Chapter 2
“Wha? H-how do you...?” The unicorn stuttered from Pip's question. In a flash, a four hoof gap appeared between the two ponies and the filly twirled the end of her blonde mane around her forehoof with a speed that a professional baseball player would be enviable of. “Listen, you're cute and all...b-but that doesn't mean that I appreciate being stalked...”
Her amber eyes pointed toward the space of sidewalk between them as though it were responsible for this sudden turn of events.
Seeing how there was a misunderstanding, Pip tried to explain that he wasn't a stalker. “Excuse me, but I'm no-”
“Well, unless you're like...the kind of stalker that buys tons of fancy gifts like food and stuff and not the kind that wants to stuff and mount me on some pedestal in his mom's basement...”
“Excus-”
“...unless you know, your mom's a celebrity or something...”
“Alright, this is getting ridicul-”
“...that could be kinda cool but I'd rather that if you had to kill somepony to satiate your needs that you kill my one friend who isn't really a 'friend' per se but-”
“SHUT UP ALREADY!”
“Huh?” She stopped and looked quietly at Pip for the first time in a full minute.
“Like I've been tring to say...” he cleared his throat before continuing, “Excuse me, but...what in the hay are you talking about?” Pip wondered where the girl's sense of panic from earlier had gone. But more importantly, at this point he was also unsure if he mistook this unicorn shifting uncomfortably on her haunches where she sat for a friend of his. The Dinky he knew was energetic, sure, but far from the spastic excitement that this filly seemed to be displaying.
Her mouth was open wide and her eyes were wider as a full flush of red began to appear on her face under her gray coat. Unable to sustain eye contact with the colt, her eyes cast downwards again as her hoof pawed at an arbitrary part of the sidewalk. “Uh...er...you...that is...” she now started to sound out, obviously looking for the right way to restart the whole affair without admitting the need to do so.
Pip took a steady breath in and out, waiting a bit after the girl's stammers had stopped before saying anything. Instinct immediately took hold as he tried to make sense of this strange and awk-weird situation.
“Do you want to lay down to catch your breath, miss?” He began with a question to settle the pony down a bit.
The unicorn slowly shook her head in response.
“Do you want to sit down then? Get a drink of water?”
After a moment of quiet contemplation, the filly nodded.
--
It was important when figuring out the situation of an emergency call to bring the distraught pony or person to a reasonable calm. Not only would it allow for a better chances of accuracy in recalling an event, but the implied security of being inside a public place would help assure a witness to reveal more information than if they were afraid of reprisal.
For all of those reasons and more, Pip took the unicorn to a diner a block down from the town watch station. The station failed all of the above in terms of calming anypony down, in helping them feel secure or even being able to provide a simple item such as a clean glass of water. That, and Pip was no longer a member of the town watch but a simple private citizen. Plus there was no way he was going to offer up the small girl to the sergeant of all ponies, not only considering how Pip had just stormed out the way he did but also the colt couldn't help but to think how unhelpful that parsley-toothed stallion would be. It had nothing to do with the fact that the unicorn admitted to thinking he was cute a few minutes ago. Nope, not at all.
The two ponies sat across from one another in a window-side booth. Pip decided that the short moment of quiet that developed between them since coming in was enough and cleared his throat. There was still some time before the waitress returned with his order of sweet-potato french fries.
“So...” she started, “Could you start by explaining...how it is you know my name? Do I know you? I'm sorry if I don't remember, by the way.”
“Oh. No problem, I guess.” Pip shrugged at the notion. Rather than any feeling of being insulted, a smile surfaced as he couldn't believe the weird coincidence. To think after all this time after leaving Ponyville the chances of running into one of his friends. That is, unless Dinky happened to be a common name among gray coated, blonde maned, unicorn fillies with starry cutie marks.
Though they weren't in the same class, Pip remembered enough occasions of playing with the filly. From his first Nightmare Night to other random get-togethers since their groups of friends overlapped.
