Friendship: the Gathering

Chapters

Prologue
Ch.1 First Contact
Ch.2 High Maintenance Cost
Ch. 3 Haste
Ch.4 Adamant Banding
Ch.5 Show and Tell
Ch. 6 Wildspeaker
Ch.7 Control
Ch.8 Urza's Funhouse

Prologue

Anon groaned, muttering a few curses under his breath as he shut off his phone's alarm. With a quick flick of his finger across the device's screen, peace reclaimed the dimly lit room as he plopped it back onto its charging pad on his bed's headboard. Groggy, he dragged himself into a sitting position, grimacing while looking dumbly around his room. Like always, the small room was sparsely decorated, a bed, unassuming dresser, computer desk complete with computer, and poll lamp the only furniture to be seen. Dirty laundry and empty water bottles covered the floor to an embarrassing degree.

Anon grimaced at the sight, taking a mental note to dispose of the rubbish at some point. Letting out a sigh, he pulled himself out of bed, his toned green body bare save for a pair of gray boxers. He yawned, rubbing his gray eyes and brushing his long, wavy, brown locks out of his face.

Slowly waking up, he staggered to his feet as he made his way towards his bedroom door. At the same time, he mentally mulled over his plans for the morning. The same thing he had done several days before and planned to do the next few days in the future.

Step one, shower. Step two, get dressed. Step three, feed Jinx. Step four, coffee. Step five, head to work. Step six, profit.

He snorted tiredly at that last part as he gathered what he needed from his dresser on the way out of the room. In contrast to his brown cave of a bedroom, the rest of his home was a bit more vibrant. In addition to the bedroom, the one-story house had a living room, guest room, kitchen, dinning room, bathroom, garage/gym, and study, each twice to three times the size of where he chose to sleep. Rich green walls made up the house, each room decorated with at least one portrait of some form of nature. Sturdy wooden furniture filled each room, each holding a kind of fae-like aesthetic.

The sudden shift in tone brought a small smile to his face, the smell of pine air-freshener greeting him as his bedroom door closed behind him. He hummed a small tune to himself, his deep tone echoing faintly in the otherwise empty house. He let his mind wander in random directions as he entered the bathroom, an unfortunate feature he had mostly made peace with. When he eventually dropped his drawers and stood under the water, he managed to shake away the sleepy cobwebs from his mind. A few minutes later, he emerged from the bathroom wearing a brown T-shirt, faded green jeans, and tan tennis shoes. His hair was a damp mop, but a much less messy one after passing a brush through it.

Feeling refreshed, he made his way to his kitchen towards his fridge.

He paused just short of opening the appliance with a snort when a loud mew caught his attention. Smirking, he turned towards his kitchen's island just in time to see a jet-black maine coon cat hop onto it from the opposite side. Chuckling, Anon pulled out two pop-top cans of wet cat food and a small plate out of a kitchen cabinet, ignoring the yellow eyes drilling into his back while he prepared their owner's breakfast. Rolling his eyes, he put the plate down in front of the cat.

"Good morning to you too, Jinx," he smiled, lightly scratching the cat's head as it ate.

Without saying anything else, he pulled a gallon of milk out of the fridge before doing the same with a container of instant coffee and a resealable bag of sugar from a cabinet. After putting a mug of milk into the microwave for a couple minutes, he went to work turning it into a mug of coffee and walked over to the dinning room. While he sat at the table enjoying his drink, his eyes wandered towards a small purple plastic deck box on the table.

Smiling, he set his mug down and opened the box.

He was instantly greeted by a ninety nine stack of cards with a single one separated from the rest by a plastic purple divider. He casually pulled the stack out of the box, giving the solitary remaining card a proud smile before giving the stack his full attention. Each card was sealed with individual card sleeves, the front clear while the back was a sold shade of purple similar to the container that housed them. With practiced ease, he shuffled the cards then drew himself a seven-card hand. The art and meaning behind the cards before him filled him with ease, the fierce beasts and magical implements briefly taking him away from his mundane life. As he placed cards on the table and made plays, he wasn't some freelance contractor killing himself just to make a buck. He was a great druid calling beasts to his side fighting against other skilled mystics.

Just as he managed to land the killing blow against his imagined opponent, a loud series of knocks erupted from his front door. After getting his heart to beat properly, he aimed a sharp glare in the door's general direction. Who the hell could that possibly be? All of his neighbors knew better than to bother him on his days off and he wasn't exactly on speaking terms with most of his family.

"Am I behind on the rent again?" he mused, only to shake his head a second later in the negative. "Nah, I took care of that last week. Then who-?"

Another loud series of knocks cut off his musings, dragging a growl out of his throat as he made his way towards the door.

"I'm coming! I'm coming!" he roared, quickly zeroing in on the door. "Give me a minute for fucks sake!"

When he finally reached the door, he threw it open ready to verbally rip into whoever stood on the other side. Whatever he was going to say died the second he saw what had been knocking. For the most part, the creature standing in front of him looked human, holding a full female figure wearing a pair of blue jeans, white shoes, and red T-shirt, but that was where the similarities ended. A thin coat of pink fur covered all parts of her body not covered by her clothes. She also appeared to have a fluffy cloud-like tail that was a darker shade of pink. Her head was what really held his attention, the part in question looking like a combination of human and equine with an extra curly mane that was the same shade as her tail. Her eyes were a bit larger than a human's and a bright shade of blue that shined almost as brightly as her smile.

Anon stared at the creature with wide eyes and slack jaw. All of his higher brain function started to systematically shutdown as it tried and failed to process the data it was taking in. The creature didn't seem to notice his plight, happily waving at him as he took a shaky step back.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie," the creature declared, voice high in pitch and full of excitement. "What's your name?"

Anon blinked dumbly at that, raised a hand, then let out a groan as fainted and fell to the floor. A worried frown replaced Pinkie's smile as she stared down at the downed human.

"W-Was it something I said?" she asked.

Ch.1 First Contact

A dull, throbbing pain in the back of his head awakened Anon, his whole world spinning as he let out a groan. Had he been drinking last night? No, this wasn't that kind of pain. Close, but not the same. Cracking open his eyes a bit, he quickly shut them again with a hiss. The brief glance he got and the familiar feel of his couch's cushions told him that he was in his living room. That brought a small sigh of relief out of him, but also made him question why he was in the living room instead of his bedroom.

He exclusively watched videos on his phone, so there was no TV for him to pass out in front of here. He didn't remember brining his Switch or DS out here at any point, but he supposed there was a chance that he slept through a video on his phone. It wouldn't be the first time, but that probably meant that the device was going to be pretty low on battery now.

Fuck me, he thought, forcing himself into sitting up.

A soft gasp made him freeze.

Anon may not have been the most observant of people, but he sure as hell knew that he lived alone. Unless Jinx had found a way to make human sounds, there was a good chance there was someone else in the room with him. Slowly, he reached for the pocket knife he kept clipped to his rear pocket as he opened his eyes.

Sitting across from him was the same strange creature he had saw earlier, her lips pulled down into a worried frown. His heart sank into his gut, memories of what happened before he fainted jumping to the forefront of his mind. The creature didn't have a chance to say anything before he staggered to his feet and drew his weapon. The creature immediately put her arms up, eyes wide with shock as they alternated between him and the blade pointed at her.

"Wh-Who or what the fuck are you?" he growled, fighting past his throbbing head.

"P-Pinkie Pie," she stammered. "M-My name is Pinkie Pie. And you?"

"None of your god damn business," he growled. "What the hell are you doing in my house?"

"I-I-I saw your house and wanted to welcome you to town," Pinkie Pie explained, tears starting to build in her eyes. "Y-Y-You passed out at the door, so I th-thought I would help."

He refused to break eye-contact with her, ready to strike the second she tried anything. At the same time, he looked for any kind of tells in case she was lying. After a few tense minutes of this, he couldn't get any other kind of readings off of her beyond how afraid of him she was. With a sigh, he folded up and pocketed his weapon before he reclaimed his seat.

"Alright," he sighed, interlocking his fingers together onto his lap. "Sorry for all of that. I've never seen anything like you and it was a bit...much."

"I-It's okay," Pinkie softly smiled, wiping away her tears. "I'm sorry I scared you."

"I'll live," Anon snorted. "Now, first things first. Where the hell am I?"

***

The next couple of hours were interesting to say the least.

Apparently, he was now on a world called Equis, a world largely populated by anthropomorphic magical creatures. More specifically, his house had ended up in a town called Ponyville, a small hamlet set in the heart of Equestria. As if to further match the theme, a vast majority of the country was populated by humanoid equines collectively called Ponies. In total, there were three types or Tribes of Ponies, each built to use their magic differently based on their anatomy. These were Earth Ponies, Unicorns, and Pegasi. Earth Ponies were apparently stronger and much more durable than the other two tribes with magic better suited for agriculture or construction. Pegasi had wings and could manipulate the weather, even possessing the ability to build entire cities out of clouds and walk on them. Unicorns were the most physically feeble of the three tribes, but had magic that was a lot more varied in terms of use. There were some limits, but Pinkie didn't know enough about the specifics to give Anon the full scope.

While they were talking, they had at some point moved from the living room to the dinning room, a pitcher of cranberry juice and two full glasses not far from their reach. Anon's face was hard to read, but at least it didn't hold the burning animosity from before. Pinkie was a completely different story, the woman, or mare as she had clarified at some point, was practically bursting with energy. There were a few times during their conversation Anon needed to remind her to breathe, especially when her face started to turn blue. While her good mood was infectious, the constant blast of energy and noise she gave off was starting to take its toll on him. He wanted to know more about his situation, sure, but it was still a lot to take in all at once.

He could already feel his anxiety starting to catch up with him.

Out of habit, he gathered up all of the cards he left on the table earlier and started to shuffle. Like a smoker taking a puff, the action eased his growing tension with each shuffle. Pinkie quickly noticed, staring at the cards with open intrigue and a raised brow. The sudden interest dimmed his zen slightly, pulling the cards closer to himself away from the staring mare.

"What are those?" she asked, pointing at the stack in his hands.

"Magic the Gathering cards," he responded guardedly. "It's a game from my world."

"Really?!" she gasped. "Can I play?!"

Anon didn't really know how to answer that. Sure, he had helped people get into the game and even guided new players into building their first real decks, but those cases involved the other person having their own cards. He had hundreds of decks stored in his study, each ready to destroy a player any number of ways. They were also extremely expensive. So much so that he almost never used some of them unless he had at least three copies of everything in them. The fact that he was in a situation that made replacing any part of them impossible only added to his reservations.

"I'd....rather you didn't," he sighed, reaching for the deck box. "My cards mean a lot to me and I don't like other people messing with them."

"Oh, okay," she wilted, leaning back in her seat.

Anon's hand froze halfway towards the box. The mare's dejected demeanor made him feel like he had just kicked a puppy. Looking back on how he had treated her so far hadn't helped much either. Even after he had her at knifepoint, she answered all of his questions without even a hint of spite. It was only fair that he at least returned the favor in some way.

"Alright," he sighed, pulling his hand back. "While I don't feel comfortable letting you use my cards, I can at least explain how the game works. Deal?"

"Deal!" she beamed, all gloom gone from her in an instant.

He blinked at her for a moment, then did his best to shake off his mental whiplash as he turned his attention back towards his cards.

Gods I hope not all Ponies are like her, he thought, tiredly sifting through some of the cards in his deck.

***

"So, all of the stuff on these cards are fake in your world?" Pinkie asked, staring down at a few cards set in front of her.

"Not all of them," Anon shrugged, taking a sip of juice. "Humans are real and some of the animals are too. Crazy stuff like dragons, hydras, sea serpents, and gryphons are just myths where I'm from."

"But they look a lot like the ones here!" Pinkie gaped, pointing at a hydra card. "This looks just like the one the royal guard scared back into the Everfree Forest a few months ago! How did people from your world do that?!"

"Hell if I know," he shrugged. "Maybe a few things from this world ended up over there. Makes about as much sense as what's happening right now, anyway."

A small tremble ran through him, his own offhanded comment reminding him of his situation. He took a deep breath to try to steady his nerves, silently hoping that Pinkie hadn't noticed. Of course, the gods of both worlds decided to refuse access to that simple hope.

Are you okay?" she asked, her face heavy with concern.

"Y-Yeah," he forced out, avoiding eye contact with the mare. "Anyway, do you have any other questions?"

Pinkie was about to press, but decided against it at the last second. She could see that he wasn't okay, but with no safe way to proceed, she decided to play along with his act. Looking down at the cards on the table, she let a small smile grace her muzzle as a question came to her.

"Why are the cards different colors?"

Anon blinked at that, then let out a faint groan.

"Right, I guess I forgot to talk about that. You see, in Magic there are five main colors. Each one has a specific play style and philosophy that helps determine how you choose to build your deck and play the game. Red is the color of chaos and emotion and usually relies on a fast and aggressive play style to overwhelm opponents. Green is the color of nature and instinct and uses giant creatures to smash through everything in its way. White is the color of law and order and usually tries to take down threats with military might or the power of faith. Blue is the color of knowledge and technology and usually tries to negate other forms of magic or other indirect ways to take down opponents. Black is the color of power and ambition and will do anything to win even if it means sacrificing others or using underhanded tactics."

"What about these ones?" she asked, pointing at a few cards.

"Those are colorless cards," he explained. "They can be used by any of the other colors and don't really have an identity or philosophy of their own."

"That's so mean!" she gasped.

"Maybe," Anon shrugged. "It does make them the most flexible cards in the game, though. A green card can't do anything in a pure red deck, but a colorless card can be used in any kind of deck. Sounds like a fair trade to me."

"I guess," she frowned, looking legitimately sorry for the cards in question. "It's still mean, though."

Anon shrugged at that.

One of his biggest deck-building challenges was trying to build a purely colorless competitive deck. While he was doing it, it was hard to feel any kind of connection with the cards because of how empty the play style felt. He felt more like a factory worker than a mage when he used it. When he eventually jumped back to his main color, it was a breath of fresh air and a lot more fun.

"So, what color is your favorite?" Pinkie asked, leaning forward with a wide smile.

Anon leaned back from her, then stiffly said, "Green."

"Really?" she blinked, staring down at the hydra card from before.

He nodded, smiling down at the same card.

"I can use each of the other cards just fine, but I've always had a strong connection to green."

Before she could ask anymore questions, Anon put his hand up to silence her and said, "I know this is going to sound rude, but can you please leave now. I mean, I just spent the last couple of hours trying to come to terms with the fact that I'm in a new world and I...really want to be alone now. Okay?"

Pinkie stared at him for a moment, shock and worry clear on her face. She didn't like the idea of leaving the human in such a delicate place, but she also didn't think it was wise to push him too much. Not sure of what else to do, she gave him a reluctant nod and stood up. Letting out a relieved sigh, he guided her towards his front door and opened it for her. He flinched back from the late afternoon sun as the mare passed him.

Fucking sun, he bitterly thought. Eat a fat one.

"It was really really really nice to meet you Anon," Pinkie beamed. "Maybe I can throw you a party later to welcome you to the town!"

"Please don't," he grimaced. "I hate crowds."

"Oh," Pinkie frowned, taken aback from that.

"It was nice to meet you though," he smiled. "Maybe next time, we can do this without me pointing a knife at you."

"Yeah," she giggled. "That would be really nice."

He snorted at that and nodded.

"See you around Pinkie."

"See ya' Anon!" she beamed, waving.

Nodding, he closed the door and let out a relieved sigh. A light mew at his side caught his attention as Jinx walked into view. Bending down, he picked up the hefty cat and made his way back towards the kitchen. Taking a seat at the table, he mindlessly pet Jinx as he frowned at the table.

"Alright Anon, you know your situation, what the fuck are you going to do?"

His eye drifted towards a wooden cabinet with glass doors by the fridge.

"Booze," he flatly stated, gently setting the cat down onto the floor. "Lots of booze."

Ch.2 High Maintenance Cost

Rarity frowned as she made her way through town, staring down at a sheet of paper in her hand. This particular part of Ponyville was one she had rarely explored, most of the homes holding a more rustic flare to them then she was used to. She grimaced as she passed an especially old house, its chipping paint hurting her eyes on a personal level. The ivory Unicorn mare wore a finely crafted sky blue blouse and gray slacks, both articles perfectly framing her lithe and elegant figure. Her violet mane and tail were each styled into single matching curls that bounced softly with each gray high-heeled step she took. Soft blue rouge added to the already stunning shade of sapphire of her eyes, said orbs narrowed in frustration as she stared down at the paper in her hands.

Why would he choose to live out here? she mused, stepping disdainfully around the remains of an ancient outhouse. It is all so... icky out here!

On top of that, the lack of civilization this far out put a chill down her spine. She wracked her brain to think of a reason one would choose to live someplace so eerily calm. She mentally kicked herself when one particular friend of hers came to mind.

Pinkie did say that he hates crowds. Maybe Anon is like Fluttershy, she thought moving around a vine-choked statue of some sort. Perhaps he prefers a more, shall we say, organic lifestyle.

She cringed at that, hating the idea of being surrounded by all of that dirt any longer than was strictly needed. Even now, she knew that it was going to take time to clean the stains out of her silver heels. That earned an irritated snort out of her, mainly when said heel got caught in an old gofer hole.

"For Celestia's sake," she muttered, letting out a very unlady-like huff as she freed her shoe.

"Keep it together Rarity," she frowned, wiping away the dirt coating her heel with some of her magic. "A little dirt never stopped a lady from shining."

