"Rockhoof to A6, Checkmate!” Anon said with a smile that ran a bit too wide. His hair was a bit of a mess, moreso than usual, and his glasses hung low on his nose as he beamed down at her from across the board with an almost ecstatic expression!
The board sat between them, with twilight closer to it than he was of course. The actual board was a small box with a crystal inside of it, projecting the game board in a holographic fashion above itself. On the board, one of Anon’s Rooks, Represented in this version of the game by a very large, bearded earth pony had Twilights King, represented by Celestia, at...shovel point.
Twilight gave an exasperated sigh of defeat as she hung her head and rubbed her hooves through her mane in an exasperated fashion “Ugh, that’s….another tie-up…”
She looked back up at him, a similarly anxious, excitable look on her face, eye twitching slightly as she pressed a button on the side of the box to reset all of the pieces to their appropriate place on the board,
They seemed to have been at it for some time, the room littered with the debris of several rounds of snacks and refreshments on either side of the table, both of them looking as if they have not gotten much rest. The sun is peeking over the horizon slowly now, beams of sunlight entering the room through one of the open windows.
“Look, maybe we should pack it up and try to grab a nap before the research team gets here. I think ten rounds is enough.” Anon said as he gave a yawn and stretched out in his chair, rubbing his eyes slowly.”
Twilight looked like she wanted to argue, but seeing how tired he was, and seeing the mess that they had made after getting so deeply entrenched in what they were doing, she gave an embarrassed look over to him before she sighed and nodded “I think that might be for the best. We can always play more another time, good game, Anon.” she said as she pressed the second of the two buttons in the side of the magical device to deactivate it, the hologram above the fairly compact arcane device dissipating.
Anon sighed softly and got out of his chair, starting to pick up some of the trash in his immediate vicinity in an attempt to make his immediate surroundings seem a little less like the aftermath of a heated 8-hour chess binge. Twilight did much the same for the half of the room her own chair was on, using her magic to make the task considerably easier. “You know Anon, I could just do it myself if you wanted to move over a bit, it would not take very long,” she said as she watched him bend down to pick the little scraps and bits of snack wrappers and cans of drink off of the table and the floor.
“I appreciate the offer, but I helped to make the mess, So I would not feel comfortable if I did not help to clean it,” he said as he continued “and besides, it’s not that much, honestly. You should see my room after a real gaming binge. It makes this level of cleanliness look like a freshly prepped operating room.”
She gives a small grimace art the thought of considering this tidy and clean. “Fair enough, I suppose,” she said as she finished up, with him having a bit more to go.
Once the both of them finished cleaning and he brought his half of the mess to the pile Twilight had made before backing away, her horn lit up and in a flash, the small pile of refuse was incinerated, not even leaving a spot on the floor where it had been. The only sign anything had been there was a small poof of smoke rising from the space the trash had previously occupied.
“Huh...yeah, I gotta admit that seems pretty handy, not gonna front,” Anon said as he rubbed his chin slowly, looking down at where the trash had been. “Honestly, I’m pretty hyped that that doesn’t work on me.”
“Yeah, the amount of energy needed to superheat the air to that extent while only able to directly heat an area outside of a fifteen-foot perimeter of you effectively without letting any escape outside the desired area of effect and possibly harm other ponies would make it pretty hard even for Celestia…” Twilight said softly as well, leading Anon to give her a quiet ‘hey what the fuck’ look before shrugging and waving it off.
As the two of them stood there silently, Princess Luna Opened the door to the room and peeked inside, looking fairly tired herself. “Our sister has asked Us to check up on you since We did not see you in the dream realm last night, Twilight Sparkle. The Researchers will be here soon and We wish to escort you to the laboratory area. I hope that the Hyoo-man has not been too....oh dear, you both look worse than I do…” She said, her eyes widened as she looked at the two of them. They really must look quite a pair, frazzled hair, wide, slightly bloodshot eyes, mildly anxious, disposition. All Excellent signs of someone who is in dire need of a long and fruitful visit with MIster Bed.
Anon resisted the urge to make good on his promise to call her Moonbutt if she used that term again and responded “Yeah, we’ve been up playing chess and talking all night. That was my bad. I asked her if she wanted to play and well..we started at best of three but we kept tying up for about...ten games or so. We actually just finished and cleaned up a bit before you came to check up on us. My name is Anon by the way.”
