//------------------------------// // Chapter 47 // Story: Refined Starlight in a Broken Vessel // by the-pieman //------------------------------// I really hate when I’m going to be yelled at for things I didn’t do or get enjoyment out of having broken... Twilight’s book mess downstairs seems a much less daunting task than trying to repair the broken window or filling in that crater so... Heading downstairs, I turn to the mostly-empty shelves and search for a sort of indication of what genre or style of book is supposed to go on said shelf and after a bit of difficulty I find it, sort of. Rather than have actual words there’s symbols, which I assume must be indicative of what sort of shelf it is. This one’s a chalkboard, so I assume it would be for scholastic material. Given that’s my best bet, I start rummaging through the books that are around. Process is pretty repetitive and boring. Look at title, match to likely destination, place on shelf ordered by author. Rinse and repe- ah damnit... I groan as I realize the book I just grabbed is covered in dirt and stuff. Guess I need a new ‘damaged goods’ pile for the books that are dirty, torn, or soiled in general. Ugh, hate handling dirty or wet things, especially since I’d then have to sort through the clean books, and I don’t want to mess any more of them. Having to check every book I grab for damage and wipe off my hands after each “damaged” one is gonna make this take so much longer... Ugh... am I done yet? Feels like I’ve been at this for six hours. Looking at the shelves, I can tell I’ve made some progress, but not much closer to finishing. Not that it was going to be easy after Hurricane Sparkle went through and messed the place up to begin with. I suppose I should do something to at least make more room down here. Moving the admittedly-impressive timberwolf trophy to my room with significant difficulty, I realize how small of a room I have. Small closet (not that I have many clothes to begin with), small window, small chair, small bed... With no real wall space to hang the trophy, supposing I could even lift it more than an inch for several moments, I just leave it on the floor, giving me even less room than before, not counting my pile of stuff. Why don’t I just get my own place? Because we haven’t the slightest idea how the housing market works around here. You shut up. Because I’m scared of living on my own- You shut up! Valid points either way. Fuck off already... so tired. Eat something, moron! Haven’t had food since this morning... At least the sausage is tasty. And Myrna paid for our broke ass. She really is nice. And pretty! Yeah, except for the chest and teeth, yeesh. Hey, only being half butterface isn’t bad, and she likes me. When we’re not being the most awkward dork in the world. Go talk to her again, she makes me feel good. Eat, you retard! Easy with that word... It is true though. This is getting annoying. Pass out or get a lobotomy, else we stay. Ugh, no thanks. Would that even hurt? Don’t wanna find out. Shut the fuck up, I want to get stuff done! Like what, complain about having a tiny place to sleep? Let’s fuck around with our stuff. Like what? How about that gauntlet? Oh yeah... that gauntlet. I move over and sift through the boxes until I find the brown box that had it. Pinkie was right, aside from the armor itself the box is empty. No card or note or any sort of label. Strange. It looks the same as before. Sturdy steel with silver and brass inlays. I mean it could be copper... color is right, but brass is more likely as it’s sturdier in general and the inlays don’t seem to be on or near the joints; indicative of the decorative metals not being very flexible. It does look like it would fit my hand and it’s even right-handed, allowing more protection to the hand I’d be holding a weapon in. I look over the design more closely, maybe a hint as to its origin or creator is hidden in the product itself. I know now that it’s common practice for many ponies to put their Cutie Mark on major products, like a signature or personal emblem. Not like there’s any sort of database I could use to reverse-search for the pony based on Cutie Mark. The most I could probably get is a census for Ponyville from the mayor and have her check her records of citizens and try to match the mark. Not that even that would help as I can’t find a particular marking anywhere that isn’t a direct part of the gauntlet’s filigree. It’s so strange. Maybe for now I should return to organizing the remainder of the library books. I don’t know what sort of test takes so long. I mean... it’s mid-afternoon on the day after she left. If something happened, she’d be fine I guess but it is rather odd. As I move books from piles to shelves, I can’t help but feel like something went wrong. I mean, if it actually were a typical test, it would never take this long. Then again... Option A: Twilight was actually right in assuming that she was being tested on everything she knows which would probably take an entire week. Option B: It wasn’t a test in the scholastic sense whatsoever but a test of something else entirely. That is plausible, since the only reason anyone assumed it was a typical schooling exam was Twilight, and at the time she was on High-Octane Anxiety. But the one thing that would be a constant is that, whatever the test is, Celestia is orchestrating it. So what could Celestia need from Twilight? And... why wouldn’t her friends come back once her testing