Faster Than Light

Chapters

Chapter I: Crash Landing
Chapter II: Rationalization
Chapter III: 'Abderus Home'
Chapter IV: Exposure
Chapter V: A Measure of Resolution
Prologue: The Wright Flyer

Chapter I: Crash Landing

“Orbital decay rate established. Atmospheric insertion in eleven weeks, with an acceptable error margin of three days.”

Abderus floated lazily inside the cockpit of the vessel. He’d long since unhooked himself from the seat he’d been in, and now he was attempting to access the panel that hid his survival kit. “Anyway to accelerate that rate? I’m not the biggest fan of waiting.”

“Yes. Several timed pulses on the main engine could abbreviate the process by nine weeks. More than that will endanger the survivability of impact.”

Abderus rotated to look at the display that showed the planet. “And you’re sure the planet has breathable atmosphere?”

“Certainty is guaranteed within one part per million atmospheric composition.”

“I’m guessing that’s a good thing?”

“Your guess is an accurate one. Human anatomy would be able to survive a much greater degree of atmospheric variance before lifespan would be endangered.”

“Fantastic. Now, assuming the atmospheric entry is flawless, and that everything goes just the way you’ve calculated, where are we going to land? This thing doesn’t really have landing gear.” Abderus yanked on the panel, his brow furrowing with the effort. “Also, who the fuck designed this panel?”

“In reverse order: Grigori C. Kovachev. An immigrant from Russia. Aged thirty nine years. Graduated from MIT, and then studied at the same institution for his doctorate. Granted based on a thesis statement relating the rates of cosmic radiation expos--”

Abderus waved a hand at the computer, his expression one of pained irritation. “I don’t need a lecture, the question was rhetorical.”

“Understood.” A short period of silence followed. “Current algorithms paint a prospective landing zone approximately thirty miles in diameter.” The computer was silent for a moment as several graphs ran along the screen. “No data available for terrain within locale.”

“Oh. Well, that’s just dandy. Still nothing about landing gear.”

“The craft has a three stage landing system designed by Neutrino to facilitate the easing of an uncontrolled landing.”

“It’s a crash prevention system? I’m putting my life in the hands of a crash prevention system for a ship that was never designed to enter atmosphere.” Abderus fought with the panel for a moment longer before he let out a sigh. “Why does that not inspire confidence? And that’s another rhetorical question.”

“The system has been utilized successfully one hundred and thirty five times. With only two total failures over the thirty year period of usage. It’s a system crafted by the now defunct NASA administration.” Several quick images flashed across the screen, and Abderus took them in. “However, for the system to be functional the reactor and FTL drives have to be jettisoned.”

Abderus stopped fighting with the panel for a moment as he turned to look at what he had decided was the computer’s face. It was little more than a camera that he thought would be better suited to a ship headed for Jupiter. “In order to survive the landing I have to strand myself on the planet?” He paused as he processed what he said. “I mean, more so than before. Not that I actually expected the planet to have functional helium-3 processors. Or the tech needed to design and build a new Wright Flyer.”

“Given known rates of advancement for humanity any society aged at least five hundred years from discovery of steam technology should be able to put organics into orbit.” There was a long pause as the screen showed quick calculations. “The system cannot account for the mass and size of the reactor and FTL drives. There is no alternative.” There was a long pause as Abderus continued his work on the panel. “The system can be put into a stable orbit. There is a program built into the ship that can allow for it to enter, and maintain, a stable planetary orbit for up to three hundred years. After that the system will begin to decay due to lack of station keeping fuel.”

“Fantastic.” He finally pried open the panel, revealing a large duffel bag, along with several smaller containers. “Again, fantastic. What the hell do I need you to stay in orbit for three hundred years for?”

“Insufficient data for response.”

“Just...” Abderus frowned at the computer. “Stand-by mode until further notice.” The screen slowly dimmed until it was replaced with a video feed coming from the outer hull. It showed an, admittedly, breathtaking view of the planet several thousand miles below. The gentle turn of the planet along its axis was just barely visible as the ship orbited. Pushing off the wall, and leaving the bag and the containers behind, Abderus moved to the controls, adjusting the camera as much as he could. The level of zoom offered was decent, but it did little to enlighten Abderus on the planet.

Bored with the vista, after almost an hour of silent introspection, Abderus moved back to the survival kit. “Three different changes of clothes. A compass. Sunglasses. Oh, and they’re aviators. How nice of them. R... Rope?” Abderus shrugged softly, the gesture causing him to float away from the bag of goodies. “Always need to have some rope, I suppose. Might need to pull something. Or hang from the ceiling while gunning down mobsters.” When he finished pulling out all the clothes and related items, he found himself looking at the now empty bag. “And now for the other containers.”

The first one was a rather simple plastic container that held a knife, along with a sheathe. The second container was harder to identify, but once he opened it he understood fully just what the engineers back on Earth had thought of the project. With a grunt of exasperation, the pilot slammed shut the container, pushing the crowbar from his mind. “I’m not a theoretical physicist. Nor do I have a goatee. Still, better to have it than not. The odds are always stacked against the unwitting and unprepared.” The final container held within it a hatchet and several pieces of flint. “Hooray for the mother of all invention. Fire should make life much easier.”

The computer let out a single tone, alerting the pilot of some change that he had to be aware of. “Warning, the first engine pulse will be in ten minutes. In order to optimize planetary re entry the reactor and FTL drives will be jettisoned in exactly seven minutes.”

“What if we wait? What are the consequences?”

“Extended wait in orbit coming to a period of no less than seventeen days, nine minutes, and twelve seconds. With an acceptable accuracy margin of plus or minus two hours.”

“Well, as I said, I hate waiting. Let’s get this show on the road.”

“Please be aware that the majority of computer processing systems are on the sections that will be jettisoned. All final calculations will be done now, and programmed into the navigation systems. Final navigation and re entry will be handled by human piloting.”

“So, once I make the decision, I’ve got to stick to it?”

“Affirmative.”

The pilot glanced once more at the screen before he looked at the camera for the computer. “Computer, do you have a name?”

“Negative. This unit has a serial number, but no official nomenclature. There is a note in a sub folder, though. Programmed in by a junior programmer, referring to me as being closest in appearance to a fictional computer system called the HAL 9000. However, the comparison is inaccurate, since I am under no compulsion to hide the truth.”

“I see.” Abderus looked around the cabin for a moment before his gaze settled on the eye lens. “Well... Hal, it’s been a pleasure. Begin the processes needed to make sure things go smoothly. The sooner I can get my feet on solid ground the happier I’ll be. Floating in a tin can isn’t quite the way I want to go.”

“Understood. Final preparations in progress.”

The planet loomed closer and closer as the days rolled by. Abderus did what he could to use the limited computer power to begin mapping the rougher aspects of the planet. He already had the continental layout down, along with general climates, but more than that would have to wait until he got closer still.

Every so often Abderus would go over the calculations the computer had left him, and he ran through them all, trying to see if there was any flaw to them. Not because he thought he was better than the computer, but because he was bored out of his mind.

A gentle ping told Abderus that he needed to get some sleep, and he quickly dismissed it, wanting to watch the planet that would be his forced home turn slowly down beneath him. “And here am I, floating in a most peculiar way. The stars look very different today. For, here I am, sitting in a tin can, far above the world. This mystery planet is blue, and there’s nothing I can do.”

The control stick jerked in Abderus’ sweating hands as he battled with the controls. Two of the three emergency deceleration systems had failed. The retro thrusters had worked for just a few minutes before they overheated due to the plasma barrier. The air brakes had snapped off in the intense gale, and he was still going too fast to deploy the drag chutes. Luckily, the craft was still aerodynamic enough for him to try to pilot it.

Each buffett made the craft lurch and shake, and each one threw off the meticulous calculations of the computer’s long since programmed route. Thankfully Abderus had paid enough attention during his classes back at university to recall what he knew about planetary mapping, a process normally done by a network of satellites. During his last few orbits he had formed a rough idea of the layout of the planet, but more than that he couldn’t say without certainty.

More than that, though, he had determined, with a fairly high degree of accuracy, just where he’d wind up ‘landing’ on the planet. It was a valley, of sorts. Ringed by quite a few mountains, with a single large one jutting up not far from his prospective, and ideal, landing zone. As the craft shook more and more violently, Abderus’ mind raced faster and faster to cope with the influx of information. There were no coherent thoughts as he battled with the craft, only action and reaction. A game of chess with the ship as his opponent where the various control surfaces of the craft were the pieces.

When, at last, the plasma finally dissipated from around the ship, Abderus let out his first word in weeks. It wasn’t the most eloquent thing to say, but it did sum up his opinion on this latest development quite accurately. It was, in fact, the first word spoken by a human within the planet’s atmosphere. Abderus saw that he had just slightly misjudged the entry angle into the valley. It was, quite literally, a matter of inches. Seven of them, to be exact. The right wing of the craft clipped the mountain, sending the craft into a nasty spin, and it was during this spin that the pilot blacked out just moments after his one word.

“Shit.”

And then, for not the last time, Abderus’ world vanished in a haze of pain, noise, and darkness.

Twilight’s eyes widened as she watched the new astrological object orbit the planet. Her telescope had become a near constant nighttime companion since she stumbled upon this new mystery. While she had been the discoverer of many of Luna’s more subtle devices, this was one that the Lunar Princess refused to elaborate upon, only adding to the mare’s desire to learn more about it. It’d been steadily growing closer, according to Twilight’s mathematics, and soon it’d form a blazing trail across the night sky as it finally burned up in the atmosphere.

She had run the numbers countless times, often double and triple checking each and every step, making sure that she had everything planned out perfectly. The telescope was aimed at the exact point where it’d start it’s trail of fiery light, and from there it’d become a visible feature of the night sky. “Spike! Come quick! It’ll be starting any second now!” The dragon was slow to respond, but he did eventually come out onto the balcony. “It’ll start just past that mountain, and then soar across the entire sky before fading from sight. It’ll be amazing!”

“Yeah, it better be. I’m giving up valuable sleeping time for this.”

“Spike, what kind of attitude is that? Even if it doesn’t happen, we still get to see an extra-equestrial object soar overhead.” She paused for a moment as she glanced at the precisely calibrated clock. “I mean, if not even Princess Luna is willing to talk about it, it has to be something good.”

“Yeah, it’s probably some space alien here to eat our brains.”

“Spike, space zombies aren’t real.”

“You also said that there had to be a reasonable explanation for Pinkie Pie, and we all saw how that turned out.”

“Spike this isn’t the sam--” Twilight’s further words were drowned out in an echoing detonation of immense force and energy. Without a thought, Twilight’s gaze turned to the great mountain that had once housed a sleeping dragon. A huge fireball was hurtling towards that mountain, and waves of sound seemed to echo off of it. The flames quickly faded away from the craft, but the sounds of explosions continued to echo throughout the small vale in which Ponyville was nestled. The craft, whatever it was, then collided with the mountain, sending the now flaming hulk into the Everfree forest, a massive plume of dust and debris signaling it’s crash landing.

“So, um... That didn’t look like an asteroid, Twi.” The mare didn’t respond, her mind was still trying to catch up with what she had just seen. That thing, whatever it was, defied every bit of knowledge that Twilight possessed. Right here, right now, Twilight was looking at what could possibly be the greatest discovery in all of written history. The most important moment in not just her life, but in all of the planet’s history.

“Spike, get the girls. I’m going to see what I can discover on my own. Once you have all of them, meet by Zecora’s house.” With that said, the mare spread her wings and took to the skies, the giddiness of flight bringing a smile to her otherwise serious countenance. Each beat of her wings brought her closer to the place where she felt she would finally answer the greatest question posed by philosophers.

As she grew closer to the landing site she could smell the smoke and ash on the wind. When she could see the initial point of impact she nearly fell from the sky as the shock of what she saw froze her in place. Rather than a single crater, as she had expected, there was, instead, a massive furrow dug into the ground running more than a thousand feet. She flew along its length, her eyes scanning the furrow for any signs of debris, or other pieces of potentially alien origin. There was nothing to see, though, until she reached the head of the furrow, where, steaming and ablaze, sat a massive piece of steel gray metal, scorched along most of its length.

