He came from Space

Foreword: Please note that this story is dedicated to my cat, Nudge. He was the greatest most amazing cat I could've ever asked for and I loved him with all my heart.

May he rest in peace. 12/9/11.

Onward.

*-*-*

Chapter Three

Visitor from the Stars

December 31st, 2128

Equestrian star system

Town of Ponyville

Unicorn Twilight Sparkle

Twilight Sparkle awoke to the smell of pancakes, most likely being cooked by her assistant Spike. The Unicorn slowly dragged herself out of bed and made her way down to the main area of the library and into the kitchen.

"Good morning, Spike. How's your voice?" Twilight asked, the baby dragon looked over at her and held up a card; printed on the card in very clear writing were the words 'it sucks.'

"Don't worry, it'll come back soon" the Unicorn assured him, Spike held up a card that said 'I'm sure' before turning back to the pancakes.

"Did you write answers for all the questions I would ask this morning?" Twilight inquired; somehow she already knew the answer.

The dragon held up another card. 'Yep.'

Smart-aleck Twilight mused, smiling to herself. "Let me know when the pancakes are done, OK?" Sparkle asked, the dragon held up another card. 'OK.'

Twilight stepped outside, breathing in the crisp morning air; it was only seven AM but both her and Spike enjoyed being awake early on most days.

Twilight closed her eyes and raised her head slightly, inhaling the fresh air; it felt really good but also slightly different, like it was warmer than usual.

That can't be, it's too early. The air should be quite cold Sparkle thought; keeping her head up Twilight opened her eyes and gasped at the thing held in her eyes.

It was massive, well over a thousand feet long, and looked to be made of metal; coming out of the prow of the thing was a huge tube with blue bands around it, shining a dark blue. On top of the monstrosity was another massive tube emanating from a housing. In addition to the two tubes there were numerous square holes near the top of the thing, arranged in a checkerboard-like fashion and stretching horizontally along the craft. Twilight counted; there were forty-two holes in total.

For a moment Twilight was rooted in place, struggling to figure out what this thing was. Her heart jumped when from the back of the thing came a much smaller craft; it descended into the Everfree forest for a few moments before ascending back up to the large metal thing.

Then, from the same place, a creature floated down into the Everfree forest; it was hard to tell from this distance but it seemed the beast was bipedal in nature.

Twilight immediately darted back inside the library and locked the door, closing the curtains over every single window on the structure.

Spike came out of the kitchen at the sound of Twilight's frantic movements, noticing she was absolute panicking.

"Get down, Spike!" Twilight said, she switched the lights off and snatched up the baby dragon, shoving him down against the floor while she peeked out the window.

"Shh, be quiet" Sparkle said, Spike wasn't sure what was going on but it seemed that Twilight forgot he was incapable of sound for the time being.

Twilight watched as a strange machine rolled into Ponyville; it looked similar to a carriage but there were no ponies pulling it. Furthermore it was travelling far faster than any earth-ponies could ever hope to.

The machine rolled to a stop directly in front of Ponyville's library and from the machine came a biped, looking around the town. Twilight had a gut feeling that this biped was the same one she saw earlier.

Now Spike understood what the commotion was, though he couldn't quite understand what Twilight was freaking out about. It was just some newcomer, what's the big deal?

The baby dragon wrote out on a card and shoved it up into Twilight's view. 'Why are you flipping out?' the card asked.

"Because this thing came down off some kind of ship-looking thingy, I think it might be an alien! What if it's hostile?" Twilight asked.

'What if it's just curious?' another card suggested, prompting Twilight to calm down and think rationally.

"You might be right, Spike. I should at least try to make contact with it before anypony else stumbles across it and freaks out" Twilight said, sighing in resignation.

Before she could act, however, an intense knocking came to her door, striking fear into her heart.

*-*-*

"Well, there are structures here, but there doesn't seem to be any inhabitants" Marcus Calaway lamented as he drove the Hummer through the streets of the town, it seemed to be abandoned but the buildings were in excellent upkeep.

The Hummer rolled to a stop in front of a massive tree turned home, it appeared that the tree was hollowed out to create a house. "That's impossible; the tree wouldn't survive having its guts torn out, and yet…here it is, alive and well."

To say Mark was confused was an understatement.

"Maybe that Griffon lied to me" Calaway wondered, he knocked on the door to the tree house and waited patiently for it to open.

While he waited he looked around the town, if more Griffons did live here then they lived quite differently from Gilda; most of the homes here were actual houses.

Perhaps there are different aliens here. Griffons live in trees, which means I'm about to meet another Griffon, and other aliens live in houses. Curious Mark thought, he was pretty sure his theory was correct.

Finally the door opened and Marcus was greeted by…nothing. He looked into the home; the first thing he noticed was an abundance of books, they were literally everywhere. Either this place was a library or the being that inhabited it was really into reading.

"OK, so the door opened, where are the inhabitants?" Calaway wondered, he cautiously stepped forward and bumped into something. "Oh, sorry. I didn't see you lying down there" Mark said, looking down at the being he bumped in to.

