Ten More Yards

by 5aszs

FLEX BONE

“Atomic, take these cones and spread them out with Helios.”

Atomic took the gym bag from Coach Bouncer and walked across the pitch to Helios. The Eagles’ training session was running late due to the head coach being ill, so both Coach Persimmon and Bouncer were running today’s practise.

“Hey, where am I supposed to put these cones?” Atomic asked as he walked to Helios, who was already laying out his cones.

“Here, I’ll show you.”

Together, the two colts set out the cones until they spread out across a 20 yard radius, covering one side of the pitch. There were twenty lines of three cones, and each cone was placed five yards away from each other.

“What drill are we gonna be doing?”

“Shuttle run, I heard them talking about it in the changing rooms,” Helios replied.

“What’s that?”

“Right, three laps of the pitch, let’s go! And no cutting corners!”

“I’ll tell you afterwards.”

Most of the team had finished getting changed changed by now, and they began their three laps from the sideline on the other side of the pitch. Atomic and Helios joined the back of the group and conversed sporadically as they ran around the pitch.

“So..how..did you get….your cutie mark?” Atomic gasped out.

“Strip sack in the last three seconds. We were up by one and the offense was at the five yard line, but we ended up getting the ball back and winning the game.”

“So why does your cutie mark look like the sun?” Atomic asked, peering at Helios’ cutie mark, which depicted several rays of light coming down from an oval shaped like a hoofball.

“Um…..I think it's because…...I actually don’t know, I’ve never really thought about it.”

The team finished their three laps and formed a circle in the middle of the pitch to go through their stretches, with Helios leading them. After they had finished, the team lined up and stood in front of their offensive and defensive coordinators.

“As you all know, Coach Stargaze cannot be here as he has unfortunately come down with the flu, which means that Coach Bouncer and I will be running today’s session. But before we get started with the first drill, Coach Stargaze has passed on an announcement to us for you.”

Coach Bouncer stepped forward. “For those of you who don’t know, this team has an offensive and defensive captain chosen at the start of every season. But this year, we’re changing things up a bit; we are only going to have one captain.”

“And that captain is….Helios. Come to me at the end to get your armband.”

The colts clapped politely as Helios nodded.

“Right, let’s not waste anymore time and get started.”

The team were led to the right hand side of the pitch, where Atomic and Helios had set up the cones for the shuttle run drill. Coach Bouncer explained to them what the drill entailed before Coach Persimmon split them up into pairs and told them to line up in front of the cones.

“Hey, well done on being the captain,” Atomic whispered to Helios, who was front of him.

“Thanks,” Helios whispered before Coach Persimmon looked at him pointedly, and Helios blushed and apologised.

“Okay, we’re gonna go from left and right and one by one, you’re going to do your run whilst we time you. The four ponies with the slowest times will be doing five laps around the pitch at the end of training, so keep that in mind when you’re doing your run.”

As his teammates did the shuttle run one by one, Atomic watched them carefully, noting the different approaches that each pony took and making a note to implement their techniques into his run. Soon enough, the colts to Atomic’s left had finished their runs and it was Helios’ turn.

“Helios, you’re up.”

Helios nodded and crouched down, and Atomic moved back to give him some space. Coach Bouncer blew his whistle and Helios burst forward, hitting the first cone with his foreleg before turning back and sprinting back to the start line. As he completed the drill, Atomic noticed that Helios was using his long legs to his advantage, reaching forwards to hit the cones instead of taking a few extra strides to reach them.

“Okay, Atomic, you’re next.”

A panting Helios walked to the back and stood behind Atomic, who stepped up to the starting mark.

“On my whistle...BEEP!”

Atomic leapt off the starting mark and reached the first cone quickly, using his speed to get back to the starting mark as quickly as he could. At the last cone, Atomic stumbled a little as he turned to go back to the starting line, and as he finished the drill, he was frustrated with himself for not getting a quicker time.

“Crap, I'm gonna be one of the slowest now, I know it,” Atomic grumbled as he went to the back.

