Chapter Seven - What's More Efficient Than Friendship?
Laying in his bed, Anon tried his best to relax both his body and mind. He didn’t want to get up, knowing that to do so would mean starting the day. That would mean he had to interact with the ponies, which would also mean he would have to leave the house for the next pony he’d be with for a week. This was not something he was particularly looking forward to.
Going two straight weeks of hard farm labor was exhausting, and having to quickly come to grips that everything around him was real and he was not kidnapped did not come easy. He did prefer it when he thought Gleekman or some other influential person was simply messing with him. At least it made more sense than having magical horses trying to integrate him into their world or be banished to the moon if they failed.
Prying an eye open, he saw the light from the window softly spreading through the room, indicating an early morning. He closed his eyes once more, wanting to have as much ‘me’ time as he could.
‘How did I even get here? The missile surely couldn’t have done it, right?’
He thought he remembered Gleekman mentioning something about a foreign source giving him the missile, or components to make it; he couldn’t remember, the details foggy. Did they somehow get a hold of a compound that rifted a portal to where he wound up, in that forest? Or was everything some form of reincarnation, an allowance of a second chance.
‘But… why horses? Why are they acting so odd? And they want to teach an alien to live with them? How bizarre.’
Anon turned in the bed, pushing his head into the warm, soft pillow. Wearing the custom pajamas that Rarity made for him, something he hadn’t had a chance to wear before, he could feel himself loosening up. He had to thank that one when he could properly speak.
As much as he didn’t want to, his thoughts continued to drift back to his new life. An odd, hollow feeling he had difficulty describing crept up, knowing that everything he knew was gone. He was the sole human on the planet that didn’t truly care about such things. Only his status as an ‘alien’ seemed to matter.
Turning on his back, he let out a grunt, frustrated. He was not getting any more rest, his mind too preoccupied with nonsense. Pulling the covers away he sat up, stretching out. He had another pony to meet for the week, and from what Lyra had mentioned, this one could be potentially dangerous.
“If she finds this pony dangerous, then that’s something I should worry about, considering what she finds safe.”
After a quick shower, he made sure to pack all the necessities in his rucksack. He made his way downstairs, Lyra already placing plates down for food. She gave him a hearty wave, motioning him to sit. It was eggs, and this time he was more than happy to eat after all the apples he was forced.
More things on his mind appeared. Anon wondered just why he was able to consume their foods. How could his diet be sustained off the nutrients of alien matter? That shouldn’t be possible. The unicorn reasoned that their world’s magic was adapting him to their world, but he had difficulty believing that.
Taking a bite of his toast, he watched as the other two sat down for their meals, Lyra scribbling a note to him.
**We will be leaving after we eat. Do not freak out with Twilight as she may overstep her boundaries with you. Her impressions of you are of great importance so try to make a good one during your time there.**
So the pony’s name was Twilight.
**Why should I be so careful with her?**
Lyra finished an orange slice before turning to the chalkboard. She twittered, tapping her chin before writing a reply.
**She’s not normally bad but has a habit of getting overexcited concerning magic or studies to it. To make things worse, she’s also a direct student to Princess Celestia, though I’ve always seen it more as an understudy relationship.**
He felt shocked, not expecting to confront such high authority, especially one so close to the ruler. His anxiety grew, knowing he’d be with her for a full week.
**Is there anything I should know of her?**
**Not much other than what I mentioned. She’s a magical prodigy, has a baby dragon for a helper, and enjoys reading books. Twilight also lives at the library in town, the big tree you asked about before.**
None of the information helped ease him, only exacerbate it. She liked books though. He could work with that. His studies in college had him writing poetry and reading things like Sherlock Holmes. Perhaps he could move some of their conversations to literary works?
Finishing their meals Lyra had him wearing his cloak and out the door, the sun and the moon slowly starting to make their rotations.
The two hurried through the town, making sure to stay out of sight of early risers. Standing in front of a large tree, Anon couldn’t help but be awed at the sight, knowing it was a fully functioning abode with its library.
About to knock, Lyra paused, motioning for him to do so. He gave it a hard knock, Lyra positioning him off to the side. A few seconds passed before he could hear a pattering of clicks behind the door. It opened, showing a small lizard-like creature just at the opening.
‘Is that the baby dragon Lyra mentioned?’
It let out a yawn, rubbing an eye. “~+Lyra? Why are you wearing a cloak? It’s kind of early to be up, don’t you think?+~” The dragon sounded like everyone else, having a tune-like quality, but it came out with a barely noticeable hiss. “~+Did the flame from your lantern go out?+~”
“~+Nah, that’s fine. I’m here for Twilight. She should be expecting us.+~”
“~+I was wondering why she was up so soon.+~” He took a moment on her words. “~+Wait, us? Sorry about that, let me…+~”
Widening the door, he could see the tall, cloaked form of Anon. He merely blinked before slowly closing the door once more. Lyra rolled her eyes, sticking a hoof in.
“~+He’s fine, and also the reason we’re here. Could you tell her we’re here?+~”
“~+Uh… Yeah, sure. Take a seat and I’ll, uh, go tell her.+~”
Walking in, he found an odd fusion of housing and library. The walls all seemed to be in one piece, nothing cut or made by hand. It was as if every piece of the place was molded into place using the tree itself.
Sitting down on a small couch beside Lyra, the dragon came back down, taking a chair to sit in front of the two. Anon continued to look around the place, fascinated by the idea that he was inside a tree.
