It was moving as fast it could, in this endless darkness. It couldn't think, didn't understand, all instinct. Hunger was the closest way to describe it. It used to have food everywhere. It used to have many like it. Not anymore. Each new source of food was further away from the last one, each new travel harder to complete. The next one was like a bright jewel in the darkest night. An entity was slowly destroying it, time. So much had passed since the last source of food that was that appealing.
It didn't wish anything or knew anything. Thoughts or even memories were a concept far beyond its abilities. Food was over there, it would go to get it, survival at the most basic form. Similar to a piece of iron attracted by a magnet, there was no decision involved, only action.
Mark woke up tired for his third day on this strange world. He quickly ate his breakfast and then proceeded to let his mind run wild. It's not like he had a wife or kid waiting for him back home, but he was starting to miss his own place and his own people. He was a scientist specialized in advanced composite materials and good chance he couldn't use any of his knowledge here. He wasn't even sure they had electricity. The chances of reproducing the event that brought him there were unlikely to ever happen.
While not his specialties, he had enough general knowledge about science to make the pony society leap forward of one or two hundred years. But would that be a good thing? While humanity was fairly young, he thought he understood the dangers of pushing an unprepared civilization forward. What if mankind had nukes in the First World War, or even before? The ponies looked like a friendly species, but he wouldn't take the chance of messing their future. They had to make their own discovery and their own mistakes.
Prime directive they call it in that sci-fi show?
His presence could be a danger for ponykind, not from what he could do, but from what they could learn from him. It made him feel that his presence was at best an error.
Was it only a freak accident?
His line of thought was cut short when the doctor Stable entered the room. "Good morning." He was carrying his suit on his back and dropped it on the bed.
"Morning doc." he replied. He looked at the suit, it had been clean. It was as white as the first day he got it. The arms were still torn off, but having it a bit more open could be a good idea while not floating in a space station.
The doctor got to the right side of the bed and lifted the bed sheets. Looking intensely at the cast, his horn began to glow of a light brown color. The cast slowly got the same tint. With extreme care the doctor made the cast crack on top following the direction of his leg. The cast broke into two on each side of his leg. The place where the bone broke was still red, but Mark felt no pain and he could move his feet freely.
"I don't know your species enough, but I would say it looks as normal as it should be." he said with a side smile. "Try to not run or jump on it for one or two more days. It's still fairly fragile."
"Thanks doc. I was wondering... What kind of payment are you expecting?" he asked, worried he would have to take a loan or something to pay him back.
"Nothing at all Mark. Healthcare is free in Equestria."
"But I'm no Equestrian citizen. Healthcare is free for every... everypony?" he asked back, surprised that such thing was even possible in a society.
"True it is not. But Miss Sparkle managed to setup something for you. Don't ask me how, but she is the private student of the princess." He shrugged. "She got connections at the right places I guess." Looking at him, he continued "If you don't mind, we would need the bed for somepony else."
Mark smiled. "You're kicking me out doc?"
"That wouldn't be nice of me, wouldn't it? Let's say I will show you the way out."
"Fair enough. Give me two minutes alone to dress up."
Mark put up his suit. While it wasn't particularly hot in the morning, the additional breathing from the torn arms of his suit helped him stay cool. He found out that whoever washed his clothes didn't remove the content of his pockets. His pen was still in good shape, thanks to some space age technology that made them immune to soap. However his cell phone was definitely gone, not that he would find a way to charge it back anyway. He shook it to his ear and heard some liquid left in it. He pocketed it back, as he thought leaving it where somepony could find it might be a bad idea. His Swiss knife was still wet. Using his suit he took time to dry it, to be sure it wouldn't rust.
He stepped out of the clinic to face his hardest challenge yet, he had no idea where to go. The doctor told him he only needed to ask and he would point him the direction, but he simply had no idea. He sit on a rock near the entrance of the clinic and looked at his bare feet. He wouldn't go far like that anyway. For that he was a bit jealous of the ponies. What would be a life where clothes or shoes are totally optional? Even with his suit he felt slightly naked, it wasn't made to be worn on a planet.
He knew he would have to move sooner than later. At some point a yellow mare came toward the clinic with some kind of pet in her arm. Seeing him, she lowered her head and slowly backed off. When she was far enough, she turned around and sprint to where she came from. He was expecting the doctor to tell him to move away to not frighten the patient when somepony tapped on his shoulder. Turning around he found himself face to face with Twilight.
"Oh hey! I didn't see you coming."
