//------------------------------// // 9. Splashdown // Story: The Dark Side of The Sun // by Nopony of note //------------------------------// The days when Twilight would wake up before her alarm were few and far between, but thanks to the erratic sleeping schedule she’d been forced to follow for the last few days, she found her eyes flickering open just a few minutes before her alarm clock was set to go off. Hardly moving, she watched the extra seconds tick away, and when the clock finally did begin to ring, a lavender hoof shot out from under the covers and silenced the clatter before it could last more than a second. Because Twilight had managed to turn in at a reasonable hour after returning from Canterlot and slept in her own bed for the first time in a very long time, she had managed to fall into a deep and heavy sleep that she so desperately needed. That meant, even with all the questions bouncing around inside her head from the hectic events of the previous day, the unicorn actually felt well-rested for once and did not find the prospect of getting up to be as arduous as she normally would. When Twilight sat up in her bed and surveyed the familiar surroundings of her bedroom, she saw Spike still tightly wrapped in his blanket and still snoring contentedly from his small basket bed in the corner, and decided he would prove slightly more resistant to waking up than she had been. Somewhere in the back of her mind, Twilight vaguely recalled that something important was going to happen today, and as she swung her legs off the bed and sat on the edge facing the window, she racked her brain to recall whatever it was that she had apparently been too tired to write down on a checklist or schedule before going to bed. When the realization struck her, it struck with such force that the poor unicorn was nearly knocked back into her bed. “Holy horsefeathers!” she exclaimed out loud. “Max is coming TODAY, and I haven’t said a word to my friends!” Spike snorted and turned over before being grabbed in a cloud of Twilight’s violet magic and violently yanked out of bed. “What’s – WHOA!” he yelled as Twilight magically threw him onto her back and galloped out of the bedroom and down the stairs. “Wh-what’s g-g-oing on?!” sputtered the dragon as he bounced up and down on Twilgiht’s back as she bounded down the library stairs. “Max is landing in Ponyville TODAY!” Twilight exclaimed, making a beeline straight across the main floor of the library with her assistant in tow. “And I have to go tell my friends everything that’s going on before he gets here!” Spike had just enough time to utter “Who’s Max?” before Twilight magically threw open her front door, prepared to flat-out gallop to each and every one of her friends’ houses. Instead, she stopped in her tracks before even setting a hoof outside of the library. Standing there in her doorway were five very colorful, familiar, and slightly startled mares. Applejack stood at the head of the group with one hoof raised in the air, as if she were about to knock on the door that was suddenly no longer closed. “Oh, uh, hi there, Twilight,” said the orange farm pony, putting her hoof back on the ground. “Hi, everypony,” Twilight responded, her eyes darting nervously back and forth between each of her friends. “I was just, uh, coming to see all of you about some…um, things.” Now it was Rarity’s turn to speak up. “Yes, well, yesterday evening, royal guards were going around Ponyville with some very curious news, and the gentle-colt that stopped by my boutique let slip that you would be back this morning, so–” Rarity was very suddenly cut off by Pinkie Pie, who jumped up, and landed directly in front of Twilight’s face, and said, “So we all decided to get up super-dee-duper early and head to the library as early as possible to see if you were really back and if you weren't we’d just go home and wait for you to get back but if you were we’d throw you a Welcome-back-to-Ponyville-and-we-hope-the-aliens-won’t-take-over-the-world party!” “Hold yer horses there, Pinks,” said Applejack calmly, firmly nudging Pinkie back so Twilight could have some breathing room. “We really came over to see what all went on while you were in Canterlot. And with what those guards were sayin’ last night, we figured there might be a few things we oughtta know.” Twilight sighed with relief before gently setting down Spike, who had been suspended in violet magic ever since he woke up. It looked as if she wouldn't have to go galloping all over town to tell her friends what happened. “You’re right, Applejack,” she responded. “There’s a lot I need to tell all of you before something really big happens today.” Twilight opened the door a little wider and stepped to the side, inviting all of her friends inside. Each of the five mares gratefully and quietly filed in, except for Pinkie, who bounced in happily and emitted some strange springy