//------------------------------// // Tell Me About It // Story: Eclipse Born // by Seeking Dusk //------------------------------// I was working my way through the Daring Do book. Even Twilight had been shocked at my progress at learning Equish, but there was no denying the fact that I was more or less capable in basic Equestrian. It was fun watching her eye twitch and her hair getting frazzled and my skills developed in leaps and bounds over a handful of days. I told her I was just that good. It did scare me a little at how fast I was learning, but considering magic’s existence in this reality, Spike’s ability to send and receive mail with dragon fire, Pinkie Pie and the weird celestial mechanics of the world, I was willing to just smile, nod and accept it. It helped me sleep better at night. That and Luna’s visits. She was still unwilling to let me test my resistance against the creatures that roamed the Equestrian dream realm and stopped by to maintain the dream ward or something like that. Back on topic, I was just getting to the good bit of the story, when Ahuizotl had us strapped to the altar, the Tribal Ponies at read and was making his cliché villain threats making offers of perverse power when someone pounded on my door. Right, I should mention that I had dozed off during the reading and the story blending with my dream, me playing the part of Daring Do’s anthropology specialist co-adventurer. Or whatever the study of pony society and culture would be. The Daniel Jackson to her Indiana Jones, both strapped spread eagle to a stone altar as the big bad gloated over us, only I think I was a pony in that dream. It was hard to remember when you were jarred awake. Now, at the moment my room was my sanctuary. Twilight gave me one of the reading rooms to use as an office (though no one aside from herself, Lyra, another unicorn named Golden Script and an earth pony named Ivory Scroll really came to see me), and I had set up a schedule of working hours. Twilight had insisted. Anyway, it was outside my office hours, and it was too early for a meal. The regard for my privacy Twilight allotted was very much appreciated. There were still times that I didn’t want to be constantly surrounded by ponies. I’d love to lose myself in a regular movie or binge on one of the TV series on my external, but Spark Stone and Bolting, two of the more inventive and creative workers with the city’s power company, were still working on setting something to convert the local power grid into something my devices could run off, and the poor solar charger had its circuits full with keeping my ereader and MP3 player running. Fearing some emergency or some disaster related to the Breach Project, I almost tripped over myself to get to the door, my Daring Do forgotten and sent flying in my haste. In retrospect, I blame the book and dream for my overreaction; getting into the story and its drama bled over into reality. I did trip just shy of the door, the culprit the shirt that had fallen off the rack and I swore I was planning to pick up, only managing to keep myself from falling by grabbing the door handle. “What happened?” I demanded as I yanked the door open. I looked with confusion at the mare that had accompanied Twilight. “Lyra?” “So that’s what you look like under your shirt,” Lyra commented, eying my bare chest with a smirk as my eyes widened. “Are those teats?” “Okay!” Twilight said with a nervous smile and faint blush. “That’s enough of that, thank you! Caleb, we need to talk. But… after you get ready.” In case you were wondering about why Twilight was blushing, it wasn’t because there was anything between us (Boss and assistant romance clichés were cliché,) only that in the discussion of our discussions on social conventions and nudity we had I somewhat over compensated trying to get her to understand why that little session with Rarity the week before made me so uncomfortable. Now she had a bit of a skewed perspective on the matter. “Can’t we do it right here?” Lyra asked Twilight, looking past me and into my room. “Do… what, exactly?” I said, with a weak and somewhat terrified laugh, trying not to think about how suggestive Lyra’s comment, combined with Twilight’s blush, was. Trying and failing badly. “Well,” Twilight started. “Wow… you’re kind of a slob,” Lyra commented. “Your room is a mess.” “Hey! I take offense to that,” I protested, snatching my shirt off the floor and stifling a yawn as I looked around my room, taking in the piles of books and papers. “This is organized chaos. I know where everything is. Mostly.” “Can we focus here?” Twilight snapped. “Lyra, you and I will head down