She seemed to ignore the last part of what he said as her eyes widened in slight surprise “You play Regicide? We are strangely not as surprised as We would expect by that.” she said with a hint of irony as she slipped into the room, closing the door behind her. “Though We are considerably more surprised you managed to tie Our sister’s student. She rarely struggles against opponents outside of Ourselves and Our Sister.”
Anon tilted his head slightly, his own curiosity piqued. “Regicide? I suppose that’s a fitting name. I’m going to assume that is what they called it back in the day? Or erm, when you were younger, a few centuries ago. Perhaps we could have a game sometime. I would certainly enjoy the novelty of chess with Royalty. Hopefully, as much as you might enjoy the novelty of chess with an endangered species.”
“We would hope that the novelty of Regicide with the inventor of the game would be a more suitable offering to Our guest,” Luna said, snigging softly as she gave a faux, disinterested look, rubbing her hoof against her chest plate. “Though we suppose that we might find the prospect of another passable opponent worthy. It has been so difficult to find good challengers since the game fell out of favor in Saddle Arabia. All of those Germane and Prench colts who keep coming to challenge me are so dry and boring. And don’t even get me started on the dead-eyed little whelps from Stalliongrad.”
Now it was Anon’s turn to stop paying attention halfway through when someone was talking. “You invented this game here? Now that is quite an accomplishment. I’m man enough to admit when I find something impressive, and that certainly fits the bill. I’d be honored to play a round or two sometime in that case.” he said, giving her a genuinely mildly excited smile.
Luna seemed to puff up slightly, standing a bit taller. She certainly seemed to appreciate the praise. “We are pleased that one as...cynical as yourself would still have the proper appreciation for such an invitation.”
“Well, I am certainly glad to hear I am still capable of pleasing a woman. So you said that you wanted to bring us to the lab?” he asked as he walked over to grab his bag, sliding it over his shoulder.
Luna’s eye twitched slightly and her cheeks darkened only slightly before she shook it off as nothing but coincidence, Twilight doing a substantially worse job at concealing her mortification. “We-ahem...that is to say, yes, We would, follow us please.” She sputtered out with as much dignity as she could muster before she opened the door and trotted out with a small sigh of resignation, with Twilight quickly following behind her and Anon trailing from a safe distance from the pair.
They arrive a short walk later in a rather spartan, clean room in the castle. There was an array of equipment Anon would have described as somewhat...antiquated would be a polite way to put it. However, Once again, he had to remind himself that he was in a different place, with access to different resources and a different way of doing things and not to jump to conclusions.
There was also, a small menagerie of middle-aged to elderly-looking pony gentlemen, all grouped around Celestia, who seemed to be listening to each of them carefully before she looked over to see the three of them enter. “Ah! Gentlecolts, it seems that your test subject and my student have both arrived.” She said as she slipped between a few members of the small crowd to approach her sister.
“Indeed, sister, We have just dragged these two rapscallions out of an eight-hour Regicide match. We do hope that whatever these stallions of...science have planned for today will not be overly strenuous for either of them.” Luna said, shooting the both of them a mildly amused look as they both gave a somewhat sheepish, apologetic look to Stallions who would be working with them.
One of them, a greyish-colored older-looking stallion with blue eyes and a white mane that seemed to be barely tamed into a manageable, combed back style approached alongside Celestia and spoke as well “Oh no worries. We will simply be taking some baseline measurements. Heart rate, blood pressure, taking some blood samples, and perhaps a few tissue samples. Of course, assuming the subject will allow it. We will also perform some routine cognitive tests and ask them some questions about themselves and where they come from to try to glean some information about their origins.”
Anon yawned softly as he looked over at the little professor pony and stretched out a bit. “Well, that all sound’s fine if you can manage it, considering my er...condition. But maybe we could study sleep patterns first? I don’t mean to be a downer but I don’t feel like you are going to get the most accurate metrics if you take them while I’m sleep-deprived.”
The gentlecolt scowled softly as they looked down and thought about it for a moment, nodding “I suppose you are right, for the sake of having more accurate initial data, we should give you some time to rest. Do you have a name by the way?”
“Oh, Did Celestia not tell you? My name is Anon, and before you say it, it’s pronounced human, not hyoo-man.” Anon said as he gave a small polite nod of greeting to the stallion before him “And do you have a name?”
