A Learning Experience
Chapter Six - A Learning Experience.
The sun had risen on a new day and Kai had finally had to go back to work. He had made sure that Twilight had everything she needed before he left. There were a few pre-made meals in the fridge, access to reading materials and he made sure that the voice recognition software on his PC was enabled. Having thick hooves was not ideal for typing on a keyboard.
“Are you sure you’ll be fine?” Kai asked for what was probably the hundredth time; the purple pony frowned and sighed.
“Yes…” Twilight sighed, not for the first time this morning. “I am a grown mare and can take care of myself!” Honestly, it was like living with her mother.
“Okay, okay.” Kai fixed his belt and adjusted the strap on his bag. “I should be back around six, so don’t open the door for anyone, and remember that-“
“For the love of Celestia! I am twenty six years old, not some little foal that needs constant looking after!” Twilight was starting to get annoyed but then noticed Kai giving her the strangest look. It was a mixture of confusion, disbelief and curiosity, Twilight knew this as it was the default expression she wore when dealing with Pinkie. “What?”
Kai blinked and then shook his head, “It’s nothing… just wasn’t expecting you to be older than me.”
Kai was younger? Admittedly, Twilight wasn’t expecting that. “Really? How old are you, if you don’t mind me asking?” Twilight’s insatiable curiosity squashed her previous irritation, plus it gave her a chance to learn a little more about her caretaker.
“I’m only twenty one.”
This genuinely surprised Twilight, she had always thought he was around the same age, if not older than her. Kai glanced at his watch and cursed under his breath. “Okay, I have to go… you sure you’ll be alright?”
“I’ll be fine, just get going already.” Kai didn’t have much choice as she started to shove him out of the door. He’d probably never leave otherwise.
Once he closed the door and locked it, Twilight sighed, letting her wings droop down and she pushed a lock of her mane aside. “Okay, now let’s see what this ‘computer’ thing does.”
She pulled herself up into the plush, leather chair. By the gods it was comfy; apparently it was something Kai had spent a good deal of money on. “If one has good food, good drink and a comfy chair… not much else is needed in life.” He had said it with such a sage-like tone that Twilight couldn’t tell if he was serious or not.
“Okay, now he said it had voice recognition… so if I just…” There was a headset with a microphone attached to it and after making some adjustments, Twilight managed to make it fit.
She glanced at the notes he had left, explaining how the device worked. “Open web browser!” she exclaimed in a clear, concise tone. The desktop faded and Google Chrome opened up, another glance at the instructions told her how to search. But what should she search for?
After a moment, she thought of something. “Search; Ponies!”
The web browser thought for a moment before Google Images brought up pages of images. Twilight stared at them for a moment, a single thought crossing her mind that simple had to be vocalised.
“Wat?”
*~*
As Kai got to work, he paused for a moment as he thought about what Twilight had said the other day. He took a breath and walked inside, hoping that this would go well.
“HEY KAI!!” Mike’s incredibly loud voice seemed even louder in the empty store, the recipient of the greeting just shook his head.
“Hey Mike, been busy?”
Mike just shrugged, “Nah, well sorta… wait a minute?” Kai had actually talked to him. Was he still sick? “You feelin’ okay?”
“I’m fine,” Kai said. He logged on to the computer to check the last few days’ worth of announcements. Couple of games up for pre-order, new special editions… ooh a special edition for Mario Kart 8.
Mike just looked at his work colleague; he seemed different, not quite as unapproachable. Was he drunk? Might as well see how far he could push the whole conversation thing.
“So how’s it going with that cute little sister of yours?”
“My sister?” Kai seemed, confused? “Oh, Twilight… yeah, everything’s going okay.”
Soon it was time to open and Kai switched into work mode. Smile, nod, rinse and repeat. He really did like working here, but dealing with some customers just made him lose faith in humanity. How is it that some people were so incurably stupid? One customer had yelled at both Kai and Mike, because a pre-order that hadn’t been picked up for six months had been cancelled and sold, despite the fact that the receipt stated on the bottom that per-orders were only held for 24 hours after release.
“Man, what a douche!” Mike said once the guy had finally left. Some customers had even nodded in agreement.
