To Change the World

“ENOUGH!!! EVERYPONY!!! STOP TALKING!!!”

While a far cry in terms of volume and commandeering prowess, in comparison to Twilight’s mentors, the ol’ reliable Royal Canterlot Voice was ear-shattering enough to enact the alicorn princess' will and command undivided attention, at the cost of her friends’ ringing ears.

Everypony and dragon flinched as if they’d become electrified. A hint of fear revealed itself as they hunched back from the flaming, panting alicorn. Twilight’s boom had been enough to kick back Alexander from the brink of the pit of desperation he’d been precariously hovering over, as well as literally sinking him into the cushions. The multiple voices assaulting him went dead quiet, as did the rest of the library, all falling into an eerie silence, only broken by the crockery and cutlery from the untouched treats resonating under the strength of the alicorn’s shout.

‘... Ho-o-oly SHIT! That was fucking loud! Fuck!!’

That day, Alexander bore witness to an occurrence never before initiated by Twilight. Since her ascension, never had she needed to use the Royal Canterlot Voice, much less raise her voice to her friends in such fashion at all.

Twilight panted with her open muzzle as if finishing a triathlon with her hind legs bound together. Wide, unsettled eyes held no answers, only despair and a sense of overwhelming pressure. Her mane was disheveled, and the human could swear a few wisps of smoke slithered up from the edges of her mane, but it could’ve been his foggy glasses playing tricks on him.

All in all, Alexander felt the smallest pang of sympathy for the mare, a blindsiding sentiment carving a crack in his hard, ‘I don’t give a fuck’ attitude towards the ponies. He recognized the symptoms the mare was suffering from, making his lips crook in a grimace.

Don’t get him wrong. Alexander remained no less pissed with the ponies and his utter bullshit streak of bad luck, but the knot in his gut knocked hard on the upper department’s door and filed a report pertaining to his actual chances of survival if he were to blow off the lids of that one particular purple horse.

In his musings, something warm and wet graced his lips. The unmistakable taste of iron soon followed, and he brought a finger over to brush against the small river of blood cascading from his left nostril.

‘Again?’ Alexander pondered with dread. However, he felt nothing else assaulting him beside the inconvenience, sniffing hard to clear his sinuses of any lingering blood before it could dry up and irritate his skin. ‘Well, at least I’m not falling on my ass again…’

“T-Twilight?” Poor Spike was floored both physically and emotionally by his surrogate older sister's scary attitude.

The young drake’s shaky call shattered the bubble trapping Twilight in her madness. Clarity of vision chased away the red halo in her eyes, and Twilight drank in the world around her in a more tempered state of mind. She sniffled hard and sheathed her wings, recording the girls’ shattered resolves and fearful stances, widening the circle between them. Twilight had let her emotions get the better of her once more, lacking the strength to even try and justify herself.

Twilight needed time to think.

“S-Sorry about that,” She mumbled with a drooping head, taking a big gulp of calming air before laying down her request. “Look, this is getting completely out of hoof! We aren’t going to make any progress if we keep going on and on like this!”

Scraping a hoof on the crystalline floor, Twilight prioritized the bigger issue and began to address the proverbial elephant in the room, who was now giving her his undivided attention. Twilight’s eyes narrowed as they took note of the rivulet of blood Alexander had forgotten to clean away in his startlement. If she kept this up, no magic-dispersing collar was gonna spare him. She felt as if she was poisonous around him as a new, unwelcome feeling settled in her chest.

Her mind was nonetheless quickly made up.

“Spike,” She beckoned her faithful assistant with a flick of her tail. “Please, escort Alexander here into one of our guest rooms in the west wing. I believe he needs time to check his belongings, and I’m sure he could also use a shower and some away time from our bickering.”

She addressed the drake, but her words carried across to the human. This sudden offer of hospitality was a far cry from what he’d expected, more so considering how much of a colossal dick he’d been to them all in the short time they’d interacted together.

Nonetheless. you wouldn't find him complaining. He realized that he could really use both a rest and a shower. He had all the time in the world later on to repay her hospitality.

… Actually, no. He didn’t.

“Also, you better not forget this and make Pinkie Pie angry,” Twilight added with a wink.

“Yeah!” The aforementioned mare cried with a frown to reaffirm twilight’s words.

Powering up her magic, Twilight levitated the human’s choice for snack over to him: a simple cup filled with honey, along with a spoon that had both been forgotten under the commotion, into his lap. A hesitating hand coiled around it, fearing any backlash from the magenta aura surrounding it, but finding none beside a soft tickling upon his fingertips.

‘That’s fucked up…’ Alexander registered the sensation.

As the human focused on the alien feeling, Twilight carefully observed the way he used his digits to grasp the cup. She'd run a careful analysis on those digits of his later on, to see how they differed from Spike’s claws. But, that would be for another time.

“The rest of you,” The wide circle of mares left the unsure-looking human with a sullen stance, drooped ears denoting the hanging aura of shame remaining at their previous outburst. Twilight was simply under too much pressure for them to continue feeding the fires even more. Smiling warmly, and with a heavy heart, Twilight assured them she harbored no ill feelings while apologizing for her own ebullition. “I think it’s better if we all give each other some space for the time being. We’ll reconvene later when I have a clearer picture of what’s going on, and after we’ve all had the chance to digest it.”

“But, darling…” Rarity, not one to leave her fellow magic-wielding mare on the ropes, pleaded for reconsideration.

Alas, Twilight stood undeterred. For as much as she knew she could count on her friends for anything the world might throw at them, she needed time and space to come to terms with what had just happened while figuring out a steady schedule to see this human back to where he belonged. Bright-eyed and bushy-tailed at that, and without a single scratch on him. All that, while keeping all of this from everypony except those present before her…

No, that was simply unfeasible. She’d add ‘town-wise introductions’ to the schedule.

“I’ll be fine, Rarity.” Twilight nuzzled the fashionista with tender appreciation. “I just need some time to myself. I wouldn't want to egghead you guys to tears,” she said with a chuckle as it infected the rest of her friends, yet the spirit was not quite there. Still, the mares and Spike complied, but not before being reminded to keep tight-lipped about all of this for now.

“Seriously. No. Pony. Not your parents, not your sisters, not the spa mares…” Twilight spared a lightning-fast knowing look at Rarity, making the unicorn squirm at being caught red-hooved. Alas, there went her plans for the afternoon. “In the meantime, I’ll write to the Princesses. They’ll know better than me what to do.”

