I hear Twilight clearing her throat behind me. It sounds a little impatient. I turn around and face Twilight with a look of confusion on my face. "So, Travis. You said it was alright if I were able to take notes on you?" Twilight has the biggest smile on her face right now. It's impossible to say "No" to a Pony that excited to learn.
"Y-Yeah, whatever you want." I adjust my posture so I can stand more comfortably. Twilight clops her hooves together in glee.
"This is so exciting!" she lets out an excited high-pitched noise. Twilight claps her hooves together twice and clears her throat. "Spike, I need my note taking supplies!" She shoots a look at her assistant.
"Yes ma'am" Spike salutes in response and runs back upstairs.
"I take it you're close?" I ask Twilight, referring to Spike with my hands.
"He's my number one assistant! As well as number one friend. I remember it like it was yesterday. Being able to hatch his egg with magic, all for a test if you can believe it?" Twilight is dosing off in her own memories.
"How long ago was that?" I ask out of curiosity.
"It was when I was just a little filly. That day was also the same day I got my cutie mark. Can you guess what it means?" Twilight rotates her hip to show me the mark on her purple fur. Her mark is a purple star, surrounded by smaller white stars. I'm not too sure what it represents. Maybe her love for studying? I take my best shot at her little challenge
"Umm... Does it mean you take your studies seriously?" My hopes are crushed when she shakes her head.
"Actually, it means that I have a gift in magic. By the way. Do you have a cutie mark?" Twilight walks around me, examining my body for any sign. Twilight uses her magic to attempt to lift up my shirt, but I pull it down faster and hold it.
"Trust me, I don't have one." My face is turning a little red. Twilight realizes that she got a little carried away and backs up a bit. Her face is turning red out of embarrassment.
"Oh, um... Sorry, I get a little into it sometimes" Twilight shoots me a sheepish grin. She really does seem like the kind of pony to get really invested in learning. The footsteps from upstairs are becoming louder until Spike comes slowly down the stairs. He's carrying a pile of parchment in one claw, a glass of quills in the other, and he's balancing an ink vile on his nose. I'm just staring at him as he fumbles around the room, trying his hardest to keep his balance.
"Uh... need any help?" I ask the dragon in trouble.
"No, no.... I think I got this" Spike grunts while making his way over to the table in the middle of the room. Spike perfectly throws all the items onto the table and finishes by dusting his claws off in satisfaction. I hear Twilight's horn using magic, and I'm suddenly swept into a chair that's pulled up from behind me. The back of my bag hits the chair.
"S-Slow down!" I shout due to the surprise, "At least let me get comfortable..." I slide my bag straps off and carefully place it on the floor next to me. Parchment paper and a quill are flying towards Twilight. She dips the quill into an ink bottle that's next to her and begins to scribble something down.
"Equestria's finest discovery! No..." Twilight crosses out that title from the top of her paper. "How about.... 'The mystery of the strange creature'! Too long..." Twilight sticks her tongue out the side of her mouth as she thinks. Twilight crumples up the parchment and throws it into a nearby trash bin. "I'll just come up with a title later." Twilight levitates a new parchment over to her and begins to write down on it. "Let's start from the top. Name?"
"Um... Travis." I am a little confused why she's asking me this. She knows my name, maybe it's so that she can get every detail right.
"Age?" Twilight isn't looking away from her parchment while asking me questions.
"I just turned eighteen about two days ago," I answer politely.
"Oh, a double hitter! Looks like we're being efficient." Twilight giggled to herself. Spike sits on the other side of the sofa that Twilight is sitting on. "April 14, 1995." Twilight quickly calculates I can practically hear the mental gears winding in her head. Twilight stands up from her seat and trots over to me. She looks into my eyes, "Stand up for a moment please?"
"Sure." I listen to her command, essentially being a living anatomy model. Twilight walks around me writing down physical aspects.
"Black mane, teal eyes." She says aloud. Twilight looks at my backside with a confused look on her face, "Would it be right to assume that you have a tale underneath your clothing?"
"No, I do not have a tale" I answer bluntly. I hear a scribble noise coming from behind me. I look over at Spike, he's tossing and turning in his seat getting a little impatient.
