On the train ride back to Ponyville, Bastian simply leaned back against the wall of the train, his eyes closed. The other ponies on board had all moved away from him, unsure of what exactly he was. If they didn't know better, they'd say he was asleep... that's what they thought until one of them moved even an inch closer and he opened one eye to give them a lazy-yet-alert look. He relaxed again once they'd backed off.

He wasn't sleeping. He was resting. Big difference.

Normally, the ponies on the train wouldn't care... but there was something in the way he carried himself, some sort of air about him, that told them all one thing: I am dangerous.

Bastian simply let his thoughts wander as the train ride went on and on, ignoring the looks the ponies would occasionally send his way.

He knew it was very unlikely the Princesses would simply let him off the hook without some sort of contingency or way of keeping tabs on him. He'd done a bit of research after hearing about them the first time; at best, he concluded that if they were Nen-users, they'd likely be Specialists, what with their connection to celestial bodies and all. With all their power, winning against someone as skilled as him with raw power wasn't impossible. He'd even done a bit of research on rumors he'd heard, about Celestia being able to rain down solar fire upon her enemies and Luna transforming the battlefield to mimic the surface of the moon, vacuum and all. He hadn't been able to discover anything substantial with those claims, but if those rumors were true, he'd have little to no chance of beating them if it ever came to it, no matter how many more 'Mana Units' his aura gave off.

They didn't seem to want to fight, however, instead seemingly more concerned for the well-being of their citizens, something Bastian admired. Most of the monarchs he knew cared only for themselves and money - he'd had to hunt down three of them for corruption charges, after all. However, he also knew that they likely had or since formed some sort of contingency and/or way to keep tabs on him. Likely through some sort of spy.

If one did tail him back to Ponyville, though, he'd know - if they set one hoof inside the town boundaries, Pinkie Pie would be there in a heartbeat to throw a party. She'd make a pretty good spy-detector... assuming they didn't assume the guise of other ponies she knew. Even then, though, he'd been around long enough to know about her 'Pinkie Sense,' as the locals had called it. If something was amiss, she'd likely 'sense' it.

Even still, he was going to keep his eye out.

Queen Chrysalis griped and grumbled to herself as she paced in what used to be the throne room in the old castle, smack-dab in the middle of the Everfree. She'd moved there for several reasons - it was open and abandoned, it was remote, and it was close enough to Ponyville that her spies could keep watch on the Elements of Harmony.

But now, this... thing, this 'human' had shown up and thrown a wrench into her plans! At first, she'd written him off as a harmless target, despite his size. Then she'd gotten reports of what he'd done when a simple thug had tried robbing the orange one, Apple-something. If she could only get her hooves on this 'human,' she could potentially learn the secrets behind his power... but from what the report had said, that was likely to get quite a few of her children killed. She couldn't go through with it... not until she had some way of knowing she could win with absolute certainty.

Something in her mind twitched as a message was sent along the chain of command, informing her there was someone who'd wanted to see her on their way. Another human, by the sounds of it...

Bastian chuckled at the Pinkie's surprise "hooray-you've-returned-to-Ponyville" party as the partygoers all danced, ate, and drank all around him. Nobody seemed that scared of him anymore... was a single day of being away from them really enough time for them to get over their terror, or had Pinkie done something to convince them all he was safe to be around?

Know what? Bastian decided as he grabbed a cup of punch and took a swig. I don't care. I'm just going to have some fun for the night.

He spent the next few hours mingling, dancing, eating, and drinking with the townsponies. Eventually, though, they all began drifting away, needing to return home before midnight rolled around. Bastian eventually left with Applejack to head back to the farm after having noticed how late it was.

Twilight left shortly afterwards to head back to her castle and work a bit more on the MU machine. She was so close to figuring out how to boost it even higher...

Her thoughts eventually turned to Bastian and his power. He'd described it as manipulating his own life energy for different purposes... theoretically, couldn't that mean it could be taught to ponies? She could only imagine what she could do if she could use 'Nen' as well... she resolved to ask Bastian if he could teach her in the morning.

"What do you mean, no?!"

"Exactly what I said - no." Bastian replied simply.

"But... but why?!"

"Because in order to learn Nen on such short notice, I'd have to force your aura nodes open, which has the potential of tiring you out to the point of exhaustion if you can't get a grip on it quick enough. If you can't control it quickly, everything that keeps you alive could escape, which would lead to your death. And something tells me you don't want that." He replied calmly.

"Is... is that how you learned it?"

"Nope. I learned how to feel it and slowly opened my aura nodes through meditation... which took over a year."

"A year?!"

"Yep." He replied nodding. "That's about average for someone attempting to learn Nen. Granted, some people can learn within days, but in every single case those people had natural talent in controlling it, but those are few and far between - very, very far between."

"I'm a fast learner!"

"I'm sure you are, but I still don't plan on teaching you unless I absolutely have to." Bastian said. "And I sincerely hope it'll never come to that." He added under his breath.

With a sigh, Twilight turned to the machinery and made sure everything was alright. She'd practically had to build a second machine from scraps and spare parts and connect the two, but the results would almost certainly be worth it!

She signaled for him to start, and he coated his arm with a regular amount of Nen, the result once again coming out to 150,000 MU. Slowly, he began adding more and more aura, the bar slowly raising higher and higher.

To Twilight's shock, Bastian's total aura output totaled up to 600,000 Mana Units. Six times greater than the Princesses'.

Bastian held Ko as he waited for Twilight to tell him it was okay to stop. After a minute he glanced at her, noting how her hair was starting to stick out at odd angles and she was beginning to twitch, a crazy smile slowly spreading across her face as she witnessed this.

He wisely decided now was a good time to go and help Applejack with her applebucking.

Author's Note

My computer was being a piece of junk and I lost a good chunk of the story. Had to rewrite it from memory, which I am terrible at.

Anyway, now that Bastian's category has been found, how about another challenge?

"Who can guess where I got the original idea for Bastian's power?"

Please comment below what you think the answer is. I'll give you a hint, though:

"The answer is a videogame character. But which one?"