“All right, Twilight,” Princess Celestia said, cutting off Twilight Sparkle’s endless stream of questions.
“You can prepare all those studies once you return home. For now, there are a few things I need to remind all of you.”
The two ponies and one dragon immediately turned their attention to Celestia.
Her voice was gentle, yet serious.
“Regarding Dusk Glow’s identity as a human, I want this to remain our deepest secret. For the ordinary ponies of Equestria, the existence of another intelligent species from another world would be far too startling. Revealing it carelessly could cause unnecessary fear or misunderstanding.”
She paused before continuing in a more practical tone.
“As for his ability to change between three forms, within Equestria’s magical understanding, it can simply be regarded as an extremely rare and unusual talent. There is no need to advertise it, but there is also no reason to hide it excessively. Should anypony ask, simply treat it as a unique accomplishment of a magical practitioner.”
“In short, just let things unfold naturally.”
Twilight nodded firmly.
“Don’t worry, Princess. I’ll keep it a secret.”
Spike and Dusk Glow also nodded.
“We won’t tell anypony a thing,” Spike promised.
Celestia nodded in satisfaction.
“Good. There is one more matter.”
She turned toward Dusk Glow.
“Now that Dusk Glow is staying with us, I want you to take good care of him and teach him how to live as a pony.”
She then looked at Twilight and Spike.
“At the same time, keep an eye out for any unusual abilities he may develop. They could potentially prove useful when we face whatever the future may bring.”
Excitement immediately appeared in Twilight’s eyes.
Her mind was already racing with ideas for how to study Dusk Glow’s abilities.
Dusk Glow, meanwhile, felt that a completely new life was beginning to open before him.
“Dusk Glow.”
Celestia looked at him once more.
“I hope you won’t forget the promise we made.”
Dusk Glow knew exactly what she meant.
He placed his right hoof against his chest.
“I’ll keep my word.”
Celestia smiled and nodded.
“Good. Then you may be on your way.”
Twilight left the palace together with Spike and Dusk Glow.
Celestia watched them disappear down the corridor.
Then she quietly spoke to herself.
“Twilight, I hope you’ll come to understand that some answers aren’t found in books. Some are found along the path you walk.”
Just then, an elderly bald stallion suddenly appeared beside her.
He was dressed like a refined butler.
“Your Highness, you still have forty-two documents waiting for your approval. This afternoon, you also have a costume rehearsal, a Wonderbolts training session, and several other engagements.”
He adjusted himself with practiced dignity.
“Please do not fall behind.”
“…I understand.”
Celestia let out a weary sigh.
Another busy day.
…
“Dusk, what is your world like? What is the human world really like?”
As they traveled, Twilight and Spike excitedly surrounded Dusk Glow, asking question after question about his world.
Dusk Glow patiently answered them.
At the same time, he felt increasingly excited about the new life that was about to begin.
“My world…”
Dusk Glow thought for a moment.
“There is no magic. There are no alicorns. And there aren’t any talking dragons.”
“Whoa!”
Spike immediately puffed out his chest.
“Then what do the dragons in your world do? Do they just go ‘rawr’ all day?”
Dusk Glow struggled not to laugh.
“Dragons in my world are mythical creatures. They mostly only exist in stories.”
He paused.
“Even ponies are just ordinary animals. They can’t talk.”
“Mythical creatures?”
Twilight’s eyes widened.
“Then how do humans live? How can you possibly get by without magic?”
Dusk Glow smiled.
He began explaining human technology.
Cars.
Airplanes.
Computers.
Twilight and Spike listened with growing amazement, their eyes shining with fascination.
“That’s incredible!”
Twilight walked while using her magic to write notes with a quill.
“You can use something called a ‘phone’ to communicate over great distances? But even long distance sound transmission magic requires an enormous amount of magical power!”
“Exactly.”
Dusk Glow nodded confidently.
“My world doesn’t have magic, but we learned to make use of electricity, gravity, and all kinds of other forces and turn them into technology.”
“If something can be used, we’ll find a way to make use of it.”
Spike scratched his chin.
“So basically, you use everything you can get your claws on.”
