Chapter 26 - Headlines and Headaches: Part 2
Contact – Chapter 26
Headlines and Consequences: Part 2
Walking through Ponyville always provoked a different reaction from the town ponies, but overall, things had gotten better for Steve. The extreme fright reaction the ponies had upon his first arrival had passed away relatively quickly, and from there it was mostly stares, which had also diminished. If not for the setback after the party, where he just figured that the ponies would fear his anger for not showing up, you could say that it had been a constant improvement of their attitude, even though that incident proved to him that they were still not really comfortable speaking to him, at least most of them. Then again, those that did talk to him left him mostly confused, as he thought back to Lyra’s bizarre behaviour.
This time, as he was walking through the town, it was a tad bit different, however. Today was Sunday, and with a clear blue sky and the warm sun shining down on the town, it promised to be a pretty relaxed day for most ponies. The few cafés and restaurants he walked by were filled with a large variety of ponies, mostly tourists he figured. That was not a strange sight in itself, but all were focused on their newspapers. For a moment Steve wondered if that was normal procedure on a Sunday morning but shrugged it off for now. Twilight’s library came in sight already, and she would surely tell him if something important happened.
He raised his hand to knock on the wooden door of the library, but the door swung open before his hand could hit it. On the other side stood a both nervous and angry looking Twilight Sparkle, a saddlebag on her back. She stopped dead in her tracks as she saw him and looked up at him with her eyes wide. “Uhm, morning. Is everything alright?” he asked carefully.
“No, nothing is alright!” she shouted out, grabbed him by the hand, and pulled him inside the library before she slammed the door shut behind him, causing him to yelp in surprise. “I’m so sorry this happened,” she continued as she walked back to the table in the middle, still dragging him along. The size difference, paired with her surprising strength, almost made him trip over. To say that he was confused would be an understatement, although he had gotten a bit used to the unicorn’s antics. Before he could ask what happened, however, she opened her saddlebag and levitated a newspaper out of it and onto the table.
Okay, something definitely happened, he concluded. Judging by Twilight’s worry and her apology, it must have something to do with him. Preparing for the worst, he leaned over the table and began to read the paper.
Princess Celestia: what is she hiding?
/Picture: Strange creature’s arrival in Canterlot. A circle of guards walks through the street. In the middle of them, the creature curiously looks around./
Strange cryptid in company of highest officials and royal bodyguards as seen in Canterlot. A potential threat?The palace has refused to comment on the sightings of this unknown creature at the heart of power in Equestria. Why could it be? Is it a turncoat from some previously unknown foreign nation? Perhaps it is a summoned familiar from a dangerous magical experiment? Could the rumours of the princesses’ dark excesses and shady late night forays into the seedy underbelly of Canterlot be true? All that is known for certain is that Princess Celestia is hiding something from the ponies of Equestria!
Had it not been for an insider who requested anonymity, we might not have gotten any of this into the hooves of the good subjects of Equestria. All other inquiries were denied by public officials, and workers related to the creature’s arrival were suspiciously tight lipped or were replaced with new ponies.
/Picture: Celestia eating cake./
As confirmed in last month’s publication, Celestia allowed herself to be photographed eating cake and for it to be published in an obscure school newspaper as part of an underhoofed deal with confectionary industry giants.
Like our investigation into corruption allegations in the multi-million bit confectionary industry throughout Equestria, we uncovered that Celestia allowed herself to be photographed for an elementary school magazine in the rural town of Ponyville. Of course, the crown officially denied allegations that it was a promotional stunt to have Celestia be seen eating the iconic cakes of the Sugarplumb Company. And of course there was enough plausible deniability that the Princess could claim the images were doctored somehow.
However, why else would such images emerge in Ponyville of all places? A town in which educated readers will remember that the famed Elements of Harmony reside. Chief of them is Celestia’s personal protégé, Twilight Sparkle. Much like that debacle, designed to augment the cashflow of the now empty Royal Treasury, could it be possible this new creature is the result of shadowy dealings by the princess in order to cover up the fact that our kingdom is bankrupt?
