Alastair Equus

Alastair maintained his happy, prancing gait for several minutes after leaving the homestead. When he finally glanced over his shoulder and saw that the farm was out of sight among the trees, however, he immediately grew silent, reverting to his earlier withdrawn, pensive mood.

The fuck is happening to me?

You went crazy, but the crazy pony helped you! Came the reply.

Oy, shut up, you!

Aww, and here I thought you wanted to be like me!

I only said that so she wouldn’t worry! But… you… him… her, here, me… “GAH!” Alastair screamed wordlessly at the sky. HOW IS ANY OF THIS EVEN POSSIBLE? In order from least concerning? YOU! You’ve never been… separated from my own thoughts, how’ve you gotten an entity all to yourself? What you are now was just idle, random thoughts before!

You may want to…

Shut up not finished! NEXT! HIM! Again, same deal! But more so, why’s he back!

Wait a-

STILL NOT DONE! This entire place! Pink ponies, weather controlled by Pegasai, people able to enter my mind on a whim! Have I finally lost it completely? That’s it, I’ve gone bonkers!

…feeling better?

Alastair heaved a sigh, shutting his umbrella now that the snow had stopped. Much.

It’s always good to let loose a good rant now and then. But honestly? Couldn’t answer you if I wanted to. I got free went you went for a walk in the woods. Ol’ Crazy back there? No clue ‘bout him. This entire place? Yes, nonsensical, but heck, it’s been fun, no? ‘So have a good time, the sun can’t shine everyday’ and all, right?

…I suppose. Normally a man to stick with his argument until it was obvious that it was wrong, Alastair was slightly disgruntled to losing one so quickly, even if it was to himself.

Now, what I was trying to warn you of before; your Stealth Boy’s worn off.

…what?

Come on, man, smarten up! You’re normally the one making obscure references! Look up! Frowning at the tone his own thoughts were taking with him, Alastair nevertheless tilted his head back, staring at the sky. What do you see?

The sky.

Clouds?

No.

Which means…?

Alastair blanched when he realized what his alter ego was insinuating. No snow. Head snapping back down, he hurriedly glanced around. Fortunately, due to the hour and ‘unexplained’ weather, there weren’t many people about. In fact, the only one he could see was a turquoise unicorn, who was staring, mouth agape, right at him. Bollocks.

Doctor’s advice time!

Bowties are cool now?

Wrong advice-

Fezzes?

No, not-

Wibbly wobbly timey wimey?

NO for the love of-

Allon-s-y?

Well, yes, but what I was going for is more practical to the situation.

Al slowly grinned, realizing what the voice was getting at. Unhurriedly, he flicked his umbrella around, leaving it snugged under his right armpit. As casually as he could, he slowly started sauntering away in the direction of the library. Walk as though I own the place.

“Hey, wait!”

Well bugger, that didn’t work. Trying his best to ignore the voice hailing him from behind, Alastair lengthened his stride, eyes focussed on the towering tree, still several blocks away.

The unicorn wasn’t one to give up easily, though, as she steadily pursued him, breaking out into a jog. “Wait up!”

Bugger it if I will! Frantically scouring his memories, Alastair latched onto the first song that even remotely suited his needs. Let’s hope it works… “Fire, and ice, passion, and sheer perfection, on, the stage, fearlessly flying.” Putting a strong emphasis on the key words he wanted, Alastair felt slightly guilty, yet pleased nevertheless, when he heard a startled yelp from behind him. Glancing over his shoulder, he noted the sheer puddle of ice which had appeared from nowhere, and then the unicorn, lying dazed and confused in a snow-drift nearby. Perfect!

The distraction bought him several seconds before the girl behind him regained her feet, during which time he ducked into a nearby alley-way. The line of sight thus broken, he broke into a sprint, dodging around several empty barrels and crates, ducking around the next corner. Looking up at the skyline, he cursed, having lost sight of the tree. Closing his eyes for a moment, he frowned, focusing. Took two turns, tree was that way, should now be… got it! Smiling, he opened his eyes once more, feeling confident he knew which way to head.

“Wait! I just want to ask you a few questions!”

“Blast!” He murmured. Why don’t you give up? “The chase is back on…” Sprinting away again, he frantically started panting lyrics at random, hoping one would help. “What would you do if I sang out of tune, would you stand up and walk out on me?” The hoof beats behind him proved otherwise. “Well East coast girls are hip I really-what no. Uhh… So when you’re near me, darling can’t you hear me, S. O. S.!”

