Apocrypha

by Somepony New

Chapter 3

Alex combed his fingers through his hair. “What makes you believe it was her? What about Discord? You being here in this world is pretty chaotic, don’t you think?”

Twilight shook her head and sighed. “I know it was her. It’s the only possibility that makes any sense. Besides, if you know about Discord, then you also know that we already defeated him.”

“Maybe she had a good reason for it. Maybe she needed to do it.” Alex closed his eyes, immediately regretting his choice of words.

“Good reason? Good reason!?” The cinders of anger were close to reigniting, but Twilight lowered her voice and looked away when she noticed Alex cringe. “What possible ‘good reason’ could somepony have to let others spy into their personal lives, or even worse, into the lives of those that they called friend?”

Alex wanted to comfort her pain, but he didn’t know how; he could only try to empathize with her, having never before been a victim of an act of this caliber.

Twilight lifted her head and looked into Alex’s eyes. “How am I going to tell the others? What will they say? What will they do?” She paused for a moment, looking away again. “Maybe I shouldn’t tell them. I don’t want them to feel the way I do right now. I don’t want them to hurt like this.”

Alex shook his head. “Um, I’m not so sure that is a good idea, Twilight.”

“What do you mean? Why not?”

“What if your friends find out? What if they found that you knew about this and didn’t tell them? Wouldn’t that hurt them just as much... maybe even more?”

There was a moment of silence as she considered. The sun’s rays were just beginning to peek their way over the eastern horizon, and would soon be bathing the house in their warmth. “I suppose you are right.” She let out a sigh. “What do you think I should do?”

“Well, I would wait and talk with her first. Confront her with what you know. Find out her reasons. It might make more sense and would help to avoid the pain that you felt when you have to explain it to your friends.” Alex showed her a slight, reassuring smile. “At the very least, it couldn’t hurt.”

Twilight mulled the idea over a bit. “I guess I owe her that much...” Her voice trailed off into a low mumble that he couldn’t make out, but its general meaning was easily inferred. “So, what about you?”

He was surprised by the sudden change in topic. “What about me?”

“Well, what do you do?” The studious look she had given him the night before had returned. It felt like she was monitoring him as if he was a lab specimen.

“What do I... oh, you mean as in a job?” Alex couldn’t believe that Twilight would be interested in anything about him. She was practically a celebrity, and he was just a nobody. “I work for a small database management company. It is a software company for medical practices to keep track of their patients records.”

“Software?”

“For computers.” Alex had to remind himself that Twilight would have no idea what a computer was and so logically, she would not know what software was. He supposed he had better explain. “Computers are machines that can hold enormous amounts of information. Kinda like all the books in a library in one single location.”

He could have sworn that Twilight’s eyes had somehow managed to double in size. “Library? You have libraries? What kinds of books are in your libraries?”

“A multitude. We have a library in town that I would guess has about twenty thousand books, easily.”

Her jaw dropped. “Twenty... thousand? That’s more than the libraries in Canterlot have! Are you sure there are that many?”

“Very. The building is pretty large, and all the shelves inside are pretty much packed with books. The library in Hastings isn’t even that big though. There are libraries in larger cities that are multiple stories tall. Ours only has a single floor.”

“Would you take me to your library? The one in Hastings, I mean, if that’s where we are.” Twilight could barely contain herself. “I positively must partake of the plethora of periodicals and publications pertaining to persons and places of paramount pursuits, post haste.”

She inhaled deeply to catch her breath, attempting to suppress her giddiness. “Please?”

Alex couldn’t help but smile at her reaction. He would love for nothing more than to bring her to the library. A sudden realization stole his smile away. He closed his eyes and prepared himself for her response. “I would love for nothing more than to take you to the library, Twilight, but...”

“But?”

He sighed. “But people here aren’t used to seeing unicorns, or talking animals for that matter. The ponies and horses that we have here aren’t capable of speech. They are considered beasts of burden by most people.”