The intellectual side of her demanded that she go down and begin her investigation right away, but the rational side of her mind erred on the side of caution, warning her that whatever this thing was, it could be dangerous beyond her wildest imaginings. With no small amount of reluctance, she headed for Zecora’s home as fast as she could, the frantic pumping of her wings taking her there in minutes. Gathered there were her closest friends. “Girls, Zecora, Spike, I found the crash site.” She pointed a hoof off towards the rising column of smoke. “It’s just a short run that way, so let’s go!”

“Whoa, hold on there, Twi.” Applejack quickly moved in front of Twilight, keeping her from dashing off towards the crash. “Spike wasn’t quite forthcoming with what happened, aside from some explosions, fireballs, and space zombies. Mind explaining?”

Twilight looked from the smoke to her friends and back again. She let out a sigh as she calmed herself down. “A couple weeks ago I spotted something in space. Luna refused to explain what it was, and that just made me even more curious about it. After observing and tracking it, I discovered that it would enter the atmosphere tonight. Originally I had thought it would just be a shooting star, but, instead, it’s that.” Her hoof pointed once more to the crash site. “Whatever it is, it’s not natural, and I want to see what it is, since it might be a threat to Equestria.”

The first sensation that returned to Abderus was one of immense pain. That, and a dull flashing light accompanied by a slightly garbled sound. His eyes cracked open to reveal the shattered interior of the ship, along with a chilling spike of a tree that jutted up into the craft. The branch, or trunk, he couldn’t tell, ended just a foot away from his face, the sharpened point seemingly trying to reach out and stab him. With a shaky hand the pilot reached out and pulled a leaf off of, what he could now tell, was a branch. “Oak?” A sharp laugh escaped Abderus as he hit the quick release for his seat, his entire body throbbing with pain. “I crash land on a planet that’s so far from home that I can’t even reasonably fathom the distance, and the first living thing I see is an oak tree. This shouldn’t be as funny to me as it is.”

Gently easing himself from his seat, the pilot gathered up the supplies he had stashed back behind the panel. Every motion he made sent sharp reminders of his landing through his body, and several times he nearly blacked out. When the panel came away, Abderus quickly pulled the duffel bag over his shoulder, the tools following just behind the bag. Once he gathered up all of his things, precious few as they are, he stumbled over to the airlock that made up the majority of the back wall. It took several long minutes for him to realize that the powered systems weren’t working, and that he’d have to open it manually.

The various locking mechanisms took yet more time to open, and by the time the door was finally opened Abderus felt dizzy from the exertion. The several foot drop to the ground threw the pilot into a state of limbo, his mind reeling from the intense pain shooting along every nerve of his body. Even in his state of semi-consciousness he was still able to pick up on the sounds of multiple approaching... things. He couldn’t even begin to fathom what it was that might be approaching him this far from home, and his only coherent thought was that he desperately, more than anything else, wanted to be home.

For a moment Abderus struggled against his body, fighting to prop himself up against the still warm hull of his once proud vessel. As he worked himself into the position he desired, the sounds grew ever closer, the alien sound of them shooting shivers up his spine. Not a single sound seemed familiar, and the pilot strained to see if there was any rhythm or reason to the sounds. Despite his efforts, though, Abderus failed to draw any conclusions from the sounds, other than that there was more than one thing approaching, and that if they followed the same gender rules as humans, all of the approaching creatures were female. Or whatever passed for female here. Or, perhaps, that was just wishful thinking on Abderus’ part.

From the underbrush of the surrounding forest emerged seven creatures that Abderus immediately identified as horses. The eighth was some lizard based biped. Surely these were just... hunting creatures of some sort, sent out by the dominant species of the planet to scout out the crash. Abderus’ eyes roamed along all the creatures until he found his gaze drawn to the one in the middle that was looking back at him. It emitted a series of strange sounds and all the other horses, and the lizard, all looked at the pilot as well. The others started making sounds as well, the blue colored one taking a tentative step towards Abderus.

He had, stupidly, put his back to a wall, and now these creatures were advancing on him, their eyes sparkling with some sort of predatory intelligence. Abderus could only grimace as the full irony of his situation sank in. First contact made with carnivorous horses. If there had ever been any doubt in his mind, this situation alone wiped it all away. There was a god, and that god had the sickest sense of humor ever. Abderus’ hand clenched around his knife as the creature grew closer still.

Once the creature drew close enough, Abderus lunged out, his knife sinking into flesh with an ease that seemed to belie the damage dealt by the blow. A shrill cry escaped the creature, and a set of appendages previously unnoticed snapped open, whipping forward and effectively ending Abderus’ first interaction with this new planet’s local fauna. The world faded slowly to black as he could make out the frantic sounds coming from the creatures.

“Sweet Celestia, it stabbed me!” Dash’s eyes went wide as she recoiled from the wound, her wings still upright and curled a bit, ready to lash out at a moments notice. All the others were still catching up with the rapid exchange, and by the time Dash made her exclamation they had only barely rationalized what had occurred. Fluttershy was the first to move, and she quickly set about seeing to her friends injuries. The knife had sunk all the way to the hilt, and Fluttershy was unsure of just how to go about approaching such a serious wound.

Everyone but Twilight was urging Dash to get to the hospital as quickly as possible, and soon Dash, Fluttershy, Pinkie, Zecora and Rarity were heading back through the forest towards the hospital. Applejack and Twilight stood in silence for several minutes as they looked at the prone form slumped over against the wreckage. Arrayed around him were a few mysterious containers, and Twilight quickly went about moving and inspecting them all, her curiosity overcoming her sense. “Twi, don’t you think we should get this thing somewhere a bit more secure? It just stabbed Dash, and it could do Celestia knows what else.”

Twilight looked at the crashed vessel for a moment before she gave her head a quick shake. “Yes, right, of course. I’ve got a spare room in the library that we can use. I’ll secure everything with some spells, and then we can put it in there to see what it’ll do.” Twilight soon had all the alien’s possessions secured, and during that time Applejack had tied up the biped, securing it to her back

“Shoot, this thing’s heavier than it looks.” Twilight made a mental note of that, and within moments they were heading back through the forest, Twilight’s magic keeping the creatures at bay. She had also placed a spell upon the wreckage, the magic working to keep it undisturbed from all forms of decay, natural or artificial.

Spike kept shooting cautious glances at the unconscious form. “Twilight, shouldn’t we tell the royal guard? And Princess Celestia? And Princess Luna? I mean, this is kinda huge, don’t you think? You were saying yourself that this was probably the most important thing to ever happen. Ever.”

“We will, Spike, once we have it somewhere where it won’t be able to hurt anypony else. And... After I run a few tests.”

“No, Twi, Spike’s right. No tests, no nothing. Once you have it safely stowed away, you’re going to send a letter to the Princesses. Heck, all three of them. Four, if you want to send one to yourself as well.” Twilight wanted to make some rebuttal to that, somehow claiming that doing so diminished her own royalty, but she couldn’t. She didn’t want the crown she had sitting back at the library. And now she was going to be forced to act as a diplomat between Equestria and this new alien.

About half an hour later and the three of them, plus their unwitting cargo, arrived back at the library. It only took Twilight a short while to prepare her spare room for the alien, and soon they were looking at the prone form in the room, watching in awe as its chest slowly rose and fell with its breaths. “Twi, I don’t know much about biology, or any of that stuff, but if it has pointed teeth...”

Twilight’s head snapped from watching the creature to looking at the orange pony beside her. “It had pointed teeth? Were they long, or short? Serrated, or smooth edged?”

She wanted to keep going, but Applejack raised a hoof. “I didn’t get a good look at them, I just noticed that its teeth looked a bit pointy. That means that it eats meat, right?”

Twilight just nodded as she looked back at the creature, this newfound knowledge not making her feel any more secure. “Spike, take a letter...”

Author's Note

Yeah, I named the computer Hal. Yeah, I killed off Hal. For those of you who are upset about this, I apologize. This isn't a story about Hal and Abderus, this is a story about Abderus and ponies. Hal would make life WAY too easy for our good human friend, and I'm not about to make his life easy.

Chapter II: Rationalization

“Two guards? Two guards?” Twilight looked at the two guardsponies, her eye twitching slightly. “I have the single most important being on the planet in my home, and Princess Celestia sends me TWO GUARDS?”

“Princess Twilight, it was only under the council of Princess Luna that any guards were sent at all.” The guard’s impassive voice betrayed none of the feelings in the pony. “It is my opinion that the creature should be taken to the dungeons beneath Canterlot, but in this matter my opinion has been disregarded.”

“Twi, maybe you should calm down some.” Applejack put a hoof on the lavender mare’s shoulder, gently pulling her back from the guard. “He ain’t done anything to you. If you’re going to be mad with somepony, be mad with the Princesses back in Canterlot.”

“I’m angry with them too, AJ.” Twilight took several deep breaths as she strived to regain her composure. After a moment, she looked back at the two guards. “The two of you are to remain on premises for the duration of your stay. Work in eight hour shifts. Since the creature is safely locked inside a room within the heart of the tree there is no real chance of escape through anywhere but the main room. So, that is your position.”

The guards snapped quick salutes before one of them moved into position, and the other trotted out of the library, the tent they had brought acting as their de facto home for the duration. Twilight let out a long groan as she made her way up to her room, Applejack following behind her. “Twi, maybe you should get some rest, and see about trying some tests, or something, tomorrow. You’re exhausted, I’m exhausted, and we both know that neither of us function at all well when we’re tired.”

Twilight stopped at the door to her room, her head resting against the cool wooden surface of the door. “I know, AJ. It’s just... It’s hard for me to think straight when I’ve got a carnivorous... Thing... In my home. I know it can’t get out, but that doesn’t seem to do anything to alleviate my concerns. Not only for myself, but for it.”

The farmpony placed a hoof on the door, gently easing it open and helping the alicorn to her bed. Twi barely resisted as she was put in bed by the farmer, and soon she was watching as Applejack blew out the few candles that dotted the room. “Twi, I’ll come by tomorrow morning, and we’ll see if we can’t make some progress. But apple season’s starting soon, so this’ll probably be my last free day...”

“That’s fine, AJ. Spike and the others should be able to help. And from what they’ve said, Dash should be fine soon. The wound wasn’t as bad as we all thought.”

“That’s good, sugarcube. Now, get some sleep.” With that said, Applejack gently closed the door to Twilight’s room, gently making her way down the stairs to keep the noise to a minimum. Once she reached the bottom of the stairs she found herself torn for a moment. While she wasn’t normally one for going with the hype of a situation, she couldn’t help but realize just how right Twilight was about a few things. The creature really was the first alien contact for Equestria, and it was less than a minute away from her right now.

The guard stiffened a hair as Applejack trotted past, his eyes roaming over her for a split second before his gaze returned to the front door of the library. When the mare reached the opening that led to the creature’s room, she stopped, and just looked in. At some point it had moved from the floor to the bed, but it’s long frame made it look awkward on the bed. It’s face was shaped strangely, in Applejack’s opinion, and she rotated her head so that she could see the face as it would be when the creature was upright.

As she looked at the creature she felt a tiny shiver run along her spine, and she whirled in place to see the guard just behind her. “Miss Daniels, it’s getting late. Perhaps you should consider returning home.”

“I will. Just give me a minute.”

The guard nodded for a moment before he looked at the creature, a frown forming on his face for a moment. “I’ve seen my share of bizarre creatures, but nothing quite like this.” After that, the guard returned to his post, leaving the mare alone once again. Applejack’s gaze returned to the creature after the interruption, and she let a frown come to her face. The guard was right about how it looked. It seemed to have some similarities to some of the monsters she’d seen in some of Twilight’s books, but it still seemed distinctly alien to her.

It’s eyes opened for a moment as Applejack looked at it, and then they widened when it looked directly at the mare. Applejack met it’s gaze evenly, her fear being outweighed by her determination not to be cowed by the predator. A tiny tremble shook the creature’s frame, and it was in that moment that Applejack realized how things must be for the creature.

What Applejack didn’t realize, though, was just why that pang of sympathy ran through her, and how it was able to outweigh so many variables stacked against it. The pony mind is built solidly around an herbivorous diet. And, as such, it tends towards avoiding confrontation, and possible predators. The fear that surrounds these predators is so instinctive that few things are able to overwhelm it. One such thing is empathy. A wounded creature, no matter how fearsome, often instills a small measure of sympathy from an observer. While the creature isn’t mortally wounded, it is far from home. So far, in fact, that common measurement ceases to have real meaning anymore. This mental connection to home is something that all beings have, and is something that we radiate outwards.