“What’s going on back there?” *Whack* *Thud* Glancing over his shoulder, Alastair winced in sympathy for the poor girl behind him. One of the house owners, attracted by the sounds of the chase, had thrown open a back-door, and the unicorn had run right into it. Stopping just long enough to see that she was alright (save for a bloodied nose), Alastair once more started running.

Bursting out of the alley-way, he saw several more lights around the square turning on as the ponies in the houses woke up. But there, straight ahead of him, was his goal; the library. Throwing the door open, he slammed it shut behind him, leaning his entire body weight against it. “Hide me.” He panted to the three girls in front of him.

“What… what?” Twilight gasped, a look of confusion painted on her face.

“No time… hide!”

“Down there!” Quickly ushering him to a door he’d barely noticed before, Twilight shoved him through, closing it just as a frantic pounding started on the outside door.

Looking about himself, Alastair felt as though he were in Dr. Frankenstein’s laboratory. The entire room seemed to be dedicated to scientific studies and experiments, with beakers, test tubes, siphons and papers scattered across the desks lining the walls, as well as the mantel piece above the fireplace, and a bizarre chair contraption that looked disturbingly like an electric chair in the middle of the room. What is this place? He wondered as he made his way down the stairs, pausing as he heard a muffled argument behind the closed door. Well, she found me. So much for keeping secret.

He paused at the foot of the stairs, as he heard something rattle at his feet. Looking down, he saw a small garbage pail, overflowing with opened cans. Curiously picking one up, he turned it over, looking at the label. “Red Pony? Wonder if it’s anything like Red Bull…” Chuckling, he remembered the one time he’d tried an energy drink; normally the already somewhat-hyper one of his group, his friends had laughed at it afterwards, saying how he’d been rambling, going on like … crazy…

Frowning at the can in his hand, he quickly swept a glance around the room, noting a small fridge in a corner, next to a coat rack.

A smile slowly crept across his face, an idea taking form.

* * *

“Where is he?!” The turquoise unicorn screamed frantically, eyes darting about the room, a hand pressed firmly to her nose. She glared at the cyan Pegasus and pink pony, but focused her interrogation on Twilight.

“Who?” The purple unicorn in question asked as innocently as possible.

“THE HUMAN! He must have come in here, it’s the only place open!” She stormed over to the couch, tossing aside pillows and cushions, as though someone might be hiding under them.

“Lyra, please, calm down! There’s no… human here, just us girls! Right?” Looking to her friends, they both nodded in agreement.

“No, it can’t be!” The other unicorn spun around, looking pleadingly at the other girls in the room, tears starting to form in her eyes. “I saw him! With my own eyes! They’re real, I know they are, I’m not crazy!” She was almost bawling by the end of her tirade, and probably would have collapsed onto the floor had it not been from the verbal explosion emitting from behind the closed door, which drew everyone in the rooms attention immediately.

“It worked!” A muffled voice bellowed, the tirade, already loud, growing louder still. “The 24 hour serum is a success! I knew it, knew knew knew knew it! They all laughed at me but it worked! Biogenetically modifying the equine genes to dispense of all the fur was impossibible, they said! But I knew, I knew! Just had to isolate the correct genetic codes, re-wire them chemically!” The door to the basement was flung open at this point, a cloud of ash billowing out, surrounding the figure that emerged. Clad in a floor-length lab coat, once white, but now smudged with grey ash, the figures’ face was almost entirely hidden behind a medical mask and pair of aviator-like goggles, with his hair rising above, what looked to maybe have once been blonde or brown, now stuck out at all angles, dusted with more gray soot. He paused, looking at the turquoise unicorn. “A new test subject? Good, good good good good, always more testing needed, needed, needed! You see!” He threw his left arm around the startled unicorn’s shoulder, twirling his be ringed right hand in front of both their faces, “No fur! Distinct, absolute, positively resulting in lack of fur!” He suddenly brought his hand in close to his face, examining it minutely. “Blast formula’s still not right there’s still fur! I should warn you, this house tries to kill people.” He paused, and then slowly drew her hand away from her nose. “IT’S STARTED!” He shouted, pointed at the dried blood. “You may want one of these!” Digging round in his pocket, he pulled out a small tin case, a large “J” emboldened on it. “Janusary pills!” He exclaimed, popping open the lid of the tin and extracting a pill. “Probatasinisinisinicide enhanced, should keep out most of the pain!” He tossed the pill in the air, but looked confused when it bounced off his mask. “But first!” He exclaimed, pushing away from the girl to strike a dramatic pose, coat billowing behind him as he took a single step forward, right index finger pointed to the sky, “I want the Pegasus! Must know, must learn, must discover how the pill reacts to one of the Pegasusesai variety!” Lunging forward, he grabbed Rainbow Dash by the wrist, pulling her over the couch. “Come my dear, we must experiment!” Shoving her through the door, he turned back to the other ponies, all staring at the madman before them. Once more striking a dramatic pose, he shouted “I must leave, my planet needs me, FOR SCIENCE!” Before slamming the door shut.

