The dimly lit streets of Ponyville were quiet that evening. A single green unicorn, barely visible from the moonlight, trotted away with a click of her hooves against the cobbled streets. She intentionally stayed away from any lampposts, lest anyone spot her in some form. It was imperative she remained hidden until she could ascertain just what happened out in the forest.
It took little effort making her way out of the town, standing on the edge of the trees that was the Everfree Forest. She took a step forward, then returned it. A chill ran down her spine. No matter how many times she came out, the place spooked her.
A noise came from the darkness, raising the hairs on her back. She couldn’t identify it, as was typical. Perhaps a manticore, or a cockatrice. Something about the forest messed with the magic in their world.
“I hate this place.”
As was routine, Lyra lit up her horn with a flash; another flash of her horn turned it a deep red, easing her eyes in the darkness. It took no more than a few steps to find herself enclosed by the darkness. She was familiar with most of the forest, in a manner of speaking.
The place clearly had a mind of its own, Lyra had worked out long ago. Trees moved, bushes shifted, the ground would rise or lower: it was clearly trying to keep visitors from moving too deeply into the place. Most would be lost soon after entering. Lyra knew how to navigate through such places, having delved into magical workings of the forest often enough.
A noise hooted out of a bush, Lyra jumping from the suddenness of it. ‘Just remember, it’s mostly mundane animals that live here. Magical beings are likely asleep by now.’
‘We can only hope for such things,’ a familiar selfness spoke out.
‘Oh don’t you start up.’ Lyra jumped over a log, looking around for any more debris on the ground. ‘Why not keep things on the positive side?’
‘Like if this is actually an alien?’
‘Exactly! I know it’s probably not one, but what if it is this time? Just think of what that would change!’
‘No one would claim of you being mad anymore.’ Laughter echoed in her head at the self-made joke.
“Oh ha-ha,” she spoke aloud, the red light of her horn helping guide her from a line of vines that would have easily ensnared her.
‘Do you wonder about how the alien would think of this place?’
Lyra rolled her eyes. ‘Of course, I do, you would know that.’
‘How does the sun move for them? How many senses do they have? How would magic work on their world?’
The unicorn listened to the voice ramble on, used to such things. It allowed her to focus on it rather than the terrible place she was delving through.
‘What would an alien even think of coming to a new environment, like ours? Would it be too strange? Would it even know what a tree was?’
That gave the pony a pause. ‘How could it not know what a tree is? That’s one of the fundamental things to a living planet, having a breathable source available.’
‘And who are we to think that it doesn’t have something in place of trees? Or that it even needs to breathe?’
The strange question easily distracted the unicorn from the rock directly in her path. She found her face down in the dirt, her horn flickering out. A cough escaped her as she cursed the forest. Dusting herself off from the embarrassing blunder she relit her horn.
No sooner did a roar sound out, this one being close; Lyra quickly shut her spell off. A flash and she found herself high up on a branch.
It didn’t take long for a creature to walk out of the bushes. It was her luck she came across a manticore, an amalgamation of a lion, scorpion, and some other creature she couldn’t seem to remember.
‘Think it’s a bat? Though sources like to claim dragon, to make it seem more dangerous than it really is.’
Lyra would agree on those sources. The thing unnerved her a great deal. It was, lacking a better descriptor, unnatural. Just another creature that no one knew how it came to be, but it is.
‘Didn’t you use that repellent spray on the way here?’
‘I did! Why isn’t it working?! Oooh, there’s a certain merchant that’s going to have a talking to when I get back that’s for certain!’
‘If you make it back.’
‘Oh don’t start with this.’
‘It’s not my fault you’re feeling such things! I swear!’
Ignoring the voice Lyra watched the manticore sniffing around the tree, likely trying to find what used to be there. It was pure luck it hadn’t tried to look up. The thing had wings and it would make escaping it difficult.
The voice started to laugh. ‘And would you look at that. It was sniffing for a place to sleep!’
Indeed the beast was currently at the bottom of her tree, circled on itself like a cat, sleeping with a loud growl of a snore.
“You’ve got to be kidding me,” she spoke quietly.
