An Alien Walks Amongst Us

by Hazardus_Havard

Chapter Five - Innocence Is Always Inconspicuous

The dark, cold draft of the night flew through the open room that housed two doleful ponies. A broken window littered the ground with glass, allowing the biting wind in. Papers cluttered the floor with ink blots spewed across the walls, a couch flipped over, along with a mountain of boxes trampled around. Off in the corner, a single book stood out, or what once appeared as a book; charred remains were all that was left, smoke wafting from the ashes. Only a single, dim light of yellow gave away what happened, originating from an untouched kitchen.

Near where the boxes of forgotten junk and past memories were, there could be seen a pile of shredded blankets, shuddering about. A unicorn laid in the middle with her back turned away from the room, curled up. The convulsing gasps of Lyra’s raspy breathes were the only audible sound left.

In the middle of the hazard zone stood Bon Bon, staring at her friend with worry. She had attempted to calm her down yet could not find the words to do so. The tantrum produced a wild side the candy-pony had never seen in her friend; it was the first time she had seen anyone truly threaten a princess.

She could understand her anger. Lyra herself had devoted a great deal to the princess, going to great lengths to keep the sun princess content. Any requests from the princess, no matter how strange and dangerous, and she had done her best to complete them.

For Lyra to have seen the letter sent from the princess, it must have torn her apart.

Looking at her tear-stricken friend, she could see her having calmed down. Her crying had slowly ceased to a low whining, accompanied by an occasional sniffle. Readying herself for whatever may come, she waded through the sea of torn devotion to help a friend in need.

Twitching of the unicorn’s ears gave away her friend's movements; flattening her ears down couldn’t muffle the clicking hooves on the hardwood floor making their way to her. Staring down at the unicorn, she could see the red, puffy eyes that gathered tears, pattering in droplets that pooled on the floor. Bon Bon sat down, pushing herself close to the mare. Noticing the close proximity, Lyra reached her head upon a welcoming shoulder, tears flowing freely. Bon Bon simply sat there, allowing her as much time as was needed, rubbing Lyra’s back in reassurance.

A hiccup, a small winding of air, and Lyra spoke, “W-Why would the p-princess want to do this?”

Taking a moment of silence, to allow some clearing of the air, Bon Bon responded, “Princess Celestia is only looking out for her ponies, for us. It’s a hard position to be in, having to choose such hard decisions.” Lyra shoved her head further into Bon Bon, a softened sobbing her reply. “We have some time to help show that it’s not a threat to us, at least directly. How long do we have, Lyra?”

Lyra took in a gulp of air before replying. “T-Two weeks…”

‘It that really enough time to judge something like this, with something that can’t properly communicate with us?’

Bon Bon wasn’t sure of their odds against time, but she would continue to stay optimistic, if only for Lyra.

“Okay, so here what we’re going to do. I’m going to set my bed up so you can get some rest. In the morning, we are going to do our best to show the alien is not a danger to us.”

“…But how?” Lyra questioned, her words muffled in Bon Bon’s shoulder.

‘That’s a good question. Just how do we go about proving its innocence?’

“I’m not entirely sure,” she answered truthfully. “But I figure with you on the job, we’re certain to find a way. You… you’ll think of something. You always do.”

Bon Bon can feel the Lyra slumped over her shoulder, her exhaustion setting in. A glance revealed her nodding off. Bon Bon slid her up to her hooves and helped her move forward toward her bedroom.

Setting her down, Bon Bon sighed. Taking her time, she deactivated any trap that was left in her room lest her friend trip into one waking up. Walking out, she helped the barely conscious Lyra to her bed. She immediately slumped to the side, passed out. Bon Bon threw on additional comforters to keep her warm.

Standing by the door, she looked back at Lyra’s disheveled form. Her breathing was at a steady pace, yet wheezed out from its overuse. Bon Bon, thinking on what was needed, thought the next two weeks were going to be a major pain. But she would toughen it out for Lyra.

Not that she cared too much about how the alien ended up, she was more concerned about Lyra than the things predicament. Lyra’s been her best and closest friend for as long as she could remember, practically family to her… a pony she treasured dearly. And friends like that stuck with one another to the bitter end.

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“Uuuugh.” Bon Bon could feel her body aching, dealing with the last night’s troubles.

It was an exhausting job, cleaning up all the glass and broken objects. It took even longer rearranging everything to a more presentable manner. After everything was finished, she was just too tired to make it to her bed. Plopping down on the couch seemed like a good idea at the time, but now she had quite the sore back.

“How does she deal with sleeping on this thing?”

Getting up, she cracked her back, feeling a draft from the boarded window. She’d have to call maintenance for the window, as soon as Lyra could handle being on her own. Bon Bon let out a grunt before she slipped her lab coat on, making her way to the kitchen, intent on fixing Lyra and herself a nice, big breakfast.

Balancing a plate on her back and another in her clenched teeth, she deftly made her way up to her room. Once in, she saw Lyra still asleep, a slight snore whistling out. A few strays of light shined through the partially covered window to help light up the room. Bon Bon could see Lyra had herself balled up with the bedding's rolled around her.

“Hey, Lyra,” Bon Bon softly said. “Time to get up. I have food for you.”

Ears twitching to the sound of her voice, Lyra started to stir. The two of them were fairly light sleepers, so it didn’t take much to wake her up. She stretched her legs and body out while yawning. Looking at Bon Bon, Lyra sat up, spotting the food.

“Are you feeling better?” Bon Bon asked, watching Lyra take a bite of her jammy, buttered toast.

Mid-chew, Lyra tilted her head to the side in thought before lightly nodding back.

Lyra spoke through her sore throat, “Did you remember to feed Anon?”

‘Ah crap!’ Bon Bon berated herself, she knew she forgot something!

“Uh, y-yeah! I have the alien’s food right here!” she answered with a smile, pointing at her own plate of food.

Lyra smiled at her, going back to her food. She took a few more bites at her own food before stopping mid-bite once more. “Aren’t you going to feed him?”

Bon Bon, with a forced smile, picked up her plate and walked out. Her smile dropped once she knew Lyra wasn’t looking; a twitch in her left eye could be felt. Walking up to the door, Lyra formed a quick spell to unlock and open the door. The alien was already awake and sitting on the ground, looking over the papers from before

‘I must have forgotten to take some of this back out with me yesterday before we left.’

Anon looked at her, having already heard the door open, noticing the plate in her mouth. She could clearly see its eyes widening, a small smile appearing on its face. Taking the quill in its soft digits, it scribbled something down before giving it to her. A somewhat legible ‘thank you’ was offered to her; it seemed to be picking things up quickly.

She nodded at the alien before returning to Lyra’s side by the bed. Her stomach grumbled quietly as she stared at Lyra’s half-eaten plate of food.

‘I was really looking forward to that jammy toast.’

“Okay,” Bon Bon started, ignoring the delectable smells. “I’ve been thinking of some ways to prove this alien is harmless. The few ideas that I came up with don’t seem to be in line with what the princess will allow, such as allowing him outside and meeting with other ponies.

“I was thinking we can get around her restrictions by simply having ponies come to us. We introduce the alien, keep things under control, and it should at the very least give us some extension, if not outright removing any issues of it staying. What do you think of this?”

Staring back at her friend, her eye could be felt twitching once again, seeing her attention elsewhere. Turning to what was holding her attention, Bon Bon’s face fell. A mental scream tore through her, realizing she had forgotten to close the door holding the alien. Worse, it held the silverware that was on the plate. The only saving grace being the alien was too enraptured in eating its food to realize the door was open.

