* After much ceremony and fanfare, it was of little surprise that six ponies would seek respite from the enduring crowds in the comfort of their hometown. However, news seemed to travel faster than the various means of transportation from place to place in Equestria, so no solace could be found. Upon arrival in the town of Ponyville, the swell of ponies on either side of the railroad tracks seemed to reach up in an effort to dislodge the decelerating locomotive from its set path. Feeling the forward jerk of inertia as the train screeched to a halt, Rainbow Dash bumped her head into the back of the seat in front of her.
"Ugh!", she shouted as she rubbed her head, "No good, lousy...", and cut off in innate frustration. She looked outside the window of her train car, and to her dismay, everypony waiting outside stared back at her with eager, anxious expressions. She nervously smiled and waved back at the myriad ponies awaiting the arrival of the six heroes of Equestria. "Twilight...", she said, stuttering over her dread of the situation, "...I think we're gonna have a bit of a rough time getting to your house."
Twilight, with her cheek bunched up on her hoof, glanced out of her own window. "I wish they would show their admiration by going home and leaving us be. We've already been hassled by hundreds of ponies in Canterlot, and things aren't looking too much brighter here at home." Rainbow Dash nodded her head in agreement.
"I, for one, don't mind being adored and admired in the least bit. If the citizens of Ponyville wish to congratulate us on our victory over Chrysalis, I don't see a problem with ruffing my way through the crowds." Rarity, dressed up in a dress of her own design, walked down the aisle of the train car with a refined air of dignity and honor. The rest of them simply rolled their eyes in playful banter. They dismounted the train, and headed off to face the impending wave of ponies. As the tide of fans hit, numerous questions were flung from every direction: How did you all do it? Is anyone hurt? What remains of Canterlot? Did the wedding proceed as planned? No answers were given in response to these queries, and the six friends tried their best to hurry through the crowd to Twilight's house. However, just as the end of the crowds was in their view, the Mayor of Ponyville stopped them in their tracks.
"Oh my goodness!" She seemed out of breath. "I thought I wouldn't get a chance to speak with you all." She paused again to catch some air.
Applejack raised her eyebrow in disapproval. "I'm mighty sorry, but we really just wanna get home. We've had a rough time with other ponies trying to give us their thanks, and we'd really appreciate if y'all'd just let us through." She started to go around the mayor, but she put up a hoof to block her path.
"All of you, I need to ask a favor." The crowd of ponies was beginning to migrate toward the now stationary heroes.
Fluttershy spoke in a more hushed tone than usual, "What is it that you want us to do?"
The mayor gestured to a pony walking down the streets of the town. He didn't seem to be part of the crowds that caked the roads. "I don't know who he is, but he arrived here in Ponyville just after you departed for the Royal Wedding in Canterlot. He's been looking for you, Twilight Sparkle", she said as she pointed her hoof at Twilight. "I don't know exactly what he wants. He said something about studying abroad from Canterlot University, and how he knew you were doing the same. I thought perhaps you knew each other, so I let him stay in your house."
Twilight's eyes widened. "You let him into MY home?! What were you thinking?! I haven't ever seen him before in my life!" She ran passed the mayor and straight home, with her friends not too far behind. When she got there, she burst into the door to find something surprising: not a single thing in her house appeared to be touched or disturbed. The door to her bedroom was even in the exact same open position she had left it in before she left. After thoroughly inspecting her house, she breathed a sigh of relief. "Thank goodness he hasn't touched anything." She ruffled her eyebrows. "Let alone eaten anything. Not a single bit of my food's been touched."
Rarity spoke up. "I still think it rather appalling that a strange colt was in your house without your permission. Quite rude of the Mayor to just offer him a place that wasn't even hers."
"Oh well", Twilight said, "At least nothing's wrong with my house." She looked out of the window to see purple and pink hues in the sky, dotted with a few sparkles of distant starts here and there. "I think it'd be great...", a yawn interrupted her sentence, "...if we all got some sleep. I'm completely beat from everything that's happened. You all can stay here to sleep if you don't feel like walking home."
"Thank you kindly, but I think I'd better head back to the farm. Big Mac, Granny Smith, and Applebloom will wanna see me after everything that happened." The other ponies gave similar reasons for heading home.
"I must attend to Sweetie Belle..."
"Angel needs to be fed..."
"I find clouds more comfortable than trees..."
"It's been three whole days since I've had a cupcake!"
Twilight smiled at Pinkie's response, and bid her friends farewell. She climbed the steps to her bedroom, closed the door behind her as she entered, and passed Spike's empty bed, staring at it with some degree of worry. She finally collapsed onto her bed, paying no heed to the neatness of the sheets nor to the position of her pillow. Staring out into the night sky visible from her window, she drifted to sleep.
