//------------------------------//
// Chapter 9 - Appeasement 
// Story: Contact 
// by Gron 
//------------------------------//

The arena which they were headed to was on the mountain side, a bit outside of the city, so their way was rather long this time, giving Steve once again the chance to admire the city.

After what felt to him like only a couple of minutes they left the town and wandered over a field towards a small arena on the side of the mountain. A tribune was located at the hillside; what amazed Steve was that the ground of the arena itself was made entirely out of clouds. 

“Let me handle this,” Rainbow said to her friends and walked over to two guards, standing at the entrance to the tribune.

“Halt,” one of them, a brown unicorn with a silver mane, yelled as they got near enough. “This is not a public training. Only Wonderbolts permitted after this point.”

“Hey, don’t you know me? I’m Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt trainee, winner of the Best Young Flier competition and someone who happens to know the Wonderbolts personally. Let me in,” she demanded.

“Only official Wonderbolt members allowed. Clear this area or…” the guard began but stopped as his gaze fell on the rest of the ponies.

“Twilight!” he greeted with a smile.

“Oh, uh, hello… Iron Shield?” Twilight said carefully.

“Great, you still remember me. Didn’t knew you were back in Canterlot. Are they with you?” he asked looking around the rest of the group.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Okay, you can go in. They should start in a few minutes now. You know the way, right?” he said and let them pass.

“Yes, thank you very much,” she replied, shooting him a smile as she stepped through the entrance, the rest of the group following her.

“Hey, how come he let you in but not me?” Rainbow demanded form Twilight, flying in front of her.

“He and my brother were good friends in the academy,” she shrugged. 

“And just by that you get in here? Argh, whatever…,” Rainbow grumbled, flying out of Twilight’s way sulkily, so they could move on.

Her grumpy mood lightened instantly as they entered the arena on of the upper stands. After a few minutes of looking around, they took row of seats from where they had the best view on the small piece of ground, which was still empty.

“I know it’s just a training and not a real show but this is still gonna be so awesome!” Rainbow squealed in happiness, shifting around on her seat to get the best view.

Never thought that she could get so excited over something. Looks absolutely adorable to be honest. Let’s see if this is really going to be so great, Steve thought while watching the excited Rainbow Dash next to him.

They didn’t have to wait very long, as soon a group of five pegasi flew in from over the city, leaving a trail of thunderclouds behind them. Each of them wore a skin-tight blue suit, covering their whole bodies except wings, tails and manes, even their eyes were covered by googles. On their flanks where their cutie mark would be was a yellow lightning bolt. 

The pegasus flying at the top of the group spotted them and quickly flew over to them with a few mighty flaps from her golden wings, letting her orange and ember colored main and tail flowing wildly as she landed in front of them.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Rainbow Dash,” the mare greeted Rainbow. “Came here to watch us training?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Rainbow instantly replied, putting on a serious face expression while stiffening up.

“You can drop the title, we’re not at the Academy,” the other mare said with a smirk.

“Yes, Ma’am, er… Spitfire, I mean,” Rainbow corrected herself. “And yes, we came to watch the training, since we are in town.”

“We have some neat stuff planed today, including the finale for the real show. I hope we can pull it off this time,” Spitfire told her.

“I’m sure my friends and I are going to love it!” Rainbow cheered.

“Speaking of which… who are you? Never saw someone… or something like you before,” Spitfire addressed Steve, examined him from top to bottom. 

“I’m a human, Steve’s the name,” he replied, feeling a bit uncomfortable at being scrutinized like that.

“Human, huh? Never heard that before,” she said, putting on a thoughtful expression. “Well, we appreciate fans of all kinds! Gotta go now, the others are already waiting. Hope you’ll enjoy it. Bye!” she replied and quickly shot off towards the rest of the team.

After Spitfire returned to the rest of the Wonderbolts they began with a few warm-ups. Rainbow used this time to give Steve a short summary about the life story of each and single one of them, starting with Spitfire as the captain. Steve tried to keep as much as information in his head as possible but the fast pace Rainbow was talking in wasn’t it making it easy to follow her. His only reprieve came when the activity below them began to pick up.

As the Wonderbolts finished their warm-up, they lifted up into the air, causing Rainbow to interrupt her lecture about Fleetfoot, a rather small, white-maned mare. They started by flying a few slow rounds clockwise around the small elliptical cloud patch, that served as ground of the arena. Each of them flew next to each other, all with the exact same wing beat rate, something Steve noted that Fleetfoot was struggling to do a bit for the first half lap, due to her small wing size.

