You can do this, Titus. The human leaned on the back of the couch and took a few deep breaths with his eyes closed to calm himself as well as mentally push the pain of his ribs aside on account the painkillers had worn off long ago when he felt something suddenly touch his knee.

Twilight had reached a hoof out to gently touch a knee reassuringly, “I’m sure you’ll do fine.”

He let out a deep sigh and absentmindedly gave her an appreciative pat on the withers that he failed to notice caused her to go completely still from surprise. “Thanks, this is just a bit stressful. This is way beyond your average first impressions and all that,” he and with a little effort pushed himself off the couch and grabbed the helmet from the coffee table before heading to the front door to wait for his cue.

Twilight didn't catch everything he said before he jammed the helmet over his head and let the suit seal itself which she could guess was indicated by a faint hiss. She bemusedly watched as the human rolled his head around in circles and went about stretching as best he could, though that turned out to not be much and her amusement faded to guilt when he abruptly stopped during one stretch to suddenly grip his side. After a few deep breaths he slowly stood back upright and leaned against the doorjam which was when she started toward him to see if he was alright or if he needed to call it all off.

“< Well, >” his voice was slightly distorted as it came through the helmet speaker, “< Here I go… >”

Two knocks came right on the tail end of his words which Twilight assumed was his cue to emerge but before doing so his head turned over a shoulder at her, however he didn't say anything so she decided on the spot to take matters into her own hooves and quickly trotted over to him before opening the door. "Here we go," she corrected with a smile before hopping out the door ahead of him.

Just outside her stoop and practically on her welcome mat was a large elevated platform with a curtain hung which obscured the library door. Underneath it strobes of what were likely camera flashes peeked through as the Mayor sounded like she was in the conclusion of her speech, saying how Princess Luna had met with the human and declared him "safe" and that momentarily he would be coming out on stage. Meanwhile immediately to their side Time Turner, the Mayor's assistant, was waving them frantically because their small delay at the door threatened all of the careful planning of their timing. Before he could push Titus to his designated position, however, Twilight stepped in front of the human and peeked through to get a look at the crowd. The few reporters she had seen through the window hadn't prepared her for the throng of cameras and microphones pointed eagerly pointed center stage so, being a little worried, Twilight turned back to Titus, "There's a lot of ponies out there. Will you be okay? I can follow you on stage if you'd like."

Twilight's reflection stared back at her in the visor and she could see her own uncertainty about the creature before her in her expression but a moment later the helmet bobbed slowly. "< That might be a good idea, especially in case I need anything clarified in the question segment, >" he said but Time Turner waving a hoof behind Twilight caught his attention before the assistant jerked his hoof sharply at his watch. Realizing what the pony wanted Titus moved to his side and waited near a fold of the curtain for his cue from the Mayor which came only a few seconds later.

"-so, without further ado... Ladies and gentlecolts, it is my upmost privilege to make history as I introduce Equestria's first Visitor From The Stars, a creature that goes by the name T... uh, it's a bit of a tongue-twister, folks!" she laughed which got the chuckle from the crowd she had wanted before she swung a hoof wide to indicate the side of the stage where she made eye-contact with Titus, or would have had he not been wearing the helmet, "Tae-toos All-ee-oos!"

"< Close enough for government work, >" Titus mumbled to Twilight as he stepped on stage, followed by the unicorn a short distance behind him as the Mayor quickly introduced her as well. The human crossed the stage amid an absolute hush that fell over the crowd when he emerged so the only sounds to be heard were his boots clomping on the wooden stage, the furious clicking of camera shutters, and finally the almost comical *cr-eeeak!* as the small chair protested the over-sized frame that sat upon it. As soon as he was seated the Mayor launched into the second half of her speech detailing what the Princesses had told her would be happening with the unexpected arrival of the guest and how that pertained to the citizens. This left Titus to sit quietly in the comfort of privacy within his helmet, the jazzy song he had started on a low volume to just fill the silence, meanwhile he moved the controls from his wristpad to fiddle about with the visor's heads-up display with the eye-tracking software he wouldn't alert the quadruped creatures by tapping away at it. After programming the helmet to vent a small amount of the oxygen reserves upon removal to create a small cloud for a bit of theatrical pizzazz he attempted to connect to his ship's remote network but came up empty. The signal isn't strong enough. Kark. Whether that be from distance or damage to the antennas he couldn't diagnose so he shifted to examining the suit diagnostics and sensors.

Out of the corner of his eye, however, the violet unicorn was being anything but subtle. She was fully looking him over and Titus could tell she was curiously examining every feature of his suit and helmet from the close proximity the seat next to him afforded, it being the closest she'd been to him since waking up. He could tell her eyes became glued to the screen of the wrist pad which, at the moment, was only displaying the standby animated menu so no real data was being shown but he could sense she was trying to decipher it. You're an inquisitive one, aren't you? She was so engrossed in her study she didn't even notice when his head turned slightly to better watch her and inside the helmet Titus flicked his eyes over the visor which sent a line of text across the wristpad which said "Hello there!" in Galactic Basic and played a new animation. To his amusement the unicorn's eyes went wide then a moment later a piece of parchment and a feather floated in the air in front of her so she could scrawl the symbols down before continuing with rapidly writing something in shorthand that he couldn't decipher. That she didn't respond to his message was evidence to him these creatures didn't read or speak Basic, and in his curiosity he turned his head fully toward her to study the violet aura surrounding the items she had brought out.

Twilight caught the motion and looked up to find that eerily emotionless reflective face pointed in her direction. "I-I was just c-copying..." she started but found herself at a loss for words and just turned the parchment she had been writing on to face him so he could see the symbols she had copied and a few of her notes. His head shifted slightly as she assumed he read these before he gave a single nod and turned back to face the crowd. To her, this felt like acceptance - or, at the very least, tolerance - of her observations which she then continued with initial hesitation in case he gave a signal to the contrary. When that didn't come in the moments following, eagerly she absorbed as much as she could about the suit and technology so tantalizingly close to her yet that remained absolutely and agonizingly untouchable so she made herself content with just visual observation. This, of course, meant what was in the belt of pouches she could only dream of and the thing he wore on his opposite thigh was unfortunately not visible for examination.

A sudden creak and shift of his body brought her attention back to the stage where she came to realize some time had passed because she had a fully-crammed sheet of notes, but more importantly the Mayor had vacated the podium and the human was moving for it. Quickly leaving her page and quill on her seat Twilight followed behind him, taking a spot to the side of the stand as he used those delicate-looking appendages to gently pinch the neck of the microphone to adjust it as high as he could.

Stopping when he thought it was close enough Titus slowly lifted the wristpad up just enough that it would be visible over the podium and made a show of tapping a finger to it. White vapor clouds vented out of the helmet's scrubbers with a hiss as planned but the startled gasp from the crowd and the small jump from the Mayor decidedly wasn't. Kark, theatrics was the wrong choice. Waiting for the tetrahedrons to retract and the seal between his suit and helmet to be broken Titus carefully and slowly lifted the helmet up, the visor thankfully partially preparing his eyes as the blaster flare shielding adjusted for the explosion of camera flashes that followed his movement until the helmet was placed down on the podium. For several moments Titus looked about the crowd and let them get pictures of his face, as before slowly changing his expression into a grin so as to not make any sudden changes that might again startle them. He then turned and nodded to the Mayor for permission to use the microphone which she motioned a hoof toward signalling the floor was all his, or something to that effect he assumed.

"T-Thank you, Mayor. Hello... this is a first for me, as well - the press conference, I mean. I've never been a culture's first contact before, so if you could all please bear with me because this is a rather daunting prospect to consider. I guess the first question to address is that I'm a human, for those curious about what to call my species," Titus was bent uncomfortably to lean in to be able to speak softly but slowly into the microphone, "My name is Titus Aelius... as was already stated, sorry. The ship that crashed yesterday is mine, and I am the only crew. I was piloting it through a sector of space when I experienced engine trouble before I got sucked into a gravitational anomaly. The next thing I know I'm exiting the anomaly above your town well before I can enact planetary approach procedure so I was on course for a rather rough landing. I hear from the Mayor damage to your homes was minimal and I'm glad for that, but most importantly I'm relieved none of you were hurt. I understand it must have been scary - that I'm likely scary - but I assure you I mean you no harm and, uh..." Unsure how to continue as the silent crowd just intensely watched his every move he slowly motioned a hand to Twilight who had followed him up to the podium and now stood beside him, "With me today is Miss Twilight Sparkle. She will help me answer any of your probing questions-" Another unexpected gasp rang out from the crowd.

"The alien is going to probe us! Run!" a pony with a shirt reading Hi-Fi Sci-Fi Magazine at the front suddenly screamed as he leapt from his seat, his tail tucked firmly between his legs as he and bolted for the exit which started a mass exodus.

"Uh, what?" was all Titus had time to say before the Mayor nudged him off the podium to retake control of the microphone.

"Haha! Just a simple misunderstanding, folks!" she laughed disarmingly which had the desired effect of causing some of the ponies to stop and turn back around toward the stage. "Come on back, come on back. There's nothing to worry about, Princess Luna herself met in my office and assures me he's not going to attack anypony-" the Mayor said with a disarming smile and looped a hoof around Titus' side for a casual hug, "See?"

Twilight tried to stop her but it was too late, "Mayor, wait-!"

What the Mayor didn't know was that her hoof - and the even mild strength behind it to pull him in - came to rest right on his broken ribs with just enough gradual pressure that the suit's scales didn't react and harden into armor.

"GAAAAH!"

Titus' cry of pain - which was picked up and amplified by the microphone into a roar - was accompanied by an instinctual move away from the cause, in this case that resulted in him pushing out of her grasp but she had that Earthpony solidness about her that meant she was fairly unmoving so instead he found it was like shoving a brick wall which sent him forward into the podium. Bellowing, pained human and microphone stand pitched off of the stage into the terrified crowd below who scattered every which direction as both came crashing down, the skull-like helmet sailing a bit further that was like a disembodied head thrown into the scrambling crowd as television cameras devoid of their fleeing crews continued rolling.

"Then there was a general stampede away from the stage, everypony was yelling and pushing, while the Mayor tried to get them to come back to explain he didn't mean probe, it was just innocently poor choice of words on his part. Meanwhile I was trying to figure out what I could do to lessen his pain as he lay on the floor hissing for breath," Twilight, speaking at a low volume, finished recounting what had happened at the press conference for Applejack as they walked side-by-side toward her farm, "You know, I feel like it could have gone worse, all things considered. When I explained the alien probe trope to him after he had recovered from the fall he was 'baffled why we'd think aliens would want to stick an instrument in your butt to collect data. That's just weird,' as he said. Naturally I told him some of the most likely points of data they would find with that method is hints at not only our diet but our gastrointestinal microbiota cultures-"

"Gotta feel sort of sorry for the big fella," Applejack intentionally interrupted the unicorn before she could proceed to geek-out with a lecture on butts (of all things). She turned her head to look over her cart back at the human who, despite the ample room on the road to walk beside them, was following along a short distance behind. He seemed to be staring at the dirt as he limped along, having declined the offer of a ride in the back of her cart, "Can't be easy, what he's going through. And he's literally got nopony he knows to be there for him."

"I-I know," the violet unicorn's head drooped low and her ears folded back, "I've admittedly caused some troubles for everypony at one point or another with my research and experiments-"

"Twilight..."

"-but seeing just how much I've messed things up for him-"

"Twilight."

"-by completely tearing him away from everything and anypony he knows, destroying his ship, and causing him to get hurt?" Twilight continued without hearing Applejack trying to interject, "It... like, what do I even say to him? I feel so guilty and for the life of me I don't know how to go about fixing things or where to begin to make amends-"

"Darn it, girl, will you listen!?" the volume of Applejack's frustration startled Twilight back from her self-loathing and warranted the farm pony a quick glance over the shoulder to find Titus must have hear it, too, because he had met her gaze before he went back to looking at the ground. Turning back to the unicorn AJ dropped her voice to a near whisper, "I wasn't aiming to make you feel guilty with what I said, sugarcube, I was suggestin'-" Applejack went silent then let an eye flick back to the alien in tow where it subtly watched him for a moment, gauging him, before she turned back to the journey in front of them, "Look. I can't say for certain, but last night after he came down from talking with Princess Luna it was like there was a sadness in his eyes... can't rightly place it, but it was definitely there. Back to my point; seeing as he doesn't have anypony, maybe you could try and be a friend."

"M-Me?!" Twilight seemed almost bewildered by the idea, although she didn't question the other conclusion because she had long since learned Applejack had a knack for reading somepony in that manner and Twilight had also noticed a change in behavior after the meeting. Still that was pushed to the side for consideration later because Twilight just shook her head, "I'm the one who got him into this in the first place, I have to be the last pony he would want as a friend. A-And even if he did, I definitely don't deserve the opportunity-"

The hard scowl that crossed Applejack's face cut any further words off as effectively as taping her mouth shut. "Twilight, since finding our Elements and working with you and the rest of the girls I've learned a lot about friends and how much of a blessin' it is having somepony you can rely on when ya need 'em most," she stated slowly which the unicorn listened intently to and nodded in her own silent agreement with the statement, "Granny always says 'the best pony to fix a mistake, if they're sorry, is the one who made it.' I'd say that holds true here, too; just show him it wasn't your intention and do your best to be helpful, then it's up to him whether he can accept that and forgive ya. If he can't because... I hate to say it, Twilight, on account I know you're already kicking yourself enough as is... but he went through a lot so if he doesn't want to be friendly you just got to accept and respect that."

