Chapter Seven
The morning sun rose on the next day, and the two of them seemed to still be chatting. They looked tired, but in great spirits, Twilight even seeming Excited. The topic had swung back to music after a while, and the little unicorn was wearing his headphones, bopping her head slightly as she held his phone in her magical grasp.
“And you are saying that the Life Sequence is called the Fibonacci Sequence where you are from?” she asked with one ear exposed to open air to hear him, the other covered as she took notes in a writing pad, also floating in her aura as she indulged in a bit of cultural exchange.
“Yeah! And these guys incorporated it into the song, pretty cool right?” he said with a small smile as he watched her enjoy a small slice of his home, feeling….at ease as he observed her indulgence.
Her face lit up and she smiled a bit wider “I think I hear where they were doing it! That’s really clever!” she said as she set her notepad and pencil down and simply enjoying the music.
Anon simply contentedly allowed her to continue enjoying herself for a while. Honestly, she was sort of...adorable when she was like this, and not being a massive pain in his ass.”Alright, go ahead and pass those back over, I am going to need to make sure to get them charged later, but there isn’t really any sunlight in here for me to do it. I want to make sure it stays on so I can take like, pictures and stuff, ya know?”
Pictures of what?” she asked, reluctantly pulled the headphones off and hovered his things back down onto the table, where he walked over to pick them up as she gave him some space before returning to his cot, raising the phone and smirking as he captures a shot of her pouting. “Oh, you know, just...stuff,” he said as he turned the phone around to show her the picture, prompting her to pout all the harder and eliciting a snicker from him.
Though it seemed that their revelry would be cut a bit short, there came a knock from the door, and in stepped two ponies.
One was a unicorn stallion, A dull grey in coloration with a grey mane and steely grey eyes. He had a cutie mark depicting a red book,p wearing a pair of small, round glasses and sporting a white bowtie and black collar.
The other was a pegasus mare, light blue in her coloration with a long blonde mane and warm, green eyes. Her cutie mark appeared to be a smiling head of a monkey, albeit cartoonishly depicted, she wore nothing, save for a band to hold her hair together in a bun.
The male was the first to speak. “Greetings Fraulein Sparkle, Herr Anon,” he said in a significantly less thick Germane accept than the last fellow to walk into the room with one. His voice was clear and deliberate, but also quite warm. He gave them both a genuine small smile as he walked forwards with his compatriot in tow “I am Professor Liber Novis, I am one of the leading experts in psychology in Pferdeland. I know that you are not er...well, a pony to be blunt, but sadly, we seem to be fresh out of psychological specialists on species that only have one known member for the time being.” he said in a half jovial, half sympathetic tone as he looked the human up and down. “I shall allow my compatriot to introduce herself and stop making so much hot air now. Fraulein Allgood, if you would?”
The mare came forward, ruffling her wings slightly, seeming quite excited, beaming at anon with a wide, eager smile, speaking in a soft, gentle English sort of accent. “Hello, my name is Doctor Allgood. I am the leading Primate Behavioral Specialist here in Canterlot. I am here to try to assist Professor Novis here in analyzing your behavior and working his way through this unfamiliar territory. I was selected based on Miss Twilight’s description of you pointing towards primate ancestry.”
“Huh, well yeah, at least they got that pretty spot on,” Anon said softly as he looked down at the two of them. “I appreciate your interest, But I am afraid that I may provide a rather...poor control to compare any future subjects of my ilk to. Honestly, I’m...sort of a big weirdo,” he said with a small apologetic chuckle.
The good Professor chuckled softly and gave a small shake of his head “Nein, nein, you will make a wonderful subject Herr Anon. Outlier or not, this is the career opportunity of a lifetime for most of us on the team here, so many discoveries wait to be made!”
“Right you are, Professor,” Twilight said with a small yawn, stretching out a bit and rubbing her eyes with her hooves, sliding out of her chair and trotting towards the door. “I’ll get out of your manes for now. Try not to be too rough on him, we spent all night, er...talking.” She said as she slipped out of the door with a soft click as it closed.
