Chapter 2 - Arrival

BEEP

“Just a few more minutes...” Steve grunted tiredly. As he tried to turn around, he noticed that he was not lying in his bed being woken by his annoying alarm clock. Instead, he was still sitting in the seat in front of the console of the board computer of the Helios, being held firmly in place by the seat belts.

His eyes widened at the sudden realization as he blinked a few times, hastily trying to remember what had happened.

I was in the Helios when everything was going crazy; it detached and brought me to... this sphere thingy. What the hell happened there? Am I dead? I don't feel dead. Wait... how do you feel when you are dead? He shook his head at his last thought and began to look around.

The ship looked intact. The lights were on, there were no signs of damage in the corridor to the airlock which was still locked, and no alarms reporting any kind of damage. Even the computer was turned on.

“Sarah?” Steve asked cautiously, hoping the AI would answer him.

“Hello, Steve, it took you a while to wake up,” Sarah replied instantly. “I even had to use the alarm clock.”

“Ugh, how long have I been out?” Steve groaned.

“You were already unconscious when I began operating again fifty two minutes ago.”

“And before that?” he queried impatiently. The AI only answered directly what was asked and he had to be very precise when talking to her.

“No data available. Memory damage detected. Entries of the previous eight days are compromised. Consult an administrator,” she cited.

Eight days... Something in his mind clicked. That’s when the problems began! They seem to be much more serious than I expected.

“Sarah? Where are we?” Steve asked the most important question at hand, his voice slightly trembling as his eyes caught a glance of the monitor in front of him. The outboard cameras were still intact, streaming their vision inside. Most of the cameras showed him a dense forest only a few metres ahead, while the vision of the others was almost immediately blocked by a grassy hill. It was obvious they had landed on a planet. But how was this even possible?

“We landed on a planet,” she replied, confirming his suspicions. “When my systems came back online, we had already entered the stratosphere. I landed the Helios forty four minutes ago,” Sarah told him. “The landing went without incidents.”

So I'm definitely alive. He let out a relieved sigh. Good, that would have been one hell of a disappointment if my afterlife would take place in this ship.
He was relieved to know that they actually landed on a planet but he still had more questions that needed answers. “Sarah, give me a damage report. Make a scan of the planet. Try to contact the Columbus. We need a pickup.”

“Engines online, environmental control and life support system online, all outboard cameras except 3, 5 and 15 online, short range scanners online, long range scanner offline, communication array offline, exterior shell functional at 99.5% durability, shields disabled, fuel level critical. Hydrogen supply must be restocked. Most of the energy used for landing. Changed power supply to solar energy. Accumulators are recharging at a steady rate…” the AI droned on without pause.

Good thing I crashed with this thing, I would be so screwed if I were in one of the smaller ships, Steve thought as he listened to the report. With this ship being the main module for a possible base on a planet it was completely autonomous and had almost every necessary system on board.

“Scans indicate an earth-like atmosphere. CO2 levels very low, no toxic gases detected. The air should be breathable. Gravity is 99.78% equal to Earth’s gravity. Heat signatures indicate presence of multiple life forms. Contac...”

“WHAT!?” Steve interrupted the AI after he heard the last sentence. “There are life forms here!? We found life so close to Earth? We were supposed to fly for at least three more years before getting anywhere near a planet with an environment like this! This is a massive breakthrough!”

“Contacting the Columbus is impossible while the communication array is offline. Further scans are running for a more detailed damaged report. I will inform you when they are done,” Sarah ended her report.

But at this point Steve didn't listen anymore. He was still too shocked from the sudden news.

“We are not alone,” he mumbled to himself, letting the words sink in for a while. “I KNEW IT! Oh this is so awesome,” he cheered enthusiastically and wondered what kind of life they would find here. Sure, the main part of his job wasn’t studying the life forms, but just making sure that everything was running smoothly for the others, but still, this was probably the best news he could hear on this trip.

Steve couldn’t hold back a happy laugh. Their mission was a success. They found what they were looking for so much earlier than expected.

“Sorry, Sarah, I wasn't listening at the last part. What did you say about contacting the ship?” Steve tried to calm down a bit in order to listen to the AI.

“Contacting the Columbus is impossible while the communication array is offline. I will make further scans for a more detailed report,” Sarah repeated.

Steve nodded quickly. Shouldn’t be much of a problem to fix this thing. They left so many spare parts in here I could almost build an exact copy of the ship. Still, would be nice to let them know sooner.

“Understood. You said the air was safe?” he asked, but continued without waiting for an answer. “I know I shouldn't but... I can't wait. I want to go outside,” he announced, barely able to hide his excitement. He knew this was a bad idea that was most likely going to end poorly, but the temptation was too great.

“That is correct, but I strongly advise not to go outside. That proves an unnecessary safety hazard.”

“Thanks for your concerns, I can handle that. I mean, what could go wrong?” He grinned and shrugged. “And don't answer that. But I should better be prepared. Sarah, open the armoury, I might need a few things from there.”

“Armoury unlocked,” the AI replied.

Only now Steve opened the belts that kept him tightly locked to the chair and made his way down the corridor, heading for the armoury, but making a quick stop at the cargo room to his left. He was relieved to see that despite the turbulence everything was still in place and secured. Another quick stop to his right in the laboratory showed him that everything seemed to be alright there also.

He didn't check to see if the equipment was working but the sight of no broken glass on the floor was enough at the moment.

I should check the rest of the shuttle as well before I go outside, Steve thought as he returned to the corridor. So far it’s looking good, but who knows.

To his right ran a smaller corridor that ended in a tiny window, granting him a bit of vision of the outside. There was the same hill that he had already seen on the cameras, but as he looked up he noticed a clear blue sky, a good sign for him. The small corridor had two doors on the left side, the first one leading to the life support system and the second one to the armoury. Sarah would have informed him about any obvious damage to the first one already, so he could leave it out for now. If there proved to be anything wrong with it he would have to wait for the detailed report anyways. The latter would be the last room on his checklist, so instead he went back to the main corridor and a bit further down to his left was the command centre.

Pretty vaunted name for a room containing only a long table, a few chairs and a long whiteboard across one the walls. Right above the table hung a rotatable projector, mounted to the ceiling. With everything in the room being fixed to the ship in some way, and with the general simplicity of the room it was no surprise that it looked the exact same as always. With the help of one of the chairs Steve climbed up onto the table and pushed the start button on the projector. A quick beeping sound and a few flashing lights made him nod contentedly and he switched it back off again.

He looked to the outboard side of the room, where now a large panoramic window, at least compared to the size of the other windows of the ship, gave him a clear view of the forest that he had seen already. It was really as close as the cameras showed, starting maybe twenty metres from the ship and getting dense so quickly that he could barely see for more than a few metres, despite it being broad daylight.

Now that they had landed, Sarah switched the ship into ground mode, meaning that a lot of the protective layer that formed the outer hull of the ship was retracting to make room for the more sensitive equipment, like the scanners and most importantly the solar panels on the roof of the ship that were providing it with enough energy. Hopefully.

Deciding that everything seemed to be okay in this room as well, Steve headed back down the corridor. The next two doors to his right were two identical bathrooms. Bracing for the worst he opened the door to the first one and was pleasantly surprised that it was immaculate. He stepped over to the mirror cabinet over the sink and took a good look at himself first.

His blue eyes wandered over his image, keeping stuck on his short blond hair for a short while. It was still mostly in shape, but he used his hands to comb through it a few times anyways. He corrected the fit of his dark blue jumpsuit slightly before giving an approving nod and opening the mirror cabinet. Something that he regretted immediately. The cabinet hadn’t opened during the landing, but some of the soap and shampoo bottles behind it had burst open and now that he opened the door they fell out, spilling a mixture of various hygiene products over the washbasin and floor. Only by jumping back against the wall quickly did Steve avoid having them spill on himself as well.

Guess I have to clean that up later, he thought while looking over the mess he made. At least that didn’t happen during the landing. With these things flying around they could have easily broken something.

Steve wished he hadn’t just thought that as he entered the second bathroom where exactly that had happened. The mirror cabinet was torn open, and all the bottles that stood once behind it had left behind a trail of destruction as they made their way through the bathroom. This resulted in the glass wall of the shower being splintered, and one of the mirrors being completely shattered, with the glass now scattered all over the floor. Even the basin and toilet had a few cracks, but it didn’t seem too bad for them.

Ugh, what a mess, Steve thought and shook his head. Guess I’ll just use the other one if I need to. With no motivation to clean any of that right now, Steve just closed the door again and continued his tour.

Now there was only one room on the left side of the ship left; the bedroom. It only contained four beds and a large closet on one of the walls. Just like the stairs in the command centre the beds were fixed to the floor and hadn't moved a bit, but that didn’t count for the mattresses, blankets and pillows on them, nor for the clothes inside the closet which were now all scattered around the room.

Ehh, not much difference from what my bed usually looks like, he shrugged it off. Just a case of moving a few things back into their place before I need it tonight.

“Sarah? How many hours of daylight do I have?” Steve asked, wondering about the day-night cycle of this planet.

“Based on my calculations it should be about five hours until sundown,” Sarah replied.

“Good. That should give me more than enough time for a quick trip outside.”

Leaving the room as it was for now, he turned around, walking into another smaller corridor leading to the last two rooms. He entered the room to his left and was standing in the kitchen. With it being the size of a small lumber room there wasn’t much chaos that could have occurred there anyways, and again he was lucky. Most of the drawers held shut during the landing, and only a few pans and some cutlery from those that didn’t were lying around. No signs of anything broken.

Just one more room left, Steve thought eagerly as he nodded off the kitchen.

The last room on the list was the entertainment room. The only room of the shuttle he’d ever been in before, if the main corridor with the computer terminal didn’t count. It was just as neatly organized as the rest of the ship, so the damage once again was manageable. Luckily the large screen at one end of the room was still intact, and only a few cushions from the couch opposite to it were thrown around, but didn’t cause any damage.

Underneath the screen he opened a drawer which stored a remote control for the screen, as well as some controllers for the built in entertainment systems. They were all a bit thrown around, but nothing seemed broken. He took out the remote and pushed the power button. The screen turned on, with no signs of cracks or other damage anywhere.

Great, he thought with a happy smile. Barely any damage at all, just some cleaning up to do. Unless Sarah detects anything critical this would almost be a perfect landing.

He turned off the screen, put the remote back into the drawer and made his way back through the ship to the one room that he had wanted to go to all along. The automatic door of the armoury already opened as he came closer.

The room was very small, just like the other ones, maybe just a bit over a square metre. The real armoury was on the main ship, but since he was in the main ground module there was still a copy of it, even though it didn’t hold that much.

Of course Steve had no intentions to kill an alien, unless it was some wild beast that would attack him, so it would serve its purpose nevertheless. That would be a horrible first contact with humanity for them. One small weapon for self-defence, and maybe a light armour, that would be all he needed.

Maybe they don't even have anything like guns here at all and the sound itself would be scary enough, Steve thought as he tried to decide between the equipment that he now saw as he looked through the gun cabinet.

Four different body armours, all of them just light overalls, and only one that looked a bit heavier, hung next to a yellow hazard suit. A couple of spare gas masks came with it as well. With the weapons he had a bit more of a choice. He spotted a total of two pistols and two tasers, perfect as a small sidearm and four larger weapons, including two machine pistols, one rifle and even a shotgun.

At the side of the cabinet hung additional equipment, like gun belts, some knives and a few metal cylinders that he identified as flash bangs and smoke grenades as he took them in his hand to inspect them. Some red sticks that he was sure were flares hung further back in the cabin. As he checked the bottom of the cabin he noticed a couple of magazines and a few boxes with ammunition.

Satisfied with the choices he grabbed one of the lighter vests, a belt, knife, flash bang and one of the pistols. It was a Glock 17, a weapon that he had held in his hands and even fired a few times during his short gun training. With three magazines he was sure to have enough ammunition, and he was having a bit of struggle getting more into his pockets anyways.

He looked down at himself, then back into the gun cabinet at the rifle that still hung there. Better safe than sorry, he just thought to himself and grabbed it as well. He wasn’t sure, but to him it looked like a G36C, if he remembered David’s lectures correctly as he gave him a summary over their entire arsenal they had on the main ship. It’s a bit heavy to carry around, he now thought as he weighed the rifle in his hands. And the pistol will probably save my ass as well if it comes down to it. But who knows how dangerous the wildlife out there could be.

“Steve,” Sarah interrupted Steve's thoughts. “There are multiple heat signatures approaching us in closed formation from the northwest. Scans are indicating a settlement about two kilometres in that direction.”

Steve's eyes went wide at this news. “LOCALS!?” he shouted out. Civilization? And I thought I hit the jackpot earlier already. He began to grin like a little child on Christmas morning. Now the weapon choice was settled for him and he put the rifle back into the cabinet. Being armed to the teeth would probably only seem intimidating and he was here to talk. Talking! Damn, I don’t have any data samples for the translator yet, he suddenly realized and gulped. That means sign language and hoping not to offend them until I have enough data.

Quickly he left the armoury again and ran to the cargo hold, searching for an audio recorder and the little translator tool that had been designed for their mission. It looked almost exactly like the recorder, no wonder, it had to listen to the audio first to be able to translate it. And for that he needed the data from the recorder, which would send everything that would be said straight to the ship so that he board computer could analyse their language and give the translator data to work with. An easy way to enable communication despite a language barrier.

Initially it was planned to retrieve these audio samples beforehand by observing a planet, and not land until the language was figured out, but that was too late now and he could only hope that this thing was working quick.

He stored the two items somewhere at the belt and made his way towards the airlock. “What can you tell me about them?” Steve asked nervously.

“There are six of them approaching. Remaining distance: 142 meters. No visual contact yet, all cameras looking in their direction are either damaged or their view is blocked by a hill.”

“Open the airlock,” Steve ordered firmly. “I have to meet them. I will send you the audio data. I need the translator running as fast as you can. Oh and lock the armory and airlock behind me.”

“Are you sure?” the AI asked. “This is a major safety risk. They might be dangerous.”

“I know,” Steve replied and gulped. “But if they are hostile, do you really think sitting in here would be a good choice either? It might take hours before the Columbus finds us again, and we are right next to a settlement of theirs.”

“If you say so,” Sarah just responded and Steve nervously licked his lips.

The hissing sound of the first door of the airlock being unlocked appeared. As soon as it swung open he stepped inside and it immediately closed behind him again. He took in a deep breath. He was only a few seconds away from catching the first glimpses of this new world directly, instead of through glass. The second door opened and the first thing he saw was just a bright light as his eyes were slowly adapting to the sunlight.

He heard the AI’s voice through a speaker behind him. “Visual contact confirmed.”

Steve’s jaw almost dropped on the ramp that was leading from the door down to the ground as he saw six creatures standing there in front of him.

“Ponies…” he just muttered in disbelief.

1 hour earlier

The warm rays of midday sun were falling down onto Ponyville and through one certain, large window of the Golden Oaks Library, bathing a certain purple unicorn in their light as she was flipping with her magic through the book that she held in her hooves. With a sigh she closed it and moved it aside onto a small pile next to her, only to pull the next one from an even larger pile right next to the first one.

What a waste of time, none of these books could give me any useful tips that I didn’t already know about time scheduling, Twilight Sparkle thought, feeling peeved at how unhelpful the books had been so far. The only thing they had done now was further delay her schedule, instead of helping her improve it. Last month she had almost come late to three appointments, despite reducing her sleeping time, a disaster that she could not let happen again, ever.

Twilight looked at the clock on the wall. 12:50. Only fifteen minutes since her lunch at Sugarcube Corner, but it felt like an eternity. Pinkie let her test her newest cupcake creation. Somehow Pinkie must have found out how to compress chocolate, otherwise Twilight couldn’t explain why every bite tasted like she had shoved down an entire chocolate bar. But by Celestia, it was delicious and just what she needed after a frustrating morning.

Her motivation for opening the new book that was now lying between her hooves was at a low, so her gaze drifted off and she stared out of the window for a moment.

It was a truly beautiful day outside, the sun stood high up in the sky, spreading warmth to all of Ponyville, with not a single cloud in the sky to block it, aside from a solitary drifter.

If that isn’t Rainbow taking her usual post-lunch nap... Is that mare even doing anything besides sleeping, eating and flying these days? Twilight wondered, but the picture of the clear sky reminded her that Rainbow Dash must have done her duty today already.

Further down on the ground she saw everypony enjoying the beauty of the day. Something she envied them for a little. She would have loved to do something with her friends today, such weather was just asking for a picnic at the lake, but she couldn’t allow herself to fall even further behind than she already was. With another sigh she was about to turn back to the book, but something strange made her stop in her tracks. A small object had appeared in the sky, and from the looks of it was descending fast.

Could this be a meteoroid? she wondered and narrowed her eyes to slits to see it more clearly. Where’s my telescope?

She looked around her room quickly. She knew it had to be here somewhere; she had used it for stargazing only two days ago. Strange that she hadn’t noticed any objects back then already. She was about to call out for Spike to help her find it, when she spotted it right behind a pile of astronomy books on the upper level.

I should start cleaning my room more often. Most of the times Spike has to find my stuff here, she thought as she levitated the telescope down to her. Maybe I should look for a search spell.

It was a rare sight to see a meteoroid so clearly in daylight and she didn't want to miss anything. Quickly she adjusted her telescope accordingly and locked it on the meteoroid, but after staring at it for a few moments she noticed something odd about it. The meteoroid didn’t seem to vaporize in the atmosphere, which they mostly do, but what really confused her was that the speed was decreasing, letting the trail of fire that surrounded the boulder fade away.

Twilight was so fascinated by that unknown phenomenon that she barely realized that the object was actually falling in the direction of Ponyville. Only as she heard a shout outside did she let go of the telescope and notice that the entire town had stopped in their tracks and were staring at that strange object as well, which was now slowly descending near the Everfree Forest to the south.

It had slowed down so much that it could have been clearly seen, but before Twilight could readjust her telescope the object had already vanished from her field of view. It must have arrived on the ground by now, but there didn’t come any smoke from a possible crater that a meteorite would have created. No, this was something else, but she couldn’t recall ever having read about something like this in any book. She needed to ask the one pony she was sure would have an answer for her.

“SPIKE! Come here! Now!” she shouted for her little assistant.

Quick footsteps followed her shouts as someone came running up the stairs. The door to her room swung open and revealed the sight of a purple-scaled baby dragon.

“Spike! Finally,” Twilight said as she came over to him, levitating a scroll, quill and a jar of ink with her. “Quick, take a le…” She stopped in her tracks. “Is that ice cream?” she asked as she eyed the dragon’s mouth a bit more clearly.

“Uhm, maybe?” he replied carefully and quickly wiped a claw over his mouth.

“Didn’t I forbid you to eat that? It’s not good for you,” Twilight chided him as she put on a stern face.

“Uhh…,” the dragon stammered for words as he tried to avoid Twilight’s look. “Didn’t you need me for something?” he asked cautiously, trying to change the subject.

Twilight’s eyes went wide and she gasped. “Of course! Write a letter to the princess at once, it’s of the utmost importance.”

“Ready,” he announced as he took over the parchment and quill from Twilight, dipping the latter one into the ink jar first.

Twilight cleared her throat before dictating,”

Dear Princess Celestia,

I have just witnessed the landing of an unknown object near Ponyville. The object was decelerating during the approach and does not fit the description of a meteor, nor anything else that I have heard of. Do you have any idea what it could have been?

Your faithful student,
Twilight Sparkle”

“...Twilight… Sparkle,” he muttered. “Okay got it. I’ll send it right now.”

He inhaled deeply before exhaling loudly, his green fire breath quickly consuming the letter, sending it right to the princess.

I hope she replies quickly, I really want to know what's going on, Twilight thought nervously and stepped over to the window again.

“An unknown object, eh?” Spike asked and joined her by the window. “Where did it land?”

“Just a bit to the south, at the edge of the Everfree Forest if I saw correctly.” Twilight replied, pointing to where she had seen the object for the last time.

“So that’s probably why I heard that fuzz...” he was interrupted by a loud burp, releasing his fire breath and a letter with it. Twilight grabbed the letter quickly with her magic before it could land on the ground and began to read.

“That was fast. What did the princess say?” Spike asked Twilight, whose eyes were quickly skimming over the lines.

“She told me to gather my friends and investigate. She wants a report as soon as possible, but also warned us to approach with caution,” Twilight said after a while and looked up from the letter. Something about the message seemed a bit odd to her. The quick response time and the warning made it sound like the princess would know something, but why didn’t she tell her? But this wasn’t the time to think about that, she had a mission to fulfil.

“You stay here while I gather everypony. Prepare my saddlebags with the field research equipment! We’ll leave in half an hour!” Twilight shouted over her shoulder while she galloped out of the library.

***

After a quick excursion through Ponyville, Twilight managed to gather her friends at the library. Rainbow still looked a bit sleepy after being woken from her nap, while the rest of them had questioning looks on their faces to varying degrees. Twilight had only given them small chunks of information before running off again, and now they were all rather curious about the unicorn’s frantic behaviour.

After a few moments of silence, in which Twilight caught her breath, Rarity cleared her throat and asked, “Ahem… so tell us, Twilight darling, what is it that is so important on this delightful day? Is it about that... thing in the sky?”

“Yes.” Twilight nodded. “At first I thought it was normal meteor, but instead of vaporizing in the atmosphere or crashing on the ground it seemed to have landed near the Everfree,” Twilight explained and looked around the group. “I immediately informed the princess, who ordered us to investigate and report our findings, since she couldn’t tell me what it is either.” She added the last part since she could read the question on the curious faces of her friends.

“Oooh! Oooh! Is it a surprise?” Pinkie cheered and bounced in excitement.

“No, Pinkie, I really don’t know. Maybe the princess knows something, but without any solid proof we are just groping in the dark,” Twilight replied and looked over into the direction of the Everfree. Still no smoke came up from there. “Any more questions?” she asked around, waiting for a few moments for anypony to speak up.

“Yes, I have a question,” Fluttershy whispered and almost immediately hid behind her mane as all eyes turned on her. “Uhm… is it dangerous?” she finally asked.

Everypony turned back towards Twilight, some worried, some concerned, but others, mainly Rainbow, excited.

“Honestly I have no idea.” Twilight admitted, reluctantly.

After seeing the worried looks of her friends, she quickly added, “But I'm sure it’s nothing we can’t handle. It might just be a rock fallen from space after all.” Twilight forced a smile upon her lips.

“What are we waiting for then? Let's go!” Rainbow Dash exclaimed eagerly. “All this waiting's making me tired again.”

“Yeah, and we don’t want to have to deal with that again!” Applejack shot back sarcastically.

***

Shortly after the group was leaving the southern parts of Ponyville, following a small dirt road that was leading to Sweet Apple Acres further south of Ponyville. The way through the town had been relatively quiet. The ponies they met on the way didn’t show immediate panic, but were slightly concerned seeing the six Elements leaving the town in direction of that strange thing they saw earlier.

Living in Ponyville long enough made the citizens here realize that bizarre, and sometimes dangerous things happened here more than just once in a blue moon. Twilight politely asked everypony they encountered to be patient and not worry too much, they would handle the situation.

As soon as they had left the town the group began to exchange a few theories of what they thought it was, but the discussion was cut short as Rainbow Dash, who had been on lookout a few metres above their head shouted out to them and pointed to a small hill to the east. Apparently she had seen something behind it. “Should I go check it out?” Rainbow asked as she hovered in front of them.

“No.” Twilight shook her head. “I think it would be best if we just stick together.”

Reluctantly Rainbow Dash agreed and joined the group on the ground, just as they were taking their first step from the road and across the field that was lying between them and the hill. All the while Twilight’s mind was whirling frantically and her stomach continually clenched and unclenched itself, anxious about what they would find there. A feeling that she often felt during their adventures, even now after all they had already been through together.

Twilight raised her front hoof as they reached the hill, motioning her friends to stop. “This is it. Just be careful and most importantly don’t touch anything. Even if it just is a rock, it still came from space and could be of massive scientific value and we don’t want to destroy anything.”

Rainbow Dash and Applejack rolled their eyes in unison, while the others just nodded. With those words as warning Twilight led the group slowly around the hill, but as soon as what was there came into her field of view she stopped dead in her tracks. Her eyes went wide and her jaw dropped as she saw a large dark blue cuboid standing there in front of her. It was about the size of a house, surely over five meters high, being elevated by some sorts of pillars coming out of the bottom, which made it seem like it was standing evenly on the rough ground.

She stood directly in front of the smaller side of the thing, which was still at least four metres wide, with a grey and yellow coloured round patch in the middle. If Twilight would have to take a guess she would have said that was some kind of door, judging by the large hinges on one side. She went a few steps further towards the forest to get a better look at the other, longer side of the thing. In length it was about as high as her tree, which meant quite a lot.

But the respectable size wasn’t the strangest thing she noticed. No, strange was that the walls themselves seemed to be completely flat, but as she looked up she saw a various things standing up into the air. Some of them looked like antennas, but most of it she couldn’t identify.

“What in tarnation?” Applejack was the first to speak, her irritated words verbalizing the thoughts they were all having currently.

“Uhm, Twilight?” Rainbow asked cautiously, her usual bravado temporarily deserting her. “What is… that?” She waved her hoof around.

Twilight remained silent, staring at the object, unable to come up with a clear answer.

“It looks rather... interesting?” Rarity claimed, unsure. Behind her, Fluttershy hid behind her mane, her hooves shaking, frightened even more than usual.

“I don’t know,” Twilight admitted eventually and shook her head. “I have never heard of anything like that. I’d say it is made out of metal, but metal doesn’t form that way naturally.” She stopped for a few moments, taking a step closer to the thing but stopping again. “No, I’m sure this had to be built,” she finally concluded.

“Built?” Rainbow asked surprised. “Who by?”

“I-I have no idea. Gryphons maybe?” Twilight looked around with an uneasy expression on her face.

“Then let’s just ask,” Pinkie cheered and bounced towards the object.

“Pinkie, wait!” Twilight shouted, trying to hold her back. “We have to observe it first, you can’t just expect somepony to come out of there to give you your…”

Twilight was interrupted as a strange sound came from the object. A kind of hissing that she sometimes heard in her laboratory when she was experimenting with vacuum. Next to what she thought to be a door a light began flashing up in bright yellow and a plank began to emerge from underneath it, lowering itself down until it became clear it was a ramp, to what now certainly had to be a door.

“Answers,” Twilight finished her sentence in an awestruck whisper.

Pinkie stopped in her movement now and slowly took a few steps back to join the rest of the group that had all gathered next to Twilight and watched with wide open eyes and mouths as the door slowly swung open, revealing the sight of a creature standing behind it.

And what a creature it was. Forgetting everything else around her Twilight immediately scanned it from top to bottom. The first thing she noticed was that the creature was bipedal, and the size that came with it. It still stood on higher ground than them, and a bit away, so she could be wrong, but it seemed to be far taller than a normal pony, and was probably on the same eye level of Princess Celestia herself.

The head of the creature was covered by a hoof, bathing it in shadows and making it unrecognizable. No, not a hoof, but a claw like Spike had, only the tips were blunt, not sharp. For a moment she had to think about where she had seen something like this before. Then it came to her; minotaur. Those were hands. Hands at the end of arms, which were in a different colour.

The hands had a pale beige tone, while the arms, as well as the rest of body was covered by a smooth, dark blue skin. There didn’t seem to be any fur over it, or it had to be insanely smooth. Across the chest the skin suddenly turned black and multiple smaller items were hanging out. Baffled she looked a bit closer and noticed that this was in fact not skin, but clothes. Almost the entire body of the creature was covered in clothes, and the black part around its torso had to be a vest with pockets.

Twilight could have almost laughed at her first assumption that this was skin and continued to inspect the creature. It had now taken away the hand from its face, and Twilight was quite surprised at what she saw.

The face was almost completely flat, with no muzzle and only what seemed to be the nose standing out slightly. Reddish lips indicated a small mouth, an adjective that fitted a lot of the descriptions; small. Compared to a pony, most parts of the face were tiny, starting with the eyes, where she couldn’t even tell the colour from the distance, going over to the almost round ears that sat awkwardly low and at the side of the head, and finally the mouth, that was now slightly opened as well, but didn’t make it seem any larger than before.

Strangely enough she could have sworn that the expression on the creature’s face was the same of her friends right now, surprise, and its eyes were quickly wandering over the group, probably doing the same that she did; inspecting their opponent.

Twilight was still too caught in scanning the creature to talk yet. She finished with the head for now by taking a quick look at a short yellow mane that sat on top of it, before she looked further down its body, over the legs and at the hooves, which were covered by black boots. Judging by the shape of the boots however it didn’t seem like there were hooves stuck in them, but more like feet as Spike has.

With the first rough inspection finished, Twilight was about to take the word, since no one else would, but then she heard the creature mutter a single word to itself, “Ponies.”

Chapter 3 - Coincidences

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Steve’s mind was racing faster than ever before. During the few moments between Sarah’s announcement and the opening of the doors he had imagined just about every kind of alien he ever heard of, from Asari over to Martians to Xenomorphs, but the six pastel coloured ponies that stood in front of him caught him completely off guard.

Ponies. He let the word ring through his head again after uttering it out loud. Well, not real ponies, their faces are shorter, their bodies smoother and damn, with eyes that size they could be coming straight from some anime. And I’ve never seen such colourful coats either. But that probably means that they are more dangerous than they look, I doubt they could hide very well from predators.

His eyes quickly wandered over the six equine creatures in front of him, scanning them to gain more knowledge, and from the looks of it they were doing the same.

His attention was immediately caught by the rainbow-coloured mane of the cyan blue one, but his eyes went even wider as they went further down her body and he spotted wings at her side. Oh they have wings, that’s probably useful for escaping and could explain their colours, although… He skimmed over the other ponies. Only two of them have wings. So there seems to be different kinds as well. They also look really small from here, maybe they are just for very short flights, he concluded but suddenly stopped.

Hold on a minute… winged horses? No way… that’s a pegasus! he had almost shouted out as he realized the connection. There are freaking pegasusus… uhm… pegasi standing in front of me and… He stopped again as he noticed a feature of two other ponies. Unicorns? he asked in disbelief, his eyes locked onto the horns of the purple one that stood at the front of the group and a white one at the side. Okay, that’s it, I quit. There is literally no way I am not high right now. Pegasi and unicorns? What’s next? Fairies and dragons?

He shook his head and tried to calm himself down. It surely was just an insane coincidence that were two mythical creatures from Earth here, nothing more.

Okay, okay, he said to himself to clear his mind. At least the other two seem normal, well, as normal as a pink pony with a fluffy pink mane can be at least, he commented as his eyes fell on a different pony at the front of the group who was leaning forwards and stared at him with wide open eyes. And the last one could just go through as normal pony. I bet orange goes as a regular coat colour and so does a blond mane as well, but is that a hat on her head? he wondered as he noticed the accessory of the last group member. Interesting. That means either that there are even more species here, maybe some with hands or something similar, or their hooves are more agile than they look so that they can craft something that requires agility.

He didn’t know how long he had been staring at them now, but he figured that it was time for a proper introduction. Since Sarah told him that they came from a settlement he had to expect them to be part of the local civilization and even if they turned out not to be, he would definitely not do wrong by introducing himself. Now he only hoped that they were communicating verbally. Just as he was about to open his mouth he realized something and closed it again. Damn, I almost forgot the translator isn’t working yet. What to do? Didn’t the mission protocol say something about this? I should have read that more carefully.

Before Steve could think of anything, one of the ponies, the unicorn with the purple coat that stood at the front of the group made a step forward. Her horn was showing out of her dark purple mane that was traversed by a light pink stripe.

This must be their leader, or spokesperson at least. Looks pretty nervous, Steve thought. But to her I’m an alien twice her size that just stepped out of a spaceship. Of course she is nervous. But it seems like she wants to say something. Perfect, something for the translator to work with, he thought and patiently waited for the unicorn to take the first word, while he tried to switch from his own surprised expression to a comforting smile.

“Hello. My name is Twilight Sparkle, and I welcome you to Equestria,” the unicorn said in absolutely flawless English and now with a small smile on her face, her voice sounding clearly female.

Although the words were spoken softly they still hit Steve like a hammer and his mind was barely able to keep up with the information it had to process now. WHAT! HOW?! English? How can she speak English, that can’t be possible! This has to be a dream! And also what kind of name is Twilight Sparkle? Seriously.

He tried his best to keep the thoughts confined to his mind instead of shouting them out, but he was sure that the shock had returned to his face as the smile on that of the unicorn was fading away, only to be replaced by worry.

She must be thinking I can’t understand her. Quick, say something!

“Uhh… hi.”

Nailed it.

The unicorn, or rather Twilight’s face was now beaming with a wide grin and she opened her mouth again to talk, but his brain was functioning properly again so he could introduce himself properly.

“A pleasure to meet you, Twilight Sparkle. I am Doctor Steve Murray, technical engineer of the Columbus and official representative of planet Earth,” he announced and stood straight for a moment before slowly walking down the ramp until he stood in front of the group. Of course that’s due to the lack of any humans around, but they don’t need to know that just yet, he added in his thoughts.

Twilight stared at him with open eyes, processing his words.

Most likely she’s never heard most of those words before, Steve thought as he considered a less formal introduction.

“Earth? I have never heard of that place before. So that means you are…” Twilight paused and pointed up to the sky, while expectantly looking at him.

“Correct, I’m from another planet,” he replied firmly and nodded. In that moment he could have sworn he saw a small sparkle in her eyes.

“Wow,” she just whispered and he nodded again. “A real alien! I never thought they actually existed!” she exclaimed happily and leaned forward, her eyes growing even wider as she looked up and down his body again.

“Me neither,” he just replied and looked over the rest of the group again who now seemed more relaxed, but still eyed him cautiously.

“I have so many questions!” Twilight burst out. “What is this Earth and Columbus you were talking of? How did you get here? Why…” she stopped herself and grinned sheepishly at him. “Sorry for bombarding you with so many questions right away. I’m just so excited and there is so much to ask that I couldn’t hold it in any longer. We didn’t even really welcome you. Allow me to introduce you to my friends. This is…”

Twilight was cut off as the pink pony with the fluffy mane that had caught Steve’s attention before jumped forward, grabbed his hand with both her hooves and shook it so rapidly he feared that his shoulder would be dislocated. At the same time she said, without taking a single breath and at an even higher speed than her handshake, “OHMYGOSHyoureallyareanalienwelcometoponyvilleimpinkiepiebutyoucancallmepinkieandimgoingtothrowyouaspecialwelcometoponyvilleparty!”

What the heck? How can she talk so fast? he thought, irritated, and looked over to Twilight again.

His body was too surprised by the sudden action, so he simply stood there shaking the pony’s hoof.

“… Pinkie Pie,” Twilight said and put a hoof on Pinkie Pie’s shoulder, causing her to stop, but not without giving her a stern look. “I’m so sorry, but she always gets excited about newcomers and wants to give them a joyful welcome, including a party,” Twilight apologized for her and nervously bit her lip.

I bet she’s just as excited as I am and wants this meeting to go well. Since she came here with a group from a town, she probably has some kind of leadership position, maybe she’s even a diplomat since she was the first to come here. Or she is just generally curious, I shouldn’t be making any assumptions that might lead to misunderstandings, he chided himself. “Oh, thank you very much for that,” he turned towards the pink pony who only replied with a grin. “I haven’t been expecting such a warm welcome,” he said towards Twilight again who breathed out in relief. And it was true. There could have been a much worse greeting than an overly excited pony.

“Well, that’s how we do it here in Ponyville,” the orange pony with the hat now spoke up in a strong southern accent as she tilted her brown hat forward. Only now he noticed that her long blond mane and tail were both tied up into a ponytail. “Howdy there, partner,” she said and held out a hoof to him as well.

Glad to see that a handshake, or rather hoofshake, was a familiar way to greet someone here. He grabbed the hoof with his hand and shook it slightly, but just like the pink pony she seemed to have a lot of power in her hoof as she shook his hand. He kept his smile up and returned the greeting.

“This is Applejack,” Twilight introduced her before pointing over to the other ponies in the group.

“This is Fluttershy.” She pointed towards the other pegasus, a yellow one with a long, smooth pink mane that covered most of her face.

“Hello,” she whispered in return, so quietly that he could barely understand her.

I wonder how she got her name, Steve thought to himself and grinned.

“Rarity.” She pointed at the other unicorn who had a bright white coat, as well as a long, flowing purple mane.

“Hello, darling,” Rarity greeted him and blinked a few times. If he didn’t know any better he would have said that she was wearing makeup, making her eyelashes look slightly blue, fitting with her ice-blue eyes.

“And Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said and pointed towards the last pony of the group. Rainbow Dash lived up to her name, as it was the pegasus with the rainbow coloured mane and tail that immediately stuck out to him earlier.

“THE one and only,” Rainbow Dash said, a sly grin on her face. Her voice sounded a bit rougher than those of her friends, almost tomboyish, but that wasn’t what Steve was thinking about, he was still fascinated by her mane.

Must have been one hell of a dye job, or could this be her natural hair… mane colour? he wondered. Definitely is an eye-catcher.

“Nice to meet all of you,” Steve just greeted them back and waved at them with his hand. Somehow he was happy that Twilight introduced them all so quickly, that way he wouldn’t have to shake that many hooves, as his hand was already aching a little, but he didn’t want to let it show.

“Wonderful, I still can’t believe that this is really happening,” Twilight said, excitement still filling her voice. “Would you excuse me for just one moment, I have to discuss something with my friends.”

“Go ahead,” Steve replied calmly. I suppose she wants to discuss what to do next. Somehow makes me doubt my theory of her being a diplomat then. But that doesn’t really matter right now, so far the whole introduction has been running perfectly. Too happy to bother about any minor thing like that he just stood there with a smile on his lips as he watched the ponies quickly gathering into a circle, and muttering a few words which he was unable to understand.

After a short while Twilight turned around again and said, “I thought it might be a good idea to continue our meeting in Ponyville, that’s the name of our town. What do you think?”

Ponyville, so that’s what the orange one meant with that earlier. Boy, I wonder what complex mechanisms are hiding behind their naming conventions, he thought sarcastically. But that should also answer the question of what this species calls itself. Ponies, who would have guessed. I still have no clue why we are speaking the same language, but that makes things easier for me and I’m sure I will find out soon. Steve shook the thought out of his head. He would have time to think about these bizarre facts later, now he had to focus on the important parts that needed his immediate attention. And now I even get invited into their town. Things are going really fast, I wonder how these ponies are living. It would be a perfect start for a diplomatic relationship if I know all these things already when the rest of the team gets here.

“Sounds good to me,” Steve agreed after a while and nodded. “Lead the way.”

***

The walk to the town went by quietly. The six ponies had formed a circle around Steve, Twilight in the front with Rarity and Pinkie Pie beside her. To his left trotted Applejack, while to his right Rainbow Dash was hovering over the ground. Fluttershy was behind him, but he couldn’t see her.

His eyes were trailing over the body of the pegasus and he watched carefully how she was flying. There must be more to the wings than I initially thought. She doesn’t even need to flap them often and doesn’t show any signs of exhaustion. These ponies must be way stronger than their appearance may indicate.

