*knock*
*knock*
The knocking resounded through the room, dully echoing into the head of the human that lay on the bed, blankly staring at the ceiling.
Geez… who wants something from me at this hour, Steve wondered as he slowly shifted around in the bed trying to stand up. His muscled rebelled at the sudden movement after the long rest, sending small bolts of pain through his body.
It was still early in the morning, sunrise was only half an hour ago, but Steve was awake for a long while now. After the unpleasant conversation with Celestia last night he was unable to sleep for a longer time, each time he fell asleep he shot up form bed shortly after, his heart and mind racing and he needed time to calm himself down again.
He had finally given up, choosing to stare at the white ceiling above him until at some point he shifted his head to the side, watching the sunrise, something he hadn’t done for a long time.
Watching the play of light helped calm his mind but he was too awake by then to fall asleep again, so he resumed staring back at the ceiling, thinking, until the knocking has started.
“Come on in,” he shouted annoy at the door
The door opened and a stallion with a golden helmet struck his head through.
“Pardon me if I woke you up, Sir, but you have a visitor,” he said quickly.
“Who is it?” Steve asked, his mood tempered by curiosity about who would visit him this early
“Miss Twilight Sparkle,” the guard reported.
“Let her in,” Steve ordered, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach as he slowly stood up to greet her properly.
The guard nodded and opened the door completely, letting Twilight stepping inside, before he closed it again.
“Good morning Twilight,” he greeted her, trying to put on a smile, although he knew it was probably looking strained.
“What brings you here so early?” he asked, although he already knew the answer.
I swear if Celestia sent her first to check on my reaction this time…
“What happened last night?” she rushed at him, skipping a greeting and disrupting his thoughts. “Oh and hello to you too,” she added hastily, smiling sheepishly in embarrassment at her brief oversight in etiquette.
“Didn’t Celestia told you?” he asked confusedly, unable to imagine that Celestia would have kept this from her protégée.
“No she did not,” she replied, sounding almost as confused about it as he felt. “We were in the library last night when Princess Luna stumbled in, crying. We were finally able to calm her down and bring her to her chambers. We could not understand much between her sobbing, but as soon as your name fell Princess Celestia left to find you. When she returned she only told me you would need some time for yourself but did not told me what has happened, before sending me away,” she told him, the hurt at being spurned by her mentor leaking into her voice. “I suppose she wanted to be alone with her sister. I have never seen any of the princesses acting like that,” she finished, sadly shaking her head.
The room went quiet for a few moments, before Twilight repeated her question.
“So what did happen between you and Luna?” she inquired, her eyes focusing on him. “She was devastated after visiting you,” she added, an accusatory tone entering her voice.
“Do you have any idea princesses did to me?” Steve snapped at her angrily, feeling his suppressed emotions rising again, filling him with frustration and his voice with an unusual sharpness, causing Twilight to wince at this harsh tone. She stepped backwards, her ears flattening as she looked at him with a shocked expression before her gaze turned towards the ground. More barbed words were on the verge of his lips but were lost immediately at the sight of the trembling pony standing in front of him.
What the hell am I doing?” he thought immediately after the cutting words had left his mouth. It isn’t Twilight’s fault I’m in this mess.
Quietly he moved from where he had stood rooted, walking over to where Twilight stood, who also hadn’t moved after she stepped back. He slowly crouched down in front of her and laid a hand on her head, causing her to her to look up at him again, her tearful eyes increasing the guilt that had been boiling within his stomach after his outburst, leaving him feeling queasy with shame.
“I’m sorry,” he said, almost too quietly for Twilight to hear him. “I didn’t want to shout at you. I… It’s just… I just can’t wrap my head about never going back… home.”
“Wh-What do you mean?” Twilight asked shakily, still trembling at the harsh words he had thrown at her, but her curiosity overwhelmed the hurt she felt when he had snapped at her.
He moved himself in a more comfortable position and sat down, looking deep into Twilights violet eyes, filled with both confusion and worry before he sighed and recapped what had occurred between him and Celestia last night.
“… and that’s why I will have to stay here forever, whether I want to or not,” he finished his explanation hollowly. He couldn’t keep his eyes on her for the whole time. Looking into her tearful eyes only managed to raise his own sadness, so he kept his eyes peeled on the ceiling.
After his explanation he didn’t raised his view from the floor, so he didn’t noticed her scooting over towards him until he felt a pair of hooves wrapping around his torso and Twilights head pressed on his chest.