He muttered,
“Sounds like eating an entire mountain of gems.”
Dusk Glow chuckled.
The three of them continued talking until they reached a tall white tower with a golden roof.
A spiral staircase ran around the outside of the tower.
Following Twilight and Spike, Dusk Glow climbed up until they reached their home.
The moment he stepped inside, Dusk Glow noticed an astronomical telescope sitting on the balcony.
The loft had two floors.
The first floor was Twilight and Spike’s living area, including the sitting room and kitchen.
The second floor contained several bookshelves, stacks of research material, and a gigantic hourglass.
“Whoa.”
Dusk Glow looked around in amazement.
“This place is really fancy.”
Twilight proudly raised her head.
“This is where I study and live, of course I want it to be comfortable and practical.”
Spike bounced excitedly beside her.
“Come on! We’ll show you around.”
The rest of the afternoon was spent on much more ordinary things.
Twilight and Spike helped Dusk Glow prepare a room for himself.
Twilight confidently promised that if the bed was uncomfortable, he could always tell her.
As for cleaning, cooking, and other little household chores, Spike would take care of those.
Spike even thoughtfully asked whether Dusk Glow had any foods he disliked.
Dusk Glow found himself wondering about something.
Spike looked rather young, so why was he responsible for most of Twilight’s household chores?
Spike seemed to notice the confusion on Dusk Glow’s face.
He scratched the back of his head.
“I’ve been with Twilight since I was little.”
“She took care of me, so of course I want to help her out.”
Besides, I really like doing this stuff!”
He proudly patted his chest.
Once the room was ready, Twilight excitedly dragged Dusk Glow upstairs to the bookshelves.
“We have tons of books about magic and history up here. Feel free to read whatever interests you.”
She suddenly remembered something.
“Oh! I also want to study how human technology might be combined with our magic.”
Dusk Glow smiled awkwardly.
“We don’t have to rush into that…”
Then he noticed something.
“Hm?”
His attention fell on a blackboard covered with complicated formulas.
“Is this an astronomy problem?”
He looked at Twilight.
“You’re interested in celestial mechanics?”
“Yes.”
Twilight nodded.
“These are the calculations I was working on a few days ago about that meteor.”
She paused.
“Actually, I think that meteor was you, Dusk.”
“But I still don’t know how you arrived in Canterlot.”
Dusk Glow scratched his head.
“I’m not entirely sure either.”
“Back in the human world, I was on top of a mountain looking at the stars. Then a rainbow colored streak suddenly flashed across the sky.”
“I passed out, and when I woke up, I was in this world.”
Twilight’s eyes immediately lit up.
“That could have been some kind of cross-dimensional teleportation spell!”
She quickly grabbed a piece of chalk with her magic.
“It might even be connected to your unusual abilities!”
Twilight immediately began writing across the blackboard.
Spike excitedly bounced beside her.
“Maybe if we study it, we could figure out a way to travel between the human world and Equestria!”
Dusk Glow found their enthusiasm contagious.
Soon, he was just as interested.
He joined Twilight at the blackboard and began discussing human physics and Equestrian magic with her.
After several rounds of exchanging knowledge, Twilight discovered that Dusk Glow was just as passionate about learning as she was.
Not only did he have an impressive understanding of physical laws, but he could even quote sayings Twilight had never heard before.
For the first time, Twilight felt as though she had found somepony who truly shared her love of knowledge.
And without realizing it, she became more and more fascinated by Dusk Glow.
Several hours later…
“This is amazing!”
Twilight’s eyes were shining.
“That Schrodinger’s cat idea you mentioned is incredible!”
“If something like that could be applied to magic, we might be able to create a magical state where something is both present and absent at the same time!”
Dusk Glow raised a hoof as though pushing up a pair of invisible glasses.
“Actually, Equestrian mimicry magic already has something a little similar to quantum superposition.”
“It’s just that…”
The two of them leaned closer together as they continued discussing their theories.
Closer.
And closer.
Until their horns gently bumped against one another.
Both of them froze.
Their faces immediately turned red.
They quickly pulled away.
There was no helping it.
To Twilight, knowledge from another world was simply too fascinating.
