Nighttide Star [Rewrite Draft]

I remember when Fluttershy ran into the library to tell me she found an injured pony outside Ponyville. It wasn’t unusual to hear about ponies getting hurt while out on their own, especially near places like the Everfree Forest, so I wasn’t too alarmed at the news. She did mention that this pony seemed to be lost, though, and that she looked “a little strange.”

But no words could have prepared me for what I saw when she brought me to her cottage.

Sitting on Fluttershy’s couch was a grey mare with an outrageously thick mane and an even more outrageous getup – an armored suit, of all things! I had never seen anything like it; the closest thing I could compare it to was the armor that members of the Royal Guard wore nearly a thousand years ago, but even that was a stretch. This mare – Nighttide, she called herself – looked as if her entire body, from her neck down, was made purely out of metal.

But shocked as I was by her appearance, what really struck me were her eyes: violet, just like mine, but filled with both fear and awe. I tried not to stare, but as she began asking me questions, I couldn’t help but shoot her a few strange looks.

“So let me get this straight,” I said, standing off to the side of the sofa. “You’ve never even heard of Equestria?”

Nighttide shook her head. “Like I told Fluttershy earlier, this entire place is a mystery to me.”

I looked over at Fluttershy, who returned the same bewildered look I must have had. “How is that possible?”

“Maybe she hit her head?” Fluttershy offered.

“Well, how does that explain the metal suit?”

We both looked over at the pony in question, who sat beneath the afternoon sun in all her shiny glory. “What?”

“Sorry,” I said, rubbing between my eyes. “It’s just… I’ve never met someone who hasn’t heard of Equestria. Let alone someone who looks so…”

“Different?” Nighttide scoffed. “Funny enough, I was thinking the same thing about you two.”

I raised a brow. We were the different ones? What exactly about us looked different from anypony else?

At this point, I had loads of questions to ask, but I made sure to ask the most important one first: “Nighttide, would it be alright if I took some notes?”

Nighttide shrugged. “Sure, go ahead.”

I looked over beside the front door where my saddlebag lay. Bringing my horn to light, I undid the flap over one of the pouches and pulled out a pad and quill. As I floated them closer, I turned to Nighttide and said, “Could you tell me what kind of…?”

I paused. Nighttide stared at the pad and quill floating our way with wide eyes and a stunned look. I glanced over at them, then back at her. “What’s wrong?”

She blinked a couple of times and continued to stare at the objects before looking my way. She didn’t meet my eyes, though – instead, she looked at my horn, then back at the pad and quill. “How… are you…?”

  It took me a second to figure out what had her so baffled, but when it clicked the two things she was looking between, I think I was more surprised than her. “You do know what magic is, right?”

Nighttide stared a moment longer before meeting my gaze. With all the innocence in the world, she said, “Magic?”

And here I thought I was the one with the questions.

__________

The afternoon ran long – far longer than I expected. As it turned out, not only was Nighttide unfamiliar with our land, she was unfamiliar with pretty much everything Equestrian. I suppose that’s to be expected from somepony not familiar with the area, but it seemed unimaginable that somepony wouldn’t even know about magic!

For the first several minutes, I filled in Nighttide on the sorts of things most would learn in kindergarten – the three pony races, their natural forms of magic, basic geographical locations, et cetera. Much to my surprise, throughout the whole lecture, you might as well call it, Nighttide couldn’t take her eyes off me. She barely even blinked. Every few moments I would stop to ask if she had heard about any of this before, but each time I was met with a simple “No.” I would have found that hard to believe, had it not been for the curiosity that filled her eyes.

By the end of the lecture, we both knew we had only scratched the surface of the differences between us. Fluttershy offered us both a cup of tea – I couldn’t help but feel relieved that Nighttide even knew what tea was – then headed out to feed the animals outside.

Nighttide sat with her back against the sofa, keeping her bandaged leg hanging over the edge. I sat across from her and to the side on a pillow, taking a moment to cool my tea with a few breaths. The silence between us felt tense, but the chirping birds outside and murmur of critters throughout the cottage kept things pleasant enough – for me, at least. Nighttide, on the other hoof, kept tilting her ears at every little sound even as she sipped her tea.

After taking a sip of my own, I switched the focus of our conversation to the one question I felt most important. “So, care to tell me how somepony who knows nothing of Equestria ended up outside Ponyville?”

Nighttide sat her own cup down beside her and sighed. “Where do I even begin?”

“Well…” I tapped a hoof to my chin. “How about we just introduce ourselves again?

Nighttide looked over at me with an arched eyebrow. “You already know my name.”

“No, I don’t mean that. Think of it like when a student starts at a new school, and they have to tell the class who they are, where they’re from. Things like that.”

