The boy sat about 6 feet away from his father. He was currently watching a TV show on his I-touch, and trying his best to ignore the frantic, frankly not too paternal presence near him, working on yet another crazy machine. Sometimes he was annoyed with the lack of attention his father paid him, and sometimes he was embarrassed by his geekiness, but sometimes he just felt sorry for him. His inventions he worked so hard on and poured his heart and soul into never seemed to work. It was the saddest thing Brandon could imagine, though he tried not to dwell on it for too long, as it wouldn't do to get all mushy and lose his "cool" image. His father wasn't the only thing threatening to plunge him to the bottom of the popularity charts. He had recently become addicted to a show called "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic". It was a totally girly-girl show, at least in the eyes of anyone who hadn't watched it, and as much as Brandon loved it, it scared him to death that someone who wasn't very understanding would find out, and he would be socially doomed. And as it turned out, that was the show he was watching as his father completed the finishing touches on his newest contraption. It was a machine that was supposed to allow you to view any location in the universe, in live time. Supposedly, this could not only render all current forms of communication obsolete, but could also work on a one-way basis, letting astronomers observe distant planets and other celestial bodies as if they were there themselves. It sounded like science fiction to Brandon, but despite the fact that he sounded like a complete nutter, he knew his father was actually extremely intelligent and believed he knew exactly what he was doing, even if no one else did. His father spent his entire life living in books, on the border between fantasy and reality, which in Brandon's opinion was where people needed to be if they were to be considered a genius. Unfortunately, a side effect of this was that his inventions tended to be outlandish and sometimes outrageous, and he never really spent any time with Brandon except when they worked on one of his projects. Suddenly there was a bright glow from his father's workspace, and a joyful cry of "It's working! My God, it really works!". Brandon looked up from his show to see the screen of the machine flickering random colors. "Son, come over here! I've finally done it! I've finally succeeded!" his father shouted gleefully. Brandon warily approached the machine. He didn't know exactly how the thing worked (or if it worked), but he'd heard his dad talk about the immense amount of power it took, and something about tapping into wormholes. It all sounded fairly dangerous. The screen started glowing brighter and stopped flickering random colors. It became a pure white light that exploded from the screen, blinding father and son alike. There was a grating whine that Brandon wished desperately would stop, as it felt as though his eardrums were about to explode. He heard his father's shout of terror, and then everything went black. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ She inserted the final piece into her newest invention, and stood back to admire her work. It's perfect, she thought with a twinge of pride. And more importantly, it might even work! She excitedly stamped her hooves, then regained her composure; she had yet to test it. She flipped several switches, and the machine began to whine. So far, so good, she thought. Now all she had to do was provide it with a source of power; in other words, pour her own raw magic into it. Her horn glowed a pale purple as she provided the energy for her creation to do it's job. It was working perfectly! She couldn't help but feel excited. With access to this kind of knowledge, she would be able to find any cure, study any spell, discover any creature! Which reminded her of the task at hand: powering the machine. She returned her attention to the mechanized wonder, and saw that it was glowing just as it should. She couldn't believe it! Her invention had worked on its first test run!! She hadn't even needed to tweak it a little bit! And naturally, this was when things started to get out of hand. For one, the glow on the machine's screen began to glow very brightly...a little too brightly. That's odd, thought the equine inventor. Perhaps I fed it too much magic? But she knew that wasn't the case, as she had designed the machine herself, and was positive that this was NOT supposed to happen. She quickly attempted to cut off the flow of power to the machine. However, this had unexpected consequences: the screen flashed even brighter, searing the mare's eyes and forcing her to look away. There was a terrible whining screech that assailed her ears for a few seconds, and then an enormous explosion. The last thing she remembered before passing out was that there was another shadowy figure dropping into the rubble. (I renamed it, since it seemed like a more creative title than my previous one. Please comment! ...No, seriously! If you read it, please comment!! More chapters coming soon.)
