Final Frontiers

Twilight untangled herself from her bed sheets, groggily sliding each hoof to the floor before stretching out the kinks in her legs with a satisfied sigh. Despite Rainbow teasing her until she fell asleep, Twilight had spent most of the previous night further examining the helmet that had been left in the living room when Titus retired for the night. It was remarkably sophisticated, being extremely lightweight and yet strong enough to show no damage from the thrashing blows Rainbow Dash had delivered to it in her panic. A small splotch of dried blood was also caked on the inside of the visor - probably from the cut on the human’s forehead - and had displayed numerous readings when Twilight had pointed it at various objects in the bedroom (including one sleeping pegasus).

The human had planned to return to the ship today. If the helmet had been as interesting as it was, she couldn't imagine what might be aboard the ship. This prospect brought a silly grin to Twilight’s face. She pranced about doing her morning routine; shower, brush teeth, comb mane, make bed, draft to-do list. Coming down the stairs, Twilight heard noise coming from the kitchen. She placed the helmet back on the desk and went to investigate.

"Good morning, Ti-" Twilight stopped when she saw a cyan rump sitting in one of the kitchen chairs, its owner draped over the table limply. "Oh. Dash, I'm surprised to see you up this early," the unicorn said teasingly.

"Ugh... coffee," came a groan.

Twilight deftly used her magic to float a bag of coffee, a box of filters, and 2 mugs down from various cupboards. The two ponies sad quietly; boiling water turned to coffee as it ran through the grounds to drip into the pot, the aroma working its way through the tree house.

It didn't take long for the brew to bring Rainbow around to her normal self. “Early mornings are so not cool,” her face disappeared in a huge yawn.

“You could have slept in-” Twilight began but was interrupted by Dash shaking her head.

“That storm from yesterday is lingering over the Everfree Forest, so the Weather Team has scheduled patrols all day to make sure it doesn't work its way back over Ponyville.” She made a sour face at her mug of coffee, “Of course, they go and put me on one of the early shifts.”

“So you won’t be coming with us,” Twilight unhappily remarked.

Rainbow shrugged, “Not like much was going to happen today, remember?” Twilight’s blank look told her she didn’t remember at all. Dash rolled her eyes and sighed, “Before she left, Princess Luna asked us to show Titus where the ship was,” the pegasus paused as Twilight started remembering, then continued, “then she told us-“

“Right. I remember now,” Twilight interrupted. Princess Luna had told them the human had asked to be given some space for a bit to adjust to Equestria and process everything that had happened. While disappointed that she would have to postpone asking all the questions she had – and gosh, did she ever have a list – Twilight could understand how overwhelming it must be to suddenly be transported to a completely alien world (she thought she did, anyway).

Rainbow got another mug of coffee while Twilight thought her thoughts. The kitchen was quiet.

“Right, I better get going,” Rainbow stated, hopping down from the chair and heading for the door, “I’m probably going to be late.”

Twilight gave her a not-so-approving look, “Rainbow Dash, if you knew you were going to be late-“

“Hey, that’s what they get for scheduling me early in the morning,” Dash joked, looking over her shoulder as she continued, “Before I go, do you think I could use your bathroo-Whoa!” almost bumping into the human as he came through the kitchen door. Startled, Rainbow jumped back a few steps.

“Sorry,” Titus apologized, retreating a bit himself.

“Don’t sneak around like that!” Dash scolded.

The human raised his hands slightly and moved further back into the living room.

Her heart no longer in her throat, the pegasus sighed and made an observation, “You know for such a gangly thing you sure can move quietly.”

“Um, thanks? I think,” Titus said, putting his hands back down. Twilight was relieved he wasn’t insulted by being called gangly or she would have really lit into Dash. “I smelled coffee and thought I heard two voices in here, so I figured I’d let you know I’m ready to leave whenever you are. Sorry for startling you, Rainbow Dash.”

“I’ll get you back for it, don’t worry,” she said, in a (somewhat) teasing manner.

“Oh, you have coffee where you’re from too?” Twilight asked, somewhat surprised.

“Yes, I have a machine on the ship capable of brewing a cup,” he said as Rainbow walked past him toward the front door. He joined Twilight at the kitchen table, squatting down in one of the chairs that was entirely too small for a being of his stature.

“A machine? For such a simple task?” Twilight asked, hungry for another bit of information on human technology.

He was about to explain when Rainbow appeared in the kitchen doorway.

“Uh, Twi?” she said, a worried look on her face, “There’s a buncha ponies at the door.”

Twilight hurriedly made her way over to Dash peak from behind a window curtain, leaving Titus alone in the kitchen.

“Reporters,” Twilight told Rainbow. “Word sure got out quick,” she recognized a few ponies from the local paper and also noticed some unfamiliar faces, “There’s even somepony from the Canterlot Chronicle and the Manehattan Monitor,” one of them caught sight of her, causing her to duck back behind the curtain.

“Through the kitchen and out the back?” Dash suggested. The two returned to the kitchen to find the human crouched behind a counter, hiding from the silhouette of a pony on the window blinds. Twilight walked as quietly as she could over to Titus to tell him about the reporters at the front door.