“My name is Doctor Neigh. I am a mathematics professor at Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns. Celestia offered me the opportunity to lead this project with Twilight based on the fact that as her former teacher I am familiar with her way of doing things, she wanted me to help Twilight decide what data was and was not relevant to the questions we are trying to answer about you.” he said, placing a hoof on his chest as he spoke, smiling up at his soon to be test subject politely.
“Hey Bill, get over here with the subject so we can all say hi!” Another one of the stallions said in a good-natured tone.
Anon’s eyes widened slightly as he heard the name of the pony professor called aloud.
“Bill…Neigh,”
Bill
Bill
Bill
Bill
His eye twitched as the chant began in his head and he did his best to resist the siren call of his childhood, fist-clenching tightly. “Mphhh...perhaps we should humor them? I would prefer to get to know the ponies I will be working with.”
A short meet and greet session and a nice long nap later, Anon was given one of those embarrassing little hospital gowns to change into, made more embarrassing that the thing was barely long enough to conceal anything worth concealing on his large bipedal frame. He sat on a comfortable enough-looking sterile cot in a clean, simple room. It contained the few things you might expect, some cabinets, a closet for storage. There was a countertop and a table and a few chairs as well. his things sat in a locker next to the cot. He had been told this is where he would be staying for a day or two while they take his vitals and do some initial observation, and to just do whatever felt natural whenever he was not being directly questioned or prodded at.
The research team would require at least one day out of his week a few months in order to monitor him for any changes in physiology or behavior, and in return, he would be compensated with a monthly stipend, on top of royalties on the profits for any books or papers written on the topic of him and any research pertaining to him within the borders of Equestria by order of the crown.
Speaking of which, the first of his visitors was arriving soon. Today they would be focusing on the very basics, taking samples and vitals, and the like to set a baseline for future tests.
There was a knock on the door and after a soft “come in” from Anon, it opened to reveal a relatively tall, sleek-looking unicorn. He had a slicked-back blonde mane, a white coat, and dark, blue eyes His cutie mark was of a serpent in a jagged s sort of shape winding crookedly around a staff.
“Good evening, Herr Anon. I am Doctor Mangle. I am ze Chief Researcher for Non-Equine Medicine and Physiology at ze Equestria Institute for Health and Wellness.” he said in a thick, german sounding accent as he slowly trotted a bit closer to his subject, stopping at almost exactly 15 feet away from him.
As Anon was silently noping about every part of this he could wrap his head around, the doctor levitated a clipboard that was hung from a peg next to the door over to himself, humming as he read it. “Now, if Miss Sparkle’s observations of your...anomalous properties are to be believed, it will be a unique challenge to properly conduct ze requisite tests to measure your vitals…” he said, tutting softly as he looked over the clipboard back at his subject. “Is it true zat Spells are unable to operate within a certain radius of your body, Herr Anon?”
The human nodded slowly as he gave the doctor a cautious, unsure look, as if weighing up the benefits of continuing to be here versus the possible risks of trying to leave. “That is correct, yes. The only pony who did not seem to experience any adverse up to the distance required for physical context was Zecora. ”
“Ah yes, ze zebra. Professor Liber Novus gave Fraulein Sparkle quite ze tongue lashing after he heard about her uncouth assumptions on ze train. But enough small talk, for now, we can dispense with ze pleasantries until after our tests are done. In any case, fortunately for us both, I do happen to have one zebra on staff who was free to assist us with ze procedures. Please come in , Fraulein Rooibos.”
At his call, a stocky, somewhat stern-looking zebra walked into the room, holding a bag with a red cross over the front by the handle in her mouth. She set it down on the counter and nodded to the doctor, speaking In a soft, but firm tone, her voice rich and a bit on the deep end. “Is this the subject, Doctor Mangle?” She asked in a slightly stilted cant as she looked Anon up and down slowly.
The human looked back at her, offering a gentle smile which was not returned as she gave a curious sort of squint and walked closer., the doctor chiming in as anon was being...observed. “Zat is correct, Rooibos. Zis is er...Anon. He is the one I was telling you about with ze anomalous arcane properties. Apparently, he has a high concentration of iron in his blood, which serves as ze primary method of transporting oxygen through ze tissue as opposed to using a copper based compound.” He said, before addressing Anon again, looking over towards him “Herr Anon, you are in good hands. Zebras typically have much higher than normal tolerances for anti-magical effects. She should be able to assist me in running ze tests we need without accidentally harming you or herself.”
