//------------------------------// // Chapter Three // Story: Aliens are the New Black // by Calamity Cons //------------------------------// Aliens are the New Black Chapter Three “Well?” Sollux lifted his head slightly, previously curled into himself like an egg. Had Rarity been moving around and cleaning up the utter mess of the Inspiration Room all night? From the looks of things, it was almost six in the morning, so he could only assume so. He stared at the sidelong glance Rarity was giving him, her horn alight with psychic/magic/whatever the hell she used to move things around telekinetically. “What?” He said after a moment of silence. “Don’t you have anything to say for yourself?” Rarity asked in a huff, using her horn to up the scattered, small pieces of useless fabric and putting them all in neat little piles, sorted by color. “What do you expect from me? A heartfelt apology or 2omethiing?” “Yes! That is exactly what I want!” Rarity almost yelled. Sollux scoffed. “Well too bad, cau2e you’re not gettiing iit.” Rarity stopped in her tracks for a moment, gasping. She leveled herself and planted all of her hooves on the ground, groaning. “What is the matter with you, Sunlight?” “My name ii2 not 2unliight!” “I know, but still, what is it with you? Ever since you woke up today you’ve done nothing but cause trouble and mayhem! I mean, just look at what you did to my dress!” Rarity said pointing to the atrocious heap of fabric with her horn. It laid limp and hideous inside a garbage receptacle, covered with red and blue strips of cotton and polyester, a waist far too small for anyone, pony or troll, to fit in, and fitted with an enormous collar/hood that would need a ridiculously long neck to fit in (not to mention the fact that the collar was entirely made out of pillow covers). “Fa2hiion ii2 2tupiid.” Sollux spat. For some reason, Rarity only yawned. “I just want to know why you’re doing this, Sunlight.” Rarity continued. Under any other circumstance, Sollux would have reprimanded her for using that idiotic nickname again, but he didn’t. When she said that, her voice suddenly gained a touch of sincerity he hadn’t heard before... from anyone. Surprised, he looked her straight in the eyes again, quickly losing a staring contest with the unicorn. Sollux sighed, but kept his arms crossed. He didn’t answer her question. “Oh, fine. Why did I even bother?” Rarity mumbled, continuing to sort the final pieces of ruined fabric. She yawned a couple of times, clearly tired, but unwilling to leave her room in such a state of disarray as it was. Silence reigned for more than a moment, until Rarity began to mumble to herself. At first, her words were too soft for Sollux to hear, but they gradually grew louder as she seemed to forget Sollux was there entirely. “… just trying to be a good friend. But nooo.” Rarity scoffed out, “He’s just so antisocial and difficult, is he even trying to make friends?” Sollux wanted to answer at that. He kept hearing the word ‘friend’ tossed around a lot around these parts. He wondered what the word meant. “Oh, who am I kidding? He probably never even had friends on his planet. I wouldn’t be surprised; he’s so rude and anti-social. Heck I’m surprised I managed to stand him for so long…” “2o am ii.” Sollux mumbled in return. “What?” “II’m 2urpri2ed you managed two 2tand me for 2o long. Hardly anyone el2e can, unle22 they’re wor2e than II am.” “Really? Oh, well, I have a hard time believing that anyone could be worse than you… no offence.” “None taken.” The accompanying silence was so thick, you could have stabbed it in the chest with a lance, and it wouldn’t get through to the other side. It was also pretty uncomfortable, especially since Sollux was still itching to know what the word ‘friend’ was supposed to mean. He racked his brain for a plausible definition, but came up with absolutely nothing. He had never used it before… “What’2 a friiend?” He blurted out. “Excuse me?” Rarity asked, busy with rolling up some loose rolls of fabric and organizing them in a nice little corner of her Inspiration Room. “A friiend. You u2ed that word ye2terday, and II don’t know what iit mean2.” He said, accentuating his speech with narrowed eyebrows and a scowl. “Really?” Rarity said, clearly not believing him, “You don’t know what a friend is?” “No.” “Ooh, how do I