Instinct was something shared by most natural living beings. A tiger knows how to pounce. A dog knows to roll onto its back to show submission. A cat knows to bury its waste. Nothing teaches these creatures to react or act as they do; they simply know. Instinct is hardwired into one’s brain. A comparison would be akin to a computer’s core programming; incomplete but capable of functioning.
Blacklight is not a natural being and does not have a brain that functions anywhere close to that of any creature on Earth. An average virus has no instinct; it simply is. It floats about and injects a cell with RNA and DNA in order to replicate. A virus has so little action or existence beyond simply being, that it is heavily debated whether or not a virus should even be considered a living being, let alone something capable of instinct.
But Blacklight is no ordinary virus.
Everything Blacklight is, is stolen. Everything from his form, to his dawning moments of sapience. This included instinct.
Blacklight’s stolen instincts were telling him something was wrong with the picture before him.
The crowds of little equines meandering about had slowly and subtly dispersed while he and his entourage came closer, like a mirage. Now, within the town of ‘Ponyville’, there was not a living being in sight. Not even birds saw fit to chirp.
The town was certainly not a big one, but Blacklight found it hard to believe that an entire population could just disappear before his eyes, and one as sharp as he not notice it until there were practically none left.
“...This is a ghost town. Did we scare everyone off?”
His sister raised a good point, but Blacklight felt another answer was correct.
The pink quantum anomaly being at fault somehow seemed more likely. The complete lack of alarm or concern on their garishly colored companion also gave a clue as to how common this kind of thing was. She did warn the Mercer siblings to be prepared for a surprise, but Blacklight most certainly did not expect the surprise to be happening within the next couple of minutes.
“Doubtful.” Blacklight finally replied to his sister. “They would have to actually see us to be scared by us.”
Dana shrugged. “Or maybe they all have telescopic vision. Or could sense your incoming broodiness.”
Blacklight looked at his sister with a slightly miffed expression. “I don’t brood.” He insisted.
Dana scoffed. “You do too brood. Like, fucking eighty percent of your existence is spent thinking deeply with a big frown on your face. You have shape-changey superpowers. Can’t you shapeshift your face into a smile a little more often than once every blue moon?”
Thinking back, Blacklight deduced a few things. One; he did indeed brood. Quite often, actually. Two; he doesn’t smile very often either. Three; he hasn’t technically lived through a blue moon yet.
It took Blacklight a moment to realize he was brooding over how often he broods.
“...I smiled yesterday.” Blacklight weakly argued.
“And you haven’t smiled once today. Seriously, even while speaking Greek to a fucking pegasus you had this depressingly neutral expression.” She put a finger to her chin in thought. “...You’d be great at poker, though.”
The virus frowned, before turning his head towards his sister and putting on his best smile. Her disturbed expression was quite demoralizing.
“Wow, you look really creepy when you force it like that.”
Just like that, Blacklight was frowning again.
One would think that faking a smile would be child’s play to Blacklight. This is true in literally any other form except for the form of Alex Mercer. While for every other person he consumed he had a library’s wealth of information for every single expression and mannerism they made while under the influence of genuine emotions, Alex Mercer drew up a blank, forcing Blacklight to fill in the blanks with his own personality.
As it turns out, the face of Alex Mercer was never a very happy face.
Blacklight had smiled before in a ‘non-creepy’ way, but that was a genuine reaction due to positive emotion.
He hadn’t thought too hard on it before, but the idea that he could involuntarily react with a genuine smile when he was happy drew him in a more human and relatable light than he was used to. Then he remembered all of the times he ruthlessly devoured people alive without any hint of remorse and quickly quashed that line of thought.
“Well, here we are!” Rainbow Dash said, finding her voice for the first time since they entered the town. Blacklight peered around his cargo and found himself looking at a large tree with cartoonish doors and windows sticking out of it. The front door had two small doors as a bottom half and one big door as a top half with a candle sticking out of it. Even Blacklight had trouble wrapping his considerable head around why such a design would be necessary, even to little equines. Really, why equines would have doors so similar to human design in the first place baffled him. Do they turn the nobs with their mouths?
