Author's Note
Short story, something I randomly came up with. Enjoy!
-Eruedraieth
Ponyville, Behold!
He had been doing this his entire life.
Today was no different.
Question Magic makes ponies see the truth behind it all. The small details, the little things that matter...
Not like that Great and Powerful Trixie, who he knows had taken to showcasing magic in a display of fireworks and arrogance.
No... He knows how ponies work, he knows what they would do and when. Some say he could see into the future, some say he is a lunatic going around and spreading lies, others say he faked it all.
The truth could not be farther from that.
Question Magic always attempts to look happy, even though he constantly questions what others think of him. His dark-green coat, lime-green mane and turqoise eyes stood out, but did not attract too much attention.
His Cutie mark, however, did. A plain black question mark.
He earned his Cutie mark at a very young age. He asked the teacher: "Why do you teach us?"
That was when his questionmark-shaped Cutie mark appeared, and where it stuck to him ever since. He never stopped questioning magic, he never stopped questioning life, love, disease... you name it.
He didn't like mysteries. He wants to know it all, and know he shall. He'll find out eventually, one way or another. He had taken to sharing the answers to his questions with audiences far and wide, to bring new life into the citizens of Equestria.
And just like he would find the answers to his questions, he would find out if the Ponyville audience respected his talents, or denied them.
"Question, are you ready to perform?"
His assistant, a mare with a blue-green coat, grey mane and blue eyes, going by the name of Obscurity, whom he met when he passed through a town nearby to Ponyville. She had said she's seen his shows, and asked if he needed any help with his shows. She knew Question did all of his shows on his own, as he questioned even the need for ponies to help him. Feeling the strain of doing everything alone, however, he accepted her offer.
"Do not question if I am ready. I always am."
Question proceeded to walk to the stage, and waited for a few ponies to sit down before he started.
"Greetings, Ponies of Ponyville. My name is Question Magic, and today, I will show you real magic. Not just telekinesis, or pretty firework displays, like one of my associates. No. I will show you the idea behind it all. Now, you may ask: 'But you don't use your horn to perform magic!' And that is correct, I do not. I have no need for my horn to show you magic."
He took a sip of water, handed to him by Obscurity, before continuing.
"I want one of you, one in the audience, to step forward. You there, the aquamarine unicorn mare with yellow eyes. Step forward."
The mentioned mare, named Lyra Heartstrings, stepped up to the stage.
" This mare will be the.. test subject.. for a lack of better terms, for what comes next. For the ease of this show, I will magic in a set of three doors, with unknown objects behind them. I know what lies behind each door, and I can assure you, I have never seen this mare before, so I have no clue what she would like or do."
As said, a set of three white-framed wooden doors appeared, facing the audience.
"If I may ask your name?" Question Magic asked his subject.
"Lyra Heartstrings."
"Alright, Lyra. I want you to pick one of these doors, but do not tell anyone or open it. Not even me."
Lyra stood still for a moment, decisively looking at the three doors, and then nodded.
"Good. Now, I am going to write a number corresponding to the correct door, from left to right, and place the paper with the number behind the door she will pick."
He magicked a piece of paper and a quill out of thin air, and wrote down a number.
"Alright, I will tell you which number I wrote down. Lyra will pick door number Three."
Lyra nearly couldn't contain a grin as she heard three. Nobody noticed, however. She barely noticed it herself.
"But. And this is a big one. Because Lyra now heard which door I said she would pick, I know that it is not, in fact, three. You see, just by looking at the way she proceeded to the stage, and the way she picked the door, it cannot be three. Lyra, would you be so kind as to open the door you picked?"
Lyra walked up to the second door, and opened it. Behind it was a small piece of paper.
"Could you pick up that piece of paper from the ground? It is rude to leave stuff lying around."
Lyra did as she was told, and walked back to stand next to Question Magic.
"Could you show the audience the piece of paper?"
Lyra turned the paper towards the audience, and a giant magnifying glass appeared to enlarge the number written on it. A two.
The audience gasped in shock, and a few were muttering how that was possible.
"You ask how I knew that? 'Tis simple, yet complex. To truly understand, you would need to question reality as it is. I found out that reality is, in fact, not a reality. When I told Lyra and all of you what door she would pick, Lyra nearly grinned. She herself didn't even notice. In fact, she still couldn't know she grinned. What I tell you now could be reality, or it could not be. 'Tis what you decide for yourself. Thank you, Lyra."
Lyra walked back to her seat.
"Now, a few of you in the audience still do not believe me, a few of you think I am mad, and a few of you think that what I say is true. Ahum, you there. The purple earth pony mare with green eyes. I can tell you need to relieve yourself. You can do so, do not be afraid. You will not miss anything."
The mentioned mare, her name Cherilee, looked confused for a second, but stood up and left the hall anyway.
Question Magic waited untill she was completely gone before speaking again.
" Again, I will conjure a piece of paper and a quill. On it, I will write what she is going to ask the moment she returns."
He wrote a line on the paper, and turned it to his audience, magnifying it once more so they could see.
It said: "Did I miss anything?"
"Now, you may think this is weird. Why would she ask if she missed anything, when I clearly told her she wouldn't? You will find out shortly, when she returns."
