The group was silent, save for a single awkward cough. Andrew posed with his hands on his hip, forgetting the ever crucial fact that you can’t look cool while wearing a bed sheet.
“Hold on just a minute there…your name is decay?” Applejack asked, finally ending the quiet spell. “As in rottin’? That’s an awfully forebodin’ name…” she said, eyeing up the human. She had once again made her way to Twilights side.
“No no no, that’s just how it’s pronounced, its actually spelled D-I-K-E.” he explained, his shoulders slumping slightly as he stopped posing. “Besides, humans don’t pick names the same way as you guys. At least that’s what I gathered from what Luna said. Our names identify us, but they have very little underlying meaning, save for a few of the really old ones.”
“Really? That’s quite interesting, it sounds similar to how griffons choose their names” Twilight said, thinking out loud. Her eyes had slowly widened as he explained the simple difference in human culture. Even this small tidbit of information was enough to kick start her academic mind. “Are children named at birth or later? Is there reasoning behind which name is first or second? Do you-”
“Twilight, I believe we were discussing something else?” Celestia interrupted, halting her student’s oncoming torrent of questions. The Princess had made her way behind her desk, and now was observing the others.
“Oh, right. Sorry” Twilight said, looking embarrassed for almost letting her inquisitive mind run loose while such an important subject waited. She began again, her face turning quite serious. “Andrew, while I do appreciate you forgiving me, don’t you think this is more serious than that? I could have seriously hurt you. Just as bad is that I *wanted* to seriously hurt you.” Twilight looked extremely upset by this admission, shame and disappointment in herself plain on her face. It was clear she expected to be in trouble.
"Woah ok, serious time I guess” Andrew said, sitting down on one of the chairs. He leaned forward and his mood changing noticeably. “You’re right, I’m letting you off the hook pretty easily. But in the grand scheme of things, it’s pretty fair. You saved my life after all. That and I know you didn’t do it maliciously, you were just trying to protect Luna. I can’t hold that against you, it wouldn’t be just” he paused, looking at Twilights expression.
“I guess that makes sense” she said, thinking and nodding slowly. She seemed to be buying what he was saying, but clearly still had some reservations.
“Tell you what, if your still feel guilty about it, help me figure out how I managed to block your spell. That sound fair?”
“Fine, that’s fair enough I suppose” Twilight agreed. “Although I was going to do that either way.”
“Well now you have my permission, which I’m sure will help speed things up” Andrew said, scratching the back of his head. “So before we talk about this, mind if I put my clothes back on? This thing is a bit draftier than I’d like” He pulled at the sheet as if to show how thin it was.
“Uh yeah sure, I was beginning to wonder why you hadn’t changed yet.”
“Well we were in the middle of a conversation, I didn’t want to just leave” He explained, wondering why she hadn’t expected that.
“Uh… why would you need to leave?” Twilight asked, openly confused.
“Oooh right, Luna was the only one there…” Andrew said, mostly to himself . he shook his head, a smile spawned from embarrassment on his face. “Humans always wear clothes, nudity is a cultural taboo” he explained hoping they wouldn’t ask past his simple explanation.
“‘Cultural Taboo’? That’s the silliest thing a’ve heard in a long time” Applejack said. “iffen ya ask me, wearing clothes is what’s taboo”
“Uh ok first, not what taboo means” Andrew said, giving Applejack a skeptical look. “Second, we don’t have fur, so we get cold a lot easier.”
“It’s the summer, its plenty warm out”
“uh yeah but…” Andrew looked imploringly from Twilight to Princess Celestia. Twilight shrugged, equally curious as to why the human was so interested in privacy, and Princess Celestia just looked back in curious silence.
“Come on guys, it’s not that hard to figure out! If I was a stallion, and my arms where my front legs” he explained, waving his arms about. “and my actual legs were my back legs…” he let the sentence hang, hoping someone would get the memo and save him the trouble. When he nobody did, an irritated sigh exploded out of him
“Jesus Christ, really? Fine, humans have exposed genitalia! It just hangs out in front of us! So we cover ourselves in clothing to keep our privates private!” He ended, annoyance and embarrassment clear in his voice. “I was kinda hoping I wouldn’t have to explain it word for word, but fuck me right?”
All three of the visible ponies blushed noticeably, and he could only assume that Flutteryshy was blushing as well behind her chair. Applejacks mouth hung open in shock and Twilight struggled to keep a semblance of professionalism but only partially succeeding. To her credit the Princess’s blush quickly faded and she cleared her throat.