squeak with each bounce. Twilight closed the door softly and turned around to face her friends. “Okay,” she said. “Here’s what happ–” “Oh, before you start darling,” Rarity interrupted her. “You've an awful bed-mane. Let me fix that for you,” she said, leading Twilight to a nearby sofa and sitting down next to her and magically summoning a brush from the upstairs bedroom. The rest of the ponies and the dragon in the room all gathered around the sofa and looked at their frizzy-maned friend expectantly. And so with Rarity working on her mane, Twilight related the events of the past three days as completely and accurately as she could, going into as much detail as she could remember. She began with the observations that she made at the observatory with Doctor Whooves, and then went through the nights she spent staring through a telescope at a shape in the sky. The last part of her tale Twilight managed without interruption was the excursion to Max’s landing site the previous day. “Did you actually see the alien?” Fluttershy asked timidly. “Yeah, I did,” Twilight answered her. “What did it look like?” Fluttershy asked, suddenly very interested in the new creature. “Um, he was really tall,” Twilight said thoughtfully. “He was almost as tall as Princess Celestia, but he was bipedal, kind of like a Minotaur, but without the horns and the lower half of a goat. He wasn’t as big as Iron Will, but he had arms and hands and fingers and everything.” “So it wasn’t green or scaly or anything?” Rainbow asked. “No, nothing like that,” Twilight answered. “He didn’t have much of a coat, either. Except for the top of his head he was pretty much all pale-tan-ish skin.” “Was it a nice alien, or a scary one?” Fluttershy inquired, and at the thought of a scary alien in Equestria, her face retracted into her pink mane in a manner not unlike how a tortoise’s head would disappear into its shell.  “Don’t worry, Fluttershy,” Twilight reassured her. “He’s really nice and considerate. I even talked with him for a while. He told me-” “Hold on,” interjected Rainbow. “If the Princess sent three companies of armed guards to arrest the thing on sight, how in Equestria did you get to talk to it?” “Well, after he was taken back to Canterlot and thrown into the dungeon, I kind of, um, broke in.” All five other ponies in the room, including Spike, stared at Twilight with mouths agape. “So the princess throws an alien into a maximum security dungeon and you bust in just to talk to it?” Rainbow repeated disbelievingly. When Twilight timidly nodded, all of her friends just stared at her incredulously. Even Rarity halted her grooming to and looked at Twilight in disbelief. “That’s almost as nutty as Spike chasing after bunch of giant scary dragons after the migration,” Rainbow deadpanned, and then after raising an eyebrow in Spike’s direction, she added, “Almost.” “Now, Rainbow, there’s no need to be rude,” Rarity chided, resuming her work on Twilight’s mane. “Twilight is right here in front of us, safe and sound. I’m sure everything turned out alright.” “Rarity’s right,” said Applejack. “If Twi’s here, alive and well, she musta known what she was doin’.” After a brief pause, the farmer asked, “Ya did know what you were doin’, right Twi?” “More or less,” Twilight answered, conspicuously avoiding eye contact with her friends. “Well, which one was it?” Rainbow prodded. “More or less?” “Less,” the unicorn admitted quietly, and quickly added, “But he wasn’t dangerous at all. He told me that he’s an explorer from another planet, and even told me where he’s from.” Pinkie Pie saw an opportunity so mention parties, and did not hesitate to do so. “So where is he from? Do they have parties there? Can we throw him a party? Can it be a ‘Welcome-to-Equestria-and-we’re-happy-you’re-not-here-to-take-over-the-world’ party?” “Maybe later, Pinkie,” Twilight said. “Right now we've got more important things to do. Now, the guards all told you about a large flying machine landing near Ponyville today, right?” “Yeah, and they said it would be carrying some kind of creature on it that’s new to Equestria,” Applejack added. “Most ponies think it’s from some faraway land or something like that, but we all kinda got the hint that all this had something to do with everything that went on with the Princess a few days ago.” “You’re right, AJ,” Twilight conceded. “The flying machine landing in Ponyville today is going to be carrying that magic-less being from outer space. But like I said, I’ve already met him and I know he’s as friendly as an alien can be.” “Well, that really is a relief to hear,” Rarity said, putting down the brush. “But what are we to do with the Elements now?” “I guess we don’t need them anymore,” Twilight answered happily. “I’ll just collect them all later and return them to the Princess when I can. Speaking of the Princess, she gave me a very special job for today.” At this, Fluttershy poked her head out of her mane in curiosity. “And what is that special job, Twilight?” “We are to be Max’s guides to Equestria!” Twilight announced proudly. All five of the other ponies in the room responded in unison, “Who?” “That’s his name,” Twilight said flatly. “The alien’s name is Max.” “That’s kind of a boring name for an alien, don’t you think?” Rainbow deadpanned. “It’s not his full name, and he’ll tell me his full name when he gets here today,” Twilight clarified. “And speaking of which, we need to be prepared to give him a proper welcome when he lands his space ship. “Hell-oooooooo?”Pinkie interjected again.