Natural Habitat; Forced Aid {open}

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight blew out her lips in a manner that was not unlike a horse. Which, given her origin, wasn't all that surprising. You also had to take her origin into mind when not considering the shock of violet hair all that unusual, which it seemed that many of Twilight's fellow Shifted weren't quite of mind to do. She noticed that quite a few of them kept sending glances her way. Well, had noticed; past tense. Currently Twilight's nose was buried so deeply in a book that it would likely take a rescue team to dig her out of it. In fact, it was reading something that had caused her to let out her expression of frustration.

"There has to be an answer here," she murmured, her violet eyes scanning the text before her. Sighing, she closed it, setting it down amid an increasingly unstable stack of books. Most had long, complicated titles that were nearly incomprehensible, which, in Twilight's opinion, made them all the more important and weighty. However, as she stared at the stack, she did not feel that reassuring feeling she so often got when looking at important and weighty tomes. In fact, she felt... worse.

The girl let out another moan of frustration, lowering her head onto the desk. Waves of hair fell about her, pooling against the table as the girl let loose another noise of frustration. This just couldn't be happening: books held all the answers. They were books; that was what they did. What good were books if they didn't provide answers? overwhelmed by frustration, Twilight let out another long, throaty moan.

Which earned a very familiar shushing noise. Twilight jerked her head up, peering out and seeing a librarian holding a finger to her lips. "Oh, you shush," replied the purple-haired girl. "I'm--- this is--- your library sucks!"

She groaned in frustration and slammed the book down hard, which meant that the stack teetered and tottered for a moment, before crashing down. Twilight stared at it for several seconds, looked up at the librarian, and felt the urge to either cry or scream. She settled for the latter, stomping her foot. Before the librarian approached, Twilight raised a finger. "Don't," she cautioned, "just don't."

And she bent over, muttering darkly to herself as she picked up books.    

[Henry Charmant]

Henry was on his own personal tour of the area, having received a quick orientation that he was now expanding on in an attempt to understand the new location he found himself in. The library was one of the more familiar buildings--at least books hadn't changed too much in...was it a different time? A different place? In any case, they were familiar, even if the building was strange.

He was enjoying walking through the shelves, pulling out random books and flipping through them idly. If he had the patience, he would probably be able to learn a lot from these books. But he preferred to talk to people and learn that way--books were for entertainment, or at least that's the way he felt it should be.

He heard a few loud groans from across the library and began wandering that direction, wondering what was going on. He arrived just as a large pile of books fell to the ground, causing the girl--who had the most startling purple hair--standing there to scream and stamp her foot. The girl looked very upset, and Henry immediately started forward to help her.

"Excuse me, miss," he said, leaning down and collecting the books. "Let me help you with that." He stacked them on the table haphazardly, unsure if there was supposed to be any order to them. "Is everything all right?"

It seemed a fair question to ask. The poor girl looked on the edge of tears, and as upset as Henry was about his mother and being stuck in this world, he couldn't be any worse off than anyone else here. It was his duty to try to help.

"I apologize, I forgot my manners. My name is Pr--" He paused in the middle of a bow. Was he really a prince here? He didn't seem to have any special advantage. Maybe it was time to forget the title? It would be like when he went to town before, just blending in. Yes, that would be fine. He straightened. "Henry. Henry Charmant. Is there anything that I can help you with?"

After a moment, he felt compelled to ask, "I'm sorry, and please excuse me if I am being rude, but is that a...what I mean to say is, I've never seen anyone with such...vibrant hair. Do many people look like that here?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

At first, Twilight didn't quite realize that someone else had even approached. She'd grown used to the friendly people of Ponyville, to be sure, but she hadn't expected to encounter the same kind of kindness and friendliness in this strange, new world. Plus, well, these people just weren't ponies. To make matters worse, using hands was hard, and Twilight kept dropping things and feeling like an idiot.

But then the guy showed up. He asked questions. He introduced himself with a "pr" sound, which likely made him a prince. But Twilight really barely noticed that, more of sub-noticed. because she was too focused on his stupid, stupid questions. Especially that last one.

Definitely the last one.

"All right? All right? All right?" she demanded, her voice climbing octaves with each repetition. "Look around you! This is insane! This world is... it's filled with strange creatures that are definitely not in any books that I've ever seen, and I look like one of you. Oh yes, I've looked into a mirror, thank you very much, and I see these," she held up her hand, "every time I raise my hooves. Do you have any idea how hard it is to pick up something with these? No wonder Spike was always dropping things.

