She was in a large room. A red carpet, covering a floor of polished marble, ran down from a golden throne and all the way through the room to the doors at the other end. A dull thud was produced each time her hooves hit the carpeted floor on her way towards the throne. Her eyes wandered around the deserted throne room, from the floral-patterned pillars to the blue and yellow stained glass windows to her right. The lingering remnants of sleep still addled her mind, but not so much she couldn't think of her sister. Perhaps she had left a note on the throne, like she sometimes did when she was busy.
 
She looked upon the noteless throne when she heard the rapid clop of hooves from the corridor behind her.
“Princess Luna, you've got to come quick! Something's happened to Princess Celestia!”
She turned around to see a gray unicorn in gilded armor galloping towards her.
“What is it?”
”I don't know, Princess Luna, it was over in an instant.”
 
Princess Luna was woken up by somepony knocking on her door.
“Princess Luna?”
A male voice called for her from behind the door. She tore the covers off of herself with her magic and rolled off the bed, landing on her side before managing to get on her hooves.
“Come in.”
She sounded like she felt, groggy from being woken up early. As the door opened, she attempted to smile at the pegasus guardspony but only managed to grin creepily.
“Princess Luna, your presence is requested in the throne room. Princesses Twilight and Celestia are there waiting for you. I was told it is important.”
The guard saluted her as he spoke, his professionalism drawing a sharp contrast to the sleep-addled princess. Luna let out a sigh, hoping it would not be about parade preparations again.
“Tell them I will be there shortly.”
 
The guard nodded and departed, leaving Luna alone to do her 'morning' routine. When she left her room few minutes later, her mane was neat and tidy, she was wearing her regalia and her mind was no longer a mess of half-remembered dreams. She quickly navigated the castle's corridors and soon found herself at the doors to the throne room, facing the same guard who had woken her up. He saluted her again and pushed the doors open.
 
Princess Luna entered the throne room with her head held high, her eyes demanding answers from the other princesses. Her sister was at the base of her throne, standing next to Twilight Sparkle. A scroll, wrapped in Twilight's magic, was levitating between the two. Twilight was explaining something about clothes to Celestia. They were both focused on the scroll and had not noticed her enter the room.
“What is this 'important issue' that requires my attention this early in the day?”
She made no effort to hide the annoyance in her voice, glaring at the other alicorns as they finally acknowledged her presence.
“Ah, Princess Luna, it's uh...”
Twilight looked up from the scroll, an ephemeral smile flashing on her face before giving way to a look of concern just before she glanced at Celestia for support.
“What Twilight is trying to say is that an unknown creature appeared in Canterlot while you were asleep, sister.”
“And what about this is important enough for you to wake me up early, sister?”
Luna lifted one forehoof off the floor and made a jabbing motion towards her sister to further emphasize the last word.
“Well, I wouldn't exactly call him a creature since he was wearing clothes and had items made of refined metals with him. In fact, there's plenty of reason to believe that he is not only intelligent, but also sapient.”
Twilight's voice was buzzing with excitement as she fixed her eyes on the scroll.
“You really should see the device that brought him here, the detail on that thing is incredible – I've never seen anything like it before. It's a bit like the electronic devices we have here but everything's so minuscule that it makes what we have look primitive in comparison. Even the steel used in its frame is of an incredibly high quality and...”
 
A sense of dread stirred in the Princess of Night as some memory surfaced at the edge of her awareness. Twilight's words faded out of her awareness as she looked over the rooftops of Canterlot through the stained glass window to her right. There was something familiar about the situation, she knew that. But what that something was evaded her. A stranger had arrived into Equestria from the Outside before, but when? Who was it? Why was it important? She closed her eyes and wracked her brain to remember.
 
Her stomach wrenched all of a sudden. She looked at the window. Yellow and blue. Her gaze shot from the window to one of the pillars adorning the room. It had flowers engraved into it. The mat she was standing on was red and muffled her hoofsteps. The throne behind her sister was golden.
 
”Princess Luna? Is something wrong?”
Twilight's voice called her name, severing the chain of thought and bringing her back to the present.
“I... This room?”
She looked around, feeling a cold sweat tingle on her skin. Twilight and Celestia looked at each other, concern showing on their faces.
“Sister, are you certain that this creature is something truly unknown?”
Her voice was high-pitched and she could not keep her eyes fixed on one spot. Luna regretted voicing her concerns as the two other princesses stared at her, confused.
“What do you mean, sister?”
Celestia was the first one to break the short silence.
“I went through as many books as I could and found nothing like him. He's from an unknown family, maybe even genus.”
Twilight made the scroll she and her sister had been reading float over to her.
“Here, I wrote a description of him. It's in chapter two.”
 
Luna took the scroll into her magic and read. '...it is a mammalian biped.' 'It resembles the various monkeys found...' '...completely lacks a tail and is nearly hairless.' The more she read, the less she liked what she discovered. Her thoughts converged on a single, unfamiliar word: human.
 
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight Sparkle and a guard were standing on a small landing in front of the door to the topmost room in one of the tallest tower in the castle. Holding a bowl of fruit with her magic, she was mentally preparing herself for the task ahead. All she had to do was to open the door to the alien's room and wait for the guard to deliver the bowl while observing the both of them in case something unexpected happened.
 
The guard next to her, Silver Spear, had volunteered for the task. That did not mean it was something he was looking forward to doing. His movements were twitchy, his breathing was a touch louder than usual and she could smell that he was sweating despite the castle's temperature being the same magically-maintained constant as ever.
 
Regardless of it all, the gray unicorn had a determined look in his eyes as he took the bowl of fruit from her magical grasp and surrounded it with his own aura to keep it afloat. Twilight had a knot in her stomach despite being certain that the alien held no magic of his own. No matter how strong he may be, she could restrain him should he do something unexpected. Of course, what she knew was only based on her own observations.
And everypony made mistakes.
“So. If you feel like he does something that threatens anypony's safety, just do as we practiced and light up your horn and I'll take care of it.”
Her voice was not quite as steady as she would have liked, but Silver Spear glanced at her and nodded nevertheless.
“Okay then, here goes nothing.”
 
The door opened silently, swinging inwards as she gave it a solid push with her hoof. She heard Silver swallow just as the room and its sole resident were revealed. The alien was near the window, sitting cross-legged in front of it, looking at the city below. Silver hadn't had time to even take a single step forward when the alien's head jerked, turning to face the door. They both froze in place, staring at each other.
 
Time stopped.
Ta-Thump.
The only sound was the beating of her own heart.
Ta-Thump.
Nothing moved.
Ta-Thump.
Nothing made a sound.
Ta-Thump.
The alien's eyes, brown and set deep in his skull, were not fixed on her, yet some long-forgotten instinct was screaming that she should flee.
Ta-... Clop.
Silver Spear's hoof hit the floor.
He took the first step into the room, his eyes still fixed on the alien's. Twilight suddenly felt extremely aware of everything that was happening. Silver was about to take another step, the alien was still frozen in place, a bird flew past the window, she were waiting at the door like planned and the sound of hoofsteps could be heard from somewhere below.
 
The alien's reaction was so fast Twilight could barely follow. He placed his palms on the ground and twisted his body so his heels were against the wall with the balls of his feet on the floor. His eyes narrowed as he fixed them on the doorway. Twilight felt her own eyes go wide at the speed of his moves. She immediately spread her forehooves wider and lowered her head in preparation, her horn pointed at the bipedal creature. She was suddenly afraid. The alien's massive rear legs were coiled like springs and he had support from both the floor and the wall behind him.
 