It was a Unicorn.

"Uhh, I was joking about the whole Unicorn thing I said earlier" Calaway said to himself calmly, internally he was quite alarmed.

"Oh it's just a human. Who are you?" the Unicorn asked, Marcus wasn't entirely sure if it had actually spoken.

"I'm Marcus Calaway" Calaway tentatively answered, looking back down into the Unicorn's purple eyes.

"Uhh, I have to go...reclaim my sanity" Mark said, beginning to back away from the creature. Griffons he could accept, talking mystical equines he couldn't.

The Unicorn, most likely sensing his apprehension, stepped forward. "Wait! You're not crazy, I really am standing here and I really am talking" she exclaimed.

Calaway extracted his Five-seveN and aimed it at the Unicorn. "What is that?" she asked, reaching a hoof up to touch it.

"Get back! Get back or I will fire!" Mark said, placing both hands on the gun. His finger was off the trigger to prevent accidental discharge.

The Unicorn was undeterred and kept advancing; Mark pointed his Five-seveN into the air and pulled the trigger, letting off a warning shot.

The Unicorn screamed in terror.

As if he wasn't insane enough more equines came out to investigate the loud noise, each of them staring at the human in fear. The finishing touch was when a few Pegasi and a baby dragon stepped out to see.

"NO! You're not real!" Marcus shouted, his bellowing voice striking more fear into the hallucinations.

"Unicorns…Pegasi…dragons…oh my…" Mark panted, sweeping his Five-seveN around to keep them at bay. The hallucinations had pushed him away from the Hummer, leaving him stranded.

There was a tap on his shoulder and he whipped around, leveling his gun. Mark came face to face with a light-blue Pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail.

"Are you OK?" the Pegasus asked, reaching out a hoof toward the human. The blood pooled in his legs and Marcus Calaway's world went black.

And he collapsed to the ground.

*-*-*

Marcus awoke to the sound of music, a moderate tone with a familiar drum-beat. As he slowly came to he recognized the song as Kill Hannah's song New York City Speed.

As he opened his eyes Mark's gaze fell on the baby dragon standing at the foot of the bed Calaway was lying in.

The dragon whistled, most likely to get the attention of the Unicorn hallucination to torture Calaway further, in his hands was some kind of black object.

As Mark's vision cleared he saw that the object was his Five-seveN; the dragon was turning it over and inspecting every side of it, trying to figure out what it was. Finally he turned it back over and placed one of his claws on the trigger, the weapon pointing directly at Mark.

"NO!" Calaway yelled, he snapped his foot up which sent the gun out of the dragon's hands and into the air. Marcus leapt up and snatched the gun out of the air, tucking and rolling before landing on the floor, his heavy frame slamming down on the wood; his boots dented the planks, turning the impact points into toothpicks.

"Whoa" the dragon exclaimed at the strength of the human.

Mark stood, slivers of wood falling off the bottom of his boots, and turned back to see the lavender Unicorn coming up the stairs and into the room.

"What happened? I heard a loud noise" the Unicorn inquired, looking around the room to see if anyone was injured.

"The human freaked out again, kicked my hands too" the dragon answered, the Unicorn shot a glare at Marcus.

"Is that true?" she asked, Calaway gave an indifferent shrug.

"He had my gun in his hand, almost pulled the trigger. Would've killed me" the human explained.

"Shoot! Spike I told you not to mess around with his stuff! And what is that infernal sound?" the Unicorn asked, referring to the music.

"It seems your dragon touched my Personal Music Player, my PMP" Calaway said, pronouncing the acronym as 'pimp'; the Unicorn glared again, this time at Spike.

"Right. I'm still not entirely convinced you're all actually real" Mark said, eager to change the subject and get some answers to his questions.

"What would it take to prove you that we're real?" Twilight asked, Marcus stepped forward and touched alongside the Unicorn's cheek, running his fingers through the fur. He felt the skin below warm as a blush came to the Unicorn's cheeks.

Mark directed his hand upward and felt along the Unicorn's horn, feeling the spirals. "OK, so you are real" Calaway said.

"I told you" Twilight replied, a smirk on her face.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, and this is my dragon assistant; Spike" the Unicorn suddenly explained.

"Marcus Calaway" the human replied, introducing himself again. "I have arrived here on an assignment to chart new planets and star systems."

"So you know about humanity?" Mark asked.

"Come with me, I'll explain everything. Oh a new human this is so EXCITING!" Twilight squealed in delight, rushing downstairs to gather her writing materials.

Marcus looked over at Spike who just smiled and shook his head.

What a strange pony Mark mused, a smile spread across his face.

*-*-*

Author's note: Twilight knowing about humans will be explained in the next chapter, although quite briefly.

I would like to thank Michael Blackburn for beta-reading this chapter.

Legal Note: Marcus James Calaway and all related characters belong to me. Twilight Sparkle, Spike the Dragon, and all related characters belong to Hasbro. 'New York City Speed' belongs to Kill Hannah. Kill Hannah's labels belong to Atlantic, Original Signal, Universal Motown, and Roadrunner Records.