“Beasts of burden, what do you mean? What are beasts of burden?”

Alex gave the best description of animal husbandry as he could, with what little knowledge he had on the subject. While he did not agree with most aspects of it, he could see its potential and the reasoning behind such beliefs. Without it, civilization would not be what it is today.

“I see.” Twilight did not seem to be happy with the subject, but she left it at that. “I still don’t understand though, why can we not go to the library?”

“If people weren’t overwhelmed by the fact that you are a living, talking unicorn, which they would be, they wouldn’t allow you in the library for fear that you might damage the books.”

Twilight was appalled by the notion. “Me? Damage books? That would never happen. Not in a million years.”

“I know, Twilight, but other people don’t know you like I do. They would assume you are a beast of burden and wouldn’t allow it. Besides, the library is pretty far away. We would have to take a bus to get there. I’m sure they wouldn’t allow you on the bus, either.”

Twilight rubbed her chin with a hoof, as if she were contemplating something. When she finally looked up she seemed to have come to a conclusion. “So, the only thing preventing you from taking me to your library is the fact that I’m a unicorn.”

“Right.” Alex nodded.

“Well then,” Twilight stood up and smirked, “I guess I will just have to do something about that now, won’t I?”

Alex was confused. “What do you–”

Before he could finish his statement, Twilight’s horn started to glow; a pulsing sound rang out from it, filling the room with a resonant hum. The glow grew out from her horn, encompassing her entire body. When she was entirely encased by the light, her silhouette began to change. Her hind legs appeared to shift, the joints reversing and the hooves growing thicker toward the bottom. Her tail shrank until it had entirely disappeared from view.

The joints at the hooves in her front legs also reversed, and the hooves themselves began to widen and lengthen. Both of them split into five separate multi-jointed appendages. Her torso thinned to match the legs of the new form. When her muzzle shrank back into her head, a small portion of it remained slightly elevated. Finally her horn, the last part unchanged, retreated into her forehead until it had completely vanished.

When the light and sound began to fade, Twilight lifted her front legs, which had changed into arms, complete with a pair of hands, from the carpet and began standing on her hind legs which now had small feet attached to them. She beamed with pride at what she had accomplished.

Alex stared, his mouth agape at her accomplishment. Twilight now stood before him, a petite woman, of no more than twenty years. Her mane had become long, beautiful hair, and her telltale bangs remained perfectly intact. She still had her cutie marks, although they were now located on opposing sides of each of her thighs. She was absolutely stunning to behold.

She was also absolutely naked.

When that fact finally dawned on him, he felt his face flush the brightest red and he quickly turned away. Of course Twilight had been naked the entire time she was here, but it wasn’t until he saw her in this form that he felt embarrassed, and somewhat enticed.

“Oh... did I screw something up?” Twilight examined her body for some sort of flaw. “I can try again if I need to. It’s a new spell that I learned recently, so I haven’t had much practice with it.”

“No.” He managed to choke out. “No, Twilight. You didn’t screw anything up. It worked perfectly.”

“Then what’s wrong? Why are you looking away?” She arched an eyebrow at him.

“Well, it’s because... your clothes.”

“What clothes?” She looked herself over again, trying to find what he was talking about.

“Exactly. You aren’t wearing any.”

Twilight was flustered by his statement of the obvious. “Why is that a problem now? It didn’t seem to matter before.” She was starting to get agitated.

“Well, among my culture, it isn’t proper for people, humans, to be so... naked around each other unless they are very close.”

“Very close? I don’t understand. Like this?” She took two steps toward Alex.

“No!” Alex blurted. He thought he felt his face redden even further. He was going to have to put it in words she would understand. “Very close, as in significant others. I believe Sweetie Belle once put it as, ‘very special someponies’.”

“Oh. OH!” Twilight blushed slightly when she finally caught on. “I suppose that would be misconstruing of our current arrangement.”