/Pictures: Numerous images of Canterlot/
Black-Gold Tower, Celestia’s Academy for Gifted Unicorns, Sugarplumb Company Headquarters, Heather Hide Memorial Bridge
After all, this would not be the first time our princesses have made such deals with foreign nations to the disadvantage of the ponies they purport to rule. Princess Luna’s secret meetings with representatives of both Princess Cadence of the Crystal Empire and the Griffon Empire are well documented. While unconfirmed at present, this publication’s dedicated and honest journalists, filled with integrity and dedication to the truth, have reason to suspect the selling of the great suspension bridge project in the Great Valley gorge to the benefit of the griffons and the Crystal ponies at the expense of Equestrian landholders in the region, all for the folly of the princess’ ludicrous Rhododendron expenses which have whittled away our kingdom’s great riches to a pittance. It can be likened to throwing a king’s ransom worth of floral bushes into Tartarus, never to be recovered where they might have been put to use to feed the nation’s hungry!
It is also worth noting that we have evidence of further corruption within the ranks of the Royal Guard itself. Reports indicate that there is a power struggle within the day and night guards between popular lieutenants to assume the valued position of captain of the Royal Guard now that Prince-Consort Shining Armour has left the position. Unfortunately, the former captain did not have time to appoint and train his replacement. It appears the princesses, or those close to them, deliberately frustrated the former captain’s efforts.
Again, with the thanks of another anonymous palace insider, it appears the dissent and increased factionalism of the royal guards are deliberately stirred by ambitious palace servants. Eager to use the opportunity to curry favour and to secure their own positions within the royal household, our insider reports that whoever becomes the ‘kingmaker’ in the struggle for the top position of the Royal Guard will also dictate many other matters within the royal household under the princesses’ own noses.
While interior skullduggery is nothing new to the corruption that is court life, we have reason to suspect that the competition between royal servants and majordomos of both princesses is directly encouraged by their royal highnesses. The purpose behind this is not clear, however it is the opinion of this publication that the princesses have grown so accustomed to their power that active dissent sown in the ranks of their servants encourages further devotion to the princesses in order to secure position and favour. A destructive, self-serving vanity at the expense of harmony and government efficiency at the heart of our very city of Canterlot!
Additionally, it is postulated that the changeling invasion fiasco was a ruse according to sources within the guard. “We were not at all prepared for it.” says one high ranking source who wishes to remain anonymous. “We should have been scanning citizens within the city instead of wasting time on the shield.” As of the invasion, security spending has been on the increase. It has been postulated by several learned and astute observers of modern affairs that the the Changeling Queen was allowed to impersonate Princess Cadence, possibly with Cadence’s own consent in the princesses’ schemes. Why, you might ask?
Simple, because of the treasury’s intense deficit, effectively bankrupting the nation, the princesses needed a threat to justify clearly objectionable practices such as the sale of the Great Valley gorge bridge to subsidise their incomes alongside deals with captains of industry. All the while increasing spending on Equestria’s military industrial complex to further solidify power, but to what end nopony can truly guess at, at the same time ensuring a lack of centralised military leadership to object or thwart their machinations in the form of a captain of the guard. A captain, despite not being a general of one of Equestria’s standing armies, technically outranks most military officials due to sheer proximity to the throne. The absence of one ensures the princesses unquestioned control over military matters.
With all this in mind, it is not unreasonable to conclude that this mysterious new creature, accompanied by only the highest of officials and the most elite of guards here at the heart of our kingdom’s power can only fit into these plans in some way. As always, this publication is ever loyal to our princesses and our kingdom, that is why we see it as our sacred duty to hold the crown to account for its actions and bring the truth to you, the ponies of Equestria.
“Can you believe it?” Twilight spoke up next to him in a nervous tone. She must have watched him reading and had noticed that he was finished with it. Instead of answering, he went over what he just read in his head again. Apparently it was now known to the public that a strange creature from a distant land had been invited to Canterlot by the Princess, had been accompanied by the Elements there, and had now returned to his current residence in Ponyville. Aside from the accusations against the Princess, which filled out the majority of the article, he could say that it was not far off the truth, unfortunately.
While he had planned to spend his forced time here at least doing something useful and getting to know this world a bit better, the first tendrils of trepidation tugged at him as it began to sink in that he could attract quite a bit of unwanted attention, at the worst even turning him into some kind of tourist attraction, now that the ponies knew where he lived.
