Once, when they were children, Rundown knew Debonair Lace. But that was back before his dad's stupidity caused his family's fall from grace.
Now, living in the slums of Sunny Town, Rundown pines for Debonair from afar, wondering if she even remembers him. It doesn't help that he knew she was one of the girls affected by the Vibe incident.
Still, he wants to get to know her again and tell her how he feels. But what chance does a loser at Sunny Town High have with a girl like her?
He was playing with her, as children. And then she would kiss him, just like little girls liked to kiss everything. And then she would turn into a teenager and she would be naked. And she would kiss him again, but not in the way little girls liked to kiss everything.
They would make love, and then they would get married. And he would be fabulously rich and famous and would take her everywhere: Aruba, Jamaica, Bermuda, wherever she wanted to go, because they were happy and in love.
And the dream always ended the same.
With him waking up to reality.
***
This time it was the train that went past a block away. The freight train was always loud but most of the time it went by while he was at school, in the middle of the day. Not his luck today.
“Fuck….” He ran his hands through his hair, wondering what the fuck he did to deserve this. It was a second later he remembered what it was that he did: born to the wrong family. That wasn’t his fault, or his mother’s fault: his mother, Report Form, worked a steady job just to keep them afloat, and if it wasn’t for that, they would probably have had to leave town and move in with her parents in Alabama, which she didn’t want.
Of course, that probably would have been better. At least then, they could get away from the past. At least then, she could be Report Form, a woman whose business degrees got them places. At least then she wouldn’t be known as Report Form, the ex-wife of Playtime, a now-disgraced doctor serving twenty years in prison for having pictures of little girls that he shouldn’t have had.
Needless to say, the lawsuits and settlements bankrupted them, and what little they had left was eaten up by divorce lawyers. Now, Rundown and his mother lived in a duplex in one of the nicer neighborhoods of Sunny Town … and by nicer, it meant the local gangs weren’t busy shooting up the area.
There was a knock on his door, and his mom poked her head in. “Runny? Breakfast time!”
“Thanks, Mom,” he told her, getting out of bed and making a beeline to the bathroom to get ready. After a quick shower, he got out and ran a brush through his brown hair. He hated his hair, to be honest; it was muddy-brown and in a world where everyone had normal-colored hair like blue or green or purple, he had to stand out by looking like the ground. His mom always laughed and said it just showed his down-to-earth nature.
He hated that, too.
As he made it to the kitchen, he saw there was just a setting for one. “Not eating, Mom?” he asked.
“Oh, no, I don’t have time,” she told him. “My boss wants to meet regarding the last quarterly sales. Wish me luck: if I do good, they might just give me that job promotion that’s open! Then we can look at moving somewhere nicer, like Bella Vista or Everfree Glades!”
“Sure thing,” he told her with a smile he faked for her. He knew, just as much as she did, she wasn’t going to get the promotion. He’d overheard her complaining to her friend over the phone the other night that her boss was already looking at “someone with big tits” to take over that spot and she would probably have to sleep with him in order to get the promotion. He knew his mother had too much integrity to do that.
At least someone in his family had to have that.
“Oh, don’t forget, dear, your sister is coming back home to stay the weekend, so make sure you clean your room, okay?”
“Sure thing.” He knew that was a lie as well. His sister was six years older and off at college. Because she was a teenager right around the time that they moved to Sunny Town, she asked to move in with their grandparents. Now she was attending college on the East Coast, and though she always promised their mother she’d come and visit, that had never once happened.
She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. “I’ll be home late. See ya!”
He gave her another smile, deciphering the unspoken code. Whenever she was home late, that meant that she was going to be at her “second job”, which was really just her taking late night classes at Sunny Town Community College. She was doing everything she could to get them out of the hellhole that her ex-husband had put them in, and it would all be for naught.
All because his father liked little girls more than he liked grown-up ones.
And what was worse? Sometimes Rundown wondered if he’d end up like his old man. And that scared him most of all.
***
“Yo! Earth to Planet RD!” a voice shouted behind him as he walked to school. He turned and saw his best friend running to catch up to him.
“Hey Quibs,” he called back. He had met Quibble Pants on the first day in Sunnyside Junior High and the two had stuck as fast friends. Plus, they both had their secrets and looked out for one another. “How goes?”
“Man, sorry I woke up late. But I had this awesome dream! I was with Daring Do - the Daring Do from the original Tomb Raider, not the newer games - and I was going to town with her! Titty times for be had!” he crowed.
Rundown sighed. “Dude, you know that Daring Do is just a character, right? I mean, that’s why they redesigned her for the new video game.”
“Who are you and what have you done with my friend?” Quibble said, narrowing his eyes. “Only a heathen would say that skinny SJW wet dream is better than my OG goddess!”
“Your 'OG goddess,' may I remind you, had less polygons than the current model and her tits were just horizontal pyramids.”
“Which means bigger and better, clearly!” Quibble grinned. He then leaned closer and said, “Hey, mind if I stay at your place tonight?”
“Problems at home again?”
Quibble nodded. “Yeah. Mom’s freaking out that The Man is going to come by and deport us.” He was silent for a second before he added, “They arrested my uncle last night.”
“The one that joined the Griffons?” The Griffons were the local gang and were, needless to say, currently on the bad side of the police, the FBI and anyone who carried a badge in the Canterlot Metro Area.
“Yeah. Mom told Uncle Greaser that he was being stupid, but he flashed some cash and said he was making dough selling some drug that wasn’t going to get him caught. Turns out the drug was the Vibe.”
Rundown froze. “The Vibe?”
“Yeah. My uncle isn’t what you would call the smartest of guys. With all the shit that happened last month, you’d think he’d sell something safer like cocaine or heroin or something that doesn’t have every cop in town crawling up everyone’s ass over. Anyway, because he got busted, Mom thinks they’re coming after us, next.”
“That isn’t going to happen and you know it. Fuck, you sound more American than I do and I was born in this country!”
Quibble laughed. “Well, yeah, that’s because I came here when I was two and my parents enrolled me as an Americanized version of my name instead of my real name: Pantalones Objecion.”
Rundown rolled his eyes. “Pantalones Objecion?”
“Hey, man, just because my name’s Americanized doesn’t mean I don’t respect my heritage, okay? I’m a proud member of the Pantalones family!”
“Okay. So what else is up?”
“Oh, just a little rumor I heard from my sister.” Unlike Quibble’s geeky pariah nature, his sister Capri Pants was one of the popular girls at school and on the cheerleading team.
“Oh? And what rumor is that?”
“That some of the guys from the Club - that group of rich-fuck teenagers that was using the Vibe - took some pictures of some of the girls. Well, actually, lots of the girls.”
“Lots of the girls?”
“Oh, yeah. You know that one girl with the big ol’ titties at our school? Dainty Daisy? Capri says someone has a picture of her taking it in the backside while she’s going down on a girl.”
Rundown went pale. “What?”
“Oh, that ain’t all. You know that black chick at our school who says there’s no guy good enough for her? Well, supposedly that’s not a problem anymore, ‘cause she’s got pictures of her getting teamed hard!”
Rundown shook his head. “And you believe this shit?”
“Dude, I am a hard-up Mexican boy living in America. What the fuck do you think?”
“I think you need to come back to reality, Quibs. That stuff is technically child porn, you know.”
Quibble blanched. “Oh, shit, forgot about that. Man, I’m sorry I brought up any bad memories.”
“Yeah, yeah, what the fuck ever,” Rundown groaned as they walked onto the school grounds. “At least these girls hit puberty. With the pics they caught my old man with? Shit, he should have at least had the class to chase after teenagers.”
***
School passed by like a blur, and he and Quibble agreed to meet up later that night, both so Rundown could call his mom and let her know, as well as so Quibble could work his part-time job.
As for Rundown, he went home, made dinner, did his homework, and gamed for a bit. His mother insisted that he have a normal teenage life, which for some reason meant he had an allowance, as meager as it was, and more free time than he knew what to do with.
And now, he got onto his computer and navigated over to a particular website. He’d gotten the location from someone on 4chan and went to check it out. He was careful, and had set up TOR, since the site was on the dark web.
And sure enough, nestled on its own .onion domain, there it was: GIRLS OF CUNTERLOTS. The site where pictures from girls all over the Canterlot area had been photographed by the Club and posted for everyone’s “entertainment”.
He knew what he was looking for immediately. Thanks to some reading up he’d done and the fact that whoever set up this site wasn’t versed in computers, Rundown had obtained admin access, and was now using it to his utmost.
He skipped past all the girls with a variety of haircolors, their bodies pronounced for the world, either in coitus or just posed. He didn’t care about them, and quite frankly, if he’ run into one or more of them on the street, he wouldn’t know who they were to begin with. They certainly wouldn’t have given him the time of day before any of this and they absolutely wouldn’t nowadays, not in the wake of what the Club had done.
In fact, during his search, the only thing that had caught his attention was the forum: someone was looking for pictures of a girl named Sunset Shimmer. He remembered going to school with her when they were kids, but then she moved away during the school year. He wasn’t aware that she’d moved back; chances were, she probably didn’t remember him anyway.
But finally, he found the pictures in a folder for girls who went to Canterlot High. And there she was.
The girl of his dreams, Debonair Lace.
Someone had put up pictures of her again and a few were even new. His blood boiled as to who the fuck had done this to her. But it was impotent rage, he knew; she probably remembered him as much as Sunset Shimmer did.
But he remembered her. He remembered her gorgeous purple eyes and black hair, her friendly smile and infectious laugh. He remembered her being one of the few friends he had when the day came that they told him they’d taken his father to jail. And he remembered that she’d kissed him on the cheek and said she would always be there for him.