explain this to an alien?” Rarity tapped her hoof onto the ground a few times, clearly in deep thought. Her face seemed to twist a bit, but Sollux couldn’t see it too clearly, what with her looking to the ground and her hair blocking his view. Her hair actually baffled him. Why did it smell like raspberries? How did she get it that way? And why was it two different colors when you looked at it a certain way but the colors somehow never mixed together and aaarrrggh! “A friend…” Rarity finally said, lifting her head and staring at the ceiling, “is a person you like. Yes, that’s a pretty good explanation, I think. Simple enough to understand.” “2o, liike, what? A mate2priit?” “If that’s the correct word for it, then yes. It is.” Rarity seemed to take this as the last word needed on the matter, and continued to clean up. She telekinetically grabbed a broom and began to sweep the pieces of fabric that were too small to salvage into a dust pan, intending to throw them away along with the dress. Sollux still wasn’t done asking questions though. “2o your uh, ‘2ii2ter’ ii2 polyamorou2 or 2omethiing?” “She’s what?” Rarity asked flatly. “You know, polyamorou2. A2 iin, ha2 more than one mate2priit.” Sollux explained. Rarity shuffled around a bit, clearly uncomfortable. “Well, I don’t know what poly-amorous means for you, but for us ponies, poly-amorous means more than one lover.” “Uh, yeah. That’2 what II’m a2kiing.” Sollux said, uncrossing his arms and gripping his knees. “Sweetie Belle is not poly-amorous! Whatever gave you that idea?” Suddenly, Rarity began to get defensive. It could have been the lack of sleep she had gotten, or perhaps it was something different, but it was clear that her fuse was shortening. Sollux was not going to back down. “You 2aiid a friiend wa2 liike a mate2priit!” “Does matesprit mean lover!?” “II gue22?” “Then a friend is absolutely not like a matesprit!” “Then what ii2 iit?” “It’s… It’s more… It doesn’t involve any kissing or hugging! Oh, uh, well, it does involve some hugging occasionally but never kissing!” “2o what, friiend2 are people you hug?” “Oh just shut up! I don’t know how to explain it very well. If you want to know what a friend is, ask Twilight or something! She’s the one who bothered to turn it into a study-able topic!” “You mean the purple uniicorn that got u2 bu2ted and ii2 goiing two take u2 two your empre22 twomorrow?” “Ugh, don’t remind me.” Rarity groaned, finally fitting everything in her Inspiration Room back together and leaving everything clean and orderly. “I’m not exactly looking forward to meeting Princess Celestia tomorrow…” Somehow, a clock appeared right next to Rarity seemingly out of nowhere. Sollux stared at it for a moment, while Rarity sighed, noticing that it was currently 6:12 in the morning. “Er, well, later today, I mean.” “2he gonna cull you?” Sollux asked. “What!?” Rarity gaped. Sollux sneered; she had been reacting that way a lot lately. “The Princess would never kill me! She would never kill anyone, not even her enemies!” “Cull, not kiill. And 2he 2ounds liike a weak ruler iif you a2k me.” “Oh, and what isn’t a weak ruler to you then!?” Rarity asked, her eyes narrowed and shifting to a perfect bucking position. “Try an Empre22 who rule2 wiith 2uch a tyranniical griip on her kiind that 2he force2 all adult2 off-planet two fiight along2iide her in an endle22 campaiign for galactiic domiinatiion.” Rarity’s eyes widened, and her jaw dropped yet again. She sputtered for a moment, then shook her head and regained an indignant tone of voice. “What kind of dystopian civilization do you live in?” She asked. “Oh, II dunno. One where terriible mon2ter2 are expected to raii2e you from chiildhood, where the con2tant battle for 2urviival force2 you two become carniivorou2, ruthle22 and cold blooded, and the voice2 of the 2oon-two-be-dead haunt your wakiing moment2 uncea2iingly?” Rarity froze in her tracks. Sollux kept going. “How about one where everyone ii2 out two get you kiilled, game2 are 2o dangerou2 they cau2e ca2ualtiie2 on a daiily ba2i2, the heiinou2 brood2 of the undead haunt the earth and land iin the dayliight, and you’re iintended two follow the whiim2 of the aquatiic arii2tocracy le2t they kiill you on the 2pot.” Dead silence. “What? How…” Rarity began, her voice quiet. She began to stare at the floor again. “How