to Caleb’s office. Caleb, please get dressed and meet us there. We need to talk.” “About?” I asked. “When you get there,” Twilight said, silencing Lyra with a hoof before teleporting both of them away. “Okay… weird,” I shrugged, and sniffed the shirt and tossing it aside. I needed to do laundry soon. Between the lack of public transportation and air conditioning, and the need to walk everywhere, I went through my limited wardrobe quickly. I would probably need to commission a few more sets of outfits from Rarity soon. Casual outfits. Rarity might have expressed joy about humans and wearing clothing all the time, but what that really meant hadn’t quite sank in with her. She made me a slew of formal outfits, but very little casual wear. Or I could learn to teleport to cut out the walking. Both, actually. Twilight could say what she liked about it being a precise spell with a moderately high mana cost, but I’d seen her use it more than once to avoid taking the stairs. Changing into a new shirt and freshening up in the washroom, I was door to my office in a few minutes, in time to hear Lyra quizzing Twilight on my teats. I groaned with a shudder before entering. The two mares were sitting not on the regular chairs in front of my desk, but by the padded ones closer to the chimney. One of them had apparently dragged my specially made human sized chair from behind my desk so it sat resting near them. “Okay, if this discussion is about those, I’m leaving.” “No, it’s not,” Twilight said as she glared at Lyra over the saddlebags she had been sorting through. “I’m just curious,” she said defensively before giving me a slightly predatory look. “He wears clothes all the time so there’s a lot about his anatomy that ponies are dying to know.” I took my seat and rubbed at my temple. People had warned me that Lyra could get obsessive about topics. When I asked her, she admitted to getting a bit caught up in some of her side classes in school. “Lyra… for the fifth time, I’m not stripping for you mares anymore. Blame Rarity and Twilight for that. In fact, I’m pretty sure Twilight has notes on the subject.” “You got to see him naked? And you didn’t let me know?” Lyra said, glaring at Twilight. “No! That was before we established proper boundaries of what was acceptable and not in regards to studying human culture,” Twilight said hotly, flushing slightly. She looked at me, well, turned to me, looking at the ground. “I’m really sorry about that, by the way. I didn’t realize how awkward it was for you.” “I would very much like to move on from this topic,” I said, closing my eyes. “Shall we?” “But I want to see you naked too,” Lyra protested. “Shall we?” I repeated, my voice a bit more strained this time as I dug my thumbs into my temple. They had warned me that Lyra could get a bit obsessive when it came to her research projects, but when had seeing my naked body made that list? “Fine,” Lyra said a bit dejectedly. “This isn’t over though.” “Thank you,” Twilight said gratefully. She looked at me and I could almost see the thoughts getting organized in her head. “You’ve been in Equestria for over two weeks now, and you’ve been the Ambassador for your people for a little over half that time.” “Yes?” I had no idea where she was going with this. “Well, you’ve done a lot to share about your world, even between your language lessons,” ah, there was that twitch I loved to see from her. She didn’t let it stop her though and kept barreling on. “You have even given us fifteen to thirty minutes every other day to show us images, videos, entertainment and music forms of your world on your lap top even though it’s power is finite and difficult to recharge.” “I saw how much Celestia put in the account as the first month’s bursary. I like her, I’m not going to get paid that much for doing nothing,” I responded. Besides, between reviewing the lessons of the day, whether language or basic magic theory (we still hadn’t gotten to practical), and reading Equestrian literature in order to get familiarity with what I was learning, I didn’t have the time to use it for personal past times anyway. Rarity in particular loved the shows and got inspired by every outfit she saw. “Look, Caleb,” Lyra interjected. “We are learning a lot of your world, but we don’t know much about you. You’ve been avoiding telling us about yourself and your life directly.” “What? No I… I…” my retort died as I ran the days through my mind. Wow… I really had been. I mentioned my family here and there, and where I worked, but I really hadn’t told them anything personal. “It’s… different from humans. We tend to build our relationships with a lesser