‘Oh, more pony princesses? Perhaps these ones will actually have a crown and, you know, might be actual royalty.’ Alexander mused sarcastically, for he still thought Twilight was pulling his leg with her princessly title.

Pretty pretty Pony princesses, just like his baby sister’s toys or something. What the actual fuck? How does this all make any sense to any sane human?

It made the same sense as them being able to talk, much else to think like an evolved sapient being. That is, none whatsoever.

Alexander threw his backpack over his shoulder and fixed the straps to free his other hand. He took a little spoonful of honey into his mouth after a solid minute of consideration while Twilight was roped in by the other ponies. The reason why he’d asked only for honey was missed by the ponies; Pinkie simply thought about his similar height to Harry, and how his request must’ve translated to his palate or something. She’d no doubt make him a honey cupcake the same moment Alexander shoved his rump into Sugarcube Corner.

Alexander, in his own elucidations, had a mind behind his peculiar request. If his haunch was proven right, perhaps he’d be granted a slow end without at least going hungry.

‘... Mmmm. Sweat. That’s a good start, alfa-gustducin is at least triggering.’

Six ponies, one dragon, and one human, all ended their shared interactions for the day as the fashionista trotted away with unwilling spirits, reluctantly listening to her smarter friend’s plea. Albeit a bit miffed by his crass treatment, a halo of mystery yet surrounded their most recent guest. Rarity felt an eerie pull towards him, unsure of how it translated. She couldn't quite put her tongue on the origin, but something in her horn told her that this strange fella had more than a few cuss words and angry glowrings to offer. She’d pay close attention to him from now on. And she’d sell her boutique if it meant that she’d get a hoofful of those clothes he seemed so clingy about, to dissect and study at her pleasure. She’d compensate him adequately for the inconveniences, of course, as no less befitted a mare of her status.

The farm mare followed, disappointed, her previous image of the creature when she’d aided him down in the dungeon shattered. Her disappointment was aggravated by Twilight’s inability to come clean with her dealt cards and admit her share of the blame in the matter. Both guest and host had acted in an unbefitting way, and now all ponies were in cahoots with a secret to share, a secret that she feared might rock the tiny, cozy town they all lived in peacefully asunder. Only the future would tell. But, for the time being, the farm mare would keep her distance and see how things played out. She had a family to care for, after all.

The pink party pony pranced away in her usual gleeful manner. So many things to plan! So many preparations to tackle! Gosh, she could almost taste the molasses in the air with so much stress and mean words flying around, bloating the library to its seams in the pressure back there. She knew full well what everypony needed, and she knew that she was the mare for the job! A lot of things had to be taken into consideration, though. Never had she thrown a party for such an… exotic pony since grumpy Gilda. As she skipped along with a merry tune, Pinkie only had one thing bouncing around the walls of her mind. Why had Alexander asked for honey?

The tomboy pegasus couldn't have vacated the premises any faster, preferring to bolt out the same way she’d arrived rather than take the boring door. She was beyond pissed. Who did this weirdo think he was to call her out in such a fashion?! She was no stranger to some witty jousting and good-mannered tongue-lashing, flying quips back and forth to sharpen the mind, only to end up in a pile of laughter at the end of it. But that?! That was simply rude and uncalled for! That spindly monkey had better watch his six, lest a storm cloud slip away from her vigilance and rain a bolt or two down onto his tail-less flank if he continued treating her and her friends like dirt! A flight around Ponyville would work wonders on her tantrum. She also had some napping to catch up with.

The shy pegasus felt torn on the inside. This new creature was a sea of contradictions in the short time they’d shared. She was well-versed in reading the emotions of ponies and critters alike. His angry, ungracious façade hadn't fooled her for one second. She knew very well where those sentiments emanated from. Many of her animal friends also hid their fear under a mask of explosive rage. There was a gentleness in the way he’d pet her mane and back, albeit unconsciously. The ghost of his blunt claws still made her fur tingle where they’d combed. A gentle treatment, a far cry from how he’d taken Twilight’s… um, ‘creative’ explanation of his arrival, or how defensive he stood during their introductions. Unruly or not, Fluttershy wasn’t going to quit so fast on getting to know this new creature. If she could manage to tie down Discord, this scared, lost being should be a walk in the park compared to that… she hoped.

The dragon and the human walked together. The former led while keeping a close eye on the towering creature keeping in step behind him. The latter followed without a word, a familiar weight on his back but a small reprieve that did nothing but worsen his already exhausted body. The dragon and the human were of a similar mind, with no exchanges of words or thoughts happening between the two, caging their respective storms within the confines of their minds. Neither knew what to make of everything, and neither could guess the next step to take behind the fog that clouded everycreature's reasoning. The dragon would perform his duty and lead the creature to his accommodations so that he could rest, while the baby drake partook in a similar activity. His chores for the day could wait. This morning called for a pile of comics twice his height and a bucketful of ice cream. Whatever it took to make his scales stop trembling.

The alicorn remained with her tail briefly tucked under her in the newfound solitude of her library. Her personal temple, her small haven of peace. The only place she knew could always come back to when the situation grew dire and everything else had failed. The clip-clop of her hooves and the swishing of her angsty tail set a harrowing pace as the mare scanned countless shelves, home to an unfathomable amount of books, all hers for the reading.

One of them would hold the answers she sought. She’d tried friendship as a first recourse, for that was the title she upheld, and she’d abjectly failed at doing that. The princesses were away and unaware, and the first impressions would be the last impressions with some of Twilight’s friends from the way Alexander had acted.

A human. A human of all creatures. Due to his arrival, the time for tales and myths was over, and Twilight stood at the center of it all, guilty of unleashing it. Her brief, distracted search was a fruitless one, a gesture born of routine, to empty her of all pretensions and notions aside from the hunt for the tome she wanted. If only to pass the necessary time to be refreshed and ready to take up on the promise she’d made to Alexander.

The alicorn hoped some moments of reflection and rest would improve his overall demeanor. She wholeheartedly wished to become friends with him, even if her gut told her that she was undeserving of such an accolade. Just imagine all the things she could learn from him, and all the things she could teach him in return!