* * *
There seemed to be a figure in the distance. It looked to be a tall spire, faded by the color of an oily shadow. Twilight began to run toward it, not knowing why she did nor what the figure was. As she approached it, its form began to assume a more definite shape. It looked like a tall pillar with four sharp edges, with a square pyramid mounted on top. Its size began to become increasingly apparent the closer Twilight got. It was enormous, higher than the highest spire in the Canterlot Palace. Suddenly, she felt the splash of water on her hoof. She stopped, and looked down to see that a vast lake surrounded the obelisk. In the water, she could see all of her friends, some images of them bickering fiercely, and some yet of them having wonderful fun together. She looked up at the obelisk to see a bright, blue light shining from its tip pointing down at her. She heard her name whispered in her head.
"Twilight.......Twilight.........I'm coming for you very soon." She looked back down into the water to see an image of herself as a filly, releasing Spike from his egg during her first magic examination. It then changed into an image of herself turning gray as Discord almost triumphed over the six's friendship. She looked back up at the obelisk, and shouted, "Who are you?!" The obelisk, though void of any means of expression, seemed to narrow its gaze at her.
"I am the essence of perfection, the being void of error. I am the burden of a troubled memory, and the torture of genuine terror." Twilight felt a crippling sensation of extreme emotional trauma, followed by a euphoric sense of elation, then the two feelings mixed into one another into something she couldn't begin to describe. The obelisk's telepathic voice lowered in pitch. "I grow tired of Celestia's preventative measures. Tell her....that a Friendly Stranger is not as far from her land as she thinks." Twilight collapsed into the water, the resulting shock waking her up.
***
The daylight poured itself through the bedroom window. 'What a weird dream', thought Twilight. It hardly seemed as though much time had been passed in sleep, yet the full cycle of night-to-day had occurred. "Good morning Spike, I..." She cut herself off when she realized that Spike's bed still lay empty. She sighed and looked down at the floor, eventually resolving to exit the comfort of her sheets and step down upon it. Drudging down the stairs and over to her desk, she was startled awake by the fact that her quill wasn't in her ink well. Instead, it lay flat upon the desk, with several pieces of parchment scattered about below it. She shook her head when she realized that she hadn't checked her desk last night when looking for discrepancies in her house's order. She let out an exasperated huff, and approached the clutter of parchment. The contents of the papers gave her another shock: they were filled with lines of mathematics that were so complex, she couldn't even comprehend them. Using her magic, she lifted the papers into the air and examined each one closely. She was able to distinguish an order to the lines of equations, and deduced that whoever wrote them was trying to solve a problem. She looked at the bottom of the last page, and it ended in an equals-sign and a question mark. Apparently, the skilled mathematician hadn't been able to come up with a solution to the conundrum that filled every white space of fourteen pages of parchment. 'These must have been written by that strange pony who the Mayor let into my house', thought Twilight. She took a moment to look back over the papers. A feeling of slight admiration sprung up inside of her. Even though no solution was found, the pony who tackled this problem was very intelligent indeed. There were several symbols and concepts that Twilight had never even laid eyes on.
The sudden sound of a bump at her door made her drop the papers. She turned toward the door, and heard the muffled voice of a colt on the other side. "Ouch....ugh." She raised her eyebrow, and made ready to open the door, but it opened before she could even take one step. A blue magical film surrounded the door as it swung open, and a white pony stepped in with blue magic surrounding his horn. He was scrunching his eyes closed rubbing his head; Twilight guessed he had been distracted, and ran into the door. He opened his eyes and did a double-take when he saw Twilight, dropping more papers he was carrying with magic. His eyes give her a start, for they were of a beautiful emerald-green.
"Oh my.....I....uh", he started backing out of the house, "I didn't realize you'd returned. My greatest apologies." He made a hasty bow, and hit is head on the door frame on the way back up. "Ouch! S-sorry Twilight Sparkle, I'll leave promptly." He turned to collect the dropped papers, and made a fool of himself trying to bunch it all together. Twilight, still somewhat dumbfounded, at last came to speak.
"Wait! Are you the pony who's been asking for me?" She stepped up behind him. He turned around, still somewhat flustered.
"Uh....yeah. You are Twilight Sparkle, correct?" His face was still rife with embarrassment.
"Yes I am, and may I ask who YOU are?", she gave him an up-and-down glance, then stamped her foot towards him, "You, who think you can just enter anypony's home whenever he feels like it?"