While she walked, she tried to let the early morning rays improve her dim mood. At the same time, she distracted herself by alternating between following Pinkie's directions and thinking about what the mare in question told her. Admittedly, she had her doubts about her friend's claims that a strange creature was living on the older outskirts of town. Not helping had been the description she gave about the creature in question, it greatly resembling the humans from myth and ancient folklore she had read about in passing.

A week ago, she would've ignored such a story as nothing more than a tall tale, whipped up to get a rise out of her from one of her friends. Then Nightmare Moon happened, and such things started to hold a bit more weight to her. Even if this was just some prank, it would've been better to look a fool for being gullible than running from a creature's fangs. Also, now that her curiosity had been piqued it was unlikely that she would've been able to focus on her work until it was satisfied.

"If this was all for nothing, I am going to have a quite a lot of words for that mare," she grumbled, aiming a pointed glare at the paper in her hand.

A second after she said that, she took a step forward, slipped on a particularly wet patch of grass, and rolled down a hill into a mud puddle. Slowly, Rarity sat up, wiped the mud out of her eyes, then let out a frustrated scream into the heavens. Vitriol rolled off of her tongue that was so foul, it would've made the most toxic viper want to wash her mouth out as she staggered to her feet. That was followed by a yelp as she slipped on something in the puddle and fell back into the mud. Any screaming that would've come next was replaced by hacking coughs as she tried to spit out a mouthful of mud.

I.... am... going.... to throttle that mare! she thought, spitting curses and wet earth as she crawled onto more solid ground.

***

Anon took a deep breath, reveling in the fresh early morning air as he explored his new surroundings. After he managed to shake off his hangover, he decided to start taking whatever steps he needed to make peace with his current situation. The first, he figured, was to get a look at his new surroundings and to take it from there. Risking a few looks out his windows, he was relieved to see that Pinkie had been technically wrong about where his house had ended up.

When he found the nerve to step out the front door, he found that his home was set in a forest clearing on top of a tall hill. From it, he could see the near invisible skeletons of countless old homes, vines and trees dominating the space like graveyard mementos. An old trail winded down the hill like an aged camping trail, starting from his doorstep and moving further into the woods. Dirt and dried leaves crunched under his boots as he casually made his way down the trail, the chirping of birds and chittering of squirrels brining a small smile to his lips. His smile turned into a chuckle when he looked back at his home.

While the building hadn't changed when whatever force brought it here did its thing, it almost felt that the powers that be picked this location because of it. Much like the inside, the outside of his home was painted in a way that reflected his love for nature. Green, brown, and gray decorated his home, almost blending in to the scene like a form of unintentional camouflage. It almost looked as if the house had always been there, a fact that added a hint of eeriness to the comforting sight.

Shaking it off, shifted his attention back to the trail as he continued down the path. Aside from the small actions of the animals that called it home, the forest trail was completely silent in a way foreign to anyone that spent most of their time living in a city. He chuckled, loving the seclusion his new home gave him compared to the noise of his old world.

Basking in the shadows of the trees and the smells of damp earth, he was startled when the shade suddenly vanished. Cursing under his breath, he blinked the dots out of his eyes as his advance was cut short. When his eyes had finally adjusted, he looked out into a vast open field. The grass was an explosively vibrant emerald he didn't know was possible, a few young trees growing from the middle of the faintest skeletons of homes dotted across the scene. In the far distance, several tall mountains reached for the sky like great earthen fangs, one of them seeming to have a giant ivory castle built into its side. Closer, but still a good distance away was a large village, the hamlet looking like a small model from the distance.

He pulled out his phone and activated its camera function, briefly lamenting the lack of signal before he put the town into its line of sight. Zooming in, he watched hundreds of colorful dots move through the streets like ants in an ant farm. The buildings were shockingly similar to the ones from his home world, the more official ones holding designs that fit while the homes all seemed to have thatched roofs reminiscent of old fantasy movies. There were other buildings that didn't fit either design, one resembling a merry-go-round and another looking like a towering ice cream sunday catching his attention the most. There also appeared to be a large tree standing near the middle of the town, but all of the blurry things his camera caught in its branches made him wonder if it served a purpose beyond giving others shade.

His observations were interrupted by a very loud and very angry feminine scream that filled the air a fair distance away.

"The fuck was that?" he wondered, looking down the trail into another forest.

As if on cue, he saw some movement from within the distant tree-line. Putting his phone away, he stepped back into the shadows, getting behind a tree to hide further from the unknown presence. Hoping to avoid a repeat of yesterday, he let his hand wander to his rear pocket and the pocket knife clipped to it. If it was Pinkie or another Pony that didn't look like they were going to start something, then Sting wasn't going to need to say "hi". If it wasn't, well...

He shook his head, bracing himself as the figure staggered into the field. He didn't really know what to think when what looked like a pony covered in an extra thick coat of mud wandered into the light. Aside from the horn, the figure was caked so heavily in the stuff that it was impossible to tell him more than the bare minimum about the being's features. It did seem to be missing a shoe, the being limping from the uneven footing, but not appearing to be hurt. Irate muttering could be heard, the exact words being said lost by the slowly diminishing distance.

What. The hell. Is that? he thought, trying to think of a way to process what exactly he was looking at.

Not getting or expecting an answer, he kept an eye on the thing approaching, making sure to keep himself as well hidden as he could. When he was forced to shift fully behind the tree he could finally hear what the mud monster was saying. The cultured female voice had a growl to it that made him fairly eager to pull out Sting, especially when he heard the name of his previous guest being spat by the creature.

"When I get home, I am going to take a nice, hot, bath, then I am going to turn Pinkie into a pin-cushion!"

A blue glow surrounded her muck-covered horn as a stained sheet of paper hovered in front of her face.

"No," she continued to fume. "That would be too cruel. Instead, I think making her eat nothing but lemons and salt would be a much better punishment. Maybe that will make her think twice before pulling one of her foul pranks!"

Anon's grimace grew at that, watching the presumed mare with narrowed eyes as she passed. Keeping to the shadows and using what he had been taught back on Earth, Anon watched the mud mare move further down the old trail towards his home. He saw the disgust in her sapphire eyes each time they landed on a tree-claimed house or other forms of abandoned architecture that lined the trail. Aside from that, the trial, and the paper floating in front of her, she didn't bother to give anything her full attention. That worked perfectly for Anon, the human already trying to think of a way to deal with her.

He didn't want to hurt her, especially if she could use magic to do gods-know-what to him if he tried. At the same time, he was not going to let someone fuck with his home. Deciding that he needed more information, he continued to follow her from the shadows. To his surprise, the mare seemed to be calming down the further she traveled down the path. When his house came into view, she stopped, seemingly stunned by the sight. Anon did the same, holding his cover as the mare continued to study his dwelling.

"Well, that answers one question," the mare nervously stated, looking around.

Straightening her posture, she limped towards the house and knocked on his door. Obviously, no one answered, the house's soul occupant keeping to the tree-line as he continued to watch her. While she waited, he crept out of hiding and slowly closed the distance. A bit of irritation entered her posture as she again knocked on the door, a little harder this time as if to match her thinning patience. He stopped ten feet away from her, crossing his arms as he continued to study her with a cautious curiosity.

After about three minutes of waiting, the mare's ears folded pack and an irate growl fell past her muzzle as she slammed a closed fist against the door. Anon jumped from the sudden noise, but was otherwise unaffected by the aggressive display. Given what he had heard her muttering before, it was safe to assume that this mare was a completely different beast compared to Pinkie. A beast that he was not willing to put up with if he could avoid it. Deciding that he had seen enough he cleared his throat loud enough to get the mare's attention.

The mare flinched, her ears instantly straitening and pointing towards him. Slowly she turned towards him with wide, panicked eyes. Anon frowned at her, hiding his nerves behind it and his crossed arms as he locked eyes with her. Slowly, almost cautiously, she turned to face him. Even through the mud, he could see the nervous tension filling the mare's body as her eyes scanned him from top to bottom. He did the same, though it was hard for him to see all that much past the mostly dried mud.

They stayed like that for a few long minutes, neither sure how to progress past this point without triggering a negative reaction out of the other. That went double when the mare noticed how much attention he was aiming at her horn. Ready to put a the legendary creature at ease, she canceled the spell holding up the paper floating near her head, dropping the blue glow coating her horn. She risked a quick grab at the paper as if fell, letting out a small sigh when doing so didn't earn a negative response.

Anon didn't show it, but the act did put him more at ease. While Pinkie couldn't give him the full specifics of how Unicorn Magic worked, she did tell him about a few things to look for. The biggest thing was the colorful aura that shined around a Unicorn's horn each time they casted their spells. She also taught him a few self-defense techniques against Unicorns if the need ever came, but it looked like such things wouldn't be needed.

He flinched slightly when the mare cleared her throat.

"Anon, correct?" the mare asked, her cultured accent coming off much smoother now that she wasn't fuming.

"Yeah," he nodded, his tone more gruff than he intended. "And you?"

"Oh, terribly sorry, darling," she sheepishly smiled, managing an unsteady curtsy. "My name is Rarity and it is a pleasure to meet you, dear."

"Charmed," he flatly stated, not buying the formal display. "Now, what the hell are you doing out here?"

"Well," she nervously giggled, left hand stopping just short of anxiously rubbing her right arm due to the mud. "Pinkie mentioned meeting somepony new yesterday and was insistent that I meet them as well."

Well, that explains how she found my house so easily, he thought, not sure how he felt about this turn of events. I mean, I am pretty far out of the way, as far as I can tell.

"I know this may be a bit forward of me," Rarity nervously stated, snapping him out of his musings. "But could I, perhaps, have a shower?"

He blinked, not sure if he had heard her properly at first. When it was clear that he hadn't misheard her, he quickly mulled over her request. While he did have a working drying and washing machine, he didn't exactly have anything she could change into. He also did not want to have to clean up his shower after all of that mud came off of her. Sure, he could lend her some sweats until her stuff got cleaned, but that still meant he had to deal with having yet another stranger in his home for a few hours. He tried to voice his thoughts, but made the fatal mistake of locking eyes with Rarity. The near desperate look in her eyes killed whatever arguments against the idea as soon as they formed, the mare looking more like a kicked puppy than Pinkie did the day before.

He let out an irritated sigh.

"Fine," he grumbled, earning a grateful smile from the mare. "But only because you're Pinkie's friend."

"Thank you so much," she beamed. "I promise to make this up to you."

"Whatever," he sighed, moving past her to get to the door.

I'm way to fucking nice.

***

An awkward silence filled the living room

The Human and Pony kept to themselves, the former alternating between petting the cat at his side and shuffling some black-sleeved cards while the latter enjoyed a cup of tea. Now free of the mud, Rarity was a lot less stressed, but still felt unclean in her borrowed dressings. While a vast improvement compared to the damaged clothing she arrived in, the gray sweatshirt and sweatpants she wore made her skin crawl.

Looking around, she tried to find something to help distract her from her current situation. Just like the last dozen time she did that, she fought back a cringe over the drab colors and organic decorum surrounding her. While she was willing to admit that it all had an interesting charm to it, it was all just too bland for her more sophisticated tastes. Anon looked up from his cards with a frown, more than able to notice the mare's discomfort.

While Rarity had been civil, it was obvious that something was putting her on edge. It didn't bother him too much, seeing as he was just as eager to see her leave. He never trusted posh people, more than half of them stabbing him in the back on numerous jobs back on Earth. Those types always found ways to shortchange people, especially if they thought you were beneath them. Sure, there were a few rare exceptions to that social rule, but the keyword was exceptions. It was a refusal to become those kind of people that led to his more humble living conditions, in spite of his rumored talents.

A light huff from the mare snapped him out of his thoughts.

"Is something wrong?" he asked, eyes locking onto the seven cards he drew.

"I...do not know if I should say," Rarity meekly stated, staring into her teacup.

"If something's bugging you, go ahead and say it," he huffed, returning his cards to his deck and reshuffling.

Rarity hesitated, her eyes moving back and forth in a silent internal debate for a few seconds before letting out a frustrating huff. With an indignant frown, she set her tea down onto its saucer then daintily put it down onto the table. Anon barely met her gaze as he went through his cards.

"Where should I start!?" she exclaimed. "Everything here is just so, so, so bland! A few good colors could make this place so much more dazzling!"

"Like what?" he casually asked, still fiddling with his cards.

"Something much brighter than these boring earthen tones!" she sputtered, gesturing wildly at the room around them. "Perhaps some light blues or reds along with some silver lined ornaments to catch the light better!"

"Metal work, eh?" he sighed, drawing a card off the top of his deck and studying it. "Might be a bit tricky to make that work."

"I do know a few ponies that could help with that," Rarity nodded. "Then there's the furniture."

"Go on," he frowned, aiming it at the card before he put it back into the deck and shuffled it again.

"While the rustic charm has its, well, charms, I feel that something a bit more formal would be able to add a more sophisticated flare to the scene."

"Sounds pricy," he snorted, glaring at the new hand he drew.

"I'm sure I could find somepony that could do the work for a fare price," Rarity chuckled, waving away the man's concerns. "As for the floor, I feel carpeting would be more comfortable than hardwood."

"I guess," he shrugged, setting the deck down onto the coffee table set between them. "As soon as I have the time, materials, and money to do so, I'll be sure to gut all of my hard work for you, your majesty."

"You're...hard work?" she asked, eyes widening and ears wilting in realization.

"Yeah," he frowned. "Every single thing you see here was made by your's truly."

He leaned back in his seat, closing his eyes and facing the ceiling as he waved a hand around.

"The walls, wiring, plumbing, flooring, and furniture are all things I crafted with my own two hands."

Rarity gawked at that, immediately stumbling over herself to try an form an apology, but a raised had made her stop.

"Stop," he sighed, still staring at the ceiling. "Once your clothes are done, you can leave and never have to put up with my home again."

Rarity was about to counter that, but stopped herself with a defeated sigh. Anon ignored her, silently hoping the damn laundry would hurry the hell up. While they sat in dense silence, Rarity eventually noticed the black-sleeved cards on the table. Curious, she reached down and took a card off of the stack, raising a brow as she read the card's name aloud.

"Vito, Thorn of the....Dusk Rose?"

Anon instantly sat up, face contorted into a venomous glare as he gave the mare his full attention.

"Put. It. Back," he growled, not once taking his eyes off of her.

Rarity stiffly nodded, quickly doing as she was told.

"I-I'm sorry," she stammered, leaning back in her seat away from the cards.

Anon took a deep breath to steady his nerves before he picked up the deck and put in back into its box. They sat in awkward silence for a few more minutes until Rarity eventually found her voice.

"I take it those were some of the cards Pinkie mentioned. The ones from your world?"

"Yeah," he sighed. "Sorry about flipping out like that. I...my cards mean a lot to me."

"So I've heard," she nodded, ears folding flat on her head. "All the more reason that I should be the one apologizing. With everything Pinkie told me, I should've known better."

"If you say so," he shrugged. "Still. Sorry."

Rarity was going to argue, but decided to let it drop. She spent more than enough time around her friend Applejack to recognize a losing battle when she saw one. Instead, she decided to move the conversation along to a topic that was a bit less frustrating.

"Pinkie said that your game had a philosophy to it," she said, eying the deck. "What one does that one have?"

Happy for the conversational turn, he smiled down a the deck box before he once again took the cards back out.

"Well, seeing as this is a monoblack deck, it runs fully on that color's way of thinking. Put simply, Black is the color of power and selfishness. Those that use that particular school of magic will do whatever it takes to gain the power needed to complete their goals. This can range from killing off a rival organization to making deals then betraying demons if it means getting what the caster wants. Hell, any laws that don't benefit the caster just get ignored if they get in the way."

"That is simply horrid," Rarity gasped. "Who would use such a distasteful form of magic?"

"The most ambitious?" he shrugged. "Black magic is selfishness incarnate. Sacrificing others or stabbing people in the back is just part of doing business for the caster. Of course, that's only one part of the color's way of thinking."

"What do you mean?" Rarity asked, raising a brow.

"Black may be ruthless, but it is also the most calculatedly driven. Black isn't afraid to take unorthodox, immoral, or even illegal methods to complete a goal. Sure, this could mean world domination or telling the laws of life and death to go fuck themselves, but this can also lead to some acts of good."

"I fail to see how," Rarity frowned.

He smirked knowingly at that, then started taking cards out of his deck and putting them onto the table.

"Because black doesn't care about laws, it will use illegal practices that might be more affective then the legal ones. Because black isn't held back by morals, it won't hesitate to kill anyone that hurts the people it cares about. And because Black is selfish, if you can make it your friend, it will kill gods to keep you safe."

"That....does sound tempting," she allowed, eying the cards on the table with a bit more intrigue.

"All of the colors have their good and bad attributes," he snorted. "Black just likes to put its worst qualities out in front."

"Care to list off some examples of its 'good' side?" Rarity pressed with a smirk.

He thought about that for a couple seconds, then pointed at one of the cards on the table.

"This card has the power to bring back one of your killed creatures. If say, a detective had that kind of power, he could bring back a murder victim and ask them who killed them."

He pointed at another card before he continued.

"This one can remove cards from a player's hand, which is the game's equivalent of your mind. A black mage could use this kind of power to remove a traumatic memory from someone's mind."

When he pointed at the last card on the table, his face took on a more serious expression.

"Damnation," he frowned. "This card, in my opinion, reflects the most important part of Black. With this power, Black can annihilate everything in sight, including the caster's own allies."

"And that is good, how?" Rarity balked.

"Because it reminds the caster that nothing comes without a cost. Black is all about power and the more power the caster uses, the bigger the toll they have to pay. Every time a Black mage casts a spell, they have to be sure the cost is worth the power their about to unleash at any given moment. Regardless of whether they chose to be heroes or villains, this usually leads to Black mages becoming paranoid loners, always sitting on a dagger's edge between the two roles."

