Chapter 4 (1/2)

                                                                   Chapter 4 - Skid Marks

Well, I decided to skip a large portion of time because frankly, I have no clue what happened. I remember talking with Twilight, and I remember a horrible burning sensation, and I remember hitting the floor. If I started writing this a while ago, I probably would have remembered what happened much better, but I only started writing this down here, after Fluttershy started writing hers. We want people to know who we were and learn from our mistakes once we are dead. I’m pretty sure that is what is going to happen. Anyway, I woke up from a dreamless sleep almost three weeks later.

"What in God's name?" I muttered trying to get up. I immediately shrieked in pain, my back felt like it was being ripped open. I fell backwards. I began to tear up, the worst burn I had ever had before was when I, like a moron, tried to take a rack out of a 400* oven with my bare hands.

"Why... do I hurt?"  I heard clopping to my left, and I looked over to see Twilight walking over to me.

"Herbert, I'm so happy to see you awake. I've been worried about you." She said in a sympathetic tone.

"Twilight, how did this happen? Why am I here like this?” I said, my cheeks slightly stinging. It felt like I did a bad job shaving.

"Herbert, I had to put you to sleep for a while. It was a magic induced coma; I wanted to keep you asleep so you wouldn't harm yourself. It isn't like you would be doing much anyway, besides suffering. I didn't want you to have to suffer." I lifted my arm, and saw some scarred tissue along it.

"Don't worry about your body; I've been taking care of all your needs."

"I see, and how did I come across these burns?"

"You and I were having a conversation when an unknown accident caused you to be enveloped by flames. I am really sorry, I have done all I can to speed up your healing and reduce your pain, but that isn't much. With as little as I know about human anatomy, I have little power over it." Her explanation seemed sound for the most part, but one thing stood out. She said the mishap had an unknown cause, and I found it very hard to believe that she would give up trying to find the cause of an incident, in her own home no less. Wouldn't she keep looking for it so she could prevent it from happening again?

"Well, you have my most sincere thanks for taking care of me so, Twilight. I do think I will need to stay in bed a bit longer though, as my inner thighs feel quite painful at the moment. Would you please bring me a few books from the toppled over stack?" Her face brightened up.

"Can I read to you, Herbert?" Read to me? Why would you want to do something like that?

"I took the liberty of reading all the books in your piles, and I happened to find a few books that may clarify what is referenced in some of these books." I looked over their titles: The Gryphon Effect; Pegasi and Weather; The Rifts. The first two I could guess at but the third title was a mystery to me. I looked at her with a confused look.

"The Rifts? What is that about?"

"There are areas on our planet that alter based on what occurs in other dimensions. This is caused by rifts. You will find more in the book itself, I haven't read that far into it yet, as it is a newly published book. So can I?"

"Thank you very much Twilight, but I don't think I would be much company. Talking hurts a bit."

"Oh, I wouldn't mind at all. I like reading and I've never had a reading buddy before." My arms do feel pretty sore, I probably can't sit up to read, and I do hate being alone with my memories...

"If you really want to, I suppose that would be nice, yes you can read to me.

"Thanks, what book do you want to read first?"

"How about that Rift book you mentioned, you said you hadn't read it all yet, so it can be new for both of us." She brought the book over by me and sat down, then began to read. We continued this for many days, her coming to sit, me trying to sit up to see her and shouting at the top of my lungs when I failed, her grabbing a new book, and reading it with me. Sometimes I would try reading to her, and we would just share many books. In one of our sittings, we were talking about Equestrian society when a question came to mind.

"Twilight?"

"Yes Herbert?"

"What is Equestria's stance on inter-species relationships?" It honestly seemed an innocent question in my mind, but came out in a way that I hadn't intended it to.  Her eyes lit up for a moment, and a confused face plastered her, but she immediately calmed down and answered with a pleasant voice.

"In Ponyville, there are none, in all of Equestria, they are very common. Equestria is more than just ponies, but we do form the majority of the population. Why were you curious about something like that?" Did I just give her the wrong idea? She was scooting very close to me. I think I did... fuck...

"I was just thinking about something I'd like to do some day." I know I say the wrong thing pretty often, but that one was inexcusable... I pretty much said 'Yes Twilight lets fuck sometime'. I think I’ll just serve my year here, and then try to find a tribe of talking monkeys and marry one of them. A monkey is a stretch for me, but a horse is not… not even a thing.

"Oh. Okay." She seemed content, and I prayed she wouldn't make an advance on me.