"Come on, Twilight. You're just writing down what he looks like. When are we getting to the good stuff?" Spike groans.
"Oh, Spike. I need to make sure that everything is perfect. This is a once in a lifetime opportunity." Twilight replies, not looking away from her notes.
"Good stuff?" I raise an eyebrow at Spike. He hops off his seat and makes crazy hand gestures as he speaks.
"Twilight was telling me that you can perform magic, but she wasn't sure if you had a horn or not. That sounds awesome!"
I let out a small chuckle, "No I don't have a horn. I'm not exactly sure how I can use magic, It's just an instinct for me. Twilight said she had a theory that I can learn more magic, considering I can use it."
"Speaking of which..." Twilight says while she quickly finishes writing down all that she needs, "I need you to follow me." Twilight begins to trot towards the stairs. I follow with a confused look on my face. Where is she taking me? As we both walk up the stairs, Spike starts to follow as he's also interested.
"Twilight, you're not taking him there are you?" Spike asks with a groan. That's a little worrisome.
"Spike, there's nothing wrong with my lab. It's purely for advanced research." Twilight boasts with pride.
"You're lab?" I question. I'm starting to think that this lady's a madmare...
"That's right! I've slowly been building it up since I've moved here about two years ago. I only really use it for special occasions." Twilight answers, looking back at me while speaking. We walk along the slightly smaller second floor. I don't get that good of a look around before we descend a new set of stairs. These stairs seem to be going on much further down, tree roots are attached to the dirt tunnel. Candles provide a slight light source, just enough to see where we're going down the spiral staircase. This is screaming all kinds of fishy... Twilight isn't trying to set me up right?
"U-Uh... It's pretty cosy here..." I nervously say. I shove my hands in my pockets. Twilight giggles at my sarcastic remark.
"This actually used to be a storage area. When I first moved here, this is where all the extra supply went. But, I had Spike help me clear it out to free up space."
"More like I did all the heavy lifting..." Spike says quietly enough so I could hear it. A smirk grows on my face from that information. Once we reach the bottom of the stairs, a very worn down wooden door greets us. It has a very simple design to it, I expect that due to the likely hood of this room being used. Twilight uses her magic to push the door open, causing a loud creak.
"Well, welcome to my laboratory!" Twilight steps to the side and shows off the place in all its glory. The first thing I notice is the roots of the library being spread throughout the underground area. Roots are covering the walls and the floors. Instead of bookshelves being used, the roots are making a shape around an area that the books are being tucked into. I begin to explore a little, as I am curious about what this place holds. I walk down a small flight of stairs and see a whole potion set up. Plenty of different beakers and ingredients spread across a wooden table, as well as a book propped up against a stand. I shouldn't go messing with that stuff, I'm not sure if it's important or not. The most eye-catching things in the room are the multiple machines on the other side. There's a massive machine in the back, with pipes connecting all the way up to the top of the room. Could it be something of an advanced heater? There are all kinds of parts on the machine as well, like a cylinder that has a sort of greenish, yellow liquid flowing through it.
"Hey, Twilight. What's in there?" I point towards the cylinder of liquid. Twilight and Spike come down the stairs to join me.
"Oh, that's just gasoline. It's for some of the appliances around the library, like the stove upstairs, as well as the heating so we don't freeze in the winter." Twilight replies. I see a metal cover on the side of the machine. This seems interesting. I walk up to the cover and examine it.
"So, what's this for. Is it another power source? Y'know, in case the gasoline runs out?" I ask. Spike walks up to what I was referring to. He reaches up and hits the button next to it. The sound of objects flopping around is coming out from the inside of the lid.
"That's a washing machine," Spike says putting his hands on his hip.
"Oh..." I look over to see what Twilight's doing, and I see her setting up some sort of machine. This looks interesting. I walk over to examine it. There's some sort of helmet resting on the top of the metal box she's working on. The helmet has a strange design, there's a couple of wires coming out of the top of it. These wires are connecting to the box. "Uh.... what is this?" Twilight looks up with a green wire in her mouth.