“~+What brings you two here anyway? Twilight keeps fretting about something and seems too preoccupied to talk to me.+~”
“~+Anon, that’s his name, is supposed to spend some time with Twilight and… get to know her, if you will. Official princess business and whatnot.+~”
“~+Ooh, friendship lessons.+~”
“~+Pardon?+~”
“~+Princess Celestia has Twilight and all her friends doing friendship lessons that they send to her.+~”
“~+I was not aware they were doing that, which is odd. I know enough about the history of the Elements by now. Is this a role they have to do?+~”
“~+Actually, that’s because of Twilight and her friendship lessons that originated in Canterlot, coming from the princess. They’ve just moved her to Ponyville to perform her lessons better.+~”
Anon was barely able to decipher what was said, feeling frustrated being out of the loop. So, he took out his chalkboard and wrote a message.
**Is it alright if I read some books?**
At the very least he wanted to see what their books were like while they waited for Twilight to arrive.
**That’s fine,** Lyra wrote back, **just don’t make a mess.**
He quickly stood, walking over to the books to see what they held. There were quite a few to choose from.
“~+Why is he writing on a chalkboard? Is he a mute?+~”
“~+He can talk, just not in our language. We’re teaching him how to understand us but it’s been slow going. He can easily write our language though.+~”
“~+I see.+~ The dragon examined Anon more closely. “~+Why is he wearing a cloak? He’s not ugly or anything is he?+~”
“~+Nothing of the sort. We can’t let anyone see him at all for the time being. Princess’s orders, after all.+~” She lit up her horn, magically tapping him in the side before holding up his board.
**You can take off your cloak now.**
He nodded, taking it off and placing it over the arm of the couch. The dragon’s eyes widened seeing his full form.
“~+I don’t recognize what species he is. Is he something from one of those colonies you’ve told me about in your reports?+~”
“~+No, nothing of the sort. I know this will sound silly, but he’s an alien. He wound up here somehow and we’ve been helping him for a while.+~”
“~+An alien.+~”
“~+Yes.+~”
The dragon stared at Anon, watching him peruse the books. Anon grumbled, looking at each one.
“A lot of romance, history, and adventure. Even some fantasy and mystery books. But I’m not seeing any sci-fi.” He picked up a book, turning it in his hands.
The dragon gritted his teeth. “~+Was that him speaking? That sounds… weird.+~”
“~+It’s hard for us to speak like him so we’ve been teaching him how to speak like us.+~”
Anon laughed. “I wonder how they’d react to some Lovecraftian works or some dystopian stories. Maybe cyberpunk could be a thing here? Oh, steampunk would be some good fun.”
“~+I think I’ll wait upstairs until Twilight is ready,+~” Spike said before getting up, making his way up the stairs.
Lyra rolled her eyes, watching Anon going through the books. Letting out a sigh, she glimpsed at a stack of books off to the side, seeing something familiar. Levitating it away from the stack, she felt gobsmacked, reading the cover of the book: The Creatures of Yesteryear.
“~+W-Why is this here? There are very few of these books available to anyone. Did the princess give this to her?+~”
Hearing hoofsteps, she quickly levitated it back to the pile, seeing Twilight coming from the second floor with Spike following. She momentarily froze, seeing Anon looking through the books. Twilight slowly made her way to them, standing off to the side.
“~+Twilight.+~”
“~+Lyra.+~” Twilight turned to the human. “~+And you must be this Anon that I’ve heard of. I didn’t expect either of you for at least another week. Or to be so… lifelike.+~” Twilight looked confused when no reply came.
“~+He can’t speak our language,+~” Lyra spoke. “~He’s only been here for around a month and our language barrier is quite large.+~”
“~+No kidding,+~” Spike chuckled, earning a look from Twilight. “~+Hey I heard him speak his language just a moment ago. Wasn’t pleasant, too still and direct and… something else.+~”
Humming, she turned to Lyra. “~+Why haven’t you performed a knowledge spell on him to remove this barrier? I know what your packet sent said but I’m not seeing a problem if he’s absorbing magic.+~”
“~+He’s absorbing magic slowly, and it all seems to be concentrated inside his body. We might be able to learn more about the internals of his body when that all settles, but his mind is off-limits unless we want to intentionally hurt him.+~”
Twilight didn’t look convinced, staring at Anon who was staring back, now noticing the purple unicorn. “~+It certainly would have made this much simpler to do. I’ll be honest Lyra, he doesn’t look at all like what the princess described to me.+~”
“~+What exactly did she say?+~”
“~+Well, she spoke of something much… hairier. And less life-like, almost like a puppet.+~”
“~+The princess hasn’t met him formally so she can only go on information she’s provided, along with past experiences.+~”
Twilight glanced at the stack of books. “~+I assume you’re referring to the confidential book she sent me?+~”
“~+That book was required reading for my role as a komlas so I know all about it.+~”
Anon had already sat down, flipping through the pages of a mystery book he found interesting, ignoring the ramblings of the two.
“~+I really shouldn’t judge on appearances, but the princess wouldn’t have sent those warnings needlessly, so you’ll have to excuse me if I want to check him thoroughly.+~”
Lyra gave a wary look at those words.
“~+I say that because I may have a caged area upstairs where he’ll be staying at, just so you’re aware.+~”
“~+Is that necessary?+~”
“~+Aren't you the one that had him locked inside a bedroom for a few weeks before allowing him out? A week here won’t hurt him, and he’ll be staying where I normally sleep. He’ll be well handled.+~
“~+And as a side note, I’d also like to do most of this on my own. I mean no offense, but the princess felt something was odd concerning his stay with the others and had asked I did this without any outside influence.+~”
Listening to the two ponies chirp and squeak, Anon watched as Lyra appeared dejected. The purple unicorn looked like she was trying to reassure Lyra of something. The dragon simply stared at Anon, squirming in his seat, giving a half-hearted wave that he returned.
