feelweird. It's like... if you want me to be honest, every time I look at him, I think I'm looking at Thorax in some way. Those purple eyes are almost the same as his.

I can't run, though. I can barely walk too, in fact. I really need someone to take me there before it's too late, just in case. I won't run away tonight.

I think there is no other way but... I think just in case, what if this guy is actually something else? What should I do?

No, wait. What am I doing? I'm literally approaching his car. I shouldn't have accepted that.

He opens the door and I find out there is someone else inside. I look at her and my body stops. 

It's a woman. "Is she OK?" she says while looking at him. I calm down a bit when I find out she doesn't have that weird accent, but a younger, sweeter voice. She must not be the woman from the Stuntman's number phone. She may be far away from here.

Her aspect surprises me because she looks like Coco but taller and a bit older. She has long light-blue hair, clear yellow skin, and a black dress covered by a big white coat. She's also holding a bottle of perfume. "Not much," replies Pharynx, talking to her. She is looking at me with concern... and also disgust, I know it. "She has to go to the casino." Then she looks back at him, surprised. "She has a problem to solve."

Pharynx opens the back door for me and I slowly start to get in. Someone interrupts me in the process: "Girl," the lady says. "You won't even make a single step into the casino with that look."

She is right. Not only I dressed myself up randomly, but I have sparks of dust everywhere, even in my hair, and I'm bleeding and sweating. "I know." I only say that before a stupid effort of cleaning my pants with my hands. I accidentally touch my knee and I feel myself on fire. 

"She has to cross out a mark." Pharynx gets in the car and waits for me to get in and close the door. The lady next to him looks at me madly. "She's Skystar, my girlfriend," he says, pointing at her with his thumb.

Pharynx and Skystar. A couple. I only wave my hand to her while I put my head over the headrest. "Hi," I say right after. She sticks her light blue eyes on me and doesn't even answer. She's visibly angry. She doesn't want me inside that car.

"Let me open the box," he tells her girlfriend and gets out a plastic bag from it. I'm still wondering something while looking at them.

Who are they?

Why does Pharynx seem familiar to me?

We can't forget that I'm actually inside their car. I may be losing on this.

Skystar takes a cotton ball and hydrogen peroxide out of it. A plastic bag with that inside a glove box? How strange, isn't it?... Wait, it's not so strange after all. My aunt does the same thing. "So what?" she forcibly says, looking at her boyfriend. 

Pharynx and Skystar look at me. I look at them back but don't say anything. Things may get salty. "Hey," he says. "Mind if you show us your wounded knee?"

I wonder if I should do it for a second but I eventually say yes. I also want to see what's going on with it, so I slowly roll up my pants, showing my knees to them. The left one has a scratch, but my right one has a pretty bad gash which is still bleeding a bit. My arms begin to shiver again but I try to calm myself down and not call their attention.

I ask myself, are both of them hiding something from me? Or are they just an innocent couple who goes to the casino?

"Let me." Pharynx grabs the cotton ball and pours some peroxide on it and slowly moves it toward my wound. It hurts at first but the pain gets calm after a couple of seconds. "Hold it for a second." He quickly puts everything back in the bag and gives it to Skystar to turn on the car.

I'm holding the cotton ball with my right hand and I'm playing with the car door handle with my left one. They haven't locked the doors yet... why did I accept to get here? I don't like this.

I know... I'm desperate. I'm not thinking straight. I also lost my cigarette box. I won't run away but... will this be worth it? If the two of them try to do something to me the only thing I can do is open the door while Pharynx is still driving and then throw me away, out of the car. That would hurt a lot, much more than my previous show which ended up with a big gash on my knee, but it's the only free exit I have... and it's 100% my fault. I put myself here. Honestly, I... come on, I--

"So... which mark do you have to cross out?" Skystar is looking at me through the car's center mirror and I come back to reality. "You really have things to solve, girl? You look exactly like several guys I've seen in that place but you seem too young to be part of it." She turns her head to look at me. "How old are you?"

Pharynx turns on the car and begins to move. Skystar and I only look at each other in silence. What should I say? "I'm not a minor." I suddenly shake my head.

She raises an eyebrow. "You might be burning your days if you go to the casino like this at 18 years old."

My hands are turning into rocks. "I'm older than 18." 

"Then you are 19 or 20, don't you?" She moves her head. "Maybe 21. You don't seem to be over 25 years old, am I wrong?"

"Skystar, please." Pharynx gets in the middle and I look out the window. I'm getting next to the neon lights of small stores and a few traffic jams that don't last long. There's something at three blocks from us that shines the most. White and yellow lights point at something. "She told me this will be the last one. She wants to finish what she started. A bet."

