Princess Luna trotted towards her sister, who was sitting on her throne and going through some papers with her secretary, while letting her eyes wander from one floral-patterned pillar to another as she passed by them.
“Sister, have you seen Twilight?”
Celestia threw Luna a single, bored glance before returning to the paper she was holding with her magic.
”She said she'd be taking the evening train to the Crystal Empire.”
Her voice was dull and lacked energy, as it always did whenever she'd had a difficult day.
“And why would she be going there when the duty you have assigned to her is in here?”
Glancing at Luna again, she lifted the paper so it covered her muzzle, no doubt to hide a mischievous smile. Luna wasn't certain what she got out of making her former protege do things the hard way, but she'd known her sister long enough to be sure that she was going to keep doing it.
“You did not think of telling her that, perhaps, the captive needs to eat more than a single bowl of fruit a day? He's at least twice the size of an average pony!”
Celestia let the paper drop somewhat, revealing a neutral face. Luna noticed a slight twinkle in the corner of her eye, though.
”You wound me, sister. I did not know you thought of me as so heartless.”
She glared at her sister, not in the mood for silly games.
“So you have considered the detail. Good.”
Preparing to leave, she rolled her eyes which, to her annoyance, made Celestia smile and giggle quietly.
”Since you seem so worried about our guest, why not take care of the issue yourself?”
Ignoring her sister, Luna turned around and trotted out of the throne room to do as she had suggested. But only because that had been her intention from the beginning.
She'd confirmed that the alien had eaten the fruit by looking through the peephole that Twilight had made before going to the kitchen to prepare another bowl. She'd even found the guard who'd taken the bowl into the room and asked which fruit it'd had in it to include some variety. Twilight had also had the plumbings of the guestroom changed to “acquire a stool sample”, as she'd put it herself, but that was something she'd have to handle herself. If her theory about the alien being an omnivore was correct, and Luna had no reason to doubt it wasn't, he'd need something more than just fruit to stay healthy. But for now, fruit would have to suffice.
Piling as many kinds of fruit into the bowl as she could, Luna's mind returned to the conversation she'd had with the guard. Silver Spear, a gray unicorn in the standard gilded armor of her sister's guard, had told her about Anonymous' peculiar reaction to ponies.
A gray unicorn in gilded armor.
She shook her head to banish the foreboding thoughts. Now was not the time to be pondering half-remembered ominous dreams.
Luna knocked on the alien's door out of courtesy, neither expected nor received an answer before pushing it open with a hoof. He was lying on his bed but stood up the moment he saw her.
Tall.
That was her first thought of him. And he was. Considerably taller than she was, slightly exceeding even her sister's height if not for her horn. He stared at her with his oddly small eyes. It made her feel uneasy, as if she was doing something she wasn't supposed to.
“Greetings! I have come to bring you something to eat.”
She knew he couldn't understand her, but hoped that hearing her voice would make him feel at ease. He responded by saying a short, indecipherable line. His speech did not remind Luna of any of the numerous languages she'd ever heard. It was truly otherworldly. But hearing it gave her an idea. If such a thing was within her power, she could visit his dream. Sometimes, instead of speaking, ponies would wordlessly transfer their thoughts to her when she visited their dreams.
Luna moved into the room slowly, pausing after each step. She was pondering whether what she thought of would be possible when she noticed that the alien's eyes were fixed on her horn. His head turned slowly to follow her movement, his eyes completely still from her point of view. The intensity of his stare sent a shiver down her spine. He was still standing next to his bed, not having moved from the spot, when she placed the full bowl she'd brought with her next to the one that Silver Spear had brought a few hours earlier. The other bowl only had a few apple cores, banana peels and some other remnants in it.
Done with her task, Luna turned to face him and met his stare with her own. For a split-second, their eyes met. His forward-facing eyes, made to track whatever they were fixed on, bored into hers. A rush of adrenaline filled her veins.
To her relief, he immediately averted his eyes and looked at her mane. Something about his eyes changed, accompanied by some subtle movement of the various features of his face, but she could not interpret his expression. Luna decided to put her prejudices to the test.
Moving one hoof at a time, doing her best to appear nonthreatening, she slowly crept closer. His eyes moved back to her horn, then to her eyes and down to her shod hooves. Still inching closer, Luna studied his face and its alien features. His brow furrowed as he shifted his gaze from her hooves to the emblem she wore on her chest and then to her crown. She saw him part his lips slightly, heard him draw breath, even noticed the movement of his tongue inside his mouth. But he said nothing, only held his breath for a second before letting it out and closing his mouth.
The alien did not react to her inching closer to him before her muzzle was within the reach of his arms. That was when he lifted one hand to his chest and, after a second of consideration, stuck it out towards her. Luna stopped and instinctively drew her head away from the hand. She looked at him, puzzled as the alien nodded and wiggled the fingers of his outstretched hand. He clearly wanted her to do something with the hand, but what? She wished to talk to him, her mind brimming with questions to ask, but the language barrier voided any such wishes. Instead, she perked up her ears and tilted her head slightly to the side. He responded by tensing his cheek muscles, causing the corners of his mouth to move upwards somewhat.
A smile, in other words.
Glad that they had found at least some common ground, Luna responded to his smile with her own.
“I hope your dreams are not as difficult to read as your face, newcomer.”
She felt like she was taking a great risk when she slowly moved her head and gently bumped one of the alien's fingers with her muzzle. The risk turned out to be nonexistent as the alien slowly curled all but one of his fingers into a fist and used the remaining one to stroke the fur on top of her snout. Luna was amazed at how gentle his touch was: his finger moved on top of her fur without causing it to press against her skin.
Her mind was conflicted when she left the room a minute later.