The rest of the ride I spent watching the world go by out of the carriage's front window. Not that there was much to see. First, it was very dark. Normally this would not be a problem for me, but the carriage had two bright lights shining in front of it that kept my night vision from activating. Second, the only windows were in the front of the carriage, severely limiting my range of vision. Lastly, we spent almost the entirety of the ride on a large paved road with walls running along the sides. Why the walls were there I had not the foggiest idea. Nor was I sure of why the road was so wide or why a second, just as wide road, ran alongside it.
We soon turned off onto a smaller road that was still much too wide for the carriage. This road had brick and concrete buildings placed along it every so often. I should state that these were not small buildings, though they had only one story, each contained multiple of what I could only assume were stores. After two of these, I decided to look at the next one from the side to determine how deep they were, but instead a black iron fence took up the side of the road.
“Here we are, government facility, sweet government facility,” Rusty Bell muttered as we turned onto a road that lead through the fencing. I had found the need to lean into the turns to keep from being knocked over. I still didn’t have it quite right though, so my wings flared out trying to catch the air and my face gracefully met the seat to my right. I heard Thomas Franklin snicker at my inability to remain upright when gravity teamed up with inertia to pull me in a way that was not straight down. It made me feel better about my blunder to feel that Quick Wit had once again found her face pressed into my side. Thankfully she had managed to turn her head so as not to spear me with her horn.
I looked out the front window again. In front of us were several more brick buildings, roads, some grass, and paved walkways in the areas in between. We followed a road around the cluster of buildings and found ourselves in an illuminated paved field with a bizarre pattern of white lines covering it. A few other carriages were scattered around the field, most of them being at the far end in front of a massive glass structure. The building looked extremely out of place, it was as if somepony had taken one of the skyscrapers from Manehattan and placed it in the middle of nowhere.
That’s when I realized that this facility was missing one very important thing.
“Where are all the guards?” I asked.
“Inside,” Jonathan Smith explained, “Everyone knows that outsourced government work is done here, and having armed guards patrolling would make it look like it had something worth guarding. So we use the cover of a known facility to hide a secret facility. No one suspects it.”
“Mainly because it’s so stupid,” Jessica Miller pointed out.
“Yes, but it works,” Jonathan Smith shrugged, “Anyway, we’ll be entering using the loading dock around back. Then we’ll show your your lodgings.”
We walked down a beige, sterile hallway lined with doors labeled in their strange alphabet. Jonathan Smith quickly turned us into a corridor away from the windows. If it was not for the fact that we were walking with aliens while stranded on another planet, it would have been the dullest walk of my life.
“Our wing is just up ahead,” Jonathan Smith explained, “It’s mostly offices, but we also have a lounge and some holding cel-. I mean bedrooms! Bedrooms that we sometimes take naps in… But only on the slow days!”
“So everyday is a slow day?” Thomas Franklin asked with a smirk.
“Hush you. We’ll keep out of the ones you all are using though,” promised Jonathan Smith, “So do you all want the girls in one room and they guys another?”
“Oh, no! I wouldn’t dream of forcing a princess to room with me. I can... room with the guys,” Quick Wit reluctantly offered, her enthusiasm quickly tapering off. Actually she could dream of such, and she had on at least two occasions. Both were with Twilight Sparkle. Now I know what you’re thinking, and no; both times they pulled all nighters researching and studying.
“Err… we do have six rooms. You all can each get a room to yourself,” Jessica Miller noted.
“Oh thank Celestia,” Quick Wit sighed. I glared disapprovingly at her, but otherwise ignored her inappropriate use of my sister’s name. Now was not a good time to go into the problems with that statement.
“Here we are, the Project Gardener wing. Now for everyone’s safety, we’re going to have to ask that you remain inside of these doors,” Jonathan Smith explained, swiping a card through a slot in the wall. The double doors taking up the end of the hallway swung open, revealing a hallway exactly like the one we were already in. Another set of doors was at the end of this hallway, and Jonathan Smith once again swiped a card to get the doors to open. That’s when I realized that something was wrong, though I couldn’t yet place my hoof on it.