“Well, that makes sense. I remember the Zebra I met did not seem quite so...uncomfortable in my direct vicinity.” Anon said as he recalled meeting Zecora. He wondered what she was up to right now. He would have to go and pay her a visit once he got out of this place. “It’s nice meeting you, Miss Rooibos. I hope we can have an alright time working together.”
The zebra mare got a bit closer, leaning in before retreating again and humming “You certainly are a very strange creature. You feel...different. Very different.” She said as she resumed standing a reasonable personal space allowing distance from the mildly confused human.
The doctor cleared his throat. “Very good, now, if ze two of you would be so kind, I think we have some samples to take. Anon, I will need you to sign zese documents giving me permission to perform ze medical procedures required to take zese samples, if you would be so kind?” he said as he flipped through the clipboard he was still hovering in front of him and placed it on the table neat the cot at the correct page.
Anon nodded and looked over the paperwork carefully. Just some very normal-looking stuff about requiring his permission to acquire samples of his various bodily fluids and some of his tissue. Once he was sure that there were no shenanigans at play, he signed the waiver and slid it across the table towards the doctor, who took it and looked it over with a small nod. “Excellent. If you do not have any questions, we can begin. If at any point you wish to ask about the purpose of a specific procedure, please do not hesitate to ask me, I will simply be overseeing the procedures while Fraulein Rooibos does her job and will be able to answer to the best of my ability.”
Anon, for once, did not in fact have any questions. At least not any relevant to the upcoming tests and sample taking, and allowed them to proceed. They tested an array of things you might typically see at any doctors appointment. Reflexes, blood pressure, temperature, the works. The doctor and the assistant alike both seemed fairly surprised at some of the results. But after confirming with Anon that to the best of his knowledge they ran within the average range of what was expected of a healthy human male, they seemed content, if still a bit surprised.
As they prepared to draw a blood sample, Anon seemed a bit apprehensive. “Now, are we absolutely sure this is safe? I mean, what if this gets into the hands of someone who doesn’t mean well. I mean, you could really give someone a bad time if you inject them with this, I would think.”
As Rooibos pulled her teeth to tie off an elastic band around his bicep, the doctor spoke reassuringly. Or at least, as worryingly as he could manage “Herr Anon, I assure you zat your bodily fluids will be treated with ze utmost care. Zey will be stored in an Annulment Container so zat zey do not pose a health risk to those assigned to guard them until they are used for analysis and testing purposes.
“An Annulment Container. Would you mind explaining that?” Anon asked, perking at the sound of something that could negate his effects on other creatures.
“Oh yes, of course.” The doctor said readily as his assistant began to swab the area the needle would be used on with a ball of cotton and a bit of alcohol. “You see there are certain materials, such as silver, which while zey do not negate ze effects of magic, zey are able to stop the flow of arcane energy from one point to another. I am not an expert on Arcane theory though, you would have to discuss ze matter further with somepony more qualified, such as Fraulein Sparkle.”
Anon sighed softly and nodded, leaning back again and relaxing as Rooibos prepared the needle. As much as he was excited by the idea that there might be some materials which could insulate those around him from his unfortunate properties, it seemed quite impractical to wear silver over his body all of the time, assuming complete coverage was required. And ingesting silver was right out, he wasn’t about that smurf life.
As he was pondering, he was brought back to reality by the slight sting of a needle being removed from his arm and a bit of gauze being secured over the small opening. “It is done.” The zebra mare said as they tossed the medical waste into a bin.
“Ah yes, very good, we will have to make sure zat is incinerated later.” The doctor said as they watched the zebra carefully place the sealed vial of blood they had retrieved into a padded, small silver box. “In any case, zis will be the only sample of zis sort we will be taking until we have secured a method of acquiring sufficient dietary iron to make taking further samples feasible without posing a risk of anemia.”
Anon was surprised but tried to hide it. “Oh well uh...thanks for the concern for my health doc. I really didn't think of that until you said something, actually. While I am thinking about it, I don’t think that all of the copper that is probably going to be in my diet is going to be incredibly healthy for me either. Humans can die pretty easily from the buildup of certain metals in our systems.”
“Hmmm, yes I can see how excess metals your system is not used to would cause some health problems. Lucky for you a simple bit of transmutative magic on analyzing what you eat should keep you from ingesting too much until we can find a more sustainable long-term solution. It sure is lucky zat you are in ze good graces of a powerful unicorn, ja?”