But nothing happened. She watched the alien's face contort as the various muscles below the skin tensed and caused some of the features to move ever so slightly, producing an expression she could not read. Silver, having frozen in place as the alien had suddenly moved, took another step into the room. The alien opened his mouth and said something that Twilight couldn't understand and leaned on his hand, planting his behind on the floor again. The guard glanced back at her as the alien was doing this, his mouth slightly agape.
“I don't think he's going to do anything.”
He nodded at her and took another step. The alien was saying something incomprehensible and gesturing with his hands, but was ignored by both of the ponies. The ordeal was over in a few more seconds. Silver took a few more steps into the room before placing the bowl of fruit onto a chest of drawers and quickly retreated out of the room.
 
Twilight felt like she somehow understood the alien as she closed the door. The way he had his hand stretched out towards her, his fingers spread wide, and the single word he rapidly repeated as the door was closing had made him seem desperate. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Was that what he had said?
She did not know.
 
”Come in.”
Her mentor's voice responded to her knock on the door.
”So, how did he react?”
Princess Celestia did not even look at who came in before asking. She was on her balcony and was looking down at Canterlot, both her and the city illuminated by the afternoon sun. Twilight, coming from the shaded corridors, had to squint her eyes to look at her, so brilliant was her white coat.
“I'm not sure. At first, it seemed like he would pounce at me. I was prepared to blast him with a spell but then... Then he just sat down and started talking.”
Celestia turned to face Twilight, a part of her regalia mirroring the sun into her eyes for a split-second as she did so. She reflexively closed her eyes and looked away.
”Oh? And what do you think made him do that?”
The sound of horseshoes hitting carpeted stone told Twilight that Celestia had come into the room with her, back from the balcony. Opening her eyes, she looked at her mentor again and saw a warm smile on her face.
“If he had come at me as soon as he could have, he'd have been on me before I would have had a chance to react so... I think he chose to try and talk before doing anything else. When I was closing the door, he was repeating this one word-”
Twilight attempted to replicate the sound he'd made.
“-that I feel like means 'wait' but I just don't know.”
Princess Celestia looked at Twilight quietly for a moment, the smile still on her face. Yet something about her eyes had changed when she heard the replication of the word.
”Looks like you have a lot of work ahead of you if you want to learn to understand him.”
She gave Twilight a look that Twilight knew all too well. It was the one she gave before giving her a task that'd teach something she could explain in a few minutes but chose to have her figure out yourself.
”I believe your friend Sunburst would know how to get started.”
 
Princess Luna
Princess Luna trotted towards her sister, who was sitting on her throne and going through some papers with her secretary, while letting her eyes wander from one floral-patterned pillar to another as she passed by them.
“Sister, have you seen Twilight?”
Celestia threw Luna a single, bored glance before returning to the paper she was holding with her magic.
”She said she'd be taking the evening train to the Crystal Empire.”
Her voice was dull and lacked energy, as it always did whenever she'd had a difficult day.
“And why would she be going there when the duty you have assigned to her is in here?”
Glancing at Luna again, she lifted the paper so it covered her muzzle, no doubt to hide a mischievous smile. Luna wasn't certain what she got out of making her former protege do things the hard way, but she'd known her sister long enough to be sure that she was going to keep doing it.
“You did not think of telling her that, perhaps, the captive needs to eat more than a single bowl of fruit a day? He's at least twice the size of an average pony!”
Celestia let the paper drop somewhat, revealing a neutral face. Luna noticed a slight twinkle in the corner of her eye, though.
”You wound me, sister. I did not know you thought of me as so heartless.”
She glared at her sister, not in the mood for silly games.
“So you have considered the detail. Good.”
Preparing to leave, she rolled her eyes which, to her annoyance, made Celestia smile and giggle quietly.
”Since you seem so worried about our guest, why not take care of the issue yourself?”
Ignoring her sister, Luna turned around and trotted out of the throne room to do as she had suggested. But only because that had been her intention from the beginning.
 
She'd confirmed that the alien had eaten the fruit by looking through the peephole that Twilight had made before going to the kitchen to prepare another bowl. She'd even found the guard who'd  taken the bowl into the room and asked which fruit it'd had in it to include some variety. Twilight had also had the plumbings of the guestroom changed to “acquire a stool sample”, as she'd put it herself, but that was something she'd have to handle herself. If her theory about the alien being an omnivore was correct, and Luna had no reason to doubt it wasn't, he'd need something more than just fruit to stay healthy. But for now, fruit would have to suffice.
 
Piling as many kinds of fruit into the bowl as she could, Luna's mind returned to the conversation she'd had with the guard. Silver Spear, a gray unicorn in the standard gilded armor of her sister's guard, had told her about Anonymous' peculiar reaction to ponies.
A gray unicorn in gilded armor.
She shook her head to banish the foreboding thoughts. Now was not the time to be pondering half-remembered ominous dreams.
 
Luna knocked on the alien's door out of courtesy, neither expected nor received an answer before pushing it open with a hoof. He was lying on his bed but stood up the moment he saw her.
Tall.
That was her first thought of him. And he was. Considerably taller than she was, slightly exceeding even her sister's height if not for her horn. He stared at her with his oddly small eyes. It made her feel uneasy, as if she was doing something she wasn't supposed to.
 
“Greetings! I have come to bring you something to eat.”
She knew he couldn't understand her, but hoped that hearing her voice would make him feel at ease. He responded by saying a short, indecipherable line. His speech did not remind Luna of any of the numerous languages she'd ever heard. It was truly otherworldly. But hearing it gave her an idea. If such a thing was within her power, she could visit his dream. Sometimes, instead of speaking, ponies would wordlessly transfer their thoughts to her when she visited their dreams.
 
Luna moved into the room slowly, pausing after each step. She was pondering whether what she thought of would be possible when she noticed that the alien's eyes were fixed on her horn. His head turned slowly to follow her movement, his eyes completely still from her point of view. The intensity of his stare sent a shiver down her spine. He was still standing next to his bed, not having moved from the spot, when she placed the full bowl she'd brought with her next to the one that Silver Spear had brought a few hours earlier. The other bowl only had a few apple cores, banana peels and some other remnants in it.
 
Done with her task, Luna turned to face him and met his stare with her own. For a split-second, their eyes met. His forward-facing eyes, made to track whatever they were fixed on, bored into hers. A rush of adrenaline filled her veins.
 
To her relief, he immediately averted his eyes and looked at her mane. Something about his eyes changed, accompanied by some subtle movement of the various features of his face, but she could not interpret his expression. Luna decided to put her prejudices to the test.
 
Moving one hoof at a time, doing her best to appear nonthreatening, she slowly crept closer. His eyes moved back to her horn, then to her eyes and down to her shod hooves. Still inching closer, Luna studied his face and its alien features. His brow furrowed as he shifted his gaze from her hooves to the emblem she wore on her chest and then to her crown. She saw him part his lips slightly, heard him draw breath, even noticed the movement of his tongue inside his mouth. But he said nothing, only held his breath for a second before letting it out and closing his mouth.
 
