Parallel

A/N: I WAS going to post this as a double chapter, I promise. I've just been so caught up in work that I haven't made much time for writing, and my weekend was almost entirely consumed by the excellent Spec Ops: The Line.

Anyways, I figure I might as well just split it into two parts so I can get something out to you guys quicker.

Without further adieu, I give you:

Chapter 11: Threads That Bind (Part 1)

I took a moment to appreciate the warmth from the sun, not opening my eyes for fear that I was simply hallucinating or having one of my flashbacks. It was better to just lay there in my own little world.

Then again, my flashbacks never had grass.

When my brain was finally able to process this I yawned and opened my eyes.

I was in the same field of grass as when I had first arrived in Equestria, and as I stood on my... four legs I took a deep breath of fresh air.

I saw the village in the distance, about two miles away, and smiled.

'I'll be damned, I guess I'll be here a bit longer.'

In an attempt to fully take in my surroundings I turned to get a better view, and just as the edge of Ponyville went out of view I was meant with a pair of violet eyes.

"Good morning!"

"AUGH!"

I stumbled back and fell on my rear, making a choking sound as I regained myself and realized it was Twilight standing in front of me.

"You know," she said cheerfully, "I think SOMEpony here deserves a reward." Twilight let her gaze fall to her front right hoof, and the thing in front of it, a small gift basket with a purple bow tied onto the handle. Inside the basket itself were what appeared to be various sweets on top of something wrapped in a black bag. She nudged it forward and grinned.

As I gathered what remained of my dignity I frowned at her, "Do you always sneak up on people like that?"

She looked slightly shameful at least, "No. I kinda wanted to surprise you."

I laughed, "There are better ways to go about doing so. How'd you know I'd be here anyways?"

"About that." For some reason there was excitement in her eyes, "You weren't here yesterday, so I figured something happened."

"Wait, hold on... are the others back yet?"

Twilight waved a hoof, "Oh don't worry about them, they left a note for me in the hospital, and when I woke up I teleported them back."

"You what?"

"I teleported them."

I let out a sigh, "You had to be the one who got hit by a car didn't you? That would have been useful a few days ago you know."

"ANYWAYS," Twilight stepped forward and jabbed me in the chest with her hoof, "I spent most of yesterday trying to figure out why you're coming here. The furthest I got is figuring out you're connected to the veil somehow. You're giving off the same type of magic that it does. As for me knowing you're in the field it was just an educated guess. Every other time you woke up where you fell asleep in Ponyville... except for the first time you came here, when you woke up in this field. When you went through the veil your body was no longer in this world, just like before you arrived in Equestria. Looking at the initial result of things it was pretty simple to see where you'd end up."

"What if you were wrong?"

She smiled, "Then I would have made another hypothesis."

"So you're the scientist pony then?"

"Well, I wouldn't go that far. Not to mention I still don't know anything at all about your connection to the veil, or why you get dropped in this field specifically... or why you don't have a cutie mark."

"That's the second time you've brought that up, what is a cutie mark anyways?"

"Oh I'm sorry, you told me a lot about the human world, and here I am forgetting one of the most important things about MY world." Twilight smiled, then turned so she was facing to the left. She then pointed to the side of her butt. The mark she spoke of was a large star, encircled by several smaller ones.

The blood rushing to my face was probably enough to save someone who was in the middle of hemorrhaging. I looked away and gritted my teeth, "Wh... what does that have to do with anything?"

"It's my cutie mark, my specialty is magic, but you... you don't really have a specialty do you?"

I looked at the ground, trying to avoid locking my gaze where it wasn't meant to lock.

Then she started to walk towards me.

"What are you..."

She stopped at my side and planted a hoof right where my cutie mark would have been, and then smiled at me, "See? You're very fascinating William."

I cleared my throat and pulled away, "Yeah, anyways, we should be getting back to Ponyville. Let's go to the library, I can help you while you try to figure things out." I rushed to the basket that she brought, bending down and scooping it up in my teeth as I started my walk back to Ponyville.

Twilight followed me, grumbling under her breath about me not indulging her curiosity.

After a while Twilight offered to carry the basket with her magic, and I figured it would be easier than screwing up my teeth.

