//------------------------------// // Chapter 10 - Just another normal day // Story: Contact // by Gron //------------------------------// Steve hold his hand over his mouth as he left out another loud yawn, the cold morning air whipping into his face as he turned his yawn into a slight shiver. Brrr, I regret everything about saying that I love the cold. They don’t even seem to notice how chilly it is up here, he thought as he looked enviously at the six ponies walking beside him, so protected by their warm fur that it seemed they barely felt anything. Maybe it’s just too early or I’m no longer used to cold temperatures. “Still tired?” Rainbow Dash asked him with a little grin on face. “A little bit,” he replied dryly. “You didn’t have to wake me up that early, or could have at least done it a little bit softer…” ************ Thirty minutes ago….. “GOOD MORNING!” a loud, high pitched voice yelled next to his ears. “GAH!” he yelped in surprise, shot wide awake as he noticed a pink pony eagerly bouncing on top of him. He was too caught up in the moment to realize that somehow he didn’t even feel anything when the pony landed on top of him. “GET OFF ME!” he yelled, panic evident in his voice, jumping out of the bed only to stand in front of five more ponies. “What the heck are you doing here?!” he shouted at them in surprise, trying to wrap his sleepy mind around the situation that had befallen him so early in the morning. He noticed the ponies were not looking him in the eyes, instead focusing their eyes lower down on his body. He followed their gaze to realize how barely dressed he was as he looked down at body, with only his private parts covered by some underpants. Quickly he grabbed the blanket from his bed but since Pinkie Pie was now standing strangely immobile on it, he didn’t expect the resistance and fell ungraciously over the bed. Somehow he was able to cover most parts of his body while falling but was now awkwardly lying halfway in the bed. The ponies, in response, burst out into laughter at the scene that had just played in front of their eyes. “Relax man, it’s just us,” Rainbow giggled. Panting heavily from this unpleasant start of the day, he took a few moments before snapping at them, “I don’t care! Why are you doing this?!” “Told ‘ya, Pinkie, we should’ve woken him up normally,” Applejack chided the pink mare who had now gotten off his bed and stood among the rest of the ponies. “Oops, my bad,” Pinkie Pie replied but showed no kind of regret, judging by the wide grin on her face. “I didn’t want to scare you.” Slowly, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself and at up on the bed, the blanket tightly wrapped around him. “And what were the rest of you doing in here? Don’t you know that… umm I mean you shouldn’t… I don’t like you seeing me like this,” he awkwardly stuttered the last parts, earning him confused looks from the other ponies. “Huh? I don’t get it,” Rainbow spoke out her confusion. He sighed in annoyance. “Human, remember?” he said and pointed down his body. “We wear CLOTHES and that there are reasons why we do so! Didn’t we go over this already?” Twilight seemed to be the only one who remembered as a heavy blush had formed on her face and she quickly shifted her gaze towards the ground. Oh god… why do I have to do this? he wondered before sighing again and started his explanation. “You remember what I told you about nudity with humans? That it is forbidden in public?” he asked to which they luckily all nodded. “Well… of course we don’t wear clothes all the time but eh….” He had to stop and think about how he could put his words. “Ehm… when we do not, especially around others… well you know,” he tried to explain and waved his arms aimlessly around in the air, hoping the ponies would caught up on what he wanted to see. “What?” Rainbow inquired. “I don’t… oh…” she stopped suddenly as she finally understood what he meant. The rest of the ponies now all seemed to understood what he wanted to say and were blushing furiously and turned their gazes away from him. “Oh my, I am so sorry,” Fluttershy squeaked from underneath her mane. “I completely forgot that.” He covered his face with one hand and let out a long sigh. “It’s okay, just wait outside. Okay?” he told them and waved with his other hand in direction of the door, while shaking his head. Quickly the group followed the order and left him alone again. Ugh, the day can only get better now, he thought and slowly stood up, heading for the bathroom to get himself ready. *********** “Sorry about that,” Pinkie Pie said and grinned innocently, “But it’s super important that we bring presents for everyone when we get back to Ponyville and we don’t have that much time and we didn’t want you to be left behind.” During the short breakfast that had followed, Twilight had told him they would be leaving with the next train towards Ponyville early in the afternoon and wanted to buy some presents for their friends back at home. “It’s okay, next time just please tell me this before I got to sleep so I can prepare,” he said and stretched, sleepiness still managing to clutch on to him. “Pinkie Promise!” she cheered and continued bouncing along the group, a wide grin on her face. “How can you even walk like that?” he asked her after he watched her jumping up and down for a while. “Like what?” she asked confusedly, continuing her bouncing. “That bouncing. How do you do that so fast that you can keep up with us walking. It doesn’t even look like it’s exhausting.” “Because it isn’t, silly,” she giggled. “You just push your hooves off the ground all at the same time. See?” she explained and bounced especially high in front of him. “Well, I know how to jump, but how can you do that for so long and…,” he tried to put his confusion into words but he realized that he wouldn’t get a clear answer from her anyways. “Well it’s just Pinkie being Pinkie then, right?” he tried to wave it off and gave her a questioning look. “They say that a lot,” she giggled again. In order to distract himself from the confusing pony he shifted his gaze towards the shop windows they were walking past. They had arrived on one of the main streets of the city not long ago and now were slowly strolling around, stopping every few seconds to glimpse through the windows, trying to find a decent gift, or in Steve’s case just gaze in amazement at the beautiful crafts the ponies could produce. The