Well, that'd be anothera Twi's fancy contraptions, she thought as smoke rose from the basement windows of the treehouse library that was her friend's home. Ah guess ah'd better go help 'er. She began to walk towards the house when Spike burst out. "Help! Help! Someone heeelp! One of Twilight's inventions blew up...again!" "Now calm down, sugar cube, ah'm sure she's fine," said Applejack. "This happens... what, once a week? Has it ever ended with anyone gettin' hurt?" "Well, there was that one--" "Of course not. Now, let's go help Twi outta the rubble. Again." Applejack and Spike made their way downstairs, coughing as the noxious fumes invaded their lungs and throats and made them burn. "Dang," coughed Applejack, "That explosion musta been somethin' real fierce!" "Yeah, -cough cough- I'll -cough- say!” responded Spike with difficulty. The door to the basement was either blown off it's hinges or totally incinerated, it was impossible to tell which with visibility so low. In either case, they walked through the doorway and entered into an enormous pool of silky gray smoke. It was like fog, the kind of fog so thick that even grown ponies are afraid to go out, for fear of getting lost. You couldn't see a hoof in front of your face if you put it there. Applejack cautiously entered the room, thinking that she wished there was some way to clear out the smoke. "Ah wish there was some way t' clear out all this smoke..." she said aloud. "Hello," said a voice from behind them in the murky smoke. "Looking for me?" Applejack and Spike yelped and ran right into each other. "Relax, guys," said Rainbow Dash. "It's just me, here to save your flanks...again." She flew into the room and created a tornado of rainbow that sucked all the smoke in the room toward it. The tornado funneled the smoke toward the lone open window, and it all exited the room. Rainbow then landed on all fours facing them proudly. "Thanks, Rainbow Dash!" said Spike. "You're welcome," she said, clearly proud of herself. "I'd like to thank all the little pon--" "No time for heroic speeches, Rainbow," said Applejack. "We gotta find Twilight!" "Oh...yeah. Right!" she said, and began to zip around the room in search of the purple-maned pony. After searching for awhile, Spike shouted, "I found her, I found her!". Rainbow and Applejack quickly came to his side. Sure enough, a purple hoof was sticking out of the rubble that covered the floor, mostly composed of ruined books and machine parts. Applejack and Rainbow pulled her out and brought her upstairs, laying her on her bed. "Whadda we do now?" asked Applejack. "Ah bet her lungs're full of that smoke that was down there." "Maybe you have to give her mouth-to-mouth resusc...rescust...oh, whatever it's called," suggested Spike. Rainbow Dash leaned away from him. "No way! That's gross! She probably has all kinds of dust and junk all..." Rainbow watched as Applejack blew air into Twilight's mouth, then pushed down on her stomach. Sure enough, the air that came out was filled with gray smoke of exactly the same kind that was downstairs. Twilight began to cough, and more smoke came from her mouth. "Twilight! You're ok!" shouted Spike as he hugged her, getting a bunch of smoke to the face. "Eww, your breath smells terrible!" "Ah can't imagine why that'd be," said the orchard pony. Twilight coughed and hacked some more until it seemed that most of the smoke was out of her lungs. "What...what happened? Did my machine work?" Applejack looked at her with sympathy. "Eh, no, not exactly. It... kinda blew up." "And then we saved you!" Rainbow Dash interjected. "Well, it was mostly me. Applejack and Spike, they were all like, 'What will we do, we can't get anything done in all this smoke', and then I was like, 'Have no fear, Rainbow Dash is--'" "But I know I saw something else down there! There was something in that room after the explosion!" blurted Twilight. "Well, yeah, there was a heck of a lotta books and smoke and fancy mechanical doohickeys, if that's what ya mean," said Applejack helpfully. "No, I mean...well, let's go down there and look." "Whatever you say, Twi." said the orange-coated mare. "Well, I'm done here. I'm not gonna waste time looking through some boring, book-filled basement! See ya!" A rainbow blur exited the room. "Well, that's Dash for ya. One minute she's bein' helpful, next she's bailin' out on the job!" muttered Applejack. "Come on guys, hurry up!" shouted Twilight from the main floor. "Coming, Twilight!" responded Spike. The pony and the dragon raced down the stairs to catch up with the impatient unicorn. When they got to the basement, Twilight was already limping through the wreckage, books and parts flying all over the place, propelled by her powerful magic. Spike ducked under a passing kitchen sink. "It was right over here! It might be some sort of proof that my invention worked!" She tossed aside a large switchboard and a dictionary. "It's got to be here some--" Twilight ceased moving abruptly. "What in the name of Celestia...?" she murmured. (I hope it's okay that I put this in a new post intead of editing the old one...if this is a problem, please tell me, because I don't know!)