Question Magic recieved a glass of water from Obscurity, and waited patiently for Cherilee to return.
The moment she returned through the doors, she asked a nearby pony: "Did I miss anything?"
The questioned stallion gasped in utter shock, and nearly passed out.
"My good stallion, would you be so kind as to repeat what she asked you?" Question Magic took a sip of water and waited patiently for him to return to his senses.
"She... she asked if she missed anything."
Cherilee looked confused as she walked back to her seat.
"Miss, I have a note here for you."
Question Magic passed the piece of paper with the line on it to her.
"Um.. What is this?"
"That paper has the line on it you would say when you returned from your break. As an answer to that: No, you did not miss anything. I gave you the paper, and I waited patiently for you to return."
This time, Cherilee gasped as she realized what happened.
"The explanation for this is much simpler than the previous one. By telling her she would not miss anything, she unconciously wondered if she would actually miss anything. This line manifested, and she asked the moment she returned, since she is eager to find out what I say and do is not some hoax of some kind. With this knowledge, she will proceed to tell her students in school tomorrow about this show. And no, again I have not met this particular mare, so I could not know she was a teacher if she did not respond this way."
He took the last sip of his glass of water, and proceeded.
"Now, I am afraid my time is almost up. Some of you will be glad to leave, some of you wish to have heard more. As a final test, I will conjure yet another piece of paper and a quill- Where do I get these from? - and write down a few numbers. These numbers will correspond to the number on the chair you sit on, so I want all of you to look at said number and memorise it."
The audience stood up and checked their chairs. They were numbered in order from left to right, back to front, in ascending numbers.
"I will tell you now, one chair, one pony that will be glad to leave. Number 35."
The pony that sat on chair number 35 looked a bit awkwardly around himself, but nobody but those near him noticed it.
"As for the show, that is it. I will, however, stick around Ponyville to answer any questions, should you have any."
A pony in the audience, seated on number 27, stood up. "But what about the paper with the numbers on it?"
"This paper I will keep with me. It contains the numbers of the ponies that are going to ask me a question afterwards. Now, I thank you all for your attention, and have a lovely day."
Question Magic left the stage after clearing it, followed closely by his assistant.
"Where will you stay to answer questions, however? You have not told them."
"There is no need. They will find me."
He walked outside, and sat on a bench in the nearby park.
And, as he said, a few ponies walked up to him.
"Uhm, Question Magic? You said if we had any questions, you would answer them, yes?"
"That is correct. And I assume you also wish to know what numbers are on the paper?"
"That...how.. that was my question!"
"I know. The numbers are: " He spoke up so everypony in line could hear it. "Number 16, number 27, number 35, number 42, number 49 and number 52."
Each pony in line gasped as they remembered which seat they had been sitting on.
"You are number 35. The pony behind you was sitting on number 52, the one after that 16, then 49, and lastly 27."
Again, they gasped, impressed by Question Magic's memoric skills.
"Thank you for your question. Next!"
Number 52 walked up to him, but shyly looked another way.
"You were going to ask why I said number 35 was glad to leave, and why it is that he still came to me. Correct?"
The stallion nodded.
"Once more, 'tis simple. The same reason why the teacher asked if she missed anything, he wanted to find out which numbers were on the paper after I said he would be the one glad to leave. I could tell by his slightly unamused expression during the show that he would want to leave, and I enticed him to come back to me. That was it, yes?"
The stallion nodded again.
"Alright then, thank you for coming to me. Next!"
A unicorn mare walked up to him now.
"I want to know how-"
"Yes, yes. You want to know how this is magic. You still question the fact that reality is not a reality. If I knew you would come and ask this exact question to me, would you believe it then?"
The mare slowly nodded, but still looked unstatisfied.
"Looks like you need further convincing, as I expected. That is why I crudely drew your cutie mark on the paper as well, next to the number."
He showed her the paper, and this time she gasped.
"And for your next question, I could not see your cutie mark from where I was standing, and I left through another exit, so I could not have seen it as you left the building."
Again, she looked stunned.
"Still, thank you for showing up. Next!"
Another mare walked up, a pegasus this time.
"Oh my, your question is already answered. I'm sorry. Did you want to ask anything else?"
The pegasus pouted sadly, but shook her head nonetheless.
"Alright. Thank you anyway. Last, but not least, step forward!"
27 stepped forward, ending the line.
"You had the same question as two others in the line, but you want to ask more. How could I enlighten you? Oh great, another how-did-I question."
"How did you... Wait, what?"
He surprised himself with his own words.
"And your next question will be: 'How could I know all this?' "
He slowly nodded.
" You, like me, want to know-it-all. I could tell by the question you brazenly asked during the show. Following that, I could see your surprise as both the first and the one before you had your question answered. Also, you will strive to find out more about what I said, through self-study."
He looked up, a gleam in his eyes.
"And you want to thank me for opening your eyes. You're welcome."
The stallion grinned, and said goodbye to Question Magic.
"That last one has the potential to become like me. I know he will one day look back at this day, and he will thank me again for opening my eyes, in silence."
"You truly gave the Show of Your Life there, Question." Obscurity laughed loudly, and Question Magic joined in, happy that the day was over.