“The door over there is a bathroom, I believe that will be satisfactory.” She said, pointing to the door on the corner of the room.
“Thank you” Andrew said simply, a hint of annoyance still in his voice. He picked up his clothes and walked to the door, pushing it open. Once inside he looked around, taking in the opulent bathroom. He made his way to a massive mirror on the wall much taller than him, and at least that wide. He sighed, stretching and removing the sheet. He rubbed his shoulder, which was stiff and sore from his earlier one sided scuffle with Twilight. He checked his back out, which had more than a few new bruises. “I’m going to be so sore tomorrow” He murmured an sighed to himself. “should probably be sore already”
He quickly got dressed, focusing on doing it quickly to keep his mind off everything. After he had finished pulling down his shirt, he ruffled his hair to get it back to how he liked it. It seemed lighter than before, blonde instead of his usual dirty blonde. With a shrug he washed his hands and walked to the door. He opened it and walked out, all eyes were immediately on him. He sat down in the same chair and was happy to see Fluttershy had come out from her hiding spot.
“A’m sorry ‘bout that Andrew, ah didn’t realize…” Applejack faltered mid apology, blush returning to her face.
“Yeah, well next time take the hint. But I guess no harm no foul, I was beating around the bush for you three’s benefit more than anything anyways. No reason to go tainting young minds.”
“Um… I’m actually twenty-two.” Fluttershy whispered, the first thing she had said in Andrew’s presence.
“And both Applejack and I are twenty-one” Twilight added.
“Seriously? Wow, I wouldn’t have guessed that… not that I have much to go off of I guess.” Andrew said, surprise coloring his face. “I would have put you down for seventeen, maybe eighteen tops.”
“Uh… thanks?” Twilight responded, not sure if she should be insulted or flattered. Andrew waved off her dilemma. He started to say something, but was interrupted by a long yawn.
Perhaps we should take a break, and continue this conversation tomorrow. You’ve been through a lot in the past day, surely you would like to rest. I’m sure Twilight would be happy to examine you fully tomorrow” Princess Celestia said, getting a agreeing nod from her pupil.
“Yeah, sleeping sounds great right now. Before that though, can I ask a question?” Andrew asked, wiping his eyes. He continued when the Princess nodded. “How long do you think Luna will be laid up for?”
“She will likely be asleep for a day or so before she is recovered enough to be mobile. Worse though, is that because she extensively overdrew her magic so many times, it is likely to be weeks before it returns to normal.”
“What?! It was that bad?” Twilight asked, nearly shouting in shock.
“Yes, while her magical reserves will likely be full by the end of the week, such repeated drains will most likely have strained her horn, making even simple spells very difficult for her to perform by herself.” Celestia explained, even her usually controlled façade breaking, letting her worry for her younger sibling through.
“Umm… Andrew are you ok?” Fluttershy asked, as timid as ever. She had seen him grow more and more upset as Celestia explained the severity of Luna’s condition. His head had slumped and his fist clenched. It took him a long moment to speak.
“I’m fine, and that’s the problem. This is my fault, but I’m not the one getting hurt for it, she is. She’s getting shafted because of me. That’s not ok.” He said quietly, guilt evident in his voice. “Is there anything I can do to help her get better? It’s not fair for her to be suffering because of me.” He asked the Princess, a faint hope in his eyes.
“I’m afraid not, otherwise I would already be doing it.”
“I figured as much.” His shoulders slumped, reluctantly accepting that all he will able to do is wait. “Well I know I’m not much use for anything, but if I can do anything to help please let me know.”
“I will, you have my word Andrew.” The regal alicorn promised. “But before you go, understand this. My sister would have done this for every single creature in this world. While your presence may have caused this unfortunate series of events, you are not responsible for them. You may see her suffering as your fault, but I assure my sister sees it as a perfectly acceptable payment for the life and health of an innocent being.”
Andrew’s eyes watered a bit as the Princess’s word washed over him. While he still felt guilty for what had happened, he was now able to think more clearly.
“Now” The Princess continued “go get some rest, like we agreed, Twilight will start her research tomorrow. Stalwart?” Princess Celestia raised her voice to call the guard standing outside the door. When he walked in, she continued.
“Take Andrew to a spare bedroom, one with a bed large enough for him. Oh and make sure that someone will be there in the morning in case he needs anything.”
“As you wish your highness” Stalwart said with salute, then motioning for Andrew to follow. Andrew turned to the other four.
