My Littlest Pet Shop: Escape from Equestria

by Drizzle Quill

Chapter Twenty: Rodeo Clown

As soon as Pepper Clark heard the heartbroken song in the distance, she knew who it was, and instantly she knew it had been a bad idea to come. Zoe…her best friend Zoe…would not have been crying if there wasn’t danger.

“Vinnie,” she hissed, elbowing the gecko in the arm. “Do you hear that?”

“Hear what?” Vinnie was obviously entranced whilst waiting for the mountain goat. “Shh, Pepper, be quiet! He’ll be here soon – he’s a real charmer; you’ll love him!”

Maybe it wasn’t Zoe. Maybe Pepper was just a little nervous. She took in a few deep breaths and released them. Yeah, she was just being silly. After all, it was time for her to go be a circus clown, and what could be wrong about that?

The other pets also seemed to be excited: Sunil and Penny were whispering, while Minka bounced up and down in one place, blue eyes sparking with thrill and joy. “This’ll be so fun! Painting for a circus!” she squeaked in her high-pitched voice.

They were all ready to have fun, so she should have fun too. After all, it was a circus, and the main comedic performers in circuses were always clowns. Rodeo clown-land! Pepper recalled the event that had happened not a month ago, but it felt like years had passed since then.

All of a sudden there was a voice coming out of the bushes, and Sunil leapt straight up, yelping. “Hello, new friends!” the voice said, but Pepper was too busy snickering at the mongoose’s reaction to really listen. “My name is Biff, and I’ll be taking you to the circus. Today all of you will be in Zelda’s class. She says you’ll have a blast!”

That was when Biff appeared out of the bushes. Pepper looked up at him, a little confused, to see that he was a large, scruffy white mountain goat with bright black eyes and a toothy grin. She smiled. He didn’t seem to care about his appearance – but then again, neither did she. He had a nice voice, too; she liked him automatically. I can see why Vinnie enjoyed this guy.

Penny frowned and blinked up at Biff with those huge blue-grey eyes. “Why is no one with you, then? Vinnie said he was in your class yesterday.”

“And where are Russell and Zoe?” Minka asked, narrowing one eyebrow and lifting the other in a confused expression.

“All questions will be – heh! – answered when we get there,” Biff said, turning and padding into the bushes. The pets all scurried behind him, Pepper included, making sure she wouldn’t be left behind. “Zelda is over here, I think.” He turned a sharp right and headed along the ground, Pepper and the others following with heads high and minds excited, when Biff suddenly made a swift leap about four feet across the ground.

The pets all blinked at him, and Pepper tried to hold back her snorts. “What was that?” she asked between minor giggles.

“Oh.” Biff seemed embarrassed; his ears lowered and eyes diverted. “Just…was happy about getting new recruits for our circus, I guess. This will really help us – all of us – out quite a bit.”

The pets all looked at each other and shrugged, their strange little way of saying if you say so. So they continued to walk – without jumping, of course – excited ideas reeling through their minds. Pepper was right with them, envisioning face paint and bouncing on balls and cheering crowds…

…when suddenly the ground fell out from under her. It just vanished, and now she and the other pets were screaming, flailing their paws, voices all intertwining into one huge scream. Pepper grabbed onto the nearest pet for support – she thought it was Penny but wasn’t quite sure – before her head slammed into something and the whole world went black.

Pepper opened her eyes and squinted at the sudden bright light right in front of her face. It appeared to be coming from a lantern, a lantern with etched designs on it. Blinking a few times to get adjusted, she slowly opened her eyes and looked around. She was frozen – unable to move, and she didn’t like it.

“Hello?” she called.

Her voice echoed back around her, hauntingly, dizzyingly. Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? Hello? She appeared to be in a kind of rock cavern.

Pepper grit her teeth. “This isn’t funny!”

Funny…funny…funny…

The skunk struggled with the ropes binding her paws to her body and screamed, “Somebody!”

The only thing that came back to her was that one word, changed and twisted to become haunting and disturbing. Somebody! Somebody! Somebody! Somebody! Somebody!

Finally she stopped struggling and hung her head low. Where am I? What happened? Oh, yes! The circus. We all fell into a hole, and…were we caught by something? Why didn’t Biff fight off whoever caught us?

