”Princess Twilight!”
Someone was banging on her door.
“Haa... Just a minute, Spike...”
Muttering the dragon's name was enough to jolt a bit sense into her sleep-addled brain. He was not here, she'd left him in Ponyville.
Then who...?
“Come in!”
She slipped out of bed just before the door opened to reveal Silver Spear.
”Princess Twilight, you are needed in the throne room!”
The sun was somewhere above and behind him, shining into the room and burning her eyes.
“What time is it?”
”A bit before noon, princess.”
WHAT? She'd slept in?
“Oh no, oh no. How's my mane? Is it okay?”
She dashed past the guard before he had time to react.
Twilight didn't slow down before reaching the hallway leading to the throne room. Stopping there, she spent a moment to catch her breath, and then trotted right in. Celestia was alone in the room, peering out of a window.
”You were faster than I thought you'd be.”
She turned around, her eyes stopping on Twilight's mane.
”Although I would not have minded if you had taken the time to do your mane.”
“Uh, sorry. I thought I'd slept in and was late.”
Celestia giggled softly.
”It's fine. I knew you were tired after last night. How did it go, by the way? With Anonymous?”
Twilight slowly trotted closer to her as she looked at her throne and lit up her horn.
“It went great! There's so much to learn about him and his kind that I don't even know where to begin.”
A hairbrush, silver and inset with flawless gemstones, floated out from a small compartment inside the back of the throne, surrounded by Celestia's magic.
”Yes, and...?”
She left the question hanging, expecting Twilight to continue.
“I... didn't forget to bring him something to eat or to ask about how he used to eat?”
She wasn't sure what her mentor was trying to get at.
”And what did you teach him?”
Celestia made a circular gesture in the air with her hoof.
”Turn around and sit down.”
“Uhh...”
Twilight did as instructed and sat on the floor.
“I tried to teach him about magic, but it didn't go too well. I mean, how do you explain something to someone if nothing even remotely like it exists in his world?”
She heard Celestia's hoofsteps come closer.
”Do you remember the very first lesson I taught you?”
She felt the brush gently stroke her mane a few times, then again with just enough force to straighten it out.
“'Friendship is Magic'?”
Princess Celestia thoroughly brushed Twilight's mane and tail while the they talked about how to introduce the concept of magic to someone like Anonymous. She even moved back to her mane after she was done with her tail. Twilight concluded that it meant she liked doing it. She was about to tell Celestia that her mane must've been fine already, but then realized there was no-one else whose mane she could brush while casually chatting about something she was interested in. Her mind jumped to some unpleasant conclusions about her mentor being lonely despite being constantly surrounded by ponies, leaving Twilight at a loss for words.
”Hm? Did you come up with something?”
Celestia noticed her sudden silence and inquired about it.
“No. It's just... I mean... Why did you go back to brushing my mane when you were done with my tail?”
She hoped the princess wouldn't mind her asking a silly question like that.
”It is not very often that I get to do that to someone, even if I'd like to. So, I treasure every moment of it.”
The brushstrokes stopped, and Twilight turned around to see Celestia looking out of one of the windows with her eyes focused on something Twilight couldn't see.
”I am worried, Twilight.”
The usual grace of her voice was gone, and her tone was lower than usual.
”I went to see him before you woke up and asked him to tell me of what he thought as the most important moment in their history. He... told me of the Sun King and the French Revolution.”
She paused to let out a sigh, which Twilight thought sounded sad.
”His people are no strangers to bloodshed, tyranny, slavery and war. Their history is full of examples of conquest, colonialism and extortion of the weak. They even discriminate each other based on color. I cannot risk Equestria becoming a target of such practices.”
Her voice steadily filled with determination as she went on.
”We must find out how he managed to break through the barrier separating our worlds and do what we must to make sure it can not happen again. Even if...”
Celestia let out another, deeper sigh and let her head droop down.
”Even if it means he will become stuck in our world, where no-one will ever truly understand him, for the rest of his life.”
She ended her monologue in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
Twilight was at a loss for words.
Sure, she had considered that he could be dangerous. But the way he acted and spoke...
No, she could not believe that he bore any ill will.
It was not as if Celestia's concern was completely baseless, though. Even if Anonymous was what he seemed to be, the rest of his kind could be different.
“What... what should I do, then?”
An image of Princess Ember and the dragons floated to her mind from the depths of her memory.
”Keep doing what you have been doing, and try to make him feel welcome. Try to find out why he came here.”
The memory of Ember was suddenly replaced by a memory of Princess Luna.
