‘My brother and I have never known anything other than space. The elders would talk of a time before our home, but from my understanding it was not much different except the world was larger. Kind of like this place, except not so populated.’
He paused for a moment.
‘But I digress. All we Firefoxes do is play and learn from each other. My brother would call it boring, but I enjoyed the time we spent with our kind. We would spend time floating around our home and watching the planets as we passed by. Sometimes a group would push our home into the gravitational pull of a nearby planet. We would speed by, embracing the heat, and sling shot around the planet into a new direction. Of course, brother always wanted to land on a planet and see what they had to offer.’
The ponies sat in silence, listening to Kai’s tale. To live amongst the stars was not an uncommon idea to them, as they were friends with Princess Luna after all.
‘One day, something must have landed on our little rock. My brother came back to my families little cave with a tiny bump-like horn on his head, in between his antenna. He claimed he was a king and demanded we rule a planet instead of staying in our home. We all laughed at him, but I wish we hadn’t. My father noticed the changes in his personality over time, but the rest of us only saw the color of his fur change. My kind is all orange colored but different familes have different colored antenna. His fur turned white. A pure white, even his nose. The only thing that remained was the black horn and his black antenna.’
Twilight finally broke the ponies long silence. “What is your brother’s name?”
‘His name is Myar. He used his horn after he dug to the center of our home, just to blow it into pieces. I tried to stop him, but he trapped me amongst the rocks. I was unable to escape or prevent our homes demise. I suppose that’s why I landed here away from my friends and family.’
“I am truly sorry for your pain. I think we are all in agreement to do whatever it takes to help you.” Rarity said with tears in her eyes.
“Is there anything we can do to help?” Applejack asked.
“Yeah! If your brother landed here we’ll help you get some revenge!” Rainbow Dash stomped forward with a big snarl. The stomp of course shook the hut, causing Spike to wake up.
“Huh? Another meteor? Wha?” Spike rubbed his eyes as he sat up.
Kai yawned. ‘I could use some rest. We may not eat, but sleeping is one of our few luxuries.’
“You may all spend the night here, as daylight will be near. Of course your slumber will be on the floor, I surely hope none of you snore!” Zecora said as she pulled some blankets out of a cabinet.
Zecora wished the group luck in the ponies endeavor to help their new furry friend. They headed back to Ponyville shortly after the sun had risen. Their march through the forest allowed them to witness Kai’s first reactions to being on a planet so filled with life.
‘This is so nice and warm, we rarely get to feel the sun’s rays like this. Getting too close to the sun would have caused our home to burn up.’
“Speakin’ of home, perhaps we should talk about how we’re gonna getcha back to your family.” Applejack said.
“Yeah! We can’t let you be alone without your family!” Pinkie added.
All of a sudden Kai rose up off the ground and flew up into the sky, flames trailing behind him.
“Woaaah!” The group exclaimed in unison.
Rainbow flew up to Kai. “I didn’t know you could fly! That’s so awesome!”
‘Of course, floating in space would be a lot scarier if we couldn’t. It wears us out though.’ He explained as he landed back down by the ponies. ‘At night I will launch myself up into the air as high as I can go. If any of my brethren are on this planet, they may see it.’
Fluttershy stepped forward. “Uhm, I know I’m not the one that’s, well, usually the adventurous type, but, uhm, well… Shouldn’t we also go look for your friends too?”
“Oh sweetheart you’re right! Wouldn’t your kind have landed on this planet if they knew their home was destroyed?” Rarity expounded on Fluttershy’s comment.
Kai looked to the ground, he was feeling the grass between the clefts of his paws.
‘I believe my family may be here, but I do not know for the rest of my kind. Perhaps they all managed to stay close together, keeping the home alive but busted.’
Lifted up off the ground, Kai felt the warm embrace of a rough hug. “Don’t you worry fuzzy! We’re going to find your family and get you a new home! You can count on us!” Pinkie exclaimed.
A strange laugh came from Kai. An abnormal accent from an even more abnormal creature wouldn’t stop Pinkie from cheering up a friend and making them giggle.
‘Thank you Pinkie.’
Pinkie placed him back down on the ground. His smile changed to a sorrow looking face that was filled with remorse.
‘I’ve never really known anything outside of my home. My people are a happy bunch. I am glad to know there is another species that shares such happiness. I just wish my family were here to share it with me.’
The ponies stood around him, staring at each other with uncertainty of how to cheer him up.
Spike placed his hand in the air and shouted. “I’ve got it! We’ll be your temporary family! Once we find your real family, you’ll have two families to share the happiness with and you can be happy right now because you’ve got us!”
“Awww, Spike! What a wonderful idea!” Twilight clapped her hooves together.
“Isn’t Spikey-wikey just the sweetest thing?” Rarity said as she gave him a kiss on the cheek. Spike placed his hands on his cheek, spun around in a circle, and then fell over. Everyone let out a chuckle except for Kai.
The ponies looked back to Kai who sat there, tears in his eyes.
‘Thank you. You’ve been so kind to me even though you barely know me. I… really appreciate it.’
The ponies gathered around Kai and toppled together onto him, giving one great big hug.
The group reached Ponyville and headed for Twilight’s castle. Kai was certainly lucky to have met up with these special ponies, as they specifically had a map to help find friendship problems.
“If you’d like, Kai, you could have a room to sleep while you stay in Ponyville. I’ve got plenty of room.” Twilight stated.
‘That would be lovely, thank you.’
The group reached the map room. Kai’s eyes widened at the beauty that the room had to offer. Twilight sat in her chair first, with the others following for their respective seats.
“Okay, so first things first. We can probably use the map to find any other Firefox in the region.” Twilight explained.
Kai jumped up onto the table. ‘What? Really?!’
“Of course. Twilight’s got a handle on this map better than any of us!” Pinkie screamed as she threw confetti into the air.
Twilight blushed at Pinkie’s compliment. “Well I don’t know about that, but I’m sure there’s a spell that’ll allow me to take a sample of Kai and find others of his species. I’ve never done it using the map, but I know unicorns of old would use a spell to track Ursa Majors.”
“Pffttt.” Spike spouted at her remark. “This’ll be way easier than tracking them, especially since we have the map and the spell!”
Happily jumping up and down on the table, Kai panted and yipped in glee.
“Well, I don’t actually know the spell…” Twilight said nervously. “But I do have a large source of knowledge right in my own castle. I’m sure one of the books I have contains it.”
Kai stopped hopping and turned to Twilight. ‘Even if you do not have the knowledge, you do know it exists and you have a plan. That gives me more hope than just shooting up into the sky every night with faith that someone I might know will see it. Thank you.’
Twilight blushed again. “You’re more than welcome Kai. I hope you’ll enjoy your stay here. If you’d like, during the day you can hang out with one of us till I track down the spell.”
‘That would be wonderful. I can’t wait to get to know each one of you. And I know, when we do find my family, I’m going to have so many happy experiences to share with them it’ll blow their mind!’ Kai began to hop up and down again.
“Oh! Oh! Me too!” Pinkie yelled as she got up onto the table and began hopping up and down with Kai. The rest of the group began to laugh at the unique sight.