A Long Day
Stormy left Chevonne’s room unsure of his decisions. Did he make a mistake? Was Chevonne right to worry?
OH NO! The pegasus stopped dead in his tracks as he got to the elevator. What happens if anypony back home finds out about geology??? That could end badly, he was a weather pony, rocks were below them as far as anypony he knew was concerned.
The ding of the elevator interrupted his muttering thoughts. Two pegasus mares walked out chatting.
“I do not think that is what he meant.”
“Who the buck says ‘nice ass’ to a pony? Just because I have four hooves and…” the orange furred pony walked into the gaping stallion.
“Stormy!!! Isn’t it amazing?! Did you see all the AOS classes?” Her crimson eyes lit up like a foal’s. “They even have a class on climates of other worlds! Just imagine how that has changed since the portal opened!!”
Radiant Dawn’s sentences came rapid fire and all Stormy could do was stare at the sheer exuberance of the fellow weather pony. “Yeah, they look interesting.” He lied, never having actually looked at any of the atmosphere classes. How many worlds do these humans know of?” Stormy asked himself. He looked between the two mares, Sunny just happily watching.
“Are you in Hammond’s 10am class? It was so hard picking which one.”
“No.” Here was his challenge. He didn’t want to lie, not to one of the few ponies he liked here. “I’m… I’m taking Geology.” The stallion saw the stares from both mares, bracing for some kind of ridicule.
“Huh.” Said Dawn, resting on her flank for a moment. “That is new.”
“Earth was formed by geologic processes which have a huge impact on weather and civilizations.” Sunny offered, a warm smile on her face. Eyeing a small strap on her left front hoof.
“Yeah. That is pretty cool. You’ll have a hoof up on all the other competition! Good luck and hope to see you in class sometime.”
“Bye Stormy!” They both called as they walked away. “And don’t forget ‘Tips for Equestrians’ at 5:30”
“How can they have stories of minotaurs if they don’t exist here?” Dawn asked her white coated friend.
Maybe this won’t be so bad after all. The pegasus had to wait for the elevator to come back up, he still had an hour before the next meeting judging from Sunny’s watch, and he knew there was a store near where he had been earlier. Ackerman sounded familiar. He stopped by his empty room before leaving to grab his saddlebags in case they had a hoofwatch, he would need his bits; time ran different on Earth, it felt like it had to be done faster and more urgently.
The elevator was empty and opened instantly upon hitting the button. Stormy braced for the descent, the feeling of uncontrolled falling. It started with a jerk, but then smoothly moved down the building and red numbers at the top ticked down till hitting one and the doors opening with a ping. Maybe it does get better.
Stormy checked his wings, the tingling had vanished, stepping out into the Reiber turnaround he spread his wings. The breeze blew through his wings and warm air filled his lungs. Perfect flying weather. He flapped his wings, hoping this time they would support his weight. His body lifted, shakily at first as if these were new wings, but he steadied after a few moments. The pegasus settled back to the ground, best not to test it and definitely not get caught flying on campus.
He followed the steps and path downhill, paying more attention to his surrounding as he was more familiar with the area now. There was so little of anything natural, where walkways weren’t needed were certainly trees, with planters covering larger areas of sidewalk. The people walking were occupied in their own thoughts, was this really that different though? These same thoughts kept bothering him, a human walked past carrying a board with wheels.
Stormy got to the red bricks that led past the field and heard wumphs coming from the right, near a black metal fence and decided to take a look. There were three small fields along with concrete benches and an electronic scoreboard on one side. He was near the top of the stadium, in the middle of the bowl were three tennis courts. Games were being played on two of them with some people resting at the third.
The scoreboard was blank and the players seemed to just be practicing, the pony was more shocked that humans played tennis. It wasn’t always the most popular game in Equestria, but it was an old one from one of those Neighlick territories. Did humans get this game from Equestria? The field doesn’t look new, and there are other similarities. How?
Stormy left the stadium, spotting the jogging track across the walkway. So many small places. Although if it stayed this empty it shouldn’t be that bad, walking around there was so much space for everyone to move. While the auditorium earlier had been filled, they were now spread all over campus. He knew there were many more students, but the campus seemed big so far.