Lyra was in a peculiar state. If she tried using magic to leave, the thing would know immediately. And she couldn’t just crawl down or jump to a different tree, the noise from the activity would simply wake it up.
‘You’re not really going to be scared of a simple little manticore are you?’
‘I have the strangest definition for little.’
‘Please. You’ve seen much worse. I mean come on, you can’t let something like this stop you. You’re Lyra, the alien investigator! Lyra, the extraterrestrial master! Foreign beings and entities beware, you better watch out for that mare! Clearly that manticore doesn’t realize it’s messing with someone as awesome as you!’
Lyra felt pumped from the internal cheerleader. ‘Yeah, you’re right!’
‘And you know just what can solve this situation!’
‘Of course, I do!’
Carefully taking off her pack she searched through its many pockets before uncovering a favored toy of hers: a sound cracker. A prankster’s delight, they were very good at scaring the ever-loving wits out of others. Simply record what you want and it would replay it in different settings. Lyra’s was a special sound cracker. She had managed to get a dragon’s roar.
A cackle filled Lyra’s head as she slowly twirled the sound cracker into the settings she wanted. ‘Running a day and a half from that thing almost seemed worth it!’
‘...Almost.’
Levitating it in position, she dropped the cracker directly beside its head. A loud, piercing screech of a dragon on the hunt reverberated around the area. It was instantaneous, the manticore shooting up into the air to look for the threat. Not seeing anything the creature ran off, not wanting to stick around where the sound came from.
Moments later a hoard of creatures ran into the area, shrieking and hollering as they ran past the tree to get away from the area. It took some time for the place to finally clear out. Lyra sat for some time, wanting to be certain nothing else would run into the area. Feeling safe enough she teleported herself down to the ground. Picking up her cracker she placed it in her pack before heading back off, feeling more courageous than before.
Lyra was left to herself for some time, the voice going quiet. It allowed her to focus more on the encounter. Regardless of if it was an alien or something from her world, it was going to need medical attention. She doubted it was dead, anything with that kind of spell power to teleport would have massive magical defenses not even counting its natural ones. But the longer it was left alone, the more likely something else would come across it.
The smell of freshly turned dirt filled the pony’s nose. Typically nothing to take notice of. The small hints of burnt wood gave way to something important. She slowly made her way forward, steeling herself for what she’d find.
A small clearing met her, filled with destruction and magical essence littering the air. Trees were blown away in a circular pattern, where a crater was entrenched in the ground. Clearly, she had found her crash site.
Digging through her pack with her magic Lyra levitated out a camera. Flashes of light flickered out with each snap, evidence of the impact collected for safekeeping. Everything needed to be documented regarding the situation.
Taking a shot of the impact site the unicorn scrunched up her brow. The camera lowered as she examined the area closer. It was missing something very important, she had realized: its inhabitants. Dirt trailed away from where she was standing, with grass being flattened from a heavy weight the further it went out.
Her camera flashed, taking images as she followed the trail leading her to wherever it ended. Whoever it was didn’t seem to have the strength to walk. Worry filled her from the seriousness of the situation.
The trees started to thicken once more, following away from the disaster zone. She could see they took as straight a path as possible.
Only a little further ahead, past a few more trees, and she found the being, resting with its back up against the tree. It did certainly look like it had been run through the wringer. The unicorn blinked, looking at the being.
Ah, and it was clearly not a pony she had noted. Nor a minotaur. Nope. None of those. Nada. She was looking at an alien. Yep.
It took the unicorn a moment to process what she was seeing, her eyes widening. This wasn’t something Lyra was imagining. She was in front of something clearly not in her catalogs. No, this was an actual alien.
“Eeeeehhhh!” She squealed, unable to control herself. Slapping a hoof to her mouth, she looked at it. The alien didn’t appear to have noticed her.
Heavy breaths worked their way out of the shocked mare. ‘Okay Lyra,’ the voice spoke up, ‘just remember your breathing exercises. Take calm, steady breathes. Breath in…’
“Haaaaaa.”
‘And out.’
“Ooohhh.”
It took a few turns before she felt more in control of the situation.
‘It’s a hooman.’ Lyra walked closer to it. ‘A real one. I can’t believe my dreams were real all along! Bonnie is going to be so surprised when I come back with it!’
