Anon's abrupt rise to anger had surprised him nearly as much as it had Twilight. Her talk of other worlds had made him suspicious, of course, but he actually wasn't sure why that had made him so angry.
Thing is, a man tends to reconsider his priorities when his back is against the ceiling.
Yeah. He was floating.
The mare sat on the couch almost directly below him and he could only stare at her in confused awe--well, not so much at her as at her horn. It was surrounded by a bright magenta aura which gently undulated up to the tip and, more importantly, it perfectly matched the aura that engulfed his body.
However, even as he considered the implications of that realization, a spark suddenly shot from the mare's horn, she let out a yelp, and the aura around her horn flickered and died.
"Wha--"
Anon only managed a surprised grunt before the side of his face thumped into the thick cushion of the couch. He was saved by his wild flailing which managed to slap the back of his office chair and twisted him slightly as he fell. Thus, rather than landing face first, his side struck the seat of the couch and his legs landed off-center from his torso, twisting his hips to the ground instead of slamming his weight down on his knees. All in all, the impact was thoroughly spread out across his body and no one part of him took the full force of the fall, so he suffered no major injuries.
That wasn't to say it didn't hurt.
"Nnnngh..."
Twilight gasped as his upper body slid off the couch and he slumped wearily to the floor.
"Oh my gosh," the mare said in a shaky voice, "I'm... Oh Anon, I'm so sorry! Are you okay?"
He leaned heavily on his elbow and struggled to keep his voice at least somewhat restrained as he said, "What the fuck just happened?"
"Um... y-you fell?"
Anon rolled his eyes.
"Yeah I noticed."
He slowly lifted himself to the couch and laid sideways against the back cushion. She looked a little confused but mostly just nervous as he glared at her.
"I mean what the fuck was holding me up there?"
She cringed and gave him a plaintive look, her ears folding flat against her head.
"I-I'm sorry, I didn't mean it! I just--you were so angry a-and I got so scared when you reached for my horn--"
"So you were holding me up?"
She nodded and nervously rubbed her foreleg with a hoof.
"Y-Yes, with my magic, but I only meant to push you away--I was just so scared you would break my horn." Her voice gained an edge of desperation, "Please, Anon, I swear I never meant to hurt you!"
Anon rubbed his forehead with one hand. She seemed genuinely concerned, but her high, nervous voice was giving him a headache.
"Alright, alright! Just shut up a moment, let me think."
She started to apologize again, but he cut her off with a sharp gesture then closed his eyes and tried to concentrate.
That strange aura had to have come from her, that much was obvious. Not only had it looked the same as the one around her horn, but he had fallen the moment she yelped and the aura vanished. She had called it magic, but surely...
Anon impatiently brushed that thought aside for the moment. First and foremost he needed to get a hold of himself. The day had already been off to a bad start with that dog that would probably still die even after his best effort, but then he'd hit this mare, rushed like mad to save her life, had those horrid visions or whatever the hell they were... then his book had had such a disappointing ending, and finally all this shit!
Anon slumped deeper into the couch and spent several minutes just focusing on his breathing. During that time, the pain of his fall slowly faded to a dull ache that told him he'd probably still hurt in the morning, and the mare's anxious panting settled into a steady rhythm much like his own.
Eventually he felt reasonably in control again and he thought back to his angry outburst. Now that he was thinking clearly, he couldn't even see any reason to be angry at her. Sure, she might have been lying about the 'other world,' but he really should have simply sought proof or further clarification. Hell, for all he knew, she might have only meant 'world' in a figurative sense, but he'd instantly assumed she was simply lying.
It was almost as if he'd been waiting for an opportunity to explode.
Anon nearly groaned aloud as he realized what must have happened: he'd simply been overwhelmed by all the stress from today and had taken it out on her like some sort of teenage jackass. Damn that book for ruining his relaxation time, he should turn it into tinder!
He took another few calming breaths, then brought his thoughts back around to the matter at hand. There was no denying the fact that something very strange was happening here. He was still skeptical of her claims of other worlds and magic of course, but he'd just have to ask her to clarify. Maybe she had some sort of proof for him or he was simply misunderstanding her entirely. In any case, he would certainly need to apologize.
When he finally opened his eyes, Twilight was slumped against the back of the sofa much like he was, but she had been watching him warily and her ears flattened as soon as their eyes met. Aware that he had likely terrified her and badly damaged her trust in him, he made no movement, kept his voice low, and chose his words carefully.
