Coming to Grips

by RainbowsAreMagic

Welcome to Reality

Chapter 2: Welcome to Reality

Tyro woke up. He'd had the most incredible dream, in which he'd met Twilight Sparkle in his own home. Tyro chuckled to himself. What a crazy thought. As he started making himself some eggs for breakfast, he heard something that made him blink. He wasn't entirely awake yet, so it was understandable that he hadn't realized the truth. When Twilight walked into the room, commenting, "oh, I see you're awake," he very rapidly realized the truth, retaining exactly enough presence of mind to crack a few more eggs into the pan than he normally would.

"Umm, how did you sleep? I trust that the spare bed was comfortable enough?" Tyro nervously tried to fill the empty air with talk, not really sure how to address a unicorn who up until moments before he had been sure had been no more than a dream.

Twilight stopped to confirm her approval and respond to Tyro's attempts at conversation, but quickly moved on to her own concern. "I've been going over the spell that brought me here, but I can't seem to figure out—"

Tyro cut her off. "I would love to hear all about it, but I'm sure you must be hungry, and that will have to come first. No visitor in my house goes hungry while I have anything to say about it!" With that, he served up a plate of breakfast for Twilight's enjoyment, and another (somewhat smaller) plate for himself. It ocurred to him that ponies should technically live on a strictly vegetarian diet, but in the show he had seen ponies eating just about any food they wanted to. Tyro figured the egggs should be an acceptable meal, especially after he added some vegetables to the eggs, along with a single, delicious, red, Washington apple.

Twilight seemed delighted with his offer of breakfast, quickly thanking him for the food. "I don't mean to be a burden or—"

Tyro cut her off, mid-sentence. "Don't you worry about it. Meeting you is worth far more to my than a few bits to buy some food." Tyro silently congratulated himself on thinking to use the Equestrian currency instead of his own. "I need to clean up in the kitchen, so we'll have to talk later." As much as Tyro wanted to stay and keep talking to Twilight, he was still in relative shock that she was there at all. Furthermore, his mind was blank when he tried to think of things to speak with her about. Using the dirty kitchen as a way to get more time just seemed natural, and it was a valid excuse.

As Tyro washed the dirty dishes (save Twilight's own, of course, since she was still eating), he thought about what had happened to him. Was he crazy? Was all of this in his mind, or was Twilight really there? The half-written story on his desk was so similar, it was like it was coming true before his very eyes.

Tyro caught himself. This was not a productive line of thought at all. What he needed to focus on was dealing with the fact that Twilight Sparkle was sitting all of ten feet away in another room. Tyro sighed.

There was one story he had read, called "My Little Dashie," that resonated with his own situation. Sooner or later, Twilight needed to go home, and that would be the end. And this pony was no young amnesiac, either. That end

would have to be soon, whether Tyro wanted that or not. Twilight did not belong in this world, and he had no right to keep her here anyway. She needed to return to Equestria, and he needed to do whatever he could to help her get home. The thought saddened him, but he knew it was the truth.

Returning to Twilight, he sat across from her at the table. "Twilight. As much as I love having you here, you need to go back to Equestria. This world isn't where you belong, and I have no right to keep you away from your friends, who I'm sure are very worried about you.

Twilight looked at Tyro for a long moment. "You're taking this very well, my human friend. I had not been looking forward to telling you I need to go home, but I see you already understand. From what you've told me, my friends and I are quite popular here, and meeting me must have been an exciting time for you. But like you said, I do need to go home."

Tyro nodded at this, in sad agreement. "You need a way to get back to Equestria, though, or none of all that really makes any difference. As far as I can tell, you're stuck here until we can figure out what happened."

When he included himself in that statement, Twilight started a little, blinking. "What do you mean, we?"

"I mean I'm going to help you in any way I can. I can't have you here, but I can at least know that I was able to help you in some way or another. If I recall, there were a lot of things that Spike was able to help you with, even though he has no actual magical capacity of his own. I can do those things for you, so that you can work without interruption. I'll do whatever it takes to get you back home safely."

