Another World: Discovering the Unknown

by Zen

Things Don't Add Up

5: Things Don’t Add Up

A bell chimed as Zen opened the door to the unmarked structure he had parked in front of. There was hardly any lightning so he had to stand still for a second as his eyes adjusted.

A female voice called from the back of the room. “I’ll be right with you!”

‘Strange, that voice sounds oddly familiar…’ Zen thought as he blinked a few times and looked around. The walls were lined with shelves, and the shelves filled with…

“…books.” Zen muttered. “Must be the town library or something.”

He heard something heavy being set down in some back room and turned to see a purple unicorn appear from behind a shelf. “Sorry about that.” The unicorn apologized with a grin. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, and welcome to Junction Park Book Emporium!” She smiled as she walked up to Zen. “I don’t recognize you. Are you new to town?”

Zen blinked a few more times before squinting slightly at Twilight. With a finger pointed at her he said, “Wait a second…Twilight Sparkle?” The mare nodded. “As in the bearer of the Element of Magic? Personal protégé to Princess Celestia and all that?”

Now it was Twilight’s turn to blink, but in confusion. “That’s right. How do you know all that? Wait, you know who I am! That must mean that whatever has caused you humans to not recognize those of us who were featured on that cartoon of yours didn’t affect you!”

“So you’re already aware of that.” Zen stated, crossing his arms. “Then I needn’t explain how it is I know you.” She shook her head. “Well then to answer your question, you could say that I’m just passing by. But there’s something I’d like to know from you first.”

“I’m an open book, figuratively speaking of course.” Twilight replied before carefully studying her customer.

“What are you doing in this little town?” Zen observed the fact that he was being looked over. “I would have expected you to be in Harmony’s Point or some other city that has a focus on education.”

“Do you want the long and detailed explanation or the cliff notes version?”

“Whichever is fine.”

“Very well then. When I was originally pulled from Equestria, which was roughly four years ago by Haven standards, I did end up in Harmony’s Point. After I got over the initial shock and depression from not being in Ponyville and not having any way back, I began to enjoy life there, taking in all there was to take in. I learned a lot from the Earth archives that the human historians had put together, and I must say you humans sure do have this knack for violence.”

“You don’t know the half of it.” Zen commented dryly.

“In any case, I stayed in Harmony’s Point for the greater part of three years and helped expand Haven University’s science and magic departments, though I never did any teaching myself. I preferred to stick to the libraries and archives to learn all I could, and maybe discover a way for both ponies and humans like to go home, or at least travel between each world. I had also hoped to discover why most humans don’t seem to be able to recognize us higher-profile ponies, but none of my research did any good.”

“Did you find anything out at all?”

“Well…” Twilight looked concerned now. “There is something that I do know that I never told anyone back at the University…”

“And I suppose there’s no point in telling a total stranger like me, eh?”

“You’re different though.” Twilight looked Zen directly in the eyes. “You recognized me; in fact you’re the first to do so. What I know has a lot to do with why we’re here in the first place, but I’m not sure why it has affected people’s memories.”

“Alright then, so will you tell me?”

“Yes. When your scientists activated the machine to create the portal to Equestria, I had been studying with Celestia to create an effective and efficient mass teleportation spell. We had just devised a way to potentially send upwards of one hundred ponies from Canterlot to Manehatten in the blink of an eye, and right as I cast the spell to test it out, the portal had been created to connect our two worlds. However, the magic from my spell interfered with the portal on our end, causing it to redirect to this world and cancel my spell. On your end, things looked like the portal had been intended to open there as if nothing had happened except a miscalculation that was caused by an apparent power overload. In Equestria, the redirect caused our entire nation to be enveloped with a misfired spell that would pull random ponies from Equestria and drop them in this world instead. Another side effect from the interference was that the location that the portal dropped everypony off at changed every time somepony came through, though it seems that we were all dropped off in roughly the same part of this continent. From the time of that mishap until I was pulled through, I worked diligently to find a way to reverse it, but I found nothing, and not even Princess Celestia could devise a way to reverse the spell. I suspect that the issue concerning memory is another side effect of this disaster, but I cannot say that for sure.”

