Finally, the day came when he could return home. Heh... haven't actually felt at home in a place for a long time... kind of a wonderful feeling. He thought with a smile and a happy chuckle. It was a glorious moment when he took that first step out of that room. He savored his freedom and thought. Ok, I promised I would talk to the girls and Discord. I, also, need to do some testing. I need to spend time with Anubis. I… His thoughts were interrupted by a black dress invading his vision. He looked up to Luna’s face and smiled. “Hello, M…” He coughed hiding his near error, “Luna. How are you?” She was smiling happily.
“Hello, Tec. I am doing fine. How about you? Reveling in your freedom?” She asked. He chuckled.
“You know it. Nothing is better… Well almost nothing is better than freedom.” He corrected himself mid-sentence.
“Oh? What, pray-tell, is better than freedom?” She questioned.
“Love.” He said simply. “Love is the thing that makes me tick, always has been, always will be.” He continued happily. She giggled cutely.
“You sound exactly like Cadence.” She said through her laughs.
“Who sounds like me?” He heard a voice say from around the door frame. He smiled at Luna and she stepped away from the door allowing him to exit fully. He looked to Cadence and was slightly surprised to see that she was his height. His surprise was reflected on her face.
“Hello, Cadence. Or would you prefer me to use your title?” He asked once his mild surprise faded.
“Just Cadence is fine.” She answered. “So, you’re this Tec that I have been hearing about.” She continued with a smirk. He nodded as he took the time to look at her. As he noticed before she was five foot six, same as him. Her mane and tail were pink striped with yellow and purple. She had a thin build but, still had enough weight on her to look healthy and have some curves. She wore a soft yellow dress that cut off at the top of her low C cup breasts, giving her that ‘off the shoulder’ look, which hugged her frame nicely but, flared out hiding her hooves.
“Yes, yes I am.” He said as he looked at her dark purple eyes. “I do wonder who told you about me though?” He asked as he decided to test myself once more and allowed his walls to fall a bit. Emotions flooded his senses once more. Luna had finally done as her sister had and put up a block. Cadence, however, radiated the excitement of one who knew something he didn’t.
“Ah, but that would be telling now wouldn’t it.” She said smirking. He raised an eyebrow and looked to Luna, as a smirk of his own started to overtake him. He turned back to Cadence, his smirk never leaving his face.
“So, Twilight right.” He stated. He saw her struggling to keep her surprise down. “Yep, Twilight. I do sometimes wonder how she describes me. Hopefully nothing I can’t live up to and nothing too bad.” He continued.
“If you already knew why did you ask?” Cadence asked, confusion evident in her voice. He chuckled and said.
“I didn’t know. You told me.” Her confusion only grew. He chuckled once more and explained his empathic abilities. Suddenly he felt distrust radiate off of her as her face changed to one of suspicion.
“Huh… sounds an awful lot like a changeling to me…” she trailed off. He raised another eyebrow and once again looked to Luna.
“Well, I can’t prove that to be wrong unless you have a spell to cast on me that would reveal a changeling's true form. Do you?” He asked. Cadence nodded an affirmative. “Well, cast it then. I really care for Twilight and the girls and you are Twilight’s family and a friend to the girls. I don’t want you, nor Shining Armor, because there is no way you wouldn’t tell him of your suspicions, to think I am something I am not.” Cadence nodded once more as her horn lit up. The pink light hit him and after a few seconds of nothing happening he said. “See, nothing…” He was cut off by a searing pain in his gut. He let out a grunt of pain and coughed violently as he fell to his knees. “Fuck! What the hell did you do to me?!” He said between the coughing and the agony.
Tec continued to wheeze as coughs wracked his body. “I… I just cast the spell… All it was supposed to do was reveal your true self!” Cadence managed through her confusion and horror.
“Oh you stupid bitch!” A distinctly female voice stated from Tec’s mouth as his eyes shifted to lavender for a moment as he stared up at Cadence vehemently, “Shut up Gidget! It isn’t like she could have known!” Tec said as his eyes shifted back to their dark brown and he looked at the ground and resumed coughing.
“I will get my sister!” Luna exclaimed as she turned to run off.
