"Threatening" wasn't the word Twilight Sparkle would use to describe the strange object hovering in the sky. "Curious" made a much more applicable one.
She had been calibrating her telescope for stargazing when she noticed something odd far up in the atmosphere. It took her a while to make sure that it wasn't just a smudge on her telescope's lens, and then it took even longer to focus on it. What she saw caused her to be... surprised, for lack of a better word.
There was a train hovering in Equis' atmosphere.
She counted three compartments, the engine room, and a large caboose. The entire thing was covered in brass-plated piping and dimly glowing blue lights. Several large, cyan discs lined the bottom of it, and she guessed that it gave the device propulsion. It was a marvel of engineering. She kept describing the object using vague terms, like "it," "thing," or "device," but she knew that one word fit it better than most.
It was a ship.
She was certain of it. A spaceship had entered Equis' atmosphere. And for the last hour, it had done nothing but sit in the sky, far, far above Whitetail Woods. She could only speculate as to why it had arrived, but in truth she wouldn't know where to start guessing. Equestria was still making contact with different species just on their own planet; nopony had yet given any thought to species that dwell beyond Equis.
So, what better to do than take notes on the spacecraft? Even if it hadn't been doing anything for an hour, she could still describe its presence and record its inactivity.
But wait! Something was happening!
Twilight squinted into the eyepiece of her telescope as she strained her eye to get a better look at the action.
A red glow gathered around the bottom of the train's first compartment, then a beam of red energy suddenly shot down to the surface of the planet.
Twilight gasped in surprise, hastily scribbling down notes on her pad. After a few moments of making certain that the ship wasn't doing anything else, she ran inside to grab a map of Equestria from one of her desk drawers. She diverted her attention between the telescope and the map, trying to pinpoint the location that the ship was hovering over. She didn't know exactly what had happened, but she was willing to bet her crown that something was inside that red burst of energy.
Something that was now on the planet.
And she'd be the first to make contact! She folded up her map hastily and levitated her equipment back inside.
But what if it wasn't friendly?
But what if it was?
She had to know. She had to find out. It might even just be some equipment that was sent down to monitor or scan Equis.
It was her job, her responsibility as a Princess of Equestria to investigate and discover the alien's intentions, whether benign or not.
With a squee that wasn't too giddy, she hopped into the air once, then took off to gather supplies for her venture into Whitetail Woods.
Sticks and leaves cracked softly underneath Twilight's hooves as she worked her way along the forest floor, her head and eyes down and focused on following her map. A soft glow came from her horn, stretching a few feet out and casting sparse shadows along the shedding trees. She could look up and barely see the stars through the gaps of the leaves and branches forming a full canopy above her head. If she stopped and focused in certain places, she could see the aligned dots of light that she knew were the plates beneath the starbound train.
It had only been a few minutes of walking yet she knew she was getting close. Pinpointing the ship's location above ground had been a basic exercise for her skills in mathematics and cartography. The map she had was accurate, and it couldn't excite her more.
It might have been selfish of her, but she didn't tell any of her friends what she had seen, or that she was going to make contact with what might be an alien. She did tell Spike and had him send a letter informing Celestia that she was going into Whitetail Woods to conduct a new experiment, so if, gods forbid, the alien turned out to be hostile...
Well, it didn't do well to think like that.
Wait! What's that glow ahead?
She extinguished the light coming from her horn and put her map in her saddlebags. She then lowered her body to creep into some nearby brush. A soft green glow, not unlike the one that came from her magic, was being cast dimly across the trees. Its source was unknown to Twilight, obscured from her view by some trees.
She shuffled around, leaves rustling and twigs quietly snapping, trying to get a better view of whatever was emitting the light. She could hardly contain her excitement!
Finally she couldn't take creeping around any more. She dashed out of the bush she was in and pressed her body up against the tree that had blocked her view, hoping that the alien hadn't heard her rapid movements. Her heart beat faster than ever before, and each breath came out as a near-silent huff. All she had to do was peer around the tree, and...
Wow.
