It was hard to tell how long he’d been awake. There was no clock in his “room” (if you could call a cot in a bathroom a room) but it felt like he had been tossing and turning for the entire night. His hair was mussed and his blanket was rumpled but he could almost certainly recall never falling asleep.
Shutting his eyes tightly, he attempted to speed up any wave of drowsiness to affect. Nope, nothing. In fact, he could feel even more lively and awake than he did a few seconds ago. Tossing his blanket to the floor, he slowly rose out of his cot.
No sense in waiting to be tired, he thought to himself as he felt around for the door knob. Wrapping his hand around it, he slowly creaked open the large wooden door. Making a small opening, he slithered out of the crack in the door and quickly shut it behind him.
Despite the almost complete darkness surrounding him, excluding the flitters of moonlight through some windows, he could easily tell where in the house he was. He was standing in the atrium of the Golden Oaks Library, also known as the humble abode of a certain Twilight Sparkle. Since he’d been calling the downstairs bathroom of the building “his room” for the past month, he supposed he could also call the building home.
Thankfully with Twilight and her little dragon sidekick Spike sleeping upstairs, there was no way they could’ve have heard his stirring downstairs. Despite this, he knew he wasn’t in the clear. One false step and one of them would be down here, and no way could he deal with the embarrassment of them seeing him out and about at this hour. He was staying here for free after all, and a major screw up like that would be all it would take for him to be kicked out and on the streets looking for a new home. At least, that’s what he thought would happen.
Standing still for a moment, he waited for his eyes to adjust to the black around him until the room he was standing in was a faint grey mass of outlines instead of an absolute blind spot. Feeling prepared, he made his way towards one of the outside windows. Pulling out the latch, he swung the spiny glass square open and slid over the ledge. Not stopping, he hoped onto the front grass, barefoot, and pushed the window closed.
Sighing happily, he looked around to the new world he had just thrust himself into. Most of the wooden and thatch houses were still in the night, but a few had lights on in certain areas, silhouettes moving about freely. Moonlight baked downwards from the sky, almost fully illuminating the entire earth. He swore the moon was brighter in Equestria; it’d never seemed that alive and beautiful back home. Then again, most things weren’t very alive and beautiful when he had left.
Shivering lightly, he immediately regretted not putting on something a bit more heavy. He’d left his brown cloak back in his room, which only left him with wearing his normal underlings of brown trousers and a green shirt. The night felt colder then usual and he considered going back inside.
He shook his head to erase these thoughts. He could manage; he was only going on a short walk, not a trek through the arctic. Looking around once more, he decided to go down the street to his left. Shoving his hands into his pockets, he made his way down the dirt road to no where in particular.
-----------------------------------------
His mind wandered as he walked, diverting any attention he had to his surroundings and instead focusing on every little thought that fluttered through his brain. He could see what he was doing; he just paid it no mind.
He had more important things to focus on anyway. The little images he could make out on the moon, a cool song that would fit the atmosphere and this little story he had going in his head about a young pirate who wanted to be a captain. This is what interested him and so; this is what he focused on.
He was so stuck in his own little world that he didn’t immediately notice the flash from behind him.
Stilling walking, he barely turned his eyes, not thinking much of whatever he just saw. Flash. This time his brain actually registered it.
Shutting off the thoughts in his mind, he casually stopped walking. Waiting, he expected the flash once more. Flash. Turning his head slowly to the side, he peered out of the corner of his eye to catch a better glimpse of whatever it was.
Flash. There it was again. Turning his entire body around he looked at directly where he thought the light was coming from. He waited a few seconds hoping to see the flash of light again. But he was met with nothing. Standing there, he continued to look off in front of him. Tensing up, he awaited another flash.
But instead of a flash he was greeted by the sound of something whizzing over his head.
Not thinking twice, Alistair dived off to his side and rolled onto the ground as more objects flew past where he had just been standing. Rolling off the dirt road, he ducked behind a bush.
Taking cover behind the shrubbery, he could hear more objects fly over the top and puncture into the leaves of the bush. Parts of the dirt road popped with the impact of something against them, sending bits of dust into the air. Ducking his head further down, he shrieked in fear.
More and more objects wisped around him as it seemed the entire world froze in time. All he could seem to hear was his own voice and the objects flying towards him. There was no escape for him, he was trapped.