“Eeeeeh…” Bon Bon heard mumbling from her friend.

Turning back, she noticed an eerie smile. She knew what that smile meant; Lyra’s about to do something very, very stupid. Bon Bon hoped whatever was running through her head wasn’t too dangerous.

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A yawn escaped Anon, rubbing his bleary eyes. The previous night was a tiring ordeal for him, the noise keeping him up. He had the bed overturned, giving him some form of barricade should the rowdiness decide to pay him a visit.

Having fixed the bed early in the morning, he had taken to working on the paperwork left behind by the two ponies. He made a personal vow to choke whoever made him learn such a thing. Just who comes up with a language that uses whistles and music sheets?

That was all set to the side the moment the pony named Bon Bon walked in, placing a plate of food down. A full-fledged meal with hash browns and an omelet, even including utensils of all things. He wasn’t sure what he had done to be offered such things.

Speaking of such things, they had left the door wide open. Looking out, he could see the unicorn and science-pony up on a bed, squeaking and whistling to one another. The unicorn was simply staring at him. Anon gave a wave, wondering where they were going with this.

‘Did they seriously make a whole house and give the two ponies their own rooms?’

Taking another bite of this toast, he could hear a low-whining coming from the unicorn. It slowly crawled out of its bed, past her bewildered assistant, flopping to the ground in a thudding head first. Anon winced seeing that, wondering how much that would cost them in repairs. Picking herself up she shook her head, walking up to Anon, the other pony following close behind.

The unicorn looked at him, her eyes quickly directed to the ground full of papers. “~+You left him with the papers?+~” she tweeted, her voice skipping like a scratched record. “~+Good idea! He can do his own studying while we’re away now! We just need to make sure he has enough materials to continue on when we’re not here.+~”

Bon Bon twittered, looking to the ground with a forced smile. “~+So what exactly were you thinking when you saw, well, whatever it was you saw?+~”

“~+Well… I noticed you left both our doors open, and that let off a lot of alarms in my head. What if he had escaped? And he even had a fork! He could have done something with that, right? But look! He hadn’t even tried to stab you when your back was turned!+~”

Whatever the unicorn said made Bon Bon fidget about, looking at Anon warily. “~+R, Right… your point?+~”

“~+Okay, so hear me out. The way I see it, we need to show he’s not a danger. So why not make it so we introduce dangerous substances to him! We can record everything we do and, with enough work, paint him in a manner that would show he’s not as dangerous as the princess think he is!+~”

The only thing Anon got out of that was the word ‘dangerous’, a familiar word that the lab pony had provided to him as she continuously used it the other day teaching him. ‘What’s dangerous? Are they going to do something dangerous to me?’

“~+Lyra, that might be a bit too dangerous, don’t you think?+~”

“~+It’s not like we have anything else we can do with the restrictions the princess gave us. Besides getting other ponies in on this. I mean, it’s a start.+~”

“~+Yeah, I suppose.+~”

Anon slowly took a bite of his omelet, keeping an eye on the two. Whatever Lyra had planned, he felt he was going to regret it. Best to enjoy his meal before they started.

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As luck would have it, his initial assumption was way off. All they had done was place items around the room: a dresser, a rug, even a desk full of papers, inks, and quills. That didn’t stop them from adding more worrisome things to that list, such as a full set of knives. It was a frightening thing to have the ponies simply giving him such things. All he could do was stare at the two ponies, wondering why they would do such things. Were they testing him? Screwing with him? Likely, both.

In all likelihood, they wanted to show how little of a threat he was, considering he was up against autonomous, mechanical horses. Here, have this wonderfully high-risk cutlery that could hurt someone if used in such a manner. As if he would do such a thing. How much clearer did they have to be that he was no threat to them?

Having gone through a round of ‘gift-giving’, they left him to be in the now furnished room, sitting at the desk in a chair much too small for him, learning an aggravating language of lyrical melodies as they continued to pass him items slowly over the day.

Learning enough of their language, he felt confident enough to ask some questions. Queries on why they were holding him in the room or how they were performing their levitation acts were put off, feeling his captives wouldn’t share such information. Asking them about their current actions would do for the time being.

Carefully writing it down, he handed the paper to them. Lyra’s horn glowed, her green aura levitating it to her. Reading it, her previous smile dropped. Bon Bon looked at it before whinnying.

“~+Should we tell him about what’s going on with the princess?+~”

Taking a shaky gulp of air, the unicorn looked like she was about to cry. A mistake, it seemed, asking her such a question. Grabbing some paper, Lyra scribbled a reply. Bon Bon read it, letting out what clearly sounded like a tea kettle groaning. Being given the note, Anon had difficulty working out what it read. He had to cross-reference the note to translate it, the ponies remaining patient, taking considerable time just to work out the single sentence.

**I just wanted to prove that you can be friendly and trustful.**

He hummed to himself, figuring it was something like that. Everything was simply a test, holding him in the room, seeing how far they could go and what he’d do. Perhaps the people holding him wanted a willing test subject, showing him glimpses of what they had. Something felt off, in the back of his mind, a tickling sensation that he wasn’t seeing something that felt almost too outlandish to consider.

“~+Lyra, could you not have chosen a better excuse?+~

“~+It’s sort of true Bon Bon. An alien pops up for the first time in, like ever, and I want to be his friend!+~

“~+I don’t think it’s a good idea to get too close to it, Lyra. And even though I don’t really agree with the princess, we don’t know if he’s here for something that could harm us in some manner.+~”

“~+He, he wouldn’t do anything wrong…+~”

“~+Lyra, a mysterious being comes up out of the blue for no reason? No matter how you look at it, that just doesn’t seem right.+~” Lyra frowned at whatever Bon Bon had chirped. “~+The princesses have been around for a long time, they’re more knowledgeable in these kinds of things. They’re probably considering him dangerous enough to warrant those threats.+~”

The unicorn’s ears flattened against her head, looking away. “~+For all we know, he might just be acting complacent until he can get out of sight and take over the world, or something else equally as vile!~+” Bon Bon shook her head. “~+Why would we even believe he would want to be our friend right now? We’ve kept him locked in a room over a week, poking and prodding him without much thought. Would you be quick to befriend somepony who did that?+~”

The unicorn looked upset, a small whimper being heard. Bon Bon, noticing Lyra’s reaction, only now realized her melodic words weren’t helping things. To Bon Bon, she knew that she was only trying to reassure her own thoughts. To Anon, he only heard garbled whistles and tunes, incapable of knowing what was really going on. Before Bon Bon could try fixing the situation she made, the unicorn levitated some of the materials surrounding Anon, startling him. Writing a note, she placed it down in front of Anon to read.

He slowly started translating, trying his best to ignore the unicorns watering eyes. Why would they create these things with such emotions? How did they even go about creating such an AI?

Ignoring such questions, Anon looked at the translated note in full: **You are not here to take over our world, are you ?**

His mind had blanked out. What a ridiculous question to ask. How was it related to him being tested? Were they simply testing how he’d answer, to see how far he’d gotten with his language skills? Or was he missing something else pertaining to everything he’d been going through?

Letting out a sigh, he wrote down his reply for her, taking his time to write as cleanly as he could before handing it over.