Whatever it was, it seemed to be hunched over, its back to Twilight. She was certain that it was wearing clothing, assuming that the long brown cloak that gathered around its sides weren't part of its skin. Not that it was a difficult assumption to make, since she could make out some of its "skin" pretty easily.
It didn't really have skin, is what she should say. There seemed to be some sort of translucent membrane holding together a swirling mass of dimly glowing green energy. Only the back of its neck and some spiked chunks of what looked suspiciously like hair were visible from her current vantage point.
Its clothes were something that struck her as odd as well. They didn't look too out of place compared to what you might see in Appleloosa. It was wearing a long brown trench coat and she could make out the knot of a bandanna tied around its neck. A cowpony hat was fitted snugly around its head.
Then it stood up.
Twilight could see it was wearing thick black boots that the legs of a pair of blue pants were tucked into. Its hands were covered by black gloves, but its forearms were exposed by rolled-up sleeves. At this point Twilight was comparing its anatomy to a Diamond Dog, bipedal with opposable digits.
"Yeah, S.A.I.L, this planet's bunk. Trees look pretty normal, but I'm not getting much in terms of usable minerals," came a voice suddenly.
With a jolt, Twilight realized that the creature before her had spoken. A deep, slightly southern-accented voice, but his, and it was definitely male, tone was marred by some interference.
"Yeah, I'll beam up in a few minutes. I'm gonna synthesize a flag real quick, leave it here so any passerby see that I was here first. Besides, this place might be a good vacation spot. We can wait for the day cycle to see how hot it gets, but shouldn't be that bad, judging by the temperature now."
Twilight winced, feeling a slightly uncomfortable vibration travel up her horn as he spoke. His voice didn't seem to be produced from any normal vocal cords either. It sounded tinny and quiet, like it was coming from a shoddy speaker or through a bad microphone.
Then he turned around, and Twilight very nearly squeaked in surprise. His face was just like the rest of his body, a contained swirl of green gases and energy, but there was a feature on it that stood out to her. A solid chunk of gritty-looking iron was embedded in his face, shaped like a square with lines on the top, bottom, and sides.
She pondered the meaning of the hunk of metal as she took in the rest of his form. He was wearing a white shirt with a brown vest buttoned up over it, and she could barely make out the sides of suspenders hiding under the vest. A belt was fastened around his waist, lined with small pieces of metal that she guessed were bullets, if the gun in the holster at his hip was any indication.
Twilight's eyes turned back up to notice that he was holding something now. It was quite obviously a piece of technology, if the glow it gave off was any indication. It had handles on the top and bottom and it was colorized white with sleek blue highlights on the edges. The creature pressed a few buttons on it, then set it flat on the ground gently.
Twilight's eyes lit up with fascination as a projection emitted from the device, clearly showing a flag about as tall as the being before her. Then, before her eyes, it materialized slowly, manifesting itself like the projection was a blueprint. In but mere moments, the flag had completely solidified, and the alien being gently grabbed its shaft, seemingly testing its solidity. When he seemed satisfied that it was done materializing, he jabbed the flag sharply into the ground, striking a pose that could only be described as heroic.
"By the power vested in me by, uh, me... I do proclaim this planet... shoot, what was the designation?" The creature held his hand out to the side, its arm locked. To Twilight's amazement, a flat display materialized in the air, floating just before his palm. The alien leaned in close to the projection, clearly examining something. Though, how he accomplished that without eyes was beyond—
"Equis Majora III!" he finally shouted, quite triumphantly.
The display disappeared, blinking out of existence just as suddenly as it had appeared. It was replaced momentarily by another smaller projection, this one just above the flag's shaft. The alien seemed to press a few buttons on it, then it faded away.
"Fantastic." He relaxed a bit, putting his hands on his hips and standing up straight. "Welp," he said after a moment of silence. He reached to his belt and withdrew the pistol that hung there. "Time to find out if the locals are hostile!" he said, visibly glowing brighter.
"Wait!"
Oh goddesses she just said that. What did she think she was doing? She had no idea if this thing would—
"I surrender!" the creature immediately shouted, throwing its arms into the air dramatically.
Twilight stopped, her front half out of the bush at this point and an incredulous look on her face.
