I remember how it all started. It was in Professor Rainbow Dash’s physics class on Tuesday, the second to last class of the day. Smolder and I were at our seats, talking about something stupid before class began and, as usual, she was chewing bubble gum. As Professor Rainbow Dash came into the room to start the class, she called out Smolder for chewing gum.
She took the gum out of her mouth and instead of getting up to throw it in the trash can, Smolder thought she could make the shot. In fact, I thought she could make the shot too, but told her she shouldn't. But she said she easily could make it, so I dared her to go for it. As Smolder threw the wad of gum, that’s when it happened. You know when everything seems to slow down and you can’t help but watch everything happen? Well, that’s what this was like: the wad of chewed up gum soared through the air and, instead of going to the trash can, landed square on the back of Sandbar’s head.
I don’t know how no other creature in the classroom saw this happen. In fact, it looked like he didn’t even notice it making contact. Smolder and I looked at each other in both panic and disbelief; her claw covering her mouth, and my talon covering my beak. However, after thinking about it for a bit, Smolder started to snicker and find it funny. While I do admit it was a little funny, it stopped being such the moment Sandbar touched the back of his head.
The entire class came to a halt after Sandbar made the discovery. To the surprise of every creature, the gum had a lot of elasticity to it (I think this was the same bubble gum that Smolder got from Discord). Sandbar’s hoof stuck to his mane as he attempted to pull it out. It may be my imagination, but I swear the gum was alive and it looked like it was spreading across his mane.
Eventually, Professor Rainbow Dash excused Sandbar from class to seek help from the infirmary. That was the last time any of us saw him for the rest of the day, as he didn’t show up to dinner that night.
Anyway, that’s how this whole story started….
I woke up and looked towards Sandbar’s bunk. I thought that maybe he came back late last night, but it was empty. However, it did look as if something slept there, or at least laid down at some point.
“Maybe he went to town to get something?” I thought aloud to myself. What it could be for, I have no clue but I’m out of ideas.
Stretching a little, I made my way toward the bathroom. When my talon turned the doorknob, it was locked.
“Huh?” I said, puzzled, “Is somecreature in there?”
“Go away, Gallus!” a startled voice called back.
Jiggling the doorknob a little more, I put two-and-two together, “Sandbar? Is that you?”
There was a slight pause in the response: “No.”
“Sandbar, I know it’s you. We’re the only two who have access to this dorm.”
“It’s not me,” he said before quickly backtracking, “I mean, it’s not Sandbar. He’s not in here.”
I was already not enjoying this back and forth, “Uh-huh, then where is Sandbar?”
There was no reply.
“Don’t got an answer for that, do ya Sandbar?” a small smirk went across my beak.
“I’m not in here,” Sandbar insisted.
Rolling my eyes, I sighed and knocked on the door, “Look, I don’t care if you’re using the bathroom or whatever, can you just hurry up so we can get to breakfast?”
Quickly, Sandbar fired back, “No, I’m not opening this door! I can’t let you see me!”
“What?” I was completely taken off guard.
“I….I just can’t let you see me, I can’t let anycreature see me!” he repeated.
“Sandbar, what’s this all about?” I asked.
“No creature can see me like this,” he insisted, “and I’m not coming out!”
“How long is this going to last? I have to shower and stuff,” I said.
“I’m never coming out!”
I sighed, “Fine, I’ll take a sink-shower at the bathroom near the common room. Can you at least pass me my toothbrush so I can pretend to use it?”
From this point, Sandbar continued repeating himself, saying how no creature must ever see him and how he’ll never leave the bathroom.
As much as I wanted to pry the door off of its hinges just so the whole scene would end, I gave up and gathered a few things to take with me. Before I left, I went up the door to say one last thing to him, “Fine, I’m gone, Sandbar. But you’ll come out eventually. All creatures get hungry sooner or later.”
At breakfast, I told our friends about Sandbar’s odd behavior. While there was some talk of concern about him, we all concluded he would eventually show up for his classes, as he wasn’t one to cut classes. However, Sandbar didn’t show up for any of his four morning classes (though I don’t blame him for missing Counselor Trixie’s algebra class). At lunch, we all talked about our concern for him. His ears must have been burning, since he showed up in the mess hall right then.
