I woke up, which inexplicably seemed like better news than usual.
...Aaaand I'm back in the hospital. Oy.
Man, I'm getting my ass kicked so often it's practically turning into a damn superpower. Feast your eyes on the Amazing Destructible-Man! Gaze in awe as his incredible powers of Horrible Misfortune transform him into a magnet for serious personal injury! Villains and insurance rates, beware!
"All I need is a catchphrase and I'd totally be Super Friends material. After all, I am Created from the Cosmic Legends of the Universe!" I said to the air, slipping into an overdone TV announcer's voice at the end.
I gave myself a once-over. They had me in a hospital gown again, but this time I got to keep my pants. Looks like I'm moving up in the world. My shirt and hoodie were on the nightstand next to me, both apparently free of bloodstains. Somehow. My left arm had been bandaged up pretty heavily, and a line had been stuck into my right, instead. The IV looked like a thinner and less invasive doohickey than the one from before.
Highly advanced medical term, doohickey. Very technical.
I leaned on my bed's call button for a minute, and Dr. Panacea walked in.
"Welcome back to the land of the living, Mr. Chambers," she greeted.
"Eh, what's up, Doc?" I quipped, and I am a disgrace to wiseasses everywhere for not making that joke sooner. "Say, can you help me brainstorm a catchphrase? All I could come up with so far is 'Jinkies' or 'Sweet Christmas', and both of those are taken."
"It's nice to see that your recent escapades haven't dulled your wit," she said amusedly, moving to check my bandages.
"Yeah, but I think it might have scrambled my brain a bit," I responded. "I dreamed I was watching Mystery Science Theater 3000 riffing a Ben Stiller movie with special guest Jensen Ackles."
Doc Pan looked at me like I had started speaking Punjabi. "Perhaps I should schedule you an appointment with a psychiatric colleague of mine..."
"Doc, I'm a twenty-one year old from the Internet Age," I replied, while she changed out the wrappings on my arm. "Where I come from, I'm still well within the standard deviations of sanity."
"Of course," she said with a level look, not entirely convinced.
"What would really be worrying is if I dreamed I had a meeting of the minds with my subconscious, and he looked like me but with better clothes and an 'evil twin' goatee," I rambled.
"Jack... are you feeling alright?" Dr. Pan asked, concerned.
"I feel fine," I answered.
"Are you sure?" she pressed. "You have, after all, had an... unusual set of days, recently."
"I said I'm fine," I insisted.
"You've been through a number of stressful experiences. Nopony would blame you for asking for help--"
"Is this going to be one of those things where telling you 'I'm fine' is just going to make you think I'm not?" I asked. "Because if it is, let me know so I can save us both the trouble. I hate repeating myself over and over-- ow!"
Dr. Pan tied off the new bandage tighter than was probably necessary, then closed her eyes and exhaled through her nose, frowning slightly.
"Alright," she conceded. "But if you ever feel unwell, physically or mentally, please, don't try to handle it by yourself. Reach out to somepony." She laid a hand on my arm. "Doctors help heal, Jack. Please don't shut m-us out."
"I won't," I said without much heart. I was too busy not thinking about other things to ponder her little slip of the tongue.
There was a knock at the door.
Who could that be? I wondered. It opened, and Princess Celestia walked in. There were no guards this time, but Spike and Twilight lingered just outside the door. Twilight looked terrified and guilty. Spike just looked curious.
I adopted a carefully neutral expression. "Your Majesty," I said without inflection. I bowed my head as low as I could and kept it there.
A silent moment. Then: "Doctor, could I have a word with our guest alone, please?"
"Of course, Princess." The doctor's hand left my arm, and I heard her walk out into the hall, closing the door behind her. I didn't move an inch.
I watched the Princess take a seat in my peripheral, and only then did I lift my head again. I examined her as best I could without looking directly at her. She was sitting differently than she had before; not quite facing me, but not quite turned away. She wasn't looking directly at me, either. Her face was carefully blank. Something between us had changed, but I knew that already. Now I knew that she knew it, too.
"How are you feeling?"
I stayed quiet.
"... Jack?" the Princess glanced, not quite at me.
"I'm thinking," I said finally.
