Twilight's consciousness wavered back into existence, but she kept her eyes shut. She wanted to be sure that what had happened was just a bad dream. 'There are no mechanical ponies.' She repeated continuously in her mind, but then she heard something that made her hopes null and void.
"Kai, get over here, this is a library by what I can see. Find me some books that will tell me exactly where we are and the history behind it. I will not allow myself to not seamlessly integrate into a culture."
"Whatever. Why can't you look, Nick?"
A whirring of gears could be heard after this statement, followed by the first voice, "I have to calibrate this body, this place threw a lot of the finer functions off, and I can't even use those wings I made when I was known as Daedalus."
Twilight groaned. This really was happening, but why in her house? She let a very annoyed groan slip out. Great, now they knew she was awake, so she couldn't spy anymore. Jumping to her hooves, Twilight created a bubble of magic around herself. 'If they're hostile, then at least they won't get to touch me.' Was her only thought when she started looking around the room. Her second thought was, 'Oh look, all of my books are on the floor. How nice.'
The tall white stallion, Twilight remembered he liked to be called Nick, was facing her with a concerned look on his face. He had closed the opening in his side, but Twilight knew what he really was.
Suddenly, he spoke, "Is that... an alchemical shield! You're an alchemist! You don't look immortal though. Where's your philosopher's stone? Is it that horn on your head. I have to say, that is a very strange fashion choice, and I've seen a lot of strange fashion," along with his flurry of questions, he was coming closer to Twilight, a faint whir the only thing giving away the fact what he was, "You seem too young to have studied alchemy, yes, much too young. How are you doing such advanced alchemy without a philosopher's stone. Nothing around you gives off the right aura to be one."
Twilight was amazed at the sight of Nicholas, a simple earth pony, moving through one of her more complicated spells with ease. She stammered something indiscernible as the stallion came closer to her, observing her like she was just an experiment that had gone wrong. Twilight was thinking about what he had just said, 'What is alchemy? What's a philosopher's stone? How did he just pass through my magic?!'
The smaller one, Kai, broke her train of thought by yelling something along the lines of, "Nick! I found something that might interest you! Stop staring at the girl, you know that makes people feel uncomfortable. Now get over here and look before I burn it!"
That was the last straw for Twilight. "Nobody hurts my books! Especially not strange ponies that I've never met!" The once lavender mare screamed. Her mane and tail had turned into a violent inferno, and her eyes glowed red. Nicholas looked amused at Twilight's transformation.
Kai bolted down the stairs looking overjoyed, hurriedly saying, "Awesome, I never thought I would find another alchemist that could control fire like me. Where'd you learn it? Wait, I don't even know your name. What's your name?"
Twilight's fire burned out as she looked at the brown stallion in awe. What was he talking about? She finally said something that wasn't out of anger towards the two, "What is alchemy? You keep saying stuff about it, but I've never heard of it. I'm not an alchemist, I'm a unicorn, and I use magic. Also, what is a philosopher's stone? You talked about it like it was important."
Kai burst out laughing, speaking in between his loud outbursts, "You, you can't be serious. Magick! That's one of the funniest things I've ever heard! You seriously have never hear of alchemy? Nick, tell me she's not serious!"
Nicholas responded to him once his laughter died down, "I actually do think she's serious. Rightly so, no normal alchemist could control the elements that easily. Maybe this world just calls alchemy magic. Are you alright miss..."
Twilight cut his sentence off with her response, "Sparkle. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I'm sorry for my... outburst. I'm normally much calmer."
Nicholas seemed amused at what she had said, but politely continued, "Well, alchemy is a complicated process, but I don't think I'll have to do much explaining about what it is. You seem to have mastered it as magick. Alchemy is generally known as the ability to transform things into other, more practical things for the task at hand, but it can be used for much more," As he said this, he had picked up a bubble of wood from the floor and turned it into coal, then into a small diamond,"The greater of elemental value, the more cost there id to transform something. That shield of compressed air was very clever, but I believe that you can do better. Short range "teleportation" perhaps? That is just the bending of a massive amount of space for quick travel."
Twilight nodded. 'So, my magic is alchemy?' She thought, 'I guess it makes sense. They did say they were from somewhere else, so they would have different names for things.'
Nicholas was still talking about alchemy, "Something just needs to have the right properties and you can do anything with it. The philosopher's stone though. If you don't know about it, I'd like to keep it that way. Do other's share your innate ability for alchemy? If so, I would like to meet them. Lead the way."
"O...kay... I guess I could take you over to Rarity's place, she's also a unicorn, so she can use magic too," Was Twilight's unsure response, "let's go then... I guess."