The Problem With Magic

by deathtap

Day??: Mystery Thickening

We piled into my home, slamming the door shut behind us. I peeked through the peephole a few times looking down the hall and squinting at certain areas just to make sure we weren’t followed. I had no idea why I was so paranoid, but things were getting way too weird and I guess I was just being overly cautious.

I turned to Simon, who was rummaging in my freezer. He took out the ice tray, looked at it, sniffed it, made a face, then emptied the ice onto a towel, sniffed that, made another face, put the ice onto the counter, washed the tower with dishwashing soap, put the ice back from the into the towel, then placed the iced towel onto his forehead. It only took him a few minutes and I noted that I needed to wash my linen better, but all thoughts about that stopped when I saw him place the cloth on his forehead. I couldn’t be sure, but I saw steam rising from it for a few seconds before it subsided.

Tisha in the meantime was looking around the place, her hands behind her back as she took everything in. She paid particular attention to my bed area, since it was a studio apartment and the kitchen merged into the sleeping area and living room.

She was still wearing my jacket that I had given to her after the incident in the woods. After the lights went out, I offered it to her and she slipped it on in the darkness. It covered her up well—she was pretty petite— but it was very short and made the ride in the car unbearably uncomfortable because I kept trying not to stare up or down the jacket, and I could tell Simon was having a hard time as well. If she had noticed, she chose to pretend she didn’t.

We had hardly spoken at all since the lights went out. We managed to get poor Raj to fetch us. The original plan was for him to take us back to the Chinese place where we had come from, but as we approached it was clear that we should have avoided that. As we approached we noticed that there were a million firefighters and cops there. The restaurant was still standing, but the entire lower section where we had sat down was just… gone. We decided that, for now, it would be best to come back another time when things died down a little.

My rental was still there though. I had parked it a little away from the restaurant, so it wasn’t being scrutinized. Yet. Although it would only be a matter of time before the inevitable questioning happened.

The thought of that made my head throb.

“Never a dull moment with you, John,” Raj said as he watched Simon cooling off his forehead. “That must be one hell of a fever. Did I just see steam?”

“Not a fever,” Simon said as he grimaced. “Still hurts. Calming down. One sec.”

“How did you guys end up in the woods? Did you do something to this young lady?” Raj asked, pointing at Tisha.

Tisha snorted out a laugh. “I wish. These guys won’t do anything like that even if I begged them to. They are too goody-goody for something like that.”

I made a face. Eager to change the subject, I decided to ask the one question that had been bothering me. “What were you doing there at that Chinese place, Tisha?

“My job, silly!” she said, giggling. “I had to work tonight because one of the other girls had called in sick, so I was filling in for her. When I saw you guys, I got super excited and wanted to come and talk, but you all looked so mopey and sad and were all filled with boring seriousness, so I stopped myself and waited. Then you started talking about Equestria. After that, I decided to just wait until later!”

“You heard?” Simon asked.

“Uh-huh. I heard everything! About how you are a pony in Simon’s body and how you went over to Equestria and came back. By the way, both of which I thought was a whole lotta phooey at first, but Simon’s story was so sad and how he told it made me think that maybe it wasn’t so phooey. So now I’m not so sure. Makes me sad because it feels like I lost my friend since it’s not Simon in there.”

At those words, Simon gave her a pained look. “I’m sorry about that, Tisha. I know how you felt about me… Simon… us? I’m sorry he rejected you all those years ago.”

Tisha froze and looked down and knocked her knuckles together while laughing nervously. “That’s okay. I mean, it was sad and stuff for me, but. Hey. That’s how it goes. Wait a minute. What do you mean us?”

“Simon and… me? Oh.”

“I know you said you were a pony. If you were a pony, then you weren’t Simon.”

“No, no. I am Simon… and I’m also not Simon.”

“What do you mean?”

“That’s pretty complicated. I don’t know how to explain it properly.”

“Let’s start with your name.”

“Simon–”

“No. What’s your real name? I mean, what’s your pony name?”

Simon looked at her and sighed. He placed the towel down on the counter and took a deep breath. “M-Moonflower. My name is… was Moonflower.”

That made me stop in my tracks. “Wait. Wait, wait, wait. You’re a filly!?”

“Well,” he began, “no. Not anymore. I mean, I was. But when I became Simon, I stopped being a filly or even a pony and I became a human man. So, I guess I am completely Simon now, but I do have memories of Moonflower, so I am her as well. Simon has lived longer, so I have more memories of him than I do of Moonflower. So, I am more Simon than not.”

