Chapter 13 - Resolutions: Part Two
It felt rather strange for Steve to be walking outside without anyone escorting him around. Usually he had always been accompanied by Twilight or any of her friends, but it gave him the time to think without any interruption as he strolled through the streets of Ponyville. It came as an unexpected relief for him to have some more alone time as he walked about; they were pleasant company but they could wear on you after a while and this way he could make his own observations without someone prodding him for his thoughts. While the ponies didn’t seem to have accepted him as a new villager and he doubted they would for a long while, at least they no longer stopped and blatantly stared at him as soon as he came into sight. There were some occasional furtive looks or quiet whispers as he passed but he tried not to let him bother him too much. Can’t avoid that after not even being here for only a week and not even that long. At least none of them are running inside their homes screaming “MONSTER” so that’s a definite improvement, he thought, a wry smile springing on his face while curiously inspecting the details of the town himself.
Now that he was back in Ponyville, he realized the extreme difference between the two cities. The unique wooden buildings, the rough dirt road through the streets, the high presence of earth ponies and the lack of any clothes on any of the ponies and the overall much calmer atmosphere stuck out to him immediately. At least here ponies weren’t constantly rushing and bumping into him as in Canterlot and while the air and environment in both areas were far superior to that on Earth, somehow it still seemed more cleaner and vibrant than in the capital city.
He stopped at a construction site for a few minutes, watching with mild interest at the activities taking place. Large earth ponies were lifting heavy wooden beams to form the scaffold next to a small building. Fascinated, he watched how the stallions were lifting the immense beams with relatively ease, especially when compared to their size as they quickly got along in their work. A grey unicorn, his light blue mane mostly hidden by the yellow safety helmet all the workers wore, came around and lifted a blueprint in his magic, inspecting the progress of the construction side.
Steve would have stayed longer but he wanted to talk to Twilight and her friends before the end of the day, so he got moving again. His way led past a small park he hadn’t noticed before so he decided to make a quick stop there.
Various groups of ponies were enjoying the warm beams of the midsummer sun, having picnics, playing games or simply dozing beneath the trees whose long branches stretched out to provide adequate shade. He stopped for a while, watching a group of three little fillies using their heads to toss a large ball at each other. A smile appeared on his face at this scene of joy and serenity before he moved on.
Spotting an empty bench, he dusted it off with his palm before sitting down, relaxing his body and slouching down, the picture of lazy contentment. Slowly, his eyes began to close with sleepiness as a cool breeze wafted through the air, the occasional shouts of foals playing some distance away along with their reproving parents’ admonishments the only thing keeping him awake. His mind wandered for a while, going over the events that had happened since he had arrived, unable to keep from shuddering as the events of his visit to Sweet Apple Acres played across his vision. Still, it was such a beautiful day that he couldn’t bring himself to feel too upset. That was until he heard muffled voices behind him, getting closer. He struggled to retain his concentration from his groggy state, perking up to listen although he kept his eyes closed and he listened to the fervent whispers.
“It’s him again, I want to go talk to him,” a feminine voice said expectantly, sounding excited about something.
“Oh no you don’t, you’ll just end up embarrassing yourself and dragging me down with you. Just leave him alone,” a second voice argued back with a weary doggedness in her voice. It seemed the other one was a mare as well, Steve noted.
“Come on, this could be my only chance,” the first voice whined, seemingly trying to win the other over. “I’ll even share him with you if you want,” it said before dissolving in giggles as the other voice began spluttering in shock.
What’s this about? Steve wondered, cracking an eye open as he stretched a bit before straightening up into a sitting position on the bench. Turning around, he spotted two ponies still in the middle of their heated argument, so much so that they failed to see him now looking at them. One of them was an earth pony mare with beige coat and a two colored blue and pink mane was holding back a mint-green unicorn who was straining to escape from her grip.
“Um… hello Lyra,” he greeted her hesitantly, feeling a small, inexplicable jolt of foreboding run through his body as her eyes shot wide open when she whipped her head around as she heard him call her name. She quickly used the distraction to extricate herself from the other pony’s grip and quickly trotted up to him, fascinatingly staring at his hands with her gleaming eyes. The other earth pony remained where she was, giving a huff of disappointment before focusing on the scene ahead of her with a resigned look on her face. After a few moments of silence and staring, Lyra finally seemed to catch herself, looking up at him with a wide smile before saying, “Heyyy… how’s it going, haven’t seen you in town for a few days.”