began? It was issued to her alone, the other Element Bearers just went along as a support group. So what’s going on, then? And how do Twilight’s friends fit in to it when they weren’t originally summoned in the first place? Not to mention the information Twilight was given was incredibly vague. If it was clear, she wouldn’t have needed to jump to conclusions and freak out. Is her neuroses... part of it all? An expected element? What game are you playing, Celestia? You clearly have a hand in this... as well as just about everything. Even her “faithful student” is a pawn to be moved about, it would seem. That sort of behavior is reason enough not to fully trust her, but the ponies just seem to accept it, think that her secrecy and manipulation isn’t a big deal and needs no explanation. Heck, as far as I know, I’m the only person who never fit into her machinations. They call me crazy for being so suspicious and, while I am fairly insane, she’s never given me any particular reason to trust her, never given me a straight answer for anything if she bothers to answer at all. Maybe I’d be less of a thorn in her side and vice-versa if she didn’t act as if she could dance around me like I’m just another one of her four-legged puppets she’s convinced to her side. It’s not their fault of course... she’s been in power since the births of dozens of generations. It wouldn’t be too hard for her to abuse their herd mentality. She was in power when their great-grandparents were children, her being in power would just seem natural to them, the way things were meant to be. Should be. Even assuming she didn’t intend for that particular mindset to grow, it’s easy to see how it could form across an entire country without any input from herself. All conspiracies aside, it has happened, and it makes sense that I’m the only one who sees it... I have an outside perspective of it all. On purpose or not, she’s built a status quo around herself that she should be in power and she is, for better or worse, their one true leader. That is very very dangerous. I look up from my idle work at the shelves, and I’ve gone through a fair chunk of it by now. I’m not sure if I’ll be done by the time Twilight gets back though, considering I have no idea when she plans to return. Not even a letter or anything. Surely there’s some way to get a message to me, right? Ugh... I need to stop worrying about all this, things are probably fine, Twi’s likely just as bored as I am. I need something to do. Maybe see how Myrna’s doing. These books aren’t going to be any harder to deal with later anyways. She said she was working for some construction crew or something, which makes sense given she can shape stone with her hands. While the town is pretty large, she’s pretty well-known around town, so asking random ponies gets me a lead pretty fast. I eventually make my way to a worksite, with a bunch of ponies working on a house. The strange thing is that the house looks already built. Myrna’s there and pretty easy to spot, though what exactly she’s doing I’m not really sure. I walk around to where she’s at, and I still can’t figure it out. Might as well get her attention. “Hey, what’s up?”  “Oh, hey, Anthony. Bit busy right now.” she replied, before sliding in under the ground. She didn’t come up for a minute or so, and she only came up for a breath when she did before going back under. Maybe the ponies nearby know? I look around and spot a stallion who appears to be on a break of sorts, except he’s got a sandwich in one hoof and he’s doing whatever with another. “Hey, whatcha got going on?” He looked up for a moment, at first around my waist height before meeting my eyes. “Oh, hey. Just working on shorin’ up a few foundations. A couple of the recent incidents have cracked some of them, and it’s easier for Snakey to fix ‘em than to dig up the whole durned house.” he said. “Makes sense.” I replay. “I mean... she can just swim down there and -somehow- mold the cracks out and stuff. Still trying to figure out how it works but it seems pretty handy.” “Yeah, saves us a ton, and that saves the folks here a ton a’ money too. I bet there won’t be any little fillies and colts staying home instead of goin’ off to trade school or college ‘round here.” the guy said, before going back to eating his sandwich. I guess I am interrupting his lunch. Myrna’s coming back up again, so I figure I could try talking to her. She really does seem to be making decent work of this, so the pay must be good, even if it’s cheaper for everyone. Should probably find something I can do super easy with my powers once they come back. Either way... “So, this looks pretty easy. I was thinking maybe when you get off we could hang out a bit or whatever.” Myrna waved me off. “We’ll figure that kind of thing later, Anthony, I need to get three more basements fixed before the rain scheduled for this evening. We don’t want anyone’s stuff getting flooded out.” she said, before taking another deep breath and diving again. I wait for her to come back up before trying to continue. “I guess... I was just hoping we could do something. I’m getting a little tired of everything and wondered if you had anything you wanted to do... I guess I’m open for whatever you want.” “Not now, Anthony. I have a job to do, you know.” she said, her tone a bit more sharp this time before another dive into the earth. What did I do? No need to be so harsh. “Yeah? Well maybe I-” I can’t really think of a