In ponyville library we see an eager twilight and excited spike preparing for the meteor shower scheduled tonight. “This meteor shower tonight's gonna be amazing!” Said Twilight.
Spike was bouncing around the room gathering provisions and equipment to watch the falling stars rain down “Awesome!” He exclaimed.
“You know, this shower only happens once every 100 years.” Twilight says with a hint of pride in her self knowledge.
while juggling apples. “A centennial celebration!” said Spike as the fruit rolls down his back and into the cart with all other food and equipment.
Twilight was looking to head down “We better get a move on!” she says.
Spike grabs the punch bowl wobbly “Don't wanna be late! Whoa, whoa, whoa!” He wobbles a bit before correcting himself and sighs in relief when the bowl is safely in place with the rest of the gear “There.” Spike says in triumph
Twilight begins to start her vocal checklist. “Spike, did you grab my quill and ink?” she asks from the upper half of the room.
Spike responds with a firm “check!”
Twilight then asks. “Scrolls?”
Spike then responds with another. “Check! I've also packed a telescope, apples, bananas, fruit punch, and my freshly baked homemade triple-decker nut-crazy vanilla cream cookies!” spike says excitedly.
Twilight giggles at his excited crumb covered face “I can see that. Once again you've read my mind, Spike. And that is why you are my number one assistant.” she said with pride.
Spike puffs up his chest saying. “I'm sorry. I didn't hear you.”
Twilight repeats while slowing it down, announcing with a small gap between each word. “That is why you are my number one assistant.”
Spike trying to milk the complement one more time says to her. “Missed that! Huh...?”
Twilight about to repeat “I said…” she stops realizing his game and giggles before saying. “Come on, let's get going.” she stops abruptly as it dawned on her that she forgot her book that was made for events like this. “Wait! I almost forgot! I wanna bring the {Astronomical Astronomer's Almanac to All Things Astronomy}.”
Spike confusedly spoke up. “The Astronomo-lomo homono what?” his face shook side to side rapidly in confusion.
Twilight responds with a detailed explanation of the book's features. “You know that really old big blue book on stars, moons, planets, the universe...?”
Spike smiled. “Right check!” He rushes into a side room and gets the book. dusts it off resulting with a build up of dust flying into his nose making him build up almost sneezing, then a sigh, as he opens it up then letting out a fire sneeze burning the books pages to ash. As Spike sees the burns and ashes.
Twilight calls for him “Hey! What's taking my number one assistant so long?” spike put it back and rushed to Twilight's side.
They both walked out the door and began walking through town. Spike was nervous that twilight may go back and check for the book herself so he tries to keep her mind on the shower. “So uh Twilight do you think anything interesting like colored meteors will happen during the shower?” He asked.
“I don’t know Spike, but it depends on what they’re made of, and what they have in them.” Said Twilight.
Spike was getting excited and began to imagine a rainbow meteor shower. “That would be AWESOME!” Spike said as the image was fresh in his mind.
as the two walked the faint sound of a guitar being played could be heard nearby. Along with somepony singing. “What’s that?” Asked Spike.
Twilight looks just as confused as spike. “I'm not sure Spike… we have plenty of time before the shower let's investigate.” said Twilight.
When the two turned a corner they saw a large 6 foot tall/ 5’ .8” white unicorn stallion who had green eyes and with headphones and a soundwave for a cutie mark playing a guitar and singing a song.
After a while a crowd gathered to listen to the music. Spike whispered to Twilight. “Uh Twilight have you seen that stallion before?” Spike's face was contorted in befuddlement.
Twilight couldn't recognize the stallion either. “No spike I haven't…” she whispered back.
“He’s so big though.” Commented Spike.
Twilight humed in thought. “Can't argue there, let's go say hello.” twilight walked over to the stallion. However as they made it through the crowd to meet the pony, he wasn’t there, he just…. Vanished. Disappeared without a trace, as if he was never there.
Spike looked everywhere but saw no sign of the pony. “How can a pony that big just vanish? Was he a super ninja or some shared hallucination?” Spike said dumbfounded.
“I don’t know Spike, let’s just keep going, we need to pick up a few things from the marketplace.” Said Twilight.