**No not here to take world**

He had to save time writing additional words, finding it difficult to write them with ease. Anon could only hope the message was legible enough for them to understand. Lyra frowned, pointing at her note once more, showing a bent section. Bending it back, he saw more words he translated.

**Can we be friends?**

He found the question strange. Looking back at her, he saw her obviously worried about his reply. That tickling feeling came back, telling him things were not as they seemed. For what reason would they ask to be his friend? Weren’t they… Didn’t they kidnap him?

….He put that to rest, something to think about later when given the chance. He wrote a simple response to her once more.

**Yes**

A little white lie wouldn’t hurt anyone; if it was a test or not, the answer should suffice. He just wasn’t sure if answering honestly would do.

The unicorn didn’t seem to react, reading his message. Was she expecting a stronger message? They wanted to be friends or tested his capability to be one. An ally? Regardless, his body reacted before his mind could catch up, reaching out for a handshake. Ah, but what if that was taking things too far?

“Oomph!”

Lyra tackled him, wrapping her hooves around him as she squeezed tightly. It was truly unexpected. Why would she do that? Laying on the ground, arms splayed out, he looked at Bon Bon, hoping she would do something. She only raised a brow at him, letting out a sigh, shaking her head. The pony pointed at his hands, then to Lyra. He immediately got that she wanted him to hug back.

He reached his arms around and gave her a light squeeze, a trill sounding off. Lyra quickly let go and jumped back to where she was, a wide smile appearing on her face. The unicorn then turned to Bon Bon, her smile widening.

“~+See! He totally likes me!+~”

The other pony rolled her eyes at what was said. As she went over to more papers, likely to write more things to him, Lyra paused. She looked like something important had been forgotten. Looking at the wall, she examined the clock, another recent addition.

“~+Wasn’t Fluttershy supposed to be here by now?+~”

Bon Bon rubbed the back of her neck with a hoof. “~+Remember when I said I thought it would be a good idea to get some more ponies to help?+~”

“~+Yeah?+~”

“~+You see, Fluttershy had already arrived earlier in the day when you were moving things up for Anon. When she came by, I sort of told her she should come back tomorrow+~”

“~+What does that have to do with bringing more ponies here?+~”

“~+I may have told her to come by along with Rarity as well.~+”

“~+YOU WHAT?!+~” the unicorn trumpeted. “~+Why would you make that decision?! He doesn’t need additional ponies seeing him right now! What if she were to spread word about him? Or, or she upset him in some way?!+~”

Bon Bon horned something out as if scoffing. “~+Lyra, the thing needs proper clothing anyways, so we may as well do this sooner rather than later. I doubt meeting another pony will upset him in any fashion, especially after living with us. And on top of that, she may be helpful to us.+~”

Anon watched the two converse, slightly unnerved at what had transpired. Not from the physical contact, but how real the horse felt. There was heat radiating off of her, and not a single bit of metal could be felt.

‘...They aren’t real. They can’t be. It’s simply not possible.’

He didn’t want to even begin on that route of thinking, pushing it to the back of his mind. He grabbed papers, going back to writing down each letter and doing his best to pronounce the ones he knew. He needed to learn to speak as soon as he could so they could move on to why they were holding him.

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Bon Bon did not like Lyra’s plan involving the human. It seemed like a good idea the day before, giving it items and taking pictures of it, and recording what the alien did with them. They also got around to helping him speak their language, one letter at a time.

Thinking on the previous day’s works geared her up for what was to come. Fluttershy had just come by with Rarity. The fashionista was carrying a small bag of measuring tools Lyra couldn't recognize.

“So Miss Lyra, just where is this fashion emergency that, for some reason, needed to be put off until today?”

“Fashion emergency?”

“Why, yes! Fluttershy came by stating that there was a wardrobe in need of a touch-up yesterday and mentioned you were the pony in dire need of such work. It pained me to hear you wanted to hold off for another day to do so, why the audacity! These kinds of things should be immediately dealt with as soon as possible!”

Lyra looked at Fluttershy. “Did Bonnie say something like that yesterday?” Fluttershy, looking confused, nodded her head. “I’m sorry to disappoint you, but the clothing isn’t for me.”

Rarity appeared stumped. “Oh? Then is it for your lovely maref—” She choked on her words from the expression Lyra gave her. Coughing, Rarity tried to regain her composure. “R, Right then, so I mean are the clothes meant for your friend Bon Bon?” she asked with a forced smile.

“No, they are not,” Lyra answered. Rarity blinked, uncertain of the situation. Lyra looked at Fluttershy, whose eyes widened in realization. “Rarity, I need you to promise me that what you are about to see is not spoken about outside this house. Not to any of your friends, nor to any associates. I can’t have you blabbering about what I’m about to show you.”

Rarity scrunched her face up, looking toward the door. “I am uncertain I find myself wanting to be a part of whatever it is you have planned for my work.”

“It’s nothing worrying,” Fluttershy added, “they were just ordered by the princess not to let this get out.”

“…Eh?”

“Just come over and sit down so I can explain some things,” Lyra said, ushering the two over to the couch.

Sitting down, the three of them sipped on tea that Bon Bon made for them as Lyra started to summarize the past week involving the alien. Lyra would have liked Bon Bon’s help but she stated she had things to do out in town. Not thinking much of it, Lyra made sure to emphasize the importance of keeping quiet until the princess allowed things to progress.

Having finished her wild tales, Rarity, taking a sip of her tea, placed it down and looked at the bag she brought. “I suppose I can take a gander at our alien, but I am uncertain I can make it any garments. I barely have any experience making minotaur fashion as it is, so I’ll need to study its clothing for some time”

“That’s fine, as long as Anon has something to wear. The princess will also be paying for this. Once you’re done I’ll have the bits ready for you.”

The conversation moved on toward some small talk as the three of them relaxed for the moment, drinking their tea. Rarity seemed hesitant about meeting the alien.

Finishing the tea, the three of them made it up the stairs, already finding the door wide open. It didn’t matter if it was open or closed, only that they accentuate the importance to the human not to leave the room. He had complied with little trouble.

Walking in, Lyra saw the human sitting at the desk, going over paperwork from last night.

‘The chair he sat on looks much too small for him,’ Lyra thought, ‘I’ll need to get him a custom made one soon or magic him one that fits.’

And thankfully, none of the items they brought up there were in sight. Lyra didn’t want to explain why their kitchen wares were in the room.

Noticing them, Anon turned from his work and waved up one of his arms before waving it. “H-ei-llo,” he said, surprising Lyra and the others.

“Oh my!” Rarity said, walking up to him curiously. “What a strange, exotic-sounding accent!” She looked at his clothing, her interest growing. “And just look at his clothing! Why I’ve never seen such fabric. And that stitching!”

She started prodding him, circling around where he sat. Any fear she previously had, melted at the sight of the otherworldly garments on display. Anon simply stared at Rarity as she poked and tugged on certain pieces of clothing he wore.

Anon, looking confused, wrote down a note and held it in the air. Lyra levitated it over to her, **Who other uonicourn why poke me**

Lyra felt flabbergasted. ‘He knows what a unicorn is?’

She knew that she had never stated what that was, only that they were ponies! That’s something she would have to ask about later on.

“She’s examining your clothes,” Lyra answered.

Looking a little amused, he pointed at his ear, shaking his head. Lyra slapped a hoof to her face.