“What options does that leave us with?” Titus whispered, peeking over the counter to see if the silhouette was still there.

“Normally we could go up to the balcony,” Twilight whispered back, “and I could teleport us from there, provided I could see where we needed to go. However, it’s unknown how you and magic would react with each other, so until further testing-“

Titus shook his head, “No, no magic.”

Twilight was about to assure him that magic was perfectly safe (ignoring when it wasn't, of course) when the sound of the front door opening caused both Twilight and Dash to whirl about.

Titus froze in place.

“Miss Sparkle?” came a call from the front room, “Twilight Sparkle, are you here?” a light brown pony with a silver mane and glasses poked her head through the living room door, “Ah! There you are, and Rainbow Dash, as well.”

“Mayor?” Twilight and Dash both relaxed a bit. Twilight gave a discrete wave of a hoof to let Titus know he could relax; it was a pony they knew.

“Sorry for barging in like this,” Mayor Mare apologized, trotting a bit further into the living room, “I was on my way to Town Hall when I noticed you had quite a, um, gathering outside and wanted to know if I could be of some assistance.” She glanced around the room, still not able to see Titus crouched in the kitchen, “The Princesses released a statement this morning saying that this hyou-man creature is not to be unnecessarily bothered,” she said, “but with everypony curious, the papers were bound to show up eventually–“ the Mayor stopped to glance around the room once more and caught Dash as she made a quick glance behind her.

The Mayor then realized how both ponies had managed to conveniently block the doorway to the kitchen.  She stretched her neck and tried to peer over the two mares, “I don’t suppose I could be introduced?” she asked, “Perhaps from there we could organize a brief press conference to get these reporters out of your manes?”

Twilight turned her head to the human still crouched behind a counter, “Well, I doubt they’ll go away on their own. Does that sound like a plan to you, Titus?”

He nodded. It was the best plan – actually, the only plan, they had at the moment.

“Titus, was it? I’m Mayor Mare, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance...“ Mayor Mare’s greeting faded out as the human rose to his full height in the kitchen doorway.

“Ma’am,” Titus greeted.

“I wasn't expecting you to be quite so, um,” she paused, looking for a polite way of saying intimidating, “big.” Mayor Mare gave Titus a once-over, eyeing him from head to toe, “Still, I think we can still make this work. Time Turner!” she beckoned her assistant.

While the Mayor was buys getting the press conference ready and giving Titus a crash course on what to do, Twilight pulled Rainbow Dash aside, “Rainbow, could you go let AJ know we’ll probably be a bit late?”

“Sure thing. Hey, Stretch!” Dash called to Titus as she passed through the living room.

“ ‘Stretch?’ ” the human gave her a curious look.

“Yeah, ‘Stretch’, because you’re tall?" Rainbow rolled her eyes Duh!, “Anyway, you probably want to avoid showing off those teeth of yours, might scare somepony.”

Titus ran his tongue over his teeth absentmindedly.  Compared to theirs my teeth must look like fangs.

“Catch ya later, Stretch!” and she was out the door in a flash.

Twilight flashed him an apologetic smile accompanied with a shrug - it seemed Dash had found a nickname for the human already.

Titus turned his attention back to Mayor Mare, “Miss Mayor?” She stopped looking at her schedule for a moment to regard the human. “If I may say so, you’re taking this whole alien-crashing-outside-of-town thing remarkably well.”

She gave a derisive snort, “For one you crashed outside of town, so that drastically reduced the amount of paperwork I had to file. Secondly, Princess Luna vouched for you and informed us that she would be covering any expenses that should occur, so that means there won't be any budget meetings. All in all, this is a pushover compared to what I usually have to deal with,” she gave a glance at Twilight, who shuffled from hoof to hoof guiltily. The Mayor snapped her planner shut as Time Turner popped his head into the room to give her a nod. “Everything is set up, we’re on in five,” she moved for the front door, “I’ll handle the speech, just wait for your cue. Suit up, come on stage casually, wave for a few cameras, and sit down. Once the speech is over, we’ll do the big reveal. After that they’ll probably have a few questions; keep your answers short,” with that last bit of advice, she was through the door.

You can do this, Titus, the human told himself, leaning on the back of the couch and taking a few deep breaths with his eyes closed to calm himself. He felt something push against his knee and opened his eyes.

Twilight was standing there, a hoof on the human’s leg, “I’m sure you’ll do fine,” she gave him a smile to try to reassure him.

“Thanks, Twilight,” he let out a deep sigh and absentmindedly gave her an appreciative pat on the withers, “this is just a bit stressful. First impressions and all that.” He pushed himself off the couch and grabbed the helmet off the dresser before heading to the front door to wait for his cue.

Twilight didn't catch everything he said before jamming the helmet over his head and letting the suit seal itself. A faint hiss indicated the seal was complete. She bemusedly watched as the human bounce from foot to foot at the door, shaking out his limps and rolling his head around in circles.

“Well,” his voice was slightly distorted as it came through the helmet speaker, “Here we go…”