> Dimensional Parallels > by CombatMystic > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Chapter 1 Through the portal > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I awake to the coarse electronic sound of my alarm clock buzzing from my bedside table. After sitting in bed for a few moments, savouring in the comfortable warmth that I would have to inevitably give up, I finally muster up the motivation to roll over and open my eyes. 6:30- A regular start, to what I hope will be a good day. I hoist myself out of bed, and sleepily make my way over to my drawers, pulling out a black T-shirt and a pair of sweatpants before pulling them on over-top of my pajamas. I look into the mirror hanging on my wall, seeing myself in all my body’s short-brown-hair, in-serious-need-of-a-tan, splendor. The shouting voice of my dad reverberates through my door, coming from his room, right next to mine. “Leafale! Shut that thing off it’s way too early in the morning!” I swiftly walk over to the source of the annoying tones and press a button, shutting it off. “Ok dad! Do you want toast for breakfast?” I don’t get a response, so I head downstairs. ...To find my best friend-- Stahl, waiting for me. He greets me with a smirk. “Well well well, look who slept in…” “How the hell did you get in here? And it’s 6:35 in the morning! What time do you get up?” “Early... enough. And besides, sleep is for pansies, I try to get as little of it as possible.” He stares blankly at me for a second before realizing that he never answered my first question. “Oh! And yeah, maybe it’s because I’ve been here tons of times before. Annnnnd I may have your keys. May.” “Why did you even learn those pickpocketing skills in the first place? All you’re going to do is get yourself in trouble, and/or annoy the heck out of your friends.” I give him an annoyed glance, before continuing. “And one of those things are bound to happen at some point….” The sarchasm couldn’t have been stronger. “Back when I was like… six… or eight or some crap, I always thought that pickpocketing was really cool. Got all the girls, blah, blah, blah, all that stuff. I know, it’s stupid. But I wasn’t exactly myself at that age...” Stahl offered up his explanation. And I facepalmed so hard it left a red high five mark on my face. “Bro, I think you’ve gotten that confused with James Bond…” I shook my head in exaggerated disappointment. “Maybe. But in my experience, none of that helps as much as this.” He held both of his arms up, tensing his muscles in a display of fitness. “Blonde hair. Six pack. Tan.” His face contorted into a gloating grin as he revelled in his own ‘glory’. The insufferability of his insanely large ego was only made worse by the fact that he actually did get girls. An awkward silence encompasses the room before Stahl without warning, suddenly bends back, flexing both his arms, and shouts at the top of his lungs “I AM THE POWERRRRR!” My dad shouts down from his bedroom upstairs “Be quiet or leave! I’m trying to get some sleep here!” Some inaudible mumbling involving something about ‘only day off’ and ‘stupid teenagers’ followed. I quickly grab a soda from the fridge before we make our way out of the house.. “Yeah ok, we’re going!” Stahl looks down at my soda as I open it. “Couldn’t you have gotten one for me?” “Get your own soda, dude.” I pull the drink up to my mouth and take a long, hard sip, deliberately taunting him. He scowls at me for a moment before turning his attention to something in front of him. I look towards him. “You ready to keep state champions from Canterlot High today?” I ask, blissfully ignoring the inherant cockyness in the sentence. “Pfft. No way are we going to lose to them again. They beat us last time.” His cockyness returns along with his infamous shit-eating grin. “...not if they suck and the sixteen year olds are professional NBA players…” I annoyingly point out to him, poking holes in this statement. “Well that’s not the case… is it?” He says dryly. “Annnywayyy….” We continue walking down the street, passively observing our surroundings and silently searching for something to say. “Is the game going to be at our court, or theirs?” I ask. Suddenly, Stahl facepalms, eliciting a slapping sound. I turn to him with a deadpan expression. “What?” He turns to me, a cringing expression on his face. “This isn’t good.” “Seriously, what?” “It’s at their court.” “And what’s the problem?” “Well, remember that one girl you had a crush on?” I think for a moment before carefully saying “Yeahhh, Pinky Pie. What about it?” “And you know about Sunset Shimmer, right?” “Yeah, you told me.” “Right… well both of them are at that school.” We stare right at each other with expressionless faces and stop walking. I look down to the path ahead of me. “Yeah, we’re screwed.” We return to making our way down the street again, walking in silence. As I look up to admire the cloudy-but-still-kinda-sunny day, I spot three girls, each with obscenely large hairdos, attempting to rob a homeless man. We share a look of something between disgust and amusement. “Stealing from a homeless man? Really?” The disappointment strong in my voice. Stahl and I look at each other, both of us saying in unison, ''Just a little morning stretch.''