//------------------------------//
// Chapter 8 
// Story: The Equestrian Chronicle 
// by Souldrainr 
//------------------------------//


---Golden Oaks Library, Tuesday, 7:00am---


"Pardon?" Replied the lavender mare.

"I asked, why do you have forks? The human repeated, idly impaling another piece of pancake with his utensil. "I might be able to overlook you having fridges and speaking English, but forks? Why do you have something specifically designed for human hands?" He raised the fork in front of him, eyeing it in curiosity. "Who even invented these!?"

Twilight stared at the human from across the circular mahogany table. She swallowed the food she was chewing and levitated her glass of water to her mouth to help wash it down. She examined the manner in which he was holding his knife and fork and sure enough, it looked so ergonomically correct in his grasp that she couldn't quite see how it wasn't made for him... which it wasn't. Right?  "Well, we use them to help us eat without having to touch the food with our hooves, it's hygienic." She said matter of factly.

"But how do you hold it?" He asked, "unicorns can just levitate it but what about the other races? Why is it made here the same way it's made on Earth if you can't even hold it properly?" If the fork was attached to some sort of glove that these ponies could use, it would make much more sense, but what he was holding was no different than ordinary silverware back home.

"Well, all races can grasp objects to some extent." She demonstrated by levitating her fork into her right hoof and releasing the spell. As if glued to her, the fork remained in place pointing downwards. She then awkwardly stuck her hoof out in front of her, as if not used to physically holding things, and with some effort brought it down on another helpless slice of pancake. "See?"

Andrew nodded, "I.. guess that works." He didn't even question what he was seeing. chalking it up to 'magic'. But if such was indeed the case... "What if I do this then?" He asked.

Twilight then felt as if an airy, nearly intangible cloth was draped over her hoof, the fork immediately began to fall, only to then be suspended in midair by Andrew's telekinesis and set down alongside her plate. There was a steady stream of vapor rising from her hoof, though she felt no discomfort "Oh.. I was actually going to test something like this today!" She exclaimed before materializing a thick scroll and quill. Immediately unraveling it and taking notes.

After finishing her writing, she quickly teleported the scroll away. The unicorn went through the actions so fluidly, and with such speed, that Andrew was left slightly shocked at what he had just witnessed. "What was that giant scroll for?" He asked.

"That," a certain baby dragon started as he entered the kitchen, "is all the stuff that she wants to go over with you about your powers. She's been working on it since before you woke up, couldn't pry her away from the thing if I tried. It was hard enough getting her to come eat."

"Spike! Don't be ridiculous! ...I got a head start on it last night, so I didn't do too much writing this morning." She turned back to the boy. "Now then, have you had your fill Andrew? Did you like the food?" She asked the human, who was wiping his mouth, his plate devoid of what was a sizable stack of pancakes.

"Yeah, it was okay. We have pancakes back on Earth too." He replied simply. "Where is Discord and the, ugh... rainbow one? Isn't he supposed to be making sure I don't mess around or whatever, not sure how he is going to do that if he isn't even here. And that friend of yours said she wanted to come along this morning." Honestly, he didn't care whether or not that Pegasus was coming. As for Discord, however, he had more than a few questions for the Draconequus. And the sooner he could seek answers the better.

"Her name is Rainbow Dash." Twilight corrected. "And since I told her to be here no later than seven, she's probably sleeping in, as per usual. She doesn't want me to wake her up, so best to let her come whenever she wants. She knows where we'll be. Discord on the other hoof could very well be anywhere he wants to as far as I know so-"

"-indeed I can princes-I mean, Ms. Sparkle, "Discord stated before literally poofing into existence aside the lavender mare. Who promptly yelped in surprise and teleported over to Andrew's side of the table in her panic. She bared her teeth at the draconequus.

"You agreed to knock first Discord!" She yelled. Stomping her front hoof against the hardwood floor. Who the buck does Discord think he is, teleporting into a pony's home unannounced!?

Andrew wasn't surprised, he felt Discord coming a few moments ago. Thankfully,  the feeling no longer sent a chill down his spine, it was now merely a noticeable tingle. He wasn't quite sure what caused the drastic change in the feeling, but chose to not give it much thought.

