Ellis, Sawdust, and Ball-Peen all sat on the roof, tacking in the shingles and whistling while they worked. Not all it the same time, though. That would sound terrible. Only Ball-Peen was whistling, whistling something about winter. It was starting to get stuck in the human’s head.
Winter Wrap-Up, Winter Wrap-Up~ NO! GET OUT OF MY BRAIN, DAMN YOU!
Only an hour into the shingling and they were already halfway done. Seeing the progress filled Ellis with a sense of accomplishment. Even Big Boss was starting to lighten up. From the outside, the house looked nearly whole again. With the pace they were working at, they would be done with plenty of time to spare.
Unless, of course, any more distractions decided to show up.
The incident with Lyra was in the past, at least. It did not go how she thought it would, that’s for sure.
The unbalanced mare had him backed into a secluded wall, slowly inching closer. She cackled through her clamped teeth, still fixed into a psychotic grin. Froth, by God, actual froth dribbled from the corners of her lips like a rabid animal. Her eyes were still fixated in that frightening stare. Ellis had never been more unnerved, no... absolutely terrified in all his life.
“I’ve got you now!” The words exited her mouth like venom from a fang.
“Wha-what are ya gonna do?” Ellis exhaled between pants.
Suddenly, Lyra’s face returned to a more familiar expression of plain confusion. She wiped the froth from her mouth with her foreleg.
“I dunno. Didn’t think that far...” She mused candidly.
Ellis needed a distraction. He thought up the best one he’ll ever get for the rest of his life.
“Uh... yer fetlocks’r untied.”
“They are?” Lyra looked down at her green hooves for a good three seconds before realizing that she had been tricked. When she looked up, the human was gone.
“Oh Celestia damn it...”
Ellis still couldn’t believe that worked. He also couldn’t figure out the deal with that unicorn, but it was over now, and she hasn’t come back yet. He suspected that she gave up due to not knowing what her own intention was. In hindsight, he should have guessed he would have acquired the attention of yet another less-than-sane pony considering Rarity. He just thought it would have been Pinkie Pie. “All bet’s are off.” He thought. “Ah wouldn’t be surprised if this town’s fulla nut-jobs.”
“Man, Ellis, you’re gettin’ all the mares.” Sawdust added as they continued the current conversation. “Wish I had that kinda charm.”
“Well, if ya know how, you kin take it. Ah don’t want it no more.”
They both laughed. Ellis could even hear Ball-Peen stifle a chuckle.
“You get the same treatment back at home, man?” The ochre unicorn asked.
“Naw. Don’t get chased by girls. Just zombies.” He took another shingle from the pile and began to nail it in. He was halfway through when he looked up and realized that both Sawdust and Ball-Peen were giving him strange looks. He got a bit too comfortable and just let the captious subject slip as if he were around Applejack.
“Zombies? You mean, like, zombie zombies?”
The human sighed and put his hammer down. A lot of explaining would have to be done now, just when he was starting to really enjoy their company. It was like they were already good friends, despite their differences in appearance that would have alienated him from most other ponies, he was sure. Though, telling another human about his survival probably would have enthralled them, but as he had learned with Applejack and Twilight, Equestrians seem to abhor violence and death by instinct.
“Infected. They came down with the Green Flu, got sick, and became zombies.”
“Why didn’t you get sick?” This time, it was the pegasus who spoke. Ball-Peen had been quiet for almost an hour, but he finally found something compelling enough to beat Sawdust to an inquiry.
“Ah was lucky. As it turns out, I’m immune to the virus. That didn’t help, though. The infected are just as bad.” He picked up his hammer and idly inspected it. He couldn’t meet their eyes. “I’ve run fer mah life more times than I can count, traveled hunnerds of miles to try and get outta there.”
“Dude, that’s pretty rough.” Sawdust sympathized.
“I wasn’t the only one, though. Met some other people like me. Immune. We stuck together an’ helped each other out. It all worked out in the end. Well, at least fer me.”
The unicorn glanced at the un-shingled portions of the roof. “We got time, man. Tell us about them.”