I sat down. “Woah. That’s crazy. So… what do I call you?”

“Please,” Simon waved his hand in front of his face, “that was so long ago, I’ve practically forgotten about what it’s like being a pony or a filly. I’ve been this guy for this long, so I guess I’m more ‘Simon’ now than ‘Moonflower’.”

“How did it feel to suddenly have a penis?” I joked. Then I thought about how tasteless that was and felt awful.

If Moonflower felt any awkwardness or offense towards me, she made no sign of it. Instead she just shrugged and replied matter-of-factly, “It wasn’t ‘suddenly’. It happened over time. When I came to the dreamworld, I was a filly, but as my memories began to combine with Simon’s, I eventually forgot what it was like being a filly, let alone being a child. The main thing was that it was mainly me remembering things as SImon. By the time I woke up from the coma, I had already ‘remembered’ being a man and having… one. A penis, that is. I never really thought about it until you pointed it out.”

“Yeah. You didn’t need to answer him,” Raj replied, giving me a dirty look. “Even if I find all this hard to believe, that was a very inappropriate question.”

I felt worse.

“Nah, that’s okay. You don’t know how refreshing it is to talk about this. This is a lot better than therapy, that’s for sure. But to clarify the point, it’s more like I don’t remember what being a filly is like instead of being surprised at being a guy. So… yeah.”

“But I mean, your personal life and stuff. How did you… y’know… meet people?” I gestured with my hands.

This time Raj stamped on my foot. I squeaked in pain.

“Sex? I… that is to say… I’m… I’ve not…” Simon scratched his head. “Simon has had sex before, but Moonflower hasn’t had any since… the accident. In fact, Tisha was Simon’s first—”

“That’s okay, Simon. You don’t need to explain,” Tisha interrupted, her face a bright red hue.

That was awkward.

“Um… did you tell the doctors?” I asked. “That you used to be a girl?”

“Like I said, when I woke up I no longer was just Moonflower. I was more Simon. There was hardly any filly left in me. And I’ve been Simon for a very long time,” he replied, placing the towel back on his head. He made a face and opened the towel up. “I need more ice.”

“I’ll ask downstairs. Gimme a minute.” I walked over to the door, but paused as I gripped the handle. “Oh, and Moonflower?”

“Look, let’s stick with Simon. No Moonflower. First off, it’s weird calling a grown male that and secondly, as I said, I’m more Simon. So, let’s just stick with Simon.”

“Sorry. Simon?”

“Yeah?”

“Sorry about the penis thing.”

He smirked at that. “Make it up to me by getting the ice.”

“Roger that!”

“I’ll come with,” Raj said and followed me out. Once outside, we headed towards the stairwell. “John, what’s all this about? How did you guys end up in the middle of the woods? And was that girl naked? Did you do something—?”

“No!” I shouted, then grinned sheepishly. I hadn’t realized I shouted in his face. “No. We didn’t do anything to her. I swear. And it’s hard to explain. And you won’t believe me even if I told you. Besides, didn’t we already cover that?”

“I felt that you’d be more inclined to tell me the truth if you were alone with me.”

“You’re not going to believe it.”

“Try me.”

“We…” I struggled to find the right words, but failed. So I instead decided to be blunt. “We teleported.”

“Teleported? Like in Star Wars?”

“No, and you mean Star Trek. That’s different. That’s science… fiction? This is magic.”

Raj stopped following me as he paused to contemplate or absorb what I had just said. He jogged after me after a moment. “Magic?”

“Magic.”

He scratched the back of his head. “You know that this is hard for me to believe, right? And a part of me wants to believe you, but common sense makes it so that I just can’t.”

“Trust me when I say this, I know exactly what you mean, but that’s how it is. Now we need to understand why or how it happened.”

We walked the rest of the stairs then to the rear of the restaurant in silence. It took a few seconds to reach there, but the awkwardness made it seem a lot longer. I knocked on the back door of the Chinese restaurant.

“This is why I said to forget about it. But I promise we did not do anything to Tisha.”

“Well, the way she looks at the two of you, I don’t think she’d mind.”

“I’m taken,” I said without thinking. “And she has feelings for Simon.”

“You’re taken!?” Raj vociferated in bewilderment, but thankfully the door opened.

“Hi Lee!” I said, glad to change the subject. “How’s the night going?”

“Oh, hi, Forest. You hungry?” Lee asked.

