Grab and Go[ENDED]

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Reaching out from under the table cloth, Scout plucked a cupcake from the table and slipped back under. Greedily, she stuffed her face, licking crumbs off her lips and frosting off her hooves. Now, how was she going to get any of this food back with her? Sure, she had her saddlebags ready, sitting next to her on the floor and waiting to be filled with goodies. But none of this food was wrapped! There were a lot of cakes and pies and sandwiches and sweets...but that would all get smashed. Even cookies might turn to crumbs before she got home. Not to mention, it would make her saddlebags an absolute mess.

Quickly poking her head out, she glanced around at the fancy party ponies, making sure nopony was looking... Then she made her way, walking under the table, down to the section where the cookies were. Looking around again, she hopped out from under the table, grabbing an entire tray and sliding under the table again.

[Pony_Sage]

Monty's stomach had rumbled as soon as his eyes set upon the Royal Buffet. So many exquisite dishes, some he even recognized from the Zebra Homeland. There was even an ice sculpture in the middle of the table. Monty wove his way through all the guests and waiters towards the desert table. As he approached he noticed the table cloth ruffle as if some pony was moving around underneath the table. He watched covertly, he saw a small head pop out and look about before an entire pony darted out from under the table. He chuckled as he watched the, Colt? , take the tray of cookies and sneak back under the table. He quietly walked over to the table and stood where the pony had taken the cookies from.

'Now where did those cookies get off to? They looked delicious.' he said in a loud yet playful voice, hoping that the cookie thief hear him over the din of the crowd.

He took a small plate with a piece of shortcake wrapped in a banana leaf off of the table. He looked about to see if anypony was watching him. He knelt down on his knees and then stuck his head under the table and looked around for the cookie thief.

'Hi there! Would you like to trade a cookie for this shortcake?' he asked in a very happy tone. He placed the shortcake on the ground and smiled causing his right ear to flop over.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

(Scout is a girl and a foal, but is often mistaken for a boy.)

Barely managing to move the heavy tray under the table, Scout surveyed her catch. Gees, these would make so many crumbs in her bag....but they'd make a great treat for everyone else. She heard somepony just outside the tablecloth exclaim something about the cookies. Hah, she'd gone unnoticed!

But just as she was about to head back to the other end of the table to grab her saddlebags, someponies head popped under the table. Scout gasped, taking a couple of steps backward until she reached the other side of the hanging down tablecloth. She had nowhere to go.

Well, she could probably run to the other edge of the table again and escape that way, but she'd lose her catch, and probably wouldn't be able to grab anything else. That wouldn't be good, the others were counting on her... Scout glanced left and right, trying to remember which end of the table was closest to the door.

But he was...smiling? Scout narrowed her eyes for a moment, ready to bolt, when he spoke his odd request. 'Erm...what?' she said, taken aback. Then, clearing her throat, 'Oh, ya, sure.' She pushed the tray closer with one front hoof, being sure to keep her distance in case it was a trick and the other ponyâ€â€Âa rather odd looking one, at thatâ€â€Âtried to grab her.

[Pony_Sage]

[[ yup yup ^.^ I read her app and was playing off of it ]]

As Monty took a closer look at the foal he realized that it was a girl, he felt silly for being confused. Although she did keep her mane rather short for a girl. He saw that the foal was apprehensive so he made sure not to make any sudden or what could be perceived as threatening movements .

'Thank 'ya!' he said taking a cookie. 'Be back in a jiff.' Monty added before darting his head out from under the table.

He trotted over and got two glasses of milk, quite a feat for a zebra with no magic to help him. He placed them on the floor and nudged them under the table. He then crawled under the table himself, trying not to crowd the little foal.

'Hay it's pretty cool under here! It's like a tent, OH no more like a secret hide out!!' he says playfully.

Monty always had liked foals, they were just so much fun. Some ponies had surmised it was because Monty had never really grown up. Monty just liked to have fun, there was nothing wrong with that in his mind. He munched on the cookie and took a sip of milk.

'Oh these are tasty cookies!! I can see why you snuck them under here.' He tried to strike up a conversation with the foal, she just looked so nervous.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Scout's eyes went wide when the weird looking pony said that he was coming back. Maybe he was going to get more ponies to help catch her. Or maybe he was just going to bring another snack to trade for a cookie. But she couldn't leave empty hoofed... Well, she'd gotten out of worse scrapes than this. At the first sign of hooves reaching under the table, she'd bolt. Too bad her saddlebags were too far away to stuff them with cookies. Hopefully she'd have the chance to grab them before she had to leave.