What’s this? he wondered as he watched Rainbow Dash for a bit longer and his eyes fell on the image of a tri-coloured lightning bolt that came out of a white cloud. Is this a tattoo? It looks like her coat is coloured there absolutely perfectly in the shape of the symbol.

A quick glance around showed him that all the ponies had symbols of the same quality, but of different designs on their flanks.

Must be something cultural then, he concluded and shrugged it off for now. Twilight can surely tell me something about it later.

Now that he was looking around he actively noticed the formation the ponies had taken around him for the first time.

Why did they form this circle around me anyways? Do they think I’m dangerous? No, they wouldn’t have offered for me to visit their town if they thought so. Is it to show the other citizens to not be afraid of me? Or is this maybe even to protect me? I’ll probably see that in a moment, I guess that’s the town over there, Steve thought as he spotted a cluster of buildings ahead of them. From the distance they seemed like simple one and two story tall wooden buildings with thatched roofs. That does require at least some skill in carpentry. I wonder if they do this all with their hooves or if there are even more species here that…

Twilight and with her the group stopped just as they were about to enter the town, interrupting his internal monologue. She cleared her throat and turned around to him. “The ponies in this town can be somewhat… nervous when it comes to strangers. Please don’t take it the wrong way, but they are probably a bit scared of you, since they haven’t seen someone like you before. I hope that they will be calm when they see us with you,” she explained and nervously licked her lips.

So that’s the reason for the formation, Steve figured. Well, good thing the more open minded ponies came to greet me then, but I can’t really blame them for being scared. Steve nodded and replied, “It’s fine, I can understand, this is a new situation for all of us.”

Twilight let out a relieved sigh again and quickly added, “Don’t worry, once they get used to you they are all very friendly.” With these words she turned around and they continued their way.

Twilight wasn’t understating it. The town looked completely deserted. The streets were empty, and the only noises were the muffled sound of their steps on the dirt road, which was only slightly more fortified than the path they had taken so far. The blinds of every window were shut, so Steve couldn’t see if they had glass windows or just holes in the walls.

From time to time Steve thought he saw some movement behind a corner or a blind opening slightly, but as soon as he looked over there was nothing to be seen.

Nervous when it comes to strangers, he repeated Twilight’s words in his mind. That about captures it. Well, I hope this changes though, it would be a shame if I never see any of them.

After a few minutes of walking through the empty streets of the town, they finally arrived at a large tree, at least three stories tall, and with multiple windows and two balconies. Here Steve could see clearly that they were able to craft glass, as the windows were not covered by the blinds. A wooden sign with the picture of an open book stood next to the red door. A library inside a hollow tree. Now that is irony. Unless they don’t use paper.

“This is the Golden Oaks Library, Ponyville’s public library and also my home,” Twilight announced as they stopped in front of the tree.

“Are you a librarian?” Steve asked as he looked up at the tree again. “And how exactly do you live inside a library?”

“As a part-time job, yes. But only the first floor is the library, I live up in the second,” she explained and pushed a door open with her hoof. “There isn’t that much of an interest in books here anyways, so I rarely have somepony come in and my librarian duties are relatively small.”

As the door opened and they stepped inside, Steve saw what she meant. They stood inside a large, circular room, about the entire size of the ground floor. The room itself was very plain, a tree stump in the middle stood out of the floor and formed a small table. A wooden statue of a horsehead stood on it. Entire walls were filled with bookshelves, which seemed to have been cut into the wood. Besides that there was only a small desk near the entrance, a staircase to the higher levels that Twilight already mentioned and two more doors, one of which was open and revealed a small kitchen behind it.

“Here we are,” Twilight announced and looked around a little nervously again.

“Looks nice,” Steve just said, still inspecting the room.

“Glad that you like it. Do you want something to drink?” Twilight offered.

Would it be impolite to say no? I don’t really want to risk an infection or worse by drinking something unknown from a different planet. “No, thanks, I’m not thirsty,” he politely declined and shook his head.

“Okay, then we can get started with the questions. I’ll just ask Spike to bring us some cushions real quick. This might take a while and it’s more comfortable to sit than to stand.” Before Steve had the chance to ask who this Spike is, Twilight was yelling at the top of her lungs. “SPIKE! WE ARE BACK! COULD YOU BRING US SOME CUSHIONS PLEASE?”

Shocked, he looked at the small, purple unicorn who just stood there with a smile on her lips as she looked up the stairs. Ouch, my ears. And that was just her calling for someone. I don’t want to hear her shouting in anger. He shuddered at the thought.

Soon Steve’s initial question of Spike’s identity was answered, as he heard the sound of a door opening from the upper floor, and a pile of cushions with two short, purple legs coming down the stairs. Curiously Steve took a closer look. The legs didn’t end in hooves, but in short feet, each with three long claws. Looks like a different species, Steve thought excitedly, eager to find out what other creatures this world was hosting.

The pile of cushions arrived at the ground floor and dropped to the ground, revealing a small, bipedal and scaled creature. The scales from his chin, across its belly and up to the end of the tail, though, had a greenish tone, while the others were of the same purple as its legs. A row of green spikes ran across the back of his body.

Their creativity with names is beyond my realm of comprehension, he thought dryly. Reminds me a bit of a lizard, Steve commented as he finished his inspection.

“Here you go. Did you find any… Woah! Who’s this?” the lizard stopped in its tracks and shouted in surprise as it pointed at Steve. Judging by the voice he figured it to be a male. That would be the first male creature he found on this world.
Amazing! He can talk too. That looks like a clear confirmation of my theory of multiple intelligent life forms on this planet, Steve thought happily. And he has claws instead of hooves. That makes him useful for tasks that require dexterity. Just taking a look at these books, I doubt you could hold a pen with a hoof and write something with it. Nothing legible at least.

“Spike, this is Steve,” Twilight introduced him before waving her hoof around a bit. “He… uhhh is… uhm... new to town,” Twilight finished her sentence, struggling to find the right words. “We're going to have a little chat with him. In the meantime, could you please inform the princess that we have returned and I will write her a detailed report later today? You can take the day off after that.”

“Okay, will do,” he said slowly and inspected Steve from top to bottom. “I’ll just be upstairs taking a nap. Call me if you need something,” Spike said walking up the stairs again, still staring at Steve, fixating him with a curious look. Steve tried his best to keep up a smile.

“So, you’ve met Spike. He’s my personal assistant. I got him when he was still in an egg,” Twilight explained. “He is very useful. His dragon fire breath can send letters directly to the princess and he helps me organize my library. It can get quite messy here sometimes.” She grinned sheepishly as she began taking the cushions from the pile and formed a circle with them.

DRAGONS? That was a dragon?! Steve couldn’t believe what he had just heard. I’m in a fantasy world of talking unicorns, pegasi and dragons?! What the… Steve was more than mildly irritated and definitely stunned. Okay, at least that didn’t really look like a dragon I would imagine. He didn’t even have wings, and being a reptile seems the only relation to what I would imagine a dragon as. Also, what did she say about a princess? They have a monarchy?

“Do you want to get started?” Twilight asked and pointed to the cushions. Steve jerked his head towards her, realizing he must have zoned out longer than he thought.

“Sure,” he replied and sat down. Twilight wasn’t lying, the cushions were comfortable. “Since we both have a lot of questions I think it would be only fair if each gets one question, then we swap.”

“Sounds good to me,” Twilight said, nodding her head in agreement.

“Okay. You can go first if you want,” he offered graciously.

Twilight grinned, obviously happy that now her questions would be answered.

“Perfect. First question. Where are you from?”

“I expected that to be the first. As I stated earlier my planet is called Earth. It’s the homeworld of my species, known as humans. It is about two light-years away from here in the solar system. These names probably won’t mean anything to you already, so I’m just going to quit on naming towns or countries.” Twilight’s head was leaning forward as she was lying on the cushion, her two forelegs in front of her, as she was hanging on every word that he spoke. As he finished she still looked at him expectantly, wanting to know more, but he wasn’t going to answer all of her questions at once, he wanted to get a turn as well.

“Can you tell me more about Earth and humans? What is your culture like? How…” She stopped mid-sentence as she realized that she was already wanting to break their little agreement. “Sorry, your turn,” she said sheepishly, a faint red tinge appearing on her cheeks.

“Thanks, my question” – he stopped for a short moment and thought about what was on his mind the most – “ is the same as yours. Where exactly am I and what are you called? I know your names, but not your species.”

“You are in Equestria, which is our country on the planet Equis. We are all ponies, but of different tribes,” Twilight began to explain while Steve tried to keep a straight face and just nod instead of showing his confusion. The same language was irritating enough, but then everything was named the exact same as well. “The name for our planet and country both derive from an ancient word that meant pony. It’s no longer used today, besides from labelling our country and planet.”

Twilight pointed over to the white unicorn with the flashing purple mane. “Rarity and I are unicorns.” She continued by pointing at her other friends. “Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy are both pegasi, meaning they have wings, while Pinkie Pie and Applejack are earth ponies.” A surprised look appeared on her face. “Not the same earth as your planet, it’s just a word we use to describe the ground here. It symbolizes their special connection to nature.” Steve just nodded it all off, his mind too baffled to make his mouth form any words to express his thoughts.

“You have met Spike, who is a dragon, and there are plenty of more species here, like zebras or gryphons, but this town’s population consists almost entirely of ponies like us.”

This is just going way too far now. I would have accepted the looks that match our mythology slightly, but also names, not to mention that they even have the same language, Steve thought, a feeling of confusion and irritation washing over him as he tried to make sense of what Twilight had just told him. I really hope my mind isn’t playing a trick on me here and this is the wildest dream I ever had.

“My turn,” Twilight cheered, once again cutting off Steve’s thoughts. “How did you get here?”

“By ship,” he replied bluntly. At the sight of Twilight’s unamused face, he quickly added, “Just kidding, or actually, kind of. I was travelling in a machine we call a spaceship. It allows us to travel through space, and although it doesn’t look like a ship we just called it that. I am part of an expedition that was sent out to investigate distant planets that may host life. The name of our ship was ‘Columbus’, the name you were wondering about earlier.” He noticed the curious looks on all the ponies’ faces. Even though Twilight was the only one of them to talk, they all seemed interested in his story. For a moment he stopped, considering whether he should tell them that is arrival here was not as planned as it may seem.

He sighed before continuing, “The travel was going well for the most part, but recently we were having some troubles. Turbulences you could call them. Anyhow, the ship you saw earlier where I came out was not the Columbus, it is far bigger than that, too big to be safely landed on any planet, so instead it was loaded with a set of smaller ships, like the one I came here in, that could form a base on the planet.

“When the problems hit a new level I was currently on board of one of these ships to repair some damage to the board computer there. But the system of the entire ship was confused so much that it shot me out into space. I became unconscious after some time and when I woke up I was here. Well, you know the rest of the story. Basically I unintentionally crash-landed here, otherwise we would have completely overseen your planet as we had not planned stop here,” he finally concluded his tale. The ponies stared at him with shocked looks, none of them saying a word.

“Oh, darling, that sounds dreadful,” Rarity was the first to speak again. “Does that mean you are here completely alone?” He nodded. “But your friends know you are here?”

“Not that I know of right now. My ship got damaged slightly during the landing, and the communication array, something that I need to speak with them, isn’t working right now. I have to repair it first, but as soon as that’s done I will inform the main ship about where I am. Don’t worry about it, this will all resolve in a couple days,” he assured them and chuckled. At least he hoped it would. He knew that his ship was only slightly damaged, but what happened to the Columbus? There was the chance the board computer had failed completely and the electronics fell out, which would lead to a disaster that Steve didn’t even want to imagine. So all he could do was play it down for now, not only to assure the ponies that everything was alright, but also himself.

The ponies were still not looking quite convinced, but weren’t looking at him as shocked as before, so he decided to move on, “Next question!” Twilight looked up at him, concentrated. “You were talking about a princess earlier. What kind of political system do you have here?”

A useful thing to know once I get to talk to an ambassador.

“Equestria is ruled by Princess Celestia, Guardian of the Sun, and her sister Princess Luna, Guardian of the Moon. There is also Princess Cadence, Princess Celestia’s niece, who rules over the Crystal Empire far to the north.”

“Do they get elected?” Steve continued his question. And what does she mean by Guardian, he wondered but kept that part to himself for now. Questioning a title could be seen as inappropriate and she might answer it anyways.

“You already had a question. It’s my turn.” Twilight shook her head and raised a hoof.

“Technically, yes, but that still is an important part of my initial question,” he replied with a sly grin.

Twilight just rolled her eyes before she continued. “Fine… no, they do not get elected. The princesses are alicorns, another pony species. They have both horn and wings, while also being significantly taller than any other pony. Also they are extremely powerful and immortal.” Steve raised a brow at the last word, but he didn’t wanted to interrupt her.

That probably has a different meaning here, or it was meant figuratively. There is no such thing as immortality. He had to resist the urge to shake his head.

Meanwhile Twilight continued. “It is an ancient bloodline that flows through everypony. Once a pony is showing the values required to rule a country they can transform into an alicorn. This has only happened three times in our history.”

Transformation? Steve could only raise a brow again. This sounds like… magic, but that can’t be. “Sorry,” he interrupted Twilight. “But I don’t think I quite understand what you mean.”

“Which part?” she inquired.

“The whole alicorn thing. You said they are immortal? Immortal as in the live forever? That’s impossible. Also transformation when they have shown these required values, how does that even work? They don’t just grow a pair of wings or horns, right?” In disbelief he looked around the group, but he was just met with blank faces. Right? he repeated in his mind and nervously licked his lips.

“That’s not impossible. How else should they reign for thousands of years?” Twilight returned and looked at him like he just asked the stupidest thing in the world. “And the actual transformation process hasn’t been witnessed in so long, but essentially yes. Princess Celestia and Princess Luna were born as unicorns, Princess Cadance as a pegasus. As Celestia and Luna proved their worth they became alicorns and ruled Equestria ever since, taking over the responsibility for raising the sun and the moon.”

“But… but,” he stammered, even more confused than before. “How? Raising the sun and the moon? You can’t mean that they move the sun and the moon.”

“Well, but of course,” Twilight returned and now she looked confused, like she wasn’t understanding what he meant. “I mean, how else would we have a day-night-cycle if not for somepony actively moving them? How do you do it on your world then?”

“We don’t,” Steve blurted out. “That’s what planetary rotations and orbits are for. Earth is spinning on its own axis, so the sun only shines down at a certain part while the rest is in the darkness. Meanwhile the moon is orbiting around the Earth, making it look like it rises and sets again. The way it works on every planet.”

The only thing he got as response was complete confusion that stood on the faces of the ponies. What’s going on here? They can’t really believe that their princesses are raising the sun and the moon. I haven’t seen any sign of modern technology yet, but they must have at least basic knowledge of astronomy.

It was silent for about a minute or so, all the while the ponies were exchanging confused glances and Twilight stroked a hoof over her chin while she had her eyes closed, making her look like she was in deep thought. “I suppose that system could work as well,” she eventually said.

“What do you mean ‘could’? That’s how it is,” he pointed out. At this point he had to actively try to keep his voice in a normal tone as he was faced with this ignorance.

“Not here,” she just replied and shook her head. “I’ll write this down later and have a closer look at it. It might prove useful someday to know that some planets were working differently.”

“But… but…,” he stammered again, unable to find the right words. He stopped for a moment and took a deep breath. “Okay, then explain to me please how exactly they raise the sun and moon?”

“Sorry, I don’t know the spell. It has been done by the princesses for so long that no unicorn is training to perform that task anymore. Before the first alicorn this duty was performed by a larger group of unicorns.”

“But that sounds like magic,” he pointed out and shook his head in disbelief. This time all the ponies looked at him like he said something stupid.

“Uhm, because it is?” Twilight replied cautiously.

“But there is no such thing as magic.”

If he weren’t sitting on the floor he would have jumped a step backwards now as Twilight’s horn suddenly began to glow a deep pink colour. The same colour that was now also surrounding one of the books from the shelves as it quickly flew over to her, only to stop shortly in front of her face, levitating in the air

Steve had stopped counting by now how often he thought he heard or seen the most irritating thing in the world, but this display was sure to top it all off. Right there in front of him levitated a book. With the usage of magic. Magic, which he had known was only an illusion, created by sleight of hand and invisible threads. And just like that, what he had known for so many years was proven wrong.

“What do you call this then?” Twilight asked, a satisfied smile on her lips while Steve stared at the floating book with a wide open mouth.

“I-I…”

“Do you want to tell me you have never seen magic before? Don’t you have it on your world?” she wondered and raised a brow.

“No,” he just stammered and shook his head.

“Oh,” she just said and thoughtfully looked into the air for a while. “That might explain a few things. I’m sorry, I thought you knew about magic, but now it’s clear why you didn’t understand what I meant.”

Magic, he let the word sound through his head again. “How does it work?”

“Well, I’d love to explain it to you, but that would take a while and you had your turn already.” She gave him a sly grin and finally his bewildered expression was replaced by a smile again.

“Very well.” He nodded it off. “But we kind of drifted off from the original question. So you have these alicorn princesses that somehow move the sun and the moon and are immortal, right?” She nodded. For the moment he would just accept this. Sure, he had just seen magic, something he thought was impossible just a few minutes ago, but there was huge difference in levitating a book and moving an entire planet. This was a question for another time, and he didn’t want to keep stuck on this subject for too long, there were still a lot of other things on his mind. A short explanation of magic as answer to his next question would have to do.

“Are they in complete power, or is there something like a parliament?”

“No, there is not.” She shook her head. “They have advisors of course, but ultimately they make all the decisions. But since they became alicorns because they represented all the values that it takes to lead a country their leadership is greatly accepted. Also everypony has the right to make a proposal to the princesses, as they receive any visitors for a certain period of the day.”

Slightly worried, Steve nodded it off. So they have a diarchy, with two allegedly immortal and basically all-powerful beings. That… sounds worrying, he concluded. But maybe this will all be clearer once we have talked more about their powers.

“Everything clear now?” Twilight asked and looked expectantly at him.

“Basically yes. Next question?”

“Tell me a bit more of Earth and your civilization,” Twilight’s question came quick as a shot. She seemed to have been waiting to ask that for a while.

“Well, that is a rather general question, but I guess after my last one that is just fair.” She just nodded eagerly. “Good, where should I start? It’s hard to capture this in a few sentences, we are way too diverse for that. Generally our lives are quite busy, sometimes even stressful, at least in the larger cities. I mean there are over seven billion people on the entire…” He didn’t get any further as he was interrupted by surprised gasps of the ponies.

“Seven billion?!” Twilight Sparkle shouted out.

“Yes,” he confirmed the question, slightly confused by the extreme reaction to that number. Sure, it was not a small number, but was it really as high as they made it sound?

“A billion, as in a thousand times a million?”

“Yes, of course,” he confirmed again and looked around the group. “Why?” he asked as he saw the bewilderment on the faces of the ponies.

“Oh my, so many…,” he heard Fluttershy whispering.

“Wow! So many birthdays have to be on the same day. Just imagine all the parties that calls for every day!” Pinkie Pie instead cheered.

“How is that even possible?” Twilight wanted to know.

“Is that really such a huge number for you?” The ponies nodded. “How many ponies are living here then?”

Thoughtfully Twilight stroke her chin for a few moments. “Well, we are three hundred and fourteen ponies and one dragon here in Ponyville, and a couple of pets. According to the last census all of Equestria is just shy of a million ponies. I don’t really know the exact numbers for the rest, but I doubt we would even reach seven million.”

“Oh, wow, and here I am, coming from a city with about as many humans as there are ponies on this world,” Steve said and couldn’t hide a grin. Now it was clear to him why they were so shocked by this number.

“One city?” Twilight repeated even more baffled.

“And by far not our largest. It is quite a sight to see it from above, especially at night. At some point it just seems like an endless ocean of lights.”

“I can’t even imagine how that works,” Twilight said and just stared off in the distance.

“Well, not all of our cities are that large of course. There are plenty of small villages, many the size of Ponyville or even smaller. Also for a long time that number wasn’t nearly that high. It was around two hundred years ago that we hit the one billion mark, from there on it went really fast,” he explained, immediately catching Twilight’s full attention again. “Medicinal and technological advances made it possible that we could support such large cities, and generally a far greater number of people, granting us an extremely high growth rate. I think it is safe to say that the population had a large impact on our lives. In a small village you sooner or later know everybody there at least a bit, and it is common to greet them if you see them on streets, but that would be completely impossible in a larger city, making the social life often focus more on a smaller group of friends. Well, at least for me.”

“But how can you feed so many people? Almost your entire land would have to be used for agriculture to grow so much food,” Twilight made her confusion vocal.

“Well… that can be problematic sometimes,” he admitted and looked down at the floor. “The population isn’t divided equally over the planet. Some countries are having big problems with overpopulation, leading to a general poverty and an inadequate lifestyle for the population there.” He tried to keep the subject short, he didn’t want to give them a too negative image of Earth, that would have been a very bad start for any future diplomatic actions, but he also didn’t want to leave it out completely.

Despite the rather general descriptions the ponies still seemed shocked at the news.

“Oh my, that sounds awful,” Fluttershy spoke up, voicing the unspoken opinion of the ponies.

“It is, but this is not how all of Earth is like. Like I said, we are diverse. I mean, just me being here, on a planet light-years away from our own, just shows of what we are also capable of,” he pointed around the room. “Please, don’t think that Earth would be a horrible place because of what you just heard, because we also have so much beauty there. It is hard to just describe our species. I believe that once my colleagues have arrived and I have access to more material I will be able to give you a better understanding of our world.” The ponies didn’t look completely relieved, but at least the mood felt a bit lighter than before. “Can I ask the next question then?” he asked.

“Sure,” Twilight signalized. She still seemed to be deeply thinking about what she just heard, but her initial shock seemed to be gone.

“Good, you could have probably guessed already, but I want to know more about magic. How does it work? What exactly is it and how do you use it?”

Twilight took a deep breath. “I think I’ll only go over the basics, that should just give you a rough idea.” Twilight stopped for a moment, searching for the right words to explain to someone who has never seen magic before what it is, before she began to talk, “Magic is the physical outcome of our mind. On the most basic level it is a manipulation of energy by our will, but we have to differ between multiple forms of magic. Every pony is able to perform magic, just not on the same level. Unicorns “ – she pointed at herself and Rarity – “have the most versatile and direct form of magic. By using our horns, which are directly connected to our brains, as a catalyst we can put our thoughts into action. This requires a lot of training to get really good at it, and most ponies never master more than a few tasks, mostly simple levitation of everyday items.” She stopped as Steve raised his hand.

“Is it exhausting?” he asked as Twilight expectantly looked at him.

“Yes, but that can be trained just like your stamina.” Twilight quickly nodded. “It also depends on what you are doing. Levitating a book like I did is quite simple, it’s a small and light item. If I would have to lift a boulder I would have to concentrate and couldn’t do it for very long.” This just brought up the question how exactly their princesses should move an entire planet then, but he kept that thought to himself for now.

“Anyways, that’s for unicorns,” Twilight continued. “Pegasi can’t directly cast magic, but it flows through their entire body, especially their hooves and wings. That way they can walk on clouds, and manipulate them with a bit of training, so that they can create weather. It also improves their flying, and grants them resistances against heat and cold.” She looked over at Rainbow Dash who just nodded it all off. “Lastly, earth ponies. Like pegasi the magic is running through their entire body, only there’s much more. It makes them physically stronger and allows them to form a special connection with nature, making them skilled farmers and craftsponies.”

Now it makes sense why that rainbow one could fly so easily and the normal ponies had so much power in their hooves. Magic, or rather an extra amount of energy, Steve concluded. “This sounds fascinating. Would you mind sometime in the future letting me study that? For science!” he cheered, causing Twilight to giggle at his enthusiasm.

“Sure, for science,” she repeated and thoughtfully stared into the air again. “My turn again. Let me see…”

As Steve was waiting for her to form her next question Rarity cleared her throat. “Twilight, dear, would you mind if I asked a question?” Rarity inquired.

“Of course not, go ahead,” Twilight Sparkle agreed and she looked over at her friends. “If any of you have a question just go ahead, that brings in a bit more versatility.”

“What would you like know?” Steve addressed Rarity.

“I was wondering about your clothes,” she said and waved with a hoof over his body, casting an inquisitive eye at his apparel. “I can’t remember seeing a material like this before and wondered why do you wear them?”

What does she mean, why am I wearing it? he wondered for a moment before it dawned on him. Right, they aren’t wearing any clothes, they have their coats.

“Well, you could barely find anyone with less taste for fashion than me, but I’ll try,” he chuckled, scratching the back of his head. “First of all, as you can see on my hands and face, humans don’t have fur like you, which means that we are wearing clothes all the time to not get cold. We basically always wear clothes when in public, only taking some of them off in special cases, like when we go swimming, or sunbathing.

These clothes are made from some kind of synthetic fibre, but that’s about all I know. They are comfortable to wear both when it’s warm and cold, but they are also very strong and easy to maintain. But this is just a uniform for our mission, normally I would just wear some shorter and lighter clothes, but I only have these here with me. They are coloured accordingly for each team. The technical crew is wearing blue, like me, the pilots wear orange and there’s black for security, and so on,” he explained while pointing at the blue parts of his suit.

“And what about those black things then?” Rarity pressed on, pointing at his chest.

“This here,” he said and looked down at his body. “Is what we call a bulletproof vest. It’s a light type of body armour, also made out of some kind of synthetic fibre, I think it’s called aramid, and with some small metal plates inside it.” With a few quick grabs he took and off and put the vest down on the floor. “As you can see, it has a lot of pockets so I can carry many things with me, and it’s also very light so I can move freely and if I were attacked it would protect many critical body parts.”

“Were you expecting to be attacked?” Twilight now spoke up.

Damn, poor choice of words, Steve berated himself.

“I was unsure what to find,” he admitted and looked her straight in the eyes. “When I put it on I didn’t know if I would be meeting wildlife instead of civilization.”

“I understand,” Twilight just said and inspected the vest on the ground. “But what’s inside the vest and there’s also a lot of stuff in your belt, if I see correctly. What is that?”

“Well,” he began and took off the belt, placing it next to the vest, pulling out the audio recorder and the translator from it first. “As you now know we humans don’t have magic, so instead we invented machines to do tasks for us that our bodies alone are just not capable of. One of our more simple inventions is this audio recorder.” He held the little black box up in the air. “As the name implies it records noises. It even does so right now, as you can see here.” He tilted the recorder and showed them a glowing green light. “At least I hope that means that,” he muttered to himself. “Anyways, it stores the audio inside there and I can listen to it later again. Very useful for a lot of situations, if you can’t write it all down on paper. And you can use it to record music as well.”

Twilight peered at the recorder in fascination, her rapt attention on the object causing him to note how unintentionally adorable she looked right now. “I can’t even begin to imagine how much that would help me with my studies. It would be so much faster than to write everything down,” she said, leaning forward a bit to get a closer look.

Steve looked between her and the small device in his hands a few times. “You know what, I have so many of these things, I think I can probably spare one,” he offered.

Twilight beamed in excitement. “Really? That would be so great. Thank you!”

“No problem,” he just waved it off. “But not this one, I still need it.” Twilight just nodded, still with a wide smile on her face. “Let’s move on. This here is a translator,” he announced and held the almost identical looking box into the air. “And as you might have guessed, it translates. I have to say I am more than just mildly surprised we speak the same language, so it’s actually useless now.”

“Hold on!” Twilight shouted, staring at him with open eyes. From the looks of it she just had a great revelation. “How can you speak Equish?” she whispered faintly.

She only realized now that we were actually speaking the same language for about an hour? He had to resist the urge to slap his hand against his forehead.

“I could ask you how you can speak English, but I think our answers will be the exact same,” he returned. “I have no idea.” He shrugged.

“But… but…” Now it was Twilight’s turn to stammer in confusion at this correlation.

“I’ve been thinking about that since I first heard you talk and I have to admit I thought I was dreaming at first.” But his words seemed to have hit deaf ears as Twilight was just blankly staring at him.

“Uhm, Twi?” Applejack who sat on the cushion beside her spoke up after a while and waved her hoof in front of her eyes. Steve had been focused so much on Twilight since she was asking almost every question that he had been barely paying any attention to them lately.

“Nah, she’s gone, give her a sec,” Rainbow threw in and simply waved it off with a hoof.

Slightly confused, Steve stared at the absent Twilight, but the other ponies didn’t seem to be too unfamiliar with that sight. Does that happen to her regularly? he wondered. I mean I kind of zone out too sometimes, but she’s like, gone.

“Should we wait or can I just go on?” Steve asked around cautiously after a short while. Rarity was about to open her mouth to reply, but then Twilight suddenly shook her head again.

“Welcome back, Twi” Rainbow Dash greeted the unicorn with a laugh and nudged her with the tip of her outstretched wing.

Twilight blinked a few times and stared at Rainbow Dash for a second before her eyes went back on Steve. “Sorry,” she said sheepishly. “I just can’t believe I haven’t noticed that until now.”

“It’s fine,” he waved it off. “And like I said, I have no explanation for it, so unless you found something that I’ve missed” – he stopped for a moment, but Twilight just shook her head – “I would suggest that we just continue where we left off.” Twilight nodded. “Good, so where was I? Ah yes, the translator. Well, it’s useless now – “ He shrugged “ – but in theory I would have recorded your voices and then your language would be analysed and I’d have a lexicon that can talk.”

“How does that even work? I thought you said you didn’t have any magic?” Twilight asked, sounding just as curious as before.

Steve chuckled slightly at her words. “No, we don’t, but we have the next best thing; technology. A full explanation on how it works would take a very long while, we would still be sitting here tomorrow.” For some reasons Twilight’s enthusiasm only seemed strengthened by that. “But I think we should keep this short today so we get through more questions, don’t you think?”

The purple unicorn didn’t seem happy with that, but still agreed. Steve looked back down at his equipment and was looking a bit concerned. The rest he was carrying with him were weapons of some sort, mainly defensive ones, but still. Good thing I left that rifle in the ship, he thought to himself before pulling out the knife from the belt.

“Do you know what this is?” he asked as he lifted the sheath with the knife in it, lifting the knife a bit so they could see the blade.

The ponies just nodded quietly. Good, that didn’t seem too worrying to them, he encouraged himself and took a look over the remaining items.

“And how about this?” he asked as he raised the flashbang into the air. “Does anyone know what this is?”

“Oh! Oh! Is this a guessing game?!” Pinkie Pie cheered and immediately stood up from her cushion. “I love guessing games! Is this a can?”

“Uhm, no Pinkie Pie, this is not a guessing game, sorry,” he said and shook his head. The pink pony looked a bit saddened as she sat back down again. “But this is what we call a flashbang or stun grenade.” He rotated it in his hands to see if there stood anything on it. “An M84 stun grenade,” he read off the top the metallic cylinder. “It explodes in a very bright light and loud noise by pulling that thing here.” He pointed at the pin. “Which I don’t want to do now, but it is relatively safe. It’s unlikely that there are permanent or severe injuries, it would just disorient anyone near it when it goes off for a while.”

A quick glance at the faces of the ponies confirmed his thought. So far they are taking this very lightly. That’s good. I just hope they don’t overreact on the next item though. With a sigh he held up the holster with the pistol in it. “This here is an actual weapon that I carry with me. And I’m very sorry to have brought it here, I just didn’t know what I would be facing.” The ponies eyed it closely, but he could only see confused looks on their faces.

Twilight was the first to voice what they seemed to think. “That doesn’t look like a weapon to me.”

He pulled the pistol from the holster, making sure that the safety lock was still on and released the magazine from it. “It doesn’t look like much, but it shoots these small metal projectiles here…” He stopped for a moment, putting down the holster and showing the inside of the magazine. “With a high enough speed for them to simply pierce through any light materials, including a body.”

As expected the ponies now were shocked at his words. They didn’t seem to expect to be expecting much from that little piece of metal and plastic.

“Why would you need something like that?” Fluttershy whispered, cowering slightly as Steve turned towards her.

“I hope that I never will. I never have aimed at anything that was alive and I plan to keep it that way. But as I said earlier, I had no idea what was expecting me, and if I would have gotten into a dangerous situation it could have saved my life. In retrospect I should have just left it at the ship,” he replied slightly guilty.

“I think it was the right decision to take it with you,” Twilight returned.

“Yeah, I know, I’m sor… wait, what? You are okay with that?” Steve asked, confused at her statement. Out of all I would have expected her to freak out for bringing an alien weapon into her home.

“Yes, of course,” she confirmed and nodded her head. “You haven’t seen any yet, but we have weapons as well and as you correctly stated you didn’t know what to expect. Instead of my friends and me you could have been found by a manticore or worse.” Twilight looked around the group and they seemed to be convinced. Before Steve had the chance to think about where he heard the word manticore before Twilight continued, “Now I wouldn’t want to have a weapon with me, especially one as powerful as you described it, but you weren’t going to use it unless you absolutely had to, right?”

“Of course not!” he immediately replied. “Thanks for your understanding, Twilight.” He looked around the group and noticed that by this point they seemed completely relaxed again. They must trust Twilight a lot, he thought, impressed at how the situation had quickly changed again. It would probably a good idea to have more contact with her until I get to meet an official representative of their country. She might be just the per… pony to help me make a good first impression here.

“I have another question,” he spoke up again. “If it’s not too personal, that is, but what do the symbols on your flanks mean? I see you all have a different one.”

“These are cutie marks,” Twilight replied immediately. “Don’t you have them?” He shook his head. “Well, everypony has a very special talent, something they excel in. Once they find out what this talent is their cutie mark appears to show it to the world. For example my special talent is magic, though it may not be quite clear from the symbol. But Applejack for example” – she pointed over at the orange mare with the hat, on whose flank he saw three red apples – “is the best apple farmer you can find in all of Equestria.” Applejack just tilted her head over her face to hide the faint blush that appeared on her cheeks.

Steve had to hold back a chuckle at the thought that Applejack, with the image of apples on her flanks, was good at farming apples. “And what happens if you don’t like that special talent you have?” he asked instead. “Or what happens if you are also really good at something else?”

For a while Twilight seemed to ponder over the question before she replied, “I have never heard of a case where somepony doesn’t like their special talent, after all, it is what they are the best at. But being the best at one thing doesn’t mean they can’t be good at anything else. There have been cases of ponies getting two cutie marks, but that is extremely rare and I would have to look up what exactly happened to them after they got their second one.”

“I see, so it basically tells you if you have found the right path for you?” he inquired.

“Correct,” Twilight confirmed. “But since you have no cutie mark could you tell me a bit of how you know when you have found what you excel in? Most species on this planet don’t have cutie marks, it’s just that I never really gotten the chance to talk with any of them about it and I’m just curious.”

Steve thought about it for a moment. Having something telling you when you were right instead of a trial and error procedure seemed much better. “To be honest, we don’t know it. I just hope the paths I chose were correct. There is always the chance that if I had decided otherwise I would have maybe found something that I would have like more, but as for now I’m happy, and I think that’s all that counts.”

“And what’s the path you chose?”

“I’m an academic,” he exclaimed. “But before I name specific numbers, I have a quick question about the units you measure time in. Do you have days and years?”

“Yes. A day is twenty four hours long, an hour is sixty minutes, which again is sixty seconds long. I have a clock over there to that can tell you how long a second is, just watch the long hand,” she said and pointed behind him. He turned around to see an actual clock hanging on the wall.

I probably should take an exact measurement, but looks pretty much the same as the second that I know.

After Steve turned back around to her again, Twilight continued, “Thirty days form a month, and twelve months form a year, making a year three hundred and sixty days long. “

“Perfect, almost identical with how we have it, only that our months vary in length and we come to a total of three hundred and sixty five days, usually.” He got himself in a more comfortable position on the cushion before he continued his story. “As I said, I’m an academic, meaning that I have spent most of my time in some sort of school or university. I always was fascinated by technology and math, and for eleven years I was in school, which basically teaches a bit about various subjects. Near the end I found a great interest in computer science.” He saw that Twilight was about to ask a question, so he beat her to it by giving the answer already. “I’ll explain to you sometime what a computer is, this will really take me days to fully explain.” The unicorn just closed her mouth again and nodded. “Well, from there I continued with university, there you can specialize in a certain subject, but they also want you to take a look into a field that is closely related to your own. There I choose mechanical engineering. This went on for a good eight years until I finally graduated with what we call a doctors degree. I was just twenty six back then but most of my life I had spent on education.

“So once I finished studying I had to get work. I applied as an aerospace technician at a space agency back on Earth, where I also got accepted. Apparently they thought I had been doing a good job, so when I heard about the mission we were starting with the Columbus I applied and after a long selection process I had found my place on board. Having someone with a background from computer science instead of physics or engineering was valuable for them as I had to make sure that the systems were working correctly and would be able to fix them if they weren’t.” He was aware that it was a waste of time to get too technical with them about this so he tried to keep his description as brief as he could. “Anyways, it was a very big honour to be accepted, since I could have been one of the first humans to discover alien life, which I turned out to actually be.” A wide grin found its way on his lips. “And that’s how I spent the last two years of my life. Travelling here.”

“Two years?” Twilight blurted out.

“Space is big, planets are very far away from each other and even though we travel fast it still takes a lot of time.” He shrugged. “Sometimes it felt even longer than it already was, but now that I am here, having found exactly what I was hoping for I can say that it was worth it. This is a truly amazing place.”

“I’m glad you like it,” Twilight replied with a soft smile before taking a quick glance at the clock. “It’s getting quite late,” she pointed out and Steve looked out of the window. The sun was setting already. “I still have more questions left, but I think we should call it a day for now. Maybe we can continue this tomorrow?”

“I’ll be looking forward to it.”

“Wonderful. I don’t know about you,” Twilight began and stood up from the cushion, stretching herself. “But I’m starting to get hungry. How about you?” She looked all around the group.

Now that she mentioned it, Steve could hear the grumbling of his stomach. “I could eat a bit now too. I haven’t had anything since breakfast.”

“I have to admit that I’m not that good of a cook, and I don’t think we can go to a restaurant right now, but I have enough in the house to at least make some sandwiches,” Twilight offered and made her way into the kitchen already.

“Silly, Sugarcube Corner has always been open for my friends! You can all try my newest cupcake as well. Twily did earlier today and she loved it, right?” Pinkie Pie chirped, a grin on her face.

“That does sound great, but I’m afraid I have to decline. I don’t know yet how my body will react to your food. I would have to analyse it to find out if it’s safe. So if you’re okay with it I would just take a few samples.”

“Okie dokie lokie! I think I even have one right here with me,” Pinkie Pie replied and pulled out a dark cupcake from underneath the cushion, handing it to Steve, whose jaw had dropped. “Here you go!”

Steve stammered a few unintelligent words before coming to his senses again. “How did you do that? I thought earth ponies don’t have magic like that. It surely wasn’t there before!” Pinkie Pie just responded with an even wider grin.

“It’s just Pinkie being Pinkie,” Twilight replied and shrugged. The rest of the ponies showed similar reactions.

Okay, maybe I just don’t get that magic thing yet, he tried to calm himself.

“Anyways, if you like I can prepare you a little basket with some foods,” Twilight offered and grabbed the cupcake from Pinkie’s hoof with her magic, letting it glow in the same dark pink light that had surrounded the book before. Steve just nodded faintly. “What do humans eat by the way?” she shouted over her shoulder as she had entered the little kitchen he had seen earlier.

