Pathfinder 5

Pathfinder 5

Chapter 5: Gone to see the Alien

In Canterlot the morning had been risen like clockwork by Celestia although normally a very good morning pony, this time the princess was not her usual morning self and it was kind of scaring some of the longer serving staff. They weren’t used to seeing their Princess with bags under her eyes and not her smiling and lovable self.

Currently Celestia was on a patio waiting for her sister to show up for breakfast. There was a nice large umbrella keeping her sun out of her eyes, she may love her sun but at the moment she didn’t want direct light into her eyes. She felt so tired that she just wanted to sleep, she had tried to sleep last night but all she did was just toss and turn.

She couldn’t get her mind to quiet down as it just kept racing with thoughts. It had been over a century since the last time she had such a horrible night’s sleep.

Rubbing her temple she heard the door open as Luna seemed to nearly drag herself in looking just as bad as Celestia.

“Does the sun have to be this bright?” Luna asked with a yawn as she fell into her chair her chin resting on the table.

“You look like you had as much sleep as I did,” Celestia commented fighting off a yawn of her own.

“Breakfast will be served soon your majesties.” A maid told them as one of the few of the castle staff off to the side. “Is there anything specific you all would like?”

“Coffee, black.” Celestia told them which shocked everyone there. They couldn’t remember in their entire time serving Celestia that she asked for coffee, she was usually a tea or juice type of drinker. It was very unexpected to say the least for the castle staff with them.

“In fact bring out the whole pot,” Luna added in.

“Yes, good idea.” Celestia rubbed her temple.

“A-at once.” The maid bowed as she left to make sure the cooks started up the coffee.

“You may all leave us,” Luna told the other servants, they all shared looks asking each other silently what to do. This went against all the usual protocols but if it was what one of their rulers asked they were supposed to do it. They all eventually nodded as they left, as soon as they were alone Luna cast a sound barrier over the two of them.

Celestia looked at the spell as the light inside seemed darker, “Did you add in a light dampening spell to it?”

“Yes, I thought it better than the umbrella.” Luna sighed feeling a bit better with it not so bright out.

“I wish I could have gotten at least a little bit of sleep with everything I have to do today,” Celestia sighed.

“I know what you mean,” Luna closed her eyes wishing she could just sleep right now but still thoughts plagued her. She was supposed to visit the public works to view plans for some improvements to the city. “If only we knew something about what’s up there. Are they just watching us or are they only curious and will leave?”

“There’s also the option that something is already here with us,” her elder sister pointed out.

That got Luna to open her eyes up looking at her sister. “Do you wish for me to never sleep again?”

Celestia managed a weak smile at that, “Sorry dear sister but it is an option we have to think about. Although that is a very distressing thought, what if some pony comes across whatever it is and starts a panic? What if it’s hostile or something so different that we can’t even being to comprehend their motives or thoughts?”

Luna groaned she really wished this hadn’t happened but it had and they had to deal with it. So far things were being kept quiet until they could get some kind of information for the population. Maybe Night Light will have learned something of value soon but Luna wasn’t sure what from just looking at it. Well at the very least maybe they could track it and see if it was just floating there or had a flight path in mind.

“I don’t know which I hate more the fact that they didn’t just come down to make contact or the fact they are being cautious.” Luna groaned resting her head back on the table with a sign. Each scenario could be for different reasons. Either they were being careful to prevent a misunderstanding or they were slowly looking their world over for conquest.

“We will have to wait and see what happened as I feel they will be the ones to make the first move,” Celestia told her sister as she had done nothing but think on it during the night. Plans upon plans she made up for any kind of possible outcome, she didn’t want to leave anything to chance.

“Still, we will have to plan in the mean time for either friendly or hostile actions.” The solar princess said as Luna was in total agreement.

-Ponyville-

Twilight moved around her home/library with a fury of activity, getting papers, books, quills and ink into her saddle bags. She was checking and rechecking everything, if this truly was an alien come to Equestria she wanted everything to go perfectly. She checked and rechecked her list of all the things she wanted to bring with her. She spent some time researching on what to bring to a possible first contact but mostly what she found in her library were just science fiction stories.

With her saddle bags she placed a box with all the items that Rainbow and Fluttershy brought to her. She would have loved to have run more tests but she figured that by giving them back might show that they could be trusted. At least she hoped that would work.

Twilight got some parchment, ink and quills, she also brought a book on languages given from what Rainbow and Zecora said the alien would most likely not speak a language but she hoped that with some luck she could start building a cipher for it.

