“Do you know not the meaning of ‘rest?’” Princess Luna asked, breaking me out of my meditative trance. She’d been making an effort to speak with modern terms, but she was still a ways away from sounding like anything other than a Shakespearean noble.
“What do you mean? I am resting,” I opened my eyes and made eye contact with her. “If I wasn’t, I’d have ran the whole way to Ponyville or maybe taken my bike. Instead, I’m on the train with you.”
“Yet the potency of thine— your magic script constantly blazes as if being put to use. Whatever do you hope to accomplish?” She asked.
“You can actually feel that?” I balked, “I just… was feeling bored doing nothing but waiting for the train to reach our destination, so I started tinkering with my Runes. Despite how strong their effects might seem, to be honest, they’re just a bunch of rudimentary power concentrated into a single point right now. I was trying to add an element of finesse and technique to them. Am I bothering you?”
“No… Tis but a mystery to us the vehemence with which you pursue your goals. Doth thou… Do you not ever simply relax to pass the time or perhaps occupy yourself in fleeting conversations?”
“I guess,” I shrugged. “Why? Do you have something on your mind?”
With a nod she said, “We’ve been at a loss trying to find other music similar to what thou hast shown us. We’ve tried looking for other electronic music out in the market, but none art as aggressive nor emotionally charged as the piece you showed me.”
“Hmm… I haven’t really checked out any of the electronic music native to this world, so I don’t know if the genres you’re looking for have even been developed. But…” I pulled out my music player and handed it over to her, “Check this out.”
“After I got the first iteration of my exoskeleton suit and music studio completed, I managed to make a working quantum computer chip.” I won’t say it was easy, but it was simple enough with the resources I had at my disposal as well as the comprehensive knowledge that allowed me to understand how to build it.
“It might not mean much to you, but with the processing power of the quantum computer chip, I managed to implement a pretty advanced machine learning AI to… You’re not understanding anything I’m saying, are you?” I asked as I took note of the look of utter confusion on her face.
Yeah, I probably shouldn’t be spouting off all this technological jargon to the recently returned princess who had almost literally been living under a rock for the past thousand years.
“Anyway, I finished another project of mine and that allowed me to recreate more songs for you to listen to if you want. The point I was trying to make about the chip is that it also allowed me to reproduce the voices of some of the artists from my world, pretty much identically. So, there are also some songs with lyrics on them.”
For the next couple of minutes, I introduced her to some other songs I quite liked. Of course, with the emotional outburst she made last time still clear on my mind, I methodically picked the least offensive songs I could think of while slowly showing her more impressionable music.
Everything seemed fine enough when I started her off with “Levels” by Avicii. But by the time we reached Ponyville, where I was due to exit the train, she looked more than a little distraught after hearing the first half of “Fresh Static Snow” by Porter Robinson. In hindsight, I probably shouldn’t have let her listen to the Live version of the song which had pretty intense drop growls.
In any case, she had business elsewhere to attend to, so we said our farewells and I deboarded the train.
…
“Ok, this is straight up ridiculous,” I mumbled under my breath as I watched in irritation as the last few straggling ponies finished making their retreats.
I’d taken maybe six steps outside the train before I’d been noticed by the locals. The moment the first pony took off like her life was on the line, the rest quickly followed as they made their fear of me very, very clear.
They ran fast enough to kick up dust trails. Running into the closest building they could find before slamming the door shut and following up by slamming any open widows too. More than one unicorn teleported away, while some of the pegasi shot into the sky.
In a matter of seconds, the bustling village center — smack dab in the middle of where the train stop was located — turned into a ghost town with nary a sound or sight to suggest otherwise.
“Damn,” I muttered as the realization dawned on me. How was I going to find Twilight if literally no one was around willing to give me the time of day to ask?
Taking a look around, I was taken aback by the lack of any guard presence; the one group I was confident my status as a royal alchemist would give me an in with. I probably shouldn’t, given the only guard I knew about was the E.U.P. (Earth Pony, Unicorn, and Pegasus) Royal Guard, but there should at least be some sort of local police presence. What the hell were these ponies supposed to do if I really had been the threat they’d thought I was?
