Twilight kept quiet as Anon molded the cast around her hindleg, guessing from his expression that he needed a moment to process what had just happened. Actually, she was mostly just trying not to giggle at his reaction. She always did enjoy the first time a creature gets to see magic, and although she regretted she couldn't give him a proper demonstration in her crippled state, she was eagerly looking forward to his face the first time he saw her teleport.
Of course, she was also looking forward to not feeling so defenseless. He'd frightened her with that angry outburst, and although his apology had seemed heartfelt, she still felt a little wary. He'd seemed genuinely upset with himself for what happened, so she was willing to give him a second chance, but she'd definitely have to be more careful around him until she was in better condition.
She was pulled from her thoughts as Anon sat back with an air of satisfaction and let out a little sigh, saying, "Alrighty, all done."
"Thank you, Anon."
"Ah, just doing my job," he said modestly as he removed the odd hand-shoes he wore and tossed them into a bin near his desk. "Now you'll want to spend most of the next twenty-four hours with those casts raised up on pillows to avoid swelling. Feeling itchy or sore under the cast is okay, but tell me right away if you feel a persistent burning sensation or if your hooves start going numb."
"Um... is that likely?"
"Oh no, not at all," he said with a dismissive wave of one hand, "Especially not with such clean and simple fractures. It's just in case, y'know? Now your wing on the other hand... that's another story."
His tone made her ears flop down with concern, "Is it that bad? I will be able to fly again, right?"
"Uh, well..." her breath caught at his uncertain tone but he quickly continued, "I mean, probably? It's just I ain't exactly an expert on winged equines, y'know?"
"Oh... Still, I'd like to know: just how bad is it, Doctor?"
"Not too bad, really. My best guess is you should be back to yourself within a month."
Twilight shook her head stubbornly as he finished putting away his materials and sat beside her on the couch.
"I'm not looking for reassurance, Anon, I want to understand my injuries. Please."
He stared at her for a long moment, then slowly nodded. "I suppose you do have the right to ask. Well, your wing was dislocated and had a moderately severe compound fracture in the largest bone, the first from your barrel. While you were unconscious, I surgically realigned the pieces and reinforced the fracture with lightweight titanium rods. It'll take longer to heal but it's a lot more likely to support your weight once it does heal."
He gestured at her other injuries as he continued, "You already know about the fractured legs and horn of course, but that bandaged hoof had a nasty gash through the frog as well. I used stronger suture than normal so it'll be pretty sore once the pain meds wear off, but it should be able to take your weight if you're careful."
There was a slight pause as he stroked his chin in thought, then shrugged. "I think that's everything. None of the scrapes along your side were anything serious and I haven't noticed any symptoms of internal injuries aside from your concussion, and I guess that wasn't as severe as I thought based on the way you're talking and acting now."
Twilight lowered her gaze as she took in the information. She'd learned the basics of earth pony medicine more out of curiosity than any real need, but it meant she understood most of what he was saying--though the "titanium rods" he mentioned were unfamiliar.
She was a bit surprised when Anon laid a comforting hand on her fetlock and she looked up to see him smiling gently down at her.
"Hey, it could have been a lot worse, y'know. Getting hit by a car like that could've easily killed you."
Figuring he must have thought she looked upset, she gave him a reassuring smile and said, "Oh, I'm okay, don't worry! I'll always be okay now so long as my horn is whole." She faltered as she tried to imagine what kind of beast could have injured her so severely in a single blow. "All the same, I think I'll stay inside until I have my magic back... i-if you don't mind, of course. I don't think I'd stand a chance if I was attacked by another one of those 'car' beasts."
"Attacked?" Anon looked briefly confused, then let out an awkward half-chuckle and said, "A car ain't a wild beast, Twilight. It's just a big hunk of metal that rolled into you at about... oh, I dunno, forty or fifty miles an hour? I was going sixty before I slammed on the brakes." He grimaced suddenly and averted his gaze, "And for what it's worth, I'm sorry. I tried to swerve out of the way, I really did, but I only had like a second to react before I ran into you."
It took her a moment to register what he was saying, then she couldn't help but fold her ears down and cringe away.
"Wait... You did this to me?"
Anon held up his hands, looking taken aback.
"Whoa, hey, it was an accident! I was just driving home, minding my own business, then you appeared in the middle of the road in front of me! Just in the wrong place at the wrong time, that's all."
