Since the ponies gotten their weapons back, things had calmed down; least relatively. The ponies still maintained their positions at one side of the tent while the the alien and Spike the timber wolf were on the other side. Distrust was mutual between the two different occupants, but they were past the point of trying to kill one another.

That small fact didn't mean much to the alien. He already was pushing the boundaries of their unstable relationship by going through the ponies' supplies. Some the ponies wanted to tell him to buck off, but none spoke up to do so.

Everypony were a bit reluctant to work with the alien. However, they also knew they were not here to cause a conflict. They were here on a scientific expedition. Whether they liked it or not, this alien was their best chance to achieve most, if not all, the goals of their expedition. So they played nice. For now at least...

While searching through the supplies, the alien stumbled upon a crate of apples. These particular apples were a gift from Applejack, something a bit more tasteful to eat than the standard MREs that they brought along. Opening the crate up, he looked down upon its contents.

The alien promptly picked up one of the apples from the crate to examine it a bit more closely. He observed it from many different angles, as if trying to figure it out. Twilight observed his reaction to the apples as... strange... It was like observing a child looking at something he didn't quite understand.

"What the hell is this thing?" The alien asked, confirming Twilight's suspicion.

The ponies themselves were a bit confused by the question. Obviously, it was an apple, everypony knew this. How is it that the alien did not? It was at this point, Twilight was trying to think up a reasonable explanation for this.

"It... is an apple." Lyra replied to the strange question.

The alien gave Lyra a deadpan look. A look you would give a pony who told you a really bad joke. After a moment, he reiterated his question.

"Alright, let me try that again. What is an apple?" The alien asked again, putting the emphasis on 'What.'

"It's... a fruit?" Lyra tried again, more confused than ever.

The alien promptly face palmed. That was the wrong answer apparently...

"English please..." The alien requested with a sigh.

Twilight was about to reply some stupid like 'don't you mean Equish?' before she caught herself. Instead she took a mental note on what they called their variation of the language. With that, she also took note that 'apple' and 'fruit' was not apart of that variation. It was rather strange considering there had to be some sort of fruit or vegetation on this world. Twilight theorized that they may have had a different word for it.

Regardless Twilight came up with a response to the alien's question that should be universal between them.

"It is a kind of food, you know, things you eat?" Twilight answered. She did it with a little more belittlement in her tone than she originally intended. However, she didn't intend to apologize.

The alien seemed to recognize the fact that his intelligence was being insulted, giving Twilight a glare.

"Well, excuse me for not knowing what alien food looks like!" The alien replied with distaste as he put the apple back in its place and set the crate to the side.

The fact that the alien found a fruit like an apple 'alien' was strange enough. However, the fact that the alien didn't even bother to refer to a kind of fruit of it's own was a bit unsettling for Twilight. Surely, there had to be a sort of fruit or vegetation, because surely there would be no life on this planet if there were no plants around. Thus, she decided to ask.

"Don't you have any kind of food that you grow? Like from a tree?" Twilight asked curiously.

The alien, much to Twilight's confusion, found this somewhat amusing. She could tell by the grin that formed on his face when she asked the question.

"Food that grows on trees you say? Heh, that would be that day..." The alien mused to himself as he continued his search through the stockpile.

The ponies were a bit put off by this musing, of course food grew on trees, what other way would it be?

"What do you mean? You are saying that food doesn't grow on trees here?" Daring asked.

"No, I'm saying nothing grows on trees. Even if food did grow on them, it wouldn't be worth a risk. Those things are dangerous, they'd kill you in seconds if you went anywhere near them... AH HA!!!" The Alien said before triumphantly cheering as he apparently found what he was looking for; an MRE.

Fluttershy was more put off by that last statement than anypony else, though they were all pretty disturbed. The thought that a simple tree could be dangerous, let alone deadly, was a new concept to the ponies. Twilight and Fluttershy briefly thought of the trees of the Everfree, the ones they ran across when they first became friends. However those things were only illusions, not actual monsters. What could trees of this world be possibly capable of to be able to kill a living being within seconds?

