CHAPTER 13
Proper Introductions

The sound of books falling from shelves awoke me from my light sleep. I groggily opened one eye to see the lavender pony I now knew as Twilight rearranging the books that I no doubt put out of order. She noticed my head rise and gave me a smile.

"Oh Shard your *****?"

The last part of what she said was only a chirp in my ears. The thing I did with the books only worked to a certain degree as I noticed last night. I could usually make out what they where saying but there was a word or phrase every now and again that I could not comprehend.

"Yes." I responded as clearly as possible. Twilight gave me a nervous nod when I got up and walked towards the shelf she was working on.

"What are you doing?" she asked as I started dispersing my shards.

"Learn."

"Learn?" she asked clearly confused.

"Must learn. Understand. Talk."

Before she could question me further I lifted a dozen books off the shelf and turned them to page one. I could feel my conscious of the world around me fade away. The sensation was the same as the one I felt in the void. The knowledge that my shards collect flowed into my mind like water from a river draining into the ocean. It is unfortunate that the shards collect all the contents that lie in the books with very little translation. It is because of this that there are words I still don't know and have difficulty pronouncing. My hope was that the language would come to me if I kept on 'absorbing' vast amounts of literature.

I could feel more things about the world that I had not known before become known to me. Starswirl The Bearded, Discord, The elements of harmony, the crystal empire, changelings, and even Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were all subjects I took particular interest in.

It was among these subjects that I discovered my friend Luna was actually royalty. When I discovered this I hoped that I would not be executed for being rude to her. I brushed that aside when I assured myself she was not the type for that kind of thing. I wondered why she would hide something like that from me.

'Guess I will ask her when I next see her.'

I took great interest in the elements of harmony for the reason that in the more recent texts a unicorn known as Twilight Sparkle was the element of magic. At first I considered that the one who was currently housing me was this so called element of magic, but I later thought it would be impossible. 'Why would such an important power be in such a small town with no protection?' was what I reasoned.

After what felt like hours I could feel my vision returning. The tree's interior came into existence all around me revealing eight ponies staring intently at me.

"Good morning." I greeted with a bow.

"It's not morning silly billy." said a pink pony that had somehow got beside me. "It's past noon!"

I took one look out the window and corrected myself. "You're right, good afternoon then."

All the ponies in the room looked perplexed.

"What? Just because most of you were rude to me does not mean I have to be." I said raising a hoof to my chest. "But where are my manners, my name is Shard." I bowed deeply.

"OH nice to meet you Shardy!" Squealed the pink one. "My name's Pinkie Pie! OOOOHHH! We need to throw you a big welcome to Ponyville party! What do you say Hun? Give Pinks a big smile if y-"

"I would like to hold off on the party, and for obvious reasons I will not give you a smile." I interrupted. "Now may I know the rest of your names?"

The cyan pegasus was up in my face instantly.

"My name is Rainbow Dash!" She declared. "And I'm the fastest flier in Equestria!"

"Uhhh. Hi." I greeted as politely as possible.

"How did you do it?" she asked.

"Excuse me?"

"The sonic Rain Boom how did you do it?!" She demanded again.

She looked genuinely angry and was not going to let this subject go. I looked past her with pleading eyes asking Twilight for help. Thankful she was able to pick up on my distress and evaluated.

"Rainbow thinks you're the one who broke the sound barrier a few days ago." Twilight said with a nervous smile.

"Ah... Yes that was me." I confessed.

"How did you do it?!" She shouted again. "You don't even have wings!"

Scratched my cheek with my hoof making an unpleasant screech, similar to a nail on a chalkboard. I saw no reason to lie and wished to move on so I decided to tell her. Though I thought it best to not tell them everything.

"I kinda... fell."

"Oh come on! If you're going to tell a lie then at least make it believable." She said angrily.

"I'm not lying." I said with a voice that would suggest I was pouting.

"Ya sure." Rainbow dead panned me.