A tug on his sleeve directed him to the chalkboard Lyra held up. **You’ll be staying here for the week with Twilight by yourself. I will try to pop in when I can.**
‘Different from how others went, but I don’t see any problem here. At least there’s something to do here, reading books and all. I just hope I can manage to keep this pony happy without Lyra.’
Clearing his throat, he decided to give a small showing that he could somewhat understand them if only to present to the purple unicorn he was able to learn. “~+Bye. Lyra.+~” It was a struggle to remember the proper enunciation of singing to get that right.
Before he knew it, Lyra wrapped herself around him in a tight hug. With a shake of her head, Twilight performed a spell, prying her off. Wrapping Lyra in a purple haze, she popped out of sight, clearly being teleported by force.
‘And from what Lyra said, she knows even stronger spells that that. Great.’
Twilight and Anon stared at one another. “~+Alright then. So, I now have an alien in my home for a week.+~” She let out a groan. “~+Why did the princess decide this was a good idea?+~”
“~+Maybe she wants you to expand your friendship lessons even further?+~”
“~+Princess Celestia gave me a large list of things I need to check off when examining him, and none of them seem to be aimed toward friendship. If it was, she’d just let me work things on my own.+~”
Anon continued to stare at the two, uncertain on what to do. Should he continue looking at books? Try and interact? This was a subordinate to the princess herself. He couldn’t act rash about things.
“~+I’m just not sure where to start with him. I’m supposed to dig into things Lyra hadn’t breached with him, but I don’t know how to go about it.+~”
“~+You could always ask him about his world? I don’t see anything from Lyra’s reports that told us anything about his planet, save for a few pages.+~”
“~+I had wondered why there wasn’t anything on his people.+~” Twilight hummed. “~+Yes, I could do that. It could help provide some topics to discuss.+~”
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Laying in his new bed, Anon tried his best to appear relaxed in both body and mind. He had been awake for some time now, having gone to bed after a night of odd questioning. Using his peripherals, not wanting to give away he had already noticed her, he saw Twilight in the corner, sitting on a chair, watching him.
He had slept in her bed, only it was fully caged all around with magical bars of some kind to keep him in. It was a fascinating, yet terrifying sight watching the unicorn bend the bars to allow him in. He made sure to stay well behaved after that showing.
As much as he enjoyed laying in bed doing nothing, he had to get up and start the day with the unicorn. She had explained the previous night he would be answering questions about him and his people. Twilight had been, for the most part, polite toward him. He did notice her irritation at how slow things were going, having a conversation between two chalkboards.
Sitting up, he made sure to look as nonthreatening as possible, giving a slight stretch and a yawn. The unicorn squeaked out something, seeing him up.
“~+Fantastic! I was wondering why you were staring at the ceiling for so long. Perhaps it’s a human action that Lyra hasn’t picked up yet?+~”
“~+Or he’s not much of an early bird? It’s six o’clock Twilight, can’t we go back to bed and do this later?+~”
“~+I need as much time as I can with him and go over the princess’s checklist. A week is simply not enough time to do much before I have to decide on if this human is a threat or not.+~”
The dragon rubbed his head. “~+I just don’t see how he can be a threat.+~”
“~+Weren’t you scared of him the other day, barely refusing to be around unless I was there?+~”
“~+And now that I’ve seen him from last night, I think he’s less of a threat than even Owlowiscious is.+~”
A trill of a hoot came from the far wall, making Anon jump in fright. He instinctually kicked the covers off, flopping to the floor, before feeling embarrassed at what he could see was an owl.
“~+Case in point.+~”
Twilight rolled her eyes. “~+He could be putting on an act.+~”
Anon already had his chalkboard out, a message written in greeting to the new guest. The thing merely blinked back, giving another hoot. He held up the chalkboard in the air, trying to pass the message back but the owl simply flew off; he looked dejected, the chalkboard lowered to the bed.
‘Another kind of intelligent animal, like on the farm? I just don’t know anymore.’
Spike held a claw up to his mouth, holding back laughter. “~+You think that’s an act?+~”
A groan escaped Twilight. “~+This is going to be a long week.+~”
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Dull, tedious, and boring is how he’d describe his time with Twilight. All he had him do was sit and answer questions, scarcely taking breaks when needed. It had been several days trying to work with the unicorn, trying his hardest to keep her pleased. He answered everything she asked, keeping it as clear and concise as he possibly could. With his life on the line, he wasn’t going to risk giving her a weak reply.
And yet, she still wasn’t happy.
Sitting at a table near his caged area, Anon stared across at the fuming unicorn. He hadn’t seen Lyra in the past few days, though that didn’t mean she hadn’t tried coming in. From Lyra’s attempted interventions to the slow work with conversing due to their language barrier, and he could see Twilight was nearing her limits.
“~+Finally going to admit you’re having trouble with this?+~”
“~+Spike…+~” She deflated, looking down at her table, covered in papers and her chalkboard. “~+I don’t know what to do. None of this makes any sense to me. Why is the princess having me do this? Why do I need to keep Lyra out of this? And why is it he’s not allowed to have magic used on him?+~”
“~+Well, the princess herself never specified what could or could not be done to him, Lyra said that.+~” Spike, realizing what he said, quickly waved his arms in the air. “~+Not that I’m saying you shouldn’t listen to what Lyra said! There’s likely a reason to that.+~”
Humming, Twilight pulled out a document Anon easily recognized as Lyra’s work on him. What it said he had no clue of, the pony keeping the thing away from him. Flipping through the pages, Twilight read through some of the passages.