could anyone live like that…?” Sollux cocked an eyebrow. Her voice seemed to be shaking a bit. “N-no, not scared, exactly. Just… shocked.” Sollux gave her a quizzical look, “Shocked that you had to go through that.” “Oh, yeah? Well, new2fla2h pony-giirl; that’2 what II’ve had two put up wiith my whole liife. And you know what?” “…What?” Rarity asked flatly. “That’2 ju2t the way thiing2 are on Alterniia. II wa2 u2ed two iit, II wa2 thriiviing iin iit, and iit’2 the only thiing2 II’ve known for a whiile. And all the thiing2 II am 2eeiing here on your planet are makiing me 2iick.” “Are you seriously saying that!? You live in what can be easily called a hell-hole of a planet, and my planet is what’s making you sick!?” “Iit wa2 my home!” Sollux yelled. “And what do you want me to do about it!?” Rarity yelled back. Clearly whatever pity he had drawn out of her was tossed to the side at this point. Sollux didn’t care anymore. He just wanted to go home. He wanted to tell the others that he was fine and that he was alive and to let Aradia know about where he’s been and talk to Kanaya about the Random Topic of the Day and maybe bug Karkat about his habit of flipping his lid all the time and for pity’s sake he just wanted to go home and get out of here! “What II want ii2 two go home! II want two go home and II want two talk two AA agaiin and II want two fiight wiith KK agaiin and feed my lu2u2 and talk two my bee2 agaiin and ju2t pretend that thii2 2ugar-coated niightmare never happened and that II wa2n’t 2tuck on your dumb back!” “Fine! Be that way! If you’re going to whine and complain about how you want to go home when I have made it quite clear that I do not know how, you deserve to be stuck here! In fact, I think I might just stop talking to you entirely! See how you feel being treated like a worthless piece of junk all the time!” “Good! 2ave2 me the trouble of explaiiniing everythiing two you and your dumb ‘friiend2’ con2tantly!” “You don’t even know what a friend is!” “II would iif you would ju2t tell me!” “Well, I can’t tell you what a friend is, but I can certainly tell you what a friend is not!” “Oh yeah!? And what would that be!?” “A friend is not a lover, a friend does not treat you like trash all the time, and a friend is most certainly! Not! YOU!” Sollux suddenly struggled to stay upright on Rarity’s back, she had turned so quickly. She kicked the door down with her front legs, running down the stairs and out the door of her boutique at breakneck speed. Sollux was having more difficulty than he suspected, jostling up and down like he was a rag doll. It took all his willpower just to get his bearings back on which way was up on the crazy horse, but eventually he grabbed onto Rarity’s hair again and managed to hold on long enough to speak. “What the hell are you doiing!?” He shrieked out, Rarity running as fast as she could through Ponyville and towards what Sollux thought was an orchard of some kind. “If I can’t buck you off my back on my own, then it’s time I call in the expert!” “And who would that be!?” ----- Land sakes Applejack was tired. Waking up at this time of day sure was tough, even if she had been doing that for a long time. While she wasn’t being a stubborn mule anymore about harvesting the apples for Applebuck Season on her own like last year, the help she got from Big Macintosh could only do so much. Even with two adult ponies bucking at trees all day with all their might, it still took weeks to harvest all of the apples in their orchard. But hey, someone had to do it. While she washed up, began to wonder about what sorts of shenanigans her friends had gotten themselves into while she had been working. Had they learned any new things about friendship to send to Celestia? She wasn’t sure; Twilight hadn’t come to visit in quite a while, and the only pony she had seen recently was Rainbow Dash while she was busy handling the weather with the other pegasus ponies. Thinking about Rainbow Dash’s job made her wake up a bit more. Well, that and the fact that she had dunked her head into a barrel of cold water for an extra wake-up call. All washed up and ready to go, she nabbed her hat with her tail and walked outside. Once outside, she stacked some buckets onto a cart and started pulling. This seemed like a good spot, she thought as she reached a big, healthy