Thankfully the situation did not get to far out of control thanks too the white mare with the purple mane. She walked up beside Rainbow and gave her a piece of her mind.

"Rainbow Dash!" She said in a scolding tone. "This stallion has been horrendously misunderstood ever since we saw him, and he has been nothing but polite. We need to hear him out."

Rainbow looked rather put off but still managed to throw me a glare that said "I've got my eyes on you."

"Wait you're the mare who gave me that great cloak." I reminded myself. "Thank you miss..."

"Rarity," She offered. " But you don't have to thank me for it. It is enough to see that it looks so stunning on you."

"Thank you regardless Miss. Rarity."

"Please, Rarity is enough."

"Alright so I now know Rarity, Twilight, Octavia, Pinkie, and Rainbow." I listed. "How about the rest of you?"

The other white mare with the shades was first to step forward.

"Hey stud," She said with a smile. "names Vinyl Scratch but you can call me Vinyl."

We shook hooves which I found very odd at how well it works. Unsuspectingly she pulled me in close.

"Hey you're pretty cute." She whispered in my ear.

The tone of her voice was setting of at least seven different kinds of alarms in my mind. Thankful Octavia pulled her away from me giving her a scolding, which she just laughed off.

"Well that escalated quickly." I said seeing Vinyl laughing in the corner of my eye.

The orange pony with the hat approached me next. She looked me straight in the eyes with her strong green ones. Unlike the others she suffered no ill effects from looking directly into my eyes.

"Wait a minute you kicked me in the face." I pointed out.

The orange pony then broke eye contact with me and turned them to the floor as if it was suddenly very interesting. All the other ponies in the room seemed to pick up on the sudden change in atmosphere and some started shifting in place while others simply waited to see how this unfolded.

"That's actually what ah want to talk to ya'll about..." She trailed off and looked at me.

"Name first. I have already made myself known, you do the same." I said as neutral as possible.

"M'ah name's Applejack," She said. "and Ah'm real sorry for bucking you in th' face."

Her apology seemed genuine and honest. I did not want to increase tensions with the ponies and when I thought back on it she did not even hurt me.

"It's fine I forgive you Applejack."

She looked up with a confused expression on her face.

"What just like that?" She said somewhat startled.

"Just like that." I repeated.

"No grudge or nothin'?"

"Applejack, you did not even hurt me so no."

"W-What do you mean it didn't hurt you?" Asked the last pony I did not know.

"I can't feel pain, but may I ask who you are?"

All the ponies around me murmured a little except for the pink maned pegasus. She must have been intimidated by me judging by the way she was shaking. I kept my eyes locked on her awaiting her response.

"O-Oh It's ******." She muttered incoherently.

At first I thought the fault lied with me. That her name did not register correctly in all the knowledge I had gathered so I tired one more time.

"Sorry didn't quite catch that." I said.

"My name's F*******." She whispered.

This time I understood it was her fault. She had said her name so quietly that ny ears couldn't pick it up. She must have been terribly shy to not want to say her own name to me.

"I'm sorry but you're going to have to speak up." I requested.

"M-My name's F-Fluttershy." She stammered.

"Nice to meet you Fluttershy." I said nodding my head at her courage. "Now that introductions are out of the way I assume you all have many questions."

I would have expected Twilight to be the first to ask the questions to to her scholar like nature. However I was surprised when Octavia stepped forward.

"You were that tall crystal figure I saw before, aren't you?" She asked.

I paused for only a moment. "Yes that was me." The ponies in the room showed different degrees of shock on their faces. "I had no intentions on harming any of you. It was just an accident."

They all seemed to calm down except for Rainbow who was still very suspicious of me.

"Does that mean you're not a pony?" Twilight asked starting to take notes.

"No I'm no pony." I answered true fully.

"Then what are ya." Applejack asked.

I paused for a longer moment. "I truly don't know."

"What do you mean yo-." I cut Rainbow off before she could finish.

