A week had passed since the power demonstration, and Cole wasn’t too pleased to find out that the test was tomorrow. It was quite aggravating, seeing as how most of the things slipped his mind over the month he had to prepare. Even though he was acting rather pessimistic about the next day, he forced himself to stay optimistic. ‘Least the weather’s nice,’ Cole thought, trying to find a damn silver lining in this place.

Nothing had truly changed- although, Ponyville and its inhabitants were beginning to get used to Cole. Which pleased him, but he knew fear when he saw it. While the people went about their daily lives, Cole could feel the deep paranoia irradiating from the citizens. That alone drove him to worry, but it was the least of his concerns at the time. While yes, it did bother him, it wasn’t what was important.

What was important, was getting some of the knowledge he lost back to him. Now, Cole didn’t mean by studying his poor ass off. No. He was just gonna look at the essentials. But how could he know what the essentials were if he didn’t even remember the test that he was given initially? He needed help- big time.

That’s why a trip heading to the Golden Oaks was in order, to find out what he wanted to know, rather, needed to know. He could’ve stormed the Mayor’s office and grabbed a copy for himself, but he’d likely be held accounted for- behind bars, which he’d break. And, he didn’t quite want the potential trouble, so he just stuck with his plan. The nerd unicorn just had to have genius ideas or something. She was an egghead, after all.

“Twilight.” He waited for the unicorn to come out. Unfortunately though, she didn’t. “Dammit,” Cole sighed. Placing his hands into his pockets, he turned around to face the town a bit. “Where did-”

And then he got a door to the head. Cole yelped, reflexively getting into a combat pose, as unstable as a drunkard with vertigo as he turned around. “Whoa whoa WHOA! Don’t shoot, Cole! Friendly!” Said a nearly-fried Rainbow Dash.

Immediately, Cole swore under his breath. Almost killed a pony there. When he could see, the conduit noticed the Daring-Do book in her left hoof. “Damn… Didn’t you hear me knocking!?” Cole scolded angrily, holding the back of his head as he looked to the pegasus.

“No, uh... I was… doing things. Awesome things, not something that an egghead like Twilight would do, y’know, like… read…” She then hid the book behind her back. Too bad the red cover stood out against her cyan coat like a sore thumb.

“Yeah, yeah, she’s home. Downstairs. Nice talking to ‘ya Cole, but, I gotta fly!” Rainbow took off with a streak of diligence.

“Nice BOOK behind your ass, egghead!” Cole yelled behind her, with a chuckle. Slammed a door on him will she? Damned pegasus, should know better than that. Just to mess with her, he should find Rarity and make her spread the word. Either way, Cole had pent up aggression to release as he strode through the door. “Hey T-... wait… heheh.” The conduit decided to have a little fun as a devious smile cracked across his face. He cleared his throat as quietly as he could, and yelled out, “Miss Sparkle! The Equestrian Library Association is here to claim your books AND JOB! You are a terrible librarian!” with a vicious, cold tone. Didn’t sound like Cole, so he was hoping that it’d pay off. “You don’t read to kids, you stocked the shelves with nothing but magic books, and the library attendance is terrible!”

“WHAT!?!?!” Twilight screamed. Bad idea, Cole thought, since he heard multiple crashes as the unicorn came thundering up the stairs. “TERRIBLE!?!” She got to the top of the stairs, only to find Cole laughing his ass off. His face was red, and he was hunched over, holding his sides. It took him a while to calm down.

“No, seriously Twilight. All I ever see you do is read. Spike is a better librarian than you, I see him more on the floor than you.” Cole managed to stand straight and sigh in satisfaction. “I see almost no books on humans. Shame on you.” he said jokingly.

Twilight’s blood was on the brink of boiling, so she didn’t quite comprehend just what the blipping hell was going on. She was focused a lot more on the joke that Cole decided to play on her, and eventually she came to the realization that it was just that. Deciding to get him back, she said, “Well, at least I didn’t miss anything on my schedule, Mister Studious.”

“I’m making cake! I can’t multitask very good, so I just asked Rainbow to get the door! She was leaving anyways!” The tiny dragon peeked his head around the corner of the kitchen wall, wearing a tiny little pink apron and a chef’s hat.

‘Damn, that’s almost adorable,” Cole thought. “Yeah, what’s your excuse for not answering the door to your own home and place of employment, huh?” he asked, crossing his arms. He was smiling, struggling not to laugh even harder than before.

“Nevermind! I was just reading about how to become a better librari-” And that was when Cole nearly experienced the feeling of vomiting up your insides from laughter. “Cole?” Twilight asked, lifting her eyebrows. “You-”

Cole almost heaved from the laughter, leaning over a bit. Knowing what was coming, he immediately rushed outside, and came back a couple minutes later, coughing. “Alright, I’m done,” Cole’s voice was slightly haggard and crackly, the kind of voice one would have after throwing up. “Okay… okay… alright.” He cleared his throat. “Sorry. It’s just a joke. Citizenship test’s tomorrow, I need a hand.”

“... What? Are you implying that you didn’t study at all?!” Twilight scolded as Spike waddled back into the kitchen.

