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// Chapter Three: Meanieshy and The Overly Depressed Mage //------------------------------//
You’ve spent the better part of an hour picking up the streamers and confetti from Discord’s little intro for Twilight. She helped clean up as well, but due to her nature she stopped a few minutes in, leaving you to finish. You grumble as you watch her sit in a chair next to one of her shelves, she’s done nothing but watch you clean and it’s getting irritating. As you throw away the last bits of confetti, and when you’ve picked up her books, you walk up to her and give her a forced smile. She gives you a smile in turn.
“Cleaning’s done, thanks for the help,” you hope she picks up on the sarcasm you’re portraying. You’re laying it on kind of thick here, but she doesn’t.
“Oh, I didn’t do much. That was all you Anonymous. I just wish I wasn’t so, me,” she trails off before looking to her book shelves. You shouldn’t be angry about how she’s acting, it’s just the way she is. This helplessness she’s showing is really pissing you off. “But I did think of a few things to do while you were cleaning, I hope you don’t mind.”
“What did you have in mind?” You’re hoping she’ll answer with something productive. Judging by her obvious occupation she has to have a few books regarding the nature of this world. You’ve come to terms knowing that creatures you once thought were mindless are actually sentient, and that there are some mythological creatures that exist here. But you have no idea what types of creatures live here aside from what was already mentioned. If you’re going to make friends it’ll probably be with creatures other than just ponies. You can’t afford to insult anyone nor can you risk remaining ignorant of how this world works. The quicker you learn the basics the better off you’ll be.
“Well, Discord didn’t tell me a single thing about you. I figured I’d ask you a couple of questions.” You watch as she gets out of her chair. She then trots over to a nearby desk with ink and parchment ready to be used, “I can’t believe it! I get to be the first to study an alien!” You’re taken aback by her excited tone. You didn’t think she was capable of being cheery. If this keeps her from being down then you’ll happily tell her anything she wants to know. To an extent of course, you’re not exactly an encyclopedia on human history and advancement. Besides, if you help her she can help you. Trading information for information could play out nicely for you.
As she sets up her papers and opens her bottle of ink you take another look around the room. That’s when you notice that everything in this library, including that desk she’s sitting at, is much too small for you. Everything here is seems to be built for ponies, even the books seem much smaller than the ones you remember using back in school. Your thoughts are interrupted when Twilight clears her throat. You turn to her and see she’s got both her paper and a quill encased in a magenta aura.
“Are you ready to get started Anonymous? I know I am!” When her grin widens out of anticipation, you swear you hear something along the lines of a rubber duck squeaking. You chalk it up to merely hearing things.
“Alright, what do you want to know about first?” You take a seat on the floor in front of Twilight and wait. You were going to take a seat in an adjacent chair, but your size would probably break it. Last thing you want to do is break something, she’d probably go off on a tangent about how she was unable to properly provide comfort for the alien or something. Suddenly, the sun zooms across the sky and below the horizon. The moon is now in the sky, the library is now encased in almost total darkness, only a few rays of pale moonlight help to illuminate the room. “That’s really annoying.” Twilight sighs and you nod in agreement.
“Indeed, that’s going to make me sick,” that’s when you get an idea. It’s a shot in the dark, but you might as well give it a try. What do you have to lose? “How is anyone going to appreciate all this chaos when the sun and moon switch out every few minutes? I’m sure if both were on a set path the ponies would get a fulfilling experience of it in both lights.” It doesn’t take long for Discord’s voice to come echoing throughout the library. You were right in suspecting him to be a stalking type of creature.
“You raise an excellent point.” With a resonating snap the moon lowers and the sun rises. It seems like Discord can be very accommodating if he sees that he can benefit from it. After spending a few seconds hopelessly trying to find the Draconequus the two of you get back to what you were doing.
“Well, that was unexpected.” Twilight casts a glance of disbelief your way. You respond by shrugging your shoulders.
“That’s what I’m supposed to be Twilight. I wouldn’t be me if I wasn’t.” Neither of you can pinpoint where Discord's voice is coming from so you don’t bother restarting your search. Unfortunately Twilight presses the issue.
“But why would you set something str—“You interrupt her by reaching up and placing your hand over her mouth. You shake your head.
“I wouldn’t dwell on it.” You state, hope Twilight doesn’t press the matter any further. You don’t need to give Discord an excuse to think you weren’t grateful for what he just did. Twilight nods and you pull your hand away.
“Maybe now we can get started. Question number one: Where are you from?” Hours seem to pass as you answer every question Twilight has for you. She seemed to have a wide variety of questions that you were able to give at least semi-decent answers to. She seems to go through a large amount of individual pieces of paper, so half way through the discussion she switches to rolls of parchment. Some of the questions are simple. She asks what you are, how your species works, what sort of government you have, does your planet share similarities to hers, and many others. You explain that humans used monarchies in the past but it’s become outdated, then you give Twilight a brief explanation of republics and how they work on your planet.
Unfortunately you can only give Twilight small details for most of the things she asks, as you aren’t one for politics, nor are you a scientist. You had no real profession other than melting down metal and you were sure she wouldn’t be interested in that. She seems a bit disappointed by your lack of specifics in most of the areas mentioned, especially when you couldn’t tell her how to make an assault rifle. But at least she was able to catch a glimpse of what your world was like. When she grows bored of asking she turns to your personal life.