Ellis smiled to himself. Even though it was hell-on-earth, he cherished the time he spent with those three. Coach and Rochelle were fine from the start. Nick, however, was a snarky and ill-humored fellow. Originally, he planned to stick with them for a short time, then ditch and stake it out on his own to get back to his old way of life. Ellis didn’t particularly like him at first. He tried to be friendly during the short resting periods in the safehouses, but Nick only made fun of him and taunted his southern ethnicity. Over the weeks of going from place to place, escaping one city after another, Nick had come to respect him and his fellow teammates. Hell, Ellis remembered one time, after he had been near-strangled by a Smoker and incapacitated to the ground, he had referred to Ellis as a friend as the mechanic helped him off the ground and patched his wounds. He had changed, begrudgingly, yes, but it was still a good ways away from what he used to be like. They all changed a great deal, even Ellis. It should be mentioned that he actually enjoyed killing infected to a point, as long as he wasn’t on the receiving end of the punishment, but after being knocked down, burned with acid, ridden by a Jockey into a blazing fire, and nearly torn apart by a Witch over the course of several days... he just couldn’t find the fun in it anymore.
Then came near-death, being zapped back to life, being rescued again and again only to be sucked back down. Ellis just wanted out. His friends probably thought the same. By the time they were at the bridge, they were on their last legs. They all knew they couldn’t take another plunge back into it.
Sawdust and Ball-Peen still stared at him expectantly. Ellis nodded his head.
“If y’all say so, but it’s a long story.”
+++++
Applejack, her saddlebag full of freshly re-made gardening tools from the smithy, approached the familiar sight of home, sweet home. After a morning of traveling back and forth to and from Ponyville, she was eager to return to her applebucking.
Besides seeing Ellis and convincing Pinkie Pie to come out of her room, she had a mildly pleasant time with Wrought Iron. The old unicorn spent most of his days at his sweltering forge, making shoes, tools, and other metal-worked goods. He was glad to see Applejack, Granny Smith’s granddaughter. He and Granny were longtime friends, but, to Applejack, it seemed that all old ponies knew each other. Any mare or stallion past 60 could come to the farm and the aged matriarch would greet them like a long-lost friend. He asked how she was doing, how old were the kids, and other old-pony questions. Despite his stereotypical behavior, he was a kind and happy fellow. The farmpony always thought of him as what Dominic would have turned out to be if he didn’t spend most of his life in seclusion. He worried about the alchemist a lot. Even though he’s long since come to terms with himself, she still suspected that he clung to some of his emotional turmoil. Despite his irrationality, his inconsistencies, his lack of personal hygiene, she still thought well of him.
Applejack entered the house and went to the kitchen. Sure enough, there was Granny Smith. She was making her famous pie crusts for her even more famous apple pies, trimming the edges of the thin dough while rotating the pie tin.
“Hey Granny.”
Granny Smith jumped a little in surprise. She set the kitchen knife down.
“Dooh... sweetie, you know better than tah sneak up on me like that!” Applejack knew she wasn’t angry. She knew that she was easily startled due to her inattention, so she just always said that as a sort of running joke. She readjusted her thick, cats-eye glasses.
“So, how’s our lil’ traveler doing? What news from yonder?”
“Ahm all done with my trips to Ponyville, Granny. Gotchyer gardening tools all fixed up.” She set her saddlebags on the counter and began to unpack.
“Thank you, dear. How’s Iron doing these days?”
“He’s all fine an’ dandy. Says he’s looking forward tah yer pies.”
Granny Smith smiled. “Oh dat old coot. I swear he loves mah pies as much as he loves his wife! That’s all ah hear him talk about.”
Applejack chuckled. “Yeah, that’s about half of it.” She set down the grocery items she picked up while she was in town. Might as well take care of the spices while she was there, she thought. With only the tools in her bags now, she set off to put them in the shed.
“Hold up.” Granny called as she began to resume her trimming. “The lil’ one was all excited ‘bout somethin’ tah do with your new friend. She’s been bouncin’ up an’ down in mah kitchen fer a good while! She got somethin’ tah show ya, ah think.”
