My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

by Drizzle Quill

Chapter Seventeen: Double-0 Hedgehog

Russell Ferguson picked up the book, carried it to the shelf, and slid it on. Repeating the procedure, he turned to the next book, checked to make sure the title was alphabetical, carried it to the shelf, and slid it on. Over and over, again and again. Book after book after book after book. He hadn’t even known there were so many books!

“Rusty, you doing alright?” called Twilight from the other room over, where she was sorting her stack of books with Spike.

“Yeah! Twilight, you have so many books,” the hedgehog replied, almost squealing with glee as he read the cover of yet another. “The Extremely Advanced Guide to All Natives of Equestria. Are hedgehogs in here?”

Spike’s scaly purple head popped out from the next room over. One glance at the cover of the book and he seemed to instantly know what was in it. “I’m pretty sure the rodents are on page 39.”

“Rodents?” Russell repeated, feeling his temper flare up; quickly he shoved it back down and turned to said page to see how his cousins looked. To his surprise, Equestrian hedgehogs looked in no way slightly similar to him whatsoever! Fuming silently, he slammed the cover of the book back down again, only to remember there were probably geckos in here. “Vinnie! Hey, Vinnie, where are you?”

“He went for a walk with Zoe,” came the voice of the baby dragon distantly.

Russell blinked his green eyes, shrugged, and went back to placing books on the shelf. What his friends did was none of his concern.

Just then, a panicked unicorn slammed through the door, screeched as it slammed back on its hinges, darted up the stairs, levitated Russell using blue aura, looked around as if looking for someone, dropped the hedgehog, darted into the other room, and yelled, “TWILIGHT!” just seconds before there was an enormous crash, and the sound of books thudding on the ground, one after another.

Russell, still somewhat shell-shocked, managed to scramble to his paws and dart to the other room. Spike also looked startled, though he recovered quickly. With a slight bow, he announced, “Hello, M’Lady—”

But Rarity ignored him and slammed into the violet unicorn, breathing harsh and heavily and blue eyes wide. “TWILIGHT! Twiiii~light!” she wailed, shaking her friend back and forth.

Twilight blinked, clearly frazzled. “Ye-ye-yeah, R-R-Rarity?” she stuttered, being forced to begin a new syllable each time her head leaned in a new direction.

Rarity seemed not to notice. “Twi-light! Twi-light! Twiiiiiiliiiig—”

One of the lavender unicorn’s ears flicked in annoyance. “Rarity…”

“Twiiiiiliiiiig—”

“RARITY!”

Rarity stopped shaking; Spike blinked a few times, and Russell actually stumbled backwards into a wall at the librarian’s admittedly unexpected outburst. “What is it?” she flared. “You knocked over my books! There had better be a good reason for this, Rarity!”

The white unicorn put one hoof to her forehead and swooned; Spike whipped up behind her and winced as she landed dramatically on top of him, instead of landing neatly in his arms as he had seemingly assumed. “Oh, Twilight! Of all the worst things that could happen, this is THE! WORST! POSSIBLE! THING!”

Twilight’s gaze softened, though an air of nervousness went up around her; Russell could feel it hovering in the air. “What’s wrong, Rarity?”

Rarity gazed up at her as if in some sort of a dream. “I’ve come across a horrible discovery!” Turning to Russell, she sighed and lowered her head. “I believe some cruel ruffians intend to take your friends!”

The whole story was explained rather quickly, though that might have been because Rarity was speaking so fast it was hard to understand her in some sections of the tale. But the general point was taken, and it wasn’t good. Not at all.

“So let me get this straight,” Twilight steadied Rarity’s shaky breathing again. “A zebra and a mountain goat and two other creatures – could they have been Diamond Dogs, you think?” Before Rarity could reply, she shook her head, clearly speaking to herself alone now. “No, Diamond Dogs have never worked openly with ponies, and if they have, only for a certain reward of gems, and it sounds like these two were after bits. So that makes me wonder…what could they be?”

Rarity coughed, as a way to say, Continue? Twilight blushed and continued to speak, Spike and Russell hanging on to her every word.

“So that would mean that they’re trying to…maybe lure…your friends into their circus and use them for bits…but why couldn’t they just ask you? Why do they have to take you?”

They were all quiet for a moment after that, presumably trying to figure it out, though no one seemed to come up with any results. Once or twice someone would open their mouth and go, “Ah-ha!” but would soon go silent again.

Finally Spike couldn’t seem to take it anymore. “So why don’t we just infiltrate them and see what they’re really up to?”

Everyone stared at him; violet eyes, sapphire eyes, and green eyes alike.

Spike blinked. “What?”

Slowly the violet and sapphire gaze turned to Russell, who felt his heartbeat rapidly quicken under their stares. “Oh, no. Please don’t tell me…”

“I’ve never designed a hedgehog’s outfit before?” Rarity squealed, jumping up and beginning to bounce up and down excitedly, much like Minka when she had had too many treats. “And a spy outfit? For a hedgehog?” She squealed and giggled, causing Spike to sigh. “C’est magnifique!”

“He won’t need a spy outfit, Rarity,” Twilight pointed out, rolling her eyes as she used her magic to levitate a stray book back into its place. “He would just need to go with Zoe and Vinnie tomorrow and figure out what the plan is.” She looked back at the hedgehog, a small smile playing on her face. “You would do that, wouldn’t you, Rusty?”

They were all staring at him. Again. Russell gulped. He definitely wasn’t the “do a lot of stupid and dangerous things” kind of guy – that would be Pepper for sure, or maybe even Vinnie.

