Chapter 2
"The soul is a marvelous thing, functioning like a motive force that never runs out and never dies, unlike the flimsy bodies it often inhabits." -the Necroequicon
As he waited for the last moments of twilight to fade, he contemplated his next moves. He knew that Twilight Sparkle would be up late tonight, having heard her say as much to Pinkie Pie when the bouncy mare had stopped by. While he didn't much like the idea, it seemed that his best bet would be to stay put, delaying the return of his nanobot systems. It simply wouldn't be worth the risk to forage for food...
The door to the library opened, and he heard Twilight galloping away,
"I know that Spike, but I have to ask Rarity before it gets too late! I can't afford to include such secondhoof information in a report to the Princess!" He heard Spike grumble some sort of response, but was much too far away to make out the words. This changed everything! Wasting no time, he slipped from his hiding place and carefully made his way down the tree. He lowered himself down, hanging from his fingertips, and dropped a few feet to the balcony, immediately laying flat.
He should have stayed still for longer, but he couldn't risk wasting this opportunity! Balance in all things, after all, included risk. The door, surprisingly, considering his recent run of luck, was locked. Glancing around, he reached up and plucked a promising looking branch, and then plotted his escape route in case she had some sort of magical alarm system set up. The branch slid, with some effort, between the two doors, and allowed him to trip the latch on the other side. Quiet as a breath, he pulled one of them open, and slipped inside.
After a minute or two browsing the shelves, his fears were confirmed; whatever system she used to organize the books, it was one only she and Spike were privy to. Books that seemingly had nothing in common sat next to each other, like Basics of Manticore Anatomy, surrounded by texts containing neither manticores nor anatomy! Taking a deep breath, he decided to test his luck once more, choosing a blind search over an attempt to crack the code of Twilight's System.
Almost an hour had gone by, and he had yet to find anything close to what he was searching for. Fortunately, a pattern seemed to be emerging in his mind. It seemed almost as if books relating to magic were nearer to top shelves, and more mundane topics were closer to the bottom. Craning his head back, he activated his night vision, risking the increased energy expenditure for the benefit of not having to read each title from two inches away.
With his nanobot systems in such a poor state, just a fraction of the rods in his eyes experienced the increased sensitivity, making only a marginal difference in his vision. Still, it was enough to allow him, with some slight squinting, to read most of the titles while standing on the ground. After another hour or so, he saw it! The Power Within: A Guide to Basic Magic. Heart hammering in his chest, he pulled himself up to the shelf and retrieved the book. As desperately as he wanted to stay and search for even just one more, he knew he had already stayed too long. Whatever story she'd needed from Rarity couldn't possibly have taken this long to retrieve, and she was probably already on her...
He heard the sound of hoofsteps approaching the door.
Stupid! he berated himself, of course she wouldn't be galloping back after getting the story. She'd walk, making much less noise! In a panic, he scanned the room, looking for someplace, any place to hide. Noticing one shelf that seemed just far enough away from the wall, he dashed over to it. Shimmying sideways, he slid behind the bookcase, until he was wedged between it and the wall. He tried desperately to focus on his breathing as he fought feelings of claustrophobia.
The door opened, jingling the bell inside once, and again when it closed. There was a quiet, sparkling sound, and light bloomed in the middle of the room. He heard what sounded like gentle snoring, and the sound of hoofsteps as they made their way upstairs. After presumably depositing the sleeping dragon in his bed, Twilight returned downstairs and continued her report. Hopefully she didn't have much farther to go, and he'd be able to escape soon...
As the window silently closed behind him, he carefully began his climb back to his hiding place. With dawn only minutes away, he had little time to waste.
"How," he bitterly mused, "how could she possibly write for that long about stitching!?" Struggling to keep his voice down, he quietly grumbled to himself as he made his ascent, stopping at one point near the top when he thought back to Spike's grumbling when he and Twilight had left the library. It was a good minute before he felt safe resuming his climb, still fighting down fits of suppressed laughter. By the time he was nestled in his crook, the first rays of sunlight were peeking over the horizon, and the deep warmth he had begun to love had returned. Cracking open his... unofficially borrowed book, he began reading.
The outset wasn't promising. There was a lot about intuition, and "feeling your power", and recalling the feeling that had accompanied feats of unintentional magic performed in the past. None of which was particularly helpful for someone who had never done any such thing. Fortunately, the next chapter was designed for individuals who had some sort of learning disability. The book phrased it much more pleasantly, but he knew that was the gist of what it meant. It described, in admirable detail, steps to use to search for that seat of power within oneself.
After carefully reading the chapter a few times, he began to test the various exercises. He tried to feel within himself, he tried imagining a box, or a bag, or a treasure chest which contained his power. He tried some of the other exercises designed to work for unicorns who were exceptionally thick. Nothing seemed to help. The warmth had gone, and was being replaced by a bitter cold deep in his gut.
Frustration. The greatest rival of his entire life, and it seemed he was losing another battle to his old foe.
Fighting back tears, he took a deep, calming breath. I did not come all this way to give up the first time something went against me. I've had extraordinarily good luck thus far, and it was only a matter of time before something went wrong. With his jaw set, he opened the book again and began reading the next chapter.
"Of course, it is possible that some foals' magic will be buried so deep that they are seemingly unable to touch it. The simplest way to circumvent this problem is to have another unicorn who can access their magic assist the foal.”
“Well that's out of the question.” he muttered bitterly.
“Another, though this is definitely not recommended, is if the foal is put into a seemingly life-threatening situation, they will oftentimes find themselves capable of reaching their latent magical powers.” He sat and pondered that. How could he put himself in a seemingly life-threatening situation, without actually endangering himself? It seemed to imply that he needed to believe he might die for the trick to work, and that was all assuming he even had any magical ability to tap into in the first place.
If he could just ask Twilight to help him... No no no, that would never work. While she would probably jump at the chance to perform the experiment, and the opportunity to study an actual human, he knew he'd never be able to convince her, nor would he even want to try, to keep his presence a secret from her friends or the Princess. He could never ask her to betray them that way.
He was growing restless and fidgety. Carefully, he got up and stretched, moving around to work out his frustrations. He took a step to the side onto another branch, or at least, that's what he meant to do. He had already begun shifting his weight when he realized his foot had failed to encounter the expected resistance. Looking down, he saw the branch he had meant to step on, sitting just beside where he'd placed his foot.
“Really?” Had he not been about to be exposed to all of Ponyville when they saw him dangling from the library, he would've laughed at the absurdity of the situation. In that moment, he relived his entire journey. All the stealth and patience. The careful planning and execution. Standing behind that bookshelf for SIX HOURS while Twilight wrote about stitching, then successfully escaping when she went to sleep, not to bed, she was still sitting at the desk, just to sleep. All so that he could buck it all up by stepping into thin air like a buffoon!
He was very much surprised, therefore, when his descent was halted by something solid underfoot. His eyes snapped to the branch, which, a split moment ago, had been up and beside his leg, and was now supporting him. As the faint bluish glow receded, the branch groaned back to its original position, nearly offsetting the balance he had only just regained.
He stood stock still for a full minute. Breathing deep breaths, trying to calm his thundering heart. That just happened, he thought. Finally getting control of himself, he returned to his cradle. He tried a few of the exercises, and was met with resounding success. Heart hammering, and a grin threatening to cramp his face, he resumed reading, intent on internalizing every word in the text.