A pony, without leaving the planet, cannot be further than eight thousand miles from home. Abderus, conversely, is presently 6.572 times ten to the fifty seventh miles from home. Give or take a bit.

8,000

6,572,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Think about that for a moment.

That rationalization was forced upon Applejack as her mind attempted to reconcile that kind of empathic impact. Luckily for the mare she was made of tougher stuff than most, and the only outward sign of her sudden mental challenge was a sharp intake of breath.

“You really are a long way from home...” The mare was the first to break eye contact with the creature, and she quickly fled from Twilight’s home as she continued to try and understand what just happened to her.

Abderus woke slowly at the faint sounds of activity within the prison that contained him. Consciousness and the human had been only distant friends since the crash, rather than the best of buddies as was the norm. Still, he was awake now, and the pilot was determined to make some progress today. Even if it was nothing of consequence, he wanted to try and establish relations with his eventual consumers. Maybe, just maybe, he could convince them to kill him first, rather than just eat him alive.

After last night’s midnight encounter with the orange horse, and that realization of just how ‘not at home’ he was, he didn’t want to spare a thought for how alone he now was. His body still refused to function smoothly after the brutal landing, but it was working well enough for him to crawl out of bed and to his feet. After a few painful stretches the human started taking stock of his rather restrictive environment. Despite the stature of the horses, the room Abderus was in had a remarkably high ceiling. He didn’t even have to hunch over to prevent himself from gaining another concussion.

As he continued his observations of the room he felt a tingle run along his spine and a subtle change in the airflow caused the pilot to whirl in place. Standing at the entryway to his cell, where once had been an iridescent field of energy, now stood one of the horse things. It seemed eerily familiar, and Abderus sought to put distance between himself and the creature, lest it seek to gore him with it’s unsettlingly sharp horn.

It made no moves to pursue him, though, and when Abderus came to that realization he stopped moving. All manner of idiotic ideas flew through his head in that moment, and, for a fleeting moment, he considered the possibility that if he didn’t move the creature wouldn’t be able to see him. Following that was the assumption that if he moved slow enough he could get past the creature, and escape the cell he was in.

The horse’s eyes followed his every move, though, and the human simply sat in place, resigned to his fate. No amount of screaming would change what faced him, and so he resolved to deny them whatever sick pleasures they might seek to gain from his plight. He looked right back at the eyes of his captor, his defiance shining brighter in his eyes than the fear he felt. The creature’s horn began to glow softly, and several objects levitated past her, and onto the floor between the human and the horse.

The first of those objects was a glass of water... Unless it wasn’t water. The human wanted to think it was water, but there were too many possibilities to mention. The second object was easier to identify, if not a bit confusing. The small mouse seemed totally at ease within the grasp of the horse’s telekinetic grasp, and when placed on the floor simply stared around, content to sit there between the human and the horse. The third, and final, object was a plate covered in a small array of seemingly recognizable fruits and vegetables.

Abderus made no move to grab any of the objects, his caution outweighing any desire to investigate the newfound sources of information. The horse continued to look at the human intently, following each of his motions with poorly concealed intrigue. After nearly an hour of uncomfortable silence Abderus finally crumbled to the curiosity within. His hand slowly wrapped around the glass of what was, hopefully, water, and he brought it closer. He dabbed a finger in the liquid, testing to see if it would react unfavorably to his skin.

When no reaction was forthcoming he shrugged, placing the glass down beside himself as he looked at the finger that had just been submerged. He sniffed it, examined what had beaded on his finger, and spent far too long looking at it before he downed the glass, praying to whatever deity was present on this planet that he didn’t just ingest some horrible concoction that would turn him inside out, or anything unpleasant like that. The liquid was room temperature, and fairly tasteless, acting as a small reassurance to Abderus. It didn’t really mean anything, though, as it could simply be some tasteless poison, or something to that effect. The mouse-thing still sat in place, looking at the human with eyes that screamed the purest innocence. An innocence that almost seemed to be more than any creature like that should be able to show. The plate of veggies seemed promising, and yet Abderus didn’t yet trust that it was really edible. Perhaps a quick test...

A thin orange vegetable, that Abderus decided to call a carrot for simplicity sake, was soon proffered to the mouse, and it gladly took it, quickly starting to eat the food. The horse let out a gasp at this behavior, and the human immediately froze in place, his gaze coming to match the horse’s. After a moment, the horse shuffled in place a bit, and the human threw himself back at the wall, afraid of what consequence he had brought on himself with his seemingly innocent action.

Twilight looked at the creature with amazement. Sure, it had just had what looked like a panic attack, but it fed the mouse! It didn’t try to eat the mouse, or the fruits and vegetables, for that matter, but at least it had shown some sort of mental capacity beyond simple violence. For several long minutes the mare just watched the creature, trying to see if there was any reaction provoked by observation. After an indeterminate period of time it seemed to relax some. With agonizing slowness it approached the plate once again, this time snatching the remaining carrots off the plate, and then quickly moving back to it’s previous position.

Twilight remained seated, her mind racing as she thought of some way to further establish some measure of the creature’s intelligence. Suddenly, a spark of inspiration hit, and she summoned from her room a piece of parchment and a quill. The two items floated delicately before her for a moment, and then she lowered them to the floor, watching as the creature almost imperceptibly relaxed some at the cessation of magical ability. The mare made a quick mental note of that before she grabbed the quill in her mouth, several quick strokes bringing some lines to the page. She looked at it for a long moment before she smiled, and then prodded the parchment towards the creature.

Twilight moved back from the parchment some after a moment, waiting to see if the creature would see, and understand, what she had written down. After several long minutes the creature finally advanced to the parchment, its eyes looking at it for a few minutes before it took the quill, and wrote something down. It spent several long minutes writing before it finally looked back at Twilight. It didn’t move as far back as it had before, and then it just let its gaze flit between the paper, and Twilight. What Twilight saw on the parchment, after her approach, nearly made her jaw drop.

Just below her own simple mathematics was a long string of more advanced equations. Some even displaying more complex operations than the simple addition and subtraction she had performed at the top of the page. As she continued roaming her gaze down the page she suddenly found herself looking at some mathematics she had never seen before. The symbols the creature had used were much the same as her own, but she found herself unable to make sense of what she saw. Still, this alone was probably the most promising thing she had yet to see.

For a moment Twilight remained silent as she contemplated further development on what she knew of the creatures mental capabilities, before she realized that not only was this creature intelligent, it was also capable of communication. Twilight slowly approached the creature, several new pieces of parchment in her possession. Once she was about six feet away from the creature, she placed the parchment on the floor between them, the quill quickly moving down to start writing.

She counted to eight on the paper, a matching spelling for each number going onto the paper beside the number. Math, Twilight knew, was universal. The creature had just displayed a knowledge on the subject that surpassed her own, assuming that the creature wasn’t making it up, and so there had to be some basis for what was going through the creature’s head.

At that thought Twilight realized that referring to it as a simple creature was a bit... degrading. It was far more advanced than her initial reaction had prompted, and she was determined to find out as much about it as she could. Within a few minutes, Twilight had completed her writings, and she had written out the first two couplets in the Equestrian standard base eight counting system. Below that was Twilight’s name, the name of her species, her gender. She hoped this would be enough to establish a more formal dialogue with the creature, but she was also wondering whether it would understand.

Abderus noted what looked like happiness on the horse’s face as it looked at what he had written. Following that she had moved a bit closer, which at first made Abderus nervous, but then she had just started writing on the page, her gaze roaming over the pilot’s form every so often. Eventually, though, she stopped, and just looked at the page she had written, and then she slid it over to Abderus. As he looked over the page he realized that he had just been given a veritable trove of information about the creatures with little more than some numbers and a bunch of gibberish at the bottom.

The numbers were far more interesting to Abderus, though, since he could make sense of them. There were sixteen lines on the bottom most number, so, clearly, that was where the horse had stopped counting. As he looked along the symbols next to the numbers he quickly understood why she had only counted to fifteen, starting at zero. The symbols repeated themselves after eight, and Abderus rationalized that they must use a non-ten base counting system. Although using eight seemed just a bit arbitrary. Unless they counted two on each hoof.

Nothing about the bottom gibberish was decipherable, so Abderus decided to ignore it for now, and, perhaps, try and communicate with the creature. Before he could get started with that, though, one of the armored horses came in, his brow furrowed. It spoke quickly to the lavender horse, its tone clipped and harsh. It’s gaze never left Abderus, though. When the ‘guard’ finally stopped speaking, the horse in front of the pilot let out a sigh, and then it shook its head. It nodded, and then the ‘guard’ turned to leave.

Abderus slided the page back towards the horse, and he pointed at the first collection of gibberish. The horse looked at it for a moment before she said something, and pointed at herself. She repeated the motion again a moment later, saying the same thing. Then she pointed at Abderus, her expression happy. Abderus said the same thing as the horse, and pointed at himself, but the horse let out a quick laugh, and then pointed at itself and said the same thing once again, pointing at herself.

The connection was made, and Abderus placed one hand on his chest. “Abderus.” The horse’s eyes widened, and she nodded quickly. Abderus repeated the motion, and the horse seemed far happier with the results. However, after a moment, she stopped, and then pointed at the next piece of gibberish. She said it aloud, and then, for just a moment, she looked stymied. She let out a sharp cry, and the armored horse from before rushed in, its eyes locked onto Abderus. Its horn had a sharp glow surrounding it, but, after a moment of speech from the lavender horse, the armored one allowed the glow to dissipate.

The horse repeated the words again, and she gestured from herself to the armored one, and back again. Then, she pointed at the last piece of gibberish, and she pointed at herself while speaking. She pointed at the armored one for a moment, and she said a slightly different word. When she pointed at herself she said one thing, and then when she pointed at the armored one she said something else.

Abderus placed his hand on his chest, and he spoke once again. “Human. Male.” After a moment, he figured that perhaps he could use their terms for male and female, if that’s what they were saying, and try to make things clearer. Abderus figured that the one in armor was a male, simply because the role of guards is usually one given to a male in his own society. Not the strongest jump to make, but one he was making nonetheless. He repeated his motion from before, substituting the english version of male for what he hoped was the horse language for male. The lavender horse’s eyes widened, and she nodded.

Before Abderus could have a moment to enjoy the first human contact with another sentient species a new horse entered the room, this one covered in a coat of pink fur, and with pink hair on both head and tail. This one was, like the lavender horse, a female. Assuming, of course, that Abderus’ initial suspicions held true. She locked eyes with Abderus for several long minutes before a smile spread across her face. She spoke rapidly to the lavender horse, and then the lavender horse offered a smile to the pink one. The lavender horse’s response was much slower and Abderus clearly heard his name in it, as well as the term for male.

The pink horse nodded quickly before she turned her gaze on the human. She took a few steps closer to the pilot before she matched the lavender horse’s sitting posture. She tilted her head to the side just a tiny bit, and then her eyes widened. “Hi, I’m Pinkie Pie! Welcome to Equestria, Abderus!”

Twilight looked on in apprehension as Pinkie sat herself before Abderus. She knew that Pinkie wouldn’t do anything to hurt Abderus. At least, not intentionally. When Pinkie spoke to Abderus his eyes went wide, and then he fell backwards, his expression one of shock and awe. Pinkie looked from Abderus to Twilight, and then she frowned. “I just wanted to say ‘hi.’”

Chapter III: 'Abderus Home'

After the ‘Pinkie Incident’, as Twilight had decided to call it, and a long talk with the pink mare about the fact that Abderus couldn’t speak the language, Twilight found herself alone, once again, with the human. It had taken the better part of an hour to convince him that Pinkie was gone, and even longer after that to get him to leave the room he’d been in since his arrival at the library. After a long, and fairly drawn out explanation of some of the most basic emotions and feelings the human had finally managed to express several things. The first of which was that he was hungry. And in pain. Based on the emphasis he had placed on the two feelings Twilight was worried that the human prioritized hunger more than he did self preservation.

During the repast Twilight continued illustrating concepts to the human, desperate to give him more tools to use to illustrate how he felt. He proved remarkably quick to pick up on concepts, and it wasn’t long before he was able to express some more complex topics. Although, to be fair, Twilight was upset with the human’s progress. He was faster than a foal was, but still far too slow for someone of his age, based on what he had told Twilight through his earlier writings.

