Chapter 11: The days gone by
A week and a half has gone by since the incident with Rainbow and the pranksters. Things have been relatively quiet around Canterlot, and none other than Casey Neistat had decided to come back through the city from his trip to California.
He was riding down the sidewalks of Canterlot on his signature boosted board while holding up his video camera.
“It's a beautiful day here in the city of Canterlot! You know, I couldn't help but come back through this city a 2nd time from my San francisco trip. It's just so interesting” he said.
He then looked around before focusing his attention back to the camera. “Alright so, I think I'm gonna stop at this convenient store up ahead and get myself a green smoothie. Gotta stay healthy, I haven't stopped my diet. I promise”
Casey then stopped in front of the small convenient store, picked up his boosted board and walked inside. He then proceeded to the back fridge to get himself the green bottled drink. Once he grabbed it, he proceeded to the counter to pay for it. But stopped as his smiled dropped and his expression softened as he saw who was working the front counter.
It was Rainbow. She didn't look too happy, in fact, she looked kinda sad as she was helping the customer in front of him.
“$3.24 is your change sir” she said in a monotone voice.
The man nodded and proceeded off with his newly purchased groceries. Casey then stepped up to the front.
“Rainbow?”
Rainbow hadn't noticed but slowly looked up to see Casey, the YouTuber she had meet a week and a half ago, standing in front of her with a green smoothie health drink.
“Oh...Hey Casey” she said smiling.
“What are you doing here, I thought you earned money from your YouTube channel” he said. “You do don't you?”
Rainbow signed and looked down. “I gave it up”
Casey looked at her in shock.
“What?”
“I gave it up” she repeated. “It's because of me that I ended up hurting someone really close to me, it made me realize how much of a horrible person I am just to gain a little more popularity in the Internet”
Casey nodded as he continued to listen.
“So...I gave it up, I made a video about it and got a real job” Rainbow said Ringing up Casey's drink. “That will be $4.84”
Casey then got his wallet out and handed Rainbow a $5 bill. Right as Rainbow put the numbers in, as well as putting the money away, she gave him his receipt. A man then came up behind Rainbow.
“Shifts over kid” he said.
Rainbow smiled softly, walked over to the other end of the counter to her time card on the wall and punched out. She then proceeded to exit from behind the counter.
“Thanks for stopped by again Casey” said Rainbow. “It was nice seeing you again”
With that said, she proceeded out the front door. But Casey quickly started after her down the sidewalk, knowing that he had to talk her through this.
“Wait Rainbow! You can't just quit YouTube! You had a good thing going, you made great content. Like just after I ran into you, I managed to watch 1 or 2 of your videos” said Casey.
Rainbow stopped walking and looked back at Casey. “Yeah...I HAD a good thing, but then I turned out to be a complete bitch and hurt my best friends feelings”
“Rainbow listen to me” Casey started. “We all make mistakes, it's what makes us Human. So what if you made a mistake, you can come back from it”
“It's not that simple!” Rainbow said raising her voice. “I don't know if you saw the video or not, but what I did to Jake was probably one of the harshest things anyone's ever done to him. And I did it all because I wanted to be apart of that damn prank group”
“SSSHHHH” exclaimed
Casey. “Not so loud about that stuff”
Rainbow blushed. “Oh, sorry”
Casey smiled as he let Rainbow continue.
“They tricked me! Right when I realized I made a huge mistake and asked for the video back. They posted it on there own channel and made me look like a total bitch” Rainbow Started. “I don't think he’ll ever forgive me for that, mainly because it turned out he had feelings for me.
Casey could tell by now she was starting to get emotional. From what she was described, he couldn't blame her. She was in a pretty bad position.
“And now, I haven't seen him since the incident, he won't answer my texts, I work at a convenient store, and I quit YouTube to spare anyone else from the horrible human being that I am!” she said.
Casey only stared at her for a minute before removing his sunglasses and looking at Rainbow in the eyes. She was trying to hid the fact that she was tearing up, but even someone like Casey could tell. She needed to talk about this.
“Hey kid, look at me” he said.
Rainbow slowly but hesitantly looked up toward Casey.
“We all make bad or wrong choices, heck infact when I was a just little younger than you. I got a girl pregnant and I ended up having a son by the time I was 17” he stared. “However, that one incident turned out to be one of the greatest days of my life, heck look at how I turned out”
Rainbow softly smiled. “Yeah, I see where you're getting”
“Point being Rainbow” Casey stared. “Never let the past or even one wrong decision you've made, define who you are. Because I personally can tell you just who you are by what I've seen, your a great kid Rainbow. Don't let this one incident make you feel any different”
Rainbows smile got bigger. “T-thank you”
Her smile didn't stay long as it started to disappeared after a moment. “But I don't know how I'm going to apologize to Jake. Maybe I can stop by his house and try”
“Well, Let's go right now” said Casey.
Rainbow gave a surprised yet confused look. “Now?”
“Yeah right now! I've got time, plus i'll get to explore the city more” said Casey.
Rainbow chuckled. “I see why a lot of people like you. Yeah! Let's go!”
