Twilight Sparkle makes a grand mistake.
Twilight Sparkle makes a grand mistake.
Twilight Sparkle closed her book. She then used her magic to levitate it over to Spike, who was putting the other books she had read back Into their proper places on the shelves. He did the same with the book he was given, and then waited for his next task. He knew that Twilight was reading the books for a reason, and he probably was going to help her with an experiment. Twilight then stood up and looked at her assistant.
"Spike, Fetch me my quill and paper, please."
Spike then ran upstairs to her bedroom, and grabbed them before going back downstairs and handing the two items to her. Twilight placed them by her side, so she could reach them when needed.
"Uh, Twilight? I've been meaning to ask; why have you been reading all those books lately? You haven't given me any reason for finding those books, you just asked me to get them for you." Spike asked, wondering what the unicorn was planning.
"Well Spike, do you remember that time we stepped through that mirror into the human world?" Spike did indeed remember that fiasco. He wasn't too fond of being turned into a dog. "Well, I've been wondering lately about other realities. The one we went too couldn't have been the only one. And now I know how to study these other realities!" Spike was about to raise a question as to how she knows this, but Twilight continued before he could. "You see, I've been studying on how to observe others with my magic. I learned I can open a.. Window, of sorts, to do just that. And I think that, with the right amount of magic, I can maybe look into other realities!" Twilight finished, looking excited at the prospect of looking into other universes.
"But Twilight, are you sure that's a good idea? I mean, what if something goes terribly wrong? What if you accidentally open a window to a bad reality? What if you let someone into our reality?!" Spike asked, concerned, his mind racing with worse case scenarios. He never thought about other realities, but now that he is, he was wary of what could be in them, and what could happen with this spell.
"Oh, come on, Spike. What's the worst that could happen? It's just a window, after all. It's not like I'm trying to go to another reality, or anything." Twilight said dismissively, ignoring the baby dragons qualms. In reality, she had thought of all of his suggested scenarios, but she decided that the risk was worth the possible research and data that could come from the experiment.
She then planted her hooves firmly on the ground. "Stand back, Spike. I'm not sure what would happen if you got hit by the spell." Spike did as she asked, watching her cautiously as she begun to power up her spell. She allowed herself to gather power for a moment, closing her eyes as she exerted herself, before shooting out a beam into the middle of the room. The beam hit a bookshelf, and then spread into a oval of magic, almost as if she was looking through the bookshelf. Instead, however, what was being shown was much different then what would be through the bookshelf. What was shown was a large, run down warehouse, with a single human crouching in the middle of it, his back to the window that Twilight made. The unicorn opened her eyes to see what was in the window, and saw the human in the warehouse. She then donned an excited look, as she gave a final burst of magic to sustain the window. She took a moment to compose herself, as it took a lot of magic to open up the window, and even more to keep it open. She then picked up her quill and paper with her magic, and trotted over to the window to take notes on what was on the other side.
However, just as she got close to the window, it dissipated, not having enough magic to keep it open any longer. She frowned, as she actually began to hear the human speaking, presumably to another human out of focus. That upset her, as perhaps she could learn a few things about the universe that the human was in just by listening to him.
Spike, on the other hand, was pleased that the window closed. He wasn't sure what the human was doing, or where he was, but he was glad that nothing had went wrong. He quickly turned wary again, however, as he saw Twilight prepare to perform the spell again.
Twilight put a lot more strain on herself this time around, as she intended to use a great deal of her magic in order to keep the window open for a longer period of time. She closed her eyes and began to sweat as she built up the magic, before launching the spell once again, at the same bookshelf. The window made was bigger then before-only slightly, however- but other than that, there was no visual difference. The window showed the same scene as last time; a human crouching in the middle of a run-down warehouse. Twilight, like last time, gave a burst of magic to keep the window open. After, she stopped using her magic, and collapsed on the floor, worn out.
