Collision Code

Act I: Unexpected Collisions

Chapter 11: The New Bodies Are (Not) Ready

It had been about two hours since John and Spike left with Rarity, and Corey was really starting to wonder if they would ever get to practical matters when it came to magic use. After all, just reading about it wouldn't exactly do any good if he couldn't do it, period. Yet, Twilight insisted on making sure he knew what kind of forces he'd be tampering with, a concern which he had to admit was necessary.

Being a Dragonball Z fan since he was about three years of age, Corey immediately equated the magic unicorns use to be similar in function to how Ki works in that series. They both had to be drawn from within in order to be used. The only difference was, as far as he knew, magic generally wasn't used for outright offensive purposes. Somehow, the former human was incredibly thankful to realize this. At the same time, he was a little disappointed once he took the whole picture: he would be able to use a force similar to that energy, yet wouldn't be able to shoot the Kamehameha like he'd dreamed of doing since he went through his obsessive phase. At least that meant that no unicorn against him could potentially use it like that.

"Are you done reading about it, yet?" Twilight asked, trotting up to him. He looked back to her, really wanting to call upon his inner smartass.

"I've..." He hesitated, almost immediately softening the tone of his voice. So much for that idea. "I've read the relevant sections about three times by now. Gotta tell you, the magic here sounds...well, simple to use."

"It sounds easy--" Twilight said, her voice somewhat stern, but her expression warm in nature.

"All the unicorns I've come into contact with...so basically you and Rarity...make it look easy." Corey cut in, "But I'm willing to say it wasn't always like that."

"I used to struggle with turning pages, but...well, I was just learning back then." Twilight responded with a smile. Her expression immediately hardened somewhat, and her voice became more like an instructor as she continued. "What is 'magic'?"

Corey's eye gave a few involuntary twitches as he realized exactly what the purple pony was doing.

What the hell, a pop quiz?! he thought to himself, trying to mask his anger and answer her question. If there was ever a time his short-term memory was needed to be reliable, this would be it.

"Magic is," he paused, trying to answer at least somewhat using what he'd read in the book. "A force that exists within every pony," he intentionally paused between the words, since Twilight knew the truth, "though only pegasi and unicorns have any ability to harness it. Pegasus ponies can walk on clouds and move them, among other things, a passive form of magic. Unicorns, on the other hand, can actively harness their magic to perform various spells." He looked to Twilight, whose look softened again, and she nodded and smiled. Her horn became wrapped in a magenta glow. A piece of parchment and a quill also floated into view. The quill scratched against the paper in a single fluid motion.

"Alright, next question," Twilight continued. Corey scowled in irritation. Was this going to be the case with everything he'd learn under her tutoring? He totally understood she was trying to teach the way she probably learned, but the two were definitely different types of learners. He managed B-pluses and A-minuses on most of his programming quizzes, yet he performed incredibly well in practical manners, so long as he knew what he was doing before he started the project. Usually, he did. "How do unicorns primarily use magic?"

As if he really needed to try to answer that. She was using magic in plain sight of him, probably unintentional on her part, but nevertheless he bit back the urge to be a smartass, even though the fact he was being quizzed on something that he likely wouldn't be able to use in Equestria and most definitely wouldn't be able to use once back on Earth was biting at his thin patience.

"Well, let's see..." Corey began, "Through focusing the magic to their horn, by drawing it out from within," He fought back the urge to compare it to Dragonball Z's Ki concept as he continued, "After that, they concentrate on what they want the harnessed force to do, a spell--like the levitation thing you're doing right now."

Another scribble, and a nod from Twilight.

"Last question, which spell is used by all unicorns that know how to use magic?" Twilight asked.

"...Well...I'd have to say the levitation spell. Or telekinetic spell. Whatever it's called." Corey responded, trying to remember if it had a given name in the book he'd read. "Because you ponies really don't have fingers to hold things with..." His eye twitched, recalling that he'd somehow lifted a fork without the necessary appendages anyway.

Twilight scribbled down a couple of notes, and put aside the writing utensils.

"Well, you were right the first time, it is called a 'levitation spell'," Twilight said, still smiling. "Alright, now...what to use so that you can practice it for real?" The purple pony immediately trotted off, leaving Corey somewhat wondering what would come next as he manually pushed the books aside. From one of them, he managed to gather that if he let his attention wander in the beginning stages of learning magic, things would get very ugly, very quick.

If I equate it to Ki...I should be able to bring it out... thought Corey. As far as basic functionality goes, they're similar, but that's about where it ends.

"Alright, here..." The purple pony returned, levitating a small basket. A closer look revealed that the basket was full of apples. When she set it down, the former human could barely help himself.

"I thought the student gave the apples to the teacher..." he remarked, and for a moment Twilight looked at him. He couldn't tell if she was laughing or not, but he assumed that she wasn't, given she just looked. "Yeah, that one was too easy..." He then considered what the alternate meaning to his joke was, and immediately shut that thought out of his mind with half the fibers of his being.

When Twilight gave a soft giggle, however, Corey felt his stomach twist in on itself for a moment. He wasn't entirely sure if she was doing it out of pity or if it was good enough to make her laugh like that, but the fact she laughed anyway, even if only slightly, was enough to have the green unicorn feeling slightly nervous.

"Well, the reason why I have these apples," Twilight continued, her voice steady as she could manage, "is so that you can practice using the levitation spell on them." Almost immediately, Corey pictured several things going wrong with that, but nodded anyway. Twilight's horn once again glowed the magenta color, as did one of the apples. The affected object was then set down in front of Corey.

"So...I just have to try and lift this up?" the former human asked. Twilight nodded, and with that, Corey began to focus on the given objective. He shut his eyes, trying to focus on his target.

In his mind's eye, he began to paint a picture. The magic inside him was a green glowing blob; green being his favorite color, of course. For a few extended seconds, nothing happened. Suddenly, he felt as though a weight were pushing down on him, crushing him as he began to harness the magic he'd found. It hurt to try and mentally shape it to the form he wanted, and his head began to throb in pain.

Twilight watched Corey for any signs that he was getting it. At first, he looked a little goofy, standing still with his eyes closed and his jaw clenched shut. He almost looked like he was having trouble going to the bathroom. The sweat that appeared all over his body really didn't help the image any either. However, his face contorted, as if he were in pain, and within a few moments, the studious mare realized why.

