“*Sigh*”
You never truly realize how good you have something until it’s gone. Like Nutella, the king of edible spreads, on toast. You run out and revert to the old ways of using classic, simplistic peanut butter, but it’s never truly the same.
And that’s why I was on Fluttershy’s couch with a block of wood in my hand staring at her yellow painted wall:
I missed my television.
Now I’ve never really been one for roleplaying, but what life without television can do to a man...It’s just frightening really.
Seventeen days. For seventeen whole days I've been stuck in pony land.
I pressed the 2 then the 7 of the crudely drawn buttons on the ‘remote’ and imagined that Seinfeld was playing on TBS. Elaine pushing over Jerry while yelling her catch-phrase, “Shut Up!”
I’m not ashamed to admit that I was pretty much lost to the world about then.
In my defense, I hadn’t had a significant source of protein in over two weeks, which, as I’ve read, can drastically affect your mood and brain function if the proper dosage isn’t received. The “Caretaker,” as I’ve taken to calling the pegasus behind her back, almost seemed to be mocking me in the way that she gave fish to bears and otters so freely, not even bothering to ask me if I wanted a bite.
To get something out of the way; I'm actually not particularly fond of the taste of fish, but frankly I would’ve taken anything right about then, as long as it was basted with olive oil and covered in basil and rosemary with a touch of sea-salt before being grilled to perfection, a slight char on its skin.
Dang did I want me some meat.
I didn’t realize that I was drooling, whether it was from my overly descriptive meat-dream or my unentertained mind; but I also didn’t realize the pegasus in the kitchen doorway staring at me either.
Well, until she cleared her throat to grab my attention that is, causing a particularly large strand of drool to drip onto my towel as I quickly turned my head towards the noise.
She lifted her head high into the air, her nose stuck up ever so slightly as she began to strut towards me with her eyes closed.
It would’ve been an impressive performance, had she not taken a small peek of me looking back at her with my empty eyes. As she began to trot closer, her head began to lower, her speed ever decreasing and her ‘strut’ being almost completely lost as she began to seemingly drag her hooves towards me. When she was finally before me, she was a shaking mess, refusing to even lift her head back up to look at me.
I rolled my eyes, realizing that she clearly wanted something, her shyness just again forcing its way through into her mannerisms.
Setting down my ‘remote,’ I placed a hand under her chin and brought up her head to meet my gaze.
“Is there something you need Flutters?”
She shifted her gaze and attempted to pull her head away, but I wasn’t just going to let her off the hook that easily. I gently wrapped my hands around her muzzle, not enough to restrict speech, but enough to keep her from moving away.
“I-I...M-may I join you?”
I looked at her disbelievingly.
“Well it’s your couch.”
She seemed to take that as an affirmative as she fluttered her wings excitedly behind her back and beamed at me. I released her muzzle and allowed her to climb onto the couch next to me, picking up my remote to make more room.
I shifted my gaze back to the wall, and continued my little daydream, though it wasn't long before I heard her clear her throat again.
"What is it?"
I asked, keeping my gaze in place on the wall.
"Umm, if you don't mind me asking, what are you doing?"
"SHH! Kramer is about to come in!"
I could only imagine her confusion right about then.
Suddenly, I slapped my knee and burst out laughing.
"Oh that Kramer! What a funny guy." I turned my head towards the pegasus, who was giving me a strange look. "What is it you needed again?"
"Oh nothing..."
Shrugging, I turned up the volume a little bit and returned to my watching.
If I wasn't so distracted, I might’ve felt her shuffle a little bit as she put her head into my lap. If my brain wasn't so fried, I might’ve stopped myself from petting her absentmindedly.
Alas...
The pegasus let out a contented sigh as I continued to gently stroke her mane.
Honestly, the sigh mixed with the added weight against me kinda brought my brain back down to Ear- Equestria, but I didn’t make a movement to stop my hand and pull away. Frankly she was the most adorable thing I'd ever seen; even if she and I were getting COMPLETELY different vibes from the whole situation, her's a bit more... Inappropriate, I didn't really mind. Though it wasn't out of the kindness of my heart to be perfectly honest; I wanted something...
"Uh Flutters?"
"Mmm... Yes Stan?"
"I have a question for you, if you don't mind."
"Of course I don't mind, I actually have one for you too."
"Uhh, you can go first."
She pushed her head against my hand slightly.
"No, you brought it up, you can go first."