First things first, she had a job to do. Levitating her camera out she switched the flash off, not wanting the sharp light to stir the alien. Her horn flared out, forming from it a ball of light, dimly lighting the area in a low red glow. It flew up to the middle of the area, giving some low light to work with.
She proceeded to take as many shots as she could at different angles, from the area around it to the tree it was leaning on. Satisfied with the pictures she placed her camera beside her bag, set up on a timer to collect more images so she could closely examine the creature.
Upon first glance, one could see similarities to a minotaur, the closest thing resembling the being in front of her. Examining the body, she could see the surface skin had a soft appearance, with its pores showing should one look hard enough. Not a lot of hair to cover its body, it seemed, with the most dominant traces of that being on top of its head.
‘So it probably needs the clothing to keep warm and as a small form of protection, most likely. Fascinating.’
The legs and arms were, as she had first noticed, nearly identical in length to one another. The torso itself was quite bulky, yet almost geometrical to a rectangle. She’d clearly have to study it more to really understand what she was seeing.
Even the paws on its arms were peculiar. It had an additional digit on it compared to the four from most digit-held species on her planet. She noted some scratches on its skin, light traces of blood leaking. Lyra grimaced, she’d have to try and clean that when she got back with some disinfectant.
The voice in her head piped up. ‘Using odd chemicals Lyra, who knows how that would react to its chemistry?’
‘Good point. I can check what’s safe when I get back. It’ll just have to heal on its own for now.’
Examining its body, Lyra would have to say that the strangest part had to be the head. She hadn’t seen anything like it before. Its ears almost appeared to be made of its own flesh, simply hanging off but clearly being firmly attached on the sides of the head and not on top. It had no snout or nose protrusion she had seen before on her planet; its nose seemed to come off to a tip angled downward, along with two nostrils directly at the bottom. The eyes were much smaller than theirs, the glimmer that shone off its iris—
She froze. Only then did Lyra realize the alien had been staring at her. For how long, who knew? It had seemed to be inspecting her, as she had been doing.
‘Likely trying to understand what manner of awesome stood before it.’ Lyra mentally waved the voice away, feeling annoyed from its presence.
So far, it wasn’t reacting negatively to her presence. ‘Or was it stunned in silence from the level of magnificence in its presence?’
‘Seriously, not right now!’
‘It’s not my fault the only thing going on in your head is you wanting to impress the darn alien!’
‘...Okay. Fair enough.’
It was time for her to make first contact. She had to show she meant no harm. Clearing her throat Lyra thought over what she should say for its first meeting.
“Hello there. I mean you no harm. I come in peace. Do you come in peace? Do you like pudding?” The voice berated her, yet she ignored it. The words shouldn’t matter what exactly was said, more the manner of how it was said.
The alien’s eyes widened hearing her voice. It seemed to stiffen up. Dread began to fill Lyra, worried she had made a mistake. Swirling its tongue around, the being attempted to speak to her. It came out… wrong. She reeled back, not expecting such a thing.
Staring back at Lyra, it seemed unsure of itself. Or at least, that was how she had interpreted its facial language. There wasn’t much to really tell her about what it was feeling. It smiled back at her, confusing Lyra. Were smiles the same for it as it was for her kind? She hoped it was a friendly smile and not a malicious one.
The smile vanished, its eyes fluttering before the alien dropped its head. Panicking, Lyra inspected the being as close as she could without touching it.
“It’s just asleep,” Lyra said with a sigh, wiping a bead of sweat off her brow. “Likely exhausted from its trip.”
Walking back to her camera she examined the pictures taken. Many of them were unusable, too out of focus or she was blocking the view. There were still some good shots, even with how hard it was to see details. Happy with her work she packed the items away, strapping her pack back onto her side.
Lyra thought about her available options. She knew there wasn’t much she could in treating any injuries it may have. Taking it to the hospital was a terrible idea. Panic would quickly consume everyone around and who knew what would happen then? That would be the least of their worries if it tried anything that could hurt anypony.
No, it was obvious she had to take it back home and keep it locked up until she could process things more thoroughly.
“I can’t wait to work on my report about all this!”