"Twilight Sparkle, I want to apologize for my behavior."
From the way she tilted her head and furrowed her brows, he guessed that wasn't what she was expecting.
"I'm sorry for abusing your trust and frightening you when you've done nothing wrong. There's no excuse for what I did." He chanced giving her a sheepish grin and added, "Honestly, it's pretty unusual for me to lose control like that, but, well... it's been a pretty unusual day."
Her eyes widened as she seemed to finally process his words.
"Wait, so..." she said in a tiny voice, "You're not mad at me?"
Anon let out an incredulous snort of laughter. "Hell no! If anything, you should be mad at me."
"B-But I--you were so furious... a-and I still don't even know what I did!"
Watching her carefully in case she flinched away from him, he slowly reached out and lightly touched her hoof with his fingertips and said, "Listen... You didn't do anything wrong. What happened was my own fault and no one else's, alright? I let my stress get the better of me and you just happened to be the scapegoat for my frustration, that's all."
With a grimace, he withdrew his hand and turned away from her, dropping his gaze regretfully and adding, "It was a damn fool thing to do and I feel like shit for doing it... especially after what you've already been through today."
Twilight seemed oddly perplexed, rubbing her mane with a hoof and looking more confused than anything else. Anon was surprised to hear her voice was thick with emotion.
"I was just so worried... I thought I'd done something wrong."
"Huh? I figured you'd be angry... hell, or maybe just scared of me."
She looked up at him suddenly, eyes shining in the warm light of his office.
"I was scared of losing you!"
Anon could only shake his head in bewilderment at that and say, "Losing me? What? I don't follow--why would you give a damn about some old stranger like me? Especially after I was such a jerk."
"Because you... y-you're..."
She trailed off and averted her gaze, taking a long, slow breath in an attempt to suppress her tears.
"Anon, look at me," she said in a low, pained voice, "I have no friends, I have no power... hay, I can't even walk, and there's little hope of rescue for at least a few days, maybe even longer." As if expecting he might snap at her, she tentatively shuffled closer and laid her hoof on his forearm before continuing, "I wasn't sure what would happen when I came here, but I did expect I would have my normal abilities at the very least. But now..."
Whether she was trying to trust again or if she was simply allowing herself to be vulnerable, she leaned forward and laid her head on his shoulder, murmuring, "I'm totally helpless right now, Anon. If I alienated you... well, I might not survive long enough to BE rescued."
He'd been expecting her to be cautious or aloof or even angry, but this sincere relief and heartfelt appreciation had thrown him for a bit of a loop. Still, after a moment's hesitation, he slowly wrapped an arm around her shoulders in a sort of half hug.
"Hey... I ain't going nowhere, alright? You're too special to just turn aside like some mangy stray dog. Honestly, you could've been the meanest scary-est beast I ever did see and I'd still have tried to keep you around."
Twilight sniffled a bit, "R-Really?"
"Really. That's partly why I felt so shitty about that little stunt I pulled earlier. I'd never have forgiven myself if you... well, I dunno, spirited yourself away or something." He tried to give her a grin and a playful little jostle to cheer her up. "So relax! You don't gotta go nowhere 'till you decide to go, alright? You'll be welcome here anytime at all, promise."
"Well... okay. Thank you, Anon. You don't know how relieved I am to hear that." She looked up at him, her eyes slightly damp and added, "I really don't know what I would do without you right now."
Anon gently tapped her snout with a finger and couldn't help but smile at the way it made her snort and wiggle her muzzle.
"But you do have me. I'm just sorry I put a wedge between us with that assholery of mine. Look, I'll admit I don't quite understand what's going on here, but I can see plain enough that you need help and I'm glad to give it."
With a bit of a groan, he got to his feet and turned toward the mare, saying, "Anywho, enough moping around. How about we get you that cast, huh?"
"But... aren't you hurt?"
He waved away her concern with a casual flip of his hand. "Ah, I'm just sore, nothing serious. Take more than a fall onto this big fluffy couch to take me down. C'mon, up you get."
Ignoring the protest of both the mare and his aching back, he knelt and began carefully removing the bandage and splint from her foreleg. "Hmm... it's looking pretty good so far. Tell me if this hur--ah, yep, sorry." There was almost no swelling around the fracture but it was still extremely sensitive to pressure. Not that he was surprised--it hadn't even been twelve hours yet.