The alien did not react to her inching closer to him before her muzzle was within the reach of his arms. That was when he lifted one hand to his chest and, after a second of consideration, stuck it out towards her. Luna stopped and instinctively drew her head away from the hand. She looked at him, puzzled as the alien nodded and wiggled the fingers of his outstretched hand. He clearly wanted her to do something with the hand, but what? She wished to talk to him, her mind brimming with questions to ask, but the language barrier voided any such wishes. Instead, she perked up her ears and tilted her head slightly to the side. He responded by tensing his cheek muscles, causing the corners of his mouth to move upwards somewhat.
A smile, in other words.
Glad that they had found at least some common ground, Luna responded to his smile with your own.
“I hope your dreams are not as difficult to read as your face, newcomer.”
 
She felt like she was taking a great risk when she slowly moved her head and gently bumped one of the alien's fingers with her muzzle. The risk turned out to be nonexistent as the alien slowly curled all but one of his fingers into a fist and used the remaining one to stroke the fur on top of her snout. Luna was amazed at how gentle his touch was: his finger moved on top of her fur without causing it to press against her skin.
 
Her mind was conflicted when she left the room a minute later.
 
Twilight Sparkle
Twilight Sparkle returned to castle when afternoon was turning into evening on the day following her departure. The train was nearly empty and nopony stopped her to take a photo, or to ask for an interview, or for an autograph while she passed through Canterlot. It was as if she was just a unicorn again.
In other words, totally amazing!
But, as much as she would have liked, she couldn't spend the evening in the city. She and Sunburst had enchanted four amulets, now safely in her saddlebags, with with potent translation spells. Each one of them had slightly different combinations to increase the chance that even one would work.
 
She couldn't wait to try them. There was so much to ask about his home world and his life and what kind of beings his species were. Were they kind and loving like ponies? Hardy and difficult to approach like griffins? Proud and strong like dragons or something else entirely? How did they get their food; were they hunters or farmers? What sort of a society did they have? What sort of ethics did they follow? And what about their history? It had to be at least as exciting as that of Equestria!
 
Twilight giddily trotted through the main gate just as the sun was setting, the sky a blend of yellows, oranges and reds. The display was especially flagrant thanks to some high-up clouds being lit from below by the last rays of daylight. It was as if Princess Celestia had decided to gift the entire region with a piece of her very own art.
”Princess Twilight?”
She brought your eyes down from the display above and faced the guardspony who had addressed her.
“Huh? Yes?”
Being called 'Princess Twilight' still confused her when she wasn't paying attention, and she'd been absorbed in admiring the skies.
”Princess Luna requested to send you to her as soon as you arrived. She should be in her room now, raising the moon.”
Blinking twice, she tried but failed to come up with a reason why Luna would want to see her with such urgency.
”Okay. I'll go see her.”
 
“Princess Luna?”
Twilight called for her as she knocked on her door. She hadn't even visited your own room to leave her saddlebags before she'd come here.
“Come in.”
Luna's response was immediate, and Twilight gave the door a firm push to open it. The room was dark, the lights unlit. She saw Luna on her balcony, her silhouette visible against the last glow of dusk. Her mane and tail seemed like rifts in reality, windows to the night sky, and Twilight could swear that her eyes glowed ever so slightly. The moment did not last; Luna's horn flashed in her soft aura and the lights came on, filling the room with their light and flooding out the ethereal glimmer in her mane and tail.
”I believe my sister-”
Twilight winced at the bitterness in Luna's voice as she spat out the reference to Princess Celestia.
”-sent you to the Crystal Empire yesterday.”
“Well, not really sent me but...”
A few alternatives formed in her mind as she paused, attempting to come up with the right words to defuse the situation.
“...rather, pointed me in the right direction.”
Luna glanced her way, looking down her muzzle as if Twilight's presence was something insulting.
“Uh, Sunburst had some fantastic ideas that I would've never thought of and we made so much progress that-”
“It is fine, Twilight Sparkle. You simply forgot that you had a guest to take care of before rushing off to do your research.”
 
...
Uhh.
Her mouth was left hanging open as her mind attempted to catch up with what Luna had said and what it meant. She'd completely forgotten about the alien and his needs. She hadn't even instructed the guards to bring him something to eat.
“Hehe.”
The kitchen. Now.
“I'll just... go make sure he isn't... starving.”
Luna glared at her as she began reversing out of the room, the dark alicorn's muzzle up in the air as a sign of disgust.
“Worry not, I have taken care of your duties in your absence. Your guest is fine.”
Twilight's emotions tumbled after the back-and-forth, leaving her stunned for a second.
“And that is not why I called you here.”
Luna's shod hooves clopped on stone as she came closer, her mask of feigned disgust dropping and revealing eyes wide with distress.
“He needs your help, Twilight Sparkle. Ask him why he came here. Everything else should be secondary.”
“What do you mean?”
Luna drew a sharp breath and glared at her with narrowed eyes. It made Twilight flatten her ears as she thought the other princess would snap at her. Instead, Luna remained still for a second before looking down at the floor between them while letting out a sigh.
”I visited his dream last night.”
She spoke slowly, pausing between words.
“What I saw was... disturbing.”
Lifting her gaze, she looked at Twilight with pleading eyes.
“It is not for me to divulge the dreams I visit unto others. But, if you had seen it, you would agree that he is in the need of the aid of the Princess of Friendship.”
She'd regained her composure and her voice had returned to normal, but her eyes told Twilight that she'd seen something that touched her deeply. It encouraged her to believe Luna.
“I... I'll try to help him.”
She really wanted to, but how?
 
Twilight left the room a few minutes later. Luna had refused to talk about the plea for help, claiming that going into any detail would be divulging his dream, but did say that nobody had fed the alien that night and suggested she do it. From the way Luna said it, Twilight got the feeling that she didn't like keeping him captive. Thanks to her own imprisonment on the moon, she thought. She doubted that was the reason why Luna was interested in him, though. That, she suspected, had to do with how his arrival reminded her of her own return.
They had both been feared.
But Luna had had Celestia and the Elements of Harmony help her and Ponyville, and the rest of Equestria, overcome their fear of each other.
The alien had no-one.
That would also explain why Luna thought he needed Twilight's help.
 
The tray full of foodstuffs floated above her as she climbed the stairs to the alien's room. This time she'd included some common pony foods like some bread, a cupcake, a hayburger and a bowl of carrot soup. She'd the soup found in the kitchen and heated it. On top of an assortment of fruit, of course. She knew he wouldn't stay healthy on a diet of nothing but fruit. The thought reminded her that the change in plumbing should have produced results by now. She'd have to see to it after testing the pendants. It should be an informative, if unpleasant, task.
 
As she reached the landing in front of the door to the alien's room, she banged her hoof on the door thrice before pushing it open. He was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, looking her way and holding some metal wire he'd been bending into a cube. Twilight was about to cry out for the guards, thinking that someone other than her or Luna had been in the room, when she noticed that the wardrobe was open and some of the coat hangers were missing.
That was where he'd got the wire from.
 
His eyes moved from her to the tray while she was still looking at the wire cube he'd made. She set the tray down on the floor next to him and watched as he reached out and touched the side of the bowl of soup with a single finger. At first he did it very briefly and then again for a few seconds. He must've seen the faint plume of steam rising off it and realized it was hot. Luckily, he didn't seem to mind that Twilight had forgotten to bring a spoon.
 