In silence, Sandbar arrived and sat in the seat between Yona and myself. On top of his head was a blue knitted cap. His entire posture was tense, almost wanting to ignore the obvious questions we were about to ask. We had questions. He knew that we had questions. We knew that he knew that we had questions. The whole air in that brief moment felt stiff, as no one knew what to say for those first ten seconds or so.
After what felt like forever, Silverstream finally asked the question that we all had and that Sandbar was dreading: “Hey Sandbar, where did you go yesterday?”
His voice had a mixture of exhaustion and anxiety to it. “Oh, I just went back to my parent’s for the evening, that’s all.”
“But friend Sandbar missed morning classes,” Yona pointed out.
“I just slept in, is all,” Sandbar lied.
“Oh really? So you slept in our bathroom?” I asked.
Sandbar’s face grew embarrassed at my verbal jab.
“What’s that about a bathroom?” Ocellus asked.
I snickered as I explained, “He had locked himself in our dorm bathroom this morning.”
“Gallus, shut up!” Sandbar gave me a shove, but it didn’t do much to me.
Smolder was sitting across from Sandbar, eating her carrot sticks. “Yeah, yeah, that’s fine and all, but what’s with that beanie on your head?” Smolder pointed with one of her carrot sticks before taking a bite of it.
“Nothing! It’s nothing to worry about,” Sandbar panicked, raising his hooves up to the cap.
“Come on, lemme see~!” Silverstream reached her talon across the table in an attempt to pull the knitted cap off, but Sandbar stayed out of her reach.
Ocellus spoke up, “Is this about the chewing gum incident yesterday?”
Sandbar didn’t say anything as he batted Silverstream’s talon away. He tried to look aside to any other location, but he felt our gazes burning on him. However, he did nod.
“Something wrong with friend Sandbar’s head?” Yona asked.
“Take it off! Take it off!” Smolder began to chant. Silverstream joined in as well, but they quickly stopped at Ocellus’ insistence.
“It can’t be that bad, Sandbar,” I said.
I heard a sigh escape from Sandbar. Reaching up with his hooves, he pulled the beanie off from his head. Everything seemed to slow down and our entire table was silent as we stared at Sandbar’s mane. Or rather, what was left in place of Sandbar’s mane. I’ll be honest, I’m not sure if I can describe what I saw. The mane looked patchy, but even that doesn’t seem like the right word. Parts of the mane were still intact and seemed untouched by….whatever it was that attacked his scalp, but other parts seemed to be void of any and all hair not just in the present, but also past and future. In fact, it seemed parts of Sandbar’s scalp had been nicked by a razor and were still in the process of healing. With the beanie gone, it also revealed that the lack of mane hair extended to the back of his head as well. Some of the various patches of his hair were different lengths; some were untouched while others were buzzed off, and the rest were simply cut down at whatever length. Nevertheless, Sandbar’s face reflected how he must have felt about the entire ordeal: annoyed.
The rest of us were still frozen in silence, unable to say anything for a while. Completely speechless. I’m not sure how long it was, but the first one of us to say anything was Smolder, and it was just her giving a stifled laughter. It didn’t take long for the rest of us to join in with snickering and, eventually, full laughter.
“Sandbar,” Ocellus asked between her laughter, “What happened?”
He didn’t want to respond, we all could tell that. “They had to get that gum out of my mane….and it proved trickier than expected.” There was a calm rage brewing within him, we could feel it.
Reaching towards Sandbar’s scalp, Silverstream asked, “But it was just chewing gum, right?” Her talon was quickly swatted away by Sandbar.
“It looks pretty good on ya, bed head!” Smolder laughed.
The glare that Sandbar gave was vicious. In fact, it reminded me of the ones that Grandpa Gruff would give to any creature who got on his thin nerves back in Griffonstone. “Any other comments from the rest of you? Now’s the time to get it out,” Sandbar looked around to the table, welcoming the verbal jabs.
