> Dan & Pinkie VS. > by Morex25 > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 - First Meeting [Edited- Oct. 05 . '13] > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS. Chapter 1 – First Meeting [Edited] If you were to ask Dan when his life changed for the better, he would probably say it was when people learned their place. And to never bother him or his liberties again. But if you were to ask Chris and Elise, they would say it was when a certain pink haired girl entered his life in an unexpected manner. Their first meeting wasn't romantic, flattering or even nice, more like a scene from a bad comedy. It all started when Dan entered the local burger establishment named Burger Phile. While wheeling his best friend/slave/pet Chris in a hand truck, clearly so he could order a milkshake for his poisoned friend and a plain burger with small cola for himself. A plain burger with no cheese, because he was lactose intolerant. If he ate cheese he would die, but not before burning the whole place to the ground. Maybe also leave a horrible bio-hazard gas cloud due to incredible lousy meat diet. Or so he educated (ranted) to the uninterested cashier. Usually, people tended to ignore Dan rants and assumed he was just a crazy person with anger issues (which wasn't that far away from the truth). On this occasion though, his angered words caught the attention of another patron. This patron was sitting near where Dan ended up setting up his friend still strapped to the hand truck. After a whole minute of watching him simulate talk with his obviously unconscious friend, the other customer couldn’t contain their curiosity. How entertained at a fast food place by yourself? It was kinda dull day to start with the sun partly cloudy. And the smells of cooked processed meat were not exactly stimulating. "Excuse me. Is your friend alright?" Dan turned his head towards the person who just interrupted his meal. Usually, he would’ve consider this as a sin* committed against him, He was about to tell the interloper off, but he stopped when he noticed it was a girl. This interloper was a young girl, probably a few years younger than him. Maybe 22 or 24 years old, tops. She had crazy curly and puffy pink hair and big blue eyes. The loud and offensive (clothes to the real world,) rags she wore came from a rejected clown costume box. She was wearing a short sleeved white shirt under a dark blue sweater vest, cut off jeans shorts, colorful legwarmers, and red shoes. In short, she was a combination of bright colors that made Dan's eye hurt. "Uuh…" Dan hesitated for a second but he quickly recovered. "What are you, a doctor? He's fine!" "Are you sure? He looks a little pale..." She asked once again. Strangely enough, it wasn't in a accusatory manner like Elise usually did when questioning him. No, this girl was asking out of simple and unadulterated curiosity. "I told you he's fine! Aren't you, buddy!" Swiftly Dan moved his hand towards Chris' face and began moving his mouth and pretended to be him. "You are very right Dan, my best buddy," Dan said in what could only be a very bad imitation of Chris' voice. The pink haired girl just giggled at the scene in front of her. Even with her eyes closed, no way she was buying for a single second Dan's act. But she didn't push the issue either since it was so funny to her. She just nodded and returned to her seat and meal. Dan shrugged his shoulders, ignoring the strange event that just happened. The ‘pink girl’ went to the furthest thing on the back of his mind, so he could go back to enjoy his meal. Before he could take a bite out of his plain burger with ketchup (the one true condiment) though, his friend's cell phone rang. The frown and gritting of sharp pointy teeth displayed how he felt about being interrupted once more. The pink haired girl continued with her meal, but she would occasionally glance towards the angry little man and his friend. She found him strangely interesting and funny to boot. Here it was a slightly shorter than average man who entered the burger shop with his friend tied up to a hand truck and demanded his burger like a king demands utter respect without an ounce of shame. Maybe his short stature reminded her of the image of a small toothless alligator. with a Napoleon hat on. Then all of the sudden, the man with Napoleon complex stood up and hurriedly left the place taking his friend along. What caught most of her attention was the urgent look on his face- as if something REALLY bad just happened. He didn't even take along his unfinished food. Concerned, she walked toward the windows that gave a good view of the parking lot- just to make sure they were fine. But what she found was the little guy crawling on the floor towards his car. Rapidly (faster than greased lightning dust) the girl left Burger Phile and ran toward the crawling man, who was moaning in severe pain. "Are you alright?" She asked worriedly. Moments ago he looked fine, and now he was crawling in the rough parking lot. Just what in the world could’ve happened in such short amount of time? If Dan wasn't in so much pain, he would've snapped in rage for the mere audacity of asking such a stupid question that deserved an extremely obvious answer. But the only thing coming from his mouth were complaints and noises of pain. "We need to get you to the hospital!" Whatever happened to him must be serious if it could knock down a man in so few seconds. At the mention of that horrid place, Dan's eyes widened. He couldn't go back there! Elise was there! And she would take Chris away. Chris was the worst possible distraction, but one needed to blow up that stupid and noisy Animal Shelter- with that equally annoying blond haired hippie. "N..no..hos..pital…need..to…get…home….my medicine…lactose…intolerant." "I don't think you can drive if you're feeling sick!" The concerned girl said trying to remain calm. But she couldn’t hide the worry in her voice completely. Her eyes shut a bit, her smile muscles hurting because she didn’t frown much. "Shhh..ut it…need to go home now!" Against her better judgment, she helped him get inside the car and then get his friend- still attached to the hand truck. "Do you really think you can-" She began but was interrupted when Dan just sped out of there with sloppy driving. Thank god there weren't many drivers around for some reason. Maybe it was the dreary, cloudy day. "…drive?" She stood there debating if what she did was the right choice or she should've insisted more. Then out of the sudden she felt a small jolt in her body that made her twitch. The familiar feeling, a sixth sense that told her that something bad would happen- to the little man she found so funny. Decisively, she followed her intuition without question since it had never failed her before. Right now it was telling her to go to the drugstore, and buy some medicine that would come in handy later. Our ‘Heroine’ took out her keys from her purse and got in her car. It was a compact, the smallest four-seater in the market you could confuse it with a two-seater. Like her hair and outfit, the vehicle was colorful, mostly pink and with lots of decorative stickers of balloons. It may look like a small cute car, but the engine roared like a beast and speed out like a devil. "Let's go!" ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// After a quick trip to the drugstore, the pink haired girl stepped out of her car in front of an run-down apartment complex called Casa Paradisio. There were many apartments and her "sense" just told her to be here, but it didn't specify exactly which number was his apartment. So she decided to ask for help. Coincidently, coming down the stairs was the unconscious big guy being wheeled by a maroon haired lady with a white shirt and hip-hugger blue jeans, probably his wife. She approached them with a big smile. "Excuse me, Hi! I'm looking for a guy of this stature, with messy black hair and shirt." She asked while using her hands to emphasize the stature and the 'messingness' of his hair. "If you're looking for Dan, his apartment is the number eight. And if you want to get back to him, this is your perfect chance. Now I have to take my husband back to the hospital, bye!" The pinkette thanked her and waved goodbye to the both of them and wished them a safe trip to the hospital. After they were gone, she went up the stairs and walked up to apartment eight. She knocked on the door but nobody answered. After a few seconds she turned the knob and found it unlocked. "Dan…?" she called out for him, walking slowly through the doorway. At first glance, the apartment was a complete mess with tons of stuff littering around. Not that she could criticize since she loved throwing parties that ended up just like this place- except more decorations and bright colors. She walked on the darkness until her feet bumped into something, which moaned in pain. Regrettably her first instinct was to kick the offending object out of fright. But when the only response was more moaning in pain she realized it wasn't a monster or something. It was Dan, laying face down on the floor. "Dan! I'm so sorry! Let me help you!" She knelt beside him and flipped him face up. "I…need…medi..cine" He barely groaned out. The pain was kicking in overtime, especially now after being hit in the gut by that meddlesome Elise. If he didn't take his medicine now the pain would continue for at least a few hours, making his day much more miserable. "Don't worry! I have some right here!" She took out a small pink bottle of 'Dr. Sceptic's Stomach Remedy', opened it up and helped him drink the medicine directly from the bottle. Dan drank the medicine like he was dying of thirst despite the cheap bubblegum flavor that didn't taste like bubblegum at all. Pinkie smiled, her left hand sliding against his scrawny chest. She was happy that she could help in his moment of need. After he finished drinking almost the entire bottle, Dan closed both eyes and waited for the effect to kick in. Then, he felt his head rest on something real soft and warm. He opened his eyes only to find the smiling face of the girl he met at Burger Phile half an hour ago, who had laid his head on her lap. Dozens of questions swirled around his head like, what are you doing here? Who let you in? Were you following me? Are you some kind of psychotic stalker? Am I going to end up chained on your basement while you cut me open and use my entrails to make cupcakes? But the only thing that came from his mouth was… "Are you going to kill me? Who…are you?" The girl just giggled and with a smile that could bring sunshine out of the darkest places. She answered with a bubbly voice. "How silly of me! I didn't introduce myself earlier today, did I? My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie, but my friends call me Pinkie!" Dan wasn’t sure if her stupid grin was a ploy to throw his guard off. No one was that cherry in front of a dying man. If he had strength, he would've pointed out how dumb that nickname sounded. Not to mention also ask what kind of name was ‘Pinkamena’ anyway, but the whole milkshake incident left him really tired and he ended up falling asleep on Pinkie's lap. Even with the howls and cries of the animals of the shelter. Yes, the shelter could wait until tomorrow to be blown up. Now was sleepy time. (damn, her big boobies got in the way) Pinkie sat there with his head on her lap and watched him fall asleep and soon after she too drifted into dreamland. Both may not have known it then- but this meeting would change their entire lives forever, and for Dan it was the beginning of a brighter future. Bonus: [Added on Oct 5th 2013] A cell phone rang, making a girl with a rainbow died hair stop from her jogging. “Hm? Oh, it’s Twilight.” She picked up the phone to start talking. “Look Twilight, I know I’m late with the book, but I met with this really cool lawyer and-” “Let me stop you there Dash. I wasn’t calling- Wait, you met a lawyer? Not some jock?” “Hey! You called me about something?!” Dash blushed a bit, getting called out on her choice of guy. “Oh, right. I just found out where Pinkie’s at. She’s in California.” The voice of Twilight sounded a bit giddy. “So? She told us all in an email... Wait. Did you find a guy?” Dash asked, lifting her eyebrows as she calmed down. “Oh my gosh, he’s so much better than Flash! He’s an engineer from MIT! And get this- We found the perfect guy for Pinkie!” “What’s his name?” ”Soma Cruz!” Bonus written by Mistershield. * * * Wait...Mistershield ?!?! 0_o > Chapter 2 - First Meetings…again?! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS. Chapter 2: First Meetings...again?! Original by: Morex25 Edited by: FlamesofBlades AKA Ember Wing The morning after the 'milkshake incident', Dan had woken up, only to find himself on his bed fully clothed with slight body ache. Him being in his sleepy state, he didn't question how he ended up in his bed or why the floor of his apartment was inexplicably cleaner than the day before. If anything, he just wanted to return to his revenge scheme. It wouldn't be until the night after though; having a change of heart and spared the lives of the caged animals...but not the animal shelter. Dan returned home with his newest pet, Mr. Mumbles, when he found a note on his dresser. It was a bright pink note which, strangely enough, had a cake frosting scent. The note itself was written with impeccable hand-writing which Dan could appreciate, him disliking bad writing, but what he couldn't stand was the color of the ink. It was pink. Pink ink on a pink letter. How infuriating and bad for the eyes this combination was! And who replaces the dots above the "I's" with hearts!? To his credit, Dan did read the letter, despite his urge to rip it apart. It said something about how the person who wrote it "hoped he felt better" and that he/she "cleaned the apartment", as it was obvious he couldn't do it in his sick state. He then notice at the bottom of the letter was signed with the name 'Pinkie' "Pinkie? That name sounds familiar..." Dan pondered, only for the realization to hit him like a sledgehammer to the face. That was the name of the girl! The girl who'd apparently stalked him after helping him get on the car at Burger Phile, trespassed into his home, gived him medicine, and clean his home while he was sleeping! Dan didn't know how to feel. On the one hand, she'd helped him return to his apartment and give him medicine that prevented hours of pain...yet on the other hand, she followed him, intruded in his home uninvited, and watch him sleep which Dan noted are the signs of a psychopath. A psychopath who was obsessed with him, knew exactly where he lived, and probably already had copies of his keys too. In mere seconds, Dan locked every possible entrance to his home, took his trusty old bat with a nail, and huddled with Mr. Mumbles on his bed. "Don't worry Mr. Mumbles; that pink haired psycho will not hurt us!" The cat didn't seem to pay much attention to his owner's antics and simply covered herself with a blanket, falling asleep. "Yes, Mr. Mumbles, sleep for now. I'll take the first turn for tonight!" All of this, however, would be all for naught; a mere half hour later, he too would fall asleep too and forget everything in the morning. -- Several days later, Dan would run into various Canadian related incidents that sent him into revenge mode, subsequently calling Chris, and interrupting his peaceful walk in the park with his wife, Elise. "What's wrong with Dan? Did he say something about syrup?" Elise queried once the call ended. "Yeah, he said he's covered in it and now he wants revenge on Canada" Chris replied unamused. He'd just recently left the hospital after being poisoned with bad meatloaf and now Dan wanted to drag him into another revenge trip? Chris was not in a mood for such a thing. "Ohh that Dan! Always covered in something" Elise joked, hoping to cheer up Chris, even if it was a little, yet he didn't even crack a smile at her joke. Seeing this, she decided to take a different route, "How about we go for something to eat before you go out with Dan?" At the mention of food, Chris' mood changed instantly. "Yeah! Let's go to Ninja Dave's; I'm in the mood for some of his cookies!" After a short walk from the park, Chris and Elise arrived at the cookie shop, ran by a former ninja that, not weeks prior, tried to kill Dan. Funny how things turn out in the end. As they entered, they noticed Ninja Dave was talking with a strangely dressed, fluffy pink haired girl by the counter. They didn't quite catch what the conversation was about and the only thing they did hear was Dave saying "Yes, I will make sure to supply your order for next week!" "Okie-Dokie-Loki!" The girl exclaimed with such exuberance, it was close to contagious. She turned around suddenly to see both Chris and Elise as her smile widened more, if such a thing was possible. "Oh! Hello! It's nice to see you again!" She greeted, without losing an ounce of her high spirits. "It's good to see you recovered so fast!" She smiled over at Chris. Chris stared at her not knowing what to say. It seemed that this girl knew him but for the life of him, he couldn't recall ever seeing her before. He turned to look at Elise, only to see her face was a more calm than his own. "Oh, I remember you! You're that girl who was looking for Dan a week ago." Elise turned to her confused husband, "It was when Dan took you out of the hospital while you were recovering from the poison extraction." "Really? I can't recall anything of that day" Chris pondered for a moment, trying to sort through his memories, "Hmm... nope. Sorry, but I really don't remember you..." He apologized. "Don't worry about it, silly! Besides, I'd like to properly introduce myself! My name is Pinkamena Diane Pie but you can call me Pinkie; all my friends do!" Pinkie finale'd her introduction by throwing her arms up in the air, confetti popping up from her hands, a big goofy smile on her face. A very fast sleight of hand, Elise noted, who was a subtlety impressed by the trick. Chris, however, looked like a starstruck kid witnessing a magic act. "Wow! That was great!" He went in to applaud but quickly found something suddenly left in his hands. ´Pinkie's Party Planning´ it read in bright pink letters. ´For all your party needs! Call us at XXX-XXX-XXXX´ It was a business card. "So you're a party planner?" Elise inquired, a bit more curious seeing as she had never met a party planner before. "Yep! I'm available for all kinds of events. Birthdays, weddings, galas, whatever you want!" Pinkie exclaimed happily. "I also bake all kinds of sweets and treats myself, so there's no need to hire a baker unless you request it!" She smiled, suddenly remembering something, "Ooh! I almost forgot! If requested, I can provide entertainment too! From simple balloon and magic tricks for the kids, to live music and stand-up comedy for the grown-ups!" She finished. "You can really do all of that!?" If Elise wasn't impressed before, she was now beyond amazed by all the talents Pinkie claimed she had. Although, it should've been difficult for most people to believe but Pinkie's cheerfulness and honest tone convinced Elise that she could indeed pull all of that off. Besides, Elise herself was a top agent in a secret government organization, trained in dozens of different styles of, both armed and unarmed, combat, and ninja level stealth. She was an expert in mechanics, engineering, physics, chemistry, and computer hacking. She could operate all sorts of vehicles and heavy machinery, even alien ones, she's fluent in almost any language and on top of it all, she could cook really well for her husband's enormous appetite. So, yeah, she wasn't one to doubt a person's variety of talents and skills. "Wow! Maybe we should hire her sometime, don't you think so Elise?" Chris wasn't a party person by any means but he was more than interested in trying out one of Pinkie's parties. "Of course Chris! I'm looking foward to one of her parties!" She agreed. "Okie Dokie Loki! I'll have to look at my schedule first but I'll be sure to put on priority whenever you need my services Mr. and Mrs. ...?" Pinkie trailed off, waiting for a response. After leaving the silence hanging for a few seconds, Elise suddnely realized what the exuberant girl was meaning to find out, "Pearson. Chris and Elise Pearson. It's nice to meet you Pinkie!" She answered whilst extending her arm for a handshake to which Pinkie took and quickly made it into a hug. "It's nice to meet you too! I hope we can become good friends!" "Sure; it would be nice to have more visits from someone other than Dan, right Chris?" Elise joked, only to make Chris worry. "Oh no! If I don't hurry, Dan will surely blow a fuse, maybe even three!" He quickly dashed over to the counter where Dave was standing and placed an order. "Quick Dave, I need five orders!" "Hai!" The ex-ninja saluted, retreating to the kitchen for the fresh baked cookies. "Speaking of Dan, has he said anything about me?" Pinkie asked, reluctantly letting her new friend out of the hug who looked perplexed for a second. "Why would he say any... Oh yeah!" Elise had almost forgotten that Pinkie was looking for Dan when they crossed paths a week ago, "Why were you looking for Dan? If you don't mind me asking..." She quickly corrected herself; It wouldn't be nice to be so direct with someone that they just met, nevermind the hug which was more unexpected. "Well...I was sorta worried about him after I watched him leave the Burger Phile in pain, so I followed him to make sure he arrived at his home safely but then I found him lying on the floor in pain..." At the mentioning of that, Elise had the decency to blush embarrassed. She was the one who left Dan on the floor after punching him in the gut for his behavior. "...so I gave him some medicine and stayed the night nursing him. When morning came I decided to do him a favor and clean his place. I left him a note." Elise was at loss for words at Pinkie's story. Someone, a complete stranger nonetheless, being that kind, especially to someone like Dan, was mystifying. Yet, Dan had never told them about such an act of kindness, it possibly being that he couldn't accept to receive help in his moment of weakness and will never admit to it. On top of that, Pinkie's eagerness for an answer made her reluctant to confess he never mentioned her before. "He...he didn't mention anything about me, did he?" Pinkie sighed, her form visibly deflating. Her disappointment didn't last much longer though as she came to her own conclusion. "I know! Maybe he didn't find my note and thought he dreamed the whole thing! He wasn't aware of his surroundings when I was there!" She said quickly. Elise, not wanting to bring the upbeat girl down, agreed with her. "I'm sure that's what happened" She smiled. Chris soon came back with five bags of cookies he ordered and handed one to Elise, "Sorry Elise but I gotta go; I'll be back as soon as possible; knowing Dan however, he'll make me drive him all the way to Canada" At the mention of both Dan and Canada, Pinkie's eyes sparkled in wonder and excitement. "You guys are going to Canada? How lucky! I always wanted to go and try authentic Canadian bacon!" At the mention of food, Chris immediately livened up, "Hey, that's a great idea! I'll be sure to bring back some for everyone!" Elise could only roll her eyes as she made another joke, "I do hope you save us some instead of eating everything on the way home!" Chris became visibly embarrassed by this as his cheeks flushed and he scratched the back of his neck, "I'll try..." he said in a not-so-sure manner which elicited a chuckle from both girls. This moment came to an end though, as the ring of a phone, more specifically Chris', interrupted them, "It's Dan; I really have to go now!" He quickly bent down to gave his wife a peck on the cheek. "I'll see you later" He then turned to look at Pinkie, "It was nice meeting you, Pinkie!" "It was nice meeting you, Chris! I hope you have a safe trip!" She waved a goodbye to him, "Say hi to Dan from me!" Pinkie added. "I'll be sure to!" Chris called back before finally departing the cookie shop, leaving behind both Elise and Pinkie together. "Hey Pinkie, do you want to come eat with me at my house so we can keep talking?" Elise wasn't kidding ealier when she said it would be nice to have more visitors over other than Dan. She herself wasn't a people person, preferring to stay at home working on different projects only going out for work or to spend time with Chris. But the girl in front of her had a don't-know-what attitude that made it so easy for her to become friends with anyone. "Yes I'd love to!" Pinkie excitedly accepted. Over the course of just a few days, Elise and Pinkie had become good friends, spending their time talking about work, life, TV, food, and all sorts of varied topics. A topic that seem to come often, though, was Dan. Through their talks, Elise had discovered that Pinkie found Dan interesting, even wanting to know more about him. Definitely surprising to Elise, since no one outside of Chris and herself could tolerate Dan, let alone want to get to know him better. Elise quickly picked this up, wanting to help Pinkie and maybe, just maybe, help Dan as well. She just needed to find the perfect moment. A week later, that perfect opportunity presented itself. The TV was on the news channel, no one in the room paying it any attention. Elise sat next to a bed ridden Chris, listening about how Canada suffered from a huge avalanche, courtesy of Dan, yet the Canadians, as they were known to be, remained good natured. "102, poor thing," She comforted her sick husband, only to have the phone abruptly interlude. Elise walked over and answered the phone. On the other line was an equally sick Dan asking for Chris to come to his house and help him recover. Elise had enough of Dan's antics and nearly slammed the phone down which resounded in a loud click. "Who's that?" Chris asked from the bed. "Wrong number," she deadpanned, turning to her husband, "I'm gonna get you some more tea," She smiled and made her way to the kitchen but not before an excellent idea popped into her mind. Grinning wickedly, she reached for the phone in her pocket. -- Dan was still in bed, feeling miserable and angry at Chris for taking so long to come and help him. Not even Mr. Mumbles' cuteness could cheer him up. When Dan's hopes were about to die, he heard a knock on his door. Finally! Chris was here and he sure did take his sweet time to come here. "It's open!" He shouted. Since Chris didn't have a key to his apartment, he left the door open, preventing himself from standing up and opening it himself. When the door opened, however, it didn't reveal the familiar tall and oafish frame of Chris, but the colorful and slender frame of a pink haired girl. "Hi Dan, how are you feeling?" she asked, concerned but a smile still on her face. "Wha...? What are you doing here?" If he hadn't been sick Dan would've sounded angry and panicked yet with his energy nearly depleted, he couldn't muster to express his anger. "I'm here to take care of you, silly!" If this girl sensed any of Dan's anger or distress, she didn't show any signs of it, "Don't worry I'll take good care of you!" Dan didn't show it but on the inside, he was freaking out. The pink-haired stalker was once again inside his house and had him at her mercy for her to do anything to him. Now he wished he hadn't seen the movie 'Misery' so many times. "I brought you some homemade chicken soup!" She said happily, somehow taking out a big, pink thermo from her purse and screwing off the cap for Dan. "Here! This will make you feel better," She extended the thermo containing soup for him to accept. He didn't take it though, convinced it had some kind of poison or drug in it. She stood there with her eyes closed as she smiled, the cup in her hand staying there for a few seconds in total silence. When the flask wasn't taken, however, she opened her eyes and dropped her smile, looking confused until something in her head clicked, "Oh! It's still very hot! No wonder you didn't take it!" she said, unaware of Dan's actual claim. "I'll just put this aside and let it cool for awhile," She said, placing it on a small dresser near the bed. Suddenly, a meow resonated. Mr. Mumbles crawled out from under the bed, sniffing the delicious aroma of the soup. "Aaw! It's so cute! I didn't know you had a kitty, Dan!" She crouched down and began petting the unkempt fur of the cat. "Hello kitty, my name is Pinkie Pie, what's yours?" She cooed. Dan, still in bed, had tried to warn Mr. Mumbles to escape from the terrible pink-haired stalker and to look for help but due to his sore throat, the only thing he could manage was: "Mr. Mum...bles..." "So, your name is Mr. Mumbles? What a cute name for a female cat!" How Pinkie knew what gender the cat was without even checking was a complete mystery, given the fact Dan didn't know of her sixth sense. Mr. Mumbles resumed her sniffing, leading her over towards the thermo as she began to tap at it with her tiny paw. "Oh! You want some? Sure, but only if Dan doesn't mind sharing" Pinkie turned towards Dan questionably who'd tried his hardest to warn Mr. Mumbles but again, his sore throat only allowed him say: "N...no..." "Aw...Dan, that's really considerate of you! I didn't know you cared so much for your pet. I'd love to learn new things about you!" She said suddenly, catching Dan off guard. Pinkie looked around for Mr. Mumbles' food bowl and served her a little bit of the chicken soup when she had it. "Here you go! Courtesy of Dan!" Mr. Mumbles happily dug in, eating considerably fast. "You know, you remind me a lot of my pet Gummy at home. He doesn't like to go outside much, but he has an appetite just like yours!" Silently, Dan prayed for the soul of poor Mr. Mumbles for falling to such a trick and hoped the effect of the poison would spare him a quick and painless release of the living world. Except it never came. Mr. Mumbles didn't die or even suffer. The soup was, in fact, not poisoned, "I think the soup cooled down a little. Do you want your soup now Dan?" Pinkie asked, an expecting look on her face. Before Dan could get the chance to answer, however, his stomach interrupted. It gave a loud rumbled that could be heard by everyone in the room, "I'm going to take that as a yes" She giggled and walked over to Dan's bed, offering the soup once more. Dan was reluctant at first but seeing that Mr. Mumbles didn't suffer severe side effects, he ended up eating the whole thing, "You know we should stop meeting like this" Pinkie said as she sat down on the bed next to Dan while he gulped the last of the soup "I don't mind taking care of you, but we should see each other besides you being sick or in pain" She smiled brightly. Dan, finishing the soup, felt significantly better and his throat wasn't as sore as before, letting him finally talk. Before he could start demanding explanations though, Pinkie interrupted him. "You look tired, you should take a nap" She suggested, a smile still plastered on her face, "Don't worry about me, I'll help you clean this place while you rest. After you recover you can tell me all about your trip with Chris!" As Pinkie stood up and began cleaning his home, Dan couldn't help but stare at the infuriating woman. Just who was she? What are her intentions? How does she know Chris? Why does she keep taking care of him and cleaning his place? And why did she keep conversing with him when he barely said a single sentence!? Dan was only sure of one thing right now: he was greatly tired and needed a nap. He felt safe enough to sleep while this crazy girl cleaned, she had plenty of opportunities to torture him and poison him already yet she didn't act on any of them. Besides, maybe she would leave before he woke up; just like last time when he rested his head on her warm and soft lap. And with that, Dan fell into a peaceful slumber. > Traffic? Use a Bike! Also First Date > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS Chapter 3 – Traffic? Use a bike! Also first date. The week after Dan and Chris returned from Canada and their recoveries from their colds was really uneventful. Dan returned to his miserable lifestyle, not before changing and putting new locks on his door and windows; Chris finally found a temp job sitting on a desk all day getting his joy for life sucked away everyday; and Elise began developing a new chemical for the unnamed government agency she worked for. In fact Elise had already finished preparing the chemical; the only thing that was still needed was to test if it could be stored in different temperatures without changing or losing its effects. As she began pouring the chemical in different biohazard containers, she heard ringing from outside the house, followed by a loud horn. Curious, Elise went outside to check what or who was making those noises. And at her door was none other than her new friend Pinkie dressed as usual except for the addition of safety gear like helmet, knee and elbow pads and a change of footwear to sneakers. “Pinkie nice to see you!” she greeted her first. “What is up with the gear?” she asked although she had a pretty good idea as for why. “I was trying out my new bike and decided to visit!” she answered with a happy smile that was trademark of hers. “Check it out, isn’t it great?” She took a step sideways to let Elise have a good look at her bike. Like a lot of things Pinkie had, her new bike was no exception. It was bright pink, but not entirely pink. The tires and the seat were white along with the handle bars. Also no Pinkie vehicle lacked accessories: like the colorful streamers in the handlebar, the basket decorated with tons of stickers and finally a small bell horn. Overall it was cutesy bike. “Yeah…it is…so you!” Elise replied hesitantly. The bike was a little too much for her tastes; she preferred most things plain and simple, like her husband Chris, but still she didn’t want to sound rude with her friend. “Why, thanks! I bought it since the traffic in this city began getting worse and worse. I have to use the Pinkmobile for just business from now on if it continues like this.” Yes, the Pinkmobile. Her little pink car now stood parked only to be used to carry stuff for her party events. On the plus side it was better for the environment and cycling was a good way of exercising. “Yes, Chris has been telling me about how bad traffic has been.” If it weren’t for him Elise wouldn’t have noticed anything. She had been spending a lot of time indoors working on her project. “Want to come inside? I have iced tea if you like,” she offered to her energetic friend who instantly took off all her gear. “Sure just let me chain my bike on something first!” Elise nodded and left the door unlocked for Pinkie while she served the tea. A minute later Pinkie came inside and took the tea Elise offered her. “Thanks Eli!” After a short while of knowing each other Pinkie began calling her that because she thought it sounded cute, of course Elise didn’t like it at first but in the end she gave in. Now it didn’t bother her as much. At least it was better than Junior. “Hey, What’s that?” Pinkie pointed out to the canisters with the biohazard logo on the table. “Oh! That’s just non-lethal but debilitating chemical I developed for an unnamed government agen…cy” Elise answered in autopilot until she realized who she was talking to. She was too late to retract what she just said. “Cool! What else?” Pinkie asked excited like it was a new gag-toy and not a possible weapon. Sometimes Elise had a hard time trying to guess what happened in that pink head of hers. “Uh…it’s an inhalant that gives people vertigo for several months thus rendering them unable to use weapons effectively but keeping them alive.” Now that the metaphoric cat was out of the box Elise decided to give her the same explanation that she gave to Chris. She just hoped Pinkie didn’t ask too many questions. She would hate to make her new friend disappear. “Wow! Do you think you could make some more for me?” Elise was shocked by that request. Why would Pinkie need a vertigo-inducing gas? Looking at the confusion on her friend’s face Pinkie explained. “I want it for my prank parties!” Seeing that Elise still had a look of confusion at the term prank party, she decided to be more specific. “A prank party is a party, duh, which have tons of gag items and small traps hidden all around for everyone to fall into and laugh! So a gas that gives vertigo would be so funny! But could you make it so it last minutes and not months?” Elise blinked a few times in order to process what her friend just said. Pinkie wanted her newly developed weapon for pranks? And never once she questioned why Elise had been making it in the first place? All of this and also the fact the something like “Prank Parties” existed made Elise question her friend’s care-free mentality. “Sure, why not.” Elise ended up agreeing. Best not think about it and be grateful Pinkie didn’t interrogate her. They sat there for a while enjoying their drinks and talking about little things like the different effect certain chemicals had on people and what exactly does a prank party entailed. Chris arrived 20 minutes later. “Hey Chris! It sure took you a while!” Elise joked at her husband who was not in the greatest of moods. Working the temp job and all that. “Yeah traffic was brutal, then I ran into Dan and I had to give him a ride home.” He explained. a little tired, but nothing a bunch of food couldn’t fix. Then he noticed the other occupant in the room “Oh, Hey Pinkie!” He must’ve been very tired to miss her. “Hi Chris! Congrats on your new job!” At been reminded of his daily torture, Chris just chuckled. “Thanks, it’s not very fulfilling but it is a job.” Then he turned his head at the sound of the fridge opening. “Look Chris, I know that sometimes I tell you not to eat something in the fridge but this time I’m really, really serious. DO. NOT. Open these canisters” To emphasize her point she took the canisters and showed them to Chris so he would remember which ones not to open. The ones with BIOHAZARD logo on them. “I promise not to eat your chemicals even If I get hungry!” He promised by putting his right hand on the air and raising his index, middle and ring fingers like a boy scout. “Uh uh I promise too!” said Pinkie very excited. “Cross my heart, hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye” She finished her chant by covering her right eye with her hand. “You didn’t have to promise…” Elise began but she decided not to push the issue. “I thank you both for your promises.” “You’re welcome!” Pinkie said in her usual happy voice, but then she toned down, “Hey, Chris. You have been seeing Dan recently right?” she asked the big guy who was stuffing his face with food he got gods know where. “Uh-huh” He barely said with his mouth full, which prompted Pinkie to sigh sadly. “I been trying to see him all week but he’s never home. I think our schedules never agree with each other.” While Chris tried to figure out what to say to Pinkie to lift her spirits, Elise was pondering in silence. It wasn’t a problem of schedule like Pinkie said, Dan was actively avoiding her, for what reasons she didn’t know but it made her mad at Dan. Pinkie was one of the friendliest and nicest people she ever met, and for some strange, only-god-knows-what reason, she had an interest on him, dare say even a crush. And Dan was avoiding her like the plague! Elise didn’t have the heart to tell her friend about it. If only Dan could open up and give her a chance he would see how good she was for him. But how could he do that if he refused to see her? Suddenly like a flash of light, she got an idea and quickly turned to her husband. “Chris? In a few days is date night, right?” When Chris confirmed by just nodding, his mouth full at the moment, Elise continued. “How about we invite Pinkie and Dan and have a double date?” In an instant Elise found her hands been held by Pinkie who had stars of excitement on her eyes. “Would you really do that for me?” Hopefulness was very clear in his voice. She had been trying all week to see Dan again and now Elise proposed to have a double date? To say she was excited was an understatement. “Of course, what are friends for?” Elise was soon at the receiving end of Pinkie’s hug. “Thankyouthankyouthankyou!” Pinkie hopped in place like a kid who has been told Christmas came early this year. “I just hope you like Shakespearean Theater.” Elise smiled compelled by her friend’s excitment. “Hey, wait a minute! Elise, how did you know I was going to take you to the old Shakespearean Dinner Theater?” Chris wondered disappointed that the surprise was ruined. “You left the tickets on the side table on our room” Not wanting to bring his mood down, Elise gave him a small kiss on the cheek. “ Thanks. But you do now that Dan will refuse to go on a date, don’t you?” whispered Chris so Pinkie wouldn’t hear him. “I know. Look, invite him and tell him to dress nice. Just don’t tell him it’s a date” She whispered back. “Alright, but I’m not so sure about this” Chris said uncertain. He didn’t want to think how would Dan react when he learned the truth. “Don’t worry everything is going to be fine!” ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Elise was peeved. And she only had Dan to thank for the headache. Not much after Pinkie left. She had to chase Dan around to prevent him from spreading her newly-developed chemical into the city in his futile attempt to get rid of traffic. She didn’t know how it started and frankly she didn’t care; but despite all the troubles he caused, she forgave him. All for Pinkie’s sake. Now a few days later date night came and they were all at her house waiting for Pinkie to arrive. “What are we waiting for? Let’s go to that stupid dinner now! I’m starving!” Well Chris and Elise were waiting for Pinkie. Dan still had no idea they had set him up to a date with her. “Don’t worry Dan, The show doesn’t start until 8, we still have plenty of time!” Dan just grumbled under his breath and sat down on the couch with his arms cross. Elise let out a sigh of frustration. She didn’t know how much longer she could put up with Dan’s behavior. Sometimes she wondered how Chris did it, but then again Chris was kind of a pushover. Thankfully they didn’t have to wait much longer, because a ring and a loud horn was heard from outside the house. That she didn’t expect was Dan’s reaction. “Oh no! Oh no! She’s here! Quick, turn off all the lights and pretend we aren’t home!” Dan quickly jumped behind the couch to hide himself. He didn’t want to be found by THAT girl. “I think it’s a little late for that” deadpanned Elise and surprisingly enough Dan acknowledged her “You’re right! Just pretend I’m not here.” He then left the cover from the couch and ran towards the closet. “Call me out after you get rid of her!” Elise rolled her eyes and went directly to open the door for Pinkie. “Good evening Pinkie!” she barely said before receiving another crushing Pinkie Hug. “Hello Eli! Is Dan here already?” Pinkie said very excited, she was almost shaking. “Yes he is, he’s in the closet…uh…for some reason!” Elise finished lamely, not knowing an excuse for Dan’s reason for been inside the closet. If Pinkie thought what Elise just said was strange she didn’t notice or completely ignored it. “Oh, ok! I’ll go get him!” Pinkie walked to towards the closet with a noticeable skip in her step and greeted Dan with a big smile. “Hello Dan! Are you ready for our date?” Cursing to himself, he walked out the door angry for been found. “What do you mean date? Were not having a date!” he pointed out rudely to her. “Who told you it was a date!” Before he could continue his angry rant, Elise intervened to try to salvage the situation by putting her hand over Dan’s mouth grabbed his arm in a hold. “What he meant is that he isn’t seeing this as a romantic date but as an outing with friends, right Dan?” The last part she said it in a very calm but menacing voice that promised pain if he didn’t behave. “That’s okay! I felt that calling it dating feels a little fast. It’s fine if we just go as friends!” She didn’t have a problem with it and besides being friends was what mattered. If something were to come later, that was great too. “Great! Now let’s go!” announced Elise, relieved that the situation didn’t escalate out of hand so fast. Chris, who had been silent the whole time, walked next to Elise. “Well that went better than I expected!” Elise took her husband’s hand and nodded in agreement “Let’s hope it keeps going uphill from now on!” ////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////// Thankfully the drive to the theater didn’t present any problems. Dan behaved himself for the most part while Pinkie tried to have small talk with him, which wasn’t difficult for her since she did most of the talking despite Dan answering in only monosyllables and short answers. After they arrived at the dinner theater they all got their seats and place their orders. The date was going smoothly although a bit lacking in conversation from Dan to Pinkie, and Elise thought that she could finally relax and that nothing bad would happen. How wrong she was. In the middle of the play, which was Romeo and Juliet, began complaining about everything: the lights, the scenery, the scene transitions, but mostly the actors’ acting ability to emote and say their lines correctly. He complained so much that every other patron in the theater couldn’t stand him anymore. “Excuse me, you are disturbing the other patrons!” a waiter finally confronted him. But when Dan turned around to tell him off, He accidently pushed the waiter and made him spill hot soup into his lap. “ Ahh! You scolded me, you jack…!” “Dan! Let me help you!” Pinkie quickly grabbed all the napkins in their table and tried to dry his pants. But Dan quickly refused. “Do not touch me!” he yelled loud enough that the actors on stage stopped and confronted him too. “Who’s the one who keep interrupting us?!” Suddenly too employees appeared to take Dan out of the theater. “Alright sir, it is time for you to make haste” One employee said while him and his fellow employee took him by the arms and dragged him out. “You don’t tell me what to make! Unhand me, you beasts!” “I knew I shouldn’t have trusted Dan to behave. I’m sorry Pinkie” Elise apologized embarrassed for Dan’s behavior. “Don’t worry Eli it wasn’t your fault,” she assured her friend and then stood up. “I better go out too and keep Dan some company!” “You don’t have to do that Pinkie!” Elise tried to stop her, but Pinkie shook her head from side to side. “I have to, he’s my date after all!” she reassured her with a big smile, “You stay here and enjoy the rest of the play” And with that she too left the theater. Outside, Pinkie found Dan walking away from a police officer complaining about injustice and how he was a hobo. “Dan...Are you alright?” The second the question left her mouth she regretted it. She remembered how he hated when people asked questions with obvious answers. And she was right because her question was the trigger for a mini-rant. “Alright? Alright?! How could you think I’ll be alright?! The food was horrible, I was thrown out of this cheap theater for having taste and an opinion by minimum waged employees, and I just received a ticket for loitering like I was a hobo. How could I possibly be alright?!” He then ended his loud rant by crossing his arms and grumble. “How could they do that to the Bard?” “Wow! I didn’t know you were a fan of classical theater” Pinkie tried to cheer him a little by making him talk about something he liked. “Though I still think it wasn’t that bad.” “Shows what you know! I was there the whole time and I saw how you didn’t even understand half of the things the ‘actors’ said” Air quotes around actors. “Besides, you don’t know how angry I feel about how bad this play was” “You’re right, I didn’t understand most of the play, but I know how it feels when something isn’t as good as I wanted it to be” Her sudden confession caught Dan off guard but gained her a small bit of curiosity. “I mean! Did you see what they did with the sequel to Sharknado? It was so bad! And not in the It’s-so-bad-it’s-good kind of way!” “Wait! Did you say Sharknado?! The movie about the tornado that picks up sharks from the ocean and have them flying around eating people? That Sharknado?!” Dan asked with full on curiosity, letting his B-movie-lover side of him show. “Of course! I love a good dumb gory movie once in awhile! Have you seen ‘Cupcake Killer’? It’s one of my favorites! Especially the Director’s Cut with 30 extra minutes, that the theaters refused to show,” she said, showing her love for movies too. Dan was impressed, that was a very rare copy with very limited quantities. “You have the special edition?! You need to lend me that one!” He asked very excited. He needed to see that movie; his horror movie fan pride demanded it. “If you want we can go back to my house and watch it together! The night’s still young and horror movies are better watched on nights like this” Pinkie said trying to make her voice sound as spooky as she could, which wasn’t very scary at all. “Lead the way my fellow horror movie fan!” he pointed out to the sky and dragged her by the hand, despite him saying she would lead the way. She didn’t mind at all because she was enjoying the feeling of their hands holding each other. Twenty minutes later, Romeo and Juliet ended and Chris and Elise finally went outside. “Hey! They aren’t here!” exclaimed Chris in surprise. “Where do you think they went, Elise?” “I got no idea.” > Flashbacks about Baseball and the Army of Salvatia > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS. Chapter 4: Flashbacks about Baseball and the Army of Salvatia. Original by: Morex25 Edited by: FlamesofBlades AKA Ember Wing After their first 'date', Dan soon came to the understanding that Pinkie was going to be a constant part of his life from now on, her being friends with Elise and all. During the small marathon of horror movies they had, where they had more or less bonded, he found some common ground with her as Dan accepted the fact that she wasn’t a crazy stalker who was going to kill him in some horrific manner. No one who was a fellow fan of Horror movies could possibly be a killer. Surely. Now that Dan considered Pinkie as her 'maybe-possibly-undecided-not-so-sure-if-to-call-it-that' more than a mere acquaintance, this would mean that they would see each other more often. At least that’s what Pinkie hoped; unfortunately for her, the universe has other plans for her; namely work, and more specifically than work, baseball. It was the beginning of the season and everybody was going crazy about it. Almost everyday, Pinkie was hired to organize parties to watch the game, parties to celebrate the victory of a team, a party to cheer up the fans of the losing team, etc, etc, etc. The celebration of baseball continued, despite the Commissioner of Baseball being kidnapped by two suspected professional kidnappers, whose sketch strangely enough looked like Dan and Chris. It couldn’t possibly be them though, for neither of them responded to the name “Monkey Face” (Unknown and Monkey Face) Before everyone could panic about the possibility of the whole season being canceled, the Commissioner of Baseball was found in the middle of the desert. When the police had asked him about the kidnappers, he ordered everyone to drop the manhunt. He told the police he was going to drop the charges and planned to do something about not preempting the show: “The Adventures of Population Control Johnny!” for the baseball games was what came next. All of this happened a few days after Pinkie offered to drive Elise to the airport for some job related weekend long trip. -- “Thanks again for taking me to the airport” Elise thanked, while looking out the window from the passenger seat, “But I’m still saying you shouldn’t have bothered...” Though Elise was greatful for Pinkie’s kindness, she still felt uncomfortable. Elise had told everyone she was going to an 'electronics convention' overseas because of her job but in reality, she was going for a mission to take down a terrorist group which had been acting up recently. It was still unconfirmed what their goal was, but knowing terrorists, it was always bad news. Supposedly, she was going to the airport to take a commercial plane ride, but in actuality, she was going to get picked up by her agency to board a supersonic aircraft that would take her to the country where the terrorists were located in a mere hour and a half. If Pinkie saw her getting in a different plane, she would've just definitley ask questions Elise couldn’t answer. “It’s no big deal!" Pinkie smiled brightly, "Besides, with all those parties I had to organize, I barely had any time to see you guys!” It was the beginning of the baseball season and she could feel it was going to be a busy month. She loved her job but she felt it would be all for naught, for not being able to spend time with her friends would've been in vain. “Also, this is my way of saying thank you for all the quick-time vertigo gas you made for me!” Elise smiled at that, having kept her promise to change the duration of the gas from months to a few minutes for her friend. “Now it's one of the most requested pranks for my prank parties, all thanks to you!" She beamed over to her friend, taking her eyes off the road for only a second. “You’re quite welcome Pinkie!” Elise smiled; somehow Pinkie always knew what to say in order to cheer up anyone. It was as if making people happy was her natural-born talent. The drive continued in relative but peacuful silence, take away the soft-rock band music playing on the radio quietly. “Say, Pinkie?” Elise began, cutting into the almost silent air. “Whatever happened to you and Dan after you left the theater? When the play was over, Chris and I tried looking for you but you guys seemed to have vanished...” At the mention of that, Pinkie couldn’t help but smile at the memory of the night. “After I left the dinner theater, I found Dan prancing around the parking lot looking very upset,” Pinkie explained, her smile never faltering, clueing Elise that something good must have happened. “We talked for a while and then we decided to go to my house” Elise let out a loud gasp of surprised at the implication. Pinkie realized what she'd been 'clueing' in to as a blush crept over her face, “N-no! Nothing like that happened!” Pinkie quickly clarified, her voice almost becoming a shout. “We just talked, watch scary movies and ate popcorn! We didn’t even go to bed-Ah! No, wait! I didn’t mean it like that, I meant…!” Pinkie's face contorted from embarrasment to nervous and back and she groaned in frustration. Before Pinkie had the chance to make her cheeks glow redder with every failed explanation, Elise laughed, making her friend’s tension go away. “I got what you meant. No need to be so embarrassed.” She giggled. When she saw Pinkie relaxed and regain her cool, she made one final jab, “But did you at least kiss him?” “ELISE!” The drive continued for 20 more minutes, and Elise spent every one of them teasing Pinkie, trying to get more details. -- After Elise came back, the whole fiasco with the Commissioner of Baseball was delt with and sorted out. All baseball games were moved into a different time slot which inevitably caused scheduling problems that prompted a decrease of baseball-related festivities. Despite this, however, it didn’t decreased Pinkie’s workload; she still had to attend a small wedding reception, a homage to a retired newspaper reporter and tons of children's birthday parties. The other time that month she saw Chris and Elise was when she helped them pack for some vacation they had planned for months. In the meantime, they caught up with one and other, Pinkie telling her all about the parties she attended and set up along with all the people she met that wanted to hire her. Elise swiftly told her friend about the convention and how really uninteresting and completely boring it was and that Pinkie should never bring it up in conversation again. Fun times conversing with friends, it was. As for Dan... Pinkie had seen him whenever she had to drive to the police station in the middle of the night to pay the fine for both Chris and Dan. They would’ve called Elise but that fell through, seeing as though Chris disconnected the phone and Elise turned off her own phone to stop Dan from calling her; with no one else to call they asked Pinkie for help. -- “So let me get this straight,” Pinkie began, driving her car to Chris’ house to drop him off, “You two were charged for burglary, attempted grand theft auto, resisting arrest, and one charge for public indecency,” She counted all the charges they both now had in their criminal records on her fingers. “That last one was only me” Chris said, clearly embarrassed, “A Rottweiler bit a hole in my night shirt,” He had spent his stay in jail covering his bum and not for the same reason others would do the same. “Besides, the resisting arrest charge was for Dan,” Chris pointed over to his friend, feeling a need for clarification. “You make ONE Grab at one cop’s gun and all of the sudden, it’s a big deal!” Dan complained next to her, arms crossed while grumbling something incoherent. He was sitting as 'copilot' while Chris had to sit at the back with a bunch of assorted stuff, “Pinkie? If you don’t mind me asking, why do you have all this stuff stored in here?” asked Chris trying not to move too much, afraid it might collaspe on him. He was surrounded by boxes of varying sizes and shapes, tattered bags, and one guitar. “Because I have a birthdays to attend to, I’m going to make balloon animals, do magic tricks, juggle while riding a unicycle, paint faces, and sing songs!” She explained without missing a beat. “Wow! All of that?” exclaimed Chris, surprised at first then turning remorseful, “You have such a busy and tiresome day ahead of you and we dragged you in the middle of the night for this, I’m so sorry!” “No need to apologize, silly! You needed help and I helped; as simple as that! I’ll never let my friends down if I can help it!” Pinkie explained, a confident look in her eyes. It was, without a doubt, that she would always be there for anyone that needed her. “Thanks, Pinkie!” Chris said, visibly relieved. He disliked the idea of being a bother to others, although that tended to make him look like a pushover, “Though you got me curious. I’d like to see you perform, I’m sure the kids would love you!” “Maybe when you and Elise have a kid, I can perform on its parties!” Pinkie giggled, excited by her own idea. Unknowingly, her comment made Chris shut his mouth and remained silent the rest of the drive home, to which Dan was greatful for. The idea of having a baby was a very uncomfortable and daunting for him. Chris shrivered at the thought but quickly recovered with a fake smile on his face. -- After waving 'goodbye' to Chris, seeing him off, Pinkie turned the car around and began driving towards Dan’s apartment, “Dan? Are you okay? You've been silent the whole drive here.” Pinkie looked over to him worriedly; Dan was many things but silent wasn’t one of them, given the fact that Pinkie didn't know he'd have to be when sneaking up on someone Dan grumbled unintelligibly for a whole minute with his arms crossed, clearly expressing his bad mood to Pinkie. Surprising enough though, Pinkie completely understood his strange mumbles. “Now, Dan, you can’t try to rob the same place twice,” Pinkie stated matter-of-factly “...or at least in less than 6 hours...” her expression grew flat saying that. It was more or less common sense but Dan was very dedicated, let's call it obsessed, with his schemes. “Why don’t you quit this fight for a few hours?” she suggested, after a brief moment of silence. “Quit!? I never quit! Or at least with REAL Important things! Like getting my revenge against the Salvation Armed Forces!” Dan barked in anger, threatening to go off in a tangent. How could she even possibly suggest him to quit!? “I didn’t mean ‘quit-quit’ more like tactical retrea- hey, wait a second!” she threw her foot to break, stopping both herself and the car with rapid succesion. She then turned to Dan with a very serious face, “Salvatia aint a country I ever heard of, do they speak English over there?” “What?” Dan asked confused; Pinkie’s question came right out of left field and seemed to have no real point. “English, you silly! Do they speak it?” She rolled her eyes but kept her serious tone, making Dan a tad intimidated. “Yeah, I suppose so...” Dan answered with the first thing that came to his mind, he didn’t have any clue what came up in Pinkie’s strange mind. “Describe what the leader looks like!” She demanded. “What?” Dan, again, asking incredulously. “SAY WHAT AGAIN! I DARE YOU! I DOUBLE DARE YOU MOTHERBUCKER! SAY WHAT ONE MORE GOSHDARN TIME!” Pinkie shouted. Dan sat on this seat, too shocked to move or even replied with a coherent answer. It took his brain a couple of minutes to process what just transpired. Pinkie, at seeing Dan’s face couldn’t hold her laughter anymore. “Did…did you just make a Pulp Fiction reference?” he asked after whole minutes of Pinkie’s laughter. “Of course! I know I can’t sound like Samuel if my life depended on it, but I don’t think I sounded half bad,” She then turned her head straight to the road and drove forward again, a bright smile on her face. Thank God there weren’t any other cars on the street, otherwise they would’ve been angry at her stopping in the middle of the street. “No, no, the delivery was fine. It just…took me by surprise, that’s all...” Dan confessed, somewhat impressed by Pinkie’s ability to project so much emotion onto those lines and for the fact she liked that movie too. Dan smirked, breaking the silence that overlayed them, “The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides by the inequities of the selfish and the tyranny of evil men,” On his right, Pinkie smirked too and continued the quote with Dan in perfect unison, “Blessed is he, who in the name of charity and good will, shepherds the weak through the valley of darkness...” The rest of the drive to Dan’s home was filled with quotes, commentaries, and lots of laughs and after Pinkie dropped him off, Dan was in a good mood. So much so that he decided to spare the Salvation Armed Forces…for a few more hours. He took Pinkie's suggestion to attack after sunrise with another plan. -- To say the least, it was a very busy month, bringing us to the present time. It was the beginning of Spring Break and pretty much everyone, Pinkie included, decided to spend a relaxing day at the beach. But instead of relaxing, Pinkie planned on having tons of fun like building a sand castles, playing volleyball, and run around back and forward trying to not get her feet wet by the waves. After packing everything she was going to need, Pinkie picked up her very big, very heavy bag, got on her bicycle, and rode all the way to the beach. Today was going to be fun indeed... > Fun in the Beach [Edited] > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS. Chapter 5: Fun in the Beach. Original by: Morex25 Edited by: FlamesofBlades AKA Ember Wing The beach, a place for relaxation and fun; wherever you looked, you'd see people, young and old, enjoying the beach in one way or another. No one else enjoyed the beach more than the lifeguard on duty though, and not because of the warmth of the sun, but because of the babes. Lots of 'babes' come to the beach in their tight, sexy swimsuits, all respected the feeling of safety he provided. Yup, being the lifeguard was like being the king of the beach. The "king's" eyes were currently set on a cute pinkette, with long and fluffy hair, wearing a two piece light blue swimsuit. She was lying over a pink towel, relaxing under shade of a parasol. Seeing that the beach and swimmers were safe, he stepped down from his lifegaurd tower and with all the swagger he could muster, he strolled towards her, “Hey, babe. I couldn’t help but notice that you haven’t admired my pecs yet...” he called in a suave manner trying to show off his muscles, failing at not trying to come off too forward. He struck a pose and waited for her response. And waited. And waited some more. “Hey, didn’t you hear me?” he asked after his muscles were strained from himself posing for about 2 minutes. He crouched down and looked at her face. Under the yellow tinted star-shaped sunglasses the girl was wearing, he could see that see had both eyes closed, most likely sleeping. Disappointed, the lifeguard waved her off. “Whatever” he grumbled in a bad mood, he wasn’t used to people not paying attention to him. He walked away and turned around looking for more attention. A few minutes after this, Pinkie woke up and drowsily rubbed her eyes with the back of her hands to drive the sleep away. “Now that was a power nap!” She proclaimed while yawning, stretching her arms over her head, causing her chest to push forward, making several people turn their heads, both amused and concerned expressions varied over their faces. Without taking notice of the stares, Pinkie ignorantly continued stretching, her eyes closed. Once she finished with her arms, shoulders, and neck, she started to stretch her lower back, spreading her legs trying to touch each of her kneecaps with the brow of her forehead. Gradually, her exercise started to gather more and more attention and not only from the male population, even women couldn't help but stare at her. Despite all this though, Pinkie still paid no attention. To finish up her unscheduled exercise routine, she lay on her side and lifted her leg up and down. By this point, she had amassed a crowd of drooling men and some women who looked at her with envy, some with disgust, for showing off like that. After she was finished stretching, Pinkie stood up, her eyes now blissfully closed and yawning once more, “That felt so good!” Feeling a presence watching her, courtesy of her unamed sixth sense, she opened her eyes and finally took notice of the crowd, “Hi!” She waved happily and gave a huge smile. The crowd, caught red-handed, had quickly dispersed. Men accompanied by women were berated for their unsavory stares. Pinkie kept her goofy smile on, unaware of the scene she just caused. “Now, what else can I do?” she wondered out-loud, a hand on her chin. She had arrived very early at the beach when there weren’t many people around and did almost everything from her mental checklist. First thing she did after setting up her parasol she rented from a small shack and putting her things down was to go into the fresh water and splash around. She even got in a splashing fight with some kids, all in good fun of course. She then helped some other kids build ‘the best sandcastle ever’, as they put it. It used a hefty amount of sand and was decorated with all kinds of seashells afterwards. After that, she filed for a two on two volleyball match. Pinkie wasn’t that good at volleyball but what she lacked in skill, she made up for in enthusiasm. She and her partner ended up losing the game, one point away. Luckily her partner didn’t take it to heart and laughed it off with Pinkie. It was fun and they give their best. Pinkie swiftly made friends with her partner, a brunette girl named Sam. After a quick snack and a refreshing drink, she lay down under her parasol, ending up falling asleep. “Maybe I should pack and call it a day,” Pinkie contemplated. It was already afternoon, if the sun position was any indication, she had spent several hours in the beach by now. “Maybe after packing, I can take a walk on shore!” She decided. Yes, a walk sounded like a nice and relaxing way to end a day at the beach. After packing everything back into her bag, she was heading to pick up the parasol to return it to the rental shack. Then, out of the blue, a strong wind sent the rented parasol flying away, “Hey, wait! Come back!” She called after the inanimate oversized umbrella, dropping her bag into the sand, she quickly gave chase after the runaway shade-maker. The relaxed people on the beach were taken by surprise seeing a parasol was flying towards them. Luckily for them, most managed to evade it before collision happened. So far, everybody managed to dodge the parasol... “AAHHH!” Well, almost everybody. Dan yelled in sudden surprise more than in actual pain, the flying object just barely grazing him. “YOU!" He pointed to his friend, "You set me up!” He yelled in anger as he launched himself into the air, landing on Chris, thinking it was his fault for such an offense. He fell over with the smaller man on top of him, trying to claw his face off and retaliated with punches and scratches. The whole thing only lasted a few seconds before a third party put a stop at the roughhousing, "You guys, stop!” ordered the third person, taking them both of them by the back of their necks to separate them, “I know places where they’ll never find your bodies, so put a stop to this or take it somewhere else!” she whispered in a icy and ominous voice. “Eli! Chris! Dan!” called out a familiar, bubbly voice all three of them instantly recognized. “Nice to see you guys here!” Pinkie said while running up to them but came to a stop once she saw the position the three of them were. “Uh...are you guys okay?” Elise swiftly let Dan and her husband go, letting them hit the ground with a thud, and turned to Pinkie all too nicely, “Nothing to worry about! Just the two of them acting like little kids, because Dan overreacted over nothing” she explained with a smile. “OVERREACTED!?” Dan yelled once he was on his feet again, “I certainly didn’t overreact! Also I was assaulted by a flying Parasol and it’s the beach’s fault!” First, the tourist ruined his car and now it attacked him when he dropped his guard down for a second. The beach was really gonna get it this time! Pinkie grimaced during Dan’s explanation, let's call it a rant, but quickly hid it. She wanted to apologize and say that it wasn’t anybody’s fault or even the beaches fault, just the wind and bad luck. She didn’t want to accidently say something that would rile him up even more, so she quickly conjured a little plan. “Don’t worry Dan! I’ll take care of that umbrella that dared to attack you!” She announced with the most determined look she could make, “Just you wait and see! Elise point me where that blasted thing went!” Elise caught on to Pinkie’s little charade and pointed to the direction she last saw the loose parasol go with a grin, “Thanks Elise! I’ll be right back!” and Pinkie dashed off towards the direction Elise pointed at. “Finally! Some initiative; unlike you Chris!” said Dan slightly impressed by Pinkie’s actions. If she conserved this new attitude, he could see her as a potential ally for future plans he might have.“Now come Chris, we have work to do.” “But..but…Dan! I don’t…” Chris stuttered. “Just go, Chris.” Elise deadpanned, “If you don’t go with him he will just keep coming back and I don’t want to deal with that, not on a beach day. So go!” she ordered to a reluctant Chris. “But I thought we were going to build a sand castle together” “And I thought WE were going to have a baby!” She countered with the dreaded ‘Baby Card’, making Chris run after Dan in a blink of an eye. Though she used that argument to make him uncomfortable, she wasn't joking to, someday, have a baby, just not right now; her work in the agency was too important and demanding, maybe when she retired Chris would be more accepting of the idea of becoming parents. She lay down on the beach floor and reflected over the thought -- After Pinkie finally caught up with the elusive parasol, she closed it up and trekked back to her previous spot to retrieve her bag. Once she got all of her stuff in order and sorted, and returned the rented parasol, Pinkie was ready to leave, as she previously decided, stopping in her tracks only to spot Elise lying on her towel near the water. “Hey, Eli! How’s it going?” She called over to her friend as she sat down next to her. “I’m fine," She said, smiling over to Pinkie, "It’s been a really relaxing, until Dan that is,” she enunciated his name as if it was a curse that left a bitter aftertaste in her mouth, “And now they’re off doing their usual thing,” Elise let out a small sigh of hopelessness. She was sure that whatever Dan was planning would later ruin her beach day, so she better enjoy it while it lasted. “How about you Pinkie?" Elise turned to Pinkie suddenly, "Did you just arrived or have you been here for a while?” “I was actually about to leave when the wind blew away the parasol I rented and it ended up hurting Dan. Please don’t tell him it was mine” Pinkie begged; If Dan knew, he would most likely see it as a premeditated attack on him. “Don’t worry, your secret is safe with me,” Elise answered, comforting her friend with a soothing voice, “How did it go again?" Elise rhetorically asked, shuffling through her mind to find a familliar chant, "Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a… cupcake…?" She paused for moment until continuing, "In my eye…” Pinkie giggled and nodded happily, “Yes, you said it just right! Thanks Elise!” “You’re welcome." She smiled, "Oh! By the way, think you can put some sunscreen on my back? I was going to ask Chris but since he’s out with Dan, I don’t know when he’s coming back; Or if he was coming back,” with Dan’s crazy schemes, they could both end up in prison for all she knew. “Sure, I don’t mind!” Pinkie look around for a second and found the sunscreen bottle near what she assumed was Chris’ bag. She took the bottle and notice how light it felt, it probably was an old bottle Chris and Elise already had. “So how much do you want?” “Enough for me to not get sunburn but not too much for me to have a completely white back.” Elise didn’t want to turn upside down and accidently smearing her towel in sunscreen. “Ok!” Pinkie turned the bottle upside down and gave a light pat at the top, waiting for the contents to slowly come down to the cap. When she was confident that enough of the cream was at the base, she opened it up and squeezed the cream on Elise’s back, everytime doing so, the bottle let out a loud splurting sound. After pouring enough sunscreen, Pinkie began spreading it all over Elise’s back, noticing something off about her friend, “Wow, Elise! You have a very tense back! That is not healthy at all; you should take it easy at your job!” “I know, I know. That’s why I’m having this beach day!” If only Pinkie knew that Elise really couldn’t take it easy. Her job involved espionage, hand-to-hand combat, avoiding gunfire and protecting the world from all kinds of international threats. Not easy taking it easy... “If you want, I could give you a massage. I’m not very good but I learned some tricks from my friend Fluttershy!” Pinkie offered with a smile, memories rushing to her, as she briefly reminisced all the good times she spent with her friends before moving to California. Pinkie remembered her friends, deeply saddened when she told them she had to leave, they'd all asked her why she was leaving but she didn’t have a concrete reason. All she did say was that her sixth sense told her to leave and to come here. Her friends were puzzled by such an explanation and thought it was reckless and too broad of a reason to go but her sixth sense never failed her; it was always right and they all knew it. Seeing her sixth sense to be true and inevitable, all her friends gathered and threw her a farewell party. There were many tears shed, but the party never turned out sad. Hugs and gifts were given and promises to keep contact were made, Pinkie still treasured their parting gifts and called them every chance she got. “Pinkie? Pinkie! Are you alright?” Pinkie heard faintly, seeing her friend Elise calling out for her friend, snapping her fingers in front of her face. When Pinkie finally responded to her friend's actions, Elise let out a sigh of relief. “You zoned out for a minute there!” She remarked. Pinkie's face drooped, “Sorry, I was just lost in memory lane, that’s all” she apologized, her cheerful mood deflated, only for a moment, “So, what did you say?” She instantly perked back up. “I said yes to your massage offer; anything to relax and help my back!” Elise repeated, noticing Pinkie’s eyes had a small look of homesickness. They'd talked about her old home and her friends before, Elise understanding more and more that Pinkie missed them dearly. To be honest, Elise hadn't put much thought into her friendship with Pinkie, thinking nothing more of it than a casual visit and talk every now and then, hearing this though, how important friendship was to the pinkette, she decided it would be the best to become an even better friend for her. One of the ways she would keep this promise was to accept Pinkie’s help whenever she offered it. For someone else it would’ve been simple to let others help them but for Elise, who had grown up trying to be the best at everything in order to please her parents, found it difficult to accept anyone’s help, unless it was to ensure her cover as a average woman with an average job and not a super agent. It was difficult for Elise, at first, genuinely wanting to be Pinkie’s friend but the way she was raised and the stress of her job made it difficult to make friends and trust them with their help. Yet, Pinkie’s cheerful and warm personality helped with the whole making-friends process. “Of course! Just lay down again and I’ll bust out the magic fingers!” Pinkie said more determined than before. Though she may miss her friends, she was grateful to have good friends here too, especially one like Elise. //////////////////////////////////////// Ten minutes after the massage has passed and Chris came back looking apprehensive, a default expression that grazed his face whenever he came back from being dragged away by Dan against his will. “Hey Chris, are you already finished with Dan?” Elise asked, although by the look on his face the answer was rather obvious. “No, not yet. Mh...Elise…um, Dan wants me to drive him to someplace; I-I tried to tell him no, but you know how persistent he is and…” Chris shot out excuse after excuse to avoid upsetting his wife, growing more and more nervous every time he made a pause to talk.“…and…and…and…” He stuttered. Before Chris overheated his mind, Pinkie intervened, offering a solution, “Hey, how about I borrow your keys and drive Dan around? Then you can spend the rest of the day with Elise!” She didn’t wait much for a response, only a second later, she found his keys on her hands. “Thank you! I don’t know how to repay you for this!” beamed Chris, grateful for Pinkie’s offer, “whatever you need, I’ll try to repay you” “How about you watch over my bicycle parked near here, while I hang around with Dan? Does that sound fair?” Pinkie didn’t mind hanging around Dan, in fact she would’ve offered to drive him around using her car, but unfortunately she came all the way to the beach on her bike. “Yes, off course I’ll watch over it,” Chris promised using the Boy Scout hand sign. “Thanks for the offer Pinkie!” “No problem, glad I could help!” Pinkie picked up her bag from the sand and turned towards the sound of Dan’s yell for Chris to hurry up. “See you later, guys!” she waved farewell to her friends and walked into a changing tend before meeting up with Dan. -- “What is taking him so long? I mean it was just grab your keys and pants and come back! Not that hard to do!” Dan complained, let's call it whining, loudly next to Chris’ car in the parking lot near the coast. “Grrr…How much longer is he going to take!?” “HEY DAN! HOW ARE YOU?” Pinkie yelled loudly, coming out of nowhere and surprising Dan thoroughly. She was out of her usual attire and was wearing a white shirt and pink trunks over her swimsuit and wore flip-floppers instead of shoes. “GAAAH!” Dan shouted in surprise, soon becoming anger, “Don’t you ever surprise me like that ever again, woman!” he rudely pointed his index fingers at Pinkie’s smiling face who didn’t seem to mind the rude gesture, “What are you doing here anyways and where is Chris?” “Chris decided to stay back with Elise!” she informed him off-handedly. “WHAT!? THAT LAZY-!” Dan started. “But don’t worry! I’m here to take his place, just this time! So where are headed to?” Pinkie swiftly interuppted him as to prevent another one of his lengthy rants. Dan crossed his arms in annoyance and put on his patented angry face, “But I wanted Chris to take me!” If one were to paid a slight attention to the way he said this, you could almost hear a slight whine in his complaint. “Don’t worry Dan! I can be just like Chris if you want to!” she tried to console him and appeal to his child-like side, “I think that’s illegal. Dan, I want to go home. Can we stop for a burger please?” she imitated Chris the best she could, even dropping her voice an octave, “Also he let me borrow the keys for his car!” Dan almost gave a phantom of a smile at the Chris imitation but he refuse to show he found it funny, instead focusing on the change of parameters. He needed Chris to drive him to where the key for his master plan was located and probably use him as a distraction and for heavy-lifting; having Pinkie instead of Chris changed not the operation itself but the amount of stuff he had to do himself. In the end, he reluctantly agreed to let her drive him. It sure was better than walking. “Come on! Let’s go!” he said after a whole minute of silence in thouhgt, “But you are on probation! I still don’t know how useful you are for the mission yet.” “Woohoo! Adventure!” Pinkie cheered, opening the car and getting inside to seat as the driver. “I’m so excited! Elise and Chris have told me about other adventures you have been! And now I can come too!” Dan, who sat as the copilot, couldn’t help but groan at her excited shouts. He was fine and glad that someone was just as into the plan as him for once, but did she have to be so loud about it? “Just drive!” “Ok! Capt’n!” > Not Safe From the Water [Unedited] > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS. Chapter 6 – Not Safe From the Water or Cast Away and Lost on The Beach of The Flies. (Gilligan Island joke here!) “So…? What exactly are we doing at the aquarium in City of Industry?” inquired Pinkie once they parked Chris' car and were by the entrance of said aquarium. “Easy! We’re going to take a shark and let it loose on the beach!” Dan replied with an evil look on his eyes and a disturbing grin. He couldn’t help himself but to rub his hands in classic villainous fashion. “So…it’s like we’re returning it to the ocean, right?” she asked mostly to herself trying to rationalize and see in a positive light their soon to be criminal actions. “We are freeing the poor shark so it can be back home with its friends and family! Just like my friend Fluttershy and her eco-friends online!” “Yes, yes, like those tree-hugging…wait…Fluttershy? What kind of name is that?” Was she raised by hippies or something? He hoped it was a she, because if it was a guy named Fluttershy, Dan wouldn’t know if to fell sorry for him or laugh at his face. Probably laugh. “Of course not! That’s a cute nickname I gave her when we first met. Poor girl was such a shy girl, always quiet and her only friends were the animals that lived around town. That’s why I decided to become friends with her, so she wouldn’t be all alone anymore. Then we met the rest of our friends and became a very close with one and other.” “Yeah, yeah, very interesting; now on the mission at hand!” Dan interrupted her before she went on a tangent, he needed her to be focused on the mission and not lost in memory lane. “This is what we’re going to do.” Dan said in a very serious tone “I’ll make a distraction and you sneak into the white shark tank, shoot it with a tranquilizer, take him out of the tank, drag it all the way here and tie it to the roof of the car. Easy right?” it was a plan so simple and so genius at the same time. He even let Pinkie do the easy part. “Here! Take this!” Dan handed Pinkie the key instrument for his plan, a crossbow tranquilizer gun. “You only have 3 shots so don’t mess it up!” “I won’t disappoint, Capt’n!” She brought her hand with the tranquilizer gun and make the classic navy salute. “Yes, now let’s go!” ///////////////////////////////////////// “Well, that went better than expected!” said Dan who was seated as the copilot next to Pinkie. They were driving Chris’ car back to the beach with an enormous 17 ft long great white shark with a weight around 4,200 lb. ; how did Pinkie managed to carry and tie a beast of such size without help was anyone’s guess. “You’ll think they have better security.” “Weeee! Activism sure is fun! I never thought I’d ever swim with a shark before!” Pinkie said all too excitedly and without any scratches on her. The only indication that she was on the tank besides the shark on the car’s roof was her wet hair that was already drying. “Turn to the left next stop,” Dan pointed his finger to the window, “we need to go to the pier!” he said but didn’t explain any further than that. After Pinkie drove the car over the pier, which surely wasn’t illegal, was it? They were ready to unload the shark from the car into the boat. “Wow Dan! I never knew you had a boat before!” Pinkie chimed in amazement; every time she hung around him she discovered new and incredible things about him, like his love for animals, and his various resources like boats and crossbows. “Yeah, me neither” he just muttered to himself, thankfully Pinkie didn’t hear him. Better for her not to know that they were ‘borrowing’ the boat without permission. Had the shark been conscious, it would’ve proven difficult to put him and