“~+All it says is that his mind seems too delicate to touch with magic. I’m pretty sure I can get the spell to work quickly to teach him, and if anything goes wrong I can easily fix him up.+~”
“~+You do know you’re saying that you’re fine with hurting him so long as you have an easier time talking to him.+~”
“~+From how Lyra described it she barely even had any observations on it, only seeing his mind being irritated from the use. I doubt he’ll feel much, probably close to a small pinch.+~”
Spike looked at Anon, frowning. “~+This doesn’t seem right. You’re supposed to be learning friendship lessons here in Ponyville, so shouldn’t you use this opportunity to learn from this? Why even risk anything involving him?+~”
“~+If it came from anyone other than Princess Celestia, I wouldn’t even bother thinking about it. But, I have a schedule that needs to be kept on time from the princess.+~” Twilight lit up her horn, smiling at Anon. “~+A few shortcuts won’t hurt.+~”
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Sitting at her desk, Lyra leaned her head on a hoof, tapping a report that was due by the end of the week. It certainly helped keep her mind off Anon, working on such things.
There had been a few incidents involving a group of odd fellows called the aarakocra’s that had set up a temporary base in the mountains, making the griffon's in the area nervous about the intruders. No one was certain where they had come from, only that they had been continuously snatching anything shiny from either side of the border, with them returning to Equestria’s side for their base of operations.
They had claimed to be lost, not even sure how they got to where they had, and that they were stuck until they could figure out how to get home. Lyra imagined they likely came from one of the uncharted continents on the other side of the world. Such things happen from time to time.
‘I’m going to have to advise that they send one of our wayward adventuring groups up there to figure out just what is going on,’ Lyra thought, scribbling down on her parchment. ‘They’ll also need a griffon or two with their party from our side to help any negotiations that are made.’
As she finished her work, her lantern let out a small ding. It belched out green flames, a crumpled piece of paper falling out.
Confused, Lyra picked it up, smoothing the paper out to read the message.
**Anon is in trouble. Hurry to the library. Do not tell Twilight about the message. Be quick.**
She doesn’t need to think twice about the message as she dashed out the door, straight to the town library. Arriving there she slammed open the front door, seeing the place was in chaos. The books were in disarray, paper and ink spread throughout the floor. Near the table was Twilight, reading book after book, the things hovering in the air. She looked miserable, a haunted look in her eyes which were previously crying.
The moment she saw Lyra, Twilight dropped the books, letting out a holler. “Oh, thank goodness you’re here!”
“What happened?!”
“I messed up. I messed up big time.”
Twilight recapped on what had happened earlier in the day. Frustrated by her lack of work the princess wanted her to do, she had reasoned that it would be fine to attempt a language implantation spell used in the fields for species encounters, something that Lyra was more familiar with than Twilight.
Things went awry the moment she activated the spell. Anon acted completely different from anything she had predicted. Her face paled, describing how he let out a strangled scream as if holding his head in pain, trying to claw something out from it. He then began throwing stuff everywhere as he bled out of his nose, with her trying to calm him down, the situation far out of her control. And then, without any warning, he simply stopped, dropping to the ground unconscious.
“I don’t know what to do! I can’t take him out of here to a hospital, and healing spells won’t work effectively on him!” She slammed her face on the table, letting out a sob.
Dashing up the stairs, Lyra could see the chaos. The bars that surround the room had been ripped out, allowing anyone in or out. Spike stood in the corner with Anon, sitting on the floor, dabbing his nose with tissues.
Upon seeing Lyra, Spike let out a sigh, wiping his forehead. “I wondered when you would come here.”
Lyra walked to Anon, looking concerned. “How is he?”
“I’d say you should just ask him yourself.”
“I… I fine,” Anon spoke, shocking Lyra. “Just… tired.”
“Wait. The spell worked?”
Spike handed Anon another tissue, taking the one out of his nose that was covered in blood and replacing it.
“Ew,” he replied, wiping a claw. “Yeah, the spell worked. He kind of threw the chair and table to the side and was screaming at first. Twilight freaked out, trying to calm him down and heal whatever injury she thinks she did. When he finally exhausted himself he curled up in a corner to rest. Twilight ran downstairs, trying to find some kind of spell or thing to work with him.
“He’s kind of just tired at the moment. He doesn’t even recall the event. I’m helping him with his nose; this guy sure does bleed a lot.”
With some hesitation, Lyra performed a scanning spell. Nothing seemed wrong with him, though some of his muscles appeared to be pulled. Carefully examining his head, she saw his mind still had some of Twilight’s magical remnants left behind, slowly finding a way out of him through his nose.
“This is why I didn’t want to use magic on him,” Lyra said, dropping her spell. “His body is still adjusting, and I doubt his mind could cope with anything for a very long if at all.”
Anon mumbled something, drifting off again before shaking his head, dabbing at his nose once more.
“Is being tired a symptom of magic use on his head?” Spike asked.
“We’ve observed it the only time I’ve used magic near his mind.” Lyra let out a breath she was holding. “So far he doesn’t look like he’ll be in any danger from Twilight’s actions.”
“At least he can speak our language now?” Spike nervously chuckled, seeing Lyra’s unamused look. “Just trying to see the positives here.”
Seeing things were fine on this end, Lyra walked back downstairs. Twilight was watching her, a look of apprehension strained on her face.
“Is he okay?”
“Yes, he is, for the most part. You could have gone up and seen if he was yourself.”
“I… You’re right, I could have.”
“You treated him like something to study and pass some kind of test. Why would you use the spell at all? Instead of focusing on things we’ve already been through, why didn’t you try and be his friend? Surely you could have found any motives through that alone.”
Twilight looked down in shame. There was so much Lyra wanted to say to her, to just show how wrong she was. She certainly felt vindicated enough.
