Unlimited Books, But No Book

Well, she delivered on the book. Two, actually. Though she couldn't look Barnon in the eyes as she hoofed them over.

One, a proper anatomical study on Ponies, with a slight bias towards Mares. Nothing saucy, proper anatomical explanations, the whole lot. Diagrams, charts, what part is named what. They were pretty similar to Horses, actually; Barnon checking on his Holo TV, having the Flickipedia page for them pulled up. Hooves, Withers; though apparently, some Ponies had Wings, and some had Horns. A few even had both. Funky stuff.

The second... well, it was a magazine, not a book. And it showed Mares in a few different poses, alright. Actually, on the spectrum of what it could have been, it's kind of tame. Like one of those Pinup magazines, with a few variety-pack colors of Pony women in themed outfits, posing as you'd expect. What Barnon did notice though, is how they all had these... Butt Pictures. Marks, on the side of their butt. At first he thought it was like, a tramp stamp deal. But every single one of them had one.

It was also the first time Twilight had reached through the Portal, instead of Barnon doing it. That excitement was dampened by the fact that she was basically handing the first Human ever contacted by a pony, from another dimension, porn, because she got caught looking up 'Oiled-Up Humans' on his Holopad; but it was still there nonetheless, and it had Twilight experimenting with researching the 'Cook-Faster' spell that had bound their 'waves together. Her self-chastising for letting herself slip like that was mostly ignored by Barnon, who took some time to explain about predatory advertisements, scams, and to basically ask him before she did almost anything.

Barnon took it well, at least. He was reclined on his bed, still visible from the Macrowave, making various, over-exaggerated noises to continue teasing Twilight while he perused their contents. They'd pretty much both started just leaving their Macro/Microwave doors open while they did their own things inside their respective homes, though Twilight made sure to close hers when she she had company.

For Barnon, he lived alone, in Deep Space; he didn't have any company to worry about.

For Twilight, she'd been dodging a looming problem. Thankfully, Spike doesn't really use the Microwave, but any time she'd have company, she'd ask Barnon not to knock, and shut her side. Explaining that she had accidently bonded two dimensions and now had an extra-terrestrial friend she was sharing... 'things' with was... really, really not a good look, and not something she wanted to explain to anybody. Not the girls, not to her teacher. She'd find a... better way, later. If that ever happened. For all they knew, the spell could fritz out at any time. Or it could get worse. Or it could spread. Or implode. Or--

"So you guys have these... 'Cutie Marks', you said?" Barnon calls from his bed, glancing over. Twilight is ripped from her thoughts, leaning to look at him.

"Yes! Every Pony gets one when they're growing up, showing them their special skill or path in life." She nods.

"What's yours?" Barnon asks, shifting to sit up and look at her.

"Oh, it's a... well, a purple sparkle. With smaller sparkles." She explains, glancing down at herself. Not to check -- she knew, obviously, but she couldn't think of a time she'd ever had to... describe it.

For a moment, she'd considered physically trying to show him. For longer than she'd admit, she thought about how to actually pull that off -- floating herself, stacking chairs. But, the realization she'd basically just be shoving her flank into the microwave for him to ogle at was... Twilight hides a blush. Not happening.

"Weird. So what's your special talent? Or life path? To sparkle?" Barnon prods, confused.

"No, it's magic!" Twilight beams proudly.

Barnon hums. "Right. Magic." Honestly, he's more distracted by how cute her smile is. She's been looking way better recently. No bags under her eyes, Mane is fluffy and well kept. A far cry from how she'd been a week ago.

Speaking of a week ago, there was 1 Day left until he reached his contract. Barnon closes the pony-pin-up magazine, tossing it on the bed and groaning as he swings his feet over the side.
"You remember that Contract thing I showed you on the Holopad? Or do you only remember the wieners?" He teases.

Twilight huffs.
"I remember the Contract, Barnon. Mining for... Borunite on 'a' moon, right?"
The concept of casually interacting with multiple moons was a wild one to her, considering Princess Luna's recent return.

"Yeah -- But it's Borutine. I'll be pretty busy for like... probably a full week. You might see me in passing here or there, I'll leave the Macrowave door open, but I'm gonna be working, so I won't have much time to chat. I'll either be gone, or sleeping."

Twilight nods, understanding. She'd come to enjoy their... odd, teasing but playful interactions, with a good heap of curiosity underlying it all.
"You said I can watch? What do you mean?"

"Yeah, I'm gonna try to hook up some of my outside Cameras to a feed on the Holopad so you can see what I'm up to." He explains, waggling the Holopad around. "Since I'll be outside, mining deposits."

"I can use the Holopad again?!" Twilight squeaks, eyes bulging. He'd severely limited her access to it after her 'Oiled up' stunt, only looking things up with her, and heavily filtering her questions. Honestly, she had more questions about why it worked when it was on her side, but Barnon said as long as the doors are open, the Wi-Fi probably reaches. That gave her more questions, but he said he'd explain later.

"Don't get too excited. I've put a lot of Parental locks on this thing. You won't get very far besides the Camera feeds." Barnon warns. "No more Oiled. No more Up. No more naked dudes."

Well, other than the raunchy mirror selfies from that one night. He'd ordered Probruisian Whiskey and got so hammered he woke up locked in the bathroom capsule. That was from like... 3 months ago. He only remembered those now because of a certain Pony and their tendency to search where they shouldn't. He should get rid of those... eventually. For now, he's got locks on the Holopad and prep to do for work. He'd delete them after the Contract; he had prep to do.

Twilight, blushing shamefully, nods. She stuck by her reasonings, but she still got teased for it by Barnon, now and then. Barnon slips off his bed, bare feet on the cold metal floor, before rummaging on the countertop for a moment; the Holopad slides through their little portal, and Twilights eyes are wide as she handles (hoofles?) it again.

Wait... she felt like her obsession with this little glowing-pseudo-book was overwriting something.
"...Did you say you'd be outside?" She asks, unsure if she recalled his words right. "Like, in Space?"

"Yeah. Ship-Post's mining laser is meant for cracking open asteroids or heavy debris. I have to actually get out their with my hand-held laser to carve up the deposits. Pretty standard. Have to do it for junking jobs, too." He explains, stretching.

"You can just go to space? And visit the moon?" Twilight asks, incredulous. She didn't think he had any reason to lie, but... Space was up there. Way up there. With no air. Only Luna went to the Moon, and that was part of a whole... distant, binding spell thing seeped in Magic. Barnon kept saying his world had no magic.

"...Twilight, I'm in Space right now. I live in a Space-Ship. In Space. Actual, full space is like right outside that door." He explains, flatly, pointing towards the air lock.

Barnon watches as the Purple Pony's eyes nearly double in size, before it drops the Holopad and tries to jam its head through the Macrowave to see. It's kind of funny. Her horn keeps getting stuck, and she's just too big. Wasn't she all worried about inter-transitionary-dimensional-time-space-whatevery?

Barnon rubs his face, sighing. "Honestly, I have no idea how that never came up in conversation until now."