“No…” Tec stated as his wheezing slowly tapered off. “No… I… I think I am going to be fine… Yeah… Things are going to be just fine… At least for now.”
“Wha… What was that? Who is Gidget?” Cadence asked.
“I’ll have to explain it later.” Tec replied as he stood up. “Sorry, I have somethings I have to figure out about this as well, what just happened is kinda’ new.” He finished.
“Ok, well, sorry for what my spell did to you.” Cadence said by way of apology.
“It’s fine now. No harm, no foul. Simple mistake is all.” Tec said as he stretched a bit.
“Well, sorry my friend, but I really must go to bed soon. I wish to converse with you some more soon though, maybe even spar some more?” Luna stated as she turned to leave.
“Definitely. Just send me a letter or something and we can figure out a good day to spend some time together.” Tec said, purposely avoiding slangs or figures of speech. He turned back to Cadence and smiled. “So, anything you would like to speak about before I leave?” He asked happily, seemingly ignoring her accident.
“Sorry, but not really. I was actually going to meet up with Twilight before she leaves.” Cadence answered with a weak smile.
“Ok, hope you have fun.” He answered as she, too, continued on her way. He turned back to the room that had been his prison these past few days and picked up a book he had been reading.
An hour or so later, he heard a knock on the door of his room. "Come in." He said loud enough to be heard and set his book down after memorizing the page. Twilight opened the door and walked in, fully clothed this time.
She wore a dark purple tee-shirt with a pair of dark blue jeans and he still thought she was hot. She had her things with her and she, like him, had stashed away a few books to take back with her. "Ready to go?" Tec asked her.
"Yep, got everything I need. How about you?" She asked in return.
"Mhmm, I have all the stuff I took with me and a few books as well." He answered. Twilight walked up to him with her things as he stood up with his and offered to hold her things as well.
"Um, thank you." She said as he took her things from her and held them. She charged up her teleportation spell and put a hand on Tec's shoulder as she released it and they returned to Ponyville in her Golden Oaks Library. Spike was snoring loudly in the bedroom on the second floor. Twilight began to pant a bit as Tec realized that she must be tired.
"Do you want anything?" He asked, the care in his voice obvious.
"Just... a little water would be nice." She answered slowly. Tec walked quickly to the kitchen and filled up a glass of water and brought it to her. She drank it down quickly and said, "Thank you Tec." She pulled him into a hug, after setting the glass down, to which he happily reciprocated.
"Well, I hate to say this but, we both have days to start and things to do. I'll talk to you later Twily..." He stopped for a bit as a look of contemplation came across his face. "Actually, I haven't asked if you are fine with me calling you that, I'm sorry. Are you?" He asked.
"Well, I don't really mind no. Although, one of the only ones to call me that is my brother, I suppose you already knew that though." She said as she thought.
"Mhmm. Thanks." He said as he smiled and made his way out of her library and towards Fluttershy's cottage. It took a little bit to get back home, he giggled happily as the word passed through his brain. He shifted his pack a bit on his shoulder and knocked on the door. "Fluttershy, I'm home." He said happily. Tec jumped a bit as someone tapped his shoulder.
"I'm out here with the animals." Fluttershy said from behind him. Tec sat his pack down, turned around and gave Fluttershy an enormous hug, he even picked her up off her hooves a bit. She eeped a bit before wrapping her arms around him and returning the hug. Tec sat her down after a bit.
"Sorry about picking you up so suddenly, I was just so happy to see you." He said as he stifled a happy giggle. Anubis barked as he ran up to Tec and jumped up in the air in front of him. Tec chuckled, "I guess someone's happy to see me too."
"Yes, he was so sad when you didn't come back on the first day. We all were. Twilight explained what had happened to us." Fluttershy explained. Tec grimaced a bit as he, once again, remembered his actions at Twilight's coronation.
"Sorry that you all had to see that side of me. I can get really pissed off, really quickly when anyone says anything bad about those I care about. Especially someone like Blueblood. I realize that I can get violent as well, and, while I wouldn't like it and it would make me sad, I would understand if you feared me and didn't want me in your house." Tec said as his grimace slowly changed into a sad frown and he looked at his feet.