She took out the four pendants from her bags as he sipped the soup, nodded at the bowl, and took another sip. She were levitating one of them towards him, hoping he wouldn't mind, when he noticed the movement and looked at the pendant. His eyes followed it, his head craning upwards as Twilight lifted it over him, but he made no effort to stop her from slipping it on. He cocked an eyebrow and looked at her after she was done, then returned his attention to the soup bowl.
 
“Does it work? Can you understand me?”
Twilight got ignored as he drank some more soup. That one would have provided the most accurate translation...
Sighing in disappointment, she focused your magic and took the failure off him. He jerked as he saw her aura suddenly light up around his neck, nearly spilling some of his soup.
“Sorry! Didn't mean to startle you.”
 
He looked at her again after she'd put on the next necklace, lifting his shoulders and tilting his head to the side. The third one produced no response, other than him grabbing an apple while ignoring her. He noisily bit into the apple as Twilight took out the last of the enchanted pendants. This one was far more general than the others, but its translation would not be as accurate. She swallowed and put it on him, as she had done with the others.
“I hope at least this one works...”
 
His reaction was immediate. He had been about to bite into the apple again, but froze the moment Twilight spoke. Turning slowly, he looked at her. His eyes darted from one feature to another as he studied them.
”So, you have known this language all along.”
He sported a heavy accent, overpronouncing most consonants. Or it could be just the spell.
“No, no, it's a tra- wait, it doesn't translate into the language you're the most familiar with?”
That was what it was supposed to do, at least.
”Translate? You just switched languages into one I know.”
His hands moved slightly when he spoke, but the gestures told you nothing.
“That is what it sounds like. But actually, the spell in the necklace tries to find the meaning of whatever you say or hear and translates it into its closest equivalent in whichever language you or whoever you're talking to is most familiar with. Or, that's what it's supposed to do.”
She brought a hoof to your chin as she tried to figure out why the spell didn't work as intended. If only Sunburst was here, he seemed to always have some unorthodox method to try.
 
”I suppose I will believe you.”
Anonymous' words broke her train of thought.
“I- OH! Where are my manners?”
She'd been so caught up with the spell's failure that she'd completely forgotten to introduce herself.
“Hi, I'm Twilight Sparkle. What's your name?”
”I am Anonymous.”
As he paused, you felt a bit stupid for forgetting that the amulet would attempt to translate his name as well. He was going to be Anonymous, at least until she could tweak the spell. Perhaps if she fiddled with Greenhorn Twospell's generalization spell...
 
Anonymous had crossed his arms and was watching her silently,  not looking like he was about to say anything despite having sounded like he would continue.
“Soo... Would you mind if I asked a few questions?”
Twilight grinned and hoped she didn't look too eager as she pulled the list of 25 most important questions from her bags. She'd made it on the train back to Canterlot.
”A few?”
He glared at the list, making Twilight feel like a filly caught with her hoof in the cookie jar.
”No, I do not. But only if I get to ask some as well.”
 
Twilight stumbled into her room with her eyes flagging at half-mast. At first he'd seemed like he was trying to make it end as quickly as possible, giving one-line answers and unspecific fluff. Then she'd asked about the device that'd brought him here. That was...
Well, he reminded her of Princess Celestia, in a way.
 
When he'd realized that Twilight had no idea what he was talking about, he'd taught her the basic operating principles of each part and why it was necessary. And instead of flat out explaining that, he'd given her the laws governing their function and then coaxed her on with just the right questions until she'd combined them just right and reached the conclusion on her own.
Then he'd asked his questions. At first, they'd seemed easy and basic. Like “how did you float the tray?”
 
But, as it turned out, his world – and he, by extent – had no concept of magic.
Twilight let out a sigh and rubbed her tired eyes with a hoof while lifting the bags she still carried off her back and onto the floor.
Inspired by him, she had tried the same approach as he had taken. But she'd known the physics behind electronics, just not the application. He'd had no clue whatsoever about magic.
It hadn't worked.
Leaping onto the bed, she worked her way under the covers and attempted to empty her mind. And immediately fell asleep.
 
Princess Luna
He had the same dream again.
Luna quietly landed behind him, careful not to disturb anything. He was sitting on a mat in front of a glass wall, a divider between the space they were in and the dream proper. On their side, there was the mat that continued for some distance in every direction before fading out. On the other side was a meeting room, with a long table, a video projector and some twenty people. They were sitting at the table, each one having a small sign with their title on it in front of them. The projector was displaying some graphs and other fiscal data. The talk was about how the profits of the corporation were down from both last quarter and last year. Anonymous, one of the people in the room and the only whose nameplate wasn't his own but belonged to someone who couldn't have been bothered to come and had sent him instead, was asked what he thought about the plans of laying off people.
 
”I told them firing people from product development was a bad idea, but did they listen?”
The real Anonymous, one sitting with Luna on the other side of the glass wall, had become aware of her presence.
”I told them that finding new people who can be taught to be good at what they do wouldn't be easy, but did they listen?”
He was holding one palm on the glass wall, gently tapping it with his middle finger.
”I told them that firing the people who had been there for years would give us a bad reputation and make it even harder to find competent replacements, but did they listen?”
His tone became exasperated as he ranted on.
”I told them all this but did they fucking listen?”
He turned his head to glance at Luna before looking back into the meeting room, not the least bit surprised by her presence.
”I was supposed to be yet another yes-man, saying 'Yes, yes, yes, of course you are correct oh Great and All-Knowing.'”
Knowing that trying to stay out of sight was now pointless, she trotted beside him and sat down to watch. He glanced at her again and the scene in front of them changed.
 
The glass wall was gone. The room was replaced by a vast, flat and snowy expanse of a frozen lake. Behind her was a rocky, wooded shore, the firs topped with white snow. The scene was illuminated by a three-quarter moon, hanging high in cloudless and starry sky, which painted everything in a silvery hue. The snow shimmered with tiny flashes of light whenever Luna moved her head. The air was completely still and so cold that the hair in her nose froze when she drew breath. It was completely silent, not even the faintest of sound could be heard.
 
”I wasn't laid off, but promoted to be the head of department.”
Anonymous, clad thickly from head to toe and sitting on a rock some distance to your side, broke the silence.
”From then on, every failure was my fault and every success was thanks to the new strategy.”
He pushed himself off the rock, his feet sinking into the snow up to his knees, and gazed up at the stars. Luna, trotting gracefully on top of the snow without even leaving hoofprints, moved his way.
”It was fine for the first year, but eventually I let it get to me.”
He lifted one foot, leaving a neat hole in the snow, then moved it forward before putting weight on it. He took a few steps like that before you got to his side.
“Don't dwell on the past so much. You can't change it.”
She placed a hoof on his shoulder, the gesture made possible thanks to the snow nullifying their height difference. But, as soon as she touched him, he flinched visibly and turned to look at her, his eyes wide with fear. He looked away immediately, embarrassed by his reaction.
”I try letting go, but it keeps coming back.”
This time, he didn't react when she put her hoof on his shoulder.
“It just keeps coming back.”
 
