Chapter 1
Rainbow Dash didn’t make it far out of the library before she ran into Applejack and the other three ponies she was looking for.
“What are you guys doing here already?” Rainbow asked.
“We all saw somethin’ in the sky crash into Twilight’s library. We wanted to make sure y’all was doin’ okay,” answered Applejack.
“Yeah! There was a big flaming thing in the sky and it was flying in circles and then it went to attack Twilight’s library and then I thought ‘Oh no, what if Twilight’s in trouble?’ so I went to try and find Fluttershy, Applejack, and Rarity but they were already on their way. But I couldn’t find you but now I know where you are!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed all in one breath.
“Was anypony hurt?” Fluttershy asked meekly.
“Don’t worry. No pony was hurt. We might have a bit of a problem, though.” Rainbow said.
“What kind of problem?” queried Rarity.
Rainbow looked around to make sure no one was listening. When she was sure they were alone, she leaned her head in so only her friends heard what she was about to say, just in case. The four others did the same.
“An alien kind of problem,” Rainbow whispered, completely serious.
That was enough to get a scared squeal out of Fluttershy and have her hide behind Rarity.
“You’re joking, right?” Rarity said to Rainbow. She was not amused. “An alien?”
Pinkie pulled Rainbow Dash close. “Rainbow Dash,” she said dead seriously, “I need you to answer this next question to the best of your ability, okay?”
Rainbow nodded, a bit startled at Pinkie’s change in demeanor.
“Can we…” she began. She took a second to look to the left and then to the right for any eavesdroppers before returning her attention back to Rainbow. Pinkie leaned in so she could whisper into her ear. “Throw it a party?”
Rainbow pulled back, thrown off by such an odd question.
“Pinkie, what does that—“ Rainbow was cut off.
“Answer the question!” Pinkie yelled, her face now inches from Rainbow’s.
“Uh, I-I don’t know, maybe?” she stammered. “Ask Twilight.”
“Okie dokie lokie!” Pinkie said happily and trotted past Rainbow and into the library as if nothing happened at all.
“Sometimes Ah wonder about her,” Applejack stated after witnessing the whole thing unfold. “Come on everypony, let’s go,” she nodded to the door and made her way inside, followed closely by Rainbow.
Rarity looked at Fluttershy and shrugged before also making her way inside. Fluttershy reluctantly followed.
“Spike, I need you to get a message to Princess Celestia stating that a strange creature was found in the library and that she should try and make her way here as soon as possible,” Twilight said.
Spike nodded and went to go find a scroll and writing utensil.
Twilight returned her attention back to the alien that was still unconscious, face-down on the floor. Using her telekinesis, she carefully levitated the body. Twilight was going to bring it down to the basement in order to try and keep it hidden. If the rest of Ponyville saw it, they probably wouldn't take it well, considering the whole Zecora incident that happened not too long ago. The only ones that learned from that experience were her and her friends, which mildly disappointed Twilight.
The basement would also prove to be a much more suitable containment area than her bedroom, if she needed it to be used as such.
She noticed a pool of blood forming where the head was. It needed medical attention sooner rather than later.
She felt some sort of sympathy for the alien, even though it put the library in pretty bad shape when it flew a boulder into her bedroom.
She made her way to the stairs and descended with the alien’s unconscious form behind her. When she arrived in the library section of her abode, Pinkie ran up to her.
“Can we throw the alien a party?” asked Pinkie with a huge smile, cutting right to the chase.
“Not now, Pinkie,” Twilight replied. “Maybe later.” Parties were the last thing she needed to deal with right now. A party for the alien who just crash-landed into her library was not an idea she could get behind at the moment. “Wait, when did you get here, anyway?”
“Just now.”
“Good. Do you know where the others are?”
“Right ‘ere, Twilight,” Applejack said as she walked in the library with her four other friends in tow.
“That was fast, Rainbow,” Twilight complimented with a nod of her head toward the cyan pegasus, clearly impressed at how fast she retrieved her friends.
“Well, I’m not the fastest flier in Equestria for nothing,” Rainbow boasted.
“She found us already on our way, was what Rainbow meant to—Oh, dear Celestia, what are you doing, Twilight!?” Rarity screamed, startling Twilight with her sudden increase in volume.
Twilight lost her concentration for a moment and dropped the unconscious body behind her. Everypony winced when they all saw the alien’s head bounce off the floor, except Rarity. She was too focused on something else to care about such minor things like head-related injuries.
“What, what’d I do!?” Twilight yelled.
Rarity used her own telekinesis to lift the body, removed what looked like its coat and floated it over to herself. Unknown to Twilight, it was dragging along the floor behind her.
“You can’t just simply let a fabulous coat like this drag along the floor like that, Twilight,” Rarity said in a scolding manner. She lifted the coat, folded it, and put it onto her back. It was black and rather long, and it felt like it was made out of cotton. “I’ll hold on to it until he wakes up.”
Everypony else collectively face-hoofed.
Twilight was a bit angry at her for distracting everypony from the situation at hand, but the anger quickly changed into curiosity when she realized what Rarity said. “How do you know it is male?” Twilight asked curiously.
“Stallions usually only wear clothes like these,” she gestured to the body that was haphazardly thrown onto the floor. Twilight took a moment to observe. It was wearing a white, button-up dress shirt tucked into some sort of pants made out of what seemed like denim to Twilight. The alien also had some sort of apparel on the bottom of what appeared to be its hind-legs. Moving her gaze up its body, she took note of its facial features. It had stubble along its face with light brown hair on top of its head. It was also rather bloody, due to the fact there was a large gash on its forehead.
She also took note of the second pool of blood forming under its head. Twilight felt a pang of guilt shoot through her, knowing she probably made the alien’s injuries worse.