“Hmmm...Does the name Pipsqueak...ring any bells?” he asked with some trepidation at her possible response. His anxiety grew as she simply looked at him silently. At one point, he could have sworn that she began squinted her eyes at him.
“Shut. Up.” Dinky deadpanned.
Pip blinked. “Well, that wasn't the reaction I was expe-”
“SHUT UP!” The filly's eyes had widened to the size of two small plates as her hooves slammed against the table, attracting the attention of a few of the diner patrons. After a moment, their curiosity dissipated and the several pairs of eyes that had been aimed toward their booth turned away. During this whole three-something minutes of silence between them, Pip remarked at how Dinky remained leaning close to him with mouth agape, her lips turned upward in a way that revealed two deep dimples on her face.
The sight was infectious, as Pip felt his own cheek muscles tighten simply from seeing Dinky smile. As quickly as it appeared, her face turned toward dour as her brows furrowed. “You're not messing with me, right?” her voice deepened as she asked.
She was asking herself as much as she was asking the brown and white colt. The filly's jaw had shown signs of tensing. Pip on the other hoof paused for the excitement from anticipation quickly flow through him and out of his body before making his reply.
“Dinky, it's me.”
“Heh.” the unicorn beamed again. Looking satisfied by his response, she sat back normally in the booth seat. “What are the chances, huh?”
After explaining a bit of what he was up to since leaving Ponyville, Pip learned how Dinky moved away not too long after he did. While not mentioning exactly where, or how far from Trottingham she was now living, Pip did not feel the need to prod at this point. It was enough to at least meet with somepony familiar after all.
"You're feeling a lot calmer now." Pip remarked. "Are you able to tell me what had you so spooked?"
“Alright. Well you see, Pipsqueak...about what I needed help with...” Dinky started, but before she could continue, a figure approached the booth.
“Here ya go, lovebirds, one plate of sweet-potato fries! And there's an extra helping of onion rings. On the house.” With a wink, the wide-grinning waitress pony cantered to the next table over.
“H-hold on, you're a bit mistaken!” Pip tried to explain as he caught in the corner of his eye Dinky aiming her gaze toward the plate of food on table. “What are you getting embarrassed for?” the colt exclaimed, feeling self-conscious of the situation.
“How romantic!” A hand reached through and took some of the fries. Both ponies looked as a pair of humans were standing next to their table with menacing grins on their faces.
The one who had taken a handful of fries proceeded to noisily munch and chew with his mouth open. The slightly taller, bearded man standing next to him chuckled.
“Excuse us, but you're being quite bothersome.” Pip said in a neutral tone, ignoring the one man busily eating their food.
“You're sitting in our spot.” The bearded man replied with a growl. “ 'sides, horses should be eating outside.” Laughing at their own joke, the first man reached for another handful of fries when Pip's hoof pushed the plate out of the way.
“The hell, you stupid horse?” the bearded man stepped in closer, brushing the dangling set of keys hanging off of a chain on one of his pants' belt loops against the table. “It's our spot. So it's our food.” Nudging the other man, the still-hungry human took it as a cue to grab for the fries again when a Pip's white hoof smacked at it.
Flinching more from surprise than any actual pain, the first man bared his teeth. “You wanna die, horse!?”
“No, but I have no intention of being pushed around. Even if we're in your 'spot', that's no excuse to be rude.”
The men smiled, pocketing their hands into the folds of their leather jackets. Pip noticed the slight bulge of created by the bearded man's hand within the material, leading him to think he was now grasping something. It caused him to grow tense. “What are you gonna do about it, huh? You don't have a horn...”
“...and even if you did, using magic is banned, remember?”
Pip breathing stopped for a moment at the casual way the bearded man's friend mentioned the magic ban. A decree made as a result of the humans defeating the Equestrian army and their propping of the current post-Princess Celestia and Luna government. While similar restrictive rules had been made for both earth ponies and pegasi, only unicorns suffered an outright ban. The laws put into place seemed to bolster the sense of superiority amongst the humans who chose to push their weight around. That was partly the reason why nobody who Pip caught while he was in the town watch was ever prosecuted, much less fined.