"Betting, gambling?" she now looks at him. "At her age? Not even you did that..."

"Actually yes." He moves his head while chuckling. "Don't you remember when my sister took me to that old casino in Smith to talk trash to people? I was 17. I won twice."

17 years old, wait a second. Pharynx was underage at that moment... how did his sister manage to get him inside a casino? "Gosh, let's forget about this." Skystar sighs after hearing that. 

His sister. Casino. We are getting nearer the shining place and I have a question. They may know about her. "I want to ask you something." They have to know.

Skystar looks at me, through the rearview mirror, one more time. "Yes, girl?"

I smash the cotton ball with my fist, taking it out of my knee, and I gasp. "This man told me there was... someone who was considered a legend in that casino." Pharynx is also looking at me through the mirror. I can see it. They are both observing me with cold eyes. "I think she is considered the best gambler in all of the city... do you know her?"

They judge me through the mirror when we stop in front of a big grey building surrounded by white and yellow lights. It has a big red sign on its top: CASINO. Pharynx, however, does not turn off the car engine and turns to the right, getting inside a small tunnel next to the casino, which has an entrance that reads: PARKING LOT. 

They go down the tunnel entrance without saying anything to me.

I think I'm dead.

How stupid.

"If you don't give us a name we don't have any idea," suddenly replies Skystar, crossing her arms. "There are lots of women here that are considered legends."

Pharynx looks at Skystar in silence. They didn't like what I asked... I can easily notice it. "I... I don't know her name."

She rolls her eyes and nobody says anything. Not even Pharynx. 

I'm about to open the door and get out while running down the tunnel until the car turns to the right and enters the indoor, subterranean grey parking lot surrounded by parked cars, white lights on the ceiling, and... shouts? From where? 

We see it. The three of us are spectators of a group of unknown men beating somebody up on the floor at the end of this big and cold place. What is going on? 

The hurt man suddenly can find a gap where he can come out and save his own life by pushing one of the attackers and running away, approaching us. Skystar instantly opens the glove box and grabs something that I can't see. The plastic bag is hiding me from everything that is inside.

"Great," whispers Pharynx while Skystar is still looking for something inside the box. The attacked man kisses something on his arm before going back to the fight...

... and I know who is that guy already. Oh no. Oh no. This can't be true, I'm about to laugh. That guy is none other than... "Oh, my God!" I shout when I look at the weird bracelet on his arm. His white t-shirt is now almost dyed red and he is still smiling, no matter what. "It's him! It's him!"

"What?" suddenly asks Pharynx. "Who? This guy is--?"

I'm panicking. Caballeron, the only potential help I find in this, can't get killed by some stupid assholes in front of me. I can't witness this. "This was the guy I..." I gasp again, the urge to do something immediately is killing me. "Come on, help me, please! I need him alive!"

Pharynx now looks at Skystar, who gets out of the box what she was looking for: a handgun which gives me real goosebumps because it does not look like a knock-off plastic toy... this one looks heavy and its good quality metal can be seen. I can look at myself in that barrel. "What are you trying to do with that?" he asks her. "We are in the parking lot, Skystar."

The unknown group of men (six big men, in total) wants to attack Caballeron again, but suddenly she opens the car door while holding the gun. Pharynx does the same a second later, desperately.

I am alone, inside a car, wounded, sitting at the entrance of a parking lot under a casino, witnessing a fight.

"FUCKERS!" she shouts at the same time I open my door. I can barely move my legs now. "Get off him!"

She is holding the gun, aiming at one of their heads, as if she was some femme fatale. Does she actually know how to fire that handgun? She gasps and I throw my body outside, stupidly jumping from my seat. I hit my shoulder and part of my head against the parking lot's floor.

Ouch. I don't want my gash to touch the floor, so I begin to crawl next to the car. Pharynx turns around and looks at me at the same time I hear murmurs around the parking lot, and that's when a real gunshot blasts my ears and scares me... and Pharynx turns around again. I begin to hear louder shouts and footsteps from everywhere fading away. 

What happened? Please, tell me I did not witness a murder.

"Skystar!" shouts Pharynx. "What the hell?! Why would you use the gun?"

"Didn't you see I shot at the floor? There was no other way to scare those freaking fat farmers!" she shouts while I slowly crawl at them without using my hurt knee. I feel two arms lifting me up by my shoulders and I want to shout but I can't. I freeze again.

It's Pharynx, who gets me up and points at a hurt Caballeron with his eyes. The guy is now sitting on the floor, lying against the front of a small white van. "He's right there," Pharynx tells me. "Are you sure it's him?"

