//------------------------------//
// The Four: Chapter Two: The Roommate 
// Story: The Few 
// by EctopicEntropy 
//------------------------------//

	The room came into focus slowly, as I woke up. It was definitely not where I had went to sleep. The walls were too shiny, too metallic. I groaned and tried to get up, but my wrists and ankles were bound. I called out, and Lyra whipped around, just within my field of view, and came bouncing over.
“Morning, sleepyhead! How was your nap?”
“It was fine, thanks. Where am I, though?”
“This is my lab. I research humans here. Like you!”
“So, you kidnapped me while I slept and have me restrained on this metal table in an undisclosed location?”
“Pretty much, yep.”
“Kinky. So, what’re you going to do to me?”
“Nothing any more. It seems that whoever changed you changed everything about your physiology. I can’t get any information on humans through a pony, so I guess you’re free to go.”
“Well, I may be able to reverse the spell. Would you like that?”
“More than anything!” she squealed, clapping her hooves in excitement.
I pulled some energy from the ether, and began attempting to cast a reversal spell, but I was quickly met by feedback. “Hmm. Seems I can’t cast it. Not enough capacity for that much energy in this body, I guess. Let’s go find Twilight. We didn’t hit it off too well last time, but she’s a nice enough pony, right?”
“Sure.” Lyra said, not sounding too terribly sure herself.
“So how do we get out of here?”
“The elevator, silly. How else?”
We took the elevator straight into their apartment block, and set out across midmorning Ponyville towards the giant tree library on the edge of town. We knocked, but Twilight answered and quickly reclosed the door. We knocked again, but she just yelled at us to go away. Lyra disappeared, and opened the door from the inside, a bound and gagged Twilight behind her, looking extremely grumpy.
“You really need to stop kidnapping ponies. You know that, right?” I asked, stepping inside.
“Yeah, I know. But it’s so fun!”
Twilight popped up, teleporting out of her bonds, and made to give us both an earful, but I quickly clasped a hoof over her mouth. “Shh. No words, only spells. I need you to transform me back into a human so that Lyra can conduct some tests on me.”
“Why would you want tests done on you?! And why would you ask my help, of all the ponies?! Are you crazy?!”
“No, that’s her job,” I said, gesturing awkwardly at Lyra behind me, who grinned and waved. “However, I have nothing better to do, so I’m asking you to either teach me magic or transform me back. It’s your choice, give a pony an apple, or teach him to buck.”
She fixed me with a glare so intense as to put Cyclops to shame, but I stood my ground. She relented eventually, deflating with a sigh. “Fine, I’ll teach you Equestrian magic. You’ve got to promise me you’ll never come around after we’re through, though.”
“Alright, I promise.”
“Alright, we’re getting somewhere. So, the first step is making you into a unicorn, as a pony’s horn is what channels the magic. Shouldn’t be too hard, though. Just a simple transformation spell, just like before.” There was a flash, and I was thrown slightly off balance. She seemed satisfied, and beckoned me further into the library.
She taught me magic for the remainder of the day, saying I could crash on her couch for the night at the end of the day. I had tried all day to get on her good side, and I feel I made some progress, but not nearly enough. The next day was the same, and the next, and the next. It was a week before she finally actually acknowledged that I was trying. It was small, simple. A ‘goodnight, friend’ as she climbed the stairs. But it was music to my ears, because just as I was trying to get on her good side, she was getting to mine.
It was another two weeks before the lessons were over, but they passed as the most pleasant ones of my Equestrian life. For, as we spent more and more time together, we found we had more and more in common. Put simply, we were both falling for each other. Fast. I never would’ve seen it coming, but at the end of the last night, she asked me to join her in her bed.
“It’s going to be cold tonight. I wouldn’t want you to freeze. But if you try anything, you’re gone. Got it?”
I got it, alright. But that didn’t stop me. I lay there awake most of the night, wondering if she knew I was awake too. I knew I wouldn’t be able to sleep until I did something, mostly because she had told me not to. So I did the most meaningful thing I ever did. I kissed her, on the side of the neck. I pretended to not hear her gasp, pretended not to notice her put a hoof to her neck. I pretended not to notice her smile in the moonlight. I hadn’t pretended to be surprised when she was angry the next morning, though.
“I know what you did last night.” She was angrily brushing her hair, staring at me through the mirror.
“Sorry. I guess I misread the signs. I’ll be going.” I said, making for the door with my head down.
But she stopped me, held me by the tail in her magic. She pulled me to her, turned me around, but didn’t do anything, just stood there, head down slightly, expression hidden by the shadow cast by her hair.
“What’s wrong, Twilight?”
She said nothing in response, just stood there a few more agonizing seconds, seemingly making a decision. I’m glad she did, because that was the quickest, most passionate kiss I’ve ever had. Followed by the hardest shove out the door.


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“This is me admitting I don’t understand anything.” I said to David as we were laying head to head on a hill outside town.
“What happened this time?”
“Twilight, man. I thought we were building a relationship over the past three weeks. She invited me to sleep with her, even! I thought, you know, it wouldn’t be too far if I just kissed her on the neck while she slept. But, no! She goes and shoves me out the door with hardly a kiss goodbye!” I complained, pontificating with my forelegs.
“Hardly a kiss? What does that mean?”
“Well, I went to go, and she pulled me back and kissed me. Then shoved me out the door.”
“Alright, yeah, I’m lost too. Sounds like she likes you, but doesn’t like liking you. Or something. You should confront her about it.”
“I think I’ll let her simmer. As I’ve experienced, it only gets worse when you poke the growling bear. And I kinda also promised not to go back to her place after she taught me magic.”
“Oh, yeah, I noticed the new poky thing. Can you do tricks with it?”
“Sure. Did you have anything in mind?”
“Well,” he started, tapping his chin. “I have always wanted to fly.”
“Presto-change-o!” I said, casting the spell.
He checked behind him real quick, giving his news wings a stretch. He turned to me with a grin, then took off into the sky with a burst of speed. He rapidly returned to the ground, though, being entirely out of breath. I just laughed at him, and mocked him for thinking I’d give him wing muscles too. We had a laugh, and spent the rest of the afternoon watching the clouds scud across the sky and talking about nothing in particular. As the moon crested one horizon, we stood and walked into the other, towards town. We returned to Lyra and Bon Bon’s apartment, and Lyra was very happy to greet me.
“Can you do it yet?” When I nodded, she clapped her hooves in glee, and we rapidly adjourned to her subterranean hideout. I turned myself back to a human, and she strapped me to a table.