Glosser jumped around, playing in the water like a child. He splished and splashed in the puddles, flinging water to and fro as if it were a holiday that involved getting everything around one's self soaking wet.

Jackpot glared angrily at the changeling as he joyously jumped around in circles. "Someone should really get him to knock it off," he complained. "We're already out in the open and the last thing we need is this stupid thing attracting unwanted attention."

As if having heard Jackpot, Glosser suddenly stopped, coming down from the climax of a jump creating one last splash. His ear twitched and he turned around to face the group, glaring specifically at Jackpot in an unimpressed manner. He trotted around in a small circle for a moment, as if he were contemplating a plan of action against the pony. Suddenly stopping, he faced the group one more time and charged, heading straight into a sprint.

Jackpot's eyes widened. This was it, he thought to himself. This crazy little changeling had finally decided to turn on them and was now making its move. He had warned everypony, but none of them would listen and now it was up to him to save them. Quickly, he drew his sword and took a fighting stance, but instead of fending off an attack, Jackpot found himself being rushed by a torrent of water as Glosser jumped up and came back down with his legs extended in front of him to cause a large directional splash.

The wave splashed up into Jackpot's face and drenched his entire body, leaving him standing there dripping wet. After this Glosser simply cantered to the front of the group to take a position next to Twilight, only looking back to stick his tongue out to taunt.

August stifled a laugh, trying so hard not to lose it to the point of coughing. "Yeah, dude, I don't he likes being called stupid," he said with a grin.

"Not funny," Jackpot said angrily. If he had been any more angry, the water may have even begun to evaporate off him.

"No, it's funny alright," Talisman said from further up the line.

"I cant believe you guys are defending it," Jackpot said.

"Him," Switchback corrected, earning himself a dirty look from the already pissed off pony, causing him to retreat back to the other side of Twilight.

"You kind of deserved it," Talisman pointed out. "Just give the guy a chance. Sure, he's a little weird, but in kind of a charming way." This little comment in particular made Glosser smile.

"There is nothing charming about him," Jackpot said before sighing, "but fine, I'll give him a chance. One."

Glosser simply smiled, more than happy that the earth pony was willing to give him even that. His eyes flickered like a broken neon sign several times with the light blue color before finally staying lit up. "I appreciate the benefit of the doubt," said suddenly and casually.

Everypony is the group stopped and looked at him in shock. "Whoa, he can talk!" August said.

Glosser stopped suddenly as his eyes shot open wide in surprise. He sat on his haunches and looked down at his wet but still flaky forehooves. "What the... I can talk? Cool. Hi! My name's Glosser," he said excitedly to his pony companions. "Oh wait, I already told you that. At least, I told Switchback... I think. Yeah, not really sure how I did that."

Before Glosser could go on and say anything else, Twilight cut him short. At first the whole group had just gone quiet and looked at Twilight and Switchback like it was their responsibility to figure out just what in Celestia's warm sun was going on. And so Twilight spoke. "Glosser, hi," she said to catch his attention. "What's happened to you? Why are you like this?"

"What are talking about?" Glosser asked. "Nothing's happened, I think. Although, there are these times that I get really really itchy and feel like my chitin is trying to kill me. So I scratch and itch and contort my body and it feels really good when I rub up against sharp rocks or roll in broken glass."

"So, you don't remember what made you all..." Switchback paused as he tried to find the right word. "...flaky?"

"Nope, not a clue," Glosser answered without hesitation. "Although, sometimes I get these really weird flashes in my head. No idea what they are, but I always feel like they're familiar. It's the craziest thing. I'll just be walking along and suddenly, boom, images in my brain. It's almost like..." Suddenly, mid sentence, the blue in his eyes shot out like a light bulb breaking and returned the color back to the gloomy grey. His body stiffened and his jaw went slack, leaving him staring at the group, or more like through them. His eyes had no focus. He teetered, almost losing his balance on now shaky legs. Then as nothing had happened he regained his composure, stuck his tongue out slightly, and smiled as if everything was right in the world.

"Well, that's not normal at all," Talisman pointed out.

Everypony looked to Switchback, as if he had some clue as to what was happening. "He's fine," he said after a moment of thought. "He just got a little too excited is all."

Everyone just looked at him like he was crazy.

"And how do you know that?" Talisman asked.

"That's the second time he's done that," Brisk pointed out. "Definitely not a coincidence."

Switchback made a confused face, as if mystified by his own word. "Whoa," he just said. "How did I know that?"

Author's Note

Very short chapter this time. I'm going to try and have two decent sized chapters out before the end of this month to make up for the amount of inactivity on this story. Hope this entertains you heathens until then. 👍