Doctor Stein's Peculiar Device

Twilight trotted eagerly through the castle's many hallways and doorways. Letters from Princess Celestia were rare. So rare, that everything she was doing before was pointless compared to reading that letter. Normally they were pleas for help, that Equestria needed her or her element and this one was no exception. What caught her attention the most was Celestia's urging that she wasn't to rush to the castle, that she could take as long as she liked in responding to the letter.

It intrigued her so much that she dropped everything she was doing in order to respond to her former teacher in person.

She soon made it to the throne room, where her ex-teacher was discussing matter with some wealthy nobles. When she spotted Twilight, she quickly wrapped up her conversation and dismissed them politely. It was no surprise for Twilight to show up so early despite telling her multiple times that it wasn't necessary, after all, she was never, ever, tardy.

“Good morning Twilight, I trust your journey was pleasant,” she greeted, stepping down from her throne to meet her former student.

When she got close enough, both pulled in for a loving nuzzle. “It's good to see you Celestia, it seems we only see each other when there's a emergency running about,”

Celestia began leading the way slowly, “There's no emergency here Twilight, just something strange that I would like another opinion on,” she said, taking Twilight out into the courtyard.

Twilight lowered her head, looking a bit crestfallen. She kind of liked the danger and adventure that normally came with Celestia's letters, but curiosity quickly grew instead.

“'Something strange'? What is it?”

“A few days ago, we had a break in,” Celestia began, letting her words sink in for a few moments before continuing. “However, this was no normal break in, he did not pick any locks or scale any walls, he just... appeared in front of me,”

“Appeared... is he a unicorn?”

“No... in fact I have no idea what he is, though I'm certain he is not of this world,”

Twilight's curiosity peeked, “What happened to him?”

“As soon as he arrived, he was arrested and put into the tower,” Celestia gestured to one of the highest towers in the castle. “He showed no resistance, only asking for three things to keep him occupied... A pencil, lots of paper and a peculiar device that we confiscated on his arrival,”

Twilight had heard enough, she wanted to see this anomaly for herself, “Can I see him?” she asked, Celestia nodded.

Using their flight, they quickly bypassed the stairs and landed onto the balcony. A single guard waited outside the iron door, at the sight of the two princesses he quickly saluted to them.

“Open up...” Celestia commanded, the guard nodded and pulled out a set of keys, unlocking the door and holding open for the princesses to pass through.

Twilight was the first to step in, without paying attention to the floor she accidentally trampled several sheets of paper under her hoof. On first glance the paper appeared to be cover with random letters and numbers, but on closer inspection it turned out they were actually advanced physics equations.

The prisoner must have been a massive nerd.

A wave of excitement rushed over Twilight. She had faced tyrannical rulers, monsters and gods, but never an evil mastermind. Quickly looking up, her head darted around the room, quickly scanning over the cell for the prisoner.

He had his back to them, head poking out the bars of the cell's window and hand wound up around the two metal beams that divided him for a long fall. He wore a brown flight jacket and black jeans, on his feet were a pair of dark trainers with red trims.

He spun round to look at the intruders, started more by the rustling of paper rather than the door opening. Noticing that the purple pony had picked up some of his paper and was looking intensely at it, he quickly covered the distance and snatched the paper from her magical grasp.

“Don't touch that! You aren't smart enough to know the important of these equations,” he hissed, trying his best to un-crumple the sheet from where she stepped on it.

“You sure about that, because it looks like your trying to learn how to fly...” she countered, ignoring his rudeness so that she could flaunt some of her knowledge. Maybe he'll feel more comfortable around other intelligent lifeforms.

His eyes widened in surprise, clearly not expecting her to understand his workings or handwriting but to actually know what it all meant was impressive (Though he didn't let it show). “N-Nevermind that, what do you want?” he pointed a finger at her.

Now that he was closer to her, she was able to get a good look at his face. Black hair that had mostly faded into a silvery white was pulled back into an messy quiff. Green eyes watched her from their darkened pits and a light stubble had covered his face, giving him a very rough and slightly intimidating appearance.

“I just wanted to introduce myself, I'm Twilight Sparkle, princess of Equestria and part time librarian,” she said.  He raised an eyebrow, looking between Celestia and Twilight in a attempt to spot any similarities or signs of them being siblings. He found nothing, in fact Celestia looked old enough to be Twilight's mum.

“Ok... Hello Twilight Sparkle-” he said in a mocking tone and began waving his hand in front of her, fanning air into her face, “-happy now, can you leave me to finish my work in peace or are you going to pester me further?”

“Actually, can I ask what it is your working on?” She asked with a sheepish smile, her inner geek showing.

He rubbed his eyes before continuing. “Just some stuff, I've been in here for... a couple of days now, it nice to have some quiet time without any interruptions, well, until now at least,” he growled, not hiding his dislike for her presences.

“I suppose we should get down to business then,” Celestia intervened, stepping in between the two. She turned to the creature first, “Now...” she began, until she paused, “I'm sorry, I can't seem to recall your name,”

He stared blankly at her, knowing that she had never asked for his name before nor ever saying his name when she was around. “I'm a Doctor Isaac Stein, you can just call me Isaac, everyone else did,”

“Right, Isaac, I know you're probably anxious to leave this cell,” she assumed, he turned away from the two princesses and floated back to the window.

“Yes, I must say your world has a strange appeal to it, I am rather excited to explore some of it,” he admitted. Being so high up he got a good view of the land and its' beauty, he felt the old cogs of inspiration turning again when looking out that window, sparking many ideas in his head like the old days.

“Good... now I am willing to let you leave here and do some exploring on one condition,” she bargained, Isaac waited for her to continue without any recognition, although he was already fearing where this was going.

She turned to Twilight, “This is where you come it Twilight, if its' no problem with you, is it possible for Isaac to use your spare room,” she leaned in closer to whisper into her ear, “Just to keep an eye on him,”

Twilight smiled, “I would love to let you stay at my home Isaac,”

He began to panic, he couldn't stay at her house. She would ask questions and never stop pestering him. Worse, there would no doubt be maids and butlers everywhere, touching and moving all his stuff without permission. He spun on he's heels, putting his finger to his chin and span his eyes around the room as if he was in deep thought. “You know what princess, I've actually grown attached to this... room, the stone is... charming and the view is wonderful, I don't need to leave yet,” he gave a nervous chuckle.

Twilight quickly moved over to him and began hugging his legs, nuzzling the side of her face into his hip. “Don't worry, you'll love it in Ponyville, I'm sure you'll make lots of friends,” she reassured.

Isaac looked over to Celestia with a look that just screamed 'Kill me now'.