As the ponies were thinking about what was said, the alien was opening the MRE he found. However, as he opened it, that satisfied smile that he had quickly turned to disappointment as he reviewed the contents of the package. It consisted of hay, highly preserved flowers, and oats. The alien, not recognizing what was in front of him, let out a sigh of disappointment as he placed the MRE down back on the supply pile; giving the latter a death glare.

The fact that food didn't grow on trees and the alien's reaction to their own food, Twilight wondered what it was exactly they did eat. Obviously there had to be something. How would his species have survived this long on this planet otherwise?

"If your trees don't grow food, then what do you get your food from?" Twilight asked.

"Here and there, sometimes you will have to find canned food, sometimes you run across an abandoned underground bean farm (if you are very lucky), other times you hunt it." The alien explained on, as he started to search the supply pile again.

The ponies reaction to was said varied depending on the pony.

Twilight, for one, was interested in the fact that he was an omnivore, as he just admitted to eating all meat, fruits, and vegetables. This fact did not really disgust her, as she had worked with meat eating species before. Rather, it brought up more questions for her to ask. If there was canned food, who canned them? How did an underground farm work? Why were they underground? Why were they supposedly rare? Why did they hunt their food? Is their culture much like the griffon's of their world, where they must hunt their prey rather than farm them? Why did he make finding food sound like such a big deal? If they were as advanced as they supposedly were, why was food a problem? These sort of questions rang in Twilight's head.

Fluttershy grew a bit more fearful of the alien given this fact. She knew it was silly, she had dealt with carnivores before on multiple occasions. However, given previous circumstances, this new light brought upon the alien made her a little more nervous.

Shining and the guards were indifferent of this revelation, since they dealt with 'meat eaters' on a daily basis. Carnivore or not, this did not change their opinion of him.

Lyra, typically, given her scientific interest in biology, took mental notes to write down later. To her, it was just another thing learned.

Daring, contrasting from most other ponies in the room, was actually disgusted by this. Given her rather unpleasant experiences with carnivores in general, she felt her hatred of them were somewhat justified. Because of this, she felt like she distrusted this alien just a tiny bit more...

The alien, completely unaware of the ponies's scrutinizing him, continued to search the supply stash. At some point, he let out a sigh as he gave up on it, seemingly finding nothing he can use. His attention turned back to the crate of apples as he looked like he was coming to some sort of difficult decision.

Eventually, he muttered something under his breath, something that sounded like "bucket," before he turned his attention back to the ponies.

"Okay, given the fact that you practically stripped me naked when you dragged my lifeless corpse in, you know what exactly I have. Now, what do you want for half a crate of 'apples?' Guns and ammo are out of the equation." The alien asked.

The question caught all the ponies a bit by surprise. Did he just propose a trade?

The room was silent for a few awkward moments before the team diplomat spoke up.

"Give us a minute!" Lyra quickly responded before gesturing a group huddle to the rest of the ponies.

Everypony, at the request of Lyra, group huddled together; ready to discuss the trade opportunity.

"Did I hear that correctly when he said that he was willing to trade alien technology for a half a crate of apples!?" Lyra whispered excitedly.

"I think he did... What do you think we should ask for?" Daring asked.

"I personally would have requested the small 'gun', but he already said that was off limits..." Shining whispered.

"I don't know about anything else he has, it is strangely almost the same as our tech. Though there is that box device..." Twilight added.

"What about the box device?" Lyra asked.

"I don't know what it does, I know it is suppose to detect something, but I don't have any idea what it is suppose to detect... I am not sure if it is a useless piece of junk or an extremely advance piece of technology, but it could be worth a risk." Twilight explained.

"Well, does he really have anything else?" Lyra asked.

"Aside for potentially powerful weapons, he has a traveler's pack of supplies. Nothing that interesting..." Twilight responded.