“Princess Celestia has always tried to keep the media away from ponies who aren’t public officials,” Twilight Sparkle began, causing him to look up from the newspaper. “I don’t want to brag, but my friends and I have saved Equestria a few times, and we were never mentioned by name anywhere because the princess knew that she was doing us a favour by saving us from the media frenzy that would have followed.” She shuddered. “I grew up in Canterlot, and I’ve seen how some of the celebrities there were followed by journalists and photographers. If there’s one thing I can tell you for sure, it’s that I’m grateful that this hasn’t happened to me.” She sighed and grabbed the newspaper with her magic again. She glanced over it again before continuing, an angry note in her voice, “The princess was doing the same for you, or at least she tried, to make your life here at least a little better. I have no idea who this… insider,” she spat out the last word, “is supposed to be, but wherever they got their information from, at least some of what they said is true.” Twilight let out a frustrated groan. “And now you’ve been pulled into this as well.” Her voice began to calm down again, the anger being overcome by regret. “I’m really, really sorry for this. I—”
He raised a hand, motioning her to be quiet. “It’s okay, Twilight, you don’t need to be sorry.”
“Are you not mad about this?” she asked, surprised, and raised a brow.
Was he? Well, sure. There were all the negative outcomes that he had thought about and Twilight had already spoken about. At the same time, this could be used to his advantage. There seemed to be enough interest in him that he was now in the newspaper, so it could also give him the opportunity to speak out for himself and finally convince the ponies here that he was indeed friendly and there was no reason to avoid him. He hoped that if he ever got the chance, it would not come out like wide-eyed optimism as it sounded in his head. “I’m not sure yet,” he replied and shrugged. “I’ll have to wait and see first. Still, it wasn’t your fault, so I don’t want you blaming yourself.” However, it was more than obvious that Twilight was furious about the allegations, though that was probably mainly because of the unjust criticisms of Celestia. At least that was what he thought since he had already seen the close relationship Twilight had with the princess. “Have you heard anything from Princess Celestia regarding this?” he spoke up as Twilight stood there quietly with a thoughtful look on her face.
“Not yet,” she replied after a few moments. “I suppose she won’t be happy about this either, but the damage has already been done.” She sighed again and looked at the ground.
“What’s the agenda for today then?” he asked to break the silence that had fallen between them.
“Huh?” Twilight looked up. It was clear that she had been sucked deeply into her thoughts again. “Well, as I said yesterday, I wanted to meet with my friends at the lake today.”
“And your plans still stand with… all this?”
Twilight nodded. “I have to speak with them about this anyway. I don’t know if they have read it already. Do you still want to join us?” He nodded. “Keep in mind that there will probably be a lot of ponies around today. It’s Sunday, so most ponies are enjoying their day off, and we also have the usual weekend tourists here. Many of them will have the newspaper. Despite the quality, it is quite popular.” Twilight threw a disgusted look at the rolled up newspaper on her desk.
So it’s a tabloid, he quickly confirmed in his thoughts and nodded. “That’s fine by me. As I said, I want to see the reactions, so that might be a good place to start.” He shot her a confident smile, and after a couple of seconds, it actually managed to infect her as well, as the corners of her lips began to rise.
“I hope you’re right,” she said and levitated the newspaper with her as she went over to her saddlebags near the door, storing it in there.
“Are we going now?” Steve asked and followed her to the door.
Twilight turned around and shook her head. “I didn’t expect you to come so early. We still have about two hours until we need to go,” she explained as she walked back to him.
“And what can we do in the meantime?” he asked. Twilight stopped dead in her tracks, and a wide grin formed on her face, which he could only return with a confused look.
“Do you want to read a book?”
***
“Finally,” Blue Streak said, annoyance evident in his tone as he jumped up from his bed when the sound of the opening door announced the return of their third colleague. Ardent Zeal looked up from the letter he was sitting over and gave Blossom a quick nod as she entered the room.
“Good, we’re all here again. What did you find out?” Ardent asked as she dropped off her saddlebags on the bed and laid down next to them.
“Nothing really,” she replied after a while and groaned. “I forgot how much they talked there instead of actually doing anything, but according to my contact, Princess Celestia hasn’t given out any information at all. Now she’s got a long line of ambassadors and journalists standing at her door, all wanting answers.” Blossom sat up in the bed and grinned. “Don’t want to be her now, but the folks there took the article very seriously and now want some answers from our dearest Princess Celestia.”
Ardent nodded and turned back towards the letter. While they were out, he had spent the time writing reports, and now with Blossom’s return, he could finish his last one. All he could do now was wait for further orders. If it was up to him, they would be on the next train to Ponyville, but patience was probably the best way to approach this.
“Looks like I’ve been the only successful one then,” Blue Streak proclaimed and put on a smug grin.
“Get to the point,” Blossom said and rolled her eyes as she motioned him with a hoof to speak.
“I’ve paid the editor of this paper a little visit,” he began, and his grin grew a bit wider. Blossom just sighed. “Don’t worry, he’s fine,” he added quickly and raised a hoof to quell the inevitable question about his methods. “He was quite quick to tell me that most of it was made up, aside from the part about the train to Ponyville he was taking.”
