Rune Cascade

by Valtyra

Chapter 5

Frederick awoke from sleep, his head feeling awkward and sweaty. Coughing, he raised himself up from the damp bed and inched his way out of the room.

He had been shown where all of the rooms were the night before and told to make himself at home. Although a bit reluctant, Frederick quickly took to living in the same house as someone else.

He opened the door and walked out. Unfortunately, he didn’t have any clothes as Rarity was still designing them; he would have to pick them up later.

“Where is the bathroom...?” He muttered, moving slowly through the darkened library, taking special care not to wake Twilight, or spike, whom he met after his day out.

The little dragon had taken an instant liking to him, for some reason. Frederick surmised that it had something to do with both of them being men, but couldn’t be one hundred percent sure.

“Argh,” Frederick shouted out, quickly muffling his pain with a hand as he hit his big toe on the corner of a wall. He stood deathly still as he heard soft hoof-falls echoing through the level.

“Hello, Frederick?” Twilight’s shouted as she walked around the corner, coming face to chest with the human, “Oh my...” she stammered, blushing as she noticed he wasn’t wearing anything.

“Heh, yeah. Sorry about -.”

“No big deal, it happens,” Twilight interrupted, “I guess you lived alone before?”

“Yeah...” Frederick started with, but soon got self-conscious as he noticed that Twilight kept looking away, or down, “I think it’s best if we forget this happened, don’t you?”

Twilight could only help but nod shyly.

“Good. I’ll see you in the morning, good night Miss Sparkle.” Frederick walked around Twilight and towards the bathroom. He opened the door, closing it fast once he was inside and leaned back against it.

Sighing, he made his way over to the sink and ran the water, filling the bowl. Taking a scoop of water in his hands, he cleaned the sweat off his face; making him feel infinitely better. “That could have gone better...” he lamented, shaking his damp face with a small chuckle.

Frederick took down a mental note to go round to Rarities for the clothes; even if they weren’t finished, anything would be better than having that happen again.

Taking a towel, he wiped his face and arms to dry off and decided against going out in the nude again; which he slapped himself for doing in the first place and slipped on a towel around his waist.

Feeling secure in the knowledge that no one would be able to ogle him; although he’d never admit it, Frederick opened the door and made it back to his room. He picked up his damp covers and neatly folded them up and placed them on a chair next to the door. Laying down, he quickly drifted back off to sleep.

___

“F-Frederick, are you clothed?” Twilight shouted through the door. Receiving no reply, she assumed he was still asleep and pushed the door open; albeit very slowly.

She saw no pony in bed, raising her eyebrow, she looked over to the chair to find the beds covers neatly folded up.

Taking the initiative, she walked inside the room to find that the window was slightly ajar, making the room feel colder than it should have been.

“I wonder where he went...” she asked herself as she turned around.

“Right here Miss Sparkle.” Frederick spoke, making Twilight jump with a cute "Eep". “My apologies,” he finished as Frederick helped Twilight gather herself.

Twilight looked him over and after gathering her breath back, whistled, “I take it you went over to Rarities?”

Frederick was wearing a slim fitting two piece grey suit, on his feet were two finely polished black shoes. “Yes, I did. She is amazing, it would take hundreds of gold to purchase something of this quality back home.”

“I’m glad you like it, you clean up nice.” Twilight replied with a smirk.

“I try and look nice for my host.” Frederick joked, “But anyway, what are we doing today?”

Trotting out of the room, Twilight motioned for Frederick to follow, “I was thinking of letting you see the princesses again. They seemed to like you before, maybe they can help.”

“Well, I do have some questions for them.”

“Alright, Spike!” Twilight called out. A couple of seconds later, a groggy Spike came waddling down the stairs, his tail slapping on each step.

“What’s the matter, it’s too early.” he groaned. Looking over to Frederick, he perked up, “Looking smooth, nice suit.”

Twilight rolled her eyes, “It’s nearly two o’clock Spike.”

“Still too early...”

“Oh well, can you send this, please?” Twilight asked, levitating a premade scroll over to him. He nodded and blasted the paper into ash, which quickly exited the building.

Frederick whistled, “I’m impressed, only high military have those kinds if Runes back home...”

“Well, I am the Princesses most faithful student.” Twilight announced, “I mean, I need to keep in touch with her...” she said.

Suddenly, Spike belched and a small plumb of fire burst out of his mouth, materialising in a small scroll. “Pooh, that was quick.” Twilight said, jumping over and grabbing it out of the air.