Dawn was about to break when Luna ended her vigil in the dream world. It had been an easy night. The few nightmares she encountered were dealt with ease, and she had spent most of the time simply meandering from dream to dream, marveling at the wonders that ponies' minds could conjure.
One thing troubled her, however.
Why had Anonymous reacted the way he did when she touched his dream self? Was he frequented by nightmares in which some beings sneaked behind him? Luna had not felt even a trace of anything such tonight. That did not mean it couldn't have happened earlier, before his arrival to Equestria. She could, and decided to, ask him once he was awake, but there was no guarantee he would remember if he'd had such dreams – or be willing to talk about it. Plus he had stayed up late with Twilight, so she would most likely be asleep when he'd wake up.
 
”How was your night, sister?”
Celestia greeted her like she always did when Luna made her way into the dining room.
“Easy enough that I had time to make sure even yours was peaceful, sister.”
Her body was yearning for rest, but she made herself sit down in front of the plate her sister had prepared for her.
”I could tell. Thank you.”
Even though such sweet treats were not precisely her favorite, Luna knew that her sister prepared the pancakes personally just for her. And she had been shown how important they were to her sister.
“I only wish I could understand what made Anonymous' dreams so... disturbed.”
Staring at the smiley face made of fruit that's in front of her, she concentrated your magic and made her knife cut it in half.
”Oh, how come. I was meaning to talk about him.”
Celestia set down her knife and fork and looked at Luna with a smile on her face.
”I know Twilight was working on a way of understanding him and returned last night. Did you happen to hear whether she made any progress?”
“She told me she had made four amulets to translate his speech and was going to test them. Since she spent several hours in his room after that, I would assume she was successful.”
Luna skewered one half of the pancake with her fork, cut off a small piece and ate it. Too sweet for her taste, as always.
”Then perhaps I should talk with him. I have to admit, I am rather curious.”
As she threw a sideways glance at Celestia, Luna noticed that her sister's eyes were out of focus as if she was looking at something that was very far away.
“Is something bothering you, sister?”
Her eyes quickly refocused and fixed themselves on Luna.
”Ah, no. Of course not.”
She smiled at her in a way that was supposed to be reassuring, but her response had been just a touch too fast and her tone had been just a touch too light.
 
Twilight Sparkle
”Princess Twilight!”
Someone was banging on her door.
“Haa... Just a minute, Spike...”
Muttering the dragon's name was enough to jolt a bit sense into her sleep-addled brain. He was not here, she'd left him in Ponyville.
Then who...?
“Come in!”
She slipped out of bed just before the door opened to reveal Silver Spear.
”Princess Twilight, you are needed in the throne room!”
The sun was somewhere above and behind him, shining into the room and burning her eyes.
“What time is it?”
”A bit before noon, princess.”
WHAT? She'd slept in?
“Oh no, oh no. How's my mane? Is it okay?”
She dashed past the guard before he had time to react.
 
Twilight didn't slow down before reaching the hallway leading to the throne room. Stopping there, she spent a moment to catch her breath, and then trotted right in. Celestia was alone in the room, peering out of a window.
”You were faster than I thought you'd be.”
She turned around, her eyes stopping on Twilight's mane.
”Although I would not have minded if you had taken the time to do your mane.”
“Uh, sorry. I thought I'd slept in and was late.”
Celestia giggled softly.
”It's fine. I knew you were tired after last night. How did it go, by the way? With Anonymous?”
Twilight slowly trotted closer to her as she looked at her throne and lit up her horn.
“It went great! There's so much to learn about him and his kind that I don't even know where to begin.”
A hairbrush, silver and inset with flawless gemstones, floated out from a small compartment inside the back of the throne, surrounded by Celestia's magic.
”Yes, and...?”
She left the question hanging, expecting Twilight to continue.
“I... didn't forget to bring him something to eat or to ask about how he used to eat?”
She wasn't sure what her mentor was trying to get at.
”And what did you teach him?”
Celestia made a circular gesture in the air with her hoof.
”Turn around and sit down.”
“Uhh...”
Twilight did as instructed and sat on the floor.
“I tried to teach him about magic, but it didn't go too well. I mean, how do you explain something to someone if nothing even remotely like it exists in his world?”
She heard Celestia's hoofsteps come closer.
”Do you remember the very first lesson I taught you?”
She felt the brush gently stroke her mane a few times, then again with just enough force to straighten it out.
“'Friendship is Magic'?”
 
Princess Celestia thoroughly brushed Twilight's mane and tail while the they talked about how to introduce the concept of magic to someone like Anonymous. She even moved back to her mane after she was done with her tail. Twilight concluded that it meant she liked doing it. She was about to tell Celestia that her mane must've been fine already, but then realized there was no-one else whose mane she could brush while casually chatting about something she was interested in. Her mind jumped to some unpleasant conclusions about her mentor being lonely despite being constantly surrounded by ponies, leaving Twilight at a loss for words.
”Hm? Did you come up with something?”
Celestia noticed her sudden silence and inquired about it.
“No. It's just... I mean... Why did you go back to brushing my mane when you were done with my tail?”
She hoped the princess wouldn't mind her asking a silly question like that.
”It is not very often that I get to do that to someone, even if I'd like to. So, I treasure every moment of it.”
The brushstrokes stopped, and Twilight turned around to see Celestia looking out of one of the windows with her eyes focused on something Twilight couldn't see.
”I am worried, Twilight.”
The usual grace of her voice was gone, and her tone was lower than usual.
”I went to see him before you woke up and asked him to tell me of what he thought as the most important moment in their history. He... told me of the Sun King and the French Revolution.”
She paused to let out a sigh, which Twilight thought sounded sad.
”His people are no strangers to bloodshed, tyranny, slavery and war. Their history is full of examples of conquest, colonialism and extortion of the weak. They even discriminate each other based on color. I cannot risk Equestria becoming a target of such practices.”
Her voice steadily filled with determination as she went on.
”We must find out how he managed to break through the barrier separating our worlds and do what we must to make sure it can not happen again. Even if...”
Celestia let out another, deeper sigh and let her head droop down.
”Even if it means he will become stuck in our world, where no-one will ever truly understand him,  for the rest of his life.”
She ended her monologue in a voice that was barely above a whisper.
 
Twilight was at a loss for words.
Sure, she had considered that he could be dangerous. But the way he acted and spoke...
No, she could not believe that he bore any ill will.
It was not as if Celestia's concern was completely baseless, though. Even if Anonymous was what he seemed to be, the rest of his kind could be different.
“What... what should I do, then?”
An image of Princess Ember and the dragons floated to her mind from the depths of her memory.
”Keep doing what you have been doing, and try to make him feel welcome. Try to find out why he came here.”
The memory of Ember was suddenly replaced by a memory of Princess Luna.
”'He needs your help, Twilight Sparkle. Ask him why he came here.'”
When she had made her request, she had not had the safety of Equestria on her mind.
“I will do my best.”
Twilight decided not to mention what Luna had said. It felt like it was something she would've told Celestia herself if she wanted her to know.
 
After her meeting with Princess Celestia, she learned what Anonymous had eaten prior to his arrival. Almost everything he'd eaten had been cooked. The bulk of the volume consisted of plant-based matter ranging from raw carrots to processed grains. On top of that there was some animal-based produce. From the sample Twilight had acquired, she managed to recognize cheese, egg and two kinds of meat that she thought were chicken and pig. The analysis also revealed that his digestive system was unable to process the less nutritious parts of plants and that those simply passed through, which explained why he had not eaten the hayburger last night.
 
