//------------------------------// // 4: A Comeback Eclipsed // Story: To Err is Equine // by RLYoshi //------------------------------// Three days had passed since Twilight sent the letter to Princess Celestia. I had told Risk about me being a human and all, and he actually didn't hate me for it. The rest of the mane six also knew, but at the moment, the only ones who would come near me were Twilight, Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy. Applejack and Rarity always stayed away from me and shot me dirty looks when they came over, and Rainbow Dash...well, I hadn't even seen her since I almost killed her, so I don't even know about her. Though Twilight assured me that Rainbow was doing well, and had Pinkie Pie Promised to keep my identity secret, as did the other girls. Though Pinkie herself seemed disappointed that she couldn't throw me a huge welcome party...yet. She was still hanging onto that 'yet' like it was the most important thing in the world. Celestia hadn't given us any ideas for what I could do so far. In fact, aside from a very short reply letter to Twilight to confirm she had received the first letter, she hadn't contacted us at all. It actually scared me a bit; I kept expecting her to suddenly come by one night, take me away, and lock me up in a dungeon somewhere. Yeah, I'm paranoid. One night, Twilight was running some tests on Risk's horn, looking for ways to repair it for him. I was bored and just lying around, staring at the walls. Normally I'd be reading, but you can only read the entire Daring Do series so many times. "I've heard of cabin fever, but library fever?" Twilight joked as she watched me. I groaned in response. "You don't have to stay in here, you know. You could go out." "Not until I know what I'm gonna do," I declined. I sat up to face her and prepared for a speech of my meticulously carved plan. "If I reveal myself to Ponyville and they like me, that's good, but what if they don't like me? I'd either become ignored, which would be bad enough, or hunted down. You know how evil Windigoes are in legends. They'd think I'm lying with the whole human thing. They'd try to capture or even kill me, and then I wouldn't have anywhere to go. I can't hide behind you girls – and Risk and Spike – for that. I'd have to run away somewhere, and then I'd be at an even bigger loss for what to do, because not only would I not know what to do, I'd also have no way of finding out, because Princess Celestia wouldn't be able to contact me. So the best course of action would be to wait until she replies, and then reveal myself, because if they chase me out at least I have something to do from there." I lay back on the sofa, Twilight looking quite surprised at my sudden monologue. "I didn't understand half of that," Risk spoke up. "But since you sound like you've thought this over a lot, it probably makes sense in some weird way." "It does," I replied with a small nod. "Well...the princess should have responded by now, I'd think," Twilight suddenly realized. "Somepony like her should have some sort of idea...or at least given us other ponies to ask. Why hasn't she replied?" I didn't say anything. I was expecting the sudden convenient timing of Spike burping up a letter upstairs and taking it down to us, or even Celestia herself suddenly teleporting into the room. Neither happened. Instead, I suddenly felt the feeling of hatred once more. This had happened at least once a day ever since I arrived, so I had managed to get used to it and learn how to keep most of my senses intact. My vision still blurred slightly and the urge to run towards the source was pretty strong, but other than that, it was basically like a headache that lasted about ten seconds. But one thing I noticed was that it didn't seem to happen often enough. Sure, Equestria is full of love and friendship and other stuff like that, but every episode in the show had hatred at least once during it – and that was just with less than fifteen characters. So there had to be roughly as much hate in Equestria as on Earth...so why was I only feeling it once a day, occasionally twice? I questioned Twilight about it, and she said that it could be I'm not close enough to the source of hate. Windigoes can normally sense hatred at any point in the world, but since I was so young and weak, I probably had a much shorter range. This actually made a bit of sense. She also added that I probably couldn't sense hatred unless it was mutual – hence why my hate sense didn't tingle when Rainbow tackled me. This actually relieved me, since I wouldn't have to deal with that feeling twenty four seven. After getting that out of the way, I went back to being bored. I must have fallen asleep at some point, because one moment I was listening to Twilight groan about how hard it was to replace Risk's horn, and the next I was being blinded by sunlight and the two unicorns were nowhere to be found. I rolled off the couch and onto the floor with pretty much no noise