Alex exhaled, relieved she finally understood. “Yes. So you can see the predicament. I think I can remedy the situation though, if you don’t mind wearing someone else’s clothes.”

“I suppose that wouldn’t be too much of a problem.”

“Excellent. I will go look and see if I can find you a few things.” Alex retreated to the temporary safety of his room, and began to dig through his closet for something suitable. He was suddenly glad that he had not thrown out his older things; even though they no longer fit, he had felt somewhat attached to them. He returned a few minutes later with a gray shirt, a pair of black pants and some undergarments. He offered the clothing to Twilight while attempting to avert his gaze.

Twilight examined the garments for a few moments, comparing them to her current body. In short manner she had figured out the order and placement of each article and pulled them on, albeit somewhat awkwardly.

“These are not the most comfortable things I have ever worn.” She pulled the pants up over her hips and began fumbling with the button. Being unaccustomed to the dexterity required by her newly formed fingers, it took a few minutes for her to accomplish the task of buttoning. When she had finally pulled the shirt over her head, Alex reluctantly helped her straighten everything out.

“Sorry about that. They are the only things I had that I thought might fit you.”

“They are a little big, but they will do.” She offered him a smile of appreciation before glancing down at the white writing on her shirt. “Snow Patrol? Is that something like the ground team for Winter Wrap Up Day?”

“Oh no, nothing like that.” Alex let out a small laugh. “It’s the name of a band, a group of musicians that make a living playing music for others.”

She looked somewhat surprised at this information. “And you are a member of this band, Snow Patrol?”

“No, it’s just a group that I liked and decided to show my support for, nothing more.”

Twilight continued to fire off a barrage of questions over the next hour that Alex found unusual to answer, to say the least, though he assumed that if he were a visitor in a world he knew nothing about, he might be asking very similar questions before he ventured out into it. He was thoroughly impressed by her ability to process information when he noticed her mimicking his gestures and associating them with their corresponding conversation points. It seemed that her prowess for magic had more fundamental roots. He answered her questions as best he could, while trying not to laugh at some of them. When at last she seemed ready to go, she stood up.

“Ok, I think I am fully prepared for the journey. Approximately how long will it take for us to arrive at this ‘bus stop’?”

“It’s not far; we passed it last night on our way here.”

Twilight seemed a bit worried. “And you’re sure it’s safe, this giant metal box that is moved by harnessing ‘controlled’ explosions?”

“Of course Twilight. It is completely safe. You can trust me. It will be just like the train ride to Canterlot.”

“Except for the explosions.”

“Right.”

Twilight wasn’t about to let this hurdle impede her progress to the library. She swallowed as she steeled her resolve. “Shall we be on our way then?”

Alex smiled at her determination and nodded. “Let’s.”

Author's Note:

Pre-read by: NotSoSubtle
Edited by: FrontSevens

Comments

[Naden Gryphus]

I like it. It has a lot of potential.

Your wording is perfect, the pacing is good, the grammar and spelling are impeccable. Give dem cookies to dem proof-readers.

The only thing that bothers me is the calmness of Alex. He's taking this very, very lightly. At first it made sense, he thought he was delirious. But now, after so much time and a good night's sleep?

I also noticed this is a re-written version of the story, I never read the first one. But I expect big things from this one.

Flesh out your characters even before introducing them. Set a conflict and develop it.

It's too early for me to give any kind of verdict. I'll be watching this.

[Somepony New]

2360695, 2362267

Thank you for your feedback. You needn't worry, the issue of the calmness of Alex, as you put it, is revisited shortly.

As for the removal of Twilight's horn, it isn't really gone. It has melded into her new, current form. Unlike Evening Star's, which was removed entirely, however that does not necessarily mean the change is devoid of drawbacks.

And Celestia's behavior? I am pleading the fifth on that. You will be able to decide for yourself soon enough.

2278323, Thanks for your continued support. I hope you are enjoying the re-read.