Twilight forced herself to stay calm and think about this rationally. If he had attacked her on purpose and meant to hurt her, he wouldn't have gone to all the trouble of healing her... right?
After one more brief pause, she let out a little sigh and looked sheepishly up at him, "Well I guess I can't blame you for that. I am the one who popped in front of you after all."
He visibly relaxed and let out a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness. Dunno what I'd do if you blamed or resented me for all this.
She let out a nervous giggle, "To tell the truth, I don't know what I'd do about it either."
Anon shot her a sour look and muttered, "I guess you'd drop me from the ceiling, huh?"
"Oh! B-But I... that was--"
He grinned suddenly and cut her off with a wave of a hand, "Relax I'm only teasing," Then he sobered again and averted his gaze. "Seriously though, I didn't mean to frighten you... didn't think about how big and scary I must seem to you."
At that she couldn't help but be reminded of how he'd angrily reached out at her and the memory made her want to turn tail and run away, but she stopped herself. She had already decided to give him a second chance, so why was she allowing this uncomfortable wall to build up between them? If she was going to be stuck with this strange creature, she certainly didn't want them both stepping on eggshells around each other. Wasn't she the Princess of Friendship? If anypony could befriend this human, it was her!
She took a short breath to collect herself, then slid across the couch to sit directly beside him and met his surprised look with a friendly smile, "Hey, cheer up, okay? I already forgave you, so stop moping!"
He furrowed his brows as if unsure he was hearing her correctly, so she tried again in a more plaintive voice, "I mean it, Anon. Look, unless I'm not nearly as good a judge of character as I think I am, you're just a friendly doctor who's under a little too much stress right now. The last thing you need is some weird pony acting grumpy and suspicious when you're just trying to help, right?"
If anything, he seemed more confused than ever. "I... guess. But why the sudden change of heart?"
She shrugged casually and twisted around a bit to face him better. "It's not that sudden, really. I've been doing a lot of thinking and it just doesn't make sense any other way. I'm completely helpless right now and you're just being nice and trying to help when you could have taken advantage of my weakness. If that doesn't make you a good person, I don't know what does."
That seemed to surprise him, but instead of seeming pleased, he rubbed the back of his head and hesitantly said, "Well... I mean that's nice of you and all, but... I did take those samples while you were unconscious."
Twilight had actually forgotten about that, but after a brief moment's thought, she dismissed it with a wave of her hoof. "If you were going to sell them or something it'd be different, but they were obviously medical samples intended for scientific analysis, so I don't think I'll fault you for that. Honestly, I'd probably do the same thing to you, given the opportunity. I am a scientist, after all."
"You... You're a scientist? Hor--uh, ponies have scientists?"
"Of course we do! Obviously magic is my preferred field of study, but I've learned at least the basics of almost every branch of science out there." She folded her ears back with a sheepish smile and added, "I tend to get a little obsessed whenever I find a new subject until Spike or Starlight wrenches me back to what I'm supposed to be working on."
"I see..." He trailed off and looked surprisingly thoughtful.
"Why? Is there something wrong with that?"
He glanced up sharply, "What? No no, not at all! It's just... surprising, that's all. You're not at all what I expected."
"Uh, what did you expect, then? Aren't I entirely unfamiliar to you?"
"Well... I dunno, I guess I figured you'd just be a horse that could talk. Well, that or the mystical unicorns from our legends."
Twilight sat bolt upright at that. "Wait what? You have your own legends of unicorns? That... that's incredible! Oh my gosh, can you tell me any of those legends? Are there any historical documents I can see? Ooh, what about any artwork or maybe references to first hand--"
"Whoa, easy!" He raised his hands defensively, chuckling gently, "Here, I'll pull the Wikipedia page or something, alright?"
Before she could ask what he meant, he moved to the odd chair at his desk and reached down to his side. Suddenly a black rectangle she'd thought was merely part of the wall lit up with an image of rolling hills of grass and a clear blue sky. Twilight gasped and leaned as close as she could without falling from the sofa. "Ooh, what is that? It's so detailed... and I never knew scrying pools could be mounted vertically!"
"Uh..." Anon turned back to the image before looking at her again, "You mean my desktop wallpaper?"
"Desktop... wallpaper?"
She glanced at his desk and the wall of the room, then jumped when he suddenly burst out laughing.
"S-Sorry! You're just so human-like, then you said you're a scientist and I... oh lord."