"I-is...is this...?" the green unicorn grumbled, though it seemed to be more to himself than anything. "...normal?" He gave a small grunt afterward, obviously out of pain. Twilight was just about to tell him to quit, when she heard a noise, similar to a spark. Confused, she looked around, and then her eyes settled on Corey's horn, which was faintly glowing, but the faint glow was erratically going on and off. She heard a noise similar to bumping next, which made her look to the apple. Like Corey's horn, it had an erratic glow around it. It was jittering around, as though spinning around like a top.

Is he...already moving it? thought Twilight as she watched the apple carefully. Her eyebrow raised slightly. She squinted her eyes, and almost immediately, she noticed something was wrong. Wait, is it getting bigger? Oh no...

She looked up to Corey, who was physically shaking. Clearly, he just wasn't mentally or physically prepared to handle magic yet. He was clearly in pain from the force he was trying to control. Twilight hesitated for a moment.

"Corey, stop!"

Too late. By the time Corey quit exerting himself, the apple at their feet had ballooned out to four times its normal size, and appeared to be twitching. The former human before her collapsed onto his chest, both of his forehooves on his face, breathing heavily. Twilight sympathetically looked upon him. Then she remembered a red detail, which was now twitching even worse now.

The purple mare flinched and turned her head away. There was a loud liquid sound as the engorged apple burst, and a slightly warmed fluid landed on Twilight's side. When she opened her eyes, she realized with a degree of horror that most of her room was covered in applesauce. Her eye twitched as she realized both herself and Corey were covered in it. She had it splattered on her right side, while his hooves, mane, and some of his shoulders were covered in the applesauce.

When she considered exactly how she became Princess Celestia's star pupil, however, she dismissed it. After all, she did make a baby Spike grow to the height of a fully grown dragon, and turn her parents into potted plants because she lost control of her magic. While Corey didn't quite use the same amount, he still overdid it.

"What...happened...?" Corey groaned, clearly still in pain. He struggled back to his feet, and opened one eye painfully.

"I think you overdid it," Twilight couldn't allow herself to get angry with him for splattering apple guts all over the place. He clearly didn't mean to do it, given that just improperly using magic left him this winded.

"Did...did it ever hurt you to cast any spells?" He was still breathing heavily. "My head feels like it did when I first got here...and when I was trying to cast it, it felt like I was becoming pushed down on by a gigantic weight. Like something was just sitting down on me and not bothering to get up. And I also got a headache, which still hurts now."

Twilight put her hoof up to her chin in thoughtfulness. She nodded once, then spoke again.

"That's normal, but I can't say I had that kind of trouble before with spells," said the purple unicorn in response. "Then again, it could be because underneath the abilities of a unicorn you now possess, you still have the human's lack of magic control in you, and it may actually be amplifying the symptoms of overuse."

"Like, like I just found it today and it was way too much for me to handle?"

"Something like that," Twilight nodded. "Never mind having never used it before, you never even had it to use until now. It obviously overwhelmed you." The male before her seemed to be calculating all this new information, and merely nodded in response.

"I think...I...I want to try again as soon as I'm over this headache..." Corey said, trying to get back to his feet, stumbling a little as he struggled.

"Easy there," The purple pony reached out to steady him. "We need to get everything cleaned up first..." She looked at him. "Including ourselves."

The former human before her took an instant to gaze at her through his brown eyes, then he averted his vision immediately, but not before Twilight caught a slight reddening of his cheeks. She felt a giggle work its way up from her belly, but with every force possible she held herself back from doing so.

The whisper from last night returned. Twilight's stomach fluttered just a little bit at its words, which were notably louder than the night before.

He's just so cute when he's flustered...

It had been about an hour since they'd arrived at the site where Rarity was doing her gem search, a small mountain range, just a little ways out of Ponyville. The first hour since leaving the library was spent getting ready, bags and carts being put together. Of course, Rarity wasn't the one pulling it, and Spike was deemed too small to actually pull the cart as of yet. So it was the former human that had to pull the supplies -- and Spike, on the cart. It was a role reversal he hoped wouldn't be a terribly common thing. On the upside, less ponies were giving him frightened looks as he made his way out of town.

Now, Rarity was marking spots where she found gems using her spell. The two dragons would move things aside and/or dig on the spot indicated. Spike seemed more than willing to use his tail as a tool for digging, while John had to use his physical strength, occasionally using his claws or tail to dig. Spike had recently stopped giving John death glares whenever possible, but the older dragon had a pretty good feeling that the younger one was bottling his resentment for the moment.

Leaving that aside, the former human was surprised that his dragon body was a great deal stronger and had more endurance than his human body. He was able to move aside relatively small boulders without even coming close to breaking a sweat, and having to pull the cart back to Ponyville didn't seem as bad, even as the jewels began to pile up and the bags began to fill.

"So..." John began, pushing aside another boulder with his shoulder, "how long exactly have you known each other?"

"What's it to you?" Though barely detectable now, there was a hint of acidity in Spike's voice.

"Hey, just trying to make conversation here," John responded, "You do know the truth about me and the others..."

"Oh, quite a while," responded Spike, the acidity seeming to have vanished from his voice again. "I usually do these things alone." There was that trace of jealousy again on the last word.

"Hey, I'm older than you physically, probably not the best thing to keep in town...but I don't really have a say in the matter. My friends actually...'belong' in town, if we're talking about appearance..." The older dragon continued. Spike was once again giving him a death glare, and was just about to say something when a bloodcurdling scream sounded through the mountain. The two dragons took an instant to gape at each other. It was the younger one who spoke up.

"Rarity's in trouble!" His voice took on a superheroic tone abruptly. For a single moment, John pictured an "S" appearing on Spike's chest in the style of Superman, but he quickly shrugged this off, realizing that the young dragon's sentiment was still valid. So the two dragons immediately dropped whatever they were doing and ran towards the direction of the scream.

The first thing John saw was an impressive high rise, maybe seventy or eighty feet tall. On his left, Spike was sprinting, his legs merely a blur as he ran towards the scream direction. Ahead, he could spot the snow white unicorn looking up blankly towards the top of the high rise. Spike was the first to reach Rarity.

