Pathfinder 5

Pathfinder 5

Chapter 10: The Request

David groaned as he slowly woke up, he tried to move but slowly became aware that there was something keeping him in place. Actually, he found it was three some things as his mind woke up. He blinked to see the three forms sleeping with him as he blinked in the darkness.

“AVI, lights at ten percent.” He said softly as the lights came on just enough to make out the kids.

He couldn’t help but grin at how cute the three looked, on his side was [Sweetie Belle] curled up with her tail tucked in, she was holding her tail like a teddy bear, [Scootaloo] was on her back, her tongue hanging out with her little legs spread out. One of her hind legs twitched slightly. He looked to his chest, yep, the last one was drooling on his chest that explained the slightly damp feeling he felt.

The problem now was that his bladder was calling and he felt hungry. He yawed as he stretched out as best he could and felt the kids shift slightly.

“Alright kids, time to get up,” He said gently to them nudging them slightly. There were a few moans and stretching as they all started to wake up. The one on his chest seemed to wake up the fastest as she spoke to the others. The unicorn mumbled something as she stretched and yawned as she woke up but looked like she wasn’t a morning person. The last one just turned and tried to snuggle into him hiding her face. Apple Bloom nudged her friend until she woke up, also not a morning person.

The three got off him and the bed as David stretched out and got to his feet, he hadn’t been able to move with all three of them on him like that but thankfully he was still able to sleep through the night. He coughed as he slowly turned the lights on to a more normal level as he went into the hall. The girls followed him as he led them to the bathroom. It wasn’t much, just a sink, a specially designed toilet that could be used in zero-gravity by pumping out all the water before takeoff and a simple shower also that could be converted for zero-gravity use.

“Oh man I could really use that,” Scootaloo said as she jumped up as her wings buzzed and letting her easily get onto the toilet.

“Hey where did [David] go?” Sweetie Belle asked noticing their alien friend wasn’t with them.

“Maybe givin’ us some privacy ah guess,” Apple Bloom shrugged.

She wasn’t far off, as soon as David has seen one of them going for the toilet he figured he would give them some time alone. Although that sucked for him as he needed to take a leak himself but he could still hold off for a little bit longer.

He waited for about five minute until he actually heard the toilet being flushed.

“Huh, guess they figured that out.” He heard three sets of hooves going around in the room and so he opened the door. He found them all looking at the shower, it was just big enough for him but all three might be able o fit inside.

[David] Sweetie said and then pointed to the shower.

“Okay I got it,” He said as he reached in and moved the simple knobs. Someone liked their bathroom designs low tech given having water spill out would mess up a lot of the ship. David tested it out and looked to the kids. They walked into it Apple Bloom having removed her bow when he wasn’t looking as the three did their best with the space.

David smiled seeing them play around a bit as he went to the wall and pulled up a small shutter where the towels were kept. He pulled out one figuring their size, one would be enough. After a short shower he helped them to dry off. Although now he had three curious little aliens talking about something while he needed to use the bathroom himself. He grinned as he went to a small control panel and logged into the system.

Soon the familiar melody of their favorite (and only) alien programming came down the hallway. The girls rushed off to the cockpit as he finally was alone. He sighed wondering if this was what parenthood was like for his parents. He was the middle child of three although he would admit he was the hellion in comparison to his older sister and younger brother.

After using the toilet, he took a shave and shower and went to his single quarter room to change. When the show was halfway through he decided to make breakfast. He hoped that the kids would like just juice, cereal and toast, he figured that was a safe bet.

He paused the episode when he came into the cockpit.

“Awwww,” Three voices said in unison looking up at him.

“Time to eat kids,” He made a motion of his hand going to his mouth a few times. One of the kids stomachs rumbled as he pointed at her and then jerked his thumb down the hallway behind him.

“Breakfast?” Scootaloo asked her friends thinking that’s what the alien was trying to say to them.