”'He needs your help, Twilight Sparkle. Ask him why he came here.'”
When she had made her request, she had not had the safety of Equestria on her mind.
“I will do my best.”
Twilight decided not to mention what Luna had said. It felt like it was something she would've told Celestia herself if she wanted her to know.
After her meeting with Princess Celestia, she learned what Anonymous had eaten prior to his arrival. Almost everything he'd eaten had been cooked. The bulk of the volume consisted of plant-based matter ranging from raw carrots to processed grains. On top of that there was some animal-based produce. From the sample Twilight had acquired, she managed to recognize cheese, egg and two kinds of meat that she thought were chicken and pig. The analysis also revealed that his digestive system was unable to process the less nutritious parts of plants and that those simply passed through, which explained why he had not eaten the hayburger last night.
Twilight was writing down her findings after disposing of the sample when her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten anything since waking up. There was a lot to ask from Anonymous, and while Princess Celestia had probably given him something to eat, it had been a while ago. She decided to eat with him.
The theme of the day was beans. Twilight had read from somewhere that beans had a lot of crucial... something for omnivores, and were tasty on top of that. It had taken a while to convince the royal cook that cooking everything was absolutely necessary and that absolutely no hay could be used, but the end result, now on a tray that was floating behind of her, smelled delicious. It was mainly composed of a sauce of beans and carrots on top of rice.
She knocked on Anonymous' door before giving it a swift kick to open it. He was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, holding a pencil and writing something on a piece of paper. Only having moved his eyes, he looked at Twilight form underneath his brows. It made her feel like she was barging in on something important. As he recognized her he flashed a smile, set down the pencil and lifted his head.
”Twilight Sparkle.”
The way he said her name, especially his hard 'r' in 'Sparkle', made her want to remind him of its proper pronunciation. But Twilight's eyes happened upon the pendant he was wearing. It reminded her that it was only due to the inaccurate translation spell.
“Hi. I brought us something to eat.”
His eyes fixated on the tray as she placed it on the floor between you.
”Looks like-”
He said something the spell failed to translate, and then shrugged.
”Well, at least it is warm.”
Twilight was trying to figure out what he had meant when he suddenly stood up. Her eyes went wide and she instinctively took half a step backwards as he seemed to double in size.
”Oh, sorry, I... Well, should I move more slowly?”
“Ah, no, no. It's just... I wasn't really paying attention. Just sit down and let's eat.”
“Soo... how do you like Equestria?”
Twilight broke the silence with the first question that she could think of. Anonymous had sat down after she asked him to, and had eaten quietly since then.
”I am not sure.”
He glanced up from his plate and at her.
”Perhaps you should show me more than this one room if you want to find out.”
...oh. Right.
“I'd like to, but I'll have to ask Princess Celestia first... I'm not sure if she'd like me letting you out.”
”Celestia? The tall, white one with hair like a flowing rainbow?”
Twilight nodded.
”I thought she was the queen with how she acted when I asked who she was.”
He blew some air out of his nose, producing a 'hmph' sound, and smiled.
”She understood that I had no way of knowing who she was and introduced herself, but for a second she looked at me as if I was some fool.”
Talking about Princess Celestia reminded Twilight of the task she had given her, and she felt the smile that Anonymous' tone and accent had brought to her face melt away.
“Say, Anonymous. Why did you leave your world?”
He was quiet for a long time, staring at the half-eaten meal in front of him, the smile and chipper mood from earlier gone.
”I-”
He stopped himself before saying anything else and shook his head.
”There was this... thing I discovered a few years back that just would not leave me alone. I am... was a product developer and ran into it by accident while running some tests and never had the time to look into it before... before now.”
Twilight sat patiently, nodding at him to tell him to continue.
”When I figured out what it actually was and what I could do with it, I tried to stop and even destroyed everything I had made so far because I knew that if it were to fall into the wrong hands...”
He shook his head again.
”But it would not leave me alone. The more I tried to forget, the more I found myself thinking about it. It was too important.”
Lifting his head, he looked at her, his eyes boring into hers. They were full of...
Twilight saw tears forming in his eyes.
”I knew that no-one would believe me if I told them that I had found a way to nigh-instantaneously travel any distance, so I built a prototype as a proof. It took me a long time, but I finished it and ran the first test a few days back. It... did not go as planned. It should not have been possible, but somehow the machine entered a positive feedback loop that I could not stop.”
He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
”The last thing I remember before waking up here is ripping out the power cable.”