Aren’t horses herbivores? he tried to quickly remember. Well, what counts for horses that I know, not necessarily for the ones here. Also there was a dragon. I doubt a dragon would eat grass, even if it’s just a small one like Spike.

“Humans are omnivores, if that’s what you mean. So basically everything,” he replied, earning him quizzically looks from most of the ponies.

“What’s that?” Rainbow spoke up.

“It means that he eats both plants and meat, Rainbow,” Fluttershy calmly replied for him, turning the confused looks turned into suspicion, or in Rainbow Dash’s case hostility.

“Why would you eat an animal?!” she shouted furiously.

Argh, this is bad, he thought and panic began to rise.

Again Fluttershy stepped in before Steve could try to defend himself. “Rainbow Dash, I expected you to know better,” Fluttershy scolded her friend and gave her a stern look.

“Huh?” the pegasus just returned and now looked rather baffled at Fluttershy.

“You remember Harry, the bear, or your gryphon friend, Gilda, don’t you?” Fluttershy pointed out, the timidity in her voice suddenly disappearing. Steve just watched the scene in silence.

“Yeah, so?” Rainbow shrugged. She wasn’t seeing where Fluttershy was going with this.

“Then you know that both of them eat meat as well,” Fluttershy said bluntly and now Rainbow looked at her with shock. “And they are not the only ones. You know how many critters I tend to, and many of them eat meat. It’s in their nature.”

“Hold on…” Rainbow raised a hoof and stared blankly at her friend for a while. “How come I’ve never seen Gilda eating meat then?”

“Because she never did it in the open, like every other gryphon in Cloudsdale,” Fluttershy retorted slightly confused. “Have you really never noticed? I mean, it wasn’t sold at the local markets in town, but surely you had noticed it sometimes?” Rainbow just shook her head in disbelief. “Oh my…”

Awkwardly Rainbow Dash began to scratch the back of her head with a hoof and looked over at Steve. “Uhm, sorry for bursting out like that,” she pressed out awkwardly and tried to overplay it with a chuckle.

Steve let out a relieved sigh. “It’s fine. To be honest, I expected a reaction like this, and am surprised that you are all taking it rather well.” He looked around, but none of the other ponies had anything to object.

“Oh, well of course, dear,” Rarity piped up. “I have stopped counting how often my lovely little cat has brought me dead mice by now, but I have gotten used to it.”

“Same here, Sugarcube,” Applejack joined in. “Ya don’t have to live on a farm for too long to see that that’s just the way it is sometimes.”

Meanwhile Twilight has returned from the kitchen, an open bag with what looked like various fruits levitating in a purple aura behind her. “Sorry, I couldn’t quite catch your answer back there, but from what I heard from Rainbow,” she stopped and shot a quick glance at the cyan-coloured pegasus, who still looked a bit ashamed. “I believe you told them you are an omnivore. Am I right?”

“Yes,” he replied a bit irritated at having to bring back the unpleasant topic so soon. “You expected that didn’t you?”

“Yes, based on your sharper teeth I concluded that your kind is omnivorous.”

“So you are okay with it?” he asked, hoping she would say yes.

Twilight nodded, his irritation once again diminishing as he sighed.

“Great,” he gave her a short nod of acknowledgement, stood up and walked to the bag Twilight had prepared for him. “I do have to say that looks fantastic, I really hope I can eat it,” he said eagerly as he glanced over the bag. “My ship is well supplied, but only in numbers. Unless they packed different rations in here, which I doubt, it will all just taste bland, so this I’m really looking forward to for a change. Thank you a lot, Twilight Sparkle and all of you for this warm welcome, it’s the best I could have hoped for,” he exclaimed with a smile on his lips.

“Oh, it’s nothing, and just call me Twilight,” she replied, blushing a bit at the compliment. “Is there anything else you need help with now, or do you just want to go back to your ship?”

For a moment he considered. “No, I’m good, thanks,” he replied and shook his head as he took the bag that Twilight had still been levitating. “We can continue this tomorrow, maybe I can also show you a bit of my ship, if we have the time.”

“That would be great!” she cheered with an enthusiasm that just brought a smile on his lips.

“It’s settled then. I should be going before it gets dark.” He took a glance out of the window. “I will see you tomorrow then.”

Before he could reach the door he heard Twilight's voice again. “Wait!” she called out. “I think we should come with you through town,” she added sheepishly.

“Oh yes, I almost forgot,” he replied, scratching the back of his head in slight embarrassment.

“I’m coming with you,” Twilight announced and turned towards her friends. “Any of you want to come along? I don’t think we all have to be there, but maybe somepony needs to go in the same direction as well.”

Applejack stepped forward. “Mah farms in the same direction, so ah’ll come along too.”

Rainbow shrugged. “Yeah sure, I’ll tag along. I want to see this ship of yours again. You said it can fly, but it doesn’t even have wings or anything,” she pointed out, incredulity creeping into her voice.

“Unfortunately it can’t fly at the moment. It runs on hydrogen, but the small amount that fits in the fuel tank was used up during the landing. But as soon as the rest of the crew gets here you can see it in action,” he explained to her.

Lastly Fluttershy stepped forward, whispering something about her cottage being on the way as well, the determination she just had when telling off Rainbow Dash had vanished. With no one else joining them, the small group was back out on the streets a few moments later, and just like when they arrived the streets were deserted.

Steve heard Twilight sighing before they got on their way. “Is it always this bad with strangers, or is it worse in my case because they have no idea where I’m coming from?” he asked cautiously. The contrast between the ponies that had welcomed him and the residents of the town stood out clearly, confusing Steve.

“It is more of the latter,” Twilight admitted. “We had something similar a while ago. Zecora, a zebra, is living in the Everfree Forest. That is the forest that begins south of the town, just where you landed. Anyway, when she first came into town everypony was afraid of her as well, and it looked just like it does now. Most ponies didn’t know what a zebra really was, with them living far to the south, well beyond the Everfree Forest, and it is rare to see one even in the larger cities,” Twilight told him and curiously he was hanging on her every word. “This wouldn’t have been much of a problem if she wasn’t living in the Everfree.” He raised a brow. “Oh, of course, you don’t know,” she quickly added as she noticed his look. “The Everfree Forest is a dangerous place, filled with many wild creatures. Nopony would choose to live there, so they all expected Zecora to be dangerous as well, which she wasn’t at all, in fact she is one of the most helpful and wise creatures you could find, but it still took time for the ponies here to properly accept that.” Twilight took a short pause and Steve gave a nod. The way she was putting it made sense to him. “For you they don’t even know what you are or where you came from. They may not even realize that whatever we all saw falling from the sky was a ship that carried you in it, but an unknown creature coming from the south, where there is nothing but the forest, is a reason for them to be scared.”

“Ah, so you have helped her integrating here as well?” Steve asked and lightened up a bit. If Twilight and her friends have helped this zebra then they were sure to help him, making a perfect start for the other humans that would be coming soon.

“Well… uhm… actually…” Twilight began to stutter and looked at the ground. “At first we tried to attack her because we thought she kidnapped a foal,” she eventually admitted, her face turning red in embarrassment.

“But we’re totally cool now!” Rainbow Dash quickly threw in. “That’s behind us and we learned a lot from it.”

“The rest of the town didn’t learn as much as we did but ah’m sure they will like ya too. They are really nice ponies once ya get to know them,” Applejack said.

Let’s hope so… was Steve’s final thought.

***

The rest of the travel went by quietly. They followed the same small dirt road that had led them to the town earlier today and when they arrived at the first crossway Fluttershy parted from the group, taking the path to the west where she said her cottage was, and a while later they arrived at the point in the road where Steve had just to pass the field to get back to this ship.

“Well, ah gotta go a bit further down the road, that’s where our farm is,” Applejack said and pointed towards the south. Steve realized that he hadn’t even looked in that direction yet, and now with the slightly dimmer light it was a bit hard to tell, but from the looks of it there was a large field full of apple trees, completely surrounded by the forest in every direction but from where they were looking from. That must be the farm she was talking about. “Have a good night y’all.” The orange pony tilted her hat one last time before she continued walking down the road.

The remaining group went straight across the field, heading towards a hill near the beginning of the forest behind which Steve’s ship was waiting. As they came around the hill they saw the ship standing there just as expected, only this time due to the quickly setting sun, with loads more small lights glowing everywhere.

“What is all that on the outside, and how do you make the lamps glow if you don’t have magic?” Twilight asked him after she inspected the ship for a short while. Rainbow Dash had quickly taken off and was flying around it, inspecting it from all sides.

Steve took a closer look as well. “To be honest I don’t really know what each of these things does from the top of my head, basically they are either some sort of scanner, meaning they measure things in the area. I was informed about your arrival a few minutes before you were here because the heat of your bodies was showing up, but it also can analyse the air, temperature and so on,” he began to explain and waved with his hand over the ship. “Some of them are antennas, I need these for long range communication.” He saw in her eyes that Twilight had even more questions now, but she let it be for now since it was getting quite late already. “And the lights… are either there for identification or safety. There are lists about what a light in which colour on what position means, but I never bothered to read it, so yeah…” He shrugged. “As for the how, let’s just say electricity, that’s a form of energy that powers our machines. I get it from the sunlight with these things there,” he said and pointed at a few large black plates that were standing away at the side of the ship. “They are solar panels, they generate electricity from sunlight.”

“Fascinating,” Twilight simply stated and inspected the ship a little further. Shortly after, Rainbow Dash landed in front of them. “I guess I say goodbye to you know. Thank you for answering our questions, it has been a very informative day.”

“Likewise,” he quickly added.

“I hope you have enjoyed your first day in Equestria, and we will speak to you tomorrow. Do you mind if I just come by and pick you up?”

“Not at all. I’m looking forward to it. Goodnight you two.” Unsure what to do he offered them his hand for a final handshake.

“Have a good one,” Rainbow said and shook his hand with her hoof.

“Goodnight,” Twilight said and repeated the gesture.

Steve turned around to the ship, the airlock was already unlocking as he stepped on the ramp, waving a final goodbye for the day to the two ponies that still stood there and were watching, fascinated as the door opened.

Never thought that an opening door could be interesting to someone, or somepony in this case, he thought and stepped inside the airlock, the door locking behind him.

“Welcome back, Steve. I hope you had a good day,” Sarah greeted him immediately as the inner door opened and he set his first foot inside the ship.

“Hey Sarah. You could say that. It was very informative. You received the audio data?”

“Affirmative. I took the freedom of saving it in the mission logs. Do you wish to add anything to it?”

“Not really, I’m just gonna write a quick report linking to the file, naming everyone involved and so on.”

“I already have,” Sarah replied.

“Really? Well, that’s great then,” he said, slightly surprised by the initiative the AI had shown. Maybe she’s not as bad as I thought, or all the hours I’ve spent in here fixing everything have really paid off. He raised the bag that Twilight gave him. “I have some samples here that I need to analyse, but I don’t know how to use the lab equipment. Can you help me?”

“Of course,” she replied, much to Steve’s pleasure. “During your absence I have finished further scans. Light damage of the communication array detected. Required spare parts are aboard.”

“Very good. I think I’ll do that tomorrow though, I’m a bit exhausted and will go to sleep early. I can’t wait until the rest of the team hears of this place, they won’t believe what’s going on here.” Sarah remained silent as he made his way into the cargo room, searching through the supply boxes until he found a conserve that sounded appetizing.

Goulash with potatoes, and fruit salad. Well, there isn’t much that can go wrong there.

One tasteless meal later, Steve found himself in the laboratory. His inspection here this morning had been more than brief, so as he opened the doors to one of the cabinets he was relieved to find no shattered glass or other signs of immediate damage on the machines.

“Which one do I need to use to analyse food samples to see if they are edible?” he asked over his shoulder.

“One cabinet to your right, middle shelf,” Sarah guided him. Opening said cabinet he spotted a blank, white machine with four drawers inside it. “Open the drawers and insert the sample, I will take care of the rest.”

Well, that was easy, Steve thought as he cut of a small part of every item in the bag and inserted it into the drawer. Now I can only hope they will be edible. That apple sure looked juicy.

With that problem out of the way he left the lab to store the remaining items in the small fridge in the kitchen. Now there was just one thing left to do before getting his well-deserved rest for today. Cleaning up the bedroom which was still a mess. As he stood in the doorway taking a look over the chaos his motivation dropped, and for a moment he considered just grabbing a blanket and sleeping on the couch for tonight, but eventually he cleared one bedframe of everything that was on it, pulled one of the mattresses from the ground up onto the frame and just like that he had gotten a real bed for tonight. The rest of the room could wait until tomorrow to be cleaned up.

With a few grabs he took off his vest, belt and overall and let himself fall down on the bed, staring at the blank ceiling of the room. For a while he was just lying there, his mind going over the day once again. If anyone would have told him that he one day would land on a world filled with magical, talking ponies he would have laughed out loud, but here he was.

He pulled the blanket over himself and said to the room, “Sarah?”

“Yes, Steve?” the AI quickly replied.

“Goodnight.”

“Goodnight, Steve.”

Chapter 4 - Town

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“So… what do you think?”

“Huh?” Twilight asked confusedly. She had been staring at the alien vessel for a while now, unable to tell how long she had just stood there in silence, letting her thoughts drift by.

“About all this,” Rainbow repeated and waved a hoof over the ship in front of them.

Twilight averted her eyes from it and looked back at her friend, sighing before shaking her head. “I don’t know,” she admitted and slowly turned around, getting ready to head back to Ponyville. “He gave me so much to think about, I have to sleep on all of this.”

“Same for me,” Rainbow agreed as she trotted alongside Twilight over the meadows that separated them from the dirt road back to their home. “I always thought that ponies who really believed in aliens were a bit nuts, and now this...”

“I know,” Twilight replied. “To be honest, I had been thinking about that sometimes, but never really believed it. This was something more suited for a fiction novel than real life, but here we are, having just talked to an actual alien and brought him back to his spaceship. It all feels so…”

“Unreal?” Rainbow helped her out.

“Kind of. And I have to admit that it wasn’t quite like I imagined it to be.”

“How did you expect it to be?” Rainbow Dash inquired.

Twilight remained silent for a while. “I don’t know. I have never imagined things that he described. The ability to fly through space alone. Do you even know what is out there, in between all those stars?” Twilight asked and pointed at the night sky. With the sun having almost completely set by now the stars slowly began to appear.

“Nah, not really,” Rainbow replied and shrugged. “What’s there?”

“Nothing, not even air to breath,” Twilight explained. “And think of the distances. Even at your fastest, I doubt you could reach even the moon within a week of straight flying, with no sleep or rest whatsoever. And he said he came from much further away.”

Rainbow remained silent, a thoughtful look on her face telling Twilight that she seemed to grasp the concept now. After a while Twilight spoke up again. “These humans seem… strange. From a technical point of view they seem to have surpassed us by thousands of years, but what he told us about their world? Starvation? This is something Equestria hasn’t seen since before the unification. And they are so incredibly many…”

“I know,” Rainbow agreed again. “That sounded really horrible.”

“I still hope to learn more about them though. I think it would be greatly beneficial for both our nations. And he seemed interested as well, being a scientist from their world. I think we will both learn a lot from each other,” Twilight said eagerly.

“Got a new egghead friend, huh?” Rainbow asked with an impish grin. “Finally someone you can talk about all that boring science stuff of yours with.”

“Hey! It’s not boring! It’s very interesting and if you would just take some time and read a book or two about it you could learn a lot and…” she replied hotly but got cut off by Rainbow’s waving hoof.

“Easy there Twi, just a little teasing,” she said, although her grin only widened at how easily she had riled up the unicorn. “So what do you have planned for tomorrow?”

“I have to await the response of the princess first, I still need to inform her of all my findings today, but I think the best course of action would be to show him around town. But first I need the other ponies to not run away in fear,” Twilight replied and sighed, her temporary foul mood swiftly departing as she began to consider how she could accomplish her goals.

“Do you want some help with that?” Rainbow offered. “I can help you spread the word or something.”

“I don’t think that will be necessary. If we just do the same as we did with Zecora, which was just having her around town proving that she wasn’t posing any threat to them, it should work. I just had hoped they had learned a bit more from back then,” Twilight replied, recalling the event with some embarrassment.

“If you say so. I’ll probably be a bit busy tomorrow morning anyways. Looks like we’ll get a bunch of clouds in that need to be cleared soon,” Rainbow returned as her gaze trailed off over the Everfree Forest, where a bunch of clouds were hovering near the border. “Gotta keep the weather like today for a while longer, so you chose the perfect time for a tour.”

“This might be a great point for our tour,” Twilight suddenly exclaimed. “Would you mind if we come by at some point so you can demonstrate a few weather tricks?”

“Sure thing.” The rest of the way the two ponies spent in silence, both wrapped up in their own thoughts, and a while later they stood in front of the door to Twilight’s house. Rainbow Dash hadn’t even realized that she had been going all the way back with Twilight, but since she could reach her house in under a minute from basically any point within the city she didn’t mind.

“See you tomorrow then. I hope the princess agrees with my plan,” Twilight said eagerly

“Alright, see ya tomorrow then. Night Twi,” Rainbow bid her goodbye, lifting herself off the ground and heading for her house in the sky slightly northwest of the city, barely hearing the ‘goodbye’ from Twilight. What she could still hear quite clearly however was the name of a certain dragon as Twilight was calling for her little assistant.

***

Steve muttered some unintelligible words as he slammed his hand on the alarm clock that was integrated in the wall next to the head of his bed. Sleepily he looked at it and the glowing red letters told him that it was half past six, presumably in the morning. Sarah must have had the clocks adjusted to the local time sometime last night as he couldn’t recall them stating a time when he went to sleep.

“Did you have to set the alarm that early?” he grumbled a bit louder so that the AI could hear him. He had never been a very long sleeper, but 6:30 was rough, especially after the long day yesterday and today would probably be just as packed.

“Yes,” Sarah replied calmly. As a matter of fact Sarah was speaking the exact same way all the time, in her monotonous robotic voice, he just presumed that she would speak calmly. Would she even fill her voice with any sort of emotion? Does she even know what emotions are? Quickly Steve shook his head. It was too early in the morning to think about that. “I went over the audio logs from yesterday and since you were invited for a tour through their town I figured I should plan in enough time for you in the morning to finish the repairs on the ship.”

Steve rubbed the sleep out of his eyes, stood up from the bed and stretched himself. “Fine, fine. Well done.” He sighed. He would have preferred to sleep in a bit today, but she was right, he had to fix the ship before Twilight would arrive. She hadn’t specified at what time she would come, but judging by the eagerness of the purple unicorn she would probably be here soon. “Just give me a few minutes to get ready.”

A habit he had developed sometimes during the journey here was to always start the day with a short amount of morning sport, even if he always had to force himself to do it. At least he was awake afterwards and it also helped somewhat in keeping him fit. Reluctantly he laid down on the floor and went through his usual routine of push-ups, sit-ups and the worst part of all, stretching.

Shortly after he made his way into the bathroom, but not before stopping by the command centre, from where he could get a great view of the sunrise above the forest to the east. He was a bit too late to see the sunrise in all its glory, and part of him wished he would have woken up even earlier. He hadn’t seen a real sunrise in years and that would have been a perfect sight now, but the sun was still standing low, bathing the forest in a deep orange glare as the celestial body slowly rose in the distance.

He stayed there for a couple more minutes before going about the rest of his usual morning routine and a little later he stood fresh and fully dressed in front of the bathroom mirror, checking his image one final time. He had slight rings below his eyes, and the short stubbles on his chin didn’t justify a fresh shave just yet. Seems acceptable, he nodded it off and left the small bathroom again.

“I have finished analysing your samples in the meantime,” Sarah suddenly spoke up.

“And?” he eagerly inquired. He was hoping for some good news right now.

“Every sample is edible, although a critically high level of sugar has been found in one, which I advise not to consume. The complete test result can be seen on the main computer terminal,” the AI informed him, bringing a wide smile to his lips.

“Perfect! Just what I was hoping for,” he cheered and quickly made his way to the terminal. He took a quick glance over it. Everything was looking perfectly fine, but then his eyes fell on the report of the cupcake sample he had thrown into the machine. “That thing is sixty percent sugar?!” he shouted out in surprise. “How is that even possible?”

“No data available.”

Didn’t horses on Earth get sugar as a treat? I guess these ponies just like sugar as well, but I think I would get diabetes if I ate that. Too bad, it looked really good, Steve thought sullenly but quickly shook off the thought. Everything else in the bag was edible and was about to serve as the first fresh breakfast he’d had in years, so his saddened mood was immediately lightened up again.

He looked one last time over the report to see if he missed anything important, but that didn’t seem to be the case, and before long he found himself in the small kitchen, getting the items out of the fridge again. In retrospect it might have not been his smartest idea to store fruit in a fridge overnight as they had gotten quite cold, but that didn’t seem to occur to him yesterday.

He lined up everything that Twilight had given him on the kitchen counter. Next to the cupcake from Pinkie, which unfortunately he couldn’t eat, were two apples, a few slices of dark bread and some tomatoes. Not insanely much, but it would do for a tasty breakfast.

With the last of the apples in his mouth he left the kitchen a few minutes later. His initial thought had turned out to be correct, the apple was incredibly juicy and slightly sweet, yet a bit cold due to his method of storage. “Sarah, I’ll take a look at the communication array now, I need a full report,” he ordered her. Slightly sheepishly he added, “And probably your help to fix it.”

A short while, but still plenty of bumps later Steve crawled out from underneath the floor of the ship again. Most of the floor tiles were removable and covered up the sensitive electronics underneath, giving an easy way to access them in case they needed repairs. Fortunately for him there were only a few cables that had gotten loose and a circuit board that had cracks in it. With a bit of guidance he was able to fix it quickly, but the space underneath the floor had been so narrow that he still bumped his head at every possible occasion.

“Ouch,” he said to himself as he rubbed the back of his head and took a look at the watch that he now wore around his wrist. Not even eight o’clock yet, he thought to himself. “Sarah, can you try to contact the Columbus now?”

“I am already on it. I will inform you once I have established contact.”

“Good, they won’t believe what’s going on here,” he said more to himself and grinned, before trying to think of anything he could do before Twilight showed up. Waiting here inside while there was a whole new world outside to see wasn’t very entertaining, but he figured it would be best to wait for her.

“I am detecting a heat signature approaching from the northwest. Approximate distance: two hundred metres,” Sarah suddenly spoke up, ending his thoughts.

Ah, speak of the devil, Steve thought and was about to make his way towards the airlock, but not before taking a quick stop in the cargo room again to pick up one of the audio recorders to document today’s findings again. The airlock was already opening as she now approached him and he said goodbye to Sarah before stepping out into the world again. This time he wasn’t blinded that much, as the sun was still standing low in the southeast.

Quickly he went down the ramp and just as he arrived on the ground he saw a purple unicorn coming around the hill. “Good morning, Twilight,” he greeted her and waved at her with one arm. As she was getting closer he could see a saddlebag hanging over her back, with a buckle that looked a lot like the star of her cutie mark, if he recalled correctly from yesterday.

“Oh, good morning, Steve,” Twilight replied slightly surprised. “Were you already waiting for me?” she asked as she came a bit closer and looked at him standing in front of his ship.

“No, I already saw you coming.”

“Ah good. So, how has your first night in Equestria been?” she asked, sounding a bit nervous.

“Quiet,” he just replied with a smile. “Slept like a log.”

“No problem with the wildlife?” she asked and glanced over at the forest.

“My ship has very good insulation, I can’t hear anything that is going on outside,” he explained quickly and Twilight just nodded. “So… what is the agenda for today?”

“After returning to my home yesterday I wrote a report to Princess Celestia to inform her about my findings.” Steve raised a brow but kept his question of why a librarian in some small village would write a report to the allegedly immortal and all-powerful ruler of the country to himself. “She was quick in her response and informed me that she wants to meet you.” Twilight cleared her throat and began to recite a text she probably had memorized word for word. “Hereby I cordially invite you to visit the city of Canterlot, capital of Equestria, in order to meet with Princess Celestia and Princess Luna.” With an eager grin on her face she looked up at him, awaiting a response.

A meeting with their princesses? he thought to himself with mixed feelings. He wasn’t a real diplomat, he didn’t even know what to tell the princesses, besides them coming in peace and for purely scientific reasons. There surely would be a lot of angry people if he just took over the duty to represent Earth, but on the other hand there was no way he could just decline an invitation from their ruler. “I accept and feel honoured,” he replied.

“Perfect.” Twilight clapped her hooves together. “We will take a train tomorrow. For today she has agreed with my plans to show you around Ponyville.”

Steve just nodded and together they began to move back across the field to the dirt road that would lead them into the town. “There is one thing I’m wondering,” he suddenly spoke up, finally giving his confused thoughts sound. “How come you have such contact with the princess that she can send out official invitations through you and lets you show me around town?”

“Oh, I completely forgot to tell you that yesterday, I was just too excited. I’m Princess Celestia’s personal student.”

“Her personal student?” he repeated baffled. Oh damn, and here I thought I was just speaking with some librarian and her friends.

“Correct. When I was just a little filly and enrolled in Princess Celestia’s School for gifted Unicorns she offered for me to become her student. From there on she has taught me the ways of magic until she sent me here to Ponyville to learn more about the magic of friendship, a valuable asset that I had so long failed to understand,” she explained with a smile on her lips. “I also report all my findings to her so I’m in close contact with her.”

The magic of friendship? he just thought to himself and looked at her, irritated, but the way she was speaking about it, with a special look in her eyes stopped him from questioning that rather peculiar sounding term, especially in a world where magic actually exists. Also once again he couldn’t believe how lucky he was. At first he thought just some ordinary pony had found him here at first and he had made a more or less good first impression, at least with Twilight who seemed to be extremely fascinated by what he had to say, but now it turns out that she was the personal student of the princess of this country. That would surely positively influence future diplomatic actions.

“Anyway, before we go to the town I would like to show you the outskirts to the south for a bit,” Twilight announced as they arrived on the dirt path. With a hoof she pointed “Back there is the farm of Applejack and her family. Since we are already so close to it I figured it would be a good place to start.”

“Sounds good to me,” he agreed and turned left so they both were walking down the road southwards. “Oh, and before I forget it. I analysed the food samples you gave me yesterday.” Curiously Twilight looked at him. “It turns out that your food is perfectly edible for me, although some of it contains a bit too much sugar for me.”

Twilight nodded. “That’s good to hear, I hope you liked the taste as well.”

“Oh yes, it was wonderful, thank you very much,” he replied and gave her a smile. The rest of the way they both spent in silence as they were already arriving at the outskirts of the orchard. Countless apple trees were lined up next to the road, only with a short wooden fence between them. Most of the apples had a shiny red tone, just like the ones Twilight gave him yesterday. In the distance he could see a red barn rising above the tree line. Shortly after they arrived at the main entrance, where a large sign read ‘Sweet Apple Acres’.

“Here we are, I hope Applejack is nearby, she could be anywhere in the orchard, and you’ve seen how big it is,” Twilight said and began to look around as they walked up the road to the barn. Now that they were closer Steve could actually see that there was also a large red farm house next to the barn, which was probably where Applejack and her family lived. A couple of smaller wooden buildings stood around the back, probably either storage rooms or shelters for the animals.

“Howdy there, you two!” the farmer in question greeted them as she trotted around the barn, two baskets full of apples at her sides, both held together by a strap that was lying over her back. Steve’s eyes widened as he saw her, but mainly because the apples in the basket were piling up about a metre high and he didn’t even want to imagine how heavy they must be, and only a few drops of sweat that were glistening from her body here and there were evidence of the hard work she was doing here.

“Hi Applejack,” Steve replied amicably and raised a hand in greeting as they both walked over towards the farmer.

“Hello Applejack,” Twilight now greeted her. “I thought it would be a good idea to show Steve a bit more around town today and I figured this would be a good place to start.”

“Ah, that does indeed sound like a good idea,” Applejack confirmed and put her two baskets down on the ground. “We sure as sugar like visitors here at Sweet Apple Acres. Everypony can see that we treat our apples here with nothing but intensive care and love. Speaking about that, did ya like the apple that Twilight gave ya yesterday?”

“Oh yes, it was great. Unfortunately I stored it in the fridge last night so it was rather chilly, but it was still good.”

“Well, then ya have to try a fresh one,” Applejack said as she swung her tied-up tail, only to wrap it around the apple at the top of the pile and shoot it over to Steve. Too confused by that display of agility the apple hit against his chest, but he reacted quickly enough afterwards to catch it before it fell to the ground.

He looked down at the red apple in his hand and then back at Applejack who eagerly waited for him to take a bite, and so he did. Oh wow, that’s so much better than the cold one, he thought, and let out a little moan. “This might be the best apple I ever had, thanks.”

Pleased with his reaction Applejack tilted her hat and replied, “Glad ya like it. It’s always nice to see that our effort shows in our product.”

“It does,” he agreed and took a second bite of the juicy fruit. “So, who is running this farm? I haven’t seen anyone else yet.”

“Usually it’s just me and mah brother, Big Mac, but he’s busy right now ploughin’ the fields in the south, but he should be done with that soon.”

“Are you only harvesting apples here at this farm or something else too?” Steve wondered now.

“Nah, just apples, there are more farms north of the town that have other stock, but we specialize in apples. That doesn’t mean of course that we’re just selling them like they are, we also bake all kinds of pies and cakes and such with ‘em. If ya’d like to try some ah think we have a bit of apple pie left over from breakfast,” Applejack offered.

“Thanks for the offer, but I’m afraid I have to decline. I just had breakfast, and while I believe that the pie surely tastes amazing if it was made with an ingredient like this” – he held up the apple in his hand – “I’m quite full. Also I didn’t want to bother you too much and distract you from your work, it seems like you’re quite busy at the moment,” he said and glanced over at the filled basket. “And also Twilight and I have a bit to do today, right?”

Twilight nodded. “Correct. And while I’m already here, Princess Celestia has invited all of us to Canterlot tomorrow. I have booked tickets for the 9:30 train already.”

“Sure, ah’ll be there, Twi,” Applejack replied and looked somewhere behind their backs. “Ah, there’s mah brother.”

Steve turned around to see a large red pony with a short brown mane coming out between two apple trees behind him. He meant large compared to the other ponies. This pony would probably reach up to somewhere around his upper chest, but every pony he had seen so far would only reach a little over his waistline, so that was quite a difference. Now that the stallion came closer Steve saw that he wore a big wooden yoke around his neck.

“Big Mac! Come here,” Applejack called for him and the massive red stallion calmly trotted over to them. “That’s Steve, ah told ya ‘bout him yesterday. He’s the human, wasn’t it?” She quickly glanced at Steve who just nodded.

“Ah reckon. Howdy, ah’m Big Mac,” the stallion said in a deep, steady voice.

“Hello,” Steve greeted him back. “Applejack told me that only you two run this whole entire farm together.”

“Eeyup,” Big Mac confirmed.

“That seems like a mighty lot of work for just two ponies,” Steve queried, trying to get the stallion to elaborate a bit. This was the first male pony he saw here so he was curious as to what he had to say.

“Eeyup.”

“But not too much for you to handle?” he tried again.

“Nnope.”

Sheesh, not much of a talker, eh?

“Well… it was nice to meet you, but I think we will be on our way then, we still have a lot to do.”

A short exchange of goodbyes later Twilight and Steve found themselves back on the path towards Ponyville.

“Is Big Mac always that quiet?” Steve wondered and raised a brow.

“Mostly, yes,” Twilight confirmed. “But he is still a friendly and very reliable stallion.”

“Ah, okay,” Steve just replied and nodded it off. “I was a bit afraid that it was because of me,” he added sheepishly. “Usually I’m more the quiet type as well.”

“Oh really?” Twilight blurted out, surprised. “You did talk quite a lot yesterday.”

“Well”- awkwardly he scratched the back of his head -“it all depends on the subject,” he replied self-consciously. “I like to explain things, especially to someone who shows genuine interest and listens, like you.”

“Of course, there is so much to learn, how could I have not paid attention to that?” Twilight exclaimed, beaming at him with a wide smile. “What you have told me about Earth is still on my mind.”

Steve sighed. “Something specifically?” he asked hesitantly, afraid his efforts of not letting the dark parts overshadow all the good things he had told her had failed.

Twilight looked to the ground and added a bit more quietly, “It just sounded like a grim place.”

He sighed again and ran a hand through his hair, leaving it dishevelled. “That is true for some parts, yes. But don’t forget all the good things I told you about. So far I could only give you a brief glimpse of our technology, but that should give you a small idea on how progressed our science is, and our culture is in no way inferior to it.” He made a brief pause and Twilight expectantly looked up at him again. “It’s just a mixture of good and bad. Of course negative memories generally stick out much more than positives one, making it seem darker than it really is.“

“I see,” Twilight replied slowly. “It’s just that… we were a bit shocked after what you told us. Especially about starvation. It was something we only experienced in our worst times of mistrust.”

So they assumed that it must be the same situation on Earth right now, he concluded and nodded slightly. That makes some sense then. “I’m sure I can give you a better image of Earth once the rest of the team is here. As I said before we were on a mission to find new life forms, and of course we have taken a few bits of our culture with us to show to any possible sentient life we encounter.”

“I can’t wait for that to happen,” she responded eagerly, but soon a worried expression crept on her face. “But speaking about that, have you talked with the other humans already? You were saying something about repairs needing to be done first?”

“Fixed everything this morning. I sent out a message, it might take some time to reach them, but don’t worry, everything is under control,” he assured her and put on the most confident smile he could. He sure was hoping that everything indeed was under control. He knew that it was on his end, but the state of the Columbus was still completely unknown to him and he could only hope for the best, but this wasn’t the time for him to bother his head about that, for all he could do from this point on was to wait.

After a while of quietly walking on the path they arrived at the same crossway where Fluttershy had left them last night.

“Let me guess, we are visiting Fluttershy,” Steve said as they stopped at the crossway.

“Correct,” Twilight confirmed and took the turn to their left. “She’s living slightly out of town, right next to the Everfree Forest. Her home doubles as an animal care shelter for where she looks after all kinds of injured woodland critters.”

“Oh?” Steve was surprised, not only by how altruistic Twilight made her sound, but also that the timid looking pegasus would be living right next to the forest that she had made sound so dangerous. “That is very nice of her.”

“Yes, that is Fluttershy, the kindest pony in all of Equestria.” Twilight’s sincere tone made it clear that she meant exactly what she said.

Before too long they had reached the end of the alley and a small cottage appeared at the edge of the forest. They crossed a bridge over a stream that ran alongside the forest before Twilight knocked on the wooden door of Fluttershy’s house. As they were waiting Steve curiously looked around and spotted an array of small wooden shelters for various kinds of animals standing around in what appeared to be the garden of the house.

“Uhm, hello,” a quiet voice pulled him out of his thoughts before he was able to spot any of the animals that were living there, and as he turned back to the entrance he saw Fluttershy standing in the doorway.

“Good morning, Fluttershy,” Twilight greeted her back and Steve just raised a hand as a greeting. “I have offered to show Steve a bit more of our town.”

“Indeed,” Steve joined in. “Twilight told me you are caring for injured critters, and from the looks of it you do have a few visitors here,” he added as he peeked over the pegasus’s head, into what looked like a living room where various rabbits, birds, rats, squirrels and several more critters had gathered around the couch, all looking astonishingly calm as they looked over at the door as well.

“Uhm, yes,” Fluttershy said and looked back into her house. “They are just a bit scared, nothing serious, but I still need to calm them.”

For a moment Steve wondered if they were scared because he had landed near to the forest. His ship surely hadn’t been quiet when it landed so it might not have been too far-fetched that they ran away because of that. Before he could further think about that however Twilight spoke up again, “Oh, I see you have your hooves full right now, so we better leave you to it, right?” She looked up at Steve who just nodded. “But we do need you tomorrow. The princess has invited us to Canterlot and I have booked us train tickets for 9:30. Can you make it?”

“Of course,” Fluttershy replied quickly and nodded, making her long pink mane bounce up and down a little.

“Well, good luck with your animals and until tomorrow then, Fluttershy,” Steve bade her goodbye.

“Bye,” the yellow mare whispered in response and closed the door again. He simply shrugged and together with Twilight made his way back over the path they came from and towards Ponyville.

***

Only a couple of minutes later they both stood at the border of the town and Steve looked around pleasantly surprised. It seems like Twilight did talk some sense into them, he thought as his eyes wandered around the various ponies walking through the streets. A few of them had noticed him, staring with a mixture of curiosity and fear, but otherwise made no attempts to run away.

“Good, that went far easier than with Zecora, but I still think it would be best if you stay close to me,” Twilight told him as she stopped just before they entered the town. He just nodded.

It didn’t take long for all the ponies in the main street, which they were walking down, to notice him and stop whatever they were doing to silently stare at him. Steve tried his best to keep up a friendly smile while watching the ponies around him in turn.

Smile and wave, boy. Smile and wave.

It didn’t take too long before business was back on track, although a bit slower than before and with a few eyes wandering over to him every now and then.

“Better than yesterday?” Twilight asked and expectantly looked up at him.

“Yes, very much so,” he replied, feeling slightly agitated from being stared at this much, but it was far better than them locking themselves away in their houses, and it also gave him the possibility to watch the ponies going about their daily work. I wonder how they can hold things so firmly in their hooves. They have no fingers or anything to form a steady grip, he pondered as he saw an earth pony wielding a hammer in one hoof and slamming it down on a wooden sign to drive it deeper into the ground before what appeared to be a hardware store.

He was about to ask Twilight but she was the first to speak, “See that building over there?” She pointed at a large two-story building with blue walls and a bright purple roof that stood slightly away from the main road. Somehow it reminded Steve of a very large, oriental tent. “That is Rarity’s house and boutique, and the next stop on our list.”

Putting his question aside for now he just nodded and together they left the main road and made their way towards the boutique. As they opened the door and stepped inside a bell rang and he could hear Rarity calling, “I’ll be right with you! Feel free to take a look around!”

Steve did as she said and took a look around the pink dream he had entered, quite literally. Various shades of pink and purple were by far the most dominant colours in the circular room. Plenty of curtains hung all around, probably hiding some clothes behind them as he could see some hallstands with dressings hanging out beneath the curtains. On the opposite side of the room stood a small stage surrounded by four golden-framed mirrors. A couple of pony-shaped mannequins stood around, some with finished dresses on them, others completely empty. Several doors in the room were leading to other parts of the house, but they were all closed so he couldn’t see what was behind them.

After a few moments one of the doors swung open, revealing Rarity standing in it. He caught a quick glance of what seemed to be a kitchen before the door closed behind her again.

“Oh, hello darlings,” the white unicorn greeted them both as she stepped over to them. Looking at Steve she added, “What brings you here? Maybe looking for a more magnificent attire?”

Steve looked down at his body. It does look more functional than stylish, he agreed. But that will have to wait. “No, maybe another time,” he declined the offer and pointed over to Twilight next to him. “Twilight is just showing me around your neat little town and she figured this to be a good stop for now.”

“A splendid idea. But tell me, is the rest of the town still…” – she waved with a hoof through the air – “reluctant to meet you?”

