Chapter 2:

"Now lets get this straight," pressed Lyra, "Are you absolutely certain that you had nothing to do with this? You haven't been playing around with zebra magic again, have you?"

"For the last time, NO!" snapped Trixie irritably, "I don't even have that stupid book anymore. They're still working on providing a proper translation on it."

With a sigh, Lyra sagged back onto her seat, sitting in that bizarre posture that was practically her trademark. "I'm sorry. It's just...when that thing appeared, I started getting flashbacks."

"You think you're stressed," Trixie retorted, "I thought I'd never see one of those things again. And I've had to tell Princess Luna about this. She'll probably think it's my fault and then she'll strip my knighthood and banish me and..."

"Trixie!" Lyra jumped out of her seat, grabbed her friend's shoulders, and began shaking her vigorously, "Snap out of it!"

The violent shaking snapped the blue mare out of her horrified daze. Trixie slumped of Lyra's grip. "I already got a letter from Princess Luna. She's on her way down."

"Don't get worked up," said Lyra encouragingly, "She'll probably be able to fix this problem right away. She'll take care of it and it'll be like it never happened."

Trixie gave her friend a sidelong glance. Their track record with having Princess Luna being able to just magic their problems away had not exactly been a very good one. About the only time she had saved the day had been when Corona's pet phoenix had gotten loose and gone on the rampage.

They sat together in an uncomfortable silence for a little longer. Then, finally, Lyra decided to fill it. "So...did the doctor have anything to say."

"Well...he couldn't identify it anymore than we could. He was able to determine that it's a mammal. From the layout of its teeth, it's probably omnivorous..."

"So they really do eat plants and meat," Lyra groused, "I knew it."

"...and," Trixie finished, a touch of red coloring her cheeks, "It's a male."

Lyra blinked and looked over at her. "Really. How does he know."

Trixie's blush intensified. "He checked its...equipment. It's definitely a male." She pulled the brim of her magician's hat over her eyes. "I was there."

"Was it really that bad?" asked Lyra.

"Now I understand why that thing wore those clothes," groaned Trixie, "It's not like our stallions at all. It doesn't have any kind of sheath. Its...thing is just hanging out there...for everypony to see."

"Oh," was all Lyra could muster. Trixie was graduating from looking embarrassed to looking physically ill.

At that moment, the sound of hooves coming down the hall drew them out of their reverie. Looking up, they saw Raindrops approaching a strangely happy smile gracing her face. "Hey girls," she said, "He's awake."

With a sigh, Trixie got to her hooves, making sure her cape wasn't wrinkled as she headed down the hall, Raindrops falling in beside her.

"So what are you gonna do?" she asked.

"I suppose I'd better see if it can communicate," Trixie said, "Maybe it can tell us what it's doing here."

It only took a few minutes of walking to reach the room where that creature was staying. Poking her head in, Trixie saw it staring up at the ceiling with a slightly forlorn expression in its gray eyes. Her heart softened in spite of herself. Whatever this creature was, it was clearly far from its home in a place where it didn't belong. Trixie entered the room, careful to keep her eyes on the strange creature. It remained staring at the ceiling, apparently not noticing she was there. After a few more awkward seconds, Trixie cleared her throat.

The creature lowered its gaze and met Trixie's eyes. "Um..." it said after a moment, its voice scratchy and definitely masculine.

Trixie opened her mouth and then realized she wasn't exactly sure what to say. They simply stared at each other, neither really knowing where to begin.

Finally, Trixie closed her eyes and got her head back in the game. She was a representative of the Night Court. She was here to investigate this strange creature and determine whether or not it was a threat. She had a duty to Equestria. "So..." she said, "Can you understand what I am saying."

The creature reached one hand out from under the bedsheets and scratched its head. "Um...yeah. I'm not sure how though."

Trixie blinked at that as the creature continued muttering. "I mean...I've clearly been zapped into some strange place that's home to some strange creatures. There's no real reason we should speak the same language. It's like some sort of unexplained convention an author would come up with because he doesn't want to have to deal with characters crashing into the language barrier or something like that."

Trixie coughed importantly to get his mind back on track. "Um..well, yes. Anyway, can you tell me what you are?"

It focused its attention on her. "I'm a human. Do you have those here?"

"Um...no...not really..." Trixie looked away.

The human narrowed its eyes slightly. "I don't quite think you're being honest with me."

"Um well...once, I tried a spell and...it turned my friend into something like you...we didn't know it was called a human though."

For a moment, the human was silent, clearly deep in thought before its mind latched onto something. "Wait! A spell...like magic?"

Trixie looked back at him and nodded. "Yes. Magic. You do have magic where you came from don't you?"

"Yeah," replied the human, "I've dealt with it a lot."

"Can you do magic?" asked Trixie, her eyes narrowing. If this creature was hostile and could do magic of some sort, then it could be incredibly dangerous.

"No," replied the human simply, "I can't do magic. The only thing I do have is this right hand of mine."

