//------------------------------//
// An Unexpected Occurrence 
// Story: TD's Little Rarity 
// by BronyWriter 
//------------------------------//

I'm jarred awake a few hours later, if my watch is anything to go by but you never know with the government, when the van stops. I open my eyes a crack and see that Rarity is still nuzzled up beside me and out like a light. I decide to keep my eyes closed until they come to get us which should be any second now. I hear a little commotion outside and, sure enough, the back doors open. 

"Okay, TD, let's go," says a voice I recognize as Agent Johnson's. I remain silent, determined to keep my slumbering masquerade going. I don't think he's buying it, though, because I hear him step into the van. "Let's go, TD."

"Shh, we're sleeping," I whisper. 

Agent Johnson snorts. "Don't be cute; we have things to take care of."

"You're tearing me from my family," I say, opening one eye and shooting him a half glare. "I get to be 'cute' as much as I want."

Agent Johnson rolls his eyes. "Whatever, just get out of the van and you can be cute somewhere else."

I grumble a half-intelligible reply but I look over to Rarity and gently nudge her. "Hey, Rarity. It's time to get up. We're here."

Rarity groans quietly and rubs her eyes with her hooves before opening her eyes with a yawn.

"Oh that is just adorable," Agent Johnson whispers. 

I glare at him but I can't really blame him much because he is kind of right. I decide it might be best to let Rarity sleep some more as my attempts at waking her up aren't the most successful. So, I pick her up and let her lean her head on my shoulder. "I'm on your schedule, agent," I say. "Not that I have any choice in the matter." I grumble the last part but I think that he either heard me or could guess what I was saying. Thankfully he doesn't comment on the matter so no conflict arises. 

We are met by a few other FBI agents, including Agent Tanner, and led into an unassuming plain white building. We have to go through some metal detectors to make sure that Rarity isn't really a hydrogen bomb but since she isn't as far as I'm aware we're let through without too much of a problem. 

Rarity shifts a bit in my arms but doesn't wake up. Agent Johnson keeps glancing over at her as if he's worried that she's going to fire up her horn and teleport away. I'd be okay with that now that I think on it. If she managed to get away somewhere... well, then would she be safe? Good grief this is more complicated than I'm caring for. 

Since the building isn't that large the convoy arrives at what I assume will be our room until they can get something better figured out. Agent Tanner takes a key card out of her pocket and swipes it before punching in a six digit code quickly enough that I can't figure out what it is. "So you're locking us in. Charming."

"Again, temporary," says Agent Tanner. "Your next room will be less prison-like."

"But we still can't leave and I imagine you'll still lock us in at night." 

Agent Tanner doesn't respond and she leads the two of us inside. To their credit the beds do look comfortable enough and there are the necessary facilities for us so that's a plus. I move over to the nearest bed and pull back the covers with one hand before putting her down on the bed and pulling the covers over her. She nuzzles the pillow and a contented smile washes over her face. Good, she's comfortable for now. 

I eye the second bed and am about to ask if they might buzz off because it's not been a good day for me and the van wasn't very comfortable, but Agent Tanner speaks up first. "Before you go to bed I'm going to have to ask you to come with us. We have some basic questions to get to before we let you settle in for the night." I glance over at Rarity and Agent Tanner puts a hand on my shoulder. "We won't bother her, we promise."

I nod and follow the agents to a room where two scientists in lab coats are talking amongst themselves. I have to hold back a smirk as they look like their outfits were designed by Dr. Doofinshmirtz, a quip I might make to them at some point. The two look up when they see the three of us walk in and smile at me. 

"Hello, Mr. Powell," says the first one, extending his hand. "I'm Dr. Allred and this is Dr. Lundgren." I vaguely consider more defiance but I'm too tired so I shake Dr. Allred's hand. Dr. Allred directs me to a chair and the two agents take their place by the door to fill their 'we look like awesome FBI agents' quota. The doctors take their seats opposite me with eager smiles. "So, you are the man who was taking care of the foal, correct?" 

I nod. "Yeah. Rarity appeared in my room almost a month ago and I've been taking care of her ever since."

Dr. Lundgren jots down some notes and Dr. Allred nods. "I see," says Dr. Allred, "and how was that?"

"Pretty peaceful until I found myself in handcuffs in the back of a police car while Rarity cried into my shirt beside me," I deadpan. 

Huzzah, the awkwardness levels have been doubled!, as Luna would supposedly say. 

Dr. Lundgren clears his throat. "Er... yes that must have been something else," he says. "But aside from the more jarring experiences how was it?" 

"There wasn't much to it," I admit. "We just did our own thing. she watched the show, did some repair work on my clothes, read some of my books, and hid when people came around. I did my RA duties and went to class between keeping her company."

"Surely you can elaborate more than that," said Dr. Allred.

"Not on this little sleep and not without more specific questions than 'how was it?'."

Dr. Allred frowns. "I suppose that's fair," he says. "How about another topic then." He stands up and grabs the staff I got in Canterlot which I hadn't noticed was leaning against the wall when I came in. "This sounds like a good place to start."

"What's there to tell? I got it for ten bits in a shop in Canterlot and it record prominent memories."