“I think so, wonder what he has?” Sweetie asked not really expecting an answer as they were led into the small kitchen area. They took their spots on the couch with the table as they looked at the meal before them. They were a bit eager to try out alien cereal, it looked like small multicolored hoops of some kind.

Each friend took a look at the other silently daring each other to try it first, it was Scootaloo that broke first and tried it. She was surprised by the sugar in it and eagerly started to down more of it. The others didn’t fall far behind. The juice was nice, they were glad to see there was some kind of jam for the toasts as they chatted. David took this time to try and learn a bit more of their language, asking for things like ‘spoon, cereal, milk, food’ and the like. The kids were eager to help him out and slowly he was building up his language base.

He was surprised when the kids offered to help him clean up, when he was their age he would have just run from the table but then again maybe they had a good upbringing. Not that his wasn’t, it was just a bit different than most people. Although he was glad that they were plastic and not breakable when a few of the glasses and bowls were dropped, after they were done he let the kids finish their program while he got dressed in his stealth suit.

David didn’t like the idea of going through that forest without it or without his plasma pistol. He checked the data from the ship and those creatures had moved off in the night. David moved to a panel and connected to the drones, he was going to have them spread out in a path towards the little cabin he was going to take the girls back to. He was not going to let anything else sneak up on them while they were on their way back.

He checked his gear over twice just to be sure, you always had to check and re-check your stuff before you leave the ship. That was something that was drilled into him during training. After he was done he went to see the girls were just finishing up the episode. They were singing along with the ending song, he was sure they had no idea what they were singing but he was impressed. They had nice harmony and they were pretty good.

“Galactic Idol here they come,” He muttered under his breath. He could just imagine what three cute little alien girls who sung like that could do for ratings.

“[Apple Bloom, Sweetie Belle, Scootaloo] time to go.” He spoke up when it was over.

The girls looked at him as he was geared up like when they had met.

“Time to go?” Sweetie asked her friends.

“Looks like it, I really wanted to see this thing fly too,” Scootaloo said a bit disappointed.

“Cheer up,” Apple Bloom said to her with a smile. “Maybe we can visit again and ask him if he can take us flyin’ later.”

Scootaloo immediately perked up at the thought of flying around in an alien space ship. The kids watched as they were led to the hatch as it opened up. They looked around for signs of timberwolves but when David just walked out without a care they figured he knew it was safe somehow. They walked beside him never really getting too far away as they tried to talk about stuff. David’s language was pretty broken but given that he didn’t even know their language it was a bit impressive.

“Where Zebra?” David asked looking around the forest to the girls.

“Zebra, ya mean Zecora?” Bloom asked him.

David nodded his head. “Yes, Zecora. She here?” He passed his hand over the forest.

“Yep she lives that a way ah think,” Apple Bloom pointed out a direction.

David nodded, he planned to have the drones search that area, he was surprised they hadn’t seen her in their search. He planned on asking if he could move his ship out of this damn forest and maybe somewhere a bit safer. If not for some reason, well he might has well get to know his neighbour a bit, now that he was sure she actually lived in this place.

“So...why are you here?” Sweetie asked him.

David got the gist of what she was asking him as he tried to think how to answer her, there was just so many holes in his knowledge of their language. “Looking.”

“Looking? Looking for what?” Scootaloo asked.

David made vague gestures, “Looking for...for...no words.” He felt a bit frustrated on how you explain looking for new worlds and new races if there were any out in space.

“It’s okay maybe Twilight can help,” Sweetie said to him as the others agreed.

-Fluttershy’s Home-

Twilight was currently helping Fluttershy out with her chores of feeding all her animals, it was only fair given that Fluttershy had let her stay after all, just as long as she didn’t have to feed the snakes. She still felt nervous around those after her disaster of trying to help with animals during Winter Wrap Up.

“Are you sure it was a good idea to cover it?” Twilight asked after feeding the squirrels as she looked at the sheet covered device.

