Twilight lost her focus on the world around her. Color and sounds had no meaning as the figures in her field of view spoke in muted tones. It was with but a few words that drove her into this state of panic. The guard, known as Silver Whistle, had come to her and Sam with a message of great importance. A message that included words like ‘Pinkie Pie’, ‘ponynapped’, and ‘the assailants’. These were the only words that the quivering unicorn could clearly comprehend, but they did not give her comfort. In fact, it nearly shattered a piece of her heart. One of her friends; one of her dear friends was taken, and she couldn’t even have been there to protect her like they had promised to do for each other in their hours of need.

Twilight’s head swam in an infinite sea of scenarios and images of how it happened and how she had failed to uphold her promise. How she had failed to protect one of her friends when they needed her most. It was enough to drive her to tears, were it not for her mind going numb from the shock. However, between the dizzying haze of her run away thoughts and the world around her, she came to realize that somepony was trying to get her attention. Hands grabbed hold of her and shook her lightly at the base of her withers. In front of her, the oddly shaped colors became more defined in her eyes, and she was able to recognize a very worried looking conduit looking directly at her. Every few seconds, his outstretched arms that reached out to her gave her a light shake, and his mouth would move as if he were saying something. Actually, he was saying something. Her name.

“Twilight… Twilight, come on! You have to get it together!” Sam hollered in her face.

Twilight was soon able to recognize that she was still in the doorway of her lab, where she and Sam were given the message from Corporal Silver Whistle. Sam had apparently been trying to snap her out of her daze for who knew how long, and the corporal was relaying other news to some more guards who saluted and made a break for the end of the hallway and disappeared around the corner. More of Twilight’s senses were coming back under her control, and she was finally able to process what Corporal Silver Whistle had relayed to them in his message. Her heart sank and tears threaten to moisten her cheeks for the third time that day. Although what she heard next was enough to put a hold on her reaction.

“Twilight, Pinkie and the others are waiting for us in the lounge,” Sam repeat to his near comatosed friend, “Whistler is going to take us there, but you have to snap out of it first!”

“W-what?” Twilight finally choked out.

Sam sighed in relief at finally getting through to the unicorn. Another reminder to himself that these ponies were not exactly accustomed to stuff like this. At least, not the civilian populace that is. Although the guards were not really prepared for when it came to encounters with conduits, they sure as hell weren’t as squeamish when it came to the darker side of what any society would inevitably be plagued with and willing to face it to boot. Though now was not the time to look into this little detail, as the corporal was impatiently shuffling on his hooves, waiting on him and Twilight.
Seeing the confused expression still plastered on the purple unicorn’s face gave Sam a moment to reiterate Silver Whistle’s message

“Those D.U.P. wannabes kidnapped another citizen. Pinkie is a witness, and I think she could really use a friend by her side right now,” Sam stated while keeping as best of a smile as he could muster on his face, “Do you understand, Sparks?”

Relief. That one feeling was what now surged through Twilight’s body and nearly made her collapse to the marble floor beneath her from her shaky limbs. She couldn’t even begin to think about what she would have done if her friend had been stolen away. Twilight didn’t even want to think about it, as the mere thought made her tremble. Instead, her thoughts turned to what Sam had also said, ‘another pony had been ponynapped’. This did get Twilight’s heart to sink.

If Sam said that there has been ‘another’, how many others had there been before? Were they ponies that she knew? No, it didn’t matter if they were ponies that she knew or not. They were still ponies that had been taken away from their friends and family, yet all she could focus on were her own selfish thoughts. Twilight cringed at her thoughts and berated herself.

Before she could wallow in her own self-pity, Twilight returned to her original revelation upon hearing of her own friend’s condition. Pinkie had had an encounter with the ponies that had openly attacked the princesses in their own castle in broad daylight. Twilight herself was there in the throne room when the assailants attacked directly, although she was only there for a scant few moments before the rest of incident went down. Yet, she saw first hand what they these assailants were capable of with just their first attack. She even remembered that the very spot that the concrete blast hit was the same spot she had been standing in not even a moment earlier. Honestly, if Sam hadn’t knocked her out of the way like he did… She needed to make sure her friend was alright, and it needed to happen right now.

“Please, take us to my friend,” Twilight said after having to choke back more tears before they made their presence known.