Twilight was writing down her findings after disposing of the sample when her stomach reminded her that she hadn't eaten anything since waking up. There was a lot to ask from Anonymous, and while Princess Celestia had probably given him something to eat, it had been a while ago. She decided to eat with him.
 
The theme of the day was beans. Twilight had read from somewhere that beans had a lot of crucial... something for omnivores, and were tasty on top of that. It had taken a while to convince the royal cook that cooking everything was absolutely necessary and that absolutely no hay could be used, but the end result, now on a tray that was floating behind of her, smelled delicious. It was mainly composed of a sauce of beans and carrots on top of rice.
 
She knocked on Anonymous' door before giving it a swift kick to open it. He was sitting on the floor in the middle of the room, holding a pencil and writing something on a piece of paper. Only having moved his eyes, he looked at Twilight form underneath his brows. It made her feel like she was barging in on something important. As he recognized her he flashed a smile, set down the pencil and lifted his head.
”Twilight Sparkle.”
The way he said her name, especially his hard 'r' in 'Sparkle', made her want to remind him of its proper pronunciation. But Twilight's eyes happened upon the pendant he was wearing. It reminded her that it was only due to the inaccurate translation spell.
“Hi. I brought us something to eat.”
His eyes fixated on the tray as she placed it on the floor between you.
”Looks like-”
He said something the spell failed to translate, and then shrugged.
”Well, at least it is warm.”
Twilight was trying to figure out what he had meant when he suddenly stood up. Her eyes went wide and she instinctively took half a step backwards as he seemed to double in size.
”Oh, sorry, I... Well, should I move more slowly?”
“Ah, no, no. It's just... I wasn't really paying attention. Just sit down and let's eat.”
 
“Soo... how do you like Equestria?”
Twilight broke the silence with the first question that she could think of. Anonymous had sat down after she asked him to, and had eaten quietly since then.
”I am not sure.”
He glanced up from his plate and at her.
”Perhaps you should show me more than this one room if you want to find out.”
...oh. Right.
“I'd like to, but I'll have to ask Princess Celestia first... I'm not sure if she'd like me letting you out.”
”Celestia? The tall, white one with hair like a flowing rainbow?”
Twilight nodded.
”I thought she was the queen with how she acted when I asked who she was.”
He blew some air out of his nose, producing a 'hmph' sound, and smiled.
”She understood that I had no way of knowing who she was and introduced herself, but for a second she looked at me as if I was some fool.”
Talking about Princess Celestia reminded Twilight of the task she had given her, and she felt the smile that Anonymous' tone and accent had brought to her face melt away.
“Say, Anonymous. Why did you leave your world?”
 
He was quiet for a long time, staring at the half-eaten meal in front of him, the smile and chipper mood from earlier gone.
”I-”
He stopped himself before saying anything else and shook his head.
”There was this... thing I discovered a few years back that just would not leave me alone. I am... was a product developer and ran into it by accident while running some tests and never had the time to look into it before... before now.”
Twilight sat patiently, nodding at him to tell him to continue.
”When I figured out what it actually was and what I could do with it, I tried to stop and even destroyed everything I had made so far because I knew that if it were to fall into the wrong hands...”
He shook his head again.
”But it would not leave me alone. The more I tried to forget, the more I found myself thinking about it. It was too important.”
Lifting his head, he looked at her, his eyes boring into hers. They were full of...
Twilight saw tears forming in his eyes.
”I knew that no-one would believe me if I told them that I had found a way to nigh-instantaneously travel any distance, so I built a prototype as a proof. It took me a long time, but I finished it and ran the first test a few days back. It... did not go as planned. It should not have been possible, but somehow the machine entered a positive feedback loop that I could not stop.”
He closed his eyes and let out a deep sigh.
”The last thing I remember before waking up here is ripping out the power cable.”
 
Princess Luna
”...so, to summarize: The creature, who introduced himself as Anonymous, has not displayed any signs of violence towards anypony despite the size difference and the fact that he is partially carnivorous. We have discovered a way to talk to him, and that he is at least as intelligent as any one of us. There is, however, reason to believe that not all of his kind are as benevolent as he is. Consequently, we have decided to do everything we can to prevent any more of his kind from gaining access to Equestria.”
Her sister's word echoed in the hall, the only other sound being the scribbling of press ponies' pens as they took notes.
”Yes, go ahead.”
Celestia pointed towards one of the reporters who had a hoof in the air. Luna rolled her eyes and said goodbye to her hopes of the 'brief press conference' she had agreed to have with her and Twilight.
”Why is Anonymous not here himself?”
”I believe Twilight knows the answer to this one. Would you?”
Celestia looked at Twilight, sitting behind her from Luna's perspective, and nodded.
”He, uh...”
Twilight stammered, thrown off by suddenly being cast in the spotlight.
“I asked if he wanted to come a bit before we began but he said he dislikes reporters for personal reasons and declined.”
Her recovery was immediate, and she even managed to sound casual. It reminded Luna of the time she'd spent with her in this room after her ascension. She'd sat where she was now and Luna had been playing the press and trying to come up with the most difficult and least expected questions she could. She had been a fast learner, just as her sister had told her.
 
”Okay, we only have time for one more question.”
Luna jerked in surprise as she heard the line she was hoping for, but not expecting in the least. The reporters' prattle filled the room as her sister threw you a sideways glance and flashed a smile.
”There's something you should know about him that we didn't have time to tell about.”
Celestia's voice was just barely loud enough for her to hear. She was briefed on what Twilight had found out before the conference, but they had practically dragged her there straight out of bed, so it was understandable if there was something else.
 
“There was something you wanted to tell me?”
Luna was in Celestia's room, where she had requested her and Twilight to come after the conference.
”Yes. After Twilight talked to Anonymous today, she asked for a sample of his blood. He agreed to give one.”
Her sister's horn lit up and a drawer under her desk opened. A small glass vial of dark red liquid, coated in her magical aura, floated out of it. She made it float over to Twilight, who then took it into her magical grasp.
”I didn't think there would be anything special with it, but...”
Twilight continued from where your sister had left off, a serious expression on her face.
”I'm... I'm not sure. It seems like it's... well, you should see it for yourself.”
The vial floated over to Luna and she intensely stared at it for a second but couldn't see anything out of the ordinary.
“Is there something I should see?”
Looking at the other alicorns, she felt a little dumb for not realizing what was so special about the blood.
”Try levitating it yourself and you'll see.”
She skeptically raised an eyebrow at Twilight before focusing her magic and grasping the vial with it.
“What-”
 
It hit her.
Hard.
It was like an explosion of raw magic going off inside her, starting from her horn and rapidly flooding her veins with pure, glowing power. It felt as if her body was filled with molten steel. She opened your mouth to scream.
 
But, as suddenly as it began, it ended. All that was left was a feeling of raw magic coursing through her veins, empowering her spell thousandfold. She nearly crushed the vial before being able to adjust to the surge of energy.
“What?”
She was at a loss for words, much of her attention focused on containing the magic.
“I'm not sure how, but it seems like his body is absorbing vast amounts of Equestria's magical energy.”
Luna barely listened to Twilight's words, still trying to prevent accidental outbursts. The power inside her was slowly settling down to a more manageable form, though.
“But- He- Whe- Does he know?”
“He hasn't said anything about it so I don't think he does. But even if he did, I'm sure that he can't use it since he lacks a horn or anything else he could use as a focus.”
She felt her sister's magic tug at the vial and let go of it. The ludicrous amount of power rapidly drained away, leaving her feeling like her own magic was but an insignificant speck.
“How did you pick it up like you did? I was completely overwhelmed and it seemed like you weren't affected at all.”
Twilight and Celestia glanced at each other as Luna asked her question.
“It happened to both of us on the first time, but Twilight found a way around it. A deflection spell will prevent it. Even a weak one.”
Luna threw her sister a skeptical look before focusing on the vial, now resting on Celestia's table, and did as she had suggested.
...Nothing. Just as she said, the deflection spell blocked the surge.
 