You tell her about how your last few years had gone, being sure to leave out the major details, you take special care in keeping your sister a vague topic. You’ll do anything you can to keep from talking about her. In its place you tell Twilight about how you had to scrape by and that you starved yourself on occasion so you could keep that shoddy apartment roof over your head. Then you told her about the forklift you operated for twelve or more hours at your job, now that you could go in to detail about. After you talk to her about your job you tell her about the people you were forced to interact with. When you tell her about the lack of friends you had back on your planet she seemed sympathetic. When all was said and done Twilight seemed somewhat satisfied, then it came your time to ask her about Equestria.
As it turns out there are four different kinds of ponies on this planet. Unicorns, Pegasus, Earth Ponies, and the very rare type of pony called the Alicorn. As Twilight describes each species’ capabilities you mention that you found two Alicorns taking up residence on the moon.
She gasps, “Oh my goodness! You saw Celestia?! Is she okay, is she trying to get back here to help us?!” Her voice holds a frantic desperation that catches you completely off guard. The way her gray eyes flashed purple with a bit of hope catches your attention. As she finishes her question she’s holding your cheeks in her fore hooves, pulling you close. Her eyes read yours in hopes of finding an answer she so desperately seeks. It’s unfortunate that you’re going to have to break her heart.
“I don’t know… I only got a brief glimpse of her and another Alicorn.” Her eyes lose that special spark and her hooves fall limply at her sides.
“Oh.” Her voice is flat and cold. She looks to the floor, absolutely devastated by your news. Seeing a new friend in such a state shouldn’t put such a weight of disappointment in your gut, but it does all the same. You wish you could do something for her, but there isn’t a single thing you can do, you’re only human.
Even though Twilight’s demeanor has changed completely after being told about Celestia’s fate she continues to answer your questions, even though they’ve become halfhearted. You learn that weather doesn’t operate on its own here, aside from the Everfree Forest that resides on the edge of town the rest of Equestria uses Pegasus Ponies to manipulate the weather. Not only could they do that, but they could literally walk on the clouds and shape them into livable homes. Needless to say you’re quite surprised. Then she goes on to talk about the magic unicorns are capable of using.
You were surprised at the simplicity of it. When it came to unicorns, they could really only use magic associated with their cutie marks. Twilight is considered lucky considering her cutie mark revolves around magic. She’s able to do things most unicorns are incapable of doing. There are those out there who can’t even teleport. When Earth Ponies come up it turns out they’re more durable than the others. Sure it’s not flying or magic, but they have something the others don’t. When it came to Alicorns though it turns out they have the traits of all three pony species.
After she explains her species and some of the work you’d see each doing, she goes on to tell you about the cutie marks and what they represented. As it turns out, when these ponies discover what they’re truly good at, they get a mark that appears upon their flanks. At least that explains the brandings you’ve seen on both Twilight and Screwball. The next subject revolves around the two Alicorns by the names of Celestia and Luna. As it turns out they are the ones in charge of running Equestria. You ask if they’re queens, Twilight explains that they are in fact Princesses.
You inquire as to where the King and Queen are if two princesses were left to rule. Turns out the King and Queen died over three thousand years ago, well Twilight put it a little differently. She spoke about it in a way as if to inspire awe. Basically the King and Queen of Equestria moved on to Elysium and Tartarus in order to rule the two plains of life after death. Just like your race this one believes in an afterlife.
When Twilight starts to cover other nations you’re sure to lean in and listen. Gryphons have a mountainous kingdom to the north, the Minotaurs have a place in an area called The Badlands, and of course the Dragons live in the volcanic regions of this planet. While she doesn’t go into vivid detail about each group, she does give you the basics you should know in case you ever meet one. At least with this knowledge you won’t go around offending another species and potentially losing your life as a result.
Hours seem to tick on by as Twilight goes back over Equestria and what cities and towns make it up, and a brief history of each. It’s a large amount of information to take in, but you’re sure you’ll retain a good chunk of it. If there’s anything you’ve learned from this, it’s to stay away from the Everfree Forest. The creatures Twilight mentions that inhabit that forest sound like something you’d never wish to run in to. Wolves made of timber, Manticores, Bats made of fruit, and tiny insects that literally ate anything and everything in their paths. You shudder at the images Twilight showed you depicting them. When the sun has nearly made its way across the sky you sigh with relief, it seems like Twilight has decided to put a stop to the lesson.
“Is there anything else you’d like to know about Anonymous?” She starts to roll up the parchment she used to take notes. Before you could utter a response you hear something slamming in to the door.
“Open up, you waste of space!” some mare says from the outside. Twilight cringes before rolling up her parchment. She then puts it behind a random book on her shelf. You wonder just why she’d hide her notes, but before you can think on the matter any further the knocking gets louder, interrupting your thoughts.
“Hey Twilight, who’s that?” You point to the door in question. Before Twilight responds the ‘knocking’ comes back. You hear the wood begin to splinter under the hooves pounding on the door.
