Chapters Chapter 1
‘I have got to get home. It’s an absolute blizzard out here!’ Connor thought to himself as he trudged towards his home with a bundle of food, firewood, and various arcane objects in his telekinetic grip. He walked up to the door with his cargo and stepped inside, immediately lighting his fireplace with a blast of magic as he entered. He loved his home. It was a small and simple house with a fireplace in the main room, his bedroom being the only other room in the house. He dropped his things on a table near the fireplace and went to his room and flopped down on the bed.
“It’s good to be home” he said to himself. “Tomorrow’s the big day; I’ve got to get some sleep.” Wrapping his blankets around himself he yawned loudly and closed his eyes, letting himself slip into unconsciousness.
Connor woke the next morning and realized that he had forgotten something of tremendous importance the previous night, something that could change his life as he knew it. He had forgotten to eat. He went into his main room and walked over to the fireplace and placed several logs in the space. He started the fire with a blast of arcane fire from his palm. He smiled to himself. He always loved elemental magic; it felt much more natural to him then all the other areas of magic that were out there. After that small moment of thought he placed a pot of stew from a few nights ago over the fire. It began to heat up and bathed his home in the amazing smell of the stew.
After he got the food started he had some time to think about his plans for the day. This was going to be an enormous challenge for him, both mentally and physically. He was going to be the first mage to master the art of teleportation. He was aware of the risks of the experiment and all the things that could happen to him in the process. Many a mage had attempted this before and ended up a bloody splotch on the wall just a few feet from where they started. But he had an advantage on all the mages who had tried previously. He had found an artifact of great power, one that would grant him the strength that he needed to perform such a spell. He had the laburnum stone.
He walked over to the stew pot and got a bowl of stew for himself. As he ate he began to gather all the necessary components for the spell. He had his salt, his candles, his staff, and the stone. He set the stone at the tip of his enchanted staff and looked at the stone. It was a stone of pure obsidian with several glowing green runes etched across its smooth surface. This was truly an item of immense magical power. He finished his bowl of stew and began preparing for the ritual.
He started by pouring the salt on the ground in the shape of a pentagram, careful not to make a single break in the lines. Then he placed the candles on every corner of the pentagram and lit each one with a small blast of fire from his fingertips. After everything was prepared he walked to the center of the pentagram and began chanting. As he began, the world itself seemed to grow still and tense. A haze settled over the room, the candle flames dancing in the air as he grew louder with his chanting. The pentagram began to glow an angry red as the power of his spell reached its climax. Finally, all the power that he gathered during the chanting gathered in the center of the laburnum stone and bathed the room in a harsh green light, then suddenly there was a flash of green light, and Connor was gone.
Connor slowly blinked his eyes has he awoke to an unfamiliar location. He looked around at his surroundings; it looked like he was in a desert of some kind. He was surrounded with brush plants and cacti. Yup, definitely a desert. ‘well’ he thought to himself. ‘better start finding out where my spell landed me’. He began walking; trying to find out where on earth he ended up.
After a few hours of walking, plus a few more, he began to feel hopeless. It was around sunset when he sat down to rest and looked over the horizon with an ever increasing sense of hopelessness and saw what looked like a settlement of some kind. With newfound hope he began to sprint towards the town. ‘Thank god! A town! Maybe now I’ll find out where I am.’ As he ran into the town he saw what was probably the last thing he expected. A town filled with pastel colored ponies! All of which were staring at him in absolute horror at the moment. “What the FUCK are you!?” He exclaimed as he felt something hard and unforgiving collide with his jaw. He fell to the ground as he felt the cold hands of unconsciousness grasp him as he was knocked out.
He awoke on a cold, hard floor. He tried getting up to get a better look at his surroundings when he realized his hands and feet were both tied! After a moment of thinking to himself he realized he could just burn the ropes off, but that would hurt his wrists. He settled for trying to find out what was going on before he made any rash decisions. He got up and looked around at his surroundings. He was in a small, dark room with a small pile of what seemed to be hay lying in the corner. He looked at the door and realized it was a cell door! “Where the hell am I!?” he screamed. “Well, whatever you are, I’m sheriff silverstar and I would like to be the first to say, welcome to Appleoosa.”
‘I just need to slow down and think’ Connor thought, ‘I don’t know what these things are or what they are capable of, so I’d better play it safe and be polite.’
“Hello?!” Connor called out “is anyone there?!”
“Oh good, ‘yer awake.” Silverstar said calmly. “I’ve got a few questions for you. First off, what are you?”
“I’m a human, what are you?”
“Ahm’ a pony. Everybody in this whole town is. Heck, most of this world’s population is ponies. I’ve never even heard of a human. So since you obviously aren’t from here, where are ya’ from?”
“I’m from a planet called earth.”
“So there aren’t ponies where you’re from?”
Connor thought for a moment about telling him about what ponies are used for on earth, but decided better of it. He didn’t want them to think he was some kind of slave driver.
“no,” Connor lied “ponies do not exist where I am from.”
“strange, very strange.”
A new pony ran in, he had a tan coat with a short, brown mane and tail. He had an odd tattoo-like thing on his rear of a small scroll tied with red ribbon. As far as Connor could tell, all ponies had the strange tattoos. He made a mental note to ask about them in due time.
“Sheriff! The letter you sent to the princess has just gotten a response! She wants the alien moved to the town of ponyville!”
“Why would she ask that? Why wouldn’t she just teleport here?”
“She said that she didn’t know if it was a threat, and wanted the elements close by in case it’s dangerous.”
“Well if that’s what she wants,” Silverstar said with a groan “get him on the next train to ponyville.”
Sheriff Silverstar walked over to the cell door and unlocked it. Connor decided now would be a good time to ask something from the sheriff.
“Excuse me sheriff, could you remove the ropes on my wrists?”
“’fraid I can’t. We still aren’t sure what you are capable of and we need to ensure the safety of all those around you until you are deemed safe.”
Connor thought for a moment about protesting but decided he’d wait it out.
“Follow me” said Silverstar
Connor exited his cell and looked around. He knew he was in a jail, but he expected it to be much bigger than it was. ‘There must not be much crime here’ Connor thought to himself. He walked up the stairs leading into the sheriff’s office and walked towards the front door. He walked out the door, and right into a tan pony wearing a hat and vest.
“WELL HOWDY THERE STRANGER! THE SHERIFF GOT TO YOU BEFORE I GOT TO WELCOME YOU TO OUR FINE TOWN!”
“Well, that’s very nice of y-“
“YOU HAVE TO COME SEE ALL THE GREAT THINGS ABOUT OUR GREAT TOWN!”
“well thanks, but I have to get to the trai-“ Braeburn cut him off by grabbing him in a way that didn’t seem possible for someone without fingers and dragged him to the center of the town,
“Here is the town center of the beautiful town of APPLEOOSA!” he grabbed Connor again and dragged him in a new direction.
“Over here is a bar, the salt lick, and over here are our horse-drawn carriages, and over here are our horse-drawn horse-drawn carriages, and over here,”
“BRAEBURN LEAVE THAT PRISONER ALONE I’M TRYING TO TRANSPORT HIM”
“Well sheriff I’m mighty sorry. You can have him back.”
Connor walked back to the sheriff in a state of shock from what he just experienced. They began to walk toward the train station again in silence. As they arrived at the train station, Silverstar turned to Connor.
“I must apologize for Braeburn’s behavior. He gets very excited whenever somepony new comes into town.”
“It’s alright” Connor responded looking out at nothing. He heard a whistle blow and turned his head to see the strangest train he had ever seen heading his way. It looked as if each train car had a layer of frosting for its roof and the lead train car looked like some kind of massive cupcake. Connor was confused as to how the machine even worked.