“Go figure.” Zen said. “And here we thought that something had gone wrong on our end. Turns out technology and magic don’t necessarily work very well when crossing dimensions.”

“It’s definitely not something I’d like to test out anytime soon.” Twilight commented. “I did write down my discoveries and thoughts in a personal journal, but nopony else has ever seen it. Now then, as I said earlier I stayed in Harmony’s Point for roughly three years. I only stayed there for that long because the University needed me, but eventually I got tired of them constantly bugging me for help and to teach some courses, so I personally trained a few individuals to teach more advanced courses and left town. I decided to stay here because it was sufficiently out of the way without being too far away from everything, and the smaller population meant I could run this establishment without being interrupted too much from my studies.”

“Oh, did I interrupt something?”

“No, I was just re-shelving some recent returns.” Twilight smiled again. “So then, is there anything I can help you with?”

“Maybe…” Zen whispered. “Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Zen, and I helped to build Crystal City. I came here with a large group of friends from the state of Colorado who were all looking to start over and build a world we could actually tolerate. Recently there have been rioting and general unrest in the city of Alliance and my friends and Iwere called upon to help control the aggressors and settle things there. I’m here in town looking for one such friend, named Colton. About so high, darker hair, tends to keep to himself unless he’s around friends. Have you seen him?”

“Hmm…” Twilight tapped her chin with a hoof and thought for a moment. “That description sounds familiar…let me go check my records to see if he’s recently purchased anything or checked a book out.”

Zen followed Twilight as she walked back to a counter and opened up what appeared to be a receipt book using magic. “Hmm…” Twilight flipped through a few pages. “I can’t find anything here, sorry.”

“Well it was worth a shot.” Zen said, mentally going over the different places that Colton might have recently visited in this part of town.

“Is there anything else?” Twilight asked. “I might have a book or two on how to deal with aggressive individuals that might come in handy!” She dashed off to a section of the store to check inventory.

“Thanks but I think I can handle it.” Zen said with a small smile. “Although…”

Twilight looked back at him. “What is it?”

“I think there’s a friend of mine who would love to see you and could really use your company.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“I’d like to keep it a surprise for now, but unfortunately that friend won’t be here until around noon. We were meeting up at Dan’s Grille for lunch. I’ve got some other friends looking in other parts of town looking for Colton, so maybe one of them will have better luck than I.”

Twilight glanced at a clock. “Well noon is still a little over two hours off. The only other place I would suggest checking for any leads on your friend’s whereabouts would be the local police station, but the town’s only active officer just sped out of town on a call not long before you walked through the door.”

“Huh. Got two hours to kill, nothing to do, and nowhere to go.”

“Sure would seem that way.” Twilight walked back to the counter and began to put some loose items away. “Besides, I can’t leave my shop for very long, and lunch would be stretching it. Not only would I lose time to devote to my research, but I would also lose potential customers. Not that I’ve been getting very many customers, which has been both a blessing and a curse, but any chance I have to make a sale is an opportunity I can’t miss.”

“Hard times in this town?”

“Not really, just not very good times either.” Twilight said with a sigh. “We get by here, but mostly just. Most of the locals who are here are here by choice, and accept the fact that this town just can’t support more extravagant lifestyles. Personally I’m okay with that, the fewer distractions the better, though I do enjoy having people and ponies stop by. Things do get slightly lonely here from time to time.”

“I’d get lonely too if I lived in a town this small.” Zen commented. “Crystal City is by no means a ‘small’ city but it’s still the smallest city I’ve ever lived in. I like being in the city where there’s things to do and people to see. From what I’ve heard, the city I’m originally from would dwarf any town or city from Equstria, except maybe Manehatten, in pure size alone.”