“Hey, there’s nothing to worry about, there were loads of ponies that were slower than you, okay?” Helios whispered, before checking if he had been heard by the coaches.

When everypony had finished the shuttle run, the coordinators cleared away the cones with the help of Helios and a few other colts, and they ran some simple fitness drills for the rest of the session. When it had passed seven o’clock, Coach Persimmon and Coach Bouncer wrapped up the session and announced the name of the four colts with the slowest shuttle run times, and Atomic was relieved to hear that he didn’t have to do five extra laps.

“Wait, you said you got your cutie mark at the end of the match, right?”

“Yep.”

“I think your cutie mark looks like that because you guys were close to losing the game, so you were all dejected and you needed somepony to step up for the team-and that's what you did. You’re also the team’s captain, so clearly I’m not the only one who realised.”

“......Wow, I never thought of it like that.”

The team headed back into the changing rooms to get changed, but before they could leave, Coach Persimmon told them to wait.

“I just got this from reception,” he said, holding a crumpled-up piece of paper. “It's the starting lineup for our next match.”

The colts all gathered in front of the coaches and they began to read out the list of colts that would be playing in the next match, and Atomic wasn’t surprised to hear that he would not be featuring in the game.

“Can't wait to be on the bench for another hour on Sunday,” Atomic remarked as he walked of the Eagles’ training grounds with Helios.

“Pine Hill’s gonna be an easy match, so you never know, they might put you in if we’re up by a lot.”

“Hopefully. Wait, is Pine Hill that school that’s like fifteen minutes away from here?”

“Yeah.”

“So does that mean that we play all the other school teams in the area?”

“Yeah, why?”

So Sycamore could potentially play the Eagles!

But that’s never gonna happen, we only just got the school team back.

“Oh, I was just asking.”

Atomic and Helios said goodbye to each other as they went their separate ways. Since it was still light outside, Atomic was allowed to go home by himself and it wasn't long before he had turned off the high street and onto the path that led him to Mayfield Avenue.

“Nopony’s been in there, will you relax?!”

“Some kids were hanging around outside yesterday, my mom saw them!”

Two stallions, who were in their late teens, were leaning against the front door of 27 North Avenue and as he walked past, Atomic saw one of the stallions push the other against the wall.

“Don’t buck this up! We both know what’s gonna happen to us if we don’t find out who’s been using the house! We’re gonna go in there, find the pony smoking our stuff and beat the living-”

The other stallion pointed at Atomic, who had been watching the exchange silently on the hoofpath. When he realised that he had been spotted, he made a run for his house.

“Hey, get back here!”

The teenagers threw their saddlebags through the window behind them and ran after Atomic. Atomic sprinted as fast as he could across the hoofpath, and when he saw his house in the distance, he suddenly changed direction and ran past the back of the houses in his road, looking behind him every few seconds to check that he wasn’t being followed. When he reached his house, he jumped up to reach the top of the fence and he dropped down into his garden.

“.......I’m home!”

Atomic staggered to the kitchen door and opened it, where his mother was chopping up carrots in the kitchen.

“Why didn’t you come in from the front?”

“.....It's quicker from the back.”

Tea Rose stared at Atomic skeptically for a few moments, before sighing and turning back the chopping board.

“Put your stuff away, dinner will be ready in half an hour.”

As Atomic went up the stairs, the doorbell rang.

“Open it, that’s your aunt and sister!” Tea Rose called out from the kitchen as she closed the door, and Atomic went back downstairs and opened the front door, not bothering to check through the letterbox who was knocking.

“You alright, kid?”

Atomic was dragged forwards by one teen whilst the other closed the door.

“MO-”

Atomic tried to yell again, but the hoof stuffed into his mouth meant that his cries for help only came out as muffled noises. Once they had checked that the road was clear, the stallions dragged Atomic down the road, leading him to North Avenue.

“ARRGHHH!”