Twilight was pretty much in a full-body droop, even her mane felt like it sagged guiltily, but she couldn't discount what her friend was saying, "Thanks for the advice, Applejack, hopefully it's the former but if not I'd completely understand why. I'm going to write Princess Luna and ask if there's anything she can think of or do, and in the meantime if I see him around I'll try to help him however I can."

Suddenly a call from behind them asked the group to stop.

"Are you alright?!" Twilight spun around out of fear they had been pushing the injured but up-until-now quiet human too hard on their long walk without realizing it, "Are your ribs acting up? We weren't going too fast for you, were we?"

"No, yes, and no. H-Hard to breath... suit says it's just a muscle spasm, I just need to s-sit for a moment," Titus grunted as he gingerly lowered himself to a flat boulder beside the road and when he was finally seated he took several deep, full-body breaths that Twilight and Applejack both watched anxiously because it was clear it was painful for him to do so.

Applejack then took a step closer - closer than Twilight was currently comfortable getting to him - and locked eyes to openly give him a worried look that wouldn't go unnoticed, "The family farm is up the road a bit if you think the trip through the Everfree will be too much for ya to tackle today. You're welcome to spend the night in the barn. It's not ratty, though! Twilight here can attest it's warm and the hay is comfortable."

"Thanks, but I can tough it out to the ship," Titus replied with a shake of his head, "There's painkillers and medicine aboard, I just needed to take a minute."

Slightly disappointed she couldn't offer to also spend the night in the barn (which would have been time to learn how best to show she was sorry) but still looking to be helpful Twilight turned to the farm pony, "A break is probably a good idea before the hike through the forest. Applejack, you have your water bottle, right?" When Applejack said she did - the earth pony also subtly giving her a nod of encouragement for jumping at the opportunity to be helpful - and indicated there was a just a sip or two left Twilight turned back to Titus and tilted her her head inquisitively to one side, "W-Would you like some water? With how warm it is it's important to stay hydrated. You... do drink water, right?"

Titus quietly nodded to Twilight in answer of her question then, leaning stiffly so he could look around her, did the same to Applejack, "Some water would be appreciated, thank you Twilight. And thank you for letting me use your bottle, Applejack." The unicorn - faster than the earth pony could react - floated the water jug out from the cart and over to him quickly with a smile, meanwhile Applejack told him it had been gotten from the stream that morning and that they were close so if he wanted cooler, fresher water they could fill the jug for him as it was only five minutes further up the road. What happened a second after she had spoken, however, brought both ponies to a curious but confused silence as Titus unscrewed the wide-mouth cap and dumped a small amount of water in his gloved palm which he dabbed a thumb in.

Naturally Twilight's curiosity got the better of her much faster than Applejack, who would have otherwise been content chalking it up as just an alien oddity rather than disturb him, but nevertheless she noted how Titus looked lost for how to explain himself when the unicorn asked what he was doing.

"Oh, um well it's... my glove has a sensor that... okay, a sensor is like a piece of equipment that detects things I couldn't otherwise observe or see myself," the human finally got a line of words together that seemingly explained things to the ponies (needlessly in Twilight's case, but she politely played along and mimicked Applejack) judging by the change of their expressions. Meanwhile both ponies also noticed that the visual tension in his body that relaxed a little just before he held his dripping glove up, "I did the same thing with the cider when I first woke up, I was checking to be sure the water was safe for me to drink." Titus put the jug to his lips, knocked it back, and emptied it within a single sip which was genuinely less than he had hoped for so he tentatively held it out, "I was thirstier than I thought, would you mind getting more?"

"Sure thing, I'll be right back!" Twilight eagerly took the jug and rushed down the road a short distance before descending the grassy embankment out of sight to fill it from the stream. When she appeared over the crest of the embankment it was clear she struggled with the steep incline and slipped but on her second attempt she got enough of a glimpse to teleport right back to Applejack. The human, however, was clearly caught by surprise at her sudden and wholly unexpected appearance such a short distance from him and the jump lead him to hug his side with the appropriate arm. Immediately Twilight winced, half from sympathy for him and half because she should have thought to be a little more considerate of his unfamiliarity with magic in general. "S-Sorry! I'm sorry! Teleporting is a habit..."

"Y-You just alarmed me. Not used to someone appearing like that... or getting the drop on me," he replied through gritted teeth but was too focused on dealing with the spikes of pain to say anything to her repeated apologies and promises she wouldn't do it again, he just waved them off with his free hand. After a few more moments of nursing his ribs he pointed to his helmet which he had put down on the ground but now didn't want to risk bending for, "Could you?" Twilight was, of course, happy to pick the technological marvel up for him not only as small recompense for causing him undo pain but for just a few more seconds of holding it in her hooves, although she was a little disappointed when he quickly put it on and thereby retreated within its confines. To her mild relief it wasn't long before he spoke again, "< Good. We're close. >"

"Yup, just a bit further down the road is where I figure the trench comes closest to the edge of the Everfree," Applejack pointed a bit past a bend they'd yet to reach, "Best to spend as little time in there as possible on account of the nasty critters."

Twilight, meanwhile, looked from his wristpad to him, "You were unconscious all the way to the library, how did you know we were close?"

The question was a less than straightforward means of asking about his technology that Titus didn't miss but while he prepared for the upcoming task ahead there wasn't a reason not to answer, "< Before the crash I performed an emergency shutdown of all power. Because of that I wasn't able to connect my suit to the ship's computer from town. >"

"Connect? I don't understand," Twilight followed up a moment after he went quiet because it appeared he didn't intend to continue explaining, "That would take a really long cable, wouldn't it? And why did you want to connect to it?" As she watched he carefully reached - albeit stiffly because he had to use the arm on the hurt side of his body - to pluck a disc-like object from the breast of his suit. Pushing unseen buttons on its surface he flicked his wrist and sent the little object spinning into the air above them when suddenly it came to an abrupt stop and hung there. Titus was busy finalizing the settings on his wristpad so such a commonplace device wasn't worth the glance upward, however Twilight was absolutely fascinated as she observed more Harmony-free technology while Applejack looked on with a much more plain curiosity of what it was.

Inside the helmet Titus got a bird's eye view as the drone synced with his visor and above the towering trees he could spot part of his ship. Again, using the eye-tracker in the visor he sent the drone on a quick test flight to ensure it hadn't been damaged in his slamming into the console but as he soon discovered most of the delicate sensors - including the thermal and bio-signature sensors he wanted - were nonfunctional. Thankfully it wasn't a complete loss because in addition to it still being flyable the photovisual camera and surprisingly the motion sensor were both still working so he could at least use it to some degree.

"< I wanted to monitor the ship remotely but with the main power shut off it only has the sealed power cells to work off of so range was limited and the best I could get was a general heading. I checked a minute ago while you were getting water and the signal strength is strong enough that I have a lock on its position, >" Titus then got to his feet and began down the road for where Applejack had pointed and sent the scouting drone zipping up into the air until it disappeared from sight, "< Thank you, I can make it from here. >"

Before Twilight could speak up the farmpony was walking right beside the human and shaking her head adamantly, preempting the unicorn's need to voice her own protest as she trotted to catch up, "Slow your trot, hot shot! Like any self-respectin' mare would stand by and let a stallion to go into the Everfree, especially alone and in your condition! I'm not about to have to go before Princess Luna to tell her we let you go on alone and ya got gobbled as an easy meal by who knows what sort of critter."

Without saying a word Titus flipped the clasp on the hip-held object Twilight had been interested in and removed it, though rather than marvelous as Twilight had hoped and expected it was... ugly, or at the least Twilight didn't feel it fit in with the rest of the flowing lines or colors of his gear. The black wasn't lustrous like the scales of his suit were when they caught the light just right, the non-black metal that coned outward at the end of the tube he pointed at the ground was a dull and unpolished silver, and the overall shape wasn't elegant - instead it was boxy and had a poor symmetry to it because of what looked like a monocular affixed offset of center.

"< I suppose I can't stop you from following me, but I assure you I'll be fine, >" Titus said flatly as he proceeded his slow stride down the road, heavy blaster in hand and either pony now following him to the bend in the road, "< Anything that thinks I'd be an 'easy meal' is going to have a very bad day. And if it looks tasty it might end up being my meal. >" Although Twilight and Applejack were still unsure what the device he was holding was, Titus' tone was such that it came through the voice modulator and they shared an uncertain look as they crossed the small grass field.

Applejack had to leave the cart at the edge of the forest but once she was unhitched Titus continued to lead the way past the first couple of trees, his pace slowing as the terrain became much less uniform, and the openness AJ and Twilight had grown accustomed to was replaced with the almost-perpetual confinement of gnarled trees and dense forest undergrowth that was generally as tall as they were. This made their navigation much harder, or it would have had it not been for the human being tall enough that he wasn't in the same predicament so, more than before, the ponies stuck closer to him as the forest swallowed the three of them.

Inside of the helmet the drone's feed displayed off to one side of the visor's screen a top-down view as it flew directly over him well above the forest's leafy canopy. Because the biometric sensor was offline the markers he put on the blips of Applejack and Twilight to identify them wouldn't be saved for future use, but the overwatch position that the drone was in let him observe all the other movement around them, most of which was giving the unknown creature a wide berth. Something that didn't show up on the drone's sensors wasn't following that pattern and it followed them for a short time, but because Titus was offsetting the drone's missing sensors with Force sensitivity to be even more aware of his surroundings he felt it coming well in advance. He kept moving in the same direction to not alert it that he was keen on its intentions but, unlike other creatures that had been intent on venturing close before he influenced them away, he wasn't able to make the same level of contact with whatever this was, it lacked the intelligence and was being driven purely by base instinct. With little other recourse he subtly flipped the pistol to maximum power with his thumb as he prepared himself in case the final surge of will he sent at the thing went unheeded and what he felt as it drew close was that he wasn't its target.

Twilight almost bumped into the human when he suddenly stopped and whirled around with the device in his hand pointed down at her. "Wha-?"

*P-Deww!*

A red bolt erupted out of the end pointed at her, the bright flash briefly causing her to see spots but initial appearances were deceiving and she could feel it flew to one side of her barrel followed very shortly by a very angry exclamation by Applejack who quickly went to Twilight's side. She tried to look where the bolt had hit the ground as the smell of ozone stung her nose but the human physically pushed her aside and strode a step further before he stood tall and the device was brought horizontal to point off into the forest. Everything went still. When she glanced down again the end of smoldering black vine writhed in the dirt at her hoof and she immediately knew what was going on. "Look out, it-!"

Her cry didn't come in time because when her eyes darted up to the Titus' back she could already see around him the open maw of the toothed flower leading the thorned body through the air, the whole scene almost freezing in time as she was hit by a spike of adrenaline. Three more sharp P-Deww!s rang out before she could finish her warning of the Deathbloom's hazards and subsequently two holes seemingly appeared in the spread petals while the third shot landed dead center and a ring of smoldering plant flesh expanded, the thorny limbs going limp while it still sailed through the air, thoroughly dead, to flop to the ground at Titus' feet.

But not before a vile green cloud engulfed the three.

Twilight, and then Applejack a second later, instinctively held their breath and ran a short distance out of it but when they turned around the human had remained and now stood over the plant. The fire-shooter thing barked two more times creating new holes that briefly oozed with the plant's turquoise fluid before being consumed by the smoldering heat of the wound at which point he was apparently satisfied it was no longer a threat and turned to where the ponies had run. "< You two o- >"

"Get out of there!" Twilight shouted and on impulse grabbed his wrist with her magic to pull him out and the grip he had on his side went ignored in favor of getting him clear of the settling cloud of gas, "I tried to warn you, it can breath a vapor that knocks you out!" When she saw him bend over and clearly just go still she knew she had triggered another bout of pain, and while she was certainly sorry for doing so she explained it had been necessary.

The arm he had been yanked by was the same side his ribs were on which screamed at him for several minutes in which he hunched over with his hands on his knees to support himself and during this Twilight explained the plant was a Deathbloom and something else that Titus less-than-listened to. It wasn't until a stint of awkward silence followed that he remained bent over for and it was asked if he was alright that he was able to stand fully upright, albeit slowly and gingerly, that Titus pointed to his head. "< T-The visor indicated... >" he said brokenly as the air filling his lungs caused a brief amount of further pain, "< Not a threat... helmet filtration would ca-catch it. >" At this point AJ alarmingly sat down with a groan and both human and unicorn turned to her.

Lazily she waved a hoof, "Just caught a whiff of it, that's all. Gimme a minute."

Twilight knew waiting around in the Everfree never lead to anything good, and although she herself started to feel a little tired which she attributed to not holding her breath fast enough this went unvoiced as it was negligible. "Applejack, come on! I know it's hard but we need to keep moving," she said and lifted her friend back up a second time but despite her effort to get Applejack to her hooves the pony just slumped back down to rest on her haunches so she turned to Titus, "I-Is there anything you can do? Like with your technology?" She thought if all else failed she could carry the farm pony but much to her relief he nodded, although after a second it seemed like he just stood and intended to stare at the earth pony. "Uh..."

