Author’s Note: I don’t own MLP or Amnesia: Justine
Talk of the Town
Fluttershy woke up to the sounds of birdsong drifting in through her open window just as the first rays of Celestia’s sun began to peek over the horizon.
Yawning, the cream-colored pegasus gently hopped out of bed, patted the still sleeping Angel on the head and went downstairs to check on her new guest.
Alois was curled up on the couch, the blanket that she had put over him had fallen to the floor during the night, but the human seemed to be unaffected by the morning chill, Fluttershy put the blanket back on him and trotted to her kitchen to prepare breakfast.
She was just about done when she heard a knock on the door, “Oh my, who could be coming here this early?” she wondered aloud as she set her meal down, she trotted to the door and opened it, revealing a somewhat anxious-looking Rainbow Dash.
“Hey Flutters.” she said with a smile that seemed a little too happy.
“Hello Rainbow Dash.” said Fluttershy with a more genuine smile.
“Where’s Al-Al-” said Rainbow Dash, trying her best to pronounce the human’s odd name.
“Alois?” supplied Fluttershy helpfully.
“Yeah, Alois- is he up?” asked the cyan pegasus.
“No he isn’t” said Fluttershy, shaking her head, “but you can have breakfast with me and wait for him to get up… I mean, if you want to.”
Rainbow Dash smiled and nodded, Fluttershy noticed the tightness in the smile and the nervous eye twitch that accompanied it.
“Is something wrong?” she asked her friend.
Rainbow Dash’s smile fell and she sighed, “I was hoping to tell you and Aloisous-”
“Alois.” corrected Fluttershy.
“Whatever” said Dash dismissively “I wanted to talk to both of you to save some time.”
“Why do you need to save time? What are you going to be doing today?” asked Fluttershy.
“Nothin’ really, it’s just…. well…. ummm” Fluttershy noted her friends anxiety and laid a hoof on her shoulder, “It’s okay, you don’t have to tell me.”
Rainbow Dash opened her mouth to speak, but she was interrupted by a shrill scream followed by a loud thud, Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash exchanged frightened looks and then rushed out of the kitchen and into the living room.
They found Alois writhing on the floor, his sweat-soaked sheets wrapped tightly around his body and his hands clawing at anything within reach; he was sobbing like a child.
“No-no please! PLEASE!!” he wept “I-I love you… n-no no, Justine….. Wh-where are my eyes? Why did you take my eyes??!!”
Fluttershy had heard enough, she placed a hoof on his shoulder and shook him vigorously, Alois gasped and shot up, grasping at thin air like he was trying to pull something back to him, Fluttershy began to whisper to him to calm him down as she rubbed his back, it took her a few minutes, but Alois eventually calmed down and allowed her to escort him back to the couch.
“I’m sorry for causing you trouble.” said Alois, sounding worried.
“It’s no trouble at all, don’t worry.” said Fluttershy.
Alois smiled slightly and turned to her, “Thank you very much Miss. Fluttershy, I can’t believe that you would take the time to help me.”
Fluttershy cocked her head, “Why wouldn’t I help you?”
Alois shrugged and said “I guess it just surprises me that you can look past the fact that I’m a different species from you.”
“Wouldn’t your race do the same for a pony?” asked Rainbow Dash, who had been hovering in the doorway.
Alois shook his head, “Sadly I don’t think so.”
Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash exchanged displeased looks before turning their attention back to the human, who was now turning his head from side to side.
“I hear something coming.” he said ominously.
“Uh-Oh.” said Rainbow Dash with a gulp.
“What do you mean ‘uh-oh’?” asked Fluttershy, turning to her speedster friend.
“Well…. y’know the thing that I wanted to talk to you about?”
“Yes?”
There was a knock at her door, followed by a loud voice saying “Fluttershy, please open up.”, Fluttershy hurried to her door and opened it to reveal Mayor Mare along with a large group of townsponies.
“Fluttershy, we heard about your new guest.” said Mayor Mare with a smile, “We’d all like to meet him.”
Fluttershy blinked slowly before turning her head to Rainbow Dash, “Did you…?”
The rainbow-maned pegasus shook her head, “Rarity told them.”
Fluttershy heaved a sigh before turning back to the expectant ponies, fighting back her shyness and mustering her most cheerful smile she said, “I’m sorry, but Alois is a bit under the weather and I don’t think that he’d be up for any visitors.”
There was a chorus of groans and mutterings, Mayor Mare in particular seemed the most distressed, probably because she had promised them that she would get to the bottom of the issue. Soon the muttering got louder and louder, until Fluttershy couldn’t make herself heard amongst the din.