The stallion holding Atomic cried out and pulled his hoof out of Atomic’s mouth, which he had bitten. Atomic took a chance and wriggled free from his abductor, making a run for it. Unfortunately, the other stallion reached out and pulled Atomic back by his mane, punching him hard before wrapping a foreleg around his neck to hold the younger colt in a headlock.

“Scream like that again and the next time you wake up will be in a hospital bed. Understood?”

Atomic nodded frantically and the two took him inside the house, pushing him down to hit the bottom of the stairs.

“We’re gonna ask you one question, and if you tell the truth, then you can run back home to mummy.”

“If you lie to us, then you already know what we’re gonna do.”

“I didn’t do anything, I swear!”

“We'll be the judge of that. Did you come in here yesterday?”

“Yeah, but only because my friend accidentally threw the ball in here through one of the windows. I went inside to help him find the ball!”

The stallions stared at him for a few moments.

“He’s telling the truth.”

Atomic slowly pushed himself up. “Does that mean I can go now?”

“Did you see anything in the house? Any bags or newspapers?”

“No, I didn’t even go in any of the rooms, we found the ball in the kitchen!” Atomic cried, deliberately avoiding mentioning the green powder he remembered seeing in one of the bedrooms upstairs.

“But the kitchen’s windows are at the back, How is that possible?”

When Atomic couldn’t give an answer, one of the stallions grabbed Atomic by the neck and lifted him up.

“You’re lying to us, aren’t you?!”

“N-no, I swear,” Atomic choked out, struggling to breathe.

“Let him go, his parents are gonna call the cops if he’s missing for too long,” the other stallion said, pulling his friend away from Atomic.

Atomic was dropped and he hit the ground on his front hard.

“You’re gonna go back home now, and you’re not gonna tell anypony about us, got it?”

“I won’t, I swear!”

The stallions pushed Atomic out of the house and made a run for it, turning at the end of the road toward the high street. Atomic slowly walked out of the house, wincing as he rubbed his chest. He collapsed on the front porch and began to cry.

---

“I said I’m not hungry, how many times do I have to tell you?!”

When he did not hear a reply, Atomic slammed his door shut. When he finally got home, his mother had questioned him endlessly about where he had gone and why his neck and face were bruised. When Atomic explained that he had taken a hard hit in training and that he had quickly gone round to Thunderhoof’s house, his mother warned him to be more careful in practise.

Those guys aren't gonna come back for me, are they?! They know where I live!

“Atomic!”

Atomic snapped out of his daze and slowly opened the door, revealing a worried Pumpkin standing at his door.

“Is everything okay? How come you don't want your dinner?”

“I'm not hungry. I just wanna be alone,” Atomic replied abruptly, putting a hoof on his doorknob and beginning to shut it.

“Alright, if that's what you want, then I’ll go.”

Pumpkin closed Atomic’s door for him, and he waited until her hoofsteps became quieter and quieter before he sat back down on his bed. He pushed his science homework off his bed to make more space, in no mood to complete the two-page long pop quiz due the day after tomorrow. He fell back onto his pillow and rubbed his sore chest tenderly, his attackers’ threats plaguing his thoughts the whole night.

---

“.....and then I said- hey, Atomic!”

“Huh?”

Thunderhoof tapped Atomic’s shoulder again and Atomic yawned before looking up. He had unable to focus the whole morning and he had called out by his teachers more than once for dozing off.

“What were we talking about again?”

“Did you even get any sleep last night?”

Atomic yawned again. “No, I…..didn’t.”

Atomic absentmindedly rubbed his bruised chest and Thunderhoof gasped.

“Woah, what happened to your chest?”

“Training.”

“Man, your sessions must be rough then.”

“Yeah, they are.”

“Chestnut!”

Atomic slowly lifted his head up as Chestnut got his lunch and sat next to him.

“Hey, are you alright? You look really tired.”

“Yeah, didn’t get much sleep last night, that’s why.”

Chestnut and Thunderhoof chatted about hoofball as they ate, and when they finished , they picked up their saddlebags from underneath the table, and Atomic did the same as he took his unfinished plate of pasta to the bins.