"Now why would we fear you. You have been nothing but a gentlecolt since you arrived and all you were doing was defending a friend." Tec heard Rarity say from behind him.
"She's right. None of us fear you. At the time yes it was a bit scary, but we understand that you would never, ever hurt us. Also, you don't have to leave. You can stay here as long as you like." Fluttershy said in a happy tone. "Maybe even forever." She said in a very quiet tone. Tec, however, was close enough that her heard her.
"Are you afraid that I'm going to try to find a way to go back to my world as well?" Tec asked. Fluttershy shook her head yes as a tear found it's way down her cheek.
"I think we all are and I don't think that we are wrong to do so." Rarity stated.
"Look, just like I told Twilight, I don't want to go back. The only reason I would is to ask some of my friends and family from my world to join me here and only if I could get back easily." Tec said as he turned so that he could see both of them. "I love it here and I don't want to lose you guys or any of the other friendships I have made here either." He continued.
"You would give up your entire world... for us..." He heard Rainbow Dash say from above him as she landed.
"Well, truthfully the world itself isn't all that hard for me to give up, I didn't really care too much for it. It's my friends and family that I am having to give up. I went through some sadness and depression about that already and it will probably hit me again at some point in time, but having you guys makes it a whole lot easier to deal with." Tec answered. The three mares stood blinking as what he said took effect. All three blushed heavily as they looked at him.
"Holy buck." Fluttershy said in a shocked, but quiet tone. Everyone looked at Fluttershy in confusion for a moment before the mares returned their attention back to Tec.
"Holy buck, is right," Rainbow said. "We mean that much to you?" She continued. Rarity seemed just as confused.
"Well, yeah. I mean why wouldn't you? While you may not know it yet you all helped me out of the worst depression of my life and I'll explain that later. Flutters you offered me a place to stay, not to rent or anything like that, a place to live and you didn't even know me really," Fluttershy blushed harder and smiled as she looked to her left, "Rarity you have done quite a bit for me as well, with washing my nasty ass clothing and making me some more." Rarity stifled a giggle as she blushed a bit more as well, "Rainbow, even though you saw through my original stint of trying really hard to look good, you still gave me a chance and we had an absolute freakin' blast and our game of beer pong, fuckin' awesome," he finished. Rainbow was still blushing a bit but she wore a huge smile. "Each and everyone of you girls have done something to earn my care, my respect and my adoration." Tec closed his eyes and smiled brightly.
"Yeah, I did think you were bragging a whole lot when you first got here and, honestly you kind of were, but you have proven yourself to be really awesome. I mean come on that running stuff you did was freakin' amazing and the fact that you got that mad at Blueblood for what he was doing to Rarity. That showed that your loyalty rivals my own." Rainbow said as she took a breath. She looked to the other mares around her. "Hey, um... I need to talk to the other girls for a bit privately. Do you think you could go and tell Twilight, Applejack and Pinkie to come here?" She asked. Pinkie Pie bounced down the pathway with Twilight and Applejack close behind. "Never mind I guess," Rainbow said. "We'll come and get you when we're done talking I guess," She finished.
"Ok, then. I'll just put my stuff up and read by the pond," Tec said, his confusion evident. He set his stuff in his room and pulled out an interesting romance novel he had been reading and went on his way.
When Tec was out of sight Rarity asked Rainbow, "Ok, darling what is this all about?"
"First I want to know... How awesome do you all think Tec is?" Rainbow asked with a slight blush.
Applejack was the first to answer, as she understood the difference in Rainbow's tone. "Well he's quite a nice colt and he knows just how ta make a mare feel like she's beautiful, even if she don't really see it herself."
Rarity was the next to speak. "He's quite the gentlecolt indeed and goes through lengths that most wouldn't even dream of for those he cares about, just look at what he did to Blueblood for me."
"He's really nice and always tries to make sure that he isn't hurting anypony's feelings or making them mad and he thinks of others more than he does himself. He, also, always seems willing to lend a hand when he can." Fluttershy added in her calm quiet tone. The other mares nodded their heads in agreement.
"He's really, really, really fun and he's really, really, really awesome and he's got a big heart and he gives awesome hugs and he thinks we're all gorgeous." Pinkie said as she bounced up and down in glee.