. We both charge the girls. I deck the girl with the blue and purple hair while Stahl knocks out the girl with the green and purple hair. The final girl standing scoffs.'”You just hit Sonata and Aria! I scowl at her. “...Because you were trying to rob a HOMELESS MAN!” I shake my head, and rub the bridge of my nose' “You are the real idiot here! Stahl stands up from inspecting the girl he knocked out. '' Leafale, her name is Adagio. She’s… well...a witch. Adagio growled in anger. ''I’m NOT a witch! I don't have any magic you fools!'' “You just robbed a poor homeless man. That qualifies to make you a witch, in my books.'' “No we weren't!” She said, evidently lying out of her teeth as she started stuffing money into her pockets. Stahl walks up to the orange-haired girl. ''Be a good girl, and run away now.'' “So now are we going to fight two V one? ‘Cause that’s not fair to a girl.'' We both roll our eyes, shortly before Stahl throws an uppercut straight into her jaw, causing her to land on her head.” Stahl replies'' are you kidding me with the afraid of the dark thing now.''I shake my head and reply'' its not the dark itself it is what might be hiding in it.'' Stahl laughs and says''c'mon wus.''A huge bang and a vast rainbow covers the sky. Stahl says''we got time lets find out what that noise was.'' I say'' well where are we going to now?'' Stahl shrugs and replies''lets just head to school and get ready for the ten oh clock game.'' We make a left turn onto magnolia st and two buses are lined up ready to take us to the game. Stahl grins and says'' well we weren't the early bird.'' 'I reply, ''No shit! Let’s just get on the bus.'' We walk around the bus and the bus driver was not even in the bus. Stahl sighs while I put my hands on the back of my head. A white lady with pink green and light blue hair is sitting at the front gates. I look at Stahl then back at her and say, ''Dude, who is she?'' As if on cue, the lady gets up and starts walking over to us. Stahl looks at me clueless and I am thinking', “Get her.'' But by the time I am about to say something the lady introduces herself. She says, "My name is Principal Celestia and I am here to let you guys know that we forfeit today’s game. Please tell your coach that and have a good day.'' I look at her in awe as Stahl looks like he is about to punch her in the face. Stahl says, ''Now why are you forfeiting today's game?'' Principal Celestia replies, ''None of your concern. Now I must be off.'' Principal Celestia then walks off into the dark morning and as I turn to Stahl I thought, ''Oh something is going to go down for sure.'' Stahl growls, ''You left rather than deal with this yourself.'' I take a step in front of Stahl and say, “Whoa, we are not getting into a fight. Maybe she wants us not to show so we lose.'' Stahl looks into my eye and replies, ''I don't care for stupid mind games, I care about if you can deal with things yourself rather than back out.'' I reply, ''Well, that is great and all, but we should not do anything rash though.'' Stahl nods and takes a seat next to the door of the school. I shrug and take a seat next to him. I look at him and state, ''Sometimes in order to win a fight you just don't get in it.” He looks at me and replies, ''Do you know of any way that we could go over there without getting into trouble?'' I grin and say, ''Well, depends what we do over there, but yeah I know some things to keep us from suspension.'' Stahl says, ''Just to ask some questions and stuff.'' I say, ''So the game is at noon and we are both graduating early. So really one day of sleeping in doesn't really hurt that bad.'' Stahl replies, ''So what are the downsides to that then?'' ''Detention is the downside but being the new principal favorite maybe nothing, '' I replied. Stahl ponders on what to do as I check my watch revealing that it was 8:24. I say, ''Whatever you decide we should do now before any teachers see us here.'' Stahl gets up and states, ''You don't have to come with me, but I am going to trash the hell out of her office.'' I get up as well and reply, ''A distraction might be needed to get you out so I'm in.'' Stahl asks, ''Leafale, do you know where we are going?'' I realized that the game was most likely cancelled from the rainbow lightshow. Stahl says, ''Well Leafale, do you know or don't you know where it is?'' I explain to Stahl what I had just realized and he responds by taking