"Heh heh heh, I'm just kidding." He lowered his arms then turned his face towards her, obviously fixing her in his attention. "Well, you're not hostile, and you're not any species I've seen before. That's double points for me here." He spun the pistol around in his hand once then holstered it with gusto. "Wait, but it's minus points because that means it's inhabited. Shoot." His glow dimmed for a moment, before brightening up again. "Anyway, what's your name, little one?"
Twilight, without moving her front hooves, extracted her lower body from the bush. She took a moment to compose herself and restrain both her nervousness and excitement, breathing out shakily once, then tilting her head up to look at the alien. "My name is Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship. Welcome to Equestria, planet Equis." It took all of her willpower to avoid squee-ing at the end of the phrase. She was actually talking to an alien! That had never set hoof on the planet before!
"Huh." He took a moment to mull things over in his brain. Or whatever it was that could be floating around inside him. "Neat. Not every day the locals don't attack. Name's Nathaniel. Call me Nate, if'n it pleases ya." He removed his hat, and then the glove on his right hand, extending the glowing appendage towards her.
"Nice to meet you, Nate!" Twilight recognized the gesture immediately and stuck out her hoof to meet his. It seemed that some things were universal—
"Yee'ouch!" he exclaimed as sudden as the shock that had jumped from her hoof to his hand once they were close enough. "What in the name of Sam Hill was that!" he shook his hand out vigorously, trying to shake off whatever it was that happened between them.
Twilight's hooves shot to cover her mouth immediately, for two reasons. One, for being mortified that she accidentally caused Nate harm during their first contact; and two, because she was trying to stifle a laugh from fighting its way out of her. It seemed that Nate's odd hair had reacted somehow to their interaction, and now it was sticking up everywhere, making him look like a miniature supernova!
"Well, Miss Princess Sparkle, I'm mighty sorry about that, I'm not really sure what just happened," he said, smoothing his flickering hair back down into a more controlled shape. His glove went back on his hand, and his hat went back on his head, the motions smooth and controlled.
"I'm not really sure what happened either, Nate." She giggled. "And please, just call me Twilight." She smiled up at him happily. "Could you answer a few questions for me, please?" she asked, none too subtly wanting to grill him for any information she could.
"Well, sunrise 'round here shouldn't be for another few good hours, and it beats kicking around the ship, so go ahead and shoot," he said, mimicking a pistol with his thumb and finger.
"Excellent!" Twilight exclaimed, producing her notepad and quill. "I hope this doesn't come off as insensitive, but what are you?"
"Well, most folks just tend to call us Novakid," he answered easily.
"So there's more like you?"
"Yep. Don't see 'em around much; we tend to drift a lot."
"Drift around... in your space ships?" she asked, grinning at the prospect.
"That'd be right, Twilight."
"What are your people like? What are the other creatures like that you meet out there?" Her eyes were glimmering at this point, shining with hope at the idea of meeting such different creatures someday.
"Well, uh, I'm not quite sure, actually. And I dunno about other people that I meet. They're just people, I guess. Nothing much to it." He shrugged.
Twilight tilted her head in confusion. A being that travels the stars and witnesses wonders the like of which she never dreamed, and that's all he has to say about who he meets? "There isn't something you can tell me about them?"
Nate shrugged again.
Twilight did her best to copy his actions mentally and moved on to her next question. Scribbling out some words on her notepad with her quill, she looked back up at him. "What's it like to be 'Novakid'? Did you grow up on a spaceship? Did you learn everything about interplanetary travel from schools on your planet or from your parents?" She gasped, a thought striking her mind. "Or do you not have parents, and you're just born from the stars?!"
Nate's chuckling brought her out of her reverie. "Whoa, whoa, hold on there," he said, motioning for her to calm down with his hands. "Let's take this one at a time, yeah? To start that out, I don't really know how to say what it's like to be Novakid. I think it's pretty obvious to you what I'm made of. Star stuff." He chuckled again.
"As for growing up on a spaceship, that's be negatory, compadré. I grew up with my ma and pa on a little planet known as... uh..." He scratched the back of his head and looked up. "Well, I don't really remember the name of the planet, but we weren't there for very long. Parents shipped out soon as they figured out how to make a ship. I followed suit a few revolutions around our sun later."