He was the son of the owner and over the past month we had gotten on talking terms. I wouldn’t say we were completely friendly, but certainly friendlier. He had gutted me for an hour, telling me how big of a scumbag I was and how rude I was over the months I had lived above the restaurant and I apologized profusely for that. Afterwards, we came to an understanding and since then we’ve been okay. Better than before, I suppose.

“Nah, not today. I was wondering if you guys had some ice I could get. One of my friends hurt his head and we need to put ice on it.”

“Oh? Yeah, just a sec.” He shouted something in Chinese, which a response echoed from inside with an affirmation. “I saw the girl. She’s cute. Your girlfriend?”

“No, no. Just a friend.”

“You wanna give her my number?” He asked.

“I… uh…” That was unexpected.

“I’m just joking!” Lee said, punching me lightly in the chest. He looked at his hand when he did that. “Wow. You feel like you’re on fire.”

Raj walked over, touched my chest, and yanked his hand away. He yelped, then looked at me, “Why are you so hot?”

“Because I work out.”

“What? No! I mean, why does your body feel like it’s on fire?”

"That's 'cause I'm Forest Fire! Careful, you might get burnt! Tssssssss! Smokin'!"

"Forest, this isn't a joke. You're really burnin' up!”

“… Big Mac, get in here!"

I stopped what I was doing and looked up at Raj’s face. Applejack’s voice really did come out of his mouth for that one second. Then I saw Big Mac standing there for a second, like an ethereal afterimage. Applejack’s big brother. I remembered him. His laugh. His monotone. His… quiet nature.

“John!”

I snapped awake.

“Who’s John?” Lee asked.

“He is!” Raj said, pointing at me. “What the hell? His body is normal temperature again.”

Lee touched my head. “Y-you’re right. Strange.”

An older guy walked up from behind Lee with a plastic bucket full of ice.

Lee took it and handed it over to me. “Here you go, Forest… John…”

I took it. “Forest. John is my old name. I’m legally changing it.”

“Well, Forest is a cooler name.”

I smiled. “I know. Wanna know my full name?”

“Forest Fire. You literally just said that,” Raj stated giving me a queer look.

Lee nodded in approval. “It sounds cool, but I would totally feel like a chad if I had to introduce myself as Forest Fire.”

I blinked, thought about it, then realized he was right. But I didn’t care. That was my name.

Raj and I headed back upstairs and I rang my doorbell. Tisha opened it and smiled. She was wearing one of my t-shirts and it draped down over her body covering everything, but for some reason she looked impossibly cute. Much cuter than before.

“Welcome home!” Tisha coyly said and let us inside.

My face exploded, but I pushed past her and headed for the kitchen and placed the bucket of ice next to the sink. Simon walked over and placed a lot of cubes on it and placed it on his head. Again, I saw vapors of steam as the cloth touched his head.

“This. Sucks.” Simon intoned and sat down. “Is there air conditioning in this place?”

“No…”

“Damn.”

“We can fill my bathtub full of ice,” I offered.

“No, I’m good.”

“John, you don’t have a bathtub,” Raj stated.

“Oh yeah! That’s from AJ’s place.”

“Applejack has a bathtub in her house?” Tisha asked. “Not surprised to hear that.”

“Applejack?” Raj asked. Then shook his head. He walked into the bathroom, then out again. “Dude, there’s hardly even a shower in there! Why did you think you had a bathtub?”

"Where-where am I? Cold! I'm so c-cold."

"Relax, Forest. Glad to see you're back to normal. Applebloom, you okay?"

"Yeah. Just a little bump is all."

"S-s-sorry, A-A-Applebloom. D-d-didn't mean to headbutt you.”

Then I saw Applejack look at me. Her emerald-green eyes gazing deep into mine. The look spoke volumes. Only it wasn’t Applejack’s green eyes that came into focus. They were Simon’s piercing purple eyes.

“T-t-that s-s-serious?"

“John!” Raj screamed at my face. A loud smack was heard.

I blinked, then felt my face burning. Did he just slap me?

“Why are you calling him ‘John’?” Simon asked.

“That’s. His. Name!”

“No, he’s Forest. That’s his name,” Tisha replied. “He’s not John anymore.”

Raj opened his mouth, thought about it, then sighed in defeat. “Fine. Forest. Forest, what are you doing? Why are you just sitting there like that?”

“He’s allergic to magic,” Simon said before I could speak up. “That’s what he said to me. I don’t know much about it, but I think that there’s something in him that is actively rejecting spells. I felt it when I tried to pull the magic inside him out. I noticed that the gaps where he stops and just stands there gets worse when magic is involved. It started after the teleportation.”