That was when the voice spoke. Pepper’s ears pricked as she heard it, weaving in and out of her mind as if in a dream. Honey sweet and silky soft, it purred like a kitten but seemed as fierce as a bee. “Pepper Clark…awake, I see?”

“Who are you?” The voice saying her name gave Pepper newfound energy; she struggled with her bindings and glared in all directions, focusing on one that seemed it could be where the voice was coming from. “What do you want?”

“You’re so boring. That’s exactly what your friend Zoe said. Oh, and Penny just said the same thing. And Russell too, when he woke up.” The voice laughed. “With you, we’re going to skip the questions. It’s time to practice for the circus.”

Suddenly there were hands – actual fingers! – untying Pepper’s ropes. She tried to look behind her, tried to see who was there that had hands, but failed, and when the ropes were gone, so was the mysterious person.

The skunk leapt to her paws, wasting no time. “What do you want me to do? I don’t understand! Is this part of the circus test?”

The voice made a clicking sound, like it was tsk tsking. “Well, you’re a clown, right? Comedy, no?”

“Yeah…”

“Well, it’s face-paint time.”

All of a sudden, something fell from the sky; Pepper yelped, her large tail bushing out in surprise and leapt backwards. It came to the ground with a clunk and she advanced slowly, suspicious of what she might find.

When she saw what it was, her eyes went wide. It was a full face-paint set, with little brushes just the right size for a skunk. Something she’d always dreamed of having but never
realized she would actually possess. She actually found herself crying, just a little bit.

“What are you waiting for?” the voice purred. “Put it on.”

Pepper stared at it, knowing this was too good to be true. “Is it poisoned?” she asked suspiciously.

The voice seemed almost offended. “Pepper, my darling! Of course not. I can’t have you poisoned for the circus, now can I?”

She had a point. In a few quick dabs the skunk effectively applied a few dabs of perfect clown face-paint. Lips were smeared in red and orange while blue eyeshadow and rainbow-dyed hair topped off the perfect effect. Pepper stared at herself in the little mirror that had been added into the packet. She looked perfect. Almost too perfect. So why did she have to be kidnapped? What sense did that make?

“Are you ready?” The voice sounded somewhat impatient.

Pepper nodded, forcing herself to gulp. “Y-Yeah…”

“Then let’s make some laughs.”

Suddenly a ball appeared, and it was a big ball, a proper ball for a clown to balance upon whilst juggling. Pepper stared at it, wondering if this whole thing was just a huge dream.

It couldn’t be, though. The pain was real.

“What are you waiting for?” the voice snapped impatiently. “Get up there and make people laugh!”

Pepper nodded shakily and slowly began to clamber onto the ball, shaking a little as she tried not to slip and fall. The rubber dug into her paws, making her clench her little paws tighter together to get a better grip. She worried that she would fall, but didn’t dare to tell the voice that. In more ways than one, that voice scared the lights out of her. Finally she was atop the ball, wobbling while trying to keep her balance.

“Well?” The voice sounded bored. “Tell a joke.”

That was easy. Pepper cleared her throat, preparing her comedic smirk, and grinned at her pretend audience. “So, ladies and gentlemen, why did the rubber chicken cross the road?”

There was silence; Pepper took this as her opportunity. “Because it wanted to stretch its legs!”

This was the part where the pets either stared at her, disgusted by the pure corniness of the joke, or burst out laughing so hard they could have started crying. But her pretend audience did neither.

Finally, after what felt like an hour, the voice spoke, still with the same amount of clarity and reason.

“Whip.”

A shadow loomed up behind her; Pepper yelped as she turned back and saw the last person – yes, person – she had expected to see.

Brittany Biskit.

Brittany Biskit holding a whip and advancing towards her. The skunk wanted to scream but her voice caught in her throat; instead she leapt off of the ball and began running away but quickly found herself backed up against the wall of her strange prison.

“Like, this won’t hurt a bit. Well, I guess that’s, like, not true, but…you know…”

Her hand snapped down.

Pain rippled along Pepper’s spine as she let out a horrid shriek. It was like fire, fire burning bright and horrible, and she wanted to make it go away but wasn’t quite sure how, so instead she made a crude attempt to cover herself with one of her arms but she couldn’t quite stop the whip from coming down again. When it hit her she screamed again and tried to use her tail as a furry grey shield this time around.