Unhappy with the sloppy start, Spitfire yelled some commands Steve couldn’t understand from the distance, causing them to repeat the manoeuver for a few more times from the start until they got it right.

After performing it flawless multiple times in a row, Spitfire shouted another command, making them continue the performance. Spitfire who flew in the middle, as well as Fleetfoot and Soarin, if he remembered correctly from Rainbows description, on the outer sides made a sharp turn around midair, now flying circles counterclockwise, still on the same height as the two remaining members who continued flying clockwise. When they passed each other the rolled ninety degree to one side so their wings wouldn’t collide.

Rainbow explained breathlessly to be called a knife-edge pass, but she never saw it with more than two fliers before. Starting of slow again, they rapidly increased speed this time, no longer maintaining a synchronized wing beat, but still all in the exact same high speed. 

A small glance over to Rainbow beside him showed him that she was having a hard time holding back her cheers to not disturb the training. Her eyes went wide in excitement as her idols shoot past each other in ever increasing swiftness.

For him the show was spectacular as well. He never was on a flight show on Earth, which he now regretted at the sight of the risky maneuvers, raising his adrenalin level simply by watching.

Not wanting to miss out on anything he turned his focus on the Wonderbolts again, who by now had finished this maneuver and were celebrating for pulling it off perfectly on the first try, but still repeated it a few times.

For the next repetitions he focused more on the individual flying style of each ponies, than the maneuver itself. Fleetfoot had to flap her wings way faster than the others to reach the same speed, making her look even faster than she already was, her wings blurring as they lashed against the wind furiously.

Soarin on the other hand, with his extremely large wingspan and overall large size compared to his teammates, flapped his wings in a much slower rate but with unmatched power, letting Steve see his well-developed muscles through his uniform, each time he flew by close to tribune. 

Despite their different flying style they worked together perfectly, making even the most daring stunts and tricks possible. The training continued with more synchronized flying manoeuvers, and it was thrilling to see their different styles merging together into one, that all could manage to pull off. 

“So what do you think so far?” Rainbow asked with a wide grin as the training was interrupted for a short break.  “Do you like it?”

“No, I didn’t like it,” he replied bluntly, causing Rainbows smile to drop.

“What?! Why? How can…” she began but stopped as she noticed him laughing.

“I love it!” he cheered between his laughs. 

“Ouch!” he yelped as Rainbow jabbed him in the side. “That hurts.”

“Then you shouldn’t have joked about it!” she replied, now also laughing.
“But I’m glad you like it. Have you seen how Spitfire angled her wings for the sharp turn and then she…”

And so Rainbow began recapitulate the entire show up to this point, with an enthusiasm he had never seen before.

Never thought that she out of all ponies could be such a fangirl. But damn… that really was amazing, no wonder she wanted to be here and especially since she could be one of them someday, he thought in a short break where Rainbow had to catch a breath.

Before she could continue her deluge of words the Wonderbolts had finished their break, lifting up in the sky again, instantly silencing Rainbow who was once again fascinatingly staring at her idols.

Now they began combining the single maneuvers they had trained before, starting off with the synchronized flying, followed by the knife-edge pass again.

Rainbow had explained him every move they made but it was too much information at once to now be able to identify each maneuver again, so he simply enjoyed watching the spins and turns performed in front of them.

Even though they performed the show without any repetitions this time it still took almost an hour before they got to their last move, one they now showed for the first time in this training.

They started flying in a close circle with rapidly increasing speed in an extremely close angle. Flying on the same position for a longer while caused the thunderclouds they left behind in their trails to combine to one large swirling cloud which began circling in increasing speed as well until it formed a small tornado. The thunderbolts shooting out of the tornado now and then didn’t make it any easier for them to maintain their speed and not letting the tornado fall apart to early but the result was breathtaking.

With one final command by Spitfire they slowed down the tornado until it fell off into a few loose thunderclouds.  They made a quick turnaround to gain some distance from it, just to fly directly into the clouds together, triggering the release of the entire energy stored in the clouds, causing a massive lightning bolt, signalizing their grand finale. 

Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence following the thunder, by cheering loudly, instantly followed by Steve and the other ponies. 

“So… what ya think?” an exhausted Spitfire asked, who flew over from the rest of the Wonderbolts, who looked equally beat lying on the clouds to recover. Spitfires soaking wet mane hung down her face, which was covered in countless droplets of sweat, her just as wet flight suit clinging to her body.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow was again the first to enthuse, quickly followed by the agreements of the others. “This was your best show I ever saw!”