Despite the almost too wide grin on her face, he could tell how nervous she was from the way she was fidgeting and looked at her, confused. The last time they had talked she barely said her name. “It’s alright but could be better,” he replied slowly, scooting away from her a bit. Unfortunately, she seemed to take that as an invitation to join him on the bench as she jumped up and landed on it with a dull thud, all the while never taking her eyes off him.
“I could help with that,” she offered and nodded her head in excitement, taking another step towards him.
“Oh really?” Steve asked sceptically. “You don’t even know what’s wrong.”
“But I could still help you ease off some stress, if I know what I mean…” Lyra smirked and her tail began to swish more than usual.
What? Wait! What! Is she serious!? his mind raced and he looked at her with wide eyes. Before he could stutter out a response, Lyra sidled up to him and placed a hoof directly on his thigh and it lowly began to inch his way upwards.
Just as he was about to leap up from his bench, the other pony that just had held Lyra back shouted, “LYRA! STOP IT THIS INSTANT”
“What?” Lyra asked, annoyed at her interruption but thankfully the distraction caused her to pull her hoof away from the startled human.
“We are leaving, now!” the other pony declared with a note of finality and pulled the unicorn off the bench, away from Steve. “Sorry about that, must have been…… too much sun, I guess,” she awkwardly grinned towards Steve as she apologized for her friend’s behavior.
“Oh come on Bon Bon, it was going so well,” Lyra whined and tried to get herself out of Bon Bon’s grip again but the earth pony was too strong. “He was into me, you saw it yourself! He looked!”
“I don’t want to hear it!” Bon Bon said, releasing her only to quickly nip her in the ear and drag her along despite all Lyra’s loud protestations. He couldn’t understand the rest of the discussion as both of them were soon too far away from him to hear them anymore. He stood there completely stunned for over a minute, looking after the two ponies. That was… he thought but was unable to find the right words for what just happened. Something? He shook his head in confusion, trying to get his mind back on track, a difficult task given what had just occurred. Okay, before anything else happens, I’ll just head over to the library. Things are getting even more weird than usual.
***
“Great, now what will we do, Twilight?” Rainbow Dash grumbled, her powerful wings beating agitatedly as they worked to keep her in the air. They had searched the path from Steve’s ship all the way to Zecora’s hut but had seen no sight of the human. Even Zecora had been a bust; while she had been most curious about an alien living in the same forest as her, she had claimed she had not seen anything resembling him.
“Maybe we should swing back at the farm, see if Big Macintosh saw him poking around,” Applejack suggested, dusting off her hat and placing it back on her head as they walked along the path back towards Ponyville, keeping a wary eye out for anything that might consider them a meal. While there had been fewer sightings of any monsters since they had begun visiting Zecora regularly, it was better to err on the side of caution than be a snack, at least in Applejack’s books.
“Hmmm yes, it would be nice to see Big Macintosh again. You really should let him out of the farm a bit more often, Applejack,” Rarity tittered, smiling coyly at her friend.
“And jus’ what is that supposed ta mean?” Applejack shot back suspiciously, still feeling sore about being roped in by the fashionista that morning.
“Oh come on now darling, don’t pretend you don’t know how much of a catch your brother is. Your brother is quite a *ahem* well-built stallion and I happen to know a lot of mares who would be very happy to catch his eyes. I dare say some of them may soon be making their move to be called Mrs Apple soon,” Rarity replied, swooning slightly as a fierce blush appeared on the Applejack’s face.
“Wha- Ah’ll have you know Ah don’t think of mah brother that way, despite what some ponies might think,” she growled, anger leaking into her voice, her face darkening briefly.
While the apple farmer and fashionista continued their exchange of verbal barbs, Fluttershy turned around, noticing Twilight had stopped. Flying quietly over to her, she asked, “Um… is everything alright, Twilight….. if you don’t mind me asking.”
Twilight sighed, rubbing her head with a hoof, looking faintly agitated. “I’m going back to the library,” she announced loudly enough that Applejack and Rarity ceased their bickering.
“Oh… but I thought we were going to Sweet Apple Acres?” Fluttershy asked, looking somewhat abashed at having the temerity to question her friend. Rarity nodded at her question, looking somewhat disappointed.
