Chapter 2:
Twilight Sparkle
Disclaimer: I do not own My Little Pony or its characters it belongs to Hasbro and Lauren Faust and whoever else owns it.
Ugh. Gotta stop passing out. Seriously.
The now-blue pony rubbed the side of his head as he opened his eyes. He looked around him and he noticed that he was still in the library.
Wait... if I'm still here, then that means...
He glanced down at his hands to double check and sure enough, they were hooves. His eyes grew wider and his heart started beating quickly, but luckily he didn't pass out this time.
I guess thisisn't a dream, he sighed.
For some reason he was now a horse or a pony or something. How did he get here? He attempted to gather his thoughts and tried to think back to see what he could remember, but his head still felt pretty woozy. He could recall little things like his name. ...Walker? Yeah, that was it...Matthew...Walker. He could make out other things too, like a harsh white light and that nightmare he had earlier but he couldn't really understand what they meant. He retreated from his thoughts and studied his surroundings once again.
The place was a lot tidier than before. There were a few books scattered here and there, but he could at least see the floor now. He looked at the window above him and saw that it was getting dark out. He stretched his arms and legs out and pulled the cover off the lower half of his body. He stared down at his legs that didn't have feet and started to move them around which he thought felt...weird.
Slowly, he pulled his legs over to the side of the bed and moved his body up in a sitting position. He cautiously placed a hoof on the floor, followed by the other. He stood up and put his weight on them, but he stumbled and toppled back onto the bed. He attempted to repeat the action several times, but he was always met with the same results.
"This won't work..." the pony, Matthew, grumbled.
He realized standing on his read legs wouldn't do; he kept losing his balance since they couldn't support his weight on their own. He sat on the bed and pondered to himself, How would horses wa-. Then it hit him. Instead of putting all the weight on his rear legs he extended his forelegs (which were previously his arms) forward. He placed them on the wooden floor and feeling that he could keep his balance, he slowly began to walk around.
He smiled, finding the sensation of walking on all fours somewhat peculiar but exciting at the same time. He continued to walk around, until he heard a voice coming from the staircase leading to the floor below him. He froze immediately and perked his ears up to try and listen in.
"...hope he does get better soon. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.", Matthew heard the voice say. The voice stopped and for a second he swore that he could hear... fire? And something burning. It was silent for a while until he heard the same voice say, "Oh Spike, I really do hope he gets well soon..."
He heard another voice mumbling, but he couldn't quite catch what it said.
"Passed out? Really? Maybe I should go check up on him...", came the response.
Matthew started to hear footsteps coming up from the staircase, and he started to panic. What do I do? What do I do? His brain started to work furiously, debating on all the possible courses of action he had when he decided to just hide. His eyes scanned the room quickly and he caught a glimpse of a stack of books that seemed tall enough to hide him. The footsteps started to grow louder so he dashed to the hiding spot... only to trip on a book that someone had left on the floor. He crashed on the floor with a strained "ow".
As he heard footsteps reached the top of the stairway, he closed his eyes and waited for the inevitable. He heard a female voice exclaim, "Oh my!" before he felt himself being picked up and being placed back on the bed.
"A-are you alright?", he heard her ask.
"Um, yeah... Thanks.", he replied.
He opened his eyes slowly to see who he was talking to. His eyes adjusted themselves on the face of a purple... pony looking down at him with large eyes, a faint smile on her face. She had a dark blue mane and from what he could see, a pink streak ran down its middle. On her forehead was a purple horn, so he assumed she was a unicorn or something. But when looked at her face again, his heart started pounding wildly in his chest for some strange reason.
W-wait a minute... you look familiar... I-I think...I know you from somewhere!
Matthew wasn't sure who the unicorn was but he was certain he had already met, or at the very least, seen her before.
"A-are you sure?" The unicorn turned her head and pointed to the spot on the floor where Matthew had fell. "I-I found you on the ground, and I thought that you fell out of bed."
"Yeah, I'm good.", he mumbled, rubbing his arm. His heart started calming down and soon it was beating at its normal pace. "Uh, thanks, um..."
"My name's Twilight Sparkle.", she said with a grin.
"Oh, um, thanks then...Twilight Sparkle."