emphasis on history…” Yeah, it was a weak argument. “I guess you want to change that?” Lyra nodded but let Twilight make the actual response. “A few nobles in Canterlot have been making complaints about the royal funds being funnelled into the breach research and into your post, as well as the suddenness of your appointment.” “Well, I did drop in uninvited,” I quipped. “This is serious,” Twilight glared at me, not appreciating my levity. Lyra rolled her eyes and snickered slightly. I held my hands up in a show of submission. “Fine. Fine. No more quips.” Out loud. “Either way, I, that is we, want to create a profile of you, your background and add it to a report of your works so far,” Twilight explained, drawing out a familiar parchment from her bags. It had come via dragon fire the day before. “Princess Celestia requested you to visit her in a few days, so it would be a good idea to get this done before then to quell some of the more irritated complaints.” “You want to make a profile on me? Like a biography?” I made a face. There were several reasons what that idea didn’t sound enticing. Aside from laying bear so much about myself, there was the idea of so many peo-ponies reading it, and having to suffer through another one of Twilight’s questionnaires… “Not a full biography, just have you answer a few questions and compile them into a short report after,” Twilight said. Then she smiled. “I promise that when we get through with this I’ll give you your first practical magic lesson.” “Really?” I knew I was being bribed, but honestly, this was Twilight finally let me move past the reading stage and do something. I could probably give a first year university lecture on the nature of magic from all the theoretical lessons she’d been giving me. I had a stack of parchment up in my room of all the notes I’d taken. And I was slowly translating them to Equish as practice. Just because I was developing the language skills distressingly quickly didn’t mean I skimped on the practice. “My main concern was your practical lessons leading to a magic surge. With the levels of magic you have, and the fact that your magic operates somewhat differently from unicorn magic, I was hesitant to risk it,” Twilight admitted. She gestured to Lyra. “Having another unicorn here will help mitigate the risks some.” “I’ll what?” Lyra asked, looking skeptical. I looked between Lyra and Twilight, chewing my lip. Magic surges were in the theory lessons. They were common to foals just coming into their magic and was pretty much an uncontrolled release of all their magic. They could have dangerous results. With adult level magic behind it, a surge from me could very well be devastating. “Fine. You get to ask your questions and I get to learn how to really use magic.” “Yes!” Twilight said happily, clapping her hooves together before pulling a stack of parchments from the bags. “Wait… what’s all that?” I asked. “I made a list!” Twilight said gleefully, her eyes sparkling. “It comprises of the most common questions a stranger would like to know about some, whether another stranger, a person in power of a popular face of society.” “Normally I would complain, but with your bribe,” I groaned. Practical magic lessons. Have gotten past my little stubborn fit, the idea of tossing around Magic Missiles and using Wingardium Leviosa flittered about my mind like a golden snitch. “It’s not a bribe. It’s a perfectly fair contract exchanging services, one beneficial to both parties,” Twilight said a trace stuffily, sounding offended. “Sure it isn’t” I sighed, skeptical. “Just… what’s your first question?” “What is your full name?” Twilight asked happily, her quill hovering over the page. “You explained the patriarchal structure common to your world and the naming conventions. But you never told us what your middle name was.” Well, that one wasn’t too bad. “Vincent. Caleb Vincent Blakely.” “Does it mean anything?” Twilight asked. “Yes and No. A lot of names have meanings, based on the language they originally came from, but most are just pleasant sounding words and letter combinations. In part of the world, most people just pick names because they sound nice. I did find out the meaning of my names though,” I admitted. After a lecture on the significance of naming in some other cultures, I set about finding what mine own was. “Caleb means Devoted Heart or Faith. Vincent means ‘to prevail’, or ‘to conquer’. The last name isn’t as important, but it means ‘Dark meadow’.” “Devoted Heart? That sounds like a good name for you,” Lyra said, grinning broadly. “Um… why? I don’t get it,” I said, grimacing at her slightly. Devoted Heart