Twilight and Thomas were down in the basement when Rarity arrived to have tea with the librarian. Spike directed her towards the proper door before returning to his chores, albeit with a slightly more upbeat attitude after seeing the marshmallow mare of his affection. Rarity stood on the landing at the top of the stairs and looked down at the two scientists with a slight smile. They had set up part of the laboratory in a corner of the room, but she couldn’t see what they were testing.
“Hello!” She called down to the stairs.
The two looked up with slight surprise at the voice, but smiled when they saw her at the top of the stairs. Thomas waved her down towards the table where they were experimenting and she quickly trotted over. She saw nothing on the table other than miscellaneous items that included a few books, a screw driver, and Thomas’s knife. She looked at them inquisitively.
“What are you two up to all alone in the basement?” Her slight insinuation was lost on the two as Twilight began to explain.
“Well, since Thomas and the other humans seem to be resistant to magic, we decided to test just how resistant they were and in what ways they could repel it.” She pointed towards the objects on the table. “So far we’ve tested whether humans can repel a spell that’s cast on an object they’re holding, like a field.” Rarity looked up from the table and asked
“And can they?” The two scientists exchanged looks before Twilight responded “Why don’t we show you instead?” With that, Twilight quickly switched places with the other unicorn as Thomas picked up a book and held it in his hand as he stepped back a few paces.
“Now, take the book and set it on the table with your magic.” Twilight instructed. Rarity focused on the book, which Thomas was now holding in front of his chest, his arms partially extended. Her blue aura appearing around the object as she tried to pull it towards her and the table, but it refused to budge. She grew frustrated as she felt another force telling the book to stay put, to rebel against her magic. As she tried harder, the opposite force did as well. She looked at Thomas to see he was focusing completely on the book, yet his fingers were relaxed and his arms weren’t tensed. He wasn’t physically pulling on the book, which frustrated her more. She steadied herself and tired to yank the book from his hands, but only got an inch or two before the rebel force met her with equal force and her progress halted. The two were at a stalemate for a full minute before Twilight broke it off.
“Relax Rarity, I couldn’t pry it from his hands the first time either. I had to go three rounds with him before I was able to wrench it from his grasp.” The white unicorn looked at her curiously as she released her magical grip.
“Rounds?”
“Well, we may as well have been boxing over the book. I could feel his pull on it and no matter how hard I tried; he would match my magic with his own focus. But the field, or whatever it is, seems to only extend from his hands, since I was easily able to pull the book when he put it between his arm and body and under his feet.” As she spoke, Thomas had returned the book to its spot on the table and extended his hand towards Twilight’s horn. The two unicorns looked at him, one curious, the other unsure.
“Do you think now’s the best time to show her? I think we need to run more tests with that.” Twilight looked at him cautiously, but Thomas insisted with a silent conversation with Twilight. Rarity looked at the two with a loss for words, as she absolutely hated being out of the loop. Twilight then touched her horn to Thomas’s hand and she saw purple magic slowly spread out over it and up to his elbow. At this point, Thomas and Twilight stepped away from each other, and the human raised his arm to his face, a look of extreme concentration on his face.
“What’s going on?” Rarity whispered to Twilight.
“He’s taking control of the magic I gave him.” She responded with an unsure voice.
“He’s what?!” Rarity screamed, causing Thomas to jump and some magic to shoot off his hand and turn the table into a dust. The two unicorns jumped back as Thomas regained focus on the magic, beads of sweat appearing on his face.
“He has to remain completely focused or the magic escapes and reacts on its own. You see, he seems to be able to remove my control over the magic in his body if he focuses hard enough, and then he can use it for his own purposes. It’s amazing!” Twilight whispered to Rarity, who was staring at Thomas with wide eyes.
“You mean he can now use magic?!” Her whisper was becoming loud, so Twilight shushed her again.
“Only the finite amount I’ve given him and he’s nowhere as efficient with it as me. He uses twice the amount to do half of what I can do. Turning the table to dust took enough magic to move half way up his arm.” She pointed at his forearm, which Rarity saw was now only half covered with the purple aura. As she did, Thomas relaxed his expression and turned towards the girls.
“Ready?” Twilight asked. Thomas nodded and turned towards the stairs. He steadied himself, making himself as stable as possible with his two legs and extended his arm.
