It was like sitting inside a prism. Watching as blank light streamed in from one side, no impression with it, and completely devoid of color. Through the middle, it passes, transforming and splitting, changing into the colors that we perceive and see every day. He was stuck in the middle, feeling the light refracting off of him, searching through his very being, then splitting it into the parts of his personality and memories.

He saw who he was, who he is, and who he will be. He watched his thought processes go by. He saw himself overcome by different emotions; fear, joy, sadness, pain, and anxiety. He saw himself consumed by darkness. He saw himself unleashing his full potential, channeling all his emotions into one raw release of pure energy. He saw himself at his worst moments. He saw himself in his best moments.

He saw himself through the eyes of others.

All of this, in the blink of an eye. He passed through the heart of the prism, refracting back out into the world as a changed person; after seeing his heart of hearts. He would be coming out soon, and he would be ready to face the world, sure of himself, and who he was as a person.

He knew who he was, and what he was; and what he could be capable of.

The rainbow stopped flowing over him, and with it, the moment of understanding he had of his existence. He dropped to his knees, in shock of what he had just experienced. His hands were on the ground, his eyes fixed on them. He was breathing heavily, chest heaving in and out, keeping time to the frantic thumps of his heart.

It was a changing experience. And while he wasn't changed physically, his emotions were shifted, and they each knew their place. In all, he had never experienced anything so amazing, no self-help websites he may or may not have visited ever gave him this sort of defining moment he was just given.

He was there for a moment, then he dragged one leg up, and put his foot on the ground next to his hand. He was now kneeling.

"Good progress." He took his hand, and placed it on his upright knee, giving it some support for when he would stand.

"Now keep going." He stood, still looking at the ground, legs slightly spread to give him better balance.

He began to move his eyes up, slowly, preparing himself mentally for what he knew he would see. He looked up and saw the faces of eight very concerned-looking ponies.

"Ponies?" Yes, ponies. They weren't big or defined enough to be called horses.

They looked directly at him, expectantly. Emotions in their eyes betraying both sides of the spectrum, fear and relief. Before, he wouldn't know what side to keep them on.

"Is it better to be feared, than loved?" He made his choice.

"Hello?" The purple unicorn asked. She had a definitely female voice, and judging from the eyelashes she and the rest of them had, they were all female.

"Let's not assume just yet, we don't want to offend them too badly."

"Hi." He responded simply, before passing out from mana exhaustion.

That... thing, for lack of a better word, was quite a fighter. He was witty, and had used spells the likes of which Twilight had never seen. He clearly wasn't from around Equestria.

He was not some simple creature though. He was wearing clothes, and had bodily motor skills that spoke of practice and education. It was obviously other-worldly. But, it had attacked the Princesses, proving Celestia correct in reading his belligerent aura. Even so, she, and the rest of the girls didn't want to kill it. The Elements were their "go to" non-lethal weapon. It was for the best.

Right?

She let the magic take over, and felt as her friends do the same. Now they were all just the focusing instruments the actual Elements of Harmony were using. The power was not theirs, they were merely borrowing it, using it for the greater good of Equestria.

"Why didn't he try to stop and make peace? He's obviously educated." She knew that he was at fault here for starting the fight, but she still felt that it could have been prevented.

"Realize that it not is your fault that he decided to fight, and that you're going to have to put an end to this." With her resolve firm, she released the pent-up energy that the Elements were supporting, and shot out the familiar rainbow-colored stream that came with it.

She saw that he turned around at the last second before impact, and got out, "Well, shit," Before the rainbow cascaded onto him.

It was over fast. The flow of mana stopped coming from the Elements, and with it, the rainbow. He was left there on all fours. They all looked at him expectantly, waiting for him to stop his heavy breathing and look up. He moved, taking his leg and moving it up, then putting his hand to rest on what she supposed was his knee.

She asked in a trembling voice, "H-Hello?"

He replied, looking up with a weathered, tired face, "Hi."

Then he fell flat on his face.

He mentally face-palmed.