From the sheer amount of heartbeats he heard from the other side of the door, the virus quickly deduced where the population of the town resides. Blacklight raised an eyebrow at the number of heartbeats managing to fit within such a small building. A quick flick into the thermal spectrum revealed a very large amount of orange blobs within the tree building. Squeezed together, yet oddly spacious.
He would have preferred to slowly integrate himself and his sister into the town to avoid mass panic, or ideally avoid being noticed in the town altogether. Now it would seem that ‘Pinkie Pie’ believed that the best way to remove a Band-Aid is to rip it off violently.
Blacklight was about to enter the building when he realized that he wasn't certain of the ponies' range of perception. Rainbow Dash had not noticed anything off about him, but the unicorns... he wasn't certain of their abilities. What they could sense. He found it was better to be safe rather than sorry, especially when his sister is at risk.
Outwardly, nothing about Blacklight changed. Inwards, however, his body heat diminished significantly as his biomass rearranged itself rapidly. Within his body formed organs and bones, a heart already beating and lungs filling with air. His clothing physically detached itself from the rest of his body, and artificial blood began to circulate through newly formed veins.
Not usually being one for subtlety, Blacklight almost never disguised himself to this degree anymore. Not only were humans simply not aware enough to notice the tiniest details, but actively simulating human biology down to internal systems slowed him down and weakened him. His skin was now as strong as normal human skin, and his muscles felt weak and inflexible while the newly formed bones constantly felt like a hindrance. Everything about him in this state was less agile and strong, and it would take a bit of time to return him to the apex of his ability should a threat arrive.
Despite his misgivings, he had to be careful, and now he was completely impossible to prove as inhuman unless one had a viral detector. Biologically, Blacklight was fully human in that moment, simply with unusually dense bones and musculature.
With the changes, he would be impossible to detect. Unless the equines can sense viruses, the worst case scenario would be the inhabitants thinking him a bit odd, rather than an outright monster.
Blacklight steeled himself, deliberately stepped protectively in front of Dana, and awkwardly reached a hand out to open the door as his other hand balanced the food and drink.
“SURPRISE!”
It was amazing, Blacklight noted, how fast the range of expression can be cycled through on these strange equines. Elation and curiosity turned to confusion and fear very quickly.
Twilight considers herself a logical individual. She can usually put pieces of a puzzle together rather quickly, but one did not need to be a genius to figure out that the new arrivals were not ponies.
Pinkie Pie had oddly insistent vocabulary when it came to the two mystery guests. ‘Anybody’ and ‘somebody’ and the like were terms used to either describe non-ponies or a population that consists of multiple species with or without ponies. It might seem egotistical, but Equish was originally conceived far back before even the Great Unification, and the ponies were very isolated back then, most believing that ponies were the only sapients on the planet.
The insistent terminology and the exotic names pointed to non-ponies. That is, unless Pinkie was attempting to surprise everypony by the two guests actually just being ponies and everything she was subtly hinting at was an elaborate ruse to get her slightly confused upon the guests’ arrival, which honestly wouldn’t surprise her.
As expected, most of the town showed up for the party. Regardless of the subject of the celebration, if one was invited to a Pinkie Pie party, one usually goes. At least in a small town like Ponyville. Granted, many didn’t appear, but it sure didn’t look that way from Twilight’s perspective. The only no-showers Twilight knew personally were Applejack and Fluttershy, the former probably busy and the latter either busy as well or simply opting out of the event out of nervousness. Twilight recalled Fluttershy appearing at her own welcome party, but that might have been because of the Summer Sun Celebration... or Spike.
All that was left for Twilight to figure out before the new arrivals... well, arrived, was their species. Sure, she could wait, but where was the fun in that? It was always good to exercise one’s deductive reasoning.
Alex sounded like it was short for something. She might have considered it a pony name were it not for the addition of the vaguely Prench-sounding ‘Mercer’ that comes after. She found it quite odd that this... ‘Uhdaynahdaynah’ shared this second name. While second names weren’t rare among ponies (her name is Twilight Sparkle, for Celestia’s sake), sharing them was often considered a sign of marriage, and even that was rather rare among couples. Mr. and Mrs. Cake being one of the very few examples.
