I was still and quiet. Had Maud just offered what I thought she offered? Parts of me tensed. Parts I had not thought of since arriving in that Equestria filled and I shivered with a remembered passion I had set down. Did she really?

I was just as suddenly encased in stone, made into a statue as Maud turned towards me. She looked me up and down. "You're erect." That wasn't a fact I could argue, locked in that state in my stone prison. "You're serious, but are you?" She leaned in. "Are you horny, or are you in love." She walked past me. "They are not the same."

Instead of panicking, I really thought about it. Which of those was I, really? "I'm sorry for bothering you. Um..."

The stone cracked and fell free of me. Maud nodded as she set one of the shining gems on a stone table. "You're a good boy. But you're a boy." She tapped at the stone gentle. "Good boys should keep that away, or find a good girl."

"I'm not a boy," I said before second guessing myself. "I suppose I am a boy right now... I'm an older man, in this young body. Um, shoot... Making this worse." I sank to my haunches. "I'm sorry."

"Awkward." She rolled the gem over. "I like that. Twilight mentioned you were from another world. Are you staying?"

"Yes."

"I'll talk to her." Maud inclined her head at the exit. "See you later."

Feeling humiliated, I marched out with a purpose. Always walk like you had somewhere to be was a philosophy I held close. "Later," I called back, vanishing around a corner, headed for the surface.

I spent the rest of the day thumbing through my mental spellbooks, digging about for earth and... Oh... Right. I had entirely forgotten.

I went for my saddlebag and brought it to Twilight. "I have a confession."

Twilight perked up. "A confession? What did you do?"

I dropped the bag in front of her. "Look at the papers."

So Twilight did. She read the papers I never got around to reading. Her face changed colors several times as she got to certain parts. "And you... read this?"

"Not a word. But I created them." I tapped at my horn. "That learning spell encourages you to think about what you're looking at, and writes down what comes out, I think? I can... try it again, now that you know, and you can take the paper it makes."

Twilight carefully set the papers aside, expression thoughtful as she met my anxious eyes. "Creating those personal glimpses was likely an innocent magical accident given your inexperience."

She smiled reassuringly. "The emotions stirred are understandable. But the nobler path focuses positive potential not overreacting negatively." She cleared her throat softly and nodded mostly to herself.

I sighed, tension ebbing as she didn't seem upset. Was I already forgiven? "I didn't know it would do that."

I straightened determinedly. "I'll be more careful how I use that in the future, if I use it again."

Twilight nodded. "Growth takes time. Be patient with yourself and others. For now, let's simply move ahead wiser." She leaned in forward. "Seriously, you didn't read any of it?"

I colored at that. "I read enough to see I shouldn't read it, then I stopped, and I filtered it. I forgot everything I read except it had you and Twinkle's thoughts in it."

Twilight hiked a brow. "You filtered it?"

I nodded at that, pointing a cloven hoof at the papers. "I can just decide to not remember something. Sometimes I can not hear something or not see something. Filtering."

"Filtering." Twilight tapped at her chin. "Your mind is a curious place... Now..." She took a slow breath. "Now that we're operating honestly, I would like to see you use that spell again. I will take possession of the result."

I hesitated nervously as Twilight requested observing that memory extraction spell directly despite the previous awkwardness around its privacy violating effects. But she had asked, and she would take the result. I wasn't violating anyone. I was giving her what she wanted, from herself.

With an anxious swallow, I lit my horn focusing past discomfort towards Twilight's calm, curious gaze, trusting her research aims and not fear's projections. Brief flare later and a new scroll sat between us unread but humbly offered this time.

I met her eyes uncertainly. "No looking. I won't use this on innocent ponies without asking first." I scuffed a hoof, still feeling exposed under fresh memories conjured from her inner landscape. "We good still though?"

Twilight smiled gently levitating the record away into a satchel for later review. "We were always good, so no worries there." She gave my shoulder a reassuring pat. "I apologize too, if you felt pressured just now. Guidance must leave room for self-directed timing."

I smiled back small but real, relief swelling.

"Besides, fascinating though your distinctive talents are, I appreciate you most for who you are, dear friend." Twilight nudged me playfully towards the kitchen. "Now then, enough heaviness! I believe some new herb tea blends await our intrepid sampling..."

I chuckled letting lighter subjects fill the space between us as we walked. She wanted to hear every spell I had dug out so far, so I went over them, and displayed them, with rushes of fire, earth, and a few that were human and didn't have obvious elemental hints.

"Very curious." She sipped from her tea. "Go on then. It's your day off, enjoy it."

I gave a little wave, even if not required, and dashed away from her to the outdoors.

I wasn't there, but Twilight received another guest later, as I was out practicing my magic. Maud casually walked in, eyes on Twilight as she approached. "David has a healthy libido."

Twilight spit the tea she was working on. "Excuse me?"

"He has a healthy libido." Maud inclined her head. "And he is attracted to me."

Twilight glanced left, right, then back at Maud. "Al...right..." She rubbed at her throat nervously. "What brings this up? I... You are a grown pony. You can make your own decisions."

"Yes." Maud leaned in. "But he is a boy. But he claims to not be a boy. Which is he? Am I taking advantage?" She walked past Twilight, fetching some tea for herself without being invited. "Am I breaking any laws?"

