//------------------------------//
// 15 - Are You a God? 
// Story: Hidden Hands 
// by David Silver 
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Turner slid one of his hands into a pocket. It was a comforting thing to do. He could wriggle those clever fingers in a safe little space rather than in the middle of the air. He wasn't sure why it made a difference, but it always did. Another point for clothes, as a naked biped anyway.

The other hand he reached out towards the solid metal bar of a door knob. It was cold, smooth, and held back what he had been sent for. He gave it a twist and it turned without objection. Was there a lock on the inside? He assumed as much. He would be locked in with the unknown creature that shared his basic appearance and little else.

He took a slow breath, marshalling himself. She hadn't looked violent, and they hadn't reported any real trouble with her besides her lack of cooperation. All he had to do was be nice, right? It was like one of those friendship lessons that the princess went on about. Yes, exactly that. He could handle it...

With an audible 'clunk', the door came unsealed at his turning. He pulled it open, but met more resistance than he expected. It moved, but it was heavy, for a door. He brought up his other hand, getting both involved to get it open reasonably.

"You got that?" asked a female voice from inside.

"Oh, no, I'm just... fine." He slipped inside and the door slapped shut behind him. He could hear it closing and the lock re-engaging. He was trapped.

She was sitting up on the bed, watching him. Her brown eyes were on him, watching. She had an expression like a pony might, like he... did. He had looked in a mirror before, as a biped. The lack of fur made some of his subtler expressions easier to see.

She looked amused... "So, did they catch you too?"

Opportunity! He could lie. He could try to befriend her as a fellow captive...

But would that be a good ground to build a friendship? "Not... exactly, but not far off either. They... are interested in me too, being an odd thing, but they asked me to come here."





The stallion growled dark and low. "What is he doing?"

Derpy tilted her head. "It sounds like he's talking."

He pointed through the one-way mirror. "He could have established an immediate rapport."

"A what? He said the truth." She nodded softly. "Like a good pony, which he is."





"Odd thing?" She frowned a little as she threw her legs over the side of the bed, righting herself. "That's a funny thing to call a hue-man."

"Pardon?" That was a moment he wished he had an ear to perk at her. Biped ears lacked the trick, but not all bipeds. Minotaurs had twitchy ears, just not whatever he was.

"Human," she repeated, making it clear it was one word and not two. She pointed at herself, then at Turner. "The thing we are? So... Are you free to go whenever you want?"

Turner reached back and tried the knob, but he could only rattle it from the inside. It was quite firmly locked. "Not until they decide to let me out." He smiled a little. "They were hoping we could, you know, talk, like two reasonable people. Um, miss, what's your name?"

"You first." She hiked a brow, a gesture that stood out all the more without other fur in the way. He could see the way her flesh wrinkled with it and all the subtle little hints at what was going on behind her eyes. It was a whole language that he barely understood.

"I am Time Turner, nice to meet you, miss...?" He smiled awkwardly, still standing there by the door. Would approaching her make her upset? Did he want to approach her? He had no plan and no clue, at that specific moment.

"That's one of their names." She said with a wriggle of a few of her fingers. "What's up with that? They're all named things, verbs, nouns, all of them."

"Oh, um, a habit? Your name, miss? It's hardly fair that only one of us has introduced themselves."

"Yeah yeah..." She leaned back, shoulders against the glass wall behind her. "I'm Susan Rich."

Susan? He frowned. "Well, I don't know what the first means, but the second is a word, is it not?" He smiled a little. "It's not all that different. It's a pleasure to meet you, Susan."

"So, what are you?" Susan's eyes were locked on him, not that there was too much else in that sterile room to look at. "They asked you to come here. You have their name."





A door closed almost silently as Bon Bon joined the others. "Is he getting anything?"

Her commander nodded. "He's getting her to talk, but I'm not sure which party is interrogating the other at this point."

Derpy pointed at the two through the one-way mirror. "They're talking. Talking is like that."





"Ah, well..." He wasn't sure how to answer that without being rude. "I was born with a condition. I don't... want to upset you, Miss Rich."

"Is it that bad?" She suddenly sprang from the bed, making him flinch back. She was on her feet. "You know, there's a good chance they just asked you to come here to make it easier, and now they've got you locked up tight where they want you."

"They wouldn't!" He paled a little. Could they have done that? It wasn't impossible.





Derpy glared at the commander, fixing him with as stern a staring she could even if only one of her eyes were on target. "He is free to go after they talk, right?"





"Maybe." She shrugged. "They haven't been all that hospitable to my right to freedom. They feed me, and interrogate me." She waved at the frightened Turner. "And now you get to join the fun."

"Oh, um... Well..."

"So, what are you?"

Turner smiled awkwardly. "Promise to not get upset?"

"No." Her reply was simple and blunt, like a verbal club she slapped him across the face with. "What are we talking? Are you from here?"

