The Sky Above
By: Winter Quill
The night was perfect for stargazing. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, the weather was warm (but not too warm), Spike was off helping Rarity with her orders, and the only light around came from the houses around down on the streets. Ponyville was such a small town that they didn’t have lamplighters, so the small amount of light on the ground didn’t reach up to the top of the tree. It was everything Twilight could have hoped for.
After everything that had happened to her in the last few months since she had become a princess she found that quite a few things had gotten away from her. The library was disorganized with books in all sorts of places, a number were also overdue but even worse, she was behind on her reading! But even with all of that she wasn’t going to turn down such a perfect night for stargazing.
Humming happily to herself she trotted up the stairs to the highest balcony of the library where her telescope was waiting. She held a picnic basket in the glow of her magic, filled with a little bit of food, some scrolls, quills and ink, and a blanket to sit on. She carefully set the basket down, taking out the blanket and laying it out on the balcony.
Twilight picked up a daisy sandwich out of the basket, holding it close with her magic as she sat down in front of the telescope. There was enough snack for two ponies, as Applejack said she may stop by to join her in the sky watching, but it would do for just her. She took a large bite as she adjusted the telescope until it was pointing at the north star. She looked though the eyepiece as she chewed, adjusting the focus.
Twilight looked away for a moment confirm her notes on what she wanted to view that night. When she looked back through the telescope, though the star was gone.
“That’s… odd,” she said as she checked the telescope mount to make sure that it hadn’t come loose during the plunder vines but it was exactly as tight as it needed to be. She moved the scope until she found the star again, but the moment she had it back in focus, it started to drift out of view!
There wasn’t any changes in the sky scheduled for tonight, and it was moving too slowly to be a shooting star. Twilight shifted the scope again, tracking the star as it moved across the sky. It was picking up speed.
Leaning back from the telescope she found she could see the movement with her naked eye. She set her half-eaten sandwich down, watching it as it slid across the sky. She didn’t know what it was, but it was something interesting, at least.
She sat back on her haunches, watching as the star slid across the sky. It didn’t move smoothly, the speed changing now and then. Sometimes it would zip quickly in one direction only to slowly drift back in the other. If she didn’t know better she would have guessed it was Rainbow Dash playing a prank on her, but it was far too subtle for her.
Twilight glanced through the telescope again, but couldn’t keep it focused on the strange light, it was just moving too erratically.
She took another bite of her sandwich, chewing on it as she thought about what she was seeing. It couldn’t have been a pegasus. The color was too pure to be the glowing lamps on a sky-chariot or a balloon. It was a mystery.
Then as suddenly as the light had started moving, it came to a stop. It hung in the sky just like it was supposed to but only for a moment. It started to flash, the light growing brighter for a moment then dimming away, never quite dark enough to vanish against the dark blue of the night sky. If anything the flashing made it look like it was growing larger.
Fanning out one wing Twilight framed the star with her feathers, placing them on the edge of glowing object. After the next flash of light it had clearly gotten bigger, the edges lost in her feathers. She let her wing drop as she watched the light grow larger. Soon it had doubled in size, and then doubled again a few moments later!
Twilight stood stock still, watching as the star grew even larger. It was hard to tell, but it seemed like it was coming towards her. She still wasn’t used to seeing how things moved in the sky, but she was fairly comfortable with the idea. For a moment she thought about how she could measure if it was traveling towards her, but she couldn’t think of way.
In the short time she’d been thinking, the star had doubled in size yet again. It was now large enough that she could start to make out a shape in the light. It was oddly shaped, smooth and oblong, the front edge glowing with light. It seemed like it was double the size of a sky-chariot, but there was no pony pulling it. The surface behind the lights seemed to be the same color as the sky, making it even harder to see.
And then it was right above her, hovering in the air over the library; close enough that she could see that she had been wrong about the color. It wasn’t the same as the sky, instead it was incredibly reflective, so much so that she could see the distorted shape of the tree in the surface of it. What was strange though, the light wasn’t reflecting off the surface even though it was all around the strange sky-craft.
The lights started to fade away until they were only as bright as the fireflies, swirling around the side of the craft. If she hadn’t been looking right at it, she would have had lost it when it moved again. But instead of moving quickly away, it started to circle around the tree, moving silently as it grew closer.
