Grunt moaned as he ran. He had lost sight of the others, in fact he had lost sight of most everything. His face was burning, his stomach was clenching and he was pretty certain that he had lost all of his hearing. The only thing in his ears was a deep ringing.
He puffed and huffed around in a circle, he thought that he was making progress. But all he was doing was running around the square in a slowly expanding circle. He would sometimes lean up against a window or a building and pant until he had a bit of breath back. He could only breath through his mouth and it felt as if his lips had swollen to the sizes of tangerines.
He wanted to curl up in a corner and just die. But if he did that than he would be caught. He kept on running.
He had lost Clunk and that was what really scared him. The others he could understand abandoning him. But his main man Clunk? Now that was low, insanely low.
An owl hooted in the night and flew overhead, Grunt did not hear it or see it. His eyes were too puffed up and pointed downwards anyway. He spat up a sickly bit of saliva on the concrete. He paused and leaned up against a window. He rubbed aggressively at his face and snorted in an attempt to clear his air way again.
Above him, leaning out her window was Pinkie Pie. She and her sister Maud lived with the Cakes above Sugar Cube Corner. Maud because she went to college nearby, and Pinkie because the rock farm wasn't a place "for" her as she always put it. That place was full of dreariness, boredom, rules, and suppressing who you were, a great place to live if you were a rock farmer, not a great place for a young girl. The owl had taken perch near Pinkie's window and she was feeding him some strange bread from the bakery.
It came over to her window once a week like clockwork and she would be up and handing it a stale cupcake or half a named him Hooty McHootingtonface Esq.
Not the strangest pet she had ever had, once when she was younger she had bought an Alligator from a guy on the street and kept it for over two years without anyone finding out!
Pinkie perked up as the jogger leaned against the side of the store again. He had been going around in a circle for the past twenty minutes and looked to be working up a sweat. Pinkie leaned over her head and torso sticking out into the night, trying to get a better look at him. Suddenly her phone buzzed in her pocket.
She pulled back in and flipped it open, the million of keychains on it jingling. She scrolled through Rarities message, her face becoming slack and open jawed in amazement.
"OHMYGOSHHHH!" She screamed out into the night, startling Hooty and the jogger. She didn't bother with the stairs, instead flinging herself out of her window and onto the overhang that the Cakes left out to block people from rain or sun. She landed, bounced and then fell right beside the jogger.
"YOUWOULDN'TBELIEVEWHATJUSTHAPPENED!" She shouted in the guys face. He merely moaned and covered his ears.
This girl was so loud. She was loud and obnoxious and from what he could see in his reduced sphere of vision she was incredibly pink.
"Someone broke into Rarity's! I have to go and-" Pinkie Pie stopped, she paused in midair as she had just tried to run as fast as possible but then something occurred to her.
A few minutes ago someone broke into Rarity's place.
She had managed to hurt one with mace...and deafen him...
And he should be around here somewhere...
"I've never seen you around here before." Pinkie said slowly turning to the guy. He was huffing and beginning to leave. She frowned, her hair lost it's signature fluff and she began to stalk after him.
"And the thing is I know everyone...but not you..."
The guy began to pick up his pace, limping slightly. He passed by the town fountain and stopped. He turned back to it and dunked his head into the water. He came back up coughing and crying a little. The mace was even worse. Pinkie gasped in surprise.
This guys face was blotchy and puffy and enormous, he looked like something out of her nightmares. Then she noticed it, the last little thing. The shoe print on his stomach.
From where a slipped had kicked him, a very specific slipper, one with a worn toe and stitches put in by the owner to sew up a break. Rarity's slipper to be precise.
"IT was you!" She shouted and grabbed the boy roughly by the scruff of his neck. She didn't know what she planned to do with him, if she had her personally modified and patented party cannon with her than she probably would have hit him with it. But she would just have to rely off of good old fashioned fisticuffs.
Grunt surprised and frightened screamed. He did not wait, instinct took over. He grabbed her hand, and with a strong throw launched Pinkie Pie over his head, she landed in the fountain back first, all of the air knocked out of her. She had no idea how it happened. One moment she was standing behind a guy, then she was flying through the air and now she was getting soaking wet as the perpetrator raced off towards Sweet Apple Acres.
Spitting and hollering Pinkie tried to stand up in the water. But she could not get a grip and instead floundered around like a fish on land.
Grunt did not slow down, he had to get away, he had to escape. He had to find his friends and then-
"GRUNT! GRUNT!" Grunt paused in his running and titled his head around. Finally from a sliver of exposed eye he saw a person running towards him. Clunk. The poor guy had what looked to be apple pieces in his hair and a wild look in his eyes.
"We need to get out of here man! Everyone in this town is crazy!" Clunk grabbed Grunt's arm and began to forcibly drag him down the sidewalk. The two raced away from the shouting Pinkie Pie and the hooting of the distressed owl. Grunt didn't know where they were going but that was alright. That was just fine. He trusted Clunk.