Kai nodded but he wasn’t really listening, his thoughts filled by a particular purple pony princess.
“I wonder what Twilight is doing?”
*~*
Things had gone from bad to worse to just downright terrifying. Twilight had read up on ponies and horses and where the animals stood in society. Aside from wild herds, they were beasts of burden, ploughing fields, racing or just kept as pets. Deciding to stray away from the subject, Twilight had moved onto human history…
Oh. Sweet. Celestia. Humans were the most violent creatures she had ever seen. Wars involving several nations, smaller civil wars, terrorism and murder seemed commonplace. They had invented weapons so devastating, they could destroy entire cities, leaving radioactive fallout that could affect flora and fauna for years. It would seem that a post-apocalyptic wasteland was also a popular fictional scenario. Sure, Equestria had seen some big battles and there had been casualties. The one with the Neighponese ponies a few hundred years ago had spanned a few months and had cost both Equestria and Neighpon a lot of lives and resources, but thankfully it reached a peaceful conclusion and now the nations couldn’t be closer.
She started thinking about Kai, was he also capable of such violent acts? She stomped on those thoughts immediately. Kai had been nothing but kind, a little antisocial, but kind nether-the-less.
Twilight’s wings twitched slightly as she thought about him, a gentle warmth filled her chest and she let out a small, but content sigh…
“…Oh no…”
*~*
Kai finished counting the tills and bagged up the bank deposit.
“Ugh, today sucked… I wanna go home, take a bath and die.”
Mike snorted as he adjusted his bag. “YOLO bro, the worse the day is; the better tomorrow will be.”
Kai paused and raised an eyebrow. “You get that from a fortune cookie?”
Mike just shrugged and once the shop was closed up, the two work colleagues went their separate ways. As Kai walked home, his thoughts wandered to how the day had gone. The conversation he had with Mike was probably the longest he had ever had. And the guy hadn’t been quite as bad as Kai had initially thought. Sure, he was still a little annoying and had spent most of the day listing off girls he wanted to try and hook Kai up with… but he wasn’t all that bad.
“I guess Twilight was right after all…” He sighed and smiled. He wasn’t going to hear the end of it now. He climbed the stairs to his apartment and once he reached the door, he knocked and called out.
“Twilight? It’s me.” He unlocked the door and turned the knob but when he walked in, Twilight who had been staring at the computer monitor suddenly shrieked and fell off of the chair with a loud thud.
“Pft! You okay Princess?” Kai laughed, helping the flustered alicorn to her hooves.
“Y-yeah, totally fine. No problems here!” Twilight replied all too quickly and Kai wondered what the heck she was doing.
“Princess Twilight Sparkle… were you looking at things you shouldn’t have on the internet?” He opened the web browser and clicked on the history tab, but all he saw was a multitude of Wikipedia entries about human history and culture. Geographical charts, topography, even star charts.
Twilight had climbed back onto the chair and looked over his shoulder. “I can’t believe humans have gone as far as the moon, without magic!” She had read things that boggled her mind, despite the violence and brutality; humans had also accomplished amazing things. Manmade monuments that could be seen from space, the fact that humans had flown to the moon without wings or magic. They had explored the highest mountains and the deepest oceans, and yet there was still more that they discovered every day. There were humans that lived with nature, forgoing the modern conveniences and technology and living from the land.
But there was another matter that they needed to address. Twilight glanced at the Element of Harmony that sat on the dining table and knew that with it, she could probably go home…
“Kai, I’ve been thinking… about returning home.” She got off of the chair and clopped over to the table, looking at the gleaming tiara. “With my Element of Harmony, my magic will return to its full strength pretty soon. And then all I have to do is anchor my magic to the remaining Elements in Equestria and use them as a beacon.” It was a little more technical than that, but she guessed Kai wouldn't understand the intricacies of cross-dimensional teleportation.
“Oh… so then, you can… go home?” He tried to remain neutral, block out the emotion he was feeling. But he failed pretty badly.
“Y-yeah, but I was wondering… that computer of yours taught me a lot about your world. And well,” Twilight’s face flushed red as she looked at her hooves. “Well, could I stay here a little longer?”
