Chapter 7
‘Thought’
“Dialogue”
“Words in a foreign language.”
“Quoting in thought”
***
Twilight sat in the middle of her library, surrounded by softly glowing candles with the notes she had written while working on anti-invasion/anti-changeling spells laid out in front of her. Spike had gone to bed in a huff several hours ago, more than a little upset over the fact that Twilight had dragged him all the way back home without even giving him a chance to say hello to the alien. She wasn’t really that worried about Spike being angry with her; she would apologize to him tomorrow, give him a gem or two and he would forgive her like he always did.
Twilight lifted the notes into the air; the cloud of papers shifted back and forth as she searched for the correct sheet. “Come on, it’s got to be here somewhere…” she mumbled to herself. A single sheet of parchment caught Twilight’s eye. She pulled it from the cloud and skimmed over the words, written in her own neat horn writing. This is it! Suddenly, all of the other paper in the room dropped from the swarming cloud and drifted to the floor. The title simply read, ‘Spell 37b.’ She read over her own notes carefully, already jotting down the necessary modifications to the spell on a fresh sheet of parchment.
Spell 37b was Twilight’s attempt at creating a lie-detector to catch changelings when they falsified their identities; such a thing had never been attempted and sadly her spell had ended up a dead end. Of course, that didn’t stop her from learning a great deal from it; specifically the way a spell determines the intent behind a spoken word. She tapped a hoof under the section of parchment. If she could adapt a standard translation matrix to use that as an input instead of speech… yes… yes. That would work quite nicely.
***
Is that music?
Why is there mariachi music playing?
My vision slowly swam into view and I found myself staring at a set of red double doors. I was moving towards them. The sensation was like being a passenger in my own body; I wasn’t even able to control my own eyes. My hand reached forward and pushed one of the doors aside and I found myself in a large, dimly lit room. There were tables everywhere, each one covered with an identical, white tablecloth and featuring a single, small, lit candle stick at their center. People dressed in tuxedos and fancy dresses crowded each one, their faces illuminated by the golden glow of the candle. Each table held several plates of food, every one of them identical. At the front of the room, past a polished wooden dance floor was my... eccentric cousin, Connor, and his new, just as eccentric, wife Mary. The two always loved to throw the rest of the family curveballs, probably why there was a mariachi band in the first place.
Bright flashes of fragmented memories suddenly blocked my vision, they were so fast I could understand none of them. Light, sound, feelings, they all flashed through my senses at an impossible rate.
I made my way over to a long table covered in piles of snack food, grabbing myself a plate and piling on a few tasty h’orderves. I stuffed a few cheese crackers into my mouth and turned to wave at Connor. He grinned at my face stuffed full of crackers and pointed out onto the dance floor.
The memories flashed through my senses again, it was like my entire life was playing out in front of my eyes. My first day of school, going to church with my parents on Sundays, and a high school dance were only some of the memories that forced their way into my mind.
I followed his finger and looked out through the few couples who were brave enough to cut a rug to the lively music and saw a beautiful young redhead looking at me from across the dancefloor.
Wait... that’s not the right girl. This... I remember this, this is my cousin’s wedding. But that’s supposed to be my girlfriend standing there watching me spit bits of cheese cracker all over myself, not a cute redhead.
***
My eyes shot open and I felt a massive wave of pain slam into my groggy mind. My hands shot up and cradled my nose. Why does it feel like someone spent the night punching me in the face!? I groaned and gingerly touched the side of my nose. Okay, not broken, that’s good. I noticed a splotch of red on the tips of my fingers and wiped my nose with my forearm. I nearly jumped out of the cot when I saw that most of my arm was covered in blood. I looked around frantically. What happened!? Did I have an aneurysm in my sleep or something? My eyes fell to the rolled up bit of green cloth that served as my pillow and I felt an icy lump drop into the pit of my stomach. There was a dark stain that was nearly the size of my head soaked into the fabric. I was so freaked out that I didn’t even notice the heavy metal door swing open and the annoying purple pony step through. I was jarred from my frantic thoughts when she started to scream.