"What--what is it?" He was breathing hard. Rarity continued to stare, and John could just make out the beginnings of a drool trail to form. However, the fashionista immediately noticed she was salivating, and quickly got control of herself, indicating with a hoof where she was looking.

"Th-there!" She breathed, completely unable to contain herself. John looked to where the hoof was pointing, and could see the top of a diamond from where he was standing. Spike apparently saw it too. Judging by Rarity's reaction, it was a jewel she wanted really bad.

"...It's pretty high up," Spike observed. "I'll go and get it for you--"

John immediately noticed his voice changed from eager to that bitter jealousy once again. As soon as he realized it, he looked to Rarity, who was now looking at him.

"The jewel is far too large for you to carry, Spike," said Rarity, looking to John. "After this, we should be able to go back to town..." She was clearly thinking of the things she could do with the jewel. "If you will, John, then I shall pull the cart myself."

Now this shocked John. The only time he'd known her to pull carts was in a researched episode for some pony-based crossover roleplays with Corey. And that seemed to be because she really didn't have a lot of choice. For a pony who wanted John to pull the cart, she sure didn't mind doing it now. She'd practically insisted.

And he was beginning to understand why she was doing what she had done. The frightened looks he'd received the day before were numerous, even after he'd been suited up. Yet, when they saw him pull Rarity's cart, the stares diminished from "frightened" to "disbelieving".

She was certainly being nice to him, but he knew she didn't have any real romantic feelings for him. At the very least, he didn't get the vibe, which he was thankful for.

"Okay, I'll do it..." John responded, trying his hardest to ignore Spike's death stare. He looked up the rock wall. It was going to take some climbing for him to get up there. He looked to his back, to see his wings were still very much budding, not even close to developed yet.

If only I had flight right now... John thought to himself as he began climbing the wall, using the claws on his hands and feet (or were they all really just legs now?) to get a very good grip on the wall as he began his direct ascent towards the gem.

Safely behind a large cloud, Leo chanced to peek over the fluffy white object and look down below at his fellow former human as he climbed the mountain. Rainbow was right next to him, mimicking his quick peek. It was strange, really. He'd expected Dash to have taken off by now, and yet the cyan pegasus actually stayed for the past two hours in his company. They'd spent this whole time more or less shadowing Rarity and her dragon..."servants", for lack of a better term, and ducking behind the clouds whenever they appeared to look in their direction.

Twice, whenever it seemed that John was about to look their way and catch them, Dash would quite roughly tackle Leo out of the way, and push him behind the shelter of a nearby cloud. The first time, he'd assumed it was because she didn't want to be seen. However, when she did it a second time, during the actual gem hunt, the former human began to wonder if the mare was doing it on purpose. The main reason: the second time it happened, she held him with one foreleg, and she did it awfully close. Of course she played it off like she usually did during those awkward moments, and did so masterfully, but Leo was getting a sneaking suspicion that was just Rainbow Dash subtly hitting on him.

The two continued to watch for several seconds, during which he finally reached the top of the mountain and seemed to be sizing up the diamond. It had to be about as big as John himself! No wonder Rarity sent him after it, much to Spike's displeasure. Leo felt something poke at his side, a hoof, so he turned to see Rainbow Dash, now wearing a somewhat bored look on her face, looking back at him. There was an awkward stareoff. Finally, the cyan mare next to him smiled.

"What do you say...we have some fun?" asked the pegasus. Almost immediately, Leo's mind took a dive into the gutter.

"...Uh..." He tried his hardest to shut out the thoughts, really wishing Rainbow would have worded that statement better.

"No, I don't mean like that," responded the cyan pegasus. A mixture of relief and confusion welled up in Leo's heart. John had managed to secure the diamond, and seemed somewhat unsure of how he should proceed downward. Finally, he seemed to figure out a way. He kept the diamond carefully balanced between his chest and the rock wall, and very slowly began working his way down, using his tail to keep himself balanced.

What's with the innuendo? I thought this was a kid's show...

"Then what do you mean?" Leo asked, immediately wondering what Dash meant in mind. Dash continued to watch John as he continued to climb down, a very slow pace compared to the speed of his ascent. As soon as his head vanished over the rocky cliffside, the cyan pegasus beckoned him with a jerk of her head. The two pegasi covertly made their way to the cliff that John just climbed down from.

"Let's give him a little scare..." Dash finally replied, tapping her hooves on the surface of the rock. At this point, Leo realized exactly how strong dragons could be. A close look at the cliffside revealed that the effort it took for John to get some handholds had left some very notable cracks in the cliff, and thus loosened some small rocks. Rainbow was merely expediting the process. A small shower of pebbles began to rain down to where John was standing.

"I don't know about this..." voiced the former human, to which Dash fixed him with a playful look.

"C'mon, he's a dragon," she justified, resuming the ground pounding. "He can take it..."

Leo wasn't utterly convinced of this. Sure, John had a dragon body, but he also had a human's heart and common sense.

John continued his descent, trying his hardest not to bobble the large diamond out of his grasp. He wasn't entirely sure if jewels in this world were more fragile than any of the jewels back home. However, the former human knew that he didn't want to test that theory, and thus alternated carrying arms during his descent. Something small and hard bounced off his head, causing him to stop and look around in confusion.

"...I guess I must be wearing down the rocks...I am climbing back down the way I came up..." John didn't think too much of it, and kept descending. Another three feet down, two more pebbles began bouncing off his head, causing him to stop again. John glanced down, grateful that he wasn't afraid of heights. He judged he was only about halfway down now, and didn't want to chance jumping down. Besides, the pebbles didn't hurt. However, they were irritating him all the same.

He noticed that the irritation he felt was somewhat larger than he would normally feel. Shrugging this off, John continued climbing down, when a rain of pebbles began raining down on his head. The pellets of rock began bouncing off his head, and he grunted in irritation as he tried to descend. His irritation was growing at an expedient rate. John was becoming aware he was gripping the rock a little too hard, and the hold he'd created with his claws suddenly became a small crater in the rock wall, as it crumbled to dust and debris.

How strong is this body?! the former human thought to himself as he bobbled the diamond slightly before digging back in. Glaring back up to the place where he'd started his descent, he could have sworn he heard something. Deciding to figure that out as soon as he had the diamond safely on solid ground, John began to descend just a little faster. The pebbles stopped raining down, excluding the small debris from where he'd crushed the rock in.