Anon looked down and shook his head, then continued once he composed himself.
"Alright well, if you don't know about computers then... oh hell, where do I even start?"
He stared as if he actually wanted her to answer, but just as she was about to speak he laid his head in one hand and began to laugh weakly again.
"Hooey! Now I know how you felt when I asked you to explain magic!"
"So... are these 'com-pewters' very complicated, then?"
"Oh they aren't even the half of it. Do you even know what electricity is?" At her blank expression he grinned and waved a hand at her, "Yeah, see? Exactly."
Twilight flattened her ears, unsure if she was being mocked and starting to get a little annoyed.
"Yeah well, you didn't even know what telekinesis was and even unicorn foals can do that!"
"Peace, Twilight," Anon said as he held up his hands in a placating gesture, "It's just that I'm only now realizing just how much I have to explain."
"And I've spent my whole LIFE studying magic and that--y-you... ugh!"
She turned away sharply, forcing herself to take a deep breath before she said something she would regret. Second chance or no, she definitely didn't want to make him angry again. Anon surprised her, however, by suddenly shifting to a soft and apologetic tone with not a trace of mirth.
"Hey now, I didn't mean to upset you, really. I'm sure magic is just as complicated, maybe even more so, and if I was in your home--I think you called it Equestria? Well, I'm sure I'd be stupider than a foal there."
"More stupid..." she corrected absent-mindedly before realizing it might annoy him, but Anon merely smiled.
"Yep, more stupid than a foal. But look, if I went to Equestria knowing fuck-all about magic like I do now, and tried wandering around without your help, how quickly do you think I'd run into trouble?"
Twilight's immediate thought was of course the deadly Everfree Forest, but as she thought about it, she realized having absolutely no understanding of magic turned all sorts of mundane objects and creatures into serious threats. Just walking about Ponyville could be hazardous... buck that, even standing and doing nothing in the middle of somepony's house could get him in trouble!
"Well... okay, point taken. Magic is just a curiosity here, but where I'm from it's a crucial piece of almost everything we do. Are you saying these 'com-pewters' are just as important?"
"Computer," he corrected gently, "As in 'computations,' and... no. Computers are important, yes, but they're powered by electricity, and it's electricity that's unintuitive and potentially dangerous if you don't know anything about it."
She nodded and glanced warily around the room as if even now she might be at risk, "Alright, what do I need to know?"
Anon opened his mouth to speak, then shut it again, looking suddenly uncertain.
"What's wrong?"
"Well... it's just a veterinarian isn't exactly the best person to explain electricity, that's all. Here, just... just hold your questions for a moment, okay? I'm gonna pull up something to help me explain."
Twilight nodded and watched as he turned and shuffled with some things on his desk. Suddenly the brilliant image before him turned white and he made some odd clacking noises with his hands. She tried to peer around to see what was making the noise, but he stopped before she could get a good look.
"Alright, here: electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of... of matter that has a property of electric... oh for fuck's sake, Wikipedia, this isn't helpful at all! Maybe if I just google what is electricity..."
Twilight was nearly bursting with questions, but she managed to hold her tongue while Anon continued to mutter under his breath, the odd rectangle flashing into colors and occasionally panning across some strange image. Finally, Anon made a noise of disgust and brought the image of grassy hills back up with a loud slap on his desk.
"Fuck it. Everything I can find is way more technical stuff than you need for now. Even the most basic stuff keeps going on about atoms and fundamental forces and shit. Yes, yes," he interrupted as she opened her muzzle, "I know you're a scientist, but you can learn the technical stuff later. For now I just want you to know how to not die, alright?"
Twilight simply nodded and he continued briskly, "Alright. Electricity is a kind of power created far away and brought here through metal strings that we call wires when they're small and cables when they're big and thick. It always wants to flow into the ground and it will happily flow through YOU to get there."
He suddenly stood and pulled aside the curtains over his window, pointing with a finger.
"See those wood poles with black lines connecting them at the top? Those lines are cables carrying very strong electricity, what we call high voltage electricity. Touching the cables will probably kill you but the poles themselves are safe, they just hold the cables up out of reach."
Replacing the curtain, he then knelt over by the wall, never stopping in his explanation.
"Just outside my house, the high voltage gets transformed into weaker, safer electricity called low voltage and is sent to these power outlets. Don't ever poke something into these little slits or you can get shocked--that's what we call when electricity flows through you and hurts you. Low voltage usually won't kill you but it'll still hurt."