sounded a tad… feminine. “Think about it, you are putting all that effort into what you think an Ambassador should do just because you don’t want to make the Princess’ endorsement of you seem like a waste,” Lyra commented. “You’re putting your heart into it because you care. Devoted Heart.” My jaw opened, hung like that for a while and then closed since I had nothing to say in retort. I know Names were a thing in Equestria, but... no... it was not supposed to apply to me... “Well… you’re… green. No more psychoanalysing for you.” “Devoted Heart is a lovely name,” Twilight said, either ignorant of or ignoring the look I was giving her. “It’s filled with meaning and, as Lyra said, it does fit you.” “It’s a mare’s name,” I ground out, massaging my forehead. It sounded like the name of someone from a crappy pony romance novel. No, I had read any of them, but a decent adventure story had ‘Daring Do’. It wasn’t hard to postulate from there. “It’s gender neutral, actually,” Twilight said helpfully. “No further comment from you either,” I grumped at her. Lyra stuck her tongue out at me and chuckled. “How old are you anyway?” “Twenty two in a few weeks,” I responded after that typical mental hitch as I recalled my age, making a face back at her. “Actually, how old are you guys? I was horrible at guessing ages of other people, humans, much less ponies.” “I’m twenty five,” Lyra responded, “so not that much older than you.” “Lyra and Applejack are the same age, actually,” Twilight supplied. “Big Mac is twenty seven, Rarity is twenty four, but her birthday is coming up as well. Fluttershy is the same age you are. Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash are both twenty, and I’m nineteen.” I looked look at Twilight in surprised. “Wait… you’re nineteen? And you have professionals in the Thaumatic Institute, the place responsible for magical research, conceding to your expertise?” “Well, I do study a lot,” Twilight said bashfully, shuffling her hoof on the floor. “Twilight is pretty much one of the most talented unicorns of her generation,” Lyra chuckled. “She just doesn’t like anyone realizing that fact.” “The hay…. Damn Twilight… I mean; just damn…” I tried to imagine what it would be like having some of the leaders in a field come to me for advice at that age. I couldn’t. “Can we get back on topic?” Twilight said, looking back at her sheets with a faint blush. “I suppose I already have most of the answers to the physical appearance questions already…” “How did you get that scar under your chin?” Lyra asked as Twilight set a sheet aside. “I had a disagreement with a cat that insulted my mother’s honour,” I answered truthfully. “It was a decade or so ago. I was a different man back then, but even I could not stand aside and let a feline escape with such an offense against my dame. The battle was swift and brutal. The feline was successfully imprisoned, but not without spilling my honourable blood.” “Ha, ha,” Lyra said, though she was grinning. “But what really happened?” “I was ten or eleven, and my uncle’s cat shredded my mom’s shirt. It didn’t like it when I tried to put him in his carrier,” I said, stripping the embellishments and rubbing at the two pale marks under my chin. “I got a few scratches, but these are the only ones that scarred. Probably because I kept picking at the scabs.” “Caleb! That’s unhygienic and unsafe!” Twilight gasped, looking up from her sheets. “Like I said, ten,” I shrugged dismissively. We got back to the questions, Twilight asking me the more academic ones like things about personality and habits, Lyra weedling me for childhood stories, like the time that same cat trapped me in the bedroom for two hours. My uncle's cat was evil. And big. “Okay, education wise, you mentioned you went to university?” Twilight asked. “Yep. Five years of it actually. Four and a three quarters, technically” I responded. Five horrible years. Schooling was a very annoying part of life. “I could have finished in four, but I spent my first year floundering about figuring out what I liked. Did some biology, sociology, philosophy, photography, even some chemistry because I thought working in a laboratory would be fun. “It was to be honest,” I admitted to her in a reminiscent manner, “But the fumes from the chemicals gave me migraines. I finally settled on geography half way through my second year. Graduated with a major in Geography, and minors in Biology and Library Sciences. I did enough courses that I qualified for them so I thought; why not.” “Minors and Majors?” Lyra asked. “Your world’s education system sounds complicated.” “Could you explain that a bit more,” Twilight