//------------------------------// // 11: Framing Buckwheat // Story: Bring the Thunder // by Ze Guest //------------------------------// Twilight woke up to quite a surprise when she saw a smile on Rainbow's face, she was completely awe-struck. "Hay Twilight!" Rainbow Dash with a smile. Twilight just stood there, not sure herself how to comprehend the nature of the event. I, myself was hoping she didn't know exactly what we were talking about last night. Rainbow Dash's happy expression faded as the awkward silence grew. "Are you okay, Twilight?" Rainbow asked. Chances are, though, she wasn't. She certainly didn't look the part of okay. "Oh, I'm fine," Twilight said awkwardly." Just a bit...astonished by your conduct". Rainbow smiled again. "Well, when you're feeling down and out, just talk to Volt!" she said. As she advertised me, I hoped she wouldn't make a little jingle while doing so. Oh no, I'm thinking of one right now! Anyway, I looked at Rainbow Dash with an eyebrow raised, If I told Twilight what I told her, I'd be headed down the one way street to death. Rainbow Dash just shrugged and we left it at that. "Well, I'm glad that you're doing well." Twilight said, smiling. Twilight walked up to me and whispered in my ear, "How the hell did you do that?" I just smiled and shook my head, "I have my ways." was all I told her. Twilight looked dumbfounded, she seemed like she really wanted to know. Sorry, I'm not quite in the mood for dying at this point in time. "Well, you have been up all night, haven't you?" Twilight asked. Rainbow Dash snickered and I just sighed. Rainbow, you're a great friend, but get your mind out of the gutter. Twilight herself rolled her eyes and continued. "I was just thinking that you should get some sleep. If we want to get this over with, we need to be awake." Me and Rainbow looked at each other and shrugged. "I guess it's for the best." I said, and we walked inside the tent. "Volt?" I turned my head to look at Applejack. "Yeah?" I asked. "Well I- I guess I never thanked ya properly for, ya know, the bear." She shifted uncomfortably. I just smiled. "Well, you're welcome." I wasn't sure about what else to say except that. I lied down next to the now waking Fluttershy. "What are you doing?" she asked. "Going to bed." I told her. "Now?" "If this is surprising you go talk to Rainbow Dash." I'm sorry, I couldn't help myself. I didn't feel very tired, but when I shut my eyes, I couldn't open them. The rich, chocolaty taste of a one-hundred percent Coltbin cigar touched my lips for the first time, it was lovely, I mean really. Icarus was good at picking out stuff. "So what did I tell you? It's the best, isn't it?" He was in his real form right now, changeling. The bar wasn't as busy as Icarus said it was on the usual Friday night. Everyone was welcome at this bar, Ponies, mules, zebras, changelings, even me. And no one cared. Sure, the average pious pony would come in and bitch about every single little thing but usually they would just be thrown out or, like tonight, if one came in preaching to us, he would be brought out back and stabbed to death and tossed into the sewers. I honestly didn't mind about that, some ponies just deserve to die, no matter how pure they think they are. "It's not that bad, actually. Where'd you get it?" I asked dying to know. "It's embargoed! Where do you think? I smuggled loads of the stuff here. And took from others that failed." He said, looking proud as can be. Our attention turned to a drunken brawl at the back of the room. Everyone seemed to be placing their bets on a zebra who was more sober than the pony, who was screaming out racial slurs. Icarus turned to the bartender and got his attention. "You see that little fight over there?" he asked pointing his hoof at the brawl, which had moved to another corner of the room. "Yeah, what about it?" the bartender asked. "Who do you want have win?" The bartender thought about this, he hadn't really paid attention to this fight. "Ya know what. The zebra, he's sober, no way he can lose." Icarus smiled, "Here, watch this." Icarus turned back to the fight and used his magic. His horn glowed a bright green and soon, the drunken pony was punching himself. Everyone was laughing hysterically. Three guys looked disappointed and one threw their hat on the ground. Someone walked up to him, asking for the money probably he owed. Icarus turned back to the bartender who was clapping. "Not bad, Ha! Not bad at all!" He started banging on the table, he couldn't help but laugh. He even bit his hoof to stop himself when someone called him over, but it was fruitless. The drunk guy got back up and tried to yell at the zebra. "Tou jut wait an' see! I'll bu buck an' kick tour aus tou stpid zugor!" But everyone just laughed at him and one pushed him to the ground. "Boy, he may be striped but he whipped your ass!" Someone shouted at him. The zebra stomped his hoof on the ground and laughed. And as for the drunk guy, well, he just stumbled out. I have to say, he got what he deserved. After a little while, we left ourselves but, unfortunately, three guys were waiting for us. "You. You think you're some funny guy don't you? A comedy genius." Icarus rolled his eyes, "Well, I guess I cheated you out of some good money, huh?" "Damn right!" one of the guy's buddies said. "And you're gonna pay us back!" he said. One of the henchmen grabbed me and pulled of my knapsack. The another guy grabbed Icarus. "You're a scam artist, Buckwheat. Should have expected this from you." Icarus said. Buckwheat looked into Icarus's face. "Well this ain't no scam, this is simply repayment." he said. The guy on me tossed Buckwheat my knapsack. He opened it up and dug through. He pulled out a tin with some food in