“Lyra, ask him if I can borrow his top clothing if you wouldn’t mind. The patterns in the cloth, the way it’s designed! Why these humans must be very advanced in their fashion trends from what I’m seeing! I simply adore how they thread the clothing.”

Writing a note, Lyra passed it for him to translate. He was getting surprisingly good, seeing as he’s only had a few days’ worths of training to do so. Reading the translated note, he stood up for Rarity. She quickly backed away, only now noticing how tall he was. Slipping his arms out of the heavy article, he held it in front of Rarity.

She stood there, jacket now levitating from her horn, staring up at Anon. Placing the jacket in her pouch, she now has a measuring tape in her magic. “Lyra, I’ve never prepared clothing for such a—” She eyed him up and down, “—tall figure before. It shall be a challenge, but I find myself eager for it. Now, if you could kindly ask him to take off his fascinating garments for me so I can properly measure him and look at his clothing, that would be much appreciated.”

“He doesn’t like to go nude, Rarity,” Fluttershy said, remembering that detail from last time.

“And why is that?” Rarity asked. “Is he that attached to his clothing? Oh dear, is he hiding some kind of scarring or some other outlandish ordeal?”

Lyra replied, “Here’s the thing. See, he doesn’t have a way to cover himself down there, if you catch my meaning.” Rarity frowned, confused. “His, erm… stallionhood can’t be tucked away, he doesn’t have any inherent magic like we do, so…” Lyra left the remaining words open, having no difficulty getting her words across.

Rarity blushed, “I, I see. That would answer why he wears so much clothing.”

“He really is an alien,” Fluttershy said, gaining their attention. She fidgeted with the attention on her. “I mean, all beings are capable of hiding themselves instinctually through the magic they have in themselves. N-Not him though, he doesn’t have any internal magic before coming here…”

Rarity hummed to herself, the shading in her cheeks staying a vibrant red. “This is going to be an odd measuring for us then. I… I must be thorough in my work if I am to help fabricate him clothing proper for a species like him. So, Lyra, just tell him this is nothing more than business and we can leave it at that.”

Would the human be alright with that? Writing out the note, she floated the message to Anon. He read it, his face turning slightly red, his claw clenching. Looking down at Rarity, she gave him a smile with a nervous chuckle. He wrote back a message, this one Lyra noticed more sloppily, **If she make me new okay -------- please thank-----**

Most of the note was unintelligible but it got the message across. Relaying the message to Rarity, she opened up her sack and started placing tools and paperwork for the job. “Thankfully I always make sure to keep any tools needed for such a job in case of emergencies.”

Nodding in agreement, Lyra noticed Fluttershy did the same thing with her bag, taking out tools she couldn’t recognize along with her own stack of papers. “Oh, um… I never, well, got a, um… I never got a chance to write down details I need on his body as thoroughly as before, so, if you d-don’t mind…” She let out a cough, her cheeks growing red in embarrassment.

‘…Screw this,’ Lyra thought. ‘I may as well collect data as well. Yes, collecting data and nothing more…’

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One hour later, the three of them walk out of the room, all with matching faces flushed red.

“Darling, I don’t think the human liked you chasing him around, taking pictures of his—” She cleared her throat, “—nudity being out and about.”

“If he had stopped trying to dodge me after the first one I wouldn’t have needed to chase him,” Lyra replied.

“I do hope that’s all these pictures are used for,” Rarity said with a smirk. Lyra sputtered at her accusation. “Why, from how it appeared, I almost confused you for a mare in heat,” Rarity chimed with a purr.

“Now you know that’s not true,” Lyra said with a blush. “Besides, from how Flutters looked, she was about to jump him!”

“You make a good point,” Rarity agreed. “She sure was quite close to him during her little examination.”

“How she poked and prodded at his muscles for much longer than one would think is needed.”

“Why from how her wings couldn’t keep down, you’d think he had an intoxicating smell coming off of him that made her—”

“IGOTTAGOFEEDMYANIMALS!” Fluttershy screamed, dashing straight out the door and into the sky.

The two remaining ponies stood there, watching her soar in the sky from the open door. Laughter trickled out of them.

“I never knew Fluttershy could fly off so fast,” Lyra said. “She could give Dash a run for her money.”

Rarity chuckled, “I do say this has been an interesting day for me. As I said I’ll be borrowing his jacket for a while to work as a template to help prepare clothing for him.”

“Just make sure nopony knows of him being here.”

“I will keep my word and not sound off a single peep from these mare’s lips,” Rarity said, raising a hoof and showing a zipping motion in front of her mouth. “I’ll be by every once in a while to ask more questions about his clothes. The ‘denim’ is quite fascinating, mimicking something we have and yet, so much sturdier. I would love to learn more about his world’s fashions!”

Closing the door, Lyra looked at the clock, wondering just why Bon Bon hadn’t come home. With nothing better to do, Lyra walked back up to Anon’s room. He was sitting back at the desk, eating an apple Lyra had already stocked for him to snack on. Anon looked at Lyra, a blush forming from what had previously taken place, shuffling in his seat. Putting the apple down, he wrote a note for Lyra.

**was that needled*

Taking a stack of papers for herself, she sat down on the chair she brought up for herself by the desk.

**Sorry, my friends got excited meeting you and may have gone overboard.**

Anon passed another note, Lyra noting his notes were becoming faster to write down. **okay i am putting lots trust**

That made Lyra smile, knowing he was doing so. Lyra wrote a note back to him, **Is it alright to ask you some questions about yourself ?** She still barely knew anything about his world or himself.

Working through his notes he gave a nod to himself, giving her his reply. **see no problem i ask tooo**

Lyra rubbed her chin, thinking of what to ask first. **How did you know Rarity was a unicorn?** Lyra watched him as he thought about the question.

Anon hummed, writing Rarity’s name to the side as a reference before returning a reply. **old ancheent storys of unicorns and other creatores**

‘Ah, so like a mythological creature.’ Lyra wrote back, wondering just what his species viewed unicorns as. He hesitated, looking at his own paper in thought.

**unicorns are beings of magic of clean things with horn to make better some my people want horn to do same take force unicorns in tails always attack our kind only fine with young i forget why**

Lyra could feel herself pale reading that. ‘That… doesn’t really help things at all,’ she thought. He gave Lyra a new note to read, **old stories not real magic not real but fake same with unicorn and other beings**

Reading the note, she could see he didn’t really mean them harm. Why would he reveal these things to her? Taking the note, she ripped it up and using a small flash of fire, burned the note immediately.

Anon looked at her with a flinch, thinking he did something wrong. Lyra wrote a reply back to alleviate such worries, **It’s fine, just don’t tell anyone about that. Would be very bad.**

If word got out that his people had such tales, it’s likely the princess would more likely put him in observation for all eternity. They would need time to get to know him before he was to say anything about his species’ stories.

Lyra noticed a new note from him, **ask are there other ponies and creatures in your world like old tails**

**Yes there are. Along with ponies we have beings like dragons, diamond dogs, minotaurs, griffons, hydras, and more.** It took some patience from Lyra to allow Anon time to translate the words, each one a new expression of fascination and astonishment. Lyra wrote a question for him, **What other beings are on your planet?**

Lyra could hear him hum to himself, reading the note. **we only beings that can think on whole planet we have other species like lions and such but we are alone in our world**

‘That’s… depressing.’ Just thinking of being the only species on their planet, it made her feel selfish wanting to meet an alien with how much they already had.