"So. Normally I wouldn't even let you try to walk for at least a couple of days, but you're awfully light and this here's about the cleanest damn break I ever seen, so I'm gonna give you a choice. And remember, casts are long term, so whatever you choose, you'll be stuck with it for a couple of weeks, alright? I'll probably be doing the same to your hind leg, too.
He sat back and gave her his most serious expression, but her own gaze was so clearly attentive it hardly even seemed necessary. "Option A: I wrap you up in a big plaster cast all the way from hoof to shoulder. It'll be big, ugly, heavy, awkward as hell to walk around in, and by the time you heal, your whole leg will be filthy with old sweat and matted fur... but in exchange, you'll be able to walk just as soon as it sets here in a few hours. Option B: I use--"
"Option B is fine."
Anon froze mid-word, then gave her a hard stare and said, "But you ain't even heard it yet."
She shrugged nonchalantly, "Isn't it obvious? A lighter, cleaner, easier cast, but I won't be able to walk for a couple more days, right? I'd rather that... if you don't mind carrying me around that is."
He hesitated another moment, then grinned and shrugged. This little mare was quick on the draw, no doubt about that.
"Alright then, fiberglass it is. Wait here and don't move that leg."
Most of what he needed was in his office already, but he had to fetch a large bowl of water for the resin. When he returned, he instructed her on how to position her limb for him and chuckled gently when she immediately moved as he asked, commenting, "Usually you'd be unconscious for this and an assistant would be holding the limb, but having you help out is pretty nice."
Being careful not to jostle the barely-healed fracture, he slid a foam stockinette over her foreleg, then began wrapping it in cotton padding. It was strange working with the unfamiliar shape of her body, but he kept to standard procedure and gave her fetlock joint some extra padding so it wouldn't be too uncomfortable.
Next was the cast itself. He donned a pair of exam gloves and wet the roll of fiberglass to activate the resin, then carefully began wrapping her leg, immobilizing the fetlock but leaving her hoof exposed and stopping just below the knee.
Twilight had been watching raptly the entire time, and as he began layering on a second roll of fiberglass, she said, "Fascinating... this is so much more efficient than the way earth ponies do it."
"Oh? How's that?"
"Well, it's just they have to do everything with their hooves or mouth. I still don't understand how they manage some of the things they do without magic, but those hands of yours... you may as well be a unicorn!"
Anon frowned as he began to mold the cast, sliding his hands up and down the cast to press it close and evenly distribute the pressure. Twilight eyed him sheepishly when he didn't respond.
"I'm sorry... I can stop talking about magic if it bothers you."
"Oh, no, it's not that. It's just..."
He trailed off, not wanting to just come out and say he didn't believe her right to her face. Then in a small voice, she asked, "Anon... can humans do magic? Or any creature, for that matter?"
Anon bit back his initial terse reply. This little mare was too perceptive!
After a brief pause, he let out a small sigh and tried to be a bit more tactful in his approach, saying, "Alright, look... what I think of as magic is either just clever slight of hand and props that trick you, or it's make-believe fantasy stuff like wizards and sorcerers. In other words, it's all fake. You're talking like magic is real, so how about you explain what you mean when you say magic so we're on the same page?"
He figured she'd be glad to talk about it, but instead she quailed at his suggestion.
"Just... explain magic? B-But there's so much! Where would I even start? I may as well try to explain nature, or color, or... I don't know, everything! How can I explain everything?"
"Whoa, easy girl! I ain't looking to get a college degree on the subject, I just want a basic idea of what you mean by the word.
If anything, that seemed to bewilder her further. Anon tried to smile patiently as he interrupted her stammering, "Here, maybe I can use your examples to show what I mean. Nature is all the stuff outside that nobody built, right? And color... color's just paints and pigments. You see? I ain't explaining color to a blind man, I'm just explaining it to you, and you know perfectly well what color is. That make sense?"
Twilight nodded, but she didn't seem any less agitated as she responded, "I know what you want, but I..." she shook her head helplessly, "Anon, you don't understand, magic is everything to me. It's my cutie mark, my field of study, what made me an alicorn in the first place... I mean I'm a unicorn whose special talent is magic itself. Like, all magic! It's my entire livelihood and I just..."
Her voice trailed off as Anon leaned closer and gave her a reassuring smile.
"Sounds to me like there ain't nobody more qualified to explain it."
She opened her mouth, then closed it again, momentarily at a loss for words. Then her expression hardened, she let out a determined snort, and she closed her eyes in concentration.