“What do you think we should do?”
Celestia's question confused Luna as she had been about to ask the same thing herself.
“I haven't-”
There was one thing that sprang to her mind.
“It feels a bit wrong to keep him locked up. He hasn't done anything wrong and even this-”
She pointed at the vial with a hoof.
“-isn't really his fault.”
The room was silent for a moment.
“I admit, you have a point. What do you think, Twilight?”
“Huh? Sorry, what?”
Twilight had had an absent look on her, and now looked at her mentor with a hint of red on her face while Celestia repeated what had been said.
“I agree, he hasn't done anything. On the other hoof, I'm certain there are some who would be ready to hurt him if they knew about this issue. But I just remembered that there's something important I have to take care of in Ponyville.”
“I think we're done here, unless...”
Celestia looked at Luna, one eyebrow cocked.
“I do not have anything to add.”
“Okay, see you tomorrow!”
Twilight trotted to the balcony, spread her wings and leaped off. Luna wondered what could have been important enough to make her leave out of the blue like that.
 
“What do you think of all this, sister?”
Luna was still looking at the spot where Twilight had dived off the balcony from when she heard the grating of wood on wood, caused by her sister closing the drawer she'd taken the vial from. She then heard her sister's deep, long sigh.
“I don't like it. I don't like it one bit.”
Celestia spoke slowly and her voice was deeper than usual.
“I feel as if we are being drawn into another conflict. I'm not sure why, but it reminds me of the return of the Crystal Empire.”
Luna turned around to face her sister, only to find her staring at a spot on the floor in front of her, an empty expression on her face. She wanted to say something comforting and place her muzzle on her sister's withers to make her feel better, but a certain half-remembered dream haunted her.
 
“I have felt it too, sister.”
Luna spoke quietly, hoping to soften the impact of her words.
“A gray unicorn, a guard in your gilded armor, gallops into the throne room, shouting my name.”
It was as if the memory had come to life in her mind, as if the hurried hoofsteps were echoing in the room as she spoke.
“'Princess Luna, you've got to come quick! Something's happened to Princess Celestia!', he says.”
She closed her eyes and saw the floor of polished marble, shiny enough for her to see her own reflection.
“I ask him what's happened, but he does not know.”
Celestia's worried face filled her vision as she opened her eyes.
“I know there is more to the dream, but I was woken up at that point.”
A heavy silence filled the room.
“I agree with you about one thing, sister. I do not like this, not one bit.”
Luna closed the distance between them, her insignia bumping into her sister's regalia, resting her muzzle on her withers. Celestia reciprocated in kind. She also felt her sister's hoof on her back. Closing her eyes, she listened to her heartbeat and let the warmth of her body drive away the lingering remnants of doubt.
“But whatever there is to come...”
“We shall always face it together.”
They said the last part together, as if one.
 
The door to her sister's room closed behind her.
“I still think we should tell him, he can keep a secret.”
They had concluded that Anonymous was in need of the services of a tailor, and that Luna would take him to one tonight. But her sister had insisted that they keep him in the dark about both their ominous feelings and the properties of his blood. Celestia's point of view was understandable: a few careless words in the wrong place and rumors would start to spread.
“I'm worried about what could happen to him if someone like Chrysalis found out.”
For a moment the only thing to be heard was the sound of Luna's and her sister's hooves as they headed towards the tower where Anonymous was. Then she heard her sister sigh.
“You're right, sister. I should trust him more, and not think of him as a threat but as a friend.”
Luna looked to her side, at her sister, glad that she had let go of the role of a lone ruler she took on all too often.
“Perhaps you should ask him if he wants to be more than friends. It is not often that you get to be with someone your own size.”
Celestia rolled her eyes at her younger sister's quip and lightly kicked Luna's flank. It stung, but Luna knew how much Celestia hated what she just did. Which was precisely why she did it.
 
“Hello? Anonymous?”
She knocked on his door before opening it with a quick flick of magic. Anonymous had been sitting on the floor, drawing something on a piece of paper. He was now silently eyeing Luna and her sister.
“I see you're enjoying the things I sent you earlier. Did you take a look at the book, too?”
Luna glanced at her sister. There was a light smile on her face and her eyes were slightly narrowed, telling of her eagerness to hear his reply. She hadn't told she'd given him a book, and Luna wondered which one she'd chosen.
“I did look at the book, and I found out that this-”
He tugged at the chain of the pendant he was wearing while Luna rudely stared at him in surprise.
 
He... had an accent. A strong one. She hadn't expected him to have one, he hadn't had one when they'd met in his dream.
“-does not work on writing. So, I could not read it.”
The way he pronounced his R's reminded her of something. Lotus and Aloe, Ponyville's spa keepers. Their accent was similar to Anonymous'. Not identical, but close.
“That's a shame. It's such a well written book. But, that's not why we're here.”
“What, do you want to ask who is the single most influential poet in known history? Or do you perhaps want to know how the Haber-Bosch process works?”
Luna nearly chuckled when she saw her sister's face. It was like she was about to say 'Eh' but was frozen halfway.
“What my sister is trying to say is that we are here because we thought you would enjoy an evening out in the city. And we heard that you need clothes to stay warm and it's autumn so we thought you would appreciate a visit to the tailor.”
She received an annoyed glance from Celestia for stealing her lines.
“You're letting me out of this room?”
Anonymous' expression changed into one she couldn't read, but his tone suggested that he was surprised.
“That's good. Because I don not know how the Haber-Bosch process works.”
“There's a few things you should know before you leave. I was told you don't remember anything of what happened immediately after you arrived.”
Luna let her sister speak. While she liked to annoy her, she neither wanted nor liked to take it too far.
 
“The ponies at the market told me that your arrival was preceded by some disturbed happenstances. Then you appeared from what they described as a perfectly black sphere.”
Celestia paused to look out of the window.
“They were understandably afraid of you and ran away. I doubt anypony will run from you now – in fact, most of them should be curious and welcoming – but try to remember what sort of a first impression you made.”
“Okay, so no unholy rituals to summon eldritch abominations from the Beyond. Got it. Was there anything else?”
Her elder sister 's head jerked back from the window as her narrowed eyes fixed on the alien. Luna knew that the short, silent moment was because she had just barely stopped herself from snapping at him. She mentally congratulated Anonymous for somehow managing to get under her sister's skin in a way she had never managed to.
“Yes.”
Celestia's tone was indeed snappy as she continued, and he did not miss it.
“Hey, I was not being serious. I just forgot that I am now in a world where what I said can be taken seriously.”
He lifted his hands to his sides, palms facing upwards, and shrugged. Luna wasn't sure what that was supposed to mean, but assumed it to be some sort of an apologetic gesture.
“There is one more thing you should know.”
She glanced at her sister, who nodded.
“You gave a blood sample earlier and we have studied it. It has reacted very strongly to Equestria's magic, absorbing vast amounts of it. It seems like the magic stored in it can easily be used by anypony. Thankfully, it does not seem to affect you in any way. But there are some less than savory characters in Equestria who would go great lengths to acquire such power. So we would ask you to keep it a secret unless you want to attract these beings.”
Anonymous stared at Luna, one eyebrow arced and his arms crossed. It made her feel like he thought she was dumb.
”So if it does not affect me and you want me to keep it a secret, why tell me at all?”
She was about to answer when she heard him draw a sharp breath.
”Great. So not am I only a scary monster, but my blood is also valuable enough for some to hunt me. What a wonderful situation I have got myself into.”
That had to be sarcasm, she concluded, and did her best to remember his tone and expression to recognize it in the future. The more she learned about him, the more he reminded her of a pony.
 