"You're almost there now," Rarity's voice sounded off as he neared the ground. He took a quick look back, and judged he couldn't have been twenty feet away from solid footing. John began to climb back down faster, not even bothering to comment that Spike wasn't giving any encouragement. In fact, he could almost hear him faintly snickering to himself about the pebbles. However, he couldn't have been the one causing the pebbles to fall.

A loud crack suddenly sounded, and John chanced to look up. What he saw momentarily dulled his reflexes. A rock, probably about twice the size of his hand, was coming straight at him. By the time he realized he should move, the rock caught him in the chest, knocking the wind out of him for a few seconds. His arm and legs came free from the rock they were entangled in, and all that was left was his tail. He dug in it in as far as he could, and slid his way down the rock the rest of the way, holding the large jewel in both of his arms. His back hit the rock, and all he felt was the impact, but only some of the expected pain from said impact. The same could be said for his headfirst landing when the sliding ceased.

Rarity and Spike both ran up to him, the former looking concerned, and the latter looking only barely amused. The latter did know the truth, and probably was at least somewhat concerned for John's safety underneath the jealousy on the surface. Either that, or he was trying to murder him.

"...Someone was throwing rocks at me..." John mumbled, as he realized what was happening. The irritation cut through his chest like a hot iron, and he was aware his chest was filling with fire. He grit his teeth. He would have been angered like this no matter what, but he suddenly felt like he was about to explode in rage. "T-take the...diamond...!"

He held out the diamond, which Rarity began to inspect, taking it with some effort into a telekinetic hold. Spike, on the other hand, didn't appear to be moving. John threw his fist into the wall, and gave a sharp grunt of both shock and pain as the appendage sheared through the rock. It took a while, but he wrenched it out.

Before he could collect himself, a stream of fire issued into the air as he roared aloud.

"If throwing rocks down at me is your idea of a joke, it's not funny! Show yourself!"

John's voice, angered beyond all reason, echoed throughout the mountain range. Frightened birds flew away, chirping. And yet, Rainbow was almost beside herself, laughing it up. Leo felt the urge to join her, but internally, he knew he was screwed because of the cyan pegasus's idea of a joke.

"...I think we'd better...get out of here..." said Leo, trying to avoid John's wrath. "We've really made him mad..."

"Aw, c'mon, what are you worried about?" Dash asked, immediately pushing herself back on her four feet and then hovering a little. With that, the cyan mare bravely flew over the rock rise. Leo swallowed hard.

"...dang it..." He mumbled, following her. They came down, and were met with glares from John and Rarity, and a slight look from Spike. It was a surprise to Leo that Spike would have any concern for John after the unintentional cockblocking he'd given the younger dragon, but he didn't voice his concerns.

"L-Leo?!" John stuttered, his look of anger momentarily fading into confusion, then returning with twice the rage. He was trying to calm himself down, and small, erratic bursts of black smoke were coming out as he struggled to maintain control. Leo could tell one of two things was going on: either the former human before him wasn't used to feeling this angry, or the new body wasn't the most agreeable when it came to his rage.

"Calm down, John," Spike had apparently noticed this anger, and apparently didn't know what to make of it. Leo wondered if the younger dragon was thinking about what he would be like when he was older, if John's anger was making him act this harshly. John exhaled slowly, nothing more than gentle white smoke by this point.

"I'll be fine. Now, if you'll excuse me, I need to have a word with Leo," John said, with as much calmness as he possibly could. The blue-and-black dragon walked forth, passing Leo. Just as Leo turned to regard the direction that John was going, he felt a dragon's hand clamp down around his tail, and start pulling. The silver pegasus's face contorted in absolute pain as John began physically pulling him along, while Spike, confused, amused, and concerned, could only look on.

"Rainbow Dash, just what were you thinking?!" Rarity scolded as Leo began leaving earshot. "You could have caused the diamond to fracture--" John growled at this, and mumbled incoherently to himself.

"Oh, can't you take a joke?!" Rainbow called out. "I was only joking..."

By this point, Leo and John were safely out of sight and earshot, on the right of the rock cliff. John threw Leo with some force, but thankfully for the latter, he was able to somewhat recover from this by flapping his wings hard enough to offer some resistance against the force. The former human, now a dragon, was giving him a death glare.

"Is this your idea of a joke, Leo?" asked John, sounding as though he were resisting every effort to just beat the stuffing out of him.

"I wasn't...throwing any of the rocks..." Leo was still feeling a little bit of pain from the somewhat justified tail grab.

"Well then, you should have done something to stop her! I could have gotten hurt there!" John snarled, and more flame shot out of his mouth. The silver colt found himself feeling somewhat cornered now, and gulped.

"...You probably wouldn't have gotten hurt. Remember, Spike said dragons are more durable than ponies, and definitely more than humans. He admitted to being used as a pincushion."

"Not a landing pad!" John was desperately trying to prevent himself from completely becoming consumed in rage. He breathed out. "Listen, Leo, I'm gonna stay up here and blow off some steam. Tell Rarity and Spike I should be able to find my way back to town. You go do whatever, just don't hurt someone else!"

"Will do," Leo said, "No buscarás..." he added in Spanish.

"Verás!" growled John in response, disappearing around the corner, adding "Enjoy the rainbow" as he did so. The dull sound of rocks being punched could be heard around the corner, and Noel, immensely grateful that he hadn't just gotten the crap kicked out of him by a pissed-off dragon/human, made his way back around the corner, the base of his tail still hurting like hell.

"Where did John go?" asked Spike upon seeing him.

"He'll find his way back to town on his own," parroted Leo, resisting the urge to add "though I don't think he'll find his way back". "He wants the two of you to go on ahead...where'd the diamond...?"

"It's already on the cart," answered Rarity, with just a touch of disappointment in her features. "Really, you two should be more careful..." She now appeared to be studying the two pegasi, and when Leo cast a quick glance to Dash, he could tell she had a similar impression of Rarity's gaze. "Hmmm...but I wonder if that's...oh, never mind. I'll be seeing you two later. Let's go home, Spike."

