More Like The One With The Peach

Marcus huffed and wheezed through the grueling Texas summer heat. Truly the dog days of summer, his clothes were drenched with sweat. Even as a lean young man, he was not a runner, and adding that little fact to the heat left him blurry-eyed, constantly tripping over bits of sidewalk and his own shoes.

The person he was desperately trying to follow wasn't a runner either, and yet she easily kept ahead. Marcus's current goal was to keep Taylor's garishly teal backpack within eyesight as she bobbed an embarrassingly long distance ahead from him. She was made for summer, and even with a healthy weight and a backpack loaded with miscellaneous kid's toys over him, the heat didn't seem to affect her or her stride.

Marcus brooded over this as he tried to keep up. That may have helped; an extra burst of speed got him close enough to clearly see the plethora of key chains hanging off the zipper pulls and straps. Especially the ridiculous Pinkie Pie toy she had insisted on getting while they had lunch the other day.

Now the prissy unicorn toy seemed to mock him, diamond-shaped butt-marks flashing in the light. Wait, or was that Fluttershy? As the now nameless pony started to bob away he decided he couldn't be bothered to figure it out and let himself slow to a stop, hunching over on his knees to catch dry heaving breaths.

The jingling of key chains told him just who was coming over to lean over him. "You aren't… as good… a runner…" he wheezed, looking up to squint into Taylor's face. Her response was to turn on her heel and kick nearly into his nose, giggling.

Oh for—she'd painted little clouds with lightning bolts on her shoes. He vaguely recognized it from the pony show she obsessed over.

"Can you say—"

"DON'T."

"—twenty percent cooler?" Taylor cackled at how he winced from such a blatant My Little Pony reference.

"Okay okay, sorry." She wiped a tear from her head and caught his weak glare.

"You know I don't like to tease, but you make it too easy!" She batted her eyes and faked a pout. Usually that made him roll his eyes and sigh, but today he was decidedly not amused. She cut the act, bringing up both hands in defense. "Alright, glaring duly noted. No more ponies!"

Marcus straightened up and stretched, his first verbal response of the conversation coming out as a grunt. "You know I don't like that little girl's show"

"And you know that it isn't just for little girls, as I keep telling you, but that hasn't changed anything." Taylor sort of meandered around next to him as they enjoyed their impromptu break from tearing across the pavement in boiling weather.

"Maybe once grown men stop being fans or 'bronies' or what you're calling it now it'll stop being creepy."

"Yeah, whatever." She was too distracted by an alluring shady spot nearby to go into a full-fledged debate with him. (for the umpteenth time, no less)

Just across the deserted street; so close!

"Maybe if you were half as accepting as you acted in Social Studies—" She hopped off the curb and sprinted across the road.

Right in front of a mini van.

"OI!" Marcus suddenly found new energy as he tackled her, their combined momentum just barely clearing the wheels; he felt the end of his shoe being run over.

The world seemed silent as they both shakily got up on their knees. The van was long gone. They looked at each other, and then both spoke as if one.

"Ponies nearly got you hit by a van."

"What's that?"

Okay, maybe not as one. Taylor sprang to her feet and ran the rest of the way to a clump of trees, crouching at the roots.

"Are we going to completely ignore Pinkie Sparkle almost killing you?" Marcus ran after her.

"Her name is Rarity and you're stupid. Look look look!"

He decided to look over her lack of maturity—this time—and crouched next to her.

The only word that came to mind was… "peculiar". The roots in front of them formed a nearly perfect round hole in the ground, framing a manhole-sized entryway. Tiny flowers grew around the edge, and pale white mushrooms grew just within, but past that the inside was perfectly smooth. He leaned to let the light in, but couldn't see the end of it.

"I wonder what caused this?" He looked up at the branches as if there would be answers somewhere above his head. "Maybe there was a pipe left here and the roots just sort of grew around—" He looked down and saw Taylors left leg disappearing down the hole.

"Taylor?" For a brief moment images of her being violently pulled in while he wasn't looking came to him as he leaned in.

A bit of shuffling, and then just her breathing.

"Taylor?..."

"I fit in here!" She sounded uncannily like the time she'd discovered her favorite soda came in more than one flavor; that is, ridiculously happy that she'd managed to cram herself head-first down a hole in the ground.

He sighed and shook his head.

"Yes, you do. Good job. Need me to pull you out?"

"No, I can see a light! Come on, let's go!"

"What? No, this has Alice in Wonderland written all over it. Or My Neighbor Totoro, except Totoro eats you at the end. Come on out."

"Those are just your animes."

"Alice in Wonderland is not—no, I'm not doing this with you. Come on, let's go home."

"I'm going now!" He heard shuffling again; she was moving down the tunnel now. "You can stay here if you want, but I'm going 'cause adventure."

"Taylor, no, come back!"

Silence.

Marcus hemmed and hawed for a good five minutes, considering the choice in from of him, both physically and figuratively. Then, absent-mindedly placing a hand next to him, he felt the fabric of her backpack. She'd left it behind. Well, she'd probably want it, considering she wasn't dead right now.

"Idiot…" He resignedly put on the backpack and shouted down the tunnel as he crawled in. "Wait up!" It echoed ahead of him as he began an army-style crawl.

He now saw the light at the end, a tiny yellow pinprick. Not that it helped him much; he kept hitting his head against the top of the tunnel. As he continued on, it somehow became harder to move in such a cramped space, as if his limbs couldn't do quite what he wanted. Oncoming claustrophobia and too many goose eggs made him claw to the light.

Finally free (and face first in a bush) Marcus breathed a sigh of relief and made to stand up. It didn't quite work, however, and he fell hard on his front hooves.

Wait.