Pathfinder 5

Pathfinder 5

Chapter 9: Alien Foal Sitter

The Cutie Mark Crusaders looked around with wide eyes at the ship they were in. They had been too occupied with running for their lives to really take it in but now that the timberwolves were no longer a threat, they could enjoy what they were seeing.
“This is so cool,” Scootaloo whispered out, she couldn’t believe they were in an actual alien space ship.

The other two just nodded their heads, the walls of the ship were so smooth and everything was nicely curved instead of hard edges.

They watched him work with controls that were somehow there and yet not there, they just kind of floated there and they were see through like some kind of magical illusion. He turned to face them as he said something but they couldn’t understand what he was saying. The alien seemed to sigh and think on something while the Crusaders looked around them.

“I wonder how fast this thing can fly, I mean it’s a space ship so it has to fly right?” Scootaloo asked her friends.

“Ah would think so,” Bloom said looking at the floating screens. “Ah wonder what kind of magic makes those?”

“Maybe Twilight would know,” Sweetie looked closer at them as she tried to touch one. It beeped as another voice suddenly filled the room.

“Emergency venting system offline.” AVI reported.

“Hold it,” David quickly said as he undid what the kid had pushed. The others were looking around most likely wondering where AVI’s voice was coming from. Quickly he used his implant to command all the controls to shut down as they flickered out of sight. The three moaned as one, knowing that kids would want to play around with the cool stuff he didn’t need a translation that they were disappointed.

“That was AVI,” He told them as they looked at him cocking their heads.

“AVI,” He pointed up and then spoke up. “AVI said something to the kids.”

“What would you like me to say, Commander?” The computer asked. The kids looked around as one with the wings seemed to be talking to the others.

“I think that was the ship!” Scootaloo told her friends excited.

“The ship talks?” Apple Bloom asked.

“Yeah,” her friend nodded her head. “I’ve read these sci-fi comics where sometimes the ships can talk they have...uh...artificial something.”

“Intelligence?” Sweetie Belle asked.

“Yeah that!” She nodded excitedly.

David suddenly realized that he had no idea if the kids were okay from all of that, especially the white one when she fell. He snapped his fingers getting their attention and knelt down to them. He opened his palm and motioned for her to be closer. He could see her hesitation but she slowly moved forward.

“Don’t worry this won’t hurt,” He said gently as he ran a scan of her body. She tensed up as the light from the sensor in his palm of his suit covered her. It didn’t last long as he smiled at her and used the controls on his forearm. The three were surprised when suddenly an image of Sweetie Belle showed up on a small table in the room off to the side. The three gathered around as they were talking about most likely the image.

The yellow one with a bow managed to jump onto the table and gently pushed a hoof through the image. She jumped back in surprise before doing it again.

“It’s some kind of illusion ah think,” Bloom told them.

“I wonder why it did that?” Sweetie asked out loud.

“Too bad we can’t ask,” Scootaloo sighed and then looked at Sweetie. “Did it hurt?”

“No, not at all.”

Scootaloo suddenly ran over to him and jumped up and down. “Do me, do me!”

The alien seemed to laugh as he opened his strange hoof thing and the light covered her body. The alien did something to the thing on his limb and she turned around to see a copy of her now on the table.

“That’s so cool, I wonder how it works?” She wondered.

They watched as he slowly went to Bloom and pointed to his limb and then to her, she nodded her head and soon there was another copy now there. He did something and all three were now shown on the table. The alien spoke to the ship and was working on something, before any of them could wonder what the alien was up to the images on the screen changed.

Strange lines and weird writing showed up pointing to certain parts of their copies. Then their copies were suddenly skeletons as he seemed to be looking at them.

“Is...is that our skeletons?” Sweetie Belle looked at the images feeling a little uneasy.

“Yeah, ah guess that light did more than just the outside.” Apple Bloom commented.

Then suddenly the images showed their internal organs and even muscles.

“Ewwww,” All three said at once only making the alien chuckle.

“Maybe the alien is making sure we’re okay?” Apple Bloom offered. “So it’s lookin’ inside of us to make sure?”

“Neat, kind of gross but neat,” Scootaloo said.