“Spike, are you coming?” She called out.

“I’m coming,” Spike called out as he came down and Twilight had to give him a look because he came down with all things a tin foil hat on his head.

“Spike...what’s that for?” She pointed at the hat.

“Oh this?” Spike adjusted the hat. “Well I read somewhere that some aliens might be telepathic and this should help keep my thoughts to myself.”

“Spike,” Twilight groaned. “That doesn’t make any sense, first off if mind reading could happen it might be electromagnetic in origin given the brain. The tin isn’t even grounded so you would need something like a faraday cage to keep it out.” She noticed the blank look she was getting and decided to simplify it for him.

“In other words putting a piece of metal on your head wouldn’t work, in fact it might conduct any signal. You would have better luck making a helmet out of lead with rubber on the inside.”

“Oh,” Spike took off the tin hat and crushed it up before throwing it away. “Do I have time to make one of those just in case?”

A knock at her door said otherwise as Twilight went to open it to see her friends already out there. There were mixed reactions, Rainbow looked eager to get started already flapping her wings a bit harder than necessary to keep her in the air. Fluttershy looked nervous but then she was never one for change or adventure and yet she always got dragged along it seemed.

Pinkie was jumping up and down excited as usual but she also carried a saddlebag that Twilight could figure had party supplies in them. She was also balancing a try of cupcakes on her back that somehow were not falling off with every bounce.

Rarity looked a bit neutral about the whole thing, most likely because she wasn’t sure what to make of the whole experience. Applejack, well normally the farm pony would be stead fast and ready to go but she looked a bit more apprehensive about the whole thing.

“Ah good you’re all here,” Twilight said with a bright smile as she levitated Spike onto her back. “Come on we still have to meet with Zecora at the woods.”

“Oh yeah I get to see an alien space ship!” Rainbow Dash excitedly said looking forward to it.

“Are ya sure we need ta do this?” AJ asked as they made their way through the town. “Shouldn’t we brin’ in the Princesses on somethin’ like this?”

“Well we will but I just want to confirm if this is actually an alien and not something else,” Twilight was honest about those reasons. If she sent a report about an alien and it wasn’t, well she didn’t want to look foolish to her mentor like that. Plus she couldn’t resist being the first to official greet an actual alien to their world.

“You scared or something AJ?” Rainbow teased.

“If this critter is an alien there’s no tellin’ what it’s doin’ here, ah mean why Ponyville of all places?” Applejack was proud of her home but it was hardly the place to go for an alien she figured. One of the larger cities made a lot more sense to her. Plus the whole idea of an alien was just kind of creepy for her.

“Maybe it just wants to get to know us first silly,” Pinkie told her. “And there’s no better place to get to know ponies than here. That’s why I made some extra special welcoming cupcakes!”

“Well I do hope things go well,” Rarity spoke up. “Although I have been wondering what kind of fashion an alien race would have. I do hope I can see some samples.”

They continued to talk and throw out speculations on what they could find before they met up with Zecora who was waiting for them by the edge of the forest.

The team was lead through the forest by Zecora, although they didn’t seem to travel any path they made good time, almost like the forest moved out of the way for them. It was always strange going into this forest, nothing worked like it did outside and you always got this feeling like the forest itself was watching you.

No matter how many times they traveled into it the forest always made you feel a bit unwanted. Thankfully the girls had learned that the few paths that still did exist like the one to the castle of the two sisters, those were the safest paths to take. After some time they found themselves entering a clearing and all of them stopped in awe at the shinning metallic craft in front of them.

“Whoa, that’s not like a rocket ship from the comics,” Spike said from his spot on Twilight’s back.

“Oh that is so cool!” Rainbow took off quickly flying all over it as she looked at every little thing she could.

“Yay! Now we can welcome the alien!” Pinkie smiled happily as she balanced on her back a plate of her special welcoming cupcakes and took them off and placed them on the ground. She couldn’t wait to see the alien’s reaction to them, she hoped it liked them.

“It has a very elegant design,” Rarity studied it from her own place among her friends. She looked over how sleek the design was.

“It does kind of look like a bird in a way,” Fluttershy said softly looking at the wing design.

“Well shoot that thing is not somethin’ ah ever seen in mah life,” AJ looked at the craft, it wasn’t built like anything she had ever seen before although it did look well made to her or at least sturdy.

“This is what I saw, and it let me like you in awe.” Zecora spoke up and then turned to the forest. “Although I would like to stay, some things in the forest must be held at bay.”