selection was huge, ranging from various clothing boutiques, most of them for ponies but a few for the occasional griffon or other creature he could see around, to jewelry stores, decorating their trinkets with all sorts of gems. They walked past a carpentry where the owner, a large dark brown earth pony stallion with short pale blond mane, positioned his workbench in front of a window so that everyone could see his craftsmanship while he formed little sculptures of ponies out of raw pieces of wood in only a few minutes. Steve was dazzled by his incredible speed and precision and spent a few minutes just watching him. Fascinating mechanics with their hooves. I should study this further with the proper equipment once I’m back at my ship. Maybe Twilight and her friends would let me take some measurement from them, he thought and as he watched the carpenter pony’s hooves wielding the tools. Speaking of which… where are they anyways? he asked himself and looked around. He didn’t even notice how long he had been standing there and was getting worried he might have lost them but he could catch a glance of a rainbow colored mane which could only belong to one certain mare. “Didn’t find anything yet?” he asked the ponies as he trotted over to them. None of them had bought anything yet, or had even shown much interest in doing so. “Unfortunately not, darling,” Rarity replied as she was standing in front of a boutique, scratching her chin with one hoof as she looked over the variety of dresses. “It has to be something special for my little sister but I cannot figure out what. For Opal I just have to get a new sweater. They last so shortly with her claws.” “Can’t you make one yourself?” Steve asked her, recounting that she was the local fashionista after all. “I tried, my dear, but when it comes to clothes Opalescence is very delicate,” she snorted, sounding a bit annoyed. “She refuses to wear anything but one specific brand that, no matter how hard I try, I am not able to copy to her satisfaction.” “Yeah, I don’t know either what to buy,” Rainbow threw in.  “It’s all cool and stuff but nothing really that amazing. I’m not really good at this gifting thing.” “Why don’t we go off the main road and check out the smaller alleys?” Twilight proposed. “There are a lot of stores selling more unusual stuff. I bet we will find something interesting there.” “It’s worth ‘ah shot,” Applejack agreed. “Ah bet they have something special for mah sister and her crusading stuff.” “Crusading?” Steve asked confusedly. That must have different meaning here. At least I hope so! “She and her friends have this club to get their cutie marks and call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Ah don’t know how they got to that name but they’ve been doin’ all kinds of crazy stuff to get their marks and maybe ah’ can help them with that, just with something a bit more normal.” “Is it that important for them to even form a club around it?” he wanted to know. The concept of their cutie marks still confused him. "Getting a cutie mark is one of the most important events in the life of a pony and will dictate the rest of their lives,” Twilight threw in and he turned towards her. “It shows them and the world what they are best at. Without it, they have yet to find their real talent and which they need to pursue in order to achieve true happiness.” “Can’t they be happy without one?” he asked. This sounded very drastic to him, the way she said it and he was sure he had misinterpreted it. “Of course they can,” she quickly replied, yet he could already feel the ‘but’ that was about to follow, “But there will always be the feeling of something missing. They can find plenty of things they will have fun doing that are not shown by their marks but it will just not be the same. I do enjoy a lot things unrelated to my cutie mark but nothing can give me the same satisfaction as unraveling the mysteries of magic.” “Okay, still sounds a bit strange to me but I can see why it’s so important for them. I hope they’ll get it soon.” “Ah’m sure they will, they all do, just takes some more time than others,” Applejack replied. “So, we gonna talk more about our cutie marks or get going ‘gain?” she asked and took a few steps towards a small alley, quickly followed by the rest of the group. They entered the alley and quickly their surrounding changed. Although every building in the town seemed to be originally made out of the same white marble he was surrounded by everywhere, the small little shops they stumbled upon had a large part of their inventory shown right outside their doors, making it sometimes impossible to even the see the real wall behind all the decorations they had put out. Magical powers beyond your imagination! Steve read from a sign of one shop. Judging by the text on this one and the plenty of pictograms on the other signs showing all kind of trinket he figured this shop to be selling magical accessories. “Hey, Twilight, come look at this,” he called out to the unicorn who was standing at an alchemist booth, smelling at some herbs. “What is it?” she asked while she trotted over to him. “There,” he said and pointed at the shop that caught his interest. “Doesn’t this sound amazing?” “Really?” she shot him a questioning look. “You would really believe in that?” “What do you mean?” he countered confused. “Don’t you have magical artifacts here?” “There are a few, yes, but most of what is sold here are usually fake to try and scam ponies out of their bits,” she replied and stared at the store with a scornful look in her eyes. “You said most of them, so there could be something real, right?” he asked enthusiastically. Twilight let out a long sigh before saying, “Yes, but the chances are low.” “Can we just go looking? Maybe there really is something good hidden there,” he tried to convince her and putting on what he hoped was a winning smile. With another long sigh, Twilight agreed and followed the happy human inside the small store, the rest of the group following shortly after. “Ah, hello there, traveler,” a middle-aged unicorn came over from the counter as soon as they had set one foot over the door. “Come on in and take a good look, my friends. Prepare your mind to be overwhelmed by what you are about to see,” he enthusiastically greeted them in a deep accent Steve had never heard before here. The salespony examined Steve from top to bottom with his hazelnut