Alien amongst Men

"Isn't My Little Pony a kid's show?" I asked him.

Max became a little bit more tense than he normal was. It wasn't obvious, but he definitely shows a small amount of discomfort with the topic. I don't blame him though he's a grown man watching a kid's cartoon after all.

Max let out a nervous laugh. "Y-yeah, I guess it is." he stammered. "But it's a really good show." He said impulsively, a subtle blush appearing on his face. "Perhaps we could watch it a little?" he asked with a sheepish grin.

I thought about it for a moment. I'm not really the most masculine guy around and I'm not the most human guy around either. My gaze drifted to the side as I thought about the question and its benefits. I'm not the best when it comes to psychology, but I know my way around manipulation. A couple of prods here, a couple there, and he does what I want. If I treat him with kindness and respect, I could eventually use him to get things that I need. He has a job, money, a car, and he's human. Everything in that list is beneficial to me, and I like benefits, so I looked up to him with a smile and accepted.

Max nodded slowly as he sat there. His expression was unreadable for a several seconds as he lost himself in thought. Max snapped out of his trance and looked around the room with confusion. Once his eyes landed on me he pulled the chair out from under his computer desk and sat down. He motioned for me to do the same, and I did. After a moment of silence, he spoke, "James," he started, "how did you get here?"

The question could mean one of two things. Either he wanted to know about my journey before I entered his apartment or he wanted to know how I got on Earth. Telling him about my journey here would contain less risk, and he'd restate his question if I answered incorrectly. "Well, I landed on the roof after being chased by the police. I suffered a wing injury a couple days ago, so-" I said before being cut off.

"No, James," he said while holding up a hand, "How did you get on Earth?" he restated.

"I, uh." I paused.

"Please, James? I want to know." Max persisted.

"Well, shit." I thought. Well, I don't have a story I'm willing to give him. Humans are social creatures though, and social creatures have emotions. Perhaps I could play with his emotions to manipulate him into dropping the subject. I don't like acting like a child to get what I want, but this was the first option that I had. If Max doesn't sympathize with me, I'm just going to assume he's a sociopath and get the hell out of Dodge.

Time's up, let's do this. "Well, uhm," I started. A single tear escaped my eye, and I looked towards the ground, avoiding his gaze. I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. I managed one word before I placed my hooves against my eyes. "Sorry," I said, "give me a moment."

A couple of minutes had passed before I finished my emotional theater, Max was no longer in the room. I checked myself over and made sure I hadn't made a mess of myself and then left the room. Max was slouching on the couch with a slight frown on his face. "I might have over done it a bit." I thought.

I plopped down on the couch next to Max and, after a moment, began to speak. "I'm sorry you had to see that." I stated.

Max nodded without saying a word.

I let out a deep sigh before speaking. "Max, I've been on a long journey to get here; to get on Earth." I paused. "There are some things," I said carefully, "that I wish that we not speak of. My journey to Earth brings back painful memories of when I was in Equestria." I said, lying through my teeth. "I will tell you the truth when I am ready."

Max nodded, his gaze still locked on the floor. He took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "I-" he started, choking on his words. "I'm sorry. Do you still want to show me your designs?" he asked.

I smiled and then spoke. "Sure." I went through my saddlebags. I found the engineer's notebook, set it next to me, and then opened it. I flipped through the pages until I found the wiring schematics I made a couple days ago. Max had brought his gaze away from the floor at this point, and he was peeking over my shoulder.

Pointing with a hoof, I began explaining the wiring schematics. Max is many things, but he is not dumb. He spotted many mistakes I made in the design that had been over looked. Long story short, Max could prove incredibly useful, and I'll try my hardest to keep him with me.

Max looked at his watch before his eyes widened. He shot out off of the couch and ran to his room before exiting with some nice clothes on. He had a white short sleeved dress shirt, a black vest, a red tie, and black dress pants on. He was busy pushing a comb through his hair while he ran through his apartment in a rushed frenzy.

"Uh, Max? What's wrong?" I asked while he was quickly slipping on some black dress shoes.

He looked in the mirror and adjusted his hair a bit while he spoke to me. "I just looked at the time. I'm late for my job. Don't murder anyone while I'm gone, okay?" he said before grabbing his car keys, throwing the door open, and running down the hallway.

I sat there for a couple of minutes before saying "Oh, fun. I got Max's apartment all to myself." I pushed myself into an upright position and carefully leaned back so I wouldn't damage my wings. I grabbed the remote and pressed the power button. The television didn't turn on. I clicked it a couple more times and then looked to my side. "Whoops, wrong remote." I said before grabbing the correct one.

I pressed the power button again and heard a small click from the television. A few seconds later, the screen sprung to life and displayed some old sitcom from the late 1990's. I ended up spending the next ten minutes flipping through the channels.

"There's bound to be something good eventually." I said. I flipped to another channel and the room was filled with music as it displayed several colorful ponies. I threw my head back and let out a groan of frustration. "Well, I might as well see why a grown man would watch a children's cartoon." I mumbled.

As the episode continued, a frown slowly grew on my face. The ponies hired by Fluttershy's friends clearly had no fucking idea what they were doing and it was pissing me off. It pissed me off so much I ended up writing a three page essay on how much I hated the story.