His scan of Applejack finished and he reached for the jug of water she had offered to loan him, "< It wasn't actually a gas, my scan shows that there's microscopic spores on her fur that release small amounts of enzyme when they come in contact with something of sufficient temperature. The enzyme gets absorbed through the skin, so if you breathed any spores in there might be some in your nose, too. Analysis indicates the enzyme is water soluble so we can wash it away or at the very least diluting it should help with the symptoms. >"

While Twilight was astounded by the level of information gleaned in such a short time the farm pony snatched the jug, took her hat off, and upended the bottle between her ears for several seconds after which she shook her head vigorously, "Well, that's a cold shower so if I wasn't awake before I am now." Twilight reminded her that had only gotten rid of the spores on her fur which caused Applejack to look at the water jug, "I'm really not going to enjoy this..."

"< My scan also shows a burst of electrical current would change the enzyme's chemical structure, even the stuff that hasn't been released from the spores, rendering it innocuous. It needs to be a pretty strong zap, though... >"

"Right, getting shocked sounds way worse, so borderline waterboarding it is," Applejack said definitively and looked to him for instruction, "What am I supposed to do?"

"< Take a deep breath and hold it, then tilt your head back, >" Titus replied as he took the canteen, "< I'll pour up your nose to the count of ten, then you need to lean back forward and blow out your nose as hard as you can to expel as much of the remaining water as you can. >" Applejack nodded then took a loud breath and tilted her head back, but he knew instinct could be counterproductive at times and took her by the chin firmly. Holding her still he poured a steady stream right up her nostrils until it started flowing back out while he counted up. Two thirds of the way to being done AJ started squirming uncomfortably but soldiered on with encouraging cheers from Twilight until he let her go and she was free to expunge her nose with a loud huff. After a few breaths a refreshed AJ turned to the human who was setting up to assist the unicorn who had stated it would be a wise precaution to take anyway, "Thanks, Sugarcube, I'm still feelin' a little sleepy but I can tell it's definitely better. Can your flyin' gizmo see how much further we've got to go?"

"< Five more minutes walking, I'd say, and after that racket everything is steering clear of us, >" he replied but paused to count aloud for Twilight. When her nose had been equally rinsed and while she was blowing it out he then nodded the way they had come, "< Will you two be alright for the walk back, though? We can turn around and I can walk you back to the forest edge if you need me to. >" He then took a few steps away from them and then brought his wristpad up to start the process of cleansing his suit.

Twilight finished clearing her nose and wiped her face with a hoof in time to see the small arcs of electricity that jumped between his gloved fingers and a small ring of plants wither and die at his feet before he stepped back with them, the unicorn examining his suit briefly with renewed excitement. W-Wow! So it can conduct a strong electrical current and shield the wearer? She only let her observation preoccupy her for a moment before responding to his question, "I feel okay, and if we take a minute for the rest of the lethargy to wear off before heading back we'll be fine because it doesn't last long. The only reason to subject you to walking back would be if you intend to stay the night in Applejack's barn."

He turned the offer down again and that they said they would be fine seemed good enough for the human who promptly set off at their nod they were ready. There wasn't much else of a conversation but he had been correct because it was just a little more than five minutes of walking, on account he was moving slower than he anticipated, that they pushed through the last of the standing trees and scrambled over the tipped ones. Before them was a large bowl of churned earth with a trench cutting a scar through the woods that for Twilight and Applejack was astounding knowing it reached all the way back to town. Their collective attention, however, was drawn to the massive (in the pony's eyes) vessel laying on its roof and partially buried in the mud and earth.

Titus surveyed the ship and took an initial stock of damages which, all things considered, were only moderate much to his delight which would have been seen by his smile had it not been for the helmet he had on. No indication of a reactor breach, hull appears to be in shape and in one piece... kark, the shields must have held! Iana wasn't kidding when she told me there would be enough power in the upgraded capacitors to really make a difference in the case of a crash. Wrapped up as he was at this positive turn of events he set off for a better look, momentarily forgetting his escorts, and slid down the surrounding berm into the bowl. Waiting at the bottom was a thigh-deep puddle of mud that broke his momentum so there was minimal impact felt by his ribs and as he waded out to dry(er) ground he continued looking over his ship. It might be a while, but I can totally fix this! Repulsors are the priority, right after a complete power system check, that way I can get it on the landing gear for a better inspection.

Both ponies followed Titus from up along the ridge of the berm but upon seeing how deep of a puddle he nonchalantly slid into they had to find another spot to join him in the bowl which just a bit further ahead from where he had descended. A woozy Applejack quietly stuck by Twilight as she waited for the Deathbloom's lethargy to wear off, meanwhile Twilight now had a chance to freely marvel at the alien craft before her and not surprisingly a sheet of parchment floated beside her while a quill scribbled like crazy trying to keep up with the unicorn's thoughts. I-It has to be at least one hundred and... maybe one hundred and fifty bodylengths long by initial estimation! The very mass of such a thing would make it almost impossible to believe it can achieve flight if I hadn't seen it with my own eyes.

"That must be an engine!" she said aloud excitedly which got a noncommittal grunt from Applejack. One of the structures she had identified as wings the prior day was close by and she could see the end of the tube, leading her down a whole new tangent of observations. He was talking about how one had been damaged and, assuming there's symmetry, there should be another of these on the other side. This one looks to be the one that's intact. "This... looks like a nozzle of sorts, doesn't it, Applejack?" Again, all she got was a grunt. "But those two sets of flaps each forming a ring around the end look articulated both in a converging and diverging manner, if I'm theorizing from the construction correctly," she continued as she came to a stop at the end of the engine for a closer inspection. Ideas were flying through her head faster than her poor quill could keep up as well as the parchment had space for, so out came a second, and she launched into a whole new level of excitement, "A-A-And if that's true, that the cone can be manipulated, even without knowing the specifics of the fuel-" A tongue popped out of Twilight's mouth as she focused on scrawling a rapid line of equations to back up her theory and muttered subconsciously as she went, "So the givens are that the gas constant of air is, um, right! Two eighty seven units of energy over mass-unit per temperature-unit... and heat ratio of air is one point four, assuming we're at sea or ground level... exhausting into atmosphere of one-oh-one-three-two-five units of pressure at the end of the nozzle..."

Some very quick and likely inaccurate math, a diagram, and some deductive thinking later Twilight lit up and turned to an entirely confused Applejack who hadn't even bothered to keep up with the unicorn's mumbling, "Constricting the engine output through a converging cone such as this would increase the amount of thrust! Oh this is so exciting!" She would have continued walking right into the open engine for a closer look had the farm pony not grabbed her by the tail and physically dragged her back out, although this only lead her to instead start after the human who was wandering around toward the front of the craft with her sheet of notes, equations, and hypotheses in tow - likely with questions to match.

Applejack was alert enough to be wise to what she was intent on doing and yanked her back, "Hold up, sugarcube. You were about to go interrogate him, weren't ya?" Twilight had a hard time arguing that it was only going to be a few questions when Applejack listened with a very disbelieving expression and eventually she had to admit it likely would have been one or two more than a few. AJ shook her head then nodded to where the human was still looking around uninterested in what the ponies were up to, "I know you're keen on gettin' answers but it'll have to wait on account of him wanting some space."

Twilight deflated a little for the second time that day at the reminder and put the parchment back in her saddlebag. "You're right, once again I got caught up in the excitement," she sighed glumly then started off for where Titus was looking at the half-submerged door she and her friends had used the other day to enter, "I'm going to see if there's anything we can do to help before we head back."

Titus was recalling the drone from getting images from the ship and was tapping a series of commands to his now-linked wristpad as Twilight walked up to him. Thinking nothing of it he turned to partially face her, "< Are you two feeling better? >"

She didn't speak immediately and stared at him uncomfortably before she realized he was waiting on an answer and nodded. "Between the fresh air and your idea-" Twilight watched intently as the little disc from earlier zipped out of the air. Titus was seemingly focused on his task and although she wanted to she didn't dare ask if she could see what he was doing on that wrist-mounted screen of his; the drone (as she remembered him identifying it) hovered itself past his arms deftly to land on his suit where it twisted with a click and any indication that it was a separate entity - if it actually was, a consideration Twilight logged for future notes - vanished before blending in with the rest of his suit. Realizing she had dropped what she had been saying to observe his technology she shook her head vigorously to get focused before looking back to Titus, "Sorry, got lost in thought. Thank you for the idea to wash off the spores you, um... scanned? I think that's what you said... so, yes, Applejack and I are feeling better. I came over to ask if there's anything Applejack or I can do for you before we leave."

He was quiet for a moment then the helmet shook gently, "< No, I can take it from here. You two should probably get moving before the animals we scared off filter back across your path. >"

Twilight and Applejack heeded the advice, although the former was rather disappointed she wasn't able to stay and poke around at all the unbelievable technology literally strewn about. This turned out to be a short-lived feeling because, after their uneventful trip through the forest and upon reaching the road where they would part ways, Applejack brought up the hill in casual chatter which prompted Twilight to remember the treasure trove that was much closer to home, as well as the possible means to be helpful to Titus. Twilight knew there would be ponies interested in his technology for much less educational and scientific endeavors so after she had rushed home she sent off another letter for the Princess about what could be done to preserve the crash site and its salvage for the human.

Bouncing along steadily it wasn't until a particularly hard jostle broke the human from his quiet internal thoughts and private serenity of music within his suit's helmet with a strong wince.

"You okay back there?" the farm pony was quick to inquire having been subtly keeping an eye over a shoulder on her injured passenger since picking him up at the same spot at the end of the bridge, albeit in a brand new cart she was still getting used to pulling. She couldn't see his face but his pained body-language of a hand covering what she knew was his hurt side was unmistakable, "Sorry, I'm doing my best to avoid the potholes but every rain the road gets a little worse. We're almost past the worst of it!" As if on cue one of the back wheels dipped into one and the whole cart lurched.

"< Ng... >" the short distorted noise from the helmet was hard to discern if it was a grunt from slowly righting himself out of the hunch he had suddenly taken from that last pothole or if it was some sort of answer but one of the spindly limps waved slowly and the odd voice came back, "< Yeah... I'm okay. Thanks for trying, and thanks for the ride as always. It really does help and save me some aches and soreness cutting my walk in half. >"

"I know you said you're not keen on laying around but you really should rest up a bit, it can't be good for ya going to work all banged up like you are. Probably makin' it take longer to recover," Applejack suggested and swerved the cart to one side which dodged another pit in the road entirely which she knew would be much to the alien's appreciation. His response was that he was working on a project that would make his salvage work and the recovery of his finds to the ship infinitely easier but AJ knew a workaholic when she heard one although she had very little right to criticize. "All I'm sayin' is take care of yourself. There's no rush to be getting everything picked up, the town guard are watching the crash site now and there was a big article in the paper sayin' the window to return anything scavenged from the hillside without consequences is closing and also warning everypony that the Princesses themselves said they're going to be very harsh with scavengers after that," she said then perked up and turned to fully face him over a shoulder, "Speaking of! Remember those credits you gave me for those fritters and that note you signed? I got mobbed by ponies when word got out I was lookin' to trade 'em and after I showed I had the note sayin' you traded them to me legitimately I had all sorts of offers to buy them off me comin' in!"

"< Oh? >" Titus hummed curiously and twisted as much as he comfortably could to look at her, "< Can I ask what you got for them? Because those three credits don't amount to much, I've got a whole bunch more back aboard the ship. >"

"Well don't go saturating the market and lowering the value just yet! I'm looking to trade the last one for some new equipment for a weekly thing I do with a couple of my friends," she said happily and with a grinning nod to him, "Didn't mean to, but I think I ripped you off."

"< Ah well, I'm not concerned about it- >"

"No no no," she cut his chuckle off and the cart came to a stop but, before he could question why, she had slipped out of the harness and come around the back to where he was whereupon she looked him square in the helmet's faceplate where she assumed his eyes were. "Ain't no Apple ever made a deal that left somepony else with the short end of the stick, we deal fair so everypony feels safe doing business with us," Applejack said with clear pride before she uncovered every steaming, aromatic basket in the cart, "So, on account I-I already rushed off and spent the Bits before thinkin'... and I don't have anywhere near enough to give back to make it a fair trade... um, would ya be okay takin' fritters or whatever else till we're even? O-Otherwise I can pay you back in installments-" She was relieved when he started to scour the options in the cart until he picked out a cherry and apple fritter, just like the first he had ever tried, then one of the raspberry ones before he turned to her.

"< Is three fair? >"

AJ looked at him with disbelief when he didn't just take at least a whole basket to start with like she had anticipated, "What in the hay...?"

Further words failed her momentarily and she stared until he hastily started putting the apple pastry back in the basket amid an apology but she quickly reached out a hoof and pushed it back at him, "Now hold on there, I don't think you're understanding. Three isn't fair at all; those two other credits I sold went for so much that not only did we get this here new cart to replace the old rickety one, but we got that after Granny's hip replacement surgery was fully covered. Between other farm expenses you have no any idea how long me and the family have been trying to save up Bits to pay for the surgery and hospital stay necessary after, only to get hit with some sort of expense that couldn't be ignored, so when the opportunity came I had to take it and we rushed her in for the operation. What I'm saying, Sugarcube, is that you go ahead and take as much as you want. I reckon you'll get sick of 'em long before we get anywhere close to what's fair..."