Celerity was the order of the day, but that didn't necessarily equate to burning the only bridge that still held them together. Thrtr would be some very awkward days spent at the castle if the alicorn failed in turning Alexander around to more amicable grounds. Twilight was fed up with the deafening silence of her empty corridors and ample rooms. Not even the patrolling guards or the occasional maid sent from Canterlot to spruce things up made it feel any less empty or cavernous.

How could Princess Celestia stand it? The last thing Twilight needed was to tread on the tips of her hooves every time she and the human would be in proximity to each other, on top of everything else.

No. She’d make a friend out of him yet. She’d learn of his ways and his people’s ways, and in turn, Twilight would bring the human up to speed on the ins and outs of pony society, for whatever length of his stay might help him. There was no way in Tartarus she’d kept him holed in her home, gazing at his reflection in the walls and growing mad like she felt like she did sometimes. That meant Ponyville was in for quite a surprise very soon.

‘Those ponies better not start with all that ‘evil enchantress’ crap they labeled Zecora with. They ostracized her to the point of making a hermit out of her, for feather’s sake!’

That very thought made Twilight queasy. If the human had reacted to an open and undisguised offer of friendship the way he had, Twilight dreaded how Alexander might stand under the collective judgment of a town’s worth of ponies which, bordering the Everfree Forest as they did, had made them far too weary and untrusting of everything non-equine, on top of ponykind’s already generally-untrusting nature.

A flash of teleportation ruptured the otherwise peaceful atmosphere with a crack of thunder, but Twilight was too absorbed in her musings to pay it any mind. What she had no choice but to address with a scowl was Discord’s obnoxious purring as he teased and wasted no breath to annoy the fur out of her.

“My my… a little birdy just twittered some veeery nasty things about you, Miss Sparkle.” The draconequus’ goatee made Twilight's ear twitch as he unleashed a load of mischief to stir the dough. “Has our newest princess been behaving?”

“Discord…” Twilight, her eyes rolling like the sun and moon orbiting this world, simply had no energy to deal with the eldritch being right now, either now or for the rest of the year.

“Because, you see…” Discord ran his talons over the alicorn. “I was having this, oh, simply marvelous exchange with the ferrets living under our bridge. Who would have thought they were as hooked on Beethooven's work as I was?!”

Twilight resumed her pacing with a snort, knowing that her sought-after moment of peace and reflection was now a lost cause. Yet, her hooves wouldn't stand idly by and listen to Discord’s nonsense, either. Twilight needed to do something, to take her mind off of the human. Reorder her books by author, and then reverse index them by category? Trot around the White Tail Woods for a spell and clear her wits? Heck, she’d go as far as COOK something without burning down the kitchen! Anything would serve her! Anything, except putting up with the embodiment of Chaos itself.

“But, then!” The slithery creature coiled himself around the mare’s barrel, filling Twilight’s field of vision with his breathtaking looks and mare-rocking charm, should you’ve asked him his opinion on himself. Jitters dominated over Discord as he reminisced about that morning's events from his perspective. “Ooohohoho, sweet, delicious chaos streaming out from this eyesore you call a castle! Seriously, dear, have you considered some renovations?”

Now to that, Twilight took a healthy dose of offense. Deep inside, however, she also was of the opinion that the humongous, crystalline, tree-like outline of her castle was perhaps a bit too eye-catching and pompous, not that she’d ever admit it to the draconequus invading her personal space.

“I'm busy right now.” Twilight grumbled through gritted teeth, teleporting herself a good distance away in the library, leaving behind Discord to coil like a spring around empty air. A delicious cheesy grin ran from ear to ear. Discord always loved ruffling the young royal’s feathers as a hobby.

“Dimensional magic, my dear Sparkle!” Discord called loud and clear for the mare across the library. Even through pinned-down ears as she squirmed, caught red-hooved. “And not just any kind! Didn’t dear Celly warn you about the mirrors when she glued those prop wings onto your barrel?” Discord slipped with icy wind to add another layer over Twilight’s heart.

Said wings were itching restlessly, screaming at their owner to launch with the fury of a tornado so that she could send that nosy, mismatched pest straight to kingdom come.

The draconequus was only spurred on further by the mare’s stirred coals. “My, I can only imagine what the princesses will have to say when I inform them of your little, uh, ‘experiment’.” Discord snaked through the air to catch up with the paralyzed alicorn, her breathing having resumed its erratic pace as a myriad of scenarios played out in her head. “Of course, I expect them to follow along and assure me everything's under control since they undoubtedly would’ve sanctioned your little party tricks on this beautiful morning.” Discord brought his muzzle close to Twilight's ear once more, sending a very uncomfortable shiver down her spine.

“... Haven’t they?”

No, they didn’t. Celestia was aware of Twilight’s interest in pursuing the field, and gave the inquisitive mare a moderate green light, with the emphasis on moderate. But the alicorn had not informed her of that day’s first attempt… or its outcome.

It was supposed to be a surprise. A testament to her resolve and dedication to spreading the magic of friendship through the lands of ponies and beyond. WAAAAAY beyond. The young princess couldn't think of anything more ‘beyond’ than what she’d sought to accomplish that morning.

Twilight admitted to herself that she’d grown complacent, and had bitten off more than she could chew in her misguided rushness. But, her heart was in the right place, and the princesses would see that it was. She’d also cleaned up after herself, to the point nopony except Twilight and the Bearers would ever learn about anything she didn't personally disclose.

“Tsk Tsk Tsk….”

As if reading her mind, with a very real possibility he was doing just that, Discord called Twilight's bluff with a mischievous purr.

Reeling from the draconequus’ breath, Twilight breathed a little easier and finally opened her flaming eyes to the real world, but only because Discord had pulled away to joyfully celebrate, flying slender laps and twirls around the ample reaches of the library.

“And what a spectacular outcome!! You, my pretty, pretty princess, might have patched up the dimensional rift on the fly. Congratulations on that, by the way,” Discord fired passively as he dusted his lion claws with leisure, only to spring right back at the one-pony party. “But you didn’t patch it up fast enough, did you?!” Discord was all over herself in a flash, nailing his yellowish eyes full of mischief into her blood-shot lavender ones. “A human?! You've dragged a human of all creatures through the rift?!”

“I haven't dragged anypony!!” Twilight snorted in a fit of angst. She'd take the blame for her actions and the consequences that followed, but not another step further! Alexander’s falling through the rift had been a sick play of destiny for the unfortunate human, that she had no part in… beside being the catalyst of it all. A more pressing question came forth. “How do you know he's a human? What do you know about them?!”