At a loss as to what I was supposed to do, I started wandering around the deserted roads of Ponyville. My destination was supposed to be a library, so I decided to just visit random large buildings until I stumbled into Twilight.
“Oh. My. Goodness.” A voice drew my attention. “Is that a human!” The same voice said followed by a furious stomping that grew louder with every passing moment.
The charging mint-colored Unicorn just barely managed to stop before crashing into me. It didn’t stop her from giving me this unhinged look as she circled around me, muttering incoherent ramblings.
“You’re familiar with humans?” I asked, ignoring the signs of lunacy as there was a good chance the crazed pony knew Twilight, knowing that she should be the only person in the village in the know about my existence.
“Of course I know about humans! I’m one of the very few anthropologists in the world. I just never imagined I’d actually get to see a real person in my life. You’re kind are creatures of myth and legends.”
How ironic for a Unicorn of all things, to be saying that.
“Oh, could you please let me touch your hands! Pleeease…”
“Sure, um… Just, so long as you help me out. I came here, looking for someone,” I said, somewhat amused to feel the unicorn fiddle around with my right hand and fingers.
“Oh?! Have you come to enact vengeance on one of your mortal enemies? Who in Ponyville could be so foolish as to invoke the undying wrath of a human?!” The unicorn asked. For reasons I could not even begin to conceive, she looked even more excited even as she spoke of my coming to her home to hurt or kill someone. Was the correct reaction to her own insane conclusions not to run away in fear?
“No? I have a friend who recently relocated here from Canterlot. I haven’t seen her in a couple of weeks, so I decided to come pay her a visit. And, maybe take a little vacation from my job while I’m at it.”
“Are you talking about Twilight Sparkle? She’s the last pony I can remember that’s moved here from Canterlot. Though, it would make sense if the Element of Magic is the one who’s managed to befriend a human like you.”
“You know where I can find her? Great,” I said, strategically choosing not to clear any of her preconceived notions on humanity. I mean, despite making me out to be some sort of monster, she wasn’t put off by her own beliefs, so… yeah.
…
“—never imagined you’re kind would have transcended the need for magic entirely. Though, it would be just like the stories said about humans being inherently incapable of personally possessing any magic themselves,” Lyra said as she came to a stop. “I’ll have to let you get to your business with Twilight here at the Golden Oak Library, but hopefully you can spare me some more of your time before you have to leave?”
“This is the library?” I asked, bemused by the sight of a literal tree house. I couldn’t imagine there being enough space in the domicile before me to contain an entire library; and certainly not one large enough to contain the bookworm force that was Twilight Sparkle.
“That’s right. Twilight and her assistant Spike have been living here for the last couple of weeks,” Lyra said.
“If you say so,” I shrugged. “Also, about your request. Let me know when and where you want to meet, since, like I already mentioned, I’m going to be staying in Ponyville for some time off my normal work. Besides seeing Twilight, I don’t have much else to do.”
Enthusiastically, Lyra Heartstrings, as she finally introduced herself to me, conjured up a paper and pen and wrote her details for me. She then happily trotted away, leaving me all alone before the “library.”
Knock, knock, knock…
When the door opened, I smiled as I said, “Spike, nice to see you again, bud.” And really, it was; to see a familiar face as well as one belonging to a dragon that didn’t want to kill me arbitrarily.
“Victor? What are you doing here?” Spike asked as he met my extended fist with his own in greeting.
“I thought it’d be nice to pay you and Twilight a visit. I was also due for a vacation, so I decided to do both at the same time. Are you and Twilight too busy? Or… You know, busier than she normally keeps the both of you,” I asked.
“Not really,” Spike said as he led me inside the library and— What kind of insane magic is expanding the space inside the tree house to fit all of this! I just about tripped as I quickly calculated that the inside of the tree had to have been at least ten times larger than it appeared on the outside.