“You’re gonna love this.” Twilight nudged Rarity excitedly with her knee. The white unicorn looked on nervously. The idea of something other than a unicorn or and alicorn handling magic was making her very nervous. Twilight on the other hand was quite relaxed and a small smile sneaked onto her face. Thomas looked towards a stack of parchment on a far desk and let loose some magic.
*POOF*
There was an audible noise when Thomas used the magic this time, the stack of parchment turning into a pumpkin.
“What is with you and pumpkins?” Twilight asked him “And don’t say it seems fitting this time.” Thomas only shrugged and turned to Rarity. His hand from the wrist to his fingertips retained the magic aura, which began to drain towards the palm of his hand as a single red rose emerged. Rarity blushed at the sight of the beautiful flower and gently took it in her magic. Thomas straightened himself as Rarity spoke.
“Thank you Thomas. It’s lovely.” Twilight looked at the two with a rather surprised look on her face. Thomas returned to the table and stood expectantly, waiting for Twilight to rejoin him. She ignored him and moved towards Rarity to examine the flower. It looked as real as if it had been plucked from a garden, each petal delicate and thin. But it was something on the petals that caused Rarity to hold the flower up to the light. Etched into each of the petals were the words Friendship is forever. Twilight quickly saw what had caught her friends’ attention and gaped. Such detail! On a first try!
“I completely agree Thomas.” Rarity lowered the flower and smiled again. Thomas bowed in response. With that, the two scientists wrapped up their studies for the time being. Thomas cleared a space on one of the tables for them to set their tea cups and the kettle while Twilight used her magic to teleport the necessary items down into the basement. Using some of the sturdier lab equipment, Twilight jury-rigged something to hold the kettle over a Bunsen Burner and relaxed with her friends while they waited for the tea to be ready.
“So Thomas.” Rarity began, sitting regally in one of the chairs. “I was wondering about Earth.” Twilight and Thomas looked up at her with mild surprise.
“What about?” Thomas breathed, trying not to stretch the stitches. He got looks of concern from both Twilight and Rarity. He waved them off before they could say anything. “I’m fine, I’m just a little tired of writing everything out.”
“Ok then.” Twilight said, slightly unsure. Rarity also gave him a concerned look before continuing.
“If you say so.” She said with a nod. “Since you and your friends always wear clothes, I was wondering if it was the same for all humans?” Twilight snickered lightly, knowing her friends obsession with clothes. Thomas smiled a little as well as he answered.
“Yes. We wear clothes for every occasion.” He nodded. Rarity’s face lit up at the same moment the kettle began to steam. Twilight poured out the water into an infuser with tea leaves and let them steep.
“Really?! Even to sleep or swim?” She asked, leaning forward eagerly. Thomas nodded.
“Yes, even for that.” He said. “In fact, it’s considered scandalous to swim naked in most places and sleeping naked is less so, but usually not done with others unless in a relationship.”
“You don’t use absolute statements very much do you?” Twilight asked curiously. He shook his head.
“There is an exception to every rule. Including the one I just said.” He remarked. Twilight shrugged in agreement, but Rarity was more focused on the clothes.
“Really?” She asked with a gleam in her eye. “So, every situation calls for clothes?”
“Yes.” He smiled at the contradiction, but focused on Rarity’s questions.
“So you’re clothing designers must make lots of money.” She guessed. Twilight poured out the tea, using a strainer to keep the leaves form getting into the cups. Thomas and Rarity thanked her when she levitated the cups over to them.
“It’s a cutthroat industry from what I understand.” He said with a shrug. “And it tends to be dominated by big corporations, but there are mom and pop clothing stores.” The trio spent the next hour or so discussing things about Earth and Equestria, what was similar and what wasn’t. Twilight wasn’t too thrilled to hear about the large military and all the advanced weaponry, especially since Thomas wouldn’t let her anywhere near the guns. Rarity focused on the high value placed on gemstones.
“Well, not all of them are really valuable.” Thomas conceded. “Diamonds are actually quite common, but a single company controls 80% of the market and keeps the values high.”
“Well that’s just stupid.” Rarity remarked with a sip of tea.
“People will buy what they want, regardless of price.” He responded neutrally. The pair of unicorns refilled their tea cups as they mulled that piece of logic over. Thomas didn’t exactly paint humans with the brightest of colors, focusing on mixing the two with a focus on contrasts.