apple tree in the western fields. Lifting some of the buckets off of the cart and positioning them in just the right spots, she stretched out a little, and with a mighty heave, bucked the tree as hard as she could. Apples fell in quick succession, and Applejack smiled. She had begun bucking tree after tree after tree in the same way afterwards. All in all, today seemed to be turning into just another regular day after Applebuck Season began; wake up, buck the apples out of the trees for some-odd hours, eat lunch at noon, buck some more trees until nightfall, then run whatever errands are left over before getting some shut-eye. Today was just another normal day for Applejack… at least until she suddenly heard her name called out. She turned her head up and started looking around the area for the source of the voice. That didn’t sound like Apple Bloom—too low. But it couldn’t have been Big Macintosh either—too high pitched. And Granny Smith calling out for her was completely out of the question. So who could it have been? Eventually, Applejack gave up on the voice and continued her work. Nopony of sense would have been awake at this hour anyway. Must have just been in her head, she supposed. Until she heard her name called out again, and this time it sounded much, much closer. Applejack stopped again, dropped her buckets down, and looked over the horizon in the direction of the voice. Eventually she saw that it was Rarity, resident fashionista and snarky factory, running towards her from the horizon. Oh, of course, she should have known. Applejack rolled her eyes and turned back to her work; whatever Rarity was coming to her about, she was just going to have to wait. Rarity had done things like this before, actually; randomly come up to Applejack to do some heavy lifting or an important job that she couldn’t do on her own, even with her Unicorn Magic. She just didn’t have time for any of that this season. But Rarity was persistent. Another yell of her name, and Applejack knew she wasn’t going to get out of this one. At the very least, she would have to listen to Rarity give her testimony of whatever it was that she needed Applejack’s help for this fine autumn day. “Oh! Applejack, thank goodness you’re awake! I need you to help me get rid of a—” “Not now, Rarity, please. Ah’m busy here.” Applejack said, moving the buckets around to the right spots. Her ear twitched at an odd sound she heard—similar to someone gasping in shock? Eh, probably a squirrel running out of a tree or something, she thought. “Oh, I’m absolutely certain it won’t take too long, Applejack. Please just—” “Listen, Rarity, “Applejack said, her head lowered and glancing upwards towards Rarity’s chin while she prepared to buck the tree, “Whatever’s botherin’ ya probably ain’t that big of a deal. Ah’m sure ya can handle it on yer own.” Applebuck. “Oh, but it is a big deal!” Rarity pleaded. Applejack glanced at her, and then preoccupied herself by analyzing the tree. She shifted some more of the buckets then prepared to buck the rest of the apples out of the tree… Or at least attempt to. Pretty big tree, this was. Looked like it needed a couple extra bucks just to get all the apples on the lowest branches off. “Are you listening to me, Applejack?” “Ah’m listenin’, but ah ain’t gonna do nothin’.” Applebuck. “What—why? This is very important to me!” “Because, Rarity; ah don’t got no time for this ta be honest. If it’s so gosh-darn important, get someone else to help you, because ah’m afraid that what ah’m doing is important to me.” Applejack said. She glanced up at Rarity again, the light of the rising sun making her easier and easier to see. She stared right back, her nose in the air. “Well go on, then.” Applejack insisted, a little miffed. She focused her frustration on her hind legs. Applebuck. “But all you have to do is—“ “I said go!” Applejack snapped, bucking in Rarity’s general direction. Rarity ducked. Applejack expected to hit nothing. She hit something. “AAAAAAAOOOOOOWWWWWW!!” “What was that!?” Applejack said, surprised. “Applejack! You weren’t supposed to hit him so hard!” Rarity yelled. Him? Who is him!? “A-Ah didn’t mean to!” Applejack said, craning her neck to get a better look. Whatever she hit was now moaning in pain somewhere behind Rarity. She couldn’t see him too clearly though. Thinking on