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// 5 - In Which Twilight Sparkle Attempts to Make Conversation 
// Story: Ned Stark in Equestria 
// by ProbablyHuman 
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Twilight


Twilight awoke to the sound of the sound of Spike calling her name. What a weird dream, she thought, recalling a bizarre memory of an huge, magically inert, anthropoid thing falling onto the Library balcony after tumbling through its branches. I probably shouldn’t have had so much of that cake left over from Pinkie’s latest party before studying last night... what was the occasion for that party again? Ugh, I don’t even remember.
“Twilight!” Spike shouted for what was probably the fifth time, as he made his way up the stairs. Unlike the first four or so times, Twilight was now awake enough to respond to him, if only barely.
“Spike, what is it?” she mumbled, staggering up from the floor, her eyes half-open.
Spike waved his arms wildly and pointed out the door. “Some weird monster just ran out the library door when I woke up! I only got a quick look at it as I opened my eyes, but it was really tall, and kinda scary!”
Twilight stared back at her assistant blankly. Turning her head slowly, she looked at the balcony door.
It was wide open. The only possible conclusion was that her weird dream had not, in fact, been a dream.
Twilight Sparkle panicked. Hoping the creature wasn’t long gone, she scrambled out the door as fast as her hooves could take her. Spike didn’t even have time to mention the letter from Celestia.
A huge entirely non-magical lifeform on the loose quite possibly dangerous have to find it can’t let anypony get hurt! She could deal with researching and studying its safely later, she had to find it and make sure it wasn’t a threat to Ponyville first.
Twilight didn’t have to look very far. The thing was just a bit farther into town, sitting on a park bench that was clearly too small for a creature of its height. There were several ponies looking at it curiously as they moved about through the park, though none approached the creature. She recognized one of the local mailmares, who waved hello to the creature from a distance while carrying a package. Needless to say, the clumsy pegasus dropped the package in the process, and Twilight snapped out of her panic enough to telekinetically catch the mailmare’s delivery. The mailmare then looked around and waved at Twilight with a goofy smile,  picked up her hovering package again, and flew off.
Twilight took a deep breath, trying to calm herself like that book Pinkie gave her recommended. It, no, he hasn’t hurt anypony. No need for panic. Stay calm.
She opened her eyes again to see the thing looking right at her.
Twilight froze up. Despite never having seen anything of its species before, she seemed to be able to read its facial expressions surprisingly well.
The creature, this alien thing, seemed to have a deep sadness written all over his face, and Twilight thought he looked somewhat afraid as well. Suddenly, his expression changed to something she couldn’t tell, as if it had put on a mask to hide its emotions.
“Twilight. An interesting name,” he spoke.
Twilight was flabbergasted. How does it know my name? And for that matter, how does it know Equestrian? I guess Ponyville is near the middle of Equestria, but this thing clearly is nothing I’ve ever heard of, certainly not from Equestria. Is it, no, he psychic? Wait, no, it’s magically inert, it can’t—
The creature looked at her curiously. “Your small dragon called your name when he woke up.”, the thing stated simply. “I think he had some sort of message for you.”
“Wait,” Twilight said, finally. “How’d you know I was wondering how you knew my name?”
The thing shrugged its shoulders. “It was obvious you were panicking suddenly over something I said, and I only said one thing.”
Twilight broke eye contact for a second. Was my panic really that obvious? She then remembered the other question that had just come up. “Where’d you learn to speak Equestrian?” she asked, somewhat weakly.
The thing looked down at her, and replied “I was wondering where ponies and dragons learned to speak at all.”