“He isn’t in his ship and we haven’t seen him anywhere, I think now would be a good time to tell Princess Celestia that we can’t find him anywhere!” she stated.
“Weeeell, it’s not as though we’ve searched everywhere as yet, silly Twilight!” Pinkie said, bopping Twilight on the head lightly, still causing the unicorn to yelp slightly before rubbing it. “We still have to go to Sweet Apple Acres and eat some delicious apple pie that Granny Smith just put out to cool, we can ask Cranky Doodle if he saw him and I can throw Cranky an emergency party if he’s feeling down while we’re there, he could have gone to the schoolhouse to visit Cheerilee and all the fillies and colts and given them alien candy! Ohhh, we should go visit the schoolhouse now, Twilight!” Pinkie exclaimed, bouncing around the now exasperated Twilight who was now massaging her head for an entirely different reason.
“I guess you’re right, Pinkie. I’m sure he must be at one of those places.” Twilight smiled at her friend as the exit to the forest neared, grateful for the reassurance.
“No problem, Twilight!” Pinkie said, chewing on some candy, from whence it came, Twilight had no idea and resisted the urge to ask her. “Of course, he could have gone to Ghastly Gorge or went to Froggy Bottom Bogg or maybe he ran into the diamond dogs or maybe he found a dragon’s egg and it hatched and they went off to fight that mean meanypants Galbatorix or maybe he went to Tartarus to give Cerberus a doggy treat or mayb- hey, are you alright, Twilight?” she asked as she stopped bouncing, looking at the now pale unicorn staring at her, her mouth opening and shutting without a word coming out. “Ohhh, you’re pretending to be a fish, let me try!” she cheered as the squished her cheeks together, giving an impressive imitation of how Twilight was looking.
Pinkie Pie’s ridiculous antics made Twilight shake her head out of the shock that had gripped her and caused her to stop. “O-On second thought, I think I will go deliver that message,” she said shakily, trotting past them quickly, causing every pony to pick up their speed to catch up with her. A few moments later they were finally out of the forest, causing them to wince and close their eyes, not accustomed to the glare after being in the darkness of the forest.
“Whoo, finally glad to be out of that forest,” Applejack remarked, tipping her hat over her eyes to avoid the brunt of the sunlight. “Good thing we didn’t run into any critters that might have wanted ta wrangle with us.”
“Maybe they went to hide after they heard the noise when Steve arrived… oh, I hope none of them got hurt badly,” Fluttershy fussed, looking worried while Rainbow Dash just rolled her eyes. Twilight was having none of it though.
“Come on girls, let’s head over to the library before it’s too late!” she urged, starting to gallop off towards Ponyville.
“Hey, wait for me!” Rainbow Dash called, speeding off after her, her pride not willing to let the nerdy unicorn beat her to their destination.
“Let’s go Fluttershy, time to go get the cand- I mean Stevie!” Pinkie cheered, hooking a hoof around the pegasus and bouncing down the dirt road, once again leaving Rarity and Applejack behind, walking more sedately.
“Well, that was rather dramatic of her, wasn’t it?” Rarity sniffed, causing Applejack to snort.
“Riiiiight, well Ah suppose you would know, being the queen of drama and gossip and all that,” she retorted, laughing at the offended unicorn.
“A lady never gossips, Applejack!” the fashionista stressed, turning up her nose at the apple farmer. In response, Applejack increased her pace, beginning to pull away from her.
“Ah know, that’s why Ah said you were the its queen!” she chuckled, increasing her speed, leaving behind her spluttering friend.
“Wha- You take that back, Applejack! Do you hear me, Applejack? Applejack!” she called to the retreating figure of Applejack to no avail.
“Why, the nerve of some ponies. Humph!”
****
Steve was extremely thankful that the rest of the trip was uneventful. After he had left the park and after a short while of searching for familiar buildings, he was back on his way again and only a few moments later stood in front of the library and knocked on the door without being accosted or hit upon by elderly or deranged mares. After a few moments the door opened, but instead of Twilight he was greeted with the sight of Spike, her assistant, who was brandishing a feather duster in a claw while peering up at him.
“Hey there, Spike. Is Twilight home?” he asked the little dragon.
“Nah, she went out.” Spike shook his head. “She and her friends wanted to visit you but it seems you missed them. You didn’t see them anywhere, did you?” he asked, before waving a claw dismissively before Steve could answer. “No, of course you didn’t, otherwise they would be with you.”