It was because they were human.
Pip regarded the rest of the diner from where he sat, noticing how the other customers and staff were quiet, trying their best to remain unnoticed. He looked across the table and saw that Dinky had turned her head away toward the window, trying her best so her face was angled so the men couldn't see her. But the bearded man had already noticed the unicorn but chose not to point out anything further before looking back at Pip.
“Well?” he asked, knowing fully how limited Pip's options were. This was probably their goal in the first place. Extort and intimidate ponies who they figured would be too scared to speak up or bait the ones that tried to defy them to throw the first punch (or kick).
Pip could only clench his jaw at the choices he was left with. Without breaking eye contact, he reached into his saddlebag and felt out the proper amount of bits for the fries. “Come on, Dinky, let's go.” He had no false thoughts that the money would never reach the owners if he simply left it on the table. Warily she stepped away from the table while the humans' focus were all on Pip.
“Running away scared, huh? Figures a stupid horse like you doesn't have the balls to stand up for yourself. Haha!”
Pip's jaw clenched tighter at the attempt to aggravate him. While embarrassing, he already knew that with Dinky present it was better to just leave. But still... “Sure takes balls to pick on kids, huh?”
“Tsk” was the last thing Pip heard before he barreled across the open floor and into the booth on the other side, breaking the table and spilling the red liquid contents of a tall glass onto himself and the floor.
“Pipsqueak!” Dinky screamed in dismay.
“That was a pretty dumb thing to say, horse.” Snacking on another handful of fries, the bearded-man's friend took a seat on the table while watching Pip groan against the broken pieces of table.
“Damn...” Pip could only smile amidst the pain. “There goes my mouth again...” His compass cutie mark was both a blessing and a curse sometimes. Why he always needed to do the right thing was something he wondered whenever he was in these sort of situations. Whenever he saw the people he apprehended let free or when he obviously didn't stand a chance in a fight like right now.
“That look is really good for ya, horse.” The bearded man growled while approaching. “How about I help you fill up the white spots, huh?” With each slow step, the man cracked his knuckles. It wasn't until he was right on top of the pony that Pip glanced up. He saw the man bend down to grab a handful of his mane to lift him off his haunches. The pony grimaced in pain as he was brought eye to eye with the bearded man. “Now...”
“Hey...”
The new voice caused the man to halt. Now noticing her, he turned his attention toward the pony that was sitting at the table that Pip had been thrown into. “What? This a friend of yours, or something?” He held Pip as though he were holding a cat by its tuft of skin, and motioned his arm so Pip could see the pony who had spoken out.
Pip didn't recognize this pony. He had a sense that he had never seen this pony in Trottingham before today. Which wasn't to say that he knew everypony that lived in the city, since it was just as possible that she could have come from one of the other cities. With the cars, high speed trains and other new forms of transportation that came along with humans, it was no longer difficult for ponies from opposite parts of Equestria to travel. Of course, to humans like the bearded man and his friend, it would seem that all ponies apparently knew each other.
“You spilled my smoothie...” the seated pony said flatly.
“Whatever...” the man dropped Pip to the floor, ignoring the blue pony and lifted his leg to stomp his foot down. A wet crunch immediately followed by another table collapsing was heard as Pip witnessed the man flying through the air and back across the aisle where his friend watched dumbfounded.
The shock of pain subsiding a bit, Pip looked up over his shoulder to see the pony who had just bucked a human in the face without hesitation. Her violet eyes were aimed forward without much interest to what she had just done. Her silvery mane seemed to reflect her coat, taking on a sky blue tint in some parts.
“A magic...wand...” Pip quietly remarked at her cutie mark as he slowly got back to his hooves.
“Tito!!” the other human had managed to jump to his feet before the bearded man crashed into the table in a bloody heap and glared at the two ponies with fire in his eyes. “Bitch, you wanna get cut!?” He had since removed his hand from his jacket pocket, brandishing a knife which he kept readily open at his side.