“So we are going there next?” Blossom inquired.
“Not yet,” Ardent spoke up again, just as he finished the last line of the letter. “We have to report this back first. I just waited for you to return to send of the letter.” With those words, he focused his magic on the piece of paper in front of him, letting it glow a dark green before it vanished in a small flash of light. “And done.”
Blossom just shrugged. “Some time off then. Good, all this talking made me tired,” she said before dropping back down on her bed.
***
As was usual during their tours through the town, Twilight Sparkle led the way, but given that he had no idea where most things in or around town were, that was probably for the best. This time, they were heading towards the east. The sun was standing high up in the sky, bathing them in warm beams of light.
The time in the library had gone by quickly. After agreeing to Twilight’s offer, she had dragged him upstairs and into her room. It was the first time he had been in there, but he hadn’t gotten much of a chance to look around, as Twilight immediately held a book in front of his face. Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Stone, was emblazoned on the cover. It just looked like some adventure fantasy story, but seeing Twilight’s enthusiasm as she showed it to him, as well as the large collection of those sorts of books behind her, it seemed promising, so he had given it a try.
He had quickly gotten the feeling that this was basically just the Equestrian version of Indiana Jones, but that wasn’t a bad thing. Twilight had meanwhile grabbed one of the books as well. Shortly after she had dug into it, she had visibly calmed down again. It was interesting to watch the sudden effects that the book had on the purple unicorn, but he couldn’t deny that there were times when he also just wanted to read a book in order to keep his mind distracted from something else.
Now it was shortly after noon, and the activity on the street was at a high, but almost no sound could be heard as they trotted over the streets. The only noises were the quiet whispers of ponies as they walked past them.
Awkwardly, Steve scratched the back of his head as he noticed that all eyes were on them. Maybe I was a bit too confident, he thought, but now it was too late to change his decision. At least it’s still better than my very first time here, he concluded as he took a look around. Confusion and curiosity stood on the ponies’ faces, something he had gotten quite used to.
“How far is it?” Steve quietly asked Twilight, who seemed to be even more uncomfortable with the situation than he was.
“Only a few more minutes,” she replied, equally quiet as she put on an awkward grin and continued moving along the street. Soon enough, they reached the end of the little dirt road, all the while under the curious looks of the townsponies and tourists, accompanied by their chattering. Twilight’s word proved to be accurate. A large meadow was lying ahead of them, stretching out a few kilometres into the east and even further into the north, where it eventually transitioned into a light forest. From the looks of it, it didn’t seem to be the Everfree, and he tried to recall if Twilight had ever told him its name. A couple of individual trees were spread over the field, underneath which plenty of ponies were sitting in the shadows and enjoying a picnic, but even more of them didn’t seem to bother with that and were just lying in the sun. Twilight hadn’t been lying when she said that it would be a busy day. It seemed like the whole town was out today, enjoying the warm weather by either having a picnic, frolicking around, or simply by sunbathing.
The lake that Twilight had mentioned came into sight as well. It was slightly hidden behind a small group of trees, but the large amount of ponies around it still gave it away, though he had to think in relative terms here when talking about group sizes. Compared to the business around lakes on sunny days on Earth, this one was almost deserted. With the ponies here being rather occupied with their activities, they didn’t take much notice of him, and the ponies from the town were not as persistent as to follow them.
As they arrived at the lake, he spotted Rarity, Fluttershy, Rainbow Dash, and Applejack sitting on a large blanket next to the lake, the latter waving at them. “Howdy,” the farmer greeted them as they came closer, and the other three ponies looked up from their bags as well. They must have just gotten here, judging by the still half-unpacked bags, and a slight feeling of guilt ran through Steve’s body as he realized that he had taken nothing with him to share with them. On the other hand, he didn’t have any fresh food left, so he was probably doing them a favour.
“Hey guys,” said Rainbow Dash, who sat up quickly from her lying position and looked over to them. Only now Steve noticed that she wore large sunglasses covering almost half of her face, but seeing as how big the ponies’ eyes were in comparison to their heads, it had to be impossible to avoid making them oversized. She gave them a quick nod before lying back down, crossing her hooves behind her head
“Oh, hello darlings,” Rarity said in her usual posh tone and quickly looked away from the pile of plates she was levitating and over to them before setting each plate down on a different position on the blanket. She turned back to her saddlebags which she had carried them in, preparing to get more out of them, but then spun around towards them again, giving them a long, scrutinizing look. Steve looked down at Twilight, noticing that she still had that nervous look on her face. “Something wrong, my dear?” Rarity asked as they both took a seat.
