I looked up, and I saw a large treehouse, but not a tree with a childish box nestled in the branches. I saw a tree with a house built around, inside, and throughout it. There was what looked like an observation deck with a telescope on it poking out of one of the bunches of leaves.
Applejack rapped on the door and I heard a frustrated groan from inside followed by "Ugh, Why can't I get it right?!" and a book crashed through one of the windows and landed a few feet away from me and Applejack. Then, the door opened, revealing a young boy, maybe thirteen or so, with green, spiky hair, a purple hoodie, and khakis with purple tennis shoes.
"Oh, hey AJ. Listen, you kinda came at a bad time. Twi's in the middle of-"
The boy was cut off by a woman walking into the room and nearly shouting, "Spike! Who's at the door?"
She was roughly the same age as Applejack, had long, disheveled levender hair with a pink streak going through it and bangs that just covered her eyebrows. Her eyes were a reflective purple color and had dark bags under them.
She wore a white T-shirt that said "I heart magic," only the "heart" was replaced by a sparkle with smaller sparkles around it. She also had on white and purple poke-a-dot boxers and one single white slipper. Why one?
Upon seeing us, she changed attitudes from a tired and grouchy Twilight into a much more pleasant and inviting Twilight.
"Oh, Applejack! Hi. Come in and uh," she gave herself a once-over, "let me get decent. Spike, go and get our guests something to drink."
"Sure thing, Twi," the boy, Spike, replied
After Twilight returned, Applejack simply handed her the book she needed to return and went back home and left me and Twilight alone while Spike was cleaning other rooms and organizing books.
(It turns out, she not only runs the library, she lives in it. The whole place is her house. Her sleeping quarters are upstairs, her "lab," as she put it, was downstairs, and the public part of the library was on the ground floor.)
It wasn't visible in her frizzy and matted hair, but after she cleaned herself up and brushed it, I could see her horn.
It was most likely some sort of bone, or at least matted hair fibers like that of an ox, but had a light purple tinge to it, and it was coming out right at her hairline. It was about three and a half inches long, and had a swirled look to it and a rounded tip. I almost found myself staring at it.
"So, Applejack tells me you can perform magic. Is that true?" she asked me. She had this tone of curiosity and intrigue.
"Huh? Oh, well, yeah. Kind of," I was a little embarassed about the subject. It would certainly buy me a straight jacket in my world, but when I was talking to Twilight about it, I felt like she wasn't curious about the magic itself, but curious about me performing magic.
"How does that work? Did something happen to your horn? Or is it some genetic gift?"
I was reminded of a question I had earlier about horns and magic.
"Actually," I lifted my bangs to show my bare forehead and hairline, "I never had a horn," I could tell I sparked something inside her because her eyes widened a little and her back straightened up.
"Really? I-I don't understand how that's possible; an earth being who's studied in magic. Hang on, let's sit down and talk about this," she motioned me over to the sofa and some chairs. I sat in the velvet-colored wingback, while she took the couch.
It felt like one of the many, many therapy sessions I'd had in the past.
She told me about her -this- world, first. Equestria. This world was created by a race of super-intelligent, all-powerful equines known as Alicorns. They created the citizens here in an image that they... borrowed from another world, and gave them the qualities of the Alicorns. The citizens treated all equines as equals and went so far as to name most of their large cities and towns after them. The town I was in currently was called Ponyville. She told me all about the major history of Equestria. And I mean all. About the two princesses who controlled the sun and the moon, about the six elements of harmony, about how the mismatched creature Discord unleashed chaos on the world, and about her and all of her friends' misadventures.
"Wow," was all I could say when she'd finished speaking.
She also told me about the Earth, Air, and Magic Beings. The air beings were the ones that had wings. They had the ability to touch, stand, sit, and even sleep on clouds, in addition to flying, of course. There was even a group of air beings who were assigned to control the weather of the town.
Earth Beings were the ones with neither wings nor horns. They were generally the strongest of the three beings and handled most of the grunt work of the world.
Magic Beings were the ones with horns. Their horns were made of special bone that could use and focus the "magic" inside the owner's body and do whatever their will is.
Every Being had magic running throughout their body. The three types just channel it differently. Air Beings channel their magic through their wings and feet, allowing for weightlessness in the air. Magic Beings channeled it through their horns and brains, allowing for manipulation of space and, on very rare occassions, time. Earth Beings channeled their magic through their muscles, giving them hightened strength.
The most powerful of the Beings were the Omni Beings. They had attributes of all three of the Beings. They are the rarest Beings, and two of them, Princess Luna and Princess Celestia, rule over Equestria and control the moon and sun, respectively. A long time ago, Luna became jealous of her sister and tried to consume the world in darkness. Celestia overpowered her and banished her to the moon for a thousand years. Upon Luna's return, she was possessed by an evil entity called Nightmare Moon and tried to repeat the action. Twilight and her five friends (three of which I have met) used the Elements of Harmony (kindness, laughter, generosity, loyalty, honesty, and magic) to defeat Nightmare Moon and restore Luna.
After she finished, we switched roles and I blathered on about my world and all the war and sadness and the few happinesses of it. She became truly shocked and appalled when I began telling her about my life story which might as well be called a tragedy. The Tragedy of Nobody: an autobiography.
"I'm... so sorry you had to go through all of that," Twilight said, knowing she could never understand what I'd been through. "I just wish there was something I could do... Maybe, what if I try to help you remember your name?"
She spoke to me like a caring parent speaking to a hurt child, but it didn't bother me. Perhaps I needed a comforting spirit in my life.
"I guess it couldn't hurt to try," I said.
"Okay, I'll see if I can find the spell. Spike!"
Spike poked his head through the doorway. "What?"
"I need you to help me find a spell that works for amnesia. You check upstairs and we'll check downstairs."
"You got it," Spike complied.
What was Spike, anyway? I couldn't tell if he was some kind of indentured servant or paid assistant, or was he just a really nice friend?
After a minute or two of looking, I heard Spike exclaim, "Found it!" from upstairs, and he came down and gave it to Twilight. She flipped to the table of contents and ran her finger down the page until she found "Amnesia spell... 236" and went there.
"Darn!" she said.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"It says I need some ginkgo biloba leaves and incense candles, and I don't have those."
"Why? What do those do?"
"Well, it says here that the gingko biloba helps the subject focus and the incense helps them relax."
"Well, where do we find some, then?" I asked.
"Um, I think Fluttershy might have some. Yeah, there's some at Fluttershy's cottage."
Fluttershy was one of Twilight's friends. She represents the element of kindness, mostly because she has a soft, practically liquid, spot for animals and such. From what I was told, she lived on the edge of town, near the Everfree Forest, where it is said that monstrous creatures dwell.
Author Commentary:
Whew, finally got to doing 6. I assure you, this will NOT be the longest chapter.