"You can just call me Twilight." The purple unicorn continued smiling for a second, then paused and looked at the blue pony and asked, "Are you feeling better now? Does your horn hurt?"
"Horn?" he asked curiously before placing a hoof on his head and moving it around. His hoof felt something hard around the front of his forehead and slowly, he traced it up to the point and found that he didhave a horn. That's weird. Am I supposed to like ...poke stuff with this?
They were both silent for a while until Twilight spoke up and asked, "So, what's your name? I don't think I've seen you around Ponyville before, so I'm assuming you're new here?"
Matthew paused and thought, "Ponyville?",before answering, "My name's... Matthew... Matthew Walker."
The purple unicorn nodded and said, "Pleasure to meet you Matthew. Can you walk?" The blue unicorn nodded and Twilight grinned, "That's good. Let's go downstairs. We need to get some food in you!"
Twilight started to head for the stairs and Matthew followed close behind. Once more Matthew tried to think back as to how he got here. He still couldn't remember much, so he thought to himself, "I guess a couple bites wouldn't hurt. Maybe I'll start remembering once I eat something". The two unicorns descended the stairs until they were at the library's base floor. Matthew looked around and saw that there were more books down here than there were upstairs, if that's even possible.
Twilight told him to take a seat while she would prepare the food. He made his way to a nearby table and noticing that there wasn't a chair, he sat down on his haunches and placed his two forelegs in front of him in order to stay balanced. He could hear some nearby clings and clangs from pots and pans in the kitchen as Twilight worked on the food. He looked around the library once again and wondered if the purple unicorn worked here. He decided that he would ask her once she finished in the kitchen. His eyes wandered around until he saw something unusual. A small purple dragon with green spikes on its head and back was on a ladder connected to a shelf filled with books. It looked like it was arranging and sorting it, since it was taking out a few books and placing them somewhere else on the shelf. It turned around and caught the blue unicorn staring at him. It smiled and waved his hand at the guest. Matthew found himself awkwardly waving back.
"Oh, hey there dude!", it greeted happily. "You're finally up! Phew, Twilight sure was worried."
It slid down the ladder it was on and walked over to the table. He held out one of his paws at Matthew, who shook it slowly. "My name's Spike. I help Twilight out at the library so things don't get too cluttered. What's your name?"
When Spike saw the confused and panicked look on the unicorn's face, he raised his arms and said, "Hey now, don't pass out again! Twilight'll get mad at me if you do!"
Matthew shook his head and apologized, "Sorry about that. I'm not used to talking with dragons. In fact, you're the first one I've met. I'm Matthew Walker."
Spike nodded and said, "Nice to meet you, Matthew! Can I call you Matt? And I'm used to getting those kinds of reactions when ponies first meet me, since not a lot of ponies have talked to or even seen a dragon before. Well, at least without getting their heads bit off."
The unicorn grimaced at the thought of a dragon biting a pony's head off. "Haha, but don't worry," assured Spike. "Dragons aren't usually hostile unless you wake them up during their sleep or take their treasure or something."
Matthew chuckled and said, "Guess I better remember that if I ever decide to go into a dragon's cave. Thanks for the heads-up."
"No problem, Matt." There was a long pause before Spike turned around and looked back at the bookshelf. "Well, I should get back to work. Those books aren't gonna keep themselves!"
The small dragon walked away and got back to work organizing the books. Remind me to never go into a dragon's cave. He turned around and saw Twilight returning from the kitchen, levitating two plates with her horn which was glowing a faint purple. Matthew stared at her in wonder and thought, "You can do that? Make stuff float?" The lavender unicorn placed one plate on the blue unicorn's side of the table while she put a plate on her own side.
Matthew looked down at the food on his plate and saw that it was a sandwich with some flowers and greens sticking out of it. As far as he could tell there wasn't any meat inside of it. "Wait... do ponies even eat meat?", he thought to himself while he continued staring at the food. Seeing the look on his face, the purple unicorn across from him flushed and apologized, "Oh, I'm sorry... I'm not the best cook around. I usually eat out so I'm not really used to cooking my own meals."
Mathew quickly shook his head and reassured her, "No, sorry, it's nothing. I was just thinking about something else. The food looks really good."