The walk back to Ponyville was long, and as soon as we hit the dirt road leading to it Twilight had already struck up another conversation with me, asking me about all the things they had yet to learn about humans. Politics, food, races, literature, art, music, entertainment.

Walking side by side, we discussed everything from the beat of a police officer to Beethoven's 6th, and I found I was enjoying myself.

In fact, I was enjoying myself a bit TOO much.

"So you're omnivores?"

"Yeah. It'd be kind of wrong to eat something that can talk though."

Twilight smiled, "Oh? Is horse a delicacy where you're from?"

I laughed, "God no. People tend to take care of and ride horses, they're useful on farms and stuff."

"What do you eat then?"

"Cow, pig, chicken, turkey, quail, duck, deer, all sorts of stuff."

"Well it's not exactly part of the diet here," she said, still smiling, "And our cows can talk too."

"Your goal is to ruin meat for me forever, isn't it?"

She giggled, "I'm not judging, besides, you're a pony right now too, if you tried to eat meat you would only make yourself sick."

"I guess that's true. Still, I could kill for some bacon right now."

Twilight shoved me to the side with a grin, "Well you'll just have to settle for it. What's she like? The me... in your world, that is."

"Pretty much the same person. It's the same with everypony else too. I work with Pinkie at the computer place."

"Hahaha, that must be fun."

"I'm going to one of her infamous parties tomorrow. God knows I'll probably need pain killers and a lot of water in the morning. That woman loves kegs."

"Kegs?"

"A big barrel full of alcohol."

"Heh, yeah that sounds like Pinkie, except ours likes sweets."

"Oh she loves those too."

"Well, here we are!" shouted Twilight, stopping to sit on her haunches and setting the basket down. I didn't notice it before but she looked kind of tired, probably because she had been using her magic the entire time we were walking.

We had made it to Ponyville. The main dirt road going through the town was more crowded than what I had seen of it before. Especially the market by the town square.

Twilight started floating the basket again, and as we made our way towards the center of town I started to see why it was so crowded.

"Come one, come all! See Miss Rarity's fabulous new line of dresses!" Spike stood on top of a small box, with what appeared to be a microphone in his hands. Behind him, and in front of the rather large crowd, was what appeared to be a makeshift stage with several mannequins displayed.

On each of these mannequins was a unique dress. One dress was a white ensemble that strongly resembled a heavily modified wedding dress made to fit a ponies body; another was a darker, more sleek look, with small embedded gemstones causing it to shine under the sun.

Several more adorned the stage, each as stunning as the last.

I saw Rarity at the side, swarmed with other ponies clamoring to get a look at her and her dresses.

As we approached our friend the crowd seemed to part around us, finally giving us ample space when we reached her.

Twilight raised an eyebrow, "Rarity, what's going on?"

"Oh William darling it's so good to see you again." After she addressed me she turned to answer Twilight's question, "Well, each season brings new fashion. I usually sell my goods to clients in Canterlot, but it was Spike's idea to display my work in Ponyville, perhaps I could garner a few loyal customers at home aside from my friends. I enjoy delivering my dresses personally, and I just can't do that with how far away some of my clients are."

"It's a good idea," I said, "Anything that brings in more customers is usually a good thing."

"Oh, I could actually use your help William."

"Me?"

"Yes yes yes." She stepped forward and smiled wide at me, "I don't know many colts in Ponyville that well, and I figure with the favor you did us I could reward you somehow, perhaps with a free suit?"

"Oh... I couldn't..."

"But you must darling. Dresses are one thing but I have male clients as well you know."

"Um... Twilight?"

Twilight laughed, "I don't see why not. You saved my life, remember?"

"Yeah, but I'm not really..."

"I'll be at the library with your basket when you're done, have fun."

"I don't..."

"Oh this will be simply fantastic, come quickly."

"But I..."

Rarity's boutique was a sight to behold, that was for sure. I had never set foot inside a boutique in my life, and I had no intention to, that day proved just how much my intentions mattered in the face of a world full of magical ponies. To her credit, it wasn't so girly that I wanted to go outside and wretch the acid from my stomach. The female influence was definately there, but it wasn't overbearing, something told me she did this on purpose, so as not to scare away male customers.