I just nod. "It's him. I know it's him. I need..." I clean my face when I look at him. His eyes make me dizzy. "Thanks. I need to tie loose ends with that guy." I can't believe I'm going to ask him this. "Would you help me?"

He grabs me by my shoulder again and we start walking together. The six men who were attacking Caballeron disappeared, looks like they ran away. Skystar, on the other side, is now standing next to the hurt player, chuckling while looking at him. "Why in the hell... did you save me?" Caballeron loudly says to her. His voice is almost dead and he's talking in parts, he can't even elaborate a full sentence without gasping and coughing. "I've got involved in a... a weird, shitty game with those bastards and I wanted to cheat... and I--"

Skystar's laugh interrupts his speech. "You asshole, you wanted to cheat in a game with the Hoofields?"

She knew those guys. "The McColts... believed in me for a second. I thought these assholes... were going to fall like flies," Caballeron says. Is it me or does Caballeron actually know her? Is he a friend of theirs? It wouldn't be a surprise, though. Caballeron must know everybody inside this place. I appear in the scenario along with Pharynx and I can see that one of the floor tiles has now a hole in it. "I'm telling you, I--"

He stops talking when he looks at me. We are almost in the same stage of physical pain, but he has a much worse look. His whole t-shirt is covered in blood and his face is completely scratched. He has also a big bruise on his forehead. "She told me she wanted to settle something with you," says Pharynx for me. Skystar immediately gets in the car to keep the gun and park it somewhere. We are three. One versus one, a third wheel observes. "What were you doing with her, Caballeron? Playing blackjack?"

He knows him. Pharynx said his name. 

I don't like this.

The attacked gambler only shakes his head angrily and slowly. "What in the hell... is she doing here? You... really brought her? I don't have anything else to settle with her." Then he looks at me. "Don't... you see me right now? I don't look like I came out from the shower, girl... thank God I can still speak... I have already walked out of your place... with two hundred and six bucks, so get out of my sight... besides, what the fuck happened to you?" he points at my knee, then at his own lip, referring to my bleeding face. "Did a car run... over you or what?" He spits on the floor. Its blood.

I softly take Pharynx's hand out of my shoulder and do my best to hold my stance. I point at her with my trembling arm filled with scratches. "I want you to do something for me, Caballeron." I don't believe in myself but I'm trying to do my best.

Skystar parks the car somewhere and gets nearer us. I want to crouch, to confront Caballeron face to face, height by height, but my knees hurt. Pharynx raises his shoulders, surprised. The hurt gambler drops his jaw. "Wait, what?" he says.

"Do you want $800, Caballeron?"

Pharynx and Skystar look at each other, shocked. Did they expect me to be the main voice? "What are you talking about?" Caballeron puts his hand over his head. "I'm dizzy and... and my head hurts, girl. I can't think... of two words at the same time."

"And I can give you free money. I want you to help me with something I want to do, you understand?"

"What are you talking about?" asks Pharynx. "Didn't you want to settle your bets with him? Or this is...?"

"We never played a game together!" Caballeron spits blood again, this time in my direction, but it doesn't even hit my scratched hands. He failed. "This girl is lying to you... she cheated on you," and then he looks at me. "What?"

Pharynx remains silent and touches his hair. Skystar only turns around. They are disappointed, aren't they? "Listen," I say. "I want to... get rid of someone."

"I told you... I'm not a gangster." He shakes his head. "Do you see me and think... I have the face of someone who puts his hands in the mud?"

"You've been doing that every night," now I squint my eyes at him. "Didn't you cheat against six guys in a game minutes ago?"

He closes his eyes and tries to stand up, but he can't. Both Pharynx and Skystar don't say anything, but I can see they are really mad... and I don't think they are angry with Caballeron. "Shall we... lift that number a bit?"

Son of a gun. "I can give you $1000 if you want, a little bit more."

He chuckles. "Why do you... want me to help you?"

"Honestly, I don't know any other person who could help me with this," I say the first thing that comes into my mind. "I need to bring down someone, leave a message."

The couple gets mad at me. "Attack someone?" suddenly says Pharynx. "You want to leave a message? For what? To whom?"

"I told you." Skystar shakes her head behind him. "I knew it, Pharynx. This girl was hiding something."

I raise my voice. "This person did something very wrong against..." I tremble for a second, trying not to remember what I saw there. "... me. I seriously need help."

I look at both Pharynx and Skystar. The woman shakes her head. "You were running away from that person, don't you?"

"No, no." I shake my head. That's not true. "I don't even know this man, but he did something that---"

"Wait," I can hear from behind me. 