“Maybe I should go back and look for them? Twilight did say something about the forest being kind of dangerous….” he asked, beginning to get worried.
“Nah, I’m sure they’ll be fine, Twilight said that part of the forest doesn’t have a lot of monsters around anymore.” Spike waved off his concern. “Plus she said in the note she left that they would come back immediately after if they didn’t meet you.
“Oh… well, if you’re sure, do you mind if I wait inside? I bet they’ll be coming back here soon then,” Steve said, deciding that if they didn’t come back soon, he would still go out to look for them.
“Oh, sorry about that, come on in,” Spike replied, shooting him an apologetic look and opened the door completely, letting the human step inside. “Sooooooo… what’s going on between you and Twilight? I heard her talking about you a lot but she didn’t really say what’s wrong,” he asked, looking worried as he recalled how she and her other friends had been discussing how to talk to the human.
Steve felt a light blush on his cheeks as he found out that the ponies all were worried about him while he was hiding in his ship, though the warm feeling was offset by the guilt that began to gnaw at him. “It’s nothing serious. Just something I need to talk out with her and her friends,” he tried to reply casually, not wanting to go deeper into it and hoping the dragon wouldn’t pry.
Fortunately, Spike didn’t push the issue, just shrugged noncommittally. “Well, if you say so. Make yourself at home, it shouldn’t take them too long to get back here,” he said and pointed towards the kitchen where there a few chairs and a table.
“Thanks,” Steve replied but didn’t take the offer. “Hey Spike, can you tell me something about Twilight?” he asked the little dragon, who was now picking up some books from the ground.
“Sure, what do you want to know?” he asked while looking over the cover of the book he held in his claws.
“I guess you’ve spent a lot of time with her as her assistant and I was wondering some things about her, you know, like is she nice or strict? Is it pleasant to work with her or would you rather be doing something else?”
“No way would I want to do something else,” he asserted, before speculation took over his features. He placed the books on a shelf and folded his arms, tapping a claw under his chin. “Well, I don’t know if I’m good enough to do anything else. Working on the farm with Applejack wasn’t exactly a success,” he mumbled. “Anyways, working here is pretty okay… most of the times,” Spike replied, turning around to pick up and store more books back into the shelf.
“Most of the time?” Steve inquired, noticing the hesitation in the young drake’s voice.
“Yeah… well you see, Twilight’s a bit messy and I have to clean up a lot after her. Today it’s not really that bad, but sometimes she goes really crazy over some science project of hers and she puts the whole library into a huge mess,” he said, sounding annoyed and pointing around to the large piles of books and loose scrolls lying around on the floor in an untidy heap. “She can really get a bit crazy herself when under too much pressure and sometimes she gives me waaaay too many chores! I mean, I have to cook lunch, then clean out the bathroom, then she wants me to help clean up this entire mess and then she wants help to reorganize the botanical section of the library since she went an-“ He stopped abruptly, realizing that he was beginning to rant and turned around to avoid the gaze of the human.
“But err… that’s alright,” he said, quickly waved it off. “I’m sure she appreciates the work I do and sometimes she even helps out! Plus, she’s the one who took care for me for my whole life.” He began picking up books from the heap, dusting them off and placing them on the table.
“And what about the other ponies? Living as a dragon in a town full of ponies can’t be that easy, right? Any pony here gives you a hard time?” Steve asked, hoping to get as much information as possible out of the only other non-pony villager that he knew.
The dragon stopped his work for a moment to think about the question. “There was this one time where I got a growth spurt, and I… may have destroyed some major parts of the town by accident,” Spike admitted, turning his ashamed glare to the ground. “Sometimes I can still hear the ponies talk about it, they talk about how I’m a monster and I should leave town and go live in the Everfree Forest,” he muttered, bitterness seeping into his voice. “I never told Twilight, that would only make it worse and I think they have every right to be angry at me for what I did,” he sighed with a weariness that belied his age.
After a short while he turned around, now with a small smile on his lips. “Even though it really hurts sometimes, not everypony is like that, you know? I’m lucky that I have Twilight and her friends to cheer me up. This is the best life I could dream of.”
“It sounds really great here,” Steve smiled at the dragon’s enthusiasm, yet couldn’t help but feel sympathy for him. Seems he had to grow up faster than most, in some ways.
