//------------------------------// // Media Bias // Story: PonyFall: Onward Valiant Crusaders // by Fullmetal Pony //------------------------------// “Err,” I grunted. “I know ya can do it,” Apple Bloom urged. John’s dog growled. He’d been so nice before, but now he stayed away from me and didn’t look happy. I know I’m not the best with pets, but it’s not like I stepped on his tail like that time with Opal. At least he didn’t scratch or bite me the first time I met him.         I gritted my teeth together and looked down at the collection of pebbles by my knees. There were so many of them, but I thought this tiny black one looked the easiest to move. I stared and stared and kept thinking, Move. Move. Move! It didn’t even wiggle. I imagined it tumbling to the left, but nothing happened. My eyes were so focused on the pebble that they went all screwy.         Apple Bloom bent down and looked me at my mixed up eyes, which quickly righted themselves. “Ya okay, Sweetie? Ya kinda look like the mailmare.”         “Arg!” I jumped up and sent the pebble and a bunch of other rocks flying with a buck. I stamped against the ground. Maybe dust would be easier to move. “Dumb rock!”         Apple Bloom said nothing to me. She just looked at me. “What?” I asked.         “Um, Sweetie...” Apple Bloom raised up hand and pointed at my feet. “Ya might want to look down.”         I did as Apple Bloom suggested and looked at the ground. The rocks were all a mess, but there was a weird circle of them around me that made a tiny wall. I knelt down again and examined it. It looked like the rocks had been pushed back. I sighed and sat down. My head was starting to hurt again. “This is confusing.”         “I’ll say.” Apple Bloom chose to mimic me and joined me on the ground.         “Rarity makes it look so easy! She floats stuff around all the time!” I jabbed a finger at the stupid rocks. There was one that looked just like the other black pebble. “Why can’t I just get one of them to move when I want it to?” I kept my finger pointed at the rock, just wanting it to move, to tumble, to do something! Nothing happened. My finger and my hand fell to ground. I used both hands to get off the ground and dusted myself off. A nap sounded really good now. “I’m tired, Apple Bloom.” “Why don’t we ask John to go back to his home then?” ✦✦✦         What does that make me?         The sentence had played through my head the rest of the walk back. It was like an infernal drum, each beat of it showing me a different speaker. Scootaloo came to mind the most, but it was easy to imagine Apple Bloom or Sweetie say it too. Sometimes, unfamiliar approximations of girls with strange hair would ask me the question. All of their lips quivered and their eyes were flooded with tears. I’d said nothing then and I had no answer now. I’d sputtered vowels, consonants, and half-words to Scootaloo, but it was like spraying a garden hose on a forest fire. We’d both clamped up when Sweetie and Apple Bloom came back to the bench. Questions were asked, but Scootaloo was reluctant to talk and I lied. That’s all I’d done. I couldn’t lie anymore, not to Scootaloo. Truth could have been lie and lie could have been truth; real was fiction and fiction was real. I was stuck. I’d remained trapped all the way back to the house. Sweetie mumbled about a trying to move a pebble and I’d offered some false words of encouragement. It’s not like I could have offered any true words anyway about magic. For all I knew, I might have made things worse for her. I opened the door to the guest house and glanced up at the sky. The sun was at its apex and just starting to drift to the west. “How about I make ya’ll some sandwiches?”         “Sure,” said Apple Bloom before she handed Oxford back to me. He happily came over to me and even embraced Kloe nipping at him. They both put as much distance between themselves and Sweetie as possible. Both of them had fervently avoided her on the walk back, even more than on the walk to the park. Sweetie politely nodded at the offer of food and Scootaloo remained quiet. I turned around and led the dogs back inside, took off their leashes, and let them run free in the house. They didn’t do much running and, instead, went over to the couch and lied down for a nap. I let them rest and made my way to the kitchen. It took me a second to figure out what to put on a sandwich for ponies, but I remembered I just had to exclude meat. Some bread, a few slices of cucumber, some carrot slices, and a few lettuce leaves made three decent looking sandwiches. The leftovers went back in the fridge and I spun around to grab the plate the sandwiches were on. I nearly jumped in the air when I found someone was standing right by the counter. I hadn’t heard the door open or close. “Apple Bloom?” “We... we need to talk.” Apple Bloom’s face was harsh in the afternoon’s light, rigid and tough. The light didn’t show off the roughness of her hands since they were clenched