“Hurry, hide,” Twilight says as she points to the stairs leading up to the library’s second floor.
“Why am I hiding?” As you get out of your seat Twilight starts pushing you in the direction of the stairs.
“If Fluttershy finds you she’ll be less than pleasant,” Twilight explains as she makes her way to the door, “just a minute.” She points to the stairs again and you sigh. You might as well just go with what Twilight wants. If it avoids causing trouble then who are you to go against her? With that mindset you make your way up the stairs, when she can no longer see you she unlocks her door, that’s when a set of hooves gives the door one swift buck. The door swings open, nearly colliding with Twilight’s head in the process…
When you hear the door swing open the first thing that comes to mind is curling up into a ball. Even though your body is completely hidden from sight it doesn’t hurt to take extra precautions. You opt for hiding as far back from the opening as possible. If you can’t see down to them, they can’t look up to see you. Hopefully that logic won’t get you spotted by Fluttershy. Your mind starts to wander as to what Fluttershy might look like. Her name makes her sound as if she’s calm and quiet, but with her nearly tearing down the door and her yelling there’s no way that can be true. You mind starts to picture Twilight staring down a manticore.
That’s when you hear her loud and clear, “Hey Twilight, why’d you keep the door locked huh? Didn’t want Ponyville to see your stupid ugly face?” Well now that she isn’t yelling she doesn’t sound as threatening.
“Hi Fluttershy, what brings you here?” You can hear how nervous Twilight is. Whatever Fluttershy is doing to intimidate her right now is working.
“Oh nothing, I just wanted to get a quick laugh at Equestria’s most useless unicorn.” You’ve dealt with these kinds of people back in high school and in college. Listening to Fluttershy berate Twilight is only adding fuel to your slowly growing fire, “and maybe I just wanted to ‘borrow’ a few of your stinky, smelly old books.” You hear her trot before stopping, probably at a book shelf. That’s when you hear the shelf itself start to creak, then you hear it slam against the floor. The entire tree house shakes from the impact, you hear Twilight gasp, “Oops, did I make a mess? I’m so sorry, NOT! Besides, it’s not like you’ll do anything anyway.” You grit your teeth while clenching and unclenching your fists. You need to remain calm, but if Fluttershy does one more thing you swear to God you’re going to march in there and beat her black and blue. You don’t care what she is you’re going to break her.
“W-w-why’d you do,” you can hear Twilight voice start to crack as she holds back tears.
“Aww, is the filly gonna cry? Come on, get those waterworks going Twilight. It’s all you’re good for anyway,” Well, a man can only handle listening to so much, Twilight may be a new friend, and you may not know her that well, if at all, but no one deserves that kind of treatment.
“Hey Flutterbitch?” You shout as you make your way to down the stairs. When the library’s main floor comes into view you see Twilight looking up at you with her jaw hanging open, and then you see another gray on gray pony. Unlike Twilight, this one lacked a horn, but it had wings. The body type was generally the same, though Fluttershy here seemed to be a bit thinner than Twilight. Her tail reflected her mane’s curl and you find two triple butterfly cutie marks adjourning her flanks. Her long, light grey mane seemed to cover one of her eyes. She blew it out of her face in order to get a good look at you. Her scowl showed that she didn’t approve.
“Did that thing just call me a dog?” She seemed too focused on taking in your appearance to insult you or Twilight. You take this time to survey the damage. Fluttershy did in fact knock over one of the shelves, dozens of books litter the floor. You just got done cleaning up the library and here’s another mess for you to clean up. Then you see Twilight in the pitiful state she’s in. She’s trying to hold back tears as she looks over the mess Fluttershy made. Then she looks to you and the tears start flowing.
“See, I told you I can’t do anything,” She slumps to the floor. As the tears flow you can feel your heart wrenching in your chest. It hurt you to see her like this.
“Hey alien, do I look like a dog to you? Are you blind or are you stupid?” You’re going to give her a taste of her own medicine.
“Damn right I did, but now that I got a good look at you I can’t call you a bitch,” you smirk after finishing.
“Good, I thought you were ugly AND blind,” She gives you smirk of her own.
“Oh no, you misunderstand me, you look more like a horse than a dog,” You chuckle as you watch Fluttershy’s smirk drop from her face, “oh what’s wrong HORSE, don’t like it when someone talks back to you.” Fluttershy responds by flaring out her wings and glaring at you. You have to admit, getting her angry was a rather easy task.
“Take that back you giant eyesore or I’ll—” you cut her off.
“Or you’ll what, pick on Twilight some more? Yeah I’m putting a stop to that, I don’t care who or what you are. I’m not gonna let you talk to her like that,” you ball your hands in to fists. Your fingers let out an audible crack. The sudden noise causes Fluttershy to flinch, “what’s wrong? Scared of something you know nothing about?” You approach the little Pegasus in order to make the height difference more pronounced. These ponies only come up to your crotch so height provides proper intimidation. As you get closer she starts backing away, you’re hoping she’ll just turn tail and run but she doesn’t. Too bad for you, you aren’t really watching where you’re going. You’re too busy staring her down to notice the book.