brown eyes before continuing his talking, “Never before on my journeys I have seen someone like you but be assured I have exactly what you need. Come with me, quickly!” Out of the corner of his eye he could see Twilight rolling her eyes but she kept quiet and followed him as the storekeeper dragged Steve over to a vitrine filled with various amulets. The unicorn opened the vitrine and pulled out a cyan blue amulet with a sapphire embedded in the middle. “This here is a true treasure, crafted by Queen Thandokazi herself during the Second Zebraician War against the seaponies, granting the bearer the ability to breathe and move underwater like a fish.” Fascinated, he stretched his hand out towards the amulet and the salesman gave it to him with a wide grin on his face. “Yes, hold it, hold it, can you feel the power?” he asked Steve as he handed him the amulet. Hmm, doesn’t really feel special but I couldn’t feel anything either when Twilight was casting her magic so maybe I can’t feel magic as a human, he wondered as he weighed the amulet in his hand. He shot a short glance over to Twilight to see if she had to something about it but he could only see her face turning red. “Not impressed?” the storekeeper asked him before he had the chance to ask Twilight what was wrong. “I knew from the first moment that you are looking for something far greater, my friend.” He took the amulet back and carefully stored it back in the vitrine before pulling out a gallant wooden box that he presented Steve. Slowly he opened it revealing a pitch black pair of bracers. “How could I think someone special like you would waste his time underwater? You look like someone who is striving for strength! This should better suit your needs.” Carefully the unicorn took the bracers out of the box and held them before Steve’s eyes. “Forged by Asterios, the ancient lord of the minotaurs himself, completely out of obsidian, these bracers will bring your strength and endurance on levels you could never even imagine in your wildest dreams. With the help of his creation, Asterios was able to beat an Ursa Major in a fistfight!” the unicorn eagerly told him as he noticed the fascinated glance in Steve’s eyes. “With them…” “ENOUGH!” Twilight shouted angrily, interrupting the speech of the unicorn, causing everyone to turn towards her. “What it is, my…” the storekeeper wanted to ask but was once again interrupted by Twilight. “I will not stand idly by while you keep on telling your lies!” she snapped at him, fury evident in her eyes. For a moment, Steve could have sworn that her mane seemed to have caught on fire. “I assure you, I would never tell lies. These are the true stories, all of them accurately written down in…” he tried to calm her but it was of no use. “No! They are not! There never was a war between zebras and seaponies, Zebraica does not even have a coast! How can you tell such a blatant lie everypony with only the slightest understanding of geography could see through?!” Twilight angrily pointed out. “I… ehm… well…” the unicorn stammered, pearls of sweat began to run down his face. “And if you have read anything about the minotaurian history you would know that they never had lords but a clan system and there was never a clan leader of the name Asterios mentioned. There really should have been some mention for the first reported defeat of an Ursa Major, don’t you think?” The storekeeper continued to stammer some incomprehensible words, his pale yellow coat now completely bathed in sweat, almost collapsing under Twilight’s angry glare, a few tears leaking into his eyes. “I… uhm… I heard something in the storage! Excuse me!” he quickly spat out and ran as quickly into the bowels of his store as his legs would carry him. “See?” Twilight said toward Steve, a contented smile upon her lips, her anger rapidly draining away after the seedy salespony had fled. “Told you this was only a scam.” She looked around to see that all her friends were staring at her with open jaws. “Uh… girls? Is everything alright?” she asked them carefully. “Twilight,” Rainbow slowly began. “That… was … AWESOME!” she shouted out with a loud laugh. “I never thought you could smash another pony like this by reading all these books. Well done egghead! That liar deserved it for trying to scam us!” she cheered loudly. “I just did what had to be done, no big deal,” she waved it off but couldn’t hold back the blush that now appeared on her cheeks. “Come on, let’s go to a real shop,” she called them and stepped outside again. Steve quickly caught up to Twilight. “Should have listened to you about these artifacts,” he muttered, feeling embarrassed about the whole ordeal. “How could you have known? You told me you don’t have magic on Earth, right?” she asked to which he nodded. “There is no way then you could have actually felt that there was no magic inside that trash.” “You can feel it if an object is enchanted?” he asked, surprised. “Yes,” she nodded. “Every act of magic leaves behind traces that can be felt by anyone correspondent to magic. It does require a lot of training though, and only a few unicorns can clearly determine if and sometimes even what magic was used.” “Wow, magic sounds really cool,” he replied, fascinated by the revelation. “It sure is,” she agreed with a smile. “But that makes me wonder. You told me that there are some magical artifacts. What can they do then? Could they even work on a non-unicorn or even me?” “Technically, it is possible to lay every spell on every item, but in practice it is a bit more complicated. Magic is very volatile. In order to enchant something the magic has to be stored in the item otherwise the spell could go off way too early or the do something completely different, or the magic will simply vanish.” “Diamonds are the best way to store magic. The higher the purity of the stone, the better it can store the magic. The purest diamonds are able to preserve their stored magic for thousands of years,” she explained to him carefully so he would understand it correctly. “To come to your question, yes, it is possible to make magical artifacts like the ones that pony described but there is a huge problem.” “There are two types of enchantments. The first one is quite simple and is done by a unicorn casting a spell and storing it into a diamond. Anyone, even creatures without any magical abilities, will be able to use a spell stored inside a diamond, which