finisher. I... huh, normally this attitude just pisses me off but... I sigh and walk off. “No, you’re right. You have a responsibility here and I just... never mind.” I head away from the site, feeling a lot less angry than I have in a while. Not happy, but... not angry. I guess she decided to hold back a bit because she at least calls out that we could talk later. She sounded less... bitter, I suppose. I just shrug and keep walking. Man... I’m really not angry. That’s strange. I’ve been pretty pissed at everything for... ever. Weird. Oh well, maybe I’m just running out of... steam? I guess? Eh... I really don’t want to spend any more time at the library, as it’s getting really dull just sitting around, doing literally nothing. What else could I do? Pinkie’s out of town with the rest, I’m totally broke, gave most of my candy to Ruby and Noi... huh, wonder what the other kids are doing? Wait... is it a school day today? Was I at the Mug earlier today... or yesterday? What’s today? Ugh, the worst part of total boredom is that time just bleeds together... I... I guess if it’s tomorrow... today. If today is yesterday’s- hell, I’m gonna give myself a headache, I need to stop. If it was yesterday, then today is... or... isn’t a school day? Bleh... whatever, I mean I’m not far from the schoolhouse, wouldn’t take much to check. If they are stuck in school for today then... oh well. Well, there’s nobody outside, but it seems today is a school day. Can’t hear anything and can’t see the blackboard from this window but I guess I could just wait off to the side. They’ll get out eventually I suppose. I should be used to just spacing out for hours at a time by now, right? I have no idea if hours have passed, or only minutes, but in either case, I don’t have anything to distract my brain with out here. The children’s playset is small in comparison to a regular pony, and since I’m not it’s absolutely tiny; the sandbox has just enough sand to support a fistful to throw at bullies (or save for later use as pocket sand) but there’s not really anything else. Last time I tried using the tiny jungle gym I almost couldn’t untie myself from a knot involving both legs and about three metal poles. After a bit more mental wandering, Cheerilee comes out. “Hello Anthony, did you need something?” I didn’t expect her to come out or even see me. “Huh? Oh... uh, I uh, not really? I was just really bored.” Cheerilee gives me that confused smile she’s really good at. “Ah, well I was just wondering since you’ve been sitting outside the window for about half an hour.” “Oh... Sorry, I didn’t mean to disrupt or anything. Didn’t realize it was a school day.” Or that today was today. “I figured I’d just wait for everyone to be out.” “Ah, alright. Well, we’re just doing a small unit on world history after our math lesson, if you wanted to sit in on that; you’ve mentioned being from another world, so I think that might interest you?” the comment was both suggestion and question in one, but at least it was meant kindly. I think for a bit. It might be interesting to see what sorts of things I could learn if starting from an elementary level as opposed to Twilight shoving almanacs and atlases in my face. “That’d be neat. Sure.” “Alright. I just came out to check on you while we were transitioning to math, so you could sit in on that while you wait. Give you something to do. I doubt the playground is very entertaining with nopony else around.” I nod. “Yeah, okay.” Actually, that makes me wonder... what sort of grade are they in. “What’s the math lesson on? Getting up to multiplication and such?” “Oh, that was a few weeks ago, we’re on to division, primarily fractions.” Cheerilee informs me, as she heads back inside, me following. I try to ignore the fact that me entering grabs pretty much everyone’s attention, all eyes on me and any other action dropped. “Oh... joy. Fractions. Well, I guess it’d be better than literally nothing.” “Are fractionth that bad?” one of the little ponies asks, a girl with pinkie-grade curly red hair and a notable lisp. I realise that the rapt attention they’re giving me means that they heard that. “Well, not really that bad once you get the hang of them. Bit of a learning curve. I did better with percentiles and such, fractions are just decimals with more lines.” Cheerilee smiles at this. “Very well-put, Anthony. Yes, that’s exactly correct. Fractions, decimals and percentages are all the same, just in different positions and appearances. That’s worth noting, class.” The students, though rather confused by the explanation, all begin taking the information down in their notes. Huh. That moment when you accidentally a wisdom. Still, everyone seems to be getting the gist of it fairly well, though I notice that Scootaloo, a lanky, dark blue pony, and the orange giraffe-looking kid are all having troubles. Well, maybe not on that last one, he’s possibly just taking his time. It doesn’t take long for me to get a little glass-eyed over all the mathematics I’d passed through about twelve ages and a lifetime ago. I’m snapped awake when one of the kids tries to get my attention, apparently trying to get help with something. “I don’t think I’m qualified to be a TA.” I reply out loud. “If you have a question, just ask your teacher. Raising a hand doesn’t mean you’re stupid.” Cheerilee looks over to me and seems to be having a better and better day every time I open my mouth. “Thank you, nervousness is usually a problem. Yes, questions