"Right hand?" Trixie blinked and looked at his hand. It looked ordinary...at least by the standards of what nonexistent experience she had with these "humans."

"Yeah. My hand has the power to destroy any supernatural power it comes in contact with," explained the creature, "It doesn't matter whether its an Ability, a magic spell, or even a miracle of God. This hand can negate it completely."

"Really?" Trixie frowned darkly. "Do you mind if I test that?"

She didn't even wait for an answer before charging up her horn, the aura lifting her magician's hat clear off her head. When the human saw what she was doing, his eyes widened in a panicked look, waving his hand in front of his face. "Hey wait a moment, you aren't really..."

He never got to finish his exclamation as Trixie let fly with a bolt of telekinetic force. It was a fairly basic spell, not holding much destructive power. But it would be a suitable test of this human's abilities.

Indeed, the moment the bolt left her horn, the human's expression changed in a flash. To Trixie's stunned surprise, the look of panic vanished and his eyes narrowed, his face adopting an expression of grim determination. His right hand reached out and intercepted the incoming attack perfectly. With a sound like shattering glass, the bolt of magic flared out of existence. Trixie stared in stunned awe, not sure which surprised her more, the human's ability or the strange change that had come over him when he had been attacked. His movements had been immediate, almost instinctual, like he had been attacked much like that many times before.

A sharp intake of breath behind her drew Trixie's attention to the door of the room. Raindrops and Lyra were leaning in, watching the whole affair attentively. "So cool," whispered the jasmine pegasus before turning her eyes on Trixie, "And you..."

Raindrops' expression hardened as she stepped into the room, her hooves nearly cracking the floor with each impact as she advanced on the trembling representative. "After being unconscious for three hours, one of the first things you do to him is attack without provocation."

"Hey!" exclaimed Trixie, trying to back away, "He said his hand could nullify magic. I had to test it!" Unfortunately, the limited confines of the hospital room left her little space to work with and she was quickly back against the wall.

"So you figured the best way to test was to try and blow his head off!"

"It was a small kinetic bolt. It probably wouldn't have done more than bruise."

"That doesn't excuse you attacking him!" Raindrops advanced until her snout was within inches of Trixie's, her turquoise eyes glittering with fury.

The two mares froze as a cough from the human echoed throughout the room. They turned towards the creature with bemused expressions. To their surprise, he seemed embarrassed, his cheeks coloring as he scratched his head nervously. Then they both realized that the sheets of his bed had fallen down to expose his bare torso.

"Um," said the human nervously, "Can I have my clothes please?"

"We're here!" greeted Cheerilee as she came through the front entrance of the hospital, Carrot Top and Ditzy Doo following in her wake. Riding on Ditzy's back, between her wings, was nestled the small shape of little Dinky Doo, smiling widely as she looked out at her mother's friends.

"I'm sorry it took so long," said Cheerilee, "It was hard explaining things to the foals when I didn't really have any idea what was going on."

"And I had to whip up a tonic to revive Lilly, Daisy, and Rose," said Carrot Top, looking more than a little irritated, "I swear, those three would keel over if a bunch of rabbits ran through town."

Five pairs of eyes turned expectantly to Ditzy, who grinned sheepishly. "Sorry, I was just doing my rounds. I had no idea what happened until I got back to the post office."

They all turned to look back at Trixie. "Princess Luna's inside right?" asked Cheerilee.

Trixie nodded. "She just went in a few minutes ago. She's speaking with the human now."

"Oh, so it's called a human?" said Carrot Top.

"Does it have a name?" asked Dinky.

Everypony froze for a moment before the new arrivals looked at Trixie, Lyra and Raindrops, who all blushed. "Um well..." hedged Trixie, "Things got a little complicated and...we forgot to ask."

Silence reigned for a few moments as they tried to think of where to go from there. Trixie explained to them a little about the human, keeping the question of how they had known its gender from being asked while Dinky was in the room. Everypony was shocked to hear about the strange ability that allowed him to negate magic. It seemed surreal to believe that such an ability could exist, particularly since magic was such an essential part of daily life in Equestria.

Eventually, the sound of hooves told them that Princess Luna was retuning from her interview with the creature. The Elements of Harmony and Dinky turned and bowed to the Princess as she approached. Luna nodded silently, bidding them to rise.

"Well Princess?" asked Trixie nervously.

"I have spoken with the human," said Princess Luna, "And as far as I can tell, he is not a threat to Equestria."

"Really?" asked Raindrops, leaning forward eagerly.

Luna nodded. "We have discussed at length the ramifications of his situation and I will be returning to Canterlot to discuss with my mages how we might go about returning him to his home. However, this is not seeming to be a problem with an easy solution. His ability, he calls it Imagine Breaker I believe, is every bit as comprehensive as he claims."

"What do you mean?" asked Trixie, scarcely believing what she was hearing.

"After a little experimentation, I have determined that his power is effective against the unicorn, pegasus, and earth pony magic. I also suspect that it can eliminate magic from any other source as well. Any means we devise of returning him to his home will have to take that into account."

