//------------------------------// // Chapter 5: Explanations & A Test // Story: Martin: Chronicle Of A Hero // by CrypticMetaphor //------------------------------// After the hoopla in The Everfree Forest Martin and the six tried to figure out a system in which to carry the petrified princesses, although Martin had to keep bringing the ponies’ attention back to the situation at hand because they all kept looking at the downed Basilisk then back at him with looks of shock and awe. After a while they all settled on Applejack bringing in a wagon from the farm, after she ran off to grab it everypony looked right at Martin who rolled his eyes and raised his hands in the air dramatically, “Ok ok ok, I get it I killed a giant serpent with my bare hands and ran away from the princesses who were bent on arresting me, could we just focus please?” Rainbow Dash then landed in front of him and spoke in a sarcastic tone, “Oh yeah sure we’ll focus on everything else except the fact that you killed a Basilisk with a boulder which even Applejack can’t lift! ” Martin was about to retort when AJ showed up with the wagon, Twilight and Rarity then lowered the princesses gently into the back of the wagon, soon they were heading down the trail leading toward Ponyville in absolute silence. After a long while they arrived at Twilight’s library Martin hopped down and walked to the libraries doors, Twilight told the rest of them to wait outside while she and Martin talked the situation out, there were objections to this which Twilight put a stop to immediately and both she and Martin entered. Martin turned to face her after she shut the door, “Now I’m going to try to be as calm as I can but you’ll excuse the fact If I yell because I’m a little pissed off that you withheld something like my possible imprisonment from me, what were you thinking?!” Twilight looked away for a second then back at Martin, “I am really sorry Martin; it’s just that I had the wellbeing of Equestria on my mind at the time when I sent the letter” Martin just shook his head in disbelief of what he just heard, “I understand you feel you have to keep everyone safe but LOOK AT ME, I’m not a threat to Equestria, why in the hell did you tell the princess I was, I mean come on you know I’m not a bad guy and you still betrayed me?!” It was Twilight’s turn to shake her head, “But that’s the thing, I did just meet you plus I don’t know how you are deep down also you had enhanced speed, strength, and jumping and never told us, that sounds suspicious to me” Martin then snapped at her as a retort, “HUMANS CAN’T DO WHAT I DID!!!” Twilight cringed in surprise, which caused Martin to calm down; he then spoke in an ashamed tone at scaring the purple mare, “Sorry, but it’s true, normal humans can’t do what I did to that thing back in the forest, also when exactly did you send a note to the princess telling her about me?” Twilight nodded to signify her acceptance of the apology, “Well that’s the thing it really wasn’t about you at first, the day you said you arrived I felt a disturbance in the natural magic force” Martin stifled a laugh as he sat down to listen, Twilight did the same, and she also opened the door to allow the girls in before she continued, “As I was saying, the disturbance felt like a large sound ripple like when Dash does her sonic-rainboom, I immediately reported it to the princess as a powerful anomaly, but when we found you I assumed you must have caused it so I sent my findings to her” Martin then finished for her, “And she assumed the worst, and all of this happened all because of a false assumption” Twilight nodded with a slightly embarrassed blush, Martin gave a half smile to this and patted her on the head, “Meh, accidents happen to the best of us” Rainbow cut him off by clearing her throat, “Don’t mean to interrupt, but what about the princesses” Twilight jumped out of her chair and ran out the door, a few seconds later she returned with Celestia and Luna behind her recovered from their ordeal they both approached Martin with ominously calm faces, and Celestia then raised her hoof sharply and brought it down toward Martin who had closed his eyes. But when he opened them both Luna and Celestia were laughing, Celestia then winked at him before saying, “Gotcha” Martin had a look of utter confusion on his face when Luna spoke, “My sister and I heard your whole conversation, we both agreed we might have-“ Martin finished for her, “Shot first and asked questions later?” Luna nodded with an ashamed smile, Celestia stepped forward and addressed him in a more casual tone, one Martin actually didn’t expect her to use for royalty let alone a sense of humor, “Martin Fairgates allow me to apologise for misjudging your character, by defending me and my sister in our time of weakness you have my thanks and respect” Martin bowed slightly, “Anytime Princess, I couldn’t let that yellow eyed freak have you for dinner that wouldn’t be civil of me as a guest in your kingdom, got to set an example for the rest of my species after all” The Princess smiled at that, but it then turned to a look of intrigue, “I am curious how you preformed the feats you did, just by looking at you when we arrived I side with you on the fact that these abilities you possess are not common among your species therefore I am putting my faithful student in charge of the following duties” Twilight turned to spike who took out a piece of paper and had a quill at the ready, “The first duty is to help Martin in terms of acquiring loggings for the foreseeable future or until I can figure out how Martin came to be here and reverse the process, the second duty is to discover the origins around Martin’s newly acquired abilities and what they are, and the final duty is a simple one, help Martin to gain the trust of ponies of Ponyville so he is accepted much more easily here” Everyone present nodded in unison, “One more thing Twilight Sparkle” Twilight perked up at hearing her mentor speak her name, “Yes Princess?” Celestia smiled, “Send me updates on Martins condition if it changes” Then in a flash both Princesses vanished, no one spoke for twenty seconds until Martin nodded and pointed where the Princesses stood before and turned to face Spike and the six, “I got to hand it to the Princess; she knows how to make an entrance and exit” Everypony and Dragon smiled at that remark, and then Twilight approached him, “Alright let’s start with the business at hand; we need to figure out the origins of your