The oddity of ‘Uhdaynahdaynah’ Mercer’s name led Twilight to believe that either Pinkie is pulling a joke or misunderstood the speaker. Attempting to pick apart the name, Twilight found some similarities to a popular name from parts of Saddle Arabia and its neighboring lands.
All of this, coupled with the fact that Pinkie seemed set on putting all the decorations in particularly high places, drew a clear picture in Twilight’s head.
The guests were a married horse couple perhaps originating from somewhere near Saddle Arabia. Really the reason Twilight made that leap was because of the decoration height. The only species’ she knows are that tall are diamond dogs, which are highly unlikely to have the names described, or Saddle Arabian horses, of which the average member of the race is as tall as Celestia herself.
The lights were out, and everypony was in position. Twilight heard muffled voices just outside the door.
She prepared for a moment of private satisfaction and smugness in her deductive skills.
She was very swiftly disappointed and confused.
“SURPRISE!” She called with everypony else as the door swung open. The very first thing she noticed about the first individual to travel through the doorway were the eyes which, seeing as the rest of the creature that arrived was a downright oddity and carrying snack foods that nopony has ever seen before, was pretty impressive.
Cold, steely blue scanned the suddenly quiet audience in front of it. They snapped from pony to pony is a methodical, mechanical fashion as if they were cataloguing all they saw. In the split second the intense gaze snapped to her, Twilight felt very... exposed. Like this being could see all of her and through her at the same time. It sent shivers down her spine.
But just like every other pony in the room, she kept its interest for much less than a second before its spotlight-like gaze drifted to another. She was so distracted by this that she barely noticed an injured Rainbow Dash shouldering past the newcomer’s leg, offering a nervous smile to the crowd. Twilight also noticed another being like the newcomer, seeming content to hunch behind the taller one.
Rainbow Dash cleared her throat.
“So!” She began, ignoring the shocked outcries at her roughed-up appearance. Twilight’s eyes creased with worry at the sorry state of her coat. None of it looked crippling or fatal, but infection is a serious concern. “Err, these are my new friends! This is Alex Mercer,” ‘Alex’ nodded in response, his expression as neutral as ever. “and this is Dana Mercer.” The smaller one behind Alex shyly waved and smiled. This appeared to put a lot of ponies at ease, though many still looked ready to jump out the nearest window.
Also Twilight didn’t miss that ‘Uhdaynahdayna’ was actually just ‘Dana’. Which is good, as saying Dana is much easier and less tiresome than the alternative, which to be honest would have gotten old very quickly. Not to insult anypony with long names, it’s just that Twilight believed that short or shortened names are optimal for social conduct.
Seeing the persisting unease surrounding the guests, Rainbow decided to continue. “I, ah, met these two after I got in a nasty crash in Everfree, and they fixed my wing and made sure no animals got me!” She put on a big, toothy smile.
All was quiet for a few moments.
Twilight, and she was sure a few other ponies, could hear Dash ground out “Say something!” through clenched teeth.
Alex’s eyes flicked down at her friend, and back at his audience.
“...Hello.” He said in a deep male voice.
Nopony said or did anything.
Rainbow Dash loudly cleared her throat.
“Well, Dana and Alex are kind of shy...” she explained sheepishly. “...and, uh, Dana here doesn’t even speak Equish, so if you want to talk to her you’re gonna have to use Alex as a translator.”
Silence reigned yet again.
“So... yeah.” Rainbow deflated.
Twilight was about to ask what species the two were when Pinkie Pie decided it was time to make an appearance.
“LET’S GET THIS PARTY STARTED!” She practically screeched, Twilight seeing a pink ball of fluff that is her hair bounce excitedly somewhere in the assembled crowd.
Suddenly upbeat music started playing (Twilight swore there was no record player in the building earlier), and the ponies nervously began to mingle. The two guests of honor took that moment to argue to each other quietly in their own language.
She wondered what they were saying...
“What the shit was with that fucking glare you gave everyone when we came in?”
“That wasn’t a glare.”
“The hell it wasn’t a glare! Shit, that gave me the shivers and you weren’t even looking at me! What the fuck!”
