The morning had gone by quickly for Bon Bon, Lyra, and I. Breakfast was decidedly not as tense as it had been the previous two days, and each of the ponies was curious to find out what exactly had occurred between me and the other. It was around two in the afternoon when there was a knock on the door. While Bon Bon went to answer the door she signaled for me to go to the bedrooms. In some of the talks Lyra and I had had she had mentioned that while Ponyville was typically a warm and inviting place, there were times when they were skittish around strangers, especially around those who were not of species they were familiar with. I couldn't help but laugh hollowly when she had explained that the last individual the town had encountered and had initially ostracized had been a zebra. She had looked at me curiously after that, unsure of what I had meant when I had muttered 'typical'.
I took up temporary residence in Bon Bon's room, in the corner out of immediate sight from the view of the doorway, and I waited. I had hoped that I wouldn't have to be tucked away for very long.
Just a few seconds after mentally making that request, Bon Bon popped her head into the room.
"You can come out," she declared, "It's Fluttershy and a friend of hers."
I started to stand up, and then I realized that last part of what she had said, "Wait, so this friend-"
Bon Bon nodded, "She knows."
Trying to mentally take in this unexpected surprise, I awkwardly made my way towards the door back to the rest of the house. I was a little nervous, partly because I wasn't sure how this new pony would react to me: would she be afraid? Would this somehow take away the place I had been calling home the past few days?
I stepped out into the small hallway after Bon Bon, and made my way back towards the living room. Lyra was already waiting, talking softly to Fluttershy as she accepted the bag of medicine that would finish removing the fluid in my lungs, and also to a purple unicorn. As soon as the newcomer saw me, a small look of wonder and excitement came across her face, which she was doing everything in her power to restrain.
Fluttershy glanced at me before she pointed her hoof at the other unicorn, "Adam! I hope you're feeling better since I last saw you. I'd like you to meet my friend, Twilight Sparkle. She hopes that she might be able to help you."
I habitually offered my hand out to her and curtly declared, "Nice to meet you."
Twilight put her hoof out, allowing me to grip it softly and shake it. Though we were both familiar with the gesture of greeting among our own kind and in our own way, when Twilight experienced something so common like it in such a new way she couldn't help but smile, "It is such a pleasure to meet you!"
"What exactly do you mean when you say you want to help me?"
Fluttershy tentatively began to balance on one front hoof then the other, all while nervously looking away from me, "I'm afraid that I need to ask for your forgiveness. I went looking in the town library out of curiosity for information about your species, but there was nothing there, and after my constant questioning Twilight became curious, and I just couldn't keep a secret from her if it might be able to help you. I should have asked your permission first before telling her about you, but sometimes I can be such a blabbermouth!"
I was fairly certain that there was no intent for harm behind the pegasus' actions, and the fact that her friend wasn't afraid of me put me at ease a little. "Are you sure she can keep a secret?" I asked guardedly as I pointed at Twilight. Considering that I'd just met her, I didn't know if whatever she said would hold true or not, but I suppose I asked to make myself feel better about the way everything was going.
Twilight put her hoof to her chest and looked up at me intently, "You have my word."
I looked back to Fluttershy and nodded, "Then I suppose there's no harm done."
"So why exactly did you come with Fluttershy, Twilight," Lyra asked as she turned to look at her fellow unicorn, "What kind of help did you have in mind?"
Unable to contain her intellectual excitement any longer, Twilight finally burst, "When Fluttershy told me there was a member of an unknown sapient species nearby I almost couldn't stop myself from coming over right away! This is absolutely incredible! There hasn't been a discovery like this in centuries." She walked up and began to circle me as she simultaneously observed as much about me as she could while firing off a slew of questions, "Are all of your species self-aware? Where are you from? Are there more of you nearby?"
Overwhelmed, I didn't have time to respond to any of them, and I quickly became frustrated as she continued on, "Look, can you-"
"It's possible you're not even from this planet," she thought aloud to herself, "Are you related to minotaurs in any way, or is that purely coincidental?"
"Twilight," Fluttershy tried to caution her, but she was too caught up in her own questions and observations. She then grabbed a section of my protection suit with her magic and yanked on it, "This doesn't feel like a layer of skin. Is it some kind of garment or exoskeleton?"
This was the last straw. I stepped away from the reach of her spell, swiping at the air around where it had been, trying to clear it away like an unwanted smell, and I yelled, "Just stop!"
All four ponies flinched at my outburst. I glared at Twilight and pointed at her, "I'm not your specimen, alright? Ask me questions if you want, but you never touch me again, understand?"
Twilight was bewildered by my sudden change in attitude, but then she took into account her own behavior. She swiftly began to apologize, "I'm sorry. I guess I was so excited to start learning about you that I didn't consider asking if you wanted-"
I glared down at her, then turned and silently walked over to the my blanket and sheets, which I sat down on top of. The sudden bending over to sit down made me cough a little. I saw Twilight try to walk towards me, probably to finish her apology, but Lyra stopped her with an outstretched hoof, then spoke with her quietly. Walking over to me, she did her best to stand exactly in front of me.
"Adam," she declared softly, "I can vouch for Twilight; she didn't mean to make you uncomfortable. She just wants to ask you some questions back at the library." She then put her right hoof on my knee for a moment, "You don't have to go if you don't want to."
"How exactly would you get him out of here and to the Golden Oak without him becoming the center of attention for the entire town," Bon Bon asked as she glanced at me and then to Twilight, "It's not like you can dress him up and pretend he's your brother that nopony's ever heard about."
Twilight smiled confidently, "Fortunately, I've already put some thought into that." She then looked over to me, "I can make a shroud of invisibility for you. You'll be able to easily get around Ponyville without being seen. You've probably been here long enough that you want to see the rest of what's out there. I know I would be!"
I leaned forward a little as I considered her offer, trying to hold back the tickle in my throat that made me want to cough again. "I have been stuck here a while," I relented, and I sighed a little, "It would be nice to be able to walk wherever I wanted again."
She placed her hoof to her chest once again, "I promise that I won't touch you, and that if there's a question you don't want to answer, just let me know and I won't pursue it."
I thought about it a little longer. I wasn't sure if I trusted this Twilight Sparkle, but the other three ponies seemed comfortable around her. Lyra I knew I could trust, and I was pretty sure of Fluttershy's sincerity. Bon Bon, while still neutral about me, certainly didn't seem the type to lie or want me harmed. I shrugged to myself: I supposed I could trust them and their judgments, so I guess by extension I could reasonably trust this new unicorn too.
"Alright, I'll do it," I declared to Twilight as I stood up, then I waved my hand over in the direction of the other three ponies, "But I'm not going with you unless they can come along."
Twilight nodded and smiled, "That's alright: I'd never ask somepo- ah, someone to do something on their own when they had the opportunity have friends help them." Reaching out with her magic, she brought the sheet I'd just been sitting on up over the top of me. As it began to cover me, I could see a bright flash of light from underneath it. As I watched the sheet became translucent before my eyes, and I could the other ponies look in my general direction, but not exactly where I was.
"So I guess it's working," I asked, and then they all looked towards the area where my head should be.
"Alright, I think we're all ready," Twilight exclaimed as she trotted towards the door merrily, "Let's get going!"