The maid slowly crept towards the room where she’d seen the creature disappear into, ears pressed flat against her head and tail tucked tightly between her legs. With each step she took, fear took a deeper hold in her body. It was only warranted after she’d seen that… thing.

She had only caught a glimpse of it, but that glimpse was enough to instill a primal fear within her mind strong enough to make her bolt. It had been walking with purpose, a hard-set expression on its face. In one hand, it had held a paper, which it had been intently scrutinizing as it passed. In the other, it carried a bag as large as a pony. The truly shocking thing, however, was what the creature was wearing. It was fully clothed, which was strange enough on its own, but it appeared to be wearing a jacket made of dried and dyed animal hide.

When it first passed the maid, her muscles had locked up in fear, allowing it to pass out of her field of view. After a few seconds, she had raced after it, tracking its progress through the building. She had no idea what it was, and in a world where the royal palace was a target for supernatural evils, that was a really bad sign. Eventually, however, it had disappeared into one of the guest bedrooms and hadn’t come out. And that was where the maid was fearfully creeping towards, determination in her steps and a weapon in her mane.

As the door loomed nearer, the maid began to ready her telekinesis. If the creature truly was dangerous, she would have to strike fast to subdue it before it could harm her. If she wasn’t prepared, so many things could go wrong… but before she could dwell on those thoughts, she reached the door. With a trembling hoof, she pushed the door open.

When the creature didn’t jump out, the mare let out a soft sigh of relief. The lights were turned off in the room, the ray of sun from the open door providing the only source of illumination. The maid slowly walked in, her hooves barely making any sound. She looked around the familiar layout of the room. All of the guest suites in the palace were arranged in the same way, with the bed in the center of the back wall, two windows on either side of the headrest, a large, wooden dresser along the right wall, with a door leading to a walk-in closet right next to it, another door leading to a bathroom on the left wall, and a coat stand by the door. The creature had taken full advantage of the coat hanger, having left its jacket on it. The maid let out a small gasp when she saw it. It’s leather! she thought, horrified. She wrenched her eyes away from the sight and saw that the bag it was carrying had been left upon the dresser. As for the creature itself, it had climbed into the bed and appeared to be asleep.

The maid swallowed nervously and walked up to the side of the bed, activating her magic with a pale-green glow. A similar aura surrounded the handle of the weapon hidden in her mane. Silently, the knife slid out of it’s silky sheath as the maid brought it to hover in front of her muzzle. It had been fairly simple to acquire. She had gone down to the castle kitchens and borrowed it. It was one of the larger ones they had, almost ten inches long with a serrated edge. The maid found herself thankful for her choice.

She took several deep breaths. Just one stab, she thought. Just one and this killer will no longer be a problem. The presence of the leather jacket proved the assumption that the creature was a murderer in the maid’s eyes. She closed her eyes, and with her magic, raised the knife above her head. She grimaced, preparing to plunge the blade downwards-

And froze as she felt a smooth, cold, metal circle press into her forehead. “Put the knife down and I won’t blast your brains across the wall,” a male voice whispered. The maid’s magic vanished, letting the knife drop out of the air and onto the bed. Her ears registered a chuckle, and the metal pulled away. The maid opened her eyes and squeaked as she saw the creature had sat up, a strange object in its hand and its eyes boring into hers. “Now, you had better have a good explanation for why you were trying to kill me.”

“I-I…” the maid squeaked, unable to form a full sentence through her fear. She started to back away from the creature.

“None of that,” the creature chided. “Jeez. Sunbutt wasn’t kidding when she said that ponies could react badly.”

“S-S-Sunbutt?” the maid whispered.

“Y’know, Celestia,” the creature explained.

“Oh.”

“Now, we’ll try this again,” it said. “Why were you trying to kill me?”

“B-because… you’re a killer,” the maid said, preparing to bolt.

“What gave you that idea?” the creature asked softly, looking genuinely confused.

“Leather jacket,” the maid said, more confidence in her voice. “You were wearing animal skin.”

“Oh, that?” the creature asked, a smile spreading across his face. “That’s fake.”