“Because it is, if not even better,” Spike agreed and laughed.
“Mind if I give you a hand here cleaning up the library while I wait?” Steve offered after the dragon’s laughter had tapered off.
“Of course not,” Spike replied quickly, visibly brightening up at the offer. “I’ll take any help I can get. Together we could finish this even before Twilight returns.”
*****
“And this goes there, and that one over here,” Steve muttered as he put the books back into the shelf, always watching out for putting the books in the correct alphabetical order. “Aaaaaand done,” he exclaimed as he turned around and saw no more book lying on the ground.
“Thanks again, dude. This would have taken me hours to do on my own,” Spike said, shooting him an appreciative look while throwing some scrolls into a box under the table.
“No problem. I would have just gotten bored if I had to wait without something to do. I wonder when they will come back?” he asked, sitting down wearily on a chair.
As if to answer his question, the door swung open with a bang and Twilight rushed into the library, followed by the rest of her friends.
“Spike? SPIKE! I need you to take a letter! Steve might be in…..” She trailed off in mid-sentence as the rest of the group stopped, as they saw the human sitting down directly in front of them inside the library.
“Umm, hey Twilight,” he said awkwardly, waving a hand at her as she stared at him, jaw agape.
“Wh-What are you doing here, Steve?” she asked faintly, after a few moments of trying to say something to no avail. “We went to visit you at your ship but we thought you didn’t answer or weren’t there. What happened? What are you doing here?” she asked again, the flurry of questions catching him by surprise.
“Relax, Twilight,” Rarity said and raised a hoof to stop the onslaught. “You aren’t even giving him time to breathe, much less answer your questions.”
“Sorry,” Twilight apologized. “Some of us were just so worried,” she muttered, shooting Pinkie Pie a dirty look that sailed right over the party pony’s head.
“Yeah, dude,” Rainbow agreed. “We thought you might be in the Everfree Forest so we checked there too after you didn’t answer the door, but we didn’t found any sign of you so we came here instead.”
“Oh, you shouldn’t have looked after me,” he replied, trying to hide the red that appeared on his face.
“Sure we had to,” Rainbow quickly replied. “Couldn’t leave you hanging there, right?” Her voice lowered for the next part as she told him, “I wanted to visit you yesterday but you didn’t answer the door,” she said, crossing her forehooves in annoyance.
“Oh geez, I’m sorry about that, I had the AI muted most of the time and I can’t hear anything through the isolation of my ship,” he told her and looked to the ground. Although he had no real desire talking with her that day, he felt bad for letting her wait in front of his door while she thought he’d be ignoring her.
“Eh, it’s alright,” she waved it off. “At least now we found you. How did you get here anyway?”
“I wanted to talk with you; I’ve been hiding away for too long. I was at Sweet Apple Acres first but Big Mac told me that you were meeting here at the library so I went right here but Spike told me you were at my ship,” he told them and shrugged, leaving out the strange scenes that occurred at the park earlier.
“You shouldn’t have wandered around on your own, we were really, really worried that something might happen to you,” Twilight admonished Steve, glaring at him. The fear that she had felt from thinking that something so bad had happened to him that they were about to call the princess was dissipating and in its place was a strange mixture of annoyance and relief churning its way around in Twilight’s stomach.
"Well, I’m sorry I worried you but I didn't realize I needed your permission to walk around here," he remarked, raising his eyebrows in mock annoyance, although the small smile on his face eliminated the serious nature he was trying to portray, hoping that she wouldn’t take it too hard on him.
"Oh, of course you don't need my permission," Twilight was quick to interject, her anger put on hold as she recited as though she had memorized her speech, which, given who was speaking, was a distinct possibility. "Well, technically, you would have to speak with the mayor and let her know what you’re in Ponyville for and fill out an immigration form to be officially allowed residence in Equestria and…" she cut herself off at the wide grin now on his face.
"You were joking with me?" she replied flatly with a deadpan look on her face.
“Yep.” His grin turned into a loud laugh.
She opened her mouth as if to retort, then closed it resolutely, before speaking once again. “You know what…. I’m just going to forget that this afternoon ever happened. Before I lose my mind,” she muttered the last part to herself. “So, you wanted to talk with us?” she asked carefully.
