A Friend from the Stars

by AntiBronyBenSwolo

A New Challenger Approaches!

Twilight woke up to the bright, shining sun beaming into her room. She stretched her forehooves and rubbed her temple, and found a note with her wax stamp on it. Twilight levitated the note over to her and opened it up to read it.

"Dear Future Twilight,
To make a long story short, you agreed to a memory
wipe from S.M.I.L.E. as long as you wrote this note.
And S.M.I.L.E. wants you to monitor Cosmica's activities
for her protection, as they couldn't think of anypony
better to guard her. And in exchange, S.M.I.L.E. has
agreed to notify you and the Elements of Harmony
of any paranormal or extraterrestrial activity that may
interest you.

Signed,
Past Twilight"

"Huh. Strange. I actually remember writing this. Guess Fresh Prince really was careful with that memory wipe," Twilight muttered to herself as she headed out of her bedroom to get ready for the day.

"Hey, Twilight. Do you have any idea what happened last night? My mind feels very...blank for some reason," Spike asked as Twilight figured Spike must have been memory wiped as well.

"It's...nothing, Spike. Just a little side business going on is all. Also, have you seen Cosmica anywhere? I need to speak with her," Twilight asked as Spike scratched his head.

"She said she was working on a little something at her ship," Spike answered as Twilight nodded and headed out to meet with her outside of Canterlot, where Cosmica originally parked her spacecraft. As she neared the giant saucer, she noticed the blue, cyan, and green lights aglow, implying Cosmica was hard at work on...something.

"Cosmica? Can I come in?" Twilight asked as the lights paused and the ramp entrance lowered, revealing Cosmica with large bags under her eyes, startling Twilight.

"Hey, Twilight! You're just in time!" Cosmica said as Twilight walked up the ramp and found a stack of paperwork and folders sitting all over the computer and all over the floor, excepting the area around grumpy little Potato, who paid no mind and went fast asleep in his pen. Twilight couldn't quite believe what she was seeing. She might as well have met her match.

"Just in time...for what?" Twilight asked as Cosmica pulled out one of the folders and rushed over to Twilight.

"OK, so I was given this big to-do list, and I've been really busy trying to get it done in one go. I've been practicing how to read and write in basic pony, I've been studying your pony magic, language, art, and history, and I've been writing everything I learned down here," Cosmica said gleefully as Twilight couldn't believe her eyes.

"I mean...I am impressed you were able to do all of this, but I'm just concerned is all. Did...S.M.I.L.E. ask you to do this? And did they give you a due date for all this homework?" Twilight asked as Cosmica turned around, whose smile quickly shattered in embarrassment.

"Oh. Oh, crud, they didn't give me a due date. Oh gosh, I just wasted 8 hours of my life studying without sleep! Why would I do that!?" Cosmica sobbed as she dropped her folder and curled up into a ball, mentally scolding herself for getting way too ahead of herself.

"Hey, it's OK Cosmica. It's totally normal for ponies to make mistakes sometimes. Trust me, I made a similar mistake trying to solve a problem that didn't need to be solved. But...we learn from these mistakes. And that's what makes us better ponies in the end," Twilight said, as she patted Cosmica's back and wiped a tear from her eye with a single feather.

"Thanks, Twilight. I just...got way too lost in all of this because, well, we kind of did a similar thing back home," Cosmica explained as Twilight's ear perked up.

"What do you mean?" Twilight asked as Cosmica began to reminisce on her old homeworld.

"Well, our kind...Cloptrians, as you ponies decided to call us, we're a more stern race of pony. When we're given a task, we won't stop until the task is done," Cosmica explained as Twilight began to understand Cosmica's dilemma.

"Oh. I see now. I remember a few friendship problems that related to this scenario. Maybe I should get you a copy of our friendship journal. Tell you what, Cosmica. I'll grade all these papers for you, and you just get some well-deserved rest. No pony should work as long as you just did. No matter how hard anypony tries," Twilight says as Cosmica nodded as Twilight used her magic to levitate every folder and paper scattered across Cosmica's now messy spacecraft and Cosmica simply hopped into her bed bundled up in a warm, green blanket with her gifted toy cow by her side.

"Good night, Cosmica," Twilight said, as the dome of the spacecraft automatically closed itself up to prevent any sunlight from peeking into the ship.

"Good night, Twilight," Cosmica said with a yawn and began to doze off to sleep, gaining some much-needed rest.

---

As Twilight left the spacecraft to close itself up, high up into the sky, higher than any pegasus could ever fly, a large alien orb resembling an eye looked down upon the landed craft and blinked multiple times with its burning red eye. The alien probe let out a couple of unsettling chirps, sending a message up into the atmosphere of the planet, where a much larger spacecraft hid in the planet's orbit. Inside the orbiting spacecraft sat Cryptic Sapphire, watching the planet from above through the probes.

"Looks like I've finally found you, sister," Cryptic Sapphire commented in the native Cloptrian tongue, as the probe's view of Cosmica's smaller craft and Twilight leaving the craft made it onto the screen. Although Cryptic's suit pacified his emotions, Cryptic couldn't help but let out a mischievous smirk as to what he was planning to do.