Rainbow Dash flew out of the door and yelled for everypony to shut up, “ I know you’re all itchin’ to see him, but he’s not up for visitors right now, okay? So listen to Fluttershy and just leave for now.”
Everypony was silent for a second, then-
“Is he nice?”
The question came from the local mailmare, Derpy Hooves. The wall-eyed pegasus had a hopeful smile on her face; then the floodgates opened.
“Is he handsome?” asked Berry Punch.
“Does he have good teeth?” asked Colgate (of course).
“Does he like candy?” asked Bon-Bon, obviously hoping for a new customer.
“Does he have hands?” asked Lyra, this question prompted a chorus of “What DOES he look like”s from the crowd.
Rainbow Dash pressed her hooves to her temples to stop the rapidly growing headache that she had gotten, she knew that she had to stop them before one of them got the bright idea to try and look through a window or something, Celestia help her if they actually tried breaking in, although Dash knew that it was pretty unlikely that they would do something like that.
She cleared her throat and filled her lungs up with air in preparation for the Sonic-Rainboom of all shouts when somepony beat her to the punch.
“EVERYPONY SHUT UP!!!!!”
Everypony immediately obeyed the command and turned to see a very annoyed-looking Applejack standing at the back.
“What the hay is goin’ on here?” she asked, “Ah can hear ya’ll all the way up at the farm!”
Mayor Mare stepped forward, “We just wanted to see the new creature that Fluttershy found.”
She turned to Fluttershy, who was looking very relieved, and said “We’re sorry for hassling you, we all got caught up in the excitement of meeting a new creature, right everypony?” she asked the crowd, who all nodded their heads and agreed.
Fluttershy smiled, “It’s okay everypony, I know how excited you all must be, but Alois is still recovering from a few… well… ummm-”
“He’s really beat-up.” said Rainbow Dash bluntly.
Everypony vocalized their understanding with a great, big “Ohhhhhhh.”
Mayor Mare nodded her head sagely, “I understand, we’ll leave you alone, but I would like to meet this… Alois in a short while.”
Fluttershy smiled and said, “I’ll talk to him, I’m sure that he’ll be happy to meet you all.”
Her words were met with smiles from the crowd and, just like that, they turned and left, greeting Applejack as they passed her.
When they were gone Fluttershy invited Applejack inside and they went to check up on their guest.
They found Alois huddled in a corner with his knees drawn up to his chest, when he heard them approaching he raised his head and peered in their general direction.
“What happened?” he asked.
“Oh it was just the Mayor” said Rainbow Dash dismissively “She just wanted to see you.”
“Oh… I see.” said Alois looking down.
“What?”
“I’m not sure I want to be seen.” he said softly.
“Why not?” asked Applejack “They may be a bit on the crazy side, but they’re all good ponies.”
Alois flinched at the word “ponies”, “I just…. I just don’t want to see anyone right now, except for you 6 that is.”
“ Didn’t ya hear a word Ah said?” asked Applejack with a huff, “They’re all really nice, they won’t hurt you none, Ah promise.”
Alois seemed to think on that for a moment before he said, “Tell me Applejack, are there any other creatures in this place that walk upright and have similar limbs to me?”
The farmpony placed a hoof to her chin in thought, “Well…. there are diamond dogs and dragons. they’ve got claws and fingers and toes and they walk on two legs, but they have fur and scales, not… skin.”
Alois nodded, “Are they feared?”
Applejack immediately realized that she had gotten herself into a sticky situation, being the Element of Honesty most definitely had its perks, like saving the world and having great friends, but there were a few downsides to it as well: like the fact that Applejack couldn’t tell a lie with a straight face.
“Well... are they?” asked Alois, his patience wearing thin.
Applejack looked at her friends, Fluttershy decided to step in.
“Some of them are, but not all of them, Twilight has a dragon as an assistant.”
“So they’re enslaved?” asked Alois, much to Fluttershy’s horror.
“Oh no no, she raised him from an egg, they’re best friends.” she said emphatically, Alois nodded in understanding before continuing.
“Be that as it may I think that your fellow villagers would be frightened of me, I mean look at me: I probably look like some kind of hairless ape with no eyes to you.”
The three exchanged sad looks before Fluttershy went to reply, but Alois held up a hand to stop her, “Please don’t try and comfort me, all I want to do now is go back to sleep.”
Rainbow Dash and Applejack both moved forwards to speak up, but Fluttershy shook her said and said “Let him sleep, girls. He needs it.”