“Don't waste your time” said a voice from above.
Upon hearing the voice, Rainbow and Casey looked up to see none other than Leafy on the store roof above them.
“Sup” he said.
Leafy?!” Said Rainbow. “What are you doing here”
“I think you should answer some of my questions first” he said bluntly. “Have you been on YouTube at all in the past week and have you heard from your little boyfriend?”
Rainbow pondered for a second. “No I haven't. I've been working and I've been to ashamed to even go on my YouTube page let alone the site. I haven't bothered to see Jake either for the same reason”
Leafy frowned. “Well I hate to disappoint you, but your little trip with mr.noonstat over there isn't going to work out well”
Rainbow gave Leafy an unpleasant look. “What? You don't know that”
“Actually I do” said Leafy. “You may not know this but a lot has gone down in the last week and a half that you wouldn’t believe”
Rainbow turned to Casey. “Is that true
Casey shrugged. “I don't know, I've been traveling so I haven't had a whole lot of time to check”
Casey and Rainbow then looked back at Leafy. “Say aren't you that leaf guy that picked on that one autistic kid by accident” Casey asked.
Leafy sighed. “I didn't know he had a mental disability, alright! Nor did I think he'd take my criticism bad unlike Tosh.O’s, but that's not important right now”
“What is important, Rainbow, is that I should get you up to speed on what's going on. Since you obviously don't know” said Leafy. “But we should probably go somewhere more private first”
~~~~~~~~~~
“Okay so here's what's happening and it's been all over YouTube or at least within the community that we know about. About a week and a half ago, Jake got taken by these damn YouTube Pranksters. Apparently they were taken care of business to go after you” Leafy said Pointing at Rainbow.
Rainbow looked at Leafy horrified. Did those big group of jerks really go as far as to take someone like Jake, one of her closest friends, away from her. Just to prove a point?
“Wait I know a few YouTube pranksters as personal friends. They don't have anything to do with this do they?” said Casey.
Leafy shrugged. “You're asking the wrong guy, all I know is that's it's a big group of them”
“So they just kidnapped him?!” said Rainbow.
“Yep, And it only gets worse. Upon witnessing this or listening, Vanoss, one of his closest friends in the community, was not happy, not one bit” said Leafy. “If there's certain people on Youtube, you don't want to mess with personally. It's the top 10 YouTubers on the site, Vanoss being one of them”
“O-okay, why not?” Rainbow asked. “Is it they're popularity or fanbase?”
“Not necessarily. They're powerhouses, you already know my ability. Being that you've seen it yourself before?” said Leafy. “Plus Youtube's letter?
“Y-yeah, I was a little freaked out at first and once I hit 100,000 I learned more about these privileged abilities that they give you at 1 mil” said Rainbow.
“Well what they don't tell you is that once you become Diamond aka you hit 10,000,000. You get a huge power boost in your ability, which for someone like a gaming channel with video games like GTA V and Garry's mod, you can only imagine right” said Leafy.
“Wait I'm sorry! But how are these powers possible?! It's like some sort of fantasy?” said Rainbow. “That letter was pretty vague describing it”
“You're never gonna believe me and it might seem like I'm talking out of my ass. But, this is all done with and because of Magic” said Leafy.
Rainbow's eyes widened. “Magic?! How?!”
“The United Nations has known about magic for years and Years. But when YouTube rolled around they thought they could use this opportunity to make the world a better place. By using it for its content creators as a privilege to help others” said Leafy.
Rainbow quickly turned to Casey for confirmation, trying to see if she was hearing this right. He nodded in response.
“It's true” said Casey. “Now, I personally don't usually use my ability that much. But I do use it sometimes”
Rainbow frowned “Wait, then what's yours?” She asked.
Casey smiled and his Canon camera started floating in front of him. “Levitation, I only use it whenever I need to get a tricky camera angle or if I'm too lazy get the remote or something else”
Rainbow started jumping up in down in excitement. “Oh man, that's so awesome! I wish I had powers too, all I can do is grow wings by ponying up”
Both Leafy and Casey looked at Rainbow with mixed reactions. “What?”
“Nothing!” Rainbow blurred out. “So uh, yeah! You were saying!”
“Oh yeah right” said Leafy. “Anyways these pranksters still have your little boyfriend Jake, however there's no doubt in my mind that Vanoss and his other group of friends are already on there way right now to get him back. It's practically gonna be a war between the two groups”
Rainbow started laughing as she thought she was hearing something out of an anime or a child's story book. “A..war? Your joking right?”
“No I mean it, an all out War between these Pranksters and Vanoss’s crew” said Leafy. “Considering some of these pranksters have abilities themselves, it won't be pretty. Heck Vanoss has practically done good use himself and has helped the US Government before with Afghanistan, or so I've heard”
“Would they really go that far? I mean common” said Casey. “It seems like a lot”
“Imagine if one of your best friends was taken from you or let's say it's someone really close to you” said Leafy. “ Wouldn't you want to save them if you knew you could do something about it?”
