I don’t know for how long I passed in and out of consciousness after the conversation I had with Moon, but eventually my body decided to make up its mind and stay awake, despite the fact that I was still very tired.

At least, it felt like I was tired. My body felt sluggish, but somehow my brain seemed like I had drunk three Monsters in quick succession. “What time is it?” I asked the empty room as I sat up.

However, since the room showed a distinct lack of timepieces or people, I was left to my best guess as to the current time. I wasn’t troubled by this though, as I had spent quite a few months before this moment with the sun as my only timepiece.

With a flick of my wrists, I threw the blanket off of myself and swung my legs out over the side of the bed. I noticed that I was still wearing my Awesome Pants of Wonder, though this didn’t bother me in the slightest. In fact, when I was back on Earth, I would often fall asleep wearing my clothes, so this actually made me feel more at home. Without much ceremony, I got up and made my way over to the window of my room, yanking open the curtains and sliding open the window as soon as I had reached it.

“Now all I need is some bacon and eggs, and this’ll be the perfect beginning to the day!” I said as I looked out at the stunning view. From where my window was, I could see the inner courtyard of the castle, the city beyond, as well as the beautiful countryside far below the mountain, all bathed in the warm light of the rising sun. In the skies around the castle itself, I could see various Pegasi all going about their day as the ground-bound ponies in the city itself did the same.

I wasn’t really sure why I was so happy, but I had a hunch that it probably had something to do with the fact that last night was the first time in a long time that I’ve been able to sleep without waking up in a cold sweat, screaming about a particularly vivid nightmare. However, as I watched all the happy-looking natives go about their day, a nagging little voice in the back of my head intruded upon my good mood.

This is all going to go up in flames if you can’t get their weapon to work.

With a grim frown, I turned my back to the window and made my way to my writing desk. This time, remember not to overdo it, I thought as I picked up a quill and pulled a sheet of paper closer to me. I stopped, however, when I noticed that none of my notes from my previous work were here.

“Well, that’s no good,” I said as I threw down the quill. I wasn’t sure how much time I had left before They arrived, but I knew I didn’t have enough to waste any redoing any of my previous work.

My frustrated musings were interrupted, though, by the sound of the door gently creaking open. “Aleas?” I heard Evening say.

I perked up at that. I wasn’t really sure what the word she said meant, but I was pretty sure she was checking in to see if I was awake. “I’m over here.”

As soon as I had said something, she looked over at me as she opened the door wider. Her face broke out in a grin as she trotted towards me, her horn lighting up, causing my throat and ears to tingle as she drew closer. “I am gladdened that awake you being! We… have something yours, something we find.”

“Um… are you sure it’s mine? Other than my pants, I don’t have anything that I could say that is truly mine…” I told her, a little bewildered.

“It… hard explain… Have show, then understand,” she said, waving a hoof at me. “Can teleport, take quick, yes?”

“Yes!” I said, jumping up, but quickly brought my excitement down a notch. While the last two times that the ponies had used their ability to teleport on me had been quite disorienting, it still set off all the squee that my thirteen-year-old inner child could muster at the thought of doing it again. “I mean, yes, that would be fine.”

She looked at me oddly at this, a little startled at my sudden outburst, but didn’t say anything about it. Instead, all she did was cause her horn to glow once more. “One moment.”

There was a flash of purple, and the now familiar feeling of my stomach being turned inside out, followed immediately by the room around us being replaced with the lab that she had brought me to when she first teleported me. Something was different about it this time, though. For one thing, I noticed that none of the other scientists appeared to be in the room at the moment. Well, none of them except the two minotaurs from earlier. Neither of them seemed to have noticed us, which was probably a good thing, seeing as how they had gotten into a screaming match with each other.

“Um… should I be concerned about that?” I said as I gave Evening a worried look.

Before she could answer my question, a loud bang snapped my attention back to the two Minotaurs. One of them, this one with a dark green mane and lower half, but a light blue upper half, had slammed something down on the desk and was angrily stomping his way towards me.

