//------------------------------// // Spring: Things Are Getting Flippin' Crazy! // Story: Earth-Chan in Equestria // by zack black //------------------------------// Brisk had always been an enemy. Fast had always been a fantasy. Frankly, Bright Star preferred a leisured canter. Sadly, his recent endeavor left him running after some blanket stealing thief meaning leisure just wasn't in the cards for him today. His breath was completely out of sorts having lost his prime a few decades ago. Still the old stallion managed to pick up his pace with a huff, galloping along after that pesky blue mare. She'd been gone the second he'd returned with a glass for her, as well as a promising cup of coco. He'd taken the time to give her some choices, setting everything up on nice silver tray for easier balance as he trotted on three hooves just to bring it to her. All a waste of time. He'd just missed her leave and the crime scene was blatant. Her bed of pillows and comforters was left sprawled across the ground in a makeshift bread crumb trail, leading straight to the Jail House exit. The only article not visible from the mess was one of his own personal small blankets that he'd given out of kindness to the poor, cold filly he'd met last night. It wasn't much really, but it was warm as all get, and happened to be one of his favorites. He'd brought it from home to wrap up in when he had to stay some long nights up at the station. It was criminal what she had pulled on him. And it just so happened to be his duty to wrangle in ponies just like her. Bright Star ran with a jumbled expression on his muzzle though, even as his face contorted during his rampant attempts to keep air moving through his lungs. He couldn't shake the betrayal and hurt, but it felt rather hard to stay completely angry at the little miss. She was a lithe young thing, probably close to her mid-twenties. From what he gathered from their conversations, and that wasn't a lot, he could tell this pony didn't have a plan. It wasn't the first time he'd seen something like this. Ponies got lost all the time in plenty of different ways. Equis was a harsh world full of pain, sorrows, and misdirection. Too many nights of escorting drunk mares and stallions home flashed through his head, but the memories that counted were the nights without all the alcoholic breath. When he took the time to talk to some folk who had chosen to wonder the streets for more reasons than just a good time. When he found her at the fountain, he'd kept quiet for a while. His duty was to keep watch and to guard the streets. It was no business of his to bother a mare on her own for no reason. But, eventually he got the picture that this wasn't just a simple walk out in the evening stars. She'd shown all the signs of a pony looking for reason. He'd felt a pang in his heart the moment he spoke, because the face she made when she turned around told him he'd interrupted something heavy. Something serious. It'd been no real sacrifice to offer up his Police uniform to keep her warm. It'd been his pleasure to escort her to the Station. It felt nice to keep her comfortable in her time of need. Memories of certain bath time misadventures shook him from his own reminiscing, and he frowned. Add four bars of soap to that list of burglary and that chalked up to one hefty ticket. One he'd enjoy giving, as well as a piece of his mind. Being sad didn't make you invulnerable to the law! With a snort, the Officer picked up pace. His maroon hooves clicking sharply against the stone road, his silver-ish gray mane began to whip past his ears as he pushed himself faster. A dark blue vest with a proud yellow stare hugged tightly to his body, showcasing his status. His duty. His reputation on the line. If he wanted that star to keep meaning what it meant, then he needed to fight through the burn and catch that quick little mare. Time for some answers! _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ How could such a bad idea be so rewarding? Here Earth-Chan was, stolen blanket draped around her body like a cloak, tied to her neck like a cape, drinking from a fountain like a desert withered mule. Water was bliss! Sweet heavens, she'd struck it rich. Each gulp giving her the nourishment she needed to quell her dry, demanding throat. It wasn't enough, not even close to enough! She pushed her face into the pool and began savagely drinking. The cold, pure embrace of fountain water against her face made quite the contrast to her bath last night. This chilled her in wonderful ways, all misgivings forgiven and forgotten. She loved the fountain! She couldn't see her life without it. Another splash next to her made it apparent that others shared in her opinion. Earth-Chan slowly opened her eyes underneath the water's surface, finding it difficult, but not impossible. In fact, it got easier the longer she stayed under. Getting use to the blurry vision of watery depth, the silly mare took a glance over to see who had joined her. Pink. An equally silly pink pony looked back at her. Eyes just as blue as Earth-Chan's fur. She gave the biggest grin she'd seen a horse make, which was a revolutionary new experience in of itself. Before she could even blink the pink pony opened her mouth and began to gurgle a slew of bubbles into her face. Earth-Chan was forced to to squint and wince away from the