“I was inspecting them.”
“Inspecting what!? Their souls? How tasty they are? Good fucking Christ I’ve seen friendlier looks from grizzly bears! Hell, Alex can you just not look scary for one day? Fuck, for one hour!?”
“...I could try smiling-“
“No, no no no, no, no. Just... no. Try to... try to look clueless. Clueless intimidating people are cute.”
“...Really?”
“I don’t know, Alex! Just... don’t glare at anyone. Don’t brood. Don’t swear in Greek. Don’t-“
“Dana, I understand basic social etiquette.”
“Then why am I not feeling confident right now?”
Blacklight frowned. While the ponies looked innocent enough, he supposed he may have slipped into what Dana would probably call ‘big brother mode’ while they faced the ‘surprise’. After all, it is a building filled with very strong and durable equines with unknown abilities and motives. Of course Blacklight was going to go in there first and examine any potential threats.
...But he supposed his gaze may have been a bit too intense, if some of the reactions the locals had were any indication.
Blacklight decided it would be best to attempt to cool his sister’s rage. “...Are you hungry? I’m still carrying this-“
“Just give me a fucking Dr. Pepper.”
Blacklight frowned, and looked at the selection in his arms. “...Cherry or regular?”
“Regular. Cherry’s good on its own but is crap with food. Speaking of; Doritos. Where are they?”
“Right here.” He gestured vaguely towards the bottom of the pile of snacks in his arms.
Dana swiped it out from underneath several other items. “...Thanks. Now drop that shit and go mingle or something!”
...Mingle? The weapon of mass destruction looked warily at the crowd of ponies, which appeared to be attempting to act normal in their presence. Most of them were still clearly unnerved.
Outside of a role to play, Blacklight was the opposite of a social butterfly. He struggles to make conversation with his sister, let alone random strangers. Really, he never casually spoke to anyone besides Dana, and she always was the instigator of the conversation. Despite all of the charismatic people in his head constantly feeding him information on tact and charm, Blacklight still drew a blank on how exactly to start a conversation with a small equine.
But there was another, more pressing issue.
“Dana, you can’t speak Greek.” Blacklight pointed out as he placed the assorted food items he took from the ruined apartment on a nearby table.
Dana, her soda held under arm, ripped the top of her chip bag open with a pop. “Yeah, most people can’t. Unless they’re Greek.”
“As in you can’t understand what they’re saying, and they can’t understand you.”
She looked at him with a raised eyebrow as she put the open bag on the same table as the other snack foods, and retrieved her soda from underneath her arm.
Blacklight would have groaned if he wasn’t certain the already skittish locals wouldn’t mistake it for a feral growl. “...You can’t talk to anyone without me to translate.”
With a snap and a hiss, the soda was open. “...Ooh. Don’t worry about that Alex, I’ll just gesture my point.” She smirked.
The virus blinked. “But-“
“Alex, I’ve had a very strange day. Having you translate everything they say and vice versa sounds like a massive pain in the ass and not worth it. I know you’re just using this as an excuse to stay close to me.” She deadpanned and sipped her newly opened beverage.
Blacklight blinked. Were his motives really that transparent? He frowned as he found in hindsight that yes they were. “I’m not-“
“I also know that it’s because you don’t trust these cute little ponies, which is both fucking hilarious and sad.”
“Of course I-“
“Even if they end up being eldritch horrors in disguise,” Blacklight internally winced at how accurate that was at describing himself. “you could swoop in and save the day with your freaky super virus powers.”
But you could already be dead by then! He wanted to scream. He saw ponies moving things with their minds. He saw Rainbow Dash fly at impossible speeds before surviving a crash that should have flattened her. One of them can move too quickly for the human eye to follow. Dana already came close to death once that day via a kick that could crumple a bodybuilder! There’s no telling what else they could do. “You’re underestimating them,” He pointed out.
“You’re too fucking paranoid. Just look at them Alex.” She vaguely gestured at the crowd that was trying and failing to look like they don’t notice or fear the two aliens in the room. “You walked into the room and almost made them all collectively shit themselves with a look. I don’t think we have to worry about anything that easily intimidated going psycho on us.”