He wrote another question for her, **what markings on your behind**

She looked at her mark, showing her lyre imprinted on her body.

**They are called cutie marks and they tell us what special talent we have. Mine is a lyre, as you can see. That means I am especially talented with them. Lyres are used for music.**

After reading the message, he turned to the side and looked at her mark once more. She bent a little to let him look. With that done, he scribbled another note for her.

**can i hear lyre it would be nice to hear music**

“Um…”

It had been quite a long time for the mare, her lyre simply collecting dust. It wouldn’t hurt to grab it and show him.

She made her way downstairs and into her pile of belongings. Pushing things aside, she eventually came across her old lyre case. It was, as she thought it would be, dusty. Opening it up, she could see the strings gleaming in the light as the well-polished wood reflected her face. Adding the upkeep enchantments surely did wonders. It would need a tune-up later when she had the chance to sit down with it.

Closing the case, she brought it back up where Anon was sitting. Lyra was nervous playing the lyre, wondering if she would be any good how out of practice she felt. Taking her seat, she set the case down and got the lyre out. Butterflies started buzzing around her stomach as her forelegs started to tense up.

‘Darn it Lyra, calm down,’ her inner-voice chastised.

Breathing to ease herself, she plucked a few strings to test the sound. Taking stock of the number of songs she knew, Lyra went with something she made up at the academy. It was a song of lyrical whimsy, full of happy thoughts. It was her interpretation of the freedom of the air.

Her hooves moved back and forth, never missing a beat, feeling as if she never stopped playing. It felt nice playing once again, remembering the good times with her lyre. She wanted to make sure Anon also enjoyed her performance.

‘This might be the only time he’ll be able to see me play if the princess…’

She shook the thought out of her head, shoving the sad feelings aside. No, right now, there was nothing but her, a lyre, and Anon.

Plucking the last few notes in a jovial finale, she took a pause, letting out a gust of air she had been holding on to. Looking up, she saw Anon had a note written for.

**you very good at your music thank you for playing**

A smile spread across her face reading that. She wondered just how she compared to his people's works. Setting the lyre back in its case, she wrote a note to him asking such. Reading her note, he slipped his paws into the pockets on his clothing, taking out a little gray box with the white strings. Lyra remembered it was the same thing she saw when she cleaned his clothing. Showing them to her, he wrote a note before passing it to her.

**this has over three and five zero songs from many different musics in my world.**

It took her but a moment to realize what he had said. ‘That little box holds that much music in it?!’

**i prefer hearing you play your music right now never heard anyone play a lyre so well would you play more**

Lyra could feel a warm, fuzzy feeling growing inside of her. Putting the box away, he sat there, waiting patiently on her answer. She replied with the plucking of her lyre that lasted throughout the night.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

It had been almost a full two weeks since the princess’s letter. Tomorrow morning was when Lyra was to report back to the princess.

Over two weeks, she had felt they were becoming close friends. Her trust in him increased as well, enough to let him down the stairs. After she boarded all the windows up, that was. Lyra was amused by seeing his reaction to the appliances. He had similar items in his own world, just not magical.

The two of them spent a lot of time downstairs on the couch, with Bon Bon on a chair to help with things, teaching Anon how to write and speak. Fluttershy would come by daily alongside Rarity. The two had helped Anon understand things in their world after they were told what information was allowed.

Rarity, as annoying as she was at times, helped Anon speak up about his world. She was fast, already prepared with two sets of clothing for him. He seemed happy, having something else to wear. And Rarity was equally happy, especially after seeing her payment.

Even after she brought his clothes over, Rarity would come by just to talk to Anon. They were becoming pretty good friends, perfect for what Lyra had planned for the princess. Fluttershy on the other hoof was still shy around him. More work was needed there.

As for Lyra and Bon Bon, those two, of course, spent the most time around him. Bon Bon usually had business out in the town, either bringing back things that were needed or some other ‘important’ errand Lyra sent her off to. She did her best to teach him how to talk, write, and simply understand what they said.

Everything he wrote was fascinating to Lyra. His world, while troubling to read at times, was an interesting place to hear about.

The nights were reserved as a relaxing period, to put things aside. Lyra started to play her lyre more often as a result, with Anon and Bon Bon sitting there to listen. Lyra taught Anon to learn how to play a little, thinking with his ‘hands’ and ‘fingers’ that he would have little trouble.

The past two weeks were some of the best she’d ever had. So why did they have to go away so quickly?

“Lyra, Rarity and Fluttershy are here,” Bon Bon said.

Lyra sighed, walking to Anon who was sitting on the couch, going through papers on their table. “Anon, we need you to up to your room,” Lyra said slowly, pointing in the direction and sounding things out so he could clearly understand her.

He barely recognized anything they said, but did catch on to key words and understood intent quite well.

Nodding, he grabbed his papers, standing up, and went to the room. Once inside, Bon Bon opened the front door, allowing the two mares in. Lyra led them straight to the couch, already prepared for their arrival with tea. Bon Bon started to serve it out as they all took seats.

“Lyra,” Rarity started after taking a sip, “you told us that you needed our help today involving Anon. I confess I am confused. What more could we do to help than what we already have?”

Lyra looked tired and moody. She let out another sigh, putting aside her tea as she began explaining what the princess had her doing in full for the past three weeks. This also included the threat against Anon. The two were shocked and appalled to hear what the princess ordered.

“Th, There has to be something we can do! This, this is just, well, bad! And mean! And… just plain not right…” said Fluttershy, barely a whisper at the end.

“Bon Bon and I have been thinking of ways to help but so far all we’ve come up with is giving him a lot more control over his environment and gather some data on his world and people.”

“Could you not have other ponies come in and help with this?” Rarity asked.

Lyra shook her head, “We can’t. The princess’s orders are to keep him in the house until we can prove him harmless. In fact, even having you two around was stretching what the princess allowed. She doesn’t even know you two are specifically here, or how much you two are doing, only that we have outside help.”

The four of them sat in silence.

“You, well, mentioned you wanted us to help somehow?” Fluttershy asked with a barely audible voice.

“Yes,” Lyra replied, “I was hoping I could get written statements from the two of you about your involvement with him. Bon Bon and I are going to do the same, so we had hoped you would add more support.”

“Of course we’ll do it!” Rarity spoke out. “I would be devastated if a friend were to be banished off without a fight!”

“Did the princess, say, um, how she was… going to…” Fluttershy looked away, embarrassed at her unfinished question.

“No, she never mentioned much on that subject. I imagine it’ll involve her sending guards here.” Lyra started passing papers around with ink and quills. “I just hope this persuades her enough.”

The two of them took their time, writing what they could think of about their time with Anon. A collected stack of their responses sat on the table, Lyra clipping them together with the other papers she needed to send out.

“When will you be sending these out?” Rarity asked.

“In the morning, around when she needs to bring up the sun. I don’t know why she wanted to wait until then, but it’s something I didn’t want to bother asking her about.”

“In the morning when the sun goes up?” Fluttershy hummed in thought. “Um, do you think that she, well, might be sharing your work with Princess Luna?”

Lyra froze hearing that. What if she was? Things could make more sense to her if that were true. Bon Bon let out a groan as well, coming to the same conclusion.

“D-Did I say something wrong?” Fluttershy asked.

“Princess Luna doesn’t exactly get along with Lyra,” Bon Bon said. “If she’s also seeing the work, then—”

“Then that might mean she’s the one that set this all up!”