David looked over the results and from the scans the only thing the computer could tell was no broken bones, no injuries other than being a bit tired, a slight bruise on the unicorn that didn’t look too bad, and again they were all female. Although the Pegasus seemed to have smaller wings than from all the images and the scans of ‘Skittles’ that he had, maybe they grew as they got older or some kind of mutation?
Well whatever, the first thing he had to do was how to get them home. He sighed looking out the window, it was getting dark and he wasn’t sure those wolf things were just waiting for them. Plus there was a storm moving in as well. He couldn’t just keep them here until morning, their families would be looking for them. The problem is how could he get a message out to them?

“I just wish I knew where they were from exactly,” David sighed.

“Last known location is from the cottage that Drone 3 is currently watching.”AVI told him.

David paused as he blinked. “What?”

“Last known-“

“How do you know they were there?” He asked the computer slightly on edge.

“The drone saw them arrive at the cottage and leaving it.”

David felt like he wanted to strangle his computer for telling him this now of all times. He knew that if he hadn’t asked that question the computer wouldn’t have told him. He rubbed his temples trying to ward off a headache as he got to business.

“Fine then, give me control, time to give a message.” He activated the large vid screen as he took manual control. The three girls watched as they saw an image on the screen move as the alien did something with the floating controls.

“Hey that’s Fluttershy’s cottage.” Apple Bloom said.

Sweetie Belle cocked her head. “I wonder how he got that image and how it’s moving?”

At Fluttersky’s home, two mares were starting to panic as they had looked everywhere for the girls but found no sign of them. Now the two were getting worried as there weren’t many places they could have gone.

“Oh no, oh no, oh no,” Fluttershy trotted in place wondering where to start looking. If Applejack, Rarity or Scootaloo’s parents found out she lost the kids, well she wasn’t looking forward to that.

“We’ll find them, they couldn’t have gone far,” Twilight offered.

“But it’s getting dark and it’s going to rain soon,” Fluttershy told her. She really didn’t like the idea of the three of them out there in the dark and wet. Sure they could make it to somepony’s home or one of their own but they would be drenched.

“Maybe we can search around quickly and find them.” Twilight made for the door when there was a knock at the door.

Twilight blinked, “Well...maybe that’s them?”

Fluttershy cringed, Twilight didn’t sound too convinced and she had a bad feeling, as knocks at her door usually led to only one thing lately. Twilight went to open the door and yelped as she jumped back at one of the strange metal things she had seen take the box now at the front door.

“Uh...hello?” Twilight asked it not sure if this was some kind of creature or an advance machine. It looked mechanical to her but it wasn’t like anything she had ever seen. Looking at it up close was so much different than from her binoculars.
A strange language she noticed that was the alien’s language seemed to come from somewhere on the thing.

“I wonder what he wants us to do?” Scootaloo’s voice came from the machine.

“Scootaloo!?” Twilight asked.

“Hey wait,” Now it was Apple Bloom’s voice. “Twilight, can ya hear us?”

“Oh no, are they inside of it?” Fluttershy asked from her position from hiding behind her couch.

Twilight thought about that but it didn’t make any sense. It wasn’t that large and they seemed to be watching them. “Girls...where are you?”

“Uh...we’re with the alien.” Sweetie Belle said.

“What!?” Twilight yelled out. “How are you girls with him?”

“Oh so it’s a him,” Scootaloo said next.

“Ah think we ought to tell Twilight what happened.” Apple Bloom cut in.

Twilight and Fluttershy listened in as they told them what happened. From following the strange thing with the box, to running into a pack of timberwolves, running into the alien, him saving them, the run back to the ship and how they seemed to be looking at them through the strange bug like machine in front of them.

“You girls are actually in the ship?” Twilight couldn’t help but feel extremely jealous. Actually inside of what was most likely the most technologically advanced thing on the planet, seeing all the strange and new things in there.

“Sorry,” All three said at once.

“We didn’t mean to,” Sweetie said. “But he’s been really nice.”

Twilight thought about it and this might be her way to see inside of the ship and get to know the alien on a more personal level. “Okay I’ll be right over.”

“Wait!” Fluttershy came out from behind her couch. “You can’t go out there now.”

“What, why?”

“They said timberwolves were after them,” Fluttershy began. “They are very territorial and they will most likely be hunting around that area just in case they can catch them again. They won’t move away for a few hours or so, plus there’s a storm coming in and it’s going to be night soon.”

Twilight’s eyes darted back and forth thinking about it, it was all logical but she really wanted to see inside of that ship.

“Maybe I can just teleport there and then into the ship?” She offered lamely.

