Twilight Sparkle smiled at the strange creature in front of her as it shook her hoof up and down in a gentle manner. When she saw all those ponies running for their lives screaming bloody murder, she had assumed the worst.

But when she saw what the “monster” was and how the guards were antagonizing it, she couldn't just watch as a worse version of Zecora's treatment played out. Yeah, it wasn't nice of the creature to eat all of Applejack's food, but it could be a simple misunderstanding considering the language barrier that plagued Twilight and it.

“I know you don’t understand me, but I just want to say again that it is very nice to meet you,” Twilight said with a welcoming smile.

The creature responded with a deep grunt, its facial expressions hidden behind its mask and tinted goggles. Twilight briefly wondered if such attire had something to do with its culture, she could find no other reason why a creature would be wearing so much clothing in this weather. It must be unbearably hot in there.

“Well, I believe the ‘monster’ has been ‘defeated,’ would you boys agree?” Twilight said as she turned back around to face the guards.

The guards still looked apprehensive and slightly suspicious, but they both nodded in agreement.

“Yes, Miss Sparkle, but would it be alright if we keep an eye on it? After all, we don’t know what it is and a language barrier won’t stop it from becoming upset at something that may be considered harmless to us,” the guard named Sharp Steel said.

Twilight shook her head, “That won’t be necessary, but I thank you for your concern. Instead, can you inform the citizens and your fellow guards that there is no cause for concern? I’m going to go to my library with the creature to see if I can find a translation spell.”

Sharp Steel’s brows furrowed in annoyance and frustration. He opened his mouth to voice these feelings presumably, but he was stopped when a hoof blocked his mouth.

“Of course, Miss Sparkle. We shall do it at once,” Nova Star said with a sheepish smile before dragging away a grumbling Sharp Steel by the tail with his magic.

Twilight watched the two guards leave with growing relief. Call it a hunch, but she felt that Sharp Steel only wanted to be around just to apprehend the creature for the smallest problem it may cause. Who knows, maybe he would’ve tried to actively bait it into doing something bad.

“Follow me, I believe I have a spell in my library that can help me understand you,” Twilight said while beckoning it over with a smile.

The creature stared at her for a moment before swiftly raising and lowering its shoulders and following along.

Twilight and the creature made it to the library without much issue. There were some other guards the two had passed by who were still uninformed of the creature’s presence, but they were quick to stand down once Twilight explained everything. Opening the door, Twilight held it open and invited the creature inside. Hunching over, the creature shimmied inside before standing to its full height again.

Twilight was still shocked at how tall it was, its height easily allowing it to grab books from the highest shelves in the library with its appendages. She wouldn’t be surprised if it was taller than Celestia herself, even if it's only by a little.

A series of grunts and growls snapped her out of her stupor and Twilight realized that she had been staring at the creature for a little longer than necessary.

Twilight blushed with embarrassment, “Oh, sorry, hehe. Here, have a seat while I look for the book I need,” Twilight said while pointing to a blue couch nestled in the back wall of the room.

The creature followed her hoof and saw the couch. The creature extended its arm and pointed one of its appendages at the couch and looked at Twilight with a tilted head. Twilight nodded and the creature hummed in acknowledgment before walking over and sitting down, its body sinking comfortably into the couch's pillows.

Satisfied with her guest's comfort, Twilight trotted upstairs and used her magic to begin pulling out multiple spell books from her personal study collection.

“Hmm, let's see… nope… not that one… no… aha! Here it is!” Twilight said before grabbing a black-covered book with gold lettering titled Languages and Translations: a Guide for Unicorns.

Opening the book, Twilight navigated to the table of contents and flipped to the page that outlined the process of performing the spell.

“Warning: performing any of these translation spells without both parties having a basic understanding of the language beforehand may lead to certain inaccuracies in understanding and tone. If you want to avoid this problem either speak/write in the simplest form possible or study and learn the language to a general degree.”

