Magic

My vision was blurred as I slowly began to wake. Oddly enough, I saw a giant, purple fuzzy glob covering the majority of my vision, and quickly rubbed my eyes in confusion.

"JEEZU...."

I recoiled back sharply, hitting my head against the wall and instinctively raising my firsts for self-defense.

"TWILIGHT WHAT THE HECK WERE YOU DOING?" I screamed, making her wince at my outburst.

"Oops, sorry. I didn't mean to scare you. I just saw you waking up and thought I could ask you if you were ready to fulfill your promise. I… I was a bit exited and didn’t think that you'd react this way."

"SO YOU STARE AT ME WHILE I'M SLEEPING!?"

I barked back with a whine in my voice that came from both surprise and anger. I took a moment to regain a steady pulse, and observed her standing on the other side of my bed looking guilty and sorry. I saw the damage I'd done and instantly regretted it; I calmed down enough to respond:

"Sorry Twilight I over reacted and I feel bad about it. Just wasn’t expecting to be woken up like that. Please forgive me and let me get dressed and eat, then I promise you can study me all day. Okay?"

I wasn't ready to let such an incident hinder my goal of solidifying my friendship with her. In my rough awakening I forgot how quirky Twilight acts sometimes and reacted too harshly. To my relief she perked up, and giddily started to explain all the little tests she had set up last night, and how much she could learn from me. I was too groggy and distracted by the new bump on my head to pay too much attention.

This time upon entering the kitchen I found the table neatly covered and set for two with a full delicious breakfast. I turned to her and was met with a smug looking grin.

"You aren't the only one who can cook you know. I've read three of the most popular cook books ever published, and got pretty good at making... most things well."

She stated, adding a little hindrance on "most things" that made me a bit uneasy, but my hungry stomach wasn't having any sort of argument with my brain at the moment and a:

"Thanks Twilight, it all looks amazing."

Was enough of an answer to allow us to eat. Scrambled eggs, pancakes with thick golden maple syrup, crispy tan toast with butter in between, and freshly squeezed juice made up my breakfast and weighed me down when I finished.

I sat there and silently argued with my stomach as to whether or not the extra pancake was worth the impending discomfort, before my seat was magically turned toward the door. Twilight came up behind me, and gripping my shoulders she excitedly questioned:

"Ready to begin?"

Why do I have a bad feeling about this? My groan and struggling to get up made her laugh as I grudgingly maneuvered toward the living room, surprised that I still fit through the door I came through.

"Wha...Did you do prepare this overnight?"

I asked, suddenly paying attention to the massive changes made to the living room. It was filled with all sorts of gadgets, gizmos, and scientific equipment. Monitors of all sorts for god knows what, littered the room. A little lab whose surface was nearly completely covered in beakers and unidentified fluids sat in the middle of the room. Of course, each little station had its own little blank book complimented with quill and ink. Looking more closely now I realized that it was all organized in a clockwise fashion, unfortunately starting at twelve o clock each succeeding station promised more horrors than the next.

"So. Do I sign a waiver or something?" I asked. Only half joking.

"What for silly? Now let's begin."

And with that I was promptly escorted to my first test. I had a helmet popped on my head while my arms were locked in place. "I guess this is why." I thought, answering my previous mental question, while Twilight put on her all too conveniently nearby lab coat and goggles. Over the course of this week she seemed to have warmed up to me nicely, and seemed to more or less trust me. I assumed that after today she'd be finding more… interesting ways to see if I was trustworthy.

She flicked the switch on my machine, and I swear I would have been in some sort of pain had I not been in awe at what unfolded before me. Twilight seemed like a completely different person. The quirky and nerdy character who had exercised minor caution toward me, melted away and left a determined and commanding one in its place. One that performed magic to degrees I would have never imagined. She was in her zone, in complete control, and seemed to lose any fear of me she might have had. Books came off the shelf to slowly rotate around her, allowing her access quick searching, the quills wrote down data with such speed that they threatened to set their pages ablaze.

Twilight herself was humming a light melody as she worked feverishly, but despite her speed she moved with precision that someone as seemingly un-athletic as her would normally be incapable of.  With enough data to satisfy her needs, she magically un-cuffed me and continued to stare at her data.