“Didn’t anypony read the newspaper today?” Twilight asked, sounding slightly surprised.
“Nah, didn’t really have the time for that. Came here straight from the fields. Why? Did Ah miss anything?” Applejack spoke up and looked around.
“I don’t know, Applejack. I have read the Ponyville Courier as usual, and nothing peculiar struck me,” Rarity replied with an elegant shrug.
“No no.” Twilight quickly shook her head. “Not the Ponyville Courier, I’m talking about Canterlot Enquirer,” she said and opened her saddlebags to pull out said newspaper.
“The Enquirer?” Rarity sounded almost shocked. “Oh please, Twilight, don’t tell me you read that rag.” She screwed up her nose as she spat out the last word.
Twilight was about to respond, but a high-pitched voice behind her interrupted her. “Oh silly, you can’t read a rag. Those are for cleaning.” The group spun around to see Pinkie Pie standing right behind them, a large basket on her back and a smaller one next to her. With a happy grin on her face, she took the smaller basket in her mouth and strutted past them on to the blanket, where she put both down.
“No, Pinkie, we’re not talking about rags, but about this,” Twilight corrected her as she sighed and levitated the newspaper over to her friends. Steve watched their eyes moving quickly over the first page. Their looks turned grim before Twilight flipped the page over so that they could read the rest. Despite the sombreness of the situation, Steve could not help but marvel at how easy (and slightly amusing) it was to see how quickly their expressions could change.
Their grim looks slowly turned over into disgust, and eventually Rainbow Dash shouted out, “What the hay is this?” She was standing on her hind legs, her wings spread out as she pointed down at the newspaper, anger evident on her face. Her sudden outburst gained her the attention of the surrounding ponies, which didn’t go unnoticed by her. Slightly embarrassed, she sat down again, scratched the back of her neck, and mumbled something that sounded like ‘sorry’. “But I mean really,” she continued in a quieter voice, though the scorn could still be heard clearly, “how dare they talk about the princess this way? Don’t they know what she’s done for all of us?”
Applejack just responded by stomping one of her hind legs on the ground, causing the ground to slightly shake and the dishes and plates that Rarity had provided to rattle. “Indeed,” Rarity agreed and wrinkled her nose as she turned her head away from the newspaper. “Such a blatant display of ignorance.” She shook her head. “And ponies really read… that?” She reluctantly nodded over at the piece of paper in front of them.
Twilight just nodded. “Unfortunately, it is one of the most popular newspapers of Equestria.” Steve just followed the conversation quietly. It was apparent that the ponies were more concerned about the portrayal of their princess, but to be fair, he wasn’t put in a bad light, rather a shroud of mystery. Their princess, on the other hand, didn’t get off so lightly. He had almost forgotten that these ponies must think very highly of their princess, with them being kind of national heroes for being these ‘Elements’ that Twilight had mentioned to him a while ago. He still didn’t really understand what that meant exactly, but if they had all been asked to accompany him to Canterlot for his visit, he was sure that it had to be something important. So it was no wonder they were reacting furiously to this criticism, especially if they thought it to be unjust.
“Hey, they also wrote more about you!” Rainbow Dash called out and brought him back from his thoughts. He couldn’t tell how much time had passed, but he could imagine what the ponies had been talking about during it. Now Rainbow was standing over the newspaper again, continuing to read the rest of the article. It seemed as if she had stopped halfway, just after the criticism against her leader had become too much for her to keep holding in her reactions. The other ponies, aside from Twilight, looked back at the article as well. With Rainbow’s sudden outburst she must have stopped their reading prematurely as well.
“Woah, they even wrote where we live!” Applejack exclaimed and her eyes shot wide open. “Those darn ponies, wanting to make a profit and not giving a damn ‘bout others. Oh, if Ah get my hooves on them… Ah’m gonna give them a piece of mah mind.”
“I know, I know,” Twilight said and sighed loudly. “And now I worry that some ponies are just out to see that ‘mysterious creature’,” she drew quotation marks in the air with her hooves, “and are only going to pester him, and also us.” She sighed again as the now worried looks of her friends were resting on either her or Steve. “I’m really sorry for this, I—”
“Pardon the interruption, ladies,” a deep male voice sounded and cut Twilight off. Startled, the group looked around. A middle-aged unicorn stallion had come up to them. With his right forehoof, he tipped the large straw hat that sat on his face and covered most of his dark blue mane. Next to him stood a mare who wore a dress along with a hat, although he couldn’t really tell what kind. It just seemed completely oversized and was decorated with some flowers on the side. Judging by their choice of attire, these were probably tourists. Steve sighed internally.