Casey nodded in agreement. But Rainbow was just standing completely still, in shock. Jake was in trouble, and a war was about to play out just to recuse him. She just had to help him or do something. She needed to do something
“It's funny” said Leafy. “Because this whole inside community of YouTube thing may be a secret now, but I guarantee you once this war breaks out. It won't be for much longer”
Rainbow continued to stand still.
“So to answer your question from earlier, I'm here to make sure that I was right about you not being a complete sack of shit and ignoring the fact that you knew but didn't want to help” said Leafy.
“I want to help!” Rainbow blurted out.
Both Casey and Leafy looked at Rainbow closer.
“I want to go and help Jake, it's my fault this all happened in the first place. So I want to be the one to save him” said Rainbow.
Leafy laughed. “Are you nuts? You don't stand a chance against any of them. You don't even have any sort of ability”
Rainbow grinned. “Well, who says I can't have a little help”
Leafy looked at her closer before getting the message and putting his hands up in defense. “Whoa there, I'm not getting involved in this mess! Heck a lot of YouTubers are stepping back from this”
“Common please!” sa Rainbow.
“What's in it for me if I do choose to help you?” said Leafy.
Rainbow pondered for a minute. “I'll….let you roast me as much as you want, call you the reptilian God,uh...lizard King, you can call me a bi-”
“Okay,okay! You don't need to suck up to me” said Leafy. “I'll help you alright, damn dude”
Rainbow smiled and then turned back to Casey. “I need your help too Mr.Neistat!”
“What?! Me? I don't want to fight, I've have a wife and child back home. Plus I don't want to get involved with this violence, and I'm pretty busy as it is” said Casey.
“I'm not asking you to fight” she said. “I just need your helping getting there, and possibly leaving”
Casey tried to say something but only stuttered, until he finally signed and pulled out his phone to call someone.
“Alright, I'll cancel my flight back to New York and plan it for later. And let my wife Candice know of course” said Casey.
“Great! said Rainbow. “Now there's one more person I think could help us out. Plus, she's an expert in magic”
~~~~~~~~~~
Sunset opened the door to her apartment to see 3 figures standing at her doorstep. Two of which she recognized.
“Rainbow Dash? And...CASEY NEISTAT?!” She exclaimed. “Oh my gosh I am such a huge fan of your videos!”
Casey chuckled. “Thank you, that's very flattering. Glad you enjoy the daily vlogs”
Sunset smiled. “Believe me, I can't go a day without them”
In the midst of Sunsets fangirling, Rainbow needed to get the the point of why they were here and tried to snap her out of her moment.
“Uh, hello? Sunset” Rainbow. “We need your help”
Sunset attempted to calm her excitement and focused on Rainbow. “My help? For what”
“Well Rainboom over here says you know a lot about magic, and your kind of a YouTuber yourself. Just not as big” said Leafy.
Sunset looked closer at Rainbow. “What's this about?”
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “It's a long story….”
~~~~~~~~~~
“So let me get this straight” said Sunset. “Magic has been around for many, many years before I came here. It's being used within the YouTube community for the supposedly greater good, a war is going to break out over Jake who just so happened to get abducted, and you need my help with the magic and getting him back”
“Bingo” Rainbow said smiling.
Sunset responded with an unpleasant facial expression. “Jake was kidnapped?! What did you do?”
“I didn't cause this so called war to happen. I swear!” Said Rainbow.
Sunset signed. “Okay look, I'm willing to help you guys. But there's only so much I can a do, I'm not familiar with how they are using magic in this manner for special abilities. I might have to ask Princess Twilight for help on this one”
“You know how long it took her last time?! We don't have time, we have to go ASAP!” Rainbow exclaimed.
“Well Okay, if you insist. I'll bring along the book just invade though. So, where is it?” Sunset asked.
“It's somewhere in the desert, the UN does keep track of all the locations of different YouTuber’s groups meeting headquarters all across the world. I just so happen to have that location” said Leafy.
“Great. The Desert. Fun” said Sunset. “How exactly are we supposed to get there?”
Leafy grinned. “I think I have an idea”
~~~~~~~~~~
Jake opened his eyes to the dimly lit room. It was small, had one small opening that only little light came through and It smelt like mildew. He couldn't really move around as his hands were tied up and the door to the room was locked.
He wasn't exactly comfortable, he really didn't care at this point. He didn't know where he was, he didn't even know if anyone was coming to help him or if anyone would care to. He just couldn't break the fact the he felt completely alone.
He suddenly heard someone opening the door to the room, it opened wide as a figure stood in the doorway with more light was now shining bright on Jake. Jake looked away from the blinding light considering he'd been stuck in the dark room for quite some time.
“Get up” said a voice.
Jake slowly tried to get up with his hands tied, but with no luck, considering he couldn't really uses his hands and his legs were still half asleep.
The figure then walked over to Jake and forcefully jerked him up to his feet to meet him face to face. Jake now saw who exactly was holding him, it was RiceMan.
“Let's go, we have business to take care of” he said.
Jake didn't get a chance to respond as he was now being dragged out of the room and around the Pranksters hidden meeting place. For what was to come, he didn't have a clue