And then he moved to Sunny Town and promises became ephemeral. But he still remembered. And as he grew older, a promise remembered became a crush became unrequited love. A love he wanted to rekindle with her, but knew it was all in his mind and there it would probably stay.
And he knew that even as he looked at the pictures of Debonair being violated, that he wished it had been him that had been with her. Because he wouldn’t have done this to her. Because the girl he loved was too special to him even if she probably didn’t even remember he existed anymore.
His phone chimed and it was a text from Quibble: BE THERE IN FIVE.
He quickly downloaded all the pictures, then deleted them all from the server and locked out the folder. Given how stupid the site owner was, he’d probably just think he fucked shit up and would just add a new folder. In a couple of days, Rundown would log back on and delete that when time came.
But for now, he at least had done something to protect his girl/not girl.
He looked at one of the pictures, of her looking at the camera while she was being posed for some violation. He almost would have believed the vacant smile on her face was for him, if it wasn’t for the glassy, drugged look on her face.
He closed the picture, then zipped the file, passworded it, then made it into a hidden file on the hard drive. While his mother wouldn’t know how to open it, Quibble used the computer once in a while and he would know how.
But as he finished what he was doing, he realized now he was, in a sense, doing the same thing as his father had done. Nevermind the reasons were different, it was the same damn thing.
“I’m ruined.” A girl cried in a corner, her mascara running down her face.
“Oh, I don’t know,” a second girl snarked at her. “You might just have a career as a porn star! After all, you’ve already got the pictures to send to Playboy.”
“Oh, my name is Debonair Lace! Won’t someone come fuck me?” a second girl added.
“Hey, leave her alone!” someone shouted.
“Why? You want a chance for her to lick your carpet for you?” the second girl shouted.
The newcomer helped the first girl to her feet. “C’mon, let’s get you out of here,” she told her. The two departed the room and the jeers. “Hey, don’t let it get you down, okay?” She felt arms snake around her in a hug. “C’mon, Deb. Don’t let them get to you. I got your back, you know it.”
“Don’t! They’ll think bad things about you, Free!” Debonair Lace tried to push away her best friend. “They’ll say we’re sleeping together.”
Said friend, Freestyle, laughed. “Hey, it just means I have good taste. Besides, with all the girls in the Swim Team that got caught up in this Vibe shit, everyone thinks we’re all dykes anyways.”
“Please don’t say that.”
“Hey, Deb, if I’m going to be gay for someone, I’ll be gay for you,” Freestyle said with a wink. “Besides, might just get me a boyfriend that way.”
“Debonair?” Both girls turned to see Rarity approaching. She was the president of the school design club. “Are you okay?”
Debonair was about to speak, when Freestyle stepped in. “Hey, Rarity. Control those fucking cunts you have in that group or else I’m taking them to on a trip to Fist-in-the-Face-Town, got that?”
Rarity looked confused. “What happened?” When Freestyle explained, the look on the purple-haired fashionista was one of anger. “I will have words with Stitchline and Threadspool, I can promise you that, Debonair. And I’m sorry they did that to you. You weren’t the only girl affected.”
Debonair looked at Rarity. “They got to you, too?”
Rarity nodded. “I was lucky and I got away with merely just a bruise to my dignity. I haven’t had to suffer the injustices that many girls such as you have had to. And my dearest friend Sunset is working overtime to make it clear she will not tolerate what is going on. I will let her know of your plight, if you wish.”
“Wait,” Freestyle said, confused. “The school’s alpha bitch is suddenly out for blood to protect all the girls that were impacted? When the fuck did she grow a heart?”
“Freestyle, dear, that is not fair. Sunset has had a change of heart as of late and is now working to regain everyone’s trust. It’s just that this situation angers her, as it well should for anyone.”
“Yeah, well excuse me for finding out the bitch has a heart. Well, I know I wouldn't want to fuck with her, so yeah, tell her if you would.” Freestyle looked at Debonair. “We’re blowing this popsicle stand, okay? Let’s go somewhere where we can let you unwind.”
“Don’t you have swimming practice, though, Free?” Debonair asked her.
“I would … if there was a team left. Most of the girls have quit because of what happened. Backstroke hasn’t even come to school for the past few days.” Freestyle scratched the back of her blue-and-green hair uncomfortably. “So there’s no point practicing for the 100-meter relay if I’m the only one in the pool.”
***
Twenty minutes later, the two found themselves at Brews & Bakes. While most of the CHS students tended to go to Sugarcube Corner, most of the college students that attended Shasta University went to Brews & Bakes. Thus, it had a quieter, more studious feel, and a better place for two old friends to talk in relative privacy.
“And I thought that he liked me, and I didn’t see the harm with going out with Double Dribble,” Debonair told her friend. “And to think that….” She broke down crying once more.
“Don’t worry, I’ll kick his ass. Both him and the girl you were with in the picture. Who was the girl?”
“I don’t know. The detective handling my case was reluctant to give us the details. I just know that she doesn’t go to Canterlot and she’s a victim, just like me. It’s not her fault.”
Freestyle smiled. “See? That’s why you’re my best friend, Deb. Even when you’re hurting, you think about others first. Even whales.”
“Stop that,” Debonair said. “You were not fat when we were kids.”
“Fuck yes I was! I was a Goddamn whale, okay? Donut in one hand, ice cream in the other, because my parents spoiled the shit out of me during their divorce. Good thing that when Mom and I moved into our apartment complex they had a pool and I found my true calling, or else I’d be a rolly-polly girl still!”
“Free….” Debonair had heard this story more than enough times, complete with her best friend’s constantly increasing exaggerations.
“But now look at me! Sleek, svelte and you can’t pinch an inch!” Freestyle grinned. She was just about to say something else, when the conversation in the booth behind her caught her attention. She immediately turned around and shouted at the two guys there. “You want to repeat that shit?!”
The two guys looked like total losers whose only experience with sex came from magazines whose pages were often stuck together. One of them still had a face full of zits. They looked at her with the gazes of deer caught in the proverbial headlights.
“Let’s get this straight,” she seethed. “My friend does not ‘put out’. I don’t ‘put out’. No girl ever just ‘puts out’, and no girl in their right mind is ever going to ‘put out’ for you two Cheeto-breath sperm containers, got that?”
They looked at her and then nodded dully.
She then saw the folder between the two. She reached down and snatched it away before one of them could try to put them back. “So what’s this?” She opened the folder and her jaw dropped. “Oh, my God.” She then looked at the two nerds with a glare that could melt steel. “You sick assholes. You have two seconds to get the fuck out of here before I call the cops, do you understand me?”
The two looked at each other and literally ran out of the cafe as fast as they could waddle.
“Sick sons of bitches,” Freestyle muttered. She turned back to Debonair and said, “C’mon. We’re headed to my place. Call your parents and let them know you’re staying there, okay?”
“Why?” Debonair asked, worried.
“Because you’re my bestie and I don’t let my friends down. Plus, we’re going to go talk to my next door neighbors. They’re going to want to know about this.”
***
The woman ran her hands through her hair in frustration. “I cannot believe this.” She closed the folder and looked at the two girls sitting across from her at the coffee table. “Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Freestyle.”
“So is there anything you can do about this, Cadance?”
Cadance looked at them and said, “I can’t promise anything. For one, it’s still in the investigative stage; nothing has been passed to our offices yet. And I don’t know if I will be the prosecuting attorney involved. My fiance’s family was impacted as well, which might disqualify me.”
“They were?” Debonair asked.
Shining Armor nodded as he brought out the pizza slices for everyone. When their neighbor’s daughter had approached them stating that they had some important information about the Vibe case, he knew it was going to be a long night. As he passed the plates out, he said, “My youngest sister and my cousin were affected. Thankfully, my younger sister somehow found out about all of it and we were able to save both Twily and Tavi.”
Cadance nodded. “It was a miracle that someone told Sunny or else it could have really gone south.”
Ever the gentleman, Shining took the folder from Cadance and without even so much as opening it, slid it into a briefcase. “I’ll take this to Det. Detailed Look first thing tomorrow. She’s the lead on the case, as I recall, and it would be better for her to have her hands on it, in any case.”
“Thanks, Shining,” Freestyle told him.
“It’s why I’m a cop, Freestyle. To protect those in need.”
***
“He’s going to look at them, isn’t he?” Debonair asked Freestyle later that night while the two were trying to sleep.
“No, he’s not. Shining Armor is … well, let’s just say he lives up to his name. He’s the kind of guy that you should feel jealous about Cadance ending up with, because he’s so nice. I mean that in a nice way, though. The point is, if he didn’t look beforehand, he’s not going to look at all, okay?”
“But he’s a guy, and every guy is a creep nowadays.”
Freestyle sighed. “Deb, do you remember my cousin Elemental?”
“Yeah. Wasn’t she the one that stayed over last summer? The one who was boy-crazy?”
“That’s putting it nicely. Ellie was DTF in the most blatant way. She all but threw her cooch in Shining’s face, and all he did was just gently - and repeatedly - turn her down and let her know he was engaged.” She smiled. “If Shining didn’t look at them, he won’t. I believe him.”
Several seconds went by before the second question came up. “There were pictures of me in there, weren’t there?”
Freestyle sighed. “I’m not going to lie, Deb. Yes, there were. And I… I know you. I know you wouldn’t ever do what you were doing in those pictures, not if you were in your right mind. And you were drugged, so you weren’t.”
“Maybe you should just break off our friendship before you get hurt,” Debonair said.
“Nope, too late for that. Besides, you’ve already seen me naked before, so it’s not like I’m supposed to be a prude!”
Despite the situation, Debonair giggled. “I saw you naked because we went skinny dipping in your uncle’s pool two years ago. And I remember you screaming when you found out your cousin and his friends were watching us.”