Fluttershy gave her a level look, “Can you even do that?”

“Well...maybe?” Twilight sighed in defeat. “Okay no, it’s too far away for me and I have no idea what the inside of the ship even looks like to safely do that.”

“Hey the alien is doing something,” Sweetie’s voice came out of the machine suddenly.

Back on the ship David went to get a PADD and opened up a simple art program. He made a vague drawing of the ship inside of the forest with a stick figure of himself and stick figures of the kids, each one based on their coat colour. He made a night sky and showed them the image.

“Wow that’s fast,” Apple Bloom hadn’t seen how the fill tool worked so the completed image to her had been done pretty fast. Not to mention the colors were all so smooth unlike say paint or crayon.

“You think it-he’s trying to tell us something?” Scootaloo asked them.

He turned the device back to him as he made alterations to the picture. When he turned it around there was now a morning sky with the sun out, with the alien stick figure in front of them looking like he was leading them through the forest. He turned it around and when he turned it back the stick figures were now by a small house by a forest.

“Oh ah get it,” Apple Bloom looked to the floating window thing with the images of Twilight and Fluttershy on it. “Ah think he’s goin’ to take us back to Fluttershy’s in the mornin’.”

“He said that?” Twilight asked the machine.

“Well...more like he drew it,” Sweetie Belle said. “He made these pictures and that’s what it looks like.”

Twilight and Fluttershy shared a look, they didn’t want to go through the Everfree at night, in the rain with timberwolves roaming around. A flash of thunder happened as they looked outside to see the starting of the rain. It would most likely move into the Everfree in an hour and once that happened the clouds and rain could get better or worse.

Twilight sighed, although she really wanted to go get the girls and see the ship, she had to trust that this alien could take care of them. She was putting a lot of trust in him but so far he hadn’t done anything hostile and he had actively tried to communicate with them all. Maybe this would be one more step in helping to build a bridge between their races.

“Okay, you girls stay safe okay?” Twilight asked them.

“We will!” All three said together.

Then the device started to walk forward into the house, both mares jumped back as it looked around and seemed to walk with the many mechanical legs as he took an empty spot. It seemed to sit down and just sat there, as still as a rock.

“Uh...hello?” Twilight waved a hoof in front of it but it looked to be shut down. “I guess it’s been turned off?”

“Why did it come inside?” Fluttershy asked.

“Maybe in case the girls need to talk again?” Twilight sighed and looked outside. The rain was starting to come down now. “You mind if I stay
the night?”

“Oh of course not,” Fluttershy didn’t mind in fact she felt better with Twilight here with that thing inside of her home.

“Thanks...I think I need a bath,” She sighed and walked up to the bathroom.

Fluttershy looked at the alien device as it just seemed to be staring at nothing or maybe everything in her mind.

“Yeah, that’s not creepy,” She said dryly as she looked around and got a comforter and threw it over the device. “Well that’s a bit better.”

-Sparrow I-

David felt that his message got through but now the problem was what to do with three little kids. First though he needed to get out of this suit. He got up and went to the storage room and was halfway there before he noticed that he was being followed by the three little ones. He sighed as he thought of what he could do to occupy their time.

Although he quickly thought of something and quickly using the computer on his wrist locked up the engine room and workshop. He really didn’t need kids wondering around into those places. He walked into the storage room and opened the locker as he started to take the armored pieces off as he noticed the three were looking around.

He paused given that he had to change clothing sure they were an alien race that didn’t seem to wear clothing so would nudity even be a concept for them? But the problem was they were three little kids, little girls and the last thing he needed was for some kind of major misunderstanding happening and him being put onto a watch list.

“Don’t supposed you three could go outside for a bit?” He asked.

They just were looking around and David was kind of at a loss. He placed a few pieces on a workbench as he opened the locker for the gear.

He noticed the Pegasus eyeing the plasma pistol he had set down. The little one was getting too close to it as David quickly slapped a hand down on the device.

“No,” he said sharply.

The three blinked at him as Apple Bloom saw the serious look on his face, even though he was an alien the expressions he made went through any language barrier.

“Ah don’t think he wants ya to touch that Scoots.” She told her friend.

“I was just curious,” she defended herself.

“Yeah but ya saw what that thang did, might be saver to not touch it.” She replied.