"And there's no magic! None! No where! I can't even cast the simplest spell I learned in magic kindergarten. Which might be okay if, you know, somepony here actually could cast magic or something. But nooooo, you're all... weird. And how is the weather moving? Who's up there adjusting the clouds and making sure we get enough rain? This is like the Everfree Forest, except everything's worse and---and

"And my hair is completely natural! It's not my fault that everypony else is all--" she waved a hand. "Besides, you wouldn't even notice if I still had my horn."

Twilight broke off her rant with a few pants, before remembering what Celestia and Cadence had taught her. despite the urge to continue, she took several deep breaths, moving her right hand, drawing it close to her chest and letting it out slowly.

[Henry Charmant]

Henry caught himself staring at the girl (...?) and tried to look more natural but only succeeding in becoming suddenly awkward and sheepish. Emotional displays had never been his forte--the only person who had ever gotten upset at him was his father, and Mother was always around to calm him down. Well, and those various people he'd almost gotten into a fight with...but he'd always managed to nip out of an argument there. Somehow he didn't think this would be as easy.

"All right, um, okay," he said as she stood there panting. He put up his hands and took a step back during the rant, trying to staunch the flow of words. "I'm a little confused. Horn? Hooves? Somepony? I...I'm not sure I understand what you mean. I'm going to guess you're not from around here. I'm not either. So. Um. Do you want to talk about what it's like at your home? Maybe I can explain...maybe..." He severely doubted it, though. He was still pretty lost himself.

To get the process started, he tried to think back on everything she had said. "So, um...you know, I don't think I heard your name?" He looked up at her expectantly.

"As far as I can tell, there isn't any magic here. Nor are there horses, which doesn't make any sense to me, since I'm still not sure how people get around or harvest the food.... Anyway. Um. And. Uh. Your hair looks very nice. I didn't mean to insult you. My mother had red hair, and it was very pretty like yours. I mean, has! She has red hair, it's very nice." Why had he slipped like that? He was talking like she was dead or something. "So what else is different here?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

The now (slightly) calmer Twilight eyed the boy curiously. He certainly did act princely, or at least, how Twilight expected princes to act. According to Rarity, the princes of Canterlot could use a little more polish. Maybe they could have learned from this guy. Still, his confusion was... frustrating, to say the least. Twilight had to take another deep breath, pulling and relaxing her hand again as she did. Amazing how that actually helped.

"I'm from Ponyville," she said, with the utmost sincerity she could manage, locking her violet eyes upon Henry. "Ponyville, Equestria, which is rather centrally located in the world. It's, uh, well, we're fairly close to Phillydelphia..." Twilight paused, considering the young man and their location. It was as she did that she realized she had better start picking up the book too. Wouldn't want to get things too untidy. That and Twilight could almost feel the death stare of the librarian.

"But yes, I'm Twilight Sparkle, and I am... I was, a unicorn," she explained, gesturing in frustration. "I... well, my special gift was magic. That was what my cutie mark..." Twilight blushed slightly at that. From what she could tell, cutie marks were in a location that was not shared among these creatures. She couldn't very well take down her pants and demonstrate the star pattern emblazoned there. She took another deep breath. "I studied under Princess Celestia. She even gave me the book from the greatest unicorn that ever lived: Starscroll the Bearded," she paused, eying Henry expectantly. Twilight sighed at the lack of recognition likely there; even the ponies back home rarely seemed to know of him.

"So, yes, a lot is different," she murmured. She tucked a loose strand of brilliant violet hair behind an ear and surveyed the area before turning an eye back to Henry. "I'm sorry! What about you? You must have been torn from your home too, right?"

[Henry Charmant]

"Ponyville" sounded like an invented name, but she looked so serious that Henry found himself believing her. Besides, why would she lie? "I've never heard of Ponyville or Phillydelphia. Are they nice places? I suppose you must miss home very much." He picked up another book and set it on the table. Was she really reading all of these? They didn't look particularly entertaining.

His eyes widened when she said she was a unicorn, and he murmured under his breath, "I've only heard of them..." She certainly didn't look like a unicorn now, but that would explain some of the strange comments. But how...? Ah well. It must've been some sort of magic. Magic did strange things, he'd heard. He shook his head when she mentioned the bearded guy. "Sorry, never heard of him. He sounds very official. I'm sure he wrote some very important things." He'd also never heard of Celestia or whatever. Were there unicorn princesses? He supposed that would make sense. All these talking animals (they were in almost every adventure story) seemed to have their own sort of social hierarchy. Who was he to question it?