Nighttide furrowed her brow for a moment, then gave a nod. “Alright,” she said with a hint of a smile, which I made sure to return. “So, as you know, my name is Nighttide Star. But I’m also known as DIRE unit LAB-1032. I’m a cybernetic model of the Daedalus Institute of Research and Exploration, built to run prototype equipment designed for the military.”

I tensed a little at that bit of information. “Military?”

Nighttide nodded. “They contract DIRE for research projects.”

That seemed odd. For starters, I had never heard of such a business, let alone one that used ponies for the purpose of research. Secondly, there were no bordering nations that were conducting military exercises. At least none that I knew of. “Where did you say you were from, again?”

“Roanne,” Nighttide said, rather rigidly. “Specifically the city of Tanis. I’m stationed there at DIRE’s Ridley facility.”

“Roanne… Tanis…” None of it rang a bell. I lifted my pad and quill and wrote down some notes. “I’ll have to do some research later to see if I can find anything about your home. But getting back to the original question: do you know how you ended up here?”

Nighttide rubbed the back of her neck and looked away. “Part of the reason I’m here is because of an experiment, but… I can’t get into all the details if everything you said is true.”

“Why is that?” I asked.

“Confidentiality.” Nighttide gave me a nervous smile. “I’d get in big trouble if I said too much.”

My ears drooped. I could understand if she were affiliated with some sort of government that she might be expected to keep some secrets. But having somepony appear in Equestria with no foreknowledge of our land – especially one with a military background – raises a pretty big red flag.

From what I could tell though, Nighttide was at least being honest with me, even if she seemed a little stiff. “Well, I’m not necessarily looking for all the details – I’m just curious how you ended up so far away from home.”

Nighttide slumped her shoulders. “So am I.” She drew a breath and leaned back. “Long story short, we were running an experiment on a new form of transportation, and I ended up here.” She glanced back at the window behind her, out at the woods surrounding the cottage. “And here is definitely not where I’m supposed to be.”

“No kidding,” I said with a dry chuckle. “Can you give me a basic idea of how it works?”

“Well…” Nighttide furrowed her brow and looked away. “There’s a piece of equipment in my suit that lets me appear from one place to another.” She rubbed her neck and gave me an apologetic grin. “About as detailed as I can get.”

“I see,” I said, jotting a note down. While the thought of ‘equipment’ having something to do with transit seemed a little strange, there was one idea that came to mind. “Correct me if I’m wrong, but is it something along the lines of teleportation?”

Nighttide blinked. Leaning forward with narrow eyes, she said, “How do you know about that?”

“Well, it's a magical spell. An advanced one, mind you, but it still uses magic.”

Nighttide kept her gaze fixed with mine a little longer before sitting back. “You really know about teleportation?”

I stared at her for a moment, then stood up. “In a word…” The tip of my horn flashed white, and in less than a second, I was standing on Nighttide’s other side. When I tapped her shoulder, she jumped, then glanced back to see my cheeky grin. “…Yes.”

Nighttide stared blankly up at me for a moment with wide eyes. Once she shook the shock away, she said, “So, uh… that’s a spell, huh?”

“It is.” Stepping in front of the couch, I said, “But does your suit work similarly?”

“In appearance, I guess,” Nighttide said. “But our method doesn’t use magic.”

“I see.” I lifted my pad and quill again and jotted down some more notes.

“Listen, uh…” Nighttide bit her lip and looked down. “I know you’ve got a lot of questions, but I was wondering if I could ask you something real quick.”

I followed her eyes, down to her injured leg. “Oh. Right. I guess you’d like to get that fixed, huh?”

“Sometime soon, yeah,” Nighttide said, looking up at me with a smirk.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t an expert in the field of prosthetics, but I was at least willing to give the limb a look. Bending down to take a closer look, I noticed several segments made up the limb: a plate between the hoof and the fetlock, and a curved section that ran along the back of the leg. Her knee was wrapped in gauze, so I examined her other leg and noticed what looked like a cog that allowed the knee to bend. The top portion was made of solid metal and ran into a large grey socket along her hip, just beneath three green domes that lay across her flank.

The placement of the domes immediately reminded me of a cutie mark, but from what I gathered earlier, Nighttide knew nothing of cutie marks before she appeared here. Not to mention these were a physical protrusion rather than flush – and even in the sunlight, I could tell they glowed from within.

“Nighttide, I've never seen anatomy like this. This is absolutely incredible.” Looking up at her, I said, “I’m sorry if this sounds rude, but… are you really a pony?”

Nighttide tensed at the question. I immediately regretted asking her, but then she relaxed and drew a slow breath. “Feel my face and mane.”

I blinked. That wasn’t exactly the response I expected, but I did as she said and lifted my hooves to touch Nighttide's muzzle and mane. The fine coat hair along her muzzle did in fact feel normal, and her mane – thick as it was – felt surprisingly soft. I slid my hooves down to where a dark grey collar surrounded her neck, made of a slightly softer metal than the rest of her body.