up. The slight tremble in them put me on edge. “Sure, sure,” I meekly replied. “What is it?” Apple Bloom clenched her fists tighter. Her eyes didn’t look up to meet mine. “Everypony is sad and I can’t do anything about it! I tried to help Sweetie at the park, but I don’t know anything about magic, and Scootaloo won’t even tell me what’s wrong! There’s also everypony else that’s lost and scared and I can’t do anything!” In the middle of her rant, tears had started spilling down Apple Bloom’s face. Sweetie had sobbed, Scootaloo had cried, but Apple Bloom seethed. Her teeth looked like they would crack if she gritted them anymore. “Apple Bloom...” My hand reached out to comfort her, but she smacked it away. The hit stung and made me suck in my breath. The area it struck instantly turned deep red and slightly swollen. Apple Bloom retreated back from me, her eyes wide with shock. “I... I didn’t...” I sighed and opened up the fridge to grab one of the many ice packs dad kept inside. The pack made my skin prickle but it beat having a welt on my arm. “No, Apple Bloom, get it out of your system.” I glanced over to the kitchen table. “We do need to talk.” We both took seats at my insistence. Apple Bloom wasn’t clenching her teeth anymore, but her hands were still shaking. I took a deep breath before I managed to speak. “I’m sorry. I’ve tried to make things better for all of you, but I just can’t get things right. Maybe things will change tomorrow with Pinkie and Fluttershy, but I’ve still been unable help.” I jerked a thumb at my chest. “That’s my fault though. You can’t be blamed for this and you shouldn’t think that way either.” “But Sweetie and Scootaloo are ma friends! I can’t just stand by and watch them get hurt!” “You haven’t,” I contradicted. “You’ve stood by them and done everything you can. We need an adult pony to help her and we’ll get that tomorrow. Scootaloo... it’s my fault she’s like that.” “Why?” Anger lanced Apple Bloom’s voice once more. My head ached a little at the memory of last night’s minor throttling. What does that make me? My lips locked up. I was going to break another little girl. All because of a damn childrens’ show. The kitchen clock’s tick-tick was a deathly silent toling. I couldn’t take it and the words spilled out. “Because I don’t know where you came from!” Apple Bloom stayed silent and raised an eyebrow at me. “What are ya talking about? We came from Equestria.” “I know, but the problem is...” Each word was a knife, poised to cut both me and Apple Bloom. “... is that if Equestria is real, what’s to say other places aren’t real too?” “So?” “Places like...” My fingers dug into my leg. “... bad places. That’s what Scootaloo saw and... I afraid she’s right. I can’t say those places aren’t real without saying she’s not real!” “So?” “‘So?’” Apple Bloom still wore the same confused look on her face as before. “Apple Bloom, I want to help Scootaloo but no matter what I say, it’ll hurt her.” “Now look here!” Apple Bloom slammed a fist onto the table. “Maybe there are places where bad things exist, but ya can’t be scared of them! Ya sound just like Applejack when she was scared of Zecora! I knew I should have just talked to Sweetie in the first place!” “I know, it’s ju— what did you say?” “I said ya sound just like Applejack when she was scared of Zecora!” “That’s it!” Apple Bloom was in my arms in an instant. I quickly put her down and rushed off to my room to grab my computer. She was standing in the same spot when I got back. “C’mon, we’ve got some explaining and then lunch to do!” We both darted outside, with Apple Bloom trailing behind me. “What the hay are ya doing?” “Trying to fix things!” I busted into the guest house and was greeted with silence rather than yelps. Sweetie slowly rose from the bed and rubbed her eyes. It took me a few second to find Scootaloo. She was hidden in a corner and staring at a wall, but she might as well have been staring at nothing. I was over to her in a blink and opened my laptop. “What are you doing?” Scootaloo mumbled. “I’m going to show you that you’re real, but that doesn’t make the stuff you saw real.” My fingers danced across the keyboard, logged me in, and pulled up YouTube. A few more clicks and I had what I needed. “That was just a movie you watched yesterday, and I’ll prove it!” “Ho—” A school bell interrupted Scootaloo. My computer now showed a brightly colored schoolhouse, out of which, two familiar fillies appeared. “You’re... showing us?” “He is?” Sweetie slipped out of the bed and over to us. On-screen, she and Scootaloo were discussing Featherweight getting his cutie mark. “I remember this. This was the time with the newspaper.” “You’re showing us that?” Apple Bloom fumed. “Ya even have that? Great, now everypony knows how stupid we were!” “I know,” I sighed, “but I want you to watch closely.” So, we all sat and watched. Everyone groaned at Diamond Tiara, but went silent once “Gabby Gums” showed up. More groans followed