“Thanks,” Spitfire replied with a smile. “But I think we overdid it today,” she added with a small glance towards the rest of her team. “Will ya be here for the real show next week?” she asked. “I could get you some good seats.”

“I’d love to but I think we’ll be leaving in a few days,” Rainbow replied regretfully.
“Okay, maybe next time, at least you know what you’ll be missing then. See ya,” she bid them goodbye with one final smirk before flying off to the rest of her team again, heading back to Canterlot with them.

The group decided to also head back towards Canterlot and left the, now unguarded arena, the descending sun showed them that they had spent the entire afternoon watching the training, time that seemed to be well spent for all of them as they loudly discussed the show on their way back to town.

Once in the town again, Twilight pulled the list out of her saddlebags again and asked around, “Any special whishes? Otherwise I’m gonna look up what’s nearest from here.”

“Actually, I think I had enough for today. Didn’t catch much sleep last night and it was a pretty long day already,” Steve said, yawning.

“Oh okay, then let’s head back to the castle. I could use some sleep as well,” Twilight agreed, mirroring his yawn loudly. Only now he remembered she was awake since they left Ponyville.

She looked pretty powerful for lacking so much sleep. Guess she really is used to it, as she told me.

Now in the evening the city was calmer again, the streets were almost empty as they made their way towards the palace. 5:45 was the time his watch showed him. Next rush hour must be ahead if they have the same working hours.

Thanks to the low traffic they got through the streets rather quickly this time, avoiding the evening rush, standing in front of the castle only a few minutes later, the guards already holding them the doors open.

“Who’s in for dinner? I’m starving!” Rainbow said, her words supported by an audible rumble of her stomach.

Steve and the rest of the ponies quickly agreed. With only a light lunch they all were pretty hungry as well, so Twilight once again took the part of guiding them to dining hall, which they found empty at this time.

“I will be right back,” Twilight told them and left through a small side door Steve hadn’t noticed before, only to be returning a minute later again.

“Okay, dinner is usually served a bit later, but the chef says he can make some of it a bit earlier for us,” she explained and sat down at the table.

“Great, what’s on the menu?” Steve asked as he took a seat next to her. 

“I did not ask, but it smelled very good so far,” she replied.

A few minutes later his question got answered as three unicorns stepped in from the kitchen, carrying seven trays in their magical grip, setting them down softly in front of the excited ponies and lifted the cover. Underneath was a delicious looking, sizable serving of potato gratin. The smell of the herbs blew into his face and he was able to determine garlic and thyme, but there had to be many more inside.

It tasted even better than it looked, with an explosion of different tastes combined in the creamy consistence, all of them playing perfectly together, making it simply the best meal he had in years, though it wasn’t much of a competition. It came just in the right temperature as well to be eaten right away without having to worry to burn ones mouth, something that came in useful as he saw in what speed the ponies devoured their meals, all seeming to enjoy it as well.

Quickly after he finished the last bite, the three unicorns came in again, taking away the tray, replacing them with new ones, this time with the desert. Although being pretty full already, he couldn’t resist the charm of the vanilla ice-cream, gulping it down in a few bites, causing him a brain freeze.

“Doesn’t this hurt?” Rainbow asked as she looked over from her own desert, seeing him struggling with the freeze.

“Yes, but it’s worth it,” he garbled from between his gritted teeth. “Ice-cream… my biggest weakness,” he mumble before taking another large bite, eliciting a hiss as the cold ice touched his tongue.

Rainbow giggle at his performance and returned to her ice-cream again, Rarity shaking her head in disapproval at his eating habits, while Pinkie Pie saw it as a challenge, beginning to swallow hers frantically.

“Absolutely amazing,” he exclaimed as the unicorns reappeared to take away their empty trays again.

“Mhmm,” Twilight agreed with a moan. “The chef is a master. It was always a pleasure when I practically lived in the castle during my studies and got to eat here every day.”

“I think I’ll be going to my room now and digest this delicious meal,” he said and stood up, which was not an easy task at this moment. “Thanks to all of you for this amazing day, I had a lot of fun and it was very interesting as well. Also thank you for being so nice and welcoming to me, it really helped me a lot.”

“Ah, yar welcome. Ya had been through enough already and we in Ponyville sure do know how to be nice to newcomers,” Applejack told him, tilting her hat at him.

“Absolutely,” Rarity agreed. “Also I could not have stood it if you would have missed seeing this delightful town.”