“Are the animals agitated?” Fluttershy asked knowing how animals could get when their territory or home was disturbed.

“Yes some of the creatures are furious, to calm them I must before they get too curious.” Zecora wasn’t sure what the Sky Being would do if the wild life started to show up to the ship. So she left to calm them and maybe place some wards around that would persuade some of the hostile creatures away, at least she hoped so.

She left the mares to their work, if anyone could make friends with a being from the starts she knew that those six could.

When Zecora left the others looked at the ship not sure what to do next.

“So...should we knock or what?” Fluttershy asked a little dryly.

“Might as well start somewhere,” Twilight said as she walked up the small ramp to the metal door as she started to knock.

Inside the ship in the only bedroom on the ship was David Miller. The room wasn’t very big as space was at a premium on the Sparrow, just a simple cot with a dresser built into the bulkhead across from him. There were no windows as the door was closed and no lights encased him in pure darkness, that is until the lights slowly came on.

“Commander you need to wake up.” The computers voice called out to him in that neutral tone it had.

-Knock Knock Knock-

David groaned rolling over and pulling the sheet over his head. He felt too tired to wake up, he didn’t want to wake up. The lights were annoying and that tapping sound was even more annoying.

“Commander.”

“Go away,” David groaned.

-Knock Knock Knock-

Again there was that tapping sound.

“You need to wake up.”

“Fuck...off...” David managed to say he wasn’t in the best of moods when he didn’t get enough sleep. Well it wasn’t like AVI had any emotions to hurt at least but he was a very grumpy guy when he didn’t get enough rest.

“There are life forms outside and I believe they want in.”

“How do you know that--Knock Knock Knock-okay what is that!?” He heard it again and it was starting to piss him off.

“I believe one of them is knocking on the airlock door.”

“Oh god,” he paused trying to think. “How long was I asleep?”

“You entered delta wave cycle thirty minutes ago.”

David let out an aggravated growl, he really wished he hadn’t spent the entire damn night working. There was just too much he had discovered and instead of going to bed and working on it in the morning he just kept working. He spent so much time studying all the images he had, was trying to build a language translation with the few audio clicks he had but he needed more to work with. Then there was the scan of the blue Pegasus he was dealing with trying to figure out flight and it just kept snowballing at him until the sun came up and he decided to get some sleep.

Well that plan was shot to hell now.

-Knock Knock Knock-

Again the evil tapping sound was heard from the metal bulkhead of the ship.

Angrily he threw the sheets aside cursing up a storm as he marched to the door.

Outside Twilight knocked once more against the metal door waiting. She was starting to wonder if maybe the alien wasn’t home, maybe it was off looking around? She would have hated to miss meeting the alien herself.

“Are you sure this...creature is home darling?” Rarity asked.

“Yeah so far this is turning out to be a letdown.” Rainbow commented as she flew up to the large window trying to look in. “Oh cool this has got to be the cockpit.”

“Rainbow what are you doing?” Twilight asked her slightly annoyed.

“Just trying to see if anypony is home,” Rainbow pressed up against the glass like substance looking in. She could see a single chair and a control set up around it but not much else. The door at the back was closed so she couldn’t see any deeper which was disappointing. She really wanted to see the inside of this thing and find out how fast it could fly.

“Well is there anyone up there?” Applejack asked.

“Can’t see it, just the cockpit and that’s it.” Dash replied.

“Maybe the alien isn’t home,” Fluttershy said softly she wasn’t sure she wanted to actually meet an alien as she was kind of worried it might be scary looking.

“Oh no we couldn’t have missed the alien,” Pinkie said in a slightly panicked tone. “I brought all these welcome cupcakes to give it, they would all go to waste!”

“Well might as try one more time,” Twilight sighed as she knocked again, she was on her third and final knock when the door slid open with a hissing sound to the side. She paused as she found herself staring at something and it took her a couple of seconds to realize she was staring at a navel. Looking up she noticed the being in front of her.

It was tall and on two legs like Rainbow said but it wasn’t covered in scales but simple furless skin. There were small hairs she noticed on the skin but nothing even close to a coat. There was a dark short mane on its head that looked a little unkempt to her. It was wearing a simply set of some kind of grey trunks.

The face is what really captivated her, it was unlike anything she had ever seen before. The eyes were grey and slightly red in color but were far smaller than a pony’s, for a moment she wondered if it had poor eyesight because of it.

It didn’t have a muzzle in fact the nose and mouth seemed more separated, the mouth was a bit thin to her and the nose, it was hard to explain. It was like somepony took the top of a beak and turned it into just a nose.