"Well, worse thing that can happen is that we lose a half a crate of apples over a complex thermometer. I say we do it." Lyra responded.

One of the guards shook his head in disagreement.

"I think we should ask for one round of ammo from one of his guns, at least one. We could learn a lot from that sort of tech." Sparks added in.

"He said no ammo, Sparks." Shining stated, bemused.

"Yeah, I know, but he can see that we can't do much harm with a single shot and no weapon to fire it from?" Sparks added.

"That is a good point... Let's hope he doesn't take too much offense to us asking... So, we are asking for the box device and one round of ammunition. That good for everypony?" Lyra asked.

Everypony nodded in response.

"Alright then, lets do this."

The ponies broke their group huddle and turned back the the alien. He looked rather amused waiting on them, for whatever reason...

"Alright, we'll give you the half a crate of apples for your box device and one round of ammunition." Lyra stated with confidence.

The alien looked at her like she just made a really bad joke; his amusement turned to annoyance.

"Not going to happen. I said no ammo, can you not hear?" The alien replied, staring right in her eyes with warning glare that was telling her to back down.

However, Lyra did not back down. She was used to this sort of intimidation tactic from griffons, and was still certain that she could convince him to accept the trade.

"I can hear perfectly, probably much better than you. I said that we will trade you for the box device and the ammo." Lyra continued with confidence.

The alien's stare turned darker as Lyra persisted in her offer. He put one hand on one of his holstered weapons and faced Lyra, looking down at her will ill intent plastered all over his face. Every pony in the room grew a bit worried, and the guards began prepping for a firefight.

"Kid, you are not funny. Please cut the shit and play by the rules. The 'box device' is the only thing I will trade you." The alien stated sternly.

Lyra, still convinced that this was an plain and simple intimidation tactic, persisted; despite everything telling her that this was going to end badly if he was serious.

"We are taking a huge risk with only the box device. We don't know what it does nor if we will learn anything from it. You could be ripping us off, and we have no reason to trust you at this point. At least with one round of ammo, we can be sure we will get something. Plus, there is nothing we can do with a single round of ammo without one of your fancy guns there, so what is the harm really?" Lyra countered.

Right after Lyra's final words, the room grew dead silent. To the point where nothing could be heard but the wind outside the tent. The alien remained in his stance, still staring down at Lyra with a great intensity in his eyes. All guards had a tight grip on their crossbows, ready to load them as quickly as they could and fire before the alien could make a move. Though Lyra was sure this was an attempt at intimidating her into his offer, she couldn't help but feel she might have made a deadly mistake...

However, much to the relief to everypony in the room, the alien sighed and even cracked a small smile as he seemed to realize that Lyra wasn't going to give in too easily. He dropped his intimidation act.

"I'll give you credit, kid. I really not sure what gender you are considered, but you have some metaphorical balls." The alien said, completely shattering the tension in the room; leaving Lyra blushing furiously at the strange compliment and Sky Chaser to nearly burst out laughing.

"I-I'm a female!" Lyra clarified, still trying to get that mental image out of her head.

"Well, that is one mystery solved." The alien said simply as he went into his backpack to retrieve the requested items. This time Sparks and Iron Hoof had to choke back a laugh.

With that, Lyra was left to collect herself and the rest of the ponies to contemplate the rather odd compliment. What did it mean to 'have balls?' Twilight theorized that in this society males were, ideologically, superior to females; therefore 'having balls' meant you were braver than most. Shining was simply confused by the figure of speech, not quite sure what 'having balls' had to do with anything. Skychaser, Sparks, and Iron Hoof simply thought that it was hilarious that Lyra may have been confused for being male. Daring simply thought he was just trying to be an asshole. However, what the alien's true meaning behind the compliment remained a mystery to the ponies.