Spike nodded but recalled the song. “So twilight that song he was singing, it was catchy, but I've never heard it before, have you?” Spike asked.
Before Twilight could answer her attention was drawn to a tasty smell nearby. “You smell that?” Twilight asked as she smiled and followed the smell while Spike just tagged along.
“Muffins!” Spike said excitedly.
“Let's get some muffins and head off to meet the girls.” Said Twilight.
“On it!” said Spike as he pulled out the bit bag and paid for some muffins. “Hey twilight?” Asked Spike.
“What is it Spike?” Twilight asked her number 1 assistant.
“Do you think that song was talking about the meteor shower tonight?” He asked.
“Maybe.” said Twilight as she began thinking. “I wonder if my book may have had an answer.” Twilight muttered.
Spike forgot about the book till now and said “it may have but it's not at the library Twilight, I looked, remember.” He nervously said but twilight was too busy thinking to notice his tone.
“Come on Twilight the princess is setting the sun so we have to hurry!” they didn’t start talking again till they got to the hill's base.
Twilight with a great amount of certainty in her voice had said. “I was sure I put the astronomer's guide back. The book would have helped me identify different planets and stars tonight.”
Spike responded with. “Well... maybe someone borrowed it. Besides, you don't need that book. You can already name all the planets and stars, 'cause you're super smart and astronomically awesome!” He says this trying to convince her and possibly himself that she didn't need it.
Twilight was happy to hear Spike had complimented her. “Thanks, Spike. You're such a flatterer.” She turned to look at him.
Spike avoiding eye contact. “Yeah, I'm a sweet talker.” he confirmed.
She continued to look at him. “And a number one assistant, right?” Twilight asked Spike with a wink.
Spike pointed at her and cheerily said “Check!” and began setting things up.
Then rainbow pops on screen saying to twilight after biting into a fresh apple. “Wow, Twilight! You're lucky to have such a rad assistant. I wish I had someone to do whatever I told them.”
Scootaloo spoke up. Ooh! Ooh! Me! Me! Me! I'll do whatever you want, Rainbow Dash!
Rainbow turned to scoots smirking. “Oh yeah, pipsqueak? How about taking out the trash?” She tossed the apple core to scootaloo and watched as the filly happily ran to throw away the core.
All scootaloo said was “yes ma’am!” and she rushed off.
Rarity chose this time to chime in. “Do we have Spike to thank again for this amazing spread? Isn't he simply amazing?”
Spike soaking up the praise said “oh come on” there was a pause. “I said come on.”
Pinkie pie couldn't help herself and said. “Little Spikey-wikey! Who knew that big ferocious dragon started off so cutesy wootsy?” Spike just ate up all the attention.
Rarity butted back into the conversation. “Spike, you are such a little star that I had to make a little bow tie for you.”
He loved the gift and said, “Gosh. You guys are embarrassing me. Stop it.” There was another pause before he said “Twilight, your turn.”
Twilight wasn't phased by this. “Spike, that's enough.” she said with a stern big sister like voice
Spke now aware that he's pushing it said “Oh, right. That's enough.”
Sweetie Belle was the last to speak. “Hey, everypony! The show is starting!” as she pointed out the meteor shower had begun.
Just then there was a loud boom and everypony looked to the skies and saw a large object hurtling towards them. “DUCK!” Applebloom yelled out as it got closer. Everypony ducked and or jumped out of the way as it adjusted course on its own, enough to miss the hill and continue on towards the white tail woods.
Pinky being the first to get up and speak, randomly said. “That wasn't a duck” the others stand up and roll their eyes at Pinkie's antics.
Twilight looked off in the direction of where the thing went and began galloping towards it, her friends not far behind, while the crusaders were tricked into watching the sleeping Spike.
The six ran into the woods seeing the damage the falling object had caused, trees that were caught in its path were smashed to bits, pieces of the ruined trees laid everywhere but did not impede their progress as they galloped through the destruction. Then there was a flash of light in the distance, nearly blinding them, but still they did not stop till they finally reached the crash site.
