Chapter Five
Reality Bites
"...and so by applying Marelon's seventh carrier seal, the instantaneous transmission of matter, i.e. teleportation, is achieved! What do you think?"
Twilight had just, with a few 'simple' demonstrations, unraveled the entirety of your understanding of the universe's physical laws, and she was seriously asking you what you thought?
"Um, I honestly don't know what to think," you reply with trepidation. "If what you've just showed me is any indication, then I may be a lot further from home than I originally thought." You pause and Twilight nods for you to continue. "The constellations I saw the other night didn't show up on any charts in my suit's database. I initially took this to mean the jump had sent me several galaxies away instead of a few star systems. On its own, that would be bad enough. Now though, after seeing just how different the fundamental laws of nature here are, I'm not entirely sure. As crazy as it sounds...I think I may be in another Universe altogether." You shift your gaze to take in the beautiful setting sun. "If that's the case, I don't think I'll ever be getting home."
Man, you really know how to kill a mood. Putting on the best shit eating grin, you turn back to Twilight. "Hey I'm sorry about getting a little melodramatic on you there. Things will work out I'm...sure?"
Twilight was literally only inches from your face. At some point during your pity party, the unicorn had been silently inching herself closer and closer to your spot on the bed and your sudden movement had caught her comically off guard.
"Uh, w..what are you...doing?" She appears frozen in place, hardly breathing. Mouth parted slightly and eyes wide and glazed. Her eyes are trained on a spot just below your eyes. That adorable blush is back in full force.
"Twilight, are you okay?" you ask cautiously.
With a slow and deliberate blink, she seems to come out of her trance.
"There's something I've been meaning to ask you since we brought you in the other day." She finally brings her eyes up to meet yours.
"Your species. Humans. What do you eat, primarily? Are you herbivores, like us," at this point she is watching you very intently, "or are you carnivores, like the creatures of The Everfree Forest?"
You quite honestly couldn't be more surprised by this. She was freaking out about your teeth of all things? It made sense in a way though, seeing as you were effectively a wolf in their midst. Maybe it was time to have some fun with your new purple pony friend?
"Carnivores?" you ask, sarcasm dripping from your voice. Bringing yourself up to your full stature you tower over Twilight, even while still seated in bed. "Well, I must admit I'm not familiar with the term." You bring your toothy grin back out on full display, canines once again transfixing the unicorn attention.
Her eyes are shooting from holding your now almost predatory gaze, down to your teeth and back again in rapid succession. She seems terrified, so why is that blush back and stronger than ever?
"C...carnivore; noun," she begins, doing her best imitation of a dictionary. Honestly, this girl is too much. "Any of various predatory, flesh-eating mammals of the order Carnivora."
At this you grin in mock delight and she shrinks slightly, her eyes crinkling slightly at the edges. You would only let this go on a little longer. No sense causing any permanent damage.
"It sounds familiar, but perhaps there was more to the definition you would care to share?" You almost lose it as you subconsciously adopt a slightly British accent.
She was panting at this point, and the flush had spread almost to the tips of her cutely bowed ears. You would be lying if you said the display did nothing for you on a certain, primal level.
Deciding to end your little game, you move your left hand from your side and place it gently against the nape of her neck. You are strangely unsurprised when you feel the gentle thrum of her energies running pleasantly up your forearm. Her eyes are locked firmly on yours now, her breathing deep and almost shuddering.
You gently run your fingertips through the silky soft hair of her mane and ask, "isn't there more to it though? I can't help but feel like you're leaving something out."
As your ministrations increase, you notice Twilight's eyes are slowly drifting closed and just the tip of her tongue is visible as it pokes out from the corner of her mouth. If you didn't know any better you'd swear she was about to fall asleep. That didn't make any sense though. Only a few moments prior and she had been quaking in fear. What else could it be you wondered? Suddenly, an idea occurs, and you find yourself straining to reign in a fit of giggles.
"Twilight. Twilight are you with me?" you ask trying desperately to keep a straight face.
In the same mellow voice, you ask, "Are you okay, Twilight? You wouldn't happen to by any chance be, enjoying yourself, would you?"
"Mmm hmm" she responds seemingly teetering on the precipice of sleep. Oh hot damn. This was one of those watershed moments you always heard about during your time in graduate school. It looked like this world would be your home for the foreseeable future. Who were you to deny yourself the opportunity to make the most of a bad situation?
Deciding to see just where her mind is at the moment, you lean even closer until the faint tickle of her breaths is felt on your lips. “Twilight, is there anything you would like me to do for you?” Her entire body shivers slightly at the sensation of your touch.
“I…I don’t know.” Her eyes are almost completely shut now. “Do you have any suggestions, maybe?”
Wow. This was a completely unexpected turn of events. From what you could tell, it seemed that an increase in adrenaline introduced via an instinctual prey response had flooded the unicorn’s system with endorphins to offset her elevated stress levels. This combined with the apparently rare luxury of fingers had seemingly put her over the edge into a state of pure euphoria.