'This isn't going to end well.'
I cleared my throat.
"Well, I uhh. I've noticed you giving fish to your bear and otter friends; doesn't it make you feel -I don't know- a bit icky?"
She tensed for just a moment at the word fish, but calmed back down as I continued.
"Oh no, of course not. I only give it to them if any of the poor dears get beached; their diets still consist mainly of berries. It's not like I-I-” She obviously didn't want to finish the thought, so I interrupted.
"Well that's good... OH! I don't mean that's good that they die just that- Oh you know what I meant."
She didn't really react, still just pressing against my hand as I ran my fingers through her mane.
"*Ahem* So uhh... Have any fish?"
"Mmm...Just one, I was actually going to give it to Harry today."
"Harry..."
"The bear."
She finished.
“Well don’t you think that you may be spoiling him a bit? I mean what if someo-”
“Pony.”
She corrected.
“-Somepony else wanted it?”
She shifted and flipped over onto her back to look up at me, quite awkward with the whole ‘nudity’ thing ponies have going on I must say.
“I really don’t think he’s being spoiled, but I haven’t exactly promised it to him yet.” She tilted her head and looked confusedly at me. “Why? Did somepony you know want it?”
“Well I-uhh. Yes...”
“Who? Is it Spike? Because Twilight specifically told me never to give him any meat, it unnerves her. ”
“No no, it's not Spike it's...Me.”
She furrowed her brow a bit as she processed my words before realization struck, her eyes widening to dinner plates.
"W-w-what? W-why?"
It was clear that she knew exactly why.
"You see, humans are omnivores-"
"Y-yes, I know. B-b-but you haven't eaten any meat since you've gotten here!"
“Well yeah, I don’t necessarily need to eat meat but-”
I tensed a bit as I raised my eyebrow at her.
‘Wait...What did she say?’
“Did you just say that you knew?”
“W-well, if you don’t need m-meat th-then I’ll just g-give it to Harry, if y-you don’t mind...”
She skirted around the subject.
I narrowed my eyes.
“You KNEW!” She flinched a bit. “Yet you still gave those pets of yours meat instead of me?!?”
"W-well yes, y-you have those teeth…B-but you never asked so..."
I pinched the bridge of my nose and took a deep breath.
"Okay fine, I guess I can kind of understand that, but may I please have that fish?"
She looked away from me.
"N-no."
I raised an eyebrow.
"What?"
She steeled herself and looked back at me with a frown.
"No."
She said with more authority.
"And just why the hell not?"
I asked
"Because you're better than that."
'You have GOT to be kidding me.'
"Believe me Flutters; I am not better than that. Just please let me have the fish, I'm dying here."
She rolled her eyes at me.
‘When did she get so daring?’
“Look, think about what would happen if anypony else found out that you eat meat. Just because I understand and work with meat-eaters doesn’t mean the other ponies will be as...Open to the idea, I know for a fact that Twilight wouldn't take this news very well.”
There's nothing truly like being hit with a large helping of logic.
“So...What I’m getting out of this is that you’re NOT going to give me the fish.”
She gave me a disbelieving look.
“Okay, that’s all I needed to know.”
I lifted the pegasus’ head up from my lap and slipped out from under her to stand up. I began to walk to the door but was stopped right before it by Fluttershy’s voice.
“Where are you going?”
I turned back at her and smiled.
“Fishing.”
I opened the door, stepped outside and slammed it behind me before she could voice her disapproval.
I began to walk along the path, forming plans in my head about how I was going about catching me some fish.
‘Okay...No money, so I can’t buy anything...Sticks? No, there isn’t a way in heck that those movies are actually realisti-’
I didn’t make it ten feet before my vision was suddenly filled with yellow as I was knocked to the ground.
"OOF!"
‘Why am I even surprised?’
“Fluhgh-”
I said, muffled by the furry body on my head.
“Well, that was graceful... Good thing nopony saw that.”
‘...That is most definitely not Fluttershy.’
“Whoghfg?”
The pony on my head tensed.
“What the buck!”
It quickly rolled off of me, allowing me to stand up and dust myself off.
“By Luna’s tits! What are you?”
A feminine voice said behind me.
‘Oh fun...The one pony in this wretched town that doesn’t know I’m here yet.’
I turned around to see a yellow coated pegasus with an orange mane and tail not dissimilar to fire.