His hand wrapped around a black cord leading out of the outlet.
"This wire goes to that lamp over there which uses electricity to make light. If I pull out the wire," and the room abruptly dimmed so the only light came from the edges of the curtain, "Now the lamp has no electricity and can't make light. I plug it back in and the light comes back."
Twilight held up a hoof to stop him. "Okay okay, wait. So all I really need to know is don't touch the big cables outside or poke the little outlets inside?"
Anon hesitated, still kneeling by the wall, then grinned sheepishly and shrugged.
"Yeah, guess so. I mean, there's a hell of a lot more to understand if you want to actually do anything with electricity, but if you never bother with it, then yeah... just don't touch electric stuff."
She gave him a little smile in return and said, "Well maybe we should just leave it at that for now."
"Really?" He looked surprised and sat back in his chair, "I figured you'd be dying to know all about it."
"Oh I am, don't get me wrong! It's just, um... w-well..." She averted her gaze and shuffled her hooves a bit, "Where can I... you know, relieve myself?"
"Oh! Uh..." Anon hesitated, then stood, "Here, I'll take you outside."
"What? Outside!?"
Twilight couldn't keep the dismay from her voice and Anon froze, a confused look on his face.
"Uh... yeah?"
She tried to control herself but the mere thought of doing her business outside like some filthy animal was simply too much to bear.
"You're joking right? All this crazy-looking advanced civilization and you're telling me you don't have toilets?"
For a moment, Anon simply stared at her, dumbfounded. Then he plopped back down in his chair and barked out an incredulous laugh.
"Hell, but you're full of surprises! Yeah, yeah, 'course I got a bathroom, just... well, I figured you'd be used to the outdoors."
She gave him a pointed stare. "I am not an animal, Anon."
"Oh, I'm figuring that out." He rubbed the back of his neck, then shrugged helplessly, "Look, no offense, but you do look an awful lot like a horse, and that is an animal."
Twilight's ears folded back as she tried not to sound too snippy, saying, "Well, I'm not a horse, alright? I'm a PONY and I live in a castle with multiple bedrooms, a kitchen, and even it's own entire library, nevermind basic plumbing."
Anon raised his eyebrows at the mention of the library, then his expression turned somber and he lowered his gaze.
"Well, Twilight... I think I owe you an apology," then he gave her a wry grin and added, "Another apology, that is. See, I've been thinking you were just some sort of strange talking horse, but if you've got buildings, libraries, scientists... Hell the fact that you know what a toilet is speaks volumes by itself." He raised his hands in a defeated gesture and continued, "I've been waiting for some concrete proof of this 'Equestria,' but I can't deny it any longer. You're obviously intelligent, civilized, and come from some sort of modern society, so... well, if I've been condescending or offended you, I'm truly sorry."
Twilight squirmed in her seat and tried to smile but it came out more like a grimace. "I'm glad you understand, and I appreciate that you can so openly admit to a mistake, but can you please bring me to the toilet now?"
His startled expression as he hopped to his feet almost made Twilight giggle.
"Oh, right! Here, up you get. You could probably walk if you're real careful, but this'll be faster."
He scooped her up and whisked her rapidly down the hallway and into the bathroom, then set her down on the tiled floor and took an awkward step back, gesturing at an odd white chair in the corner of the room.
"That's the toilet there. I'm guessing it ain't what ponies are used to but--"
"Yeah, I'll figure it out, thanks," Twilight interrupted with a dismissive wave of a hoof.
A few minutes later, Twilight's hooves fumbled with the round doorknob until Anon cracked the door open and asked if she was done.
"Yes. Actually it wasn't too different from what we have in Equestria. It's hard to move around in these casts, though."
As if to prove her point, she waddled awkwardly into the hallway and smiled sheepishly up at him.
"So, um... what now?"
"Don't rightly know. You hungry or sleepy?" When she shook her head, he turned to face down the hall and said, "Well, I guess we could watch some TV. That oughta keep you occupied a good long while."
Rather than ask what he meant, Twilight figured she'd find out in a moment and simply leaned into his arms as he knelt to pick her up.
At the end of the hallway, Twilight couldn't help but gawk as they entered a large room with a high, vaulted ceiling. Everything was brightly lit by a soft glow cast from the huge frosted-glass window dominating one wall, and though there was not much furniture, it was carefully arranged to keep any one spot from seeming too barren.