Spike seemed a little too jubliant that John wasn't going to be accompanying the two on the walk back, to which Dash and Leo both shared a small giggle. The small dragon didn't seem to notice, and so Rarity pulled the cart with the rather large diamond in it, with Spike riding on her back. Dash flew in front of him a short time after they were out of earshot.

"Did you see it?" she asked, obviously amused. Leo decided to play dumb, having a pretty good feeling what Rainbow Dash was talking about.

"See John's fury? Yeah..." Leo responded, pretty much deciding to be just a little bit of a smartass in his dealings.

"No, not him, I mean Spike..."

The silver colt couldn't resist cracking somewhat of a smile as he giggled it off.

"Yeah, I noticed...if he's trying to hide a crush, he isn't very good at it..." The former human then cleared his throat with a cough, and asked Dash: "So now what?"

The cyan mare put her hoof up to her chin in consideration, obviously giving it some thought.

Rainbow Dash didn't have a whole lot else planned today. She wasn't sure if she wanted to do another spying game with Leo just yet, and he didn't seem like as much of a prankster as she thought he was. On the other hand, maybe he was honestly afraid his friend would get really mad, and boy was he mad when he saw who was responsible. Whatever the case, the athletic pony decided to push aside that matter for now. The silver colt before her was certainly an interesting one, to say the least.

A small part of her wanted to spend all day with him, but that part swelled to a dangerous level when Rainbow considered that the male before her hadn't yet seen her in action. It was this few seconds' consideration that lead to her question.

"Do you wanna help me..." she hesitated. Internally, she nodded. After all, if given the opportunity, she'd show off to her friends, but also anypony that would give her a watch. "...practice my stunts?"

Leo seemed a little confused. His red eyes sparkled, however, so obviously he was considering it.

"Sounds good to me. Not like I've got anything planned."

The two pegasi quickly departed the site with the massive diamond, leaving behind more crunching sounds. Dash had a pretty good feeling about what that noise was. Leo looked sort of worried.

"I really hope he isn't going to burn down half the forest..." the silver pegasus cringed, looking back to the source of the noise. "Not that that's happened before..."

"Sure, I believe you," said the cyan mare playfully, giving Leo a small nudge. The silver colt in question muttered something incoherently as he almost lost balance in mid-air. "C'mon, you can't still be having trouble flying, can you?"

"Maybe...?" Leo said in response. Dash internally shrugged, and smirked. These newcomers were certainly strange, but there was no way they could be bad. They'd be bad at doing it.

Thankfully, the applesauce removal process wasn't as painfully awkward as Corey thought it was going to be. Even though Twilight still had to be the one to wipe it off, he wasn't nearly as embarrassed as the night before. Probably because he was grateful to have the sauce off his front side. After Twilight proceeded to clean herself off, they then set to work mopping up Twilight's room. While Twilight levitated a washcloth to clean off the soiled areas, Corey awkwardly pushed one along the floor and the wall using his forehooves. It was really awkward and a little painful for him to do it in this way because he had to be consistently bent over with his rear end high in the air while pushing it along the floor, but he had to swallow his pain and deal with it.

It was his mess, after all, and an overwhelming responsibility dictated he help out any way he could. As he shuffled along, becoming dully aware his back was starting to cramp, he felt the need to say something. But he couldn't think of what to say.

"You know," Twilight said, breaking the silence, cleaning off another one of the bookshelves, "I'm actually surprised that you were able to use magic at all, aren't you?"

"Well, misuse it, but yeah," Corey responded, resisting the urge to grunt at the pain he was really starting to get in his body now. "I am."

"Come on," Now the purple pony was looking right at him as she continued to speak, "You can't expect to get it right the first time! I had to learn how to control it too...that's...sort of why I became Princess Celestia's student."

Now that one was new. Well, maybe not "new" when he considered that he'd only watched five episodes, but he didn't know the origin stories.

"Oh..." Corey responded, trying to clean things up. "Well, uh..." And he ran out of things to say, so he threw something together, using his curiosity to his advantage. "How'd that one go?"

Twilight halted for a moment, and the former human honestly wondered if he'd taken it too far. The mare turned to him with a somewhat hesitant smile.

"It's sort of a long story..."

As the clean-up efforts continued, Twilight described how her lack of magic control ironically lead her to her current position under the princess. She summarized the preceding tests and tasks she'd done, learning the levitation spell which Corey had just attempted. As she continued the story, Corey decided to break from the floor cleanup, seeing as how he was almost done with it now. In fact, the cleanup was nearly done, save for maybe a few odd spots here and there. The soiled bedding was in the wash (Corey didn't understand how the Hell Equestria had appliances and not computers) and would probably take another hour to get done.

He sat attentively, actually able to act surprised at her story without having to bite back his inner sarcasm from coming out. He had only read about it on the wiki, and even then, it was only a minor glance. And once again, her recap of the events that lead to that, as well as her ultimate fate in that, was more interesting coming from her than from the Internet. Probably even more so than if he had watched the show, because right now, he was not watching it. He was living it.

"So that's the whole story," Twilight finished. "Actually, that's also how I got my cutie mark too..."

Corey immediately took advantage, seeing as how he'd forgotten to ask. Then again, she'd probably pass it off as him being unable to phrase his question effectively, or something like that.

"...Is that what the blender...?" Corey began, the awkward feeling at having to look towards his rear end aiding his camouflage somewhat. "That's what it's called?"

"Yes. It represents a pony's special talent," Twilight responded. "Humans don't have those, do they?"

"Well, no. Some humans do have their bodies marked on, but it isn't on our rear ends, for one thing..." Realizing where he was probably going to go with this, the green unicorn fumbled about for words. "Well, not entirely true either, some do get tattoos there, but the process is very painful. I assume the actual appearance of a cutie mark is painless?"

The purple pony nodded, fixing him with quite a puzzled look. For a split second, Corey marveled at how she kept her magic focused on the task she'd set out to do, as even while she was looking at him, the washcloth absently continued cleaning the walls.

"Yeah, well, tattoos, in most cases, do hold special meaning to humans, but...well, I don't have one on my human body, so..." Then the former human mulled things over, since he knew she was going to ask what his "talent" was.

Twilight was once again at a loss. He'd just explained a little bit more of human cultures. Indeed, the concept of tattoos intrigued her, and from the sounds of it, Corey knew a little bit of what he was talking about. But what did his cutie mark mean? She had to ask. The cleanup was nearly done save for the bedding, so the purple mare didn't see the harm in asking.

