Brad Carter, AKA Twinkle Toes, scramble around the corner and enter the busy market street.

He zip, bop, and leap as his pursuer's boots pound the pavement behind him.

'What was that about back there?! Whats going on?! And why do I have to go back home?! I just, like, GOT HERE!'

“Excuse me!” The day glow stallion yell apologetically as he torn around a group of shoppers. A second later he heard the loud shouts of surprise and anger as his pursuer plowed through the group that the day glow pony had just passed.

“Watch out! Coming through!” Brad yell as he leap over a bewilder shopkeeper and clamber up a nearby stack of wood covered barrels. When he reach the top of the stack, the neon green stallion launched himself into the air just as he heard the angry bellowed of a 12 gauge shotgun. He even felt a bean bag pass harmlessly through his shocking pink, fluffed spiked mane.

Brad land on a store awning and leap off in time as the shotgun roared again, ripping a hole in it's cloth roof. As he fell he manage to nab a pole that jutted out from a street gas lamp with his fore legs. He swung off the pole, flew through the air, rebound off a passing waiter's serving tray and landed on a nearby cafe table, startling the two mare patrons there.

“Pardon me, Ladies.” He gave a wink, causing the two mares to giggle and blush slightly at the strange lanky stallion that had intruded on their late lunch.

The moment was interrupted, however, as an explosion and then a shower of glass, metal and a tall column of flame erupted behind the fluorescent green pony.

“Like, that's my cue! Gotta go!” Brad leap from the table and onto the next cafe furniture as the redneck loudly grunted out curses. His pursuer barrel into another group of onlookers, scattering them like bowling pins. But nothing seem to be slowing down the bounty hunter or stopping him from loading more shells into his weapon.

Brad leap off the last cafe table and gallop back into the crowded street. As he jinx his way through the large crowds of ponies, he spotted an opportunity ahead. He continued on galloping down the street before suddenly faking a left turn into another crowd, then crouching low and leaping over to the far right.

Brad sailed through the shoppers and into the open shop doorway, crashing into a display case of mantelpiece clocks. The neon green stallion righted himself and bolted towards (to what he hoped to be) an exit door. However, it wasn't until he had reached the door when he realize, to his utter horror, that he had no clue as to how to operate the door's ornate brass knob.

'Oh no. Nononononononononononono-' Brad's thoughts screamed in frustrated agony as he stood helplessly in front only means of escape, uselessly hoofing at it's doorknob.

“Come on. Come on!” Brad moaned as his hoofs jiggled the metal knob. He look over his withers, half expecting to see the glitter and confetti paper covered bounty hunter filling the store door frame. But the shop's entrance was empty.

'Maybe I lost him.' Brad hoped to himself. He held his breath as he watch the ponies who were peacefully milling about outside. He nearly jumped out of his skin when he heard the voice.

“Can I help you?” The slightly tangy voice ask. Brad whipped his head around to see a brown colored stallion with a dark spiky mane looking at him curiously.

Brad's fiery orange irises shrunk down to pinpricks. 'Oh shit. He knows dude. HE KNOWS!'

“Uh...” Brad heard himself started to said as the store walls of ticking wall-clocks started to close it on him.

'What am I doing?! I don't belong here! This was insane! I must, like, the biggest fucking tard to think that this would ever work out. I've be here for like, what? A day and a half? And already I'm in trouble!'

Brad's head started to swivel about, thinking that at any moment he was going to see the bounty hunter hop out from behind the rows of grandfather clocks. The florescent green pony started to hyper ventilate as the room started to spin. But then he caught a glimpse of his cutie-mark on his flank. It was of leaping horse shoe surrounded by five stars. And It was his cutie-mark. He earned that. HIM.

'Dude. CHILLAX! Gotta keep it together. Gotta be cool. Your not Brad Carter, the part time pizza delivery guy and full time loser anymore. Your not that guy anymore. Your a pony now. Your Twinkle-Toes; Parkour Pony Extraordinaire! Remember?! Your a fucking rock star! And while you may have ninety-nine problems, being AWESOME is certainly not one of them!'

“Nah, man. Just resting my hooves.” Brad replied coolly to the worry looking shop keeper.

The unconvinced shopkeeper cocked an eyebrow. “Do you normally rest your hooves by repeatedly smacking them on door handles?”

“Uh...Okay. Dude. I'm gonna be straight with you. ” Brad gestured to the pony shopkeeper to come closer. He looked at Brad in puzzlement before reluctantly trotting over to him. Brad led in and whisper into the pony's ear, “...I'm, like, agoraphobic.”

The shop keeper looked back at Brad frowning for a sec before his eyebrows when up in shock. “Oh...Oh! So you can't-”

“Yeah. So, Uh...Can't-” He started to fumble about as he briefly saw over the shopkeeper's withers the bounty hunter outside walking back and forth among the crowd of pony shoppers.

“My goodness.” The brown colored stallion said. “Sorry to hear that. It must hard for you to-”

“Yeah, totally tragic.” Brad interrupted the pony whose cutie-mark was an hour glass. “Look - I really need to use your shop's back entrance so I can avoid having another panic attack. Please?”

