Diary of the Yet Unknown

Chapter Two
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The food runner

The town, as far as I could see, was empty. The cover of night should keep prying eyes away from me. My objective, food, was the primary thought in my head, so I was surveying the houses with that in mind.
That house has lights on: Therefore the ponies inside are eating food.
That house's light just turned off: So those ponies just finished eating food and are now digesting it. While sleeping with food in their stomach.
The lights in that house just turned on: Those ponies are probably cooking their food.
And so on.
Food was on my mind and it stayed on my mind as I moved through the town. Sticking to the shadows when I could. Waiting for the odd pony to pass by when I encountered them.

I passed a few houses that appeared to be vacant. By each one I waited for at least five minutes.
I only moved on when the owners of the houses showed up or when I chickened out because the neighbors were still up. I was hungry, not stupid. I passed by a park that was mostly empty. There was just one couple of ponies in the park, a mint coloured one and a sort of cream coloured one with purple and pink hair.
I graced them with my watch for a short while but moved on when they started getting really close.
Closer than I’d ever been to a girl anyway.

Just under an hour after leaving the safety of the tree house, quite literally now that I think about it, I found the perfect house for food.
It was a food hut not too dissimilar from that one fairy tale with the two kids and the witch. It was made of baked goods. Icing on the roof. Walls that looked like cookies ready to eat. Hell, the roof was even shaped like a cupcake. And the smell, it made me drool the moment it hit me. I had to get some of that food.
Best of all. The lights were off, the door was open and the freshly baked smell was definitely coming from inside.
With no neighbors, this house was the best one I’d come across in terms of stealing food from it. But that also posed a problem.
With no immediate neighbors I had no cover when approaching this place.
Of course, in my hunger I disregarded that precautionary fact as I rushed into the place.

In the dim light inside. I saw a bunch of tables with stacks upon stacks of cookies, cupcakes, no muffins and cakes.
I nearly fainted I was so overwhelmed.
After overcoming that I rushed over and ate like I hadn't eaten in days. Five specifically.
It felt like I was a character from a cartoon. One that just kept eating. Because that’s what I did. In all I ate seven cookies, three cupcakes and most of a cake. My stomach could not take anymore, even after such a fast. I ended up lying on the floor. Crumbs were everywhere. I felt more satisfied than I ever had since I got here.
This almost caused me to drift off to sleep. Fortunately Ponies seem to have an early warning system.
It’s their fatal flaw, as far as I can tell. If they aren't singing, which they seem to do every five minutes, they’re either talking, talking and talking some more. Or they’re somehow making so much noise that I could hear them from across the street while inside a tree.
This time I heard what I can only describe as springing, coupled with a chirpy voice singing something to do with cupcake deliveries.
When I realised that the voice and the springing sounds were coming closer I panicked. But I was able to keep myself in check enough to do some good for myself.
As I leapt up I grabbed the tablecloth on the table I had been eating from and wrapped up the remaining food. Then I turned and ran up the stairs to the second floor.

Four seconds later the springing sound stopped and I heard from the lower floor “Gasp! Somepony has eaten the Cake's cake!” The voice that was singing gasped. “They stole a table too. Don't they know I’m the only pony that steals tables?”
There was some violent bouncing around and I swear I heard the fires of hell.

“They didn't even ask!”
There was a final bounce that shook the house followed by a zooming sound coupled with a receding scream of fury.
I'm glad I hid upstairs.

The way back to the tree hut library was a lot slower than my initial excursion into town. The scream of fury had roused the town. Ponies were coming out of their houses to investigate. It meant I had to be more careful on the way back due to the increased number of eyes around. All in all it took sixty minutes to get back to the tree.
I shut myself inside and hoarded the baked goods I had gathered in the kitchen due to lack of storage upstairs.
Apart from the constant fear of being discovered the night was uneventful.
After the whole ordeal I managed to get a total of somewhere between not nearly enough sleep and almost enough sleep. I couldn't calculate sleep time because clocks were not a thing around here. I still wasn't sleeping well either.
Every night was like I'd retire from the stress and stir craziness of being inside to being tormented by my own mind. It was wearing on me.