As the meal was winding down, Applejack arrived at the library, her notable concern more prevalent for her friend than for the alien. Twilight trusted that the human wouldn’t depart from the kitchen during her brief absence to let in the farm pony, and so she spoke quickly to the farmer in the main room of the book repository. With as much detail as she could cram in, Twilight explained what had taken place since waking earlier in the morning, and what was now taking place.

“Shucks, Twi. I’d like to see him for myself, though. I saw him last night, after you went to bed... I need to see him. I want to ask him some stuff.”

“That’s... That’s probably going to be pretty difficult, AJ. He doesn’t really speak the language. At all. I mean, he can tell me if he’s hungry, or happy, or other basics like that, but not much else.”

The farmer frowned for a moment, before she let a small smile return to her features. “I’m sure that if he picks up on the language as fast as you’re claiming, he’ll be able to answer my questions just fine.” Twilight only raised an eyebrow as she let her friend pass her and enter the kitchen. The human was busy devouring the rather large amount of food on the table in front of him, and he failed to notice the new arrivals. At least, Twilight suspected that he didn’t notice, as there was no change in either his activity or stance.

“Abderus.” The human looked up from his food and looked first at Twilight, and then the orange coated mare. His eyes narrowed for a moment before he stood, grabbed his chair, and moved it to the far side of the table. His eyes never left the farmer, and Twilight could see his pupils were dilated. Before things could get out of hoof, though, Twilight calmly approached the fearful human. She pointed a hoof at Applejack. “Applejack. Friend.” She hoped that her earlier explanation of the word friend, based solely in pure emotions and feelings, had stuck. “She’s a friend, Abderus. Applejack is a friend.”

The human looked at Twilight for a moment before he looked back at the farmer. “Applejack?” His brow furrowed quite a bit, and then he gasped sharply. Twilight took a half step back at the outburst. After a moment the human held up an object, a proud smile on his face. “Apple!” The apple in his hand had a sizable bite taken out of its side, but that didn’t take away from its state as an apple. Without a pause, the human then pointed at Applejack. “Applejack!” He looked between the farmer and the produce several times before he started laughing. “Applejack! Apple!” The laughter lingered for a moment before he realized that he was the only one laughing, and his laughter died quickly.

Applejack looked between the human and Twilight for a moment before her gaze settled firmly on the alicorn. “Was he laughing at me, Twi?”

“I don’t really know, AJ. I don’t think so, but I couldn’t really tell you.”

“Applejack!” Both mares looked at the human as he stared pointedly at the farmer. The human seemed to struggle for a moment as he looked at the apple in his hand. He began speaking in his own language, some Equestrian sprinkled in as he likely tried to reason out what he wanted to say. The alien dialect shedded no information about either his language or his culture that either mare could use. “Applejack night. Abderus tired, Applejack.” The human looked increasingly frustrated as he tried to communicate with the mares before he finally rested his head in his hands, several deep breaths escaping him.

“Calm, Abderus.” Twilight approached the human slowly, her steps gentle, in order to create as little noise as possible.

“I think I get it, Twi.” Twilight stopped her approach at Applejack’s words, and she turned to look at the farmer. “He saw me last night, and I saw him. That’s part of why I wanted to come back. Not only because I said I would, but because that... er, Human, is one heck of a pony.”

“He’s not a pony, AJ. He’s not even from the same familial origin as us, for more reasons than just appearance. I mean, I think so, at least. What little we covered on paper leads me to believe that he’s more closely related to monkeys than he is ponies. Homo Sapiens, I think, was the term he used for his species. But, that small visual similarity aside, there’s no possible way he could be related to anything on our planet.”

“Whatever he’s called, I was hoping I could talk with him some.” Twilight looked between Applejack and Abderus for a moment before she nodded, gesturing to one of the chairs at the table. Applejack took the offered seat, and Twilight took a seat as well. Applejack looked at the human for a moment before she started speaking. “This is Twilight’s home.” She gestured at the library in a wide sweeping move. “Twilight’s home. She sleeps here. She lives here.” She pointed at herself. “I live on the farm. I sleep at Sweet Apple Acres. Not here, on the farm.”

The human nodded slowly, his expression one of only slight confusion. “Twilight live library?” Both mares nodded, and the human nodded back. “Applejack live farm?” Another nod followed. “Abderus no live library.” Applejack was quick to nod, but Twilight was more hesitant. “Library Twilight home. Farm Applejack home.” The human opened his mouth to speak again, but then he shut his mouth, his expression rapidly shifting through a wide range of different emotions. “Abderus...” He stopped for a moment, his expression shifting to sadness. He pointed at himself. “I?” Twilight nodded. “I want go home.” Abruptly, the human stood, sending both mares into a slight panic at the change in demeanor. “I go...” He stopped for a moment before speaking rapidly in his own language.

The human started walking towards the door to the main room of the library, but Twilight put herself between the pilot and the doorway. “No.” The human didn’t stop his advance, but he did look down at Twilight. “Abderus, stop. Wait.” When it was clear that the human wasn’t going to stop, Twilight held the human aloft in her magic, ignoring the growing protests. “Abderus Ganymede!” The human flailed within Twilight’s magical grasp for several moments longer before he suddenly stopped, and rotated himself to look away from both mares.

“Twi, I think you’re making him angry.” Twilight looked at Applejack for a moment before she looked back at the suspended human. Quickly, Applejack moved in front of the human, her expression softening when she saw the man's frown. “Abderus?” The pilot failed to show any sign of hearing her, so Applejack reached out a hoof and gently prodded one of the human’s legs. “Abderus?” This time he looked up at the mare, and she gave him a small smile. “Where do you want to go?”

Rather than answer, the human just pointed a hand straight up. His gaze shifted from sad to angry, and then he flailed violently against his magical bonds before his shoulders slumped. “Want go home. See home.” His brow furrowed as he closed his eyes, his mouth silently mouthing words. “Want see... ship?”

“You want to see a ship?”

“I ship.” The human paused for a moment before he frowned. “Want Equestrian. More Equestrian. Want see Abderus ship.”

Applejack nodded to the human before looking at Twilight. “He--”

“I heard, AJ.” Twilight walked around the human so she could look at him as she spoke. “Tonight, Abderus. We go tonight. No run?” The human just glared at Twilight for a moment before he nodded. The magical field slowly faded around the human, and once it vanished completely the human dropped unceremoniously onto the floor, his rear taking the brunt of the impact. He winced in pain, but quickly stood before walking to the door. Applejack shot Twilight a curious look, and Twilight just returned the look with a small smile. “I have to trust him not to run, AJ. I don’t want to scare him, or make him angry. And that means that I have to trust him.”

“You’re going to let him go around the house without keeping an eye on him?”

Twilight shook her head before she started heading towards the door, and into the main library. “While I was holding him I started working some small spells into him. Tiny ones that just let me know his general location.” She frowned for a moment. “I don’t like doing it, though. And, to make it worse, I have to tie it to my own magical reserves, since he has none.” Before Twilight could continue, though, a knock sounded at the door. “It’s open, come on in.” Both mares were more than a bit surprised to see Rainbow Dash walk in, her wound covered in a large bandage. “Dash? What are you doing here? Shouldn’t you be getting some rest, or something?”

Rainbow Dash just waved a hoof at Twilight before wincing just a bit. “Nah, Twi, it’s fine. Besides, I’m not going to let some little scratch like that hold me back. And I wanted to see this monster that you’ve got here.”

“He’s not a monster, Dash.” Rainbow’s gaze moved to Applejack as she spoke. “He’s a thinking being. From what I can see, he’s at least trying to get along with us. We spoke to each other for a bit, too.”

Dash snorted before she started walking over to the two mares. “I bet he’s just a...” She stopped herself at a sharp glare from Twilight.

“He’s not an agent sent to gather discrete reconnaissance data, Dash.”

The pegasus looked down for a moment. “I wasn’t going to say that, Twi. Anyway, I was hoping to at least get a good look at the thing--”

“Human,” Twilight said.

“The human, that stabbed me.”

Twilight looked pensive for a moment before she looked back at Dash. “I guess. But I don’t really know if he’ll want to talk to you, or something. I mean, maybe he’ll want to finish what he started. Or, maybe, he’ll be too ashamed. We have no cultural backing for what his people would do in such a situation. Hay, our own culture would have trouble with such a situation. Some individual exempt from the laws being forced to confront somepony that they assaulted? I don’t know how to deal with that.”

Dash looked worried for a moment before she regained her usual confidence. “I’ll be fine, Twi. You and AJ have been around him all morning, and the two of you are just fine.”

“Okay, I guess you’ve got a point, however small.” Twilight motioned for Dash and AJ to follow. “Just be cautious around him. He reacts to things a lot different than a pony would. He doesn’t seem very tactile, either. Every time I tried to examine him, even just his hands, he immediately pulled away.”

“So he doesn’t like to be touched?” The pegasus received a quick nod from Twilight, and she just smiled. “Alright, that’s fine. Anything else to be aware of?”

“He speaks only very little of our language, but I think he can understand a bit more than he lets on. When he speaks, try to interpret it in a way that makes sense in context, even if it doesn’t make total sense right away. He doesn’t know how to conjugate verbs very well, and I doubt he has any grasp on the finer laws of grammar.”

Applejack let out a quick laugh. “He’s been here a day, Twilight. I’m amazed he’s got as good a grasp on the language as he does.”

The trio stopped in front of Abderus’ small room, and he just looked at the three of them from his spot on the floor. Arranged in front of him were several dozen pieces of parchment covered in a plethora of his own languages alien symbols. His neutral expression quickly changed to one of fear when he looked at Dash, and he started to edge his way backwards.

Twilight entered the room first, her expression gentle. “Calm.” She pointed at the pegasus with one hoof. “Rainbow Dash. Friend.”

The human stopped moving backwards at Twilight’s words, and he looked between the three mares, his gaze lingering on Dash. “Friend?” He looked down at his pieces of parchment for a moment before he reached out and grabbed one. Illustrated, poorly, on the parchment was an image of a knife. “No angry?” There was a look of fear in his eyes, and his gaze kept flitting between the three mares. He looked down for a moment, away from the mares as he began rapidly speaking in his own language. After a moment, he looked back at Rainbow Dash. “Rainbow Dash no angry Abderus?”

The pegasus let a small smile come to her face before she shook her head. “No.” The human visibly relaxed before he dropped the parchment back into the pile from whence it came. Dash, meanwhile, turned to look at Twilight, a smile on her face. “Fluttershy explained what she thought happened back at his spaceship.” She glanced at the human quickly before subtly moving to put the alicorn between herself and the omnivore. “She said that it probably had to do with the fact that he’s scared senseless, and we’re a bunch of ‘weird looking ponies’ that he’s probably never seen before. She compared him to some of the animals in the Everfree.”

Twilight noticed her change in position, but decided not to comment on it. “As far as I can tell, that probably isn’t too far off. He’s incredibly cautious with most of the things that I’ve shown him, and even the things he accepts are still to be treated with caution. The only thing he hasn’t had a problem with is parchment and quills.”

Applejack looked over at some of the parchment that was close to her, and she chuckled softly. “From what I can see, he’s got just as much a knack for books as you do, Twi. Maybe even more. Not even you can write as much as he is in so short a time.”

“Not quite true, AJ.” Twilight grabbed a few discarded sheets of parchment, moving them closer. “Most of his writing isn’t writing, but math instead. And the little writing I’ve seen is just scribbled out.”

Abderus scowled at the page before him, his attempt at solving time dilation effects he might have suffered coming out wrong yet again. There was simply no way that time could work that way, and so he knew that he’d have to ask HAL, if he could, and there was a way to establish a link with the orbiting engine. The ponies, for that’s what they were, Abderus had learned, were clearly talking about him. It irked him to no end to be the subject of a conversation that he couldn’t participate in, but he knew that he’d just have to deal until he could learn the language.

His own inability to grasp the concepts being presented to him were making him tense and irritable, but he knew that he couldn’t express his anger at them, or he might insult them in some way that could cost him his life, or something worse.

Still, Twilight had promised him a trip tonight, and he was willing to wait until then for some more answers. Answers, that is, that he had no guarantee of getting. Still, it was better than a complete lack of anything, and so Abderus turned back to his writing, the departure of the mares taking place without his notice.