‘Hold up Lyra,’ her inner voice spoke. ‘This is a great opportunity for us!’
‘Yes it is, and everyone will know of what Twilight did.’
‘No you dunderhead. Twilight has to finish this week with Anon regardless of what happens. Telling everypony about her actions would only muddle the waters and allow the princess more intervention at a later date.’
‘...That’s true’
‘We can have Twilight instead write a glowing report on Anon and give him an easy week with her! We’ve practically got this assured so long as you do exactly as I say.’
Lyra walked up to Twilight, placing a hoof on the table. “Okay. This is what we’re going to do.”
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She had stayed at Twilight’s for several hours, setting up a new schedule and rules she had to abide to. Anon did seem alright, regardless of his nose still bleeding by the time she left. Spike had volunteered to keep an eye out for him for the time being, Twilight still too ashamed to try and say anything to Anon. It would take some time for the magic residue to leave him.
It was dark by the time she came back to the house. She let out a yawn, wanting nothing more than to finish her report, find a quick bite to eat, then hit the hay. As frightening as it was, she felt happy with the outcome of things.
Lyra quickly noted there was a ladder set up to the roof, something she knew she hadn’t set up before leaving.
“Why is Bon Bon up there so late?”
‘There’s a star shower scheduled tonight, Lyra. You’re supposed to watch it with her. How did you forget that?’
“Oh. Right.”
Climbing the ladder, she saw everything was already set up. Bon Bon was half-asleep at the table, a small bowl of candies on it with a burnt-out candle. A bottle of cider specially saved sat in a bucket of diluted ice.
“Hey, you made it!” Bon Bon drowsily said, wiping her eyes.
“Sorry for being late, Twilight held me up.” Lyra walked over, giving her friend an extra tight hug. Letting go, she looked around before turning to Bon Bon. “Cider’s a bit much just for stargazing. What’s the occasion for?”
“It’s kind of a special night for us.”
Lyra blinked. ‘Special night?’
‘Come on Lyra? This is like, the weird anniversary of yours. The first day you started stargazing with her, along with the first day you two became friends. The first day you two applied to college, and so on.’
She rubbed the back of her neck. “Ah yeah, I remember. The weird anniversary of ours, how things kept coinciding with this same day for us. How we first became roommates and friends and such.”
Bon Bon chuckled, “The little voice in your head had to remind you, didn’t it?”
‘She’s on to us!’
“Uh… no?”
Bon Bon shook her head with some mirth, pouring the two of them drinks. “It’s fine, I know you have some difficulty remembering things. It does make it simple for us to have a single day to remember it all, maybe even future events for that matter.”
Streaks of light started to tear across the sky, interrupting their conversation. The darkened sky lit up, the two watching the scene, forgetting about everything else save for what was around them, enjoying their own company.
As the night started to end, Lyra could only praise the night princess’s work.
Lyra turned to her friend, seeing her dozing off, leaning on her shoulder. “Bonnie?”
“Hmm…”
‘Yeah, she’s pretty much out.’
Being as gentle as she could, Lyra levitated her friend up in the air and down the stairs. She made it through Bon Bon’s room, placing her on the bed. Just as Lyra tucked Bon Bon in, she wrapped her front leg around Lyra’s head, trying to snuggle with her. She managed to slip in one of her friend’s stuffed animals, watching her nuzzle it.
“Hmm… Lyra…”
Lyra chuckled hearing that. She cleaned up the mess on the roof, starting to feel tired from the day. Stumbling to her room, trying to find her alarm clock, she placed it by her bed before flopping on top of it, immediately falling asleep.
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It was nearing the end of the week with Twilight. Anon was quite shocked with the huge turnabout the pony had made in regards to him. Where previously she was treating him like a biohazard, keeping him back with a figurative ten-foot pole, now she was treating him with a lot more respect.
‘She had to have felt bad for using the spell,’ he thought, thinking over that day.
Arguably, he felt no different from when Lyra had used it, though his lethargic nature stayed for awhile. He also had a bloody nose, reasoned that the magic was flowing through it and making it irritated.
The dragon was a pretty nice guy, after all, helping him with that whole ordeal. While he still had some hesitations with the unicorn, at least he wasn’t being treated like an animal. On top of everything that had happened, he could finally understand the ponies. Sort of.
He still couldn’t speak their language properly, the mere difficulty of singing in tune hard to grasp, but the chalkboard was being used less and less with him understanding their words somewhat.
The spell, in his opinion, was quite the godsend even if it amounted to him losing some memories of the event and a bloody nose. Twilight was extremely apologetic, now regarding him like fine china. It wasn’t like he remembered the incident well, but he most assuredly kept a close eye on her horn. The unicorn was quite astute seeing that, appearing regretful.
At the moment, Twilight had the two of them at a table, with her writing down things he had been telling her of his people. While Lyra was interested in how they worked in relationships and their bodies, along with him as a person or how humans lived their lives, Twilight had been on a nonstop barrage of questions asking about their cultures. She had found it fascinating to see how diverse people could be with only a single species on the planet.
“So these Canadians have an entire market cornered simply on the sap of their trees to make maple syrups?”
**Yes, in a manner. It’s a massive part of their culture, having been taught by the natives there hundreds of years ago. Even their money is scented with it, though that’s their bigger denotations. A popular treat for people is to lay down some syrup in the snow and place a stick in it, then eat when it freezes.**
“How riveting!”
He still had to write everything out, but so long as she was understood, she appeared happy. Twilight also genuinely sounded interested in everything he said about his people. As a plus, she had never veered towards wars or anything of the sort, merely wanting to know of their people and odd little facts. He did supply her with some of the problems they faced globally such as stripping of lands for resources or the oil disasters they’ve been met with, but these seemed so foreign a concept for her he dropped it quite quickly.