The train’s brakes squealed as it pulled into the station. From what Connor saw, it was a coal operated train. He said goodbye to the sheriff and stepped on to the train car. He looked around the spacious car which he only shared with the two security guards meant to keep him from running away. On the left side of the car were the beds. They looked to be bunk beds and, of course, much too small for him. On the right side of the car were a couple benches. The train groaned as it began to pull out of the station toward his destination.
He laid down on one of the beds in a very comically scrunched up way and tried to go to sleep, but couldn’t. Instead he decided that he would listen in on the guard’s conversations.
“So what do you think of that freak we’re guarding?” the first guard said in a hushed voice.
“I don’t like it. It seems freaky. I don’t trust it.” Whispered the second
“I know that its claws are bound, but that doesn’t make me any more comfortable being around it”
“I know, and did you see that things teeth? They aren’t scary, just really odd. They aren’t like ours.”
“No, really? Because I thought the alien would look exactly like us.” The first guard said in a very sarcastic way.
“Shut the buck up shield.”
“No need to get mad at me because you said something stupid.”
They began to bicker as Connor stopped listening and drifted off to sleep.
Connor awoke to the sound of a train whistle going off and a frightened looking guard poking at his chest with a hoof. Connor was confused, he thought that this “Ponyville” would be at least a few days journey from Appleoosa, not a single nights. He gave a groan as he rose from the bed, forgetting that his hands were bound and fell flat on his face. The guards began to laugh but immediately went silent when he glared at them.
He got up from the floor of the train car and began to walk towards the entrance of the car when he was stopped by one of the guards.
“Alright prisoner, you’re going to be met by one of the elements of harmony and escorted to the town library where you will meet our princess. After that, she will deem whether or not you are worthy to live in this beautiful country or if you will be banished. That is all” Said the first guard as the second removed his bindings.
Connor was just glad to be away from his guards and walked towards the door of the train as the car door opened to reveal a purple unicorn with a smile on its face bigger than Connor thought possible.
“Hii’mtwilightsparkleandimheretogreetyouandi’vealwayswantedtomeetanalienand-“
“Slow down please, I can’t understand you.”
“Sorry” she said sheepishly, as a light blush grew on her cheeks. “I’m Twilight Sparkle and I’m just very excited to be able to meet an alien! I want to learn everything about where you are from and everything about you!”
Connor was beginning to feel a bit nervous around the unicorn and her boundless enthusiasm and began to look for an excuse to slow down for a bit.
“ Aren't we supposed to be meeting some princess?”
“Princess Celestia, and yes, we are meeting her.”
“Well then let’s get going, wouldn't want to leave royalty waiting then!”
This statement seemed to send Twilight into a panic.
“WE’RE GOING TO BE LATE!!!” she said as she took off running down one of the cobbled streets of the town. Connor began running after her. She stopped running as she reached some kind of a giant tree with a door and a window. Connor was more than a just a little bit confused as to how a tree could be made into a library. His confusion only got worse as he entered and realized just how much was actually within the tree. There were bookshelves all around him, a large staircase and what appeared to be even more rooms at the top! And at the center of the library were two pegasi, a unicorn, to normal looking ponies, and some strange hybrid of the pegasi and unicorns.
He looked at the hybrid pony’s mane in amazement as it seemed to be flowing with some kind of non-existent wind blowing it in an amazing way. He then began to explore the room with his magic and realized just what kind of a situation he was in. The purple unicorn that greeted him appeared to have magical power that matched his own, while the one in the center of the room could probably wipe him off the planet on a whim. He decided he would show extra respect to the hybrid.
Connor got down on a knee and bowed. “So you are the princess I've heard so much about. Celestia, right?”
“It is not very common to speak to royalty before spoken to but I will allow it just once as I do not know your customs.” Celestia said in a calm, yet somehow threatening voice “Now tell me human, where are you from?”
“I’m from a planet called earth.”
“How did you get here?”
“I was attempting to be the first of my kind to master teleportation.”
Twilight spoke up. “You’re a mage?!” she said with a type of glee only she could produce. “wait, you don’t have teleportation where you’re from?”
“No, do you?”
“Of course we do! We-”
“Twilight we can talk about magic later. I need to ask him a few more questions” Princess Celestia scolded.
“Sorry princess”
“It’s fine twilight. Now, human, I never did get your name.”
“I’m Connor”
“Well Connor, I have only one more question of you and then you will be free to go.”
Connor’s eyes flashed with hope. “Ask away princess!”
“Do you have any abilities or weapons that may pose a threat to my country and its people?”
“I am, as I have said, a mage and I study elemental magic. Fire, ice, water, earth, lightning, you name it. I have no violent intentions so my abilities will not pose a threat.”
“Why did you have to learn combat magic to begin with if you didn’t plan to harm?” Celestia said, a glare beginning to form.
“For protection,” Connor said without missing a beat “In my world we were at war and I was a mage in my kingdoms army.” He was lying through his teeth and knew it, but he wanted to be released and this was the best way to get there.
“I still do not trust you but provided that the elements of harmony agree to keep an eye on you I will let you live here. Under heavy supervision.”
Connor looked to the other ponies in the group that he saw form a huddle and begin talking in hushed whispers. Twilight joined them and began talking with them. He began to hear traces of their conversation.
“He looks scary.”
“But think of all we could learn!”
“His clothes look nice.”
“What do his clothes have to do with anything?
“I was merely stating an observation darling don’t be so critical.”
They all turned to look at him then turned back to their huddle and talked in whispers too hushed for Connor to hear for about another minute. They turned back and Twilight began speaking to Celestia.
“We have agreed to watch over him. He will live in the library with me. Is this ok with you princess?”
“Of course Twilight, just be careful, I still don’t trust this man.”
“I think he just needs a friend in this world and he’ll turn out great.” Twilight spoke with a smile.
“If you think so my faithful student. I have important meetings to get back to in Canterlot so I’m afraid I must be going. Good luck.” Celestia said just before she vanished in a sphere of golden light.
Connor turned to all the ponies and looked over all of them. ‘The elements of harmony huh? From what everyone keeps saying they must be pretty powerful. Odd considering that the only one of detectable power here is Twilight, and apparently she had never even heard of combat magic before in her life so he could still destroy her if she attacked him.’ He thought while looking them over.
“Well are you just going to stand there darling or are you going to introduce me to everybody?” he asked Twilight.
“Everypony , and of course. The white unicorn is Rarity, she’s a clothing designer. The rainbow maned pegasus is named Rainbow Dash, she works on the weather team.” Twilight was about to continue before Connor interrupted her.
“What the hell is a weather team?”
Twilight looked at him like he was a complete idiot. “You know, the weather team, controls the weather, changes seasons, any of this ringing a bell?”
“In my world the weather controls itself and the seasons change on their own.”
This drew a collective gasp from the group. They all looked at him with confusion.
“Can we get back to the introductions please?” Connor complained
“Yes, of course. The yellow mare over there is Fluttershy, she takes care of the animals. And over there is Applejack, she owns an apple orchard. And last but not least is-“
“I’M PINKIE PIE! Wait a second,” pinkie paused for a moment staring uncomfortably at Connor “You’re new in town! I have to go get my supplies!” she boosted out of the door at a speed that Connor didn’t think possible. Twilight turned at him smiling.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Well Connor, I hope you’re ready for a very long night.”
“What did you mean by that?” Connor asked.
“You’ll see” Twilight said with a knowing smile on her face.
“Why do you feel the need to taunt me? I’ve been through some serious trauma, and you make it even harder to adjust!” Connor complained in a very sarcastic way.
Twilight looked at him with an absolutely horrified expression. “I DIDN’T MEAN TO HURT YOU IM SO SORRY!” she cried.
“Twilight does your world have sarcasm?”
“Well of course but.” She stopped mid-sentence as realization dawned on her. “That wasn’t very funny Connor.” She said in a rejected way.
“Sorry Twilight. I forgot that you don’t know much about me.”