"What are you thinking about?" she asked gently.
"I think you haven't been entirely honest with me," I stated, keeping my voice neutral. "I think you've been keeping secrets. A lot of them. But, you run a country, so that's not surprising."
The Princess said nothing.
"I think you are far more powerful than I had been led to believe. I think you could kill me if you wanted to, and-- even on my best day-- there's not much I could do to argue with you. I think, relatively speaking, killing me is as easy for you as lifting an arm is for me."
The Princess stared at the floor.
"I think you don't want to kill me. Or anyone, for that matter. I also think that, if you felt you had to, if you thought you had no other choice, you wouldn't hesitate to take my life. Or anyone else's. I think you would feel terrible about it later, sure. But you wouldn't hesitate."
The Princess didn't move.
"I think you're older than I first assumed as well. The other day, Doctor Panacea mentioned that she had known you most of her life. I had assumed that she meant she had delivered you, or at least had been present for your birth, and then watched you grow up over the course of her tenure. Now I think that it's more likely the opposite is true. That you watched her grow up. And then watched her grow old."
The Princess remained silent.
"I have to ask-- and you must understand that, among my people, it's considered rude to ask a woman this question-- but under the circumstances, I have to ask. For context. To get a grasp of the-- of the scope of what's in front of me. So. Celestia..."
The Princess took in a slow breath through her nose.
"...Just how old are you, exactly?"
The Princess was silent long enough to make me think she wasn't going to answer. I was about to speak again when she raised her head, looking at nothing, and said: "...Several Millennia."
Millennia. Plural. Thousands and thousands of years. I needed more clarification.
"How many?" I asked. "Three? Four?"
"More than five," she answered in the same tone.
Five thousand years. Five thousand years.
"You're older than the English language," I said, stunned. "You're older than the languages that became the English language."
The Princess said nothing.
It was a few seconds before I found my voice again. "Now I'm thinking of something I saw yesterday. Or earlier today. Whatever. I thought something seemed off about it, but I didn't realize what at the time. The statue. The one in front of your school. An astrolabe?"
The Princess dipped her head slightly, just barely a nod.
"It's wrong. It's geocentric. The planet is in the center, with the sun and moon orbiting it."
After a moment, the Princess spoke. "No. And yes."
"What do you mean?"
"No. It is not wrong," she explained. "Yes. The sun and moon orbit the world."
Again, I was left speechless. "That... that flies in the face of everything, everything that my people have learned and understand about the universe around us." I paused, shaking my head. "I shouldn't believe you. But, at the same time, I don't think you're lying to me."
The Princess said nothing.
"How?" I asked tersely. "God above, how? How is that in any way possible?"
"... Every dawn," the Princess intoned, as if speaking had become a great burden, "I use my magic to lower the moon and raise the sun, and every dusk, I raise the moon and lower the sun."
I believed her. "You're a goddess."
"I am not a goddess," she almost cried, hugging her stomach with both arms, hunching over in her chair and staring at the floor. I could have stabbed her and likely gotten less of an emotional response than what was put into those words.
"Okay," I flinched.
"I'm not."
"Okay." I let it stay like that for a moment. "But, you do move the sun and moon."
"The sun is my charge," she murmured. "My duty."
"But not the moon?" I asked quietly.
She folded her wings over her shoulders, wrapping herself in them like a blanket.
"If not yours, then whose?" I pressed.
She turned her head so that I couldn't see her face. "I don't want to talk about that. Please."
"Okay," I nodded, relenting. "Okay. I'll drop it."
"Thank you," she half-whispered.
I waited a minute to speak again. "You're not a goddess," I stated. "Okay. So what are you?"
"I am an Alicorn," she began. "Unicorn, Earth Pony, Pegasus... The strengths of three tribes lie within me, greater together than the sum of their parts."
"Are there others?" I asked. "Other alicorns?"
"...Yes and no," she responded.
"I don't know what that means."
"There have been others, but they were not born as alicorns," she explained. "I am the only True Alicorn in Equestria."
"I... can't imagine what that's like," I admitted. "It must be lonely."
"Sometimes." She looked away again.
