Sometime later, the gaggle of mares returned from their quest of admittedly mildly humorous blatant discrimination, the door opening and the lot of them streaming back into the building. Twilight was in the lead, looking back to speak to the others, “Girls, I keep telling you, there’s no such thing as curses. I’m pretty sure you all just misunderstood her because we all kept trying to talk over her.” she said with a disapproving, somewhat tired tone as the rest of them filed inside after her.
“And I keep telling you, she’s gonna put us in a big tasty stew if we aren’t careful! I even said it in song, so you know it’s true!” Pinkie Pie said in a somewhat defensive, insistent tone as she walked through the door after Twilight.
“Ah don’t know if I’d go that far with it, but somethin’ is awful off with that mare, Twilight. Livin’ out in the forest like that, it just ain’t natural. No offense Fluttershy.” she said quickly as she entered and Fluttershy followed behind
“None taken, The Everfree is a lot different than the Whitetail Woods. Even I won’t usually go in there unless there’s an animal in trouble…” The meek pegasus muttered as she slipped inside. She looked a bit uncomfortable, shaken even by whatever had gone on out there.
“Yeah, living in there must take some real guts and know-how.” Rainbow Dash said as she trotted inside, looking a bit excited. “She may be kinda creepy, but I bet she’s a real badflank. The stripes are pretty cool too.”
Suddenly Pinkie appeared in front of the blue pegasus, with a playfully stern look on her face, causing Rainbow dash to give a small startled noise and fall back on her flanks as the pink pony spoke. “Hey, watch the language Dashie, there could be foals listening!” She said before looking off into the distance deeper into the store.
“What are you talking about Pink- Oh yeah, Applebloom and Spike are still over there with that Hyoo-man, aren’t they?” She Said, prompting the rest of the group to pick up the padre and trot over to where they had left the lot of them earlier.
They all came upon a fairly calm scene. The baby dragon and little earth filly were both listening to the strange creature, the hyoo-man read to them, from a book, his bag open next to them as he smiled down softly at the two.
“...They say of God, “Names name thee not.” That holds good of me: no concept expresses me, nothing that is designated as my essence exhausts me; they are only names. Likewise, they say of God that he is perfect and has no calling to strive after perfection. That too holds good of me alone.
I am owner of my might, and I am so when I know myself as unique. In the unique one, the owner himself returns into his creative nothing, of which he is born. Every higher essence above me, be it God, be it Man, weakens the feeling of my uniqueness, and pales only before the sun of this consciousness. If I concern myself for myself, the unique one, then my concern rests on its transitory, mortal creator, who consumes himself, and I may say:
All things are nothing to me”
And with that he closed the book and set it down, giving a small yawn as he leaned forward a bit. The six older ponies coming a bit closer, stopping about fifteen feet away, similar to Applebloom. Spike, he had noticed, seemed a bit more comfortable to be in his general vicinity, sitting about ten feet away. He smiled at the returning group softly and gave a small wave “Well, about time you got back, I was about to send these two home and come look for you myself.” he joked as he stood up, stretching with a soft groan, his hands clasped over his head before he relaxed again.
He was certainly quite a big one, standing a bit over half again as large as the lot of them. He crossed his arms and looked down at them, smiling softly “So, am I free to go now, or did you need me to stay for the lynching?”
Twilight gave a small frown and shook her head “Actually, if you wouldn’t mind, I was hoping you could come with me and answer some questions.” she said politely as she met his eyes, looking somewhat anxious. Not that he could blame her, she had passed out from coming within three feet of him. Anyone or well, anypony would be a bit skittish after that around the one responsible.
He gave a small sigh and shrugged. “I guess I could. As long as you compensate me for it. Like I said, I’m sort of in a tight situation here, not knowing where I am and all, and I can’t spend time volunteering myself for free.” he finished, crossing his arms.