Soon he arrived back at the bear on its stand in all its bronze glory. A girl was standing next to it having her picture taken by a phone. After some sort of signs between the two and some exchanged words, the girl got on top of the bear for another picture.
A large metal sign at the front of Ackerman said “UCLA Store” and Stormy figured that would be the best place as he walked across the plaza. He knew it was the only place from trying to get the stuffed animal. If he had been a smarter pony he might have checked Target for a pony section.
Stormy had trouble opening the large metal and glass doors outward, the direction every door seemed to open if not automatic. But, the pony had developed a not too troubling method of hooking a hoof through the handling and slowly walking backwards; it took two tries before he could hold it open to slip inside. He watched the door close as someone else walked up to it, but they hit a metal button on the wall that caused the door to open under its own power.
Stormy walked back to the door and eyeing the square button with some weird symbol on it. The button was at head height for the pony and as he pushed it, machines whirred and the door opened like someone was moving it. Stormy realized he was the one that moved it. Technology!
Happy to find something to make his life a little easier there was a little bounce to his step and looked about the store. It was massive, reminding him of the Target, walls were put up to keep different areas separate. To his left was a massive selection of clothing and to his right cosmetics, he turned right.
There were racks upon racks of clothing, all designed to fit human and all bearing either the name of the school or an emblem. Even in summer there was a large stock of sweaters and jackets. It was massive, right down to weirdly open shoes, if it weren’t for the strap by a human’s toes they would look like flimsy horseshoes. There were hats, stickers and everything else for the next fifty feet, but nothing sized for a pony, not even a saddlebag or special hat to allow movement of the ears.
Stormy moved through the rest of the store, awed at how large it was. Computers, food and drink, optometrist, and thousands of school supplies. He found a human behind a counter, computers all around. “Um. Excuse me. Do you have any hoofwatches?”
“What kind of watches?” The blonde scraggily man looked at the pony.
Stormy raised his hoof. “A watch? Something to tell time?”
“Uh, yeah. Just follow me.”
Stormy thought the human was weird, his eyes fighting to look and yet refusing to look at different parts of him. Soon he was led to a rack of watches, all really small and designed for a human wrist.
“This is all we have. If you need any more help.” He offered before hurrying back to his post.
Stormy double checked through all the watches, finding a silver one in the back labeled “Equestrian Enterprises”. He pulled it off the shelf and slipped it onto his cannon, tightening the latch. It rested comfortably against his ergot that kept it on his leg. He walked around with it, surprised that it didn’t jangle but stayed in place, it also had the wrong time on it. The pegasus flipped over the package to check on the price and happy the watch was on his wrist or it would have fallen to the ground with the packaging.
Forty dollars! Two hundred bits? He looked at some of the other watches, the ones for humans and gasped at the prices, the cheapest watch was at least twenty. He contemplated putting it back and finding one in Equestria, it was clear he would need some way to tell time, but all Canterlot would have would be a pocket watch designed for the well to do ponies.
Stormy swallowed his pride and took the package up to the desk. The human took the package and checked it against the watch then scanned a small barcode. Stormy paid the 48.59, put the container and his change into the saddlebag and walked out of the store, happy his food was covered for this event.
Stormy took a break to look at the list of events left in the day; the last event was at 11:30 and something called Carpe Noctum. Does this place never sleep? He decided to go back up to the dorms, wait for the next workshop and rest, not even wanting to touch his book.
It was a short trip for the pony to trudge back up the hill, he was sure he could fly, but the pegasus refused to allow another crash landing. He had never walked up so many hills or steps in his life; what pegasus would have? Most ponies wouldn’t have except for visits to the castle.
Stormy returned to the ninth floor and dropped off his saddlebag before going to the lounge, the same one he had been to earlier with all the other ponies. Seeing it was empty, the pegasus entered and picked a comfortable pillow by the far window. It wasn’t that he wanted to avoid the other ponies, he was just tired and being around them sounded draining. He missed the peace and quiet and solitariness of home. The pegasus looked outside the window at the courtyard and the people milling about, they all seemed so happy.
Much sooner than he expected another pony, well zebra, came in and sat at the opposite side of the room. Stormy couldn’t tell if she was giving him space or was in a similar position to him. He looking back out the window and losing track of time.