Stepping forward, the blue mare let out a long sigh. She leaned her head left and right before standing normally. “You want to know how many coupons I had to clip to afford that smoothie?” The mare's flat tone took on an irritated flavor
“What? No, I don't give a cr-”
“FOURTY-TWO!” the unicorn spun on her fore-hooves, throwing her back legs into the human's gut and sending him to pile atop his friend.
The panicked screams of the other customers running out of the diner went unregistered in Pip's mind. Rather, he noticed only the unicorn mare as she dealt with the humans without a care for the repercussions. It took only a few seconds after dealing with the two that she cantered past him.
She sighed again. “And I came all the way from...to get that smoothie because...is such a hardass...” Pip heard her grumble. Rather than follow her out, his eyes settled on the two unconscious humans piled on the broken table, sweet potato fries strewn all about the floor.
“...why did she...?” He asked himself softly when he heard a group of voices laughing and talking loudly enter the diner. Pip turned toward the ground, ready to leave now, when he noticed that the five or six humans were all dressed jackets like the two unconscious men.
“Oi! Tito and Dan were beat!”
“Hey you! You did that, didn't you?”
“What? No, no, no, no! I couldn't have!” Pipsqueak's voice went to a high tone while he looked around for any sort of way to escape.
“Likely story, kid.” A particularly scary looking human who tattoos all over his face stepped forward. “So how do you explain the blood on your hooves?”
“Bl-blood? I don't have any...” Pip looked at his hooves and saw how the consistency of the smoothie dripped slowly to the floor in a very disturbing hue of red. His eyes shot wide when he realized what it looked like to somepony who saw it from off the street. “Hold on, guys! No need to jump to conclusions! It's just some smoothie that dripped on me! I'd never hit your friend, I'm just an innocent bystander! You see, my friend can totally vouch for me...” Pip chuckled, hoping to turn things around by asking Dinky to settle the matter. He looked toward the spot where he last saw...
...and found it empty...
--
“HEY!” Pip panted heavily. “YOU OVER THERE! TAKE RESPONSIBILITY! I'M BEING BLAMED FOR WHAT YOU DID!”
It was sheer luck that he hadn't gotten any cuts, but the pieces of glass caught in his coat that glistened against the sun were irritating and itchy. While uncomfortable, Pip was not hindered from chasing after the silver-maned unicorn casually walking down the street a few blocks away.
“Yeah! Slow down!” Dinky gasped as she tried to keep pace. “You're letting Pip take the fall for you!”
Looking to his left, Pip regarded the gray unicorn galloping alongside him. “YOU LOST YOUR RIGHT TO CARE ABOUT ME LIKE THAT!”
“Oh don't be so grumpy, Pip!” Dinky stuck her tongue out cutely, only eliciting an irritated scowl from the colt.
“Why'd you just ditch like that?” he barely controlled his anger at the filly.
“It's...complicated...” she panted. “Besides, I would've...just gotten in the way...right?”
Pip looked ahead. While harrowing, the fact that she looked completely unharmed gave him some relief. It wasn't like he was really hurt, either. He was sore, to be sure, but nothing was broken or bruised. While his coat was stained and sticky, he managed to escape a whole gang of humans by jumping through a window. It also didn't look like they would be going after him anytime soon. “That only works if I know you aren't there, stupid.”
“Stupid? How rude! To think I thought you were a gentlecolt, Pipsqueak!” This garnered the colt's attention again to see Dinky showing a wily smile. “It's all good, though! At least you...were worried for my safety the whole time. Anyways...you need to talk to that pony, right? Me too!”
With that, the Dinky began to gallop faster, not looking as though she was exerting too much effort to do so. While Pip wasn't running at top speed for the sake of endurance, saying that seeing the unicorn manage to speed up was amazing was the understatement of the year.
While it would have taken a minute more from where he was to catch up with the blue pony, Dinky had already managed to get close enough to perform a diving tackle.
Pip slowed as he approached closer now, eying Dinky as she sat atop the mare who was face down on the ground. “Hey...” Dinky let out a rather ragged breath. “I...got her...!”
“It's not like she was trying to escape, though...”