"Yeah, I took some kind of 'shortcut'." she simply replied with a proud smile. He wondered what she meant by that. There was only one road to the clinic and almost no forest around it.
"I have to thanks you twice it seems."
"Oh?"
"For once, the book; it was quite instructive. Maybe you could point me toward a library of some kind. There's still plenty I wish to know." he explained while handing her the guide. She put took it with her telekinesis. "As for the second one, for clearing my fees with the hospital." he said pointing the hospital over his shoulder. "You didn't have to."
She shied up a bit. "That was the least I could do. I managed to hurt you twice in that many day." she said with a small smile. "And it only cost me a letter to the princess. But you might have to thanks me a third time."
"Oh?"
"I found you a place to live, at least temporally." she continued with a smile growing on her face. "And it should solve your book problem at the same time." Now he was confused, maybe she found him a way to live in the basement of the some library? "I managed to get you some space in my basement."
How living at her place would solve his books problem? "I... I'm very grateful, but you really don't need to. Don't feel obligated because you hurt me, you did more than enough for that."
"Well, to tell the truth, I'm also doing it by obligation." The excuse sounded flat to him. "If you were to walk around Ponyville without somepony, everypony else would only run in fear." That was somewhat close to the truth. "And I'm the student of the princess and I have to report to her everything I learn." He finally understood on the word 'learn' as she said with much joy in her face.
Ah! Curiosity!
He rose up from the rock he was sitting on; to find out that Twilight's head only reached the height of his chest. "Thanks from the bottom of my heart, miss Twilight." he said lowering himself. She blushed at the display. "It might sound silly, but is there any place you think I could find shoes?" he said pointing at his feet.
"Aren't they made to walk?" she asked confused.
"Of course! But mine are far less resistant than pony's hooves. In a space station, I didn't need any as I was floating around." he explained.
"Well, I will check with a friend later, I'm sure she can make something up. But for now you won't need to walk." she replied with a bright smile.
She won't levitate me up to her house? He didn't like the idea of being displayed at a floating human around town.
Just as he was about to ask, her horn started to glow brightly.
Shhhhhiiiiii...
One moment he was in the bright day light, the next he was in a dark room. He felt to his knees, feeling like if his stomach was hung upside down. He wasn't hurt, but he looked like he played Santa in a rather dirty chimney.
What was that? Did we... teleported there?
Matter transport wasn't a new idea to his knowledge. Quantum mechanics were known to allow in theory the transmission of the definition of an object somewhere else almost instantaneously, in theory. The fact that to his knowledge no human ever managed to do that on an atomic scale, and much less on something as big as him, suddenly gave him a huge respect for the little pony in front of him.
"Are you alright?" she asked him, looking at him apprehensive.
He did a rapid check of his body parts. Finding nothing missing he tried to reassure her. "Yeah, sorry. Was just not expecting that." He slowly got back on his feet. "Are all unicorns able to do that?"
She thought for a moment before answering. "I guess... All unicorns have the ability. But few has the training or the knowledge to do it." she said with a part of pride.
She got my curiosity there. What is magic? What's its limit?
He looked around. He was in a small dark room made out of wood. The more he looked at it, the more he felt it was carved out of a tree. In one corner he could make out a small cot. The other corner showed some kind of piled up experiment materials and random equipments. But everywhere he looked; there were always books in his field of view. The ceiling was surprisingly high and roots were growing down from it.
"You live in a tree?" he asked looking at her.
"It's the town library." she explained. "I took it over when I came to Ponyville. I don't really know why they built it in this tree. I live on the second floor, so you just need to ask if you need anything." she finished with a smile.
He sat down on the cot, trying it out. "Thanks a lot Twilight. It means a lot to me."
She showed him her home, which was basically a small bedroom and a kitchen glued to an average size library. It had no logical structure and was instead following the curves and shapes of the tree it was carved in. Mark was surprised to find that the tree was still fully alive.
But what surprised him the most is when he stopped in front of the fridge. Of course they had to have a mean of keeping food fresh. Even in a small town that produces its own food, people might need to keep it for more than one or two days. What really surprised him was the presence of an electrical appliance. So far he didn't any electrical socket or any sign that they had an electrical grid network. He checked the back of the fridge and found no cord. It wasn't connected to anything and yet it was keeping the food fresh.
"Twilight... It might sound stupid but... What's powering your fridge?" he asked. He felt a bit stupid, was it something really obvious he should have known?
