Frederick walked out of the basement and wiped the sweat off his brow, it took a few hours, but finally finished moving everything around. He was a little annoyed at the fact that Miss Twilight didn’t really help out much, but couldn’t fault her; her friend did come round to see her.
He made his way across the landing and up the stairs and towards the bathroom. As he neared the door, he could hear the hiss of the shower and some quite poor singing from the other side. Deciding it wasn’t best to interrupt Twilight, Frederick went back to his room to find that the sheets had been cleaned and dried.
He replaced them back on the bed and took his trousers off, placing them on the chair neatly. Laying down, he closed his eyes and started to relax; he could take a shower later, he was getting comfortable.
___
Frederick opened his eyes and noticed something was immediately different. He couldn’t hear the quiet hiss of the shower, nor the birds tweeting outside his window.
He leaned up and found himself inside Luna’s chambers again; he sighed and got off the bed. He was wearing his suit, but this time it had been freshly pressed and cleaned, free of dirt.
“I see you’re finally awake.” Luna spoke, moving out of the shadows and into view.
“In a way, yes.” Frederick replied with a small chuckle, “What honour do I have to speak with you tonight, Princess”
“Oh please, no need for formalities. Just Luna is fine.”
“As you wish, Luna.” Frederick got off the bed and stood up. He walked over to the window and looked out across the landscape. “I take it your sister has spoken to you, about what I want to do?”
“She has, briefly.”
“And?”
“What do you mean, and?”
“Any reservations, no doubts?” He asked, “I’m guessing you didn’t bring me here to simply talk?”
“Actually, that’s exactly what I wanted to do.” Luna replied, “I don’t get a lot of time to simply, be.”
“Oh, we can chat if you’d like. I don’t know what interests we have, but I’m sure we can find something.” Frederick reassured, smiling.
Luna walked over to him and looked him over, “Do you mind if I take a human form again, it was quite interesting last time and I wish to study it some more.”
“By all means, this is your world.”
Luna’s horn glowed for a few seconds. After the glow had subsided, there stood a girl, much like before; she was dressed in a more conservative yellow dress that looked slightly out of place on her frame.
“Impressive.” Frederick said.
“Thank you, I’ve been practising in my spare time. The clothes always come out a bit weird though...”
“I’m sure you will get it eventually. What did you want to do?”
“I was thinking of showing you some of the castle, I’ve been here long enough to memorise most of it; though some will be fuzzy.” Luna replied, awaiting an answer.
“Sure, seems better than spending time sitting around.”
Luna grinned and skipped over to the door. She pulled it open to find a fuzzy grey border where the hallway should have been, “oops, forgot to specify where we were going.” She closed her eyes and opened the doors again, this time there stood an open garden.
Frederick walked over and out onto the gravel, the hard sound not unwelcome from the muffled carpets of the chambers. He looked about at the dreamscape, marvelled by how detailed everything was; the trees actually looked like trees, there were small animals running around and the sound of nature could be heard all around.
“Do you like it?” Luna asked, looking hopeful.
“Of course, this is amazing.” Frederick replied honestly.
Luna basically squeed and hugged his arm, “I knew somepony would, no pony takes the time to admire the things I do anymore.”
“What kind of things?” Frederick asked, moving over to a bench and sitting down, Luna joined him.
She looked up, “You know the stars?” Frederick nodded. “I create them, every night and move the moon.” She said proudly, then deflated, “but no pony cares about the stars when they are sleeping.”
“Hey, I’m sure there are lots of ponies that love your stars. I know that Miss Twilight likes star gazing.”
“How do you know that?”
“She has books scattered everywhere.” He chuckled.
“That’s just one pony, a friend, but still just one...” Luna placed her hands over her face, attempting to hide her inevitable tears.
“Hey, come on.” Frederick cooed, “Want to know something, back on my world, there’s entire colleges dedicated to looking at the stars, they catalogue and study them.”
“Really?” Luna asked, taking her hands away.
“Yeah, if they were here... they would probably worship you or something.” Frederick laughed and shook his head at the absurdity of it.
“Thank you.” Luna whispered and she grabbed a hold of Fredericks arm.
