//------------------------------//
// CH23: Some Urgent News 
// Story: A Dubious Welcome 
// by Maonyman 
//------------------------------//

Twilight listened patiently to his recital, noting how he left out his night terrors and the... situation this morning. By the end of it, Sally had backed slowly into the hall and sat in a chair at a station opposite his office door.
"Show me more. Um, please."
"More what?"
"More magic. Twilight, I think it was? Please show me more magic."
Twilight had been waiting for exactly such an opportunity and looked eagerly over at Anon.
"Okay, remember I said I was gonna show you better spells than simple telekinesis? Well hold onto your tail because I'm going to try some real magic now."
Anon looked a bit uncertain, but he nodded and said, "Okay, I trust you."
That made her smile, then she said, "First, you remember I said telekinesis gets exponentially more difficult with size and distance?"
Anon glanced over at sally and chuckled, "Oh I remember. Yes, Sally, she understands exponential growth. That and a whole lot more. Honestly I think this little mare is even smarter than us."
Twilight's ears folded down in embarrassment and she tried to suppress a blush as she continued, "Well... thank you. But, um, watch this!"
She concentrated on the second chair in the little alcove where Sally sat and floated it up slowly so as not to startle the woman, then sent it flying down the hall, halting near the opposite wall, then flying back and setting down right where she'd picked it up. Sally stared wide-eyed at the chair and Anon let out a low whistle. She smirked at him.
"Next, a transmorphing spell, which is what you accidentally saw this morning, Anon."
She focused on the energy and harmony she felt in the chair, then on the energy and harmony she wanted, then finally on the connection from one to the other and felt the magic flow. Abruptly, the chair shrank into a tea kettle.
Anon and Sally were both equally amazed at that, and Twilight couldn't help but giggle at their dumbfounded expressions as she reversed the spell, morphing the kettle back into the original chair.
"Now for the good stuff: here's a come-to-life spell."
Focusing intensely, she imbued the chair with some of her own magic, taking care to induce only the harmonic threads she wanted it to have so it would behave properly. That was the primary danger of this spell, as they really did act as if they had free will, not simply as puppets, so a poorly cast spell could make for a very dangerous object. She nailed it though, of course, having practiced extensively since she was young, and the chair hopped forward without the glow of her horn.
Anon jumped up from his seat and Sally suppressed a yelp, gathering up her legs as if a mouse had scurried beneath her. Twilight burst out laughing.
"It's okay! It obeys me and I can stop it at any time. Come here and greet Anon, chair."
It obediently waddled over, its metal legs bending in ways that were normally impossible to give it the ability to move around, stopped directly in front of Anon, and gave him a shallow but slow and courteous bow.
"And now Sally..."
It turned around an approached Sally who eyed it with obvious trepidation, but it kept its distance and gave her a little curtsy--or at least, as close to a curtsy as it was capable of giving. Then Twilight waved a hoof in dismissal and it returned to where it started so Twilight could nullify the spell.
"And finally... Anon, I've been looking forward to showing you this spell since the day I arrived."
She was taking a gamble and desperately hoped her horn would hold up, but if it worked, the looks on their faces would be well worth it. Twilight took a steadying breath, closed her eyes, and focused her power. She felt the harmonic frequencies build up around her body and tethered them to the spot she wanted to travel to, then let the magic flow.
With a small pop, she teleported to the floor directly in front of her chair.
This time Sally did shriek and Anon abruptly collapsed back into his seat, staring at her with pure awe. Her horn had barely even tickled, so she decided to try it one more time. She turned to Anon with a huge grin.
"Want to try it?"	
His eyes widened even further as his breath caught in his throat. A moment passed, then he puffed out his cheeks before nodding once.
"Okay. Just don't move too much. A little is okay, but more movement makes it more difficult and I don't want to strain my horn.
Of course he immediately froze solid and tried not to so much as twitch an eyelid, just like everypony did the first time they heard that. Twilight giggled and focused her magic, this time directing it toward Anon's body and, tethering it to the intended destination, she cast the spell.
Anon disappeared with a faint pop and reappeared about a second later sitting in the chair she had just teleported out of. She heard Sally whimper quietly and Anon, breathing heavily now, looked around wildly before his eyes settled on her again.
"What... wh-what did I just see?"
"Ether!" Twilight exclaimed happily, "When you teleport, you travel through the ether. It looks strange, I know, but it's harmless. I thought about warning you, but there's really no way to describe it."
He nodded and said, "It was like... like I could see nothing. Not like I couldn't see, but that I was actually seeing the physical manifestation of nothing."	
Twilight tapped her muzzle with a hoof, "That's... actually a really good analogy! I'll have to remember it when I get back home. Actually--" And she quickly jotted it down in her notebook.	
"My word, she can even write?" 
It seemed Sally had finally found her voice again and Anon chuckled at her incredulous tone.
"Yep, and she learned how to do it in a single day."
Sally shook her head in pure wonder.
"I think I need to go and process this. Alone."
He nodded, "I understand. It was quite a shock for me too. Take all the time you need, we'll be here."
She walked somewhat unsteadily down the hall and around the corner. Twilight turned excitedly to Anon.
"So? What do you think? Pretty neat, huh!"
"No girl, it's not neat," he muttered quietly. Her face fell and his immediately split into a wide grin. "This is so far beyond neat I don't even have the words for it!"