I was the first to add on, “It looks like patches of crabgrass growing on top of a bowling ball!” The thought was in my mind the moment the beanie came off.
“Did a blind crab cut and style your mane?” Silverstream bursted out laughing.
“Do cowlicks really bend that way? And can a creature really have four?” Ocellus thought aloud with a chuckle in her voice, “Can I take a closer look?”
Sandbar flatly answered, “No.”
“You look like a coconut that’s been left under the couch for months!” Smolder laughed.
Silverstream seemed to get defensive at Smolder and her statement, “Who told you my hiding place for coconuts?!”
Brushing off Silverstream’s question, Smolder covered her mouth as she laughed, “I didn’t think it would be that bad.”
Yona was doing her best to not laugh at Sandbar’s misfortune, but she was just as guilty as the rest of us, “Is friend Sandbar okay?”
I was no better, I was covering my beak to try and hide my silent laughter, “Yeah, are you okay?”
“First Nurse Redheart tried using peanut butter to get it out,” Sandbar explained as he put the beanie back on his head, covering that mess of a mane, “When that didn’t work, she called for backup. That’s when she called Professor Pinkie Pie who suggested mayo. When that didn’t work Professor Applejack suggested heating all of it and hitting it with a hammer, then Professor Fluttershy tried olive oil, followed by Headmare Starlight using lemon juice. Then Professor Pinkie Pie again with chocolate syrup, and then Counselor Trixie tried hummus.”
“Your head sounds delicious,” Silverstream commented.
“My scalp hurts,” he tiredly replied back.
Ocellus asked the question we all had, “Why didn’t they just, you know, cut the gum out of your mane?”
Sandbar hung his head, “The scissors got stuck in there too. All three pairs of them.”
It was at this point Smolder bursted out laughing so loud that the entire mess hall was looking at our table. She even fell forward on the table as she laughed, slamming her claw on the surface. “This is so freaking funny!” she managed to say, “This is the best day ever! Nothing will ever be funnier than this!”
Yona spoke up, “Smolder! It not nice to laugh at friend!”
Still laughing, she added, “I never thought my chewing gum would cause so much damage! This is hilarious!”
The second Smolder said that, I saw Sandbar’s face turn from tired and exhausted to annoyance and fury. Upon seeing his mood change, I felt a chill run down my spine. “What? That was your gum that was in my mane?” Sandbar’s words were still calm, but rage was building in his voice.
“Yeah, I threw it towards the trash can, but I guess I missed,” Smolder shrugged.
“Smolder! You ruined my mane!” Sandbar shouted.
“Hey, I said I’m sorry!”
“No, you didn’t!”
“Well, I am, okay?” Smolder flippantly apologized, if you could even call that an apology. “Just relax, will ya? You’ll go into shock soon enough.”
I saw the rage in Sandbar building, and I was very happy it was not directed at me. “Smolder,” he said with a calm fury, “I have half a mind to get a restraining order against you to keep you at least 50 meters away from me.”
“That would make class far more interesting,” Smolder quipped, “But nothing we can do about your mane now, right? So let’s get ya fixed up!”
Sandbar didn’t respond. He folded his front limbs, waiting for what Smolder meant.
“Fix him how?” I asked.
Smolder shrugged, “I dunno. I could burn the rest of your mane and call it a day.”
“No, you’re not going to set my scalp on fire!” Sandbar quickly refused.
“What about rubbing it with fertilizer? That might work.” she suggested.
“Absolutely not!”
“Hey, I’m just trying to look for solutions here, not problems.”
Ocellus interrupted, “Well Sandbar, if it’s that important maybe you can get a hair transplant of some sort?”
“It’s not the same! What makes a pony a pony is their unique style, from their coat to their mane," Sandbar said.
“So what if you look like some sort of beach creep, or the vice-principal at an underperforming elementary school, or royal guard veteran who has seen the horrors of war,” I know I shouldn’t have egged him on, but I couldn’t help but poke fun at him.
