Chapter 10
I don’t know yet
I slowly woke up from one of my first restful sleeps since the jump. My mind was virtually blank as I continued to hold the soft pegasus in front of me, stroking her mane again. ‘Today would be a good day’ I thought, before being snapped awake by a voice.
“I know you make a great pillow, Ethan, but you should probably be careful with Fluttershy.” I turned over and tried to blink my vision clear, but all I saw was a purple blur in front of me.
“Huh? What do you…? I don’t know…” I slurred as I turned back to the pony next to me. Fluttershy was curled up on top of my arm, nuzzling my neck, and doing something equivalent to purring. I continued to stroke her back as I turned back towards the figure standing over me.
“Well, just don’t roll over or anything. Breakfast is almost ready you two!” I thought it was Twilight Sparkle, and as she trotted away I tried to move Fluttershy. She just mumbled again and grabbed my face, while I tried to move my arm out. I decided to just wake her up.
“Fluttershy, wake up.” I nudged her shoulder.
“No more, Angel, just a few more minutes…” She tossed around for a few minutes before rolling into my chest, and I managed to pick her up from that position and lay her on the couch. I put one of the sleeping bags over her, and rolled up the rest of them to put them in a pile.
I looked back at Fluttershy. She was probably the cutest thing I had ever seen, but I still remembered the events at the cave, and every encounter with her afterwards. She had abilities and I didn’t want to get caught up with them, so I just went over to the kitchen, once again ducking under the door frame.
“Miss Twilight Sparkle, do you need any assistance?” I asked in the most proper voice I could muster, which would actually rival Rarity’s.
“Actually I am quite fine, sir. Just sit down over there and I will be ready in a-” She started laughing after trying to match my accent. “I’m fine, Ethan, and call me Twilight.”
“Alright, hey ‘Twilight’, what’s up with sleeping beauty in there?” I said, leaning forward and feigning a private talk gesture. I wouldn’t need to put my hand over my mouth since I could make sure the sound never reached anyone else’s ears.
“What do you mean? Do you have a… thing for her?” I stood straight up as she said it, almost hitting my head on the ceiling.
“No, it’s not like that. Not that I wouldn’t… never mind.” I face-palmed as I realised what I was saying. Twilight blushed, and I continued, “Ok, you know what happened the second day, right? Like, a few hours after I escaped your first capture attempt?”
“Um, well, Fluttershy was missing… we heard shouts in the forest… Wait, did you…?” She looked to me in horror upon connecting the two incidents.
“I kidnapped Fluttershy, but she forgave me because of the reason I did it. I wanted to make something resembling peaceful contact with your kind and she was the one I found in the first night. Anyway, I can understand if you don’t like me for it, but need to ask you something about her.” I looked into her eyes and she calmed down a bit.
“Well, if Fluttershy says its ok… sure, what did you want to know?” I looked back to see Fluttershy was still sleeping. I wasn’t worried about her hearing us in her sleep, but if she walked over and saw us talking in silence that would get a bit weird.
“Ok, so at the cave, I noticed something about her eyes. It’s like they don’t end anywhere, know what I mean? And I can’t help but like her and agree with her when she does that. Afterwards, she did it when I woke up yesterday, to get me to eat her soup, and again when I was walking towards the forest later that day after the whole ‘friends’ thing.” Twilight started to smile nervously, and beads of sweat formed around her forehead.
“Oh, well, I guess you just… like her eyes! Yeah, that’s it!” She couldn’t look at my face when she said it.
“I’m serious, Twilight, but I’m pretty sure I know what it is anyway, so thanks for confirming that.”
“What? I didn’t confirm any-”
“Come on, I know when people are lying, and ponies act the same way. If you don’t want to tell me, then at least tell me that so I don’t have to guess.” She sighed and revealed the secrets.
Fluttershy had some sort of stare power that she used to make sure animals behaved, or to stand up against things like dragons and cockatrices. Earlier, Fluttershy mentioned to her friends that she doesn’t have a lot of control over when it happens, and that probably means it’s triggered automatically. That might mean trouble later on, but I stored the thought.
I looked over at the sleeping pegasus as she stirred awake. I motioned for her to come in and leaned over the table in the center of the kitchen, hanging onto a beam on the ceiling. It was still a pain to stand, and sitting down to the low chairs would probably hurt more. Not to mention I was pretty sure something would break it if I tried.
Fluttershy walked in and was greeted by Twilight just as she finished making breakfast, and I offered to help while they set up the table. They declined, obviously. Instead of using a chair, I just sat on the floor and ate what Twilight had prepared. It was scrambled eggs, with applesauce, apples, and hay. I told her about they hay, how I’m unable to process it, and she looked really happy for a few seconds before apologizing and taking what was left.
“Wow, thanks Twilight, that was great!” It was true.
“Thanks, Spike has been giving me tips. He’s a great cook, but he can sleep… late, sometimes.”
“Well how did you two sleep? You know, apart from the obvious, ‘on top of me.’”