No wonder Princess Celestia had entrusted Dusk Glow to her!
This must have been the real reason.
She could learn so much from him!
Ah!
I’m beginning to understand everything!
Knowledge from another world is absolutely amazing!
I need to learn everything!
Dusk Glow also had a great deal of respect for Twilight.
After several hours of discussion, he had seen just how passionate and serious she was about learning.
She could be a little rigid at times, but that dedication was exactly what made him trust her.
She took knowledge seriously.
That made her more reliable than almost anypony he had met so far.
Their academic discussions had also helped Dusk Glow develop a clearer understanding of Equestria’s magical system.
First, Equestrian magic and human science were fundamentally different.
The human world relied on forces such as electromagnetism and gravity, invisible rules that governed reality like the underlying code of a computer program.
Magic, on the other hoof, was a form of living energy.
It responded to emotion and intention.
In that sense, magic was closer to editable reality.
In other words, if Dusk Glow wished hard enough, he could potentially use magic to break the ordinary rules of physics.
However, Twilight had explained that magic itself still followed patterns.
It had rules just like nature did.
That meant the laws of physics could also influence magic.
Dusk Glow drew a line across the star chart.
“Science searches for laws that work everywhere in the universe.”
“But magic…”
Twilight reached over and completed the line for him.
“Magic is whatever the heart wills it to be!”
“Goodness…”
Spike collapsed onto the couch.
His tail weakly slapped against the table.
“There are two bookworms in this library now.”
“I seriously need a few gems to cheer myself up.”
“Thanks, Dusk.”
Twilight tapped one hoof against the table.
“This is the first time I’ve ever encountered knowledge like this from another world.”
“But Dusk, how do you know so much?”
She looked at him curiously.
“Were you some kind of scholar in your old world?”
Her eyes moved across the formulas scattered over the table.
There were magical symbols reconstructing mass energy equations, drafts attempting to convert quantum tunneling into spell structures, and even various topological analyses.
“Me?”
Dusk Glow laughed softly.
“Of course not.”
“In my old world, I was just an ordinary person.”
“I simply believed in an old saying: ‘Master mathematics, physics, and chemistry, and you can travel anywhere without fear.'”
“So I learned a few things here and there.”
Twilight’s quill slipped from her magic.
Tap.
It landed on the parchment, spilling a small blot of deep blue ink.
“Ordinary?”
She stared at him.
“An ordinary person?”
Her mane puffed up slightly.
Her hooves unconsciously moved through the air as she tried to retrace one of the cross-dimensional equations Dusk Glow had explained.
“A human who can casually translate string theory into magical runes is calling himself ordinary?”
“At this rate, I might as well quit studying and start growing carrots!”
Spike suddenly sprang onto the table.
“Twilight, this ‘ordinary’ guy has spent the last few hours deriving new magical formulas for you.”
A book titled A Study of Dragon Dignity suddenly flew through the air and smacked Spike on the head.
Twilight gave him an irritated look.
Dusk Glow laughed.
“It’s not that impressive.”
“I might be considered a genius in some areas, but I don’t think there’s anything especially mysterious about that.”
“To me, a so called genius is simply an ordinary pony or human who finds something they truly love and is willing to spend the time mastering it.”
The academic fire in Twilight’s eyes gradually changed into something else.
“So…”
“That’s why you know so much.”
Dusk Glow nodded.
“Simple curiosity.”
His voice was gentle.
“Humans or ponies, aren’t we all essentially searching for answers to the same questions?”
“You use magic to understand the world.”
“We use science to analyze it.”
He looked toward the stars outside the window.
“But in the end…”
“We’re all looking up at the same sky.”
Twilight stared at him.
For a moment, she said nothing.
She suddenly realized something.
This “ordinary” human from another world might understand the nature of magic better than any genius she had ever met.
“Whoa,” Spike muttered.
“What a romantic philosophy.”
He scratched his chin.
“Sounds like Dusk Glow is about to confess his feelings.”
Two thick dictionaries immediately flew toward Spike’s head.
They soared through the air in two perfect arcs.
This time, even the trajectories had been calculated with absolute precision.