“I need to revise for Maths, I have a test next lesson,” Chestnut announced as the three colts left the canteen, and he told them that he was going to the library to revise.

“Did you bring your EHL cards?” Thunderhoof nodded, and Atomic nodded morosely.

“Are you sure you’re okay?”

“Yeah, I’m fine. How many platinums do you have now?”

“Four, I got Comet Chaser in a pack I bought yesterday after training.”

Atomic stopped. “You got a platinum Comet Chaser in a regular pack?! How?!”

Thunderhoof grinned. “Luck.”

“Man, the only platinum I got is the Nick Foals one, I need to start getting packs again.”

The two headed to the back of the field, where their other friends were waiting for them on the grass. Maverick, Moon Dust, Jackpot and Spade Ace had told them in recess that they would be missing lunch for revision so only their friends in fifth-grade were waiting on the field for them.

“Did you guys all bring your cards?”

The colts pointed to their cards lying face down on the grass, and Atomic and Thunderhoof sat down in front of them.

“Wait everypony show the best card they have.”

The colts all flipped over a card in their pile to show their highest-rated player. Whilst a few only had gold players, most of them had a high elite player with ratings that ranged from 86-90. Pacific Sail was the only other pony with a platinum card- and it was Cartwheel card, the Dragons’ quarterback.

“Wait for us!”

Blaze and Mustang panted as they finally reached the others, and they collapsed onto the grass.

“Wait, don't you guys normally hang out with Pablo?” Starburst asked, and Blaze shook his head.

“Not anymore, we wanna be with you guys.”

For the rest of lunch, the friends traded their cards casually, breaking out into laughter frequently as they spoke, and Atomic’s worries about yesterday’s trauma was pushed to the back of his mind as he joined in with the banter.

“You guys should’ve seen Thunder on the first day, Ms Ivory had him scarred for life!”

“Excuse me, weren’t you the pony that whispered her name when we came in? You sounded like you were in a horror movie and Ms Ivory was about to kill you!”

Atomic pushed Thunderhoof lightly as the others laughed, with Banoffee finding the story particularly as he hiccuped loudly, sending the others into hysterics again.

“It's….not....funny,” Banoffee said with a smile, hiccupping every few seconds, and eventually Stormcaller gave him his bottle of water.

When the bell rang, the colts got up and made their way off the field and back inside the school , and they said their goodbyes to each other as they headed off to their lessons.

“Well, at least we know Ms Ivory’s not gonna give us another test,” Thunderhoof remarked, and Atomic groaned.

“Don't say that! Last time you said that, she gave us a test!”

“Yeah, but that was just a coincidence. Besides, you’re good at Maths, so it won’t matter even if she does.”

The two waited outside their classroom with their classmates, and Ms Ivory unlocked the door from inside to let her pupils in.

“Thunderhoof, I have moved you up to the top set,” Ms Ivory announced as he entered the class.

“You did?”

“Mr Topaz has already added you to his register.”

“Oh, okay.”

Atomic stepped aside to let Thunderhoof pass, annoyed that his best friend wasn't in the same Maths class as him anymore.

“Wait for me outside his class, okay?”

Atomic nodded and Thunderhoof closed the door behind him as Atomic made his way to his seat at the back of the class.

“Open up your textbooks to page 76 and answer questions 1a, 1b, and 1c as a starter.”

---

“I thought Ms Ivory was bad, but Mr Topaz is a million times worse!”

Thunderhoof continued to rant about his new Maths teacher as he turned off the high street with Atomic.

“Hey, you were never gonna stay with Ms Ivory forever, you were way too smart for us anyway-”

“Yeah, go and tell him to bring the stuff here!”

Atomic heard an all-too familiar voice to his right and prayed that he was wrong and that it wasn't who he thought it was. As he glanced to his right, his fears were confirmed when he recognised the stallions coming down the road.

Atomic pushed Thunderhoof forward as he began to gallop. “Come on, first pony to their house wins!”