"So, then...does your special talent have to do with cooking?" asked Twilight.

"Believe me, I'm no Iron Chef," The instant he responded with those last two words, he appeared to go wall-eyed like a certain mail carrier pegasus, and hung his head and sighed. "Never mind. I don't blend foods. I blend ideas. I'm actually a little bit of a writer more than a reader, but that's not to say I don't like reading."

"A...writer, huh?" Twilight asked. She knew he liked reading, but at the same time, she was curious. "What do you write about?"

"Well..." He fumbled again, as though hesitating. "I take stories I read about, the continuities." He stood on up his four legs. "I take those universes the books take place in, cross them over, and see what comes of it, most of the time. Either that or poetry, but mainly the first thing."

Twilight's eye twitched. That mindless blending was his special talent? If so, he had to be pretty good at it. Even though she was a little taken aback at the fact he wasn't as much of a reader as he indicated, she disregarded it. Chances were, he was really nervous and probably didn't think he'd be writing anytime soon.

"Sounds...interesting. A little," Oh, who was she kidding? "Okay, a lot, on the weird side...I mean, I know you probably know what you're doing when you do it..."

"It's a delicate art," said Corey in response. "I don't expect others to follow me. If they do, good for them."

Twilight sighed somewhat. "I guess I can live with that." Corey seemed a little relieved to hear this answer.

The cleanup went on for another few minutes. During this, Twilight decided to walk to the other side of the room. Her hooves trotted one-by-one. Corey and her were walking toward each other. Suddenly, one of her back hooves lost traction and she momentarily lost balance, stumbling forward for a few steps. She bumped into Corey, who vibrated a little bit from the impact, at least, that's what she assumed. She reached out with one of her forelegs to steady herself on him, inadvertently pulling him closer in the process. Twilight realized, as she looked down, that one of Corey's forelegs wasn't on the ground, rather, it was mimicking her foreleg movement.

It took a few moments for them to realize what had happened in that instant, and though Twilight willed herself to release Corey, she couldn't exactly command her leg to stand on the ground again. They remained entangled in this embrace for a few seconds longer, then awkwardly pulled away.

"I-I...uh, saw you slip there...my fault. I-I was..." Corey's face was a bright boiling red. "I found your story interesting, so I stopped wiping the floor."

She looked into his eyes, though her own embarrassment at the situation was preventing her from doing so for a few moments. The thoughts from last night resurfaced, as well as the fact she'd fallen asleep while nuzzling him. Then, she recalled what she wanted to be to him. A friend, one that could guide him appropriately. With a mental nod, she turned to Corey.

"D-don't worry about it." The blush on her cheeks refused to go away for the moment. "So, um, I think we still have cleaning to do. Uh...thanks for helping me regain my footing..."

Again, Twilight became aware her heart rate was a little faster than normal, and her face was a little warm, but she suppressed it.

I know I can't focus on these...feelings right now. I've got some other things to do...

Corey wasn't sure how to feel. He'd just accidentally hugged a pony, in good nature, of course. And, though he was terribly embarrassed to have been so close to her in that manner, he realized his heart was pumping a little faster once again, just as it had last night. The former human also felt somewhat responsible for her loss of footing that lead to it, but she didn't seem to mind.

Letting out a small sigh, and trying to keep himself calm, the green unicorn nodded.

"Y-you're welcome," he said in an embarrassed voice, taking his rag and resuming the cleaning process. It was a lot more awkward in the room as the spots of exploded apple became less and less prevalent, until they were nothing more than a memory of a terribly botched "first spell" experience.

The past three hours had been somewhat painful and interesting for Ivan. For one thing, he discovered that the ponies actually had eggs to farm for too. He also discovered that ponies could only hold things in their hooves when it was convenient. Case in point: him able to perfectly hold an egg on his fingerless hoof when by all accounts he should have fumbled it to the ground. The pain came from the fact that aside from gathering the eggs, he'd had to work himself running all over the farm. Already, he desired a nap. He also wanted something to eat, too, considering that his internal clock was telling him it was time for lunch.

Thankfully, the work had ended not too long ago, allowing the able-bodied farmers and their unwilling farmhand to break for that meal. Unsurprisingly, the Apples were having something apple-based for their lunch, which hadn't quite worn down Ivan's nerves quite yet. However, if he kept up this fruit-based diet, he'd very quickly get sick of it. Then again, the Apples proved that there was more than one way to fix an apple-based meal.

Today's lunch, surprisingly, was roasted apples. Ivan hadn't even heard of that use until today, but he had to say, it was something he could see himself eating for quite a while. It was a good thing he was in his human body, too, for the taste of the roasted apples hinted that honey was what they were roasted in. After this meal, he sort of sat around, waiting for the other workers to finish their lunch. Of course, his mind was on everything but the farm work.

For one thing, he knew, deep down, he was going to get to meet royalty, and he wasn't sure if it was a good thing or a bad thing. Obviously, they'd have to have talked to the sun princess sooner or later, but he didn't expect it to be so soon. Then again, said monarch probably isn't like the stereotypical princess, and not just because she could probably incinerate a criminal offender on the spot if she so chose, but because of what he'd seen of her mannerisms.

His dream, which didn't haunt him last night, was still bugging him. What was that dark octopus in his dream, and why did it seem so familiar? Less importantly, how were he and his friends "clicking" with ponies enough to warrant dating them. Ivan was still assuming his dream was accurate to the future, given he never dreamt like that very often. Maybe it was the fact he felt like he was in some sort of fanfiction...

Ivan didn't really ask for a second day of farm work, though he knew he'd have to help until something else could be worked out. Though when he applied himself to something, good results usually followed, he was about as energetic as a sloth most days, and yard work back home drained him. So this farm work was easily twice as demanding as that. But he really didn't want to make the transition from pony to ass quite yet, so he kept his tongue in check and his mind focused on the work. The gathering of eggs wasn't that demanding, but milking a cow in a non-technological world as a pony was an entirely different story. He was lucky Apple Bloom was nearby to calm the cow down when he did something wrong.

His introspection was cut short, however, when he heard a pony trotting up behind him. He turned to see Applejack, who was smiling to him.