We both were silent for a while. "I-I think... I think I should be afraid of you," I stuttered. "I think I should be terrified, just thinking about what you're capable of. I think maybe I'm in some kind of shock, and I've just gone numb to everything. O-or maybe I am having a nervous breakdown, and it's just so intense that it's gone full circle and made me calm again."
Celestia didn't say anything.
"I'm not afraid of you. I should be. Princess Celestia; older than the Roman Empire, leader of an entire nation full of beings with fantastical abilities, powerful enough to shape the heavens to her will... But I'm not afraid. How can I be when here you are, and instead of being this, this terrifying thing, you're-you're benevolent, and vulnerable, and you talk to me like I'm not just some kid who literally fell out of the air and into your lap. You treat me like I'm somehow your equal, like a-- like--"
"Like a friend?" Celestia offered, and our eyes finally met.
"I'm..." sorry. "...exceptionally bad at having those," I said weakly. "If I'm being perfectly honest."
"That's alright," she smiled.
"I mean it," I insisted. "My best friend back home once thought I was dead for six months."
Her eyebrows rose, and there was a warmth behind her gaze. "I'll have to hear that story some time."
"Yeah. Okay," I said. "So, um. About what happened. How long was I..."
"Not very long," Celestia told me. "The morning has passed, and we are well into the afternoon. Sundown is a good three hours away."
"Okay. Right. And everything's okay with...?" I lifted my bandaged arm.
"You'll have to ask the good Doctor," Celestia replied, "but I believe you'll be perfectly fine."
"Good, good," I nodded. Then, after a moment: "Uh, Celestia? One more thing," I said, not sure how to proceed. "I think... I think there's something wrong with me."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I've been... feeling things, I guess," I faltered, looking at my hands. "For lack of a better word."
"Feeling what?" she asked, tilting her head slightly. "Physical discomfort? Unusual emotions, perhaps?"
"No. More like ideas," I explained, sitting upright. "Concepts, maybe. Like random thoughts, but on my skin somehow instead of in my head. It happened a few times around Doctor Panacea. Something would just, pop up, over my eyes or in my ears, and then it'd be gone before I could even react to it. Just random flashes. I ignored it at first, thought maybe it was just my mind playing tricks on me or a reaction to the drugs, but...
"But earlier today when Twilight picked me up, it happened again. And it was worse than before-- not worse in a bad way, I mean. Just more intense. I think I almost could have enjoyed it. And that worries me. That worries me a lot.
"And then, after the whole arm-thing, you said something and it happened again. It happened so hard that it actually knocked me out. A-and now there's all this stuff about you that I couldn't have found out on my own and I just-just know it, out of nowhere, and... Ugh!" I buried my face in my hands.
"I think I need help, Celestia," I moaned through my palms. "I think I'm losing my mind. Maybe I already have."
"Jack," Celestia said gently as she touched my elbow. "Jack, look at me. You are not insane."
I looked up at her, full of weariness and disbelief. "Says the talking pony woman who apparently breaks the laws of physics twice a day," I replied.
"I understand that what you've experienced this past week has been jarring, by any definition," she said, an undertone of compassion in her voice. "In your current, unique situation, it may even be true that the only one who can properly judge your mental state is you. But know this: these flashes you've been having, these visions... they are not a symptom of insanity of any sort."
"Yeah?" I responded. "Ever heard of schizophrenia?"
"I have seen madness before, Jack," she replied. "Of every kind. I knew the markings of schizophrenia before it even had a name."
I huffed out a mirthless laugh and fell back onto my pillow. "Right, because you're older than dirt, somehow," I jibed. She smiled lightly.
"Okay," I figured. "So maybe I'm madder than the Hatter, maybe not. But, Devil's advocate, sake of argument and all that, how can you say that what I've been 'feeling' or whatever isn't related?"
"Because I believe I know exactly what you've been experiencing," Celestia said, grasping my hand with both of hers. "And, I know how to help you."
Her hands were warm, the light fur of her coat almost like velvet. They held the same subtle strength as any parent's hands; softer than clouds when cradling a sleeping infant, strong enough to hold on even in a hurricane.