Inside these doors was a lounge looking room. The side walls were mostly lined with desks separated from each other by fuzzy walls. These desks reminded me much of the one I saw in Jonathan Smith’s dream. A flat box upright against the wall, a studded board and a curvy rock-like thing before it. All black of course. Though four of the desks had different things hanging to the fuzzy walls; pictures, what I assumed to be calenders, and sheets of paper with their writing on it.
The middle of the room was outfitted with a couch and some chairs forming a semicircle around a, surprise, surprise, black box hanging on the wall. Everything being colored black was one thing, but none of these boxes had any visible use! They were too thin to contain anything substantial. A picture maybe, but why keep a picture covered? Especially if it is the focal point of the room! There were no buttons or switches on most of these useless things. Why in Equestria did humans have so many of them?
“It’s a nice TV isn’t it?” Thomas Franklin asked. He had noticed me staring at this teavee box. luckily my hatred and confusion about the object were easily masked by years of practice during diplomatic relations.
“Yes, it is very… Black,” I stated.
“It’s big,” Hard Stuff noted with a slight nod.
“I really like its… ability to hang on a wall?” Double Take just barely kept himself from sounding totally confused, and instead sounded only mostly confused.
Quick Wit, was not afraid to ask what the rest of us were thinking though, “Annnd what does it do exactly?”
The humans all looked at each other, Quick Wit, and then the teavee.
“We need to show them Men In Black,” Jonathan Smith declared in a tone that was a mix of excitement and anger.
“How about no,” Jessica Miller responded with fake cheer.
“E.T. then,” Jonathan Smith’s conviction about showing us this device’s use was very clear.
“Let’s not forever ruin human-alien relations with a possibly offensive move,” Jessica Miller stated.
“I’m going to have to go with Jess on this,” Thomas Franklin cut in, “I don’t think showing them any of the movies we have is a good idea. At least not until they have a firm grasp of our actual culture.”
Jonathan Smith didn’t seem upset by this, in fact he looked even more excited.
“So we can show them later?” He grinned. I did not like how he grinned.
“Just go do your paperwork while we get them settled,” Jessica Miller sighed, pushing Jonathan Smith to one of the desks.
“While Jessica distracts him, we’ll show you to your rooms,” Rusty Bell gestured with an arm towards the hallway on the left of the room. As I followed our host, I briefly wondered where the hallway on the right went, but I assumed I would find out later. Like the doors to the foyer, the doors to our rooms also locked from the outside. What had necessitated this building being constructed like a prison? I hopped there was some unknown aspect of their culture that explained it, but in the front of my head I worried that we really were their prisoners.
I made my way to the second room on the left. The inside was spacious but plain. Besides the bed, there was a large mirror that took up most of one of the walls. That was it, a bed and a mirror. It was far from what I was used to, but it wouldn’t hurt me to have to do without some of the finer things in life.
“This bed is huge!” Double Take yelled from the next room over. I looked back at the bed and realized that, while my bed back home was a little wider and shorter, for most ponies this bed would be twice to three times the size they needed. Sometimes I forget how spoiled I am.
I walked back into the hallway and saw Jonathan Smith talking with another human. I recognised this human though. It was the human from his dream the day before. Jonathan Smith was clearly nodding and fidgeting more during his conversation with this human. Despite this his eyes remained firmly locked on the black sunglasses this other human wore… inside… at night. I started to doubt that I would ever understand human culture.
One instance of Cadance’s breathing exercise later, I walked out for an introduction. The human from the dream nodded once more to Jonathan Smith before turning to me. Jonathan Smith turned to see what had captured his partners attention and noticed me. He tensed up for a moment, before sliding forward so that he was between the two of us without blocking our view of each other.
Jonathan Smith pointed towards me with his hand and began the introduction.“Sir, this is Princess Luna, the leader of the aliens that crashed here,” Jonathan Smith then turned to me, pointing to the human from his dream, “Princess Luna, this is my boss, Director Cainn Males.”
“It is a pleasure to meet you Mr. Cainn Males,” I gave a slight bow.
“It’s Males or Director,” Cainn Males instructed, “please.”
