//------------------------------//
// Chapter 15 - Let's get this... 
// Story: Contact 
// by Gron 
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“Huh, what?” Steve said, confused, blinking a few times at Rainbow Dash who was hovering to his left. He lifted his hand up onto his forehead to protect his eyes from the late afternoon sun that had settled over this strange world. After his eyes had adjusted to the change of brightness, he saw Rainbow Dash staring at him with a strange look in her eyes.
 
“I asked if there’s something wrong?” she repeated herself, looking at him from top to bottom. “You’ve been so… I don’t know… distant since we left the shuttle.”
 
“Uhh w-well…” he stammered. What am hell am I supposed to say? he thought hastily. Hey, Rainbow Dash, I just found you looked sexy with a wet mane. Just thought I’d let you know. Yeah right. He had to resist rolling his eyes at his thoughts. There must be some kind of logical explanation to it. I mean, now that she’s back to normal, I don’t see her that way. Right? He found the question hard to answer in his state of confusion. Argh, damn it. Wait… didn’t she just say something? I should probably answer. “I-I just… it’s just that I am kind of curious about the party, that’s all,” he replied to her. “I’ve heard quite a lot about it now, and it’s very kind of Pinkie Pie to throw me one.”
 
“She does that for everypony that’s new to town! And everypony loves it!” she cheered. “Oh wait, you’re not a pony.” She glanced at him and shrugged. “Well, you’re going to like it too; it’s always so much fun, especially when AJ brings some of her cider along.” Her eyes widened in excitement at the thought, and she licked her lips.
 
“Cider?” Steve wondered, relieved that the changing of the subject worked so well. “You mean with alcohol?”


“Sure,” she answered immediately. “Well, at least most of it is. She makes some soft cider for the foals too, you know. But either way, I promise it’s the best drink you can get in the whole world.” She gave him a confident grin.
 
“Sounds promising. I’ve never had any cider before, and now you’ve got me curious.” The thought of the party didn’t seem so bad after all. It looked like he would be spending an evening with peo… ponies he could get along well with and would get the chance to meet even more. Also, the thought of alcohol was a pretty tempting hook. While he had never been a regular drinker on Earth, after all this time the thought of guzzling some alcohol was alluring.
 
“Never?” she wondered out loud, aiming a raised brow in his direction. “Oh man, you’ve really missed out on something. Now I really hope AJ brought a barrel.”
 
He could see her licking her lips with her tongue again in excitement and had to chuckle at the image. It must be really good if it gets her that excited. Oh well, I’ll see it soon; the town’s not too far away, he thought as he turned his gaze up ahead again and saw the outskirts of the town in the distance, just shy over a kilometer away.
 
“Are you always so… thoughtful?” he could hear Rainbow asking from the side. Again he looked at her; she was somehow managing to hover vertically. Her body was turned towards him, yet she flew to the left when flapping her wings. He was so confused at the strange act that it took him a moment to reply.
 
“I’ve heard that a few times in the past already,” he replied and shifted his view again to avoid being confused. “It only happens sometimes, mostly when I’m trying to solve a problem or I get thrown into a new situation. I tend to zone out then. Sorry about that, I don’t want you to think it’s because I’m bored or something.” Although it happens more often when I’m bored, he added in his thoughts but kept that part to himself. Being bored was not a very common state he had found himself in ever since he came here. The battle between the fear and anxiety of never returning home and the excitement of adventure had been ongoing ever since the visit to Canterlot, with each side shifting in force. As of now, he was cautiously optimistic. While the chances of success of finding a spell were dim, he also knew that he could not contribute to a solution in any way and therefore tried to make the best out of what he had now. And right now, that looked like partying and drinking with colorful little magical horsies. I’ll drink to that!
 
“Too much on your mind?” Rainbow inquired, scoffing and waving a hoof in casual dismissal of his words, all the while managing to keep herself steady while flying alongside him. “Tell me about it! But I’ve the perfect solution to that!”
 
He raised his brow in confusion. From what he had heard and seen so far, Rainbow Dash spent most of her time either sleeping or flying, and even though he didn’t want to sound disrespectful, he couldn’t quite imagine how many things would be on her mind. “And that is?” he wondered, trying not to sound a bit sarcastic. Fifty bucks on flying, he bet himself.
 
“Flying, of course,” she simply replied, bringing a sly grin to his face. “Soaring through the skies, feeling the wind underneath your wings, going faster and faster, faster than anypony else… it makes you feel alive.” He looked over to her as she continued talking. She slowed down in speed a bit and had a thoughtful look on her face. He slowed down as well and waited for her to continue talking, curious about what flying meant to her. “You can think about nothing else, just focus on flying, the flapping of your wings, using the airstreams to make you go even faster, and when you look back at the ground, everything has become so tiny. It really puts things into perspective and always makes me think about if—” She had suddenly stopped mid-sentence and quickly shook her head. Steve wondered what was wrong, but before he could ask, she continued talking again. “Uhm, yeah… it’s pretty cool,” she said awkwardly. He wondered why she stopped so suddenly. “Anyways, I’ll just go flying if something’s on my mind. That or sleeping.” She laughed loudly, and Steve joined in with a giggle.
 
Pretty much what I expected, he thought but still pondered about her sudden stop. Was she afraid of sounding like a philosopher because that isn’t very cool? Or was it something she’s embarrassed about? Steve wondered. “That sounds good, but juuust in case you haven’t noticed, I have no wings, making flying a bit hard for me,” he noted, a hint of humor leaking into his voice.
 
“Oh yeah, I forgot that.” Rainbow replied and grinned sheepishly. “Anyways, soon you’ll have other things to think about! Look, we’re almost there!”
 
He looked around and noticed that they were at the entrance of the town already. As with most of his visits, the town was almost deserted. That didn’t have to mean anything bad, however. He saw a few ponies walking through the streets, not enough as earlier today but still more than usual. Why do I even expect to see more of them on the streets? There are about… what did Twilight say? Three hundred? It would be more unrealistic to see many more of them right now, especially if they are practically all invited to this party, if Pinkie Pie was not using metaphors all the time. Somehow I doubt that though.


A few minutes later, Sugarcube Corner came into their sight, a building so unique it would have been impossible to miss. He threw a quick glance at his watch. Five to seven. Almost perfectly on time, he thought with a satisfied smile while they were approaching the bakery. From the outside he couldn’t see any difference to it, though he could make out some shadowy figures on the other side of the windows. The warm light from the bakery reached down onto the streets, illuminating the both of them. By now the sun was so low that it was casting long shadows from the surrounding buildings, engulfing the street in a dim darkness.
 
The two walked over to the door, which was closed. Unsure whether to just enter or knock, he stuck with the latter and raised his hand. His fist was a few centimeters from making contact with the pink wooden door before it swung open, revealing a pony of the same color behind it.
 
“HEYA STEVE! HEYA DASHIE!” Pinkie cheered excitedly, wrapping a hoof around their necks and pulling them inside. The force of her tug was so strong that he would have surely fallen over if he hadn’t been held in a bone crushing hug that made the air in his lungs quickly fade away.
 
“Pinkie… stop….” he managed to press out from underneath the pressure.
 