“Good observation Rarity, I never knew that,” Twilight said with a smile, thankful that Rarity’s knowledge of clothing proved useful in one of the questions that plagued her mind. “But we still have to get him to the basement to treat his wounds,” she told her friends, trying to move the situation along. “After that, we can wait for him to wake up. Before he does, though, I’m going to cast an enchantment on him so he can’t move once he regains consciousness.”
“That is, if he regains consciousness,” Rainbow stated.
The thought of Rainbow’s implications made Fluttershy’s face pale. “You mean he’s going to d-d-d-die?” she stammered the last word.
“Of course he isn’t, dear,” Rarity said while trotting over to the frightened pegasus to try to assuage her fears. “She misspoke. Right, Rainbow Dash?” She shot an icy glare at the cyan pony that lowered the temperature in the room by a few degrees.
“Oh, yeah. Right. Definitely misspoke,” Rainbow quickly agreed with a nod of her head, frightened by the glare that was being sent her way. “What I meant to say was that he was going to be fine.”
“O-oh, o-okay then,” Fluttershy said quietly.
“Are y’all comin’ or what!?” yelled Applejack from the basement. She had made her way to the basement with Pinkie and Twilight while the others were busy with passive-aggressive threats upstairs.
“Yes, darling, we’re coming,” She and Fluttershy made their way to the door. Fluttershy went down the stairs, followed by Rarity, but not before shooting one more look at Rainbow Dash.
“Jeez, I didn’t even do anything wrong this time,” Rainbow muttered before following as well.
In the basement, Twilight laid the body of the unconscious alien on the table that she had asked Applejack to retrieve from the storage area. Applejack then gave the first aid kit she also brought out from the storage to Twilight, who nodded in thanks. The first thing she did was cast a spell that prevented the alien from moving most of his body when he regained consciousness. It would be able to talk and move its head, but not move in any other way until she removed the enchantment.
She turned around and saw the rest of their party descending the steps. Twilight waved them over with her hoof.
“Fluttershy, can I ask you to do a favor for me?” Twilight asked.
Fluttershy had a feeling she was going to have to go near alien she feared so much. “Sure, what do you need, Twilight?” she replied quietly, hoping her thoughts proved to be wrong.
“I need you to examine our guest here,” she gestured to the alien, “and tend to any injuries he might have. You’re the only one of us who has any medical experience. Plus, you take care of animals for a living, so do you think you could take care of him?” She looked at Fluttershy with a pleading expression. “I may or may not have aggravated his injuries when Rarity startled me and I don’t know what any healing spells might do to him.”
Fluttershy did not want to do it. At all. She was too scared. But she couldn’t refuse to help somepony who needed help, even if he wasn’t a pony.
Swallowing her fear, she reluctantly took the first aid kit and began to examine her new patient.
While Fluttershy was doing what Twilight asked, Spike came running down the stairs with an open scroll in his hand. He looked terribly out of breath and walked up to Twilight.
“We didn’t have any scrolls in the library,” he said in-between breaths with irritation, “I had to run into town to get some. A lot of ponies are confused about what happened here and are talking about investigating this place. They wouldn’t stop asking me questions about what happened. Anyway, here’s what I wrote for the message.”
He cleared his throat and began:
Dear Princess Celestia,
An alien has crash landed in Twilight’s library.
She has asked you to come visit Ponyville as soon as possible.
From,
Spike
Twilight looked at Spike with a deadpan expression. “That’s it?”
“Yes.”
“You couldn’t have written more?”
“Does it matter?”
“Fine, I guess it doesn’t really matter anyway; you wrote it not me.”
Spike shrugged. “Whatever,” he said without a care. Taking the message in his claw, he breathed his emerald green fire over it, magically sending it to Celestia.
While Twilight and Spike were talking, Applejack and Rainbow Dash were arguing over some manner of competition while Pinkie Pie was talking Rarity’s ear off about the party she was going to throw for her newest friend, even though he wasn’t conscious yet. Fluttershy was carefully examining the alien lying on the table.
From what she could tell, nothing was broken. She wasn’t sure where to start to look for any signs of internal injuries, so she settled on just listening to his heart for the moment. She put an ear to his chest and began listening.
Thump-thump-thump-thump
She drew her head back in shock. Hearts don’t beat like that Fluttershy thought. She wasn’t sure whether or not to tell her friends about the odd pattern the alien’s heart was beating.
After pondering for a moment, she decided not to, since his heart may be normal for whatever species he may be. She didn't want to cause any unneeded panic about the alien's health.
Moving up from his chest, she examined his head. She noticed the large gash on his forehead that was still leaking blood and a much smaller one on the back. She decided that best course of action was stitches. Fluttershy opened the first aid kit and took out a sterilized needle with surgical suture.
After the wound on his forehead was closed, she went back to the first aid kit and took out bandages to wrap around his head.
“Twilight, could you hold his head up with your magic so I could wrap these bandages around his head?” Fluttershy asked timidly, “I-I mean… If you want to, that is…”
“Sure,” Twilight responded. She lifted up his head to give Fluttershy a better angle to apply the bandages.
While bandaging his bloody wounds, Fluttershy examined her stich-work to make sure she did it correctly. Everything seemed to be a-okay.
What was not a-okay made her drop the bandages and caused her eyes shrink in fear.
The alien was looking at her.
When he awoke, the first thing he noticed was that the injuries he sustained when he crash-landed were being tended to by some form of female equine. With wings. Who had a yellow coat and a pink mane. A pastel pegasus with medical knowledge is fixing up my wounds. He mentally sighed. It’s going to be one of those days, isn’t it?
He tried to move, but quickly found that he was somehow incapacitated. His head was being lifted by something, so he got a good look at his body to try and get a look at what was restricting him. To his frustration, he saw nothing visible. He did, however, see that someone had taken his duster, but not the rest of his clothing. What a strange group of people. If someone took one, they usually took the other, but these people didn’t.