“I’m sorry it’s just that, it’s kind of creepy to me,” Fluttershy said softly casting a worried look at the sheet. The thing hadn’t moved since it was here all night long, which was just fine with her but the device, just unnerved her. It looked like a giant bug but made of metal, it just looked unnatural to her, something that moved and then was as still as a statue later just made her nervous.

Twilight’s ears perked up as she thought she heard something, listening a bit more closely she heard voices and the sounds of others coming closer. She looked over to see that Fluttershy heard it as well. Twilight went to the door and opened it as her eyes widened. There were the girls coming back and there with them was their alien friend. She hadn’t seen him in those strange clothing but it looked a lot like how Rainbow had described when she first met him.

Twilight went out to meet them with Fluttershy a few paces behind.

“Twilight!” The girls ran up and started a whole list of things they wanted to talk about.

“We saw the alien ship!”

“It’s really cool inside!”

“He’s got magical windows all over the place!”

“The ship actually talks!”

“Hold it, calm down girls,” Twilight told them as she tried to keep in mind everything they said. She looked up at the alien as he pulled off the mask as she saw his face again. He smiled down at her and it was a friendly smile.

“Um, thank you for looking after them,” Twilight figured he didn’t understand but hoped that her meaning would be carried at any rate.

“You welcome,” He said surprising both Fluttershy and Twilight.

Twilight looked to the girls with a shocked expression silently wanting an explanation.

“We’ve been teaching him some words,” Scootaloo said as all three girls grinned.

“And we learned a few things too,” Sweetie offered.

The girls shared a look with a grin as they sang together.

[A-B-C-D-E-F- Cookie Monster] They ended the small tune with a fit of giggles as David grinned down shaking his head at a joke only the four of them knew about.

Twilight wasn’t sure what they had said or what was funny but before she could ask Fluttershy came forward to the girls.

“Are you girls hungry?” She asked them.

“No, [David] gave us breakfast,” Sweetie Belle told her as the other two nodded.

“Oh well that was nice of him,” She looked up at the tall alien as she felt a bit better knowing he took good care for the girls. They looked clean and they were well rested and the story of how he saved the girls to Fluttershy meant that he wasn’t as scary as she first thought.

She took a real good look at him, his face was a bit odd with no muzzle but she decided that it wasn’t scary at all in fact he had kind eyes she found. She took a few more steps as she smiled up at him.

“Thank you.” She told him.

He nodded his head at her with a gentle smile on his face.

Fluttershy then turned to the girls, “You three need to get to school soon and you left your homework upstairs.”

“Oh no we forgot about that!” Apple Bloom said as all three eyes widened.

“Girls before you go,” Twilight told them seriously, “you can’t tell any pony what happened.”

“Why not?” All three said at once.

“It’s...kind of a secret for now,” Twilight told them not sure their young minds could comprehend how life changing knowing that alien life existed and was already here. She needed the advice of the Princesses on how to proceed with this kind of thing. Twilight leaned down to them. “This is very important girls, just keep this secret for a little while so that we can introduce him properly to the town soon, okay?”

The girls shared a look not sure what was going on but Twilight really seemed serious. They shared a look with each other and they all nodded. Twilight was their friend and if she was serious about this then they couldn’t betray the trust she was putting in them.

“Okay we won’t say a thing,” Sweetie Belle told her.

Twilight breathed a sigh of relief. With that out of the way the girls said their goodbyes to David s they rushed to get their books and left for school.

David knelt down as he looked that the dirt and figured the time was perfect to try and communicate something. He started drawing, he made a crude forest, the ship inside of it, and what he hoped would be the town off to the right. Twilight looked at the image wondering what he was doing as Fluttershy cocked her head at the drawings.

David looked at them and then down at the drawing as he pointed to the ship. He then drew a line to a place between the town and the forest as he drew a new image of the ship and erased the old one.

“Want move.” He told them.

“Want move?” Fluttershy asked Twilight.