She laughed. "Sorry, forgot you had no magic in your world." She opened a small trap on the side of the fridge and pointed at the white crystal trapped in some kind of socket. "This crystal can store a good amount of magic. After that, it slowly releases it under the form of electricity. The size and shape of the crystal control the voltage it can output."
Mark was simply amazed that such a small crystal could hold some much potential current. "Amazing. And I guess someone has to refill it once in a while? How often is that?"
"Once every one or two month. Depend of the energy drawn from the crystal." she said closing the trap. "Some unicorns prefer to recharge them by themselves. For others unicorns, pegasi and earth ponies we have unicorns who specialize in charging them. It's a rather big industry."
He thought of the huge electrical framework his species built. Their solution was far better, but also useless if you had no magic pony around to charge them back. The crystal looked like basic plain quartz. Had humans managed to generate magic and store it like them, things would have been much different.
Magic... It's obviously providing much more energy than the chemistry limits, but it's not as powerful as nuclear energy. Or does it? No wonder they use it so much.
At some point in the morning, Twilight started to write list of things to buy at the market. She would obviously need more food than usual with the new one in her basement. She was writing the list like she always did, using her magic to make the quill float and write on a piece of paper, dipping it in the ink bottle every few lines. She felt like she was being watched.
"A quill?" Mark asked, staring at the pony. He was sitting on the stairs going to her room.
She blinked a few time, unsure of how to take that question. She understood his surprised at the sight of the electrical crystal, but surely his species managed to learn how to write. She let the quill drop beside the ink bottle. "Well yes, don't tell me you don't write." she said teasing him.
He rolled his eyes. "Of course we write. But a quill? That's so... special?"
She blinked again, finally understanding. "Well, what do you use to write if not a quill?"
He thought a few second, and then snapped his fingers. She was actually surprised of the sound it made. He pulled some kind of black stick off the pocket on his chest and removed the top. "Try this." he said handing her the largest part of the stick. The top was sharp like a needle. She took it with her magical grip and made it float to the piece of paper she was using.
She found that the small dark stick could write as well as her quill and it allowed for a far better control of the line. But she didn't understand where the ink was coming from, it wasn't dripping any and yet it was writing correctly.
By habit she was about to dip it in her ink bottle and Mark covered it with his hand. "Wah! Stop. No need to put my pen in that ink!" The pen floated just above his hand.
"You got to put some ink on it once in a while. No?" she asked. Suddenly she was feeling the same way he was when facing the fridge. It was so similar and so different at the same time.
"The ink is inside. As you write, it keeps flowing. You do have to refill it... Once in a while. You can write a lot of papers with the ink it has inside." he explained.
She was stunned, such an interesting concept. Eliminating the need to carry an ink bottle with her sounded like an obvious advantage. On top, this 'pen' was easy to handle with her magic and didn't drip any ink, unlike her quill.
That's amazing! I have to think about it more!
She was looking like a kid who just discovered candies. Mark smiled. "Keep it."
It was late in the afternoon and Mark was lying on the cot reading a book about the other geopolitical structure of the planet. There were about twenty other countries, bigger or smaller than Equestria, spread on three continents. They were all stacked close to the North Pole. All he could understand was that from some point south there was only huge desert unclaimed from any country. However the book wasn't keeping itself from stating that Equestria was the most important of them, on biggest part because of its princesses.
That sun and moon control again? It's the third book that make reference to that.
He was surprised to find that hooves-kissing indeed existed as the book mentioned it was improper to perform with the princesses. Actually the book claimed any physical contact with them was to be avoided and was quite frowned upon.
He felt being watched once again. Looking at the bottom of the stairs, he saw some kind of roundish lizard standing on his back claws. It was purple with a green belly, eyes and spine.
Does Twilight have a pet?
The staring continued.
Don't assume anything! You did that mistake already.
"Hey!" Mark simply said.
"Huh... hey." the lizard replied, looking confused.
Talking lizard. Great!
"I'm Mark. And... you are?"
"Spike."
"Well... nice to meet you." he said. "If you don't mind me asking, what are you?"
"I could ask you the same. You're nothing like I ever saw."
"I'm a human. From what I heard, there's no other like me." he replied, closing the book he was reading.
I will have to get used to that concept... Being alone, the only one.
"Ewwman? Weird name. Anyway, I'm a dragon." he said pointing at his chest.
A dragon? Seriously? I think I now fully understand how Alice felt in wonderland.
"That's... awesome. You breath fire?" he asked, partially kidding.