“Probably the wallet.” She thought. Anything will get her excited.
“Alright, I’ll go see her before I git back tah work.”
+++++
Applejack slid the door of Apple Bloom’s bedroom open. The small filly was coloring. Papers and a spectrum of crayons were strew across the floor in a tight pile surrounding her. She looked up from her artwork and smiled at her older sister entering the room, a dark blue stick of hardened wax still in her teeth.
“Hey there sis.” The older one greeted.
“Applejack! Ah wanted tah show ya somethin’!”
“And ahm here tah see it.” She returned. “Did ya like Ellis’s wallet?”
“Well... it was kinda boring, tah be honest. It was jus’ weird pieces of green paper an’ some flat bits of plastic.” She said, feeling sorry for not appreciating the human’s thoughtfulness enough. “But ah did find a cool picture!”
She trotted over to her nightstand and picked up the photo with her teeth. Applejack met her halfway to see what she had acquired.
It was a photo alright. She studied it with interest as Apple Bloom held it steady between her lips. She could recognize Ellis in it, but there was another human next to him.
“It’s Ellis an’ his friend, ah think!”
Applejack had an idea of who it was. The “Keith” fellow that the human constantly talked about. She’s heard countless stories of him and how he gets brutalized within an inch of his life almost every other day. Ellis talked about his like he was an authentic friend. From the look of the photo, they looked happy together. Keith must have unnatural tolerance for Ellis’s antics.
“That other human’s name is Keith. Ellis talks about him a lot.”
“Keith?” Apple Bloom repeated. “Humans have weird names. What do you think his special talent is?”
“Indestructibility, probably.”
“But... if this is his best friend, wah didn’t he come to Equestria with Ellis?”
At first, Applejack merely regarded the question with a simple shrug, leaving Apple Bloom to think it over on her own. The elder sister said goodbye and left her little sister to her artistic hobby. As she walked down the hallway to finally head out into the grove and do an honest day’s work, the question precipitously came up in her thought process again.
What happened to Keith?
Ellis loved talking about him, but when he was telling the farmpony about his time during the apocalypse, he only mentioned his other friends. Keith never came up. What happened to him?
Was he dead?
Applejack quickly shoved the whole thought process out of her mind. Ellis always referred to Keith in present tense, which means he’s still alive. Did they go separate ways? Not likely... she couldn’t find a reason why they would break their close lifetime friendship so willingly. It just didn’t make sense...
Applejack donned her yoke and hitched the apple cart containing stacks of wooden buckets. Exiting the cool shade of the barn, she trudged out into Celestia’s solar warmth and headed to the path that traversed the rolling hills covered in countless apple trees. There was plenty of work to be done, and the world waited for nopony. The questions she had unwittingly instated into her mind still nagged at her. She found herself drumming up possibilities and scenarios. Maybe he was away on vacation? Did he move out from Savannah?
Did he not survive?
Her heart skipped a beat. She nearly forgot to breath and stumbled to the ground, cart still in haul, staring blankly at the sun-baked dust that caked the dirt path. She has never... never considered death to be a possibility. Not once. Not even on her worst days. And it just came up in her mind twice.
“What the hay is wrong with me?” All of Ellis’s talks about death and blood and killing must be getting to her nerves. Not even the most dismal of Equestrian fiction has ever gone that dark. She once read a horror story about zombies. Undead ponies that shambled slowly to an isolated farm, where the protagonist had to survive and find a magical cure to end the infestation. As a filly, the book gave her nightmares. For a good week, she trembled under her bedsheets and took wary glances outside the window. Now that she was older and more mature, those stories seemed like a load of hogwash. They were cheesy and entirely implausible. The story even had a happy end; all the ponies were cured and they returned home to their families.