He was broken out of his reverie when the pegasus had dropped her bandages. He returned his attention back to the equine in front of him and noticed her expression was that of extreme horror.
She was shivering and looked she wanted to run far, far away, but couldn’t because she was so petrified. She wanted to scream, to yell for help or do anything, but her fear overpowered her.
Unfortunately, he didn’t realize that he was the cause of her terror.
So, as always whenever he visited new a new planet’s people, he tried to be diplomatic and hoped for the best.
“Hello, Miss. Is something the matter?” he asked as nicely as he could, trying to get on the pegasus’ good side early on.
Instead of answering his question, she started to cry.
Well, shit. Unfortunately for him, her crying caught the attention of the other five equine beings in the room he didn’t notice until now.
They each had a colorful coat and mane with some manner of image on their flank. He couldn’t accurately guess their size from the angle his head was positioned in and the height of the table he was lying on, however. From left to right, he saw purple, pink, white, orange and finally yellow, which was the color of the equine right in front of him.
What really caught his eye was the one flying above them. She had a cyan coat with a rainbow mane, and her facial expression went through a number of emotions at the same time. I’ve never or even heard of this species before…Where exactly am I?
They all stared at him with shock in their eyes. He guessed that they had not been expecting such a quick recovery from him, judging by their aghast expressions. He noticed that the one with the rainbow mane promptly switched from what looked like an alarmed expression to quite an angry one.
He quickly learned why.
Apparently the crying of the yellow one angered the equine with the rainbow mane, because she rushed over and punched him right in the face while yelling into his ear.
“What did you do to Fluttershy!?” she screamed. When he didn’t answer immediately, she punched him again.
“Ow! You bitch!” he yelled before he could stop himself.
That angered her even more. She was about to deliver two hooves of righteous justice to his face when she was stopped short by some manner of purple force-field.
“Rainbow, stop!” the purple equine exclaimed. “What’d you do that for!?”
“He made Fluttershy cry!” She pointed at him with a hoof. “Nopony makes Fluttershy cry!”
Nopony? At least now he knew what they were called. This revelation didn’t calm his nerves, though.
“I’m sorry for whatever I did! Just don’t punch me anymore!” he pleaded. He had no way of defending himself in such a vulnerable position.
The one the purple pony called “Rainbow” looked pensive for a moment. She didn’t like the fact that he was the cause of Fluttershy’s grief, but didn’t want to potentially anger the alien. She didn’t know what he was capable of just yet, so invoking his potential wrath might not be the best of ideas. He also said he was sorry, so she looked past his transgression for the time being.
“Fine,” she huffed and walked over to where the other ponies were watching impassively. He observed their lack of a fuck to give over the fact that their friend was about stomp his face in. What the hell did I do that was so detestable?
He also noticed that Fluttershy was still crying. Probably because of all the yelling.
“I’m so sorry,” the purple pony said, “but some ponies just can’t control themselves,” she glared at Rainbow.
“Thank you for telling me, I thought that was how your kind said ‘Hello,’” he replied a bit sarcastically, face still sore from the being punched with a hoof. He never realized how hard hooves can hit. Either that, or ponies are deceptively powerful on this planet.
Behind her, he observed a small, purple reptile burp out a scroll, seemingly at random. It appeared to be a child from its facial characteristics and stature, but still looked a might dangerous. It also had green spines on its head that ran down along its back onto the tail.
He quickly forgot about his pain after seeing something he knew should not have happened.
“Did that reptile just burp up paper in a green flame?” he asked, flabbergasted. He hadn’t even been awake for five minutes and the laws of physics were already being broken. Must be a Monday.
Before the reptile could form some manner of reply, a voice came from upstairs.
“Hello? Is everypony alright down there? The entire town saw that giant rock crash into the library. We want to know if everything’s all right,” the voice said in an uneasy tone. It sounded feminine.
The purple pony’s demeanor clearly went from cool and collected, to a bit frantic. The orange pony with the Stetson hat noticed this and made her way to the stairs.
“Don’t you worry, Twilight,” she whispered, “Us five will keep ‘em busy and lead ‘em away from th’ library. You deal with this alien business. C’mon, everypony.”
Twilight nodded, and the orange pony made her way to the steps, followed by only three more ponies.
“I’m not leaving you alone here with that thing, Twilight,” Rainbow stated.
“I’ll be fine, trust me,” said Twilight.
“I won’t take no for an answer.” Rainbow walked over next to her, sat down and faced the alien, ending their little quarrel. Twilight only sighed with irritation at her defiance.
During their small argument, he took note of the purple pony’s name. That didn’t solve his primary problem, though.
He was starting to lose his patience over being bound. He awoke nothing more than a captive to these ponies, and now he was starting to grow tired of it. Rainbow might assault him again, and he wanted to avoid that. He was lucky that she hadn’t injured him any more than he already was the first time, and he didn’t want to test his luck once more.
So with that on his mind, he tried to get the situation moving along.
“Look, Twilight, it doesn’t matter who’s here and who isn’t at the moment, can we just get on with the damn introductions already?” he stated, clearly more than a little annoyed.
Rainbow once again rushed up to his face. “We’ll be asking the questions, here,” she said, trying to intimidate him. To his credit, he didn’t flinch. He just glared at her.
Twilight, sensing the tension, used her telekinesis to remove Rainbow from his personal space.
“Rainbow, please show at least some respect,” Twilight whispered to her, also starting to lose her patience with the pegasus. Rainbow shook her head.
“Listen, Rainbow, I don’t know what I did, nor do I care, but I sincerely apologize for whatever transgression I am accidentally responsible for. Now can we please get this show on the fucking road already?” the alien said.
“First of all, that’s Rainbow Dash to you,” she stated first and foremost.
“All right, fine, whatever.”
She nodded, then went to reply to his earlier statement. “Besides make Fluttershy cry, you didn’t do anything wrong. I just don’t trust you.”