“None of you understand, a pony’s mane symbolizes who they are and helps mold them into the pony they will become for the rest of their life!” Sandbar was getting wistful as he explained.
Ocellus asked, “I thought cutie marks did that.”
“Cutie marks are only part of it!” Sandbar replied.
“Yona have question: why friend Sandbar just cut all hair off head?” Yona sincerely asked.
Sandbar had a sigh in his voice as he answered with his own question, “Have you ever met a bald pony before?”
Each of us fell to silence as we were asked the question. I looked around the table to see that I wasn’t the only one unable to find an answer. Ocellus raised her hoof up to give a possible answer, but she stopped herself short and went back to thinking. A few moments later, we all conceded and agreed that we couldn’t think of any bald pony.
“See? No pony looks good bald.”
“It’s just hair, Sandbar. It can’t be that big of a deal, can it?” Silverstream asked.
I looked across the table to look at Silverstream, “So would you be okay if we cut off a small part of your hair, Silverstream?”
Seemingly out of nowhere, Silverstream loudly answered, “NEVER!” She slammed her talons on the table and shoved her plate of food off the table and to the floor in anger. She was huffing and puffing with her anger at the thought of us touching her hair.
“Calm down, Silverstream,” Ocellus calmly instructed. “Here, drink your juice box,” she added as she offered the small carton to Silverstream, who took it and began to drink from it.
“Do friends think Sandbar’s mane will grow back soon?” Yona asked.
Smolder had a smirk on her face, “Sure, and my future is bright.” The entire table except Sandbar laughed at the joke. However, I still believe there was a slight smirk on his face.
Sandbar sighed as he used his hooves to support his head against the table, “There is nothing worse than me losing my mane like this!”
“What about being eaten alive by a manticore?” Smolder asked.
“Or being frozen on tundra?” Yona suggested.
“Or having to listen to Counsellor Trixie’s one-pony show about her life?” I added.
“Or being crushed to death by a falling piano?” Silverstream added.
“I said the worst thing ever!” Sandbar insisted, lifting his head back up, “This isn’t like a ‘kick me’ sign on another student or switching newborns at the hospital, this is serious!”
“Wait, what was second thing?” Yona asked in puzzlement.
“In my defense, we immediately felt guilty and fixed it!” I quickly spoke up to defend myself.
Smolder scoffed at me, “Speak for yourself, I still think we should have let it happen.”
Ocellus thought aloud to herself, “I’m apparently missing something here and I’m not sure if I want to know more.”
“Come on, cheer up, Sandbar,” Smolder (thankfully) changed the subject back, “at least you don’t look like a porcupine, right?”
Sandbar’s rage was still there as he spoke, “No, porcupines have quills that can be used in self-defense or, as I am feeling right now, in fury.”
Silverstream giggled, “Wow, he’s more dramatic than Professor Rarity.”
“I heard that!” Sandbar angrily bit back.
“You’re just exaggerating, it’s not that bad,” Ocellus said in the most reassuring voice she could muster. It wasn’t all that reassuring.
“You really think so?” Sandbar’s attitude changed to one that was a little more hopeful. He turned to Yona next to him and took off his beanie and sincerely asked, “Yona, do you think my mane looks okay?”
She looked at the Sandbar’s mane for a moment before she loudly blurted out, “....YONA LATE FOR CLASS!” In a panic, Yona got up from her seat and rushed out of the mess hall in a hurried state.
Putting the beanie back over his head, Sandbar groaned a sarcastic statement, “Well, that’s reassuring.”
“Class doesn’t start for at least thirty minutes, right?” I asked.
Smolder couldn’t help but snicker at Yona’s reaction and inability to lie about Sandbar’s mane.
“Why couldn’t you just let me die?!” Sandbar seemingly asked the universe as a whole.
“We can still make that happen, right?” Smolder answered.
Ocellus quickly called out, “Smolder, stop!”
“What? I didn’t even get to ask how he wants us to do it.”
“I hate to break up this lover’s quarrel, but we can at least try to help Sandbar, right?” I asked. An idea came up and I shared it, “We could make you a wig out of Silverstream’s hair.”