tied him on the tiny boat Dan was ‘borrowing’, luckily Pinkie didn’t missed any of the tranquilizer darts; so the shark slept like a baby, a 4,200 lb killer baby. By the time the shark woke up, the three of them were already far away from the shore and positioning themselves to drop off the shark so he would swim towards the beach and not further to the ocean. The shark seeing two meaty bags of delicious ‘food’ tried to chomp at them. “Aww it’s so adorable” Surprisingly said Dan and not Pinkie. Who knew that Dan found nature’s perfect killing machines adorable? “Do you think we should name him Chompy? Or he looks more like a Greg?” When the Shark began trashing more and more and chomp harder and harder, it looked like the name was obvious. “I think Chompy fits him just fine!” agreed Pinkie, who didn’t minded the shark trying to chomp off their legs. “It’s a shame we have to return him to the wild. He could be the perfect playing partner for Gummy!” “Yes…Gummy” Dan muttered and rolled his eyes at the mention of Pinkie’s pet alligator. Dan was ‘formally introduced’ to Gummy the night he spent at Pinkie’s house to watch a horror movie marathon. They were watching a vampire movie, were the vampires were true vampires and didn’t sparkle on the day or have weird relationships with underage girls, no these vampires were horrible bloodsuckers that kept the body count rolling and rolling. After a gallon of soda, Pinkie excused herself and went to the bathroom leaving Dan all alone in the Dark. Others would’ve feel scared but hot him, he was desensitized a long time ago. But after a few minutes, he felt like something or someone was watching him. At the time he thought it was Pinkie trying to scare him, but he was wrong. The stare felt unnatural, inhuman, not even he could project a gaze like that. Then it happen, the thing that had been stalking in the dark attacked. It clamped its powerful maw on his unsuspecting hand near the popcorn bowl. He trashed around trying to get his had free from the creature, but it was for naught, the creature wouldn’t relent from his prey. Moments later Pinkie came and turned on the lights and revealed the true identity of the creature, a small green alligator with no teeth. He was Gummy and he was Pinkie’s pet. Pinkie profusely apologized to him and tried to make it up to him with some delicious nachos. As for Gummy he was put in a small but colorful pen as punishment for being ‘naughty’. Dan would’ve left after that but the promise of free nachos was too good to pass on. So the marathon continued but Dan could still feel Gummy’s unnatural gaze on him all night long. With those unblinking purple eyes. Looking not at him but thru him, looking directly to his soul, judging him. Dan still shuddered at the thought. After shaking his head left and right to get rid of the thoughts, Dan noticed they were finally in the perfect spot. “Stop, right here!” He commanded at once. “Now Pinkie, drop the anchor!” Once the anchor was completely submerged, Dan turned towards Chompy. “Chompy! You are a noble and heroic creature, which inspired countless B-style movies I enjoy.” He then loosened the ropes that tied Chompy to the boat. “Now go! Be free to terrorize the beach and all those beach people.” After Chompy submerged in the water and began swimming towards the beach and waved him goodbye. “Go! And eat the children!” “Dan! That’s not nice!” Pinkie nagged loudly. “Ok fine! Eat the elderly! They already lived a long life!” he rectified to the shark in an annoyed manner. “That’s better!.......I think?” said Pinkie unsure of what she should feel at the moment; if happy for Chompy to be back at his habitat or fearful for the people at the beach. After Chompy’s dorsal fin was out of sight, Dan quickly opened a box of supplies and took out two pairs of binoculars, one pair for him to use and watch the massacre and the other pair he tossed to Pinkie who swiftly caught it. After a few minutes of trying and failing to catch the location of Chompy, Dan turned towards Pinkie. “Hey, did you see anything?” “Yes, I ‘sea’ something!” Pinkie giggled at her own bad pun that made Dan groan. “I see Elise and Chris sucking face at the beach! Wow, you go girl!” she cheered for Elise. “What?! EWW! I don’t want to hear that!” But it was too late; the mental image was already on this head. “Oh sick! I meant about Chompy! I don’t see him anywhere near the beach!” Yes, yes, better think about sharks and blood. That would make the gross images go away. “Well I don’t see him anywhere!” she informed to a disappointed Dan, “I’m sure he is looking for his family now! We probably won’t see him again.” As soon as she said those words, a familiar dorsal fin resurfaced from the water and was headed towards them. Then he grazed the boat but that make the small boat rock back and forward and caused Dan and Pinkie to lose their balance. “Dan, we’re going to need a bigger boat.” Pinkie commented while trying to regain her footing. “Seriously?!” Dan was baffled. “Right now?!” he couldn’t believe she would say something like that in a moment like this. “Well, it seemed like the perfect opportunity! I mean, how many times could we possible be in this exact same situation in the future?” Pinkie explained herself, although she felt a little down because it didn’t have the effect she hoped for. “It was now or never!” Suddenly the boat shook once again, but this time it was being dragged. It seemed that Chompy was pulling the anchor dragging the small boat with him. In his frightened state, Dan instinctively grabbed the closest thing to him which at the time was Pinkie who hugged him back. “AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH!!!!” The whole thing lasted a full three minutes, but for the frightened duo, it seemed like hours. Unfortunately for them, the whole ride lasted until the small boat was torn by half. Now they were rapidly submerging in the cold water. “Help! Help!” cried out Dan who was trashing violently and in panic. He had never learned to swim and now it was costing him his life. “Dan! I have you!” Pinkie reassured him and took him by the back of his shirt and to keep him afloat. Looking around, Pinkie found a large enough piece from their destroyed boat. She swam towards it and lifted Dan upon it. Dan, now in the relative safe piece of wood, slowly regained his cool. “At…least…we died for a good cause!” groaned Dan who look disappointed for not been able to get revenge at the beach before dying. Rising his angry fist to the skies he yelled. “Here I come, grandma! YOU JERK!” Pinkie seeing the depressed state Dan was currently in, decided to lift his spirits before the end. “ Dan, hey Dan!” “What is it?” Dan looked at Pinkie wondering what she wanted now. Then she took one of his hands with her own and looked at him in the eye. The look on her eyes made him feel things he couldn’t describe. He was enthralled by those big blue eyes of her. “Pinkie…?” “I’ll never let go, Jack. I promise!” It took him a whole minute of silence to understand what she just said to him, and when he realized what she just did, he could stop himself from facepalming with his free hand. “Seriously?!” “I know, I know!” she said with a silly grin and released his hand. “The roles are inverted, but look at us! One is on a floating piece of debris while the other is swimming in the cold water. How could you not think of …” “Please, Pinkie! Stahp!” He didn’t want to spend the last seconds of his life talking about one of his least favorite James Cameron movies. Then a powerful wave rose behind them and came down on them with all its might. //////////////////// What seemed like an eternity later, Pinkie found herself face down on the wet surface of a shore. After coughing out some salty water, she looked at her surroundings. “Where am I?” she wondered out-loud and took in the unfamiliar place she found herself in. “It looks like a deserted island” she pointed out to herself when she didn’t hear the sound of people or the city nearby. “What do you think, D…” she stopped herself mid sentence. “Dan!” she shouted hopping he could hear her. With little trouble Pinkie got back to her feet and tried to call out for Dan again. “Daaan!” She started walking the shore yelling ‘Dan!’ and looking around for any sign of him. Suddenly she saw a black mass on the distance lying on the sandy floor been splashed by the waves. “Dan!” she was positive that was Dan with his black shirt. She quickly ran to his side and turned him upside up. “Dan! Dan! Answer me!” She tried to wake him up by shaking his arm, but he didn’t responded. In fact, It looked like he wasn’t breathing! Pinkie’s mind began to panick fearing the worst, but before she gave into despair, she remembered something about her friend Fluttershy. Fluttershy has always been a little worrywart and she pleaded her friends to attend First Aid classes and specially learn CPR before she accepted to accompany them to the beach for the summer many years ago. Off course everyone accepted, because they all wanted Fluttershy to join them, and those classes brought her peace of mind. Now it was time for Pinkie Pie to put those lessons to practice. Pinkie put one hand over the other and place them at the center of Dan’s chest, then she pushed hard and fast counting out-loud every push. “One…two…three…four…five…” She continued until she reached 30 pushes. After that she tilted Dan’s head to lift of his chin to position it for the next step. Pinkie pinched Dan’s nose and opened his mouth while she drew a deep breath. Once she drew all the air she could, she placed her mouth around Dan’s and gave all her breath. She then drew air and breathed on his mouth again and began with another 30 pushes on his chest. “Please Dan! Open your eyes! Please breathe!” she said more for herself than to Dan, when she reached 30 pushes, she breathed on his mouth two more times. Still with no reaction so she began pushing his chest again. “Please Dan! I’m telling you. Open your eyes!” she said more and more worried. “I’m telling you. Wake up!” This time she ordered with anger in her voice. “Don’t you dare die on me! If you die I’ll never forgive you!” She breathed on him two more times and stated pushing again. “WAKE UP!” yelled at him as loud as she could, but she didn’t get any reaction. Soon after all the anger on her voice disappeared and give step to her sobbing. “Please…Please…D..Dan” she sobbed and couldn’t contain her tears anymore. “No..no..no. It can’t be happening!” But she couldn’t bring herself to stop, she kept pushing and pushing with all her might despite the tiredness of her arms. “No…Dan!” She drew a final breath and put her mouth around Dan’s. Once her breath left her, she didn’t move her mouth away. She kept their mouths connected while tears flowed down her eyes falling on Dan’s face. She hoped for a miracle but in never came. Dan was dead. The End. (Nah! I was just screwing with you guys! I'll never do that! ...But I have the power to do it if i wanted to....which I don't) Suddenly, Dan opened his eyes only to find Pinkie over him with her mouth over his. In that moment he began jerking out and pushed her away only to cough a lot of water out of his body. Slowly but steady he began regaining his breath. “What…the…heck…is…going…on?” after looking around his surroundings, he found himself in the last place he wanted to be; in a beach. “Where am…” but before he could finish his question he found himself tackled by Pinkie. “DANNY!” She cried out in pure joy “You’re alive! I was so worried about you!” She proceeded to hug him as hard as she could, which threaten to kill him by suffocation instead of drowning. “Get…off…me…woman!” He finally pushed away for a second time after he regained his senses. “Do not do that again!” He warned her. He disliked been touched in such affectionate way without his consent. “Also, never, NEVER, call me Danny ever again! No one calls me like that!” Pinkie who by now was crying tears of sheer happiness, only nodded in understanding. “Geez! What’s up with you? What are you crying about?” He asked not because he was worried but because he didn’t want to deal with more of her crying. “Nothing at all!” Pinkie turned her head from one side to the other, “I’m just happy to see you’re fine, that’s all!” she said controlling her own feelings and wipping away her tears. ////////////////////////////////////// After a few minutes of explanations about what happened and hoe they ended up on a deserted island that basically could be considered as a giant beach, which concerned Dan, but he put his revenge aside for a more pressing matters, like food. Looking around near the shore, Pinkie found some bushes with brownish berries growing on them. She picked one up and inspected it carefully. She knew about berries, because she constantly used them on her muffins, but she wasn’t really an expert on all of them, especially ones grown in the wild. So she decided to leave it up to her ‘sixth sense’. She would put the berry on her mouth and if her sense reacted with danger, then it would be poisonous; if it didn’t then she would just eat it. As she was about to put the berry on her mouth, Dan came right beside her and slapped the berry out of her hands. “What do you think you’re doing?! That could be poisonous!” He said angry at her reckless behavior. “Thanks Dan…you saved my life” she said to him while holding her slapped hand. It stung a little but Pinkie wasn’t mad at Dan. He was skeptical when she told him about her ‘sixth sense’ and how it worked; so when he saw her putting a potentially dangerous thing on her mouth so casually, he naturally worried for her health. And she appreciated that. Then Pinkie felt it, a signal that something was going to fall from the sky. “Look out!” Instinctively she pushed aside Dan out of harm’s way and took a step backwards herself. As she pushed Dan away, a big coconut that would’ve cracked his skull opened fell exactly where Dan was standing a second ago. As for Pinkie Pie, the step backwards she took resulted in a different story. The moment she was to put her feet back onto the soil, her sense activated again, warning her of danger, but it was too late for her to stop and ended up tripping. She stumbled backwards for a few paces until she felt her feet sunk into something. Quicksand. Pinkie fell into quicksand. “Dan! DAN! HELP ME! She cried out for help. She tried not to move but the quicksand sucked her down slowly to her probable death. “Oh my god! Oh my god! Oh my god! Dan, help me!” Dan quickly stood up from Pinkie’s push and looked at her slowly sinking. “Don’t move! or you’ll sink faster! I’ll try something, just don’t move!” He took a quick look around and found something that it might help, a strong but flexible branch. With it he could help save Pinkie. “Hurry up Dan!” she kept crying on scared, not only once did she stop and notice something peculiar about her senses. “Dan! Dan! DAN!” She cried out until she felt her feet touch something, it felt like solid ground. “Uh?” Then she noticed she wasn’t sinking anymore and that she just sunk only up to her knees. Tentatively she tried to move her legs and found out that she could still move but with some difficulty. Pinkie then looked up to Dan who was standing there with his arms crossed, with an annoyed expression on his face.“…Sorry…” Blushing mad in embarrassment, Pinkie walked out of the quicksand. When she walked past Dan, he just kept staring at her not saying anything; he didn’t have to, the expression on his face said everything. After a short trip to the shore to wash off the remaining quicksand that stuck to her legs, Pinkie returned to Dan and found him sharpening a long stick with a rock. “Now after that pointless distraction,” Dan remarked without even looking at Pinkie, and she was thankful because she blushed once more in embarrassment. “But now that you are here, we can proceed with my plan” He turned his head and gave her a piercing look “Pinkie, take off your clothes!” “W-w-what?” Pinkie stuttered and blushed even more, if that was even possible. “D-Dan! W-w-why?” she kept stuttering and imagining all sorts of things that aren’t appropriate for a T-rated story. But she supposed it was inevitable; man and woman all alone in a deserted island, with all sorts of emotions flowing thru their veins. It all sounded like a trashy romance novel her friend Rarity would read. “Isn’t it obvious, woman? We are hunting!” announced Dan tall and proudly, like he was honoring the ancient ways of his cave-dwelling antecessors. “Wha…?” the moment Dan announced his goal, Pinkie snapped out of her ‘not-family-friendly’ mental scenarios and looked at Dan confused. “You heard me! Not take off those clothes while I climb a tree!” Pinkie not following Dan’s train of thought did what she was told because she didn’t have a plan on her own. When Dan was finally atop a high enough branch; Pinkie had already taken off her clothes and was down to her swim suit. “Dan?” she called out looking up to him on the tree. “I still don’t understand why I have to be undressed.” Dan just rolled her eyes at her slowness for understanding the plan. “It’s simple!” he began, “the more surface area of meaty flesh you show, the more attractive you are for predators!” “I guess that makes sense” she replied while stroking her chin as a sign of deep thought. “Unless you’re talking about Yautjas! In that case, less clothing provides a tactical advantage against their infrared vision, but only if I’m covered in mud” Dan’s first visible response was to facepalm for the second time that day. This wasn’t the place or time to be referencing 80’s movies. “Whatever! Just stand still and look more delicious!” he ordered in a very serious tone. Pinkie Pie not missing any opportunity go past her, she replied: “More delicious? Does that mean you find me delicious, Dan?” She finished her question by posing like a girl from a magazine cover; lifting one arm and putting it behind her head and placing the other one on her hip while slightly bending to showcase her upper figure. On the branch, Dan slightly blushed and turned his head away. “Shut up and stand still” he commanded once more. As Pinkie change her stance into a more comfortable one, but still looking like a pose, Dan took the opportunity to evaluate his reaction to what just happened. Dan, never, ever blushed. The only times his face would turn red would be when extremely angry, if he was sick, or spent ungodly hours under the blazing sun; never because of a woman. Then it hit him: he just saw Pinkie as a ‘woman’ and not as the girl that was just Chris’ replacement for the time being. Sure he had called her ‘woman’ a few times now, but it was an expression more than the actual way he had seen her. Dan quickly smacked his brow a few times to get rid of these distracting thoughts. He had to focus in the mission, on his goal: to survive long enough to be rescued so he could return back home and get his revenge on the beach. After a few minutes of silence, their wait was rewarded when the bushes began rustling signaling the arrival of a predator. Both Dan and Pinkie were at edge, patiently waiting for the animal to attack. After a few tense seconds of rustling, the predator revealed itself: it was a tropical penguin. “Awww! Look Dan, it’s a penguin!” beamed while crossing her fingers in delight. She had never seen penguins this close! The only ones she seen were on tv or at the zoo. Dan on the other had was slightly disappointed that he couldn’t kill a mighty beast and claim it’s corpse in the name of human evolutional superiority, still food was food in the end. “ Don’t move! I’m going to kill it!” “What?!” You can’t kill a penguin!” she shouted at Dan, who was preparing to throw his pointy stick at the poor creature. “They are sooo cute!...Also I think they are endangered!” Annoyed, Dan answered back. “It’s us or him, Pinkie! US or him!” he put emphasis on ‘us’ to make it clear that their survival was dependant on killing for food. “How do you know it’s a He? It could be a She! Or maybe it doesn’t want to be labeled with conventional gender terms!” Pinkie retorted back full of conviction. “What the heck are you talking about?!” Dan yelled more in confusion than in anger. “Why do you keep spewing such nonsense!?” He was really getting frustrated with Pinkie’s behavior and Dan’s empty stomach wasn’t helping either. With decisiveness he pulled back his arm and readied his shot. “Dan! No!” “Die penguin!” he threw the stick with all his strength and with the added advantage of his elevated position, the stick had enough momentum to skewer anything. A shame Dan’s aim wasn’t very good and stick ended up a feet away from the penguin. The penguin exalted over the attack, made a loud and strange cry that forced Pinkie and Dan to cover their ears. Seconds later, a colony of penguins appeared to answer the cry of their brethren. The entire colony stared angrily at Dan, who was the one responsible for the attack, with their blood red eyes. “RUN!!!” Dan shouted and hastily made his ‘tactical retreat”. He jumped down from the branch and made a run from it. Pinkie quickly followed, leaving behind her clothes. Dan and Pinkie ran all the way back to the shore and managed to lose the penguins that were chasing them, thank evolution that made them unable to run. Dan, who didn’t have the best physical condition, was bent placing his arm on his knees and gasping for air. Pinkie on the other hand didn’t look winded at all, she stood silent while Dan recuperated. “So…do you want to write S.O.S on the sand with seashells?” she suggested as their possible cousre of action. “It’s no use! Nobody is coming for us!” He really was losing the little hope he had left, and his goal for revenge was getting farther and farther away. “That’s not true! Elise and Chris will! Once they notice we’re missing, they would do their best to try and find us!” Pinkie replied still with hope. She believe in her friends and they will surely find them in time. “Bah! Those two are never going to find us! Dan shot down her words with his own pessimism. “Our only hope of survival is to wait for missionaries!” Yes, because waiting for missionaries to come was most likely than their own friends finding them. “In the meantime we need a roof on our heads!” “I don’t know about that Dan, I mean, we could go and look for a cave but that means going back in there with the penguins who want to kill us!” Pinkie said a little dejected that the cute little penguins didn’t like them at all. “Also there isn’t enough wood lying around to build a full house and a house made of sand is silly, because it wouldn’t be resistant at all!” She knew all about sandcastles and how delicate they were, especially if they were hollow inside. “So that leaves us if my only idea left, we need to create FIRE!” Dan announced a little too loudly, but he couldn’t help himself, the little pyromaniac kid inside him was giddy about the idea. “ Pinkie! Gather some dry wood for the fire!” “Ok!” ///////////////////////////////////////////// 45 minutes later, Dan wasn’t closer to making a fire more than when he first started. “FORGET IT!” He yelled frustrated and kicked away the wood that refused to ignite. “No fire, no food…” at the mention of food, his stomach grumbled loudly. He felt like he was eating himself from the inside out. “The only option left is…” in his already declining sanity, he arrived at the ultimate conclusion: “cannibalism.” There was no other way, he was desperate and he needed to eat something! And since he wasn’t going to eat himself; by process of elimination, the only candidate for his meal was Pinkie Pie. Even her name sounded delicious, a tasty and warm pie. Dan began walking real slow to not make any sound at all, and search for Pinkie who had left him alone to build a fire while she gave her idea of writing a rescue signal with seashells a try. After a few minutes of stalking, Dan finally found his prey. She was crouched on the sand placing all the seashells she found in a circular pattern. She was writing the ‘O’ in S.O.S. Dan made his approach as silent and slowly as he could, he didn’t want to alert his prey of his presence. But suddenly Pinkie stood still as if she felt a disturbance in her surroundings. Maintaining his patience, Dan stood completely still and waited for his prey to lower her guard once more. Pinkie stood still feeling confused. Her sixth sense was going up, trying to warn her about something, but by the life of her she couldn’t pin point exactly what is was trying to tell. Something that had to do with her and Dan, but it didn’t specified exactly what was it about the two of them. Was it danger? Something scary was going to happen? Were they going to see a rainbow together? She had no clue. Pinkie decided to put her ‘premonition’ on the back of her mind for the time being and resumed placing her seashells in order. And that’s when Dan pounced at her. “RRRWAAAH!” Dan roared as he came down on top of her and pushed her into the ground. His prey tried to fight back but he quickly pinned her arm over her head. She might be taller and be in better shape than him but when it came to pure killer instinct, he was superior. “Dan! What are you doing!” she cried in fright, once he had her pinned to the ground. But she didn’t get an answer, only growls. A powerful animal instinct overtook him rendering unable to form coherent words. Still there was enough clarity on his head to understand what he needed to do next and that was to tenderize his meat. So he removed one of his hands for pinning and used to grab and squeeze the meat. “Dan! What are you…” Her query was interrupted by his touch which caused her to moan. Dan took that as a signal that he was doing it right and keep squeezing different parts of her body. “Please…Sto∼…!” She tried to plead but she couldn’t stop moaning. Dan’s touch made it difficult for her to think clearly. After some more tenderizing, Dan needed to know if the meat was tender enough so he decided to take a little bite and check the softness of his meal. Dan brought his face down to Pinkie’s neck and bit her. For Pinkie, the bite was soft enough not to inflict pain but a very pleasurable feeling and caused her moan some more. Now that the meat felt tender enough, it was time to fully enjoy it, but before he took the first real bite and tear out the flesh, he lifted his head from the soft neck and gave his meal a good long look. Pinkie could see in his eyes a very primal hunger that only her body would satisfy. He even was drooling at the sight of her. She knew what she wanted and a small part of her want it too. But she wasn’t emotionally ready of something like this. She was still sorting out her own thoughts and feelings for Dan. Still the look of hunger in his eyes made it clear he wouldn’t stop, he wanted her badly, he needed her and she being her, couldn’t bring herself to leave behind a friend in need. So she stopped her struggle and l relaxed her body. Surprised that his prey stop struggling, Dan looked at his meal once more and ended up staring at her big blue eyes. It made him stop and calm his inner beast for moment. Seeing that both of them were staring at each other eyes, Pinkie shyly whispered to Dan. “Please…be gentle” her words were very quiet but the emotion behind them was very strong. So strong that perplexed Dan and sent him in a blinking frenzy. Dan, now that he was calmer and saner, slowly processed what Pinkie just whispered. In took him half a minute to realize what he was doing, where he currently was, whom he was standing over, and what Pinkie just implied suggested her words. His only response was the very basic ‘fight or flee’ instinct that every human had in themselves. Dan already exhausted his fighting spirit so that only left one thing: fleeing. “AAAAHHHHH!!!” Dan as fast as humanly possible stood away from Pinkie and turn around to run directly into the cold waters of the sea. Leaving behind a confused Pinkie who just looked at him as if he just went insane. “What happened?” [Continue in part 3 of the Beach] > All Aboard the Ship! [Unedited] > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS Chapter 7 – All Aboard the Ship! After Dan finished having his major freak-out, he sat unmoving on the sandy floors of the beach, with an unreadable expression on his face. You couldn’t really tell if he was repulsed, horrified, flustered, disgraced or a strange mix of them all. Pinkie, having seen the whole spectacle, decided to leave him alone to sort out his confused mind. In the meantime, she walked away near the water, letting it splash her feet while she sorted her own feelings too. Pinkie was mostly confused; the whole thing happened so fast, it seemed like a dream or a fever fantasy, but it did happened and she had a mark on her neck to prove it. Touching the mark, brought not only a small pain but also the memory of the pleasure she felt when she was bitten. Pinkie couldn’t stop blushing at the thought; she had heard before from her friend Rarity and her ‘romance’ novels about how biting was a way to express passionate love or lust for your love mate. When Rarity told her, Pinkie joke about how that only happened in her novels with very unrealistic settings. But there she was on a deserted island all alone with Dan. Speaking of Dan, Pinkie still felt confused about what she felt for him. At first, when she saw him at the burger shop with his friend Chris tied to a hand truck, she found him and the whole scene at Burger Phile silly and funny; when she saw him crawling in the floor in pain, she felt the need to help him and care for him since it looked like he didn’t have anyone else to do so; when she later met Elise and became friends with her, Dan’s name would usually come up, leading to a story about his misadventures, Elise’s stories only made her curiosity and interest in Dan grow; after their ‘date’ she discovered that she and Dan had many interests in common and that he was a very interesting person with lots of stories and experiences to tell, like: chasing after a werewolf, fly alien spacecrafts, stop a dentist supervillain from conquering the world, defeat a ninja and see a real life sasquatch. Dan was a fascinating person; he has done things no other man could accomplish in their lives, and all in the name of justice, well more like revenge, but still his revenge caused a lot of good in the world. Because of this, Pinkie would often think about him and his life. She admired him and wanted to know more about him and spent time with him. Pinkie kept walking lost on her thought about Dan that she didn’t notice she was about to stumble into something. *THUD* “Ooowwieee∼!” Pinkie cried and nurse her poor toe that bumped into a very solid object. After the pain soothed away, she looked at the offending object she accidently smacked into. “It’s…!” A boat or more specifically, the half of the boat that was torn away by Chompy. Aside for the missing half, it looked intact enough that they could repair it and sail back home. “I have to tell Dan!” Pinkie ran back towards the still unmoving Dan was sitting. “Dan! Dan!” She called out for him once she was near enough for him to hear her, but he didn’t answered right back. He looked at her general direction and turned his head away to avoid seeing her. “Dan!” She called out again but the result was the same, he didn’t answer or made eye contact. “Dan, say something!” Pinkie was worried, “why are you acting like this?” But she received no answer. Dan remained silent. “If this is about what happened earlier…” Pinkie began, blushing slightly “…I…I…” Pinkie had no clue what she was supposed to say. What if she screw-up and say something that would make the situation worse? Should she confront him about it? Should she put it aside and wait sometime before bring it out again? Well, it was too late now; she already began might as well end it now. She just hoped her instincts wouldn’t fail her now. “I want you to know that I’m not upset, so you shouldn’t either. We can pretend it never happened” As soon as those words left her mouth, Dan finally turned to look at her. “What are you talking about?” One would assume he was just playing along for the sake of putting this situation behind, but the bewilderment in his voice and face told a different story. “I’m not upset! I’m just mad that I couldn’t start a stupid fire, and how could I with those useless sticks!” In turn, Pinkie was perplexed about what Dan was saying, “What about the whole screaming and running to the beach thing?” She inquired once more, trying to understand what was going on with Dan. “What?! I never did that! I’ve been here the whole time? What are YOU talking about? Are you going crazy on me?” He retorted, now acting more like himself. Pinkie stood there blinking rapidly trying to piece together what was going on. It took a few seconds but she finally arrived to an answer: repression. In the few minutes when she left him alone, Dan tried and succeeded in suppressing the memory of the whole ordeal, as a way to protect himself from having to deal with it. Pinkie, not wanting to push the issue and make Dan have another breakdown, especially in their current situation; she decided to go along with it. “No, no…maybe I just imagined it” “Good! Because I need you to find a way to get out of this cursed island” Dan said while standing up, finally going back to his normal, scheming, prone-to-anger self. “Oh! Now that you mentioned it! I found part of our boat! We can try and fix it so we can sail back home!” Pinkie said happy and relieved that they finally had a mean to escape the island, and that the whole “awkward” situation was now in the past soon to be forgotten. “Take me to the boat! We have work to do!” Dan shouted in confidence now that he felt more in control of himself. “Yes, capt’n!” ///////////////////////////////////// After what seemed like hours, Dan and Pinkie used all what they could find: wood, vines and coconuts; and use it to repair their boat, which now looked like a cross between a boat and a raft. “Aaaand done!” announced Dan with smile on his face. “Looks like we’re gonna make it back alive.” Then his smile turned into his classic smirk that spelled troubled to his victims. “The beach better be ready for round two!” “I think it’s more like round 3 or 4” Pinkie chimed in, bringing down Dan’s mood for revenge down a notch. He didn’t want to be reminded the current ‘score’ and the lead the beach had over him. “Just help me push the boat into the sea” he grumbled. After successfully pushing and boarding the half boat half raft, they smoothly sailed without much trouble. That was after they reached the midway point of their way back and the boat/raft began sinking. “We are sinking!...Again!” fumed Dan with a red angry face. He was so close of coming back alive and have his second change at revenge; only to be stopped by their faulty raft. “This is why I don’t buy home-made stuff! They lack the quality standards of a reliable assembly line of big foreign corporations!” Pinkie tried to keep her cool, but she couldn’t stop her worries from creeping into her voice. “I’m sure we’ll be fine!” she said mostly to herself. The first time they sunk, Dan almost died on her arms, she wasn’t ready to deal with that a second time. “Forget it! We are done…” said Dan accepting his defeat, something that was unthinkable for him to do, “On the bright side, I heard drowning is a very peaceful way to die” Pinkie just stared at him and for the first time since she met Dan she wanted to smack him on the back of the head for that comment. She saw him almost drown! And when he finally regained consciousness, she saw him painfully cough-out the water. It was painful to watch and sure as heck it was painful to experience. But before she could berate over that comment, her ears caught the sound some strange melodic music, followed by the sound of a foghorn at the distance. “Dan, Look!” She pointed out behind Dan, who turned to look at what she was pointing at, “It’s a ship! We’re saved!” she boomed in joy. It was large and…colorful ship. Seriously it had red, yellow, blue, and green all over. “Missionaries! I knew it!” Dan cheered for their rescue and the fact that he was right about missionaries. “HEY! OVER HERE! WE NEED HELP!” He shouted and move his arms around to try and get their attention. Thankfully, some member of the crew spotted them and moved towards them. Just as the ship was besides them, someone let down a rope ladder for them to climb up. “Me first!” Dan was the first to go for the ladder. Pinkie didn’t mind, in fact it was better that way, she didn’t want Dan to look up to her bikini bottom. Once Pinkie, finally climbed up the ladder and stepped into the ship, she was received by a strangely soft-spoken voice. “Thank goodness, we found you! If we hadn’t sailed nearby we would’ve missed…Pinkie Pie?” Pinkie looked up to the one who called her name, and received the pleasant surprise. “Fluttershy!” ////////////////////// “It so good to see you again, Pinkie” Fluttershy said softly with a small smile. She was a petite girl, even if you didn’t compare her with Pinkie who was a year younger than her. Fluttershy had a very long straight pink hair that was a few shades lighter than Pinkie’s. “I know! It’s been a long time! I missed you so much!” Pinkie returned the smile with one of her own. “Also thanks for the clothes. It was getting chilly with only my swimsuit on.” After Fluttershy saw her with so little clothes on, she lent her a green turtle neck sweater and yellow shorts. The color combination clashed with her hair but it was better than almost no clothes. “It’s the least I can do for a friend in need.” Fluttershy on the other hand, was wearing yellow and green dashiki style top, bell-bottom jeans with flowers designs and brown sandals. On her head was a butterfly hairclip and on her neck was a silver peace sign necklace. In other words, she was dress like a hippie girl. As both pink haired girls exchanged pleasantries with each other, Dan was sitting on a box with a green blanket over his shoulders and eating some kind of grey mush that had no flavor at all. He would’ve normally refused to eat such a thing but he was starving and as they say ‘beggars can’t be choosers’. Dan ate the grey mush stuff in such speed and manner; he quickly caught the attention of both pinkettes, who could only stare at him. “What? Do I have food on my face or something?” he asked rudely. He didn’t take kindly to their stares. “Oops, almost forgot! Dan, this is Fluttershy, one of my best friends in the whole world.” Pinkie introduced Fluttershy, who blushed at her friend's words, “she’s the one I was talking about when we were at the aquarium.” Frankly, Dan didn’t remember anything of what Pinkie said about her friend, so he just nodded dumbly and pretended he did remember. “Fluttershy, this is Dan, he’s…a friend…” Pinkie hesitated a second, she wasn’t sure what Dan ‘really’ was to her, so she went with friend for now until she could meditate about it when she returned home. Still blushing, Fluttershy faintly said to Dan, “It is nice to meat you, Mr. Dan” It seemed like she was still her old shy self. No matter how much time it passes, some things remain the same. Dan remained silent for a few seconds. This new girl reminded him of Chris, she was shy and look like a pushover that everyone treated like a doormat. He didn’t particularly dislike that kind of people, but he didn’t exactly like them either. “…Nice…to meet you too.” He greeted back with no real emotion on his voice. “And drop the ‘Mister’ part.” He may not have any real reaction towards the petite girl in front of him, but he decided to act civil with her since she hasn’t done anything to make him mad yet. “Exactly, what is your real name?” asked Dan, he wasn’t feeling like using that strange nickname that Pinkie used, in fact, if it weren’t for her long and tedious name, he wouldn’t use Pinkie’s nickname either. “Sorry, It’s just that I’m used to people referring to me as Fluttershy, since it became my ‘spirit name’. My real name is…” “Say, Fluttershy? If you don’t mind me asking, why exactly are you doing in aboard this ship?” Pinkie was happy to see her friend again, but she was really curious about her reason for being here. “Well, as you already know, I spend my breaks doing community service!” Her declaration caught Dan off guard he almost chocked with the mushy stuff he was eating. To him it was unconceivable for someone to do community service voluntarily. “But this time I decided to spend my Spring Break helping a bigger cause. And that is to stop ships from dumping all sorts of trash and chemicals into the ocean, and protect the ecosystem from pollution!” “Wow, that is SO awesome of you!” Pinkie cheered for her friend. It seemed that little old Fluttershy was more assertive than ever, especially if it involves something she really cared about. “Well…” she blushed shyly again at the praise. “I wouldn’t come so far if it wasn’t for the support of my friends.” “Aww!” said Pinkie flattered that Fluttershy thought so much of her friends. “And the entire series of ‘assertiveness’ tapes from professional motivational speaker Mr. Lawrence ‘Iron Will’ Williams.” Fluttershy ended by taking out a bright orange tape that read ‘Iron Will’s Assertiveness Course’ from one of her pockets. Pinkie, not knowing how to respond to that, just laughed nervously. She remembered the time her friend took Iron Will’s advice a little too serious. Before any of them could say anything else, a bearded man wearing a coat similar to a navy captain, except his was dark violet, came out from the ship’s bridge and looked down the deck and addressed his crew. “Helloooo! FriendShip!” Yes that was the name of the ship, the SS Friendship. Dan found it ridiculous and Pinkie found it cute. “How’ everybody doing today?” The crew responded with a collective ‘Yes’ even Fluttershy manage to respond above her normal speaking volume. After the crew cheer died down, the Captain continued, “Five minutes from now, a very large trash barge is going to dump sixty tons of dangerous waste into our beautiful ocean. What a bummer man” Again the crew responded by booing. “I can’t believe I’m surrounded by tree-hugging, corporation-killing, peace-mongers” muttered Dan to himself. He then tossed aside the empty plate of food those hippies gave him. Thankfully, nobody paid him any attention, everyone was focused on what the captain had to say. “When that barge shows up we’re gonna sneak aboard, get to the bridge and swipe the ignition key, man! Then they WILL have to talk to us!” Again everyone cheered in agreement to the plan. “So! How about a volunteer!” at the mention of that the crew cheers died down and began to disperse. But Dan interest was piqued. “I know it sounds dangerous, you know. But one of us has the chance to be a hero, man! How about you