Ellis’s story had no happy end. Thousand of humans, infected and roaming for flesh. There was no cure. He had implicitly mentioned so by telling her that the people he called “The Military” switched to a final solution and began dropping explosives from metal fliers onto the plagued cities. None of them got better. None of them went home to their families. They were already dead to the rest of the world. Applejack told Ellis to stop at that point in his story, and he kindly obeyed. She couldn’t bear to hear any more. Such depressing news from such a carefree person. He explained it all as if it was as tragic as a small foal’s sandcastle had been wrecked by a strong gust of wind. He didn’t seemed phased by the fact that a population of humans that outnumbered Equestrians several times over slowly became mindless killers and lost all of their identity. Was death such a common thing for him that it just didn’t matter? Was his home so utterly dystopian that he just accepted those abhorrent atrocities as a fact of life?
He was an enigma. Applejack’s mind still churned as she instinctually clopped to her destination. She couldn’t figure out how he could be so kind, cheerful, humorous after all that. His given insight only made it more puzzling. She tried to imagine what she would feel in that sort of situation in an attempt to further understand. She tried to imagine all of Ponyville getting violently sick, slowly losing their intelligence. She thought of the royal guard blockading the traveling routes to all other pony settlements, letting nopony get in or out for a reason they would not disclose. She thought of her friends... oh Celestia...
Applejack hurriedly unhitched herself from the cart and removed her yoke in a blur of motion. She drug a stack of collection buckets and hastily placed them around the first tree of the day. The apples all seem to hang heavy and expectant. She stopped, trying to collect herself and silence her horrific imaginings. Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy, Dash, Rarity... she couldn’t imagine losing them. They were a second family to her. She owed it to herself to always think well of them... always think well of them...
The images came. She couldn’t hold them back. It was like a dangerous overflow of water splashing over the rim of a tense and crumbling dam. She imagined Rainbow Dash moving toward her, not as a friend who wants to talk about her day or ask her to hang out, but as a mindless creature who was not Dash, one that only moaned for her flesh. Dash was gone...
Applejack felt hot tears well up on the bottom of her eyelids. She tried to think of something else. Something pleasant and saccharine. Twilight! She pictured Twilight humming growling a cheerful tune as she diligently hungrily rearranged some books on her library shelves eyes glazed over and bloodshot, empty of the bright and wonderful shine that once existed behind them.
She gasped as she bucked the tree much harder than she intended. The bark chipped and flew off like shrapnel. The red and yellow fruits loosened and dropped off the branches all at once, falling into her buckets and the ground around them. She winced at the small muscle tear she acquired from that careless overexertion. Applejack strained her brow as she tried to bury the gruesome imagery being conjured up by her renegade imagination. She thought of the calm, serene scene of Fluttershy bringing a basket of carrots to feed her rabbits blood dribbling from her scarlet-stained teeth... Nononononononono...
It stuck to her mind like a viscous glue as she readied herself to harvest the next tree. She fought it. She fought the blackened pseudo-realities down with every bit of mental strength she could draw. She beat it down every inch of the way as her muscle-memory took over the repetitive task of applebucking for her. Her perception became cloudy through the blurry, tear-slick windows of her emerald eyes.
Ever so slowly, but surely, the sun sank into the horizon.
+++++
“...So, then the bridge dropped an’ we went a-runnin’. Shot a few dozen as we went, but mostly we were focused on getting to the other side.”
Despite his apprehensions, both Sawdust and Ball-Peen proved to be a fascinated audience. With open ears and wide eyes they listened to his stories between each short time they had to hammer in the shingles. For Ellis, it was mostly the short version. He left out a lot of the stuff that Applejack was really uncomfortable with when he told it to her. Not a lot of good things to say about a zombie apocalypse, that’s for sure.
“So, we stopped tah rest about halfway through when yet another Tank came ‘long. This one was a mean one. We all poured the heat on ‘im, but then, fer whatever reason, he came after me. Ah dropped mah rifle an’ ran fer mah life. Ah don’ know exactly what happened, but there was an explosion an’ ah was thrown off the bridge.”
“What happened next?” Ball-Peen asked, absorbed in the human’s saga. He asked the most questions of the two. Ellis may have finally brought the timid pegasus out of his shell.