He added one last somber note as he put the cards away, something that made the mare look at the cards in a new light.

"Black may not be the nicest color, but if you are willing to give up enough, it will make any goal you have that much easier to complete"

"A fairly wise way to look at things," she nodded, then sheepishly added, "Unlike my actions so far."

"You mean running your mouth about how I chose to build my house?" he asked, raising a brow. "Yeah, not your greatest moment."

"I am truly sorry for that," she wilted. "I just can't help myself sometimes."

"It's fine," he sighed. "Just try not to do it again, kay?"

Rarity nodded, a small smile gracing her muzzle.

A moment later, the dryer let out a soft ding that echoed through the house.

Ch. 3 Haste

The skies over Ponyville were clear, letting the warm summer sun grace the land with its embrace. Anon had decided to take advantage of that, laying in the shade of one of the trees about ten feet from his front door. While calm on the surface, his mind was wandering into a dozen different directions. For all intent and purposes, he was an active cryptid on this world and he was not sure how that would affect how things went for him moving forward. Sure, Pinkie Pie and Rarity were friendly, if not a bit irritating, but there was no guarantee that he could expect that to be a continued trend. That was even assuming both mares had been honest to him in the first place and weren't secretly planning to have him end up in a lab somewhere.

There are too many things I don't know for sure, he frowned, reaching for a red deck box at his side. The easiest way to fix some of that would be to spend some more time with the locals, but I don't know if that's safe. I mean, what if there's some kind of rare creature hunter out there and I end up having my head decorating their wall or something?

He let out a groan as he took the cards out of the box, each sleeved in the same bright crimson as their container, and started to shuffle.

The only other thing I can do is try to study them from a distance. Shouldn't be too difficult if I stay close to the surrounding forests. If I need to, I could use my telescope to spy on the town from here.

"I should probably keep an eye out for any.....Pegasuses? Pegasi? Whatever - Flyers too. Bad enough I have someone possibly strong enough to snap me over her knee like a stick or could do gods-knows-what to me with magic. Throw in someone that can just swoop me off like a hawk and I'm pretty sure I'm fucked."

He let out a defeated sigh shuffling his deck as he stared up at the sky.

A bit of movement in said sky made him raise a brow and wonder if he had accidentally put something funny in his coffee this morning. A rainbow was moving through the sky, slithering through it with surprising speed and dexterity. At the same time, he could swear he could hear what sounded like a plane flying over him. Perplexed, he put the cards back into their case, leaned further up against his tree, and watched the strange anomaly. When the thing finally stopped moving, his heart sank into his gut.

Upon stopping, the rainbow quickly faded to reveal a light blue Pegasus.

That was about as far as he got in regards to identifying the Pony before he grabbed his deck, got up, and bolted to his house as fast as he could. At the same time, he heard that same jet sound from earlier along with the steadily growing sound of flapping wings. He cursed under his breath as he forced himself to move faster. When he reached the door, he threw it open then slammed it hard behind him before he turned and drew his knife. A second later, something slammed into his door before a scratchy female voice could be heard whining from the other side.

"I don't want any trouble!" Anon shouted, knife held steady as he moved into a fighting stance with it. "Get the fuck away from here and things won't have to get ugly!"

"Buck that freak!" the mare cried. "You pulled a knife on my friend!"

I'd say 'It takes a freak to know a freak' , but I guess I kind of am one here, he thought with a grimace.

"We already worked that out!" he retorted, still glaring at his door. "Now fuck off!"

"Yeah, right!" the mare barked. "Now, get out here or I swear I'll bust this stupid door down and-"

A deep feline growl on the other side of the door cut her off.

Anon let a smirk grow on his face at the sound and he relaxed his stance a bit. There were two things people need to know about Maine Coon cats; they are affectionate to their owners and the closest thing a person can get to legally owning a Bobcat. Even by his own breed's standard, Jinx was huge, the feline hulk measuring a whopping three and a half feet long and a foot and a half tall at the shoulder. He was also technically feral, having spent most of his kittenhood roughing it in the woods before the human took him in. On top of gifting the cat with stronger fangs and sharper claws, it also made the cat extremely protective of his human.

A fact that was becoming very apparent to the mare on the other side of the door

"Uh....nice.....kitty?" the mare offered.

She was answered with a fierce growl from the cat, followed by a loud hiss.

The mare yelped and the door let out a loud bang as something ran into it. Jinx let out a furious yowl at that before the mare let out a pained scream. Anon jumped when a flurry of frantic knocks rang out through his door along with desperate pleas.

"HELP! I'M GETTING MAWLED!"

He would've been lying if he said that some small part wasn't enjoying this, but he liked to think he wasn't a complete asshole. Besides, if this Pony really was Pinkie's friend, it would be kind of hard to explain to her why he let his cat murder her. That, and he was really not in the mood to hide a body today. Anon sighed, put his knife away, then started making his way towards the door.

***

Anon glared daggers at the mare now sitting across from him in his living room, said mare doing the same with her arms crossed. Jinx stared at her like one would a turd on the ground from his seat on the human's lap, most likely the only reason the mare wasn't actively trying to strangle him. The fact that he treated her wounds probably had something to do with it on some level, but he was not banking on it.

Like he was able to deduce when he first saw her, the mare was sky blue in color with a lithe, yet toned physique one would expect from a track runner. Her hair and tail were messy in a way that showed that aside from washing them, she didn't really care all that much about them. Both of them had grown to the border between long and short and held all of the colors of the rainbow. Her eyes were her most striking feature, not just because of their sharp magenta tint, but because the mare was trying to use them to glare holes through his head. She wore a dark blue tank top with a yellow lightning bolt cutting across her modest chest from her left shoulder to her right hip with two holes set in the back for her wings, a pair of black denim shorts, and light gray tennis shoes. The near full roll of gauze wrapped around her right leg from her ankle to her hip was Jinx's contribution to her style.

The whole thing at the door was resolved a lot quicker than one would think.

With a few quick clicks of his tongue, Jinx pulled his fangs and claws out of the mare's thigh and casually walked into the house. When he got a good look at said leg, he didn't waste any time dragging her into his home. Her leg was covered with so many wounds that it almost looked like she dipped her leg in red paint. It was going to take him a while to wash all of the blood off of the floor.

On the plus side, the fact that he was trying to patch her up kept the mare from clocking him in the face for a couple hours. Instead, she decided to spend the whole time silently glaring at him and probably thinking of decking him later. Not one to back down from a challenge, he met her glare with his own. Now the two of them sat, mad-doging each other in heavy silence while Jinx purred smugly on Anon's lap.

Alright, I have a royally pissed off horse lady that wants to kill me in my living room. What the fuck do I do know?

"Hey!" the mare snipped, snapping the human out of his musings.

"Yeah?" he guardedly asked.

The mare broke eye-contact, still looking sullen as she muttered, "Um...thanks for....fixing my leg and stuff."

"You're welcome," he frowned. "Now get out of my house."

"Not until you answer a few questions!" she declared, glare back in full.

"No," Anon growled. "You came after me and threatened to hurt me in my own home. You should consider yourself lucky I didn't knock your lights out instead of patching up your leg."

"Tell me why you pulled a knife on my friend and I'll go," the mare growled, crossing her arms in defiance.

"Fine," Anon huffed, lightly running his hands through Jinx's fur to settle his nerves. "I doubt you'll believe me, but here's what happened."

***

Laughter filled the living room, human and Pony barely able to keep themselves from falling out of their couches. Two half-empty shot glasses, a tall bottle of apple rum, and a red deck box sat on the coffee table between them. Both of them wiped away tears as they struggled to catch their breath, a few stray giggles and chuckles still slipping out.

After telling the mare what had happened, he was fully prepared to have her call bullshit and start some more trouble. Instead, she decided to throw him for a loop and apologized, saying that if she was in his shoes, she would've probably reacted the same way. Anon could believe that, given how she was acting earlier. He also didn't hold all of that against her too much. If he heard some weird creature pulled a knife on one of his friends, he would've broken track records to carve the damn things hide off with his knife.

Of course, he would need to have friends in the first place.

Afterwards, the mare started asking him a few other questions about himself. In exchange, he asked her a few questions to see if any of the things Pinkie told him matched. As they traded information, they started to warm up to each other, slowly cutting through the tension that had dominated the room. As they always do, one thing led to another and Anon had brought out a drink to share.

"And then," the mare, giggled, teetering in her seat, "Pinkie said...said...*hic*.....what was I talking about again?"

"Hell if I know," Anon chuckled, setting his now empty shot glass down onto the table.

A roguish smile graced his lips as he snatched up the deck box on the table, quickly pulling the red-sleeved cards out of it. The mare noticed, frowning in drunk confusion as she watched him casually shuffle them. the sight seemed to click something back into place in her dazed mind.

"That's what I was trying to remember!" she slurred, pointing at the cards. "Pinkie said something about you playing a weird card game. Something the Gathering, right?"

"Magic: the Gathering," he corrected, rolling his eyes.

"Yeah, that," she snorted, refilling her glass. "She said you were really protective of them and not to touch them."

"That's right," he huffed, drawing seven cards off of the top to inspect.

"She also said the game had some kind of philosophy mumbo-jumbo to it," she continued, downing her shot. "Sounds really dorky to me, but whatever."

"Hey," he frowned, setting his drawn hand onto the table far enough to be safe from the booze. "This dorky game's helped me get through a whole lot of shit back home."

"If you say so," she shrugged, leaning back in her seat. "It's just not really my thing, y'know?"

"Jock type, right?" he asked, raising a brow.

"Awesome type," she smirked. "And awesome Ponies don't play dorky games."

"Really?" he deadpanned.

"Yep," she giggled. "I mean, if it were a cool game, then I'd probably give it a shot."

"I don't know about cool," he smirked, staring down at the seven cards he had set on the table. "But the game can get pretty intense if you know what you're doing."

"Oh yeah?" the mare frowned. "Prove it."

His smile grew at the challenge.

He quickly grabbed the abandoned hand of seven, moved the bottle and his glass out of the way, and laid them out across the middle of the table.

"Like you mentioned, the game has some philosophy in it. Red's no different. Red is the color of emotion and chaos. This basically means that it is the most expressive and impulsive of the five colors."

"What the heck does that mean?' she asked, sipping at her glass.

"Put simply, Red feels with no real restraint," Anon continued, also nursing his shot. "Red hates, loves, mourns, and laughs openly and encourages others to be just as open. Hurt someone Red cares about? Get ready to get a fist in your face. Red loses a lover? Get ready to see some serious sadness. Become Red's lover? Get ready to walk funny for the next two weeks. Out of all of the colors, you will never find one more emotionally driven then Red."

"Huh, that's kind'a cool," the mare mused, then stubbornly huffed as she added, "Not cool enough though."

He chuckled at that before he continued.

"It also never wastes time over-thinking things. This makes it the fasted color with the most chaotically aggressive play styles."

That caught the mare's attention really quick, her flushed face suddenly full of intrigue.

"Most of Red's creatures have an ability called haste, which lets them fight as soon as they hit the field," he said, pointing at one card in particular. "Some of their best cards are also really easy to summon or cast, making it an extremely combo or spam attack happy color. It also loves to use what are commonly called burn spells."

"Burn spells?" the mare asked, confused.

"Cards that inflict direct damage to players without attacking," he explained, pointing to another card, this one depicting a red lightning bolt cutting through a darker red sky. "Red can spam these like crazy and can usually blow players away pretty easily."

"Really?" she blinked, furrowing her brow as she stared down at the card.

"Yeah, but Red does have it's own issues," he shrugged.

"Like what?" the mare asked, raising a brow. "I mean, Red sounds pretty solid to me."

"Well, because Red doesn't think twice about things, it's really easy to lure it into a trap. On top of that, Red is a bit of a glass cannon, with most of its creatures having pretty low toughness compared to the other colors. Red also has a pretty bad habit of blowing through its hand really quickly, making it a sitting duck in long games."

"Oh," the mare frowned. "That does kind've suck."

"All of that aside," he continued. "If you're the type to let your heart do all of the thinking, are loyal to the people that matter to you, and aren't afraid to take some risks to get things done, then Red is the color for you."

"Loyalty, huh?" the mare mused, a thoughtful frown gracing her muzzle as she stared down at the cards.

He raised a brow at that, then shrugged as he put the cards away and downed his shot. The mare watched him, her expression slowly becoming more thoughtful. When he eventually set the deck box a crooked smile graced her muzzle and she plucked her shot off of the table.

"You know," the mare chuckled. "You're a pretty cool guy."

"Thanks," he groaned, leaning back in his seat and staring up at the ceiling.

"And, sorry I tried to beat you up," she sighed, ears drooping as she took a sad sip of her drink.

"Don't worry about it," he frowned, waving her apology away.

"Still...." she frowned. "It was really uncool of me."

"I'm over it," he chuckled. "Wouldn't be the first time someone tried to clock me out over a misunderstanding."

Probably won't be the last either, he thought grimly.

"Okay, I'm not gonna let that happen, again," she smirked, dizzily offering him a hand, "Names Rainbow Dash."

"Anon," he snorted, giving the offered hand a firm shake. "Nice to meet you."

"Ditto," she chuckled.

Ch.4 Adamant Banding

Applejack wasn't sure what to make of her current situation. A few days back, Pinkie came by her farm with her usual hurricane of energy. While she worked, Applejack spent a good sized chunk of her day listening to the pink mare go on about a strange creature living in the almost abandoned portion of Ponyville, just short of the town's border to the open surrounding fields. She could tell the mare wasn't lying, but she still had a hard time taking the mare's words to heart. The idea that something would choose to live in such a remote part of town was an alien concept for her. Sure, her other friend, Fluttershy, lived a similar distance from town, but did so to stay close to her animal friends. She was also still close enough to come to town to pick up whatever things she needed to live comfortably that far out.

In spite of that, she couldn't deny her curiosity of the matter.

This grew when the mare handed her a small slip of paper with detailed directions written on it. So, as soon as she found the time, she headed out to see if what her friend was going on about was true. The orange Earth Pony mare's emerald eyes scanned the offered directions, occasionally looking up to look for any landmarks as she came across them. Her light yellow mane and tail were long, straight, and tied back with a pair of small hair-ties at their tips. Her stray bangs peeked out form under her worn brown stetson in a semi-messy cluster that, combined with the freckles under her eyes, added to her rustic charms. A red plaided shirt and dirt-stained faded blue jean shorts put her strong build on full display, her body a careful balance of muscle and curve honed from countless years of hard grueling work. A pair of heavy boots completed the look, said accessories crunching dried leaves under them as their owner continued her march.

She grimaced at the abandoned homes, most of them claimed by nature to such a degree that only a trained eye would've known of their existences. A part of her was happy that the trees in the area were making use of the structures, while the rest of her made a mental note to try to remove the debris at some point in the future. That aside, the wild trail had a peaceful feel to it, the gentle rustle of leaves and rich smell of damp earth easing her heart and mind. All it needed was the scent of fresh apples and she would've felt as if she hadn't left the farm today.

"Ah hope this isn't one of Pinkie's pranks," she mumbled, a thick country accent coloring her tone as she stared down at the paper in her hand. "Ah mean, aside from Flutters, Ah can't think of anypony that'd want to live this far out of town."

She looked to her left towards one of the abandoned "houses" closest to the trail, said structure nothing but a pile of rotted wood with a large tree growing out of it.

"Ah didn't hear anything about somepony building a house out here neither," she frowned. "If there is some weird creature living out here, Ah hope they're not doing it in one of these."

***

Anon laid on his couch staring blankly at his ceiling, a stack of white-sleeved cards being shuffled against his bare chest. Since he woke up that morning, he again found himself trying to figure out what he was going to do with himself. Just like he had done the day before when he didn't have something to distract himself. Said distractions were quickly starting to become less effective as time ticked away. Even after spending an hour in his personal gym only kept his mind off of his problems for so long. A long shower later, he found himself staring shirtless at his ceiling, mindlessly shuffling one of his decks and hoping an answer would come to him.

"I really should've asked Rainbow Dash if she knew anyone that would hire me for something," he groaned, setting the deck down on his coffee table and massaging the bridge of his nose. "Not that I could be all that useful to anyone here. I mean, pretty much anything I could do would probably get done better by an Earth Pony. Assuming none of them want to send me off to Pony Area 51 to get propped or whatever."

Snorting at that, he dragged himself to his feet, picked up the deck, and made his way towards the dinning room. Still looking for a distraction, he plopped into his seat then decided to start making mock plays with his deck, drawing a hand of seven cards and seeing what kind of plays he could make with the cards he had. He grimaced at his cards the whole way, the style reminding him why he didn't like using white magic in the first place. After setting up an army for the thirtieth time, a loud knock at the door pulled him back to reality. Rolling his eyes with a huff, he got up to greet what he was quickly starting to see as a daily routine.

At least their not busting down the door, he thought, grabbing the doorknob.

Burying his frustration, he opened the door a crack and flatly asked, "Can I help you?"

The mare on the other side stared blankly at him, seemingly surprised by his presence. While he didn't show it, Anon was equally surprised, more so by the mare's outfit than anything else. The mare quickly shook off her shock, sporting a friendly, yet cautious smile as she introduced herself.

"Howdy, my name's Applejack."

"Anon," he human frowned. "And again, what can I do for you?"

Applejack's smile wilted a bit at his tone.

"Well, uh, Ah heard from a friend that there was-"

"Stop," he sighed, massaging the bridge of his nose as he let the door fall open. "Pinkie Pie told you about me, right?"

She nodded,

"And you thought she was pulling your leg so you came out here to see if I was real?"