A deep voice starts kicking my ears and the sound of someone slurping something. All of us turn around. I find Thunderhooves, I can easily recognize him with his sunglasses, big beard, camouflaged jacket with the red star of Yakkoslavia, and his white bandana, now slurping a red smoothie (is that daiquiri?). What is he doing here? Was he behind us all this time? "I know who she is."

"You?" is the first thing I ask him after my spine gets frozen. "What are you doing here?"

"I ask myself the same thing," says Pharynx, angrily. "What in the world are you doing in the parking lot?"

"Well," he says. "Let's pretend I didn't see the Hoofields running away from here because someone thought that it was a pretty good idea to get a gun out here and fire it." He drinks his beverage again. "I came to check out things. They sent me."

They sent him. What? Who?

"I was not going to ruin my new coat while shouting at six dumbasses," Skystar replies. "You understand, Thunderhooves?"

They know each other.

"Wait." Caballeron slowly stretches out a hand. "How do you...?" he points at Thunderhooves right behind me. "How do you know this stupid gir--?"

Thunderhooves interrupts him while slurping that smoothie again. "Shut up, Caballeron." He gets a weird gun out of his jacket's front pocket and fires it. Oh... The projectile flies right under my head and I fastly cover my ears and put my face on the floor. Then I realize what he fired wasn't actually a bullet. There's now a dart over Caballeron's shoulder, who he looks with shock.

"No!" he shouts and tries to stand up but fails. "You son of a... son of a..." He slips on the floor while taking the dart off him and he falls in slow motion, like a tower about to crash onto the ground. He is about to fall over me, but two strong hands which feel like big rocks pull me up like a doll and get me out of there. It felt like being thrown away by a tornado, and one second later, my butt hits the floor one more time.

Ouch, my anus.

I don't know what happened. Caballeron is now on the floor, his eyes are closed and he's not saying anything. God no, don't tell me he's dead. Thunderhooves turns around and looks at me while keeping the gun in his jacket. "Calm down," he says. "I didn't hurt him. It is just a dart gun with tranquilizers... he may wake up with a big hangover in a few hours."

Dart guns? Are they now using dart guns?

Who are they?

Pharynx? Skystar? Thunderhooves? Do they work together? Do they belong to the same circle?

The same dream?

Pharynx points a finger at me. "Did you really lie to us?" he says. He's really angry. "You didn't have any trouble with this guy, did you?" he says while putting a foot on Caballeron's unconscious back. "I brought you here and you lied to me, you lied to my girlfriend. Now you have to tell us what's really going on. Which guy do you need to take charge of?"

I cover my knee gash while looking at the three of them trying to destroy me with their eyes. What should I say? Why do they want me to tell them what I want to do? "Are you interested in doing it for me?"

"Of course not," Pharynx shakes his head. "Who do you think we are? Hitmen?"

"That's what I want to know." I try to stand up but I can't, so I decide to do my best to crawl nearer a car and put my back against its front, just like Caballeron did two minutes ago. "And telling me you are..." I have the images of Thunderhooves talking to me this morning. "... people who share a dream it's not enough, you know?"

"Who told you that?" Skystar asks me, crossing her arms. I easily point at the man who said that to me.

"Him," I say. Pharynx and Skystar look at him while he's still drinking his infamous smoothie.

"Where do you know this girl from, Thunderhooves?" asks Pharynx, Thunderhooves chuckles.

"Didn't your sister tell you about her?" he points at me as if I were a wild animal in a zoo cage and laughs. "It's your brother Thorax's new fairy tale."

... brother? Wait. Wait a second. Brother?

Pharynx and Thorax are actually related? That explains lots of things.

And do they have a sister?

Skystar sighs and Pharynx shakes his head to say "Don't tell me he is now thinking of himself as a white knight at this right moment."

"He is." Thunderhooves takes a sip. "You should apologize to her because of him. It surprises me that you didn't know."

I'm only listening. "We were busy all day with Skystar, we didn't hear anything. We were trying to get the device from---"

"SSSHHH!!" Skystar instantly shushes him while grabbing his shoulders and sticking her head at him.

I'm getting more confused over time. What is the device they were talking about? "That's it," I say, pointing at them. "That's what I am talking about. The device, what is that? What are you hiding? What do you know? What are you? Who are you? Are you yakkos? Yakkos trying to run away from Canterlot? Is that it? Is that what you want? You are planning to get--?"

"Uh, shut up." Thunderhooves takes his dart gun out of his pocket again and I fastly stand up and sit over a car front, ignoring my pain. I don't care... and I unconsciously say something.