"Twilight!" Spike shouted as he rushed to her side. He then helped her up on her hooves, struggling to do so due to his smaller size, and gave her a worried look. "Are you okay?"
"I'm fine, Spike. Thank you." She said, tiredly. "I just won't be able to use my magic for a little while. I'm fine, really." She said, giving him a reassuring smile.
Spike gave her a doubting look for a moment, before backing away and letting her stand up on her own. Although she was a tad shaky, she looked more or less fine.
She walked over to the window, hoping to hear the human, assuming he was still speaking. He was, and she was at first glad about that fact. However, as she got closer, and was able to make out what he was saying, she got less glad, and more perplexed.
"Oh, what a sad, sad story this is..." The human said in an accent resembling one a pony from Manehatten would have. Twilight raised an eyebrow to this, but continued to listen. "This is so very boring... Tedious, even... And that's terrible... Criminal, even..." The human suddenly stood up, allowing Twilight to get a full view of him. He was fairly tall, and was wearing a boiler suit, along with gloves, and boots, for starters. He also had incredibly long, blonde hair. But what caught her eye most was what he had in his hand. An enormous, black monkey wrench, that was nearly as large as he was. He tossed it in the air and caught it, as if it were a ball that he was idly throwing, and continued to speak.
"This cannot do!" He said loudly, gesturing wildly. "I will not allow this tedium to eat up my life! I gotta go do something, break something, anything!" He practically shouted, throwing his wrench in the air more violently than before. Twilight thought this was very strange, and slightly concerning, but she listened on, curious as ever.
"Oh, but what is there to do? My boys are gone on a job, and I'm left to sit here, wallowing in my own boredom! Oh, such a tragic story! Such a very, tragic story indeed! What's the point of making me live though such a sad story? What's life doing to me?!" He shouted, still gesturing wildly, beginning to speak faster and more frantically. "Why would this happen to me?! I can't comprehend it! And if It can't be comprehended, then why do it at all?! Right?!" The human began to turn around, still wildly gesturing. "So why? Why?! WH-" the human stopped as he looked in Twilights direction. His looking her way revealed himself to have blue eyes; plus, it revealed that his hair mostly covered one of his eyes.
Twilight raised an eyebrow at this as well, but simply figured he saw someone come in from the same direction as her. After all, the window was supposed to be one-way. She hoped that the other human could provide more Information then the blonde one, as she could piece together only that the human was bored, and that was a bad thing to him. A small part of her, though, was utterly fascinated by the human's rantings. She was no stranger to them, as she was friends with Pinkie Pie, who has a tendency to ramble on. But the humans ramblings were different; more disjointed, and unhinged, like a mental patient; and Twilight couldn't help but be fascinated.
Twilight soon began to get nervous, however, as the human simply stared In her direction. She thought that if someone else was In the room with the human, he would've greeted them by now. But he was simply staring, almost as if he was trying to figure something out.
Spike, too, began to get nervous. He was already wary to begin with, but now that the human had dead stopped his rambling and was looking in his and Twilights direction, he wanted to close the window as soon as possible. "Twilight..." He said, cautiously.
The human cocked his head when Spike said Twilights name. He then began to smile; not in a warm, or friendly way, but more in a malicious way.
"Well now, it seems this story has changed from one that makes me sad, to one that interests me greatly." The human said as he began to walk towards Twilight.
Twilight just stared, open mouthed, for a moment, before shaking her head to snap herself back to reality. She began to scoot away from the window as the human got ever closer. She wasn't sure if he could do anything, but she didn't want to be too close to him, now that she knew that the window wasn't one way.
Spike ran up to Twilight, getting behind her for protection. "Uh, Twilight? Can you close it?" He said, trying to remain calm, but worry seeped into his voice nonetheless.
Twilight nodded and tried to use her magic to do just that, but instead of the window closing, her horn just let out a few sparks. She stared at her horn for a moment, before trying to do it again, as she noticed the human was close to the window now. It produced the same result; nothing by sparks.