“Man, Human, Homo Sapien, Earthling, Hominin, sexy beast from another planet; take your pick sweetheart.”
I sneered at the mare.
She raised an eyebrow at me and tilted her head.
“I think I’ll go with man, it’s got a nice ring to it. Besides, sexy beast is pushing it a little bit, don'cha think?”
A smirk found its way onto her face.
I was taken aback for a moment, here I was a sentient bipedal creature from another world and she just took it in stride.
"I'm Spitfire by the way."
She held her hoof out, which I crouched a bit to take.
"Stan. So why did you -uh" I gestured towards the sky. "decide to drop in."
She smiled sheepishly.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry about that, a cloud came out of nowhere and clipped my wing, you know how it i- well actually, you probably don't." She put a hoof to her chin while she looked at me before her features brightened as she had some sort of inspiration.
"So Stan, I know this little joint in Ponyville that makes a mean Caesar salad, how would you like to join me for lunch? Consider it an apology for crashing into you."
I weighed my options:
'Spend possibly countless hours trying to fish or get a free lunch... Well that's a toughie.'
I'm assuming that my decision was fairly obvious.
"Why the heck not?"
She smiled at me.
"Great!"
She began to trot along the path but took a quick look back at me.
"You're not going to get us run out of town are you?"
She said.
I rolled my eyes at her and began to follow after.
"Please. I've been in Ponyville for three weeks now; I'm actually surprised that you don't already know about me."
She offered me a smirk in reply.
"Well I'm not exactly from Ponyville, I was just passing through to Cloudsdale."
"...What's Cloudsdale?"
-Meanwhile-
Fluttershy was peeking through the crack of her slightly ajar front door, watching and attempting to listen to the conversation amongst the two on the path.
She had started to walk outside to stop and apologize to Stan, but quickly hid behind the door when she saw the Wonderbolt crash into the man.
Fighting the urge to jump out and see if he was alright, she cracked the door open slightly, just in time to see him stand up and dust himself off.
She hadn’t caught much of the chatter between the two, but what she did catch had her worried sick.
Three words: Sweetheart, lunch and tits.
Tears were beginning to form on the corners of her eyes before she blinked them out.
“B-be strong Fluttershy, you don’t know if they’re actual-”
Her self whisperings suddenly halted as she noticed Spitfire starting to walk away, with Stan soon following after.
She couldn’t stop the flow of tears this time around, and they came almost full-force as she fell back on her haunches with her head lowered.
“St-stan...W-why?”
After a few moments, she quelled her sobbing as an idea came into her head.
‘I know! I’ll get some advice from Rainbow Dash!’
She ran a hoof across her eyes to wipe away the tears as a smile came onto her face. Picking herself up, she opened the door and flew outside to find her friend.
She had just reached the cloud layer above her cottage when she realized something: She had no idea where Rainbow Dash was.
'At this time of day she's usually napping... Sweet apple acres?'
The yellow pegasus began to shoot towards the farm, when she saw a small trace of rainbow swishing back and forth just to her right. Altering her course slightly, she gracefully landed on the cloud where her friend lay snoring.
She gently tapped a hoof against the sleeping pegasus.
"Umm Rainbow Dash?"
"Ughelestia no..."
The cyan pony twitched slightly as she let out an unconscious reply.
"Rainbow Dash."
"Mmph, no don't put it in there..."
"Rainbow Dash."
Fluttershy said with slightly more volume as she again tapped a hoof against her friend.
"Mmm... Whaddya mean it's funny?"
"Rainbow Dash!"
Fluttershy yelled suddenly.
The cyan pegasus shot up into the air, holding her hooves in a fisticuffs fashion.
"Who? What? Where?" She noticed her timid friend kicking the cloud awkwardly with her hoof and drifted down to her. "Agh, Fluttershy? What do you want?"
"Well umm.... Stan-is-on-a-date-with-Spitfire-and-I-don't-know-what-to-do." She hastily spat out.
"Could you repeat that? Ya know, like twenty percent slower?"
Fluttershy took a deep breath.
"I saw Spitfire crash into Stan this morning and they started talking and he called her sweetheart and they just went to have lunch and sh-she s-said tits!"
Rainbow’s eyes widened.
"Spitfire is in town!?! Oh my gosh, that’s awesome!"
She started to pump her hooves into the air, but soon stopped realizing that she hadn’t heard anything after ‘Spitfire’.
"Wait, what else did you say?"