"< I doubt that. I'll have to bring some of the bland food I have on my ship - it's literally a paste - so you can see for yourself why I'll never get sick of your fritters, >" Titus laughed and closed the nearest basket to communicate he had chosen what he wanted, "< I'll take three today, one is for Twilight. >"

He helped her close up the rest of the baskets or towels she had flipped open to protect the treats from the dust of the road before they got moving again but as she was about to go back around and slip into the harness she felt him watching her, or the helmet's reflective face was turned toward her at any rate. When she asked him what had his attention his head drooped slightly.

"< Thanks, Applejack. For treating me so nicely, >" he replied timidly to the point his tone came through even the distortion and when she waved it off and said she hadn't done anything to deserve thanks he shook his head, "< You came forward and gave me the first aid kit that night in the library when you introduced yourself, and even though you don't have to, every morning you've either waited for me at the bridge or happily gave me a ride where our paths crossed. I really appreciate you overcoming what must have been an intimidating encounter. >"

"Aw shucks, I just think everypony deserves a chance!" Applejack smiled and patted him on the knee comfortingly, "Really, you haven't done anything scary, you're just... different is all, and that causes uncertainty. And you're big which I figure a lot of ponies find intimidating, but there's not much to be done about that." She stared at his faceplate and for a moment the silence was a little awkward before her head tilted to one side, "Would ya mind if I suggest something that might help?"

As soon as the library had opened Twilight was ambushed by curious ponies with questions about the human, all of whom followed her about in a gaggle with zero interest in any books. After answering as many as she could while simultaneously jamming quill, ink, and a stack of parchment into her saddlebags she left Spike to run the library before racing out the door because she knew she was running late.

Well, maybe not "late" because they hadn't formally agreed upon a specific time to meet, or that they would meet at all, but she knew Applejack's schedule and that she had said he had caught a ride on the back of her cart the previous mornings and if that was also the case today he would already be there. After their exchanged apologies - him for being snappish about her speed calculations and her for being too enthusiastic in correcting his own estimations - they had both started over the following day. Although the first few moments of this had been a little awkward once he had asked her to read off her precise calculations while he measured to place boundary markers into the ground they had fallen into a good flow and even struck up a small conversation between reading and driving stakes. Some of her questions had been answered in more detail, however because he was moving slowly and because he had declined having her do all of the work today was likely going to be another day she would have open opportunity to learn about him.

Her canter from the library quickly turned into an all-out gallop over the course of a block of shopfronts. What if he's already there and digs up something? Titus would probably put it in his bag without a second thought and I wouldn't find out what it was! The small number of items he had already recovered had been of the size they would fit in his saddlebag thing he carried but she had gotten to ask about each one and they all went to something bigger, and learning where the single piece of the puzzle went in the grander scheme had been painting a picture of wonder for Twilight. What if Titus is there and I'm not? Will he start without me? I wouldn't blame him, of course, but... oh no, what if he's waiting for me and because I'm not there he goes back to his ship?! Although she realized this was a very unlikely scenario the possibility spurred her to greater speed and she felt such urgency that even when passing Pinkie and Dash on the street they only got a very quick wave and a smile.

When she was finally wheezing her way over the top of the hill she was relieved to see the tall frame of the human moving slowly but deliberately across the field below her. What caused her pause, however, was that the helmet he would more often than not have jammed over his head wasn't being worn today but not only that it wasn't on his hip or in his hands, or under his butt as a seat for that matter. For the first few moments she thought maybe he had chosen not to wear it and left it back at the ship which was slightly upsetting because she wanted to take a better look at it and examine some of its features and capabilities, having missed her last opportunity due to needing to get the portal data report off to the Princess. Per usual there were a good number of ponies gathered around Titus, still giving him a wide berth of half a dozen body lengths or so, where they watched him intently and she heard one or two timid questions directed at him get answered which bolstered her hopes hers would be as well. Off to another side was a second group of ponies congregating noisily around something and it wasn't until she had gotten closer that she saw the focus of their attention was on passing the alien's missing helmet around. Immediately thoughts of what might happen if they accidentally broke anything from mishandling it in their curiosity or excitement and her fear of what position that might put him in sent her rushing over.

"Hey! What are you doing with-"

"E-Everything's alright," a town guard she hadn't seen in the group interrupted and quickly pointed a hoof in the direction of the field, "The alien said I could show this around for a bit."

Twilight was very surprised at this and couldn't say anything for a moment before she said a few inconsequential words to be exceedingly careful and, with an envious glance at the helmet, made her way to where Titus was. Her first observation was that on her current path she would be coming up behind him so she greeted him as she closed the distance to the circle of ponies so as to not startle him, "Good morning, Tit-us... Sorry, it's still a bit difficult, was that close?"

"Good morning, Miss Sparkle. Close; more emphasis on the 'i' and you'll have it," he said as he rounded to meet the approaching librarian who pushed through the crowd and entered the empty circle around him to stand almost at arm's length..

"T-Tie... tus..." Twilight tried again just as one of his hands reached into a pocket of his suit and was rewarded with a rare smile, "Titus...?"

"Spot on!" A lone digit of his hand stuck up while the fist clenched in an unfamiliar gesture she made a note of to ask about later.

"Ti. Tus. Titus Titus Titus. I'll probably have to say it a few more times to really cement the pronunciation in my mind but oh, that is such a relief to have gotten down!" her whole body relaxed like a great weight had been lifted from her shoulders, and in some ways it was because she had been practicing trying to correctly say that odd name and it had been a point of major personal frustration lest her inability offend him in some way. Feeling accomplished Twilight sighed and took in a breath of refreshing air, "So, good morning. Sorry for not being here to help when you arrived, I found myself running a few minutes behind and just got out the door finishing my morning coffee."

"No worries, instead of starting work I walked around and answered a few questions," he said with a nod to the group gathered around them before doing looking to his pocket. "Hey, I usually buy two or three fritters as breakfast when I meet up with Applejack," Titus then revealed the steaming pastry delicately wrapped in a napkin to preserve it, "I'm already full, so would you have any interest in the last one?"

Naturally when someone pulls such a thing out of a pocket one might be dubious, however in her rush out of the door this particular morning the librarian had neither time nor presence of mind to prepare herself breakfast. As such she eyed the delicious-looking fritter being offered hungrily and found the look was enough that it was passed to her whereupon she discovered it was still perfectly warm as if it had just been taken from the heated baskets Applejack used. "That was thoughtful, thank you!" she chirped and took a tentative bite for a further discovery of her favorite flavor, raspberry. What superseded this, however, was the mystery of how he had kept it at just the right temperature although her hunch was the suit. "It's still perfectly warm! Did your suit heat it up?" she asked and took a full-fledged bite of the delectable pastry, with her appearance the other ponies had given her center stage of the human's attention and they seemed content with just observing for the time being.

"Actually, Miss Sparkle, it just maintained the original heat from when I stored it," he said and twisted his forearm around to briefly show the wristpad screen and controls to her, "My suit is climate controlled so all I had to do was turn that pocket to the right setting."

Naturally this was seen as just the ticket to start talking about his tech and Twilight eagerly pounced (figuratively of course). "Really, independent temperature controls? I imagine that extends to the whole suit. Does having the ability to adjust it stem from a biological necessity on your part to be within a certain temperature range or is that purely for comfort? It must have a power source to do that, correct? Also, does your suit have any other functions? I saw the electrical charge it could put out but there's a lot of talk about it and I've heard theories ranging from enhanced strength and invisibility to flight and-" she began as her writing tools were quickly floated in front of her when his sudden chuckle which was directed at her for her enthusiasm caused her to grin sheepishly, "W-We can go one question at a time."

"Appreciate that, otherwise I couldn't keep up!" he chuckled. "As you've said, you have lots so tackling them one at a time is probably for the best," Titus nodded before shifting his attention to the wrist screen that Twilight could only enviously catch glimpses of, although the human was subtly acutely aware of this. "In terms of adjusting it, it really depends on the planet," he replied and gingerly lowered himself to the ground in front of the violet unicorn, the mention of planets and the indication that meant he had been to others very clearly being of interest to her because her ears were fully toward him, "For what I've seen of this planet it would mostly be for comfort, but I've been to one or two where the extreme conditions made it a necessity for survival. Also, the ability to completely seal myself in has come in handy and is necessary in the vacuum of space."

"Oh! Which likely helped with the Deathbloom. How does it do that?" Again Twilight manipulated the questioning and as she had hoped for Titus was soon waving the guard over to get his helmet back. Titus slipped the helmet on and his voice shifted to the distorted version as he explained some planets had toxic environments so the seal was a benefit then as well. She watched him tap commands with a gloved hand on the still-out-of-view wrist screen before he pointed to his neck just as tiny tetrahedrons from the bottom of the helmet rolled down like a flowing liquid while at the same time the collar of his suit folded up to meet in the middle where they melded seamlessly together. He let her look for a moment before reversing the process and removed his helmet which he put down on the grass beside him while Twilight marveled at the new discovery. "Wow! I wouldn't have thought it would have been so... fluid. I figured those scales making up your suit served as a sort of armor," she said as she pointed a hoof at the tetrahedrons on his sleeve, "It reminded me of the mail armor the town guard wear."

She wasn't wrong and he couldn't stop himself from looking at the pair of guards in their shiny metal armor to draw a similar observation before turning to grin at Twilight, "Well, that's because it actually is armor." Twilight looked at him again, her gaze moving from his shoulders then over his chest down his legs to his feet before coming back up to meet his gaze.

"How? The scales are so small and I don't see any plates or reinforcements to deflect or absorb blows."

"There aren't any, I prefer the mobility this offers to composite plates that would restrict movement. Despite this not being heavy duty class, the armor is what limited the edge of my flight console to only breaking a few ribs, had it not been for that I seriously doubt I would have survived the crash-" seeing her droop in what he knew was guilt he waved her closer and held his forearm at a right angle to her. He then reached into his canvas bag and pulled out what looked like a sturdy pipe that he had recovered just prior to Twilight showing up, "As you can see, right now it's inert and has the characteristics of a heavy, uh... ganvasoe? Sorry, I don't know the word but the stuff my bag is made out of. Anyway, the armor isn't activated at the moment." He demonstrated the suit material bending and folding easily then, in a move that startled Twilight and the ponies watching from a bit further back, he put his hand down on top of his helmet and struck himself right along the knuckles with a resounding crack.

"What are you doing!?"

Twilight hollered loudly enough that anypony that hadn't been watching turned to see what the commotion was about. Not that she noticed because her attention was quickly directed from the hand and its delicate digits to the human's face but she just found him grinning, "Are you okay?! Why would you do that?!"

"Because I knew I'd be fine," he replied nonchalantly and held up his hand, brushing off some of the dirt the pipe had left behind on the glove to show there were no signs of damage before he took the glove off. Titus demonstrated his unharmed knuckles to the ponies gathered around him, twisting as much as his still-hurting ribs would allow, before he passed the glove over to Twilight for her to get a closer look, "It reacts on impact, absorbing and dissipating the energy before it returns to its inert state."

"I'm familiar with dilatant non-Newtonian fluids, but... I've never heard of such characteristics in a metal, or an alloy of some kind, that didn't inherently lead to shortcomings in other areas!" Twilight said in awe and examined both the glove and material thoroughly to make as many observations as she could before she would have to inevitably return it and in the interest of buying more time she just talked. "My first clue that it was an alloy Equestrian science doesn't know about was when my friends and I tried to get you out of your ship after the crash. We had to physically carry you because neither Rarity or I could pick you up in our magic, the spell would just collapse after a second or two until we realized something was causing a harmonic dissonance in the magic field."

"And how many times was I dropped on my head before you figured that out?"

Twilight paused in stunned silence; the large, intimidating, hyper-advanced biped from another dimension or universe with fire shooters and space ships was the last pony she ever expected to have a sense of humor. D-Did he just make a joke? He did, right?! She didn't hear the quiet guffaw of a mint unicorn in the crowd but much to her relief only a second later she registered the small grin.

She channeled her experience with Rainbow Dash as best she could and tested his reaction to a witty retort hesitantly, "I can't say exactly... but there's that long flight of stairs in your ship...?"

Thankfully as she faded out his grin widened before he laughed and shook his head slowly, so she joined in with a genuine smile of her own. I can't believe it, I may be the first to exchange extra-universal or dimensional humor with another sentient being! Who knew we would even have similar concepts of humor!!! Despite the gravity of the thought the weight of the glove in her hooves was enough to quickly return her to their prior discussion, "In actuality we couldn't even levitate you to begin with. Theories I have to explain this will need to be tested, o-or more accurately I would like permission to test them, but I believe something about your technology - whether it is the nature of the technology itself, a specific component, or the materials its made of - disrupts the ability to create a cohesive field of magic." He seemingly understood what she was saying by his thoughtful expression but his brow creased causing his eyebrows to take on an aggressive slant; thankfully he was just concerned because he looked to his glove and helmet before he turned back to her.