“It’s fine Connor,” she said with a sniffle “I just overreacted.” She looked at him with a small smile. “Hey, when was the last time you ate since getting here?”
Connor thought to himself and realized that he had only eaten once, in prison. Even then the only thing he had was a few vegetables. He was starving.
“It’s been a while since I have eaten actually. Do you have any food?”
“Well I was thinking we could go out to eat. Sort of like a welcome to equestria gift.” She said with a slight blush. “What do you like to eat?”
“Well I’m not very picky. What do the restaurants around here serve?”
“Well there’s prairie fire, but that place is kind of fancy. How about the bread basket?”
“Twilight, I think you forget, I’ve never been here in my life before now.”
“Oh, of course!” she said, blushing again “It’s a restaurant that serves breads and soups. Nice place and not too fancy.” She explained with a smile.
“Sounds good to me! Shall we?” He said, gesturing to the library door with a hand.
As he walked to the restaurant he felt the gazes of many of the townsfolk on him as he walked. This both creeped him out and made him laugh. He watched one pony walk straight into a wall while staring at him. Another fell into a bush. His snickering stopped as the intoxicating smell of fresh baked bread hit his nose. He looked at the source of the smell and saw the front window of a very rustic looking shop. Its logo was, well, a bread basket with bread poking out. “Not very creative.” Connor mumbled to himself.
“What was that?” Twilight asked him.
“Oh nothing twi. Let’s go eat!”
As Connor walked into the restaurant, she stopped for a moment to think. ‘Did he just call me twi? Do all humans shorten names or does that mean something?’ Twilight’s train of thought was momentarily interrupted when Connor called out to her. “Twilight! You coming?” She shook her head and trotted into the restaurant and took in the nice smells and warm appearance of the place. It was one of her favorite places to eat.
“So what are you thinking of getting Connor?” She asked with a smile.
“The Carrot stew with the bread bowl sounds nice. I’ll take that please.”
“I’ll probably get the same thing. Do you want something to drink?”
“I’ll probably just get water.” Connor said
“Are you sure you don’t want some apple juice? You won’t find it many other places in Equestria.”
‘I should probably do what she asks. I want to make a good impression.’ Connor thought “You know what? That actually does sound nice. Thank you.”
The unicorn server walked up to their table and stared at Connor slack jawed for about ten seconds before he spoke up. “Keep your mouth open like that for much longer and you’ll catch flies.”
The server realized her mistake and quickly went back to her professional appearance. “What are you ordering today?” she said while opening her notepad with magic.
“We’ll both take the vegetable soup with the bread bowl and apple juice.” Twilight said with a smile.
“Got it” the server said as she walked away.
“So Connor, I haven’t had the chance to learn about you since you got here.” Twilight said.
“Well what do you want to know?” Connor asked.
“Well first off, what types of magic do you have there?” She said with eyes full of curiosity.
“Well there are a few schools of magic which a mage can study where I’m from. The school of magic I practice is the elemental school and focuses on manipulating the world around you for combat. Then there are the illusionists. These people focus on manipulation of the mind to defeat their enemies. These people can use spells like fury to send their opponents into a blind rage, or calm to take them out of one.” This seemed to pique Twilight’s interest. She focused a lot on expanding her mind and the thought that there was magic that could take that and twist it was morbidly fascinating. She looked up and saw Connor was about to continue. “Then there are the summoners. These people can summon things purely out of magic to fight for the mage and keep them safe. These are about the only schools of magic that I know from my world. What magic does your world have?”
Twilight began to think of the magic that Equestria had to offer. “Well, we don’t have different magic schools of magic here. Just different skill levels and spells.” This seemed to shock Connor. ‘So just anybody with enough study and practice could become a super powerful mage? That is both amazing and slightly scary.’ Twilight began to continue “For example, I am an expert spellcaster. I don’t know which level you would be at though.” As Twilight said this, she got an amazing idea. “Do you want to have a sparring session after we eat?!” she asked.
“Sure twi.”
‘There’s that nickname again.’ She thought. “Oh look the food is here!” she said happily.
Connor decided that the first thing he would try was the apple juice, since Twilight thought it was so good he’d have to see for himself. He took a sip and the experience that followed could only be described as pure bliss. The flavor hit his tongue like an explosion and his mind was lost in ecstasy. By the time he finally stopped trying to savor the taste of the drink he looked up and saw Twilight looking at him.
“See? I told you it would taste fantastic.” She said as she saw his reaction to his first taste.
“Ok fine, if the soup is even half as good as this apple juice I’ll become a regular in no time!” He laughed.
They quickly finished their meals and began walking to the library. They were walking through the streets and Connor was gathering a lot less stares from everypony as he walked. They were just about to reach the library when Connor heard something running from behind him.
“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS ALIEN DEFENDERS!!!”
Connor turned to see three small ponies running at him with sticks in their mouths. The yellow and red pony was the first to charge and began assaulting his shins with all her might. Connor had to suppress a laugh at how weak the attack actually was as twilight lifted her away with telekinesis and began to berate them.
“Girls! Connor is not an alien, he is my guest and my friend and you will treat him as such!”
The smaller ponies all hung their heads in shame. “We’re sorry twilight. We were just trying to defend you from him and maybe get our cutie marks.”
“It’s fine girls, now go run along. You can meet Connor later and maybe he’ll have some fun with you.”
“Ok Twilight! Let’s go girls, we aren’t getting any closer to our cutie marks just standing here!” upon hearing this, they all ran off in another direction doing who knows what.
Twilight and Connor shared a laugh and walked into the library to prepare for their sparring match.
“So what’s a cutie mark anyway?” Connor questioned twilight.
“It’s a mark that shows up on a pony’s flank when they find their special talent. Like mine,” she explained as she showed him her star “is magic. So I got a star. My talent is a proficiency for magic.”
“That is very cool. If everyone knew what they were best at the world would run a lot more smoothly.”
“It is pretty nice to know. Let’s go out to the back of the library and I’ll set up the protective wards.”
They walked out to the back of the library and Twilight began to cast spells in a large circle around the area where they would be sparring. It was a relatively large area with a few trees and bushes for cover.
“So what do these wards do?” Connor asked.
“The wards are in place to keep spells from leaving the sparring area and people from getting in until the practice is concluded. It keeps people from hurting themselves. It also keeps us from any actual damage; we still feel pain just no real bodily harm to either side actually happens.”
Connor felt satisfied with the explanation. “Are you ready to begin?” He asked while falling into a fighting stance.
“Ready.”
“GO”
Connor made the first move by literally falling backwards into the ground! Twilight sent out a searching spell and felt him coming up beneath her and dodged left just as he exploded out of the ground with a punch that was aimed where her stomach used to be. She sent several blasts of magic at him from several different directions hoping that quantity would get him. He responded by sending a blast of electricity directly at Twilight’s head.
From twilight’s view
She looked and saw Connor pointing two of his fingers directly at her. What was he going to do with those, poke her eyes? She smirked as she saw her magical bolts close in just before a bright flash of light. Then everything went dark.
From Connor’s view
He saw the bolt hit and twilight dropped to the ground. He didn’t feel the wards drop so he knew she was fine but walked over to check on her and decided to use one of the most helpful spells he learned while sparring. He stood above her and placed his hands on her head and channeled his magic into her head, waking her up.
“AAAAGGGGHHHH!!! Why does my head hurt so much?!”
“That usually happens when you get hit with lightning.”
“Is that what you used? I can’t really remember what happened right before I blacked out. All I know now is I have the worst migraine I have ever experienced.”
“I don’t know any healing spells except basic first aid like the spell I used to wake you up. Sorry.” He said sheepishly. "I forgot that you don't know combat magic even close to how strong my world's combat magic is."
She rubbed her temples with her hooves and groaned. “It’s fine, I know a few healing spells that could help it.” She said as she surrounded her whole head in a soft purple glow. “Much better.” She said as she looked up and saw the sun beginning to set. “How long was I out?”