Before any of the girls could speak, a muffled shout could once more be heard from behind the door, followed by a loud series of bangs and thumps. More silence followed, followed by another loud series of footsteps. The door once more opened, and the man once more emerged, coat hanging askew, goggles pushed back onto his forehead. “The stairs try to kill you too, watch out!” The door once more slammed shut, and another shout and series of thumps were heard.

The three girls stood in silence for several moments, before Pinkie finally burst into laughter, rolling all across the floor. Broken from her daze, Twilight turned to the inquiring unicorn. “Uh… yes, that was my… uncle… Teddy! New in town, just been here a couple of days. Bit ‘woo-hoo’!” She twirled a finger beside her head, forcing a chuckle. “Sorry if he startled you earlier, he’s probably what you saw, lack of fur and all! No humans here!” Forcing another smile onto her face, she stared at Lyra, ignoring the strands of hair that were jumping away from her head.

“Oh…” the turquoise unicorn’s shoulders slumped as she turned towards the door. “I… thought he was really… real.” As she reached for the door handle, she gave one last sad smile over her shoulder at Twilight. “Well, if he needs more subjects, you know where to find me.”

Pinkie broke out into a fresh bout of guffaws as soon as the door was shut. “That… that was hilarious!” Sliding between Twilights’ feet, she looked up at her, imploringly. “Can we keep him?”

Twilight was shell shocked, not registering what Pinkie was asking. “I just… he… she… WHAT?!” Turning about, she stormed towards the basement door. Throwing the door open, she glared at the human. “Al, what did you do… to… to Lyra… to… you… what are you doing?”

Alastair, meanwhile, was perched atop the metal head-piece crowning the chair, crawling over it, prodding at the extrusions. “She was following me, so slipped. And fell. And ran into a door. Ooh, what’s this?”

“That doesn’t… Wait don’t!”
Twilight’s protestations were cut short as Alastair poked an elongated, tuning-fork-ish object on the cap. A bright flash momentarily blinded everyone in the room, followed by Alastair, giggling worth to rival Pinkie Pie, flying across the room into a book-case. He crumpled to the ground before the shaking case, but raised a hand, pointing to the roof. “I’m good!” An avalanche of books promptly buried him, but an arm shoved aside some, forming a thumbs-up. “Still good, hit it!” the girls winced as the bookshelf toppled.

* * *

Alastair awoke with a gasp, bolting up from the couch, feeling as though his entire body had been doused in ice cold water.

“GAH WHAT THE HECK WHAT WHO WHY WHAT!”

“Welcome back.” Twilight sat back on her heels, a glowing light fading from her horn.

Gingerly holding a hand to his head, Alastair shook himself, grimacing. “What… what happened?”

“You attacked Lyra, came here to hide, then went crazy.”

Blinking up at the Pegasus hovering in the middle of the room, Alastair once more shook his head. “No, that’s not… I wouldn’t…” His eyes shot wide as the events of the evening came back to him. “Oh. Right.”

A look of skepticism etched onto her face, Twilight raised a questioning eyebrow at the sheepish human.

Nervously chuckling, Alastair gave them the Cole’s notes of what had happened; “I was on my way back from Sweet Apple Acres, when the snow-storm I sang up gave out.” Ignoring the indignant ‘harrumph!’ from the weather pony, he continued. “I was… distracted, and forgot about it, when… Lyra, you say? When Lyra saw me… so, I panicked, and ran down a side alley. When she pursued me, I… bloody hell, how does that even work? I sang up a frozen puddle, and she slipped on it and fell in a snow bank. When I saw she was still pursuing me, I sang out for help, and somebody opened a door, which she ran into. I then ran here, came inside, asked you to hide me and you were here for that I’ll shut up now.”

Nodding, Twilight looked mollified. “Well, at least you didn’t personally attack her… but what about… afterwards?”