"Wait here, I'll go get the measuring tape."

I was forced to stay in the main area. There were a few tables that she obviously used for work, one with a sewing machine on it. Mirrors lined the wall behind the sewing machine table.

Considering she had ran off this obviously wasn't her only work space.

It wasn't long before she returned with the measuring tape floating next to her head, "This won't take too long, and then perhaps we could go get brunch."

It must have been around ten o' clock in the morning.

I hated not having a watch.

The measuring tape extended, wrapping itself around my waist and hooves. When I looked back to Rarity there was a small note pad and a quill floating in front of her face.

"You know, I normally don't give people my measurements on the first date," I said with a smirk.

The note pad fell to the floor and Rarity stomped a hoof, "Well I never!"

I laughed, "It was a joke Rarity."

"A very uncouth one!"

"It wasn't even that dirty."

"Dirty?"

"Ugh, never mind, just finish the measurements and then we'll grab a bite to eat."

The rest of the measurements didn't take long, just like Rarity said. I was surprised when she took me to the Ponyville cafe.

She seemed like she was doing rather well for herself, and when I first met her she seemed like a stuck up rich girl to me, but there was a lot more to her than that. Yeah she had that air about her, but I noticed she wasn't too against getting dirty in the swamp when the situation called for it. I also noticed she had a habit of giving her friends free stuff.

"Hi, can I take your order?"

The waitress seemed abnormally happy to be doing her job.

"I'll take a salad please, no dressing," said Rarity.

"Petunia sandwich."

"Comin' right up." And with that the waitress was gone.

"So," said Rarity with a smile, "What do you think of Equestria?"

"It's... nice."

Rarity cleared her throat and leaned forward a bit, "Well, I heard all about your world from Twilight yesterday."

"She told you?"

"Oh yes, but there was more about you in there than there was your world. You did, after all, save her life."

"That I did."

Rarity, seeming satisfied for some reason, leaned back to a normal position, "I see," she said softly. "I am also curious if you've met me in your world."

"Nope. I haven't met you, or Applejack for that matter. Applejack probably lives on a farm somewhere, and as for you, you're probably too rich for my blood."

"Rich for your blood?"

"It's a saying. I wouldn't be able to hang around you because you're probably too high on the social ladder."

"Such a shame, we get along rather swimmingly too."

Our food arrived, and the rest of our time was spent in idle conversation.

By the time I got back to the library it was already noon, and Twilight was buried in her books.

As the door shut behind me she damn near snapped to attention on the spot. "William! I've been waiting for you to get back. I made you a study area next to mine, and there's a few books you can get started on. You'll be able to make corrections or spot things that ponies can't. Just let me put some tea on for you."

The two study areas were in the center of the library, surrounded by a couple of lanterns and a lot of books. We both had small desks to set our books on as well.

"I've never seen someone so excited to have a reading buddy before," I said with a laugh.

I wasn't sure, but I thought I heard her let out a little squeak in excitement.

We set to work when she came back with the tea.

After a bit of practice I managed to get turning a page with my hoof down, not to mention drinking from a cup with no hands.

Twilight had actually managed to gather quite a few books about humanity together, theories that were actually pretty spot on, like how our biology is similar to theirs because we're mammals, though more akin to monkeys. Science and technology existed in this world it seemed, but magic trumped it so hard that there wasn't any need for half of that stuff.

It was easy to get swept up in a reading session with this girl. I found myself correcting small mistakes and adding onto theories that other ponies had made about my species.

Every time I said something it was like Twilight was hanging on every word.

It was kind of cute to be honest.

We ate a small dinner and continued until the sun went down.

As soon as I heard Twilight yawn I knew it was about time for bed. I looked over to her and saw her eyes drooping as she nodded off a bit.

"Wanna wrap it up?" I asked.

"Justa... bit more."

I laughed, "Yep, time for bed, the books'll be there in the morning Twilight."

"Okay. Tomorrow we'll... we'll... study the veil."

She trotted sleepily up the stairs as I readied my own bed on the ground floor.

I was out seconds after hitting the sack.