abilities” Martin sighed as he looked at his hands even he wanted to know how he became a freaking superman, but he had his doubts, “How are you even sure I can still use them, maybe it was a onetime deal” When he finished Rainbow flew around behind him and kicked a stool right at his head, Martin saw it out of the corner of his eye and whipped around in a flash and caught it in mid-flight which caused everypony to gasp, Martins eyes just widened as he put it down, “OOOOkay, maybe I was wrong, Rainbow how did you figure out I would catch it” Rainbow just shrugged as she hovered past him, “I didn’t” Four Minutes Later Martin was seated in a chair with several electrodes hooked up to him; he was now wearing a red t-shirt with intricate white equestrian lines on its back, he was also wearing his sneakers which had been repaired and restored, he also wore black jeans. The reason was because Rarity refused for him to get his dress clothes dirty while undergoing the testing he would be submitted to that day. Martin went to tug at one of the electrodes but Twilight slapped his hand away from it, he was still surprised that Equestria had scientific technology he looked at Twilight with a concerned expression, “Um Twi, are you sure this is safe?” Twilight tweaked a dial causing a hum to be heard from the machine which caused Martin to tense up, Twilight just sighed, “Relax, I already told you it’s safe, I made some modifications to it so it can read your genetic composition and send me back readings of any and all abnormalities done to it and not cause any bodily harm to you” Martin and everypony present stared at her blankly, Pinkie however spoke before Twilight wearing a lab coat and black rimmed doctor glasses, “She means it will find out how you got your abilities by looking through your DNA and isolating the cause” Everypony including Martin looked at Pinkie with completely surprised expressions, Fluttershy spoke to Pinkie in a surprised tone, “Pinkie how did you know that?” Pinkie just smiled, “Duh, I went to science school silly filly, Auntie Pinkie Pie has a knowledge of anything and everything that has flashy lights” Fluttershy then said under her breath, “I’m still a year older than you” Twilight then flipped a switch on the machine and it started the process, “See, I told you perfectly safe” Rarity pointed as yelps were heard from the chair, “Um, Twilight dear I wouldn’t say that” Twilight looked over and saw Martin getting occasional jolts of electricity like someone was poking him with a joy buzzer she then began tapping buttons rapidly while firing out apologies. After the machine finished Martin yanked of the electrodes and stood up as Fluttershy brought him a glass of water, he took it while saying a quick thanks and downed it as a printout was seen popping out of the machine, Twilight took it and read it. Her eyes widened in utter fascination and concern as she looked at Martin, “Well I found the reason why you have your abilities, and it’s a doozey” Pinkie Pie then spoke up slightly, “Hey that’s my line!” Twilight ignored her and continued, “Martin, you say you come from a world without magic right?” Martin slowly nodded then Twilight continued, “Well I’ll try to explain it as best I can; you see we have lived in a world of magic all our lives and are accustomed to it, you on the other hand are the opposite, you see magic is present throughout Equestria in the form of fading echo’s” Martin raised an eyebrow “Echo’s” Twilight nodded, “Yes, echo’s are magic residue that lingers invisibly in the world after spells are used it’s so the left over energy can disperse into the world safely without any catastrophic occurrence’s caused by magic build up, however the more powerful the spell the bigger the echo and the longer it takes to disperse, with me so far" Everypony and Martin nodded in unison Martin however expressed a bit of confusion, “What do echo’s have to do with me and the abilities?” Twilight sighed again at having the question asked, Rainbow however had fallen asleep standing up, “I’m getting to that, since the princesses raise and lower the sun and moon respectively using a very powerful spell leaving the largest echo’s of all, so it takes much longer for their echo’s to disperse into the world. Now here’s where it gets difficult, since you’re a species that comes from a planet that is completely devoid of magic and have been thrust into an environment that has it in abundance your having side effects of your spontaneous relocation” Martin’s eyes just widened, “What do you mean side effects? “ Twilight continued with an intrigued tone while looking at the read out, “Well it’s the most fascinating thing; your cells are reacting to the sudden presence of magic, somehow the echo’s are dispersing into the world and into your cells, your cells are absorbing, distributing the magic and changing rapidly because of the energies which are present in the echo’s” Martin gasped, “OH GOD DOES THAT MEAN IM GOING TO TURN INTO A UNICORN?!” Twilight just rolled her eyes and spoke flat out, “No, it means the magic energies are transforming you, warping your cellular structure almost like a form of hyper evolution, what makes it even more interesting is that your still absorbing magic into yourself and that your cells are changing even now” Martin nodded in understanding, “So the abilities I have now are just the beginning, what else am I going to get, bigger question is what do I even have right now?” Pinkie Pie spoke up, “What if you get the ability to shoot beams from eyes or fingers *gasp*, or the ability to make things explode by thinking about it or or-“ Twilight put a hoof over her mouth, “Well scientists discover via testing and discovery, so let’s find out, RAINBOW WAKE UP!!” Rainbow woke up immediately, “Yeah?” Twilight grinned slightly, “How do you feel about giving Martin a crash course in finding out about what abilities he has tomorrow?” Rainbow Dash smiled almost evilly, “You can count on me Twilight” She saluted as Pinkie bounced up to Martin and handed him the amp and guitar from the party, “It’s a successful test present, hope you like it” Martin smiled then turned to come face to face with RD, “So Marty you ready for Boot Camp Dash, or are ya going to chicken out” Martin put on a challenging smile, “Bring.It.On” Meanwhile somewhere in Equestria, a churning black mist that had not taken on its physical form in eons and in constant darkness twitched, it knew its time was coming, but not yet.