This may be a problem. Twilight would very much like to have a full 100% linguistic understanding with the creature. But she doesn’t know how long it will stay here in Ponyville. It’s most likely a traveler considering the large saddlebag on its back, so it’s probably best to simply give it some basic phrases and sentences before it leaves so another misunderstanding doesn’t happen elsewhere.

Twilight was brought out of her musings by the sound of the library’s doors opening followed by three distinct voices.

“Twilight? Are you in here, darling?” Rarity called.

“Hey, look! There it is!” Rainbow Dash shouted.

“Where? I ought to teach it a lesson for eating my apples!” the unmistakably angry voice of Applejack said.

Oh, boy. Twilight should get down there before things get messy.

Without hesitation, Twilight powered her horn and teleported back down to the first floor in front of the couch. Unfortunately, this had the added effect of Applejack ramming her body straight into Twilight. Twilight felt the wind get knocked out of her as she and Applejack tumbled under and over each other before coming to a stop at the foot of the couch in a mess of tangled limbs.

“Owwww…” Twilight moaned painfully as she clutched her head in her hooves.

“Oh, gosh,” Applejack groaned as she untangled herself from Twilight, “Are you alright, Twilight?”

“Y-Yeah, just a bit dizzy,” Twilight slowly stood back up and shook her head.

“Hey, why’d you pop up like that, Twi? Applejack was about to beat that monster down!” Rainbow Dash said before flying up in the air and shadowboxing.

“Well, that’s what I was trying to stop. And it isn’t a monster, Rainbow Dash, it’s a thinking and feeling creature like us.”

Looking back at the creature, Twilight saw it standing on the couch. Its body was hunched over, its arms were slightly extended outward and bent in a V-shape and its appendages were balled up into fists. Twilight assumed it was trying to appear more intimidating, or maybe it was simply preparing for a fight with Applejack.

Well, it's a good thing Twilight stopped it before it could happen.

“Twilight, dear, I don’t think any civilized creature just goes around and eats the labor of somepony else’s hard work. Not only that but look at its attire, it’s hideous! What kind of creature only wears black? Where’s the color, the shine, the pazazz? It’s just horrible!” Rarity said before summoning her fainting couch and promptly fainting on it.

“Yeah! What, uh, Rarity said,” Rainbow Dash said with a confused look.

Twilight frowned, “I don’t think that’s fair for you to say, Rarity. Zecora was a civilized creature, yet everypony still treated her like a monster because they didn’t bother to go up and talk to her.”

At the mention of Zecora everypony looked down in shame and their ears drooped at the sides of their heads. Twilight was right, they were giving this creature the same kind of treatment of isolation and fear they did to Zecora whenever she came to town. But instead of learning from their experience with Zecora, they reverted to their fear of the unknown when this creature arrived in Ponyville. It could’ve been so much worse too considering that some guardsmen were around when the initial panic happened.

Twilight saw the shameful looks on her friend's faces with a frown of her own. While she didn't enjoy the sight, she needed her friends to see the error of their actions.

“Now, why don't we start over girls? I'm going to cast a translation spell, and once I'm done would you all like to introduce yourselves?”

Instantly, everypony's frowns disappeared and small smiles appeared on Twilight’s friends' faces.

“Of course, Twilight! That sounds like a delightful idea,” Rarity nodded.

“Yeah, and I would like to apologize for my behavior. Even though I still don't like that it ate my apples,” Applejack mumbled under her breath.

“I can't wait to show it some of my awesome tricks! Do you think it'll like them?” Rainbow Dash chirped while doing a backflip in midair.

Turning back to the creature, Twilight saw it no longer stood on the couch. It was back in a sitting position, but its body was tense and ready to go at a moment's notice.

Twilight thought about casting the spell then and there, but she decided against it. The creature may not react positively due to its experience with the unicorn guards. Instead, she used her magic to grab a blank scroll and a quill. Twilight dipped the quill's tip in a small cup of ink before drawing some pictures on the scroll.

Once Twilight was done, she turned it over and handed it to the creature. Boxes separated five pictures in a comic-like style. The first box located on the top left depicted a stickpony and a stickman, the stickpony had a bubble above it with Equestrian writing saying “Can you understand me?” the stickman also had a bubble above them, but instead it simply contained many squibbles indicating the lack of understanding.

