A Dubious Welcome

by Maonyman

CH12: The Morning After

Anon let out a strangled yelp and bolted upright. There were beads of sweat dripping down his neck and he was panting heavily.

That was the third time he had tried to sleep that night. There was never any memory of the terrors that plagued him, only a lingering sense of horror and existential dread.

He dropped his face into his hands and let out a ragged breath, then tiredly rubbed his eyes. Glancing out the window, he groaned at the first hints of light peeking over the horizon. No point even trying to sleep again.

With a weary sigh, he slid from his bed and slowly began his morning routine. As he was getting dressed, he abruptly remembered the mysterious unicorn and was gripped by a terrible fear that she had left him during the night. Flinging on his bathrobe, he hurried down the hall to the guest bedroom and cracked open the door as quietly as he could manage.

Even in the dim light, there was no mistaking the pile of purple pony among the pillows.

Anon quietly let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding, feeling a little foolish and silently chiding himself for panicking as he gently closed the door. Trying to regain a sense of normalcy, he returned to his routine and thought about what to do now that he'd woken up so early. Then he grinned to himself. What else but cook her his specialty for breakfast? Hopefully her digestive track was similar to other equines... Wasn't like he had anything else to go by after all.

Beginning to feel a little more awake as he got the blood flowing, he hurried to finish shaving and changing out of his pajamas before heading out into the kitchen.
* * *

With an exaggerated flourish that, of course, no one else was there to appreciate, Anon stood back to admire his handiwork: two beautiful plates of blueberry french toast, just like granddad used to make.

He poured two glasses of apple juice, fetched a small syringe of medicine, piled everything onto a wide tray, and swept down the hall to the guest bedroom. With a gentle tap on the door, he kept his voice to a low murmur as he entered.

"Twilight?"

There was a faint groan as he approached the bed and set the tray down on one of the nearby boxes.

"I, uh... I made some breakfast."

"Mmmffgh..."

She started to move beneath the covers, then froze with a wince and sucked her teeth against the pain.

"Oh, and I got some pain medicine too! Good stuff, stronger and faster acting than what I gave you yesterday.

Twilight moaned softly, then cracked an eye open and whispered, "Please?"

Anon grimaced, "That bad, huh? Alright, here."

He slid the curtains back to let in the dawn light, then hurried to prep the syringe and drew her uninjured foreleg out from under the covers.

"Now this is gonna sting a bit because it's an injection, but it'll work a lot faster and better this way, okay?"

Twilight gave a tiny nod as he swabbed the crook of her foreleg's knee with alcohol and felt for her blood vessels.

"Alright, you ready? 3... 2... 1..."

With practiced ease, he slipped the needle smoothly under her skin and into the vein. Her ears flipped straight back and a shiver ran up her barrel, but she took a slow breath and kept herself under control.

"Good girl... almost done."

Just as swiftly, he drew the needle and pressed a cotton swab over the tiny wound, quickly securing it with a small bandage.

"There. That should start kicking in in just a couple of minutes."

Twilight nickered appreciatively, then looked up and murmured, "Thank you. The food... um, it smells really good."

Anon chuckled quietly, "Well, think you could sit up and eat or do you want to wait until the medicine kicks in?"

Twilight winced, then slowly started to push herself upright and Anon quickly reached out to support her injured foreleg.

"Ooh... this sucks."

"The first couple days are the worst, yeah. It'll hurt a little less every day though, promise." He gave her a wink, "And it'll hurt a lot less when that medicine kicks in. Seriously, that's good stuff... not as good as morphine of course, but just about."

Once she was sitting upright, Twilight took a slow breath, then asked, "If morphine is so good, why not give me some of that?"

Anon chuckled as he slid the tray closer to the bed and said, "Morphine is one of the most powerful painkillers we know of, but it carries some hefty risks with that strength. The stuff I just gave you is a bit weaker but a whole lot safer."

"Ah... I suppose it'd be like using Zensalve's Stitch for a simple paper cut."

"Uh--"

"Oh, sorry," she said quickly, "Um, it's a powerful healing spell that can close huge and complex wounds without so much as a scar, but it's very difficult to cast and when it goes wrong..." a shudder went down her back.

Anon quickly turned back to the plates of food, "Right, changing topic now; you ever had anything like this back in Equestria?"

"Um... soggy bread?" Twilight said with an uncertain smile.