"Oh, uh...thanks!", Twilight said brightening up. "Well, dig in!" She levitated her sandwich with her horn and took a bite out of it while Matthew picked it up with his hooves (he didn't know how he pulled that off) and started to eat.
He found that even if there wasn't any meat in the sandwich, it was still really good. The two unicorns ate their food in silence until Matthew asked, "So, uh, do you work here?"
Twilight swallowed her food and responded, "Well, sort of. I actually live here, in the library. That's why there was a bed upstairs."
"Oh. Then you must get a lot of visitors then?", he asked, thinking of the public library in the city he lived in.
The purple unicorn's face dropped when he asked this and she answered, "Well, not really. Nobody really likes reading books around here, even though there's such a wide range of subjects that the books here cover." Twilight looked down sadly at her sandwich, taking a bite and chewing quietly.
"Well, uh, if it's any consolation, I do love reading books myself." Matthew said with a smile, thinking of the times he had visited the library in his free time (though he doubted he read as much as this unicorn did).
"Rmomf?", Twilight garbled with her mouth full. She swallowed her food and said, "I-I mean, really?", perking up and looking at the blue unicorn in the eyes. "That's great! I have so many books here and I'm certain I can find you something you'd enjoy. I could even get Spike help me look! What kind of books do you like? Are you interested i-"
She stopped when Matthew raised a hoof, interrupting her. He chuckled and suggested, "That would be great, but don't you think we should finish eating first?"
Twilight smiled nervously and looked down again, blushing slightly. "Oh. Right. Sorry about that. I just get excited when I meet somepony else who likes reading too."
They continued eating and after a long silence Twilight cleared her throat and continued the conversation. "So where are you from? I haven't seen you around Ponyville so you must come from somewhere else."
Matthew frowned and thought long and hard. That's weird... I don't remember where I'm from... I mean, I know I'm human... but I don't even remember the city that I lived in...
"I... don't know.", he admitted. "I can't seem to remember anything about where I'm from. I don't even recall how I ended up here."
Twilight frowned and thought hard for a moment before describing how she had found him. "I do remember finding you passed out near Everfree Forest. I was heading to my friend's house to help her feed some animals when I sorta ran into a... tree... and got stuck." She paused and grinned nervously at the blue unicorn sitting across from her, but seeing the completely serious look on his face, she could tell this was something he wanted to know, so she continued her story. "I pulled myself out but I got launched back into some grass. I heard some sounds coming from a nearby bush and when I looked, I found you passed out behind it. You... were mumbling things I couldn't understand... and when I was carrying you back here, you started screaming. Do you remember how you ended up there?"
Matthew sat deep in thought. He tried thinking back and he found that his mind was feeling a bit more refreshed, possibly from filling his stomach with food. But he still couldn't remember anything, except that he knew for a fact that he was a human before he became a pony.
"A-actually, Twilight, I'm...um...", he stuttered.
"Yes?", she asked, looking at him curiously.
"I...", he began.
He was about to tell her that he had no idea how he ended up there, and that he wasn't even a pony to begin with. He was going to mention that he was actually a human and not...not a unicorn. But he couldn't get himself to say it. If I tell her I'm a human, she'll think I'm crazy. I mean, I'm not sure they even know what a human is.
He didn't want anyone... err, anypony here to think he was crazy, especially not Twilight, the one pony that had taken care of him and nursed him back to health. Then he remembered something else. I also gotta find out where I've seen her before...and if I tell her I'm human now I may never find out.So after some consideration he decided that he would keep his true identity a secret, at least for now.
"I-I'm not sure how I got there... maybe...I'll remember it later?" Matthew could feel sweat on his forehead and he hoped she wouldn't notice.
"Oh, that's too bad.", Twilight said with a sad look on her face.
They were both just about finished with their meal when Matthew began to feel thirsty. "Excuse me, Twilight, but do you have water or anything like that?"
"Oh, of course! I can't believe I forgot the beverages. Sorry about that.", she apologized. She turned and called for Spike, who was just finishing up organizing the books on the shelf.
"Yeah, Twilight?", he answered as he dropped down from the ladder.
