>The first questions were very clinical, as you expected
>"Who are you?"
>"What are you?"
>"Where did you come from?"
>"What do you want?"
>"How did you get here?"
>Deflection only went so far, but with repetition it went far enough to satisfy
>You were Anon, a Human from Earth
>You want the same as anyone else, to live your life and be happy
>They eventually accepted that you're not comfortable with discussing how you got here
>Though the tight lipped expressions and pinned ears spoke a lot to how deep that acceptance ran
>It would be enough, you told yourself
>And for a while, it was
>You were finally there
>The place you were supposed to be
>The place where you were supposed to be happy
>Equestria was beautiful, everything was vivid and full of life
>The sheer amount of vibrancy that seemed to cling to the air itself was intoxicating in it's own right
>Just breathing you could understand how this world was such a world of magic and wonder
>Now you find yourself leaning on the crystalline arch of an open doorway watching the sun set over the rolling hills to the east over the still idyllic town of Ponyville
>The urge to laugh at the sheer absurdity and whimsy of even the landscape itself passed over you, but you kept it suppressed well enough
>The fact that someone like you could ever be in a place like still felt almost wrong on a fundamental level
>You glanced down to your side to see that your hand was clenched in a white knuckled grip again, you made a conscious effort to try to relax and appreciate the artistry playing out across the sky in front of you
>Slowly you slip down into thoughtlessness as you watch the sun creep slowly down towards the broken and mountainous, but still beautiful, horizon
>"Anon?"
>You jump slightly and swear under your breath, not having heard or noticed the mare come up behind you
>You look back and see Princess Twilight Sparkle, a mostly neutral expression on her face that you can still read as a tight frown from her swept back ears
>Ponies were a remarkably expressive bunch, especially when they didn't want to be
>"Sorry, I didn't mean to scare you."
>The words are apologetic and genuine, and she maintains eye contact the whole time
>Despite yourself you find yourself smile back at her gently as a mirthless chuckle croaks out of your throat
"It's not your fault, I'm just not used to the company."
>She smiles back, faintly, there's concern on her expression, but she shakes her head and does her best to banish it
>"Honestly, Anon, with what you've told me about your world I'm still struggling to understand how that could ever be possible. Billions of people all interconnected through technology at all times? How could you ever have time to yourself?"
>She moves forward through the doorway, slipping past you, and looks out towards the sunset for a long moment before turning back to address you again
>You look down at her before tactfully looking towards the sunset again
"Princess, my people took the concept of being alone in a crowded room and turned it into an artform in itself."
>There's a long pause after that
>"I see." she says cautiously.
>"You wouldn't mind the company, would you?"
>You suppress a frown
>The questions were clinical at first
>But they were becoming increasingly less so
>Repetition has it's limits
>You wear the remnants of that smile as best you can
"By all means, Princess", you say with a nod
>She nods back and unlatches the pouch on the small saddlebag she was wearing at her hip, pulling out a familiar glossy rectangle before levitating it over towards you
>"I think I was able to charge the capacitor enough for it to be usable, but I'll be frank when I say that I'm not used to working with capacitors at this scale with that sort of power density, so besides your instructions I'm mostly guessing at how much I can put in without it overloading..."
>You push yourself off the wall and deftly catch the device in your fingers, pressing the right buttons to get to a startup
"If the math we did was right then it should all be fine."
>She says nothing and waits patiently as you watch the screen
>The startup takes a moment before you're onto the home screen
"Twenty six percent battery."
>"Only twenty six percent?"
>You nod
"It's enough to last maybe six or so hours with light use on lower settings."
>You take a moment to flick and swipe through to bring the power drain down lower
>"Six hours!"
>You glance down at her to see her blink up at you owlishly
>"Anon, your technology is amazing! Six hours of use with all the world's knowledge right in the frogs of your hooves."
>Her eyes nearly cross for a second as she blinks at you again, remembering herself
>"I mean, um, tips of your claws?"
"Fingers and fingertips", you say casually waggling one in her direction
>She nods sheepishly, "Fingers and fingertips"
>You nod back, then shake your head
"It would only be everything if I was connected to the net, and I'm not here, so it's only the stuff that I had downloaded before I came here."
>There was another pause where Twilight kept her face very neutral before speaking
>"What did you download before you came here?"
>The phrasing was very deliberate
"Enough" you said cryptically
>She frowned, but did not press the issue, instead turning to look out at the sunset, which was a deep burnt red that smeared across half the sky as the sun dipped past the horizon full now
>It took a few minutes before either of you said anything, you decided to speak up first
"You said that you wanted to see some of the things that I had on here?"
>She blinks before nodding back up at you
>"I wanted to get to know you better, Anon."
>For a moment, you don't say anything.
>"You said that I you had a lot of things that were important to you on there, didn't you?"
>You did not, you said that you had a lot of culturally significant works on there, but never that anything was personally important to you
"Yes" you say neutrally
>She pauses again
>"Ok, well, is there anything you would recommend?"
>"Art, theater, poetry, writing?"
>You say nothing and stare at the waning crepuscular rays and try your best to appear in deep thought
>"Music?"
>You feel your hand cramp up and reflexively unclench
>Another pause
>"What sorts of music do you have, Anon?"
>You sigh quietly and look down at her as she looks up at you with cautious expectation.
"Well, I have the works of quite a few renowned composers throughout history, as well as a pretty broad selection of historical folk music that shows off a lot of the breadth of the human musical scene over time."
>She nods, "Does that include contemporary pieces too."
>You look at her for a moment before failing to maintain eye contact and reflexively looking back to your device, pawing through it idly
"I have some."
>There's another long pause
"Though most of the contemporary stuff is from my own collection."
>Without looking at her you can hear her perk at that as she speaks up again
>"That sounds perfect! Do you have anything that you think I might like? Do you think that I could hear som—"
"No"
>She stumbles and stutters for a moment before cocking her head at you as you glance back at her before looking back to the comfort of the screen
>"I'm sorry, what do you mean?"
>You let out a long, honest, sigh
"I don't think that I would have anything that you would like in my collection."
>There's another pause before she scoffs at that
>"Anon, please, if you think I would judge your tastes then don't worry about it!"
>"I'm always open to new things and experiences if they let me learn more about the things and Ponies around me, and that includes music even though I'm not the biggest music buff out there."
>She blinks
>"That includes the people around me too, which includes you, of course."
>You nod
"Of course."
>You shake your head
"It's not that it's bad music, or that you would judge on that, it's just that I don't think there's anything that you would like."
>"Can I ask why?"
>You look at her
>She looks back up at you
"Most of the songs in my collection are morose, bordering on melancholic
>She tipped her head at you again
>"You didn't have any happy songs?"
"Almost none of them spoke to me."
>"Can I ask why?"
>Over the days the questions had for the most part become more and more personal
>More and more invasive
>Harder to deflect
>Repetition had it's limits
>You looked at her, realizing that you could maybe brush her off for today
>But she'd come back and ask again, another way, tomorrow
>And the next day
>And the day after that
>You sighed again
"Twilight?"
>"Yes?"
"What kind of person wants to leave their own world?"
>She takes a moment to consider
>"I don't know," she says tentatively
>"I'm not sure if I understand the question."
>You shake your head and look up at the increasingly deep night sky in an effort to not show her your face
"Someone who wasn't happy, and would rather be anywhere else than where they were..."
>There's another pause
>Another repetition
>"Was that you, Anon?"
>You say nothing
>Your hands unclench reflexively
>"Anon, can I ask a question?"
>You say nothing
>"How did you get here?"
>A breeze blew across the balcony, sending a chill between the two that stood there that cut into the space between them
"I think I'm going to go to bed now."
>"O-ok..."
>You look back down at the tablet
"It's still at at around 20%, you should be able to put twice the power you put into it before so long as you meter it like we discussed to get it up to around 70% or so, then I could feel a little better about using it."
>You shake your head
"For now I'd rather not, so you can hold onto it until then
>You hold out the device in her direction and feel the electric tingle prick at your fingertips as her magic latches onto the device and pulls it away
>Without another word you walk back through the doorway and into the dimly refracted light of the castle
 