“Oops, sorry!” she said sheepishly and quickly released him. Stumbling backwards a bit, he was able to quickly catch his breath again, and now saw that Rainbow Dash had to endure the same procedure as him; the pegasus also looking quite relieved that it was over. “I was just so happy that you two made it! I was so excited that I could have just burst!” A few streamers and some confetti flew out of her hair as she said the last part while jumping through the air. “Ohhhh, that’s where I left them,” she noted as she saw the decorations flying around and made a noise that sounded like a giggle and a snort combined, which Steve instantly found adorable.
 
Steve threw a confused look at her and then over to Rainbow Dash, who just shrugged when she noticed his stare. “Umm, yeah. Of course we’d make it, Pinkie,” Rainbow replied for them, running her hoof across her chest to soothe the pain and unruffle her feathers and mane that Pinkie’s cheerful greeting had made into an even more dishevelled state than usual.
 
“Well I know that now! I was just so worried. What if you got lost? What if you forgot? What if you overslept? What if something happened on the way and nopony knew what happened and everypony thought you wouldn’t come to my party because you didn’t like me and—”
 
“Pinkie!” Rainbow loudly interrupted the rambling pony’s almost endless stream of words.
 
“Oops, sorry,sorry,” she apologized once more, catching herself again and giving a small smile this time. “I’m just happy that you made it. Now you’ll finally get your party!”
 
“Thanks, Pinkie. I’m glad to be here.” Steve returned her smile. He truly meant what he said. Even though he had had his misgivings about attending a party in his honour, not being the type of person that thrived on attention, he found it hard not to be caught up in Pinkie’s enthusiasm.


He eagerly looked around to see what Pinkie Pie had prepared. She had really outdone herself from what he could see so far. The large room that only had a few tables scattered through it the last time he was here was completely rearranged. The small tables were gone, replaced by multiple, significantly larger ones, lined up together at the side of the room where the windows were.  Most of them held the plethora of food and drinks she had prepared. Indeed, he could hardly believe his eyes at the sight of all the treats she had on display. Cakes and pies in all forms, colors, and sizes took up most of the space, demanding his worship, taunting him with their arrogant delectability. But there was still more. Between the large cakes were various trays filled up with different snacks. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make out from afar what exactly they were, but he was sure to find out later. His stomach insisted on it, promising vile retribution if he dared do otherwise. Four large bowls of punch promised refreshments for the guests.
 
On the opposite wall some curtains he hadn’t noticed during his first brief visit were pulled back, revealing two larger booths embedded into the wall with a large couch encircling a round table. The middle of the room was empty aside from a gramophone that was perched upon a small stool between the two booths. There was only one thing he could tell that was truly missing from such a setting. Ponies.
 
There were only about a dozen ponies in the room, which wasn’t a bad thing for him by any means, but he had expected more. From the usual group of ponies, he could only spot two more. That included Twilight, who had noticed the newcomers and was gesturing to them, two other ponies at her side - Applejack and a beige earth pony. As they drew nearer, he could see that the strange pony had a bright grey mane and was wearing a saddlebag on her back. With the small glasses that balanced perfectly on her muzzle, she was also one of the few ponies he saw here in Ponyville that actually wore any kind of accessory.
 
In the second group, he could see the back of a large, red stallion with an orange mane and a wooden yoke. That must be Big Mac then. Haven’t seen any pony to match his size yet, he thought, looking over to three little ponies - fillies, he reminded himself - that were sitting on the opposite side of the table, barely able to look over its edge. He couldn’t quite see it clearly from where he was standing, but it seemed like they were snickering. For some reason it sounded ominous, and he had to suppress an unintentional shudder.
 
The last pony in the room was a grey pegasus mare with a blond mane standing at the buffet. She seemed to be busy eating something she held in her hoof, but he couldn’t make out what exactly it was from so far away. She did seem pretty excited by it though, judging from the way her wings were fluttering, which caused her to lift off into the air before landing to grab and munch on something else.
 
“Don’t worry, more ponies will come. They always do. It’s not even seven o’ clock yet!” Pinkie said as she noticed him looking around at the sparsely populated room. He looked back at her, and though she sounded cheerful enough, her eyes were rapidly wandering around, and her smile didn’t seem to be as bright as usual. In fact, Steve dared to imagine that it had shrunk somewhat since they arrived.
 
Before he got the chance to reply, however, the first group of ponies he had seen stopped in front of him. “Howdy you two.” Applejack greeted them with the tip of her hat before turning to Pinkie Pie. “See Pinkie? Told ya they were gonna show up. Wasn’t no need to panic.” Pinkie sat listlessly in front of the door again and stared at it, seemingly willing to remain in that position until the next party guest arrived. She didn’t even seem to notice that Applejack was saying something.
 
“Hello Steve. Glad that you came,” she greeted him, her eyes falling on Rainbow Dash. “Good to see you here too Dash, though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re actually early for a Pinkie party.” Applejack smirked, nudging the pegasus in the side playfully with her hoof. Before they could return the greeting or retort, in Rainbow Dash’s case, she pointed at the pony standing next to her, who was looking on at their interaction keenly. “Steve, I would like to introduce you to Miss Mayor Mare. Mayor Mare, this is Steve, the human I told you about.”
 
Mayor Mare? Is that seriously her name? Do they ever bother taking a stab at originality or unpredictability every now and again? “Hello, how do you do?” he held out a hand, but she only stepped back instinctively, looking at him with confusion. He let his hand drop to his side quickly before he made things even more awkward. “Ahem… so, let me guess, you’re the mayor?” he asked rhetorically, hoping to move things along.
 
“Yes, that’s right. A fine hello to you, Mr Steve. I finally get to meet the new resident of our small town, even if it is one who err… is from so far away. I apologize it took so long for this meeting, but my schedule was very tight the last couple of days,” she said quickly and ended with an awkward laugh. “Twilight has told me a lot about you already, and even though you have been here for a few days, you have not officially been welcomed to the town yet. And what better welcome could one get than a Pinkie Pie party?”
 
“None, from what I’ve heard so far,” he replied and looked around at the almost empty room again.
 
“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I hope we can discuss something a bit more serious.” She straightened herself, peering up at him from behind her glasses. “I have been informed that you will be enjoying an… extended stay in and around Ponyville, and even though it was on short notice,” she said the last part in mild annoyance, “I have organised and drawn up a permanent visa,” she pulled out a sealed scroll from her saddlebags, which she then gingerly handed over to him, making sure that her hoof never came into contact with his hand. “This document will allow you to legally reside within our town’s jurisdiction, along with the provision of various other privileges and rights. You can read it all in there if you so desire. The document will become valid as soon as you attach your signature and return it to either me or my office, where it will be processed and approved.”
 
He looked up from the ponies to the scroll in his hand, breaking the seal that held it together and then unrolled it. It was so long that the other end almost touched the ground. “Uhhh,” he murmured intelligently while skimming over the first few lines. Now that he was reading a longer text for the first time, he noticed that the ponies even used the same English letters here just like on Earth, even though they made use of pictograms quite often. How they could speak and write the same language as humans was a mystery, but one for another day. “Thanks for that, I guess,” he said, more to himself than anyone in the group, still skimming through the document.
 