Twilight led the way through the forest, her horn glowing enough to cast a bright light on the surrounding area, and also projecting a field to prevent the approach of undesirables. The trip was only being undertaken by Abderus and Twilight, since the alicorn dearly wished to avoid as much exposure as she could. She didn’t want to risk sending the town into a panic, and so, even though it was well past midnight, she had cast a spell of invisibility upon both herself and the human. She’d allowed the spell to end once they reached the forest, and so she could now keep an eye on the human without having to rely on her magic.

As they reached the massive furrow in the ground Abderus paled a bit as he simply took in the scene. His ship was at the far end of the trench, and without a word the human started down it, not even looking to see if the mare was following. Each step towards his destination resulted in his posture changing just a bit, but his facial expression betrayed nothing. The human froze when he reached the stasis barrier Twilight had placed, and he shot an angry glare at Twilight.

“I didn’t do anything, Abderus. At least, not now.” He didn’t stop glaring, and so Twilight quickly altered her spell to allow Abderus to enter without feeling the tingling that was notable for stasis magic. He quickly approached his ship after that, walking several laps around it before finally stopping at an opening. Twilight recognized it as being the opening below which they had found the human, but she didn’t mention it to Abderus. As she looked at the side of the ship she saw the human clamber, slowly, into the opening he must have originally emerged from.

He winced a bit as he dragged himself over the lip of the opening, but once in the doorway he stood upright. After just a moment of waiting, the human moved deeper into the ship, quickly vanishing from sight. The alicorn hesitated for less than a heartbeat before she leapt up into the ship, her wings flaring to add a graceful edge to her leap. The first thing that the mare noticed, more prevalent than the lack of the human’s presence, was the fact that everything inside the ship was made of either metal, or some hard white material that she couldn’t identify. She heard some sounds from the human, and for a moment she was torn between examining the new material, or heading after Abderus. Her concern for the human won out, though, and she quickly moved to where the human was.

She looked on in a mix of horror and awe as the human wove his way through the mangled wreckage of the room, a massive tree branch acting as the single largest object in the room. The human was undaunted by it, though, as he moved through the room, adjusting various panels, and removing some altogether. After about five minutes, and several dozen exclamations from the human, he finally stood in front of a large black panel, a look of frustration on his face. He just looked at it for a moment before he heaved a massive sigh.

As he did so, a single flashing red light caught Twilight’s attention, and she pointed at it. “Abderus, look.” The pilot looked first at the mare before following her hoof to the source of her interest. A wide smile came to his face as he saw the light, and he rushed over to it as fast as his damaged body would allow. He began speaking rapidly to nothing in particular as he began rapidly pressing buttons, and subtly adjusting any number of other controls. After several tense moments there was a subtle rumble from behind Twilight, and she turned around just in time to see the ship’s lights come back to life. The rumble grew increasingly loud for several tense moments before it dulled to a barely felt thrumming in the metal beneath her hooves.

“Ship awake.” Twilight looked over her shoulder to the smiling human, and she felt a smile of her own come to her face. Twilight, now that there were more lights, allowed her own spell to fade, so that the ship lights could do the job of illumination. The human started looking at the various screens around the room, his eyes growing wider as he did so. A strange voice, seemingly from nowhere, sounded out throughout the ship, and Abderus looked around for a moment before he spoke in his own language. The first voice responded, and after a moment a blue sphere appeared, in mid air, before Twilight. She took several steps backwards at the sudden appearance. The human approached Twilight, his smile wider than before. “Calm, Twilight.” He pointed at the blue sphere. “Friend.”

“Abderus, what is this?” She attempted to prod the sphere with a hoof, but the limb simply passed through it as though nothing was there. She did so again, her brow furrowing as she found herself at a loss. “Magic?” She looked at the human for a moment, and he just laughed.

“No magic.” He spoke in his own language for a moment, and then the blue sphere started to change. Patches of green, brown, white, and tan started appearing all across the surface, until, just a minute after it started, the changes stopped, and the sphere began to rotate. Silence, other than the thrumming, persisted for several long moments before the human spoke again. “Twilight home.” The alicorn glanced at the human for a moment before she looked back at the sphere. As she did so, she noticed a small blinking dot on the surface of the sphere, and, in a flash, she recognized the object before her. It was, rendered in near perfect detail, a globe of Equus. The blinking dot was located right where Ponyville would be, and she reached out a hoof towards the dot, somehow expecting that something should happen if she were to touch it.

Sadly, and predictably, nothing occurred as her hoof passed through the image. Abderus just smiled a bit before he looked away from the image. He did something on one of the panels, and then when he turned back around, his smile was gone. The sphere changed quickly, the various patches of color shifting in a heartbeat, until, just seconds after starting, the process stopped. The landmasses were all different than before, but it was still so familiar looking. It was, also, a bit smaller than Equus had been. As Twilight watched the sphere rotate she admired the clouds, for that was what the white blurs had to be, as they moved in their delicate dance around this new world. After looking at it for several minutes she looked at Abderus to find his eyes were filled with tears. “Abderus home.” He waited for a moment before he spoke again. “Earth.”

Twilight tilted her head at the alien word, noting with interest the way he said it. Twilight pointed a hoof at the planet, and repeated the word the human had used. The human looked at the mare before giving a nod. “That’s your planet, Abderus? It’s beautiful.” Another nod answered her question, and the mare felt her ears droop. “I’m sorry.”

The pilot rested his back against the smooth walls of his ship, and then he slowly lowered himself to the ground. His gaze stayed on the planet, though, and at a word the image shrank down to about the size of Twilight’s head. It moved closer to the human, and when he reached out a hand the sphere seemed to hover just above his hand. When he finally dropped his hand, the sphere stayed where it was, still rotating. No home. Home gone. Abderus no home. Twilight home.”

The mare felt the sadness as much as she heard it, and so she moved closer to the human, her empathy outweighing her fear and her desire to remain detached from what was to her just a science project. The human made no move to stop her approach as he stared at the rotating image. When she was just a step away from the human she stopped, and sat herself next to the human, joining him in silent contemplation of his planet. She inched a bit closer to the human before gently leaning into him, offering a shoulder to lean on, and someone to talk to.

The human’s arm came up, slowly, and started pointing at various places on the planet. His first word was also his shakiest as the planet’s surface zoomed in on the coast of one of the continents. “Home...”

Author's Note

More of this will be coming, since this story still has plenty of room for expansion.

Chapter IV: Exposure

Twilight and the human looked to the globe of Earth for nearly an hour before Abderus finally let his hand drop, his reservoir of locations run down to nothing. During the course of his impromptu geography lecture Twilight had heard the human go through a whole gamut of different emotional states, ranging from anger, to sadness, and happiness and joy. When he finally fell silent he spoke a few words in his language, and the sphere vanished, only to be replaced with a globe of Equestria. He looked at it for a few moments, nothing but the gentle hum of the ship shattering the silence.

“Twilight home.” He raised a hand to the globe when an abrupt tone sounded out, causing Abderus to rapidly twist his head. Without a word he stood, the sphere vanishing with a faint popping sound. Twilight stood slower than the human did, her weariness beginning to take its toll on her body. The human’s hands flew across various consoles as the alicorn looked on, her vast intellect desperate to analyze and understand what it was that was causing Abderus such distress. After several tense moments Abderus let out a happy sound as he turned to look at a strange red bulge in the wall. It was remarkably small, and yet it held the human’s attention like nothing else had.

As Abderus looked to the bulge, Twilight moved about the chamber, taking in the details, when, abruptly, a new voice, lacking the emotional inflection of Abderus, cut through the air. The voice lacked any of the typical halting pauses that plagued Abderus’ speech, leading Twilight to deduce that it was either someone incredibly confident in what they had to say, or it wasn’t a person at all. The voice only lasted for a few short moments before it cut out, much to the displeasure of the human. Abderus shouted back at the ship for several minutes without response before he finally stopped and simply glared at the ship around him. After a moment the human simply raised one of his hands at the screen, his middle digit raised.

He only made the gesture for a moment before he let out an explosive sigh. His gaze roamed the ship for a moment before he looked back at the mare, who, during the past few moments, had placed herself squarely in the seat that she was certain had once held the human pilot just a few body lengths away. He let out a short sound, quickly getting the alicorn’s attention. The human motioned towards the door before he started making his way over to it, not waiting for the mare to agree or disagree. Twilight waited for him to be out of sight before she cast a quick spell, allowing for her to reclaim all the images and sounds that had occurred within the room in the past hour. While she doubted that she’d ever have a solid understanding of the human’s language of choice, she didn’t want to just leave what had been said and seen forgotten.

She joined the human after she finished her work within the cockpit, and soon she was standing beside him outside of the once proud vessel. The pair only lingered for a few minutes before the human turned away, starting down the great furrow in the land. Twilight allowed for her stasis spell to return to affect before she trotted to catch up to the dwindling figure of the biped. The trip home was uncomfortably silent as the human ignored all attempts by the mare at starting conversation of any sort. When they reached the library the human waltzed right past the guards, hardly even acknowledging them before locking himself within the bedroom Twilight had given him.

Twilight looked at the door that hid the human for several long moments before she shook her head and ventured up to her bedroom. Twilight’s mind was racing with all the possible reasons for the human’s change in behavior, but she couldn’t even begin to fathom a reason for a creature she barely understood. As the mare laid herself down in her bed she found herself comparing the pilot to some of the more devious mind puzzles she’d encountered earlier in her life. None, though, had held her back for more than a few hours. This one was different, though, as the rules seemed to be changing with each move she made. A smile tugged at the mare’s lips as she allowed sleep to claim her. This was just another challenge that she’d overcome.

With morning came the dullness of routine, and the general grogginess of the morning. Spike was still blissfully ensconced within his basket, and Twilight didn’t have the heart to rouse him just yet. Instead, she crept from her room as silently as she could, her hooves making the quietest of sounds. When she finally made it from her room, she felt her ears twitch as sounds from downstairs reached her. It sounded much like somepony was working in the kitchen, so Twilight hurried herself downstairs to see what was going on. One of the two guards, she couldn’t remember a name, was looking into the kitchen with a small smile on his face. When he saw Twilight, his smile grew as he motioned for her to approach.

In the kitchen, oblivious to his audience, was the human as he did battle with various items from the refrigerator. There were several eggs broken on the ground, and on the table, as well as several dozen open containers. Most of the open containers seemed like they had just been opened and left out, but some showed clear signs of consumption. Twilight entered the room in a daze as she tried to take in the degree of filth and mire in the room.

Finally, when she was just passing the table, about halfway across the room, Abderus turned in place. His eyes widened when he saw the mare, and for a moment he looked incredibly confused. Then, as if hit by a moment of intense clarity, he smiled. “Fuck you, Twilight!” The mare stood still for several long minutes as she tried to understand what had just happened. The human didn’t seem to realize that he did anything wrong, at first, since his smile stayed in place. For a moment his smile faltered, and he took a tentative half step forward. “Twilight?”

The mare didn’t listen to the human as she turned in place, her fiery gaze locking onto the guard, who was fighting back laughter, in the doorway. Seemingly recognizing what was going on, the guard took a single step back, his laughter dying in an instant, before the alicorn teleported herself right in the guard’s face. She didn’t say a word as she stared harshly into the guard’s twin blue eyes. He swallowed nervously as he took yet another step backwards. “Come on, Princess Sparkle, it was just a joke.” The guard looked past the mare towards the human, his eyes desperate. “Come on, Aber... Adbus... Uh... Human! Tell her! It was just a joke! Back me up!” The human looked on in confusion at the display, his features shifting between guilt and disbelief.

“Twilight?” The human walked a few steps closer before he stopped next to the pair. When he was just in front of them, he dropped down to their height, and he looked the guard in the eyes. “What Abderus say?” The guard just looked between the human and the alicorn, his hooves slowly inching backwards. The man's brow furrowed. “What I say, Twilight?”

The alicorn’s gaze turned towards the human for a moment, and she could clearly see that the pilot was bothered by what was going on. “It’s not your fault, Abderus.” She looked at the guard, her sympathy from just a heartbeat ago vanishing instantly. “You, on the other hoof, are going to be repositioned as soon as I send a letter off to Princess Celestia.” The guard opened his mouth to speak, but Twilight jumped in before he could say a word. “I don’t want to hear it. Not only are you teaching him incorrectly, you’re teaching him the wrong kind of thing. He seems to have figured out that what he said is wrong, but what if I hadn’t figured it out? What if he hadn’t figured it out? He has no understanding of our language, so whenever he hears something, he’ll take the explanation at face value. Now that he knows that you’ve misled him once, he might think that you’ll mislead him all the time. Or, maybe, his culture will demand some form of revenge, or something.” The guard took a small step away from both mare and man, his gaze focused on the mare. “There are so many possible ramifications for this one little incident, I can’t even begin to fathom all of them. So, with all of that said, I suggest that you start packing your things.”