The next box to the right of it depicted the same two stick figures, except the stickpony now had a book levitating in front of it with its horn shooting a beam at one of the book's open pages.

The third box showed the book now shooting a concentrated beam at the stickman’s head.

Finally, the fourth box had both stick figures with bubbles above their heads, which contained Equestrian writing. The stickpony said, “Can you understand me?” to which the stickman responded, “Yes.”

The creature stared at the scroll for a few seconds. Its hidden face made it difficult to see if it understood, but Twilight hoped for the best. The creature then turned over the page back to Twilight and pointed at the stickpony before pointing at Twilight with a tilt of its head.

Twilight bobbed her head up and down with a grin, “Yes! I would like to cast the translation spell if you don't mind.”

The creature said something in its strange language before showing Twilight a balled-up fist with its fattest appendage sticking upward. Twilight didn’t know what the gesture meant, but it must mean something good because the creature nodded its head shortly afterward.

“Great!” Twilight beamed, “I’ll start the spell now.”

Magically retrieving the spell book, which had been thrown in a random direction when Applejack crashed into her. Twilight opened the book back to the casting page and began powering her horn. Twilight’s horn glowed with a gentle lavender aura before it shot a concentrated beam into the book. The book began to hum steadily as many different Equestrian runes poured out of the book. Then, another beam shot out of the book and connected with the creature’s head.

Suddenly, and anti-climactically, the power in the book fizzled out and it dropped to the floor like a sack of potatoes.

“Uh, what just happened?” Rainbow Dash asked with a perplexed expression.

Twilight furrowed her eyes in confusion, “I’m not sure. The spell just abruptly stopped for some reason.”

“Well, can he understand us?” Applejack tapped the creature on its leg, “Can. You. Understand. Us?” she asked, making sure to speak slowly and coherently.

The creature looked down at Applejack and shook its head before saying what Applejack assumed to be “no” in its alien language.

“Are you sure you did everything correctly, Twilight?” Rarity asked, “Maybe you missed a step?”

Twilight sat on her haunches and put a hoof to her chin in thought, “Yes, I did everything down to the final word. I just don’t understand why it didn’t work. It should have continued and attempted to translate something, even if that something is nothing but nonsense to us. It should be impossible for the spell to just stop like that so why…”

Twilight stopped herself when she saw the creature pick up her translation book from the ground and offer it back to her. Smiling at the nice gesture, Twilight activated her horn once more to take it from the creature’s grip.

“Thank you.”

Twilight tried to grab the book with her magic, but she frowned when she felt her magic being pushed away instead. She tried again, this time she pushed as much magic as she could into trying to grab the book from the creature’s grip which made her horn glow brighter. Twilight felt sweat begin to accumulate as she continued to scrunch up her face in concentration. Her face began to hurt and her teeth were beginning to ache from how much force she was putting into grinding them together.

She only stopped once the sound of snickering filled the air. Looking over to where the sound was coming from, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash rolling on the floor, her snickers now turning into laughter.

“What’s so funny?” Twilight asked with a raised brow.

“You- haha! You looked like you were constipated!” she said before falling into another bout of laughter.

A snort caused Twilight to look towards Applejack who was busy trying to contain her giggles with her hoof, “Don’t look at me. I didn’t say it, she did.”

Twilight then glanced at Rarity who, surprisingly, wasn’t laughing. Twilight did see a faint trace of an amused smirk, however. Bah! Whatever, it didn’t matter.

Turning back to the creature, Twilight simply trotted up to him and just took the book in her teeth, “Fank you,” she said before going upstairs to place the book back in its place.

However, there was a small hole in her plan. The shelf it belonged on was the top shelf, and Twilight wasn’t too keen on trying to climb the ladder and accidentally falling off and injuring herself. With a sigh, Twilight tried to grab the book with her magic again and was pleasantly surprised when her magic did grab it.

Twilight’s brows furrowed in thought as she placed the book back on its rightful shelf. If she could grab the book just fine now, then why couldn’t she when the creature was holding it? Was the creature the cause of it? Was it nullifying her magic?