“Ah Ah. I don't know, Princess Twiggles…” Discord stayed true to character and relentlessly kept chipping away at the mare's patience. In her exasperation, Twilight managed to summon magical strength into her exhausted core from sources unknown with the sole purpose of blowing the toothy smirk off his face. “I'm not sure I should indulge naughty princesses like you…”

“Discord…” Embers stirred back to life inside the mare. She'd take Fluttershy’s scolding happily any day if it meant blowing off some steam in creative and no less explosive ways all over the irksome draconequus, who had made a sport of unnerving her to unthinkable levels.

Discord kept his shit-eating grin until he could start to physically feel the pressure of the air thickening the more Twilight cooked in her anger. “Psh, fine,” He rolled his avian claw and made himself very comfortable midair, mismatched arms behind his back as he seemed to reminisce about the days of his youth. “To answer your first question, how could I not know that the creature you kindly invited here was a human?!” Discord did a double-take at the mare's words. “Wait a second. Did you say the human’s a he?” Twilight' dignified him with a stiff nod. “My, today truly is my birthday!” Discord chanted with a swift spiral in the air. “Males are even more chaotic than female humans. This is just perfect!”

Twilight waited with a lack of patience for Discord to wrap up his celebratory run, pondering his words about humans being chaotic by definition. She failed to conclude to herself whether that would pose even more problems to add to the current pile or not. Twilight couldn't deny how the first contact with him had left everypony with a sour taste, a true definition of chaos if there ever was one. Judging from Discord's daunting celebration, the chance of further interactions with Alexander playing out any better than that morning’s dimmed with every passing moment.

“As for your other question.” The aforementioned creature swayed like an autumn leaf back to Twilight’s side. “I’ve stumbled upon humans in my travels through the multiverse. They are quite interesting creatures, you see? Very fun to play with. Heh, they’ve given me many, many, many names during my frequent visits before, you know, I ended up as a stone-flavored popsicle. Although, they never seemed to get the horns quite right…”

As Discord rubbed his mismatched horns with a twinge of disappointed reminiscence, Twilight’s feeble hopes of returning the human to his home dimension sunk to rock bottom with a deafening blow to her gut. Multiple dimensions, according to the Avatar of Chaos’ words, hosted human beings, and she had no clue as to which of them was Alexander's, on top of her current inability to open a steady gate without blowing up her castle and the town it bordered in the process.

Faust in heaven, it'd take months just for the spatial disassociation hovering over the Map Room to fully heal before she could try to cut it open again!

“Could you send him back to where he belongs?” Twilight sunk herself to the depths of requesting the draconequus’ help, taking the punch to her pride in stride. The human’s wellbeing was more important than her spotless career… ex-spotless career now.

“And where does he belong, Twilight Sparkle?” Discord fired with a grin that made every strand of Twilight’s fur stand on end. “Also, why would I want him to leave? Not only does he lack a magical signature I could trace back, but do you really think he could survive a trip down the cosmic interstate? He might be chaotic, but he isn’t moi!” With a snap of his claws, a laundry-list-sized scroll unraveled from his claws to reach Twilight’s hooves, filled on both sides with abundant, and messy, claw writing. “And all of that speaking as if I don't have soooohoho many things planned with him. Oh, just think of the sweet chaos we can unleash togethe-GUH!!!”

Sooner would Twilight see herself ten hooves under than allow Discord to pull that plan off. Tugging hard on his goatee, it was her turn to invade the draconequus' kinesphere with a smoldering glare, leaving no room for equivocation.

“Now listen here, Discord! Alexander is under a lot ofemotional distress right now, on top of coming to terms that I have STRANDED him in a foreign world! He's scared out of his mind, alone, and possibly reeling from magical poisoning. Me and the girls barely managed to keep him under wraps, and all that has bought us is his ire. So, I'm going to make this perfectly clear to you.”

“Hmm, Alexander? That is a curious nam-”

“LISTEN TO ME!!” Discord knew better than to budge a single claw to wipe the spit out of his face. “Until I say so, preferably never, you will stay well away from the human! The LAST thing he needs is you toying around with him. I don't know what he's capable of, and I don't care what you might or might not know about his kind in other worlds. Stay. Away. Or by my crown, I will trap you under a very different kind of stone, permanently.”

You see, Twilight never fully pardoned Discord for having turned her friends against her during their first butting of heads. The sentiment was only aggravated after his betrayal during Tirek’s rampage, costing her her beloved Golden Oaks Library, and a lively amount of pain and strife as she battled against the empowered mad centaur, scarring the very landscape as they threw hooves together. Now, the Foal Range was one peak fewer, and her resentment was only rekindled every time Discord attempted one of his ‘localized, harmless parades of chaos’. The only product that came out of them was scaring or upsetting more than one pony and creating a mess that she and the girls would have to clean up every, single, time.

It was telling how far Discord had failed to ingratiate himself to the alicorn’s good graces, regardless of Fluttershy’s numerous attempts to buy her friendship with the reformed draconequus. All she’d managed was a degree of cautious tolerance. Now, the mess she had on her hooves was big enough to necessitate that he didn’t partake in his trademark meddling.

“Y-Y-Yes, ma'am.” Discord squeaked in resemblance to the mice living under his caretaker's cottage. The last time he’d seen Twilight this utterly cross was… well, he couldn't remember the last time! Nonetheless, he was well aware of the mare’s track record, and harbored no doubt that this particular purple alicorn, who’d bested him twice now, could very easily find a way to put him out of his misery, even if by a technicality, that already should be kind of impossible, him being already a spirit of sorts and all.

All things considered, Discord favored his life more than the fun it carried to tease the never-ending lights out of Twilight. With a gulp and a jittery nod, Discord would keep his distance for now per her request. Even looking from afar would be fun. A human was a certain promise for some interesting times coming around the corner.

“O-Oh! Why, would you look at the time!” Discord rolled up an invisible sleeve on his lion arm and pointed at a crude drawing of a clock on his wrist’s fetlock, the handles pointing at exactly eleven o’clock. “Flutteshy must be wondering where I am! Bunny censuses are right around the corner, and we have to prepare the pens! Ta ta!”