"Oh, Celestia, what is that?" gasped Twilight. To be fair, Brandon wasn't looking his best at the moment. He had, after all, been teleported between two alternate universes. His hoodie no longer had a hood, and was in fact completely torn apart. Since he had been wearing the hood, his head had been protected partially from the explosion, but unlike Twilight, he had been at the exact center of the blast. His pants weren't in much better condition, though as a testament to blue jeans' resiliance, they weren't totally destroyed like the hoodie. "I don't have a clue!" stated Applejack in confusion. "Beats me how it got here, too; I take it you didn't have it down here before the explosion?" "Would I be asking you if I had?" retorted Twilight. "I've got to look in my library; I think I've seen this thing before in one of my books!" 'Course you have, thought Applejack. "Well Twilight, looks like you've got yourself a new project. Just try not to blow this one up, okay?" Color rose to the mare's cheeks. "I'll try my hardest, Applejack." she said, smiling. "Well, I'll be seein' y'all 'round. Bye!" said Applejack, walking through the door. "Bye Applejack!" shouted Spike before the door slammed shut. "Well Spike, I guess it's time to get to work. Now, I'll need to make a checklist of all the books I have to find, and then sort it alphabetically and..." Spike groaned. It looked like he was in for another night of Obsessive-Compulsive organizing with his host, Twilight Sparkle. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brandon realized as soon as he came to that there were indeed parts of his body he had previously thought incapable of feeling pain that could, in fact, feel pain. In fact, he was pretty sure that every single inch of his skin was being scrubbed with steel wool at the same time, while his insides were cooked with high-frequency ultraviolet rays. This was probably the worst he'd felt in his life. Probably, because at the moment, most of his memories refused to return to him. He tried to remember how the heck he'd gotten this way, but pretty much the only thing that was coming to mind was a ridiculously bright flash, and then darkness. Speaking of which, it was pretty dark, wherever he was. He got up and looked around to find himself in a room that didn't look like it got much use. There were dusty bookshelves full of dusty books, and dusty tables piled high with lonely tomes. Even the floor had encyclopedias and reference material covered in dust. If he had to label this room, he would label it the "dusty book" room. Pretty much the only thing in the room that wasn't full of books was the bed he was lying on, and from the fact that the books around the bed were slightly less dusty and piled slightly higher than the ones in the rest of the room told him that it, too, had probably been used as dusty book storage before he'd arrived. Ah well, he'd just have to look for some clue as to how he'd gotten here. About five dusty sneezes later he realized that there would probably be footprints in all this dust. After looking about for a while, he found some that hadn't been obliterated by his sneezing fit. They weren't what he'd expected, though; they were circular instead of oblong. Either this person was a dual peg-leg, or something very weird was going on, and Brandon intended to get to the bottom of it. He climbed out of bed and, trying to ignore the burns covering his hands and feet and the aches all over his body, limped over to the door. He reached out to open it, but someone on the other side opened it first. Or...some pony?
I love it so far! It's got some interesting details I generally wouldn't think about. I can't wait to read about their meeting too. Keep it comin'!
Thank you! I'm glad somepony finally commented! Anyhow, here's the next chapter for you: Two pairs of yellow hooves touched down outside Twilight's brightly lit library home. A soft, almost inaudible tap at the door. A pause. A defeated sigh. She turned around to leave. Then Spike opened the door. "...Fluttershy?" he mumbled. He looked terrible, like he'd just been to the moon and back, with bags under his scaly eyes that he could barely keep open. "Oh...I'm so sorry...I didn't mean to wake you..." "Wake anypony with that kind of knock? I wouldn't worry too much about that, Fluttershy," said Spike. "Anyways, there's no way you could have woken anyone in this house up, because apparently we never sleep." He directed the last two words at an exceptionally large mound of books with a purple tail sticking out from behind them. Twilight's head popped out from behind the mountain of reading material. "Oh Spike, you're such a drama dragon. But...I guess you have worked long enough tonight...you can go to sleep if you'd like." "Finally!" Spike yawned. Halfway up the stairs, he almost fell asleep where he was standing, but he managed to drag himself the rest of the way to bed. "So," began Twilight, putting down her book, "What brings you here at this hour, Fluttershy?" "Oh, it's nothing...I mean, well, it's not, but your work is much more important..." "Nonsense!" exclaimed Twilight. "Anything that brought you here in the middle of the night had to have been important. Just tell me what you need. Is it a book? 