Corporal Silver Whistle nodded as he turned to lead the conduit and unicorn toward the other side of the castle where her friend was waiting. The three raced through the hallways where they could see a few other guards scrambling to and fro when they got closer to the southern wing. Sam even caught glimpses of the barracks from the castle windows to see even more guards running about for what he could only assume was a reaction to the news of the ponynapping. The castle flew by in a blur, and they three were soon just outside of an open doorway where a few more guards were stationed, guarding the ponies inside.

Twilight gasped in shock as she came upon the scene inside. Her friends, Pinkie Pie and Rarity, were sitting across from each other in the lavishly furnished room. If Sam were in any humorous mood, he would have joked about how the princesses would have been perfectly at home starring in an episode of ‘MTV’s Cribs’. Pinkie was on one of the velvet red couches, being looked over by a royal physician. What Twilight saw was something that was seldomly seen from her pink party-loving friend. Her expression was fully downcast with ears splayed back and a vacant stare where her usual smile would be. She didn’t even look up to see who had arrived, as the physician was looking her over with one of her forelegs in his. Her usually puffy mane and tail drooped like a half deflated balloon, and her eyes looked glassy, as if her thoughts were elsewhere entirely. Across from her on the other couch was Rarity. She didn’t look to be fairing better. Her makeup looked to be runny, and further evidence of her poor appearance was that of a handkerchief daintily dabbing at her eyes to clear it of moisture threatening to stain her face was a constant battle. The rest of the room was bathed in a warm glow by the chandelier overhead, yet the atmosphere of it was cold and still.

“Twilight!”

Rarity was the first to call out after wiping away some errant tears from her face after peering up to check the new arrivals. Twilight rushed forth to embrace her fellow unicorn friend in a reassuring hug. The two could be seen visibly relaxing at just being in each other’s presence. The tension of uncertainty slowly lifting away, but not all of it was gone away with. As the two mares let the other go, their gazes fell on their other mutual friend across from them who had yet to notice the outburst. Neither of them knew what to say or do, but Twilight had to know what happened to put her friends in such states.

“Rarity, what happened? Is Pinkie okay?” Twilight asked, a fear of what she may hear growing inside of her.

“That, Twilight Sparkle, is something we would most certainly like to know,” a voice called out, cutting off any other conversion about to start.

From behind Sam in the doorway was Princess Luna, standing tall and regal. Upon her appearance, everyone in the room bowed deeply in respect. At least, all except Sam and Pinkie.

“S’up, Loony?” Sam comically waved to the princess, trying to sound a little cheerful to contrast the mood.

An irritated groan followed his greeting from who he could only suspect was a certain purple unicorn on his behalf. Although the princess gave him a narrowed look, she did not reprimand Sam on his informality, choosing instead to sweep her gaze over the other occupants of the room. Her expression faltered when she saw the far away look in Pinkie’s eyes, who had yet to acknowledge her presence. The princess of the night clopped past the conduit in the doorway with her clinking, silver slipper-horseshoes. At that sound, the pink pony’s ears swiveled around, followed by her head, and she half scrambled to bow from her seated position.

“Rise, mine subjects,” Princess Luna commanded, nodding to each as she passed, “We enjoy thy respect and courtesy, but tonight, we must make haste in ascertaining our adversaries’ actions and possible motives.” The princess’ visage changed from one of authority to one of sympathy as she approach the pink mare, “Pinkie Pie, we… I know it may be difficult, but would thee do us the justice of retelling us of the events that transpired?”

“I-I can,” Pinkie said, trying to force a smile upon her face that was anything but sincere, “Just leave it to me. Auntie Pinkie always knows how to tell a story. This will be a piece of cake.”

Princess Luna frowned, extending a downy soft wing to brush over the pink mare’s back like a blanket, “Miss Pie. You needn’t think that you have to put on a brave face for us. I and your friends would think nothing less of you for feeling vulnerable.”

Before Pinkie could protest, both her other friends crossed the distance of the room and wrapped her in a sandwich of a hug while Luna backed off to give them some more room. It appeared to have the desired effect as she nuzzled each of them for their support and finally let out a few sniffles of sadness she was trying to hold back.

“Thank you, girls,” Pinkie wiped a few stray tears away with the back of her hoof.

“We’re here for you, Pinkie,” Twilight said with another nuzzle, “Always.”

Pinkie’s smile returned, but a bit more subdued, “You’re all the best. I just wish I could of-could of done something for that other filly.”