There's a reason that the holding of hands has been a symbol of unity and peace for longer than we can remember. There's a reason that siblings, friends, lovers, parents and children all hold hands. Human beings crave the touch of another. It has nothing to do with sex, or even intimacy. The simple act, the genuine assurance that you are not alone, is nothing short of a blessing.
"You... you do?" I asked, hopefully.
"Experience is one of the benefits of being older than dirt," she said playfully.
I looked away, embarrassed. "Sorry," I murmured.
"You have nothing to apologize for, my young friend," she said as she squeezed my hand.
"Heh. Guess I've been off my game, recently," I joked.
"Nothing you need to apologize for," she clarified with a knowing look. "Yet."
I chuckled as I gently pulled my hand from her grasp, and we both settled into better positions for conversation. The tension between us was gone, and while things had been turbulent for a moment, I felt that I had found a true, genuine friend in Celestia.
"I'll try to keep any hijinks to a minimum. No promises, though," I smirked, earning a gentle chuckle from Celestia.
"Alright," I continued, dropping most of my bravado. "What's been happening to me?"
"In order to explain that properly," Celestia began, "I'll need to make certain you're aware of certain other concepts first. You obviously know about magic, and you know about the three pony races; unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. Right?"
"Yeah..." I nodded, stretching the word out in a 'what's-your-point' tone.
"Despite what some believe," Celestia continued, "each of the pony races is able to manipulate magic in different ways, individual special talents notwithstanding. Not just unicorns. Earth ponies' abilities are mainly physical, pegasi often show greater spatial awareness and perception of details during high-speed movement, and unicorns use their horns to sense and manipulate magical energies in the environment. There have been cases where this isn't entirely accurate, say perhaps a pegasus with incredible strength, or an earth pony with almost extrasensory perception. However, these individuals are the exception, rather than the rule. With that said, the manner in which an individual pony's 'racial traits' manifest can be equally as varied.
"Unicorns, for example. Again, training and special talents notwithstanding, one unicorn could have an incredibly diverse range of spells to choose from, but be unable to put much power behind any of them. Another could have a single type of spell- such as shielding magic- and could be capable of creating a defense more powerful than almost anything else, but find it very difficult to adjust or modify their spells as needed once cast. Yet another unicorn may only be able to use telekinesis, the second most basic spell, and be unable to move anything heavier than he or she could lift with one hand, but have control so precise and accurate that they could use a pinhead to carve their cutie mark into a grain of rice. And there are some unicorns who, for whatever reason, are able to sense magical energies far more effectively than others, regardless of training, or even their own natural power. Do you understand?"
"I think so," I told her. "Basically everyone's different, right? What's this got to do with me?"
"There is a spell called 'Aura Sense' that is exceptionally difficult to master," Celestia responded. "Its difficulty isn't due to the power required to cast or maintain it. In fact, just as the five natural senses don't involve much physical effort, Aura Sense requires little to no magical effort on the part of the caster. The real difficulty is in mental effort; the focus and concentration needed to single out one aura from the surrounding ambient magic can be quite taxing for some.
"However, for unicorns that already have a heightened sense of magic, Aura Sense is incredibly easy to learn. So much so, that some have learned it on their own rather than being taught."
"Wait," I stopped her, "are you saying that every time I have one of these flashes... I've actually been... sensing auras?"
"Exactly," Celestia nodded.
"But wait... That... How can..." I spoke in a few more sentence fragments while the logic train chugged along at full speed, my eyes darting around in time with the mental connections I was making. "I can do magic?" I asked incredulously.
Celestia shook her head. "Not exactly," she explained. "Beyond Aura Sense and your accelerated healing, you've shown no magical ability. You don't even have an aura of your own. But, as I said earlier, Aura Sense doesn't require any magical effort on the part of the caster, simply the ability to 'listen'. Because your world is without magic, being brought to Equestria may have caused you the same sensory overload as being brought into a brightly lit room would have on a pony who's eyes have acclimated to darkness.
"Furthermore, a unicorn's horn acts as a receiver for magic, similar to a radio antenna. And a unicorn's brain is designed to interpret these signals in ways that the brains of other types of ponies, or humans in this case, couldn't. Without a horn to receive the signals, your mind is most likely interpreting the information however it can, using your other senses."