Frederick walked over to a chair and sat down, waiting for her to finish reading.

“It says the Princess will be on her way shortly. What does that mean?”

A short sharp knock from the front door answered that question immediately, “I’ll get it,” announced Frederick, getting up from his chair. He walked over and opened the door. Standing there, regal as ever was Princess Celestia, her multicolour hair waving in a slight breeze.

“Good afternoon Frederick, you look very nice,” she said, looking past him, “I got your letter, Twilight.”

“I see that Princess.” Twilight replied, before dropping on the floor in a bow.

“Please, come on in.” Frederick offered, moving out of the way for the Princess.

“Thank you.” Celestia walked past, looking Frederick over. She walked over to Twilight and picked her up, hugging her; she smiled once Twilight started to hug back.

Placing Twilight down, she turned to Spike, “How are you today Spike?”

“I am okay, Princess. If there anything you would like?”

“I’m good, thank you. I ate before I got here.” Celestia moved over to one of the seats and sat down, taking care not to damage the furniture that was designed for somepony... smaller in mind. “Twilight says you have some questions?” She asked, looking towards Frederick.

“Uh, yes. My machine, did you manage to recover anything at all from the wreck?” He asked, hoping that he wouldn’t have to work from the beginning.

“We did recover some pieces, it was hard to uncover their purpose though, as you can see, we don’t use many of the same materials.”

Frederick nodded, “Well, what did they look like?”

“One piece was a slight brownish colour, the other seemed to resemble some of our crystals that are buried underneath Canterlot. Twilight would know about them.”

“Ok... so not all of the Unox was used up... that’s good. The brownish part, uh, I’ll need to see that, I don’t remember making any part that fits that description, but I forget sometimes.” Frederick mumbled some numbers as he wandered around the room.

The other members of the conversation looked on in mild concern before he sprang back, “Celestia, is it at all possible to get some samples of those crystals?”

“I suppose it would be, but I don’t see why.” She asked, confused and slightly intimidated by the sudden turn in his personality.

“For science of course! If I can get a Rune station set up, then I can create stuff... I don’t need to be burden, and then maybe I can get home sooner than I thought.”

Frederick looked over to Twilight who wore an unreadable expression on her face, “With proper testing, of course.” He finished with a sheepish smile.

“That’s all well and good, but we still don’t know how your Runes will affect Equestria. I will allow you to research at your own pace, but I will have to restrict you to no weapons, or anything that can hurt my ponies.”

“I can accept that, I was never one for violence, except...”

“Don’t worry about that.” Celestia interrupted, “One more thing though, I will be assigning a member of my research division to help you here. Her name is Smart Glass and she’s very proficient at what she does,” Celestia smiled.

“What’s her specialty?” Frederick asked, confused.

“She’s been working on how magic interacts with crystals on the subatomic level. She will be of immense help.”

“I don’t doubt it.”

“You will need somewhere to work for the time being,” Celestia placed a hoof under her chin, then looked at Twilight, “are you using your basement for anything at the moment?”

Twilight thought for a moment, “Not for anything important, just storage,” she then perked up, “Frederick’s working here!” She got up and jumped around, shouting "Yesyesyes.”

Frederick and Celestia watched on in amusement as Twilight calmed herself down and plopped on the floor. Celestia walked over and whispered in her ear with a grin, “Guess who else will be helping him?”

Twilight’s eyes flew open and she hugged the Princess, “Thank you! I have so many ideas... but what if they don’t work with your magic...”

She continued to mumble incoherently for a few more minutes as Celestia and Frederick walked to the door, “Thank you Princess. To be honest, I didn’t expect you to agree so fast, especially with such lenient conditions.”

“Don’t misjudge me Frederick; I may have agreed, but don’t think I won’t do whatever it takes to protect my ponies.” Celestia replied, looking deep into his eyes; it made him tense up.

“I understand.”

“Good, Smart Glass will be here tomorrow evening. Your equipment will arrive shortly before. I expect you to be ready for her.”

“Yes ma’am.”

Celestia nodded and turned to Twilight. She smiled and opened the door. Walking out, she unfurled her wings and took off into the sky, disappearing.

Frederick sighed and rubbed his face, whatever he had saw in her eyes had affected him. He knew she would do anything to save them and that included hurting him. He was determined to not let her down now.

“Miss Twilight, are you alright?” Frederick asked, poking her on the shoulder.

Twilight shook her head, apparently nudged out of the state she was in, “Heh, sorry. I get a bit crazy sometimes.”