“It was my idea,” Twilight threw in, stepping forward to stand next to the mayor. “It wasn’t until today that I realized that you were not officially allowed residence here in Ponyville, even though you’re living in the Everfree forest. So I pulled some strings, helped the mayor organise the paperwork, and now everything is settled.”
 
He looked up from the scroll and saw Twilight beaming at him and looking quite proud of herself. “Umm, thanks for that. I will look at it tomorrow though, if you don’t mind,” he replied, rolling up the scroll again.
 
“That’s perfectly fine. I think in your special case we can make an exception,” the mayor agreed.
 
“Great… now where I can put this? I don’t really want to carry it around the whole evening. It is a bit big,” he pointed out, hefting the scroll in his hand.
 
“I will take care of it,” Twilight said. In the next moment, her horn began to glow, and the scroll in his hand was encased in the same purple light that always appeared when he saw her casting magic. He could feel the power of her magic as the scroll was pulled out of his hand, sending a strange prickling feeling shooting across his hand and up his entire arm, almost as if he had fallen asleep on it. The feeling remained for a few seconds after the scroll had left his hand, before it slowly faded away. Curious, he looked at his hand and stretched his fingers a few times, but he could see no visible change to them, though he could feel some phantom tingling every now and again.
 
“Okay, I put… is everything alright?” he heard Twilight ask, causing him to look up from his hand. Only now did he notice that they had all been watching him while he had stared in fascination at his hand and wiggled his fingers.
 
“Uhm…” he began and awkwardly looked around at the mostly confused faces of the other ponies. “It’s just that this was the first time I ever felt your magic directly. It feels really… weird.”
 
Immediately, and without saying a word, Twilight grabbed his arms and pulled them towards her. Inquisitively, she looked at them from up close, turning them around a bit, and let out a contemplative sigh.

“Err…. Twilight? What are you doing?” he carefully tried to pull his arm back, but the pony’s grip was surprisingly firm.
 
“Oops, sorry.” Twilight grinned sheepishly, quickly releasing his arm. “I just wanted to make sure everything is alright. I have never tested the influence of magic on humans. This is just so exciting! Tell me exactly what you felt.” A wide, excited grin appeared on her face and she looked at him expectantly. “Please,” she added quickly, seeing his reluctance, “It’s for science!”
 
“Alright, alright, I think we’ll just leave you two babbling about yer fancy magic while we get something to eat,” Applejack said, stepping forward and effectively interrupting the conversation before Steve could give an answer to the unicorn’s passionate plea. “You should eat something too, Dash. You don’t want me to drink you under the table again if you go in unprepared again, do you?” Applejack nudged the pegasus once again, much to her annoyance. Steve turned to her in mild surprise; he had almost forgotten about Rainbow Dash standing slightly behind him. In his defence, he had never seen her remain so quiet for so long a period of time.
 
“Oh, it is on!” Rainbow glared at her, a determined grin on her face as they left, making a beeline towards the buffet, leaving Steve, Twilight, and Mayor Mare behind.
 
“Well, I don’t want to get in your way then. I’ll just go…” the mayor slowly backed away from them and looked at Pinkie Pie, who was still sitting in front of the door, staring at it. “… over there! Yes, right there,” she continued, pointing at the single grey pegasus at the other side of the room who seemed to be chasing her own tail for some reason.
 
He watched, bemused as the mayor scooted off, before he felt a tug on his hand and turned towards Twilight again. “So? What did you feel? Did it hurt? When did the feeling start? Did it get more intense over time and fade off again or was it there with full intensity the whole time? What…” she kept babbling on, giving him no time to answer before she finally realized and stopped herself. “Sorry,” she grinned again, her eyes sparkling with excitement.
 
“Hehe, no problem,” he waved it off. At least her enthusiasm seemed limited to one area as opposed to Pinkie Pie, who he guessed could find something to be thrilled about while watching paint dry on a wall. “It’s the first time I felt it, I think it’s because I directly touched the scroll while you had it in your magic. My arm started tingling like I had slept on it for a while. The numbness faded away a few seconds after the contact was broken. Feels perfectly normal now.” He waved his arm in front of her face.
 
“Hmm,” she slowly said and tapped her forehoof against her chin. “If the effect was not intended, then you shouldn’t have been able to even feel magic. At least, that is how it works on ponies and other beings here in Equestria, and I did not even target something at you directly. Even wild animals, as far as I know, don’t actually feel magic like you described,”
 
“And what does that mean for me now?” he asked, starting to feel a twinge a worry creep over him at the serious look on Twilight’s face.
 
“I can’t tell. Like I said, a phenomenon like this doesn’t usually happen here. I would have to run some more tests,” she replied slowly and peeked at his arm again, pensively tapping her hoof against it.
 
“Tests?” he asked carefully, not liking how ominous that word seemed to sound. “You don’t mean that you’re actually going to cast some spell at me and see what will happen, right?”
 
“Why not? That would be the easiest way to gather empirical data. Just imagine how much we could learn from that. For now, it seems that you could be vulnerable to magic, but you could also work as an amplifier,” she explained quickly, hoping to get him to share her excitement. However, the thought of him being used as her lab rat for some magic experiments wasn’t exactly a comforting thought for him at the moment.
 
“I don’t know Twilight, don’t you think it’s a bit dangerous?” he asked and gave her a doubtful look, hoping she wouldn’t push the topic.
 
She seemed to consider it for a moment, judging by the thoughtful look on her face. “Maybe a little,” she admitted after a while, looking a bit saddened at the thought. “I guess you don’t want to take the risk then?”
 
“Not particularly, but maybe we’ll find another way that doesn’t sound too dangerous,” he proposed. “But right now,” he looked around for a moment, “I would rather enjoy this party instead of thinking how to run some tests.”
 
“Oh, of course,” she agreed, perking up a bit, though she still had a small frown on her face. “I hope more ponies are coming. This is extremely unusual for a Pinkie—”
 
Twilight was interrupted by the sound of the door being slammed open and a faint yelp as Pinkie Pie, who had been sitting on the floor next to them the entire time, suddenly pounced on the newcomer.
 
“P-Pinkie… can’t breathe... please….” They could hear a muffled voice from underneath Pinkie Pie pleading with her.
 
“FLUTTERSHY!” Pinkie squealed in excitement at the yellow pegasus below her before moving off of her, squeezing her tightly and then releasing her, causing her to look around nervously and confused. Twilight shook her head as she met her look, silently telling the newcomer that she should not question what was going on, not that Fluttershy needed any reminding.
 
“Uhm… yes, Pinkie? I’m sorry for being so late, I just was so caught up with preparing dinner for all the critters that I barely got here in time,” she whispered while slowly getting up from the ground where Pinkie had dumped her upon releasing her. “Hi,” she said quietly in the direction of Twilight and Steve.
 
“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight said to her pink friend, who had returned to her spot and resumed staring at the door again. “Do you maybe want to join us and get some snacks?” She waited for a few seconds but no reply came. “Pinkie?” she repeated.
 
