So many questions... that nurse had him answering so many questions his head was still spinning. Half of them he ended up having to bullshit by making up distances, or making up horse-punned names for his schools and the places he lived. After what felt like an age and a half, though, James, or rather Raider, was finally free of the hospital. Not a moment too soon, either. Being that close to those two ponies, even if they weren't quite like the Hoofmaidens he knew, was terrifying. Thankfully no one seemed aware of his situation as of yet, so he could continue hiding in plain sight.
"First things first though, library." He mumbled to himself, wandering through the town. It was... disturbingly utopian. Everyone was happy, smiling, helping each other. It was what the Tyrant had promised, actually, before she stole their souls. Actually, the only reason he didn't think he was in a Newfoal village was because there were still a few fights and arguments every now and again, though even those were rare. Each pony was also marked with their talents or personalities, as opposed to the shattered mirrors that adorned the flanks of most Newfoals, or human skulls, as marked his... own...
A electrician's tool belt.
He had a frackin' electrician's tool belt on his ass.
Were his earlier justifications wrong? Was the tyrant going a more subtle route this time? Had she reworked the potion, making it more difficult to tell the difference between pony and Newfoal? Maybe none of this was real, and he was trapped in some type of matrix-thing made of magic?
'No, calm down, man. Deep breaths. Don't assume, don't jump to conclusions, don't...'
To Raider, the world went quite. His life was flashing before his eyes. He'd seen her.
And she'd seen him.
The Tyrant's Madness. The one pony that no-one was safe from. Some people were literally found ponified in underground bunkers with all the doors locked, nothing marking her passing but a few streamers and some confetti littering the ground from her entrance. You couldn't hide from her, you just ran. So that's what he did. He turned and ran as fast as he could move, almost running down several ponies in the process, but it didn't matter. She knew. She always knew where you hid, she always knew when someone was around. She was always "super-duper excited to make you all my newest bestest best friends in both worlds!" He couldn't let that happen to him.
Not a second time.
He wasn't sure how long he ran, but Raider finally slowed down in a park. It was quite, he had a nice view of the surrounding area, he was on a hill with no trees or flowers for her to jump out of, and he could just barely make out the tree/library in the distance. No sign of the pink one, though. It surprised him, actually; he didn't see her anywhere. Raider honestly expected to see her pronking up the hill after him when he finally slowed down, but there was no sign of the warper anywhere.
Seeing the pony responsible for his enslavement had been a horrific experience, one that left him shaking. No, she had to be around here, she never gave up on her targets that easily. That cloud over there? What about that rock at the base of the hill. There! A flash of pink... no, that pony had blue hair, not all pink.
It took a few minutes, but eventually his paranoia faded, replaced by the idea that the warper, of all creatures, was acting wrong. He did see her once, but she didn't even look at him, prancing happily along, talking to the other ponies in the market. The other Hoofmaidens were acting strangely, was Madness, even with her inherent strangeness, included in this? Why did so many ponies look familiar? Taking a steadying breath and stretching out his legs to make sure he didn't cramp after that run(He'd gotten a cramp before in his forelegs after the mind-fog was lifted, not fun to deal with when you don't have fingers to massage it away), Raider finally started closing on his destination. As had been his prerogative all day, though, Murphy wasn't quite done making Raider his bitch.
"Closed? What kind of library is closed in the middle of the day?"
Raider was nearing the end of his rope. Not only did he survive encounters with three ponies who looked terrifyingly like the Tyrants Hoofmaidens, he now learned that his best bet at learning something about this mad world was behind a locked door.
'Of all the stupid, no, screw that. I'm getting in there.' Mustering what little courage he had left, he walked right up to the door, steeled himself, and promptly dove into a bush near the door.
Guards, fucking solar guards pulling a VIP chariot, just started circling the library as he was getting ready to bash the door in. Oh he was so screwed. Hunkered down in the bushes, Raider watched as they landed, dropped off yet another Hoofmaiden look-alike, and took off, headed back to what appeared to be a city on the side of a mountain. Listening to the purple unicorn, however, confused him greatly. Where did she get a dragon, and since when did ponies tolerate other races? She was to stay in the library during her mission here, did that mean she had a key? Wait, Twilight Sparkle? Was this the Twilight that first came to Earth all those years ago, before her own body was stolen?
Of all the Hoofmaidens, Twilight Sparkle was the only one who Humanity had any previous dealings with, and was the only one they could say with certainty was not acting normal when the conversions started. She'd been infinitely curious, and more than happy to engage at length with anyone who wanted to discuss anything of relevance to the purple unicorn. Seeing as how she studied anything she could get her magic or hooves on, this left quite a wide range of topics. Hell, James had seen her himself, when she'd shown up for one of his college electrician courses; the little bookworm had actually abused her visa to get into several university classes, to see how humans learned.
Raider smiled for the first time since getting launched from Earth. He could do this. Twilight may or may not be evil, but even after her possession, she was still obsessed with learning. He just had to use that to his advantage and not draw attention. Easy, right?
'They're going to need a new word for how sunk I am. Nothing ventured nothing gained.' Taking care to not let his nerves show, he approached the pair as they were arguing over their purpose in the town.
"Excuse me miss, you said you were staying in the library. Could you let me in? I need access to some of materials inside."
"Oh, hello." The unicorn greeted. "Um, I actually have some things to do, so I'm not actually going to be opening the library until later."