Yeah come to think of it, that was fairly lucky, all things considered. Especially taking into account his somewhat abrasive way of handling people, or in this case, ponies. He might be really dangerous in some ways here, but in others, he was coming to find that he was fairly fragile. He would do well to try to make sure that he did not put himself into a regrettable position.
“Yeah, yeah I guess I am, Doc,” he said as he rubbed at his arm, giving a small sigh. “So uh, are we good to go here?”
The doctor nodded as his assistant began to pack things back into the bag they had arrived with. Pulling out a smaller purple cloth sack with a small sun and moon embroidered onto it, letting it land on the counter with a soft clink.”I think that is everything, Herr Anon. We will be sure to inform you of ze results of our analysis. Zis is your first payment,50 bits, with another 50 for every subsequent appointment you attend. Professor Allgood will be observing you overnight via a one-way mirror.” He said as he gestured over at the wide mirror covering one side of the room. “And Professor Liber Novus will be coming in tomorrow to ask you some questions and to ask you to talk about yourself and your life in greater detail.”
Anon cringed slightly at the idea of being watched all night while he did...whatever it was he did when he was alone. He did already sign up for it, however, and they had already watched him sleep, so it was not that bad all things considered, so he simply decided to accept it. “Alright. I will try not to stay up too late partying into the night,” he said with a gesture around the room, getting a chuckle out of both the doctor and the otherwise fairly stoic zebra mare.
“Excellent, We will be taking our leave now. Fraulein Rooibos will be on call if you require anything or wish to go anywhere, she will simply stay close by and observe your activities and take notes of zem later, I assure you you are not simply trapped here. Zough I will admit staying where we can observe you firsthand is, of course, ideal for the time being. We can see about a properly monitored outing later on, once we have finished our preliminary testing.”
Anon was fairly sure the main reason he was allowed to come and go as he pleased was because they could not stop him without substantial effort and risk, but he was still appreciative of the relative degree of freedom and simply waved his hand and shook his head “Nah, it’s just a day or two right? I can go out and see the sights after we wrap things up here.”
The doctor smiled a bit wider at this, seeming appreciative “Zank you, Herr Anon. I am glad you are understanding of ze situation. And worry not, rest assured zat you are making a substantial contribution to Equestrian science, ZE GREATEST SCIENCE IN ZE WORLD!” He said as he stuck a hoof out in front of him slightly above chest level as if...posing? Anon was going to do the healthy thing for his mental health and assume that they were simply posing dramatically and not...something else.
A little while later, the two of them finally got out of his hair, with Anon being instructed to pull a string with a handle next to the countertop if he needed any assistance. He changed back into his usual clothes and laid back to relax for a while, simply enjoying having some peace and quiet to reflect He took out his headphones and his phone and took some time to himself to listen to some music.
Sadly, his alone time was interrupted a while later by Rooibos knocking on the door and opening it, peeking inside. He removed his headphones as she started to speak “Mister Anon, Miss Sparkle is here to see you.”
He gave a small sigh and nodded, sitting up in his bed and stretching out a bit, letting his headphones hang around his neck as the unicorn made her way inside past the zebra, who closed the door behind her, allowing the two of them some semblance of privacy.
“Heya Twilight,” he said as he stretched out a bit more, looking down at her with a gentle smile. “Is it visitation hours already? I was expecting them to take me out to the yard for a workout first.”
She gave a small chuckle at this and took a seat at one of the chairs at the table, with him doing the same at the opposite end “Oh hush, anon. You and I both know you wouldn’t be here if you didn’t want to be. I know that much about you from the little time we’ve spent together, at least.”
He thinks about this and nods “Yeah, honestly, it sort of feels like we have known each other a bit longer than a few days huh? I mean, here we are bantering after an evening of heated gaming, you’d think we had known each other at least a week or two. I guess ponies really are talented at making friends, when they want to be.” he said as he checked the time on his phone.
Twilight it seemed, could no longer resist the siren call of the small sleek technological elephant in the room and decided to pipe up about it “so Anon, can I ask what that device is? There seems to be music coming out of it.”
“Oh, this?” he asked, shrugging as he held it out for her to look at from across the table. “It's just my phone. It's primarily for communication, but it can also be used to play music and take photographs, and has a number of other functions.”
Her eyes widened considerably as he listed the functions of the device, her ears flicking excitedly. “You mean to tell me you have had that sort of data from where you are from this entire time and haven’t bothered to tell anypony!?”