Alois held his breath until he heard all three of the ponies leave, then he exhaled deeply and laid his now aching head against the wall; he let his muscles untense and tried to calm himself so that he could get some sleep, but his mind was abuzz with dozens of questions all vying for his attention, he knew that he would have to have a long talk with Twilight Sparkle tomorrow.
The very thought of having to face the outside world made him cringe, but he knew that he’d have to face the other ponies sooner or later, he couldn’t just stay in the cottage and have his 6 rescuers come to him, he might have done something like that when he was younger, but he was a changed man.
But am I changed for the better? he thought as a memory returned unbidden to his mind:
He was having dinner at Justine’s mansion, Justine had invited Basile to dine with him under the pretense of having them “talk out their differences”.
The two suitors sat and glared at each other for awhile before the food was brought out; midway through the meal Basile put down his utensils, looked his rival dead in the eye and said “ I don’t like you, Alois. I never liked you and I’ll thank you to fuck off and let me have Justine for myself.”
Alois smirked and wiped his mouth like a proper gentleman before retorting, “Justine needs a proper man to tend to her, not…. whatever kind of ‘man’ you are.”
Basile snorted derisively, “ You, a real man? Don’t make me laugh! You’re a weak little rat who’s never worked a day in his life.”
Alois his blood boil at the insult, how dare that commoner insult him! He would tell his father about this, better yet he would tell Justine about his behavior, that would end their little rivalry fast.
After that he would just have Malo to deal with, Alois shuddered internally at the thought of having to deal with that unstable wreck of a musician, out of all of the Suitors Alois had no idea why Justine would give that red-haired louse a chance, even Basile would make a better husband.
Maybe there was some way to get both of them out of the picture.
The gears in Alois’s head began to turn as he began to think of ways to pit the two against each other, the madman versus the peasant, what a wonderful idea.
Alois shuddered as tears began to flow from his sockets, the cruelty he had showed astounded him, he had been so merciless and manipulative and for what? A woman who saw him as nothing but a mere toy?
Alois continued to sob silently until felt himself begin to drift off into what he knew was going to be a troubled sleep, as his mind began to cloud a single phrase was uttered from nowhere to echo inside his skull :
I deserve this.
“Princess Luna, your sister would like to see you in her chambers.”
These were the first words that had greeted the Ruler of the Night upon her return to the waking world, usually Tia would let her wake up on her own time, considering Luna was always a punctual sleeper and waker.
“Huh? What does she want?” asked Luna, rubbing the sleep from her large eyes and yawning loudly.
The guard who had roused her, one of her bat-ponies, merely shrugged and left her chambers without a word or sound, Luna sighed, she loved her subjects, but they could be so stuffy sometimes.
Luna got out of bed, stretched, donned her silver shoes, chestplate and crown and then went to Tia’s room to see what was so important.
Luna found her older sister lounging on her bed with a book laid out in front of her, at the sound of her door opening she turned her head and shut the book.
“Hello Luna.” she said with a bright smile.
“Hello yourself.” said Luna with a smile of her own, Celestia let out a light chuckle before she levitated a scroll out from under her bed.
Luna’s eyes widened and she gasped, “Is that…?”
Celestia nodded, “It’s Twilight Sparkle’s reply.” she said, watching in amusement at the excitement in her sister’s face.
Luna let out a squeal of pure joy before rushing over to hug her sister, Celestia returned the hug with gusto before handing the scroll over, Luna opened it and began reading with a fervor not unlike a foal opening a birthday present.
When she was finished she gently rolled the scroll back up and turned to Celestia, the Sun princess noted the look of shock on her younger sister’s face, “Are you alright Luna?” asked Celestia, concern evident on her face.
“Twilight found a new creature…. and she’s invited us- I mean me to a party.” said Luna, then her face broke out into a massive grin of pure joy, “Huzzah!” she cried “I can meet a new creature and meet other ponies! I shall go get my joke book post-haste!”
With that she galloped out of Celestia’s chambers, leaving the princess to wonder about this ‘strange creature’ and how it came to her world, I think I might have to talk to Twilight about this personally thought Celestia I need to see this being with my own eyes.
She walked out onto her balcony and stared at the beautiful tapestry of stars and constellations that Luna had set up, it made Celestia glad to see that Luna was still being creative and energetic in her role, but it also saddened her to know that, although the two had reconciled, the other ponies still seemed to prefer her day to Luna’s night.
Oh Luna, I hope you can be happy tomorrow she thought wistfully, then she she turned her gaze to Ponyville and thought: I also hope that this new creature doesn’t pose a threat to my little ponies.
Celestia turned and headed back inside, knowing that sleep would evade her for the rest of the night.