“It was nice for me too,” Fluttershy said in her usual calm and timid voice.

“I would never let something fun slip away! It’s a good thing you enjoyed it too!” Pinkie Pie cheered in a joyful tone. 

“Yeah, today was totally awesome,” Rainbow threw in, who was lying in her seat, her stomach inflated to the point where she was nearly immobile.

“Just one last thing for today… Twilight can you show me my room? I have no idea how to get around the castle,” he asked Twilight, causing the ponies to laugh.

“Sure thing,” Twilight agreed with a giggle. “It is kind of complicated for the first few times here. You would not believe how often I got lost when wandering back from the library at night.” 

After one final goodbye he and Twilight were on their way to his room.

“I’m glad you liked it today,” Twilight said.

“Oh yes, it was amazing. Thanks again,” he replied. 

“So…,” she began.

“So what?” he asked.

“What is your plan for the future then? You have seen a bit of the world you will have to live in, at least for a while. Does it look so bad?” she finished her sentence.

He spent a while thinking about it before answering, “No. It is a truly magical place here and with someone like you around I think this universe was the best I could have been pulled into.”

“Thank you,” she replied with a smile, taking his words as a compliment.
“And do you think that maybe you could forgive…” she began but he cut her off.

“Twilight, I know you didn’t like the way I talked with Celestia and are most likely mad at me for it, but please stop forcing this. I will change my mind… eventually, but not today and not anytime in the near future. Can you please just let it be this way? I know you want to solve conflicts but this is not something between you and me, it’s between me and her,” he told her in a determined tone, feeling something tear inside at having to speak with her like that.

“Alright,” Twilight agreed after a while. 

“Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

The rest of the way the spend in silence until they arrived at his door, still with two guards standing in front of, already holding it open for him.

“Good evening, Sir,” one of them greeted him stiffly.

“Good evening,” Steve replied, unsurprised at the attitude of the otherwise unemotional guards.

“Well then Twilight, see you tomorrow. Thanks again for the nice day,” he turned towards the unicorn and got down on his knees to be on the same eye level for once.

“You are welcome. See you tomorrow,” she replied and looked unsure at him for a while but gave him a hug in the end.

“I had a nice day as well,” she whispered in his ear before breaking contact again.
“See you tomorrow. Have a pleasant night,” she added before turning around and left the way the just came from. 

He looked after her for a few more seconds before stepping inside his room, the door closing behind him. 

The room got tidied up while he was gone, which mostly consisted of his bed being made. Deciding that it was too early to go sleeping right away, he grabbed a comfortable looking wooden chair with a red cushion and pulled it out on the balcony, placing it so he got a nice view over the city when he sat down on it.

The sun was still up, emitting a soft orange that washed over the city, which were reflecting form every building, bathing the entire city in a beautiful orange shine. It felt like watching a piece of art and not a scene from real life, so wonderful it was.

Things here are truly magical…

Steve continued watching the sunset, following the last orange glares slowly disappearing behind the horizon and the moon as it climbed higher up in the sky. 

Unlike yesterday the night sky was bright again and bathed the city in a silvery light. Although not looking as astonishing as the sunset it still was impressive to look at and so he did for almost an hour.

“Hello, Luna,” he said through the silence of the night.

“How did thee know we were here?” the voice of the Alicorn appeared from behind him.

“The city is so silent I could easily hear your wing beat. It was too slow and powerful to come from a pegasus and I doubt that your sister would come visiting me anytime soon,” he explained wryly, stood up and turned around to see the Princess of the Night standing on the balcony.

“Thee have an astonishing sense of hearing,” Luna complimented.

“Thanks, it came naturally after two years in the silence of space I guess,” he replied.

“Thee said thee wanted to talk?” she spoke up again after a moment of silence.

“They are beautiful, aren’t they?” he said instead of answering her question, looking up into the sky again.

“What does thee mean?” she asked, a bit of irritation leaking into her voice.

“The stars,” he calmly replied. “Back on Earth I could never spent much time watching them. The lights of the city were too bright to be able to see a lot of stars. The few times I really got to see the night sky from Earth were amazing. Space is a fascinating and beautiful thing. Getting the chance to travel there was overwhelming. Seeing the stars while travelling between them was… you can’t describe it with words”

He paused for a moment, glancing over at Luna, who also had looked up at the sky, before continuing, “And then I got here, seeing the space from the ground again after a long time. But this time it was a new one. I don’t know how much they have in common, but the beauty is still the same.”