“Yup, and I read him the riot act, if you’ll recall. And they saw me in all my glory, not you. And I’m okay with that, because it means I can keep protecting you. And I’ll keep doing that, even if you try to push me away, because that’s what being a friend is all about.”
“I really don’t deserve your friendship, Free.”
“No one ever deserves anything, Deb. It’s what people need, not what people want. And like it or not, you got me.”
“Thanks.”
Several more minutes passed by before the final question came. “Whatever happened to your cousin, anyway?”
Freestyle laughed. “Mom read Quibble and his friends the riot act. I then asked Quibble in front of my parents the next morning if he liked what he saw, and he got so red I thought he was going to pass out.” She grinned. “It probably taught him a lesson or two.”
“Which is?”
“One, don’t spy on your cousin when she’s doing something stupid.”
Debonair laughed. “And the other?”
“Don’t nod your head in agreement when your cousin asks if you liked her naked body and you’re just about to pass out from blood loss,” Freestyle said with a laugh. “Now get some sleep, okay? Tomorrow’s just another day.”
“You can’t be serious, little brother.” Capri Pants looked at both Quibble and Rundown with a glance of disdain.
“Why not?” Quibble and Rundown were currently at the former’s place, talking to the former’s older sister. Capri, unlike her brother, was popular, and she took pains to keep it that way.
“Well, for starters, most of my friends already have boyfriends,” Capri began, “with the exception of Riverbank—”
Quibble grinned. “She’s the one with the big tits, right?”
Rundown’s response was to facepalm.
“And that’s the other reason why I’m not going to bother. Quibble, you seriously need to get your head out of your ass, stop playing video games and… oh, I don’t know, maybe meet a real girl? One that isn’t made of pixels?”
“Girls are more likely to be made of polygons nowadays,” Quibble pointed out unhelpfully.
Rundown fought the urge to facepalm again.
Capri turned and looked at Rundown. “Why do you hang out with this loser?” she told him. “Oh, that’s right - you’re both losers. Well, at least you’re less of a loser than my brother.”
“Uh, thanks?” Rundown stated.
“Look, guys, I get it. You all like your Ogres & Oubliettes shit—”
“Dungeons & Dragons,” Quibble corrected, and Rundown merely gave him a glare that said it all.
“The fact that you corrected me makes it clear you’re a lost cause,” Capri sighed. She turned to Rundown. “And you’re not much better. Look, guys, I know you two are teenage boys, and teenage boys want to spread their sperm far and wide, because you think with your lower head, not your upper one. But let me lay some reality down for you two: we live in Sunny Town. The slums. We don’t have the luxury of living in a nice area like Bella Vista, Everfree Glades or Eastwick. And we sure as hell don’t live in San Palomino or Northside. So you can’t get away with the ‘I have money, therefore date me’ shit.
“No, what you guys need is personality. And hanging around with other no-lifes, watching your Japanimation—”
“Anime, sis. It’s called anime,” Quibble pointed out.
She buried her hands in her face. “¡Ay, Dios Mio! For fuck’s sake, Quibble, would you listen to yourself sometime? Little brother, I love you, but if we weren’t related, I wouldn’t give you the time of day. As it is, you’ll note that none of my friends came with me to talk to you when I told them you wanted to talk to me during lunch. That’s a clue.”
“So I guess this means you’re not going to try to fix me up with Riverbank?” Quibble asked.
“Look, my friend Dandy Candy is a slut, okay?” Capri turned to look at a girl with poofy, swirly rainbow hair talking with some other ones at a table on the other side of the cafeteria. “She’s admitted she’s gone down on guys on the first date and even slept with one by the end of it. And she’s dated some real losers, in my opinion - but I doubt she’d even go out with you.”
Quibble thought about it for a second. “If it means getting laid, maybe you could put in a good word with her for me?”
Capri slumped in the chair, sighed and said something under her breath. She finally just shook her head and got up from the table, saying nothing more.
“Hey, if you’re going to hook me up with Dandy, maybe fix RD here up with River?” Quibble asked her as she left the room. “Can’t forget about him!”
After a few minutes, Quibble made a satisfied face, then turned to his friend. “I think that went well, don’t you?”
All Rundown could do was sigh.
***
Seated in the corner of the lunch room at Canterlot High, Debonair tried to avoid the stares. She knew word had gotten out about the pictures, and though she hadn’t seen them yet, the leer from a couple of guys - and even one girl - made it clear that she’d been forced to do things she didn’t remember but would never have done sober.
“Still thinking about it, huh?” Freestyle asked her.
“I’m thinking about quitting the design club,” Debonair told her friend.
Freestyle looked at her as though she was insane. “What? Oatmeal, are you crazy?”
“No, I’m serious, Free. And quoting lines from Saturday Night Live is not going to help. Even though Rarity asked the others to stop, I can still feel their stares today. And I got a note in my locker asking me what my prices are.”
Free gave an awkward smile. “Your answer should’ve been ‘nothing you can afford’. That’s what I would have said, at any rate.”
“And then in Geometry I got approached by someone from the basketball team. And I know he was going to say something, but then thankfully Flash Sentry stepped in to make him go away.”
“Flash, huh? Heard he’s a nice guy,” Freestyle said. “Although he can be kinda naive; he did date the alpha bitch until she dumped his ass when he wasn’t any use to her anymore. I even heard he helped that one exchange student the week she was here and upstaged the queen bee.” Freestyle took another bite of her sandwich, then continued. “But I see you’re desperately trying to change the subject.”
“Look, the design club isn’t the right fit for me anymore--”
“Bullshit.” Freestyle gestured to the sweatshirt she was wearing. “You made me this sweater, and the design looks exactly like Tuttomundo’s art. You made this, and it looks almost exactly like that $300 one we saw at that boutique in Olde Towne! So don’t say it’s not the right fit for you. You were made to be a fashion designer, Deb!”
“I’m going to agree with that.” The two girls turned to see someone new standing there: Sunset Shimmer.
“Sunset? This … is a surprise,” Debonair said. The look on Freestyle’s face also showed the same reaction, though not as pleasant.
“May I… join you two?” Sunset asked her gently.
Freestyle said nothing, but instead signaled towards the empty seat next to Debonair. Debonair, at the same time, nodded, and Sunset sat down.
“Look, I’ll be honest. For one, I have to apologize to you both for how I was in the past. I’m not that person anymore, but I still have a lot to make up for. I hope you can both forgive me for what I did.”
Debonair looked at Sunset oddly, while Freestyle was more succinct: “You told everyone that I was taking hormones so that I could win in swim meets. Thankfully while no one believed you, it caused me a lot of grief, especially amongst others on the team.”
“Free….” Debonair pled.
Freestyle sighed. “But since Deb is my bestie and I really don’t feel like kicking your ass in the middle of the cafeteria right now since I just finished eating lunch, I’ll let it slide.”
“Uh, thanks. I think,” Sunset said. “Anyway, Debonair, I heard about what happened to you and I want to offer my help. If you feel someone’s picking on you and you don’t think you can go to the teachers, let me know. I’ll see what I can do to stop it.”
Freestyle crossed her arms. “I thought you said you changed your ways, Shimmer.”
“I did… but there’s more than one way to deal with troublemakers.” The red and yellow-haired girl sighed. “The Club nearly got to my best friend, my cousin, and most importantly my kid sister; all because I wasn’t paying enough attention when I should have. I can’t let that happen again.”
“Yeah, well, last time I checked, you were the school’s queen bee, not the sheriff,” Freestyle told her.
“I know. But I still feel responsible for it. I wasted my popularity for years over petty things, and when something important came up that I could have helped with and I blew that. That’s on me, and I need to make up for that.” She turned to Debonair. “If you feel uncomfortable with my offer, I’ll understand and back off. But the offer is there, regardless. Rarity told me and she wouldn’t have if it she didn’t think you didn’t deserve the help.”
“We’ll think about it,” Freestyle said.
“That’s all I ask,” Sunset said as she got out of the chair. “Either way, what happened to you and so many other girls should never have happened. I can’t make that go away, but I can do what I can to stop anything else from getting out of hand. Anyway, think about it. I’ll talk to you later.” WIth a friendly wave, Sunset left the two alone.
“Think she was telling the truth?” Debonair asked her friend as they watched the retreating girl’s form.
“I don’t trust that skank,” Freestyle admitted. But then she sighed and said, “But I do think she was telling the truth. Maybe she did have a change of heart when that exchange student kicked her ass, maybe she didn’t. But if her kid sister got fucked up by the Club? Man, I wouldn’t want that on my worst enemy… and until now, Sunset Shimmer definitely qualified as that.”
***
Quibble continued to watch one girl as she walked on, then winced as she flipped him off just before she ran over to her boyfriend.
“Man, why do girls like Hotpants there fall in love for muscle-bound morons like Turf Slam?” he groaned.
“Quibs, for one, Turf Slam is the football team’s star quarterback, and despite the fact that we’re here in Sunny Town, has gotten scholarship offers from all kinds of schools. Secondly, guy’s not some dumb jock: he’s actually got the grades to earn those scholarships academically. He’s actually going places, unlike us.”
A guy who knew them both walked past and said, “That’s because you’re both losers!”
Shaking his fist, Quibble called back, “I prefer to think of myself as a not-yet-founder, thank you very much!”
“He’s right, though,” Rundown told his friend. “We really need to think of a way to raise our social profile.” The two walked down the hall of their school towards the bulletin board, to see what was there. “Maybe something here should help?”
“Ugh. That would mean stepping outside where the day-star burns instead of staying home with the comforts of my controller in my hands,” Quibble complained.
“Yeah, well, beggars can’t be choosers, Quib,” Rundown reminded him. “What do you want more, a girlfriend and a life, or the high score on Call of Duty?”