soon after the silence. “Hey!” Apple Bloom complained. Applejack was on-screen and pointing to a picture of herself asleep. “None of us took that picture!” “We did do that story about cider and eggs though,” Sweetie murmured. “Yeah, but I’d never say ma sister was lazy!” Apple Bloom replied. Scootaloo jabbed a finger at my computer. Dash had replaced Applejack and the new photo was her at the spa. “And I’d never say Rainbow Dash was anything but awesome!” “I...” Sweetie watched Rarity pull the dramatics on having her diary revealed. “I’m sorry.” “This is making us look even worse than it actually was!” Apple Bloom yelled. Her eyes went up to me. “What’s the point of this?” I couldn’t help but smile at little at the Crusaders’ reactions. “What you’re doing is the point. Feel free to stop me when things get too out of control.” The episode continued. Sweetie’s cheeks turned bright red when her confrontation with Rarity was shown. After that, all three of them nodded when they watched themselves confront Diamond Tiara and threaten to quit. “Great, now everypony has seen those embarrassing pictures too,” Scootaloo huffed. “At least it’s almost over,” Apple Bloom sighed. The screen went to black for a brief second to indicate where a commercial break had been and then the Crusaders were back. They were trotting along a dirt path before they spotted Dash on a cloud and asked if she’d heard any gossip lately. “Wait... that didn’t happen.” Dash then flew down and used the cloud she was on to send a rainburst down on the Crusaders. Scootaloo’s eyes narrowed and her lips turned down. “That definitely didn’t happen.” “Really?” I coily asked. The video paused with a click of my finger. “What did happen then?” “Well...” Sweetie squirmed a little on the ground. “Diamond Tiara did try to show those pictures, but Miss Cheerilee stopped the newspaper before we could make more articles. We all had to write huge apology letters to everypony we’d written about, everypony on the newspaper was given two weeks detention, we and Diamond Tiara got an extra week, and Diamond Tiara was banned from any club leadership for the rest of the year.” “Miss Cheerilee is scary when she’s mad,” Apple Bloom shuddered. Her eyes went back to the screen. “That’s why this is confusing. Why would we be asking for gossip if there’s no paper? I mean, we were all way too happy when it was done. We embarrassed ourselves and everypony else enough.” “So Dash didn’t yell at you then?” I asked. “No way!” Scootaloo crossed her arms in resentment. “She was a little mad when we got photos of her preening, but we said it showed what it took to be such a good flyer!” She slunk back down and undid her hands. “We still should’ve respected her privacy though.” “So, you’re saying what we watched wasn’t real? That things were very different?” I suggested. “Yes,” Scootaloo hesitantly replied, taking on a note of a slightly giddy tone. “I’m actually surprised Miss Cheerilee didn’t stop us even before that. We could have really hurt somepony’s feelings.” “Fluttershy,” Apple Bloom squeaked. “We still apologized!” Scootaloo turned her head up to me. “We all still apologize in the end, right?” “Yes, everything gets worked out in the end. Although they make up some stuff about Twilight being so mad she put up a forcefield and Applejack and Big Mac yelling at Apple Bl—” The rest of my sentence was cut off by an apple getting shoved into my mouth. Apple Bloom used enough force to get the fruit wedged onto my upper teeth. How she got the apple so quickly was lost to me since said apple was making me choke. I clawed at and quickly dislodged it, taking a deep breath as a I did. Apple Bloom glared at me while I recovered. “Nopony goes around insulting ma family!” Before I could say anything else, Apple Bloom reached out and forcefully shut my laptop. I could only pray it hadn’t been severely damaged. “That show gets everything wrong about us! I’m surprised they even got our names right! Who knows what else they’ve lied about? I’m gonna find ‘em and... and...” Apple Bloom noticed we were all staring at her, Sweetie with a hanging jaw, and slumped down. “Aw, forget it. They’re too dumb.” “I... I guess they are dumb.” Scootaloo let out a fit of giggles. “Then again, it’s not like they really know us... it’s just a show, after all.” Scootaloo’s words took a massive weight off my shoulders. I leaned back against the wall and sighed, feeling tension escape with it. “Yeah, it’s just a show and it gets stuff wrong.” Scootaloo picked up on my relief. “I guess all shows get stuff wrong, right?” “Some might even be completely made up too,” I replied. A thin smile crept across my face. “I never did tell you about the show with the fancy froo-froo schoolgirl who only cares about boys named Scootaloo, did I?” “What?” Scootaloo shouted before seeing my grin. “You’re mean.” “And ya’ll are hungry,” I replied before pushing myself off the ground. The girls all seemed to have