"COMPUTER! Send a couple of probes out and analyze the planet's strongest defenses! Then capture the strongest among them. Only then will we begin our descent onto the planet," Cryptic demanded as the alien spacecraft beamed to life as it shot out more and more alien probes to analyze the planet below, summoning more and more screens to the spaceship's interface through the probe's eyes, fulfilling Cryptic's wishes. Among the screens sat images of Twilight and the Elements of Harmony, Starlight Glimmer, Celestia and Luna, Princess Cadence and her family, Starswirl the Bearded and the Pillars of Equestria, the School of Harmony's students, and various agents of S.M.I.L.E. undercover. Among the various characters brought to Cryptic's attention, one of them stood out the most. A seemingly ordinary mare with a wine-red coat, bright, magenta eyes, and a messy violet-red mane donning an overstuffed cap on her head. The mare wore a white shirt underneath a black jacket and sported a magenta heart covered in a blue fire as her cutie mark. It didn't take Cryptic long for him to figure out she did not belong with the other ponies presented on the screen.

"Who is she and why is she among the targets I requested?" Cryptic Sapphire asked as the computer's interface sprung to life.

"Unknown, sir. My analysis indicates a strong supernatural presence, alongside the requested targets. If you wish, we can disregard her and continue on with the rest," The Computer replied as Cryptic Sapphire analyzed the footage.

"We cannot underestimate our opponents either. Keep an eye on this one, then continue on with the rest," Cryptic Sapphire ordered as the computer acknowledged his orders and did as it was told.

---

It was a bright sunny day in Canterlot, as the ponies rushed around doing their jobs, from the wealthy unicorns donating to charities, to the royal guards protecting the city (and failing at that). But none of that mattered to one simple pony who was trying to hide in plain sight. The wine-red mare sat down at a local diner, looking at all the ponies having the time of their lives, which was something the simple mare was not used to seeing, but paid no mind to it nonetheless.

"May I help you, Ma'am?" The gruff waiter at the diner asked as the pony looked up at the large-built stallion.

"Oh, no, I'll pass. I'm just waiting for someone," The pony said, adjusting her cap as the waiter left her to be. The mare lied, as she had a habit of doing, and wasn't actually waiting for anypony to sit next to her. She just wanted to sight-see the society Equestria has built. Though that didn't stop two ponies from sitting with her.

"Hey. Looks like we finally caught up with you," Bon Bon said, alarming the mare as she and Lyra sat across from her at the table laying a single paper folder beside them.

"Oh, hey, it's Tooth Paste and DumDum. Don't you guys have bigger fish to fry? Cause I think one of those nutjobs over there thinks he saw a UFO or something," The rather rude mare taunted as Lyra and Bon Bon stared her down with burning intent.

"Zip it, Pepper! You're lucky you're in public this time or else we would have hauled you back to HQ," Lyra relayed to Pepper as the rude pony snickered.

"Well, DUH! Don't you dumb ponies know what 'hiding in plain sight' means?" Pepper remarked, only making Lyra angrier by the second. Bon Bon simply rubbed her as Lyra began to calm down.

"What do you two losers want anyway?" Pepper asked.

"We just want you to turn yourself to S.M.I.L.E. is all," Bon Bon said as Pepper rolled her eyes.

"What? So you can figure out how demons work by sticking me under a microscope? Fat chance!" Pepper declined, garnering a sigh from Bon Bon. Pepper eyed the folder and yanked it from them.

"HEY! That's confidential information!" Bon Bon cried, demanded the folder back, but Pepper flipped through it like a secret diary. In the folder, she found images of the Elements of Harmony with a green-skinned pony and a profile page on that green-skinned pony with a simple title.

"Whose Cosmica? She seems like a cute pony," Pepper asked as Lyra's anger began to resurface.

"Cosmica is none of your business! Bon Bon and I were just finishing up her case!" Lyra fumed as she yoinked the folder back, much to Pepper's disappointment. Bon Bon tried harder to calm Lyra back down.

"Then why would you bring that folder if you didn't want me to see it? You two are just terrible secret agents!" Pepper taunted as now Bon Bon's anger began to surface.

"And you're just a good for nothing bully and a coward of a demon!" Bon Bon remarked as Pepper snickered at her remarks.

"Oh no. What ever shall I do?" Pepper sarcastically commented as she got up to leave. Lyra and Bon Bon got up and began to chase her down and arrest the visiting demon, but remembered not to do so because of the public crowd. As Pepper left Lyra and Bon Bon at the diner, she pulled out a photo of Cosmica that she had pickpocketed from the S.M.I.L.E. agents and began smirking devilishly.

"Guess I'm not the only paranormal being here Cosmica. I can't wait to finally meet you," Pepper said to the image as if it were the real Cosmica. Pepper put the photo back into her shirt pocket and went along her merry way.

Comments

[Coolified Gaming]

As you could tell from my previous comments, I never got to study the Cloptrians. My question is this: what are their powers? Aside from being an FTL level race technologically of course. Also I got the reference with Fresh Prince. Seriously, that is a dumb name.

[AntiBronyBenSwolo]

11143501
I was thinking they have a form of magic that powers their technology, such as their spacecraft and whatnot. But they can't use their technology without their magic, and it's very very dangerous to use their magic without their technology.

Also I got the reference with Fresh Prince. Seriously, that is a dumb name.

That's fair.

[NicLove]

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