Chapter 2: She's Learning!
Ponies were the bulk of what made up Richard’s dreams that night. Those cute, fluffy, tubby, and ever so small, little ponies in all the colors of the rainbow. It was possible for Richard to make any pony from the show with that machine. Every one of them could be his, and it was what he dreamed about. Though, among the sea of ponies was one who cried with her squeaky voice. She sat afloat in the distance, being solely visible because of a spotlight shined from the ever expanding darkness above.
No matter how hard Richard tried, it was like he was wading through molasses, only getting slower and slower the more he attempt to get close to the crying pony. Its squeaks got louder, and with them came an unsettling rapid bumping of flesh on wood. It echoed from all around him, quickly closing in, getting loud enough for his ears to hurt. There was no escaping it.
Beep Beep Beep
Richard’s eyes darted open and the disturbing images were pushed into the back of his mind as the alarm clock thankfully pulled him out of his sleep. One particular sound had however followed him out of his dreams and into reality, or was it reverse?
It only took him a second to realize that Twilight had woken up inside his closet and was bumping her body against the door as she was definitely trying to get out. She squeaked for help, and Richard felt very sure that there’d no end to those squeaks till he accommodated the little pony.
“I’m coming, Twilight. Just hold your horses, sheesh. I thought you’d be a lot smarter than this,” grumbled Richard as he lazily pulled his legs out of bed and sat up on his sheets.
He got up with a stretch and loud yawn as he went over to the closet, opening it up as carefully as possible so Twilight wouldn’t be able to run amok in his apartment. Not that he believed such a chubby little thing could actually run amok, but better safe than sorry.
Twilight’s wide eyes squinted into an oddly realistic size when presented with the morning light outside the closet. Richard chuckled ever so quietly as he observed her wobble out of the closet, almost falling over her own legs.
“Easy now, Twilight. My room isn’t going anywhere. You got all the time in the world to explore my place,” said Richard while placing a hand gently onto her back, giving it a few strokes to see how she’d react.
Though initially surprised and confused, she quickly found something desirable about getting petted as she leaned into his hand with every stroke. The sheer amount of joy Richard received from being able to pet Twilight was clearly visible on his face. A goofy smirk, which he couldn’t wish away even if his life depended on it, sat permanently fixed on his face.
“I could totally pet you all day… but, I don’t want to overdo it.” He looked around his room while thinking. “Maybe I could try to test your intelligence. I can’t believe how… well for a lack of better words, dumb you are, Twilight. I thought I designed you to be way smarter than a cat or a dog, or whatever it is you think you are.”
It was clear that she had adjusted to the lighting as she was once again capable of staring up at Richard with her usual vacant-looking wide-eyed stare when he talked to her, which was quite remarkable in and of itself. Richard almost felt like she understood that he was talking or at least what the point of his sounds was. Though, it didn’t seem like she understood a single word he was saying.
“Do you… understand me, Twilight?” he asked with hope in his voice.
She didn’t reply, she just stared vacantly at him, just like she had at any other given point when staring at him. A tinge of defeat swelled up in Richard’s heart as the little pony had yet to show any signs of being anything like the pony she was supposed to be.
“I guess not… hhhmmm… how about we try this.” Richard sat down in front of Twilight, patting the ground a foot away from her. “Go here.”
Twilight’s eyes carefully followed Richard as he sat down, and the sudden movement of his hand caused them to lock on to it with a dreadful fascination. Seeing it touch the floor was more than enough encouragement for her to move over there. Her little feet instantly began wobbling her over to where the hand had been so she could investigate the spot.
“Success!! Woohoo!!” yelped Richard. “I can’t believe it. You totally understood that, didn’t you?” It didn’t matter how many times he asked Twilight. She was never going to answer him when she didn’t understand a thing coming out of his mouth.
“If you can figure out stuff like that, maybe you can figure out a lot more things.” He gave Twilight one more stroke before getting up to leave the room. A quick run to the kitchen and back again was all it took for him to get to another experiment going with Twilight.
“Voila!” exclaimed Richard while placing a small apple in front of Twilight. “I present you with food my little princess. Hhhmmm… I should have made Applejack, she would have been super excited about an apple.”
The big shiny red apple, despite being relatively small for an apple, was rather large in comparison to Twilight. She marveled over its glossy hue and tantalizing smell as she approached it, butting her nose against the skin in her attempt to eat it. It initially came off as a comical view when the rather flat surface of her face attempted to bite into the almost flat surface of the apple. It was an amusing thing to watch for a bit as every one of Twilight’s attempts amounted to the same thing, she was unable to take a bite for whenever she got close to it, her forehead pushed the apple away.
“Here, let me help you with that, Twili.” Richard firmly gripped the apple so he could hold it still for her, allowing the first crunch to ring through his ears.