“Wait. There’s magic inside me?” I asked.

“Well, yes and no. There’s magic inside you in much the same way that there’s air inside your lungs. It’s there, but in your case, it also isn’t there. It’s like… it’s trapped behind some barrier or something. I felt it. I touched it.”

“You touched it?”

“Well, yes. I am a unicorn. I can manipulate…” Simon stopped. “Wait. How did I manipulate…?”

“You had a horn!” Tisha giggled. “It was totally awesome.”

Simon turned to her. “You… saw my horn?”

“Yep! It was on your forehead, but not really. It was made with light and it was glowing yellow.”

At that, Simon furrowed his brow. “Then it wasn’t my magic. My magic is blue.”

Raj sat down. “This is nuts. This is… this is nuts, right? You do see how nuts this is?”

We ignored him for the moment.

“When I tried to pull more of the magic out of you to use it, something else seemed to break the connection. That was when it suddenly shut off. It was like it actively tried to destroy the magic connection between us. And the more I tried to keep that connection active, there was something in there that wanted to break it.” Simon pointed to his head. “That’s why this hurts a lot.”

“What is that ‘thing?” I asked.

Simon shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve never felt anything like it before. Then again, it’s been ages since I last used magic, and like I said, I was a kid the last time I used it. So it’s not like I would know what it is anyway.”

“When Princess Celestia shot me,” I said slowly, “I was in and out of consciousness. Then, after that, I… there was a place I went to… in my mind. But I remember that I was stuck in two places at once and then… I was in a place that wasn’t anywhere, and I don’t know where. Sort of like a place in between.”

“Between where?”

“Between life and death. In that space, I met with my grandmother. Perhaps the only person to actually love me for me.” I struggled with that. The memory of my elderly grandmother staying with me in that safe space. Then saying goodbye.

My nose stung.

I felt a warm embrace from behind me. Tisha hugged me tightly. “You don’t have to be alone anymore, Forest. We’re here with you.”

And I felt Pinkie in there. Even though I knew it wasn’t her hugging me, I felt that there was a connection there for some reason. Something resonated in me and I smiled at the gesture.

“Thank you, Pinkie.”

“Tisha.”

“Thank you, Tisha.”

“You called me Pinkie. Silly, Forest.”

“I did.” I laughed lightly at that. “You really do sound like her.”

“Thanks! She’s my favorite.”

“I know.”

“She’s awesome!” Tisha said and let me go.

“She is something,” I replied, smiling at my memory of her.

“You’re so lucky you got to meet her in real life.” Tisha sighed, then shrugged. “I feel so left out. I wanna go to Equestria too! I’m the only one here who hasn’t been!”

“I haven’t,” Raj said stoically, still trying to wrap his head around what was going on.

Tisha was about to say something when Simon spoke up. “Forest, there’s something in you. Something between your ‘spirit’,” he made air quotes with his fingers, “and body. I can’t describe it really, but I can touch the magic for at least a short amount of time.”

“Why not cut him open?” Raj asked.

A part of me was about to agree with him until I understood what that meant. Then I made a face.

“No way!” Simon and Tisha said at the same time. They looked at each other and blushed.

“I was joking,” Raj stated, raising an eyebrow. “Is Forest’s lack of common sense rubbing off on you?”

“Oh dearie me, I hope not,” Tisha replied immediately.

I pouted. “But, we hardly know each other…”

“Look, I need to understand whatever it is that this is. From what I remember, magic doesn’t exist in the body in that sense. Like air, it exists all around us, even though we can’t see it. Ponies have a way to manipulate it somehow. It’s more like it exists inside the… the…” Simon scratched his head. “Well, it’s like… air in the lungs, as I said. No, not even that. It exists within the empty spaces everywhere. Or like the empty space between the neurons of the brain. That void between the synapses, but that isn’t exactly the same either. It’s like… in between all the muscles, tissues, everything! But at the same time it connects with the outside. It’s inside and ‘connects’ with the outside from there, but while it’s inside it’s barely there. It exists, but not really. It doesn’t really exist unless you can reach into it and tap into and wake it up.”

“Sounds like you’re talking about neutrinos,” Raj stated after a moment.

We all turned to him.

“Neutrinos?”

Raj shrugged. “Yeah. What you described. Sounds like neutrinos.”

“What are… what are those?” I asked, already forgetting what he called them. “And how do you know about them?”

