Intermission – The Things He Saw.
Kai didn’t sleep well that night. He had tried once again before bed to speak to Twilight, but the mare had sealed the door somehow and refused to answer his calls.
His dreams were full of memories of the time they had shared minds, and the things he had seen…
~~~
“Where the hell am I?” Kai sat alone in an endless grassy plain. “I was in my apartment a moment ago… am I dreaming?”
“In a sense, but this is little different.” The familiar voice made him crane his neck backwards and saw Twilight standing behind him. She was a little different though, she seemed a little smaller and didn’t have any wings.
“Oh, hey there Twilight, where are we?”
Unicorn Twilight looked around and drew a long breath, before exhaling. “Twilight, the real Twilight anyway, is currently inside your mind, your consciousness… and in order to do that, your active persona needed a place to go.”
Kai looked around, “So this is a glorified waiting room?”
“If you want to put it like that, then I suppose that will do.” The landscape suddenly shifted s buildings began to appear. Made of white stone, straw roofs and thick, wooden beams, Kai thought it was like something out of a fairy tale book.
“I was hoping for something more modern, maybe a catch a movie or something?” He looked at Twilight and he saw something on her eyes, a feeling of fond nostalgia.
“This is Ponyville… it’s where I used to live.” The human watched scenes unfold, like screenshots from a movie. Twilight and five other brightly-coloured ponies doing all sorts of things, like fighting dragons and hydras, going on adventures and just living life.
The common element among all the things he saw, was that the same five ponies were always with Twilight.
“They’re my irreplaceable friends,” Twilight explained, as if she had read his mind. “Would you like to meet them?”
Kai nodded and five mares appeared from the aether. Twilight introduced them as they showed up one by one.
“This is Rarity,” The white unicorn gave a polite nod.
“And Fluttershy.” Fluttershy peeked at the man from behind her mane.
“Applejack.” The earth pony mare tipped her hat.
“Rainbow Dash!” This mare flared her wings and grinned.
“And Pinkie Pie.” Kai suddenly fell backwards as a pink mare pressed her nose against his.
Twilight just smiled, “Everypony, this is my new friend Kai.” He was greeted by a chorus of hello’s and the scenery suddenly shifted again, causing some slight nausea.
“Please tell me when you’re gonna do that,” Kai grabbed his spinning head. Once the feeling had passed, he checked out his new surroundings. It appeared to be a library of sorts, nothing near the size of the one he went to, but it had a certain homely charm to it.
“So where are we now?”
Twilight walked around, running a hoof gently across the spines of some books. “I used to live here, right amongst my friends… but I feels like a lifetime ago now.”
Kai watched her, and the sad look in her eye. Had something happened? She did look different. Did her friends all?
“I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I-I know what It's like to lose someone.”
Twilight stopped and looked at him, blinking a few times until what he said registered. “What are you talking about? My friends aren’t dead!”
What?
Twilight looked out of a window to a distant city nestled on the side of a mountain. “After I ascended and became an alicorn, my duties as a Princess forced me to move away. It’s been… maybe a year? But it feels much longer.”
Kai buried his face into his hands again, this time out of embarrassment. “Sorry, now I feel stupid.”
Twilight giggled and that sound seemed to lift Kai’s spirit a little. It was hard to think of her as just a pony, as just a mere animal.
Was it because she could talk? Or was it more than that?
“Equestria to Kai!” the object of his thoughts waved a hoof in front of his face. “You there?”
Kai blinked and looked at her, “Huh? Oh, yeah. Sorry, I got a little lost in thought.”
Twilight giggled and Kai felt his face grow warm. “Well I can’t say I haven’t been guilty of that a few times.” She sighed and looked around the library, watching scenes play out of her friends and family. “I really should visit more often…”
Something caught Kai’s attention; another Twilight was peeking at him from the basement. Upon his noticing of her presence, she emerged and Kai saw that she was wearing goggles and a lab coat.
“Well look at you~” she cooed, looking him over. “I can’t wait to start my… experiments.”
The other Twi suddenly lifted her scientific counterpart off of the floor and unceremoniously dumped her back in the basement. “Oh no. You are going to stay put!”
“But think of the knowledge!” Evil Genius Twilight cried. “He’s a new species and we must know EVERYTHING!!”
“But nothing!” Twilight slammed the basement door shut and locked it. “And that’s enough of that!” she snorted. Turning back to Kai, who was utterly confused by the whole scene, she smiled sweetly. “Sorry about that.”
Kai just shrugged, “Ah, no worries… who the heck was that anyway?”
Twilight blushed a little, “You’re inside my mindspace and that was a certain aspect of my persona… the more, curious side.”
“I see,” Kai made a mental note… never give this mare a lab coat. “So now what?”
Twilight thought for a moment. “Well you’ll be for as long as Twilight remains inside of you, you shall remain here.” Kai had a look at some of the books on the shelf, but couldn’t read any of them.
“What do some of these say?” he asked his unicorn guide. This question gave her a wonderful idea. She levitated a book over and gave it to him. “Why don’t you read this? It will be quite the interesting surprise!”
After seeing scientist Twi, Kai was dubious about his current companions’ state of mind. “It won’t explode will it?”