“No, I implied you're a bad libraria-” he stopped himself before he started laughing again, hunching over. Twilight glared at him. “I studied, I just forgot a lot of the stuff.”

“How? It’s been only a few days!” Twilight said in shock. Even fillies and colts had better memory than him.

“Look, humans are different than you ponies. All work and no play makes Cole go crazy!” he snapped. “Anyway. I need something to jog my memory, and I’d have to call myself an idiot if I hit the books. Got any ideas, Einstein?” he teased.

“My name is Twilight Sparkle, not Einstein… whoever that is. But, yes! I think I have something in mind…”

“I don’t mean that, Cole… Let me do my work, I’ll get a copy of the test. We can focus on the important parts.”

As fate would have it, the genius lived up to her title, and also did what she said she’d do. Returning to the library about an hour and a half later with a book, which was familiar to Cole. It was the Citizenship Test. They spent another half hour going over it, before they started to get down to the questions.

There was a series of multiple choice questions, like an eighth grade mathematics evaluation test. Twilight was asking him orally, so he could remember them. “Now, what is the legal age of alcohol consumption? Is it A- eighteen. B- when you gain your cutie mark. Or C- twenty one.”

“Correct- twenty one. Eighteen is the established age of adulthood, and when you gain your cutie mark just signifies your talent in life.” She went onto the next question. “Now… which of the rules here is true? A- Law forbids eating in a place that is on fire. B- You can be arrested for vagrancy, but only on Sundays. C- It is illegal to give dogs whiskey.”

“There was a law made just for Pinkie...” Cole raised a hand to cover both eyes. “There’s more than one for Pinkie, isn’t there?”

“Yes, but not in the Citizenship Test.” Twilight replied. “Now, your answer?”

And so, the questions continued with the mock test, and they included many things, like;

Fuck that law to hell, but he best remember it, ‘lest he wants his balls cut off.

After the mock test was finished, all of the important stuff that was worth fifty percent (that Cole didn’t remember) was given back to him. Twilight even filled it out as they went with the correct answers, so if Cole really wanted to, he could just score a hundred percent on the test. He just had to remember what Pinkie would do, and he’d be golden. Just don’t do what she does.

Quickly after, Cole walked back to Lyra’s place for a little nap. But to his dismay, the door was locked. “Piss,” the conduit cussed, rattling the handle. He wasn’t about to go sleep on the roof, it was getting nippy out here. “Lyr-... ooh, what’s this?” A sock on the doorknob? Did she have someone over? That bitch! Did she smoke his weed? Oh she better not have!

And so, Cole decided to cut the visit short, by scaling the wall to his room’s window. He always left it unlocked. But this time, Lyra had locked it. “Dammit… Well, guess it wouldn’t hurt,” The prime conduit then performed a simple alpha blast, to shatter the window. He came crashing through the glass, and time seemed to slow down for a mere second.

Through the door, in the hallway, he could see a pony glance his way. He couldn’t see a face, but he knew it was a stallion just by the way he stood. He rolled to his feet. “HEY!” He then charged out towards the stallion, who ran down the hallway which was to the right. It was a dead end. “Nowhere to run now, asshole!”

The stallion raised his head and made his horn glow, not even a second before Cole reached him. Using a flash spell, the stallion blinded our hero. Cole shot off a pincer bolt, which shattered the glass- he obviously missed his target. Time seemed to slow yet again, as he was no longer blinded. Cole saw the stallion salute him, before teleporting to God-knows-where. “Damn…” Cole shook his head, rubbing his eyes from the residual pain.

He looked around the home, but nothing was missing in the immediate vicinity. “Lyra!” He called out, looking for the unicorn. Cole was starting to get a bit worried- what the bloody hell happened? Where did that guy even come from?!

“Cole...” Said a blood-curdling voice, coming from behind him. It had cold and anger spread all over its feminine tone.

And when Cole looked to see who it was, he just frowned. “Ah… shit…” There, behind him, stood an extremely pissed-off Lyra. Who had just gotten home from the market.

“Tell me… why you broke… two windows.” She tried to keep calm, but was progressively getting closer and closer to him, obviously on thin ice.

“A guy breaks into your house, likely stealing some of your shit, and you care about windows?!” Damn. Lyra in pissed mode.

“I didn’t see any guy.” Her face scrunched-up a bit, her rear raised up as she lowered her head to get her horn ready.

“And I am NOT paying for the damages! As soon as you get your citizenship, every bit you earn belongs to ME, until I can afford to fix this place! Got that!?”

“Nuh-uh. No... wait. Hands? Really?” Lyra lost her anger a second. She bit her lower lip, eyes moving to stare at his hands. “Charged with power?” She then shook her head, snapping herself out of it. “I’m not playing your games, Cole! Do you understand me!?!” Lyra asked- rather, demanded.

“Y’know what?!” Cole decided that it was about time to stand up for himself. He’d dealt with quite the bit of shit over the month, and now it was just all about to come down. He missed Zeke. Studying over a test left him stressed. Ponies looked at him like a freak, just like humans. He just defended their home. Work was not fun, and it felt like he was trapped. “Fine! But I’m moving out!” Then, he jumped out of the window, leaving Lyra alone in the house.