Al once more grinned sheepishly, trying to hide his discomfort. “Well, once I got downstairs, I heard her come in… didn’t sound like she was leaving soon, so… I improvised.” Shrugging, he idly scratched with his right hand at the back of his neck. “Saw the coat and goggles, dab of ash, aaaaand…” His eyes darted about the room as his sentence mumbled off, looking anywhere at the two pairs of questioning eyes focussed on him.

“Sorry, come again?”

This was once more greeted by a mumble.

“One more time!”

“I may have had a Red Pony or two.” Hearing the silence of the room, he grimaced. “Fine, three.” Looking at the expressions on his friends faces, he frowned, eyes squinting shut. “Fine, five, I had five! Happy?”

“You… you… you had five energy drinks? That’s almost as bad as if Pinkie…” Rainbow Dash went silent, a horrifying scene passing in front of her eyes.

“Why?”

“We-ell, once, years ago, again in the theatre, god that place really is going to kill me, isn’t it?” Shaking off his musings Alastair got up, crossing to the front door as he continued his explanations. “Last night of the performances, we all had to stay extra late to break up set, clean up, all that jazz. We-ell, knowing that I’d probably be tired after all that, I’d bought a ‘Monster’-another brand back home- to take… Long story short, I wasn’t found until someone came in from outside, asking why there was a shirtless madman screaming on the roof that the building was trying to kill him. Saw your pile of empties downstairs, and, well…” He gave a half-hearted shrug as he grabbed his coat from the rack, shrugging into it. “Thought it’d make a convincing performance… did it work?”

“Well she’s no longer here, right?”

“Although she did offer herself as a test subject…” Twilight shook her head, ignoring Alastair’s confused ‘Test…?’ “While you were out, I was thinking… why are you hiding?”

Alastair’s mouth gaped like a fish’s for several seconds, opening and closing with no sound emerging. Frowning, he finally tried to piece his thoughts together. “Well… I guess I’m kind of worried ‘bout how everyone would react, I guess. I mean, sure, you girls were fine and all, but… I guess I’m just worried that everyone else wouldn’t be so fine with it, and react more like those… Crusaders. Don’t ask.” He held up a finger as he flopped back down on the couch, pre-emptively shushing Rainbow Dash’s question.

“We just have to throw you a super duper awesome fun-time “Welcome to Ponyville Again Alastair!” Party!” Pinkie exclaimed, bursting from between the couches cushions.

Alastair jumped back with a wordless yell, scrambling backwards until he was perched precariously on the couch’s backrest. “Pinkie! Stop doing that!”

“Doing what?” The pink pony cocked her head to the side, confused.

“Breaking… physics!” Feeling his heart rate lessen to one that would allow him to be able to speak comfortably, his turned his gaze from a glare into a pleading, puppy-dog-eyed look. “And please… no party.”

“Aw, but that’s no fun!” Ponyville’s resident party planner began prancing around the room. “And besides, too late to change anything, invites are already sent out!”

“What?” Alastair felt his eye twitch slightly.

“Yup! Tomorrow, 6 pm sharp at the park! Didn’t you read your invitation?”

“What invitation?” Alastair jumped forward as Pinkie, who’d managed, once again, to teleport, this time appearing right behind him, pulling out a crumpled piece of paper from his rear pocket.

“This one!” she cheerfully handed it to the perturbed human. Grumbling about invasions of privacy, he nevertheless opened it up, curious.

“Dear friends!” the letter read, amid the explosion of streamers and sparkles, “You’re invited to a super-duper awesome fun time ‘Welcome Alastair to Ponyville Again!’ Party!

Where? Ponyville Park!

When? 6 pm sharp!

What? What what? What theme? Spies, Disguises, and Hidden Guyses!

How? With awesomely fun music and food and games and fun!

Why? To welcome Alastair to Ponyville, of course!

Please RSVP ‘yes’ and give Ponyville’s first human a welcome party he’ll never forget!”

Alastair stared at the invitation for several more seconds in silence. “Who’s invited?” He asked dully, already expecting the answer.

“Du-uh, EVERYONE!”

“Right.” Brilliant. Two parties thrown for me, one by the bleeding ruling family, the other with the entire bloody city. “Why spies?”