The two scientists turned to watch her leave, then turning to face him, both giving slightly amused looks, Doctor Goodall speaking up first “Well well, someone seems friendly with you. I was watching the two of you overnight you know, it was quite adorable, really.”
Anon kept a stone face, though he could feel the tips of his ears and his cheeks turning slightly hotter. “W-well erm...yes, exactly, friendly,” he said as he tugged at his collar slightly. “We are simply good friends. Nothing more,” he said more firmly, standing up from his cot and stretching out slightly with a soft grunt.
“Oh yes, sure. I am very sure,” she said, smirking softly at him as her compatriot also gave a knowing, slightly amused glance his way before clearing his throat.
“Now now, no need to tease the poor colt, Allgood. We have a job to do here. Herr Anon, please go ahead and lay back down on that cot for me. I am going to ask you some questions.”
“Oh god…” Anon said softly as he slowly laid back down onto his cot and gave a small sigh “Alright doc, do whatcha gotta do, I guess.” he said, running his hands through his hair.
“Hm...quite…” The doctor said as he took a seat in one of the chairs near the table, bringing it as close as he dared before settling in and taking out a notepad and a pen. “Let us begin, shall we?”
--------------------------------
“Okay, we are going to start with some simple word association. I will give you some words, and you will tell me what the first word you think of is, no matter what is us, okay?” He said softly as he leaned in slightly, pencil and notepad once more at the ready.
Anon gave a soft sigh and nodded, humming as he rubbed his face “yeah, alright, go on doc, hit me...:”
“ahem...Life”
“Death”
“Gem”
“Stone”
“Play”
“Work”
“Feather”
“Weight”
“Filly”
“Hood”
“....” The doctor gave him an odd look, one brow raised.
Anon responded confused, unsure what was so odd about it. “What? Like, a childhood, when you are young?” He explained more. “Is that not the word for it? Sorry, I do not know the etymology at play yet.”
“Ach, Nein, you are right, that is a word for it,” he said, sounding oddly relieved at the other’s explanation before continuing.
“Cupcake”
“Muffin”
“Hayburger”
“Hamburger”
The Professor paused again. “Context please?”
Anon’s eyes widened slightly at this “O-oh erm...sorry. It is a burger made from beef or pork, depending on who you ask…”
Novis’ eyes widened and he seemed mildly upset by this for a moment before regaining his composure and resuming his course.
“Bright”
“Light”
“Sapphire”
“Ruby”
“Taco”
“Bell”
“Oh come on!” he said, sounding slightly exasperated as he sets his pencil down again.
“Sorry, sorry! It’s a er...restaurant where I am from. Not amazing, but good enough for the cheap price point.
The doctor gave a soft sigh “it is fine, I suppose being from elsewhere, you might have associations that would not make immediate sense, let us continue. Ahem...Ear”
“Phone”
“Map”
“Map”
“.....Zero”
“Hero”
“Water”
“Fire”
“Dirt”
“Worm”
“Book”
“Read”
“Harmony”
“Unity”
“Town”
“Ship”
“Covenant”
“Arc”
“Reborn”
“Return”
“Chill”
“Burn”
“Stallion”
“Man”
“.....Tragic”
“Magic”
“Hm...interesting….very interesting…” The Doctor said, putting away his notepad. “I am not sure how to approach you as a client just yet, so I will start simple. I want you to keep a...journal of sorts. I want you to write about your daily interactions with any ponies you might spend time around that stick out to you, and how those interactions made you feel and your thoughts on them. If you happen to have any revelations in regards to said interaction that you wish to share, please do not hesitate to do so as well. Fraulein Sparkle can have them sent to me via her assistant with little difficulty if I remember correctly. We will go over them on your next visit, Ja?”
Anon gave a small noncommittal shrug and nodded his agreement “I suppose that works for me. I would be fine with doing that if it would make your job a bit easier.”
“And of course, Doctor Allgood here will be observing you from a distance on and off as well, so as not to disturb your natural patterns of behavior and taking notes, which she will be discussing with you during your visits as well.”
“...I’m sorry. For a moment it sounded like you said this nice Mare was going to be routinely stalking me.”