comes incredibly handy for non-unicorns. I once found a ruby that had a fire spell stored inside and could be used as a powerful lighter, but only for a few usages. These kind of enchants wear off, if not with time, then with usage, just like the Wingblade I explained to you yesterday,” she reminded him. “The second type of enchantment are those that are quite powerful. Instead of unicorn magic, they rely on wild magic,” she explained and stopped after that part for a few moments. “Wild magic is a complex phenomenon that only exists in a few places of Equestria. There are plenty of theories about how wild magic was created. Some say that it was created by accident through a failed spell of a unicorn or they are the work of Discord’s chaos magic. Anyway, wild magic, stored inside a gem could do nearly anything without ever to lose its power.” Twilight stopped to take in another deep breath to continue her explanation, and Steve could already feel the but coming. “The downside is that nopony has been able to securely handle wild magic. It requires many years of excessive research and training and in the end the chances of a magical backfire are immense. Almost nopony with their mind in the right place would be willing to take such a risk, but the few times it worked it was a massive breakthrough. One of the most powerful outcomes in history was the Alicorn Amulet. It pushes the magic abilities of the bearer into limitless regions. There is almost nothing you are unable to do if you wear it. This can of course be very dangerous in the wrong hooves so there are very strict regulations including all enchantments using wild magic.” Steve needed time to process the amount of information Twilight had just dropped on him. “Wow,” was his final response, after a few moments, unable to come up with something more eloquent at that moment. “Could you show me that sometime? I mean the storing a spell into a diamond. I would love to analyze it,” he asked her. “Of course,” she replied happily. “Maybe with your… technical stuff… we would be able to score a huge breakthrough in this subject.” “Great,” he cheered. “But now that we are on the subject, you told me that there are no restrictions in which spell can be stored. Are there any restrictions then on spells in general?” The question caused Twilight to stop. “You just stumbled upon one of the greatest mysteries of magic,” she giggled. “It is actually unknown. There are spells that nopony has ever managed to perform but despite centuries of research we aren’t able to say it is because it’s impossible to perform such a spell or it just requires more magical power until we find a more efficient way. Most of these spells are related to teleportation or creating objects out of nothing for example.” Twilight would have continued talking, but for the timely complaint by Rainbow Dash about being kept back by egghead stuff. They continued walking, yet all Steve could think about was the possibilities that would follow if he would be able to perform magic. So many things would be easier. As they wandered now again between the stores he made sure to keep away from any that would sell any sort of magical trinkets that sounded too promising. Although they had a huge selection to choose from, nopony had decided on anything to buy yet. Looks like I have to push them into actually going into another store again instead of just looking from the outside, he decided and began to look around for a store that looked interesting. “Hey, Twilight,” he called out as a small shop at the end of the alley stuck out. Dim light fell out of its thick windows and a large wooden sign with runes of a language he didn’t know stood outside the door. “Think we should check out his store over there?” After a short while of looking at it from the outside Twilight agreed, “Why not, maybe we can find something in there.” They entered the store which was much larger on the inside than it looked from the outside. An old earth pony mare with a long fiery red mane, which seemed to be unaffected by her age, greeted them with a scratchy, yet enthusiastic voice, “Hello there, my dears. Oh, how long has it been that such a group of nice young ponies has come into my store.” She came around the counter, her emerald eyes quickly wandering between the ponies as she asked, “Do you need anything specific?” “No, thanks,” Twilight replied politely. “We will just have a look around.” “Ah yes, do that. Call me if you need anything,” she said, the smile she was wearing dropping as her gaze fell on Steve.  She wrinkled her nose and muttered something he couldn’t understand but he didn’t pay much attention to it. It’s probably just because I’m human and she has never seen one before, I guess. I bet it’s not often she has an alien walking through her store! He waved it off and began to wander around the store, looking through the various artifacts the store had to offer, all the while under the eyes of the storekeeper. He pulled out a few items from the shelves around him but didn’t find anything that really caught his attention until he pulled out a large brown box, buried under a large pile of old books. Carefully, he blew the dust from it, revealing a board game that hid underneath. Settlers of Equestria, the inscription said. Curiously he checked the box for more details.Expand your own empire with more cities and settlements… mine for resources… trade with or dominate your neighbors…, he browsed through the description on the backside. Yep, that’s definitely the equestrian equivalent to Catan. Awesome! he concluded, if that wasn’t obvious by the name itself.   