“Before I joined this company, I wanted to pursue a career in particle physics, with a focus in quantum field theory, but neutrinos are in a specific type of field beyond me. It’ll be hard for me to explain it without explaining fundamental physics. Briefly, neutrinos are very small, nearly imperceptible, subatomic particles that exist in a near massless state, and don’t really do anything unless you excite them.”

“What happens when you excite them?” I asked.

“Well, they stop being massless, I suppose. I don’t know, that’s not my area.”

My brain hurt.

“Could there be a connection?” Simon asked. “Between neutrinos and magic?”

At that, Raj shrugged. “Since I know next to nothing about magic, I wouldn’t be able to tell you. You’d have to tell me. You seem to be the only one here with any experience in that field. But from what you were talking about, maybe. But I mean, we don’t fully understand subatomic particles let alone neutrinos. Nor do we understand how they interact with matter or energy.”

“My understanding of magic was limited to what’s essentially elementary school math. I understand some of it, but not all of it, and certainly not enough to give an educated guess in any way. But it is an interesting connection. The Simon in me is nodding in approval with your reasoning, but the Moonflower in me is shaking her head. Not sure if it’s because she doesn’t agree or just doesn’t know.”

“Well, there’s no way to interact directly with neutrinos, at least not yet. But maybe you did it with your… your horn?” Raj asked. “That’s what unicorns have, right?”

“Yep,” Tisha replied. “Just before the ‘thing’ happened…”

“Teleportation,” both Simon and I said at the same time.

“Simon’s horn,” Tisha said, pointing to her forehead, “was bright yellow! Like the sun, and felt so nice and warm. I didn’t feel in danger at all, even though it would be a little scary, I think. It was just… I felt nice.”

“And that’s why you’re putting the ice on it?” Raj asked while looking at Simon.

“Yeah. It’s getting better, but it still burns.”

“My brain hurts,” I whined, the concept completely going over my head.

Simon glanced over to me. “We’re avoiding the real issue here. Inside you there’s magic. It’s not even a little bit. It’s a damn significant well of the stuff. I am sure that there’s a limit to it, so I’m not going to try and draw on it again until we understand it a bit more, but it’s there.”

“Can we use that to get to Equestria?” I asked.

At this, Simon shrugged. “I don’t know. You’re asking the wrong person something like that. Remember, I learnt basic stuff. Teleportation is a very advanced spell that not every pony can use. I only learnt the basic levitation spell, and that’s it.”

“Basic levitation?” Raj asked and rubbed his temples. “Levitation?”

“You know, when you carry things without using your body?” Simon answered.

“I know that. Then how’d you teleport?” Raj asked, genuinely curious.

Simon scratched the back of his head. “I don’t know.”

“Wait a minute!” I said out loud.

Everyone looked at me.

“That’s the first time I’ve magically teleported,” I said in realization. “That’s crazy.”

They all turned towards each other as if my outburst had not contributed anything to their conversation. Which it hadn't. But it meant a lot to me. Who would’ve thunk that my first teleportation experience would be in this world. Well, was what Tutela was doing to me back in Equestria the same thing? Was that teleportation? It kinda wasn’t. It was more like walking through a doorway with her. This was like someone pulling me from one spot and planting me in another. The sensation was completely different.

“So, what now?” Raj asked.

Simon shrugged. “I’m not sure. There’s a lot to process here. Forest is a human who went to Equestria and came back. I am an Equestrian that came here after taking over a crash victim’s body. Both of us are stuck here, and–”

At that, Raj’s eyes opened wide. “Wait. No. Wait. You’re going to have to explain that to me. Car crash victim?”

“Are you sure? It was very sad,” Tisha said, and hugged Simon, who blushed furiously. A part of me was jealous about that. But now that I saw Simon as a young child, I couldn’t stay mad at him. Or her. That was a tad bit confusing now.

“Yes. I am sure. I need to know if I’m going to understand what the hell is going on,” Raj explained.

“You know, you’ve been awfully accepting of all this crap,” Simon pointed out.

At that, Raj just shrugged. “When John—”

“Forest,” Tisha interjected.

“When Forest first came out of the woods over a month ago—”

“No, we just got out of the woods,” Tisha pointed out.

Raj made a face. “About a month ago, Forest did something bad and he tried to flee from the law. He was gone for three days, but when he came back he went from an average looking normal guy to…” Raj gestured at me.