An awkward silence followed, in which Twilight processed the implications of the creature’s last sentence. He couldn’t mean that, she thought, but there was only one way to know.
“You mean, where you’re from, there are ponies and dragons? And they can’t talk?”
The being leaned back on the bench and let out a frustrated sigh. “I’ve never met nor heard of a speaking pony of any sort before today. As for dragons, they died out long ago, and I’ve never heard that they could talk.”
The young unicorn felt a mix of emotions at this, with confusion and curiosity chief among them. Her curiosity, however, was enough for her to ask another question of the tall creature, one she’d been meaning to ask before she was sidetracked “Well, where are you from, anyway? How in the world did you wind up falling from the sky into the middle of Equestria?”
Twilight thought she’d asked it politely enough. In fact, she was sure she had. His reaction, however suggested otherwise. He was silent, a pained emotion clear on his face as he stared off past Twilight, lost in thought. He held his hand to the scar on his neck. However he had come to Equestria, the circumstances of it had wounded him deeply.
Stuttering on her apology, Twilight managed to say “I—I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—” before she was interrupted.
“I am here because I tried to do the right thing. I tried and I failed, and all of Westeros is going to pay the price for my failure,” he spoke, in barely more than a whisper. “I failed them all, and this is my punishment.”
Twilight had plenty of questions she wanted to ask at this, but knew she shouldn’t put any more emotional pressure on the creature, who was quite clearly still recovering from a painful ordeal. Despite her curiosity, she resisted the urge to press him for details on his homeland and his arrival in Equestria. Wisely, she Instead changed the topic, asking another, far simpler question.
“Well,” she began, cautiously, “What’s your name?”
“Eddard Stark, of Winterfell.”
Putting aside the fact that she didn’t know of anywhere in the whole world called ‘Winterfell,’ she continued. “Eddard Stark,” Twilight laughed, nervously. “An interesting name as well. What does it mean?”
Eddard let out a long breath. “Nothing,” he said. “Not here, anyway.”
Twilight picked up on what he meant immediately. “So, your name doesn’t mean much, unlike most pony names... and whatever it does mean is irrelevant here?”
Eddard nodded his head. 
“Well, what does your name mean where you’re from, anyway? What does Eddard Stark mean in, what did you call it, Winterfell?”
“Turn around.”
Twilight tilted her head to the side, confused. “What on odd meaning for a—” she said, before hearing Spike shout her name from behind her. 
The baby dragon was running up to them at an impressive speed. “Twilight!”, he shouted, “that’s the monster I was telling you about!” Reaching Twilight, he stayed behind her, peering at Eddard cautiously. “It’s probably dangerous, what are you—”
Before Spike could finish his warning, Twilight interrupted him. “It is a he. His name is Eddard, and he’s not from around here. The least you could do is be polite,” she reprimanded her #1 assistant in a stern a manner as her tired and confused self could muster. Looking back at Spike, she noticed he was holding a scroll.
Spike looked up at Twilight, and passed her the message from Celestia. “So you’ve already managed to make friends with the scary alien?” He stroked his chin as if fiddling with an imaginary goatee. “Impressive”
“Uh. Alien? As in not from this Equestria, or what?” She looked at the strange being called Eddard, hoping for more details about Winterfell or wherever it was Eddard came. The alien said nothing, and he appeared somber, avoiding eye contact and looking at the ground. He seemed to be lost in his thoughts again, and by his expression she could tell they were not pleasant ones.
Giving up on Eddard elaborating on his situation further, Twilight turned her attention to the letter from her mentor, Princess Celestia. Opening and holding it in midair with her magic, Twilight began to read.