“I guess I’ll see you all tomorrow?”
He got a few nods and agreements, before turning to follow the guard out into the hall.
As Stalwart and Andrew made their way through the hallways, Andrews had a hard time keeping up with him. Andrew certainly wasn’t out of shape, but the guards gait was awkwardly in between a walk and a slow run for the human, so he found himself alternating between the two, and his tired and lightly battered body wasn’t liking it very much. None the less he followed through the white marble halls, finally reaching a nondescript but well-crafted door. Stalwart stopped in front, pushing it open.
“Here you are sir, this room should suit you fine.”
Andrew walked in to the simple yet spacious room, glad to see the bed was plenty large enough for him, though sleeping on the same level as the floor would be a new experience.
“Thanks, but my names Andrew” said said, remaining near the door. “Any idea who’s gonna be helping me tomorrow morning?”
“No sir, but someone will be here before you wake up” the guard replied tersely. Andrew took the hint, and nodded. He was way too tired to call out the pony’s bad attitude. He shut the door with a simple ‘goodnight’, and made his way to the bed, losing his shoes and shirt on the way there. As he lay down, his head on the pillow, he looked out of the window that lay on the opposite side of the room. It held a great view of the quickly darkening sky, and the silver disk that he had been walking on not three hours before. He fell asleep like that, staring at the impossibly large moon.
Andrew awoke to the sounds of birds chirping and muffled conversations. Having lived in one city or another for the majority of the back end of his life, the muffled conversations of people in the streets or in the halls was nothing new to him. The songs of birds however was a new waking experience, one he found himself enjoying greatly while laying in the comfortable bed.
Eventually boredom overtook him though, so he got up slowly. His arm was sore, and he could feel the bruises on his back as he rolled out of the bed and onto floor. He pushed himself up off the ground and stretched, noticing quite a few new pops and squeaks as he did this. He took a deep breath after releasing his stretch, and the smell of pastries made its way into his nose. He turned, noticing a cart near the bedroom door for the first time. Upon inspection it revealed numerous breakfast goods, ranging from some sugary treats to what appeared to be some sort of oat cereal. His stomach growled and he resisted the urge to shovel whole plates into his mouth. He finally settled on a pastry, an apple and two muffins, eating them as he made his way to the small balcony attached to his room, opening the doors to a warm early morning.
Below he could make out ponies as they made their way through the streets, the conversation they were having drifting up to him. He at his breakfast in peace, enjoying the clean air and fluid singing of more than a few song birds. After cleaning the last bit of sugar off his fingers, he made his way to the bathroom and completed his morning rituals as best he could considering the circumstances and the things provided to him. He felt refreshed, despite the hay flavored toothpaste. He could feel his nervous energy bubbling through the whole time, this only becoming more obvious after he completed his routine and began wearing a hole in the floor as he paced around. Finally, unable to take it any longer, he headed to the door, grabbing one last pastry as he did. He opened the door, and stuck his head out into the hall. A reddish brown earth pony with a long golden mane sat outside, across from him. She looking up, somehow managing to keep almost all of the shock from her face at her first sight of the human.
“Oh! Good morning sir, did you sleep well?” She said cheerfully, but not annoyingly so.
“Uh yeah, pretty well actually” he replied “and the names Andrew. Seriously, just Andrew. My ego doesn’t need any help inflating itself.”
“Well alright Andrew, I’m Autumn Song, but you can call me Autumn. I’ll be your guide for today!” She said, smiling a contagious smile that Andrew soon found himself copying.
“Alright Autumn, that sound’s good. Are you the one who got me breakfast?” Andrew asked, nodding his head to the cart, which was now behind the closed door.
“Mhmm! Since I’ve never met a Huymaan before” she replied, struggling slightly with the new word “I kinda got a bit of everything. Did you find something you liked?”
“Oh yeah, good call on the pastries” he said, showing her the one he was holding before taking a bite. The flavor was tainted a bit from the hay toothpaste, but it was still good.
“Great! I was worried you wouldn’t like it.” she said, happiness clear on her face. “Now, according to what I’ve been told, you’re supposed to meet Twilight Sparkle in the library at noon. But since you got up relatively early, we have a few hours before then. Anything you would like to do or see around the castle in the meantime?”
“Well… I actually wanted to go to the library anyway, do some reading before I met Twilight and her friends.”