Plus it seemed to have a Cutie Mark! Actually more than one which was odd for her, on the right arm there was some kind of logo like design. It was a circle with a view of space with something in front of the stars and planets that she couldn’t make out.

There seemed to be a compass like design on the leg arm and on the upper arm was what looked like some kind of tribal design. What could they all mean? Did aliens like this one get multiple Cutie Marks because they had multiple talents? She had so many questions!

“Uh...I think it’s waiting on something sugar cube,” AJ spoke up staring at the tall creature in front of her.

“Oh! Right,” She cleared her throat. “I Twilight Sparkle welcome you to Equestria in the names of Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.”

David looked at them all not really registering as his sleep deprived brain was barely working. “I gave at the office.” He said as he closed the door.

“W-what?” Twilight asked out loud not sure what the alien had said but just said something and then just closed the door.

“Uh...what just happened?” Spike asked as everyone looked at each other for an answer none of them could give.

“I ain’t sure.” AJ shrugged as this wasn’t the kind of thing she expected to happen.

“I think we woke him up, he looked kind of tired.” Fluttershy offered. “Maybe we should leave and come back another time?”

Twilight was just staring at the door, this couldn’t be happening. This was the first contact of an alien race and it just shut the door in her face. Did she offend him in some way? Maybe there was a specific greeting that had to be followed but she wouldn’t know what that would be. Did she blow it or was this part of some kind of complex ritual? She couldn’t send a letter to the princesses about a failure like this, what would they think about her if she just ruined possible relations like this?

Twilight nervously bit her front hoof as more and more scenarios played out in her head. She had to at least try again so she knocked once more.

David was just about to go back to his bed as its sweet siren song called to him when the knocking started again. He groaned rubbing his face with his hands, all he wanted was some sleep he could do the meet and greet another time. How was he to get some kind of sleep?

A plan slowly formed in his head and in his altered state it seemed like a good idea at the time.

David went to the hatch and opened it up to see them all again. The purple one with the horn started to say something again but he held up a hand. He was thankful she actually stopped and motioned to the bottom of the ramp. The unicorn blinked a few times before it seemed like it understood and quickly stood at the bottom of the ramp.

The others seemed to get the idea and lined up as well.

David held up his hand from a special way from an old program from Earth, a series that had stayed around even after all this time and was in the record books as one of the few longest running series of science fiction. The good old Vulcan hand salute that he remembered watching from one of those series at his uncle Henry’s as a kid. David wasn’t sure if it was one of the original series or one of the reboots or reimagining series he watched back then, it was kind of hard to tell after all this time and so many done, plus his mind felt like a fog so it was hard to think properly.

Then words from another series came to mind. “Klaatu Barada Nikto.”

Twilight blinked at odd gesture he was making a signature with his fingers, the thumb was sticking out with the singers paired two by two and split apart. Then he said those words and she got excited at a possible greeting.

She raised her hoof trying to imitate as best she could without fingers as she spoke up. “Klaatu Barada Nikto.”

But instead of smiling the creature just yelled out scaring the lot of them before running back into the ship. The ramp then pulled up and the window up front was suddenly encased in a metal shutter of some kind that extended from the sides. All of them stood there in shock uncertain what had just happened.

“Uh...what did you say?” Spike asked Twilight.

“I don’t know! Didn’t I say it exactly right?” Twilight asked the others starting to panic. She started to pace back and forth as her mind tried to come up with a reason why the alien seemed to have been scared of her. She said the words exactly so it should have been the same thing, that had to have been a greeting of some kind right?

“I don’t get it, I know I said the words right,” Twilight mumbled to herself.

“Oh-oh-oh!” Pinkie raised a hoof like she was in class. “Maybe you have to make the funny gesture as well.”

That stopped Twilight dead as her eyes widened and her pupils shrank. The creature held up the hand in a gesture, was it possible that their species talk with gestures? Could it be that the words meaning change depending on what kind of gesture she made?

Looking down at her hoof she started to worry what she had just said to him.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no, what if their language needs gestures, what if I just insulted him by not doing it?” Twilight panicked asking the others.

“Well I don’t think you insulted him,” Rainbow spoke up. “From how he ran I think you said more along he likes of you’re going to eat the flesh off his face or something.”

“Rainbow!” Rarity chastised her.

“What?” Dash shrugged, “I’m just saying that the alien freaked out from what she said.”

“What do I do? What do I do? What do I do? What do I do?” Twilight’s mane slowly started to frazzle a bit as her panic attack was starting to grow.