To my most faithful student, Twilight Sparkle

There are some things I need to inform you of. I regret that I must communicate this via letter, as my visiting Ponyville unscheduled would bring attention that would distract us from the urgent matter at hoof. Under no circumstances are you to let anypony besides Spike and the other Element bearers know of the contents of this scroll, and I recommend you burn it when you are done reading it.
There is a magic border above Equestria, and in fact over the entire world, known as the Veil. It is higher than Pegasi can fly, and it has been theorized by my top researchers to be a barrier between our world and other realities. The reason you’ve almost certainly never heard of it before is really quite simple; due to the dangerous and mysterious nature of such a border, its existence is a carefully kept secret, with only twelve living ponies authorised to know of its existence, over half of whom are dedicated to its research.
Actually, I suppose it is eighteen authorized ponies and a young dragon now, with my having confided in you and your friends. I’m sorry I’ve had to keep such an interesting magical subject from you for so long, and I’m sure you aren’t happy to learn of my keeping this secret from you, and from Equestria. However, to be frank, knowledge of the possibility of worlds is dangerous, as some would try to find a way through the Veil to other worlds.
This wouldn’t be nearly so much of a problem, if it weren’t for the one thing we know to have entered Equestria through this boundary. The Nightmare, which possessed my sister, twisting her to its awful will over a millennium ago, is not from Equestria, nor any other place in this world. According to Luna, it confided in her during their long imprisonment as Nightmare Moon, and claimed it came through the Veil, from another world, to ‘help’ her. The bit about helping her was one of the Nightmare’s many lies, but our researchers did notice an anomaly in the veil, a ripple of sorts, in the weeks before her rebellion kicked off the War of the Sun and Moon, so it is very likely that the dark spirit spoke truthfully of its origins.
I am informing you of all this for one reason. There has been another ripple in the Veil consistent with something coming through into our world, much as the Nightmare did a thousand years ago. The disturbance in the Veil was noticed last night by an employee at the Royal Observatory, and was brought to me by the Observatory Director, as soon as he recognized what it was. The ripple was located directly above Ponyville. 
As your mentor, Princess, and as your friend, I urge that you keep an eye out for anything unusual in Ponyville. Whatever it is that has entered Equestria, there is a good chance it is dangerous, and I advise the utmost caution. There will be guards sent to the area to patrol the Everfree forest in case whatever it is takes up residence there, but they will not be informed of the details of the situation. I am trusting this entirely to you and a your friends. Please keep me informed of any developments in Ponyville, if and when they occur.

Wishing you luck,
Princess Celestia

Twilight, being the extremely intelligent mare she was, realized the implications of the Veil as soon as it was mentioned to be above Equestria. Her mysterious visitor had fallen from the sky, after all. Normally she would be rather panicked at having to suddenly deal with a visitor from another world, who was quite possibly dangerous, but she was getting somewhat numbed to the outlandishness of her current situation. Also, despite Celestia’s warning, it was clear to her that this ‘Eddard Stark’ had no desire to be in Equestria, and seemed distraught over his situation. In other words, he didn’t come here to wreak havoc on a peaceful word, but was instead sent here against his will. 
Handing the young dragon back the scroll, she addressed her number one assistant. “Spike, we need to respond to the Princess as soon as possible.” Twilight said, with a quiet urgency to her voice. “Eddard, we should probably try to keep you out of sight for now. Would you mind returning with me to my home?”
“It’s fine,” he responded. “It isn’t as if I have anything better to do around here.”
The walk back to the library was rather solemn. Twilight had to fight back an urge to ask Eddard countless questions that popped into her mind, such as what his species was called, or what sorts of magic there was where he was from. She was fairly sure being pestered about the world he was from wouldn’t help Eddard adjust to being in Equestria, and doubted he’d react well to such questions anyhow. Upon their arrival back at the library, she asked Spike to find a book on Equestrian history for Eddard. After a quick search, their visitor from beyond the Veil was sitting on the stairs, reluctantly reading a relatively relatively new history textbook. If he had any thoughts on Equestrian history, he didn’t state them.
As soon as Eddard sat down with the book, Twilight grabbed a quill with her magic, and quickly began to write a letter to the Princess.

Dear Princess Celestia, 

I’ve found our visitor from beyond the Veil already. He’s some kind of tall bipedal creature. He does looks a bit scary, but as far as I can tell he’s here in Equestria against his will, and doesn’t mean anypony any harm. I’ve only just met him, and will send you more details as I converse with him further. His name is Eddard Stark, by the way, and he mentioned being from somewhere called Winterfell. I’m not sure if that’s the name of the world he’s from or not, but judging by the context in which he said it, it’s probably a city. He kept referring to a failure on his part, and said that something called Westeros, which might be the world he’s from, was going to suffer as a result of his failure. He seems quite distressed by his situation. If I had to guess, it sounds like he was someone important in his world, which is in some degree of danger. No details on that yet, though.
This is so exciting, a chance to learn about a whole different reality! I really wish you’d told me about the Veil sooner, its very existence implies all sorts of fascinating things, and I’m sure I’ve only just scratched the surface. I’d love to read some of the research done about the Veil and other worlds sometime, if that’s alright.
I’ll try to stop rambling now. Please respond when you can.

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle