//------------------------------// // Chapter Two - Hi, My Name Is... // Story: An Alien Walks Amongst Us // by Hazardus_Havard //------------------------------// Something was agitating Lyra’s body, jabbing into her back. “Hnhrurhg… hhnn…” Trying to ignore it only made the issue worse, the prodding coming one after the other. “Hnn… quit it.” Trying to kick at it only had it dig into her back toward her side. With a grumble she tried to whack at the annoyance, only to find herself thrown off the couch. Now fully awake Lyra aimed her unfocused eyes at the figure above her. Bon Bon held a large frown, a glare directed at her. “Hey, Bonnie. I hope you’re having a good morning?” “Why is everything trashed down here?” Lyra appeared confused; Bon Bon sighed, waving a hoof around the cluttered room. A guilty look flashed across Lyra. “Oh, that. Right, sorry ‘bout the mess, Bonnie.” She pushed herself upright, jumping to her hooves. “But listen, I’ve got something to show you.” “I don’t have time for your shenanigans, Lyra,” Bon Bon said, walking past her. “I have to open my stand and I’m already late as it is with opening preparations. I expect this place to be cleaned up by the time I get back.” “Wait, you don’t open your shop up until ten.” Bon Bon stopped, giving her a sharp look, turned toward a clock on the wall. Looking at it, Lyra saw it was ten past nine. “Oh.” Bon Bon let out a huff before turning back to the front door. “Hold up, Bon Bon. I wanted to tell you about last night in the forest.” Stopping at the door, she turned to Lyra. “Is the unicorn or whatever it was alright?” Lyra gave her a questioning look before realizing what she meant. “Silly, I didn’t find a unicorn.” She ran up to Bon Bon, a smile stretched across her face. “It was a real, life, alieeen!” Bon Bon stared back. “Oh? And what did this alien do when you found it? Is it planning on taking our stallions and ruling over us?” “How would I know that? I can’t understand its language.” “Of course you can’t.” “It was unconscious in the forest, so I brought it here to the house. It’s asleep in my room, so that’s why all my stuff is down here. Didn’t want it having access to any of my stuff.” Bon Bon, hearing that, flattened her ears as she looked toward Lyra’s room. “It’s in your room, right now?” she asked in a cracked voice. Lyra nodded her head affirmatively. Bon Bon slowly walked back out the door. “I see. I suppose I’ll leave this one to you and come back later with something to handle your—” Bon Bon forced a smile, “－alien.” Before Lyra could respond, Bon Bon ran off, a dust trail left in her wake. It took little effort for the unicorn to understand her friend's actions. Letting out a huff she slammed the door. “This isn’t like all the other times. I’ll just have to show her when she gets back.” Thoughts on the alien turned the unicorn giddy. Circling around to start her day, she could see the full extent of the mess she had made. “Okay, I can understand why she’d be upset.” A spell formed, the previous disorder quickly organizing itself into boxes in a corner. Lyra smiled, watching her magic make quick work of the place. She allowed her magic to continue in the back of her mind, giving some thought toward the alien. “So much to do, so little time to do it all.” She had an exhausting amount of plans she wanted to do involving the alien. Before she could attempt them she had to start with her first orders: observe the alien and form communication. Lyra had an advantage that she felt would allow her to quickly work through her orders. Her dreams of different life forms, to which she had always felt had some sense of realism, gave her some insight on the hoomans. It wasn’t perfect, she knew there were a lot of holes in her knowledge. But it gave her a baseline to work with. “My first observation will be when I go in to feed it. I can see what it needs for food while trying to prod it to speak to me.” The only stipulation the princess gave her was to keep her magic usage to a minimum, something she could agree with. “Right. The first meal I’ll be serving it.” She walked into the kitchen with a skip. “What should I try first?” A tray was assembled full of assorted food goods, from freshly picked flowers to fried eggs. There was a chance that the alien simply couldn’t eat their exotic foods, preferring to eat rock minerals for all she knew. A hot cup of cocoa, stuffed full of sprinkles and marshmallows, helped to finish the meal. “This should make a good first impression,” Lyra said, smiling at her work. The platter was levitated onto a tray with wheels, already prepared with her writing equipment to take notes. Lifting that up to the second floor, she flared her horn, the doorknob glowing green. The magical glue oozed out, pooling onto the ground, before fizzling off into a harmless cloud. Lyra stared at the door. Just behind it was the alien. This would be her first true opportunity of introducing herself. ‘Okay Lyra, just remember. Appear to be nice and friendly to the alien and keep that confidence revved up.’ “I’ll be nothing but smiles and thank yous.” ‘Don’t spaz out. You don’t want it thinking you’re a weirdo, Lyra.’ “Right. I’m going to be calm and collected.” ‘This is history in the making. Everyone is counting on you.’ She could feel herself panicking, her breath catching up before she found herself hyperventilating. She sat down, trying to calm herself. A sigh could be heard in her head. ‘Take your time. We don’t want the first thing it sees is a pony having a mental breakdown.’ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~ ~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X Letting out a gasp, his body jerked upright, panic-stricken toward his predicament. He surveyed his surroundings, looking for the horrid monsters enclosing on him. He saw nothing but a normal-looking room and the bed he was lying on. Feeling he wasn’t about to be mauled by a beast, he fell back into the mattress. He hissed, the aches in his body starting to feel more pronounced. Pulling the sleeve of his jacket back, nothing was visibly shown to him. He felt confused, as it felt like there should be a large, purple bruise marking his entire arm. While it may not show the damage, he could feel it. “That’s going to take some time to heal,” Anon said, trying to ignore the discomfort in his body. His recollection of the forest was hazy. He remembered crawling through a dark forest, a loud roar, and animals running all around him. The last, vague memory had him up against a tree, staring at what looked like a short, green horse glowing red. Clearly, he wasn’t thinking straight. Perhaps the white void from before was another fit of imagination he conjured up. A fever dream? It was possible. “No. That doesn’t make sense.” Anon rubbed his eyes, feeling a slight headache. “I know the thing with Gleekman was real.” He looked around the room. “So why am I not in a hospital? Or horribly maimed, for that matter?” He was in a room, completely barren, leaving him with only the bed and his personal effects. The window looked to be barred down, the small cracks the only thing lighting up the dark room. There were two doors on either side of the room, leading to who knows where. “Who put me in this room?” No matter what he thought of, every single name he could conjure, no one fit the bill. Anon’s mind couldn’t help but imagine that Gleekman was the likeliest reason why he was in the room. With his plan having gone bust, he managed to find Anon and place him in the room, for whatever reason he had., likely finding a way for him to learn a ‘lesson’. His back now up against the headboard, he only just noticed the odd patterns etched into it; flowers and leaves along with musical notes stringed on lines. Sheets of frilly patterns and a green comforter full of sheet music lied below him. His feet hung off the bottom of the bed, the bed too small for his frame. “Leave it to the man to purchase some kids bed for me to sleep on.” He forced himself to stand up. The room needed to be checked out. He was hoping there would be some way out of it, or at the very least something left behind in the room. Standing up was painful, his body reeling with a throb, wanting nothing more than to lay back down. Against all protest, Anon stretched his limbs out. He quickly noted how small the dimensions of the room were. The ceiling was easily reachable, the palm of his hand laying flat against it. Strangely the length of the room was quite large, allowing him plenty of walking space. Everything had a hint of green in it. Why all the green? It wasn’t unpleasant, just odd. Even the wood looked like it was stained green. Who makes a green stain for wood? His body wobbled toward the window, the gaps in between the boards just barely giving him something to look out of. All he could see were clouds and hints of a tree nearby. It felt like he was up high, likely a second floor. As he turned, something caught his eye. The boards on the windows weren’t boarded down. There were no nails or screws, they simply hung there. A tug on one held tight, the board refusing to move. He took a step back, staring at the wood. “It’s not being held down by anything. How is it doing this?” He scratched his chin. “Gleekman did manage to get a missile. I wouldn’t doubt he just has some weird adhesive that can do this.” There wasn’t anything left for him to look at other than the two doors. The first one, which he felt likely to lead out of the room, was firmly locked. No amount of force could turn the knob even a hair. That left the other door to check out. Turning toward it Anon stumbled, nearly falling to the ground before finding his balance. He bent to where he tripped, spotting