"It's a machine that can detect diverse types of energy, by printing out a graph from a dispenser. I can adjust the machine to get a better reading." the cable in Twilight's mouth muffled most of her speech. I clear my throat and gesture my head to her mouth. Twilight moves her eyes down to her mouth. She spits the cable out of her mouth, her cheeks turning red in the process, "What I said was...." Twilight started to walk around her machine, "This machine is meant to measure energy. You just need to put on that helmet and follow my steps. During the process, the machine will be graphing down your information on some paper. The higher the graph is, the higher your natural energy is." All this information is going over my head, but I'll just roll with it.
"So, all I have to do is wear that weird helmet?" I cross my arms.
"Pretty much, Travis. I'll do the rest from there."
Seems easy enough. I walk over to the helmet and hold it in my hands. I look over the cold bowl-like object. There are lights flashing on and off. This better not bite me in the butt. "It's safe right?" the last thing I want is to fry my brain with this thing.
"I promise you, It's not dangerous at all,” Twilight says, looking into my eyes. I'm pretty sure she's telling the truth. I'll go with my gut feeling on this one...
"Alright," I say placing the helmet on my head. It's got plenty of leftover room, as it is designed for their head size instead of mine.
"I'll just need to adjust a few things on the helmet to get the proper scan..." Twilight trots up and uses her magic to change some dials. At least I think they're dials, as the audible clicks are ringing in the inside of the helmet. "I think that's good now" Twilight walks over to the machine and looks over to me. "I just need you to do what I say when this machine is on, alright?" That sounds easy enough. I give Twilight a nod in response. She begins to adjust some dials and flip a switch on the machine. Spike runs up to a glass screen, anxiously waiting for something to happen. Twilight flips the last switch, and the screen lights up with a green line just going across it in a flat way. We all stand still in silence for a few seconds, just watching the continues straight line travel horizontally across the screen.
"That's it?!" Spike complains, almost like he was ripped off.
"A straight line? What does that mean?" I ask. Isn't this thing supposed to measure my magic? Why isn't anything showing up? Twilight seems lost in thought, trying to come up with an explanation for what's happening.
"Maybe it's on the wrong setting." Twilight runs back behind the machine to check what she has her machine set to. "That's strange... It's set to everything that is needed to measure magic." Twilight flips another switch, with an audible click. It sounds like a printer was turned on. Spike quickly moves a basket right below a slot on the machine. A long sheet of paper is being printed out, the same line from the screen is drawn across the middle of the paper. This seems like the graph of information Twilight was talking about. "Spike, how does it look?" Twilight looks around the corner from where she is standing. Spike starts to scan the paper with his eyes, trying to catch any oddities.
"It's the same as the screen," Spike says scratching the top of his head.
"Um... is that bad?" I ask a little worried.
"This means that no magic is detected," Twilight says looking at the graph with Spike. No magic? That makes no sense. "Travis, let me see that helmet for a second." Twilight uses her magic to lift it off my head and proceeds to place it on hers. The machine begins to make blip noises and starts to scribble on the new graph paper that's exciting. "That's what's supposed to happen for you..." Twilight brings her hoof to her chin and begins to think. Spike looks over at me.
"Does that mean you actually can't use magic?" Spike looks a little disappointed.
"But I really can. Check this out!" I inhale a deep breath and exhale. I close my eyes and begin to concentration. I just need to focus on having my magic emit from my hands, and it will happen. It's a little harder than last night, as my body still is sore from the experience. But I think I'll be able to manage it
"Woah! That's so cool!" Spikes voice causes me to open my eyes, and see the teal glow covering my hands. "What spells can you do? Something awesome? Can you teleport?" Spike runs up to me with a huge smile on his face. Time to blow him away.
"Alright, I'll give you something special," I say. I pull back my right arm, and thrust it towards Spike, opening my hand in the just before I reach the full length. A gust of air shoots at Spike, I didn't take in count his much lighter mass... Spike is thrown across the laboratory. Spike lets out a yell as he's thrown across the room, before hitting one of the root wrapped bookshelves. Spike slumps to the ground, as well as a pile of books falling off the shelf, landing on him. I cringe at the sight.
"You okay?" I shout at Spike. The top of head pokes out of the pile, and he shakes his head a few times to snap himself back into reality.
"You'd be surprised if I told you what I've needed to go through. This was nothing." Spike dusts himself off as he stands up.