“F-fake?” the maid asked.

“Yeah,” the creature answered, getting out of the bed and standing up. “Real leather is unbelievably expensive.”

“You didn’t make that?” the maid asked. “It was sold to you?”

“Mhm,” the creature said. “So basically, you tried to kill me because of a misunderstanding.”

“Well, now I feel bad,” the maid whispered.

“It’s fine,” the creature said, chuckling. “So… should we start over? Introduce ourselves? I feel like we started off on the wrong foot.”

“That would be… nice,” the maid said.

“I’ll start,” the creature said. “My name is Jordan, and before you ask, I’m a human, one of two that are on this planet. No, we’re not from Equis, and yes, I’m technically an alien.”

“Wow,” the maid murmured. “C-charmed. My name is Misty Skies.”

“Pleased to meet you, Misty,” Jordan said, extending a hand. Misty shied away from it. “What? It’s a handshake.”

“O-oh,” Misty said. She extended a hoof, and they shook briefly. “You’re an alien? How did you get here?”

“A mechanical teleporter,” Jordan answered. “And then it broke. My partner and I are stuck here now for the foreseeable future.”

“That sucks,” Misty said.

“It does,” Jordan agreed.

“So you’re sort of… explorers?” Misty asked.

“The technical term is an astronaut, but that’s basically it,” Jordan answered, turning on the lamps in the room. “What do you do?”

“I’m a maid,” Misty said. “I have been for most of my life.”

“For the royals?” Jordan asked. “That must be kinda awesome.”

“It is,” Misty said, smiling softly. “Celestia gets to know her staff pretty well. Speaking of which, Sunbutt? Really?”

“I stand by that statement,” Jordan declared. “I will not retract it, apologize for it, or regret it, because it was funny.”

“No, it was my line.” Misty said, rolling her eyes. “That was my joke and you stole it.”

“Then I am a thief and proud of it,” Jordan stated. The two stared at each other before giggling softly.

“You aren’t so bad,” Misty said.

“You’re kinda cool,” Jordan admitted. “Friends?”

“Friends,” Misty answered with a curt nod.

“I’ll say, this is the first time that a friendship involving me started off with a murder attempt,” Jordan joked.

“Sorry…” Misty said sheepishly.

“I said it was fine,” Jordan said. Misty nodded softly. An awkward silence spread between the two for some time.

“Um,” Misty said. “I… kinda have to go. I’m still on shift and need to get back to cleaning.”

“That’s fine,” Jordan said. “I have to get back to something important as well: Napping.”

Misty giggled softly and turned around, heading for the door. “See you later?” she asked.

“Yeah,” Jordan responded. “And… could you not tell Sunbutt about this?” he asked, holding up the strange, L- shaped object. “It’s kinda… really dangerous.”

“What is it?” Misty asked, stopping.

“It’s called a handgun,” he answered. “And it can be frighteningly deadly.”

“Oh…” Misty answered, paling slightly. “Yeah, I’ll keep it a secret.”

“Thanks,” Jordan said, climbing back into the bed. “Bye!”

“Bye,” Misty said, trotting away and shutting the door. Jordan let out an amused sigh and lay down. A few minutes later, he fell asleep once more, a soft smile on his lips.

Author's Note

IT'S ALIVE! THE STORY IS ALIVE! (Maniacal cackling)

So yeah, I FINALLY got around to updating this! Certainly took me long enough. I've just been SO BUSY working on a different story of mine. It's one I update WAY more frequently, so please go check it out. It's called The Adventures of a Tone Deaf Pony. I think you'll enjoy it.
Please check it out... It's performing way worse than I expected it to and I'm really proud of it...
Also, who in their right mind thought it was a good idea to give Jordan a gun?!

But yeah, new chapter! If I screwed up grammatically, let me know in the comments! Or just leave me some feedback or a fun comment. I love getting those.

Also, for those of you who celebrate it...
MERRY CHRISTMAS!
And yes, I know I'm uploading this on Christmas Eve. I can still say it.

~Pyrepinna