“Call of Duty doesn’t have a high score,” Quibble reminded him. “In fact, high scores are an artifact from the prehistoric era of video games, where one actually had to leave the comforts of ones own home and head to these arcane, forgotten places called ‘arcades’ in order to achieve graphical perfection. It was a dark and mysterious time, so I’m told.”
“Bro, will you be serious for a moment?”
“Not if I can help it. That way lies madness.”
Rundown rolled his eyes and instead fixated on the board, looking over various things that might catch his attention. “So far nothing that would make us look cooler,” he mused to himself, ignoring whatever his friend’s immediate and inevitable comebacks were. Finally, though, he found something on a yellowed piece of paper towards the back. “Hey, Quibs, check this out.”
HIs friend went over and they both looked it over. “You serious?”
“Why not?” Rundown asked. “It’s more along the lines of the stuff we do, so it shouldn’t be a problem, right?”
“Except...that’s the place of the enemy.”
Rundown sighed and gave his friend an askance look. “Seriously? ‘The enemy’? Melodramatic much?”
“It’s gotten me through this far in life. Illegal alien, remember?”
Rundown took the piece of paper off the board; given that it was half-buried, no one was going to notice if it was gone or not anyway. “Knock it off. You in or not?”
Quibble shrugged. “Honestly? I’d rather not, but if you’re hellbent on this crazy, insane plan, yeah, then okay. You and I go together like fire and explosives, my friend.”
“Because that’s such a great combination.”
***
“Well, that’s great,” Freestyle sighed.
“I’m sorry, but that’s just how it is, Freestyle,” Cheerilee told her. “I’ve spoken to the district swim federation, though and they assured me that the dissolution of the team won’t impact anything you may want to do, such as if you want to try out for the Olympic Swim Team.”
“Except that it does, Ms. Cheerilee, and you know that.”
Cheerilee sighed. “I do. I know it’s going to be harder for you to practice if you’re not at swim meets or working out regularly. But I will still help you whenever I can. You have my word.”
“I know,” Freestyle said dejectedly. “I just didn’t think….”
“Nobody did. That’s the tragedy of it, Freestyle. No one ever considers what happens to the girls after the crimes have been committed.” The look on the young teacher’s face was sad. “Regardless, the offer is open. You’re a promising young athlete and you don’t ahve to give up now.”
“I’m not,” Freestyle said. “I’m just….”
“I understand.”
Freestyle walked outside of the classroom, and looked out the windows across from it. Rain came down in sheets as if the sky itself was crying for her lost opportunities. She couldn’t blame the other girls for quitting. She was practically the only girl from the Swim Club that didn’t get caught, and she knew the only reason she hadn’t was because she’d been sick the day they’d been invited to the Co-Ed swim party.
The one where several boys on the team had access to the Vibe, and had used it on the girls. The party where much fun was had afterwards… well, fun for the short-sighed idiots that thought a drug would get them any girl they wanted, and that chemical brainwashing meant they got to live out their sexual fantasies.
Now, those fantasies had turned into nightmares. For the girls on the team, her best friend Debonair, and so many others. And the ones who were unharmed but still impacted? They were unwillingly along for the ride, because they had no choice.
Already there was a rumor that due the sheer amount of student athletes involved, Ms. Celestia was going to have the rest of the sports calendar year cancelled. There was nothing said officially, but given that the varsity and JV basketball teams had all but imploded over the scandal, it wouldn’t have been surprising.
“Free?” Freestyle turned to see Debonair looking at her sadly.
“You waited for me?” Freestyle asked, surprised.
“You’re my best friend; of course I did,” she said with a smile.
“Yeah. Thanks,” Freestyle said, moving over and putting her head on her friend’s shoulder. “The whole team quit today. Said they couldn’t get over the ‘ice cream’ pictures.”
“Ice cream pictures?”
“Apparently some pictures and video got leaked over the net today on some website that made the rounds. Do you remember what I told you? That the swim team pretty much shaves off all the hair on our bodies except our eyebrows and what’s on our head?”
“Yeah.”
“It’s true. Moreso for the girls than the guys. Well, the girls used to joke about how we were as smooth as ice cream down there, because we shaved. And then the pictures and video came out. I’ll spare you the details, but….” The sad look on Freestyle’s face became one of anger. “Splish Splash. She was the youngest on our team, just a freshman, hadn’t even turned 15 yet. And yet….” Freestyle turned and punched the nearest locker. “GODDAMMITT!” The look in her eyes was one of rage. “Splish was just a kid! We used to tease her because her parents hadn’t even explained the Birds and the Bees to her and that at the team sleepover we had back in November, she actually brought the teddy bear she slept with! And now those bastards have ruined her! Ruined you! Ruined everyone!”
“Come on, let’s get you out of here,” Debonair told her. “Let’s head to Brews & Bakes, okay? You need to talk and I need to listen.”
“Isn’t that supposed to be the other way around? You were the one who--”
“It doesn’t work that way, Free. When I need you, you’re there. And when you need me, I’m there,” Deb reminded her. “That’s what best friends do. Now come one, let’s go while there’s a break in the rain.”
***
Several minutes later, two soaked bodies appeared at Brews & Bakes. “Here you two go, on the house,” a young man with tan skin and ivory-colored hair told them as he brought their drinks.
“Really, Aff?” Debonair asked him.
The young man gave her a smile. “I just wanted to show you that not every guy is a jerk, Deb.”
She blushed. “Thanks.” He smiled and headed off.
“Who’s that hunk and why aren’t you sleeping with him?” Freestyle asked appreciatively, then realized that was the worst thing she could say. “Shit. Look, Deb, I’m sorry--”
“No, it’s okay. Affogato’s the son of the owner and in college. He knows me because he used to be my babysitter when I was a kid. He’s always kinda been like a big brother to me. And even if I felt that way about him, he’s got a girlfriend.”
“Shame; you two look great together.”
“Oh, I dunno, I thought he and I looked better,” a voice said from behind them.
Freestyle turned. “Oh, hey, Trixie. Decided to be straight today?”
Trixie Lulamoon frowned. “One day that mouth of yours is going to get you into serious trouble, Freestyle.”
“Hey, you know I’m just kidding. Seriously, where’s your usual two buddies?”
“Well, Lyra’s working today, and….” A thoughtful look crossed Trixie’s face. “Hey, maybe you two can help with something. Bonnie should be here in a few moments, and she can explain the details on it; I’m still a bit fuzzy.”
Debonair gestured to the seat adjacent to her. “Well, have a seat and we’ll listen. Can’t be any worse, right?” Freestyle wordlessly shrugged and nodded.
A second later, Bon-Bon came in, carrying a huge stack of papers. She was also wearing eyeglasses and it gave her the look of harried Asian librarian rather than the elegant girl she was usually known as. “Sorry I’m late. Ran out of disposable contacts and had to remember where I put my glasses,” she apologized as she dropped the papers on the desk with a sizable thump.
“What are these?” Debonair asked.
“You got us some volunteers! I didn’t think we were going to get any,” Bon-Bon mourned. “And the library’s been pretty good about trying to get volunteers, too.”
“Library? What’s the library got going on?” Freestyle asked.
“Oh, glad you asked!” Bon-Bon answered. “Back in December, the central library here in Canterlot had water damage to its archives when the sprinkler system broke. They don’t have the manpower or money to have it all professionally scanned, so they put out a request for volunteers to the schools. I’m the main girl organizing the project, although there’s a librarian who’s going to supervise.”
“Really? Didn’t know you cared about that all that much,” Trixie said.
“Well, originally I was just supposed to be the assistant to some girl that goes to Zacherle’s, but she got chickenpox during Spring Break and had to drop out, so they asked if I would step in. But unfortunately, we haven’t really had many takers. Apparently this Twilight Sparkle girl, whoever she is, was practically going to single-hand this thing, I don’t know why.”
Both Debonair and Freestyle looked at each other. “This sounds interesting,” Debonair told her. “Tell us a bit more, okay?”
“Sure! All we do is take the worst damaged magazines, etc. and scan them. There’s nothing so old that it’s worth keeping a physical copy of, yet the library wants to make sure they have a digital copy in case people want to read them in the future. So we’ll be spending a couple of weekends scanning. The first meeting of the group is on Thursday night with Mrs. Clearscan at the South Canterlot library branch.”
“South Canterlot? That’s kinda close to Sunny Town, isn’t it?” Debonair asked.
“Seriously, it’s not as bad as the news makes it out to be. Sure, it’s more than a bit run down, but there’s not shooting in the streets like if it was Afghanistan or anything,” Trixie explained. “Look, if you’re feeling uncomfortable about it, you can catch a ride with me and Bonnie when we go down on Thursday. We’ll be taking my mom’s van, so we won’t have to ride the subway.”
“In that case, sure, I’m in,” Debonair told them. “I’ve always wanted to see some of the old magazines and get some fashion ideas from them. Free?”
“Sure. With the Swim Team now defunct, I’ve got lots of time on my hands, and I may as well put them to good use. Who else do we have?”
“Mostly girls - one from County High, two from Everfree Glades High and one from San Palomino High. We also have three guys, one from Bella Vista High and two from Sunny Town High.”
“Well, if nothing else, we know we’ll be safe around those guys,” Freestyle commented. “If they’re so desperate that they’re volunteering for something like this, then we know we can just run them over if they get too pervy on us.”
“Free! Be nice, okay? I’m sure they’re three nice guys and that’s really what I could stand being around right now.”
“Okay, okay, but just watch: they’ll be complete dorks. I just hope they’ll be dorks worth working with,” Freestyle mused.
Keep it together… keep it together… Rundown told himself for what must have been the eightieth time this hour. Thursday night had arrived and after slogging through his classes and managing to drag Quibble along in a timely manner, the two of them were now on the bus toward the library in South Canterlot.