He brought it over to Applejack and showed it to her, “What you think about it? It’s a pretty cool board game, I bet your little sister and her friends will have a lot of fun with this.” Curious, the orange mare took the box in her hooves and looked at it from all sides. “Hmm, ah’m not sure ‘bout that,” she replied after giving the box a long look. “Why not? I’ve played games similar to this a lot back on Earth. They’re tons of fun, require some thinking and you can play them over and over again without getting bored,” he tried to convince her. “Maybe they will even discover their special talent is gaming.” “Hmm.” She scratched her chin with a hoof, considering his words. “But fifty bits is mighty expensive for a simple game,” she finally said and pointed towards the price tag in one corner. He sighed a bit. It wasn’t as easy to convince her as he hoped to but he wouldn’t give up. Before he could think of more reasons to buy it however, Rarity trotted over to them and also took a glance at the board game in Applejack hooves. “Well, my dear Applejack, how about this. We could gift it together. It is a group game after all and Sweetie Belle will surely play it with your little sister sometimes. If we share the cost it won’t be very expensive,” she said calmly, causing the orange mare to think again. “Wait,” Rainbow Dash threw in, who was now also hovering beside them and glanced at the box. “I’m in as well. I need something for Scoots as well and we can just give it together for their whole club.” Applejack looked between the two mares and finally at Steve. “So ya’ say this really is a good game?” “Yes, I guarantee they’ll have a lot of fun with it,” he assured her. “If it means anything, I would buy it if I had the money,” he added and laughed. “It’s settled then,” Applejack finally agreed. “Ma’am, I’d like to buy this,” she called the storekeeper as she walked towards the checkout, holding the board game in her mouth as she walked. The old mare grabbed the box Applejack had put on and packed it accordingly after taking the bits from Applejack. “Bold and reckless stallions these days. Back in my day, they wouldn’t even think to persuade a mare into buying something,” she muttered angrily, this time loud enough for them to hear. Steve looked confusedly at the mare and the other ponies around, completely irritated by the mare’s reaction. He wanted to ask them right away but they all looked down to the floor so he waited until they got a few steps away from the counter. “What was that?” The ponies looked a bit uncomfortable at each other, unsure what to say. It was Applejack who was the first to speak after she stored the game in one of her saddlebags, all the while avoiding looking into his eyes. “Ehm… nothin’, Sugarcube,” she said and tried to smile but failed miserably. He knew something was wrong. Applejack’s attempt to lie was easy to see through and the other ponies were getting tense as well but no one would say anything. He was about the pry further when Twilight spoke up, “Why don’t you just look around for something to buy for yourself? Here, you can have some bits.” She held a small bag in front of him. Confused at the sudden change of subject, it took him a few moments before he asked, “Did I do something wrong?” “No, no, of course not! You did nothing wrong,” Twilight replied and shifted nervously on her hooves, her ears already firmly flattened to the side. “It’s… erm… nothing, okay? Just look for something for yourself to buy.” “I don’t really want to buy something off of your money, it was hard enough to buy the food at the market already. I don’t feel comfortable using other people’s money,” he said, still wondering what was going on and slightly pushed the bag of bits back towards Twilight. “Please, take it. The princess is funding me with more than enough money for my studies, I would really like to have you some joy with it,” she replied and put the bag right into his hand. “Fine,” he reluctantly gave in and closed his hand around the bag, weighing heavy in his hand. “But I promise to pay it back to you as soon as I can.” “If you insist,” she said and brought a light smile to her lips but he could see that she forced it. He began wandering around the store again looking for something else that would catch his interest while the ponies remained standing there, quietly talking about something he couldn’t understand. His mind was still focused on their strange behavior but he hoped that they would tell him what was wrong later when they were outside the store so he increased his speed of searching for something special, all the while making his own theories what was going on but couldn’t come up with a clear solution. It didn’t take long until he stumbled upon something that caught his interest. Before his feet stood a box filled with a large stacked up pile of paintings. What do we have here? he thought while going through the paintings. Most of them were portraits of ponies, often of Celestia, which he quickly laid aside. Though a lot of them were of decent quality, it was not what he was looking for. He was almost done with them until he found one painting different than the others. Instead of a portrait of the pony it was the portrait of Canterlot, showing the city during a sunset under the same golden glare he had already admired yesterday. This will make a nice memory, he thought, looked a bit closer at the picture to see if it had any flaws. Finding none, he took it and walked towards the counter to pay it. He showed the mare the painting and was about to pick the appropriate amount of bits out of the bag. She just stared at him, an angry glare rising in her eyes. “What you think you are doing, boy?” she snapped at him. “I… Uh… What?” he stammered, confused and irritated, having no idea what was going on again. “Are you blind or can’t read or are you just stupid?” she asked with an angry voice, hostility dripping with each word, as she clopped with one hoof at a small sign next to the register so that the dust could fall from it and he was able to read it. All purchases must be made by a mare or in the company of a mare. “Now go and bring your mare with you if you want to buy something!” the old mare snapped at him. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he replied, his confusion now mixed with anger as well. “I can buy this by myself!” “How dare you talk back to a mare!” she yelled sharply, glancing angrily at him. “Stallions like you should know their place!” He was completely shocked, unable to think of a proper response. He had no idea what was going on right now. Luckily the other ponies, alarmed by the noise, already came over to him. “Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted at the old mare. “What’s going on here?” she demanded to know. “Watch your tone, missy!” the old mare countered sharply. “You should all keep better control of your stallion. An ugly one like him should better not lack any discipline.” The ponies looked shocked at her statement; although it was colored with some embarrassment as some looked towards the ground, faint blushes appearing on their faces. “He’s not our stallion!” Rainbow Dash yelled again, this time more