I hadn't gone far when the purple unicorn was back. "You said you'ld talk to me," she accused.

"And so I shall. I was looking for you. Strangely enough, you were the first pony to show their face to me." Her Familiar was hiding behind her flank, peering at me. I tried to smile at him encouragingly, and he ran inside, yelling. I knew I must be rusty on etiquette, but I couldn't be that bad!

"...Ignore him..." the unicorn said, blushing slightly. "Would you please come in?" She nodded to the tree-house behind her the dragon had run into.

"Certainly. Between your cutie mark, your possession of such a powerful familiar, and your lack of fear, I would assume you to be a fairly powerful spellweaver. This conversation should be highly interesting."

She followed me in, blushing. "Oh, I'm no one special, really."

"We shall see about that. In any circumstance, I expect everypony will feel more comfortable with me out of sight." The door shut behind me as I analyzed the room. "You actually live in the library?"

She nodded happily. "It's a wonderful place! I can do all the studying I want, any time I want!"

"A sensible ideal." My eyes fell on a charm. "Is that Ursa hair?"

"Well, I..."

I was already examining it closely. "Yes, indeed it is. Minor, if I'm not mistaken. Did you defeat it?"

"Not really... I simply returned it to it's mother."

I turned to look at her. "Without harm?"

"Why on earth would I have harmed it! It was attacking, and no one else was doing anything... It's not like I did anything someone else with the skill wouldn't have."

I blinked slowly, several times, mulling this over. "So you're telling me, that you defeated an Ursa Minor, on your own, without causing it harm?" She nodded modestly, blushing. "And you say you're no one special. I've known extremely few ponies that could accomplish that feat. Possibly only 3 other than yourself, ever, in all of history." She was completely bashful now. She was cuter than I'd expected when she blushed. Aaand, just like that, all the dirty thoughts. Forcing my brain past, I asked "What's your name, oh tamer of the great?"

"Oh, I'm not a tamer of anything, that's Fluttershy! But, I'm Twilight, and that's Spike."

"Twilight what?"

"Huh?"

"Twilight what? You have a last name, don't you?"

"Oh! Twilight Sparkle."

"Sparkle...? Any relation to Corozone Sparkle the adventurer?"

"I don't think so... I've never heard of him, so I doubt it."

"Never!? I thought you ran this library, and loved study! How could not have run across him in one of your books!?"

"Library, books, study? Wait, how long ago did he live!?"

I frowned, thinking. It was, for once, not a pleasant task. "Roughly 1000 years, at my best guess. Probably a little more."

Twilight gasped. "That's before most legends even take place! Are you a historian?"

I had winced slightly at that mention of legends, but I didn't think she'd seen it. "Not exactly... he's just someone who... always fascinated me..."

"Why?"

"Well, he was amazing. He found legends, and proved them real- even wrote a book about his discoveries with... his assistant. There's hardly an ancient artifact or story he wasn't involved in, from the Elements of Harmony to the Marepool."

She ghasped, "WHAT!?"

"Yeah," I smiled at her astonishment. "He was an absolutely incredible pony..." I drifted off to silence. After a moment, Twilight got back to questions.

"Where on earth did you come from?"

"Far away... it's-"

"Why are you so kind, yet so harsh?"

"Well, I-"

"How'd you arrive? OH! Why's your hair still wet? OH, oh, and do-" An owl flew down and settled on her muzzle.

"Hoo!" It blinked at her slowly. After a few seconds and breaths, she blinked back, smiling, and nodded. It flapped back off her face, and she looked at me sheepishly.

"Sorry... I guess I got a bit over-excited. Thanks, Owlicious."

"Hoo!"

"It's fine. So, where am I?"

Twilight frowned. "You mean this town?" I nodded. "This is Ponyville. How can you not know about it? It was was founded at the bequest of Princess Celestia herself!"

I stiffened in shock. This province was true to the traitor! It meant I was still in Equestria too... I had to find out what had happened since my exile. "Would you mind if I spent a few hours browsing?"

"Not at all, but when-"

"Thanks." I trotted into the main part of the library, sending the familiar scurrying by to his Mistress's safety. Picking a book at random, I sat down to read. A hard-bound, red book turned out to be about cooking. Not my thing... Not even remotely interesting to me, in fact, but I needed the distraction for Twilight. Lightly tapping my hoof on the ground, I enforced Murphy's Law on the shelves around me according to my needs. All the books I'd actually be looking for were now behind the others. I used my general magic to pull those out, and got busy reading.

There was so much to take in. Technology had advanced quite a bit, as had music. I would need to go find out what it sounded like now! While reading, I hunted magically for music and channelled it right to my mind.

The history itself was fascinating, what little of it I could find. Very few of the books were actually historical, maybe most of the past was carried on by oral tradition, similar to in my day. How much information had been lost of tainted this way? Even when I finally found what seemed to be a complete history of Equestria, I had to give it up and fictitious when it started talking about subjects I already knew about, and were getting it wrong. It's hard to put one over on the person who was there.

When I thought things couldn't seem worse, I started in on some spell books. Nearly every book was full of spells so watered down in effect or power that it seemed more liquid than spell. Every time I'd actually find a good one, Twilight would come over and take it away, saying that it was one of her personal study books, that other ponies weren't supposed to read. Did no ponies actually know how to fight then? How to stop time, or chance elements?

The idea hit me that this all probably meant there were no books about unique creatures, like myself, or kelpie magic. Come to think of it, would there even be any Kelpie's left in the world? We'd been rare when I'd left... I found it harder and harder to read as time went on. Instead, I watched Twilight as she walked around the library, doing chores and reading constantly. It really was marvelous how she could keep the book floating in front of her, actually read it, and still get things done. The little draquine was going from place to place, watching me. It was hard to tell if he was curious, fearfully hiding, or both. I shifted my attention from him back to Twilight. I'd always had a thing for the nerdy mares. Most often, they were more fun in bed than more athletic mares! I could tell by the way she carried herself, though, Twilight had no clue about any of that.