“Ah honestly don’t know. Ah... remember fallin’, seeing the water, an’ the rest is just gone from mah mind. Ah wound up here, more specifically in Applejack’s grove.”
Sawdust couldn’t suspend his disbelief any longer.
“What? You’re saying you fell off a bridge and somehow ended up in Equestria?”
“Yeah. Can’t explain it. It jus’ kinda happened.”
“So you didn’t get here by a botched spell or anything?”
“Not that ah know of.”
“No space travel?”
“Nope.”
“No teleportation device?”
“No... Where the hell you goin’ with this?”
The unicorn shrugged. “Things don’t happen for no reason, man.”
“I’ve heard worse ways for something like that to happen...” Ball-Peen added.
“Well, if ah had a better explanation, ah wouldn’t withhold it.” Ellis removed another shingle from the container and gripped his hammer.
But there were no empty spaces left.
“Huh. Looks like we’re done.”
Big Boss withdrew himself once more from his frustration-thick office trailer and nearly nearly flipped at what he beheld.
“Great ‘Tia!” He exclaimed as Ellis and Sawdust made their way down the ladder while Ball-Peen floated to the ground. “Done already?!”
The ashen flyer grounded himself with a exuberant nod. The other two reached the foot of the wooden rungs and hopped off, vocalizing their confirmation.
“That was fast!” Boss complemented in the only way he could: by shouting at the top of his lungs. Ellis massaged his ringing ears “I’m real proud of you boys! Pack it up and you have the rest of day off! DISMISSED!”
The construction ponies set to putting the equipment away in the nearby carts. Ball-Peen gathered the blueprints, hammers, saws, and measuring equipment while Sawdust levitated the ladder to be tied to the horse-drawn vehicle. Ellis was about to follow them and offer his assistance when-
“ELLIS!!!”
He whirled around on one foot and faced the vociferous stallion. “Yes, Sir!”
“At ease.” Boss sighed and relaxed. “You don’t really need to call me Sir, Ellis. I apologize for all that yelling.” His sincerity put Ellis off-guard. “I’m only like that when my blood is up. You know how it is.”
“Sure...”
His eyes narrowed. Some of the earlier animosity returned. “Don’t let me catch you slacking off though.”
The human flinched, but he kept his composure for the most part. “You won’t see me doin’ any a’ that, no Sir.”
“Good. So, anyways, the mayor passed this off to me to give to you at the end of the day.” He held out a small, lumpy sack in his mouth. Ellis took the underside of the bag in his hand. It was a bag of coins by the feel. The weight surprised him.
“This is just some bits to get you started off. Since you probably don’t have any local money, this should tide you over ‘til your next payday.”
Gingerly, he opened the bag to peek at its contents. His eyes widened considerably.
“Hoh shit, man! Is this real gold?”
“Yeah, that’s what bits‘r made of.”
“Don’t ya think this is a lil’ generous? This’ll last me a year!”
Big Boss chuckled. “That’ll get you four loaves of bread and a jug of milk!”
Ellis sighed and cinched the drawstrings. “Figures...”
“You can blame it on the economy.”
Ellis gained a sudden thought, accompanied by a feeling of guilt.
“Ah don’ sit too good with taking taxpayer money, ya know?” He stuck to his family creed about no government handouts. “You gotta earn it yerself.” His mom would say. Ellis didn’t care much - money was money - but his mother drilled the mantra into his head all the same. He wouldn’t feel comfortable going back on her word.
The brown earth-pony shook his head. “This is from Miss Mare’s own trunk, Ellis. The treasury has other things to fund, like the whole rebuilding project.”
That was a bit of an astonishment. Last time he left her, she acted like she wanted nothing to do with the human. Ellis had put so much stress on her already enervated mind, but she hid her frustration from the others well. Public image must be maintained, after all, but when they were alone, the mayor nearly exploded at him. He assumed that she felt nothing but hatred in Ellis’s regard. He bounced the cloth bag in his hand a bit with a smile. “Guess she had a change a’ heart.”