Twilight exchanged some quick glances with her friends and then cautiously asked, “Yes?”
“Greetings! Allow me to introduce myself. I’m Comet Tail,” the stallion continued and smiled at the group as his sap green eyes wandered over all of them. “My wife and I,” he pointed at the mare next to him, “are from Manehatten, so we don’t really know anypony here. But we’ve read the newspaper this morning and…” Steve noticed the sour faces of the ponies around him as his expectation came true. But now he could finally see the first reactions of this article. “Well, we’re a bit excited. It is you they were writing about, right?” He turned towards Steve and looked at him expectantly. The human just nodded. “Ha!” the unicorn shouted out, earning him a surprised look from both Steve and the other ponies. “Told you he wasn’t a minotaur,” he said towards his wife. “Sorry about that,” he added with a chuckle as he turned back to Steve. “It’s just that we’d seen you here yesterday and were wondering. It’s been a while since we’ve both seen a minotaur, so we weren’t quite sure, and now with this article, I just had to ask.”
Steve just nodded it off. So far so good, but he still had no idea where this was going, so he decided to push it a little. “Can I help you?”
“Oh, yes,” Comet Tail answered hastily and nodded. “We were wondering where you are really from. The article didn’t really say.” The mare joined her husband’s expectant look.
Steve thought for a moment. “Ever heard of Europe?” The two ponies shook their heads. “I figured. It’s very far west of Equestria.”
“Across the sea?” the mare now spoke up.
“Uh, yes,” Steve replied and nodded. The two ponies made sounds of surprise.
“Well, look at that,” the stallion said. “I’ve never met anypony from there.”
Steve chuckled. “I guess we really are unknown here. Just take one step into the capital and you get into the newspaper. Although I wish I’d made it into a better one.” He looked over at the paper, still lying on the blanket.
“What do you mean?” Comet Tail inquired.
Steve raised a brow. “Have you not read the article fully? The princess trying to keep my existence a secret? If I was such a secret, would I be sitting here out in the open at a lake on a warm, sunny day?” The two ponies exchanged quizzical looks before turning back to Steve and shook their heads. “Pretty much nothing what is there about me really is true. I’d say someone threw in a lot of conspiracy theories to increase the sales even more.” Steve didn’t even know exactly why he was lying to them. It was definitely not to help Celestia’s reputation, but it might prove helpful in the future to break the trust of a newspaper that was printing half-truths. Maybe a part of him was doing it for Twilight and her friends. Seeing them, the ones that had always been nice to him, being outraged over these accusations had gotten to him, and if repaying their kindness meant that he had to talk good about the one who had taken away so much from him, then so be it.
“So you’re saying that most of this is made up?” a new voice spoke up. Surprised, Steve looked around. This couple were by far not the only ponies that had taken notice of him. The eyes of most ponies around them were set on him, and a couple of them were now also approaching him.
“Tell us what really happened then,” another pony demanded.
“What are you doing here?”
“What other creatures are there in your land?”
“Can I take a picture with you?”
These and many more questions were thrown at him, and quickly Steve found himself surrounded by a small group of eager ponies trying to find out more about him. He glanced over at Twilight, but she seemed just as helpless as he was and just shrugged. With a sigh, he turned back to the ponies, who expectantly waited for his answers. At least they seemed open-minded. Judging by their clothes, most of them were also tourists, but this could very well mean that he now had to spend most of the day answering their questions. And he had been so looking forward to lunch.
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IT aLIVE. WOOOHOO
this is the most sensacionalist newspaper i've ever read
5170237 You mean it beats back the British tabloids?
MLP Journey keeps suggesting to give this story a try, but every time I click the link I cant get past the annotation. USA flag with Earth on it, really? Isnt it a bit too much honor? And you didnt even bother to create some credible futuristic culture, only tech (which is probably, considering such lazy approach, begins at and ends with some generic spaceshit that is only required to get humans to Equestria). Music/movies/games warining suggests a whole chapters decicated to showing off that stuff, and every bad HiE fic is full of those.
Maybe I am totally wrong and this story is a masterpiece, but I just cant bring myself to read it.