"Please move on to the next test."

She commanded. When I sat down at my new station she continued to amaze me by teleporting to the lab section in front of me and got ready to collect more data.

"Please remove your shirt for this test." she instructed me and I complied.

A few wires and light electrical shocks later, and she had a full estimated diagram on the human central nervous system.

 The next test didn't seem too bad. Twilight was just messing around with the lab, only glancing back occasionally as if to confirm something; or to check and see if I came to my senses and decided to leave while she was looking the other way. Fortunately for her, I didn't. Unfortunately for me, she turned around with large syringe containing questionable contents.

"That wasn't in the description of "tests"."  I said, leaning back into my chair the same way a toddler does when he refuses to eat what is given to him.

"Oh don't be such a big baby." She said, rolling her eyes while the syringe swayed with her displeasure.

"Hey, I just want to know what you plan to inject into me. I mean I'm all for science and helping you out, but that liquid doesn't look like it belongs inside of me."

"Oh come on. Don't you trust me?" She asked sadly while looking down, not even attempting to hide the fact that she knew what she was doing was wrong.

"You know this isn't fair right? Sigh. Fine. This isn't going to hurt is it?"

Smiling she proceeded to explain in an unnecessary amount of detail about the contents of the syringe and how painless it should be.

"Egghead." I replied jokingly, right before she jammed what I could only assume to be a sword into my arm; all the while maintaining a smirk that reflected her enjoyment in her revenge.

"AHH, Ok I'm sorry, jeez. Lesson learned." I said, rubbing my arm and disappointed to only find a small dot instead of a giant gash to be the source of my immense pain.

The rest of the morning was filled with all sorts of tests and eventually stretched to midday. Finally the sore and grumpy patient was released to enjoy a meal while the scientist collected her data and prepared the physical portion of tests.

I loitered around the kitchen, eventually rummaging through the fridge, and letting out a deep sigh when I concluded that there was no way I could eat until I would be over with the horrors that Twilight had in store. I couldn't say I was regretting my decision to help bond with Twilight, but I sure wasn't enjoying it either. I walked back into the living room, deciding that I rather brave the rest of her experiments sooner than later, and was met with a nice surprise.

"Now this, I can work with."

I exclaimed, as Twilight finished levitating the last of the testing course pieces into place. The room had been transformed into a large physical gym. Cones, treadmill like machines, and monitoring equipment now replaced the lab and medical machines.

"Glad you're enthusiastic about this part. Now put these on." She said, levitating a heartbeat sensor and a few other sensory equipment in the form of sweat bands or stickers.

"I'm going to be pushing you to your limits, and in the end I hope to have an accurate conversion graph that compares our species physique. Basically it should estimate as to how similar in muscle performance we are."

"Yea yea, where do I begin?" I answered, glad that this time her grin was met with mine.

***

"Faster!"  Twilight shouted at me, clicking a new lap on her stopwatch. Her clipboard and notes right beside her, obediently waiting to be used.

"YOU GOT IT!"

I shouted back, picking up my speed on the treadmill. I never thought the endless walking and absentminded exercise in whatever hell I came from would be useful, but here I was tearing Twilights tests apart and fulfilling all of her requests. The majority of the afternoon consisted of various exercises, lifting weights, and hitting the treadmill. Admittedly, she had been asking me to perform an awful lot for her, and I was getting pretty tired.

"And time."

I slowed my pace and stopped, catching my breath as Twilight finished scribbling down her observation and the data my equipment gave off.

"Alright, just one more set of physical torture and we'll be almost done."

"You sure are thorough." I replied, taking another swig at the water she provided, thankful that this would be over soon.

"Thanks, now don’t rest just yet. I need to run you through a few more tests. Can you start with push-ups?"

"You got it boss." I groaned.

I hit the ground and started doing extremely slow push-ups while Twilight carefully examined the way my muscles functioned and folded.

"Hey Twilight, care to join us for lun… What are you up to?" Dash questioned as she burst into the library without a prior notification.

