//------------------------------//
// Alternate ending to the alternate ending 
// Story: Big Mac Reads Something Purple 
// by Bad Horse 
//------------------------------//

	Twilight passed them on her way back, and stepped inside the library only moments after they had left. She saw the lavender-colored book still lying on the table. She picked it up, wondering what story Big Mac had decided to read to the fillies.

She realized she had no idea what sort of stories he liked. It was just one more mystery about the silent stallion.

It really wasn't fair that Twilight should be the one struck with—well, curiosity—about the big stallion, when any of her friends would be better at drawing him out. Pinkie could make him laugh. Rainbow could compete with him physically. Fluttershy could be adorable, and helpless if necessary. Rarity could just flutter her eyelashes at him. But what could she say? "Oh, Big Mac, do you think you could stay a moment and help me recalibrate my astrolabe?" "Big Mac, I'm going to City Hall to hear the Mayor's budget proposal—doesn't that sound exciting?"

Right.

She turned the book over to look at the title, and did a double-take: Theoretical Research in Neurponynomic Decision-Making. Big Mac certainly wasn't reading that to the girls. And for Rarity to have been reading it—well, that was even less likely.

"Hello?" she called out. "Is anypony else here?"

She went to the door and looked out to see if she'd missed anypony on their way out of the library. No; the streets were empty. But she noticed a canvas sack she had overlooked on her way in, hidden behind a bush. Had somepony left it there for her? Then why hide it?

She took the sack inside, and debated whether to open it. It wasn't hers. This wasn't just her home, after all; it was also a public library. Anypony might have left something outside the door momentarily. But if she opened it, she might be able to figure out whose it was.

She loosened the drawstring—it was the simple kind favored by pegasi and earth ponies—and drew the contents out. A box of nails, two iron brackets of some kind—and Miss Smarty Pants.

She shook her head, and blinked. Miss Smarty Pants was still there, staring up at her from the table with her one good button eye.

She'd never found her after that awful business with the tardy friendship report. Was somepony secretly returning her? But why the nails and the brackets?

Just then the door burst open, and Big Mac's head poked in. He was snorting and sweating, as if he'd run all the way there from the farm. "Miss Twilight! Have you seen—"

Then he saw the doll and the book on the table before her, and his eyes grew big, and his mouth clamped shut.

"Big MacIntosh. Did you ... have my doll, all this time?"

The big stallion cringed at the question, and looked down at the floor, shamefaced. After a few moments, he nodded.

"Why?"

He looked behind him, at the light streaming in through the door, as though contemplating escape. But he didn't escape; he just stood there, not meeting Twilight's eyes.

"Because it was yours," he said miserably.

Now it was Twilight's eyes that widened. Maybe, she thought, he meant he was holding onto it to return it to her.

She nodded towards the book. "And is that what you read to the girls?"

He pawed at the floor. "Sorta."

"Oh, Big Mac. I'm sorry. You can't read, can you?"

Big Macintosh looked up, and Twilight saw a tear in his eye, and another thing that she'd never seen there—anger. "Please, Miss Twilight," he said. "If'n you don't mind, just give me my sack, an' I'll leave."

She looked down at the sack, her cheeks burning. She shouldn't have said anything. She should just not talk, ever, like Big Mac.

She put the box of nails back into the sack, and then the brackets. Then she pulled the drawstring tight and hoisted the sack into the air. She was pushing it slowly toward him, wondering if he'd ever speak to her again, when an idea struck her.

"Would you like to learn?" she asked.

He lifted his head and looked into her eyes, ignoring the sack suspended in the air between them. He nodded once.

"Come over here," she said. "Let me find something a little easier for us to start with." She shut the door behind him as he came inside.