Kai’s wide smile was all that was needed to confirm his answer. Twilight grinned back and soon blushed again as her stomach rumbled loudly.
“Oh, right, I may have forgotten to eat lunch today.” Twilight smiled sheepishly. Kai facepalmed and shook his head.
“Well I suppose I’d better get dinner started then.”
*~*
Twilight Velvet paced nervously around the palace throne room. It had now been a little more than a week since her daughter had disappeared and the three remaining princesses were keeping rather tight lipped about what had happened.
Her husband, Night Light, had long since given up trying to calm the mare down and was no having an idle conversation with Shining Armour.
“How can you two be so calm!?” Velvet snapped. “Twily could be in serious danger and you two sit around talking about hoofball!?”
Night sighed and walked over to his wife. “Look, honey. I know that Twilight could be in trouble… but there’s nothing we can do right now. And besides, I think our little girl could handle whatever is thrown at her don’t you think?”
The knowledge that Twilight Sparkle had saved the world several times couldn’t really console the worrying mother. She was a mother after all and it was a mother's job to worry about her children no matter how old they got or what they accomplished.
The moment was lost when the throne room doors were opened and Princesses Celestia and Luna walked in, having recovered from the last attempt to bring Twilight home.
“I apologise for keeping you waiting, Duchess Velvet, Duke Light.” Celestia bowed her head. “I believe that we will be successful this time in bringing Twilight home… I just hope that we are not too late.”
*~*
Rainbow Dash sat in the ritual chamber, her thoughts still on what they had heard. Was Twilight really in danger? Was somepony trying to hurt her?
She was so lost in her thoughts that she jumped when a hoof fell gently onto her shoulder, she whirled around to glare at her would-be-assailant, only to see Applejack sitting there.
“Applejack? What the hay, I could have hurt you?” Rainbow wasn’t angry at the Earth Pony, just surprised that she been scare… startled so easily. Yeah, totally not scared!
“Heh, sorry ‘bout that Sugarcube. Ah heard a weird noise, but it turns out that it was jus’ you thinkin.”
“Oh har har, very funny!” Rainbow lightly punched the orange mare’s shoulder. A wave of nostalgia suddenly washed over her and she found herself remembering old times, like the Iron Pony contests she used to have with her friend.
“We… we don’t hang out much anymore… do we?” Rainbow’s scratchy voice got quiet as she looked at her hooves. The truth was that it had been some time since any of their little group had just spent the day together.
“Eeyup, Twilight really was the glue that held our little posse together.” It was quite close to harvest time when Twilight became a Princess and in the following months after, everypony had just been so busy. Applejack had to harvest and prepare for next season, Weather and Wonderbolts training for Rainbow Dash. Rarity had become one of the busiest, opening up chains in Manehattan, Canterlot and even Cloudsdale. Fluttershy was still Fluttershy, she still had spa days with Rarity but other than that, she was holed up in her cottage, caring for her animals. Pinkie Pie was still the social one, throwing parties for any and every occasion. But she was also on her way to becoming a world-class baker and the godmother for Pound and Pumpkin Cake.
And then there was Twilight. Everypony knew she’d be busy with her Princess duties but everypony, even the other Princesses had been shocked to see how far she had slipped back into her old ways. Holed up indoors with endless amounts of research, it was like she’d forgotten every friendship lesson she’d learned.
“Applejack?” Rainbow Dash was worried about something, a thought that had plagued the back of her mind since they’d all arrived in Canterlot. “What if… What if this wasn’t an accident. What if Twilight-?”
Applejack nodded, “What if Twilight ran away?”
“H-how?”
Applejack laughed dryly. “You’d be surprised, but yer not the only pony who thought that. Me and the other girls just had a little talk and we all came to pretty much the same conclusion.”
Everypony had thought about it? Was this what their friendship had become, thinking that their best friend couldn’t hack it and ran away? “Some friends we are?” Rainbow muttered, tears stinging the corners of her eyes. “Twilight probably felt worse than all of us and nopony knew about it!?” Her feelings quickly turned to anger. “And now she suffering in some other dimension and what are we doing about it?”