I tensed and straightened myself appropriately, attempting to show neither fatigue nor improper technique. For the first time today, I actually began to sweat from nervousness.

"Dammit." I thought. I had never really addressed my odd attraction to Dash, but eventually I decided that I'll play nice and see where it takes me. After all, of all my friends, she was the only one that still held the most caution toward me, and it ticked me off considering all the hard work I had put into being accepted.

"Hello Dash. Artyom promised to allow me to study him remember? So I'm just finishing up the physical portion of the tests. I want to see how our species compare in muscle development, function, and location."

Dash listened obediently, as if from experience for dealing with Twilight's scientific ramblings.

"Uh... huh." She casually responded, mostly ignoring Twilight now and gazing over her to see what I was up to. I caught another irritating, cautious look on her.

"So how does Artyom here match up?"

She asked. I felt like she was challenging me. Giving me a chance to prove my worth. See if I can accomplish something other than being an oddity, and I prepared to prove that and more. She walked up to me and watched for a moment while Twilight finished scribbling down some data.

"Ok Artyom, you can stop now." she addressed me. Now turning to Dash, she answered. "Well actually Dash, based on the results from the tests he ran, and those you and Applejack let me run on you during your competition, he is on par with both of you physique wise. His muscle functions aren’t too different from ours, and if the data is correct he is on athlete level physique."

"Hell yea." I thought, glad that all that training and physical labor didn’t go to waste.

"The "who's a better athlete" competition last fall? I hardly tried that day. Besides I'm way stronger now."

Dash answered, seemingly offended that something like me could compare to her. She was pushing my buttons, but I'd be damned if she didn’t look good going it. Not wanting my capabilities thwarted prematurely, and deciding that earning Dash's respect was going to be a challenge anyway, I pushed off hard and hopped back on my feet.

"Why don’t we see how well I really match up before you go about raining on my parade huh?"

I stated with a confidence that Dash's apparent "new found respect" gaze bore through. I wasn’t going down easy, and that caught her attention.

"Alright. You got spunk. I like that. Tomorrow 10 sharp at the track, bring you’re A game if you want to keep up." She chuckled, apparently taking a liking to my enthusiasm and gave me a slight smile of approval.

"Yes ma'am" I replied, returning the smile. Wow, I'm actually going through with this, I must be crazier than I thought.

"So that's a no, huh you two?" Dash asked Twilight.

"You two? As in I was invited? That’s new." I thought.

"I still have the psychological portion of the test left. Although a bit more personal, it can give some valuable data." Twilight answered, glancing at the long checklist on her clip board.

"Sorry Dash, but I promised Twilight ill test all day, so if she says I got to do this, then I got to do this."

"That’s alright, I'll tell the others you couldn’t make it."  Dash responded, turning around to leave.

"Well actually, this test can be more interesting if you participate too Dash." Twilight said, her exited face on.

"Uhhh. I'm kind of hungry and the."

"Pleeeaaase?"

Twilight cut her off and leaned forward slightly, putting on her sad pouting face. Not wanting to endure any of her tests alone, and to spend more time with Dash, I knelt down beside her and mimicked her face the best of my abilities. It hurt to see Dash look at me for a moment, her answer mainly depending on whether she could stomach or trust me.

"You guys aren’t fair." She groaned as we all shared a laugh. A thought of how lucky I was to actually share such a moment at all, crossed my mind, but I pushed it away for later not wanting to ruin the moment with my troubles.

"I'll go tell the gals and be right back." Dash stated once the moment wore off.

"Sounds good. We'll get things set up here." Twilight answered.

Once Dash left, I sprinted to get a change of clothes and take a shower, suddenly aware of my smell after Twilights tests, and glad Rarity wasn’t here to point it out. I sprinted to the bathroom before having to double back and ask if Twilight needed help moving the furniture and equipment around. Upon my arrival into the living room Twilight raised an eyebrow as she magically levitated the extremely heavy equipment with ease.

"Point taken."

I yelled as I ran back to sanitize myself. I got back just in time to witness Twilight set up a couch, presentation easel, lights, and a small chair in front of the couch for her. She put on a small pair of glasses and prepared her notebook and slides. As if on cue, Dash came back looking slightly annoyed, but obediently took her place on the couch next to me and leaned on one arm, looking bored.

