Three methodic, average force, calculated knocks on the door woke me up.
Another visit.
Looking through the windows I could see that it was around six in the afternoon. I had drifted off back to sleep after I had eaten lunch and the little kitchen exploration. This time, Yellowings was nowhere to be seen, but I heard some hoof scrambling on the wooden tiles downstairs.
The door opened and Yellowings soft voice was cut by another one. The other voice was louder, quite direct and with authority, but somehow a little bit sweet too. They exchanged a little conversation. I could barely hear Yellowings over this new one.
I got up and sat on the bed, ready for the new visitor, and after a moment, I could hear they were coming upstairs.
To my surprise, instead of Yellowings leading the way, the first equine that came into view was the new one.
Wow... so purple.
The new equine was very purple. I was already used to those little horses having quite the strangest sets of colors, but I wasn't expecting something so... bright and unnatural.
Once I recovered from the initial impression, I started to notice the different details. She was slightly bigger (That made me doubt for a little whether it was a he or a she, but I thought it was a she in the end). The next thing was that she had wings and a horn, both of them a little bigger and stylized if compared with the wings of my caretaker and the horn of the other alien equine who came to visit.
She had bags strapped to her sides, like the ones that Yellowings had when I first met her, but these ones were bigger and... purple with the same pattern embroidered into it as the one on her flanks. I could spy a few books sticking out of the bags, there were too many of them to fit comfortably inside.
The purple equine's expression turned in a rapid succession from neutral, to a little shock when she found me, her ears went flat against her head and she backpedaled a step, then she lowered her head, advancing a few steps with a quizzical expression, then she bit her lip and frowned, looking at the floor. Then she looked up back at me, putting a hoof on her muzzle, frowning deep in thought.
Yellowings came into sight and asked something in a worried tone. The purple equine just hummed her answer in a neutral tone, obviously not paying attention to her.
The purple one’s horn lit up and for a moment I felt unnerved. Then, four books came out of her bags all by their own, glowing in the same color as her horn and ordered themselves in front of her, pages already going wild while the equine looked from one book to another. That scared me a little bit, all that light and flight spectacle being too close for me to feel comfortable.
The purple equine did that for a few minutes, all that time mumbling gibberish to herself, pointing randomly here and there in her books and taking notes with a flying quill and paper. Then, she repacked magically her books, but the quill and paper stayed flying around scritch-scratching notes. She looked so studious with all those materials, and I could recognize she had practice in intellectual matters, a lot of it.
Purplesmart... that's it, clear as water... I was nicknaming this one Purplesmart.
Purplesmart asked something to Yellowings, and she pointed at my backpack. It was near the bed. It started to glow, and before I could fetch it, it flew away from me. That made me stumble a little forward, and Yellowings got a little startled too at my sudden movement, a foreleg rose like she was ready to help me, but when I sat back down on the bed again, she relaxed.
I wasn't going to touch that thing while it was glowing, so I let Purplesmart look at it, under the uneasy look of Yellowings and my slightly distressed stare.
She analyzed it, carefully turning it around with a clinical eye, taking notes and looking at every little detail. Then she leaned forward and sniffed it, then scrunched her muzzle and with her ears flat, she stared again to the floor, frowning.
Yeah, that’s how cheap plastic materials from the local sports gear store smell like. Or at least, the ‘high performance synthetic resistant fabric’ which is made out of slightly better cheap plastic fibers. It’s actually not that bad, but I guess little horse noses are a lot more sensitive than human ones.
Yellowings asked something again, slightly worried, Purplesmart answered with a flat tone, then opened the bag and my stuff started to fly around the purple equine. She analyzed again everything piece by piece, the quill and paper taking notes all on their own. My general assortment of knick-knacks came into view and restocked inside once inspected.
Finally, the power bank and the little solar panel came out. Those cached her attention, of course, but the best piece, my cell phone was secured in one of my pockets. She gazed at those pieces in wonder, turning them around in the air for a few minutes. She looked like she couldn't figure them out.
After a few more minutes of pacing in circles, talking with Yellowings and taking notes, Purplesmart packed everything again inside my bag, then asked something to the yellow equine and Yellowings answered something pointing at the bag and myself.
"What do you want?" I asked.
Purplesmart scribbled something again, and Yellowings said something to me, pointing at the bag and the other equine.
"No, those things are mine, I need them. Give them back." I said in a serious tone, trying to hide my fear.
Yellowings said something to Purplesmart and she put the bag back on the floor, looking slightly sad. I took the chance to grab my bag and hold it between my arms and chest. The two little horses exchanged more noises while they were going downstairs. Finally, I heard the door opening and closing.