Just then, two glasses full of white liquid followed by a brown striped head and front hooves began to make their way underneath the table. Scout backed up, not toward the other side of the table, but lengthwise. They'd expect for her to go backwards, but Scout was familiar with the ins and outs of traps.

She backed up a few paces more as the pony fully made his way under the table. There was something off about him that she couldn't quite put her hoof onâ€â€Âso she was going to keep her distance. She smiled inwardly at his comment about a 'secret hideout'. Well, if it had been secret before, it surely wasn't now that there was an adult pony underneath. Surely somepony else had noticed him making his way under the table. It was easy for a little foal to go unnoticed, but an entire Earth pony?

Scout tentatively sat down not far off, remaining poised to run. She watched the pony as he stuffed his face full of cookiesâ€â€Âhe was right, they were good. Too bad none of the others would get to taste them, unless this pony decided to beat it sometime soon.

'Sure. Whatever.' she said.

[Pony_Sage]

'So what brings you down here at such a festive Gala?' Monty asked, unperturbed by the foal's unwillingness to speak.

He took another bite of his cookie and a sip of milk.

'Are you hiding from somepony?' He asked, grasping at straws, trying to find something the foal would like to talk about.

He scanned the underneath of the table. He saw some saddle bags at the far end of the table. They were out of his reach or he would have retrieved them for the foal.

He instead asked, pointing to the saddle bags, "Are those yours?"

Finally it dawned on him that he had not properly introduced himself, he could be a little forgetful at times.

'Oh my, where are my manners. Monty's the name, Surplus is my game! You need it I can get it for you . . . for a price of course.' He said to the foal offering her a hoof and a big smile which made his ear flop over.

He knew that if he could just get her talking she would notice that he wasn't all that scary and they could have some fun.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Scout just wanted him to go away. It was impossible to grab anything with him sitting under here. But he seemed intent on sitting under what he referred to as a 'tent.' What was his deal, anyway? He looked weird, for one thing, with his hair all styled like that. Not to mention the way it matched his stripes. Maybe he dyed the stripes on himself. Not that it mattered to Scout. Although, she had stripes as well, so she supposed it must not be too uncommon among ponies...But she didn't recall ever seeing one that looked quite like him.

Ignoring his questions wasn't making him leave, and being rude would probably just cause him to call the guards or something. She backed away a few steps further from his extended hoof, glancing over to her saddlebags. 'Ya they are.' she mumbled.

[Pony_Sage]

Monty lowered his hoof away from the foal. She apparently didn't want to shake hooves. Monty was running out of ways to get the foal to talk. This rarely ever happened to him. Sensing that she wanted him to shoo, he came up with an idea.

'How abouts this. Tell me what you want, and I'll sneak it under here for you! And don't worry about me being seen these stripes make me stealthy!' he said playfully and froze completely pretending to blend into a herd of other zebras.

He gave the foal another looking over making sure that she was not hurt or in distress. Monty was rather concerned about the foal hiding under a table, he thought about calling some guards to help her then his eye caught something. He noticed that she had stripes, although not as pronounced as his.

'Oh are one of your parents a zebra? You know not many of us get out of the Homeland. What Tribe are they from?' He asked hoping he had finally found something that he could relate to the foal about.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Scout watched his peculiar manner, narrowing her eyes at him and still trying to figure him out. Then she stiffened at Monty's mention of parents, sitting up straight in a defensive and surprised way.

A Zebra? What in Equestria was that?

And then he was going on about 'the Homeland' and some 'Tribe'â€â€Âwas this pony off his rocker?

But to answer his heritage question, Scout huffed a somewhat loud breath out of her nose. She looked skeptically at him as she answered. 'I don't know. Wassat?'

[Pony_Sage]

'YES! I have found something that this foal wants to talk about, even if she does not know what I am prattling on about.' Monty thought to himself. He turned his head to the side with a confused look on his face.

'Wait, you don't know what the Tribes are or for that matter what a Zebra is? But you are so stripey! It would have been remiss of your parents not to teach you of your heritage!' Monty said a bit incensed that the foal's parents could do such a thing as not teach her where she came from.

Monty was a bit thick at times, it had not dawned on him that a lone foal under a table at the Grand Gala was most likely not someone's plus one.

'Well if your parent's were not diligent enough to tell you of your heritage, then as the only Zebra present the duty falls to me.'

Monty wove a colourful story of the Zebra Homeland, the tribes inhabiting it, Zebra culture, even his parents and how he left the Homelands to travel Equestria before settling down at his current shop. He hoped that the foal was enjoying his narrative. He even threw some silly stories from his air-ship days.