The alien pulled out the two requested items from his backpack. He held the the black box in his right hand and the ammo in his left. The round looked like it was designed for his smaller weapon. Everything seemed to be going well, the ponies were about to get more than they thought they would. However, the alien didn't hand over the items yet. He stared back at the ponies, or rather behind the ponies, looking for something. It was at this point the ponies realized that he was not done negotiating.

After seemingly spotting something he wanted, he renegotiated his terms.

"Alright, I'll trade you the Geiger counter, that is what it is called by the way, for the half a box of your 'apples.' For the bullet, I want a crossbow and one full pack of bolts." The alien stated.

Due to the alien's severe lack of reaction, he must have knew that one particular pony would start shouting at him with outrage.

"That is absurd! One 'bullet' is not worth that much!" Shining argued, taking offence of the 'offer.'

The alien simply smirked in amusement, likely in anticipation for what he was about to say.

"Well, think of it in your terms, what will I do with a crossbow and a few bolts that I can't already do with one bullet? What is the harm really?" The alien countered, using the ponies own words against them.

Shining huffed in frustration, he was starting to hate this alien a little more.

With this, the alien chuckled, waving his hand in gesture for the pony 'to calm down.'

"Relax soldier boy, I need the crossbow to get out of the canyon; the only reason I asked for it. If you want the bullet so badly, give me the crossbow. It is a small loss considering what you can find out about making actual weapons, much better than crossbows." The alien calmly explained.

Given this reasoning, Shinning found the alien to be right in this case. There would be no point in asking for a crossbow unless he had some use other than violence intended with it; he had other weapons for that purpose. The idea that the alien wanted it for getting him out of the canyon was not so far fetched. Plus, he was correct when he said that the crossbow's value wasn't nearly worth as much as the potential value the 'bullet' held. The ponies could advance their weaponry by an entire century if they could figure out how the ammo worked and how to make weapons capable of firing them. All in all, the ponies still had the better side of the deal.

Shinning relented, giving his nod of approval

"Alright, half a crate of apples for the box device. Crossbow and bolts for the bullet. Deal?" Lyra asked.

"Deal." The Alien said simply, placing his items on the ground in front of him for the ponies to retrieve.

With the deal done, Lyra retrieved the items with her magic and Shinning went to retrieve a crossbow and a quiver of bolts from their weapon's stockpile. Meanwhile, the alien began unloading apples from the crate and into his backpack.

By the time Shining got back with the crossbow and bolts, the alien was zipping up his backpack full of his fair share of apples. When Shining place the crossbow and bolts in front of him, the alien snatched them up. Attaching the pouch of bolts to his belt, took up his new crossbow, slung his larger weapon over his back, put on his gas mask and hood, and made his way out of the tent without saying a word. Spike closely followed behind.

"Uh... Where is he going?" Iron Hoof asked a few moments after the alien left.

The ponies, a bit confused by his rather sudden exit, followed him outside. They found him and the dog walking towards one of the cannon walls; bolt and crossbow in hand.

Following cautiously, the ponies hoped to find out what exactly he was up to. A little more than twenty feet from the nearest wall, the alien took off his backpack once more to retrieve a roll of rope. He tied this rope to the butt end of the bolt before loading the bolt into the crossbow. Cocking the weapon, he took aim upward and fired.

The Bolt flew at high speeds upwards with a trail of rope behind it. Eventually, high above the top of the wall, it lost momentum and fell downwards; striking the top of canyon slope.

"Well, at least the crossbows are build well." The alien commented.

He gave the rope an experimental pull, only to be disappointed when he ended up pulling the bolt back down the hill. With a sigh, he reloaded the crossbow and tried again.

"What are you doing?" Shinning asked the alien as he fired off the bolt once again.

The alien looked like he was about to ignore Shinning's question, as he was solely focused on his current task. However, he answered as his second bolt hit his target.

"Attempting to hit something solid. I won't be able to climb my way out of here otherwise. Why are you all so concerned?" The alien answered as he tugged on the rope again. Once again, he was left disappointed as the bolt came loose.