***
Twilight's trot echoed through the corridors of her castle.
"Spiiiike!? Where are you!?" She called for her assistant.
After a few seconds she entered her personal library, dropping her bag on one of the tables and putting her freshly taken notes on her desk, already making a checklist of the books she needed to pick in order to search for information.
"Spiiiike!?" She called again, already focused on her research task, going through her notes and putting the books she had carried on her desk in a pile.
"Gee... What's it, Twilight?" The little dragon came into sight, rubbing one of his eyes with his claws, looking a little sleepy.
"I need 'Advanced Animal Biology', 'Habitats and Wildlife' and the 'Equestrian Bestiary, complete edition'." She asked.
"Oh, I see. What tomes from the Bestiary?" Spike started to climb the ladder to get to where those books were.
"All of them, Spike." She stated.
"Oh... I don't know WHY do I even ask..." Spike mumbled to himself, rolling his eyes.
"And the 'Study of the Forest Primates' that one should come in handy..." Twilight continued, oblivious to her assistant.
"So... what's the fuss? It's the creature Rarity talked about? Is it the one that Fluttershy is taking care of?" Spike asked while picking the books.
"Yes, indeed it is. I couldn't figure out what it was." Twilight answered.
"Wow... that's..." Spike yawned, then recovered slightly and pointed at Twilight. "Something... Yeah..." Obviously, he was too tired to be excited about the incoming old fashioned bookworm research.
"Hmmm... I'll need 'Foreign Culture' too... and 'Technology through Equestria', there were a lot of items I couldn't figure out... At least I want to see if they correspond with some of the Minotaur, Dragon, Diamond Dog or Griffon manufactures." Twilight continued increasing her checklist.
"So... What do you think it is?" Spike asked, a little bit of genuine curiosity in his sleepy eyes.
"I don't know for sure, Spike. He looked a lot like a minotaur but it was primate like and without horns. It has barely any fur, but has mane at least, and wears clothes. Fluttershy told me that even though it is omnivorous, it prefers cooked food when possible. All of this makes me think that it is probably more intelligent than we initially thought." Twilight explained.
"That's more or less what Rarity told us..." Spike answered.
"Yes... I haven't seen anything like it. It could be from a really far away country, but it can't talk." Twilight frowned.
"Then it's probably somepony's really exotic pet." Spike concluded.
"That's another valid hypothesis... but then, there were those tools and equipment that it had in its bag." Twilight added.
"It was being used to carry them until it got lost?" Spike proposed.
"Probably... But what makes me uneasy about that theory is that those tools were extremely well build and optimized for it to use. The little retracting knife with all those built-in tools... It had a handle the perfect size for its hands and... It even had a shape for its fingers to fit perfectly on it! Those things were designed for it to use!" Twilight answered.
"So... If you had to tell Princess Celestia what it is, what would you say?" Spike asked.
"Hmmm... It's a creature that came from the Everfree Forest, though it seems unlikely to be its natural environment. It's probably highly intelligent and it's well equipped. It looks slightly primate, but without fur. It needs clothes, so it may come from a hot biome. It can't talk, so it seems unlikely to be a member of another country or civilization that we know of, even Yaks and Diamond Dogs know basic Harmonian and it obviously doesn’t, but it looks like it's trained. The purpose of that training it's unknown..." Twilight put her thoughts in order.
“Uh... that doesn't feel really soothing... and those tools you described… Should we send a letter to the princess?” Asked Spike, a little scared.
"Ummm... no. Not really. Fluttershy says it's safe, and she is usually right when it comes to critters. If it's not a menace, I don't think we should bother her. Again, it can be just a really rare creature, or a very exotic pet with all that gear specifically crafted for it... I don't think this predicament is worth Celestia's time." Twilight answered.
"Uh... then...?" Asked Spike between yawns.
"It's research time! Probably this case is not worth Celestia's time, but I have PLENTY of time since we moved into this castle... Doing erm... princess stuff and preparing friendship lessons for Starlight Glimmer, waiting and waiting for that map to call somepony. It looks like it's something worth OUR time. Oh Spike... It has been so long since we had to research something. It's going to be like the old times, it's going to..." Twilight was interrupted by a little snore.
Spike was snoring, lying on the floor face down with a few books around him. Twilight smiled sheepishly at him and picked up the baby dragon with her magic and put him in his basket.
"Oh, sorry Spike, I was so caught in my studies that I forgot the time..." She looked through the windows. The Sun had already set, leaving only some reddish light traces through the sky. As always, it was Spike's time to go to bed.
"...Yes... like the good old times."