"Alright you two. Let's make this quick. Now what does this look like?" Twilight asked pointing to an ink blot.

"Eagle."

Dash and I both responded simultaneously. We both perked up and stole a quick glance at each other before returning our new found attention to Twilight.

"Wow, alright you two. What's this?" She asked again after adjusting her glasses and flipping to a new ink blot.

"The sky." I answered.

"Clouds." Dash responded.

"Interesting."

Twilight analyzed, silently pondering the current situation, but deciding to remain silent. She flipped the next slide and stayed silent. Dash and I no longer answered to Twilight, but to each other. With every new slide we looked at each other and described what we saw. With each slide we giggled and laughed as our answers if not identical were too similar to not take interest in.

"Dragon."

"Sword."

"Wings."

We exchanged answers back and forth. One by one. There was no need to repeat each other's answers and eventually it was more to just confirm the obvious than to participate in Twilight's test. The last slide was shown and we both froze. I looked at Twilight first. She had been silent this whole time, slowly observing the connection Dash and I shared. Apparently we had given her a new test's results, one that she did not expect. I wondered about what she was thinking, but I was too excited about my bonding with Dash to think about it now. I gulped once and stared at the picture, then at Dash. I was sure she was thinking the same thing, but who was brave enough to say it first?

She had obviously begun to take an interest in me, I didn’t seem like a disease anymore now that I shared common opinions. We had spent the past hour bonding and breaking off about the things we saw in the ink blots, laughing and getting caught up in the moment. The last slide however, caught us both off guard and seemed to have killed the moment. I knew Dash was beginning to like me, but I was sure that this might have been pushing it too far. She definitely thought the same thing I did, otherwise she wouldn’t remain this silent. I mentally cursed Twilight at the moment, sure that this was part of her experiment.

"Looks...looks like a couple." I started.

"Kissing."

Dash finished. The moment remained tense. Things wanted to be said. Others wanted to be done. In the end a good natured laugh shared by the three of us broke the ice. Dam I was glad that didn’t end up badly. Dash seemed like someone who effortlessly spoke her mind about anything she needed to, and the fact that she didn’t seem like she wanted to puke at the thought that we shared a common romantic opinion about something, really meant something.

"It's getting late." Dash said as she got up and yawned loudly. "Tomorrow, 10 O clock sharp. Got it?"

She added as she walked toward the door, gazing back at me with a... different kind of smile. One that I would remember for the rest of my life.

"Got it."  I replied, returning the smile, heart beat intensifying against my wishes.

As she walked out into the cool night and took flight, I stood in the doorway unable to gaze away until I no longer recognized her silhouette against the dark night sky.

I closed the door, and was met with a light smile from Twilight. She had sure seen a lot today, and was more than smart enough to not be oblivious to what just happened. I was glad she decided not to openly confront me on what just happened and remained silent. This meant I had her support, or in the very least, didn’t have her objection. And that was a sign of our friendship.

I suddenly realized how tired I really was. Yawning loudly, I stretched and offered to make a quick snack as neither of us had eaten more than breakfast all day. Apparently realizing her own fatigue as well, she yawned and gladly accepted. I went to the kitchen and whipped up a quick, yet tasty meal for us to share before retiring for the day. When I finished, Twilight teleported herself to the kitchen table and we both got to silently enjoy the meal in each other's presence. Once we finished, I cleaned everything up and be both went upstairs to sleep.

"Twilight." I said, right before we went to the opposite sides of the room.

"Thanks. For everything. I'm... I'm glad I have you as a friend."

She hugged me and responded:

"I'm glad to have you as a friend too."

We stood there for a bit, embracing each other. The moment ended and we went to our respective corners of the room to sleep.

I was excited about tomorrow and exhausted from today, so I cut my analysis short. Twilight was a valuable friend to have, one that had many quirky qualities that only made her that much better of a friend. As I went over the little funny sides of her that I had seen today, I got tired and fell asleep as one last word escape my thoughts on her. One that stood above the rest.

Magic.