“Ey, what’s gotten into you man?” the friend in question whispered to him. “You getting nervous already?”
“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe it’s the fact we’re two perverts from Sunny Town High suddenly volunteering for some charity work so we might be walking right into a disaster?” Rundown shot back, almost raising his voice too loud.
“Well this was your idea! And why did you even have this idea again?”
“‘Cause we’re losers who need to show we’re actually not and this is a good chance to show that.” He looked out the window, scratching his head. “Plus who knows? Maybe actually getting some sunshine apart from when we go to school could help.”
“Well so far el sol need to turn the brightness down.” Quibble smirked as he added. “Then again it allows us to really look at some girls.”
Rundown growled, spinning back to face him. “See? That’s the problem! We’re – well mostly you right now – are thinking with our dicks! And what just happened with all these shitbags who thought with their dicks just a while ago?”
The black haired teen lost his smug smirk as those words seemed to actually pierce through his head. “Well… shit,” he admitted. “But it’s not like we’d ever do that,” he mumbled.
“And we’re proving that to all them, starting with this!” Rundown however felt a knot in his stomach as he said that. An image of Debonair flashed in his head, followed by of one of that particular photo he remembered looking at. Suddenly next came one of an orange-haired devil that was his father and—
“Hey, dude?” Quibble’s voice came, making Rundown jump. “Stop’s almost here.”
Rundown looked at the overhead at the front. Sure enough, their stop was displayed. Quickly hitting the button to tell the driver to indeed stop in case there wasn’t any new riders, he resumed the futile task of trying to get himself together. Now though it was made more difficult by the fact that devil-spawn of a father was now on his mind.
He thought back to his computer and those photos on it. He wasn’t his father. He had them for a good cause! His father possessed them for his own twisted desires, while Rundown had them for… for…
There is no reason to have them you dipshit, a voice that he guessed was only his conscience speaking. Well there were reasons, but none that actually helped his case for being on the right side of morality and perhaps the law.
He decided to deal with that with extreme prejudice later as he and Quibble got up from their seats and made their way off the bus.
Already he could tell they weren’t in Sunny Town anymore. For one, the sun cast over them revealed actual color around them instead of a place that felt like just went through a dust storm which reminded him of the irony of his unfortunate home. What was also different was the people walking around cheerily and without a thought of being jumped – or at least didn’t show considering the Vibe incident.
The two teens simply made their way up to the main doors of the library, Rundown keeping his head down in case somehow his clothes gave away they weren’t from around here. As both of them made their way to the front desk, he straightened himself out to make himself at least presentable. As they approached, the lone woman at the desk turned from her computer to look to them.
“May I help you?” she asked.
“We’re here for the… um, volunteer work?” Rundown spoke. “The material preservation?”
“Oh! Sure! Just head toward the computer section and meet with Mrs. Clearscan. I believe she’s now just waiting for all those who signed up to come there.” The receptionist pointed them toward their destination, and both teens thanked her with a nod and started their walk.
“Sheesh, Canterlot people are too cheery,” Quibble whispered.
Rundown resisted the urge to groan audibly and instead whispered back, “What the fuck are you talking about now?”
“C'mon man, don’t tell me you don’t see it? I mean, yeah, they got us beat in the quality of what they actually have. But you put a Sunny Town first year jock against a senior Canterlot jock? That first yearer is gonna earn themselves bragging rights!”
“Well the uppity part I get, but I don’t think street survival translates to sports. You got any proof?”
“Hey, first hand experience!” Quibble stopped in his tracks and spun around, smiling wide. “I remember one day I got roped into watching one of my cousin’s swim relays, and while we were waiting for her to finish up I happened upon some CHS jocks. I remember seeing this one loser, Flash Magnus or maybe it was Frantic Sentry or something. He had that Sunny Town creep look in his eye, but compared to who we got on the teams? Guy’s a noodle.”
Rundown shook his head, “So… how’d you learn his name exactly?”
Qubble suddenly lost his smug smile. “Well… I sort of… laughed at the way he was actually flexing for his mates. When he tried to confront me about it, I couldn’t resist pointing out that he would fit the perfect TvTropes definition of a Gary Stu given how he looked so completely boring and way too much like the ideal jock. Seriously, the way looked felt like he was made for just being the perfect boring person right out of some movie.”
“Wait, is this how you ended up with that bloodied shirt you showed off?” Rundown asked.
“Oh hell no! That shirt was because of… well, why I ended up watching my cousin’s thing in the first place! Look, point is, these Canterlot guys think they’re on top, but they wouldn’t last a day in Sunny Town. They’re The Enemy don’t forget!” Quibble smiled again for a second, before he brought his hand to his chin in thought. “Well, except for that one jock I met there. This dude named Soarin’. Don’t know why, but him and I just really seemed to get along.”
“You know you never told me about what got you in trouble that day,” Rundown mentioned as they passed into the computer section that was mentioned to them. Both of the stopped and looked as they saw chairs arranged around in a semicircle with a silver haired women standing at the helm.
Said women took notice of them, a small smile appearing. “Hello, are you two here for our preservation project?”
Rundown took the lead, “Yeah, are you Mrs. Clearscan?”
“I am,” she confirmed. “May I ask your names?”
“Rundown, and this is Quibble Pants.”
Clearscan’s eye quirked, and Rundown resisted the urge to show he noticed. “Ah, you’re the two from Sunny Town, yes?” Before either could answer, her gaze returned to normal as she added, “Well any help is appreciated. If you two could take a seat, we’re just waiting for the rest of the group. You’re actually the first to arrive.”
Releasing a breath, Rundown hastily took the nearest seat with Quibble following suit. “So… do you know who else’ll be here?”
“Including myself, there should be twelve us total. My main organizer did tell me she would be running a tad late, so if need be we can start without her and the ones she will be bringing.” Clearscan explained. She looked over toward the entrance of the area, “Ah! Are you here for the program?” The two teens looked behind them and saw two girls walking in. Both of them looked like they were more easy going than your typical Canterlot student, but they both seemed to carry a hint of upper class about them. One had dark gray hair while the other had white with a highlight of lime green.
“Yeah! Name’s Gabriella, but like, everyone just like to call me Gabby!” the one with dark gray hair answered, that color betraying how bubbly she was.
“Greta,” said the other, more straight to the point than her apparent friend.
“Welcome! Please, have a seat while we wait for the others,” Clearscan greeted. Both girls nodded, taking seats on a side of the circle away from Rundown and Quibble.
“More like sugar and spice, am I right?” Quibble whispered.
“Dude,” Rundown growled as low as he could. “Not. Now.”
“What? Dude, c'mon, you hate fun all of a sudden?”
“Just don’t say anything you think would make you end up with a bloody nose.”
“I know you’re thinking the same, man.”
Rundown eased up. It was true. Gabby seemed like she was the one girl that no one except the most stuck up people hated. Meanwhile Greta seemed to really be hitting the gene lottery and would turning into one of those 'if you got it flaunt it' types that—
He twitched as he stopped that train of thought. He wasn’t winning any integrity awards any time soon if he kept this up.
“Excuse me?” a new voice spoke up. All eyes looked to see a teen boy now entering, his light sea green hair making him stand out. “This the volunteer work? Name’s Sky Stinger.” A second look told everyone that he for sure seemed to be from more upper class area, which made Rundown wonder what a guy like him was doing here.
“You’re in the right place!” Clearscan, confirmed. “Please have a seat.”
“Hmm, competition?” Quibble whispered. Rundown was about elbow him, but he saw Sky Stinger immediately move toward Gabby and Greta. The former immediately seemed to be interested in him - or perhaps she did that with everyone - and on that observation Rundown merely decided to stay still.
Though now he was noticing something. So far it seemed like none of them were actually from Canterlot, which only furthered his previous thought on why they were all the way over here? If anything, despite it being… it, Sunny Town was the closest so it made the most sense so far for them to be here. It didn’t seem like they were frequent visitors if Mrs. Clearscan didn’t recognize them. Was it really just others looking for a chance to do good in some way?
“Cinco, quatro, tres, dos, uno…” he heard Quibble whisper.
“It’s over here!” yet a new voice sounded.
“Yep, I knew it!” he cheered to himself.
Rundown ignored him as he took a look at who was talking before. Another girl, but this one seemed like she wasn’t as high class as the others - or at the very least was completely lax given the way her pink scarf was hanging down. Of all the others she looked the most at place here given her glasses and how he managed to see she had braces on.
“Ah, Plaid Stripes, it’s good to see you again,” Clearscan greeted. That confirmed to Rundown she was definitely the one who fit in most here as she eagerly took a chair.
Unlike the next arrival, which almost caused Rundown to fall out of his seat. At first he thought it was an adult, but then he saw a school uniform and realized that she definitely was not an adult. She towered over everyone else, and her goldenrod hair really accentuated her. He took a quick glance to Quibble, whose mouth was open slightly and he didn't want to begin to imagine what was going through his head.
She had a passive face on her, but that quickly turned to a bit of aggression as she looked right to the two of them. “Got something to say?” she asked.
He turned away, almost ducking in his seat as he realized his own mouth was hanging open too. Flashes of Debonair were in his head where she was his goddess and the two of them—
With slight force he bit his tongue to try and get himself under control. Looking to Quibble, he actually seemed to get the hint not to try his luck and was ducking down in a vane effort to appear less noticeable. One look to each other and they both wordlessly agreed that she was an ‘avoid at all costs’ one.
“Now, miss, let’s just remain calm,” Clearscan lectured.
“Allow me, Mrs. Clearscan.” Rundown dared to look back up, seeing yet another arrival standing there. Though he didn’t know if it eased the tension as she was dwarfed by the tower of rage standing there still. “She’s my cousin, and I did encourage her to come, so let me take responsibility.” She had one hand on the other’s arm, and she seemed to be more calm compared to before.