So I posed, flexing my arms even though nobody could see anything through my clothes. I knew what he meant and I was seriously trying to maintain the body I had through workouts, but I was slowing down. It was a bit easier since I didn’t have to find a normal job just yet, but it made me appreciate the people who found the time to work and workout. Because I knew that if I didn’t have the oodles of free time I had, there was no chance I would step foot in a gym or anything like that. I still didn’t go to the gym though, I spent most of my time doing pushups and feeling sorry for myself.

“Nobody could have developed a body like that in three days. Nobody. He says he was gone for a month, and I can just about believe that,” Raj shrugged. “The truth is that I can’t wrap my head around it, but the biggest change wasn’t the physical aspect. You see, this guy was a gigantic, and excuse me for saying this, asshole. A scumbag. He was a lousy excuse for a human being.”

“Okay, okay. I think they get it,” I said. Was I really that bad?

“But after that, he’s… well, I like him. And you don’t understand how confused I am to be saying that and actually meaning it. He’s a damned sweetheart now, and I just feel the need to watch over him.”

Tisha ‘aww’d’ expressing how cute she thought that was.

“Thanks, Raj!” I said, smiling stupidly.

He just fake-smiled at me, then focused back on Simon. “Now what are you guys going to do?”

My eyes met Simon’s, and we both shrugged at the same time. What were we going to do?

“I could try to reconnect with the power in Forest,” Simon suggested. “Apart from that, I don’t know what else we can do.”

“No. Not here. I already am pretty hated by the guys downstairs. I don’t need to blow a hole in their restaurant like we did with the last place,” I stated. “If we do try doing that again, I suggest we do it back in the woods where we teleported the last time.”

“Guys!” Tisha called, then grabbed the remote and started upping the volume on my tiny TV. “Check it out.”

We all took a look at the screen.

“Greetings and welcome back to the local news, and I’m David Sisson, your anchor for the hour. No new updates regarding the strange disappearing-reappearing restaurant that has left law enforcement both stunned and confused. To bring our new viewers up to date, a few hours ago a local restaurant had a strange phenomenon occur when the interiors inside disappeared for a few hours before reappearing back in the same place. Security cameras caught the sudden and strange phenomenon.”

The screen showed a poor quality video of the interiors of the restaurant glowing brightly yellow before a blinding flash and afterwards everything appeared back in place as if nothing happened. In it, you could definitely see myself and Simon with Tisha standing next to us before the screen went from a bright yellow to white that filled the whole screen until nothing could be seen.

Then it went black and all that was seen was a large empty space. The chairs, tables, wallpapers, pictures on the walls, lights, everything just vanished.

“The bright light was caught on numerous cell phones and many people caught the sudden light show and phoned the police immediately.”

Another video of a cell phone showed the light of the restaurant glow and a sudden flash. When it was over, the building looked like nothing had happened to it. Then the video switched to an overhead shot, presumably from a helicopter, where the area was cordoned off with tape and there were white tent-like plastic sheets over the building, much like one of those biohazard labs you see in the movies.

“We now go to Cheryl Manfield at the scene. Cheryl, what’s going on over there?”

“Hiya, David! Well, so far nothing else has happened. As you can see, the area has been closed off and the restaurant has now been quarantined as a precaution. Although we aren’t sure what’s been going on since the bright flash, we do know that police are awaiting experts to assess what exactly happened and to see if there is any immediate danger to anyone near or around the surrounding areas. Back to you, David.”

Raj muted it. “The car you drove will still be there, wouldn’t it?”

I nodded.

“That’s not good. We need to get it out of there before it gets tracked.”

“I could tell them that Forest spent the night with me,” Tisha said, smiling sweetly.

“No, that wouldn’t work. You were working that night, so the restaurant would have reported you being there and disappearing.”

Tish shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe. I sort of don’t really work there. I… kinda get paid under the table and only work when my friend doesn’t. So, I’m not sure if they will admit that I was there for… insurance purposes?”

“I doubt it. Even if they paid you under the table, if you get hurt they might feel they have a moral obligation to report it. So they might’ve still informed the authorities. We can’t risk it. Instead, what we’ll do is I will go and get the car. The fewer arrows we have pointing our way, the better.”

“But why?” I asked.

“Do you want to explain all this to the authorities?” Raj asked. “They’ll put you in a mental institution or something.”

Couldn’t argue with that logic.

“Did you at least park pretty far away from the restaurant?”

I nodded. “A bit away. Not too far. Close enough to walk.”

“Gimme your keys.” Raj opened his hand.

I did as I was asked.