"...Huh," I said, dumbfounded. I stared at her like an idiot for a minute, putting the pieces together. "So... when Dr. Panacea used her magic to take off my blindfold way back when..."
"You came in contact with her aura," Celestia confirmed.
"And then Twilight," I realized, "and then... you."
"An alicorn's aura is so potent that even earth ponies and pegasi can sense it when we exert ourselves," Celestia explained. "I normally keep my aura suppressed for the sake of my subjects, but I have needed to use a bit of it in order to gain the attention of a panicked crowd. Or a hysteric student," she smiled slightly, then grew remorseful. "Jack, believe me; if I had known beforehand that you were this sensitive to magic, I would never have done something so heavy-handed."
"Honestly?" I responded a moment later, "You probably helped me out. I wasn't exactly calm, cool, and collected back out there." I lifted my left arm to present the bandage. "Sleepy-Time Jack has a much lower heart rate than All-Out Panic Jack." A funny thought crossed my mind and I laughed. Celestia gave me a curious look. "Y'know, if this is all in my head, then this 'Aura Sense' thing's got to be my brain's way of getting back at me for EV training my Lucario until four in the morning."
"I... don't follow," Celestia said uncertainly as the joke zoomed over her head.
"Meh, nevermind," I said holding my hands up in defeat. "It'd take too long to explain the concept of video... wait, hold up. You said 'radio antenna', right? You guys have radios?"
"Is that so surprising?" Celestia asked, tilting her head.
Considering the massive castle we were in, plus all the guards in plate-mail, I had assumed that Equestria's level of technology was a ways behind Earth's.
Then again, my room in the medical wing looked like one you'd expect to see in any hospital, plus it had power outlets in the walls and what looked like fluorescent lighting, so maybe everything else was just an aesthetic choice.
"Uh... I guess not," I replied. "So, you've got portable radios, right? Ones that play music stations?"
"Yes," Celestia nodded.
"Do you have television?" I asked. Another nod. "What about video games?"
"I believe we do, though they're a fairly new concept," Celestia answered. "Why?"
"...I had to count ceiling tiles twenty times just to entertain myself yesterday, and you're telling me I could've been playing games designed by an entirely different species?" I asked, entirely unamused.
"You never asked for anything besides some books and your personal items," Celestia smiled.
"Ugh!" I shouted, throwing my hands up, then cupping my face with them. "Uuugghh... "
Phenomenal cosmic powers, all the living space she could need, and she spends her time trolling aliens.
"If I didn't have a serious head wound, I'd facepalm so hard right now..." I mumbled. Celestia tittered in a very regal manner that I found incredibly annoying. I lifted my head half an inch and gave her my most withering glare.
"Alright, point made," she half-chuckled. "We'll see about getting your room some entertainment later on. How does that sound?"
"I... suppose that sounds adequate," I said begrudgingly, adopting a mock-snooty posture and examining my nails.
I didn't know if Celestia had ever had children herself, but either way, five thousand years was more than enough time to master that over-the-glasses look that mothers can somehow give, even when they aren't wearing glasses. Her glare was way more effective than mine. I chuckled nervously.
"You suppose?" the royal alicorn questioned.
"It-- uh, it sounds great," I backpedaled quickly. "Great idea. Yes. Excellent. Thank you, um... Yeah."
Then, like a switch being flipped, Celestia's mood dissipated. "Wonderful," she said cheerfully. "I'm glad we could come to a mutual agreement."
I narrowed my eyes. "Touché, Sunny. Touché."
Played me like a damn fiddle...
She tittered again, and despite myself, I smirked as I rolled my eyes.
"So, this Aura Sense," I began, trying to get the conversation back on track. "What do we do about it? Can you get rid of it, somehow?"
"I'm not quite sure, I'm afraid," Celestia replied. "Your body is reacting involuntarily to forces that we have no proper way to insulate you from. It's possible that, in time, you will become acclimated to the environment and your Aura Sense will fade, but it's also possible that your sensitivity will only increase wildly if left alone."
"So either it'll be like getting used to a bad smell, or it'll be like an audio feedback loop that just gets louder and louder until the speaker blows out," I said numbly. I wasn't too excited at the prospect of maybe becoming so sensitive to magic that it overwhelms me and I basically turn into a vegetable.