Levitating the alien, Lyra walked off with a large smile.
Sneaking her way out of the forest hadn’t been difficult for Lyra. The sound cracker from before must have scared most of the animal life into hiding. To ensure the alien was safe during transport she had wrapped a survival blanket over its body, preventing stray branches or anything else unaccounted for from possibly damaging it further. For her, it was a very uneventful trip out of the forest. A welcome respite.
Reaching the exterior of the Everfree, Lyra could feel her smile growing. It was just a straight trip over the bridge and through the streets to her house and she’d have all the time in the world with the alien.
Having reached the bridge, she slowed her pace, noticing a small gathering of ponies making their way toward her. They slowed, having noticed her walking their way.
“Lyra.”
“Junebug.” Lyra nodded, turning to the other two. “Wild Fire, Lily Lightly.”
“What are you doing out so late?”
“I could ask the same of you.” Lyra retorted. “Me, I’m just coming back from the forest.”
“Strange,” a pegasi, Wild Fire, said. “We were just on our way out there. Wouldn’t happen to know anything about that odd light from earlier, would ya?”
Lyra let out a nervous chuckle. “Light? What light? I hadn’t noticed any light. Ahahahaha…”
The three narrowed their eyes at Lyra. Lily Lightly looked behind Lyra, giving notice to the bundle floating in the air. “What exactly is that behind you?”
“What do you mean?”
“The floating blanket.”
“Oh. That? Pffft.” Lyra waved a hoof in the air nonchalantly. “It’s nothing, really! Just some silly stuff from the forest.” A muffled groan could be heard coming from the bundle. Lyra let out a forced laugh. “Nothing to worry about!”
Wild Fire, ready to question what was going on, was held back by Junebug. “Wait,” she told her in a hushed tone. “She came from the forest!”
“So? I want to know what that spell from the sky was and she clearly knows about it.”
“I think it may have come from her,” Lightly spoke up, adding to their silent huddle. “She was out in the forest, so it’s likely she was using some of her spells out there. I don’t really care to know what she was up to in the forest.”
“I still want to know. We came all the way out here and I don’t want to return without something.”
“Wild Fire,” Junebug started, “you do remember this is Lyra, right?”
“I—” Wild Fire hesitated.
Lily Lightly hummed, “Ah, right! Lyra likes to bring things back from the forest. Remember when she brought back one of those deer’s thinking it needed help?”
“Or when she tried bringing back odd plants? She somehow managed to get her hooves on some poison joke and the plant was spread all over the town.” Junebug winced. “That was terrible when it hit the bakery.”
Lily stuck her tongue out. “I tasted pink for a full week!”
The three slowly turned their heads back toward Lyra, giving her awkward smiles. Lyra shared an equally awkward smile back.
Junebug started, “So.”
“Right,” Lyra said quickly, stretching her smile.
“Yes, well, it seems everything is fine and dandy! We’ll ah, we’ll be heading back.” Junebug slowly walked backward, the other three mimicking her.
“Quite tired from how late it is,” Lightly added, stretching a front leg in the air, forcing out a yawn.
“True, true!” Wild Fire bobbed her head. “We need to get back and tell everyone there’s nothing to worry about from the forest! Just Lyra is being Lyra is all.”
“Ehr, right! I need to get myself back, got to…” Lyra looked at the alien. “Yes, I have to get settled in for the night! Lots of work tomorrow, yep!”
The three slowly back away, giving plenty of space between them and Lyra before running off back into town. Lyra sighed, happy to have gotten away without revealing the alien to them. She had to hurry home before anyone else came upon her and tried to peek at her guest.
Once back home Lyra cracked the door open, checking for anything in the way. The entire house was dark, telling her Bon Bon had likely gone to sleep. It would be easier to slip the alien in without notice from her friend. Walking in she juggled with her alien bundle, working her way through the entrance to get it in undamaged. Only then did she feel fatigued, the spell she used taxing on her reserves.
“So tired,” she said, panting from exhaustion, making her way up the stairs toward her bedroom.
‘Now, how do I keep something like this secured for the time being? I don’t want it trying to escape the first chance it gets.’