"Hi?! That's the best you could think of?! You just knocked the two huge ones out in battle, and 'hi' is the best thing you can think of?!" his subconscious berated him. Just saying "hi" was not appropriate at all if he was going to apologize to them.

He awoke a few moments after that, fighting to get past the haze of exhaustion. There was one thing he had to get done before taking a long nap.

"I'll just ask them if I can start over." That'll get them to see that he is normal, and not some kind of god-beast here to kill them all.

He physically face-palmed.

And he said to them, "Wait, wait, wait. Let me start over." He took his hand away from his face to see the reactions on theirs.

Their jaws were metaphorically on the floor. Except for the pink one. She just had a huge goofy grin on her face, one that seemed to threaten to split her face open.

He tried for a smile, and make it not look too creepy. "Uh... yeah. As I'm sure you've noticed, I'm a little new here, and I was kinda hoping that you wouldn't attack me when I pass out again." Once again, shocked expressions. The pink one was the first to recover.

It let off a huge gasp, and bounced into the air. It then released a torrent of words that would have overcame any spell that he could conjure.

"OMIGOSH! You're new here? To Equestria? But, that means that I'm gonna have to throw a huge 'Welcome to Equestria!' party, and stuff! Do you like balloons? Cuz' it's gonna be a BALLOON party! What kind of drinks do you like? My favorite drinks have tons of hot sauce in them, and it gives this extra kick, like 'KAPOW!' or something! I don't even know what it does, all I know is that it make me go crazy! Then everyone sees me go crazy, and they're all just like, 'it's just Pinkie being Pinkie' but I know that I'm always Pinkie! Well, I'm at least 90% sure that I'm always Pinkie, but then where does that other 10% go-"

He had to cut her off, putting a hand to her mouth to stop her from continuing her rant on God-knows-what. All he really picked up on was the possibility of a "Welcome to Equestria!' party, and he assumed that Equestria was the name of the place he was in. "A party sounds great," he said tactically, choosing not to reveal how confused his was by that speech the pink pony just rambled on about.

He smiled again, then his brain decided that would be enough time to get out an apology. He blacked out once again and fell face down on the grass. Eight surprised ponies looked at him, then they all started forward, unsure of what to do.

When he woke up, his head hurt. His mouth was dry and it felt like there were pins and needles in his hands. "Urgh..." His poor mind moaned, exhausted from the amount of mana he had released earlier.

He opened his eyes just a crack, and his vision was blurry. He could make out that it was dark where he was. He was laying down on a bed, his bed. He felt something soft and fuzzy put pressure on his head, and assumed that it was his cat. He moaned, believing that he was in his bed at home. "Wait."

He bolted upright and jumped up from the bed, spinning around to face what he thought was his cat. Sitting there instead, was a purple unicorn. His mind made the necessary connections and he remembered where he was. The unicorn's horn lit up briefly, and the shutters on the windows of the bedroom he was in opened instantly.

It was turning dusk outside, and enough light was streaming in for him to be able to make out that he was definitely in a bedroom. The walls were made of wood- actually- everything seemed to be made of wood. He looked at the ways the walls were, twisting around, and curving in near the ceiling. "So, I'm in a house modeled to look like the inside of a tree." He had been inside a few trees before, the latest being an exceptionally large one, and most of his time in there was spent jumping from platform to platform, climbing ivy, and dodging around over-sized spiders.

"Stop getting off topic, there's a unicorn sitting in front of you." Right then.

He walked forward and sat back down on the edge of the bed. "Sorry." He apologized to the unicorn.

"For what?" She responded. Definitely a she.

He became confused again. "Repetitive. I seem to be getting confused a lot more than I used to. How is it that I haven't had an aneurysm yet?

He stared at her. "Everything...?"

Then she stood up. "Well, that's a good start, but, it's all in the past now; let it stay there. And now that you're awake, we should go meet with the others downstairs so you can give us your story."