The yellow pegasus' lip trembled.
"Stan went to have lunch with her..."
Rainbow raised an eyebrow at her.
"And this is bad because..."
Fluttershy gave Rainbow an exasperated look.
"Because he called her sweetheart and she said tits!"
The pegasus meeped and buried her face into the cloud, realizing just how loud she had said that. "Mmpheymuthbedathing..."
Rainbow landed on the cloud next to Fluttershy.
"I'm sorry, what?"
The yellow pony lifted her head from the cloud, now with a mixture of tears and dew streaming down her face.
"They must be dating!"
Her head fell straight back down into the cloud as she sobbed.
Rainbow Dash took a step back from her friend's sudden outburst, before smiling and placing a reassuring hoof on her back.
"Shh, I'm sure it's nothing Fluttershy. Have they even met before today?"
"I don’t th-think so..."
Fluttershy’s voice was slightly muffled by the cloud.
A particularly large sob came from the mare.
"But how do you know it wasn't love at first sight?"
Rainbow snorted.
“Like that garbage exists.” Fluttershy lifted her head up from the cloud and gave her friend a mean look. “I mean uhh...That’s probably not it.”
Fluttershy just buried her head back in the cloud.
“Look Fluttershy, if you’re really that worried about it then you just need to take things to the next level.”
“B-but I -I mean we- have...”
She said into the cloud.
The cyan pegasus’ eyes opened wide in surprise.
“Wait, really?”
Fluttershy lifted her face up from the cloud, but turned her head away from her friend.
“W-well *sniff* yes. It was after his ‘welcome to Ponyville’ party...”
“You mean the one where he got totally smashed from one cup of cider?” Rainbow said in a deadpan tone. Her face filled with surprise at the sudden realization. “You didn’t...”
Fluttershy refused to look at her friend, but nodded nonetheless.
A grin grew on the cyan pony’s face as she patted Fluttershy’s back.
“Wow Fluttershy, I didn’t know you had it in you!”
Fluttershy turned her head back towards Rainbow Dash, yet still didn’t make eye contact.
“Well, he didn’t exactly remember doing it...”
“You didn’t tell him did you?”
Fluttershy bit her lip in reply, her eyes starting to water again.
“Look Fluttershy, I’m pretty sure you don’t have anything to worry about. If you do, then you just need to let him know how much he means to you. Spitfire may be a big shot, Wonderbolt, celebrity pegasus capable of performing tricks with her eyes closed that other pegasi couldn’t even dream of-” Fluttershy’s head lowered as she drove on, Rainbow was quick to notice. “-but you’ve got a long tail! Stallions love long tails!” She let out an awkward chuckle.
Fluttershy didn’t respond, her head still lowered.
“Uhh...Well, I’ve gotta fly; those clouds ain’t gonna clear themselves ya’ know.”
Flutttershy stayed quiet.
“I guess I’ll see you around Fluttershy.”
Rainbow Dash took to the air and flew off, though Fluttershy was too distracted with her thoughts to notice.
‘Show him how much he means to me...but how?’
A grin suddenly spread across the pegasus’ muzzle.
“Oh Stan. You’re going to love me...”
“So, you told me you were a man, but I still don’t really know what that is.”
Spitfire and I were sitting on two piles of hay enjoying our meals around a small outdoor table in the front of the restaurant. It doesn't exactly take a rocket scientist to make a salad, so we got them almost immediately after we ordered.
“Well uhh.” I took a bite of lettuce. “Y’Shee, whirrr ehh smrt-” I swallowed and began to make a twirling gesture with my fork. “Sorry. You see, we’re a smart bipedal race-”
“Well that much is obvious.”
Her face adopted a smirk as she interrupted me.
I rolled my eyes.
“Yeah yeah smart a**.”
“I’m not a donkey; but if I was, I’d rather be a smart one than a dumb one.”
I gave her a disbelieving look, but she seemed completely serious.
Well, seemed.
She burst out laughing at my expression and fell backwards off her pile of hay. Feeling a bit devious, I quickly took advantage and tipped over her glass, spilling its contents all over her ‘rofling’ form. Needless to say, she shot up in an instant, dripping with water.
I looked at her nonchalantly.
“What? You looked a little hot, with a name like Spitfire that should hardly come as a surprise.”
She gave me a strangely good-natured smile.
“I like you Stan, you’ve got guts.” Her smile turned a bit more sly. “Maybe we should take things to the next level...”