“There you go!” giggled Richard.
It was far from a charming view to watch Twilight eat an apple like this. The juices and bits of the fruit were smeared all over her face as she bobbed her head from side to side while munching happily away.
“Okay, I think that’s more than enough for you.” Removing the apple was met with a very unhappy squeak and two forelegs feebly flailing at the departing meal. “You’ve had more than enough food for now, stop squeaking already!”
“Hhmmm… what else can I do with you?” He asked out loud and scratched his chin. “I really should have thought this whole ‘creating my own real life My Little Pony’ pony through a little more.”
The environment outside the closet was still largely new to Twilight, and without Richard keeping her focus, the little pony began to wander like she had done in the lab. The bedposts were like wooden towers blossoming far into the sky. The shelves treasure troves ledging out from the steepest mountain she had ever laid her eyes on. Every breath of air felt so vivid, fresh, and filled to the brim with new scents, being strongly contrasted with the cramped dead air of the closet.
“Huh? Where are you going?” asked Richard while Twilight wobbled past him. “Are you… are you exploring my place?” He smiled warmly as she did indeed head towards the open door leading into the living room.
The bedroom already felt like a big open space filled with wondrous features. The living room, however, was a completely different kind of spacious. It was big open plains with furniture-mountains, though still surrounded by the always present sky-high wall-mountains. Her eyes glistened and sparkled, like her name would suggest, from once again marveling at the world she lived in.
Wobbling along the carpet was something she was steadily picking up on, getting faster and more precise in her movements with every step she took. It all made sense to Richard. Although she had the knowledge of walking, maybe even running, she had yet to actually do either of them, and needed enough practice to really get good at it.
“Well look at you. Off you go to explore the great unknown, all on your own” Richard kept on scooting bit for bit with her, keeping his distance, but always being close enough to watch any and all the things she did.
An exciting journey underneath the glass table, where Twilight constantly looked up to see the refracted sunlight, ended abruptly as she came face to face with the dreaded barricade of laundry blocking her way. The wall of seemingly, to her, unending fabric warded off any intruder with the help of a powerful odor.
“Yeah… sorry about that, Twili. I should probably have cleaned up my place a bit more before taking you home, or you know, creating you.” The phrase felt odd to say for Richard, having created her, a My Little Pony character.
“Hey. Don’t do that. It won’t end well.”
With puffy cheeks and head held up as high as it could, Twilight charged the brigades with the astounding speed of maybe a whole mile per hour. No magical wall was going to stop her from reaching the lands beyond the wall. Her stubby legs were however quickly devoured by the socks and soft fabric of the folded up sweatpants on the floor. Like quicksand she was pulled into the bundle and with every pull she could feel the teeny tiny chance of escaping slipping away from her.
“I told you not to do that. Here, let me help you out of it.” Richard leaned forward to take a nice firm grip on Twilight’s body. He pulled her out of the pile of clothes and onto the other side of it. “There you go. You breached the evil wall of clothes,” chuckled Richard. “What are you going to do now?”
Twilight neither responded with a squeak nor looked up at Richard; she just wobbled along with a course set straight for the kitchen. The tiles, albeit the same dull tones as the carpet stretching throughout the living room and bedroom, were yet another alien environment for Twilight to explore.
“No, no. You aren’t getting in there. I got knives and stuff that you could get hurt from.” Richard blocked Twilight’s way with a foot, constantly navigating it to circumvent her repeated attempts at eluding the devious adversary. His foot was a true monstrous villain to her, a long snake-like creature, besting at her even most thought-out movements.
Ding dong
“Great, someone’s at the door.” Richard groaned as he leaned down to pick up Twilight, carrying her away from the kitchen to find a more suitable spot for his little pet.
“This will have to do,” he said while placing Twilight onto a reclining chair. Having seen her struggle with something as pathetic as crossing rolled up laundry, the height of a chair would surely be more than enough to deter her from getting off it and back to the kitchen which taunted her in the distance.
“Who is it?” Richard opened the door just enough for him to see who was on the other side. His plan was however immediately foiled by the bright morning sun. Something he’d completely forgotten about due to always having the drapes and curtains over windows, privacy was important to Richard, and especially so when he had a one-of-a-kind pet.
“Argh! Why is it so bright out there!” groaned Richard while pulling away from the crack.
“I think the better question is, why is it always so dark in there?” commented Kevin before pushing the door open. “My exam went great, thanks for asking.”
“It’s the freaking snow. No wonder people go blind from it.” With one hand rubbing his eyes, Richard closed the door after Kevin.
“There’s barely any outside. Stop your whining already,” laughed Kevin while taking off his winter clothes so it could hang to dry on the lopsided hooks aligned next to the door. “Where’s the little bundle of joy at?”