‘I know that Princess Luna dislikes me, but for her to go out of her way to do this is just evil!

“Now let’s not go jumping to any conclusions on this just yet,” Rarity said. “We don’t know if that’s even the case or what made Princess Celestia decide all of this.”

“True, it might have been that book,” Bon Bon muttered.

“Book?” Fluttershy asked.

“Um… forget what I just said.”

Lyra looked at the ground, her thoughts swirling as they tried to connect things together but failing.

“Well look at the time!” Rarity said, getting up alongside Fluttershy. “I would love to stay and chat on this but we have other things we need to deal with. We’ll see you tonight gals!”

Lyra paused in her thoughts.

“Tonight?” Lyra asked. “What do you mean?” Looking up, she saw they already left.

Bon Bon gave Lyra a forced smile. “It’s nothing to worry about, just some plans for later. Now, why don’t you spend some time with Anon? I’m sure he’d like that.”

Lyra shook her head as she got up to take a seat at her desk. “No, I need to go over these papers. I’ll probably be looking over them all night. If there’s something I can add or possibly improve… Look, I just, I need to work on this. Okay?”

“Sure Lyra, I’ll just go feed Anon,” she said, walking off slowly to the kitchen.

‘Okay, so with the work of Fluttershy and Rarity, I just need to rework some of my own stuff to fit in with what they said. Add to…’

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Loud knocking could be heard from the front entrance. Lyra was going over her work for the twenty-second time that night. She rubbed her head from the headache she could feel coming.

Looking at her clock, she saw it was well past bedtime. ‘The two must be here for Bonnie,’

Stacking her papers aside, she got up from her seat and walked to the door. She greeted Rarity and Fluttershy inside.

“Bonnie, it’s the girls!” Lyra screamed up the stairs. “They’re here for you!”

“Actually, we’re here for you,” Rarity said, standing close to her.

“What?”

Bon Bon descended the stairs, running up to the two of them. “Oh good, you’re early. You have everything you need, Fluttershy?”

“Yes, everything I might need is packed right here,” she said, pointing to her side pack.

“You mind filling me in on what’s happening?” Lyra asked as Bon Bon shoved her toward the front entrance.

“We, are going out, to have some fun, drinking,” she said, having to continuously shove Lyra toward the door.

“Hold up! I need to stay and keep working on this, Bonnie! What if I missed something or—”

“Lyra,” she interrupted, “I don’t think there’s much else that you can do right now. But I do see that you’re extremely stressed out from all the work. You’ve barely had any time off. And as your friend, I’m going to force you to have some time off to relax.”

“But I can relax here with my work!”

“No, you’re just going to work yourself to death. Fluttershy is going to stay here with the alien while you go out with us for some fun.”

The girls dragged Lyra off into the night, her protests heard the entire way through Ponyville’s streets. They eventually made it to a building that they shoved her into. It smelled… dirty. Lyra could see ponies lounging about, drinking and spouting off nonsense to one another. She didn’t want to be anywhere near them.

“Come on, have a few drinks and relax,” Bon Bon said, shoving her up to the bar.

The bartender looked over to Lyra, rubbing a glass with a rag. “What can I get you?”

“I don’t wa—”

“A salty ocean for us three,” Rarity ordered, taking a seat beside Lyra, “and heavy on the salt.”

Lyra slumped onto the bar, groaning in defeat. ‘This sucks,’ she thought as a drink was brought over to her.

Taking a look around, she could see Bon Bon and Rarity on either side of her, waiting for her to start drinking. Grabbing it, she quickly slammed it down, ignoring the salty taste hitting the back of her throat. Slamming the mug down, she slapped the mug back to the bartender. “It needs more powder,” she commented.

“I think you need to lay off the hard stuff for a bit,” Bon Bon advised, taking a sip from her mug.

Lyra grunted as the bartender came back with another drink along with a bag of powdered sugar. Layering the top with a good amount, he slid it over to her. “One snowy beach for the gal,” he said as Lyra licked her lips at the drink.

‘Screw it,’ Lyra thought. ‘If they’re going to make me drink, I’m going to do it right and hard.’

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

“Aaaaagh!” Lyra roared out, taking another drink.

So far, Lyra had been hit on by around a dozen or so stallions, finding her actions throughout the night alluring, for one reason or another.

‘Pfff, yeah right,’ she thought. ‘I can do so much better than them stinky heads! Though, that last one was pretty nice looking.’

She started having second thoughts on having her drinks powdered, thoughts that were quickly thrown out the window after the first two drinks. Lyra had lost Bon Bon and Rarity amongst everyone in the crowd; Lyra thought they were roaming around to pick someone up

‘Eh, screw em’,’ her inner voice said. ‘You got your drinks and are having a blast! Why were you even so stressed out before again?’

…Oh, right. It was because of the alien. Her brain scoffed at that. ‘That darn alien, making you stressed out.’

“Hey, watch it!”

“You watch it!” Lyra said, bumping around the other ponies as she made her way to the bar.

She took another gulp of her drink, sitting down at the bar to think to herself. The alien sure made her life more hectic than it previously was.

‘And here you were, trying to save his life when all he can do is barely say hello!’ Wait, that didn’t make any sense…

‘Brain, you’re home, go drunk.’

Taking another sip, she recalled the previous few weeks with him. A smile appeared on her face as she closed her eyes, remembering those times. ‘They sure were fun,’ she thought, just before slapping her head on the counter.

‘He sure is a great friend! And you’ll be able to do a lot more with him in the future… Hopefully, the princess doesn’t do anything, it might be his last day here.’

Lyra shot her head up. ‘WHY AM I HERE?!’

‘You should head back home with Anon so he can spend his last day with his great friend, Lyra!’ her inner voice told her. ‘Stupid-headed Lyra just had to go out for drinks when she could be doing that instead!’

Lyra took another sip, noticing her mug was empty. Thank goodness Bon Bon was paying for these. Or was Rarity? Placing her mug down, she slipped off her stool and made her way to the door with only one thought on her mind: spending time with her good friend Anon.

The walk through Ponyville was a struggle for the tipsy unicorn. Her legs wobbled all over down the streets. She had a tumble or two along the way.

She felt relief seeing her house. A gasp of surprise came out, seeing she owned three of them now! Walking to the left one it started vanishing, making her grunt in annoyance. Leave it to vanishing houses to ruin one’s night. Walking up to the middle one, she opened the front door, seeing a yellow pony sitting on her couch, reading.

“Oh!” Fluttershy gasped in surprise. “I didn’t expect you to be back just yet!” She looked behind Lyra. “Um… where are the girls?”

“They’re at the bar, wai, wai… w-waaiting on yoou!”

“Really?” she asked, unsure of Lyra’s words.

“T-Totally! I’ma just gonna spend some time with, with the alien alone! Yes, alone…”

Fluttershy looked like she’s about to protest. “No, look Flutters. I gets you like the aliens thinga-ma-bobbers—” She turned red hearing that “—but tonight might be his very only completely last night here! So I’m gonna spend time with him and, and… and go UP to his room and, and have some fine with him aaall night lonk, okays?”

“Um… well…”

“The girls are watings for you, Flutters! Hurry! Flyyy!” Lyra grabbed her with magic, lifting her and throwing her into the night air. “FLYYYYYY!” she screamed at the now airborne Fluttershy.