“Not so much, no,” he replied and looked over at Twilight. “Twilight said she had talked to a few earlier, telling them that there is no need to be afraid, and while I got a lot of curious looks they didn’t seem to be afraid of me.” Twilight just nodded.

“That is good to hear, Darling,” Rarity said and eyed him a bit closer. “But are you sure I can’t interest you in an outfit?” she prodded him. “Of course I have never made something for a human, but I do like a challenge from time to time and I have a couple of ideas in mind that might work.”

He took a look at the various dresses around him again. “Thanks for the offer, but I think I have to pass,” he declined her offer again.

“Oh alright then”, she huffed disappointedly. “But at least let me take some measurements, just in case,” she added in a tone that told him she wasn’t about to accept no as an answer.

“Okay, okay, if you insist,” he gave in, not wanting to test to see how far her patience stretched.

A happy smiled beamed over Rarity’s face, as she pulled him over to a small stage and levitated various items from some nearby drawers over to him. Steve tried his best to hold still as he saw this as the fastest way to get through the process. “Also you simply must show me some more of your fashion. A world where everyone always wears clothes, I can only dream of what marvellous attires have been produced there.”

Steve was busier watching the unicorn going to work with her magic rather than listening to what she was saying so he just made some acknowledging sounds. A variety of measuring tapes and needles, very sharp looking needles, flew by close to his face, causing him to shiver occasionally and hope that she knew what she was doing. Multitasking at its finest, he just thought to himself while trying to relax in this rather uncomfortable position. Thankfully for him it was over as quickly as it began and Rarity levitated all her tools back into the drawer.

“Done,” she announced happily, presenting a rough sketch of his body with various notes scribbled next to it. “That wasn’t that bad, was it?”

Steve shook his head quickly, his legs shaking a bit after his ordeal.

Twilight took the opportunity of Steve’s silence to speak up herself. “Before I forget it, Princess Celestia wants to see us all in Canterlot tomorrow. I’ve booked a train for 9:30.”

“Canterlot?” Her eyes opened even wider. “Oh why certainly I shall be there.”

As Rarity was dreamily looking into the distance Twilight turned towards Steve. “Do you want to see anything else here or shall we go on?” He looked around the room again. As much as he was interested to see how magic would be at work here he wasn’t exactly keen on playing model for the fashionista, so he just shook his head. “Very well, Rarity? We will be on our way then again,” she said towards her friend.

“So soon?” Rarity looked at them slightly disappointed. “Oh well, enjoy your day through the town then, and don’t forget to come back here so we can have a little longer talk about human clothing,” she said as she showed them the door.

“Will do, goodbye,” he just said as they both stepped back outside to be greeted by the warm sunlight again. It was still not even noon yet, but the sun was already standing high in the sky, promising a hot day, so he wasn’t very surprised to see a whole lot of ponies wandering through the streets, despite the town being quite small.

The same procedure from his earlier arrival here repeated itself, with the ponies staring at him for a while before resuming their daily work, but Steve didn’t really mind at this point. Stares were understandable and if that progress would keep up it wouldn’t take long before they wouldn’t mind him at all, at least that’s what he hoped.

As they moved through the relatively quiet streets of the village Steve had time to think as he looked around to watch the ponies’ daily work. From the houses he saw so far it seemed to be a common practice here to live where you work, at least when you own the store. At least that’s what Rarity’s boutique and the couple of two-story workshops and stores were indicating.

“We will be coming by my library shortly,” Twilight Sparkle interrupted his thoughts. “But I would suggest we leave that today and instead visit Pinkie Pie next.”

“Lead the way,” he just replied, his eyes still wandering around the crowds of ponies around them. So far none of them made an attempt to say anything towards him. Looks like I have to make the first step then, he thought and gave Twilight a quick sign to wait for a moment. His eyes fell on a certain mint green unicorn that had been staring at him for much longer than the other ponies, and was still doing so. From the looks of it, she appeared to be a mare. After seeing more stallions in the town he could see the differences between them and the mares a bit clearer. Stallions appeared to be larger, although most of them not as large as Big Mac, and their snouts were longer with a sharper edges instead of rounded off chins.

Carefully he approached the unicorn mare, whose eyes went wide as she realized that he was coming closer to her. He couldn’t quite make out what she was feeling, but he was sure it wasn’t fear, rather excitement. “Hello,” he eventually said as he came to a halt in front of her and looked down at her. He waited for a while for her to respond, all the while trying to keep up a friendly smile. As she remained silent and just stared up at him with her mouth slightly opened he added, “My name is Steve. What is your name?”

“L-l-lyra,” the mare stammered and averted her eyes from his face.

Lyra, he repeated in his head and his eyes fell on the golden lyre that she had as a cutie mark. Who would have guessed, he thought dryly.

“Hello Lyra, nice to meet you,” he said in a friendly tone, dismissing the thought and reaching out his hand for a shake. Lyra watched his hand in awe for a while before grabbing it with both of her front hooves. Out of instinct he almost jumped back, but he stopped himself just in time and now looked more than just confused at the pony standing on her hind legs as she held his hand in her hooves and inspected it, fascinated.

“Hands…” he could hear her muttering to herself, and it felt like she was massaging it gently too. Too baffled by this reaction he just stood there motionless for a few moments, before he slowly wriggled out of the unicorn’s grasp, noting the disappointment in the mare’s eyes.

“Uhm… it was nice meeting you. I have to go...” he said and slowly backed away as the unicorn remained silent and still stared at the point where his hands had just been. After a few metres he turned around and marched back to Twilight.

“What was that?” she just asked, seeming just as baffled as he was at the bizarre display that had just occurred.

“I have no idea,” he admitted and shrugged. “I was thinking about having a quick talk with one of the other townsponies and she seemed to be interested as she had been staring at me for a while, but I’m not sure if that was the right call or not.” He shrugged again and looked back at Lyra who seemed to slowly have caught herself again now as she began moving again, but often looking over in his direction.

“Well, from what I heard Lyra is travelling around Equestria quite a bit, so she probably was just fascinated to see a completely new species,” Twilight explained and shrugged. “While we do have a good amount of tourism here in Ponyville it is almost solely limited to ponies. A lot of the ponies here are not even aware how exactly some of the other species on Equis look.”

“I see,” he just commented and nodded his head before beginning to look over the streets again. But something seemed to have changed. Apparently his encounter with Lyra hadn’t gone completely unnoticed as the ponies were no longer looking at him with a mixture of curiosity and slight fear, but after seeing him talking with someone else other than Twilight Sparkle, a few smiles were shot in his direction as well.

“See? They’ve started accepting you here,” Twilight said next to him and let out a sigh of relief.

“Yes, it’s…” he started but his voiced trailed off as they turned around the corner, unable to believe what was ahead of him. Before them stood a large gingerbread house, with icing on the roof, candles lit on the highest place on the roof, and large sugarcanes framing the door. On a sign next to the house was a picture of a cupcake.

I hope there is no evil witch eating little children inside, he thought to himself and chuckled.

“That’s Sugarcube Corner. It’s not lunch time yet, so it shouldn’t be that crowded,” Twilight announced and they both stepped inside.

Surprisingly the inside looked relatively normal. There was a counter with a kitchen behind it on the opposite side of the door, while the rest of the room was filled with various tables. A stairway leading to the upper floors could also be seen behind the counter. So it really is common for the ponies to live where they work and… His thought was cut short as a pink mane suddenly filled his sight.

“HEYA STEVE! Here for your party?” Pinkie Pie cheered. The pink mare somehow had found her way onto his head without him realizing and was now standing on it, while bending over far enough that he could see her face close in front of his. Strangely he wasn’t even feeling her weight.

Startled, Steve gasped for air and stumbled a few steps backwards. HOW THE HECK DID SHE GET THERE?! He had to try hard to not shout this thought out loud.

Meanwhile Pinkie had jumped off his head and was standing next to Twilight now who was looking over at him concerned, while Pinkie just had the widest grin on her face. “Oh, did I scare you?” she asked and her grin got even wider. “Sorry about that, here, have one on me!” she cheered and jumped over the counter, grabbing something from behind it before jumping back to Steve, handing him the treat.

Steve was still recovering from the sudden assault so it took him a few seconds before he could reply, “It’s okay Pinkie, I’m fine.”

“You’ll be even finer if you take a bite!” she said, holding the cupcake even closer to him while shaking it enticingly in front his eyes.

“It looks really delicious,” he said while looking at the tantalizing treat covered in icing and sprinkles. “But if it is like the last one then I can’t eat it. Unfortunately my tests have shown that it had too much sugar for the human body to handle,” he explained.

“Too much sugar?” she asked confused. “That’s impossible. I sometimes eat it pure!”

No doubt there. Her energy must come from somewhere.

“Humans can’t. We could even get sick,” he replied, shaking his head

“Sick?” she repeated in disbelief, her smile turning to a frown and her usually fluffy mane beginning to fall flat.

“But… uh… I…,” he stammered. “I’m sure it tastes absolutely great, and I would love to try something that just has a bit less sugar,” he said carefully and in an instant Pinkie Pie’s head spun around, scanning the counter. Within a heartbeat she picked up a plate with a different baked good on it from behind it and presented it to him again. Her movement was so quick that Steve could only see a brief pink blur before the mare stood in front of him again, an expectant look on her face.

“That’s some fresh banana bread I made a few minutes ago. Almost no sugar, Pinkie promise!” she explained and held the bread even closer to his face. Her grin grew even wider as he slowly reached out for the slice of bread and took a small bite of it.

Mhmm… she certainly knows a thing or two about baking, he thought as his mouth was filled with various tastes, the most distinguishable one being bananas. It was still a bit too sweet for his liking, but tasty nevertheless.

“Do you like it?” Pinkie Pie chirped. With his mouth still filled by the banana bread he just simply nodded. “Fantastic! Then I’m gonna make you some more for your party! Speaking of which, when do you want yours? Tomorrow? Today?!” She leaned forward as she was speaking in an ever so slightly higher pitched voice.

He could only smile at that overly enthusiastic display and raised a hand to calm her down. “That sounds like fun, but I don’t think I have much time left today and Twilight told me that the princess wants to see us tomorrow in Canterlot, right?” he said, looking over to Twilight.

“Correct,” she confirmed and nodded. “And she would like all of us to come.”

“Okie dokie lokie! We’ll have the party when we come back then. Or we can have it there!” she gasped at the possibility, “And we can even combine it with your first-meeting-with-the-princess-party! And…” she was going on but Steve managed to cut her off by raising his hand.

“That sounds great, but please, you don’t have to worry yourself too much about that,” he replied calmly. “Something small and simple is more than enough.”

“If you say so.” She shrugged. “It’ll still be totally fun because all your new friends will be there!”

“I’m looking forward to it,” he assured her and took a look around the bakery again. “Are you running this whole place by yourself? It looks pretty big for just one pony.”

“Oh, the bakery’s not mine; I’m just helping out the Cakes. They don’t have much time for it since they have gotten foals so I’m here more often but I live upstairs anyways so it’s not too much trouble for me,” Pinkie explained.

“You’re doing a pretty good job,” he said and took another large bite of the bread.

“Hehe, I hear that sometimes. You want another slice?” she offered.

Steve nodded quickly, his mouth too full to answer and Pinkie jumped back into the kitchen wrapping a slice of the banana bread in a bag.

“Thank you very much, Pinkie Pie,” he said as he gulped down the bite and took the little paper bag. The mare only replied with a grin.

“Yes, thank you, Pinkie, but I think we should be going now. It will be lunch time shortly and I know how full the place is around that time so I’d rather show him the rest of the town in the meantime,” Twilight spoke up and nodded over at Steve.

“Okie dokie! Have fun! See ya tomorrow!” she replied cheerfully as she bounced back behind the counter, preparing for the hungry ponies soon to come.

***

Twilight and Steve stood back out on the streets of Ponyville in front of Sugarcube Corner. Steve was still confused about that visit. Whatever Pinkie Pie did, be it the sudden appearance on his head which he didn’t notice, the lightning fast movements or the ability to deflate her mane, was hard to explain, even now that he knew about magic.

“So,” Twilight spoke up and slowly began to trot down the road again. “I hope you weren’t startled too much by Pinkie, she just likes to surprise everypony.” She grinned awkwardly and scratched the back of her neck.

“Oh no, it was something… different,” he replied and for him that was probably the best way to describe it since he couldn’t find the right words to capture that energetic pink bundle of fur. “But in a good way, although I am mighty confused. I thought you said that only unicorns can directly cast magic, but it almost seemed like she was teleporting with as fast as she was moving and suddenly appeared on top of me.”

Twilight giggled. “She is an earth pony, so she can’t use any magic, especially not teleportation, but I know what you mean. It feels like she does sometimes. I have never really understood how she does what she does. It is not magic, I can assure you that. I tried to figure it out once but… it didn’t turn out well.” She shrugged.

“What happened?” Steve inquired, his interest being sparked now.

“Let’s just say that I came to no logical explanation,” Twilight answered, turning slightly red at the recollection.

“Uhm, okay,” he replied, confused at her reaction. “But you said earth ponies can’t teleport. Does that mean you can?”

“Yep,” she said and stopped for a moment. Her horn began to glow and in a bright flash of light she disappeared only to reappear a few metres in front of him. She turned around with a small grin on her face as she noticed his disbelieving stare. “It is limited in range and exhausting, even for me despite all my training. It is very dangerous for an untrained unicorn, so I had to wait years before Princess Celestia eventually taught me how to do it. She had to be sure I was ready for it.”

Steve thought about her words for a moment. “Did Princess Celestia directly teach you your magic, or was it just for the more advanced topics like this?” It seemed to him a bit stressful to find the time to be a personal teacher while having to rule over a whole country. Admittedly a small one, but still.

Twilight shook her head. “As ruler of Equestria she didn’t always have the time to teach me everything herself, so I attended many of the normal classes of her school and spent a lot of time in the royal library. I did finish school a few years ago and from there on my studies began to change. Princess Celestia often just showed me a rough direction so that I could find my way. A lot has changed since then, but all for the better,” she explained and a smile crept on her lips as she stared somewhat dreamily off into the distance while they were walking back across the main street of Ponyville, which was a bit emptier now. The ponies seemed to have gathered around the few restaurants, bakeries and bistros that stood here and there to have their lunch.

After a moment of silence Steve inquired. “How so?”

“I didn’t have a lot of time aside from studying when I was younger, so I grew up in the thought that I wasn’t in need of any friends. I used to think it would just be a waste of time.” Twilight turned a bit red and kept her eyes locked on the road in front of her. “But Princess Celestia knew how important and strong the bonds of friendship can be, so that’s why she sent me here, to Ponyville. If that wouldn’t have happened, we might have not been able to stop Nightmare Moon.”

“Nightmare Moon?” Steve perked up at the strange sounding name. So far the ponies had incredibly descriptive names, so Nightmare wasn’t sounding very friendly.

Twilight cleared her throat and began to tell him briefly about the transformation of Luna into Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago, the question how this was even supposed to work he kept to himself. From there she jumped forward to a point about two years ago, telling him about her first day in Ponyville, the return of Nightmare Moon and these so called Elements of Harmony, some kind of powerful magical artefacts and how her friends and her represent them.

Intrigued, Steve listened to the story with ever growing interest. And now he knew that not only was he greeted by the personal student of the ruler of this land, but also by some sort of national heroes. “And she was banished to the moon for a thousand years?” he asked, rather sceptical about such a claim, after Twilight had finished the tale.

“Yes.” She nodded. “As I told you yesterday, alicorns are immortal, and don’t require air or food to live, so that was possible. But also was she banished in the moon, not on it, meaning that it was a prison to her where she couldn’t do anything for all this time.”

“That must have been terrible. Alone and isolated for a thousand years. A horrible fate.” he shuddered at the thought of having to spend so much time in the bleakness of space, all alone. He had spent just a few years in space, plus he had company and he had found it infuriating and boring at times. He could not begin to imagine how she must have felt.

Twilight nodded. “I agree, but Princess Celestia did what was best for her country. She saw the danger and reacted to it,” Twilight explained, firm in her agreement to the actions of her leader.

So not everything is as shiny and happy as it seems here. Sending her own sister into exile for a millennium, that must have been a tough call.

He decided to leave it at that, in case it was uncomfortable for Twilight to speak too much about it, and he didn’t want to give his opinions on sending siblings to the moon to avoid offending the lavender unicorn.

“So umm…. you can teleport and levitate with your magic,” he said, trying to change the subject. “Is there anything else special you can do with it?”

“These two things I perform the most but yes, there is more I can do. I’m quite good at shield spells. My brother used to practice with me when I was younger and they are his specialty. Perhaps my most advanced spell was a time travel spell,” despite herself, a hint of boastfulness came through her voice. Steve though, was preoccupied with the last thing she had said.

“Time travel?!” Steve spluttered, amazed at the extent their magic could go. Soon though, his incredulity gave way to curiosity. “Did you go backwards or forward?”

“In the past, why?”

“I believed traveling backwards through time to be impossible.”

“Why should that be?”

“Just think of all the paradoxes that you could create,” he pointed out rather confused that she would need an explanation for that. “You would literally be in two places at once and how is that supposed to work? Just imagine you would go back into time and make it so that your parents would never meet. Then you would never be born, but then you could have never travelled back into the past to make that happen and would have been born nevertheless, and so on.”

Twilight thought about that for a moment. “It still worked,” she then just said and shrugged.

Steve was about to raise an objection, but let it slip by. Maybe it was just something with magic, he said to himself and shook his head. “And how did it work out in the end?” he wondered.

“It was just a mess. Turned out I warned myself not to be worried about what would have happened next Tuesday but the spell didn’t last long enough for the complete message so I was worried the whole time and on the named Tuesday I travelled back into time to warn myself not to worry,” she grimaced, ears flattening in embarrassment at her actions.

“Sounds like quite a loop,” he said, his mind running over the scenario.

“It would have been better if I never used it. The spell was put away deep into the archives with very restricted access afterwards,” she told him. “It’s probably for the better.”

They continued to wander through the streets while Twilight pointed out objects of interest from time to time, like the school, hospital or the local market where the biggest crowd of ponies was now after lunch. From the looks of it this town didn’t seem much different from a village on Earth, only with less technology, but the infrastructure was there, including the most important public buildings.

“Are we heading anywhere specific or just wandering through town now?” Steve asked as they strolled past the town hall.

“There is only one pony left that you met yesterday that we haven’t visited yet.” She looked at him, as though expecting him to answer.

“Umm… Rainbow Dash?”

“Correct.” Twilight gave a strong nod. “I suppose she is outside of town and relaxing there. She should be done with her work now,” she explained and looked up into the clear blue sky. “Looks like it. Anyway, we have most of the town covered for now. It’s not that big so there isn’t a whole bunch to show you.”

“Sounds good to me,” Steve agreed. “What is her job then?”

“She works at the local weather patrol but most of the time she sleeps or practices stunts,” Twilight replied, slightly annoyed. “But at least she gets the job done so they tolerate it.”

For a while they both walked quietly through the town, until the houses began to clear and they stood in a wide open field to the north of the town. The field transitioned over into soft green hills and light forests further up north, where he could see a lone mountain far in the distance. Steve couldn’t make out any more cities between there and the mountain, only a train rail running through the landscape.

“That must be Rainbow Dash,” Twilight said and pointed up to the sky. The sky was clear blue except one small, low flying cloud at which Twilight was pointing.

“Where?”

She answered the question by shouting at the top her lungs, “RAINBOW DASH! WAKE UP!”

“ZZZ … Wha - huh? What’s up?” the cloud shouted back.

What?

“Come down here, Rainbow!”

Steve couldn’t understand the mutter coming from the cloud but a few seconds later Rainbow’s head peeked out from it.

Oh right, she said something about walking on clouds, he remembered and chuckled.

As soon as Rainbow Dash spotted who was calling out for her she let herself drop from the cloud and unfolded her wings at the last moment to stop her fall. “Hey guys. Whatcha doing here so early? I thought you were gonna show him around town,” she said to Twilight.

“Early? It is two in the afternoon already, Rainbow. Have you been sleeping since lunch?” Twilight asked in return and raised a brow.

“Maaaaybe,” Rainbow replied, grinning sheepishly. “Whatever. Twi told me to save a cloud for a little weather working demo. Sound interesting?” She turned towards Steve.

“Yes, definitely,” he replied immediately.

“Good. Sit back and enjoy.” Rainbow Dash smirked and shot back up into the air.

***

“So, what ya think?” Rainbow asked after finishing by vaporizing the cloud with a strong kick of her hind legs in mid-air. The last ten minutes she had spent showing Steve how to make the clouds rain, split them up and combine them back together, create thunder with them and she even formed a small hurricane with it by rapidly flying circles in close angles around it.

“That was amazing,” he replied, fascinated at this display of manipulation of the environment. “Oh, we could use something like this on Earth.”

“Do you just have the weather controlling itself or what?” she returned and he nodded. “Man, that really sucks. I mean we kinda have these problems here as well sometimes, since we’re so close to the Everfree Forest sometimes a few clouds from there fly over and they behave freely, but I can still clear them.” She shrugged.

“It’s not that bad. I wasn’t spending that much time outside anyways, so I didn’t mind bad weather,” he said and scratched the back of his head. “But being able to make the sun shine on a certain day would surely have helped a couple of times, or having snow during the winter. Speaking of which, can you make it snow too?”

“Sure, but I need special clouds for that. There is only so much you can do with a normal cloud, so we have to make a lot of them ourselves in the weather factories in Cloudsdale. We’re gonna order some with snow soon. You have to book them months in advance otherwise they can’t keep up with the production, and everypony wants snow during winter.”

“Wow that sounds amazing, I’d love to see how these factories work. How do they store the clouds? How do they prepare them and make them ready for travel? Or how…” he began but stopped at Rainbow’s adorable snicker.

“Heh heh, I was right! You’re the perfect study buddy for Twilight. I bet you stay up ‘til three in the morning too to catch up with some books you’re reading,” she laughed and let herself drop into the grass.

Steve just looked with a raised brow over to Twilight who rolled her eyes and snorted, “I believed you would have noticed how tight my schedule can get from time to time, and sleep is just the easiest part where I can cut some time.”

“Sleep is for the weak anyways,” Steve commented quietly.

Rainbow just waved her off with a hoof. “Yeah, yeah, whatever.”

“So… to answer your question. No, I was spending my nights a bit differently,” Steve said after a few seconds. He felt the need to say something as Twilight was glancing angrily at Rainbow who didn’t seem to notice.

“Like what?” Rainbow inquired, shooting him a sly grin.

That totally didn’t sound even the littlest bit strange. Nice play, brain! he scolded himself before trying to come up with a good answer. “Mostly hanging out on the internet or playing some games… also on the internet,” he replied with a shrug.

“What’s an internet?” Rainbow asked, and he could see the same question standing on Twilight’s face already as well.

Thoughtfully he stroke his chin for few moments. “That is hard to explain. Basically it is a giant network that is spun over our whole planet and you can interact with anyone else who is on there. Either talking with a friend who is far away, or discussing just about every topic there is with strangers who all have opinions to share and much more. It is easier if I could show you, but that’s not really possible here.”

“That sounds absolutely fascinating,” Twilight said and stared at him with wide open eyes.

“That’s far from all. You also have access to almost every book that has ever been written,” he added, sure that the unicorn would like to hear that. But instead of a reaction she just continued staring at him. “Uh, Twilight? You okay?” he asked after a few seconds and snapped his fingers in front of her face.

“Give her some time,” Rainbow waved it off and ruffled a hoof through her friend’s mane, but she just stayed motionless. “You’ve seen her like that before, she’ll be with us in a few moments.”

Still a bit worried he turned away from her. “I hope so.”

“Nah, don’t worry. She’s fine,” Rainbow waved it off again. “So, how did you like the town so far? Talked with anypony?” she asked out of curiosity.

“Yes, I did actually. It wasn’t much of a conversation but I exchanged a few sentences with some unicorn called Lyra. Do you know her?”

“Yeah,” Rainbow replied and scratched the back of her head as she looked away awkwardly. “A bit.”

“Anyways, when I walked through the town the ponies there didn’t seem to be afraid of me. I got a lot of stares, but that was about it,” he continued and Rainbow Dash nodded happily. “And the town itself was nice as well. Not much different from a smaller town on Earth.”

“Good to hear, and I… oh hey, Twilight.” She turned towards her friend again who seemed to have awoken from her trance.

The unicorn shook her head once before looking first at Rainbow Dash then at him and her cheeks turned red. “Sorry,” she said and grinned sheepishly. “I was just too overwhelmed by the thought of having every book always available.”

“Hehe, it’s fine really,” he returned. And a bit adorable too, he thought to himself. “I mean, if you are really interested in that I could show you a bit of my ship.” Now both ponies looked at him expectantly. He knew that he wasn’t allowed to just let aliens into the ship, for that he didn’t have the authority and the time he had spent here was way too short to make such a decision anyways, but on the other hand it would greatly increase his reputation with Twilight Sparkle. With her being such a close link to the ruler of the country it surely would pay off in the end to break the rules this one time. “Technically speaking I am not allowed to do that, but I just remembered that I promised you one of the audio recorders as a gift and I definitely wasn’t allowed to do that either.”

“Oh, I don’t want it if brings you any trouble,” she offered quickly.

“No, no, I think I’ll be better off if I just cut that part out of the recorded audio, and while I’m at it I could also delete all records of you visiting the ship. This then just has to stay our little secret, okay?” he asked and put on a sly grin.

“Of course,” Twilight immediately agreed and Rainbow Dash next to her nodded eagerly as well.

“Then that’s settled. I’ll give you a tour around my ship later today.”

“Really!?” Twilight exclaimed happily. “Oh that’s gonna be so great. You have to show me everything! I want to see that computer thing and what else you have stored there and…”

“Easy there Twi,” Rainbow interrupted her and giggled. “But I think it’s kinda cool to see this thing from the inside as well.”

“Heh, I’ll be happy to show you everything. It’ll be nice to have some company around. I mean, I’m not completely alone, Sarah is there with me but… well…”

“Who’s Sarah?” Twilight cut him off. “Is there another human here? I thought there you were the only one?”

“Oh, no. She isn’t a human, but the artificial intelligence of the ship… It will probably be easier to show than to explain,” he said at the looks of their confused faces.

Twilight opened her mouth again but closed it before asking another question. It seemed like she didn’t want to waste a single second, so instead she just asked, “Can we go there now?”

“I don’t know. Is there anything else interesting out here?”

“Nothing really important. To the east is the Whitetail Woods, with a swamp behind it. The path to the west will lead you to a small mountain chain. Rarity sometimes goes there to search for diamonds. Way back on the big mountain over there to the north is Canterlot which we will be visiting tomorrow. Beside that there’s nothing else to see here. Ready to go?” she replied quickly pointing out into different directions as she named each new landmark and now looked at him with a wide grin.

Patience isn’t one of her strengths. On the other hand I would’ve wanted to visit an alien’s house as well, he thought to himself and couldn’t resist a bemused chuckle. “Yes.”

Happy with his words, Twilight led a fast pace back to Ponyville. They arrived back at the town in no time, where the crowd appeared to be picking up. It seemed that most ponies had finished with their work today and wanted to catch the last few hours of the day as the sun was slowly descending.

A glance at his watch told Steve that it was shortly after three o’clock already. Time’s flying by. And I’ve barely eaten anything today, he thought, his inner monologue confirmed by his growling stomach.

“Can we stop by the market or anywhere else to buy food? I’m starving and I would prefer some real food?” he asked but realized that he didn’t have any of the local money to buy something. “Ugh, forget it. I don’t have any money to buy some. Speaking of which, what kind of currency do you use anyway?”

“Oh don’t worry about it, I’ve got it covered,” Twilight waved it off. “The princess is funding my studies here, so I’m not exactly short on bits. Also that’s the least I can do to repay you for the tour.”

She levitated a small bag from her saddlebag, opened it and let a gold coin fly into Steve’s hand. “That’s a bit, the currency we use for everything,” she explained as he studied the coin.

The coin had a sun on one side and a moon on the other. Must refer to their princesses or something. But it feels like solid gold, he thought while weighing the single coin in his hand. “Thank you for the offer, Twilight. I’ll gladly accept.”

“No problem. Let’s just hope the market is still open.”

Soon the market came in sight. Some stands were already closing down, but it looked like they came just in time to make some last minute purchases, and with almost no ponies around here anymore, they didn’t even have to stand in a line.

“Wait!” Twilight spoke up as they strolled around the place, looking at the available food. “You don’t know if you can eat most of the food here.”

“I’m not too worried about that. The tests showed nothing that was even close to being toxic, if anything everything so far was far healthier than anything I have in store, aside from the cupcake maybe, so I’ll just stick with the food that I know for now and I should be fine.”

“Well if you say so,” Twilight replied, not entirely convinced. “What would you like to buy?”

“Hmm,” he let out, wandering through the stands inspecting the food and thinking of any good meals he could cook without too much effort. Most of them required meat which he didn’t think he would get here. He noticed some eggs on another stand.

Hmm, these eggs look fine. Easy to make and usually taste good, although I’d usually eat them for breakfast. Ah, screw it, I can’t really think of anything else purely vegetarian to cook right now anyways. At least nothing that’s done without much effort.

“Okay I got an idea,” he turned towards Twilight and listed the items he needed.

“What are you cooking?” Rainbow wanted to know.

“Just some scrambled eggs, I know it’s nothing fancy, but I remember a good recipe and often heard that it tastes good and I can’t think of anything else right now. With enough ingredients I can make enough for all of us.”

“Sounds good to me. I’m a bit hungry as well, and I’d like to see if you humans cook differently than we do,” Twilight declared.

“Count me in too,” Rainbow Dash threw in.

***

A few minutes later they were out of town again, walking down the road to the south that would bring them to his ship.

“Hey, Rainbow, can I ask you a question?” Steve interrupted the silence that had fallen between them. Twilight looked far too excited at the moment for some small talk, and Rainbow Dash seemed to have found some amusement in her friend’s antics as she was hovering next to her.

“Yeah, sure. What’s up?”

“I was wondering how often do you practice your stunts, or flying in general.

“Uhm… about two or three hours a day. Sometimes a bit more, depending on how much stuff I have to do. Why?”

“Oh, that’s quite a lot. I was just asking, because the wing size of pegasi so far seems a bit small compared to their bodies. I was really surprised to see you flying at high speeds, especially with your little hurricane demonstration earlier. I know Twilight said something about pegasi magic supporting their flying abilities, but I still figured that this would take a lot of strength.”

“That impressed you already? That was nothing,” she boasted and waved it off with a hoof, though he thought he saw a faint tint of red around her cheeks. “The hurricane one is based off my very own trick, the Rainblow Dry. Perfect for drying things quickly. Even used it on Twilight once when I first met her, so it’s even safe to use on ponies.”

What? Rainblow? So did she blow Twil… okay, enough of that thought, he said to himself and had to resist a grin. “Uh huh,” he just said instead and nodded. “What other special things do you have in store?”

“Tons of stuff. I have to. I’m going to be a Wonderbolt someday and they don’t just let any pegasus in,” she exclaimed, sounding very excited this time.

“Who are the Wonderbolts?” he asked.

“Who are the Wonderbolts!?” she repeated in a mixture of surprise and confusion. “Oh yeah. Of course you don’t know them,” she added sheepishly as she remembered he only knew of Equestria what they already told him. “The Wonderbolts are not only the most amazing ponies in Equestria but also the best flying group that ever existed! And soon I’ll be one of them. Still got a lot of training to do though, but I already completed their basic training and impressed them with my moves, so yeah. Just have to wait ‘til a spot is free now and I’m sure I’ll be the first pony who will be offered to fill it!”

Rainbow’s excitement began to grow as a grin widened on her face and her eyes became distant, imagining herself being a Wonderbolt.

“Sounds pretty cool. So that is your life goal then?”

“Yes. And I know it’s gonna be so awesome!” she said, putting so much excitement in her voice at the last part that it began to pitch up a few notes.

“We’re here!” Twilight had awoken from her trance again and loudly declared their arrival. Steve looked around a bit confused. He hadn’t even noticed that they had left the road already and stood in front of his ship.

“Okay let’s get inside then,” Steve said, walking straight towards the ramp, the two ponies following closely behind him. The airlock was already opening and they stepped inside the small chamber. Not designed for being used by multiple persons at once, they stood pressed together a little bit in the chamber until the second door began to open.

“What’s this?” Twilight asked curiously.

“It’s called an airlock. Two airtight doors between rooms of different environments. It adapts the pressure or can be used for decontamination, but that’s not necessary here. It takes a bit of time to open, but it’s the only way in and out of the ship,” he explained as the second door was now finally open. “Welcome to my home,” he said as he stepped out of the airlock and motioned them both to step inside.

The two ponies quickly complied and of course took a look around at first. Admittedly it was quite a plain view. Besides the computer terminal with a few glowing screens it was just a grey and white hallway with a few doors here and there.

“Hello Steve. I see you brought some visitors.” Sarah’s voice resonated around them. “At this point I am obliged to remind you of paragraph twenty three in the aliens-interaction section of the mission protocol.”

“Woah! Who’s there?!” Rainbow yelled, surprised, searching for the source of the sound.

“Hey Sarah, I had a good day too,” Steve sighed and turned towards the ponies. “This is Sarah. She is an artificial intelligence, AI in short. She controls the ship and is able to communicate with me. She is some sort of machine or robot if you know what that is.”

The ponies nodded, seeming to understand the explanation.

“Good. Sarah, you can tell me more about my violation of the rules again later, for now I don’t really care. These are Rainbow Dash and Twilight Sparkle and I’m going to show them around. I don’t wish to be disturbed during this time,” he said in a sharper note than intended towards the AI.

“As you wish.”

“Did you manage to contact the Columbus yet?”

“I sent out the signal but so far I have received no response.”

“Okay, carry on.”

“Isn’t this a bit harsh?” Twilight asked, raising a brow.

“Nah not really. As I said, she is not alive. She doesn’t have any emotions or feelings I could hurt. She is a machine. Well, a very advanced one that is able to make decisions on her own but still has no emotions,” he replied with a shrug. “And from what I know of voice commands, it’s usually best to use as few words as possible, while stating exactly what you want. Just makes it easier for both of us.”

“Hmm, okay if you say so,” Twilight said, the questioning look on her face not quite disappearing. “So, are you going to show us around now?”

“Sure. Let’s start at the kitchen. You can place your bags there so you don’t have to carry them around all the time.”

A few seconds later they were inside the kitchen, Twilight putting down her saddle bags and he the results of their little shopping trip. Quickly he went over the kitchen’s inventory, but based on their reactions they must have had essentially the same equipment here, which lead to only a short duration of their stop here.

Next on the list stood the entertainment room. The concept of movies wasn’t completely new to them, but they were relying solely on cinemas for that at the moment and it was without sound, so a much smaller, and better version of that seemed interesting to them, especially Rainbow Dash. Briefly he tried to pass by the fact that it is also possible to play games with that, but that was maybe something for later in the tour, if they still had the time for it then.

Rainbow Dash followed slightly disappointed as they continued the tour and ended up in the bedroom. “That’s where I sleep,” he announced and waved with a hand over the room. The ponies were withholding their enthusiasm at the sight of the plain, yet messy room. I should have fixed the other beds, he just thought to himself as he took a look over the scattered blankets, mattresses and pillows.

“Looks quite… empty?” Twilight carefully said.

“Yeah, don’t you have pictures or anything here?” Rainbow Dash added.

“Unfortunately not.” He shook his head. “I wasn’t allowed many personal items to begin with, and all of them are now still in my cabin on the main ship.”

“Oh my, I’m sorry,” Twilight said, her ears flattening, regret in her eyes from Rainbow asking the question. “Do you miss them? It must have been a while since you’ve seen them.”

“Sometimes. It was quite hard at first, but as the travel went on I adapted to it, and made some new friends during the travel. I always liked to travel, but it was never for a really long time, so it was unusual for me and I felt homesick a lot at first. But as I said, I adapted,” he tried to say nonchalantly, though his voice hitched a bit.

“Why did you come here anyways?” Rainbow wanted to know. “I mean, why did you leave Earth?”

“There were a lot of reasons. The call for an adventure on one hand. Seeing things and going to places no human has ever seen before. To be the first one making contact with another species. We were celebrated like heroes before we left,” he smiled wistfully at the memory. “I can’t imagine how it will be like when we return from a successful mission. Then I had a massive fascination for space on the other hand. We had a lot of fiction about space and aliens and I dreamt more than once that it would be real. And then I got offered this chance. I left a lot of things behind for that, but I don’t regret the decision.”

“Well as long you are happy with it,” Twilight responded, although she still looked unhappy.

“It’s not like I’ll never return home or hear from them again. The mission was scheduled for around fifteen years, but now that we were so lucky to find a relatively close planet it will be much shorter. I’m only two years away from home. Admittedly that’s still quite some time, but I’m relatively young.”

“How old do humans get?” Twilight asked.

“That depends. With a healthy lifestyle, modern medicine and a bit of luck it is possible to reach up to a hundred years old.”

“That is about to same as ponies then. Earth ponies though usually get much older, thanks to their magically fortified bodies,” Twilight explained.

Steve nodded it off before he made a suggestion. “Shall we go look at the next room?”

“Yeah let’s go,” Rainbow agreed and followed him out of the door. “But why is everything so small here.”

“That’s a matter of perspective. Compared to what I was living in during the flight this here is pure luxury.”

“Really? Was it that bad?” Rainbow asked surprised.

“Spaceflight is very, very expensive. Space like this for everybody on board wouldn’t be possible. I, as well as most other members of the crew, had only a small cabin carved into the walls of very small rooms. We had to save space everywhere. I was very lucky to crash with this ship. Not only because it’s an autonomous system, but because it was supposed to host our highest ranked members and they were offered a bit more comfort than the rest of us on the ground. I mean they have a freaking kitchen and even a place to relax.”

“And how many humans were on your ship then?” Twilight now inquired.

“The total crew consisted of ninety two people, seventeen of which were awake during the travel.”

“Awake?” both ponies asked in unison.

“It would require a lot of room to store supplies for ninety two people for a fifteen year journey, most of which would have nothing important to do during the flight. So they were put into cryostasis. This means that their bodies were being frozen, so that they could sleep for the journey and wouldn’t require food for the time. It is relatively harmless, besides feeling weak and sick for the first couple of hours after waking up. I had to stay awake because they wanted at least one technician available, in case something breaks during the flight.”

“That’s so weird,” Rainbow pointed out and looked at him bewildered. “Freezing yourself so you can sleep for years.”

“Hehe, yes, a bit. But sometimes I envied them. Most of the travel was unbelievably boring,” he admitted. “Let’s go on then?” Rainbow nodded.

“You coming, Twi?” she asked and looked back at the purple unicorn that stood still in the hallway, a thoughtful look on her face.

“Uhh yeah, sorry. Zoned out a bit,” she replied and followed them down the hallway.

“These two over here are bathrooms,” he said and pointed at the two doors to his left. “Nothing spectacular to see there.” He moved on and pointed to the door to his right. “This is the Command Centre,” he announced and entered the room, the ponies following shortly after. “Here we would hold mission briefings and such things. Also one of the best places to eat your meal because we actually have chairs with a table here.”