“Very well, Bon-Bon. I assumed Trixie and the rest of you are here as well?”
“Er… sort of. There was an issue with transport, so they told me to go on ahead.” She stepped away from her cousin, composing herself and adjusting her glasses. “They told me they’ll be here in a few minutes, but they’re aware of all the details from me. We can work out the ‘wheres’ and ‘whens’ once they get here.”
“Very well, I suppose then we can get started. If there are no issues from anyone, let’s just all be seated.”
Rundown turned back forward, but as he did he heard from behind him from Bon-Bon’s cousin, “I’ll stand, thank you.” He shivered a bit. They didn’t even get to the creep accusations and already he felt like he was running naked into a blizzard.
“I swear, mom, you make me wish sometimes I could actually disappear,” Trixie grumbled as she turned out of the driveway.
“So… she somehow managed to flood the car?” Free asked. “Isn’t that like… impossible these days?”
“Oh it’s very much possible when you have a mother who can’t let go of old trends, such as this old van here until she gets one of those electric cars that she so wants,” Trixie explained. “That and trying to remind me of ‘driving safely’ despite me acing my written and driven test. Delayed us so much that I think we could have caught the next train and gotten there faster.”
“Isn’t the library just a couple stops away?” Deb asked from the backseat.
“Yeah, but point still stands.” Trixie looked into the rear-view mirror, right to Deb. “How are you holding up?”
“I’m feeling fine. Did Bon-Bon reply yet about those guys?”
“Dunno yet,” Trixie answered. “Free, can you check my phone? Gotta watch the road. Should be unlocked still.”
Free nodded as she held the device up. With this delay, Trixie had offered up the idea to Bon-Bon to case out the three guys that would be with them for Deb’s sake. “Erm, oh!” Free exclaimed. “She says that so far things look okay. Apparently though the worst that’s happened though is her… cousin causing a scene?”
Trixie snickered. “Oh man, I completely forgot. Bon-Bon actually convinced her to come try this just to perhaps loosen up, I knew she wouldn’t make a good first impression if she wasn’t there.”
Deb and Free exchanged looks with each other. “Is there something we should know?” Free asked.
“Well aside from the fact that she and I happen to have similar hair styles when we don’t do anything with them? And I only bring that up cause my mom, ahem, ‘suggested’ that she was my soulmate because of that.”
Free rolled her eyes at that comment. “Yeah, aside from that.”
“You’ll see. Just whatever you do, do not freak out.”
“I didn’t know Bon-Bon had a cousin,” Deb chimed in.
“They have the same grandmother. You don’t see her ‘cause she’s all the way up in San Palomino. Only met her in person once, which happened to be when my mom also met her.” Trixie shook her head. “Since then it’s only been face-timing between her and Bonnie I’ve heard.”
Deb leaned back to process this info. This was certainly shaping up to be an interesting meet up. “So… nothing about those guys?” she asked.
“Nothing yet,” Free confirmed. “Bonnie says that so far none of the guys have tried anything. In fact the only one making a scene - aside from her cousin - is one of the Everfree girls who won’t keep quiet.”
“Oh… I see…” she mumbled.
Free turned to look back at her friend. “Hey, I won’t let anything happen. They won’t get a chance to try anything. And they’ll be on their asses if they do.”
“Before you try anything illegal,” Trixie chimed in, “because you still can’t just punch them unless they actually get physical, let’s wait and see. But we could just keep her separated from them for now. This is just the first day and we need to actually see what rolls best with who’s on what and where.”
“Idea still stands though.” Free turned to sit herself back down, and then she looked at her phone again. “What the fuck? Quibble is there?!”
That caught Deb’s attention. “Quibble… as in your cousin Quibble?”
“Quibble and Pants, so it’s him!” Free put down Trixie’s phone, bringing both hands to her forehead. “What the fuck is he doing there?! He’s good with tech, but a library might as well be a gas chamber to him!”
“But… doesn’t that mean we got at least one guy who we can keep under control?”
“Only if he knows I’m there! He has to be there to try and hit on girls! That’s the only reason he ever goes outside if it’s not work, school, Best Buy, or a Gamestop!” Free yelled.
“Alright before your screaming causes me to pull over, mind explaining some things to me?” Trixie asked.
“Quibble Pants is one of my cousins, and he does nothing but think with his dick except when he’s at his job. He does basically nothing but try to look at girls or play his video games or both.”
“Both?” Trixie questioned.
“Yes!”
“Okay, but that just sounds like he’s just… well, stupid. It’s not like he’s actually done anything dangerous, right?”
“Trix, Bonnie’s handling her cousin, so lemme handle mine. Quib wouldn’t ever come here on his own, so I’m more worried that somehow this other guy managed to convince him to come along. Quib’s from Sunny Town you should know.”
Trixie’s eyes widen in realization for a split second. “Well we’ll be there in a minute, so we can find out what’s going on ourselves.” She glanced over to Deb in the back. “In the meantime, just stick with me for now.”
Deb gave a slow nod. “Alright…”
Bon-Bon sighed, finally getting her cousin to calm down and focus on the computer and scanner for the task at hand. Stout Spirit may be hard to push around, but being family Bon-Bon knew certain buttons she could push to get around that barrier. The one pushed being a nickname that Spirit absolutely despised and merely uttering the words ‘keep calm and’ got Spirit to clam up lest Bon-Bon finish that.
Though that was all the more reminder that this first impression didn’t go so good when Spirit entered the scene, so things were awkward right from the start. After having everything explained to the rest of the volunteers, they all got split up into varying groups. Right now she was still in the main computer area with Spirit and Plaid Stripes, while the rest had been divided up and brought into some of the back rooms of the library where there would be more equipment to use.
She still wondered about those two Sunny Town boys, especially because she suddenly recognized that one of them was Quibble Pants. Even though she didn’t really spend time with Free, she did hear about a certain skinny dipping spying that he did. She wasn’t sure if his buddy was one of the ones involved in that, but regardless she did some tactical planning and separated them so that Free could watch Quibble and Trixie could keep an eye on the other along with that Bella Vista boy when they arrived. She decided it would be best to have Debonair with all girls so Bon-Bon would supervise this group and she would be guaranteed safe hands with her and Spirit.
She only hoped that there wouldn’t be any trouble on the horizon.
Rundown tried the best he could to just focus on his work, but his raging hormones that Quibble’s sister had warned them about weren’t keen on letting him do that. Each of the girls was just another fantasy for him to project onto Debonair, especially that goddess of a girl which only furthered his fantasies like maybe him walking along her—
He bit his tongue again, almost hard enough to make him cry out in pain. If anyone suddenly had some kind of magic that let them read minds, right about now he would have been sent to execution for thought crimes. Thankfully, that sort of thing was firmly in the realm of fiction. He wondered if the world would be cruel enough to perhaps give that power to some kinda alpha male or bitch to make his life hell. Perhaps, also just to rub in how much of a loser he was, said world would give superpowers to some other random teens that didn’t do anything to deserve them except for being at the right place at the right time.
Normally that’s something perhaps Quibble would come up with after one of his rants on how “generic” the Uncharted series was and how “Golden Compass was a desperate attempt to make a male Daring Do.” However at the moment Rundown felt like between already being singled out and the fact that he had extremely illegal stuff back on his computer at home, he felt like things could easily go wrong at any second.
That setup seemed to be when he and Quibble were separated, leaving Rundown essentially alone with just that Sky Stinger guy and Clearscan. The former seemed to be utterly bored while the latter was at her own computer probably going through the archives. Despite them being the only three around, he tried to not show any sign of him being worried. Right now he was just scanning a semi-legible magazine from some line that he swore every doctor’s office had, and right now he was hoping he didn’t grab something that could set off his hormones again.
Quibble was going to lose his mind: This was almost as bad as those walking simulators that claimed to have choices but actually didn’t. Almost, because while at least he didn’t lose any money over this, but he was losing his sanity all the same. That Gabby girl would not shut up, and he wondered if she felt like she was a gift of herself of some kind. To make matters worse, that Greta girl seemed to be keeping an extra keen eye on him as every time he dared to glance over toward them she was ready to glance at him right back. Question was whether it was to prevent him from complaining about the noise or to not have him say anything about… them.
Oh… just imagine though being able to walk around with one of them, he thought with a slight smile. Maybe instead of talking about something completely boring, Gabby could tell him how awesome he was and perhaps what she would let him do to—
“Ahem!”
Quibble’s thoughts derailed immediately, and his body seized up — no, froze up. It was cold enough to fizzle out the sun but still not cold enough to hold back the burning rage that came with that voice. His legs managed to thaw out enough for him to spin his chair around and face that voice.
Upon looking on her face, Quibble felt hot sweat start to drip down his forehead. Standing there arms crossed and with an equally crossed glare was his cousin Freestyle.
“Uh…” he managed to blather out.
“What. The. Fuck. Are you up to?” she growled out. “This is the wrong place to find cheap porno magazines, y’know!”
“What—”
“Are you here just to try and sneak a peek at some girl’s behind while they’re at the computers?!” she continued.
“But—”
“You cannot be here for any good reason! And in the wake of all this shit that’s happened those girls and—”
“Oy! ¡¿Te callarás por un momentito?!” he managed to break through. The outburst caused her to pause, looking on in confusion. He resisted an audible scoff; despite being cousins she wasn’t as entrenched in their heritage, and any use of Spanish always threw her off. “Now that I can actually speak: Hey cuz, how are you? You don’t look happy. But I don’t appreciate the wild accusations!”
Freestyle was still stunned for a moment before she managed to compose herself and resume her angered look. “No, I’m not happy. I’m going through a lot of shit right now with what’s happened, and not helping matters is the fact that you of all people are in a public library!”