"That's not dangerous for you guys, is it? The disruption, I mean," he asked and just from his tone Twilight could guess he was hopeful it wasn't the case. "Should we take some sort of precautions?"

"Well I noted it wasn't present in all of your technology and my analysis of the items I looked at briefly aboard your ship while we were exploring, and the precursory examination of your helmet the night you stayed at the library, were enough to conclude the disruption is isolated and in no way dangerous to us... meaning unicorns specifically. It's just slightly annoying not being able to levitate things like I normally would," she responded enthusiastically. The thought that all of these wonderful opportunities to learn might have been missed had the technology been detrimental to their health by sheer proximity was one Twilight was very thankful she could laugh at and dismiss but, seeing another opportunity that could potentially lead to further investigations, she pointed timidly at helmet on the ground, "But maybe it would be a good idea to run stuff like this by me before just letting anypony handle it, both for safety and because I wouldn't want somepony to break anything? And I heard about the ruckus Applejack caused with her trading of units of your currency and how much they went for. I'd hate somepony to take your helmet and run off with it-"

"Oh." It was Titus' turn to exclaim before he tapped out a series of rhythms on his wrist pad, paused to pick up the helmet and pass it to Twilight, then turned the face of the screen he had been typing on so she could see it. "I have a tracker on it. In fact, when I realized that was a possibility because of how much the credits I gave Applejack went for I activated trackers in all of my gear so, provided they didn't run too far, I could follow them. Plus, the helmet has a cam mount that I can activate remotely from the same range as the tracker," he pressed a button when he was sure she was watching and the screen suddenly displayed what the helmet was pointed at. This caused a good deal of excited commotion as Twilight and the ponies gathered around to watch the screen as the camera was swept from side to side or one by one they poked their face close to the helmet, but little did they know Titus had an even greater surprise in store. "The camera feed is pretty cool, but I think you'll enjoy this a lot more. Just... one second... set this to maximum render range and-" he mumbled briefly to himself and deftly pushed buttons without even needing to look at the screen so as to not interrupt their viewing.

From the back of his gloved hand a ghostly blue light blinked to life and suddenly the ponies saw themselves, but rather than a two dimensional image restricted to a screen a miniaturized living diorama of light hovered in the air for all to see. Excited murmurs made their way around the gathered ponies and their methods of testing the image through movements and expressions continued, all keenly observed and mentally logged by the curious librarian, before she scooted as close as she dared beside the human without intruding on what she took as his personal space. "We have televisions and such that display a two dimensional picture, but generating a three dimensional image like this that portrays real-time movements without any sort of latency in communication to the image or spell border..." she said and looked up into the air like a good number of other ponies were in search of a camera of some sort, although unlike them she also did a quick magical scan for some sort of scrying device or spell but she found nothing, "This would take a lot of research into merging spells for a similar effect and even more development to work out the inevitable bugs that would arise between the spells, and then just thinking about the daunting amount of refinement needed to get all the components and spell power storage down into a package of a similar size of that of your glove..." Twilight turned from the empty sky to look in the alien face of the human, "I can't begin to imagine how your technology works!"

His expression changed slightly and although she couldn't readily read it for whatever reason the way his eyes locked on the ground in front of him made her feel compelled to reach out a hoof to touch his knee. Just shy of actually moving her hoof to make contact, however, she hesitated thinking it might be grossly unwanted and in that moment the opportunity was robbed from her when he spoke softly and just to her.

"I don't want that to be the reason I'm feared."

"W-What?" Twilight blinked in surprise at the tone the human had spoke in and quickly asked the gathered ponies to disperse so she could have a word with him, quickly making up an excuse that carried with it the weight and authority of the Princesses. When they had some space Twilight returned to Titus who she had seen watching her the last minute as she went about getting them some privacy.

She asked him again, seeking and answer to what he had meant, and Titus shook his head, "I don't want my technology or my appearance to make all you feel like I'm something to be feared. Truthfully, I'm not, so I appreciate your willingness to let me show you, Ms. Sparkle."

"Look, don't take that press conference too hard. It was... uh, unfortunate," she tried to be comforting and gave what she hoped was a smile that he would take as she commiserated with him. She then motioned to all the ponies that had respected her request for space but it was evident they were still paying close attention to what was going on, "But even then, look at everypony gathered here today; I don't see fear on their faces. I think a lot of us are curious about you and when I came over the hill it looked like you were doing a good job of helping us understand." This time she didn't even think against touching a hoof to his knee which, without knowing it, came as a small surprise to them both, "I know I for one would like to understand you. Especially if it means free fritters..." Twilight hoped the lighthearted joke would be recognized and she felt Titus' eyes searching her but much to her relief a moment later he smiled meekly so she gladly returned one of her own.

Titus attempted to mimic the habit he had noticed in a lot of ponies that morning and his head tilted just slightly, "I'll bring the fritters if you bring the coffee."

Titus lunged slowly forward to knock lightly on the door before rocking back to the decent stride away so that whoever opened it wouldn't have a sudden surprise of his large frame right in their face. After spending yesterday answering the unending questions of Twilight Sparkle and having several of his own answered while she helped him set up the crash site perimeter they had parted ways late in the afternoon when Applejack had stopped by after closing up her market booth to see if he wanted to catch a ride back. Before leaving, however, Twilight had asked him if he would be comfortable walking a little further to meet at the library rather than the field.

But I may have underestimated just how uncomfortable all this attention would be. With his helmet secured to his belt Titus couldn't discretely use the camera and had to look over a shoulder at the small flock of ponies that had followed him and had slowly grown in size as he had worked his way through town. Their cameras had an odd (and slightly aggravating) tendency to blind him with their exploding bulbs so he only glanced so his vision wouldn't be filled with spots but even in doing so they immediately started talking among themselves excitingly or waved and smiled at him timidly. He gave them a nod of acknowledgement and by the time he had turned around the door was being opened by Twilight. "Good morning, Miss Sparkle. I realize I'm a little early..."

"Oh, that's fine, I hope you weren't waiting too long. Sorry you had to knock several times," she apologized while stepping aside so he could enter, zipping behind him when he passed to flip the sign on the door that the library was closed so it would be less likely the following crowd would pile in after him. When she turned around she found him standing against the wall in clear wait of her, although she had expected him to continue to the living room or the kitchen at least. "I would have gotten to the door but I was in the middle of putting the boiling water through the coffee grounds and didn't want to risk a spill," she explained while squeezing around him, although the only reason she had just gotten to the coffee was that the living room had been an absolute mess of the notes she had taken from the previous day had filled the table and were spread out on the floor so she had quickly organized and filed them. Approaching the door she motioned a hoof, "Do you want to wait here or follow me to the kitchen? The coffee should be just about ready, then we can head out." His head rotated between the living room and where he knew the kitchen to be then said he would take a seat in the former and wait. Before moving fully into the living room he passed along a bag of steaming pastries which she took with her as she headed to fill the thermos. While Twilight normally wouldn't do so out of respect for patrons the library was empty so she freely talked to him from the kitchen.

"So, you've spent two nights aboard your ship. Have you gotten a better idea of the scope of the damage?"

Titus had taken a seat on the low couch, the comfort of which was well beyond anything he had gotten to relax on in the chaos of his upturned vessel, so his head had naturally rolled back and was resting on the top of the cushion, "It’s a bit of a mess in there. I had to move a bunch of stuff out of the way but I managed to clear enough to crawl into the service tube and my cursory inspection is that the port engine was sheared from its mount on impact."

"Shearing free sounds... bad," Twilight said slowly because she was focused on not burning herself as she transferred the hot coffee to the thermos, "Can you fix the engine?"

"I couldn't get to the engine for a diagnosis, the tube was too blocked. I could only see enough of the mount to see the bolts had snapped or torn the mounting bracket," Titus clarified and stretched both arms across the back of the couch, "Fixing it is an issue of removing the armor hull plates around the engine to get it out of the housing, which I can only do after I get the whole thing upright again. Once it's out I can fabricate a new mount and go about rebuilding the engine, Princess Luna said she would be sure I had whatever I needed for that."

"I can only assume that will be a lot of work because that’s what it sounds like," Twilight offered as she emerged from the kitchen with the thermos and two mugs, one of which was closer to a jug in relation to the other because the idea of the human sipping out of something so dainty was a little ridiculous. Following that was the bag of pastries he had brought, and some cream and sugar in little glass jars, all of which floated in her magic. This clearly got Titus' attention for several seconds as she came over to the couch but she misunderstood why. "Cream and sugar, for the coffee. I filled the biggest thermos I could find, I hope this will be enough," she said and floated the thermos closer to be told if he drank even half that much coffee he would be up all week which was a relief that she didn't need to worry about running out. With a smile she turned toward the hallway, "Great! I'm ready to go whenever you are."

"Alright, up we go-oh..." That was as far as Titus got because he wasn't able to push himself up off the low-seated couch. He tried again but he wasn't able to without reaching a point where his ribs would hurt and he would sink back to the cushion with a grunt.

Twilight awkwardly watched a third attempt before she couldn't take the grimace he made as he lowered himself stiffly again in defeat. "C-Can I help?" she asked tentatively for fear he would voice something like he certainly didn't need her help because he blamed her for his condition but instead he sat quietly for a moment as his face turned red.

"Yes, I um..." he laughed sheepishly to Twilight's complete surprise, "I hate to ask, but I think I'm stuck."

"Oh no, please ask! I'm always glad to help," Twilight all but jumped forward in front of him and looked from one hip to the other for how to best pick him up but (thankfully) before she started pulling or pushing in either direction she realized she wasn't sure how. Looking helplessly at him her ears folded back, "You'll have to tell me how to best help, I don't want to hurt you... at least not any more than I already have."

Titus didn't hear the last part of her statement because he was busy looking around for a solution. "I think it's going to hurt regardless, just like any sort of bending at the waist does," he grunted then lifted an arm and pointed to his armpits, "When I start pulling myself up can you use your magic to lift me the rest of the way?"

Twilight thought it would work for only a moment before she shook her head, "Not if you're wearing the suit I can't, it messes with the magic." Titus grumbled a kark and suddenly he clenched his jaw and twisted enough to put his elbow on the back of the couch, hissing through his teeth, before she could stop him. "No, you'll hurt yourself!" she cried, she herself pained from having to watch what he was putting himself through as he pushed himself higher than he had yet gotten. Her brain launched into hyper-mode and like a switch being thrown the solution came to her, "Wait, hold on like you are!"

She couldn't manipulate the suit but the couch itself was an entirely different story and from under him it slowly raised and tumbled forward, allowing the human to get his weight on his feet while steadying himself from toppling backwards thanks to the elbow on the back of the couch. Once he was upright and had let his arm leave its support Twilight set the couch back down and came to his side quickly, "Are you alright?! Can I get you anything for the pain?"

"I can't take any more meds for a bit, but I don't suppose you have anything stiffer than coffee?" Titus joked but it whooshed right over the anxious Twilight's head.

"Yes, actually I do," she said and lead a human (who certainly wasn't about to stop her) to the kitchen once again where Twilight threw open the refrigerator, "The cider and wine is mine, I’m a bit of a light weight..." She then opened the door above that to reveal a freezer which had quite a variety of bottles stacked to one side, "The rest is either Pinkie Pie's or Rainbow Dash's but they've both left it all here so long just go ahead and take whatever will help. Oh, it looks like Applejack left a mason jar of Apple Family Lunar Shine, too." The stock of hard alcohol was rather impressive but Twilight's worried glances at his side were enough that he felt compelled to relieve them by telling her he had been joking to lighten the mood, but just as well he was very quick in asking if they could bring some bottles of cider with them for later in the afternoon.

Slipping the pair of cold bottles into her saddlebags with a refrigeration spell, when Twilight turned back to Titus to ask if he was ready to go or needed anything else he indicated they could head to the hill. He also asked if they could get an early start on the coffee, and while Twilight floated the thermos and cups about he carefully jerked his head toward the direction of the living room, "I didn't thank you for the help, so thank you. That was some quick problem solving you did back there with the couch."

"Oh, you're welcome but really, it's the least I can do," she replied as they both exited out the kitchen door and she passed him his big mug, "After I caused you to get hurt when I made your ship crash I want to do whatever I can to try and make up for it... or both, more accurately."

Titus looked pensive for a moment then slowly shook his head, "Mordedo socas. I appreciate that, though."

"W-What?" Twilight had never heard words like that before and her head tilted to one side curiously, "Sorry, I don't understand that first part."

"Uh... it's a common Spacer saying that doesn't translate well, now that I think about it," he replied and around a sip of coffee he mentally stumbled through finding the right words for a moment, "Literally it translates to 'shit happens' which is a means of saying 'expect bad stuff to happen' and also implies 'when it does, accept it and move forward.' With some time I'll heal, with time I'll get the ship fixed, and with time I'll figure out where I am. That's all there is to it, those are the three things I need to focus on and there's no reason to dwell on what's happened."

The hopeful words almost came out of her mouth but Twilight kept them in check by biting her lip. Should I ask? He didn't outwardly say it, so should I just assume he means it? She nearly jumped when his voice brought her back to their walking when he asked what was on her mind. With the opportunity offered Twilight lowered her head out of habit, "S-So... does that mean you're not mad?" Even with his alien features it was clear her words caused him some confusion which remained even as he slowly shook his head.