“A few hours at most.” Connor explained calmly.
“Well, let’s get inside. Spike’s probably looking for me by now.”
They walked towards the library and opened the door. Connor turned on the light and what he saw nearly gave him a heart attack.
“SURPRISE!!!”
“Surprise!!!” Connor had to suppress what would have probably been the most girly scream in his life at the sight of a pony with a smile that seemed to be bigger than her head and a mane that looked way too similar to cotton candy to be coincidental. “So?! what do you think?!” Pinkie asked.
He looked around the library in awe at how he was just in the backyard for just a few hours and somehow this pink pony had set up this astronomical amount of party decorations without him hearing a sound on the outside. There was confetti everywhere and streamers hung like waterfalls from the bookshelves. There was a large banner hanging in the middle of the library’s main room that said ‘Welcome to Equestria Connor!’ in large multi colored letters. He was awestruck to say the least. He turned back to Pinkie with a grin.
“I love it pinkie!” He exclaimed with a smile.
“GREAT! NOW THE PARTY CAN START!” She happily screamed as she ran of to some unknown location.
Connor turned to Twilight. “She set all this up in a just a few hours?” He asked, still in awe.
“Of course, she’s Pinkie Pie. She could have set this up in half an hour if she wanted to.”
He took one last look around the room before looking at the large crowd that had gathered in the library, most of which were staring at him with looks that ranged from curiosity to disgust. One pony in particular seemed very eager to meet him. It was a pony that looked very similar to the one princess that he spoke to when he arrived. The difference was that this one was a dark blue and had a mane that looked like an entire galaxy was contained within it. He felt to see if its magic power matched the one he met before. He was absolutely astounded by the amount of power that this being held. If he thought the first was powerful this one was just outright terrifying.
“HELLO ALIEN! WE ARE VERY EXCITED TO BE ABLE TO MEET YOU! OUR SISTER WOULD NOT LET US SEE YOU WHEN YOU FIRST ARRIVED!”
Connor felt like the alicorn’s voice was going to blow him across the library. He was about to say something when Twilight stepped forward.
The blue alicorn covered her mouth in a way that made her look like a child saying a curse word around their parents. “We. I, am sorry Twilight.” She turned to Connor. “Hello alien. I am Princess Luna and I am very excited to meet you.” She held out a hoof clad in a silver shoe. Connor knelt and kissed the hoof. “It is an honor, princess.” Luna looked at him with a smile then turned to the rest of the partygoers. “See! Even the alien knows the proper way to respond to royalty!” she said with an angry looking smirk to the crowd. Connor turned to Twilight.
“Is this something I should know about?”
“I’ll tell you later.”
Luna turned back to Connor. “So, alien, I never did get your name.”
“I’m Connor.”
“Well Connor, it has been a pleasure meeting you and I will leave you to enjoy the rest of the night. Don’t forget to introduce yourself to everypony!” She said as she walked away. Connor looked around at the sea of ponies now staring at him. He let out a nervous laugh, not really sure how to respond to everypony looking at him. Twilight seemed to see his distress and step forward.
“This is Connor. He is from another world. we are not entirely sure how he got here. If you would like to introduce yourself to him, you are free to do so tonight.”
Connor looked at her with a small smile. ‘She sounds like a teacher lecturing students’ He snickered to himself as she finished her small speech. Whatever she said that Connor was too lost in thought to hear seemed to calm the crowd and they went back to enjoying their night. Connor looked over to twilight and mouthed a thank you to Twilight. She gave a small smile and went off to chat with her friends. Connor looked around and saw a blue pony with a bright pink mane looking at him with curiosity, her head tilted slightly to the side. He snickered to himself and walked over to her.
“Hi, I’m Connor. What’s your name?”
“I am Lotus.” She said in an accent that Connor swore he heard somewhere before.
“Nice to meet you Lotus, what do you do around here?”
“I run Ponyville’s finest spa. I give massages, run the baths, provide aromatherapy, things of that sort. Also, not to be rude but why do your, hooves , look like that?”
He gave a small laugh. “These aren’t called hooves, they are called hands.”
“Hands hmm?” She stared at them very closely, as if trying to take them apart with her eyes. Connor got a little uncomfortable and decided that he would go and talk to somepony else.
“Well, it was nice meeting you Lotus.” He said as he slipped away. After a few hours passed he began to feel very tired as he looked out and saw that the crowd had thinned quite a lot. He took this as his chance to go talk to Twilight.
“Hey Twilight, I’m a little tired. Could you point me to where I’m sleeping while I’m here?” he asked with a yawn.
She turned to him and smiled. “Sure Connor. Your room is just right up these stairs.” She gave a cute yawn as she walked up the stairs and pointed to a room to the right of the steps. “You’ll be staying here. I hope you like it.”
“Thanks Twi. Good night.” He said sleepily as he walked into the room and collapsed in the bed that was much too small for him and passed out.
Twilight’s view
As the last of the guests finally left Twilight breathed a sigh of relief and sat down on a large cushion. ‘I’d better follow Connor’s lead. It is getting pretty late.’ She thought to herself as she groggily pulled herself up to walk to her bed. She stopped outside Connor’s room and walked inside to check on him. His legs were hanging over the edge of the bed. the sight made Twilight snicker to herself. She moved over to his face and saw that he had a small scar that ran down his left eye. She made a mental note to ask him about that when he woke up. She suddenly found herself fascinated with how he looked. He was so... different from anything she had ever seen before.
“You know, where I come from it’s considered strange to stare at someone while they sleep.” Connor said without even opening his eyes. Twilight nearly jumped out of her skin when he said that.
“ imsorryijustwantedtogetacloserlookatyouand-”
“Twilight relax. Just go get some sleep.” he said calmly as he rolled over.
Twilight just walked out without a word and lied down in her bed, still in shock. She closed her eyes and tried to get some sleep.
Connor woke up to the smell of cooking food in his nose. This smell immediately began its war with his desire to sleep in his suddenly much more comfortable bed. The assault was furthered when his ears joined the fight as Twilight called him down to the kitchen for breakfast with a singsong voice. He eventually realized it was a fight he could not win and just got up. He walked down to the kitchen and sat down at the table. as twilight brought over a plate of eggs and set it in front of him. Connor ate whatever was on the plate like his life depended on it while Twilight looked at him with some mix of amazement and horror. As he finished with his plate he looked across the table at twilight who was maybe three bites into her food.
“Do you always eat like this?”
“Only in the mornings. I’m always too tired to care about manners so I must apologise in advance for all future mornings.”
“Ok well, I kinda wanted to talk to you about last night.”
“What about it?”
“I just wanted to apologise. I didn’t mean to come across as creepy. I just got curious and wanted to see what you looked like up close.” She said with a small sniffle as her head lowered. “I’m sorry Connor.”
“It’s really not something to worry about Twilight. There is nothing wrong with curiosity. That is how we find out more about things.”
“Really?” She said, looking much happier than she did just moments ago.
“Really. Now I’ve got a question for you.”
“Ask away!” she said eagerly.
“Where can I look for work here? I’d like to pull my own weight around here if I’m going to stay with you.”
“You do know you’ve only been here for two days right?”
“I still don’t want to just sit around doing nothing all day.”
“Well alright. Your best bet should just be asking around at the local shops to see if anyone is hiring.”
“Thanks Twilight. I’ll be back later today, hopefully with a job!”
“Bye Connor!”
Connor walked out of the library with a newfound sense of purpose. He felt as though he could take on the world at the moment as if nothing could stand in his way.
After leaving his fifth rejection, this time at the store for quills and sofas Connor was feeling pretty pissed. ‘Why is there a store that sells two completely unrelated items like that? Even more strange than that was that it was the store owner’s special talent! Who’s damn special talent is selling two completely unrelated things?!’ Connor was too wrapped in his mental tirade to notice a familiar face walking his way.