Thunderbird?” The captain pointed at a afro-haired, yellow bandana wearing member of his crew. “Oh…I can’t today. My aura is waaay off!” answered Thunderbird waaay too laid-back. “He’s right!” Fluttershy chimed in, “His healthy orange has becoming muddy gray in the last few days.” “Oh! My bad, man! I didn’t notice.” The captain apologized, “well, I guess I’ll have to step up…and lead a discussion circle! Thunder, please bring out the drums, man.” Not missing his chance, Dan quickly lifted up his hand, “I volunteer!” he said surprising both Pinkie and Fluttershy. “Bu-but Dan…!” “Wow! He’s so brave” Dan ignored the both of them, and rubbed his hands in the classical villainous manner. All he had to do was hijack the ship and then dump the sixty tons of trash on the beach, so they have no other choice but to close it down! He was so near to his revenge he could almost taste it. “Great! Now come up to the bridge so we can equip you up for this mission, man!” The captain said relieved. Dan smirked and walked towards a set of stairs to go up into the bridge. Pinkie just stood there and silently watched him walk away with worry written all over her face. Seeing the distress in her friend’s face, Fluttershy stepped closer and gave Pinkie a reassuring hug. “Don’t worry Pinkie. I’m sure he’s going to be alright!” Pinkie remained silent but she returned Fluttershy’s hug, feeling glad that she had her friend here for support. After a few minutes, Fluttershy decided to break the silence. “Pinkie? You really care about him, don’t you?” “Off course I care for him, I care for all my friends!” “I know, but that’s not what I meant.” Fluttershy released her hug and took a step backwards to give Pinkie some space. “You see him as something more than a friend, I can sense it in your aura.” Pinkie look away feeling embarrassed, she should know better than hide something from Fluttershy, just like she had a sixth sense that guide her and predicts immediate events, Fluttershy had an uncanny ability to sense the emotions of others. “I…I still don’t know, myself. I admire him for his dedication and passion, and I want to be near him and learn more about him.” She confessed with a small blush on her cheeks. “Is he the reason, why you left?” asked Fluttershy with a combination of sadness and curiosity. She was referring to when she told everyone she had to leave because her sixth sense was inciting her to do so. “Maybe…” Pinkie replied unsure. It guided her to California to find something, she stayed but she could never find what her sense wanted her to find, that was until it reacted towards Dan’s presence and made her follow him when she first met him at Burger Phile. “When I first met him, my sense reacted to him and made me follow him, maybe he is the thing I needed to find, but I’m not sure exactly what I need to do now that I found him.” Her sense worked in mysterious ways. It may have brought her towards Dan, but it wasn’t the entire reason why she to stayed near him. She found him funny and really interesting. She…may like-like him…a little bit. “I’m sure you’ll find out sooner or later, and once you do, I hope you can come back home, we all miss you.” Fluttershy was sad that her friend was away, but believed that the universe had a reason for her search and once she finished it Pinkie would become more spiritually wholesome. “Thanks Fluttershy.” ///////////////////////// After a short while, Dan came back wearing with a black ski mask, an equipped with a crowbar and a grappling hook, looking very sure of himself. The ship was nearing and in a minute, they would mount the attack. “Dan, are you sure about this?” Pinkie was very worried about him. First they were dragged by a shark, sunk and almost drown; he avoided a coconut that almost cracked his skull open, escape an attack by a colony of angry penguins, almost starved, sunk again, and now this. How many dangerous situations could one person possibly experience in just one day? “Don’t worry, miss” reassured the captain. ”I believe his capable for this mission! Besides, he is saving our precious ocean and every living creature in it” “Yes, I’m a hero!” Dan confirmed the captain’s claims and basked in the adulation. Once the ship was near enough, Dan shot the grappling hook and it firmly grasped the other ship’s railing. After he make sure it was tense enough, Dan hook himself and zip lined to the other ship. “Dan…” Pinkie whispered concerned for his safety. Then she felt a very light hand rest on her shoulder. It was Fluttershy who gave her a smile reassuring smile. Onboard the trash barge Dan sneaked around, avoiding detection using his stealth skills he developed on countless past experiences in which he had to break in somewhere. As he neared the bridge, Dan found to crew members, standing around talking about nonsense but most importantly, blocking his path. Dan knew there was no way for him to sneak by undetected, so he needed to find a way to get rid of those two. He looked around, trying to find something useful until his gaze rested on a control panel for the crane. “Excellent” “I keep telling you, Carl. That cartoon about pastel colored horses is the most detailed allegory for Plato’s Republic I have ever seen.” The mustachioed crew member commented to his shorter companion. “I don’t know I feel the allegory works well until a certain part, I mean when trying to connect the horses with magic with the ruling class of Plato’s idea of utopia it kinda falls apart.” The one know as Carl gave his two cents to his taller companion. “Man, don’t be such a buzzkill” “Sorry, but that what I honestly feel!” They were so enthralled with their discussion that they didn’t notice the crane’s claw coming from behind to throw them over the board and into the cold water. Now that those two were out of his way, Dan had a clear path to the bridge and to literal key to his revenge. Once inside the bridge, Dan forgone the stealth in favor of a more direct approach, and by direct approach I mean, smacking a crowbar into the head of the barge’s captain. Unfortunately, he wasn’t fast enough and the captain dodged the surprise attack. “Darn! I missed!” “Who the heck are you?” yelled the mad Captain. “Who the heck goes around trying to hit people in the head with crowbars?” “The man who is going to hijack this boat and prevent you from dumping all this trash into the ocean!” And instead dump it on the beach, but he refrained from voicing the last part. “Like you could, you free-loving do-gooder!” Then with a push of a button he sounded the alarm and brought the rest of the crew members to the bridge. “Now that we have you cornered, were going to beat you up!” Dan took a step backwards and held up tightly his crowbar. “If you want a fight, come and get it!” he said with all the bravado he could muster. The situation looked dire, and if he was going to go down, might as well go down swinging. Then out of nowhere Pinkie came through the door swinging from a rope kicking and yelling. “Spidey’s Swing!” her strength and combined momentum was enough to pushed the captain and his crew out of the ship. Feeling relieved Dan couldn’t help but say a one-liner. “It looks like the trash, was taken out!” in the back of his head could almost hear a very loud shout of “Yeeeeaaahhh!!!” “Dan! Thank goodness you’re okay!” Pinkie turned and hugged Dan real tight. “I was so worried; I had to come with you!” “Yeah, whatever, stop hugging me! We still have a mission to accomplish!” Pinkie held him tight for another three seconds before she released him. Now that the bridge was secure, she needed to inform the members of the SS FriendShip about their success. Pinkie walked out the bridge and moved around her arms for the others to see. “They did it! They really did it, man!” Cheered the captain alongside his crew; it was a win for Mother Nature. They continued their sheer and fail to notice that the barge began moving away. “Umm…Captain… the barge is sailing away” Fluttershy tried to inform the captain and the crew but her soft spoken voice was drown by the sea of celebratory cheers. “Captain, the barge is sailing away!” she tried again with no success. Then she remember one of the lessons from Iron Will. ‘If at first they don’t hear, shout on their ear!’ and shout she did. “CAPTAIN THE BARGE IS SAILING AWAY!” her powerful yell shut the rest of the crew who in turn stared at her outburst. Fluttershy, who never liked been the center of attention, just blush and apologized, “Um…Sorry!” The rest of the cres remained silent until they finally realized what she just told them. “Wait! The barge is moving away?! Where are they going?!” - Pinkie returned back to the bridge of the barge, and found Dan at the helm. “Dan! What are you doing? We’re moving away from the FriendShip.” Dan stood silent at the helm for a few seconds before turning around and look at Pinkie in the eyes. “Pinkie, there come a moment in every man’s life when he HAS to destroy a beach. For me, that moment is now!” He ended his quote, he was sure that it would be remember for the generations to come, took out an eye patch he had found that morning free inside a cereal box, and put it on. “I knew this would come in handy, Arrrgh!” “Dan! You became a pirate!” was the only thing Pinkie said, nothing about lying to the hippies or the fact that he was going to contaminate the beach; only that he was a pirate. “That’s so cool!” “I know!” ///////////////////////////// Finally, after crashing the massive barge into the beach; local authorities had to close it for an indefinitely amount of time while the EPA did its job. Dan was sitting on his couch watching the news coverage of the incident, feeling very proud of himself. “I did it Mr. Mumbles. I finally got my revenge on the beach!” he said while stroking the unkempt fur of his kitty. Mr. Mumbles must meowed and enjoy the extra petting of today. “On a surprisingly optimistic turn, clean-up efforts are already underway! Came the voice of the reporter from the TV. “WHAT! WHY?” whined Dan. How could they already begin with the cleaning? Don’t they realize the effort it took to destroy it in the first place? Then a knock came from his door followed by the entrance of Pinkie who didn’t bothered waiting for him to open up. “Dan, guess what? The cleaning efforts already began! Fluttershy made a call out to all her eco-friends online who immediately responded and are already here to help! Isn’t it great? Now Fluttershy is going to stay with me until she and her friends finish cleaning up the beach!” She was so excited; it was like having a slumber party everyday with one of her best friends. When she finished her explanation, Pinkie noticed that Dan was trembling. “Dan, you’re shaking! Do you feel cold or something?” She didn’t get an answere right away. Dan just kept shaking until he stood up from his couch and yell out to his ceiling and the sky above it. “FLUUUUUTEEEEEEERSHYYYYYYYY!!!!!!” > Road Trip > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS. Chapter 8 – Fluttershy’s along for the ride. It didn’t take long for the beach to be cleared with the combine efforts of the EPA and the thousands of volunteers. It also helped that Dan didn’t sabotage the cleaning efforts; Pinkie had to convince him that by doing so he would make Fluttershy’s eco-friends stay longer than necessary. Dan complied and chose to let the beach recover in favor of not having to deal with hippies for more than necessary. The lesser of two evils, you know. During the cleaning effort, Pinkie let Fluttershy stay at her home and show her around town and introduced her to Elise and Chris. Elise took an instant liking to the petite girl, finding her to be very nice and soft-spoken; a big contrast between Dan who was mean and loud most of the time. Chris also found Fluttershy to be very pleasant and knowledgeable, finally he had someone to talk and exchange tips about his gardening hobby; although he was a little put-out by the fact the girl seemed to be kinda afraid of him. Every time he caught her staring at him she would instantly turn away, maybe it was his stature that intimidated her. Now it was the day after the beach was deemed clean enough to be opened again for the public, and both Pink haired girls were celebrating with a small get-together with Elise. They were all sitting at the kitchen table, enjoying some of the cake Pinkie baked for the occasion. “So now that it’s over, what are you gonna do next, Fluttershy?” Elise asked to the small hippie girl. Elise too referred to her as ‘Fluttershy’ since the girl keep insisting on all her friends to use that name. “Well…I’m planning on returning home this next Monday.” Fluttershy informed while holding up her cup of hot coffee. They very drinking decaffeinated and letting Pinkie thought it was normal. Both Elise and Fluttershy knew how their energetic friend got after much sugar and caffeine. “Awww….but Fluttershy!” Whined Pinkie Pie. ”You can’t leave so soon! You haven’t gone with us on one of Dan’s crazy adventures, yet.” Elise smiled at that. She remembered how a week ago, while both pink heads were busy with the clean-up; she went along with Dan and Chris across the country to Mount Vernon to get back at the ghost of George Washington for chopping down a palm tree that ended up destroying Dan’s car. The trip, though insufferable, was enlightening to say the least. It gave her so much insight into Dan psyche; like his savant side that make him remember facts at random every given time, or that deep inside he was just a kid in a grown man’s body who only wanted attention. Off course Pinkie was disappointed she couldn’t come with them, but she quickly got over it after she made Elise promise to do something for her during the trip. Elise expected something like: ‘Please take care of Dan’ or ‘Bring me a souvenir if you can’; but what Pinkie really wanted was for them to stop on their way back at Butchertown on Louisville, Kentucky and deface Thomas Edison’s house. When Elise asked her why she disliked Edison so much, Pinkie only replied: “He KNOWS what he did. And this will show him what REAL American humor is!” and refrained from saying anything else. In the end Elise kept her promise and stopped at Edison’s House but instead of trying to destroying another historic place in the span of a week, she just stink bombed the house so it would have to close down for months. Thankfully that was enough for Pinkie. Returning back to the present, Elise chimed in about the possibility of another revenge scheme, “Well, earlier today Chris and I took Dan to the electronics store and bought him a computer so he could entertain himself and not bother us when we want to be alone. So the probability of him finding someone or something to get revenge on in the next few days is very low.” Unfortunately for Elise, the universe was going to prove her wrong, because in a few hours Dan’s new computer would have a ‘slight’ malfunction. _ “So let me get this straight, we are going to drive all the way to Silicon Valley to get back at billionaire Barry Ditmer, because Dan’s computer malfunctioned and it was deemed obsolete despite the fact you bought it yesterday?” summarized Pinkie, while sitting in the back of Chris’ car. “Pretty much!” confirmed Chris; he was the going to be the driver the whole way. “Does this kind of things happen often?” asked Fluttershy who was sitting next to Pinkie on the back of the car. She too was dragged in this strange adventure when Dan and Chris stopped at Pinkie’s house for supplies for the trip. “Almost every week, sometimes I keep a track of how long does it take from target to target. Longest time is still a month!” confessed Chris a little tired from all the driving. He should be accustomed to Dan’s revenge schemes by now, but for some reason Dan kept upping the bar. “Hey! I resent that!” complained Dan who was riding shotgun, “how would you feel if I kept track of every time you screw-up or every time you eat something you shouldn’t!” “You already do that!” Chris retorted slightly mad, “And you rub it in my face every chance you got!” “Pinkie? Do you really think this was a good idea?” whispered the petite girl to her friend, “I mean, don’t you think were intruding?” “No way!” replied the more exuberant of the two girls, “besides, what better way to form fond memories with friends other than a road trip? This way we shall always remember your first stay in California!” “I never really thought about it like that, Pinkie” Chris said while looking at the rearview mirror, “It really is an unforgettable memory” for better or for worse, “I’m glad that you girls decided to come along, it would make the trip a whole more fun.” “Really?” asked Fluttershy, flattered by Chris’ words. “But aren’t these excursions kind of dangerous” She may have rallied and protested against the mistreat of animals and the pollution of Mother Nature, which sometimes could be dangerous, but if what half the things Pinkie told her were true, then this could potentially be the most dangerous thing she has ever partaking in. “Don’t worry, Fluttershy! We are all here with you!” Pinkie reassured her, “Besides Chris here is a veteran! I’m sure he will keep an eye on us” “Yeah! I’ll keep an eye on you!” He may have just said that with confidence but on the inside he was unsure, still he had to put a more valiant front for the girls. Especially for Fluttershy, poor thing looked very nervous “I’ll make sure nothing happens to you, Fluttershy!” Chris ended with a smile that both girls could see thanks to the rearview mirror. Fluttershy blushed at the attention he gave her and couldn’t help but notice one thing, “He has a nice smile” thought the small girl. “Yuck! Could you please stop girlifying the trip, I feel it losing its masculinity every passing second!” complain once again Dan with his arm crossed in front of his chest. “Dan! Be nice to them, they were nice enough to give us supplies for this UNINTENDED road trip” Chris scolded Dan like he was a small kid. “I’m just expressing my own opinion!” Dan retorted in an as-a-matter-of-fact kind of tone, still with his arms crossed. “Aww…Don’t worry Dan! I know exactly what will cheer you up!”Said Pinkie in a cheery tone, “A SONG!” she exclaimed out-loud. “No!” “Hey, that’s a great idea! which song should we sing, Pinkie?” Agreed Chris. “No, no!” “99 bottles of beer on the wall, 99 bottles of beer.” Pinkie began singing. “Take one down, pass it around, 98 bottles of beer on the wall...” “No, no, no!” “98 bottles of beer on the wall, 98 bottles of beer.” Chris joined in alongside with Fluttershy who sang less loudly than Pinkie and Chris. “Take one down and pass it around, 97 bottles of beer on the wall…” “NOOOooooooo!” - “One bottle of beer on the wall, one bottle of beer. Take one down and pass it around, no more bottles of beer on the wall.” Sang everybody sans Dan, nearing the end of the song. Dan who, around the 75 bottle of beer, surrendered his complaints and just tried to tuned out the song as much as he could. “No more bottles of beer on the wall, no more bottles of beer.” “FINALLY!” yelled out Dan, relived that the song was finally over. “Go to the store and buy some more, 99 bottles of beer on the wall.” “GAAAAAAAHHH! STOP THE CAR! LET ME OUT FOR THE LOVE OF…JUST LET ME OUT!” Dan screamed losing what was left of his sanity. “Well…there is a stop right there,” Chris pointed out to the gas station in front of them. “Maybe is a good idea to buy some gas and stretch our legs a little!” “Yes, and I need to go to the little ladies room!” added Pinkie, who just now felt the need for a restroom. “Me too” confessed Fluttershy a little embarrassed. “Ok! Since everyone agreed, I’ll stop the car.” Chris then parked the car next the gas pump. The first one to get out off the car was Dan who needed a moment to himself to regain some of his sanity so that he didn’t end up killing everyone else with a hatchet. The second one was Pinkie, who dashed so fast into the bathroom you could almost see after images of her, making it look like a trail of pink light. Lastly, were Chris and Fluttershy who didn’t really were in any hurry. Sure, Fluttershy wanted go to the ladies room, but she didn’t need to go right away like her friend. The hippie girl decided to get something to eat from the store adjacent to the gas station. She would’ve eaten something from the supplies Pinkie brought along, but they were mostly sugary snacks that were not very healthy if you consume them in high quantities. Fluttershy, quickly searched inside her bag for her coin purse. It was a purse she made herself out of cloth and had the form of a bunny. After she found it, she opened it and tried to count how much money it had inside. After she was done counting, the petite girl took a step forward not noticing an empty can of soda lying on the floor. Unaware, Fluttershy stepped on the can and found herself losing her balance. Fluttershy, who wasn’t really that coordinated, couldn’t regain her balance in time and began falling backwards. “Aaaahh!” she cried out in fright. As she was falling, everything felt like in slow motion and that made it worse since it made the sensation of falling last longer. The falling girl resigned to her fate and closed her eyes in anticipation to the fall and the pain. Except that it never came. As quick as she felt herself falling, she found herself falling unto something soft and warm instead of the cold hard ground. “Gotcha!” Exclaimed Chris as he caught Fluttershy from her fall. “Are you okay, Fluttershy?” he asked concerned to the girl on his arms. Fluttershy didn’t respond right away, she was still in slight shock of what just happened. Once she regain some composure, the small girl looked up only to see Chris’ face, eyes full of concerned but also relief that he caught her on time. “Uhm…Are you okay?” he asked again, except this time with less worry and with slight confusion. Did she not hear him the first time? Or she was still in silent shock? Realizing the position she was in, Fluttershy quickly stood upright with a small blush on her face. “Y…Yes…I’m okay!” she stuttered. “S..Sorry for falling into you” she ended up apologizing. “Thank goodness you’re fine. That would’ve been a nasty fall.”Chris said, now more relieved that the girl was fine. “But you don’t need to apologize, it was an accident!” he finished by giving her the same smile that Fluttershy found very nice a few hours ago, making her blush some more. “T-Thank you, C-Chris” She stuttered before she turn around and walk away flustered. Chris stood there, confused for a few seconds, “You’re welcome…?” he said to the long retreated back of Fluttershy. “Huh! That was…different” he said to himself confused by the small girl’s behavior. After a short while of thinking, he just shrugged and accepted that Fluttershy was a kinda weird but in a good way, she was a refreshing kind of different and a whole lot nicer than Dan. Meanwhile, Fluttershy was inside trying to sort out what was happening to her instead of looking for what she wanted before coming inside in the first place. Why was she blushing so much, or more than usual, around Chris, why did she find his smile so nice and cute and why she couldn’t get the warm feeling of his arms out of her mind. She was so distracted that she didn’t notice what she was taking from the stands. “Fluttershy!“ called out Pinkie Pie from behind her friend, making her jump in surprise. “P..P…Pinkie! Why did you surprise me like that?” asked nervously, but if you were to pay extreme attention you could almost hear a little bit of anger in her voice. “I been calling you’re name several times now!” explain Pinkie to her friend, “You look very out of it. Are you feeling okay?” One didn’t need a six sense to see that something was going on with her. “I’m fine, what makes you think something is going on?” Fluttershy replied a little too defensively, which was way out of the ordinary for her. “Because, you’re holding beef jerky in your hand!” Pinkie pointed out. At the salty treat on her friend’s hand. “Ghaa!” Fluttershy cried out while dropping the beef jerky onto the ground. Fluttershy never ate meat, ever since she was a kid. It all started when she visited a farm with her mother and played with one of the cutest lamb she have ever seen in her short life. Her name was Lammy. She would regularly visit that farm with her mother just so she could play with the Lammy and the other animals there. She liked to believe they form a special bond with her, and they would be friends forever. But one day, the Lammy wasn’t there anymore. She look around everywhere for her but she couldn’t find her. It was until later when she was told that someone bought Lammy and took her away to made food out of her.She was so sad and disgusted for her friend’s fate, she promised to never eat meat ever again. That’s why she was a vegetarian. Pinkie and her other friends knew about her reason and respected her decision of vegetarianism and in turn she respected their preference for meat. Fluttershy never tried to dissuade them or told them of the ‘evils’ of meat, but they were always considerate of her. Pinkie even stopped eating meat during her stay in her house these past weeks. “I..I’m sorry…” sobbed the small girl with small tears threatening to fall from her eyes. “I…didn’t mean to…” she continued barely containing her tears. Pinkie, being quick as always, hugged Fluttershy and rubbed her back in a comforting manner. “Shh…It’s okay! I’m here for you!” the taller of the two whispered into the small crying girl ear. “Hey, girls what are you…” Chris walked up to both girls only to stop himself after noticing Fluttershy’s state. “What happened? It’s something wrong?” He asked Pinkie since Fluttershy seemed to be unable to answer for the moment. “It’s nothing…” Pinkie replied not exactly sure who to answer his question, “It’s just….a girl thing!” she ended up saying, it wasn’t the truth but it wasn’t a lie either. “Could you excuse us for a moment?” after she received a silent nod of confirmation, Pinkie quickly took her friend and walk her out of the store, leaving a puzzled Chris behind. “I wonder what was that all about” he asked himself out loud, before looking down to the floor only to find beef jerky. “Oh, Jerky!” he swiftly pick it up from the floor with a smile on his face. But before he could dig in, he stopped for a second to consider something. Why was Fluttershy crying and why was jerky on the floor near her? Then he remembered that she was a vegetarian. But why cry? He had eaten meat in front of her before, and she never complained or seemed uncomfortable. Why now? Upon his pondering, Chris lowered the jerky and put it back to a stand. He may not know the answer but he was sure he had to do something to cheer Fluttershy up. And if that meant giving up meat for the rest of the trip, well so be it. - Meanwhile, Fluttershy was sitting inside a bathroom stall with the door locked. “Fluttershy? Please tell me what’s wrong.” Pinkie, who was standing in front of the closed stall door, said as soft as possible, she didn’t want to alter her friend more. “I’ll try to help you the best I can, I promise! No, I Pinkie promise! Cross my heart and hope to fly…” “No, Pinkie…” The girl inside interrupted her, “It’s not something you can really help me with.” She said with a calmer voice, she wasn’t crying anymore. “I’m just confused.” “Confused about what?” asked Pinkie. Fluttershy didn’t answered, she remained silent and brought her face. She knew exactly what was confusing her; she wasn’t as naïve as many believed her to be. She knew who the cause of her confusion was but she still refused to admit it. “Pinkie…?” Fluttershy said after a whole minute of silence. “When you are near Dan…how do you feel?” she asked to her friend outside. Pinkie was left confounded, “Wha…?” That question completely came out of left feel. “Please…answer me!” pleaded Fluttershy from the inside of the stall. Pinkie was unsure, of what her friend was thinking, but if answering her question would help her, she would do it. “Well…when I’m near Dan…”Pinkie began, “…I feel…thrilled.” That was the closest emotion she could describe her feelings with, “His life is so exciting and fun! Sure, sometimes it can be scary…” she said remembering when Dan almost drowned in her arms, “but other times it’s exhilarating.” Like swimming with sharks, meeting exotic penguins and travel in a large ship with hippies. “What about his personality?” Fluttershy asked, she had seen Dan’s attitude and temper and she couldn’t see why her friend wasn’t alarmed by it. “Well…” Pinkie drew out for a couple of seconds, trying to find the right way to phrase her response. “I know he has a short temper and he’s kind of a grump but…” she paused again, this time it took less time to find her words, “but I don’t see it as a bad thing, that’s who he is.” “But that doesn’t bother you?” her friend asked perplexed by Pinkie’s answer. “No, where others see anger, I see something else…I see a person who feels alone and it’s afraid of losing the few things he cares about. He is like a child after he was forced to grow fast and now he clings to those few fond memories of his childhood when he was truly happy and before the worries of the world came upon his shoulders.” Pinkie told with her eyes closed and with sadness creeping into her voice. “That’s why he’s angry, he feels like the world is trying to take away those memories from him. If he feels something threatens those memories, he reacts the only way he knows how.” Fluttershy was trying to fight the tears from forming once again on her eyes. It was so sad, but she kept on listening intently. “But not everything is sad!” She quickly changed her tone to a more hopeful one, “When he feels safe, he reveals a side of him, he rarely shows. A happy side unadulterated by the fear of loss or loneliness. I have seen that side of him and I want to see it more, so I’ll try my best to make him feel happy.” After Pinkie finished, she heard the lock from the stall opening and received a very strong hug from Fluttershy, who was crying once more. “Oh no! I made you feel sadder. I’m so sorry Fluttershy!” The crying girls just shook her head. “It’s not that” she managed to say between her small sobs. “I’d … have never…guessed…” though she left the sentence hanging in the air, Pinkie understood what she was trying to say. After a few minutes of only Fluttershy decreasing sobbing, the hippie girl finally calmed. “Fluttershy? If you don’t want to tell me it’s okay, but whatever is wrong I’ll be here for you.” Reassured Pinkie Pie. Fluttershy blushed a little embarrassed. After Pinkie’s confession; her own “problem” seemed silly and childish by comparison. Still, her friend opened her heart for her, so it was only fair she did the same. “Uh…you see…I…kinda…like someone” She stuttered hesitantly. “Really!? That’s great! Who is it?” asked Pinkie excited. She was happy that her friend was becoming more and more confident. “Is it someone from back home? Or, or is someone from your friends online?” The small girl shook her head in negative, “actually… It’s someone I just recently met…” “Who? Who?” asked again Pinkie, she could barely contain her excitement. “It’s Chris” > Decisions > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS Chapter 9 – Fluttershy’s decision. “It’s Chris” confessed a very red faced Fluttershy. “Oh my Gosh! That’s great, Fluttershy!” Pinkie replied instantly. “I’m so happy for you!” “Pinkie! Don’t you see the problem?” Fluttershy interrupted what could’ve been ten minutes of congratulations. “…”blink “…”blink “…”blink “Pinkie Pie?” the still red faced girl asked her silent friend. Her silence was making her uncomfortable. “Ooohhh! I see the problem now!” “I know!” Fluttershy turned around and covered her eyes with her hands. “He’s a married man, and Elise just became my friend, I’m the worst kind of person!” “That’s not true!” Pinkie rebutted. “You can’t decide who you feel attracted to! And that can never be wrong!” Unless you’re talking about sexual predators who chat with underage girls and boys over the internet; because that is wrong. But here wasn’t the time or the place to talk about that. “Tell me…why do you like Chris?” Maybe if she knew exactly why her friend feels that way, she could provide help. “Well…it’s because he is so nice not only to me but with everyone, and he cares about the environment, he has a big heart.” As Fluttershy turned around explain herself, Pinkie just nodded at everything she said. “He knows a lot about gardening, he knows how to cook and I don’t mind he eats meat” “That’s so cool of you!” It was surprising how understanding Fluttershy was, others with the same preference as her wouldn’t be as kind as her. “Thanks…” Fluttershy replied blushing at the compliment, “Also his smile is so nice, it makes me feel warm inside…” Fluttershy admitted a little flustered. “And his bright blue aura is so warm and inviting. When I fell into his arms it felt like an electric shock. Except that instead of hurting it fell…good” his aura was a whole lot alluring. Unlike Dan’s deep and muddied red aura, which made her feel uneasy. “I…may understand what you mean.” At her friend description, Pinkie couldn’t help but think back at the deserted island, or more specifically, Dan’s touch and bite. It felt so good she thought she was going to lose her mind. Pinkie turned even redder than Fluttershy. “It’s all so confusing!” continued Fluttershy, not paying attention to her friend’s red face. “Feeling this for a man, I can never be with…” if only he wasn’t married… “Well, I can’t say I know exactly how you feel…” said Pinkie, “are you sure you like-like him? Maybe what you feel is a crush, and eventually will go away! Like Rarity with that Prince guy.” That guy may be handsome but his personality leave a lot to be desired. Also what kind of name is ‘Prince’ anyway? “Maybe you’re right…” the small girl agreed still feeling a little unsure “maybe it’s just a small, insignificant crush” yes, sooner or later it would go away and become a thing of a past, probably. “Feeling better, now?” asked Pinkie, noticing that Fluttershy looked less tense.”If not, I could give you a backrub like you taught me to!” “That won’t be necessary, Pinkie” she refused but the offer make her smile a little, “I think I fell well now!” It was true, she didn’t feel as guilty about liking Chris, and the idea that the crush would pass away, comforted her a little bit. “I’m glad you’re feeling better.” Pinkie proud herself for her ability to help and cheer people up when they needed it, so failing to do so with Fluttershy when she needed her would make her was unthinkable for her. “Now, let’s go, I’m sure the boys are waiting for us!” She took a small hand from her friend with her own and tried to drag her with her. “If you don’t mind, I would like to use the bathroom first.” With all the commotion she forgot she wanted to go. “Could you wait for me outside?” “Sure! Maybe I shall go to the store and buy more energy drinks!” That statement made Fluttershy shudder, Pinkie on caffeine was a sight she didn’t want to behold. “What about some, nice, cold, bottle of water?” Fluttershy suggested “you know that energy drinks are bad for your health” and everybody else’s if she were to drink some. “Awww, Fluttershy! You’re always looking after me! That’s so nice of you!” After a small hug, Pinkie went outside leaving Fluttershy alone. Or that’s what they thought. “You could be wrong,” A voice came from one of the other stalls, surprising the heck out of the timid girl. “That ‘crush’ of yours may not go away, you know!” the voice said before a blond woman came out of the stall she was in. “It may grow and intensify to a point in which you will be consumed by it and lose your mind” “W..w..who are y..you?” Fluttershy stuttered in surprise and embarrassment. The woman in front of her was really physically intimidating, but her aura was very strange and mudded and that put the small girl in edge. “I go by many names, but you may call me Cat” The woman now known as Cat said with a grin in her face. Cat was a woman of slender figure, but not small like Fluttershy, and she had a more ‘developed’ body too, emphasized by the skimpy and revealing white dress she wore. “B..but what can I do?” Fluttershy asked the blond woman, ignoring that she intruded in a private conversation. “I can’t act upon my feelings, he’s married!” “You could always try and steal that guy away, you know!”The blond woman suggested without hesitation. “That’s what I would do if I was into a guy who’s in a relationship!” ““B…but.. I can’t do that to Elise, we just became friends.” Fluttershy said appalled that Cat would’ve suggest her to do something like that. “I don’t want to hurt her.” Cat bought her right index finger to her face and began tapping her chin as a sign of deep thought. “Hmm…” she hummed for a few second until she snapped her fingers, “You could get him drunk and sleep with him, and both can blame it on the alcohol, and then pretend it never happened!” She said without a hint of shame on her voice, in fact she giggled at the ingenuity of her plan. “I…I…” Fluttershy had lost her words, what the woman was suggesting was vile and irresponsible, not to mention it misinterpreted the crush she had on Chris as mere lust and desire. And even though Fluttershy thought her plan was disgusting, she couldn’t stop herself from imagining it. “Or just drunk kiss him or whatever!” added the woman rolling her eyes at the small girl in front of him. Really, this girl was such a prune, worse than a nun. “Just think about it, better to do something and ask for forgiveness than doing nothing and live in regret wondering what it could’ve been” and with that last two cents from her part, Cat walked out of the bathroom never to be seen again. Until she reappeared and tormented a poor man named Vincent who had commitment issues. But that is a whole other story... - After a few minutes after Cat left, Fluttershy finally walked back to the car where Pinkie and Chris were waiting. “Sorry, for keeping you waiting” Fluttershy apologized; her talk with Cat took longer that she had initially thought. “Don’t worry Fluttershy! We didn’t wait too long!” Pinkie replied making the worried girl relax a bit. “Now let’s go and find Barry Ditmer!” She pumped her arm up into the air. Chris chuckled at Pinkie enthusiasm, that kind of attitude was rare in trips like this. Then he noticed that Fluttershy was avoiding seeing towards his direction and looking like she was uncomfortable. Did he did or said something that troubled her? If he did, he wanted to know so he could apologized or make it up to her. “Hey, Fluttershy!” he called and the girl shrink away for a second only to compose herself the moment after. Was he really that intimidating for her? “Look! I got some healthy snacks for the trip,” He took out a paper bag from the car and showed her some different kinds of bags and packs from inside of it “I noticed you didn’t really take any of what Pinkie brought with her, so I figured you must be hungry.” At that exact moment, Fluttershy stomach decided to grow loudly for everyone to hear making her feel more flustered. She didn’t say anything, she couldn’t; she was too embarrassed to be able to form correct sentences. Chris, seeing the distressed state of the girl in front of him, didn’t acknowledged the sound of her stomach, the poor girl was feeling very self-conscious. “Fluttershy, I got something else for you.” Hurriedly he searched inside his pocket and took out something. “I hope you like it!” He extended his arm to her and opened his palm to reveal a small plush panda keychain. “I know you like animals so I got for you” He really hopped this small gift would cheer her up a bit from whatever happened with her, and maybe make her less anxious by him. At the sight of the small plush panda Fluttershy’s eyes sparkled with emotion, she was a fan of all things cute. In a blink of an eye she took the plushy out of Chris’ hand and gave him a hug in appreciation. After a few seconds, she realized the position she was in and just as fast as she hugged him she back away face full of red. “Uhm…Thank you!” she said. “I take you like it.” Chris said with a silly smile on his face that made Fluttershy melt a little inside. Act that went unnoticed by Chris but not Pinkie, she saw it clear as day. Pinkie was torn about the scene; in one hand she found the scene that just happened really cute; on the other hand this complicated matters. If Chris keeps acting like the good guy he is, it would make Fluttershy’s crush on him harder for her to forget. Pinkie needed to do something, but at the same time she wasn’t sure if intervening was a good idea. She wanted to help her friend but she had no idea how. Maybe Dan would’ve a better… “Guys? Where’s Dan? She asked both of them slightly worried; she hadn’t seen Dan for a while. Both Chris and Fluttershy shook their heads side to side, they too weren’t sure were Dan was. “The last time we saw him, he was running away acting all crazy. I thought he would’ve returned by now!” recounted Chris to a worried-looking Pinkie. Dan never bailed in his own revenge schemes. “We should look for him!” shouted Pinkie, “He should be around here, somewhere.” After that, they all look around the gas station, in search for their missing friend. They searched around for 15 minutes but they couldn’t find him, there was no sign of him. That is until Fluttershy found something. “Guys, look!” She pointed out to the ground or more precisely a foot print left by a shoe. “That looks like Dan’s shoe!” Pinkie said; she was familiar with the imprint that his shoes made because when they were both trapped in the deserted island; Dan never took out his shoes and always left his footprint in the wet sand. “It looks like he ran into the woods” Chris said a little unnerved. Dan was probably lost inside the woods, and it was already dark outside. A lot of things could’ve happened to him, or worse a lot of thing could happen to them when they inevitably look for him in the dark. “What shall we do?” Fluttershy asked a little scared. She may love nature and all the critters that lived in the woods, but she was still sacred of walking in the woods when it was almost pitch dark if it weren’t for the moon above them. “We go in and look for Dan!” Pinkie said determined. She wasn’t scared of the dark, but she was worried of the things it could’ve happen to Dan. “Fluttershy, you have experience tracking, right?” The smaller girl nodded as an answer. When she was little she would often go to the woods and spend time with the little critter that inhabited the forest area back home. She grew up knowing how to navigate the forest and track down injured animals that needed help. All those skills would later prove invaluable when she and her eco-friends camped in the woods and prevented unregulated hunting. “Good, you would be in front of the line.” The party planner dictated like a squad leader giving orders to her troops, “Chris! Since you are the…strongest…” She wanted to say the biggest and heaviest but she didn’t want to sound rude, “You should cover us from behind in the rear end, leaving me in the center to coordinate our movements.” Chris also nodded in acceptance, he wasn’t familiar with search party’s formations of any kind, but Pinkie sounded like she knew what she was doing. “Search Party! Roll out!” - Time passed. It could’ve been hours, could’ve been just minutes, but for the three people walking around the woods, time couldn’t be timed. There were only shadows and the only source of light was the moonlight but this was obscured by the tree surrounding the trio. “Pinkie, I think we should stop and go back to the car, maybe inform the authorities that Dan has gone missing” suggested the tracker of the team, whose legs were hurting by the uneven path they have taken. At first the trek was fine but the deeper they went the darker it got and they all stumbled a few times. Also the clues of Dan’s path was more and more difficult to follow. “Fluttershy’s right, We been here for god knows how long, if we continue like this we will be the ones who end up lost with no way back.” Chris agreed with Fluttershy, they had to retreat for now and get help from the police. Pinkie then stopped and stood still like a statue. Her gaze was fixed in front of her directly at the tree line, pondering thousands upon thousands of courses of action. Chris and Fluttershy just looked at their leader patiently waiting for her orders. Pinkie wanted to continue, Dan could be in trouble and in need to be saved, but she couldn’t risk the lives of her friends in a blind chase. Still, if they retreated and come back later, it could be too late by then. So there was one option left. “I’ll continue alone. You guys stay here and make fire, the light shall be a beacon to show me the way back here, if I don’t return in one hour, go back to the car and call the police.” And with that last order, Pinkie continued the search leaving Chris and Fluttershy alone. “We better collect dry wood and some rocks to start the fire” Chris said with a sigh, he didn’t like the idea of Pinkie going alone, but she had proven to be very capable before, so he shouldn’t worry too much, and speaking of worrying… ”Here, let’s hold hands” he offered his appendage to his smaller companion. “W..what?” The small girl replied with a slight stutter. “Let’s hold hands until we have fire, I wouldn’t like it if we were to separate and get lost.” He explained, Chris only hoped that Fluttershy was comfortable enough with him to hold hands. Fluttershy hesitated for a few seconds until she concede to hold Chris’s hand. She told herself that she was only doing it because they could get lost in the darkness and not because she wanted to feel his warm touch. Once Fluttershy took his hand, he smiled reassuringly at her, “Don’t worry I’ll not let go of you.” Fluttershy blushed at the unintentional implication of Chris’ words. For once she was glad for the darkness obscuring her red face. “Th-thank you.” She whispered but the woods were quiet enough and Chris could hear her words. “Come on, let’s start the fire.” - Pinkie didn’t know how much time had passed after she separated from Chris and Fluttershy and went ahead on her own, but if she had to guess, she would say something around 35 to 40 minutes. She was running out of time, she needed to find Dan before Chris and Fluttershy leave the woods. Then she stopped herself dead in her tracks. She had completely forgotten about Fluttershy’s situation and now she left her alone with Chris. Being alone with her crush in a moment of tension providing support for each other was a sure way to reinforce her feelings for him. She slipped up, and now Fluttershy was surely crushing way harder! Pinkie was torn between looking for Dan and preventing her friend from suffering a bigger heartache. She only hoped Fluttershy remembered their talk and avoided having more intimate “moments” with Chris. - In that exact moment, not so far away. Chris and Fluttershy were seated near the fire; they were spending time talking about their lives and past experiences, while they waited for Pinkie Pie to return. Fluttershy told him about her friends, some who he recognized by Pinkie’s stories and some of her experiences as an environmentalist, the places she saw and the animals she had interacted with. Chris on the other hand, told him about his hobbies and misadventures with Dan, which collaborated how crazy and dangerous Pinkie made them sound like. Chris was in the middle of a story about his great, great grandfather from Canada, when he noticed Fluttershy tremble with cold despite the fact they were sitting near the bonfire. “Are you cold?” asked Chris, knowing already the answer to his question but it was the polite thing to do. Turning her head from side to side, “No…don’t worry about me.” She said bringing her arm around her to try and drive the cold away. Chris, not really believing her, stood up from his side of the fire and sat right besides her. “C..Chris? wha…?” She began but she lost her voice halfway when Chris put her arm over her shoulder. This sudden contact and the warmth it brought made her melt inside. “There, now you won’t be so cold anymore.” Though he didn’t say it out loud, Chris really liked having someone that depended on him. Dan didn’t count because he forced him to do stuff Dan didn’t want to do himself; and Elise was a very strong and independent, he felt like she didn’t really needed him at all. With Fluttershy, he was the strong willed one that she relied on. It made him wish he hadn’t been an only child and grew up with a younger sibling. Heck, he wouldn’t have minded having a younger sibling like Fluttershy. While Chris was lost in thought, Fluttershy was having a mental debate on her own. She wanted nothing more than to keep close to him and enjoy the warmth he provided, but being in such an intimate and compromising position wouldn’t sit well for Elise. But then again it was just a hug between friends to avoid the cold, nothing more; she shouldn’t feel guilty over something that was merely platonic, no matter how much she was enjoying it. And with that she closed her eyes and rested her head on his chest to enjoy his warm embrace. - Back to where Pinkie was. She decided to keep moving forward and trust her friend’s judgment. Then, her sixth sense acted up. It warned her that something was about to slam into her, so she swiftly sidestepped and half a second later a small body passed right where she was. “DAN?” she yelled at the retreating backside of the body. He was short and had black hair and shirt. So it was definitely Dan. “Crazy hobo with axe!” he yelled back not stopping for a second. Pinkie stood there watching him run away, confused by his words. “That wasn’t a sentence; just a noun phrase.” Then one of the words that formed that noun came from the trees and burrowed itself into a tree. “You will pay for what you did Dan!” echoed an angry voice from the surrounding trees. Now, Pinkie understood that was Dan escaping from. In that moment Pinkie got an idea, she ran up to the tree with the axe. She took it out and threw it away into a random direction. After the weapon vanished into the darkness, the pink party planner ran after Dan. That would surely buy them sometime to run while the ‘crazy hobo’ searched for his axe. He couldn’t possible kill them if he didn’t have a murder weapon. “Wait a second! Why didn’t I take the axe with me to defend ourselves?” She asked out-loud to herself, not slowing down for a single second. “Meh, Live and learn, I guess.” Then a metaphorical light bulb went on up her head. “Oh my gosh! That was such a great theme song!” So great of a song, she began humming it despite currently been chased by a crazy axe murderer. Really. - Back on the meeting point, Chris was putting off the fire. It had already passed the hour plus 15 minutes of extra time that Chris decided to give Pinkie for her return. Now it was time to return to the car, call the police and fill a report for his missing friends. Meanwhile Fluttershy just watch him, but not really paying attention to anything, she was busy berating herself. How could she let herself be in such a situation? She was supposed to try and get over her crush, no rest her head in his big, warm chest. Not only did she fail to herself, she failed Pinkie and she failed Elise. Elise… if it weren’t for her, she wouldn’t be feeling such guilt, and she could be with Chris. Fluttershy quickly shook her head to get rid of such thoughts. What was she thinking? She was placing blame on Elise when it is clearly her own, but the words of the mysterious Cat resonated in her mind. What if she never got over it and spend her life regretting what could have been? “That’s it. We better go back now.” Chris said snapping Fluttershy out of her inner thoughts.”Are you ready?” The only response he got was a nod from the small girl, “Ok let’s go.” As they were about to leave, the both of them heard the sound of feet rapidly hitting the ground. Whatever it was, it was running right at them. Then a small figure appeared from the darkness. “Move out of my way!” the small figure now recognized as Dan yelled as he was about to slam into Fluttershy’s petite frame. The small girl tried to move out of the way but she wasn’t fast enough; she ended up been pushed to the ground by Dan who at the same time lost his balance and ran directly to the tree. “THUD!” Dan ended up on the floor after ramming his head against a tree. “DAN!” Chris yelled in surprise. The whole ordeal happened too fast for his eyes. Then he turned his attention from his friend towards the fallen pink haired girl. “Fluttershy! Are you okay? “ “I’m fine…” replied Fluttershy still on the floor. She was more surprised than hurt. She tried to get back to her feet, but a sharp pain made her fall into the floor once again. “Gyaa!” “Fluttershy! What’s wrong?” Chris kneeled beside her with a look of concern on his face. “My ankle…it hurts…I’m not sure if it’s sprained or not” She sure hoped not, a sprained ankle was the last thing she needed in her current situation. The only worse thing that could happen was if there was a killer in the woods trying to kill them all. “Chris! Fluttershy!” called out the familiar voice of Pinkie Pie who came dashing the same way Dan did before. Then her gaze fell upon the injured Dan on the floor. “DAN!” she rushed worried at his side.”Please talk to me!” “Noggin bobbing. I got noggin bobbing.” Dan said with a tone full of pain and eyes out of focus. “Arirom esile! Arirom esile!” he continued to ramble incongruently. “Don’t worry Dan, you’ll get better!” Pinkie said more to herself than Dan. She wanted nothing more than let Dan rest his head on the floor for fear of making the concussion worse, but they have an axe-wielding killer behind them, so there was no time to lose. “Chris! Fluttershy! There is no time to waste. There is a crazy hobo with an axe chasing us! We have to get out of here fast!” She told them in a no-nonsense tone that showed she was serious. “I’ll carry Dan! Chris, you carry Fluttershy!” she ordered, once again assuming the role of squad leader. Pinkie then picked up Dan in a piggyback fashion with little problem. One would’ve assumed his anger made him heavier, but he was surprisingly light. Seeing Pinkie picking up Dan, Chris quickly followed her example and picked up Fluttershy and carried her in a bridal style. Instinctively, Fluttershy reached out and held unto Chris’ neck for fear of falling. Once she realized the position she was in she blushed for the nth time that day. “You guys ready?” Pinkie asked while adjusting Dan’s position on her back. When she received noods in agreement, she nodded back and began running back to the car. “Come on! We gotta go fast!” “I really hate ése erizo azul!” Dan said, his brain still scrambled for the head trauma. - “Are you sure we can’t go back home?” asked Chris who was behind the wheel and driving towards Barry Ditmer’s Headquarters. “I agree, I want to go home too.” Fluttershy said, she was sitting in the co-pilot seat next to Chris and tending at her bandaged ankle. Thank goodness they brought a first-aid kit with them. “We will not!” yelled Dan from the backseat. He instantly regretted her action because it brought a sharp pain to his forehead. “We are already near our destination; it would be foolish to retreat now!” “Please try to not move too much. It would be bad for your head!” Pinkie insisted with a concerned tone, pressing a cold soda can to his head. If he really had a concussion, running around while carrying him was one of the worst things she could’ve done to him. It could lead to brain damage. “Get that thing off me!” Dan shoved the can away from his head and from Pinkie’s grip. “A massive head trauma will never stop me! Not when there is an injustice going free without punishment!” He really meant it, not even death would stop him from getting back at someone. “That’s probably not a good thing,” Chris chimed again, “Sometimes you have to let things go. You don’t want to end up like Hiram, do you?” he asked referring to the axe-murdered they escaped from. After hearing the whole story from Dan, he couldn’t help but notice some parallels between the two of them. “What are you talking about?” Dan demanded refraining from yelling, that really made his head hurt. “You guys are really similar.” Chris explained, “He hates technology and he’s incredibly angry and prone to fits of violence, doesn’t that ring any bells?” “No! The only thing that I hear is that obnoxious beeping sound that apparently only I hear and it’s driving me crazy!” After hearing that, Pinkie once again brought the cold can up and pressed it to his head. “Hey! Stop tha…you now what? That really feels good. Keep it up.” “I still think we should go to the hospital.” Chris suggested once again only to be shot down by Dan piercing gaze. Sighing in defeat, he continued driving. Then he felt a soft hand rest on his shoulder turned his head to the side only to look at Fluttershy giving him a small supporting smile. After smiling back at her, Chris returned his attention to the road. It felt good to know someone appreciated him on this trip. - After a few more minutes of driving around, they finally made it to Barry Ditmer’s HQ in Silicon Valley. “Ok, let’s go destroy Barry Ditmer’s computer, ruin his day, go home and call it a day!” Dan said looking up to the building trying to find ways to infiltrate the place. “How are we going to get inside? I’m thinking: grappling hook and climbing equipment.” “Oh! How about a disguise! We pretend to be a pizza delivery guy, a cable repair duo and a person dressed as a pink bunny!” Pinkie offered her own idea, which was confusing to say the least, “I got dibs on the bunny costume!” Chris, ignoring both suggestions, walked up to the front door and opened it with no problem. “Why wasn’t the door locked?” Fluttershy asked confused. She was walking slowly, avoiding putting any weight on her injured ankle. She walked up to Chris and leaned on him. “I don’t know.” Chris replied to the small girl leaning on him. She was really light so he didn’t mind at all. “Maybe they are so confident on their security systems that they don’t even bother locking the front door” Pinkie thought out-loud, “That or someone simply forgot!” “Either way, we are going in!” said Dan. When they entered, they noticed that there wasn’t anyone on the front desk, not even a night guard. In fact, it looked like there wasn’t anyone in the building at all. It was way too quiet. The only sound aside from their steps and breathing was the sizzling sound of a hologram of Barry Ditmer on a pedestal. “Look at that!” Dan pointed out fuming at the projection of his current target. “He thinks he’s sooo great just because he is one of the richest and most important people on the world. Jerk!” Unknowingly to him and the rest of them, his insult was heard by sound-recognition software in the building that marked him as the individual who threatened Barry Ditmer before. Now that they have identified the threat, they could eliminate it. And what better way than using their newly acquired mind-controlled super spy. - Since it seemed that there was nobody to stop them, they decided to look around the building for a way to get to Ditmer’s main office. They separated into groups, Dan and Pinkie (or Dankie as Pinkie named their team) took on side, while Chris and Fluttershy (Flutterchris) took the other. The plan was to reunite at the lobby in 20 minutes to relay their findings. But because of ‘shy’s injury, the Flutterchris duo were making a very slow progress. “I’m sorry for being a burden” the injured girl said to her companion that she was still using for support, “I’m just slowing everyone down.” “Don’t say that. You have been very helpful, especially when we were in the woods.” Chris reassured her, “to tell you the truth, I would normally be afraid of walking through the woods at night and get lost.” He confessed which was surprising since with Elise he would’ve never admitted something like that, “But with you guiding us, there wasn’t a moment in which I was afraid.” “Thanks.” She embarrassed but at the same time delighted. Fluttershy turned her head away not wanting Chris to see her blush. Why did he have to be such a nice and considerate guy? He really make hard not to like him. Still, she recalled his marriage and the fact that she was going away soon. And that make an ache start forming inside of her. So lost was she in her thought that she didn’t noticed an assailant knocking out Chris with pressure points before it was too late. Once Chris lost consciousness, the assailant pushed both him and Fluttershy into a dark room and lock the door trapping them inside. - On the other side of the complex, the Dankie team was doing just fine. “Where could he be?” Dan wondered out-loud, they have been searching for almost 15 minutes now, only five more minutes before going back to the lobby. Thought it may be selfish, he wanted to be the one to find the way into Ditmer’s office. “He IS the owner, so his office is probably on the last floor” Pointed out Pinkie, “I tried to call down the elevator but they don’t seem to respond. So the only way up is the stairs.” Except that they couldn’t find the stairs, as if this whole building didn’t have them. Talk about relying too much on technology. “Well! Let’s keep looking!” As they walked down a long corridor, a blue portal-like door opened on a wall and from it came Elise, dressed in a tight chrome-colored skin suit and wearing a strange device in her forehead that was controller her every movement. Elise assessed carefully the situation. She located her main target, but he joined by an accomplice. Her orders were to eliminate the target and capture the rest who would be interrogated and once they served their purpose, they will be dealt with. Elise stalked towards them not making any sound at all. She was prepared to take out the accomplice with once solid hit in the back of the head. Once she was near enough, she dived at the accomplice! The whole thing was instantaneous. As Elise was about to connect her chop, the target turned around and delivered a punch right into her face, sending Elise flying down the corridor. How could the accomplice notice her attack? It was as if the target had a precognitive ability, and knew the attack was coming before hand. “How do you like that?” Pinkie said with her arm still extended. Pinkie knew that the attack was coming thanks to her sixth sense. Ever since the island incident she learned to recognized the warning sign of being attacked. Also she had been learning Karate through correspondence course videos. “What the heck was that!” Dan yelled in surprise, he didn’t have any idea of what just happened. All he heard was the sound of a fist connecting into another body and said body hitting the ground a few yards away. “That was the sound of the Saikyō Ryū style of Karate! Which you can learn in 10 easy lessons for only 195$ per video, shipping included! Thanks Hibiki-Sensei!” Pinkie advertised to no one in particular. “I decided on those videos because if you ordered the whole set you also get a pink Karate Gi for free!” If this were an anime, Dan would’ve sweat-dropped, but since that was impossible in the real world, he just stared at her like she was crazy, which wasn’t very hard to do. Ignoring Dan’s stare, Pinkie returned her attention to the badly dressed assailant, who was getting back on its feet. “Oh you want more, heh!” Pinkie mocked in confidence, staying true to Hibiki-Sensei’s teachings. Now it was time to pump herself for the ensuing battle. The videos recommended taunting to boost confidence and distract the opponent, but she decided to go with a chant. Everything was nicer with a chant. “Kick, Punch! It’s all in the mind. If you wanna test me, I'm sure you'll find that the things I'll teach ya, is sure to beat ya. Nevertheless, you'll get a lesson from teacher!” After her chant was over, she was ready to kick butts and take names, or whatever Hibiki-sensei said. But her fighting spirit wouldn’t last, because she lost all will to fight once she saw who her opponent was. “E-E-ELISE!” - Back to where the Flutterchris was. Fluttershy was kneeled beside Chris. She had tried to force the door open but it was pointless, even if she weren’t injured, her frame was too light to be able to knock the door down. So she decided to stay put and wait for someone to come for them. On the meantime she looked over Chris who despite being knocked out unconscious, he looked so peaceful. In fact, despite being trapped in a dark room, she felt calmed and peaceful. It was probably the soothing feeling of Chris’ aura that made her feel that way. Without really thinking, Fluttershy run her fingers through his hair and face. Even asleep he looked so handsome. She wanted nothing more than to stay with him like this and just enjoy herself the as much as she could. Fluttershy knew it deep down. No matter how she felt, it was never meant to be. They would never be together. She knew this but it still made her ache inside. It seemed that Cat’s words were coming true. Suddenly Fluttershy’s eyes widen and lost her breath for a second. Cat’s words. She remembered her lewd and horrible advice! It was despicable but her words were becoming more and more tempting as every second passed. She turned her head and looked at him again. Then she realized that was a grave mistake. He was so handsome and looked so peaceful, so inviting... She found herself moving in auto-pilot, getting closer and closer to his face. No matter how much she yelled in her mind to stop, her body didn’t responded to her. As she neared her lips to his, she only hoped that a kiss were enough to snapped her out of this trance, so she couldn’t do anything else. Yet a very deep part of her wished that the trance would last longer…way longer. - Back to the fight or something slightly similar a fight. Since Pinkie hasn’t attempted to throw a punch once. All she had done was dodging, ducking, dipping, diving and dodging some more. “Elise! Please snap out of it!” she begged to her friend who didn’t seem herself. Elise gaze was empty and her face expressionless. It looked like she was brainwashed or mind-controlled or both! “Elise! Please!” despite her precognitive senses and nimbleness, she couldn’t dodge every attack coming from Elise. She hasn’t received a clean punch yet, only grazes and scratches. But those Pinkie couldn’t dodge, she blocked. And they hurt like heck! “I shall eliminate the target known as Dan.” Elise said in completely monotone voice that unnerved Pinkie. “Nobody is getting eliminated in my watch!” Not only Pinkie was fighting for herself, but for Dan’s life too. Speaking of Dan, when the fighting bean and the brainwashed/mind-controlled Elise’s intentions of killing him were know, he ran away per Pinkie’s suggestion. Their only hope was for someone to find a way to break the control over Elise and get out f there, before anyone was seriously hurt. Unfortunately that person was her. Elise delivered a powerful kick into Pinkie’s midsection making her fall into the floor. The kick was so powerful it left Pinkie coughing and gasping for air. “You are a threat to my mission. Now you shall be eliminated” Elise stated once again monotonously. Then out of a secret pocket, Elise took out a gun and pointed it directly at Pinkie. “Prepare to be exterminated!” Pinkie, unable to move out of the way, lied there and looked in horror how her friend was going to shot her. She wanted to close her eyes but they remained fixed on the gun. “So…this was the end…” she thought solemnly waiting for the shot that would end it all. “PINKIE!!!” came an unfamiliar scream from Dan. He would usually yell in anger, frustration or annoyance, but this scream was one of fear and concern for her well-being. Pinkie looked at the direction where Dan’s voice came and widen her eyes. Elise, never moving her gun away from pointing at her Pinkie, turned her head to look at her target only to find an axe flying towards her face. > Saying Goodbye > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS. Chapter 10 – Saying Goodbye. It was a dark day. The clouds above obscured the mid-day sun and casted shadows upon everyone, threatening to let down a pouring rain. It seemed like the weather itself was reflecting the emotions of all the people present in the small grassy field that day. It has been eight days. Eight days since Dan computer failed, eight days since they made the road trip to Silicon Valley, eight days since they broke-into Ditmer’s HQ. Eight days since Elise died. Today it was the day of her burying. Very few people were present to witness the casket lowering. Chris was there; his eyes dry like the dessert, he had no more tears to shed. Instead his stood emotionless, his movements resembling that of a robot. In fact, he wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for Fluttershy’s support. For the last week, Fluttershy had been there to keep him company, even forgoing getting back home to stay and take care of him. She had become his anchor to his life and though he didn’t express it verbally, he was grateful to her. Elise’s family was also present. Don, Elise’s father, was putting a strong front and comforted his crying wife, Elise Sr.; Ben, Elise’s younger brother, stood solemnly with very prominent dark circles around his eyes, he had always been very distant and apathetic personality and right now he was regretting all the times he avoided spending time with his sister and how he’ll never be able to apologize to her. Pinkie stood next to them in completely black clothes and looking uncharacteristically somber. The most telling sign was that her long puffy hair was now completely straight. She felt horrible for the lost of her friend but there was someone who felt even worse. Dan. Gone was his usual attire, instead he was wearing a black suit like every other man at the funeral. He stood next to Pinkie with a lost look on his face and dark rings around his eyes. He hasn’t been able to sleep all week, every time he closed his eyes he saw the horrific scene play over and over again. - Elise was standing over the fallen for of Pinkie with a gun in hand ready to end her life. That was the scene Dan stumbled into after he had recovered an axe to defend himself. In a pure instinct-filled move, he threw the axe towards Elise. The axe flew twirling in what it seemed like slow motion. Dan’s eyes were filled with a mixture of emotions that it was difficult to pin-point exactly what he was feeling. But as the axe approached its target, his eyes settled into silent horror when he realized what he had done. After the blink of an eye, Elise’s body hit the floor never to get back up again. - Every time he looked at his hands he saw the spilled blood of an innocent. No matter how many time he washed his hands the red never left, and it will probably never leave. Elise was dead because of him, he guilty of murder. He was standing in the funeral of the person he killed. It made him feel so sick he began trembling and a felt the need to empty the content his stomach. Then he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. He turned around and looked at Pinkie’s blue eyes. Once her eyes were big and full excitement, now they only reflected the sadness in her soul. Though they didn’t exchange any words, Dan understood what Pinkie was trying to say. She too was guilty. It was because of her that Dan threw the axe. He saved her life and in return she did the same. Pinkie knew that Dan would be convicted for murder and sentenced to capital punishment. She would’ve never been able to forgive herself if another one of her precious people died, so she decided to cover-up the murder. At the time she had no idea what to do. But lucky for them, the answer came from the most unexpected source: Hiram, the crazy axe murderer. Though Hiram’s hatred for Dan was great, his hatred for Barry Ditmer was greater. After baiting him into the HQ, Hiram had the opportunity to finally get his revenge against the man who ruined his life and stole his sanity. The resulting chaos was enough for them to destroy the computer that served main system which regulated and controlled all aspects of the building itself, causing it to collapse and burn down to the ground alongside any evidence that could proved what they had done. Thankfully, before the building collapsed on itself, the electronic locks of all the doors broke down, letting Fluttershy and Chris escape the room they were locked in. After that, it was easy to pin the blame for the murders and the collapsed building on Hiram. The police was already investigating the disappearances of various travelers who disappeared on the road leading there. The hard part was telling Chris that his wife was dead. Since they had no idea why was Elise on the HQ to begin with, Pinkie lied saying that Elise was there because of her job. She was trying to make a deal with Ditmer on behalf the company she worked on, and she was caught in the cross fire of Hiram’s revenge. Pinkie lied to save Dan’s life and because of that she became his accomplice. They we’re both responsible for the crime. The both of them now shared the guilt and will take guard the secret for the rest of their lives. Dan put his hand over Pinkie’s and held it tight. She didn’t have to cover for him and possibly ruin her life. Still she did it and he was indebted to her. - While the ceremony was taking place, someone was watching the procedures from afar, doing its best to remain undetected. “Elise Pearson…five years as her contact and only when she is dead I get to know her real name.” The unknown person said in a masculine voice. “And she was married too. Can you believe it, Zach?” The man said to his ever present companion while lightening up a cigarette. The figure was a man with no real unique features aside for a long scar across his left eyebrow and temple. He was dressed in a black suit and had a red tie with white lines crossing diagonally and parallel to each other. “You’re right, her death makes no sense,” The man agreed with Zach, “How could Dancing Shadow die at the hands of a homeless madman with an axe?” Dancing Shadow was elite trained in many forms of hand to hand combat and the use of all kind of fire arms, there was no way she would’ve die so easily. The man stood there smoking his cigarette, thinking off possible answers for this enigmatic case. Occasionally hearing whatever theory Zach offered. This continued for a while until the silence was broken by the sounds of step on the grass. “What a surprise!” the man said after seeing who the person walking up to him was. “It’s good to see you too, Special Agent Francis York Morgan.” the new arrival greeted with a very monotone voice which unnerved the man known as York. “Aren’t you a little far away from home…?” York asked in a genuine curious manner, “Private Investigator Willibald Feivel Cornfed.” “Cornfed is just fine, thank you York.” said the P.I. using the only tone he apparently had, monotone. Cornfed was a short kinda chubby man, but strangely enough he was very popular with the ladies. He was wearing a suit similar to York’s except his was brown instead of black; also he was wearing a matching fedora hat to complete his look as a P.I. “Came to pay respects to Dancing Shadow?” York asked at the shorter man and offered him a smoke. “No thanks!” Cornfed declined, “And yes, I came here to pay my respects, but also to do a small investigation.” He too was a contact for Dancing Shadow. York raised his tight eyebrow at the P.I but said nothing, he knew Cornfed was going to tell him regardless if he asked him or not. “As you may have already noticed, the circumstances surrounding DS’ murder are strange and highly illogical.” York nodded at Cornfed, he too already figured something was up. “I decided to have a look around.” “I’ll assume you aren’t here for official business, do you?” York wasn’t surprised when Cornfed shook his head. “If you were, that duck-face partner of yours would be prancing around chasing tails despite this being a cemetery.” York didn’t know how Cornfed could work with such a guy. The P.I didn’t say anything at that comment, he knew it was true. “I just wanted some answers before the agency sent their team and took all possible clues away.” York brought another cigarette to his mouth and lighted it up. York knew that despite him being one of the best FBI agents and renowned for his use of criminal profiling, the victim had a very top secret background that was out of the FBI jurisdiction. “I’m sure they’ll find something, they are very good at their job.” York was disappointed for not being able to take the case, but he was confident in the investigation team would do their jobs just fine. Cornfed then shook his head and sighed. “I’m afraid the agency out-sourced the investigation to ISIS” Cornfed wasn’t surprised that York let his cigarette fell into the grass below with shock all over his face. “Are you absolutely sure?” York asked letting his cool demeanor slip for a second. After Cornfed confirmed once again with a nod, York took out one more cigarette and light it up. After a couple of smokes, York regained his composure. “At least tell me you find something good.” York really didn’t have any faith in ISIS agents doing their jobs. Just what the heck was the agency thinking? “Yes, follow me to my car.” The P.I said and walked back the way he came from. “You coming?” he asked back when he realized York wasn’t following him. “Just a second.” York turned to look at the proceedings, which already ended, before walking up to Cornfed, “Come on let’s go.” After a short walk, both men arrived at a parking lot and walked up to an 80’s Buick. “That I’m about to show you may shock you, so please remain calm.” Cornfed warned to York, so simple shrugged. He didn’t really need the warning. York had worked in very disturbing cases before. After opening the trunk, Cornfed took out a small black bag out of the car and opened it. It was the severed head of a woman. “What the…!” York jumped backed away surprise. “It is not real, it is a robot!” Cornfed said slightly annoyed. He did warn York though. After regaining his cool, York took a good look at the head. It was a blond woman with unnatural purple eyes. “It’s one of Barry Ditmer’s many robots, and the only one that remained almost intact from the destruction of the building.” The PI explained. “I’m sure the HDD is still inside the head and it could shed some light on exactly what happened that night.” “I’ll assume that you couldn’t extract the data, otherwise you wouldn’t be carrying this thing around.” The FBI agent deduced perfectly. “Correct. Barry Ditmer was a technological genius so trying to access the data would be difficult, almost impossible. ” The shorter man stated still monotone as always. “And you can’t give the head to ISIS or the agency, because they’ll know you acquired it ‘unofficially’ and mark you as a criminal.” York deduced once again, arriving at the right conclusion. “Correct. But I can’t bypass the security codes right now, I need the right equipment.” Cornfed confessed, he didn’t doubt his ability to access the data, it just that it would take more time than he expected. York nodded and remained silent. He knew that if someone was going to crack this mystery, it was Cornfed. But there was still one thing that York and even Zach couldn’t figure out. “Why tell me all this?” “Because if something were to happen to me; I want you to continue with the investigation. I trust you.” York closed his eyes and sighed. His arm moved towards his pack of cigarettes took one out. “What do you think, Zach? Should we accept?” he asked to his companion. York remained silent for a few seconds before taking the cigarette and put it back in the pack. “. Zach and I wouldn’t like it if the culprits remain free. I accept.” - After the ceremony ended, everyone walked away with the intention of returning home, except for one person. Fluttershy remained standing in front of Elise’s grave. She told Pinkie she wanted to stay a little longer. Her friend agreed, wanting Flutershy to say goodbye and have some closure, and took Chris back home, she would look after him while. Fluttershy stood there looking at Elise’s grave without moving a muscle and with a very passive look. The girl stayed for who-knows-how long in complete silence. That is until she broke it. “Hmm…hmmm.hmmm..” she began humming while her eyes changed from passive into something else. “hhmmmm..hmmm.hmme…hme..he.he..he..he..he” she continued until she couldn’t hold it back anymore. She drew her head back and turned towards the dark sky above. “He, He,He,He,He,He….,HA,HA,HA,HA,HA!” What began as a small humming turned into a maniacal full on laughter, which began hurting her inside for how loud she was being. “I…I..I can’t believe my luck! The one thing that stood on my way no longer is here! And I didn’t have to do anything! She died on her own!” She then kneeled on the recently dug up dirt and put her face up close to the tombstone. “What do you think Elise?” She taunted to the stone with a big grin, “This is my perfect victory! That’s right I won!” she said to the stone, which remain silent. As silence was setting back, Fluttershy lost her grin and regained her previously calm demeanor. As she stood up and took a step away from the grave, Fluttershy piercing gaze never left the cold unmoving stone. “It was fortunate of you to die that day, Elise.” She said solemnly, “Because that wasn’t the case, you would’ve died after hearing this” In an instant her cold and calm demeanor changed again but this time into a more happy and angelical one. So much that she was almost glowing. “That day I couldn’t stop myself and now…” “…” “I’m with his child! My own sweet little Angel!” [Bad End Unlocked] > Crossroads of Destiny, The Fight Begins and Saying Goodbye...again?! > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS Chapter 11 - Crossroads of Fate In a very dark room where the only source of light was the screen of a laptop and the only sound was the constant typing of the keys, a person was having the time of its life. “Yes….yes… more…it needs more drama!” Suddenly the door of the room opened, letting through another person who switched on the lights with no hesitations. “Did I let my computer on?” asked a young man with light brown curly hair. The moment the lights appeared, the figure on the computer, screamed and trash around in its chair. “Gaah! The light! Turn it off! Turn it off!” In turn the young man screamed in surprise, “Wha! What’s going on here? Who are you? And what are you doing in my room?” he asked accusingly at the person sitting in HIS chair. “Darn…I thought you wouldn’t be home for another two hours!” said the intruder while rubbing her eyes. The young man took the opportunity to observe the intruder carefully. Apparently it was a young girl around his age. She had similarly curly hair, except hers was longer and slightly darker. “Answer my question, before I call the police!” The girl didn’t paid mind to his threat and began chuckling. “Heh…heh..heh..heh…I suppose it’s inevitable.” After her small chuckling fit was done, she regained her composure, “Now that the cat is out of the bag, I’ll introduce myself! You may call me…MoreX25!” “What! But that’s my name!” the young man answer in indignation. He was MoreX25, not this crazy girl. “But that’s also my name,” the girl said grinning like a cat, “Don’t you see? We both are Morex25! You are me and I’m you!” “….” “….” “That’s it I’m calling the police!” The man took out his cell phone ready to dial the three numbers to call the authorities. “Wait! It’s true! I’m telling the truth!” she yelled out begging him to stop the call. “Whatever you say…” She really was crazy if she expected him to believe such tale. “Your biggest regret in life was not telling HER how you felt before she moved away and completely lost contact forever!” The moment the girl said that, the young man canceled the call and looked at her with surprised eyes. “How…?” “…did I know that even when you have never told anyone ever? I told you! I’m you or at least a part of you.” She said once again feeling in control of the situation. “A…part of me?” It was really difficult to believe, but the girl in front of him knew something no one else knew about him. The only other explanations were that she could read minds or that she was a time traveler. “I know it’s hard to believe, but it is true!” she said grinning and enjoying the look of confusion in his face. “You could say I’m the REAL you. I’m your innermost thoughts given form.” “My innermost thoughts are a girl who spends her time in the dark, with only a computer as her only light source?” he deadpanned, not really sure how to feel about himself in that moment. “I take that as a compliment!” she laughed feeling next to no shame for her life style. “I’m the side of you who isn’t afraid of what other people think, I’m the one who enjoy things that others would find weird and strange. I’m the one who’s not ashamed of being a brony, or in my case pegasister!” “I’m not ashamed!” He said defensively, “My family knows!” he justified to this rapidly annoying girl. “What about other people? Why would you hide if you aren’t ashamed, hmm?” she kept of pushing, making the young man sweat a little. “I don’t have to explain myself to you!” he snapped back losing his cool at the smirking girl. “You’re right you don’t, because I already know the answer.” She finished by laughing once again. “Ha, ha, ha! Do you see know? I’m the REAL MoreX25! Ha ha ha ha ha ha!” As the girl MoreX laughed