Alone, not Lonely

     Chapter 1

It was a hot summer night in Ponyville, and Luna’s moon was perfectly visible in the sky. A dark, cloaked figure roamed the quiescent streets, making almost no sound at all, while most ponies were lying in their beds, not suspecting a visitor had arrived, and even though they were a friendly town, the silent and stealthy traveler was somewhat different from everypony else.

Twilight Sparkle was rushing to her library, not minding the loud noise she was making. She should be in bed, but had fallen asleep while reading in a grassy hill. The comfortable, moist grass had made her sluggish and, with the help of the soft musicality of her poems, the purple unicorn’s eyelids closed a couple of hours earlier.

As she trotted she saw a cloaked equine in a bench, and for a brief moment she wondered why the hay Zecora was sleeping in a bench. As she drew closed it came to her that it wasn’t Zecora, but a pony, not much older than herself. Twilight stopped and watched as the unknown stallion breathed heavily, wondering what should be done in such a situation.

In the past months she had learned much about friendship, but she was unaware of how to approach ponies who hadn’t been introduced to her. This was the main reason why she knew a lot about her friends, but very little about the other few residents of ponyville. However, she decided that this good deed would not depend on her familiarity with the individual in question. In fact, she decided, this would be a good opportunity to increase her very limited number of friends, not that she was dissatisfied with her current situation; far from it.

“Hello… is everything alright?”

The cloaked pony opened his eyes slowly and stretched his muscles as he rose. From an energetic hop, the stallion landed in front of Twilight - so close that the sudden invasion of her personal bubble made her feel extremely awkward. She could now see that he had a grey coat and dark blue eyes, which matched the cloudless night above them. The grey stallion stepped back, increasing their distance to a degree deemed appropriate.

Both said nothing for a couple of seconds, so much that Twilight felt obliged to speak and break the tension.

“Hi…. I’m Twilight Sparkle and you were sleeping, and since I haven’t seen you before I… suppose I wanted to ask you why, I mean, who are you? And why were you sleeping on that bench?” She added the last question clumsily. Not that the first part made much sense, the mare realized as a cheesy smile formed in her face.

He showed no emotion, but answered politely in spite of just being awoken by a random and, apparently, not very eloquent unicorn.

“Good evening, Miss Sparkle. Pleased to meet you. My name is Ash Cloud and I arrived a few hours ago. I fell asleep in this bench because… Well because I was sleepy and I couldn’t find a hotel or room for rent.” It was his turn to feel embarrassed, having been caught asleep in a public bench.

“If you want you can spend the night with me” She blushed now harder than ever, after realizing how her words could be interpreted. Twilight hurried to rephrase her previous statement, as she avoided the piercing blue eyes. This, while noticing a mocking smirk in him, not much of an improvement to the emotionless face he had displayed since the moment they had met.

“I mean, you can spend the night at my house, I have an extra bed and…” She stopped, simply because she couldn’t think of any more reasons and just added “You would be most welcome, I wouldn’t mind at all.”

Ash Cloud closed his eyes for a moment and exhaled deeply.”I will gladly accept your invitation, Miss Sparkle. I might add that few would pity a complete stranger and invite them into their homes, and for that I am most grateful. Lead the way, if you will.”

Twilight suddenly felt uneasy, just realizing she was welcoming a potentially dangerous pony into her house, but his formal speech helped her relax a little.

The library wasn’t far and after a couple of minutes of semi-awkward silence they entered the large room filled with books, some in respective shelves, others wide open in the a nearby table and even a few in the floor. Ash was mildly surprised to see an owl picking up the fallen books, while a purple baby dragon snored audibly. Ash removed his black cloak, revealing neatly tucked wings along with his cutie mark - a pair of square black rimmed glasses. By the time he had placed his cloak in the hanger near the door, a pair of glasses identical to his cutie mark crashed against the floor. Twilight just looked at Ash as the stallion picked up his glasses and put them on, making him look slightly more intelligent and a lot more serious.

“The room is upstairs, feel free to use the bed. I still have a couple of things to do before I go to bed.”She smiled, trying to make her guest feel welcome.

“While I appreciate your generosity, Miss Sparkle, I fear I am nocturnal, and feel more energetic during the night. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t since the stores are open only when I sleep. But since I’ve started traveling my sleep has become regrettably irregular. So I would rather not go to bed yet. Don’t mind me, I promise not to disturb your work.” The Pegasus felt he had explained his situation clearly and gazed at the books, finally choosing one and picking it up, reading the back cover.

Twilight was surprised and at the same time intrigued. This Pegasus was like nopony she had met before. Firstly, he had fallen asleep in a bench, when he could have chosen a far more comfortable cloud. Additionally, he wore a black cloak in a hot summer night. He spoke like a perfect gentlecolt, except when he had shown embarrassment. But what disturbed her most was his apparent lack of emotions, not speaking unless he was spoken to, impervious to the long deafening silences most ponies considered unbearable. She decided not to bother him anymore, and with a yawn realizes how sleepy she was, deciding to postpone her chores until morning.

“Actually I think I’m going to bed now. You can get something from the kitchen if you feel hungry. Good night”.

“Good night Miss Sparkle.” The way he spoke made her feel like he didn’t really care, it was just an automatic response. He was looking at the pages of a book he had just open, deeply focused in its content.

“Please, just call me Twilight. Being called Miss Sparkle feels kinda weird.” She admitted, hoping this would make her guest more at ease.

“Good night. Twilight.” As the pony said her name he looked at her, a small smile appearing in his face. “I promise not to disturb your sleep.”

The unicorn worried slightly that the pegasus would have less than noble intentions, but since she had no reason to not trust him, she fell in a deep slumber in a matter of minutes.