'Cause we got plenty of those, being a library and all." She smiled at her own wit. "Well, um...actually, I forgot how to mix up that new cure-all potion you found, and I was just wondering..." mumbled Fluttershy. "Sure thing! I know just where I put that book. Come on, I'll get it for you!" Twilight got up off her haunches and trotted up the stairs, with Fluttershy following close behind. "It's right over here. You'll have to be very quiet, there's a weird creature sleeping in here. That's actually why I'm up studying." "Strange creature?!" squeaked Fluttershy. "Is it... some sort of..." She gulped. "...Dragon?" Twilight giggled. "No, Fluttershy, it's not a dragon," she said before she opened the door. "It's a...well, I don't quite know yet." She opened the door, and to her shock, found Brandon right behind it, staring straight at her. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brandon opened the door, but where he expected to find more musty library shelves, he found a horse! He was slightly taken aback by the fact that a horse--wait, there were two, and they were...a unicorn and a pegasus? The pegasus scrambled over the edge of the balcony with a whinny and landed with a thud in a stack of books below, while the unicorn took several steps back, looking slightly nervous but confident. He was still busy wondering are these supposed to exist, and if they are, how did they get in a library? when he was hit with another zinger. "Um...nice...creature?" said the unicorn. Brandon stared. He was pretty sure horses didn't talk. He couldn't remember much, but he knew for sure that only humans were supposed to talk. He plopped down on the floor, suddenly overwhelmed by dizziness. Here he was, in a place he was pretty sure he didn't recognize, with creatures that he was pretty sure didn't exist, and he was pretty sure -- no, very certain that one of them just talked, which he was pretty sure wasn't supposed to happen. All in all, he thought he was in big trouble. All he could remember was his name, and lots of facts, like the fact that horses don't talk. He sure hoped this memory loss was temporary, because it wasn't exactly a confidence booster when you had no past experiences to go off. "I'm not going to hurt you, so don't be afraid..." said the purple unicorn, approaching him carefully. Come to think of it, he didn't think horses were supposed to be purple, either. Suddenly its horn started to glow and, with a slight weightless sensation overcoming him, he found himself floating back into the "dusty book" room. He flailed and tried to shout, but nothing came out. Huh? He was placed back on the bed and the door was shut and, this time, locked. He sighed. Well, he supposed he'd just have to wait until they felt like letting him out now. But why couldn't he talk? He tried again, but the only thing that came out was a raspy whisper. Huh. He could tack this to his ever-growing 'board of mysteries that needed solving'. He meandered over to the slightly-less-dusty-than-the-rest-of-the-room bed and lay down on it. Oh, well; he was really, really tired anyways. Maybe it would all come back to him when he woke up. He closed his eyes and fell asleep, not realizing that this was only the beginning of his adventure.
"I-i-is it g-gone?" whispered Fluttershy from under a mountain of books. "It's OK, Fluttershy," said Twilight, rolling her eyes good-naturedly. "I locked the door this time." Fluttershy daintily made her way out of her not-too-soft landing spot, wings flapping anxiously. "What was it? I've never seen a creature like that before in my whole life!" "That's what I've been staying up so late to find out. I thought I'd seen a picture of it before in a book, so I was trying to find that book again. I can't for the love of Celestia remember what it was called, though..." "Is it this one?" Fluttershy walked over to a book that had been flipped open by her tumble from the walkway above. The picture on the page showed a creature exactly like the one that had just scared their manes off. "...Um...yeah, it is..." said Twilight, half surprised, half annoyed. How did other ponies always find in one minute what she had been looking for for hours? It was beyond her. She lived here, for Celestia's sake! The book was engulfed in a soft purple glow and levitated up so Twillight could better read it. The page opposite the picture read: Humans Humans are creatures supposedly from ancient times, that most credible research ponies now regard as extinct. According to legend, they were unique in many ways from the other creatures of Equestria. Most were not extraordinarily strong, but their strength lay in their combination of two grasping appendages called "hands", which are where the two front hooves on a pony would be, and their amazing penchant for innovation. Humans were rumored to have learned how to use tools before even Earth Ponies had, marking them as possibly more intelligent than Ponykind, and compensating for their slight lack of magical capabilities, though this theory is not widely held among the researcher community. Humans were said to tend toward violence as a species, though there are a few stories that tell of kind humans helping ponies by gifting them with their advanced machinery or helping them build buildings with their legendary knowledge