“Rainbow,” Twilight said, gaining her attention, “you don’t have to trust him to be diplomatic. Just, please, show some kindness and apologize for being difficult.”
“No,” Rainbow defied. She wasn’t going to apologize to the potential dangerous creature for taking what she thought were precautions.
Okay, enough bullshit. He was getting tired of this pointless arguing. He decided to drop the nice guy attitude for a moment. “HEY!” he yelled, frustration clearly etched on his face. They both jumped at his voice, but at least he gained their attention. “Here’s what’s going to happen. First, you’re going to release from whatever it is that’s binding me. Next, we’re going to introduce ourselves like adults and not argue like children. Then, Twilight and I are going to have a little ‘Q and A’ while you,” he looked at Rainbow, “shut your fucking mouth. Everyone understand what I just said? Because I’m not in the mood to repeat myself.”
Rainbow opened her mouth to respond—most likely with an insult—but Twilight shut it with magic.
“Yes,” Twilight answered, “we understand.” She levitated her notes and quill to herself. She had written down a series of questions she wanted to ask the alien when it woke up while Fluttershy was treating his wounds.
Rainbow glared at her, but she ignored it.
“But I can’t release you just yet,” Twilight added.
Fucking damn it. “And why, pray tell, can you not let me go?” he said through gritted teeth.
“For all I know, you could be dangerous, and you could attack us immediately once you gain your freedom.”
His anger went away and he thought for a moment. Damn, she does have a good point. “Fair enough; I suppose I would do the same, but perhaps not so extreme like what you did to me,” he said, still a bit annoyed at remaining in his current state. “Now, onto those introductions, then.”
Twilight nodded and cleared her throat. “My name is Twilight Sparkle, protégé of Princess Celestia,” she stated with a hint of pride.
“And I’m Rainbow Dash, fastest flier in all of Equestria!” Rainbow declared, oozing with self-confidence.
“And I’m Spike the dragon,” Spike said, trying to be a part of the conversation.
Unfortunately for him, no one was paying attention to Spike at that time; the others had more important things to do.
“Pleasure to meet you all,” he said with a nod. For whatever reason, he could move his head, not his body, which was something that perplexed him. “My name is Ent,” he said quickly then tried to change the subject. “Now onto the questions.”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “Like those half tree, half pony creatures in mythology?” she queried as to what his name meant.
Ent frowned. Everytime he told someone his name, they always asked him that first. It got old the very first time someone made that assumption.
“No,” he said, more than a bit annoyed, “not like those creatures. ‘Ent’ is a suffix if you want to get technical. It means ‘different’ in the dictionary. But to me, it’s sort of a nickname of my second name.”
“All right. What’s your first name then?” Twilight asked.
“I…” he began, but paused for a moment, “I don’t actually know,” he finished a bit sadly.
“How can you not know your own name?” Rainbow inquired.
“I hardly think that’s any of your business.” He shot a glare at the pegasus before returning his attention back to Twilight.
“Fine, don’t answer. It’s not like I cared anyway,” she said nonchalantly.
Twilight sighed. “How about your full, second name?”
He stared at her for a moment. “Not important,” he eventually said.
“Okay then,” she spoke. Before she could go on to the next question, he asked a brief question.
“What were the names of those other four that left, if I might ask quickly so that I know them by name?”
“The orange pony with the Stetson is Applejack; the pony with the white coat and purple mane is Rarity; the pink pony is Pinkie Pie; and—“ she was cut off by Rainbow.
“And the one you made cry was Fluttershy,” she said with a glare.
“Did I not apologize for that two minutes ago?” The pegasus was wearing on his nerves like no other.
Rainbow narrowed her eyes. “Doesn’t mean it didn’t happen.”
Seeing where this was going, Spike was about to cut in and remind Twilight about the royal message, but stopped short when ponies began to descend from the stairs. It was those who had left to distract the townspeople.
“That was rather quick,” Twilight stated. They must have had at least half the town wondering what happened here and they got rid of them in five minutes?
“I told them that if they left, they’d get free treats at Sugarcube Corner for the next week!” the pink pony exclaimed. Immediately after she spoke, she noticed that Ent was looking her way. She jumped into the air and gasped loudly.
Before Ent could utter a reaction, his field of view was suddenly pink.
“Oh my gosh! Hi, Mr. Alien, my name’s Pinkie Pie, and I’m going to throw you a ‘Welcome-to-Ponyville’ party at Sugarcube Corner where I can introduce you to the Cakes and give you cupcakes and introduce you to everypony in town and have a whole bunch of fun—“ Pinkie didn’t stop talking, not even to breathe. It looked like she didn’t need to anyway.
Ent’s head started to spin as he tried to keep up with Pinkie’s rant of parties and confectionery sweets. Never had he heard someone speak with such speed and disorganization before.
“—and after the deal in the back alley we can go and find the Temple of Doom with Indiana Pones and Daring Do—“ Pinkie was cut off by Twilight.
“Pinkie!” Twilight shouted. She instantly quieted down. “We’re trying to learn about him first; once Princess Celestia gets here and says he’s okay to go into town, then you can throw him a party, okay?”
She nodded furiously, the impossibly large grin still on her face.
Twilight was about to ask the second question on her list when Rarity spoke up.
“Oh, Twilight,” Rarity said, “I don’t mean to interrupt, but do you think I can ask him a quick question about this absolutely lovely coat he has?”
Twilight sighed. So many distractions… “You should ask him, not me.”
Ent nodded at the one he recognized as Rarity that she could ask away. He noticed his duster was folded neatly on her back.
“Where did you acquire this gorgeous piece of clothing?” She lifted the duster of her back with her magic and levitated it in front of him.
He tried to formulate a proper response, but his brain was too busy trying to the impossible thing occurring before him. The thought of something levitating on its own was unheard of to him, yet his duster was doing just that right in front of his eyes. Ent had never seen their magic before, but it was safe to say he was dumbfounded. Along with her magic, he also noticed that she had an air of sophistication about her that the others lacked.