“Oh my, I… I am so sorry, I had no idea,” Twilight pressed out, her voice muffled. He couldn’t see her face now but felt a little wetness of tears through his suit.
“You don’t have to be, it’s not your fault,” he comforted her, wrapping his arms around her. With one hand he gently stroked through her mane, feeling her silky hair flowing through his fingers. He continued doing this for a few more minutes, enjoying the warmth of her body and the feeling of her soft coat under his hands.
Soon he felt her tears subside, which brought a faint smile to his face.
Twilight slowly broke the contact again, now with a smile and light blush on her face as she took a step backwards.
“Thank you,” he said quietly.
“For what?” she asked gently.
“For being there for me,” he replied, returning her smile. “It means a lot to me.”
“No problem,” she returned and blushed lightly again.
“So what about Luna?” she inquired after a few moments of silence
Steve waited for a few seconds, thinking about how to put his words, before answering, “When I woke up last night I needed some fresh air to clear my mind, so I went out on the balcony. Luna saw me and came over. Let’s just say I was not in the mood to see her,” he said grimly, a bitter undertone in his voice.
“I’ve had so little time to try and make sense of all that has happened to me and all this,” he pointed his hands around the room. “She was one of the last ponies I wanted to see at that moment. Maybe it’s normal here that she comes into one’s dream, for me it’s not!”
He put a lot of emphasis on the last part before continuing, guilt a replacing the anger in his voice, “I just wanted some time alone… I was so angry that I lashed out at her, resulting in things being said that hit her hard.”
He paused for a moment before continuing soberly, “After I noticed that she was… crying, it was too late for me to say anything else… she just flew away.”
“And what did you want to tell her?” Twilight inquired. Her voice was calm but he could still here a pinch of anger out of it.
“I don’t know, to be honest. On one hand I’ve been feeling bad for what I said… and yet anytime I think about her I still feel angry,” he replied, torn about the conflicting feeling raging within him.
Twilight remained silent, a thoughtful look on her face. Steve stayed silent as well, thinking about what to do next.
Their quiet contemplation was interrupted by a booming voice.
“Morning guys!” the voice called, causing both of them to look over to the balcony, the source of the sound, to see Rainbow Dash stepping inside.
“Err… You don’t mind if I come in, do you?” she asked awkwardly, raising an eyebrow at the scene before her, mainly how close together Twilight and Steve were to each other. On the floor. At her words and slight insinuation in them, Twilight blushed and moved a few steps away from Steve.
“Uh, no, of course not,” Steve replied, a little irritated to see her.
“Good morning, Rainbow. What are you doing here so early? And why didn’t you use the door?” he asked rather pointedly.
“Duh. I came in through a door, don’t you see,” she replied with a grin, either not catching or ignoring his tone of voice, pointing back to the door leading to the balcony, causing Steve to reluctantly chuckle. “Plus, I always get up at sunrise for my first flying session of the day,” she explained.
“Really?” Twilight asked, her voice filled with doubt and skepticism as she raised a brow. “I always see you sleeping until noon.”
“That’s just a quick nap after lunch, or before lunch, or after breakfast,” she replied and giggled. “Anyways, as a pegasus, and with me being on the weather team and all that, you tend to always wake up at sunrise. I thought you would know that, Twi. Didn’t your books told you that?” she teased her.
“I think I missed that part,” Twilight replied dryly. “And how come you are here now?”
“Just finished my morning exercise and saw you guys in here, so I dropped by,” Rainbow answered and stretched her wings a bit.
“Good to see you’re awake again. Feeling better again?” she added and shot Steve a smile while walking over to him.
So Twilight didn’t told anyone about what happened, he thought and looked over to Twilight and gave her a questioning look, to which she shook her head.
“Huh? What’s going on?” Rainbow asked confusedly as she noticed the silent communication between the two. “Something I should know about?”
“Well… it’s a bit complicated. What happened last night is…”
And so he explained to her the situation he found himself in and what had occurred between him and the princesses. This time, now telling the story for the second time, he was able to look his listener in the eyes while talking, seeing Rainbow’s emotion changing from surprise to worry to shock.
“… And that’s just what happened since I woke up again. Then Twilight got in here a few minutes before you and I told her the same,” he finished his story, letting his words sink into Rainbow, wisely leaving out the part where he had snapped at Twilight, not wanting to risk agitating the fiercely loyal pegasus.
“Wow dude. That sounds though. I’m so sorry,” Rainbow said after a few moments, hesitantly patting his back. “Would you like me to get the others here too? I think Pinkie could cheer you up in ten seconds flat,” Rainbow proposed, almost halfway to the door.