“You probably wonder what I want to tell you with this. Last night after… well, you know what happened, the light of the stars faded away, the beauty was diminished. I did something to you that I should not have done this way, and looking at the sky was a reminder of that. What I said last night were words out of anger. I just woke up, an alien to this world, forever to be trapped here, and then you came around, acting like nothing happened. I lost control this moment and let my anger speak, something that I always try to avoid but failed this time. You were at the wrong place at the wrong time and I’m sorry for that. I wasn’t aware how much harm my words could do to you,” he finished his speech and looked back at Luna.

“And regarding our action towards thee, that caused thy reaction, which way does thee feel about that?” she asked, an unsure expression on her face now, turning her eyes off the night sky, back to his.

Steve sighed before answering, “For what you did you had no right. The feeling of someone being in my head still troubles me. But I know that you meant no harm with it and also that it seems to be normal here but for me it is not. Can I ask you a few questions about it?”

“Thee may proceed, asking us thy questions,” she said.

“This leads me straight to the first one. Why do you talk this way and Celestia doesn’t?”

“Oh, wait, we… I mean I was doing it again?” she replied with a short giggle, a small tinge of red colored her face. “It was tradition to speak this way before my times of Nightmare Moon. Although I am getting used to this… new way, I still fall back into the old patterns.”

“I see. Now the more important question. How was my dream like?” he asked. 

Luna took her time to answer this question.

“Empty,” she finally said.

“Empty?” he inquired.

“Yes, when I entered your dream you were standing still in a plain white room, not doing anything at all. Usually the dreams I visit are about reliving the daily routine or about wish fulfillment, but this was rather strange, and should have given me a hint that I should have left right away,” she explained, sounding a bit guilty.

No big loss not remembering it then, he thought, irritated that this was supposed to be his dream.

“This sounds indeed a bit strange,” he replied.

“Once I started to speak with you however, the surrounding began to change and different objects began to float in. It was an interesting sight. You seemed to materialize your memories to answer my questions,” she added to her explanation. “By this I thought you were completely aware of me and your state of mind at this moment.”

“And what exactly did you ask me?” he wanted to know, feeling slightly alarmed at the thought of her viewing his memories.

“Nothing more than what has not been asked you by my sister or Twilight Sparkle. Although you were more descriptive in your dream, using images to give me an impression of you,” she told him.

“I understand. Thanks for the insight,” he replied, slightly relieved that she hadn’t delved deeper.

“It is of no consequence. They are your memories and you should have them.”

"So…,” she said after a few moments of silence. “Can you forgive me for what happened?”

“I guess so. Compared to what else happened to me lately this really was something minor. I still dislike the feeling that you were in my mind but now I know what you saw and don’t believe it is worth bearing a grudge against the leader of a country I will have to live in for the rest of my life,” he replied honestly. 

It’s nothing compared to shit Celestia’s done to me, he added in his thoughts.

“I thank you for that and I really do wish, that our relation would have started better,” she said, a small but genuine smile crossing her face.

“Yeah, things could have gone better,” he agreed wryly. 

“What will you do now? Have you grown accustom to the fact that you will have to stay here for a longer time?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Twilight and her friends were very nice to me and surely can help me fitting in here, but still… I lost so much,” he replied.

“I see. These are wounds only time may heal. For the rest, you are lucky to know these ponies. Nopony else could help you better on fitting in here. After I got cured from Nightmare Moon, I as well had problems with the ponies, seeing me not as an evil nightmare, but instead as their caring princess again. If not for their help they would still run away in fear from me,” Luna told him.

After waiting for his reply for a few moments she continued with a note of sadness, “I returned to this world after a millennium of exile. So many things had changed, I felt like a stranger. Nopony I knew, except my sister, was still alive. At least I was returning to the place I once called home, something that you got denied, but I can understand how you must feel right. If there is anything I can help you with adapting here, don’t hesitate asking. There are a lot of ponies here, willing to help you.”

She must have been going through a lot as well.

“Thanks for the offer,” he thanked her. “But I think I need some time alone now.”

“I understand,” she replied and nodded her head. “I am very glad we could resolve our conflicts. I wish you a pleasant night. Goodbye,” she said and unfolded her large wings again.

“Goodbye, Luna,” he said and gave her a soft smile before she left off in the night again. 

He continued staring in the darkness of the night where she left for a little while longer before heading back into his room. With a loud yawn he fell onto his bed.

What a day, he thought while trying to move into a comfortable position.
Turned out to be pretty good after all, was his last thought before drifting into sleep.