“Whatever for?”
“For making me feel better.”
“Anytime.” He grinned, “Anyway, let’s talk about something else.”
“Heh, let’s.” Luna stood up and wiped her eyes, “tell me about your world, from what I saw last time, it was strange.”
Fredrick sighed, “Well, you know about me and some of the magic... what you want to know about it?”
“My sister said you are researching Runes? What are they?”
“Ah, nice of you to ask about a complicated subject.” He frowned, “well, Runes are... the instruction set of my world’s magic, basic magic that is.” Frederick put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a piece of cloth. “Looks like a normal piece of fabric, right?”
Luna nodded.
“Now, if I do this,” he ran his hand over one side and made a stitching of a half circle, half diamond appear on it, “that’s the Rune for harden.”
“Ooh, why is it in silver?”
“Silver is the primary element for magic. It flows best through silver or blood, but blood is messy...”
“Ah, ok. So, is it hardened yet?”
“Not yet, I have to add a power source, like this.” He waved his hand around and materialised a small strip of Unox along the bottom on the fabric. Immediately it started to glow and harden before their eyes.
“Wow, I haven’t seen anything like this before.” Luna grinned, “This could open up whole new possibilities, if you’d teach us!”
“I’m not sure, Celestia made it pretty obvious she didn’t want anyone hurt...”
“She wouldn’t have to know, would she?” Luna replied in a sultry tone, “I won’t tell her if you don’t.”
“Luna please,” Frederick said, stepping back, “I’ll think about it. Can you take me back now?”
“Oh fine, you’re no fun...” Luna clicked her fingers.
___
This time, the glow dissipated and Frederick opened his eyes to see the familiar view of his bedroom roof. Sighing, he got out of bed and made a guess of the time; somewhere around two o’clock.
Putting his trousers on, he made his way out of his room and wandered over to the bathroom, thankful that he didn’t hear running water this time and stepped inside.
Sliding his trousers off, he turned the shower on and took a look in the mirror. “I need a shave, and a haircut...” he muttered before checking the temperature of the water.
Deciding the temperature was alright for a shower, he stepped inside and sighed as he felt the warmth run down his back.
After a good while cleaning himself up, Frederick turned the water off and stepped out of the shower. He picked up a towel and dried himself up.
“Ah, much better.” He said, placing his trousers back on. He stepped outside and back into his room, where he clothed himself.
After he was looking presentable, Frederick walked downstairs to find something to eat. Rummaging through some cupboards, he found some chocolate cereal and made a bowl.
“I wonder where Twilight is...” Frederick asked himself as he looked around the library. “Oh well, I guess I can go look for Rainbow now.”
After eating his cereal, he washed the bowl up and stepped outside into Ponyville, making sure to turn the library open sign to close.
Frederick spent some time simply wandering around town, taking in the sights and sounds; it had been a long time since he’d had the chance to simply enjoy himself and he guessed the strain was taking its toll.
He wandered through the market place, true to Twilight’s words, a lot less ponies were staring; even the ones that were, weren’t blatantly anymore.
Making his way through a crowd of ponies, he saw Applejack standing by her stall, selling apples. Frederick walked over, “Hi Miss Applejack, how are you?”
“Oh Frederick, I’m alright. Bit quiet today, but that’s to be expected at this time.” She looked around for any business, before turning back, “what brings you out today, I’d think Twilight would want to watch you?”
“Strange thing, I couldn’t find her this morning. I’m just out to see if I can apologise to Miss Rainbow, have you seen her?”
“Yup, I have. She’s right over there.” Applejack pointed over to one of the fields behind Frederick, “she’s probably snoozing on a cloud.”
“Thanks. If you see Miss Twilight, can you tell her?”
“I will.”
Frederick turned and walked away, heading towards to field that Applejack specified. He stood at the border and looked over the many clouds that were hanging low in the sky. Most were normal, or at least as normal as they got here in Equestria; one in particular had a multi-coloured tail hanging off one edge though.
Frederick walked over and shouted, “Miss Rainbow!”
“Urgh, who is it?” Rainbow’s muffle voice replied, “Don’t you know what time it is?”