The moment I suggested such, Silverstream had a look of dread wash over her. Alarmed and panicked, Silverstream attempted to get up from her seat, but she kept flailing around and creating a mess. Finally standing up, she rushed out in both fear and horror at the thought of losing a single strand of hair.
“That sounded like a ‘no’ to me.”
Smolder cleared her throat, “Look, I would love to help out, but I’m busy doing literally anything else.”
“Oh, so we can finally study?” Ocellus hopefully asked.
“....literally almost anything,” Smolder corrected herself.
From across the table, Sandbar pointed with his hoof, “This is the worst thing you’ve ever done, Smolder.”
“Please, you’ve said that so much that it has lost all meaning.” Smolder waved her hoof in the air, “I mean, what would you call this? Did I commit grievous barberly harm? I will admit that it seemed like a close shave and you did make some cutting remarks. But I still think you’re just combing over some bigger issue. Please tell me if I'm just splitting hairs at this point.”
Sandbar’s glare was intense, “I’m still so mad at you right now I can’t enjoy those puns.”
After classes that day, I went back to my dorm and saw that Sandbar was there, lying down on his bunk. The blue beanie still covered his head. He looked absolutely exhausted and miserable.
“Long day?” I asked with a small smile.
Some sort of mumble escaped from his mouth.
“At least you went to your classes right?” I closed the door behind me and put my schoolbag at my desk.
“I tried, alright?” he sat to answer. “I barely got through Counselor Trixie’s mathematics class after lunch.”
“I mean, that’s normal for any student. You don’t take that class, you endure it,” I couldn’t help but joke.
Sandbar continued, “But when I went to Professor Applejack’s poetry class, she told me to take my beanie off, saying it was a distraction. I insisted that it would be more of a distraction without it. But she told me to take it off. When I did, she told me to just leave it on.” He sounded more and more drained as he explained himself, “After that, I just came right back to the dorm.”
While I listened, there was one thing that stuck out to me: “Wait, Professor Applejack said your beanie was a distraction? Doesn’t that seem a little….”
"Hypocritical?" Sandbar finished my thought, “yes, it was, but I was not in the mood to try and poke holes in her logic.”
“I sorta think this whole thing is just being blown out of proportion. It’s not really all that bad,” I insisted.
Sandbar raised an eyebrow, “You really think so? When I was walking down the hallway between classes, I passed Yona. As I waved to her, I saw a flash of dread on her face. Before I could ask her what was wrong, she said she had, and I quote, ‘cake bake burn’ before she rammed herself through the wall in an effort to get away.” If it wasn’t for his dead serious delivery, I would have thought he was just exaggerating.
“Maybe….Maybe she was late for class?” I suggested.
“The wall led to the courtyard,” he added.
“Perhaps it was for P.E.?”
“We were on the second floor.”
With a sigh, I rubbed my forehead with one of my talons trying to put my head at ease, “Alright alright, we got to do something about your mane. We can’t have you moping in our dorm every day until it starts to grow back.”
“Sure, I’d love to have my mane back, but pony hair isn’t exactly known for its speedy growth, Gallus. I’m not exactly sure how….that works for griffons,” Sandbar motioned to the feathers on the top of my head as he spoke, “but pony manes can take months or even years to get to where the individual pony would like.”
A thought came to mind when Gallus was talking about ponies and their manes, “I got an idea of someone who might be able to help. And luckily, they have office hours right now.”
A short while later, we arrived at Professor Rarity’s office. Sandbar was very cautious as we made our way across the campus, as he felt the beanie on his head was not doing much to hide his horrible mane. I insisted there was nothing for him to worry about, as most of the students were done with classes and more focused going back to their dorms, but he didn’t listen. Arriving at the offices for the professors, we went to one of the open doors. I lightly knocked on the door to get Professor Rarity’s attention. She looked up from her paperwork and motioned for us to enter.
“Oh, good afternoon Sandbar and Gallus. Come on in,” Professor Rarity welcomed us, “Sandbar, are you feeling well? We missed you during class this morning.”
