“What did you mean by that?” Connor asked.
“You’ll see” Twilight said with a knowing smile on her face.
“Why do you feel the need to taunt me? I’ve been through some serious trauma, and you make it even harder to adjust!” Connor complained in a very sarcastic way.
Twilight looked at him with an absolutely horrified expression. “I DIDN’T MEAN TO HURT YOU IM SO SORRY!” she cried.
“Twilight does your world have sarcasm?”
“Well of course but.” She stopped mid-sentence as realization dawned on her. “That wasn’t very funny Connor.” She said in a rejected way.
“Sorry Twilight. I forgot that you don’t know much about me.”
“It’s fine Connor,” she said with a sniffle “I just overreacted.” She looked at him with a small smile. “Hey, when was the last time you ate since getting here?”
Connor thought to himself and realized that he had only eaten once, in prison. Even then the only thing he had was a few vegetables. He was starving.
“It’s been a while since I have eaten actually. Do you have any food?”
“Well I was thinking we could go out to eat. Sort of like a welcome to equestria gift.” She said with a slight blush. “What do you like to eat?”
“Well I’m not very picky. What do the restaurants around here serve?”
“Well there’s prairie fire, but that place is kind of fancy. How about the bread basket?”
“Twilight, I think you forget, I’ve never been here in my life before now.”
“Oh, of course!” she said, blushing again “It’s a restaurant that serves breads and soups. Nice place and not too fancy.” She explained with a smile.
“Sounds good to me! Shall we?” He said, gesturing to the library door with a hand.
As he walked to the restaurant he felt the gazes of many of the townsfolk on him as he walked. This both creeped him out and made him laugh. He watched one pony walk straight into a wall while staring at him. Another fell into a bush. His snickering stopped as the intoxicating smell of fresh baked bread hit his nose. He looked at the source of the smell and saw the front window of a very rustic looking shop. Its logo was, well, a bread basket with bread poking out. “Not very creative.” Connor mumbled to himself.
“What was that?” Twilight asked him.
“Oh nothing twi. Let’s go eat!”
As Connor walked into the restaurant, she stopped for a moment to think. ‘Did he just call me twi? Do all humans shorten names or does that mean something?’ Twilight’s train of thought was momentarily interrupted when Connor called out to her. “Twilight! You coming?” She shook her head and trotted into the restaurant and took in the nice smells and warm appearance of the place. It was one of her favorite places to eat.
“So what are you thinking of getting Connor?” She asked with a smile.
“The Carrot stew with the bread bowl sounds nice. I’ll take that please.”
“I’ll probably get the same thing. Do you want something to drink?”
“I’ll probably just get water.” Connor said
“Are you sure you don’t want some apple juice? You won’t find it many other places in Equestria.”
‘I should probably do what she asks. I want to make a good impression.’ Connor thought “You know what? That actually does sound nice. Thank you.”
The unicorn server walked up to their table and stared at Connor slack jawed for about ten seconds before he spoke up. “Keep your mouth open like that for much longer and you’ll catch flies.”
The server realized her mistake and quickly went back to her professional appearance. “What are you ordering today?” she said while opening her notepad with magic.
“We’ll both take the vegetable soup with the bread bowl and apple juice.” Twilight said with a smile.
“Got it” the server said as she walked away.
“So Connor, I haven’t had the chance to learn about you since you got here.” Twilight said.
“Well what do you want to know?” Connor asked.
“Well first off, what types of magic do you have there?” She said with eyes full of curiosity.
“Well there are a few schools of magic which a mage can study where I’m from. The school of magic I practice is the elemental school and focuses on manipulating the world around you for combat. Then there are the illusionists. These people focus on manipulation of the mind to defeat their enemies. These people can use spells like fury to send their opponents into a blind rage, or calm to take them out of one.” This seemed to pique Twilight’s interest. She focused a lot on expanding her mind and the thought that there was magic that could take that and twist it was morbidly fascinating. She looked up and saw Connor was about to continue. “Then there are the summoners. These people can summon things purely out of magic to fight for the mage and keep them safe. These are about the only schools of magic that I know from my world. What magic does your world have?”
Twilight began to think of the magic that Equestria had to offer. “Well, we don’t have different magic schools of magic here. Just different skill levels and spells.” This seemed to shock Connor. ‘So just anybody with enough study and practice could become a super powerful mage? That is both amazing and slightly scary.’ Twilight began to continue “For example, I am an expert spellcaster. I don’t know which level you would be at though.” As Twilight said this, she got an amazing idea. “Do you want to have a sparring session after we eat?!” she asked.