a bit of warmer glow to them, but it felt very fragile to me after everything this week had thrown at me. “I just wanted to clear everything up and make sure you were in a good mood. I know ya’ll have been through alot these past few days and its been tough on you. Sweetie, I promise we’ll have Pinkie and Fluttershy help you when we leave tomorrow. Apple Bloom, don’t forget that you’re the one who got Discord off our tail. Scootaloo, if anything ever scares you again, just tell me, okay?” “What are you talking about?” Scootaloo playfully waved her hand in my direction. “Like a bad movie would scare me.” “Hey.” I darkened my face a little. “Don’t call Raiders a bad film... save that for Crystal Skull and Temple.” “T-there’s more?” Scootaloo quivered. I only smiled and turned back to get the sandwiches. A few minutes later, the girls were all enjoying their simple meal. I’d also snagged myself what was left of the tuna casserole and heated it up in the guest house’s microwave. Apple Bloom and Sweetie’s eyes looked at it with suspicion while Scootaloo’s went wide with interest. Sweetie lifted up an arm and covered her nose with the sleeve of her cardigan. “That stuff kinda smells like Opal’s food.” I awkwardly scratched the back of my head. “Um, part of it is fish... sorry.” “It’s...” Scootaloo paused and wiped off some drool that had accumulated on one corner of her mouth. “It’s not that bad.” Apple Bloom stared at Scootaloo and then at the steaming casserole. She shrugged and bit into her sandwich. Sweetie continued eating her food in silence. “Um... anyway,” I said to break the awkward moment, “we’ll be getting up tomorrow and heading straight to the airport, so after this we’ll need to pack everything up.” “Got it,” all three of the Crusaders replied. I smiled in return and dug into my food. Scootaloo still glanced at it from time to time as the amount of casserole shrank. After a few minutes of this, I relented and shoveled some of the remaining food onto her plate. Judging from her smile, I’d given her the equivalent of a million bucks. She somehow managed to finish the casserole and her sandwich faster than me. After lunch, I slid back into the house to return my laptop and grab two suitcases that no one would noticed missing. I lugged them outside and prayed they’d be able to hold all the girls’ stuff. The suitcases thudded to the floor in the middle of the guest house. “Alright, lets get packing.” All three of them nodded and went over to the bags of the clothes and the pile of dirty clothes they’d made since arriving at the guest house. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom scooped up the clothes in heaps, while Sweetie neatly stacked them. The former two dumped their clothes into the suitcases and Sweetie set it down in a neat pattern. “Um, Sweetie? Why don’t you help me sort things out? Apple Bloom, Scootaloo, how about you bring everything over here so we’re not walking back and forth between stuff.” I’d tried to put the request as nicely as I could, but Apple Bloom and Scootaloo still frowned at it. I’m pretty sure Scootaloo mumbled something about “Cutie Mark Dry Cleaners.” Sweetie, on the other hand, was a folding master. She’d already taken Apple Bloom’s pile and turned it into an organized set of clothes within the suitcase. The set barely took up any room at all. She’d give mom a run for her money. “I’m amazed that organization hasn’t gotten you a cutie mark.” “Oh this?” Sweetie folded up a shirt in one fluid motion before moving onto another one. “I’m just used to it since I spend so many weekends with Rarity.” “Hmm, the show never really said that much,” I pondered aloud. “Really?” Sweetie asked while she continued sorting things into the suitcase. “Well, mommy is a really big tennis mare, so she has to go to a lot of tournaments that are all over the place. Plus, daddy’s her coach.” “I see.” The words were drawn out by an increasing sense of confusion. Today’s little meta disaster had made MLP quite the unreliable source of information. I’d need to share that with Doug if he hadn’t found that out already. “Um...” Sweetie’s voice drew me out of my distraction. She’d stopped folding stuff. “They didn’t do anything weird with my parents on that show, did they?” “Well, they never said exactly what your parents did,” I explained. “All we got was a scene of them eating some breakfast and saying they’re going on a vacation for a week.” “You mean mommy’s conference?” Sweetie corrected. “What about the Hearth’s Warming Festival? Or the Summer Sun Celebration? Or April Foal’s?” The last one made me raise an eyebrow, but it wasn’t hard to guess what it was. I shook my head back and forth to Sweetie’s questions. “Sorry, no sign of them at any of those things. I didn’t even know about the last one until you mentioned it.” “But those were so much fun!” Sweetie grabbed a pair of shorts and haphazardly folded them and threw them into the suitcase. I scooted the pair into