Well, past me really. He seemed to be on a warpath out of this room, so I moved over to let him pass. He didn’t seem to notice me until he was almost directly on top of me, at which point he did a double take as he realized who I was.

He said something to me, something angry, biting, sarcastic and witty I’m sure, but whatever it was was completely lost on me because of my inability to understand him.

His tone was unmistakable, though, as was the wad of saliva he spat right on my forehead.

While his behavior was closer to the reaction that I had expected from the natives for quite some time now, I had been pleasantly surprised time and time again that they were nothing like how I thought. If I had received this kind of treatment before, when I was still alone in the woods, I probably would have turned and ran, looking for some place to hide from the perceived threat, all while feeling incredibly depressed.

Now, though, after all that I’ve gone through, after everything that the ponies had done for me, I was surprised at what I felt towards this person. There was no shame, no sense that, somehow, I deserved this treatment, and no feeling of deep despair.

What I did feel was a deep seated rage. Lucky for him, however, not only did I have far more self-control than he did, but his actions had also left me in shock, not quite believing what had happened.

As I raised a hand to wipe away the saliva, I was faintly aware of voices nearby. One was the voice of the second minotaur, who seemed to be shouting in anger, but became a lot fainter after I heard the door slam. The other was Evening’s, who seemed to be trying to get my attention. “I’m sorry, what was that?” I said as I snapped out of whatever trance I was in.

“You doing right?” Evening asked, clearly worried at what had happened.

“Yeah… I’m fine, what was that all about?” I said as I got my breathing under control. It was taking everything I had not to let the beast out to tear that jerkwad a new one, but somehow, I was managing.

“It… have do with thing we find. Need show before explain, not explain well without show first. Guess mostly jealous,” she said, worry still clear in her voice.

I chuckled at that. “I never thought anyone would be jealous of me, especially not after everything that’s happened.”

“Not worry, ignore Tooth Cracker, he not know what do,” Evening said as she levitated me a handkerchief. As soon as I had taken the offered cloth, she started cantering towards the back of the room. As I followed her, I did my best to wipe the spittle off my face and hand, thoroughly grossed out about what had happened.

Well, look on the bright side. If you ever get home, you’ll go down in history as the first human who has ever been spat on by an alien, I thought as Evening led me into a previously unobserved room in the back.

“How do you think he will react to this?” Celestia asked as she observed the tests that her ponies were running on the survivor. Though, at this point in their investigation, ‘survivor’ was probably being too generous.

“I do not know, sister. By his own admission, he has had no experience with this sort of thing. If you recall, he believed that magic was a fairytale, and that the soul was something that some people believed in, while others did not.”

Celestia sighed at that, cradling her head in her hoof. “I’m just relieved that he didn’t pull anything from beyond The Veil.”

“Agreed, though this does present an interesting conundrum. Would this still fall within the realm of necromancy?”

“I don’t think it does. Not only did he not pull anything from beyond the veil, but historically, these fragments have never been large enough to do anything other than hold some precious or traumatic memories. What we have here is an entirely new form of magic, one that I am unsure should be explored,” Celestia said uneasily.

Luna nodded her head at her sister’s words, but otherwise remained silent.

As the two sisters thought about this new conundrum, they were interrupted in their thoughts by the muffled sounds of arguing coming from the other side of the door. Luna rolled her eyes at this, her irritation mounting as she was forced to continue listening to the two minotaurs. “Are those two still going at it?”

“Of course they are. To Tusk Breaker, this is a matter of pride now, and he will not rest until the perceived slight against him is avenged. We are lucky that Thunder Hoof is able to keep him in line; otherwise, he would have challenged ~Alex~ by now,” Celestia answered with a sigh.

“That… would not bode well. No matter how the battle turns out, we would end up being the losers. We cannot afford infighting when the enemy is on our door,” Luna said with a grimace. Thankfully, however, the argument on the other side had come to an end, allowing the two sisters a moment of respite.

At least, that’s what they thought.

Only moments after they thought the argument had ended, the room behind them erupted in shouting again. “How dare you!” Thunder Hoof shouted, his voice clearly heard even through the heavy door of the observation room.

“What was that about?” Luna asked as the sound of a slamming door could be heard.

“I do not know, but I am sure we will find out soon,” Celestia said darkly.

Almost immediately after, the door to the observation room opened, allowing both ~Alex~ and Twilight into the room. Twilight had a look of pure disbelief, while Alex had a look that fell somewhere between bemusement and anger as he vigorously wiped his face with a handkerchief.

“Is everything okay?” Celestia asked after she cast the Translation spell on herself and her sister.

“Well, Tusk-”

“It not anything. Just misunderstanding of thing,” ~Alex~ said, interrupting Twilight before she could finish.

“What do you mean, ‘just a misunderstanding?’” Twilight asked incredulously. “Tusk-”

“-Is being child. Is being distraction. More important things deal with. Cannot waste time on him. Aliens come soon, will destroy everything if weapon not work,” ~Alex~ cut in, an eyebrow raised pointedly as he looked at Twilight.

Twilight grumbled at that, but otherwise held her tongue. Celestia and Luna on the other hand, shared a look between the two of them. ~Alex~ might not want them to know what had happened, but it was still important, especially if it involved Tusk Breaker. Minotaurs had a history of becoming unpredictable if their pride was on the line, and Tusk was no exception to that stereotype.

The whole thing needed to be taken care of now before it became a problem.

“Anyway, still not know what weapon even is, or what does. All know is need calculation device to make work. Would help if told how weapon works. Could help build,” ~Alex~ said after the awkward moment had passed.

“The weapon itself is already ‘complete’. It has been for quite some time. All we really need to ensure that it works is the ability to locate our targets. Otherwise, it will do us absolutely no good,” Celestia answered him.

The ~human~ thought about this for a bit, then shook his head. “But, how know weapon work? If enemy defenses able to defend against weapon? Or if enemy able destroy weapon? What then?”

At this, Celestia just started laughing, while Twilight looked at the ~human~ with a look of horror. Luna, however, managed to keep a straight face. “Trust me, if they were to be able to withstand this weapon, we deserve to be conquered. And if it were to be destroyed, then I believe we would have far larger problems to worry about than an alien invasion,” the Princess of the Night deadpanned.

~Alex~ still did not look convinced, however. “That what everyone say, but no plan survive enemy. Want see weapon, see in action, that give such confidence.”

“Oh, you won’t be able to miss it…” Celestia gasped between her giggles.

“We will… show you later. Trust us, however, when we say that this weapon is unlike any you have seen before,” Luna said cryptically.

~Alex~ gave her a piercing stare at that, but then dropped it with a shrug. “Fine. Guess will wait. See when demonstration about sun, yes?”

Luna smiled at that, her eyes full of mischief. “Oh yes. Don’t worry, we’ll get to both of those at the same time.”

At this, Twilight looked completely lost. “Wait, why does he need a demonstration of the sun? And why aren’t we telling him that the weapon is-”

Before Twilight could finish her thought, however, she was shushed into silence by Celestia. “I will tell you later, Twilight. For now, just know that we don’t want to spoil the surprise.” Both Twilight and ~Alex~ looked completely confused at this, but they let it drop.

“Anyway, not reason come. Evening say that have something mine? Not likely…” ~Alex~ said.

“Ah, yes. We did indeed find something of yours, but a more accurate description would be someone, though that is still not very accurate…” Celestia said as she motioned towards the window behind her.

~Alex~ moved forward to look through the window, his eyebrows furrowed in apparent interest. “That cold. Is machine? How able to do?” he asked, pointing at the small, metallic cat.

“That is a golem. It is a construct that is able to perform a variety of tasks based on how much Arcanite was used in its construction,” Twilight explained.

~Alex~ opened his mouth in understanding. “It very good, very life like. Act like real cat.”

“It’s… not supposed to,” Luna explained.