"N-no, I can't. My magic is still worn out from casting that spell." She said, worriedly, as the human reached the window. She still wasn't quite as worried as Spike was, however, as she was certain that he couldn't do anything; it was just a window, after all. Something to look out of, but not enter, or leave, through. That is, until the human reached into the window, and grabbed it's side to help himself get through. Twilight gasped at this, as the human stepped through the window- which she now knew also functioned as a door, with the magic she put Into it.
The human, still smiling, pointed his wrench at Twilight and Spike, who were staring at him worriedly, knowing they couldn't really fight back if he attacked.
"You know, I've broken a lot of things... Cars, people, all kinds of things. But you know what's an absolute shame?" He said as he put his hand over his face. "I've never had the chance to break a horse... And, well, technically you're a unicorn, I think what we have here is a prime opportunity to fix that. Don't you think?" He said as he took his hand away from his face, revealing a near Cheshire cat-like grin, and mad eyes. He gripped his wrench in both hands, and lunged towards Twilight.
Pinkie Pie offers her rebuttle
Twilight gave a shriek as the human lunged at her. She quickly grabbed Spike, put him on her back, and got out of the way of the human. He stopped just after she avoided him, and started chasing after her. Twilight tried to run for the door, but the human noticed her destination, and threw his wrench at the doorway, making note to throw it just close enough to Twilight and Spike that they'd be able to avoid it-it wouldn't be any fun to knock them out now. She looked back and saw the wrench flying towards her, and avoided it, but just barely as she was not expecting him to throw it. She then noticed that the wrench was coming back, like a boomerang, and put her hoof on Spikes head, pushing it down so he could duck it, while ducking herself. She looked at the human as he caught the wrench, and readied himself to throw it again. But he didn't. He was waiting for her to try to make her escape.
She knew that he wouldn't let her escape through the doorway, but she had to do something. She looked around for her next best option, and saw her stairway behind the human. She knew that there was a window up there, and the drop to the ground wasn't that high. She narrowed her eyes at the stairway, and by extension the human, for a moment, before charging towards it, with Spike holding her tightly, not wanting to fall off.
The human looked surprised, briefly, before donning a pleased expression; he was happy that the unicorn was going to try to fight back, knowing that a fight would stave off his boredom. Or so he thought. When he swung his wrench at Twilight when she was close to him, she avoided it, narrowly, and ran past him, to the stairway he wasn't aware of before. He briefly frowned, but then shrugged, figuring that a chase would be fun.
She ran upstairs as fast as she could; which wasn't too fast, considering how much time she spends inside, reading, and Spikes added weight. Once she zeroed in on the window near her bed, she ran towards it, just as the human came upstairs. He saw that she was running to the window. Even though he may rant, he wasn't stupid, and he knew that if she had gotten out, he would have a hard time finding her, since she probably knew her way around. So, he threw his wrench at her again, this time aiming for her head. She saw this and ducked, then watched the wrench as it started to come back, like before. What happened, however, is the human ran in front of her, catching the wrench as he did so, and swung it at her head as she processed his actions, just hard enough to knock her out, and not kill her.
His move was successful, and she fell to the ground with a thud, while Spike fell off of her. Graham then stood in front of her unconscious body, and started to move the end of his wrench to her leg. However, before he could 'break' her, Spike jumped in between the human and Twilight, and breathed a little fire at the human. He backed away from Twilight, and stared at the baby dragon for a moment, who was standing directly in front of Twilight, arms outstretched to protect her from the human.
The two stared at each other for a moment, before the human began to speak in a sad tone. "Oh... This is such a predicament!" He said, slightly confusing Spike, who didn't falter in his protection.
"Here we are, in such a perplexing position! Oh, I'm so conflicted right now!" The human leaned to one side, sticking out his arm as if holding something. "Do I break this lizard instead of the unicorn?" He then leaned to the other side, holding his other arm out in a similar fashion. "Or do I leave him and his companion alone? Is that the righteous path? The path I am meant to take?" He then stands straight up and looks Spike in the eye. "Maybe I just go through him and break the unicorn anyway..." He said, genuinely thinking about his next course of action.