“Ethan, again, you make a great pillow. Everyone was gone before you woke, and they said it was because of how soft you were, how they got a great sleep. I agree!”
“I guess that’s why Fluttershy was still asleep; she didn’t get any of me to lie on.” Fluttershy blushed before turning away.
“Well I guess it was partly my fault. I thought you were shivering, so I moved you next to my head. That and my neck isn’t really made for sleeping on, no matter how feather-light you are.” I finished with a smile, and Fluttershy looked back to me.
“Yes, thanks Ethan… I was actually having a bad dream… so, um I just…” She quieted down to the point where even I couldn’t hear her. I kneeled down and held a hand to my ear, jokingly.
“Well, thank you for keeping me warm. That was very nice of you. I actually have to go now, but I think Twilight wanted to talk to you, so ill leave you to it!” She was smiling when she hovered out the door, and I rolled up Fluttershy’s sleeping bag before asking Twilight what she meant.
“I know you didn’t get to tell the other ponies much about who and what you are, but I’m just so interested! I mean, I’ve never seen anything like you, there isn’t even mention of your kind in mythology, fiction, or history. Why might that be?” She sat down and a purple glow enveloped a few rolls of parchment and a quill.
“Wait, is that magic?” I said, staring at the glow on her objects, then her horn.
“Yes, why wouldn’t you know what magic was?”
“Well I didn’t know what it was until I heard one of you talk about me having ‘magical abilities’. I never thought that could happen, actually, since magic doesn’t exist where I’m fr-” I was cut off by a surprised Twilight.
“What?! No magic? How do you change seasons, raise the sun and moon, grow crops, go long distances, make such advanced technology, or do that… that thing you did?” She asked, talking almost as fast as Pinkie.
“We don’t change seasons or raise the sun and moon; that stuff happens on its own. We go long distances on cars, boats, planes and sometimes rockets, we have advanced technology because we invented it, and that thing I did…” I didn’t have an explanation for her, so I just shrugged.
“Off to a great start, I see! If you don’t use magic, then how do the seasons and sky change?” She started to write on a parchment with her floating quill.
“The moon rises and falls on its own because it orbits the earth, our planet, so sometimes it’s out during the day. The sun rises and falls because the earth orbits around it. That also causes season changes. The earth is at a permanent angle to the sun, so as it rotates and orbits some parts of the earth get more sun than others. This causes the different seasons.” Twilight was watching my hands as I formed the movements and diagrams that were hard to describe.
“Wow, I can’t imagine having a world without magic. It just seems so… restrictive.” Twilight sounded like she pitied me, so I had an idea.
“Hey Twilight, you said ?”
“Yes, it is. Do you like my collection?” She was thrilled that someone was interested in her books.
“Yeah, can I read one?” I answered. She squealed and levitated a book in front of me. It said ‘Equestrian History: Volume One’. I opened it, and although the letters looked a bit strange, I could read them. Not that I was really focusing on the book.
“You know, I never mentioned the internet. With access to the internet, you can read almost every book and learn about every aspect of our world at the touch of a button. So I wouldn’t say our lack of magic is restrictive in such a wide sense.”
“Sorry about that, but I just… Are you saying you could fit this entire library in your ‘internet’?”
“Well, the internet is spread throughout the entire world, so it isn’t a thing you can touch or feel. But we invented it, so we can use it. Recently there was a new kind of device that was made, it could fit in the palm of your- of my hand, and it was useful for accessing the internet. And, could I fit your library in there? No, not even close…” I trailed off intentionally, and Twilight took the bait and looked sad for a moment.
“I could fit thousands of libraries in there!” I shouted, but without releasing any force. Twilight squealed, clopped her hooves together and wrote something down, before looking up again.
“Don’t you wish you could go back?” My heart sank. In all the events, I had barely thought about the possibility of going back until now. I taunted death at least four times, making a choice of risk over safety, in the hopes that my fate would guide me to the right decision.
“I haven’t thought about it much, but when I did I was trying to justify it with dreams or something. The abilities I had, the creatures in the forest, and even talking, flying and magic ponies were all lore and legend, sometimes made into books, movies, or video games, but not possible to exist, like magic. Of course, this doesn’t feel like a dream, so I’m probably wrong.”
“I’m sorry, abilities?” She looked over to me, and I realised I had only told Fluttershy about my powers. I guess Twilight had the right to know.
“You know, when I stole Pinkie’s voice? When I broke my chains, fought the guards, took out a dragon and made a manticore disappear?”
“Ah, yes. I remember you mentioned it. Can you show me an example?” She seemed to be intrigued by my power, even though it could kill any one of these ponies with little effort. I shook that thought out of my head.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea, last time I used it on a tree there was a significant lack of tree a few seconds later.”
“Can’t you do anything smaller?” She was continuing to write with her magic, without looking at the quill.
I looked around for something to show her, then I realised the lantern was still there. I made the low vibration again, and it turned on and off. I turned back to Twilight, who was staring at me in surprise, mouth agape.
“Wow! How long have you had this for?” I didn’t know why she was so excited.