"When I Crashed I had close to no memory of my past." I paused letting them soak that in. "Although for the past few nights I have been getting small bits and pieces back."

"You mean like the night you were crying?" Asked Octavia

"I was crying?"

"Ya you were making a real big puddle too." Vinyl pointed out. "Was it a sad memory?"

"Yes." I nodded. " I don't really want to talk about it."

Rainbow did not press the subject no further. She still looked angry at me but a little uncomfortable as well.

"Sorry to push this along," Twilight interrupted. " but can you tell us where you're from?"

Well there's no point in holding out I suppose. "I am from a place called Earth." I said.

"Earth? I've never heard of that country before." Twilight raised a hoof to her chin pondering the name.

I shook my head. "Earth is not a country."

" Then it's a town?" Applejack joined in.

"No, it's the name of the planet."

They all went dead quiet. Rarity was first to break the silence.

"Oh come now, you're not trying to say you are from another world are you!" She gave me a laugh. I returned it with a serious stare. Her laughter died down when she saw my serious eyes. "Y-You are saying that aren't you?"

I only nodded.

"Wait," Vinyl said. "if you lost your memory how are you so sure you're from this 'Earth'."

I thought for a moment. "Lets see... Do you know about humans?"

"Those mythical creatures? Ya whenever I see Lyra she's always going on about them."

"I don't know who this 'Lyra' is but they are not myths." I said. "Where I was from they were a regular part of my day."

"Ha," Rainbow laughed.

I shot her a glare which she returned with on of her own. "Why do you hate me so much?" I asked.

She remained silent as if pondering why, but in the end she never answered my question and averted her eyes from me. Not wanting to create more tension I did so as well.

"Um... Shard." I turned my head to see Twilight with a hoof in the air.

"Yes Twilight, you have a question?"

She cleared her throat. "Yes, I want to ask how you interact with your environment like a unicorn would with magic. As far as I can tell your 'pieces' don't posses magic, so how do you do it."

Everyone's eyes were on me again with curiosity.

"This will be the last question I answer for the day. Is that OK?" I asked.

"Is it a long explanation?" Twilight asked raising a brow.

"Perhaps not but it is of length." I said. "Is it acceptable?"

Everypony in the room nodded.

"Alright how to explain this as simply as possible," I thought for only a moment until I found the perfect analogy. "Think of my body as an ant hill."

The words 'ant hill' brought a noticeable shudder on Rarity's coat. "Now think of every one of my shards as an ant. They all come and go from the ant hill for the greater good of the hill. They complete tasks that the 'queen' gives them."

Pinkie raised a hoof. "Who's the queen?"

I sighed. "I was getting to that Pinkie."

"Oh sorry."

Without further intuitions I continued. "They take orders from the queen or in this case my mind. Once I have given them orders they will fulfill them to the best of their abilities, no matter how simple or how complex."

As I expected Twilight's eyes were wide in amazement.

"That's ineradicable!" She squealed. "You must be capable of doing anything with such power!"

"Perhaps." I nonchalantly stated.

After the long game of introductions and questions was finally over I walked to the door. I summoned my cloak with a few shards and reached for the handle.

"Where are you going Shard?" Asked Twilight.

"I am very interested in your town and wish to see more."

Twilight shifted nervously in place. She looked like she wanted to say something.

"Umm... Can you come back before six?" She asked.

I was a little surprised she was letting me go so easily. I thought for sure she would keep me here thanks to last night's adventure. I nodded but was curious as to why she set a specific time.

"No need to fret Twilight Vinyl and I will accompany him." Octavia approached my side with Vinyl in tow carrying a scary smile.

I bowed once again and set out with the mares.

Author's Note

Hey All the supporters of A fair soul!
Be sure to check out my new story "Don't hesitate."

Also don't be afraid to post what you like or dislike about the chapter.
Don't feel discouraged if I don't respond I will quietly appreciate them.
And a massive thanks to Dagon M Dragoon for editing this one.