“Later. Have to welcome the guests first.” A short reply came this time, her eyes not leaving the door for a moment.


Twilight looked worriedly at Fluttershy, who returned the look before gesturing at Pinkie Pie. “I think it might be for the best if we just let her do it for a while longer. At least until Rarity arrives,” Fluttershy whispered to Twilight so quietly that she had to strain to understand what Fluttershy was saying. Meanwhile, Steve looked around the sparse room and at the few ponies mingling with one another, wondering if they knew what was going on with Pinkie Pie.
 
Twilight nodded shortly and motioned for her two companions to follow her as she headed towards the buffet. Once they were a suitable distance from Pinkie, and the sounds of the conversations their friends were having could prevent her from overhearing them, they could talk freely. “What is going on with her?” Steve looked back at Pinkie Pie. She had slumped down onto the floor now, almost looking… defeated. In his admittedly brief time he had known her, he had never seen her looking anything but cheerful.
 
The two ponies looked at each other, and Fluttershy nodded. Twilight turned towards Steve and said, “Well, Pinkie is very… joyful most of the time, so on the few occasions when she isn’t it can be… worrisome for us. Right now, the fact that almost nopony has showed up for the party so far is hurting her.” Twilight’s ears folded back as she looked to the floor, her frown growing larger. “You should have seen how excited she was earlier when I arrived. She was singing about how she happy she would be introducing you to all her other friends. And now, she’s like this.” She sighed, running a hoof through her mane distractedly. “I’m not talking about the usual disappointment one would feel either. When Pinkie gets sad… it’s almost as if she falls into depression.”
 
He threw a worried look over to Pinkie Pie; the mare seemed to be frozen in place as she kept her vigil. “That sounds awful. Shouldn’t we help her somehow?”
 
“Yes,” Fluttershy softly agreed, “but we should wait until Rarity is here to show her that at least all her best friends have come.”
 
Steve didn’t seem quite convinced. Seeing Pinkie’s usual happy spirit drain away made him sad as well, especially now that he saw how much she had pulled off for this party in the short amount of time she had since earlier that day. For some reason, he felt a small ball of discomfort growing in his stomach, gripping and twisting his insides. “Hmm… if you think it’s for the best,” he said, uncertainty lacing his voice.
 
“I would rather do something now, but Fluttershy is right. It’s not easy to convince Pinkie of something when she is in this mood, and we should wait until we are all here,” Twilight declared, sounding resolute in her statement. Steve wished he could be as confident as that right now. “But you shouldn’t worry about that tonight. Enjoy the party. We will handle Pinkie Pie,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. To Steve, it rang just the tiniest bit hollow.
 
As much as he would have liked to simply enjoy this evening, there was still one question that was bothering him as he dragged out a chair that was much too small for his frame and struggled to squeeze himself on it. “How come so few of the townsfolk have shown up? From what I have heard, Pinkie’s parties are famous, and when I walked through town earlier today, the ponies didn’t seem to be bothered by me in any way. I would have understood that in the first few days I was here, but I thought they had gotten over it?”
 
Twilight sighed, a long, drawn out exhalation that seemed to destroy the veneer of cheerfulness she had been trying to display earlier. In its place was a mare that looked frustrated and forlorn. “I don’t know how things are for humans, Steve. There are a lot of things I don’t know about your kind because you haven’t really told me anything.” For a second, she seemed to glare at him harshly, but she was back to looking completely stressed out so quickly that Steve had to do a double take to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “What I can tell you from my observations and personal e-experience,” her voice faltered slightly as she uttered her last words; she shook her head and continued, “is that ponies usually don’t react or adjust to sudden changes well. And you are an alien, Steve.” She trotted up to him and hesitantly placed a hoof on his hand. For once, he didn’t mind sudden bodily contact. “I didn’t want to tell you this so, I guess bluntly is the word I’m looking for, especially during your first Pinkie party, but…. although most ponies are no longer completely scared of you like they used to be, it will take a long while for them to completely overcome these fears. Until then, I’m afraid they are going to avoid you. Do you remember what I told you about Zecora?” she asked softly.


“The zebra?” he muttered after a moment of thinking.  It was hard trying to focus on something she had told him a few days ago, after she had just bluntly told him that the entire town was avoiding him. While their initial reaction wasn’t to be totally unexpected – he might have had a similar response if he had seen an alien casually walking through his home back on Earth – but it was hard to shake that sudden, lonely feeling of being labelled as an almost total outcast.
 
“Yes, the zebra. A zebra is far more similar to a pony than a human, and even then, Zecora needed a lot of time for us ponies to drop our initial fear of her. I’m not even sure all of them have. I know there are still some stores that close any time she comes into town.” She explained with a shake of her head. “To be honest, I did not expect many ponies to show up, although a bit more than that,” she admitted and looked around the almost empty room. “I hope a few more will come a bit later. It is just barely past seven.”
 
“I don’t really mind that much if not that many show up. I don’t like large crowds much.” Well, that was only half true. While he didn’t really like large gatherings, he didn’t want them to disappear because of his presence.  “I just… feel really bad for Pinkie.” And that, he realized, was the crux of the matter, the thing that left him feeling so uncomfortable. Though eccentric and overly energetic, Pinkie Pie had probably done the most to make him feel welcome in Ponyville. Just looking at what she had done to the room with the gaily colored decorations, the amount of food and snacks she had probably spent her entire evening baking, caused a brief surge of anger to flow through his body when he thought about everything going to waste. I think I remember Pinkie saying that everyone in town was her friend. Can’t say I can see it from tonight, he thought, the good mood he had arrived with threatening to make an early exit.
 
“I know, so do I. But she would definitely want you, and us, to enjoy this party.” Twilight’s voice broke through his muddled thoughts. She was giving him a look of concern, the stressed out and tired looking pony from before gone. “We will cheer her up as soon as we can. For now, all I can say is try not to think about it too much. So, what do you say we do this for Pinkie?” She gave him a bright smile, though he could detect a certain amount of steely determination that lay behind it.
 
He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up slightly. “I guess so.” While their conversation had soured him somewhat, just thinking about Pinkie’s reaction if her guest of honour didn’t enjoy himself made him feel uneasy. He gave Twilight a smile to reassure her, and she trotted past them. Steve wiggled out of the chair, having to struggle a bit as it briefly stuck to him, and made to follow the unicorn. Before he could get too far though, he felt something poking his sides, causing him to turn around. Fluttershy scrambled back as he turned around to face her, the pegasus looking abashed. He thought she might have wandered off as he was talking to Twilight, but it seemed she was listening all this time.
“Umm… Are y-you going to be okay?” she asked, peering at him hesitantly from beneath her silky mane. “I hope you d-don’t hate everypony in Ponyville now,” she whispered, looking downcast.
 
Trying to break my heart, Fluttershy? he silently asked her. She could cause Ebenezer Scrooge’s heart to melt with pity with the way she was looking at him. His own heart seemed to stop momentarily. “Of course I don’t hate everyone,” he reassured her. He really didn’t. Their avoidance of him wasn’t enough to make him truly dislike them. “As for being okay… yeah, I will be.” That was a half-truth. He didn’t hate them, but he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel. For now though, he would have to try and brush aside his misgivings, for Pinkie Pie’s sake.
 
