Friendship is Alien

"There you go, Mr. Monkey, that should do it. But you can't go and do anything strenuous, or you'll tear them open again." Said a soft, but authoritative voice behind Dominic. Wasn't she supposed to be shy? she was earlier, and it was even in her name!

"Please, my name is Dominic." He said, slowly easing himself up to a sitting position. After all the sharp jabs and pulls of needlework, the little pulls as he moved didn't seem so bad. He stopped then, looking around the place again. The blue and orange ones were gone, leaving just the bookworm, Twilight, and Fluttershy. He took a deep breath, and started a mental exercise he learned a few years back, during a more stressful time in his life.

In his mind, he sat before a small desk, with a blank sheet of paper in front of him. Used to be he actually had to sit there and stare at a piece of paper physically, but with practice, he learned he could do it all in his head. The paper was a focus, a board for his thoughts to arrange themselves on when he had no way to think through a situation clearly. He relaxed and allowed words to appear on the paper as he made his thoughts known to himself, one at a time.

This place is strange. Try to take nothing for granted.

This place is not home, and from the looks of it, anywhere on Earth.

This place could be a hallucination.

Treating it like it's all a crazy dream will only hurt me if it's not.

I need to get home.

To get home, I need to interact, I need to figure out where I am, and how that relates to home.

These people have gone out of their way to help me already.

With that last thought, he was snapped out of his mental image he created, and looked at Fluttershy. She was looking at him curiously, why was that? He'd probably completely ignored her while she was saying something, caught up in his thought exercise. "I- I'm sorry." He said, shaking his head slightly. "This is a lot to take in, and I might have let my attention slip there. What were you saying Fluttershy? It is Fluttershy, right?"

The mare blushed, not meeting his eyes as he focused back on her. "Oh, it was nothing Mr. Dominic, I was just saying, that is, I mean, eep." Apparently now that he was no longer a strange creature, her namesake got the better of her. Dominic glanced away, uncomfortable with how uncomfortable he seemed to be making her. "Huh, I think there's a joke in that somewhere."

After another moment, in which there was an odd scratching sound, he decided to break the near-silence. "Thanks for saving me. I didn't expect to be alive, I was awake when I fell, I was in so much blood." Fluttershy made a peeping noise, and then cleared her throat. "Well, actually, you fell onto several jars of raspberry jam a friend of mine was leaving for me.. You really only got a lot of cuts in your back, some bruising, and the stick in your leg."

"I was going to ask about that." He said, thankful to get away from the fact that he had been assaulted by raspberry jam, and had been about to be overly melodramatic to his savior. He took a moment to glance down at the hole in his slacks. There was a line of stitches there too, but something looked off about it. It hurt, but it was a dull ache, not like the burning in his back.

"Oh yes, you seem very lucky, Mr. Dominic, I'm not an expert on- Well, it didn't seem to hit anything important, you should just take it easy for a while." Dominic frowned for two reasons. The first, was that he was indeed very lucky. He wasn't an expert either, but he remembered something about having an important artery there. Then there was the fact that it didn't tear him up too badly, artery aside. The second reason, was that Fluttershy kept calling him that.

"Please, just Dominic, I'm not a big stickler with formality most of the time, and this sure isn't the place for it." He said, and realized that the other one- That Twilight was being too quiet. A quick glance over revealed why.

Twilight was surrounded by several sheets of parchment, a quill scribbling across the rolls of primitive paper so quickly that he thought the instrument was going to ignite the stuff, pausing only long enough to dip into an ink bottle that was being held aloft by a strange purple glow. A glow that was also on her horn. "When you said you had found a strange creature, Fluttershy, I only brought enough notes for basic biological categorization! I don't have nearly enough material for first contact with an intelligent species! I'm going to have to go back to the library and fetch more materials. And Spike, I have to have Spike. I'll be right back, don't move, don't talk while I'm gone, this all has to be recorded!" She said, starting off in a fairly normal tone, but by the end of it, her words were almost running together, and with a flash of purple light, she was gone.

Telekinesis. Teleportation too, from the looks of it. Dominic was now slightly less than happy about what he had managed to get himself into. "Your friend, she's... a little odd." He said, hoping he wouldn't be reprimanded for the 'no-talking' rule.

"Oh, yes. Twilight can be a little... Intense, with her studies, but please don't let that get to you, she's really a very nice mare." Fluttershy said, and Dominic sighed in relief. Then jerked slightly, sitting upright, a look of fear in his eyes.