After it ended, a thought occurred to me. If my new body looks almost exactly like the one in the show, perhaps the creator of it has something to do with it. To be honest, I have no idea how I reached that conclusion, and I think I might just be losing my mind.

In the corner of my eye, I noticed something start emitting light from Max's room. Cautiously, I pushed myself off of the couch and creeped over to Max's room and opened the door. Apparently Max's computer monitor had turned on because of an automatic update for Windows.

My attention was brought away from the computer and towards the rest of the room. Originally, I only noticed the My Little Pony posters, but now I'm noticing Max's other posters. Max seemed to be a fan of rock because he had Metallica, Tool, and Led Zeppelin posters. "This guy has good taste in music." I said under my breath.

I walked out of Max's room and started pacing around the house. All of the windows in Max's flat were covered by heavy curtains. All of the windows were closed too and there was no circulation. The air was slightly musty, but mostly stale. I walked into the living room and onto the patio. The air was cold, damp, and had a slight breeze to it. I sat back on my haunches to take it all in.

As a kid, I always found rain to be relaxing, and now was no different. I laid my forelegs out in front of me, and shortly afterwards, I laid my head on top of them. I only meant to relax there for a bit, but I underestimated the power of rain. My eyelids became heavy and the world around me slowly became more and more distant. Before I knew it, I had fallen asleep.

Several hours later, I was woken up by a loud crack of thunder. My coat was soaking wet and my joints ached. I stood up and stretched each leg individually. I hate to admit this, but I ended up shaking myself off like a dog. I'm still not used to being an animal, and acting like an animal feels degrading.

I would've continued to sleep on the patio, but my coat was still damp and I was shivering. I opened the patio door and entered Max's flat. I quickly trotted over to the towel cabinet and grabbed three towels. I quickly made my way to the bathroom and turned the shower on to my preferred temperature.

I'll spare you most of the details about my shower. It wasn't really all that eventful, but what I will say is this; cleaning your own feathers is a fucking pain in the ass. Well, it wasn't necessarily the feathers that were the pain, but it was the fact that I had to clean them with hooves. I have a hard enough time picking up a fork, and now I have to clean my own god damn feathers. Long story short, I won't be taking showers very often.

After drying myself off and brushing my mane, I grabbed one of Max's albums from his room and brought it into the living room with me. I carefully put the CD into the CD player and pressed the play button. While it started up, I trotted over to the kitchen and poured a bowl of cereal. I grabbed the bowl in my mouth and brought it into the living room. I ate my dinner on the couch and listened to Nine Inch Nails.

Once I finished my dinner, I stood up and put the bowl into the sink. I went into the living room again and got myself comfortable on the couch. I laid my head down and shut my eyes.

I was woken up by the sound of a door opening, followed by something slamming into a wall. I silently walked towards the hallway leading to the entrance of the flat. The apartment was still pitch black, by the way, so I was the only one able to see anything. Much to my relief, the person that had entered the flat was Max.

Max ended up collapsing into his bed without a word. I didn't know him very well, but from the way he acted and how he set up his home, I could only assume that he was an introvert. I'll have to ask him when he gets up in the morning.
Knowing how someone works could prove to be very useful. Yes, I'm going to see what makes him tick and then manipulate the shit out of him. Do you have a problem with that?

---- Day 10 ----

I've just noticed that I've only mentioned the date once throughout this entire notebook. For most people, it's June 6th, 9:13 AM. For me, it's breakfast.

Speaking of breakfast, Max and I just had another delicious meal. I'm starting to feel a little guilty with how generous Max is being. In the two days that I've been here, Max has made me two fantastic breakfasts and I've given him nothing. I'll have to figure out what I can give him to return the favor.

I tried to help Max with the dishes, but he insisted that I shouldn't. I tried to nudge myself in and help clean, but he told me guests don't clean up after themselves. I think Max and I are having our cultures clash.

Afterwards, Max and I just decided to watch the television until he needed to go to work again. We were in the middle of watching some cartoon when Max checked his watch. He pushed some buttons on the remote and, of course, My Little Pony was displayed on the screen.

I gave him a questioning look and he said, "Trust me, it's good." while waving a hand.

While watching the episode, I noticed how action packed it was. I really need to stop thinking into things so much because I ended up questioning how a creature could steal something that doesn't exist. I'm talking about magic, by the way.

I had to admit, I did enjoy the episode, but I did end up asking a lot of questions about how most of it worked. I've just realized that I'm questioning the logic of a children's cartoon. As much as I hate overthinking things, it's something that has actually saved me more than once. I guess that's why they call me the leader. What the fuck? I didn't write that, and no one calls me that.

I'll have to talk to Max about writing in my notebook. It's a little confusing why he'd do that though. If you wanted to make fun of me, it'd be better to write something like "James likes dick." or something along those lines. I don't want to accuse him of anything, so I'll have to figure out a way to bring it up without being confrontational. That's a task easier said than done because it almost always feels like you've just accused them with a bit of sugar coating.

It was my turn to pick what we were going to watch, so I picked up the remote and began flipping through channels. I went through about twenty channels before I stopped on the news channel. Normally, I don't watch the news because of how absolutely trustworthy they are. However, this time was different.

On the screen, there was an image of a light green blur displayed. It was viewed from a low angle and showed something large flying over the streets of a city. There was some text displayed on the screen and it read, "UFO spotted in New York City."