She smiled softly and gave a nod “I can see to it that you are given proper compensation for your time and your apparent distressing situation. And I may be able to help you if I know more about you.”
“Hm, alright, I suppose doing as you say would be in my best interest,” he said slowly as he thought before giving a small nod of affirmation. “Fine, I’ll play ball. But if I find out you aren’t going to pay me, I’m going to stand outside of your bedroom window. Menacingly.” he said firmly, seeming satisfied by her response as she gave a displeased grimace.
“I assure you, we will make sure you get the help you need if you give us the help we are asking for, Hyoo-ma-”
“And another thing, stop calling me that. You aren’t even fucking pronouncing it right. My name is Anon. or do you want me to start calling you Purple Smart Horn Horse instead of Twilight?” he said, giving her a flat, somewhat impatient expression.
Pinkie seemed to think this was an appropriate time to cut in, interrupting the conversation. “Oh! That sounds like fun, do me next, what are you gonna call me if I keep calling you hyoo-man? Oh! how about ummmmm…..Fluffy Pink Happy Thick Flank Horse!” She said excitedly as she bounced up and down a bit, a sparkle in her eye.
The man raised an eyebrow slowly as he looked over at Twilight again. “Is….she alright?” he asked slowly as he ran a hand through his hair “She seems awful er...chipper there for no real reason.”
Purple Smart gave a small sigh and nodded “She’s fine, that’s just how Pinkie is, hyoo-um, Anon.” She finished sheepishly, looking a bit apologetic for her slip up.
Rainbow Dash looked over at Pinkie, elbowing her softly and whispering “Thick Flank horse?”
“Well, if you’ve got it, own it!” Pinkie said as if it was obvious, rolling her eyes a bit before she struck a little pose.
A small cough rang out through the room, and all eyes turned back to Applejack as she spoke. “Well, I don’t know about the rest of Y’all, but I’ve got things I gotta do back at the farm now that that’s all over and done with. C’mon Applebloom.” She said firmly, motioning with her head as she trotted back off towards the door.
“Awwwwe, do I have to? Anon was gonna tell me another story!” She said with a sweet little pout as she looked over at the older pony with large, soft sad eyes that only a foal could pull off to such a devastating effect.
Before Applejack had a chance to answer, he cut in “Applebloom, it’s fine, here you can borrow one of my books. Just make sure to bring it back here when you are done, alright? I’ll grab it from whoever’s working that day.” he said gently as he took a book out of his bag and slid it across the floor towards the filly, who stopped it with her hoof and picked it up to look at it. “Anthem...okay, thanks anon! I promise I’ll bring it back!”
She smiled up at him before placing the book in her mouth and trotting off after Applejack, who gave him a small scowl and closed the door behind herself.
“Actually, I gotta go too, guys.” Rainbow Dash said as she headed towards the door as well. “I’ve still got cloud clearing to take care of.”
As it turned out, it looked like everyone had somewhere to be, and a few muttered excuses later, everyone save for Pinkie Pie, Anon, Twilight and Spike had somewhere else to be and saw themselves out of the building. It looked like Pinkie actually worked there, unsurprisingly enough, and was cleaning up the mess left by Spikes’ cupcake binge as they left the building.
--------------------------
Several minutes later, they arrived back at Twilight’s home. It was a small library located within the trunk of a massive tree, dubbed “Golden Oaks Library” if the sign was anything to go by. Twilight allowed him to enter and chose a place to sit down before following behind at a safe distance, eventually taking a seat across from him at a large table in the sitting area of the library proper.
Spike followed shortly after, coming over carrying a small stack of papers, a quill and a small inkwell, setting them onto the table next to the unicorn. “Thank you, Spike, I can take it from here.” she said, dismissing him, He gave a small nod and stared at the human questioningly for a moment before padding off to go do...something or the other, presumably.