“Hello Connor!” Lotus said as she walked up to him. hearing this was enough to snap Connor out of his thoughts. He looked up, smiled and waved to her. “Hello Lotus.”
“I saw you walking out of several stores today looking kind of frustrated. Is something wrong?”
“Yeah, I’ve been looking for a job and I’ve been kicked out of two stores and the other three weren’t hiring. It’s kind of upsetting.”
“Why didn’t you just come to my store first dear? I’ve been looking for a new masseur in my spa and I was wondering if those hands of yours were good at it.” She said with a somewhat creepy smile.
“I’d love to give it a shot but I have no idea how to give a massage.”
“That’s alright, I’ll show you how!” her smile seemed to get bigger with each sentence.
“Well, alright.” No sooner did he finish his sentence then she began shoving him towards the spa. He was shoved into a building and the second he entered he was amazed again at how this world’s buildings seemed so small on the outside but are somehow much larger on the inside. he looked left and saw the entrance to the baths and to the right was the way to the massage tables.
“This is a really beautiful spa you have here.” Connor said in admiration. “So when am i going to learn how to give a massage?” he asked.
“In just a moment dear.” Lotus turned to a different side of the shop. “ALOE!” A pony that looked almost exactly alike Lotus walked into the room.
“Yes Lotus?”
“I’ve found our new trainee.”
Aloe clapped her hooves together in joy.
“Well then. Let’s get to work.”
“So Lotus told me that you two would teach me to give massages so that I could work here, correct?” Connor asked.
“Of course dear! Just follow me to the massage room of the spa.” Aloe said calmly as she gestured to Lotus and they both began walking towards a backroom of the spa. They walked into the room and Connor took a look around. The door was directly in the center of the room. It smelled a lot like mint. There was a single massage table in the entire room. The rest of the space was taken up by various oils and various bottles of scents used for aromatherapy. The room had no windows but was lit by scented candles that Connor assumed was what gave the room its minty smell.
“Why is there only one table in here?” Connor asked, very confused.
“Well dear there are only two of us here, so one of us works the desk and the other attends to guests.” Lotus explained.
“Well that makes sense.”
“Any other questions before we get started?”
“Just one. Who will I be learning on?”
“Well, me of course.” Lotus said with a devilish smile.
“What do you mean you?! I want to be the first one to get a massage from him!” Aloe yelled.
“I was the first to find him so I want to be the first to get a massage from him!”
As the twins began to argue Connor saw this as his opportunity to think for a moment about what he had just gotten into. While he did want a job to help support himself and not take advantage of Twilight’s kindness, what he did not want was a pony that seemed to be all too interested in him. It seemed that this obsession was shared by her twin as well, even though he had only just met her. ‘Is this really worth it? Should I just run away and avoid the two of them until they forget about me? No, I need to help Twilight with money and support myself here. Even if it means... this.’ Connor shuddered slightly and began to return his focus to the two ponies arguing in front of him.
“Well I say we let him decide who he wants to give the massage to!”
“Fine!”
They both turned to him with fire burning in their eyes that seemed hot enough to melt stone. Connor wasn’t sure who he should pick. I mean, there were so many options to consider. Who could hurt him more, for instance.
“Well?!” They asked in unison.
“I’ll go with Lotus.” He said hesitantly.
“I told youhe’d pick me!” She sneered in Aloe’s face.
“Fine, jerk. Get on the table.” Aloe said with a glare.
Lotus gave a smirk that seemed to scream ‘I won’ at Aloe and climbed up onto the table and laid down. Connor looked expectantly at Aloe who at the moment seemed to be trying to melt a hole in the back of Lotus’ skull with nothing but pure anger.
“So where do I start?” Connor asked hesitantly, as if this simple question would cause Aloe’s anger to be turned on him. Instead, she looked at him and her hateful gaze turned to a smile.
“Well first, you ask where the client needs the massage. You wouldn’t want to massage a pony’s back who really wants a neck massage, and so on. Then, after that, you ask if they would like any kind of aromatherapy to increase their experience. Next, you apply a small amount of oil to your... what are those called?”
“Hands.”
“Okay, you apply a small amount of oil to your hands to prevent hurting your client’s skin during the massage. Then you massage the area that they requested in a way that will get rid of their aches and pains.”
“That’s it?” He asked, raising an eyebrow.
“What were you expecting? A lecture on magical theory?” She responded sarcastically. “Now, get started.” She said as she gestured towards Lotus.
“All right.” He said as he walked over to Lotus. “Where would you like your massage?” He asked reluctantly.
“Well my lower back has been hurting a bit lately.” she said with a small wiggle of her rump. The second that Lotus did that he could almost feel the pure hatred emanating from Aloe. He wasn’t sure if it was jealousy, sibling rivalry, or some strange mix of both. Either way, he was thoroughly scared. ‘Remember, I’m doing this for Twilight.’ He thought to himself.
“Would you like any aromatherapy?” He asked, thinking through what he needed to do.
“Some mint incense would be nice.”
‘Strange request, considering that the room already smells very strongly of it, but whatever.’ He turned to Aloe. “Where is the mint incense?” He asked sheepishly.
She walked over to the shelf on the right side of the room and gestured to the bottom shelf and pulled a small box out. Connor thanked her and grabbed a stick of incense and lit it using the flame from one of the candles and placed the stick in the incense holder then walked over to Lotus and placed his hands on her hindquarters. She gave a small shudder that made Connor feel even more reluctant. He looked to Aloe.
“What do I do now?” He questioned.
“Well,” She said, moving him out of the way and placing her hooves where his hands were. “you apply pressure on the spot just enough to where it feels like you can push the knots out of their muscles and move your hooves, er, hands, in small circular motions. now you try”
Connor walked back to Lotus and began massaging her lower back the way that Aloe showed him using his palms. Lotus gave a small sigh and he continued massaging. He decided to try something he saw people do back where he was from and used his fingers to massage a small, spread out area across her back.
“That feels amazing Connor. What are you doing dear?” She said in a very mellow tone.
“Just using my fingers.” He responded politely.
“I knew I made the right choice bringing you here. This feels better than any hoof massage I have ever received. Business will be through the roof when you start working here.”
This made Connor feel fantastic and horrified at the same time. For one, he had a job! On the other hand though, his employers were these two. Connor shuddered at the thought of what working for them would be like then brought his focus back to the task at hand. After about a half an hour he stopped the massage.
“So, how did I do?” He asked.
She looked up, her eyes half-lidded from sheer ecstasy.
“That was probably the best massage I have ever received in my life. Your hands are so much softer than hooves. Are you sure that you didn’t do this where you’re from?” She asked lazily.
“Nope. This is the first massage I have ever given that wasn’t me trying to get the aches out of my own neck.”
“Well you definitely have the job. You start tomorrow. Just come in tomorrow around noon and we’ll get you started.”
“Thanks Aloe. Thanks Lotus.” Connor paused for a moment. “Wait, didn’t you say that you had to have one of you working the front desk at all times?”
“Yes dear, to watch for customers and take payments.”
“Why hasn’t Aloe been there then? What if a customer came in?”
“We didn’t plan you coming in here today or anything!” Aloe said nervously.
Connor gave her a very creeped out look. Lotus shot her a very different look. A look that screamed “Are you fucking kidding me?”.
“I should probably be going.” Connor said, still thoroughly creeped out. Neither of the twins said a word as he walked out the front door. The second that the door shut he heard an argument start. He decided it was for the best to ignore it. He looked up and saw it was close to a couple hours until sunset and began to walk towards the library. He looked around with a small sense of joy knowing that for the first time since he got here, he accomplished something. He turned around the last corner he needed to and walked towards the library feeling slightly worn out from his day of searching for a job. He opened the door to see Twilight sitting in one of the library’s chairs, thoroughly absorbed in a book.