David quickly pulled the power pack from the weapon and placed the devices into the locker. The last thing he needed was the little kid somehow getting a hold of his weapons. Although he wasn’t sure how they would even fire it with hooves he knew that guns and kids don’t mix. He paused at he had taken off everything he could without stripping down but the kids were still here.

He smirked as with his cortical implant he accessed the ships music files and started a song playing in the bridge. The girls heads all twisted to the sounds as they started in search of the music. David quickly shut the door as he stripped off and put on his usual clothing in record time.

The girls were back in the bridge area as they noticed the music seemed to be coming from above and around them.

“I wonder where it’s coming from exactly?” Sweetie Belle asked out loud looking around. “It’s like it’s coming out of the air or something.”

“There might be speakers or something in the ceiling?” Scootaloo asked with a shrug.

It wasn’t that much time later when David walked in and saw them climbing over everything, they looked to be trying to figure out how to get the controls up and running again as they were tapping the black surfaces of the interfaces. He had to wonder what they thought of the technology, they were very curious but not really afraid. He wasn’t sure if this was just a species trait or just them but maybe it was time to try and start to communicate a bit more with them.

He cleared his throat as he knelt down to get more to their level, they came up around him as with the Zebra he felt it was time to start with introductions.

“David,” He placed his hand on his chest. He repeated this a few times before pointing to them. The one with the bow seemed to catch on fast as she smiled and tapped herself with her hoof.

[Apple Bloom]

David did his best to repeat the words until she nodded her head when he got it correct.

[Sweetie Belle]

[Scootaloo]

He did the same as they tried to pronounce his name. Well now that the names were out of the way he needed something to help keep them occupied. He had a young niece and nephew that, at best guest, were close to their ages and those two were full of energy and could get bored. He also wished there was a way to help with the language barrier.

Then he suddenly got an idea. He quickly went to the side of the bridge where he had placed a few items and got that first book that the purple Unicorn had given him. He opened it to the image of what looked like the winged type with a word under it.

“AVI made sure you’re recording this, I’m going to see if the kids can help translate this book for us to help build a language base.”
“Acknowledged.”

He saw the kids jump at her sudden word but looked at him when he opened the book and pointed at the picture.

The Crusaders looked at the page, it was a kids book for teaching young ponies their first words. Sweetie could see that it was a simple image of a Pegasus with the name under it.

“Pegasus?” Sweetie asked.

“Pe-ge-sos,” the alien tried to mimic.

“Oh, he wants to learn to talk,” Scootaloo said.

“Peg-a-sus,” Sweetie said slowly.

The alien nodded and tried more slowly. “Peg..a..sis.”

“Almost, Pegasus,” Apple Bloom tried next.

“Pegasus.” The alien said.

“Yeah, Pegasus, like me,” Scootaloo jumped up flapping her wings quickly.

The alien nodded with a smile as he pointed to the next image, this time of an Earth Pony. So the Crusaders started to help him learn the basics for their language. David found it a bit hard to mimic the sounds just right, he most likely sounded like he had an accent to them but the kids seemed happy to help him. After about a couple of hours he was able to get some of the basics down, he also learned things like ‘yes’ and ‘no’ which were needed to have a conversation or at least to learn.

The kids he found were sharp as they were trying to pick up on a few things as well. But by now he could see they were getting a bit bored, the problem was how to continue on with this learning while making it fun for the kids. A sudden bolt of inspiration hit him as he knew the perfect thing to help.

He activated the holoprojector table as he brought up the vid library. He just hoped what he was looking for was placed. He wasn’t sure why but then maybe it was just dumped along with a bunch of other random stuff. He typed in the name and to his surprise it actually showed up, it was also fairly current.

“Huh, hard to believe but this show has been on before my grandparents were born.” He waved them over as they looked at the large floating screen. He put in a random episode and hoped this worked.

“I wonder what he’s going to show us?” Sweetie asked.

“Not sure but looks like there’s somethin’ on that screen thing,” Apple Bloom told her.

“Hey look,” Scootaloo pointed as images of some kind of street with music playing was coming on.

[Sunny Day]
[Sweepin’ the clouds away]
[On my way to where the air is sweet]
[Can you tell me how to get,]
[How to get to Sesame Street]

David used to love this as a kid and he looked to see their young eyes light up at the sights and sounds. Even his niece and nephew would watch this program and although it had been a few years he had to admit this brought back a lot of memories.

It was also one of the longest running kids shows in centuries.