“Certainly not!” Twilight huffed. “I would never damage a book for the sake of a practical joke!”
Kai gave a non-believing hum and opened the book slowly. Better to be safe than sorry. The book was totally unreadable like the rest, but after a few moments, the text peeled away from the pages and began to spin around him. The book glowed rightly, causing
Kai to close his eyes and once he opened them again, something was different.
He could read the book!
“Wait, what the -?”
Twilight giggled again, “Surprised? Since this whole thing was for Twilight Sparkle to learn to read your language, I thought I’d return the favour.”
He read over the book again. “The Elements of Harmony: A Reference Guide?” The book mentioned something (somepony?) called The Mare in the Moon, and six artefacts known as the Elements of Harmony.
Twilight waited patiently as he thumbed through the book, taking some small joy in watched him read. After a few moments, he stopped ad returned the book to its rightful place on the shelf. “So what else do you want to do?” he asked.
Twilight stopped and stared blankly into space for a moment, seemingly lost deep in thought. “Well… we still look like we have a few minutes, so what should we do..?”
Kai looked around the libraries foyer and noticed something that didn’t seem to be there before. Two doors stood off to the left side of the room. One was a thick iron door, wrapped in heavy chains and glowing seals. The other looked less ominous, but no less suspicious.
“What are those doors?” he asked, “Though I feel like I don’t want to know the answer.”
Twilight visibly paled when she saw them, “Those lead to two aspects of myself… Let’s go outside okay?”
Kai nodded but before they could leave, the unchained door opened a bit and Kai was suddenly dragged inside by an unseen force.
***
“Ow, what the hell?” Kai groaned over the rough treatment and looked around, but the room was pitch black and utterly silent… until a soft giggle broke that silence.
Kai recognised that giggle. “Okay Twilight, very funny, you mind getting the lights?”
“As you wish,” her gentle voice replied and the room was suddenly bathed in a soft candle light.
Twilight herself was laid upon a large bed, draped with soft, red silk sheets. The candles floated around the room, like flickering stars in the night sky.
“So… you’re the one I get to… experiment with then?” she cooed and Kai suddenly felt very awkward and a little uncomfortable.
“Um, you’re not that scientist version from earlier… are you?”
Twilight giggled and closed her eyes into a half-lidded stare. “No… but I do like to experiment though. Take this riding crop for example!” he produced said item and gave it a few swings. “You would not believe how many uses this has… and with this bit and these reins...” she lowered her gaze and smiled, spreading her wings. “Feel like going for a pony ride big boy?”
At that point, the door exploded inwards and unicorn Twi burst into the room, her eyes filled with anger. “We are leaving. NOW!” she grabbed the human with her magic and carried out the newly formed door (More like gaping hole) and back into the open field they were first in.
“I’m sorry about that,” she apologised profusely, placing the human upright on his feet. “Ever since I became an alicorn, certain… urges… have become difficult to deal with.”
Kai chose to respectfully and wisely stay silent… until another Twilight approached him. This was also looking quite different, her eyes were wide and the iris’ had shrunk to pinprick size. Her mane and tail had a wild, jagged look about them, but what really made Kai sweat was the Cheshire Cat grin she wore.
‘Wanna play a game Mister?” she asked, her left eye twitching. “It’s real easy.”
Kai continued to remain silent.
“All you gotta do is answer a simple ‘yes’ or ‘no’ to a question I’m gonna ask.” The main Twilight’s horn lit up, this was not going to end well.
Crazy Twi giggled, but this giggle did not put Kai’s mind at ease.
“Do you like mmmm… bananas?”
A massive magenta beam blasted the crazed unicorn, leaving a smouldering crater where she once stood.
“Twilight…” Kai finally found his voice. “I'm starting to think that you have a lot of issues.”
The scenery began to fade to white and Twilight blushed. “Please don’t tell her what you saw here, I know it’s scientifically impossible to die of embarrassment… but I think she’d do a decent effort of proving me wrong.”
Kai laughed as he faded away, this pony was something else!
~~~
The sun hadn’t even risen yet by the time Kai woke up. Looking around, he saw that his bedroom door was slightly ajar. Deciding to take a look (he wanted to see if Twilight was alright) he peeked inside the room and let out a sigh, facepalming.
Twilight was snoring cutely on his bed, the ear buds of his IPod still hanging from her ears.
“I don’t believe this, I spend the whole night worrying that I’d hurt her feelings…” he picked up the device and checked the playlist. “And she spends the night listening to Bon Jovi.”
He sat on the end of the bed and watched her chest rise and fall with each breath. Her hind leg would twitch occasionally and the slightest murmur would escape her lips.
Her forehooves suddenly groped around and Kai brought the blanket up to her, tucking her in. Twilight sighed contently and drifted back to sleep.
“I have to help her find a way home… “
He wandered back out into the living room and decided that he’d tidy up. Once awake, falling vack asleep again was near impossible for him, and when he was bored, cleaning was something he tended to do.
As he picked up some books, he reached under the couch to see if any were there, only to find some metallic.
He had to lift the couch to get at it, but once the item was in his hands… he gazed at the golden tiara in his palms, staring into the amethyst star set on the top.
“The hell is this thing?”