“Looks pretty empty,” Rainbow noted as she looked around the bland room.

“Yes, it is,” he agreed and pointed towards the ceiling above the table. “But this little thing up there makes it a bit more interesting.” The ponies followed his arm. “That is a beamer. The lens on the side will let you project an image onto a wall, probably similar to how your cinema works, but the little lenses at the bottom are the more interesting parts. They allow you to create a hologram on the table.”

“Huh?” Rainbow made her confusion sound.

“I’ll show you. Sarah, can you give us a model of Earth here, please?” he ordered the AI. The ponies were watching in awe before them as the beamer turned on, and a few more lights on the table began to glow up. At first there were just a few flickering beams of light that travelled between them, but eventually there appeared a small projection of a planet. “That is Earth. This image is created via laser beams, showing you a three dimensional image of my homeworld. Neat, huh?” he announced and looked expectantly at the two ponies, especially Twilight.

“Wow,” Rainbow just muttered and took a few steps closer to the image.

Twilight needed a few more seconds before she could reply, “That is amazing! I can see it from every side!” Quickly she walked a circle around the table. “Oh, imagine the possibilities of what can be done with such visualization.”

Rainbow Dash reached out her hoof, but stopped herself shortly before she touched it and just threw a look at Steve. “Can I touch it?” she asked.

“Go ahead. The lasers are far too weak to do anything, as long as they don’t shine directly into your eyes.”

Eventually she put her hoof in and out of the hologram multiple times, watching fascinatedly as the picture got distorted by her touch and how it reassembled itself once she pulled her hoof out again.

“So this is Earth you say?” Twilight asked while watching Rainbow’s strange movements.

“Yes. This is based on various satellite images. As you might have figured it’s not possible to get a full view of a spherical object. Also the colour is not true. It only looks so bright blue because that’s the colour of the laser beams. While a lot of the planet is water, and therefore blue, it is a bit harder to make out the landmasses,” he explained and stepped over to the hologram, pointing at a small line, representing the split between land and water. Twilight took a step closer as well. “Just wait what you get to see next. Sarah, enable the interactive mode and screen the results on the whiteboard once I’m zoomed in. Thanks.”

“Acknowledged,” the AI replied.

“Now see some of humanity’s magic,” he said and shot Twilight a grin before moving his hands towards the hologram, performing a dragging motion with his fingers, causing the image to zoom in on a certain part. Now the actual beamer began to work and was showing a larger, and especially coloured image of the zoomed-in part.

“Is this a giant map?” Twilight asked surprised, her eyes switching between the hologram and the whiteboard.

“Correct, one of the best you can find. But let’s go a bit deeper,” he said and zoomed in closer.

Landscapes became visible, as well as city outlines, the larger ones were even named already, as well as roads running between them. Both ponies now watched silently in awe as he zoomed in a bit closer onto the largest town he could see in the image, until the view was close enough to even see the cars on the streets.

“This is one of our cities, seen from about a hundred metres above,” he proudly declared and pointed at the projection on the wall.

“Did you live there?” Rainbow Dash asked curiously as she was moving closer to the whiteboard to inspect the image.

“No, I don’t even know where exactly we are right now. I think somewhere in America,” he replied as he noticed the numbered roads and the overall grid design.

“And you are from a different country?” she inquired.

“Continent even. We divided our world into seven continents, with each containing multiple different countries. In total there are about two hundred different countries on our planet, and they all vary quite a lot in size and population,” he explained as he zoomed out again and circled around the large landmasses that made up the continents. His guess turned out to be correct as he landed somewhere in the east coast of the USA. “You told me of two countries where ponies are living, Equestria and the Crystal Empire. Are there more?”

“These are the main pony inhabited countries, but there are of course more. Zebraica in the far south for example, or the Griffon Kingdoms in the east.”

Zebraica? I really need to go out on a limb here to figure out which species lives there, he commented dryly. “I see. There is another neat tool this map has to offer,” he announced and turned back towards the hologram.

“And that is?” Twilight inquired.

Steve didn’t respond, instead zoomed in closer into the hologram until he had the same view as before, but then went one step deeper and the entire image began to change. Instead of a bird’s-eye view it now showed them standing in the middle of the road. “An all-around picture, one taken every couple of metres, letting you virtually walk through a city,” he eventually explained. “Want to give it a try?”

“Yes!” came her quick response and she stood beside him.

He gave her quick instructions for the basic commands to move around the map, as well as zooming in and out again. The latter proved especially difficult for her, as she needed both her forehooves in the air and somehow had to balance on her hind legs. Having to stand on a chair didn’t make the whole thing easier for her. Rainbow could barely hide her laughter and Steve was struggling with keeping a serious face at the sight of the staggering Twilight.

Eventually she got the idea of it however and was able to move between the images of the town.

“Good. You can just play around with that, I’m going to make something to eat in the meantime. But please don’t touch anything else while I’m gone, okay?” He got an acknowledging sound in response from the ponies that seemed to be too wrapped up in their little trip to form a real sentence.

A few moments later Steve stood back in the kitchen and went over the contents of the shopping bag and tried to remember the order of the recipe. Okay, eggs and butter into the pot, bread in the toaster… which I don’t have. Well, a pan will do. Add some tomatoes and mushrooms, he thought to himself quickly as he went about his work, careful to not accidentally burn anything. It was a simple meal, and as such was finished quickly, leaving him with three plates of scramble eggs, some toasted bread, mushrooms and tomatoes. Mhmm, just like I remember it from home, he thought and grinned contentedly as he smelled the meal. Hope they’ll like it.

With the three plates and a couple of knives and forks in his hands he made his way back into the Command Centre, only to find the two ponies fascinatedly moving around Earth. They had left the town and were now on some lonely road in the middle of a steppe. “Hey!” he called a bit louder to get their attention.

Rainbow Dash almost jumped out of the chair as she heard his voice and spun around. “Oh, hey, back already?”

“Sorry for scaring you,” he chuckled and entered the room, placing the plates on the table. “But you two seemed so focussed.

“I wasn’t scared,” Rainbow said and waved him off with a hoof. “Maybe Twilight here was, but not me.”

“Huh? What?” Twilight asked. Her eyes had been locked on the screen before here, but now that she heard her name she seemed to have snapped out of it. “Oh you made something to eat already? Didn’t even notice you were gone,” she added after seeing the plates.

“I figured,” he replied and looked at the plates. “And I thought this was a good time to make some dinner. I hope you are hungry.”

“As a horse!” Rainbow said earning her a small giggle from Twilight. “And it looks and smells pretty good to me,” she noted as she moved her muzzle a bit closer to her plate to sniff at it.

Why did I even bring any cutlery? They surely won’t use a fork, he asked himself, but much to his surprise Rainbow Dash didn’t start eating by digging her muzzle into the food, but leaned back into the chair, took a fork into her hoof and began to eat. Huh? How is that possible? A fork is tiny. How is she doing that?

“Yeah, tastes good,” she said after taking the first bite.

“Yes, I like it too,” Twilight agreed, who was levitating the fork with her magic.

“Thanks, but could you tell me how you hold your fork, Rainbow? I get it with Twilight’s magic, but hooves? I’ve seen that they were a bit more agile than they look, but holding a fork?”

“What you mean?” Rainbow looked at him confused. “I just pick them up like anything else.”

“But how? I mean you don’t have grip around them! They are supposed to simply fall out of your hooves!”

“Doesn’t look like falling to me,” Rainbow said and waved the fork in her hoof.

“Actually, he is right,” Twilight admitted, earning her a surprised look from Rainbow. “You remember that I told you that every pony has magic flowing through their body?” He nodded. “This magic is what gives us our grips. It is inherent and most ponies are not even aware that it actually is magic. It works similar to the magic of earth ponies and pegasi, therefore it doesn’t follow the same rules as magic. It doesn’t consume magical power for starters, but tires the body. Also it can’t be blocked or interrupted by any kind of shield or magic blocker.”

As Twilight was going on with her explanation, Steve occasionally glanced over at Rainbow, finding her curiously inspecting her hooves, but soon shrugged it off and returned to her meal.

A quick and quiet meal later, Steve leaned back in his chair, stretching his back. “Feels really good to finally get to eat some real food again,” he said and laid a hand on his stomach.

“What if not food were you eating during your travel then?” Twilight asked and raised a brow.

“Well, we of course had food, but it came in the form of preserved meals. Containing everything a human needs, except a good taste. But with them being relatively small and easy to store they are of course the number one choice of food for an expedition like ours. Hurray!” he exclaimed with as much faked enthusiasm as possible.

“Could I see them?” Twilight asked. “I’d like to see some food from your world.”

“Sure,” he agreed. “They are in the cargo room. We can continue our tour there.”

“Great, let’s go,” she declared eagerly and jumped out of the chair. Rainbow Dash followed her a tiny bit less enthusiastically, mumbling something about needing a rest after a meal. The cargo room was just the next door to their right, so only a couple of seconds later the group stood inside the room in which a large number of boxes were piled up in shelves. Quickly he went over to the boxes that contained the rations.

“Let’s see…,” he said more to himself than to them, as he went through one of the boxes. “Ah, here. Pasta with tomato sauce. Doesn’t contain any meat. You can try it if you want,” he told them and held a small, shiny box in front of them.

“Doesn’t it need to be cooked?” she asked.

“No, it’s precooked. Usually I’d heat it up to make it taste a bit better, but you’ll get the basic idea,” he explained and opened the cover. “Go ahead, try it,” he motivated the ponies.

With no cutlery, Twilight used her magic to cut out two bites from the box and levitated them in front of her and Rainbow’s faces. They looked at each other, shrugged and then took the bite. Judging by the looks on their faces they regretted that decision.

“Ugh, I think I prefer your cooking,” Rainbow said after she forced down her bite.

“Same here,” Twilight agreed with a sour expression on her face.

Steve could only chuckle. “That wasn’t even the worst, you should try the bread.”

“I think I’m good, thanks,” Twilight declined quickly and Rainbow nodded in agreement.

“I thought so. Well, back to our tour then. This is the cargo room. There isn’t much to see here really. Most boxes are filled with supplies, spare parts for repairs and some additional equipment like the audio recorder,” he explained and pointed around the room. “Speaking of which…” He reached inside one of the boxes and pulled out one of the recorders. “Here, I promised you this one.” He held it in front of Twilight’s face.

“Really? Oh thank you so much!” she cheered and beamed with joy.

“It’s fine, don’t mention it. I’ll keep it for now until we get back to your bags. It’ll probably be easier for me to carry it,” he offered and Twilight nodded quickly. “I’ll show you how to use it later too.”

“Thank you!” she cheered again. “But could you show me a bit more of what you have here?”

The next twenty minutes or so, he spent with pulling various gadgets from the boxes around them, presenting them to Twilight, who immediately inspected them from top to bottom. The last one, a Geiger counter, he nearly had to rip out of Twilight’s grip.

“I think that should be enough for now,” he said, much to Twilight’s disappointment. “Don’t worry, I’m sure you’ll get a second chance to inspect our equipment a bit closer, but I have to follow the rules at least a bit.” Twilight wanted to object first, but accepted the explanation and quietly followed him out of the cargo room again.

“What’s that?” she asked and pointed to her right.

“Our next stop. The heart of the ship and where the true magic lies,” he replied and put on a sly grin. “That is the board computer.”

Curiously Twilight approached the terminal. “So that’s how these computers you talked about look like.”

“They come in various forms, this is a less common one,” he explained and stepped next to her. “With that you can type things in-” he pointed at the keyboard “- and the computer will process your input. As a neat little extra it also recognizes voice commands, as you have noticed before when I was speaking with Sarah, though with her being an AI she can do a little bit more than just comprehend commands. But that’s a very new and rather experimental technology, so I have to admit that I’m rather unfamiliar working with her and don’t really know what she can or can’t do.”

“Anyways, on these monitors” - he pointed at the row of displays that covered the wall “- I can see the output. I think it’ll be best if I just show you.” He took the seat in front of the terminal and began navigating around the enormous database that the ship had stored. Having a rough idea of what Twilight might like he knew where to go. “Here, this you might like,” he announced and Twilight curiously looked up at him. “You can type in just about anything in here and it will show you a lengthy article about it. Like a large encyclopaedia.”

“Really?” Twilight asked surprised and looked back at the screen. “But where are all the books that it takes the information from?”

“There are no physical books here, they are all either stored electronically or magnetically. Both ways take up far, far less space than a physical book, but at the same time doesn’t directly let you see the data anymore. You have to use a computer like this to see them. I bet by now they’ve come up with something as large as my hand that could store a smaller library.”

“Oh! I need that!” Twilight immediately exclaimed. “That would be so perfect to organize. I’m running out of space so often that I always have to send a few books back when ordering new ones.”

“Sorry, Twilight, but I can’t really give you anything else but your recorder for now. Also it takes a while to store an entire book. Maybe sometime in the future.”

“It’s okay, I was just daydreaming a bit,” she replied, saddened.

“And what else can this thing do?” Rainbow Dash threw in, looking a bit bored by now.

“Well, this one is quite limited in functionality, but it controls the entire ship for example. If I was flying, I would be controlling everything from here. But I also might have a bit of knowledge here that you might find interesting.” Quickly he began to search the databases of the encyclopaedia for a flight show, and lucky as he was he found a very informative article, which even included a few videos. “As you have noticed, we humans don’t have wings like you, Rainbow, but that doesn’t limit us to the ground. And since I can’t show you this thing here flying, then maybe you’d like to see a few of our other machines do that,” he said and pressed the play button on the first video, showing a small segment of an air show where a group of jet planes were flying in formation and performing a few stunts like loops and others that Steve didn’t know.

“These things have wings, but they don’t even flap them to fly? Why not?” Rainbow Dash inquired after the video had finished. By the look on her face he seemed to have caught her interest now.

“The air, flowing around the wings at high speed, causes an upward trend, lifting the aircraft into the air. And they get their speed from powerful turbines.”

Thoughtfully she looked at him for a moment and then nodded. “I see. And they also look pretty cool but not very agile.”

“Well, the turning radii of our planes are quite high, especially at high speeds.”

“Oh yeah? How fast? I don’t think they are as fast as the Rainbow Dash!” she exclaimed and proudly puffed her chest. “Haven’t seen them perform a Sonic Rainboom.”

“Sonic Rainboom?” Steve asked, confused by the unknown expression.

“It’s when you go so fast the air builds a cone in front of you and then lets out a large explosion of rainbows shooting out in every direction. I’m the only pony who can do something like that,” she explained quickly.

“You’re telling me you can go supersonic? Is she serious?” He turned towards Twilight who nodded.

“Pretty cool, huh?” she smirked.

“Cool? I have never thought than this would be possible without the help of machines,” he said and stared at her with wide open eyes. There had to be a serious amount of magic involved in her flight, he needed to study that at one point.

“Mhm I think you have a wrong view of what’s possible here,” she said, shooting him a grin. “So your flight thingies can match me?”

“They do, the faster planes can go even twice that fast,” he told her, causing her grin to fade. “But no living thing on Earth comes even close to that speed.”

“Twi told me about the distance between planets or something and I should have guessed that you can go pretty fast too,” she mumbled and yawned loudly. Steve took the hint and looked at his clock, it was half past seven already. Still a couple of hours away from going to sleep, but it had been a long day nevertheless. “I don’t know about you, but I’m pretty tired,” Rainbow Dash said.

“You slept for half of the day. How can you be tired again?” Twilight asked and gave her friend an irritated look.

“Takes a lot of energy to be me,” she shrugged.

“Something like that,” Twilight muttered in response and rolled her eyes. “But I think we should be going then. We’ll be having a lot to do tomorrow as well.”

“What’s the plan for tomorrow?” Rainbow inquired.

“Oh right, I completely forgot to tell you,” Twilight answered and held a hoof against her face. “The princess wants to see us in Canterlot tomorrow. I’ll tell you the rest on the way.” Rainbow nodded before Twilight turned back towards Steve. “I will pick you up at nine o’clock tomorrow then, okay?”

“Sounds good to me,” Steve replied and lead the two ponies back to the door. As they passed the kitchen Twilight grabbed her saddlebags and he gave her a quick lesson on how to operate the audio recorder before placing it in her bag and bidding them goodbye as they headed back towards Ponyville.

With a sigh he turned around and marched back to the computer, searching for a way to delete today’s recording. “What are you trying to do there?” Sarah suddenly spoke up.

“Nothing!” he replied innocently.

“I have to inform you at this point that you are accessing data you are not allowed to…”

“Yeah, yeah. I know. You can teach me whatever you want tomorrow,” he cut her off and to his surprise she actually remained quiet. “Still no signal from the Columbus?” he asked.

“No,” came the quick reply

“Okay… carry on,” he ordered as he finally found today’s recordings and simply deleted them. There weren’t even any restrictions. I should report this! Anyone could just manipulate the data as they pleased. Not that I’m complaining right now, but still, he thought and got up from the chair, walking over the Command Centre to take a look out of the window.

The sun had set already, leaving him with a very limited view as his mind was puzzling about why he still had not reached the main ship yet. There had to be something wrong with them, but he didn’t even want to imagine what. He could only hope that they could fix whatever problem they were having soon. With a sigh he turned around, heading back towards his bedroom where a huge mess was still waiting to be cleaned up.

Chapter 5 - Revelation

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It was the heat of the moment
Telling me what your heart meant
Heat of the moment shone in your eyes!

“Rise and shine!” Sarah shouted, as cheerful as her robotic voice allowed her to.

“Huh?!” Steve yelped, confused. Startled by the sudden music he jumped out of bed looking around, searching for the source of the sound. “Sarah? What are you doing? Stop it!” he shouted towards the AI.

“I have read that humans prefer to wake up to music,” the AI replied and turned off the sound.

“Warn me before you do that,” he grumbled and rubbed the sleep out of his eyes. “And why this song?”

“According to the data I got by synching with the Columbus, this song ranks in your top hundred most played songs. Therefore you must like it.”

“It’s not bad, but top hundred? Why not take the top ten for that?”

“So that I have a greater selection for the future and can avoid repetitions.”

“Ugh, no more music to wake me up,” he ordered. “And don’t even wake me up, unless I tell you to or there’s something important. Anyways, what time is it?”

“8 AM,” Sarah answered.

“Well, then it wasn’t that bad you woke me up. I have some things planned for today.”

“Your calendar shows no entries for today. What are you going to do?”

“I’ll be on a trip to their capital. Don’t even think about telling me how the regulations don’t allow me to do so and that I should wait for the rest of the crew to arrive whatsoever. I got an invitation from their leader. I couldn’t say no,” he quickly said before she could interrupt him.

“Acknowledged. I’ll inform the Columbus, if I pick up their signal while you’re gone,” she replied. “How long shall I schedule your visit?”

“Hmm… Twilight didn’t tell me how long we’ll be staying there. I would say don’t expect me to be back until at least tomorrow.”

“Twilight?” the AI inquired.

“Yes, you met her yester…” he stopped as he remembered that the records of yesterday were deleted. “I mean, you know her from the audio logs of the first day,” he corrected himself. “But excuse me. I have to get ready.”

As Steve was going through his usual morning routine, he tried to remember his dreams from last night. Normally he couldn’t remember his dreams at all. This time was barely different. The only memories from last night’s dream were unclear images of a strange, unknown creature. It grew larger in a series of images that flashed through his mind, so he must have been approaching it, or it approached him.

The next shots were all of the creature from the same angle and some unclear noises were heard.

Did I talk to it? he asked himself, trying to filter words from the noises he could remember, but it was of no use. A few more images flashed in his mind but none were clear and could tell him who or what he had talked to. The creature remained blurry and unknown.

Stupid dreams. Always getting me interested but I just can’t remember anything useful from them, he thought, trying to clear his mind from the dream and focusing on the breakfast he was preparing right now. There were still eggs left from yesterday’s visit to the market, so he had scrambled eggs again.

In order to keep his mind busy with other thoughts, he gave the ship a final inspection before leaving. He had spent a long time last evening cleaning up every room, besides the second bathroom, until they were all fully usable again. At more than one point he thought about relaxing with a good movie or playing a game, but he didn’t want to postpone his duties more than needed and after completing all of his tasks, the exhaustion from the last two days had finally caught up with him, spurring him to an early and well deserved sleep.

A glance at his watch told him that Twilight would arrive any minute now, so he checked his appearance in the mirror one last time. As he had to represent his people in front of the leaders of this nation he wanted to make a perfect impression.

Hair washed, check. Teeth brushed, check. Ready to meet the leader of little ponies who wield magic and break the laws of physics… maybe?

To follow the protocol, he had even changed his suit to a diplomat’s outfit. It was of the same design as his regular clothes but in a light grey instead of dark blue. Satisfied with his look he left the ship.

“Bye Sarah! See you in a few days,” he shouted over his shoulder as he stepped down the ramp.

Twilight was just coming around the corner of the hill as he set his feet on the ground.

“Good morning, Twilight. Perfect timing,” he greeted the purple unicorn.

“Good morning to you too. You are ready to leave, I take it?” she greeted him back, looking at him from head to toe.

“Yes. Let’s go!” he exclaimed happily.

Twilight led a rather fast pace today, so they crossed the distance to Ponyville in a short time.

The town was already awake as they arrived. Various ponies were wandering through the streets, on their way to their jobs, breakfast or other destinations Steve didn’t know. Just like yesterday he got a few stares, but they were quick to move on with their business, and a while later the train station came into sight. The train was already waiting there. It was short, with only three wagons, pulled by a locomotive. The chimney on top of it indicating that it could be powered by coal or equivalent materials. Considering the small size of Ponyville and the overall small population of Equestria, he figured that a larger train would have just been a waste of space and resources. The few other ponies waiting at the station wouldn’t even fill one of the wagons.

“Look, the rest of my friends are coming,” Twilight said and pointed down the street. Sure enough, there were Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity and Pinkie walking, or bouncing, in Pinkie’s case, towards them. “Where’s Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked after a short exchange of greetings, looking around for the missing pegasus.

“Here!” a voice behind her head shouted.

Twilight yelped in surprise at the sudden, loud noise close to her, as did Fluttershy, who hid her face behind her mane as she let out a quiet, “Eeep!”

Rainbow, who had been hovering behind Twilight, now landed on the ground and began to laugh loudly. “You should have seen your face, Twilight!” the pegasus managed to splutter out between her laughs.

“Very funny Rainbow…” Twilight said, annoyed, rolling her eyes at the pegasus’s prank.

“I know, right? Hey guys,” she greeted the rest of the group as she finally was able to control her laughter.

“Good one, Dashie!” Pinkie Pie cheered, causing Rainbow to puff out more at the praise.

“How long did you wait to pull this off?” Steve asked her, shooting her a grin.

“Oh, not very long. I was about to get here when I saw the rest of you arriving, so I kept on waiting in the cloud there for a minute,” she replied, pointing towards a small cloud above her head.

Rarity cleared her throat. “Would you mind if we continue this conversation inside the train? The road is awfully muddy and I do not desire my coat to get dirty. I just groomed it for this special occasion.”

The group did as Rarity suggested and boarded the train, settling in the last wagon, which they had completely to themselves. They took two opposite booths of the eight available ones, allowing them to talk without the green stained glass, which separated the booths on each side of the wagon, cutting off their conversation.

Steve took a seat covered by a soft, beige cushion, at the window. Twilight and Rainbow followed him into the booth, while the other four ponies settled down in the opposite one. A look at the large windows promised a nice view of the countryside once they got going. So far they had only gotten a clear look at the now empty train station on one side and a small open place between the train and Ponyville on the other.

“So how'd’ ya like Ponyville so far?” Applejack asked him.

“It’s a nice little town you have here. I didn’t meet a lot of the ponies yet, but at least they no longer run away from me. That’s a start. And it’s really quiet here too. I like it,” he replied.

“It’s not that quiet here all the time,” Rainbow threw in.

“Hmm? What happens here?” he asked curiously.

“Oh, like an Ursa coming through, Cerberus paying a visit or the average disaster every month or so,” Rainbow answered casually.

“Most of the time it is just because we are that close to the Everfree Forest,” Twilight quickly added, a nervous tone in her voice.

“What is so dangerous about the forest? I know you said there are a lot of wild animals living in there, but so far I haven’t noticed anything.”

“It’s an area of wild magic. Strange things happen there, and even stranger creatures come from there. The clouds move on their own for example,” Twilight explained.

“Doesn’t sound strange to me,” he replied with a shrug.

“Oh right, it’s the same on Earth,” she remembered. “But here it is not natural. It is not supposed to work this way.”

“And why’s that?” he inquired.

“Discord’s final act before he could get defeated.”

“Discord?” He raised a brow at the strange sounding name.

“He is the God of Chaos,” Twilight began to explain. “During his reign, over 2000 years ago, he tyrannized everypony in Equestria. His magic was pure chaos itself, its power far beyond us. We were never able to comprehend it, therefore we could never counter it. The Everfree Forest is the biggest mark left from him. That’s where Princess Celestia and Luna finally defeated him using the Elements of Harmony. In the moment of his defeat he released a powerful magical blast, which tore up the entire forest. The princesses imprisoned him in stone, revealing their true destiny, and turning them into the first alicorns. From there on they ruled over Equestria in harmony… except for the Nightmare Moon incident.” Twilight let the words stand in the room for a while so Steve could think about them. “They even built a castle inside the forest to clear out the remains of Discord’s magic, but it was abandoned after Nightmare Moon’s banishment,” she added.

Some sort of magical fallout lasting over 2000 years? That must have been one hell of a fight, he thought and stared out of the window at the forest. The train had only just left the station, so they were still near it. Now that he thought about it, the forest did in fact look darker and more ominous than a normal forest should look like.

The ponies passed time by talking about various themes ranging from the newest gossip in town, where Rarity clearly led the conversation by throwing in one story after another, to minor things like the menu changes Pinkie had planned for Sugarcube Corner. Steve didn’t pay much attention to them; instead he stared out of the window, admiring the beautiful landscape as it flew past the fast moving train.

They had left Ponyville far behind them by now, and the railway led them through wide, open fields with soft hills and light forests here and there. They hadn’t passed a single town since their departure, the only indication that this land wasn’t pure nature was the train they were sitting in and the city on the mountain that grew closer and closer in the distance.

I really wonder what Canterlot looks like. The fact alone that it is on a mountain is…

His thoughts were cut off by a sting in his side. He looked to his right, to see that Rainbow had jabbed him with her hoof.

“Huh? What’s going on?” he asked.

“Ah, you are still with us. We tried talking to you for a while now but you didn’t hear us,” Rainbow smirked.

“Sorry, I zoned out a bit. The sight was quite fascinating,” he replied and awkwardly scratched the back of his head.

“Yeah, it’s quite cool, just wait until we’re in Canterlot. I’m sure you’ll like it.”

“I hope it will be nice.”

“Nice?!” Rarity repeated, incredulous. She seemed to follow their conversation after she heard the name Canterlot. “Nice doesn’t even begin to capture this marvellous city. The castle itself is the most astonishing building you could find in all of Equestria. And don’t get me started on…”

“Come on, Rares. Let him see it for himself, no need to hold a lecture about it,” Rainbow interrupted her.

“Oh very well then,” she pouted. “I can guarantee you, you will like it,” Rarity continued instead. “You will even get to meet the princess on your first visit. What an honour.”

“I’m looking forward to it, but now that you are talking about it, there is still a question that I’d like an answer to. Why is this country ruled by princesses? Shouldn’t there be a king or queen?” he asked.

“No, why should there be one?” Twilight countered.

“Where I’m from a prince or princess is the child of a king or queen, who rule over the country. That is, in the countries that still have a monarchy.”

“The Crystal Empire used to be ruled by a king, a terrible tyrant, but we never had one of those here in Equestria,” she explained.

But essentially the same thing, just under a different name then, he just thought and nodded it off. “And before the time of the princesses?” he asked after a few seconds.

“An elected council with members from all three pony tribes. They were also responsible for raising the sun and the moon, a task which no unicorn alone was powerful enough to do,” Twilight answered.

If these princesses are as powerful as she explains, they could easily turn this monarchy into a dictatorship. Who could do something against the two most powerful, immortal beings? he thought after Twilight’s explanation.

“You said you have some monarchies as well. What other kinds of political systems do you have?” Twilight asked after he remained silent for a while.

“Democracy of some sort mostly. Often with a complex voting system and in the end nothing really is the way you like it, but it works most of the time. I have to admit that I didn’t really care about politics most of the time, I spent the little free time I had, between my work and education, on funnier things.”

“Like parties?” Pinkie asked.

“No, I’m not much of a party type. The loud music, alcohol and flashing lights in the clubs made me tired and I’m a very unpleasant person when I’m tired. I prefer small get-togethers on special occasions,” he told her. “But I’m still looking forward to the party you want to arrange. It should be a great way to meet some ponies.”

“Great!” Pinkie cheered, happy at the last part of his speech. “I’m sure you’ll love it.”

I really wonder how these ponies party, he thought, imagining the awkward dance moves the ponies could perform with only their hooves. He had to suppress a smile at the images that flashed through his mind. Then again, he probably wasn’t any better

“How long will we be staying in Canterlot? I would really like to see more of the city,” he asked after a while.

“Princess Celestia didn’t really say, but I guess at least until tomorrow, maybe longer. She only wrote that she would like to talk to you in person,” Twilight explained. “There should be plenty of time for sightseeing after the official meeting, I suppose.”

“Great. I can’t wait to see more of the city.”

“Then look out of the window, silly,” Pinkie said and pointed to her right.

Steve turned towards the window and let out a small, “Wow.”

The train was slowly climbing the mountain where Canterlot was located and now, during a turn, they could get a clear view of the city. A mighty and impressive city, partially located on a giant platform, reaching almost a hundred metres out of the mountain, with large white towers topped with golden roofs reaching high in the air. Steve figured the buildings located on the platform to be the royal castle, as there were many more and higher towers than in the rest of the city, which was located on a plateau at the side of the mountain. Unfortunately he couldn’t observe the town further, as they took another turn, further climbing up the mountain.

“Mighty impressive from here,” he said.

“Just wait until we are there,” Rarity replied with a genuine smile on her lips. “It’ll be even better.”

With an expectant look, Steve stared out of the window waiting for another glance at the city, but the right angle never came. He only saw the passing terrain, mostly the side of the mountain. Soon they stopped ascending and reached a large plateau.

At first, his view was limited by the train so he couldn’t see the town. But the first sign of the city soon came in the form of two small guardhouses, flanking a bridge leading over a river, which they passed. The train reduced its speed, getting slower and slower; their arrival was only seconds away. The backs of buildings came in sight as they approached the train station, until they finally came to a halt, granting Steve his first look inside the city.

“Woah! What’s with all the guards?” Rainbow said and pointed out of the window.

On the station stood about a dozen unicorn, pegasus and earth pony guards. All of them wore a solid golden armour, covering large parts of their bodies. Their helmets covered their head, but a rather short nasal reached only to the base of her eyes. The neck protection reached down to the bottom of their neck, merging with the body armour, covering their entire backs, sides and flanks, aside from a small area around their shoulders so that a pegasus could still use its wings, but at the same time was quite narrow, so it left their entire throats and muzzles unprotected. At their chest a small emblem in the form of a blue star was embedded in the armour. Their legs weren’t covered in armour either, except for their hooves, where they wore some kind of horse shoe. At the top of their helmets stood a crest of the same colour as their tails, mostly blue or grey. They all held a spear in one of their hooves, looking at the train with a serious expression.

“So, uhh… are we going then?” Steve asked. The guards’ presence didn’t surprise him as he had expected some security measures, but the ponies looked rather irritated.

“I guess we should,” Twilight replied and was the first to step out of the train, followed by Steve and the rest of their friends.

As the guards saw them, a unicorn stallion quickly approached them. He was the only one wearing purple armour instead of gold, and the crest sticking out of his helmet was in different shades of blue. From the different colour and the fact that he approached them first, Steve figured him to be their leader.

“Twily!” the stallion shouted, his serious expression turning into a smile as he approached the group.

“Long time no see, BBBFF!” Twilight replied and stepped forward to hug the other unicorn.

BB… What now? Steve wondered.

“Why are there so many guards?” Twilight asked, looking slightly worriedly into the unicorn’s cerulean eyes.

“Order by Princess Celestia,” he replied shortly. “We are here to escort you directly to the palace.” He looked up and directly at Steve. “You are the human, correct?”

“Correct,” he replied. “My name is Steve, if you prefer.”

“Very well then… Steve. I’m Shining Armor, Captain of the Royal Guard. We will be escorting you through town,” Shining Armor explained. “Princess Celestia is already expecting you.”

“We shouldn’t let her wait. Lead the way.”

“Company, move out!” Shining Armor ordered the guards, who quickly formed a circle around Steve and the other ponies.

“You know him, I take it?” Steve asked Twilight and nodded towards Shining Armor, who was walking at the head of the formation.

Twilight nodded and replied, “Yes, he’s my brother. I didn’t expect him to be here. Most of the time he’s in the Crystal Empire.”

“Your brother?” he sounded surprised, but she just nodded. “But why shouldn’t he be here? He did say he was the Captain of the guard?”

“Lately it’s more of a ceremonial title, until they find him a replacement. He rules over the Crystal Empire together with his wife, Princess Cadence, so he has to spend most of his time there,” she explained.

“So let me get this straight. You are the personal student of the princess, while your brother is not only the Captain of the Royal Guard, but also the co-ruler of a country?” She nodded. “Wow, that’s mighty impressive.”

“Thanks,” Twilight replied, blushing a bit at the compliment.

Now that they finally were inside the city Steve could take a look around, though the guards were blocking a major part of his view, especially of the ponies wandering through the streets.

Did the princess order so many guards, so that the ponies here don’t get frightened of me? he asked himself.

He could only get a few glances at the ponies through the leaks in the guards’ formation. Mostly he saw unicorns staring at the procedure. In contrast to the ponies in Ponyville, most of them were wearing clothes; light dresses, covering their chests and backs, hats or other accessories. Overall the ponies seemed to be fancier here than in Ponyville, which was logical as Canterlot was their capital, and from the looks of it a very wealthy city.

The buildings were made of out of a clean white material, which he guessed to be marble, decorated with banners, having large windows framed by golden shutters, and with sculptures standing on several rooftops.

The hoofsteps of the armored guards echoed over the light green cobblestone roads, drawing a lot of attention from the ponies, but as much as he wasn’t able to see the outside, the ponies on the streets couldn’t look in.

The trek was short, thanks to the fast pace of the guards, and it took them only about ten minutes before they stood in front of the castle, which now looked even taller, as he was standing in front of it.

Two guards opened a large iron gate, granting them access to the castle courtyard, and a short walk later two more guards opened a gold-framed wooden double door, revealing the entrance hall of the castle. Half of the guards who accompanied them stayed behind at the entrance, taking position around the door. Inside the hall a red carpet was spread across a checkerboard-patterned floor of white and black marble, leading into various different rooms.

Shining Armor led them up the stairs across the entrance and through more corridors until they finally arrived at another gold-framed door, guarded by two unicorns. A small nod from Shining Armor towards the guards made them open the door with their magic, revealing the throne room behind it.

The room was long and tall, the sides covered by large windows letting in a good amount of sunlight, with stained glass art between them showing what Steve assumed to be the different events of Equestrian history. They continued their walk over the same red carpet as in the rest of the castle, but here the floor was of a clean white. However this wasn’t what caught Steve’s attention.

His view was focused on the large golden throne at the end of the room, elevated on the plateau it was standing on, or more importantly who stood in front of the throne.

Two large ponies with both wings and horns, larger than those of any other unicorn or pegasus he had seen so far, awaited them. The larger one, who was tall enough to be on the same eye level as Steve, if not a bit taller, had a bright white coat with a multi-coloured, translucent, flowing mane. A golden crown and necklace, both ornamented with a large amethyst gem, as well as a set of golden horseshoes, were the only things she wore.

So this must be Princess Celestia, Steve concluded. And that next to her should be Princess Luna.
His eyes fell on the other alicorn, who was a bit smaller than Celestia but still larger than any other pony he had met so far, even Big Mac. Her cobalt blue mane was flowing as well, but wasn’t multi-coloured aside from a slightly brighter stripe, running on the outside of her mane. Her coat was of a dark blue, darker than her mane but not as dark as her crown, necklace or horseshoes, which were close to pitch black. Instead of amethyst, her necklace had an image of a silver half-moon imprinted on it. Her cyan coloured eyes gazed at him expectantly, but she was calmly waiting beside her sister.

As they arrived before the two alicorns, Shining Armor bowed and announced, “We brought you the human as demanded, your highness.”

“Good work, Captain,” Celestia said to him in a calm, almost motherly sounding voice. “You and the rest of the guards can wait outside.”

He nodded and left the hall with the remaining guards.

Celestia turned towards Steve who bowed to her, seeing as this was a greeting towards royalty in this world too, according to Shining Armor’s action.

“Please, rise,” she softly said.

He did as she ordered him to and looked directly into her bright magenta eyes.

“So we finally meet. I have heard a lot about you, Steve, and the description of your looks were quite accurate, yet I’m still a little surprised,” she said. “But excuse me for not introducing myself. I am Princess Celestia, ruler of Equestria. But I’m sure you already knew that.”

“It’s a pleasure, your highness,” Steve replied, as politely and formally as he could.

“There’s no need for such formalities. We have some privacy in here,” she replied with a soft smile.

He nodded and said, “I see you already know who I am as well and probably why I’m here. For the time being I’m the representative of Earth and am honoured to bid you our regards.”

And this is the outcome of thinking the entire trip over here about what to say? he thought. That sounded stupid.

“I return the greeting,” she replied softly. “I’m quite informed about you; that is correct, Twilight Sparkle informed me of all her findings. I know you have been through this already, but I would like to ask you a few more questions myself, if you don’t mind.”

“Not at all. What would you like to know?”

The next half an hour he spent answering Princess Celestia’s question, which were almost completely identical to the ones Twilight already asked him, only a bit more focussed on him personally and not humans in general.

Her reaction was unknown to him the whole time, as she never changed her facial expression or let out sounds of surprise. She was simply staring at him and asking one question after another in the same calm voice, while wearing the same soft smile.

Quite a poker face she has,, he thought in between two questions.

“Thank you for your patience in answering those questions,” she said after he briefly described his career path. “And I only have one more… how exactly did you arrive in our world?” she asked.

“I don’t know for sure. After I got shot out into space, my shuttle took a strange route towards… I don’t really know what it was. It looked kind of like a small sun only without the massive heat, radiation and brightness. It could have been a magnetic storm of some sort. I collided with it, resulting in a major system failure, which knocked me unconscious, and caused my shuttle to crash. When I woke up I was here. I tried to contact the rest of the crew since I got here but they must still have problems, as they haven’t replied yet,” he said, worry colouring his explanation.

“I see. I think I have to explain something to you. First of all, I am sure you are wondering why I asked you the same questions Twilight and Luna have already asked you.”

Luna? he wondered.

“Uhm, Princess Celestia, maybe I just misunderstood you, but I’ve never spoken with Princess Luna before,” he told her, looking confused towards the other alicorn. Princess Luna’s face changed to a surprised expression as well, but not because of Celestia’s statement but because of Steve’s.