"You're not hurting Twilight, you weirdo!" Spike said, defiantly. The human looked a little surprised at the dragon's words, especially considering that's the first thing he said to him, and his presumed age. The human gave a smile; not malicious like his last one, but a pleased, almost friendly smile. He started to walk, and Spike readied himself to attack again, but the human just walked past him. He stopped at the staircase and looked back to Spike.
"I like your bravery, kid. Reminds me of another kid I know... Anyway; I'll leave you and your friend alone. Later." He said, nonchalantly, as he walked down the staircase. Spike didn't relax until he heard the front door open, then shut. He then let out a breathe he didn't know he was holding, and looked back to Twilight, concerned. He wondered what he was going to do, before settling on, for the time being, getting Twilight in bed and seeing if she wakes up.
Twilights eyes fluttered as she awoke. She sat up and near-instantly regret that decision, as her head hurt like she had a migraine. After composing herself, she looked outside her window to get an idea on what time it was. It was still daytime, but it looked significantly later in the day; meaning that she had been out for some time. She then looked around the room and saw Spike pacing a little ways away from her bed, mumbling worried things to himself. "Spike...?" She asked, a little groggy, and confused, as she had forgotten about what had happened.
When Spike heard Twilight, he turned and immediately gave her a relieved smile. "Twilight!" He said as he ran up to her and gave her a tight hug. "You're alright! You had me worried there for a while!" He said as he loosened his grip and looked at her.
"Spike...? What... What happened?" She asked, confused. Spike gave her a confused look In return.
"What do you mean, what happened?" He asked, now slightly worried at her forgetting. "You accidentally let that human come to Equestria. Remember? That experiment?" He said, hoping that she'd recall.
"Experiment...? Spike, I didn't do th-" She paused as she recalled the events that transpired earlier. "Oh my goodness!" She said as she jumped up from her bed, ignoring her head pain, and picked up Spike with her magic. "Spike, where did that human go?" She asked with a mixture of worry and seriousness, also briefly noting that her magic was back.
"Him? He just... Left. He knocked you out with that wrench of his, and started to come near you, so I protected you. Then he just left, saying he liked my bravery." Spike then frowned. "Twilight, lets not do that experiment again."
Twilight took a second to process all of the information, before going downstairs. Spike closely followed her. "Uh, Twilight? Where are you going?" He asked, hoping she wouldn't say what he thought she was.
"I'm going to find that human, Spike, before he tries to hurt anyone else." Twilight said with conviction. Spike then donned a worried expression and got In front of her, stopping her.
"But Twilight, he knocked you out! For a while, too. He's too dangerous for you to try to take on!" He said, not wanting Twilight to be hurt.
"I know, Spike, but I didn't have my magic then. I do now. Plus, it's my fault he's here, so I'm the one that's going to take care of him." She said, briefly touched by her assistant's worry. She then used her magic to levitate Spike out of the way, and continued to the front door. She briefly noted that the portal that she opened had closed since she was knocked out, before getting to the door. She then looked at Spike sternly. "I don't want you to follow me, Spike. He might hurt you, no matter what he said." She said as she walked out the door and closed it. She then cast a spell on it so that only she could open it; that way Spike couldn't get out, and the human couldn't get in if he came back. Twilight started down the road, noting that everyone was in their houses; presumably because the human was still in town.
Her suspicions were soon proved correct as she neared Sugarcube Corner-looking to see if Pinkie was alright-and saw the human in front of the establishment. The thing that struck Twilight as strange, though, was that he was just sitting in front of the door. Talking.
She decided that it would be best if he didn't see her, so she tried her best to sneak up on him. As she did so, she began to be able to make out what the human was saying.
