• Published 4th Sep 2017
  • 5,523 Views, 125 Comments

A Draconequus's Destiny - TheOnlySaneDraconequus



Went from being a twenty-something human, to a Draconequus who's just trying to get by in a strange and crazy world. I also happen to find my destiny in life.

  • ...
20
 125
 5,523

Chapter Two: In Which I Meet the Equestrian Oligarchy.

Chapter Two:

In Which I Meet the Equestrian Oligarchy.

Draco’s P.O.V.

Late that morning, Twilight walked into the Castle Library. She stopped dead in her tracks, and her jaw hit the floor. “What in the name of Celestia have you been doing in here?!” she shouted.

I shrugged. “Reading. I can’t sleep. I figured if I’m permanently stuck in another universe, I should learn about it. Sorry about the mess.”

Twilight sighed. “That actually makes a lot of sense. I just … don’t handle a library in disarray well. You had better put all of this back exactly where you found it.”

I nodded. I held up a lengthy scroll. “I made notes!”

Twilight levitated the scroll over. “Well, your penponyship is appalling.”

“Yeah, quills aren’t exactly my forte. Do they make pencils in Equestria?”

Twilight nodded distractedly. “Yes, we could get you some. Huh. You’re actually a pretty good note-taker. Your subjects are all over the map. What were you studying?”

I pointed to two stacks of books. “As much as possible. I tend to do things out of order, it just makes more sense to me.”

Twilight started to read the titles of my chosen books. “A Complete Guide to Equestrian History, Grammar and the Spoken Word, Modern Inventions: An Overview, On Pony Anatomy & Magic, Fashion & the Modern Pony, Basic Spell Theory for Young Unicorns.” She blinked in surprise. “You read all of this last night?!”

I nodded. “Yeah, I can read at nearly five times my normal speed, but I can’t retain almost any of it, so I made extensive notes of the highlights. It’s actually pretty cool to be able to read that much.”

Twilight looked at me warily. “What’s this other stack for?”

“Oh, that was just for fun. I didn’t get through almost any of it.”

Twilight read the titles of that stack, her eyes getting wider and wider. “Wishing is Chaos? This Cruel and Random World by Professor Entropic State? Conversations in a Canterlot Café? Diary of a Pliant Tyrant? I’ve never heard of these,” she said with a skeptical look. “Bride of Discord?!” she said in shock. She screamed at the last title. “Necromancy for Foals?!!! Why do we have a book on forbidden dark magic that’s designed for foals?!!”

I shrugged. “It’s your library, you tell me.”

Twilight grit her teeth. “Where did you even find these books?”

“They were on the shelf labeled ‘Fanfiction.’”

One of Twilight’s eyes, and both her ears twitched. “We don’t have a shelf labeled ‘Fanfiction!!!’ she exploded.

“It was there when I looked last night. Must just be one of those things.”

Twilight took several deep breaths, and levitated every book back to its designated place. She didn’t know what to do with the books she hadn’t heard of, so she left them. I decided to take them to my room to finish reading later, they were all good books.

“Right. OK then. Since you’re feeling better, I’m going to write the Princesses about you, they need to be aware that you’re here, and that you’re sentient, even if you’re not a threat. Other than to order and sanity, that is.” This last sentence was said with a smile.

I sighed. “I always did like topiary gardens. Not being able to see anything would be horrible. What does being a statue feel like?”

Twilight’s mouth was an ‘O’ of horror. “They are NOT going to turn you to stone!!”

“Sez you.” I muttered. Twilight simply shook her head, and trotted away.

I read some more as I awaited my doom. Several dragon fire messages later, Twilight trotted back into the library. “Well, the Princesses will be here at eight tonight. Even Cadence and Shining Armor are coming!” she said with a happy squeal. My eyes widened. “They’re coming all the way here for me? The entire ruling class of Equestria?!” Twilight nodded. I folded my arms. “So, I’m going to be in a room with some of the most powerful beings in Equestria, I’m a Draconequus, I’m probably a danger to public safety, and I have a tendency to say whatever pops into my head without thinking about it first. Yeah, that couldn’t possibly go horribly awry.” All the shelves in the library shook as there was an ominous clap of thunder.