"WAIT!" I shout. I'm about to blow this whole place up. "WAIT! 96, 33622!!" Once they hear those numbers, their faces completely change. They went from mad to actually shocked. Thunderhooves puts the dart gun down again, but he's still holding it. "Yes." I am the main voice again. "96-33622-XX. I guess you know that number, right?"

"Where did you take it from?" asks Pharynx, approaching me.

"I got it out from a card your brother had in his hands." Pharynx stops walking and looks down at the floor in disappointment, he may be hating on his brother right now. Skystar makes a grin. "Look," my creative mind starts developing something interesting. "I don't know who you are, I don't know what you do, sometimes I think I don't even care about it but... I seriously need help from you right now. From someone... from someone that can actually help me."

Thunderhooves aims the dart gun at my torso again. "I told you, girl. We are not criminals... and besides, we don't want to do stuff in Canterlot anymore."

"Because you want to leave the town, right?" I point at the three of them. "The three of you? Is that your dream?" Then at myself, I touch my chest several times with my finger and I nod. I'm sweating again, I'm letting myself go. This is my rant. "Mine too. I also want to get out of this fucking city which makes me sick. I'm dying because of this bloody place and I want to get out of here just like you."

"So what?" says Skystar, walking to me and putting two fingers under my jaw. "You think you are just like us because we share the same dreams, baby girl?"

"Let's make a deal..." I nod while she's holding my head. I'm so desperate I'll have these three guys under my knees. "I know about your dream, your phone number, and several things about you that I don't understand, yes, but that doesn't mean I can't snitch on you because of that."

"What?" suddenly says Pharynx. "Do you really want to snitch on us? You don't even know us."

"It's simple," I say, while the organs inside me are shaking because of my fear. I put it on the table, I shall respect myself for once, damnit! This is for Coco! "If you help me, I won't snitch anybody." I nod my head again while playing with my hands. "I will pay you what you want, every single penny... and you will help me with what I want to do against this man."

"And what do you want to do against that man?" Thunderhooves leaves his smoothie on the floor, right between the unconscious Caballeron's feet. "Do you even have a plan? What are you thinking about, in the first place?"

"What did this man do to you?" Pharynx asks me. Skystar slowly takes her two fingers off my jaw. "Did he hurt you? Steal you something? Did he hurt anybody you know?"

The image of Coco's black eye strikes me again. "He did hurt someone I know... but I can't confront him alone. He is..." how can I say this. "He is too..."

"Too powerful for you?" Skystar puts her hands over her hips. "Is that it? Who are we talking about?"

I think about lying again for a second but I decide to say the truth. Why not? "A guy named... Blueblood. Blueblood of United Cavalry."

They are not taking me seriously.

Skystar is the first one who laughs at me, then Thunderhooves, and finally, although he doesn't really wanna do it, Pharynx. The three of them laugh at me while looking at each other. Are they taking this seriously or not? Come on! "I apologize, little girl," Skystar says to me while covering her mouth. "That guy is a pretty big dude... he is on the top of the top of the top!"

"He appears in every single fashion magazine I've ever seen." Pharynx smiles at me. "Why didn't you choose a lower guy to pinch on? You will never get him to kiss your feet. He doesn't even know who you are."

You will never get him to kiss your feet. Who in the hell do you think you are?

He doesn't even know who you are. WHO IN THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?

"It's him!" I shout at them, looking at his purple eyes. My anger is coming out of every single part of my body. "I didn't choose that asshole to be my friend's boyfriend, for God's sake! Don't you understand I need to do something for her? This shit is completely unfair and stupid! Especially for my friend! For her!" I close my fist and put one over my face. "He hit her on her face! He left her with a black eye!"

That last phrase cut everybody's smile. 

Now they know I'm being serious. They know this is serious, but Pharynx and Skystar get off me and walk around, giving me their backs. They turned their backs on me. Thunderhooves only shakes his head while still pointing at me with the dart gun. "I'm sorry," he says. "I'm sorry,  but we can't do anything to stop him."

"You're literally pointing a dart gun against me, Thunderhooves," I shout. "Don't tell me you don't have what you need to help me. Come on, don't you understa--"

A second later, I feel something landing under my shoulder, up my chest. It felt like a toothpick hitting me at a high speed. 

I look down and I can see a dart in my body. 

Fuck.

My arms and legs begin to shake uncontrollably before falling down, as I open my mouth in shock.

The last thing I can see before hitting the floor again is Pharynx and Skystar looking back at me.

I hit my head on the white ground, just like Caballeron.

My whole body is turning off. I can barely see or hear anything.

I'm feeling like I'm about to die.

My eyes get closed although I don't want them to blind my sight.

"Great, this is great...take her to the..."








END OF VOLUME I