“I put her on the recliner. The little thing is all out exploring my place, and she just won’t stop going into my kitchen. I had to put her somewhere where she couldn’t escape.”
Kevin eagerly tip-toed through the living room to make sure he didn’t frighten the little thing. Though, when he came to the reclining chair there was nothing but dust and crumbs on it.
“Erhm, I don’t see her, Richard.” Kevin leaned in over the chair to see if she had perhaps hidden herself behind it, and then leaned down to look underneath. “Nope, she ain’t here.”
“She was there literally 10 seconds ago! She moved like a freaking turtle before, how could she possibly get away from the chair?!” Richard stormed through the living room to push Kevin aside so he could examine the recliner.
It was as if a hurricane had spontaneously formed inside the house. Pillows were hurled to the sides; the recliner was pushed over, and just about anything in the room had been haphazardly turned upside down in Richard’s violent search for his lost pet.
“Sssh, Richard! Listen,” said Kevin while holding his friend back for just long enough to hear the weak thudding of wood on wood from the kitchen.
Richard flew towards the direction of the sound, almost falling over himself as he slid into the kitchen. There, next to one of the several wooden cabinets stood Twilight, repeatedly attempting to open them with her left front leg. Though the amount of force and friction only allowed her to open it for a split second before it closed on its own.
“Oh thank God, you’re alright,” said Richard while sighing with relief.
Twilight squeaked and flailed as she was pulled away from what she perceived as a mysterious compartment containing untold secrets, a giant wooden gate guarding a dark cave of exciting possibilities. The complaining squeaks slowly turned into pathetic sniffles and gnawing on Richard’s clothes as she was once again taken into the middle of the living room.
“She doesn’t look happy,” commented Kevin as he looked Twilight all over. “She kinda looks pissed at you.”
“She does?” A quick inspection of her face did indeed reveal pouty cheeks and wet eyes that were somewhat narrowed. “I guess she kinda does. A bit hard to tell with those eyes of hers… they mostly look completely void of anything.”
“But isn’t this great?” chirped Kevin. “She must be able to think a bit if she’s able to look pissed. We should really try to test her to see how smart she is.”
“Of course she can think! I designed her to be smart. Her brain is as kickass as ours are, just smaller… and really slow at setting in,” said Richard while placing Twilight back onto the floor, but this time Richard kept an eye on her as he talked things over with Kevin.
“I already kinda tested her wits earlier this morning. I tapped a spot on the floor in my bedroom and told her to go over to it and she totally did it,” bragged Richard. “I’m sure she’ll be a genius in no time.”
“Or she could just have reacted to your hand going down.” Kevin sighed and shook his head. “For a guy as smart as you, you sure can be an idiot.”
“Well Mr. Brilliant idea-guy… erh... what would you do to test how smart she is?” Richard’s attention became more unevenly divided between Kevin and Twilight as the little pony had begun mildly assaulting his foot, or at least it seemed like she was. Her body had fully embraced the appendage while she feebly sunk her teeth into the slipper he wore. Though, her teeth couldn’t even penetrate the fabric, so it just came off as an exceedingly stubborn hug.
“I’ll show you an extremely simple test to give her.” Kevin walked past Richard and into the bedroom, digging through one of the large drawers to fish out a small keyboard. It was placed on the floor next to Twilight upon returning to the living room.
“Okay, Twilight. Just try to do what I’m doing.” Kevin smiled warmly at Twilight who curiously eyed the new device in front of her. With one index finger, he pushed down a simple rhythmic pattern of five keys. The process was repeated several times while he made sure Twilight watched it.
“Great, you’re playing a song for her,” mocked Richard.
“Just watch,” replied Kevin. The sixth try of doing the small pattern ended one note short. Kevin retracted his hand immediately, not even bringing the finger near the missing note. Instead, he watched Twilight’s curious reaction as she wobbled closer to the instrument. Both Kevin and Richard watched with baited-breath as Twilight brought a hoof up from the carpet, as highly into the air as she could, and slammed it right back down on the missing note.
“You know what this means right?” squealed Kevin excitedly.
“That she’s about as smart as a monkey?” answered Richard with equal excitement.
“Well, yeah. But, it means she can learn all sorts of things. Maybe we can even teach her to talk!” Kevin repeated the keys a few more times with Twilight finishing each set.
“I really hope she’ll learn to speak… Then I can finally know if she has the memories I gave her,” mumbled Richard.
“What memories?” Kevin stopped his little game with Twilight, who was now just happy with playing with the different keys.
“I kinda programmed memories similar to what happened in the show. You know, so she’d be like Twilight, the actual Twilight Sparkle from the show.” Richard kneeled down to stroke Twilight’s back, being fairly satisfied with the warm smile he got in return from his creation. “Either I messed up her memories, or there is an actual personality underneath all of this.”