He has met these types of people before in his travels, so he knew exactly how they were like and how they worked. All he needed to do was to speak and act like he, too, was from a higher class people, and he would be on her good side. Too bad he didn’t much care for those kinds of people at all, so he didn’t really give an attempt do so.
“I cured a family’s elder from a rare disease about a year ago,” he responded after a few moments. “He gave it to me as a gift of thanks. Nice person, too. It was a shame that he died of cholera the next week,” he finished a bit sadly.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Rarity apologized. “I didn’t mean to bring up bad memories, darling.”
Although he was a bit saddened at the old man’s death, the man was ninety. He said that he lived a good life, had no regrets, and all that jazz. The old man was probably going to pass away sooner rather than later anyway.
“It’s all right, don’t worry about it,” he replied. “And could you leave that here with me?” He indicated to the coat with his head.
Rarity nodded and set the coat down on a table a couple of feet away from him.
“Okay then, now that that’s taken care of, how about those questions?” Twilight urged. She readied her quill and was about to ask the first question before she was once again beaten to the punch. This time by Ent.
“Actually, before you begin, I have to ask. Could the others leave? Some of my answers could be rather…sensitive to some. You seem to know what you’re doing, so I trust you not to freak out when I answer, but not them.” He gestured with his head to the others that were watching intently. “No offense,” he added hastily. The interaction with Rainbow earlier was still fresh in his mind, and he didn’t want another incident with any more of them.
“It’s alright,” Applejack stated, “no offense taken. With what Rainbow did earlier, we ain’t surprised you don’t trust us just yet. We’ll get out o’ yer mane right quick.”
“I already said I’m not leaving, Applejack,” Rainbow said once again.
Ent sighed and looked at her. “Can’t I do anything to make you trust me enough to at least leave the room?”
“You could Pinkie Promise!” Pinkie said.
He turned back to Rainbow. “Will that suffice?”
“Yeah, it will. Nopony can ever break a Pinkie Promise,” the rainbow pegasus said with a nod of her head.
“Why not?”
Pinkie walked up to him, a frown replacing the smile she had on her face just second before. “Because things happen to ponies that break a Pinkie Promise.” She lowered her head down to his ear. “Bad things,” she whispered.
A shiver went down his spine as she said that. “O…kay,” he responded, clearly unnerved by Pinkie’s abrupt change in mood.
“Great!” she exclaimed, a smile in place of the frown she was wearing. “Now repeat after me: ‘Cross my heart and hope to fly, stick a cupcake in my eye. I Pinkie Promise not to hurt anypony without a good reason.’”
He did as he was told, minus the gestures that went along with it. He even said ‘heart’ in the singular, just to be safe.
Everypony nodded, satisfied with his promise, and left the room. Rainbow stood where she was for a second more before also leaving with the rest of her friends. They went back up the stairs and closed the door behind them.
When he was sure they were out of earshot, Ent finally spoke.
“What is her problem? Why is she such a bitch?” Ent asked, finally expressing his dislike for the pegasus.
Twilight sighed sadly, and put her questions on hold. “Do you want the long or short story?”
“We seem to have plenty of time, so how about the long version?”
Twilight nodded and cleared her throat. “About two weeks ago, Rainbow’s old friend, Gilda, came to town to visit one day. Apparently she was very rude to everyone in town, including Fluttershy. She was friendly around Rainbow, though, since they were friends during their school years.
“At the time, Pinkie had been trying to spend time with Rainbow, but Gilda was not going to have that. She kept trying to force Pinkie away, but Pinkie can be very persistent if she wanted to. When she witnessed Gilda be so cruel to the townsponies, she decided a party could soften Gilda’s harsh attitude.
“When Pinkie inevitably threw her a party, she set off all the pranks Rainbow set up for laughs. At the time, I believe Gilda thought the pranks were Pinkie’s. So when she set them off, I guess that was the straw that broke the pony’s back because she lashed out and yelled at Pinkie for her ‘weak pranks,’ when Rainbow was actually the one that had set them up. Rainbow heard everything she said and they got into a pretty heated argument about Rainbow hanging out with ‘lame ponies’ and something about being ‘Queen Lame-o.’ Gilda stormed out of town after Rainbow picked us over her. Gilda hasn’t returned to apologize since that whole incident occurred. Not even Rainbow knows where she went.
“After that, Rainbow has been a bit…protective of her friends. Especially Fluttershy, since she’s so sensitive.”
“Ah, that explains it. But that still doesn’t give her an excuse to start punching people all willy-nilly.”
“Again, I’m terribly sorry on her behalf.”
“Think nothing of it; you stopped her from going too far, and for that I’m grateful. Now, onto the questions. You can ask yours first and I’ll ask my longer questions when you are finished.”
Twilight nodded. She shuffled her papers around, looking for the question she wasn’t able to ask until now. She found it after a moment and began.
“Okay, first and foremost, what’s the name of your species?”
“Time Lord,” he answered.
“Time…Lord?” Twiligh echoed curiously.
Ent nodded.
With a shrug she wrote down his answer. “Place of origin?”
“A planet named Gallifrey.”
“What exactly do your people do?”
“The Time Lords are a people who travel through time and make sure no person, group of people, or race abuse time or subvert it in any way. Well, at least most Time Lords do. There are always exceptions.” Like me…
“Travel…through time?” Twilight wasn’t sure if she could believe him or not. She had heard of a spell that allowed a pony to travel back in time for a few minutes, but an entire race that could travel both to the future and the past? “I find that a bit difficult to believe.”
Ent chuckled at that. “That’s what they all say. Next question.”
“If you’re telling the truth, then how are your people able to do such a thing?”