Twilight’s eyes widened at the thought. If it’s true then was the creature responsible for the sudden storm yesterday? Twilight shook her head. No, she couldn’t just jump to conclusions, she needed more data.

Trotting back downstairs, Twilight saw Rainbow Dash animatedly conversing with the creature while Applejack and Rarity sat on their haunches a few hooves away from them with amused expressions on their faces. Looking towards the creature-

(gosh, if it's going to stay for a while, Twilight really needs to find a name for it/her/him she can’t just keep calling it “the creature”)

-Twilight stifled a giggle when she saw that it simply kept nodding along with whatever Rainbow Dash was saying while occasionally grunting or humming in agreement.

“Rainbow Dash, you do know it doesn’t know what you’re saying, right?” Rarity inquired.

“Duh!” Rainbow Dash answered matter-of-factly, “That just means I can do this! Hey, Goggles, do you think I’m better than Applejack at hoof wrestling?”

Goggles nodded, “Uh-huh.”

Applejack sputtered, “Wha- but- Why you know that’s not true, Rainbow Dash!”

“Oh, yeah? Goggles seems to think so. Right, Goggles?”

Goggles nodded again, “Mhmm.”

“He doesn’t even know what you're saying! Watch!” Applejack approached Goggles and cleared her throat, “Alright, Goggles. I know you don’t understand me, but if I said I was better than Rainbow Dash at hoof wrestling, would you agree?”

“...”

“...Well?”

Goggles slowly shook his head, “Nuh-uh.”

Twilight swore she heard glass shatter.

“Okay, everypony! I’m back and I wanted to try something else due to something strange happening with my translation book when I was putting it back,” Twilight quickly intervened before one of her windows actually shattered.

“What is it that you are going to try, darling?” Rarity asked as she watched Twilight grab a coffee table, the scroll she drew on, a potted plant, and a book. An interesting selection of items.

Twilight set the coffee table down in front of the couch before placing the other three items down on the table.

“I want to test and see if, uh, Goggles is capable of resisting and/or nullifying magic.”

Rarity’s eyes furrowed in doubt, “Twilight, don’t you think that’s a bit of a stretch? Maybe the spell book simply malfunctioned.”

“When was the last time you’ve heard of a spell book malfunctioning? Actually, when have you ever heard of a spell book malfunctioning?”

Rarity opened her mouth to respond, but no words came out. Now that she was thinking about it, it did sound like a ludicrous concept.

“Well, how are you going to test Goggles’ ‘abilities’?”

“Like this.”

Twilight grabbed the scroll with her magic first and levitated it in front of Goggles. Not knowing what was going on, Goggles hesitantly grabbed it from its position in the air. Once Goggles’ appendages touched the scroll, Twilight felt the familiar feeling of her magic being pushed away come back, instead this time it was more of a forceful shove. The phantom force of the shove didn’t knock Twilight over, but it sure felt like it should’ve.

With the scroll now firmly in Goggles’ appendages, Twilight turned to Rarity, “Okay, now try to grab the scroll with your magic, Rarity.”

Rarity nodded and her horn was encased in a blue aura as she activated it. Rarity focused on trying to grab the scroll from Goggles, but she was surprised when the sensation of being pushed away hit her.

“Eugh,” Rarity shuddered as she immediately deactivated her horn, “That did not feel pleasant.”

“What did you feel, Rarity? Was it a sort of pushing sensation?” Twilight asked.

“Yes, and I would very much like to not feel it again if that’s fine with you?”

Twilight chuckled nervously, “Sorry, I probably should’ve told you before you did what I asked.”

“It’s no problem, dear. Though, this may be cause for concern,” Rarity added dreadfully, “What would happen if he touches one of us? Would we lose our magic permanently?”

“I doubt it,” Twilight swiftly denied, “I was able to grasp the translation book with my magic just fine when I was upstairs. So, I think it’s only as long as Goggles is making physical contact will we not be able to use our magic, if not, after a short delay.”