***
It flew from the prison, the sun just barely beginning to peek over the horizon. Its mind ached with new and precious memories. The other, it knew who he was now. The human locked behind the bars had surrendered its memories easily once it had figured out a way into labyrinthine of veins that snaked through the whole. Almost like he was asking it to take them. It knew so much about him, his name, his favorite color, it even managed to force what his ideal companion looked like out of the annals of his mind.
The ponies were going to be a problem, they would not allow It to be near the oth- John, without a disguise of some kind. And she had the perfect idea of where to begin.
***
Fluttershy sat on the cot next to the creature, dabbing at his nose with a white cloth; the cloth was stained red with the blood that had been all over his face and torso. The cot had been smashed against the hallway wall in Twilight’s hurry to get the thing out of the room, so that he and Fluttershy were sitting on the warm stones. She had her little red first aid kit she carried whenever she came to visit and check up on the alien’s health.
“Up please.” Fluttershy finished cleaning up the alien’s nose and with a simple gentle motion, she guided him into the right pose to allow the bleeding to stop, letting him hold onto the cloth to further stem the crimson fluid. Twilight was more than a little envious of Fluttershy’s rapport with the creature. She always seemed to be able to get him to behave and follow her instructions, even when he had been totally uncooperative with Twilight or anypony else who tried to interact with him.
“How do you get him to do that?” Twilight asked as her frustration caught up with her.
“Umm... I ask him....” Fluttershy squeaked.
Twilight answered with an almost-glare that set Fluttershy shivering.
“Umm.... nicely..” Fluttershy finished lamely.
The alien was not entirely ignorant to the conversation and Twilight soon noticed him glaring at her, apparently on Fluttershy’s behalf, cotton balls comically sticking out from his nostrils. She sighed and rubbed a cheek with a hoof. “I’m sorry Fluttershy, it’s just that I’ve been trying to get him to behave for nearly three weeks now and it’s frustrating to see someone else do it so easily.”
“Oh, that’s okay Twilight, I understand,” the shy mare answered as she put away her first aid kit.
“You do?” Twilight asked, cocking her head a little in surprise.
“Oh yes, he didn't like me very much at first either. You just need to be nice and he will be nice too, eventually.” Fluttershy finished packing up her things and she crossed the room to sit next to Twilight.
“What do you think was wrong with him?” Twilight asked, glancing at the creature, who was still holding his nose and doing his best to watch them while simultaneously holding his head up toward the ceiling.
“Oh, it was just a little bleeding; these things happen sometimes.” Fluttershy smiled at the alien and he waved goodbye. She waved a hoof in return and whispered “Good luck” to Twilight as she trotted out of the cell.
Twilight sighed, she would never understand how that mare managed to get on just about every cranky, deadly, and downright dangerous creature’s good side. Well enough of that, on with the science!
Twilight stuck her head out of the door and levitated in her saddlebags and a small table. She had learned quickly not to leave anything in the creature’s reach, lest you get it used on you in some kind of annoying prank. She glanced at the creature; it was doing its best to pretend it wasn't paying attention to what she was doing. She pulled out several books, a stack of parchment, and writing supplies, keeping them all as far to her side of the room as she could. The alien eyed her warily, keeping at least one eye on her at all times. Finally she pulled out a small, blue, triangular, gem; the thing was carefully carved in all manner of arcane symbols and runes, each one humming with constrained power.
She carefully positioned the gem on the edge of the table closest to the creature, leaned forward and began to speak, slowly and making sure to enunciate each word as clearly as possible.
“Hello, my name is Twilight Sparkle. On behalf of the Princesses I would like to offer peaceful greetings to you.” The creature looked stunned for a moment, looking at her completely dumbstruck. He began to speak, quickly, none of the words translating. A minute went by, and still nothing had worked. Twilight sighed and was about to start tinkering with the matrices, utterly depressed that her effort had yet to pay off. The device crackled and spat out a single word that, while being difficult to understand, was still in plain Equestrian.
“Pants.”