her feet, she sprinted around to the other side of her friend to see the oh good golly gushes what in Equestria was that. “Deaauugh!” Applejack exclaimed, jumping backwards. On the ground beside Rarity was a strange creature she had never seen before. She vaguely recognized it as something she saw in a book once, though she’d be hard pressed to remember what they were called. She could have sworn that those creatures she read about didn’t have gray skin, though. Or… “What is that? Is that blood? Oh dear—APPLEJACK IT’S BLOOD!” Rarity yelled, clearly concerned for the moaning… thing beside her. For some reason, the thing’s foot was still on Rarity’s flank. “What!? B-but blood ain’t yellow!” Applejack said. “It must be for him!” “But how!?” “I don’t know how, Applejack, it just is!” Rarity explained, scratching at the ground with a hoof and biting her lower lip, “Don’t just stand there; help me get him back onto my back!” “Ah! Right!” Applejack sputtered, trying to find a proper angle to pick… ‘Him’ up from the ground. Eventually, Applejack grabbed the shirt he was wearing at the neck, careful not to bite into his flesh, and slowly began to lift him up… “AAAAAAGH!!!” He cried out again, causing Applejack to flinch a bit. She tried not to drop him though, as that would only worsen the situation. Rarity wasted little time, activating her horn almost immediately after he cried out. With her magic, she lifted him up above Applejack’s head. She took her chance and ducked underneath his torso, and together with Rarity’s magic, managed to lay him on Rarity’s back, on the side that she hadn’t hit. The poor thing never stopped wincing… “What do we do now?” Applejack asked. Rarity turned her head around a few times, a concerned look on her face, but then settled for looking straight at the floor. “This is all my fault, Applejack.” “Now don’t you go talkin’ like that. It’s my fault for kickin’ him like that. Ah shoulda tried harder ta notice him.” Applejack said with a smile, hoping it would make Rarity feel better. “No no no, you don’t understand, Applejack. That was the whole reason I came here.” “What!?” Applejack gaped. “I came here because I wanted you to buck him like that.” “Why in Equestria would you do somethin’ like that?” “I-I-I was just so frustrated and tired—I had to get him off somehow! A-And I thought that, if I couldn’t buck him off, then maybe you could, but…” Rarity shook her head, kicked at the ground with her front hoof, and sighed, “I wasn’t thinking straight.” Applejack gave her a weird look. Rarity lifted her head up to look at the whatever-it-was that was on her back. Applejack still wondered about him and how he got here, but she figured she would learn all about him a bit later. Applejack cleared her throat and looked back at her apple farming material, but shook her head. This was way more important than harvesting apples. She turned back to the thing on Rarity’s back. It wasn’t moving. “I’m sorry Sunlight. I never truly meant for this to happen…” Rarity said to the thing named Sunlight. She bowed her head once more, dejected. Applejack frowned. Looks like this wasn’t going to fix itself quite so easily. She sighed, then straightened up and looked directly in front of her. “Rarity,” She glanced up at Applejack, “at the end of all a this hullabaloo, ah wanna have a talk with you.” Rarity looked back down. Applejack sighed again. “Fer now, I just want you ta go ta whoever else you told about the freak a nature you got on your back somehow and get some help.” For a good long while, Rarity just stood there, her eyes closed and head down. “Ah’m sure Twilight’s awake by now.” Applejack continued, looking towards the still-rising sun. “An’ if she ain’t, we could always find Rainbow Dash; she may be lazy, but ah’ll be darned if she ain’t the textbook definition of a mornin’ pony.” Applejack smiled warmly, and poked at Rarity’s forehead. She opened her eyes again, and looked at her. “Ah’ll even go with ya, okay? Whaddaya say?” Applejack said. Rarity glanced down one last time, and then nodded. ----- Things slowly came back to him as Sollux began to wake up. He seemed to be jostling on something… it seemed he was jostling on a… pony? Suddenly he caught a whiff of raspberries, and it all came back to him. He was stuck on the back of some white horse thing with a horn