The guard swallowed nervously as he took another step backwards. “Right away, Princess Twilight.” Without pausing for any other form of communication, the stallion turned and bolted for the door, barely stopping to open the door before slamming the door behind himself. Twilight glared at the door for another moment after it shut before she heaved a massive sigh. She glanced at the human as he continued to look at the door before she placed a hoof on his leg, quickly tearing his attention from the door to the alicorn. She motioned for him to head back into the kitchen, and he reluctantly stood, his joints popping as he returned to his full height.

Upon entering the kitchen Twilight noticed that the human hadn’t simply ransacked the kitchen. He had, in fact, been attempting to prepare some food. While she wouldn’t try to guess as to what the human’s goal was, she could see that he was quite into the act. When she looked at the stove she saw that the human had placed several pans atop it, and that there was a roaring fire inside of it, heating the two pans. When Twilight approached she managed to put all the pieces together, and she turned to look at Abderus. “Omelets?” The human just tilted his head a bit before he grabbed a bowl. When he showed the mixture to Twilight she gave it a quick sniff. She moved to one of the egg containers, picking one out and showing it to the human. He gave a quick nod, and then grabbed several other items, amongst them a mushroom and a pepper. The human spoke in his own language quickly before he frowned and shook his head. “Omelet?” This time she accompanied her speech with a brief pantomime of cooking the mix on the stove, and the human nodded.

She smiled at the human before giving him back the bowl, and gesturing towards the stove. Abderus’ smile widened when he realized that he could proceed, and he took to cooking like a champ, quickly getting into the activity, and making quick changes to his style and mannerisms as he went. It didn’t take him long to prepare the food, and once he had both omelets done he grabbed a couple of plates and served them out for both himself and the mare. The two took seats at the, now cleaned, thanks to Twilight, table. As they ate, Spike emerged from his slumber, blearily moving about the room as he grabbed and prepared himself a quick meal. The bowl of small gemstones that he placed before himself grabbed Abderus’ attention right away. Twilight noticed this, and her gaze flitted between the dragon and the human several times.

When Spike took his first spoonful of the crushed gems, and ate it, the human let out a strangled sound of frustration. Both the dragon and the pony looked towards the human, and both were shocked at the pained expression on his face. “Is everything okay, Abderus?” Twilight reached out a hoof towards the human as she spoke, and he seemed to ignore her completely.

When she finally made contact with the human’s arm he looked at her, his eyes searching her. He spoke just a few words of his own language before he grabbed one of the gems from Spike’s bowl, ignoring the milk now on his hand. He spoke a single word, and gestured at the gem. He repeated it again, and then motioned towards Twilight. Figuring out that he wanted to know the word, Twilight spoke. “It’s a sapphire, Abderus. A gemstone, eaten by dragons, or, often, used as decorative accoutrements to clothing.” The human just glared at her for a moment, and Twilight blushed a bit. “It’s a jewel. Dragons eat them.”

The human just looked from Twilight to the gem in his hand, and then back to the dragon who had happily continued eating his breakfast. After a few moments of silence, the human brought the gem to his mouth, and he bit down on it before letting out a grunt. “No Abderus eat.”

The mare chuckled softly as she took the gem back from Abderus. “Only dragons eat gems.” The human continued to look on in amazement as the dragon ate, and Twilight took the time to continue teaching Abderus all that he seemed able to learn during the meal. After the meal was finished, the human stood, and quickly made to clean the kitchen of his mess, ignoring any and all attempts made at helping him with the task. As he finished the task, though, his actions slowed to a crawl, before he finally stopped completely, his hands resting on the too low sink.

For several moments he stayed like that, until, finally, he stood up straight, and he went from the kitchen right to his room. Twilight followed him through this, and she found herself stopped when she went to follow him into his room by a harsh glare. “Want alone.” Twilight wanted to stop him, so that she could continue teaching him, but the anger and hurt in his gaze pushed her away. He continued to glare at her, a few tears gathering in his eyes, before she finally turned away from the human, and went back down the hall.

Every part of her was telling her to head back down the hall, and to talk with the pilot about what was troubling him, but, at the same time, she knew that he probably didn’t have the words to express what was troubling him. Something that she was certain added to his frustration. After several long minutes of indecision the mare made her way into her study where she found Spike sorting some of the more recent additions. “Spike, I’m going out for a while. Write up that letter we talked about during breakfast, and then send it to Princess Celestia right away.”

“Sure thing, Twi. Where are you going, though?”

Twilight offered a half shrug. “I don’t have anyplace in mind, Spike. I just need some space to think. Something Abderus is doing now, too. If he comes out of his room, tell him that I’ll be back later. And, remember, he’s not to leave the house under any circumstance, save for the library being on fire or a disaster.” Spike gave a quick salute before he went over to the desk in the room, a quill and parchment soon sitting before him as he got to work. Twilight only looked on for a moment before she made her way out of the room, and then out of the treehouse. The day was quite pleasant, with only a few clouds in the sky, and yet it did little to alleviate her mood.

Each step took her further from her home, but her mind stayed solidly on the topic of the human, and what his troubles were. Certainly she could guess the cause, but he had been doing just fine all of yesterday, even up to visiting his ship, and so the possibilities seemed far more varied than she could think of. As she continued walking along the road she found herself in the marketplace, surrounded by the many different ponies of the town as they went about their lives. Applebloom and the other crusaders were gathered about Applejack’s small stand, several small baskets filled with apples sitting out. Fluttershy and Rainbow Dash were both there as well, and so Twilight put a small spring in her step as she approached. Surely the two of them would say something that would send some new spark of inspiration into her mind.

The rainbow maned pegasus noticed her first, giving a quick wave before pointing out the alicorn to the others. Twilight offered a smile as she approached. After a quick batch of greetings the Crusaders spotted Applejack in the distance, rejoicing in her return so that they might get back to their crusading. With a quick cheer they departed, not even stopping to say something to the approaching farmer. “Thanks, Dash, for keeping an eye on the crusaders while I was gone. And you too, ‘Shy. I appreciate it.”

“No problem, AJ. Shy and I were just coming to see you, anyway, so it’s not really a big problem. What was up, anyway?”

The farmer looks down for a moment. “Granny Smith was acting up again.” Twilight, and the others, look down for a moment.

“She’s not getting any better?”

AJ looked up at the alicorn for a moment, a small frown on her face. “No, sadly. The bones refuse to set properly, and the fact that she refuses to stay still isn’t helping. You’re sure, Twi --”

“No, AJ. It wouldn’t work. Broken bones, especially in a pony as old as Granny Smith, need to heal naturally.” The farmer heaved a sigh before she shrugged. “Sorry, Applejack.”

“It’s fine, AJ. Granny Smith’s the hardiest pony I’ve ever met. Heck, I bet if she was a pegasus she could still teach even the Wonderbolts a thing or two.” Dash held her smile a moment before she looked over at Twilight. “And how are you, Twi? How’s the human holding up?”

Fluttershy perked up at the topic just a bit, quickly looking from Rainbow Dash to Twilight. “Oh, yes, how is he? He didn’t look that good when we found him at the crash.”

“He doesn’t really seem that put out by his injuries, to be honest. I’ve only seen him wince a few times, and even those were relatively minor. Either he has an absurd tolerance to pain, or he’s just not that badly hurt.”

“Maybe it’s a bit of both?” All heads turned to look at the farmer. “Maybe he’s not that badly hurt, and he can handle pain well. From what I’ve seen of him, he does seem fragile, but looks can be deceiving.”

“Fragile? Did you see what he did to me?” Dash flushed for a moment as the attention of the other shifted to her. “I mean, what I let him do to me. The only reason he did get me was because I let him.”

“Regardless of his one-time aggressive tendencies, he does seem to be making some good progress in regards to the language. He’s still a long way away from being able to communicate at our level, but he’s well beyond where I thought he’d be after such a short period of time.” As Twilight drew in another breath, a puff of magic appeared before her, heralding the arrival of a single rolled up piece of parchment, courtesy of Spike. There was no royal seal upon it, or, for that matter, a seal of any sort. There was just a piece of string wrapped around it, tied with a messy knot. Before gravity could assert it’s hold on the scroll Twilight used her magic to hold it aloft while the knot was undone. The lone word on the middle of the page held quite a bit of emotion behind it, and Twilight felt her eyes widen as she took it in. “Girls, we’ve got a problem. Dash, go get Pinkie, and Rarity. Meet us in the center of town. AJ, Fluttershy, let’s go!”

With a quick salute, the pegasus took to the air, her polychromatic trail marking her path. Twilight wasted no time watching, though, as she and the others were galloping through the market, barely noticing as the crowd shot them curious glances. Once the group broke free of the market, it took mere moments to arrive at the town hall, where both Rarity and Dash were already waiting. “Twi, I couldn’t find Pinkie anywhere. And the cakes don’t know where she is either.”

As if waiting for her cue, Pinkie trotted out of Town Hall with a big smile on her face. “Hi, girls. I was just talking to Mayor Mare about hosting a Super Duper Special Welcome-to-Ponyville-Party.”

Twilight felt her eye twitch as she looked at the pink earth pony. “And who, Pinkie, is that party for?”

Pinkie tilted her head at Twilight. “For Abderus, duh. But, I didn’t tell Mayor Mare that! I may be silly, but that doesn’t mean I’ll spoil the surprise element of the surprise party. Wait, if I know it’s coming, can it still be a surprise?”

Again Twilight found herself cut off before she could make a response of some kind, albeit this time by the sound of a shouting voice rather than the appearance of a scroll. All heads turned to look at the running form of Spike as he quickly closed the gap between himself and the mares. When he finally made it to the six mares he looked at all of them with fear written plainly on his face. He took several deep breaths as he hunched over, and when he finally looked up his fear was even more apparent. “He’s gone, Twi! After I wrote that first letter, I went to go see how Abderus was doing, and he wasn’t there! Neither guard saw him leave, either!”

Twilight felt a momentary stab of panic before she recovered her calm demeanor. “Alright, girls, we’ve got a loose human on our hooves. We need to find him as quickly as we can, in order to prevent a panic. Dash, Fluttershy, I want you two up in the sky. Break the town up into sections, and survey the whole thing as quickly as you can. AJ...” She trailed off as she watched the human walk into the town square, his head moving to and fro as he looked around the area. “Or he’ll just walk to us.” A bright flash saw the mare disappear in one place, and appear beside the human. “Abderus!”

The human looked down at the mare for a moment before he frowned, and continued on his way. The other girls all ran over as the human continued his walk, heedless of Twilight’s protests. Fluttershy hovered just before the human, speaking to him in soft tones. “Please stop, Abderus. We don’t want you to get hurt. Or for you to scare anypony.” The human looked at the pegasus for only a moment before he just walked around her. “Oh my.”

Twilight looked on in disbelief as the human ignored all of the protests thrown at him, until, finally, he lashed out at AJ, who had placed herself between the human and whatever his destination might be. He didn’t strike her, but he did give her a shove to get her out of his way. Unwilling to allow the confrontation to develop any further, she interposed herself between the human and the now prone farmer, her wings spread to make herself larger. For just a moment she was fascinated by her new body’s reaction to hostility, but that fascination vanished when she looked up at the creature before her. For the first time Twilight knew what it was like to stare down a predator. There was no compassion in the human’s eyes, only anger and sadness. “Abderus Argentum Ganymede, stop this nonsense right now!”

The human looked down at the mare, and in a single motion he dropped down to her height, matching the height of her eyes, allowing him to look right into hers. The sadness present just moments ago was gone, replaced with anger that Twilight could tell wasn’t directed at her. For several moments the two just held each others gaze before the human finally broke the silence. “Why?” Only silence answered him, and he refused to break eye contact. “Why, Twilight?”

The alicorn swallowed nervously as she looked to each of her friends, only to find her gaze drawn inexorably back to the human’s eyes. The human repeated his query a third time, and Twilight felt all her confidence gone in the face of this one question. She charged her horn for a spell, but the human’s hand came up to grasp it, and when he did Twilight felt her magic fade away. The human had a frown on his face as he just looked at the mare. “Abderus, please. Not here. Let’s go talk back home at the --”

“Not Abderus home. Twilight home not Abderus home. Earth Abderus home. Equestria not home.”

