I’m patting Myrna on the shoulder as she cries, leaning against me. Behind us, Pinkie is getting a depetrifact potion poured onto her head. The empty room with a ‘Welcome to Ponyville!’ banner in it was, at least, empty.

“Yeah, Pinkie Pie has a habit of popping out of nowhere. I swear it’s not your fault. She does this with everyone, especially new people.”

“I- I didn’t mean to... she’ll be alright, won’t she?”

“I guarantee you she’ll be perfectly fine. Earth Ponies are nothing if not resilient. And most Earth ponies aren’t Pinkie Pie.”

Myrna nodded her head into my shoulder. She sniffles, and just stays there for several moments, no doubt basking in my warmth.

I’d taken some time to do mental comparisons. If Myrna was a human with the same proportions as she does now, she’d be a minimum of around 7’6”. Which is gigantic. Her shoulders are broad enough that she can hold me with one arm, but without actually being all the muscle-y. She’s also got fine, smooth scales along her back, she said, and they continue down her shoulders to her upper arms, though I haven’t seen it myself yet.

Her hands, though, are interesting. Her nails are, instead of being slightly curved, are almost triangular from a crease running down their lengths. Also, she doesn’t have any sort of venomous snakes for hair. She’s got a number of different snakes mixed in with actual hair as well, some bright yellow, some a dark green, and some in olive green. Her own scales are a strong, vibrant green, though it’s not bright. She also has a tendency to wrap herself around me when upset, and her squeezes are just barely above my comfort level.

I suppose I might give off a bit more body heat, with my larger size compared to the ponies, and she’s shown signs of being cold-blooded. Guess it’s just nature.

“So yeah, Pinkie’s gonna be fine any moment. She’ll just have to be told not to jump out at you.”

Very suddenly, I see Pinkie, crouched and ready to spring, seem to deflate in the corner of my vision. It seems she heard me.

“If she likes being able to move that is. I suppose being a statue might be interesting, but it’d certainly make it hard to throw parties...”

“Not if they’re planned in adv-” Pinkie turned into a chunk of rose quartz again. Myrna immediately apologizes, as Twilight growls in frustration. “These potions aren’t cheap, Pinkie!”

“Yeah, she’s gonna need a bit of conditioning for you, but she shouldn’t take too long to wise up.”

Myrna just nods and pulls her hoodie down further over her face, blushing wildly. It contrasts nicely with the tiny amount of green scales on her cheeks.

“Maybe we could get you sunglasses or something. No, wait... glasses with one-way mirrored lenses. That would definitely work! That way you could see, but even if you’re startled, you wouldn’t make eye-contact and they won’t turn to stone!”

Myrna thinks for a moment, a finger on her lips. “So... like Cyclops’s visor, but I don’t have force-beam vision?”

I pause, then grin. “Myrna, I think you are my new favorite person!” I give her a big hug. Finally! Someone who just might be as nerdy as I am to understand my jokes! Best day ever!

“Wait,” Myrna asks, “Are you a trekkie?”

“Well, I’m more of a Star Wars fan, but I know a bit about Star Trek. Nothing worth flaunting though.”

“Well, what do you think of Firefly?” she asks. “‘Cuz I’m a big fan.”

“Uh, I honestly don’t know much. I was meaning to look into it, but I never got a chance to on account of me ending up here.”

She pulled me into a crushing bear-hug, and I can hear my bones and joints creak. “Don’t worry, it’s alright. If I ever find a way, I’ll remedy your poor lack of true entertainment.”

“Hey, Pokemon is just as entertaining as anything I can imagine!” Our little nerd debate has left Twilight confused. Suppose she’s got no idea what we’re talking about.

“Anyway, yeah, we should get you some special glasses. They should help with your little problem. Learning to master powers is difficult. By the way, what can you do?”

“Uhm, well, since I had a week of being here, I’ve had plenty of time to figure out what I can, mostly. I think it’s all, that is. I know I’ve got the stone-stare, now, and I can move stone like its clay. I’ve never been much of a sculptor, but it’d probably be really easy. Oh, I’m also really, really strong now, and I can sort of swim through rock. And gravel.”

“Huh, cool. So basically you can turn others to stone, pull them apart, and even act as though a solid mountain wasn’t even there... That’s pretty neat.” I grin.

She blushes again, smiling and straightening a bit. “Oh, I can also do this!” She held up her hands, and stared for a moment. Then, like watching water drip in reverse, stone flowed up from the ground below and solidified around her hands, cladding them in heavy gauntlets. The most impressive part, however, is that the stone slid between the tightly-fit floorboards, as if it was water or dust.

Hmm, maybe it was dust, given how I tend to shape coal. I decide I should demonstrate some of my powers. But I’m more of a ‘show’ guy than a ‘tell’ guy. “Heh, neat trick, but check this out.”

I Spark up and go intangible, sliding out of her embrace as I get up and walk away. I watch as her tail and body sort of fall in from not having anything against them. I power down to normal again. “Pretty neat, huh?”

