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// 2 - Stress Shopping 
// Story: Little Hooves in a Dark World 
// by David Silver 
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An hour later, they were cuddled up on the couch together watching a hilarious romp about ponies getting into wacky antics. Raspberry giggled in delight, feeling herself finally beginning to relax. As the end credits rolled, she murmured, "Thank you, Lucky. This has been a perfect distraction." She glanced down at her phone, sighing at the notification that the delivery app had assigned her a new order. "I forgot to turn that off."

She examined the address. It was a nice part of town, and they had ordered normal things. "I should get to this." She rose to her feet and stretched. "Thank you, again."

"No." Lucky was on his feet too, hand on her shoulder. "You have room in your car for one more. Mind a co-pilot today? This doesn't feel like a day for flying solo, you know?"

Raspberry considered that and immediately perked up at the idea. "Actually, that sounds fantastic." She flashed her friend a bright smile. "Come on! Let's go gallop."

Sandra went out to her car with Louis alongside her. "I didn't want to ask."

Louis slid in on the other side. "You didn't have to ask." He pulled out his phone and tapped at it gently. "Lucky for you, they don't need me , not today. We're free to hang out."

Sandra's hands wrapped tighter around the wheel. "There is that. Just hope my... Freak fan doesn't show up." She started the car up. "Here goes nothing!"

They stopped at one house. A woman hurried out. "Sorry!" She grabbed a bag from Louis. "The kids would be fine..." She headed back in with the bag.

Sandra smirked at her partner. "Well, we know what that means." They were on their way again, soon to reach their destination. Each delivery went as planned, nice and smooth. "Maybe he got the hint and buzzed off." She glanced aside at Louis. "I don't want to monopolize your whole day."

"Nope, you get my whole day. Besides, I could use some tips to make my own deliveries better."

"Better?" Sandra laughed. "Yours are amazing. You've got a good eye." She glanced away and back. "And we both know you only do some deliveries because I do them all the time. You don't need extra cash."

"I like knowing what my friends are going through." He put a hand on her thigh, but she somehow knew he meant nothing but support by it. "And you are one of those."

She laughed as the urge struck her. She had been friendzoned by him a long time ago, but his friendzone was a comfortable place to be. "You're too much."

"My mom says so." They parked out front of the house she wanted. Sandra reached into the bag and checked everything. "Good." She grabbed a bag and headed in. "You coming?"

Louis exited and followed along after a moment, just in time for Sandra to put the bag in a somewhat bored looking customer's hands. "Have a nice day." Sandra waved, turning, and almost bumping into Louis. "Oh, there you are. Look, Why don't I actually turn off the app? We could do something, anything, else?"

Louis grinned. "There's an art fair..."

Sandra groaned. "But..." Her phone was buzzing. She pulled it out to stare at the screen. She was being harassed, online, with comments on her videos, a variety of them. "Look at this." She flipped her phone into his view so he could see the peppering of messages across her videos. "He hasn't given up."

Louis pursed his lips. "We can take care of that." He pulled out his own phone and opened it. "One problem..."

Sandra frowned, worried. "What? Anything's better than being harassed!" She paused. "Unless it's illegal?" She nudged him towards her car. "We may be magical little horses, but let's keep our noses clean."

"But you need a big nose, or you'll have trouble sniffing..." Louis ducked under her smacking hand, laughing as they went to the car. "Okay, okay..."

She pointed to the car and soon they were both inside. She flicked off the delivery app and stuffed the phone away with a sigh. "Art fair? I've never actually been. Sounds more fun than worrying about that jerk."

Louis rubbed his hands together. "Right..."

Sandra pulled them out with a hum. "So what kind of art? Painting, sculptures, poetry, performance...?" She trailed off as she gave him a curious look.

He plugged in an address on his phone and set it down, already in navigation mode. "Just follow the instructions and you'll soon find out."

Sandra had to smile. "I can handle that."

The pair arrived at the venue, parking and exiting. As they approached the ticket booth, they noticed it was free and began making their way inside. Louis shrugged as they headed in. "I forgot this was a freebie. I think it's mostly because they're hoping folks actually buy some of the stuff inside."

Sandra hiked a brow at that. "Guessing that means nothing huge."

As it turned out, it was indeed small things, little dolls of all sorts, each cuter than the last. Sandra laughed and pointed at her favorites, her spirits raising as they went. "This was the absolute perfect idea."

"I figured..." Louis shoved his hands into his pockets with a smile. "You work hard. It's nice to get to blow off steam, right?"

"Without blowing out my bank account..."

"Speaking of that." He pointed to a doll she kept going past. "Want it?"

She leaned in to get a peek at the price. She felt her tail explode down her pants leg at the shock of the large number. "What is that made of?!" She drew the tail back in before any passerby may notice, she hoped.

He was already picking it up, feeling it. "Solid metal. Gold and silver, guessing." He offered it to her. "And worth it if it makes you happy."