a proper place and went back to the other clothes. Scootaloo dumped some more clothes over by me, but didn’t go to get more. I glanced up and saw that there were at least two more handfuls of clothes she could get. “Do they ever say anything about my parents?” “You know, fans actually debate that,” I chuckled. “They’ve never shown your parents on the show, so people think all sorts of crazy things about them. One time, I even heard this story about how you’re Celestia’s kid.” “Me?” Scootaloo tripped over her own legs and fell on the ground. I scooted over and helped her up with my good hand. Apple Bloom and Sweetie were both giggling, both at my words and the fall. “Someone thinks I’m Princess Celestia’s foal? I look nothing like her!” “That’d be like saying Princess Luna is ma mom,” Apple Bloom joked. She saw my eyes unassumingly drifting up to the ceiling and dropped her clothes. “Ya have got to be kidding me.” “Fine-fine, I am on that one,” I smiled. “They haven’t shown your parents either. Kinda weird. Only Sweetie and Twilight’s parents have been shown.” “Lame,” Scootaloo huffed. She trucked back to the clothes and scooped up another pile. ~~~ Dinner had an ethereal feel to it. Coming home for college always had that feeling, but in those cases, I knew where I’d be going after coming home. In twenty-four hours, I’d be on the other side of the world with no clue as to how long I’d be there. Coming back to the States would be a nightmare, too. I glanced up from my plate and over at my family. I’d been too distracted with packing to ask what mom was making for dinner, so while I enjoyed corned beef, I was a little distraught that all I’d give the Crusaders would be the leftover salad. I’d have to raid the fridge for something more substantial. Dad was absorbed in eating his food, but mom didn’t miss my glance. “Something wrong, John?” “Just thinking how odd it is that I’m home in the middle of April,” I mused before turning back to my food. Dad is probably gonna tear me apart whenever I get back... thank god I’m not underage or he’d probably get me sent to juvie. ~~~ For once, I didn’t run out into the guest house. Instead, I carefully balanced a bowl of leftover salad atop a box of frozen pizza. I stepped inside and was delighted that the neither the scent of vomit or the sound of crying greeted me. Instead, I found the Crusaders gathered on the floor with cards in their hands and a large disorganized stack of cards in between all of them. “Whatcha playing?” “Go fish,” Sweetie answered. “This is rigged.” Scootaloo had no face up cards at her feet. Apple Bloom had a set of threes and a set of sevens, while Sweetie had a set of fives. “You and Apple Bloom get all the good cards.” Her eyes spotted the box. “What’s that?” “Pizza.” I stepped over to the kitchen area and dialed in the proper heat for the oven. “It’ll take a bit to make, so keep going at your game. Salad is ready to eat whenever.” “I call pause for salad,” Scootaloo said a bit too eagerly. Apple Bloom and Sweetie smiled and put their cards down. They all made their way over to the salad but kept their eyes on the cards. How they expected any of them to cheat was beyond me. The Crusaders chipped away at the salad while I waited for the oven to heat up. I slid the pizza in once the heat reached a proper temperature. While the pizza warmed up, the girls resumed their game. Scootaloo couldn’t keep her face straight due to the hard losing streak the beginning of the game had handed her. Apple Bloom fared better and was stacking up cards quite well. Sweetie was the real contender though. Her face was a confident mask that only betrayed her winning, which showed with her continual addition of new sets. Her eyes would quickly flick over to Scootaloo and Apple Bloom and gauge their faces and hands. She’d probably play a mean game of blackjack. The oven dinged in the final act of their game. Scootaloo had made a turnaround and she and Apple Bloom were evenly matched in sets of cards. That mattered little in the face of Sweetie’s sets. Neither of them could turn around the game, but they were apparently playing down to the last card. The promise of pizza ended that idea though. Both Apple Bloom and Scootaloo quickly got up and just happened to kick both of their sets into a chaotic mess. Sweetie huffed and set her cards down. They all eagerly watched as I made quite an entertaining show out of getting the pizza out. In lieu of oven mitts, I used a set of hand towels I grabbed from the bathroom that did little to keep my hands from turning bright pink from the heat. “Let it cool for a few minutes,” I said between blowing on my hands. “Truly a college meal,” I chuckled once the pizza was cool enough to cut. Said cutting was done with a breadknife from the tiny silverware collection kept in the guest house. The slices were jagged at best. At least I hadn’t burned it. “Ya know, I never really thought about it till now, but this is a lot like