“Yeah, it’s about what happened in Canterlot,” he replied, the grin vanishing from his face as he looked over the group of ponies, all staring expectantly back at him. “I just needed some time alone to think about it. It’s something I’ve never felt before, something that has never happened to me and I just didn’t know…. how to go about dealing with it, I guess. I kept asking myself, ‘How far does it go? How do I just move past this?” He let the question hang in the air for a few moments before continuing.
“I’m an alien here. I don’t have the slightest idea what could be going on here. Something that you find as natural as breathing air could turn out to be devastating for me. And... I was afraid,” he admitted, looking over at the group of ponies quietly watching and listening to him. “I was afraid of both what I already knew was going on here and what else I could discover.”
He took a deep breath and looked up at the ponies, a small, genuine smile on his face. “But you know what, I walked through the town today and talked with a few ponies… and Spike,” he said, looking over to the dragon who was quietly looking on from the corner of the room. “If there’s one thing I think I can be sure of, it’s that I don’t have to be afraid of anyone here. Especially with ponies like you around,” he finished his speech, his smile widening even more.
“Aww, that’s mighty sweet of ya to say, sugarcube,” Applejack said and took the hat off her head to hold it in front of her.
“It’s cool, man. Told you we care about the folks here. Don’t sweat it.” Rainbow tried to act cool but he noticed how she was enjoying the compliments.
“It was our pleasure, darling. After all we did promise to help you,” Rarity chimed in.
“I am very glad that you think this way,” Twilight said, a relieved smile beaming over her face.
“Yes, me to…” Fluttershy began to say before she got cut short by a hyperactive pink pony.
“GROUP HUG ON STEVE!” she yelled, barrelling towards him and jumping on his chest, his arms instinctively catching her even as he fell on his ass with an ‘Oomph’. She was followed by rest of ponies, though Rarity claimed she didn’t want to mess up her mane even more while Rainbow Dash turned unusually red while hugging him.
“Oh Steve, this is so perfect! Now we can finally have your welcoming party. I will plan it for this evening!” Pinkie cheered when they moved off from him and she happily began jumping up and down.
"Pinkie, you really don’t have to do this for me,” he replied, trying to calm her down.
“Of course I do. Every pony gets a welcoming party and now every human too!” she cheered eagerly.
“I really don’t mind if I’m the exception,” he said, trying to dissuade her.
“What’s wrong?” Rainbow asked. “The party’s going to be amazing, Pinkie’s parties always are. It’s the best way to meet a lot of ponies and there will be tons of fun,” she said resolutely. Meeting a lot of ponies is just what I’m worried about, he thought.
“Rainbow is right, it would be a good idea to go. It is the best way to show you how welcome you are here,” Twilight tried to convince him, before using the card she had up her sleeve. “After all the worry and running about we did, it’s the least you could do,” she added pointedly, causing him to wince.
“You won’t take no for an answer, will you?” he asked and sighed as he looked at the shaking heads of the ponies. “Fine then,” he reluctantly agreed, causing the ponies to cheer.
“Perfect.” Pinkie grinned widely, jumping even higher. “The party’s gonna start at seven o’clock sharp at Sugarcube Corner!”
“Well… I’ll be there, I guess. But I have to make some preparations so I’ll have to go back to my ship now,” he told them, receiving a loud “Awwwww” of disappointment from Pinkie.
“Do you want us to come with you?” Rainbow offered.
“No, no, it’s fine,” he said, shaking his head. “You already wasted your time there once already for me, don’t want to put you through that again. I’ll see you all at the party again then.”
“Alright then. See ya!” Rainbow said and was joined by the other ponies bidding him farewell.
Steve walked over to the door and before stepping out, looked back over his shoulder. “See you all at the party then.”
“Oh, wait,” Twilight quickly intervened before he could close the door behind him.
“What is it?” he inquired and looked expectantly at her.
“We left you a small gift at your door when we were there earlier. We thought you might want some fresh supplies so we dropped off at the market and picked up a few things,” she replied with a smile.
“Wow, thanks girls. You know, usually I feel a little uncomfortable with accepting gifts, but this one I will gladly take,” he confided and returned the smile, not hearing the small gasp from Pinkie.
“You’re welcome!” Rainbow Dash called. “See you at the party!”