She seemed confused at the situation, looking behind her as she flew off toward the bar. Lyra let smirked as she reentered her house. Barely making it up the stairs, she opened the door to where Anon was. She could see he was on the bed, sleeping without a shirt. She smiled at him, closing the door behind her as she made her way over to him.

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~ ~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

“Where the buck is she?!” Bon Bon screamed out to no one in particular, looking around the bar.

Lyra somehow slipped past her and Rarity, walking around the place as she heckled ponies. She had tried to stop her several times but it was difficult to do when she had a mare that could teleport without much thought.

Walking around, she saw Fluttershy sitting at the bar.

“Is that you, Fluttershy?” Bon Bon asked the pony.

She turned around and stared at her, unsure of what to say. “Oh, um, yes it is, Bon Bon.” She looked around the room for a second. “Have you seen Rarity?”

“No, I haven’t. Have you seen Lyra?”

“Lyra? Yes, I have.”

“Where is she?!”

Fluttershy let out a squeak, startled from the yelling. The drink in her hoof spilled across the bar, eliciting a groan from the bartender. “S-she's back home!” she answered. “She said sh-she was going to spend the night with Anon when she got back. I thought you knew since Lyra said—”

Bon Bon stopped listening as soon as she heard where Lyra was. She dashed out the bar straight back home, worried about what Lyra would do. A drunken Lyra was a very obsessive and random Lyra. That was not a good combination. The last stallion that came across that mix, their previous next-door neighbor, wouldn’t come out of the house for a full month, mumbling to himself until he eventually moved.

She hoped the alien was alright. Lyra would be devastated if she did anything to it in the morning. Slamming the front door open, she quickly ran up the stairs… right before plummeting back down them. Her head started seeing doubles of doubles from the tumble. Deciding to slow down so she didn’t slip, she carefully made her way to the room.

Opening the door, she had to let the darkness adjust so she could see. Taking a breather, she looked to the bed where she could see movement. Lyra could be seen on top of Anon, curled up in a ball fast asleep on its chest. Anon had an arm wrapped over her, which she snuggled her head into.

‘Thank goodness, that could’ve been so much worse. Seeing as there’s nothing wrong, I probably should leave them alone for the night,’ Bon Bon thought as she stared at the two, closing the door.

‘Of course, some pictures of this for later on would be pretty funny.’

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

Last night had been troublesome for Bon Bon. She had to pay for all the damages from Lyra along with her tab. Many of the ponies there were trying to have her kicked out for good. Bon Bon made a vow to make sure Lyra could be kept in better control before she was ever given salt on that level again.

Morning came quickly for her. Nudging Lyra awake to deliver the message on time was amusing. Telling her what happened the previous night, even more fun.

Back downstairs, the two of them deposited every single thing they had prepared right into the lantern. After that, they sat on the couch, eagerly awaiting a reply.

“I really hope she changes her mind,” Lyra said, looking down at her hooves.

Bon Bon rubbed Lyra’s neck with her head, hoping to calm her down. “We’ll find out soon enough, Lyra. Just, don’t be upset if it’s not the answer you’re looking for.”

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~Canterlot~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The past two weeks had been a troublesome mess for the princess. Ever since the fiasco involving the meeting in the study and the guards, Princess Celestia thought it would be a good idea to… reeducate them on how to properly take orders. Luckily for her, Shining Armor was around to help that out, quite disgusted to see such insubordination in his guards.

It was a tiring time at the palace, with her weeding out the unruly guards along with her duties. Plus, there was her sister ‘modernizing’ herself when she could. It was clear Luna was messing with her. Celestia allowed it, for the most part, finding it nice to see her opening up, but she was starting to get annoyed.

Currently, it was the end of Lyra’s two weeks where she needed to prove in her ‘scenario’ that the alien was harmless, or as harmless as could be. She found herself entertained at the end of the first week with what Lyra had reported back. Her attempts were quite ridiculous, allowing the alien more freedom around them and trying to teach him to speak. Thankfully, Lyra and her little assistant kept this realistic and only allowed the ‘human’ barely capable to write.

It was quite obvious to Celestia that Lyra was really trying to keep things going. She and her sister had a fun moment when she even said she was having clothing made for it. They humored her with playing along. Now, Celestia wished she hadn’t.

The restrictions, while hard, felt fair. And yet, she couldn’t help but feel anger at the pony having found a way around it in a manner she hadn’t considered; her sister’s laughter hadn’t helped things.

“She, she, she—” Luna attempted to say, only for her to go back to laughing.

‘I should have expected something like this’, Celestia thought, ‘Lyra is quite a clever little pony.’

Lyra got her elements involved.

And not one, but two of them! Just how she had convinced them to be a part of the scenario vexed her. She figured that Rarity was likely to help with the clothing, but the extent of her involvement was much greater than she originally anticipated. Adding to that, the anonymous stranger, now identified as Fluttershy, was fully involved with the whole thing, perhaps even from the beginning.

Having one of the elements involved in this was bothersome enough, but she could have dealt with it if anypony had asked questions. But now, she had two fully working alongside Lyra. Kindness, or Fluttershy, had spoken of the gentle nature the human had, while Generosity spoke of the being in a very good light. Reading both of their reports, along with Lyra and Bon Bon’s work, immediately shot down any attempts to shut the scenario down as she had originally attempted. A victory she and her sister could have won together.

Princess Celestia knew she should have sent a guard. Now she was stuck with playing along, on top of the ridicule that her sister was mirthfully cackling about. That was… embarrassing, having her plot thrown right back into her face from Lyra’s little comeback.

“M-M-Maybe you should have her get the other elements in this as well, just to round it all off!” Luna gasped out in between her bellowing laughter.

“…You know what? That sounds like a terrific idea!”

‘I can get the others involved and try to work this out as a win. And if anything, I’ve got Twilight as my ace in the hole. She would just need a little… nudging in the right direction.’

X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X ~Ponyville~ X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X-X

The response letter back hadn’t taken long to arrive. Snatching the scroll before Lyra could get to it, Bon Bon read over the princess’s message. Lyra jumped on her shoulders, frantically trying to read alongside her. A smile stretched across her face, clapping her hooves together in glee. Lyra jumped off her shoulders, letting out a squeal as she jumped around the room.

“He’s going to be fine!” she excitedly said, giggling about the room. “I’m gonna wake him up and give him a hug!”

Bon Bon yanked her tail, her body thumping to the ground. “Lyra, read the rest of this before you run off.”

Lyra harrumphed as she made her way back to Bon Bon, reading the rest of the message. “So we just need to get the rest of the ‘elements’ to accept him? Ah, no problem! In the baaag! Easy-peasy! I totally have this covered, Bonnie!”

Bon Bon stared at Lyra, wondering if a certain detail would come up.

“What?”

Clearly not. “Is there anything interesting about the elements that you might find yourself having any difficulty with?”

“…Twilight,” Lyra gritted out.

“Yes.”

Lyra closed her eyes, taking small, calming breaths. “Well, at least Anon is safe for the time being. We just have to convince the other six elements—”

“Four, we already have Rarity and Fluttershy.”

Lyra blinked. “Ooh yeah, forgot they’re elements.” Bon Bon slapped a hoof to her face. “Okay, so four more to go then. How long do we have for that again?”

“A week per pony, and we have to convince them so we can have it interacting with others out in town. Otherwise, she’s going to send the guards here to take over.”