Easy there sugar, we don’t know all the details. Twilight might be perfectly fine.” Though the words left her lips, Applejack wasn’t convinced of their sincerity. “The Princesses will be here soon and we’re gonna try again. We will get Twilight back, no matter what!”
Rainbow nodded and started at the Element of Loyalty that was clasped around her neck. These powerful artefacts was what brought them all together and it was what would bring them together once more.
*~*
“So you took my advice?” Twilight beamed at her human friend. “And so how do you feel?”
Kai shrugged as he put the dishes away. “Not much different really.”
Twilight blinked and sighed. “Well, Roam wasn’t built in a day. I’ll keep trying until you can make some more friends.”
Kai nodded and gave her a salute. “I wish you the best of luck on your valiant endeavour Princess!”
“Nopony like a smart flank!” Twilight muttered. “But I will get you to make a friend. I swear upon my title and my honour as a Princess of Equestria!”
“Maybe I’ll make more pony friends?” Kai said jokingly, but Twilight just sat there with her mouth agape. Maybe that was the answer she was looking for. Twilight certainly had no complaints if Kai wanted to come to Equestria. And if she could get this teleportation spell down, then it would be a simple matter of just jumping between worlds whenever she wanted to see him or vice-versa.
Kai noticed Twilight’s expression. “Twilight? Are you thinking that I might actually be able to go to Equestria?”
Twilight closed her mouth and nodded. “Well, I was able to come here relatively unscathed. I don’t see why the opposite shouldn’t be true.” Kai had no magic, so there was no risk of that being affected. “It would be best if I could research how the human body works in more detail though… but I don’t have a pony biology book to cross-reference it with, and ponies in this world are… different.” The alicorn shuddered as she remembered what she had discovered on the internet. Between that and the website called ‘4chan’, she was probably going to have nightmares.
The conversation had gotten pretty serious now and Kai was genuinely hoping to visit Equestria. One, he’d get to spend more time with Twilight. Two, he’d get to meet more ponies. Three, how often did a human get to visit another world?!
“Well, I’m not adverse to the idea,” Twilight finally said. “And I’d love to show you Equestria… except…”
“Except what?” Kai knew that there’d be a catch somewhere.
“Well, the rule that applies to me here might also apply to you in Equestria. I don’t know how the average pony would deal with seeing a being quite like you. Add the fact that you’re taller than almost everypony, have sharp teeth and eat meat… there might be… problems.”
“Oh, that.” Well, Twilight raised a point and having that turned back on him; Kai got a feeling on what it must be like for Twilight, being stuck here in his tiny apartment all day and night.
“I really wish you could go outside, I really do.” Out of everything, this bugged Kai the most. It was unfair to Twilight and he knew that she’d have an absolute blast if she could explore just as she is. No stupid costumes, no complex transformations…
Twilight stretched her wings and walked over to the couch. “So what’s the plan for tonight? It’s still way too early for bed and I’ve been eyeing off some of these human movies.”
“Movie Night?” Man, he hadn’t had one of those in ages. “Lemme see if I have popcorn.”
The two friends ended up watching a few animated movies, like Kung Fu Panda and Rapunzel. It was close to midnight by the time they finished and Twilight let out a loud yawn.
“They were nice, but honestly, that Rapunzel movie was a bit much. Who in Equestria breaks out into song like that?”
“Flash mobs?” Kai shrugged. “It was cute though, I think it was one of Disney’s better CGI movies. But it was nowhere near as good as their older, hand-drawn ones.” His personal favourites were Robin Hood and Lion King.
“Perhaps we could watch them tomorrow then?” Twilight yawned again. “I really enjoyed tonight.”
“Sure.” Kai stretched and helped Twilight to her hooves. “C’mon, I’ll help you get to bed. Don’t want you falling off again~”
Twilight simply stuck out her tongue. “It was one time!” But he had a point, she really didn’t want to do something so embarrassing. She suddenly let out a surprised squeak as Kai lifted her up and carried her into the bedroom.
“W-what are you doing!?” Thank Faust that the lights were switched off and Kai couldn’t see the fierce blush that erupted onto her face. She knew that the human wasn’t as frail as he looked, but she didn’t think he’d be able to pick her up so easily.