Blacklight narrowed his eyes unperceptively as he looked back at the crowd of nervous chattering ponies. Their intimidation could be means of luring them into a false sense of secu-
“And don’t you fucking dare pull the ‘it’s all an act’ breed of paranoia on me right now.”
This time Blacklight didn’t bother suppressing his groan, startling away a mint green mare who had finally gotten enough courage to approach the two of them. “Dana, we’re dealing with a lot of unknowns here.” If I could consume one, just one of them...
“You know a good way to make unknowns knowns?” Dana asked rhetorically. “Talk,” She put her soda down and grabbed him by the shoulders. “to,” She turned him around. “people.” She shoved him ineffectually, but Blacklight moved forward despite the pitiful strength.
Looking much like a disciplined dog, Blacklight sullenly reevaluated the situation he found himself in.
He was inside of a library, which was decorated with many bright pink white and purple decorations as if it were a four-year-old’s birthday party. A white banner with big, bolded purple Greek letters welcomed Alex Mercer and a literary mess that vaguely spelled out Dana Mercer at the end. White, plastic-looking tables were set up all around the open space of the library, many holding things such as punch bowls or pastry platters. He noted a distinct lack of chairs, but dismissed it quickly seeing as if equines were to sit down, the most they would need is a cushion. The ponies segregated themselves into medium to large groups all around the library, some talking a little too loudly about the nice weather, others speaking in hush about ‘flashes’, ‘monsters’, ‘everfree’, and, ‘horrific fashion sense’ in one instance.
The whole scene struck many chords in Blacklight. It all seemed too bright and happy. Too... innocent. He felt like he was sitting in the middle of a child’s wonderland, and that set off alarm bells. He felt as if any minute now they were all going to open their mouths and show spinning rows of teeth, or suddenly transform into infected Hunters.
It was making him twitchy. But none of that bothered him more than being... ignorant. He looked around the room, and spotted all different kinds of equine. He could make many educated guesses on the stress level of their bones, the location of major arteries and organs, and the general workings of their biology, but he didn’t know for sure. The pegasi completely eluded him, the Applejack mare’s strength completely eluded him, and the-
Blacklight tensed and almost lashed out at the subtle purple aura that suddenly contained a floating notebook on the other side of the room. He gazed at the glowing notebook, and at the unicorn whose horn was glowing with the same aura.
He didn’t understand that. At all.
That really bugged him. Once again monster thoughts forced their way to the forefront of his mind, wondering if there was a way to get this purple specimen away from prying eyes just for a moment, calculating how much force it might take to snap the pony’s neck.
He imagined himself sprouting his claws and carving a bloody swathe through the crowds before him, consuming as much as possible. He imagined allowing tendrils to sprout from his body and spear everything save his sister in the building. Oh, how he itched just to get one of them, to take them apart and see what made them tick so the feeling of imminent danger would leave his head. How much he wanted to slaughter all of these potential threats.
But Dana didn’t need to see him carve up and eat a building full of cute, big-eyed pastel colored ponies. Not that he could in his 'advanced' disguise state. Sure, he could kill most of them, but inevitably his temporary decrease in agility would allow a few to get away to call for help. Also, despite his confidence that he could probably kill and consume one without being seen, a small town would notice a missing resident and connect that to their newest guests.
He had to control himself. Not killing everything that isn’t human in the room was becoming quite like trying not to scratch a particularly bothersome mosquito bite.
Then, Blacklight had an epiphany. Distracted as he was with thoughts of maiming the current populace of cute animals and his lack of knowledge, he didn’t pay mind to one important detail.
He was standing in a library.
It wasn’t often that a sapient mass of biological matter infected with a virus with an uncanny ability to sow mass chaos and destruction felt human, but even more especially rare were the moments when said viral weapon of mass destruction felt like a particularly stupid human.
Before Blacklight could channel his antisocial creator and scurry off into a corner to read during the party, he noticed the purple unicorn from before approaching him, a levitating notepad and... quill in tow. The unicorn appeared female, a straight cut indigo mane and tail with a single violet and pink stripe (natural? unlikely). Her (also purple) eyes had that ‘I want to ask you a lot of annoying questions’ look to them. He idly noted that her flank-mark (one of which every pony in the room seemed to possess) was of a pink star surrounded by five smaller white stars.