"Let me help you clean up." I offer to Spike. Before I can do anything else, Twilight pulls me back to the work area with her magic.
"I've got an idea!" Twilight shouts. She slams the helmet back on my head, "Don't turn off your magic yet!" Before I can say anything, Twilight runs over to the machine to check it out. There's a small reading on the machine now and a weak blip noise, "Just as I thought." Twilight says proudly. What does she mean by that?
"Can you slow down for a second! What's going on?" I turn my magic off, and the machine is unable to read the energy again.
"Travis, use your magic again!" Twilight says excitedly. I follow her instructions and I begin to make my hands glow once more. Readings on the machine are starting to pop up again. They're the same as the last ones, not too much of a reading but it's still there. "Alright, off again." I turn my magic off and we get the flat line once more. At this point, Spike runs over to check out the results.
"Woah, is that supposed to happen?" Spike asks Twilight.
"Usually, this machine is supposed to track your peak and minimum for any kind of energy; in this case, for magic, it seems to not recognize that Travis has magic inside of him when he's not using it. When Travis is using magic, it does detect it, but it's not the greatest signal. I assume it's because Travis doesn't use his magic much, so it's not at its maximum potential right now." Twilight shuts off the machine, and grabs the graph paper, and begins to show it to us. "You see the straight line represents that no energy is being detected." Twilight moves the paper to the readings from my magic. "But when Travis uses his magic, it seems like it comes out of nowhere. Think of it like a sudden reaction he uses it, like combining a highly reactive ingredient with another one to create a chemical reaction." Spike and I look at each other with a confused look on our faces. "In simpler terms... Travis's magic seems to not be something his species isn't innately supposed to do."
This catches me off guard, "So you're saying that I'm not supposed to be able to perform magic. That it's just an accident?"
"I'm not saying that necessarily. I'm just trying to say something about it isn't natural. Look here." Twilight moves the graph up to the point when she was wearing the helmet. There's a pattern going across it. The readings are more apparent than mine for sure, I'm not surprised because she uses her magic all the time. "Even when I'm not using my magic, the machine is still picking up readings. It doesn't see anything when you're not. It treats it as there is no magic..." This is some information... That can't be true, right? My magic isn't natural. Am I a bigger freak than I already am?
"I-I um... I don't know what to say..." I'm at a lost for words.
"This is a miracle!" Twilight says. What? what does she mean by that?
"W-what?" I say.
"You have a gift, Travis. This is something you have to embrace!" Twilight shouts. "You're not a unicorn, but you can perform magic. You have something special about you, and in my opinion, you should try to make something out of it." Twilight is encouraging me to look more into my magical ability. Twilight thinks for a second, "How about we make a regular meeting time for this?"
"What do you mean?"
"I said I'd help you with magic as a thank you for helping me. I want it to be set in stone! Give you some personal lessons." I think about the offer. This could be a great chance to get used to being around Twilight. I do feel a slight connection forming between us...
"Deal." I nod my head at her. This could be the start of something good. I just hope I don't blow this...
We all return to the Library floor, so we can have casual discussions on when I should go for my lessons. It was decided that I should come anytime I'm up for it if it's passed 3:00 pm. The time flies as we were hanging out with each other. Spike fell asleep on the couch while Twilight and I were talking. Twilight lets out a little laugh, "Spike goes to bed early, he is only a baby dragon after all." This seems like my time to leave anyway.
"Well, thank you for taking me out. You were right, I did end up enjoying this more than cleaning my house all day." I thank Twilight while I make sure I have everything in my bag. I check my pocket watch to see that it's just after 9:00 pm
"You're sure you'll be able to find your way back yourself?" Twilight asks.
"Yeah, it’ll be easier as everypony should be getting to bed at this point." I plug my earphones into my portable cassette player.
"You know, this town isn't all that bad with their ponies. They're really nice when you get to know them."
"I'm sure some of them are, I'll just have to get to know them if I want them to like me." I throw my bag over my shoulder. "I'll see you around, okay?"