After he had finished he looked over at the foal and asked quietly a little concerned, 'If one of your parents was a Zebra, how could you not know this?'

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Scout listened, somewhat intrigued and at least half-interested now. So...stripey Earth ponies from far off places were called Zebras? Whatever for? None of this made much sense to Scout. It especially didn't explain where she'd come fromâ€â€Âshe'd been born in Hoofington, right? And lived in Fillydelphia for the rest of her short life. She'd never heard anypony talk about these so-called 'Zebras'.

Perhaps he was just lying, telling a fun story that he thought Scout would enjoy. He had seemed very playful, for an adult, so it made sense. Scout had even started to relax a bit during his tall tales. But as soon as he mentioned that word againâ€â€Â'parents'â€â€Âher demeanor changed. She stiffened once again.

She cleared her throat before she said, 'Don't have any.' in a nonchalant way.

[Pony_Sage]

It finally dawned on Monty that this little foal all alone under the table was an orphan. He felt like a complete dolt for not catching it sooner.

'I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.' he said very honestly. He could not imagine what it would be like to not know where he came from or to not have parents.

Monty shifted sensing the foal's unease.

'How abouts we start over huh? I'm Monty and I am pleased to meet you.' he said trying to fix the situation.

'. . . I could leave if you wish.' he added after a pause. Monty really did not want to make the foal feel any more awkward than he already had but for some reason he did not want to leave the foal alone under the table either. He stayed put looking at her awaiting a response.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

'I'm not upset!' Scout glared at Monty. That was mostly true. Scout wasn't too concerned with not having parents, although it would be nice sometimes. But she grew silent after that, irritated that Monty was still there. Didn't he have things to do? Ponies to meet?

But, seeing as he didn't seem to be affected by her simple and somewhat unfriendly answers, she gave a huffy sigh at his last comment. 'Whatever you want to do.' she replied, rolling her eyes. He couldn't take a subtle hint, so maybe an obvious one would dissuade his efforts to get her to 'have fun', or whatever.

[Pony_Sage]

Monty sighed, this little foal was a case beyond his help. She just seemed like she wanted to be left alone. He could not help but feel for her, but realized that he should take his leave.

'Well it was a pleasure talkin' with 'ya, 'Little One'. But I have things to attend to.' Monty said defeated.

He got up and shuffled out from under the table. He stretches his legs and trots off. He found a waiter,

'Would you be so kind as to wrap up about six of those lovely sandwiches, some of those rose petal hors d'oeuvres, and would you be so kind as to wrap up about ½ of that cake over there. I am a visiting Zebra dignitary and would like to bring some pony fare back to my home land.' Monty lied to the waiter pouring his accent on rather thickly.

The waiter-pony bowed and hurried off. Upon his return there was a cart full of what Monty had pointed out being wheeled over to him. Monty bowed and took the cart, he wheeled it over to the end of the table that the foal was sitting under. He took a business card and scribbled on the back of it,

'Stop by if you want to know more about Zebras. Monty.'

Monty then proceeded to take the packaged goods off of the cart and covertly shove them under the table. Every other pony was far too embroiled in their own worlds to notice the strange zebra shoving food under a table anyway. The last package had his business card on top of it. After he was done he happily trotted away from the table.

[MyLittlePonyTales]

Scout sat, giving a relieved sigh that the weirdo was finally gone. But she'd lost her confidence now... If one pony could discover her, why not any of the others? This was going to be a lot harder than Dodger had made it sound.

Scrambling to the other end of the table, Scout grabbed her saddlebags just as a hoof reached under the tablecloth where she'd previously been. She gaped as the food piled up under the table. But still suspicious, she glanced around to either side, watching the shadows outside to make sure it still wasn't a trap.

She waited a few minutes after the food stopped coming, tentatively crawling over to it. She noticed the card, picking it up and reading both sides. Placing it inside the edge of her hat, she replaced it on her head. Then she began stuffing her bags with the carefully wrapped foodâ€â€Âthat was awful nice of this 'Monty' pony. Or Zebra, whatever he wanted to call himself.

Anyway, she'd probably never be able to see him again, since she didn't live in Hoofington and she couldn't ask Jack to take her there without a good reason. Even if she could find a way to make it there, she'd be missedâ€â€Âand that wouldn't go over well at all. Hoofington... That place didn't hold good memories.

In any case, she'd completed her mission. Reaching in her bag, she dug out Dodger's watch. It was nearly time to meet up again. Everyone had better appreciate the trouble she had to go through to get all this.