Henry bit his lip, wondering how much to talk about his own home. He didn't want to bore the girl--Twilight, he reminded himself. A strange name, but he'd heard worse. "Yes, well, I left home, but it wasn't quite as different as where you must have come from. My country is called Faraway, and I lived in Kingston. I'm hoping to get home soon, since my parents don't know where I went and--" He choked up slightly. "And my mother needs me. They need me home." But there wasn't really much more to say without getting upset, and teary displays weren't exactly his favorite, nor were they very princely. So he simply shook his head and gave a sad smile. "Until I get home, I think it's important to learn everything I can about new places. So why don't you tell me more about, er, Equestra?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

"Quite nice," agreed Twilight, nodding. "Well," she tilted her head and bit her lip, "Phillydelphia's not as nice as Ponyville, but it's a good place to visit."

Twilight thought she even had relatives living there, though that was hardly something she wanted to dwell on at the moment. She shifted, adjusting the stacks of books on the table. She'd only managed to get through a few of them before getting frustrated. Well, she'd thumbed through most of them and had a pretty good idea of what lay within the pages and bindings. Oh well, there were more important things to focus on for the moment: namely this new... prince?

"Faraway..." muttered Twilight. "Sounds... distant," and Kingston? Well, she'd heard sillier names, she supposed, but what pony would think up something like that? Then again, maybe this guy hadn't, well, originally been a pony. Twilight was beginning to suspect that she might be in a minority when it came to that, though she certainly didn't want to voice that concern at the moment. "But that's just it!" she said as Henry finished, looking up at him. "I'm trying to figure out how we got here so that I can figure out how we get home. I'm sure Princess Celestia is worried sick. Not to mention my friends... oh, or Spike! He's probably, well, I'm not sure a baby dragon can really take the best care of himself."

she sighed, then turned, rummaging to gather up a notepad and pen. At least they'd been willing enough to provide her with that much upon coming here. she licked the tip of the pen and scribbled a few notes. "Hey," she said as she stared, "you didn't mention your name... wait, did you say you wanted to know more about Equestria?" she squinted her eyes for a moment, sizing him up before asking, nearly dragging out the word: "Why?"

[Henry Charmant]

Henry frowned. "I'm sure they'll tell us how to get home," he said slowly. "They wouldn't keep us here. Not for very long...I'm sure they're doing their best to help us find a way home." Her last words took a moment to process. "Wait, you have a baby dragon?" He wasn't sure whether to be impressed or terrified, so he settled for stunned. "Well, if your princess is any good, I'm sure she'll be looking out for everyone. Even a dragon."

He winced slightly when she licked the pen. Why would you want to eat ink? He'd tried it once, and it hadn't gone very well. "Didn't I say?" he said absently, still upset over the memory of how disgusting ink was, and plenty of other things to boot. "Huh. I mean, oh! I'm sorry. Henry. Henry Charmant. I...I've had a lot on my mind recently. I apologize for my bad manners." He frowned again, remembering why his manners had fallen by the wayside. "It'll do me a lot better once I get home."

He was surprised by her sudden suspicion. "I just was hoping to learn about places. I like to learn about other locations, since I haven't gotten to travel much. And I thought, well, I guess I thought you might feel better to talk about home to someone. But I'll understand if you don't. Really, I completely understand. I'm sorry to push."

He shifted his weight awkwardly. "So, er," he began, "what have you found out so far? About going home?" Perhaps he was a bit more anxious about it than he liked to let on.

[Twilight Sparkle]

"I'm not as sure about that," murmured Twilight. She wasn't sure why yet, but she couldn't quite shake the feeling that there was something more sinister at work here. For one thing, if they were more... helpful, then why wouldn't they let Twilight contact Princess Celestia? There were dozens of ways for the young unicorn to contact her mentor, and at least one of them should work. Yet when Twilight had brought it up...

She shook her head. She couldn't get too lost in such thoughts. Not now. Now she needed to focus her attentions upon Henry, who seemed... interesting, to say the least. Though Twilight still couldn't quite shaky her suspicions about him. He just seemed too... nice, which she supposed was what she should be expecting, really. Okay, so maybe he had mentioned his name already and Twilight had just forgotten it. there was a lot going on here; she couldn't remember everything!

"Well..." began Twilight. She paused, chewing on her lip while she studied him. He just wanted to learn? Twilight could definitely understand that. Maybe she'd been a little too suspicious? It wasn't as though she had any real reason to doubt him. except, you know, the whole essentially being kidnapped and dropped here without means of communication and without any real way of getting home and there was that whole bit about being magically transformed into a creature that she didn't quite understand and maybe on second thought being suspicious really wasn't that bad of thing, all things considered.