a sleep-over.” Apple Bloom took a piece of pizza and made herself comfortable on the ground. She chewed it a lot before swallowing it. “I... I think I like Ponyville’s better.” “Not the best thing, but it gets you by.” I handed off two more slices to Sweetie and Scootaloo before taking my own piece. We all settle down next to Apple Bloom. “So, you’re all ready for tomorrow?” “Uh-huh! We got clean and got clothes ready!” Sweetie said between bites of pizza. With a free hand, she gestured over to three neat stacks of clothes. The faint fruity smell in the air and the pajamas the girls wore was enough indication of the former. I smiled and took another bite of pizza. “Good.” We made quick work of the rest of the food. I cleaned up and the girls picked up the cards they’d left behind. When everything looked as ready as it could for the next day, the girls snuggled into their bed. “All good?” I asked. “Yep,” said Apple Bloom. “Yeah,” replied Sweetie. “Well...” Scootaloo fidgeted around under the covers. I pulled out the chair for the desk and took a seat by the bed. “How about I tell you one of my favorite stories?” “Oooh...” Sweetie’s eyes shimmered a little. “What’s it about?” I leaned forward with a mischievous smile. “The once and future pirate king.” “So it’s the story of the pirate with the greatest chest?” Sweetie asked. “No!” I stammered. “Ugh, I don’t know what Rarity had on pirates, but it was not that. For you see, the pirate king obtained wealth, fame, and power. His name was...” ~~~ “... and they sailed away, leaving the man with a giant afro who was trapped in a treasure chest to happily live on the island with his animal friends,” I yawned. “I think that will do it for tonight.” “Can’t you tell a bit more of the story?” Scootaloo pleaded. “They aren’t even close to the treasure!” “Heh, they’ve only just made it up to the halfway point,” I chuckled. “And I’ve been reading this story since I was your age.” “No way. There’s no way a story can last that long.” “Ah, but it does give me a bunch of bedtime stories to tell. They seem to have done the trick.” Scootaloo remained the only one awake of the trio, but even her eyes had begun to droop. “Get some sleep. It’s gonna be a long day tomorrow.” “Okay...” Scootaloo pulled the blankets closer to her face. “If... if I have nightmares...” “Then you just laugh at them in the morning,” I interrupted. “Remember what I said earlier? About The stuff in the movie being gelatin? Now imagine the bad guy’s head turning into a giant bowl of jello.” Scootaloo smiled at the sweet and unusual punishment I’d given to the villain. Her lips became a neutral line in a short order though. “There’s something else about the nightmare... something that wasn’t in the movie.” “Was it Sweetie or Apple Bloom? Me?” It wouldn’t be a long shot for any of us to have been dragged into Scootaloo’s nightmare. Rainbow Dash wasn’t low on the list either. Scootaloo shook her head. “No, it was somepony I didn’t know. I didn’t actually see her, but it sounded like she was scared too.” “Maybe you just imagined yourself in the dream?” “Their voice sounded nothing like mine or anypony I knew.” I reached out and tussled Scootaloo’s hair with my good hand. “It was just a nightmare. Lots of strange things can happen in nightmares. Just remember, they can’t really hurt you.” I moved away from the bed and over to the door. With a flick of the switch the lights went off. “Good night, Scootaloo.” “Good night, John.” I closed the door and tiptoed back to the house. Inside my room, I double-checked and triple-checked that everything was ready. My laptop was charged and ready for the flight and loaded with enough movies to hopefully last the trip, and my wallet was filled with bills I’d gotten off the credit card; I’d taken as much as I could without arousing suspicion. The tickets and passports were safely stowed away in my backpack, along with my own passport that I’d nabbed from my family’s record books. Everything seemed in order. There were only two things that remained before I went to sleep. I hunkered down at my desk, grabbed a sheet of paper and a pen, and began to write. It was a short letter, but less detail was better here. I folded it up and set it on the table. It’d be easy to find in the afternoon when mom got back from dad’s office. The second task was even easier. A few clicks on my phone and a taxi would be here by seven thirty in the morning. Tasks complete, I plugged my phone in and moved away from the desk. My alarm would do the rest in the morning. All that remained for me was sleep. I undressed, turned off the lights, and fell onto my bed. I couldn’t tell if it was giddiness or worry that kept me staring at the ceiling for some time. It was always like that with me and trips, but things were upped this time. No matter what, things were going to be very different after tomorrow. Eventually, my eyes must have closed because the alarm felt like it came all too soon.