“So, you are all that deigned to show up?” Chris Barnes of Equestrian Outreach and Retention set a large box on the table. “Just means you all will be better prepared.” Her voice seemed lighter somehow to the pegasus.
Stormy looked about the room, he was one of only four ponies to show up. The last two he wasn’t surprised to see the two pegasi.
“There are some unique things you may not be used to on Earth that are quite a bit different from Equestria.” On the table she set out a computer, an inkwell with quill, and a weird pencil.
“The first thing, and this is very important, you need a computer. I know you all have some experience with these by the fact that you are all here. But, almost every assignment will have to be typed from a computer. This is an issue,” Chris held up a keyboard with the letters too close together for a pony’s hooves.
“There are two ways around this, the first is a program designed at this school called ‘Pony PC’ and includes tutorials and a speech to text program to help with writing papers. A pony named Noteworthy helped design the interface to be more natural to a pony. It is made free for all students from ‘abroad’, but any speech recognition software should work. You can just go to the computer store in Ackerman and they can help you with the initial setup.”
Chris moved onto the inkwell and lifted it up. “I know you all are probably used to using one of these. And it is fine in the dorms, but please do not take them to class. They are very easy to knock over in a busy classroom and many students had trouble writing fast enough with them or even room on their desks.” She set down the inkwell and picked up the pencil. “We will be getting in a stock of these come the start of the school year. It is a mechanical pencil.”
A what? Stormy quirked his head. He was very familiar with a standard pencil, ink didn’t work well in high winds.
“It used little sticks of lead and you push this button,” she pointed to a tab near the top of the cylindrical object and with an audible click the tip grew longer, “to extend the lead. These are made to be held in a pony’s mouth, but any kind of pen or pencil will work.”
“What about getting a debit card?” Sunny Skies asked politely without raising a hoof.
“Thank you for bringing that up.” She gave a nod to the pink maned pony. “A debit card is a form of electronic currency. You should just have to go to Canterlot Castle and ask for help there. Since you have a bank account through the Princesses. However, if you want a local one I would suggest the University Credit Union on Ackerman B-level. And be very careful with your cards as they are the same as bits and can take weeks to replace if they are lost or stolen.” Chris looked about the room.
“Why was this not included in the earlier presentation?” Radiant asked next.
“That is a tough question.” Mrs. Barnes took a while to answer. “Time. There is only so much time to pass out information and the stuff covered in this one can be seen elsewhere. But the other one was more ‘how to survive’ while this is more tips, which is why this one is not required.”
“There are some more tips, but a lot of it you really will have to figure out on your own. Talk to people and see what they have to say.” Chris offered. “Now why don’t you all go and get dinner before they close the doors at seven.”
Stormy looked down at his watch, the time was 6:20.
“De Neve is the only one open.” Chris smiled as the four ponies hurried out of the room and to the elevator.
“They like to keep us running.” Radiant laughed, pushing the button.
“It is intentional. Everything so far has been.” The voice a deep contralto. Everypony turned around to look at the zebra. For the first time Stormy took a good look at her, noticing a few thing. She had no cutie mark, not even the cryptic symbol he had heard zebras had. Her mane and tail were cut short, only an inch of black and white stripes mane remained and match with her coat. “They want nopony isolated.”
“That makes sense.” Sunny replied. “Make this place feel less alien.”
“But it is not alien. It is of the same coin. The same mother.”
“That’s crazy.” Radiant stared at the zebra while scratching her head. “How can that even be possible?”
The zebra spoke no more though as the elevator arrived.
They all stood in silence.
“Maybe it has something to do with shared myths.” Stormy offered, not thinking anyone was listening to him.
“That could very well be.” Sunny liltingly replied, smile ever apparent. “Hmm. Do you have any examples?” She asked of the zebra. “Um, what was your name?”
But the zebra just stood there as the doors opened and they piled out. There was a small throng of humans waiting to get on and stared at the small departing herd with a few hushed voices.
It was a quiet walk down to De Neve, no pony had any bags with them so went straight to the line. Once inside the zebra went one way while Sunny and Dawn went another.