"Equestria is... a lot more magical than this place. All the ponies pulled together to make sure that we'd be able to live in peace and harmony with each other. Earth pony, pegasus, and unicorn alike work together to make sure that we all can live happy and healthy. And we all do, well, most of the time... and Princess Celestia rules over us all; she's an alicorn and my teacher, and her sister, Princess Luna, also an alicorn, helps too. She controls the night and dreams and stuff; Luna, not Celestia," Twilight paused, considering. She rose to her feet and walked over to the desk, straightening her things and looking down at them. "Sorry, I guess that's not really explaining what I've found, is it? It's just... it's easier to talk about home than to talk about what I've found. Because I know a lot about Equestria. This place... it's a mess. Nothing works right." Twilight frowned again and looked to Henry. "Right now, I'm not sure we'll ever be able to make it home, and that worries me."

[Henry Charmant]

Henry tried to look intelligent as Twilight began explaining her home, but a lot of it was just flying over his head. What was an "earth pony"? Or an "alicorn"? He simply nodded, his brow slightly furrowed, as he tried to figure out what he could from her explanation. As far as he could tell, the whole place seemed very friendly. There couldn't be too many problems if the princess also had time to tutor students. Or maybe Twilight was special? Was she a princess, too? She hadn't said so...

"Well I'm glad I got to learn more about Equestria." Like...equestrian? Horses? He chuckled slightly. "It seems clear you love your home. And I admit there is...something strange about this place. I--my whole family has always done what we can to stay away from magic, since it often results in some messy situations, but not having it around at all is very strange. I don't know about nothing working right, but at least the people here have been very hospitable." He chewed his lip nervously. He really wanted to believe that they would get home safely, and soon.

"Why wouldn't we get home?" he asked, shifting his weight again. "I mean, things can't be that messed up, right? We were able to get here. We have to be able to get back. We'll get back in a few days, and everything will be fine. Everyone will be fine." He took a deep breath and smiled, but he couldn't hold it very long. "Right?" he asked quietly, desperately hoping for confirmation but terrified that he wouldn't get it.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Twilight nodded. "I do love my home! But I'm more worried about my friends, really. I'm sure they're all worried sick about me; I mean, I just left all of a sudden! They're sure to think something's up, and they're probably blaming Discord or Crystalis or..."

Twilight trailed off, chewing her lip again. She took a deep sigh, reaching up to brush back some of her mane. It had started to curl lately, and she wasn't sure if that wasn't some sort of strange aftereffect of the magical transformation. Then again, for all Twilight knew, all the strange creatures of this world had curly manes. Pinkie Pie would certainly feel right at home.

She looked to Henry. "Well, that's just it: this is probably magic, right? What else could pull so many people from so many places and drop us here? But I'm not," she paused to chew her lip again, "I'm not sure there's actually any magic here. You see, I'm a unicorn, and, well, my gift was magic. That was what made me special, that's what my cutie mark's been telling me since I passed the test to get into magic school. But here, here I can't do anything. The only thing that seems to be magical is, well," she gestured at her mane and eyes, before leaning back and sighing in frustration. She blew out her lips for a moment, sounding very much like the horse she kept claiming to be. "That's why I've been studying. I'm hoping that maybe there's a book somewhere that can tell me how to get my magic back, or maybe that there's some way of getting all of us home..."

[Henry Charmant]

Henry had no idea what she was talking about with discord and crystals, so he decided to let that comment pass without comment. Better not to make a fool of himself, right? He wasn't sure what a cutie mark was either, but it didn't exactly seem like the time to ask. The important thing seemed to be that she was some sort of wizard or enchantress, but there was no way for her to do magic in this world.

He chewed on his lip for a moment as he considered the idea of being in a world without magic. "Do you really think you're going to find that information in a book? I mean, if this world doesn't have any magic, then it probably wouldn't have a special guide on how to make magic appear. They might not even know if magic should exist! Have they even heard of it?" He picked up on of the books on the table and glanced at the title. "Are these really helping? Maybe the better option is to go talk to people and see what is going on. Books don't always have the answers." He placed the book back on the desk.

"So far no one I've talked to here has told me what is going on. But maybe we will find someone? There has to be someone who can help. And they know we all want to go home, right? I mean, you have your friends to get back to, I have my m--my parents." He ignored the sudden tightness in his chest and blinked away a tear. "I mean, why wouldn't they want to let us leave?"

[Twilight Sparkle]

"There's always an answer in books," insisted Twilight her eyes taking on a hard look for a few moments. One would think that Henry had insulted her mother or something, the way Twilight suddenly stiffened and narrowed her eyes at the young man. Still, she supposed that she shouldn't overreact too much; people didn't seem to understand the power of books. She waved her hand, "It's likely that this happened to someone before us, someone who also got pulled from their world and dropped here. And it's just as likely that that someone would write it all down in hopes of helping someone. I just..." she paused, lowering her arm and chewing on her lip, "I just need to figure out who that someone is or where her book would be."