Anon grinned as he sliced her a piece, making sure she got plenty of the syrup and blueberries, then said, "It's called french toast. Here, just try it."

He held up the fork, but instead of leaning forward to take a bite, Twilight only furrowed her brow and stared at it. She winced as a spark ran up the length of her horn, then abruptly both her horn and the fork lit up with her glowing magic and the fork pulled itself from his hand. It floated up to let Twilight take a bite, then drifted back down to the plate with a soft clink.

Twilight let out a soft moan of delight, her ears flopping lazily back as she savored the mouthful, then she glanced at Anon, hurriedly swallowed, and burst out laughing.

"Quit staring, Anon!" She said as she playfully bat at his shoulder with a hoof, "You've seen this spell before!"

Anon turned away awkwardly and busied himself with his own food, "Right, 'course. I just, uh... forgot. Not used to it."

He felt her hoof on his knee and glanced back to see her smiling warmly at him. She said softly, "I understand, Anon. You're not the first creature I've introduced to unicorn magic after all. Though I think you're the first I've introduced to any magic at all."

He returned her smile and they ate in companionable silence for a few moments. French toast had always been his favorite, especially after granddad passed away, so he was pleased to see Twilight so obviously enjoying her meal.

However, once she had eaten a few bites, she set her fork down again and looked up at him. "It must be strange," she said wistfully, "Going from thinking magic doesn't even exist to meeting a unicorn... and of all the unicorns to meet, too! Gosh, I can't wait to show you my full power."

Anon swallowed his mouthful and grinned nervously, "Uh, just how powerful we talkin' here? I don't need to warn the military about any upcoming explosions, do I?"

Twilight bubbled with laughter, "Oh no, most of arcane study is learning how not to explode! For all the time I've spent learning new spells, I've probably spent five times as long learning to control their energy. Here, let's see if I'm healed enough for something a bit more complicated..."

She closed her eyes and lowered her horn as if to aim at him and Anon couldn't help but lean back a bit, but all that happened was their two forks began to glow. They floated up and halted a few inches in front of her muzzle, then snapped into an upright position, perfectly parallel and only a millimeter apart.

Anon though that was impressive enough already, but then one fork abruptly flipped upside down and passed its tines through the empty spaces of the other fork, slowly twirling around the other so the prongs slid repeatedly in and out of each other. Then there was the faintest ring of metal as one fork brushed the other and Twilight immediately clicked her tongue in annoyance, lowering the forks back to their plates.

"Still need to heal some more, I guess," she muttered, "Sloppy letting them touch like that..."

"Wha... sloppy? Hell, I doubt I could do that with my own fingers! And with your eyes closed?"

She blushed and looked down with a bashful smile, "I've just had a lot of practice, that's all." She delicately ate another piece of toast, then continued a bit awkwardly, "Using magic is, uh... well it's all about precision and control, really. Technically I still have just as much magic as before my injury, but if I tried to use a powerful spell right now I might just blow the tip of my horn right off."

"That can happen?"

Twilight quirked her muzzle to one side, then said, "Not normally, no, but studies do suggest there is an increase in pressure inside a unicorn's horn proportional to the strength of the spell, so with a damaged horn... maybe?" She shrugged her shoulders, "We don't really understand the biology of unicorn magic very well. I'm the first one to really try and study it since Starswirl the Bearded disappeared."

"Interesting..."

"Is it?"

"Well, it's just that we've had a lot of trouble understanding exactly how our own bodies work, too." He shrugged his own shoulders in response, "I guess I thought magic would make it easier to figure that kind of stuff out."

Twilight frowned and asked a bit sharply, "Anon, how can you guess what magic can do when you didn't even know it existed until yesterday?"

He held up his hands in mock defense with a sheepish smile, "Whoa, hey, I'm not claiming to actually know anything about it! I'm just going by our silly fantasies, that's all. Magic is usually just some mysterious power that can do basically anything for the sake of the story."

She turned back to her plate. "I see."

Anon put his hands down and spoke more seriously, "I didn't mean to offend you, I just don't--"

"It's fine!" she interrupted, then she rubbed her forehead and took a deep breath. After a moment, she tried again more gently, "Sorry, Anon. It's okay, really. I'm just... still adjusting, that's all."

"That's alright. We're both adjusting to this, I think."

They ate in silence for a while, then when Twilight had finished her last bite, she arched her neck and stretched both hooves above her head.