“Sure, no problem!” The shopkeeper answered enthusiastically. “Just go through there and go past the stair case. You'll find a door to a side alley exit that'll lead you right to Strawberry Field Lane.”

“Awesomesauce. Now, I have, like, another favor to ask of you-” Brad pointed a hoof at the troublesome doorknob.

“Ah. Not a big fan of antique Equestrian door knobs?” The brown stallion shopkeeper said, chuckling.

“Uh, yeah. Just one of my many weaknesses.”

“I really don't want to step away from my register without locking up...But I guess I could as long as I don't dally.” The shopkeeper said as he walked over to the door.

“Your afraid of getting robbed?” Brad ask in concerned. 'Is that even a thing around here?'

“Getting rob? In Equestria?” The shopkeeper barked out a laugh as he opened the door into the long hallway.

“You've been reading too many fictitious period pulp novels, my friend.” The shopkeeper guffawed as they past a stair case. “Think of risking such a petty, yet tenacious, deed would be asking for the wrath of the goddesses upon themselves.” The shopkeeper gave out a physical shudder at this.

“Yea. Ha-ha. Right. Silly question.” Brad said as he too shudder at the shopkeeper's comment.

“No, it's those darn fillies I have to be on the look out for.”

'He can't be? No way he could be talking those fillies.'

“Your worried about a couple of fillies?” Brad asked. “For realz?”

“You must be from out of town. Lucky you.” The Stallion said with a hint of envy. “However if you stick around, you'll have a run in with the infamous Cutie Mark Crusaders sooner or later.”

“The Cutie Mark Crusaders?” Brad asked in bewilderment “Their local troublemakers-?”

The shopkeeper bellowed with laughter as soon as Brad said the word troublemakers. He even forced Brad come to a halt so he could wipe the tears from his eyes with his hooves. “Oh Cestlia, no. Ho, ho. No, they just get some wild ideas into adorable little heads sometimes as to how to earn their cutie marks. You how it is.”

“Uh, yeah. Been there.” Brad lied through his pony teeth.

The shopkeeper suddenly turned on him in the hallway. “Expect you haven't.” He said, his face unsmiling.

Brad scooted backwards. 'Oh, shit! Busted!'

“No pony as. Not like these fillies, mister.” The brown stallion said as he turn back to trot down the hallway. Brad let out a breath of relief as he followed the shopkeeper.

“Let tell you," The shopkeeper continued on as they got closer to the exit door. "This whole town will be breathing a whole lot easier once those three get their marks. Did you know that just last month that Bon-Bon awoke up in the middle of night thinking her store downstairs was getting robbed?”

“Wait! I thought-”

“That's what she thought too until she found out it was the Cutie Mark Crusaders!”

“What! They were-”

“No, no. They weren't even looking to rob anypony. They were only trying to get their 'safe cracking' cutie-marks by using HER STORE SAFE.”

“Narly.” Brad couldn't help but chuckle to himself as he imagine Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo as three, pint-size harden fillies huddling around a bank vault while wearing 1920's mobsters attire and talking amongst themselves like gangsters straight out of a BugsBunny cartoon.

“Luckily, she just happen to walk in as they were about to apply an dangerous, unstable substance called, um nitro-something.”

“Nitroglycerin?!” Brad squeaked out.

“That's it! Apparently. they 'borrowed' some from the town librarian's laboratory.”

“Uh-”

“You can say that, again. Both her and twilight sparkle gave those three fillies one stern of a talking to that night.” The shopkeeper said as they came to a stop in front of the side alleyway entrance door.

“Well, that is quite a story there...” Brad said as he watch in awe as the stallion open the door to the alleyway.
'Okay, how is he doing that?! Seriously, how do hooves work?!'

“Oh! How rude of me!” The shopkeeper said with a look of embarrassment. “Here I am bending your ear and I haven't even give you my name! I'm Time Turner. And it case you haven't guess by now with all the clocks in my place, times my game.”

“I'm Twinkle Toes.” Brad said with a flare of panache. “And parkour is my thing.”

“An' Ah'm Seriously pissed off.” A thick accented voice growled behind the two stallions.

A thick, black leather combat boot rushes past Brad Carter and Time Turner faces and slammed the exit door shut. Brad turned his head in time to have the business end of a shotgun shoved into his face.

Even though the hallway they were all in was built with their occupants in mind, somehow, Brad's five-foot-eight tall human pursuer managed to stealthily corner him inside the cramp corridors.

“Ah suggest ya make like uh statue an' freeze” The red faced man said as he towered over him, his nostrils flared. “Cause if ya even think of runnin', ya gonna git uh face load of rock salt.”

Author's Note

Ka-BOOM! Another chapter is done! Oh Yeah! I hope you've thoroughly enjoyed the mayhem and panic attacks. If not, well, feel free to give me some suggestions. I can take it! Raaagh! Lay it on me, brotha!

Up Next : Crouching Bounty Hunter, Flying Pony

Also the moral of this tale is: Always lock your doors. Otherwise, your just askin' for trouble; Whether it be an angry shotgun totin' redneck or the safe bustin' CMC Gang.