“Hey twi!” He said gleefully.
Twilight let out a small eep before falling out of her seat and onto the floor. She looked up at Connor with a mix of embarrassment and glee.
“Welcome home Connor!” She said with a big smile. “How did your job search go?”
“Not too well.” He said with a small frown. “I mean, I searched all day and only got one job!” He laughed with his frown turning back to a smile. Twilight giggled at his joke.
“Where are you going to be working?” She asked.
“The spa. I got a job as a masseur. I start work tomorrow.”
This seemed to surprise Twilight. She looked at him with a somewhat skeptical look on her face.
“You’re joking right?”
“Not in the slightest. Why?”
“Well, I can see you as a lot of things. But a masseur? That’s not one of them.”
“I can understand that. But the owners seem to like me, and they showed me how to give a massage so I’m not completely clueless.” He said with a smile. This got a small giggle from Twilight.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to get a massage from you sometime to see if that’s true.” She said with a mischievous grin on her face. “But before that, I have a question for you.”
“Ask away.”
“Do you think that you could teach me that magic you do? I’ve never seen any unicorn that uses it. I’d like to be the first to learn it.”
“Absolutely! would you like to start right now? I can start you off with the basics.”
From Twilight’s view
“Absolutely! would you like to start right now? I can start you off with the basics.”
Upon hearing this she filled with such an amount of glee and pure happiness that could only be provided by being the first to learn a skill in her entire world. As a scholar, this was probably one of the high points of her entire life.
From Connor’s view
Twilight seemed to be staring into space with a grin that seemed to be stuck on her face. He wondered for a moment if he had said something that triggered a flashback. Perhaps a medical condition of some kind? He waved his hand in front of her face a few times to break her out of her joy induced trance.
“Hey Twilight, you alright?”
“Huh? Oh sorry, I just got really excited.” She said with a small blush forming in her cheeks.
“It’s fine. Let’s head out back and set up those wards.”
“Gladly” She said as they walked out together and set up the wards they used while sparring around the backyard. After they finished Twilight walked over to Connor.
“So where do we start?” She said excitedly.
“Ok, first lesson is fire. In my way of using magic, there are two types of fire. There is arcane fire, which draws solely on magic power, they come out looking somewhat light blue and are for generic uses and can be used in fighting. Then there are the flames of emotion. The flames of emotion draw on something you are feeling to make your arcane flames much stronger, however, if the feeling you try to draw on is weak at the time, it can make your flames weaker. We will start by making arcane fire. Arcane fire is created by taking the magic power in your body and willing it to become sparks in your hand, or in your case, horn. You then take these sparks of magic and will them to become much hotter and burn bigger and brighter. Once they do this they will collect and form arcane fire.” He demonstrated by holding up his hand and showing Twilight the blue sparks slowly leaking out of his hands then suddenly growing bigger and brighter and bursting into a light blue flame. Twilight looked in amazement at his hand and the fire it held.
Connor looked at her and smiled. She looked somewhat like a curious child seeing fire for the first time. Yet somehow, different. As though behind that childlike curiosity she was also analyzing and processing information with a mind far better than he gave her credit for. He liked that about her. His train of thought was interrupted when Twilight spoke.
“I think I get it. I’m ready to try now.”
“All right. Good luck.” Connor said as he stepped back to watch her. She slowed down her breathing as though she was meditating and shut her eyes. She began to clench her eyelids shut even tighter as she began to focus. A small blue spark of magical energy sparked from her horn then died out. She took another deep breath and focused again. She let loose a small cluster of sparks which then began to glow brightly and formed together. Once they all formed into a small cluster, they burst into a small, light blue flame at the tip of her horn. She looked up and squealed with delight at her success.
“I did it!” She squealed happily when suddenly her flame turned yellow.
“AAHHH! What did I do?!” She cried as her flame suddenly turned black as night.
Connor gave a small laugh as he looked at her. “Well Twilight you remember how I mentioned the flames of emotion?”
“Yes but what does that have to do with my flame changing color?!” She asked, still too panicked to see the connection.
“Well you still haven't learned to separate your emotions from your casting yet. The yellow flames were the flames of happiness and the black flames were the flames of fear, which by the way you are still casting.” He said calmly.
Twilight looked up at her horn and, sure enough, there was a midnight black flame sitting atop it. She stopped the flow of magic and the flame went out as she turned to Connor.
“That was really cool and really scary at the same time.” She said with a nervous smile.
“The funny thing is that we spent almost 2 hours out here talking about magic fire and all I’ve managed to teach you is how to make the flame.” Connor said with mock disappointment. Then an idea popped into his head and a mischievous grin spread across his face. “It’s a crying shame that it’s getting late. Looks like I won’t be able to teach you how to actually cast the flame until tomorrow!” He said as he walked back into the library.
From Twilight’s view
Twilight had just learned how to make arcane fire and Connor was going to make her wait until tomorrow to actually USE IT?! That wasn’t fair at all! She was about to say something about it when the door closed. She began to run after him and just as she got inside she heard the door to Connor’s room close. Infuriated, she stomped up the stairs and threw open his door.
“Do you mind? I have my first day of work tomorrow, I need sleep.” Connor said, suppressing his laughter at taunting twilight with the information that she so desperately craved.
“But I still haven’t learned how to use it! What good is a magic that all I know how to do is use the starter?! That’s like knowing how to put a telekinetic grip on something but not knowing how to move it once it’s there! It’s a start but overall it’s useless!”
“Oh no! I feel the cold hands of sleep taking me! Aaaaaaaahhhhhhh.” Connor began to snore.
“UGH!!! You are so mean !” Twilight said, accepting defeat and walking to her own room.
Connor snickered one last time before rolling over to go to sleep for real. He did have work after all. Plus he’d be teaching Twilight new magic. Tomorrow was a big day indeed.
Connor slowly opened his eyes and rolled out of bed onto the floor. It was much too early to be walking, after all. After about ten minutes of lying on the suddenly comfortable floor he slowly dragged himself to his feet and went to open his curtain. He slid open the blinds and recoiled from the light that flooded the room. He shielded his eyes for a moment before they adjusted to the light. He looked out his window to check the time and saw it was about an hour until noon. He walked out of his door and down the stairs to the kitchen, only to find that Twilight wasn’t there. He was confused, Twilight was usually awake at this hour. He walked up the stairs to check if she was in her room. He knocked on the door.
“Twilight, are you in there?”
“Ugggghhhhhh.”
“May I come in?”
“Uggghhhhhh”
Connor took that as a yes and walked in to a very interesting sight before him. Twilight was on the ground in a small purple heap. Connor walked over to her and poked her in what he assumed was her side. She let out a small eep followed by a groan. she then managed to untangle herself from her blankets and drag herself up from the floor. She looked up at Connor with her eyes almost shut.
“Morning Connor.” She sighed.
“Good morning Twilight.” He said happily. “I’m going to go make breakfast. You can come down anytime if you want some.” He said as he left the room and heard a small grunt as what he assumed was an agreement. He walked down the stairs and into the kitchen. He opened the cabinets and her fridge and realized that the only thing he knew how to cook in her entire inventory was eggs. ‘Oh well’. He thought as he cracked open two eggs and began making them. He cooked both of them until they were over easy and slid them out of her pan and onto a plate. The smell was intoxicating. It smelled like no knowledge of how to cook anything besides eggs and stews. He began to eat when he heard hoofsteps making their way to the kitchen. He turned to see Twilight hanging her head in a way that only seemed to be possible if you were tired. She walked over to Connor and placed her head on his shoulder and shut her eyes again.
“What are you doing?” He asked to the head currently lying on him.
“I’m tired. Please don’t move. Your shoulder is comfy.”
Connor laughed as he turned to her.
“Well sorry Twi, but I have to go if I’m going to be on time.” He said.