“Luna?” Celestia turned towards her sister. “You did talk to him, right?”

“Of course we did,” she replied and turned towards Steve. “Thou do remember our visit last night?”

What the heck is she talking about? Visit? Last night?

“Uhhm… I didn’t receive any visit last night. My ship doesn’t hold any records of it either. Maybe there’s some confusion?” he said, looking towards Twilight, hoping she could come up with an explanation, but she was just as confused as Steve.

“Don’t thou remember our visit to thy dream?” Luna asked, irritated.

“What?” he shouted. “My dream?”

“But of course,” Luna replied with a long nod. “We shared a long talk. We made our motives clear and thou agreed with no hesitations.”

She came into my dream?! he nearly shouted out his thought but managed to hold himself back, anger filling him.

“Can’t thee… you remember?” she asked again, her face changing to a worried expression.

“I… I…” he stammered, still processing the fact that the unknown creature he remembered talking to in his dream, wasn’t in fact a creature created by his own mind but Princess Luna. When he finally got a more or less clear mind he answered, “I usually don’t remember my dreams. I only have a few vague memories left and don’t remember who I was talking to, or about what.”

Both princesses exchanged some concerned glances until Luna spoke up again, “It appears to me that the dream of a human is different to that of a pony. This is something I have not noticed, as entering your dream was not different than entering the dream of any of our subjects. And you also showed full awareness of the situation. I made my motives clear, and you showed no concerns.” She stopped for a moment. “I deeply apologize for this action. It was not my intention to retrieve any kind of information from you, and now I doubt the honesty of your agreement, as you might have never believed me to be real.” Her face tilted towards the ground and her voice dropped as she added. “I can only promise you that nothing more than what has already been told here had been said.”

Steve’s mind was still racing, comprehending the fact that his dreams, probably his most private place, had been invaded and he didn’t even know about it. She could have gotten any information she wanted. I have no idea if I would have withheld anything. But still… it looks like this has gotten to her as much as me, he thought at the sight of the saddened Luna. Okay, I just have to play it nice. The rest of the crew’s going to kill me if I ruin the first meeting. But I’ll give her a piece of my mind about that again. Just stay calm now.

“I… uhm… I think… Well, I have no idea what to say about this, actually,” he said. “I believe you that you meant no harm with that. For the future though I would prefer to be contacted in my wakened state.”

“Yes, of course, we will refrain from talking with you in this way again. We are very sorry about that,” Luna once again apologized.

“I have to apologize as well,” Princess Celestia added. “It was our combined idea to contact you during your sleep. Not that we were not trusting of Twilight’s report, but everything sounded so intriguing that we had to see it ourselves. My sister’s ability seemed the perfect way to do that.”

“I understand,” he managed to grind out, though inside he was seething. “For safety reasons alone you would want as much information about me as you could get.”

“I appreciate your understanding,” she replied, the smile returning to her face again. “Now back to where we left off….the reason why I questioned you again.” She made a small pause before she continued talking, “I wanted to hear it myself, mainly because I wanted to hear the honesty in your words.”

“Honesty?” he asked, his anger momentarily displaced by confusion.

“Yes,” she answered. “From all what you told us it appears that you are driven by your curiosity and want to study this world, not harm it.”

“Of course,” he replied instantly.

“And now I know that too. It was important for me to get to know you first, you specifically, not humanity or any other human, so I can tell you the truth.”

“The truth?” he asked, his head beginning to pound at the cryptic answers the princess was giving him. A small glance behind him showed him that the other ponies had no idea what Celestia could mean either.

“It began two weeks ago. After months of research I could finally finish a new spell I was working on. Travelling through Equestria requires time and sometimes events from all over the country require my attention. In order to reduce the travel time I was working on a foresight spell. I figured the limited range of teleportation spells to be due to moving a physical object, but if I only let my vision travel I should counter this problem.

“The sight spell itself was easy and just required a bit of concentration, but it was awfully limited in range, not allowing me to travel much further than I already could. So I paired it with a teleportation spell. My plan was to create a portal through which I could let my magic flow. If I created one end of the portal here in the castle and another one where my attention was needed I could only let my sight travel through the portal, saving me a tremendous amount of energy, as teleporting a physical object over large distances is almost impossible.”

Celestia paused, her voice beginning to lower. “But the spell did not work out as planned. I could control the position of one portal, but not of the other one. It did not even end up on this world, but in the vast emptiness of space. I tried to reposition it, but was not able to find any planets I knew to orientate myself.”

Steve was still puzzling what she was on about, but just let her go on, hoping he would find out what she was talking about soon. “Instead of reworking the spell, so that I could better control the position of both portals, I decided to give further testing to the second part of the spell at first. It worked very well, somehow the vacuum in space or the amplification through the portal must have enhanced the spell, as I could travel extremely large distances with it.

“I began spending my time wandering through the universe, inspecting everything I could find, gathering information about things unknown to our kind, until ten days ago when I stumbled upon something that was more unknown than anything else before. I found… you.”

She made another small pause, glancing over at Steve who had just been staring at her with wide open eyes. “There in the infinite vastness of space I found a large flying object made out of metal. I began following it, first believing it was a meteor, but I found out it was not.”

“So it was you that I saw back then, or rather your portal, which also caused the sudden troubles on the ship?” he asked faintly, unable to believe what he was hearing.

“Unfortunately, yes,” she answered, regret lacing her voice. “I wasn’t aware of the fact that this spell was emitting such large amounts of magic and that it affected you in this way. At the time I did not even know if you had noticed me or not, so I kept following you. But then something unexpected did happen. Another of the spaceships as you call them, a much smaller one, came out of the large one, heading towards me. I pulled my sight back and tried to close the portal but this act requires time. When I was finally able to close it, you had already collided with it and had been pulled through.”

“Pulled through?” he asked, irritated by the last statement.

Princess Celestia let out a long sigh before answering, “I do not know why. I tried letting something else other than magic travel through it, but any solid material was just blocked off.”

“So where am I?” he asked, an anxious note in his voice.

Celestia didn’t look him directly in the eye as she explained, “You did not come out directly on the opposite site of the portal, for which I am grateful, or else you would have crashed inside my tower, but relatively close to the source. I immediately started researching the spells I used for this, trying to find out what happened, and keeping an eye out for your arrival.”

“And?” he inquired as Celestia made yet another pause. This wasn’t the answer he was waiting for.

“I was unable to find out why you travelled through, but I did find out something else. An explanation as to why I was unable to find any known planets. The portal opened a path, not to another point in our world, but to a parallel universe,” she finally finished her explanation.

“Come again?” he said, hoping he had just misheard the words uttered from her mouth.

“I am sorry… but you are not in your universe anymore.”

The words hit him like a hammer. His expression fell to a blank stare. He heard what she said but he couldn’t believe it.

You are not in your universe anymore, he repeated her last words. Not your universe …

The words echoed through his head over and over again, making him dizzy. The world began to spin in front of his eyes and he had trouble maintaining his balance. He fell onto his knees, his hands stabilizing him so that he wouldn’t fall completely on the ground.

The ponies immediately rushed towards him, trying to help him up again, but he waved them off.

“It’s okay… I feel fine,” he mumbled.

He saw the ponies’ mouths moving. They talked to him but he couldn’t hear them. All he could hear were the last words of the princess, echoing through his head.

Not your universe.

“Okay... maybe not,” he was able to say before he passed out on the floor.

Chapter 6 - Night and Day

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Steve groaned as he shifted around in the bed. He had just woken up, but still felt too tired to open his eyes, so he pulled the blanket over his head again to try to get more sleep, when he noticed that something was different. He wasn’t holding the thin cotton blanket he had used over the past two years, but instead a large, soft, silk sheet. He sat up on the mattress, which was so soft he thought he was sitting on a cloud, and looked around.

“Where the hell am I?” he groaned loudly, as if expecting an answer. A small lamp on the nightstand next to him emitted enough light to make out some chairs, desks and wardrobes in the room, but it was too dark to see anything more than their silhouettes. Silvery moonlight was shining in through a large door, leading to a balcony, granting him vision of various towers reaching up from the city below him.

Oh yeah, right… he remembered, as the memories from earlier this day came back to his mind.

He buried his face in his hands and let out another groan.

Argh. Everything was running so well and now this? Instead of making first contact I got kidnapped by some magical pony from another universe. Awesome development.

He lifted his face up from his hands and spotted a small letter next to a tray standing on the nightstand. Curious, he grabbed the letter and started reading.

Dear Steve,

I am deeply sorry about what has happened. Please believe me when I say that it was not my intention that things turned out as they did. Twilight and I are currently working on the portal spell, so we can send you back to your world. Unfortunately we do not know at this point, how long it will take, so you might have to stay in Equestria for a while.

After you passed out, we stationed you in a guest room of the castle, after running a basic medical check, with the little we know about human physiology, to make sure you are not hurt. I hope your room will provide you with an appropriate amount of comfort. I do not know when you will wake up again, but I thought you might be hungry. The tray is magically sealed to keep the food inside fresh. You can break the seal by simply opening the cover. If you need anything else, there are guards outside the door. They are not there to keep you locked inside, you are free to go anywhere you like, but I would like you to stay here at least until tomorrow. I will check up on you in the morning, hoping you will be awake by then.

With sincerest apologies,
Princess Celestia

He read the letter for a few more times before putting it away, anger and bitterness swirling around inside him, the perfect recipe for a headache.

I can’t believe how naive she is, that she honestly thinks that… Argh, I need some fresh air, he thought and looked over to the balcony. But she was right about one thing. I’m kinda hungry. His gaze fell on the tray and the sound of his growling stomach was supporting his thoughts. With only a light breakfast, the thoughts of a full stomach seemed more satisfying for the moment than thinking about his situation.

The cover of the tray was easy to lift up, releasing a faint hiss as the seal broke, revealing the sight of a large salad, as well as some drinks, underneath. There was no meat, but the large amount of nuts still made it a filling and very tasty meal.

After he finished eating, he grabbed one of the remaining drinks, sweet mango juice, and headed towards the balcony. Fresh air blew into his face as he stepped out of the door. It was very warm for being so late in the night. A quick glance at his watch told him it was almost 3 AM.

He leaned against the railing, letting his view roam over the sleeping city. The only ponies awake were a few guards patrolling through the alleys, the street lights reflecting on their golden armours were making them clearly visible from afar. When he was listening closely, he could even hear the sound of their armoured hoofsteps on the roads, the only sounds audible in the otherwise silent city.

Steve spent a while there, just watching the guards on their endless tours through the city, mindlessly sipping on the sweet juice in his hands from time to time. His mind drifted away, focusing on nothing, just watching the whole scenery of the city which lay in front of him.

“Good evening, Steve. It is a pleasure to see thou art awake,” a voice behind him said calmly.

Absorbed in thought, he had shut out most of his surroundings, so even the very calm voice startled him, causing him to turn around quickly to see who had sneaked up on him.

“What do you want?” he harshly replied, annoyed at the sight of Princess Luna standing in front of him. Now in the moonlight, she seemed larger, her coat darker and the stars in her mane were sparkling more.

“We saw thee standing out here, from our room and felt the desire to inform ourselves upon thy condition,” she answered in the same calm manner, either not noticing or ignoring the sharpness in his voice.

“So you were watching me again, huh? Is this even real right now?” he asked, pinching himself in the arm. “Okay, at least it’s not in my dreams again.”

“Pardon?” she replied, confused at his behaviour. “We are not sure we understand what thou mean.”

“What? You sneaked up on me in my dreams already, who knows if you wouldn’t do it again,” he shot back bitterly. The sour taste in his mouth returned as he recalled being told that she had invaded his mind when he was asleep, causing him to grimace.

“But we promised not to, thou said that thou believes us,” she hastily replied, involuntarily stepping back in shock, now seeming to understand his anger.

“Oh, you promised? I’m so terribly sorry to not believe everything you say after your sister kidnapped me!” he yelled the last parts towards the now petrified Luna.

“But… we…,” she stammered.

“And then, after you took me out of my world, your best idea was to go into my dreams, the most private place I have?! What is wrong with you!?” he continued his rant, flinging his hands wildly around, unable to stop himself in his rage.

“But thou said that thou understood…,” she tried to explain, her voice tiny, but he cut her off.

“Of course I did! Do you even comprehend what this meeting meant to humanity? This was the biggest discovery in our whole history and you think I would blow it because some crazy pony decides that my mind is apparently public? NO! I had to play nice, don’t you get it?!”

“But we did not mean to… We… I mean that I did not want to hurt you,” she tried to calm him down, struggling with her words now, her voice shaking with confusion, sadness and despair as she tried to make sense of the situation.

“But you did!” he yelled. “Maybe you had good intentions, maybe not, I don’t care. You screwed up. How in the world could you even think that this stupid plan was a good idea?”

“I don’t even want an answer,” he waved her off as she opened her mouth again. “What is wrong with you, that you think you can just sneak into my mind and then expect that I’ll be totally okay with it? Too much time on the moon? If this is what you do down here you should have stayed there! I’ve had enough of you. You crossed too many lines with that and don’t even realize where you’ve gone wrong. You’re pathetic and I don’t want to talk to you again. Get lost!”

Luna didn’t try to say another word, instead she looked to the ground and her face began to tremble.

Steve didn’t give her another look and turned around, looking over the city again, waiting for Luna to leave.

That should do it, he thought, hoping that she would leave him alone now. Now, he had to clear his mind again from the anger that came up during his rant. He sighed at the thought.

Thanks for that too, Luna, he thought bitterly.

He started watching over the city again, ignoring Luna behind him completely, until a soft sobbing cut through the silence of the night. He turned around to see the large alicorn lying on the ground, her face buried into her forehooves, her whole body shaking softly.

Crap, looks like I overdid it, he thought and couldn’t help but feeling a bit sad at the sight of Luna in front of him, the once powerful alicorn trembling as her wings tried to wrap themselves around her prone form.

He coughed slightly and said, “Look, maybe I was a bit harsh, but…”

“We will leave thou alone,” the princess interrupted him between her sobbing. She lifted herself off the ground, revealing her soaking wet face. A few tears fell to the ground as she unfolded her wings and flew off into the night sky, her sobbing still audible after she was gone.

Damn, I didn’t think she would cry, he thought, looking at the place where Luna laid on the ground a few seconds ago, now marked by a small wet spot from her tears. No, don’t! It was her fault! Don’t even start to feel bad about it. She knew what she was getting into by sneaking into other people’s minds, it’s not my fault she can’t handle the reaction.

With a sigh he turned around again. He didn’t want to think about it right now. He knew he was right about what he said, but it didn’t help him to not feel a bit bad about it. He had enough of the sight of the city right now and didn’t feel like standing anymore, so he just lay down on the rather cold and hard floor and watched the sky. It wasn’t until then that he noticed that it grew darker. The moon and stars looked more distant and they didn’t shine as much as before, their bright glow replaced by only a pale shimmer.

Is her mood affecting the sky? he wondered at the sight of the darker growing night.

He waved off the thought, trying to clear his mind once again, but not for long. Soon he heard noises from inside. Someone was in his room and he had an idea who it would be.

“Where are you?!” Celestia shouted angrily.

Well, that was rather quick, he dryly thought as he stood up and walked back inside the room.

The lights were lit now, granting him clear vision of the room for the first time. It was way larger than it looked after waking up. But he had no eye for the large wooden desks, wardrobes and other furniture that stood around in the perfectly clean room. Nor did he look at the other doors in the room and wonder where they might lead him. His gaze was fixated on the large, white alicorn in the middle on the room, who had just busted through the main door.

A few guards followed her through the door, but from their confused look on their faces, he figured they had no idea why Celestia was so angry now, or if they even had had seen her this way before.

Her nostrils billowed, her usually calm face changed to an angry expression and her wings were standing straight up, just to intimidate him.

“What have you done?” she shouted at him as she saw him approaching and took a step in his direction. The guards reacted immediately and rushed towards him.

“Halt!” she ordered the guards before they could reach him. “Leave us alone! This is just between us two.”

“As you wish, your Majesty,” one of the guards, a grey pegasus stallion, said and saluted, before he left the room together with the other guards, all sharing worried looks.

Celestia waited until the guards closed the door before she turned towards Steve and continued shouting, “What did you do to my sister?”

Steve tried to not show himself as intimidated by her. He stood in a straight upright position, not backing down a step. With a determined look on his face he looked directly into her eyes and replied, “I just told her what I thought about her ‘visit’ to my dreams.”

“What did you say to make her cry!? Twilight and I could barely understand anything between her sobbing! Nopony ever saw her like this! What did you say?” Celestia yelled and stomped forcefully on the ground with one hoof, letting the interior shake. Steve didn’t show any reaction to her outburst and continued looking into her eyes for the whole time, although his stomach clenched at the small show of power from the alicorn.

“I told her how pathetic she is to think she can just sneak into my head and think I’d be okay with that and that she should have stayed on the moon, if this is what she does down here,” he said, his voice growing louder.

Celestia’s jaws dropped, her eyes stood open. “You did not dare,” she whispered.

“Yes I did, someone had to say it,” he replied calmly with a little grin on his lips.

Celestia lifted herself up in the air, her eyes turning completely white and her whole body began to shine in a white aura.

Oh shit. She’s gonna smite me now, he panicked, but was too afraid to move right now, so he could only stand there and watch quietly.

“HOW DARE YOU SPEAK TO MY SISTER LIKE THAT!” Celestia shouted at the top of her lungs, her voice strong enough to create an airstream that pushed forcefully against Steve.

He needed a few seconds to recover before he could counter, “I will talk to her how I want to. And you blame me for being insensitive? Who was it that banished her in the first place? She’s your own sister and when she felt sad, because no one admired her work, you ignored her and let her become something you could only send to the moon,” he spat at her, fear and anger nipping at him, as Celestia seethed in front of him.

“DO NOT TALK ABOUT THINGS YOU DO NOT UNDERSTAND! THE THINGS HAPPENED…” Suddenly Celestia abruptly cut herself off and landed back on the ground, her appearance changed back to normal, except for the angry expression on her face.

“I should not let my anger speak here. You were not there, you do not know what happened back then, beside the stories you heard. Do not think you know better what had to be done back then,” she said, her voice turning down to a normal volume, though anger was still evident.

“So I can’t question you because you don’t want to justify yourself?” he replied sharply.

Celestia sighed, for the first time looking tired. “You can question what I have done but do not overextend my hospitality by assuming things you have no idea about. I can understand your anger but…”

“NO! You can’t understand it! You have absolutely no idea what you did to me!” he cut her off, his voice increasing in volume. “You played with things out of your league and it was just a matter of time until something happened and I have to suffer for the rest of my life because of that!”

“You know that I am working with Twilight on a way to send you back?” she inquired, confused at his outburst. “Did you not read the letter?”

“I did, but even if you find a way to send me back, I’m stranded here! My fuel supplies are completely depleted, so my ship is in no condition to fly. So if you open a portal in space it has to be directly next to the Columbus so that they can pick me up, given that you don’t just fry all the electronics by moving the portal close. So that’s not an option available for me. If you can’t link the portal directly to Earth so that I can simply walk through, there is no way that I will ever leave this planet again! Good luck finding a single planet in the universe! You better have it, because my life depends on it! My chances for ever returning home are almost zero and you didn’t even realize that?!”

Celestia remained silent, so he continued, “And even if you can send me back, you destroyed everything I was working for. I was working my ass off to get where I was, getting the honour to go down into history, for the biggest discovery in our whole existence and then you took this dream and crushed it, destroying everything! And that’s just what you’ve done to me! You ruined our whole mission and I have no idea what happened to the rest of the crew. Do you have any idea how deadly space can be if you have no control over your ship? They could all be dead because of you; you could have just killed ninety one humans and definitely trapped one of them here!” he screamed, causing Celestia to flinch.

“So don’t say you can understand me. I don’t want to hear it or any of your other bullshit. You have absolutely no idea what you have done to me, so don’t come here and tell me what I can talk about and what not. My patience is wearing thin as well,” he finished his rant. He moved closer towards Celestia from time to time in his speech and was happy to see that she backed off.

She still let his words sink into her, as she didn’t say a word yet and had a thoughtful look on her face, while Steve looked deep into her eyes, not moving a single muscle in his determined looking face.

“You are… right,” she finally said, her eyes closed and her head tilted towards the ground. “What I did was irresponsible, downright terrible, and I was unaware of how much trouble it caused. If I could do something, anything, to make it undone I would, but I can’t. I am truly sorry.”

“Yeah, I get that, you said it often enough, but it just doesn’t help me,” he replied in a much calmer voice than before. He was still angry at Celestia, and his voice had still a sharp note, but now that he could finally tell her he felt no desire to shout anymore. Also his throat was starting to hurt.

Celestia opened her eyes again to return his look, apparently relieved that he stopped shouting. "Unfortunately that is true. The only thing I can do to help you, besides working on the portal spell to grant you safe way home, is making your stay here as comfortable as possible,” she said.

“Nice start by sneaking into my mind after I got here,” he countered dryly.

“Once again, I am deeply sorry for that, my sister and I did not know that humans have a different level of awareness than us in a dream,” she apologized.

“And you couldn’t wait until you met me in person to ask me what you wanted to know?”

“In retrospect I should have waited. But I wanted to make sure Twilight’s descriptions were accurate and needed to know more about you, so I could predict your reaction to the truth,” she replied after thinking a few seconds about the question.

“And how accurate was your prediction?” he asked sarcastically.

“I think you know,” she replied and sighed. “Was it necessary to be this harsh? If not for the special position you are in right now I would have you arrested,” she continued, a sad tone in her voice.

“If you want to hear an apology, this is not the right time. Maybe I was overreacting a bit, but I won’t say anything about it for now. I need to clear my mind, the status quo has changed and I have a lot to think about now. So unless you want to talk about anything else, there’s the door. Goodbye,” he said and pointed towards the door.

Celestia opened her mouth again, wanting to say something but paused to think. “If you wish, I will leave you alone for now,” she then said after a few seconds. “But this is not over. I will come back to this. If you stay here I demand at least enough respect to not insult other ponies, especially not my sister.” Steve gave her a small nod as an answer, barely listening to what she said, as she headed towards the door. “I hope that you will clear your mind and will think better of us tomorrow. Goodnight,” she said as she opened the door with her magic and stepped outside.

Through the open door he could get a quick glance at the guards, which were standing at attention in front of the door, not showing any sign of emotion this time as Celestia walked past them.

“We’ll see about that,” he whispered to himself as he walked back towards the bed. With a long sigh he fell onto the bed and began staring at the perfectly white ceiling.

Damn, why is this happening to me? I don’t want to stay here forever!

Memories of Earth flashed through his mind. His last weeks back there, when he spent every free hour with his family or friends, promising them all he would return safe and sound and tell them all the stories about what he’d undergone. Seeing the sad looks on their faces, which they were trying to cover with cheers and smiles, again brought a tear to his eye. Saying goodbye to all the people that meant something to him was hard enough but he was always certain to return one day, but now he was unsure of that.

And now my only hope that I will see any of them again, or that they’ll even know what happened to me lies in the hands… err hooves of Celestia, he thought and felt a single tear running down his cheek. I’m screwed.

For the first time he felt completely lost and helpless, and above all else.... alone. The only human in this strange world.

Alone…

He let the word sound through his head and could no longer hold his tears back until he drifted into an uneasy dream.

Chapter 7 - The Day After

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*knock*

The knocking resounded through the room, dully echoing into the head of the human that lay on the bed, blankly staring at the ceiling.

Geez… who wants something from me at this hour, Steve wondered as he slowly shifted around in the bed trying to stand up. His muscled rebelled at the sudden movement after the long rest, sending small bolts of pain through his body.

It was still early in the morning, sunrise was only half an hour ago, but Steve was awake for a long while now. After the unpleasant conversation with Celestia last night he was unable to sleep for a longer time, each time he fell asleep he shot up form bed shortly after, his heart and mind racing and he needed time to calm himself down again.
He had finally given up, choosing to stare at the white ceiling above him until at some point he shifted his head to the side, watching the sunrise, something he hadn’t done for a long time.

Watching the play of light helped calm his mind but he was too awake by then to fall asleep again, so he resumed staring back at the ceiling, thinking, until the knocking has started.

“Come on in,” he shouted annoy at the door

The door opened and a stallion with a golden helmet struck his head through.
“Pardon me if I woke you up, Sir, but you have a visitor,” he said quickly.

“Who is it?” Steve asked, his mood tempered by curiosity about who would visit him this early

“Miss Twilight Sparkle,” the guard reported.

“Let her in,” Steve ordered, a sinking feeling forming in his stomach as he slowly stood up to greet her properly.

The guard nodded and opened the door completely, letting Twilight stepping inside, before he closed it again.

“Good morning Twilight,” he greeted her, trying to put on a smile, although he knew it was probably looking strained.
“What brings you here so early?” he asked, although he already knew the answer.

I swear if Celestia sent her first to check on my reaction this time…

“What happened last night?” she rushed at him, skipping a greeting and disrupting his thoughts. “Oh and hello to you too,” she added hastily, smiling sheepishly in embarrassment at her brief oversight in etiquette.

“Didn’t Celestia told you?” he asked confusedly, unable to imagine that Celestia would have kept this from her protégée.

“No she did not,” she replied, sounding almost as confused about it as he felt. “We were in the library last night when Princess Luna stumbled in, crying. We were finally able to calm her down and bring her to her chambers. We could not understand much between her sobbing, but as soon as your name fell Princess Celestia left to find you. When she returned she only told me you would need some time for yourself but did not told me what has happened, before sending me away,” she told him, the hurt at being spurned by her mentor leaking into her voice. “I suppose she wanted to be alone with her sister. I have never seen any of the princesses acting like that,” she finished, sadly shaking her head.

The room went quiet for a few moments, before Twilight repeated her question.
“So what did happen between you and Luna?” she inquired, her eyes focusing on him. “She was devastated after visiting you,” she added, an accusatory tone entering her voice.

“Do you have any idea princesses did to me?” Steve snapped at her angrily, feeling his suppressed emotions rising again, filling him with frustration and his voice with an unusual sharpness, causing Twilight to wince at this harsh tone. She stepped backwards, her ears flattening as she looked at him with a shocked expression before her gaze turned towards the ground. More barbed words were on the verge of his lips but were lost immediately at the sight of the trembling pony standing in front of him.

What the hell am I doing?” he thought immediately after the cutting words had left his mouth. It isn’t Twilight’s fault I’m in this mess.

Quietly he moved from where he had stood rooted, walking over to where Twilight stood, who also hadn’t moved after she stepped back. He slowly crouched down in front of her and laid a hand on her head, causing her to her to look up at him again, her tearful eyes increasing the guilt that had been boiling within his stomach after his outburst, leaving him feeling queasy with shame.

“I’m sorry,” he said, almost too quietly for Twilight to hear him. “I didn’t want to shout at you. I… It’s just… I just can’t wrap my head about never going back… home.”

“Wh-What do you mean?” Twilight asked shakily, still trembling at the harsh words he had thrown at her, but her curiosity overwhelmed the hurt she felt when he had snapped at her.

He moved himself in a more comfortable position and sat down, looking deep into Twilights violet eyes, filled with both confusion and worry before he sighed and recapped what had occurred between him and Celestia last night.

“… and that’s why I will have to stay here forever, whether I want to or not,” he finished his explanation hollowly. He couldn’t keep his eyes on her for the whole time. Looking into her tearful eyes only managed to raise his own sadness, so he kept his eyes peeled on the ceiling.
After his explanation he didn’t raised his view from the floor, so he didn’t noticed her scooting over towards him until he felt a pair of hooves wrapping around his torso and Twilights head pressed on his chest.

“Oh my, I… I am so sorry, I had no idea,” Twilight pressed out, her voice muffled. He couldn’t see her face now but felt a little wetness of tears through his suit.

“You don’t have to be, it’s not your fault,” he comforted her, wrapping his arms around her. With one hand he gently stroked through her mane, feeling her silky hair flowing through his fingers. He continued doing this for a few more minutes, enjoying the warmth of her body and the feeling of her soft coat under his hands.
Soon he felt her tears subside, which brought a faint smile to his face.

Twilight slowly broke the contact again, now with a smile and light blush on her face as she took a step backwards.

“Thank you,” he said quietly.

“For what?” she asked gently.

“For being there for me,” he replied, returning her smile. “It means a lot to me.”

“No problem,” she returned and blushed lightly again.

“So what about Luna?” she inquired after a few moments of silence

Steve waited for a few seconds, thinking about how to put his words, before answering, “When I woke up last night I needed some fresh air to clear my mind, so I went out on the balcony. Luna saw me and came over. Let’s just say I was not in the mood to see her,” he said grimly, a bitter undertone in his voice.
“I’ve had so little time to try and make sense of all that has happened to me and all this,” he pointed his hands around the room. “She was one of the last ponies I wanted to see at that moment. Maybe it’s normal here that she comes into one’s dream, for me it’s not!”

He put a lot of emphasis on the last part before continuing, guilt a replacing the anger in his voice, “I just wanted some time alone… I was so angry that I lashed out at her, resulting in things being said that hit her hard.”
He paused for a moment before continuing soberly, “After I noticed that she was… crying, it was too late for me to say anything else… she just flew away.”

“And what did you want to tell her?” Twilight inquired. Her voice was calm but he could still here a pinch of anger out of it.

“I don’t know, to be honest. On one hand I’ve been feeling bad for what I said… and yet anytime I think about her I still feel angry,” he replied, torn about the conflicting feeling raging within him.

Twilight remained silent, a thoughtful look on her face. Steve stayed silent as well, thinking about what to do next.

Their quiet contemplation was interrupted by a booming voice.
“Morning guys!” the voice called, causing both of them to look over to the balcony, the source of the sound, to see Rainbow Dash stepping inside.

“Err… You don’t mind if I come in, do you?” she asked awkwardly, raising an eyebrow at the scene before her, mainly how close together Twilight and Steve were to each other. On the floor. At her words and slight insinuation in them, Twilight blushed and moved a few steps away from Steve.

“Uh, no, of course not,” Steve replied, a little irritated to see her.
“Good morning, Rainbow. What are you doing here so early? And why didn’t you use the door?” he asked rather pointedly.

“Duh. I came in through a door, don’t you see,” she replied with a grin, either not catching or ignoring his tone of voice, pointing back to the door leading to the balcony, causing Steve to reluctantly chuckle. “Plus, I always get up at sunrise for my first flying session of the day,” she explained.

“Really?” Twilight asked, her voice filled with doubt and skepticism as she raised a brow. “I always see you sleeping until noon.”

“That’s just a quick nap after lunch, or before lunch, or after breakfast,” she replied and giggled. “Anyways, as a pegasus, and with me being on the weather team and all that, you tend to always wake up at sunrise. I thought you would know that, Twi. Didn’t your books told you that?” she teased her.

“I think I missed that part,” Twilight replied dryly. “And how come you are here now?”

“Just finished my morning exercise and saw you guys in here, so I dropped by,” Rainbow answered and stretched her wings a bit.

“Good to see you’re awake again. Feeling better again?” she added and shot Steve a smile while walking over to him.

So Twilight didn’t told anyone about what happened, he thought and looked over to Twilight and gave her a questioning look, to which she shook her head.

“Huh? What’s going on?” Rainbow asked confusedly as she noticed the silent communication between the two. “Something I should know about?”

“Well… it’s a bit complicated. What happened last night is…”

And so he explained to her the situation he found himself in and what had occurred between him and the princesses. This time, now telling the story for the second time, he was able to look his listener in the eyes while talking, seeing Rainbow’s emotion changing from surprise to worry to shock.

“… And that’s just what happened since I woke up again. Then Twilight got in here a few minutes before you and I told her the same,” he finished his story, letting his words sink into Rainbow, wisely leaving out the part where he had snapped at Twilight, not wanting to risk agitating the fiercely loyal pegasus.

“Wow dude. That sounds though. I’m so sorry,” Rainbow said after a few moments, hesitantly patting his back. “Would you like me to get the others here too? I think Pinkie could cheer you up in ten seconds flat,” Rainbow proposed, almost halfway to the door.

“No, it’s fine,” he said quickly in order to stop her. “Besides you and maybe some of the guards standing outside the door I don’t think anybody, or anypony, knows what happened between me and the princesses. Your friends will find it out sooner or later, but right now I wouldn’t like too many ponies to know that I yelled at your leaders and made one of them cry,” he explained, not having a good feeling that they would all react too well about this whole situation.

“Yeah, that was totally not cool!” Rainbow chided him, her sudden defence oh her princess catching him by surprise.

Just the reaction I was afraid of, he thought at her words.

“I didn’t plan to! How should I know that she is so sensitive? I thought after living for 2000 years she would know how to handle criticism,” he said warily

“Yeah, but that doesn’t give you the right to insult her,” she persisted, glaring at him.

“I know… it’s just that… I mean…” he stammered. “I… I just don’t know what to do. I had my life in order, always a plan ready on what to do next, but now? I’ve never planned that I would be trapped on another planet, not to mention another universe. What am I supposed to do here? This should have never happened, I shouldn’t be here. I want to go home,” he told them with a pleading look on his face while tears shot into his eyes.

Rainbow and Twilight exchanged worried looks while Steve wrapped his arms around his knees, pulling his legs close to his chests and resting his head on his knees while staring to the side.

"There, there,” Rainbow said, walked up to him and awkwardly wrapped her hooves around him, pulling him in for a hug. Her soft and warm fur caressed his face while he gently rested his head on her shoulder. He was no longer able to suppress his feelings and began to quietly sob, the anger, the fear, the frustration, the guilt and finally his tears pouring out while Rainbow gently pat his back with one of her hooves.

He enjoyed the comfort for a while longer before silently pulling back.

“Sorry, it has been a rough day,” he said while wiping the remaining tears out his eyes and looked back at Rainbow, feeling ashamed at crying in front of the mare.

“It’s alright, I shouldn’t have pushed you so much,” Rainbow replied and put a hoof on his shoulder while giving him a reassuring smile, a brief hint of remorse shining through. Behind Steve’s back, Twilight couldn’t help but snicker to herself, despite how somber the mood was, knowing how hesitant the pegasus was with acting all sappy, but stopped as she saw the glare Rainbow Dash was giving her.

“Thanks,” he replied, looking back into her bright magenta eyes. “It really helped a lot thinking about it, though there is still much I have to think about.”

“Do you need some time alone?” Rainbow offered and took a few steps back, giving him some space.

“No, some company would be nice right now. Any you are the two ponies I know the best here,” he replied quickly, a small, yet genuinely happy smile creeping on his face for the first time day, realizing that despite the way he had acted before, he did enjoy their company and was feeling a lot better with it.

Twilight coughed slightly, gaining their attention before saying, “I promise you, we will do everything we can to help you getting through this and are trying to reverse the spell, Steve. I was staying up all night studying it.”

Upon closer inspection, Steve saw the bags forming under her eyes, making him feel uncomfortable at the fact she has spent all her time on trying to help him. “You don’t have to push yourself for me like that, Twilight,” he said, rubbing the back of his neck self-consciously.

“I am doing it because I want to,” Twilight responded, lightly stomping her hoof on the ground for emphasis.

“Plus there’s no stopping her once she gets into on her egghead projects,” Rainbow smirked at Twilight.

“So… did you find out anything that could help sending me back home?” he asked, looking over to her with a small glance of hope in his eyes.

“Unfortunately not yet, I am sorry. The spell is complex using a combination of magic I have never seen before. I was unable to find out why it worked the way it did,” she told him sadly, causing him to sigh and avert his gaze to the floor.
Noticing how her words had crestfallen him, she quickly added, “But will get back to it right now. I will find a way!”

He turned his gaze up again, looking her in the eyes again before replying, “I hope so, I really do… but I have to stay realistic here. I’m certain that you are one of the most powerful and intelligent unicorns there are, but if even you have no idea what exactly happened my chances are dim, not to mention that you have to find a single planet in the whole universe. Finding a needle in a haystack is an easy task compared to this.”

A long sigh later he slowly stood up from the ground again, looking at the two ponies in front of him and said, “Enough negativity for now. I don’t want to spend my entire time here thinking about how I`ll probably never get home again.”

He took a deep breath and stand up straight, looking over at Twilight and Rainbow Dash. "I don’t know about you, but I think I could eat something now. All this thinking got me hungry and I haven’t exactly eaten much over the last few days,” he proposed, his seemingly enthusiastic tone surprising the ponies.

“Sounds great, I’m in!” Rainbow happily agreed. “Flying takes a lot of energy.”

“Well, I could need a bite or two as well, count me in,” Twilight said, her words supported by the sound of a growling stomach, causing Steve and Rainbow Dash to turn to her in amusement. “Late night studying always gets me hungry,” she giggled with a light blush.

“Do you need anything else from here?” she asked Steve, who shook his head. “Okay, then follow me, I can show you the way to the dining hall,” she continued and made her way towards the door again.

“I believe the others should already be there. They were slowly getting ready when I went flying and I told them not to wait for me,” Rainbow added and followed Twilight.

Steve trailed behind both ponies out the door, looking down the corridor his room was located in for the first time. He could not recognize any major differences to the ones he walked through yesterday; maybe there was a bit more decoration with pots of colorful flowers and various pictures on the wall. And of course how could he miss the two guards standing outside the door, who were glaring at him slightly, not doubt a consequence of his altercation with the Princess of the Night.
He had no time for further speculation as Twilight had already begun to move forwards, leading him and Rainbow through a various number of corridors and stairways.

“Hey Twilight, what is this?” he asked and pointed towards a significantly larger picture, compared to the rest which were garnishing the walls, showing three ponies, a regal unicorn in a purple dress on the left, an earth pony with a weird brown hat and plain, also brown, dress on the right and an armored pegasus in the middle, who had her wings wrapped around the other two.

“Which one?” she asked and stopped, looking at the picture he was pointing at. “Oh, this one has a very nice story behind it. It is about the founding of Equestria. Do you want to hear it?” she asked, an excited glance in her eyes.

“Sure,” he replied honestly. Although he wasn’t keen on remaining on this planet longer than he had to, his interest and curiosity in the local culture still held up. Also a history lesson would help to keep his mind distracted.

“Great,” Twilight cheered and clapped her hooves. “It all began over 2600 years ago. Times were grim back then. Instead of being lightened by friendship the hearts of the ponies were darkened by mistrust. The ponies were divided into three tribes…”

And so she told him the whole story about the tribe leaders` desperate search for a new country in order to feed their people, resulting in more than they could have hoped for, to when they merged the single tribes into one nation.

“And so each year this story is played in every town across all of Equestria,” she finished her explanation.

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed, who had listened to Twilights lecture with interest as well. “We even got to play it here in Canterlot once. It was so awesome. Of course, yours truly was the best Commander Hurricane ever,” Rainbow exclaimed, proudly puffing her chest.

“Sure, Rainbow” Twilight replied and rolled her eyes with a patronizing smile on her face, accustomed to the pegasus’ boastful nature.

“Indeed, it’s a very interesting story,” Steve said after a while, trying to digest all the information that Twilight had dispensed, even though some parts of her story he found rather improbably to imagine.

“If you liked this one there a plenty more,” Twilight quickly interrupted before he had gotten the chance of saying anything more, the same spark of excitement in her eyes as before.