She was distracted by Anon's quiet chuckle and turned to see him watching her reaction, "You like it, then?"
"O-Oh yes, it's very nice! This architecture is unlike anything I've ever seen."
"Heh, thanks. It's called 'modern' design but I like to think of it as just being clean and open more than anything else. Anyway, shuffle over to the couch and I'll find something for us to watch."
Twilight slid from his arms and was trying to get comfortable when she suddenly heard another voice and snapped her head up to the source. On the far wall was another one of those strange scrying rectangles like Anon had used in his office, showing a pile of thin brown objects on a table. Without taking her eyes from the scene, she leaned closer to Anon to ask what she was looking at when the image abruptly shifted to show the same pile from a different angle, causing her to gasp.
"What? B-But... How!?" Astonished, she turned to Anon, who was looking quite amused, "You can't change where you're scrying in the middle of a spell! You just can't!"
Anon's smile faltered and he furrowed his brow in confusion, "Uh... not what I expected, but okay."
He began to explain how a TV was an electronic display that showed recorded videos of things that had already happened, but Twilight was soon distracted as the scene shifted to some complicated mechanism handling tall columns of brown material. The other voice began to explain what was happening and, though she didn't understand many of the words, Twilight eventually realized she was watching an incredibly complex manufacturing process which turned wood and something called "graph-fight" into a writing implement that looked far more convenient than the ink and quill she was used to.
As soon as the process finished, the TV abruptly went silent and Twilight turned wide eyes on the human beside her.
"What was THAT?"
"That," Anon said with a small smile, "was 'How It's Made,' a show that explains how various seemingly simple things are made in large enough quantities to supply all the people that use them."
"And that was how 'pen-sills' are made? What is 'graph-fight'? What was moving all that stuff? How is it so precise? And what... ohmygosh." Twilight cut off abruptly and stared down at the floor, whispering very faintly, "I've never had so many questions in my life..."
Anon laid a hand on her forehoof and she slowly turned back to him, eyes still very wide.
"Trust me, I know how you feel," he said, squeezing her hoof reassuringly, "But try not to get bogged down in the details. There's more knowledge out there than you or I could learn in a hundred lifetimes." He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly before continuing, "I could spend the rest of the evening trying to explain all your questions in detail, or I can simply say that graphite is a mineral that's soft enough to leave a mark if you rub it on paper, most of the moving things you saw were powered by electricity or hydraulics, and they're so precise because they were very, very carefully designed and manufactured." He raised his hands in another shrug, "That's all you really need to know."
Twilight was silent for a moment, then quietly asked, "Can I watch another?"
Anon grinned and gave her hoof a pat, then lifted a small device in his other hand. The TV shifted to a sort of chart or table filled with exotic writing and Anon made a pleased exclamation, "Ooh, you lucked out! This channel's showing nothing but 'How It's Made' for the next several hours. Must be a marathon."
With a squee of delight, Twilight settled herself more comfortably, but she frowned when the TV switched back to some strange image of a large human gesturing emphatically as more writing slid around the TV and flashed brightly.
"What is this?"
Anon waved a hand dismissively, "Ignore this bit, it's just a commercial."
"Um... Okay, I guess."
He let out a little sigh and added, "It's complicated to explain but basically there's a short burst of useless nonsense every few minutes when you're watching a TV show. Here, look:"
Abruptly the TV blared out some obnoxious music with a voice shouting, "FOR THE ALL NEW DODGE RAM TWENTY-FIVE HUNDRED WITH EXTENDED CAB AND--"
It cut off just as suddenly and Twilight turned back to Anon, her ears folded flat, "And some humans watch this?"
"Not really," Anon said with a shrug, "Pretty much everyone just tunes it out or mutes it like I have."
"Then why--"
"Like I said, it's complicated to explain. Not really worth the effort either, so really, just ignore it. Look, that was the last commercial and How It's Made is back now."
Twilight needed no more encouragement than that and eagerly turned her attention back to the TV as it began to speak again.
"No bathroom's complete without one, and any parent will tell you that no teenager can survive without one. Mirror, mirror, on the wall, how do they make you after all?"
Anon rolled his eyes, "Forgot about their silly intros..."
* * *
Over the next few hours, between the show itself and the infinite questions she tried to cram into each commercial break, Twilight Sparkle learned more about the human world than she'd have ever guessed there was to learn. More than anything else, she was astounded by the sheer number of humans there were. She was still raving about it as Anon carried her into the kitchen.