Pieces of metal covered the ground which made the six cautious, as they slowly stepped forwards to take a closer look at what had landed. It looked to be some kind of metal mass, and though it was damaged it still looked intact.
“It looks like a crashed airship…. But there's no balloon or anything, what is it Twilight?” Asked Rainbow Dash.
“I don't know, I've never seen anything like it.” Said Twilight.
“Where did it come from?” Asked Fluttershy.
“Look! There’s something inside!” Exclaimed Twilight, pointing a hoof at the cockpit.
The others gasp. Pinkie chiming in said “Wow I need to get my welcome to equestria, space aliens party set up!” she bolts in the direction of ponyville.
“Rainbow Stop pinkie, we can’t have ponies knowing about an alien in Equestria! Applejack help me get it out!” Said Twilight.
Rainbow chases after Pinkie, as Applejack helps Twilight get the creature out of the cockpit.
The creature once out of the wreckage rolled onto his back, the helmet and entire front side of his suit was completely blackened from smoke, dust and ash, and nopony could see the creature inside.
“Come on, let’s bring him back to the library!” Said Twilight. “We need to make sure whatever he is, is ok.”
With time they finally managed to drag him back to the library where they finally started to look over him. They couldn’t find any ruptures on the suit meaning that there were likely no injuries caused by the crash at least that is what they hoped.
Twilight began looking at the creature’s chest and saw what seemed to be a nametag on the left side of his chest, only she couldn’t make out the letters. Then Twilight wiped away the soot and she saw what seemed to be his name.
Written in bold on a yellow background was the word, LIGHTYEAR. “Lightyear.” Twilight whispered.
—Twilight POV—
“Lightyear.” I repeated.
“What was that sugarcube?” Asked Applejack.
“Oh! I said Lightyear, I think that might be its name.” I said.
Just then, Rainbow Dash came in with a very unhappy Pinkie pie. “Why can’t I throw the alien a welcome to equestria party?” Asked Pinkie.
“Pinkie, we can’t throw a party for an alien! We don’t know how it could react! We don’t even know if he’s dangerous!” I exclaimed.
“But-” began Began Pinkie.
“But nothing Pinkie! We can’t risk it!” I told her. I took a deep breath and let it out. “For all we know he, she, or even it could be very very dangerous, even if it doesn’t mean to be,” I trot over to my desk and pull out a quill and scroll, “I’m going to write a letter to Princess Celestia right now. It’s still pretty early so she should be here as soon as she reads it. I’m sure she’ll know what to do.” I said.
I looked over to Fluttershy, “I know you want to help it Fluttershy but please be careful around it. Only do what you have to.”
“In that case I’m going to fetch a tub of warm water and a few towels from the bathroom,” She nods as she trots upstairs.
“Everypony else, please keep your distance from it in the meantime,” I warned as I came up to Spike, “here ya go Spike, send it off please.”
“Roger Twilight!” Spike salutes, taking the scroll and in a flash of green flame burns it, sending the smoke to the princess.
“In the meantime, I’m going to try and determine what it could be by narrowing down possible places that could support life,” I poked around. “Right checked out. Spike who has the Almanac again? I know I’m the last pony who would want a book taken away from them but this is a dire situation we’re in, so I need that book. So who has it?”
“Um… hehe…” Spike chuckles as he rubs the back of his head. “About that…. It’s not really checked out Twilight I ah… kinda burnt it up when I uh… sneezed earlier.”
“Great.” I deadpanned. “I’ll have to order another one… again.” I shook off the annoyment and refocused my thought process back to the unconscious alien on my couch.
“You’re not mad?” Spike asked as he shook.
“Spike this isn’t the first time you’ve burnt up a book.” I shook my head. “Annoyed, yes, Mad, not at all. You used to burn up my books all the time when you were little. It’s the one reason why I learned the best fire-proofing spell there is around. You just haven’t done it in so long I stopped using it when we came to Ponyville. Though in hindsight I really should have cast that spell on them when we came here.” I told him.
“Alright good for you two but what are we supposed to do in the meantime while we wait for the princess to show up?” Rainbow jabs. “It’s not like we can keep this on the down-low for very long, especially with the squirts here.”
