Fistful of Concrete

Twilight examined the large collection of floating books that she kept within her magic, scanning each one for a certain writing. She had received a letter from the Princess about a non-magical distortion nearby, and she wanted to ensure that she could properly analyze it. Though she knew every book fifty times over, she had to be 100% sure that she didn't posses a book on the topic at hand. The alicorn gave a sigh as she finished going through the last of her book collection, unable to find the notes on portals.

Her focus changed, however, when Spike came through the front door, carrying someone who was covered in dust.

"Twi!" He called to her. "Could use some help here!"

Twilight rushed over to his side and tried to pick up the thin man with her magic, but found it hard to try and get a grip on him. After some strain, however, she managed to lift him off of Spike and began to levitate him to the couch.

"Okay, who is this and why did you bring him here!?" She asked.

Rarity came in through the door, panting lightly while her blouse seemed a bit moist near her armpits. She flipped her hair before walking over to Twilight.

"We... saw him, exit a portal... by the park, and thought you should see... what he did."

A familiar woman with light blue hair came in after her and looked towards the couch as Twilight looked between her friends and the stranger.

"Well, what did he do?"

Spike walked over to Twilight and began to babble.

"You shoulda- he did the- burm-" He gestured with his arms, "and then the-frokk! Andandand, h-he!"

Rarity put a hand on the Dragon's mouth to silence him.

"What Spike means to say, is that he pointed to a birdbath and absorbed the stones."

Twilight looked between the two before cracking a slight smile, then slowly grew to a chuckle.

"You... you guys are worse than Dash!" She exclaimed. "He doesn't have a horn, so how can he do magic?"

"Well, that's why we brought him here. He just," She made the same gestures that Spike made earlier, "and then just fainted out of nowhere."

Twilight looked back to the man on the couch, and widened her eyes as she saw his skin start to glow yellow as the dust on his chest turned into a flesh-like color before melding with his skin. She raised a finger to him and slowly approached.

"What..."

Immediately, she began to magically scan him, trying to find some kind of source for the small display. When she scanned him, however, she couldn't find any trace of ambient magic. She stopped scanning and looked back to the others.

"He doesn't have any magic." She stated.

Rarity backed up as Spike took a slightly defensive stance.

"Does that mean he's a Blank?" He asked with a slight growl.

Coco widened her eyes as she listened to this familiar scenario play out once more. Twilight shook her head as she spoke again.

"No... no, if he was a Blank, he wouldn't be able to do... whatever that was."

Before they could let the news sink in, however, the man began to stir and mutter, somehow still not awake.

\\\//////

Trevor watched as the world burned by him, coated in different stories of life, powers, Curdun Cay, and the three others that had been trained like him. The first was the girl, fetch. He watched as she was revealed to the D.U.P. by her own parents, before her brother took her to the city to escape. They got involved with the wrong crowds, and eventually, it all ended when Fetch killed her brother. The visions switched to Eugene, tortured until he could control his Video powers, summoning training holograms for the soldiers and special agents, before he finally got out of that prison, and wreaked havoc on the Akura with Delsin. Then came Hank. He started using his powers with a life of crime. Eventually he got caught by the D.U.P. After he got brought in, however, he began to talk the staff into being more open with him, snaking his way into their trust before he could escape on that armored transport. And before he was killed before he could reach his daughter. He tried to take in all of the memories at once, feeling every cell in his body overload with their collective powers, trying to fight for a dominant trait while ripping him apart.

He remembered this feeling from training, before Delsin killed Augustine. He needed to remember his first power. He needed to focus on a grip of stone.

\\\//////

The glow returned to Trevor's body as small stones began to pulsate around his skin, startling the other people in the room before a crunching sound began to sound from his form. All of the stones sunk back into his form before he gasped loudly and began to violently cough, his body struggling to organize the powers he held. Trevor rolled off the furniture as he gripped at his chest, the burning still present in his chest.

After a minute of trying to steady his breathing, the Conduit finally managed to find a calm. He slowly raised himself from the floor and looked around. He was in a library, that much was obvious by the amount of books that practically made up the walls. The only thing unique was that it looked like it was all inside of a tree, with wooden floors and walls that curved in natural angles. In the large room were four others. There were the two woman and the one man from before, but now there was another woman with purple hair that had a pink streak in it. What set her apart, however, was the fact that she had a horn, and wings!

Trevor looked between them and slowly started to back away, remembering that they had seen him using his powers. Before he could try to think, however, a purple glow came from the four one's horn as she spoke.

"Okay, just calm down," She spoke in a calm tone, "we don't want to hurt you."

The Conduit looked swiftly between them all before he started to concentrate on his Concrete power, coating his arms with the hardened substance.

"How do I know you don't have a DUP squad waiting for me right outside? Or some kind of specialist teams? Waiting to capture me?"

The one with a horn and wings gave him a questioning look.

"What's a DUP? And why would we try to capture you?"

Trevor blinked with a shocked expression, but kept his defense up.

"The people that track down Conduits, like me."

"And what is a Conduit?"

Trevor stepped back a bit, raising his hands and balling them into Concrete Fists.

"How do you not know what a Conduit is!? Empire City!? Seattle!? The whole, "Bio-Terrorist" shit!?"

"Look, just... calm, down, okay? I don't think we've ever heard of "Empire City," but did you mean Seaddle? I don't think there's anything going on there."

Trevor began to lower his fists as he asked another question.

"Where am I? What country is this?"

"You're in Ponyville, Equestria."