The first little skit seemed to be with Cookie Monster as he was trying to resist the urge to eat the cookies. David could only chuckle at the puppet, he remembered an old documentary about this show on how the original had hand puppets. They were all animatronics these days
with much more expression, blinking eyes and the lot.

“I wonder what that thing is,” Sweetie Belle asked as the large blue furry thing seemed to be looking at cookies.

“I think it wants the cookies but is trying to stop himself, not sure why.” Scootaloo shrugged.

“Maybe it’s close to dinner time,” Apple Bloom had been given that reason for not spoiling her appetite by her sister a few times. She looked up at the alien and pointed at the creature.

He did something that stopped the image as he pointed to the disk of cookies.

[Cookies]

“Uh-huh,” Apple Bloom nodded at the word for Cookie apparently.

Then the alien ‘David’ pointed to the creature, [Cookie Monster].

She tilted her head, she got the cookie part but not what [Monster] meant. The alien seemed to be trying to search for something then he made clawing motions with his hands and growling sounds as he repeated the word and pointed to the creature.

“Oh!” Apple Bloom got it.

“What, did you figure it out?” Sweetie asked.

“Ah think it’s name is Cookie Creature.”

“Really, why?” Scootaloo asked not sure about it but the thing on the floating screen did seem to like cookies.

“Just a hunch,” Bloom said as the alien started it up again.

[Cookies!] the creature shouted out as it just devoured the cookies and the plate in a way they had only seen Pinkie Pie eat certain foods.
The three of them started laughing at it as he creature finished by licking his furry hands.

The next one was about some purple skinned one that looked kind of like the alien but spoke a bit strangely. Scootaloo pointed out that it was counting what looked like bats in some kind of castle. There was a shot of the street in the opening song with other aliens there but other creatures. One was a big yellow looking bird that towered over even the aliens.

One of the creatures was living in what looked like a trash can and seemed kind of grumpy. They figured if they lived in one of those they would be grumpy too. There was even a huge creature, it looked kind of like an elephant but all furry and no tusks.

David was thankful that they didn’t ask what that was when he showed up, he wasn’t sure how the hell he was going to try and translate the name Snuffleupagus to them.

The kids however did ask their alien friend to stop it sometimes as he tried to explain a few details, for the most part they were enjoying the program. They didn’t understand a lot of what was going on but they did seem to get the gist of it. They were enraptured by the music, the sights of the large puppet creatures. When it got to animated features their little minds were blown away.

“They can make moving pictures!” Sweetie jumped up excited at the sight of colourful drawings moving around like actual living beings.

“That’s so cool, I wonder how that works?” Scootaloo liked to draw herself like her friends but they didn’t know how they could make them move around like that.

“Must be some kind o’ magic,” Apple Bloom commented.

“Oh that would be great if I could learn how they do that,” Sweetie smiled at the thought of making moving pictures with her magic. Her magic might not be strong but maybe if she learned it she could get a Cutie Mark in that.

By the time the episode ended they were asking for more so David showed them another episode as he looked out the man window. The rain was starting to come down now and it was starting to get close to dinner time. At least for himself, he wasn’t sure what the girls ate but if they were anything like human kids, they would be hungry soon with all the activity.

Going into the galley of the ship he looked at what he had. He pulled up the data from the scans and from the teeth they had just herbivore set so that was most likely their diet. Thankfully he did have some vegetarian style meals. He figured he should eat one too, given he wasn’t sure how a species that didn’t eat meat might view eating meat. The last thing he needed was to accidentally freak the kids out.

So he got some salads made, a few sandwiches which were safe with various slices and juice. He figured the kids would know what they could eat but he did run it through AVI to make sure nothing obviously toxic was thrown in. He was actually a bit nervous about this, for all he knew their data was faulty and eating a tomato could cause an allergic reaction, but he couldn’t let them starve either.

He called out to the kids doing the best to remember how to pronounce their names.

The sounds of three little sets of hooves quickly came closer as they looked in and saw the food on the small round table.

One of their stomachs growled as David noticed that her face actually blushed in some way. He blinked at that, the fur had actually gone red on the cheeks, that would mean that the fur could change color there. That was odd, he had seen a few species of animals in his travels that did change colour like that but nothing that was so specific. He made a mental note to look into that later on.