“Stay. Here.” Raj stopped as he opened the door. “And no magic.”

Simon and I looked at each other then back at Raj.

“Agreed,” we both repeated at the same time.

He left after that.

We waited for a bit before turning to the news again. It was all speculation. Some people were saying it was aliens, others say it was an optical illusion, but one or two were saying it was a space-time distortion event and the word that caught our ears were ‘neutrinos’.

“Didn’t Raj say something about neutrinos?” I asked.

“Yeah, I think so. We might have to try and look into that,” Tisha suggested.

“What? Take a crash course in subatomic physics? No, that’s okay.”

“It might be useful,” I suggested, thinking out loud. “I mean, didn’t Raj say he was into that area.”

“But he also did say that he wasn’t into that particular subject matter,” Simon countered. “And do we really want him involved?”

“Sure! I mean, it’s not like we’re putting him in danger, right?” I replied, shrugging. “The most that will happen is that he will get zapped by magic.”

“I don’t think so. I mean, if knowledge of this falls into the wrong hands…”

“What? Like anyone will believe in magic.”

Simon walked over to the TV and pointed at the screen. “Well, what about now? I mean, I bet you a lot of people are thinking aliens or ghosts, or who knows what else! If we’re not careful, we’re going to put a big target on our backs and bad things might happen.”

“Maybe,” Simon stated, “but it doesn’t help us because we still need something to control the magic.”

“Like your horn?” Tisha suggested, gesturing at his head.

“Yes, like my horn, only until we figure out how to extract whatever it is that’s inside Forest, then we can’t really use it now, can we?” Simon paced around the room. “I know that I can pull the magic and somehow hold it, but if I move it even a slight bit to the wrong side it touches whatever it is that’s inside you and then the magic goes berserk!”

“Yeah. That’s what happened to me in Canterlot,” I nodded. “After Princess Celestia tried to hit me with that detection spell, it went straight through me.”

“No, it didn’t go through you Forest. That’s what I’m saying. It went in you. The magic is deep within you, and it’s like holding there. If I were to use an analogy, it’s like a–a–a–”

“Underwater lake?” Tisha put in.

“More like an underground magma chamber. But yeah, that’s a good analogy,” Simon pointed out. “Come to think of it, you’re awfully accepting of all this.”

“This is the most fun I’ve had ever! Why wouldn’t I? I get to meet ponies, teleport, and even hear all about Equestria! As a pegasister, why wouldn’t I be accepting? This is everything I’ve ever dreamed of and more!”

“Yeah. It was. Not like the other types of teleporting,” I said and felt ill in my stomach.

Simon made a face. “I thought you said that this was the first time you teleported.”

“No, now that I think about it, I’ve teleported before. But this was different. Those teleports felt like I was being pulled through a window, or rather the window was being pulled around me. This was like breaking apart and falling together again. Or something like that.”

That made Simon furrow his head and he thought about it for a moment before speaking. “So, what now?”

“Not sure, one thing I do know. We need to first go to where we teleported to in the woods,” Simon declared. “There is something about that spot. When we reached, for a brief moment I felt… Something. It was very slight, but there was definitely something there.”

I then thought about it. Although it was dark, and I hadn’t noticed it before, it was clear that the place would be nowhere else. Where had we come out of the woods that night? Where had the teleportation taken us? There was no need to guess. I knew the place and I knew that in order for me to get the answers, Simon needed to come along too.

---

“Hiya, Raj!” I said as the officer unlocked the cell door.

“‘Hiya’ my ass, what took you so long?”

“Um… no car? And it’s not like the rental car agency would give me a new one.”

Raj furrowed his head. “Then how did you get here?”

“The magic of public transportation!” Tisha said. “We took the bus.”

Tish was wearing a tshirt and my swimming trunks. Despite how it looked, it was her idea and she was okay with wearing that. When I pointed out that it looked quite revealing, she insisted she was okay with that and confidently walked out the door. She was very comfortable with herself, which I thought was pretty amazing.

Raj stood up and exited the cell. “You owe me.”

I couldn’t deny that. He got arrested when he tried to take the rental away. The police immediately noticed him and we saw him get put in handcuffs on the news. He used his one free phone call to ring us and we came over right away–after I called the detective. He said that he’d swing a favor or two to see what he could do and then we headed over to the station.

That was where we were now, to come and collect him. Or so I thought. After we got there, I was immediately taken in for questioning. Apparently they had security footage of us in the restaurant, but due to the poor quality of the video coupled with the bright lights were enough to hide the details of the incident. Whether or not that was a good thing or not wasn’t something I could tell.