‘Now what is she-’
Her wings shot out with a *Pomf*.
‘Oh hell no! Not her too!’
I stood up and began to back away from the table, my hands held up defensively.
“Look Spitty-”
I was cut off as her wings suddenly flapped, sending my half-eaten bowl of salad straight at my head.
I froze in place as it hit, the bowl ever so slowly unsticking from my face before falling to the ground. I'm sure that my expression was priceless, this fact reinforced by her laughing as she took another bite of salad.
Not wanting to give her the satisfaction of an angry response, I simply walked back to my pile and sat down, making an attempt at small talk.
"So flirting aside, what do you do for a living?"
Now that got a good reaction, she dropped her fork as she started choking on a crouton. I'm sure she would've been blushing, but the fact that her face was turning blue kind of overrode it.
Again, please don't ask me just how their faces manage to change color while covered in fur, the less I think about these impossibilities the better.
I wanted to laugh, but frankly she was quite literally dying in front of me. But, that's not to say that I didn't chuckle a little bit as I stood up and patted her on the back to help dislodge the crouton.
"*Cough* You're a-*cough*-real piece of work, you know-*cough*-that?"
I smiled as I patted her back a couple of more times before sitting back down.
"Oh please, it's all in good fun."
She rolled her eyes as she cleared her throat.
"Whatever sexy beast." She pursed her lips at me. "Aren't you going to clean that dressing off your face? You've got a perfectly good towel right there."
"Yeah well, I kinda need that." I grabbed a napkin off the table and began to wipe my face. "Besides, a napkin works just fine. That reminds me, you never did answer my question on what you do for a living."
"Well I'm an acrobat."
She responded.
‘Oooh limber.’
I made a face at her.
"You mean like from the circus?"
She didn't like that comment at all.
"No! An aerial acrobat for the Wonderbolts, I'm actually the captain thank you very much."
She shouted indignantly
“Yeaaaah, never heard of them.”
“B-b-bu-Wha-?”
She stammered out.
"You forget that I haven't exactly been here for very lo-"
I was cut-off by a booming sound in the distance followed by a large...Rainbow explosion?
“And that’s my cue to leave.” She pulled a few coins seemingly out of nowhere and threw them on the table.
"Wait what?"
I said incredulously.
"You'll see in a minute, or maybe ten seconds, whatever." She started flapping her wings to get airborne. "I'll be passing through Ponyville again soon, we should hang out then."
"Yeah sure-” She was gone in a flash, leaving her uneaten salad on the table. "Oh of course she left. What else did I expect?"
I stood up and walked over to my salad bowl on the ground.
"*Sigh* Such a waste..."
A gust of wind knocked me off my feet as something hit the ground hard behind me.
Funny how one simplistic stupid decision can make your day all the worse. I swear, it was like I was just tempting fate. Don't know what I'm referring to? Well that little 'gust' sent me falling straight towards the salad bowl, plastering it to my face...again.
Why didn't I catch myself? I'm not entirely sure; maybe part of me is just begging to be the laughing stock of this world.
"Is she here?!? Where's Spitfire!?!"
A familiar voice said behind me.
I grumbled into my salad bowl, before being roughly yanked up by my hair with a yelp.
"Shtan whirrsh Shpitfire?"
The voice said, clearly, or maybe not so clearly, with a mouth full of hair.
"Umm…Ow?"
She released my head, letting me drop into the salad bowl once again.
I grumbled a few choice curses that I shan't repeat into the bowl before lifting myself up angrily and turning to see the mare. Rainbow stood there with a large smile on her face, shaking with excitement.
"Well?"
She said.
I glared at the pegasus.
"You just missed her."
She looked downtrodden for a moment, but brightened up while looking at me. She stifled a giggle before breaking into all out laughter.
"What?"
I said unamusedly.
She made a poor attempt at holding in her laughter as she turned her head slightly and gestured a hoof towards her cheek. I reached a hand up and pulled a dressing soaked lettuce leaf off my cheek, holding it in front of my face. Not being able to hold it in anymore, Rainbow fell to the ground laughing her tail off.
I rolled my eyes.
"Just perfect..."
“Flutters I’m home!”
Yeah, I’m a sucker for old fashioned lingo and terms, so what?
I stepped through the doorway to find Fluttershy ever so slowly beginning to peek her head out of the kitchen. She had a confused expression on her face.