“That’s when my Welcome-to-Equestria-and-we’re-glad-you’re-not-here-to-take-over-the-planet-and-enslave-us-all’ party comes into play!” “Pinkie, dear,” Rarity said with exasperation in her tone. “I hasten to remind you that the general populace is not yet aware of our guest’s origins, and might not find such an aptly-themed party very reassuring.” Finally realizing she wouldn't get to throw a party for a friendly alien before the day was out, Pinkie visibly and audibly deflated. “Oh, alright,” she said dejectedly with drooping ears. “Don’t worry Pinkie,” Twilight told her. “We’ll throw him some kind of party before he leaves.” At this, the pink party pony perked up immediately and said cheerfully, “Okie-dokie-lokie.”     “Glad we got all that cleared up,”Applejack said with finality, and then asked, “So what are we supposed to do with this ‘Max’ feller when he shows up?” “According to Princess Celestia,” Twilight responded. “We need to show Max the best of Equestria.” “Well that’s easy,” Applejack said proudly. “Ah can just bring a few Sweet Apple Acres treats for him to munch on. Granny Smith always said the best way to any critter’s heart is through its stomach, and there ain't any apples in Equestria better than the ones we got here.” All the other ponies in the room voiced their enthusiastic agreement to Applejack’s statements, and when it was quiet, Rainbow Dash spoke up. “I think we all know who the best flyer in Equestria is,” said the Pegasus with a cocky smirk. “A few of my stunts and a quick sonic rainboom would be sure to blow his socks off.” “As much as Ah hate to stroke Rainbow’s ego, she’s got a point,” Applejack said and nodded her agreement. “Does he even wear socks?” Pinkie asked thoughtfully. “Because we say that all the time but I've never seen a pony wear socks, so a sonic rainboom can’t really blow a pony’s socks off because we don’t wear them. But if Max wears socks then Rainbow Dash probably would blow them off with her amazingly awesome sonic rainboom. But if he doesn't wear socks then he’s in the same boat as we are.” “Actually, Twilight,” Rarity said. “Pinkie raises a valid question. Does this Max character wear anything? You did say he didn’t have a coat like us, and I know without my coat I would feel awfully exposed.” Twilight actually burst into a fit of giggles in response to Rarity’s question, drawing yet another round of strange looks from her friends. “What’s so gosh-dern funny, Twi?” Applejack inquired with a raised eyebrow. “Oh, heh-heh, nothing,” Twilight responded once she got her laughing under control. “It’s just, when Max was taken back to Canterlot, the guards took everything he had on him, and I mean everything.” “Still not sure where you’re going with this…” Rainbow said bemusedly. “Sorry, let me explain,” Twilight apologized. “Yes, Rarity, he wears clothes. And he said his kind wears clothes all the time, so when the guards took his clothes…” Twilight trailed off and gave her friends a few seconds to draw their own conclusions. When Rarity connected the dots, her eyes went wide with understanding. “So what you’re saying is that you spoke with this creature while he was, um, naked?” The fashionista lowered her voice as she said the last word, since it was not only something of a taboo topic, but exactly how taboo of a topic it was could be considered in of itself another taboo. “Well, um, yes, but I really didn’t have much of a choice,” Twilight said primly. “But he kinda stayed hunched over in the corner of his cell until my brother went and got his clothes for him. It was actually kind of funny now that I think about it.” “Hold on,” Rainbow said again, holding up a hoof. “Did you just say your brother was in on this?” she asked, and when Twilight nodded, the Pegasus scoffed and said, “You’re both nutty.” Upon a receiving an annoyed glance from Rarity, Rainbow quickly added, “The good kind of nutty. Just like Spikey over there.” Just as the words left Rainbow’s mouth, Twilight suddenly remembered another pony she believed to be particularly nutty that she needed to have a talk with. “Hey, what time is it?” she asked to no one specifically, and glanced at the clock on a nearby wall. When she saw exactly what time it was, the unicorn drew in a sharp breath of shock. “What’s the matter now?” Fluttershy asked quietly, her gentle voice laced with concern. “Nothing, nothing,” Twilight said as he hopped off the couch and made her way to the door. “There’s a certain somepony that I need to have a serious chat with before all this starts.” The door glowed violet briefly as the unicorn exited the library, and quickly shut itself once she was out. Through the window, the remaining ponies and reptiles in the room watched as Twilight broke into a full gallop, in heading for the center of Ponyville. They all stared at each other for a short while, wondering exactly what had just happened. After a few seconds of silence, Applejack said, “Uh, Ah guess we’d better follow her.”     