“Oh, that’s g-good.” Instantly, the sad pegasus was replaced by a gently smiling Fluttershy. It made Steve feel better about lying to her. “Just remember that you can always talk to me… if you want to.” She pawed at the ground nervously, peering up at him. “I’m a good listener. W-Well, at least my friends think so.” She smiled shyly at him.
 
“I’ll be sure to pick you up on that some time.” He wasn’t going to unless he couldn’t help it. He was sure that she was busy taking care of her animals; he wasn’t about to needlessly add to her burden, especially if it was something they couldn’t help fix. “Should we go join Twilight?” he asked, looking to turn the conversation solidly in another direction.
 
To his relief, she meekly nodded, and they walked over to where Twilight was perusing the mountains of food that Pinkie had provided for her guests. She motioned them over to her. “Look at all this delicious food... I’ve barely eaten anything since lunch, I can’t wait much longer to get something to eat here.” Her growling stomach supported her words causing her to giggle, a light blush appearing on her cheeks. “Hmmm, I think I’ll have some hay fries,” she said and her horn began to glow.
 
Steve looked over to the tables that held the buffet and saw a large bowl next to him glow in purple light and its contents, which looked to be something that resembled fried chips, emerged out of it. Twilight levitated the food over to herself and ate a few of the hay fries, as she called them, with a satisfied smile. Curiously, he took a single fry out of the bowl and held it closer for inspection. It was about the length of his index finger and very warm, but not too hot to burn his hand, and also very thin. The color, which he expected to be yellow, was a dark orange. A quick sniff at it gave no smell away. He shrugged and popped it in his mouth. It was tasteless. So it really is just fried hay, he thought, grimacing slightly as he searched for a napkin where he could safely dispose of the remains.
 
Finding one, he made sure no one would see him spit the chewed up remains into it. Maybe hay was tasty for the ponies, but he preferred something else, preferably something that would agree with his stomach. He found a pile of plates in one corner and began to move along the tables, scooping everything that looked appealing onto his plate. Tasting one of the cakes, he was once again reminded of how considerate Pinkie was – she had made sure to use less sugar in them so he could eat it. At the middle of the second table, however, he noticed that his plate was already overloaded. That should do. For now. He turned away from the mountain of food, heading towards the booth the other ponies sat in.
 

***

 
“Aww… don’t be like that. We’ve seen you two going to picnics and stuff. Ya can finally admit it that yer really datin’.” Apple Bloom pointed at the two adult ponies across the table who sat a comfortable distance from each other as they awkwardly tried to avoid each other’s gazes.
 
“Girls…” Cheerilee sighed and turned towards the three little fillies that had been intent on watching Big Macintosh and herself with wide grins ever since they had arrived here at the party. Pinkie Pie had dropped by after classes had finished and handed her an invitation to one of her parties, it had sounded like a lovely idea for her to come here, especially after she found out Big Macintosh would be attending. There was nothing official between the two of them yet, but after the fillies had tried to set them up a while ago, they did start to do more things together – having a picnic occasionally at Sweet Apple Acres, Big Macintosh often swinging by the schoolhouse to help her, sometimes even before she knew she needed it.

Slowly but steadily, they had grown more and more accustomed to each other until they reached the point where they thought of each other as more than just friends. As things stood, neither of them wanted to miss out on a chance to spend an evening together. They rarely found time to spend with each other, with both of them working during the day, and Big Macintosh often being very exhausted after a whole day out in the orchard bucking apples or doing repairs around the farm. Until the two of them could firmly acknowledge and agree that there was something serious between them, they didn’t want to reveal their budding relationship to the public. After all, some ponies couldn’t help but stick their noses in other ponies’ business, good intentions or not. However, apparently neither she nor Big Macintosh could hide it from the three, more than just curious fillies that immediately took a seat next to them after they had arrived at the party. She couldn’t blame them though; they had put a lot of effort into getting them together the last time and were surely happy to see that it worked out in the end.
 
Still, she had to at least try to cut them off before their enthusiasm went too far. “Haven’t you three learned anything from the last time? Remember that these are the kinds of things left to the ponies involved, and that you should give them time?” she lectured.
 
“Yes, Miss Cheerilee. Sorry, Miss Cheerilee,” Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle disappointedly chanted in unison and turned their gazes downwards. They couldn’t wipe the grin off their faces, however, as they exchanged some quick glances between each other.
 
“Very good, girls. I have to say that I’m rather surprised to see you here in the first place. It is quite a late party for such little ponies, don’t you think?” she asked and carefully looked at the snickering fillies.
 
“But don’t you know who this party is for?” Scootaloo piped up and met her teacher’s confused face.
 
“Pinkie only said something about a new friend, but I suppose it’s going to be that human, right?” she guessed.
 
“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied shortly and nodded.
 
“I have to admit, I’m a little curious to see what he… it’s a him, right?” She stopped for a moment and after seeing Big Mac nodding again, she continued, “To see what he really looks like. With all the rumors spreading around at school, it makes it hard to separate the truth from the wild imaginations of various colts and fillies. Though some of their parents aren’t much better,” she added dryly before focusing on the three fillies that seemed determined to add excitement into her life when she desired none. “But that makes it even more questionable that you came here. All I’ve heard from the others was that some weird monster from the sky now lives in the forests and eats little foals with his sharp teeth. Total nonsense of course if you ask me, but the others at school seemed so scared of him.”
 
“That’s why we’re all here,” Apple Bloom spoke for the group. “Ya know how much we value community here in Ponyville, and we’re gonna welcome him appropriately.” She and her friends aimed their most innocent smiles that had devastated the hearts of ponies across Ponyville. Unfortunately, their teacher had developed a resistance to such displays over time.
 
Instead, Cheerilee simply cast a dubious look in their direction. “Just don’t do any of your crazy crusading things on him.” Cheerilee told them sternly.
 
“Us?” Sweetie Belle chirped with exaggerated surprise and pointed a hoof at her own chest. “We would never do something like that,” she added determinedly and shook her head, causing both adults to roll their eyes.
                                                                  
“No, of course not. It is not like we’ve ever experienced what you three are capable of, right, Big Macintosh?” Cheerilee asked, a light giggle escaping her as turned towards her companion for the night.
 
“Nope,” the stallion replied and returned the look with a soft smile on his usually motionless face.
 
The grin on the fillies’ faces widened again as the two ponies began to scoot a bit closer together.
 
“Hey, look at the door!” Scootaloo suddenly hissed to her friends while she pointed over to the entrance. “That must be him.”
 
Her two friends immediately looked away from the scene of the soon-to-be couple showing their affection to each other, instead peeking over at the door.
 
“Positive contact,” Apple Bloom quickly confirmed, nodding her head resolutely. “See the clothes he’s wearing! And two legs! Two! I told ya!”
 
“Alright, what’s the next step in the plan? Getting in here was surprisingly easy, I didn’t think your sisters would let you come. Now what?” Scootaloo asked and expectantly looked over at Sweetie Belle.
 