It was a statue of a fox with one paw raised in the air and it was adorable, and too expensive. "You can't."

"I can, I am." He offered it anew. "You deserve a treat."

She eyed it a moment before accepting it with a soft murmur. "Thanks, Lucky..." She tucked it into a pocket with a shrug. "I'll be taking this home, but..." She spotted another cute one.

He laughed at her wandering eyes. "Pick your favorite, that's the one we'll buy."

A firm hand came down on her shoulder. "Ma'am." It was a security guard, glaring at her. "We ask that people keep the merchandise in view until they pay for them."

Sandra startled at the sudden intrusion. "I was going to buy it, sir." She patted her pocket. "I'm carrying it for ease of access."

He held out a hand, scowl unmoving. "Buy it, hold it out, or put it down. Those are the rules."

Louis slid between Sandra and the security guard. "I'm paying either way, relax."

But the guard didn't look like he was relaxing. "Fine, I'll buy it then." He gently guided Sandra towards the register. "What a piece of work."

Louis put down a card at the register, letting the bored lady there work on cashing them out. "Want to look around some more, or did that burst your bubble?"

Sandra tried to relax her shoulders. "I just want to leave now, if that's okay."

They were heading out shortly, with another item Sandra had seen in the window. "You spoil me."

"Odd." He leaned in a bit, resisting a laugh. "You get fresh with me all the time."

She swatted at him with a wry look. "That was bad." But she was smiling despite the Dad Joke™️.

A soft tone rang from Louis' phone. "Huh." He dug it out and inspected it. "Horse play."

She knew what that meant and they were soon in the car. "Serious horse play?"

"Looks like it. Can we head back to my place?" He pointed the vague way, but knew she could figure out the exact path.

She pulled away from the art display. "What's wrong?" She pulled out onto the main road, going as quickly as allowed. "Someone get hurt?"

"Worse." He held up the phone, just to reconsider it. Sandra was driving and all. "Signs point to something deciding to hunt feral horses."

Feral horses was something of a new term, to describe ponies that refused to join up with the organizing herds. Sandra and Louis were both happy members of theirs, so they weren't wild. Being wild meant they lacked the immediate protection of that social network, but ponies were ponies.

They didn't like hearing their fellow ponies were being picked on or hurt. "Are they being stalked too, or a step worse than that?"

"Two steps worse than that." He stuffed the phone away. "Let's get home and we can go over the details."

It took a bit before Sandra pulled up at his home and they were hurrying back to that living room. "Alright, what's going on?"

He handed over the phone. "Whoever's doing this, it's not human."

Once inside, the door closed, Sandra fell forward to Raspberry, tail lashing with agitation. "We're not human, technically." She turned to Lucky. "But I'm hoping it's not another pony." She cringed at the idea of ponies attacking one another.

He was able to show her the pictures. That pony had not been harassed, at least as an end point. That was a dead horse, flopped over in the woods somewhere. "Christ on a stick," she hissed out, backstepping. "What tore them up like that?"

Lucky shook his head. "I couldn't say. But we can't even take the chance that it's something working on the periphery and working its way towards proper herds." He pointed at Raspberry. "I'd love to not bring this up, but someone I know's been stalked recently, and I hate these two things together."

She shuddered with building dread, wings fidgeting at her side. "I am not feeling the laughter right now."

"Me neither, but that's what ponies do!" Lucky pumped a hoof. "We'll get them to laugh, right? Like when we visit hospitals."

Raspberry wrinkled her nose. "You sure you aren't trying to become a Laughter? This--" She pointed to the picture. "Is not the work of some child in need of a smile. I don't want whatever did this to smile, ever. I know, against my type, but I have limits."

She applied both hooves to her face, breathing into them a moment. "Sorry. This is a bit stressful."

Lucky walked closer, pulling her into a hug. "For all of us."

She pressed against him. "This is silly. Let's do what ponies do." She looked to her own phone and groaned. "But I can't make people laugh and smile if I'm being stalked on that channel."

Lucky poked at her. "Can't you? You just need your stuff. Want me to go get it?" He pointed a hoof at the door. "You can set up a little studio here, and get right back to streaming."

"It's not that easy." But her resolve wavered. "Still..." She ran her hoof through her hair. "I really do enjoy making people smile. If I can still do that..." She gave Lucky a look. "And maybe get some good done at the same time..."

Lucky nodded, stepping back and rising to two legs, Louis returned. "You wait here and try to relax. I'll grab your stuff."

She watched him go and went to settle on the little nest of bedding she had left in the living room. "This sucks."

But it only got worse as time went by. Would he make it there and back? Had she just thrust him into danger? Other such thoughts haunted her, making her lips pull back and heavy snorting fill the air. "This is just." She shook her head, aborting the thought. "He's fine! He'll be back in a moment and then we'll laugh."

Not being there made the wait longer, so she just had to hope.