a strange indent where he nearly fell. Anon rubbed his hands over the oddity. “You’re a clue, aren’t you?” It, of course, did not respond, as it was a hole in the ground. It looked worn out like something had been repeatedly worked on at that spot countless times to make the well dug out hole. At the other door, he gave the doorknob a jiggle, finding it loose. Looking inside was a bathroom, one that was darkly lit and clean looking. It had all the essential needs for a bathroom, yet everything was squashed low to the ground and widened out. He disregarded the strange lavatory, likely Gleekman collecting weird pieces. The sink at least provided him with some water to drink and clean up. In the mirror, his hair look knotted, eyes appearing dark and baggy, along with a few cuts that managed to collect on his chin. Outside the room, Anon paced around. What did the place tell him? Not much. It was green, spartan, and kept him locked up. Mulling on his predicament, all he could do was curse Gleekman. “What am I supposed to do?” He leaned against the wall beside the window, feeling trapped. The only solution he had was to wait things out. He knew some people would start wondering where he went. Gleekman would be easily tied to his disappearance, which would hopefully result in someone finding him. “He might even slip up and then I can make my escape.” The man had an issue with nosediving into plans, but they were never foolproof. “I’ll just have to brave whatever he has set up for me.” Thumps echoed outside his room, alerting Anon to someone’s presence. Was that Gleekman checking on him? Standing straight, arms crossed, he awaited him at a distance. The door made noises that he could not discern, something fizzing on the other side. Nothing happened for some time, his jaw clenched and arms pressed tight against him. With a creak, the door slowly opened. Anon was not prepared to see a unicorn walking in. It looked at him, stopping only two steps into the room, staring back. ‘Didn’t I see this thing in the forest?’ A faint memory of red appeared. ‘So Gleekman is responsible for the forest? Would that also mean Gleekman is responsible for that white void?’ Anon felt a chill run through him. ‘He probably drugged me and the white room was to disorient? But what was with the forest?’ He calmed his breath, trying to keep his body under control. Taking a look at the unicorn it looked worried. “~+Are you okay, Mr. Alien?+~” it sang out with a whistle and a chirp. ‘I’m being held hostage by Gleekman, using a musical horse to communicate with me. Great.’ The unicorn, he quickly noted, had a green coloring scheme, matching the rooms aesthetic. Something of importance? “~+I come in peace,+~” the horse sang in a sweet tone. “~+I hope that we can learn from one another and be friends.+~” Finally, the unicorn slowly backed out of the room. He could try and escape, yet he felt that was a foolish route to take. There was very little he knew about his situation, only that there was a horse to interact with. “But why a whistling horse?” Anon figured it was another one of Gleekman’s toys, something he had made or found interesting. His gut told him there was something else at play. But what? His brow scrunched up, seeing the unicorn returning, now standing upright on its back legs. The horse was pushing a cart into the room, full of what appeared to be a mug of some sort and animal feed, shaped to look like a smiling horse. “~+I brought something to eat, Mr. Alien!+~” the green unicorn chirruped at him. “~+I hope you enjoy it!+~” He watched the thing take its time pushing the cart forward. Unfortunately for the two of them, they had both missed the indent in the ground, the green horse tripping a leg on it. With a stumble, it pushed the tray toward Anon. It bumped right into him, the tray simply shifting around. The mug, on the other hand, flew right onto his crotch. “AAAHHH!” Thinking fast he turned around straight into the bathroom, slamming the door shut. His mind was on auto-drive, throwing his clothes off to cool the region with the sink. He was thankful it only hit his thighs instead of his more precious bits. Having composed himself he grabbed his clothing, trying to clean it off to the best of his ability. A sweet smell wafted off the pants, reminding him of chocolate. “Was I seriously served hot chocolate?” He shook his head, finished cleaning off his clothing. A tight squeeze, the water dripping off, right before he put the dirty garments back on. “Great. Now I feel even dirtier.” Anon turned to the door, hesitant about interacting with the animatronic. “I have to go out there. If I don’t, he’ll likely make things worse for me.” In his mind, he knew never to underestimate a man, especially one that tried to blow up and kill multiple people. “I’ll just have to play along for the time being with the horse, thing.” He peeked out the door to gauge things. The tray of food was where it was left with the mug on the ground in a small puddle. Beside the tray, at the foot of the bed, Anon could see the unicorn with its back turned from him, singing. “~+Stupid, stupid, stupid!