At that, the tension in the room rose again. They were about to learn just what the pink, party pony saw that put her in such a downhearted mood. The ponies and conduit in the room waited as Pinkie composed herself and finally began.

“I was out in the lower ring of Canterlot. I was looking for one last gift for Sammy’s ‘Glad-you’re-recovering-just-fine’ gift basket,” Pinkie’s eyes lit up a bit, and she turned to face the conduit on the other side of the room, “Sorry, Sammy. That was meant to be a surprise.”

The conduit chuckled, if just to lighten the mood a bit more, “No worries, Pinkie. Just glad to know you’re safe.”

Pinkie returned the conduit’s cheer with a half-hearted giggle, “I promise to make it up to you. Anyways, down in the lower ring is the place that has any stores left open at this hour, so I wanted to look around there. Then, my ears got all floppy, my teeth started chattering, and my mane stood up as straight as it could. I knew that this was my Pinkie Sense combo meaning that there were some ponies getting into a fight nearby, so I thought to myself that I could help out these ponies with their troubles and stop the fight altogether. I followed some sounds coming from the next street over into an alleyway behind ol’ Sticky Mane’s candy shop. There was a crash and other loud noises coming from the alleyway before I got there. That’s when I heard the-the scream...”

Everyone in the room tensed up further upon hearing this. They could all see that Pinkie’s mood was quickly deteriorating. Her friends offered more reassuring words and hugs to help calm her down.

“I rushed over as quick as I could,” Pinkie continued, “I didn’t know that the ponies fighting weren’t just a group of ponies having a misunderstanding. There also wasn’t just ponies there. One of them was a griffon, I think. They were very scary looking, wearing weird yellow and black clothes. One of them, the griffon, said that they were heading back out through the west district. I wasn’t sure if I heard that right, but I couldn’t think about what else they said as I finally saw the pony that screamed earlier. She was a peach colored unicorn with a blueish mane. That was all I saw of her though, as it looked like the street around her had risen up and was swallowing her up like a giant street colored mouth. I was so scared, and I didn’t know what to do.”

Pinkie started to cry openly, but her story was not over just yet.

“Th-then, she saw me. She was so s-scared. too. She tried crying out to me, and the griffon and the other two meany ponies turned on me. I-I couldn’t see their faces, but I felt it in my gut. They were going to do the same to me, so I ran! I ran as I heard them chasing after me, but I left that other pony behind! I didn’t mean to. I-I-I just couldn’t look back! She looked so scared!”

At that, the poor filly broke down entirely. Her friends tried to comfort her, but even their efforts lacked the effect they were going for on their traumatized friend. The princess had a look of impending retribution for those that had caused such discord for her subjects. These ponies, and griffon, would not be spared when she got her hooves on them. However, she had to remember that the last time they had come into contact with these dastardly foes, that not even her sister could stand up to them entirely. It was only through sheer luck that Sam had been there when he did that the guards, Twilight Sparkle, and her sister had suffered not quite as much as they might have if he wasn’t there.

Luna’s thoughts fell on the conduit in question. She, like her sister, had taken a great interest in the conduit from another planet. Plus, from time to time, she would give her own input on Twilight’s project to help him return home. Yet, if her world’s magic was useless against this new threat, how would they be able to stop those behind this entire plot? The obvious answer was bring their own conduit ally into the battle through Samuel Reed, but she couldn’t. She had seen what kind of person Sam was. He was not a solider to be ordered into battle, yet he has had more experience in these types of things than anyone on her world. His last battle with the assailants certainly proved that he could take on this threat. Was it right for her to ask for his help in this matter, knowing full well what kind of danger it would entail and put him in? She could perhaps leverage his conditions to help them for his return home.

And that’s where the line was drawn. Princess Luna berated herself harshly for even considering that last part as an option. She may not have known everything that Sam had gone through, but the few times he had been open with her and the glimpses she would get from his dreams... Samuel Reed, the conduit, has faced more hardships than she would ever wish upon for someone so young in life. Besides, this was Equestria’s battle to be fought, not his. It would be difficult, but she and her sister have triumphed with their subjects over the celestial beasts of Argonos, the Mad Lord Grogar, and the Dragon Raids of the first settlements before this. The ponies of Equestria will triumph again over this new threat. Though, what would be the harm in at least asking the sole human conduit on their side for what advice he could offer in this endeavour. However little forthcoming he was with his trials against his own adversaries, he seemed very capable in fighting these types of battles by what she heard of the last incident with the assailants.