"That is the gist of it, and if you do decide to try and remove your Aura Sense in this manner, I'll do everything in my power to aid you," Celestia promised. "However, there is an alternative."
I almost said "It can't be worse than the first two choices," but thankfully, I was genre-savvy enough to catch myself at the last second.
"Aura Sense is an incredibly useful spell," Celestia explained. "With training, you could learn to control your new ability, and through it, gain insight you might never have found otherwise."
"So it's... like a superpower?" I questioned.
"If that's how you want to look at it, I suppose," Celestia chuckled.
I heaved a sigh. "Okay, that sounds a whole lot better than Options One and Two."
"Are you sure?" Celestia asked.
"Well, since my choices are either 'superpowers' or 'possible death via sensory overload'," I replied, "I'm gonna go with 'superpowers'."
"It won't be that easy, Jack," Celestia warned. "You'll be learning to use an entirely new sense, being trained with methods suited for an entirely different species."
"If complaining and worrying actually accomplished anything, I'd be a billionaire with a solid gold space-mansion and a Swedish, bikini-modeling girlfriend by now," I told her.
She blinked. "... Solid gold space-mansion?" she repeated.
"It could happen," I asserted, crossing my arms.
She laughed openly. It was a very pleasant sound. The motion also did pleasant things to the front of her dress, and I looked away, shifting uncomfortably. At least I had pants this time.
"Oh, oh dear," Celestia tried to say as her laughter petered out, "I'm sorry. The mental image... Oh, I needed that," she chuckled.
"S'what I do," I said, preening.
"You seem to be taking this exceptionally well, I must say," Celestia told me.
"I think the ability to joke in the midst of a stressful situation is an excellent coping mechanism, and the mark of a clever, quick-witted individual," I replied. "Well. That, and I'm a huge Spidey fanboy, so I might just be emulating."
"I think it's a rather admirable response, given the situation," Celestia agreed.
What I didn't say was that focusing on jokes, even accepting this training in the first place, were just excuses to keep from focusing on my real problems. I was in completely uncharted territory, face-to-face with a being that probably had religions built around her, and now just being too close to someone at the wrong time could leave me a wreck. Not to mention the fact that I had racked up more hospital time in one sitting than I had before any time in my life since the day I was born.
"So, Mr. Miyagi, when do we start the training thing?" I asked.
"Oh, I won't be teaching you, Jack," Celestia shook her head. "I'm sorry, but I'm simply too busy to oversee your instructing directly. However, there is a pony who is just as qualified to help you as I am. And, she has already expressed the desire to speak with you, at length."
I suddenly had a very bad feeling. "Don't tell me... Twilight Sparkle?"
"Well... Yes."
I took a deep breath in through my nose, and held it for a moment. I exhaled, staring hard at Celestia. "Oh-kay..."
"I promise, my student isn't nearly so... excitable, normally," Celestia assured.
"Oh-kay..." I responded, in the exact same tone with the exact same expression.
"Honest," she said.
... I'm going to die, aren't I?
After a moment of awkward silence, Celestia cleared her throat. "Well, now that that is settled," she evaded, "I'd like to ask you a few questions about what you've sensed so far, to get a grasp of how your new ability functions."
I let the topic slide; it's not like I could've won the argument, anyway. "Alright," I sighed. "Ask away, Sunny."
"Very good," she said, collecting her thoughts. "It's safe to assume that your new opinion of me is based off of what you gleaned through Aura Sense, correct?"
"It feels like it was staring me in the face before, but yeah," I answered. Pretty much every point I brought up earlier had been something I had sensed in Celestia's aura. There had been other things I sensed there, too. Things obviously not meant to be seen by anyone. I felt guilty for knowing them, even if I didn't entirely understand what they were.
"I expected as much," Celestia nodded. "Now, Can you remember what Dr. Panacea's aura felt like? What's the first thing that comes to mind when you think of it?"
"She's good at her job," I said immediately. "Like, crazy good. And she loves helping people, or ponies, or... whichever. And..." I sighed. "And I think I owe her an apology. I was kind of a jerk to her, earlier."