Twilight looked at it in thought, “Move from here,” she pointed to the forest. “Move here?” She pointed to the image of the ship.
David nodded his head.
“I think he wants to move his ship from the Everfree,” Twilight thought about it and it seemed like the logical thing. Plus it would be safer for him from traveling from his ship to them. The only problem was she would need to ask the Princesses about his request. It was time to finally tell them what was going on as what he was asking couldn’t be hidden any longer.

She felt she had enough data to send to them on what was going on, but first she needed to ask them on how to handle this. Twilight using her magic erased the image she noticed the alien flinch and was looking at her oddly.

David blinked as the alien’s horn was actually glowing as somehow there was another glow on the ground as it erased his drawings. He had no idea what he was looking at or how it was working. He touched the controls on his wrist having the suits passive scanners start to take readings. This was something worth studying maybe later he could get a more detail look at, well whatever it was doing.

David looked at the drawings, it showed the house with two images of the aliens and what he guessed was himself, there was an image of the sun. Then it was changed to the moon with the image of him gone. Now it was with the sun again and his image was back.

“Come back tomorrow huh?” He sighed but he guessed that they had to talk to some higher ups about this. He looked at them and nodded as he made the sun right above the house and pointed up.
Twilight figured he was trying to say he would come back when the sun was highest, that would work out perfect as she nodded her head with a smile.

David pushed himself up as she straightened out his back it was going to be a long walk back. He felt that maybe it was time to get some introductions out of the way.

“Name [David],” he said as he placed a hand on his chest.

“Twilight,” she told him.

“Fluttershy,” the yellow Pegasus told him with a bit more confidence and then looked at Twilight. “Maybe we can invite him in for tea or something?”

Twilight immediately perked up at that as she agreed whole heartedly. She looked up at David and pointed to the home.

“Would you like to come with us?” She asked not sure how much the girls taught him but this was a perfect chance to try.

David looked at the home, he did need to retrieve the drone he left plus it would give him a good idea of how they lived their lives. Looking at the inside of a home could give him all kinds of unique insights. He nodded his head being led into the home.

-Canterlot-

Celestia was in the middle of her court, there were a few ponies that had petitioned for her audience. So far it was just the regular kind of things. Some asking for royal patronage for some kind of program or project, others asking for a decree on a law or to some amendment that was either out of date or needed to be reworded. There were a few requests that were a bit ludicrous to her or just baffling but she dealt with them as usual, over a thousand years of doing this she knew how to let someone down.

There was a small break when a letter suddenly appeared in front of her she smiled as only Spike sent mail like that to her. She took the scroll in her magic wondering what lesson Twilight had learned today. She opened it for a quick read while the next petitioner was set up.

Celestia’s face suddenly lost its smile as she read the letter, various emotions played on her face.

“You’re majesty?” An Earth Pony named Pencil Pusher asked her, he was dressed up in a fine vest that his older age wore with practice. He had been in charge of her court for nearly twenty years now and he had never seen his monarch’s face change suddenly.

“I’m sorry but something important has just come up,” Celestia stood up as every pony took notice of her now.

“Y-you’re majesty, what is so important?” Pusher asked as he fiddled with the small glasses on his face.

“I can’t say just yet,” she told him, “Cancel everything in my schedule for the day.”

“What!? B-but you have a full list of things to do today?” He couldn’t believe this, not in his living memory had she ever just cancelled everything. A few of the ponies that had been waiting for their turn had heard this and were starting to grumble at this.

Celestia’s posture stood firm as he gave them all a level look, “A matter of state has just come up, you will reschedule their appointments.” She commanded, this wasn’t the Celestia that everyone normally saw, this was their Princess now. She stood there in command as her presence seemed to subtly fill the room as every pony suddenly felt very small in her presence.

“Of course!” Pusher said quickly as he got to work writing down names and getting new dates ready.

“Pencil Pusher where is my sister due to be at this moment?” Celestia asked him.