“What about you?” Twilight asked curiously. Thomas looked up with slightly raised eyebrows.
“Well, I’ve been much for gems or valuable metals. The only thing like that I owned was a small vial of silver from Alaska.” He answered, causing Rarity to tilt her head slightly in curiosity.
“Why the vial?” She asked. “And where’s Alaska?”
“It’s this really big state in my country. About a 15% to 16% of the entire country I think and it is 600,000 square miles or so.” He answered, impressing the pair with his ability to remember such trivia. “And it was in a gift shop.”
“Why were you in Alaska?” Twilight asked. “Didn’t you say you lived in Maine, is it near there?” Thomas set his cup on the table and crossed his legs before setting his hands in his lap.
“It was a family trip. My parents, Marcus, his sister, and I went up for the summer, and it’s on the other end of the continent, about 3000 miles away.” He explained. “Marcus isn’t my family, but we’re good friends. We were 14 or so and we spent two months at a cabin on a lake. It was on a beautiful lake and the only was in or out was by pontoon plane, a flying machine that can land on water.”
“Sounds like a fun time.” Rarity observed with a smile. Thomas nodded absentmindedly, lost on memory lane.
“It was. We spent hours canoeing the lake, fishing on shore and from the canoe, swimming in the beautiful water, and watching the stars. His sister wasn’t too happy about spending so much time with us, especially since Marcus had told her that I had a crush on her a month before and she’d slugged me in the middle of the school lunch hour. But I was able to convince her I didn’t have one and the three of us eventually had fun.” Rarity had a gleam in her eye that only made Twilight want to facehoof.
“Did you?” She asked eagerly. Thomas snorted in laughter.
“No. Marcus wanted me to ask her out though, said it’d be hilarious.” He answered. “She was a year older than us and on the women’s softball team. Boy, it sure was fun explaining to my parents how a girl punched me in the face at lunch in front of everyone.” He said the last part with dripping sarcasm, making his drinking compatriots smile.
“But after I explained the situation my parents were pretty understanding.” Thomas smiled fondly at the memory. “I mean, they were always understanding people, always listening to the circumstances of a situation. My mother’s philosophy was that morality was situational, were anything could be moral if given the right set of circumstances. And my dad, well let’s just say that he considered anything without a purpose useless” Rarity grimaced slightly, having run into ponies like that in the small town of Ponyville. They were never rude or anything, they just didn’t buy anything from her store.
“They sound like good parents.” Twilight said with a smile. Thomas nodded, still going down memory lane.
“They were. My mom always had my back and I could always count on my dad if I needed advice.” He reminisced. “There was this one time when I was doing a science project on light refraction and I couldn’t get the prisms just right. I got so frustrated that I was about to throw out the project and do a different one. My dad had been watching me work and suggested I get a snack from my mom, which I did. When I got back, he showed me how to properly set up the prisms and get the results I wanted.”
“Well that was nice of him.” Twilight said with a smile.
“I ended up winning the science fair.” Thomas added, his eyes misting. “And then there was the time they took me to the Smithsonian and let me spend three days visiting every museum. Even though they had to telecommute for work.” Twilight saw a tear slowly move down his cheek. He removed his glasses and wiped his eyes.
“Are you ok?” Rarity asked sincerely, moving to comfort him. He nodded, and leaned forward to rest his elbows on his knees.
“Yeah. It just hit me that I would never see them again.” Thomas said. “And that they’ll have no idea what happened to me.” He pulled a slightly surprised but no less comforting Rarity into a tight hug, tears flowing more readily down his face. Twilight also hugged him, and patted him on the back.
“Sorry about this.” He said through his tears. He was immediately shushed by both mares.
“There is no need to apologize.” Rarity informed him, returning the hug. “It’s perfectly understandable to cry over family. Especially in this situation.” Twilight nodded in agreement.
“We understand.” She parroted, unsure of what else to say. To say she never to be comforting an alien about never being able to see its family again would be an understatement. Nevertheless, she did her best and made sure that he had plenty of tea and cookies within reach for comfort food should he want them. Once he had spent a few minutes undergoing his emotional release, Thomas thanked the mares for giving him his moment. They spent the rest of the day performing more experiments and playing monopoly with Spike after dinner. Rarity won.