"It's very big of you to admit that," Celestia said, "so long as you follow through."
I grunted in acknowledgement. Apologies weren't my strong suit; if I insulted somebody genuinely, it was because they had proven they deserve it. I avoided accidentally offending anyone as much as I could. Then again, would I know if I was unintentionally offending someone if nobody pointed it out?
Great, something else to worry about. Like there wasn't enough on my mind.
"Now, can you tell me what you remember about Twilight's aura?" Celestia asked. It might have been my imagination, but it seemed odd how intently focused she was on my response.
"Well, she's a nerd, definitely," I mused. "Or maybe a book geek. Heck, maybe she's both. And she wants to know everything. Her social skills need some serious work, though," I said dryly. Celestia gave me an apologetic smile. "Let me guess: she's a wallflower?"
"As much as I've tried to change it, yes," Celestia confirmed wearily.
"No problem with that," I reasoned, "some people just don't need as much interaction as others to feel content. Heck, it's not like I'm a social butterfly, myself," I shrugged.
"I don't know about that," Celestia argued. "You seem quite open and outgoing, Jack."
"Crime of necessity," I grinned sardonically. "Besides, she doesn't flat out hate peopl-- uh, ponies, right? No hissing or growling at the mention of anything that involves interacting with other ponies?"
"No, not at all. In fact, she's very polite," Celestia replied, probably still trying to warm me up to the fact that Twilight would be teaching me soon.
"Well there you go," I said. "She's asocial, same as me. It's like looking in a mirror. A fuzzy, purple mirror."
I then realized that now I was the one trying to convince myself to accept Twilight as my teacher. I sent a glare at Celestia, knowing full well that she had played me again. She just sat there and smiled serenely, the Machiavellian little...
"What else did you sense?" Celestia asked.
"She's smart," I told her. "Genius level intellect. And creative, too. She's practically a magic Carl Sagan. And speaking of magic, she's got tons of that. I mean, I don't really have a point of reference or anything, but still, Holy Diver does she have a lot of magic."
"I see," Celestia nodded. "Was there anything else? Anything at all?"
"No, that was..." I paused. "Wait. Actually... maybe? There was this... thing? I guess? Underneath it all. I mean-- I don't exactly know how to describe it. When I try to think about it, all that comes to mind is 'Magic', like that should explain everything."
"Magic?" Celestia leaned forward intently. "Are you sure?" She was definitely paying special attention now. I nodded. "Can you remember any details about it? Was it... doing anything in particular?"
"Not... really?" I shrugged. "It felt like it was... incomplete. Like it was waiting for something."
Celestia sagged just a fraction of an inch, an expression of relief that I wouldn't have picked up on before I sensed her aura.
"I see," she said once she had masked her expression. "Thank you, Jack."
"For what?" I asked, shaking my head slightly. "What did I sense?"
"Something very important," Celestia replied cryptically. "What you sensed was the very reason that I took Twilight on as my personal student. I had suspected it was there, but to get a second opinion... Thank you for that."
"That doesn't exactly explain what that was," I said uncertainly.
"I can't tell you that. I'm sorry, but it's just too important," Celestia stressed.
"Uh... 'kay," I replied, eyebrow raised. Again, it's not like I could have made her tell me.
"Jack, may I ask a favor of you?" Celestia took my hand again, her expression somewhere between grave and pleading. "Please, whatever you do, please don't tell anypony else about what you sensed within Twilight's aura. Especially not Twilight herself. Nopony can know until everything is ready."
"Uh... until what's ready?" I fumbled.
She looked away, her eyes distant. Were those tears welling up? "Something I've been planning for nearly a thousand years, now," she murmured so softly I almost didn't hear it. She looked to me again. "Promise me, Jack. Promise me you won't tell another soul."
I don't know what came over me then, but something in me decided that a simple promise was insufficient. I overlaid her hands with mine, looked her in the eye, and spoke my next words with utter graveness.
"I swear, upon mine honor and integrity as a human being, that I shall not reveal, discuss, or allude to the secret thou hast asked me to keep, except to those with whom thou grant permission to do so. From now until my dying breath, or until I am released of this oath, thy secret is safe with me. 'Pon integrity and honor, this do I solemnly swear."