The girls quickly started share a curved couch that half the table faced as they quickly started to divide the spoils of food before them. David watched closely as he noticed that as they made their food and ate, there was a mixture of how they did it. Sometimes they would use their mouths to manipulate things, other times they curved their front legs like how a human wrist worked. What shocked the hell out of him was when one of them somehow picked up something with one of their hooves.

David was dumbfounded when he saw Apple Bloom move a glass with her hoof like David would do with his hand. It didn’t make any sense to him how she was able to do that, it was a flat hoof, it shouldn’t be able to hold something like a hand. He shook his head as he sat down with them making his own meal.

After their meal, David ran a few more episodes for the girls while he cleaned up. After that David joined them as he saw with them helping them as best he could to understand what was going on. The kids got into it though, they sang along with the music as best they could. They apparently loved this one part with Kermit and a kid learning the alphabet and the kid kept putting in Cookie Monster while trying to sing the alphabet to Kermit’s displeasure.

It was starting to get late David noticed and maybe it was time to get the kids to bed. Hell, after that run from those wooden wolves and looking after the kids he could use a nice sleep by this point himself. The only problem was that there was only one bed. He called their names as they walked with him, a couple of them yawned as he nearly felt the urge himself. He opened the door to the living quarter as he pointed to his bed on the wall.

“Bed time kids,” He told them.

“I think it’s time for bed,” Sweetie yawned.

Scootaloo jumped up, the bed was a little higher than what a pony bed would be but it was easily reachable with a little effort. The others followed her as they settled on their positions. That was when Apple Bloom noticed that David was getting stuff out of a closet as he pulled what looked like another sheet and a single pillow.

She looked at the bed and saw that it already had a pillow and blanket so why would he need another? Then she got it, he was the only person on this ship and although they hadn’t seen it all it wasn’t all that big and maybe it only had one bedroom.

“Girls, ah think he’s givin’ up his bed for us,” Apple Bloom told them and explained her reasoning.

“So where’s he going to sleep then?” Scootaloo asked as they noticed that he was laying the items on the floor. “Oh...now I feel a bit bad, I mean he saved us from the timber wolves, made us food and showed us some cool stuff. He should get the bed.”

The others nodded, so far he had done a lot for them and here he was doing even more. They jumped down and sat in front of him.
“[David], your bed,” Apple Bloom spoke up pointing to the bed.

David looked down at them as he pointed to the bed. “You can use it.”

They only pointed back as he suddenly realized he was getting into an argument over who gets the bed. He would have laughed at that moment as arguing who is sleeping where with a group of alien kids. Then Scootaloo got behind him and started to try and push him forward with her head against the back of his legs.

“Alright, alright,” He told them as he sighed and thought about it. They were pretty adamant about him having the bed but honestly he could live with the floor. Thinking back to found a word that he had learned from them that might work.

[Share?] he asked them and pointed to the bed.

The three blinked as they looked at the bed and each other.

“What do y’all think?” Apple Bloom asked her friends.

“I’m okay with it,” Scootaloo said with a shrug.

“Yeah it might be a tight squeeze but we can all share it,” Sweetie nodded.

The three turned to face him as they nodded, he sighed and nodded his head as the three jumped onto the bed. David removed his footwear and jacket, he was leaving the pants and T-shirt one though, he wasn’t sure what was taboo in this culture but even if it was innocent, people would talk about an adult sleeping in the same bed as three little girls who barely knew each other in just his underwear.
“Hey look he’s got a Cutie Mark on his limb!” Scootaloo said pointing to the compass tattoo on David’s arm. They couldn’t see the others he had on under his shirt but they all looked at the mark.

“So aliens get Cutie Marks too? Maybe he’s an explorer or something and got it from that?” Sweetie commented.

David got onto the bed as they all tried to figure out where who would be sleeping. David ended up in the middle of course given his size as the girls looked for where they would sleep around him. David sighed as the girls started to find their spots, Sweetie Belle was by his left side her little head resting on his shoulder, Scootaloo took up a mirroring position on his right, while Apple Bloom took a spot on his chest.
He couldn’t help but smile though, they were too cute to get irritated at any slight uncomfortable positions. He just hoped that Sweetie
Belle’s horn didn’t poke him in the middle of the night or something.

“AVI, dime the lights off.”

The lights slowly turned down as darkness soon filled the room. The girls said something that he could only guess was ‘goodnight’ as he shook his head.

“Goodnight kids,” he told them as the sounds of rain patted against the hull of the ship lulling them to sleep.

Next up Chapter 10: The Request