The two colts sprinted to their houses as fast as they could, and Thunderhoof spotted Atomic look back a few times past him. When they reached their houses, Thunderhoof decided to question his friend about this.

“Hey, why did you keep looking back?”

“Oh, I, uh, just wanted to make sure I wasn't beating you too badly,” Atomic replied, breathing heavily.

“It's not like you’re so much faster than me, you only just beat me!”

“Oh no, is Thunderhoof gonna cry?!”

Atomic sniggered as Thunderhoof pushed him, and the two said goodbye as they went inside their houses.

“Atomic, put your bag away, you’re coming shopping with me!”

“What?! Why?!”

Tea Rose came down the stairs, holding one of Atomic’s shirts. “Because none of your clothes fit you anymore and I can't have you walking around in shirts that are two sizes too small.”

“Can we go next week? Please?!”

“No, we’re going today, put your bag away and I’ll make you a sandwich.”

Atomic groaned and stomped up the stairs, closing his door loudly. He groaned again when he found that his mother had thrown most of his clothes onto his bed and the floor , and he pushed some shirts aside as he threw his bag onto his bed.

Shopping with Mom, it can't get any worse than that, right?

---

“Atomic, you’ve said no to nearly everything! Start choosing some clothes or I will!”

Atomic rolled his eyes and looked back at the shelves of shirts. This was the third clothes shop that he had been to, and his reluctance to buy anything meant that his mother’s patience was wearing thin, and Atomic knew that if he didn’t pick out anything soon, his mother would lose it.

“Okay, I wanna get those ones,” Atomic declared, pointing to two shirts. The first was a dark green shirt displaying the Dragons’ logo with the team’s motto ‘FEEL THE HEAT’ written in a bold, white font. The second was a simple, plaid blue t-shirt, designed to be comfortable.

“Alright, I suppose it's better than nothing.”

Tea Rose reached up and pulled the shirts and their hangers down, placing them at the bottom of her shopping basket.

“Alright, let’s go to the checkouts and then we'll go home, I need to put Butter to sleep.”

Finally!

After they had paid for the shirts, the mother and son left the shop and headed out of the shop, headed towards the shopping centre exit.

“Can I get a milkshake?” Atomic suddenly asked, pointing to a small milkshake stall that had been set up in the middle of the shopping centre.

“Atomic, we don’t have time to-”

“Please, Mom?!”

“Okay fine, but it's coming out of your pocket money this week.”

Atomic thanked his mother and led her to the back of the queue.

“What can I get you?”

“One large cookie dough milkshake, please.”

As they stepped to the side to wait for the milkshake to be made, Tea Rose and Atomic talked about school and the improvements Atomic had made in his subjects.

“Hey, Atomic! We said your name like a million times!”

Atomic turned around and froze.

“Er, it's nice to see you too,” one of the stallions said, pulling a stunned Atomic into a quick hug.

“Oh, we’re Atomic’s friends from school,” the other stallion explained to a confused Tea Rose.

“Ye-yeah, this is Maverick and Moon Dust,” Atomic said quietly.

“One large cookie dough milkshake!”

Atomic quickly took his milkshake and pulled his mother away, telling the stallions that he would see them at school tomorrow.

“They seemed nice, do you know if they’re going to Lakefield next year as well?”

“Er, I don't know, they said they haven’t decided yet,” Atomic said, looking back at the stallions that had attacked him the previous night, who were laughing their heads off. “Let’s go home, Butter needs to go to sleep.”

---

“We’re only gonna ask you one more time. Did you touch anything in the house?”

“No, I swear!”

“Atomic, when are you gonna learn? Telling lies is only gonna hurt you.”

Atomic watched his mother scream and he desperately tried to shake himself free of his restraints. The stallions had broken into their house in the middle of the night and had everypony, including Butterscotch, tied up in the living room. His aunt had already been silenced with a hard blow to her head, and Syracuse watched the events in front of him unfold silently.

“Dad, do something!”

Syracuse looked up silently and shook his head, muttering incoherently before he dropped his head again.