The voice suddenly screamed. “STOP!”

Brittany did so, and Pepper saw the last thing she would have expected on the girl’s face. Was that…regret?

“Take her to the cave.”

A few seconds later Pepper felt warm fingertips grab her body, smoothly wrapping her into a tight embrace where she could not struggle away. Fingers clamped around her muzzle. “Like, no biting,” Brittany’s voice drawled in her ear.

Pepper, still stinging from the whip, closed her eyes and tried to forget where she was. Maybe…maybe then she would be able to leave, be with her friends, and everything would be alright again.

Suddenly the slow, rocking movement of Brittany walking stopped, and Pepper was placed onto the ground. She felt cold dirt on her paws, and slowly she opened her rose colored eyes.

The sight in front of her was enough to make her scream.

Zoe’s beret was sliced; a long scratch had cut her shoulder, and though it didn’t look too deep, she was whining enough to make it seem like it hurt like crazy. Sunil and Vinnie were both laced with red whip-burns, and Pepper realized she must have the same burns all over her body. Penny’s eyes were red and puffy from crying, while Russell looked shaken but not too badly harmed. Minka sat in the corner, staring at nothing, chest heaving slightly – but only slightly.

Brittany walked away towards the entrance of the cave, lit by one single lantern, to join another figure – Whitney. How had they gotten there? Pepper didn’t have time to care; she lay down, placed her paws over her head, and tried to block out the pain.

“Are you guys alright?” Russell’s voice was soft, but comforting.

“It hurts,” the skunk whispered breathlessly.

“Congratulations. You all discovered what it’s like to be a wonderful part of the Z and B Circus!”

It was that voice again. That stupid, horrible voice. Pepper grit her teeth and stood up shakily, preparing to yell something, before she realized that she couldn’t. That was when she heard the sobs.

They were coming from Vinnie; the gecko was hunched over with his knees curled up against his chest, head lowered and back shuddering. “I-I-It’s all my fault,” he moaned. “I was the one who brought you guys here. It’s my fault.”

“It’s okay, Vinnie.” Penny placed a comforting paw on his shoulder. “You didn’t expect this.”

“None of us did,” Sunil agreed, voice as quiet as a whisper.

The voice interrupted the moment again. “So, how did you like your first session of training? It really didn’t have to be so difficult. Zoe, if you had sung better, you wouldn’t have had to go through what you did. Sunil, Vinnie, Pepper – could you actually do a good job at your supposed talents? Penny – sitting down and crying about your situation is not a good idea. And Minka…were those blobs supposed to be the background for the circus? Please.”

Pepper snarled, tears forming in the corners of her eyes, red hot and angry.

“However, this all could have been avoided if you didn’t make this so hard for me. So I guess my assistants and I will continue to discipline you and—”

“No, like, way.”

The voices that spoke in unison surprised all of them; Minka got up from her corner and turned, while the other pets simply turned their heads. Standing in front of the entranceway, the Biskits shook their heads.

“We didn’t sign up for this,” Whitney snapped.

“We thought we would just, like, make Blythe feel bad,” Brittany agreed in the same snappy tone.

“But to actually hurt the pets? That’s, like, awful. If we whipped the pets in Daddy’s store, he would, like, totally ground us.”

The voice seemed to stutter a bit. “B-but what about helping us?”

The twins narrowed their eyes, shocking the pets. “We quit.”

Without a second glance, they turned away and stormed out of the cave, letting in the sunlight and causing the pets to blink at each other in horror, before Zoe screeched in a dry throated voice, “Get out! NOW!”

Pepper wasted no time; she pushed off and began scampering rapidly towards the daylight. She could see it…she was so close…she could feel the nice cold air on her snout…

Then it was all blocked by the owner of the voice: a grey and black zebra with turquoise eyes and a long mane falling in her eyes. The skunk leapt backwards as the zebra advanced towards her with eyes power-hungry and mouth in a wicked grin.

“Well…that was a minor setback,” she hissed, glaring around at each one of the pets in turn and grinning wickedly. “But you know what they say…”

Pepper didn’t want to know what they said. But she was clearly going to get it anyways.

The zebra snickered maniacally, and in that moment, Pepper wondered how she would ever get out.

“The show must go on!”