"Y'know, I reckon you should take it easy today. Don't want ya warn out if you're needed over at the library for whatever reason," Applejack said. Ivan sighed. John really had to be vague on that important issue, didn't he?

"Actually," Ivan turned completely to face the orange earth pony, "this might be hard to believe, but..." He suddenly realized how hard it would be to describe the situation without completely tipping Applejack off about his true heritage. "...well, that thing at the library John mentioned last night. It's...actually a meeting with Princess Celestia." When Applejack furiously scanned him, quite obviously trying to determine if what he was saying was in any way false, Ivan quipped: "I'm just as surprised as you are."

That wasn't a lie.

The orange mare's face remained suspended in the "lie detector crunch" for a few more moments, then the farmer sighed, clearly wondering exactly what was going on. Strangely, she wasn't questioning him. Surely Equestrians couldn't be that tolerant of strange shit happening. The orange farmer seemed to be mumbling to herself an obvious exclamation, but she quickly fixed her gaze back on him, the look she was giving him soft in nature.

"My stars, Ivan, you definitely shouldn't work yourself to the bone today! Don't want ya fallin' asleep on Princess Celestia!" There was an edge to the pony's words that Ivan couldn't quite pick up on, but he assumed she was internally questioning things. "You'd best get back to town, relax a while..."

Ivan really didn't want to look like a gigantic asshole right now, so he nodded and respectfully trotted off with a small "thank you".

Applejack was now completely lost. Everything Ivan just said, she could tell he wasn't lying about, but it felt like there was something more. Part of her wanted to demand to know what was going on, and demand it now. The other part feared that the "something more", should it exist, would have likely just made things unspeakably complicated. Her suspiscions about the new ponies and dragon in town with strange names were magnified. Why would they need to meet the Princess so soon? Surely if they were other students of Princess Celestia, they'd have met them by now.

She continued to stare in Ivan's direction as he receded from view. Again, the question that had been nagging her since yesterday returned.

"What's goin' on here?" she wondered aloud to herself. "Things just ain't addin' up 'bout them. They ain't lyin' 'bout things, but there's somethin' more underneath. My gut's tellin' me that while they ain't bad, I can't let them out of sight either..."

With a sigh, the farmer pony resigned to the fact that whatever was going on was going to get stranger eventually, and when it did, things would make a lot more sense then. Applejack went back to the farm, where Big Mac was waiting, a neutral expression on his face.

"Where's he off to?" he asked. Applejack stopped, and looked to her brother.

"...The truth's somethin' strange, I'll say that much..."

The cleanup had been completed. Except for the bedding, of course, but other than that, everything in Twilight's room looked completely clean. It was really impressive how fast Corey could adapt to an awkward cleaning situation when an awkward moment took place. After Twilight fell into him, in an attempt to push the incident aside, he found himself pushing the rag along a lot faster, and even dragged it wherever else he could reach.

However, after another thirty minutes, every last spot of applesauce had been mopped up, and to prevent such a messy situation from happening again, both of the unicorns took the practice outside. The basket of apples was off to the side, and a second apple was now in front of Corey. It was a yellow color as opposed to red. It set down on the library's "lawn", and he stared at it.

"Are you sure you want to try again?" Twilight asked, snapping him out of his staredown with the fruit. "I mean, you were winded when you overdid it earlier..."

Corey scowled somewhat, still just a little ashamed of that little failure. He breathed in, then out, trying to steady himself.

"I want to try again. I feel like I need to learn if I want to be any help," responded the former human, closing his eyes in concentration, and trying his hardest to shut out the moment from earlier. He once again saw the glowing green energy in his mind's eye, and rather than reach for it greedily, he decided to try and harness just a little bit.

The wave of magic energy hit him like a train, but this time, he was prepared for the oncoming pressure, and struggled to keep himself from caving in under the pressure. He managed to seperate a chunk of the green glow from the rest of it, and tried to shape it in the form of a hand. He had felt the cradle of the levitation spell, and it felt more like a hand than anything else. It could have easily been something different, but given that he was interpreting magic as a functional equivalent of Ki from Dragonball Z, he really didn't see the harm.

He opened his eyes halfway so he could see his target, and mentally reached out with the so called "magic hand".

Twilight watched, silently amazed, as Corey's horn sparked to life again. The green glow from before was a little brighter than before, and actually covered the apple this time. She kept a careful eye on the apple, keeping a barrier spell at the ready just in case he put too much in it again. The green unicorn's pudgy body vibrated, and the purple mare quickly cast a look to the apple. It was vibrating, but with some amazement she discovered that it wasn't swelling like before. It too, was vibrating along, and slowly, but surely, lifting into the air, still teetering like it was on the edge of a nasty fall. The purple pony walked along to the other side of Corey, still keeping one eye on the apple.

Corey closed his eyes again, seeing that he appeared to have it working. His breathing was haggard now, and from the way his face twitched, she assumed he was probably experiencing the headaches again. With another cautious glance, she turned back to the apple. It was trembling as well, wreathed in the green glow. However, small imprints, also glowing green, began to appear on the apple.

The former human to her side exhaled abruptly, and the next thing Twilight knew, the perfectly whole yellow apple was no more than a dry rind, appearing to have been crushed underfoot or something. Another look to the human revealed that once again, he was breathing heavily, lightly sweating, and pressing both his forehooves to his forehead.

"I lost control again...!" he grunted, opening his eyes to see the rind. One of his eyes twitched. "Of course, my luck dictates that it doesn't explode this time, but implode!"

Twilight couldn't contain a soft giggle at this reaction.

"Your luck," she began, helping him back to his four feet once again, "has..." She hesitated. It was true, he was lucky enough to have made that much progress in his magic control in that short time. Perhaps too lucky. But she also didn't know what he was doing differently, since on the surface he appeared to have done the exact same thing as before. "Only a little to do with it. You still managed to make it float for a few seconds..."

"I tried...visualizing shaping the magic into a hand and then trying to grasp the apple in it," he said. "When I lost control, the hand gripped with too much power and crunched it."

Twilight wasn't too surprised by his mental image, given he was used to having hands and not magic. He looked a little fatigued from the exertion this time, just as he had before. She touched her hoof to his shoulder and smiled at him. As soon as he turned to look at her, his head still angled to the ground, she began to speak.