“She also wants you to pay her back in full. With interest.”
“Nevermind.”
“That’s all I have for you. Good job today, by the way. You go enjoy yourself.” His expression darkened. “It’s back to the desk for me.” Big Boss trotted back to his trailer and shut the door behind him. Ellis lingered in place for a few seconds, examining the coin sack in his palm with hazy interest.
“Dude! Ellis!” Sawdust broke the human’s musing abruptly. Ellis turned to the unicorn.
“Help me with some of these! You can take the saw horses.”
“Sure thing.” He stuffed the bag in his spacious coverall pocket and hoisted the two wooden trestles under his arms. As he approached the cart, Sawdust noticed the jingling sound emanating from his pants.
“What did Big Boss want ya for?”
Ellis set the frames on the cart’s bed before answering. “The mayor gave me a little early pay. Good thing, too. Darn near completely forgot that ahm flat broke here!”
“Cool beans, man.”
The trio continued to pack away the clearing of their equipment into the two carts parked on the curb. During that process, Ellis had time to appreciate the work they completed. It seemed like months ago that the roof looked like a mangled hole, but no longer. One could hardly tell if it had been damaged at all. It was good as new. He regretted not taking before-and-after pictures.
“Hey, Ellis.” Sawdust got his attention after they loaded everything up. “What are you gonna do now?”
“I dunno. I guess I’ll head on back tah AJ’s farm.”
“Aw, come on, man! The day’s still young, and you haven’t been around Ponyville that much! We’re not letting you go after that story you told us. You can hang out with us for the rest of the day.”
Ellis shifted on his feet. “I guess ah could.” He honestly liked the two co-workers, but he couldn’t help the feeling of apprehension that crept into his head. Why did it feel like he was doing something wrong? Applejack wouldn’t expect him for the rest of the day, and she would probably understand if he wanted to do a few things on his own. He shouldn’t be feeling bad for spending some time away from her. He felt like he owed her something. Maybe another story from Savannah. He could tell her the “remote-controlled plane and bottle-rocket” story to make up. Oh man, that one brought a grin to his face.
“Awesome.” Ball-Peen, back from returning the blueprints to the office trailer, flew up beside Sawdust.
“Hey Peen.” The unicorn hailed. “We’re gonna go out into town. Ellis is coming with us.”
“He is?” The younger pegasus became more enthusiastic than Ellis had seen him all day. “What are we doing first?”
Sawdust pondered for a moment. “I have no idea.”
They all sat in silence.
“Bowling?” Suggested Ball-Peen.
“Bowling?” Repeated Ellis.
“Bowling?” Re-enunciated Sawdust.
Ellis nodded his head. “Bowling.”
“Bowling?!”
“Bowling.” Sawdust agreed.
They all paused and looked at each other.
“BOWLIINGGG!” They cheered in unison.
+++++
A cacophonous clatter resonated throughout the building, accompanied by other similar sounds coming from the other lanes. Ellis frowned. Another split. It was like he was cursed or something. His second try left two pins un-knocked.
“Bummer.” Sawdust said apologetically. Not a good thing coming from him. He was winning. If only his friends could see him now, being beaten at bowling by a pony. Meanwhile, Ball-Peen clutched the heavy resin-coated ball gracelessly in his hooves while balancing on his hind legs. With a soft grunt, he lightly tossed his ball forward. It glided forward on the slick course for a few feet, then promptly veered off into the gutter. The pegasus sighed. Ellis was thankful he wasn’t in dead last.
“Man, ah haven’t gone bowling in so long. The alley in Savannah’s only open in the fall an’ winter time. Ah never knew exactly why, it was a family-owned alley an’ they went somewhere else during the summer, or somethin’.” The pins on the end of the lane were magically reset and Ball-Peen’s ball ejected from a chute into a holding crevice, clacking next to Sawdust’s and Ellis’s.
