Author's Note

I'm happy to announce that the contest to see who could guess where I got Bastian's power from has been decided! The winner is... drum roll please... Lorddarkrai2000! Congratulations on winning!

Also, I would like to thank Texus for their comments. Constructive criticism is always welcome!

Anyway, this chapter was mainly just filler. I didn't really have a plan while writing this, outside of expanding on Whisper a bit. I know it's short, but I didn't have a lot of time to write, what with preparing for my next year at college and all.

Some Time Later...

It had been almost two months since Bastian's arrival in Equestria; Twilight occasionally asked him for some more notes on Nen and his homeworld, he'd sped up the Apples' harvesting season by several days, and he was currently helping Rarity sort out her inventory. At the moment, he was actually regretting the decision a bit.

"No, no!" She exclaimed as he moved to put down a bundle of fabric. "That one isn't white, that's cream! That goes in the other box!"

Bastian inspected the fabric; so far as he could tell, there was barely any difference. How the hell was he supposed to know what went where? With a sigh, he set it aside and picked up the next one to move it to the correct box.

"No, that one's dark navy blue, not black!" Rarity cried out as he started putting it away. With another sigh, Bastian pulled it back out. This was going to be a long day...

By the time Bastian left, he was at the point of taking deep breaths and counting to ten. Resolving to never sort Rarity's inventory ever again, he headed on back to Twilight's for some more research she wanted to do.

Along the way, he subtly checked out the rooftops, wondering if his shadow was still there. His En came back positive, confirming it.

He'd discovered the spy's presence a few days after his meeting with the diarchy; turns out his suspicions were correct, they were keeping tabs on him. He'd pretended not to notice; it wasn't like he was doing anything, after all. Besides, if he did point out the spy's position, it would confirm for the spy that he'd been looking for unwanted tails and would likely indicate he had something to hide by trying to make the spy's job harder.

Still, he had to give this pony credit - he hadn't seen hide nor hair of them since he first realized they were following him. The only reason he'd even noticed in the first place was because they happened to be in range of his En during his morning warm-up, when he'd exercise his Nen in order to ensure he hadn't lost his touch. He didn't know what they looked like, or what species of pony they were, but to get up there they were likely either a Unicorn or Pegasus. An Earth pony climbing up the side of a building would be a very inefficient way of following him like this one had been. A pegasus, meanwhile, could fly from roof to roof, while a unicorn could teleport.

He stopped using En and refocused on his journey.

Whisper continued watching the target as he wandered away, scribbling down some more notes.

Day: 56
Subject: Bastian Kuroyama

Subject entered Carousel Boutique to help owner with something. Appeared agitated after reemerging several hours later.; judging from conversation from inside said Boutique, Subject was apparently helping 'sort inventory.' Will attempt confirmation at a later date.

Sticking the note back into her saddlebag, Whisper began to follow him. He seemed to be walking back to Princess Twilight's castle, taking a route through the market. He waved and said hello to a few townsfolk as he passed by, who smiled and waved back.

Whisper made a few more notes about these ponies; if Bastian did turn out to be evil, he could have co-conspirators.

She ducked down when Bastian looked into a shop window across the street from her, seemingly studying the objects inside.

Bastian subtly checked the rooftops from the window's reflection; still nothing. He idly wondered if there was some sort of invisibility spell for unicorns as he turned away and began walking again.

Deciding to try and spot the spy another day, he headed back to Twilight's for a few more experiments.