Starlight stuck her head in the door, and chuckled nervously. “Sorry everypony! Minor hiccup with a transfiguration spell, it’s fine. Oh! Draco! How are you feeling?”

“Fine, I just didn’t sleep well, but I’m still not tired. Do you have any plans for the day?”

She nodded. “Maud’s going to teach me all about metamorphic marble! I’m so excited!”

“Cool, rocks can actually be pretty cool if you know what to look for.” I realized something. “Hey, Twilight? Do you have a mirror I could use? I haven’t seen what I look like now, and if I’m going to be meeting the Princesses, I’d like to be presentable.”

“Yes, but it’s not quite built for somepony your height.”

“It’s OK, I’ll take what I can get.” Twilight showed me into a bathroom, and I bent down to take a look at my head. “Sheesh. Yin and yang much?” I muttered to no one in particular.

“Pardon?” asked Twilight.

“Oh, it’s just the way the colors on my face are split, it reminds me of that is all.” I tried to smile, a bit unsuccessfully. “I’m spilt down the middle in my face, my mouth, actually, pretty much everywhere.” I stuck my long, forked tongue out. “Hisssss! That part’s actually pretty cool. My eyes are pretty weird, how can I even see with those?” I rapped my knuckles on my oversized horn. “This is going to take some getting used to,” I muttered.

My reflection smiled, and said, “Actually, for a Draconequus, you’re a bit on the plain side.”

I rolled my eyes. “Good morning to you too, Discord.”

My reflection pouted. “How did you know it was me?” it asked in Discord’s voice.

“I sensed a grave disturbance in the Force.”

“Really?”

“No. It’s just that my reflection has never talked to me before, and Draconequus or not, I doubt it will start anytime soon. Besides, I don’t know what’s ‘plain’ for a Draconequus. I’m still not used to this.”

Twilight said, “Some of the things you say are really very strange. Is it normal for you to not make much sense?”

I nodded. “I can make sense sometimes, I just usually don’t. It’s more fun that way. A lot of the time, even I don’t know what I’m talking about. May I have my reflection back Discord?”

My “borrowed” reflection nodded. “I just wanted to let everypony know that I’ll be here tonight as well. Toodles!” My reflection lined back up with me. The mirror then cracked in two.

I turned to Twilight, “Is he always like this?”

She shook her head. “No, sometimes he’s worse. I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to having him around, but he does liven things up like nopony else I’ve ever met.”

“Is anyone else going to be there besides you, me the Princesses, your brother, and Discord? Because if not, I’m seriously outnumbered.” We walked into the throne room as Twilight thought.

“Well, I could ask. Rarity had an emergency at her Manehatten Boutique late last night, but-”

My ears drooped slightly. “Just a second. I … remember trying to bite something white and purple with a shrill voice. Was that Rarity?”

“You tried to bite Rarity?!!” Spike shouted as flames shot out his mouth.

“I … think so. I also tried to bite you yesterday. I haven’t been bitey since kindergarten. This doesn’t bode well for my reputation.”

Twilight was a little cross-eyed at my statement. “Uh, yes. You did try to bite Rarity. In your defense, you really weren’t in your right mind.”

“I’m never in my right mind, that’s not a new thing.”

“No, I mean you really weren’t in your right – oh, never mind. Fluttershy is busy with her animal sanctuary, but I’m sure she’d want to check on you, I’ll let her know that you’re up and about. Starlight and Spike will be here, of course. Including the Princesses, that’s everypony who knows about you so far,” she chuckled nervously, “but it’s a small town, so …”

Wonderful.” I growled. I walked over to the window, and glanced out at the town. It was beautiful, but it wasn’t home. As I opened the window, I heard something rushing towards me from above my head. I looked up, and saw a rainbow hurtling towards me. “Uh, Twilight? What is tha-”

*WHUD!* I was knocked into the far wall, and something half my size pinned me to the floor. When I opened my eyes, miniature books with wings were flying around my head, making tweeting noises. “Oh! So that’s how that works!” I babbled.

“WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO TWILIGHT?!” shouted something cyan that had me in a death grip.

I shook my head, and the book hallucination went away as my vision cleared. “Hi! Are you Rainbow Dash?”

“Who wants to know?”

“Draco, newly-minted Draconequus, current resident of the Castle, part-time unintentional menace to ponies. It’s nice to meet you in person. Could you get off of me, please?”

“Rainbow Dash! He’s fine! He’s just confused, he isn’t trying to hurt anypony!” Twilight interjected.

“Aside from trying to bite every other pony I meet.” I muttered.

“You try to bite ponies?” Rainbow Dash asked with a death-glare.

“Yes. Yes he does. Dragons too,” said Spike, giving me an additional glare.

“I said I was sorry! I’ve haven’t done that in years! Also, I haven’t been literally half carnivore before then. If it’s any consolation, I’m used to you now, so it won’t happen again!” I was half shouting, half pleading.

Twilight got between me and Rainbow, and gently pried Rainbow off of me.

“Sheesh. You’re a lot stronger than you look. In addition to mad flying skills. Thank you for not beating the stuffing out of me.” I was a little calmer at this point, and so was Rainbow. “Why’d you pounce on me? What did you think I was doing? Turning Twilight into her opposite as part of an evil plot to rule the world? Maybe before you attack someone, you should talk to them first. How’d you find out I was here, anyway?”

Rainbow Dash rolled her eyes. “Fluttershy mentioned a patient at the Castle, and it didn’t take long to get the details out of her. She said ‘Draconequus!’ As far as I know, yeah, you were hatching some evil plot.”

I dusted myself off. “How wonderful to go from a world with racism to a world with specism. In the first place, I’m not evil, I’m just very odd. In the second place, I don’t want to rule anything, let alone all Equestria. In the third place, I don’t know how to turn somepony into their opposite, even if I wanted to. Does that satisfy you?”

Rainbow looked at me uncertainly. “Wellll, I don’t know if you’re being honest, but you don’t seem all evil and insane and chaotic.” She chuckled. “Sorry for my reaction. I tend to over-protect my friends if I think they’re in trouble.”

I nodded. “Element of Loyalty, it’s understandable. If everypony will excuse me, I’m going to lock myself in the library for the rest of the day. I can get on well with books, if nothing else.”

Twilight gave me a frightened look. “The library? But – last night you … it was a mess! Put everything back exactly the way you find it!!”

“Right. OCD. Will do. Nice to meet you Rainbow!” I waved, and slunk away to the wonderful world of books.

At seven o’clock, the book I was reading sprouted a tongue and licked me. I spat, and said, “Wha-?”

Spotlights flooded the library. “Mares and gentlecolts, humans of all ages, may I present the one, the only, Discord! Here today as a public service!” Discord flashed into existence, wearing a purple-checked suit.

By this point, I was almost getting used to things like this. I glanced at the clock. “You’re an hour early.”

“Punctuality is the politeness of princes,” said Discord, a small crown appearing on his head. His outfit then disappeared. “I have a lot to discuss with you, and an hour might not be enough time. It’s a high word count.” That same brick wall I saw when he said “goodbye” yesterday flashed into existence behind him, before flashing back to wherever it came from. I was beginning to worry, I was having exactly the same hallucination over and over, was that normal?

“OK, shall we find a place to talk?”

Discord nodded. “Oh! I forgot to tell you! Fluttershy’s here early as well! She wanted to check on your recovery, isn’t she wonderful?”

“Tell her thank you. I think there’s a room with a table we could borrow.”

We came to the room, and found Fluttershy, Starlight, and Twilight waiting at the far end. Fluttershy extended her hoof. “Goodness! You recovered quickly! You can talk now?”

“Quite eloquently, even if my voice is funny. Somepony’s really going to have to fill me in on what happened the day before yesterday.”