Writing everything down on her parchment, Twilight groaned, finding her ink dried up. She lifted her ink bottle, looking inside. “Come on, there’s a little more in there.”
Anon mentally shook his head. ‘They have all this magic and can’t even figure out pens yet.’
A sudden strike of realization came to him. He arrived in their world with only the clothing on his back and what has left in his pockets: His wallet, his old iPod, and a novelty pen. He had nearly forgotten the pen, having just recently been given the thing before boarding the boat with Gleekman by his friends and associates from the group.
Opening the inside jacket pocket near his breast, he found his elegant-looking pen. He was surprised to see the pen had no problems, scribbling a piece of paper quickly. The thing was supposed to be designed off what astronauts used in space, with a built-in light and refillable inks, though the latter was quite a useless feature where he was.
Tapping on the table to get her attention he passed the pen to her. She looked confused, looking at it.
**A simple tool we devised called a pen. Try it like you would a quill.**
He motioned for her to tap the button on the bottom, the nib ejecting for use. She hummed at the thing, writing down on the paper. Her eyes widened, staring at the quill, and then the pen.
“This is remarkable! It acts like a quill and a bottle of ink combined!”
She wrote her notes down at a remarkable pace, letting out a laugh. “Think of all the notes I can take with this! Why this changes things on a whole new level of academic work!”
The need to show up presented itself; he motioned for her to twirl the end of the pen, making sure to show she needed to be gentle. The thing flashed in her eyes, a yelp escaping her. Blinking, she could now see it was producing light from the tip.
“It produces light as well?! Whu, buh, uhh…”
“It is… easy to use… may-be you can… recreate it?”
He would love to see more pens around the place, getting tired of using quills and ink bottles all the time.
The unicorn stared at the pen for a while, in awe at what she was seeing. “Initially, I thought your people’s inventions as something to set aside, but I was not aware your people were so capable.” She had an odd gleam in her eyes. “We have so much to talk about.”
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Standing outside the doorway, Lyra gently nudged him away from the library, leaving behind Twilight who was unwilling to let him go.
“Just give me some more time with him! Think of all the things we could do with his knowledge.”
“He doesn’t know how to make most of those things, Twilight.”
“But he knows rudimentary knowledge on things which we can use to create much of his people’s work! Think of what we could do if we managed to make these ‘bah-tauries’ of his. And the idea of ‘rai-diah weebuhs’ could change the entire landscape of our world! Think of how vast the changes would be if we could call anyone from anywhere in the world, without the use of magic!”
“Yeah, well, maybe some other time. See you later Twilight!”
Lyra ignored the screams of pleads from the unicorn, leading Anon into the dark of the night. She hummed alongside him, making their way toward their next destination.
“You… seem… ha-ppy?” Anon spoke, slowly working the words out.
“Very much so! With Twilight cleared to go, we now have nothing to worry about. The princesses don’t have any other way to take you now.”
“Why… do they not… re-gard-less?”
Anon never understood the whole getup with him needing to stay with others for verification. From everything he had heard from Lyra, it almost sounded like the princess just wanted him gone. Why not just go collect him anyways?
“What is… to stop her… just co-ming?”
“That’s not how things work around here. We have proxies in place, like Twilight and the Elements or something similar. On the rare instance she does decide to step in it’s usually because it directly involves her or there is without a doubt no other way to go about it.
“The Elements are a great example of this. Back a thousand years ago Princess Celestia wielded that power, but nowadays it’s been given down to her subjects to use. There are similar things around the lands like them. This is because back then, a lot of people abused the power they had, as they had so much of it. And those with the most power tended to have an iron grip on everything around them.”
Anon understood that. “Power is co-rupt-able… abso-lute power, abso-lutely co-rrupts.”
Lyra blinked at him, “Wow, that’s a really good way to put it. I’m definitely saving that quote to you.” She coughed. “But yes, during the era that the princesses came about, many other powerful rulers were appearing, more powerful than anything before them.
After a lot of infighting and talks, decrees were put out to place some of the powers they held to the people, though some historians will say they feel it was heavily aimed at Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. After all, she was capable of moving the sun, ruled an entire land, had the Elements and countless other artifacts; this just made for someone no one could trust to not abuse things.”
“What… does that have… to do with… all this?”
“To help solidify everything, each nation passed into law that certain positions would be made, including a council that would form for each of their respected lands to help deal with things on a more personal level, derived from leaders from each town and their chosen watchers. They’re aware of what is going on with you, and won’t allow the princess to just come in and nab you without making a fuss.”
“I… see.”
‘Even so, this all feels a bit convoluted.’ He put those thoughts to the side, thinking of something else.
“Were are… we going?”
“To the last pony for the week. You still need to spend some time with her.”
He looked at where they were walking. “At… App-le A-cre?”
“There wasn’t any other place that’s so out of town to do this, and Applejack is fine having you around.”
‘Of course, she is; it’s free labor to her.’
It had gotten dark just as they reached the farm. Standing outside a familiar barn, Anon had difficulty seeing anything.
“Before we go in, I just want to… give you a bit of a warning. Don’t go super crazy, okay? Please trust me that nothing is going to get you.”
‘Gee, when you put it that way, why would I think anything otherwise?’
“I will… stay fine.”
Walking inside, the back door was immediately slid shut, putting him into the pitch, black darkness of the barn. Chuckles could be heard as Anon inched forward, trying to figure out what was going on.
“Lyra?”