Luna took a deep breath, inhaling the crisp autumn air of the castle courtyard. It smelled faintly of rotting leaves. A chilly breeze blew past her as she looked back at Anonymous. He was looking up at the cloudless sky and his breath was forming thin streaks of silvery mist in the wind. She saw him shiver.
“Are you cold?”
The wind tickled her fur but the chill hadn't found a way through. Anonymous' clothes must've not done so well.
“A little. It was not this cold back home. I just-”
He fell silent all of a sudden. Luna saw the hint of a smile that'd been on his face melt away as he slowly brought his gaze to his own feet.
“Never mind. Let's just... go. It's cold.”
His voice had changed, too. It was quieter, lower and monotone, and lacked not only enthusiasm but hope as well.
“Is something bothering you?”
She tried to make herself sound casual, but some of her worry seeped into her voice. Minute signs of conflicting emotions flashed on Anonymous' face as he watched her turn around and close the distance between them. He remained silent for longer than she thought he would but finally let out a sigh and opened his mouth.
“A week ago, I visited my mother.”
Luna did not recognize the tone he had, but it was one she hadn't heard him use before. It sounded more dramatic and lacked the quirkiness he usually had.
“She invited me to eat, so I went there and ate. Then she asked how I had liked the food. Only, differently from how she usually did it. I am not sure how to describe it, but I knew she expected something form me. I told her the truth – that the food was good and I especially liked the salad because the tomatoes were excellent.”
Anonymous glanced up at the sky again before looking at her, a warm yet somehow sad smile on his face.
“I could feel the happiness in her voice when she told me they were the tomatoes she had grown herself. She had spent the whole summer worrying about them, wondering if they will have time to ripen because it had not been very warm. Calling me when she was away and asking me to go and water them when it was dry. But, early autumn was mild and they did have time to ripen. And I had just praised them, and her efforts.”
He closed his eyes as he let out another sigh, the smile melting from his face again.
“And now I can not figure out how I ended up here, or how to get back. I have redone most of the calculations and they check out. It should not have been possible. Repeating it to get back should not be possible, and I am not sure if I can even repair the thing to even try.”
Luna was not sure how to respond. She wished to tell him that everything was going to turn out fine, that he could be happy, but she also knew that he could not return – she, her sister and Twilight had all decided it was too risky.
“Would you mind if I bought you a drink?”
She settled on the two things she thought she could safely offer. A drink, and an ear.
“I think... I could use one.”
 
Twilight Sparkle
“Twilight? We're in Canterlot now, you should wake up.”
She felt a gentle jab on her side. The first thing her tired mind could comprehend were the immaculate locks of royal purple next to her. Then a sudden flash of panic overtook her as she heard the train's wheels screech and felt the deceleration push her into the backrest of her seat, but it passed when she looked out of the window and recognized the familiar scene of Canterlot Station. A steady rain pounded the roof of the carriage, creating a soothing hum. The few other ponies who were in the early morning train with them were gathering their bags and getting out their umbrellas. She hadn't meant to sleep in the train, but explaining what had happened to her friends had taken longer than she thought. Pinkie had kept asking about when she could throw a welcome party when Twilight was trying to explain that they should be prepared in case something happened.
“Oh. When did I fall asleep?”
Twilight gently shook her head and rubbed her eyes to force herself awake.
“Soon after we left Ponyville. I thought about waking you up, but you seemed so tired that I didn't dare.”
Rarity flashed a soft smile before levitating her saddlebags onto herself. She had surprised Twilight in Ponyville Station earlier that morning when she had turned up with a letter from Sassy Saddles. She hadn't been sure what Sassy had meant by 'Princess Luna left an express request for several sets of clothes for something else', but the request for help at the end was clear enough.
“Ah! There. I knew I had one.”
An umbrella, glowing with Rarity's magic, floated out of one of the bags. Twilight regretted not packing one herself because while she knew a spell to keep herself dry, she would have preferred the mundaneness of one. Spell always attracted attention.
 
A transparent, lavender-tinted dome appeared above Twilight with a crack as she cast the spell. Rarity shook her head at her display.
“That does not suit your mane at all. Perhaps something... a touch darker?”
Her friend was looking at the dome above her with one eye squinted and a hoof at her chin. They were on the street just outside Canterlot Station, where their paths would split. Twilight would go towards the castle and Rarity in the other direction, to her boutique.
“Rarity, it's supposed to keep me dry, not look good.”
“Hm. I suppose there is no convincing you. Well, ta-ta. And do come by in the evening, I know the perfect place to eat.”
“I'll do my best to make time for it. See you later!”
They waved goodbye to each other and Twilight set off towards the castle.
 
Someone knocked on her door a few hours later while she was relaxing.
“Twilight?”
She recognized Celestia's voice immediately.
“Come in.”
She jumped off her bed and landed on her hooves just as the door opened. Celestia walked in with her usual grace, but there was concern on her face.
“I spoke with Luna before she went to bed and there were some things she wanted you to know.”
She looked at Twilight as she spoke instead of looking around to see if the room was unkempt like she usually would have. It made Twilight perk up her ears and wonder whether something had happened.
“First, she wanted you to know that the tailor she took Anonymous to, Sassy Saddles, accidentally pricked him with a needle. The tiny droplet of blood she drew did not seem to affect her in any way.”
Maybe the effect only appeared if his blood was present in sufficient quantities, or maybe it had to be drawn with his approval. It could even depend on the time of the day. Or maybe it just did not affect anyone but alicorns. Twilight noticed she had been holding her breath while she thought and nodded at Celestia to tell her to continue.
“Luna also hoped that you could show him the device that brought him here. She... did not want to tell him that he can't return home and hoped it would be broken beyond repair so nobody would have to.”
“Well, I can talk about it with him. There's a lot I want to learn about it, too.”
Her mentor nodded absentmindedly while looking at the blue sky through the window.
“I sometimes wonder if I make the right decisions.”
Celestia slowly turned her head to look back at Twilight.
“He misses his mother, Twilight. Was the decision to keep him here the correct one? Who am I to say that he can't go back to his family?”
Her tone was something Twilight hadn't heard her use before, and she suddenly realized how little she knew about her mentor.
“I told myself that I cannot risk all of Equestria for one stranger, but... it is not only him. I did not think to ask about his family, his loved ones. Does he have a wife and foals waiting for his return?”
Celestia closed her eyes and turned her head to the side, but Twilight saw the wetness in her eyes.
“Is his brother waiting for him to show up for something they promised to do?”
Twilight understood.