it. "Mommy pack you lunch?" he mocked. I was about to brake out of this head lock and shove this guy's balls down his throat, but then I came with a more civilized approach, a two part one, if it worked, that is. "I was never adopted, never had a mommy, never will." Buckwheat sneered, "Why would any-pony want you anyway?" Part two was coming on, "Well, I'm fairly sure your parents regret not giving you up." Alright, I know, not the best in the thing world but it's somewhat decent. But instead of the cold shoulder, Buckwheat looked at me with blazing eyes full of hate. Quick as a snap he pulled out his gun and aimed at my head, the guy holding me was cackling for some reason. "Buckwheat no! He isn't aware." Icarus said. Buckwheat looked him for a few seconds with almost no facial expression, then he looked at his friend, who stopped laughing, but still smiling. "But he is..." Buckwheat whipped his gun around and shot his friend in the face, killing him. The sound reverberated across the vast land of nothing. We could look down the empty road and see someone from seven miles away because it was so empty. I shoved the body to the ground which made a muffled thud. Buckwheat kept sifting through my bag but still aiming the gun at me so I don't do anything stupid. And he found it, the prize money from when I first met Icarus. He flipped through, a smile emerging from his rough face. "You almost got three thousand bits here! You a little rich boy, aren't ya?" he said, throwing the knapsack at me. "That's all I have." I told him. "Not anymore." he said He stood there with the money in his hoofs. Flipping through it all, again and again. The greed in his eyes, growing. He simply couldn't believe his luck. He looked up at me. "Well, that's very generous of ya." "I wasn't offering." "Who said you had to? And, ya know what? Since you be giving me all this money, I think I'll give ya some back." Buckwheat grabbed twelve bits from the batch and tossed it at me. Then, he got his friend to follow him and they walked away. "Hay! What are you gonna do with your dead friend." I hollered at them. "I don't care, you can bury it, eat it, fuck it. Like I said, I don't care." And they walked away, saying nothing more. Well, I just got robbed of three thousand bits. Just what every cool guy does these days. "Well, we're screwed." I informed Icarus. "I don't think we'll be getting you're money back anytime soon." "Ya think? How did I piss that guy off anyway?" "Child abuse, no one ever found out, until he ran away, of course." "Oh...I see." "Well you know what?" Icarus looked down at me, since I was as short as hell. "What?" I asked. "I'm good at enforcing the law, that's true. But I'm also good at breaking it." I looked at Icarus, not quite sure where he was going with this. "What are you talking about?" I asked "We can't get your money back, but we can get revenge. We'll frame him, we'll do it so well it just might get him killed." Icarus have an almost evil smile on his face. As he took the form of Buckwheat. I'm not sure if it was a cruel joke or he meant it. But either way, I would happily agree. And guess what, we were going to do it. Well, at least Icarus was. He would take the shape of Buckwheat and kill a few ponies, in their sleep, of course. We didn't want to get caught that badly. And so that night me and Icarus looked around for a good target, someone Buckwheat would kill if he had the time. We found the house of a family of a former swindler. The perfect victim. Now, to be honest, I'm not someone to feel bad for other ponies. Icarus already had the form of Buckwheat. I waited a couple blocks away so I won't get dragged into this. I sat on the ground and decided to have another one of the cigars Icarus had given me. Alright, if you haven't stopped reading yet, you're asking, Why didn't you just go up and kill Buckwheat, dumb shit? Well, because we agreed that revenge isn't just best served cold, but marinated as well. He'll have to go through about five weeks in court, then another three in a cell, knowing the exact day and time he'll die and knowing he doesn't deserve it. If you had an enemy you hated so much, would probably want to do the same. I saw figure against the black night sky, it was Icarus in the form of a future convict. We followed each other from a distance, just to play it safe. We ended up meeting at a motel, He had a different form now. I knew because he quickly flashed his face to show it was him. He gave me some money to get a room for myself because there was no way were going to be in the same room as each other much less the same bed. The next day, on the front page of the news paper, there was text saying this: Family of Six Murdered! Suspect found! They didn't give any pictures, but the name was exactly what we expected. Buckwheat. Apparently, he was found at around five twenty last night, seven hours after the murder. Investigators were informed at 12:51 after a suspicious figure was viewed leaving the scene of the crime. They found the bodies in the home they belonged to while investigating. The door was wide open and the place was trashed. Icarus said he left evidence all over the place. We winked at each other as we met up the next morning. The rays of the evening sun seeped through the tent and shone in my eyes. It wasn't that late, but Rainbow Dash was up and already eating an early dinner. "Hay small stuff! What's happening?" she said. I hung my head, "Now you're making short jokes, huh?" Rainbow started laughing. And despite hating being short, I laughed too. I remember when me and Icarus framed that guy. Buckwheat was taken to the gallows and hanged a month after that. That was a year ago, and to this day, no one knows who really killed that family.