She groaned as she got up from his shoulder only to walk over to another bench and lie down again. Connor got up from his seat and walked over to the sink and washed his plate. After he put it back he walked to the front door and said goodbye to Twilight as he walked out the door. He walked down the street and noticed he was getting a lot less looks than usual. This was an improvement from how it was when he first got here. He turned the last corner and walked into the spa.
“Afternoon Lotus.” He said with a smile as he walked in.
“Ah, hello Connor. Please take a seat over there and I will explain how your first day will go.”
He walked over to the chair and took a seat for a moment before Lotus walked up to him.
“So, for your first day you will be working the massage room.”
“And?” He asked, expecting more.
“That’s it dear. We are having you work the massage table because we know you will absolutely get more customers coming in with those amazing massages of yours. So get back there, your first customer is scheduled to come in in about five minutes. Also, could you get some attire more suited to the job? All I ever see you wear are those black and gold robes.”
“Well, I don’t exactly own anything else here. Who would I talk to about clothes?”
“You can ask your client when she gets here. Now go back there and get ready.”
Connor let out a small sigh and walked back to the room and entered to the same sight he saw the previous day. He took a deep inhale through his nose and smelled the mint that seemed to permanently reside in the room. He stood by the entrance to the room when he heard a knock.
“Come on in.” He said as he opened the door for his client.
A white unicorn with a curly, royal purple mane walked in. ‘This is one of Twilight’s friends isn’t it?’ He thought to himself as she turned to him with a look of surprise and happiness.
“Oh Connor dear! I was not aware that you worked here!” She said with a smile.
“Just started today. You are my first client.” He said kindly. “Go ahead and lie down. Would you like any type of aromatherapy?”
“No thank you dear.” She said as she lied down on the massage table. “I prefer just the regular mint scent that this room has.”
“Understood. Where will you be getting this massage today?”
“I’ve been having some aches in my neck. I’ve been sewing a lot lately and I seem to have an ache i can’t get rid of.”
“Well alright then.” He said calmly as he began to massage her neck. Rarity let out a small sigh of happiness as he worked.
“Goodness darling that feels just amazing . What are you doing?”
“Just my hands.”
“Well they feel fantastic.”
“Thank you. So Twilight tells me that you make clothes right?”
“Yes dear. I make all kinds of clothes for all kinds of ponies.”
“Well Lotus told me to ask you about getting some new clothes for work.”
This seemed to make her have a complete seizure as she tried to get up from the table. She looked at him with the biggest smile he had seen since Twilight first saw him.
“Will you really let me?! I would absolutely LOVE to be the first clothing designer to make clothes for a human! Just think of the publicity! Also, I could make clothes based on those robes you are wearing right now! Is this the fashion where you are from? What fabrics do they use? What do they use to get their dyes? What sewing methods do they use to make their clothes? I want to know everything!”
Connor felt a little scared and overwhelmed at the same time but quickly thought up a solution.
“Just lie down and I will tell you all about it.” This seemed to quell Rarity’s insatiable curiosity about clothes. He took this moment of peace to go back to the massage and start answering her questions.
“I won’t be able to answer most of your questions because I’m not the most knowledgeable in the area of fashion but I will try my best.”
She let out a small moan of pleasure before asking her first question.
“Is this the style where you are from?”
“It is quite popular among mages. But beyond that, no.”
“Alright. Next question. How have you been cleaning that robe? It should be at least somewhat damaged from your time here if you have been washing it.”
“I know some cleansing spells. Just some simple magic. It doesn’t hurt the robe or take away its color. Just cleans it.”
“You’ll have to teach me that spell sometime. How about you come to my shop after you get off work so I can get your measurements?”
“Sounds like a plan.” He said calmly.
Rarity stopped with the questions so Connor took this as his cue to stop talking. He finished the last of the hour long massage and said goodbye to Rarity. He walked out of the massage room and up to the front desk to get his next client. Lotus looked at him and gestured towards a pony that seemed to much bigger than all the others he had seen thus far. He was a large red stallion with a half of a green apple on his flank. Connor walked over to the stallion.
“Hello, my name is Connor. I’ll be your masseur today.” He said with a professional smile.
“A’hm Big Macintosh. Nice to make your acquaintance.”
“If you’ll follow me we can start the massage.” Connor said politely as he led big mac to the back room.
“So where do you need the massage?”
“Mah neck’s been botherin’ me. It’s plantin’ season so ah’ve been doin’ a lot more work with the plow.” He said as he removed the large yoke from his neck and dropped it to the ground with a much louder thud than Connor had expected. Big Mac lied down on the table and relaxed. Connor walked over to him and began his massage. After about a half an hour Big Mac spoke.
“So, Connor, was it?”
“Yes?”
“What do you think about all the recent happenins with the griffins?”
Connor stopped the massage for a moment. ‘They have griffins here too!?’ He thought to himself.
“I must apologize, I haven’t been here long enough to know much about politics. Could you inform me about what is going on?”
“Well, the griffins’ve been gettin’ very aggressive and building their army despite the fact that no country has gone to war in at least 200 years.”
Connor furrowed his brow. War was such a common thing on Earth. To think that there was peace for over two centuries among the citizens of an entire planet stunned him.
“Have they launched an attack?”
“No, not yet. Princess Celestia has been keepin’ em back with words but everyone fears that soon, that won’t be enough.”
“Well that is... concerning.”
“It sure is friend. Its got me worried that Equestria will have to build an army again. Lotsa folks ain’t ready for that. We are a generally peaceful country. The worst crime we’ve had in this last year was somebody’s shop got burned to the ground. The criminal was quickly caught and jailed. I would go so far as to say that that was the worst crime in probably the last ten years.”
“Well that is a crying shame. Peace really is a valuable thing.” Connor said in a melancholy tone.
“Eeyup.”
Big Mac didn’t say a word for the rest of the massage and left after Connor was done. Connor got up and walked to the front desk and looked to Lotus.
“Who’s next?” He asked with a small, sad smile.
Lotus looked down at some papers on her desk.
“Well, nobody, it looks like. I guess it was a slow day.” She handed him his pay. “You earned forty bits today! You will be paid commission after each job so you don’t have to worry about making it to your next payday.” She said with a grin. “You can go home now if you’d like. Or you can stay here. With me .” She said in a low voice with a flutter of her eyelashes.
After a mile of sprinting like a madman, Connor stopped to catch his breath. After he finished breathing so heavily he couldn’t think, he looked around and realized he was in the market of Ponyville. He began looking for Rarity’s boutique and after a few minutes of walking, he located it. It looked somewhat like a circus tent mixed with mannequins of ponies. He knocked on the door.
“Come iiiinnn” Rarity said in a sing-song voice.
Connor opened the door and looked around the room. It was quite spacious and there were mannequins wearing all of her latest creations all over the store. A pony with orange curly hair and a yellow-orange colored body was looking at a dress. He looked to his left and saw that Rarity was working the counter. He walked up to her.
“You wanted to see me after work?” He asked her.
“Oh that’s right! SWEETIE BELLE!!!” She yelled in a voice too loud for one so small.
“Coming sis!” He heard a higher pitched voice call out. A small unicorn with purple and pink curls came bounding down the stairs.
“Sweetie, be a dear and watch the shop for me while I go take Connor’s measurements.”
“Got it sis!” She said cheerfully as she hopped onto a small stool behind the register and smiled proudly at her current responsibility.
“Follow me please.” Rarity said to Connor.
He walked up the stairs after her and into a room with even more mannequins, but these mannequins had unfinished projects on them. Dresses that still needed certain pieces added to them, jackets with holes in them and things of the like. He looked over at Rarity who at the moment was gathering all the necessary supplies with her magic. The air smelled like dust, even though the shop itself looked immaculate.
“Come here please Connor.” she said in a happy voice with what looked like ten different measuring tapes floating around her.
“Hold still, this will only take a moment. Raise your arms please.”