Discord groaned. “Yes, yes. We can go into all of that later. For right now, I have so little to explain, and so much time to do it in.” A purple coat and brown top hat appeared on him as he facepawed. “Wait a minute. Strike that. Reverse it.” The outfit disappeared. “Let’s go!” He dragged me over to the table, and sat me down. “So, what do you want to know first? I’ve been instructed to be as helpful as possible. There are those of the Draconequine Council who have an over-exaggerated sense of responsibility, so I’ll tell you what I can.”

“There’s a Draconequine Council?”

“Yes. There aren’t very many Draconequui compared to other species, but some of the more powerful or important Spirits form a ruling Council. As political systems go, it’s actually not bad, they just want everyDraconequus to do their jobs, and not ruin reality. Their punishments for Draconequui who do mess things up make Kay-kay’s look absolutely benign, so don’t do anything overly stupid. What else do you want to know?”

“Am I immortal now? What exactly is a ‘Spirit?’”

“Yes to the first question, once you’re actually a Spirit. You’re not at the moment, so,” he shrugged. “Who knows? You won’t be a genuine Spirit until you find your concept. The second answer is lengthier. As I said yesterday, we are in charge of shepherding and spreading concepts throughout time and space, some good, some evil, and some you really can’t label. We are somewhat material, and mostly magic. A Draconequus’s magic is fundamentally tied to their concept, and has difficulty adapting to other forms of magic. I can use harmony magic, but it’s like having claws scraped down a chalkboard. Actually, I love claws scrapped down a chalkboard, so, bad example. The function of spreading concepts was assigned to us by the gods, we help to shape reality for them.”

“OK, I can get that. But if you’re a nigh-omnipotent Spirit of Chaos and Disharmony, why can the Elements of Harmony overpower you? How could Tirek steal your magic?”

Discord clenched a fist, and muttered something.

“Pardon?”

Discord sighed. “In certain cases, a concept can be overpowered by its opposite, and therefore its Spirit can as well. Life and Death can’t overpower each other, but Harmony can overpower Chaos. I think that’s cheating, but that’s just me. Just because I was turned to stone doesn’t mean I wasn’t active, there was still,” he thought for a moment, “Oh, five percent of me floating around in the ether for that thousand years. Five percent of me spreading chaos is still an amazing five percent, and can still cause quite a bit of chaos. I just chose to avoid Equestria. The reason Tirek could steal my magic is that he was hopped up on nearly all the magic in Equestria, and his magic is specifically designed to steal other’s magic. If he hadn’t been as powerful as he was, I doubt he could have done it. That … and I … wasn’t paying attention to where I was going. Any other painful parts of my past you’d like to drag up?”

I swear my mouth opened by itself. “You’ve been alive forever, you travel all over different universes, and in all that time, you’d never had a friend?”

All the shadows in the room lengthened. “Watch it.” Discord growled in his Scary Voice. He then sighed. “No,” he said in a bitter tone, “I didn’t. It’s a rare individual who appreciates having ‘normal’ taken away from them. I wasn’t all that interested in having friends, I thought Chaos was everything I needed. I’d … tried to have friends before, but … it never ended well, and we never actually got to be friends. In all honesty, not all Draconequui even interact with mortals, but we have been known to fall in love with mortals on occasion.”

I noticed he was staring past me, and followed his line of sight. I sighed. “Discord … when are you going to tell her?”

“Hmm? Tell who what?” he asked innocently.

“May I borrow your ear?” Thankfully, he took me literally, and pawed me his ear. “Discord, a fairly sizeable chunk of the fandom has some sort of betting pool on when exactly you’re going to tell Fluttershy you love her.”

“THEY WHAT?!” he shouted.

“What are you two talking about?” called Twilight.

“Nothing!” Discord and I replied in three-part harmony. Discord reattached his ear.

Discord turned to me, looking embarrassed. “Well, I – I just, I mean, is it that obvious?”

I nodded. “Discord, as far as I know, you’ve been alive forever, and you wrote the very first song, but yes, it’s that obvious.”