"First contact? Oh, good lord. You've got to get me out of here, I can't be dissected!" He said, his mind rushing through dozens of bad sci-fi stories and videos he had gone through back home. If there was even a grain of truth in them, he was doomed. He began shifting off of the table he was on, intending to book it out the door

"Dominic," That voice again, and he felt the chill in his back, and decided to himself that he was not going to turn around. "You need to settle back down. You're not going to be dissected, why would you think that?" The voice had returned to normal, and Dominic forced himself to relax, drawing several deep breaths.

"Ohh, no reason, no reason at all." He said, feeling a little dizzy from his almost-attempted escape, his heart was pounding, and he was thirsty. Really thirsty. "Could I..." He trailed off, remembering the first point in his paper. Take nothing for granted, but still, they spoke English, somehow. They have stitches, houses, tables, windows- That's where the other two were! The cyan one and Applejack were staring in from a window. Anyway, no reason not to assume that they wouldn't drink water like anyone else. "Could I have something to drink please? I'm very parched."

"Oh, of course, just a moment, please." With that, Fluttershy had disappeared into another room, and a moment later, came back with a glass of water, and an oddity that shook Dominic to his core, and left him with a question that would haunt him on many sleepless nights. "How is she holding that glass with her hoof?!" But then there was water in his hands, and basic instinct won out over shock, and he quickly began gulping it down.

Everywhere you went, water tasted different. Different metals in the pipes, different chemicals they added to make it 'clean' or 'healthier.' Here, the water tasted strange. The best quality that could be put to it was "light." It had almost no trace of flavor, barely even alerting the tongue that there was a taste to go with the cool sensation. Dominic wasn't sure if he liked it, but at least it wasn't bad. Dominic was about to murmur a 'thank you' to the mare, when a crack of sound shook the room. It was like a very muted strike of lightning without the boom of thunder that followed it, but in place of the thunder, there was a flash of purple light, followed by Twilight, and another strange creature.

Dominic focused on it right away, trying to get more details. This thing, was definitely not a horse. It, like all the others had a round head, large eyes, and vibrant colors, but there the similarities stopped. It was tiny, even compared to the others, and it seemed reptilian. It had scales like a snake, and an underbelly that reminded him of an alligator that went all the way up to his jaw. Then it spoke, and even for being small, it sounded male. It sounded young, too. "Woah, Fluttershy, I've never seen an animal like that before, where'd you find it? The Everfree?"

Twilight, was buried underneath the massive pile of books and writing apparatus that had come along with her, and her voice came out of the stack with a muted quality. "Books don't work like that, do they?" "Spike, that's Dominic, and it's our first contact with a new species." The tone sounded like a lecturing school teacher, and somehow, the stack began to shift, like one great amoeba of paper, inching it's way towards him.

Spike suddenly seemed to realize that Dominic had been staring at him since the animal comment, and a darker shade appeared across the purple scales. "This thing is blushing through scales. I'm about ready to give up on this 'making sense' strategy." He held out his arm, and he saw that it ended in a clawed 'hand' of sorts, with three digits. "Uh, heh, sorry about that, I'm Spike." He said, and Dominic stared at the clawed hand for a moment. It was irrational to assume that a reptile would have a similar gesture, but it was also completely crazy to assume that they could blush through scales, or be colored purple and green, or be in a world with talking flying magical technicolor-

He cut off that train of thought, taking a deep breath as he extended his hand, grasping the small claw (Really, more of enveloping it) and giving a gentle shake. "I'm Dominic, and trust me, you're not the only one weirded out."

Their brief moment of normalcy was quickly overrun by twilight and her papyrus based terror that began to sort itself out in a storm of purple light. Twilight stood at the heart of it all, an odd look in her eyes. "Now we can record every detail of this ordeal!" She said, one preposterously large book floating in front of her an opening as the rest of the items began to settle in a ring around us. Fluttershy began backing away slowly at that point, at Dominic felt more than a little uneasy. It was probably time to begin steering the conversation. "What do you want to know?"

Twilight shook her head, looking at him, but her eyes didn't quite seem to focus on him, despite his attempts to make eye contact. "Everything! Biology, psychology, history, intent, culture, everything you know about everything!" She said, the pacing of her speech becoming faster and faster as she went on. Dominic folded his arms across his chest and shook his head. "Nope."

You could almost hear a creaking sound as Twilight's jaw tried to drop lower than it's intended maximum. "WHAT?" she half questioned, half screamed. "You don't understand, an event like this hasn't happened in millennia, I absolutely have to take down everything I can!" Dominic held out his hands, and began talking. His voice was suddenly smoother than it had been before, and noticeably deeper. He also finally snagging her gaze as he began to speak.

"Let me paint a picture for you, Miss Twilight." He began, using smooth gestures to accompany his words. "I'm somewhere I didn't even know existed, with... beings, that I know nothing about. I'm lost, confused, and I'm hurt. I'm hungry, and from the looks of things, all I have are the clothes on my back-" He paused at that, realizing something.