are good.” She walks over to the blue pony, and she starts helping. I shrug. I’m just explaining all the stuff I learned in school and suddenly I’m a genius... joy. And... also in elementary school... well, at least I’m not considered average with the students here. Still, the kids all seem to be gravitating towards me, and most of the problems arising for the kids are basically amounting to misinterpreting the story problems. A few corrections on word meaning help out a lot there, especially because just like the math books from Earth, the publishers occasionally forget they aren’t talking to postgraduate algebra students. Whoever this guy is who can hold fifty-eight carrots at once is, he must have a really bad time jerking off... Also, cutting a pie into slices doesn’t give you less pie... just more pieces. If I have a pie, I’m eating it. Doesn’t matter how many slices I cut it into, I’m still getting the whole damn pie. If I have thirty rocks and somebody takes twelve, how many do I have left? Zero, I chucked the rest at the asshole. ... Y’know, I forgot how much fun you can have, mentally heckling the word problems. Though that’s about as much fun as I can have from all this, as the rest is, well, math. I don’t hate math, I just don’t find it interesting or useful unless I’m applying it for a specific purpose that I care about. After what is supposedly an hour but is clearly twelve days and five-eighths of an eternity, the math is done with and Cheerilee mentions that they’re swapping over to world history. It really should be a priority of mine to learn more about this world. I mean, I live in it and all. But then, I gave just as many fucks about history class back on Earth. Mainly because they were boring as heck. “So, last we left off we were talking a bit about the origins of the traditions around underwater basket weaving, but I think that today’s history lessons could be a little further from home.” Cheerilee states to the class, and I’m left wondering what the heck basket weaving has to do with anything but... whatever. “How about we learn a little bit about where Anthony comes from? Won’t that be interesting?” “Depends on what you ask about.” is all I can reply. “I don’t really have a lesson plan, but I guess I can just answer questions.” Cheerilee smiles. “I’m sure that’s fine, come on up to the front, and we can take turns asking questions.” I shrug and walk up to the blackboard. Man... chalk really doesn’t smell good at all. How long until they invent dry-erase stuff? Not that dry-erase smells good, just not as bad. One hoof goes up, and the first brave little squirt asks their question when I point at them. “Mr. Anthony, does everyone where you come from have super powers?” a little brown-and-white one in the back asked, voice a bit soft. “Nope. It’d be pretty interesting if we did, though.” Horrifying would be a better word, but I’ll save that bit of speculation for later. “I didn’t have any special powers until I got here.” This time a bigger group of hooves went up. Picking through them, I pointed at the red-maned one from earlier. “Wath thchool like thith where you came from?” Kid’s got a lisp like a duck has webbed feet. “Yeah, pretty similar, but mostly comparable to my elementary days. High school was a whole different experience.” I answer. “How much wood could a woodchuck chuck if a woodchuck-” Seems some kids want to have a laugh at this. I cut off the question quickly. “About three-hundred and sixty-two cubic centimeters, give or take.” Kid shut up quick after that. The next hoof was a follow-up to that answer. “Did you need fractions to calculate that?” from a small, lilac hoof in the back whose owner I couldn’t actually see. “Well, the ‘give or take’ part I mentioned is generally shown as an extended decimal, as that’s most common when writing out measurements, but yes. I just rounded up for the sake of simplicity. It’s slightly less than 362, but also more than 361, so the fractions help bridge the gap without being wrong.” This is easy, actually. And I’m looking really fucking smart as a bonus. “Anyone else wanna piggyback on the joke, or we got newer questions? I’m open to both.” Everyone in the class ‘ooh’d at my impressive ‘math’ skills, and I pointed to the next person in the group, specifically Sweetie Belle. “So, Anthony, back where you came from, what were your princesses like?” she asked, tilting her head slightly. “Well, different countries had different sorts of governments, and while there were monarchies, the place where I lived didn’t have princesses.” I explain, assuming that this would probably just confuse them more. “So then, who raises the sun in your world?” one of the other kids asked without raising a hoof. Oh boy, big answer time. I take a breath before getting into the explanation. “Gravitational pull from the the more massive Sun moves planet Earth around said sun as the planet itself spins. This means that throughout the day, the surface of the sun faces different portions of the planet, so when it’s daytime in one place it could be afternoon or night elsewhere. The planet spinning creates the illusion of the sun “moving across the sky” when seen from Earth’s surface. In truth, it’s the Earth that’s always moving with the sun staying where it is, no magic involved.” I take a moment to draw a basic Sun-and-Earth model on the chalkboard with arrows and stuff to help them picture it. “Gravity does some really cool things, especially