Fluttershy walked up to her friend and gently touched her shoulder. “I think maybe we everypony needs is time to cool off. Why don’t we leave the alien alone for now and we can come back tomorrow?”

“She might be right,” AJ agreed.

“When you spook an animal it’s best to leave it alone and give it space,” Fluttershy told Twilight.

“Didn’t you kind of go crazy on the animals at the Gala?” Rainbow asked her friend.

Fluttershy blushed digging her hoof into the ground. “I learned my lesson from that time.”

“Still I think she had a point,” Rarity spoke up. “If we did scare him off we should do like Fluttershy said and give it space and time.”

“You’re right,” Twilight sighed it didn’t help her feel like less of a failure though. She took the box with all the stuff she had planned to give back and placed it on the ground near the craft. She hoped that maybe this could be used as an apology.

“Wait I want to place something in there!” Pinkie quickly opened the box and placed her cupcakes inside of it. “This way they stay safe and the alien can get them.”

“That might be a good idea,” Fluttershy told her as sometimes placing out food helped to coax out scared animals.

With that done the mares had nothing else to do but head on back home, thankfully they knew the way back as they walked slowly into the forest with Twilight looking depressed as they made their way home.

-Several Hours Later-

David felt himself waking up as his mind slowly started to kick back into gear. He groaned as he pushed himself off the bed with a yawn. He still felt tried but at least now he felt a bit more normal as he stretched out as much as he could in the cramp room.

“AVI how long have I been out?” David asked with a yawn.

“Five hours since you were last up.”

“Well that’s better than nothing,” David scratched a few places as he walked to the small bathroom. “I miss anything important?”

“No, the local life forms haven’t returned.”

“That’s good,” He said closing the door before throwing it open and jumping out. “Wait what local life forms!?”

“The ones that were knocking on the ship and you went out to meet.”

“When did I...oh god no,” He paled as he suddenly remembered what happened. “Oh god I thought that was just a weird dream. Oh fuck what the hell did I just do!?”

Without thinking he ran to the airlock and opened the door, he ran outside as he took a first step and suddenly remembered he had pulled up the ramp. His arms waved around as at the last moment he managed to grab hold of the side of the door stopping his fall. It wasn’t far off the ground but he would have eaten dirt if he had fallen.

“AVI put the ramp down again,” He called out to the ship as it did as he commanded. He quickly made his way to the ground as looked around.

“I am so fucking fired,” He moaned as the memories were coming back to him, they were a bit hazy but just what in the actual fuck had he been thinking? If his bosses back home heard about this he would be lucky to pilot a transport ship carrying cargo to the colonies.

He had just answered the door in his underwear to a bunch of aliens and pretty much told them to ‘fuck off’ because he was tired. He moaned as he ran his hands through his hair at just how screwed he was. They would tell stories for centuries on how badly he screwed up, he would be a laughing stock for generations.

It was then he noticed the small box that he was sure hadn’t been there yesterday. He could see hoof prints all around the area as he bent down and opened it up.

“Huh?” It was filled with the gear he left behind and also with what looked like cupcakes. David picked up the box as he went back inside to take a closer look. He went into the small medical room where all the first aid and medical supplies were stored in case he got injured while on a survey. He placed the cupcake onto a flat scanner as he wanted to see if it was edible.

Looking through the rest he found just the stuff he left behind like he had seen. They didn’t seem to be damaged to taken apart in fact they were in pretty good shape. Had they brought it all back to him as an offer of friendship? If so now he felt like a jerk for pulling what he did earlier, sleep deprived or not.

He waited for the results to come in from the computer and it looked like the cupcake was just that, an actual cupcake. Okay the sugar content looked a little high but nothing a good jog couldn’t hurt. He took it and bit into it. His mouth exploded with flavor as he sat back and enjoyed it.

“Oh god that’s good,” He couldn’t remember the last time he had something that tasted that good. Most of the food on the ship was preserved or vacuumed sealed to make it last longer. Oh sure there were some plants in the hydroponics bay but he had to ration those.

He looked to see there were several of the delicious deserts and he was going to have to use all his will power not to eat them all. Well...maybe one more.

After a snack he reviewed what happened from the Sparrow video logs and he face palmed his way through it.

“I can’t believe I did that,” He muttered to himself at seeing at what he did. He didn’t even remember what he had said until he saw the video. He saw them talking amongst themselves with the purple unicorn looking very distraught. He really felt sorry for that one, it had come up to him in what looked like in a welcoming manner and he did that to it.