“‘Cuz that’s what your books about!” Alastair stared wordlessly at his pink friend as she held up a small, paperback book; “The Lady with the Platinum Pistol.” Quickly patting down his pockets, he heaved a sigh of relief, finding his journal still safely hidden, before snatching back his other book. Grumbling even more about invasions of privacy, he tried to see this dark clouds silver lining. Well, at least if it’s spies, I wouldn’t be out of place wearing a mask. A smaller, folded note fluttered out from the larger invitation. Making several lunges for it, Alastair finally caught it a foot above the floor. Unfolding it, he sighed. “No masks!” it read. How does she bloody well do that? He stared at another slip of paper flying out from the smaller note. Catching it quickly this time, he stared at its contents. “Because I’m Pinkie Pie!” …are you in my head again? Alastair felt more than heard a door closed, promptly followed by another, smaller note. “No, but you should make that place more interesting, I mean, come on, it’s sooooo dull and boring!”

Silently fuming for a couple of moments, Al finally took a deep breath, struggling to calm down. “Fine.” He growled, the one word dripping venom.

Pinkie deftly dodged the poison, and instead continued with her dancing about the room. “Yay! Ooh, goody, you had me worried for a sec! Could you imagine if you’d said ‘no’? I mean like, that would be terrible, a party without the reason for the party! It would have been terrible and ridiculous, everypony sitting around, bewailing and bemoaning and becrying the loss of reason! Oh my gosh, I’m so happy!” She paused mid-spring, stomach growling. Floating back down to earth at a feathers pace, she gave a sheepish smile, emitting a sound that was suspiciously like a dogs chew toy. “What’s for dinner, Twilight?”

“Well, seeing as there’s only three staying the night tonight…” Twilight swept the room with a quick glance, before turning into the kitchen, muttering of lists of possibilities, as well as lists of ingredients needed and whether said items were in the house at that moment. Literally grinning from ear to ear, Pinkie hopped from one foot to the other, waving a hand in the air, shouting a quick “Ooh, ooh, I’ll help!” before disappearing in a pink ‘poof!’.

As suddenly as that, Alastair found himself alone in the room with Rainbow. Looking nervously around the room, anywhere except at the mare, the human was thus startled when she spoke. “Wassa matter, Al? Thought you liked Pinkie’s party!”

“Yeah, I did, it’s just…” Alastair deliberated a moment, trying to find the right way to express his thoughts; something he was decidedly less than fluent with. “Small groups, like last night, sure, but… Don’t really like being at the centre of attention. Give me a big party with no-one but strangers, all focussing on me, or a good book all alone, I’d take the book any day.”

Rainbow tilted her head, looking at Al from different angles. “Yeah, guess I could see that.” Silence prevailed in the room once more, before Rainbow smirked, adding “So, today rated pretty high on the ‘Al Likey’ meter, then?”

“Hmm?” Was all that he could think of to say.

“Well, being all alone with a beautiful mare all day, no one around for miles¸ just… bucking.”

Al found himself staring at the Pegasus before him. Did she just call Applejack…?

Oh for the love of Pete!

Alastair had little time to wonder why Slick had suddenly spoken up, when he found himself… well, no longer in Twilight’s living room. Looking around, he thought it was the room in his mind that he’d created, but with a couple of changes. Most obviously, one entire wall was covered with various screens, some monitoring (or so he assumed, by the labels) heart-rate, breathing pace, neural activity, interests, likes, dislikes, thoughts, as well as other… intimate details. The main screen, however, showed what Al had been seeing through his own eyes; the image was paused, however. All the screens were angled towards a rolling office chair sitting before the desk. Looks like my one from work, Al mused. Control Centre? To the left of the station was a door, with a label reading ‘Manual Over-Ride’.

“You all comfortable in there?” A voice resonated around the room.

“Slick!? What’s going on? What’re you doing!”

“Helping!” Came the response. “Just watch and thank me.”

The central monitor switched from ‘Pause’ to ‘Live Time’, and Alastair suddenly heard what he assumed to be his own voice speaking.

Do I really sound like that? He wondered, before listening to Slick’s response. That…thief!

“Oh yeah, we worked long and hard! Got all hot and sweaty by the end of it; we had to take a quick roll around in the snow to cool off!”

The door to Al’s left opened, emitting Slick. Rushing over to him, Al shouted “What the bloody hell do you think you were doing!” while gleefully throttling his alter-ego. His target, instead of struggling, just pointed to the screen, which was still playing.