“Ja, that is what I said, silly, do you need a q-tip?” he asked as he looked over at the mare in question, who waved to him kindly
“I am very sorry if it poses any sort of inconvenience, of course, anon, but it is best if I allow you to proceed about your day as naturally as possible so that I do not influence your actions when interacting with others in the moment. I promise you will never know I am there.”
“Yeah, sorta what I’m worried about, to be honest. I swear that if we have an incident I am going to be very cross with you.” he said, grumbling and crossing his arms, looking away as he gave a small pout.”
“Then it is settled!” Professor Novis said, standing up from his chair. “Anon, I will allow you to gather your things. The Princess’ Student should be waiting for you outside in the hallway. We should have a rough compilation of all of the data we have acquired so far available to be sent to you and her within a few days if you would be interested in looking over it yourself.”
“...You know what, fine. That sounds like an interesting read. I’m sure Twilight would also enjoy giving it a lookover..” he said, grabbing his things and preparing to leave.
The Stallion and mare shot each other a small, knowing look just in time for him to look up and see it and be fairly embarrassed about it, rubbing the back of his neck. “Would you please stop that! Interspecies Relationships are very taboo in my culture, for the most part, I will have you know. She is my friend. I can’t even hug her or she might have a heart attack or something!”
“Yes, and I am sure that it must be very difficult for you…” he said, raising an eyebrow as if stowing away that little nugget for later. “But we are, how you say...off the clock. Go and enjoy your day, coin your blessings. You have a big bag of bits to spend, and a friend who cares about you very much. All things considered, I would say you are quite the lucky fellow, eh?”
Anon stopped for a moment, nodding and smiling at them with a small nod “yeah, yeah I guess I am, thanks, prof…” he said softly as he marched his way out of the room and down the hallway, where Twilight did in fact, seem to be waiting for him. Somewhat anxiously in fact. As he approached she smiled up at him, seeming glad that he was there. “Well, about time they finished with you. Anything interesting happen?”
“Nah, not really. I’m hungry as fuck though, haven’t had anything to eat since last night. You wanna go grab something? I’m buying.” he said, gesturing to his backpack, currently containing his bag o’ bits. “After that, we can mill around a bit unless you wanna head back to Ponyville? I think I’m gonna look for a cheap place out there. It’s really nice.”
“Psh, nonsense, you can stay with me. You’ll need me around to detoxify your food for a while anyway if what Dr. Mangle told me is anything to go by. No need to run the risk of you getting into a bad situation, especially when you’re so valuable to me- I mean erm, to my team, scientifically. And er...as a friend of course…” she said, realizing that her initial correction might have been a bit overkill and conceding a bit of ground in favor of looking like a fool over an asshole.
Anon for one, seemed to appreciate the attempt. “Well, alright, I suppose if that is what you really want, I can shack up with you for a while. But how are we going to cohabitate when I erm...ya know.”
“I can just move the machines in the basement back to my Canterlot Labspace and let you stay down there for now until we can figure out something to insulate ponies from your anti-arcane properties.” she said, starting to trot off towards the exit end of the hallway, seeming satisfied enough with her conclusion as anon followed behind “So then where do you wanna go? Donut Joes? MacDonkeys? Burger Princess?”
“Ehhhhh, I think I’ll let you pick this time, go nuts,” he said softly, giving her a gentle smile from behind her, hoping she didn’t see how pleased he was with the idea of their little outing.
“Whatever you want, Twi. Whatever you want…”
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You know, no matter what happens it is quite sad that Anon here can't do anything with these ponies physically.
Like forget hugging, or fist bumps.
The dude here has to worry every moment he does not accidentally hurt someone.
Like what about Fillies and Colts; would they die if they got to close to him?
Great chapter.
Hopefully they get context as to why anon casually mentioned eating beef and pork
Well he is certainly much more tolerable in this chapter.
P. U. N.
Pun.
Fun?
Pun =?= Fun
Pun =/= Fun
Pun is not Fun.
Is the Mrs. Allgood in this chapter Scootaloo’s Mom?
Also, ship it! That Headphones moment reminds me of Star Lord and Gamora.