"For someone that shouldn't have a grip on magic to begin with, you're doing great!"

Corey shut his eyes, flinched, blushed, and looked away. A small giggle at his reaction occurred, and Twilight began to realize she was able to help herself less and less. Before she could scold herself for trying to sort out these feelings now, a low rumble sounded off, and it was coming from right next to her.

She didn't have to be a smart pony to figure out why he was making that noise. As if contagious, her own stomach rumbled in response. It was about lunchtime now. Twilight considered her options now. After some consideration, she came to a decision.

It's almost like she's trying to see me flustered...and it's working! thought Corey in response. He was mostly confused that he was actually developing an attachment this soon to Twilight, let alone an attachment that was pretty much in a territory he was so often acquainted with: a crush. While he tried to convince himself that the purple pony on his right was trying to be nice, he failed to notice she was thinking about something.

"Corey," she began, cutting into his introspection, "how about we go get something from town? My treat..."

At this, the former human's thought process diverged. It wasn't that he wasn't hungry, because the feeling of hunger hurt like a bitch as a pony. Rather, it was because he knew ponies were going to get the wrong idea. And he was thinking of a certain pair of pegasi would undoubtedly see them before that awkward bit was over. Clearly, he wasn't the only one that never really dated before. However, while a little slow socially, Corey wasn't completely dim.

Yet, he couldn't turn her down either. He knew he'd have to get used to pony food as well. He couldn't live off apples, bread, and confections forever. His other reason for hesitating: they'd only known each other a full day at most.

"Sounds good to me," Corey said with a shrug. However, he forgot that he wasn't bipedal. As soon as he was aware of this, he comically fell backwards on his back. "Agh!"

The embarrassment he felt at this fact was even worse than when he'd gotten his horn stuck in front of Applejack. He rolled casually to his feet, laughing it off.

"I guess I have to remember I'm not built for my usual brand of body language anymore..."

Ivan didn't get lost when he made his way to the library. The walk there wasn't even that long either, now that he thought about it. The upside of being an earth pony: he didn't have to worry about using his special powers. Aside from maybe an occasional stumble, he could act completely normal without having any suspicion drawn to him, so he could find out some things about the town.

One: it was certainly a lot bigger than he realized. Two: the ponies within were in some respects like humans; social creatures, and indeed, he'd caught a couple of them sitting down as though they were human rather than pony. Three: apparently the fan-named background ponies were "offically" named so. Granted, he'd only met the alleged homosexual mares Lyra and Bon-Bon, but still, it stuck with him.

However, Ivan realized he was wasting time, and he was also really starting to wonder what Corey was up to over at the library. A gigantic tree was really hard to miss, and indeed, once he buckled down and actually managed to walk to the place in question (once he refreshed his memory on the tour of the town, of course), it only took him about five minutes to find his way.

As he began making his way to the library, he could have sworn he heard a pony hopping along. There were only two ponies that could have been doing that, one of which because he couldn't fly well. Instinctively, he turned his head to see Pinkie Pie, bounding along toward the library. She turned, apparently sensing him looking, and immediately halted in mid-air.

"Oh!" She gasped, apparently having been along the way to the library. "Hi there! I really should have asked your name, but you looked really tired and I had things I had to do!"

Like Ivan didn't know what those things were. She was the party planner, and probably throwing a surprise party for them.

Actually, now that he thought about it, he found it odd that the party hadn't happened yet. Surely she'd have had it done by now.

"I'm Ivan," answered the former human, "And you're...?"

"I'm Pinkie Pie, the party planner of Ponyville!" She resumed skipping along, this time keeping pace with him. "So why are you here? Did you come to see the library too?"

"No, I'm just here because my friends are," That wasn't a lie on Ivan's part. He was here because of his friends, and they were here with him. His normally calm and neutral countenance began to crack the longer he and Pinkie began to talk--well, the pink earth pony merely chattered on about her own friends, and he nodded. Her energy was really rubbing off on him now. However, as they reached the door, the pink party pony gave a gasp and dashed for it.

"There's a note!" She squealed, clearly excited, yet Ivan could just pick up on a hint of disappointment. As she retrieved the note from the door, the brown earth pony caught sight of something. It was a golden apple, looking as though it'd been squeezed dry in human hands.

What happened here? Though the former human was shocked, he didn't show it. It was just an apple rind, after all, and could have easily been crushed by any single pony. Deciding to find out the cause of Pinkie's curiosity, the former human made his way over to the pony, whose cyan eyes betrayed the slightest hint of shock. He looked down, and realized with mild amusement she was holding the note in her mouth for him to read.

"'Eed ith!" she happily slurred between her closed lips. Ivan stifled a small laugh at her hyperactivity, and began reading.

Spike, John:

Corey and I have gone out to lunch. We'll be back in a little bit.

--Twilight

Ivan read the note, and read it again. When he read it a second time, the implications of the phrase "out to lunch" caught him completely by surprise. His eyes widened. He and Pinkie looked at each other, completely unsure of what to say.

But they were both thinking approximately the same thing.

Wow, Corey, nice priorities, thought Ivan sarcastically, Getting your date on, are you?

"I didn't think Twilight would date somepony so new in town!" the party pony squealed excitedly, having somehow reattached the note during the moment in which Ivan had his eyes closed in thought. "Did you expect your friend to date somepony he's barely met?"

The brown earth pony could barely contain his comments this time.

"Keh, Corey on a date? This I gotta see..."

"Okay, let's go!"

"Wait, wha--?" Ivan was at a loss. Didn't she know he was only kidding?

"C'mon!" she squealed again, taking his forehoof in her puffy tail and skipping along, dragging Ivan along with him, erasing any doubt that Pinkie was only kidding about going to find them. Instantly, a single thought ran through the brown earth pony's mind.

Hyperactive to a fault, he thought, trying his hardest to wipe the goofy smile off his face even as he was being dragged along. He wasn't completely sure why he was smiling, but shrugged it off. All he knew was that, while he still felt a little down on his luck about being stuck in this world, Pinkie's cheerful spirit was slowly dousing that. Good God is Corey gonna kill me when we cut in...

Yeah, two chapters today, mostly because this one's huge in length and I wanted to get it out there since formatting it would be a pain to do early on in the morning. Any glitches with this, you let me know.