//------------------------------// // About Damn Time // Story: Innavedr // by Imploding Colon //------------------------------// "Nnngh... Come on... Come on...!" She gritted her teeth, tugging and tugging on the lid to a garbage container with the full weight of her petite body. "Nnnngh... Why... won't... you... b-budge...?!" Suddenly, her hooves slipped. She gasped, falling hard on her haunches in the center of the tight alleyway. The hood of the filly's cloak fell free, exposing her green mane and matching eyes. Her vision fogged from the crest of tears, but she dried them with a scowling expression. Frowning up at the obstinate container, she drew the cloak up over her tatooed features. Then, with a nervous shudder, she glanced both ways down the alley. The place was empty, also still, save for the sounds of a distant Nightshade Industries announcement reverberating off the concrete walls from a distance. Satisfied that the coast was clear, she stood up and aimed her skull forward. She took several grunting breaths, concentrating with the effort that her sudden task took Nevertheless, she relaxed, and then worming trails of light ran up through the designs etched across her face. The energy culiminated in her horn, allowing her to fire a beam of green glowing energy at the container. The lid popped off like a lead ball out of a cannon while the air crackled with magic. She gasped with relief and clopped her hooves against the floor with a brief, joyous jig. Then, gasping sharply, as if it was a crime to be that exultant, she cleared her throat and climbed back up to the edge of the container. Digging around inside with a hoof, she fiddled through several heaps of refuse until stumbling upon a paper bag with a restaurant's name etched on the side of it. "Blue Seat's Dining! Score!" She opened the bag. "Please be a full box of salad! Please be a full box of salad! Please—" She was hoisted up from behind and suddenly slammed against the back wall of the place. "Ungh!" she grunted, dangling in a strong hoof. "Kera... the little filly that thought she could make it on her own..." An adolescent colt snarled in her face. He was joined by two other colts and a filly, just a few winters younger than him, but no less covered in the soot and rags of the lower streets. "Fancy meeting you here. You know what this place is, pipsqueak?!" "Nnngh... Uhm..." Kera sniffed, then made a face. "Dogbreath Central?" She was slapped hard against the wall again. "Augh!" The colt spat, "This is Hardhoof territory! We're the only ones around here who know about the dirty secret that lies beneath your robes, kid..." He knocked her hood loose, exposing her tattoos to the dim air of the falling evening. "Which means, so long as your ugly face hangs out around here, you us for protection!" "That kind of m-makes sense!" Kera sputtered, smirking back at him. "Seeing as how you're the expert on ugly faces..." He blinked, then raised other hoof to smash her horn in two. "Why, you—" "Hey, check it!" One filly pulled out a paper container, displaying a box full of half-eaten noodles. "The little scamp scored something!" "You mean she scored us something!" The colt glared back at the filly in his grasp. "Consider this payment in advanced, runt." "No way!" she gasped, frowning. "Those are my noodles!" "The only noodles you should be worried about are the kind I'm gonna be spilling all over the floor!" He dropped her, but continued to shake a threatening hoof. "Get it?! Cuz I'll have busted your skull open!" The older foals around him chuckled uproariously. Kera shook her dizziness away and frowned up at him. "Funny. How can you even lay a hoof on me when your mane is on fire?" "Pfft, just what in the hay are you talking about, Pipsqueak—GAAAAH!" The colt jumped and thrashed in place, feeling a blaze flickering across his scalp. Kera finished aiming a beam of magic at his skull. As rivulets of glowing energy receded from her face, she stood up and smirked at his flailing figure. "What's the matter?! Not used to being... bright?!" "Nnnngh—Put me out! Put me out! Put me out!" "I found something!" A filly grabbed a rusted bedpan out from a garbage container. "Stand still, boss!" "No, not that—" The colt took the brunt of odorous yellow liquid being doused all over his face. He blinked lethartically through the dripping current of the stuff. "Whoops..." The filly slumped, her ears folding back. With flaring nostrils, the colt pointed at the figure of Kera who was already galloping away. "Get that little turd and crush her to bits!" With a prolonged warcry, all of the foals charged after her. Panting for breath, Kera dashed around a corner and galloped into the open streets of Blue Nova, billowing cloak and all.