“We travel in ships called TARDISes—TARDIS stands for Time And Relative Dimension In Space by the way— that are able to travel within the time vortex as well as space. I’m going to stop right there, however, because this is where it gets complicated for the races who haven’t conquered time travel yet.”
“Oh, come on, it can’t be that difficult understand,”
“Have you even heard of the time vortex before today?”
“Well, no but—“
“Next question,” he interrupted. The way he spoke indicated that it was not up for discussion.
“Fine. How’d you end up here?”
“Honestly, not even I know right now,” Ent admitted, “I put the TARDIS on autopilot so I could read a book for a little while and the next thing I know, everything went wrong. Every alarm went off at the same time and there was extreme turbulence, which was odd because I wasn’t doing anything that required much movement or energy form the TARDIS. The next thing I remember is waking up here. I must have hit my head somewhere along the way. How did I get in this room, anyway?”
“Rainbow Dash, Spike and I found you unconscious in my bedroom, after you crashed your…TARDIS into the library. You probably did hit your head and stepped out of your ship, because we found you lying on the floor. I carried you down here because I felt it was a more stable environment for a…well, an alien.” She left out the part about dropping him on his head. “I had Fluttershy stitch up the gash on your forehead and wrap bandages around it to stop the bleeding.”
Ent nodded, taking all of the information in, and recalled seeing the yellow pegasus when he first awoke. “By the way, is Fluttershy all right? I hope I didn’t scare her too badly. She seemed pretty shook up after I tried to speak with her.”
“She’ll be fine. I bet Rarity is talking you up to her, trying to help her get over her fear. You got on her good side with that coat you were wearing when we found you.”
“That’s good.” Ent nodded, then realized something. “Now that I think about, though, you and the other four are taking this whole ‘alien-crashing-into-someone’s-home’ situation rather well. Why?”
“Let’s just say that we had a similar experience of someone new in town not being welcome. It took Applejack’s little sister to show us that the zebra who lived near town was not evil or dangerous or anything of the sort. Apparently we six were the only ones who learned from that ordeal, because the townsponies still act a bit skittish around creatures or new ponies they’ve never seen, which is another reason I brought you down here.” Twilight briefly recalled in her mind the first time she had seen Zecora, and how everypony in town had a severe case of xenophobia. Even she had been susceptible to the herd mentality and became a bit xenophobic herself. Since then, Twilight and her friends knew better than to judge ponies on appearance.
“Well, if you were the only ones that learned from that experience, why was I bound in the first place?” He knew she couldn’t escape that question without looking bad and he hoped it would be enough to have her release him.
“Oh, um, well…” she stammered trying to formulate a correct response. Twilight hadn’t thought of it that way, she was too focused on him being dangerous at the time. She shifted around uncomfortably while Ent grinned slightly at her. He’s definitely clever, I’ll give him that. Twilight realized she couldn’t say ‘because you were an alien’ because that would make her a hypocrite. She thought for a moment as to what to do and ultimately decided to give Ent his freedom. It was the only way she could keep her reputation with the Time Lord on good terms, and she decided that was the way to go.
With a sigh, she acquiesced and began to remove the enchantment from him. “You’re right, it was poor judgment on my part. Just don’t try anything sneaky and I won’t’ use my magic on you.”
She closed her eyes and her horn began to glow. She remained like that for a few seconds before she opened her eyes and looked expectantly at him. Ent tried to move his arm slightly and found that he could. He immediately went to an upright position on the table and observed the aspects of the room he wasn’t able to see due to the position on his back. It looked like it was some sort of laboratory. Located directly behind out of his line of sight was what seemed to be a chemistry set, with a myriad of test tubes, flasks, beakers and other various instruments of science on a multitude of tables along with a plentiful amount of paper, quills and ink. Along the other walls were shelves of books; some were missing, but most were still in their rightful position. He checked back to the tables and saw the missing books were open to specific pages. Ent figured she must have been experimenting with some chemicals recently. He focused his attention back to Twilight and the area around her. She was facing Ent, who was still sitting on top of the table, and to her left were the stairs that led to what he thought was common room of the library. The table itself was like the ones by the chemistry set, wooden and uncomfortable, but was long enough for Ent’s body to lie upon. Behind Twilight, he noticed that the purple reptile he had seen before was still in the room to them, and that both he and Twilight were completely oblivious to the fact.
“I thought I said everyone was to leave,” Ent said sternly. The reptile had heard all of their conversation so far, and Ent did not like that one bit.
“What are you talking about?” Twilight asked, oblivious to the presence behind her. Ent merely pointed a finger in the reptile’s direction.
She turned around and gasped. “Spike! What are you doing here? I thought you left with the others.”
“Well…I thought I could stay, you looked like you could use the help. And besides, you never said anything about dragons…” he answered as though he really didn’t think that when Ent asked all of the others to leave, he never meant Spike. Twilight seemed to believe Spike’s excuse.
But Ent knew better. He knew that Spike knew he was meant to leave, but decided to stay instead. He knew that Spike knew how to use his ‘childhood innocence’ to get out of compromising situations. Only few children knew that they could use that to their advantage, and Spike seemed to be one of them.
It was safe to say Ent immediately took a liking to this dragon. He seemed to know what’s up.
“Ent specifically said that everypony were to leave the room during our Q and A and you—“ she was cut off by Ent.
“Actually Twilight, I don’t mind Spike staying and observing our conversation. Who knows? He might have some important input on some topics.” Ent said in a neutral tone. He finally got up from the table and stood at his full height. Twilight looked in awe once she saw his how tall he was. She would only reach up to about his stomach in comparison.