He nodded, and followed her as she walked past him, towards a staircase. She clopped down, hoofsteps echoing throughout the place. They descended slowly, and he took a look around the area they were entering. There were bookshelves lined with- what else?- books, all along the walls. He concluded that it must be a library. The ground floor was wooden, and spiraled, like the stump of a tree after you chop it down. "Either this is a tree, and fires are a REAL problem with all these flammable materials, or they're really trying to push the 'tree' theme."

He looked towards an adjoining room, only able to see some suspiciously pony-shaped shadows dancing along the ground. They reached the floor, and the unicorn called out towards the room, "He's awake, everypony."

"Every 'pony'?" He gave a mental shrug. "Makes as much sense as everything else here."

There was a commotion in the room, then seven ponies and a small purple and green drake ran out. The dragon had a pot on its head, and was armed with a wooden spoon in one hand; the lid of the pot was being held like a shield in the other. He looked at the two of them standing by the stairs and yelled, "Twilight! Get away from it! It might attack you!"

She glared at him, and said, "Spike, what did I tell you?"

"Nice name." He snorted.

The dragon jumped at the sound, then rushed forward and grabbed Twilight, pulling her back to the group of the other ponies.

He didn't like where this was going. On one side of the library was him, on the other side were some fierce looking ponies; ready to do battle once again. He knew there was no way he could take them, not after having burned out on all that mana use earlier.

Before he could start to try to defuse the situation, Twilight did. She stepped forward and turned around on her friends. As she did, he noticed that there were two matching marks on her flanks. A pink-ish star surrounded by five smaller white stars. "Mental note: ask about butt tattoo later."

He could feel the shift in the air as she began to speak to the other seven ponies, and dragon, "Spike." He snickered. She began, "Will you all just stop it! I realize that what happened back there was a big deal, but it's over now, and he's ready to talk to us! You just need to listen!"

The two larger ponies that he fought earlier were looking alright until they heard Twilight speak up. The white one stepped forward, then bowed. "Greetings, traveler. I suspect that we may have gotten off on the wrong hoof, so I'd like to remedy this situation by formally introducing myself. My name is Celestia, Raiser of the Sun and Ruler of Equestria, a land that you seem to have appeared in." She seemed to present a sympathetic air, as if she really knew what he was going through. His mind, however, only focused in on one part of her speech though.

"Oh shit. Ruler? Did I just hear that right? I might have screwed up pretty big here."

The blue one stepped forward, "I am Princess Luna, sister to Princess Celestia. We detected your entry into our world and went to investigate. We were prepared for just about anything, but you still surprised us." She fixed her luminescent blue eyes on him, and he got the feeling that the next part was more for his ears only. "I will admit, you are quite the fighter. Even one such as I wouldn't like to see what you had to go through to have skills such as those." She turned around and addressed the room. "I suggest we all just calm down and start over." He threw the group a disarming smile and put out his hand for a handshake. Naturally, they all jumped back again. He rolled his eyes, "Are they going to get over it?" He forced the smile back on.

"I'm Lucien. Nice to meet you."

The introductions came in a blur. He greeted them formally, and since none of them look even remotely similar, he was able to keep them pretty straight.

The orange one was Applejack; she had a southern accent for some reason.

The pink one was Pinkie Pie; the one who had rambled about throwing him a party, "Still looking forward to that." He thought.

The rainbow-haired pegasus was Rainbow Dash. Her very look oozed arrogance.

The other, yellow pegasus was Fluttershy; and, like her name suggested, was very shy.

The white unicorn was Rarity; she had a very refined accent, and was very well groomed, not a hair out of place, despite the fighting that had been done earlier. He could tell straight away that she was a bit of a drama queen, putting a lot of emphasis on all her words when she was talking to him.

And, lastly, Twilight Sparkle, the unicorn, and her "number-one assistant," Spike. He managed to force down his laughter at his name, and made himself promise to keep it down forever. "You've had enough laughs at it now; give it up." There was something about her that he couldn't put his finger on. A certain glow that traced the outlines of her figure, giving off discharges of . . . something.

He took his mind off of it as the sun set and Luna stepped out of the library. She came back a few minutes later looking a bit tired, but happier. He didn't read into it much, and resolved to ask Twilight about it later.

They moved into the adjoining room, which turned out to be a kitchen. They all sat down around the dining table in the center of the room, and were silent for a few minutes, not sure about what comes next. Twilight broke the silence. "So . . ." She trailed off.

Lucien picked up where Twilight left off. "You want to know my story now. Don't you?" They all nodded. "Well, its a long one, so I hope none of you have some place to be." They all shook their heads.

"Well, it starts back on what I suppose is my home planet, Earth."

I was born many years ago. Back on Earth, of course. I had a modest upbringing. My parents were neither rich nor poor; we always had just enough money. So, I was taught to value all of it, and to live a simpler life, I don't really need any material items.

I was about twelve when it happened. A huge disaster struck the area that we lived in. An earthquake whose origin was unknown. No scientist could explain it. The tectonic plates were all right where they should be, and there was nothing to catalyze it.

The tremor shook my world, both literally and metaphorically. The shock destroyed my house, and my life. My parents were killed in the accident, and I, being away from home at the time, was left alone. I had no relatives that wanted to take care of me either, so I became sort of a lone wolf. I didn't want to go into a home for kids because I had heard and read about all the horror stories of them. We lived by a forested area, and so I grew up learning how the forest was a pharmacy in itself.

So I ran off, into the woods, with no plan other than to live off the land.

I lasted for a few days, surviving on berries in the forest. I had built a modest house-type-thing in the trees, picking up pine needles for insulation. Then I realized that it was getting cold. Very cold, very fast.

I wouldn't last without fire, or some form of heat. As it was getting dark, I ran back to the ruins of my home. I couldn't keep the tears from my eyes as I looked over the rubble. I sifted through the broken chunks of housing for a while, looking for scraps of wood, or some gasoline or matches.

After a few minutes I picked up the sound of gravel crunching. I was not alone. I turned around to see what made the noise, hoping it wouldn't be the police or someone similar. I was a bit surprised to behold an old man standing where the doorway used to be. We stared at each other for a few moments before he spoke.

"May I come in?" was what he asked me.

I stared at him for a few more seconds, bewildered at his question, because there was no house to enter.

"Yeah," was my hesitant response.

Now, looking back on it, I don't know why I did what I did next. I remember is that he walked with a large staff, carved out of wood, with an emerald set in a hole in the top.

He walked up to me, and put his hand on my shoulder. He spoke again. "You have gone through a great ordeal, son. Will you allow me to help you, as long as you promise to do me a favor in return?"

Not entirely knowing what to say, I just nodded dumbly.

He took his hand off of my shoulder, and left it hanging by his side. He spun his staff around his other hand, and twisted it so it was horizontal, level with my chest. "Grab it," he instructed me, "And hold on tight."

I grabbed it, and felt the ground begin to shake. I looked at my feet, then back up to his face. He had donned a bemused smile, and to this day I am still not able to discern the emotion that was hiding behind it.

A green glow started to form in a circle around where we were standing. It was blowing wind up from under us, and I could see sparks floating up into the cold night air, leaving behind a dull trail.

The circle grew brighter, and shapes started to form on its glowing trail. The light began to pulse, pumping to the beat of my heart.

I was beginning to feel energized, and could feel power rushing into me. Even though I had never experienced anything like that ever before, it felt familiar, and I was comfortable with it.

The power was rising up in a crescendo, and my heart began to beat faster. My hands began to tingle, and they began to glow green as a looked at them.

Never once did I think that I was being hurt, or that I was in danger. I knew that I would survive this ordeal, and that it would empower me in some way.

The circle flashed white, and the glow on my hands blew outwards, passing my face and flowing into the sky. The glow faded, and I was left standing there with the man.

He looked at me, then gave me a genuine smile and ruffled my hair. "Green, huh? Good color," he said. I knew nothing of what was going on, but I was smart enough to know that he had just given me a great gift. What that was, I did not know, but I would find out soon enough.

He spun his staff back, and swept his other arm behind him, gesturing toward the collapsed doorway. "Let's go." He said to me.

We both walked off. Along the street that I had spent my short twelve years growing up on. Away from the only home I had known.

The ponies stared at him with wide eyes. They had no idea what to make of his story so far. Pinkie was the first to recover. With teary eyes and trembling lip, she walked over and gave him a hug.

Lucien didn't know what to do, so he just hugged her back for a few moments, then pushed her away gently. She went back to stand among her friends, and he resumed his story.

We walked for a while, and somewhere along the way, there was a change in scenery. Instead of the forested area I was used to, we were now walking in a waterlogged city, filled with lights.

There were no streets. Instead, there were narrow rivers, filled with long boats being pushed by men with long poles. Nobody paid us any attention. In fact, nobody even seemed to notice us at all.

We walked for a few more minutes. I was barely able to keep up with him, stopping constantly to ogle at the amazing sights the city had to offer.

We reached our destination fast. A wooden door built straight into the wall it was unmarked, and had no handle. He stopped in front of it, and I, not paying attention, bumped into him. He looked down at me and smiled. He then moved his staff in front of him, and I saw the emerald flash green.

The edges of the door flashed the same color, then it began to swing out, opening to complete darkness that appeared to spill out of the entrance.

He put his hand on the center of my back, and he guided us in. A dim light turned on after we took a few steps. It flickered for a moment, then brightened, revealing a granite spiral staircase leading up.

He walked forward, and headed up, leaving me with no choice other than to follow. We ascended for a while, and I began to tire of walking up the stairs.

The lights went out completely, leaving me fumbling around in the darkness behind him. I heard as his footsteps grew further and further away, leaving me alone.

I began to run, taking steps even faster due to my growing panic of losing him. After running and tripping for a few minutes I started to wonder just how high up we were going, and if I even wanted to be that high up.

It took some time, but I got to the top and reached a massive wooden door. It was probably three times heavier than me, at the time.

I got it open, eventually, and I walked into a small, circular room lined with bookshelves. None of them were the same size, some being bigger than I was at the time. I noticed that the bookshelves ended in a set of strangely shaped windows, which sat facing a desk in the center of the room.

The desk had a large chair behind it, and sitting in that chair was the man who had brought me here. His desk was cluttered with a wide assortment of items, ranging from books to eating utensils, all of them being related in a way that I would discover in a few years' time.

He was working. Head down, scribbling on a scroll of parchment with a vibrant orange-colored feathered quill. He noticed me enter, and looked up, setting down the quill.

He looked at me with weary eyes, and asked, "Would you like a seat?"

I nodded, and he waved a hand off to his left. A plain old chair was sitting there. I just dismissed it then as a case of me not noticing it, but now I realize that it was only there after he waved his hand.

The chair slid over to a stop in front of the desk. I walked forward and hopped up into it, facing him as he watched patiently.

He looked at me for a moment, then said wearily, "Welcome to my home." He stood up, and walked over to one of the oddly shaped windows, and gazed out of it, looking down on the city below. "I should really get an escalator or something, shouldn't I?"

He chuckled to himself softly, then looked over to me. I just shrugged, expressing indifference to the matter.

He turned to face me square on. "Are you ready to do me that favor you promised?"

I nodded, not knowing what I would have to do, but I trusted that I would be able to handle it.

He smiled, "I want you to become my assistant," he said bluntly.

I wasn't sure how to react. I knew that there was nothing to go back to, but I didn't know what he could mean by "becoming his assistant." How much work would I have to do? Would I be able to handle it all? What would I be doing?

I asked none of those questions, and instead put my faith into him and just nodded once again.

He beamed at me, then he rushed over to pull out my chair. I jumped down and he pointed over to the right, where the chair had come into existence. The was a wooden door set into the wall, with a rounded top.

"Right through there, then." He said from behind me. I walked over, and pulled the door open revealing rows and rows of bookcases, stretching farther than my eyes could see. I stood there slack jawed, and he walked by me.

He spread out his arms, and said, "Let's get started."

The ponies stared at him. Unbelieving. The only ones who did not look quite so surprised were Celestia and Luna, both instead held knowing expressions, no doubt having seen a similar sight at one point in their lives.

"This man, this complete stranger," Lucien said, "Opened his home up to me and saved me."

The ponies looked at him in awe, urging him to continue his story. "I began as his little assistant, running throughout the library, getting books and scrolls for him. I didn't know it then, but he had already begun to train me as a mage. The ritual we went through was the first step, the awakening of the power that sleeps inside of us all. He sent me on quick errands for special books too, knowing that I wouldn't be able to resist peeking at them."

"They were filled with amazingly detailed descriptions of spells, potion, rituals, and the like. All of them fascinating in their own special way. I was hooked after the first week of working with him." He laughed, reminiscing. "At some point in time along the second week, he stopped me instead of sending me on another book run. He took me by the shoulder and asked, 'Do you like what you have been reading?' I nodded back excitedly. 'Then I think we can begin.' he said back to me."

"That's when my 'assistant-ship' turned into what it was supposed to be, a full-blown 'apprenticeship.'" He looked at his audience. All four of the unicorns were nodding in understanding, having undergone a similar experience themselves, no doubt. The other four all had varying expressions though, understanding the concept, but to a lesser degree.

"I studied under him for years, growing up under his guidance and wisdom. He never led me astray from what I wanted, and gave me the freedom to experiment with whatever new lesson he had taught me. I learned a lot from the information that he gave me, and the formulas for whatever spells he showed to me, but his most important lesson, I think, was that the only limit to magic is what you cannot imagine.

"Of course, there are some formal schools of magic, but they're mostly just an attempt of others to categorize and file away spells based on their formulas. The main three are Destruction, Restoration, and Illusion, and each have their respective subclasses, I won't get into it that much though." His hand lit up green as he channeled some mana into it, surprising some in his audience slightly, but they seemed more curious now than anything. "Of course, every magician with a formal education learns with the viewpoint that these schools are immutable, and they don't mix; my education was not formal.

"I learned by doing, mostly, and inventing my own spells just as often as I used existing ones." He noted the surprised expressions on the faces of the unicorns, but didn't comment on it. "Mixing the schools is a lesson my mentor taught me, and it was invaluable. I found quickly I enjoyed the more noticeable and spectacular spells, which I suppose you would classify under Destruction and Illusion, and what I learned helped me greatly in battle."

At the word "battle" some of them seemed taken aback, but they let him continue with his explanation. "Allow me to elaborate a bit. I'm not good with Illusion, but actually a subclass of it. Conjuration came much easier to me, dealing with the summoning of items or people. When I was inexperienced with it, I could only conjure false images, much like illusions, but only deceiving the eyes. When I got better, however, I could do a few more tricks with it, utilizing it to summon larger, and even solid, items.

"In terms of schools still, Destruction was my favorite." The ponies seemed to grow slightly wary at that, he would have to try to keep his speech as harmless as possible. "It had a lot to do with the elements, and forces of sheer power. Given my occupation, it was necessary for me to focus more on the destructive side of things, and less on the healing type." He could see some mixed curiosity at the mention of his occupation, but he wasn't quite ready to talk about that.

"That's not to say Restoration is bad, of course. Basic Restoration is pretty simple, and any wizard worth his salt knows a few basic healing spells, because most of the time it would be dangerous not to. The school also has ties to nature, and the really dedicated become druids, living amongst the plants for most of their lives."

Lucien got a bit of a disgusted look on his face when he said that. "I couldn't really accept plants as good company, they had absolutely no sense of humor at all."

They all looked at him oddly, and Rainbow asked him, "Wait, wait, wait; you can talk to plants?"

He just nodded back, and replied, "Yes, but that's a bit off topic, I'm still explaining things." Rainbow huffed, but didn't interrupt again.

Lucien pulled his dagger from the sheath on his belt, and set it on the table. The ponies looked at it with mixed emotions, most of them falling under wariness. "This is called an athame, a 'wizard's knife.' It is most commonly used in rituals, but I use it as a focus for basic spell-crafting. Most wizards prefer a wand, or a staff, but I thought those were both too cliche, so I chose this." At the mention of his reason, Spike snorted, finding it amusing. Lucien smiled at him, glad that someone laughed at his subtle joke. "A focus is needed for the distracted, because it keeps them locked onto a specific spell formula, instead of slipping into another by accident. That kind of accident could be extremely dangerous.