on its head that was about as tall as he was. Her name was Rarity and she was some sort of high blood-but-not-actually-a-high blood psychic/mage or something. And he was definitely not on Alternia. The odd thing was, he felt pretty familiar here. Curious, he began to open his eyes a bit more to get a better look at where he was. It was dark here, and things were chirping and moving and crawling all over the place. The foliage around here—while all seemingly the same mucky green color—was much more sticky and untamed than what he remembered of Ponyville. Wanting to know more, he began to shift himself back up, then cried out in pain. Quickly clutching his inexplicably warm arm with his other hand, he was definitely wide awake now. What the heck!? Why was he in pain!? What happened and—why was he missing a tooth? A quick glance at his left arm, and he could see where the pain was coming from. He was bleeding. A lot. The blood had gotten all over his shirt, too. He groaned a bit in pain and frustration, and decided the most he could do was look forward. He suddenly began to feel very, very angry. “Hey guys! Mister Alien’s awake!” Someone said. Sollux glanced behind him to find a pink, puffy-haired pony behind him. He took a look around him to the others—it seemed that all of the ponies he had met yesterday were here. Twilight Sparkle (what kind of a dumb name is that anyway?), Rainbow Dash, Pinkie Pie, and… Oh. It was that perverted orange one he had seen earlier this morning. What kind of sicko was she, to use pails of all things to gather fruit!? That was just plain unsanitary, even if the pails were made of wood. “That’s good. Thanks for telling me Pinkie Pie.” Twilight said, looking behind her to see him. He sneered, and started rubbing his tongue along the vacant spot where his tooth used to be. Twilight seemed to be leading the other ponies, the foremost person in the group. She didn’t say anything else. Rarity was being oddly quiet throughout all of this for some reason, but he couldn’t be bothered to figure out. He just glared at the perverted one some more. Dumb Rarity, acquainting herself with tiny little angels and some sicko who got off on apples. And he thought she was a high blood—if he didn’t know better, he’d probably think her blood was something even lower than his very own disgusting mustard yellow. Her company was just so… crass. “Are you okay?” He heard a shy, quiet voice say, jolting him out of his hate-filled thoughts. He turned around, and saw behind him a familiar yellow pony with a long, pink mane. What was her name again? Fluttershy? Whatever. “No. II’m not.” He spat back at her. He glanced around a bit to his surroundings some more, but nothing seemed that much different from the last time he looked. If he looked hard enough though, he could see some sunlight pouring through from the foliage, but he didn’t really… uh… What was she doing? “Here, Th-these are for you.” Fluttershy said, leaning into him with a bouquet flowers on her back. Sollux stared at the flowers for a little bit, contemplating why in hell she was giving those to him. Especially now of all times. Was she trying to poison him or something? No, of course not, these ponies were too sugary and sweet and terrifying. Eventually, he wiped his bloodied right hand on the clean part of his shirt (wincing at the loss of contact with his injured arm) and took the bouquet of flowers from the kindly pony. Seemingly satisfied, she landed back on the ground and continued walking forward, pleased with herself. He turned the flowers around in his hand for a bit, examining them. Not poisonous, no thorns, no biting parts… it seemed these flowers were completely harmless. “What the heck am II 2uppo2ed two do with the2e?” Sollux asked. “Well, I just thought that, since you um… probably hadn’t eaten anything since you got here… I uh, thought you might be hungry.” She said. Sollux stared back at the flowers for a moment. Then back at her. Then back at the flowers then back to her. She expected him to… eat these? “Er, thank2, but no thank2.” He said while placing the flowers on a tree branch they passed. Fluttershy bowed her head a bit, disappointed. “Oh… Would you prefer tulips?” The yellow pony asked again, lifting her head back up a little. Sollux could only stare at her. “What ii2 wrong wiith