But they saw us in there, and I had to tell them something. I told them the truth – for the most part. I omitted parts of it, like Simon being the one to cast the spell. It wasn’t like they would believe me anyway. Magic? Sure.

“Forest!” came a voice.

“Hi, officer!”

“How have you been?” Costanza asked, patting my head. He seemed to like doing that.

I shrugged. “Same, I guess.”

“Seems like you keep having strange things happen to you,” the officer stated. “Anyway, there’s nothing we have to keep you here, so you guys are free to go.”

He gave me a massive wink to know that he wasn’t telling me the whole truth. I understood that Fitz must have pulled in that favor he had mentioned before. For a moment I thought about the implication, but they probably didn’t do anything too out of sorts. It didn’t feel like that anyway.

“Thanks, officer!”

“Oh, and Forest?”

“Yes?”

“Try to stay out of trouble this time.”

I grinned. “No promises!”

The officer just shook his head and walked away.

Once we were outside, Raj pulled out his mobile and rang someone. He seemed to be very subdued and said a few things in a much gentler and softer voice. It took me a moment to understand he was calling his wife, or girlfriend, or whatever. The man who I thought of as one of my best friends in this world, and I actually knew next to nothing about it. Apart from the fact that he was of Indian descent, what else did I know?

“So? Trouble at home?” I asked when he finally hung up.

“Yeah. I need to go home. Wife isn’t happy. I didn’t really expect her to understand so I just told her I worked late, but I also told her that I spent the last few hours in jail just now. I think she might have seen me on the news.”

I made a face. “Oh geez, I hope she wasn’t too upset.”

“Oh, she’s upset,” he confessed with a heavy sigh. “Anyway, Forest, you will have to manage this for now. Okay?” He handed me a yellow envelope. “The car. You will need to return it. Get your deposit back and wait at home.”

“Will do. Wait, will you come back?”

He nodded. “I really am interested in all this magic stuff. It does sound fascinating. Anyway, see you later. My ride’s here.”

He walked over to a taxi that had stopped and hopped in.

We waved goodbye and when he was far enough away, we opened the envelope. Inside it was a piece of paper and the car key. It said that we needed to collect the car from another address as that was where they had towed it.

“You guys can head home,” I said looking at the key. “I will go and get the car and drop it off.”

Simon nodded. “Yeah. I have a lot to think about. Let’s connect later. Here, take my number.”

He punched it into my phone and saved it as ‘Simon’. Tisha then entered her number and saved it under ‘Human Pinkie’ with a winkie-face. I smiled at that. We said bye to each other then, Simon and Tisha headed to the nearest bus station and I boarded a cab to head to the parking garage.

Author's Note:

Props to Witchery for helping edit/proofread this chapter.

Comments

[Twilight_the_spy]

Yooooooo update!?

Unfortunately can't read it just yet but this is extremely epic and I cannot wait to do so.

[Twilight_the_spy]

Hmm... So I originally thought that the last chapter ended with them in an equestrian forest (everfree, whitetail, etc), but now I'm curious... Did they teleport to the same place John/Forest originally got pulled into Tutela's dimension from?

Tisha acts a bit too much like Pinkie... I think her calling herself "Human Pinkie" was a bit on-the-nose. And Pinkie followed Forest to where he left, if anyone came to the human world as well, it'd make sense to be her.

My mind keeps getting drawn to the dreams Forest had as a pony, the ones where he was attacking the mane 6 or something. My running theory with all the above combined is that Tutela used Forest as a sort of energy collector to escape and potentially attack Equestria. She sent Forest and Pinkie to the human world, voided some of their memories, and is now attacking Equestria (potentially masquerading as Forest?). It's a real longshot and some things don't add up, but it's my best theory currently. Maybe if I wasn't half asleep I could make a better one... Oh well.

Only thing I can do now is wait and see what is actually happening.

[DoctorFlibble]

Well well well. It has been a while. I'm glad I remembered this fic. Spent the last few days rereading it and the new chapters. I must say that I didn't expect it to go in this direction but it is a nice surprise. Looking forward to the next one

[TheJoffa]

Its nice to see the fic updated, even if i missed it by uhh... two years. I don't begrudge the infrequent updates, life often gets in the way, it is nice to know it wasn't abandoned.
The mystery is indeed thickening, and I can't wait to see where it goes!

[deathtap]

11832747
Haha. I need to stop procrastinating and get to writing.