You end up slipping on it and Fluttershy takes advantage of that, as you fall flat on your face she leaps on to your back. A yelp escapes you when you feel her hind hooves slam in to the center of your back. The impact causes your body to jolt. When your legs come up she grabs hold of them by the ankles. While digging her hind hooves in to your back, she pulls on your legs with her front hooves. Soon your body is in a crescent shape. That doesn’t sit too well with your spine. As your body is forced to endure this submission hold you can’t help but think that confronting Fluttershy was a bad idea.
You hear Fluttershy grunt before pulling on your legs as hard as she can. That’s when you hear a loud snap come from your spine, then pain flares from the affected area, causing you to shout in anguish. The agony your back is experiencing snakes its way throughout your entire body. Your nerves feel as if they’re on fire each time Fluttershy digs her hind hooves into your shoulder blades.
“What was that? You want me to pull harder?” You cry out in pain when she bends your body further, your hands start randomly grasping out at nothing. It won’t be long now before your back breaks. You’ve got to think of something fast before Fluttershy snaps your spine, just how are p0nies this strong? She shouldn’t be doing this much damage to your body. You look behind you to see Fluttershy’s wings flaring out, they seem to be shaking. It’s an awkward angle but you manage to reach behind you and grab hold of her wings. You her hear squeal, then she freezes in place, you tighten your grip on her wings.
“Let my legs go, now,” you say through gritted teeth. When she doesn’t comply you twist your hands through her feathers causing what you hope to be greater pain. Fluttershy lets out a pained cry before letting your legs go. When your legs hit the ground relief never comes. Each move Fluttershy makes while you grip her only worsens your pain. But you can’t lose your grip, you know as soon as you do Fluttershy will put you in that hold again. Slowly but surely you manage to pull Fluttershy off of you. It’s made much easier with her being completely at your mercy. You don’t know how fragile these wings are but judging by her pained expression you know you’re doing something.
With her finally off of your back you slowly rise to your feet making sure not to let go of her. When you pick her up and bring her face to face with you, you see that her eyes are as wide as saucers and she’s showing an expression of shock and pain. She’s shaking like a leaf in your grip. She’s afraid of you, meaning your message will sink in deep. You wince from the jolts of pain in your back. Unfortunately for her this causes you to tighten your grip. She clenches her teeth and her eyes reflect her pleading. You’ll let her go, but not yet, there’s one thing she’s got to do first, you pull Fluttershy over to Twilight. You kneel down and bring her to eye level with the unicorn.
“Apologize,” you growl. You ignore the look of shock on Twilight’s face as she wipes away her tears. You shake Fluttershy a bit while she’s in your grip in order to get her to hurry up. Judging by her lower lip quivering you assume Fluttershy is on the verge of tears herself.
”N-N-Never,” Fluttershy stutters, you twist your hands along the base her wing, this makes her let out an audible shriek, “Okay okay! I’m sorry, Twilight,”
“Not bad, now make it sound convincing,” Fluttershy looks to you in disgust.
“Buck you!” She shouts right into your ear. Twilight stifles her gasp by placing her hooves over her maw. You guess the term ‘buck’ is a curse word on this planet. As you’re contemplating this Fluttershy spits in your face. That in turn flipped a switch. You mercilessly start yanking her wings in odd angles and pulling them. Her pleas for mercy fall on deaf ears, the tears streaming down her face from the pain only drives you to continue. You see Twilight trying to get your attention, but you’re distracted from the task at hand. When Fluttershy unleashes a high pitched scream you finally come to your senses.
”I’ll do it I’ll do it please stop!” She sobs. At this point your panting so hard from the exertion you’re unable to respond. Instead you place Fluttershy at eye level with Twilight yet again. I’m- I’m sorry about the books AH! And I’m sor-sorry for calling you those names,” she tries to continue but her sobbing won’t allow it. At this point you don’t care whether Twilight will actually acknowledge her apology. You feel as though your work is done.
”That’s better,” You stand and carry Fluttershy to the open door, you lift her up a little bit before tossing her out onto the poker card road. You hear her grunt when she makes impact. She looks up to you angrily, “get out of here before I rip those wings off of your body!” you yell before promptly slamming the door.
With the offending Pegasus gone you turn to look at a still shocked Twilight, you give her a smile before breathing a sigh of relief. When you see she doesn’t return your sentiment you start to wonder why.
“What?” You walk over and kneel down to Twilight’s level. Your anger and adrenaline was masking it for the most part, but with your body calming down the discomfort steadily gets worse. You cringe as pain flares in your back, causing you to drop to your knees. You swear loudly before you lie on your stomach. Your back can’t take bending at all right now. Even with you trying to keep it straight the agony comes in waves. You want to squirm as it works its course through you but each move you make only makes it worse.
“Oh my goodness, Anon!” Twilight exclaims before looking over you, “Here let’s get you to my bed,” She takes hold of your jacket sleeve in her maw. You’re in no position to refuse her. You know you’re too heavy for her to pull so you crawl to where she pulls. That way she doesn’t have to strain. You wince, cringe, and cry out as she moves you. When you reach the stairs you can’t help but picture the hell you’re about to put your back through. Twilight sees this as well, she spits your sleeve out and looks to her stairs, then back to you.
