Twilight lay back on the roof of the shed, staring up at the stars. She'd recently read a few books about the expansion of civilization, and so Ratchet was teaching her about astronavigation. Right now, he was pointing out the stars he knew, telling her about the planets that orbited them, and telling her the names that those who had colonized Veldin had given to the constellations. She found the names of the constellations the most amusing.
"And that one there is the Penny Pinching Poopyhead," he said, pointing to one that looked vaguely humanoid, "named, as promised in the original colonization contract, after the head of the company that signed on the colonists. And that one is the Rapacious Ravager," he continued, pointing to another roughly humanoid one, "named after the guy who shows up each year to collect the percentage of the crops and profits the colonists owe the company."
Twilight giggled happily. "And that one that looks like a fat ball with tentacles?"
"The Little Angel, named after the colonial governor's daughter."
Twilight blinked. "Umm..."
"He let his son pick the star group," Ratchet explained.
Twilight couldn't help but laugh. "You know a lot about the stars, Daddy," she said happily.
Ratchet scratched the back of his head. "Actually...I've kinda been making up the bit about the constellations to entertain you. The colonists never made any up."
"You mean like what you told me about the tooth fairy?" Twilight asked, turning her head to look him in the eye.
He chuckled, remembering what had happened three months back when Twilight had lost her first tooth and he'd tried to give her the story of the tooth fairy.
Ratchet tiptoed carefully across the shed, doing his best to avoid brushing into anything that might awaken the slumbering filly in the bed on the other side of the single room of the shed from his bed. Clutched in his hand was a 50 bolt washer, which Twilight could easily transfer into her Gadgetron bank account. It's not that she needed the bolts, but it was part of the Tooth Fairy tradition, which Ratchet was determined to give Twilight so she could have a bit of the childish innocence and wonder he never got. He'd considered Santa Claus for Christmas, but Twilight had pointed out two problems with the concept. One, Santa Claus was based in Old Earth, and even with faster than light travel and time dilation, it was physically impossible to visit every child on every planet in the Solana Galaxy, let alone the others, not to mention that the definition of "good" differed from race to race (and if Santa was only for humans, it didn't apply to either of them since they weren't human). Second, they had no chimney.
As he carefully approached the bed, his foot came down on a blanket on the floor, and he heard a click. "What the-"
A net suddenly shot up to the ceiling, wrapping him up as several energy projectors sprang out of the floor and began giving off various wavelengths of energy directed at the net. Several guns also dropped out of the ceiling to point at the net and its contents.
Twilight sat up in the bed, grinning. "Gotcha! Don't bother trying to escape, these projectors negate all known forms of teleportation, phase shifting, and other forms of manipulating the fabric of reality-" She paused. "Daddy? You aren't the Tooth Fairy. Why are you in the Tooth Fairy trap?"
"Uh..." Ratchet answered, trying to figure out a way to answer this without destroying any chance for Twilight to have a sense of childish wonder.
Unseen to both of them, a Zoni teleported in and, with a scarcely audible "Whee!" acted on his leader's orders to swap Twilight's tooth for a tiny white egg that ticked away to the rhythm of the universal heartbeat. He then teleported out unnoticed with the tooth.
Twilight frowned at Ratchet. "You still haven't told me what you did with my tooth, or where you got the egg," she complained.
"I keep telling you, Twilight, I didn't do that!" Ratchet threw his hands up in exasperation. "I can't make anything that tiny!"
Twilight blinked. "But Daddy...if you didn't make the ticking egg...who did? And...who took my tooth?"
"The Tooth Fairy?" Ratchet suggested. "Twilight, there is a lot about the universe that we don't know or understand...and you're part of it. It's no wonder inexplicable things happen to you."
Twilight wriggled on her back on the roof of the shed, scratching an itch. "I want the universe to make sense..." she grumbled petulantly.
Ratchet chuckled. "It would be great if we had all the answers. Like 'why are we here?'"
Twilight blinked a bit. "Why are we here?" she asked.
"We're stargazing," Ratchet joked.
"Not what I meant," Twilight countered. "It's...you said this is a colony world, right?"
Ratchet nodded. "Yep."
"So...no one is actually native to this world?"
"Nope."
"Not even us?"
Ratchet shook his head. "I showed you the basket you arrived in, and the pod I arrived in. Neither of us came from here originally."
"Then...where did we come from?" Twilight asked sorrowfully.
"Well, I know I'm a Lombax," Ratchet replied. "Apparently, the Lombaxes had a presence in the Bogon Galaxy next Stellar Cluster over, which is how we know about them here in Solana...but no one's seen one - besides me - for over a decade. As for you...the only data on you is in those books of Old Earth Fiction that I used to teach you to tap your magic." He didn't really like calling her abilities 'magic', but she did, so he let her have her way.
"But..." Twilight shrunk in on herself. "If...if the only information on me is fiction...does that mean I'm not real? That I'm...from some sort of story, brought to life by a wish on a star like Pinocchio?"
Ratchet blinked. He had never considered the possibility that Twilight had somehow been created to grant his wish. And, after thinking about it now, he refused to consider it. "In all likelihood, your people made contact with humans briefly so far back in their history that only myths and legends made it through to modern day." He wrapped an arm around her as he pointed out to the stars with the other. "Listen Twilight...somewhere out there is a star. Orbiting that star is a planet. And on that planet is the home of your people, where you come from. And someday...I'm going to take you there."
Twilight blinked away the start of tears, looking up into his face. "R-really?" she asked hopefully.
Ratchet smiled. A couple years back, Twilight had come up with a promise that she declared was an unbreakable vow, a promise that could never be broken. Ratchet had no idea where it had come from, but he enjoyed how cute it was, and was happy to use it to reassure her. "Cross my heart," he said, crossing his hand over his chest. "Hope to fly," he added, flapping his hands like wings. "Stick a cupcake in my eye," he concluded, covering one eye with his hand.
Twilight smiled. "Thank you, Daddy," she said happily, nuzzling into his side.
Ratchet gently stroked her mane as he held her close. Well, he thought to himself, I always wanted to build a spaceship.