A fleeting thought to tie it up was quickly discarded. In her experience, anything waking up tied down would be difficult working with. Lyra knew she simply had to keep it locked away in a safe location. And the only place she knew of would be her own room.
Levitating it to her bed, she gently laid it down before taking the blanket off its body. Nothing appeared wrong with it. She proceeded to empty the entire room of anything that it could get a hold of. The window was immediately barred up, magically glued from broken chair pieces. She made sure to double-check the bathroom as well, leaving a few simple toiletries that felt safe to leave behind such as toilet paper and soap.
It didn’t take long for her to strip her room, only the bed being left behind.
“There’s so much work to be done. Cataloging everything I’ve done, keeping the place from outside eyes, not to mention telling the princess about everything.” Just the thought sent her into an excited state.
Walking down into the now very cluttered living room, Lyra sat down at her desk. She wrote a carefully written scroll detailing things that had happened, along with what she felt would be needed in learning about the alien and supplies. Adding some of the photos to accompany the scroll, she rolled it all together for transport. Levitating it into the magic lantern, the scroll quickly turned into green dust, flowing off toward Princess Celestia.
“Now all I have to do is wait.”
The unicorn got up from her seat, kicking her items out of the way, making her way to the couch. Clearing the couch, Lyra got comfortable, wanting to get some sleep. It would likely be the next day before the princess would reply and she wanted some proper rest before dealing with the alien.
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~ Canterlot ~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
In the heart of the capital of Equestria stood a mountain, colossal in stature, towering into the sky. On the mountain stood grand structures, of towers and domed constructs that jutted off its body. While seemingly cramped together at a glance, the inner workings spoke of a different tale where a sprawling network of beings lived, of a kingdom that took the dirt given to them and made it into diamonds. Shops as far as the eye could see, institutes of magical marvels, stadiums to entertain the masses: these were but a few spectacles one would see upon entering the famous city of Canterlot.
Arguably the most important place stood the Canterlot Castle, a palace that housed the leaders of the lands: Princess Celestia and Princess Luna. And on a balcony, attached to a tower of the palace, stood the rulers of Equestria who stared up at the night sky, ready for a turnover in shifts.
“Dearest sister, it is time for our night to be laid to rest and arisen elsewhere.”
Celestia smiled, turning toward her. "Indeed, Luna. Shall we begin?”
It was time to lower the lunar body and raise the sun for everypony, welcoming another bright and wonderful day. It was a slow process, using their magic to ease the large entities around their planet, but for beings such as them, it was like breathing air. Compared to the unicorns of yesteryears, their magic was attuned to such activities, what with them embodying the sun and moon respectively.
The two watched as the moon glided with ease across the sky, tucking itself from their sights and for the reappearance in other lands. It was best for them to properly time things just right, never rushing their tasks. It was a hard-learned lesson to remember. Eons ago, having put out a rushed job, resulted in terrible consequences and mass hysteria. It took a great deal of work convincing the world that, no; they were not obliterating their lands. The two were quite ashamed of their actions, having scared everyone into self-submission for some time following tales of their lineage, legends of them descended from gods.
Celestia blinked, wondering just where that memory cropped up from. She examined her sister, staring at her prone form, fully concentrated on the task at hoof. Quite a few of her past memories were resurfacing at the oddest moments, ever since her sister had returned from her thousand-year banishment. The princess wouldn’t begrudge such things; it was important to never dismiss such events as unimportant, lest one forget the lessons learned from such matters.
Just as the sun was starting to appear over the land, spreading its rays upon the slumbering minds over their land, the two princesses dropped the spell simultaneously. It would slip into place on its own from the pull the spell aided it in.
Luna turned to her sister, affirming her job complete. “And so, another week passes on for the celestial satellites to turn in place. As it is time for my rest sister, I wish th—”
Without warning, something misted into the air in front of the two, forcing their focus toward the anomaly. They quickly recognized the spell for what it was, lowering their guards as a scroll materialized into place. It hovered in front of Princess Celestia, its intended receiver. She merely looked at the levitating scroll.
“Now who would send me a message at such an odd hour?
Grabbing it with her magic she unfurled the scroll, moving the attached packet to the side before going over the first page. Her sister, tilting her head, seemed confused. “Who is the sender? Surely not one of those Elements?”