The measuring tapes flew at him and went around various parts of his body as if she was measuring every last aspect of his very existence. They moved various parts of his body so that Rarity could get every necessary measurement. Then, suddenly, the measuring tapes stopped. Connor looked up, still somewhat awestruck by how fast she got the measurements needed.
“You can go now. I have all that I need to make your clothing. It will be done by tomorrow.”
“You work that fast?”
“Of course dear, I’m the best at what I do.” She smiled at him as he turned and walked away.
On his way home he realized something. He never told her how he wanted his clothes to look. ‘Oh well,’ he thought ‘if she’s as good as everyone says then I have nothing to worry about.’ He turned the last corner and began walking towards the library. The second he entered the door he was assaulted by a storm of purple happiness.
“DO I GET TO LEARN HOW TO CAST MAGICAL FIRE NOW?!!!” She yelled excitedly in Connor’s face.
“Twilight, you’re yelling.”
“Oh, sorry,” she said with a blush “I was just really excited.”
“It’s fine. And yes.”
“WOO!” She threw a hoof in the air in celebration of finally being able to learn what Connor kept from her the previous night.
“I’ll go set up the wards!” She said as she ran outside with her trademark enthusiasm.
Connor laughed to himself. He couldn't help but love how happy she was about learning something new. It was a very infectious kind of happiness, as if just being around her made him feel better. He smiled at his thoughts for a moment before walking outside to teach Twilight. He walked out the back door to their usual training spot. Twilight was smiling eagerly at him.
“Alright then, let’s get started shall we?” He said with a clap of his hands.
“Gladly.” She said with a smile.
“Ok then. So, casting fire is actually a lot more difficult than just creating it. The process of casting fire is similar to the way you create it. There are two ways of casting fire at this level. First, you create your fire.” He said, holding up a blue fireball in his hand. “The first way of casting it is to send your magic out through the fire, creating more of it in front of the original, creating a trail. This method sends out weaker, but more spread out fire. The longer your trail, the more magic it will drain from you, so be careful.”
He held both his hands out and flames formed on his palms then launched forward like snakes striking at their prey. They coiled and lashed around but their end point always stayed where he aimed them. He moved his hands left and right, incinerating the land the fire touched.
“The second way of casting it builds off the first but is a bit more powerful. You begin casting the magic as if you were going to make a trail, but you stop it a small distance from your hand and allow it to build. The result will be a fireball. To cast it, you simply point your hand at the area you would like to hit, send a surge of magic into the ball, then cut off your magic. The ball will fly from your hand and explode in a small ring of fire around where it hits. This area can be bigger or smaller based on how long you charge it.”
He demonstrated by holding up his hand and created a small stream of fire that stopped about a foot from his hand and began spinning in a small ball, as if the fire wanted to move forward. Then, when it got to about the size of his head, he launched it. It flew in a small arc and blew up in a sphere of blue flame that expanded about eight feet in every direction before hitting the ward and burning out. The result was an absolutely charred crater in the ground.
“Now you try. I want to see how quickly you learn. Try the first method of casting I showed you.”
Twilight stepped in front of him and shut her eyes in focus. She summoned forth the blue flame with ease. She shut her eyes tight, trying to replicate what Connor showed her. Her flame began slowly growing from its original position, slowly but surely becoming longer. She opened her eyes and aimed her horn at a particular patch of grass. The flame slowly crawled towards it then made contact and burned the grass to a crisp. Twilight stopped casting the flame and looked to Connor.
“So how did I do?” She asked, breathing heavily.
“Good. If you practice more, your flames will be quicker, more powerful, and burn much hotter. Now try to cast a fireball at the same spot I did right over there.” He said as he pointed to the black circle on the grass.
“I’ll try.” She said with determination.
She focused her power and a small trail of flame began slowly collecting at a point roughly a foot from her horn. The ball grew to about the size of Connor’s fist before she cast it. It hit slightly off center from where Connor cast it and exploded with a small ring of blue fire and extinguishing before touching the wards.
“Why did your fireball make a sphere explosion when mine only made a ring?” She asked, frustrated.
“Practice. The more you use combat magic, the more you get a feel for it and get better at manipulating it. All you need to do is work at it and try to get a feel for the magic a bit more and you will improve. Also, I noticed you created your flame much quicker today. Nice job!” He said with a smile.
Twilight beamed at his praise. “I was up pretty late last night practicing.”
“So that’s why you were so tired! You need to sleep more.” He scolded.
“I know. I just really wanted to get better.” She sighed, lowering her head.
“You did get better. But sleep is important.” He said while running his hand over her mane. She looked up at him with her big, violet eyes. ‘She really is beautiful.’ Connor thought. ‘Wait. Where did that thought come from?! I am a human and she is a pony. She can be cute but not attractive.’ With his thoughts somewhat calmed, he returned back to his conversation.
“Do you want to go get dinner? I’m starving.”
Twilight looked up at him and smiled.
“You know I could just make us dinner right?” She said to him.
“Yeah, but now I get to pay you back for the dinner you bought me when we first got here. So let’s go!” He walked back into the library with a smile and a spring in his step. She looked up at him and followed him in.
“Connor! Where are we going?!” Twilight yelled after him as he walked out the front door.
“The only restaurant I know. Duh.” He laughed as she caught up with him.
“We’re going to Bread Basket?!” She asked, her face lighting up with joy.
“Hell yeah we are!” He said jovially
They walked for a while side by side before arriving at the restaurant. After a moment of waiting, they were seated. The same waitress they had before came back and was noticeably less surprised to see Connor this time.
“What’ll you have?” She asked in a dismissive tone that basically said ‘I’ve been here too long’.
“I’ll get the carrot stew with the bread bowl again.” Connor said.
“I’ll get the same.” Twilight agreed.
“All right then. Your order will be out in about ten minutes.”
Connor turned over to Twilight.
“Hey twi, I have a question.” He asked.
Twilight smiled, plenty of people called her twi but when he said it it made her feel warm. She wasn’t sure why.
“Ask away Connor.”
“Can you explain what’s happening with the griffins?”
Twilight’s face darkened. This was a topic that worried her but he needed to know.
“The griffins are building their army and have been making a lot of threats at Equestria and its citizens.”
“That’s what Big Mac told me too. I was wondering if you know why?”
“Nobody does. That’s why we’ve been so worried about it. It’s like they are going at us like this without any provocation, what would they do if we responded? We don’t want to fight, but it looks like that is what we are heading towards.”
“I’m sorry.” Connor said, seeing the distress that this caused her.
“It’s nothing you could have stopped. You don’t have to apologize. Oh look! Our food is here!” She said, noticeably perking up.
They ate their meals in silence, choosing to savor the taste of the food and each other's company. They finished their food and relaxed in their chairs. The waitress came by and dropped their bill. Connor took the ten bits for the meals out and payed. They left shortly after and walked home in silence. Connor looked around and saw that the sun was close to setting. They arrived at the library and walked inside. Twilight swung the door shut with her magic.
“I’m tired.” Connor stated.
“Me too.” Twilight agreed.
“I’m gonna go hit the sack.” He said with a yawn.
“Same here. Hey Connor?”
“Yeah Twilight?”
"Can I sleep with you tonight?"
A million different meanings for that sentence flashed through Connor’s head in an instant. He banished them all immediately and turned his focus back to Twilight.
“Why?” He asked cautiously.
“I’m feeling very unnerved with all this talk about war and fighting and I would feel much better if someone was with me.” She said timidly.
He thought about it for a second before he came to a decision.
“Sure, why not.” He agreed.
“Thanks connor.” She said in a tired voice.
Connor went and lied down. Twilight soon followed suit and lied down next to him. ‘Strange,’ Connor thought. ‘It’s nice to have someone with me.’ He fell asleep with a head full of unanswered questions and Twilight’s warmth beside him.
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