“I see.” Twilight blinked as she tried to picture such a place.

“Yeah, while excursions to smaller towns are nice from time to time, I couldn’t see myself living in one for very long. Well anyways I’d hate to keep you from doing your job, so I think I’ll stop back by later with my friend so you don’t have to miss anything. Besides, you’ve given me quite a bit to think about.”

“I’m sure I have. It was nice to meet you Zen.”

“Likewise Twilight.” Zen stepped back outside into the bright morning. He squinted and shielded his eyes from the offending rays as his sight readjusted to being outside. He went to the van and retrieved his still cold soda and sat in the driver’s seat with the door open, one foot hanging out of the van, thinking about what Twilight had told him, and the fact that he had now met another pony of importance is as many days.

‘None of this makes sense…’ He thought to himself, taking a drink. ‘Everything was cool until James showed up with the news that Alliance needs some serious riot control, and then I start meeting high profile ponies like Rainbow Dash and Twilight, but nobody else seems to know who they are? Something’s not right…’

A small gust of wind and the sound of hooves hitting pavement interrupted Zen’s train of thought. He looked up and saw Rainbow Dash standing there looking at him, confused.

“What’s on your mind?” She asked.

“Something I’ll explain later.” Zen said after a moment. “Get tired of flying already?”

“Well I was flying over the town and saw you climb back into the car so I thought maybe something was up, and you know, as much as I love flying, it’s just not the same here as it was back home.” She looked down as if incredibly disappointed.

Zen stepped out of the vehicle and kneeled down next to Rainbow. “I’m sorry to hear that, but I think I know of something that’ll cheer you up.”

“Really now?” Rainbow asked with skepticism not totally absent from her tone.

“Really.” Zen stood up and motioned for her to follow. Zen walked back up to the front door of the Emporium and opened it, motioning Rainbow to step inside.

There was a muffled response from a back room as the bell chimed again. Rainbow looked around the book store. “Okay, it’s a book store.” She observed. “What’s so special about a book store?”

“Just wait a second.” Zen replied, barely containing a growing grin.

Rainbow cocked an eyebrow at him and continued to look around. Zen saw Twilight come out of the back room. “Hey Twilight, remember that friend I said who wanted to meet you?” Zen said to her.

“Oh hello again Zen, and yes I d-“ The rest of Twilight’s statement was cut off by a loud gasp and a blur of colors as Rainbow tackle-hugged Twilight. Zen couldn’t help but grin at the sight and jogged to the back of the store.

“I never thought I’d say this but I am so glad to see you again!” Rainbow nearly squealed as she tightly embraced her unicorn friend.

“It’s…really nice…to see you…again!” Twilight sputtered as she struggled to breathe properly through her friend’s embrace.

“Oh, hehe. Sorry!” Rainbow let go and Twilight took a deep breath and felt her ribcage. “I just never thought I’d ever see you again!”

“I was actually beginning to wonder what had happened to you and the others as well.” Twilight responded. “Where have you been?”

“Oh man is that a long story.” Rainbow said. “First…”

Zen stopped paying attention and let the two mares have their chance to play catch-up. He spotted a chair towards the front of the store and sat down in it to contemplate everything. The more he thought, the less sense things made and less he liked it. He could always chalk things up to just magic, but he was certain that there was something else going on. There was another factor that had not yet been discovered that was affecting life on Haven, and it bothered him to no end. Zen doesn’t particularly mind unknowns in life, but for him this was an exception. He sat there for several minutes, mentally arguing with himself over how to address this issue.

“Then that’s what I’ll do…”

The two mares stopped chatting for a moment and glanced over at Zen.

“What’s that?” Twilight asked.

“Huh?” Zen responded, unaware that he had spoken aloud.

“You muttered something about doing something.” Rainbow said.

“I did?” Zen scratched his head. “Huh, guess I was just thinking out loud.”

“Apparently so.” Twilight said. “So what’s up?”