>You sit down on the balcony
>Anon clearly isn't feeling well, and it's getting harder and harder to deny the fact that he probably never did
>You want to help him, but you're really not sure how
>Not without him opening up and telling you exactly what's wrong
>You sigh and look down at the device
>Still, progress is progress
>You remember how surprised he was to find that he had it with him
>Like he shouldn't have
>When you asked he just said that he had always been told that "You couldn't take it with you."
>He didn't say anything after that
>You also remember how distraught he was when he tried to turn it on the first time after pulling it out only to find out that it had no energy left to do so
>At least now it worked
>You spent a moment staring at the surface as it softly glowed in the nighttime gloom, painting a strange and alien contrast against the soft light of your own aura
>You wonder for a moment if maybe you could use the device the same way Anon could
>You think about how he worked with it and pulled your aura around the device so that it was only holding onto the edges and back surface
>The face was light up with an unfamiliar picture with several symbols and an unfamiliar script painting a few lines across in a few places
>At random you decide to "tap" at a rounded isosceles triangle tipped on it's side near the center of the surface with your aura, in a gesture like you had seen him do
>Suddenly the soft strumming of a guitar starts up
>You nearly leap and drop the device in surprise
>Luckily you don't
>After a few seconds, you hear what sounds like a stallion singing in a mournsome cadence
 
Childhood living is easy to do
The things you wanted I bought them for you
Graceless lady you know who I am
You know I cant let you slide through my hands
 
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away
 
I watched you suffer a dull aching pain
Now you decided to show me the same
No sweeping exits or offstage lines
Could make me feel bitter or treat you unkind
 
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, couldn't drag me away
 
I know I dreamed you a sin and a lie
I have my freedom but I don't have much time
Faith has been broken, tears must be cried
Lets do some living after we die
 
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, well ride them some day
 
Wild horses couldn't drag me away
Wild, wild horses, well ride them some day
 
~ Fin
 
Hope someone enjoyed my random spaz writing at midnight
Song source https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UFLJFl7ws_0