"Spike, would you mind preparing some tea for Matthew and myself?"
"Aww, but I was going to go to sleep after I finished, Twi!", he complained.
"C'mon Spike? Please?", she asked, with a pleading tone. "Aren't you my Number #1 assistant?"
Spike rolled his eyes and after a moment of silence, he gave in. "Fine. But only because I'm the number one assistant here." He turned his head around and stuck his tongue out at a small brown owl that Matthew hadn't noticed before.
"Who.", the owl hooted.
"Me. I'm the number one assistant.", Spike responded to the owl.
"Who."
"Me! Spike! I'm the nu- ah forget it." Spike groaned as he made his way to the kitchen to prepare the tea, while Twilight giggled.
He came back a few minutes later with two cups of tea and served it to the unicorns before heading upstairs and proclaiming, "If you need me, I'll be asleep."
"Sweet dreams, Spike!", Twilight said before he disappeared up the stairs.
The two unicorns were each quiet as they drank their tea. Matthew wasn't too big a fan of the beverage, preferring his tea iced, but he had to admit this tea was pretty darn good. After they both took a sip of their tea Twilight spoke up and asked, "So where are you going after this?"
Matthew scratched his head. He wasn't sure where he was going to go. He didn't even remember why he was here in the first place. "I'm... not sure. I don't really remember how I ended up near... Ponyville was it?" Twilight nodded. "I don't really know anypony around here, so I guess I can stay in an inn or something."
"I don't think there is an inn around Ponyville." Twilight scratched her head and tried thinking. "It's a pretty small town and ponies don't usually come through here so an inn hasn't really been established yet."
Well, that's great,Matthew thought to himself. And even if therewasan inn here I don't have any money... Do they use money here? Probably, I'm guessing. He started thinking about where he was going to stay, and the idea of living on the streets kept popping back up into his mind, much to his dismay.
Noticing the worried look on his face, Twilight cleared her throat and suggested, "Well, maybe you can stay here. I've got a spare bed and you're more than welcome."
"R-really?", he stuttered. "I-I don't have any money, though..." His eyes dropped down to the cup of tea below him.
"Don't worry about it. You can stay here as long as you'd like, and maybe we can even find out where you're from.", Twilight proposed.
"Oh, right." And also, if I can find out how I got here, maybe I can find out how I can get out. "Thanks, Twilight. I really don't know how I can thank you enough for this.", Matthew said with a smile of gratitude on his face. I could probably just stay here and read up on the books. Who knows? Maybe itis possible to find a way to get out of here. Plus l should probably stay inside. I don't want to attract any unwanted attention. Gotta stay low.
Twilight smiled back and after a short pause, her eyes widened and she quickly remarked, "Oh yeah, I almost forgot! You have to meet my friends! I think you'll like them, they're super nice."
Matthew flinched at the suggestion and nervously asked, "A-are you sure? I mean, I get pretty shy around new people."
"Oh trust me, I doubt you're worse off at meeting new people than one of my friends.", the lavender unicorn chuckled, thinking of a certain yellow pegasus with a pink mane.
Matthew tried to think. If I meet her friends, they'll probably ask where I'm from and how I got here and when I can't answer them, some of them are probably gonna get suspicious... But still... Twilightisgiving me a place to stay and meeting her friends would be the least I can do for her.The blue unicorn sighed quietly and submitted. "Alright, I'll meet your friends."
"That's great! Thanks, Matthew.", Twilight exclaimed with a large grin on her face.
"No, no, it's the least I can do." Matthew took a sip of his tea and thought, Yeah, now that I think of it... I mean, it can't bethatbad.
"Pinkie's probably going to throw a great party for you.", he suddenly heard say.
Urk! The blue unicorn was caught off guard when she said this and practically started choking. After a few moments of panic, he regained his breath and cleared his throat. He faked a smile and inquired with a high pitched voice, "P-Party?"
"Yeah, Pinkie throws the best parties around Ponyville. She'll probably invite everypony to attend!"
Matthew felt his blood drain from his face and he tried his best put on a bigger smile, although he felt like his face was going to crack in half. "Greeaaat", he said weakly, his left eye twitching. So much for staying low.
To be continued...