“Oh.” Discord said in a small tone of voice.

“One last question: I know about humans because I am – was human, but how do you know so much about them?”

Discord looked even more embarrassed. “*A-hem.* A Draconequus’s duties aren’t strictly limited to just one universe, … and …” he coughed, “I may have visited your world a few times. Incognito, of course,” he said as a superhero mask appeared around his eyes.

I drummed my fingers on the table. “I see. Well, thank you, you’ve been very helpful, and you actually made a lot of sense.”

Discord shuddered. “Never insult me like that again!”

“Sorry, I forget who I’m speaking to a lot of the time. Any advice on what I should say or do around the Princesses when they come?”

Discord waved his talons airily. “Oh … just be yourself.”

“That’s what I’m worried about.” I muttered so quietly I don’t think even he heard me.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

We waited in the largest hall for the Princesses. “Do you like animals?” asked Fluttershy.

I shrugged. “Yes, actually, but I’m not good with living things. Anything more advanced than a cactus tends to wither and die in my presence. There’s a reason I don’t have pets.”

Fluttershy had teared up, and her mouth was one big quiver. “OK,” she squeaked. She then drew a little closer to Twilight and Spike. Hmm, let’s see, I thought to myself, tried to bite Rarity, tried to bite Spike, insulted the Lord of Chaos, and made Fluttershy cry – an offense punishable by fandom death. At this rate, I’m not going to experience the ‘magic of friendship’ in this universe for the rest of my unnatural life. I’m just not going to talk when the Princesses arrive. I can manage that, right?

At that moment, all the Princesses, and Shining armor walked serenely into the room. As they drew near, Twilight introduced me to all of them. “Princess Celestia, this is Draco.”

I bowed a little awkwardly. “It’s nice to meet somepony almost my height. Please don’t turn me to stone before dinner.” Celestia raised an eyebrow.

“Err, Princess Luna, this is Draco.”

“A pleasure, I am certain,” Luna said, only slightly too formally. “What is your impression of Ponyville?”

“I’ve only seen a bit of it out of the window. It’s … colorful? I don’t really know. I’m excited to meet you in person, I – oh. It’s just nice to meet you.” Luna matched Celestia’s quizzical look to a ‘T.

Twilight laughed a little falsely. “Heh, heh! Right! Draco, this is Cadence, my sister-in-law.”

Cadence gave me a quizzical look. “You’re … very unusual.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing, I’ve always enjoyed being slightly insane, it gives me an edge over everyone else. Pleasure to meet you.”

“You too,” said Cadence with a smile.

Shining Armor then trotted up to me, and stuck out a hoof. “Shinning Armor, I think I’ve got your name down by now. Apparently, you just fell out of the sky?”

“I honestly have no idea how I got here, it’s complicated.”

Shining Armor smiled. “What do you think of Twily?”

“She’s nice, she’s not quite as crazy as I was expecting. She’s got a great library!” I then slightly choked as my brain heard the second statement I’d just made to Twilight’s brother.

Shining also raised an eyebrow. “You OK there?”

“Fine!” I gasped.

Twilight looked about four seconds away from a full-blown panic attack. “Well! Shall we get to it?” We all entered the dining room, where a large spread was laid on the table, it looked delicious. Discord pulled out Fluttershy’s chair, I pulled out Starlight’s, just out of habit.

We all sat down. I was waiting for the Princesses to start eating, I didn’t think it would be polite to eat before royalty. Once they started, I examined my salad. “Is something wrong with diner?” asked Spike.

“No, it looks wonderful! I’m just not very hungry, I haven’t been for two days. Normally, I’m hungry enough to eat a horse.”

Celestia swallowed her drink the wrong way, and spent several minutes sputtering.

“It’s just an expression,” I said in a puzzled tone. Princess Luna clapped Celestia on the back a few times.

“So, Draco, what are your plans for your time in Equestria?” asked Luna hurriedly.

I shrugged. “I honestly have no idea. It would seem I’m stuck here for the rest of my life,” I looked at Discord, “and that life might be a really long time. It’s kind of hard to plan for potential centuries. How do you manage?”