"Y-Yeah," she nodded, looking a bit sheepish.

The two of them let that hang in the air for a few seconds, before Anon let out a sigh and stepped aside.

"Since you came all the way out here, the least I can do is offer you a drink or something."

"You don't need to do that," she said, giving the human a worried frown.

"It's fine," he snorted. "My folks may have been shits, but that doesn't mean I have to be one too."

She raised a brow at that, but didn't openly react past that as she accepted his invitation.

She watched him lethargically close the door then make his way towards the kitchen. She followed at a reasonable distance, taking in her surroundings with open surprise. She remembered that Pinkie told her that the human's house had a "foresty" look to it, but it turned out that the pink mare had undersold that assessment. The home's interior reminded her of the old faery-tails she used to read to her little sister, Applebloom, before bed when she was real little. By the time they made it to the dining room, she was half expecting to see a giant black cauldron sitting in the kitchen, a glowing green brew bubbling away in it.

A soft smile graced her muzzle as she took a seat at the table while the human went to work in the kitchen. As she took in the faery charms of the house, it wasn't long before some cards on the table caught her attention. Curious, she leaned forward to get a better look at them. Each of them featured creatures similar to Anon dressed in shining silver, gold, or white armor or flowing cloaks of the same colors. Some were striking regal poses while others looked to be in the heat of battle against a foe outside of the image's line of sight. The robed figures did the same, only, instead of lashing out with blades or pole-arms, they threw orbs of light or fired golden beams from their hands or rods. One card in particular caught her attention. Like most of the other cards, it depicted an armored human, only this one had a more feminine build. Her head was the only part of her body not covered with ornate golden armor, her complexion almost as dark as her brown hair and fare. Said hair was tied back and seemingly shaved on the sides for reasons beyond Applejack's understanding. The weight of somberness on the woman's face as she stood at attention was doubled by the half-drawn sword she held before herself. The lighting from above and the cathedralesque look of her surroundings further added to the sacred feel of the image.

"Danitha Capshen, Paragon?" she quietly read, the card's name feeling just as odd on her tongue as it sounded with her accent.

"I'm guessing Pinkie didn't tell you not to touch my cards," Anon frowned, placing a pitcher of cranberry juice and two glasses onto an unoccupied part of the table, far from his cards.

Applejack flinched, sitting straight in her seat as she gave him a sheepish chuckle. Anon sighed, taking a seat across from her. He poured her a glass, then gathered the cards together and returned them to their deck box before doing the same for himself. The two sat in awkward silence, neither sure what they were going to do next.

Applejack looked around for something to talk about, but her eyes would always drift back towards the Human sitting across from her. With her thoughts left to wonder, she did vaguely remember Pinkie saying something about cards. Of course, she was ashamed to admit that she had been only half listening to her at the time while she was working. That fact took a back seat when she payed a bit more attention to her host.

Anon looked exhausted, but not purely in a physical sense.

The Human's posture was drooped, like his body was only managing to use the energy needed to keep him sitting upright or bring his glass to his lips. In spite of what he said earlier about providing hospitality, he seemed to be tolerating her as opposed trying to entertaining her. Adding to her concern was the distant look in his eyes, like his mind was running a few different directions and he couldn't decide which path he should take.

The silence stood for a few more minutes, before Applejack decided to voice her concerns.

"Is something wrong? Ya seem kind've out of it."

"I'm.....I'm fine," he sighed, staring into his half-empty glass. "I'm just trying to figure a few things out."

"Like what?" she asked, leaning a bit forward in her seat.

"Where do I even begin?" he snorted, taking a sip. "First off, I have no idea how I'm going to live around here. I mean, sure, I've got enough food to last me a few months and I could just go hunting if I get desperate, but what the hell am I going to do after that? I need a job, a way to get essentials, and something better than a knife and my own hands to keep myself safe."

Applejack blinked at the tail end of his rant, then aimed a hard glare at him.

"Has somepony been threatening ya?"

"There was an incident between Rainbow and I, but we worked that out," he sighed. "Let's just say, I'm not willing to bet that all Pony's are going to be as nice as all the other ones I've met so far."

Applejack was about to argue against that, but stopped herself at the last second. While Ponies were generally friendly in nature, there were always a few exceptions in every group. Her grandmother had taught her that much and she was always careful when working with Ponies she hadn't met before or seemed somewhat shady.

"Ah can understand that," she allowed. "Maybe Ah can help with some of that."

"I doubt it," he snorted.

"None of that now," she frowned. "Now, let's see if we can get you some work."

"Alright," he shrugged. "I mean, I guess that's as good a place to start as any."

Applejack nodded, expression hardening as she asked, "What kind of work have you done in the past?"

"Carpentry, mostly," he frowned, staring up at the ceiling in thought. "I've also done game hunting and camp work for a couple years. Aside from that, I've got a lot of experience in general construction, demolition, landscaping, and gardening work."

A bit of shock made it past her guarded expression, only for it to shift to a small smile a second later.

"Have you ever worked on a farm before?" she asked.

"A couple times," he chuckled. "My uncle used to own one when I was little. I used to help him with most of the work before he passed. Taught me enough to be able to build this house and all of the furniture in it."

Applejack's smile grew a bit at that.

"Would you be willing to do that kind of work for me?" she asked.

"Maybe," he allowed, his posture tensing.

"Just a thought," she reassured, hands up in a placating manner.

He stared her down for a few more seconds, then let out a sigh and said, "I'll think about it."

"That's good enough for me," she nodded. "You should be able to see my farm from here. It's the giant orchard north of town."

He did remember seeing a large collection of trees in that direction. While he would need to give the view a second look to know for sure, there were a couple of routs he could think of that could let him get there without having to pass through the town. Mentally agreeing to do that later, he nodded to his guest and took another swig of his drink.

Applejack did the same, then grimaced before she put her glass down. When she did so, the deck box caught her eye again. Anon noticed and let out a light chuckle as he set his glass down and reached for the container.

"If Pinkie sent you, then she probably mentioned these, right?" he asked, taking the cards out and shuffling them.

Applejack nodded.

"She said something about a game, but Ah...um....wasn't paying too much attention at the time," she said, chuckling sheepishly.

He shrugged, then started sifting through his cards.

"I guess it would be kind've hard to listen to her and do farm work at the same time."

Applejack didn't answer, already mentally kicking herself for being so rude to her friend. Silently promising to make it up to her friend, the farmer tried to jump into the new topic. Something, she noted, Anon greatly appreciated as he set out some cards onto the table.

"So," he started. "What do you know about the game?"

Applejack took a second, wracking her brain to try and pull back some of the things Pinkie told her.

"Uh...well...Ah think Ah remember Pinkie saying something about colors and philosophy," she frowned, scratching her head.

"I guess that's a good place to start then," he nodded, looking down at the cards he set. "In Magic: the Gathering, there are five colors or 'schools' of magic. Each have their own way of doing things and play styles based on these colors. Sense this is a Mono White deck, it uses White magic exclusively."

"What does that mean?" Applejack asked.

"White, in a nutshell, is the color of law and order," he continued. "For White, nothing matters more than protecting others and maintaining a strong and healthy society. To do this, White will use a wide array of tactics and moral codes to eliminate any and all threats to those it is trying to protect. Because of this, White typically has some of the best protection cards in the game. On the offensive side of things, White generally relies of coordinated attacks to bring down its foes or powerful destruction spells."

As he said that, he pointed to a card that showed some sort of lion creature being turned into dust.

"It's largely because of White's desire to help and protect others that it also has the most healing spells in the game with some of its creatures getting some kind of benefit from it."

He pointed at another card featuring a lion man, only this one was walking through a forest dressed in tribal attire and carrying a sword.

"Over all, this ultimately makes White the defensively strongest color in the game with a wide array of potential ways to deal with a large number of threats from multiple directions."

"Sounds like White's got everything it needs then," Applejack smiled.

"Not surprised you would say that," he shrugged. "On the surface, White looks pretty solid, but when you take a good hard look at it, you can see just how frail it is."

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"In a lot of ways, White's greatest strengths are its greatest weaknesses. While White can create some powerful walls against threats, it takes time for it to set them up. That means that faster offensive strategies can easily knock White over before it has a chance to make any strong plays. On top of that, most of its creatures are pretty offensively weak, so if something breaks up its formations or it loses a key creature, it becomes really easy pick off White's creatures. Sure, White can fix this with artifacts and enchantments, but the fact that it relies so heavily on them just adds to its problems if something goes wrong. This all reflects White's refusal to break from established traditions, bone-headed stubbornness, excessive internal paranoia, and heavily controlling nature."

"That...does sound pretty bad," she said feeling a bit sad for the knight.

"It's just how it is," he sighed. "All of the colors have their good and bad qualities. For White, you either get a hero who is willing to charge into battle to protect everyone he loves or an overbearing tyrant that thinks his moral high ground gives him the power to tell people how to live their lives."

"Right," she frowned, giving that some serious thought as she continued to stare down at Danitha. "Like my Granny aways says; The path to Tartarus is paved with good intentions, right?"

"Something like that," he chuckled, then gave her a knowing smirk as he pointed at her glass and added, "Now, how's about you tell me what you like to drink so I don't let that cranberry juice go to waste."

She flinched, then grimaced down at her abandoned glass. Shaking her head, she picked it up and brought it up to her lips. With visible discomfort, she chugged the glass down to the last drop, forcing a cocky smile onto her muzzle as she set the empty glass back down onto the table.

"Never waste hospitality," she smirked. "That's what my Granny taught me."

He stared blankly at her for a second, then with a small snort and smirk of his own said, "I can respect that. Now, what do you want to wash it down with?"

"You got apple juice?" she asked with a chuckle.

With a nod, he got up, took the pitcher, and made his way back towards the kitchen.

Ch.5 Show and Tell

If one were to ask why no pony ever walked through the old abandoned part of Ponyville, they would get a small handful of answers. Some found that part of town and the loosely controlled wilds there unnerving. Others would say that the area felt sad and hollow. Regardless of their reasons, few dared to enter this part of town or the surrounding forests if they could avoid it. It wasn't until very recently that said part of town and forests found any willing traffic from the locals. Today, that trend seemed to be continuing as a Unicorn mare and young Dragon made there way through the very somber wilds that unnerved their neighbors so much.

The mare's coat was a soft lavender, her dark blue mane straight and roughly three inches past her nape. Her tail was in a similar style, both structures of hair sporting a pair of two-toned pink streaks that were set next to each other and moved with the flow. Her bangs were cut in a perfect straight line across her forehead for the sole purpose of keeping them out of her eyes. Her purple eyes were locked onto a scroll held up her face by the violet aura of her magic as she walked. She had a healthy lean figure, devoid of the heavy muscle definition of a Pony that lived an athletic lifestyle. Her outfit confirmed that kind of assumption, her pressed white dress shirt, gray business skirt, black stockings, and brown dress shoes making her look more at home in a government office than her current surroundings.

The Dragon at her side was a lot less formal, the young drake looking more like a ten-year-old foal in terms of size, his lack of wings further adding to this image. His violet main and emerald chest scales were covered by a dark blue T-shirt while his lower body was hidden by a pair of tan jean-shorts. Like most of his kind, his clawed feet were bare with his scales protecting his soles. Green rounded spines started at the crown of his head as a four-inch-long crest that gradually shrank as they made their way down his neck to the small spikes that decorated the small three foot tail coming out of the hole in rear of his shorts. Green slitted eyes and rounded ear fins took in his surroundings with cautious tensity, the drake nervously gnawing on his lower lip as he primed his claws with the same kind of energy.

"A-Are you sure this is a good idea, Twilight?" the drake nervously asked, head snapping to the side of the path when a bird flew out of a nearby bush. "I-I mean, didn't Pinkie say this guy pulled a knife on her? How do we know he isn't dangerous?"

The Unicorn, Twilight, nodded, looking up from her scroll for a moment long enough to look for any landmarks before returning her attention to the paper.

"Yes Spike, I'm sure," Twilight smiled. "Pinkie confirmed that Anon only reacted like that because he had never seen a Pony before. So long as we don't act in a threatening way and avoid touching his cards, we should be able to avoid a repeat of that situation."

"His....cards?" the drake, Spike, asked, dropping his vigil to give the older mare a raised brow.

She nodded, still staring at her scroll.

"Apparently, they are part of a game from his native land and he is extremely protective of them."

"That's...kind've weird," he mused, scratching his chin in thought, then shrugged and added, "Whatever keeps us safe, I guess."

Twilight rolled her eyes at that.

While she did a good job hiding it, Twilight was absolutely brimming with excitement. She was about to meet a creature from another world! Dozens of questions were running through her head, each overlapping the others like waves in the middle of a monsoon. What other kinds of creatures lived in his world? What were the technological advancements of his kind? Was he a carnivore, herbivore, or omnivore? Did his kind lay eggs or bear live young? What kind of magic did his kind use? What was the average life span of a Human?

A barely suppressed giggle slipped past her muzzle at the variable galactic treasure trove of knowledge she was closing in on. Spike noticed the mare's subtle slip-up and knew that there was no way to talk her out of this. The small glint he saw in her eye as she continued to read her scroll told him that this "Anon" creature had just become her latest research topic. Rolling his eyes, he started bracing himself for the insanity he had come to expect from the mare when this happened. At the same time, he started taking note of specific ruined buildings or odd trees to use as landmarks in the case of needing an exit strategy. As much faith as he had in Twilight's magic, it never hurt to have an extra means of escape if things go south. He had no idea what kind of abilities or magic Humans had or if this particular Human was stronger than the Unicorn in some way. While he was sure he could back her up if something like that happened, he wasn't foolish enough to think he was invincible. Sure, Dragons were tough, but he knew that there were ways to get around that toughness, especially in the case of Dragons as young as he was.

Don't act like a jerk and don't touch his cards, he thought, taking a deep breath to steady his nerves. Easy. Now, I just need to make sure Twilight doesn't do something that would make him think she wants to hurt him.

Another suppressed giggle from the mare pulled his attention to her, a growing smile spreading across her muzzle.

He gulped, doubling his efforts to construct escape routs with what few landmarks he could see around them.

***

Anon hummed a little tune to himself, mixing up a batch of instant milk coffee in his kitchen with a small smile. For the first time in days he was starting to feel like his old self again. Part of it was because of Applejack's job offer yesterday. While he was still hesitant to trust the mare, it put his mind at ease to at least have a job option open to him. The largest part was that he was starting to make peace with his situation. He was almost willing to look at it as a chance to start his life over, finally free from the constant grief he had to endure each day on Earth.

His humming stopped, his smile melting into a bitter scowl when memories of his family seeped into the front of his mind. The fights, the smears, the bruises, all because he refused to be like them. Because he chose to live life on his own terms without their shady influences and controlling weight on his shoulders.

He took a deep breath, forcing the dark memories to the back of his mind, where they belonged.

They're gone. Stuck on Earth. I never have to see them again. Move on Anon.

That reminder gave him back his smile as he picked up his mug and made his way into the dining room.

"I guess that's one perk of ending up here," he chuckled, taking a seat.

His good mood perked up when he spotted a dark blue deck box on the table.

Seeing as he had little else to do, he had fished out one of his older decks from his study the night before and began tinkering with it. He knew it was a waste of time, given how limited his options were and the fact that the deck was already about as strong as it was going to ever be, but it was a fun distraction all the same. When he eventually got too tired to keep his focus, he put the cards back into their container, but obviously forgot to put them back in the study before he went to bed.

Setting his mug a safe distance away, he took the blue-sleeved cards out of their container and decided to pick up from where he left off last night. In lieu of trying to modify the deck, he opted for a mental mock battle. When he drew his hand of seven, he stroked his chin with his free hand in thought. After a moment, he started playing islands, drawing cards, and adding non-land cards to the table. Every now and then, he'd flinch back in his seat from an imagined attack before he would straighten out his tapped cards and draw. Each play took a bit more brain power than he was used to, but countless battles had made him more than familiar with the rulings surrounding these particular cards and most of the possible combos they were capable of. The trick was finding all of the ways to get said combos to go off when he needed them to.

He stared long and hard at the cards on the table, the gears grinding in his head as he took a swig of his now cold coffee. He was instantly pulled out of whatever progress he had made in that venture when he heard a knock at the door. Blinking, he took a few seconds to get his mind back into his head, then let out a sigh as he got up from his seat and made his way towards the door.

Wonder who it is this time, he thought, checking to make sure his knife was still in his back pocket. Seriously, I didn't even get this many visitors back home. What gives?

Once he was sure that his weapon was present, he opened the door a crack and peeked outside. He was greeted by the sight of a lavender Unicorn mare dressed in formal attire, her violet eyes shining almost as brightly as her smile. While this was something he had come to expect at this point, the same could not be said about the reptilian creature at her side. Said creature eyed him with just as much caution as the Human gave to him, his hand drifting to the knife in his pocket.

"Can I help you?" he asked, shifting his attention to the mare.

"You are Anon, correct?" the mare asked, her smile a little less daunting, yet still friendly.

He cautiously nodded.

"Perfect! My name is Twilight Sparkle and this is my assistant Spike," she announced, gesturing to herself and her companion.

"Hey," Spike nodded, his whole body as tense as a pressed spring.

Anon returned the greeting.

"Pinkie told you about me, right?" he asked, the question coming off more as a statement.

Twilight nodded, her eager energy from before returning as she said, "If it wouldn't be too much trouble, I would love to know more about you and your people. Do you mind if I ask you a few questions?"