He paused in his work thinking on the schedule for both sisters. “I believe she’s overseeing the reopening for the new orphanage that was upgraded recently.”

Celestia nodded and looked to her most senior guard in the room. “I want you to send the fastest flyer to my sister, tell her to meet me at the royal observatory as fast as she can, she will know what that means.”

“Of course Princess!” The officer saluted and went to get the guard needed.

Celestia walked determined to the observatory, she didn’t often have to use her more serious side and often times ponies tended to forget that she did have this side to her. She preferred to have her subjects at ease around her but at times like this, she needed to put on the mask of monarch. Her thoughts were like a storm in her mind, thoughts, ideas and emotions plagued her as she tried to use the time to reach her destination to put them into order.

Things had changed and she needed to act on it soon.

She was nearly to the observatory when Luna came flying down to her, her younger sister landed panting for breath.

“What happened?” Luna asked catching her breath, as she had flown here as fast as she could when the guard had found her and given her the message.

Celestia floated the letter to Luna, “I think you should read this.”

Dear Princess Celestia,
I’m not sure how to tell you this but the most amazing thing has been happening lately. I should have written to you sooner when it happened but I just wanted to understand things more before I reported this to you.

A few days ago Ponyville had reports from a few sources (one being the Apple Family) of strange sounds and lights from the sky going into the Everfree. At first we weren’t too concerned with it but then Rainbow Dash had an encounter with a strange creature. It seemed to be blending into the ground and had been watching us from a distance. There was a bit of a…well incident, apparently both were startled and Rainbow chased the creature when it ran.

However Rainbow flew into a tree and the creature seemed to actually show concern for her, even gave her some water. Rainbow came back with a few items and they were unlike anything I have seen. I’ve been making a full report on my discoveries so far and I’ll be sending them later once I got them all set up for you. But I will say that the objects were made from material that I have never seen before and written in an unknown language.

Well Zecora of all ponies showed up at my door and said she had met what she referred to the ‘Sky People’, apparently the Zebra Nation has legends of beings from the sky that used to visit our world. At any rate my friends and I tracked the creature down into the Everfree and found what could only be an Extra-Equestrian ship, it was amazing to look at, built unlike anything I have ever seen or read about.

We did try to make contact with the alien (and I do believe he is an alien) but I kind of made a mistake, there was a communication error as we don’t speak each other’s language. Thankfully he (and I am sure it’s a he, see my future notes) has been contacting me by leaving boxes by Fluttershy’s cabin. They were simple at first, math problems, general alphabet and I’ve returned in kind hoping to build trust and a bridge between us. So far I think it’s working, he actually sent me a music box of some kind that has at my count 412 songs in various languages and styles.

Things were also going well but then Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle (the Cutie Mark Crusaders that I’ve written to you about before) saw one of the machines that the alien was using to take and deliver the box we were using to communicate. They decided to try and follow it but ended up getting slightly lost in the Everfree, they were making their way back when they were attacked by a pack of timberwolves. Thankfully they ran into the alien and he defended them, he also brought them back to his ship for safety.

He sent us one of the machines and somehow the girls would see and hear us from the ship through the machine as we could hear them. Although communications between the alien and us are still a bit difficult but we were able to get that he would look after them for the night as the wolves were still in the area and a storm that was coming. The girls said that he looked out for them, feed them and even helped him with his understanding of our language.

We also had some tea with him, we were able to get a bit of a conversation going, he still has a lot to learn but we were able to find a way to communicate. He certainly had a surprised reaction to Fluttershy’s home with all the animals but he did seem to get along with the animals. I think when Fluttershy saw that he liked animals it helped to really get her to feel more at ease with him.

What he has asked though is the main reason for this letter. He’s asked to move his ship out of the Everfree and somewhere closer to Ponyville.