He walked over to Spike who suddenly looked a bit nervous once he realized Ent was walking toward him. Ent knelt down to Spike’s level so he could speak quietly to the dragon without Twilight hearing him. “I know the game you’re playing Spike,” he said in a whisper. “You can be quite the deceptive one, can’t you?” Somehow, he was able notice Spike’s face go a shade paler through his scales. “And you definitely impressed me. I wouldn’t have expected that from you.” Ent balled his hand into a fist and held it before Spike who flinched as though Ent were going to hit him. Spike opened his eyes and looked at Ent’s fist. He moved his gaze to his own hand before making a fist himself and bumping it against the Time Lord’s.
A sort of unspoken agreement was formed at this moment, a treaty of sorts. Both Spike and Ent both had things they wanted to keep secret, and the fist-bump signified that they would have each other’s back in that regard. Spike and Ent both nodded simultaneously after a moment, as if their soundless conversation had just come to an end. Ent stood back up, and began to make his way toward the table that held his duster.
“What did you just say to Spike?” Twilight asked, a hint of worry creeping into her voice. She had watched the whole scene unfold and was a bit nervous because of how silent they seemed to be during the whole thing. She was thinking he used some form of magic or manipulation on him.
“I was complementing Spike on how purple his scales are today. They look absolutely fantastic,” he said while donning his coat.
“But…you’ve only met him once.”
He ignored her statement. “You should really step up your game in the purple department, Twilight. Now, any more questions you wish to ask before I begin to ask mine?”
She looked at him with scrutiny for a moment before answering his question. “Yes, I do have a few more questions. Will you be able to return to your home?”
He thought for a moment. “The answer to that question depends on the state of my TARDIS. I’d have to inspect it before I can answer that.”
“I don’t mean to sound paranoid, but I’d prefer it if you could stay in the basement here, at least until I get a hold of the Princess and she sends word about your presence to the town.”
He sighed. “Fine. I guess I should be grateful I even got this much freedom so far. When will the Princess be here?” He made sure to ask Twilight about who this “Princess” was when it was his turn in the Q and A.
“Princess Celestia sent this message about twenty minutes ago,” Spike cut in, holding a sealed scroll in his claws.
Twilight’s eyes widened in shock. “Why didn’t you say anything about the message, Spike!? It could be important!” Twilight frantically took the scroll in her magic and began to read. Spike only shook his head in annoyance as a response.
While she was reading, Ent took note of the subtle change in Twilight’s demeanor. It went from cool to stern, but was only noticeable if you were paying close attention to her movements, like Ent. Once she finished reading what was written in the scroll, she looked up at Ent.“The Princess will be here tomorrow at noon. She also specifically said that if ‘the alien’ were to cause trouble, she would deal with him personally.”
Ent wasn’t sure, but he thought that Twilight had meant for that last sentence to have some sort of underlying threat behind it: “Behave, or be dealt with” her hidden message seemed to say. He narrowed his eyes a bit in slight anger and stared at her for a moment. Twilight’s expression remained stoic and neutral. He turned his attention to Spike, who also seemed to pick up on the implied threat.
Honestly, Twilight’s subtle change in character surprised him a bit. She had acted rather friendly toward him in the beginning, yet here she was, making what seemed like implied threats now. What worried him was not the warning: it was the fact that he had considered her incapable of doing such a thing. Yes, he had only known her for about half of an hour, but her entire personality seemed to be against violence to him the entire time he had been awake. Twilight preventing Rainbow Dash from stomping his skull in only proved this to him. But what if it had all been a ruse thus far? He hadn’t known her long enough to know for certain. He had become a bit anxious at the fact that she might have been capable of such deceit and that there were more layers to her than she cared to show.
Or perhaps he was blowing this whole thing out of proportion. He didn’t exactly wake up in the best of situations, so he was a bit weary as to those around him. She might’ve just read what the scroll told her to do. Or…he could be right in his assumption of a threat. He was leaning toward the latter of both possibilities. She could’ve easily stated that last sentence in a way that it could be perceived as non-hostile and only a simple warning, but instead chose the way that made her seem she was the dominant one in the situation; which she was, no matter which way he looked at it. If she told the Princess that Ent was being troublesome or chaotic in some way, her word would most likely be trusted more than his. She could have him executed if she really wanted to. She was the protégé of the Princess after all. Why can’t things ever be straightforward for once?
After his inner monologue was settled, he returned his attention back to Twilight and decided to play it safe for now. “Why would I have reason to misbehave? I am here as a guest after all.”
“Good. We wouldn’t want any problems while you are a guest with us.” She smiled and lifted her notes back over to her. “I believe the questions that I’ve asked gave enough information. I believe it’s your turn to ask the questions.”
There it was again. In her second sentence this time. He couldn’t put his finger on it, but there was definitely something off about the way she was saying some things. It sounded almost ominous, but he couldn’t tell for sure. He also knew that she did have more questions to ask, but apparently decided against asking them, which seemed odd to him.
He pushed those thoughts to the back of his mind for now when Twilight mentioned it was his turn to ask the questions; he would dwell on them later. Or maybe perhaps ask the Princess about it tomorrow. A risky move, but it may pay off in the end.
“Yes, my turn. All right, for starters, what is the name of this planet?”
“Earth.”
Oh no. No. That definitely isn’t good… he thought.
Twilight observed as she saw Ent go from calm and collected to concerned for the first time.
“Uh, you wouldn’t happen to have a map of the planet’s continents, would you?” he asked with a bit of nervousness in his voice. There is only one way to know for sure…
“Yeah, sure, one second.” Her horn glowed for a moment as she used her magic to levitate over a folded world map. She unfolded it, and laid it down on the table Ent had been lying on before. He walked over and took a look at it.
No…
The continents, they were the same. Exactly the same as the Earth in which the humans lived in. “Twilight, this might seem like an odd question, but do humans exist here?”
Twilight raised an eyebrow. “What are humans?”
His heart sank. The evidence was right in front of him. He was in an different universe, no doubt about it. Even if his TARDIS was still in working order, he might not ever make it back to his universe. He knew nothing about traveling between universes, and yet, somehow, here he was. A similar Earth, but with a different species inhabiting it.