off running. Stahl calls out, ''Hurry up chunky.'' I groan and run after him thinking maybe I should have said nothing. As we run the sun slowly rises making it bright and warm. Stahl says, ''I really am just following my gut now.'' We turn another corner and we completely back tracked to where we fought the three weird girls. The homeless man tries to hide behind a diner. Me and Stahl approach him and I say, “Could you point us in the direction of the Canterlot High School please?'' He simply points up the street and replies, ''Go straight for a mile, then take a right and it will be on your right.'' Stahl turns and runs while I gave the guy a nod a ran after Stahl. When I finally catch up to him we are at the corner of the high school and we see seven girls talking at the front doors. I look at Stahl and say, ''We need to know what they are talking about. Do you think we would both fit behind that statue?'' Stahl looks at me and says, ''You don't realize who is over there, do you?'' I sigh and reply, ''Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Principal Celestia and Sunset.'' Stahl says roughly, ''Yeah, and how are we supposed to ask any girl out if we show up out there school like creepers.'' I look at him then at the girls and say, ''Well, we are here now, so why not. We don't even know what they think, so just give it a shot.'' Stahl softens his tone and responds, ''Well, I guess your right. So straight up and ask or hide and overhear what they are saying?'' ''Just go straight up and ask,'' I reply. Stahl looks at them again and says, ''You will lose your cool. Just do your stealth mode behind the statue.'' I groan and reply, ''Fine.'' Stahl comes up from the side of the school and I decide to sit down and lean against the statue. Stahl says, ''How come you guys don't want to play a game of basketball against Crystal Prep today?'' Principal Celestia gasps and Rainbow Dash says, ''Oh, I never back down from a game.'' Stahl replies, ''Didn't stop your Principal Celestia from coming on over and saying you forfeit.'' Rainbow Dash looks in shock at her principal and she asks, ”Why?” Celestia replies, ”After last year this CIF match is forfeit.'' Celestia turns her back and walks inside. Sunset Shimmer says, ''I best go home as soon as it opens.'' Pinkie hugs her and says, ''You will come and visit us, right?'' Sunset answers, “I am only gone for a few days to visit the other Twilight and my family.” I'm thinking wait what opens and she is leaving and then I fall straight through the statue into a vortex of colors. > Chapter 2 New Friends and Enemies > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- My body screams in agony as it shrinks. I land at the base of a huge tree with tons of decorations on it. From my right I hear Sunset groan and mutter, “I don't remember the portal hurting me that much." Then I look over to say where are we but then I noticed she was a small horse. Sunset looks over at me and sees me gaping in awe of her new form and briskly says. "You’re a pony too and you don't belong here.” I find my voice and say, "Ummm maybe?" Sunset then gets up and walks and I look down and my hands and feet and scream in horror as they are now hooves. Sunset groans and yells, "Dude just shut up and calm down." I stop screaming and try to realize what happened to me and where I now am. Sunset asks, "So what is your name?" I reply, "My name is Leafale." Sunset replies, "Well, I am Sunset Shimmer." I ask, "Well, what do I look like?" Sunset  replies, "You’re a white unicorn with light green and dark green mane." I respond saying, "Why am I not human anymore?" Sunset just sighs and replies, "This is not Earth, this is Equestria and just do what I say and you can go home." I think, "Holy crap, she is harsh. At least pinkie isn't like her...hopefully." I get to my hooves and follow Sunset out of the cave and I hear a small voice say, "Come back and help." I turn around see that lone tree in a cave and no one who could have said that so I shrug and resume following Sunset. Outside the cave I wince at how bright it is. Sunset exclaims, "I forgot that it is only day or night no in-between." I reply, "Well that would have been helpful to know beforehand." Sunset looks at me and says, "I never asked you to come and you just waltz right on in and you only have yourself to blame." I reply sarcastically, "P ortals pfffft! I knew everything about portals that just pulled me in." Sunset yells, "Oh you think you are sooooo smart! Let me break it to you: in order for you to go home I have to help you and pissing me off is not the way to do it." I yell, "Well, you were pissed off before I started to talk to you so bite me." Sunset tenses up and I am about to charge me but three dragon like creatures appear in front of us. I say, "Ah well, looks like we are going to die."  The green, orange, and purple dragon open their mouths but instead of fire they started singing. I scream, "Just shut up and go die in a hole." The orange dragon stops singing and says, "Wait, didn't you and your one friend fight us earlier?" I reply, “Yeah, we fight dragons all the time and if you don't breathe fire then your aren't even scary at all.” The purple dragon says, "Yeah,  Adagio that is the kid who fought us earlier." I reply, "Well, screw you." I feel a warm feeling from the top of my head and a beam of pure white light strikes Adagio in the chest, sending her flying fast and far away in the other direction. The other two look at each other and say in unison, "We will come back for your head" and fly away.   I look at Sunset and say, "I do that when I’m pissed," and pass out. When I wake I am in a corner of a huge room and I slowly rise out of the bed and come face to face with a baby purple dragon. I say, "Great, another dragon. What do you want?" The baby dragon replies, "My name is Spike and I am a friendly dragon." I reply, "Well yeah, if you weren't you would have tried to eat me." Spike says quickly, "No no no, I don't eat ponies. I eat gems." I say, "I am not even a pony, I'm a human being." Spike laughs and says, "Humans don't have hooves and a horn." I feel embarrassed and let out a small, "Oh." Spike says, "Yeah, when you went through the portal two days ago you transformed into a pony, repelled the Sirens and the portal won't open for another twenty nine days." I groan and say, "What am I supposed to do in this situation then?" Spike responds after a few seconds pass, "You could talk to Twilight." I sigh and say, "How many people took that portal?" A large poof is heard and a lavender pony appears and says, "Spike, how’s the guest?" and trails off as she sees me looking at her. I say, "Where is Sunset and how did you appear like that?" The lavender pony says, "My name is Princess Twilight, the Princess of Friendship." I hesitantly reply, "My name is Leafale and can I just go home now." Twilight lets out a disappointed sigh and then replies, "You can't go home since the portal closed and won't reopen for another twenty nine days, which means you will have to wait here for it to reopen." I think a week away from my family would cause them to worry. I ask, "Why does the portal take so long to reuse?" Twilight replies, "When you and my friend Sunset traveled through it, something happened and damaged it so my portal doesn't work anymore, but Princess Celestia's portal does work but only on a monthly basis." I ask, "Okay, so this one’s broke but the other one works and why didn't you wake me up to go home?" Spike says uncertainly, "But you were in an overspell coma. We didn't know if you were going to live." I reply, "What’s that?" Twilight answers, "It is when a unicorn uses more magic than that unicorn can use, which causes comas. More mostly kills the user."   I stare dumbfounded and say, "Well, I guess I am lucky to be alive." Twilight replies, "Your magic doesn't match any pony known around here either." I say, "Well no duh! I fell through a portal." Twilight replies, "There is a duplicate version of everyone in each dimension except you." I shrug and say, "Maybe you haven't searched everywhere." Twilight replies, "Maybe you are right, but you have to be here for a while." I sigh and reply, " Fine, fine, but what am I supposed to do in the meantime?" Spike says, "Oh, he can help me with my chores." Twilight says, "Maybe, I don't know…just hang around here and wait." My stomach grumbles loudly and I say, "Whelp, what you have to eat?" Twilight replies, "Daffodil sandwiches." I groan with disappointment and say, "Is there anything sweet to eat then that is not a plant?" Twilight replies, "Pinkie does make cupcakes that are really good." I say without hesitation, "Great! Let's go." I then follow them outside of the castle into the warm daylight. Once I open my eyes and see a pink pony hopping and she quickly introduces herself. "Hi there! My name is Pinkie Pie." I reply slowly, "Ok, and my name is Leafale, and were you  the one who makes the good cupcakes?" Pinkie answers joyfully, "Absolutely tootly!" I think, "Well, is she the same Pinkie from my world, a doppelganger for this one." I rub my forehead as it starts to hurt again but it quickly fades away. Twilight looks at me with concern and I move closer to her and whisper, "Is this that doppelganger Pinkie or the human Pinkie I know?" Pinkie says, "I am not a doppelganger but I don't know you yet." I stare at her astonished at how good her hearing is and just follow her quietly into town. Once the buildings come insight I say aloud, "Wow, I thought buildings couldn't be with that much color." Pinkie gasps and turns around suddenly. Pinkie says, "But the color on buildings make them fun." I look at her dumbfounded and reply, "Buildings are fun?" Twilight interrupts before I make a fool out of myself and say, "You’ll get used to it, just come on." Pinkie starts humming happily as she enters inside the bakery and pulls a tray of twelve cupcakes. My eyes widen and I ask, "Can I please have those?" Pinkie replies, "Oki dokey lokey" and offers me the tray. I try to hold the tray but it falls out of my hooves but Twilight quickly catches it with magic. Pinkie gasps and stutters, "Why would you drop perfectly good cupcakes?" I whine, "I don't want be here, I just want to be home in my own body with people I know and without going insane about talking ponies." Twilight says, "You did take the whole tray. We can talk like you quite nicely." I am on the verge of tears thinking about how my Mom, Dad, and Stahl are doing. Pinkie says sympathetically, "I know what it is like to leave my family too." I have tears falling down and I say, "But did you go through a portal to a different dimension?" Pinkie lets out a small, "Oh." Twilight sets the cupcakes on a table and says, "Well, sorry you got pulled in but I already said it won't work for awhile and so can't have emotional breakdowns in front of ponies here." I wipe a few tears out of my eyes and say, "Sorry, I just don't know how I am supposed to do about this." Pinkie says, "I can show you a good time." I wonder what she means and ask slowly, "What do you mean by showing me a good time?" Pinkie says, "Because you aren't from around here I can throw a huge paaaaaaarty." I think, well that is a nice offer but what if all the ponies know I came from and I ask Twilight, "Would that be ok if Pinkie did that for me?" Twilight appears stunned and asks me plainly, "How old are you?" I answer quickly, Sixteen years young." Twilight mumbles, "Oh, this is going to be way harder than I thought" and says, "You have to stay near me, Pinkie or Spike the whole time but it is okay." Pinkie says, "Wahoo," and I have a small smile as I believe this might not be so bad. > Chapter 3 Quick thinking and bad luck > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- I wonder to myself if having fallen through that portal is a bad thing after all. Spike says, “We could introduce you to everyone and we are going to have a great time." Twilight asks me, "Are you sure that you want to meet everyone even though you are leaving at the end of the month?" I begin thinking twice about what Twilight had just said in reply, "I have nothing better to do, so yes a small party would be most welcome." Twilight nods and says, "Pinkie, not a huge party but a small one. And don't give out apple cider." Spike says, "You never told me what was in it the cider." Twilight simply says, "I’ll tell you when you’re older." I look at Spike and say, "It is a adult drink maybe alcohol, and Spike you don't want taste it." Pinkie says, "yup you’re right! Now I am going to get a keg." Twilight says, "Absolutely not." Pinkie sighs and says, "Fine, fine. I’ll give the invites to a few friends." Twilight says, "I am going to Canterlot for the night. Please don't do anything rash." Spike says, "You can still send me letters." Pinkie says, "You know, speaking of letter..." Pinkie then pulls a stack of letters that is labeled small party. I look at the stack and ask, " How are you going to send them?" Spike takes a deep breath and a wave of fire engulfs the letters and disappear without leaving any ashes. I exclaim, "You sent those letters to hell, what kind of friends do you have?" Spike says, " No, I am a magic dragon and I sent mail to their mailboxes." I say, "So you sent the letters to hell in the mailboxes of demons." From the back room can be heard the two babies crying. Pinkie sighs and says, “Well, I have to take the twins home. Spike, introduce him to the Crusaders and come back in a bit." I think, is she talking about Indiana Jones stuff or something else entirely. Spike tugs on my foreleg and says, "Come on, follow me." I reply, "Sure, let’s go then Spike." But I am thinking in my head, " What in the world have I just gotten myself into." After a few minutes of following Spike we end up in front of a boutique displaying numerous fancy dresses for ponies. Spike calls in the boutique, "Is Sweetiebell here, or is she with Applebloom?" An elegant voice called back, "She is with Applebloom somewhere." I mutter, "Thanks for being specific, voice from a dress." Spike sighs and continues staring in the boutique as if waiting for something. I ask spike, "Hey, are you ok? Why are you acting like this?" Spike shakes his head and replies, "I am fine. They are are probably at sweet apple acres." I mutter, "Oh joy." But I still follow Spike out of the town. Spike asks me, "What is it like being a human?" "Well, it is like how you are now but no