It wasn’t just silent, it was like it was absorbing the sound around it. There wasn’t even the sound of the breeze or the air moving past the surface of the craft.
Twilight followed the craft, her head turning until she was forced to spin around in place. As it sank down towards her she started feeling power radiating from it. It wasn’t power like magic, or even lightning. It was something else that she couldn’t quantify, but it made her feel odd.
Then, without any fanfare the vessel came to a stop, hanging just a few feet away from the edge of the balcony. It was almost close enough that she could reach out and touch it with her hoof. It just hung in the air in way that shouldn’t have been possible, sitting so still that it was almost like it was a part of the tree itself. Even magic couldn’t hold something so perfectly still.
Twilight took a step forward, not sure what she was going to do, but she knew that this was monumental moment. Whatever this strange craft was, it wasn’t pony made. It might not have even been of this world! Was it possible that there was life on other planets? That the strange world on the other side of the mirror wasn’t a construct, but a real place around some distant star?
Suddenly the solid wall of the craft vanished, being replaced by a dark doorway in the side. Light didn’t seem to fall inside of it, leaving whatever was through the door in shadow.
It was like it was beckoning to her, inviting her to come in. Twilight took another step forward, her wings slowly fanning outwards.
The darkness was interrupted as a ramp slid out from inside the craft. It sank down until the far end came to rest on the edge of the railing, right next to her forgotten telescope. Small lights glowed along the edge, shining up towards the sky.
Twilight lifted her hoof, ready to place it on the ramp… until something walked out of the sky-ship.
She had never seen anything like it before. It almost looked like a human, but in the same way a dog looked like a timberwolf. It was tall, taller than even Celestia, its limbs all far too long and just slightly out of proportion. Its skin was an odd shade of greenest gray, like something that belonged in a swamp. It looked at her with a pair of large black eyes, no sign of an iris in them, just pure blackness.
It walked down the ramp with short steps, its wide splayed out feet supporting its stick-like body. It was wearing clothing, a simple shirt and flowing pants all in a dusty silver color. It came to a stop at the end of the ramp, pausing for a moment to look at her, its eyes narrowing.
Twilight sat with a heavy thump. Her wings fanned out behind her back as she looked at the strange creature. It was unlike anything in the world, completely and utterly alien. There had been stories of ponies encountering strange pony-like aliens, but they had nothing to back them up other than a collection of misunderstandings and deception. Now it was happening to her, but this time, there really was a real live alien creature standing in front of her!
Twilight was wondering what she should say to the creature when it lifted something that looked to be a clipboard. The fingers were too long, with more joints then seemed natural. It ran one of the fingers down the clipboard then looked back at her.
“Twilight Sparkle?” it asked, its voice sounding just like any other pony’s.
It knew her name! It knew her name and could speak perfect Equestrian without even a hint of an accent! She tried to say something in response, but her tongue failed her. The words got caught in the back of her throat, coming out as a half-formed grunt. She forced herself to nod to him.
“Princess of Magic and… Friendship?” it asked again, its eyes flicked down to the clipboard then back up to her.
Finally Twilight managed to get a word out. “Yes,” she squeaked.
The alien nodded and pulled a pen off his clipboard and made a mark upon it. It then tucked it under one arm., pointing one of his too long fingers at her.
“Twilight Sparkle. You are an obsessive compulsive nitwit.”
Then with a look of satisfaction at a job well done, he turned and walked back up into the craft, the ramp pulling up behind him.
Twilight sat there, stunned. Her mind spun in place but not quite finding any traction. “Buh…” was about all she managed to get out as the door in the craft vanished as fast as it had came. The craft lifted back up into the sky, rushing away fast enough to give Rainbow Dash a run for her bits. In seconds it was gone, lost in the stars, leaving behind a very confused princess.
“What the hay was all of that about?” Applejack asked, having come up behind her at some point during the encounter.
Twilight facehooved and let out a sigh. “I have no idea.”
-=-=-=-=-=-
This story was written and copyright 2017 by Theo Winters, writing as Winter Quill, reposting and archiving are allowed as long as this copyright notice and the author's name are not removed. This story cannot be published without permission of the author, violators will be insulted
Author's Note
Just a shaggy dog story with a cameo by Wowbagger the Infinitely Prolonged. What can I say, it seemed like a good idea at the time.