"Kinda." Spike replied. He scratched his head with his front claw. "Ah! You're that creature Twilight talked about. I was somewhat expecting a critter or something. With Twilight I should have known." he turned around and started to climb the stairs. "Diner will be ready soon by the way." he said over his shoulder.
At least that one didn't freak out on sight. He sounds like he is used to see weird stuff with Twilight.
After the meal that the dragonling prepared, Mark was back in the basement. He was quite surprised how tasty it was and thought it would be quite easy to get used to his new vegetarian diet. He also found out Spike had some kind of really twisted sense of humor which mostly revolved around making fun of Twilight. His ability with sarcasm was quite impressive.
It was too dark to read and Mark had no idea what to do. He kept thinking about all that magic stuff.
We always saw magic as some kind of uncontrollable supernatural story that had no place in science. Were we wrong all along? It could very well be some type of field or energy we never encountered. A whole different field of science! Maybe a fifth force?
He thought back about what happened in the hospital. He was quite sure the pain he felt wasn't from Twilight's magic. Twilight was quite clear that every living being had a pool of magic, but that only unicorn could use it in a practical way. Since that moment he could feel that where that source was. It was closed, blocked by a wall, but he knew it was there.
Damn you and your curiosity! You're gonna burn both of us!
He frowned.
Shut up brain. I do whatever I want. And why am I talking to myself.
He opened that inner valve as little and as slowly as he could, being ready to close it back at fast as possible. He felt something drip inside him. At the hospital, it was like he was hit by a tsunami while right now it felt like he was watching a rain drop dry on the ground.
He had no idea what to do with it anyway. How can you describe a new sound if you never heard before? How could you play a piano if you never had hands before? He felt like a baby with a new toy, it was interesting, but he was clueless. He felt the drop of energy vanish.
Twilight surely got some book about magic. Gonna check tomorrow.
The next morning Mark was a bit disappointed reading his first tome about magic. Twilight gave him this one to read saying it was the first one foal unicorn usually get. While he understood the thought, it was quite pointless. It was similar to explaining to a first grader what physic is. It's colorful, amazing and can do all sort of crazy things. But Mark was very patient, and he was memorizing everything he read, in hope it would be useful later.
He was about done with the book when Twilight came down with another unicorn. This one was white like snow with curled indigo mane and tail. Seeing her move and behave gave Mark a sudden idea of who this pony might be related too, but he wasn't sure.
"Good morning Mark!"
"Good morning Twilight." he replied while keeping his sight on the new pony.
"This is my friend I told you could help with your shoes problem. Rarity, this is Mark. Mark, Rarity." she said doing the presentation.
"A pleasure to meet you Mark." Rarity said with a noble voice. Mark noticed she raised her right front hoof almost out of habit.
Here goes nothing!
Mark kneeled on his left knee and took her raised hoof in his right hand before she could move back. He lowered himself and silently kissed her hoof. He raised himself back up. "It's my pleasure, my lady." he said with his most charming smile, which he knew had never been great. Looking to his left he saw Twilight was quite surprised. He didn't think her eyes could get any bigger. He thought she was blushing, but being purple was a good way to hide that. However, her mouth hanging open was a good sign.
As for Rarity, the blushing was quite obvious on her white fur. Then an uneasy awkward silence settled in. Mark kept his smile up.
Oh great. I screwed up. Should have read more before. Maybe it's not a sign of gallantry.
"Oh my!" Rarity finally broke the silence. "What a gentlecolt you got there Twilight!" she said with a small laugh. Twilight was still stunned and didn't manage to say anything.
From her way of speaking, Mark saw his theory almost proven. "Miss Rarity, would you be a relative of Miss Sweetie Bell?"
"How do you know?" she asked even more surprised.
"I must say, your gallantry and your amazing white fur give it away." he replied lowering his head.
"How do you know Sweetie Bell?" simply asked Twilight.
Sitting back on the cot, he replied "She came at the hospital with Applebloom and... Scootaloo?" He wasn't sure if that name was right. "Long story short, Applebloom came to face that new scary creature. Anyway, the play time was cut short because her big sister came looking for her." he laughed. "I had a few words with her about scaring her sister."
Twilight and Rarity looked at each other. "You talked to Applejack?" asked Twilight. She had a hard time to believe that. First that Applejack managed to overcome her deep fear of the unknown and second that they talked to each other.
"Yup! That's her name. Orange with yellow mane and three apples on her flank." he explained.