His cold nature did not particularly bother me, there were plenty of rulers that displayed such an attitude. Celestia would recommend showing a compassionate side to try to warm them up. “We appreciate your hospitality and help with the repairs,” I stated.
“Yes, well we all are very interested in seeing this ship of yours when it is delivered,” Cainn Males responded.
I of course prefered to meet them on even footing. “Agreed. The sooner our platform is delivered safely back to our hooves the better for everyone involved.”
“So long as the sun remains in orbit, your platform will be returned,” Cainn Males promised. I thought that a strange turn of phrase, but who was I to question odd sayings?
“I am starving!” I turned to look at a complaining Double Take as he exited his room, “Whatever that farm was growing was nowhere near ripe.”
Of all the times for such a comment, this was the worst. I turned back to Cainn Males to explain that we would happily repay the farmer for the food only to find him gone.
“How… did he just teleport?” I asked looking around. He wasn’t at any of the desks. None of the doors had opened. How did I not feel him teleport out?
“He might as well have,” Jessica Miller shrugged and sighed, “As for how, he won’t tell us.”
“Hey! He has told us,” interrupted Thomas Franklin.
“Yeah. ‘Magic’... right. Why can’t he just say ‘it’s classified’ like everyone else?” Jessica sighed, before sitting down at one of the desks and muttering to herself.
“Hey! So who wants food?” Jonathan Smith grinned just a bit too wide, “We have lots of fine Earth cuisine right in our kitchen!”
Apparently the hallway across from the rooms was a kitchen. Jonathan Smith lead us there as I continued to ponder how Cainn Males could teleport without me noticing it. The kitchen was a small plain room. White walls, white cabinets, and a countertop that was white under all the stains. Two tables were pushed together to make a table that could comfortably sit eight. A fancy stove combined with an oven that I assumed worked off electricity was set into the counter as well as another mechanical marvel that I was unable to identify.
“Umm… I probably should have asked this earlier, but what kind of stuff do you guys eat?” Jonathan Smith stole a glance at a large white box that I recognised as a refrigerator.
“Fruits, vegetables, and grains mostly. Anything like that will do,” I stated.
“Alrighty then,” Jonathan Smith maneuvered around the front of the refrigerator, reaching to open it, but never actually pulling on the door, “Um… You guys may want to look away while I get your food out.”
My companions looked puzzled. I, however, had seen the teeth on the humans when they smiled. Quite honestly I was a little surprised they had anything that we would eat readily available.
“Why?” Hard Stuff asked. Sometimes I wondered if that stallion had any socal grace whatsoever.
Jonathan had to stop to think that through. Why couldn’t he show the most likely herbivorous aliens meat? For starters there was the potential for them to freak out. He did not want to have to explain to Director Males why there were four aliens running rampant through the facility. Second was trust. Jonathan knew he wouldn’t trust anything that could eat him, weather it said it would help him or not. The last reason actually had nothing to do with dead animal flesh. Jonathan wasn’t sure if they had gotten around to throwing out those moldy strawberries yet.
“Well…” Jonathan paused, “We are aliens… our foods may not look terribly appetizing…”
“Aren’t we going to need to get used to it though?” Quick… Smart? No. Quick Wit inquired.
As Jonathan tried to figure out how to tactfully explain that there was meat in the refrigerator, the Princess spoke up.
“We are guests on this planet, if their customs dictate that we do not look at their stored foods, than we shall not,” Princess Luna declared.
Though there was no audible grumbling, Jonathan could tell that the aliens were not thrilled to have to follow that command from their ruler. But he silently gave thanks that they were still listening to her as he double checked that they were all still turned around and looking away. Now it was just a matter of deciding between apples and carrots. With a shrug Jonathan just grabbed a bag of both. Jonathan figured that horses ate them so ponies probably could too. He just hoped the look of the food didn’t put his guests off of it before they tried it.
Turning back around Jonathan closed the door to the fridge and upon hearing the resulting thwump the four creatures turned towards him, worry clearly visible on the unicorn’s face. Until she saw what he was holding anyway.
“Oh, thank the sun you guys have apples too,” she sighed.
From the other room Jonathan hear Russ call out something that he was sure would become annoying within two days, “Third Party Aliens!”