“I’m a real pony,” Nighttide reassured me. “But I’m assuming you’re not familiar with cybernetics?”

“I’m afraid not,” I said, sitting back down in front of her.

“Figures.” Nighttide lay down with a huff and flicked her ears back. “Unless I can find someone who knows how to work on these kinds of prosthetics, I don’t think I’ll be going anywhere.”

And that was going to be a problem, I could already tell. While I wasn’t as well versed in machinery as some ponies, I was still familiar enough to know that this sort of thing was completely different from anything made in Equestria.

Thankfully, there was one area I was skilled in that could possibly help. “I might not know anypony who’s familiar with this sort of thing, but I may be able to find a spell that could help. Can you tell me if anything is missing from your leg?”

“Aside from hydraulic fluid, no,” Nighttide said. “There’s some internal damage, but all the hardware’s still there.”

“Alright then. If you can let me know where everything needs to be, I might be able to use my magic to put your leg back together. Minus the fluid.”

“Which is a problem,” Nighttide said. “Without the fluid, I can't operate my legs. I might as well be hauling around a hunk of scrap metal.”

I ran a hoof across my chin. “I think I might know someone who can help with that. She’s pretty skilled at mixing stuff together. At the very least, she may be able to help guide us in the right direction. In the meantime, can you give me a rough idea how your leg works?”

Nighttide let her gaze drift for a moment. “Actually, I can do something better than that.”

A low hum sounded from somewhere inside her suit, followed by a flap swinging open across her back. A light slowly grew to life from within, and soon, a green speckled image came into view above her. It was hard to see it clearly through the sunlight, but as I stepped closer, I realized the image was a detailed diagram of the inner workings of Nighttide’s leg.

I stared at the image, amazed at both the intricate details shown on the diagram as well as the way in which they were displayed. “I thought you said you didn’t know about magic?”

“I don’t.” Nighttide glanced back at the image. “Trust me, this is definitely not magic.”

Well, either way, this was exactly what I needed. I studied the image for a couple of minutes and took down the notes I needed, then drew a sample of the fluid Nighttide needed. Once I had everything packed, I strapped on my saddlebag and headed for the door. “Fluttershy shouldn’t be much longer. Will you be alright if I head back to look for that spell?”

“Sure,” Nighttide said with a wave of her hoof. “If anything, I’ll just catch up on that nap from before. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.”

I gave her a smirk. “Well, hopefully we can fix that soon.”

Opening the door, I motioned to take a step outside, when Nighttide called out behind me. “Hey, Twilight?”

I looked back at her over my shoulder. “What is it?”

“Just…” Nighttide flicked her ears back and almost looked away, but she gave me a small smile instead. “Thanks.”

I tilted my head. “For what?”

“For helping a total stranger out,” she said. “Really. It means a lot.”

I gave her a smile of my own. “Well, don’t thank me until I figure out if I can fix that leg of yours or not.”

Nighttide chuckled. “Right. Well, thanks either way. See you soon?”

“Before the end of the day.” And with that, I strode into the sunlight, down the path that led back to Ponyville.

Crossing over the bridge in front of Fluttershy’s, I pulled out the notes from my saddlebag and skimmed over them. There were several things I would need to look into once I got back to the library, the two biggest ones being a land called Roanne and a spell that could fix Nighttide’s leg. But as I looked over the unfamiliar terms – cybernetics, computers, radio waves – another thought crossed my mind.

While it wasn’t unusual for ponies and creatures to visit Equestria from other lands, Nighttide was a unique case: she wasn’t here to visit. By her account, this was an accident. Worse still, the details of her appearance were shrouded in mystery – both by circumstance and necessity, from what little I gathered.

Even logically speaking, the situation was suspicious: a soldier in a strange suit suddenly appears outside of Ponyville with no idea where she is and no reasonable way to explain how she got here. A large part of me wanted to doubt this pony, and I briefly wondered if it was safe to leave Fluttershy alone with her.

But another part of me wasn’t so sure. There were still so many questions left to ask, and had it not been for her injured leg, I probably would have made those a priority above all else. Until I got to know her better, it would be hasty to make any judgments. And I figured since Fluttershy hadn’t voiced any concerns yet, it was probably safe to assume she wasn’t a threat.

Honestly, it was odd for me to have these kinds of concerns about somepony I just met. Normally I would be open to the idea of getting to know someone new and making a friend, but Nighttide’s situation was a little more unusual than most. Unusual enough that it might be best to inform the Princess.

Nodding to myself, I tucked away my notes and lifted my head. First, to head back to the library and have Spike send a letter. Second, dig up some tomes on intricate magical manipulation. And lastly, pay a visit to a friend in the Everfree Forest.