It appeared that you had your own brand of magic in this world. Powerful magic, if Twilight's reaction was any indication. As with any powerful new tool, you would need to conduct further research, ensuring it was wielded to its utmost capacity.
With a sly smile, you retract your hand from your companion's neck, laughing quietly to yourself when she sighs in disappointment.
"I do have a suggestion, actually," you begin, your voice bringing her deep purple eyes to settle intently on yours. She nods, and you go for the kill. "How would you like a complete procedural breakdown of all systems and components on board my MKIII, Groombridge Class engineering suit?" Your voice does a complete 180, shifting back to its typical animated self.
"I've seen you glancing at it all day", you intone waggling your eyebrows conspiratorially. "I should be out of here in a few days at most, right? As soon as they clear me for release I'll let you go through it to your heart's desire and answer any questions you have!"
Her face looks almost impossibly confused. You immediately decide confusion is adorable on Twilight's face.
"Huh, but, wait. What just happened?" She looks as though you've just shaken her from a long afternoon of napping. "What were we... talking about, again?" She trails off shifting her mane as though the phantom sensation of your fingers lingers still.
"I was just telling you that I'll be giving you free reign to do as much research as you'd like on my engineering suit over there." You gesture to the furthest corner of the room where your suit, a piece of tech worth around 1.75 million credits last you checked, had been laying in a heap. It was a tidy heap at least.
"Oh! That sounds wonderful! When can we start? I just have so many questions about it! I mean, I've never seen anything even remotely similar? What are its functions? Does it have an internal power source?" She is practically floating at this point. Actually, on second glance you see that she is quite literally floating, hooves kicking in excitement an inch or so above the clean white tile floor.
Chuckling at the unicorn's antics, you speak up before she accidentally teleports herself through a wall. "But, I can't do that while I'm still stuck here in the hospital, so it will need to wait until I'm released."
She visibly deflates at this, returning her hooves to Terra Firma.
"Also," you add "if you we're going to be doing any intensive diagnostics on my suit I'll be needing something else to wear."
She raises an eyebrow in question. "Humans don't go gallivanting about in the nude very often," you supply helpfully. "It's a bit of a cultural taboo for the most of us actually."
"I know just the pony to help with that problem," Twilight answers without even a moment's pause. "My friend Rarity is a successful clothing designer who lives here in town. If there's one thing she loves, it's a fashion challenge! I bet she'll be practically begging me to make you an entire wardrobe of clothes!"
"An entire wardrobe?" you ask through grit teeth. "That sounds a little excessive, not to mention expensive."
She smiles happily up at you. "Oh don't worry about the costs! Rarity is a very generous pony. I'm sure she wouldn't mind helping you out considering your situation."
Generous? That sort of altruism was unheard of in the world you were until very recently a citizen of. "Wow I don't know what to say aside from thank you."
"You're welcome of course," she cheerily responds.
A companionable moment of silent passes as the late afternoon sun filters through the single window. Suddenly, your brain pops in to say "hi" and you're left with the certainly that you've forgotten an important detail. Ah, that's what it was.
"Twilight, it just occurred to me that I'm going to be effectively homeless once the doctors clear me to leave in a couple days."
You're surprised yet again when she replies almost instantly. "Oh well that's easy too! I figured that you could stay with me until you're otherwise able. I have plenty of room, so you won't be a burden." She seems very pleased to have thought of this angle. "Plus," she continues, "this is by far the most efficient way to conduct my research on you!"
Oh, so she was planning to conduct 'research' on you?
"You're going to be conducting 'research' on me, eh?" you ask miming the air. "That's a little forward, don't you think?"
She's stammering out an explanation almost before you can finish.
"I..I just meant that there's so much for us to learn from your species. There's so much I want to learn about your history; your technologies; your body. Wait! No, that came out wrong! What I meant to say was...!"
You keep your stern expression glued on as long as possible before it crumbles away into good natured laughter. "Twilight I was only kidding!" you explain.
"Oh, kidding! Of course, a joke!" She laughs nervously trying to convince you she was in on it the whole time, but her flushed cheeks make for a terrible poker face.
"Look, why don't we call it a day," you say still chuckling slightly. "I think it's safe to say we're both pretty tired." As if to accentuate your point, you yawn suddenly into the back of your hand.
Collecting herself, she smiles amicably before turning and walking to the door and opening it with a small shimmer of purple energy. "I guess I lost track of time somehow," she says looking back at you. "I'll be back tomorrow to bring you up to speed on a few things if you think you'll be up for it."
"That sounds great, Twilight," you respond with a smile.
The unicorn returns it, and is almost out the door when you stop her once more. "Hey Twilight? What I said before? I want you to know I really meant it. Thank you so much for everything you've done for me."
She smiles brightly at this, and offers only a small blush in response.
You lean back and close your eyes as the closing door clicks gently into place.
Sleep comes to you almost instantly.