"O-Oh! So you did like it?"
"Twilight, this is incredible. You just proved matter transmission is actually possible. I have to understand it. I have to."
She shuffled uneasily, "Um, Anon, you can't do magic. You don't have a horn so there's no way to harness it."
"Then how do I get one?"
Twilight's unease grew, "You, um... can't? Not as far as I know, at least. There's never been any record of a creature born without magic that gained the ability later in life."
"Then I'll be the first," he said with fire in his eyes. His fervor was making her feel strange. It was a bit scary, but a bit exciting, too.
"I... I don't even know where we would begin."	
Anon gave her a smile like she'd never seen before, endearing and kind and hopeful and caring all rolled into one.
"...But I would be willing to try. It would be a truly monumental discovery."
"Thank you, Twi. That's all I ask is we try."
"Uh... Doc?" Sally's nervous voice echoed up the hallway," Y'all might wanna see this!"
Something in her tone said this was serious, so Twilight immediately hopped up into his arms and they rushed down the hall to find Sally glued to the television screen. Anon slowly approached and turned to face the screen. Twilight gasped.
There on the screen was Starlight Glimmer, enveloped by a powerful shield bubble and floating above a large city, a tall square clock tower below her, shouting out with a magically amplified voice so that everyone far below her could hear.
"I am seeking another of my kind! I know they have sustained serious injuries, so I refuse to trust any of you. I can and will remain here through the night. You will bring them to me before high noon tomorrow, or I will unleash the full might of Equestria on you all!"
And as proof of her overwhelming power, she blasted her horn at the top of the tower, disintegrating it instantly and causing a chorus of gasps and cries from the people below. Then, just as casually, she reverted the damage, recreating the tower exactly as it had been before.
"Oh no... Starlight..."
The screen switched to another camera and zoomed into her, and now Twilight could clearly see that she was adorned with multiple legendary artifacts, two of which could only be accessed by an alicorn princess, so she must have Celestia's permission to do this.
"They?" Anon asked.
Twilight looked up at him, her chain of thought broken.
"What?"
"She said 'they' and 'them' instead of 'her' or 'she.' What could that mean?"
"Oh, I... don't know. Maybe she's being vague on purpose?"
Anon rubbed his face with both hands, then lowered them and said, "In any case, we need to get moving."
"Why?"
He pointed at the clock tower visible below Starlight Glimmer.
"Because that's Big Ben. She's across an ocean and almost halfway around the world. If we want to get there within twelve hours or so, we need to haul ass to the nearest city and get a plane asap. News should spread quickly so hopefully we'll get special treatment when we get there."
He turned, "Sally, take some pictures of me and Twilight. You'll need proof to explain why I've left so suddenly, and I may be gone for a while." Sally nodded and pulled out her smartphone, and Anon continued, "You can do most of the day-to-day veterinary work, it's only emergencies that are a problem, so I'll try to send a temporary vet from the city to cover that. Until then, if anything comes in, just focus on stabilizing. You have first aid training, fall back on that. It's similar enough to hold you over. The new vet will probably take a couple of days to arrive."
She was snapping pictures left and right as Anon headed out the door, Twilight limping along behind him.
"Oh, and one last picture that would be very hard to photoshop:" Then he abruptly picked her up as he had a dozen times before, but this time it caught her off guard and she was already on edge, so her horn let out a little spark.
"Ah, good idea, Twi. Can you do some magic on camera? Sally, take a video."
Twilight was feeling quite anxious from all the hurrying now, but she focused as best she could and carefully lifted Anon and herself off the ground. 
"Whoaaaahhh!"
Startled, Anon let Twilight slip and she instinctively spread her wings to catch her fall. Unfortunately one wing was still tightly bound to her side so only one wing extended and made her spin as she fell. 
She landed with a soft 'whumpf!' onto something soft and she looked around, startled. Sally had dove forward and got her body beneath Twilight's, breaking her fall at the expense of some scrapes from the concrete.
"Oh... my gosh, thank you so much. H-Here..."
She shimmied off Sally's chest and, as she carefully got to her feet, Twilight cast a relatively simple healing spell on her, clotting the blood flow and jumping the healing process forward by about a day, then another spell to repair the tear she'd gotten in her work clothes, the fibers writhing like worms as they stitched themselves back together.
Sally looked over herself, then back up at Twilight, pure wonder in her face, and Twilight smiled sheepishly.
"Least I could do, really." She glanced up at Anon who was staring horrified at her, and her eyes widened, "Oh no, Anon please don't feel bad! I really should have warned you before I did that."
"I... I could have broken everything again..."
"But you didn't, okay? Everything's alright. Nothing happened, so there's no reason to feel bad. Come on, you said we need to hurry, right?"
Anon pinched the bridge of his nose and took a deep breath, then nodded, "Yes, we do. Into the car, Twi."
She waved back at Sally as she shuffled toward the car, "Goodbye, Sally! I hope we meet again."
Sally waved slowly, still somewhat disbelieving. Twilight smiled and reached out with her magic to hold the woman's hand, causing her to jump again, then stare wide-eyed down at her hand. Twilight gave the hand a gentle caress, then slid the magic away as if letting go rather than simply dissipating it like usual.
Anon picked her up and placed her in the car, then hurried around to the driver's seat and started the engine. Twilight turned back to look at Sally as they left the parking lot.
She was still staring at her hand.