“I’ve got it all here,” she said and pulled out a small notebook from underneath the table. She skimmed over a few pages until she found what she was looking for. “Ahh, here we go. Step one, accire… wait, that’s a mistake. Do you girls know how to spell acquire?”
 
Scootaloo and Apple Bloom rolled their eyes. “Ah don’t care ‘bout step one, we’ve already done that. Go to step two!” Apple Bloom ordered harshly.
 
“Alright, alright,” Sweetie Belle snapped back. “Step two… observe the alien.”
 
“That’s all?” Scootaloo asked and raised her brow.
 
“Umm… yes,” Sweetie Belle replied after she skimmed over the lines one more time. “See?” she asked and held the notepad in front of Scootaloo’s muzzle. “Why are you so surprised? We made this plan altogether. Did you forget that already?”
 
“Argh, forget the notes, we have to improvise,” Scootaloo decided after she read the two lines of text on the page of the notepad that was otherwise only filled with doodles.
 
“But how? What should we d— AHH!” Sweetie Belle yelped as a hoof wrapped around her neck and pulled her underneath the table. “What the hay was that for, Apple Bloom?!” She pointed at her earth pony friend and rubbed the back of her neck where she had been grabbed.
 
“He was looking over here. We can’t risk blowing our cover now,” she hissed at her two friends and motioned them to stay hidden. Slowly, she moved over to the corner of the booth and quickly sneaked a peak. “Alright, he’s still at the entrance talking with the mayor and Twilight. Come on, girls. We have to reposition!” she ordered her friends and they swiftly ran alongside the wall until they reached the area behind the counter near the entrance.
 
“Did he see us?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her voice filled with fear.
 
“I don’t think so,” Apple Bloom replied and sneaked another peak around the counter. “Nope, doesn’t look like it; he’s still talking with Twilight. Good work, Crusaders.”
 
“Now what?” Sweetie Belle wanted to know. “We can’t just hide behind here.”
 
The three fillies sat down in a circle, each of them tapping a hoof against their chins while trying to come up with an idea. “I got it!” Scootaloo cheered excitedly, her wings fluttering briefly. The expectant eyes of her two friends immediately rested upon her. “Apple Bloom, lift me up so I can look through the glass of the counter. I’ll tell you everything I see, and Sweetie Belle can write it down,” she explained hastily.
 
“Urgh, why do I have to carry you? Can’t you just look around the counter?” Apple Bloom retorted, sounding annoyed at the idea of having her friend stand on her.
 
“No way,” Scootaloo replied and shook her head. “If he looks over, he’ll immediately see me if I look around, but I’m hidden this way. You’re also the strongest of us. Or do you have a better idea?”
 
“Argh… no,” Apple Bloom grumbled after a while and positioned herself at the counter, waiting for the orange filly to climb upon her back. “Just hurry up, will ya?”
 
Sweetie Belle, with pen and paper ready, watched excitedly as Scootaloo carefully climbed upon Apple Bloom’s back. “Oof, ya shouldn’t have eaten so many hay fries. Yer heavy!” Apple Bloom complained with a muffled voice as soon as the pegasus’ full weight was placed upon her.
 
“Hey! I’m still lighter than you,” Scootaloo hissed down at her.
 
“Are ya saying I’m fat?” Apple Bloom snarled and slowly lifted herself off the ground so that Scootaloo’s head was at the same height as the glass vitrine of the counter, where she could look through beneath a chocolate cake and some muffins to spot the human.
 
“Uhm… no… I….” Scootaloo stammered. “I found him! Sweetie Belle, get ready,” she ordered, relieved about the distraction. “Wow…”
 
“What?” Apple Bloom grumbled. “What do ya see?”
 
“He’s… eating hay fries?” Scootaloo explained, surprise evident in her voice.
 
“Hay fries?” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom chorused, confused. They figured the alien ate snails or boogers. Something ordinary like hay fries never crossed their minds.
 
“Yes, hay. And he’s grabbing them with his claws. Write that down, write that down! He’s eating hay!” Scootaloo quickly ordered Sweetie Belle, who scribbled the notes down. “He’s walking again. Heh, that’s some funny walk. Only one leg moves at a time; it looks like he’s always going to fall down. Now he’s… oh, ew! He’s spitting out the hay fry into a napkin! Guess he doesn’t eat hay after all… He’s going to… oh shoot.”
 
“What?” both her friends piped up in unison once again.
 
Carefully, Scootaloo stepped off from Apple Bloom’s back. “I can’t see him from here. He’s in the other booth with Rainbow and her friends,” she told them.
 
“Dang it! Now what?” Apple Bloom asked around.
 
“We have to move, of course. If he’s going to brainwash anypony, we have to catch him in the act. So far everypony seems normal, but who knows when he’s going to try some of his funny business,” Scootaloo replied quickly. “We can hide underneath the buffet. Maybe he’ll be too distracted to see us on the way.”
 
“Alright, Crusaders! Move out!” Apple Bloom ordered and swiftly dashed around the counter, her friends closely behind her.
 

***

 
Careful not to drop anything, he carried his plate over to their table and took a free seat next to Applejack. He looked around, spotting Twilight and Fluttershy again, who were quicker in filling their plates than him and now sat next to Rainbow Dash, Mayor Mare and the unknown pegasus he had seen before. “Mhh… looking good what ya got there,” Applejack said between two bites from an apple pie as she threw over a look from her already almost empty plate.
 
“I hope it tastes good too,” he added, his mouth began watering while he decided what to try first. “Oh, that reminds me,” he said a bit louder, and the ponies looked up from their meals. “I just wanted to thank you for the care package you left me. It was amazing and greatly improved the quality of my supplies. I sure hope it will last for a while, after eating some of your local food I just couldn’t go back to my regular rations.”
 
“Yer welcome,” Applejack replied for the group and gave him a pat on the back. “We all added something to it and hoped you’d like it.”
 
“I haven’t sampled everything yet, but it looked great during the unboxing. It was much appreciated,” he thanked them and looked around the group with a smile on his face. He stopped as his gaze went past the unknown pony. Her blond mane matched almost perfectly to her light brownish golden eyes. Her eyes caught his attention for a while, with one pointing at a plate filled with a few muffins in front of her, and the other pointing towards the ceiling. At the sight of the wall-eyed pegasus, he now realized that he had never seen a pony so far with any medical issues or visible illnesses, making him curious if their diseases were similar to the ones known on Earth. That thought also served to worry him a bit since he’d had so much contact with this alien planet that he could have easily caught an unknown virus that could’ve easily resulted in a painful death, seeing as his immune system would have unlikely been able to fight off any other-worldly pathogens. He shuddered a little at the thought and was relieved that so far nothing had happened to him. He shouldn’t have simply taken the entire environment as safe after checking the atmosphere and a few food samples. His thoughts would have kept drifting, but he didn’t want to zone out again, and he had already stared at the pegasus for a while now, luckily without her noticing.
 
“Hello...” he said to her. She looked up from the half-eaten muffin in her hoof, cocking her head to the side. “I don’t think we have met yet, I’m Steve.”
 