barrage. Her view of the pink pony completely obscured. "Guuuuuh!" She gasped out loud as she drew up for breath. Sweet heavens, she'd nearly forgotten about air! She needed air! Sweet, sweet air! Oh, it was one extreme to the next. This was intense! If this was what micro-managing was like, she was going to have a bit of a learning curb. But, gosh was it worth it! Giving her head a little shake, she dried up quickly and regained her floofy complexion. Once she found a bit of her baring she looked to where the pink pony was and ended up frowning. "Huh." She hummed curiously as there was no sign of her anywhere. The pink pony had up and left. Well, that was disappointing. Having gotten enough to drink she figured it was time to split before the heat caught up to her. It was probably bad to keep the blanket, but it had to be the best, cuddly piece of fabric she'd ever felt! It'd made an impression on her and she wanted to keep it with her. Surely that police pony could understand. She only wanted its warmth. It just so happened to be his when she found it. If he looked at it differently he would realize that he didn't necessarily need it right now and she did. This was charity and frankly Earth-Chan thanked him for his donation with all her heart. "Hey, you! Stop right there!" The warning before the tackle had been nice. It really gave her time to look and meet 'Gruffy McGruffin' eye to eye. That split second of recognition followed by the unsure smile of acceptance as one realizes that this is about to hurt. Oh my gosh, his eyes matched his mane, that was so pretty! Crash! The two went sprawling across the floor, tumbling together in a ball of embrace before spilling away from each other, the officer flipping over her and careening away from Earth-Chan. The stallion took a few more rolls more than she did, his own momentum propelling him well past his target before he stopped with a grunt. A plethora of disgruntled groans could be heard once both ponies came to a stop and laid in their own respective heaps. The blanket had come undone from Earth-Chan's neck during the incident. Now left draped on the cold, dirty stone floor. Suffice to say, the commotion had caught the attention of a few passers by. A few came to look and see if everything was alright. The scene was clear, there was only one possibility having seen such an impressive flip from such an old stallion. A guilty looking blue mare began to stir while one of the town's senior police officers laid panting and extinguished. A collective frown spread across the crowd as it began to form. "What's going on here?" A caramel coated towns folk asked aloud. A bunch of chatter started to wave across the audience, each one just as ticked off as the last. "That mare knocked over Bright Star!" "It's true, I saw it happen, she threw him to the ground!" Earth-Chan finally started to sit up, her movements slow so not to sway her head too much. She held her forehead, caressing a spot just above her eye. Brain damage was becoming a viable symptom by this point. The poor mare seemed to have a knack for crashing. With her head still ringing, the last thing she needed was all this yelling right now. Looking to the crowd and perking her ears she could only tilt her head in confusion. Wait, what was all this? Were they blaming it all on her? Albeit their assumptions were well warranted, those details were more than a little stretched though! "H-Huh?" "You flipped one of our Police Ponies!" Earth-Chan blinked at the accusation, deeply confused at first before she looked from 'Mr. Gruffly' back to the crowd. "Wait, wha- He hit me! And he flipped himself!" "He was probably trying to stop you, and you flipped him to get him off your tail!" The blue mare gave a huff as she got to her hooves. "He crashed into me at full sprint! I had nothing to do with the flip!" "So you admit he was trying to stop you!" There was a silence for a while, all those glares really starting to give Earth-Chan the nervous shivers. She'd begun to back away out of discomfort. The towns people saw and started to slowly step closer after her. "I didn't admit to anything! Look, me and the Gruff pony had had a um... a disagreement!" "You flipped him over some small argument?!" "Okay, can we drop the flip? I had nothing to do with the flip." An out-crier from the back chimed in. "Lies! He wouldn't have flipped had it not been for you! You had EVERYTHING to do with the flip!" Earth-Chan had kept backing up the entire time. Slowly scooting away from the fountain and towards her escape route. She'd noticed an alley just down the street. She didn't know where to go from there, but things were getting to hot to handle here. Some ponies could see she was trying to inch away though, catching on quick they moved to cut her off and slowly closed in around her . This left the poor pony with nowhere to go, slowly backing her into a door way to a house. The frame of the door could be seen in her peripherals, making her feel more and more closed in. She couldn't see past the crowd. They all looked rightly miffed at her. They were calling her hateful things like, Thief and Blueberry. Blueberry hurt most of all. Being degraded to nothing more than a fruit in the eyes of the people? It brought tears to her eyes, and yet ponies continued to close in. "Hey! Now where do you all get off scaring my