“And what’s wrong with that?” he shot back, standing up to meet her. “You seriously think that low of me?”
“Considering our history, yes!” she answered, almost yelling outward.
Quibble felt another sweat come on, knowing what she was talking about. “W-well… you’re the one who actually decided it would be a good idea to do it!”
“And your perverted ass actually thought it was a good idea to watch!” she seethed, jabbing a finger at him. “You know how embarrassed I was?!”
“Yeah, just do something like that at my house!” he shot back as he pushed her hand away. “I’ve said my apologies for these last couple years now, but what you did what still stupid!”
Both went silent for a moment. Each glaring each other down, not willing to give in. Free looked like she wanted to keep screaming at him, while Quibble looked like he wanted it to end.
“M-maybe… but it was still wrong! And the fact you did that makes me question hard what the fuck your lazy ass is doing here!”
“What the hell’s gotten into you? Again, I ask: You seriously think that low of me?”
“Depends, do you stop jacking it to Daring Do yet?”
Quibble seized up, fists balling. “What the fuck?! Are you even hearing yourself? If any question needs to be asked, it’s what the hell’s wrong with you and what makes you think I do that?!”
A moment passed, and Free’s glare shattered. Hand going up toward her mouth as if to make sure more bile didn’t escape, she was silent with trembling lips as she slowly eased backwards.
Quibble though wasn’t finished. “What is fucking possessing you to call your own cousin a… well, label him… this?!” He threw up his arms for a moment for emphasis. “Are you seriously gonna paint me as an actual sexual predator? We haven’t seen each other properly in months, let alone talk together in years when it’s not me trying to keep apologizing, and this is what you do?”
Free’s demeanor suddenly hardened again. “Because I’m trying to protect my friend!” she shot back. “She was a victim from those predators! And I’m not letting anything have the chance to get to her again!”
“And you think that I would actually do something like that?”
“No, but you being you can mess her up in the head even more.” Free huffed and turned away, fast walking away from him.
As he watched her leave his view, he only stood in disbelief and his brain in the process of shutting down decided to mercifully seat his body back into his chair. A moment later though, he caught movement in the corner of his eye. Glancing over at it, he saw it was Gabby and Greta, and the ramifications of them being there hit him hard. He turned himself away from them as he buried his head in his hands.
“Oh, fuck me… and once again it’s not in the way I want.”
As Rundown carefully set another scanned book back onto the cart next to him, he looked up at the clock. Not even an hour had passed yet he felt exhausted. His brain was running in multiple directions at the same time and when he tried to stop it from going one way it decided to barrel down the other and he had to mentally catch back up.
He didn’t dare try to go check on Quibble to see if he was okay, and he was also fighting the urge to see the other girls cause he realized there was a reason he looked for pictures online and also the Sunny Town girls were hardcore enough to keep him in line.
That and he knew had no chance with them.
Right now the fear he felt should have been enough to keep him still, but that probably wasn’t enough. This was to give him a clean slate of sorts, new people to maybe connect with. Of course that meant new girls too who had no idea about him or his reputation.
He shook his head, standing up from his seat and starting to walk out of the area. As he passed by Clearscan, he mumbled to her, “I need to use the bathroom.” He heard her say something in response, but he blocked it out of his mind as he just needed something to distract him enough.
Something and not someone or even multiple.
As he saw the bathrooms in sight though, he nearly jumped as suddenly a girl appeared in front of him from another aisle and upon spotting him shot him a look that could kill. He tried to remain calm as she stomped up to him, but he couldn’t hide his fear as she got within arm’s length.
“Never seen you before, you Quibble’s buddy?” she asked. The directness of it tightened up his throat as if it was a dagger precariously pointed up against it.
“Q-Quibble? Uh, yeah, I’m with him and—”
“Apparently you managed to drag him over here too, huh?” She stared directly into his eyes. Despite her shorter stature, he didn’t feel like he would be winning any intimidation showings given the anger she was showing and spewing.
And of course he couldn’t get his mind off of her actual stature. She looked so sleek, flexible, and—
“What do you mean?” he blurted out.
He regretted that immediately as she somehow managed to get even angrier. “Are you fucking brain damaged? You must be and maybe want to be even more damaged!”
“Yes! Okay, yeah! Quibble’s my friend, and I convinced him to come here!” He almost threw his arms up as if a gun was pointed at him, the only reason he didn’t was he was convinced she would see that as a threat and start laying into him right there.
“Are you here just to try and ogle girls?! I know my cousin, and that’s probably the only way you got him to come here!” He huffed a bit as he realized she had jabbed him with one of her fingers. “What’s your fucking name?” she growled.
“R-Rundown!” he answered, starting to sweat a little.
“‘Rundown’?” she scoffed, a fake smile appearing. “How appropriate, because I all I see right now is rundown garbage.” Before he could even respond with a look, she added, “You Sunny Town losers have no business here other than to cause trouble. After what happened with us, you probably think it’s the best time to try something because maybe no one will expect it! Well guess what? It won’t work. You creeps aren’t going to hurt anyone! You better hope you’ll answer to the police or even school staff if you try something and not me if I find out you tried for Debonair.”
Hearing that name managed to shatter all of Rundown’s current fear, his longing and wonder resurfacing. “Debonair? She’s here?” he asked.
“Oh! So you are a fucking freak then! How else would you know her unless you looked at… at…” her face scrunched in anger, and Rundown thought maybe she would scream. He almost screamed himself as suddenly her fist went flying to his face, but it stopped mere millimeters away. “You’re fucking lucky I can’t put you in your place right here and fucking now. But if I catch you even looking at these girls, especially Deb, Sunny Town will look like a paradise compared to where I’ll send you.”
“What the fuck are you doing?!” Both of them turned, Free’s anger warping to fear as she saw Trixie stomping up to them, “I thought I was hearing things wrong, but no! Have you lost your mind, Free?!” Free struggled to respond, but the thought died out as suddenly Trixie grabbed her wrist and started to pull her along. “You’re right, you have no right to touch him, but considering I’m part of organizing this: I have the authority to drag your ass with me so let’s go!”
Rundown watched in bewilderment as suddenly his biggest fear was being dragged away like a child who was about to be put into time-out. As his brain managed to restart from the insanity, he clutched his head at the thoughts firing off everywhere. Turning around, he slowly made his way back to the safety of supervising eyes. He was glad he didn’t actually have to go to the bathroom because he was sure he would have done so right there.
Bon-Bon sighed, adjusting her glasses as she looked through the catalog of items so far. Everything seemed to be going well, no incidents so far, and Deb was getting into the swing of things herself after being escorted here by Trixie. Even Spirit was getting into it, though since she went to a place like San Palomino that was sort of expected. Plaid Stripes as a regular was hitting her stride too, so much so she was already carting off books to restock. Good signs all around!
What wasn’t a good sign though was she heard stomping coming her way and she looked over to see Trixie coming right back to her, along with Free in literal tow.
“Uh… what the hell is going on?” she asked.
“Oh nothing much,” Trixie started. Bon-Bon choked a bit: she was already starting out with the sarcasm. “Just found Free here threatening one of the boys here and making clear she has some malicious intent abound.” She let go of Free, stepping away from her but not taking her glaring eyes off her.
“Wait, you what?!” Bon-Bon exclaimed, standing up from her seat. She gave a look over to Deb across the way, who didn’t seem to notice them, as she seemed too engrossed in the work at the moment.
Massaging her wrist, Free looked to the two of them as she spoke back, “I was just putting my cousin and his loser friend in place. And I’ll do the same with that other boy once I find where he is.”
Trixie shook her head, before proceeding to facepalm. “Oh, that’s just perfect now. I’ll ask again: what the fuck are you doing?”
“Making sure they know they aren’t gonna try anything that’s what!” Free shot back. “Now I only wished I could have punched them, but warning them they will get punched if they look at us funny will work.” She crossed her arms, looking away in a pout.
Bon-Bon was the next to speak, “Are you crazy?! You can’t just go up to them and… and…” she pinched her nose, why her?
“Hey, we’re here to keep Deb safe, and I’m doing my thing!”
“Yeah, but you can’t just threaten people! Especially if we don’t even know what they’re even thinking!”
“I know what these creeps are thinking! And I’m doing what I have to do!”
“Sounds like you’re a creep yourself there.” Free snapped back to anger, and turned around to see who said that. She lost her anger as she looked up and up at who was standing there.
“Oh my... “ she whispered, not expecting this. She hadn’t gotten to meet Bon-Bon’s cousin yet, and the last thing she was expecting was some kind of Trixie look-alike with the commanding figure of Principal Celestia. Did that make her more of a Vice-Principal Luna look-alike then?
“Hmmm, I think I know what you’re thinking, so guess that means I’m gonna kick you where you wipe and yank out your eyeballs,” Spirit said in a low monotone. As Free saw those eyes bore into her, she looked back to Bon-Bon. All she got in return was a disappointed frown complete with the crossed arms that made her feel like she was in trouble with a pair of parents.
The image in her head was further exemplified when Bon-Bon spoke, “Not so fun when you’re on the receiving end of a threat now, huh?”
Free felt her throat rapidly drying up. “But—”
“Zip it.” Bon-Bon leaned forward, bracing her hands on the desk to get almost nose-to-nose with Free. “If I catch wind that you’re doing more of this vigilante shit, I’ll have to get Rarity involved. And God help us if she gets Queen Bitch Sunset with her bitch-rage involved. For some reason she actually cares about doing something right here, and I’d be careful how much you can make things worse by doing this, got it? Hiểu rồi?”
Free blinked, looking between the trio. It was obvious who was bringing the most fear in the moment, but what Bon-Bon said might have topped that even if it was a future possibility. Suddenly the vice grip of Trixie’s own wrath sounded appealing. “G-got it.”