“No big deal, happens to everyone.” Frederick walked over to the kitchen and shouted, “Would you like a cup of tea, before we head out?”

“Head out, where to?” Twilight asked, walking into the kitchen, “and yes please.”

“I was thinking that you could take me to find your friend, Rainbow, was it?” he answered, placing two teabags into two cups, “If that’s ok? I feel we got off on the wrong foot and would like to talk to her.”

“That’s sweet, but I don’t think that’s the best idea at the moment.”

“Why?”

“Well, as you’ve seen, Rainbow is... brash, to say the least. I think it would be best to let her simmer down for a few days.”

“If you think so, you know her best.” Frederick accepted, passing Twilight’s cup of tea over to her, “What shall we do then?”

“We can clean out the basement, the princess did say you would have to be ready.”

“Wait, you heard that?”

“I have good hearing.” Twilight replied with a grin.

“Fine, but let’s finish these first.”

The two of them sat there drinking their tea in comfortable silence. Before long, they had finished their tea and cleaned the cups. They made their way down into the basement, Twilight used her magic to light some candles around the room, blasting the boxes and machines with light, casting hard shadows along the bare walls.

“Wow, you weren’t kidding when you said storage.” Frederick said, with raised eyebrows.

“No, I wasn’t. It’s become a bit of an issue of late, having to move everything from storage down here.”

“Well, let’s see if we can’t sort this out.” Frederick slapped his hands together, making Twilight jump slightly as she wasn’t expecting it. He made his way over to a small shelf and started to take the top of his suit off.

Twilight turned around to see what he was doing and frowned, “you can’t help but take your clothes off, can you?”

“What, oh this. I don’t want to rip the stitching and I’m bound to get sweaty.” He replied, folding his clothes up neatly in a dust free area.

“I’m sure...” Twilight huffed; she hoped this wouldn’t become a regular thing.

“Shall we?” Frederick said, picking up a box from in front of himself and moving it to an unused corner. “What are in these anyway?” He asked, placing it down.

“Oh you know, research papers, documents and data.” Twilight replied off-handily.

“Okay. We should mark them then, just so we know what each box contains.”

“Ooh, good thinking.” Twilight levitated two pencils down and passed one to Frederick. Together they went about checking each box and labelling them with their content.

After they had labelled the boxes, which took a few hours; they were ready to move them about. By this time, Frederick was getting thirsty, and decided he needed some water.

“I’m going to get some water, if that’s ok?” He asked Twilight, who was looking through one of the boxes near the back of the basement.

“Hmm, oh yeah, sure.”

Shrugging, he got up and walked up the stairs into the library. He opened the door to see Applejack standing there looking for a book.

“Hi there Miss Applejack, how are you?” Frederick asked, causing Applejack to jump and knock some books off the shelf.

He quickly caught them in his magic and laid them down gently, “I’m sorry about that.”

Applejack turned around and went wide eyed, “Wow, what you have been up to, wrestling?”

“What’s wresting?” Frederick asked, confused.

“Never mind, where’s Twilight?” Applejack asked.

“We’ve been downstairs, cleaning up her basement. I’m supposed to be working here now and the Princess wants it tidy.”

“I see, good on you to do some hard work, though you don’t seem like you need it.”

“Uh, thanks; I guess.” Frederick replied, “I’ll just get Miss Twilight for you.”

Frederick turned and made his way downstairs again. He stood by the stairs and shouted, “Miss Twilight, your friend Applejack is here to see you!”

“Oh, tell her I’ll be right up!” she shouted back.

Frederick walked back up the stairs, “She’ll be right with you. If you’d excuse me, I need some water.”

He walked past Applejack and into the kitchen, he poured himself a nice cold glass of water and downed it. He made his way out and saw Twilight talking with Applejack about something, but didn’t really take interest; instead he went downstairs and started on moving the boxes.

It took a few more hours, but sure enough, he had moved a fair chunk out of the way; enough for a fairly sized Rune crafting table and examination bench.

The crafting table would allow him to create new runes from various materials, plus research how they interacted with the new elements on this world. The bench would allow him to keep tabs on what he had already done, plus any current projects that Twilight might want to try; with supervision, of course.

He looked about and sighed, he had done a lot of work, but there was still more to do. One of the main things we could need would be a forge and smelter. Having Runes and Unox is all well and good, but he wouldn’t be able to get back home without precision tools and if that meant he would have to painstakingly make them, he would do so.

Comments

[Valtyra]

3640599

Thanks :)

[damnaion]

hummmm