Suddenly, the barn lit up in a blazing light. Anon could hear what sounded like a roar of singing tones announcing themselves with a hearty surprise. Festive music played in the background as some chirps and tweets littered in the air. He could see streamers and confetti around the area, with a table full of treats he was accustomed to seeing at parties.
A very pink pony suddenly appeared in his face, forcing him to take a step back.
“You’re Anon! It's so nice to finally meet you!” She shook his hand up and down, nearly lifting him off the ground. “I was super upset when no one had me set you up with a welcome-to-town party but now that you’re here we can have a super-duper long one all week long!”
“P, Par-ty?”
“This is going to be so much fun! After I heard about you I knew I had to make an extra special out of this world party! But Lyra wanted to keep you a secret so I couldn’t even sneak into your place to do anything! Now that my weeks here I quickly planned a bonkers amount of things to do! Party games, dance-offs, and I even prepared different kinds of foods for the whole week just so you wouldn’t get sick of not eating it all!” She clapped her hooves, her grin widening even further. “This is so exciting!”
“I do hope you’re not going to let things get too crazy up in here,” Applejack interjected. “There’s a farm I have to run and if he’s going to be here, I expect he’ll be helping around when he can. Do I make myself clear Pinkie?”
She shot ramrod straight into the air, giving her a salute. “Ma'am, yes ma'am! I’ll even help on the farm! Buck every apple and ensure all trees are apple-less, ma’am!”
Applejack ran a hoof over her face. “Just don’t do anything crazy, please?”
“I’ll be as well behaved as I always am!”
“That’s what I’m afraid of…”
Pinkie shot over to Anon, now suddenly on his shoulders. “We’ll just have to get our party on at night! Just you, me, and everyone here!” She brought out some kind of horn, blowing it into the air, Anon covering his ears in pain. “Let’s paaah-taaay!”
Toots and whistles shouted off in return as all the ponies he had met during his time there started to wander around.
“A party,” he spoke in English.
He stared at what was going on, trying to come to terms with everything. It was certainly something to end the whole thing with them. Yet, it didn’t feel right to him, seeing it all. Watching them all happily talking and sharing in the festivities, somehow, it all felt so meaningless to him.
‘Just how did everything I’ve gone through in this world accumulate to this party I’m at?’
Rainbow Dash started to talk to Applejack, trying to challenge her to some kind of apple dunking competition. It started to get heated when Big Mac brought a bin over to them, the two quickly shoving their heads in.
‘I’ve been in this place for nearly two months, having thought I was being kidnapped to finding I’ve been transported to a magical world of singing, talking ponies. And now they want me to party with them.’
Twilight was off in a corner, excitedly talking to Rarity about Anon’s time with them and the new ideas he had given them. Rarity was projecting some images of his clothing in the air, talking about his threads while Twilight illuminated her images of the pen he had shown her, along with a few brief items he had described.
‘How am I supposed to take all of this? I’ve always prided myself with staying calm on the surface, never letting anything show, yet this… this might be too much to handle.’
He continued to stand there, unable to move as everyone around was oblivious to the turmoil raging inside him.
Fluttershy was talking to the three small ponies that had spoken to him on the farm a few times, sharing their adventures with him and how they almost got cutie marks on many occasions. She seemed amused at what she was told, while also being polite with her time with them.
‘Am I really stuck here with these horses? These alien creatures in this alien world?’
He felt hollow, something catching his breath, looking at all the horses. They all looked like what they were having the time of their lives. Nothing was out of place to them in this party of theirs.
‘No, that’s wrong. I’m the one out of place here. They truly expect me to just party and have fun like them.’ He looked down at his hands. ‘I’m the alien, aren’t I? None of this makes sense to me, how they’ve been acting or what they do, yet to them, it’s perfectly normal to act like this. Here I am, walking among them, not fitting in the slightest, and I don’t know what to do.’ Something tugged inside him, watching the ponies jovial attitudes. ‘I don’t know how much longer I can do this.’
Something tugged on his leg, drawing him from his miserable thoughts. Lyra, now wearing a little party hat, was holding a cup out to him, looking worried.
“Are you alright? Do you need to talk?”
Anon paused, wondering what she meant by that. He then felt a tear, drawing from an eye; his jacket helped wipe it away before anyone else could notice, not wanting to know how they’d react to that.
“Just long… couple weeks.”
She wasn’t convinced, her frown remaining. “Here, I got you this drink. It’s punch.”
He grabbed the cup, staring down at the red liquid.
“If you want I can talk to the others, maybe try and hold all of this off for a later date? I’m certain we can have Pinkie tone this down, somehow.”
“...No, it is… it is fine,” he lied.
For the time being, he just had to treat things like if he was in a foreign country. There tended to be different rules and ways people reacted to certain gestures and actions. This was clearly on a whole other scale, but so long as he didn’t look into the details too clearly, he could make it work.
‘I’ll make it out of this, I always do. I just… need time to adjust. Yes, just some time.’
“Why don’t… you tell me about… that pi-ñ-ata over there?”
Lyra seemed eager to show him around, wanting to enjoy their time with one another.
“So a piñata is a fun little game where you take a stick and beat it, and candy comes out! Now, I know it’s a pony shape but that’s not because we like hitting one another. Well, some do, but they’re meanies and you shouldn’t be around them. Stupid meanies. Anyways, you need to get a blindfold and…”
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~Canterlot: One Week Later~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
“How queer this is, having a quill and ink bottle put to one single entity. And yet, here it is, and with even further potential. It’s quite the marvel.”
Princess Celestia saw her sister twirling around one of the ‘pens’ her student Twilight had sent, courtesy of komlas Lyra. The thing was certainly ingenious and would revitalize their writing industry for more products of similar caliber.