"Hmm? No, I'm not mad; like I said, 'shit happens.'"

"No, I mean..." It was suddenly hard to find her voice and explain what the underlying question was but her need for an answer outweighed her fear. After a short pause, again which left him waiting, she looked up to meet his gaze, "What I actually meant was... are you mad at me?"

In the middle of the street he came to an abrupt halt which Twilight wasn't ready for and had to whirl around at which point he sighed. "No, Miss Sparkle, I'm not mad at you. I'm not mad at anyone. I realize the whole portal thing was an accident, you didn't mean for it to happen, so it doesn't feel right me being mad at you."

"But I'd understand if you were, even slightly!" Twilight protested and stepped closer, "It was an accident but that doesn't change the fact it was my spell that deposited you here. It was my spell that damaged your ship! It was my spell that lead you to get hu-"

Titus shrugged. "I don't hold it against you, you acknowledge it was your mistake but it also wasn't your intention. Don't get me wrong, it absolutely sucks, but at the end of the day the energy of me directing any anger toward you about it could be better put to use solving the problem."

"But-"

He held a finger up which brought her argument to a standstill. "I mean it, Miss Sparkle..." The pause to sigh inadvertently tied a knot in Twilight's stomach that she had irritated him but when the upheld hand was dropped back to his side he suddenly just looked to her wearily, "There's enough anger out there in the galaxy as it is; there's enough hate, there's enough greed, there's enough..." Titus trailed off and then he shook his head, clearly stopping himself from going on a tangent, "The point is I have a choice - and even if that individual choice is so minor as to not have any impact in the grand scheme of things - I don't want to be angry, so..."

Stiffly he started descending to a squatting position although he only got awkwardly half way on his own before Twilight stepped closer and put her shoulder under his arm as support after seeing him struggle. "Thank you. So, quite simply, I'm not angry at you, Miss Sparkle," he stated with a shrug and took a casual sip of coffee.

Twilight watched him for a moment before her head sank past her shoulders, "I... don't know what to say. Definitely a 'thank you' for you being so understanding, that's for sure, but being it was my mistake I still feel like I should do something to make amends."

He seemed to contemplate that for a moment then nodded and a hand was held out, "Alright. In that case I could use some help."

"Y-You want my help fixing your ship?!" she asked excitedly and absentmindedly placed a hoof on top of his hand in a complete misunderstanding of the gesture. The chance to actually have such a direct role in working with his technology was one she hadn't even dreamed would have been made available, especially to her of all ponies given her role in things, so understandably her mind was immediately swamped with ideas of what she would want to learn about first. “I-I can't begin to explain how much I'd love to!” Her face-splitting grin remained for a second longer until she noticed the confusion on his face and it slowly began to fade.

Titus hadn't meant that but he could feel the growing disappointment in her and gently lifted the hand that was under a hoof to indicate it, “Like the couch I find I'm stuck so, um… I was actually asking for your help in standing up-”

“Oh….” Twilight hastily moved to serve as a brace for him and though she tried to not look disheartened her ears and head drooped. This was short-lived when, as he was pushing himself up, he paused and said “however” with a lopsided grin which left her in anticipation the whole while he struggled the rest of the way with a grimace.

Finally standing from the poorly-considered squat Titus nodded, “However, are you indicating you're offering to help, Miss Sparkle?” The question was rhetorical and he knew it, of course, but nevertheless the gasp and immediate smile that lit her face was contagious.

“Of course! Like I said I'd love to help however I can,” she replied and her excitement was barely contained in a prancing of her hooves as Titus turned and said they'd better get started and began walking for the bridge.

“In that case, in exchange for your help, while we work I'll answer whatever questions you might have,” he said when she had finished her exuberant little dance outside of his sightlines and caught up to him, “What I'm hoping to get done today, just for your information, is to find a few specific parts for a project I'm working on. I have a list of images on my wristpad here for reference.” With a swipe of a gloved finger over the screen the hollow light image Twilight had screen before played through several renderings of objects which she eagerly observed. Suddenly he had flipped two clasps on the inside of his wrist and which popped the screen from being set flush with his suit. The screen was then held out to her, much to her surprise, and in a state of shock she didn’t immediately take it and instead stammered a question of what he wanted her to do with it.

“Well I know what I’m looking for, I figured you could cinch this to your hoof and use the images for reference,” he said, demonstrating the flexible bands on the back. When she voiced she was worried about how fragile it was and that she wouldn’t want to break it he tapped it harshly on the stone bridge railing and, rather than stop there, dropped it in the slow-moving water. "Trust me, these get abused in the line of work. Maybe a scratch, but you'll see it's totally f-" suddenly he looked blankly down at it and turned to her with a sheepish grin, “Kark, I forgot I’d have to bend to pick that up. W-Would you mind?”

Twilight couldn’t hide a giggle at his oversight then easily fished it out with a hoof, “You know, I could get you a little extendo-grabber for situations like this.”

“Huh?”

“Oh, it’s something earth ponies use. They can’t fly or use magic, so they engineered a claw tool to get stuff that’s out of their reach,” Twilight explained, examining the wrist device as it drained water and she quickly found it was entirely functional with no signs of damage, “Wow, with how delicate all of your technology looks it keeps proving to be surprisingly durable.”

“It has to be, out there-” he pointed a finger skyward which Twilight correctly took to mean space “-there's enough to worry about without worrying whether your gear or ship will be able to survive, because if it doesn't that usually means you don't survive for too long, either.”

“I see, so it's built rugged out of necessity. What sorts of things do you worry about?” she asked. The wristpad had two loops on the underside which was obvious enough how it would attach but upon threading her hoof through the cold metal straps cinched snug on their own which initially startled her. She quickly got over this and, while she finally was able to view the screen, the numerous symbols and apparent buttons were almost too tempting to push. The device was also almost as long as her forehoof, but despite the large size Twilight could hardly feel the weight.

“Jeez, I don't know where to begin,” unbeknownst to him his words snapped Twilight from her observations of the wristpad to listen intently, “Ship maintenance is a full time job in and of itself simply because of the amount of abuse they take and they're all that's between you and the vacuum of space. You don't want something to break and be unable to fix it or find a way to bypass because being stranded up there it's possible nobody comes along to save you so you live out the remainder of your days drifting through the emptiness, but in such a situation you're likely better off getting obliterated by space debris than you are running out of supplies and starving to death.”

That was a rather dark thought and Twilight could understand the fear of that happening, “Oh dear, does that happen a lot?”

“Hard to say exactly. When a ship goes missing there's so many places it could be that searches are often fruitless, especially if the vessel doesn't get a distress signal broadcasting for whatever reason,” he replied as they crested the hill. Titus was happy to see the items he had dug up the previous day had been left alone which might have something to do with the two town guard relaxing near the organized stack, but a gathering of ponies nearby still looked on with interest. Space was immediately cleared upon his approach and whispered conversations commenced but aside from responding to a few timid hellos Titus ignored them and continued with Twilight, “On the other end of the spectrum, if you're stranded sometimes you don't want to broadcast a distress signal and attract the wrong vessel. Pirates are a common problem the further you go from the core planets and they'll gladly dock with your ship, strip it of anything of value, and then either have ‘fun’ with you, toss you out an airlock and take your ship for themselves, or just plain toss you out the airlock, maybe pop you in an escape pod and shoot it at the nearest sun, or throw you in their ship's brig and sell you off as a slave later.”

“W-What?!” Twilight was flabbergasted and also a little shocked by how nonchalant he was saying all of these horrific things, “How can they do that?!” Suddenly a scary thought struck her and she looked to him meekly, “D-Did you ever do any of that?”

“Some do it because they can, others do it because they’ve had such a hard go of it they don't think there are other options. The galaxy at large isn't an overly friendly or forgiving place, unfortunately.” Titus could see the anxiousness in Twilight's face as she waited for the answer to her other question so he told her the truth - or as much of it as he was comfortable doing. “You'll be relieved to know that no, I did not and would not do that to anyone. I did, however, steal that ship-”

Twilight's gasp was sharp enough that it interrupted him as she stammered a shocked why.

“It's a prototype that I, with the help of my friend and mentor, took from someone who was going to sell them with the full knowledge they would be used for evil, and although it would later come at the cost of her life, my friend and I used it to stay ahead of them and keep its power out of their hands,” he tried and hoped that she would understand the reasoning behind his actions. To his surprise she took that far beyond better than he had thought.

“It is a relief, and I'm beginning to understand why Princess Luna has been going so far to support you. I am sorry to hear about your friend...” she replied reverently but because it was a wholly unfamiliar subject - that of losing somepony in such a situation - Twilight wasn't sure what else to say and after a moment of searching his solemn face for several quiet moments she thought it best to leave it for another time. “If it’s to keep something powerful out of the wrong hooves, the girls and I have had to do that, too, to protect Ponyville. The wrong pony gets hold of the wrong enchanted necklace and all of a sudden you’re up to your eyeballs in trouble,” she said then looked to him with a commiserating shake of her head. He nodded his thanks but changed the subject back to that of ships which Twilight was content to let the other go out of respect and accepted his segue and followed him over to the pile of salvage they had both recovered the day prior, “I suppose my first question would be how much of a factor are they in your society? Does everypony fly around in a huge vessel like yours?”

Titus’ brief laugh caught her off guard but he quickly shook his head and stated he hadn’t meant anything rude, “Being that it’s the first you’ve seen I can understand you think it’s large, but it’s actually not as it only has a recommended crew of four, although I can manage well enough just by myself. There certainly are smaller craft - little civilian runabouts, single-pilot military fighters, that sort of thing - but there are also ships vastly larger than mine. A few that come to mind could house your whole town within their cargo holds several times over, and that’s spaceships, we’re not even factoring in space stations.” This, naturally, spawned a whole new slew of questions about what the purpose of such massive vessels was and Titus was left to explain how ships had pivotal role because government borders sometimes spanned whole solar systems so fleets of different size ships to both protect or ferry goods and personnel across such large expanses of space.

“You said you were in space when you entered the portal. Given the size and weight of your ship and what I know of how physics plays in functional aerodynamics I have theorized most vessels are built in a zero gravity environment, such as at the space stations you told me about,” Twilight started while following Titus over to one of the spots they had marked out the previous day where a piece of metal almost as tall as he was was jutting out of the ground. She served as a brace once again as he gingerly lowered himself to the ground and together they started carefully digging with a pair of trowels, “The ‘wings’ I saw on your craft don’t possess the structural characteristics or design necessary for flight. You also briefly made mention of different types of engines, will these compensate for the wing deficits and produce the necessary lift to return your ship to orbit? I theorize that the amount of energy required - even with a converging cone like the one I saw on one of your engines - to create thrust and therefor lift would be immense.”

“You’re not wrong, zero gravity is widely the preferred environment for ship construction because of the size of some of the components but it comes with its own set of complications. Smaller vessels are a toss-up, there’s not the issue of large components and then there’s the cost factor of being cheaper to build planetside - even something the size of mine might be build on planet, just for perspective. As for engines, we've long since moved passed needing to rely on prim- um, less advanced methods,” he started conservatively but Twilight quickly jumped in that she knew of the technological gap between them and wouldn't take offense. Nodding in understanding he continued, “There are likely a few civilizations that started on old rocket propulsion as the foundation for their forays into space, and for some applications rockets are still used. That said, most civilizations that I'm familiar with, or those that have reached the point of galactic-level space trade, have quickly incorporated ion engines for sublight thrust because they offer more power in a smaller footprint. As for my ship’s design, the lift doesn’t rely on the wings and is accomplished by way of repulsor lifts which generate an anti-gravity field and aerodynamics are achieved with the same shielding that saved my ship from a lot of the damage of the crash. The shielding envelopes the ship and streamlines what would otherwise be harsh edges or structural faces that would have to push through the atmosphere during flight while also handling the subsequent heat from air friction at high speeds.”

All this talk of anti-gravity fields and shielding was all a lot to process, especially given how excited she was to be given open access to such a font of knowledge, and Twilight was struggling not to be pulled in an infinite number of directions of questioning, “I see… I think. I still find it hard to believe something that large is at all graceful-”

“Hey!” he cut her off with a stern look that almost alarmed her had it not been for the hint of a lopsided grin, “Don’t badmouth the girl while she’s down, that’s not fair. Give me time to get her back on her feet and I will dance with her across the sky, she’s a lot quicker than you think.”

“Well I look forward to not only seeing the extent of its capabilities, but learning about whatever inner workings you can show me. Equestria stands to learn a great deal from your technology before you go back to your friends and family,” Twilight stated warmly only to watch his face sink and when she rushed to apologize for saying something upsetting he shook his head and said not to worry but didn’t go further. Applejack’s words rang in her ears and she didn’t want to drop it so, pausing in her digging, she turned to face him and very tentatively spoke, “Um… I don’t mean to push, but Applejack was talking to me and told me on the night you woke up in the library she got the impression you had a sadness about you, one which I just saw it for myself. Do you have... somepony to go back to? A friend? Family?” Titus’ eyes searched hers and then she watched his wide frame slump and he turned away to dig a different spot, his gaze fixed firmly on his task.