Bon Bon started to think about the current situation. Why, exactly, was the princess ordering things in such a strange manner? It felt off to her. Was this really about the alien, or was there something else going on they didn’t know about? Or was all of this simply just Luna’s involvement in the mix?

At the moment, Lyra didn’t seem to care with Anon safe. With a full month away to really start worrying, it didn’t seem like things would be a problem. Bon Bon would just have to keep her friend in line and ensure she didn’t mess up anything.

“So Lyra, who should we first go and… talk… to…” Bon Bon trailed off, looking at the vacant spot Lyra was just at.

Yelping could be heard upstairs, telling her just where Lyra went. ‘I better make sure she doesn’t harm it,’ she thought, making her way up. It might be better to wait on things until they’re done celebrating the victory.

~End Chapter Five~

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[toshibafox]

wasn't it applejack, rainbow_dash, twilight, then pinkie in the original or are you going to mix it up this time?

[Starlight Nova]

Before I read this, I must know: What's up with Lyra's eyes in the cover art?

[Osiris Prime]

So how did he know how to write "unicorn" in their language?

[TheTownCrier]

I love how Fluttershy reacted about being attracted to Anon.

Edit: Congratulations on being featured!

[AuthorGenesis]

10025433
By arranging their letters in the appropriate arrangement. After all, words require letters in a certain arrangement for meaning to be conveyed. Though he does misspell unicorn, which implies that either he is still not completely familiar with their alphabet, or that their letters are conjoined, in such a way that a separation of the letters has not yet been performed.

[Morphy]

10025578

*Shakes head* It's always the quiet ones...

And I realize now why none of them ever thought to send any copies of the photos with the research data-- it would collapse the ever-growing farce. Hopefully this will keep going till Twilight, that party pooper, spills the beans on our human to the Princesses.

p.s. I'm still waiting on a more "hands on" demonstration of manual dexterity upon equine extremities... for science!

[Voltaje]

From the original, lyras inner conversation is new, don't remember what else can be new, anyway, hopefully the story is finished this time :D.

[Osiris Prime]

10025882
Unless Equestrian is more or less a substitution cipher for English, it doesn't work like that.

Knowing all the letters of the Cyrillic alphabet doesn't make you any better equipped to spell "kitchen" in Russian if you don't already know the language.

[RedMage0661]

The way Anon is described translating the pony written language implies that they use writing system equivalent to English, but with a different alphabet.

As someone who has invested time in learning multiple languages, this scenario is not very plausible. Languages are more than a collection of sounds and symbols. They vary significantly depending on the people who created and used them. Symbols aren't always based on sounds, sentence structure isn't always the same, concepts might be incomprehensible without context, etc. Just compare any asian language to any european language, you'll get the idea.

If Anon is very talented, I would expect him to have learned the written patterns for less than 100 concepts in the time he was described as studying. He might also have enough understanding to combine simple patterns to communicate more complex concepts. Certainly not enough to extrapolate patterns for things he hasn't been shown.

Honestly Anon would learn the language more quickly by spending time listening to ponies than by staring at paper. Learning to write a new language adds another layer of complexity while depriving him of the added information he would get from body language and context. One of the previous chapters even demonstrated that when Bon Bon successfully communicated with him by using gestures while Lyra was getting frustrated repeating words.

[Vindicar]

Can anyone recommend a story in which human(s) never actually make contact, but rather remain unexplained, odd aliens with unknown goals?

[Fireeaters]

Neat

[leaderofstars]

10026408
bon bon had more success then lyra did. lyra is too caught up in forcing it all rather then letting him learn at slow pace

[DarkSpider]

10025998
Actually, if this is going the same route as the original, then if I remember correctly, they'll learn everything is true when Luna personally meets Anon in Nightmare Night

[MosAnted]

Does it really make sense to name the MC "Anon" when he has a complete backstory, personality and characterization? It's the one thing keeping me from getting into this story as every time I read an actual character named "Anon" it pulls me out of the story.

[RedMage0661]

10013205
If we assume the pony world is in a universe different from our own, and that magic is one of the fundamental forces there, it would be very difficult for anyone crossing over to rely on their knowledge and experience to interpret what they find on the other side.

To put it in perspective, it would be like having someone from a universe without electromagnetism come to our universe and expecting them to understand what light is.

[EdBecerra]

10026408
Eh. If you look at the occasions where equine writings are displayed in the show, several times they're thinly disguised versions of the Roman alphabet (such as three stacked horizontal bars for the letter "E"), or substitution pictographs for various letters. Not always the case, or even the case most of the time, but often enough that you can get a loose feel for the language. IF you try hard. (I'm getting on in years, my eyes are losing the battle with age.)

Personally, I consider it either in-jokes from the artists, or just plain trolling on their parts, but hey, it's funny when you do spot it, and it can be explained in-story by the "excuse" that Faust is their creator, so of course they speak English. Or Ponish. Or whatever. :D

[RedMage0661]

10030202
My comment was more about the story type than this specific story. This story is basically about a human going to another universe, or maybe a distant world in the same universe, and meeting a non-humanoid intelligent race. Different universe, different environment, different species, etc. It would be difficult to find some common ground for communication in this context.

Since MLP is designed to be a show that humans can understand and relate to, the setting has been tweaked to closely match ours. That being said, we can explain the similarities between our 2 universes in a few different ways. For example the universe might be connected through the dream realm allowing for concepts and ideas to migrate both ways. This would explain much of the human mythology and the pony using things that don't make sense for equines (chairs, door knobs, etc).

My original comment came from how Anon was able to learn enough of the pony writing system to guess how to write words which he hasn't seen before. This shouldn't be possible in the amount of time he was described as learning, and the story doesn't give any hints on how it could happen. An easy fix would be to add some concepts to the story that allows Anon to take shortcuts in the learning process. For example we could say that communication in the MLP universe relies heavily on the magic of friendship. Using that concept, we could say that a visitor would gradually become able to understand and communicate with the ponies as they start to absorb magic from the environment and harmony forces them to adapt.

[Sozmioi]

10025273

There was an original?

[Jack-Pony]

10084965
Look at the first published date on the title page...

[Vaalintine]

I can't say I at all kike Lyra in this story. She seemed okay at first, but by now she just seems insane and incompetent. It doesn't feel like she's qctually trying to communicate, but instead lock him up and raise him as her personal pet. The facymt she chased him qround to take pictures of his dick just solidifies her as doing this to fufill her iwn fantasies. Seeing the Romance tag puts me off a bit as well, because as is it doesn't seem like she woukd be good for Anon at all.

[3rror404]

10030513
It mentions that their writing is "musical notes" so he would be able to recognise those

[giganticcats]

Pretty interesting to see the princesses acting like true gods, they seem really eager and excited to kill anon

[Netloids Ultimatum]

10322916

I don't think that's their intent.
The way I see it, I think Celestia thought it was just a set-up on Lyra's part. I don't think the princesses have any idea that Anon is real.

[KvAT]

10107631
she's basically a mad scientist in this one, so yeah. I like the dynamic between her and Bon Bon though

[chibilink]

“Anon, we need you to up to your room,” Lyra said slowly, pointing in the direction and sounding things out so he could clearly understand her.

Sorry if I haven't been saying much besides little things I've found, this is a re-read for me. :P

[WoonaLuvsU]

“IGOTTAGOFEEDMYANIMALS!” Fluttershy screamed, dashing straight out the door and into the sky.

Why do they all want to look at his penis

[Sassy_Changeling]

10444074
Hot monkey dick