"Oh, and give up the opportunity to hear you squeal? Inconceivable!" Discord proclaimed haughtily. “On another note,” he began, “how has our guest been treating you? Has he been playing any practical jokes on you behind your back? I hear Andrew appreciates a good prank.” He peered at the human, a knowing smile spread across his face.

He was met only with a bemused look from the human.

        “What? No!?” Twilight replied, clearly confused. “Why would he be playing pranks? He doesn’t seem like one for jokes Discord. Besides, he's been through a lot these past few days, what could possibly motivate him to be fooling around when he clearly has so much weighing on his mind?" She shot back. Then again, that also begs the question of whether or not they should be subjecting him to so many tests so soon, but she chose to disregard that specific train of thought. Besides, he agreed to it! For science!

The malformed god smiled coyly. "Hmm, it's almost boring how little you ponies know. Andrew loooves a good laugh, ill-gotten or not." He shifted his eyes to look into the boy's, "right?"

Andrew narrowed his eyes. Okay, this guy knew much more than he was letting on. The only other person who had knowledge of his past was Luna, but that was only due to that spell, or... dream... thing... that she did. The extant of his knowledge shouldn't be anywhere near as high as Luna's, but clearly that thought needed reevaluation. Unfortunately he needed to wait until he was alone with Discord to get any meaningful answers, though. He wasn't quite ready for Twilight to know too much about his past, as she would just beeline to Celestia with that info. According to Luna, that's a big no no for the time being, so he refused to acknowledge the question. Of course, there was no stopping her from putting the pieces together herself...

"How about we figure out when we're heading out?" He suggested. "I would be lying if I said I wasn't interested in what we're going to be doing that requires us to leave town." Thus far, that was all he was told about the tests that were going to be conducted. It has to either be something that requires a lot of open space, or too dangerous to engage in with so many people and buildings around.

Twilight frowned, glancing at Discord, then at Andrew, something was certainly off between these two. Ever since he popped up at the hospital yesterday, the way that Discord has been talking almost implies that they know each other, but Andrew seems to be just as confused about the whole mess as anypony else. She certainty wouldn't out it past the god of chaos to be unusually informed about a mysterious alien from what appears to be an alternate reality... "S-sure," she stated hesitantly, "I suppose we can start leaving now. There shouldn't be too many ponies out and about this early in the morning so we shouldn't attract too much attention. And speaking of attention, we should really speak with Mayor Mare later today about setting up some sort of public assembly to introduce you to the town, Celestia knows it would work wonders to quell any fears they might still have."

Before Andrew could respond, Spike came rushing into the living room from the kitchen holding what appeared to be a fancy, gold trimmed scroll. "Twi!" He called out, "message from the princess." He extended his arm, offering the scroll to Twilight. She levitated the parchment out of his hands, giving her thanks as he wobbled his way back to the kitchen. Quickly unfurling it, her eyes skimmed across the contents of the scroll, her eyes widening in surprise.

"Oh my... oh.. WOW!" She exclaimed.

"Hmm? What does it say?" Asked Discord, coiling forward and placing his arms on the table.

"It says that there is going to be a international meeting this Saturday due to Andrew's appearance in Equestria." She glanced back at the parchment. "And that Andrew needs to attend." Of course Andrew wouldn't truly understand what this all means, so she decided to take the initiative and explain before he had a chance to ask. "Andrew, It's a congregation of the five most powerful beings in all of Equestria!  This usually only happens twice a century! Oh I can picture it now! The oldest, largest Dragon. The wisest Zebra. The strongest Griffin. The alpha Diamond Dog among all of the alphas! And of course, the princesses." Twilight was visibly shaking, unable to contain her excitement. 

"Okay I have no idea what a Diamond Dog is, but i'm familiar with everything else. So basically, your saying that all the strongest creatures in Equestria are going to be there?"

"Well, most influential, yes," she replied.

This changes things. Initially he was only interested in the prospect of seeing a true, real life Dragon. But he was actually going to be seeing the very best this world had to offer, there was no doubt that he was the strongest human on Earth, but he wondered how he would stack up against the best of the best here. There was something else that was slightly bothering him, though, which he chose to express. " What about the changelings?