“Hi,” she replied with a warm smile, her voice raspy yet friendly. “I’m Derpy, or at least that’s what everypony calls me. You can call me that too, even though you’re not a pony.”
 
“Well, it’s nice of you to come, Derpy,” he replied and returned her smile.
 
“Pinkie makes very good muffins, and her parties are always so much fun. I wonder where all the other ponies are. Usually they’re all here. Maybe they got lost?” She looked around confusedly.
 
“I don’t kn—” he began but was interrupted by a loud scream from the door, causing all the ponies to raise their heads and look at the source of the sound.
 
“STAY AWAY, PINKIE PIE! YOU WILL NOT MESS UP MY MANE AGAIN!” That was clearly Rarity’s voice as she shouted at her pink friend, who was lying on the ground where Rarity must have stood only a split second ago. Apparently, she had tried to pull her into the same cheerful greeting all newcomers had to endure, but the fashionista had managed to sidestep just in time.

He glanced briefly at the other ponies at the table, and they nodded. Now that their usual group was all here, it was time to help Pinkie Pie. Leaving Derpy and the mayor behind at the table, the group made their way towards the door.
 
“Pinkie! We saw each other not even two hours ago. Don’t be so clingy now.” Rarity spoke in a more mild mannered voice this time as she had calmed herself down from the surprise attack. “Ah, I’m delighted to see you have all made it,” she said as she noticed her friends and shot them a confused look. “I do hope you can tell me what is going on here.”
 
Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the first to speak. “We think Pinkie… uhm… is going through one of her…. phases again,” she said quietly, pointing a delicate hoof around the room.
 
“Ohhh,” was all that escaped Rarity’s mouth as she saw how empty the room was and quickly picked up on what was bothering Pinkie Pie. “I understand.”
 
“We figured it would be best to wait for you so we could all deal with her at once.” Twilight now stepped in and pointed at Pinkie, who was back in her apathetic pose in front of the door, only her eyes twitching ever so slightly now and then.
 
“Alright,” Rarity agreed and cleared her throat before turning towards Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie darling, don’t you want to come over here with us?” No reply came. “You are missing out on your own wonderful party,” she added after a short moment, causing the otherwise so cheerful pony to turn her dismayed face towards them.
 
“How can it be a party if nopony comes to it?” she asked and hung her head, her eyes focused on the floorboards of Sugarcube Corner.
 
"Why, are you saying that I’m a nopony?” Rarity gasped in shock, causing Pinkie to shake her head furiously, not allowing her head to rise. “Oh, darling, don’t you see that we are here?” Rarity stepped in front of Pinkie Pie and lifted her head with her hooves, turning it to her group of friends, all returning her look with a genuine smile.
 
“But what about the others?” Pinkie retorted sullenly. “Don’t they like me anymore?”
 
“Don’t be silly, of course everypony loves you and your parties,” Rarity assured her and looked her straight in the eyes, daring the downcast mare to deny the sincerity within them.
 
“But why didn’t they come then? I wanted this to be the perfect welcoming party, but now it’s ruined.” Her gaze shifted towards Steve, a single tear forming in the corner of her eye.
 
Although he wanted to let the ponies resolve the conflict as they were more familiar with her behaviour, and he didn’t want to accidently cause more trouble than there was already, he couldn’t stand by and let Pinkie beat herself up over something that wasn’t really her fault. “Pinkie, it is perfect,” he said and stepped over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder while looking in her eyes.
 
“B-but I wanted you to meet everypony and have fun and… and…” she began but dropped off, now on the verge of bursting into tears, sniffling loudly.
 
“What do you think I would rather do? Spend an evening with a room full of ponies that, deep down, are still afraid of me, or an evening with the few ponies who have acted like true friends ever since I came here?” he asked and she returned his look, staring deep into his blue eyes. “For me, the choice is quite obvious, and I am happy with how it is now.”
 
"Really?" she sniffled, but the corners of her mouth formed a faint smile.
 
“Yes. I know it’s not what you had planned, but I can’t complain about it at all. Now come on, don’t be sad and enjoy the party.” Impulsively, he patted her mane like he would do to an actual horse. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind. In fact…
 
“AaaaalRIGHTY! Let’s get this party started!” she exclaimed, and in the blink of an eye, she was back to her usual hyper, energetic, cheerful self. Steve and the other ponies sighed with relief, happy that they were able to cheer her up so quickly. “Soooo... whatcha wanna do first? Play some games? How about ‘Pin the Tail on the Pony’? It’s my favorite! Or some dancing! Dancing is fun!” she spoke quickly, springing up from her sitting position on the floor and resuming the animated bouncing that only she seemed capable of.
 
“Easy there, sugarcube,” Applejack stepped in before Pinkie’s surge of enthusiasm threatened to blow them all away. “We’re all still eatin’. Why don’t ya join us, and we’ll think of something to do afterwards?”
 
“I could go for some chocolate muffins… mhhh… sweet, sweet, chocolatey muffins with creamy frosting…” she said more to herself than to the others, and Steve could see her mouth was watering, literally.
 
“Uh, Pinkie?” he asked her as she seemed lost in thought, and he could see some saliva dribbling out of her mouth. After waiting a short moment for a reply, he loudly snapped his fingers in front of her eyes, and she snapped back to normal. Well, normal for Pinkie Pie at least.
 
“Oh, right. Onwards!” she shouted and eagerly bounced towards the buffet. While she was busy shoveling more and more food on her plate, the others returned back to the table, their conversations more animated as they’d managed to cheer their friend up.
 
“Is she alright again? I don’t like it when she’s sad,” the grey pegasus from earlier piped up. It was hard to tell with her crossed-eyes, but she looked worried. She and the mayor had stayed behind at the table and watched the drama from afar.
 
“Back to normal, I would say,” Steve replied and met the agreeing nods of the other ponies. “Maybe a bit bit hungry,” he added as he looked over to Pinkie and noticed how much food she was cramming onto her plate.
 
“Nah, that’s pretty normal,” Rainbow replied and took a large bite out of the last cinnamon roll on her plate.
 
Steve raised his brows in confusion but refrained from questioning it further. If anything, he had learned not to question Pinkie, although he still wondered how she was planning on eating more than everyone else combined, considering the already large amount of foods on his plate as he took a small bite out of a cookie with a few sprinkles on top. I wonder how many tons of sugar she uses per day, he thought with a sour look on his face as he placed the too-sweet treat back on his plate and eyed some grapes.
 
“Chocolatey goodness,” he heard a muffled voice and looked up. On the opposite side of the table a pile of food almost as high as himself, had appeared. Muffins, pancakes, donuts, candy apples, even an entire cake were piling up almost half a meter over the table.  The only indications of someone sitting behind it were the two pink hooves that held the tower of food in place.
 
Quite curious how she would be planning to eat that entire mountain of food, he kept on watching her for a while longer. For now, she only seemed to struggle with keeping the tower in balance, making him wonder even more how she even managed to get it in place.
 
“Sorry, I’m a bit late,” a voice cut through the sounds of the feasting ponies. They raised their heads to look at the newcomer, and immediately after discovering who stood there Steve rolled his eyes and had to resist burying his face in his hands and moaning in frustration.
 