angrily. “How dare ya talkin’ like that to us!” Applejack joined the argument, glaring at the older mare. “What do ya think of us, that we should be controlling him?!” “This one isn’t even from your herd?” the mare asked, more shocked than angry. “Oh, if that would happen back in my time, a stallion running around without his mare and acting like this would have been whipped until he knows where his place is!” she lectured harshly, jabbing a hood in the direction of a motionless Steve. These words were the last straw that broke the camel’s neck and Rainbow Dash was about to jump at the mare. Before she could lift herself off the ground and on the mare, Rainbow found herself in a strong powerful grip as purple glowing ropes appeared around her body and held her back. “Let me go, Twilight!” Rainbow shouted at the unicorn now struggling with holding her friend in place. “I’ll show her what she gets for talking like that!” “You are a disgrace to Canterlot!” Rarity now also yelled at the old mare, stamping a delicate hoof on the floor for emphasis. For a graceful pony like her, she could get very loud as well. “You are a cruel, nasty old mare, living in the past. No wonder this shop is in such a filthy place. Nopony in their right mind would go shopping here!” “You don’t talk to me like that in my own store! Get out of here right now and take this ugly alien with you!” the old mare nearly exploded and stomped on the counter, pointing with one hoof towards the door. Slowly the group moved out of the store, angrily glaring and growling back at the mare on their way out. Twilight had to carry Rainbow Dash in her magic all the way to prevent her from attacking the mare, Pinkie Pie, whose mane had deflated escorted Fluttershy out, who had not stopped trembling since the shouting had begun, while Applejack was pulling Steve out with them. All the time since the ponies started yelling he had stood stunned, next to them, his mouth slightly ajar, not able to process what just had happened right before his eyes. After a few moments, Twilight finally released Rainbow Dash and they were all trying to calm themselves down again, panting heavily and walking in circles. Fluttershy eventually ceased her trembling as Pinkie slowly rubbed her withers, the gentle motions seeming strange coming from the normally hyperactive party pony. Although still looking extremely agitated, Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to be making any movement towards the store again, although Twilight and Applejack still kept a wary eye on her. Slowly Steve seemed to become aware of his surroundings, although he still seemed dazed. “What….. the hell just happened?” he asked faintly, looking shocked at the ponies assembled in front of him, still trying to wrap him mind over what had just happened. “Don’t think about her. She is a stupid old mare. Luckily, almost nopony think like that anymore. It has been a very long time that I’ve heard someone talking about that,” Rarity managed to grind out between her clenched teeth and heavy panting. Through the anger and confusion that currently overwhelmed him, the thought that he had never seen the elegant fashionista so flustered wafted through his mind, but he quickly shoved that thought aside. “But why did she react the way she did? I don’t get it, I just wanted to buy a painting and she told me something about getting my mare,” he muttered, a headache beginning to dully pound the inside of his head. As his words left his mouth, an awkward silence fell over the group and they shifted uneasily on their hooves, Rainbow Dash stopping her muttering and even Pinkie Pie ceased comforting Fluttershy. Steve continued staring at the ponies, who all seemed intent at looking everywhere except at his face, and he was about to repeat his question, this time more forcefully, until Twilight finally decided to answer his question, “Well…. you see, it was not very long ago that stallions did not hold the places and positions they do nowadays. Mares have always been the dominant gender in our demographics and all higher positions were held by them. Stallions were looked down upon for a long time and were only seen good to use for physical labor and… ehm….” She began to stutter, squirming under his hollow gaze. “And what?” he inquired, glaring down at the purple mare shifting uncomfortably in front of him. “Well… mating,” she finally said and looked back to the ground. To say that he was shocked at what she had just told him would probably have been an understatement. Not even in his wildest dreams he would have thought their almost utopian society would turn out this way. Immediately, his mind travelled back to some of the darker moments of humanity’s history, suddenly afraid of what he was about to ask them, yet knowing he had to ask. “Were they… slaves?” he asked, fearful of the response he might get. “What? No!” the ponies shouted in unison, their eyes simultaneously widening in shock at the question. At any other time Steve would have laughed at the sight. Fluttershy, who had been relatively calm, looked though she wanted to cry, why Rainbow Dash seemed to be almost insulted by the question. “And what is it about the whipping then? Because where I come from, we didn’t whip regular people like that!” he shot back. The awkward silence returned until once again Twilight answered him after a few seconds, “Some families did use whips to keep their stallions in line.” As soon as she noticed how the look he shot at her, she quickly added, “Only very, very few ever did this. That was never a common practice!” The silence return upon them once again he just stood there in front of the mares, just having found out that they thought of males of nothing more than tools to use left him completely dazzled. The ponies gave him apologetic looks but refrained from talking, letting him processing the new data he just got and worried that he might take anything else they might say the wrong way. After a while, a rather forlorn smile formed on his face and he quietly said, “Well, I guess that’s one way this world and Earth are alike.” The ponies looked confused at him but decided not to ask what he meant by that, while he thought about how on Earth, woman had been the ones being treated unfairly for a long time, while here it was the other way around. “Are you alright?” Twilight asked carefully after a long pause. “Yes, I’m okay, I just had to