And Twilight looked around the library, considering. When she looked back to Henry, she found him with his own option. She'd half-heard him, having nearly talked over him again, but she was pretty sure she got the gist. It was enough to make her nod in agreement. "That's my next course of action: heading out and testing things. I just wanted to get some basic research first. There's an answer for everything, after all..."

She trailed off though, seeing the forlorn look in Henry's eye. She winced, feeling almost entirely responsible for that. While Twilight hadn't exactly been the one behind the whole shifting them here thing, she probably wasn't helping with her doom-saying. She pushed off the desk and moved over to gently pat Henry on the shoulder. It felt weird, what with her weird hoof and all, but she was pretty sure that she was communicating what she needed to, more or less.

"Don't worry so much! I'm sure we'll find a way out of here. You can help me! We'll gather information," she nodded confidently, "because somepony's bound to have some answers, right? We just have to find that pony and get the answers from her. Then, we just have to get my magic back, and I'm sure I can cast a spell to get us back home."

She nodded, sounding a lot more confident than she actually felt.

[Henry Charmant]

Henry glanced around at the books on the shelves, but they didn't exactly seem very helpful. How would you even go about looking for a book on this sort of thing, anyway? He had never heard of it--what if it hadn't happened before? What if it was new? And there were no answers at all?

Well, he couldn't afford to think that way, so he tried to stay positive. He smiled as Twilight patted his shoulder. It felt strange, someone treating him as something other than an untouchable prince, and it was sort of nice.

"So are you going to stick with the books, then?" he asked, looking around again. "If you ask me, it's time to get out of the library. You were looking a little frustrated earlier. Maybe you should step back and do some talking now? What about if you just talk to some of the other, uh, the other guests?" He chose to still use their language, clinging to hope. "If you don't have knowledge, maybe one of them does? I wish I could help but I...well, what do you think I should do? I'll admit I've never been good at research."

Strangely, the simple thought of trying to do something was making him feel better. He straightened again, and his jaw hardened with determination. "And if no one knows, well...uh..." He scanned his mind, trying to come up with ideas. Backup plans were his best friends. "Then we go looking. We find people in other parts of the world, and we try to find our ways back home." It sounded like a good plan to him, anyway.

He looked down at Twilight. "Thank you, Twilight Sparkle," he said with a small bow. "I...you have been very kind. I trust that you will be successful." He couldn't quite pinpoint the reason, but he felt very grateful for having me this strange person.

[Twilight Sparkle]

Get... out of the library? Twilight stared at Henry as though he'd just suggested that they both  grow three heads and dance around naked. Get out of the library? Why on Equestria would she...? Then again, he did make sense. It wasn't so much that he was suggesting that she give up; he was offering another path. Twilight chewed on her lip for a while, looking over her shoulder at the gathered books. She just couldn't quite shake the feeling that the answer had to be in there somewhere. There were just so many books lying about...

"We still don't know that there's not---" she began, but she realized that Henry had said something else. She'd been so wrapped in the book thing that she'd nearly missed it. Twilight blinked her wide purple eyes, turning them to focus on him. "Wait, did you say... yes, that's a brilliant idea! Let me get my pad and pen..." she turned, shifting the books aside till she pulled out a notepad and pen. She adjusted both, nodding to herself. Now this was definitely something she could do, and do well. "Right, we'll need to see if we can organize something. Get some ponies together and see if we can't come up with an answer. There has to be more than just you and me who want to figure this out, right?" she looked to Henry, her expression hopeful. "It's like you said, it's---you're bowing."

She paused, staring at him while he did precisely that. She ended up dumbstruck, quite a feat there, for several seconds, gaping at Henry. Why was he...? It wasn't like she was a princess or something. She just worked for one. Wasn't even a princess in training or anything of the sort.

"Wait, are you just--leaving?" she looked over his shoulder for a moment, then refocused back on him. "Right, well, obviously this isn't a good place for you. I need to start here," she paused, tapping her mouth with her pen, having almost forgotten she had it till it returned to her lips. "Why don't you start talking to people? I'll try and get everyone together and get things more organized. I just know we can do this if we put our heads together!"

Twilight beamed, mostly at the thought of getting to put a list together and getting some good old fashion organization done, but there was also the whole possibility of maybe getting a new friend and/or getting somewhere with this whole problem they found themselves saddled with.