+!” The unicorn hiccuped, wiping its eyes. “~+That was a horrible first impression! Now how are you going to do your job, and the reports, and be friends with it, and…+~” The singing died down as the unicorn tilted its head to the ground. The animated creature confused Anon. Why did it look upset? Just what games was Gleekman playing? ‘Just play along.’ “Unicorn? Hello?” Hearing him speak, the green equine jerked in place. It rubbed its eyes, turning toward him, blinking widely. Anon coughed, “Ehr… I know you can’t understand me. I assume you can’t that is, what with you speaking in bubblegum pop. So－ God I feel silly saying this.” ‘I’m going to strangle Gleekman when I find him!’ “I just hope my intentions come through, mostly through the tone of my voice. The drink spilling on me? I’m not, well, angry at you.” He stood still, watching what the unicorn would do next. Standing up, it wiped its eyes once more before breathing deeply, slowly letting it out. Having alleviated whatever upset it, the unicorn walked to the cart, pushing it toward the bed. Looking at the bed, she stared at Anon, waving a hoof at it, whistling to him. Letting out a sigh he walked to the bed, sitting on the edge of it. The unicorn stared at him, whistling some more, pointing at the food. “Okay, okay. I’ll eat.” He picked up the apple, examining it. It looked bright red with an unnatural shine to it. Hoping Gleekman wasn’t stupid enough to poison him after everything he set up, Anon took a bite. The unicorn tilted her head, watching him chew the piece. He noted it had a very rich, sweet taste. The unicorn seemed interested in what he was eating, letting out cheeps and chirps. Turning back to the food he looked at the things that seemed edible. The fried eggs were enjoyable, seasoned with a spice he wasn’t familiar with. Rich people and their foreign spices. If only he had utensils. Eating with his hands was not pleasant. The sunflower seeds were odd but manageable, and once more seasoned with a strange spice. Seeing a flash of something in the corner of his eyes, Anon quickly turned to the unicorn. There was a barely noticeable glow to the horn that mysteriously vanished out of sight. The horse gave him a smile. He looked at what she was doing, seeing a pad of paper in front of her with a quill and ink bottle, along with something scribbled on the papers. “How are you taking notes?” The unicorn whistled, forcing a large smile. ‘Likely magnets,’ he thought with a shake of his head. The last item looked like hay. The horse waited for him to eat some. Anon had never eaten hay, and he wished he never had. He let out a cough, disgusted, wiping the food off his tongue and back on to the plate. Anon glanced at the unicorn, watching it write down on the paper with its mouth. He blinked. Such an unnatural act, yet it worked. Shaking his head he looked back at the tray. Nodding to itself the unicorn fluidly wrote a final passage before letting out a whistle. She placed the work underneath the tray, getting up, and taking the tray back out of the room. Staring at the door Anon got up to follow, to see if he could get the door open. He came to a halt, staring at the floor. The mess from before had vanished. A chill ran up his spine. “How did she clean up the spill without me noticing?” Walking to the door, he found it once again locked. “Not unexpected,” he spoke, walking back to the bed. He laid down, hands behind his head, staring at the ceiling. “None of this makes sense.” Why would Gleekman kidnap him and force him through all these trials? And why was he using an animated green horse? The more he tried to think about it the more confused he was. Before long his thoughts turned sluggish, his eyes feeling heavy before he drifted off. …A shuffling outside of the door woke him up. He rubbed the sleep out of his eyes as he looked around the room. Not much had changed, other than the light from the window seemed to have moved. A yawn escaped him. He sat up, straightening his clothing to feel more comfortable. Before long, the unicorn walked in, armed with a smile. She took a seat at the entrance, keeping its distance from him. Slowly, it raised a hoof to herself, patting her chest. “~+Lyra!+~” She repeated this process a few times, singing the same thing to him. All Anon could do was stare at her, confused. Was it a greeting? A code? Pouting, her ears twitched as she brought a hoof to her chin in thought. It seemed she had a eureka moment as she pointed to herself, singing once more. She then pointed at Anon, doing nothing. Then herself once more, singing her song. ‘Ah. She’s introducing herself, I think. So let me guess: I’m going to have to learn how to sing to talk.’ He sniffed, looking unamused. So, singing. It would be a difficult act to pull off. He was a terrible singer, simply couldn’t hold a proper tune. His first attempt had the unicorn flinch, ears flattened against her head. Anon, admittedly, found her reaction funny. Clearing his throat he practiced once more, trying to pull off his best serenade. Unfortunately, he was never a man meant for the stage. Every single note was torn apart under his vocal cords. He just could not hold a melody to save his life. How terrible a fate one must have, in need of a tune to speak. It took some time, and a great deal of effort, but he felt he was making some ground. “~+Lee,res. Ly-yy-,ra. Ly,yrie. Ly… Ly-rah. Lyira. Ly-ra. Ly-ra.+~” The unicorn seemed happy at his last attempt, clapping her hooves in delight. It was a butchered existence, his garbled singing. She pointed a hoof at him, then at her mouth. It didn’t take much thought for him to know she wanted his name. He pointed a finger to his mouth, trying to be as calm and clear as possible. “Anon. Anon. A…nooon. Anon.” Her ears twitched, frowning at what he said. He agreed with her expression. Compared to her singing his form of communication sounded like someone was beating their face into the ground. She moved her jaw around, trying to form the words. “Aaaaaccckck—” She coughed, unused to her throat making such forced movements. “Aawiwwnnmuuuunn. Aaahhhhnnnnooooeen.” She continued coughing, straining her chords to perform. “Close enough?” he shrugged with a small smile. The unicorn gave him a wide grin. She continued practicing his name, trying to repeat it without choking on her tongue. Happy with her progress she stood up, exiting the room. It returned immediately with the tray before, only this time it was filled with nothing but apples and eggs piled on it. On the side was a simple glass of water. As previously occurred, she took out her parchment with a quill and ink bottle and stared at him. It was creepy, in his eyes, how it wanted to record him eating. Or at least, how it appeared as such. Looking at the tray, he once again saw no utensils. Was he really going to be forced to eat with his hands again? Grumbling in annoyance he picked up an egg in his hands. He attempted to eat as much of the eggs as he could, taking in apples on the side and drinking all the water. His hunger was apparent as he had eaten almost the entirety of the tray. Finding himself stuffed he pushed the plate away on the tray, hoping it would signal that he had had enough. A purr was heard from the unicorn as it finished up it's writing. Placing its tools on the tray she gave him a wave before leaving the room once more. He was feeling much better after getting something in his stomach. Still feeling exhausted he laid back down on the bed. Anon gave his predicament some thought. The house, from what little information he had, was tied to the unicorn, which had appeared in the forest of red. He frowned. “Am I still in the forest?” Even if he wanted to escape, he’d simply be running around trees, and who knew what was out there for him to stumble upon. More freaks of nature and whatever else could be cooked up for him to encounter. Leaving would be quite a challenge. “Gleekman’s own little Fantasy Island, and I’m it’s sole visitor.” His situation looked dire. Anon hoped for a way to get out, or for someone to find the place and collect him before Gleekman started to ramp things up. Until then, he simply had to go along with whatever Gleekman has planned and stay as proper of a guest for the unicorn. Closing his eyes he could feel himself nodding off to sleep. X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~ ~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X “Do-do-do-do-doooo! Do-do-do-do-doooo. Hmmm-hmm, hmmm-hmm…” Lyra nodded her head to the song, engrossed in her writing. She was writing down an extended account of the observations that had taken place. The morning meal was a bit of a mess, she would make sure not to serve any hot liquids again. Its evening meal was much better, and it told her a good measure of how much it could ingest on a regular basis. The alien looked full so there would be less served to conserve on funds. Her third meeting with the alien was a memorable one for her. A warm, fuzzy feeling spread through her, knowing the alien knew her name. Or at least could say it. Kind of. Its name was difficult to pronounce in its language. Lyra had to slow down a lot of her normal speaking patterns just to say it appropriately, and even then it came out stilted and garbled. It was clear she would not be going anywhere with trying to learn its language, it genuinely hurt her throat. The alien though seemed quite capable of learning how to speak