“Oh...well yeah, I guess when you put it that way I sound like a real fuckin goober, huh?” he asked as he rubbed at the back of his head chuckling. “Really, I'm just so used to having the thing on me I didn't think about it that way,” he said as he opened the lock screen and scrolled through his playlist. “You wanna uhhh...listen to some music or something? We can look through the other stuff on company time, right now I just sort of want to relax if that's alright with you.”
Twilight gives a series of exasperated huffs and assorted noises, trying to piece together a response to this level of willful carefree stupidity before finally stopping, collecting herself slowly as she rubbed her face with a hoof and answered tiredly “Sure anon, that sounds pretty nice, let’s listen to some music, I came to visit anyway, I shouldn’t be trying to intrude on your leisure time with non-leisure activities.”
So they listened to some music together for the rest of the evening and just sort of talked. Not about anything in particular, mind you, just sort of shooting the breeze in that way that two people who are enjoying each other’s company are wont to do. He mostly sat there and listened while twilight told him about her family, her schooling, her friends, occasionally interjecting where he felt appropriate. Most of his contributions were about the actual music being played whenever Twilight asked a question about the lyrics.
Eventually, he ended up laying on his bed again, with Twilight just sort of asking questions now and again while they both enjoyed the music. Eventually, she did ask one that struck some proper interest from him.
“Hey, Anon. Some of this music is really beautiful, but some of it is...a little concerning. I know you don’t really want to answer a lot of questions about where you're from right now but just one? What kind of place is it?”
He gave a small sigh and ran a hand through his hair as he lounged on his cot “Twilight, that is a very complicated question. Personally, I would say that the world is what you make it, especially when it comes to my world, but that might just be me speaking from a position of relative privilege as someone who comes from a nice part of it.” he said as he rolled onto his side to look at her. He looked serious, but not serious enough to get up from such a comfortable position.
“Honestly, if I had to give my opinion on the living conditions of the average person, it’s pretty dismal. I haven’t seen enough of Equestria to make an educated statement about which one I would consider to be better, but I will certainly say that Equestria is treating me a lot better than I would expect the people in charge where I am from the treat a pony if the situations were reversed.”
Twilight winced slightly as he spoke, seeming to feel almost sorry for him. “Oh, dear...I am sorry to hear that Anon. would you say that you are glad you are here instead?”
“Hell no!” he said, sitting up, looking almost offended “Twilight, you realize I had friends back home right? Family too, coworkers as well, all people who depended on me for various things, and now, as far as I know, I have vanished off of the face of the earth with no discernable trace of where I went off to, and I’ve gone and left them all hanging! I honestly feel like shit about it and I’ve been trying not to think about it too hard.” he said before flopping back down onto the bed, his hands covering his face as he took a deep breath.
Twilight was taken aback by this, giving him a sympathetic look, reaching out towards him before remembering that getting too close was probably not a great idea. “You know, as much as you come off as gruff and a bit aloof, I think you really care a lot more than you would willingly let on in most cases. I know I sort of made the same point before but you really aren't as different from ponies as you might think you are. At least not in the ways a pony would think counts.”
“I guess the parts we think count is what makes the difference in some cases then, Twilight, because most humans would say that I am very different in the says that count,” he said, seeming at least mollified by her attempt at consoling him with praise in her way. “Look Twilight, you know I love talking to you about this sort of stuff, but I’m feeling pretty tired after everything from today. It’s been sort of a long one.”
She blinked as she gave him a look that was somewhere between surprised and pleased. “I do? I mean, you do? I mean, er...yeah, that sounds fine anon, sorry to keep bringing you back around to it. Would you mind if I stayed a bit longer then?”
“Hell, if you want, I can have Rooibos bring us another mattress and we can make this into a slumber party. I mean, I don’t think it’ll be much of one, but it’s better than being alone all night if you wanna hang around.”
“Huh...you what anon, I think I’ll take you up on that offer.” She said, smiling slowly a bit wider as she gave him a nod. “Yes, let’s have a slumber party! I mean, it has to go better than the last one I had with Rarity and Applejack.”
He smirked at this and tilted his head slightly. “Yeah, I didn’t get the sort of vibes from those two that would lead me to believe they would click well in an overnight setting. Wanna tell me about it?”
Twilight grinned as she scooted just a tad closer in her chair, leaning forwards with a bit of excitement visible in her eyes “Oh, I would love to, let me give you all the juicy details. It all started when I invited them inside to get out of a storm that the pegasi scheduled to make up for a missed light downpour earlier in the week…”