“No, it’s fine,” he said quickly in order to stop her. “Besides you and maybe some of the guards standing outside the door I don’t think anybody, or anypony, knows what happened between me and the princesses. Your friends will find it out sooner or later, but right now I wouldn’t like too many ponies to know that I yelled at your leaders and made one of them cry,” he explained, not having a good feeling that they would all react too well about this whole situation.
“Yeah, that was totally not cool!” Rainbow chided him, her sudden defence oh her princess catching him by surprise.
Just the reaction I was afraid of, he thought at her words.
“I didn’t plan to! How should I know that she is so sensitive? I thought after living for 2000 years she would know how to handle criticism,” he said warily
“Yeah, but that doesn’t give you the right to insult her,” she persisted, glaring at him.
“I know… it’s just that… I mean…” he stammered. “I… I just don’t know what to do. I had my life in order, always a plan ready on what to do next, but now? I’ve never planned that I would be trapped on another planet, not to mention another universe. What am I supposed to do here? This should have never happened, I shouldn’t be here. I want to go home,” he told them with a pleading look on his face while tears shot into his eyes.
Rainbow and Twilight exchanged worried looks while Steve wrapped his arms around his knees, pulling his legs close to his chests and resting his head on his knees while staring to the side.
"There, there,” Rainbow said, walked up to him and awkwardly wrapped her hooves around him, pulling him in for a hug. Her soft and warm fur caressed his face while he gently rested his head on her shoulder. He was no longer able to suppress his feelings and began to quietly sob, the anger, the fear, the frustration, the guilt and finally his tears pouring out while Rainbow gently pat his back with one of her hooves.
He enjoyed the comfort for a while longer before silently pulling back.
“Sorry, it has been a rough day,” he said while wiping the remaining tears out his eyes and looked back at Rainbow, feeling ashamed at crying in front of the mare.
“It’s alright, I shouldn’t have pushed you so much,” Rainbow replied and put a hoof on his shoulder while giving him a reassuring smile, a brief hint of remorse shining through. Behind Steve’s back, Twilight couldn’t help but snicker to herself, despite how somber the mood was, knowing how hesitant the pegasus was with acting all sappy, but stopped as she saw the glare Rainbow Dash was giving her.
“Thanks,” he replied, looking back into her bright magenta eyes. “It really helped a lot thinking about it, though there is still much I have to think about.”
“Do you need some time alone?” Rainbow offered and took a few steps back, giving him some space.
“No, some company would be nice right now. Any you are the two ponies I know the best here,” he replied quickly, a small, yet genuinely happy smile creeping on his face for the first time day, realizing that despite the way he had acted before, he did enjoy their company and was feeling a lot better with it.
Twilight coughed slightly, gaining their attention before saying, “I promise you, we will do everything we can to help you getting through this and are trying to reverse the spell, Steve. I was staying up all night studying it.”
Upon closer inspection, Steve saw the bags forming under her eyes, making him feel uncomfortable at the fact she has spent all her time on trying to help him. “You don’t have to push yourself for me like that, Twilight,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously.
“I am doing it because I want to,” Twilight responded, lightly stomping her hoof on the ground for emphasis.
“Plus there’s no stopping her once she gets into on her egghead projects,” Rainbow smirked at Twilight.
“So… did you find out anything that could help sending me back home?” he asked, looking over to her with a small glance of hope in his eyes.
“Unfortunately not yet, I am sorry. The spell is complex using a combination of magic I have never seen before. I was unable to find out why it worked the way it did,” she told him sadly, causing him to sigh and avert his gaze to the floor.
Noticing how her words had crestfallen him, she quickly added, “But will get back to it right now. I will find a way!”
He turned his gaze up again, looking her in the eyes again before replying, “I hope so, I really do… but I have to stay realistic here. I’m certain that you are one of the most powerful and intelligent unicorns there are, but if even you have no idea what exactly happened my chances are dim, not to mention that you have to find a single planet in the whole universe. Finding a needle in a haystack is an easy task compared to this.”
A long sigh later he slowly stood up from the ground again, looking at the two ponies in front of him and said, “Enough negativity for now. I don’t want to spend my entire time here thinking about how I`ll probably never get home again.”
He took a deep breath and stand up straight, looking over at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "I don’t know about you, but I think I could eat something now. All this thinking got me hungry and I haven’t exactly eaten much over the last few days,” he proposed, his seemingly enthusiastic tone surprising the ponies.