“Just use your magic,” you are definitely not in the mood for what she responds with.“
“B-but what if I mess it up, I’ll make it worse!” She looks to you with terror etched into her features. As soon as she finishes you hear an audible yawn resound from the second floor.
“Spike, are you awake?” She trots up the stairs a bit.
“Wait, whose Spike?” You ask with a pained grunt.
“Yeah,” you hear him respond. Within a minute you hear the pitter patter of Spike’s feet as he walks down the stairs. You’re greeted by the sight of a small purple bipedal lizard. Judging by his size you’d say he was an infant in age. Green protrusions stick out of his head and his abdomen reflects the same color, if maybe a few shades lighter. His slit shaped eyes look you over with a mixture of confusion and disgust. He scratches his head with a claw.
“Twilight, what the heck is that thing?” Looks like you’ll have to go through introductions again. Maybe Twilight will give you a break and tell him what you’ve told her. But your aching back needs to be taken care of first.
“No time, help me pull him up there,” Twilight grabs hold of one of your jacket sleeves as does Spike. The two work together to pull you up the stairs quickly rather than carefully. You suppose their mindset was like ripping off a band aid, quick and painful. You would readily agree that it was painful and you voiced out as such. With each step taken you cry out and your back sends agony to each and every nerve throughout your body. With each passing second the sensations became worse. Relief washes over you when the two stop for a moment to take a break. Even with you using your legs as a sort of boost you’re still not making good progress.
“Whoa dude, you’re kinda heavy,” He says while gasping for air. You can see the end of the stairs is just a few feet away. Hopefully relief will be soon to follow. When Twilight gets you to the second floor the two manage to get you to the bed through trial, screaming, and error. You’re lying on your stomach and the pain hasn’t lessened a bit. The final hurdle has arrived.
“Anon, this is gonna hurt, but only for a second okay?” You’d laugh if you weren’t hurting. She takes a deep breath and her body tenses for what’s to come. You gasp as your body leaves the ground. Spike and Twilight have just tossed you into the air, if you had time to scream that moment has finally arrived. As soon as you hit on what you would have assumed to be soft and comforting you unleash a feral scream that forced your two helpers to cover their ears. Your screaming is cut short when your vision blurs. It’s like an electrical storm raged in your nerves for a full minute before the sweet embrace of unconsciousness overtook you.
“Is he dead?” When the two move their hands away from their ears Twilight looks to Spike with disgust.
“No Spike, he’s fine,” Spike narrows his eyes, “Well, he will be after we fix him?” Spike crosses his arms.
“You mean you. You’re the one with magic Twilight. I just sort the books and send the letters.” Twilight takes a seat in the floor, a look of determination spread along her features.
“You’re right Spike, I’ll just cast a spell and he’ll be just fine.” Despite her confident appearance she doesn’t sound so sure of herself. Twilight sits there studying your unconscious form while Spike waits for her to start. After a few minutes she looks between you and Spike, she’s gone from confident to frantic in no time. Spike sighs before shrugging.
“What about a hospital, can we bring him to Ponyville Medical?” She shakes her head.
“No, we can’t, if we keep moving him we’ll make it worse. Besides, Discord made the hospital into a catapult. It’ll launch him like the others.” You stir as Twilight explains to Spike how bringing you to the hospital is out of the question. You groan, the agony being almost too much to bear. The two look to you as you turn your head and open your eyes.
“If the hospital is out of the question, then the only thing you can do is use magic,” Twilight shakes her head hysterically.
“But I can’t! If I try healing magic I’ll only do more damage!” You have no idea if it’s her attitude, or the pain you’re in, but you’ve had enough of this unicorn and her doubting herself. You tell her what you hope will sway her.
“Damn it Twilight cut that out. Come on, you’re a unicorn for crying out loud, and from what you told me you’re great with magic! Just because Discord put his little claw on your head doesn’t mean you’re useless!” You bite your lip in order to stifle a yelp. Your voice causes Twilight to back away in surprise. She regains her composure before speaking.
“Th-that time has come and passed, I can’t do it anymore,” You growl, it starts low but slowly starts to build gusto as your rage starts to pile on. You can feel the anguish start to numb enough for you to keep going.
“See, that’s what I’m talking about! Stop being so damned depressed and just try!” Your eyes are twisted with fury and your voice is filled with malice. When you see that your anger is scaring the poor unicorn you try another approach. You’re not going to help her get out of this sadness by just being angry with her and telling her what she needs to do, you need to try something a little more constructive. Besides she just had a portion of her library ruined she doesn’t need your rage making it worse. You sigh and try to calm down.
“Listen Twilight, we’re supposed to be friends now right?” She nods, you can see tears pooling around her eyes. It seems like she desperately wants to do something to help alleviate your suffering, “and friends help each other out right?” Twilight nods again. “Okay, I really need your help right now Twilight. Even if I haven’t seen you use it, I know you can do it Twilight, I know you can fix me. So please, please fix my back.” You basically begged for relief.
