Chapter 3: Suspicions Confirmed
"I knew you were hiding something down here." said the intruder, staring accusatively at Twilight and Fluttershy.
Nick only chuckled and shrugged. "You simply must remember that losing a friends trust is the fastest way to lose a friend... Forever!" He added a vast amount of emphasis to this final word, both stressing his point and bringing up a phrase he knew all too well. "So you have to keep this a secret. Promise them this, Pinkie."
Pinkie Pie sat down on the stairs, a bit confused at how this creature knew her name. And while she was on the subject, where did he come from?
"So where'd you get the human?" she asked, going back to her usual bouncy self.
"First make your promise, Pinkie," said Nick. "Promise that you'll not breathe a word to anyone about what events take place here today, or the information about my appearance."
"Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye." said Pinkie, going through the motions. "Tellme tellme tellme tellme tellme!"
"Okay, here goes." said Twilight, taking a deep breath. "Fluttershy brought him her on accident with her magic."Twilight waited for the shock and awe to wear off, but it never even showed up.
"Fluttershy has magic now?" asked Pinkie. "Cool! That makes two of us!" said Pinkie, pulling a small emblem from her hair, tied on with a thin pink ribbon to help it hide. "I don't always wear this, but it makes tis really cool humming noise when I get close to the Everfree. I was only ever able to get a few spells down, like teleportation, finding bits of information that no one else could remember, and straightening my hair. "I don't like doing the last one..." she trailed off, inspecting her hoof.
"That explains... a lot, actually. I had suspected..." said Nick, leaning his head back. against the wall of books behind him. a number of them were written by Twilight, but some were written by others. It was a notes station, where all Twilight's notes on magical experiments ended up, as well as projects, analysis papers, and readings of compounds into their base elements. It seemed fascinating, and if time allowed, he would like to read one or two.
"Soooo... How'd ya know my name?" asked Pinkie bouncing over to Nick.
"Well, there's this TV show back in my world..."
At about midday, Nick's stomach growled, It was finally time to realize that he hadn't eaten anything since... breakfast. Yesterday.
"Oh, I'm sorry, I should have asked if you wanted something to eat this morning." said Twilight, followed by her owm stomach growling. This was followed by Pinkie's then Fluttershy's. "I guess we should all get something to eat..."
They began up the stairs, exiting as Nick continued to answer all of the questions from the three ponies. His tongue was sore, having been talking for twelve hours, breaking only to drink and listen to the questions. His jaw also ached, and voice was starting to grow hoarse (no offence).
Twilight and Pinkie had made it through the door and almost to the street when Fluttershy called out. "Twilight, what about..." she nudged her head toward Nick, who was following her.
"Oh, no! You're absolutely right!" She thought for several seconds, trying to devise a plan for getting Nick out without alerting everypony in town.
After quite the bout of pacing, scratching her chin and unceremoniously knocking her head on a wall, Nick knelt down next to Fluttershy and whispered, "Just have them bring me back an apple, or a few carrots. We'll work it out in greater detail after you return."
Fluttershy nodded and smiled. "Come on, girls. I'll make sure he's taken care of." And with that, Fluttershy, Pinkie, and Twilight left, Twilight with a large, comical lump on her head.
Nick took this time to explore the library, trying to keep out of sight of the main door, just in case somepony came in. The library was larger than he had seen, but them again, he remembered a lot of the buildings in Pnyville being larger on the inside than on the outside. 'Magic.' his mind said, dispelling all of his questions as to why.
He pulled down a book from the botay section and read the cover. A Game at Dinner. The binding and cover were purple, and a thin gold border decorated the edges. He opened the front cover to see the foreward from the puplisher. He couldn't find anything to indicate the author's name, though.
After reading through the short guide, he placed it back on the shelf. he found another, De Rerum Dirennis, and was looking through that when Spike showed up with a small stack of books to go back onto the shelves. "Oh, hey, Nick." he said, pulling a ladder over to him and slowly making his way up. "Find anything interesting?"
"Yeah. The first book sparked my interest, but I think I enjjoyed the description of the banquet more than the wisdom of the book itself."
"A Game at Dinner?"
"How'd you guess?"
"I had the same reaction when I read it. And it's the only book in this section having anything to do with a feast, so there's that. I take it Twi and Shy went out for lunch?"
"And Pinkie."
Spike stopped stacking books and looked down at Nick, who hadn't taken his eyes off of his book. "When did Pinkie get here?" he asked, puzzled.
"About a hour before they left, I think. You not knowing about it explains why she was able to get into the lab in the first place. I'll make sure Twilight knows so you can maintain your rapport."
"Thanks for that," said Spike going back to his work.