"Gosh... that medicine you gave me really is good."

Anon gestured at her with his fork, "It is, but still, be careful. you have to go easy on those injured legs or they won't heal properly, and now they won't hurt to let you know you're pushing them too hard."

"I guess that makes sense. Can I walk on them yet, though?"

"Not really. Only very short distances and only being really careful, but I have an idea about that. You'll need to be able to get around without my help today, after all."

"Oh? Why's that?"

"I have some work to do at the clinic so I'll be leaving soon, should be back in about six or seven hours."

Twilight hesitated, "Um... how long is an hour?"

The question caught Anon off guard, but he supposed it made sense that they would have different units of measurement where she came from, so he shrugged it off and simply said, "From one sunrise to the next is twenty-four hours, so I'll be gone for about a quarter of the day."

"Oh, that's not so bad, I guess."

"Don't worry, you'll be okay. Wait here a moment, okay?"

Twilight nodded and Anon scooped their plates onto the tray, then carried it out to the kitchen, leaving it on the counter to deal with later. Then he fetched a little stool on wheels from the garage and brought it into the guest bedroom.

"There we go. Think you could roll around on this?"

Twilight leaned forward to inspect it, then nodded, "I think so, yes."

"See if you can use it without my help, then. Avoid using your injured legs, but if you must put weight on them, always use both of them together."

Her horn glowed and Anon had to resist the urge to gawk again as the blanket lifted itself away from her as if it was alive. Then she shuffled toward the side of the bed and carefully slid down onto the stool. There was a little shelf under the seat for holding tools and such which turned out to be a convenient place to rest her injured hind leg, and she stretched the other hind leg behind her and pushed herself around a bit, then spun in place to smile at him.

"It's a little awkward, but it should be fine."

"Good, I'll follow you to the living room, then."

"Oh! Um, okay."

She shuffled into a more secure position, then pushed off toward the door, occasionally flapping her uninjured wing to keep herself from spinning. It was actually working rather well, but when she rolled from the carpeted bedroom to the hardwood floor of the hallway, she let out a startled whinny at the suddenly reduced friction and nearly crashed into the wall.

Anon lurched forward to stop her, but she caught herself against the wall with her good forehoof and he relaxed as she grinned sheepishly over her shoulder at him.

"Works a little too well out here."

"Heh... probably should have warned you of that."

"Oh no," she said quickly, "I should have been paying better attention, that's all. It's obvious I'd roll better out here."

"Everything's obvious in hindsight."

She giggled, "Touché"

They made it to the living room without further incident, but when she tried to climb onto the couch, the stool kept rolling out from under her. Anon stepped forward to help her, but she waved him away with a hoof and glared down at the stool until her magic enveloped the wheels and locked them in place, allowing her to switch seats with ease.

"Handy, that magic."

Twilight grinned as she settled onto the couch, "Oh you haven't seen anything, yet."

"Well, until your horn heals, care to talk about some of the other spells you know?

"And spoil the surprise?" she snorts, "You'll just have to wait and see."

Anon let out a mournful sigh as he slumped onto the couch beside her, crossing his arms, hunching his back, and curling his lip in an exaggerated pout.

Twilight rolled her eyes with a smirk. "Oh Sweet Celestia, if you're gonna mope about it, then fine, I'll show you ONE new spell, okay?"

He glanced at her and raised an eyebrow, but kept his arms crossed. Twilight took a deep breath and closed her eyes as her horn began to glow.

"This spell is called..."

There was a gentle tingling around his lips and he began to wonder just what he'd gotten himself into, when abruptly the corners of his mouth were jerked up into a goofy grin.

"A happy spell!"

Anon burst out laughing and waved his hands in front of his face as if brushing away a fly. Twilight raised both hooves in triumph.

"See? SUCCESS!"

Still chuckling, Anon reached over and quickly tickled her belly, saying, "More like a silly spell!"

"EEP!"

He jerked his hand back as her hooves flew down to protect her underside.

"Why you...! I'll show you a silly spell!"

Her horn began to glow again and, despite her broad grin, Anon couldn't help but flinch as he felt the tingling about his throat... but nothing happened. He felt around his neck, checked his reflection with his phone, even took a deep breath a bit nervously, but he couldn't tell what she'd done. Finally, he just gave up and asked her.

