The Warmth of Alien Suns

Dear Princess Celestia,

First, you’ll realize this immediately, but… I’ve enchanted this letter. It’s a double layered adaptation of Night Light’s Fourth variation. Do you like it? I thought it was rather efficient myself. Oh, I hope you like it.

Sorry, I’m a little scatterbrained today, princess. It’s been a very stressful and honestly dangerous few days, whether we knew it at the time or not. The things in this letter cover a wide range from the exciting to the terrifying. But, I think I can sum it all up in one sentence: I made a new friend, and her name is Samantha.

I wrote the name in Griffish, just so you can get the sound of it right. Equestrian ideaograms just really don’t handle those sounds well! I ended up having to use symbols that were ambiguous and you know me, so I just gave up on that and switched. Samantha is not a griffon, however. She’s something called a human.

Humans are bipedal creatures with hands and light fur most everywhere but their heads. They are mammalian and intelligent, and capable of craftsmanship and language. They must be considered one of the Speaking Races.

I have met three humans, but Zecora met the first one. She tells me that she found Samantha wandering in the woods and helped her find out what was and wasn’t safe to eat in the Everfree. After that, Samantha returned her gift and they began talking. That was when Zecora came to me with the story and a strange problem.

You see, the humans seem to be… well. I’m not sure how to describe it. It isn’t that they aren’t magical so much as they are abnormal in their reaction to magic outside of themselves. Simply being in the presence of Zecora seemed to have serious and potentially dangerous effects on her at first, though she has acclimated. Symptoms included paranoia, anxiety, fear of impending doom… as well as a feeling of being deathly cold and numb. I’m not sure I understand it, and I’ve tried to include notes worth reading but… well, you’ll see.

But this cover letter is more about my general thoughts! The other pages have diagrams, detailed notes, and some observations that trouble me, as well as some sketches I did. I figure that this is a pretty historic moment, and it would be best if I document as much as I can! There is also an account of a battle with a rabid manticore that I humbly suggest you read.

But part of the reason why I felt like I had to double enchant this letter is because of the humans themselves. There are three that we know of, and they claim to have become from beyond the Veil. Yes, that Veil. Oh, Princess, isn’t that amazing? Except that from her description, I think I’m glad that Star Swirl couldn’t cross over.

The first is Samantha. I think that, despite our short acquaintance, that I consider Samantha my friend. I think if she were a pony… she would be an Earth pony. Probably because she reminds me a lot of Applejack. She is always telling ponies to “give it to her straight” which means to tell the truth, and she’s very concerned with honesty. At first, I wasn’t sure about her--she comes from a very, very different world, princess, one full of violence and disharmony. Yet even so, despite her rougher exterior, I found that she was capable of great compassion as much as she is desperate violence. She does not revel in her capability to inflict harm, much to my relief. And she was very gentle with a nervous Fluttershy, and you can imagine how that made me want to like her all the more. I get the sense that she is very sad, Princess, and also lonely. I wish there were more humans here for her to be friends with that weren’t like… well, the others.

The second human reminds me of one of those old unicorn sages. His name is Malthus, and he is very different from Samantha. Where she is all about honesty and being direct, he is all about smiling and avoidance. He reminds me of the nobility in High Canterlot, weaseling their way into ever higher circles. That isn’t to say that he is bad, necessarily. Some of those nobles weren’t so bad. Some of them are wonderful ponies! But many aren’t. Malthus was once a guard of some sort, but now he is a mapmaker, or at least he says so. His tone suggests that something about this might be amusing, or otherwise untrue. In fact, much of what he says could be described this way. Samantha does not dislike him, but she does not trust him. I think that she has tried to be nice to Malthus and Malthus has tried to be nice back… perhaps his mannerisms make it hard? I could understand that. Sometimes you can offend someone without meaning to at all.

The last human is scary, Princess. He reminds me a little of the old pegasus barbarians I read about when I was a filly. He has a device of some sort that allows him to go unseen, and is undetectable (maybe, though I’m sure magic could do the job!). That human is a monster. Samantha is very afraid of him, and I think she worried that we would judge her by his example, but Fluttershy and I would never do that. Just because one pony is a jerk doesn’t mean all ponies are jerks. But the third human is from a very bad place or group beyond the Veil and he has come here chasing these two humans, and maybe to harm Equestria. He has a device of terrible power, allowing him to hurt or kill many ponies at long distances with little effort, and he could do so without being seen.

Oh, Princess… he crippled a poor farmer on the other side of the Everfree from Ponyville and used him as bait.

When we talked about it, Samantha’s eyes grew very hard. She said that she would deal with him, and I was a little afraid of her.

I’m not sure what to do, but I trust her. I think that she is a good person. If there are more like her beyond the Veil, then maybe we can be friends after all, even with these others. They could use some Harmony, that’s for sure.

Your Student,

Twilight Sparkle

P.S. The mayor will be sending a formal request for a company of Guardsponies today at some point. She is pretty shaken up about poor Perique. That's the pony who was hurt. He's staying with Sam now in the Everfree castle, and she's taking care of him.