'Dammit.' "Okay uh, sorry for bothering you. I'll come back later, any idea when you'll be able to open?"
Three hours. Three hours to go around town and check the preparations. From what he'd heard the unicorn didn't actually do anything either, just walked around town making sure everyone else was working
'Reminds me of my old manager.' Raider thought darkly to himself. His mood hadn't improved much even after getting access to the library. No, that would require being able to study the maps and recent events in peace. Peace that was at odds with the party currently occurring in the middle of a thrice-damned library. Seriously, how had the warper gotten in here to set this up? He'd personally tried to open the door earlier, and it was locked. Not just locked, but the door was spelled shut; there was no key that would open it, just a magic array at a specific frequency. Not only had Pinkie gotten in, but she'd invited the entire town to this party, and gotten them inside as well. With the library still locked. He was certain of this, he'd seen the librarian unlock it himself.
Speaking of the menace to logic, he wasn't as worried about her now, as every time she looked at him, it wasn't with that freakishly oversized smile. In fact, she kind of drooped whenever she looked at him. Wait, was she talking about him to The Wind?
"...the worst thing I'd ever seen, Dashie! I was just so happy to make another friend and he just looked at me and he... he ran."
The blue Pegasus chuckled at her friends reaction. "No offense, Pinkie, but you do come off a bit strong sometimes. Remember when you tried introducing yourself to Lily's mom?"
A ghost of a smile appeared on the warper's face before disappearing. "It wasn't like that, Rainbow. It was... it was like he'd seen a manticore running at him, and he was looking straight at me. I'm sure of it. I've... I've never seen somepony react like that." Pinkie's eyes started to shimmer, on the verge of tears. "It was, it was like he was terrified of me."
Raider tuned out The Wind's consolations, turning back to his book. That was why she didn't track him down? Because he was scared of her, and it upset her? That, well actually, considering how things were going so far in this weird not-Equis he'd found himself in, it wasn't too surprising. In fact, it was all the inconsistencies that allowed him to not panic as badly the second time he'd seen the pink menace. He still wasn't eating the cupcakes, though. No need to push his luck.
It all mattered very little to him in the end, though. The party could only go on so long, then he'd get to study in peace.
"C'mon everypony, the Summer Sun Celebration's about to start! Let's go!"
Those ponies were at it all night. They literally partied till sunrise. Raider would have been impressed if not for the fact that he was irritated at the constant interruptions to his study session. Ok, yes it was rude to yell at that mare, she was just trying to be nice, but this was life and death stuff here. Pretty important, to him at least. Anyway, this was supposed to be a big deal for the ponies, happened every year, but not usually in such a small town. Might as well see what it was all about right? So he followed the crowd after placing a bookmark in the history book he'd been reviewing.
Talk about dry stuff. 'The fourth century since the nightmare war was filled with almost as much peace as the previous three centuries combined, except for this little thing where some ponies didn't feel appreciated, but the princess went and hugged them, and everyone was happy again. The fifth century was even nicer than that, and don't get me started on how good the sixth century was!' Good god, did nothing bad happen here? Where was the political intrigue? The bastard children claiming the positions of their fathers through convoluted schemes, the wars over who owned a small field of rocks in the middle of nowhere?? There wasn't even a single disease mentioned in the book, besides something called 'cutie-pox', and honestly, that sounded benign at worst. And what the hell happened during the nightmare war? There was absolutely nothing on it, just something about one sister getting jealous of another and trying to take over. Did anyone die? How long did it last? Details, man, he needed details!
Eventually, he found himself towards the back of the assembly, waiting in front of a stage for something to happen. What it was he was waiting for was anyone's guess. Maybe he should have been paying more attention at that party.
"And now, fillies and gentlecolts, the moment you've been waiting for: Princess Celestia!"
The color immediately drained from Raider's face. 'Yea, definitely should have been paying more attention. Wait, princess, not queen?'
As he was making ready to bolt, the curtain was drawn back, revealing an empty stage. As if the name of the one they were all here to see wasn't enough to drive Raider to hyperventilate, the mayor and the guards were confused and looking all over, not certain of the whereabouts of the Princess, throwing the entire crowd into a panic. That was when he noticed it, a slight shift in the air above the stage, slowly coalescing into a visible cloud, before finally solidifying into an alicorn about the size of the Sun Tyrant.
She spoke, but he didn't hear a word she said. Oh Raider got the jist of what she was saying, but it didn't matter. He heard Twilight call her out, saw the guards make an attempt to stop her; honestly, that was pretty dumb. What were they going to do against a demi-god, tickle her into submission? Maybe ask nicely? With a final flourish, and a swirl of darkness, Nightmare Moon left the gathering, floating off to the forest.
Only a few ponies weren't panicking in the wake of these revelations. One knew what she had to do, and immediately headed for the library. Five others followed her, wondering just what she knew of the situation. The last could only stand there, confused, as the last piece of his reality slipped away.
Raider was alone by the stage, the area having been evacuated shortly after the dark alicorn left. He recognized her even in that twisted form, even as she basically told everyone she was going to freeze the planet. The one who stood beside humanity in their time of need. The one who was turned to stone for not following in the footsteps of her sister. The one many humans owed their lives to, who had done more for humanity than the rest of ponykind put together.
"Luna?"