Luna gazed at me for a few minutes. “In my own experience, it helps to take the years one day, or one night, at a time. You can always plan for tomorrow, but you never know what it will bring. I am glad I have my duties to occupy my nights, or else I would feel redundant.”

“You are not redundant, Sister,” said Celestia a bit forcefully.

I nodded. “I have to agree, you do a lot of good. I am curious about your duties though. Just going off of my own personal nightmares, how do some of the things you see not completely scar you? I mean, nightmares and dreams can reveal a perso – pony’s deepest fears and secrets. Things they don’t want anyone else to ever know. How do you deal with things like that?”

Luna looked uncomfortable, and started to fidget. “It is true that I encounter such things, thankfully they are somewhat rare, but even I cannot help every dreamer in Equestria. Some of the things I have seen a pony conjure up things that do indeed stay with me for a time after, but any help I can give them, to me, outweighs the cost.”

“I’m glad there’s a silver lining to the worst part of the job.” I looked at Cadence. “Princess Cadence? You’re the Princess of Love?” She nodded. “So, can you force ponies to fall in love?”

She looked at me aghast. “Of course not! Love magic is one of the least truly effective magics there is, you can’t fake the genuine article, no matter how hard you try. All I can do is encourage what’s already there, and help to patch over rough areas. Both of those are honestly easier to do without magic than with it.”

Celestia tried to change the subject. “Draco, do you have any magic? You’re using your fingers for everything, wouldn’t it be easier to levitate the plates?”

“I don’t know if I have magic, how do you tell?”

Twilight brightened up. “Actually, there’s a very easy test for that. May I?”

“Help yourself,” I said.

Twilight fired up her horn, and her magic lightly coursed through me. “Heh, heh! Ha! It tickles!” I laughed. An arc of lightning then shot out of my horn, and struck hers. She fell out of her chair onto the floor.

I rushed over. “Are you OK?”

She looked at me, slightly cross-eyed. “Ay-yep! He definitely has magic!” She hiccupped. “Tasted kind of funny though.”

As I set her back in her seat, Discord waved some sort of meter at me. It beeped rapidly, then exploded into confetti. “Hmmm. It would seem you’re even more powerful than me! That’s a frightening thought,” he muttered.

Twilight shook her head, whatever her Sparklescan™ had done to her was wearing off. “Draco? Maybe you could excuse yourself? Before you say anything else potentially humiliating? The Princesses, Discord, and I have a lot to discuss.” I nodded, and excused myself.

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

An hour-and-a-half later, a knock came at my door. “Go away,” I muttered.

“It’s Cadence, I just want to talk!”

I didn’t reply, and the door opened. Cadence found me curled up on the floor, a book in each paw, but I wasn’t reading either. “Hey, how are you?”

“Not good. I just ticked off all the Royalty of Equestria. If I’d put my foot in my mouth one more time, I think I’d have choked on it. I’m sorry for insulting everypony.”

Cadence laid down next to me, and I sat up. She then did something very unexpected, she leaned over, and rested an ear on my chest. I didn’t know what to say or do, I just tensed up slightly. She was silent for two minutes, before saying, “Huh. You have two hearts.”

“Really? Must have gotten an upgrade or something.” I smiled. “What are my hearts telling you, Princess?”

“That you’re scared. That you don’t know what to do while feeling trapped in a new place. That you usually hide your hearts because you’ve been hurt before, and you hurt easily. That you care deeply about how others feel and do, but don’t know what to do about it. That you don’t mean anypony any harm, so I shouldn’t have to worry about you.”

I chuckled. “You got all of that from a rhythm of four? My hearts must have as big a mouth as I do.”

She looked at me with a wry smile. “I don’t have to be the Princess of Love to pick up on all of that” Her horn glowed blue for a moment. “Shining will be right with you, I have to go finalize some things with my aunts and my sister-in-law.”

“You two can send each-other telepathic messages?”