"I mean, Manehatten has almost as many ponies as all the rest of Equestria combined, and yet even a SMALL human city has more people than that!
Anon grinned wearily at her, "Yep, that's why all those factories make so many of everything."
"But how do you send it everywhere? You said I'd have to gallop for a long time to get to the closest city, but there must be hundreds or even thousands of such cities!"
"Remind me tomorrow, I'll find a video that explains shipping containers. It's even more bonkers than you'd think."
"What, you can't summarize it like all the other things you explained so concisely?"
"Uh, I guess I can try. Here..."
He set her down in one of the tall dining chairs, then Twilight held her tongue so he could concentrate as he turned away and grabbed two little brown packets out of his pantry.
"Okay, imagine there's a really popular type of cart that's really good at holding one specific kind of box, so everyone stores stuff in boxes just like that so the carts that everyone else uses can move them around really easily, everyone sharing the same system instead of trying to come up with a new system of their own."
As he spoke, he emptied the sweet-smelling packets into a bowl and poured some milk into it, then stuck the bowl into a strange cabinet that had a little built-in window, which began to glow and hum softly.
"All these carts gather to unload onto a boat specifically designed to hold a big stack of this one particular kind of box and nothing else. That way you can move a whole bunch of boxes across the sea no matter what's inside them. With me so far?"
Twilight nodded, her mouth beginning to water at the aroma coming from the humming cabinet.
Anon paused a moment and pulled out what she had learned was some sort of pocket computer which he used to double check facts as he explained things. He'd tried to show her how it worked but gave up when she spent an entire commercial break simply trying to understand how thin it was. After a moment, Anon looked up again and his grin was a bit concerning.
"Now imagine each box is as big as this entire kitchen."
She blinked a couple of times as she tried to picture even one box that large, nevermind a stack of them.
"Now imagine a ship that can carry about twenty thousand of those boxes."
Her muzzle scrunched with effort as she tried to imagine how insanely huge such a boat must be.
"Now imagine there are about fifty thousand of those ships world-wide."
Twilight finally slumped against the table, her ears drooping in stunned disbelief, "No way! Where would you even keep them!?"
With a smirk, Anon held up the little device which showed a picture of a large docking port covered with what must have been thousands of long-rectangular colored boxes and half a dozen boats stacked high with even more of the boxes.
"Okay, but this doesn't really prove...."
She trailed off as Anon manipulated the image to zoom in on a minuscule black speck beside one of the boxes, and Twilight realized the speck was actually a human.
"Oh Tartarus..."
A loud beep made Twilight jump so badly she nearly fell out of her chair, smacking her muzzle with her cast in her haste to cover her dirty mouth, "Sorry-Princess-I-won't-do-it-again-I-didn't-mean-it-I-swear-I'm-not--"
Anon howled with laughter, clutching his belly as he leaned heavily on the table.
"H-Hey, it's not funny! Anoooon!"
She batted as his shoulder with a hoof in a pathetic attempt to make him stop. He merely waved her hoof away and shuffled over to the strange cabinet, wiping away tears of laughter. Twilight tried to cross her hooves and pout as he removed the steaming bowl, but the smell nearly had her drooling as he set it down in front of her.
She immediately bent to lap some of it up when Anon's hand wrapped around her muzzle and her head jerked back with instinctual panic, "Hey! Don't--"
"I know, sorry!" He quickly stepped away and raised his hands defensively, "But I had to stop you 'cause that's really really hot. Like, instantly burn-the-hell-out-of-your-mouth kind of hot."
She frowned down at the bowl and swallowed a build-up of saliva. "But it smells so good..."
"Yeah, I know. Here, maybe this will help."
He grabbed another brown packet, dumped it into a bowl, and gave it to her dry. In this form she was able to recognize it as oats and happily munched away, commenting on how unusually sweet it was. By the time she finished that, the first bowl had cooled down enough for her to tentatively lap some up and her eyes widened at the wondrous flavor.
"Anon, this is amazing! It's like Granny Smith boiled them in cider or something!"
"Heh, glad you like it."
Twilight saw all he was eating was a banana and a bagel, but when she commented on it, he only shrugged.
"I had a big lunch while you were sleeping, I'll be fine."