"And how does it work?" asks Dr. Lundgren. 

"Magic," I say. 

"That's all you can say about it?" asks Dr. Allred. 

I open my mouth to respond but then one of my favorite kinds of thoughts shows up. The mischievously evil kind. "Well if you want details I suppose I can oblige." I lean back in my chair. "I walked into that special store in Canterlot because the unicorn mare beckoned me in. It was off the beaten path and I'm not sure that a lot of ponies go there so it must have been a pretty sketchy place. Once I was in she got my staff out but it was too small to use so she used her unicorn magic and my staff started growing until it was big enough."

"So unicorns know growing magic?"

"Like I said, this mare made my staff grow. Then she used some more unicorn magic to make it really hard, hard enough that it would be nearly impossible to break."

"I've heard that it records memories," says an oblivious Dr. Lundgren. 

"Yep I've had some fond memories with that," I say. "It doesn't really do anything when you guys are handling it but the mare seemed to know what it was and what to do with it." 

Dr. Allred opens his mouth to reply, but for whatever reason that last bit seems to have gotten through to him and he frowns. "That's not funny," he says. 

"Yes it is," I assure them. 

"No it isn't," Dr. Allred insists. 

"It's a little funny," Dr. Lundgren mutters. 

I chuckle slightly. "That aside, I wasn't lying about any of that. The shopkeeper went into a back room in her shop, she got the walking stick and used her magic to expand it until it was my size and used her magic to record my memories on it and make it nearly unbreakable."

"Nearly unbreakable?" says Dr. Allred. "So if we took an axe to this thing it wouldn't even scratch it?"

I shake my head. "Not to my knowledge, no." 

Dr. Lundgren jots down a few more notes before closing his folder. "Okay, I think that's good enough for tonight to be honest. We just wanted some basic info but we need to gather more information on Equestria to really get some good questions."

"What episode are you on?" 

"Four," says Dr. Allred. 

I snort and stand up with them. I shake their hands one more time before allowing myself to be led out of the room once again, ready to be locked in for the night. 

We reach the room pretty quickly and Agent Tanner once again punches in the six digit code allowing me access. When I walk in I'm surprised to see a simple black laptop computer on the desk in the room. I turn back with a curious glance and Agent Johnson smirks. "It's been altered so that you can't post anything but you can go pretty much anywhere on the internet within reason. We'll monitor all of your internet use so don't bother trying anything dumb. It'll also be a good way to catch up on any of the My Little Pony episodes you missed so you can help us out with what Equestria is like."

Oh yes, that. Goody. I glance at my watch but since it's only seven I decide that I can't hit the hay just yet. If I get internet on that thing then at least I can see how my family is doing. 

"If you need anything, just press the button by the door," says Agent Tanner. 

I nod and sit down at the desk. I heard the door close behind me just as I flip the laptop open. I glance behind me briefly to see that Rarity is still out like a light so that's good. She's going to need her rest for whatever comes. 

I turn back to the laptop and go to Facebook. I can thankfully still log in but when I try to post a status, no dice. I frown. They really weren't lying about that. 

I decide that it would be good to check on how my family is doing. I don't know if they know that I'm gone yet or what's going on or even if they're going to be posting about what they know, like if they've been told that I'm dead or something. It's almost worse than that when I see that nothing of the sort is posted. Noelle posts something about how school is going and Kristen says she hung out with friends. Mom and Dad went to see the new Die Hard with Tim and they said it was terrible but fun. They don't even know yet that they won't see me again, likely forever. 

As I surf Facebook for a moment, the thought occurs to me that I'm still friends with Ben on Facebook. We were roommates and it was prudent to be friends on Facebook in case we needed to contact each other that way. Well, I decide to remedy that. I type his name in to the search bar at the top and go to his profile. Time to delete my dumb screw-up of a roommate who essentially ruined my life. 

Before I click the unfriend button, his latest status catches my eye. My eyes move over so I can read it in full, and what is on the page surprises me. It's... quite shocking, actually. 

I did something terrible today, probably ruined a guy's life forever because of it. Heck, I probably ruined his family's life too. I was stupid, I was selfish, and I was overzealous in what I wanted and I didn't stop to think of what it might do. 

Dude, on the off chance that you're reading this, and I know how unlikely that is, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for it to go so far. I hope you and the one you're taking care of don't hate me forever. I deserve it, though. I hope you don't get more hurt because I was a dumb idiot who didn't think before he did stuff. Good luck.

I stare at the computer screen, hardly able to believe what I'm seeing. Part of me wonders whether it's the same guy who tried to beat me up to get to Rarity today, but I think it is. I guess after he got questioned by the FBI about it he realized how much he had screwed up my life. It's a little late for me, of course, but... I dunno, it's kind of nice to know that he feels terrible about it and that if he had to do it over he wouldn't have gone done it. 

Hmm. I'll have to think on that some more.

Well after that I decide that I can't do anymore surfing on the web and those beds do look pretty comfy. I slip off my shoes and crawl into the bed they've provided for me. It’s not quite as comfortable as it looked, but it will serve my needs well enough. It isn't more than a few minutes before I've closed my eyes and fallen asleep.