Blacklight silently cycled through several potential conversation evaders.
“Excuse me.”
“Not right now.”
“I’m busy.”
“No.”
“Don’t talk to me.”
“Go away.”
“Fuck off.”
“Open your mouth and I will tear your spine out and beat your next of kin to death with it.”
Before he could properly choose which one to use, he remembered what Dana said.
“You know a good way to make unknowns knowns? Talk to people.”
Blacklight internally sighed, attempted to look as friendly as possible (he most likely failed at that), and decided to follow his sister’s wishes.
Twilight glanced around her library with a little disappointment. The party-goers were trying very hard to look and act normal, but nopony had even approached the two guests of honor. Lyra tried, but appeared to have lost her nerve before she even got close to the pair.
Now the male -Alex, his name was- was pushed by Dana towards some of the bustling ponies, and she watched with no small amount of empathy as he looked around the room in a rather clueless manner. She now understood what Rainbow had meant by shy; he clearly didn’t know what to do with himself.
Dana, on the other hoof, simply sat back and ate some... strange looking snack foods she had never seen before. Nopony made an approached towards her either, though Twilight could understand seeing as Dana wouldn’t even be able to understand anypony talking to her.
Alex though... she did admit he was intimidating. That chilling glare he gave everypony upon entering the building had conveyed that rather thoroughly. But Twilight felt something was... off about the individual in front of her. She couldn’t fathom what it was, and she was pretty sure that despite everypony’s avoidance of him, she was the only one who noticed.
His eyes were simply too intense and they never seemed to lose focus or simply space out. He blinked, but sometimes it felt like he didn’t for far too long. The fact that he stood there without fidgeting, losing balance, or even slightly moving except for his head swiveling around the room like a sentry. Everything about him spoke of somepony who was... not necessarily afraid, but wary of their surroundings in an usually acute manner.
At first she figured that was just his species’ norm, but after a few observations of his female counterpart, she realized that it wasn’t the case. Dana seemed more relaxed, more... natural. Alex seemed like a coiled snake ready to strike.
Twilight frowned with sympathy. Alex must have some very severe anxiety issues. It was like a larger, gruffer, more intimidating male version of Fluttershy. She looked around, and found to her dismay that still nopony was coming forward to speak to him or even acknowledge him beyond glancing in his direction when non-too-subtly speculating in gossip. Even Rainbow Dash was away, speaking to some of her weather pony friends with as many gesticulations her grounded body could provide, probably telling a highly exaggerated version of how she got into Everfree forest and discovered Alex and Dana in the first place.
After a moment of silently judging everypony in the room, Twilight flushed with shame realizing the hypocrisy of her thoughts. She hadn’t approached either of them either. She was an Element of Harmony too!
Twilight gained a look of determination. Nopony will be alienated in the presence of this student of friendship.
As she telekinetically summoned a quill, inkwell, and paper, she reassured herself that the only reason behind her approaching Alex Mercer was to cure his obvious loneliness. It most certainly was not because she can’t remember ever reading about a species quite like Alex’s and he could probably satisfy her curiosity with a few questions. Though, admittedly, that was a bonus.
Twilight silently praised herself for not outwardly reacting to the eternally sharp near-unblinking stare Alex gave her as she approached. Not once during her approach did something else catch his attention; it was as if everything in the world except for her stopped existing.
She stopped what she deemed was an appropriate distance from the male, and cleared her throat. It had been a while since she had to introduce herself to somepony, what with living in a small town. She never had any issues with greetings before, but the person in front of her is, to be perfectly honest, really bucking intimidating. She felt like every word she was soon to speak would be closely analyzed and deconstructed. She swears she hasn’t been this hesitant to introduce herself since meeting Princess Celestia for the first time!
“Hi!” She began. Friendly, informal, but not too informal. Good start. “My name is Twilight Sparkle,” She introduced.
It was a good two seconds of wondering if she said something wrong or if he understood her before a terse reply was given.