“Oh… well that’s fine, makes my job much easier!” The auburn pony said, seemingly undeterred by the unexciting wish of her charge. “Just follow me!”
Andrew couldn’t help but smile at the peppy pony’s enthusiasm as he followed her .
“So Andrew, Where you from?” Autumn asked, making friendly conversation as they made their way through the halls. There weren’t many ponies in the castle this early, but those who were were friendly, saying hello and trying not to stare at the lanky biped.
“Well right now home is in Boston, but I bounced around a lot when I was younger.” He absentmindedly answered as he absorbed the view that was passing them by. The windows beside them looked out over the Royal gardens, an impressive expanse of hedges, flower bushes and statues.
“Boston huh? Is that up near Manehattan?” she asked, trying to remember if she had heard that name before.
“Uhh, not quite…” Andrew replied, suddenly realizing he had no idea how much information Princess Celestia was ok with him sharing. He didn’t have to worry though, because before she could inquire further, they arrived at the library.
“Here we are! The Canterlot library, also known as the National Library of Equestria. It contains at least one copy of every book and scroll written from 250 A.D till now!” Autumn said as she slipped back into tour guide mode.
The she walked into the main room, with Andrew tailing behind her, looking at all the books. A dulled orange unicorn, who Andrew assumed was the librarian, sat at the desk next to the entrance. She was busily working, organizing stacks and stacks of books, checking each on before placing it in another pile.
“So what kind of books are you looking for?” Autumn asked as they reached the center of the room.
“One on basic magic, and another on general equestrian history. I’m getting a bit tired of not having any idea what anyone is talking about.”
“Alright, if I’m not mistaken history would be over there!” Autumn said, heading off to a section of the library. Pretty soon they had found some books, and had returned to the reading area. Andrew placed his small pile of book on the table with a quiet thud. He sat down, again surprised that chairs designed for ponies were at all comfortable. Autumn sat across the table from him, and placed her own book down.
“Are you sure you don’t mind me reading?” she asked. While the two had been searching for books, she had spotted one on display she had been meaning to read.
“Absolutely not, I want you to sit there and stare at the ceiling for the next three hours.” he demanded, words dripping in sarcasm. “Of course you can read, who am I to say you couldn’t anyway?”
“Okay, okay, just making sure. To you it might sound ridiculous, but you would be surprised what can insult foreign nobles”
“Oh I don’t doubt that in the least” Andrew replied, already cracking into his first book. It was titles Simple Magic Concepts, and was adorned with a simplistic silhouette of a unicorn, a pegasus and a earth pony. With a content smile, he settled in for a few hours of reading.
It took him the better part of three hours to make his way through his first book, much longer than he had intended. His plan had been to skim a few books and hopefully absorb some information that would let him be a bit more than just a quiet specimen in Twilights coming investigation. What he hadn’t expected was to be drawn in so much by the magic of… well magic. While the book talked very little about the methods of casting spells, it talked in length about magical phenomena as well as the innate magic of all pony breeds. Many of the concepts were still a bit fuzzy, but he understood a surprising amount as well.
“How was it so far?” Autumn asked, having put her own book down upon seeing Andrew do the same to his. Her voice dragged him from his thoughts, and he looked at her questioningly
“Hmm? I’m sorry, you say something?
“I asked how it was so far” She repeated.
“Oh! Yeah it was fine, and I understood a lot of it, which was a welcome surprise. It’s done though, so I should start reading the history book now” he answered, as he reached for the next book in his stack.
“Whoa, you finished it already? You must be a fast reader!” She said, surprise written on her face.
“Yeah I guess. I mean I’m a pretty solid reader, nothing to write home about though” he said nonchalantly. “I just hope I have some time to read this one before-”
“Hey Twi’ he’s over here!”
Andrew turned towards his name and the already familiar twang filled voice. Sure enough, the orange pony was making her way to him, followed by Twilight, who was in turn followed Fluttershy.
“There ya are partner, we stopped by your room but ya weren’t there.” Applejack said when the trio arrived.
“Oh, sorry, I wanted to do some reading, maybe learn a bit about magic before Twilight started trying to figure what’s going on”
“S’alright, we just didn’t want you to get lost on your way here” She explained. She leaned over to get a closer look at some of the books. “That’s some mighty heavy readin’ your do’in”
Twilight picked up the book Andrew had just finished, and gasped.
“You reading Concepts? How do you like it so far? It’s one of my favorite beginners’ books!” She gushed as she gripped the book against herself. “did you make it to the part on alchemy? They describe it so well!”