~Alex~ turned to her, his eyebrow raised in confusion. “What mean, not supposed to? What supposed to do?”

Luna shook her head. “It’s still supposed to act like a cat, but it wasn’t very good at it. The minotaur responsible for its construction is the foremost expert in golems mimicking life, and he could only get to a close approximation of how a cat should act. The tail would wave back and forth, but very stiffly. It would walk and mewl, but it was very apparent that it had no heart and soul behind its actions.”

The ~human~ nodded in understanding at that, then turned back towards the window. “So, what change? Look like someone come, fix, make better.”

“Yes, that was you,” Celestia revealed.

~Alex~ didn’t react at first. Instead, he just continued to stare at the cat, his gaze a million miles away. “No, I didn’t.”

“It may be hard to believe, but while you were busy with your little work session, you did far more than just write a whole ton of schematics,” Twilight said as she got closer. “You also grabbed one of the minotaur’s cats, tore out its arcanite core, and made a completely new one for it. One that we’re hard pressed to even call an arcanite core at this point, due to the level of complexity involved.”

~Alex~ continued to stare at the creature for a little bit longer, then looked down at Twilight. “You saying I made calculation device from golem, did you?”

Twilight nodded at that. “It appears so, though you seemed to have done far more than just turn a golem into a calculation device.”

“Indeed. Not only does it act more cat-like now, but it also speaks, and has a personality as well,” Luna expounded.

~Alex’s~ head whipped back to the Lunar Princess at that, almost giving himself whiplash. “Wait, you say I make thinking machine? Intelligence Not-Its-Own?”

“It’s… a little more complicated than that. What you did… you…” Luna started to say, but trailed off as she tried to figure out the best way to tell ~Alex~ exactly what he created.

“I think it would be better if we showed him, rather than explained it to him,” Celestia interrupted as she opened the door to the observation room.

~Alex~ looked a bit hesitant at that, but still entered the room, followed closely by the three ponies. The cat had his back turned towards the door, but turned around as soon as ~Alex~ cleared his throat. “Excusing me? Who are you?”

The cat turned his head around the moment it heard ~Alex’s~ voice, and began to talk. And talk. And talk. As it talked, ~Alex’s~ eyes grew wider by the second, his frame trembling with each and every word, and his mouth wordlessly moving, repeating one word over and over again.

“What is it saying?” Celestia whispered to her sister.

“I do not know. It is talking far too fast, and I am only able to pick up a single word out of every fifty it says. I believe it is talking about new bodies for the others, though,” Luna answered.

While they whispered to each other, though, ~Alex~ suddenly turned around, his face much paler than it usually was, while a look of abject fear filled his eyes. “No.”

“What?” Twilight asked, not quite understanding what the human meant.

“No necromancer. Not bring back dead. No,” he said, not really in answer to Twilight’s question, but more likely trying to reassure himself.

“We don’t think that’s what hap-” Celestia started to say, but the human ignored her, instead choosing to walk right past her, straight towards the observation room door, all while saying that same negative word over and over again.

~“Oh dear,”~ Luna heard ~Robert~ say, yet far slower this time, so that she could more easily understand him. ~“I think I may have broken him…”~

Author's Notes:

Well, here's the next chapter! sorry it kind of ended on a short note, but I've been sick, and unable to finish where I wanted this to go. Not to worry though, I should be feeling better soon, and able to get the next chapter up and running.

Anyway, I know not a whole lot of you got the memo, but me and my buddy just started making Let's Play videos! We're not going to do streaming anymore, mainly because of how our work schedules conflict with doing streaming at any appropriate time.

We haven't made any new videos in a little bit, but that's to be expected with whats been happening at work. The Walmart here has been going through a remodel, and we've been asked to come in quite ofter. Hopefully I'll be able to make a couple of new videos (and chapters) over the weekend.

At any rate, enjoy!

P.s. we're still accepting suggestions on what to play, so please comment on what you'd like to see! Just so you know, though, the "Knight Breeze Dies A Lot" series has me putting the game at the absolute hardest difficulty.