//------------------------------//
// On Lost Time 
// Story: Old Flame 
// by Bateman66 
//------------------------------//

The front door was thrown open with such force it would have clipped the edge of my forehead if I'd been just a few inches closer. Even then, I could feel the air wisp by my face as I instinctively took a step back. But there he was alright, standing in the doorway with widened eyes.

As I thought, Neuro hadn't changed much since the last time I'd seen him. His fur was still orange, he still wore his glasses along the edge of his snout, and he still had an unruly patch of stubble along his chin he never got around to shaving. However, the taken back expression, agape mouth, and lack of composition made him seem like an entirely different stallion all together.

We looked at a each other for a moment, silent as in our own inspections. It was fairly surreal. I couldn't hear a thing while we stood there, minus the distant brush of the wind through grass. Surprisingly, despite the clear disadvantage he was at, Neuro was the first to speak.

"A-A-Alistair..." he rasped out in dreamy kind of tone, "Is that...really you?"

I nodded. "It is.”

His eyes narrowed as he took a step towards me. "Your posture. You look different from the last time I saw you. If you don't mind me saying."

"Posture?" I said while looking down at myself. "I don't know what you mean."

He gravely waved the notion aside. "It's nothing. Not important now anyways. You have more important business to deal with."

"Business?" I echoed with even more confusion.

He nodded. "You're here to finish the job. I know what I did to you the last time we spoke and I know you want revenge. I don't blame you for that. But if it means anything to you, if the letter I sent didn't capture it properly, I am apologize for everything. The guilt was horrible the weeks after. I still get these painful recollections of it in the most horrid of times. I..." He shook his head and spread his front hooves outwards. "It doesn't matter anymore. Do what you must."

I had to think about everything he'd said to understand exactly what he was talking about. When I finally did I couldn't help but grin at it all. It was a stress response to things like this. I certainly wasn't making fun of him. Neuro just looked dumbfounded at it all and lowered his hooves slowly.

"What are you waiting for?" he cautiously asked. "Do what you have to. I won't scream."

I smiled my awkward grin again and I hated that that was all I could do. "I don't want to hurt you, Neuro.”

“W-What?”

“I don’t, not at all. And what silly notion implied that I did?”

He was at a loss of words and began wringing his hooves together. "I just, um, thoughy that you'd..."

"Neuro, I understood everything you said in your letter. I wholeheartedly forgive you and understand your motivation behind it. A lot has happened since the last time we've talked and to be quite honest, that fiasco at the University seems like small-fry stuff in comparison."

He blinked. "Really?"

"Of course. You apologized after it was all said and done. That's what really made it all the much better. The stuff I've been through these past few months...I never was able manage an apology.”

"What do you mean?"

I shook my head. "I made a very big mistake and only have myself to blame for it. But I really don't want to talk about that now." I gestured to the doorway. "May I come in for a moment?"

His eyes widened like we'd just met but he quickly regained himself. "S-Sure, come right in. It's the least I can offer you after however long it took you to get here."


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I led the boy through my home and into my study. As I took my seat behind my desk and he in front of it, I was struck by a horrid feeling of deja vu. We'd been positioned in this exact same way when we'd spoken at the University of Canterlot. In fact, the study practically mirrored my less than organized office back there. 

I took this as a bad omen and did my best to conceal my own worry. I'm not a superstitious pony in any degree, but I was truly discomforted by how similar things were feeling. We'd been here before and in the worst of ways.

However, even if the decor was similar, the boy certainly was not. He no longer had that awed expression to everything he examined. He no longer had that chipper energy that emulated off him even when he was less than composed. Alistair looked older, not in a conventional sense, more so in how he held his demeanor.

He sat there calmly with his palms resting against his knees. He casted glances around the room but not in a way seemed enchanted by it. There was no surprise to the observations, just a polite examination to my personal decorating style of academic messiness.

There was also something with his eyes. They were rugged, mellowed, with their energetic fire receded dramatically. He'd seen and felt a lot since I'd last seen him, none of which was all that positive from the looks of it.

In short, he looked like an elder in a child's body. When he spoke there were remnants of his former self, but whenever he was quiet for only a few moments, I could help but miss the peppy child I'd come to appreciate.

"So...how are you?" I opened up the best I could.