Twilight looked at Rarity again then stared at Mark. "I'm surprised she talked to you... And that you're in one piece."
He laughed again. "I didn't say it had been easy! Let's just say it took a small strength contest." He looked at them. It was obvious they didn't believe him.
Oh come on! Do I look that weak?
"I will go see A.J. later." simply said Twilight, closing the topic. "As for now, Rarity is the best tailor of all Equestria."
"Oh Twilight" said Rarity putting a hoof on her mouth.
"If someone can solve your shoes problem, she is the pony you need."
Mark took some time to think about it. "My species... got used to wearing shoes as protection. Our feet are quite soft and sensitive. In our case, shoes are needed when we walk on rough grounds or for long distance."
Rarity looked down at his feet. "Oh my!" She looked back up at Twilight. "I'm not sure where to begin. I never did shoes to fit that shape or shoes that were not decorative. I'm not even sure what they should look like!"
Twilight's eyes moved to the floor, she was deeply thinking about the problem at hoof. "And if... If you could see what a pair of those should look like, would it help? It would at least give you a base to design on?"
"Well yes. I'm not sure how I could do it without knowing what shape they should be." Rarity explained.
"Good!" said Twilight with a smile.
Mark started to be worried. He learned that this specific smile from Twilight wasn't a good sign. He knew it would ends up with magic applied to his person.
"Mark, I want to close your eyes and think deeply of what those shoes look like." she explained.
I don't have a word to say in the matter?
He didn't say a word and closed his eyes. He thought of his last pair of shoes he wore before the launch of his mission, some plain sport running shoes. He tried to visualize them with the most details he could remember. He always found the pattern on the underside to be pretty. The colors weren't anything amazing, black with a white soul. He felt something warm and familiar come in and out of his head.
When he opened his eyes he saw an exact image of what he was thinking floating in front of his eyes, up to the silver logo on their sides. Twilight's horn was glowing to keep the image floating.
She took that from my mind? I know by now I shouldn't be surprised... but... Wow.
"How interesting." she Rarity, fully focused on the floating shoes. Somehow she put on some red glasses while Mark had his eyes closed. "Quite plain... Without colors... But the shapes... the... hmmm..." she turned around and started climbing the stairs. "Yes... yes... of course!" she was still deep in her thought when she left the basement.
The floating shoes vanished when Twilight stopped the spell. "What just happened?" asked Mark.
"I think she got some ideas. You know... the artists." she shrugged and left a confused Mark behind.
Two days later, early in the morning, Mark was woken up by screams and a persistent taping sound. Still in the sleep haze he rushed upstairs as fast as he could, trying to be ready to face anything this world could throw at him. He opened the door to the basement to find an excited Twilight bouncing around and screaming.
"Yes! Yes! Yes! Yes!"
On the other side of the room he saw Spike had been awaken the same way. The adrenaline rush started to fade away and now he was fully awake. He checked the clock on the wall to find that it was only three in the morning.
"What's up with all the jumping and screaming Twilight?" asked an annoyed Spike.
"I did it!" was all she replied before resuming her jumping around.
Spiked sighed loudly. He noticed Mark had sit down against a wall and was yawning. "What did you do?" Seeing she wasn't answering he raised his voice. "Twilight!"
She stopped jumping around only to take Spike in her front legs, hugging him and she started spinning with him. "I did it! I made a spell!"
Spike didn't like the sudden hugging frenzy and tried to push her back as hard as he could. "What are you talking about? You make new spell all the time."
She put the little dragon down and explained "No, no Spike. I learn new spell all the time! This time I created a new one! One that didn't exist before!" She let out a squeak of excitement.
"You mean... like... totally new?" asked Spike.
"Yes!"
Mark wasn't sure to understand the scope of creating a new spell. He imagined that as time passed new spell would get harder and harder to create as somepony would have thought of them before. Or maybe she was quite young to create a new one? He didn't have much reference on the ages of ponies. Before she started bouncing around, he asked "Twilight, how about you show us that new spell?"
She turned around, finally noticing him. Her smile was as wide as possible. "Of course! It's because of you, so it's only fitting that you would be the first to try it out."
Spike was about to laugh.
Oh great. Mark mentally face palmed himself. But he kept his smile, her excitement was contagious.
Twilight levitated a piece of paper and a quill to him. With a nod of her head he took them. "And... what do I do?"
"Write!" she replied happily.