The fact he was in a different universe didn’t scare him. What unnerved him was how much different this universe might be from his. Was this Earth the only thing that changed? Or was everything different here? Were there Time Lords here as well? The questions kept forming, and he couldn’t answer any of them with certainty. Knowledge was one of his greatest weapons, and here he was unarmed.
“It doesn’t matter anymore. Don’t worry about it…” Ent sighed sadly. This day just keeps getting better and better.
“Okay. Anything else you wanted to know?”
“Yes, actually. Are there any other species besides ponies on this planet?”
“Of course. There are the three main types of ponies first of all: unicorns, pegasi, and earth ponies. Then there are also the alicorns, who have characteristics of all three types of ponies and are immensely powerful. The only alicorns in Equestria are the princesses.” She paused for a moment to let him take in the information. “Then there are the non-pony races. There are griffins, dragons, minotaurs, goats, and diamond dogs. Finally, we have the zebras, like I mentioned before. There are probably others we haven’t met on this planet, but we haven’t exactly explored every continent.”
“If you haven’t explored every continent, how could you have mapped the unexplored territories?” he asked. The continents were outlined on the map, but there weren’t any countries or cities labeled on it.
“Magic,” was all she said as if it explained everything. He shrugged and decided to ask the Princess about it tomorrow.
“Okay, fine, don’t tell me. How about the abilities of ponies and other races? I saw you using ‘magic’ earlier and I’d like to know what it is.”
“Well, that’s exactly what it is: magic.” She was a bit confused as to what he was trying to inquire.
“Really? No illusion, or anything of the sort?” he asked disbelievingly.
“Nope. We unicorns channel the magical energy that is within every pony through our horns. We can use this energy to manipulate the world around us to an extent like levitation, or as some call it, telekinesis. More advanced spells allow us to do more things, like the enchantment I cast on you earlier so you weren’t able to move.”
If Ent wasn’t worried at what happened previously in their conversation, he definitely was now. This new information about the ponies put them in a new light. They seemed infinitely more dangerous than before. If he could be so easily bound by one, small unicorn, what else could the unicorns do? What if they combined their power? What about the alicorns?
“What about the other races you mentioned?”
“Pegasi have the ability to control the weather and stand on or manipulate clouds. Griffins also have this ability, too. The earth ponies and diamond dogs have a magical connection with the Earth. The earth ponies are usually connected to farming and tending to nature, while the diamond dogs have the ability to manipulate the ground with ease. Zebras have the ability create various potions and medicine with herbs and plants found in nature. The minotaurs and goats are not magical in any way.”
Unbelievable. It seemed to Ent that the laws of physics need not apply in this universe; at least with the airborne races.
“The alicorns, however, have the properties of all three types of pony. They have both wings and a horn, and are larger than the average pony. Their magic is also incredibly powerful. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna can control both the sun and the moon.” She said the last part with pride, thinking it would impress the Time Lord.
Instead of looking fascinated, Ent stared at her for a moment, then broke out in laughter. He laughed so hard, he fell onto the floor, holding his sides. After five minutes of incessant guffawing, he finally calmed down enough to speak.
“Oh, Twilight, that was a good one! You sounded like you actually believed what you just said!” he yelled and proceeded to fall onto the ground with laughter once more.
Twilight just looked at him with a flustered scowl.
Once Ent calmed down for the second time, he looked at Twilight and realized she hadn’t joined in the laughter. “What’s wrong, Twilight? That was a fantastic joke!”
“That was not a joke,” she said through gritted teeth.
Ent’s smile quickly faded. “It wasn’t? How could it not be? Don’t tell me you actually believe that a single pony could control the sun.”
“Well, how else does the sun rise and set each day?” she asked smugly.
Oh boy, she’s one of those kinds. He decided not to test her patience at this moment. He would bring it up with the Princess, though. He played along for the moment. “I suppose you’re right. I have no idea what I’m talking about. No siree. Nope. The sun definitely sets via Princess, not gravity,” he said swiftly while nodding his head. It was difficult for him to agree with Twilight’s logic, even though he was lying, and it most definitely showed.
“Wait, what was that last part?” she asked.
Ent didn’t want to repeat himself, so he said the first thing that came to mind.
“Look! A dragon!” he shouted and pointed at Spike, trying to distract her.
“What!? Where!?” She followed his finger to Spike and sighed with relief. She looked back to Ent. “Yes, that’s Spike, and he’s a dragon. I thought we went over this already?” she said, a confused expression etched across her face.
Holy shit, he’s actually a dragon? “Oh yes, right, of course. I could’ve sworn he was someone else for a second.”
“But he and I are the only ones—“
“Never mind that, Twilight.” He looked at his wrist as though looking at a watch and feigned an expression of shock. “Oh look! Wouldn’t you know it’s time for bed? See you in the morning, Spike, Twilight!” He removed the map from the table and threw it at Twilight. He removed his duster, folded it up, and put it at the head of the table so it could be used as a pillow. Ent got up onto the table and lied down, facing away from Twilight.
“But it’s only five—“
He cut her off. “Good night, Twilight!”
She was a little put off at Ent’s suddenly odd behavior. She was going to confront him about it, but decided at the last moment not to. Twilight and Spike looked at each other for a moment and shrugged. They both made their way up the stairs and left Ent to his own devices.
Ent breathed a sigh of relief. Although he wanted to inquire more, he realized he might do more harm than good. If he let anything like the whole ‘sun’ conversation happen again, he might start something he couldn’t stop. If she didn’t know that the Earth revolved around the sun, it had to be for a reason. It better be a damn good reason, too.
‘Never interfere in the affairs of other planets’ was the Time Lords’ golden rule, and sadly his information might do the exact opposite of that.
He didn't realize how tired he actually was until he decided to lie down, so he drifted easily off to sleep after a few minutes.