If 4 grams or whatever of iron in anon's blood is enough to create a meter-radius no-magic zone that seriously messes up ponies, especially Twilight, then she most likely would not have been able to use his headphones or phone, since those devices contain iron.
Ahhh Jane Good all at it again I see
The word pair section gets really effortful to read. Maybe break the usual convention of paragraph per dialog entry and pair them up on the same line with an em-dash between?
10721772
No, but could be in the same family?
Hmmmm hamburger *homer gurgle*
Besides iron supplements, wouldn't he need a very specialised diet?
In the immortal words of Heartbutt, I ship it
10721808
Nor would she be able to interact with any of our tech. Unless plastic creates a Faraday Cage of sorts for that effect, that is.
I hadn't noticed that detail though!
10721995
Yeah, I'm sure ponies are happy Anon did not bring his tool bag with him, you know, screw drivers, wrenches, hammer etc. That would make a huge anti-magic field.
And yeah, humans use iron everywhere, ponies would not be happy on our Earth
10722003
I think his tool bag could be considered a Weapon of Mass Construction!
Oh gods that was so horrible, I'm sorry...
10722013
Shame on you, Shame on Your Dog, Shame on Your House, Shame on your Family, Shame on your Ancestors. -- Ghost of Bobo the Clown
(Hmmm, okay, okay... on the one hoof, cute! On the other, seems a bit quick for them to get attracted to one another and having 'those' ideas... and then on the other, sometimes attracting IS that fast, so okay, sure.
Next! Thought the psychologist was a bit unprofessional with his visible reactions to Anon's reactions... I mean, I get it, however while I understand asking for clarification, he's interviewing an entirely new culture, I feel as though he should have hid his reactions to prevent Anon from feeling like he was being 'judged', so that he could get purer responses.
Also, with 'Covenant' I immediately thought 'Halo', as in The Covenant from the Halo game series, versus the Ark of the Covenant that Anon thought of. And I enjoyed the little part 'wait, she's going to be stalking me?' heheheh... that was kind of funny... I'm not sure if I hope she's as 'good' as Twilight at stalking, or better, for Anon's comfort or humor points.
And finally, I did see that song in the playlist that we discussed last time! Now, the only question I have is how does Anon NOT recognize the universe he's in?)
I predict his efforts for food will only go well.
10721808
I'm just gonna go out on a limb and say that maybe those devices are using nonferrous electromagnetic alternatives or else simply a neodymium-iron-boron is present in the speakers which I will say is not close enough to count for the sake of all of our sanity. I researched this before I wrote so please for the love of god if I see eighty comments about this I'm just going to delete them.
10722278
OK. I just noticed what appeared to be an internal inconsistency and wrote a comment about it, that's all.
10722385
ur all good! I just get a lot of these and I wanted to make sure that I wasn't pelted with them. I didn't mean to snip at you personally ^^
10722413
All's good. Sometimes, when reading a story (especially when the story is more detailed than normal), some small inconsistency jumps out at me and it kind-of feels like hitting my head on something I did not notice. In such a case I sometimes leave a comment. I only do so if I like the story in general - if I didn't, I would not have bothered to comment at all. And I do like this story, though because of how it's written, I am reading it more closely than I usually do,
(Hmmm, okay, okay... on the one hoof, cute! On the other, seems a bit quick for them to get attracted to one another and having 'those' ideas... and then on the other, sometimes attracting IS that fast, so okay, sure.
1. When Anon said he was not into ponies that way, he meant it lol. it's just them becoming friends. keep in mind that twilight still doesn't have a lot of friend-making experience since this is early season one, and Anon probably never had a lot of friends to begin with. I feel it makes a lot of sense that two ponies with similar personalities like them would prolly bond if forced into continued close proximity.
Next! Thought the psychologist was a bit unprofessional with his visible reactions to Anon's reactions... I mean, I get it, however while I understand asking for clarification, he's interviewing an entirely new culture, I feel as though he should have hidden his reactions to prevent Anon from feeling like he was being 'judged', so that he could get purer responses.
2. Sure he should have, but let's just go ahead and say that his nerves about the scope of the project may have gotten the better of him, the guy he is based off of was a fairly expressive fellow from what I can gather.