Twilight looked to each of her friends, all of whom were tense and looking between the human and herself. AJ took a step closer to the human, her expression one of concern. At her approach, the human looked from Twilight to the farmer, his expression changing for just a moment before returning to his angry frown. “Abderus, please stop.” The farmer put a hoof on the human’s leg. “It’s okay, Abderus. We’re your friends, and we want to help.”

The human’s hand fell away from Twilight’s horn before the human fell onto his butt before he started crying. “Abderus alone.”

Author's Note

Abderus now has a middle name. One bonus point for the first person to discern the reason for his middle name.

Chapter V: A Measure of Resolution

The human’s weeping didn’t last as long as Twilight thought it would, and soon the human was just sullenly looking at the ground, his frame slack and yielding to her persuasive motions. Yielding didn’t imply swiftness, and it took Twilight the better part of five minutes to get him moving back towards the library. His pace was glacially slow, and every step seemed to come later than the one before it, delayed more and more by Abderus’ emotional state. The six mares formed a loose circle about the human, nearly unconsciously seeking to protect him from the outside, and seeking to keep him from departing once again. Even Twilight was only barely aware of what she was doing, her mind too consumed with trying to understand what Abderus was thinking, and the rationale that would prompt his actions. The biggest fear that Twilight had, during the walk, was that somepony would come out onto the street and witness the strange being now in their midst. While they had taken kindly to the presence of all manner of strange beings in the past, she was worried that harboring a predator might be going just a bit further than her status would let her.

Thankfully, the walk passed by without incident, thanks, in no small part, to Pinkie’s unnaturally natural ability to seemingly detect whenever somepony was approaching. Due to the fact that they had hidden themselves more than a dozen times the trip from town square to the tree took nearly half an hour. How Abderus managed to avoid detection during his brief trip baffled Twilight, but she knew better than to look too deeply into matters such as this. The human didn’t object once to his treatment, gentle as it was, for the entire duration of their trip back. Honestly, though, the human’s complete indifference was beginning to concern the alicorn, as he hadn’t even acknowledged the fact that he’d been spoken to several times during the walk.

Upon entering the library, though, he went immediately to his room, not saying a word to anypony. Before Twilight, or any of them, could do something, the human reemerged from his room with several pieces of parchment and a quill clutched in his hands. Without a word he began writing quickly upon the sheets, ignoring the presence of the seven others within the room. Twilight was the first to approach. “Abderus, are you okay? What are --”

“Math. Abderus talk later. Math now. Important.”

“Oh.” Twilight looked at her friends, desperate for some kind of suggestion on how to proceed. When none was forthcoming, she looked back at the hunched over biped. “If you need anything, feel free to ask. We’ll be here for the time being.” The human didn’t even look up, and Twilight felt just a tiny stab of disappointment at being ignored.

Twilight was gently dozing on the couch when she felt something gently prod her soft belly. Her eyes cracked open slowly, letting in the dim light of the full moon. Abderus was sitting beside her, his eyes bloodshot and blotchy spots marring the area beneath his eyes. As the mare’s mind caught up with her body, she felt a stab of fear when she realized that she was fully exposed to the machinations of the predator. The fear nearly vanished after just a heartbeat when she remembered that Abderus had yet to show any true signs of malicious intent. Save for one outburst that was just a bit provoked.

“Math done.” The human pointed to a sheet of parchment with a number circled several times. It took the mare several long moments to figure out that the number was in the human’s own numerical system. She had spent some time looking at it, and it took her only a few minutes to translate it into the Equestrian counting system. As the number took shape in her mind, she was baffled by what the human could possibly be doing with such a large sum. With more than fifty digits, in base ten, the number was a good bit longer in the base eight system favored by Equestria. As she looked at the mathematics presented she was overwhelmed, understanding only a tiny bit more than half of what was being shown to her. The pilot seemed fairly insistent in showing her what he had done, and that she should understand. He pointed to one of the many numbers on the parchment, and then he lowered the paper, and motioned for Twilight to follow.

She did so, with only a bit of concern, until they entered Abderus’ room, where she saw several dozen pages littered about the room. Abderus grabbed several sheets with just a line on them, and then he laid them out. He pointed at them, and spoke a single term in his own language. The human held up the pages to his arm, holding them there, and gesturing several times along the length. It took only a moment of the gesture for Twilight to understand the human’s meaning. The distance he had drawn out was a special unit of measure for him. As she looked at the distance, the number that Abderus had shown her took on some small shred of meaning. She looked at the page again, trying to now put it into a unit that she understood better than the one the human had shown her. As the figures rolled in her mind, converting from one division of length to the next largest she quickly ran out of lengths that had any meaning in Equestrian society.

“Abderus, that number you showed me... Why di --”

“Not done, Twilight. More.” He held out another page, this one with a new number on it, far larger than the previous one. “Time.”

“Abderus, I don’t understand. Nothing could be this old. Even Equestria itself isn’t this old. The Sun isn’t even this old.” She looked back to the distance, and then, again, at the time. “Abderus, I don’t quite understand what you’re getting at. We’ve already covered that you know how to do math. And that your math is more advanced than mine. Or, at least, more advanced than I can readily understand.”

“Abderus far from home. Abderus gone from home long time.” The human paused for a moment as he furrowed his brow. “Abderus alone.” The mare just looked back at him, trying to understand, when, in a burst of clarity she looked, again, at the numbers. The human just watched the mare as she finally understood just what the human was going through mentally. The mare opened her mouth, but the human shook his head, killing her words before they could be given life. “Abderus...” He shook his head again, anger flashing across his features. “I want go... I want to go home. But... But I have no home.” Once he finished speaking, he fell back onto his butt, and then he just looked down at the paper he held in his hands.

Twilight hadn’t seen that one in particular, but she was still trying to truly absorb just what the human had just told her. “I’m sorry.” The human looked up at her for a moment, before returning his gaze to the paper. “Abderus.” The human looked back up at her, his eyes brimming with tears.

“Abderus scared, Twilight.”

Several days came and went, and Abderus learned the language rapidly, his vigor seemingly coming from desperation. He devoured the books that Twilight threw at him, completing the first several years of a foal’s education in just two days. His grammar and pronunciation were still abysmal, but he was making great strides. Most of his free time, and he had plenty, was spent poring over the single sheet of parchment that he refused to show to anypony. Not out of spite, but an unwillingness to divulge what he declared wasn’t ready yet. Both Twilight and Spike had walked in on him crying several times, and each time he composed himself quickly, refusing to talk about what he’d just been doing.

One week after the incident, Abderus finally seemed to have come to terms with his new home, and his requests to go to his ship came less and less frequently. They never stopped, and he’d mention it at least once a day, but a week after his emotional collapse he’d nearly cut himself off from Spike and Twilight. It was around noon just nine days after his collapse that he finally looked towards Twilight and started a conversation.

“Sorry about.” Twilight nearly dropped her lunch at the sudden words, and she only just recovered her food before it hit the floor. “I acted like dumb. Want say sorry. Not pony fault.” He brooded for a moment. “Not Abderus fault. Earth fault. But Earth far away.” He began rubbing his hands together, and he quickly pulled them apart, probably realizing that it was a nervous habit. “Angry at Earth, but can’t be angry at Earth. Instead, angry at pony. So, I say sorry.”

“It’s okay, Abderus. You’re somewhere totally new, and different. It’s understandable that you’d be angry and scared.”

“Not scared. Wrong word. Some scared, mostly... Worried. Not right word, but close. New words, new place, new peo... ponies.”

Spike stopped eating, too, and looked towards Abderus as he slowly put his thoughts together. “It’s cool, Abderus. Nopony thinks any less of you because of what happened to you.”

“Spike is right, Abderus. It’s perfectly fine. Really, I’m amazed that you’re doing quite as well as you are.”

“Human do well under...” He paused for a moment. “Fancy word for hardship. Many problems.”

“Adversity?”

“That. Human top of food chain on Earth. Made it there through brain. Not fastest or strongest. Smartest. Durable. Walk for days, no rest. Durable. Example. Pony run from human. Human walk to keep up, and pony keep running. Days pass. Pony always run, get tired. Human always walk, keep up energy. Pony stop running, too tired. Human capture, kill, eat. Not you, only example.”

Spike and Twilight looked at each other for a moment, and then Twilight cleared her throat. “Yes, but, you also eat vegetables, and fruits.”

“Eat anything. Humans walking sewer. Filled with many many bacteria. Body fight itself to stay healthy. No flower, but much anything else.” Without thinking Twilight levitated over a pad and a quill, quickly taking down notes as the human talked. This was the most she’d gotten from him in days, and she didn’t want to let a thing go by. “No magic. Only trick.” He paused for a moment, and then gestured towards the paper Twilight had. She quickly ripped off a piece, and then held it towards the human. He drew quickly, a few images, and then showed it to Twilight and Spike. The dragon got the message first, and ran from the room. He returned moments later with a deck of cards. “Humans make trick with cards. Very impressive. Will show, later.”

“What’s brought this on, Abderus? Why do you suddenly want to talk to us so much?”

A chuckle escaped the human, and he put a hand on his face before reaching into his pants pocket. He withdrew a piece of paper, and Twilight recognized it as being the sheet he’d carried around all the time. “Abderus not good at talking, but very good at learning. Can not read paper, but can show paper.” He moved it towards Twilight, and she glanced at it for only a moment before recognizing the human’s own interesting alphabet. “Not Equestrian.” He flipped it over, and there, written in what looked like perfect Equestrian was the message, translated. “Hard work, but worth it. Last call from home. Make Abderus even more special.”

Twilight slid the sheet over, and she began to read the page aloud, so Spike might hear it. “‘It's been 250 years, Abderus, and we finally managed to work it all out. We know what went wrong, and we know why, too. Not that it will do anything for you. By the time this message reaches you, humanity will, likely, not exist. This message was sent from Earth at the fastest speed we can produce, and that’s just over three billion times the speed of light. Our best estimates fail to come even close to identifying how far you went, but we know which direction, and that's enough for us. Although it will never really matter to how you live your life, we wanted you to know that you didn't sacrifice it all for nothing. Your mission allowed us to learn from our mistakes, and we now ply the space between the stars with an ease that betrays how much effort went into it. We're not jaded, though. The FTL drives aren't like cars. They're each a marvel of engineering design. Your name lives on in our society, as both a hero, and an event. The Abderran Jump is named after you, and is the first test of each ship's FTL drive. You're a hero, Abderus, even if you never know it. Admiral Hayes did buy you that beer, and it sits atop your tomb, unopened, waiting for you to come back and have it. We'll keep the lights on, so you can find your way home. Just be sure to lock the door when you come in. Godspeed, Abderus. All of humanity is behind you.’”

“Like I said. Abderus even more special.”

Twilight looked at the page, and while she understood what it said, the full implications were so beyond her that she just couldn’t quite fathom it. She looked up from the page, and towards the sadly smiling human. “I’m sorry.”

“Not purple pony fault. Not anyone fault. Home is gone. So, make new home. Long ago, place on Earth destroyed by massive space rock. Before Abderus born. People killed. Others not dead. Not dead humans move on. Live life. Sad, but not beaten. Make new friends. New homes. New everything. Abderus must do the same. Even if different from Abderus, more the same. Talk. Think. Feel.” He reached out towards the mare, and gently wiped a tear from her cheek. “Cry. Outside very different. Inside, too. Meat for me, not you. Bad joke. But in mind, Twilight and Abderus same.”

“Spike?” The dragon tore his gaze from the human, and looked at the princess. “Tell the guards they won’t be needed anymore.”

“You sure, Twi? Just because he’s saying all of this doesn’t mean that he’s all better.”

“That’s true, Spike. But I don’t think that he needs to be guarded, or to be warded against.”

The dragon frowned for a moment, but then nodded. “Alright, Twi. I’ll send a letter to Princess Celestia.”

“Twilight trust Abderus?”

“I do, Abderus. You may be different on the outside, but on the inside, in your mind, we’re not that different.”

The human fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat for a moment, and then he pulled out a new sheet of paper. It looked familiar, and after a moment Twilight recognized it as being a page from a story book. One that she’d given to Abderus last week, and that had vanished. “Broke book. Sorry. But page made me feel bad. Read earlier today, many many times. I decide I want change.” He pointed at the page. A single word on that page. “Abderus want friends. But, now, Abderus not know where to start.”