The next nine days went on the same, but I never found myself bored in her presence. She always had something new to talk about, and they always interested me. However, the tenth day was a bit special, compared to the other ones. It was the day I thought I might have an equalizer with these ponies.

Twilight was reading to me. It was a book about how the Unicorn's body allows them to use magic, and about how there are other species that can use it as well.

"'The area of the brain devoted to magic is nothing more than an extension of the sensory processors. That part of the brain is least used because there are almost no sensitive spots on a Pony's body. Unicorns and Alicorns have more nerves in their horns than even in their reproductive organs. In order to manipulate magic, one must have a large enough concentration of nerves in order to be capable to manipulate the field of magic.'" There was a reference box next to that last sentence. I would look into that later. So by this logic, I may able to manipulate the field of magic like a unicorn? Do I have enough nerves to manipulate the magic? Where on the human body is there a large concentration of nerves? The hands, the prostate, the face, and the genitalia are a few. I really hope I don't need to use my dick to use magic...I chuckled a bit too myself.

A couple of days later, I found myself able to walk about. It wasn't really comfortable, and I still had lots of scars, but I could walk without clenching my teeth.

"This is great, Herbert. Soon you will be able to walk around Ponyville."

"Implying you will allow me to, right?"

"I think I can let you get outside every once in a while. We do have a big skid mark in our tests we should fill in, but when that is over with you will be free to have some time to yourself."

"I'm looking forward to it.

When Twilight left that day, she had stayed longer than usual; I immediately got up and looked for the book with the reference box. Finding it, I set to looking through the shelves for the books listed in that box. I found two of them, and I added them to the pile of books we would read in the coming days. If my theory was correct, that book would have more information on how I could manipulate magic. Long story, short, it was and I found the book. I tossed it in my unrated pile. In it were the books Twilight had given me, and books I knew had to do with my readings but didn't know where they fit. I continued reading on magic and how it is affected and the affects it has on the world.

The sun was high in the sky when Spike walked in with a list.

"Hello Herbert." He seemed guilty about something, judging from his aversion to eye contact and his kicking at the floor.

"Hey Spike." I said in the most welcoming voice I had. I hadn't seen any of the other ponies in a while, but I was actually hoping to change that. Pinkie Pie had seemed an interesting character, and I recalled her saying she would be back around this time. My thoughts were getting off track, and Spike pulled me back into reality.

"Herbert, Twilight wants you to come with me; she has been working on something upstairs for the last month."  Makes sense, it is about time she did more tests on me. I followed him through the library to the second floor, and I saw Twilight just sitting there on the floor. The walls were barren of any previous decoration and the room was absolutely empty except for many wooden boards stacked up against a wall behind her.

"Sup Twilight, what have ya got for me?" She grinned, and I was immediately worried.

"You say you humans are good at problem solving, I'm going to put that theory to the test. First thing is navigation. I am going to make a maze for you by moving these boards around you to simulate walls. You will try to find your way to me through the maze I set for you." This sounded like a stupid test, and I was really not interested in it.

"Why didn't you just build a real maze instead of making one for me as I go? Isn't that kind of stupid? Besides, wouldn’t you just forget the pattern of the maze? Like, you would forget where a  "

"I'm not a builder, and Applejack and Rainbow Dash are both really busy, so I'm improvising. Any more questions before we get started?" I shook my head and began walking toward her. I'm not going to write down what that test was like, because I don't want to remember that boring waste of twenty minutes. The next test, believe it or not, was a Rubik’s Cube.

"Oh come on Twilight, don't make me do this. I hate these things, big wastes of time." She shook her head, twisted the thing around, and then set it in front of me. I sighed and set to work on it. I'm not sure if I want to write down any other test she gave me, that dick cube took me more than an hour. One of them involved trying to find holes in logic presented to me. Finally, to my relief, it was all put to a stop. Felt like hours had passed, it was probably five or something.

"Alright Herbert, I'm through for today." I was furiously pumping an air pump trying to get it in the green when she said that.

"Thank you sweet lord, I promise, whatever I did to make this happen, it won't happen again!"

"Er... Herbert, I'm a commoner, the royals live in Canterlot, usually. Besides, the proper term is Lady." I tried to ignore Twilight acting like a blonde and collected myself.

"Okay, is it time to eat yet?"

"I suppose. Fluttershy hasn't been bringing any meat by since you went to sleep, but I'm sure we can get you something. I've been feeding you applesauce and beans while you were out, so that is all I have for you."

"Hi Herbert, whatcha doin?" Pinkie Pie said as she popped out of the shower head while I was lathering myself with soap.