“Sounds great, I’m in!” Rainbow happily agreed. “Flying takes a lot of energy.”
“Well, I could need a bite or two as well, count me in,” Twilight said, her words supported by the sound of a growling stomach, causing Steve and Rainbow Dash to turn to her in amusement. “Late night studying always gets me hungry,” she giggled with a light blush.
“Do you need anything else from here?” she asked Steve, who shook his head. “Okay, then follow me, I can show you the way to the dining hall,” she continued and made her way towards the door again.
“I believe the others should already be there. They were slowly getting ready when I went flying and I told them not to wait for me,” Rainbow added and followed Twilight.
Steve trailed behind both ponies out the door, looking down the corridor his room was located in for the first time. He could not recognize any major differences to the ones he walked through yesterday; maybe there was a bit more decoration with pots of colorful flowers and various pictures on the wall. And of course how could he miss the two guards standing outside the door, who were glaring at him slightly, not doubt a consequence of his altercation with the Princess of the Night.
He had no time for further speculation as Twilight had already begun to move forwards, leading him and Rainbow through a various number of corridors and stairways.
“Hey Twilight, what is this?” he asked and pointed towards a significantly larger picture, compared to the rest which were garnishing the walls, showing three ponies, a regal unicorn in a purple dress on the left, an earth pony with a weird brown hat and plain, also brown, dress on the right and an armored pegasus in the middle, who had her wings wrapped around the other two.
“Which one?” she asked and stopped, looking at the picture he was pointing at. “Oh, this one has a very nice story behind it. It is about the founding of Equestria. Do you want to hear it?” she asked, an excited glance in her eyes.
“Sure,” he replied honestly. Although he wasn’t keen on remaining on this planet longer than he had to, his interest and curiosity in the local culture still held up. Also a history lesson would help to keep his mind distracted.
“Great,” Twilight cheered and clapped her hooves. “It all began over 2600 years ago. Times were grim back then. Instead of being lightened by friendship the hearts of the ponies were darkened by mistrust. The ponies were divided into three tribes…”
And so she told him the whole story about the tribe leaders` desperate search for a new country in order to feed their people, resulting in more than they could have hoped for, to when they merged the single tribes into one nation.
“And so each year this story is played in every town across all of Equestria,” she finished her explanation.
“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, who had listened to Twilights lecture with interest as well. “We even got to play it here in Canterlot once. It was so awesome. Of course, yours truly was the best Commander Hurricane ever,” Rainbow exclaimed, proudly puffing her chest.
“Sure, Rainbow” Twilight replied and rolled her eyes with a patronizing smile on her face, accustomed to the pegasus’ boastful nature.
“Indeed, it’s a very interesting story,” Steve said after a while, trying to digest all the information that Twilight had dispensed, even though some parts of her story he found rather improbably to imagine.
“If you liked this one there a plenty more,” Twilight quickly interrupted before he had gotten the chance of saying anything more, the same spark of excitement in her eyes as before.
“Right over here we have another interesting story,” she said and walked over to another picture on the wall. “This one is about the…,” she began but cut off by her once again rumbling stomach, a red tinge of embarrassment once again appearing on her muzzle.
“Let’s continue this after breakfast, okay? We should have plenty of time for a history lesson then,” Steve proposed, taking his eyes away from the picture and back to Twilight.
“Yes, good idea,” Twilight agreed with a giggle.
“Yeah, I’m starving,” Rainbow complained loudly.
“So, would you show me around town today? I’d like to learn more about ponies,” he asked Twilight, who by now had once again taken the lead, guiding them on the shortest way to the dining hall.
“Sure, I could do that, but…,” she said but stopped for a moment.
“What is it?” he inquired.
“Well, I planned on continuing my study about the spell. I cannot get you home if I do not keep working on it,” she continued, torn between her duties and the inner joy she would have in giving lectures to someone who was willing to listen for once.
“I don’t mind that. One day more or less doesn’t count much if this one day is well spent,” he replied honestly. “From what I saw so far your world is a pretty amazing place, I’m sure there is much to learn about it while I’m here.”
“Great,” she replied with an excited grin.
Finally they arrived at their location, a large wooden door with a golden doorframe, two guards standing in front of it. As they approached the door the guard on the left, a light grey unicorn stallion, opened the door with his magic, letting it shine in a pale green shimmer as his magical aura surrounded the door handles.
Steve watched in quiet wonder as the door silently swung open, allowing them to enter but they immediately stopped as they saw who was just leaving through the same door.