Zen sighed. “I know my friends aren’t going to like this, but I’m not going to Alliance with them.”

Twilight looked confused and Rainbow’s eyes widened slightly. “But why?” The cyan pegasus asked.

“None of this makes sense!” Zen stood. “The fact that, for whatever reason, hardly anyone seems to know who you guys are despite how popular you were back home on Earth is baffling, the fact that pegasi can’t manipulate weather here is still something of a mystery to me, and even after what you told me…” He addressed Twilight. “…ponies getting pulled here at random just doesn’t seem to make much sense either.”

“So what are you going to do about it?” Rainbow took a single step towards Zen.

“When we meet the others for lunch I’m going to tell them that they’ll just have to go on without me.” Zen replied. “I know that there are people at the Haven’s Point University who have been using a design from the original portal machine to try and open a way back home, both to Earth and back to Equestria. If anyone would have anything resembling an answer to why none of this makes sense, it would be those working on that project.”

“Okay, then how are you friends going to get to Alliance?”

“If I can’t find an alternative way then I’ll drive them there, but they’ll have to deal with the issue themselves, and hopefully Sprinter and that unicorn…Solstice?...will be there too.”

“But what’s the rush?” Twilight asked.

“I don’t honestly know.” Zen answered with a slight shrug. “But I know my mind won’t let me rest until I get this stuff figured out, or as close to getting it figured out as I can.”

“Well, for whatever use I can be, I come with you.” Rainbow said with a grin.

“Thanks, Rainbow.” Zen replied. Twilight kicked at the floor and looked back a little bit. “What’s up, Twilight?” Zen asked.

The unicorn sighed. “I know I could be of help, especially with what I know and what I’ve learned. But I simply cannot leave my store behind; I can’t afford such a trip at this time.”

Zen thought for a moment. “What if I told you that you won’t have to worry about affording the trip?”

“What do you mean?” Twilight looked back at Zen.

“I can make sure that you’re financially taken care of for the duration of our trip.” Zen said. “Money is of no problem for me, and I think you’re right; you can definitely be of help.”

Twilight hesitated while she thought the offer over. “Are you sure? I wouldn’t want to impose on you.”

“I’m positive.” Zen said, firm but not unkind. “Whatever it is you would need to have taken care of I can personally make sure that it will be seen to.”

Twilight seemed to think for a moment, and then walked up to Zen. She suddenly reared up and placed her front hooves on Zen’s chest; Zen didn’t even react. Even at full height Twilight was still about half a foot shorter than Zen. She peered closely at Zen’s facial expression, studying him.

“Just who are you?” She finally asked after a minute.

Zen studied Twilight’s features in turn for a moment. He could see simple curiosity, but also a slight hint of uncertainty. He smiled and chuckled a bit after a few seconds before responding with, “A very fortunate individual.” He gently placed a hand on Twilight’s shoulder, and she flinched slightly as if she didn’t expect it. The unicorn stared at Zen a moment longer before getting off him and resuming a four-hooved stance.

“Alright then…” Twilight used her magic to get a pen and a sheet of paper from her desk. She began to scribble down a list of some kind. “This checklist will detail everything that I will need to stay financially secure. It’s not much, but I want to make sure that everything is taken care of before embarking on any kind of journey from here, no matter how much I may or may not need one.” Twilight deadpanned the comment about the vacation.

“Trust me, if you’ve been stuck here for as long as you say you have, you need a vacation.” Rainbow said.

Twilight finished writing the list, magically rolled up the paper, and levitated it over to Zen who grasped it and began to read. “Things really wouldn’t be so bad if I had some company to help me out around here.” She commented dryly.

Then a realization came across Zen like a ton of bricks. “Twilight, did Spike not end up here?”

Zen noted the wide-eyed look that Rainbow wore as she also realized what Zen was getting at. Twilight simply shook her head and sighed. “If he was ever pulled through to this world, I’m currently not aware of it. None of my spells have been of much help in finding him either, so I believe he’s still back in Equestria.”