The next day I braved my first shower since coming here. It was early, so I doubted any pony would barge in through the front door.
It was a smart choice I think. If you ignore the risk.
After the shower I felt cleaner than I had in days. That felt good. Fortunately none of the ponies needed any books during that time. Which both surprised and relieved me. Considering that I take long showers.
Unfortunately I had another problem. While I was clean. My clothes were not.
Considering that I only had one set of clothes being my jeans, blue cartoon shirt and the unmentionables underneath, this was horrible.
The blue of both pieces had gotten so dirty that my shirt had a greenish tinge to it.
It was hard to put that shirt back on.
My situation was, that while I had food and water, my current state of living left much to be desired.
My state of hygiene was terrible. I had been going stir crazy since day one and there wasn't any shampoo in the shower.
So my hair remained greasy with five days of grease.

As the day wore on, two ponies came through the library. One of which was the white and curly purple haired pony that came through on day one. I could tell from my vantage point that it was pompous as hell. I was able to decipher this from the way it stuck it’s nose in the air as it surveyed the shelves. Looking for a place to return the book to.
I know this because I had history with this pony, even if it had no idea. So I crouched at the top of the stairs and watched it like a hawk.
These ponies had personality. That much was obvious. In every aspect of them, from the way they moved with purpose to how they interacted with things around them. Everything screamed that they were people.
But the people I knew stood on two legs, had hands and were humans.
What I knew was pony does not equal human.
But with the way this pony made it’s way around. It reminded me of someone back home.

I made a decision that night.

Instead of keeping my presence unknown to the ponies outside. I decided to instead reveal myself and see what happens.
No matter what happens, it should end up with an improvement to my general situation. At least, it was likely to. Or it wouldn't at all. But I needed to think positive, so I didn't dwell on that too much.
After eating as much as I dared, I gathered the remaining food up. Which I now realise had done an amazing job of staying in shape despite their time in a makeshift pack. I put the food onto the tablecloth and wrapped it up much like I had done the previous night.
Then, after minutes of steeling myself up, I set out again.
It was just my luck that the ponies decided that tonight was the night to go on a witch hunt.

They were all trotting around with pitchforks and torches. One of the first things I saw was a pyre built on the main street, right in the middle of it.
Seeing that thing as I left did little for my courage.
It resembled the stakes at which my people used to use to burn witches alive. I took a different route into town that night.
Fortunately for me. While the layout of this place was a little confusing. It was easy enough to find certain landmarks. Plus most of the roads led to the centre of the town. The phrase ‘All roads lead to Rome’ comes to mind.

Unfortunately for me. There were ponies drifting about on patrols.
They were all speaking in hushed voices. Leaving me clueless as to the purpose of this witch hunt, but I could easily guess it was all to find me.
I mean, I had stolen cakes and cookies no less than twenty four hours ago. Who knew how these ponies would react.
They’d probably call me a heretic and then I’d be screwed. Either way, this wasn't the only problem I faced.
As I was doing my duck and cover maneuver from cover to cover. I almost ran into a little pony.
It was even smaller than the rest of the ponies around. But man could it scream.

Oh yeah. It screamed.
Quite loudly too.

I dropped my makeshift bag and tried to get it to shut up.
First, I shushed it. That didn't work. I still didn't know if the ponies here understood me like I understood them.
Next, I tried putting my hand over it’s mouth.
Then I realised that it’s small mouth was wider than my hand. So I didn't do that.
Finally, I clamped its mouth shut using both hands. Then I curled one hand around its jaw and made a shushing motion with my finger.
That didn't work. So as a last resort I reached into the half open pack and brought out a cupcake with bright orange frosting on it. Then I offered it to him.
That shut him up.
He chomped it right out of my hand as soon as I let his jaw go.
At least he was considerate enough to not bite my hand.

Then I heard the shouting.