Twilight nearly exploded into an apology that she had kept at a sore topic but his voice came softly just before she did, “No. The friend I lost was the last, and she was the closest I had to family. I’ve told you what the galaxy was like; there was no one else to trust, no one else to turn to after that so I’ve been alone since then.” A moment of heavy silence passed as Titus focused on carefully extricating the broken module when he felt a gentle touch to his knee.

“Y-You don’t have to be... I could be a friend,” Twilight said tentatively as he turned to look her in the eyes for far longer than he ever had before, then looked down to the hoof on his knee. She was about to move it, fearing he didn’t approve of the physical contact, when a gloved hand came to rest on top of it and an equally uncertain look gauging her response was turned her way and when she didn’t pull away he smiled meekly.

“I’d like that, Miss Sparkle.”

The unicorn’s anxiety vanished and she beamed at his answer, “Well then, my friends call me Twilight.”

Today they had been in the middle of an excited conversation of the engine she had (nearly) walked inside and, instead of taking Applejack up on her offer of a ride in the cart part way back to his ship, much to Twilight's delight Titus had wanted to stay and finish it. Realizing the cafe was always crowded this time of evening and wanting a place they wouldn't be mobbed by other patrons an idea came to Twilight. After explaining this to Titus who agreed with her reasoning, taking the long way around town she lead him into the small building of the local Peetzer Pizzeria chain which was empty per usual because everypony in town generally just ordered delivery so the eating area was entirely free. It was then that she discovered Titus had no concept of pizza, but to her relief he voiced the shop had a very pleasant smell so after explaining that pizza was thin dough slathered with tomato sauce and covered in cheese to start she the went through all of the topping options they could add from there. They came to a decision together and there was no argument like there would be with all the differing opinions her friends had when they wanted to order, namely between Dash and Applejack whether pineapples or regular apples (respectively) were an acceptable topping and why the other pony's opinion was abhorrently wrong.

Once decided, they ended up waiting for several minutes for somepony to help them until eventually Twilight felt forced to go behind the counter looking for a worker to find that, cowering behind the prep area, was a school-age mare that had to be coaxed out just to run the register. After she had brought their extra large three cheese and stuffed crust pizza out to their booth - staying as far away from the gigantic biped as she could - she bolted into the back room where she would occasionally peek out at them. Titus tried to give her a friendly smile but his attention was quickly taken by Twilight who started their conversation back up where they had left off and soon they had both gotten engaged and paid the filly no mind.

After the conversation lead to a much more in-depth explanation things finally made sense and Twilight lit up. "Ooooh, and that manifold is to not cause a backflow of current at low speeds by way of the vacuum physics you explained! I see now! Great, ok, moving on to the next topic of curiosity in a long list... does this look right?" she asked, sliding a sheet of paper in front of Titus that she had spent a good deal of time on the previous afternoon condensing and organizing her countless notes from these last few days.

He took a bite of the slice of cheesy pizza and quickly wiped his hands off before picking it up to move to optimal reading range - Twilight was making an effort to not shove things in his face as she had been because she had come to learn that, despite their small size, the human's eyesight was incredibly sharp after he had demonstrated it by pointing out minute details on the items they were salvaging that she otherwise would have missed. She watched him as one hand propped up his chin and his brow creased, and sitting right next to him she could watch his eyes darting over the words and diagrams she had drawn to convey her understanding, “A lot of what you see are assumed variables and me working off of hypotheses, so if anything needs clarification let me know.”

As he shook his head in such a manner that Twilight knew he was working through something and had to focus the hand left his chin and deftly folded the slice of pizza at the crust to facilitate taking another bite using only one hand without ever stopping in his reading of the veritable block of neat writing in front of him. Several more moments of quiet contemplation passed and Twilight was mid-bite into a slice of her own pizza when he suddenly put the page down on the table and tapped finger on some of her equations, "I don't remember talking about output on my engines. How did you come by these numbers?"

He had to wait a moment as Twilight fought the stringy cheese that stretched to an impossible length from her slice before she simply sliced it with her magic and put it on her plate. "I calculated the amount of force necessary to achieve flight by weighing a piece of the hull and several different components I found the morning you first came out to the hill, then extrapolated an average of those with a ratio that fifty percent of the interior of your ship is empty livable space plus five to ten percent margin of error for things like personal belongings. Atmospheric resistance was not accounted for because I didn't have enough of an image of your ship to go on to accurately assess its aerodynamics," she explained around her mouthful of pizza before her head tilted to one side and an ear rotated backward out of anxiousness while the other remained forward hopefully, “Other than that, are they very far off?”

“I understand where the confusion is coming from because you wouldn't readily recognize them. First: no, the engines are certainly capable of numbers such as these, but it's not my engines that will let my ship fly in your skies,” he said and asked to borrow her quill to scratch out a new line in the empty margin, “Well, not by themselves, at any rate. We have a technology called a repulsorlift engine, or simply 'repulsor' to save yourself the mouthful, which levitate an object via a generated anti-gravity field.”

“W-What's gravity?” she asked jokingly and when he looked surprised she laughed, “Ha! I’m just kidding! Jeez, we're not that unenlightened… but are you serious, you have a machine that counters gravity? You're not pulling my leg, are you?” Twilight was wide-eyed with wonder and excitement at the prospect - or more accurately another - that a concept that was thought only to exist in the realm of science fiction would be shown to not only be achievable but that such a feat had already been done.

“No, I'm not. In fact you saw one being implemented a few days ago,” Titus said and reached for the breast of his suit and a moment later he placed the drone in front of her, “Remember this? It has a tiny repulsor that lets it fly, do you see it?” He slowly began to grin in amusement as he watched Twilight stretch herself in her seat to look at the drone from as many angles as she could, meanwhile he knew from prior experiences her muzzle had scrunched up in determination to keep her hooves to herself as she hadn't been given permission to handle it yet. Eventually he nodded at it encouragingly, “Well? Go ahead and pick it up if you want to! It won't bite… still, I'd watch out for the teeth.”

“T-Teeth?” She paused in reaching for the drone and looked to him with worry to find him wearing a mischievous grin and she immediately realized what had happened, “I suppose I had that coming, didn't I?” To her utmost surprise he actually laughed - and it definitely was closer to a laugh than the few chuckles she had heard from him previously - which made her feel oddly happy that he was having fun. As she felt her own smile widen he replied maybe she had it coming before he motioned again she was free to pick it up.

“This protrusion here is the one you're talking about, correct?” she asked, turning it over and pointing to the small glassy orb under the drone which got a nod before she asked about what kind of hazards they posed and quickly found out they were clean operating and had an incredibly long lifetime if properly cared for. The drone itself was scarcely larger than the diameter of her hoof so naturally Twilight felt compelled to be gentle and very carefully she wrapped it in her magic to see if it caused the dissonance other items of technology had exhibited but to her relief her spell held stable. She studied everything she could and was preoccupied with her observations until she realized he had pressed something on the wrist device when six tiny pincer arms (Thank goodness it wasn't eight or it would have looked like a spider, and a flying on at that! she thought horrifyingly) folded out from where they had blended in with the hard case although two seemed broken by the odd way they hung. Twilight saw his finger shift from where it had paused in pressing before it made another rapid series of taps and swipes on the screen too fast for her to follow but her attention quickly shifted to the drone as it silently flipped itself right side up to hover over the table.

“This is… amazing. No magic, no balloon, and no atmospheric turbulence,” she said in awe as she waved a hoof under the drone to feel for some sort out output to attribute to the floating disc before she turned to Titus, “How does it work, the repulsorlift engine?”

“Aha… I only know the basics and how to do maintenance to keep mine running, you'd have to talk to a repulsor specialist for intimate details like that,” he said which was a little disappointing to Twilight because a working knowledge of such a device would be like the discovery of Star Swirl's lost scrolls, which after a period of study following their discovery had lead to several advancements into the practical application of thaumalogical theory which was how Equestria had advanced to where it was today. Titus’ technology would potentially be magnitudes more impactful because, unlike Star Swirl's scrolls, it could be studied and practiced by the entire population rather than just unicorns. Before she could get too let down, however, he did say that the engine contained a core of a “subnuclear knot of space-time” which was an entirely mind-blowing series of words to use in conjunction with each other with an impossible number of opportunities to be excited about.

“- and by dividing the load across the ship you not only can increase the lift to reach speeds capable of taking a ship from the planet surface to orbit in a minute or so, but as well as that precisely calibrated micro-changes to each of the repulsor engine outputs enables additional maneuverability with the aerodynamics concerns you mentioned pretty much negated or otherwise limited by the shielding enveloping the entire ship, which was the second misunderstanding that lead to you to factor in calculating the necessary thrust to overcome that,” Titus finished an explanation that had lasted long enough that the pizza had since been wholly consumed, sodas having been ordered and refilled several times over. A fresh brownie dessert course had been ordered as well and was down to the last two pieces, but neither full human nor stuffed pony felt like reaching for the tasty treat and instead Titus flipped back through the pages they had collaborated on together to tap a finger on the original paper she had shown him, “So because of the repulsors providing lift and the shielding cutting down on air friction, although they're typically not used in atmosphere, if they were the ion engines don’t actually need to be engaged to the levels you were theorizing to achieve flight.”

“Ah, I see. When you came through the portal your ship spewed fire, which is why we initially thought it was a dragon of some sort. Now that I better understand fundamentals of how your ship flies why didn't the repulsors keep you from crashing?” she asked tentatively but he seemed happy to answer because he launched into explaining that the “fire” had been his thrusters trying to slow him down and how repulsors weren't without their drawbacks - namely that they took a second to warm up and because he had been traveling in deep space there were no gravity wells in range so they had been shut off.

“I came out of the portal so close to the ground and was moving too fast that they didn't complete the auto power cycle before I rolled and my engine housing made contact with the hill,” he finished and she asked if they had turned on if the whole thing might have been avoided. Titus nodded, “If they had had time to come on, even with the issue I had with my engine, I would have been able to stabilize and land.”

He saw Twilight frown and he knew she was kicking herself with guilt, even if she had since stopped apologizing for causing the crash, “Or I might have just flown off to sit in orbit to make repairs because I didn't know if your kind were friendly... or if you'd start throwing rocks at me, in which case we never would have met and been friends.”

His humor was appreciated and she smiled for lightening the mood. “Well, bumps and bruises and wrecked ship aside, I'm glad you're here and I get to talk to you rather than watch you through my telescope up there-” Twilight replied and looked out the window to indicate orbit but instead she saw just how dark the sky had gotten since they had arrived. “Oh jeez! H-How long have we been here?” she exclaimed, half because Spike had likely closed the library by himself and half because her human friend still had a journey to make. Or did he?

“Somewhere close to several hours,” Titus said casually with a glance at the clock on his wristpad that confirmed this, although it had been just a bit more than that. He then turned and gingerly began getting out of his seat, “I'm sorry, I didn't mean to keep you if you had someplace to be-”

“No no no, you weren't keeping me at all, I was enjoying myself! I'm just worried about you walking back in the dark,” Twilight began.

“I-I-I’d like to go home, please… w-we closed a while ago.”

The quiet voice came from the back room where the young pizzamare peeked around the door at them and it was then that both Twilight and Titus realized the floor was immaculately mopped and the rest of the booths had their chairs stacked upside down on the tables. Both erupted simultaneously into apologies, Titus sliding the remaining brownie into the pizza box and getting the drone while Twilight scooped her notes into a big pile and shoved then unceremoniously in her saddlebag before leaving a very generous tip for the filly's inconvenience. The pizzamare followed them to the door and seemed to be relieved when she got to lock it behind them before disappearing out of sight again, leaving Twilight and Titus outside to adjust to the sudden change of situation.

“Well…”

Titus trailed off and then Twilight smiled sheepishly in response, “Well…”

“I was-” both of them started to say at the same time before there was a moment of each saying the other could speak first before Twilight eventually accepted his conceding the floor to her, “I was having fun, there's just so much to learn from you that I seem to have gotten wrapped up and lost track of time. It's gotten pretty dark so can I walk you to your ship?” Twilight didn't actually think he would take her up on the offer, Titus having proven to have a penchant for displaying self-sufficiency over the course of working the salvage site, but she asked anyway. On one hoof she knew it was the ladylike thing to do to offer an escort home after dark, but more importantly it also meant they would have that much more time to talk, and even then if he didn't take her offer there was a much more appealing opportunity she was waiting to make.

“I wouldn't want you to needlessly walk that far on my account, Twilight,” Titus said with a shake of his head. He could sense she had an ulterior motive but behind it was the same excited curiosity he would feel when they would talk about his technology so he didn't feel slighted by the ploy and he thanked her for the offer all the same.

Twilight noted the odd grin her friend wore but wrote it off as he had expected the offer and she proceeded all the same. “I think you know by now I can't say I'm comfortable with the idea of anypony walking through the Everfree, and especially at night but the most concerning is you'd be doing so alone and hurt like you are,” she said with a point to his ribs which got a chuckle before he said she didn't need to worry as he tapped a palm on the laser zapper (as she had termed it) on his hip. Although she couldn't know that it certainly wasn't the most potent weapon in his arsenal and she had been lead to think otherwise, the weapon was still left lacking in what she would consider necessary power for him to brave the Everfree. Beginning the walk back through town (a subtle and deliberate tactic) Twilight shook her head, “I can't help it. Given what you've told me of your universe it may well be you've become desensitized to it, but I haven't so I don't like seeing my friends put themselves in danger. Would you please consider taking my guest room, at least for tonight?”