“Well so to speak, this isn’t really my home after all.”
I clarified
Her confused expression left and a slightly saddened one filled its place if only for a moment. She brightened up almost instantly and ran out of the kitchen to meet me at the door.
‘What’s got her so excited?’
“Oh Stan, I’m so glad to see you.” She stopped in front of me. “I just wanted to apologize for how I treated you this morning, you’re a growing...”
“Human.”
“Yes, a growing human and you need your nutrition.”
“Fluttershy, I’m 25, I’m not really growi-”
She suddenly grabbed my hand with her mouth, which was completely gross by the way, and began to pull me into the direction of the kitchen. Humoring her, I didn’t put up much fight and began to file after her.
“Alright Flutters what’s the bit id-”
‘That smell...She didn’t...’
She let go of my hand and gave me a beaming smile, gesturing towards the table. On top of it sat a bowl of salad, a glass of water and a plate with a still steaming...Tuna filet on top of it.
I was speechless to say the least and began to slowly walk towards the plate with my eyes wide. I noticed out of the corner of my vision that Fluttershy was licking her lips, but right then all that mattered was the steaming hot chunk of meat in front of me. Call me overdramatic, but tears were filling my vision as I sat down.
“F-Fluttershy...*sniff* I don’t know what to say.”
She trotted over and sat down in the chair across from mine smiling.
“Don’t say anything, dig in.”
Several thoughts filled my head at that point in time:
‘But I just ate half a bowl of salad...Well it was half, clearly not enough.’
‘Fluttershy, a herbivore, cooked MEAT?!?’
‘I wonder if she’s sadistic.’
‘Note to self: Do whatever the hell Fluttershy wants.’
‘Screw it, no more thinking. I. Want. That.’
I picked up the fork on the table to my right and looked back up at Flutters, who was still giving me a warm smile. She gestured towards the plate, so I did exactly what she told me to do: I dug in.
The first bite told me one thing; Fluttershy is an excellent cook no matter what in the heck she’s cooking.
‘Oh god, this is foodgasmic!’
The second bite told me an entirely different story, a tale of woe involving the poor fish beached against the shore as his family watched in horror.
‘*Sniff* *sniff*’
The third bite was a bit of a douche, it was a particularly hot chunk that decided it would be fine to burn my tongue.
‘Fu- You know what? Totally worth it.’
If I wasn't so distracted, I might’ve heard the heavy breathing coming from the other side of the table. If the food wasn’t so freaking fantastic, I might’ve noticed Fluttershy looking at me with her tongue lolled out of her mouth. Lastly, if my vision wasn’t currently being filled with a particularly delicious hunk of meat, I might’ve noticed an entirely different yellow hunk of meat sitting across from me moving its hoof back and forth under the table.
I don’t know how long it took me to finally notice these strange occurrences, all I know is that the filet was already half-gone when she let out a moan. That’s what it took for me to break out of my food-nosis; it was then that everything clicked.
I dropped my fork on the table, eliciting an ‘eep’ from the pegasus across from me. By the time I lifted my head up to look at her, she had placed her forehooves behind the back of her chair and was looking about the room nonchalantly. Though there was most certainly a blush on her face, a large one at that.
‘Maybe it’s time I start eating the salad instead...’
I reached a shaking hand towards my fork and picked it up. I slowly pierced a dressing covered leaf of lettuce and brought it to my mouth. The taste was odd...Though I couldn’t exactly put my finger on how.
In an attempt to diffuse the awkwardness, I decided to ask Fluttershy about it.
“Uhh Fluttershy, is this dressing expired or something?”
Her eyes widened and she quickly turned her face to look at me; upon seeing me sticking another piece of lettuce into my mouth, a smirk spread across her muzzle.
“Oh no, it’s a special apple family recipe, I just picked it up from sweet apple acres a few minutes before you got here.”
‘Hmm.’
Shrugging, I continued to dig in, though my hand was becoming progressively shakier without explanation. When the salad was half gone and spots were starting to swim into my vision, I looked back up at Fluttershy who was smiling sweetly at me. She slowly brought a hoof under the table to grab something and placed it on tabletop. Sitting there was a bottle with an apple and three x’s marked across the front label.
‘No...’
“Stan are you alright? You look a bit shaky.”
She continued to smile at me.
“Yooopsh of crrp...”
‘Son of a-’
And again, the world went black as I passed out.