"He's brilliant and I can actually talk to him about theories and magical properties without him getting bored. Not to mention he reads just as fast, if not faster than I do and is willing to tell when a mare is not properly covered instead of just staring until the mare notices." Twilight said as she blushed a bit at her last comment.
"So... um.... am I right to think that all of you um... well... like him as well...?" Rainbow Dash asked slowly. The mares around her grew wide eyed as they began to think.
Pinkie answered almost instantly. "Yeppers. I have for a while." She smiled as she blushed heavily.
Twilight and Applejack nodded their heads after Pinkie's answer. Rarity looked like she was thinking for a bit before nodding her head as well, "Yes, I think I do." She said. Finally they all looked to Fluttershy as she blushed deeply and shook her head no.
"Nuh-uh, tell us tha truth Flutters." Applejack said with knowing look on her muzzle.
Fluttershy pulled back a little and shook her head no again.
"Fluttershy, com-on. We all answered with tha truth," Applejack tried again.
Fluttershy got a look of defeat on her face, took a deep breath and quietly admitted, "Y-yes... I do..."
"So, what are we going to do?" Rarity asked. "It's difficult enough to compliment him knowing that he's going to say a wonderful one back." She finished.
"Well, we could just ask him to focus his empathic abilities on us and point our affection towards him." Twilight offered.
"His what now?" Rainbow asked.
"He can sense what anypony around him is feeling. He can't read minds though, so he's still going to ask questions most likely." Twilight answered.
"So, wait... He could always do this?" Rainbow asked.
"Yes, but he said he has to focus to pick up anything specific and that it wasn't as strong where he was from." Twilight answered.
"Earth." Fluttershy piped in quietly.
"What now?" Applejack asked.
"The world where he's from is called Earth." Fluttershy answered in nearly a whisper.
"Oh..." The other mares said simultaneously. "Well, I think Twilight's idea is wonderful. How about you, darlings?" Rarity asked right after. The other mares nodded.
"Well... as scary as this is... it's better to just go through with it..." Twilight answered as she turned and began to walk down to the pond, the rest of the mares turned and began to follow her. All of them had matching blushes and all of them had smiles.
Tec was sitting down by a tree stretched out into as comfortable a position as he could. He was about a third of the way through with the book by the time he felt presences around him. He looked at the page number. 139 he thought as he closed the book and looked around him. He found that he had been surrounded by the girls. He stretched a bit to get a kink out of his back. "You done with your talk?" He asked without opening his eyes.
"Yes and we have decided to help you see how strong your empathy is." Twilight said. Tec opened one eye and saw the girls massive blushes. I wonder what Rainbow talked to them about... Tec thought to himself.
"O... k then... sure I guess I could do that?" He said, beyond confused. "Tell me when to start." He continued.
"Now is good. Right girls?" Rainbow said. The rest nodded. Tec shrugged and focused his empathy on the mares around him. He felt affection, hope and a little fear, from all of them, a little bit of guilt from Fluttershy and a whole lot of excitement from Rainbow. Ok, the hell is going on. He thought as his confusion only grew. Uh, your an idiot. I'm taking over. Gidget said as Tec felt himself lose consciousness.
Tec got a look of confusion just before his eyes rolled back into his head and he fell forwards a bit. Twilight started to freak out a bit at this point, thinking that he was going to have another seizure. What happened next left the girls very confused for a long time. Tec very quickly changed from a he... to a she. The female that was once Tec now had frizzy, red hair and a b-cup. She lifted her head and laughed. "Sorry Tec's an idiot, you're going to have to actually tell him that you girls like him." She said after a bit. Her eyes nearly matched Twilight's fur.
After a moment of silence Applejack said, "What in tha hay just happened."
"Ah, you all must be very confused. Ok first off, I am Gidget. I was just a persona until we came here, now lots and lots of things are changing. Now I am entirely my own person, save for having my own body. Talk to Tec about me and he'll tell you about the rest, I don't actually enjoy explaining anything. Anyways, as I said Tec still has no idea that you like him. You're going to have to be very blunt with him. He has a hard time believing anyone can like him. His self-a-steam is really poor and even if you tell him directly it's still might take a while." Gidget laughed a bit more. "Now, I'm going to give you girls Tec back. Ttyl my lovelies." She finished before her head fell back against the tree and her body transformed quickly back into Tec. Tec slowly opened his eyes and saw the shocked looks on the mane sixes faces and found that his head was throbbing.