Stormy looked about the half empty dining hall, making it look all the bigger without as many obstacles. Not quite knowing what to get he stood in the first line he came to, whatever it was smelled of tomato and spices and the ever present smell of cooked meat. When he got to the front the pegasus was surprised to see it was pizza and they had two vegetarian options, cheese and a vegetable pizza covered in he didn’t know what all.
Stormy reached for a slice, but it was just out of his reach. A human hand passed over his shoulder and slid a piece of cheese pizza to the pony. “Um, can you hand me a veggie one too please?” There were so many people crowding around that he couldn’t even get to the other pizza. But, in a moment a second piece was put on his plate, the spare plate disappearing and the pegasus unable to tell who he had to thank.
Picking up the plate in his mouth, the odor of freshly baked pizza filling his nose as he searched for a table. His stomach growled in response, informing him of how long it had been.
Stormy got no further than the mane seating area before he heard someone call his name.
“Stormy! Over here!” It was the ever pleasant song of Dawn.
The pegasus looked around and found the orange hoof waving for him and hurried over. It was a low set table at the very edge of the dining area, next to one of the large fifteen foot tall windows. There were no chars, but it sat at the perfect height for a pony to eat. Stormy decided to take the seat across from Dawn, with Sunny to his right.
A moment later another plate of food was set down to his left, a plate of pasta with little brown balls setting in a white sauce. All eyes turned to the zebra.
“It is acceptable for me to sit here?” She asked, looking at Sunny Skies.
“Of course!” She exclaimed vociferously. “The more the merrier.”
“Thank you. Nobilitas Tua.” The zebra placed her front hooves together while sitting on her haunches and muttered something quiet. Upon finishing she put her muzzle in the bowl, going straight for a meatball while everypony stared.
The zebra looked up at their shocked expressions, at their open mouths. “It is some dish called Swedish Meatballs. It is quite interesting if you want some.” She slid her plate forward for anypony else to help themselves.
Stormy tried to process this information. Zebras are vegetarian…they don’t eat meat…they…
Dawn looked to be in the same position, but inching away from the table.
“Is everypony ok? Is it not proper to offer part of one’s meal to those who accept them at their table?”
Sunny, smile still in place was the first to speak up. “No. I just do not think anypony expected you to be eating meat is all. The pony stomach does not handle it very well.”
“I am sorry. But it is a ritual to remind us that we all are part of life and how precious that life is. So we pray for the spirits of those who have given their lives. Our ancestors who fought to give us this world. Our foes who have strengthened us. Our friends who keep us company and fight by our side. So once a week while on our spiritual journey, we eat meat to remind us of this.”
“Spiritual journey?” Dawn asked, moving back to the table but avoiding her food.
“I am afraid that must be kept secret until I can find my answer. But you, stallion. Are you on a similar journey?” She stared into Stormy’s eyes.
“Um, no.” He looked down at his plate of pizza. “Well, maybe.”
“Is that why you consume the stomach of cow? Do ponies have a similar belief?”
Stormy shot his head up to see the zebra looking between him and Sunny. “What. There is no meat here.” He looked back down to his plate, making sure there was no meat.
“Do not humans use rennet to make cheese?”
Dawn blanched and pushed her bowl of alfredo away.
Stormy felt his stomach flip and his empty stomach try to remove any signs of his lunch.
Sunny reached over and grabbed one of Stormy’s slices of pizza and took a bite. “I don’t think these use animal rennet.” She said around a mouth of food. “It is pretty good though.” She pointed to Stormy’s other piece. “You going to eat that?”
Stormy rocked back for a second at the unusual behavior. He saw Dawn slide forward, taking a small taste of her pasta and seemingly happy with the taste continued to eat.
Stormy looked down at his remaining piece of pizza. It is covered with those delicious looking veggies. He gingerly lifted the piece and took a bite. This is good. And before he knew it the piece was gone and conversation had started to return.
I must admit to being rather surprised by my readers. I expected people to either attack Chevonne or Edward for being mean characters. Don't read to much into that, they would still go along the paths they are on, it just didn't turn out how I expected (as if it ever does 
). But it gives me some relief.
Ah, dietary restrictions and the pursuit of them. It can be quite hard especially for vegans, all the little things that have to be watched out for, and only one dining hall uses the vegetarian cheese upon last check, but you can always guarantee on them serving fish on fridays.