Spike takes this time to put in his two cents, “Listen to the alien thing Twi, You hatched me, and you and I both know you can do something as simple as this. Come on, this isn’t the Twilight I know,” She looks over to Spike; hopefully his words of encouragement will get through to her. “The Twilight I know would have fixed him up by now and been on her merry way. You can’t let what happened with Discord stop you from being you, so hurry up and fix him up Twi, and get him to stop whining already!” You think you’re going to punt this little purple lizard when you’re better. You’ll give him hell about that later, right now getting Twilight some confidence is top priority. Twilight sits there for a moment, taking in what you and Spike had said to her.
Your words break her train of thought, “If it helps Twilight, I trust you,” That was a bit of a lie, you’ve only known Twilight for a few hours. In all honesty you have no idea if what she’s told you what unicorns can do were lies or what, but every little bit helps.
It’s another minute of before Twilight says anything, “You-you two are right, I can’t let one failure get the best of me,” she looks you over with determination she should have had fifteen minutes ago. You see her horn begin to glow with a magenta hue. You close your eyes and await the impending pain, or relief. With your eyes closed you don’t see Twilight start to strain as she focuses on the troubled area on your back.
She grits her teeth before shutting her eyes in concentration. You feel a warm sensation on your pained area, but still no respite. Then for a split second Twilight lets out a pained grunt, and in that moment her entire coat turns purple, as do her eyes and mane. Then you hear a loud pop as you feel your back realign, then relief finally comes, you breathe a sigh of satisfaction. With the spell cast Twilight crumples to the floor in exhaustion and her color fades away.
“Oh man, thank you Twilight,” You run your hand along the area that was causing you so much trouble not but a few moments ago, it’s as if nothing ever happened. With your back no longer hindering you, you get to your feet. Your eyes widen with shock when you see the state Twilight’s in. That must have taken more out of her than you thought. Her whole body is shaking from the shock it’s been forced to endure. At this moment, you feel as though this little unicorn has earned a break. You squat down and gently wrap your arms around her. Then you pick her up and set her on her bed, careful not to just drop her and leave her. “We told ya so.”
Twilight offers you a small, tired smile, “I guess I shouldn’t doubt myself so much huh?” Her eyelids grow heavy and she lets out a soft, adorable yawn that seems to tug on your heartstrings. You nod before stepping back from Twilight.
“Exactly, go ahead and get some rest,” before you finished your sentence Twilight is already sound asleep. You chuckle before looking down at the purple lizard, “She always like this after a spell?”
He shakes his head, “Not all the time no, depends on the spell. Besides it’s been a while she’s gotta get back in to the swing of things,” He keeps eyeing you, “Just what are you anyway?” Before you answer his question you recall the condition the library has been left in.
“Tell you what, Spike was it?” he nods, “How about this, I’ll tell you everything you want to know. In return you help me clean up this mess for Twilight, deal?” He groans, obviously not looking forward to cleaning up. He still nods all the same, “Awesome, let’s get started.” You and he walk side by side as you walk down the stairs and to the warzone…
“I still don’t understand how I could have slept through all of this,” Spike states as he helps you pick up the fallen bookshelf.
“Neither can I little guy, just hope a fire doesn’t break out in this library,” Last thing you need is something else making things harder for you. With Spike’s help you’re able to life the bookshelf and place it back in its proper place. You’re relieved to see that nothing broke on the shelf itself. However some of the books weren’t so lucky, a few covers were now warped and a few pages have been torn. You and Spike spent the better part of an hour separating the damaged books from the others. Thankfully out of the two hundred books that fell, only twenty were damaged. But from what Spike tells you, Twilight will probably spend the better part of the evening crying over the damaged books.
It takes another two hours to alphabetize and reshelf the books that fell. During the organization process you and Spike began to go through the same things you did with Twilight. You tell him a bit about humans and he in turn tells you what he knows about dragons. Turns out, Spike is a baby dragon. That makes him a bit cooler in your books, when you watch him breathe green fire you were in awe. Then he tells you about the link he has with Celestia, apparently his fire can send messages between himself and the princess. Too bad she is stuck on the moon. The time seems to fly by, you don’t even realize how late it is until the sun is setting across the horizon. When you finally finish your task you hear a yawn from upstairs, indicating that Twilight is waking up.
Spike volunteers to go check up on the tired mare while you wait downstairs. You hear whispers from above but can’t make out a single word from your distance. You don’t think too much into it. If it’s something important that involves you they’ll probably tell you. After a few minutes Twilight enters the library’s ground floor via teleportation. When she comes into view her exhaustion seems to have been renewed. She’s breathing heavily from the effort.
“See, I told you I could do it Spike,” She turns her head towards the little dragon as he comes walking back into the library. A wide, triumphant grin from Twilight is there to meet him.
Spike grumbles as he makes his way over to the two of you, “Yeah, yeah, I can see that Twilight. Just don’t do too much at one time,” you chuckle, despite Spike being the baby he sounds more like a brother from your point of view. You take this time to kneel and examine Twilight as she catches her breath. Her legs seem to be trembling.
“Need a hand Twilight?” You extend a hand. She shakes her head in response.