"Oh, shit did I have another seizure. I'm sorry I should ha..." Tec began.
"N... No, we um... well... We just met Gidget. She said that she is now her own person, a lot of things are changing and she doesn't want to explain what that means...." Twilight interrupted.
"Oh... um... well then... I'm going to have to just..." Tec mumbled to himself. He shook his head and turned his attention back to the girls. "Well, as much as I would like to explain right now I can't. There is just to many things that are new about this situation. I will explain to you when I can, just not now. Anyways, why did you girls want to help me anyways?" He asked as his earlier confusion returned to him.
"Oh, um...... no real reason right?" Rainbow said as she looked around at the mares around her each and every one of them answered with a shake of there heads except Pinkie, who just rolled her eyes. Now, even if Applejack hadn't been sweating like she was in a sauna, he would have known they had lied. He just grew more confused and thought, why?
"Ok, then. Well, I'm thinkin' that I'm going to need to get a job at some point in time so that I can be more than a waste of space, so, I'm going to go into town and start looking." Was all he said though. Pinkie gasped at what he said and slapped him across his face, not hard enough to leave a mark though. "Ow, what the hell!?" Tec exclaimed as he rubbed his cheek.
"Don't you ever think you're a waste of space! EVER! Not a single one of us thinks that!" Pinkie screamed tearfully. Tec looked at her and saw that she was slowly starting to cry. The rest of the mares had looks of shock mixed with understanding. Pinkie let loose her tears finally and ran off in a random direction.
"I... need to go fix that..." Tec said as he stood up. His other friends were nodding their heads in silent affirmation as Tec took off in the the direction Pinkie had run trying to find her.
Around five or six hours, of searching, later, Tec leaned against a tree to catch his breath. Great... Now I'm confused and I feel like a jackass... He thought in silence. Hold on... Is that... someone other than me breathing... His thoughts continued as he opened his eyes and stilled his breath. Yep. He looked up towards the sound and found Pinkie asleep on the branch above him. Tec chuckled and gently said, "Pinkie, it's time to wake up." He waited for a couple minutes before trying something else. "Pinkie, come on I need to talk to you." He continued. When that didn't work, he simply said, "Cupcakes," in a grey monotone. The pink mare shot up from the branch and ended up falling off. Luckily Tec was a soft enough landing pad. "Ow..." He let out in a winded voice.
"Oh... Sorry Tec.... wait no, no I'm not sorry..." Pinkie said as stood up, crossed her arms and turned away from him.
"Look... I'm..." Tec took a deep breath, "I'm sorry... I'm, like I told Twi, not so good at communicating and that's one of the big reasons I didn't have many friends where I'm from." He finished as he looked to the side.
"Silly, talking and friend making isn't something you need to be good at." Pinkie said, finally turning back to him.
"What?" Tec questioned.
"A friend is someone that will be there for you when you need them and someone you'll be there for when they need you, right?" Pinkie quizzed.
"Yes..." Tec answered slowly.
"Well, then while it's possible to be a good friend, or a bad friend. It isn't possible to be good at being a friend." Pinkie spouted out.
Tec slowly shook his head yes while saying, "I... have no clue what you're talking about..."
"You will eventually." Pinkie spouted out in a sing-song voice while bouncing around him. "Anyways, I think we should probably head back. Our friends are probably worried by how long we've been gone." She finished as she started bouncing towards town. Tec followed her with everything weighing down on his mind. Unable to sort through everything even though he now had the time. Just before they got back to Ponyville, Tec stopped Pinkie.
"Pinkie, you and I need to talk." He said. "Alone..." He continued.
"About?" Pinkie asked as she hopped around him. Tec stopped her when she was in front of him and took a breath.
"About this." He said as his eyes shifted color, but not enough to be noticed, and ended up giving Pinkie Pie what might be described as one of the most awkward kisses in forever. Pinkie just blinked at him for a second.
Suddenly she said, "Oh... That..." and passed out.