Celestia stared down at the scroll, intrigued by what she was reading. “It comes from Lyra, my current Kommunelegatusionist .”
“Ah, the komlas,” Princess Luna spoke dryly, a frown spreading on her face. “What word does she send to you in such an ill-timed manner?”
“Oh don’t be that way, she means well.” Celestia smiled at her frowning sister. “It’s quite interesting. She lays claim to an alien she had sighted outside of Ponyville, having captured it from the Everfree.”
The sun princess’s smile grew wider, watching her sister rolling her eyes. “If she wanted to send the message,” Luna started, “it could have been received when I was far away from such nonsense.”
“It’s really not as bad as you think it is. She seems to have put a lot of work in this, Luna, and Lyra typically wouldn’t have sent such a thing for another two weeks. This came out of the blue, timed just as we were rotating our celestial bodies. From a glance, it reads off like she’ll be sending even more in the next few days.”
Princess Luna dully stared at her sister. “And?”
“Oh sister, don’t you see? She’s setting up one of those scenarios like past komlas, likely meaning for the two of us to take part in!”
“Ah.” Luna looked hesitant. “I have some… recollections of those. Are you sure you don’t mean just you? Surely it wasn’t meaning to have me involved?”
“What other reason for the timing? And besides, I think it would be fun to have you working this with me!”
“Oh. Joy.”
Seeing her sister’s disliking of the situation made her hesitate. She took a moment, choosing her words carefully. “I think it would be fun for the two of us to have something to bond over.” Luna lost her frown, turning to Celestia. “It would certainly be a great diversion from normal affairs, don’t you think?”
“Perhaps,” Luna acquiesced. “Just please don’t let this get out like last time.”
Walking away from the balcony, the two of them proceeded down the long halls of the palace to their personal study room, guards following close behind. A click with her magic unlocked the door, revealing a room full of shelves, stacked with documents and books collected over the years. A musty smell filled the air, showing just how out of use the room was. A large, sturdy table made of fine wood and engraved delicately with magical scripture sat in the middle with cushions placed around on the floor.
Wiping the area of dust with a simple spell, Celestia took a seat, spreading out the scroll on the table. Luna sat on the opposite side, coughing at the air-born filth, flashing her own horn to get rid of more dust.
Once settled Luna levitated the packet that came with the papers, seeing Celestia entranced by the scroll. “This is a lot more dedication than originally thought,” Luna spoke, staring at the images.
Celestia turned to her sister, realizing she had forgotten about the second packet that came in the scroll.
Luna squinted at an image, turning the pictures in the air. “While hard to make out, she seems to have made an impact crater in the Everfree. See here, there are even some pictures of the ‘alien’ she had captured.”
Celestia, realizing the packet was just as interesting as the scroll, magically grabbed the image, turning it to herself. “How strange. I wonder where she got all the materials to make this happen.”
“Not from funds I hope.”
“Certainly not, I hadn’t approved of anything.” Celestia levitated a scroll to Luna, “Here are some interesting descriptions she gathered so far.”
Princess Luna hummed. “Bipedal, possessing a five-digit paw with nubbed claws, presumed fully clothed from having no hair to cover the body from the cold.” Princess Luna read over the paper as thoroughly as possible. “Basic information about the beast, but once again, more than I would have given credit for.”
“She’ll be collecting more in the coming days. Lyra even stated the being spoke to her.”
Princess Luna arched a brow. “Oh? And what words did this creature have for us?”
Her sister laughed, “We don’t know! She has to translate its speech to our language and plans on teaching it our own for communication. Currently, she has it locked in her house, or more precisely, her room.”
“It’s locked away in her room? Could she not think of a better place to put it?”
“And where would you put such a thing without warning? I’m surprised she was dedicated enough to tear apart her own house to make this work.”
“As far as the letter says, that is.”
“I’ve no doubt she did in fact do such a thing. Lyra is very… thorough on such manners.” Celestia coughed, a few memories popping up involving the mare. “Yes. Well, as of now, she wants to know what we would recommend with the information we currently have.”
Celestia paused, wanting her sister's input on the project. It wouldn’t do if she couldn’t have her sister a part of the project, only a bystander.
