Rigdon’s eyes shot left to right, quickly scanning the area, only to see the same uniformity of trees. The sun was now retreating away from the sky, leaving an orange tint to the sky. He looked back down to Twilight. She was sleeping on the ground, in between him and Spike, who was also curled up and soundly asleep. He mumbled something about Rarity. Rigdon was worried about Twilight and how she would take all of this when she gets up. He could only hope that everything would end up alright. His hand continued to slowly run through her mane, comforting the sleeping mare.

He slowly turned his head back up, his mind racing with questions about how this could even happen. ‘How did the Russians even get here? Did they steal our technology?’ He shook his head, not knowing what to think anymore. He slowly retracted his hand from her head as he began to focus on his own endeavors. He looked at his hands, of which were stained from the blood of another. He slowly ran his thumb against his palm as the guilt began to slowly set in.

Why should he be concerned about that? It was a life or death situation!… And yet, he did. He felt terrible for taking the life of another. Maybe it was the fact he was a staunch pacifist—similar to these ponies. A couple drops of tears rained from his face. Quickly, he would reach up and wipe them away, only causing the blood to be smeared across his cheek. With the removal of his reassurance, Twilight slowly began to stir. Her eyes slowly fluttered open, her vision quickly filling with Rigdon’s figure.

Twilight quickly sat up, looking side to side as the reality of everything began to set in. Her ears slowly pulled back as she sat down, using her front hooves to support her body. She looked forward, staying silent. She slowly turned her head to Rigdon, a deeply saddened look plastered on her face. “So… It wasn’t just some bad dream?” She questioned. Rigdon gave a slow shake of his head.

“Honestly, I really wish it was, Twilight,” He replied to her. Everything fell silent. The birds chirped in the distance, telling everyone of their wonderful song. Twilight looked over once again. She looked down, thinking about a few things before voicing her opinion.

“What do we do now?” She questioned. Rigdon gave a small shrug in response to her. He sighed softly, leaning back against the wooden frame of a nearby apple tree.

“I… don’t know.” He reached up, his hands gently covering his eyes. “For the first time in my life, I just don’t know.” He pulled his hands back down. His arms fell limply to his side. He was defeated. Despite everything, it was all getting taken away once again. Twilight wore a worried expression on her face. She slowly cracked a smile, trying to look over on the bright side of things. If Pinkie was here, she’d do her best to cheer everyone up.

“Well… If you would like to, we could talk to each other about our past,” She said to him. Rigdon looked over to find Twilight giving him a smile. “Y’know, just get to know each other better.” She said softly. Rigdon pondered her solution, taking everything into account. He gave off a couple of blinks before caving into her idea.

“Alright, alright. I guess I can talk about a couple of things.” He would reply to her. Twilight gave a huge smile, reaching up her hooves and clopping together. She quickly realized her habit, then quickly planted them back on the ground. A small blush appeared on her face in embarrassment. He couldn’t help it, but he let out a small laugh in response. Despite everything happening, Twilight couldn’t give up a chance to learn something new. That was something Rigdon admired about her.

“Since I shared a story with you on the train ride to Canterlot the other day, I think this time you should go first on sharing your story,” Rigdon called out to her. Twilight gave a quick nod as she thought about everything. She sat there for a good while, gathering her thoughts on the matter. Once getting everything straight, she began to tell her story.

“Well, my name is Twilight Sparkle. I’m the Magic, or friendship element bearer of the Elements of Harmony,” She introduced herself to him once again. Rigdon raised his right brow. ‘What are the Elements of Harmony?’ Twilight, reading the puzzled expression on his face, judged what he was confused about and gave an answer. “The Elements are powerful weapons of pure magical harmony, as the name suggests. The bearers are myself and my friends.” She pointed her hoof to herself as she gave the lecture. Once finishing, she got back on track with her story.

“I was born in the capital, Canterlot. I’m twenty years old. I have a brother. His name is Shining armor,” Twilight huffed out. She gave a small smile as she thought about him. “He’s the bestest big brother ever! We did everything together when we were younger.” She lifted her head to look at the sky, watching a couple of clouds lazily drift by. Rigdon couldn’t help but smile at her fondness for her brother. He wished he could have that type of relationship with his sibling.

“After watching Celestia raise the sun at the Summer Sun Celebration one year, I worked tirelessly into learning magic. I did everything there was to do… One day, my parents decided to enroll me to Celestia’s School for Gifted Unicorns,” She stopped for a moment, soon looking over to Spike. Rigdon followed her eyes to look at him. “That’s where I hatched Spike.” She reached her hoof down, gently rubbing his cheek.