"You know, horses, I think time spent in tedium is good. It allows everything to calm down, for you to collect yourself, and reflect on all the things you've done. And in this tedium, here and now, I realize that I'm spinning a sad, sad tale for you horses. Especially that rainbow pegasus." The human said, totally calm.
Twilight briefly noted that he was saying the opposite of what he did before, but then she got concerned at the mention of a rainbow pegasus; he was obviously referring to Rainbow Dash. She decided to stop sneaking, and just catch him with her magic. She charged him, horn glowing.
The human saw Twilight charging him, but instead of readying himself for a fight, he just stood up, and stretched his arms out wide.
"Hey! You're alright. I was starting to think I killed you there. I was feeling really guilty!" He said, as if he and her were the best of friends. Twilight didn't react to this, though; she just used her magic to levitate him in the air, and freeze him; making him unable to fight back, even if he wanted to.
After calming herself, she knocked on the door to Sugarcube Corner.
"Pinkie? It's okay to come out, now. The human's disabled." She said, giving a brief glare at the human, who didn't react in return.
"Really? You got him? Oh, good job, Twilight!" Said the familiar voice of Pinkie Pie. She then opened the door, and greeted Twilight with a smile. "I was really hoping you'd come along and help! I mean, It was only you that could, anyway. Applejack's at her farm right now, Rarity's in her boutique, Fluttershy's at home, and Rainbow is In here!" She said, cheery as ever.
"Well, I'm everyone else is alright." Twilight said, unphased by Pinkie's short ramble. "But Pinkie, you said Rainbow was in here? Why? Is she hurt?" She asked, concerned for her friends safety.
"Yeah," Pinkie said, now somewhat sad. "That meanie pants there hurt her!" She said, pointing a hoof to the human.
"Hey, she attacked me! It was simply self defense. Nothing more, nothing less. So how dare you call me the meanie pants, when I was simply taking a nice stroll, feeling bad for myself." The human defended, frowning at Pinkie's accusation; seemingly believing that he's innocent.
Twilight promised herself that she'd confront the human later, but first things first; she had to check on Rainbow Dash. "Where is she, Pinkie?"
"In my room! Come on, I'll show you!" She said, quickly going inside, and upstairs. Twilight rolled her eyes at her friends hyperactivity, even in a time like this, and followed her.
When she got to Pinkie's room, she saw Pinkie standing next to her bed, which was occupied by Rainbow Dash; who had a makeshift splint on her leg, and bandages wrapped around her wing, and torso.
Dash turned to Twilight and gave a relieved sigh at the sight of the human, disabled. "Twilight! Oh man, I'm glad you're here. That... Thing, dislocated my wing and leg! I think he broke some ribs, too!" She said, frowning, otherwise nonperturbed by her Injuries.
Twilight gave a small gasp at that revelation. "How did that happen?" She asked, concerned.
"Well, I saw that thing wandering through town, talking to himself like the freak that he is. Everybody else was in their houses, so I guessed that he did something. I went down to confront him, but he started talking about breaking me, and some other stuff I didn't understand." Rainbow started. "So, I took it as a threat, and charged him. But he dodged me, and then hit me with that wrench of his." She said, eyeing the wrench. "So I fell down, and then he grabbed my wing with his wrench, and dislocated it! Then he said something about never breaking a wing before, and something about this being an opportunity to break more things. Then he did the same with my leg, then said he was bored, and let me limp away!" She said, angry at this point. "Twilight, you should give that thing to Celestia, and have him locked away! He's clearly dangerous!" She accused.
The human frowned at Rainbow's suggestion, as well as her repeated use of the word, thing. "I'm not a thing, you know. I have a name. It's Graham Specter! And I'm not dangerous!" He insisted. "I only defended myself! And it's like what boss Ladd says, if it's defense, it's justified! And boss Ladd is the smartest guy I know, so I think he knows what he's talking about, you know?"