Given the dangers of the forest I think it’s better if he isn’t hurt or killed while on our planet in case his race comes looking for what happened to him. Also this is going to be a major event as everypony in town will see this. News will get out about this so I’m writing to you to not only inform you of everything that’s been going on, but also for your advice on how to deal with this?

Should he be allowed to move his ship and if so how is this news to be broken to the beings of our world? This has just gotten too big to handle so I’m hoping for your reply.

Your Faithful Student

Twilight Sparkle

Luna put down the letter and sighed as she looked at her sister.

“It would seem that we will have to speed up our plans.” Luna said deadpanned.

“Yes,” Celestia said simply as she had already been thinking of everything that had to happen. “We can’t keep this secret if our visitor wants to explore and he’s already made contact with several ponies.”

“It just had to be Ponyville,” Luna wondered why such a town always seemed to draw in trouble. Maybe it was because it was so close to the Everfree that this stuff kept happening. Still this letter changed a lot as she thought more in dept about the letter.

“At least the alien seems friendly but could it be just a ruse?” Luna knew she had to ask the question.

Celestia had been considering it ever since she read the letter. It was possible as they had no way of knowing the motivations behind the alien or what they valued in their culture. Still, the fact was that he didn’t have to do what he did and yet he had been. He had also been trying to gather information, covertly at first but then she would have done the same in the alien’s place.

She had been going over the events in the letter over and over and to her it would seem that the alien was genuine but you couldn’t really know until they could make a face to face meeting.

Finally Celestia spoke her mind, “So far things seem honest but we will have to look this being in the eyes to really tell. I would like to give him the benefit of the doubt.”

“But just in case...” Luna trailed off.

“Yes, just in case,” Celestia said as both sisters knew what was meant. In case this was all a trick to appear like a good individual and hide any malicious intent, they would have to be ready for it. “You think you can handle a security detachment that could keep an eye on him?”

“Of course, I’ve already had a list of guards with more unique talents for this kind of thing drawn up the first time we heard of this.” Luna said proudly. Many thought she wasn’t the ruler like her sister and although it was true she lacked that kind of experience. Yet she had been a ruler for centuries before her fall as Nightmare Moon. All it took was time to catch up to the changes and she was just the bit the ruler of this land.

Celestia nodded, “I believe we could use a couple of days before we visit.”

She laid out her thoughts to Luna as the younger sister thought about it. “That might work and it would give us a little time but what of the press? Surely news like this won’t stay in Ponyville forever.”

“No but it will take time, there would be rumors at first but it would still give us some time.” Celestia said as they were coming up to the observatory. “We can use that time as a way to help gauge how our ponies will react to the news.”

Luna blinked before she caught up, “So you mean to use Ponyville as an experiment to see how things will go. If there is a place we could pull this off that would be the place.”

Celestia nodded, “It’s a village built on the cooperation of all three tribes, a tight knit community like that would be more accepting than a few other cities.”

Luna had to agree that it would be helpful, as they entered the building she could see the ponies here were a bit more stressed. Which was obvious as they had been trying everything they could to get as much information as they could, many looked tired and slightly frazzled. There were papers all over the place a few were arguing over certain aspects thinking if they yelled loud enough then they would be proven right.

There was a large blackboard with a drawing of what had to be the ship in the sky although it was in much better detail.

They actually had to wait a few minutes before someone noticed them and suddenly the room stopped as everyone bowed to them.

“Please rise,” Celestia told them as she and her sister walked up to the board. “Now how did you all do this?”

“It took some doing,” Night Light came forward with a tired look on his face. “I had a unicorn place a few magnification spells on the lenses to increase their power.”

“A very good idea,” Luna commented as she looked at the drawing. “Have you figured anything more out.”

His ears flattened, “Not as such, we can only guess so far.”

“Perhaps we should ask him when we meet with him.” Luna comment looking at the drawing again.

“Him, him who?” he asked looking at them.

“Perhaps you should read this,” Luna told him levitating the letter to him.

Next up Chapter 11: Evening with an Alien