“Wow! You’re like Kitty Pride, but you’re a guy!”

“Hey, Shadowcat is hot! I don’t mind having any comparison to her.” I grin. “Although I have to be in my Star form to do it.”

“Well, it’s still cool. Can you make other people incorporeal as well?” Myrna asks, a smile wide on her face.

“I’ve... never tried. I know it works with my clothes, but I’ve never tried affecting anything other than just myself.”

Pinkie hops over. “Ooh! Can I volunteer? I volunteer!” She hops in place, her hooves quivering with every bounce. Her grin as wide as I can ever remember it being.

“You’ve already been intangible before, Pinkie. How about someone who hasn’t gotten to try?”

“Wait, how did she go intangible? Is there a spell that ponies can cast to do that?”

“Well... I suppose there might be. What really happened was, long story short, Pinkie got some of my powers for a while at one point during a test.” I decide not to mention that she had even more power and was better at using it in two seconds than I was in five months.

“Woah, that’s pretty cool! Say... how about Twilight?” The pony in question looked up from the notes she’d been writing and looked around. “Huh? What are we talking about?”

I grin. I Spark up, and grab Twi by her tail and try to make her intangible. “You’ll see.” I give an evil laugh.

She lets out a surprised ‘eek!’ and I drag her through one of the support poles of Sugar Cube Corner. She passes through it with only slight resistance. Hmm, seems that ‘others’ aren’t as intangible as me. As well, as I let go of her, and she returns to her solid state, she looks dazed, and kinda nauseous. Then, she throws up. Eeyup, nauseous.

“Ha! Can’t handle a little ghost trick, I guess. I wonder...” I put my hand on a little display glass dome on the counter with a pie in it. “Anyone wanna try?”

“Try what?”

“Getting the pie. If this works, you can just reach through the case and grab it.”

Pinkie came up and face planted. On the counter below the little display. Whoops.

“Ooookay, need a bit more practice, then... Sorry Pinkie.”

She pulled her face up, with a sound like a vinyl sticker being pulled up. “It’s no problemo, Anthony!”

“Anyway, If I get some coal, I can show you something real neat.”

Pinkie fishes a lump of coal out of her mane. I don’t question it. I don’t question her in general anymore.

Myrna, however, does. “Why did she- how did she h-”

“It’s Pinkie Pie, that’s all the answer we have, and that’s all we need.” I grab the lump of coal and toss it in the air, and make it hover for a few moments. Then I turn it into a sphere and float it over to Myrna.

“Ooh... May I hold it?” she asks, reaching out a stone-gloved hand.

“Go for it. Once it cools down in a sec.” I then have it ignite, catching on fire, then putting it out. “I could keep that going, but I don’t wanna use up the coal just yet.”

Myrna nods, and carefully plucks the coal ball from the air. I watch as some grooves form in her gauntlets, and she sticks her tongue out in concentration. After a moment, the lump breaks apart, the smaller lumps flowing and shifting in a rough, haphazard way. It settles into the gray gauntlets, and adds a series of black markings in the shapes of coiling snakes along the gauntlets, with some coal left over. Myrna is panting as she finishes, and she has to hold the remaining coal lumplets in a gauntlet instead of floating them.

“Woah, careful. That’s not easy for someone who doesn’t have an affinity for it. Besides. I can do one better.”

I form the small lumps into a three-dimensional snake figure, and have it slither in place, floating just in front of her face. It coils up, and then just floats there.

“I can’t really do internal changes without more coal, and I haven’t really tried anything with detail, but I like this next trick.”

I take the coiled up snake, and have it uncoil, but I make it a bit shorter, removing some of the coal. Now I’m holding a small, snake of coal in my hand with a tiny head. I have it ‘bite’ the end of it’s tail with a little loop sticking out of the head. “Uh, I’d probably want to be outside for this, just saying.”

Once we’re all outside, Myrna very interested in what I’m going to do. Holding the little snake figure in my hand, barely fitting in my palm, I begin the process of turning it into diamond. Once I’m done, I feel worn out as usual, but I hand the diamond snake charm to Myrna.

“You could probably put some thread through the loop and make a necklace or something. Man, I need to sit down...”

Once I hand her the diamond snake, I head back inside and sit down at a table. That always takes a lot out of me...

I feel a pair of fuzzy hooves wrap gently around my neck from behind. Pinkie nuzzles my neck and whispers, “That was so nice of you.”

“Hey, I can be nice if I choose to be.” I’m panting a little, but that doesn’t stop the snarking. “Besides, it’s not like I haven’t done it for Luna. Not sure if she still has hers, though.”

Pinkie nuzzles me again. “Yeah, but Luna has friends. I don’t think Myrna here has any but you, yet.”

“And you’re going to fix that, I hope.” I grin at Pinkie. “Or at least try. Man I’m beat. You know, I’m gonna head back to the library.” Pinkie lets me go with a  smile and wave.

I don’t know why, but right now I feel like just sitting down and reading would help a lot more than if I stay here.

Damn, I am tired.

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