Twilight then repeated the process with the scroll with the remaining two items on the coffee table, all of which had similar results. Twilight then asked Rainbow Dash to see if she could fly while physically touching him.

Rainbow Dash hovered in front of Goggles and held a hoof out while shaking it up and down. Presumably recognizing the gesture, Goggles reached one of his arms out and gripped Rainbow Dash’s hoof with his appendages. This resulted in Rainbow Dash dropping like a fly when her wings suddenly stopped flapping. Thankfully, Goggles managed to catch her and spare her from a painful fall. However, this resulted in Rainbow Dash being incapacitated as she is currently lying across Goggles’ lap and being mercilessly scritched behind her ears.

“Oh, yeah, that’s the spot~” Rainbow Dash hummed as she leaned into Goggles’ master appendages, her wings still drooping at her sides and not having been tucked back in.

Whether this was due to Rainbow Dash being lost in a haze of pleasure or due to Goggles’ nullification ability, Twilight will not know for now.

Having given up on Rainbow Dash responding, for now, Twilight asked Applejack to see if she could manage to pull Goggles from off the couch. Applejack grinned, that would be a piece of cake!

Applejack approached Goggles with a smug look on her face. She was so going to enjoy watching Rainbow Dash tumble out of Goggles’ lap and onto the floor.

Unfortunately, it was not meant to be.

“Hey, wait your turn jerk!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed before bucking Applejack in the face.

Applejack tumbled backward and flipped over her back before coming to a stop in a seated position. Applejack held her hooves up to her nose as she groaned in pain. Feeling hot wetness dripping down her hooves, she pulled them back to see blood trickling down her fetlocks.

If looks could kill, Rainbow Dash would be nothing but ash.

“Heheh, woops?”

“Why I oughta-!”

Applejack was interrupted by the sound of three hard knocks on the library’s front door. Before anypony could even move to answer the door, the door burst open and a pink blur dashed inside and tackle hugged Goggles. This also had the comedic effect of knocking Rainbow Dash out of his lap which Applejack absolutely enjoyed.

“Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my gosh! Hi, my name’s Pinkie Pie! When I saw you come into town everypony was like, ”Ahhh! A monster!” and I was all like, ”Whaaaaat!” I didn’t even know you were here until everypony started screaming! It’s like my Pinkie Sense wasn’t even working! How am I supposed to prepare a “Welcome to Ponyville” party for a new creature if my Pinkie Sense isn’t working!? And why are you wearing all that clothes? Is it because you don’t like how you look underne-”

Pinkie Pie was abruptly cut off when Goggles shoved one of his arms in her face and clamped his appendages around her mouth. This did not deter Pinkie Pie, however, and she continued to try and talk through her now-closed mouth.

“Pinkie! Why did you do that!? You could’ve gotten hurt! Or worse, Goggles could have hurt you!” Twilight chastised with a heavy frown.

Pinkie let go of Goggles and hopped off the couch, “His name is Goggles? That’s a cute name! Is it because of those goggles on his face?”

“Uh, yeah, though we don’t know what his actual name is because he speaks a different language.”

“Aw, that’s no good! Maybe Fluttershy can talk to him,” Pinkie said before bouncing out the front door. She returned a few seconds later with a trembling Fluttershy and Spike who was holding a box of cupcakes.

“Woah, is that the monster!?” Spike asked while pointing at Goggles who looked like he still hadn’t recovered from Pinkie’s sudden and energetic intrusion of his personal space.

Twilight sighed, “Yes, but he isn’t a monster, Spike. He’s a sapient creature just like us.”

“Oh… Uh, sorry for calling you a monster!” Spike shouted, “He still looks a little unnerving though.”

Twilight chuckled, “It’s okay, Spike. He won’t hurt you. Here, why don’t I take those-” Twilight grabbed the box of cupcakes with her magic, “-and you can go upstairs and read your comics. How does that sound?”

“R-Really?” Spike asked with a glimmer in his eyes.

Twilight nodded with a fond smile, “Yes, really.”

“Sweet!” Spike exclaimed before sprinting up the stairs to the second floor.