“Since I woke up here, so around two weeks ago, though I took a few days off.” I smirked but she approached me with a frantic look and I stopped.
“You have some great abilities, Ethan, and I can’t believe you managed to learn it that fast in such short time! I know you think it’s dangerous, but I know all about the power of magic, so if I teach you, you should be fine!” She began to lift books off of her shelves and put them in a neat pile on the floor.
“I’m sorry, but I don’t know what you mean. Do you even know what this-” I was interrupted by Twilight dropping a book on the table in front of me, and sitting right beside me. The book read, ‘Understanding Magic: The Basics’.
I opened the book to the table of contents, and skimmed through the chapters.
“Unicorn History… Weather theory… Sound Manipulation…” I flipped to that sound chapter, feeling it was probably closest to what I had. I looked over at Twilight, who was examining my hands.
“Sorry, Twilight, my hands don’t look too good, what with all the scars and such.”
“No, not that… although, they are kind of… never mind. Your hands and fingers look a lot like Spike’s claws.”
“Yeah, I noticed that when we shook hands at the door last night. Anyway, why did you want me to read this?” I stopped at the beginning of the ‘Sound Manipulation’ chapter.
“This is a book used in early magic school, so it doesn’t have very many magic-related words you haven’t seen before, but it will help you understand how your magic works.”
I started reading, starting with how this form of magic is rare among equines, and later about how it can be triggered by trying to reproduce a sound. I already knew how to form sounds, but Twilight insisted I keep reading. I was using my glasses after a while, and eventually I got to the more advanced section with instructions on technique and how to achieve certain results, like simple levitation.
Twilight took this as an opportunity to magically bring 3 apples over and lay them on the table. I set the book down and looked at them for a few seconds.
“What?”
“Try one.” I reached for an apple, but she swatted my hand away and continued, “With magic, not your hands.” I sighed and tried to move the apple, but it didn’t budge. I looked at Twilight, and she told me to try again. No luck.
“Just try to imagine picking the apple up, but without your hands.”
I shook my head. “Mind if I try something… different?” I asked. Twilight nodded, eager to see my solution.
I leaned over to grab one of the apples, but I didn’t eat it. I shook the apple beside my ear, confused as to why I thought this would work. I could sort of hear the apple as it was shaking, and tried to use that on another apple. After several tries, I managed to vibrate the apple a few centimetres to the left, and Twilight gasped.
I was just as amazed, but I didn’t let that slow me down. I continued to make the inaudible buzzing, moving both apples slowly but without direction. I knew I was making progress, but it wasn’t advancing at all. Frustrated, I sighed and put my hands down on my knees. The apples fell to the ground. That shouldn’t have happened; they were in the middle of the table. Twilight and I exchanged glances, and she magicked the apples back onto the table.
I tried another swiping motion, this time at the center apple. It rolled away from the table. I aimed my finger at the right and motioned it to the right, where it fell off the side. Then I picked up the other apple, with my hand, and threw it in the air, noting the sounds I heard earlier. The noise was faint, but still there; it was some sort of droning that occurred whenever the apple was in flight. I placed it on the table again, aimed my finger at it, and reproduced the sound.
The apple started lifting into the air, following my finger as I pointed, but if I deviated with my noise the apple would start to spin or stabilize, or come closer or further. I spun the apple and flew it around the room, nearing the walls and shelves, before hovering it over the table again.
I was laughing in excitement as I lifted the other unseen apples to meet the third, now orbiting each other. I looked at Twilight and she started a squeaky laugh, before I moved them closer. I hovered one in front of her and two in front of me, and quickly ate mine. Twilight finished hers and I looked at her, searching for her reaction. She looked up at me, and I gave her the widest smile I had ever given before wrapping my arm around her.
“Magic.”
“Yeah, magic.”
“Twilight?” She looked up. “Thanks.”
“Anything to help a friend. While that was certainly amazing, especially for your first lesson, I think you should get some rest. If you want, I can give you another lesson tonight.” She walked over and wrote something on the parchment. “Not that you need much help, that is.” She continued with a wink.
“Thanks, Twilight. I can’t say I’m any less surprised than you, I mean, it’s only been, what, a half hour?” I instinctively looked towards my wrist, only to find that it was still bare.
“More like two hours. That reminds me, you’re scheduled for a makeover today, at around… oh! 20 minutes from now!”
I groaned, “Awww do I have to? I mean, I’m not that scary, am I?” I half-sarcastically asked her before walking up to a nearby mirror. I was, to my displeasure, that scary.
“I thought you promised? You, Fluttershy and Rarity are going to the spa today, whether you like it or not.” Twilight finished with a commanding tone. I did sort of want a spa day, but after seeing and hearing nothing but female ponies (and one baby dragon) I wasn’t too keen on the adventure.
"Well, how do I get there? I noticed the townsfolk were looking at me kinda weird, so I don’t suppose I could-” I was distracted by a flash of light and sound, and my mind froze as I was stretched and compressed through dimensions.