Twilight turned back towards anon, smiling softly as she used her magic to smack the bottom of the stack of papers against the desk to neaten them a bit before setting them back to one side and pulling one off of the tip, her quill dipped and ready floating in her magical aura, a feat which got a slightly wider eyed expression than normal from the man across from her.
“So uh...you can do telekinesis or something with that horn then?” he asked, scratching his chin in mild amazement at what he was seeing.
She snickered softly and nodded “and a lot more than that! Unicorn magic is very versatile. What, don’t tell me you have really never seen magic before.” She said in an incredulous tone as she raised an eyebrow and leaned in a bit, seeming a bit more interested herself now.
He shook his head and then thought about it, then shrugged “Nah, not what I would call the real deal anyway. The most you’ll generally see where I’m from are really good illusionists. Or else just technology that sorta feels like magic if you don’t really understand it.”
“Really now? So you are saying that you consider your place of origin to be relatively technologically advanced? Not really what I’m curious about right now, but still interesting thank you…” she said as she scratched away at the paper in front of her with the floating quill. “YOu also seem to speak and write in the same language as we do despite having never come into contact with or heard of ponies, which is very peculiar….and from what I am led to believe, you have not had the...anomalous effect you are currently displaying before you arrived here earlier today?”
“Yeah, that’s about the long and short of it, to be honest. I’m awfully sorry about that by the way. Of course I wasn’t expecting to make first contact with a species that has an episode if they get too close to me.” He said as his eyes trailed over the stack of paper. “Hey, would you mind passing me some of that? I think I have a pen in my bag. I kind of want to take a few notes of my own.”
“Hm? Oh, sure.” she said as she looked up from her furious scribbling and attempted to levitate a paper over to him.
The keyword, of course, being attempted. As soon as the paper got a bit closer to him, the aura around it began to flicker and the paper fell back to the table. A vexed expression crossed her face, “Oh dear, how clumsy of me, I seem to have not used enough power. Hold on…”
She tried again, her horn glowing brighter this time, while the glow around the paper stayed about the same, maybe a bit weaker than before as it floated towards him once more. When it got a bit closer than before, the same thing happened, much to her visible frustration “Well that just isn’t right! What’s going on…?” She said with an irritated tone.
The pattern repeated. She channeled more magic, got it a bit closer to him, and it dropped again. More magic, closer, drop.
After about a minute of this, a bead of sweat was coming down her brow as her horn glowed rather brightly, the paper not even lighting up anymore about three feet away from him as she breathed more heavily than when she started.
He Spoke up, motioning with a hand out to stop her as he reached with the other to grab it “Twilight, it’s fine, really. I’ve got it, see, you can stop now.” He said gently, looking slightly concerned by her behavior.
“Alright, then, but…” she squinted as she looked down at her paper pile, picking another sheet up and floating it away from her in the opposite direction as before, then trying to float it back towards him. As she brought it close to him again, the paper fluttered uselessly back onto the table, the same as before, and her eyes widened.
“Anon, I think that the effect you displayed earlier is not just some sort of aura of intimidation. I think you may be negating magic in an area around you,” she said, picking up her quill again and resuming scribbling far more furiously than before. “I am going to need to run some tests to be sure, but it seems as though your presence is somehow negating the flow of arcane energy in your immediate surroundings.”
He seemed a bit concerned by the news, scratching at the back go his head as he watched her take notes “So, is this like...dangerous to you ponies? You aren’t going to like...die or something if I get to close to you, are you?”
“Probably not, But I would recommend staying out of range of other ponies until we determine the extent and intensity of this phenomenon. We ponies use magic for well...basically everything. Appliances, manufacturing processes, military applications….Oh Celestia my appliances. I’m going to take it out of your payment if you break anything in the kitchen.” She said in a slightly exasperated but excited voice. “The rest of my questions can wait. This requires immediate elucidation!” She declared as she put down her quill. “SPIKE!”