He reeled back a bit at that, suddenly having so much interest thrown at him and the mare's enthusiasm catching him off guard. Regaining his bearings, he met her eager eyes with a guarded pair as he mulled over her request. If it was just her, he probably would've been a lot more open to the request. Spike was an unknown element, both in terms of what exactly he was and what he was capable of. The assistant's claws and fangs made him wonder if Sting or Jinx could even be effective deterrents with him around if things went south.

"Depends," he frowned. "Is your assistant going to cut my throat out?"

Both of them flinched back at that, eyes wide with shock.

"No! Of course not!" Twilight declared, exasperated.

"Right!" Spike cried, crossing his arms.

Anon stared at them, his thoughts hidden behind a blank mask. Their indignation slowly turned into mild discomfort under his gaze. After a long moment of tense silence, he let out a sigh and opened the door fully for them.

"Fine," he frowned. "But I want to put a few conditions on the table."

"Such as?" she asked, raising a brow.

"First, don't touch anything unless I say it's okay," he snipped. "Second, unless its the bathroom, neither of you can leave the dining room or living room. Third, if any of you hurt my cat, i'll chuck the both of you out of here so fast, you'll think my house spat you out the door. And finally, no magic. We have a deal?"

"Deal," she nodded, putting out a hand.

He cautiously took it and gave it a quick shake before letting go. Reluctance heavy in his features, he stepped aside then gestured for them to step inside. Twilight did so enthusiastically, her eyes scanning the home's interior with intense interest. Spike was a lot more guarded, taking in his surroundings with the same kind of tense edge as an explorer wandering into a strange forest at night. That got a raised brow out of Anon, but he quickly shrugged it off, then shut the door, the latch's click enough to make the young reptilian jump.

Moving past the duo, he guided them towards the dining room on his way to the kitchen. While they took a seat at the table, he started filling a pitcher with some ice water from the fridge. While he was doing that, he could hear them whispering to each other.

"His home is kind've like ours, huh?" Spike asked.

"Almost," Twilight allowed. "While it does have the same kind of natural feel to it, his home seems to be constructed in a manner similar to ones built by Earth Pony masons. At least, the ones built by Earth Ponies that don't add their magic to their materials or tools, anyway."

"You don't sense any magic here?" Spike asked, incredulous. "Weird."

Anon snorted at that, fishing three glasses from his kitchen cabinet.

"Huh? What are these?" Spike asked, making Anon tense up.

"Those must be the cards Pinkie mentioned," Twilight responded, a quizzical lilt coloring her tone. "Spike, remember-

"Don't touch them, got it!" Spike cut in, determination heavy in his tone.

"Good," Twilight sighed. "He's already nervous around us and the last thing we need is to give him a reason to dislike us."

"Right," Spike grumbled.

Letting out a sigh of his own, Anon stacked the glasses, grabbed the pitcher, and made his way out of the kitchen into the dining room. Upon seeing him, his two guests sat ramrod straight, nervous smiles plastered across their faces so firmly it looked almost painful. Ignoring it, he set their glasses down in front of them before he set the pitcher in the middle of the table and took his seat. With casual ease, he gathered the cards he had left on the table earlier into a stack, then set them aside to his right, their deck box about an inch away from them.

"So, what do you want to know," he sighed, filling the glasses.

"Well," Twilight awkwardly started. "I suppose the best place to begin would be to confirm if you are, in fact, a Human."

"Yep and yes," he snorted, taking a sip from his glass. "And if you don't mind, I've got a question along the same line of thought. Do you mind?"

"Not at all," she smiled.

A nervous expression faintly creeped onto his face before he pointed at Spike and asked, "What is Spike?"

The duo blinked, traded confused looks, then Twilight said, "Spike is a Dragon. Why do you ask?"

Anon reeled back a little at that.

"J-Just curious," he forced out. "Dragons don't exist where I'm from outside of old legends, movies, stories, or fantasy games. He didn't have wings, so I wasn't sure if he was one or not."

"They haven't grow in yet," Spike huffed, a couple small flecks of green flames flickering out of his snout from the action, looking away and crossing his arms.

And he can breath fire, he thought. Perfect!

"So, Dragons don't exist where you live?" Twilight hastily asked, chuckling nervously. "What creatures do live there?"

"Humans are the only sentient creatures on my world," he sighed. "Everything else are just regular animals with no magical abilities."

"Such as?" Twilight pressed.

Anon laughed at that.

"I'm not a walking encyclopedia. I could list off every animal I know and that would still only cover about one percent of the critters that live there."

"Fair enough," she allowed, smiling. "Then, what kind of magic do Humans use?"

"We don't have magic," he shrugged, taking a sip of his water.

"WHAT?!" Twilight cried, almost making him drop his glass. "How does that work?!"

"Humans use technology to, I guess, make up for that," he frowned, setting his glass down. "Through mathematics, years of scientific experimentation, and unbelievable stubbornness, my kind have been able to build things that come pretty damn close to magic."

"Really?" Twilight pressed, eyes shining.

"Sort've," he shrugged. "There are some limits. Like, we can't teleport or turn things into other things, but we do have ways to talk to people on other sides of the world as easily as we're doing it right now."

"How?" Spike asked, raising a brow. "You just said Humans don't have magic and that sounds a lot like a Mirror Message spell."

He fished his phone out of his pocket and placed it on the table. The two Equestrians stared at the device with intrigue, then surprise when Anon pressed a button on its side and unlocked the screen. He chuckled at their reactions, then explained.

"Where I'm from, these things come with a string of numbers that are unique to each device. If I know that other devices number or have it recorded in this one's memory, I could use it to contact them through this device from almost anywhere on my planet."

"Really?" Twilight gasped, ogling his phone like it was a rare treasure.

"No way," Spike balked, glaring skeptically down at the device.

"I'd prove it, but the thing doesn't really work here," he shrugged, turning it off and returning it to his pocket. "It needs a signal to work and that's something Equestria doesn't seem to have."

"So it's like a radio?" Spike asked.

"Not exactly, but close enough," Anon allowed.

"Fascinating," Twilight frowned, staring down at the ground and stroking her chin in thought. "Do Humans use technology to control the weather and move the sun and moon too?"

"No, those do things on their own," he stated, raising a brow.

That snapped Twilight out of her musings in an instant, making the mare stare at him in wide-eyed shock.

"How!?" she squawked.

"They just do," he shrugged. "Humans have tried to control the weather in the past, but it's never gone anywhere. The most our technology can do is give us a rough prediction of what the weather is going to do so we can try to work with it."

"That's crazy," Spike blinked. "So, what happens when you have droughts or floods?"

"Like I said, we take steps to work with things like that," Anon sighed, taking a sip of water. "It isn't a perfect system, but it's the best we can do with what we have to work with."

"Interesting," Twilight nodded. "What kind of things do Human's eat?"

"All kinds of things," he shrugged. "Biologically speaking, Humans are omnivores, but some of us prefer to have all meat or all plant diets. I'm mostly a meat-eater, but I'm not against having some greens on my plate from time to time."

"Oh," Twilight gulped, then sheepishly asked, "What....kind of meat?"

"Chicken, beef, and pork mostly, but I've been known to hunt deer every now and then for venison."

"What's beef?" Spike asked.

"Cow meat," he stated.

Spike and Twilight both paled at that.

"What's up?" he asked.

"Cows are....sentient," Twilight gulped.

Anon's eyes widened at that.

"Shit! Okay, listen. I'm not going to eat anything sentient. I swear! Hell, that's even a taboo where I'm from!"

"You promise?" Spike gulped.

Anon nodded.

"The only times Human's from my part of the world ever ate each other was in cases of absolute desperation. Like, the other guy is dead and if you don't eat the body, you'll die too. Even then, it's extremely frowned upon at best and straight up illegal at worst."

"That's good to hear," Twilight sighed, a relieved smile gracing her muzzle. "Shall we move on to a less....nerve-wracking subject?"

"Sure," he sighed, glad to be out of that particular disaster.

"How do Humans reproduce?" she casually asked.

Anon nearly spat a mouthful of water at her, the Human just barely managing to force the liquid down.

"What?!" he coughed, pounding his chest.

"Well," she sheepishly continued. "Seeing as you have the same general shape as an adult Pony stallion I assume that it is the same for your kind as it is for ours, but I wanted to confirm that to know for sure."

Flatly, Anon said, "We bare live young just like most mammals and that is as far as I am going to go with that. If you want to know the specifics, I'm sure a porn magazine or erotic novel could help you fill in the blanks."

Twilight's whole head turned bright red at that, her eyes wide as small sparks came off of her horn. Meanwhile, Spike was struggling for air past his laughter. The reactions from both of them pulled the corners of Anon's lips up into a small smile.

Hey, if you ask someone something like that, you had better make sure you're ready for the answer.

Chuckling softly at that thought, he brought his almost forgotten deck to him and shuffled. The action proved to be just enough of a distraction to pull Twilight back to reality. With a look of relief on her still pink cheeks, she pointed at the cards and shakily asked a question that he was more than willing to answer. Especially if it pulled the interview away from any other crazy topics that the mare might have in mind.

"Pinkie mentioned those! How does your game work?!"

Anon blinked from the urgency in her tone, but shrugged and started sifting through the deck.

"Did she tell you anything specifically about the game?" he asked.

"She mentioned that colors played a major roll in it and that the colors had some form of philosophy attached to them."

He nodded, taking four cards out of the deck and laying them out on the table.

"That's the gist of it. In this game, there are five main colors and whichever ones you pick determine what kind of deck you can build. This is largely based on the philosophy each of the colors draw power from. In this decks case, that would be Blue's philosophy."

"Which is?" Twilight asked.

Anon grinned.

"Blue is the color of knowledge and technology. As such, it's the color that generally has the best understanding of magic, artifacts, and has the greatest level of draw power in the whole game. This makes a Blue mage a very tricky opponent to deal with most of the time, since this magical understanding often comes in the form of counter and mill cards."

"What are those?" Spike asked.

Anon pointed down at one of the cards on the table, said card depicting what looked like a humanoid fish stabbing a spear into a glowing mass.

"Counter cards are cards that have the ability to prevent your opponent from playing their own cards. The idea being that the Blue mage's understanding of magic is so strong that they can tear the other caster's spell apart before it can be fully cast."

"I see," Twilight nodded. " And mill?"

He pointed to a card next to the first, this one depicting what appeared to be an underground library with large rocks being dropped upon a lone Human from glowing portals in the ceiling.

"I'm not sure where the term came from, but basically, mill cards force your opponent to send an often set number of cards from the top of their deck, or library, into the discard pile. The theme being that you are yanking memories of different kinds of spells from your enemy's mind so they can't use them on you."

"Why would a Blue mage do that?" Twilight asked, raising a brow.

"Two reasons," he stated, pointing up two fingers. "The first is that it reduces their opponent's options. Unless they run a deck that makes use of the discard pile, or graveyard, in some way, then they could end up losing a bunch of useful cards. The second is because it could give the Blue mage an alternate way to win the game."

"Huh?" they both blinked.

"In Magic the Gathering, there are three ways to win; knocking your opponent's life-points to zero, forcing them to surrender, or making them run out of cards to draw. With mill cards, a Blue mage can make the third option happen if one and two are unavailable."

"Oh, that makes sense," Twilight nodded.

"Blue also has access to some of the weirdest creatures in the game," Anon continued, pointing to another card.

The card depicted what at first looked like an animated jacket, tricomb hat, and trousers, but careful observation revealed that they appeared to be just coverings for some kind of invisible humanoid in the process of removing them.

"Since Blue is so obsessed with magic, most of its creatures tend to be made of it and can pull off some pretty unusual things. The most powerful trick some of these have is the ability to be unblockable. The idea being that the creature is able to walk through walls thanks to one spell or another and can attack the enemy mage."

"That's nuts!" Spike exclaimed.

"You don't know the half of it," Anon chuckled, pointing at the last card.

This one depicted a massive mechanical humanoid. Its body was seemingly made of brass, its hulking left arm ending with a torrent of water firing out of it in a heavy torrent. The titan's design was ornate in appearance, is if its crafter had built it with form and function in mind with a knight-like set of metal casing covering its face.

"Blue is obsessed with knowledge and that obsession leads to it crafting some really crazy machines to go along with its magic. Like with this guy, most of their artifacts have ways to bump up Blue's spells or get some kind of bonus from blue spells getting cast in the first place. Hell, most of the time, Blue uses artifact creatures instead of ordinary ones due to how well they can make them work."

"Incredible," Twilight beamed. "If what you're saying is true, then I can't see how Blue could lose."

Anon gave her a knowing smile and said, "That's the trick. Blue may look like it's unstoppable, like it's got all the answers and then some, but that is actually its biggest weakness."

"Huh?" they blinked.

"Like I said, Blue is the color of knowledge and technology, but the thing is, Blue is massively obsessed with that. Blue wants to know everything, and that desperate desire leads to the color coming up short in a lot of places."

"Such as?" Twilight pressed.

"Well strength, for starters," he snorted. "Blue has the weakest creatures in the game when it comes to stats. This means that Blue doesn't become cleaver out of choice, but necessity. Basically, all that time cooped up reading scrolls and books didn't do Blue any favors in that regard."

Spike snickered behind a claw at that, poking Twilight's scrawny arm. Said act earned him a deadpan glare from the mare and a raised brow from the Human.

"On top of that," he continued. "Most of Blue's cards take a lot of mana to cast or require certain things to happen outside of the caster's control to activate, making it the slowest of the five colors. This basically means that a player with quick and durable creatures can easily pulverize a Blue mage before they have a chance to make any meaningful plays."

"Yikes," Spike cringed.

Twilight did the same, staring down that the metal colossus and wondering how something like that could be considered "weak"

Anon continued.

"This is mostly due to Blue strictly coming from a place of logic, experimentation, and curiosity as opposed to martial prowess. Sure, this can lead to Blue making huge discoveries, but it's usually the result of an unethical detachment from the laws of nature or lack empathy. To Blue, everything is secondary in the pursuit of knowledge, be that morals or even compassion in some cases."

"Oh," Twilight frowned, her expression turning thoughtful as she stared down at the cards.

"That all being said," he sighed. "If there is anything you want to know about, no matter how obscure, it's pretty likely there is a Blue mage that is eager to tell you everything they know about it."

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked, shaking out of her musings.

"Well, while some Blue mages study for their own sake, most of them love to share what they've learned with others," he chuckled. "Makes sense when you think about it. What's the point of learning a few tricks if you don't have anyone to show them to. Especially if it can help someone learn a few new things too, right?"

"Yeah," Twilight smiled.

Spike nodded, aiming a knowing smile at the mare as he thought back to all of the magic lessons he had helped her with over the years.

Keeping his smile, Spike stared at the Human and said, "You know, Twi had a lot of magical mishaps over the years. Want to hear a few of them?"

"Spike!" Twilight balked, her face turning red.

"I've got a couple hours," Anon shrugged, putting his cards away and leaning back in his seat. "Shoot."

With a growing smile and the knowledge that the mare had no way to stop him, the drake told his first of many tales.

Ch. 6 Wildspeaker

Breath in. Breath out. Let your mind wander. Embrace the feel of your surroundings. These were the thoughts that ran through Anon's mind. A mantra that he followed completely from under his new favorite tree. Under its shade, the Human sat cross-legged, back straightened against its trunk, arms limp at his side, and eyes closed. As he did, his body and mind were lulled into a gentle peace by his surroundings. Birds chirped and leaves rustled in the breeze, the sounds conjuring small green orbs in his mind in their general directions. He let it happen, a soft smile gracing his lips as he let his awareness spread further through his surroundings.

For a long few minutes, he stayed like this, enjoying his zen surrounded by nature.

His smile wilted slightly when an unknown presence entered his range of perception. It was a faint presence, barely noticeable even from the three foot range he could register it in. On top of that, he didn't hear anything out of the ordinary , thought he did catch a faint floral scent in the air. Curious, he opened his eyes and looked around only to be met with the sight of trees and abandoned homes.

Frowning, he closed his eyes and returned to his trance.

This time, when he found the presence again, he zeroed in on it directly. Doing so didn't reveal all that much, the presence seemingly cringing away from his attempts. Aside from that, he didn't feel any kind of hostility from the presence. In a lot of ways, it felt similar to what he sensed from young rabbits or butterflies, but he could tell there was....something sitting just beneath the surface. He also knew that whoever this was, was watching him from what he now knew was one of the abandoned homes. It was for that reason that he was especially cautious as he came out of his zen.

He let out a slow breath and casually rose to his feet, brushing dirt and stray blades of grass from his pants. While calm on the surface, he was as tense as a pressed spring, trying to watch the building in question from his peripherals as he made his way towards his home. When he couldn't do that anymore, he focused on his hearing while keeping his eyes locked onto the path before him. At the same time, he kept his hands in his pockets, one held tightly onto his knife.

Okay, so, what are we dealing with? he thought, maintaining his act. They're way too quiet for an Earth Pony and I'd think a Unicorn would've been better at hiding their presence. Pegasus? Maybe, but I don't think they'd be able to hide their wingbeats all that well. Plus, they almost feel like they belong out here. A nature spirit? Wouldn't be all that surprising. This is a world full of magic, right?

A faint branch-snap ten feet behind him stopped him dead in his tracks. Peeking over his shoulder revealed an empty trail, but the feeling of eyes on him was still present. He let his tension become visible as he looked forward, his pace becoming more urgent as a result. A bit of relief filled him when his home started to come into view, only for it to fall out of him when he heard a set of footsteps start to make themselves know. With only ten feet standing between him and his home, he heard a branch snap about two feet behind him.

In one fluid motion, he spun to face his pursuer.

***

Fluttershy was not a brave mare. At least, she never saw herself as one. Even now, a week after the Nightmare Moon incident, she did not see herself as a particularly brave Pony. As such, even she was surprised that she was doing what she was doing.