As Tyro went on, Twilight's eyes got bigger and bigger, until at his conclusion she burst out, "But why would you do all that for me? You don't even know me!"

"You've forgotten something, Twilight. You may not know me, but I know you very well. You're the kind of pony who would help someone who needs it, friend or not. I admire that, and that's why I will do whatever it takes to help you."

The look on Twilight's face changed slowly, from incredulity to surprise, and finally to understanding. "You are helping me now, because you know I would do the same for you. I can respect that. You humans are noble creatures."

Tyro looked awkward for a moment before making his reply. "No, Twilight." She looked shocked. "We are not noble creatures. We make war on each other, destroy the land, and pollute the seas. We once had honor, and we once had friendship like you do, but those times ended long ago. The Elements of Harmony are all but lost to us. We are terrible, terrible creatures."

Twilight began to protest, but Tyro went on. "It is through great fortune that I was the one to find you. Other humans would not be so friendy as I have been. They would lock you in a cage like an animal, and collect bits from those who want to see you. They would use you for their own ends, and they would certainly never let you go home. I am one of the best of my kind."

Twilight was clearly concerned over this new development. She seemed speechless, so Tyro tried to explain. "You see, there is no Princess Celestia in this world to guide us. There is nothing to keep us honest, kind, loyal, or generous, so we drifted away from those ideals, and our world became a cold, hard place. Unfortunately, we had no Wendigos to freeze our land and make us think about each other. All we have are the stories of Equestria, and few listen to them."

Horrified understanding of Tyro's words swept over Twilight's face. "But what about you?" She seemed a little uncertain, but went on nonetheless, slowly gaining confidence. "You didn't act like all that. You were honest, when you told me about other humans. You were kind, when you offered me a place to stay. You were generous, when you gave me food. And you were loyal, when you didn't betray me to the humans you just told me about. You have the Elements in your heart. So not all humans can be bad."

Tyro was able to respond to that fairly easily. "There are some small number of us who listen to the stories, and we do our best to keep the Elements in mind, in all we do. But we are few, and those with empty hearts are many." Tyro's voice was filled with sadness at this last statement, as he silently wept for all humanity.

Twilight wasn't quite sure how to respond to this, so she quietly excused herself and walked out of the room, back to the spare bedroom where she had slept. Thinking back on what Tyro had told her, she wondered at her luck, to end up somewhere relatively safe in an apparently hostile world.

However, these thoughts did not trouble her for long. No, not when there was a mystery to be solved. She needed to find out what went wrong with her spell. Collecting herself, she left the room to ask Tyro what he knew of what had happened.

When she explained that she was going to work on figuring out what happened, Tyro quickly offered her some thin material for writing on, and a strange-looking tool, presumably to use like a quill. At her confused look, he explained that the device was like a quill that didn't need ink. Twilight resolved to puzzle out the workings of this device—once she found a way to get home.

At her prompt, Tyro began to speak, Twilight carefully taking notes. "Well, all I can really tell you is what I saw. There was this weird thing in the air, and it got bigger until it was a little bigger than you are. The middle part sort of twisted around, like something was pushing reality out of shape. It felt really strange, like being squeezed except it didn't hurt. The center part—I don't know how else to say it—ripped open like a hole in reality, and you came through, and it snapped closed behind you."

Twilight thought for a moment, then started asking questions.

Comments

[Life_asylum]

Not bad

[MagneticMind]

I agree. I am curious as to what exactly it is you're going to do with story.

[UnintentionalMishap]

hmm, interesting.

I shall track this

[RainbowsAreMagic]

316682 You've got a good point there, I admit. I should put that in somewhere. I mean sure, this is a sad story, but I really need to work on Twilight's character. She's a little too serious for my liking, especially in the chapter I'm working on.

316580 Wouldn't you just like to know