her butt off, her counterpart took a deep breath and try to calm himself down. No good would come if he lost his cool against this girl. After her laughter finally ended, she looked at the “fake” version expectantly. Waiting to see what would he try next to convince himself that he wasn’t the real MoreX. What she didn’t expect was his following question. The ‘fake’ MoreX just said, “So?” “So? …” She repeated back confused. “You haven’t answered my question, what are you doing in my room?” he continued trying his best to hold back any emotion from his voice. “Oh? That!” The girl said feeling the opportunity to brag even more. “I just uploaded the 10th chapter of our little story!” she announced with that ever present grin that made the male counterpart annoyed. “What? But that story is supposed to be in Hiatus!” Once again he lost his cool, he was really proud of that story. The thought of this girl writing three chapters was unnerving, just what the heck did she write? “I know…but the thought of leaving our readers with nothing to read for months was so sad that I had to intervene and give them something. Do you want to read?”She moved aside and offered the seat to his male counterpart, who quickly sat down and read the three chapters she wrote herself. It didn’t took long for the ‘fake’ to finish reading her ‘masterpiece’ “I don’t want to brag…” who she was kidding she lived to brag and to receive adoration, “but I can certainly say that I took your little story and made it better.” “Better…?” he said with slight disgust. “This is way too dark!” yelled at her, making her take a step backwards. “Calm down! I just added a little bit of flavor!” she defended her decisions angrily. How dare he yell at her when she made him a huge favor? “And what’s this thing with Fluttershy and Chris?” he asked a little less mad and more controlled. Nothing good will come if he lost his mind to anger. “Drama! Besides, you were planning on ignoring Fluttershy like she was never there to begin with!” The man had the decency to blush at her claim, “at least I give her a role! People wanted Fluttershy and I gave it to them!” she was so proud of her writing prowess. “Oh! And I’m sure they also wanted obscure cameos that only a selected few are going to get and a funeral that was a rip-off of D…” “Shh!! Don’t tell!” she interrupted him and prevent him to spoil her references. “Besides, that doesn’t stop certain authors from …” “That’s not the same!” He interrupted her this time, “Those stories were meant to be massive crossovers to begin with!” he pointed out the flaw on her logic. “Whatever…” the now pouting girl crossed her arms in defiance. “Furthermore, with all of this and Elise death, you’ve written yourself in a corner!” The male counterpart continued with all the gripes he had with the new direction for HIS story. “What do you mean?” the writer of the last 3 chapters, asked annoyed but at the same time curious. “Not only do the tags and the rating have to change, also you screwed-up the Dan Vs Time line that I wrote! Have you ever thought of that?” the righteously angry man said. He had work so hard on the timeline of events to make a more cohesive story and now this girl ruined his effort. “Time line…?” “That means you have to write all original content from now on without having cannon as support! No Barbershop! No other Dan! No Burger phile!” Oh, how he dreaded the idea of writing all original stuff; stories could extend indefinitely and grow out of control…like his first fan fic ever. That Adventure Time fic that he hasn’t been updated since almost a year ago. “What? But I want those!” The girl counterpart said in slight fright. The fake was right; she deviated too much. She had stolen great ideas for those episodes. So many cameos and plot twists! “Well tough $#¡7! You ruined everything!” “Wait! I can fix this!” “I don’t see how. You turn our story into another generic tragedy with twists so cheap you make Shyamalan’s look good! People don’t want that in a romantic comedy!” as the male MoreX was berating her for her poor decisions, she concentrated to write something that would surely please the readers. “Here take a look at this!” /////////////////////////// Dan & Pinkie VS Chapter 10-2: The Fight Begins. After an entire day of being unconscious, Chris finally woke up to look at the familiar ceiling of his bedroom. He didn’t know what he was doing all the way back to his house but he didn’t particularly care all that much, what matter was that he was back home safe and sound. As he was about to try to get up, his brain finally registered a wait on his right arm that prevented him to move. He turned his head and look down at the person who was sleeping beside him. It was his wife Elise, looking beautiful as ever. Then he noticed a similar weight on his other arm, he turned his head around once more and widen his eyes when he noticed what it was. “Fl…Flutershy?!” Just what the heck was going on, why was he on bed with both Elise and Fluttershy? “Chris? Don’t be so loud, it’s still too early!” Elise mumbled while rubbing her eyes. “Elise! This…this isn’t what it looks like!” He said very alarmed, if he didn’t defused the metaphoric bomb that was this situation, it could get real ugly for him. “It…just…” “What are you talking about?” Elise said a little clearer now that she had rubbed her drowsiness away. “Elise, please let me explain!” explain what exactly? He had no idea how he got himself in this situation. Now he was surely going to have Elise tear him a new one. “Chris? Elise? Is it morning already?” asked a very sleepy Fluttershy. With all the movement and Chris’ yelling it was inevitable she would wake up. “Just what is going on here?” The defeated Chris asked the heavens for an answer. But his answer didn’t come from the gods above but from his wife on his side. “We are waking up! What’s so strange about that?” Elise replied without really answering his question and cleared the whole situation. “I mean…why are the three of us in bed together? And why are you so nonchalant about it?” he asked his wife, but it was Fluttershy who answered his question. “Chris…during our trip together with Dan and Pinkie, I … I fell in love with you!” The pink haired girl confessed with her face full of red. Fluttershy sudden confession made Chris’ mind to go blank and his only response was a very confused “Wha..?” Ignoring Chris’ reaction, Fluttershy continued with her explanation, “But I knew that I could never act on my feelings, so I told Elise that I was going to fight for you and do whatever was necessary!” “Of course I wasn’t going to give up that easily, not without giving a fight,” Elise chimed in the explanation, “but I could see in her eyes that she was completely serious and the fight for you was going to be a long and hard one!” Chris understood what was been said but what he couldn’t comprehend was why were the three of them bed together rand why were acting so civil with one another if they were suppoused to be fighting? “So Pinkie gave us an idea! Instead of fighting we will compete with each other and demonstrate who the better match is for you!” After that Elise couldn’t help but smile, “Of course right now I’m on the lead since I’m already your wife!” “It doesn’t matter! I catch up to you and surpass you!” Fluttershy stated with a very determined look on her face and fire in her eyes. “Bring it on!” Chris felt how his life was spiraling out of control that very moment. Didn’t they know he was a human being and not a prize to win over? He was an adult that could take his own decisions, thank you very much. But at least it couldn’t get any worse. “STOP RIGHT THERE!” said the familiar voice of Dan who crashed the door of the bedroom against the wall with a very hard kick. “I WILL NOT ALLOW THIS!” he yelled in righteous anger and point accusingly at Chris. “I barely tolerated you been with Elise! She took up a lot of your time you could’ve spent with me and now you have another one, that won’t do!” “Dan, what are you talking about?” Elise questioned the little angry man completely annoyed that he put a dent into their bedroom door. “I’m reclaiming what is rightfully mine!” he replied to Elise with slight venom in his voice, “Chris is mine and I’m taking him away from you two wenches!” “That’s not fair! If you want Chris you have to compete against us for him!” said Fluttershy with conviction. Any other time she would’ve let Dan or anyone else pass her over and treat her like a doormat, but now that the situation involved her Chris, she wasn’t going to let anyone else get him. Dan changing his posture crossed his arms in front of him, “As if you two could ever hope to beat me. “ Dan said smugly “I’m in!” “No way! Dan, are you really …?” came another familiar voice from the door. It was Pinkie Pie how looked shocked out of socks by Dan’s desire to participate in the competition to win over Chris. “But I always thought you liked women” “Of course I like women!” answered back Dan, disgusted by Pinkie thoughts otherwise, “But Chris is the exception to the rule! I going to participate and win the competition!” Pinkie stood there silent for a few seconds not moving a single muscle. All the people in the room were anxious to see what her reaction would be. “Ok! That settles it! I going to compete too!” she announced with a big silly smile, which threw everyone else out the loop. Before anyone could ask her what she meant Pinkie explained herself. “I’m competing for Chris but only to get Dan in the end! If I win then I can give a share of Chris to Dan and then the three of us can be together!” “Ha! As if you could beat me!” retorted Dan, “I’m going to win and when I do don’t expect me to include you in the prize! I barely have time for me and Chris, there’s no way I’m going to include another one into my carefully planned schedule!” “Hey, don’t forget who has the advantage here!” “I’m not going to lose my Chris against you or Dan or Pinkie!” “YOUR CHRIS? IT’S MY CHRIS!” “No way! I’m going to win and I will live happily ever after with both Dan and Chris!” The four of them kept on yelling at each other as if Chris wasn’t in the room with them hearing everything they said. He was a person! Not a trophy! Why did his life became so complicated out of the sudden? ////////////////////////// “What do you think?” The female MoreX asked very proud of her job. “It has all the things people want in their romantic comedies!” “You…you transformed a simple DanXPinkie story into a Chris Harem with Dan as part of it!” The male MoreX was beyond angry and disgusted at her idea of romantic comedy. “Why? Just why?” he asked while standing up from his seat. “Well…according to research, one of the most popular ships involving Dan is ChrisXDan, only behind DanXotherDan in popularity!” She was just giving the readers what they wanted. “People don’t want to read that!” Or at least he hoped so; if they really wanted something like that he wouldn’t know what to do. “Of course they want to read that! That’s a very popular ship!” Of course people wanted what she wrote for them, she researched in the most trustworthy place ever: deviantart. “Maybe so, but this constant pandering to the readers is what derailed the story in the first place!” He too had seen the tons of fanart in DA but he was sure that none of those persons were reading his story. “Derailed!? How dare you!” “You are just a fangirl that is pandering to people who aren’t even reading MY story! You are forcing ships into the story with no rhyme or reason!” thought he kept quiet about how adding a random tag could nullify his argument. He just hoped she hasn’t thought of that yet. “No! I made this story popular! I’m the true MoreX25!” That name belonged to her and her alone, not to this faker. “Popular don’t always equals good! Acknowledgement and small winks to the fans are fine but when you make those things the entire focus and drive of the story, and disrespect the original vision of the author, you just become a bad writer!” “ No!” “You aren’t MoreX25! You are the opposite of what it should suppose to be! I am MoreX25! You are just XeroM52!” “No, No!” “Now be gone and return to the Woolie hole you spawned from!” the now true MoreX extended his two arms in front of him and formed a circle with his fingers. After he made the hand sign an incredible air pressure began sucking Xerom into his hands like it was a black hole. XeroM tried to fight back but it was all for naught, the force of the hole was too strong for her. “You may trap me, but I will never go away! I’m the real you and you’ll never be able to get rid of me!” she said before letting go of her footing and let herself be sucked back into MoreX. After it was over, MoreX lowered his arms panting in exhaustion. “She…she was right, I can’t get rid of her. Despite how much I would like to refuse it, she is a part of me that would always be there.” MoreX reflected with sad eyes, “Still, even if she is always there, I shall work harder so that her influence would never reflect on my work!” At the mention of his work, the man eyes widen and turned towards his computer. “I almost forgot, she already left her mark on the story!” He said both angry and resigned at the same time. “I can’t erase what she wrote now; it’s too late for that.” MoreX closed his eyes and tried to calm himself, if he didn’t relaxed he wouldn’t be able to find a solution to this problem. He couldn’t erase or even rewrite three whole chapters without making some of his readers mad or confused. And the possibility to continue where XeroM left off was also out of the question alongside starting over from zero. “Think! Think! What can I do to make what she wrote non canon?” MoreX asked himself out-loud while rubbing his temples. What would other authors do in this situation? What would Mr. S do in this situ… That’s it!” The young man opened a word document and began writing. “I can’t change what XeroM wrote but I can change the intention! I shall make Chapter 10 a bonus/side chapter and tell everyone it is an alternative reality or a BAD END. And from there work my way out off XeroM’s 9th Chapter! Thank god she left an ambiguous cliffhanger in there!” MoreX kept on writing for some time until he finally finished a half an hour later. “Well, it’s the best I could do. There is a plot hole I couldn’t fix but I hope the readers don’t notice or that they would be lenient with me!” After he did a quick spell check on his chapter that he was sure would have mistakes that only appeared after he uploaded it. “Man, I miss Flames as my editor, hope he’s doing okay!” Then out of the sudden he realized something. “Why am I talking out-loud to myself?” He had being so for the past hour, “Man, I’m weird! No wonder XeroM was out of her mind!” “And I keep on doing it! What can’t I stop?!” Finally after clapping his mouth shut, MoreX posted Chapter 11. ///////////////////////////////// Dan & Pinkie Vs. Chapter 11: Saying Goodbye...again?! After the whole crazy ordeal that was getting revenge on Barry Ditmer, everyone returned home safe and sound and just in time to get Fluttershy to the airport to see her off. “Fluttershy! I going to miss you so much!” said Pinkie Pie who had tears coming down her face like waterfalls. “Do you really have to go?” “I do; I have to take care for my little friends back home. I’m sure they miss me just as much.” Fluttershy explained to her friend. She had a calmer look on the outside but on the inside she was feeling just like Pinkie. “Get a hold of yourself, woman! You’re making scene!” said Dan who was getting annoyed by Pinkie’s crying, “You can always call her back or use the internet, geez!” though Dan said to scold her, everyone else knew it was his way of trying to make Pinkie feel better. “It was …amm…interesting…meeting you, Dan.” Fluttershy said the nicest thing she could to Dan without downright lying. “Yeah, whatever, bye!” Dan said rudely, by now that was to be expected so Fluttershy didn’t mind. It was his way of showing he cared. “I wish you a nice and safe trip back home; I hope you come back to visit soon!” Chris said his goodbyes with the same smile that make Fluttershy’s heart flutter. “Thank you! It was a pleasure to meet you, Chris!” The small girl said with better control of her emotions and without letting her face blush. “I was nice meeting you Fluttershy! If you ever need anything we are here for you!” Elise said with a smile in her face. Even thought their time together was short, Fluttershy had become a dear friend of theirs, and Elise wasn’t kidding when she said she would do anything to help Fluttershy, even if it involved making someone ‘disappear’. “Thanks Elise! You are a good friend!” Fluttershy then walked up to her and give Elise a hug. Thought Elise wasn’t exactly a very huggy person, she fought back her stiffness and returned the hug. “You are a very lucky, Elsie. I really envy you.” Fluttershy whispered into Elise’s ear. Elise didn’t really understood what Fluttershy was talking about but she didn’t felt and ill intent on her words. After the hug was over, Fluttershy walked back to her bags and said goodbye one last time. “Goodbye, I hope to see you all soon!” And with that she boarded the plane that would take her back home. It didn’t take much longer for the plane to take off and disappeared over the clouds. “I’m really going to miss her!” Chris said with a small sad smile. “She was like the little sister I wished I had!” “Yeah, she was like the perfect little sibling” commented Elise in agreement with her husband. “Yeah, I feel the same despite her being a year older than me!” said Pinkie Pie finally stopping her waterfall tears and reduced them to mere sniffs. “I don’t particularly care” Dan said off-handedly, ”Now that she’s gone we can return to our normal activities.” He didn’t know why but ever since she came by he felt like that he hasn’t be able to say or do as many things as before. “When did we stop doing what we usually do?” Chris questioned while rolling his eyes at Dan’s comment. “Or when did everything you do can be considered normal?” Elise tagged in, not losing any opportunity to tease Dan. “Hey! Who are you calling abnormal?!” Yep. Back to ‘normal’. * * * * * Bonus: On board the plane, Fluttershy was sitting alone with two empty seats next to her. Her seat was the middle one but since there wasn’t that many passengers left since almost everyone left the plane when it made its stop on Los Angeles, she decided to sit on the aisle seat. She was relieved for that, with her being so shy, she would’ve felt so uncomfortable sitting between to complete strangers. “Excuse me miss, I think you are on my seat,” said a voice next to her which startled her. “Are you okay? I didn’t mean to startle you!” the person apologized after seeing the small girl’s reaction. “It wasn’t your fault. I was the one who wasn’t paying attention!” Fluttershy apologized back to the person standing and waiting for her to move out of the seat. “I’m sorry, Miste…” Fluttershy was going to apologized one more until she saw the person who was standing next to her. It was a handsome young man, probably 18 or 19, who, despite his age, had long white hair that look GOOD on him. He was wearing a black shirt under a highly stylized white trench coat that perfectly complemented with his hair. And his Aura. God, his aura was something she had never felt before. It was like all the colors in the light spectrum were trying to fight for dominance and making them fly around each other as a very inciting dance. “Miss? Are you alright?” The boy asked concerned after the small pink haired girl just stared at him in silence for a whole minute. It made him felt worried. Did she somehow notice that something was off with him? “Sorry! I space out again!” Fluttershy apologized once more feeling a blush creep on her cheeks. It was so embarrassing being caught staring at him. Finally, she moved away to her seat on the middle and let the young white haired boy seat next to her. “Don’t worry, I happens to me all the time, miss…” The boy reassured her with a small that made her melt even faster than that other guy she already forgot what his name was. Then she realized that he was waiting for her to say her name. “Mmm…I’m Fluttershy…” She said blushing. How could a boy so much younger than her make her feel this way? “Nice to meet you! My name is Soma Cruz!” Two hours later, Fluttershy and Soma would pass the qualifications to become members of the Mile High Club. Bonus Chapter Written by XeroM52. > Intermission > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS Intermission- Lazy Day Today was a very lazy day. There were no work, no parties, and no reason to get angry and get revenge, no nothing. Well, there was one thing; it was hot; which would usually turn any lazy day into a bad day for Dan. Fortunately for Dan, he didn’t have to spend the day in his apartment which lacked a functional ceiling fan. No, today he was spending the day in Pinkie’s home under the breeze of her living room fan provided. Just chilling around, lying on the carpet floor. It was perfect. Well, almost perfect. Lying next to him was Pinkie who was enjoying the breeze with him, a little too close for comfort. Dan would’ve complained but not today, today it was a day to be lazy. “Hey, Dan? Can I ask you something?” said Pinkie breaking the silence in the house. “You already did” he replied lazily and slightly annoyed. Why do people always ask that before asking what they wanted to ask? It would be faster if they just asked their dumb questions. Next to him, Pinkie giggled thinking his replied was an attempt for a joke, “Dan, have you ever wondered about our life?” she asked in a manner that sent Dan’s mind into alert. “What do you mean?” he replied tentatively. This better not be about something that would make him regret opening his trap in the first place. “Have you ever wondered that maybe life isn’t what is seemed?” Oh boy! He was so not in the mood to talk about religion. “I mean, what if our lives are just a figment of the imagination of some random person?” Now that threw him out the curve, “Not really,” he answered sincerely, “why do you ask?” “It’s because these last chapters of our lives felt really weird.” Dan arched an eyebrow at her but he didn’t say anything and let her continue, “as if something that happened just got ret-coned or erased and I can’t figure out what or why.” “Now that you mention it, I too have felt like that.” Of course he just assumed that it was life being its jerk self. That and the strange dreams he’s been having. “I wish I could have an answer and put all this confusion to rest.” Pinkie said to the heavens above for an answer. In that exact second a flier came …flying…through the open window and smacked Pinkie in the face. “Huh? What is it?” asked Dan, glad that the paper didn’t smack him instead. “I don’t know! Let me read for a second." If you want your questions aswered just click Here. > Anime and A Bad Hair Day > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie VS Chapter 12- Anime and A Bad Hair Day! It was finally spring season in Japan, and with it came the blossoming of the Sakura trees. An event celebrated everywhere in Japan, but for two best friends in the Mashinima district, this year’s blossoming of Sakura would be anything but traditional. “God! I can’t believe I got dragged into this stupid bull****!” said the shortest one of the friends. He was a bearded high school student, wearing the traditional high school uniform, except his was white instead of black or dark blue. “This is all your fault, Matto!” His firely personality and short temper was reflected on his scalp were his orange red hair was showing an advance case of balding despite him being 17. “I didn’t want you to come either, Pato!” Matto, short for Masshu, replied annoyed to his red haired friend Pato, short for Patorikku. Matto looked the opposite of his friend. He was taller and wore all black; black hoodie, black cargo pants, black shoes and black cap with a skull in it. “It was Merika-chan who wanted you to come along!” at the mention of his girlfriend, Matto’s annoyance fade away, replaced by a silly grin. “God, kill me now! I don’t want to spend my free day watching you two ogling each other.” The red head almost gagged at the mental imagery. “You are just jealous of me!” Matto said full of himself. And who wouldn’t? Merika-chan was the cutest girl in school; and the hottest too. No other girl in school could compare with the American girl’s J-cups. Pato just groaned and continued walking besides Matto, he was already preparing himself for what would surely be a LONG day. Unbeknownst to both high-schoolers, a set of eyes was watching them get closer and closer to the entrance of the Sakura Tree Park. Once the two of them were a few meters away, the hidden stalker made its move. “Move away, dumbass!” Pato yelled as he pushed Matto out of harm’s way away. He had noticed a strange movement from the corner of his eye and let his survival instincts overtake him. “Dude! What the F…?!” The boy in the floor began but his words were stuck in his throat when he noticed the thing that was impaled where he was standing a second ago. It was a massive spear imbedded in the ground which opened cracks all over the street. “What.The. Fuuuu…?!” A second later a figure wearing a hat came walking out of the park’s entrance carrying a tied-up girl over his shoulder like a potato sack. “Matto-Kun! Pato-San! Please help me!” Cried out the very buxom blond American girl in English, still the high-schoolers didn’t need to be fluent in English to understand what she said. “Stop you bastard! Who the hell are you and what do you want with MY girl!” yelled out Matto in anger and indignation. The hat wearing creep turned his head back toward the teens and gave them a smile that would make small children cry. “Don’t worry, Boy! I shall return her once I’m done with her!” “What the **** does that mean? You bastard!!” The kidnapper ignored the black-clad teen’s outburst and turned his head to the side and talk to seemingly thin air. “Let us go, Hachūrui!” Then, out of thin air, a black and green-clad ninja appeared. With a nod, the ninja put its hand on the hat creep’s shoulder and vanished away with a high-speed technique. “Did you see that s***!?” Pato asked with his eyes widen. “That ninja was ******* INVISIBLE!” he continue with excitement in his voice, like a kid opening a present on Xmas. “Forget about that! We need to rescue Merika-chan from that Hat Creep!” Matto declared with fire in his eyes. He was going to get back his girl no matter what. “Yeah, That was totally R***-culture right there!” “Come on dude! Let’s go!” Matto said while dragging his friend the arm. “Shouldn’t we call the police or something?” The red head asked out loud, why would high-schoolers have to deal with a kidnapping when that was supposed to be the Law’s job? “There’s no time!” “Ok, fine!” Pato said reluctantly, “But I’m only coming just to kick someone’s ass and maybe meet that invisible ninja!” Will Masshu and Patorikku be able to find Masshu’s girlfriend in time? Who are these mysterious opponents and what are their intentions? Find out next time in the next episode of Sūpā• Besuto• Furenzu.” Then the credits rolled. Showing all the people who worked on the show, but a name that caught the most attention was that of the writer who instead of using a real name, it went with the alias XeroM 52. - “Woooh! That was awesome!” Pinkie yelled out excitedly jumping up and down on her seat. Next to her was Elise who was much less excited than her pink haired friend, but was in a good mood nonetheless. “Gotta admit! I wasn’t sure at first with all the swearing and misogynistic undertones, but this show kinda grows in you.” “And that was just the beginning of the second season! I can’t wait for more!” Pinkie really loved this show. Despite that she just recently discovered it. While navigating through the internet, she just happened to catch an episode and liked it so much she had to go out and buy the entire 5 seasons on DVD to watch it with her friends. Since each season consisted of 12 episodes each, she decided to have a marathon with Elise to watch the whole first season at her friend’s house. Of course with the original Japanese dub and subtitles on. Elise didn’t mind since she was very fluent in Japanese…and almost any other language there is. After 4 consecutive hours, they reached the beginning of the second season. “Masshu is so cool! And I’m glad he finally became a couple with Merika-Chan in the first season finale!” She was so happy for him, he really deserved it after all the troubles and fight he had to go through just to win her love. “Don’t forget Wūrii! Despite been the antagonist the very first 5 episodes, he came back at the end to help in the end!” Elise liked Wūrii, thought he may seem like a punk and a big brute, under the tough exterior was a heart of gold shrouded in a tragic past. “Though I still don’t know what secrets are behind Riamu-Senpai, I hope he has a more prominent role this second season!” though Riamu had a very minor role, Pinkie really though his character had much potential. “Riamu-senpai is so kawaii!” “Yeah, and Pato is …umm…” Elise didn’t know exactly what to say about the red head, he was his least favorite character despite him being the second main character in the show. “HE’S THE BEST!” declared Pinkie with enthusiasm to spare. “I don’t know what it is about him that makes me like him so much!” Elise rolled her eyes at her friend; she had a slight clue about why Pinkette liked that character so much. “Is it because he reminds you so much of Dan, doesn’t he?” Elise wasn’t surprised one bit when Pinkie’s cheeks turned red at her insinuation. “N..n..no! It isn’t like that!” “Pinkie” Elise said before sighing loudly, “We have talk about this before, if you like him so much, why don’t you confess to him already?” Pinkie remained quiet for a few seconds while she thought of an answer. “I-I want to keep things slow…” she finally answered, “I don’t want to rush things and ruin what we already have, you know. I don’t want things to become awkward between us.” Elise blinked a few times while processing Pinkie’s explanation. Pinkie, the exuberant and always smiling party planner, feeling unconfident was a very rare and weird sight indeed. “I understand that, but if you keep things slow for too long, you might lose the chance to tell him what you feel.” With the kind of lifestyle Dan has, one of these days he might end up killing himself and the only way of identifying him being with his dental records. Silly, Elise. She didn’t know that Dan didn’t have dental records after he defeated his dentist and stopped him from taking over the world. “Hey, Elise! Why don’t we jump into the next episode?”Pinkie said obviously trying to change the subject. But Elise didn’t press the issue any further. Then from the Pinkette’s stomach came a loud sound. “I think I need to refresh myself, before the next episode.” And with that she stood up and walked to the bathroom down the hallway. “Yes, you go do that.” Elise said slightly amused. Now all those sweets her friend ate were coming to get back at her. “I better get more snacks; she’s going to come back hungry for more.” As Elise was ready to sit down again alongside more bags of chips and candy, Chris came through the front door looking bummed-out. “Hard day at work?” she asked at her husband who went directly to the couch and opened a bag of chips. “I was fired today,” he told her with a clear sense of defeat, “alongside 5 other people, budget cuts and all that.” Then he took a handful of chips and ate them like it was nothing. “Oh, honey, I’m so sorry to hear that!” Elise approached her depressed looking husband and sat next to him. “Don’t worry; I’m kind of glad, actually” Chris said looking at the positive side of things, “telemarketing is a very thankless job anyway!” Those long hours sitting behind a desk just calling and calling, and calling. It was better this way. “I’m sure soon enough you’ll find a job that will make you happy!” Elise reassured Chris by massaging his back. “Thanks Elise.” Of course, this tender and quiet moment couldn’t last, because the very next second, Dan came barging in screaming bloody murder. “LOOK AT WHAT HE DID TO ME! I’M A MONSTER!!!” After a whole 5 minutes of constant screaming, Dan calmed himself enough to explain the situation, while Elise fought back her giggles and not laugh at Dan’s face. “I’m telling you! I didn’t do anything to him, that barber did this to me for NO reason!” came the indignant voice of Dan. He lets his guard down for one second and now he looked like a freak that makes babies cry. “I’m sure if you think hard enough you can come up with something.” Muttered Chris knowing full well how Dan never acknowledges how his actions may affect the people around him and how can it come back to bite him in the butt. “Dan, you don’t look THAT bad!” Elise reassured the angry little man while keeping her neutral façade, while on the inside she was keeping the laughter at bay. “Grrr! You don’t understand HOW bad this is!” the rudely pointed his finger to Elise, ”that barber ruined my plans for a date!” “I’m sure that…wait! A DATE?!” Elise asked surprised, did Dan was finally going to ask Pinkie on a date? That was such great news! “Yes, a date! You act like I’m incapable of getting one!” Dan said while crossing his arms annoyed, ”What have you been telling her, Chris?” He shot a glare at Chris who just raised his hands to put a barrier between him and Dan’s ire. “I was just surprised!” admitted Elise, “I’m happy that you are finally going to ask Pinkie on a date! I’m sure she won’t mind what kind of haircut you got!” Pinkie was going to be so happy that she would ignore anything else. Heck she might even cut her own hair just to make Dan feel better about himself. “What are talking about?” Dan replied with utter confusion, “I’m not going to take out Pinkie! Are you crazy or something?” “What?” Chris and Elise both asked at the same time. If it wasn’t Pinkie, who then? Dan really didn’t know any other women. Or women that didn’t ran away from him at his mere sight. “I got a date with this girl Becky I met at Ninja Dave’s shop.” Dan told them feeling very full of himself, “and she totally fell for the ‘Dan Method.” Elise was going to ask what the ‘Dan Method’ was but she stopped herself a second later. She was better off not knowing. “And I was going to take her to the movies! ‘A Fist Full of Brains’ a zombie spaghetti western, and that’s a cinema sub-genre that both of us like. In fact I found out we had a lot of things in common” “Pinkie likes that kind of movies too.” Elise pointed out. Pinkie had a lot of things in common with Dan too. ”Why didn’t you invite her?” “Why do you keep bringing her up? We’re talking about me not her!” Really, how rude could you get? Here he was telling them his problems and Elise wanted nothing more than change the topic. “Because you should’ve asked Pinkie out first!” “And why would I do that? I mean, seriously, she is like… a female Chris to me!” Dan laughed while pointing at Chris with his thumb. Chris just kept quiet and didn’t say anything. He didn’t know who to feel about that statement. “You’re acting like I have feelings for her or something.” “You don’t?” Elise asked in bewilderment. After all the things they have done together, all the time she saved his sorry butt, he didn’t felt something for her? Not even a little? She even brought him back from death, for god’s sake. “No! Don’t be ridiculous” he finished off by laughing as if even the mere thought of it was a joke. Elise was about to rebut to that, but the sound of something hitting the ground stopped her from that. It must have been something small, perhaps a frame from the hallw… SHOOT! She completely forgot about her! Elise rapidly stood up and walked into the hallway where she found Pinkie putting back a small picture frame in its place. “Pinkie?” Elise asked tentatively as she slowly approached her friend, “Are you…?” “I’m fine!” Pinkie responded before Elise could finish her question, “I’m sorry about the frame!” “Don’t worry, about that, Pinkie.” Elise knew by pure body language alone that Pinkie was very tense and holding herself back from crying. That and the small crack in her voice helped too. “Are you…?” “Sorry Elise…I…forgot I had something today…maybe…we…could…meet again some other time.” Pinkie said with great difficulty, she couldn’t keep the façade anymore, she was about to break any second now. “Goodbye!” And with that she ran towards the door and never looking back. “Pinkie!” Elise tried to stop her but Pinkie was faster than she thought, because she was already inside her car with the engine on. Before Pinkie steeped on the gas pedal full force to leave as fast as she could, Elise saw the tears already spilling out like a broke dam. After Pinkie was long gone, Elise remained at the front door with a feeling sad for her best friend. “What was that all about?” asked a very confused Dan once he saw Elise enter the house. He didn’t really see anything just a blur that passed behind him. “That was Pinkie!” Elise said sending a very clear glare at Dan. Next to him Chris put his hand over his mouth as he gasped for air. Pinkie was there the whole time and she heard Dan said all those things? “Pinkie?” Dan repeated back with a slight tone of surprise that reduced Elise’s anger a few notches. If he really felt sorry for what he said and apologized maybe she could spare him. “She left without even said goodbye? Just how much more rude can she get. Am I right?” In a blink of an eye Elise went from one side on side of the living room to the next and held up Dan by the collar of his shirt with one arm. “Hey what the heck, Elise!” Dan cried out in surprise while he try to get out of her grip. “You inconsiderate bastard!” she snarled at him, making both men in the room gasp in surprise. Elise never cursed like that, ever. “I should make everyone a favor and put you down on the deepest, darkest hole in the ground where nobody else would ever found you!” “Elise, please calm down!” begged Chris who had never seen his wife this angry in his entire life. “There’s no need to kill him. Besides, no matter how upset Pinkie is right now, she would be even more upset if she finds out one of her friends murdered another.” Chris knew Elise was upset on behalf of Pinkie, so if she believed her action may upset Pinkie further that would be enough to calm his wife down. Elise began taking very long and deep breath while she thought about Chris’ words. It took her a solid minute to finally let go of Dan, who fell right on his butt. “Oww!” Then Elise turned around and walked towards the TV where the DVD player was at. She pushed the eject button a little harder than necessary and took out a disk to put it back inside a case. After she was done she walked in front of her husband and said, “I’ll be back in a moment. Make sure he leaves the house by then or I will not be held responsible for my actions.” And with that she began her walk towards Pinkie’s house. As soon as Elise was out of hearing range, Dan recovered is ability to speak. “What just happened?” “I think I just saved your life!” > Pinkie in the Rye > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan & Pinkie Vs Chapter 13- Introspections or Pinkie in the Rye. Original by: MoreX25 Edited by: Mister shield The walk towards Pinkie’s house wasn’t exactly a short one. For the average person, it would’ve taken around 40 minutes to walk from Elise’s house to Pinkie’s place. Elise, though not your average person, decided to take her time walking all the way over there. She wanted Pinkie to have a little alone time, but also because she wanted some time to herself to cool off, and what better way of doing so than a little exercising? Ever since she became the best of the best the agency could offer, training was the only way to clear her mind. This walk may be next to nothing compared to her usual routine, but it was better than nothing. After Elise was calmer, she thought back more rationally on her actions and she finally realized the fatal mistake she almost committed. She overreacted, and because she let her emotions cloud her judgment and reason (a grave mistake for a super agent and spy), she almost killed Dan and even worse- almost revealed her secret identity to Chris. Not to mention this is Dan. Placing his mentality levels to normal publics views may not apply. Still, Elise couldn’t believe how much of an ass Dan made himself look back there. After all the things Pinkie has done for him, you would at least expect him to have some appreciation for her. Just what was he thinking calling her a ‘Female-Chris’? Granted, she loved her husband to death, but even she would feel put-off if someone called her that. Chris wasn’t the brightest tool in the shed, ate enough food to put buffets chains bankrupt, and enjoyed spending time with... Damn. That did sound a little bit like Pinkie. Even so, she really wanted to put that little troll Dan back under a bridge. And in a grave. But despite, the anger she felt for that rude brute and how much she hated to admit it, Elise knew Dan really wasn’t at fault, or at least not completely. Dan had so many flaws as a person they were immeasurable- (or maybe he could be considered one giant flaw in itself?)- one of them is that when Dan sets his mind on something (specially his revenge schemes) he tended to ignore his own faults and other people feelings. Like a honey badger except more vicious, and devious. He may not have realized that his words may have affected Pinkie. And the same principle could be applied in reverse too. Dan also has difficulty reading the mood of the situation and what others may feel or think about him. So it is not hard to believe that he would never pick upon Pinkie’s feelings until someone explicitly told him so. Speaking of which, Pinkie also had some fault with Dan’s mentality. Her indecision about her own feelings was a factor that contributed to this current situation. Had the Pinkette, being a little more forward and explicit, maybe Dan would’ve pick up the signs sooner and maybe they would’ve have a more romantically inclined relationship by now. Elise stopped her introspection of the events once she realized she was almost at Pinkie’s house, and instead began thinking of things to say to her friend in order to help her. But no matter what she thought, nothing seemed appropriate. ‘There are other fish in the sea?’ No, too cliché.‘When a door closes, a window opens?’ No. ‘Time to get back on the horse?’ Too soon. ‘He will realize the big mistake he’s making and return to you, crawling on a field full of broken glass? She liked that one, only for the mental imagery. Put in the ‘maybe’ category. It took Elise a few more minutes to reach Pinkie’s house. But no matter how many times she visited, she was always surprised to see her friend’s house. With the kind of person Pinkie was, many would’ve expected that her house would look as exuberant as the party planner that lives in it. But surprisingly enough, it was plain, almost generic. It wasn’t even pink! Her friend’s favorite color! When Elise asked Pinkie about it, her friend just replied that it was how her family taught her. Though the house itself didn’t look anything out of the ordinary, but same thing couldn’t be said about the front yard. It was filled with tons of garden ornaments, from the classic gnome to candy figurines that turned a simple front yard into candy land. Must be a pain to mow the grass with the yard filled with so many ornaments. She has a difficult time convincing Chris to mow their garden and theirs isn’t as large or ornamental as Pinkie’s. Elise walked on the small path leading towards the door, thankful she didn’t had to traverse through all the ‘Candy Land’ ornaments. She knocked on the door a few times and waited for a response. Elise waited. Waited... And waited some more. After 15 minutes of knocking and waiting, Elise let out a loud sigh and took out her cell phone from her pocket to call her friend. Just as she thought, Pinkie didn’t pick up the phone and the answering machine answered instead. “Hello!!! This is Pinkie Pie” the recording of Pinkie’s excited voice said, “For the moment I’m not home! But if you leave a message, I’ll call you back and maybe we’ll have a party later!” Then a loud beep came, signaling that the machine began the recording. “Pinkie it’s me Elise, I know you are in there listening and I understand, you are hurting and want to be alone, but please call me back if you need anything. I’m here for you; all you have to do is call…” Elise paused for a second, trying to think of another thing to say next. Then she looked down at the DVD box she was holding on her other hand. “Oh! And I also wanted to return your DVD but… I think I’ll keep it for the time being…. Just call me, please.” Then the machine beep again and the answering machine stopped recording. --------------------------------------------- “Just call me, please.” The machine recorded before the final beep, leaving the rest of the house in almost complete silence. With the only sounds been the cries and sniffs from a very heart-broken Pinkie. Pinkie was laying on her bed in a fetal position hugging her pillows as humanly possible to herself. Tears and some of the make-up she applied that morning decorated the brightly colored softness with spots of dark and pink. She had heard the phone ring but she didn’t care for it, not even when she heard Elise’s voice leaving a message. She couldn’t face her. Couldn’t face anyone, not right now. Right now, the only thing she could focus on was on the words she heard Dan said. Each and every single word sent a jolt of pain to her aching heart, and no matter how much she tried to forget them. The memory wouldn’t leave her and began playing over and over again, making her heart hurt even more. As she continued to wallow in her own pain, she didn’t notice that her cries caught the attention of the other living being in the house, her own pet, Gummy. Gummy may not be the most expressive or attentive of creatures, but even he could feel the distress coming from his Pink Puff of an owner. So when he saw Pinkie, running in tears into her room, he knew he had to do something. Say whatever you want about alligators’ movement and speed, but Gummy would make you eat your words with a healthy side of saltiness from your tears once you were proven how wrong you were. From inside his colorful, play pen were Pinkie would usually put him in when he acted especially ‘naughty’. Gummy knocked down one of his many toys, which in turn knocked over some other stuff, resulting in a chain reaction that lead to a plank to fall inside the pen, providing a ramp for him to escape, using a toy car as a improvised skateboard. Now free from his ‘prison’, the toothless alligator crawled his way from the living room towards the room where he heard his owner cry. It was fortunate that the door wasn’t closed; otherwise he would’ve had to bust out some serious maneuvers to climb up to the lock to open it. Instead he just pushed the door, opening enough for him to sneak into the room. After expertly using the sheets as means to climb up the bed, Gummy crawled and sat next to Pinkie’s head. “Ghaaa…!” Gummy…um…said and blinked a few times. “Not now…Gummy…mommy’s not…feeling well…” Pinkie managed to say between sniffs. Still, despite her words, Gummy remained unmoving from his place. “Gummy…not now…” she tried again, but the green alligator didn’t obeyed. He just stared at her and blinked a few times. “Please! Leave me alone!” she managed to say raising her voice into an almost yell. But when the alligator refused to move once again, Pinkie burrowed her face into the squeezed pillow between her arms, and cried even more while Gummy remained ever watching. The disobedient alligator knew that he made his pink owner cry even harder; but his instincts, passed along from millions of years of evolution, told him to do so. Sometimes we need a little bit of tough love to get better. -------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan was currently walking towards the barber’s shop to give him a taste of his own medicine. He dared to give Dan a bad haircut, so now Dan was going to return the favor and give him a horrible haircut. Courtesy of an electric hedge trimmer. As he walked leisurely towards his objective- trying to bask in the thrill of a slow and painful revenge in his mind- his brain couldn’t help but return to the whole Elise tried to kill him fiasco. Just what the heck was that woman’s problem? He was just minding his own business, telling them all about how his day turned for the worse after beginning so well. And then Pinkie suddenly bolted out of the room without even saying goodbye and Elise’ started acting as if somehow he did something wrong. The gall of that woman! Him! Dan! Being wrong. How ridiculous. And then Chris, his best friend, dared to take Elise’s side and told him he was responsible for making Pinkie cry. How in the world was he responsible for that?! She wasn’t even in the room with him! “Words are powerful things, Dan! And sometimes we hurt people without even realizing it” came the voice of Chris in his mind, preaching to him as if he was a mere dumb child. He didn’t even mention her! It was Elise who kept bringing her up in their conversation! It should be Elise the one accused of making Pinkie ‘upset’ not him. “Some of the things you said were hurtful for her. You should apologize.” said once again the Chris inside his head. If the voice didn’t shut up soon, he might feel obligated to shut it up using a Ice pick! Why did HE have to apologize?! He didn’t say anything wrong! In fact he was honest! And he hated that word! They should be encouraging him, not making him apologize for saying the truth! Just what was said to ‘supposedly’ make Pinkie upset anyway? “Pinkie likes that kind of movies too.” Elise pointed out. ”Why didn’t you invite her?” Was that it? Because he didn’t invite her to see ‘Fist Full of Brains’? Did she wanted to see that movie with him so bad that she cried when he didn’t invite her? That was ridiculous! That would be like him getting upset because Chris wouldn’t join him in this year’s renaissance fair! Completely and utterly... Understandable. It wouldn’t be the same without his pal at his side, dressed as his ever loyal buffoon, doing everything he ordered. Maybe, Pinkie felt the same…she wanted to see the movie with him, because watching it alone wouldn’t be the same. And who could blame her? He was awesome. “Maybe, we could’ve gone together…after taking Betty first of course!” Thought Dan convinced he had cracked the mystery of an unresolved case. He thought back of the first time he saw what was her name... Oh, Becky! He didn’t know exactly what was it about her that made him so attracted to her. Was it her delectable tanned skin? Or was it her inviting green eyes? Maybe the way she carried herself? Or a combination of all that? Whatever it was, whenever he looked at her, he pictured the future first Ex-Mrs. Dan. But that meddlesome, mediocre barber had to ruin his hair! And his chance to go on a date with a girl that liked the same kind of B-movies as him! And the very few other women who did, weren’t exactly his type. “Pinkie likes that kind of movies too.” The Elise voice in his head pointed out. Again. “Had I taken Becky to the movie, I wouldn’t have minded watching it again with…a friend” Yes, though he might never admit it out loud, Dan really thought of Pinkie as a friend. She was a fellow horror movie fan, she drove him around when Chris was ‘indisposed.’ Fem-Chris bailed him out of prison, and even graced her presence by crashing on her house when the police was looking around for someone that may or may not be him. She was like a second Chris. “I don’t think she liked being called a female-me.” Why wouldn’t she like it? Didn’t Pinkie realized it was a very high compliment? Something he almost never gives to other people? Chris had been his pal ever since they met at Summer Camp all those years ago when they were still kids. Nobody reached “Chris-status’ in his book unless you did a lot of things to gain it. Heck, he had known Elise for a few years now and at the pace she is going, she might reach ‘Chris-status’ in, never. Pinkie should be proud of her accomplishment. “How would you feel if she called you something similar, like a Male-Fluttershy or something?” He would be very upset, alright. Not sad-upset, no. More like jump-at-you-in-a-dark-parking-lot- with-a-wrench-upset. But upset nonetheless. Maybe, that was set her off crying. Pinkie probably thought that he called her a big, eat-a-lot oaf with terrible taste for spouses when she heard him call her a female-Chris. Again, totally understandable. Still, after all that introspection, Dan wasn’t going to apologize to Pinkie. He was going to give her an explanation to clear up the confusion. She deserved at least that. And then she might probably apologized to him for making Elise think he was at fault. There! Problem solved! Dan cracked a grin and congratulated himself for his superb observation and analytical skills. Suck on that Sherlock Holmes! That grin lasted all the way up to the barber’s shop where he was finally going to get his revenge. ------------------------- ”Pinkie, it’s me Elise. I don’t know if you are hearing this right now but listen, Chris and I are going to a small cabin this week, far away from the city and I wanted you to come with us. That way you can clear your mind and forget your worries. We will be leaving next morning at 10, we will be waiting for you.” Gummy, didn’t know how long has it been, since that message was recorded and frankly, who could blame him? He was an alligator for god’s sake, he couldn’t tell time. But he knew it must have been a long time since the sun went down and then up again. He thought that by now, there would be some kind of improvement, but no. Pinkie just sat there, hugging her knees to her chest with a very empty look on her face and with her once trademark puffed hair straighter than an arrow. There were no more tears, but he couldn’t tell if that was good or bad. If alligators could sigh, he would’ve done so by now. But since it was physically impossible for him to sigh in defeat/annoyance, he expressed his feelings the best way he could. By blinking. After that, he decided to do the only thing left to do to snap her owner back to some semblance of her former self. Confront her. ------------------------- Pinkie “Gummy, I already told you I want you to leave me alone. I’m not sad anymore, I’m fine. I don’t even remember why I was what made me upset anymore. See? I’m fine, so please leave me alone! What is it with you anyway? Why are you acting so rebellious all of the sudden? It’s because you’re hungry right? Leave me alone for half an hour and I’ll feed you. What? Is not about the food? Then why are you acting this way? I’m sorry…I know that you care about me, but this isn’t what I need right now. Oh! Now you are the one who know what’s best for me? Who is the pet and who is the owner then? Because I can tell you right now, it is not the one who doesn’t have opposable thumbs! I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I know I shouldn’t talk to you like that and that you are trying to help, but I don’t feel this is helping me. Talking would make things better? You got that from a fortune cookie or something? Sorry! Sorry! The crying? Look I told you I don’t want to talk about it, okay? Yes, I know I made you worry by crying like that all of the sudden. Well, the whole crying thing wasn’t like it was planned; I got a big shock, okay? I just don’t want to talk about it. What are you staring at me like that? Are you trying to read my mind or something, Gummy? Because I gotta tell you, you had this creepy vibe going on already with the unblinking thing and all this staring isn’t helping. Depression? Wow, that came out of nowhere don’t you think, Gummy? Wait! Are you trying to analyze me? Are you the reincarnated soul of Freud or something? Can’t someone just cry uncontrollably and isolate themselves from everyone and everything inside their room without having people making a big deal out of it? God! If you are acting like this, how is everyone else going to react? They’ll all think I’m suicidal or something. I can hear them already. Did you hear how Pinkie just freaked out? How sad! Bunch of phonies, all of them! What’s that? Elise is worried about me? Ha, that’s rich! Probably she just wants to tell me I told you so! Or to bombard me with tons and tons of cliché hope-you-get-better speeches, I don’t need any of that. Why would she tell me I told you so? I told you, I don’t want to talk about it! Dan? Why would he have to do with any of this? My tone just now? Geez Gummy, grasping at straws already? You realized how little argument you have in the first place that you have to resort to such tricks? Why are you even bringing him up anyway? I know for a fact that you never really liked him in the first place. Sorry, sorry…I shouldn’t take it out on you. You are just trying to help. If I’m angry at Dan? Not really.What? I AM serious! How many times are you going to ask the same thing until it gets through your head? Ok! Fine! YES! I’M ANGRY AT DAN! That’s what you wanted to hear? Not satisfied, huh? You want to know what happened, do you? You are really not going to leave alone until I tell you, aren’t you? What? Would I feel more comfortable talking with Elise or my friends back home? I told you already I don’t want to talk with any of those phonies! Look, if you promise to keep it between us I’ll tell you, okay? Pinkie Promise? Alright then. The reason why I was so upset is because I overheard Dan saying some stuff, okay? What kind of stuff? Rude, cruel stuff that made me angry! He was laughing, okay! Laughing at the idea of asking me on a date, like it was the most ridiculous thing ever! After everything we’ve done together. After everything I did for him. He called me a female Chris! Why is been called that a bad thing? Because Chris is… Because…Chris is… … He’s Dan’s best friend. The one who is always been there for him since they were kids…that’s what Dan told me. What? That I’m angry at myself instead of Dan? What gave you that idea, Gummy? Just because it was I that couldn’t sort my feelings for him earlier and my decision to takes things slow that probably lead him to the arms of that hussy, it doesn’t mean I blame myself! Don’t be ridiculous! Speaking of which, just who is she anyways? No, Gummy. I haven’t met her. I don’t know who she is. I only know she’s a girl named Becky. Do I think she is attractive? I told you, I don’t know her, I have no idea how she look like! What does she could have that I don’t? Three boobs or something? No, Gummy. Female humans only have two, geez you really should go out more! I bet she dresses like a skank! Showing her cleavage like it is everybody’s business to know if she wears a bra or not! And the guys fall all over that stuff all the time, like a bunch of drooling orangutans. It's like they've never seen a pair of breasts before! I just want to shout: come on, guys! They’re just breasts, okay? They are for feeding babies, that’s all! What’s that? Probably a nice girl, you say? Whose side are you, Gummy? Grr…even if you were right, I still think she is all wrong for him! I know him longer than her. I bail him out of jail. I even brought him back from the dead! Has she ever done something like that? Would she ever? I bet no. Talk to her? That is the dumbest thing you’ve said all day. I would rather go talk to Elise. No! I’m not angry at her, Gummy. I just don’t want her giving me speeches to try and make me feel better. I don’t need those right now! Why did I refuse to go to the cabin with her and Chris? Haven’t you been paying attention? I didn’t want to. Besides, how could I go out and spend my time in the middle of the woods while Dan is out there, probably kissing that phony skank. The natural progress in life, is that what you said? Really, Gummy? You really are terrible at this. Did you get that from today’s quote from the calendar or something? What’s next? Every cloud has a silver lining? Geez, the party guests too busy to come? Was Madame Le Flour’s too busy with Sir Lintsalot? If you know what I’m saying. Can you leave now? Look, what do you want me to say? I'm angry with Dan, okay? I don't like the idea of him with that girl Becky, okay? I don't like it one bit, satisfied? Would I like them to never meet again, yes, okay? Do I want things to go back to how they were before this whole thing started? Yes. Anything else? “What did you just said? Look, I might be acting mean but I’m not going to allow you to said things like that to me! I’m not a coward! You take that back! What do you want me to do, eh? Tell me what I have to do for you to shut up! … … … “Okay… you present a very sound argument. You could’ve cut back a little on the swearing, it was really unnecessary. Yes, Gummy, I’m going out, but I will do so to fight for MY Dan! And show you I’m no coward! And when I come back we will talk about that dirty mouth of yours!” Yep! A little bit of tough love. ------------ Bonus: Twilight was sitting in the school’s library, doing what she does best: reading a book. I know shocking, right? But this was no ordinary book. It was a book that has been banned from a lot of schools across the country, a quaint little book called Catcher in the Rye. She really didn’t see the apparent reason for the ban. The entire book was about a whinny kid who just complained a lot about how lame he and his life were. Sure there was swearing here and there, but not enough to warrant a ban for such a long time. The book itself was kind of boring, and this coming from a girl who reads about quantum physics and does vector calculus just for fun. It was so boring; she felt her eyes feel heavy, really heavy. “Twilight! Snap out of it!” came a yell from her concerned friend Rainbow Dash followed by a slap on the face. “Dash! What was that for?!” Twilight yelled while rubbing the cheek Rainbow hit. God, this was surely going to leave a bruise. “You were on some kind of trance! You tried to kill Sunset Shimmer!” Dash pointed out to an unconscious girl on the floor of what looked like the school’s locker rooms. Then Twilight realized she was clutching a cleaving knife on her other hand which immediately dropped in shock. “What?! But I didn’t mean to! You had to believe me!” Twilight cried in fright. Even if she didn’t really do anything to Sunset, attempted murder was a serious crime. Her life was ruined! “I believe you Twi! Despite how much we all hate her; I know you or anybody would never try to do something like this!” Dash said reassuringly demonstrating her loyalty to her friends. “What is the last thing you remember?” “Well…I was in the library, reading The Catcher in the Rye…” “Twilight! That book is banned from a reason! It makes the people who read it want to kill phonies, like John Lennon!” Dash chastised her friend who just looked to the ground ashamed. “I’m sorry, Rainbow….but now I know better! “And knowing is half the battle. G.I JOOOOOOOOOEEEEEE!” Extra: Twilight picked her head out from a book, quickly looking around wildly. Both eyes opened and closedly rapidly, trying to gather her senses. Huh? She calmed down after a second, realizing she was in the familiar and secure scenery of her library. What a crazy dream she just had. She almost killing Sunset Shimmer, and then Rainbow make a stupid joke that hasn’t been funny since 2005. Did she ate some of Pinkie’s special brownies or something? But then she spotted several bodies on the floor. Rainbow Dash, Sunset Shimmer, and others she couldn’t recognized lay- hopefully- asleep on the floor. “What happened?” Twilight asked. She blinked twice, looking down at the name of the book in her hands. Cuatro, written by Dirty Bit. “Oh this was the most boring story ever! He can’t write anything that isn’t a cross-over!” > A Party Planner and a Ninja Go to the Barber’s and... > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dan&Pinkie VS. Chapter 14- Solid Snake in, - Even though she was finally out of the house thanks to Gummy’s ‘motivational’ speech, Pinkie still had no idea what she was supposed to do. The only thing the little green alligator said, with the use of a lot of profanities, was to “get out and do something about it.” But what exactly? The pinkette kept on wondering what her next course of action should be while walking around with no real sense of direction or purpose. Like often in her life, she decided on one thing. Listen to her heart! Thank heavens for her extremely good luck and sixth sense. If it weren’t for them, the distracted girl would’ve already suffered from dozens of grizzle accidents; from being run over by a truck to a steel pipe falling on her head. ‘Dan’ She now knew that what she felt for him was stronger than admiration or a crush. She…she loved him. Smitten was long ago passed, and a silly crush phase was never an issue. All that time spent together was fun, exhausting, funny, combat loaded, and the list went on and on. Admitting that lifted a whole lot of weight of her mind, but it brought another whole set of upsetting thoughts. She could still clearly remember the words that brought her so much pain a few days ago. “What are talking about?” Dan replied with utter confusion, “I’m not going to take out Pinkie! Are you crazy or something?” Just what was so crazy about asking her out? “ I mean, seriously, she is like… a female Chris to me!” Female Chris. A few days ago, she wouldn’t have minded that remark, Chris was Dan’s best and closest friend and she would’ve been glad to be considered at such; but now not so much. No offense to Chris, he is a nice guy, but she wanted to be something more than that, to be more than a friend. But how to become that? What to do to make Dan look at her in that manner? Changing from girl-friend to girlfriend material. “What would Rarity say?” Yes, Rarity was always the self-imposed expert on matter of the heart, despite never seeing her dating many guys, or going steady with the few guys she dated. ”You have to use your womanly wiles, darling!” A chibi version of her friend said inside her mind. And despite having a big head in comparison from the rest of her body, Chibi Rarity still managed to look fabulous no matter the shape or form. ”Womanly wiles? Do I even have any of those?” She asked to the mental representation of her memories of her friend Rarity, not questioning her own mental sanity once. “Of course, my dear. Every girl has some. It’s all on the technique!” Chibi Rarity said with full confidence. “Like what?” ” There are some simple techniques that engage your feminine power which men readily react to. These are things like a warm smile, good manners, a gentle voice, maybe even light touches to his arm to accent your voice. Being confident, passionate, and witty in the way you speak to him will definitely charm any man. This is, in essence, Flirting 101.” ”But I don’t have time for all that! He’s already entranced by this other girl. Don’t you have a more effective and faster technique?” Pinkie asked in an urgent manner to the imaginary chibi version of her friend. “Well, you could always go for a more direct approach instead of acting coy. Just go directly at him and offer him a Happy Ending!” Chibi Rarity offered with a sly grin. “W.what?!” “Yes, picture it! You, wearing nothing but a party hat and him sitting on the couch with cake frosting on his…” “Stop it! Don’t say such embarrassing things!” Pinkie shouted while covering her face with her hands. Unaware that she just make the people around here look at her for shouting out of the blue. “What’s so embarrassing about Fairy GOD PARENTS?!” A lanky black haired wierdo hunchback with an ear on his neck spazed out. “Excuse me, but talking about my glandular problem is not embarrassing!” A fat man walked off as a boy followed him with a tuba. “Look, I know its stupid, ok?! But its my job to be a mime!” “Damnit, I’m a Brony and damn proud of it! I will love and tolerate the shit out of you!” A man in a Firefly shirt huffed off. “Whatever, I’m out of here!” Chibi Rarity said in a very un-Rarity-like manner and disappeared. Though Rarity’s top changed to have a gold and black shield for a fraction of a second on the front. Pinkie stopped walking, offering a ‘sorry’ and a wave of her hand. Ok, so asking ‘Rarity’ was a bad idea. Maybe try asking someone a little more down to earth, like Applejack! “Howdy! Pinkeh!” Now greeted a chibi Applejack, who for some reason had a southern accent thicker than the real one. She looked exactly like the last time Pinkie saw her. With her long blond hair under her ever present stetson hat, her orange flannel shirt, blue jeans and her cowboy boots. “Look, Pinkieh. In all honesty, Ah don’t know whut yuh see in dat guy in dah first place, but if yuh need muh advice, Ah’ll gladly give it ta yuh, sugahcube!” Chibi AJ said with a smile that could inspire all the blue collar workers in a 500 yard radius. “Yes, please help me, what should I do?” Pinkie pleaded hoping for better advice than the one she got from ‘Rarity’. “Think of it as a rodeo! Yore in a competition girl! Ah’m not saying saboutage that girl, but do yer best to win his heart~! Have yuh really honestly tried yer best to get ‘im? Maybe that’s why he think yore a friend than a girlfriend material” ”Yuh can’t just go and throw yerself to ‘im” Chibi AJ answer with a forbidding, similar to the ones parents use on their childs when they ask for a cookie before dinner. “What do you mean?” ”Ah mean, dat Dan fellow might look like a thorny little man. But wat yuh can be sure he ain't that difficult to figure out. All yuh have to do is git his respect.” ”But how does that help me to get him to like me?” Pinkie asked back confused by the advice. ”Look at it dis way. Dan cares for that big oaf Chris, correct?“ AJ waited for Pinkie to nod at her before continuing. ”But, does he respect ‘im? No. But who does Dan respect?“ ”Uh...his mechanic and bomb supplier?“ Pinkie offered not really sure where chibi AJ was going with this. “Exactly! But does he consider them friends?“ And again AJ waited until Pinkie answered, this time with a negative. “Don’t yuh see? Dan accepts only two kind of people. People he considers friends and people he respects. You already have his acceptance as a friend, now yuh have to make his respect yuh! ...and yer authoritah.” Pinkie remained silent, while considering her little friend’s advice. Had she done anything that Chris wouldn’t do? Is that why Dan called her female-Chris? Though she loved Dan, she still felt a little hurt by his words and what AJ said was true. Dan didn’t respect pushovers or hopeless people. So gaining his respect was a good idea. She had to do something that could REALLY impress him, and considering that she already save his life once and that wasn’t enough, it was sure to say she didn’t have any idea to try at the moment. ”Thanks for the advice Applejack. You really give me something to think about” Though she still didn’t have a clear cut answer to her predicament, Pinkie was still grateful for the advice. ” Aww shucks! Yer welcome,Sugahcube! Now if yuh ‘xcuse me, Ah got apples to delivah!” Chibi Aj said before getting inside a red pick-up truck and waved goodbye while jumping over a white fence riding to the sunset. YEE-HAW!” In hindsight, maybe it would have been a better idea to actually call her friends next time. After chibi-AJ was gone, Pinkie continued her walk through the streets musing over what to do, until she finally reached and stopped at a very familiar place. NINJA DAVE’S COOKIE SHOP! The place from where she ordered cookies for her parties. Work related or not, by the way. Though the party planner was also an excellent baker, she had to admit that Ninja Dave had a special talent for cookie baking. It probably was an ancient and secretly guarded ninja technique. Usually, she would’ve been ecstatic to enter and have a chat with Dave and order some of his delicious cookies, or as she called them, Ninjalicious. Except that today, the familiar and warm that she usually associated with the place, was replaced with resentfulness. Because it was here, were Dan met HER, the other day if she recalled Dan’s ‘tale’ correctly. The memory of it still stung her, but not as bad as it had been before. Pinkie, was about to turn around and leave the place behind, until a thought came to her. Ninja Dave was there! I mean, it was obvious he was there because it was his shop and stuff, but at what she was referring to was that Dave probably saw the whole thing with Dan the other day. Being the only one who worked in the whole shop, he must have witness what transpired that day and maybe tell her about this ‘Becky’, if that was even her real name. Yes, with the information she’ll get from Dave, she could conjure up what her next plan of action will be. With a deep breath, the Pinkie walked towards the entrance of the cookie shop with more resolve than ever. ---- ‘Today sure is a slow day’ thought the only person inside the cookie shop. A young black haired japanese-american guy. Who, despite his ‘delinquent-style’ haircut may say, he was the owner of the place. Unlike traditional bakers, he was unusually thin. But like traditional snack shop workers you see at malls, he wore a uniform polo red shirt and a paper hat on his head. But the paper hat a chocolate chip cookie on the front. And for the of his shop, ‘Ninja Dave’s Cookie Shop’, that was no joke. Dave was really a Ninja. Or a retired ninja now. It was surprising how far he had come this past few months. Never in his life Dave would’ve thought he would end off as the owner of his own business, especially one that involved baking sweets. Not so long ago, he was a Ninja, a hired mercenary and skilled thief that travelled whenever he wanted doing whatever ‘jobs’ came to him, for large sums of money. But everything changed the night he decided to steal cookies from an angry little man, named Dan. Doing so lead him to find Elise, a runaway member of his Ninja Clan, The Koushugi Clan. As for ancient tradition, it was his duty as a member of a Ninja clan to dispose of any traitors to the clan and people that were involved with the traitor. That meant going after Elise and Dan. After a failed attempt against Dan’s life, which involved poison darts to the neck, he challenged Elise to a duel to the death, which ended up on his defeat. Luckily for him, Elise spared his life, much Dan’s chargin who wanted him to suffer a penance for stealing his cookies. In the end, he punishment was to bake new cookies for Dan, which meant going against the oath of his clan and it’s founder, Koushugi Jiro, signifying the end of his life as a Ninja. Which wasn’t all that bad. He discovered he had an innate talent for baking cookies, and now had an stable, not to mention legal, job which meant that he could finally settle down and live a danger free life. Being a ninja was cool and all, but it was a tiring profession, filled with strict rules and responsibilities, too large for him to carry, especially being the last member of his clan. It was better if he let the Koushugi Clan finally rested in peace and disappear from memory. And finally be free to pursue other things in life. Yes, It was a good life, the life of a cookie shop owner. Except when there weren’t many clients coming today. Usually his shop was packed with clients hungry for some of his delicious cookies. But then again it was around lunch time so it was one of those ‘dead hours’ in which barely any client ever show up, not even regulars. ‘Well, people don’t really have cookies for lunch, do they?’ Dave reasoned while flipping through a magazine behind the counter. That’s how he habitually spent time during those long boring ‘dead hours’, he would flip upon a magazine or the newspaper and read about anything that caught his attention. For example, today he was reading about a Japanese-style village filled with mediums that channeled spirits into the living world; but the most curious fact was that this village was located in a mountain just outside of Los Angeles. How would’ve thought? But Dave’s reading came to a stop when he heard the familiar sound of the door chimed, signaling the arrival of a customer. “いらっしゃいませ!” He greeted in his mother tongue before correcting himself and greeted again but this time in English, “I mean, Welcome! What can I do for you today?” The moment the Ex-Ninja saw who the customer was, his eyes brighten a little. It was Pinkie Pie! One of his best clients. She would always come and ask for a big order, either for one of the many parties she organized or for personal consumption. Also, Dave would be lying to himself if he said that he didn’t find her attractive. Sure, in his motherland of Japan you could find high-schoolers with similarly well-developed bodies and colored hair from all the colors of the rainbow. But, Pinkie had something that rarely was found in Japan. “That puffy hair like cotton candy.” Pink hair was very common in Japan, but it was always long and straight, never curly or puffy. So to him it was very exotic. Not that he would ever tell her that. He who was trained in one of the deadliest fighting arts ever, who was well versed in all sorts of weapons including the ninjatou, shuriken, sai, kunai, kusari-gama, etc. He who was trained to be an agent of darkness; inconspicuous to all prying eyes and silent like a shadow. He who was no unfamiliar with assassination, espionage and thieving techniques… Couldn’t ask the girl he liked to a date. Pathetic.You bring dishonor to your ancestors. “Hey Dave.” Pinkie greeted with a distinct lack of cheer, which didn’t went unnoticed by the former ninja. “Are you feeling alright?” Dave had to ask. Never had he seen the energetic girl this down. Where was her enthusiasm, or the ever present smile that liven up your day? Where was the skip in her walk and the energy of her moves? And more notably, where was the puff in her lovely hair? “Yes, I’m fine.” She lied obviously not wanting to talk about what was bothering her, something that he picked on and didn’t tried to bring it out again, no matter how curious he was. “Say… how many cookies would you like today?” Dave asked trying to change the subject to a more familiar one. “In fact I’ll give you a discount too! For being my best client off course!” “Sorry Dave, but I didn’t come for cookies today.” Didn’t come for cookies today?! Preposterous! That definitely settled it. Dave didn’t need his ninja instinct to know that whatever happened, it must have been big. Pinkie, no matter what, always had cookies every time she came to his store, even if her visit was just social. And no matter the quantity, he would always be happy to bake for her, just to see her smile after taking a bite out of his cookies. “Are you sure?” Still, Dave didn’t have any idea of how to approach to the subject. He was curious about what happened but his also didn’t want to come off as rude or meddleing. “I’m sure.” And after that, both of them fell into an uncomfortable silence that the former ninja didn’t know how to break it. It was like he could just take his ninjatou and cut it. And with every passing second he grew more and more anxious, waiting for whatever was happening to end. Fortunately for his sanity and the growing sweat marks on his shirt, Pinkie broke the silence. “Dave, do you remember the last time that Dan was here?” Dan? That really came out of the blue. Did he had anything to do with whatever was making Pinkie act so unusual? Then again, Dave often saw her with his redeemer. Were they dating? “Yes, I remember. If I recall correctly he was chatting with another customer.” A female customer, and a cute one at that, but still it didn’t hold a candle to the pink haired girl in front of him. “Do you know who it was?” She asked again, this time with a strange tone. It was like a mix bag of contradicting emotions, that not even his Ninja Sense could pinpoint. “Not that much,” Dave replied honestly, “all I know is that her name’s Becky and she comes here once a week or so.” At his answer, he could see that a gloomy feel was slowly forming around Pinkie. Just what was up with all the questions? “Her father in the other hand…” he added uncertain of what exactly was upsetting her. “Yes…?” In an instant the Pinkie was closer than before, clearly interested in whatever little bit of information he could offer. “Her father, Mr. Barber, the…um…patron from the barbershop down the block, he comes regularly.” Really, that was his name. Talk about predetermined career path. Almost like he was born in a land of magical talking ponies who got named for their future occupations. “The Barber?” “Yes, nice guy when you get to know him and a great barber too, from what some of my regulars tell me. Not that I would know myself…” he admitted and before Pinkie had any opportunity to ask, he added, “As a Ninja, or former Ninja, I don’t lower my guard around people, especially people with sharp tools on their hands. That’s why I cut my own hair and do my own dental work.” Pinkie, putting aside his comments for another occasion, asked. “Do you know anything else about him?” Inside her own mind, Pinkie was fretting about the immense coincidence that Ninja Dave casually revealed to her. Who would have thought that the so called Becky was the daughter of the only Barber around these parts? Which coincidentally, it was the same barber that ruined Dan’s hair. But it made sense. It explained why a barber would ruin somebody’s hair. He was surely against the idea of Dan wanting to take his daughter out on a date. An idea she could get behind. ‘Maybe I can work this on my advantage.’ She could cook a plan that would not only help her get Dan back and teach him a lesson at the same time, but also make sure that Becky would never be a problem anymore. Now all she needed was to get as much information as she could. “Well…he once let it slip that he was part of an organization called ‘The Hallow Society of Barber Surgeons’” “The Hollow what now?” “The Hallow Society of Barber Surgeons. It’s a secret society that has existed since the dawn of western civilization. Almost like Ninja Clans, except with barbers.” Dave explained without a hint of a doubt. He had investigated about the Society when he first came to the U.S. Only a fool would enter a new place without investigating first, on whose turf he was stepping in. “And as with all secret societies, if you unfortunately manage to get on a member’s bad side, you will have the entire organization coming after you. And trust me, they have ways to make you ’disappear’” Not that he would have to worry about it; his ninja skills would surely triumph over them. As for Pinkie, this new information troubled her. ‘I wanted to teach Dan a lesson, but this…” This was a complete game changer. Knowing Dan he would undoubtedly already be in the middle of his revenge scheme. And once he was done, he would get into REALLY deep trouble and that HSBS will make him ‘disappear’. Sure, she was still peeved with him for all the things he said, but she didn’t want him to be ‘disposed of’. “Dave! You need to help me!” Pinkie declared with the utmost urgency. “W-with what?” Dave asked slightly taken aback by the girl’s sudden change of behavior. Nonetheless he was ready to help any way he could. “It’s Dan! he’s most likely already in trouble with the HSBS. You have to help me find a way to save him from those guys!” If there was anyone that could help them, that would have to be Dave. With his Ninja skills and Intel he was the most qualified for the task. “I don’t know…” The baker answer hesitantly, he already retired from being a ninja and he didn’t want to get involved in a problem that didn’t directly concern him. Besides, why would Dan get in trouble with the...nevermind, stupid question. And even though Dan accidentally help him get where he was right now. He didn’t feel like he was worth the risk. But when he saw the pleading look of the girl in front of him, he knew he didn’t have the heart to say no. “Ok, I’ll help.” Dave said hiding the defeated tone from his voice. Besides, Dan was a regular and without his, I mean, Chris’ money, his cookies sales would definitely drop. So it was for his best interest to keep him around as long as possible. “Oh thank you! Thank you!” Pinkie say while giving him a big hug over/across(?) the counter that separated them. Such action, make the retired ninja flush slightly his cheeks. Luckily he was able to get rid of the blush before Pinkie even noticed it was there on the first place. Still, It felt really nice. Maybe if he help her save Dan, she would maybe accept going on a date with him. If he ever manage to the gather the courage to ask her in the first place. “So what do we do first?” She asked hoping that Dave had some kind of idea, since she had none at the moment. “Well…If the HSBS works similar to the Ninja clan’s of Japan, they must certainly have a strict set of rules that they follow without question.” Like the oath of his now extinct clan that said that no member of the Koushugi Clan shall ever cook or bake sweets, ever. “If we manage to find out what the rules are, we can find a way to exploit them to our advantage and save Dan.” “Great, so all we have to do is infiltrate their society and get a hold of the rules!” Pinkie said as if it was the simplest thing ever. “So what? Do we dress and pretend to be barbers to enter their base? Or should we take the lead member hostage and get the info out of him?” Dave just raised an eyebrow at her suggestions. Both were perfectly good methods a ninja would use to get what they wanted; frankly he was impressed. “How about we break in during the night, get inside, search for what we want and get out?” Simple breaking and entering, how could you go wrong with the classics? In his mind, the Ninja was already making a list of materials that would be needed. “Ok! So tonight we meet near the HSBS HQ and break out way in!” Pinkie proposed with a tingle of excitement creeping into her voice. And who could blame her? What they were going to do was going to be exciting. “I…I suppose…” Dave replied not feeling nearly as excited as her. Sure, his plan was simple, but to do it just like that? Out of the sudden without first doing recon on the place they were entering? It was nuts. But when he saw the spark of excitement on those big blue eyes of her, he couldn’t help but start feeling excited too. It was good to have same-old Pinkie Pie back. --- It was almost midnight, when a shadowy figure arrived outside of the building that served as headquarters for the ‘Hallow Society of Barber Surgeons’. The figure stayed mostly on the shadows avoiding making its presence known to anything that may still be awake at that hour. The figure waited inside the shadows in complete silence, waiting for the correct time to make its appearance. It wasn’t long before a small car made its way down the street and parked near the building the shadowy figure arrived a few minutes earlier. That was the signal that the figure was waiting for and in an instant it left the obscuring shadows and let itself bath into the light the moon above provided. The hidden figure revealed itself to be a man dressed in a dark blue shōzoku. The traditional ninja garb utilized by the practitioners of Ninjitsu. From the Zukin that covered his face, to the Obi that kept his Uwagi and Hakama tied together, and the Waraji on his feet with the Kyahan that protected them; every single item was completely authentic and had seen battles dozens of times before. Slowly he approached the car while making sure that his equipment was still in place. His Ninjatou was safely fastened and sheathed. His secret pockets were filled with Shuriken for long ranged combat, and smoke bombs for distractions and for quick escapes. Kunai with chain for mid range combat, and rope. Rope, it’s like string, only manlier! Yes, everything was in position and perfect condition. He was more than prepared for whatever they threw on his way. He was ready. “Hey Dave, are you ready?” Or so he thought, because the very next moment Pinkie Pie got out of the car in what could be considered a very risqué outfit. A very tight black catsuit that left very little to the imagination. What a million perverts wouldn’t give to be that suit in that very moment. Man, it was so tight you could bounce up quarters on that booty. And as for our resident Ninja, being in close proximity with such a suit, almost made him bleed out of his nostrils like all his male compatriots from Japan. Thank you, Ninja mask. And thank you, lose pants. “P.P.Pinkie! W-what are you wearing?” “Uh? Oh! This?” The black clad Pinkie said while slightly stretching the tight fabric over her chest, “Well, this is a sneaking mission, correct? I decided to dress for the occasion!” Not only she was wearing the bodysuit, she also had night vision goggles over her head and a harness from which multiple utility pouches were strapped into. “Oookeey…”The Ninja drawn out trying his best not to stare at her provocative outfit, “Anyway, are you ready for this? If you’re not, we can still back down.” “Nope! I’m ready as I could be! I even got some of that vertigo gas that Elise made for me!” and to show she was serious, she took out a very large canister from one of her pouches and show it to Dave. “With this we can disable any guard that we may encounter!” “Wow! That is impressive.” That would be a great tool for any ninja to have. And if Elise made it, Dave had no doubt that it would be very effective. “Come on! Let’s not waste any more time, let’s go!”Pinkie said while bumping her fists to show her conviction. “ええ！行きましょう” Bonus: “Let’s go all Sam Fisher on this place!” Pinkie said excitedly “Yes! Let’s…wait. Sam Fisher?” Dave repeated back confused. “Yes, from that popular stealth video game.” She pointed out like it was the most obvious thing on the world. “No, no, I know who that is. I just thought you’ll use another character from the stealth genre” Really, when you think of stealth games your mind doesn’t exactly go directly to Sam Fisher. “Like who? Altaïr or Enzio?” She offered tentatively, realizing that she never asked Dave about his tastes in video games before. “No. I meant a guy from a popular Japanese series of games” The native from Japan tried to clue her in, not believing he had to spell it out for her. “Oh you silly, Ryu Hayabusa isn’t from a stealth game at all!” For the man with the title ‘The Ultimate Ninja’, he sure did throw stealth out of the window. “No. A character from a game that is famous for sneaking using a cardboard box” “Ooh! Right! I know who you’re talking about! Though I never really cared about Raiden. Too much of a pretty boy if you ask me,” “…You know what, let’s forget about the whole thing and sneak inside ok?” “Ok!” Extra: Dave couldn’t believe this was happening. Him being in close proximity to the girl he had a crush on while she was wearing such a tight outfit. This kind of scenarios were only reserved for late night anime or wacky erogē. Then, he start feeling that his Hakame were getting a little tighter on a certain area. Thankfully his mental training help him to deal with situations like this. "Hey, Look Dave! There's a lucky penny on the floor!" Pinkie said excitedly as she bend down to pick it up making the already tight outfit an im pressive stretch, giving poor old Dave the show of his life time. Then the sensation on Dave Hakama came back with full force! “Hey you, Settle down!” he harshly whispered to his hakama in an effort to calm the sensation down. “I said, Settle down!” “I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that.” ____ ------ > Intermission II - Holiday Special > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Intermission II - A Holiday Special. “This is the worst Christmas ever!” complained, who else but Dan, which was surprising since this was his favorite time of the year. So what caused him to be angry on one of the happiest times of the year? Well, the short answer is the weather. Long answer: this year, much to everyone’s surprise, California was covered in snow. Some called it a Christmas miracle, others were freaked out thinking that this was a sign that global warming was true and it was going to get them. Probably the day after tomorrow. Dan, was neither of those people, he just saw this for what it was, a freak event. A freak event that caused him to get sick with the common cold and was ruining his Christmas. “Aww! Don’t say that, Dan! I’m sure it isn’t that bad!” said none other than Pinkie, who was taking care of Dan at her house. She brought him there to better take care of him since the heater on his apartment was busted. Currently, Dan was sitting on a couch in Pinkie’s living room near the fire place completely wrapped in covers, while Pinkie spoon fed him some chicken soup. “Besides, doesn’t this bring memories? Do you remember when I took care of you after your trip to Canada?” That time Dan was way sicker and could barely talk, but that didn’t stop them from having a good time; or at least for her. “Yeah! Great memories” Dan reminisced, but not about Pinkie taking care of him, no, he was remembering the satisfaction of getting back at Canada. After that, they fell in a comfortable silence, with the only sounds being the one made by Mr. Mumbles and Gummy playing inside the play pain. Both pets acted amicably towards each other, despite being from very different species. Then again, how could they dislike each other? Mr. Mumbles was cute and playful while Gummy had a very cool and collected demeanor. They made a cute odd couple. Off course, Dan would’ve strongly disagree with that sentiment, with him being very overprotective with Mr. Mumbles and believing that Gummy was probably a bad influence on her. But since he was sick and could barely move, he couldn’t do anything about it. This caring side of Dan made Pinkie wonder. Would he act the same way as he did with Mr. Mumbles with his own children. Would he be the kind of father that takes out a shotgun when he finds out his daughter began dating? Maybe even force a wedding at gun point? Should she begin stocking on shotgun shells? Whenever, Pinkie went on line of thoughts like those, she would often make herself blush when she pictured herself being the mother of those children. Suddenly, the sound of the phone ringing broke her out of her thoughts and brought her back to the present. “Ah! Just a second! Don’t hang out!” she spoke towards the ringing phone. Dan would’ve commented on the futility of such act, but his sore throat wouldn’t let him speak his mind. Then Pinkie went out the living room and into the kitchen to answer the phone there, leaving him alone with his thoughts for a few minutes. Darn! He really hated being sick, especially on these days, but what he hated more was the fact that Chris wasn’t here. Chris was his friend, and he should’ve being here with him instead going out the city to visit Elise’s Parents. Ugh. Hope he choke’s on Elise’s (senior) terrible food. The only positive side of all of this was that he and Mr. Mumbles were getting free meals. Much better than the canned food he had previous years. Speaking of Mr. Mumbles, she was currently playing with that unblinking beast that Pinkie called a pet. They were passing a small red ball rolling it towards each other, but Dan knew that it wasn’t just a mere innocent game; Gummy was planning to do something horrible, he was sure of it. And when it did, Dan was going to teach that purple eyed creature a lesson or two. At least, Mr. Mumbles looked happy at the moment, so In the meantime, he let them be. “I’m sooo bored!” Dan said under his breath. He could’ve being doing something much more interesting than sitting there feeling sick. “I just know that everyone is having the time of their lives except me. The jerks!” Dan complained one last time before closing his eyes and dozed off into sleep. --- [In an island on the pacific] A green haired and long nosed man was currently annoyed at his neighbors’ behavior and ruckus. He had being enjoying his free day caused by the freak event that made snow fall in their island, and the most annoying people in the world, Robert SquarePants and Patrick Star, were having a snow fight outside of his house. “I'm on nobody's side. Snowball fights are for immature children and I will not stoop to your level.” Edward, the annoyed one, declared as he let a snowball fall from his hand before he committed the ridiculous act of getting himself involved with those two morons. “That’s not a very nice thing to say Edward!” said out of the sudden a voice just behind him, making Edward jump in surprise. “Wha!” “Ditzy!” cheered both Robert and Patrick at the appearance of their other neighbor, a blond haired girl with cross-eyes, known as Ditzy Doo. “Do you want to join our snowball fight, Ditzy?” Robert asked, excited by the idea of more friends joining in. “You can join my team!” offered the blond. “No, join my team!” intervened Patrick, the pink haired young man, wasn’t going to be left in a disadvantage. “Sorry guys!” Ditzy answered disappointed to his friends, “I would love to join you, but Mr. Plankton wants me to work today despite of the snow.” For Robert, that was an injustice, to spend the day with this rare event working was a crime. Even Mr. Krabs, known for his greediness and cheapness, gave them the day off, instead of making them work half-day. “But getting back on topic. Edward!” Ditzy pointed towards the tall man, “How could you not like playing with the snow? I mean, It is a once in a life time opportunity for the people of Bikini Bottom who had never traveled outside and seen snow!” “Like I said before, I think it’s immature!” Edward defended his opinion while crossing his arms in an obstinate manner. “If you want to knock each other’s brains out with snowballs, kindly leave me out of it.” And with that he entered his home and slammed the door behind him. “Geez. Where his Christmas spirit at?” Ditzy said under her breath only for her to hear. Edward was a fine neighbor but he was always too moody for his own good. He really needed to loosen up once in a while. “Well, see you guys after work!” Ditzy waved goodbye to her two friends and began her trek towards the Chum Bucket, the restaurant where she worked at. “Bye, Bob. Bye Pat!” “Good bye!” “Good bye…” Both Bob and Pat waved back; Patrick more lively than Bob. The blond was saddened that his friend couldn’t enjoy this marvelous day with them. “Come on, Bob, let's go knock each other brains out!”Patrick proposed excitedly, wanting to go back to their game. “Uh? Oh yeah… I’m ready.” Answered Bob with much less energy. “What’s the matter?” asked the pink head confused by his friend shift in mood. “It’s so bad that Ditzy can’t enjoy the snow day with us.” “Well, why don’t you do something for her after her shifts ends?” Patrick suggested in a very rare insightful moment. Maybe it was the weather that caused this rare event. “Wow! That’s a great idea Patrick! You’re a genius!” Bob thanked happily. Yes, he could surprise her with something special so that she doesn’t feel like she missed out! “Am I? Wooo! Can you call my parents and tell them that!” “Sorry, Patrick! Some other time I gotta go!” And with might speed he ran towards his house in order to plan his surprise “Oh ok bye!” Patrick waved at his friend before going back to his own house. Maybe there was something interesting on TV this hour. A minute later, a disappointed Edward yelled for missing out on the carnage he imagined on his head. “Where are those two morons! They’re supposed to be knocking each other's brains out! ” ---- [At the Park] Every member of the regular staff were anxiously preparing for the Christmas Party tonight. Pop’s was putting up all sorts of decorations around the house. Muscleman was in charge of bringing all the supplies and snacks. Skips was busy clearing up the snow at the entrance. The troublesome duo of Mordecai and Rigby were reluctantly cleaning the house. And Twilight and Thomas, the intern, were redecorating the Christmas tree after it had an ‘accident’ happen to it the day before. All the while Benson supervised them all. “Good job everyone, good job. Keep on like this and this party will definitely begin with a great start.” The read head manager commend them all, that is until he saw Mordecai and Rigby slacking off as always at the kitchen. “You two! Get back to work!” “In a second.” Answer Rigby dismissively, “We’ll finish, be sure of that.” Rolling his eyes at the brunette attitude, the manager just said, “Finish cleaning or you’re fired!” And with that he left to see if there was something else to be done. “Can you believe that guy, Mordecai? Fire us! And on Christmas eve!” the shorter of the two commented to his way taller friend and nudged him with his elbow. “Mordecai? Are you there?” he asked when his nudges failed to elicit some kind of response. Rigby looked up to his friend as saw him looking to the side lost in thought. “HEY MORDECAI!” He yelled at the blunette finally snapping him back from his thoughts. “Not so loud, dude!” complained Mordecai as he put his finger inside his ear, “Man, it hurts!” “I can believe, you are still going gaga for Twilight!” Rigby accused rudely pointed at Mordecai with his finger. “Shut up!” “You can’t go on like this. You should just kiss her and get it over man!” Rigby suggested already being jaded with this routine. Mordecai just remained silent and pondered his friend’s suggestion. He couldn’t help but be tempted by the idea. He had tried before but every time something went wrong and screwed up the moment. “Tonight is the night dude! I’m sure of it!” Mordecai declared with full confidence. “Yeah, right.” Rigby just shrugged at Mordecai’s declaration, he had heard that one many times before. “No dude. I mean it this time. In fact I got a plan. I’ll wait until the mood of the party is just fine and then I’ll casually meet Twilight under the Mistletoe, it’s fool proof.” The bluenette explained surprising Rigby. He must be really desperate for him to try such trick. It was nothing short of commendable. “Yes, well good luck with that.” The brunette said before Benson walked by to them and asked them a question. “Hey, have you guys seen Fives around? I haven’t seen him around since noon.” It wasn’t like him to just disappear out of the sudden like that. And even weirder for him not to hang around Muscleman. “I don’t know. He said something about visiting someone and that he be back when the party starts.” --- [Elmore, California] Even in the northern Californian city of Elmore there was snow everywhere much to the surprise of the townsfolk, who weren’t expecting to be covered in snow, and mothers everywhere made sure their children were protected from the cold. But roaming through the snowy streets of Elmore, there were two figures who were dressed in a fashion more appropriate for summer instead of winter, but it looked that neither of them didn’t seemed to mind the cold. The two figures were a young man around his late teens or early twenty and a girl around 13 years old. At first glance it would seem that the two of them were relatives, since both had white hair and grey eyes, but in reality they weren’t related in any way, in fact they were currently on a ‘date’. And before anyone throws a fit and calls the police on the guy, there is another thing that you should know. They were both ghosts. And for them, their ages didn’t really matter since they couldn’t grow older, so there wasn’t anything wrong with their relationship. Still, I didn’t stop people from staring at them and whisper behind their backs. “Carrie, everyone’s staring.” The ‘young’ ghost pointed out to his date. Since there weren’t holding hands or anything, the stares were probably mostly because of their lack of winter clothing. Currently he was wearing a plain white T-shirt and grey cargo pants, while she wore a dark pink shirt with a skull on it, a black skirt and boots. “Let them stare, Fives.” Carrie deadpanned not really caring what others thought about them. Fives just sighed in response. Sometimes he just wished his ‘girlfriend’ wasn’t so stubborn. Sure, their ghost nature prevent them from feeling the cold so there was no practical reason for them to wear winter clothes, but not doing so only made the people around them feel put off by their appearance. That’s why when he hanged around with the guys, he dressed accordingly with the weather, to make himself look more normal and fit in. A sentiment that Carrie didn’t share since she was all ‘Emo/Punk-Rock” and was against being a conformist and stuff like that. In short, she did what she wanted when she wanted. Something that Fives had tried to convinced her otherwise. “Carrie, we already had this conversation…” “So don’t bring it up again then…” *Sigh* Why did she had to be so difficult. Sometimes he wondered why he even continued with their ‘relationship’. Looking down at his watch, he knew that everyone back at the park had already began preparing for the Christmas party and probably were wondering where he was. “Let’s eat something.” Carrie proposed as she took Fives’ arm and began dragging him into a store. “Carrie…” Fives said in a ‘you should know better’ tone, refusing to let himself being dragged. “I’m not going to waste my money.” Money he earn by working everyday at the park with almost no days off. “So now I’m a waste of money, that’s what you’re saying?” the responded with a harsh tone. “You know I don’t mean that…” Just what was wrong with this girl today, she was way moodier than ever. “Then what?” She demanded. Sighing for the nth time that day, Fives answered, “Carrie, I already told you how I spend my money, don’t make me repeat it.” There was no feasible reason for why a ghost needed money. He didn’t pay rent, and he didn’t need to buy clothes or hygiene products. So how or why did he spend his money? Mostly on stuff to make himself fit in. Sure he didn’t need to eat or drink, but he did so and chipped in on the check when he was with Muscleman and the guys. He also bought stuff just to entertain himself and pass the time like movies and stuff. At his answer, Carrie cross her arms over her cheat and grumbled under her breath, until she saw something that caught her attention. “Ok then take me out to a movie!” the emo/punk girl pointed towards a small movie theater across the street. “Alright,” Fives accepted, since it was something more practical for them “but I’m not buying you popcorn!” the tickets were already over-priced, there’s no way he was going to spend more on snacks. “Then, I’m choosing the movie. And it’s going to be something you’ll hate.” She said like a vindictive spoiled brat which was very unlike her. She was usually more collected and deadpan. “Fine!” Fives knew something was up with her since he had never seen her act this way before, but he had no idea what it was. Better wait for the most opportune moment to ask her or risk being chew on by the moody girl. After they crossed the street and entered the movie theater, Carrie was dismayed by the fact that most of the current movies they were playing, were not appropriate for her ‘age’ so she couldn’t enter. So they had to conform for a movie that in all her years she thought would end up entering. “My Little Pony: Dream Valley Girls. Princess Twilight Velvet’s crown is stolen and she has to enter another world to recover it or the land of Dream Valley is doomed.” Fives read the description out-loud. “Are you sure you want to watch this?” Much to her chagrin, Carrie couldn’t back down now. She said she wanted to see a movie that Fives would hate, except she didn’t expect to be something that she disliked more than him. “Yes. Now let’s go.” She said as she entered the movie not bothering opening the doors. Fives, just let out a small chuckle and looked at his watch. There was still time, he could see the movie and make it to the Christmas party back at the park. He only hoped that by that time Carrie finally calm down a bit and begin acting like herself again. --- “Hey Dan, wake up you sleepy head” Pinkie called softly to the sleeping Dan. It was funny how cute he looked while asleep, but she had to wake him up. “Wha? Pinkie?” Dan Mumbled still feeling very drowsy. “How long I’ve been asleep?” “For a while now. By the way, dinner’s ready!” she announced with a big smile. “Really? What’s for dinner?” He asked as his stomach grumbled wanting to eat now, now, now, now! “Roasted Turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes and roasted veggies! And for dessert apple pie!”Pinkie counted as she raised her fingers for each item. “Sounds good!” “Come on, let’s all go to the dinner table!” And when she said all, that included Mr. Mumbles and Gummy, who were going to eat at the table with them. Not very conventional, but since when were they conventional? After everyone was properly seated with Dan and Pinkie across each other and with their respective pets on their right, Pinkie cleared her throat and prepared to give a small speech. “As per tradition, there should be a speech before eating this Christmas dinner…but I always dislike those, especially because the meals get cold after a while. So everybody dig in!” And with that, everybody began to stuff their faces. Enjoying Pinkie’s excellent cooking. ----- After the disappointment of not seeing the two morons knock each other brains out, Edward decided to return to relaxing near the chimney, with his cup of hot tea with a slice of lime. “Finally, I can have a moment to relax and not worry about Bob ruining this for me!” The green head said before raising his cup of tea towards him and take a sip. But as his lips touched the edges of the cup a strenuous sound appeared out of nowhere startling Edward into spilling his tea onto him. “Grrr. BOB!” He knew it was him. It was always him. In an instant Edward stomped towards the window and stuck his head out and yelled at his neighbor. “WHAT IS GOING ON OUT HERE?” “Oh! Hey Edward!” Robert waved at the green head next to a big block of ice with a chainsaw on one of his hands. “I’m just making Ice sculptures with this chainsaw!” The idea of the words Robert and Chainsaw together in the same sentence would’ve sent Edward into a small panic, but the artist inside of him ignored that part and focused on another thing. “Ice sculptures?! Why in the seven seas are you doing that?” Bob always did bizarre things, but this one was something that did caught his attention. “Well… It is a surprise for Ditzy! It don’t want her to feel like she missed out on the fun and since she once told me how she loved Ice Sculptures, I decided to fill the yard with them!” Bob explained with that big smile of his that’s always on his face. “Wanna help out, Edward?” “Pfft… I got better things to do than spent time on the cold with you!” The grump retorted back, nauseated by the blonde’s invitation. “That’s okay! Not everyone is skilled enough to something like this.” Bob said innocently, thinking he figured out why Edward refused to help. “NOT SKILLED ENOUGH! WHY YOU…” The unappreciated artist really took offence to that. “Stay right there, Bob! I will show you that I can make much bigger and better ice sculptures than you!” “Yay! Edward is going to help!” Bob cheered not taking notice of Edward’s real intentions. “Ditzy is going to be so surprised!” --- Twilight was honestly surprised, even after all this time, this park always managed to up the ante in ridiculousness. Heck, she had been expecting it; she knew that even in Christmas, she wasn’t going to have a regular day. What started as a smooth party, in which everyone was having fun, chatting with friends and making jokes about Benson’s choice of sweater, turned to the weird the moment she alongside with Mordecai and Rigby went to Skip’s garage for more sodas. Now the three of them were inside the destroyed garage with a guy claiming to be the REAL Santa Clause. Something that even Mordecai and Rigby found difficult to believe, and that’s saying much for guys who had fought monsters, time travelled, and crossed dimensions before. “Trust me! I'm the real Santa Claus!”The pony tailed and black jacket wearing ‘Santa Claus’ kept insisting. “Prove it.” Rigby dared this guy, not really convinced that this guy was the real deal. Beside him Twilight nodded in agreement. Even after everything she knew about science was proven wrong by this park, she still clung to some hope that the world had a little semblance of sanity. “Okay, look. You're Twilight, Mordecai and Rigby. Twilight stopped writing me letter after she turned twelve but I've been getting letters from you two EVERY YEAR since you were little.” Santa pointed out making Twilight eyebrow to go up. Sure, he was correct about her stop writing letters to Santa after she turned 13, but that didn’t proved anything. Most kids stop writing letters to Santa around that age. As she was about to make her point known, Santa continued with his tirade. "Dear Santa, dude, give me an invisibility cloak." Santa said mocking the two guy’s way of speaking "Santa, dude, don't be a jerk, just give me an invisibility cloak." “This is Santa.” Rigby stated now without any doubt. “Yeah. I know!” Mordecai agreed. Causing Twilight to face palm. Then Santa proceeded to tell them about one of his Elves creating a Christmas gift so powerful and desirable that drove people mad over it, and that it was now their mission to destroy the gift or risk Christmas to be gone forever. Yep. This is how she was spending her Christmas. --- “So…what do you think about the movie?” Fives asked as he and his date walked out of the theater. Carrie just remained silent making Fives think that she hated it more than he did. But what he didn’t was that Carrie did liked the movie, more than she thought possible for something so sissy. Still, she wasn’t going to tell anyone about it; she had a reputation to maintain. Looking down at his watch, Fives saw the hour and just like he expected he was now late for the party. “Look, Carrie. It’s getting late and I gotta go.” He said at her who had her head to the side not looking at him. “Maybe I’ll see you later, like the day after tomorrow.” He was sure that Benson was going to put them to clean the house to perfection the morning after the party. “Whatever. Go away. Go to your stupid party!” She said angrily before storming away from him, leaving him alone. Darn. He didn’t have to for this, but he couldn’t leave her like that either. Looking at his watch one last time, Fives decided to give chase. It didn’t took him long to find the angry girl. She was sitting on a bench at a nearby park looking miserable. Or more miserable than she usually pretended to be when she was doing her whole ‘the world is nothing but pain’ routine. Fives got near her and sat besides her not saying anything. As he expected, Carrie just inched away from him instead of bolting out again. Then he just waited in silence waiting for her to talk, knowing that if he was the first one to talk she was going to clamp up even more. As the time passed, Fives couldn’t help but to check his watch every now and then. It had being 10 minutes and she still refused to say anything. Sighing, Fives put his clock away only to look at it again a minute later. And that was the last drop of Carrie. “Stop looking at your watch! If you’re so concerned about that stupid party of yours, you should just leave!” She finally said after all the silence. “Just go away and leave me alone!” “Carrie…” he began with a soft tone, “What’s wrong?” And that was all he said. Just a simple question. “There’s nothing wrong! Why would you assume there’s something wrong with me?” She answered defensively. “You’re upset, and not in your normal way.” He simply pointed out. “Also I never asked if something was wrong with you, I just asked what was wrong. Now I know that whatever this is, it’s about you” Let it be known that despite his silent nature with the guys didn’t meant he didn’t care to listen or pay attention to the people he denoted as friends. “Shut up.” That was her only response. “Fine. We can spend the whole night in silence if you want.” Fives said this not to dismiss her words but as a simple fact. If she wanted to play the silent game, he could play it well, he was accustomed to not say anything at all for hours and hours. Knowing the truth behind his words, Carrie sighed before finally admitting the truth, “It’s just….I…I… I feel lonely.” “Lonely?” “Yes. It just that everyone is always so happy and full of cheer these days. At school everyone talked and talked about how Christmas is so special and how it fills their hearts with warmth. And I…I just simple can’t understand it. I cannot feel any warmth any cheer, just with an empty feeling inside.” Heck, she couldn’t even feel the cold that snow brings. She could touch it, she could mold it, but she couldn’t feel it. “I see…I think I understand now.” Fives said with a sigh. “Sometimes I feel like that too.” “Really?” “Really. What she was describing was something that he felt too. And it was all because of their spectral nature. Ghosts, in essence, were just souls who couldn’t cross over to the ‘other side’ and forced to roam around looking for whatever caused them to stay in the living world. But with time, ghosts tended to forget the reasons that kept them here and just moved on with their ‘lives’. It wasn’t exactly a good thing but it was far from being a horrible fate. Sure it sucked not being able to feel the sun’s warmth and the cold snow, or enjoy the flavors of anything they ate or drink, but it was far better than, say Hell. “Carrie I too, know well how empty things feel from time to time, but we cannot allow ourselves to fall in disappear. Whenever I feel down, I simply remember all the good friends I have and all the moments we spent together, both the good and the bad, because being able to be there create memories that we’ll carry forever is what being alive it’s all about.” “Wow. That’s the most I’ve ever heard you say at one time about anything at all” Carrie said with a stony expression; meaning that his words really made her feel better. “It’s kind of weird.” “Don’t expect it to be a recurring thing.” Fives joked relieved that Carrie was feeling more like herself. “Carrie…” “Yes Fives?” “Would you like to go to the party back on the Park?” “Really?” She asked in sincere surprise, “Wouldn’t it be uncomfortable for you? I mean..” “I really mean it!” He said before she could finish, “I’m sure the guys will see past the ‘age’ gap. Besides, you already told your friends about me, it’s only fair to tell my friends.” “Ok, Fives. Let’s go.” --- “Bob?” “Yes Ditzy?” “Is this really necessary?” she asked for the tenth time since her friend came to her work and picked her up. He said that there was something really ‘big’ back at home and that she needed to wear a blindfold. “Believe me, it is!” Had it being another person, Ditzy would’ve refused walking anywhere wearing a blindfold, but she trusted Robert enough to not let her astray. Bob kept on leading her back home holding her hand, and Ditzy couldn’t help but find the gesture really charming. “Here we are Ditzy!” Bob announced as they came to a stop and release the hold on her hand. “Are you ready?” “I’m sure!” she answered and the next second the blindfold came off. “Oh my god!” she gasped in surprise. “SURPRISE!” came a loud shout from many people. In her yard, there was a small crowd of people having a party with many ice sculptures from all shapes and sizes around them. “Do you like them? Huh huh?” Bob asked cheerfully. “Bob…how..? when…?” The blond girl was speechless. What were so many people doing here with ice sculptures? “Well…I didn’t want you to feel like you miss out on this snow day because of work, so I decided to sculpt you a statue from a block of ice! But then I got Edward to join me and then after him more and more people came and gave us a hand!” Ditzy was touched by the gesture. Everyone came together for her. She was so moved that she felt her eyes water with tears. “I don’t know what to say.” “Just come and look at all these sculptures!” “Ok!” It was incredible the level of quality some of the sculptures had. They looked very professional, and one on particular caught her attention. “Wow Patrick, did you made this?” she asked marveled at the piece besides the pink head. It was a big DNA chain. “I wanted to make a snowball!” was his only replied. “Uh…I still liked it!” Ditzy quickly said trying to sadden his friend. “What do you think about mine?” Edward intervened wanting to be recognized as the true artist that he was. “It’s…the most original I seen…” The blond girl said unsure. Edward’s sculpture was a replica of himself. With a few creative liberties here and there. Did he make his butt look bigger on purpose? The rest where just as impressive. Mr. Krabs with a replica of the Krusty Krab, Mrs. Puff with a boat, Larry with his barbells and Sandy’s replica of Texas. But there was a sculpture that she had yet to see. “Bob? Where’s yours?” She asked puzzled. Did he say he was the first one to start sculpting? “Mine is the backyard! Come on and see!” Bob urged her as he took her hand once more to lead her to his creation. “See there it is!” For the second time that day, Ditzy gasped on surprise. It was her. A sculpture of her blowing bubbles. “Bob?” “Remember the first time we met? It was when I had that Bubble Stand on the side of the street and you were my first customer. And then you blew so many bubbles and without using ‘the technique’. It was one of the most amazing things I ever seen. So I tried to recapture the moment just like a remember it.” “…” “So? Do you like it?” Bob asked, but instead of a yes or no, the answer he received has in the form of tight hug and a small kiss on the cheek which made him blush a very dark tone of red. “I love it.” She answered without letting him out of the hug. “Bob?” “Yes Ditzy? “Let’s stay like this for a while.” --- Twilight still couldn’t believe the events of tonight. Going down an abandoned mine, pass through different booby traps one which was wrestling a gigantic bear, only to end with this elf Quillgin falling into a pit of freaking lava alongside the box he so desired. And the strange thing is that this wasn’t even the weirdest adventure they had since coming to this place. “Are you ok, Twilight?” asked Mordecai as he sat next to her on the couch. “I’m fine. And you?” The bluenette did fell down a pit of lava; the heat alone should have caused some kind of injury. “I’m fine too.” It wasn’t like he had being in mortal danger before, today was pretty tame compared to other days. Still, he knew that Twilight still worried even after everything turned out fine. “This Christmas didn’t turn up like you expected it, did it?” “No, It was definitely close, but I didn’t see coming the fact that Santa Claus was real.” With her time on the park she had come to accept the idea that magic was real, destroying her cold and realistic view on the world. Still it hurt every time she saw or experienced something that couldn’t be explained with science. It made her feel like everything she knew was wrong and useless. Suddenly she stiffened when she felt something fall on her shoulders only to relax when she noticed it was Mordecai’s arm. “Twilight, I know how you sometime feel about the stuff that happens around here and that it ruined your first Christmas way from home.” Mordecai said softly trying to cheer her up, “But think of it this way. If Santa Claus is real and so it’s magic then everything we put our minds into can be possible. Like world peace and stuff.” “Yeah, that’s true.” She said smiling at Mordecai’s optimistic view of things. “Thanks Mordecai. For always knowing what to say” “Thank you too Twilight. For still being here with m…all of us.” He corrected himself before he said something embarrassing. With a chuckle, Twilight leaned on him and gave him a small kiss on the lips. “There. Now you don’t have to get me under the Mistletoe.” “Y-y-you knew?” The bluenette asked more embarrassed than surprised, and the red blush on this face emphasized his sentiment. “It’s not like you were very subtle about it the whole party.” She explained enjoying the look on his face. “I guess.” “Sorry to interrupt the moment you love birds, but we still have a house to clean up.” Benson intervened, ruining the mood. “Let’s get going!” “Really, dude? Right now?”Mordecai couldn’t help but complain, they just saved Christmas and Benson wanted them to work? What gives? “Right now!” The red head manager repeated, “I’m going to get the cleaning supplies. So stay put.” “Come on Mordecai, Look at it this way. Now the night can’t get even worse or even weirder” Twilight said trying to console him. “Hey everyone sorry to be late…oh man did we missed the party?” Suddenly said Fives as he phased through the door. “I wanted everyone to meet my girlfriend!” “GIRLFRIEND?!” repeated both Mordecai and Twilight surprised by the revelation. “Hello, the name’s Carrie.” An underage white haired girl greeted with a very wooden tone. “Ok, now this got weirder.” “Definitely.” --- “You got me a gift?” Dan asked surprised finally feeling much better from the cold. “Of course silly, It’s Christmas!” Pinkie said as she handed him a wrapped box. The two of them sitting on the couch while Mr. Mumbles and Gummy played with the Christmas gift they had just received from Pinkie; a bright new ball and sweater for Mr. Mumbles and a chewable toy and hat for Gummy. “But I didn’t get you anything…” said Dan feeling a little self conscious. He never really gave anyone a gift before besides Chris, and even then he borrowed some of his friend’s money to buy him a gift. “It doesn’t matter, just open it!” She encourage him with a big smile. “Ok then,” Dan tore the wraps and opened this gift only to find something kind of disappointing. “An organizer?” He asked trying his best not to show how underwhelmed he was. “Not just any organizer, it is custom made just for you! Open it! Now you can write down and keep organized anyone who gets in ‘the list’, look it even has a special place so you can place profile picture so you can never forget the face of those who wrong you.” She explained all too excitedly. “I even got you a personalized rubber stamp for when you already got them back. Oh, oh, and also when closed, its covers made of a special material, prevents the pages to get damaged or wet!” “Wow! This is great.” Dan was honestly surprised, he didn’t expect Pinkie to put so much thought on his gift and it was incredible useful too. No longer he had to suffer remembering who were half the people that got on his list when it got damaged. “Glad you liked it, Dan.” She said giving him a big smile and made him feel slightly upset for not getting her a present. She gave him a very useful one so it was only fair, but what? “Pinkie, I got you a present too.” He said without thinking. “Really what is it?” Pinkie asked curiously. She had being taking care of Dan all day so she was convinced that he didn’t have time to but her something. “Yes, something that had being coming a long time now. From now on you can call me…ugh…Danny!” He said the last part as it was poisonous. “Really! That’s so neat, Danny!” She had being waiting so long to call him that, but ever since he told her how he hated it, she never tried again. “Yes, but only when where are all alone!” That was his only condition. It would be too embarrassing to hear her call him that in public. “Thank you very much, Danny!” Pinkie said she give him a big hug. “You’re going to call me like that in all you sentences, aren’t you?” Dan said already annoyed by the name. “That’s right, Danny!” “Ugh!” “Merry Christmas, Dan.” “Merry Christmas, Pinkie.” --- [Bonus] On the other side of the world. “I’m sorry Fluttershy, I know this isn’t how you wanted to spent our first Christmas together.” A white haired young man apologized to his girlfriend. “Don’t worry Soma. It might not have being the quiet and relaxing night you planned, but it was memorable to say the least.” Fluttershy said as she put her hand on his shoulder. “Fighting a legion of mad cultists who were trying to bring the god of chaos Shuma Gorath to our dimension is something that I’m not going to forget anytime soon.” “Merry Christmas Fluttershy.” “Merry Christmas Soma.”