Twilight's left ear flicked about, betraying her calm appearance. It was a simple question, for which a simple answer immediately entered her mind. "The changelings are evil, they don't have the right to attend such an important meeting."

Discord smiled and stepped back slightly, materializing a bowl of popcorn for the coming show if he didn't think it would distract from the proceedings.	

"Again I ask," Andrew began with a heaving sigh. "Why are they so evil? What did they do that made you all convinced that they are evil. Give me one good reason."

Twilight was growing increasingly irritated by argument, but she knew exactly what to say. "They brazenly attacked The capitol of Equestria!" That's all the reason she needed to claim them as villains.

"Why?"

"Huh?"

Andrew heaved a heavy sigh, "Why did that attack the capital?"

Her face contorted into one of confusion. "So her race could feed off of the love in Equestia?"

"Okay, but don't they need love to survive?"

"Technically yes, physical food might sustain them for maybe a week or two but starvation would be imminent without some sort of love intake. But so what?" Why does this matter?	

Andrew rolled his eyes. For someone that's supposed to be so smart, she sure is acting pretty stupid. He looked over at a half open map at the top of one of the bookshelves he noticed earlier. He levitated it over to them, Spreading it across the table. "Can you show me where the changelings live right now?"

Twilight horn was set aglow, and a small speck of light appearing near the bottom of the map. Southeast of Ponyville was a quaint little town called Appleloosa, which was bordered on its south and southeast side by mountains. On the other side of the mountains was where the speck of light resided, a barren desert labeled as The Badlands. This desert, too, was enclosed on all sides by mountains with only a small gap on the North and South side, connected by a dirt road that zig-zagged across the empty land.

Andrew raised an eyebrow, "So you're saying they live in the badlands. Sure sounds like a nice place..."

... She stayed silent, now understanding what the human was getting at.

"I don't know why they are forced to live in a desert devoid of the one thing they need to live," he rolled the map back together in his hands and quickly flew it back to it's original position, "but whoever put them there was trying to kill them off. They attacked because they had no choice, because they were dying. It was either stay put and die, or die trying to save themselves. How many changelings are left?"

Twilight lowered her head, slowly but surely relenting to the human's logic, "well, Chrysalis is the last remaining queen." she said silently, a tone of disbelief in her voice. Oh no, he's right... Celestia was the one that banished the changeling to the Badlands all those centuries ago, labeling them as a threat to peaceful Equestrian society. Who are they to doubt the words of their benevolent, sun-raising ruler? Actually, even the history books describe the Changelings as a dangerous, parasitic species. Could her mentor be behind that depiction as well? Why!? Why would she knowingly condemn them to almost certain starvation in the Badlands? No, there could very well be a good reason for all this. She wasn't around at the time, so for all she knew, the changelings could very well have been a violent race at the time.

"The last queen, huh? Now what could possibly drive them so close to extinction?" He questioned sarcastically. "You know what, you can send a scroll to Celestia through Spike right?"

In her musings, she almost didn't hear the human's question, "Y-yes," she replied, "why?"

"I want you to send a letter saying that I won't be going unless Chrysalis goes too." He said stoically.

Twilight's left ear flicked about erratically. She was trying her best to control herself. "What? Do you have any idea what your asking? It could take days for the message to even arrive at the badlands, let alone having to bring Chrysalis back!"

"I'm sure Celestia can figure something out," Andrew replied dismissively. "Lets just hurry up and be on our way before everyone starts to wake up."

Discord smiled devilishly from across the table. "I believe I can pass the message along Andrew, I simply must see the look on Celestia's face when she hears your request. You two can run along without me, I'll be back in a jiffy!"

Andrew shrugged in response. 

"This is going to be brilliant," the draconequus thought before teleporting away.

Twilight stared at the spot that Discord occupied just moments ago, trapped in her thoughts.

"Aren't we leaving?" Andrew called.

The sound made Twilight lose her train of thought. Andrew was already at the door waiting for her. After calling out a few simple orders to spike, she exited the library with her brown satchel slung across her back.

"Well, lead the way..." Andrew said.

"Right," she responded. "The Everfree forest is this way."