“I almost didn’t make it in—I was struggling a lot. But, there was a loud crash. The next thing I knew, I ended up hatching Spike and turning my parents into a couple of plants. Celestia came in, calmed me down, and asked me to be her personal pupil.” She said, before pointing towards her flank. “Next thing I knew, I got my cutie mark, and the best teacher in the world!” She said gleefully. Rigdon raised his brow for a moment, his eyes fixated on her flank. He looked back up to her. Ignoring the fact that a pony could move a Celestial body, he asked a question that wouldn’t take up too much time… B’sides, it might end up turning into an argument if he did.

“What’s a cutie mark?” He questioned Twilight. Her eyes widened at his dumbfoundedness towards cutie marks. She practically tackled him as she pelted him with information. Twilight’s hooves were planted firmly on his chest as she spoke up.

“You don’t know what a cutie mark is?! A cutie mark is something everypony gets when they figure out their calling in life!” She practically yelped out. Seeing how she was now over Rigdon, she quickly backed off, her face now completely enveloped in a blush. She quickly apologized for her brash actions. “S-Sorry… I didn’t mean-” Rigdon raised his hand, silencing her. He gave a small smile.

“Don’t worry about it, Twilight. It’s alright, really. I mean, you can’t even imagine how many times I’ve gone off about telling people about my profession.” He lowered his arm. Twilight tilted her head slightly, a few questions forming in her head.

“What was your profession back on Earth?” She questioned. Rigdon lifted his hand up, his fingers gently dragging against his chin. He turned his head back over to her. He can already see the outcome of what was to happen when he did tell her his job.

“Well, I was—am an engineer. I specifically worked in aerospace and aviation. Science was my major, so that’s why I pursued that field,” He finished talking. He couldn’t even describe the look that twilight gave him. One thing was for certain; He saw that sparkle in her eye. Her voice was now at a yelling volume.

“Aerospace? So, you mean you were working on Flying stuff in space? Oh my gosh… How advanced are humans? How could they get something into space?! Oh Celestia.” Twilight could feel herself go lightheaded. She slowly fell backwards, Rigdon quickly catching her before she kissed the ground. He looked down at Twilight, a bead of sweat dripping down his face as he stared at the star-struck mare.

“Twilight?... You alright?” He questioned as she mumbled incoherently about Science and space. He shook his head lightly, scoffing at her amazement. He’d be lying to say that she wasn’t adorable. He reached down, his finger pressing against her nose. She quickly snapped out of her daze, her eyes focusing on the finger as her muzzle quickly scrunched up. He gave a small snort before letting out a loud bellow of laughter. “ Wahaha! You- Your face! Haha! It’s priceless!” He laughed at her expense. A pouty look appeared on Twilight’s face as she was laughed at.

She slowly reached her hoof up, quickly pressing it against his nose. Rigdon quickly shot back, his eyes shooting open. He swore he could feel fingers! Twilight gave a small snort, retracting her hoof and placing it back to her side. “Now look at who's the one with a priceless face.” She said to him with a sly tone. Rigdon rolled his eyes, quickly folding his arms against his chest.

“Yeah Yeah, laugh it up, Sparkle butt,” He huffed out, giving Twilight a brand new nickname. Twilight has now won an award for brightest christmas tree of the year. She craned her head back, hoof lifting as she put it against her chest fluff defensively.

“E-Excuse me?!” She said with a hint of annoyance and offense. Rigdon soon let out a couple of laughs. He quickly unfolded his arms, reaching his hand back. He placed it on her head and ruffled her main up a bit.

“C’mon, lighten up! It’s just some Earth humor—all in good spirit.” He reached his hands up, resting his head up against them. Twilight still didn’t really understand his humor, or why he would call her such a provocative name!

“I don’t get humans… How could anypony in Celestia’s name have that type of humor?” Twilight let an exhale leave her nose. Rigdon moved his shoulders up in a small shrug before letting them fall back down.

“Like I said, that’s just how it is,” He said to Twilight. He slowly looked up, his eyes blinking slowly. What laid before him on the canvas of the sky were the Milky droplets of stars. He let out a small breath as he stared at the sky. Twilight slowly followed his eyes, now finding herself looking up at the vast expansion of space. “Y’know, with math alone, I could tell you how hot that star is…” He told Twilight without wavering. Twilight looked over at him, her eyes filled with wonder. She lifted her notebook and quill pen from her travel pack.