With a crack of thunder, Discord escaped with life and limb from the ire of one vexed alicorn, plunging her back to the solitude of her library, where she would continue to stew in her own frustration. The hunt for a book that would hold the answers resumed, yet the spirit wouldn’t follow her any longer.

Her once-decisive gait had slowed down to an unsteady pace. Countless tomes holding centuries-worth of collective knowledge came off as blank to the mare. Remorseful, lavender orbs scanned at the confines of her most sacred temple and, for the first time in her life, understood that no answers awaited her from within the pages it harbored.

A tear trickled down her cheek, quickly followed by another, and another after that. Twilight stood in the middle of it all, head low in a reflection of her spirits, no amount of daylight able to lift the gloom swallowing her.

Who was she trying to foal? She had no answers, she had no plan. She was lost, and her friends could not aid her in this. Celestia would be stark-raving-mad at her or, even worse, disappointed. She’d condemned the life of another innocent being. Or, at least, there was a very real possibility she’d just done that.

‘Celestia, what am I going to do? What am I supposed to do?’

The clouds she’d abused in a fit didn't have an answer for her, nor would her library either.

Sniffling loudly, Twilight dragged herself back to the couch the human had previously occupied, his harsh words ringing loudly in her ears even now. His scent lingered on the velvety cushions. The very same one Twilight had noticed while she placed the collar that would hopefully spare him from the worst of this world’s ambient magic. For reasons she didn't have the mental fortitude to dissect, Twilight slumped over the couch and remained very still, letting that unfamiliar scent taint her musings as she drowned the rest of the world away, her tears never stopping as her cheek became soaked in her sadness. Far from a sense of excitement, the world now rained down icy spikes straight into her soul.

He looked so afraid, so fragile during the worst of the magical poisoning. He’d hung at the brink just before her very eyes, and only by a miracle had he pulled through.

Twilight would have to tread carefully, push herself to her limits and beyond. Otherwise, it wouldn't be the first time she’d have snuffed out the life of a creature from beyond the reaches of their world, as Luna could very easily attest in her return from the Moon. However, it’d be the first one who had shared his name. Alexander.

Now, that was something worth noting in history’s records.

“Um… here we are…”

The short walk up to the second floor of the castle's west wing felt like an eternity for poor Spike. Never before had he felt more like a dragon out of magma. The young drake led the tall, imposing creature towards the guests’ hall, where the spirit of Harmony had deemed the rooms for potential visitors to be located at the time she gifted this castle.

Sadly, the most action this section had seen in reference to hosting distinguished members could be summed up to griffon couriers, who more than once had sought shelter from a wayward storm catching them tail-feathered from the Everfree Forest, simply to spare them some coin in renting a room at an inn for the ‘sake of cooperation between their nations’ or whatever excuse those coin-suckers came up with. There was also a visit from a diplomat from the Neighponese archipelago, who asked Twilight for a night in her castle on their way to Canterlot since they’d missed the last train for the day.

Twilight’s golden heart prevented her from turning a blind eye on a creature in need, and Spike was painfully aware how much she welcomed some noise in their home as a remedy to prevent the wide corridors and empty halls from swallowing them whole.

The guest he’d been asked to lead to his room today was, by far, the most exotic of them all, as well as the one who’d brought the most amount of noise with him. Only, Spike felt it in his spines how this kind of noise was far from the one Twilight thirsted for.

Peering behind him as he stood before the door of a randomly chosen guest room, Spike found the creature dutifully tailing him without protest. His eyes were lost somewhere else while his body carried him on autopilot.

The poor lighting from the windowless corridor was enough to cast an unnerving halo around him. Spike stood undecided whether to fear this alien or not. He hadn’t given them straight reasons to antagonize him, beyond acting up a bit like a prick and a pathologic shortness of patience, but it’s not like Spike could blame him for throwing a tantrum considering his situation.

You see, Spike was a subscribed fan of comic books, and overall a fan of fantasy and science-fiction stories. In more than one tale had the lead character found themselves in a strikingly similar situation this creature had landed, quite literally, on his butt to. Each character responded in a different manner, but all of them followed the inevitable thread of the story to its conclusion, meaning that downplaying or overall oversimplifying everything was a necessary resource so as to not clog the flow. That implied a lack of serious or deep exploration of a character's true feelings past the initial shock.

This day they’d all lived though, however, was NOT a product of fiction, as his green, slitted eyes had attested to. An ambitious experiment from the most talented pony Spike had ever known had gone awry, ending with the stranding of an extra-equestrial creature on their very doorstep. The same being who Spike had been asked to show to his accommodations for the time being until Twilight found a way to reverse the problem after a poor attempt at first contact.

… It was surreal, almost to the verge of comedy, absurd enough to come from some novice writer's attempt to ride the crest of a wave long since broken.

That brief notion failed to quench any heat from the matter at claw, if not accentuate the severity of it to him. Laughable and impossible as his very presence played and sounded, there was a very much life ‘n blood creature waiting restlessly behind Spike. Having heard the dragon’s brief comment, Alexander waited in eerie silence, shuffling some kind of saddlebag on his back while the crystals of his glasses twinkled under the scarce lighting.

“...”

“... Y-Yeah. Uh, let me show you around...”

Not needing to use a key, Spike put his stubbly legs into motion and commanded the door open. A rush of stale wind brushed along his cheek crests as his reptilian eyes grew accustomed to the even darker interior of the room. Spike rushed to put a remedy to the gloom by lifting up the curtain and opening a window for some much-needed fresh air.

Alexander, for his part, remained still as the statues in Caterlot’s Royal Garden. That is, when a spirit of chaos wasn't breaking free from one of them. The roar of conflict echoed through his entire being, alien sights mixing with familiar traits, and all of them warring together to construct the image of his surroundings, as well as forming a solid opinion on those with whom the human had made poor acquaintances of.

How much time has it been since he was dumped into that room with the numerous thrones? Three hours? Four tops. And yet, what few chances Alexander had had of peering out into the surrounding landscape as they trod along the castle revealed that the sun had barely crossed its zenith.

That wasn’t right, which was another thing to add to the pile. Alexander took great consideration of the little details. Almost as if riding the curve of an uncanny valley, Alexander spent the silent moments in the company of the lizard analyzing his surroundings and taking notice of where certain elements struck him as familiar and where others yet differed. The overall height of everything was shorter, an occurrence he blamed on the ponies’ lower height and quadruped stance. Door knobs were all of the handle category, while stairs felt a tad shallow on the legs. This entire place resembled the general outline of one of the many palaces he’d visited in his home country, but entirely made out of fucking crystal.