“Good, now we go fix your mess, cmon.” Bon-Bon stood back up straight and started walking away, Free forcing herself to move a moment later.
“Oh by the way,” Spirit spoke up. “あなたはクソブロックヘッドです、あなたはそれを知っていますか?” Free only blankly stared as Spirit swiftly made her way back to her desk, but she snapped back forward to follow Bon-Bon, Trixie following behind.
“Um… may I ask what she said?” Free asked.
“No clue. That was Japanese,” Bon-Bon replied, her tone devoid of any positivity.
“But I thought you two were cousins?”
“Yeah, but she knows Japanese on top of Vietnamese.” She stopped, turning back around to face Free. “Look, I never knew I had a cousin until a few years ago, so for all I know she could be Fluttershy’s cousin through some kind of twisted way. She doesn’t go to San Palomino just because her parents are rich, but because how closed off she’s become. So you can imagine how much I have a personal stake in her trying to open up more and you threatening to fuck it up.”
Free bristled, shrinking a bit under Bon-Bon’s words. “Right…” she meekly replied.
“You’re damn lucky Deb there didn’t hear,” Trixie spoke up. “I don’t think she’d… ‘approve’ of you just being a thug yourself.”
The chill suddenly turned to freezing. The thought of upsetting Deb after vowing to protect her? It kept her quiet as the three made their way through the library, eventually arriving at Clearscan’s section. Free looked to see the third boy she hadn’t gotten to yet working away, but she also saw Rundown at his station clearly shaken up.
“I’ll take it from here, Trix,” Bon-Bon said.
“Good, cause I need to sit down after this,” Trixie mumbled back.
Free meanwhile stood still, watching as Trixie walked over to an unoccupied computer and Bon-Bon proceeding to talk to Clearscan for a moment before she went over to Rundown. From what she could observe it looked like Bon-Bon was getting his side. After a moment Bon-Bon turned back to her with a look that could cut her in half and gestured for her to follow. Reluctantly she did so, Rundown also getting up but sticking close to Bon-Bon. A short walk later she could only assume they were out of earshot of Clearscan and any others as Bon-Bon stopped in placed and looked directly to her.
Free resisted a huff, but managed to drop her arms to try and show non-aggression. “I… apologize… for what I did.” She looked away for a moment. “I had… no right to do so to you.” Going silent, she saw the two of them staring at her. While Rundown was quiet and not showing much reaction, Bon-Bon wasn’t hiding her annoyance.
“Well, I suppose a half-assed apology is better than nothing for now then,” she stated. Looking to Rundown, she added, “And I assure you we’ll make sure Freestyle here actually comes around to a sincere apology, and I apologize on behalf of the library itself. If you don’t want to participate any more, I’ll understand if you want to leave.”
He looked over to Free for a moment, before he looked back to Bon-Bon. “I’ll… stick around,” he answered.
Bon-Bon nodded. “If you’re sure.” Both girls watched as Rundown stepped around them and back to his post. “Now for your cousin. I know it’s Quibble, but that still doesn’t give you any right.”
Free nodded back and started following, but on the inside she was fuming. They were going to actually defend them? When it was blatantly obvious they were here to cause trouble?
She kept herself down as she saw they were quickly approaching Quibble, who seemed to be still as a statue just staring at the computer which had its screensaver running. Looking over the area, she saw two more of the girls who took immediate notice of them. When they got to him, Bon-Bon stepped off to the side, arms crossed and eyes expectant. Quibble also seemed to be waiting as he had turned his head enough to look over his shoulder.
Groaning, she spoke, “Quibble, listen I’m—”
“Can it,” he snarled at her. Free went wide eyed as he stood up and turned around completely to look at them. She felt her jaw unhinge a bit, she had never seen her cousin angry before to this degree. “If you’re gonna apologize, then go fuck yourself. You actually meant what you said before.” He looked over to Bon-Bon, face relaxing as he said, “Look, I’m no angel, but I’m not a predator.” The air was silent as he sat back down, turning away from them.
“If you feel uncomfortable,” Bon-Bon started, keeping a neutral tone. “We won’t think ill if you want to leave early for today and—”
“Y’know what?” he interrupted, standing back up. “Yeah, I do wanna get outta here! ¡Adiós!” He darted away from the two, quickly getting out of view of them both.
Bon-Bon sighed, pinching her nose again. “Well… on the library side of things I hope he comes back.” She then looked back to Free. “Then again for his sake maybe he shouldn’t come back because of you.”
“Good!” Free nearly shouted. “He shouldn’t be here to begin with! He’s just a pervert who—”
“Enough!” Bon-Bon raised her voice. “Look, I’m partially aware of what Quibble has done which is why I warned you ahead of time. But that wasn’t a go-ahead to be some kind of comic book vigilante, okay?!”
“So you know then that Quibble—”
“Hasn’t done anything wrong here!” Bon-Bon kept going. “And you know maybe we should learn the whole story. But for right now,” she pointed to the chair Quibble had vacated. “Your ass goes there. And if Trixie catches you near the other two boys I’ll have Spirit literally throw you out.”
As Bon-Bon walked away, Free felt her blood boil. Sitting down, she almost wanted to scream. What kind of world did she suddenly end up in? Glancing over to the other girls, she watched as they actually looked at her in some of fear. Fear?! She wasn’t the bad guy here! She was doing what she had to in order to protect Deb!
She growled, looking away from them. So it was okay for Sunset to do this, but suddenly when she does it now she’s the Alpha Bitch? The thought enraged her even more. Sunset was a bitch for the longest time but she gets a pass because now she’s doing good? But when she’s done nothing but just be a protective friend, that’s bad because what-the-fuck?
Free slammed her fist into her leg. They had no idea, she just needed to convince them.
Rundown walked up to his house, still shivering a bit from that experience. The rest of his time there was spent wallowing in dread, and Quibble up and leaving didn’t help matters either. The only bright side was that at least he was stood up for, and of course the looming fact that Debonair was right there just out of his sight the whole time… he was so close to seeing her again!
Yet what Freestyle had warned him about, on top of what she was already thinking with him, had turned any possible joy into fear given the context. She had no proof, but she was completely right at the moment: he was a creep.
So that meant he had to take steps against that. Unlocking the door and stepping in, he didn’t take off his sweater as he locked the door behind him and went to the kitchen. When he got there though, he picked up the smell of food but a distinct absence of his mother.
Looking to the table, he saw a plastic-wrapped plate of simple chopped chicken and veggies along with a note - hastily written from the look of it. Picking it up, he read: ‘Emergency meeting, will explain later. Enjoy! -M’
He tried to process that for a minute. It couldn’t have been for her job as they could have done something like that over the phone. What could be so important and sudden that she couldn’t even write down what it was? Unless she didn’t know exactly. His mom wasn’t an idiot so it wouldn’t be something dangerous, but still.
Putting it down, he was staring blankly for a moment before the threats from before came rushing back in. He tried to shake them out, but now the Rundown in his head was now admitting flat out he was a just another creep and scenarios were playing in which Freestyle, that Stout Spirit girl, or even Debonair were taking out their rage on him. Violently.
Quickly walking out of the kitchen, plate in hand, he made his way to his computer. Going through the boot up process, trying to keep his head straight with food in the meantime. Before he did what he knew he had to do, he needed to do some extra cleanup. Making sure all the incognito safety nets were in place, he navigated himself once again to the website where the images were held just to mess with it again.
Or at least tried to. When he tried to go to the domain, he found no results. At first maybe he misspelled it in his haste, but double and triple checking made him realize that he wasn’t. Going back further though to the more general domain name instead of the extension, he got the same results.
He felt his heart beating a bit. He just messed with that one section because some idiot couldn’t keep admin privileges locked down, he didn’t do some hacking to remove a whole website! He did a quick jump to 4chan and after a few tries, managed to find info on the pictures from before.
After some scrolling, he felt his heart stop for a moment. He read the new messages one by one. The domain was indeed down, but it was why that startled him: apparently police were involved. Had they managed to track the guy down? Was he that big of an idiot? Or maybe the whole FBI was involved or something? Pictures wouldn’t disappear from the internet, but did that mean they were routing out people who were behind how those pictures came to be?
He didn’t want to find out. Closing out everything, he made a quick detour to his main browser and did a quick deletion of all recent history. Browsing, cookies, every-fucking-thing. He just had to be cleaned of it as if possessing them would paint him as one of them. He could wipe his hands of this, and he had just one more piece he had to dispose of.
He moved his cursor over the whole folder that had his isolated and jailed filed, dragged it over to the recycle bin… and stopped. He just had to let go, do a right click, and then a delete command. But something stopped him.
Putting it back where it was, he put in the password and began searching. Finally, he came upon the image he had looked at before. He stared for a small period of time, his breathing quickening and part of his mind racing in satisfaction. Another part of his mind barely registered he had confirmed a printing command.
His blood ran cold. He closed down the file, and acted like it was literally on fire as he dumped it into the recycle bin. With a few clicks, suddenly the fire was out and they were gone. His computer was clean now… just the computer though.
Picking himself up, he ran out of his room and to the printer in the living room. It wasn’t a modern one, but what came out was still damning. Even if the quality had dropped, it was still clear enough what it was.
He didn’t know how long he was staring at her. Seeing her face, and just a reminder that he was so close to really seeing her again. He had to see her tomorrow. He needed to finally be back together with her. He needed… needed…
A heavy sigh came out of him. One part of him was still yelling at him to get rid of it. Just tear it up until you couldn’t figure it out and flush it down the toilet. Yet that other, longing part of him couldn’t let it go. A few minutes later and after some careful cuts with some scissors, he slipped the picture into his wallet.