“No, no, LEAVE ME ALONE!”

Tea Rose shrieked as the tip of a knife was placed underneath her eye, and she screamed even louder when the knife made a red line underneath her eye.

“NO, LEAVE MY MOM ALONE!”

The stallions cackled as they continued marking Tea Rose’s face with the knife, and Atomic spotted some ponies walking past their house.

“HELP! SOMEPONY PLEASE HELP US!”

Ponies continued walking past the house, with some even stopping right outside the window for a few moments before continuing on their way.

“I'm getting bored now, finish her off.”

Atomic screamed and covered his eyes, unable to watch what was about to happen.

“Atomic, Atomic Tangerine.”

Huh?!

Atomic lifted his head up and was shocked when he realised that he was no longer bounded by ropes. He slowly got up and saw that nopony else was in his living room, with even the stallions being absent.

“Atomic.”

“Who is that?” Atomic shakily called out, and he got his answer a few moments late when a flash of light brought somepony else into his dream.

“Princess Luna!”

The night princess stepped forward and smiled at the colt. “That is correct.”

“But what are you doing here? Where’s Mom, Dad, Butterscotch and Aunt Pumpkin?!”

“They’re fine, Atomic. This is just a dream.”

“This is a dream? But…...it feels so real,” he whispered, looking around him.

“I can assure you Atomic, you are fast asleep right now,” the alicorn replied. “But why do you think you are having such a graphic nightmare?”

“It's because of those….stallions. They….caught me watching them a few days ago and they dragged me out of the house and beat me up. They even followed me and my mom shopping today,” Atomic replied shakily.

“And have you told anypony about this?”

“I can’t. They said if I tell anypony, they’re gonna…...they’re gonna……”

Tears ran down Atomic’s face and Princess Luna quickly wrapped her forelegs around the colt in a tight embrace, holding him close to her chest. When he had calmed down, he slowly stepped back and wiped his eyes, before telling Princess Luna the entire story of how they had met.

“Atomic, you have to tell the police about this, those stallions are engaging in illegal activity, and they will not be able to cause you any harm when they’re put behind bars.”

“But they could tell their friends where I live, and then they could come for me!”

“Atomic, you cannot live in constant fear. You know what the right thing to do is. It's up to you to make that choice.”

---

“Woah! Look at how many cops there are!”

Atomic was glued to his window, watching the street below. Tuesday morning in Mayfield Avenue was crawling with police officers, with ponies being led out of their houses as different search teams entered the different households. Waiting on the pavements, the neighbours all clamoured together to try and figure out what was going on.

“Atomic, get ready for school now!”

Tea Rose entered her sons bedroom and found him sticking his head out of his window, which he had opened fully.

“What are you doing, do you wanna fall out and break your back?!”

“Mom, look!”

Tea Rose looked out of the window and gasped. “What in Equestria is going on?”

Suddenly there was a loud knock at the door.

“Are those the cops?” Atomic asked, and Tea shrugged her shoulders.

“Pumpkin, could you get that, please?”

Atomic and Tea Rose headed out of the former’s bedroom and down the stairs, just as Syracuse came out of the bathroom, a towel wrapped around his neck.

“What’s going on?” he mumbled, rubbing his mouth.

“Police,” Atomic replied, just as Pumpkin opened the door, revealing two police officers standing at the doorstep.

“Good morning, may we speak to Mrs Tea Rose and Mr Syracuse?”

“We’re here,” Tea Rose replied, quickly coming down the stairs with her husband, who quickly tossed his towel off his neck as he came downstairs.

One of the officers held up a piece of paper. “We have a search warrant here for this house.”

“On what grounds?” Syracuse asked.

“On the grounds of possession and distribution of narcotics.”

“Wh-what?! You think we’re selling drugs?!” Tea Rose spluttered.

“We’re searching every house on the road, so if you could step outside, please.”

Syracuse, Atomic and Pumpkin walked out of the house whilst Tea Rose went upstairs to get Butterscotch, and her loud cries were being desperately countered by Tea Rose.