Rainbow was about to rebut him, and Twilight was about to ask who boss Ladd was, but Pinkie began talking before either of them could even start. "Well, even if it was self defense, you shouldn't go too far! Otherwise, you become a meanie pants! Like you did today!"
Graham narrowed his eyes at Pinkie. "I had to be sure that she couldn't attack me again! Plus, I had to break something! Not only was I terribly bored, but I just had an urge! Haven't you ever had an urge to just do something? And don't you act upon those urges when very bored?" Graham asked, seriously. "In my opinion, it is best to act upon urges when stuck in the realm of tedium!"
Twilight noted his repeated usage of the word tedium, and his going back to his original opinion on tedium; that it's bad.
Graham continued on. "When life begins to be tedious, you start to get urges! Urges to do things you may not normally do, or things you greatly enjoy doing! And considering that tedium can lead to many bad things in a person-sadness, anger, self-loathing- these urges are like a bodies way of preserving itself! They keep us from feeling these things, and keep us happy; but only when we act upon them! These urges are a necessity for people; and if we didn't have them, we could possibly die!" He finished, looking completely serious.
Twilight and Rainbow could barely understand the insane logic presented by Graham, but Pinkie looked like she was deep in thought, taking in everything the human had said. "... Maybe, but if we act on those urges all the time, someone could end up dead, just like if you didn't!" She finally said, after some thinking. "Lots of urges aren't good, and aren't meant to be carried out. There has to be a limit. If there isn't, someone could get hurt, or die. You could die, too. After all, what if you get an urge to jump off a cliff? Or do something else that'll end up with you dying?" She asked, looking Graham in the eye.
Twilight and Rainbow looked at Pinkie in shock. Not only did she understand Graham's logic, but she rebutted it too. Graham, too, looked at Pinkie in shock. He thought for a moment, taking in what she said, before nodding. "I guess you're right.... And I don't want anyone to end up dead, so.... I won't act upon my urges as much." Graham said, nodding.
Twilight could barely believe it. Pinkie had actually talked Graham into not hurting anyone... She thought. She wasn't fully following the conversation, as she was trying to make sense of the logic. She then made a mental note of keeping Pinkie around while Graham is in Equestria.
Graham looked at Twilight. "So, what do we do now? This being frozen in place thing is starting to get really tedious." He asked.
Twilight snapped herself back to reality. "Oh, right. Ok. Pinkie, I want you to take Rainbow Dash to the hospital. Afterwards, I want you to come to my house."
Pinkie saluted Twilight. "Ma'am yes ma'am! But, what are you gonna do?"
Twilight looked at Graham for a moment, before turning back to Pinkie. "Before I send him back, I want to learn all I can from him." She said, trying to keep down her excitement at learning from Graham.
Graham raised an eyebrow at this, but soon simply shrugged. Maybe it could be interesting. It'd certainly be new to him, and that's good. Variety is the spice of life, as he tends to say.
Meanwhile, outside of Sugarcube Corner, was another man. This one was quite different than Graham, however. He too had blonde hair, but it was much darker, as well as being slicked back, sans one strand which hung above his eye. His eyes were a brown color, and he was wearing a well tailored suit, and tie. He took out a box of cigarettes, and lit one in his mouth.
'Hmm... I haven't been here in quite some time.' He thought as he smoked. He looked up at the sky for a moment, before simply leaning against the wall of Sugarcube Corner, closing his eyes, and relaxing.
'I should probably take that man back home. He doesn't belong here. But... Well, him being here, at this point in time, could prove to be interesting.' The man opened his eyes and looked forward. 'What will you do, Specter?'
He then stopped leaning against the wall, and took the cigarette out of his mouth. He began to down the street, not really caring if anyone saw him. 'Maybe he'll just end up destroying this town. Those ponies don't know what kind of power that man possesses... Oh well. That'd prove interesting, if nothing else.' He thought with a grin as he walked away from Sugarcube Corner, toward nowhere in particular.