suspect!" The gruff, soothing voice chimed in from behind the crowd, cutting through the rabble and shouts like butter. "I thought that was still MY job." The shouting died quickly as everyone looked to the voice. Plenty of happy voices and noises could be heard as the Police pony stood to his hooves looking to the crowd with a quirked brow. The crowd was pleased to see him well and unhurt by what was possibly the biggest and most influential flip of the year. A collection of foals broke from the group to go and greet old stallion. "Mister Star!" An orange colt with a purple mane and tail cheered his name, clearly very happy to see him. The way the children and adults reacted it seemed like this officer in particular was highly revered. Which made this all the more clearer as to why Earth-Chan had been prosecuted like this. "We saw her flip you, and we wanted to help catch her for you!" Well, she wouldn't say caught, but I guess that silver filly could say whatever made her happy. "Y-Yeah, she shouldn't mess with a hero!" One white and brown spotted colt chimed in meekly, seemingly unsure of everything but his confidence in the stallion before him. That made 'Gruffopolous' scoff and reach a hoof down to tussle the last colt's mane. "Aaah, don't be goin' throwing words like that all willy-nilly. I'm just an old police pony." The colt frowned, looking indignant at having his compliment shot down. The officer saw his face right quick though and put a stop to it. "Buuut, hehe, I guess it's okay to call me that. Just, keep it sparse. Don't need to grow a big head. An old cop with an ego is a nightmare." With that he gave the colt a pat and began to walk over to the crowd. The children in tow. That was the last Earth-Chan saw before she noticed the door opening behind her. She started to look behind her, but before she could two pink pony hooves reached out and grabbed her around the croup, pulling her rump and the rest of her into the darkness of the building before shutting the door quickly and quietly. _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ As he walked towards the crowd he remembered something important and simply turned to the orange colt from earlier and asked him to go pick up his blanket for him. The colt was all to happy to accept and went trotting over to the fountain to go find it. Bright Star then addressed the filly walking next to him. "And I'll have you know, Miss Spoon, that filly couldn't have possibly 'flipped' me, she could barely keep herself from shivering with a wet hoof, let alone lift a big ol' stallion like me." He shook his head at the thought and chuckled. "Aaaah, when you get my age, it's hard to keep up. I ran a little too hard like a silly pony trying to prove something, and it got to the point where I couldn't stop in time. Hehe, I reckon I flipped over that poor filly on my own accord. Gave her a nasty spill too." He looked to the crowd, noting a few smiling faces that he recognized. They respected him passing and shuffled out of his way. "That said, miss, I'm terribly sorry for the crash back there. It was a really uncalled for." He let out a sigh before looking to the door way. "I just couldn't let you get off with m-" He stopped short of what he was saying and gawked at what was now a completely empty door way. Everyone's attention honed in on his reaction and all collectively gasped at the sight of a missing pony. Multiple heads swiveled around, trying to find where the green and blue haired trouble maker had gone. Muttering began to rise as everyone started asking questions. It was hard to believe that no one had thought to keep an eye on her. It wasn't long before embarrassment started to sweep across the crowd. Bright Star was given plenty of apologies that he didn't need right now. Too distracting. It couldn't be helped. His suspect was gone, he had his blanket back, case closed right? A small smile slowly crept over the stallions muzzle. He let out a small chuckle before shaking his head. This pony had given him a lot of trouble today. And this little disappearing act wasn't going to dissuade him from getting a little revenge. Letting out a sigh he walked in front of the crowd and turned to address them, standing just in front of where the peculiar blue mare had just stood herself. "Well everyone, it's a shame. She got away." Multiple ponies hung their heads, their cheeks bright with shame. "But, it's okay... because I have a proposition for ya." Everyone looked up, giving him their rapt attention. Looking for anyway to make it up to the stallion they prized and respected. "Now, there's nothing worse than an old stallion left to comb the streets looking for this little mare. I'd say it'd be fairly appreciated to have a little help" His own smile grew into a malicious smirk. "So, I propose a pony hunt! Who ever can catch and bring that mare to me by six a'clock this afternoon will be rewarded handsomely with a tub of my daughter's homemade icecream!" Several stomping hooves and happy cheers rang from the audience. " Hehe, now, do I have any volunteers?!" The crowd lit up with excitement and approval, everyone shouting their acceptance of the challenge, now brimming with energy as they all waited for his signal. "Well alrighty! Keep it clean, keep it light-hearted, no getting hurt! You all know the drill, ready, set, go!" And they were off!