“No no I’m okay, just give me a moment,” Twilight responds as she sits on her haunches. When she finally catches her breath she surveys the area. “Y-you guys did this while I was asleep?” She looks to you with utter shock, you nod. You seem taken aback when her coat turns purple. Her mane and tail follow suit, minus a strand that seems to have been dyed magenta. Suddenly she leaps at your chest, you instinctively catch her. Upon impact you lose your balance and fall over backwards.
Twilight doesn’t seem to notice, she’s too busy wrapping your neck in a vice grip of a hug. Before he can move away Spike is surrounded in a colorful aura of magic. She brings him over and adds him into the hug. “Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you,” she repeats over and over again as her grip tightens. You can’t seem to get in any air and Spike appears to be in the same boat. He tries to get her attention by tapping her, it works but not as fast as you would have liked.
“Huh,” Twilight notices you twitching from the lack of oxygen, “Oh Celestia sorry!” She shouts before finally releasing the two of you from her vice grip. You gasp for precious air as does Spike. This unicorn has a grip the likes of which you’ve never experienced before in your life. That shouldn’t even be possible, for one, she’s a pony; her bone structure shouldn’t let her hug you. But then again you’re not on Earth anymore.
You’re dealing with aliens not animals, though in this case they’re the normal species on this rock and you’re the alien. When you’re finally able to speak you turn to find Twilight sitting next to you, her face showing concern. Her grey coat, mane, and tail have returned, “You okay?”
“Y-Yeah, just don’t hug me around the neck like that,” you rub your neck for emphasis. Twilight’s ears drop and she looks to the floor.
“I can’t even hug properly. I just knew I’d mess up somewhere,” You sigh before getting to your feet. Her personality is going to keep doing this one eighty. She’s going to be happy for one second and then depressed for a minute. Looks like your efforts won’t have any real effect, at least for now. She’ll come around after a few days, or weeks. For now, you’re going to try to change the subject.
“Twilight, I have a question,” she looks up to you.
“Yes?” She sniffles and you do your best to ignore it.
“Do you have a place for me to sleep? I mean if you give me a blanket I’ll take the floor, but a bed would be amazing,” Twilight wipes away the tears that were forming and points to a nearby door.
“Actually, Discord set up a place for you in my basement. He said he wanted you to be as comfortable as possible. Something to smooth your transition in to Equestria,” she explains before putting her hoof down.
“Oh, well that was nice of him,” You really don’t believe a word of that. Discord launched you into space in a bubble. He is not looking out for your best interest. Twilight nods in agreement.
“I know, he never does anything nice for anypony,” Twilight leads you to the door, you follow with Spike following close behind. When Twilight opens the door and walks inside you follow her to find a laboratory of sorts. On the far side of the room you find what you’d consider to be a queen sized bed. The pillows, sheets, and blankets were all different colors and designs. Your blanket looked like it’d been stitched together with poker cards, the sheets looked like a checker board, and the pillow cases had rainbow swirls. The clashing patterns alone were more than enough to give you a headache.
Regardless this bed is something you’d never be able to afford back on Earth. Despite its odd design you’re thankful for it. After surveying the bed you turn to Twilight.
“Thanks again for putting up with me, I know you didn’t have a choice, but you aren’t being hostile towards me. I really appreciate that,” You even surprise yourself with you friendly you can be. In fact, you could say you feel… happy. You’ve forgotten what it feels like to be around someone you could refer to as a friend. Twilight offers you a small smile in return.
“Have yourself a good night Anonymous. And thank you for taking care of Fluttershy,” as she heads up the stairs and out of the room you can hear her add, “she used to be so nice.” Spike offers a wave before following after her, when you’re alone you decide to give your bed a test run, sure it’s not night yet, but it’s not as if there’s a lot you can do today. You’ve done quite a bit as is. A nice long soak in a warm bath or the comfort of a bed would do wonders for you. As you remove your shoes and climb under the covers you could say that this bed could rival the one in Canterlot in terms of comfort. As you wrap yourself up in a cocoon of sorts you feel something pulling your ankles. Before you could react the pulling became forceful. Your shout of surprise is cut off when your head goes under your blanket.
Darkness floods your vision. You can’t see a thing but you feel yourself being pulled rather roughly. Suddenly a blinding light floods your field of vision. You close your eyes for a moment, the brightness being too much of a shock for you.
“Hey alien, stop being stupid and open your eyes already,” Comes the familiar snide sounding Eris. You open them to find that you’re in a well-lit and wacky looking hallway. You turn your back to her to see that half of the hallway is shrouded in darkness.
“What the hell?” You turn back to face the Draconequus to find that she’s disappeared from sight. “Weird.” The hallway, like your blanket, has a poker card pattern adjourning the walls, floor, and ceiling. Six closed red and blue striped doors, three per each side help off-set the hallway. You walk for a few seconds before you finally arrive in what you assume to be a living room area. You see a large red and green polka dot couch on the right side of the living room. In front of the couch sits a zebra striped table. A second table and couch with the same designs are on the ceiling. You find that Eris has taken to reclining on the ceiling furniture.
“Sup?” she greets as she looks down at you, with a snap of her fingers she teleports. In a brilliant flash of purple light she appears a few feet in front of you at eye level and thankfully right side up.
“Hey. What’s with this place?” You motion to every single object in the crazy looking living room.