“HEY!” the fillies exclaimed out of resentment.
“Hush girls,” Rarity scolds them. “We have an injured whatever he is trying to rest and I’d rather not take the chance of waking him for our own safety..”
Suddenly the Princess blinks into the room, “Twilight I received your letter and got here as soon as I could.” She looks over to the passed-out alien, “So this is your rescued companion. Have you run any preliminary scans on him as of yet?”
“No ma'am,” I shook my head. “Honestly, the only thing we’ve done is let Fluttershy place a warm towel on his head but then we realized he has that glass dome over his head so we decided not to, but we have everything ready in case he wakes up. We didn’t want to do anything to provoke him. We’ve been waiting for you to get here, in the meantime, I was going to try and determine which world he may have come from that we know of that could support life.”
“That was a good line of thinking Twilight,” The princess nods. “But you still should have at least scanned him before moving him in case he was severely injured. For all we know, if he is, you may have made it worse.”
Everypony’s eyes shrank at that comment.
“Allow me,” Princess says as she lights her horn and covers the being now known as Lightyear in a golden aura. “It appears he’s fine. Just unconscious. His internal biology and skeletal build aren’t all that different from our own actually. Mainly the fact it seems he walks on two legs and his upper arms with fingers are more like a minotaur’s. You were right to leave his dome on too. His outfit seems to be a form of armor that filters out the air around him into the suit to allow him to breathe. It is very light but incredibly durable from what I’ve picked up, no doubt playing a large role in the survival of his crash here. We won’t know more until we can speak with him, if that’s even possible.”
“Are ya sayin that there alien might not speak ponyish Princess?” Applejack asked.
“That is a very good possibility dear Applejack.” Princess Celestia nods.
“Actually, I think he might speak our language, he has a nametag on his chest on the left.” I said pointing a hoof at the yellow nametag.
“I see, make sure to ask him why he is here once he awakens.” Celestia told me.
“He didn’t mean to come here silly! Why would he crash his ship on purpose?” Said Pinkie Pie.
“Many things could have happened to cause the crash or perhaps it was deliberate in order to make us lower our guard.” Celestia said.
During our talking, Rarity and Fluttershy were cleaning up our guest’s suit. “I don’t think he’s going to be any trouble, he seems to be some kind of law enforcement, given the markings on his suit, and look at his arm! This clearly shows he’s an officer.” Said Rarity, showing everypony the big SR on the arm and the small SR on the shoulder.
“Still it could mean something different than you think, it is best to be wary of him till we know more.” Celestia told us as he looked over him.
“Don’t worry princess, If he gives us trouble we can just blast him with the elements!” Said Rainbow Dash.
“Very good, now I must return to canterlot, the nobles are causing a fuss.” Celetis said, then with a bright flash of light she vanished.
Everypony turned to me. “Ok girls, now all we have to do is wait until he wakes up, then we can get some answers, and maybe he can even show me how his ship and suit works!” I said, getting excited at the aspect of something new to learn.
“I know you like learning new things Twi, but you should probably think about his situation first, he's likely gonna be confused and scared.” Applejack told me.
“Fluttershy, do you think you can keep him calm?” I asked, looking towards Fluttershy.
“Twilight he isn't an animal.” Fluttershy said.
“He’s close enough!” Said Rainbow Dash.
“Alright I’ll try.” Fluttershy told us.
“Okay, now all we have to do is wait.” I said as I looked at our unconscious guest.
”There's a Starman waiting in the sky, He'd like to come and meet us, But he thinks he'd blow our minds.”
“Did you say something Spike?” Asked Twilight.
Spike raised his brow. “No, I haven't said anything… why?” Spike asked.
“I don’t know, I just can’t stop thinking about the song that pony was singing, it just feels….. off somehow.” Said Twilight.
Spike gives it some thought. “Yeah there are words in there I don't recognize, well one word of it anyway…” Spike said with puzzlement.
“Which one?” Twilight asked.
“Man is the word I don't recognise, what even is a man…” Spike questioned.
“I don’t know Spike.“ I said. ‘Could that pony have been singing about him?’ I wondered.