"Well, I guess we didn't expect you to be attempting this so soon. Are you planning on leaving?" Lyra asked.

The alien fired again, once again only answering once the bolt hit it's mark.

"I see no reason to stick around. You got what you wanted from me and I got what I wanted from you, now I say it is time to part ways." The alien replied. He still was having no luck hitting something the bolt would stick in.

The ponies were panicked by this response, especially Lyra. They had figured he would at least stick around for a day or so to rest up, enough time for them to convince him to be a diplomat for his kind and to vouch for the ponies in case they ran into anymore aliens on their mission. However, they had not expected him to be ready to leave so quickly; especially after suffering the wounds he suffered.

If experience was anything to go by, these creatures were extremely xenophobic. The chances that they would find another alien that was as reasonable as this one was close to none. Though they have had their fair bit of conflict with him, they couldn't allow him to leave now. If they did, they would be giving up what was quite possibly their only opportunity to communicate with the dominate species of the planet. Something that was very vital to their mission. Lyra thought of something quickly.

"Uh... Are you sure that is a good idea? I mean, Fluttershy is a good medic, but she is certainly no doctor. You could still be hurt! Traveling in your condition might not be a good idea." Lyra tried.

Much to Lyra's delight, gave the alien pause as he was reloading his crossbow. He looked back at her, but she couldn't exactly tell what he thought about what she had just said due to his gas mask blocking out his facial expressions. Lyra was left to stare at the emotionless mask for a few moments, making her a bit worried that her lie wasn't bought, before the alien spoke up once again.

"I feel fine." The alien said doubtfully.

Thankfully, Lyra had expected such an answer and was quick to reply.

"Yes, that is only because of the medication we gave you. You might feel fine now, but if you cause too much damage by not allowing your wounds to heal, you are going to regret it later." Lyra explained.

The alien seemed to considered this a moment. Lyra kept a straight face and hoped for the best.

Lyra knew that everything that she had just told him was a lie. At the current moment, he was mostly healed and fit to travel; the stim they injected him with after the surgery made sure of that. However, as far as she knew, the alien had not checked his wounds since he woke up; he did not know his current condition. From his point of view, this would not be a risk worth taking, and would buy the team more time to talk to him; least she hoped so.

This might have not have been the best solution to the situation, but it was better than trying to force him to stay. Who knew how that would have turned out...

The alien stared back at Lyra once again, seeming to only focus solely on her for a few moments. However, the alien turned back to his task, firing the improvised grappling hook once again.

"You're lying." The alien replied.

Lyra held her shock internally as she tried to come up with a reply while maintaining her composure. However, she was never given the chance to reply as the alien cut her off.

"If I were as badly injured as I remember, I wouldn't have made it off the bed, much less out here. Fluttershy did a damn good job in patching me up. I am still not quite sure how, but she did. You should apologize for discrediting her like that." The alien said in a scolding manner. He pulled on the rope again, still no luck.

Fluttershy, internally, felt a bit flattered by the alien's kind words, but was still a bit too scared of him to speak up and thank him.

Lyra was a bit embarrassed by the small fact that she did indeed discredited Fluttershy's medical handiwork, but also frustrated that the alien had saw through her lie so easily; he was certainly no fool. This now only left two more options. Convince the alien through honesty, or come up with something that would force him to stay.

Lyra ultimately decided that the best policy was honesty, as she didn't exactly favor their chances against him in a fight. Recently wounded or not, this alien had already proven himself to be a capable fighter; one with superior weaponry.

"We need you to stay. We need your help." Lyra stated.

This gave the alien a bit of pause once again, but not nearly for as long as last time as he finished reloading and fired off another bolt. His lack of real surprise or care unsettled Lyra a bit.

"Hmm, a bit surprising that you would want someone like me to sick around; especially after all the havoc I have already caused. However, the fact that you need help, not so much. It is kind of obvious." The alien stated.