It had all started with a passing comment from her friend, Rarity. While on one of their weekly spa visits, the ivory Unicorn mentioned how she had insulted a creature's home in the older outskirts of town. While her curiosity pressed her to learn more about this strange creature, she couldn't muster up the nerve to do so. Her interest grew when Pinkie told her more about the creature. She had to admit, what the pink mare described fascinated her, but her nerves just refused to let her give-in to her growing curiosity. When Rainbow gave her opinion of the creature, that started to change. According to her, the creature also had a knack for working with animals, even ones that were protectively violent if the Pegasus' leg was anything to go off of. Even Applejack seemed to hold the creature in high regards, though she did mention that he didn't seem all that eager to enter the more populated portions of town. That was a sentiment Fluttershy could relate to, the shy mare often opting to take less active routs through the town. Ultimately, It was Twilight and Spike that where the ones to give her what she needed to get past her nerves.

It surprised her just how much the lavender Unicorn had managed to learn about the Human. All of it just added to the growing curiosity gnawing at the back of her mind. Eventually, it became to much for her and after getting a map of the area from Pinkie, headed out to meet Anon.

Unfortunately for the yellow Pegasus, when she did find the Human, all of that fire quickly died. As such she found herself taking shelter in one of the abandoned homes near him. She gulped, her teal eyes peaking out from the building's front door, her long pink mane hiding half of her face and reaching her lower-back. Her tail was similar, flicking nervously behind her as she watched the Human meditate. Her dark green turtleneck and gray skirt helped her blend into the wild tones of her surroundings while also emphasizing her full hourglass figure to anyone skilled enough to see her. Anon didn't seem to be one of those people, the Human seemingly oblivious to her presence. When she saw him start to open his eyes, she shuffled further into the shadows, her soft step and open-toed whicker sandals masking her footsteps almost perfectly.

She waited with her hands over her muzzle, hiding her breathing as best as she could while her ears tracked him. A heavy silence hung in the air, the sounds of nature the only signs that the whole world hadn't suddenly vanished. Taking a steadying breath, she peeked out of her cover. To her surprise, he had chosen that precise moment to get up and start making his way down the path. Once her hiding place was out of his line of sight, she silently crept out of hiding. Keeping to the shadows of the forest canopy, she lightly hovered and followed him down the trail. As she did, she couldn't help studying him. Just like Twilight had told her, Anon was physically similar to an Earth Pony stallion in the most basic of senses. The only differences she noticed was that he seemed more like an ape than a Pony and that he lacked the mostly heavy build most Earth Ponies seemed to naturally hold. He seemed to stand on the border of Earth Pony strength and Pegasi speed in terms of build. She could also sense the hunter's nature Applejack and Twilight mentioned, the biggest give away being the way Anon seemed to be subtly scanning his surroundings. The façade became even more apparent when what she assumed to be his home came into view. The shift in demeanor startled her so much that she stepped on a stray branch as she glided behind a tree, the sound almost blowing her cover.

She quickly ducked behind cover when she saw him start to look over his shoulder, again having to cover her muzzle to hide her panicked breathing. When she eventually recollected herself, she peeked out of her hiding place just in time to see him resume his march. Seeing his slightly quicker pace, she staggered out of hiding and continued to tail him at a light hover. By the time he started to close in on his home, Fluttershy's wings couldn't maintain her hover and she was forced to land. When that happened, Anon seemed to notice, and when she was just a few steps away from him, he pounced.

Faster than she thought possible, the Human spun to face her, knife leveled at her at a warning distance. They stood like that, shocked teal eyes locked with equally surprised gray ones. Fluttershy started to tremble, the delicate mare not sure what to do. Her fears lessened when Anon let out a sigh, then took a step back, folded up his weapon, and slid it back into his pocket.

"I don't know how things work around here, but you really shouldn't sneak up on people like that," he frowned.

In a voice just a touch louder than a whisper, the mare stammered out, "I....I'm sorry."

As she did, she seemed to fold in on herself, her mane hiding her face while she looked down at the ground. He wanted to be annoyed with the mare, but the more he stared at her, the less he could bring himself to do so. With another sight, he held out his hand to her.

"I'm guessing you're one of Pinkie's friends, right? Names' Anon."

The mare let out a soft squeak, then took a step back from him. He immediately felt like he got kicked in the gut and balls at the same time. After all, he had just pulled a knife on her.

Not sure how to progress, he looked around, awkwardly scratched the back of his head, and said, "Right, I uh, guess you...right. I'm gonna head into my house and leave you to....yeah."

Not waiting for a response, he quickly closed the distance and entered his home. Unknown to him, Fluttershy had just managed to regather herself. When he closed the door, it was while she was reaching out towards him with a soft "Wait."

***

Three days had passed since the strange mare had visited him and Anon still had no idea what to make of her. The odd vibe he got from her while he was meditating was so much more pronounced when he met her. It really made him wonder if she was actually a spirit and the house he sensed her in was her home. At least, it did, until he investigated the abandoned house in question. He tried meditating in the same area to see if she would appear, but that didn't work either. Left with no way to summon her directly, he sat in his living room shuffling a stack of green sleeved cards trying to get his mind off of her. Unfortunately, that was proving to be easier said than done. No matter what he was doing, his mind would always keep wandering back to her.

"I can't keep doing this," he sighed, setting his deck down onto his coffee table. "Maybe Applejack knows how I can get in touch with her."

Before he could start choosing a rout to the mare's farm, a loud mew at his front door caught his attention. Rolling his eyes, he got up and made his way towards the door. He froze with his hand on the doorknob when he felt a familiar presence on the other side of the door. Suddenly nervous, he opened the door a crack and peeked outside. Like he had suspected, Jinx was waiting for him to let him in while the mystery mare stood nervously behind the cat. Cautiously, he opened the door enough to let the cat in, not once taking his eyes off of the mare. The mare met his gaze, but did so from behind her mane. Jinx stared back and forth between the two beings, then gave the mare an encouraging mew before he walked into the house. Anon raised a brow at the odd gesture, but pushed it to the back of his mind when a soft cough came from the mare.

"H-Hi," she forced out, her voice so soft he almost missed it.

"Hey," he returned, tone coming out more guarded than he meant it to. "Um....can I help you?"

Silence greeted his question, then, the mare nervously whispered, "Fluttershy."

"Huh?" he asked.

"Y-You told me your name," she whispered, her mane parting just enough to show her muzzle. "M-M-Mine's F-Fluttershy."

"O-Oh!" he blinked, nervously chuckling. "Fluttershy, eh? Nice name. It, uh....suits you."

She nodded, staring down at her shoes.

Another curtain of awkward silence settled between them.

At the same time, Anon struggled to think of how he should proceed. If Fluttershy was indeed a forest spirit, the last thing he wanted to do was insult her. Looking back on their last meeting, he considered himself lucky he didn't wake up with a bed full of spiders or whatever crazy shit a fae would come up with as payback. Should he present her with some kind of offering? What kind of things would an Equestrian nature spirit accept as an offering?

A soft "Um," pulled him out of his musings, making Fluttershy flinch.

"C-Can I come in? I-If that wouldn't be too much trouble, I mean."

"Uh, sure," he nodded, opening the door fully for her. "Come on in."

Nodding and gnawing her lower lip, she silently stepped past him into the house.

As he closed the door, she cautiously looked around, her nerves slowly trading places with wonder. Anon watched her, ready to throw the door open and book it the second the assumed spirit lost her shit. Instead, his mind slowly froze as the mare seemed to subtilely change right before his eyes. Slowly, all of the tension seemed to bleed out of her with each passing glance she gave his home. Her posture straightened, her muscles relaxed, and her mane fell away from her face. Her teal eyes took in everything with a cautious curiosity, like a kitten that had been brought to a new home. His brain nearly fried when a small smile graced her muzzle.

The fuck was that?! he thought, snapping himself out of it. Damn faery magic!

"So, Fluttershy, right?" he asked.

She turned to him and nodded, her nerves coming back a little bit upon seeing him.

"Uh, do you want something to drink or something?" he pressed. "I don't have anything fancy right now, but I'm sure I can find something you'll like."

"Oh, you don't have to do that," Fluttershy smiled.

"None of that," he chuckled. "Guests get a drink at least."

Fluttershy looked like she was going to argue, but instead looked down at the ground and shyly whispered, "S-Some tea would be good. I-If it wouldn't be too much trouble."

"Tea, huh?" he replied. "I think I can manage that."

As he said that, he made his way towards his kitchen.

"D-Do you need any help?" Fluttershy asked.

"Nah," he chuckled. "It'll just take me a few minutes to get everything set up."

"Oh, okay," she nodded, watching him walk out of sight.

left with little else to do, the mare sat down in one of the living room couches and looked around some more.

Just like her friends had described, the Human's home held a very nature-heavy theme, a fact that helped to put her at ease. It reminded her of her own home in a way, but held a distinct charm that held her interest in a firm grip. The fact that the Human made everything added to her opinion of the place.

She flinched when something jumped up from the ground and joined her on the couch. Her fear vanished when she saw that her guest was a large black cat. Said cat stared up at her inquisitively, his large green eyes scanning her while he took cautious sniffs of her.

Fluttershy smiled lovingly down at the creature, offering her hand to him to sniff.

"Why, hello there," she cooed. "What's your name?"

The cat let out a mew, then rubbed his face up against her fingertips.

"Jinx? Well, it's nice to meet you jinx. I'm Fluttershy."

Jinx mewed out a reply, his purring adding an extra growl to the response. Fluttershy giggled at that, scratching the cat's chin. After a few seconds of this, the Maine Coon happily spread himself out across the mare's lap, small mews coming out of him along with a mountain of purring. Fluttershy only smiled, happily running her fingers through the large cat's thick fur and nodding every so often when he mewed.

"I see," she smiled, scratching him behind his ear. "And have you always protected him?"

A small, almost sad-sounding, mew came from the cat.

"Are they really that bad?" she asked, her smile wilting.

A sharper cry came from the cat, his lips pulling back to show his fangs.

"That's awful," she gasped.

The cat didn't respond beyond letting his jowls fall back into place.

"Does he have anypony in his life?" she asked.

Jinx suddenly sat up, fully facing the mare with his tail draped over all four of his paws as he let out a proud mew.

"Besides you," she pressed, a faint tremble entering her tone.

The cat's pride fell away at that, his ears folding back as he looked away from her. Two small mews were the only answers she could get from him. Her own ears wilted from just that, sadness and worry for Anon filling her as she turned her head towards the kitchen.

***

Anon glared daggers at his tea kettle, arms crossed and foot tapping impatiently on red tiled floor. It was often said that a watched pot never boils, but never had he thought that there may have been some truth to it. Left with nothing but colorful things to say to his appliance, he tried to be a bit more productive with his time. Namely, trying to make sense of his situation and the mare sitting in his living room.

The presence she gave off was almost impossible to ignore. It sent off several instincts of his that made it hard for him to get a proper feel of her. She wasn't threatening, but she didn't make him feel safe either. It was like walking through a forest for the first time with no idea what was living there or if the trail you were taking was safe.

She seems nice. Maybe too nice, he thought staring at the floor.

Shaking his head, he decided to leave the kettle be and entertain his guest. When he returned to the living room he had to do a quick double-take to make sure what he was seeing was real. Jinx was sleeping cross Fluttershy's lap, the mare smiling softly down at the cat as she gently ran her fingers through his fur.

"Well I'll be," he whispered.

Fluttershy's ear flicked towards him before she looked up at him, her smile wilting slightly.

"Sorry, the water is going to take a while to get ready," he sighed, taking a seat across from from her.

"That's fine," she nodded.

An awkward silence sat between them, a pattern that both of them were keenly becoming aware of at this point.

Clearing his throat, Anon decided to break it and get a least one question answered before he lost the nerve.

"So, are you a dryad or forest nymph?"

"A...what?" she blinked.

"Well...I've never met a forest spirit before so I have no idea what to call you," he clarified, scratching the back of his head.

"B-But I'm not a forest spirit," she stammered out.

"You aren't?" he blinked.

She shook her head, looking even more confused.

"But then what was..." he started, then sighed and said, "Never mind. Probably some magic mumbo-jumbo."

"I'm sorry," she wilted.

"No, no. It's fine," he chuckled, waving off her apology.

"Okay," she nodded, then sheepishly asked, "What is a dryad? Is that an animal from where you're from?"

"Not really," he chuckled. "It usually looks like a really pretty Human girl with plant traits. Usually things like long reed branches for hair or living clothes made of flowers."

She tilted her head at that, even more confused.

"Right, you don't know what that looks like," he grumbled.

Before she could respond, his eyes fell on the deck he had left on the table.

"Perfect!" he cheered, scooping up the cards and quickly sifting through them.

When he found the card he was looking for, he gently laid it down on the table before her. On it, a nearly naked woman with pale skin and red hair could be seen running through the forest, her body phasing seamlessly through the trees as if they weren't even there. A flurry of glowing leaves orbited her in a loose swarm, large clusters of them providing the woman any kind of modesty. While the image intrigued her, the implications made her face turn bright red.

"Y-Y-You thought I....eep!" she squeaked, hiding her face behind her mane.

"I thought.." he blinked, then turned just as beet red as her when his brain finally caught up with him. "Wait! No! That wasn't what I was getting at! I mean, yeah, you're pretty, but I don't see you like that!"

The mare peeked out from behind her mane, face still a little pink.

"R-Really?"

"Yeah," he groaned, returning the card to the deck. "Look I...should've picked a different card for that. Let me see if I can give a better example."

"N-No that's fine," she stammered. "I...think I understand what you were trying to say."

"Thank the gods," he sighed.

She giggled at that.

"Those are the cards Pinkie mentioned, right?" she asked, pointing at the deck.

"I guess," he snorted. "Guess she's letting all of her friends know about them, huh?"

"Just that we shouldn't touch them," she nodded, then hastily added, "N-N-Not that I would without permission!"

"That's fine," he chuckled, already setting five of them onto the table. "I bet you have a few questions about it, right?"

Fluttershy nodded, her blush returning as she asked, "Are all of your cards as....revealing as that dryad was?"

"Not really," he chuckled. "A lot of the old cards were a bit more bold like that, but most of the ones I use are from the newer sets. That was just a bad pull on my part, even if it does mostly fit the color."

"Huh?"

Happy to be back in his element, he smiled down at his cards and explained.

"In Magic the Gathering, there are five colors, each with their own philosophies and play styles. This deck is a pure Green build, so it runs entirely on that color's way of doing things."

"And that is?" she asked.

"Green is the color of nature and instinct. Everything Green does is geared towards working with or harnessing the raw power of nature in all of its aspects. This can come in the form of summoning a huge creature to deal with a threat or gathering resources to make it easier to make big plays later. This also means it hates anything unnatural and will almost always destroy artifacts and enchantments on sight if it messes with things too much."

"That's terrible," Fluttershy gaped.

"Nature isn't always nice," he shrugged. "But, it's not always destructive either."

She nodded in agreement at that, eager to see where he was going with this.

"Green is all about interconnectedness, everything playing its role in the ecosystem and working in harmony. From that, small things can grow to be massively powerful. This makes Green the color most dedicated to growth. That could mean the growth of an individual creature, an entire nest of them, or the resources surrounding them. Even the creatures under Green can be used to make it easer to summon others or cast spells by creating mana."

"They can?" she blinked.

Nodding, he pointed to one of the cards on the table. On it, a bright yellow crane could be seen taking flight, its long tail-feathers turning into shades of violet and blue on the way towards their end.

"We call them mana dorks. Don't ask how they got the name, cuz no one could ever give me a straight answer on it."

"That's a really mean thing to call them," she frowned.

"No arguments there," he sighed. "Though I think it's become more a term of endearment than an insult these days."

"I don't like it," she huffed.

Shrugging at that, he pointed at the card next to it.

"This card has the power to protect other creatures under your control from battle damage and then make them stronger."

Fluttershy stared down that the card in question with wide eyes, happy to see an example of kindness on the table. The creature in question was a hulking bull, a thick green shell coving his visible hunched back while moss and birds adorned his massive curved horns. The name Vigor was printed proudly on the top of the card, a name Fluttershy felt was more than fitting.

"Green can also increase your mana base by pulling land cards from the deck."

"Is that good?" Fluttershy asked, look up from Vigor.

"Considering you need land to make mana and you need mana to play cards, yes." he nodded. "Green is also the color that is the most dedicated to its creatures, meaning that its spells often requires them to make any meaningful plays. This can be both a good and bad thing for it at times."

"Huh?" she blinked.

"While this means Green typically has some of the most balanced creatures, it also means that they are the most blunt. Green rarely uses any fancy tactics and mostly resorts to sending a large creature off to crash through enemy defenses. It also doesn't have any effective mass-destruction spells sense it needs its own creatures to be alive to make most of its plays. It's also fairly slow and while it has a few cards that can deal with air-born threats, it has almost none that it could send the enemy's way."

"Why?" Fluttershy asked, looking legitimately sad for the cards on the table.

"That's just how Green is," he shrugged. "Green is mostly passive in nature, so fast and overly aggressive tactics can very quickly overwhelm it."

"Oh," she frowned, placing a comforting hand next to one of the cards.

"All the same though" he continued still staring down at the cards," I still like Green more than all of the other colors."

"Really?" she asked, staring up at him.

He nodded.

"Green doesn't try to change the world or does anything too crazy with what it has around it. It tries to work with what is naturally there and lets it grow without any kind of restraint. It's simple, but complicated in a way that can catch you on the back foot in ways that you never see coming. It's peaceful when it needs to be and violent when the situation calls for it. It just seems like the most stable and fair of the five colors to me."

