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// I - Normalcy 
// Story: Lampshade Tales 
// by Khenlos 
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Steven was just your average adult from a western culture with a job that was enough for him and his family to live with a degree of comfort, backed up by his less than stellar intellect and his dedication to his family. What was not average was the portal that he found while walking his dog at the outskirts of his town. Steven knew right there that it would be the catalyst to the strangest day of his life.

It was the most curious thing, and looked pretty stable given the circumstances. Steven looked at his wristwatch and saw that he had more than enough time to check it out. ‘If it didn’t torn me to pieces with its strange energies at this point then it ain’t going to do it’ he thought. Luckily, the portal agreed with his assessment.

It was the most unremarkable transition in the history of space travel, like walking through a transparent curtain. The place was… strangely familiar to Steven, it being some kind of temperate woods with many plants known to him. Even the animals looked the same, so he though that this was some kind of experiment on teleportation or something like that, so he continued to walk his dog. After all, what was the worst that could happen?

The tranquility was not to last, and soon Steven heard some rustling behind him. As he turned he was surprised as a big feline jumped towards him.

“You are an adventurous thing, aren’t you? And a bit overfed if I say so myself...” Steven said out loud while picking up the fat calico cat that jumped out of the bushes. “Your owner must be near, you look too pampered to be a stray cat.” Steven muttered. The cat didn’t argue with him and just got itself comfortable on Steven’s arm.

They all walked for a bit, and after a while they found a quaint little town. As they approached, Steven found out that the settlement was inhabited by small quadruped equines somewhat reminiscent of ponies. They were extremely varied on coat color though, and had bigger heads and eyes than their Earth analogues. A good part of them were wary and surprised of him except one, a male by the looks of it, that approached Steven with a smile on his face and talked rapidly in a strange language while pointing at the cat. Steven smiled and gave him what was probably it’s pet, and just stood there as the pony smooched the poor thing.

The atmosphere around Steven got warmer and soon every pony just approached with curiosity. The cat owner, who Steven decided to call Little Green due to his coat color, encouraged him towards some kind of coffee shop. Steven went with it, feeling confused but at least not afraid of these cute creatures. His dog didn’t seem distrustful of them either, but that can be him just being well trained.

The afternoon flew by for Steven. He enjoyed a very strange conversation via crude pictures on paper with Little Green while having a mean cup of coffee and some local pastries who were pretty okay to him. It was mildly entertaining for an afternoon with other ponies coming to take a look at the strange creature that just appeared in town, so all in all it was time spent in peace. Some police ponies came by and took some notes, shook Steven’s hand for some reason and just went on with their thing. Steven though that it was normal for them to see other species since he stole a glance at some flying ponies during his stay.

After some more hoof shaking and even a press pony who took a photo of him shaking the hoof of some well dressed lady, Steven just waved them goodbye and went back to the portal. There were some ponies with horns in them checking it and he waved to them as well as he crossed it, receiving some waving back in response. They were pretty polite when they work out their first wariness, or at least that what the impression they left in Steven.

Little did Steven know that it was the start of something incredible for both worlds, with the contact with another species on another planet and all the works. The exchange of culture and technology that would follow would be forever remembered in the history books and the benefits from it too many to count, elevating the lives of the inhabitants of both worlds to heights not even imagined before by any creature of any of them. A bright future forged in friendship and magic!

For Steven though it meant poker with Green Tea and friends at noon, enjoying coffee at Petunia’s Coffee Shop in Trottingham. It meant having the guys on weekends for the game night and Pasta Sunday with them, remembering to put daisies on Green’s salad because it was his favorite. It meant play dates between Cloudskipper’s foal and Steven’s daughter so they could play with one another, even if they had to be careful with the videogames since no one wanted another broken controller.

Overall it all was just another notch in Steven’s simple but fulfilling routine. He wasn’t trained to be an ambassador since he could barely manage to make his taxes on time and he was pretty sure he wasn’t a hero… Well, maybe for his little princess but many dads are that for their daughters as well, but Steven sure enjoyed to read the adventures of those wacky mares at Ponyville since it was so far from his reality that, even when it was happening a few hundreds of kilometers from Trottingham, it was pretty much a fantasy story for Steven. Even with that, Steven was happy to be just a simple man, happily married and father of one, soon to be two, and with some good friends to spend his time with.

Maybe he had some interviews from both humans and ponies from time to time since he was technically the first human on another planet, but so far they were pretty respectful and he and his family were just left to their own devices. Steven liked it that way since he never liked to draw attention to himself or his family. So far this was just another interesting experience to spice his average life, and he was fine with it.

After all, who would want to be the center of attention of a whole world of magical creatures?