He looked at the group one final time, still with a wide smile on his face before stepping outside and closing the door behind him. Once outside he took in a deep breath. Well that went well. It was nice seeing them all again. I kind of feel bad for hiding from them so long, especially when they only wanted to help, he thought while making his way through town, back to his ship. And that party sounds like a pretty good idea, even though I’m still half against it. I’m curious how these ponies party… He spent the rest of his walk thinking about different ways it would go and before he even noticed he was crossing the field towards his ship again.
He crossed the small hill but a noise from the other side made him stop. Standing still and concentrating on the sound, he could clearly hear footsteps on the ground heading towards the direction of the ship. Someone’s there… but who? he wondered and slowly began crouching around the hill, making sure to not be noticed by who, or whatever, was on the other side. He was close to completely surrounding the hill and being able to see who it was, and this question got answered by a loud voice.
“STEVE, ART THOU ALRIGHT? WILL THOU NOT COME OUT AND SPEAKEST WITH ME?” the Princess of the Night yelled loudly.
Luna? he asked himself, surprised. What is she doing here? He got up from his tense position and walked out in the open. The night blue alicorn had not noticed him as he stepped closer; instead she impatiently looked towards the airlock before she started knocking a hoof against it, the dull metal clanging ringing in his ears. Better stop her before she ends up putting a hole through the thing! “Hello, Luna,” he greeted her.
“AHH!” she yelped and spun around, her forehooves lifted high up in the air and her long horn glowing in a dark blue light. “WHO DARES AMBUSH - Oh, pardon me, I did not know you were not inside,” she said as she settled back on her four hooves back on the ground and let her magical aura around her horn vanish.
“Sorry, didn’t want to startle you,” he yelped and took a step back, startled by her sudden reaction. “What are you doing here?” he asked her, once he got his heart to stop racing and raised a brow.
At his words, she looked at him carefully, looking him over thoroughly. “I have seen that you are plagued by nightmares ever since you have left Canterlot,” she replied and a worried expression crawled on her head.
“How do you know that? Were you in my head again?” he asked sharply and took a step closer.
“No, no, of course not,” she quickly denied. “I promised not to and this promise I will keep.” With a saddened voice, she continued, “I can feel the dreams all of my subjects and the creatures inhabiting this land, including you, and know how they feel without having to enter their dreams to see what is plaguing them, especially if they are very strong, as the ones you have been having. It was not my desire to break my promises towards you but I could not stand idly by so I decided to come here myself.”
Once again he was baffled of how worried even the princess would get about him, especially after he had so harshly told her off only a few days ago. While it was true that they had patched things up, he didn’t really expect her to fly all the way here. “Thanks for your concern, Luna, but I can handle it myself,” he assured her.
“Are you certain about that? My experience with dreams, especially nightmares, can be very helpful in resolving your problem. But for that I would require to be told what it is that weighs so heavily on your mind.” She looked at him expectantly, hoping he would tell her what was going on.
“I said I can handle it, really,” he tried to assure her but he saw that Luna was not giving up so easily.
“Please, just let me help you. It makes me sad to see someone who I can help struggling with their fears, so much so that they cannot rest at night,” she said and locked her cyan eyes with his, not backing down.
“Well, all right.” He sighed as he gave in to her demands and told her the story of what has happened on their last day in Canterlot. Several emotions seemed to pass across her face, surprise, shock, anger and even some sadness, but let him speak without interrupting.
After he finished, she remained silent for a few moments, mulling over what she had just been told.. “This is a terrible revelation. I was not aware something like this was going on.”
“Really? How could you not know about this?” he asked, sceptical of her claim. “You’re the leader of this country and from what I heard lived for thousands of years.”
“Of which I spent the last millennia in exile,” she corrected in a sad voice, avoiding his gaze but not before he saw the pained look that appeared on her face. “Ever since I have returned, I have not fully able to integrate with the ways of this new Equestria. It can tell you that I have never noticed such things happening here. Before I…. left, there was also nothing to suggest anything like that ever took place.
“I talked with some ponies and it turned out that that is far from common nowadays, but it still hit me hard when I found out the first time,” he admitted shakily.
“And that is what had been causing your fears?” Luna inquired.
“Partly. My dreams were focused about that, but deep down I also fear what else I might discover here,” he told her nervously, his eyes rapidly wandering around.
Quietly, Luna nodded. “I can understand. After my return I feared the same. So many things had changed. It must be harder for you since you have never been here before but I can assure you that I will do anything in my power to help you overcome the problems you have to face.” She smiled at him and scratched her hoof over the ground while waiting for a response.