asked. So I did, going into the credit system and the value of degrees verses diplomas. Personally I thought it was little more than the ability to blow half again more hot air since you never used half the stuff you spend years learning in the field and learn the other half actually working in the field, but it was to satisfy Twilight’s Curiosity. Last time she all but tied me down to get her answers. “So every human in your world goes through that?” Twilight asked, sounding excited about the prospect of that much learning. I didn’t share that enthusiasm. I loved learning the stuff, hated tests. “A lot of people, but not all of them choose to.” “What about your family?” Lyra asked. “Did they do that too?” I think my feelings must have shown on my face because Lyra instantly wilted, her eyes widening and her eyes splayed back. “Sorry, if you don’t want to talk about them…” “No. No… I should,” I said, swallowing the lump in my throat. I relieved memories with Luna about them. I could manage to talk about them. I organized my words before speaking again “Dad has a Doctoral Degree, that’s about eight to ten more years of studies past what I have, it goes Bachelor’s, Master’s then Doctor’s. Mom has a Master’s in Business Administration. Julia, my sister, was, is in Law School. Richard started Computer Engineering last year.” “What was, is your relationship with them?” Twilight looked a little nervous about that slight mistake she made, but considering I did the same thing, I wasn’t going to hound her about it. “We’re pretty close, but me and my siblings have a love hate relationship going on. We love each other so much we can’t help but getting into spats,” I smiled sadly, remember the fact that the last exchange I had with Richard was one of those teasing and mocking back and forths. “Aw, you aren’t LBBFFs and BSBFFs?” Twilight asked, looking up from her note taking. “LB… WHAT?” I asked. The acronym, I missed most of it, but I was suddenly thinking about LGBT and that was not cool between siblings. “It’s a Twilight thing,” Lyra groaned, facehooving. Facehooving was hilarious, even if I was still waiting for some pony to poke out their eye doing it. “It’s… Little Brother and Big Sister Best Friend Forever. It’s something she and her brother do. I think she calls her sister-in-law BSLBFF.” I looked at Twilight, who was a slight bit huffy at the moment, with a trace of disbelief. “You’re kidding, right?” “She even has a song for it!” Spike’s voice said suddenly. I’m proud to say I didn’t jump. Much. “Oh, hey Spike,” I said, still cool despite the flinch. His grin showed he had seen the flinch. I can’t help it, I’m somewhat easy to startle though I recover quickly. I’ve willing to laugh at myself about it anyway. “I didn’t know you were here.” “I just got back from Rarity’s.” The Spike said as he entered the office proper. He had the tea trolley with him, bless his draconic soul, laden with a tea pot, a few cups and bowls of salad. “The Crusaders asked me to ask you if you were going to crusade with them today.” “I don’t now…” I mumbled, rocking me head thoughtfully from side to side. “You’ve met the crusaders?” Twilight asked. “Oh, I met then alright,” I said, my eye twitching slightly as I remembered the sight of three fillies leaping at me, yelling ‘cutie mark crusaders human something!’ “Fillies; white unicorn, orange pegasus, yellow earth pony, always having some crazy idea as to what next to try to get their cutie mark? They apparently decided to try getting in something human related. They’ve been following me around for half a week now.” Twilight tried to hide her laughs and looked like she was constipated. Spike hid his with a cough. Lyra didn’t bother hiding it. I scowled at them. “You laugh. Yesterday they tried for Human Catchers, then Human Medics, and finally Human Ambulance Services.” Twilight connected the dots first and looked at me with shock mingled with accusation. “You told you got that limp from falling! You said it was nothing.” “Yes. Falling. Because three fillies chased me up a tree,” I grumbled, snagging the bowl from the cart. “You let them chase you up a tree?” Spike chortled, rocking on his heels. “How did they manage that?” “Honestly… I don’t know…” I grumbled some much, munching on a leaf of lettuce. “The ride to the hospital was fun though. Scootaloo and that wagon of her’s are pretty awesome. I might have felt my heart stop a few times when she got some air, but it was cool. Their plans scare the bejeebers out of me though.” I reached for the cup of tea and caught Twilight’s eye. “Did you know they have blueprints for a wooden submersible for their underwater explorer’s cutie mark, and are only holding off because they haven’t collected enough pine needle sap?” “I admit, some of their ideas can be a bit much,” Twilight started. “A bit? Try extremely,” Lyra cut in. “Much? It’s more like Excessive, Twi,” Spike said, holding out a cup for her. “Well, yes,” Twilight admitted, taking the cup in her magic. “We’ve been trying to tell them that their marks will come from doing something they are already good at, but they would rather try everything.” “One of these days they are going to destroy half the town,” I sighed, rolling my eyes. And I’d be there to say ‘I told you so.’ Judging by the nods from Lyra and Spike, I wouldn’t be the only one being proven right when that day can around. “But enough on those three. Any other questions for me, or can I finally get to the good stuff?” Twilight sighed at my eager expression and looked over the sheets. “I did have a few more questions in relation to your psyche and outlook, to show that you aren’t all that different from anypony else… Lyra, why are you smiling like that?” “I want to see the human magic too,” she said brightly. “Don’t get your hopes up,” Spike grinned, hopping unto one of the chairs, sticking around for the lesson as well. “He hasn’t been able to do much more than make his hands and eyes glow.” “I love you too, Spike,” I said, sticking my tongue out at him. “Caleb! I warned you not to practice magic without me being around,” Twilight chastised. “I’ve only done it a few times,” I said defensively. “It’s not one of your light spells, but the glow helps me see better when I’m going to the bathroom at night.” Twilight continued to grumble. “See? This is why you need to teach me. What if I went to the bathroom one night and blew up because I tried to glow a little and find the light switch? That would be so sad.” Twilight snorted at that one. “You don’t need to exaggerate.” “But Twilight, think about it!” I said, slipping into a familiar accent and adding a bit more dramatic flair. “The ambassador of the humans hurt by his own magic. It would be the Worst. Possible. THING!” “Okay, you’ve made your point.” Twilight laughed. “That was a good impression, by the way.” “No it wasn’t!” Spike said in an irritable fashion. “Rarity has more grace and refinement to her speech.” “If she had a little less she would make me the tee shirts and cargo pants I want,” I grinned teasingly at him. The grin took a slightly fear tinged edge to it. “No offense to her though. I like her. She’s nice and talented. She just scares me when she gets into her ‘Zone’ and wants me to model for her.” “I don’t get it,” Lyra admitted, looking between my expression, Twilight’s embarrassed smile and Spike’s smug look. “Why would that scare you?” “Right… I never did tell you that story,” I realized. I shrugged. “Long story short; it involved her work studio, being naked and lots of flying sharp objects in the air around me.” “Okay, you have to give me the detail,” Lyra grinned, clapping her hooves together. “Twily! Don’t we have some magic lessons to do?” I said, changing the subject with about as much subtlety as a bull in a china shop. Believe me, I was there when Moorgan was looking for a tea cup for Daisy Jo. He almost put Lacey Finish out of business. He would have if it wasn’t for the anti-shatter spells they laid over their inventory. Apparently because it happened fairly often. “Don’t think changing the subject gets you off the hook,” Lyra muttered. “I’m going to make a list of all these things you’re avoiding.” “And I’ll keep avoiding,” I nodded with a pleasant smile while still facing Twilight. “So what will we be doing Twilight?” “We will review some of the basic theory with a small demonstration,” Twilight started, slipping into her lecture voice again. My smile fell a little, and she smiled as she noticed it. “Then we will get you to try it for yourself. Does that sound okay?” “It sounds perfect!” I said, more than just a bit giddy. “Should I grab my notes?” “Go right ahead. Lyra, Spike and I will clear a bit of space in the mean time,” Twilight said. I was out the door from the second syllable. Racing back to my room and ignoring Twilight’s yell of no running in the library, it didn’t take me long to rummage through my magic resources pile and locate the note book I had been using in the theory sessions. See; Organized chaos. I grabbed my pen and pencil from the desk and jogged for the door, only to turn back and grab my cellphone and the stylus I rigged. I would have Spike take some picture of it. For posterity sake. Too excited to hold back now, I raced back. I had some magic to work.