in the total vacuum of outer space.” All the little ponies look either confused or amazed at the ideas I’m giving out, so at least it seems I’m keeping the group entertained. And informed, though that’s clearly not the local method, it’s still good for them to know. Probably. Cheerilee looks like she’s taking notes on this, more than the kids. She’ll probably have more complicated stuff to ask sometime later. There’s a slew of other questions from there, ranging from asking about how much magic humans use normally (nobody seems to believe me when I said none at all) to asking about what some of the coolest animals back home were (Had to ask them to specify between reptiles, mammals and birds as a single answer would be way too difficult to narrow down), and a few other questions of a similar enough nature. After a while they seem to have run out of questions so I decide to wrap up. “Alright. Well that was more of a lesson on general cultural differences than actual history but I hope this worked well enough?” I get a smile and a nod from Cheerilee. “It makes sense. We’d have to know about the place before we dive into particular events and the why’s and how’s... but it was certainly educational. Thank you very much for that. I’ll have some more questions of my own but that will have to wait for another day. Now it’s lunch, and recess after that.” The kids all put away their books and such and pull out whatever they brought to eat. Watching people eat makes me pretty hungry, but it’s a really long way from here to the library, so I’m stuck with no food. Eh, I’ll eat enough to make up for it later. Getting hungry in general is so annoying. After my belly rumbles two or three times, though, I feel a couple of taps on my knee. “Would you like thome peppermint twittht?” the little red-haired pony asked, offering an honest-to-goodness candy cane to me, this one with a red-and-green color to it. “I added fruit flavorth to thith batch, I think they’re pretty good.” she said. I thank her and take it, and I spend the rest of the time sucking on it. It’s pretty good, actually. Haven’t had anything minty for... about a year now, actually. It’s nice. The fruity-bits are pretty nice, raspberry is always a win in my book. A moment later, a couple of the others come up to offer me little bits and pieces of their lunches; alone, any one of them wouldn’t be more than a snack, but together... well, it’s a more substantial snack, but it’s really nice of them. Also, I have a couple more pieces of candy for later, including something that is like a round Reese’s cup from the description I was given. After a few more offerings I start feeling a bit self-conscious about everyone giving me something for no reason and I tell them to keep it, they’ll probably enjoy it more anyways, etc. I like gifts and all, but I’m not much of a “taker” unless I feel I’ve earned something. Feels weird being handed something by everyone, like some kind of tribute for an idol. After some time, we get to recess, and the children stampede out the door, a term that is almost hauntingly accurate given that they’re ponies and all. Again, I am the center of attention, which I like of course. I rather enjoy being a sort of celebrity, and the kids are just nice. Even that Diamond Tiara girl seems to be behaving which, according to the Crusaders, basically never happens. Guess I count as “adult supervision” and make her a little less willing to be a douchebag. After a bit, Noi and Ruby show up and they immediately ask where I got the “Snappy-Candy” I gave them. I tell them I got them from the candy shop run by Bon-Bon, and go into the Pop Rocks explanation for them. “You got candy from my thithter and gave it away?” the red-haired girl who gave me the candy stick asked. “Lotth of ponieth get pretty greedy about her candy.” she said, likely to explain her question when I turned to look at her. “She said it was something she wanted to try out but ‘failed’. She sold me a bowl of it. The funny thing is, I have no idea what she was trying to make, but it’s exactly like a candy I knew from Earth.” “And you called them Pop Rocks?” another kid asks. “What’s it like?” “I took some home, but gave the rest to Ruby and Noi. I don’t have any on me, so you’d have to ask them.” “We left most of it at home.” Noi says. “But we brought some to show around. It’s really cool!” Soon after that statement, I am no longer the center of everyone’s attention, and kids are asking to try the candy. It takes a while, and some help from me, to evenly distribute the small bag that Ruby had to give everyone a little bit. More of that fractions stuff, though it seemed a lot easier for the kids when they could actually hold the stuff and separate it out for real. Kinetic learning needs to be part of the curriculum in math, it really does. It doesn’t take long after the distribution and every kid is amazed by the candy and all trying to figure out how it works. The sound of everyone’s mouths hanging open and the snapping noise that came with it was getting a little aggravating, but I stick around long enough for the amusement of the kids who didn’t care much and just ate their portion outright. This was a nice day overall, and by the time recess is over I’m tired enough that I’m ready to go back to the library. There’s still a fair amount of daylight left, but I need to sit down and eat something. As great as candy for lunch sounds, it really doesn’t do you any good, sadly.