of architecture. Most of these stories are considered to be fiction, as the buildings built by the humans would be far more advanced that any historipony could give any race credit for in that time period. Humans also, according to legend, lived in the Everfree Forest, marking them as dangerous, like most other creatures that make their home there even today. If they could survive in the Everfree Forest, they would have to have been formidable adversaries indeed. There are many stories of Humans attacking villages and burning much of them to the ground, and carrying off everypony in the village. (These villages were usually earth pony, as Pegasi lived in the clouds and Unicorns were magical, and Humans feared magic greatly.). Thus, ponies learned to fear the Everfree forest and everything in it. However, today many brave expeditions into the feared forest have revealed that, though humans had existed at one point in time, they do not reside in the Everfree forest any longer. There is much debate among researchers about the fate of the Humans; some believe that their bipedal structure (they only walked on two legs, allowing for greater use of their "hands") was not fit for survival, and thus they slowly died off in the harsh environment of the Forest. Other wilder theories, one being that Humans discovered a way to travel over great differences, similar to how unicorns travel over short distances using magic, and left Equestria, and another being that the humans eventually became so good at fighting that they began fighting amongst themselves and killed each other off, also exist, but these are dismissed as fantastical without any basis in reality. Whatever the reason for their disappearance, they are known to have existed because of the odd artifacts that have been found by archeoloponies in the everfree forest, the function of which could not be determined. These artifacts include two long, narrow, hollow tubes of metal that are stuck together with what appears to be a handle at one end, and several large plates of metal with handles on one side, which some researchers speculate may have taken advantage of a human's hand during battle by allowing them to deflect a blow with the metal plate. Neither of these artifacts offer anything of benefit to Ponykind, and as a result most studies still conducted on this ancient race are purely out of curiosity. There were sub-chapters and references, which Twilight was dying to read, but first things first. She got Fluttershy and hurried her out the door without her book, ignoring her questions about the creature; she didn't want anypony to know about this until the situation was under control. Her brain raced, forming theories about how her invention could have brought one into her house. Had she brought it forward in time? Or had she brought it from a distant land? The biggest question on her mind was why she had never heard of humans before if there was so much research done on them; this worry niggled at the back of her mind constantly. She had to put these questions out of her mind temporarily, however, knowing for now all that mattered was alerting the Princess to the possible danger this Human posed. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brandon woke from his slumber feeling a little better physically, but his memory was still fuzzy. He was now certain, after sleeping on it, that Unicorns and Pegasi were creatures of myth. Had he merely hallucinated them? He got up and tried the door. Locked. So that gave some validity to the events he recalled last night, but how could a horse talk? It went against everything he knew, and, he guessed, everything he couldn't remember as well. And then there was the problem of his voice. Why didn't his vocal cords work? Perhaps the flash of light he remembered was an explosion?? That seemed like a good explanation, as the heat may have damaged his voice box enough to hinder his speaking. From what he knew, that could heal, but it would take time, and without being able to talk, there was no way for him to...talk to the horses? He was already thinking of their speech as a fact. It made no sense, and yet...he knew what he'd heard. He even remembered how it talked, as if it was trying to calm a potentially dangerous or upset creature: "I'm not going to hurt you, so don't be afraid...". Clearly it had no idea what he was. But it spoke his language! The chances of that were astronomically low. How would it know English?! ...He forced himself to calm down. He just had to take things as they came and, at least for now, not over-think things too much. That would just stress him out; it would be best to pretend that this was all possible, if not normal, and not question it until he'd learned more. He lay back down on his bed. He needed his rest; his body still felt like he'd just fallen down 30 flights of stairs. As he drifted off, he couldn't help feeling annoyed at his helplessness. Despite all he knew, he still felt very unsure of everything. This wasn't right or logical, he knew, but he couldn't remember any experiences whatsoever that might prove it to him. His irritation faded to apathy as sleep took a hold on him. That night, his dreams were full of talking unicorns and pegasi, and there, they didn't seem unusual at all.