Several minutes later, the cast had nearly finished setting when she finally looked up at him again and said conclusively, "Magic is the direct and conscious manipulation of energy."
Anon sat on the floor before her and nodded soberly as he removed his gloves. "Nicely done. Very concise." Then he grinned and threw up his hands in a defeated shrug, "Unfortunately that doesn't sound like anything I've seen, so I guess there's no magic here."
Twilight returned his grin and rolled her eyes in mock irritation, "Well that was a waste of time."
He raised his hands higher, comically exaggerating his shrug, "At least you'll know what to say next time."
"Yeah... I guess you're right. Still, if you don't know anything about magic," she rolled onto her side and thrust her injured hindleg at him, "Then you'd better get to work while I explain."
He did bend over her leg and began unwrapping the bandages, but he interrupted her before she could begin explaining, saying, "Look girl, I don't mean to be rude but unless you can actually show me some magic, I ain't gonna believe it no matter how well you explain it."
"But I already showed you magic! Remember floating on the ceiling?"
"Well yeah, 'course, but I was a bit distracted at the time. I'm just saying you're asking me to believe in something I thought was a fantasy my whole life and--" He cut himself off suddenly and shook his head with a dry chuckle. "Oh for pity's sake, listen to me. Talking about fantasy stuff like it's make-believe nonsense... when I'm talking to a goddamn unicorn!"
Twilight quietly interjected, "Um, alicorn."
He barked out a laugh, then waved a hand magnanimously, "Alright, miss alicorn, I give up. Explain away."
She giggled, "It's okay, Anon. You're not the first creature I've met that hasn't ever seen magic before, so I understand if it's hard for you to believe. I should at least be able to show you something small to prove myself."
"Okay, what do you need?"
"Well, magic gets exponentially more difficult with size, weight, and distance, so I need something small and light..." She peered around the room while Anon struggled to comprehend the ramifications of a horse that understood exponential growth, then her eyes settled on his medical bag and she exclaimed, "Aha! Could you tear off a small piece of this bandage material? That should do nicely."
He nodded, and when he placed the tuft of gauze in her outstretched hoof, she lifted it to her face and furrowed her brows in concentration. Immediately, both her horn and the fabric were engulfed in the same pink aura that had held him earlier and the cotton floated up and hovered near the tip of her horn.
For a moment, Anon could only stare at it stupidly. Then he waved his hand around it to check for strings and, finding none, poked it with his finger. When it didn't move, he prodded it harder and Twilight winced as the aura flickered slightly.
"Um, Anon? Injured horn, remember?"
"Oh... sorry, I didn't realize."
He poked it again and she giggled, then the aura suddenly reached out toward his finger with an amoebic tendril.
"W-Wha--"
He reflexively yanked his hand back, but, as if she'd been expecting that very reaction, Twilight casually hooked his wrist with her fetlock, smiling patiently.
"It's okay, Anon. It's just me."
Slowly, she drew his hand close again, and he felt a slight tingle as the magic surrounded the tip of his finger. The sensation grew to a subtle pressure as the aura shifted and tried to lift his finger. Curious, he tried to resist the movement, but the aura simply relaxed and Twilight rolled her eyes with a grin.
"I'm not giving myself a headache just to prove a point, Anon. I'm lucky I can do even this much after sparking out a moment ago."
"But what is it?"
"Telekinesis. It's the most basic spell and every unicorn can cast it to some degree."
Anon gently tugged his finger free from the glow and stared at her. "No, I mean... what is it? What's it made of, how does it work, how can you control it... I just don't understand."
She gave him a wry smile, "I thought you didn't want to get a college degree on the subject?"
"But I... y-you..."
"Sure I could spend the next few weeks explaining harmonic thoughts, fundamental elements, and the various essences of energy," she giggled lightly, "but unless you plan on growing a horn in the near future, there isn't much point."
Anon simply stared at her until she laughed again and gestured to her hindleg, saying, "If you please, Doctor? Look, I promise I'll show you more magic as my horn heals. Deal?"
"Uh... more magic?"
"Of course! I did say that was the most basic of spells, and not even a very good showing of it. Wait until my horn heals, then I'll really show you the good stuff."
Even as willing as he had been moments earlier, Anon was having real trouble believing what he had just seen. Still, after he lightly shook himself as if to settle his thoughts, he bent over her hindleg and got to work on her cast.