“Oh, I’m fine,” he managed to say weakly. While he was behind me, I could tell Sandbar was doing his best to avoid any eye contact at that moment.
“What can I help you two with?” she asked.
“So, we have a bit of a situation here,” I said. I forced Sandbar to come forward a bit more. Before he could respond, I quickly pulled the beanie off of Sandbar’s head. It startled him as he tried to stop me, but his head was uncovered.
Upon seeing it, Professor Rarity was speechless. Any and all words that she may have had at that moment escaped from her. It sounded like she may have had something to say, she was unable to form actual words and sentences, and simple gibberish was coming out. I looked toward Sandbar who was still looking anywhere else, avoiding her gaze.
Professor Rarity finally was able to say the most important question on her mind: “What in Celestia’s name happened?”
Both Sandbar and I answered with a single word, “Gum.”
“Oh dear, not gum,” Professor Rarity took her reading glasses and placed them aside. “It is the bane of any creature’s hair. Truly, it is an absolute nightmare! I can’t even begin to imagine what you had to go through with getting it out.”
“Let’s just say that I wouldn’t suggest any of the other faculty become hairdressers….especially with Professor Applejack using that hammer,” Sandbar said.
This surprised Professor Rarity, “I’m sorry, a hammer?”
“That’s not important right now,” I interrupted, “The reason we came here is because we thought you might be able to help Sandbar with his mane issue.”
Professor Rarity nodded, “Of course, I would be happy to assist, but if I may ask, why did you come to me? Honestly, I’m surprised you didn’t go to Fluttershy for her thoughts.”
“Well, there’s that whole rumor that she has mane extensions, so I decided against it,” I explained.
“Rumors? What sort of rumors?” she asked with interest.
“Oh, all the rumors among the student body about the professors and faculty.” I began to list a couple off, “Like how Professor Rainbow has a soft spot for tortoises, or how Princess Twilight once broke the space-time continuum.”
“Or how Headmare Starlight once led a cult around equality,” Sandbar added.
Professor Rarity gave a nervous laugh, “Well, some of those are more accurate than you might believe.”
Sandbar asked, “What about how you fought and won against Diamond Dogs by just whining?”
“Excuse me?” Professor Rarity was both surprised and annoyed at the thought, “First off, that didn’t happen. Second, I wasn’t whining, I was complaining. There is a very fine line, thank you very much.” Her words were firm as she explained herself.
Both Sandbar and I exchanged a look to one another, unsure how to respond to Professor Rarity.
Clearing her throat, she continued, “Well, as for your mane, will you allow me to take a look, Sandbar?”
Sandbar nodded as he moved closer and lowered his head to allow for Professor Rarity to take a closer look. Putting her glasses back on, she examined it fairly closely. A small hum came from her as she looked. Finally, she backed away.
“So, what’s the verdict? Is Sandbar doomed to have a balding bed head for the rest of his life?” I joked. Sandbar raised his head and gave me a brief but annoyed glare.
Professor Rarity adjusted her glasses a little as she spoke, “Well, from what I can tell, I do have both good news and bad news.”
“What’s the good news?” Sandbar asked hopefully.
“The good news is that your mane should grow back with no issue,” she explained.
“And the bad news?” I asked.
“That’s just it,” Professor Rarity explained, “Sandbar will have to wait for the mane to come back in on it’s own.”
I saw Sandbar’s expression drop as he listened to the bad news, “I’ll have to wait? But Celestia knows how long that could take!”
With a slight shrug and sigh, Professor Rarity agreed, “I do concur, it is not something I’d wish upon my greatest enemy. I’ve had my fair share of bad hair days, and they are not fun. Unfortunately, there isn’t much any creature can do about it.”
Something she said caught my attention: “Hang on a sec, your greatest enemy? Who’s that, Professor Rainbow Dash?”
“No, although there are times….” Professor Rarity rolled her eyes a little before returning to the topic, “Anyway Sandbar, there isn’t much you can do about your predicament.”
“Well, what can I do?” Sandbar pleaded for some sort of answer.