He backed away even further. "Wait! I'm sorry, just let me explain. My name is Euclid." He gave a slight bow of the head. "I'm here from Canterlot University on a study-abroad program, like you are." His white hoof raised up to point at Twilight. "I'm the top student in my particular area of studies, and the Princess found it acceptable for me to pursue these studies on my own in Ponyville. She told me that her best student, one named Twilight Sparkle, was doing the same thing, so when I arrived, I asked the mayor here if you were present. She told me that you were away in Canterlot on account of the Royal wedding, so she offered me your house for a place to stay..."
Twilight sharply interrupted, "Which is exactly what the problem is! I never gave the okay for that to happen, so you're essentially an intruder!" Her voice became more and more irritated.
"Actually, I've only used your house for my works, as you've seen...", he glanced around Twilight at the pile of scattered papers on her floor. "...but I went to a local establishment in order to compensate you. I've bought a new stack of parchment." He set the disorganized clump of parchment on the doorstep in front of Twilight.
Twilight's anger began to fade away. She sighed and closed her eyes for a moment. "I'm really sorry, I've just been really stressed lately. In case you haven't heard, Canterlot was almost overthrown by a swarm of changelings. That, and my baby dragon, Spike...", she glanced at her bedroom door, "...he's awfully sick. I had to leave him with an expert doctor in Canterlot."
Euclid's fear subsided a bit, and he relaxed. "I'm very sorry to hear that. You'll be happy to know that I've been staying elsewhere. I had no intention in staying in a lady's home without her leave. I simply needed some parchment to work out a few of my problems, and I've purchased enough of it to replace that which I used, and some for my own future use. I can see that I've upset you, so I'll get out of your mane." He began to turn to depart.
"Wait.", Twilight said. "Why don't you come in?" She smiled a little bit. "I'd actually like to hear about your studies. It's always nice to meet a fellow scholar."
Euclid smiled back a charming, well-tempered smile. "Are you sure? I don't want to be a bother."
Twilight's smile expanded into a sincere grin. "Of course! You've sparked my genuine interest." She walked in with Euclid following behind, picked up the blank pile of parchment, and closed the door. "You see", she said, "I love anything having to do with math, science, or magic. I looked over your papers, and I can't even understand half of the math on them! Are you a mathematician?"
"Why, yes. See my cutie mark?" He showed her the side of his flank. Upon it was some odd equation that Twilight had never seen before, which looked like this:
*
"What is it?", asked Twilight.
"It's called the Star-Swirl Zeta Function. Developed by the great mind of Star-Swirl the Bearded himself." His eyes began to light up. "It has to do with a strange realm of mathematics called complex analysis. It's astonishing he knew anything about it, because few pony mathematicians even know how to do complex computations in the present time."
Twilight now seemed lavishly interested in Euclid's cutie mark. "That's amazing! I thought Star-Swirl the Bearded was only a wizard! I had no idea he was a renowned mathematician!" Her eyes were now just as lit up as Euclid's.
Euclid chuckled a bit. "Actually, quite a bit of math goes into the practice of magic. You, for example, must have a profound understanding of the subject. Celestia told me that you were the most skilled unicorn in perhaps all of Equestria."
Twilight blushed slightly. "Well, I don't know about ALL of Equestria, but I am taught directly by the Princess. She doesn't do that for just any unicorn. But to answer your question, no. I'm afraid I don't really have as tight of a grasp on math as you might have."
"That doesn't really mean you don't understand it. A unicorn of your caliber certainly has some sort of innate understanding about the mathematical and scientific natures of this world." He looked up at Twilight's telescope. "I had noticed that we share a common interest in the celestial bodies that hover in the night sky."
Twilight's voice revealed her excitement. "Oh my goodness! You like to stargaze?!" She let out a small squee. "There's nothing quite as exhilarating as seeing a comet pass the view of your telescope is there?" A giggle escaped her lips, but she quickly quelled it.
Euclid bent his knees a bit in an ecstatic display. "Or when you finally discover a realization about a particular subject that just screams, 'Aha! I have you know!'" He let out a giggle similar to Twilight's, but deeper in inflection. He straightened his composure and looked down at Twilight. "I'm really glad I've had the pleasure of meeting someone like you, Twilight Sparkle. I didn't think I'd ever meet anypony so special and intelligent. Usually, anytime I try to engage in conversation with any other pony, I have to limit my eloquation." He smiled. "Don't you just hate it when nopony knows what you're talking about?"
Twilight remembered just a month before, when she had tried to describe the Wingpower Gauge to the Pegasuses, nopony knew what she was saying until Spike dumbed it down for them. "That is the story of my life!" She burst out into laughter, and Euclid joined her. "You know, I'm kind of glad you came by, Euclid. Would you like to meet my friends?"
Euclid smiled. "I'd like nothing better, Miss Twilight Sparkle."
*This is actually called the Riemann Zeta Function. It extends the Zeno's Dichotomy Series into a complex argument.