“Samuel, thy experience in this time would be-” Luna began, before turning around to realize that said conduit was nowhere in sight.

She scanned the rest of the room to find it devoid of the conduit entirely, like he was never there to begin with. Luna became extremely worried for what this might mean and searched the entirety of the room again.

“Pr-princess,” Pinkie’s somber sounding voice spoke up, “If you’re looking for Sammy, he left a few minutes ago.”

Pinkie’s friends, who had been busy comforting the pink pony, looked about the room once they heard what she had said. It seemed that neither of them had noticed the conduit’s silent exit from the room, like the princess.

Twilight, first to react, jumped up from her seat, “Pinkie, why didn’t you say anything?”

Pinkie flinched at her friend’s question, “Because, he looked really mad, but I didn’t know what to say anything. I thought you all saw him leave too because he needed a bit of time to himself.”

‘No!’ Princess Luna screamed in her head.

She rushed to lounge’s entrance where a few guards stood by before bowing in her presence. She waved for them to get up, searching the halls outside in a vain attempt to find the conduit who disappeared.

“You there,” the princess pointed to a random guard who jumped at becoming the center of attention, “Did Samuel leave at any time since he was summoned here?”

The guard looked nervous. He wasn’t sure how he was supposed to answer that question with the eyes of the princess upon him. He tried to flag his fellow guards to help him in some way, but they were just as in the dark as he was. So, swallowing the lump in his throat audibly, he answered the princess as best as he could.

“N-no, your highness. The human entered the lounge with Miss Sparkle and has not been seen exiting from then on.”

The princess was angry, worried, and above all scared for what this might mean. Where had Samuel gone? How did he sneak out without everypony except Pinkie noticing him? Those questions and more kept popping into her mind, but she would not get her answers by standing around here and just asking them repeatedly. Regaining her composure, she pointed to each guard she could see and issued her orders.

“You, rally thy fellow guardspony you encounter to search the castle for Samuel. You, We have already spoken with Captain Aegis Flare before he departed with his scouts to track the assailants. Have the pegasi chariots be ready to take reinforcements if the battlemages receive orders for such. Finally, relay a message to the city garrison to put a lockdown on the city. We must go to inform our sister of what has transpired,” each of the guards saluted and sped off after receiving their orders, leaving the princess of the night to slump her features from stress, “I will require more coffee before this night is done.”

Sam flipped through the air and shot another wire grapple at the building across from him. Without even thinking, he reeled in slightly and twisted his body in a way that propelled him through another high velocity swing out and around the building’s corner and further through the city of Canterlot.

Unlike most times where he couldn’t get enough of the freedom of pulling off a stunt like this, his features were set in a concentrated scowl. He used every single maneuver he knew to traverse the city far faster than he would normally do on a normal day, dodging and weaving through obstacles as the city slowly transformed from five story complexes to smaller stores and houses as he passed the almost visible border of the upper and lower rings of the city. His movements may have suffered a bit from the lack of viable swing anchors, but anytime he touched ground, he would break into a dead sprint to reach the western border of the mountain side city.

Back in the castle, when he was first met with the sight in the lounge, he could practically feel the saturated atmosphere of mournful heartbreak. He wanted to help Twilight and Rarity in comforting their friend who had suffered an ordeal that put her in such a state. Though, once he heard her story of how she did end up this way, he became angry. His fists tightened so much that the knuckles turned bone white, and his body shook with an unbridled rage. He was sure he had ground his teeth so hard that they were about to crack under the force of his jaw if he stood still for any longer.

So, while everyone’s back was turned in comforting the poor, pink mare. Sam slipped out of one of the windows in the lounge silently and snuck his way off the castle grounds like the many times before. Once past the castle walls, he held nothing back and rocketed off into the city.

On the way through the city, many thoughts passed through Sam’s mind, but they all held a common theme. He would make those D.U.P. wannabes pay for ever making one of his friends upset. This also gave him the perfect excuse to finally find out where these posers got their gear from, find out if they were actually working with the D.U.P., and put a stop to whatever plan they had for the pony that they had taken. The similarity to his world of how the D.U.P. would just drag people off the street to lock them away somewhere just hit too close to home.