He started to write some random sentences but quickly ran out of idea. He then simply drew random shapes. He continued for a good minute before raising his head to ask "Well... and?" He was confused. The sheet of paper was full of words and lines.
She squeaked again, happier than ever. "The ink!" she let out.
"What?" Mark didn't understand, his brain wasn't fully started and he was still getting used to waking up without any coffee.
Spike trotted up to Mark and looked at the paper. "Where's the ink coming from? He filled a whole page!" Mark looked at the dragon finally understanding.
"You did a spell out of my pen?" he asked.
"Yes!" she did a few turn on herself giggling. "I linked my quill with my ink bottle. When the spell detects someone is writing, it transports a tiny amount of ink inside the quill."
Mark had no idea of exactly what was involved in creating such spell, but it did sound complex to perform. She told him the teleportation spell was a hard one that not many pony could perform. In this case it was a passive teleportation linked to a triggering event.
She's maybe a genius of magic?
"Wow, that's great Twilight! I will be able to write checklist even faster." said the dragon while grabbing the quill and examining it.
A few days later Mark finally found out what was bothering him since he started reading science book from the library. In some scientific aspect ponies were quite close to the level humans were when he left. However, on some other they were decades, if not centuries behind. He had a hard time to understand how something like that could have happened.
He finally understood when he found out that most scholars were unicorn. Every science branches that could be linked in some way to magic and spells were far ahead of others. He found out numerous ideas and concepts were simply put aside if they had no practical magic application. Advanced mathematics, for one, was terribly lacking, while knowledge about electromagnetic waves, energy or matter were far more impressive.
But even then, he found out that much knowledge that could have leaded to new inventions just never did. For one, they had no indirect way of communication even if their knowledge of sound, wave and electricity were quite beyond the limit needed to create a phone. Simply they never felt the need for such invention. When Mark first saw Spike burn a scroll with his breath, he was confused about that behavior until the dragon explained it was a special teleportation spell he could perform, sending the piece of paper to somepony else.
They had newspapers and basic mail delivery services, but no radio, phone or television. The only mean of transportation was some kind of carriage pulled by ponies. He actually laughed at the idea of ponies pulling other ponies, but he quickly remembered that in some part of his world they had people pulling other people in very busy streets where cars couldn't go. Their knowledge in mechanics and chemistry could have allowed them to perform farming task in a much more efficient way, but he found out they were still doing almost everything by hand... or hoof.
He was in the library alone, reading some book the history of magic when he heard the front door open. He was about to go hide himself as he learned most ponies were not used to his presence even if most knew about it when he saw Rarity come in, levitating a small red box beside her.
"Oh Good Morning miss Rarity. I'm sorry, but Twilight is out right now." he said, trying to sound as much as a gentleman as he could.
"Please Mister Mark, only Rarity." she said with a smile.
"Only if you call me Mark too."
"Obviously. However I'm not here to see Twilight, but you."
Mark was quite surprised. The last time he saw the unicorn was days ago when Twilight performed the mind-imaging spell. "Would you enjoy some tea?" he said pointing at the kitchen.
"With pleasure."
She sat down at the table and put the red box in front of her while he was boiling some water. "I must say" she started. "That shoes thing, it was probably the hardest challenge I ever had."
Mark looked over his shoulder. "I'm sorry, I didn't meant to cause you trouble. Might take a while, but I guess I can get used to walking outside bare feet."
"Oh no, no! Silly me, I meant it in a good way. It was a good challenge. Something I never did. It gave me so many new ideas. I hardly slept in the last few days." she said. Mark noticed she did look tired. "Using shoes to protect yourself? Such a wild idea!"
"Green leaves, blueberries or raspberries?" he asked.
"Pardon?"
"Your tea." he said.
"Oh! Blueberries if you may." she replied with a smile.
He sat down and handed her a cup of tea. "How is protecting your fee... your hoof such a wild idea?" he asked while taking a sip of his tea.
"My dear, I simply don't know! It’s probably because nopony every thought of it before. We do have boots and shoes, but they simply exist to be pretty. Not that there's anything wrong with that!" she explained. "But when I saw your shoes, it was obvious it wasn't a simple piece of clothes. There were many layers and each had a role! The soul was made to protect from rock and sharp object, while the sides were obvious made to keep your... feet... warm and dry." She took a pause to drink a bit of her tea. "In winter ponies tend to stay inside, snow isn't so great for our hooves. Now imagine a whole line of fashion boots that keep your hooves warm and dry, even in deep snow!" She giggled. "A whole new line of fashion that never existed before!" she said with a huge smile.