“Yeah, I actually finished it. I’m just glad I understood most of it” he said, shaking his head with a smile over how enamored Twilight was with what was a essentially ‘Magic for dummies’”
“Wow, that’s pretty impressive Andrew! If you have any questions, feel free to ask! Magic is uh kinda my thing.” She said, the last part with no small amount of modesty and embarrassment.
“Twi’s just be’in modest. She’s the element of magic, ain’t nobody better at it than her, save maybe the Princesses” Applejack bragged, obviously deeply proud of her friends accomplishments. “Why just the other day she-“
“Why don’t we get going to the spell room? I’d like to start setting up some magical probes” Twilight cut her friend off, the telltale blush of embarrassment creeping up her face. She hurriedly rushed away from the group toward a rather large door in the very far end of the library. It was marked by images of unicorns, as well as what Andrew now recognized as magical runes.
As the group got to the door, Twilight pushed it open, revealing a large room on the other side. It was lined with dozens of shelves containing vials and vessels filled with various liquids, old books stacked on even older desks and a multitude of important looking objects.
“Princess Celestia had this room refurbished when I was just a filly, turning it into it a place where unicorns could go to practice the minor spells that they were studying in the library.” She explained. “It’s sound proof and lined with metal to keep any out of control spells inside this room. I must have spent half my time in here when I was living in Canterlot.”
“Wow! I never knew this room was back here!” Autumn said, surprising both Andrew and Fluttershy. She walked further into the room, sticking her hoof out to Twilight.
“Hi, my names Autumn Song, I’m supposed to be Andrews guide for today, you don’t mind if I sit in and watch do you?” She continued.
“N-no, of course not. It might get a little boring though.” Twilight warned, shaking the cheerful earth ponies hoof. She was thrown for a bit of a loop by the red-brown pony, she hadn’t expected her to follow them.
“That’s no problem, still got plenty left of my book.” she said, her smile as big as ever. She made her way to one wall of the room, sitting down and opening up her book. Fluttershy eyed the new pony nervously before walking over to Twilight.
“Um… Twilight, is it alright if I um… go find a book to read?” she asked. “I’m afraid I won’t be much help with the magic…”
“Of course Fluttershy, that’s fine.”
The light yellow pony mumbled a thank you before walking out the door they came in through, shutting it behind her.
“You might want to find one as well Applejack, this might take a while.” Twilight advised her farmer friend.
“That’s a’right sugarcube, I like watching all that magic stuff you do.” Applejack replied. “Besides, if I get bored I could always just take a nap.” She walked to one of the walls as well, laying down and getting comfortable.
“Well alright then, that takes care of them, let’s get to this Andrew, I can’t wait to find out what’s going on.” Twilight said, a bounce in her step, put there by the chance to study a part of magic she had never seen before. She made her way to the center of the room, and using her magic, levitated a few pillows to them. She laid them out and took a seat, motioning that Andrew do the same.
“Are you ready Andrew?” she asked. “It won’t hurt, there isn’t enough energy in this spell to hurt, but some unicorns do feel a bit off when they are consistently exposed to another ponies magic, and this is nothing if not consistent.”
“What are you going to do?” Andrew asked, moving around to find a position that was comfortable.
“First, I’m going to cast a simple scanning spell. This will allow me to take a nice and close look at the magic around and attached to your body. With any luck we will find some sort of residual energy associated with what brought you here.” Twilight explained, clearly enjoying the opportunity to flex her intellectual muscle. “After that I’ll cast a much more complex probing spell that will allow me to see the magic inside you.”
“Magic inside me? I shouldn’t have any magic inside me, humans don’t have magic!” Andrew said, emphasizing the last bit. This frequent disregard for what he thought was possible was starting to really make him doubt his own sanity.
“I know, I gathered that from your reaction, plus what from what Princess Celestia passed along from her and Princess Luna’s short chat.” Twilight said, trying to show the human that she understood his confusion. “Regardless though, that magic that stopped my erm… attack… it certainly seemed to emanate from you. As improbable as it may seem, we need to work from what we have seen.”
Andrew slumped slightly, muttering his agreement.
“So I’ll ask again, are you ready to begin?” Twilight asked the human, who nodded in confirmation. “Great. Now breathe normally, and remember that it’s just a scanning spell, so no need to panic or anything.” Her horn began to glow and Andrew saw, and felt the magic envelope his body
“Oh, and you might want to lay down, this will take a while.”