“Yes, it’s around two. Can we talk?” Frederick asked, patiently waiting.
“Fine,” she said, flapping her wings and gliding down quite ungracefully, “what do you want?”
“I have come to apologise. For real this time.”
This caught Rainbow off guard, “Why?” She asked, “The Princess made us apologise already.”
“I know, but that wasn’t a true apology. If there’s anything I can do to make it up to you, please tell me. I feel you didn’t deserve it after sticking up for Miss Twilight.”
“I-its fine... nothing I can’t take.” She replied, looking away, “anyway, from the looks of it, you saved her life, so we owe you.”
“Even so, I still shouldn’t have lashed out.” Frederick leant into a bow, “Please, accept my apology.”
“Alright, geese. If it means so much to you, apology accepted.” She walked over to him and held out a wing, which he took gently and shook.
“Well now that’s all sorted, how about we get some grub, and I’m getting hungry.” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t have any money, remember... got here a few days ago.” Frederick reminded her.
“Oh yeah, Heh. You owe me then.” She replied with a grin.
With a frown, Frederick followed Rainbow towards town, and over to Sugarcube corner.
___
The two of them entered the building and sat down in one of the booths next to a window. Frederick watched as the ponies walked past, oblivious to his presence; he felt a strange calmness at being ignored, after so long at having to hide that he was a mage, he didn’t need to lie to anyone.
“So, what do you want?” Rainbow asked, nudging Frederick out of his mood.
“Huh, oh... you choose, I had something earlier.” He replied.
“You, what’s up?” Rainbow folded up the menu and placed it down, “don’t keep me guessing.”
“I guess I’m a bit homesick. Almost nothing is the same here, sure things look the same, but they’re not...”
“I see.” Rainbow didn’t.
“I was just experimenting, like usual... then boom, I’m here, in some weird place.”
“What do you mean weird?” Rainbow growled.
“Compared to my own world. You’re ponies, who live in houses and have books and Princesses...”
“Yeah, so?”
“That’s my point, ponies don’t do that on my world. It’s all backwards to me; I guess I’m still getting used to it.” He admitted, feeling slightly sick at being reminded that he can’t simply wake up.
Rainbow sat there and digested this information for a few minutes. Just before the silence became uncomfortable, she spoke up, “we’ll do whatever we can to help you get home.” She patted him on the shoulder, “we owe you that much.”
“Thank you Miss Rainbow.”
“No more "Miss Rainbow", simply Dash is fine.”
“If you’re sure...”
“I am.” She grinned.
___
The two of then walked out of Sugarcube corner, one of them stuffed and the other feeling a little better about his situation.
“I’m not sure about you, but I should be getting back to weather duty, they might be missing my awesome skills.” Rainbow said, lifting off the ground, “I’ll see you around Frederick.”
“Bye, Dash.” Frederick replied as he watched her fly through several clouds that dissipated as she hit them.
Turning around, he started making his way through the town again and towards the library. After a few minutes of free wandering, he saw the lights of the library and picked up his pace.
Opening the door, he walked inside to see Twilight pacing back and forth in front of two large crates. She turned her head towards him with wide eyes and shouted, “Where have you been!?”
“Out.” He simply said, motioning to the door, “shouldn’t I have gone out?”
“Don’t take that tone, you know you should have been ready for these.”
Frederick raised his eyebrow and took a careful step forwards, being mindful to not agitate her, “I take it this is my equipment?”
“Yes, I’ve been waiting for you to get back before opening it. It’s been HORRIBLE!” She shouted again.
“Whoa there, I think it’s best if you took a deep breath and step back.” Frederick said, moving closer to the boxes.
“Why would I do that?” She asked quizzically, “this is science!”
“I know, but it’s science that nearly killed you last time; until I can be sure it won’t affect you again, I’m not letting you anywhere near it.” He said sternly.
Twilight pouted and looked away “Spoilsport...”
“Come now, there’ll be plenty to experiment with, I just don’t want anyone to get hurt. Not again.” He frowned. “Alright, move back. They didn’t label anything; does anyone label things in this country?” He mumbled.
Twilight chuckled, but moved back to a safe distance.