“You had me at math!” Twilight said excitedly as she handed him the paper and pen. Rigdon gripped them firmly, picking out a bright, white star. He looked over to Twilight, quickly asking her a question.

“Hey, do you know what the peak wavelength of that star is?” He questioned her as he pointed the end of the pen to the bright star. Twilight stared up at it, realized what star it was, then quickly gave out the answer.

“Four hundred twenty nanometers.” Twilight blurted out. Rigdon gave a couple of nods as he wrote down an equation. He plugged in the numbers and began to solve it. Once done, he wrote down two more equations, plugging the answer of the first new equation to the other.

“Alright, so first off, the star peaks at blue light. This means that the star most likely has not that much time left before it goes supernova, but that’s besides the point. Anyways, the temperature of the star is about… Six thousand nine hundred and four point seven degrees Kelvin, or over eleven thousand degrees fahrenheit.” He started off with reading the equation. Twilight’s jaw practically dropped to the ground.

“The frequency is about… Seven point fourteen times tenth to the fourteenth cycles per second. The energy of a single photon is four point seventy four times ten to the negative nineteenth per second.” He read everything off to her. Twilight couldn’t even wrap her head around something that fast. “Now, is there any way for you to measure the wavelength of the star right now?”

Twilight wondered why he would ask this. She had told him the wavelength of the star already. She pointed her horn at the star and closed her eyes. She opened her eyes, looking back towards Rigdon. “I… don’t understand… It’s four hundred and twenty point seventy five… How could it be different?” She questioned. Rigdon gave a sly smile as he wrote down one more equation.

Finished with solving, he quickly double checked everything before giving Twilight his answer. “Well, the reason that the wavelength is different is because right now—at this very moment, that star is traveling away from us at around five hundred and thirty five thousand, seven hundred and fourteen point three meters per second.” He would put emphasis on second. Twilight sat there in silence, her eyes widening as all of this information sank in. She couldn’t believe her ears! How could a civilization be this far ahead, that it was able to tell everything about a distant dot in the night sky! She couldn’t even wrap her head around it.

“Can we do more?” Her eyes began to sparkle, carrying a childlike wonder with them. Rigdon felt happy that someone was interested in his field. Back at home, science wasn’t really talked about that much. Sure, the average Joe knew about the Space Race, but no one cared about the real nitty-gritty of everything. Here, he had a listener—someone that cared about what he did. He was grateful about it. He gave a small smile, his gaze softening. He could feel his heart skip a beat, but he quickly pushed it off. Whatever… it was just cold outside!

“Alright, alright! Just a couple more.” He would pick up the pen and paper once again, his eyes scanning the sky once more. “You see a star that looks good?” He questioned her. Twilight gave a quick nod, her gaze focused on a specific patch of the sky. She quickly raised her hoof and pointed at it. Rigdon nodded and began to write things down.

/ / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / / /

Rigdon finished up everything, quickly folding his piece of paper. He then placed it down onto the grass, gandering a sad look from Twilight. Her ears pulled back a bit as she placed her hooves together in what he could assume could be a begging gesture.

“Please! Just one more,” She begged him. Rigdon gave a small grin as he reached over, patting her head a little. She quickly reached up, swatting his hand away, causing him to chuckle. Twilight let out a small ‘Hmph!’ as she turned away from him.

“We’ll do some more tomorrow night, alright? I know we can study the night all long, but now I want to enjoy it. Sure, math is fun, but sometimes you need to let your eyes do some of the work,” He pointed out. Twilight looked back at him before slowly craning back, her head tilting up to look at the starry night sky. She let out a small gasp at what she saw. It looked beautiful… Sure, she’s seen the night before, but she’s never exactly taken the time to really appreciate it.

“Oh my Celestia… this is gorgeous! Rigdon, did you do this all the time back-” She caught her tongue, her muzzle quickly scrunching up. What she saw was Rigdon fast asleep. Her gaze softened into a small smile. “Guess we did go overboard with the math, huh?” She cooed softly as she got up, walking over to him as silently as she could.

“I’m glad that I have you as a friend, Rigdon.” She slowly laid down on her stomach. Leaning forward, she rested her head against his lap. Her eyes slowly but surely grew heavy, the feeling of comfort slowly cradling her back and forth. Sleep came easy, her eyes finally falling shut as she fell asleep against him.

Author's Note

Looks like we actually get a more relaxed chapter this time around. I was really excited to actually flesh out the dynamic between the duo! I even broke out my notes and calculator for this chapter! Hope you love it!