"Oh... well, alright." He gave her a questioning look and she bobbed her head uncertainly, adding, "Just making sure you're eating alright. Didn't want to steal your dinner, that's all."
That earned her a warm smile and he reached out to stroke the soft fur at the top of her neck.
"It's nice of you to worry, but I'm alright, honest. There's plenty of food here, I'm just not very hungry."
Twilight was only half listening as she closed her eyes and leaned into his hand. Anon automatically responded as if she were a pet, scratching more firmly at her mane and neck. Twilight shivered as she let out a little moan of delight, then his hand abruptly pulled away and she had to catch herself on the table to avoid falling over.
"Hey... why'd you stop?" She turned to him with a hopeful smile, then her expression turned more serious when she noticed how uncomfortable he looked, "Anon? What's wrong?"
He shuffled awkwardly in his chair and refused to meet her eye, "I... I was treating you like an animal again. Sorry."
Twilight wasn't sure what to say to that and there was a moment of uncomfortable silence, then in a very quiet voice she asked, "Can you do it again?"
Anon looked slowly up at her and she smiled shyly.
"I, um... it felt really nice, that's all."
She turned away so he was looking at her mane and waited.
And waited.
Then just as she was starting to think he'd simply ignore her, she felt his fingers lightly brush her neck. The anticipation immediately made her shudder and he drew his hand back again, but she leaned toward him so eagerly that she began to fall sideways. Her startled yelp was cut short as he caught her by the neck and shoulder. There was a brief moment of hesitation, then Twilight began twisting her head around to scrub her own neck against his palm. He took the hint and began rubbing with an open hand, then dug in with his fingers when she pressed more firmly against him.
As a veterinarian, Anon was no stranger to giving scritches, but not even a professionally groomed and luxuriously pampered long-haired kitty compared to a unicorn's velvety fluff. He'd been too distracted to notice when he had carried her around, but now he could see that her fur was much thicker and longer than he'd thought, and he couldn't resist tracing her fingers over her marvelously soft coat, through the delicate hairs of her mane, and around the downy fur of her cheek and the ear that kept twitching and flicking with the slightest touch.
Meanwhile, Twilight had quickly determined that human fingers were the greatest thing in all of Equestria--or rather, in earth. In all EVERYwhere. She was practically purring with pleasure as she squirmed against Anon's supportive arm, eyes half-lidded in sheer bliss at the utter sense of comfort and relaxation that flowed out from his touch. He seemed to have an instinctive sense for just the right amount of pressure to dig through her fur and soften the tense muscles underneath without ever hurting her, even around her sensitive ear. Oh Celestia, that ear...
It was a long time before either of them thought to stop, but eventually Anon's arm began to tire of supporting her. He gently pushed her upright again and they both sat there in awkward silence, staring anywhere but at each other. Anon eventually broke the spell.
"So," he said.
"Yeah..."
"That was..."
"Weird?"
"Not bad weird."
"N-No, not at all," she agreed.
"Felt... nice."
"Really nice."
"Yeah." he agreed.
They both fell silent again. Twilight snuck a sidelong glance at Anon and caught him watching her out of the corner of his eye. They both immediately looked away and pretended not to notice.
Twilight lifted a fetlock to her muzzle to suppress a giggle. A slow grin spread over Anon's face which quickly turned into a soft chuckle. The tension abruptly evaporated from the room and they both burst out laughing.
"Alright, alright," Anon said with a grin and a shake of his head, "Come on, let's find you someplace to sleep."
"But--"
"I know, you probably don't feel sleepy, but trust me, your body needs the rest."
"Oh... okay."
Twilight pouted slightly, but allowed herself to be picked up and carried to the guest bedroom. It was still a mess as he'd only spent a few minutes cleaning the room while she'd slept that morning, but at least the sheets were clean and tidy. She looked about at the dusty boxes around her and flicked a tail disdainfully.
"I'd rather steal your bed again..."
"Yeah, I'm sorry. It's just for tonight, I'll clean this place up proper tomorrow. You might be here a while after all, right? C'mon, up you get."
He helped her into the unusually tall bed and, since he was already there, helped her slide under the covers and pulled them up to her neck. Finally, he stepped back and rubbed the back of his head awkwardly.
"Uh... you good?"
"Yeah. Um, thanks."
"Sure."
He took another step back.
"Well..."
Twilight giggled and flicked a hoof at him.
"Good night, Anon."
"Yeah," he said, turning off the light, "Good night, Twilight."