“Sshh, Butter, it's okay, we’re just going outside for a bit, and then you can go back,” Tea Rose said as she carried her daughter outside. The two officers stepped aside to let a team of five ponies wearing white bodysuits enter the house.

“Hey, Atomic!”

Thunderhoof waved at Atomic and walked over to him. “Hey, are they searching your house too?”

Atomic nodded. “They said something about drugs.”

Thunderhoof led Atomic away from their families. “Do you think it's something to do with that green stuff we saw in that house?”

“Maybe, it did smell really weird and it was everywhere in that room.”

“I heard one of the cops say that they got an anonymous tip-off about somepony hiding drugs on our road. Who do you think it was?”

“No idea,” Atomic replied, beginning to connect the dots.

It must’ve been Princess Luna who called the police then.

She must’ve got the road wrong though, those stallions were on North Avenue.

I should tell the cops later when I'm going to school with Thunder.

Atomic and Thunderhoof rejoined their families and waited for the search team to clear out of their homes.

“There’s nothing in there, sir!” one of the ponies on the search team announced as he came out of Thunderhoof’s house, and a few minutes later, the same declaration was made from the search team working in Atomic’s house.

As they entered their house, Tea Rose was furious that the search team had made the previously tidy house messy. The sofa had been lifted up and left on its side, the dining table’s plastic cover had been tossed to the floor. In the kitchen, the cupboards had been rifled through and tins, plates and plastic containers covered the floor. Of the upstairs bedrooms, Syracuse and Tea Rose’s room had been left the messiest, with clothes covering the carpet, their bedsheets discarded onto the floor, and their drawers emptied out onto the bed.

“Okay everypony, me and Pumpkin will fix this later, come and get your breakfast!”

Syracuse was the first to leave the house for work, and Atomic left for school ten minutes later, just as Thunderhoof came out of his own house.

“If we’re late, we can tell Ms Ivory that the police were searching our houses,” Thunderhoof said as they set off, and Atomic nodded.

As the colts walked past North Avenue on the footpath that led to the high street, Athe police had moved onto North Avenue, and they were now searching the houses on that road. When they reached number 27, the police officers knocked on the door and waited for a reply, before one of the residents told them that the house had been abandoned. Curious to see what would happen next, Atomic and Thunderhoof walked away from the hoofpath and towards the police, interested to see what would happen next as the search team were cleared to enter the house.

“HEY!”

Two stallions had jumped out of one of the first-floor side windows and landed roughly. When both were up on their hooves, they checked around the corner of the brick wall to see if anypony could see them. When they were sure the coast was clear, the two had made a run for it down the road, but they had been spotted by an officer. Luckily for the Fillydelphia Police Department, the officer that had seen the stallions was a unicorn, and he quickly used his magic to teleport and get closer to the stallions.

“MOVE OUT OF OUR WAY OR I’LL PUT THIS THROUGH YOUR STOMACH!”

One of the stallions waved a knife at the residents as they galloped, using the scattering of the terrified residents to clear a path so that they could escape police custody. The unicorn officer used to teleport only a few yards away from the stallions, and the other officers were already chasing after the stallions, with some clambering into their carriages.

Atomic and Thunderhoof quickly moved aside as they saw the knife being pointed in their direction, but as they did, one of Thunderhoof’s hind legs unintentionally clipped the knife-wielder’s back leg, and he tumbled to the ground.

The other stallion turned around and saw that his friend had dropped to the floor. With the police gaining on the two, he decided to ditch his friend and make a run for the high street to save himself.

The grounded stallion quickly got up, and when he saw that his friend had already ditched him, he tried to desperately catch up to him. But by that point, several police officers had reached him and the knife was taken away from him as he was restrained.

“Sir, sir!”

Several members of the search team came running out of 27 North Avenue, and they were holding several plastic bags. As they came closer, a pungent smell filled the air.