Luna turned to Celestia, “Has Lyra ever produced such items in the past? Her creativity is, admittedly, a bewildering thing to see.”
“No, she has not. I’m not sure if this is a recent thing or something she has hidden for unknown reasons.”
“Perhaps to use when she felt most advantageous to reveal?”
If it was before the scenarios had started, she’d refute Luna. Lyra had never shown the capability, nor the character for such actions.
‘And yet, now I am uncertain.’
Celestia was confused, thinking Lyra’s true talent was her musical abilities, along with her magical potential being quite high and her studious nature to her work. To show off her inventive side perhaps was enough for her to change her views on the mare.
The reports on the table shared an account of the final two weeks, shared between Twilight and Pinkie Pie respectively. Somehow, Lyra had managed to convince them to side with her. Pinkie Pie was no real surprise; Twilight had been the one to shock her.
She had sent reports to her student about the alien ahead of time, detailing further information that what was given to the others, all the while pointing toward the Bleuh Bleuh Bleuh’s. Her reports spoke of confusion, seeing nothing but very faint visual similarities to the things, but none of the remarked characteristics.
‘If there was a time for Twilight to venerate me and to simply be guided by my words, this would have been it.’
The ‘puppet’ that Lyra continued to share in each image was as unsettling as she had seen the first time. And now, with the Elements on board and the council having a part in everything, the scenario would continue to the next step of integration. Even Twilight was involved, having requested to work on further inventions.
“I’ll say, regardless of our troubles with this, it had been enjoyable to the end, even with all that’s been occurring with the guard.”
Celestia couldn't agree more, feeling tired just thinking of it. More guards had been outed, which only made things worst. It seemed the groups leading them started to disturb the peace in certain towns, Canterlot being hit the hardest. They’d leave behind propaganda at the scene, vying for either her or her sister to be the sole rulers of the lands. It was becoming a bigger headache with each passing day.
“So,” Luna started, “are we going to do anything about the scenario?”
“No, I don’t see any point. Honestly, it’s the only thing that’s giving us time away from everything.”
Luna clicked the pen a few times, humming to herself. “You’re going to be petty about losing aren’t you?”
“Oh, Luna… of course I am.”
“How troublesome do you plan to be?”
“I’m not going to do anything too harmful or something that needs heavy involvement from us. Just a… nudge that will push her to the limits over time.”
“You better not keep me in suspense. What do you have cooked up for her?”
Princess Celestia smiled, “Why, I’m going to require her to get a job.”
“...A job?”
“To be more precise, her alien friend. She’ll need to integrate it into our town and have it start working there.”
“I see where you’re going with this. Take away some of the funding needed as a way to push the alien to get a ‘job’ to support itself and integrate, and we’ll have her on the ropes!”
A small twinge of guilt could be felt, knowing what she was doing to Lyra felt wrong, in a manner. It was quickly killed by her competitive side, seeking revenge over its loss.
Taking out a new parchment, she started to write a return letter when suddenly, her quill was yanked from her magical aura. Looking to where it went, she saw the pen now floating in her face.
“You may as well test it out.”
Rolling her eyes she grabbed the pen, returning to her letter. She was going to make it difficult for Lyra to continue working on her scenario. It should provide the two of them with some potential entertainment from the outcome.
~End Chapter Seven~
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Ugh, I hope it resolves soon, a little annoying to see such stupid reasoning from Celestia and Luna. "Oh, our alien contacts employee says she found alien and has tons of info about it and it contacts with some Elements of Harmony. I am sure it's just a joke. I won't send anyone to check or anything, it's not like we had surprise changelings, breezie portal migration or other sudden alien precences from time to time."
I mean, it's okay to tease, but not for a long time. Climax is due.
10048835
They'll learn soon enough. I believe it's when Luna visits Ponyville on Nightmare Night when they finally learn everything is true.
I read the original iteration of this story, I loved it then, and then I find this! Really made my day!
10040949
I think it's fanon mix of 'fur and tail conseal sneath\vulva' and 'magic tucsk those away for conveniency'.
Just fuckin patent the pens or something and tia's plan is boned.
I'm honestly kinda confused whether the princesses actually acknowledge Anon's existance.
They are worried by the fact that Anon's description is similar to the Bleuh bleuh bleuh but why are they worried about something they consider imaginary.
It's like if you told someone "imagine a tiger is about to eat you" and they start screaming in genuine fear, nonone acts like that.
Is this a repost of an old one? I remeber reading something awfully sinular to this one.
10050924
The story is very cool but the questions still goes on
It is bizarre to imagine what it must be like to have sex with someone who has their genitals hidden magically taking into account that a portion of the character does not have magical control in this world. I understand unicorns and dragons too but grinfons? Minotaur? how should be? when he wants to have sex with the genital just appears? if they have shame and modesty why walk without some way of covering themselves properly?.
10050955
My question as well. I just finished going over the whole story again to refresh my memory. Now it's the same cliff hanger as so long ago. Is this story going to continue?
10056980
The one i read was luna met him or lyra took him to meet the princesses in cnterlot and they both paniced since they tought he was fake and he actuaky showed up
So glad he can talk now. I use a TTS program to listen to stories at work and having it pause to say ‘plus tilde’ ever other line got really annoying.
I don't get why tia doesn't just A: go down there on un-related business and check him, or B: call them up to canterlot. We'll see how this unfolds.
And she doesn’t even acknowledge the possibility of the scenario being reality... Oof.
a job.. lol lol
he Anon wont need it.. market the pen that alone will make him rich.
10151749
I love the irony of it, though I'm surprised that Twilight didn't gave Celestia an entire 500 page essay of what she had analyzed of the human, especially how that he is indeed a sapient biological being.