“This is where you’ll be staying,” It appears that you haven’t been thrown for enough loops enough today. Discord has to pile on more confusion.
“But I thought I was staying at Twilight’s,” you point back towards the hallway.
“You actually thought Discord was going to let you sleep in some tree?” She laughs while shaking her head in disappointment. She’s acting like you should have faith in Discord. That in itself nearly causes you to laugh. After her little laughing fit she wipes away a metaphorical tear before continuing, “Heavens no Anonymous. You’re bunking with me and Screwball.”
“Well I wasn’t’ expecting that,” You can’t seem to get used to the color scheme. When you notice that there’s a blue striped bar, ping-ping, and poker table your patience with this room starts to run thin. Eris notices you looking over the furniture,
“Daddy has a thing for human games. I don’t see what he sees,” She looks on with you, not knowing that you aren’t exactly focusing on the objects in the room, rather the colors. Her voice breaks your concentration, “tour time,” She drapes her lion arm over your shoulder. After that you’re forcibly pulled in to the hallway. “Screwball’s room, my room, your room. Personal bathrooms are across from the rooms.” You’re a ragdoll in Eris’ grasp and she doesn’t seem to notice or care. With that over and done with she pulls you over to the wall to the right of the couches. With a single knock on the wall a red and blue striped door appears.
“Wait, why is the wall like that?” It seems like they’re actively trying to hide rooms from prying eyes. Odd enchantments, color, choice of furniture placement and patters all seem to culminate causing you to feel sick to your stomach. This is definitely going to take some getting used to for you.
“It’s Chaos. You’ll learn that it’s better to just go with it.” Eris opens the door and she ends up dragging you down another hallway. Within a few seconds the two of you arrive in another room. This one is at least four times the size of the living room; it also sticks to the same pattern as the living room as far as the walls, ceiling, and floor are concerned. You believe Discord may have a bit of a gambling problem. Though there are a few obvious differences. Eris points to a few amenities, “Kitchen, hot tub, swimming pool, and library,” It doesn’t take long for you to notice that they don’t have a single book on those shelves.
“Well this is gonna take some getting used to, but thanks,” The swimming pool is a nice touch. But with it being so close to the kitchen you’ll end up losing your lunch if someone is mean enough to drag you into the pool. That’s probably why it’s like this in the first place. They’re chaotic beings. It’d make sense for them to play pranks on one another. Even if the patterns make you sick to your stomach you can’t complain, because this is a lot better than what you were accustomed to. Finally Eris lets you out of her iron grip and you breathe a sigh of relief.
“Took you long enough to get here, didn’t it Anonymous,” comes Discord’s disembodied voice, well, it is until he materializes in the pool, complete with little water wings and an inflatable tube around his midsection. You stifle a laugh, to you Discord looks ridiculous, “So I trust your day went well,” He starts floating around, but he’s sure to give you his full attention on his answer.
”Yes it did, we ran in to a bit of an issue, but I helped her work through it,” you say as you cross your arms.
“Issue?” He leans in and waits for you to explain, which you readily do.
“Yeah, some Pegasus named Fluttershy came in and started wrecking the place. She’s a strong little sucker but I showed her whose boss. I tossed her out of the library.” You take a seat at the edge of the pool.
“Ah yes, I forgot to mention some of Ponyville’s inhabitants are a bit violent,” He chuckles nervously before scratching the back of his head. Now he can’t seem to meet your gaze.
“Yeah, Fluttershy did a number on my back,” You pat your back for emphasis.
“Really?” He starts to make his way over to you.
“Yeah, it hurt something fierce. Tried to get Twilight to fix it, but she has some sort of confidence issue. Me and her little dragon finally got her to cast a spell, she fixed me right up,” you say with a smile. Discord offers you a smile in return.
“Excellent, it seems as if your friendship with Twilight is progressing at a fair pace,” He finally reaches you, “got a friendship report for me?” It’s a little out of left field and you would be lying if you said you were prepared, but nonetheless you comb your mind for a believable response.
“Hmm, sometimes friends will get to a point where they feel as though they can’t do anything. It takes the patience and understanding of a good friend in order to help them overcome their issues and push forward. A helping hand goes a long way too.” You get to your feet when you start to think Discord might just pull you into the pool. You can’t be too careful.
“You’re adjusting to this a lot quicker than I expected, and I’ll accept that report,” He closes his eyes and snaps his claws. All at once you realize that moving back would not help you escape your fate. Suddenly a tidal wave comes from within the pool, soaking you and Eris to the bone in the process. Discord doesn’t try to contain his laughter. He sees that you aren’t finding this amusing. Same could be said of his daughter. “Why the serious face Anonymous, I’m letting you stay in this place for a reason! Loosen up, relax, have fun. That’s what Chaos is all about!”
You spit out the water you’ve collected in your mouth before sighing. You look over to Eris and see that she’s giving her father a glare that chills you to the bone. It looks like you’ve finally gotten the crazy college roommates you’ve never got to have back when you were in school. As you let yourself air dry a single question crosses your mind. Just how are you supposed to get back to Twilight’s basement from here? If you’re supposed to be getting to know her better it’d probably help to be able to get back.