Rainbow Dash was staring at him, jaw dropped, and then started to chuckle. As her laughter grew louder, she shook her head. “Don’t know quite what to make of you, Al! One second, you’re as shy as Fluttershy, but then the next, bam! Right out there with the rest of us!” Idly tossing herself onto the couches arm-rest, she smirked, eyeing the human. “If you’re worried about being different, just look at Spike! No other dragons in Ponyville, but everyone still accepts him as one of us! Also,” The cheeky grin was back, “if you don’t want attention, just stick near me! Everyone’ll be looking at the most awesome pony in Equestria instead!”

The screen once more paused, and Al turned back to Slick, who wore a rather smug grin. “This guy, I likes now.”

“Thanks, mate.”

Alastair grimaced; “Forgot I can’t think privately in here…” He had little time to say anything else, as Slick was quickly shoving him towards the ‘Manual Over-Ride’ room.

“Back out there, tiger!” As quickly as that, Alastair was back to being in conscious control of his body. Taking a moment to gather his bearings, he gave the multi-hued Pegasus a wry grin.

“Alright! Let’s make a date of it, then!” He couldn’t contain his laughter for more than a few seconds, seeing the expression on her face. “And you said I was easy to mess around with!”

Before the stunned Pegasus could reply, Twilight poked her head through the doorway. “Foods ready, guys!”

Giving one last smirk at Rainbow Dash, Alastair sauntered towards the kitchen, ignoring the daggers being glared into his back. “Oh, and you and AJ still owe me ten seconds, by the way.” He added over his shoulder, in an afterthought.

“Pinkie,” Rainbow said, as the pink pony appeared behind her shoulder, “Get the goods ready.”

“What goods?” Her friend asked, confused.

“The goods you’re not to touch unless war were declared.” She replied, drawing a gasp from the pink pony.

“You mean…”

“War were declared.”

* * *

Alastair sat, staring at the plate in front of him. The other three were momentarily oblivious to his dilemma, digging in merrily to their meals, Pinkie and Dash whispering conspiratorially, occasionally shooting looks in the humans’ direction. But he stayed out of it, and just sat. Staring.

Twilight finished the first half of her sandwich, and was reaching for the other half when she noticed her company’s meal untouched. “Something wrong, Al?” she asked, her worry etched plainly onto her face.

“Uh, yeah… it’s…” he stared down at the meal before him for another second, before rolling his eyes up to his host. “It’s hay.

“Yes, hay and daisies! Do you not like daisies?”

“No, it’s not that… I don’t think humans can eat hay.”

The chattering to his right stopped; when Alastair turned, he saw all his new friends staring at him, Pinkie in particular looking like he’d just said something completely incomprehensible.

Twilight was the one to break the silence, after several seconds of doing a fair impression of a fish. Looking extremely embarrassed, she apologized. “I’m so sorry, Al, I didn’t even think to ask about your diet! I’d assumed that since humans are so physically similar to us, we’d have similar diets as well!” Quickly leaving her seat, she turned to scrounge around in her fridge. “So, what do humans eat?”

“Well, along the lines of what I’ve seen so far, we tend to eat fruits and veggies; apples, carrots, broccoli, that sort of stuff. No unprocessed grains that I can think of, or flowers, for that matter. Other than that, we’re omnivores.” Misinterpreting Twilights shocked expression, he elaborated. “You know, eat plants and meats?” After several more moments of awkward silence, Alastair’s eyes opened wide; “You… horses… ponies are vegetarian, aren’t they?”

* * *

Alastair lay back on the couch, staring up at the darkened ceiling, damp head cradle in his hands. Should probably find a place of my own… Twilight had been kind enough to let him use her shower (two days of hard work left him feeling pretty… well, disgusting), but it had still been an awkward request nevertheless.

Thought you were trying to stay out of the public eye?

Well, that’s failing as of tomorrow. He grimaced; he realized he was avoiding thinking about what had happened earlier. The shock of his revelation of his kinds diet was plain in the change of atmosphere; Twilight had readily substituted his hay sandwich for an apple, some carrots, and a couple of hard-boiled eggs (vegetarian but not vegan…), Pinkie had suggested he ask Fluttershy (“She takes care of all sorts of animals, meany meaty eaters and plant eaters alike!” She’d said, not realizing that she’d just called Al a ‘meany meaty eater’), but Rainbow… she, he couldn’t read. She’d become withdrawn, so much so that he couldn’t tell if she were angry, upset, startled, curious… I swear, I take one step forward, two steps back with these ponies. Ponies! He shook his head, once more amused at how his situation had changed from the previous week.

Tossing all his worrying thoughts aside as best he could (which wasn’t very well), he rolled towards the couches backrest, shutting his eyes.

Well, at least things can’t get any worse.