Transparency and Magic Tricks
Don stood frozen in place as the person in front of him gave him a quizzical look. Unsure of what to do, he visibly gulped and continued to stare at the other guy. It was a full minute before the silence was broken.
“Uh, are you okay? You were…talking to yourself.” They said.
“I DIDN’T KNOW THEY EXISTED-wait… talking to myself?” He looked over at Derpy, then back at the other man.
“You mean… you don’t… see anything HERE?” Don said while making circular motions with his arms around where Derpy hovered.
“No, there’s…nothing there.” They replied.
He stepped forward and pulled out a card from his shirt pocket. “I’m from student counseling and psych services. You should call me. Please.” He said handing the card over and then walking out.
Don blinked for a couple of seconds processing what just happened.
“He didn’t see Derpy, why couldn’t he see her? Did he just make a pass at me? Why didn’t he wash his hands?!” He thought while quickly dropping the card. He turned to Depry.
“You mean nobody could see you this entire time?!” He nearly shouted.
Derpy only responding by shrugging her shoulders.
He felt something snap in his head and the only thing he could do was let out a frustrated yell.
Outside the bathroom everyone just stopped and looked at the door to the men’s room. One student spoke up after Don’s scream;
“On second thought, let’s not eat at the cafeteria today…” he said to his friend while quickly walking away.
-
Don sat lazily at one of the tables outside of the Student Union with a soft drink in hand, clearly fed up with the day. At this point he was wondering what to do with the extra time since there was no going back to class unless he wanted to get murdered with stares. He took another sip, it was one of those days.
Derpy on the other hand was enthralled as she could fly without any restrictions. She hovered about looking at all the different people and how all them were doing things or going somewhere. She flew over to a nearby table and looked at someone on their laptop.
She looked curiously at the computer and marveled at it. It somehow reminded her of the typewriters back home, however there were a lot more keys to it and no paper. She climbed onto the device and got a closer look at the buttons, being careful as to not get in the way of the fingers that were furiously typing. She inched closer only to have her fore-hooves plant themselves on the shift key, thus making all the words currently being typed in caps.
The student continued forward in a cruise control sort of mode not seeing the capital letters on the screen as she typed straight from her notes. A couple of seconds later however, her attention was shifted back to the screen.
“What the…” she muttered. She looked at the keyboard and noticed the shift key was stuck in place and made a motion toward it.
Derpy saw the human make a move to where she was standing and quickly flew out of the way. She noticed the girl give a funny look before shaking her head.
“Weird…” was all the human said before going back to typing.
Derpy was still fascinated by the typing and the computer, she flew in from another angle so she could keep watching. She was entranced the way the typing cursor as it made its way from one side of the page to the other, and by how fast it was going. She moved in closer again and climbed up on the computer once more. This time however, one of her hooves stepped on the power button and held it there.
A couple of seconds later the computer screen went black and the sounds of typing abruptly stopped.
“MY PAPER!” the student screamed.
Derpy jumped back clearly startled.
“IT’S ALL GONE!”
Derpy took this time to quickly fly away again from the distraught girl and headed back to Don who was looking at the student panic and shaking his head.
“What did you do?” He asked.
“Nothing! All I did was stand there and watch her type!”
Their exchange was interrupted by the girl screaming again, “I didn’t even save!”
He face-palmed, “You need to be more careful when you’re around people. You never know what they’re going to do, c’mon, let’s get outta here before that girl starts getting violent.” He said as he got up.
Derpy landed on his shoulder, “Where are we going now?” She asked.
He thought for a moment, “Let’s go to the library, at least you’ll stay out of trouble there and we can find a place where you won’t destroy student careers.”
-
The two traveled in silence for a bit, till they entered another building.
“What’s this place Don?” She asked.
“It’s the Science Building. Where we learn…science….” He said plainly.
“What about magic? Do you have a Magic Building?”
For a brief moment Don thought about the Union again, and how there was always a small crowd of people playing Magic the Gathering, but then again, that’s probably not what she was talking about. He let out a small chuckle at the thought.
“No, magic doesn’t exist here. Though, there are some who claim to be, but in reality, they’re really good illusionists. It’s actually kind of impressive. But the short answer for you is, illusion yes, magic, no.”
She pondered over this. A world without magic? Twilight would definitely be interested in a place like this where the inhabitants of this world lived day to day without the need for magic.
She was about to ask another question but she was distracted as they passed another classroom that had an ajar door. She flew off his shoulder and peered into the room.
“What class is this?” she asked pointing.
“I don’t know,” Don whispered. “Best not to make too much noise or else we’ll disturb them.”
“You make it sound like a safari.”
He briefly imagined himself and Derpy with pith helmets looking through binoculars at the students in a wildlife setting from some distant bushes. His imagination was interrupted by a professor’s voice however.
“So, who can tell me what qualities these three elements share?” The professor asked pointing to the periodic table. He then made a motion to copper, gold, and silver.
One student raised their hand, “They’re all precious metals?”
The professor paused for a moment, taking in the students answer. “Well, yes, that’s correct, but what else?”
Silence
“Anybody at all?”
Derpy looked at the periodic table pondering over what was just asked before coming up with a conclusion.
“Oh, they all have a complete D electron shell and only have one valence electron on their outermost shell. Which makes them more reactive.” She said rubbing her chin with her hoof.
Don raised an eyebrow, “…what?”
“You at the door!” the professor called.
“The animals have spotted you! Quick! Paint eyes on your forehead! Be defensive and make yourself appear bigger and assert your dominance!”
Don looked around and pointed at himself with a quizzical look.
“Yes you! Do you know what they all have in common?”
Don shifted nervously, “Uh, they all have a complete D Electron shells and only have one valence electron on their outermost shell, making them more reactive?” He said completely taking Derpy’s answer.
“You plagiarizing Judas…”
“Wow, that’s...that’s actually correct. No doubt a fellow student of science! Tell me son, what field are you studying?” the professor asked.
Don gulped, “Uh, History…”
The professor shook his head and looked back at his class, “You all should be ashamed of yourselves by getting one-upped by a Primary-Source Loving student.”
Don felt the entire class give him death stares,
“I am so dead when I walk to my car later…”
He quickly left the area with Derpy in tow.
“How did you know that?!” he asked.
“Know what?”
“About copper, silver, and gold?”
She only shrugged, “I dunno, I just did.”
He sighed, “You know, sometimes I wish you would give me better answers, but I know that I’m probably better off not knowing in the first place. The last thing I need is the last of my sanity and/or my humanity to leave me.”