"While I'm able to use spells from each of the schools, Destruction is still my main focus, as it is the most important to me and to what I stand for." He continued. "Speaking of what I stand for, each person's magical aura is different, just like they are different from anybody else in the world. Your magical focus and your emotional and mental state decide the color of your magic." He held up his hand and channeled a little mana to it, lighting it up in a green tint. "My aura is tinged green, and it shall remain so, as long as I am who I am."

Twilight raised her hoof. "But, your aura changed during the fight; If you're locked onto green, then how did it change like that?"

He put his elbow on the table, and leaned his head on his fist. "Those were all specific spells that I utilized, something I don't do very often. You can think of it as a sort of 'recolor' of my aura. The green is still there, but its been covered up by the spell or alignment for the time being. When I'm not focused on utilizing any sort of spell, the green is my default color." He looked around the room for a moment before his eyes settled on a fork sitting on a counter behind the ponies. He lifted his hand and lit it. Then, he used a telekinesis spell to lift the fork. It was enveloped in a glow of the same pigment, "Though, I have to mention that the way magic manifests in this world is different to mine," and he sent it flying over his head with a lazy wave of his hand to stick in the wall next to the door where they came in.

"There are, of course, other dangerous forms of magic. Blood Magic and Necromancy and all of those other types of sacrificial magic that give you the heebie-jeebies are kinda frowned upon. On my planet, the parameters of mana formation are just about limitless. A person with a large mana output and even larger imagination could do... well, anything, I guess. As long as you have the skill and imagination, there's nothing that can't be accomplished." He folded his arms and leaned back, his eyes losing focus in the action. "That's part of why I fell in love with the art. Infinite possibilities was a concept that stunned me. It was all I could ever think about during my studies, and I'm still making up spells now. I don't think I'll ever tire of the novelty of it all."

He raised his head to look at them. "And, let me just apologize now, for real. I shouldn't have attacked you all without at least taking stock of the situation. It's a mistake I don't plan on making ever again. What I've learned from this, I guess, would be that there's always a different course of action."

Princess Celestia met his eyes. "We realize that you have regrets for making this mistake, and we accept your apology. Just don't do it again." Her eyes flashed with a bit of golden power.

"Thank you, Princess, and I can assure you, it won't." He started to finish up his summary of his time spent studying. "Anyway, I learned spells from all of the schools, and while I'm not great at most of them, I have had motivation to use them all many times."

It was that moment that a sea-green pony with a blue and white mane walked into the library. "Twilight! Are you here!?" She called out.

The party in the kitchen froze. Recognition of the voice's owner slowly dawning on the faces of six of the ponies and the dragon. Lucien slowly turned around to face the entryway to the kitchen.

The pony stepped in, and stopped halfway through her call of "Twilight!"

She froze, staring at the group gathered in the room. Her eyes finally coming to a rest on a surprised looking Lucien. She smiled a huge smile, one only a lunatic could possibly pull off.

She yelped, and jumped at Lucien.

Author's Notes:

Name revealed. Lucien. I like it. I think it works pretty well. Thanks to tiberius for suggesting it in the comments for the prologue chapter. Well done.

Lyra. Yep. How couldn't I? Every HiE story has got to have Lyra in it. Just because.

And that's it for now! Next chapter will deal with Lucien being introduced to the town, and how he's going to adapt. This chapter was a bit more serious, but the next one will be a bit of comic relief.

Exposition, exposition, exposition. That's all that was seen in this chapter. Going to actually go places that aren't in the past next chapter.

I think I'm going to add this story to a group now. You will be able to see it under "Human in Equestria" from now on.

Cheers!
~Sandcroft
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What you have just read is the edited version of this chapter. There were some minor changes, not as many as last chapter. Man, that one was a doozy. Hope you liked it!