//------------------------------//
// Chapter Twenty Seven: Trying New Things 
// Story: Equestria; UNDEAD 
// by runningtoastgirl77 
//------------------------------//

	I heard a knock on the bedroom door, so I trotted over optimistically to open it. "Hey!" I smiled, opening the door to see Rose.

"Oh, I saved you some din...er..." She stared at me wide eyed. "Autumn, what did you do?"

"I cut my mane? It was in the way."

"But... but it's completely uneven! Ugh, give me the scissors- where did you even get scissors? Oh, never mind. I'll fix it, one second." she scooted me to the desk chair and floated away the scissors I got from the shoulder bag- simple safety scissors but they did the job. Mere moments later she was 'working her magic', so to speak. "And you always did have a pretty mane, even after running through zombie guts... oops, oh, sorry, didn't mean to bring that up! Ugh, what a shame. Your watermelon mane was to lovely."

"I'll take it you don't like it?" I voted for humor.

"Somehow I knew you'd still be up, but I didn't imagine you'd butcher your mane." She gave a few snips here and there, evening it out. 

"I'd still be up? What do you..."

"It's night already. I've been home for hours. I know you loose track of time when you go into your- how should I say- internal monologue?" Rose smiled, then with a brush she sighed. "There we are, all done!" She put her tools down on the desk, and floated over a delicately covered plate of corn freshly cut off of the cob, a scoop of mashed potatoes, and a roasted stick of browned, sticky goodness. I wondered what it was internally, lifting up the stick inspecting it. "Oh, um..."

"What?" I said, setting the platter on the table, moving my books back.

"Just so you know, that stick is grilled meat. I wasn't sure if you've tried it," She looked a little guilty. "I know, I know, but we can eat meat... if we want to. Just not to good for us, and pretty frowned upon."

I stared at Rose, then glanced at the grilled, sticky meat on a stick. Emotions mixed through me. I had seen more than my fair share of 'meat' as of late, though granted it was rotting and attached to ponies, but none the less. And even so, I was a vegetarian, for crying out loud! I had spent my whole life seeing creatures in stories that would eat meat as horrible, deprived monsters. I looked back at the stick, and the whitish flesh poked through. Was it chicken, or maybe even turkey? At the thoughts of birds, Grella edged into my mind. She wasn't a monster, and she sure as hell admitted to eating meat time and again. I quickly bit onto the stick and scrapped the meat off the beginning of the stick. My eyes widened. 

She exhaled. "Oh, thank god. I thought I was going to have to deal with a Autumn panic attack."

"Doesn't matter. Food's food, and this tastes pretty good. What is it, chicken?"

"How do you know what chicken meat looks like?"

I glanced away, remembering seeing Grella casually eat a chicken sandwich she bought off of a griffon sales pony who got stuck in Ponyville. I found it eerily cannibalistic, but she explained it wasn't and left it at that. "Don't ask." She sat down patiently, and I glanced at her. "Um... something wrong?"

"Oh, um, nothing I just..." She frowned. "...there is a spider in my room..."

"Rose, you could literally kill a zombie with a fork if you wanted to."

"Yeah but... Spiders are..." She cringed. "... ew..."

"Okay, fine. Your to scared to go to your room. So... what? Did you want me to kill it for you?"

"N-no! It's a defenseless creature."

"So are zombies..."

She blushed. "Okay. I get it. but a spider won't make you want to devour your fellow ponies."

"I know what I heard." I frowned.

"I believe you, Autumn, okay?" she frowned. "We just don't have a choice anymore... whether they are still intelligent or not. They were once ponies. And now their suffering." She stared blankly at the floor. 

"I know that, too. I decided."

"You have?" She looked up at me in shock. 

"If this is the way it is, it's the way it is." 

She frowned. "So... do you mind if I sleep in here?"

"Actually, no, I don't mind. This place is creeping me out. Would you mind sleeping on the chair over there?"

"Nah, I don't mind."

"Just remember, I have a girlfriend." I smirked. 

She sat on the couch. "What is she upto anyway?"

"Oh, um... she's going to Canterlot, to help find a way to reverse, well, all the trotting corpses." I sighed. "Hopefully soon she'll save us all."

"Why didn't you go with her?" Rose fluffed a pillow. 

I sighed. "Well, I'm no warrior, and I know nothing about magic, so she had me stay at her sisters. You know, so I wouldn't feel... useless."

She smirked. "Oh, so that's why." She floated over one of the blankets. "Did you buy that saddlebag today?"

"Saddlebag?" I nearly forgot about it. "N-no... actually... I got it from... just some old mare off the street. she gave it to me... for some reason."

"Well, is there something in it?"

It hadn't really crossed my mind actually. I took the saddlebag and opened the pockets. It was mostly, except for a book. 

"What is it?" Rose said.

"It's a book..." I looked it over, just a simple yet thick brown journal. "I think it's a diary."

"Well... what does it say?" Rose yawned, yet still stayed awake to pay attention.

I thought the same thing, and opened up the book.