“Well, the way I see it, you have three options,” she started. “First, you can simply wear a wig or a hat and wait for the bald spots to grow back on their own. Second, you can shave your head completely bald to allow for your mane to grow back in unison, which I would recommend. Or thirdly, use magic to grow your hair back, though I-”
“Magic,” Sandbar quickly said, interrupting Professor Rarity, “I’m gonna use magic.”
“....wouldn’t recommend it,” she finished her statement.
“Why not?” Sandbar asked.
“Because magic can be very unpredictable when it is used upon creatures. I’ve experienced my fair share of magical issues. Simply put, there are no shortcuts to what one's own body can do naturally. And that reflects in a number of other things in life that we cannot control. I know it’s not exactly fair or fashionable, but you must let your mane grow back on it’s own.”
Sandbar sighed and conceded, “Alright, I guess there’s no other option. How long will it take?”
Professor Rarity smiled, “Glad you understand. Now, I would say your mane may take a couple months to be about the length you had. Hopefully it won’t take longer.”
“So what’s the plan? Are you going to shave your head or not?” I asked Sandbar.
“Yeah, I’m going to get it all cut and let it grow back all at once,” he answered in a defeated tone, “unless the barber can just cut my whole head off and save me the trouble.”
Professor Rarity gasped in shock, “Sandbar!”
“Kidding. I’m kidding,” he said. “Sorta.”
The next day, Sandbar returned home to his parent’s place. He missed all of his classes again and returned to our dorm later that evening. Upon returning to the room, Sandbar had his head still covered by the blue beanie.
“Welcome back, Sandbar,” I said, “How did it go?”
He closed the door behind him. Without a single word, he pulled the covering off of his head. The top of his head was completely devoid of hair, shaven clean off, and his face looked absolutely defeated.
I was taken back a bit by the reveal. Normally, I would be quick with some sort of quip or snarky comment to give (this was due to my verbal sparring with Smolder), but I was at a loss for words.
Sandbar took note of this, “I’m actually surprised you don’t have anything to say about this, Gallus.”
“I’m just….wow,” I managed to say, “I don’t know what I was expecting.”
Continuing to his desk, he threw the beanie on the surface and sat down, “Well, neither was any of my family. My dad was talking about taking care of it himself, but my mom was quick to tell him no and took me to a professional, thank Celestia. Anyway, at the salon, I became a teaching moment for a lot of the others there. Every single creature working there was gathered around to watch the proper way to go about dealing with my mess of a mane.”
Again, words were failing me. I did raise a talon up to my beak in both surprise and to cover a silent laugh.
“Mark my words, I’m going to make Smolder pay for this. I don’t know how, but I feel it’s going to involve ghost peppers and her precious ice cream,” Sandbar’s words were filled with tranquil fury. The sort of fury I have seen in others and experienced before myself.
However, as his mind was already planning his revenge against our friend, I couldn’t help but feel guilt eating away at me. I sighed as I started to speak up, “Sandbar, I have something to tell you. It wasn’t just Smolder’s fault that the gum got stuck in your mane.”
“What do you mean?” Sandbar asked.
“The reason Smolder tried to throw the gum to the trash in the first place is because I dared her to,” I admitted. I saw Sandbar’s expression drop as I continued, “We went back and forth over if she could make it, and then she accepted the challenge and….well, you know what happened after that.”
After a bit of silence and of him processing what I said, Sandbar finally responded, “Gallus, you egged her on?! Then why didn’t she say that it’s your fault?” Sandbar’s voice grew in volume.
“I don’t know! Maybe she just thought the whole thing was too funny or maybe she just didn’t care. I don’t know what goes on in her head! I don’t want to know!” I quickly replied.
“I’m now bald because of you two!” Sandbar shouted, pointing his hooves to his head, “Look at this!”
“I know, and I’m sorry!” I apologized, starting to match his own volume, “I didn’t mean for this to happen!”
“Do you,” Sandbar paused for a moment, allowing himself to adjust his volume and tone to a quieter and calmer tone. However, his rage was still apparent, “Do you have any idea what it is like to be bald? A bald pony is just….well, I’d imagine it would look like what a newborn griffon looks like.”