“This place is open all year round, except a week or two during the holidays. It’s me an Peen’s favorite spot to hang out.” The construction unicorn stood up and claimed his ball with his orange-colored magic. To Ellis, it didn’t seem fair to other ponies that he had magic and they had to use their hooves in several awkward fashions. It was more for the socializing rather than the playing, really, and the pegasus didn’t seem to mind.
“How long have you two known each other?” Ellis asked as Sawdust blasted away another spare. He penciled in the score on the score card.
“Me and him? Only a few years, when we started working for Big Boss. He’s a bit of a shut-in, if you haven’t already guessed.”
“I’m right here, man.” He called from the seat next to his friend.
“And I’m right here.” Sawdust gestured to all of himself like it was a catchphrase shared between the two. He turned back to Ellis. “It took a while, but he’s a good guy to be friends with. He’s just short for words.”
Ellis nodded. “It’s nice to be working with both of ya. Couldn’t have asked for a better job.”
“What about Applejack’s farm?”
“Well, tah be honest, ah probably would have gotten sick a’ apples if ah went with that.”
“Fair ‘nuff.”
Ellis stood up and grabbed his ball by the finger-holes. He stopped himself as a question hit him like a truck.
“Hey, why do these have holes fer yer fingers if y’all have hooves?”
Sawdust shook his head. “It’s not a very good idea to ask those kinda questions.”
“Why’s that?”
“Because you’ll probably end up like Lyra.”
Let it be known that, on that rapturous day, someone (more specifically somepony) successfully gave Ellis a good reason to stop talking.
The human line up his feet, took a fluid step forward, swung the weighty orb in an arc behind his back, and jumped as a sudden sound jarred him out of concentration just as he released the ball.
“IT’S HIM!!!” Shouted two young, girly voices. The ball plunked into the side-canal. Ellis groaned and turned around.
Two little fillies stared in awe of the tall figure with their shimmering, saucer-like eyes. It was a alabaster unicorn with multi-colored, curly hair. The other was an orange pegasus with purple hair and chicken-sized wings. Ellis had not seen them before.
“You’re the new ‘human’ guy!” Said the orange one.
“Apple Bloom told us about you!” The other one squeaked. “She said you were a cool alien that fought monsters and stuff.”
Ellis shrugged. “Close enough.”
“I’m Scootaloo.”
“And I’m Sweetie Belle!”
“Nice tah meet ya.” He bent down and took each of their tiny hooves in his thumb and index finger and gave it a soft wiggle. “So yer Apple Bloom’s friends? Ah think she may have mentioned ya once ‘er twice.”
In reality, Apple Bloom spoke about them non-stop for about an hour, going on about their adventures and mishaps. Ellis kinda spaced out for most of that, but hey, who could blame him for trying?
“Oh, hello there.” Said a more mature voice behind the two fillies. A dark-purple mare trotted up to Ellis’s eye level. “They’re with me. I’m Cheerilee, their school teacher.”
“Pleasure to meet ya too, ma’am.” Ellis decided that he liked Cheerilee. She had a friendly smile and a calm voice, even when she had two hyperactive children under her watch.
“I’m just chaperoning these two while we go bowling. They can’t be here on their own anymore.” She shot a glare a Scootaloo, who shrank with a guilty smile.
“I’m actually glad I had the chance to meet you, Ellis. I’ve heard about you. Things like this don’t really happen in Ponyville very often.”
“Have you met Rainbow Dash yet?” Pipped the tiny pegasus. “Isn’t she awesome?”
“Yeah, she tried to eat mah hand an’ gave me a good run through the town.” Ellis thought, but did not vocalize. Instead, he nodded and turned back to Cheerilee.
“So, did ya wanna ask me a few questions?” Ellis could assume as much. Almost everybody - no... - everypony he met so far were not short on trivia. He might as well pick up the local pronouns while he was at it.
“I have a few, but It can wait until you’re done with your game.” She pointed her hoof at Ellis’s lane. Sawdust and Ball-Peen were waiting impatiently for him to take his turn.
“Oh! Right!” He bounded off to make his throw. Cheerilee called after him.
“I’ll be over at the far lane! I look forward to talking to you!”