She laughed. “When you’re married, yes. You just don’t need magic for it.”

“I can believe that. Hey, who’s watching Flurry? If all the Princesses are here just to meet me, did I put the Equestrian government on hold? “

“Sunburst is watching Flurry, I’m honestly grateful for a night out.”

“Remind me to apologize to Sunburst if we ever meet.’”

She laughed. “You didn’t cause Equestria’s government to collapse, we’ve all gathered to meet ponies before. It was nice to meet you. Shining’s here, play nicely.” She stood up. “You didn’t say anything too bad, provided you don’t actually eat ponies.”

“I don’t, it’s just a saying where I’m from when someone is really hungry. My whole problem is my lips move when I think.”

“If you’d ever like to visit the Crystal Empire, we’d love to have you.” The door opened, and Shining Armor walked in, and nuzzled Cadence. Cadence turned, said “Goodbye,” and walked out.

Shining sat on the bed. “So,” he said after a pause, “the Princesses are trying to agree on a sentence for you.”

“Sentence?” I said with worry.

He nodded. “Yes, in between everypony catching up, we were all trying to decide what to do with you. They finally picked a sentence, they’re just ironing out the details. I’m not going to lie to you, it might seem unfair, or even harsh at times, but it will be worth it.”

“That’s not exactly reassuring.”

Shining smirked, and changed the subject. “Aside from sticking your hoof, er, paw(?) in your mouth, you seem like a pretty nice guy. Cadence says she’d love to have you over sometime. Have you ever played Ogres and Oubliettes?”

I shook my head. “No. They have something similar where I’m from that I’ve always wanted to play. I’m glad there’s at least some crossover.” When I said the word “crossover” a brick wall filled the entire entry to my room, before blinking back into nonexistence. It didn’t have eyes, but I could swear it was looking at me. I raised an eyebrow. “I’ve got to figure out what that thing is.”

“What what is?”

“It’s … probably nothing. Shall we head down?” Shining nodded.

When we got back into the main hall, everypony was laughing, and enjoying themselves.

“Ah! Here he is!” said Celestia warmly.

“We have come to an arrangement,” Luna added.

Twilight looked at me. “Despite some,” she shot a glance at Discord, “misgivings about the idea, we have all decided that until such time as you find your new identity, you are to remain in the castle with me, and study friendship and magical theory.” She beamed.

My brain tried to process this for a minute. “Exactly how is getting room and board, and studying friendship and magic a ‘sentence?’” I asked. The Princesses all exchanged a confused look.

A magenta aura grabbed my half-beard, and Shining Armor drew my ear down level with his mouth. “You haven’t had to sit through one of Twily’s lectures yet!” he hissed loudly. He then looked at me like I’d had my death warrant signed.

“I’m sure I can handle it,” I whispered back. He just shook his head.

Celestia looked at me. “I expect regular reports, from both of you,” she said, looking at Twilight and me. I nodded. “Wonderful. Then we will all bid you adieu, I’m sure everypony in this room has much to do tomorrow.” Everypony exchanged goodbyes, and left.

Twilight looked at me. “I’m sorry I embarrassed you in front of the Princesses, I can’t imagine what that was like for you,” I said.

“Just … work on trying not to say everything you think.” I nodded. Twilight smiled. “Well, you’d better turn in, we’ve got a big day ahead of us tomorrow!” She clapped her hooves. “I can’t wait! I don’t know which I’m more excited to teach, friendship and magic are both so interesting!”

I smiled. “Goodnight, Twilight. Thank you.”

She nodded. “What are friends for?”

“Friends. I like that. It was really nice to meet the Princesses, your family, and your friends. Tell them thank you for me.” I walked back up to my room, and tried unsuccessfully to go to sleep. Around three in the morning, I wound up back in the library. This time, I made sure to put things back where I found them.

Author's Note:

Here's Chapter Two! :pinkiehappy: As always, any editing comments are welcome. :twilightsheepish: I couldn't help but do a shout-out to some of my favorite fanfictions. :derpytongue2:
'Till next time!