Oh those gullible ponies, they're so cute and easily exploitable
It was good reading the fake news almost annoyed/ angered me as much as the I'll informed rants of my classmate's
This was good. I think the newspaper dragged on a bit, but it did add flavor-text to the story. Looking forward to seeing how he will react to the inquisitive ponies.
I see a newspaper editor who is about to be banished to the moon.
Another excellent chapter.^^
5170467 K.
I must say, the article could have been written by "Bild" and couldn't be worse, in a good way. It is an insult for the dead fish you would warp up with it. I like ^^
At least now they're talking "about" Steve. Hope that changes more to "with".
5170467 The flag is actually from Futurama. Trukry drew that image and if I recall correctly I asked him if there was some kind of "Earth Flag" and he replied with the flag from Futurama. It is not an USA flag.
And no, there is not a whole chapter dedicated towards music and such, I will not add links to music that I like, or rather that I feel the character likes. But you can't expect that the ponies will never want to see anything, and if it happens that I talk about that sometimes, I want to make a reference to a song that actually exists.
Also I did not see the need of creating an entirely new culture for humans, as ours, with just a bit more advanced spacetravel, is perfectly fine for the purpose of the story. If I would have made a new culture I would have to spend a LOT of time explaining it to the reader. If you read a bit into the story you will noticed that my pacing is quite slow most of the time, and compared to other stories of similar length, not that much actually has happened.
I see where your complaint is coming from, but a cliche setting is not bad by default, especially for HiE. Trukry wrote in his Blog about that a while ago, and basically I agree with everything he says there.
UPDATE YEYSYSEYYSYEYSEYEYSEYSEYSEYSEYSEYSEYSEYSYSYYSEYESEYSYSEYSEYSY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yay!
Good chapter and I've to agree with truekry about the "article". For me it got to the point it became that much ludicrous that I thought Celestia's response would be to distribute tin fiol hats to anypony wanting one. Especially because it was all 'secrets' and lies with those (press) ponies
The Ponyvillians and tourists being gullible fits well with the scheme of the show itself, but I think the only one of the (ex-)elementbearers that would get recognizion in a newspaper would be Twilight.
Personally I would tune down the reminder that Steve hates/dislikes Celestia a notch. To remind us every time of it leaves it a bit on the ridiculous side, sounding a bit like a supervillain: "Curse you, Celestia! Next time I will have me revenge!". But that could just be me again.
Read you next installment.
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Have you seen some of the Sunday Sport Exclusives?
And let's not forget some of the other Sunday Sport classics that don't appear immediately in that search:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BjftSTGCMAEk2nF.jpg
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bj7KnRVIIAAVliq.jpg
5172675 Pfff... casuals
This here remains the best newspaper article of all times
http://i.imgur.com/epAq9cG.jpg
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I'll give it to you that it's good, but I don't think it can beat the Sunday Sport exclusives...
It is funny though.
5170310 yes, yes it does
Finally a great update with Steve!
5204531 I think she is laying over the bridge of his nose and her legs are hanging off the side. You just cant see it because of the viewpoint.
Pretty good chapter.
I had this on my read later until I was fully caught up, which is right now.
I'm liking the story so far
5170467 In all fairness, yes the fic has clichés and misses out on lots of opportunities. The next not will give you an idea of them and doesn't directly spoil it (too much): They speak the same language (by chance) for example. He also ends up in a parrallel universe, not a planet and is separated from everyone on earth with no way back because of Celestia. Furthermore, the middle of the fic is terrible (the bit that wasn't rewritten), there's errors everywhere and poorly worded speech and actions. Also, an actual hint of plot doesn't even start until about ch20 and has only advanced a bit. There were so many things that could have been done but weren't. Instead it is now basically a normal HiE with a typical plot where the protagonist has advanced tech.
I tend too be very harsh quite often so don't take it too hard mr writer guy. It was good enough for me to finish reading and like (even if the middle is literal crap, not figurative, literal).
So, there's not going to be any Twilicorn? Like, ever?
....sorry if you're asked this a lot.
5246602 No, when I started writing this I didn't really know what to think about Twilicorn so I left her as a unicorn and I had no plans of integrating her transformation here. In future stories (one of which will be uploaded soon, a one shot I wrote a while ago for a short story competition in our German brony forum and that I just have to finish translating finally and sent to my proofreader) I will use Twilicorn. And I didn't actually get that question a lot, at first there even was a lot of positive reaction to that decision at it was the time between S3 and S4 and nobody really know what to make of all this.