Apparently the appearance of a new creature in a new flying machine was a significant event to denizens of Ponyville, and yet again Twilight found herself bobbing and weaving through groups of ponies that all decided to rise early and witness Max’s arrival. Of course, there were only two ponies out and about that knew this new creature wasn’t from anywhere close by, and one was galloping about the town in search of the other. Twilight’s first stop had of course been Lyra’s humble abode, and when the dwelling turned out to be empty, Twilight’s next stop had been the musician’s instrument repair shop. Unfortunately, the shop was closed for the day. Finally, the poor unicorn had to resort to simply gallivanting throughout the town and sorting through all of the ponies that were milling about waiting for something exciting to happen, hoping she might find Lyra sometime before Max showed up in his space-ship. As Twilight darted through the crowd, she had to quickly mumble “Pardon” or “’Scuse me” multiple times after bumping into or nearly bumping into another pony, not unlike she had done just one day prior while on a similar mission in Canterlot Castle. She noticed that a few of the local food merchants decided to capitalize on the crowds being out so early and opened up their stands to the ponies loitering about the town. One such stand was selling various types of candies, gumdrops, lollipops, and any other type of snack that was completely composed of sugar and dyes. “Hey, Bon-Bon!” Twilight called to the candy-maker when she saw her cream-colored coat and blue-and-pink mane. “Hey there, Twilight,” Bon-Bon responded after recognizing the voice that called out her name. “You heard about the new creature arriving today, right? Isn't all this awesome?” “Yeah, yeah, really exciting,” Twilight said hurriedly as she approached the candy stand. “Listen, have you seen Lyra around yet?” Bon-Bon thought for a moment, and said, “Actually, no, I haven’t. Come to think of it, I haven’t seen much of her lately. I really thought she would turn out for something like this, but I haven’t seen her at all yet today.” Twilight groaned in frustration. “Ugh. I already checked her house and her music shop. Do you maybe have an idea of where else she could be? You are her best friend after all, right?” All Bon-Bon could do was shrug. “Sorry, Twilight. I got out here kinda early, and I figured she was just somewhere in the crowd and would stop by when she got hungry, but – hey, there she is!” Bon-Bon pointed with a hoof to somewhere behind Twilight, and she snapped around to see where the other pony was pointing. Sure enough, a few blocks away, there was a pale green unicorn near the park behind Town where the space ship was supposed to land, attempting to chat it up with a royal guard who was supposed to be keeping curious passerby away from the landing area. Lyra seemed to be greatly enjoying the conversation, but she also seemed to be doing most of the speaking. The guard just stood stoically at his post without moving a muscle, save the occasional irritated twitch at the corner of his mouth. “Alright. Thanks, Bon-Bon,” Twilight said and hurried off. “Come back if you want some saltwater taffy!” Bon-Bon called. “They’re on sale today!” To Bon-Bon’s disappointment, the chatter of the crowd drowned out the offer, and even if Twilight had been able to hear Bon-Bon, she had already stopped listening and was charging single-mindedly towards Lyra and the guard. When she got close enough, she was able to tune into the one-sided conversation. “So either you’re saying you can’t tell me where this thing came from,” Lyra said smugly with a smirk on her face. “Or you’re not important enough to know.” The stallion was managing to remain stoic and motionless, but seemed to be taking some effort to do so. “Anything other than what was announced last night is on a need-to-know basis,” he recited monotonously. “Information regarding the visitor will be released to the public as it becomes available.”         “So you’re saying nobody knows,” Lyra said with mock skepticism. The guard stallion said nothing. “Oh, how about this,” Lyra said excitedly. “If I guess it right would you tell me?” The guard stallion continued to say nothing and stared straight ahead. “Ok, so what if I guessed that this fella is from-” Lyra was cut off by Twilight, who exclaimed rather loudly, “Oh, there you are, Lyra! I have been looking all over the place for you!” As soon as she saw Twilight charging towards her, Lyra’s self-satisfied smirk dissipated and gave way to wide-eyed anxiety. “Oh, um,” she stammered. “Morning, Twilight. You found me, I guess…” “Yes I did, and now you’re coming with me,” Twilight said forcefully. “There’s something we need to talk about.” She began to walk off, and Lyra knew better than to ignore Twilight Sparkle and nervously trotted off after her. The guard stallion, finally alone again, let out a sigh of relief. Once she had caught up with Twilight, Lyra asked, “Okay, so what exactly is going on?” “Oh, I think you know exactly what’s going on,” Twilight responded without breaking her stride or turning to look at the other unicorn. “In fact, I think you know more than just about everypony in town about what’s going on.” “You don’t mean…” “Yes, Lyra, we found him too. And I talked to him. And he mentioned you.” “Ponyfeathers…” “Don’t worry. Right now I’m the only one who knows you found him. You’re not going to prison or anything. But what you will do is tell me exactly why you were out there and what you said to him. Word. For. Word.” Twilight accentuated the last three words of her demand by stomping on the ground solidly with each word. She wasn’t angry at Lyra, but she was trying to communicate the extreme gravity of the situation. “Well, you see Twilight, what happened was–” “Not now, Lyra. Max is going to land any minute. Later though, you will tell me everything.” Lyra sighed, and said, “Okay, Twilight.” At this point, the rest of Twilight’s friends finally caught up with her, and most were panting heavily. “How…does…Twilight…run…so…fast…?” Rarity said between ragged breaths to Spike, who was even more out of breath than she was. His stumpy little baby-dragon legs could only carry him over the ground so fast, after all. “I…have…no…idea,” Spike told her, leaning forwards with his hands resting on his knees in an attempt to catch his breath. “Oh, good,” Twilight said and turned around to face her friends. “You guys made it just in time. I think Max is going to land in…” She trailed off when she heard a distant rumble coming from the direction of the Everfree Forest, almost like thunder, but instead of booming and then quickly dissipating, the rumbling was constant and steady. Every head in the area turned towards the sound, and sure enough, off on the horizon, there was something big coming. It was too far off to see the shape or any of the finer features, but Twilight and Lyra instantly recognized it as the alien craft they had seen in the forest the previous day. Every pony that was watching stood still and silent, watching the mysterious flying machine get closer and louder with each passing second. As it got closer, it’s sleek shape, swept wings, and metallic skin became clearer and distinct. One could also make out the dozen or so Royal pegasi guards flying alongside, staying in a tight V-formation. The distant rumble graduated into a roar as the spacecraft slowed and passed over the outskirts of the town, but it did so high enough that the noise wasn’t deafening. However, the roar of the spacecraft was powerful enough that everypony in Ponyville, whether they turned out to see the arrival or not, knew that it had arrived. Those who did leave their homes saw an enormous flying ship, easily the sized of two fully-grown dragons, lazily cruising at just a thousand feet over their rooftops It circled the designated landing spot once before it began to hover directly over the field, and slowly the engine noise began to gradually diminish, and the great behemoth of a machine began to descend. It started quickly, but as it got closer and closer to the ground, it went slower and slower so that when the wheels unfolded from the bottom and made contact with the ground, they touched down gently enough that any sound the impact would have made was muted by the noise of the engines, which was substantially quieter now that they weren’t keeping the ship in the air. The pegasi guards around the ship continued to hover around it, and the unicorn and Earth pony guards formed a ring around the ship keeping any other ponies from getting too close. For a few minutes, there was silence from the crowd of ponies gathered around the field as the engines continued to simmer down, and with each passing second, the anticipation in the air grew tenfold. After what felt like an eternity, but was in reality only a few short minutes, one of the panels on the side popped open with a mechanical ker-chunk­ and slid aside from its closed position with a the sharp hiss of pneumatic pumps. A ramp extended from the opening, and out stepped Maxwell O’Hara, wearing a blue flight suit adorned with patches to represent his home country, his home country’s space agency, and specially designed to represent the entire human race. He had been unsure of how the general populace would react to their first time seeing a new creature casually step out of a giant alien flying machine, but he wasn’t exactly surprised by the reaction he got. All eyes were on him, and hardly a sound was made. By now the anticipation from the crowd of colorful ponies was dripping from the air, and Max felt as if the weight of the world was resting on his shoulders. This is probably the closest that has ever been to being literally true, he thought.  