"You have my shirt and jacket, right Miss Fluttershy?"  He got a nod in return, but turned back to find Twilight making an almost choking sound. "-And the knowledge in my head.  Now I want to get home. So how does this sound?" He let his hands dropped, and leaned in closer, letting his volume drop to a near whisper. Not enough that she had to lean in, but enough to be sure she was paying attention.

"A trade. You ask me something about me, you have to answer the same question for your kind first. And the same for me. One question at a time. And then, if you can talk to your leaders without getting me trapped in some laboratory, so I can see about getting home, I'll tell you everything. Everything I know, or can think of." He'd fallen into old habits, but manipulating people was a useful skill. and besides, he wasn't conning Twilight, he was being honest about it all.

Immediately, there was a hoof extended to him. "Deal." She said quickly, grinning. "I'm the personal student of Princess Celestia. I can have a letter sent to her regarding your situation tonight." Dominic pondered the significance of the term 'princess,' given how it was an empty title in his home. But the mare seemed convinced it was something worthwhile, and so for now, it was all he had to go on. It was time to trade.

He reached out his hand, and tried to grasp at the hoof. That just didn't work out right, and Twilight made an odd sound as she hopped backwards. "What?" He asked, when spike started waving, causing him to look down. "Like this, big guy." He said, forming a fist and making a subtle forward motion. "Just bump it."

"Oh. Well, that was certainly an awkward way to start off."

The next day, Dominic was peering out of the window. "This idea is bad, and you should feel bad." He muttered, old habits causing him to speak before thinking.

"What? Why?! I may be a bit tired from earlier but we can get this done! Fluttershy said you should be fine to do some simple thing like this, and it's not even like you're doing any of the work. You should know after our talk that this isn't dangerous for you. Plus, you should realize that this is pretty much inevitable, given the current situation." The mare was trying her best to give a lecture while breathing heavily from exertion, the beginnings of sweat giving a mild sheen to her lavender coat.

Okay, hold on. It's probably important to do a little backtracking here before anypony gets the wrong idea. The previous evening, the two had gone back and forth for nearly the entire night with their question and answer agreement. As the hours dwindled on, Fluttershy excused herself to sleep, and Spike decided on returning to the library on foot. "Or is it on claw? Eh, time to figure it out later."

Come the morning proper, Twilight had awoken with a start, and in her haste to fulfill her part of the deal, had immediately teleported her supplies back to her library. Of course, after teleporting from the cottage to the library, then back with all the supplies, and a night with next to no sleep, the exertion had proved a bit much for her. And now, tired, sweaty, and out of breath, there was no way she was going to try teleporting herself and an alien with a mostly unknown physiology across the same distance.

Now the two were getting ready to make their way into Ponyville proper, and they had to hoof it.So there she was, about to escort an alien, a bipedal, towering, easy-to-spot-from-a-mile-off Alien with a capital 'A' to the library without being spotted.

"...And Spike is my connection to the Princess. And you yourself said you hated being cooped up!" He realized he hadn't been listening to Twilight, and diverted his attention back to the conversation. She was being the voice of reason here, and he hated having to listen when other people were right. He could use a nap, but the long night had given him a good idea of what sort of place he was in, though most of it was still hard to believe.

"And you're telling me she moves the sun? Actually moves the *sun** around the world?"*

"Yes, how simply do I have to describe it?! Her sister Luna controls the moon in the same way!"

"Omnivorous, then?"

"Well, yes... You know, I kind of expected a less... Accepting reaction?"

"Oh, no, we know a few other species that can eat meat and are civilized. Heck, in ancient times, ponies were omnivorous in harsh regions."

"So how is it that you learned to speak Equestrian, if you don't have ponies like us from your home?"

"I'm not, I'm speaking my language, which was my next question. I'm even taking a guess here from your chicken scratch that we have the same alphabet."

"Hey!"

"Your home would *have** to be a different planet then! So it's simple, you're an Alien that got displaced by magic somehow!"*

"...what do you mean, no magic? Of *course** you have magic, if you didn't have magic, there'd be nothing to keep you alive!*

"So because of their 'innate magic' pegasi can fly, the earth ponies are the only ones who can grow plants and are tough as nails, and unicorns can do actual magic? Like this stuff?"

Leave that alone or you'll spill the ink! Yes, that's basically how it works, and then there are Alicorns, they're..."

With an effort, Dominic shook himself out of his memories. there would be plenty of time to go over the information later. "Okay, let's go escort the big weird never-before-seen creature to your home, and then call an all-powerful being and ask them to help me do an absolutely impossible thing that I just did yesterday. This is going to be just fine, really."