"I see," Fluttershy nodded. "I....I think I like Green too."

Taken aback by that he looked up from his cards to her. He was met by a small smile the second her eyes met his. A mountain of anxiety shot through him, holding his tongue hostage as he struggled to understand what was happening. His fight-or-flight instincts kicked in the second he heard the kettle start to whistle.

He shot to his feet, startling both her and his cat as he stiffly power-walked towards the kitchen.

"Gotta go check the kettle!" he cried, hoping his face didn't look as red as it felt.

Ch.7 Control

It was a bright and sunny day in Ponyville, the rustic town full of the usual sounds one would normally hear in a place so full of life. Stall owners sold their wears to anypony interested or with bits to spare in the town market. Inns, restaurants, taverns, and cafés were offered their own brands of mirth to whoever could afford their services. Only a small handful of public buildings were voided of the town's noise. The fact that one of these was not a building to begin with was just as interesting as it was hilarious.

Set a fair distance from the buildings and homes that surrounded it, the Golden Oaks Library stood tall and proud. Unlike its neighbors, the library was not a normal building, but a literal treehouse. A red door was built into the tree's massive trunk along with a few small windows placed further up. A few balconies could be seen in the gaps between the branches and leaves of its thick canopy. Standing by the door was a simple sign showing an open book, the only clue as to the nature of the building.

Upon entry, one would be greeted by dozens of rows of book aisles, a few tables to study by, and multiple nooks built into the living walls to house tomes that didn't fit in with the sections owned by the aisles. Unavailable to the public, the second floor served as the residential area to for the building's owner and her trusted draconic assistant. Said pair sat at a wide table in their dining room with their five friends.

An awkward silence filled the room, each of them locked into it in their own unique ways.

Twilight massaged the bridge of her muzzle, eyes closed in the face of a slowly growing migraine settling below her horn. Pinkie gave Rainbow a soft glare over her glass of juice, said mare nervously looking away from her while rubbing her still bandaged leg under the table. Applejack gave Rarity a flat stare, leaving the mare sheepishly staring into her cup of tea while she mixed it with a spoon. Fluttershy sat quietly in her seat, softly smiling at her own cup with a thousand-yard stare and a small blush.

This held for a few more minutes, before Rainbow finally broke the silence.

"I get it! I was stupid, okay?!" she groaned, crossing her arms and looking away from her glowering friend.

"That's puttin' it a mite mildly," Applejack deadpanned, taking a sip from a mug of coffee.

"I told you we worked it out," Pinkie sighed, disappointment creeping into her glare.

"I know," she groaned, frustratingly running her hands through her messy mane. "I just...when you said he pulled a knife on you, I just blanked-out that part."

Everypony, sans Fluttershy, let out tired groans at that.

"Ah can't really blame ya' for gettin' rilled up," Applejack sighed. "Ah probably would've done the same if'n Ah'd heard somepony did somethin' like that, too."

"So, after you attacked him, he cut up your leg?" Spike asked, stepping into the room with a platter of sandwiches.

"No," she grumbled. "His cat did that."

"His...cat?" Rarity blinked.

"You didn't see it?" Rainbow asked, brows up and eyes wide.

"No, I'm afraid not," Rarity frowned, eyeing her friend's leg with a bit of trepidation.

"Ah think Ah saw it," Applejack mused, scratching her chin in thought.

Pinkie nodded, surprise clear on her face as she studied her friend's leg.

Twilight and Spike shrugged, struggling to remember if they had seen the creature in question.

"How could you all miss it!" Rainbow cried. "It was a giant ball of fluff, claws, and teeth! If Anon hadn't called it off, I'm sure that monster would've taken my leg off!"

"Jinx is not a monster!" Fluttershy frowned, suddenly snapped out of her trance by her friend's outburst. "He is a good and lovable kitty that cares about his friend."

Everypony blinked at that, not used to getting such a fiery reaction out of the mare.

"B-B-But! I mean, c'mon Flutters! Look what he did to my leg!" Rainbow sputtered, gesturing to the limb in question.

"Well, you did try to attack his owner," Spike frowned, taking a sandwich off of the platter before setting it onto the table.

"Yeah..." she sighed. "The guy's pretty cool too, so I feel even worse about it. Probably should've asked the cat to take a few more swings at me on the way out."

"I know how you feel," Rarity frowned, staring into her cup. "Honestly, how much more of a heel could I be? After being so accommodating to me, what do I do? Insult all of the work he put into his home. I am honestly surprised he was so civil with me."

"Ah keep tellin' ya' not to run your mouth off," Applejack deadpanned, grabbing a sandwich.

"Hopefully we didn't leave too much of a bad impression on him," Twilight sighed. "The last thing we want to do is scare him into becoming a hermit."

"Ah don't know, twi," Applejack sighed. "The fella seemed pretty guarded when I met him. He's probably a bit of a hermit already."

"I don't think so," Pinkie smiled, stuffing three sandwiches into her mouth.

"What do you mean, darling?" Rarity asked, cringing a bit at her friend's poor manners.

Gulping down her mouthful, she continued.

"Well, when I visited him, I said I'd throw him a welcome party, but he told me not to. When I asked him why not, he told me that he didn't like big crowds."

"And that proves he isn't a hermit, how?" Rainbow asked.

"Duuuuuuh, Dashie!" she merrily continued. "That means he likes small groups!"

Struggling to follow, the prismatic-maned mare gestured for her to elaborate further.

Pinkie rolled her eyes and pointed at Fluttershy and Twilight.

"He's like them!"

"Huh!?" the group exclaimed.

"I...don't know how I'm supposed to take that," Twilight blinked.

Fluttershy looked equally confused.

"I think I get what she's trying to say," Spike nodded, giving Twilight a knowing side-eye. "You're saying that he just likes to be alone a lot."

"Or with ponies he can trust," Pinkie nodded, crossing her arms with a satisfied smirk.

Twilight thought on that for a moment, then face-palmed with a groan when the answer came to her.

"He's an introvert," she mumbled.

"A what?" Rainbow blinked.

"An introvert," she repeated, letting her hand fall to her side. "They are ponies that tend to shy away from large social gatherings or situations that require interacting with a lot of people."

"So an almost-hermit?" Rainbow asked.

Pinkie let out a small giggle at that while the rest of the table gave her flat looks.

"They also tend to shy away from overly flashy or loud events," she continued. "Combine that with being in a radically unfamiliar environment, it's no surprise that he would feel the need to defend himself."

"So he wouldn't like it if something really big happened," Spike mused, then gulped as he nervously asked, "Like....meeting a princess?"

Twilight froze, a look of horrified realization slowly crossing her paling face.

"Girls! We've got to move!" she cried jumping to her feet and running towards the door.

The rest of the group wasn't that far behind her, confusion and worry clear on their faces while they kept pace. As she started running down the street in the direction of Anon's house, a single thought echoed in her skull.

Oh please tell me we're not too late!

***

If there was one thing Anon took pride in, it was his sense of introspection. It was one of the few things that helped him keep his sanity back on Earth. He knew who he was and what he didn't want to be. He knew what he could do if pushed and tried to avoid anything that could lead to that. He understood his emotions and like a wild beast under his care, kept them tamed and under strict control.

As such, while he laid on his living room couch idly petting his cat, he was at a loss over the events of the day before. For a fleeting moment, Fluttershy had introduced him to an emotion that he had never felt before. One that he wasn't sure if he liked or not. That put him on edge. One thing he knew from his past life was that new wasn't always good, a fact that added to the caution he felt about his situation as a whole.

He didn't trust them, but he also didn't have any real reason to dislike the mares he had met the last few days. Well, he had a few reasons to hold a grudge towards Rainbow and Rarity, but he felt that he had mostly worked things out with them. If nothing else, he felt that he could be at least civil with them if they ever met again. He could be friendly with the rest, but that was as far as he was willing to get with them. Once he was sure that there was no funny business going on, then he would consider changing that. Until then, he was definitely going to be carrying more knives when he left the house. As for Fluttershy in particular? He knew that his best option was to avoid her; at least until he could figure out what his odd feeling was.

"It's always one thing after the other," he sighed, "Is a nice quiet life too much to ask for?"

Jinx gave him a grumbling mew, his purring almost rattling his human's ribs. Anon chuckled at that, rolling his eyes as he plucked an open bottle of beer off of the coffee table. As he took a long pull from the bottle, he tried for the thousandth time to figure out what Fluttershy did to him.

The late afternoon they spent together had been relatively mundane.

After his card lecture, the two of them spent the whole time getting to know each other. He learned that she had a real knack for working with animals. A knack that apparently worked from the smallest mouse to the largest manticore. Knowing that those existed only added to his need to find a better weapon in the future. She also revealed that she and her friends were each bearers of ancient magical artifacts called the Elements of Harmony. Apparently, Rainbow held loyalty, Rarity held generosity, Applejack held honesty, Pinkie held laughter, Fluttershy held kindness, and Twilight held magic. She didn't appreciate him laughing when she mentioned Rarity's element, insisting that he simply caught her on a bad day. Taking her word for it, he let the topic drop in favor of more pleasant subjects.

Off and on throughout the meeting, he kept getting hit with small doses of that odd feeling, especially when their eyes would meet.

When it was over, he gently guided her out of the door and went to bed early for the night. Much like he was at the moment, his mind refused to let him rest on the matter. Now, there he laid, functioning on only two hours of sleep getting a chest massage by his purring guard-cat and trying to put this mystery to rest.

After what felt like an hour of metaphorically banging his head against a wall, quick knock at the door pulled him out of his thoughts. Grumbling under his breath, he gently pushed off his cat and made his way towards the door.

"Wonder who it is this time?" he sighed, grabbing the doorknob.

What he saw when he opened the door froze him in place.

Standing just an inch shorter than him was a snow white mare with a flowing mane. Said mane looked as if it was made of a mix of light and hair that shined in a sifting aurora of blue, pink, purple, and green that waved behind her in an unfelt breeze. A golden ornate dress framed her elegant hourglass figure, molding to her frame like a curtain of pure melted metal. A matching crown and pendant completed the look, both sporting a large amethyst cut into a diamond shape at their hearts. Her lavender eyes and smile held a welcoming warmth, but were largely ignored by the human that stood before her. Instead, his focus was firmly locked onto her long horn, large wings, and the small group of white-coated, gold armored guards that stood beside and behind her. Each of them from a different tribe. Each of them holding a spear or had a sword sheathed on their hip. Each turning his blood into ice.

Before the royal pony could say anything, he slammed the door shut, grabbed his cat, and ran further into his house.

"I knew it! Fucking knew it!" he whisper yelled as he ran into his bedroom.

Locking the door and shoving a dresser in front of it, he ran to the rug at the middle of the room.

"Please be there, please be there, please be there," he quickly muttered to himself as he folded the rug in half.

Doing so revealed a small trapdoor.

When he opened it to reveal a staircase, he let out a relieved breath, leaned the rug against the door, and closed it on the way down, hiding it from view. Cat still in hand, he raced down the stairs, the action activating several motion lights to reveal an underground hallway. At the end, a steel door with a code lock came into view. The second he reached it, he quickly punched in the code, waited for a mechanical beep and click, then pulled the door open and ran into the room beyond.

The second the door locked shut behind him, a series of long lights set into the ceiling flickered into life. The room in question was a massive one-hundred-by-one-hundred foot steel cube. One half of the room was dominated by large plastic totes filled with enough food and water to last both of them at least two years. The other half of the room had a table, desktop computer, a large gas-powered generator, and a wall with a wide variety of knives on display.

Setting Jinx down, he flicked on the generator and then turned on the computer. While he waited for it to boot-up, he scanned through his knife collection for four blades in particular.

"C'mon, c'mon, please tell me I didn't leave them up- Ah! Here they are!"

Sporting a relieved smile, he pulled four ornate knives off of the wall. Instead of metal blades, they had a massive curved obsidian fang set into their handles. Said handles were made of bone with a grip made of snake skin.

"These probably won't help much, but they're going to have to do."

Sliding them under his belt, he ran back to the computer.

On the screen, eight windows from eight security cameras showed him what was going on. Four screens showed that there were guards at all four sides outside of his house, while the remaining three showed that the kitchen, living room, study, and bedroom had at least one guard checking them out. What none of them showed him was were the royal was. Prows furrowed, he made the cameras pan around to give him a better look at the rooms and perimeter of his house, but she refused to come into view.

"Where is she?" he mumbled, frantically checking the cameras. "Did she leave her guards to get back up? Does she see me as that much of a threat? No, she probably would've sent a Pegasus guard to do that."

"Indeed," a female voice agreed.

From behind him.

From very close behind him.

Slowly, he turned around.

Standing about five feet away from him, cradling his cat like a large fluffy newborn, was the royal. Ice ran through his veins as his hands shot to his daggers. Before he could draw them, a golden aura surrounded his body and locked it in place.

SHIT!

"No need for that," she smiled, lightly scratching Jinx behind his ears.

Anon sighed, slumping in the royal's arcane grip as a defeated agreement echoed through his head.

Welp, I'm f-ed.

***

To say Anon was nervous was an understatement of titanic proportions.

After he was basically dragged out of his panic room, he was quickly made to take a seat at his dining room table by a couple of guards the second he was free from her magic. That didn't surprise him all that much. What did was how the guards actively avoided touching his daggers. In fact, they seemed legitimately scared of them, doubly so when it came to the Unicorns. He quickly filed that away when the royal took a seat across from him, still smiling and petting his loudly purring housemate.

The two sat in stiff silence, a ring of guards sternly watching them from a safe distance from all sides of the room. He could already imagine what kind of experiments she had in mind for him. If what his previous guests said was true, than most things in this world had some kind of magic to keep them safe from most things. She was probably going to see what he was resistant to. Lords knew what she would want to test first. She'd probably want to dissect him too at some point. Worse yet, she'd probably want to keep him as some sort of exotic pet that she could show off to whoever came to visit.

I should've known better, he thought, a bitter lump forming in his throat.

"You're name is Anon, correct?" the royal asked.

Keeping a few bitter words locked behind a clenched jaw, he nodded.

Her smile softened, then with a small bow of her head, said, "A pleasure to finally meet you. I am Princess Celestia, co-ruler of Equestria and Princess of the Sun."

"Nice to meet you," he tersely replied.

Her smile wilted a bit, taken aback slightly by the man's abrasive attitude. The guards in the room tensed at his tone, some looking to be a step away from drawing their weapons. Anon didn't care. He knew that he was done, no matter what he said or did.

"I take it one of the mares told you about me," he frowned, leaning back in his chair. "Can I at least know who?"

"Why would you need to know that?" she asked, a cautious edge entering her tone.

"Well, I'd like to know who I'm gonna haunt after you do whatever to me," he sighed. "I'd think I deserve at least that much."

"What?" she blinked.

"Gotta say," he continued, looking around his kitchen with a rueful smile. "It's kind've flattering that you think I'm such a big threat that you brought all of these guards with you. Two or three probably would've been enough, but this is almost overkill. Just that one Unicorn could probably blow me up with a single fireball or whatever else she's got in her spell slots."

As he said that, he pointed to a nearby Unicorn guard to his left.

The guard in question looked just as horrified as Celestia felt by his assessment, taking a step back.

"I-I-I would never," the guardsmare sputtered. "I'm a field medic!"

"Oh, sorry," he sighed, giving her an apologetic smile before dropping it when he shifted his focus back towards Celestia. "Hell, I'm pretty sure you could do a million different things to me all on your own. So, let's cut the crap and tell me what you plan to do to me."

The guards gasped, none of them sure what to make of this odd situation. Never before had they heard anyone speak to their ruler in such a manner. Celestia was equally surprised, not just by the way he was treating her, but just how different he was acting compared to how Twilight described him in her letter. While she did write that he could be a bit gruff, she also stated that he was relatively friendly once he got to know her. A far cry from the cynical and paranoid being sitting before her now.

Did I do something wrong?

"Well," she started. "I first would like to formally welcome you to Equestria."

A bit late for that, he thought, bitterly.

"Next, I wanted to see if what my student said about you is true."

"Like what?" he asked, raising a brow.

"She said that you come from a world without magic," she replied, a hint of intrigue coloring her tone. "That instead, your kind uses technology."

He nodded.

"I don't know if Ponies have the same thing, but that panic room was the best example I can give you."

"We do have something similar," she nodded. "Though ours lacks an active armory."

"Never hurts to be prepared," he shrugged.

"Indeed," she frowned, eyeing his daggers. "Care to explain where you got those?"

He stared down at the daggers and a soft smile graced his lips.

"Keepsakes from my grandmother. Said she used them to ward off a curse some twit tried to stick on her. I'd usually keep one on me as a good luck charm, but I guess I left them in the panic room to keep them safe at some point."

"I see," she nodded. "I would highly recommend that you keep them down there."

"I was going to anyway," he frowned. "Why?"

"I do not know what kind of magic was used to craft them, but it is clear to me that those daggers hold a great power," she stated, a cautious glint in her eyes as she stared at the weapons. "Until the nature of that power can be revealed, I suggest keeping them hidden."

Wait, the've actually got magic in them? Guess grandma's rituals worked after all.

"Got it," he nodded, then asked, "If these are that dangerous, how come you're not trying to take them from me?"

"Simple," she giggled. "They won't let me."

"Huh?"

Waving off his confusion, a more professional air surrounded her.

"While we are on the topic, why do you have so many weapons stored beneath your house?"

"My world isn't a very safe place," he sighed. "When things get bad, they get really bad. After I retired from the... family business, I stored all of my best knives down there in case things got that bad. I'll go down there every now and then to check on my supplies or sharpen a few blades, but that's about it."