“Sir, there’s loads of it in there, and there’s even a garden in the basement,” one of the search team members gasped out, and the officers turned back to the apprehended stallion.

“You are under arrest for the crime of producing, possessing and distributing narcotics, and also for attempted bodily harm. You have the right to remain silent, but anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law. You have the right to have an attorney present during questioning. If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you.”

As the stallion was carted off to the nearest police carriage, Atomic slapped Thunderhoof on the back.

“Dude, if it wasn't for you, they wouldn’t have got him!”

“Yeah, but I didn’t mean to trip him up, it just...happened.”

“Send a team out to find that other stallion,” one of the officers ordered, and a group of pegasi quickly took flight to find the escapee.

“You kids should be in school now, it's nearly nine o’clock,” one of the officers pointed out.

“Oh crap!”

---

“Yeah, and Thunder tripped the guy up so that the police could catch him!”

The news that one stallion had been arrested and another was on the run in the area was the main topic of conversation amongst the Sycamore Oak students and teachers, with each pony giving their own theory as to where the escapee could be. In their second-period History lesson, Miss Chrysanthemum had stepped outside to print off the class’ homework, and Atomic had taken the opportunity to retell the morning’s events to his classmates.

“Thunderhoof, you’re so brave!” one of the fillies said, and Thunderhoof’s face flushed bright red.

“It was nothing, the police were gonna catch him anyways.”

“That's nothing, if I was there I would’ve taken the knife off him as well!”

“Pablo, just be quiet and stop being jealous!”

A chorus of ‘oohs’ rang out as Pablo glared at Blaze.

“Yeah, why are you so obsessed with Thunderhoof and Atomic, are you in love with them or something?!”

Pablo lept out of his chair and swung for Mustang, his hoof connecting with his former friend’s face with a right hook. The two tumbled to the ground, both trying to gain an upper hoof over their opponent. Blaze also jumped into the fight, throwing a couple of shots at Pablo.

Atomic, Thunderhoof and the other colts in the class quickly separated the three colts, and they were able to hold them in separate corners of the classroom.

“I'm gonna kill him!”

“Trust me Mustang, he isn't worth it,” Atomic pleaded, desperately holding his friend back.

“What in Equestria is going on in here?!”

Miss Chrysanthemum slammed the door shut behind her, and she stood in front of the classroom.

“I trusted you to behave yourselves whilst I was out printing, and you decided to get into a fight?!”

The class remained silent, and the young History teacher slammed the pile of papers onto her desk, before pointing to the colts keeping Blaze, Mustang and Pablo separate from each other.

“All of you are coming back after school for detention, and I will be notifying Miss Bellflower about this. Get back to your seats!”

---

“I didn’t think they’d hit him like that though.”

“He deserved it though, props to them for teaching him a lesson.”

An hour and a half after school had ended, Atomic and Thunderhoof were on their way out of school, having just completed a detention with Miss Bellflower in her room.

“So Pablo has no friends now?” Thunderhoof queried, and Atomic smiled.

“Yep, we'll see how big-mouthed he’ll be when he’s by himself every day.”

The two friends crossed the busy pedestrian crossing and stopped outside a local off-license.

“This is where I got the platinum Comet Chaser card from,” Thunderhoof explained, pushing the door open.

The two colts each bought two EHL packs, and they left the shop and continued on their way home. As they walked past the shops, the colts spotted some wanted posters, displaying a picture of the runaway who’d escaped arrest, were fastened to nearly every window.

“What if he’s nearby?”

“Hm?”

“That other stallion, what if he’s still in the area,” Atomic said, and Thunderhoof shook his head.

“There’s no way he’d still be around. He’s probably already been caught by now.”

Stop worrying, he could be in a cell right now.

Or he could be coming for me…..

When they reached their respective houses, Atomic and Thunderhoof said goodbye to each other and went inside their respective homes. Atomic knocked on the door and waited to be let in.

“Hey, Atomic.”

A blunt object hit the back of Atomic’s head, and as he dropped to the ground, the last thing he remembered seeing was a blurry figure standing over him.