The Tale of the Super Secret Spaceship

Chapter 3

Needless to say, Zhane’s arrival and subsequent parking job beside the library caused quite a commotion and within mere moments, a sizeable crowd of curious bystanders had gathered. All at once, Twilight was bombarded by inquiries regarding the circumstances of her arrival. Thinking quickly, she realized that it was a perfect opportunity to introduce the traveler to practically everyone and get it out of the way so they could both go about their business.

“Ahem,” she cleared her throat whilst perched on the Halcyon’s wing. She frowned and her horn lit up. She directed a small spark towards her neck, upon reaching which it disappeared. “AHEM!” The crowd of ponies stopped their chatter and looked up at the purple pony. “As you all can see, we have a visitor. Zhane, would you like to introduce yourself?” She asked as the starship’s canopy opened.

“Um...hello there,” he said, gazing over the crowd. The reaction was mixed; some looked up in fear, others with curious expressions, and even a few with fascinated look son their faces. However, those were few and far between and Zhane knew it wasn’t gonna be easy for either party to acclimatize to the new situation, temporary as it may be. He cleared his throat, remembering proper protocol. “My name is Zhane Martin. I am a freelance pilot with the Cosmic-Earth Alliance. I...come in peace?” He wasn’t sure what else to say. Most pilots simply drew what they’d heard from related forms of media and ran with it and it usually worked. Well, except the Shivans but when it came to them, they were the exception to most if not all of the rules.

“What are you?” A small, girlish voice with a Western accent reached his ears from somewhere in the crowd. He looked about and then down to find a small yellow filly with a large red bow standing in the front of the crowd. Hers was one of the rare expressions of fascination, matching her compatriots, a white filly with a light purple and pink-streaked mane, and an orange one with a deep purple mane. They looked up at him in awe as he stepped out of the cockpit and stood on the wing opposite of Twilight.

“That is an excellent question. I’m what is referred to as a ‘human’. I come from a faraway planet called ‘Earth’.”

“So you’re...an alien?” The yellow one asked eagerly.

“Yep, sure am.” He was surprised when their grins suddenly grew into full-on smiles of excitement as they high-fived each other.

“Cutie Mark Crusaders First Contact Squad YAY!” Zhane couldn’t help but smile at their antics and silently thanked his lucky stars that at least someone wasn’t calling for a witch hunt. He jumped down from the ship, startling the ponies near the front of the crowd, causing them to take a cautionary step back.

“That’s weird, usually Pinkie Pie's the first one to...” Before Twilight could finish, a bright pink blue suddenly blasted out from with a nearby shrubbery and tackled the unsuspecting pilot.

“Ooh, my achin’ head...” Zhane muttered as he slowly sat up. He looked up right into the huge eyes of a bright pink pony whose mane reminded him of cotton candy. “What’s up?”

“GAAAAAASSSPPPPPP....” The pony gasped as her eyes grew even wider. “This....is...AWESOME!” She exclaimed, bouncing all over the place. “I didn’t think...nopony said...I don’t even....this is so cool! Of course, if you were a pony it’d be cool too but you’re totally different and come to think of it I’ve never seen anything like you before and oh my gosh, you’re so different but I like you anyway friends?” Zhane just stared back at her as she held out a hoof. He carefully shook it and was surprised by an instant hug. “Yay! New friends! My name’s Pinkie Pie and I’m gonna throw a party just for you!”

“I...I...um...” Zhane stuttered. While gunshots and angry soldiers were no surprise during some of his less-than-stellar first encounters, a party certainly was and Zhane wasn’t sure which he should be more worried about. However, the apparent lack of killing machines comforted him and he felt less nervous by the minute.

“Don’t worry, she’s just being Pinkie Pie,” Twilight assured him.

“In that case sure, if it’s not too much trouble...”

“Trouble? It’ll be fun! I’ve never thrown a party for an alien before!” With that, she bounced happily away, going over numerous food and activities to nopony in particular in a cheerful singsong voice.

“Well, that was interesting alright,” Zhane commented as the crowd dissipated. “You sure I’m not gonna get lynched or something?”

“No, you’ll be fine. How bad is the damage?” Twilight asked as Zhane looked the ship over and consulted the device clasped to his wrist.

“It’s not good. I can manage but I would need at least a week to get basic systems up and running and another week to get everything back to perfect shape. That last transformation drained most of the remaining power. It’s a miracle that we made it all the way here.” Zhane sighed and turned the holoscreen off. “I hate to ask this of you but do you have a place I could do some repairs like...a garage or something? I have all the tools I need but I need some space to work. Not a lot; just enough for me, my equipment, and my ship.” Twilight thought about it.

“Well, Applejack might have some spare room in her barn but that’s pretty far out of Ponyville and I’m pretty sure that they need the space for the harvest right now. Besides, it’s pretty far from Ponyville, which doesn’t suit you if you ever need something.” Zhane nodded. “Well then...we could always build something that would suit your requirements.”

“That’s really nice of you to offer but I can’t ask you to do that,” Zhane replied with a smile. “I’ll make do with a barn even if it isn’t the most convenient location.” It was too late; Twilight was already jotting down notes on a piece of parchment.

“I’m not much of an architect,” Twilight said as she crossed something out. “We need an expert if we’re going to do this right, someone who knows everything there is to know about things with wings...” The lavender unicorn mused with a hoof to her mouth.

“Seriously, I can just work on it out...” There was a sudden clap of thunder as rain began to pelt Ponyville. “...side.” Zhane finished. “Come to think of it, a roof over my head would be nice.”

“That’s just what I was thinking,” Twilight replied, motioning for him to follow her into the huge tree. “You’ll need somewhere to stay for the time being...wait, that’s it! Why don’t you stay here?” She asked excitedly.

“You mean...in a library?” The rows of books made it pretty clear where they were and answered some of Zhane’s questions about this ‘Twilight Sparkle’. What a student she must be to be in charge of such a wealth of knowledge at such a young age! Mad respect, Zhane thought as he wandered about whilst examining some of the titles. “I mean, if you have room for me...then sure, why not?”

“Great!” Twilight tried not to sound too excited but simply could not contain herself. Sacrificing some living space for the chance to study such an exotic creature up close for close to a month was an easy trade-off. Of course, ensuring that their new guest was comfortable and had everything he needed was paramount and even though Twilight was well-aware of that fact, it didn’t help her curiosity. Zhane seemed to sense it.

“Y’know, it’s not fair to you if I stay here taking up your space and eating your food and whatnot so how about this? You put me up until my repairs are done and in return, I share everything I can about Earth and space and stuff? I can’t share anything military-related but I’ll tell you anything else you wanna know. Deal?” Zhane was pretty sure that such terms were already implied but he wanted to make it sound more like he was putting in a conscious effort to earn his keep. He breathed a sigh of relief as the purple pony smiled widely and shook his hand.

“It’s a deal! And don’t worry; you’ll have all the time you need to work on your ship.”

“No problem, I can only do about three or four hours a day anyway. Most of the repairs are automatic; they just need some ‘help’ to get started.” Zhane assured her. Twilight was ecstatic; seldom was a scientific ‘specimen’ destined for intensive study also a willing house guest.

As Zhane slept soundly on three unfolded sleeping bags on the floor beside Twilight’s bed that night, she looked up at Luna’s beautiful starscape and silently thanked her lucky stars. The chance to help another while also receiving valuable information was a rare thing indeed and as Twilight slowly succumbed to sleep, her mind began a letter to Princess Celestia.

Dear Princess Celestia,

Today I discovered a new...zzzzzzzzzz...zzzzzzzzzz...

And that was as far as she got before falling asleep with a snore.