“Tonight I have some work to do so, unfortunately, I can't,” Titus said; he wanted to get back to the ship and get a few more of the subsystems up and running, but additionally Dex would need a walk and was likely going stir-crazy without someone to keep him occupied with occasional roughhousing and attention. “But I don't want you worrying about me, so-” he quickly followed when the little unicorn looked anxiously at him, and he could feel she genuinely was worried, so when a thought came to him he immediately went with it and unclipped the helmet from the belt loop he had secured it to, “Here! How about you take this…” There had been no hesitation but a clear display of confusion when she took his helmet but with the hand free he unscrewed the drone as well, “And maybe this, too… and then I promise I'll be back to pick the helmet up in the morning.”

The carefree grin he gave her did little to explain what he had in mind so Twilight cast a glance at the two pieces of technology she now held, “Uh, I don't understand how giving your helmet with the filtration system and the drone with all its sensors to me before you go hiking through the Everfree is supposed to help me worry less about you.” She shook her head and held them back out to him, “You need these.”

“Why don't you see if you can't get your head in there,” he said with a point to his helmet only to be told she had already tried once but it had been a snug fit. Laughing at that revelation he turned the helmet so she could look inside and see the visor, “Alright, in that case take a look at the visor. I'm going to push a button on my wristpad here and… what do you see?”

Down in one corner where some triangle called Nav01 sat a second suddenly appeared titled Nav02 and then a third, Nav03. A line appeared between them and another number was displayed over that, and all of this was voiced by Twilight. “So… what am I looking at?” she asked.

“Remember when I let the guard pass my helmet around and you were worried someone would take it? That's the tracker I mentioned, the new markers indicate the suit and helmet locations, and the first marker there is the ship,” he explained. He was glad Dex had been left behind to watch she ship because she would have discovered that the second navigation marker was usually linked to the dog’s collar, and revealing his canine companion was something he was still working up to with Twilight and her friends because of how openly understanding they had been and to be followed by the town shortly after. Titus told her to stay where she was and moved further up the street until she said excitedly that she saw the triangle was moving away from her at which point she watched the visor while she trotted to catch up to confirm for herself that her observation was correct. “Now you’ll be able to see me make it to my ship tonight,” he said before pressing a finger on the neck of his suit, “And we can even use voice comms.”

“But you'll be at greater risk without your gear-”

“Maybe, but I made a promise to be here to pick those back up,” Titus replied with a nod of his head to the helmet she carried and drone that had been placed gently in a saddlebag, “And I keep my promises, Twilight.”

*bleep bloop*

An unexpected alert echoed from Titus’ wristpad which he had left on the workbench when he had climbed up to the storage area that lay under what was now the ceiling of the cargo hold. Extracting himself, a Force-assisted drop saw him to the temporary floor where he made his way to the workbench just as a second alert popped up. Upon examination it appeared Twilight might be examining one of the two items she had been entrusted with because the wristpad was displaying the link had been reactivated.

A quick swipe of a finger turned the remote camera in the helmet on.

“< -and… oh wow. How did they create components this small and maintain durability? I wonder if they used a shrinking spell… or something to that effect. I would really like to get further details on manufacturing processes for large scale and small scale technologies, maybe I'll find a way to ask him tomorrow. >” She was sitting at a desk with the helmet beside her as she was hunched over the drone with a magnifying glass as quill jotted notes to one side and a familiar broken camera recorded over her shoulder, a lab coat hung on the back of the seat. On the other side of her opposite the helmet a snoring Spike dozed in a heap of parchment, which Titus could deduce from what he knew to mean the little dragon assistant had been hard at work transcribing Twilight's observations for her before he had zonked out. She then sat up and Titus witnessed her stretch with a small squeak of contentment before she turned to Spike, “< Jeez, there I go losing track of time again. Spike? Aw, poor guy… >” Twilight smiled at him and carefully levitated the sleeping dragon and disappeared from the camera's vision although the sound of hooves on stairs could be heard in the distance.

Titus suddenly felt a familiar nose poke at the hand hanging at his side and he was quickly distracted with tossing a ball around the cargo hold for his four-legged copilot. After Dex has burned his excess energy and found his blanket to curl up in Titus returned to work, slowly lowering the jumble of crates and containers out of the subdeck storage to unearth the speeder bike that had been buried in loose cargo in the crash. When the modified B.A.R.C. speeder and separate side car had been floated gently onto the mechanic's stands Titus climbed back down and headed for the shower to prepare for bed. A short time later he wandered back, a small snack grabbed from the lounge half in his mouth as he pulled a shirt on, when he noticed the screen of the wristpad was blinking again.

It had been just over two hours since he had checked last so it was easily past midnight and Titus found it odd the alerts were still coming in. Striding over he again swiped a finger over the screen and activated the helmet camera.

Twilight had fallen asleep at her desk, still seated but her upper half laying where she had previously been examining the drone which sat in front of her muzzle and from the new position of the camera it appeared in falling asleep her hooves had reached out around the helmet. Her barrel rose and fell rhythmically and behind her eyelids her eyes moved, indicating she was deeply asleep, her hooves and her folded-back ears twitching erratically in response to whatever dream she was having. That's sort of cute. Titus smiled at the familiar behavior, glancing briefly over to his similarly slumbering doggo, but when he came back to the screen he saw a shiver run through Twilight and she pulled her hooves closer to herself.

No reason you have to be cold, my little friend.

A flick of a finger shrunk the video feed to one side of the screen as the other half was used to bring up the drone controls and camera whereupon Titus carefully activated it and flew it slowly off the table. Initially intending to use the labcoat on the back of her seat, when he floated the drone around to grab it he spotted a small couch against the far wall with a blanket tossed over a few of the cushions. With the past few days granting him a better understanding of how inquisitive and curious his unicorn friend was the sight lead him to sigh and shake his head while a small smile crossed his face at how perfectly unsurprising it was. Flying over to the couch the little drone zipped under a corner and engaged one of its functional pincers before floating the blanket up, the edge of the blanket held atop and just behind the camera lens almost like a big cape so Titus could see as he flew it across the room. Letting the back of the chair take the weight of the blanket he carefully continued forward with the drone and when he had reach what he thought was the right point he turned the drone around to fly backward and pull the blanket so he would know when to stop. As he lowered the fleecy blanket down to Twilight's shoulders her eyes opened slowly and blinked as her still lethargic brain sorted out what was happening.

“< Is that you? >” her voice came through the wristpad with the usual comm distortion.

Without a microphone readily available to him and with the droid not equipped with speakers Titus switched back over to the helmet settings. His fingers typing quickly, Titus made a few adjustments and a second later Twilight's attention had switched to the helmet when she remembered the camera function he had demonstrated earlier. She smiled appreciatively and asked if he could hear her before the drone projected Titus’ short message onto her desk.

[ Yes. You looked cold. Sorry for waking you. ]

To Titus’ surprise the half asleep unicorn pulled the helmet close and brushed her muzzle against the visor. “< Thanks, that was nice of you. >” Twilight then sat up and stretched, although at one point a hoof went to her lower back with a twinge of pain on her face which she eventually recovered from and pulled the blanket tighter around herself. “< The lab is kept pretty chilly and yet I still find myself falling asleep down here more than I should, which usually means I wake up with a stuffy nose and stiff back. What are you doing up this late? >”

[ Wrapping up some projects. Just got out of the shower and was headed to my bunk. ]

“< Ah, that's where I should head. To bed, I mean, not your bunk! >” she laughed.

[ Ha, well at any rate I doubt mine is as comfortable as yours. Plus it's more of a hammock than a bunk at the moment, the problem being that they're all bolted to the ceiling… ]

“< Oh, d-do you need a mattress? >” Twilight asked and moved the helmet onto a tray and pointed to a space for the drone to join it. Titus then learned the purpose of this was so that she could levitate the tray and carry both items of tech with her held in her magic. “< I know I'm being a broken record but the guest room is available to you. You could even take that mattress to your ship if you want, although as you know it's a little short for you. >”

[ It's a strange new feeling having someone be concerned about me. Thanks for the offer. ] Titus sent the message then carefully climbed into his hammock.

Twilight, meanwhile, was climbing the stairs up to her room. “< You're welcome, but of course I'm going to be concerned. We're friends, right? >” she asked and her smile widened when a glowing [ Yes ] floated in the air answered her. Stepping into the room she set the tray down on her nightstand and moved over to the closet, talking softly over a shoulder to avoid waking the dragon in his basket, “< I’m glad to hear that- >” Suddenly she turned back to face him (or the camera, anyway) and pulled a magenta long-sleeved shirt over her head, “< -and I'm not the only one, aside from Applejack because you have regular contact, the girls - that's her, Rainbow, Pinkie, Fluttershy, and Rarity - all have been asking me what you're like because of how much time we spend tog… where the hay is this neck hole?! >”

Finally getting her head out of the shirt she discovered the drone had rotated to face the wall and when she asked what he was doing the words [ Giving you privacy while you changed ] appeared which confused her. “< Oh, that's not necessary. I turned around so you wouldn't have to, >” she said lightly with a casual shrug, thinking it would be clear enough that she had turned her rear the other way for the few seconds where she would have to slip the pajama pants under her tail before feeding it through the elastic hole which had the potential to be a bit revealing for mare and stallion alike so it was common practice to face somepony when putting on pants. The drone turned back to face her just as she wiggled her flanks into the fleecy confines but Twilight's mind was already spooling its turbo with the reveal of new information, although she had already decided it could wait for morning. “< These are just PJ's if you didn't know. Some ponies put these on before bed, they're mostly for comfort rather than fashion or to accentuating physical features… not that I have much to accentuate. >” An eye darted back to her flanks as she climbed under her covers which didn't go unnoticed but Titus decided not to comment and focused instead on writing a response on his wrispad.

[ Despite what I've been leading you to assume because of not seeing otherwise, I don't wear the suit all the time. When I'm aboard the ship I usually change into something more comfortable, such as shorts or pants and a shirt, like the ones you're wearing. ] Seeing Twilight climb into bed but knowing she would jump at the chance for further insight into him to the point of being up all night he likewise stretched out and directed the conversation to a close before she could finish snuggling up to what was a rather long pillow and start her interrogation. [ Well, I don't have a big comfy-looking pillow like that but even I can tell you're settling in so I'll let you get some sleep. Goodnight, Twilight. ]

“< Oh, >” Twilight blushed slightly but thankfully not enough to show through her fur. Even though she realized he probably didn't know the body pillow helped unherded ponies have something pony-like to hold to get to sleep it was still a little embarrassing for her to have a friend see that, especially when it wasn't one of the girls who would understand as a few of them had something similar, “< Y-Yeah, this thing is pretty comfy! But don't feel like you need to go, you're all the way out there in the Everfree by yourself so I'm happy to keep you company… >”

[ I could see that leading to both of us being up all night, as enjoyable as it might be. ] Titus didn't understand the brief flush to Twilight's face or her ears folding back to mean she was disappointed to not talk further so he sent another message. [ Tell you what, why don't you contact me with the drone again when you wake up? ]

“< Except I don't know how I did that to begin with, >” she said with a giggle and a teasing look from under her bangs.

[ I'll contact you, in that case. When would you like me to turn the drone on? ]

Twilight looked apprehensive then stared at the camera in thought for several moments until glowing words asked what was on her mind. “< I didn't realize you intended to shut it off. I-Is there any way you could leave the drone on? >” she said softly and though they were one and the same she shifted her attention to the hovering device with its little arms, “< It's comforting seeing this little thing floating here, it makes me feel like I don't have to worry that you're alone out there in that forest without anypony to help you if you got in trouble. >” There was a long pause as the drone seemingly stared at her blankly that unsettled Twilight. I didn't put him off, did I? I-I just want him to know I'm here for him… Her worry translated to her ears folding back again, not that she realized or meant for them to.

[ Having a friend to talk to is the farthest I've been from feeling alone in a long while. And trouble? Is saying “trouble is my middle name” too cliche? ]

Twilight couldn't help but laugh and roll her eyes, “< Yes, yes it is. And I sincerely hope that's not the case or I'll have to keep a close eye on you starting tomorrow. >”

[ Ha! I can think of worse dates. ] There was a delay that left Twilight confusedly reading over the message again before another came in. [ Sorry, the typing system has an automatic interpretation algorithm that sometimes gets the output wrong. “I can think of worse fates” is what was intended. So, see you tomorrow? ]

“< Hmm, an algorithm? Likely story… >” Twilight hummed teasingly with a giggle, “< And of course you'll see me tomorrow! Or… later today, more accurately. >”

[ I'll see you, then. Good night, Twilight. ]

“< You, too. Sleep well. >” Twilight reached past the drone and hoofed the table lamp off, dropping the lighting in her room to only that of the moonlight that reflected and danced mesmerizingly off the helmet visor. Not surprisingly, it would not be a night she slept much; Titus, however, had the foresight of turning down the notification sound of alerts before settling into his hammock.