He made a shaky motion with his hand. "I'm alright. The train ride from Canterlot to here was longer than I'd been expecting. I was able to keep myself busy on the way over but things were pretty quiet. I had an entire car to myself."

I nodded. "You're looking good after the trip. Five hours on a train journey tends to wear most ponies out. But you mentioned you came from Canterlot? You're living there now I presume?"

He smiled meekly and I knew right then I stepped on something I shouldn't. "I did have a house there for a time, while I worked at External Affairs. But these past few weeks it was just temporary."

Alistair had discreetly left out any mention of his first home in Ponyville. I assumed he did so for good reason and I decided not to pursue it no matter how curious I was. Instead, I followed with a different question. "You were a diplomat?"

"Yep. I made regular trips to the Vile Stretch and even had a very special assignment to the Griffon Kingdom once. The job gave me something to do but I never fell in love with it."

"Did you resign?"

"In a way. I just sort of left. In the end I think it was what I wanted."

I nodded again. "Well, I'm happy to hear you were able to branch out with your independence. It's impressive you were able to land such a job at your age."

"It wasn't really," he gestured to his bipedal physique. "I've found that no one considers your age when you look like I do. I think they actually wanted it. In trade talks that last for hours people typically pay a lot more attention to a race that's only got one member."

Was that humor? He slightly grinned while he said it. He would have made it much more obvious two years ago, maybe would have even laughed after saying it. 

"And what have you been doing since you left?"

"N-Nothing much," he said with a slight stir in his seat. "I bounced around a bit. Traveled here and there. I came back to Canterlot after everything had been cleaned up." Alistair paused for a moment and looked around the room for a nervous minute. "But how have you been doing since last time around? I'm sure it's been much more interesting."

I shrugged. "I helped out at a research base up north. It mostly involved gauging ice shelf age while occasionally coming across some minor archaeological oddity. After a few months I returned to the University and just continued with my typical activities. To be quite honest, not much has changed."

"Really?" he responded with a grin. "A renaissance stallion such as yourself didn't have any other adventures? I'm sure something really cool happened."

To be honest I partly wished the same thing. It struck me as a surprise that, with all my years of travel, I never had the same amount of excitement I'd experienced when initially meeting with the boy. I never would have known it would be the high watermark of my career, but the longer time passed, the more likely that seemed to be.

I shook my head. "I've kept things mild since we last spoke. The arctic trip was just my way of getting some closure. Other than that there really wasn’t anything noteworthy."

He nodded but didn't say anything. We stared at each other for brief moment, like when I'd first opened the door. Just what the heck was going on? Why now? Why here? How'd he even find me? So many questions and I wasn't asking them. How out of character for me.

"Alistair," I said finally, with a tenderness to my words, "if you don’t mind me asking, just why are you here exactly?"

He seemed to have been expecting the question and only shrugged. "Neuro, I really don't know. There's not many options left to me at this point. I don't want to go back to my job, my friends have moved on and I don’t really have a place to call my own. You're right that my independence is branching out but I don't have a clue on what to do with it. I'm not sure what I’m supposed to do with myself and you're the closest thing I have to a friend that I can actually talk to, which is ironic considering the circumstances. But...it's true."

I pursed my lip. "What did have in mind when you came here?”

His cheeks blushed and he glanced sheepishly toward the floor. "I was hoping you could give me a job or something. I thought you might need some help with whatever you do all the way out here. You wouldn't have to pay me or anything. I just...want to have something meaningful to do…”

He was partly right. There were odd jobs and regular maintenance I needed in a house this size. I'd been neglecting to complete most of them to stay on top of my work schedule. It would be quite handy to have another soul in at least a one mile radius, better yet one who was willing to work.

Still, I was more surprised with his word choice than anything he'd offered. "Friend?" I echoed. "Are you considering me one?"

A small grin stretched across his face. "If there's one thing I've learned in these two years is that you can never be picky when it comes to who you associate yourself with, especially when you have a history. We didn't get to know each other that much on a personal level last time around but I wouldn't mind changing that now."

He held out his hand to me. "What do you say, Neuro?"

I'm embarrassed to say I drew an absolute blank. I had no idea how to respond to the casual offer and found myself staring dully at him, my eyes like glass orbs. He didn't seem fazed by it though, he just kept on smiling, optimism unshakeable. He looked just like his little old self...

I took his hand and shook it. His face brightened. I felt my own do the same.