“Right over here we have another interesting story,” she said and walked over to another picture on the wall. “This one is about the…,” she began but cut off by her once again rumbling stomach, a red tinge of embarrassment once again appearing on her muzzle.

“Let’s continue this after breakfast, okay? We should have plenty of time for a history lesson then,” Steve proposed, taking his eyes away from the picture and back to Twilight.

“Yes, good idea,” Twilight agreed with a giggle.

“Yeah, I’m starving,” Rainbow complained loudly.

“So, would you show me around town today? I’d like to learn more about ponies,” he asked Twilight, who by now had once again taken the lead, guiding them on the shortest way to the dining hall.

“Sure, I could do that, but…,” she said but stopped for a moment.

“What is it?” he inquired.

“Well, I planned on continuing my study about the spell. I cannot get you home if I do not keep working on it,” she continued, torn between her duties and the inner joy she would have in giving lectures to someone who was willing to listen for once.

“I don’t mind that. One day more or less doesn’t count much if this one day is well spent,” he replied honestly. “From what I saw so far your world is a pretty amazing place, I’m sure there is much to learn about it while I’m here.”

“Great,” she replied with an excited grin.

Finally they arrived at their location, a large wooden door with a golden doorframe, two guards standing in front of it. As they approached the door the guard on the left, a light grey unicorn stallion, opened the door with his magic, letting it shine in a pale green shimmer as his magical aura surrounded the door handles.

Steve watched in quiet wonder as the door silently swung open, allowing them to enter but they immediately stopped as they saw who was just leaving through the same door.

Chapter 8 - Canterlot

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Celestia and Luna, flanked by two Royal Guards, stood on the other side of the door, abruptly stopping as they caught sight of the human and his companions. Silently the two groups stood a few meters apart, frozen.

Twilight looked nervously between Steve and Celestia, unsure whether to say something or wait for one of them to start, not wanting to potentially interrupt her mentor. Meanwhile Steve’s gaze fell upon Luna, how looked terrible. Her eyes were bloodshot, her usual flowing mane hung motionless and flat against the side of her head. Peeking at him, she caught his stare, but quickly turned her head towards the ground to avoid his gaze.

Celestia coughed lightly and was the first to speak. “Good morning, how are you feeling today?” she asked, even though she seemed to speak steadily, he noticed a small trembling in her usually calm voice.

“Celestia,” he greeted her back, nodding his head slightly in her direction. “I do feel better than yesterday, thanks for asking,” he added, which visibly seemed to relieve her.

“However,” he added, holding up a hand so he could talk without interruption. “Don’t think I’ll just forget the harm your actions have cause me.” His words resulting in her slight smile fading away again. Taking a deep breath, he continued, “However, I can control my emotions a bit better now.” His eyes fell on Luna again who was still looking at the ground, shaking a bit.

“Luna,” he said calmly, hoping she would look up and meet his gaze, but to his disappointment she didn’t. With a little sigh he continued, “I know that I’m probably the last person you want to see or speak to right, so I’ll keep this short and please, just hear me out. What happened last night was… I don’t really know how to describe it. I was driven by my emotions. They took control of me and made me say things I didn’t mean to say, things I regret.”

Feeling the shame that had been his constant companion threatening to take over, he continued, although there was a noticeable hitch in his voice, “I overreacted and for that I would like to… apologize. If you want to hear it, you can visit me anytime. I promise I won’t yell at you again.”

Luna remained silent but managed to look him in the eyes again, her frame still rather shaky and defensive, but he did catch the small, almost imperceptible nod of assent directed at him.

Celestia inserted herself in the conversation, stating clearly, “I am very pleased to hear this, as is my sister.” She looked over to her little sister with a genuine smile and carefully put a wing around her, eliciting a faint smile from the lunar princess.

“Although I am saddened to see that your… opinion about me has not changed, I am relieved to see that you have at least forgiven my sister, and I hope you can forgive me for what has happened someday as well,” she added, her solemn eyes regarding him calmly.

“We’ll see about that,” he muttered to himself, before continuing in a louder voice. “For now I will make the best of the situation I can. Twilight has offered to show me around town today.”

“A wonderful plan, I wish you a pleasant day. If you excuse me, I have to return to my studies now,” she replied and left together with Luna, her wing still wrapped around her, the guards following some distance behind them.

Steve noticed the harsh look Twilight was giving him. She was obviously not amused of the way he talked with her mentor, but refrained from saying anything. Before he got to say anything to try and divert her anger however, his view got flushed with pink.

“HEYA!” Pinkie cheered as she pulled him into a bone crushing hug. He had to gasp for air as she finally pulled back released him, bouncing up and down in excitement.

Steve had been so focused on the princesses that he didn’t notice the other ponies in the room, who were now coming over to him.

“I’m sooooo happy to see you again. I’ll add a Recovery Party to the list of parties you’re going to get! It’s going to be so much fun!” she cheered in her usual joyful voice. Suddenly she stopped her bouncing, rushing up to him in a flash, jumping at him, causing him to catch her reflexively, before holding down his shoulders and pressed her face to his so that they ended up snout to use.

“But I almost forgot. How are you doing? Are you feeling better again? What happened to you?” she continued without catching a single breath since she started talking, her wide cerulean eyes peering deeply into his.

“Er… thanks for the concern, Pinkie. It’s a bit… complicated to explain what happened, but I’m feeling quite good right now,” he answered with a smile, bending down and released the fluffy bundle of pink, who resumed her constant bouncing.

“What happened there between you and the princesses, darling?” Rarity inquired, a questioning look on her face as she stepped closer. “We were unable to hear you, but there seemed to be a lot of tension and Princess Celestia told us very little except you were awake again. Would you mind telling us what is going on? Also there is this… thing… with Luna… not that I am trying to be nosy,” she said, fluttering her eyelashes at him while looking at him expectantly

“Fine,” he replied with a long sight. “You should all know what has happened. To keep it short, her careless action had cost me everything and I doubt that she will ever be able to fix it. Add that to the fact that she still hasn’t realized how much she destroyed my life means that I can’t simply forgive her,” he explained to them in a calm voice. After talking about it with Rainbow and Twilight previously, he could repeat his story without the feeling of anger and frustration emerging.

“But is Princess Celestia not working on a spell of some sort?” Rarity asked confusedly, taken aback by this information.

“I’m aware of this, we had that discussed already. I pointed out that the chances of success of the spell, if there even is one, would be low most likely cause more problems than it would solve. The universe is endlessly large, searching for my homeworld a hopeless endeavor. There is still a chance that it will work, but it’s too small for me to rely on, honestly. I have to stay realistic… chances that I will ever return home are almost non-existent” he replied, couldn’t help feeling a bit saddened at his words this time.

Surprisingly, it was the usually timid Fluttershy, who was the first one to respond from the group of shocked ponies who stared at him with open jaws.

“Oh my,” she said, her usually calm voice filled with sorrow. “That sounds awful. What are you going to do now?”

He looked into her cyan eyes, the direct gesture causing her to hide behind her mane, before he shrugged and answered, “I don’t really know, yet. Making the best I can out of it, I guess.”

“We’ll all be here to help ya out as much as we can,” Applejack said, the simple honesty in her statement represented by the smile on her face. “Equestria sure is a nice place to live in.”

“I don’t doubt that,” he replied, returning the smile. “You can’t believe how much you’re helping me but….”

He stopped for a few moment, staring into their expectant faces, before continuing, “I just can’t act like nothing happened. Everything I was working for is gone, all the people I ever knew… I’ll never see any of them again. My family and friends won’t even ever know what really happened to me.”

“Speaking of which,” Twilight spoke up. “I never asked what will happen in your universe now. Do you know what will happen there?”

He looked at her, she was standing by his side the whole time and now looked up at him with a curious glance, her anger at his disrespect towards her princesses distracted by her unquenched thirst for knowledge.

“I’m not sure. The magic of the portal messes up electronics but the Helios survived a direct contact without any long-term damage so I doubt anything too bad happened,” he explained.

“Once they are operational again they will scan the perimeter for the distress signal I send. Well… since I’m not there they won’t receive it and have to assume I crashed somewhere and died,” he continued, cringing a bit as he vocalized the unpleasant thought for the first time.

“There is a protocol they have to follow from this point but I never read it in detail. It will result in continuing the mission, if possible, and send a message back to Earth, accounting for my ‘death’,” he continued in an unsteady voice. “But I’m not even sure if they are going to tell anyone about it.”

“Why is that?” Twilight inquired.

“The amount of resources used to make this mission possible were too huge to allow rumors to spread about a possible failure,” he answered, straining to sound as nonchalant as possible.

Noticing the sympathetic looks the ponies were giving him, he tried to diminish their worries. “Maybe that’s not even that bad for me. I’m still alive so why should everybody think it’s not true. Who knows, maybe the spell will even work in time so I get home before anyone on Earth knows about what has happened. That would make one hell of I story I got to tell them,” he added and couldn’t resist to chuckle at his words, hoping that they at least would cheer up, even if he himself didn’t secretly believe it.

“Enough of this for now,” he said in a more serious tone. “I need to focus not on what happens there but here.” Straightening up he declared, “First of all I would love to eat something. I bet I’m not the only one who’s starving.” He chuckled again and shot a short glance over the Twilight who blushed lightly, before looking over to the table, filled with all sorts of delicious looking food.

They trotted back to the table and Steve, Twilight and Rainbow took a seat next to each other, the rest took the seats they already used and continued their meals. It seems they were almost finished, by the look of their almost empty plates but he still got to see the different styles of eating, which turned out to be very amusing.

Pinkie had a small pile of chocolate pancakes left on her plate, which she devoured by rolling out her tongue, grabbing one layer after another and sucked it into her mouth. The fact that her tongue size change dramatically during this procedure didn’t seem to bother any of the ponies but caused Steve to watch it a few more times, while trying to think of a logical explanation.

Logic is overrated here, I guess, he thought, before trying to dismiss what he had just seen. Once again, he was astonished by the pink pony who was able to put a smile on his face by doing the simplest tasks in such a random way.

Rarity on the other hand, or hoof, was more focused on showing her table manners. Gracefully, she sat down on her chair, grabbing knives and forks with her magic, letting them shine in a pale blue aura as her magic manifested around them, allowing her to elegantly cut what looked like the remains of an omelet.

From the numerous used dishes on Applejack’s plate he supposed that ponies, other than unicorns, were also able to wield knives and forks but lacked the precision magic provided, forcing to Applejack continued eating her apple pie with her bare hooves, oblivious to the glares Rarity was giving her, he noted with a hidden smile-

Fluttershy had carefully avoided this problem by eating a sandwich, which from afar looked like it had daisies in it.
Twilight, just like Rarity used her magic to fill up a bowl with milk and cereal and use a spoon. She didn’t even looked concentrated while she held all these different objects in her purple magical aura.

Rainbow however didn’t even bother trying and straightaway picked a cinnamon roll with her hooves and devoured it with gusto, occasionally licker her hoofs clean of the sweat remains sticking to them.

His grumbling stomach stopped him from spending more time watching them so he looked over the table, searching for something to eat for himself.
There were plenty of choices and he would have wanted to try all of them but ended up with a fruit salad, fascinatingly inspecting and tasting a large number of fruits, a lot of them unknown to him, hoping at each bite that they aren’t toxic to his human body or else his only hope would be pinned on Twilight’s magic arsenal containing first aid skills as well.

“So Twilight, where should we start today?” Steve asked while closely inspecting a small red berry he held between two fingers before putting it his mouth, causing him to cringe a bit its extremely sour taste.

“Huh?” Pinkie interrupted before Twilight had the chance to answer. “Where are you going?”

“Oh, I’m sorry, Twilight offered to show me around town today and I completely forgot to ask if you want to join,” he quickly replied. “Do you all want to come with us?” he asked the ponies around him.

“What a wonderful idea,” Rarity said who had already finished her meal, daintily using her napkin. “I would never miss out a chance of seeing anything of Canterlot. Count me in.”

The other ponies quickly agreed as well.

“So back to the question,” he said. “Where should we start?”

“Well,” Twilight replied, putting on a thoughtful look. “We could continue where we left off and I show you more of our history.”

“Good idea, but I would like to go outside,” he said, feeling a small pang of regret at the knowledge he would be missing out. “I’ve barely seen anything beside the inside of the castle walls.”

“Alright, let me think of something,” she said, stroking her chin with one of her forehooves while trying to come up with some ideas.

“Hey, I know of something,” Rainbow threw in, a sudden excitement in her voice. “The Wonderbolts are in town and are having a training at the arena. I’m pretty sure they would allow us to watch.”

“That sounds perfect. I must say that I find your flight mechanic very fascinating. I’d be happy to see these Wonderbolts,” he replied eagerly.

That show Rainbow gave me was awesome already, I wonder how good they can be then, he thought as he remembered the events of two days ago.

“Awesome!” she cheered, her face beamed with a wide grin, before her face suddenly dropped. “Oh damnit!” she yelled. “I completely forgot the time. It’s too late for the morning training and the next one shouldn’t be until this afternoon.”
“Sorry,” she added with an apologetic smile.

“That’s alright, we can go there later,” he replied, returning the smile. “I bet all of you have great ideas. Why doesn’t everybody, er… everypony, I really have to get used to this, just name a few things and then we decide what’s the best?” he proposed, earning him approving nods of the ponies.

Thus began an animated discussion, naming various different points of interest, all written down on a long list by Twilight, who also added a few points of her own. Steve used this time to finish his meal, barely listing to all the things they named.

“Okay, I think that should be enough for now,” Steve interrupted the flow of ideas with a loud clap of his hands a few moments after he had swallowed the last piece of fruit on his plate. “That should be more than enough for one day.”

“Well, now that ya talk of it. How long we’ll stay here anyways?” Applejack asked.

“I have no idea, I guess I have to ask Celestia about that. I don’t think she needs me to stay here for much longer,” he shrugged, shooting a glance to Twilight, hoping she could answer the question but she shrugged as well.

“I’ll get back to this. Let’s see what we have for today,” he continued and glanced over to the list Twilight had made. “The nearest would be…,” Twilight said and stopped, looking over the list as well. “The Royal Canterlot Garden.”

“That is if you would like to see it, we don’t have to because of me,” Fluttershy, who proposed this suggestion, threw in hurriedly, afraid he wouldn’t like her suggestion.

“I’m sure it’s a great idea,” he replied with a light smile aimed at Fluttershy.

“Everypony ready?” he asked around and was met by nodding ponies. “Great, let’s go then,” he cheered and got out of his chair.

They left the dining hall, following Twilight, who once again took the lead, through the castle’s corridors. Twilight refrained from stopping every few steps this time to explain the meaning of the cultural artifacts they passed by, so they found themselves leaving the marble walls of the castles and were now standing in the colorful gardens.

[/hr]

The garden was not entirely on the same platform the castle itself was located on. Despite the immense size of the platform it was still too small and could only handle a small part of the garden, which seemed to consist of what Steve thought could possibly be every plan Equestria had to offer. The larger part of the garden was located on the mountain plateau, filling up an enormous space behind the city, a huge maze taking in a considerable amount of it.

He hadn’t paid it that much attention, instead turning towards the huge variety of colorful flowers that were everywhere around him. He took in a deep breath, absorbing a mixture of all the scents in the air, which nearly overwhelmed him. Now after two years in space and the lack of fresh, natural air he noticed for the first time how much he was missing the scent of nature and was now enjoying every breath of it.

Plants were not the only thing to see as he slowly walked through the garden. There were also plenty of even more vibrant animals of all sorts flying, running or jumping freely between the trees, a lot of them equally colorful as the flora. Birds in red, green and blue sitting together on a tree branch, singing a soft melody, even a toucan sitting on the wall of a small fountain.
Curiously he approached the bird with the large green and red bill but as soon as he came to close to him he quickly took off into one of the trees.

“They are very shy,” Fluttershy said in an even softer voice than usual in order to avoid scaring the animals any more, interrupting the silence that had built up as they were all on their own inspecting different parts of the garden on their own. “They don’t even want to come near me,” she said, Steve detecting a small amount of hurt in her voice as she whispered the words.

“Still it’s very beautiful out here. I’ve never seen so many different flowers blooming in one place,” he whispered quietly as well.

“Most of the ground is enchanted, allowing everything to grow, even outside their habitat,” she explained and pointed towards a small spot of land.
“It’s extremely complicated to produce this kind of earth and the spells are different for every type of plants as well,” she softly continued as they both walked over to where she pointed at.

“This is a collection of plants from the Crystal Empire,” she said, pointing over a bunch of mostly clear white flowers. “That’s my favorite,” she added, pointing at a flower in the shape of a perfect ice crystal. The bloom itself was translucent, only colored in a faint, pale blue, allowing Steve to see the small veins running through the points of the crystal. “It’s called Crystalline Dream.”

“Wow, it’s amazing,” he agreed, moving his hand towards the flower.

“Don’t!” Fluttershy quickly intervened. “They are extremely sensitive.”

He stopped his hand in time and pulled it back, noticing a light chilliness in it.

“My hand feels cold. Is that the flower?” he asked curiously.

“Yes,” she answered, hiding behind her mane a bit after stopping him so suddenly. “Most of the flora of the Crystal Empire is emitting a frosty aura. They are fascinating, a wonderful combination between nature and magic.”

Wanting to see more of wonders the garden had to offer, Steve turned away from the crystal flowers after a few minutes, searching for something that would caught his eye. Aimlessly he wandered around until he found himself at the border of the platform. He leaned on the railing, staring down abyss. It was fascinating and frightening at the same time, staring down far over a kilometer down on the ground below.

“Fascinating isn’t it?” Twilight asked. Steve turned around from the railing, seeing Twilight standing next to him.

“Amazing. And it leads me to question I had for a while now. How was this city build?” he asked her curiously. “This platform alone would be an architectural masterpiece. How can it support so much weight while reaching out so far in the air?”

“Shortly after the founding of Equestria, by now 2632 years ago, the unicorns began the construction. Every piece of stone used was enchanted, increasing it stability drastically. The construction took several decades, though almost every unicorn at the time was there to help. But the result is amazing as you can see,” she explained, slipping into her lecturing mode, waving at the platform for emphasis. “The entire castle has not to be restored one single time and will probably last forever. After its completion the unicorns invited the other tribes to a party that was so popular it was repeated every year ever since. Now we call it the Grand Galloping Gala. I was there once and honestly can’t see why it is so popular, but it still is one of our most important events,” she explained, a hint of exasperation entering her voice.

“The leading architect even got his own sculpture placed here in the gardens,” she added and pointed towards the larger part of the garden on the mountain plateau. Right in front of the giant maze he was now able to see various stone sculptures of ponies in different poses, but he was too far away to make out any details.

“Can we go there?” he asked inquisitive.

“Sure, I’ll just tell the others real quick that we are going. Wait right here,” she answered, running off back into the garden.

Shortly after, she returned with the other ponies, leading them and Steve to the sculpture garden, taking a way along the border until the crossed a small stone stairway, connecting the platform with the mountain.

“Here we represent the most important ponies of our history,” Twilight said as they approached the garden.

“This one here is the architect I mentioned before,” Twilight said and pointed towards the sculpture of an unicorn with a very short horn and the picture of a blueprint on his flank. His partly closed eyes were fixated on the castle as though he could watch his finest piece of art he ever created, his muzzle forming a soft smile.

Twilight let loose a sheer endless flow of words down on them as they walked through the various sculptures, insisting on telling the heroic feats the ponies accomplished to gain their spot here.

Surprisingly there were also a few warriors represented, most of them from the time of Discords reign as they defended the helpless ponies from the gruesome creature he had gathered around to spread chaos throughout the land, but some were from more recent events. There seemed to be more than just one conflict with the Griffon Empire, he noted. It never escalated to a full scale war, mostly it stayed to small skirmishes without any casualties but they celebrated their commanders nevertheless, especially so for keeping the country away from any war.

If he interpreted the date shown on the sockets of the sculptures correctly, their last war dated back to the time of Nightmare Moon, where the Griffons thought Equestria was weakened, but failed quickly due to a heroic strike of the Captain of the Guard at that time, a pegasus stallion, capturing many high ranked enemy’s commanders in a well-planned ambush only three days after war was declared, resulting in an immediate end to the war, Twilight explained.

The statue showed him standing on his hind legs, holding the Equestrian flag, showing two alicorns circling around a sun and a moon, each corner crested with plenty of stars, each one represented by a small diamond, high in the air in his right forehoof.

He was portrayed in full armor, which seemed to be of the same design as those use by the guards he saw, including his weapon, a spear he held in his left hoof, pointing up into the sky as well. More fascination however were two strange objects, each attached to his wide spread out wings.

“What are these things?” he asked Twilight, pointing towards the objects, which look like a sort of hollow pipe strapped around the bone of his wings with many small stripes laying over the primary feathers and a short blade on top of it. The amount of detail was amazing, letting clearly distinguish between the strange armor and the wings.

Twilight looked over to where he pointed at and began carefully explaining, “These are Wingshields, or in this case their modified version, the Wingblade.”

“How do they work?” he asked quickly and made a small peak over to Twilight, only to see that he had interrupted her in in speech. “Sorry, go on.”

Twilight coughed slightly before continuing, “You must know, pegasi wings are extremely sensitive, a single strike could easily break them, making pegasi extremely vulnerable in close combat. There were different approaches to this problem and one of the solutions was the Wingshield. It is a piece of armor, designed to protect the critical parts of a pegasus’ wing. Each shield had to be individually crafted for each wearer, making them very expensive. The slightest misfit would dramatically decrease the flying ability.” Steve hang on to her every word, fascinated by the technology, although the rest of the ponies grew slightly bored.

“This was leading straight to the biggest problem they had to face. With the armor being light and flexible enough to not affect the flight and let the wearer still fold and unfold his wings, they still had to be strong enough to withstand direct hits without being deformed. Ponies are not very good miners and the griffons refused to trade their ores with us, so the armor smiths back in the days had to use regular materials which had to be enchanted by powerful unicorns to grant the shields the qualities they features they had to fulfill. This made them even more expansive, allowing only a few hoofful of pegasi to be equipped with them,” she explained, turning her back to the rest of the group while joining Steve in staring up at the sculpture, completely immersed in her lecture.

“Soon after their invention, the Captain of the Guard at that time saw also an offensive potential in them by attaching blades to them, leading to the creation of the Wingblade. Their construction was even more complicated. They had to withstand much more powerful impacts and still had to held their light weight and flexibility. The enchantments used had to be renewed by a powerful unicorn after half an hour of usage or they would have worn off, making the blade and shield completely useless. Still, most of the work came from the wearer itself. Mastering the art of the fight with the Wingblade required years of excessive training. Not even the enchantments could protect the wing if the cut came from a slightly wrong angle. In the hooves, or wings, of an experienced pegasus however they were an extremely powerful weapon. Only a few have ever mastered this art, though,” she finished her lecture.

Fascinating, but scary as hell. I doubt they flew supersonic in battle but being hit by an blade at a few hundred kilometers per hour… ouch! he shuddered at the thought.

“Jeez, Twilight,” Rainbow chuckled after Twilight had finished. “I never knew you were into this stuff.”

“My brother had to read a lot of books while he was in the guard academy and I looked into one or two as well,” Twilight shrugged. “One of them was focusing on the Wingblades, even though they are no longer used nowadays. Even the shields are rarely used as they were only worn in combat. Despite their light weight they were described as unpleasant to wear for a longer time.”

“I bet they would look pretty cool on me!” Rainbow said, her gaze switching between her, now unfolded, wings and the sculpture, imagining herself wearing a pair of wingblades.

Steve turned away from the group who were now laughing as Rainbow was posing in her imaginary armor and looked around the garden again until he noticed one sculpture that was not a pony, immediately turning towards Twilight, pointing towards the sculpture and asked, “Hey, who’s this?”

“That is a draconequus, Discord to be exactly,” Twilight replied after seeing what he was pointing on.

“The one imprisoned in stone?” he asked to make sure he remembered correctly.

“That’s right, but this is no longer really him if that is what you were going for,” Twilight answered quickly.

“He was petrified here for about 2000 years, but we could reform him recently. He is no longer a threat to us but I am not quite sure he will be an ally either if needed,” Twilight said, sparing a glance at Fluttershy. “So far he’s living in self-declared exile somewhere near Baltimare,” she explained. “As a reminder, the sculpture he originally represented in his real stone prison got duplicated and is now shown. He destroyed most of our historical records, things we can never replace again. We would never want our history to be forgotten, no matter how dark it was.”

Twilight sounded saddened but determined at the last part. The fact that knowledge has been lost, perhaps forever, seemed to upset her and Steve had no doubt should would do whatever she could to never let something like that happen again.

“How did you reform him?” he asked, trying to change the subject to something slightly more positive. “Turning a God of Chaos to the good side doesn’t sound like an easy task.”

“Credit goes to Fluttershy there,” Twilight grinned at her friend, who blushed and hid behind her mane at the compliment. “She did it all by herself. We were even more deconstructive than helpful and doubted it was possible. I can honestly say that it never felt so good to be wrong.”

“Really?” he inquired, surprised that the timid pegasus could pull something like that off. “How did you do this?”

“Oh, the plan was very simple. I just had to show him the value of a true friend,” Fluttershy told him softly, peeking out from under her mane again.

“Just like that?” he wondered. “You befriended a God of Chaos and that reformed him?” he asked, the skepticism in his voice obvious.

“It did. He never had a real friend before, losing the only one he ever had was something not even he could bear. Don’t we all just need a good friend?” she countered, her calm voice making the recollection sound perfectly logical.

“Uh… yeah, sure, but isn’t this a little bit too simple? I mean… well,” he stammered, thrown off by the simplicity of resolving their conflicts. “Maybe that’s just how things work here,” he tried to wave it off.

“How do you humans deal with it then?” Twilight asked curiously.

“Still wanting to learn about us, eh?” he replied to which Twilight quickly nodded.

“Alright then. So we don’t have gods or magic so it’s a little bit different but we have different level of security to protect countries and their population from different levels of threats,” he explained, trying to keep it in a matter-of-fact tone as much as possible.

Please don’t let her ask more, he hoped. Telling her all about wars and violence on Earth would put me in a very bad light after yelling at their princesses. I’m still surprised that she was so relaxed about it.

“Specific as always, I see. Usually I would want to go into it, but today is for you to learn about us. Plus we finally are at the statue of the most amazing unicorn to ever wander upon Equestria,” she gushed, pointing to the sculpture behind her, missing the relieved look that passed across his face.

The sculpture was showing an incredible old unicorn stallion. He had an extremely long beard, reaching down almost to the ground and a ridiculously large hat sitting on his gnarled face. Also he was wearing a kind of dress in the same style as his hat, a bunch of crescents and stars on them, its border decorated with numerous small bells.

“May I present, Starswirl the Bearded,” Twilight proudly announced. “Former leader of the unicorn tribe before the founding of Equestria, creator of the amniomorphic spell, and far over 200 other. His work was groundbreaking, deepening our understanding of magic in almost every way and…” Twilight stopped midsentence, giving him a rather sheepish smile.
“Let me start at the beginning, it will make things much clearer. His story begins 2849 years ago, when he was born…”

And so she started an almost endless flow of words, recapping every littlest detail of Starswirl’s life, obviously not always called ‘the Bearded’, that title came with a failed experiment in his early years that earned him his beard, he was never able to get rid of.

Steve’s curiosity let him follow the story for almost half an hour before he got overwhelmed by the amount of information Twilight was throwing at him. Most of the other ponies had stopped trying to focus for so long and were dozing in the grass for a while now, waiting for Twilight to finish so they could move on.

“For Pete’s sake, Twilight. We still have some other things to do for today,” Rainbow finally spoke up blearily, rubbing her sleepy eyes with her hooves.

“But I didn’t even get to the point where he graduated from school,” Twilight objected vehemently.

“I think I’ve gotten the point so far and we could move on,” Steve said gently, secretly agreeing with Rainbow Dash.

“Oh, okay…,” Twilight mumbled saddened, her ears tilting down.

“You can tell me more about him some other time, if you want to,” he offered.

“Yes!” she cheered, instantly smiling again. “We could use the whole train ride home, that should cover the basic information, and from there we could get really started.”

Not realizing what he had just offered he shot a pleading look over to Rainbow, hoping she could help him out. Spending plenty of hours listing to the extremely detailed life story of an unicorn, who lived over two millennia ago was not something he was looking forward to, but he didn’t want to withdraw his offer now, seeing how much it was cheering Twilight up.

Rainbow noticed his look but only smirked and supported Twilight by saying, “That’s an awesome idea! You should totally do that!”

Thanks Rainbow! he thought sarcastically, his pleading look changing to a glare, which only caused Rainbow Dash to laugh.

“Great,” Twilight cheered. “We would be done here then. Let me see where we are headed next.”

“Let’s see…,” Twilight thoughtfully said while she looked over the list she had pulled out of her saddlebags. “Close to here would be the guard academy. My brother could definitely give us a great tour around, which the others should also find quite interesting,” she said, wrinkling her nose at her friends, sleeping in the grass.

“Sounds good,” he agreed.

“Alright. Let’s go then. HEY, WAKE UP!” Rainbow shouted, awaking the other ponies. They slowly began to stir from their dreams, looking slightly ashamed they fell asleep during Twilights’ lecture.

“Sorry ‘bout that,” Applejack apologized. “Ah guess it’s a bit too early for ah history lesson.”

“Yeah, sorry,” Pinkie Pie yawned but was already at the peak of her energy again as she bounced over to them.
“Hey, Twi, isn’t that the weirdo clown you played at Nightmare Night?” Pinkie asked, twisting her neck around to look at Starswirl’s statue from different angles.

“Ugh,” Twilight groaned and rolled her eyes. “Let’s just move on. We are going to the Guards academy is next.”

“Great,” Pinkie chirped, ignoring Twilight’s muttering about the lack of respect to the legendary unicorn. The group slowly got moving, following Twilight back to the city again.

Rainbow began trotting next to Steve, still with a grin on her face.
“What was that for?” he wanted to know, frowning at her
.
“What do you mean?” she asked impishly, her grin widening even more.

“You know what I mean,” he replied a bit annoyed at her innocently pretending she wouldn’t know what he was talking about.

“It was a perfect assist and you were mean to Luna. I can’t let you get away with that easily, even if you had your reasons,” she said, poking him with a wing.

“Hmm… fair enough, I guess. I didn’t really thought my offer through,” he said more to himself than to her.

“Eeyup,” she agreed, imitating Big Macs voice as much as she could. “You can’t blame me for messing with you if you’re almost asking for it.”

“Aren’t you afraid I’m gonna snap at you too if you continue doing that?” he asked, raising a brow, trying to sound as serious as possible.

“Nah, I’m way too fast for you to get me. See ya,” she smirked, unfolding here wings to lift herself off the ground with one powerful blow and shot off into the sky.

These ponies are crazy, he thought while walking up to meet Twilight at the front of the group. At least most of them are the funny type of crazy.

“Excited to see more of the town?” Twilight asked as Steve walked alongside her. “We will have to go through a few streets to reach the academy.”

“Yes, I didn’t get much of a chance to see anything when we got here,” he answered.

“I’m sure you will love it,” she said.

The garden was close by to the city, so they reached the streets in only a few minutes, letting Steve see the town and its population clearly for the first time.

The small glances he got at the populace during his arrival turned out to be accurate. Almost every pony was wearing at least small pieces of clothing. The majority of them were unicorns wandering around in regal manner, their chins lifted high in the air. They seemed to care little about the presence of a strange creature, only stopping and looking for a few moments before began carrying on with their business, wrinkling their noses.

They must be used to strangers here. I shouldn’t be that surprised, consider this is their capital and the amount of different races in this world.

He was quite relieved to not cause a big fuss everywhere he was going. This gave him more time to admire the city’s beauty.

And the splendor was blatantly evident. From what he could see, the city was in an absolutely flawless shape. There were no signs of dirt on the streets, the marble, which he guessed most buildings were made built form, shone in the sunshine, free of any grime that would have diminished its natural magnificence. Now that his view was no longer being blocked by a group of guard ponies, he could clearly see all of the houses. Each one of them seemed to outclass its neighbor’s, resulting in a fascinating sight for everyone who wandered through the streets.

Their artisan craftwork was showing off in countless ways, reaching from the stained glass that he already saw plenty of in the castle, to more subtle things, like the elegant form of the seats and tables of the small restaurants beside the road, which all had plenty of customers right now as it was around noon.

Steve was so focused on the sights, that he would have ran into at least four ponies if not for Twilight and Rainbow, who came back from the sky shortly before they entered the city, warning him every so often if he was about to bump into anything.

“So here we are,” Twilight said and stopped walking.

“Huh? So fast?” Steve asked disappointed, screeching to a stop, wanting to see more of the city.

“Yes, I hope my brother is here to show us around. I have only been here for a few times and do not really know my way around,” she replied.

Steve’s gaze now fell on the large building they were standing in front of. It was surrounded by a large and lengthy stone wall. A few glances through the main entrance, they were now standing in front of, gave him a small preview of the Academy complex, which consisted of a large training ground right after the entrance, while he could glimpse a bunch of smaller buildings in the back, probably barracks. Two guards were standing at the entrance, watching the group of ponies and the human passively.

While Steve was still inspecting the building, Twilight approached the two stallions, guarding the entrance and after a few exchange of words one of them quickly left.

Twilight turned around to the group again and told them, “They are getting my brother. They need his approval to let us in as visitors.”

The wait was not long and soon the guard reappeared with Shining Armor accompanying him. He was wearing the same uniform as yesterday and had a bright smile on his face as he spotted Twilight.

“Twily! It’s great to see you again,” he greeted her and pulled her into a hug.

“Good to see you too, Shiny,” she greeted back. One of the guards snickered at the nickname, before abruptly cutting himself off as Shining Armor glared at him.

“So, what can I do for you?” he asked.

“We would like a little tour if possible. You remember Steve, right?” she asked and pointed towards Steve, to which Shining Armor nodded. “We are showing him around town and I thought since you are here and it is close to the palace, we would stop here.”

“Great idea, of course I’ll show you around! Unfortunately I don’t have that much time but it should cover the most important parts,” he said. “Celestia has found a possible successor for my position and wants me to attend the meeting later.”

“Let’s get started then, right?” Steve said eagerly.

“That’s the spirit. Follow me,” he said, turning around, signaling the two guards to let them pass.

“Man, this is going to be so much better than some boring history lesson,” Rainbow whispered to Steve, so that Twilight couldn’t hear it.

“History isn’t boring. You can learn a lot of it,” he argued.

Although it can be overwhelming at times, he added to himself.

“Yeah, yeah, I know, but still this is going to be better, I’m totally sure.”

Their first stop of the tour was right after the entrance where the training grounds were located.

The training was in full swing, showing several of stallions of all three kinds of ponies performing different exercises, from cardio over strength to combat practice.

“Why are there only stallions? Don’t you accept mares as recruits?” Steve wanted to know, as he noticed the lack of any females around.

“We sure do, if they would apply. We have two mares in training right now, that I know of, but it doesn’t seem like they are here right now,” he answered and looked around.

“For a long time mares were not allowed to become guards, but we changed that law a long time ago. Still the image stuck that all guards are stallions and we only get a handful of applications from mares every year and most of them drop out rather quickly unfortunately. We tried to make the guard duty more attractive to mares but it didn’t really help.”

“Anyways,” he continued. “Here you can see most of the basic physical training and where the recruits spend most of their time.”

He began wandering from station of station, each of them training the recruits a different lesson, while Shining Armor took a lot of time to explain the importance of each single one of them.

The training was strange and interesting to watch at the same time. Most of the exercises were much alike to human exercises and were showing the pony’s surprisingly high agility and extremely high endurance, especially from the earth ponies. The pegasi and unicorns had special training for their magic or flying ability, though these training units were not performed on these training grounds, Shining Amor explained them.

Finally they got to the last part of the training ground, namely the combat training.

“Here every recruit gets to learn how to use his weapon, though we almost never have to use them luckily,” Shining Armor explained as they walked to a station where, in a long line, ponies were swinging their wooden spears against training dummies.

“These are our newest recruits. We don’t let them fight against each other, even with training weapons the risk of an injury is too high.”

“Over here are the more advanced recruits,” he continued and walked over to the next station where a couple of ponies were standing in pairs, fighting against each other with their spears, always one in offense and one in defense, while several instructors were walking past them, telling them to change role or point out mistakes. Though they were lacking a solid grip with their hooves their blows seemed to be very powerful, judging from the loud sound of wood knocking on wood, causing Fluttershy to occasionally flinch.

“Are they only trained in spears?” Steve asked after they watched the training for a few more minutes.

“As melee weapon, yes, most of them. We also have swords but they are for ceremonial uses only, unless for some unicorns, whose magic is powerful enough to wield them with their magic. Takes an awful lot of training, simply for keeping the magical flow up for a longer time under pressure, not to mention effectively fight with the weapon,” he explained and picked up a spear from a nearby weapon rack with his magic, letting it floating in front of him.

“The result however is very effective, letting the unicorn attack from a safe distance and from many different directions in much higher speed than usually possible,” he continued explaining and performed a sequence of movements with his spear, where he let it swing against an imaginary opponent in high speed from lots of different directions. The spear was moving so fast at one point that it could only be recognized by the long blur it left behind.

Steve doubted that anyone would be able to block or dodge these attacks for a long time but judging from the intense glare of concentration on Shining Armor’s face it wasn’t easy for him either.

After a short while he let the spear flow back to the weapon rack, cutting his magical flow.
“It takes the recruit about five years to reach the level from when they are allowed to fight against a real opponent with this technique,” he explained a bit out of breath. “I was never really good at it,” he admitted. “I was more focused on shield spells.”

“Still does look very impressive,” Steve said.

“Impressive? Dude, that was awesome!” Rainbow cheered, elbowing Steve

“Yeah, did you see that spear? It went whoosh, then back up again then whooosh!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed, animatedly using her hooves to show how quickly the spear had been travelling.

“Ah know Pinkie, ah was right here,” Applejack said dryly.

“Maybe awesome does fit better,” Steve agreed.

“Hehe, thanks,” Shining Armor replied with a light smile. “But to come back to your question. We also use crossbows, mostly for the pegasi to give air support, if required,” he told him and started moving again, until they arrived at a small archery range.

A few ponies were standing on the range holding a strange crossbow. It was fixated on one of their legs with frame, letting them freely move while carrying it, the bow aiming down the direction of their hoof. They had to lift their entire leg to aim, which caused some of the recruits to struggle with their balance, but given their limited physical ability compared to a human, this seemed to an efficient way. Also it looked pretty cool.

“Why are you training so much if your country is so peaceful? From what I got so far there hasn’t been a war for almost a whole millennium,” he asked confusedly.

“Equestria is peaceful right that’s right but often thanks to quick reaction in the case of emergency. You could say we are being overly cautious but to maintain peace we gladly are. The changeling incident a few months ago reminded us once again how quickly things can change and we increased the number of guards since then,” Shining Armor told him.

“Changelings?” Steve wanted to know, not having heard of them before.

“Nasty little beasts who are able to shapeshift and drain your feelings to gain more power,” he explained with an angry expression on his face. Steve hesitated, wondering if he had struck a nerve.