Watching Spike disappear up the stairs with a smile, Twilight turned back around, placed the box of cupcakes on the coffee table, and addressed the current situation.

Applejack was in a brawl with a struggling Rainbow Dash, Rarity was admonishing Pinkie Pie for startling Goggles, Fluttershy was hiding underneath the coffee table, and Goggles was growing increasingly more uncomfortable if the way his chest was rising up and down erratically was any indication.

Overall, It was not good.

“ENOUGH!” Twilight shouted causing everypony and creature to freeze in place and stare at Twilight.

Satisfied that she got everypony’s attention, Twilight began to speak, “Look, I know you all are curious and want to stick around and learn about Goggles some more, but why don’t we end our little get-together here for now? Why don’t you all go home, calm down, and we’ll meet up again here tomorrow at the same time? Does that sound good?”

Understanding that Twilight was essentially telling them to politely “Get the fuck out,” everypony slowly and shamefully left the library. Twilight felt a little bad when she heard Pinkie whimper about not being able to see Goggles try her cupcakes, but that was about it.

Once everypony was out, Twilight closed the door, locked it, and flipped her open sign to closed. Turning around to check on her guest, she saw the Goggles had calmed down a bit, but he was still fidgety and uneasy. Intent on calming him down, Twilight went upstairs and grabbed a spare blanket and pillow before going back downstairs and offering it to him.

Goggles stared at the two items with some hesitation before taking them from Twilight’s magical grip. He mumbled something that Twilight assumed to be some kind of thanks before taking off his saddlebag and laying it on the floor against the couch. Goggles laid the pillow against the couch’s armrest before taking off his hoofwear and getting comfortable. Goggles then draped the blanket over himself, but due to its small size, it left most of his lower body exposed, he didn’t seem to care though.

Twilight smiled when she heard the soft sound of snoring coming from him. She used her magic to turn off the lights in the room before retreating upstairs. She had a letter to send to the Princess.

Dear Princess Celestia,

I hope this letter finds you at a good time and that I am not interrupting anything important. I am writing you today to inform you of a discovery that may pique your interest.

Earlier today a creature of unknown origin stumbled out of the Everfree Forest and entered Ponyville. I do not know whether or not it did something to make everypony panic, but I was only informed of its presence once a wave of panicking ponies passed by me and two unicorn guards I was speaking to at the moment.

I followed the two guards to the market where I decided to split off from them to make sure my friends were okay. Once I was sure they were safe, I attempted to find the two unicorn guards again in hopes that they had found the creature. Thankfully, they did.

The creature itself is something that I have never seen before. It is bipedal, like a minotaur, but it has no visible tail and is much less muscular. It is covered from top to bottom in dark clothing; there was a brief period where its head was exposed, but I was too far away to make out any specific details other than that it had a messy mane on its head. It had long arms that reached below its waist with five thin and lanky appendages. Think Spike’s claws but without the actual claw part. We don’t know its gender, but Rainbow Dash has taken to assuming it's male. She even gave it a name: Goggles!

Moving on, once I de-escalated a situation involving the unicorn guards antagonizing the creature, I escorted it to the Golden Oaks Library to perform a translation spell due to it not knowing how to speak Equestrian.

However, during the process which required the spell to connect a beam to the creature’s head, the spell suddenly failed. Curious, I decided to test what had happened and found something concerning. The creature seems to be null to magic. Intentionally or not, the creature seems to “push” away any attempts to use magic on it or anything it touches. I am not sure if that is the limit to its abilities as I only performed a minor test.

But please don’t let this cloud your mind with paranoia, Princess. If you have already, I too have thought that this creature may be responsible for that strange storm yesterday, but I doubt that it was the one who caused it.

I know this may be a lot to ask, but I am asking you to let me observe it here in Ponyville. I’m not sure how long it will stay, but if it does end up deciding to leave then I will write to you immediately so you can decide what to do.

I will write a report about my observations to you every once a week!

Your Faithful Student,

Twilight Sparkle.

Author's Note

Please tell me if you spot any mistakes :)