He remained silent and placed her gently on the bed, tucking the blanket over her.
“G’night Twi,” he said. And then leaning close to her, gave her a gentle kiss on the tip of her horn before leaving the room, closing the door behind him.
Forget sleep, which just flew out the window while doing a Sonic Rainboom. Twilight’s thought process was a whirlwind of confusion.
“Why? Why did he just kiss me!?”
~~~
As Kai settled onto the couch, he pulled the blanket up and closed his eyes. His eyes opened again as a realisation dawned on him. A heated blush spread across his face and he lay there with one thought on his mind.
“Why did I kiss Twilight?”
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Because pone.
4643919 - Whoops, mah bad.
4701529 - Why not?
Ooh, it's getting hot up in here...is it just me or do you think a certain lavender somepony has the hots for a certain someone she's living with?
Twilight: (pops out of nowhere) D-do not!
Serenity(my OC): Hey! Stop appearing in my comments! Don't you have another dimension to be in?
Twilight: Oh, hehe, right!
Me: Hey, Serenity! How about you stop appearing in my comments? Y'know, because I WROTE IT!
Serenity: Yeesh! (pops away)
Me: *sigh* Well, I better close this up.
Sincerely, the self appointed/undisputed ruler of the world,
CeeCee (a.k.a. SerenitySparkle2000)
4701663 - I got a laugh from this.
Ooh, iideeaaa~
Next Chapter, Kai gets a flood of emails after he discovers that Twilight set up a Tumblr account.
First, the Great Wall of China can't be seen "from space"... unless you're using binoculars and orbiting low enough for plenty of wider things to be seen first.
Second, World War 1 and World War 2 can't be simplified as you did.
World War 1 was basically inevitable (It was basically a whole bunch of countries jumping on an excuse to exercise tensions that had been building for a long time). The only thing that made the death tolls so horrifyingly "war to end all wars" exceptional was that it was the first war to use the newly invented machine gun. The war basically lasted until the invention of the tank broke the deadlock.
(And it was a "world war" because those huge death tolls called for replacement troops from colonies like Canada that countries like the U.K. had acquired and not yet granted full independence.)
It significantly redrew Europe's political boundaries and, as a knock-on effect, inspired nationalist "we must take back the land which was stolen from us" sentiments among the citizens of various European nations.
Combine that with how Germany got scapegoated for the war and forced to agree to reparations so huge that they had to hyper-inflate their currency to have any hope of paying them (German citizens were burning bricks of money or using it to make kites... but the country still owed the same amount of money even as printing massive amounts of it devalued it to nothing), and World War 2 was basically inevitable.
If Twilight was on Wikipedia, she should know both of those facts. (Especially the bit about the Great Wall. There's an entire two-part section of the Wikipedia page dedicated to the history and details of that myth.)
4701674 Ask the Princess of Friendship.... Solving your friendship issues, one video at a time...
Don't you think it would be funny if Twilight's friends or the princesses found Twilight while she and Kai were kissing? What about with the cliché ''trip over each other and end up smashing lips together?'' Because I would.
Safe search off, Twilight, safe search off!
Extra, extra spaces?
I see I'm not the only one with this idea.
Missing 'w' for 'was'
That's a myth.
Really, Twi? You've only been there a few days, and you're already clopping in front of him?
but she guessed Kai wouldn't understand
that Twilight Sparkle had saved
it was a mother's job to
Firstly, missing 't' from 'It'. Secondly... here we go, Twi wants to 'research the human body'... better check the tags!
Extra, extra spaces again.
Twilight you have got love fever for Kai.
Do not!
Uh huh, sure you don't
"In order for me to verify there won't be any adverse effects on you I'll need to do a full body analysis and test suite..." mumbles Twilight with a blush....
Wouldn't it suck if Twilight got pulled back before she left a location marker? I hope not, despite the fact that the plot has a good 47% chance of this happening....
Keep going! ;)
4701714 - Well that'll teach me not to do research before I write. To be honest, the last time I read anything to do with that was back in high school... which was more than a decade ago. I've altered the paragraph slightly.