5208801 Well, it seems I have missed that comment for a long while, so sorry for responding so late to it. Thank you for this honest feedback. Missed opportunity... that's what I felt while rereading it as well. I should have planned the entire story much better before starting to write it. A fault that I hope to not repeat in the future.
5251617 The biggest thing that you can do to improve it is rewrite more chapters, the chapters at the start that were rewritten were good, but the ones afterwards were really lacking in comparison. They were littered with minor grammatical and spelling errors as well as some sentences not making complete sense. Also, many characters introduced during that point (such as Luna), seemed a bit OOC or not fleshed out. Most people who stop reading it probably do so at this point.
But, as I said before, I read and the whole thing and pressed the like button so I hope this helps
even if I'm a critical bastard.5251617 ah. That explains it then.
5251978 Chapters 7-13 (including both) are the ones I haven't gone over yet, I went over chapters 1-6 in the re-write, and chapter 14 onwards. Maybe one of these days (years) I'll go over those and clean them up...
You guys are disappointing in how long it takes you to post another chapter. I suggest trying to narrow down your activities in order to focus more solely on what you want to. Personally, I would love for this story to continue but if that is what is happening, so be it. I'm off to hunt for other stories that are quite long.
5430601 I've tried giving Gron a kick in the ass to get him moving along, but I've lost too many shoes...
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Do you need more shoes then?
Seriously guys, don't waste the potential this story has =\
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Your using a shoe? Try a steel-toed boot, its guaranteed to get attention when you connect
5697905 Eh, knowing Gron, he might actually enjoy that.
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And theres the carrot to lead the horse....
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I don't know where people keep getting this idea. I feel pain in dreams all the time, and all my other senses are intact too.
The neurology and the why aren't fully understood, but it's a thing that happens. Studies have both induced pain in dreams by using blood pressure cuffs on a sleeping volunteer, as well as seen it occur in the control group that had no external stimulus and no unusual sleeping position that might have caused a cramp. That's not even getting into anything particularly extreme like like people who have PTSD or amputees with phantom limb.
6078969 I don't actually like the mushrooms that much. I just had them because they wouldn't let me have any more of the good stuff.
"Help yourself" they said. Bloody lying bastards cheating me of my (parents) money.
6079038 Its like those "all you can eat buffet`s" lol! more like "all that is socially acceptable for you to eat buffet`s" Some people ive met are so scared to seem greedy they pay the price for this potentialy HUGE meal and only eat one platefull!! WHAT! lol!
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Spoke to Gron today. In between his job that takes up most of his day, he's written the next three chapters of Contact on paper. He needs to just find the time to type it.
6079220 For some reason I randomly looked at this story's page again and saw this comment. And it made my blood boil. Just kidding, 'artefact' is correct, as is 'artifact' which is the American English form.
http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/english/artefact
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Do apologize, my English isn't as good as I thought it was. Thanks for correcting me when I was wrong.
6109892 Cool. I CAN'T WAIT! SQUEEEE!
6145426 Well the funny thing is that it wasn't your English, so don't worry about it. Assuming you are an American or a citizen of any other American English speaking country, if not, then ignore this comment.
6145591 Well, I was born in Germany and lived there for 10 years and moved here. So my English is decent. Your language sure is hard. Well, its all opinion based I guess. Just like politics.
6146004 What do you struggle with in particular? I've heard that people don't really like that English seems to have a lot of 'rules', but there are loads of exceptions, and that in the end really you just have to rote memorise things. I don't really know though, English is just second nature to me. Did you know there are at least 6 ways of pronouncing '-ough' that are commonly used, and at least 10 if you count the words in British English that have fallen out of use? Anyway I'll shut up now, I like talking about English too much...
6146100 Nah, is fine. Its just some preposition rules. Pisses me off, but that's really my problem. Don't worry about it.
It's been about 38 weeks now...is this dead?
It's been a year? A year and no update? Y u do dis Gron?
6552070 Oh yeah, can't believe it's been so long. I haven't had to slog through a chapter in over a year... yay. Well if Gron sees this, I don't mind finally proofreading chapters 7 to 14 so that I've proofread every chapter. It always bugged me how I haven't done them and that people might think my standards are slipping if they notice a dip after the rewrite chapters at the beginning, because I'm vain like that.
I'm sad,I really am.
Would be great to have some more chapters
Great story so far.
*looks at trumpet* Let's give it just a little more time.
6785158 Magic doesn't explain shit and can't be used as a cop-out in "science" themed fics.
It's like saying, "We'll just use the force" and just hoping something works.