their language. A door could be heard being slammed open, she jumped from the sound. Turning around she could see Bon Bon standing at the front door. Excited, and wanting to share her day, Lyra jumped off her seat to greet her friend. Her steps slowed, noticing Bon Bon was standing on her hind legs with a rather large golf club in her front hooves. “Okay, where’s the monster?!” Bon Bon looked around frantically, taking a few steps in. “Just point me in the direction so we can wrap this up and I can get the local guard to help and—” “Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait!” Lyra held a hoof up in defense. “What’s going on?! What are you doing?!” “I can ask you the same thing Lyra. Bringing another creature into our house, are you mad?” Blinking, Lyra let out a chuckle, realizing where the confusion was coming from. “Bon Bon, there’s no monster here. It’s a real alien!” Her friend glared. “Oh, sure. Right. Just like the time you thought that costumed pony last Nightmare Night was from the ‘Nether’ and you foalnapped her for a week!” “A small mistake!” “Or the time you brought back that naga and all its friends came to the village looking for it!” “I remember that! That was really funny when they were hollering at Mayor Mare. Heh…” “Look, Lyra. I get it. You’ll always be pursuing your dreams. It’s just who you are. But you know the drill: I tolerate your actions and you help me drag the creature back to wherever it came from, hopefully before anything happens.” She walked past the amused unicorn, deciding to head up the stairs toward their rooms. “Now let’s go and get－” Bon Bon squeaked, feeling herself being lifted into the air. A green hue could be seen around her, giving an indication that it was her friend doing the heavy lifting. “Let me down THIS. INSTANT. LYRA!” The unicorn levitated her friend toward her, “Look. Bonnie. I get it. You’re used to me messing up on these kinds of things a lot. It’s just who I am.” Her friend glowered at her, unamused at Lyra’s words. “But this time it’s the real deal! I have proof to show you I’m not making all this up!” Moving her friend with her she walked up to her desk, taking out the scroll from the princesses. “See? I got permission from Princess Celestia to work with it and everything!” Bon Bon stared at Lyra, barely giving the scroll a glance. Lyra rolled her eyes, “Just look at the scroll, Bonnie.” Levitating it to her face Bon Bon, forced to read the scroll, turned to shock, slowly realizing it wasn’t another false alarm she was used to. “So the thing you brought here…” Lyra shook her head up and down. “Yep! It’s a real alien!” “Not something fake, nor costumed up or mistaken identity?” “It’s the genuine deal!” Bon Bon was lowered to the ground. “How did you manage to bring it back here?” “The hooman didn’t seem capable of much when I took it out of the forest.” “It’s a hooman?! But I thought those were just dreams you had!” “Eh, yeah. So did I. Never imagined they could be real. Maybe I’ve actually been dreaming of other worlds this entire time?” “You can’t tell the princesses about your dreams in your reports.” “I know that! They would think I’m some crazy nutter and put me in the stablehouse! No, all my information has to be done by scratch, unfortunately.” The two of them walked over to the couch, taking seats beside one another. “So there’s really an alien in your room right now?” Bon Bon asked. “Yep! It’s very tired for some reason, probably from how it got here in the first place. Not exactly sure how just yet, didn’t see any kind of transport vehicle or runes.” “An accidental teleport?” “That’s what I’m thinking,” Lyra agreed. “I’m not getting a sense that it knows much about magic. So I’m thinking something or someone mistakenly pulled it from somewhere and dumped it out in the forest.” “We can always ask it once the hooman wakes up.” The unicorn shook her head, “The hooman can’t understand us, nor can I understand it. Our language is too incompatible at the moment, though I hope to teach it ours. Its language hurts to speak.” Bon Bon frowned, staring at her friend. “I remember what you told me about your dreams, you heard them speak about their ways and who they are. How did you understand them there but not now?” “I－” Lyra paused. “I’m not entirely sure. Maybe the dreams just allowed me to hear things from their perspective?” “I guess that makes sense…” “I’ll learn their language in time. At the moment I’ll teach it ours so it can communicate with more than just me. I’ll be getting basic data from it for my reports to the princess. I bet I could even get you assigned as my personal assistant. She did mention the possibility of bits to help with things should they be needed.” “Do you really think they’d pay you for this work? I can’t exactly take time off from my job to help without knowing we’ll be financially