4702026 - Human body research. Trust you to find that and comment. I take it that you have 'ideas' already?
And those extra extra spaces? Goddamn GoogeDocs, the rest of the typos are my fault tho, thanks for pointing them out.
4702326 Ideas? Hell, I've already started a rough draft!
4702388 - ...I'm interested...
You should probably put up a romance tag.
People, realize that Romance isn't romance if it's 1sided, howeverrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr(Swedish R's.) he seems to be loving her, in a different way -- Much like that of a mother taking care of her son, or an older brother taking care of his little sister.
Good stuff, keep going sir!
been awhile but a nice little chapter. can't wait for more.
4705658 uhh huh, keep telling yourself that it's one sided or parental love.
4715437 Mhm.
ROAM wasn't built in a day R-O-A-M you sir are a genius. Love the story.
It's seriously been a long time since an update. I. AM. LOVING. THIS. STORY! I can't wait for a new chapter and I'm not the only one.
5109541 - Yeah, sorry. I've written maybe a quarter of the next chapter, but I've been rather uninspired as far as this story goes. But I'm glad that you like this and I'll try harder to get the next chapter done, okay?
Liked and fav. Would like to see more.
5353649 - Working on the next chapter as we speak... or type. It's about half done.
5353680
No worries. will be looking forward to it.
And so it begins...
aimostudio.com/ljplug/gif/AwYeahBaby.jpg
5363741 m.quickmeme.com/img/17/17c47c48012781950da497e8343391f7c5cb8f40445902eb72ec9f546ac74d7f.jpg
Actually, Faust decided their ages too be around 17-18.
"And then leaning close to her, gave her a gentle kiss on the tip of her horn before leaving the room"
King Theoden is saying those three words, those three god-forsaken words.
"So it begins..."
5415064 Perhaps at the beginning of the show, but there's been 4 seasons, we don't know exactly how much time each season encompassed or how long in between the seasons were. She very well could be in her mid twenties.
But that's just a theory...
A GAME THEO-
Nevermind.
5606271 A GAME THEORY!
Sorry but I had to do that.
21 years old on Earth doesn't mean 21 years in Equestrian.
6063644 That we know of. The two worlds share a surprising number of parallels (minus the bad puns). Who's to say that a year in earth time isn't the same as a year in equestrian time?
5606271 In season five, it is proven that a year or so has passed since seasons 1&2. The second Gala, Hearth's Warming, and Nightmare Night episodes came out this year, so Twilight's probably 19 or so.
Oh yeah, almost forgot
A FILM THEORY! THANKS FOR WATCHING!
(that'd be a better fit.)
Never visit 4chan.
*suppressed laughter intensifies*
6823051 always visit 4chan
That happened!
6709617
5606271
It was actually shown at the begining of season four that it has been one year since the start of season one: They say that it was the first Summer Sun Celebration since the one where Nightmare Moon became Luna again.
i.ytimg.com/vi/fGdSr9UXg_g/maxresdefault.jpg
So....he gave her unrestricted access to the Internet...? Without warning? No "be careful, there are thing once seen cannot be unseen"? No " stay away from 4chan"? Or "just bronze websites X, Y, and Z"? That guy was just reckless...
reactiongifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/oh-yes.gif
5046936 Actually, that's a fairly common pun for it. My personal preference is Roan.
7222454
Oh my god, that gif gave me some serious nestolgia.
hey kai
6063644 My theory is that there are 10 months in an Equestrian year, making Twilight 21 years old in Earth years.
Be de dung ye jus dun goof so haaaaaaaaaaard ye bung boi
7627747
That... Could work
...
Okay, buddy. I think we need to discuss your Internet Club Card. Specifically, its revocation.
Okay. It's been a good while, but you get my thumbs-up. Not enough for a fave, but it's solid enough and generally acceptable (though... does need quite a bit of work - most plot points feel a bit forced, the story doesn't exactly flow naturally, there are hints of wish-fulfillment etc.).
6852636
Can’t suppress laughter because really?! Twilight’s sung about half the spontaneous musical numbers in MLP. You’d think she’d remember that.
Oh if only that were what actually happened, rainbow would be pissed she didn’t get to do earth’s first rainboom