"Goodnight, Travis," Twilight says to me, while I wave goodbye to her. I'm pretty sure that they still won't like me that much... It's always the same, but I should at least stay on Twilight's good side if I'm going to be living in this town for a year. The town is deserted, nopony is out at this time. It's both eerie as well as relaxing for me. I'm playing my music loudly in my ears to keep me detracted from how long the walk back home will take. Hopefully, it won't take too long.
While I'm walking through town I see a black blur rush across the road. I couldn't get a good look at it, but this only spells trouble. I take my earphones off, and call out "Hello?" But I don't get a response. Who would be out this late, everypony should be sleeping. I shouldn't be too loud just in case I wake anypony up. I shove my hands in my pockets and look around to see where that blur went. It's a little too dark for me to see anything, so I speed up my walking pace to try to get back home as soon as possible. Another gust of air blows past my back. I whip around to see what the hell that was. Once again, there's nothing. This is getting a little freaky...
"Haiya!" A high pitch voice shouts behind me, this causes me to almost leap out of my shoes, and fall on my back.
"Holy shit!" I yell as I fall back. The figure standing in front of me is a bright pink pony, with a hot pink mane. She has a baby blue eye colour, as well as an incredibly curly mane and tale. The mare lets out a loud gasp.
"Ponies shouldn't say those kinds of words you know. They're very bad." The pink pony says in a somewhat scolding tone. I just stare at her for a second.
"Yeah, right... Sorry. You just startled me..." I scratch the back of my head before standing up. The mare giggled.
"It's alright, silly. Everypony makes mistakes!" The mare is jumping up and down.
"What are you doing out here so late?"
"Actually, I was looking for you! My Pinkie senses were telling me that a new pony moved into town today, and I wanted to greet you on your first day! You're a little funny looking though, but I don't mind!" The mare isn't keeping her voice down, she might wake everypony up. I try to shush her while she's speaking. "Oh, are you trying to play the quiet game? I'm the best at the quiet game!" The mare takes in a massive deep breath and shuts her mouth tight. What's with her?
"No, just whisper. And I'm sorry, did you say Pinkie senses? Your name wouldn't happen to be Pinkie Pie, would it?" I ask in a whisper. The mare nods her head. Pinkie Pie lets all the air out of her mouth and begins to talk in a sort of loud whisper.
"Oh, how'd you know! Is this the name game? Let me guess, you'reeeee.... Fabio!"
"No."
"Bobby?"
"No."
"Timmy?"
"Travis," I answer. Pinkie Pie lets out a groan.
"I was so close! Tell me, how'd you know my name? Are my Pinkie Pie Perfect Popular Parties that famous?!" Pinkie leans in on every P she says.
"Actually, it's because you're the Element of Laughter."
"Oh, that's it. A little silly if you ask me."
"If you don't mind me, I was going to get going now..." Pinkie Pie is bouncing next to me.
"So, Travis. Where are you from? Where do you live? How old are you? What was life back at home?" Pinkie Pie asks plenty of questions fast. I only really catch the first one.
"Well, I just moved here from Manehattan last night, today was my first day in town. I was with Twilight Sparkle."
"You know Twily???" Pinkie gasps. "She's like, my bestest, best, best friend!"
"Yeah, she took me out today, we hung out for a bit. We're starting to get to know each other, but she's not much more than an acquaintance." I answer her question.
"If Twily's not your best friend. Then who is?"
"I don't really have any friends," I say quietly. Pinkie Pie is quiet for a few seconds.
"You do now!" Pinkie jumps in front of me.
"Pardon me?"
"I'm going to be your bestest, best, best, best, best friend!" Pinkie Pie shouts excitedly. This is confusing me...
"Huh, why?"
"Because I, Pinkamena Diane Pie is friends with everypony, no matter the shape or size! I know everypony in town!" Pinkie shouts proudly. I cover her mouth quickly before she can finish her sentence. She's too damn loud!
"Look. If I say we're friends, will you please be quiet?" Pinkie nods her head while my hand is still covering her mouth. "Alright, friend..." I move my hand from Pinkie's mouth. Her smile grows to an impossible curve. Her baby blue eyes twinkling. Pinkie lets out a gasp.
"There's something I forgot to do! Bye Travis, see you tomorrow!" She shouts, before zooming off into the unknown at a breakneck speed. I wave slowly and confusedly at her departure. She's really something, that's for sure...