whatsoever, thanks to not weighing much. Twilight told me that Windigoes were lighter than regular ponies – even more than pegasi – so while I didn't feel particularly lightweight, I probably didn't even weigh a hundred pounds. Honestly, without Twilight around, I probably wouldn't know anything about being a Windigo. It's a weird feeling. Imagine there being one person who you need to tell you everything about being a human, and without them you wouldn't know or be able to do anything that isn't common sense. With that journey from the couch to the floor (and another from the floor to the bathroom), I figured I was ready for the day. Oh, how wrong I was. Twilight and Risk got up shortly after I did. Risk had spent the night in the guest room originally given to me, but since I pretty much took the couch that night, Twilight let him take it instead. I didn't mind. It was a comfy couch. I expected the day to be like any other: boring. Instead, at just a bit after noon, there was a knock at Twilight's door. I quickly ran into the kitchen to hide, waiting for the signal that it was safe. I could hear talking through the walls as Twilight opened the door. "Hello, how may I – Princess?!" I heard Twilight nearly squeal. "I apologize for arriving so suddenly, Twilight Sparkle," a calm, motherly voice replied. I recognized it as belonging to Princess Celestia from the show. "However, this is an urgent matter, and as soon as I found out about it, I could not lose time warning you, and had to head here instantly." "What's going on?" Twilight asked, sounding nervous. I couldn't tell what put her off more: the fact that something bad was happening, or the fact that Princess Celestia had suddenly shown up without giving her time to prepare. "Where is the Windigo you spoke of in your letter?" Celestia asked, not answering Twilight's question. Sensing that it was safe, I peeked my head out of the kitchen, catching the alicorn's attention. "Ah, there you are." "Hi?" I greeted nervously, slowly trotting out of the kitchen. The princess was a lot more intimidating in person, though to be fair, I think anyone bigger than me is intimidating. And as we've seen, the princess is over twice as tall as a regular pony. And while normally she didn't look too hostile, it seemed like she was deliberately trying to scare me at the moment. "Princess, what's going on?" Twilight asked again. This time, Celestia turned slightly to her faithful student, but didn't take her eyes off me. "I sensed a great evil coming from this area. I needed to see what was wrong, and I think I know now." "What's wrong?" Twilight asked, swallowing nervously. She seemed to have caught on at the same time I did, and at the moment, all I could think about was how much I wished I could have been an ordinary unicorn and teleported away. "Arrell, please come with me," Celestia ordered. "I didn't do anything!" I yelled nervously. "I-" "Come now, or I will have to take you by force." She glared. It penetrated my very soul. "Princess, wait!" Twilight begged. "Arrell isn't evil! He's a human! He's no different from the others we've met!" Celestia glanced over at Twilight for a second before looking back to me, but she still spoke to the unicorn. "My faithful student, you need to learn that not all humans are good." Twilight blinked. "What do you-" "Why do you think so many humans have horrible lives?" Celestia interrupted. "You cannot have suffering without a cause. You may not have seen it yet, but I have a feeling Arrell is such a cause." "Not deliberately!" I blurted out. "Come with me, Arrell. I wish I didn't have to do this, but I do what I need to in order to protect my citizens." Casting a final pleading look at Twilight and receiving no response, I slowly moved towards the princess. It's over. Already, everything's over. Either she'll send me back to Earth, or lock me away in a dungeon, or send me to the moon, or kill me... Then, before anything could happen and my fears could be realized, something happened. Something small, yet important, that would save me from a long list of possible conclusions, all of which I would do anything to avoid. Risk walked inside. "What the heck's going on here?" he asked. Celestia, surprised, looked over at him, her attention drawn away from me. With her distracted, I made the first move I could think of: I ran. I charged out the door, running right past Risk. I heard Twilight and Celestia yelling after me, but I didn't stop. I ran through Ponyville, ignoring the screams and stares, and just kept going until I was out of the town. And from there, I kept going even further. Don't stop running. If you stop, you're dead. Just keep going. It wasn't until I saw new buildings pop into view that I realized how many hours I had been running for. That was when it all caught up to me, and I suddenly collapsed. I couldn't get up, even though I wanted to. I just lay on the ground, panting, until my eyes forced themselves shut and I fell into the world of dreams.