Twilight's jaw hung open, her mind trying to understand what he just said. It came out clear, but she couldn't fathom how nonchalant he was about his lack of parental guidance and his lack of knowledge regarding the planet he grew up on. "But... are you so..."
"I dunno. I don't really remember much of my parents. My metabolism and cerebral processes didn't really kick in until I left the planet. My memory really starts when I first met my ship's artificial intelligence, S.A.I.L."
"Is that... normal?" Twilight asked, hesitantly.
Nate just shrugged. "Normal as I know. Haven't met any other Novakid out there."
Twilight's thought process hitched again. "...what...?" She was having a difficult time keeping up at this point. The idea that a creature, regardless of where it was from, could just have virtually no knowledge of their own race or history completely boggled her mind.
"But I did meet this real pretty Floran just the other day, on a planet a few systems away from here." He leaned back and sighed dreamily. "She had just the perfect eyes, and the way she knew how to work her rifle..." He shivered and turned a tone brighter. "It just lights me up inside."
"A... a Floran?" Twilight asked, still rebounding from her shock.
"Plant people," Nate said, turning his attention back to her. "Most of 'em are still trying to learn how to interact with us modern space-sailors, but they mean well, for the most part. Strength's a big deal to them, I think. Why, I remember the time a nice young Floran invited me to a party, and that party just turned out to be a big 'ol hunt down in the jungles under the crust of one of their homeworlds. What a good time that was!"
He focused upon her. She wasn't sure how she knew, but suddenly the aura that surrounded him seemed to converge on her. "Say, Miss Twilight, how do you party on this here planet? What's your species called anyway? You look like one of them... unicorns? Kinda like S.A.I.L, but with a horn. And wings."
Twilight had to take control of the conversation again. "I used to be a Unicorn," she explained, "but not long ago I ascended to become an alicorn, a bearer of the traits of all three of the pony races. My friends actually make up the three pony races. Applejack and Pinkie Pie are Earth Ponies, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are Pegasi, and Rarity is a Unicorn."
"So, Pony, then?"
"That's right."
"Neato, Twilight, neato." He looked up at the sky, and then down at his wrist. "Well, it was great chattin' with you, Twilight, but I think I'm just gonna mosey on out of here. I've got some resources to gather, and I don't think it would be very respectful of me if I raided your planet for it all."
The quill in Twilight's magic folded over once. "What? You're leaving already? But there's so much more I need to ask you!"
Nate had already begun fiddling with the flag he had placed earlier.
"Well I'm not gone yet, so gimme another one, I guess. I got some places to go."
"Well, I—" She frantically flipped through her notepad, looking through what she had wrote down earlier while observing Nate's ship. She had so many questions, ranging from what his clothes are made of to what his ship ran on. She didn't have enough time to learn about him, there wasn't enough time for her to do anything! She shut her eyes and breathed out. "Why do you do what you do?" she finally settled to ask.
"Hmm?" came the crackling voice from the speaker.
Shoot, I should've asked about the speaker.
He turned around to face her once more, leaving the flag to softly flutter in the gentle breeze. The silence in the forest suddenly made itself known to Twilight, though she didn't recall hearing any wildlife the entire time she spoke with Nate. Suddenly the fact that she had been speaking with a being from another planet struck her a second time.
"What do you mean, 'what I do'?" Nate asked, the area around his head dimming slightly.
Twilight gulped, suddenly feeling vulnerable. "What I mean to say is what keeps you going from planet to planet?"
"Well that'd be my ship, Miss Sparkle," he said, completely serious.
Twilight resisted the urge to roll her eyes. "What I mean is, what motivates you?"
"Well... I don't rightly know, Miss Sparkle," Nate drawled out thoughtfully. "There is some sort of a charm, I guess, of visitin' new planets and adventurin' 'round the place. I do like the odd conversation every now and then, but I've yet to find somebody that really catches my fancy, if you know what I mean." He chuckled good-naturedly, oblivious to the other question burning in Twilight's mind.