Against my better judgment, I corrected him, “Actually, newborn griffons do have a little bit of peach fuzz before our feathers come in. Once a hatchling is a week old, the feathers start to-”
Sandbar didn’t like my facts, “Gallus!”
“Right, right,” I backtracked a bit before I continued, “Look, I really am sorry, Sandbar. And not like how Smolder just brushed it off the other day. It wasn’t cool for me be stupid and dare Smolder to throw her gum. The whole thing just seemed to slow down the second the gum left her claw. It was like all slow motion, you know? Like that one film you had us watch with that virtual world and all of those identical robots in suits?”
Despite his best efforts, Sandbar’s face cracked a smile and a snort escaped from his mouth at my comment. “That’s stupid,” is all he said at my comment.
I smiled back as I spoke, “I really do mean it, Sandbar, I’m sorry for this whole mess. Friends?”
Sandbar’s entire posture seemed to relax as he sighed and smiled, “Of course we’re friends, dude. I can’t stay mad at any of ya.”
A wave of relief washed over me as I exhaled, “Thanks, Sandbar.”
“That being said, it will be annoying to wait for my mane to come back,” Sandbar commented as he touched his bald head with one of his hooves.
An idea came to my mind as I watched him examine his scalp, “Well, until it comes back in, want to pull a prank or two on Smolder? I do like that idea of ghost peppers in her ice cream.”
The next morning, Sandbar joined the rest of us for breakfast. He still insisted on having the beanie over his head, at least until his hair started to come back in. To be fair, it was a fair better option than him trying to pull off any sort of wig.
“So happy to have you to grace us with your presence, Sandbar,” Smolder joked as Sandbar and I took our seats at the table.
“Watch it, Smolder, you’re on thin ice with me,” he warned. “I’m still not happy with you and that wad of gum.”
Smolder waved it off, “Hey, I apologized, alright?”
Ocellus spoke up, hoping to ease the tension between the two of them, “Will you be wearing that beanie for a while, Sandbar?”
“Yeah, at least until my mane starts to come back in,” Sandbar explained. He took off the beanie to show his bald head to the rest of the table, “Professor Rarity suggested that I have the rest of it shaved off so it can grow back more evenly.”
Silverstream, who was silent this entire time, finally spoke upon seeing his scalp, “It’s so frightening to know that could happen to any of us….”
“What could happen?” I asked.
“That any of us could become bald. Such a scary thought,” Silverstream’s voice had a bit of fear to it.
“Silverstream, you do realize that both Smolder and I don’t have any sort of hair on our heads, right?” Ocellus asked.
Before she could respond, Sandbar put the beanie back on over his head. He then turned to Yona, who was seated on the other side of him and asked, “Alright, I do want to ask you this Yona, and be honest, what did you think of my mane after….everything?”
A flash of panic went across Yona’s face as she struggled to decide if she should answer. “Yona hated it!” she finally admitted in a loud and sudden burst, “Yona so sorry, but Yona cannot lie! Friend Sandbar’s mane look like half-built sparrow nest! Mane looked like it had lost fight in melee combat! Yona wanted to put mane of it’s misery by Yona’s own hooves!”
The rest of the table was stunned with her comments and detailed descriptions. The silence was finally broken by Sandbar lightly chuckling and then turning into laughter. The rest of us joined in with him.
“Yona so sorry for saying all that!” Yona apologized, though she was also sharing in the laughter herself.
“No, it’s alright, Yona. I think I needed that laugh about my horrible mane,” Sandbar waved his hoof, still smiling and laughing. “Though it will take a bit to get used to my bald scalp for the time being.”
Smolder spoke up, “Still an improvement over that bed head. Maybe I can draw a couple of dots on your head so it looks like a bowling ball!”
I tried my best to hide my laughter at Smolder’s comment for Sandbar’s sake. “Guess it’s going to be a long couple of months until your mane comes back in.”
“It can’t come back soon enough.”
END