Later, in the Everfree Forest...

Cole decided to take a walk and get much needed air. No longer did he want to tolerate the bullshit- it was almost three times as much as there was back on Earth. It was like middle school drama, all over again. Weren’t these ponies adults? I mean, come on! Where was the love?

The conduit kicked a rock out of his path. He didn’t quite know where he was going, his form radiating anger and intolerance. His fists were clenched, Amp at his back, crackling with tiny zig-zags of electricity. He needed a place to find his zen- to cool the hell down.

After what felt like hours of walking, Cole believed he found such a place. It was some kind of ruins, of what looked to be an overgrown castle. “Whoa…the hell is this place…” he asked nobody in particular as he walked into the ruins.

“... Castle of the Royal Pony Sisters? Huh.” Cole read a time-worn sign, next to the mossy arch that allowed his entry. The conduit found himself walking through the roofless complex. There were stained glass murals instead of windows, that depicted two alicorns defeating some freak of nature. Wait… were they Princess Whitebutt and Bluebutt?

“Weird… feels like I just walked back in time.” Cole thought aloud, before trekking further into the castle. He came to a place which looked very strange, as if it was fought in recently. No small-scale fight, either, this must’ve been something big. There were shattered stones on the floor, about eh, a few months fresh?

They were spherical, from what Cole could tell. One of them was almost wholly intact, it seemed to have an etching of a star on it. The conduit picked it up, studying it. “The hell is this thing…?” he asked himself, before throwing it away. It cracked against the floor. “Eh… just a stone…”

Cole pressed on, going to the end of the room. There was an indent in the floor, about the size of Celestia from end to end. The stone was eroded, whether by time or force, Cole couldn’t tell. He looked up, and saw that there was no roof, and no foliage covering the place around the indent. So it was more than likely by some force.

The room, by Cole’s perspective, seemed very sacred. As if it had a meaning. Well, now that he thought about it, all rooms had some purpose. But this one felt different, as if it carried some form of burden. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but then, for some reason he looked back to the stone he threw away. The one with the six-point star.

He picked it up once more, and brushed it off. There was a form of structure above his head, connected to a piece of unbroken roof that must’ve survived time and its ever-tightening grip. The structure seemed strong, relieved- as if it were Atlas, only, without the world on his back.

The stone seemed lifeless, as Cole looked down to it in his hands. Had this stone once bore a relic? He couldn’t figure it out. But it wasn’t important- he came here to cool down, not to investigate the past.

Cole finally laid down, looking at the evening sky. He put his hands behind his head, and just waited until everything seeped out of his system. It took what felt like a few hours, but his hotheaded attitude finally calmed down.

Suddenly, something brushed up against his side. Cole’s eyes jumped open and he sat up. Looking beside him, he saw the stone. It must’ve rolled over to him. The damn thing had to be attracted to him or some crap. He picked it up, and held it in his hands. He stared at the star in the center of the sphere of stone, concentrating on it.

Without warning, he saw shadowy apparitions appear before him, and also entering the room. There were six in total, and they were all silent. The room looked different, too- as if everything had been tidied up. Cole stood up, and watched the five figures stand back as the sixth began to monologue. He didn’t know what it was saying- it was all mute, and colorless.

And then, he saw six stones in the holder above his head fall down, and float around the six mare-like figures, who were now in the air, in a formation. The sixth one’s eyes opened up, and a blinding light came out of them. Only now had Cole noticed the larger alicorn who was covering her eyes with her hoof.

Just as he observed the situation, a large rainbow shot out from the six apparitions, curving up slowly and slamming down onto the alicorn. It made no sound, and Cole only saw it. It was strange.

Then, the apparitions disappeared. Cole’s hands started to hurt, so he looked at them. Smoke rose from the stone, which was now on the floor- and smoke rose from his hands. He wasn’t sure why his hands were hurting, so he made a fist and stretched them out. “These are burn marks…” he thought aloud. This was weird, really weird. He clenched his hands once again, and inspected them further.

He looked down to the stone- that must’ve been what caused him the pain. But how? Cole assumed one thing. He could have channeled some of his energy through it unknowingly, and through the time that he saw the apparitions, the heat from the electricity must’ve burned his hands. But that wasn’t really sound, as pure stone didn’t conduct electricity of any form. Some form of magic was at work here.

Bonus Number One!

“Ok Cole! It’s time for a girl’s ni-”

“Fuck you, I’m a dude.”

“Oh, sorry! Guys! Let me get the girls-”

“Fuck that. It’s ‘guys’ for a reason. Wait...”

“What is it Cole?”

“I don’t know any guys... Shit. Dunno if there are even single guys...”

“Mr. Cake?”

“Mr. Twins? Any reason to escape, but his kids need him more than I do.”

“Uh, Davenport?”

“You don’t know many guys, do you Twi...”

“Uh, no...”

“And you’re studying friendship? Sexist.”

A Twist of Fate

by ZachTheBrony

Part 8- Decisions!? Oh so NOW you want me to make choices!?