"I see," muttered Trixie. It was too bad that Twilight Sparkle was still on the run. Perhaps she, of all ponies, could have come up with a way around this strange situation. "Have you learned anything else?"

"His power is contained in his right hand," said Princess Luna, "But only his right hand, ending at the wrist. He did not seem to remiss at parting with this information, a point in his favor. It means he does not perceive us as enemies, in spite of some rough treatment." She shot a reproving look at Trixie who had the decency to at least look abashed. "The other thing I have learned is that he may be from beyond the boundaries of our plane. His description of where he came from does not match anyplace in this world and indeed seems to be fundamentally different from ours in many respects. We have talked a bit about the world he came from, but the complexities of his home situation would have taken a great deal more time than I can afford right now."

"So what should we do?" asked Ditzy, "It sounds like he's going to be staying here for a while."

Luna closed her eyes as she pondered Ditzy's question. "I'm afraid that I must ask you to make arrangements for him to stay here in Ponyville for now. Bringing him to Canterlot would cause too much of a stir right now, especially given that ponies are still quite agitated over the Gala. Please make his stay as comfortable as possible until we are able to come up with a solution." The Elements of Harmony nodded in response to her request.

"How is he taking things?" asked Carrot Top, "I can't imagine that it must be easy waking up in a completely unfamiliar environment with alien creatures all around me."

As they watched, Trixie swore she could see Luna's eye begin to twitch. "He has already acclimated surprisingly well," said the Princess, "But his attitude disturbs me in other ways."

"How so?" asked Luna's student.

Luna's twitch seemed to be increasing in frequency and severity. "He is apparently used to getting swept up in strange and unusual situations. He claims to be quite misfortunate in this respect and has more or less resigned himself to his fate." She let out a loud sigh. "To be honest, I don't know if I should applaud his fortitude or have him put on suicide watch for possible depression."

Raindrops raised a hoof. "Can we go see him now?"

Luna blinked in surprise at Raindrops' eagerness, but nodded. "You may. It seems to give him comfort to have somepony to speak to."

"Um..." everypony paused as Ditzy spoke up, "Did you get his name Princess?"

As their eyes turned back to her, Luna slowly nodded. "He said his name is Kamijou Touma." She stepped aside to allow them to pass, but reached out with a wing and stalled Trixie, pulling her close for a brief moment.

"Be careful," she whispered to Trixie.

"Is something wrong with him?" she asked.

"Other than that power of his, I could not say that there is anything evil about him. However, I also examined the site of his arrival in order to try and find more about the spell that brought him here."

"And...?"

"I recognized it immediately. There is no question that my sister's magic was what brought this Kamijou Touma to Equestria."

Trixie froze, her eyes widening with alarm. The human's presence was Corona's doing! What did this creature have to do with the agenda of the Tyrant Sun?

"My queen, I must know," said Zecora as she looked up at the imposing alicorn, "How did your spell go?"

The blazing white mare narrowed her blank white eyes as she stared into space. "I don't understand," she said, her voice almost a snarl, "Why hasn't it begun yet?"

The zebra stared expectantly and cocked her head, waiting for Celestia to continue.

"My spell should have summoned the most dangerous beast from another world," mused Celestia, "By now, all of Equestria should be in a blind panic."

That had been the plan after all; summon the mightiest beast from another realm and set it loose in Equestria. Once her ponies saw how ineffectual Luna's efforts were at stopping the monster's rampage, Celestia would step in and remind the ponies of Equestria why they needed their queen, save them from certain destruction, and be welcomed back to her throne with open arms.

Zecora frowned as she watched Celestia stew in her thoughts. It wasn't that she doubted her queen, but calling a creature from another world was a dangerous proposition. And though she never even once doubted that Celestia would be able to vanquish such a beast, she still couldn't help but be nervous about the unknown factors in play. What kind of horrific monstrosity had Celestia's spell summoned anyway?

Author's Notes:

So yeah. If you find a lot of details missing, that's because this story was written fairly quickly since it's a minor thing I wanted to get done for the contest before I go back to the fic most of my readers are expecting me to be working on (seriously, my work ethic sucks). I may revisit this chapter later and add Touma's conversation with Luna.

As for Celestia/Corona, this was a bit tricky. I'm not entirely sure that this is the sort of thing Canon Lunaverse Celestia would do. But given how upset she was with the fact that ponies feared her instead of rejoiced upon her return struck me as something that might give rise to this sort of scheme. The question being whether she would willingly go so far as to put Equestria itself in danger to gain popularity points; especially since it was her going out of her way to protect Equestria in the past that helped drive her over the edge. That said, since this is decidedly non canon, I'm just going to handwave it for now.

Just as a warning for the next chapter; expect it to mostly gloss over the details of Touma acclimating to life among ponies. There are a thousand-and-one HiE fics that cover the topic better than I could, so I just wanted to skip to the meat (so to speak) of the story.