Like, all of it. He wouldn't be surprised if the toilet was made out of purple glass too, a chilling promise for his delicate buttocks. And that’s assuming these ponies had something similar to what a human was accustomed to. Whatever it was they used to dump their bodily waste into, he’d have to make use of it too. Like, pronto. Last night’s marathon of studying and gallons of coffee to sustain it, summed with today's excitement and worry, were taking their toll on him.

In addition to the much-needed bathroom break, Alexander felt utterly exhausted, drained of any semblance of spark, and too out-of-picture to even try and formulate any more questions. The ponies had granted him accommodations for the night, and he was not going to battle them on the matter. The bag on his back, which he’d previously thought to weigh less than usual, now dragged him down like finals week.

However, regardless of his tiredness, Alexander gave no visual clue that he was taking up the drake’s implied invitation. He was too busy tracing his movements as the young dragon fretted to make the room look as presentable as possible in its semi-abandoned state. Again, lack of use rather than a lack of visitors. It was often that Spike would ignore this side of the castle on his bi-weekly cleaning rounds.

Alexander absorbed the contents of the room. A curtain-bearing window, leading out to a breathtaking landscape of rolling hills and towering mountains, arranged in a V-shaped valley facing Equestria’s green south. Cornering it, and tuckered against the wall, a simple queen-sized bed stood. Queen-sized by pony standards, however, meaning that a good chunk of his legs were going to dangle from the end. The sheets were of a simple purple-and-dirty-white diamond pattern. Purple seemed like a trend around here, perhaps pertaining to the status of royalty that the purple horse claimed to be in possession of. Facing the opposite wall, a simple wardrobe awaited, with no notorious decorations or engravings soiling its simple, welcoming nature.

Another smaller drawer cabinet accompanied a working desk at the foot of the bed, with a peculiarly shaped chair tucked under its low frame. Considering the way a pony would sit and how their back would arch against the frame, the shape made total sense, but Alexander was running on fumes and unable to spare that notion a single thought.

On the furthest wall from the entrance, a simple door led to a bathroom, or that’s what the human prayed it did. The last thing he wanted was to wake up bleary-eyed in the middle of the night to accidentally stumble inside his neighbor’s room if these were the same kind of accommodations. Alexander had already suffered a fair amount of surprises to last him a lifetime without needing such further confusion to add to it.

The rest was empty space, left to be filled by his imagination. In summary, a functional suite meant for occasional, non-lasting stays. He was nonetheless disappointed to admit it was ten times better than his own den at the international students’ residence. When did England, where he studied, become Japan in terms of space? And when did Japan become England in terms of food? Why was everything a pile of shit overall?!

Now, those complaints seemed so pointless…

“Sooo…” The drone from the young drake shook Alexander from his daydreaming. The human found Spike standing awkwardly in the middle of the room, balancing back and forth on the balls of his clawed feet, making everything seem huge in comparison to his smaller height. He had apparently finished dragging his little tail all over the place to check that everything was in order as befitting to present to welcome a guest. Alexander had even missed him slithering into the bathroom and out to check the stocks in terms of courtesy mane and coat products, amongst other toiletries, granting the human confirmation that it was, indeed, a bathroom behind that door.

Fumbling with his thumb claws and filing his stare at everything except those small, predatory eyes of his, Spike awaited for some form of acknowledgment from the creature.

Slowly, stiffly so, Alexander took the first step into the unknown. He drank in his new surroundings and continued drawing parallelisms with his previous room at the Imperial College London’s residence.

Alexander paced in the room, eventually coming to stand beside the dragon for a brief second before heading for the desk to rest his belongings on it. Just like any other day after suffering long hours of class and even longer hours of lab work for his master’s thesis.

“This is where you’ll be staying for now. Not that we have any better rooms than this...” Spike, having wiggled out of the creature’s way, tried to engage in a bit of conversation before the silence claimed his cheek spikes in a fit of madness. Nothing but the honest truth. Beside Twilight’s and his own room, everything else looked very much alike throughout Castle Friendship. If the weird monkey-thing was searching for luxury, he’d have to fit his tailless rear on the first train smoking and look for it in Canterlot Castle, assuming the guards even let him get that far before clapping him in irons.

Alexander pondered Spike’s words. He held no grounds to act a bitch about it, considering they’d basically provided it to him for free… as far as he knew, anyway. It’d be a fun surprise to learn he’d have to pay back for it later with hefty interest payments. Now that'd be soulless enough to befit one of his kind, Alexander conjured humorously.

The room would serve him well, for now.

“Thank you,” Alexander added courtly and without ceremony, addressing the dragon by voice since his attention remained lost somewhere else in the room. “It’ll suffice, I guess.”

Gone was the snarky edge of his voice alongside his foul mood. A tremendous relief for young Spike, making the young drake deflate a bit with a long sigh of relaxation.

“That’s good. Yeah… good.”

That’s as far as Spike would go. The stickiness running between them was thick enough for the drake to plunge in for a nice spoonful. Human and dragon both returned to their previous arrangements, with one weighing his chances while the other toyed with his claws in a manner he’d inherited from his hatchling days and which he’d never truly gotten rid of during tense moments like this.

“... I’m sorry,” Blissful communications cut through the fiddly air like an arrow. it came from the human. Spike did a double take at his sudden apology, coming in as lifeless and barren as the amount of spirit he exuded.

“Huh?”

Alexander did not reassure the young drakes’ puzzlement immediately. Parking his attention from the landscape beyond the window, the human dragged his feet the short way to the bed, having grabbed something from the interior of the bag and stored it into one of his pant’s pockets. He needed a millennia to plant his butt over the spreading, upsetting its otherwise pristine arrangement.

Spike’s slitted eyes widened when they caught the creature parroting him with his claws in a very similar gesture as he crossed them over his lap in a contemplative manner.

‘Now, that is a sad first for me!’ Poor Spike was downtrodden to find in the midst of a town full of ponies.

“My behavior down there was… unwelcome. I apologize for it,” The human insisted with the conviction of a sneeze, making Spike shudder unwillingly when he found himself the target of his undivided attention. “It was unbecoming of me.”