“Do we have enough data to start building a translation program yet?” He asked the computer.

“Negative.”

“Figures as he listened to the alien language among them all. He noticed the blue Pegasus from earlier and he thought that yellow one he had seen before as well. Then there was a pure white unicorn with hair that was in no way naturally that well groomed. The orange one that looked the most like a normal little horse wore a cowboy hat of all things. It also sounded a bit different, almost like it had an accent? It was hard to tell and that might be throwing off the translation program if it did.

There was a very energetic pink one that he remembered had some kind of spaz attack in the village who apparently had given him the cupcakes.

“My ever loving thanks oh little horsy of delights, I shall name thee...Cupcake.” He joked at least until he could get names for them he had to name them something.

There was also some kind of little purple lizard thing, at first he thought it was a pet or something but it was speaking the same language and it’s mannerisms and the way it acted showed it was intelligent.

“Okay so we got little horses, unicorns, Pegasus-“

“The proper term is Pegasi.” The ship spoke up.

“Okay Pegasi, Zebras and now little reptilian creatures, damn I wonder how many other intelligent life forms are there?” It looked like this world held way more than just one possible intelligent race. That sure as hell made this whole affair a lot more important, which in turn made him feel even more like crap on what he just did.

“Oh man I can see it now,” David lamented to himself as the images of Historical Documentary starting him. “David Miller, fuck up of the century.”

He slammed his head onto the table with a sigh, he had to fix this as he racked his brain. “Okay let’s see what I got to work with.”

He looked at the video as an idea hit him, that yellow one, he had seen her home and it looked like she was friends or at least important to that group. Maybe he could use her as a proxy, but how?

David stood up as he paced up and down the corridor of the ship, he always would think when he was moving and he needed something to inspire him. He caught sight of the cupcakes and had to fight his urge to eat another one so soon. Suddenly and idea came to him as he quickly went to the small kitchen.

“AVI we should have some kind of frosting in the supplies right?” He asked sliding open the storage shelves.

“You have a very limited amount.” The computer told him.

“Okay now first things first,” He found a few of the ration packs and opened them up.

“You should not eat so many of those Commander,” The computer warmed him. “You will have to go back to the Pathfinder for more supplies much sooner.”

“I’m not going to eat them, I just need something they have,” He found what he was looking for an pulled out a cookie from the bags he pulled. The rations had a lot of stuff in them but the cookies were one of the treats in them, most likely to keep the moral of the person up. He pulled out seven as he placed them on the table and now started his hunt for the frosting.

He found it in a box for baking, not that he did much but again, it was one of those little things you did on long voyages to help break up the dull moments. It was just a tube of red but it would have to do.

“AVI pull up the images of every one of those aliens that were outside.” He called out as a screen on the wall lit up and images showed up. Using his fingers he zoomed in and took a look and it did look like they all wore unique marks. The little lizard thing didn’t so he would have to improvise with him.

“Okay, time to get started, oh and AVI print out the first level of the first contact package will you?”

“Acknowledged.”

A few hours later in her small cottage Fluttershy was currently feeding her animals, although she hummed happily along she didn’t really feel the happiness she normally got from taking care of her animal friends. She was worried about Twilight, the poor girl looked so crushed when she had left her in her library. She had tried to help cheer her up along with the others but nothing they did could help get the unicorn out of her funk.

Fluttershy sighed as she looked to her birds in their little homes in her living room. “I just don’t know what to do, Twilight was so looking forward to this.”

The birds tweeted a response.

“I know but I don’t know what to do.” She walked to the mice and gave them a piece of cheese.

Suddenly there was a knock at her door, she was wondering who it could be. Maybe it was one of her friends with word about Twilight? She hoped so as she walked over to the door.

“Who’s there?” She called out as she reached the door but paused as she was about to open it but there had been no reply. That was odd as normally someone did reply, she opened the door but there was no one there.

She blinked as she looked around but no one was around, then she noticed a box at her door step.

“Wait...isn’t that...” The box was the same one that Twilight had left with the alien.

“The alien,” She whispered as she crouched down and quickly looked around but she didn’t see anyone. She did remember how Rainbow said the alien could blend in so for all she knew it was out there watching her.

“Ohhhh, why me?” She whimpered at the thought of a strange alien creature was watching her. She gently reached the box and slowly opened it closing her eyes in case something scary popped out. When nothing did she slowly opened one eye and what she saw in there left her confused.

“Huh?” Fluttershy questioned looking at the contents.

Next up Chapter 6: Alien Message