Also, with 'Covenant' I immediately thought 'Halo', as in The Covenant from the Halo game series, versus the Ark of the Covenant that Anon thought of. And I enjoyed the little part 'wait, she's going to be stalking me?' heheheh... that was kind of funny... I'm not sure if I hope she's as 'good' as Twilight at stalking, or better, for Anon's comfort or humor points.
3. We will just have to wait and find out, won't we >:3
And finally, I did see that song in the playlist that we discussed last time! Now, the only question I have is how does Anon NOT recognize the universe he's in?)
4. The same way all the kids who do tik-tok songs don't know where a lot of them come from. he liked the song and never bothered to look it up. I'm going to assume these are all audio files and not actual videos on youtube, since he has no internet connection, lol.
It seems there is something missing here.
room
how
10723328
I appreciate your freelance editing work, thanks. Though I would appreciate your thoughts on the story vastly more ^^
10722915
(Ah, gotcha, gotcha, and gotcha! Thank you for your thorough replying!)
10721913
you know it!
It really shows that you have put some thought into this fic, well done.
10749585
thank you ^^
10747930
Oh noo he realizes it, he just feels like not talking about it wouldn't be productive for his purposes.
he's kind of an asshole lol.
Uh oh...I’ve read enough HiE fics to know things are going to go bad once he leaves the Castle...
10721808
Hmm. Possibly, although I wonder if the effect is exaggerated due to Anon's blood containing not only iron, but iron which is is moving. (Or alternatively, iron integrated into a biological life field, if you want to be more magical and less scientific about it.
Iron might screw up magic in a manner similar to magnetism, but an unmoving block of elemental iron would effectively have a static interference field which could be worked around. Iron which is in motion, particularly moving around the fractal network of a circulatory system in pulses, would have a constantly roiling, morphing field of effect - and possibly a greater damping effect on magic for the same reason that a moving stream cools a hot item faster than a still pond.
Non-wireless earphones would have wires in, but unless the wires were moving about a lot, the tiny thread of metal in them might not affect nearby magic too much. There might be iron in the speakers themselves, but that could depend on model, and their motion would be minimal and only back-and-forth a very small amount. Possibly enough to cause a degree of nausea in ponies if they were heavy iron-based headphones, but not necessarily otherwise if they were lighter or made from alternative materials (piezoelectric plastic, for example).
OK, that got me laughing far more than I thought it would. A one-to-one mapping...
10764721
I feel like I'm missing a reference here?
10809365
Not a pop culture one, but a mathematical one. A map, in mathematics, is effectively a function which transforms one potential set of numbers (or other mathematical features) into another. It can be as simple as "plus one", which maps "1" to "2", "2" to "3", and so on. A "map of the territory" for the function, more or less.
They're not limited to numbers: "+1", for instance, could map "fred" to "fred+1", even if the answer can't be mathematically simplified further.
A one-to-one map is a function where each potential input has a different output. So "plus one" is a one-to-one map, but "squared" isn't, because both +2 and -2 map to +4.
I was amused because there's also a thing called a "self-map", where any input maps to the exact same output, i.e. unchanged. (It's also an example of a one-to-one map, for obvious reasons.)
So when the story had a doc attempting what was effectively a psychological/verbal mapping, and the word "map" was the only word that mapped to itself, I thought that had to be pretty deliberate.
Awesome chapter. On a side note I'd so pick the tasty treat to go eat at.
Wait a second. Don't Phones contain bits of Iron and steel? How was Twilight using that?
10891171
maybe little bits of iron are bearable?
10891787
10891171
I have actually addressed this before!
behold, a nifty chart!
compoundchem.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/The-Chemical-Elements-of-a-Smartphone-v2.png
10891791
noice asf
also i know it sounds demanding but why hasn't there been a new chapter lately? Is it related to this being a commissioned story?
10891791
Good enough for me. Sorry I have a bad habit of nitpicking at things when I don't need too.
10891974
Nah, just been hyperfixated on other stuff! this was at a good stopping point, and I figured that it could rest here until I was ready to come back! I have lot's of ideas I wanna add on when I have time ^^
10891990
ooh, then i'm excited!