"I'm happy I gave you some ideas." he said, impressed that such simply request may lead to new inventions.
She pushed the red box over the table. "It took me many tries, but I think I got them right."
He took the box cover off to find out a pair of shoes quite similar to what he had in mind. However, they were blue and the silver logo on their sides was replaced by a series of incrusted yellow topaz. He took them off the box to find out there were quite heavy. Looking under them he found out they had a kind of long stretched steel horseshoe blended in the soul.
Heavy, but I got the feeling I won't break them easily.
He looked at them from every angle, the craftsmanship was simply amazing. They were covered in small details but never anything that would be of bad taste. He could see the shapes of leaves embedded in the blue velvet.
"So?" she asked impatiently.
"To tell the truth... They are simply amazing. I never saw such fine details." he honestly said.
"Try them on!" she said with a huge smile.
He moved his chair away from the table and gently put the pair of shoes on the floor. He slid his feet in and tied them on, finding out they were of the perfect size. "Wow... They fit perfectly! How did you do? You never measured my feet!" he asked looking at her.
"As a tailor, I got a good eye for sizes." she said proudly.
"Or two." he joked back. He looked at his feet, they were perfect. He untied them, removed them and put them back in the box.
Rarity looked puzzled at the box. "You don't like them?" she asked disappointed.
"What? Of course I do! They are simply amazing." he said. "But I don't have any currency, and those topazes probably cost you a lot." He shook his head. "I'm sure I will find a job at some point and then I will manage to buy your amazing craftsmanship."
She blinked a few time. "Oh silly!" She pushed the box toward him. "It's a gift. A gift to a new pony around, a gift for giving me that idea for a totally new line of product." She laughed.
"But... gems... Aren't they very expensive in here?"
She laughed even more. Moving around, she pointed at her flank. "My... 'talent'. I'm able to find gems in the ground. I know where they are even without digging." she explained with a smile. "Aside, I had some left over from my last dress, and topaz matches so well your eyes." she said winking at him.
Is she flirting? Wait... my eyes?
"My eyes?" he asked. "I'm no artist... but how is a yellow topaz matching my green-brownish eyes?"
She looked at him confused. "Green? But your eyes are yellow my dear, almost golden."
"What?" he simply asked. He ran off the kitchen and climbed the stairs to Twilight's bedroom. He faced himself in front of her mirror, looking himself deep in the eyes.
Holy! She's right!
His eyes were a dark yellow, almost golden.
When did that happened? Am I sick?
He passed his hand on his jaw.
Great, I need to shave too. Doubt I'm gonna find a blade.
He then noticed his beard was pepper and salt instead of his usual dark black.
What the hell is going on with me? At least my hairs didn't change color over night! Still dirty blond.
"Is something wrong Mark?" asked Rarity from downstairs.
"I wished I knew." he simply answered.
The next two weeks passed quickly. Mark found himself reading as many books as he could. He was devouring anything related with history or geography. However his frustration and his host's frustration were rapidly building up. He wasn't finding anything related to human and the planet's land masses were not really clear. His lack of geological knowledge wasn't helping. On the other hand, he was deflecting every advanced questions Twilight was asking him. His research was going nowhere and he felt his host was about to kick him out.
He talked a lot to Twilight about the generic stuff about his species; biology, social interaction, psychology, geography or demography. But anytime the pony would ask about mathematical or physic questions, he would first check the books in her library to make sure they had first achieved that knowledge before talking about it.
One morning, he was sitting on the cot reading some kind of pony theory about continental drifting when Twilight came down. She sat on the floor in front of him and stared at him. He put down the book.
"Good morning." he said. Moments passed and he knew something was wrong as she wasn't replying. "Is something wrong?" he asked.
"Why?" she simply asked. He was about to open his mouth when she continued. "Why aren't you answering my questions? I got so many! I answered all yours as best as I could." She could feel that Mark had an amazing amount of knowledge, but he wasn't sharing it with her. "Isn't knowledge made to be shared?" She wasn't crying, but he could feel she was on the edge.
He opened his mouth again, and then closed it once more. He took time to think about his next words. He knew this would come sooner or later. She was friendly with him and he was starting to enjoy her company too. He hurt her without really noticing it. But was there any other way?