While sincere an apology, Spike simply couldn’t read the human’s emotions. He’d grown up amidst ponies, and ponies were what he’d learned to read until most of them were like an open book to him. It was hard not to analyze him and, in his upbringing, Spike had taken many pages from their book as he grew and matured into the dragon that he is today.

This creature, however, had no mobile ears he could read, his eyes too small to be considered a proper gate for the soul, no visible tail to denote his general restlessness or excitement, nor did he have a snout to snort through when a foul mood hung above them. No wings to ruffle at his sides when an uncomfortable thought reared its ugly head, nor did he have a horn to spark unwillingly when a trigger was reached in his mind.

And yet, a glimmer of sympathy flickered into existence inside the fire of the drake’s belly, making it roar under a new life. As much as all his draconian instincts hammered at him to cut this exchange short and bolt the hay out of there for his surrogate sister to take over, Spike surprised himself with honest sympathy being targeted toward the creature. Not for what it was today, but for what it could’ve been for the drake. For what he’d felt the day when he ventured into the Dragonlands in search of his draconic heritage, only to find himself an alien amidst his own scaly brethren.

Was the same feeling of emptiness at blame for the human's upset behavior? Was that the reason he put up a rude front while Spike, in turn, had put up a fake bravado when the harsh truth of things had come raining down on him like merciless hail?

Spike’s mind was made. Against his better judgment, he forced his clawed feet in the direction of the bed instead of towards the door where he knew that he’d find safety. Alexander followed his every twitch in a weary fashion but didn’t prevent the drake from climbing up the height of the bed with strain before planting his tail and butt beside him.

Unsure of what to make of the purple lizard, the human waited stiffly for the young drake to speak his mind. All that had come from him was a prolonged sigh before he’d begun to tap his claws over his knees in introspection. Spike racked his brains in search for the propers words, but Twilight’s knack for improvised speeches and words of wisdom didn't seem to have rubbed off on him. In the end, he’d let his feelings do the yapping for him.

“Look,” Spike marched onwards with a small swish of his tail. Feeling the human’s towering gaze fixed on his nape, the drake breathed some bravery into himself before continuing. “I-I won’t lie and say I fully get how you must be feeling right now. But,” A shadow flashed before his green eyes, a memory of a time when he questioned who he was and where he belonged. “But… I do understand feeling like a complete outsider. I mean, look at me! I’m a dragon living among ponies; That’s not a normal occurrence around here! Yeah, I may still be small and cute and blegh,” He dipped a claw inside his maw childishly, missing the smallest of smirks that by a miracle appeared on the human’s lips with curiosity. “But… I don’t miss how some ponies still tread wearily around me, or act scared when I speak up for myself without a pony accompanying me. And… I know the way they’ll see me after I get my wings and grow bigger. There’s a part of me that will always feel like I don't belong here.”

A few moments passed, with only the drake’s deep breaths in the otherwise silent air, conveying an amazing amount of sentiment in his thousand-yard stare that Alexander was surprised to recognize.

“I know it doesn't compare to your situation, but I want to think it’s in there, somewhere…”

“... Perhaps.”

Spike’s ridges flared up to attention, a sense of thrill overcoming him after having earned an honest-to-Faust reaction from the human. As the drake’s thousand-yard stare shattered, Alexander took the metaphorical baton as they both looked at the empty space filling the center of the room.

Reassured of the effectiveness of his message, Spike launched into delivering the second, meaningful half of his little speech.

“Buuuut,” He picked up the threat in a livelier tone. “I was immensely lucky to always have family and friends to remind me otherwise. I hatched and grew up with Twilight and her family. Heck, I might not be a Sparkle by blood, but I sure as Tartarus am a Sparkle like any of them, and I know they feel the same way.” A warmth fanned the flames on the drake’s belly, fond memories of his early years under the tender care of Twilight and her family flooding him. “And… the time I spend with the girls only adds to that feeling. We’re all one big family, and I couldn’t think of a better group of ponies to help you through this… just as they helped me.”

“I have a family already,” The human riled up bitterly. “I have no interest in joining another.”

“Fair, I guess,” Spike replied, understanding where he was coming from, but not allowing his bluntness to deter him. As he leisurely kicked his legs against the bed’s rim, Spike knew just the words to sell the human. “Still, I’m hard-pressed to think of a better group of ponies who’d want to see you again after all this… you made quite the entrance earlier, after all. Just saying, those mares have quite an impressive record on friendship.” A small claw came to rest atop the human’s hand, spiking a rise in pulse on Alexander that the dragon was able to sense. “They might be a little… overwhelming at first, but don’t let first impressions make you close yourself down on friendship with them. Not to toot my own spikes, but it's kinda a trademark around here. Just sayin’.”

Alexander’s dip of his head made Spike smirk at his visible lack of clue. Oh, he’d see what he meant soon enough. Far from a promising one, the human had nonetheless made quite a striking impression on the girls, and Spike knew them well enough to bet his hide that that morning wasn’t the last the human had seen of them.

Tapping over the human’s scale-less hand twice, Spike felt like he’d accomplished his mission and skipped down to the floor. The raking of his claws against the crystalline surface saw him out of the room with a brisk skip, rejoicing in having made some progress with the human, albeit foal steps in the right direction… but, not before sending one last knowing look over his shoulder for the stunned Alexander. “You’d be good to trust them. I sure know I do.” A sudden reminder made him snap his claws. “Oh, right, before I forget. Breakfast’s around eight. Don’t ask Twilight to do the cooking. Please. The weather department's fed up with sending out clouds to put out fires in our kitchen. If you need anything… uh, just holler for me, I guess. Sound carries too well around this castle sometimes...”

A pretty useful perk except for the night Spike had to bury himself under half the castle's pillows to drown out Twilight’s colorful… exclamations when she’d stumbled upon a raunchier-than-usual segment in those romance novels she liked to partake in. Spike could feel another shiver coming up his spine at that intrusive thought.

That mare was in need of an emergency coltfriend.

“Yeah… Also, please try to remain inside the castle grounds for the time being. Um, ponies do tend to act a bit skittish around new creatures… Oh, by the way, what are you supposed to be? Like, what do we call your kind?” Spike surprised himself, having taken so much time to pop the obvious question.

“... Human,” Alexander replied blankly.

“Hooman… huh. Never heard of ‘em. Whatever, just stay inside and don’t cause a ruckus. Twilight and I will try to break it to the town gently so we don’t cause another Zecora incident. Trust me, you don't want one of those happening to you,” Spike cited with an ashamed flick of his tail.