"You never bring any of them out of the room?" she pressed.

"I might toss out some bad food or bring up some knives for when I go hunting, but that's about it."

"That is....understandable," she allowed. "But I must ask; what kind of job would require the need for so many blades?"

Anon's expression darkened, his gray eyes falling to the ground with a deep hint of shame.

"My family called me a Professional," he spat. "And with all due respect, your highness, I'd like to drop it there."

Nodding in understanding, she granted his request in favor of a less grim topic.

Before she could voice any other inquiries, the front door burst open and six familiar mares frantically ran in. A loud racket filled the air as guards tried to keep Twilight and her friends from rushing into the dining room. Celestia watched the struggle with a small smile while Anon fell further into his seat with a groan.

It looked more and more like a quiet and peaceful life was just not in the cards for him.

Ch.8 Urza's Funhouse

Anon sat at his dining room table, steaming mug at hand and a small frown marring his face. Jinx sat by his chair, flicking his tail as he studied his human's curious actions. Said actions consisted of him doing the same to one of his obsidian daggers. For years, the set of old trinkets served as nothing more than an heirloom with an interesting story. A few days ago, they served as a final gamble when he thought he was going to be sent to Pony Area 51. Now, the blade laying on the table before him and its mates in the panic room were a new curiosity that he had no idea what he was meant to do with.

"She said that they wouldn't let her take them," he mused, taking a sip from his mug. "Are they alive or something?"

Jinx let out a soft mew, hopping onto his lap to get a better look at the dagger. He let out a faint grunt from the sudden weight, but still continued to study it. He cautiously poked at its handle, approaching the tool as if it was a sleeping cobra. From the way Princess Celestia talked about the daggers, he wasn't entirely sure what to expect from them. The only thing keeping him from disposing of them outright was the princess's reassurance that the power they housed were not malicious in nature or cursed. The fact that his grandmother supposedly used them to counter a curse was also a point in their favor.

So....how do I use them? I mean, I know a few tricks, but none of them involve using the daggers. Gods damn it, why didn't grandma write her spells down or something?! Hell, she could've at least left some instructions on how to use these damn things!

"Damn it all," he groaned, setting his mug down by the dagger. "Why did my life have to get so complicated?"

Jinx let out a small mew, sniffing near the dagger's handle.

He chuckled, scratching the cat behind the ears as he leaned back in his seat. A soft smile graced his lips, eyes drifting shut while he let the silence envelop him. If there was one thing he was grateful for, it was that his situation pulled him away from the city. The pure, natural silence eased his heart and settled his mind to levels that were rarely reached back on Earth. Even though this feeling was part of his new normal, he never grew tired of it and probably never would.

Just when his zen started to guide him into a nap, a loud series of desperate knocks at his door shattered the peace. Letting out a defeated sigh, he rose from his seat, forcing a growling Jinx off of his lap as he made his way towards the door. His irritation grew the closer he got to the door, whoever stood on the other side's knocking not once stopping sense it started. By the time he threw the door open, he was ready to verbally tear the visitor in half, only to lose said fire the second he saw the state of the people on his doorstep.

Twilight and Spike stood before him, both panting and bedraggled with looks of pure panic marring their faces. Both of them frantically cried, "Hide me," as they shot past him into the house proper. Thoroughly confused and worried, he closed the door and tried to find the frantic duo. Both of those feelings doubled in strength when he found them both hiding under his dining room table.

"Uh....what in the nine circles of hell is going on?" he asked, staring dumbly at the pair.

"Twilight got tickets to the Grand Galloping Gala and everypony wants them!" Spike cried.

"The Grand Galloping...what the heck is that?" Anon frowned, crossing his arms with a raised brow.

"A massive formal party Princess Celestia hosts every year," Twilight explained, horn aglow as she peeked out from under the table. "Tickets are hard to come by because of how expensive they are and how few the castle prints each year."

"Uh-huh," he nodded, his head quickly turning towards the windows when their curtains glowed with a matching aura to Twilight's magic and slid shut. "I fail to see how that led to you barging in here acting like the sky is falling."

"Well," Spike frowned, getting out from under the table. "The rest of the girls found out about them and are trying to talk her into giving them one."

"And?" he blinked. "Just give them a ticket and call it a day. Sounds like a pretty simple fix to me."

"She only got two tickets," the dragon sighed.

"Oh," he cringed. "That....does complicate things, a bit."

As if on cue, a series of cautious knocks came from the front door. Spike's face paled, a look of horror jumping onto his face just before he dove back under the table. Anon sighed, scratching the back of his head while he made his way towards the door.

This was looking to be another loud and annoying day.

***

Five mares sat at his dining room table, each looking sheepish under the stern gaze of their host. Twilight and Spike stood at Anon's sides, each looking tired, but relieved. Taking a seat at the head of the table, he met each of their eyes with a soul-piercing stare that made them flinch. After a few long minutes of silence, he let out a sigh and leaned back in his seat.

"Let me get this straight," Anon sighed, eyes closed as he massaged the bridge of his nose. "You all spent the whole day trying to bribe Twilight into giving you her spare ticket. Then, when she told you to give her some time to think about it, you all keep up the favors and cause the whole town to start hounding her for the ticket. Am I missing anything?"

"No," they all mumbled.

Another bought of awkward silence settled through the room.

After letting them stew for a few minutes, Anon tiredly asked, "Where do I even begin?"

Glowering at the girls, he continued with, "First off, did any of you consider the possibility that the extra ticket was supposed to go to Spike?"

All of their eyes widened at that, realization and guilt crossing their faces.

"Thought so," he sighed. "Putting that aside, did any of you think that pushing her was going to make the whole situation easier?"

"Um, I'm fine with giving up my ticket," Spike sheepishly cut in, raising a claw to get everyone's attention.

A hint of hopeful glee flashed across their faces, only for a harsh glare from Anon to remind them of their guilt.

"Seriously," he frowned. "We need to find a peaceful way to settle this."

The second those words left his mouth, the dagger on the table gave off a bright silver light. Before anyone could react, a bright flash of light and startled cries filled the room. Cursing under his breath, Anon tried to blink the stars out of his eyes and take stock of his guests. When he did, he was met with a sight that took him a moment to properly register.

Set in front of each of the mares was a colored deck box. A quick glance at Twilight and Spike showed them holding similar boxes, her's bright blue while Spikes was a brilliant purple. Both of them examined the containers with curiosity and a hint of worry. Fluttershy stared in wonder at her moss green box, not sure if it was okay for her to touch it. Pinkie sported a wide smile as she stared down at her grey one, practically vibrating in her seat with barely contained excitement. Applejack was a bit more cautious, frowning down at her white box with a raised brow. Rainbow stared wide-eyed at her red deck box, a conflicted frown gracing her lips as her gaze snapped back and forth between him and the item in question.

What....the hell?

"Hold on a second," he frowned, rising from his seat.

The mares watched him as he exited the dining room and headed down the hall towards his bedroom. He passed it and entered the room just next to it. With a flick of a switch, an ornate wooden chandelier made to resemble a cluster of ivy filled the room with an amber light. Said room was a massive square of polished oak walls and emerald marble floor tiles. The ceiling was made to look like it had black bark with green veins of moss running through it. Lining the walls were tall wooden shelves loaded with deck boxes, each standing roughly ten feet tall and loaded with over a hundred colored boxes. Five feet in front of them forming a tight U-shape were a series of bookshelves containing card catalog folders, each as thick as a dictionary and color coded in a way that would make the most neurotic of librarians want to marry him. Set right in the middle of the room stood a large round table, polished black with a base that looked like a large tree stump that was rooted to the ground. Four ornately sylvan looking chairs were tucked in around it, identical to the ones he made for the dining room.

He ignored all of this and quickly started to look through the shelves of deck boxes, specifically the ones dedicated to the colors his guests had. When he saw that none of them were missing, instead of feeling relieved, he felt confused.

"Did the dagger.....give them cards?" he mumbled. "Well, I guess this helps with our little problem here."

A sudden realization made him let out an annoyed groan.

"Now I'm going to have to teach them how to play."

With a tired sigh, he made his way out of the room. As he flicked off the light and closed the door behind him, he offered one silent prayer.

To whatever god decided to pull this shit, please let them have commander decks.

***

Fortunately for Anon, his prayer was answered. Seeing as he didn't have a dog in this race, he was prepared to have to give them a whole lecture on how to play the game and then take the role of referee. To his and their surprise, the former became completely unnecessary the second they touched their boxes. Another surprise for him was just what kind of decks each of them ended up with.

Rarity ran a mono black vampire deck with Vito, Thorn of the Dusk Rose as her commander. Rainbow ran a mono red Krenko, Mob Boss deck. Fluttershy ran a mono green bear tribal deck led by Ayula, Queen Among Bears. Applejack ran a mono white angel deck with Giada, Font of Hope for a commander. Pinkie ran a, technically, colorless myr tribal deck led by Urtet, Remnant of Memnarch.

So, with their commanders revealed and hands drawn, the five mares battled it out for Twilight's spare ticket.

While clearly lacking in experience, Anon noted that they all played with a decent level of skill. If he hadn't known better, he would've thought that they had built and play-tested their decks beforehand. It didn't take long for one of them to start to pull ahead, but the who on that front was a bit shocking. While it took a few turns to get started and she took more than a few hits before hand, as soon as Fluttershy set up her board, she didn't waste any time going onto the offensive.

Rainbow went down first, her goblin forces too bashed up by a previously played board-wipe from Rarity to withstand the incoming barrage of Fluttershy's bear tokens. Rarity was next to fall, her life points run dry by one too many life-cost cards along with a battered board thanks to Applejack's angels and soldiers. Pinkie had a chance, up until Fluttershy played Bane of Progress and exterminated all of her creatures before going in for the kill with more bears. Applejack also took a heavy hit from Bane, the loss of her enchantments and artifacts wiping out most of her angelic army's support. Everypony watched with bated breath as the duo traded blows, Bears and beasts clashing with angels and soldiers in a brutal deadlock. It looked like it could go either way, but Anon knew that all it would take is for one of them to draw the right card to break through.

When he saw the smile on Fluttershy's face at the start of her turn, he knew it was all over.

"I tap three forests to play Bow of Nylea," she softly stated, doing just that.

"Bow of Nylea?" Applejack frowned, raising a brow at the card. "What the sam hill does that thing do?"

"A few things," she sheepishly smiled. "But I only need to use just one of its effects."

"And that is?" the farmer pressed.

"While it is on the board, all of my attacking creatures have....um.....deathtouch."

Applejack balked at that, quickly giving her friend's board a nervous look. In addition to the twenty bear tokens, Bane, and her commander, Fluttershy had a few generic 2/2 bears with no abilities as well as a massive 8/8 bear that she summoned the turn before. Running through the numbers in her head, she let out a relieved sigh. While it was going to cost her a few troops, she could drop the damage enough to mount a counter attack.

"Next," Fluttershy continued, "I tap three forest to cast Roar of Challenge."

When she set the card on the table, all of her cards gave off a faint green glow.

"What does that do?" Applejack frowned.

Fluttershy's smile turned a little impish.

"When I cast this, I have to choose one of my creatures. Until the end of this turn, all of the creatures you have that can block, have to block that creature."

"Well that's not good," she snorted.

"That's not all," Fluttershy continued. "Since I have a creature with four or more power, the creature I pick will have indestructible."

"All right, that's really not good," she gulped.

"The card I pick is my Copper Host Crusher," she happily cheered, pointing at the 8/8. "And then I attack with everyone!"

All of Fluttershy's cards tapped on their own. Applejack watched as a green glow surrounded her creature cards and tapped them, thin strings of silver light connecting them to the giant bear's card. Gulping, she tapped a plain and slapped a card onto her part of the table.

"Ah tap one plain to cast Path to Exile to exile Copper Host Crusher!"

"That has no effect," she calmly chuckled. "Copper Host has hexproof."

Applejack's jaw dropped when she saw the white glow from her instant fizzle out the second it tried to pass to Fluttershy's creature.

"And since he has trample, any excess damage he deals to blocking creatures are dealt to you as damage."

On cue, all of Applejack's token cards faded away while the rest of her creatures moved to the graveyard and command zones respectively. At the same time, strings of green light stretched out from Fluttershy's cards towards Applejack. When they connected, a fifteen made of white light appeared above her head for a few seconds before it turned into a zero and burst apart into a shower of silver sparkles.

Everyone, sans Anon, gaped at the yellow mare as she happily gathered her cards together. When she looked up from her part of the table, her smile turned sheepish under their gaze.

"That.....was........AWESOME!!!" Pinkie cheered.

"Yeah....," Rainbow smiled, crossing her arms. "Good job Shy. Didn't know you had it in ya',"

"Agreed," Rarity tittered behind a hand.

"Gotta say, Ah didn't see that comin'," Applejack chuckled. "Good game Shy."

As she said that, she offered her friend and opponent a hand shake, one that she meekly accepted. Not long afterwards, the dagger, now strapped to Anon's belt , let out a soft green glow. A second later, one of the tickets floated out of one of Twilight's pockets, the item wrapped in the same glow. It came to a sudden stop in front of a still seated Fluttershy, the mare in question staring at the prize with longing and wonder. She cautiously took the ticket, the green light drifting off of it like glowing mist the second she had a proper grip on it.

Anon let out a relieved sigh, glad that the presumed issue was resolved. That changed when he noted the hesitation on Fluttershy's face. Slowly, her gaze washed over her other friends, her smile wilting with each face caught in her gaze. Closing her eyes and taking a deep breath, she turned to face Twilight. With a determined frown, she handed the ticket to Twilight.

"I....I don't want it."

"WHAT?!" everyone, Anon included exclaimed.

"W-Why?" Twilight sputtered.

"Because..." taking a sad breath, Fluttershy continued. "Going without my friends is too scary."

Anon blinked at that, then sighed with an understanding smile. Going to a party full of total strangers and stuffy shirts? Forget that noise. Just the thought of putting up with any of that was suffocating. For someone as anxious as Fluttershy, that would be total hell. Sure, the whole reason she wanted to go was to spend time in the royal gardens, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be a few nobles that wanted to do the same. Plus, sometimes, it isn't as much fun to go places alone.

"Ah have ta' agree with Shy," Applejack chuckled ruefully. "Even if Ah sell a bunch of goods at the Gala, it won't be as much fun without ya'll bein' there."

"I....feel the same," Rarity sighed reluctantly."No point in finding my prince charming if I can't show him off to my friends."

All of the mares rolled their eyes at that, but a faint flicker of pain on Spike's face caught Anon's eye. Shelving that for later, he continued to watch his guests have their moment.

Rainbow looked at the ticket in her friend's hand with deep longing, before letting out a frustrated cry and slumping back in her seat with a cross-armed pout.

"Fine! As cool as it would be to show the Wonderbolts how awesome I am, I'd hate to leave any of you girl's out."

Giving her knowing smirks, they watched with a small hint of reluctance as Twilight took the ticket back.

"Thank you Fluttershy," she smiled. "And you know what? I'm not going either."

"Huh?" everyone gaped.

Nodding she handed Spike the ticket

"Spike, take a letter," she said, straightening her posture.

Nodding, he pulled a notepad and pencil from his pocket.

"Dear Princess Celestia, as flattered as I am to receive these tickets, I fear that I must decline. No matter who I choose to take with me to the event, both of us would feel bad that the others would be missing out. That wouldn't be fun for anypony and so, I return these to you. Your student, Twilight Sparkle."

With a nod from Twilight, Spike blew a small stream of green fire onto the note and tickets. Before Anon could panic, the remains drifted away from the group as a glittering cloud of lavender smoke out the window. Blinking dumbly at that for a moment, Anon shook it off and gave the group a tired frown.

"Alight, now that you all aren't trying to kill each other anymore, take your cards and please head ou-

A loud fiery belch from the dragon made him jump. The second the flames dissipated, two scrolls and nine tickets faded into existence. Caught in a golden aura, the tickets floated to everyone, Spike and Anon included. One of the scrolls did the same to Twilight while the other went to Fluttershy. Curious, both mares opened their letters.

"Dear Twilight, I am sorry that you only received two tickets. That was an unfortunate result of a miscommunication on my part. Please forgive me for this mistake and I hope you and your friends enjoy your time at the Grand Galloping Gala. Sincerely, Princess Celestia."

Cheers filled the air, each of the mares handling their tickets as if they were sacred treasures. Spike just shrugged and slipped his into his pocket while Anon grimaced at his. Letting out a reluctant sigh, he already started to think of ways to decline the invitation as he carefully pocketed it. Those thoughts got pushed to the back of his mind when he sent a passing glance at Fluttershy.

The mare's eyes were wide, a blush slowly growing on her face the longer she stared at her open scroll. By the time anyone else noticed, the blush had already reached her ears.

"Um, are you okay?" Spike asked, poking the mare.

"YES!" Fluttershy squeaked, jumping to her feet.

"Uh....are you sure?" Anon asked, taken aback.

The second Fluttershy's eyes fell on him, her blush spread down to her neck.

"YES! I'M FINE! TOTALLY FINE!"

Before he could comment further, the mare mechanically pocketed the scroll, gathered up her cards, and made her way towards the door.

"Wh- Shy? Where are you going?" Rainbow asked, turning in her seat to watch the mare .

"I NEED TO WATER MY PETS AND FEED MY FLOWERS!" she cried.

Before anyone could process or respond to that, the mare had already left. An awkward silence filled the air, everyone struggling to make any kind of sense of what happened. Eventually, Anon gathered enough of his scattered wits to break it, but he doubted anyone would be able to solve the riddle he summoned to do so.

"What.....the fuck was that about?"