Morbid Curiosity

Twilight attempted to act natural as she prowled the town looking for her target. She didn't know everypony there by any stretch - and travelers came through each day, further complicating her goal of scanning any unfamiliar face. Waving to friends as they passed, greeting those who greeted her with a polite nod or a 'good afternoon', pretending to examine the goods at market - all of it an illusion as Twilight's eyes endlessly scanned the crowd looking for a pony who matched her description.

While not in vain, it would certainly be difficult. She had to find him today, there would be guards here tomorrow - 'and that would either scare him off or remove him from my grasp' Twilight thought to herself. A race against time was exciting to Twilight - she liked to work under pressure, it gave everything a sense of urgency.

Twilight concluded, after an hour or two of moving through the crowds, that her target was not on the streets. She had accounted for slight changes to the stallion's appearance, and yet nopony like him had been seen. Twilight's internal thoughts ruled out asking around as an option lest he be alerted - or Pinkie found him first and made the entire town aware of his presence, complicating the issue even further. Or even worse, if the stallion ... Twilight's mind forced this out as an issue. She needed to find him first, and that was all she needed to remember. With renewed determination present on her features, Twilight trotted nonchalantly toward Ponyville's most popular bakery, Sugercube Corner. Food often attracted a great many to its doors, and with any luck Twilight could intercept the stallion before he arrived - lunchtime for most wasn't due for another ten minutes or so.

Passing by a couple, who nodded to her to acknowledge the good day, Twilight rounded a corner to face the front door of the bakery. And, propped up against the wall, was a light blue stallion with a black mane and tail - once they had been neat, but they now grew somewhat untidily. The stubble on the drawing had since been shaved, but Twilight wasn't fooled. She smiled a triumphant smile, and the corner of her mouth flickered with it even after the smile had finished.

Assuming a calm air, the unicorn meandered toward the light blue pony, and turned to face him after she was sufficiently close. As soon as this started, Twilight's mind immediately flicked into panic mode. Social interaction?! What on earth was she thinking, she couldn't talk her way out of a carriage ticket, let alone convince somepony she'd just met to follow her home!

'You've really dropped yourself in it, haven't you? Well, time for those friendship lessons to pay off!' Twilight thought to herself as she attempted a half baked smile and looked the rather grumpy yet nervous stallion in his hazel eyes. "Hi there... You seem new here," Twilight attempted, her tone faltering between friendly and her own unique brand of nervousness.

"I am." The stallion responded flatly, his eyes passing quickly over Twilight's form. "What's it to you?" he asked.

Conversation established, pay him a compliment to make him feel comfortable.

"Well, I just thought ... err ... a scholarly pony such as yourself might be interested in Ponyville's collection of books." Twilight sputtered out, stumbling over her words a little and her facial expression attempting to contort itself into something friendly but finally settling on a fake smile that leaned to one side.

"I'm not really a reader. I prefer doing to reading about something." The stallion responded, looking at nothing in particular before returning his gaze to Twilight ... though he failed to look in her eyes.

Change subject, talk about something he's interested in. Don't lose your cool now, Twi!

"Well, what kind of things do you like doing?" Twilight asked, turning her head to one side slightly to hide a little of her face, but keeping the smile she thought she might be able to pass off as sweet. Despite herself, Twilight's mind raced through what she liked to do - and her eyes traveled over the stallion's body, her mind mapping out his insides and trying to picture how it all worked.

"I like to spend nights with company ... it can get lonely. But I'm not like most ponies. They don't know what they want until I give it to them." he responded, his own sly smile pulling itself across his face a his eyes moved slowly across Twilight's body, resting on her flank before quickly flicking back to her neck and wandering up to her face again.

Twilight's stomach turned at just what he was implying. She pulled her attention back to his face, and the stench of alcohol that came from his breath.

Connection established, interest established. Exploit desire in order to get what you want.

Behind Twilight's eyes, her method of establishing and maintaining communication to reach her desired end was becoming increasingly detached from emotion as her mind fell back on it's well known logic to compensate for a complete lack of understanding of how well this was going.

"What're you looking at?" the stallion asked, furrowing his brow a little and stretching his neck so his gaze could slowly follow down Twilight's spine to its base.

Abort! Abort! He's onto you!

Twilight sighed a little. "Honesty is best I guess. I'm examining you because I think you'd make a good specimen for my experimentation." Twilight admitted defeated. 'Now he's going to call you weird, you're going to walk home, and he'll be apprehended by the end of tomorrow.' Twilight thought to herself, lowering her head dejectedly.

The stallion chuckled and his eyes widened. "That's the single most forward thing I've ever heard!" he said, his mouth agape with a creepy grin plastered over it. "Take me back to your home, I'd be happy to 'experiment' with somepony like you." he said, something deeply unsettling behind his supposedly formal tone.

The mare's eyes widened. "Really?" she asked , taken aback. Without waiting for an answer, she quickly and quietly began to walk back to her home.

Twilight's mind was now thoroughly excited about the prospects now presented to her, and thoroughly confused as to why this stallion agreed to what she was planning. Perhaps he was an equine of science after all.

Or maybe he was insane. After meeting all the ponies in this town, Twilight was beginning to think she was the only sane one in this kingdom.