fine.” “They’ll totally be fine with it! Every awesome project, led by an equally awesome mare, needs an awesome assistant. Sadly for me, I couldn’t find any awesome assistants but you’ll surely do for the time being!” Bon Bon playfully shoved Lyra, forcing a chuckle out. “It would be nice to take a break from making and selling candy. Never did care for doing it during the fall.” She let out a grunt, feeling her friend hugging her. “This’ll be so much fun! The two of us, working on a new frontier no one else has ever done before! Just make sure to listen to my very professional words as I AM the leading expert on aliens around these parts.” Bon Bon laughed, just as a growl came from her stomach. Looking at the table in front of her she took an apple slice from a plate conveniently placed there. ‘Should I tell her the alien was eating from that?’ Lyra watched her friend enjoying the apple slice without much thought. ‘Maybe I’ll keep that to myself.’ “So,” Bon Bon started, having finished her third apple slice, “can I see it?” Lyra blinked. “Um… sure? I don’t see why not. It’s probably sleeping though so be very quiet.” The two mares silently made their way up the stairs. Lighting up her horn, Lyra unlocked the door, cracking it open for them to slowly make their way in. It was semi-dark, making it hard to see much of the place. In the far end toward the middle of the room was Lyra’s bed with the hooman napping. Walking up to it Bon Bon stood toward its head, staring at the face. “It’s so… ponylike.” “It was weird for me too, at first.” The two of them stared at the alien, its chest slowly rising and falling with each breath. Lyra nudged her friend, motioning her head to the door. She got the gist, following her friend back outside. Locking it up once more the two of them returned to the couch downstairs. There, Lyra gave a quick explanation of what was needed from her friend should she decide to help as an assistant. “And at the end of every week, I’ll send a report to Princess Celestia. You’ve seen me do this with my normal work so you know what that’s about. I should get a reply from her soon after she works over what I sent her.” “This doesn’t seem so difficult from what I initially thought. You’ll likely need help teaching it our language though.” Bon Bon patted her chin in thought. “Maybe if we talk to Twilight－” “NO!” Lyra hollered out. “We are NOT letting that crazy mare here! I still remember some of the things she’s done with her magic learning and experiments.” “I don’t think she’s that bad.” Lyra narrowed her eyes. “There have been numerous accounts of her doing odd things with her magic. Remember the time she turned that tree sentient? All it would do was yell about its praise to the sun, whacking any pony that came near while throwing apples all over the place.” “Applejack did have a hard time for a few weeks with that. Never had a tree buck her back before like that.” Bon Bon cleared her throat. “Okay, Twilight probably isn’t a good idea from past experience.” “We’ll work with the alien for the time being by ourselves, learning from it and teaching what we can. Then, when needed, we can find help as we hit roadblocks.” “What exactly is the point to all of this? What are we leading to?” The unicorn gave her friend a confused look. “We’re going to try and bring it out into our society.” “Why?” “It’s a showing! We do this, it’ll show we ponies can truly adapt to just about anything! We can help assimilate others into our culture with just a little work on our end. And who likes the idea of merely holding the alien away in a cage? What if for some reason it has a purpose for coming here? Or perhaps it’s lost and scared? We shouldn’t treat it like some wild animal in a cage.” “Fine, alright. I get your point.” “I’ll be trying to talk with it some more tomorrow, see what its limits to our language are. I’m hoping you’ll be there to introduce yourself.” “That might not be possible Lyra, I’ll need to tell certain pony’s I’ll be taking time off from my business. I will be back as soon as I can afterward.” Bon Bon stopped, yawning as she stood up from her seat. “Right now I think I need to get some sleep, I want to get an early start in the morning to get this all done as soon as possible. I’ll hopefully see you sometime in the afternoon.” “Enjoy your night!” Lyra said, watching her friend walk to her room. Cleaning up her workspace Lyra sat down at her desk, continuing her current project dealing with the alien and what she had done so far that day. It was another two hours before she eventually finished her work, finding her focus starting to wane. Rubbing her eyes she placed her quill down and got up from her seat. Turning the lights off she settled into her couch, letting out a yawn as she drifted off to sleep, plans on the alien being the last thoughts on her mind. ~ End Chapter Two ~