tail or magic of any kind." Spike replies, "Oh, so that sounds really boring then." I think well to myself, "Well of course he thinks like that. He is not used to it." In the distance we hear shouting, "Scootaloo don't jump out of a tree again!" With a smirk I run to where the shouting is and see an orange pegasus getting ready to jump from a tree. Spike says, "Scootaloo, Sweetiebell, and Applebloom, meet Leafale." After we all get introduced I look at Scootaloo in the tree and ask, "What in the world are you up in a tree for?" Scootaloo replies confidently, "I am going to fly out of this tree." I reply, "Alright cool,what do you do for fun then?" Sweetiebell says, "Well it was searching for our cutie marks, but we now have them." Applebloom asks, "Are you going to school still?" I shrug and reply, "Yes, but I’m on my last year of being in school." Scootaloo jumps from the tree and hits the ground with a large thud. I cringe thinking, "Oh dear, I hope she didn't break anything." Then I hear branches snapping and trees toppling coming in a straight line for us. Spike screams, "Run!" We all follow Spike, trying to get back to the town but I quickly realize there is no way we can lead this thing to the town. I yell, "Spike, we can't lead this thing to town! It would destroy everything!" Spike yells back, "Then how do we get help to stop this thing anyway?" I answer back, "Everybody thinks I am dead, so dying nobly like this is not a bad way to go out!" Spike yells, "Don't you do it!" I didn’t mind him though. I stop running and turn to face the oncoming destruction heading my way. Within seconds of stopping a brown hydra emerges from the destroyed trees and roars at me. I shout, "Spike it is a hydra! How far do your flames go?" The hydra roars at me and charges at me and I turn and run to where I last saw Spike running. As I was running I thought if I can lead it the other way and just stall for time I might be able to live. I looked back and it only keeps running at me in a straight line so I turned right. The hydra then tripped trying to follow me and I rushed the beast. Spike came back without help and I realized that I might go back into that coma that claims lives. Spike yells, "Blast off their heads!" I lowered my horn and concentrated on the blast I did against the yellow dragon, but this time thin and razor sharp. Immediately after that a thin white light fires from my horn and I severed the three hydra heads in one clean strike. Spike runs to the stumps where there heads used to be and burned them and a few letters appeared. I was tired and passed out again, believing I was going to die a hero. I begin seeing images of a giant with lightning and storm clouds swirling around him. He points at me and then he points at himself and with a crack of thunder I wake up. Spike is looking at me and says, " Congrats monster hunter, you killed a siren and a hydra." I nod slowly and then Twilight emerges from the back room and yells, " What are you thinking, you insane piece of..." I interrupt and say, "Wait a second, if I didn't do something ponies were going to die." Twilight screams, "Not you, Spike! What were you thinking going to fight a hydra?" Spike answers sheepishly, "Um...you can only get rid of a hydra by burning where the heads used to be and I can breathe fire." I continue to lay there as Twilight lectured Spike about how dangerous that was but ends the lecture with, "I am proud of how brave you were." I get to my hooves and say, "You should just started with that Twilight." Twilight looks at me and then says, " You just got out of a life threatening coma, then you just get yourself into another one...What is going through your head?" I state simply, "Kill or be killed." Twilight sighs and simply says, "Congrats. That logic put you out of the world for another week." I yawn and stretch a little and say, "Well if yours was a safe place to live this would not happen." Twilight exclaims, "But this is a safe place to live until you showed up." I yell, "Well, I wouldn't know because I don't live here." From the other room Pinkie says, "Hey he is up." I groan and call down, "No he is not! Come back later." Pinkie then replies, "Okie dokie lokie." Twilight sighs with disappointment and I say, "If there is a copy of a thing, would they have the same personality in the other dimension?" Twilight says, "Yes, and stop changing the topic." I groan and say, "Well lay the lecture on me." Twilight says, "No, I was going to say you should stay with Princess Celestia in Canterolt." I slowly say, "Ohhhkaayy. And is it safer there?" Twilight says optimistically, "Without a doubt! And since that is where the working portal is, you were going to go there anyway." I slowly nod and say, " Well then, when do I go?" A horse with wings and a horn walks in and says, "Right now."