"aLrIgHt, wHaT dId YoU... hUh?"

His voice had come out in a ridiculous warble, as if the pitch was bouncing up and down by over an octave several times a second. Twilight immediately dissolved into helpless giggles.

"hEy, pUt iT bAcK! tWiLiGhT! i hAvE tO lEaVe FoR wOrK sOoN!"

This only made her laugh harder and she flopped onto the arm of the chair, weakly waving a hoof in his direction.

"tWiLiGhT sPaRkLe, yOu uNdO tHiS sPeLL tHiS INSTANT!"

Unfortunately, his warbling caused his sentence to end on an absurdly high squeak that even he couldn't help but grin at. Twilight slapped the cushion with a hoof, laughing so hard now that she hardly made any sound at all.

"aLrIgHt FiNe." Anon stood and loomed menacingly over the defenseless mare. "yOu AsKeD fOr tHiS."

Twilight peeked one eye open just in time to see his claw-shaped hands descending toward her. Her eyes widened in fear and her horn flickered once, but she was in no state to cast any magic now. This time she was utterly at his mercy.

Anon's face split into a wicked grin and she let out a high-pitched squeal as his hands latched onto her vulnerable belly, her legs flailing helplessly against his arms.

Then he relentlessly, mercilessly, almost violently began to tickle her.

The little pony squeaked and shook and gasped as his touch, his fingertips wiggling incessantly through the fur around her barrel, all of it made even worse by her own squirming as his hands slid freely around her torso. Anon couldn't help but laugh as well, and he let it out as a crazed and maniacal guffaw that warbled unnaturally thanks to her spell, bouncing around the walls and forming a cacophony of different voices all overlapping with each other in complete chaos.

Then, without warning, he abruptly shut his mouth and lifted his hands. Twilight lay trembling beneath him as the deranged echoes of his mad laughter faded until her heaving gasps were the only sound remaining.

Anon leaned down very close to her, his expression deadly serious.

"WiLL YoU uNdO yOuR sPeLL nOw?"

Twilight hiccuped a weak giggle and Anon tried not to grin at his own voice, then gave in and broke into a wide, grimacing smile, lifting both hands up like claws.

"oR sHaLL i cOnTiNuE?"

"N-No!" she panted with a terrified shake of her head, "Sweet Celestia, p-please... no more!"

Anon waited a moment for her to get her breath back, then her horn glowed briefly and made a sort of pop as she released the spell.

"Ahh... much better. Thank you, Twilight."

"You really are a monster..."

He smirked and shrugged in resignation, "Shame to play my trump card so soon, but you did ask for it."

In response she stuck out her tongue at him. Anon shook his head with a chuckle, then stood up.

"Well, much as I'd love to keep torturing you, I do need to leave soon, so before I go..."

He fetched a tablet and stylus from a nearby table, set it up to cast to his TV, then sat down again and gestured for Twilight to watch him, but she hesitated and stared nervously at his hands.

"Alright, alright, I promise I won't tickle you again."

After a brief moment she edged a little closer, then Anon added in an ominous tone, "Not unless you really deserve it."

Twilight froze with a little squeak, then she started when Anon burst into laughter. "Good gravy, you'd think I was threatening to whip you! Come on, girl, relax. It's okay."

He reached out and she immediately flinched away, but he only set a gentle hand on the back of her neck.

Twilight panted, "I... y-you don't..."

"Shh, it's alright. I ain't gonna bite. You're safe."

His hand slowly stroked down her mane, then came to rest on her withers and gave her shoulder a little squeeze. They sat like that for a moment, Anon gently massaging her back while she took several long, slow breaths, then she gave him a timid smile.

"Okay, I... I'm better now."

"You sure?"

"Well... you did promise not to, um... tickle me again. Right?"

She looked hopefully up at him but he waggled a finger in response.

"Only if you deserve it."

She frowned momentarily, then let out a resigned sigh, "Fine. I guess."

"Great!"

In a burst of spontaneity, Anon suddenly scooted over so he was sitting right up next to her, then wrapped his arm around her shoulders and held the tablet up so it was almost right in front of her face.

"H-Hey!"

Her ears folded down and her cheeks turned bright pink, but Anon simply continued as if nothing was wrong.

"Alright, so while I'm gone you can use this stylus to do stuff with this tablet and it'll show up on the big screen there.