"Um, here? As in..." He wriggled a few fingers vaguely. "This place, the prison? I should hope not, ma'am. No, I'm from Trottingham, only foal of--"

"--Only foal?" She looked him up and down. "You're a strange looking foal" She crossed her arms, tapping a finger against one of her elbows. "What are you, a mutant horse?"

"That... isn't too far from the truth," admitted Turner with a wry smile. "Um... I'll show you a trick, if you like."

"Does it involve anyone getting hurt?" She was tense, but she wasn't in the far corner.

"No! No, of course not, perish the thought." He coughed into a hand softly. "You see, I'm, hmm. It's easier to show. This is only one of my two forms."

"Fo--" Her word was cut off as Turner fell forward. His hands hit the ground with the clop of hooves, already changing rapidly and smoothly. He became a pony wearing poor-fitting human clothing. "So... you are one of them."

Turner sat on his haunches, squirming faintly. His tail was trapped, but there wasn't much he could do about that. "That depends which 'them' you refer to, Susan. I'm not, um, one of those holding you here. I've been truthful. They asked me to come here and talk to you."

Susan pointed past Turner to the door he had come in through. "Well, now you're stuck with me. How's that make you feel?"

Turner glanced over at the door and back at the human female. "I feel... a bit nervous, as I'm sure you are experiencing, possibly much more acutely than I am. Miss, I mean you no harm, this I swear. Perhaps we can both get out of here today."





Bon Bon approached a button set on the wall, but her commander's hoof blocked her own as she reached for it. "Not yet," he ordered firmly. "Let's see where this goes."





"That'd be nice." She crouched down, becoming more on the level with Turner. "Come here." She patted one of her legs as if summoning a stray pet.

Fortunately, Turner did not know that meaning of that particular gesture. "If you're sure, miss?" She hadn't been hostile so far. Nothing they had said implied she was, just an alien. He approached, his gait entirely off, clip-thud-clop-thud, his hind-hooves covered in sneakers still as they were. "Oh, um, before you ask, I don't really have any other interesting tricks than that one. More than enough for one pony, I should say."

"Why on earth does a pony have an English accent?" she asked even as she reached for him. Her fingers proved equally as capable as his at ear-petting. He had never been on the receiving end of a ear-scratching, and was soon at her mercy as she pet him gently. "So how do you plan on busting us out of here, little pony? I didn't even--"





Derpy's scowl was deep at Susan. "She sure is... friendly." The hostile expression brightened suddenly to a wide smile. "That's good. See, she's harmless. Can they come out now?"

The other two kept watching, not replying to her request.





"It's a perfectly normal accent where I'm from," defended Turner, one of his ears flicking back, brushing against her fingers. "I think, Susan, they're just worried about... what you are, a human. I... thought I was the only one in the whole world for the longest time. You're the only other one I met." It clicked for him. "Wait, can you change too?"

She snorted at that. "No, I don't think so. What you see is what you get, Turner." She pushed him away a little, sliding him easily along the smooth tiled floor. "You're nicer than most of the other ones I've met in here. At least you know how to smile."

Turner raised a hoof to his chest. "I do my best, Miss. Really, I have almost as little clue as you do. If you aren't... How did you end up in the middle of a city without knowing about things?"

"Your guess is as good as mine." She lifted her shoulders in a shrug, an easily identified motion. "Before the weirdness started, I wrote for a living."

Turner's ears perked at her. "Oh, a writer, that's lovely." He clopped his forehooves together, rearing up a little. "I'm an engineer. It involves no small amount of writing. What sort of writing do you prefer?"

She smiled gently back at him. "That's too cute... I wrote social commentary pieces more often than not. When I got away with it, I liked a little fiction." She wriggled a few fingers at him. "I've done a piece or two about a human on an alien world."

Turner tilted his head at her, focusing on her with one eye more than the other, his head canted to the side. "Is it just as you imagined it?"

"At first, almost... But then I got caught by the local law enforcement. That is what they are, right? I hope? I've been trying to figure it out for sure. I'm still not 100% that I haven't been scooped by some random baddies to auction off as some kind of exotic pet."

He shrank back at the idea. "Oh dear. I certainly would hope they wouldn't do that to any creature capable of asking them not to do just that. As far as I'm aware, they are good ponies, trying to protect the rest of us, um, ponies that is. You likely gave them quite a startle, but... you're not here to cause trouble, I should imagine?"

"Besides existing?" She stood up with a sigh. "I can't do much about that, but besides that, I'd be just fine getting home. Failing that, got a computer?"

"Computer?" He rolled a hoof lightly. "Afraid I'm not familiar with the word, ma'am. What is that?"

"Figures. You have lights, phones. I think I saw a television at one point..."

"A technological device then?" Turner perked his ears up. "If you can describe it, perhaps I can assemble one for you, assuming it's harmless."