"Well, will you help us?" Lyra asked hopefully.

"Yeah, I will. With two words of advice."

The alien fired off his bolt once more before turning to address the whole group of ponies.

"Go home." The alien stated with great emphasis before turning back to his business,

The group of ponies looked at him with distaste, not particularly taking the alien seriously at this point. They had gone through so much effort to finally reach another world that was not only habitable, but also contained intelligent life. They were not about to be told off by some self righteous alien who was apparently too good to help them. They were not about to be swayed by a couple mere words. Twilight was the one who spoke up in argument this time.

"'Go home?' We just got here! There is still so much to explore and find out; we've hardly scratch the surface quite literally speaking! How do you expect us to go home now!? What is the sense in it!? Both of our races can benefit so much from each other! We can share information, combine ideas, create a better future! All we need is for you to help us with that! Why won't you help us!?"

The bolt failed to stick again, tumbling down hill as the alien pulled it down. He reloaded and prepared to fire once again before he answered.

"There is no future to be made, kid. No meetings, no negotiations, no debates, no sharing. There is simply nothing. Nothing but ice, snow, and ashes... There is no government here that will negotiate with aliens, anything living an breathing here will do nothing but try to kill you. You are wasting your time." The alien explained as he fired off another shot.

"That is a lie! You didn't kill us! You tried to, but in the end you didn't! That says something doesn't it!? Doesn't prove that others will listen to us?" Twilight argued.

The alien seemed to laugh at this a little too hard, he apparently found this to be particularly amusing. He collect himself quickly though and was just as quick to answer.

"Heh, you want to test that theory, go right the fuck ahead. Even if you had my help, I'd give you three days to live, but that is not counting the time it takes to get to those 'reasonable people like me.' Keep in mind that I only let you aliens live because you are not humanity's true enemy. Others members of my kind don't particularly discriminate. If they saw you, they would jump to conclusions, just like I did." The alien said. The bolt didn't stick, and he repeated his process.

The ponies tried not to think about what the alien had implied what would happen to them if they tried peaceful talks with the governments of his world. Instead they took note that the alien seemed to firmly believe that peace talks would not work. They also took note of what he referred to his species as.

Lyra particularly wondered why this would be. Were these aliens really that xenophobic? If so, what made them that way? Lyra remembered that the alien had called them all rather vial names when he had taken Fluttershy hostage. She also recalled him mentioning that they had "Slaughtered their people and burned their home." He was obviously talking about an alien race they are at war with, or were at war with... This made Lyra wonder what atrocities those aliens must had done...

Lyra, snapped out of it, as it wasn't exactly important right now. What was important was getting this alien to stay. However, Lyra was running out of ideas at this point...

"We cannot know unless we try, and trust me when I say we are going to try; we are not going home until we complete our mission. However, we can do what we need to do and get home a lot quicker if you would just help us. Please." Lyra Spoke up.

The alien shook his head and sighed. Once more, he fired into the air.

"You still don't get it, do you? Look around you. There is nothing here for you. Go home while you still can." The alien said simply as he watched his bolt sail over the horizon once again.

Lyra felt her ears wilt in defeat. She was out of ideas, leaving only one solution to this; and it wasn't peaceful. They needed to subdue the alien. The question was only a matter of how. Lyra needed to talk it over with the team. They could not allow that alien to-

RAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAWWWCCCK!!!! HISSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!

As that ear piecing howl came over the horizon, Lyra's only warning for the next sound was the sound of the crossbow the alien was using drop to the ground and the pair of metallic clicks as the alien readied his large weapon.

Author's Notes:

Yep, I did it again. So fucking sue me.

The chapter was going on for too long, so I had split it up once again. So sorry if this chapter was not as eventful as I intended it to be.

Don't worry though, next chapter will be out very soon; maybe even on the same day. It is likely to be a bit shorter than intended, but should get the story progressing nicely. Hope you are looking forward to it, even after this shitty excuse of a chapter.