Luna, hearing nothing from Celestia, saw she was staring at her, waiting for a reply. She fumbled around with the images, trying to come up with something. “Um… O-Obviously, we need to know why it’s come here to our lands!” She nodded her head, feeling it was the right answer. “We have no idea if it has plans to harm our people in some manner, whether purposeful or not, so we need to question just why it is here.”
“It will take some time for us to figure out how to communicate with it,” Celestia noted.
“True. Then the first order is to make sure it is properly secured in the room, incapable of escaping. Perhaps even placing anti-magic enchantments might be in need.”
“Then Lyra wouldn’t be capable of using her spells to work with it.”
“What of placing them on the alien?”
“It’s an idea, but Lyra has strictly given that she doesn’t want to provoke it in any manner, uncertain of the consequences. Could doing that make it angry?”
“It might, though I don’t see why that would matter.”
“We might be making an enemy out of such actions. That would ruin any form of communication we’d prepare in the future along with relations to an unknown entity.”
Luna huffed out, “This is more difficult than I thought.”
“Something of note, Lyra had mentioned she was unsure if it could use magic or if it even knew what magic was.”
Luna looked incredulous. “That doesn’t make sense. How would it get here in the first place? It even stated it looked like a massive teleportation spell.”
“Clearly there’s more to this puzzle than we can see. That’s something we need to figure out.”
Princess Luna licked her lips, staring down at the work. At the mere idea of a puzzle showed her competitive side. “So we’re essentially working on very little information while having to treat the beast as delicately as the foreign visitors which frequent our palace.”
“Even more so,” Celestia answered. “We also need to consider future funds on the simulation. While she hasn’t said she needs it at the moment, purchasing necessary things like food to needed materials will be necessary.”
“Are we really going to approve her bits for this? I’m fine with working on the scenario, but providing funds seems a tad much.”
“It’s not a problem. There are funds set aside for the komlas on such manners. And before you ask, no, she hasn’t abused such things in the past.”
“Well, that’s good.” Luna tapped the paper, thinking hard on the subject at hoof. “Okay. Here’s what we need to do. She needs to ensure that it is fully secured before collecting whatever data she can on simply observing it. A weekly report will be provided for us to read over, on top of whatever work she already has. Any emergency that occurs needs to have an immediate report written as soon as possible and quickly sent to us. And the primary objective should be on communication.”
“That seems reasonable. And from what we have here, we can ascertain more on the alien's biology and perhaps even its culture.”
The following hour, the two princesses sat in their study, discussing a scenario that would have them pulling at their hair, laughing at their absurd observations, and simply enjoying their time with one another.
‘I’ll have to give a personal note of thanks to Lyra at some point.’ To Celestia, ever since the Nightmare Moon fiasco, she had tried to find an appropriate time to reconcile with Luna. It had been slow progress. ‘Having a weekly discussion with just the two of us is the perfect opportunity I’ve been waiting for.’
Wrapping up their talk, Celestia stamped the scroll they had written in reply, sending it back off to Lyra. “And that is that. I simply can’t wait for her next response!”
“And I am just as anxious as you are, sister.”
X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~ Ponyville ~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X
Hearing something foreign in the vicinity, Lyra jolted from her nap. It sounded like something was banging against metal. Upright on the couch, she searched the room, wondering what had just happened.
Making a dash for her bedroom, she could see that the door was still locked in place. Confused, she walked back down the stairs, wondering what had just happened to make that noise.
Stopping at the foot of her stairs she could see her lantern light was on, along with a scroll inside of it. Even more confused she approached it, observing that it had the seal of the sun and moon stamped clearly on it.
“She replied!”
Lyra grabbed it with her magic, quickly unfurling it. She read every word carefully, worried about what the outcome of the alien would be. Having finished reading Lyra sat down at her desk, staring at the seal that was marked in the letter. Rolling it back up, Lyra tightened it against her chest in a hug, smiling with glee.
They would not only allow her to work with the alien, but they were also giving her a full-on assignment dealing with it as the head researcher. The delighted mare felt ecstatic enough to cry.
“I’m going to do the best job anyone could ask for! I won’t let them down!”
~End Chapter One~