"Twilight... I..." he thought he was ready to answer that specific question, but the look on her face made him understand he wasn't. "My species... Learned that knowledge can be quite dangerous." he started. "Some knowledge that looks armless can be turned into terrible things." She was confused and he knew he wasn't doing much progress. "Let me explain. One of our most brilliant scientists once found out a formula to explain... to explain the equivalence between matter and energy. The formula was simple, elegant and quite amazing. It was the result of years of thinking and math. It was brilliant." He knew from her books ponies hadn't found it yet and were lacking some of the knowledge needed to come up with it.
He took a deep breath. "Decades later, other scientists found out a way to put his formula in practice. They put it in the form of a bomb. They were seeking practical application of that specific knowledge because our world at the time was at war." he looked at his hands. "It was detonated twice in populated area. Hundreds of thousands died in a flash. There was almost nothing left of both cities." He paused. " 'Now, I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.', that scientist said once he saw the result of his creation."
"It ended the war, somehow. But the cost was terrible. For decades following that, people tried to prevent countries from building more of them. But two of them continued to build them because 'the other side' was doing it too. At some point, the device had been improved so much; it was thousand times more destructive than the first two explosions. There was enough of them to completely destroy our world many time. We actually came quite close to that." He raised his head and looked at her in the eyes. She was crying.
Pat yourself in the back, idiot, you managed to make her cry.
"We learned those lessons the hard way, but it was the only way to learn them. That knowledge is now used for good, to generate energy for cities. I could propel your civilization's knowledge a hundred year forward. But would that be a good thing? If we had that knowledge a hundred year before, we would most likely destroy our self."
"But we are peaceful... We..." she tried to say.
"Can you say the same thing about your neighbor countries? What if one of them was to build one of those device bases on that knowledge? I wish I could show you all the marvels we created and invented. I truly want to show you, you're curious and it's contagious. But would that be a gift or a curse? I'm terribly sorry; I'm not made to have the future of a civilization on my shoulder."
He looked at his feet. "I'm so sorry. I truly wish I knew a way to show you everything without any danger." He did wish he could watch her eyes glow in amazement from new concepts, inventions or ideas. Some time passed in silence. He could hear her sob. His story and the two week of growing frustration collided in a flow of emotions.
He was surprised to feel his face pushed in some purple fur. She was hugging him and careful, he hugged her back. "I... I think I understand." she started. "Every time somepony found a new type of magic or a new spell, some other pony would misuse it. Sometime on purpose, sometime by accident. I guess... I guess we almost destroyed our self a few times too."
She does smell good. If back then I had meet someone like her in college...
She let him go and continued. "If I was to go in your world, and teach magic, good chance you would also have to learn the same mistakes we did, but in an accelerated way. It... it could destroy your world. I... understand."
It was the morning of his 18th days living in Twilight's home. He entered the kitchen and unrolled a map on the table.
"What's this?" asked Twilight.
"Took me a long while to understand, but I finally found out. I think." he said. He pointed at the map. "This is your best map of the planet. From what I learned, ponies aren't much going around on sea." He pointed at an ocean. "So most likely lot of islands or even a small continent might still be undiscovered."
"Yes?"
"I had an hard time. This map, from my point of view looked nothing like my planet." he explained. "However..." he said while unrolling an second map on top of the first one. "This is the map drawn by one of your scientist. He theorized that in the past, the planet had frozen poles and that the water level was much lower."
He shrugged. "My planet did have frozen poles. But even with a much lower sea level, while it does look more like my own, it's still not that." He unrolled a third map. "This map was drawn by one of your geologist to display the continental drift. While quite interesting alone, it's still not my planet."
He finally unrolled a forth map on top of the stack. "This map... It took me a while. I draw it myself, so sorry if it looks terrible." he apologized. "This one is the combination of the continental drift and the different sea level. This one is very close to what my planet looked like. The shapes in red are what would be missing to be my planet." he said, pointing at a red Australia, a missing American west coast and a good part of the south of Asia.
Twilight looked at the map. "So... you think you traveled in time?"
He sighed. "I think so. It's still no solid proof. And if I really did, with the continental drift, we are talking tens of thousands of years. Maybe more." He crossed his arms. "But I got an idea of where to go to find proof." He pointed at the south of North America. "There. We used to have a city in the middle of the desert. From what I understand, it is still a desert. The sands could have preserved something."
Her eyes were wide. "You can't go there! That desert is dangerous. It's not accurately mapped because nopony goes there. And nopony goes there because there's nothing to eat or to drink within thousands of kilometers."
He sighed again. "I got to try. I got to know. Not knowing where or when I am... It is slowly eating me inside."