“...Charmed.”
The large male never broke eye contact. Twilight found herself averting her gaze, before internally smacking herself for being rude. What if he thought she found him ugly? Maybe a little sickly; she found herself wondering if whatever his species was are supposed to be that pale. Perhaps the paleness was a sign of age; that could also explain the dark wrinkles under his eyes, which almost gave the illusion of one perpetually tired if not for the sheer intensity the eyes themselves showed.
Twilight mentally cycled through potential subjects to bring up in order to keep the conversation rolling. She figured the basics would do first.
“So I was just curious about what species you are. I mean, I’ve never read about your kind and-“
“My sister and I are human,” Alex cut off a little rudely.
The inquisitive unicorn’s eyes widened as she scribbled down the word ‘human’ on her paper. “Sister? Oh, I thought you two were married.” She grinned sheepishly.
Alex raised an eyebrow ever so slightly. “What gave you that impression?”
“Well,” Twilight unconsciously entered ‘lecture mode’. “the assimilation of a second name used to be a really popular display of affection and marriage around a century ago. It’s less common now but it still happens. I guess I shouldn’t have made the assumption that your culture was similar to ours.” She chuckled awkwardly. “Do humans share names with family?”
The human seemed to have a brief internal debate before answering. “In most human cultures, yes.”
Twilight never stopped paying attention for a moment as she scribbled everything he said down. She pressed on. “’Most cultures’? How many different human cultures are there?” Most species in the world tended to have their own isolated culture that rarely deviated between other members of their species. The idea of a race having many cultures was a little bewildering.
“Too many to accurately count,” He answered without even a moment of thought, as if her question had the most obvious answer in the world.
Twilight’s eyes widened. That sounded fascinating but... so many cultures forming would mean that many humans are not a part of the same group. That had some rather depressing implications. “That sounds really strange, but also interesting! Are humans really that segregated, though?” She asked with concern.
Alex never once changed his expression save for the fateful ‘eyebrow lift’ several seconds ago. Yet somehow the neutral stare he gave her felt more meaningful in his silence.
“Yes,” He answered, but failed to elaborate.
“Oh,” Twilight said, slightly dejected. “That sounds... depressing.” She chuckled nervously. “But if humans live so uniquely, how come I haven’t read about your kind yet? Where exactly are humans from?”
To this, Alex remained quiet for some time. He glanced behind him, to see his sister nodding and smiling to Lyra Heartstrings who was chatting to her. It was very clear to Twilight that Dana has no idea what the unicorn is saying even if she wasn’t informed of the language barrier. Hers were the reactions somepony would have to a foal speaking gibberish.
Without turning, Alex spoke again. “Your friend Rainbow Dash mentioned a... ‘big flash’ that came from Everfree Forest a couple of days ago.”
Twilight’s eyes widened as her train of thought was thoroughly derailed. Suddenly everything about the Everfree Flash came back to her. The animal behavior, the strange roars heard from the forest, Fluttershy’s encounter with the strange bipedal-
Twilight’s gaze snapped back and forth between Alex and Dana, attempting to see anything... bug-like on them. Neither had chitins or tentacles as far as she could see, and neither had that strange symbol on their backs...
No, neither of them were the mystery creature that spooked all of Fluttershy’s animals. But... nopony knew what the flash did. She had never seen a human before, and a day after this massive flash suddenly the very first human she had ever seen appears? The implications... what if the flash was-
“I theorize that my sister and I are from another world altogether,” Alex stated, as if it were the most common thing in the world.
Twilight gaped at the man. “You’re an alien!?”
A comical ‘screech’ of a record suddenly filled the room, and everypony froze. They all looked towards Alex and Twilight, some casting wary glances at even Dana.
Alex... didn’t seem to physically tense, but it was as if the air around him suddenly felt tighter. His expression looked mildly annoyed, but his eyes had an intensity to them like when he first entered the building. Everything about him felt like he was some kind of incredibly dangerous animal seconds from being spooked into action.
“If I’m correct...” the man began, his eyes never leaving his sister’s position, who was looking at the situation curiously. “...that is an appropriate description.”
Everypony’s reaction was immediate.