Author's Note

This is just something to cover a period that I tried to write more than a dozen times. Rather than cover the entire period where he learns the language, I am moving to a point where he can communicate, but not necessarily perfectly. I don't plan on having further time jumps from here, so keep that in mind. Also, I just wanted to get a chapter of this out, since this tale isn't dead yet.

Prologue: The Wright Flyer

The gentle hum of the prototype FTL craft suffused the atmosphere with subtle vibrations. The pilot of the vessel slowly moved his hands over the console, measuring his pace with his breathing. The instructions had been quite clear, and a single misstep could cost him his life, and the Earth much more. The small countdown timer that had been put atop the main screen clicked down closer and closer to zero. He’d been aboard for nearly two hours, now, and there were just three minutes left until he made history.

A quick hiss of static preluded the voice of the nervous comms officer back on Earth. “Wright Flyer, this is UEA CentCom, do you copy?”

With a quick flick of his finger, the pilot opened the channel, allowing a moment for the connection to be verified. “Copy, CentCom, Wright Flyer reads loud and clear. Still waiting for things to get interesting, though.” A faint chuckle came over the com. “Not that it’s boring sitting on top of the single most expensive device ever crafted by human hands.”

“Abderus.” The voice that came over the com was a deeper voice than the last one, and the pilot sat up a bit straighter at hearing it. “I trust you know who I am?”

“Yes, sir. You’re Admiral Hayes, current ranking officer in the UEA Navy.”

“Good. Now, in a minute and a half you’ll be hitting the big green button that is the sole purpose of that massive ship you’re in. While we’re not in the business of pessimism, I trust that you know the possible outcomes of what you’ve signed up for, correct?”

The pilot was silent for several long moments before he answered. “Yes, sir. I am aware.”

“Good. Now, I’ve downloaded a small file to the computers aboard the ship. I hope to God, or whatever deity you fancy, that you don’t have to know what it is.” The com went silent for several moments, and then the admiral came back on. “Last thirty, Abderus. Anything you want to say to the people of Earth?”

“Oh man, talk about pressure. Um, always match your leathers?” The pilot frowned for a moment before a smile came to his face. “Oh, I know. A journey of a thousand miles starts with a single step? Better! Never underestimate the power of one.”

A low chuckle came over the coms, and then the pilot glanced at the counter. “Stick with piloting, philosophy isn’t your strong suit. Now, godspeed, Wright Flyer.”

The big green button that was the sole purpose of the ship glowed with a sickening internal light, and the pilot’s finger came down on it with all the finality of a man condemning another to death. The first rumble that passed through the ship was expected. The second rumble that passed through the ship, was not.

The sickening lurch that followed the second rumble made all the lights on the ship fail, and with an inaudible screech of agony, the material universe was rent asunder as Mankind sent their first piloted object into the realm of Faster Than Light travel.

“Computer, run the numbers again.”

“Processing...” There was a minute long pause before the computer spoke again. “Processing...” This pause was just as long as the first, but, somehow, twice as annoying to the living passenger. “Processing...”

“Just run the numbers, don’t tell me that you’re doing it.”

Several more tense minutes of silence passed before an answer came.

“Calculations complete. Current velocity, based on thirteen variable calculations, is 8.01 times ten to the forty fourth light years per day. Answer is certain within .07311 light years per day.”

“And I’m telling you that’s still not possible! This ship should be pulling two light years per year! Not... what is it?”

“Current velocity is 1.463 times ten to the forty seventh times the best estimated velocity. Our velocity, in terms of the accepted speed of light, is 2.926 times ten to the forty seventh times the speed of light. The answer has not changed an appreciable amount in the past seven calculations.”

“And how long have we been traveling?”

“Thirty three hours, nineteen minutes, forty seconds and counting.”

The pilot closed his eyes for a moment, desperate to put the magnitudes in perspective. “So, logically, we’ve passed the bounds of the universe, right?”

“Correct.”

“So what are we traveling in now?”

“... Insufficient data for answer.”

“Helpful. How much air do I have? And food? How much of that do I have?”

“Enough for eight months. Ten months under strict rationing rules. It was originally speculated that the ship would reach somewhere just past the asteroid belt before fuel reserves would be depleted. Clearly a mistake was made. The return trip to Earth from the estimated terminal point was calculated to take about seven months.”

“Glad they decided to let me know all the details of this trip.”

“The full terms were in the contract you signed.”

“Of course...” Abderus glared at the consoles for a moment. “Can we stop traveling at FTL speeds?”

“Unknown.”

“What would be required to find out?”

“Unknown.”

“How can you not know? How was this test supposed to go?”

“Under conceived test notions a simple counter pulse of tachyonic particles would cause the stable FTL envelope to collapse, forcing us into a relativistic speed matching our departure velocity.”

“And what’s the problem with that method now?”

“The ship is unable to accelerate tachyonic particles to a high enough velocity.”

“What if we tried anyway?”

“Unknown.”

“Warm up the pulse emitters. In the meantime, call up the files the admiral sent. I’m interested, since I don’t think I’ll be getting home anytime soon.”

“Emitters will be prepared within the hour. File is on screen, waiting on your action.”

With a shaky hand, Abderus opened the folder, revealing three files within. The first to be opened was one from the admiral.

The admiral’s face appeared on the screen, his eyes seeming to stare right at the pilot. “Well, it looks like Dr. Hatke was right. The system couldn’t be scaled up quite like we thought it could. I don’t know how fast you’re going, now, if you’re even going anywhere at all. The hypotheses for a failed test are more numerous than there are grains of sand on a beach. All I know is that you’re not coming home. I won’t mince words with you, Abderus. You’re lost to humanity by this point. Short of a bloody miracle, you’re gone.

“However, this doesn’t mean that your trip is at an end. If you can manage to get the ship out of FTL drive, or whatever it happens to be doing, you might be able to do something. The odds are, as with everything in space, astronomically bad. But, as I was told, so were the chances of the test going wrong.

“The other messages in this file will be more personal than I can be, but I still want to say that I’m damn proud to have had you in my Navy, even if it was only for a few months. I’ve got to get this whole file saved, now, and sent off to you, so I’ll leave you with a simple gesture.” The admiral snapped to attention as he looked at Abderus, his gaze unflinching. “Under statute thirteen, section twelve, addendum nine, you are now relieved from all active duty. Honorable discharge, full commendation.” The elderly admiral’s gaze softened. “If you ever make it home, I’ll treat you to a beer.”

The screen quickly faded to black, and then back to the folder with the remaining two files. The second one was from Abderus’ father, and it jumped right in, portraying the old man sitting in a large chair.

“If you’re watching this, it means that you either got bored on the trip home, or something went wrong. They told me that this could happen, but... It just doesn’t seem real. No matter how it happened, you’re famous, but that doesn’t ease the ache I’ll feel when I get the news. Or, better yet, when the world finds out. They didn’t tell you, but you’ll be on every news network on Earth. Even the ChiKor Republic is interested in what’s going on up in the black.

“But none of that really matters to me. I just want to wish you well, and ask you to act responsibly, and rationally, in whatever situation you might be in now. Whether you’re courting the ‘fine honeys’ of some alien planet, or you’re sparking a revolution in some parallel universe, know that I support you.” His eyes narrowed for a moment, and then he continued. “Just remember that at the end of the day you’ll have to live with whatever you get yourself involved in.

“I’d end this by saying that I love you, but you already know that. I could also tell you that I’ll miss you, but we both know that I won’t. Not really, anyway. Not out of spite, but because I know that you’d think it’s stupid. Missing you is a selfish act, since I simply want you to be here with me, rather than you being out there, doing what you want to do. So, go out there, wherever there is, and live your life. And tell those pessimistic statisticians to eat a shoe. You’ll wind up on a planet, and you’ll make a ruckus there just like you did here at home.”

The screen cut to black abruptly, and then the home screen came up at last. The final file opened, revealing the clean shaven face of Dr. Johnson, the president of Neutrino, the company that created the ship, and was leading the way in space technology.

“Well, it happened. The first ‘real’ disaster in space since Apollo 13. And it happened during my time as acting president.” He shook his head, looking off at something out of view for a moment. “Can’t say that I’m totally surprised that it happened. Wish that it had happened on someone else’s watch, but I can’t do much about the hand I get dealt. I trust that the others who sent you messages dealt with your emotional side. I’m here to lay down a single fact.

“We all know that my company has enormous influence on the politics of the UEA. I used this influence to... coerce the adoption of a policy. A very specific policy. One that entails you, and only you. Full, irrevocable, immunity. Should you happen upon an alien species, all your earthly ties are effectively severed. You have no enforced national loyalty. You are loyal only to what you feel is right, and anything you say or do is at your discretion. If you want to lay out everything you know about our military to some alien overlord, be my guest.

“I don’t think you’ll do that, but if you do, it won’t be held against you. That being said, I wish you the best of luck in whatever fate awaits you.”

Abderus stared at the computer for quite some time before he let out a sigh.

“Computer... What’s the status on the pulse emitters?”

“Fully charged, and awaiting your order.”

“What are the possible outcomes?”

“Full stop on FTL drives, decrease in velocity, or no effect.”

“Well, what have I got to lose?”

“Unclear question. Please restate query.”

Abderus sighed as he slowly squeezed the bridge of his nose. “It’s a saying. A... A colloquialism.”

“Understood.”

“Engage the pulse emitters. Time waits for no man, and at our velocity... Well, better sooner rather than later.”

A single spot in space rippled for a moment. A random atom of helium that happened to be at that exact point in space wavered for a moment as its mass was forced into a singularity. The resulting release of energy creating a small detonation of energy that heralded the arrival of the Wright Flyer. The kilometer long craft exited the blast of energy unscathed, as the residual effects of the FTL shielding dissipated, leaving behind a massive aurora of energy as the magnetic fields interacted with each other. Had Abderus been able to see it, he’d have been left speechless by the beauty of the event. As it was, he had his hands full coping with the controls of the unresponsive vessel.

Exactly five beings were aware of the arrival of the Wright Flyer. One of them was aboard the ship. The other four were on the remarkably Earth like planet far below the ship. Two of these beings were amateur astronomers, their telescopes barely noting the flash of light. Still, for these two creatures the event was out of the ordinary. The third was in a state of deep rest, her mind recovering from the ardors of her day to day duties. The sudden arrival of the massive object roused her from her rest, and with nary a moment wasted, she vanished from her chambers. The final creature to note the arrival did so with a measure of distaste.

“Sister, it ruined my night sky.”

“I don’t think it was intentional, sister. I daresay he is probably no more pleased than you are with what’s happening.”

“How can you... wait, he?”

“A glimmer of a thought. His mind is surprisingly difficult to grasp. It flitters from thought to thought with a speed that is quite admirable. And more than that, he has no natural magics, other than the magic of life.”

“No natural magic? How can it soar through my night sky without any magic?”

“That remains to be seen. Still, he won’t be landing anytime soon. A few months, if my mathematics aren’t wrong.”

“So we have time to prepare?”

“Yes, but I think it would be best if we let nature take its course. Life around here has grown a bit dull since Twilight’s coronation. And I do think that Twilight and her friends will handle this well.”

“You’re going to trust a bunch of... Fillies to handle this?”

“Of course not. I will be sending several of my best to watch over things. And they aren’t fillies, Luna. They’re all of age, and they’ve all proven themselves to be fully responsible, in their own way.”

“What if you’re wrong?”

“Then we’ll have to intervene.” The white alicorn fell silent for a moment, her ears twitching, and a smile flashing across her face. “But I do think that this will be quite a nice change of pace for Twilight and her friends. Especially considering this creature’s mind.”

“How do you mean?”

“Patience, sister. Although I’ll tell you the biggest factor right now, if you like.”

“Do tell.”

“Sarcasm does not become you, Luna. The second largest factor is going to be the language barrier. He does not speak our language, and no translation spell will work, for he cannot be made to pull in latent knowledge from those around him.”

“Immersion is the fastest way to learn a language.”

“True, but cultural similarities, and cultural differences, will make that process go faster or slower. And given his personality, and what little I could glean from my glimpse, he’ll find adapting to our way of life to be quite a challenge.”

Author's Note

Well, my first attempt at HiE.

Please note that the UEA (United Earth Alliance) is a work of my own creation, and it will be the backdrop for the actual novel that I am working on.