I'd been reading on and off for only a few hours, when a blue pegasus with a rainbow mane/ tail flew in through a window. "Twilight!" she shouted, spinning around looking for her. Sweet Luna, but you have to love a tight, athletic flank. Not that Twilight's wasn't sweet too. I grinned slightly at some thoughts as Twilight came running in from the other room.

"What's the problem, Rainbow?"

"Hoops, Dumb-bell and Score are trapped in some sort of cloud-prison in the center of town! We can hear them sobbing and begging for their mothers." She smirked slightly, obviously unable to be completely unhappy about the bullies' predicament. After a second, she regained her composure. "We've been trying to get to them, but these clouds are far tougher than anything we've ever seen before!"

She kept talking, but I'd already stood up and walked by them out the door. Behind me, I could hear them following, the blue one trying to figure out what was going on. I kept one ear open while quietly singing one of the new songs I'd heard that day. "When you're rife with devastation, there's a simple explanation..."

"Twilight, who's this?"

"I don't really know- I haven't even gotten his name, yet. He just turned up this morning, scaring all the ponies. He saved Derpy from those three bullies by trapping them in that cage, and has been at my library reading ever since."

"...know that we will stay resiliant, we won't..."

"WHAT!?"

"Calm down, Rainbow! He was just protecting Derpy."

"I don't care what his reasons were!" Blue blocked my path. "What did you do to them! What in the name of Celestia were you thinking!?"

I blinked calmly at her to cover my jolt of terror. "You interrupted my song."

"I don't care! Explain yourself!"

"Where are you going?" Twilight asked, coming up alongside me. I had the distinct feeling she was trying to smooth things over and settle things herself before her friend took everything out of hand. "You said you weren't going to let them out until tomorrow."

"I overestimated them, due to their numbers. The technique is reduced in effectiveness, because you can take comfort in each others presence. However, they apparently feel no rue connection between them so that, even with their "friends", they are truly alone. I need to get them out before they break completely in mind and spirit. A lesson cannot be learned and applied if you can no longer interact with the ponies around you." I resumed walking, leaving it to the other two to keep up.

Rainbow shoved in front of me again. "And who made you able to decide they need a 'lesson'!?" she demanded.

"True, we all need lessons in some way. You need time wingless and in danger. You," I looked at Twilight, "need to experience life as if you were of average intelligence at best. Even I still have lessons to learn, even if I can't see them yet." They were shocked, staring mutely at me. "Very few ponies are naturally shown true caring for everypony on their own, fully, and with their whole heart. My mentors once told me I would fully understand what I still needed to see when I'd found my truly special somepony."

"Would?" Twilight asked.

"I never found her... I settled on having someone to protect. I suppose that's why I protected Derpy." Why was I telling these ponies this? My tongue felt like it was working without me. "I was tormented and bullied for years upon years, sometimes far worse than Derpy was being treated. No one deserves to cry like she was... and like those three now are. Just... sometimes it takes pain to understand another's pain."

We entered into the town square, where the ponies were grouped in the corners, muttering to each other. Only one pony was near the prison. As I saw her, the simple but sweet song she was singing washed over me. Derpy was singing to those who had been horrible to her, to try to comfort them. Had I not known noise couldn't penetrate the clouds, I would swear they were listening. As it was, I wondered why they had fallen silent. I hadn't heard this song yet, so I sat down and rested my shoulder and listened, slowly dissipating the clouds. As the song ended, the last layer drifted away, revealing the three tear-soaked ponies, huddled up in a ball by where the closest wall had been. As several pegasi rushed in to get them, I turned to Derpy.

"That was beautiful. You have a fantastic voice."

She blushed adorably. "Thanks. You shouldn't have gone that far for me, though... It was ok."

"It's not ok for someone to treat you like that."

"But I'm used to-"

"Um, excuse me..." a voice behind us said. I turned with Derpy to see Score standing there, being supported by another pegasi who was giving me a death glare. "I, uh... I just wanted to say I'm sorry, Derpy... I didn't know that... I mean, I... it's just... I never meant for you to feel like that..." He turned and was led off by the still glaring pegasis.

"I never thought I'd hear one of them say that..." Derpy said quietly. "Thank you, Lantra."

"It's my pleasure. Maybe you and I could get together sometime. I'd enjoy getting to know you better."

"I'd love that. Sugarcube corner, tomorrow at 11:00?"

"Sounds like I know what I'm doing tomorrow. I'll see you then." I turned and trotted back towards Twilight and Rainbow.

"Wow. You're a lot less creepy when you smile," Dash said tactlessly, and Twilight groaned and facehoofed.

"Ignore her. And look out behind you." I turned my head just in time to get my vision filled with pink.

"HI! You're new! I mean, I saw you before and everypony was scared and I was all like- 'I guess I won't talk to him', but everypony realized you might be ok, and you were talking to Twilight so I think everyone should get to know you, and do you know what this calls for!?"

"Um, no?"

"A PARTY!" She was suddenly gone, leaving me with the other two.

"Just get used to it." Rainbow muttered in my ear. "This is about as normal as she gets."

So, anyone think they're starting to understand our OC pony, 'Mr. Lan'? Hope you enjoyed this chapter. Chapter 4 hopefully coming up within the next week. I do not own any of the characters or settings of MLPFIM, they are the property of Hasbro. The song I was singing is The Gypsy Bard, by Sherclop Ponies. Support the official releases, or be subjected to the cloud prison!