Chapter 6: All’s Well That Ends Well
Lucky Slots was awoken by a soft shaking on his shoulder. He opened his eyes and rolled over in his bed to look up at the unicorn filly known as Mist.
“It’s your watch now, Lucky,” she said, “The watch schedule said it’s a three way watch on yours.”
“Okay then, go back to bed Mist,” he said with a smile. The unicorn filly yawned before leaving his room and going back to hers. The brown colt slid his navy blue ZPTF vest onto himself and strapped his M4 around him. The clock on his wall read 12:00.
“Ah, good, this isn’t the bad shift,” he said in acceptance. The worst watch shift to have was the one where when you were finished, you would only have about an hour left to sleep. Lucky made his way out of his room and onto the rough-carpeted floor of the raised walkway. All of the lights were off in the squad room, the only light coming from the moon in through the windowed wall opposite him. He slid down the hoof rail of the stair-case to the main floor. He made his way down one of the aisles of four workspaces towards the floor to ceiling windowed wall. As he came around a desk, he saw the familiar white face and wind-swept forward red and white mane of Jetstream. The pegasus colt was looking out the windowing. Lucky smiled, he wanted to settle things with Jetstream, make amends. He began walking towards him when suddenly he saw Scootaloo emerge from the shadows behind the pegasus colt.
“So I’m on a three way watch where you’re included, that’s convenient,” she said, a tone of mockery and….was that a slight mixture of evil in there too? Lucky thought to himself. The brown colt stopped, staying hidden in the shadows as he watched the scene before him.
“Go away,” said Jetstream sadly, bowing his head as he continued facing the windowing, his back to the filly.
“Bow your head in shame,” said Scootaloo with a tsk, “Heh, coward.”
“I said go away!” said Jetstream loudly, turning on the filly. Scootaloo only smiled evilly.
“And who’s gonna make me?” Lucky didn’t understand what was happening, he wanted to do something but found himself rooted to his spot in the shadows. Jetstream sighed.
“Why do I even try anymore?” he asked to no one in particular, bowing his head once again.
“I know right, there’s no point,” Scootaloo remarked snide. She seemed to be enjoying herself, treating the colt like this. Jetstream’s lip began quivering.
“Just shut the hell up and leave me alone,” he said, his words coming out in sharp breaths.
“And why should I?”
“Because my life sucks enough already, you made everyone in FCD hate me, you’ve threatened my life, and I don’t need anything else, but here you are making me even more miserable,” Jetstream replied, tears beginning to roll down his cheeks.
“Well, duh…” Scootaloo was interrupted by Jetstream.
“I’m not finished,” he continued, his breathing becoming even more rapid, “You want to know something, I was very happy living in Mareland, I had many friends and I lived fairly close to the Chesnutt Bay, where I would always hang out with my friends,” his speech began coming out between sobs, “But then, the infection started, and next thing I knew, I was shipped off to here. I don’t know anypony here, none of them are from my hometown. And my only friend at at the moment is a zombie! I actually met him like that, but I like him, because he was actually kind to me.” Lucky wanted to intervene very badly, but he couldn’t find the courage to do so.
“And because of one small argument, one that you don’t know anything about, you felt the need to turn everyone here against me,” Jetstream was full-on bawling now, but he continued talking. “You’ve made my life miserable, with horrid lies, and you don’t even give a damn. I heard about you before this infection started, and you seemed like such a nice pony, one that stood up for her friends, one that could be kind to anyone. But you don’t even know me, and what you’ve done over something so small is so great on an evil level.” Jetstream looked up at Scootaloo, his red eyes staring deadly anger into hers.
“And one more thing, you’ll be happy to know that I’m considering transferring to a different area or...” he looked at the pegasus filly with extreme hurt, “Or, if I don’t want to take a risk of being hated in a different place, well, I have a handgun in my saddlebags.” With that, he walked off, leaving Scootaloo seemingly frozen to her spot. Lucky gasped silently and put his front hooves over his muzzle. It couldn’t be real, Jetstream could not have just said those last few words.
I have a handgun in my saddlebags, echoed in Lucky’s mind. He couldn’t be serious. He galloped out of the shadows and past Scootaloo, the unmoving filly not even seeming to notice him run past her. Lucky ran as fast as he could, Jetstream had disappeared into the shadows of the squad room. Where was he?! Lucky darted around workspaces in search of the white pegasus. He checked under and behind desks, anywhere he could have gone to. As he ran alongside the wall of the squad room, he tripped over something in the dark. Rubbing his head, Lucky stood back up to all fours and checked out what he had tripped over. On the floor lay the hunting rifle that belonged to Jetstream and his bright red saddlebags, one of which was open and some of the contents spilled on the floor. Lucky looked around wildly.
…in my saddlebags. This couldn’t be good. The blue-eyed colt perked up his ears to a sound that suddenly invaded his mind. He heard whimpering, coming from……over there! He carefully made his way towards the corner of the room. The small shine of moonlight coming into the area glistened a light blue off the white coat of Jetstream. His figure was huddled in the corner, his face smothered in his crossed front hooves. In front of him lay two things, both black and shiny. One was an L-shape and the other a rectangle. As Lucky came closer, he saw the things were an ammunition clip and a pistol with a silencer attached.
“J-J-Jetstream?” Lucky stuttered. He shined his flashlight onto the pegasus colt and was relieved to find the colt breathing and no pool of blood surrounding him. Said colt looked up slowly, putting a hoof up to block the light.
“Are you okay?” Lucky asked, shutting off the flashlight and stepping closer. Jetstream flinched at his movement. Lucky stopped instantly. Oh Celestia, he’s afraid of me.
“Don’t c-c-come any c-closer,” Jetstream said, “Who knows what Scootaloo might do to me if I’m near you.” He put his face back into his hooves and continued sobbing into them. Lucky turned around and stared angrily over where she was. Scootaloo didn’t notice as she was still standing in the same spot with her back to him. Lucky returned his gaze to Jetstream. He dropped his carbine from his back, setting it down carefully before continuing towards the red and white manned colt. Jetstream noticed this and began scooting farther into the corner.
“Please don’t hurt me,” he said, reaching towards the pistol on the ground. Lucky kicked the weapon away, causing Jetstream to yank his leg back. Fear came across his eyes as Lucky continued moving towards him. The brown colt reached down and took Jetstream’s vest into his mouth and dragged him out of the corner. The blue-eyed pony then lied down alongside of the cowering colt. Jetstream looked next to him into Lucky’s concerned eyes.
“Don’t think like that,” Lucky whispered into Jetstream’s ear. The white pegasus buried his face against the light brown coat of the other pony. He silently cried against it for at least a couple minutes before calming down to soft whimpers. He slowly removed his face from Lucky’s body and rested his head in his hooves. The brown earth pony draped his front leg over Jetstream. Within less than a minute, they were both sound asleep.