process that, that’s all,” he replied and tried to put on a smile that didn’t look forced, though he felt his cheeks stiffly moving upwards, as though his face wanted to betray the emotions he felt inside. “Let’s move on, shall we? I think you all still have some presents to buy, right?” he proposed brightly. “Are you sure?” she asked again, hesitant at moving on so quickly. “Yes, most certainly. Let’s go,” he said, giving a resolute nod. His sudden switch to a happy mood confused the ponies and they were sure that things were certainly not okay for their human friend but they didn’t want to set him off again, so they agreed for the moment and moved on, albeit reluctantly, trying to sneak a look behind them, concern in their eyes. All the while Steve was walking silently next to them, straining to keep the smile plastered on his wooden face, while still trying to absorb the news he had just found out. How the hell could these ponies be so sexist? Can’t be for too long that this changed, I doubt ponies live that much longer than humans and if that mare had lived in those times, that couldn’t have been much longer than half a century ago where the males only were good for ploughing the fields and… well, ploughing their fields, he almost had to laugh out loud at how bad the analogy was. Caught up in his thoughts, he had barely spent any attention to his surroundings, so it was only until now that he noticed they were on the main road again. He could hear Twilight say something about their more modern views here but only nodded in his response. He could feel that the ponies were getting a little too worried about him so he decided to ask them a short question from time to time or proposing a gift to buy when he saw something interesting while they wandered through the stores but otherwise kept quiet. He offered to help carrying their bags in order to keep himself distracted, which they refused at first but then eventually gave in, not wanting to upset him any further. He was glad that they were not pushing him into talking very much so that he could quietly think. How come I haven’t noticed this already? I barely see any stallion so I could have guessed that there maybe was something going on with their positions in terms of power, he wondered and tried to remember to other events during his stay that might have indicated the blatant sexism that used to be common here and obviously still is for a few. All the while, he kept an eye on the mares walking the street, looking to catch any looks of disapproval at him. While a few did give him a few weird looks and some even stopped to gape at him, he guessed it had to do less with the fact that he was a ‘stallion’ and more to do with him being a bipedal alien. At least…. he hoped so. “We should return to the castle now,” Twilight said with a cheerful tone, hoping he would start talking more than one sentence. “The train will be leaving soon and Princess Celestia would like to bid us farewell.” Her voice interrupted him from his deep thoughts and only now did he notice that they were all very packed with a lot of bags and the sun had dipped slightly in the horizon. He didn’t even know what they bought them as gifts. All he could remember was that they had made some purchases in a pet store where he proposed a collar for Applejack’s dog whose name he had already forgotten again. He looked back at Twilight, who was staring at him expectantly but only lightly nodded his head, causing her to sigh. They arrived at the castle rather quickly; the guards at the main entrance were already holding them the door open. Guess these guys are only good enough to fight their wars too, he thought as he watched the armored stallions with their stoic expressions, feeling a sour grimace trying to come to the surface. The group stepped inside only to be met by both princesses, who were already waiting for them in the entrance hall. Twilight quickly approached Luna as the ponies all bowed. “Princess Luna, pardon me for asking, but how come you are awake in the middle of the day,” she asked the Princess of the Night. “Oh, we just wanted to bid thee farewell on your journey back to Ponyville,” Luna replied with a smile. “That we do,” Celestia agreed in her motherly tone. “It was a delight to see all of you in Canterlot again and I hope you enjoyed the time here as well, though it was rather short.” She looked over the bags they were all carrying and added, “I see you have bought yourself some reminders.” “We did enjoy our time here very much, Princess,” Twilight spoke for the group. “Thank you.” “Oh Twilight, how many times do I have to tell you, you do not have to call me by my title,” Celestia laughed softly before she turned Steve. “And to you Steve, I want to once again apologize for what has happened and assure you I will do anything that is in my power to get you back home as soon as possible. Until that day comes, I sincerely hope you will enjoy your time here as much as possible.” Steve was on the verge of confronting her who she could allow such a blatant sexism from which he had to suffer today to exist in her empire for so long but he managed to keep the snark and bitterness inside his head and replied in a neutral, emotionless, if somewhat tight tone, “I do too.” The last thing he wanted right now as another confrontation. Celestia raised her brows in confusion at this unexpected tone but didn’t press the matter, taking this as the best she could achieve right now, with the anger he still felt against her. “If you wish to contact me again, just turn towards Twilight Sparkle. She can contact me directly. You are left in good hooves with her and her friends.” You are probably right about that, he thought and for the first time in a while a genuine smile crawled on his face as he remembered them defending him. Luna stepped up next to her sister. “We also bid you farewell Steve, and may you have a safe journey.” She looked as though she wished to say more, yet nothing more was said. “Thank you, Luna,” was his response, not wanting to risk saying more; in his state of mind, the last thing he wanted was to reopen the wounds that had been partially healed only the night before. Luna looked rather disconcerted at his short speech, but contented herself with giving him a small smile, understanding in her eyes. After they all had said their goodbyes the group left for the train. The train was already