With one final swing and a slingshot to bring him up the two story walls of the city barrier that kept stray ponies from wandering off the edge, he took a moment to catch his breath after pushing so hard. Looking over his shoulder, he couldn’t help but feeling a slight bit of accomplishment of having crossed the entire city of Canterlot in less than ten minutes. Unfortunately, once his body was done rejuvenating itself off the limited stores of wire in him, he couldn’t see any sources close to him he could syphon off of to top off his reserves. He thought to himself ‘no matter’ as he now had to focus on the next task at hand and determine which way the D.U.P. wannabes fled off to from the western wall he now stood upon, only now realizing that he had made a mistake.

“Ah, fuck me with brick!” Sam cursed, “Where the hell do I go now?!”

Indeed, without knowing which direction the assailants ran off to after fleeing to the western city border, he had no way to track them. Futilely looking out over the edge of the wall yielded no answers as well. Straight down was a sheer drop that plummeted down over a hundred feet before the incline took on any notable difference. Everywhere in between that was jagged, rocky cliffs with sparse vegetation. Further down the mountain was where the land started to show signs of life, with growing greenery and some hardly visible trails.

Looking off to the northern side of the wall held the same result, except for a large waterfall that fell from the side of the city and out of the cliffside until the water broke apart in the wind and looked to come out as a mist near the bottom of the mountain, by what Sam could see. The southern side of the wall curved until Sam could only assume that it wrapped around to hug the side of the mountain that the city clung to. Below that side was nothing of note, just like the view below him already.

Scanning out further, Sam would have taken the time to take in such a picturesque site before him of rolling fields and patches of forest under a blanket of stars and moonlight as far as the eye could see. However, he could not find the one thing he was looking for, which were the assailants or any signs of which way they may have gone.

“Son of a bitch! I should have gotten here sooner!” Sam cursed some more, although already knowing that arriving earlier might not have guaranteed better results, “Damn it.”

Sam paced back and forth up along the city wall as he thought.

“Okay. Now, if I were a bunch of D.U.P. wannabes and I just kidnapped a pony, where would I go? …Gah! I can’t figure this out! They might as well be halfway around the world for all I know,” Sam argued with himself angrily, “Great job, Sam. You just had to run off like an idiot without a plan, again. Well, I’m sorry. It’s not my fault Loony would have never let me go after these asshats if I stuck around to ask. Of course, now you don’t even have a clue as where to go from here! Maybe they just took straight off west from here. I mean, Pinkie did say they were heading west when she overheard them… and of course, I can’t see shit to really support that. Come on! There has to be some sort of sign or something… I wish Natie was here. She always knew what to do next. No, I just have to figure this out. Think, Sam!”

Stomping his foot in frustration, Sam grumbled to himself, trying to come up with any way he could track the assailants down on his own. The brainstorm session only helped in making the wire conduit even more frustrated, until he slammed the wall beneath him with few strikes from his wire whips. Not even the usual cathartic feeling of hitting something solid was helping the wire conduit to figure out his next move.

Just when the wire conduit was about to give up, he turned around to see something emerge from the castle and into the sky. It was hard to tell what it was, as the low light hid any distinguishing features. Not too long after the first object appeared, another took off into the sky from the castle, just like the other.

Sam thought he didn’t have time to ponder what the strange objects were, until the first started to become larger. Well, in actuality, it was getting closer. Soon, Sam was able to pick out a pair of silhouettes of ponies with wings at the head of the first object. Glints of light reflecting off the pegasi in armor allowed Sam to determine that they were royal guards, and soon after that, he could see that the object behind them looked to be like a sort of large chariot with the railings wrapping all the way around the back. The pegasi guards were hitched to the whole thing and were astonishingly pulling the whole thing through the air fairly quickly and easily.

Sam pushed the question of how such proportionally small creatures could pull such a large object and just chalked it up to ‘fuck it, magic’, for he had a more pressing issue to concern himself with. The pegasi driven chariot was heading in his direction. Wasting no time to find out the why, Sam dug a couple wires into the city wall and rappelled over the outer side of the wall to avoid being spotted.

“And of course, Loony just had to send out the royal goons to come find me,” Sam huffed while hanging over the side of the wall, praying to not be seen.

Although, what Sam did not expect to see was that the pegasi pulling the chariot zoomed past him overhead, not even paying him so much as a glance as they soared out into the open Equestrian skies.

