//------------------------------// // Alien // Story: In Which SPark Attempts to be Slightly Less Verbose. // by SPark //------------------------------// Dear Princess Celestia, I am writing you under rather unusual circumstances. Well, since I no longer send weekly friendship reports, that is probably kind of obvious. But in any case, I am writing to inform you of a strange being I have encountered. I worry that it may be dangerous, so I felt I should inform you immediately. This all began when something woke me in the middle of the night... *** Twilight Sparkle started awake. She had the impression that some kind of loud noise had woken her. She rose and opened a window. Outside several dogs were barking, as if the noise had disturbed them too. Point one in favor of that theory, she thought to herself. Her horn also tingled, as if some very strong spell had just been cast, not far away. This called for an investigation. Spike was still sleeping soundly in his basket, so Twilight didn't wake him. Instead she descended the stairs and went out into the night alone. She followed the tingling in her horn, which led her away from town, towards the Everfree forest. As she passed by Fluttershy's cottage she saw that a light was on. A glimpse of a teal eye, framed in yellow and pink, peeking out one window told her that Fluttershy was awake. Twilight remembered the last time she'd gone alone into the Everfree after dark, and decided that having Fluttershy along might be a good idea. She tapped gently at Fluttershy's door. It swung open slowly. "Uhm. Hi, Twilight." "Did you hear some kind of loud noise just a bit ago?" Fluttershy nodded. "I was up feeding an orphaned kitten, they need food every few hours at that age, you know. There was a bang, almost like a sonic rainboom, but I know it couldn't have been one, there was no rainbow." "There's residual magic coming from somewhere in the Everfree forest. Some kind of very powerful spell was involved. I was going to investigate. I'd like you to come with me." "Oh. Uhm. Into the forest? At night?" Fluttershy tried to hide behind her hair. "You've gone into the forest at night before," said Twilight, trying very hard to not be irritated at Fluttershy's timidity. "And I'd really rather not investigate this alone. What if I encounter a cockatrice? Being turned into stone isn't any fun at all, I'll have you know. I'd rather not do that again." "Oh." Fluttershy hesitated, then gave a tiny nod. "All right, I'll come." *** The two mares moved cautiously through the woods. All around them the night was silent. Far too silent. There should have been sounds as nocturnal animals went about their nighttime lives, but there were none. Twilight hoped that they had merely been frightened by the loud noise, and that there wasn't some more sinister reason for the animal life of the forest to have gone silent. It was downright creepy. Twilight continued to follow the tingling of powerful magic. It was slowly fading, but she was drawing closer to the source all the time, so there was just enough to continue to lead her on through the eerily silent night. Fluttershy stuck so close to her that she kept bumping into Twilight's flank. Which Twilight didn't exactly mind, but it was very distracting. Fluttershy was so cute, and pretty too, and having her nose constantly colliding with Twilight was not at all unpleasant, but Twilight was trying to solve a mystery here! She took a deep breath, cooling the blush that had spread over her cheeks at the last collision, and continued on. At last they came to the source of the noise. The first sign of something different was the way the trees were bent over, some of them shattered, others fallen, some merely leaning, all facing away from the center of what was now a small clearing, though formerly it had obviously been the heart of a grove of healthy young trees. In the center of the clearing was a crater. It steamed gently in the cool night air, and a glow of fading magic came from it. Twilight approached slowly. Fluttershy came with, though she kept Twilight between her and the glowing crater. Twilight reached the edge of the crater and peered inside. There was a creature at the bottom. It lay awkwardly sprawled, its eyes closed. She could see its chest rise and fall though, so it was still alive. It was a very strange creature. Lying flat as it was, Twilight couldn't be certain, but she thought it would probably be bipedal when it stood. It had its limbs arranged a bit like those of a diamond dog or teenage dragon, though its proportions were much different from either. Its legs were longer, and its arms shorter, for one thing. It certainly wouldn't be able to go on all fours comfortably. Its face was smooth and hairless, but its head bore with a tangled mane of long, dark hair. Whether its body was hairless or not Twilight couldn't say, because it was covered completely in clothing, including boots on its feet. It had a belt that held several mysterious objects, which were presumably tools of some kind. Its hands were uncovered, showing it had no claws, nor did it have any protruding fangs. Its large, high forehead suggested it might be intelligent. So did the fact that it was wearing clothing and carrying tools. There was a splash of what was presumably blood on its forehead, possibly from falling and hitting its head. "Oh dear!" said Fluttershy, peering around Twilight. "It's hurt!" The magical glow had been fading all the while, and now it vanished entirely, leaving no sign of its presence except for the downed trees, the crater itself, and the creature lying in it. Twilight ventured down the crater's wall, standing at the creature's side. Up close it was clear at the thing was fairly large, it would tower over Twilight when standing. "We should take it back to my cottage so I can take care of it," said Fluttershy. "The poor thing." Twilight nodded. "I've never seen anything like it before though. It could be dangerous. I want to write to Celestia about it, which means I'll need Spike. And I don't want to leave you alone with it to go send a letter. Why don't we take it back to the library? I can teleport us all that far, I think." She carefully picked up the alien creature in her magic, taking care to keep it fully supported, so that she wouldn't injure it further if it had any fractures or other hidden injuries. "Okay." Fluttershy nodded agreement. The corona around Twilight's horn grew brighter and with a bang the trio, unicorn, pegasus, and unknown alien, disappeared from the forest and reappeared in the center of the library's main room. Fluttershy let out a surprised little squeak as they arrived. Twilight wasted no time floating the alien up and setting it down gently on her spare bed. Fluttershy followed, looking equally scared of the creature and for it. Soon she had gotten out Twilight's first aid kit and was tending the alien's wound. It proved to be fairly shallow, but with the creature still out cold it was impossible to be sure that there wasn't further trauma to its brain. Presuming it had a brain. It probably did, but one never knew, with aliens. Meanwhile Twilight wrote her letter, describing the creature and asking Princess Celestia for advice. She woke Spike to send it just as Fluttershy finished bandaging the alien. "It's so strange," said Fluttershy as she packed the first aid kit up again. "I've never seen anything with blood this color before. It's so... pink." Just then the alien stirred. It opened small, dark eyes and looked around. It raised one hand to its forehead, touching the ridges there, and the bandage that went over them. Then it turned to look at the two ponies, who were staring at it with wide eyes, and said, "Nuq ghe''or?"