Alexander was as lost as a raindrop in a storm. The drake was speaking to him as if he was up to speed on current events in this place, something he understood he’d have to fix very soon if he wanted to get any progress underway in getting back home.

“... Sure.” Came his brief response, doing his best to not act like a loon as he absorbed the dragon’s implications. Alexander was in agreement that a herd of panicking ponies was best to be avoided, especially if there were more of those unicorns with them to fire death rays at him or something. That is, assuming they possessed said ability. For whatever reason, the ponies came off at him as too cute for that kind of warfare… were they, however?

“Good!” Spike clapped his claws together, closing this metaphorical chapter on their interactions. “That’s all that comes to mind right now. Um… I was gonna say goodnight, but it’s still around twelve in the morning, so… Um… have a good rest, I guess? I’ll come find you at lunchtime if you’re feeling up to it.”

Alexander would take what remained of the microwaved honey for the time being. Yeah, they’d microwaves apparently. He didn't need to suffer an allergic reaction and choke to death on his first day. Another thing he jotted down was the use of time the dragon had just remarked. It’d be a small miracle if these ponies used the same twenty-four hour clock as his human peers did on Earth. A very welcome change on top of them sharing a similar language to communicate.

Even if it was fucking English…

‘I bet Stuart would be having a field day with them speaking English if he were here.’

“... Okay.”

“Great. So… I’ll see you around, yes? See you later.”

Receiving a brief nod of confirmation from the human, Spike smiled a fanged grin and made himself scarce from the room, wiggling his tail out so as to not catch it with the door as he closed it behind him.

The rhythm of his claws faded away as Spike exited the guests’ corridor to find Twilight and offer his assistance before preparing lunch. For the first time since landing in this strange land, Alexander found himself truly alone. Without colorful ponies to distract him and keep him on his heels, he could no longer ignore the flood of thoughts and emotions from running him over.

To boil things down to the basics, he was alone, stranded, with no means of assistance or a clear way home, on an entirely different world than Earth populated by, at the least, colorful, tiny, talking ponies of various fantastical breeds, and at least one kind of ridiculously small dragon with the promise of getting much bigger and possibly meaner in due course.

In conclusion, a half-cooked, stereotyped abortion of some fantastical world from a series-B isekai manga adaptation, consumed preferably, but not exclusively, by Japanese kids in their twenties with a thing for big-boobed girls and a need for huge-ass swords to compensate for their insecurities.

Alexander might've been a top lonely wanker with a thing for video games back in his prime, but like hell he was fitting for the loser-prototype main character requirements that made the gender what it is. In other words, things weren't going to fit neatly in place with the liberty of poor writing and low budgets to excuse the plot moving forward.

Just as the young dragon liked to partake in, Alexander also had an ample history of fantasy and science-fiction media on his back to draw from. But, contrary to the inconveniences of trying to fit days, weeks, or even months of world-building in a two-hours long movie or an average-sized novel, he’d have aaaall the fucking time in the world to experience how this particular world would make his time on it short.

Allergies, pathogens, air composition, organic molecules structure and components, gravity, which he already had a suspicion was not quite the same as that on Earth; indigenous creatures, sapient creatures of all things on this green earth.

What in the Kentucky-fried-chicken-FUCK was he supposed to do?! How was he supposed to deal with it all?!

Another round of tremors rocked Alexander to his unsteady foundations. This time, there weren't any yellow, pretty ponies around to lay on his lap and force serotonin out into his bloodstream.

Alexander felt his breath coming in short. Almost out of reflex, he sent a hand into his left pant’s pocket and extracted his phone. While the portable battery was dead, and no standard European sockets were in sight, he’d managed to recharge some semblance of life back into it by hooking it up to the laptop while he and the dragon had talked. Alexander pressed and held the ‘ON’ button and waited for the familiar XiaomiOS logo to flicker to life.

The boot-up sequence took shy of half a minute before the lock screen appeared on the screen. A picture of him and his family perched on the wooden railing of Santa Monica Pier during last summer’s family trip masked his decayed reflection. The hour marked half-past three in the afternoon, yet the sun shone with too much intensity for matching the hour. In what hemisphere had he even landed? On what latitude, for that matter?

Alexander pressed his thumb at the bottom of the screen. His fingertip was recognized and the phone unlocked itself to an opened conversation on WhatsApp, with Hell Bells by Aerosmith paused on Spotify in the background.

His eyes turned watery as they read what at first had seemed yet another morning conversation with one of his colleagues at London Imperial College.

Stuart (British Cunt) Last seen Today at 08:37

Alex. 8:25. Masca vidrios. Estoy de camino, no me hagas esperar.

Stuart. 8:25. In English, twat. You’re in MY country now. Sorry, I don’t make the rules.

Alex. 8:26. Me unf unf tu mama and sista look and like mucho!

Stuart. 8:26. Much better. Hurry your arse up. I’m gonna prepare some PROPER tea before classes and I ain’t waiting for you.

Alex. 8:26. Fuck your tea, crumpet. I want a gallon of coffee, dumbass!

Alex. 8:27. Whatever a fucking gallon is… 🤡

Stuart. 8:28. I’m gonna tie you to a chair and you’re gonna learn what good tea is!

Alex. 8:28. Suck on my fish and chips you tattie-eating troglodyte.

Stuart. 8:29. Whatever, dude. Just hurry the fuck up!

Alexander’s grip failed, letting the phone fall flat on his lap to later clatter down to the floor. His entire body felt numb, as if on a stormy cloud. But instead of feeding the whirlwind in his mind, everything felt as if were relegated to a backstage performance. His experiences trickled down to a crushing weight while the rest of the world became blurry and insignificant. Reality, his reality, was heavy enough to steal the air from his lungs and grind his bones down to fine dust.

Yeah. Alexander could hurry his ass all he wanted. It wouldn't land him any closer to home.

One human sits in a bar, alone with his ghosts. The drink tastes like ash in his mouth, the lack of company is a welcome reprieve. He ponders, and ponders, and ponders…

In his pocket, a clock, a countdown has started, yet the human cannot glimpse the end.

Funny how, even with the mist clouding his reason, the thought shone unchallenged, like the early sun burns through a morning haze.

“... I’m going to die.”

The joke was on him now.