Panicking, Alistair began to scream in fear as the endless flurry of whizzing objects continued to pellet his position.
“STOP!” he howled desperately. “SOMEONE HELP ME!”
The pace of the flying objects did not decrease with his pleas, and leaves began to fall rapidly off the front of his cover. He could feel his time running out, this bush wasn’t indestructible. Trying again, he wailed for help.
“SOMEONE! I’M GOING TO DIE! HELP ME!” A massive volley of objects smacked quicker into the bush. “PLEASE!”
Lights in certain houses began to turn on, as the entire neighborhood was being awoken to the scene. With other ponies alerted, the whizzing objects suddenly stopped flying.
Hyperventilating, it took Alistair a few seconds to realize he could no longer hear anything coming towards him. Realizing his safety, he sighed in relief. It seemed he was out of the jungle, but he wasn’t taking any risks.
Acting on pure adrenaline, he foolishly poked his head out to see if anything would hit him. Trembling violently, he waited for something to slice into his face and send blood curdling down the flesh of his skull. But instead of the piercing pain of a projectile, he felt nothing and heard only the sound of silence.
Ducking his head back down, he continued to wait for anymore crossfire from his front. Still being met with nothing, he made the smart decision to get the heck out of there! Getting to his knees, he looked to his left and right to see if anything else was going to attack him.
Feeling some sense of security, he hopped to his feet and bolted off down the opposite side of the road, adrenaline carrying him every step.
-------------------------------------------
He tried his best not to make a ruckus climbing back through the window, but the fear and excitement fueling him made it difficult to be subtle. Tiptoeing back into his “room”, he clumsily shut the door behind him and flipped on the bathroom lights.
Walking over to the bathtub, he plugged the drain close and turned on the hot water. Steamy water blasted out of the nozzle and quickly filled the bottom of the tub with just enough liquid to submerge a pencil.
Rolling up his pants, he dipped his feet in and watched as the grimy caked in dirt seeped off his feet and into the water. He could feel as the tough flesh on his toes became soft and red with the relaxing midnight scrub. Taking in the comforting warm water and the now humid air, he could feel his nerves beginning to calm.
Being clean always calmed him down, no matter what circumstances. Back home he’d never had the liberties of plumbing and heated water, but he still tried his best with scrubbing his hands in the nearby river and the occasional purity spell. Now that he was in Equestria; the luxuries of perfect hygiene were right at his fingertips. Another fact proving that Celestia’s domain was undoubtedly a paradise.
Feeling most of the filth gone, Alistair reached towards the water spout to drain the water. As he reached, he felt something tugging at one of his pant legs. Looking down at it, he could see what looked like a stick lodged into the loose fabric by his feet.
Pulling it out gently with his pointer and thumb, he brought the thin piece of wood to his face. Upon immediate inspection he could tell that it wasn’t a stick, but a dart from a blowgun. He’d never spent much time around weapons before, but the occasional reads of Twilight’s encyclopedias kept his knowledge of frivolous and odd things on the up an up. The strip of wood was too skinny and pointed, and a light coating of feathers were put on the edge of one end, no thinner then a sheet of paper.
Well that explained what was being shot at him, tiny pointed pieces of wooden death. But that didn’t explain the “who” or the “why” of his midsummer night ambush. Maybe the dart has some clues hidden on it, he thought to himself. I need to calibrate the optic sensors first.
Squinting his eyes, he tried to make out any significant markings or identifications on the tiny projectile. Perhaps there was a company or something that made these darts. However, his investigation was suddenly interrupted by the faint clumping of hoofsteps upstairs.
Jolting in surprise, Alistair quickly pulled the plug on the water and hopped out of the tub. Wiping his feet with a nearby towel, he tossed the dart into his pocket and bounced into bed. Reaching over his head, he flailed wildly for the nearby light switch. Clipping the piece of plastic with his fingernails, the room switched from light to dark.
He could still hear noise above him, something that sounded like a mix of pacing and talking. No doubt Twilight doing her…something in the middle of the night. He considered going up the stairs and asking her what the heck was going, but he suddenly felt pretty hesitant to go on anymore adventures.
Yawning, he turned himself over and began to stare at the wall he couldn’t see. Twilight’s voice still echoed from upstairs as he began to nod off and eventually collapse into his pillow.