“I see.” Zen stated. ‘Man, must be quite a change going from having an assistant to help you with everything and a mentor to help guide you to being totally alone in a world that you know nothing about’ Zen thought to himself as he re-read the list. Most of the items on the list including making sure any bills were paid on time and expenses for food. He didn’t see any problem with what Twilight was asking since nothing was terribly expensive, so he rolled up the list and tucked it away in a pocket.

“Can you make sure everything is seen to?” Twilight asked.

“Don’t worry; I can make sure that everything on this list is taken care of.” Zen responded with a smile.

“Okay then.” Twilight stepped back into the back room for a few minutes and returned with a saddlebag filled with books, paper, pens, and other things. “I know it’s still a bit early, but maybe we could leave anyways?” She asked.

“Sure.” Zen said. “Let’s go ahead and put that stuff in the van and we can go.”

As they walked out of the store, Twilight turned to Zen and asked, “So I’m going to assume that Crystal City was not named after the Crystal Empire?”

Zen laughed. “No, it was named after the crystal clear waters that surround the island.” He unlocked the van and allowed Twilight to place her belongings inside. Zen walked around to the front of the van and leaned up against it to try and pop a vertebra that had been bugging him all morning when he heard someone call his name.

“Yo Zen!”

He looked up and saw Zan across the street heading his way. “Any luck?” Zen called back as his spine popped with a rather loud crack that made Rainbow wince.

“Did that hurt?” She asked.

“Quite the opposite.” Zen replied and stretched his arms.

“I wasn’t able to find anything, so I hope Kevin or James did.” Zan said, now with the others at the van.

Twilight trotted up to the front of the van, and when she came into view Zan just stared. Twilight looked back at Zan for a moment. “What? Do I have something on my face?” She asked, trying to look into the van’s side mirror.

“Alright Zen, fess up.” Zan turned to Zen. “What’s your secret?”

“I have no idea what you are talking about.” Zen replied, barely containing a grin.

“Oh yes you do! How do you keep finding these ponies?” Zan gestured to Rainbow and Twilight.

“Umm…” Zen pretended to think really hard about it. “…luck?” Zen laughed as Zan made a table-flipping motion with his arms.

Twilight and Rainbow just looked on. “Some days I think I’ll never understand these humans.” Twilight said with a sigh.

“I’m right there with ya.” Rainbow concurred.

“So what are you doing back here? We’ve still got about an hour before lunch.” Zen asked.

“It didn’t take me very long to look around. This town isn’t very big, you know.” Zan said. “Nobody seemed to know Colton by name but a few recognized a description I gave.”

“Huh.” Zen pondered something. “I’m beginning to wonder if Colton doesn’t live here full time.”

“That might be possible.” Zan said. “I had some friends back in Colorado that lived somewhere else during the winters.”

“Do you know where else he might be?” Rainbow asked.

“I’m not sure.” Zen said. “The last time I heard from him he said he was moving to Junction Park because he was tired of living in the big city.”

“Well then let’s hope that one of the others had some luck.” Zan joined his friend in leaning against the hood of the van.

Nobody spoke for a few minutes, but the silence was interrupted by an odd gurgling noise that was coming from Twilight. Everyone looked back at her and she looked sheepishly back at them. “Hehe, I guess not eating this morning wasn’t the best idea I’ve ever had.”

A collective facepalm, or facehoof in Rainbow’s case, followed. “Alright Twilight.” Zen said, pulling out the keys to the van. “Let’s go get you something to eat.”

Comments

[Zen]

Welp, wanted to get this up last week but then family shit and NEW PONY GAME! Curse you Gameloft! *shakesfist* I also wanted to add the events of the next chapter to this one, but thought that maybe it could be its own separate chapter, so hopefully that one won't take too long to get put up.

If you want to add me: eonkrate32

[BronzeFog]

1611905 JUST MAKE MOAR

[Zen]

1612542

Exactly.