Twilight rubbed at the side of her cheek. "Even if we worked entirely off his apparent age, he is, at best, a liberated foal, which makes him an adult. He can make his own decisions. He has no parents that could claim him. His only potential caretaker is me... and I'm not assuming that role."

Maud raised a hoof to her chin, staring at Twilight in silence. Moments turned into minutes of quiet staring.

Twilight met Maud's steady gaze as long minutes passed in silence. Finally she spoke: "Sorry if I seem judgmental about your private lives." She sighed, refilling their tea. "As guardian to an energetic unicorn, maybe I projected unfairly."

She smiled openly. "You understand David's readiness better from your bonding. Legally, nothing bars consenting relationships." Twilight lifted her cup in salute. "I wish you both happiness however things unfold between you."

At long last Maud spoke: "If he walks away, I understand." She hesitated. "If he stays...I understand too."

Twilight smiled hearing pragmatism and care in Maud's tone. However strange the circumstances, perhaps this unlikely pair would find calm within the storm. The future glimmered with cozy potential.

Maud walked out, her part spoken.

Twilight inclined her head at the papers. "Twinkle." Twinkle popped out from a cabinet. "I had a feeling you were close by. Did you hear all that?"

"Mmhmm." Twinkle took flight, landing in front of Twilight. "Not fair."

"Not fair." Twilight smiled gently. "And it reads like a bad romance novel."

"The worst." Twinkle inclined her head. "Are we forming a herd? Dibs on being the leader."

Twilight booped Twinkle's nose. "No. You and David still have a tortured and messy line of consent that can't be ignored so casually. I can't recommend you two at any point."

Twinkle shrank at that. "No fair... I am his."

"That you repeat that only makes my stance all the more firm." Twilight clopped a hoof down. "Find a pony you don't feel so crushingly indebted to."

Twinkle shot her larger self a glare. "What's your excuse? I was his doll, smiling and happy to be there. He went up to Maud and they actually talked it out..." She worried her hooves slowly. "How do you fit in? Why do you even care?"

"He's fascinating." Twilight inclined her head. "But he's also hurt, and confused. I want to make his space warm and safe, so I keep my questions to myself, except when he rushes up, eager to share. But I want to know... I want to know how his mind works, and how his magic works. Mental spellbooks?! I could study this for decades without pause..."

Twinkle rolled a hoof. "Okay, so. All of that sounds not-embarrasing, but you blushed with me. I was thinking naughty things. What were you blushing about? Be honest! If you're going to chase me away, at least be honest about your side of things."

Twilight sighed, ears dipping sheepishly under her diminutive double's shrewd stare seeing through excuses. "...Alright, alright, that's fair. I suppose deeper fascinations stir beyond clinical curiosity alone..."

She cleared her throat, words emerging halting. "Witnessing fresh eyes confronting life's myriad mysteries so openly, drinking details thirstily even in strangeness...it awakens joys I thought lessened under the long weight of duties grown familiar."

Twilight gazed skywards thoughtfully through the window where clouds scudded brightly over deepening azure. "Jaded eyes newly re-enchanted beholding the world with wonder once more... Was not my childhood thus similarly immersed astonished at existence unveiled?"

She blinked refocusing on Twinkle buzzing encouragements. Chuckling self-consciously Twilight concluded: "You have the right of it; David rekindles science's passions but perhaps also the heart's no less precious stirrings too long left slumbering."

Twinkle smirked triumphantly clearly relishing the confession wrested into sunlight at last from her esteemed sister's evasions. But Twilight simply shrugged helplessly. "So!" Twinkle pirouetted airily evading heavier conversation. "When's dinner? This emotional detective work works up fierce appetites wouldn't you agree?" And talk turned lighter thenceforth.

Unknowing of the storm I had prompted, I dug through my book, looking like I was just spacing out at the side of the road.

"David!" Pinkie landed on my back, startling me, but the hug calmed me down. "I hear you and my sister are getting along super well! I'm so happy I could cry." She wasn't crying, she was smiling brilliantly. "Are you two gonna date, huh huh huh?"

I gently wrestled Pinkie away with a chuckle. "Nothing planned yet. But hello, Pinkie. I was going to try a new spell."

"Ooo, that's fun too." She bounced in place. "What kind?"

"I was thinking to practice earth." I leafed mentally. "I can see... two spells teasing me. I'm not sure which to focus on."

"The fun one, obviously." Pinkie rolled her eyes as if it should be obvious. "Do it!"

But how did I know which was fun without examining both? I went for the first one. Opening the tome and peering inside, I saw a pony statue or golem, caught mid-trot. "Huh..." I focused on the rune and felt what I had felt before. I was being encased in spreading stone that crept over me the more I focused on it.

Curiosity kept me focused and soon I was that statue I saw, but I could still walk and move easily. "It's the stone spell you cast before."

Pinkie scrunched her nose. "Unfair... You copied me." She pawed at me, but she was giggling. "Now you can hug dangerous things too. Oh! Or you could use it when you are dangerous, to be less dangerous."

My ears danced in amazement. "Oh, good idea."

Pinkie pawed at those ears. "I got a reaction out of you, good. Now, you be nice to Maud, or I'll be angry."

Author's Note

Few dare to anger the Ponk.

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