He wasn't quite sure why he'd moved so close to her, but it was a little late for second thoughts now. Still, at least she wasn't struggling and did seem to be paying attention, even if her ears were still pressed firmly down. He'd just sort of acted without thinking and hadn't even thought how badly this could have gone, but she actually seemed to be taking it rather well.

"Touch this button on the side first to turn it on, then you can touch either this symbol called Netflix or this one called Youtube to watch videos to learn stuff or just for fun."

"...Okay, but what should I watch?"

She began to relax a little and Anon couldn't help but smile.

"Anything you want, really. If you touch this little magnifying glass symbol to search for stuff, touch this mic symbol here to use speech-to-text since you can't type - 'how it's made' - and see? now there's a bunch of clips from the show we were watching last night."

"O-Oh!" Now her ears perked up eagerly, "I'd like that."

"Well then, just touch whatever picture looks interesting, then touch this little triangle in the corner if you want to go back and try a different one." He grinned and gave her a little squeeze with his arm. "But you don't have to just stick to that one show, there's lots of other interesting things to watch."

"Really!?"

A hoof pressed into his thigh as Twilight twisted around to stare at him, her eyes bright with excitement. Then just as quickly, she lowered her gaze and pulled back slightly. "Um," she said, slowly lifting the hoof from his leg, "What else is there like How It's Made?"

That little move had even surprised him a bit, and indeed maybe his expression had been what made her back off so suddenly, but he decided not to press the issue and gestured back to the tablet again.

"See this area along the side? These are 'channels' that all have their own unique style of video. I like watching stuff like How It's Made too, so most of them are sorta along the same lines. Just stay away from that one."

Twilight let out a defiant snort and said, "Well now I have to try it!"

Anon only chuckled and shook his head, saying, "It's not like it's a secret or anything, it's just full of silly memes that barely even make sense to me, nevermind someone--"

"What are memes?"

"--who doesn't even know what a meme is."

"...Hey!"

He snorted with laughter, "Sorry girl, you walked right into that one."

She turned away with a "Hmph!" and Anon patted the side of her neck with the hand he still had draped around her shoulders.

"Oh yeah! Something else I wanted to do, gimme one sec."

He leaned forward and pulled up the tablet again, backing out to the home screen, and added a widget that would let her quick-dial his phone via wi-fi calling. Twilight was trying to pout, but she was too fascinated by the technology to be too serious about it, and he could tell she was just itching to know what he was doing.

"There we go. This is just in case something happens and you need to contact me, you can touch this symbol to call my phone..."

Twilight jumped as his pocket suddenly began to vibrate against her hindquarters and he quickly canceled the call.

"...And that will let us talk even while I'm away. Don't do it unless it's really urgent though, okay?"

"W-Well alright... but what was that buzzing!?"

"Sorry, should'a warned you before I made it go off. That's just how my phone alerts me that someone is trying to contact me."

Twilight shifted awkwardly and her ears began to fold down, but all she said was, "Okay."

Anon raised an eyebrow at her, "You... are okay, right? You got all that?"

Twilight closed her eyes and took one slow breath, then looked up at him and nodded seriously.

"I got it."

"Alright, one last thing."

She snorted at him as he removed his watch and held it out for her.

"Last thing, I promise. Do you have clocks in Equestria? Okay good, I'm still not sure just how much I need to explain... Anyways, I'll be back when the shorter hand is pointed roughly here, okay?"

"Okay. See you later, Anon."

He nodded and began to head for the door, then hesitated in the hallway.

"And if you get hungry or thirsty, the--"

Twilight interrupted him with a surprisingly sarcastic sounding neigh, then she giggled and waved a hoof at him.

"Oh, go on! I'm a clever mare, I'll be alright."

Anon blinked in surprise, then chuckled gently, grabbed his keys and wallet off the end table, and finally left the house.

Comments

[Poparakelis]

Her ears folded down and her cheeks turned bright pink, but Anon simply continued as if nothing was wrong.

Can she turn pink? She's purple sooo...

[Auriga21]

11646172
That is more than frustrated, you don't try to assault someone innocent for such flimsy reason.

If I did that every time I was frustrated then I would be in jail long ago.

Having so little control over himself points at some mental issue, not simple "frustration"

[LonePigeon]

"Oh, go on! I'm a clever made, I'll be alright."

mare

[Fox Jones]

Ten to one something goes wrong immediately!