waiting in the station and looked exactly like the one they arrived in, the only difference now was that the station was not flooded by guards. Just like on the journey there they got an empty cabin for themselves and settled down on the soft benches, Steve taking a booth for himself a bit away from the ponies. They looked at him with worry but thankfully they left him in peace. The train started and slowly they were on their way back towards Ponyville again. The journey back was uneventful, Steve mindlessly watching the passing scenery out of a window while the ponies were talking with each other. Occasionally they tried to draw him into the conversation, but the only words that they got from him were, “I’m a bit tired and need some rest.” A lie they easily could see through but once again let him have his space, all hoping that he would be talking with them soon enough again. What if they think less about me as well because I’m male but I just didn’t really notice? he began to ask himself but quickly shook off the thought. No, that can’t be. They were so nice all the time and never showed any signs of that. They even defended me. But still… it was not long ago since that was how things were working here. Maybe the younger ones don’t have these thoughts but what about the rest of the village? What if next time I go into town some old mare says I can’t buy her goods or I have to sit in the back of a restaurant because I need to have a mare with me? he thought and was afraid of how his stay could turn out here. On the other hand, nopony has ever shown any signs at all before today. It could very well be that she was a rare exception even among the older ponies. He looked at the group of six ponies and how they gave him worried looks from time to time during their conversation. I really doubt I ever have to fear a reaction like this from them at all but what if there are more customs and norms that I simply can’t reconcile? I’ve barely scratched at the surface of their culture, what if they have some crazy beliefs I just haven’t witnessed yet? he asked himself, starting to get worried about how his long term stay in this alien world would turn out. One part of him couldn’t believe that something like this was going on, but on the other hand he wouldn’t believe that sexism existed either if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. After all I am alone on an alien world… how could I compare anything that happens here with home? He spent the rest of the train right in silence, thinking about the possibilities, what else he would discover about this world during his stay here, for thinking was the best he could do right now. “So, what ‘ya gonna do back in Ponyville now?” Applejack asked, trotting up to him as the small town came into view through one of the windows. “I’ll have to go back to my ship. There are a few things I have to do,” he replied shortly. “Mind if ah walk ya home? We both have ta’ walk the same way,” she offered in a friendly tone he couldn’t deny even if he felt confused right now. “Sure, why not,” he replied hollowly, signalling the end of their conversation again. Soon the train began to slow down and finally came to a halt as they rolled into the station. The group descended along with only a handful of other ponies. The afternoon sun that shone up in the sky was now dipping into the horizon and it would only take a few hours for it to be completely set and for the moon to rise. He felt very comfortably at the mild sunlight shining in his face, warming his skin. The group set moving quietly through Ponyville, from time to time one of them dropped off as they neared their homes. First was Pinkie Pie who couldn’t resist saying goodbye in her usual extreme manner but he didn’t mind it that much. There was something about her that made him never feel angry at her, no matter what she did, she even brought him to faintly smile again. More and more ponies dropped off from the group and when Fluttershy left, it was only him and Applejack left. He could feel that she wanted to say something for the whole time they kept walking silently side by side, but she kept it to herself until they arrived at the point where their ways were about to part as well. “Look, Steve,” she said and stared at him with her large green eyes. “Ah know what ya found out today must have been a real shock to ya, but ya should know that nopony here thinks this way. We are all good ponies here who wouldn’t ever judge you because of your gender. Please don’t think about us this way now, okay?” He looked down at the pony in front of his feet and could not deny the honesty in her words. Slowly he dropped on one knee and put a hand on her shoulder. With a troubled stare, he looked back into her expectant eyes and whispered silently. “Goodbye Applejack, I hope you get home safe.” He got up again and turned around, walking off towards his ship. He could hear a sigh behind him and her saying, “You too.” He came to a halt and turned around to her again. She hadn’t made signs of leaving yet, only staring after him. “But thank you,” he said after a short while and turned around again, finally making his way back to his ship. He couldn’t wait to see the familiar ship again and was happy to hear the sound of the unlocking airlock as he came closer. Eagerly he stepped inside, greeted by the AI right away. “Hello and welcome back, Steve. I started to get worried about you. I have to inform you that I was not able to contact the...” “I know,” he interrupted her. “You can stop sending the signal.” “Error. Sending a distress signal is part of the emergency protocol.” Sarah interjected. “Just do what I say okay?” he replied, annoyed by the AI’s stubbornness “Your tone of voice as well as choice of words imply a status of minor depression. Is there something wrong?” Sarah asked in her robotic voice. Her emotionless voice couldn’t show him any sympathy she might have felt, if he could even say that about an AI, so he couldn’t bring himself to care about her attempt. “No,” he replied tiredly as he made his way towards the bedroom. “Just leave me alone until tomorrow, I have to get some rest.” “Acknowledged,” the AI complied. With another long sigh he flung himself in bed and shifted around to find a comfortable position, trying to forget what had happened, not only today but from the whole visit to Canterlot. Oh, how much easier the world was a week ago…