“Sure twi.”
‘There’s that nickname again.’ She thought. “Oh look the food is here!” she said happily.
Connor decided that the first thing he would try was the apple juice, since Twilight thought it was so good he’d have to see for himself. He took a sip and the experience that followed could only be described as pure bliss. The flavor hit his tongue like an explosion and his mind was lost in ecstasy. By the time he finally stopped trying to savor the taste of the drink he looked up and saw Twilight looking at him.
“See? I told you it would taste fantastic.” She said as she saw his reaction to his first taste.
“Ok fine, if the soup is even half as good as this apple juice I’ll become a regular in no time!” He laughed.
They quickly finished their meals and began walking to the library. They were walking through the streets and Connor was gathering a lot less stares from everypony as he walked. They were just about to reach the library when Connor heard something running from behind him.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ALIEN DEFENDERS!!!”
Connor turned to see three small ponies running at him with sticks in their mouths. The yellow and red pony was the first to charge and began assaulting his shins with all her might. Connor had to suppress a laugh at how weak the attack actually was as twilight lifted her away with telekinesis and began to berate them.
“Girls! Connor is not an alien, he is my guest and my friend and you will treat him as such!”
The smaller ponies all hung their heads in shame. “We’re sorry twilight. We were just trying to defend you from him and maybe get our cutie marks.”
“It’s fine girls, now go run along. You can meet Connor later and maybe he’ll have some fun with you.”
“Ok Twilight! Let’s go girls, we aren’t getting any closer to our cutie marks just standing here!” upon hearing this, they all ran off in another direction doing who knows what.
Twilight and Connor shared a laugh and walked into the library to prepare for their sparring match.
“So what’s a cutie mark anyway?” Connor questioned twilight.
“It’s a mark that shows up on a pony’s flank when they find their special talent. Like mine,” she explained as she showed him her star “is magic. So I got a star. My talent is a proficiency for magic.”
“That is very cool. If everyone knew what they were best at the world would run a lot more smoothly.”
“It is pretty nice to know. Let’s go out to the back of the library and I’ll set up the protective wards.”
They walked out to the back of the library and Twilight began to cast spells in a large circle around the area where they would be sparring. It was a relatively large area with a few trees and bushes for cover.
“So what do these wards do?” Connor asked.
“The wards are in place to keep spells from leaving the sparring area and people from getting in until the practice is concluded. It keeps people from hurting themselves. It also keeps us from any actual damage; we still feel pain just no real bodily harm to either side actually happens.”
Connor felt satisfied with the explanation. “Are you ready to begin?” He asked while falling into a fighting stance.
“Ready.”
“GO”
Connor made the first move by literally falling backwards into the ground! Twilight sent out a searching spell and felt him coming up beneath her and dodged left just as he exploded out of the ground with a punch that was aimed where her stomach used to be. She sent several blasts of magic at him from several different directions hoping that quantity would get him. He responded by sending a blast of electricity directly at Twilight’s head.
From twilight’s view
She looked and saw Connor pointing two of his fingers directly at her. What was he going to do with those, poke her eyes? She smirked as she saw her magical bolts close in just before a bright flash of light. Then everything went dark.
From Connor’s view
He saw the bolt hit and twilight dropped to the ground. He didn’t feel the wards drop so he knew she was fine but walked over to check on her and decided to use one of the most helpful spells he learned while sparring. He stood above her and placed his hands on her head and channeled his magic into her head, waking her up.
“AAAAGGGGHHHH!!! Why does my head hurt so much?!”
“That usually happens when you get hit with lightning.”
“Is that what you used? I can’t really remember what happened right before I blacked out. All I know now is I have the worst migraine I have ever experienced.”
“I don’t know any healing spells except basic first aid like the spell I used to wake you up. Sorry.” He said sheepishly. "I forgot that you don't know combat magic even close to how strong my world's combat magic is."
She rubbed her temples with her hooves and groaned. “It’s fine, I know a few healing spells that could help it.” She said as she surrounded her whole head in a soft purple glow. “Much better.” She said as she looked up and saw the sun beginning to set. “How long was I out?”
“A few hours at most.” Connor explained calmly.
“Well, let’s get inside. Spike’s probably looking for me by now.”
They walked towards the library and opened the door. Connor turned on the light and what he saw nearly gave him a heart attack.
“SURPRISE!!!”