“Oh, hey Lyra!” Pinkie hailed the mint green unicorn and was joined by a few muffled greetings from the others who still had their mouths too full to speak clearly. “No problem, take a seat and join us. Hope you brought enough energy for this party and enough space in your tummy for some goodies!”
 
Steve didn’t want to meet the golden eyes that stared at him, so he shifted his gaze back to Pinkie Pie. His jaw almost dropped as he saw that the plate in front of her was already empty, only a few crumbs showing that there had ever been any food on it. I… wait, what? No… what? his mind whirled around like a punch drunk boxer. Even with all the regular flouting of the rules of physics here, that’s going a bit far. There is no way she could have eaten all of that in under two seconds. Even if she tried to hide it all under the table, there was not nearly enough time. A few crumbs that were viciously sucked into her mouth as she licked her lips, and the fact that her stomach had almost tripled in size, however, spoke of a different story.
 
“Thanks. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to have enough energy for tonight,” Lyra replied with a sly grin on her face as she pressed herself on the bench next to Steve, pushing him aside a bit.
 
Oh dear Lord, why? he thought, still hoping that she would act a bit more normal today, but her reply, paired with the grin she gave him, quickly had his optimism running away screaming. He looked around, hoping that one of his friends would help him out, but they were all busy either eating, engaged in some small talk he couldn’t understand from where he was sat or in Rainbow Dash and Pinkie’s case, having a cake eating competition.
 
“Soooo, what have you been up to today?” he heard Lyra say, nudging him slightly to get his attention. He felt no real desire to talk with her, finding her advances frustrating. On the other hand, he would still feel bad for completely ignoring her, and there was the small, tiny part of him that was actually happy that someone other than Twilight and her friends was so eager to speak to him.
 
With a sigh, he turned towards her and met her expectant face. “Not much, just doing a bit of this and that,” he replied shortly and turned back to his meal, picking something up that resembled a breaded mozzarella stick.
 
"Me neither.” A long sigh escaped Lyra’s mouth. “I’ve been quite lonely lately, searching for someone to tug at my heartstrings. I think I’ve found somepony who can remedy that, though.”
 
“Uh huh,” he replied absently and took a bite. This tastes like grass, he thought and looked at the half eaten stick in his finger. Its insides were dark green and could have very well been compressed grass with some herbs for seasoning. Doesn’t taste that bad though. He shrugged and put the rest in his mouth. Maybe it’s just some edible plant that Pinkie cooked beforehand and then stuffed it… Wait, what did she say? he wondered and looked at her again.
 
“Umm… I’m sorry, I just mean I would like to know you better. Taking over the reins is not my biggest strength, although I’m quite good at it sometimes,” she smirked again but only met his confused face. “I-I just… well, tell me something about yourself. Found a special somepony yet you might want to have a proper buck with?” she asked bluntly, wiggling her eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion.
 
“What?” he asked confused. He could make neither heads nor tails of her behaviour. Just what the heck was a ‘buck’?
 
Before either of them could say anything further, Applejack leaned over to them and piped up, “Lyra, are you sure you’re alright? You seem a bit tired. Why don’t you get something to eat?”
 
“Oh no, I don’t really feel hungry, but thanks for your concerns,” Lyra replied, looking at her for a short moment with a sweet smile to assure her that everything was alright. Steve looked back at Applejack, who didn’t seem to buy the story if he could interpret her facial expressions correctly.
 
“I still think ya should go eat something. Pinkie would be very disappointed if you couldn’t fully enjoy this special party, ‘specially if you don’t end up eating anything,” Applejack insisted, her voice carrying a hint of steel in it now. Lyra seemed to take the hint. Giving a long sigh, Lyra gave in and left, aiming for the buffet.
 
Relieved that she was gone for now, Steve moved over to the spot where she just sat, hoping she would sit down next to Pinkie Pie, who was currently pouring a seemingly endless torrent of words onto Twilight, who didn’t seem to notice her at all. As he looked closer, he could see some sort of faint purple light glowing from her ears. Did she just mute her ears? Steve wondered and almost laughed out loud.
 
A bit more serious, he turned towards Applejack, who was still looking at the disgruntled Lyra as she placed some random items without caring onto her plate. “Does she seem a bit weird to you too? She is starting to creep me out a bit.” That was the understatement of the century, but he wanted to be careful in his choice of words.
 
“Umm, w-well,” the orange mare uncharacteristically stammered and grabbed her hat, her eyes flickering to the sides while she was searching for the right words. “It’s nothing.”
 
He was beginning to recognize the behaviour Applejack displayed when she was not telling the truth, though it was quite obvious even if he hadn’t seen it before. Her rapidly shifting eyes and sudden fidgeting didn’t exactly help her cause. “I don’t really think it’s nothing. She has been very… insistent, to put it mildly. And I don’t really get what she just said to me either. Something about bucking. Do you know what that means?” he asked the farmer again, hoping she wouldn’t try to avoid his question again.
 
Again, she flipped her hat around in her hooves, and her eyes tried to avoid his while she stammered something about not knowing what he meant. Slightly annoyed, he turned away and was about to ask someone else who could give him a straight answer, but then he heard Applejacks voice clearly as she said, “Well, bucking is nothing strange for me. It just means kicking an apple tree until the apples fall off. Simple as that.”

It didn’t make any sense. Why would she ask if I have harvested apples with a special… whatever pony she said.  He looked at Applejack doubtfully, but she was no longer looking as though she was being interrogated, so he had to believe her for the moment. Now he just hoped that he could avoid Lyra until someone could actually explain to him what was going on with her. He threw another helpless look at Applejack, who was still looking in his direction and noticed it.
 
She looked down at her hat again, flipping it a bit harder, chewing on her lip as though she was struggling internally with telling him the truth. Eventually, she gazed up into his eyes again and asked, “How long has this been going on?”
 
“Well, when I first saw her on my second day here she barely spoke a word. As for now, she is… well….” Apparently hitting on me for some strange reason! He completed the sentence in his mind, not daring to say it out loud.
 
Applejack nodded at his words, as though he had confirmed her thoughts. “Well, I know that she can be a bit rude, but it’s for the best to just ignore her. It’ll pass soon.”
 
He was still not satisfied with the answer, not liking the idea that one of the ponies he trusted was keeping this information to herself. Why do I never know what’s going on here? Argh, this really is an alien world. He felt like pounding the table in frustration, but that would only call unneeded attention to himself.
 
“Just don’t go into what she’s saying, unless ya wanna be tied up to…” Applejack continued to talk but stopped suddenly and quickly turned away, causing even more confusion for him. She had turned her back towards him now so he couldn’t see her face, but for the split second between her sudden stop and spinning around, he could have sworn that her cheeks were a deep red.
 
Before he had the chance to question what was happening, he heard the sound of a plate dropping on the table, causing him to his left. Lyra expectantly stood next to him, waiting for him to scoot over. He would have sighed again if Lyra’s expression had not suddenly changed from excited to scared. Her eyes shot wide open, and the hoof that still held the plate started to tremble. “S-She’s here, isn’t s-she?” she whispered faintly and suddenly spun around.