From his elevated position on the Birdie’s boarding ramp, he could see hundreds of ponies, each one seeming to have his or her own unique color scheme. The sight almost looked like someone had spilled the world’s largest bag of Skittles on the central plaza of a rustic, fairytale-like town. Slowly, he began to descend the ramp, taking slow, easy strides in attempt to appear calmer than he felt. As soon as his boots made contact with the soft grass, he heard a small ruckus from somewhere in the crowd of ponies staring up at him wordlessly. A few seconds later, a familiar purple unicorn elbowed her way through the crowd, and the line of guards briefly broke ranks to allow her passage. Now the eyes of the crowd were split between one of their own, and the tall, strange creature they had never seen before. Max knelt down to be on eye-level with Twilight, and offered his hand for a human-style handshake, and for a moment, Twilight only looked at the appendage, unsure of what to do with it. Then she remembered that Max had explained what the gesture meant the previous day while discussing details of moving the Birdie to Ponyville. She said “Oh, right,” then quickly extended a hoof and put it in his hand, shaking it gently. She then said loudly, “Greetings, I am Twilight Sparkle, and welcome to Equestria.” Even though Max and Twilight were already acquainted, perhaps more intimately than Max would have preferred, the previous night they agreed to a public, formal introduction for the benefit of anyone watching. “Thank you, Twilight Sparkle,” Max responded, returning the hand/hoofshake. “My name is Captain Maxwell O’Hara, and I look forward to learning everything I can about your beautiful land.” He spoke loudly as well, for the sake of the various cameras on the Birdie that would be recording the historical moment from at least three different angles. Finally, the two representatives let go of the hand or hoof, and Twilight said, “Well, we can’t wait to learn all about where you come from as well.” For a few seconds, there was silence. Then, the sound of a lone hoof stomping on the ground echoed from somewhere in the crowd. It repeated, grew louder, and soon, the thunderous sound of stomping was joined by cheers, whoops, and shouts. Now this is how humans should react when a strange creature drops out of space, Max thought happily. Some time later, Twilight had convinced the guard to move the meeting to library and what seemed like the entire population of the town was crowded around the hollowed out tree. Several guards stood at the entrances to make sure the meeting could proceed in peace, but they did not bother to stop the denizens of Ponyville from peeking in every window to try and see what was going on. Unicorns and Earth Ponies crowded around the ground level windows, and several pegasi hovered around every other window the library had, regardless of whether or not it actually gave them a view of what was going on.                 Max was hard at work in Twilight’s living room trying to set up the battery-powered projector he had carried in from his ship, and Twilight was absolutely fascinated.                 “What is that thing?” she asked, gesturing to the white box with a hole in one side and several small buttons on top.                 “It’s a projector,” Max answered. “It will project moving images onto that screen I just put over there.” He pointed to the flat white screen he had also carried in from his vessel. The chore of hauling his equipment around made him sorely wish he had the telekinetic abilities that seemed so commonplace to ponies.                 “That looks nothing like a projector,” Twilight said, confused. “How does it work without a film reel or light bulb?”                 Max paused his fiddling and looked at the purple pony in front of him. “You guys have film and light bulbs?”                 “Yeah, we have film covered in a magic dust that records the image it sees when exposed and light bulbs that convert raw magical energy into light.”                 “I should have known,” Max mumbled to himself, counting the times Twilight said the word ‘magic’ in the last sentence. “We used to use things like that,” he said loud enough for Twilight to hear. “Our kind of film was coated in a special light-sensitive chemical dust that recorded images it was exposed to and our lights convert electrical energy into light. But that was decades ago. This one is way more complicated.”                 “How so?” Twilight asked, hoping that this was piece of alien technology she might be able to understand.                 “There is a light bulb in here, and that works pretty much the same, but instead of a film reel, there’s a single frame in here that can change the image it projects in response to different kinds of electric signals. And I don’t have time to explain how it does that. For right now, dim the lights and you’ll learn more from this little presentation than you ever could from me.”                 With a quiet hum and a shimmering horn, Twilight magically tinted the windows of the library and plunged the room into darkness, much to the dismay of the scores of ponies desperately trying to see the action. The collective moan of disappointment could be heard throughout the town, but the two occupants of the library expected as much and simply ignored it. Before Max could push the button that would power up his projector and start the presentation, he heard something outside that he really did not expect and could not ignore. A muffled but unmistakable female voice came through the door, and despite the muffling effect of the magically sealed entrance, Max and Twilight distinctly heard every word. “I’m telling you, I know this guy!” the voice said pleadingly. “Me and him go way back! I even saved his life once!” Max sighed tiredly and Twilight face-hoofed in exasperation. “Is that who I think it is?” Max asked, already knowing the answer.  “Sure sounds like it. I can have her forcefully escorted home, if you like,” the unicorn offered. “No, we should let her in. After all, she is the first friend I made here.” Twilight was about to argue some more, but when she heard Max refer to Lyra as a friend, she gave in. The whole point of all this is to extend our friendship to him, she thought. Maybe, against all odds, Lyra actually helped the situation. “Fine, fine,” Twilight said, and headed for the door, with Max close behind her.                     Outside Ponyville’s library, a certain green-coated, golden-eyed unicorn had just finished a masterfully crafted argument detailing why she should have been let into the library a long time ago, but the guard stationed there was having none of it.         “I don’t care what you say, Miss Heartstrings,” he began, repeating the same sentence he used when Lyra first pushed her way through the crowd and demanded to be let in. “Unless somepony inside opens this door and tells me to let you in, you are not getting in!” The instant the guard finished delivering his ultimatum for the umpteenth time, the library door swung open to reveal Twilight and Max, the latter crouching on one knee to be visible in a doorway designed for creatures half his height.                 The guard immediately turned around and snapped to attention. “Is there, uh, anything you require, Miss Sparkle?” he asked.                 “No, thank you, Sir,” Twilight said with a forced smile. “But you can go ahead and let her in.” Twilight gestured to Lyra, who smiled so big she emitted another faint squee.                 The guard looked at Max incredulously, who only smiled and shrugged. “I, uh…” the armor-clad unicorn stammered, not knowing what to make of the situation. But orders were orders, especially from a pony as important as Twilight Sparkle, so all he could so was stand aside and allow Lyra to enter. When they saw the guard step aside, Max and Twilight turned and headed back into the main room of the library, and Lyra gratefully trotted after them. As soon as she was inside the door, Lyra turned around and blew a raspberry at the guard, whose eye twitched menacingly before the door was promptly shut in his face. On the other side of the door, Max turned to face Lyra and cocked an eyebrow. “So you saved my life once, did you?” he said sarcastically, but smiled to let Lyra know he was happy to see her again. “I’d love to hear how it all happened.” “Hey,” Lyra said defensively. “You can’t just lay there unconscious in the middle of the forest. Something that’s not as nice as me could have come along and found a midnight snack.” “I would have been fine,” Max countered calmly. “I’m a light sleeper, remember?” “I did everything I could to wake you up, I’ll have you know,” Lyra shot back teasingly. “As I remember, you were out cold.”         “And who do I have to thank for that?” Max asked as he gestured to one of the now-healing bruises on his forehead. The first inter-species friendly banter in human history was interrupted by Twilight noisily clearing her throat. When she had the attention of the other two beings, she said, “I really hate to interrupt what's probably the first inter-species friendly banter in human history, but Max, weren’t you about to show me something?” “Oh, right. Sorry Twilight.” Max then turned back to Lyra and said, “Since you were the first pony I met, you should probably see this as well.” He led the two unicorns back into the main room of the library, where the all the windows remained magically tinted, and once they were all properly situated, began the show. Dozens of videos were made to explain Earth’s position relative to the newly discovered planet, each assuming a different level of communication with the local populace as well as their scientific understanding of the solar system. The one Max was putting on was the best-case-scenario option, and assumed that a common language had been established and whoever was watching had reached a similar scientific understanding of the solar system to that of humans. Naturally, it was something that Max never really expected to use, much less on the third day of his expedition, but by this point, the sheer improbability of everything that was going one ceased to bother him. When Max’s projector cast its image on the screen, Twilight and Lyra could only watch in awe. At first, the image appeared to be one of the night sky, being mostly black with stars dotting the picture. After only a second or two, the picture panned across to show the sun and a computer-generated representation of the Enterprise rocketing through space. Eventually, the digital Enterprise reached Earth, and instead of a computer-generated image of Earth, the makers used satellite images of earth to create a real-life graphic of the slowly rotating planet. And then, as countries came into view, videos played of their current leaders offering greetings in both English and their native languages. The first person to appear was King William of England, with Big Ben and the Tower Bridge in the background. After his greeting was through the Chancellor of Germany appeared in front of the Brandenburg Gate and gave his own greeting. This was followed by the President of France in front of the Eiffel Tower. Various other European heads of state appeared and offered their own greetings in front of national landmarks. When all the European nations were through, the image of the Earth filled the screen again and rotated until it displayed a view of North America. Then the Prime Minister of Canada appeared in front of Parliament Hill, Followed by the President of the United States with the Capitol Building in the background. This repeated for every country on the planet, and some nations had opted for natural instead of man-made landmarks. By the end of the fifteen-minute video, Twilight and Lyra had seen The Great Wall of China, the Sydney Opera House, Mt Kilimanjaro, the Egyptian Pyramids, the Greek Parthenon, Victoria Falls, the Russian Kremlin, the Taj Mahal, and almost two hundred other famous sites from every country on Earth. When Max finally powered down his projector and Twilight lifted the spell that darkened the window, both ponies in the room were speechless. “How many humans did you say there were again?” Twilight asked quietly. “When I left last year there were more than nine billion people on Earth,” Max replied. Twilight could only remain in a slack-jawed stupor. It had been a while since her studies had required her to look at the census figures for Equestria, but she knew that the population of ponies was nowhere near even one billion, let alone nine billion. Even when creatures from other places like the Griffon Kingdom and Saddle Arabia were counted, the numbers just did not compare. It surprised her even more that a lot of the humans she just saw looked awfully similar to one another. While individual ponies differed in color, Twilight noted that every human’s skin was some shade of tan, brown, or pinkish white, and their hair was either white, black, brown or gray. Some of the humans didn’t even have any hair. Twilight estimated just the appearance of humans and how they could tell each other apart would get quite the lengthy report if she ever got the chance to write one. And then there was the matter of all the locations she just saw. “Was every single place we saw its own country?” Twilight asked. “You saw one place from every country,” Max corrected her. “Most countries have a lot of famous locations and landmarks, but for this little presentation, each country had to choose just one.”         “And did you humans build everything we saw?”          “A lot of them, but not all of them,” Max answered. “I’d say the most impressive things you just saw were all naturally formed, but that’s my personal opinion. Anyway, you mentioned before that you had a few presentations of your own?”          “Oh, yes.” Twilight snapped out of her amazement and trotted for the door, with Max and Lyra following close behind.