you?” “Oh… n-never mind then.” She said, seemingly shrinking right before his eyes. “We’re almost there now, girls. Just a few more steps.” Twilight said. “Finally!” Rainbow Dash said from above Sollux. “I was starting to think we would never get there!” “Uh, get where, exactly?” Sollux asked. “To Zecora’s place, silly!” Pinkie Pie said, bouncing up next to him. “Who?” He asked flatly. “She’s a zebra who lives here in the Everfree Forest.” Twilight explained, “We weren’t sure how to treat your wounds, since you’re… well, an alien. So we decided that the best thing to do was to go to someone who has herbal remedies for physical injuries like the one on your arm, since magic would be useless and trying to relocate it would be too risky with our sub-par understanding of your anatomy. I would have tried to look for a remedy myself but blah blah blah blah blah blah” “I had no idea you actually bled in different colors mister alien!” Pinkie Pie interjected, forcing Sollux to focus on her instead of Twilight Sparkle, Ramble Master. “Next time you get an injury, which I actually honestly truly hope is never, but if it does happen, could you bleed in pink?” She asked. “No, II can only bleed one color.” He said. “Awwwww!” Pinkie said, but then giggled. “That’s okay! Yellow’s a pretty color too!” “No iit’2 not.” “Why would that be, Sunlight?” Sollux straightened up immediately at the name, which caused his injured arm to start throbbing. Yelling, he grabbed his arm once more, curling into himself. Crap this hurt a lot. He turned to look at who called him that—oh, of course. That perverted apple freak. He opened his mouth to say something exceptionally derogatory, but couldn’t get anything out before Rarity spoke for him. “Don’t call him that, Applejack. He doesn’t like that name.” With that Rarity returned to bowing her head in shame. Sollux blinked at her in confusion. Did she just… tell someone not to call him by that dumb nickname she gave him? He couldn’t even begin to understand why. “Ain’t that his name though?” Applejack asked. “No, it’s not. His real name is Sollux.” Rarity said before Sollux had a chance to answer. He shot her a puzzled look, clearly confused and unsure of what exactly was happening here. Why was she being so… nice to him? He hadn’t done anything to deserve kindness, especially not from Rarity. Why was she speaking for him now all of a sudden, and why did she refuse to look anyone in the eye? “Sollux?” Rarity said, glancing at him without lifting her head. “What?” “I wanted to say I’m sorry. For everything.” Sollux had nothing to say to that. It seemed that he and these six ponies may as well not be there at all; nothing was happening except a dull walk through a bleak forest. Because of the silence, Sollux had some time to think more. He tried not to think about Rarity’s apology, or about the apple freak, or about his arm. But it was pretty hard not to think about ponies when you were surrounded by ponies. He missed it when he wasn’t on this stupid unicorn. He missed it when he wasn’t stuck getting carried around by something he couldn’t get away from, even if he tried. He missed it when he didn’t have to worry about how he was going to go to the bathroom. Come to think of it, he missed the actual bathrooms that he had on Alternia. He had no idea how ponies went, and something told him he didn’t want to know. He missed the green and pink moons that he saw in the night sky almost constantly. He wished the night sky he saw here was full of light pollution and unnatural colors, that the clouds were all thin and swirling constantly. He missed the cyan trees of his planet’s forests, and he missed their purple leaves that turned green in the dim seasons. He missed everything. It was not right here; the colors were too bright, the ponies too gentle and friendly… Oh sure, it was just fine here in the Everfree Forest, except for the fact that his time here was only temporary. The ponies did not all live here, despite it being the closest he could think of to what was good and right. He couldn’t stand it back in Ponyville, where he was almost entirely certain—practically hoping—that the ponies were egging him into their traps so that they could tie him up somewhere to chop all his limbs off and put them into pastries. The worst part of it was that he knew he was wrong.