“It came from over here!” Coupled with the sounds of a stampede.
I looked at the little pony eating the cupcake.

“Don’t you sell me out.” I said. “Please”
Then I ran.

After running for a few seconds I reached a corner to hide around and I looked back.
I saw the ponies en mass, surrounding the one I’d given the cupcake to.

“Scootaloo. Why were you screaming?” An authoritative pony in glasses asked.
The ‘Scootaloo’ wasted no time in selling me out.

“Son of a bastard.” I muttered as I gassed it in the opposite direction of the ponies.
Pretty soon I found myself looking at the park and I paused for a second. Then the hoard of ponies behind me spurred me on. But I didn't run into the park. Instead, I turned right.
I knew the way I wanted to go from here. Only problem was the stampeding ponies hot on my heels.
I needed some way to get these ponies off my tale. But I didn't see how.
Then I saw two dark alleys on my right and a quick plan formed in my head.

I ran past the first alley but turned into the second. When I reached the end of the alley I looked back and was startled by the stampede as it galloped into view. Then I turned right and then right again into the first alley. But instead of continuing to run I ducked down and rolled to the side, dragging my makeshift sack with me.
My trick worked. They had seen me do the double back and ran straight past me. But they didn't know where I was at the time.
Which was hunched in the side of a dark alley listening to and feeling a lot of hooves run past.
If they had been going slower they might have seen me. However, they were too fixated on catching me. So they chased a phantom man into the night.
I was vaguely surprised at how quickly they vanished.
Mostly I was stoic from the experience I just had. Hooves trampling the ground in front of you does that to a person.

It was in this state that I made the rest of my way to the bakery house that I had stolen from.
I didn't even bother hiding in the shadows, I was lucky I made it.
When I got there I found that like the first time I went there. Except this time the lights were on.
I went inside and placed my pack in the middle of the room. Then I hid up the stairs, as was becoming my thing, and waited.

Some time later. I finally heard the voice of the pony that lived here.

“... So sad it was a false alarm…” The female voice trailed off. Not so chipper this time.

“Well. Ah’m glad it was.” Another voice replied. Causing me to stiffen. I was only really prepared to reveal myself to one. That, and voice had the strongest southern accent I've ever heard. “Who knows what would've happened if it fought back. An’ why’re you sad about it?”

“It was absolutely definitely and positively somepony that I don’t know. And I know everypony.” The chipper pony explained. “I could have thrown a party!”

“Yeah. Sure.”

“Anyway. I’ll see you tomorrow at the Barn.”

“About that.” The southern one said in that ‘About that’ way. “Macintosh healed faster than the nurse said. So we have this one under control.”

“Oh silly!” The chipper one giggled. “That just means that he can join in the fun too.”

“Sure…” It trailed off. I got the feeling that it didn't want the chipper one along to the party. “Well. See yah tomorrow Pinkie.”

I froze again. Was this one of the first two ponies that I had seen? I had to check.
I looked down the stairs and saw a pink pony standing in the doorway, facing another pony that was wearing a cowboy hat. Waving goodbye.
I returned to hiding. Suddenly I was a whole lot less sure about revealing myself.

“Bye!” Pinkie said. Almost squealing. Then the door shut.
I chanced another look downstairs and Pinkie was looking at the pack of baking that I had left on the floor.

“Hm.” Pinkie shrugged. “They must have had a change of heart. Guess I can call off the hunt now.”
I was freaking out.
SHE had put that hunt out? Arranged the burning stake?
What the hell was I just about to reveal myself to?

“Wait.” I heard Pinkie say. “I can hear someone in here.”
I started freaking out even more.

“Was it you that stole the cakes?” Pinkie asked the room. “I know you're there. I can hear your heartbeat.”
She can hear hearts!? That was all I was thinking at that time.

“Show yourself. Before I find you.”
The game was up. I had no choice.
Slowly. Trembling. I stood up and descended the stairs.
When she came into proper view I put my hands up.

“It was me.” I said. Voice trembling. “I stole the cakes.”