"So then you're alone?" she finally asked.
"Exactly!" The speaker popped loudly with the exclamation, causing Nate to jump and glare at the small fixture buttoned to his chest. He started to fiddle with it, the strange warbling that seemed to be his native language filling the air again. But Twilight wasn't paying attention to the sudden lack of communication.
"You're alone," she repeated, her eyes trailing off of him. Her mind brought up memories of how much time she had spent alone, before moving to Ponyville and making friends with all the mares that she now considers family. She tried to recall just how lonely she was back then, but somehow couldn't muster the feelings. She'd spent so much time with them that she could barely remember how it felt to be without friends.
She suddenly didn't envy him anymore.
"I... Let me check my notes." Her notepad floated in front of her eyes and she checked over what she had written down. Her note-taking skills had managed to hold strong despite the frequent changes in emotion she experienced while talking with him. She had detailed his physical structure, upbringing, and some theories she had jotted down in the margins regarding his early life and his species' culture. But, if he was really going to leave the planet soon, then she wouldn't ever be able to get the full story behind his species.
But, for some reason, she found herself hesitating. Reading over everything, she took everything she knew about him and pieced it together as one individual. It didn't look pretty. It looked like an antisocial, reticent creature with an upbringing centered around isolation and... without much purpose. Even when asked about it, he didn't seem to question why he did anything. He just... existed. It directly contradicted the easy-going, goofy starman that she viewed before her.
It wasn't right for her to judge the way another creature lives their life, she knew that much. But she also couldn't stop herself from developing an opinion regarding that creature. And the honest truth was that she pitied him, in a way. He was able to get satisfaction in his life without friends or family, which wasn't something she could fault him for, but it still made her view him in a different way. Like he was colder without the light that friendship could bring.
"...da...sonuva..... Gah! Fixed it!" Nate's voice suddenly crackled back to life with his speaker. "Sorry about that, Miss Twilight. I've had this cheap old thing for plenty o' time now; it's not as reliable as it used to be." He straightened himself back up and righted the hat on his head.
"It's fine, Nate. I... um..." She shifted nervously on her hooves. Conversation with the alien suddenly seemed a lot more difficult than before.
"Now that I've got that fixed... toodles!" he said brightly, raising a hand and waving it once.
"Wait, what?" Twilight blanched. "Wouldn't fixing it mean that--"
"I've got to get along now; got planets to see and rubium to mine. You know how it is, I'm sure." Nate held his arm out before him, causing a little display to appear in the air.
"Can you stay for just a while longer? I want to introduce you to my friends! I'm sure you'd all get along really well!" As the words left her mouth, her earlier reticence returned. Would he like them? Someone who's gotten so used to being alone? She took another look at him, his finger hovering over the button that would most likely send him back to his ship. Does he really need to have friends, anyway? He seems so... confident. And content.
"It was a pleasure meeting you, Miss Twilight. Maybe I'll come back and pay y'all a visit sometime. 'Til then." He tipped the brim of his hat forward, then hit the button. In a flash of red, he beamed back up into the night sky.
Twilight's eyes tracked up slowly to look at the outline of the ship's bottom. After a few moments of staring, the cyan discs giving it propulsion lit up in a flash of synthetic fire. Then she blinked, and it was gone.
Dear Princess Celestia,
I know that it's odd for me to be writing to you at all now, given our new relationship as peers, but I felt that I needed to share with you what I learned tonight. I discovered a new friendship lesson, but one that's not at all similar to what I've seen in the past. Tonight I met somepony that reminded me of myself, before I went to Ponyville. As soon as I made that connection, that was all I could see in that pony, a reflection of how lonely I was before. But tonight I learned that being alone doesn't necessarily mean that you're lonely. This pony was more alone than I could have ever believed, but they were so happy and content that I never would have guessed at how they live. Friendship is a wonderful, beautiful thing, but tonight I learned that not everypony needs friendship. Despite that, however, I can only hope that someday he learns the same thing I did back then; that friendship can enrich your life and fill gaps in your heart that you didn't even know existed.
Forever your student,
Twilight Sparkle