As she yelled, the little dragon from before came running back in, looking worried, then slightly annoyed when everything seemed to be okay. “Yeah, what is it, Twi?” he asked as he crossed his arms, looking around as if searching for anything out of place before settling down as Twilight handed him the paper with her notes from a few moments before, now rolled up. “I want you to send this to Princess Celestia Immediately. Our guest here appears to be the epicenter of an unknown arcane or er...anti-arcane phenomenon. I’m going to have to take them to Canterlot to use my old work area. The equipment I have here at the library isn’t reliable enough for something like this. I don’t trust it for something this important after the...Pinkie Sense incident…”
She finished the sentence with a small shudder of remembrance. “I don’t think I am going to be able to fly by carriage, so I’ll be bringing the subject by train, I’ll be gone with Anon here for about a week at least. I’ll send you an update three days from now to let you know If I will be there for longer.”
She’s already trotting up to the loft above the library and packing her things as she speaks, her tone of voice clearly indicating that she feels that there is no room for debate on whether he is going with her.
From what he saw a minute ago, he could probably get away with telling her no. but he probably wouldn’t get paid. He also was unsurprising, not keen to piss off the sovereign of a foreign nation with whom he was presumably the only avenue of diplomatic relations in...ever.
Spike nodded to her and gave a little salute and...set the note on fire. Green flames erupted from his lips and charred the note to nothing, the embers flying quickly out of the window, passing through it ethereally as he gave a small nod “Sent! But is it really that important, Twilight?” He asked sounding...unconvinced as he looked back over at Anon again. “I mean, this guy can’t be too big a deal, right? He can’t be too dangerous...”
“He might be, and he might not be, but if he is the signs are pointing to it not being deliberate on his part. I need to figure out exactly what is going on with him to make sure that his proximity doesn’t present a danger to other ponies.”
“Uh...I’m still getting paid, right? I didn’t sign up for any clinical trials or studies or anything, that’s going to run you extra.
Twilight stepped back down the stairs, giving an exasperated sigh and rolling her eyes. “While you are staying at the castle in Canterlot, you will be provided with all of your essential needs and comfortable living quarts free of charge, and I will personally compensate you once we have determined whether or not you are a walking talking arcana-hazard.”
“Geez, alright! I get it, this is a big deal.” He said, giving a flippant gesture with his arm before crossing them both in front of him and looking down and away with a small scowl. “There better not be any weird alien probing shit…” he said under his breath as he kicked the table leg softly a few times.
A few minutes later, an important-looking document with a wax seal erupted in green flames from Spike’s mouth, which he quickly opened and read “Looks like the princess says you are good to go, Twi. She’s cool with bankrolling this operation. About time she took you at your word about something being dangerous...” he said in a slightly bitter tone that made it sound like there was a story there.
But before Anon had the opportunity to ask, Twilight was heading for the door. “Alright Anon, grab your things, and let’s get going.”
He got up and rubbed at his side a bit, straightening back up and grunting softly “alright. You’ll let Applejack know what’s going on right? Applebloom might end up wondering where I am when she goes to return my book and I don’t want her to worry about it.”
Twilight seems genuinely surprised that he seems to care at all, nodding and giving him a small, somewhat approving smile. “I’ll make sure to send Applejack a letter after we arrive there tomorrow letting them know what’s going on. I was planning to do something along those lines anyway to let my friends know what was going on.” She said before turning back to the purple dragon. “Spike, you are in charge of the library while I’m gone. Try to keep things orderly until I return and please don’t let the Cutie Mark Crusaders try to be librarians again,” she stressed gently but firmly.
Spike gave a little salute again and nodded. “You can count on me, Twilight!” he said before trotting off back towards the kitchen, giggling with all of the mischievous intent of a child who’s going to do something naughty while their mom is out of the house.
Twilight gave a small, resigned sigh and opened the door, beckoning for anon to follow behind, which he did at a reasonable distance. He looked up at the sky as they exited the building, silently hoping that, whatever bullshit was about to befall him, the pay would at least be decent.