“Ever since she made friends with all the other Elements of Harmony, she’s actually slowed down on her studying and started hanging out with them like she does with you. It’s pretty much gotten rid of half the work I did in Canterlot.”
“Uh huh,” I nodded along. “Sounds like you have a lot more free time now. A good, hardworking kid like you deserves it.”
He led me into the kitchen where Twilight and a few other ponies were standing before a table and eating meals. To Twilight's left, there was a white unicorn with a purple mane. To her right there was a yellow pegasus with a pink mane. And across from her—
*Warning*
My pupils shrunk to pinpricks as my body instinctively shot itself to the left and just barely managed to dodge the prismatic blur that passed by the spot I’d previously been in. Body Strengthning Runes activated and with the rest of my Elemental Runes sublimating under my skin in anticipation for an unfavorable combat engagement, I tried to hone in on the last pony that had been eating in the kitchen that for some reason decided to attack me.
[Identified Status]
[Level: ??? (Current Estimated Level: 70+)]
[Name: ???
[Race: Pegasus
[Class: ???]
[Details: Though unassuming at a glance, this light blue pegasus with a rainbow-streaked mane has in one move shown extreme finesse when it comes to movement. Capable of accelerating to hundreds of kilometers an hour and stopping just as quickly in fractions of a second within an environment as constrained as the library. Even through her coat of fur, tight rippling muscles comparable to a trained Earth Pony can be seen. Current Estimated Level is probably a low-ball.]
Even with the insane reading speed I’d developed over the last couple of months, having processed all the information from Identify in milliseconds, just as I willed the prompt to close and focused back on the threat at hand, I was struck by the blue blur of a pegasus and knocked down on the ground.
“Oof,” It honestly hurt a lot less than I expected, but I was still wheezing from having the wind knocked out of me. Clearly, the pegasus wasn’t aiming to kill me, considering she used her ungodly control over her speed to not hit me full force, but since I was panicked from how quickly it was all happening, I tried to get her off me like my life depended on it.
Palming her underside as she held me down in a pin, I activated my Wind Rune and blasted her with enough pressurized air to launch her into the ceiling. My next move would have been to create some distance to minimize her advantage in outmaneuvering me, but before I could do anything, a purple forcefield entrapped me and the pegasus, where she landed.
“Stop fighting!” Twilight said as she galloped over to me.
“I was just defending myself,” I said as I raised my hands up in mock surrender. It might as well have been a real surrender considering Twilight could easily beat me in a fight if she wanted to; even if I had my exoskeleton suit, her mastery of magic made her much more of a threat than she appeared.
“I know,” she gave me an apologetic smile, before turning to glare at the blue pegasus. “Why did you attack him, Rainbow Dash?!” She shouted.
“I don’t know? Seemed like a good idea at the time. I mean, whatever that is clearly isn’t a pony. My gut reaction was to assume it was a monster and attack it before it attacked us,” Rainbow Dash said.
“Spike literally led me into the kitchen,” I deadpanned at her. “Wouldn’t I have, I don’t know… Attacked him first if I was going to attack any of you?”
“Uh… Yes?” To me, it didn’t look like she even knew what she was answering.
“Right,” I rolled my eyes before turning back to address Twilight. “Anyway, I came by to see how you were doing, since you apparently decided to abandon me and Celestia back at the castle,” I snickered.
“I— I did not!” Twilight said with indignation. “I just… It’s complicated.”
“Relax,” I said as I ruffled her mane playfully, “I know you’re here on some super secret mission to learn about the Magic of Friendship or whatever. It’s good that you’ve found some friends here, is what I’m trying to say,” I laughed and took a step back when she started to glower at me.
“Hmph,” She didn’t deign me a response.
The other three ponies that until now had been excluded from the exchange, however, looked like they had a lot they wanted to say. Or ask.
Yeah, the way they were looking at me, I could already see I was in for a long conversation…