Frederick took a supplied crowbar and leveraged the top off one of the crates. It fell over with a smack and a large amount of dust made its way out. Waving it away with a cough, he saw that the crate was full of different colours of crystals, some of which looked almost like Unox and some which looked denser, almost dangerous.
“This one is full of the crystals,” he said to Twilight, “can you pass me a pencil?”
She levitated one over and Frederick labelled the side of the box. “Do we have any other small boxes?”
“I should have some around here, how many do you want?” Twilight asked.
“Half a dozen should do, I need to filter these out into type, length and various other measurements.” Frederick replied, making his way over to the other crate. Again he cracked open the lid to find his original surviving Unox stone sitting in the middle of the crate. It had a large crack down the side and looked to be fairly fragile in this state.
Around the edge of the crate sat numerous pieces of equipment; some of which Frederick could identify, like the power converter, some of the base and a chunk of the inner orb.
Mentally frustrated that they would limp everything together, but not totally surprised either, he began to move each piece away from each other.
He reached for the Unox stone but stopped as he felt his hand tingle as it neared it. Moving it closer he could feel the embedded pieces in his hand attract the stone, absorbing some of its power. It wasn’t a lot of power, but it was definitely noticeable to someone who didn’t train his magic.
Pulling his hand back, he quickly placed the lid back on and nailed it back in place. Shortly afterwards, Twilight returned with the boxes and placed them next to the open crate.
“How would you like them sorted?” She asked, oblivious to the strain that Frederick was going through.
“Uh, colour, length and density.” He replied, getting up and walking into the kitchen.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” Twilight asked, following him.
“Nothing, Miss Twilight. Just a bit of pain in my hand.” He replied, “Nothing to worry yourself with.” Frederick gripped his hand and focused himself, feeling the pain flow away, he sighed.
“Of course I’d worry, don’t think like that; let me see.” She demanded, gripping his hand in her magic.
Reluctantly, he gave up and let her see. She gasped and took a closer look. The Unox embedded in his hand was glowing slightly, outputting a slight amount of magic.
Twilight frowned, “when did this start?”
“Just now, I opened the other crate. It’s a good thing you weren’t there I guess...” he chuckled.
“This is no time to joke, Frederick.” She scolded him, “Do you want me to get the Princess?”
“No, I’ll be fine. I’m just not used to having so much magic in me. I don’t use it, remember.”
“Well, alright. As long as you’re sure.” She looked at his hand again, noticing the glow had gone down slightly, “I think we should wait until Smart Glass gets here before we do anything else.”
“As you wish. We can sort the crystals first though.” He said, getting up.
Twilight nodded and followed him back into the living room. They spent some time sorting each crystal into a proper box for each measurement, making sure to sort them properly.
A short while after they had finished, a short knock at the door signalled Smart Glass’s arrival. Twilight walked over to the door and opened it, revealing a light brown unicorn. Her mane was dark blond and she wore dainty spectacles.
“Twilight Sparkle I presume?” Smart spoke.
“Uh, yes. Welcome, please come in.”
“Thank you, I won’t stay long, I have a reservation I have to meet in a little while.”
Frederick stood up and walked over, “Hello Miss Glass, it’s a pleasure to meet you.” He held his hand out and waited.
“What is this?” Smart Glass asked Twilight with a confused look on her face.
“What do you mean, this is Frederick. Surely the Princess told you about him?” Twilight replied with a frown.
“She only said I’d be working with professionals, not apes.” She said, sticking her nose up at him.
Frederick pulled his hand back and stood straight up, “I’m sorry you feel that way. The princess said you were good, but if you feel like you don’t want to work with me, I understand; I’ll send a letter to the Princess saying you refuse.”
“Now now, no need for anything hasty. I know what I said, but that’s no need to tell the Princess.”
“Why not?” He replied, “You come in here and insult me, I think I’ll have much better luck with someone of higher standing.”
“Well, if that’s the way it is,” she huffed and made her way to the door, “I bid you good day.” She slammed the door closed.
Twilight stood there dumbfounded, “That could have went better...”
“Can you send a letter to Princess Luna?” Frederick asked.