“Alright then?” Sam spoke up in confusion, “If they aren’t looking for me… wait, maybe they’re heading out to chase down the D.U.P. wannabes! God, or pony god, if you’re listening. I take back everything I was about to say about you in the next five minutes.”

Sam watched the first chariot continue to grow smaller as it flew off and scolded himself for missing his chance to catch a ride. That is, until he remembered the second chariot.

Reeling himself up just enough to peek over the foot of the city wall, he spotted the second chariot closing in. Just like the first, it was being pulled by two pegasi, and the chariot’s railings were high enough that he could only spot fragments of movement within the air vehicle. Most likely more guards that had to hitch a ride. It was coming on fast, so Sam had to time it just right if he was to pull this little trick off. His whole body tensed, and he let go of the wall with his left hand’s wires while cocking his fist back. Sam timed the movement of the chariot with the thundering beating of his heart, and when the air vehicle was less than a half a dozen yards away from passing over the wall, Sam thrust his left fist skyward.

In the short time Sam had before the chariot came closer, he had been building up energy into his left fist, to the point where strands of wire arched around his fist and forearm due to the overcharge. Upon the release of that energy when his fist shot up, a pair of wire grappling hooks sprung from the back of his hand just before the knuckles and raced through the air to the point where Sam estimated to intercept with the chariot. Sam’s focus poured into the stretching length of wire, helping to guide the tips if they so much as twitched off course. Then, just as the momentum of the wire started to slip due to Sam’s control range, the chariot flew directly into the hooks and caught on the axles of the wheels on the underside. Sam cheered mentally, but almost forgot to let go of the wall and get yanked painfully along. Luckily, he broke the wires from his right hand just before and was soon soaring through the air, along with air vehicle in the night sky.

With no time to lose, Sam reeled himself back in and grabbed the chariot’s front axle with both hands. A few more wires from both his hands and feet ensured that he would not slip from the underside of the air vehicle while he hung around for the ride.

‘Just like ‘Cape Fear’,’ Sam deviously smirked, almost snickering to himself about the absurd parallel.

Through the wind whipping past his body, Sam suddenly heard a couple of voices above him.

“No sir, the sky chariot’s flight support enchantment is still intact!” the first voice shouted over the wind, “and it doesn’t look like we’re dragging anything behind us!”

Another voice grunted and shouted back, “Must be a faulty inscription then! Sergeant Ivory Fire, are you and Corporal Scarlet Twirl still able to make the flight to the drop zone?”

Another voice in front of the Sam, most likely one of the pegasi, hollered back, “It feels like we’re pulling an extra body, but it’s not enough to ground us anytime soon!”

The second voice grunted again, “Good, then. We’ll just have the battlemages look over the enchantment later once we get back! Captain Aegis Flare requested a full squad to his position after tracking down the assailants that were involved with the ponynapping that occurred earlier this evening! They appear to have hunkered down in an outcropping of mountains just to the east, behind the Canterlot Spire! We all know what these assailants are capable of, so I want everypony ready for their tricks once we reach the zone!”

A resounding round of ‘Yes, sir!’s echoed above Sam, and he smiled at the bit of good fortune he just stumbled upon. Not only were these guards out to hunt down the kidnapping wannabes, but they were bringing him straight to them as well. Sam was practically shaking with anticipation to go another round with the rotten creatures that would dare use conduit abilities for evil. The sky chariot banked in a wide arc before leveling out, and Sam viewed the upside-down world. He could just make out the first chariot ahead of them as they were pulling around the mountain that the city of Canterlot clung to, ‘Canterlot Spire’, and saw another, smaller clump of rocky terrain behind the spire that they were now heading toward.

It sickened Sam greatly that these D.U.P. wannabes were almost quite literally ‘hanging out’ right in their backyard. This would not deter the wire conduit though. In fact, it merely reinforced his resolve to put a stop to the beings that would abuse conduit powers just like the D.U.P. Besides, if the last encounter was any indication, these ponies were going to need his help to bring these wannabes down. Though for now, Sam just had to focus on hanging on and getting ready to drop when the ride was over.

Author's Notes:

I'm actually splitting the chapter that this came from into two (maybe three) parts. Haven't written too far beyond this, but I do plan for my inspiration to hold that I can get some nice, new chapters up pretty soon after this. Welp, enjoy. I also welcome all feedback and criticism for improvement.

And as always, A big ol' shout out to my man, Regreme for all his hard work on the editing stage.