Since, I cannot figure out what kind of question to ask related to the chapter I will instead do this: What would be a good name for the Zebra?
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I thought Nobilitas Tua was the name
5390414 Near as my terrible Latin research skills tell me, "nobilitas tua" is something of a term of respect, sort of like "your highness".
Make something up I have no ideas.
5390414 5391070 Yep. Latin. Term for respect (does translate to your highness as near as I can tell, not the greatest with that language).
5391746
5390967 Yep, hope to get into that eventually. The not many is vague because I have yet to solidify it (have some ideas). How many humans would be allowed in, what kind of machines allowed, where do they study? Not to mention smaller teams work better and expands once a base is covered. Not to mention if magic could be studied on Earth. But yeah, scientists would be fighting for the chance. Immigration to Equestria could be an issue as that can be cut off.
5391601 Given some of my roommates
5391864 The immigration can be cut both ways you know. As for the Zebra, since you know the character its best to pick a name based on how you picture her. Also why is her flank well........blank?
weird, i finished my finals the same day this story decided to update, coincidence? i think so
Zahara, flower
Ayodele, joy of the house.
Zuri, beautiful
Subira, patience
Uzoma, good manners
Yejide, image of her mother
That's all I've got.
5392453 >> Partially.
5391875 unfortunately I don't know zebra nomenclature.
Ahhh, the blank flank (glad someone asked). Because I thought zebras should be a completely different society so their mark should have a different significance. Maybe play off how some ponies might get theirs too early, maybe they choose their own cutie mark. Unlike those in Equestria, Zecora's doesn't look identifiable.
5394045 /)^3^(\ many thanks. Gives some things to work with.
5395864
All the names were given under the assumption that the zebra is at school for good reasons and was a good zebra. Best I could really do without knowing much about her personality or history.
Well I finally caught up and its differently an interesting story. The only issue I really have is you seem to be going down the 'ponies would be horrified by our history' road. In all honesty I think they would be inspired by it. I dont see history as stories of humans killing each other but rather testaments to our refusal to let injustice reign. It's common for people to focus on the bad but the reality is that for every Hitler, there's a dozen Gandhi
5398008 I couldn't agree more. That book he is reading is meant as a primer for that. But before the best can be seen the rest would be quite a shock, especially with how the negative is always viewed first.
5398008 Ok, feel my previous answer was a little lackluster. I have a bad tendency of trying to keep things close to my chest. They would be horrified, assuming their history is perfectly clean which I doubt, their wars just aren't as recent. But even people find human history dark. However, the good stories do get shown and will. Their will be points where Stormy is arguing for people, to both ponies and humans. The reason for The Hunger Games was not because of the psychopathic aspects of it (although that was one) but the will to survive, to fight injustice, that is the starting point for doing good. There are also other aspects of campus life I have yet to even get near that add into that idea (there are a lot of groups designed to help others).
As for Hitler, there is a reason his own men tried to kill him. German u-boats in WWII would actually try to save the lives of the people who were on ships they sank. There are THOUSANDS of stories like that out there. And that is really what I want this story to be about. Flawed but always trying to be better.
5397810 Yeah, Tried to distinguish with the capital E.
5397376 Those are still being worked on. I think I said she was pre-med, its late and finals just ended so may be wrong. But yes, she is good, her history is still under construction as I would like to do a story on her. That and created my own theories on what zebra culture entails and debatin, as always, how much to reveal and when.
Incidentally I have one on the unicorn going into weather (balance sheet).
5400034
You got your point across just fine. I've just seen the misanthrope trope so many times and it drives me nuts. Mainly becuase we humans are the ones who imagened the pony world in the first place so yea, we are capeable of good things. If an alien species, pony or otherwise was inteligent enough to realise that humanity isn't one race, then I think our history would be less dark to them. Glad to see you plan on showing that.
Also my favorite one of those stories is "The miracle of 1914".
5400034
I look forward to learning more about her.
5400563 The good ole Christmas Truce. Its amazing what can happen when people try.
And see each other as human. Not even a single country is one people.
Radiant Dawn... This reminds me of a certain tactical turn-based RPG I know of.