Unfortunately, the Princess didn't seem to know much about these creatures either. Dear Twilight Sparkle, I'm sorry, but I can't help you. I know what you're talking about, but the most I can tell you is that these creatures disappeared just before Luna and I took the throne from Discord. I am certainly no expert. However, you were right to come to me about this. It may be dangerous, so I'll send some guards to assist you until you discover its attitude toward us. Good luck, my student! PS: I think I know somepony who might be able to help, but I'll have to remember how to contact him. Princess Celestia Twilight had immediately gone back to the book on Humans and read every word, and then found all the references in the book and researched them, too. Everything was very vague on what individual humans were really like; apparently humans didn't come into contact with ponies all that much, even when they did exist. As much as she hated to take risks, the only way to determine if this human was one of the "good" ones or one of the "bad" ones was to talk to it, and you couldn't pay her a million bits to do that by herself. So, she set out to find her friends, who she was sure would be happy to help. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Everyone stared. And then stared some more. "Uh, Twilight? It...doesn't really look that dangerous..." said Rainbow Dash, a little put out. She had been looking forward to a good beat-down with a monster, but this thing didn't look like it could stand on four hooves, much less two. "Well, the book said they could once destroy entire towns, so they must be at least a little dangerous..." said Twilight doubtfully. Brandon was passed out on the too-small, pony-sized bed, with his legs hanging off the end and his arms draped over the sides. He was snoring like a dragon, and he was still in the clothes from the explosion, so the room smelled of smoke and sweat. Dust whirled and twisted in the small eddies created by the movements of the six friends. The guards Celestia had sent stood stoically outside the room, silent but alert. "Well, he certainly needs his beauty sleep...just look at him!" exclaimed Rarity, a white unicorn, wrinkling her nose. After everyone had stood there waiting for a little longer, Rainbow Dash ran out of patience - not an uncommon occurrence. "All right, that's it! This dude's waking up, 'cause he's got some questions to answer!" "No, wait!" cried Twilight. "If you wake it up, it might get angry! It's best to let it wake up itself!" Ignoring her, the impatient pegasus flew over and landed squarely on Brandon's chest with a thud. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Stars danced before Brandon's eyes. He gasped and tried to get air in his lungs, but something very heavy on his chest refused to let him breathe. Had something fallen on him? He opened his eyes and almost jumped out of his skin; a pegasus was standing on his stomach, looking at him with not a little annoyance. Panicking, he shoved it off the bed. Thud. It exhibited a look of surprise for an instant, then glared at him. He tried to talk, but all that came out was that raspy whisper again. His attention was brought back to the pegasus when it grabbed his pant leg with it's teeth and shot out the door, dragging him along for the ride. There was a blur of color and some shouting, and then they were clear of the building. Brandon was thankful for this. Unfortunately, the ground seemed to be traveling away from him at ridiculous speed, and as he lacked the ability to fly, he was slightly worried about this fact. None of this actually registered, as his sleepy brain was still attempting to catch up with its overloaded ocular receptors. ............Oh crap. The penny dropped, and Brandon suddenly realized that he was a few hundred feet above the ground with no (safe) way down besides the pegasus holding him there. "Ah righ, wahth oor deal? Wa're ooh e'en oing ere?" she inquired testily around his pant leg, landing on a cloud. Brandon tried to form words, but even if he could have talked, he probably couldn't have thought of anything to say. His head was light and he felt dizzy from the height. The ever-impatient mare snorted and shook him around a bit. "Ah thed, wha're ooh oing ere?" she growled. "Rainbow! Stop!" came a voice from far below. "But he--" "Bring it down here now! That is not the proper way to ask questions!" Twilight fumed. Rainbow Dash glared at the terrified human as best she could without letting go of his pant leg as she brought him back to earth none too carefully. "What were you thinkin', girl?!" Applejack ranted. "Ya coulda hurt it, and ya prob'ly scared it half to death! After all, the thing can't fly!" "It's not my fault! I couldn't help it!" Rainbow protested. "He was just lying there, being boring!" "Um, actually, he was sleeping...I think...?" suggested Fluttershy. "Are you okay?!" asked a bright pink pony who, similar to Applejack, had no wings or horn. She stuck her face right into his. "...Omigosh, I just realized! I should throw a party for you! I mean, I know you're not a pony, but everypony- oops, I mean everyone loves a good party! Ooh, I can't wait for you to meet everyone! There's my pet alligator, Gummy, and...wait, are there alligators where you come from? 'Cause we have them here! He's so cute and green and--" "Pinkie, he's confused enough without you helping!" chided Rarity. Twilight growled in frustration and, levitating him along with her, dragged Brandon away as the other ponies argued. Once they were back in the library, she plopped down on the floor and sighed in relief. Only Celestia's guards remained besides them, having been ordered to follow Brandon everywhere until it was determined that he posed no threat. Twilight levitated a quill, some ink, and a scroll in front of her from the other side of the room. "All right, now that we have a quiet, commotion-free environment, I would like to ask you a few questions." --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Brandon's perspective: FlashingColorsTalkingAngryPegasusHighintheSkyYellingBlurThudScaredhalftoDeathMockSleepPartyGummyAlligatorConfusedFloatingthroughtheairDoorSlam-- "--ask you a few questions." Twilight grinned at him. Brandon blinked.