“Thank you Luna,” he finally replied, feeling amazed by her proclamation. “I am sure I’ll ask you if I ever need your help in the future. For now, Twilight and her friends are already helping me.”
“It pleases me to hear this. I see that my sister was right and you were indeed left in good hooves, and hope that you will find an end to your nightmares now. I will discuss the matter you have shown to me with my sister once I return back to Canterlot,” Luna announced and unfolded her large wings, getting ready to leave again.
“Wait!” he called, causing her to pause. “Erm…. Pinkie Pie is throwing this party for me tonight…. and I was wondering if you’d like to come too,” he blurted out.
At first she seemed eager, and then her face fell in disappointment. “As much as I would like to,” she said wistfully, “I have my duties to attend to when the night comes,” she said, shuffling her feathers.
“Oh…. well that’s too bad, I guess,” he said, surprised at the feeling of regret that ran through him. “I guess this is goodbye for now then, Luna. It was nice talking with you. Have a save trip,” he truthfully said, stepping back to give her room.
“Farewell, Steve,” she replied and with a few powerful flaps of her wings she was in the air again, off on her way back towards Canterlot.
Steve looked after her for a while until she disappeared from behind his view. He sighed and made his way inside his ship again, picking up a surprisingly large gift basket standing in front of his door. Wow, he thought, impressed as he picked it up. Looks like they put a lot of effort into this. Let’s see what’s inside….. ohh banana bread!
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Don't care about bad dreams and sexism mares, got banana bread!
Nice Chapter!
3356388
approves
I was eating banana bread when reading this.
3356516 GIMME!
These comments are going bananas
So, Lyra has a
Will Lyra succeed in her seductive scheme?
Will Luna suddenly appear at the party?
What will
entail next?
Find out next installment.
Oh, and as always: Great chapter.
3356599 Have a mustache
I'm enjoying the story so far and this chapter is no exception, but have you considered getting an editor? There are some glaring errors that could easily be cleaned up in a matter of minutes if you sent it to an editor before publishing it.
this story started off average but its taken a lot of really interesting turns, and I smile every time it updates!
3357791 Could you point out some for me? I've seen some that I missed, but maybe there's more that escaped my understanding.
3356599 no have
all of them
3358019 I noticed that you used 'easy instead of 'ease'
3358019 Absolutely, I'm going to be busy for a few hours but I'll edit this comment with some errors when I can.
3359107 Can't believe I missed that one and I'm sure that I won't believe I missed more
An Eragon reference, eh?
So far we have Lyra, an implied Rainbow, and (just reaching here) Luna for potential romance with the human. Hmm...should be fun. I eagerly await the next chapter.
3362954 Loved the series, even went out to buy them. The ending hit me pretty bad though, so much so that I can't bring myself to reread Inheritance. After all the emotional investment, I wanted a happier ending, dammit!
luna is best pony nuf said.
3484369 Well, it's kind of hard to run a few miles with an angry earth pony on your tail, also he got taken by surprise. And I doubt it would help his nightmares but I don't know that much about dreams
Ah know, that’s why Ah said you were the its queen!”
What? The its? Bad form, too lazy to remember how to correct.
Sorreh
I CALL ERAGON REFERENCE.
this may be creepy but iv'e read all four books at least 50 times each, not exaggerating, possibly 100 for eragon and eldest.
i approve this story
/
3435286 NAY, PONIES ARE BEST PONIES. NO FAVS ALLOWED
3364881 i wholeheartedly agree that the ending could have been better,(no SUPER-MASSIVE-ULTRA cliffhanger) but i still enjoyed the series as a whole
DID YOU KNOW. that Christopher Paolini was 16 when he started writing the first book. in my opinion it starts off a little iddy bit too slow but fast at the same time.
what's your opinion on how it's written
3484515 heh.heh.heh. eragon reference.
5245790
4038538
3362954
Good job for catching on the Eragon reference. I really liked that series.
I can understand some of his shock at being castaway as I have also experienced tho I was alone on an island for almost a year. However I took the risks and lived with it. Here he is an adventurer traveling the stars has said long term good byes and knows the risk of not returning , That being said he is surrounded by lovely ponies with a chance for a pleasant sexually fulfilling life maybe no kids but a future. I could see him being upset if they were sapient overly friendly cock roaches.
Luna is Best Pony! Fight ME!!