It was cold outside. From the porch steps of your house, you gazed up into the night sky, your eyes tracing back and forth across an invisible line. While the simple action relaxed your nerves, uneclipsed astonishment still gusted through your mind, scattering your thoughts about.
For a second, you looked down, studying your lap with a heavy exhale, only to lift your head again and survey the silhouette treeline. Knees are weird, you thought. Like trees. How very profound. You had never truly scrutinized your human-ness until today.
Delicate hoofsteps faded into your awareness.
“Um… A-Anon…?” an even more delicate voice called out from behind you.
Leaning back, you spotted the source of your aforementioned astonishment peeking out from behind the front door. The full moon shone against her large, inviting eyes, while the dimmed, foyer lights outlined her drooped ears and curvy mane. Even in the near dark, the rich color of her fur contrasted intensely against the textures of reality that you knew so well.
“Oh, uh, hey again, uh…” you answered, stumbling over your words as you took in her extraordinary appearance yet again.
With a weak sniffle, she adjusted her mane, revealing many faded, dried tears. “C-can I, um, well… do y-you, maybe, um…” she stuttered, her eyes flitting between you and the doorway rug.
Your patience for this bizarre day was well exhausted, yet this colorful pony instilled such inexplicable calmness in you. In this soothing clarity, you reminded yourself that she was stranded from her home, lightyears away from her friends, and surely feeling very, very alone. Alien species or not, you recognized her personality as one you knew all so well. Her approach, right now, took an incredible amount of bravery.
You wished you could reward that with more than your voice.
“We can chat, yeah,” you finished for her, following up with a tired smile.
“O-oh…! Um… I… I-I’d like that…” she replied, looking as much flustered as relieved. Still, she remained at the doorway, casting a shy glance up at you from behind her mane.
Something about this pony pulled the rusted corners of your mouth up into a bigger smile.
“Right, uh, well, it’s kind of nice out here,” you said, looking out over the chilly yard and night sky. Truthfully, you rather liked the cold, if only because it was familiar. “All the stars are out, too.” You glanced back and forth from her to the empty spot beside you, raising your eyebrows in suggestion.
A mix of relief and achievement spread over the cartoon pegasus’s features. Head down, eyes up, she crept out from behind the door and shuffled over to you.
You looked up at the moon, offering your self-conscious companion some privacy as she situated herself at your side. A faint sensation trailed down your arm as she ruffled her wings.
And it was quiet, for some time. The cool October air strolled through your mind, carrying cricket chirps, dull highway noise, and the memories that you had ventured outside to better evoke.
“I-I…” her shaky voice cut through the ambiance. “I w-wanted to, um, thank you… for helping me.”
You recalled the chaotic confusion from earlier. Who would have thought that first contact with an intelligent, English-speaking alien would involve so much human emotion? It had taken over an hour just to coax her out from your closet. You didn’t get much of a chance to talk before she broke down into tears for most of the afternoon.
“I-I’m not very assertive…” she continued. “And, um, w-well, I don’t know what I-I’d do if I was… a-alone…” Her voice cracked on the last word, followed shortly by a ragged inhale.
It had been around sunset when she finally opened up. Exhausted as she was from so much heavy crying, though, you only learned the basics of her predicament before she took a nap on the sofa. It was shocking that she so easily felt safe in your presence.
“…so… t-thank you…”
An abrupt warmth drew up against your side. The worth of physical contact suddenly seemed a lot more universal.
Now it was your turn to struggle to speak. “I, uh…” You were positively stunned that she trusted you this much already. “Well, I mean, this is so incredibly unusual…” you trailed off.
She was looking directly at you, eyes wide and holding your own, for the very first time. Hundreds of reflected stars cushioned you as you fell into her gaze. She was so very strange, this pony girl, yet so strikingly pure, genuine, familiar, and even attractive. You knew little of her, but somehow knew her, and it already broke your heart that she was lost in your shitty world.
“I… I’m just happy to help. You don’t deserve this,” you said.
She blinked and quickly turned away, but you swore there was a new hint of courage in her expression.
Once again, silence enveloped your porch. You were about to ask her if she was cold, but the sensation of her wing quivering against your side was communication enough. You plainly recognized the difference between chills and distressed shivering, though the remedy for both was the same.
With the surrounding ambiance, Mother Earth did well to entertain her guest. As a flat, gray cloud passed over the moon, the chorus of insects fell into awkward silence. Only a couple seconds passed until one brave cricket sang out, rallying the entire group back to full volume.
Your attention drifted between the gritty world and the pastel pony in your peripheral vision. Every minute or so, she’d peer back up at you, trying to act casual, but failing adorably.
“S-so, um, can I-I ask… w-why are you out here…?” she finally spoke up.
A peculiar pressure grew in your chest as you watched her try to find what your skyward eyes were focused on.
“Huh, well, funny you should ask that,” you said with a tiny laugh. “You remind me of someone…“
Her ears perked forward. “I-I do…?”
“Not a pony, but another human. Like me.” Unconsciously, you pulled your arms across your chest. “But… like you… I think she’s lost.”
You had Fluttershy’s full attention now. She scooted closer and fixed you with a hopeful, soul-wrenching look that said, “please tell me more.”
Never had you imagined that your life story would be a relatable distraction from reality, let alone for a traumatized alien girl. Perhaps it was worth it, yet, for this unprecedented moment.
“Okay…” With an uneasy, deep breath, you began, “It was her dream…”
Reflected in the pegasus’s eyes, a shooting star flew overhead, arcing past Auriga. You glanced up at its wake, an invisible line that split the horizon twain into a special kind of North and South. In the great distance, a bright glissando flowed through the tooth-filled sky.
“…to live in the interstellar…”