But if his friends were counting on him for this one act…

Russell sighed and looked down, wondering if he was making the right choice. Remember what happened with Scout. You can be a spy.

“…I’ll do it.”

The next day had come very, very quickly. It was making Russell awfully nervous, and when he set out to find Zoe and Vinnie (who had left about five minutes earlier) about fifteen minutes before twelve, Rarity, Twilight, and Spike all gathered around to wish him luck.

“You can do this!” Twilight gave him an energetic grin.

“Blast the plans of those ruffians and report back!” Rarity nodded.

“Make sure you three get away safely!” Spike gave him a thumbs-up, which Russell reluctantly returned, feeling like he was going to throw up. Why had he ever agreed to do something dangerous like this?

He knew the answer, even if he didn’t want to face it. It was all for his friends. Everything was for his friends.

Russell nodded and let out a shaky grin. “I’ll do my best,” he murmured, causing the others to begin cheering as he headed out to face dangers unknown and perils unplaced…

It was very, very easy to find Vinnie and Zoe. All he had to do was follow the sound of the familiar singing voice he knew belonged to the spaniel and the trail was simple. Strolling up to them like nothing else was going on, the hedgehog smiled as he caught up, trying to make it look convincing. “Hey, guys!” he panted, placing one arm on a surprised Vinnie’s shoulder. “Where’re you going?”

Vinnie blinked. “Oh, hey, Rusty! We’re going to be in a circus.”

Russell’s spines bristled at the mention of the circus, but he forced himself to stay calm. “A circus, huh? Is that where you’re going now?”

“Oh, yes! It shall be positively fa-bu-lous,” Zoe trilled, doing a little twirl and letting out a sharp woof as her beret fell off; quickly she snatched it back up again and continued to hum to herself. Russell nodded.

“Can I come see this…this circus as well?” he asked curiously. Just keep it together, Russell. I know it’s hard to lie to them, but you have to keep it together.

Vinnie shrugged his green shoulders, knocking Russell’s paw off. “Meh, why not. The zebra, she shouldn’t care.”

The zebra! Russell recalled Rarity’s words and felt a shudder pass throughout his entire body. However, he couldn’t let it show on his face that he knew who they were speaking of, or at least had a vague idea. “Fun,” he smiled nervously. “I’ll come along, then.”

They walked for a while without speaking; Zoe hummed a tune to herself but seemed to pick up on the others’ irritation with it and stopped quickly. Vinnie walked straight ahead, seemingly thinking (that could be dangerous!), and Russell simply followed.

Finally they reached the edge of Ponyville. Ahead lay a large, thick, dark green forest swamped with cobwebs and shadows. The hedgehog shivered as Zoe and Vinnie continued forward with no hesitation. This had to be the forest Rarity had spoken of, Russell remembered. The Everfree Forest.

Maybe this was a bad idea. Okay, scratch that. It was a terrible idea. But he couldn’t quit now. Not as he was feeling the squelch of mud in his paws as they headed towards where the zebra would surely be waiting.

“I don’t see anyone,” Russell noted as they approached the bushes.

“Shh!” Zoe snapped.

“She’ll be here,” Vinnie replied with confidence.

Russell took in a deep breath and waited, forcing his paws to stay in place.

And soon he heard the voice. The sickly sweet, golden-honey voice that wove its way in and out of his ears, almost making him fall asleep; in fact he literally had to struggle to open his eyelids.

“Hello, friends. And who is this?”

“Hi!” Vinnie waved and grinned like this zebra was his new best pal. “This is Rusty—”

He couldn’t help himself; slapping the gecko’s hand away, he snapped, “Russell.” True, sometimes he liked the playful nickname, but right now didn’t seem to be the right time to use it. “I’m here as Zoe and Vinnie’s guest to hear about your so-called ‘circus?’”

The zebra blinked her aqua eyes and batted her eyelashes. “Why of course! Come right this way, all three of you. Zoe, Vinnie, go ahead and find my co-worker, Biff the mountain goat. You’ll know him when you see him – not a pretty sight for the eyes. Russell, since I didn’t have the pleasure of meeting you yesterday, can we stay behind and have a little…chat?”

A tingle of displeasure rippled down Russell’s back, but he shook it off. Perfect. A way to get more information. “Of course!”

Zoe and Vinnie chatted aimlessly as they padded on ahead, leaving the spy hedgehog with the bad zebra. Things didn’t seem to be turning out well. However, that was always how it worked in the spy novels; Russell should know, as he had read enough of them. “Soo…what’s your name again?” he asked calmly. Deep breath in, deep breath out. In, out. In, out.

“Zelda.” Her voice wove itself in and out of its ears. In and out. In and out.

“Zelda. A nice name for a…nice zebra.”

Zelda laughed, a deep laugh that somehow seemed changed from her normal voice. “Oh, I’m far from nice, Russell. But something tells me you already knew that. Didn’t you?”

Panic flashed throughout his mind. “I-I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve never heard about you before five minutes ago.”

Her breath brushed past his small ear. “I know there was a unicorn on our trail yesterday, Russell. I know that she would have gone and tattled straight to the Element of Magic. And I know that’s who you happen to be staying with.”

Russell forgot his spy cover for a moment; he was too panicked to move. “But…but how?” was the only thing he could weakly stutter out. “How did you…?”

“Tut, tut, Russell. A lady never reveals her secrets.”

Turquoise eyes flashed in front of him; Russell had a brief vision of a hoof rising up to hit him, but before he could scream, there was a blinding pain and the world went dark.