His face lifted again when he continued, “Anyhow, also keep in mind that a guard’s duty is not limited to being a soldier in war. Most of our work is law enforcement and act as security on bigger events. Also a respectable time of the training is spent in classrooms to teach the new recruits theoretical knowledge. Each guard is a representative of the country and has to be well educated. Unfortunately lunch break starts in a few minutes and I have not very much time left, so I can’t show you a lecture. Maybe another time.”

“I don’t think we’ll be coming back here soon, there is still a lot on the to-do list, but thanks for the offer and of course the tour. It was very interesting,” Steve replied.

“You’re welcome. Mind if I ask a question as well?” Shining Armor asked.

“By all means, it’s the least I can do after we took up your time,” he replied.

“Just out of curiosity, do you have a royal guard where you come from?” Shining Armor asked, his question drawing Twilights interest as well.

“Not in this way. Each country has a police force and an army. They are both divided into plenty of smaller units each responsible for a different set of task but generally the police is for internal, the army for external security. The police would come closest to the royal guards, I guess,” Steve explained, shrugging his shoulders at the last part.

“And how do they operate? Maybe we could learn something from them. What kind of weapons and tactics they use?” Shining Armor continued asking curiously.

“I was never a member myself so I can’t tell you much about their tactics. As for the weapons, it would be easier to show you but I don’t have one with me. But I don’t think that they would work very well here,” Steve answered.

“Why’s that?” Shining Armor wanted to know.

“First of all the different physiology of ponies and humans would hinder you using a lot of them, secondly most of them are very dangerous if in the wrong hands or hooves. I would not want our war arsenal to spread out to this world,” he told him honestly, which only caused to concern Shining Armor.

“Are you at war on Earth?” Twilight asked before Shining Armor got to say something. Steve turned around to her, almost forgotten that the other ponies were still around as they had silently followed the tour so far.

“Always,” he answered after a moment of silence, causing her to raise a brow.

“What do you mean? You can’t possibly be always at war. Right?” she replied, confused and a bit frightened.

“Unfortunately yes, you can. Earth is quite large so it’s not always to same countries involved and some of them are smaller conflicts but I don’t think there was a single year in human history when there was not at least one war somewhere.”

The ponies were shocked at what he told them and took a while before being able to say something again. Twilight was the first to speak up, “That sounds horrible.”
The other ponies nodded their heads in agreement.

“I know,” Steve agreed with her as well. “It’s been part of our nature for so long can’t simply stop war. Wars can start easily. A leader turns into a dictator and refuses to go give up on his powers, a country wants another country’s resources or simply wants to increase its range of power. There are plenty of reasons which can lead to war and therefore death and destruction. It’s a horrible and large part of our history.”

Before any of the ponies could say something Steve added, “I’m not proud of most of the history but I won’t deny it either. I didn’t tell you all this before because I didn’t want your opinion about me to be affected by history. I’m not sure if this was the right time but you asked very specifically this time.”

Shining Armor was the first to break the silence that followed Steve’s statement. “Well, I appreciate your honesty for this but it still sounds worrying. Unfortunately I don’t have any time left to discuss this any further, Celestia awaits me and I’m a bit late already. Goodbye,” he said and turned around, walking quickly into the direction of the palace.

As the remaining ponies still remained silent Steve added, “What I told you made humans sound violent and aggressive, and to some point that’s true, but there is a large number of us who live our lives relatively peaceful, and there are a lot of countries where there haven’t been any wars for a very long time. I’m sorry that I didn’t tell you before and that it must be a shock for you to find out but I hope it doesn’t change what you think of me.”

“Sure, we won’t do that. Right, girls?” Applejack said and looked around the group. “It was just a mighty big thing to know, ya know?”

“Yes, of course we know better than that,” Rarity agreed, earning agreeing nods from Pinkie Pie and Fluttershy.

“Yeah, sorry ‘bout thinking this way for a moment. No hard feelings?” Rainbow asked, looking downcast for a moment, before pointing her hoof at him.

Unsure whether she was expecting a hoofshake or hoofbump, he stuck with the latter, bumping his fist into her hoof and said, “No hard feelings. Thanks for being so understanding.”

Twilight was the last to speak, still with a thoughtful look on her face, “Uh… yes, Applejack is right. It is just that I cannot imagine how something like this is possible. I mean we also had war and other problems here but not constant.”

“Don’t try to compare Earth and Equestria. They are two, somehow quite similar, but mostly very different worlds. What is possible here seems impossible there and vice versa,” he tried to explain it.

He saw that Twilight was not satisfied with the answer so he offered, “If we get back to my ship I can show you some history records. Maybe they can help you understand. But for now, let us not focus on war, okay?”

“Alright,” she agreed. “You don’t have to do that though, if you don’t want to.”

“It’s fine, really,” he assured her. “I know you want to know it and not telling you more about it would be the same as lying.”

“I appreciate the offer. Now that that’s out of the way let’s move on shall we?” she asked around. “Let’s see what’s next on the list…”

“Uh, how about lunch?” Pinkie proposed, rubbing her belly with one hoof. “All this quiet listening got me hungry again.”

The ponies quickly agreed and choose the location. ‘Joe’s Donuts’ it was. They left the training grounds which was now almost empty as the lunch hour for guards, as Shining Armor mentioned before, had started.

Back in the town they turned right and took a few side roads to avoid the large traffic on the main streets. It appeared that whole Canterlot was eating lunch right now, making the streets highly crowded and raising the noise level, making Steve wish he was back in Ponyville which was much quieter. The city life on Earth hadn’t bothered him much, but now after two years in the silence and emptiness of space he was sensitive to loud and crowded places.

In the rush nopony was paying any attention to him at all, as they slowly moved to their destination, a rather small building, compared to its surroundings, closely to the castle. Despite the rush hour it was not very crowded as they stepped inside through two large glass doors.

The inside was bathed in a light mint green, with a checkered pattern ground and several wooden tables standing around.
Joe’s Donut was clearly standing by its name, judging from extreme variety of donuts of each color and with each topping imaginable, all laying behind the counter.

After waiting in the line for a short duration, a unicorn stallion greeted them with a large smile on his face, “Twilight Sparkle, it’s been a while! A big welcome to you and your friends. Never got to really thank you for winning the Dessert Competition. What can I get for you? It’s on the house.”

“Hey, Joe. Thanks for that, it was a pleasure. I’ll take the chocolate filled one over there,” she said and pointed towards one specific donut.

Joe took the rest of the groups order, grabbing each of the donuts in his magical grip. “Here you go. Enjoy!” he enthused as he put a box of donuts on the counter and cut the magical flow from his horn.

The group took one of last free tables and quickly began to eat the sweet treats. Steve took a plain donut, as the ponies had another interpretation of the word ‘sweet’. It was still too sweet for his taste but delicious nevertheless.

They know a thing or two about baking here. First Pinkie and now this.

After taking in the last bite he said with a satisfied moan, “That was delicious.”

“Mhmm,” Pinkie Pie agreed, who had gulped down her donut in single bite.
“What’s next?” she asked eagerly, licking the loose crumbs around her mouth.

Twilight picked out the list again with her magic, trying to gulp down her bite so she could talk again, but Rainbow was quicker and threw in, “Why don’t we go to see the Wonderbolts at training now? They should start shortly!”

“Sounds like a good idea,” Steve said.

“Great, I’m sure you’ll like it,” Rainbow said, a wide smile on her face.

“Well, it is settled then,” Twilight, who was finally able to speak again, said.

A few moments later, the group was back out on the streets again, which were now much less crowded as most ponies had arrived at their location and were eating lunch now. This time Rainbow Dash was taking the lead, Pinkie Pie’s antics serving as an inexhaustible source of merriment as they trudged on.

Chapter 9 - Appeasement

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The arena which they were headed to was on the mountain side, a bit outside of the city, so their way was rather long this time, giving Steve once again the chance to admire the city.

After what felt to him like only a couple of minutes they left the town and wandered over a field towards a small arena on the side of the mountain. A tribune was located at the hillside; what amazed Steve was that the ground of the arena itself was made entirely out of clouds.

“Let me handle this,” Rainbow said to her friends and walked over to two guards, standing at the entrance to the tribune.

“Halt,” one of them, a brown unicorn with a silver mane, yelled as they got near enough. “This is not a public training. Only Wonderbolts permitted after this point.”

“Hey, don’t you know me? I’m Rainbow Dash, Wonderbolt trainee, winner of the Best Young Flier competition and someone who happens to know the Wonderbolts personally. Let me in,” she demanded.

“Only official Wonderbolt members allowed. Clear this area or…” the guard began but stopped as his gaze fell on the rest of the ponies.

“Twilight!” he greeted with a smile.

“Oh, uh, hello… Iron Shield?” Twilight said carefully.

“Great, you still remember me. Didn’t knew you were back in Canterlot. Are they with you?” he asked looking around the rest of the group.

“Yes,” she answered.

“Okay, you can go in. They should start in a few minutes now. You know the way, right?” he said and let them pass.

“Yes, thank you very much,” she replied, shooting him a smile as she stepped through the entrance, the rest of the group following her.

“Hey, how come he let you in but not me?” Rainbow demanded form Twilight, flying in front of her.

“He and my brother were good friends in the academy,” she shrugged.

“And just by that you get in here? Argh, whatever…,” Rainbow grumbled, flying out of Twilight’s way sulkily, so they could move on.

Her grumpy mood lightened instantly as they entered the arena on of the upper stands. After a few minutes of looking around, they took row of seats from where they had the best view on the small piece of ground, which was still empty.

“I know it’s just a training and not a real show but this is still gonna be so awesome!” Rainbow squealed in happiness, shifting around on her seat to get the best view.

Never thought that she could get so excited over something. Looks absolutely adorable to be honest. Let’s see if this is really going to be so great, Steve thought while watching the excited Rainbow Dash next to him.

They didn’t have to wait very long, as soon a group of five pegasi flew in from over the city, leaving a trail of thunderclouds behind them. Each of them wore a skin-tight blue suit, covering their whole bodies except wings, tails and manes, even their eyes were covered by googles. On their flanks where their cutie mark would be was a yellow lightning bolt.

The pegasus flying at the top of the group spotted them and quickly flew over to them with a few mighty flaps from her golden wings, letting her orange and ember colored main and tail flowing wildly as she landed in front of them.

“Well, well, if it isn’t Rainbow Dash,” the mare greeted Rainbow. “Came here to watch us training?”

“Yes, Ma’am,” Rainbow instantly replied, putting on a serious face expression while stiffening up.

“You can drop the title, we’re not at the Academy,” the other mare said with a smirk.

“Yes, Ma’am, er… Spitfire, I mean,” Rainbow corrected herself. “And yes, we came to watch the training, since we are in town.”

“We have some neat stuff planed today, including the finale for the real show. I hope we can pull it off this time,” Spitfire told her.

“I’m sure my friends and I are going to love it!” Rainbow cheered.

“Speaking of which… who are you? Never saw someone… or something like you before,” Spitfire addressed Steve, examined him from top to bottom.

“I’m a human, Steve’s the name,” he replied, feeling a bit uncomfortable at being scrutinized like that.

“Human, huh? Never heard that before,” she said, putting on a thoughtful expression. “Well, we appreciate fans of all kinds! Gotta go now, the others are already waiting. Hope you’ll enjoy it. Bye!” she replied and quickly shot off towards the rest of the team.

After Spitfire returned to the rest of the Wonderbolts they began with a few warm-ups. Rainbow used this time to give Steve a short summary about the life story of each and single one of them, starting with Spitfire as the captain. Steve tried to keep as much as information in his head as possible but the fast pace Rainbow was talking in wasn’t it making it easy to follow her. His only reprieve came when the activity below them began to pick up.

As the Wonderbolts finished their warm-up, they lifted up into the air, causing Rainbow to interrupt her lecture about Fleetfoot, a rather small, white-maned mare. They started by flying a few slow rounds clockwise around the small elliptical cloud patch, that served as ground of the arena. Each of them flew next to each other, all with the exact same wing beat rate, something Steve noted that Fleetfoot was struggling to do a bit for the first half lap, due to her small wing size.

Unhappy with the sloppy start, Spitfire yelled some commands Steve couldn’t understand from the distance, causing them to repeat the manoeuver for a few more times from the start until they got it right.

After performing it flawless multiple times in a row, Spitfire shouted another command, making them continue the performance. Spitfire who flew in the middle, as well as Fleetfoot and Soarin, if he remembered correctly from Rainbows description, on the outer sides made a sharp turn around midair, now flying circles counterclockwise, still on the same height as the two remaining members who continued flying clockwise. When they passed each other the rolled ninety degree to one side so their wings wouldn’t collide.

Rainbow explained breathlessly to be called a knife-edge pass, but she never saw it with more than two fliers before. Starting of slow again, they rapidly increased speed this time, no longer maintaining a synchronized wing beat, but still all in the exact same high speed.

A small glance over to Rainbow beside him showed him that she was having a hard time holding back her cheers to not disturb the training. Her eyes went wide in excitement as her idols shoot past each other in ever increasing swiftness.

For him the show was spectacular as well. He never was on a flight show on Earth, which he now regretted at the sight of the risky maneuvers, raising his adrenalin level simply by watching.

Not wanting to miss out on anything he turned his focus on the Wonderbolts again, who by now had finished this maneuver and were celebrating for pulling it off perfectly on the first try, but still repeated it a few times.

For the next repetitions he focused more on the individual flying style of each ponies, than the maneuver itself. Fleetfoot had to flap her wings way faster than the others to reach the same speed, making her look even faster than she already was, her wings blurring as they lashed against the wind furiously.

Soarin on the other hand, with his extremely large wingspan and overall large size compared to his teammates, flapped his wings in a much slower rate but with unmatched power, letting Steve see his well-developed muscles through his uniform, each time he flew by close to tribune.

Despite their different flying style they worked together perfectly, making even the most daring stunts and tricks possible. The training continued with more synchronized flying manoeuvers, and it was thrilling to see their different styles merging together into one, that all could manage to pull off.

“So what do you think so far?” Rainbow asked with a wide grin as the training was interrupted for a short break. “Do you like it?”

“No, I didn’t like it,” he replied bluntly, causing Rainbows smile to drop.

“What?! Why? How can…” she began but stopped as she noticed him laughing.

“I love it!” he cheered between his laughs.

“Ouch!” he yelped as Rainbow jabbed him in the side. “That hurts.”

“Then you shouldn’t have joked about it!” she replied, now also laughing.
“But I’m glad you like it. Have you seen how Spitfire angled her wings for the sharp turn and then she…”

And so Rainbow began recapitulate the entire show up to this point, with an enthusiasm he had never seen before.

Never thought that she out of all ponies could be such a fangirl. But damn… that really was amazing, no wonder she wanted to be here and especially since she could be one of them someday, he thought in a short break where Rainbow had to catch a breath.

Before she could continue her deluge of words the Wonderbolts had finished their break, lifting up in the sky again, instantly silencing Rainbow who was once again fascinatingly staring at her idols.

Now they began combining the single maneuvers they had trained before, starting off with the synchronized flying, followed by the knife-edge pass again.

Rainbow had explained him every move they made but it was too much information at once to now be able to identify each maneuver again, so he simply enjoyed watching the spins and turns performed in front of them.

Even though they performed the show without any repetitions this time it still took almost an hour before they got to their last move, one they now showed for the first time in this training.

They started flying in a close circle with rapidly increasing speed in an extremely close angle. Flying on the same position for a longer while caused the thunderclouds they left behind in their trails to combine to one large swirling cloud which began circling in increasing speed as well until it formed a small tornado. The thunderbolts shooting out of the tornado now and then didn’t make it any easier for them to maintain their speed and not letting the tornado fall apart to early but the result was breathtaking.

With one final command by Spitfire they slowed down the tornado until it fell off into a few loose thunderclouds. They made a quick turnaround to gain some distance from it, just to fly directly into the clouds together, triggering the release of the entire energy stored in the clouds, causing a massive lightning bolt, signalizing their grand finale.

Rainbow Dash was the first to break the silence following the thunder, by cheering loudly, instantly followed by Steve and the other ponies.

“So… what ya think?” an exhausted Spitfire asked, who flew over from the rest of the Wonderbolts, who looked equally beat lying on the clouds to recover. Spitfires soaking wet mane hung down her face, which was covered in countless droplets of sweat, her just as wet flight suit clinging to her body.

“That was awesome!” Rainbow was again the first to enthuse, quickly followed by the agreements of the others. “This was your best show I ever saw!”

“Thanks,” Spitfire replied with a smile. “But I think we overdid it today,” she added with a small glance towards the rest of her team. “Will ya be here for the real show next week?” she asked. “I could get you some good seats.”

“I’d love to but I think we’ll be leaving in a few days,” Rainbow replied regretfully.
“Okay, maybe next time, at least you know what you’ll be missing then. See ya,” she bid them goodbye with one final smirk before flying off to the rest of her team again, heading back to Canterlot with them.

The group decided to also head back towards Canterlot and left the, now unguarded arena, the descending sun showed them that they had spent the entire afternoon watching the training, time that seemed to be well spent for all of them as they loudly discussed the show on their way back to town.

Once in the town again, Twilight pulled the list out of her saddlebags again and asked around, “Any special whishes? Otherwise I’m gonna look up what’s nearest from here.”

“Actually, I think I had enough for today. Didn’t catch much sleep last night and it was a pretty long day already,” Steve said, yawning.

“Oh okay, then let’s head back to the castle. I could use some sleep as well,” Twilight agreed, mirroring his yawn loudly. Only now he remembered she was awake since they left Ponyville.

She looked pretty powerful for lacking so much sleep. Guess she really is used to it, as she told me.

Now in the evening the city was calmer again, the streets were almost empty as they made their way towards the palace. 5:45 was the time his watch showed him. Next rush hour must be ahead if they have the same working hours.

Thanks to the low traffic they got through the streets rather quickly this time, avoiding the evening rush, standing in front of the castle only a few minutes later, the guards already holding them the doors open.

“Who’s in for dinner? I’m starving!” Rainbow said, her words supported by an audible rumble of her stomach.

Steve and the rest of the ponies quickly agreed. With only a light lunch they all were pretty hungry as well, so Twilight once again took the part of guiding them to dining hall, which they found empty at this time.

“I will be right back,” Twilight told them and left through a small side door Steve hadn’t noticed before, only to be returning a minute later again.

“Okay, dinner is usually served a bit later, but the chef says he can make some of it a bit earlier for us,” she explained and sat down at the table.

“Great, what’s on the menu?” Steve asked as he took a seat next to her.

“I did not ask, but it smelled very good so far,” she replied.

A few minutes later his question got answered as three unicorns stepped in from the kitchen, carrying seven trays in their magical grip, setting them down softly in front of the excited ponies and lifted the cover. Underneath was a delicious looking, sizable serving of potato gratin. The smell of the herbs blew into his face and he was able to determine garlic and thyme, but there had to be many more inside.

It tasted even better than it looked, with an explosion of different tastes combined in the creamy consistence, all of them playing perfectly together, making it simply the best meal he had in years, though it wasn’t much of a competition. It came just in the right temperature as well to be eaten right away without having to worry to burn ones mouth, something that came in useful as he saw in what speed the ponies devoured their meals, all seeming to enjoy it as well.

Quickly after he finished the last bite, the three unicorns came in again, taking away the tray, replacing them with new ones, this time with the desert. Although being pretty full already, he couldn’t resist the charm of the vanilla ice-cream, gulping it down in a few bites, causing him a brain freeze.

“Doesn’t this hurt?” Rainbow asked as she looked over from her own desert, seeing him struggling with the freeze.

“Yes, but it’s worth it,” he garbled from between his gritted teeth. “Ice-cream… my biggest weakness,” he mumble before taking another large bite, eliciting a hiss as the cold ice touched his tongue.

Rainbow giggle at his performance and returned to her ice-cream again, Rarity shaking her head in disapproval at his eating habits, while Pinkie Pie saw it as a challenge, beginning to swallow hers frantically.

“Absolutely amazing,” he exclaimed as the unicorns reappeared to take away their empty trays again.

“Mhmm,” Twilight agreed with a moan. “The chef is a master. It was always a pleasure when I practically lived in the castle during my studies and got to eat here every day.”

“I think I’ll be going to my room now and digest this delicious meal,” he said and stood up, which was not an easy task at this moment. “Thanks to all of you for this amazing day, I had a lot of fun and it was very interesting as well. Also thank you for being so nice and welcoming to me, it really helped me a lot.”

“Ah, yar welcome. Ya had been through enough already and we in Ponyville sure do know how to be nice to newcomers,” Applejack told him, tilting her hat at him.

“Absolutely,” Rarity agreed. “Also I could not have stood it if you would have missed seeing this delightful town.”

“It was nice for me too,” Fluttershy said in her usual calm and timid voice.

“I would never let something fun slip away! It’s a good thing you enjoyed it too!” Pinkie Pie cheered in a joyful tone.

“Yeah, today was totally awesome,” Rainbow threw in, who was lying in her seat, her stomach inflated to the point where she was nearly immobile.

“Just one last thing for today… Twilight can you show me my room? I have no idea how to get around the castle,” he asked Twilight, causing the ponies to laugh.

“Sure thing,” Twilight agreed with a giggle. “It is kind of complicated for the first few times here. You would not believe how often I got lost when wandering back from the library at night.”

After one final goodbye he and Twilight were on their way to his room.

“I’m glad you liked it today,” Twilight said.

“Oh yes, it was amazing. Thanks again,” he replied.

“So…,” she began.

“So what?” he asked.

“What is your plan for the future then? You have seen a bit of the world you will have to live in, at least for a while. Does it look so bad?” she finished her sentence.

He spent a while thinking about it before answering, “No. It is a truly magical place here and with someone like you around I think this universe was the best I could have been pulled into.”

“Thank you,” she replied with a smile, taking his words as a compliment.
“And do you think that maybe you could forgive…” she began but he cut her off.

“Twilight, I know you didn’t like the way I talked with Celestia and are most likely mad at me for it, but please stop forcing this. I will change my mind… eventually, but not today and not anytime in the near future. Can you please just let it be this way? I know you want to solve conflicts but this is not something between you and me, it’s between me and her,” he told her in a determined tone, feeling something tear inside at having to speak with her like that.

“Alright,” Twilight agreed after a while.

“Thanks. I really appreciate that.”

The rest of the way the spend in silence until they arrived at his door, still with two guards standing in front of, already holding it open for him.

“Good evening, Sir,” one of them greeted him stiffly.

“Good evening,” Steve replied, unsurprised at the attitude of the otherwise unemotional guards.

“Well then Twilight, see you tomorrow. Thanks again for the nice day,” he turned towards the unicorn and got down on his knees to be on the same eye level for once.

“You are welcome. See you tomorrow,” she replied and looked unsure at him for a while but gave him a hug in the end.

“I had a nice day as well,” she whispered in his ear before breaking contact again.
“See you tomorrow. Have a pleasant night,” she added before turning around and left the way the just came from.

He looked after her for a few more seconds before stepping inside his room, the door closing behind him.

The room got tidied up while he was gone, which mostly consisted of his bed being made. Deciding that it was too early to go sleeping right away, he grabbed a comfortable looking wooden chair with a red cushion and pulled it out on the balcony, placing it so he got a nice view over the city when he sat down on it.

The sun was still up, emitting a soft orange that washed over the city, which were reflecting form every building, bathing the entire city in a beautiful orange shine. It felt like watching a piece of art and not a scene from real life, so wonderful it was.

Things here are truly magical…

Steve continued watching the sunset, following the last orange glares slowly disappearing behind the horizon and the moon as it climbed higher up in the sky.

Unlike yesterday the night sky was bright again and bathed the city in a silvery light. Although not looking as astonishing as the sunset it still was impressive to look at and so he did for almost an hour.

“Hello, Luna,” he said through the silence of the night.

“How did thee know we were here?” the voice of the Alicorn appeared from behind him.

“The city is so silent I could easily hear your wing beat. It was too slow and powerful to come from a pegasus and I doubt that your sister would come visiting me anytime soon,” he explained wryly, stood up and turned around to see the Princess of the Night standing on the balcony.

“Thee have an astonishing sense of hearing,” Luna complimented.

“Thanks, it came naturally after two years in the silence of space I guess,” he replied.

“Thee said thee wanted to talk?” she spoke up again after a moment of silence.

“They are beautiful, aren’t they?” he said instead of answering her question, looking up into the sky again.

“What does thee mean?” she asked, a bit of irritation leaking into her voice.

“The stars,” he calmly replied. “Back on Earth I could never spent much time watching them. The lights of the city were too bright to be able to see a lot of stars. The few times I really got to see the night sky from Earth were amazing. Space is a fascinating and beautiful thing. Getting the chance to travel there was overwhelming. Seeing the stars while travelling between them was… you can’t describe it with words”

He paused for a moment, glancing over at Luna, who also had looked up at the sky, before continuing, “And then I got here, seeing the space from the ground again after a long time. But this time it was a new one. I don’t know how much they have in common, but the beauty is still the same.”

“You probably wonder what I want to tell you with this. Last night after… well, you know what happened, the light of the stars faded away, the beauty was diminished. I did something to you that I should not have done this way, and looking at the sky was a reminder of that. What I said last night were words out of anger. I just woke up, an alien to this world, forever to be trapped here, and then you came around, acting like nothing happened. I lost control this moment and let my anger speak, something that I always try to avoid but failed this time. You were at the wrong place at the wrong time and I’m sorry for that. I wasn’t aware how much harm my words could do to you,” he finished his speech and looked back at Luna.

“And regarding our action towards thee, that caused thy reaction, which way does thee feel about that?” she asked, an unsure expression on her face now, turning her eyes off the night sky, back to his.

Steve sighed before answering, “For what you did you had no right. The feeling of someone being in my head still troubles me. But I know that you meant no harm with it and also that it seems to be normal here but for me it is not. Can I ask you a few questions about it?”

“Thee may proceed, asking us thy questions,” she said.

“This leads me straight to the first one. Why do you talk this way and Celestia doesn’t?”

“Oh, wait, we… I mean I was doing it again?” she replied with a short giggle, a small tinge of red colored her face. “It was tradition to speak this way before my times of Nightmare Moon. Although I am getting used to this… new way, I still fall back into the old patterns.”

“I see. Now the more important question. How was my dream like?” he asked.

Luna took her time to answer this question.

“Empty,” she finally said.

“Empty?” he inquired.

“Yes, when I entered your dream you were standing still in a plain white room, not doing anything at all. Usually the dreams I visit are about reliving the daily routine or about wish fulfillment, but this was rather strange, and should have given me a hint that I should have left right away,” she explained, sounding a bit guilty.

No big loss not remembering it then, he thought, irritated that this was supposed to be his dream.

“This sounds indeed a bit strange,” he replied.

“Once I started to speak with you however, the surrounding began to change and different objects began to float in. It was an interesting sight. You seemed to materialize your memories to answer my questions,” she added to her explanation. “By this I thought you were completely aware of me and your state of mind at this moment.”

“And what exactly did you ask me?” he wanted to know, feeling slightly alarmed at the thought of her viewing his memories.

“Nothing more than what has not been asked you by my sister or Twilight Sparkle. Although you were more descriptive in your dream, using images to give me an impression of you,” she told him.

“I understand. Thanks for the insight,” he replied, slightly relieved that she hadn’t delved deeper.

“It is of no consequence. They are your memories and you should have them.”

"So…,” she said after a few moments of silence. “Can you forgive me for what happened?”

“I guess so. Compared to what else happened to me lately this really was something minor. I still dislike the feeling that you were in my mind but now I know what you saw and don’t believe it is worth bearing a grudge against the leader of a country I will have to live in for the rest of my life,” he replied honestly.

It’s nothing compared to shit Celestia’s done to me, he added in his thoughts.

“I thank you for that and I really do wish, that our relation would have started better,” she said, a small but genuine smile crossing her face.

“Yeah, things could have gone better,” he agreed wryly.

“What will you do now? Have you grown accustom to the fact that you will have to stay here for a longer time?” she asked.

“I don’t know. Twilight and her friends were very nice to me and surely can help me fitting in here, but still… I lost so much,” he replied.

“I see. These are wounds only time may heal. For the rest, you are lucky to know these ponies. Nopony else could help you better on fitting in here. After I got cured from Nightmare Moon, I as well had problems with the ponies, seeing me not as an evil nightmare, but instead as their caring princess again. If not for their help they would still run away in fear from me,” Luna told him.

After waiting for his reply for a few moments she continued with a note of sadness, “I returned to this world after a millennium of exile. So many things had changed, I felt like a stranger. Nopony I knew, except my sister, was still alive. At least I was returning to the place I once called home, something that you got denied, but I can understand how you must feel right. If there is anything I can help you with adapting here, don’t hesitate asking. There are a lot of ponies here, willing to help you.”

She must have been going through a lot as well.

“Thanks for the offer,” he thanked her. “But I think I need some time alone now.”

“I understand,” she replied and nodded her head. “I am very glad we could resolve our conflicts. I wish you a pleasant night. Goodbye,” she said and unfolded her large wings again.

“Goodbye, Luna,” he said and gave her a soft smile before she left off in the night again.

He continued staring in the darkness of the night where she left for a little while longer before heading back into his room. With a loud yawn he fell onto his bed.

What a day, he thought while trying to move into a comfortable position.
Turned out to be pretty good after all, was his last thought before drifting into sleep.

Chapter 10 - Just another normal day

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Steve hold his hand over his mouth as he left out another loud yawn, the cold morning air whipping into his face as he turned his yawn into a slight shiver. Brrr, I regret everything about saying that I love the cold. They don’t even seem to notice how chilly it is up here, he thought as he looked enviously at the six ponies walking beside him, so protected by their warm fur that it seemed they barely felt anything. Maybe it’s just too early or I’m no longer used to cold temperatures.

“Still tired?” Rainbow Dash asked him with a little grin on face.

“A little bit,” he replied dryly. “You didn’t have to wake me up that early, or could have at least done it a little bit softer…”

************

Thirty minutes ago…..

“GOOD MORNING!” a loud, high pitched voice yelled next to his ears.

“GAH!” he yelped in surprise, shot wide awake as he noticed a pink pony eagerly bouncing on top of him. He was too caught up in the moment to realize that somehow he didn’t even feel anything when the pony landed on top of him. “GET OFF ME!” he yelled, panic evident in his voice, jumping out of the bed only to stand in front of five more ponies. “What the heck are you doing here?!” he shouted at them in surprise, trying to wrap his sleepy mind around the situation that had befallen him so early in the morning.

He noticed the ponies were not looking him in the eyes, instead focusing their eyes lower down on his body. He followed their gaze to realize how barely dressed he was as he looked down at body, with only his private parts covered by some underpants.

Quickly he grabbed the blanket from his bed but since Pinkie Pie was now standing strangely immobile on it, he didn’t expect the resistance and fell ungraciously over the bed. Somehow he was able to cover most parts of his body while falling but was now awkwardly lying halfway in the bed.

The ponies, in response, burst out into laughter at the scene that had just played in front of their eyes. “Relax man, it’s just us,” Rainbow giggled.

Panting heavily from this unpleasant start of the day, he took a few moments before snapping at them, “I don’t care! Why are you doing this?!”

“Told ‘ya, Pinkie, we should’ve woken him up normally,” Applejack chided the pink mare who had now gotten off his bed and stood among the rest of the ponies.

“Oops, my bad,” Pinkie Pie replied but showed no kind of regret, judging by the wide grin on her face. “I didn’t want to scare you.”

Slowly, he took a few deep breaths to calm himself and at up on the bed, the blanket tightly wrapped around him. “And what were the rest of you doing in here? Don’t you know that… umm I mean you shouldn’t… I don’t like you seeing me like this,” he awkwardly stuttered the last parts, earning him confused looks from the other ponies.

“Huh? I don’t get it,” Rainbow spoke out her confusion.

He sighed in annoyance. “Human, remember?” he said and pointed down his body. “We wear CLOTHES and that there are reasons why we do so! Didn’t we go over this already?”

Twilight seemed to be the only one who remembered as a heavy blush had formed on her face and she quickly shifted her gaze towards the ground.

Oh god… why do I have to do this? he wondered before sighing again and started his explanation. “You remember what I told you about nudity with humans? That it is forbidden in public?” he asked to which they luckily all nodded. “Well… of course we don’t wear clothes all the time but eh….”

He had to stop and think about how he could put his words. “Ehm… when we do not, especially around others… well you know,” he tried to explain and waved his arms aimlessly around in the air, hoping the ponies would caught up on what he wanted to see.

“What?” Rainbow inquired. “I don’t… oh…” she stopped suddenly as she finally understood what he meant. The rest of the ponies now all seemed to understood what he wanted to say and were blushing furiously and turned their gazes away from him.

“Oh my, I am so sorry,” Fluttershy squeaked from underneath her mane. “I completely forgot that.”

He covered his face with one hand and let out a long sigh. “It’s okay, just wait outside. Okay?” he told them and waved with his other hand in direction of the door, while shaking his head.

Quickly the group followed the order and left him alone again. Ugh, the day can only get better now, he thought and slowly stood up, heading for the bathroom to get himself ready.

***********

“Sorry about that,” Pinkie Pie said and grinned innocently, “But it’s super important that we bring presents for everyone when we get back to Ponyville and we don’t have that much time and we didn’t want you to be left behind.” During the short breakfast that had followed, Twilight had told him they would be leaving with the next train towards Ponyville early in the afternoon and wanted to buy some presents for their friends back at home.

“It’s okay, next time just please tell me this before I got to sleep so I can prepare,” he said and stretched, sleepiness still managing to clutch on to him.

“Pinkie Promise!” she cheered and continued bouncing along the group, a wide grin on her face.

“How can you even walk like that?” he asked her after he watched her jumping up and down for a while.

“Like what?” she asked confusedly, continuing her bouncing.

“That bouncing. How do you do that so fast that you can keep up with us walking. It doesn’t even look like it’s exhausting.”

“Because it isn’t, silly,” she giggled. “You just push your hooves off the ground all at the same time. See?” she explained and bounced especially high in front of him.

“Well, I know how to jump, but how can you do that for so long and…,” he tried to put his confusion into words but he realized that he wouldn’t get a clear answer from her anyways. “Well it’s just Pinkie being Pinkie then, right?” he tried to wave it off and gave her a questioning look.

“They say that a lot,” she giggled again.

In order to distract himself from the confusing pony he shifted his gaze towards the shop windows they were walking past. They had arrived on one of the main streets of the city not long ago and now were slowly strolling around, stopping every few seconds to glimpse through the windows, trying to find a decent gift, or in Steve’s case just gaze in amazement at the beautiful crafts the ponies could produce. The selection was huge, ranging from various clothing boutiques, most of them for ponies but a few for the occasional griffon or other creature he could see around, to jewelry stores, decorating their trinkets with all sorts of gems.

They walked past a carpentry where the owner, a large dark brown earth pony stallion with short pale blond mane, positioned his workbench in front of a window so that everyone could see his craftsmanship while he formed little sculptures of ponies out of raw pieces of wood in only a few minutes. Steve was dazzled by his incredible speed and precision and spent a few minutes just watching him.

Fascinating mechanics with their hooves. I should study this further with the proper equipment once I’m back at my ship. Maybe Twilight and her friends would let me take some measurement from them, he thought and as he watched the carpenter pony’s hooves wielding the tools.

Speaking of which… where are they anyways? he asked himself and looked around. He didn’t even notice how long he had been standing there and was getting worried he might have lost them but he could catch a glance of a rainbow colored mane which could only belong to one certain mare.

“Didn’t find anything yet?” he asked the ponies as he trotted over to them. None of them had bought anything yet, or had even shown much interest in doing so.

“Unfortunately not, darling,” Rarity replied as she was standing in front of a boutique, scratching her chin with one hoof as she looked over the variety of dresses. “It has to be something special for my little sister but I cannot figure out what. For Opal I just have to get a new sweater. They last so shortly with her claws.”

“Can’t you make one yourself?” Steve asked her, recounting that she was the local fashionista after all.

“I tried, my dear, but when it comes to clothes Opalescence is very delicate,” she snorted, sounding a bit annoyed. “She refuses to wear anything but one specific brand that, no matter how hard I try, I am not able to copy to her satisfaction.”

“Yeah, I don’t know either what to buy,” Rainbow threw in. “It’s all cool and stuff but nothing really that amazing. I’m not really good at this gifting thing.”

“Why don’t we go off the main road and check out the smaller alleys?” Twilight proposed. “There are a lot of stores selling more unusual stuff. I bet we will find something interesting there.”

“It’s worth ‘ah shot,” Applejack agreed. “Ah bet they have something special for mah sister and her crusading stuff.”

“Crusading?” Steve asked confusedly. That must have different meaning here. At least I hope so!

“She and her friends have this club to get their cutie marks and call themselves the Cutie Mark Crusaders. Ah don’t know how they got to that name but they’ve been doin’ all kinds of crazy stuff to get their marks and maybe ah’ can help them with that, just with something a bit more normal.”

“Is it that important for them to even form a club around it?” he wanted to know. The concept of their cutie marks still confused him.

"Getting a cutie mark is one of the most important events in the life of a pony and will dictate the rest of their lives,” Twilight threw in and he turned towards her. “It shows them and the world what they are best at. Without it, they have yet to find their real talent and which they need to pursue in order to achieve true happiness.”

“Can’t they be happy without one?” he asked. This sounded very drastic to him, the way she said it and he was sure he had misinterpreted it.

“Of course they can,” she quickly replied, yet he could already feel the ‘but’ that was about to follow, “But there will always be the feeling of something missing. They can find plenty of things they will have fun doing that are not shown by their marks but it will just not be the same. I do enjoy a lot things unrelated to my cutie mark but nothing can give me the same satisfaction as unraveling the mysteries of magic.”

“Okay, still sounds a bit strange to me but I can see why it’s so important for them. I hope they’ll get it soon.”

“Ah’m sure they will, they all do, just takes some more time than others,” Applejack replied. “So, we gonna talk more about our cutie marks or get going ‘gain?” she asked and took a few steps towards a small alley, quickly followed by the rest of the group.

They entered the alley and quickly their surrounding changed. Although every building in the town seemed to be originally made out of the same white marble he was surrounded by everywhere, the small little shops they stumbled upon had a large part of their inventory shown right outside their doors, making it sometimes impossible to even the see the real wall behind all the decorations they had put out.

Magical powers beyond your imagination! Steve read from a sign of one shop. Judging by the text on this one and the plenty of pictograms on the other signs showing all kind of trinket he figured this shop to be selling magical accessories.

“Hey, Twilight, come look at this,” he called out to the unicorn who was standing at an alchemist booth, smelling at some herbs.

“What is it?” she asked while she trotted over to him.

“There,” he said and pointed at the shop that caught his interest. “Doesn’t this sound amazing?”

“Really?” she shot him a questioning look. “You would really believe in that?”

“What do you mean?” he countered confused. “Don’t you have magical artifacts here?”

“There are a few, yes, but most of what is sold here are usually fake to try and scam ponies out of their bits,” she replied and stared at the store with a scornful look in her eyes.

“You said most of them, so there could be something real, right?” he asked enthusiastically.

Twilight let out a long sigh before saying, “Yes, but the chances are low.”

“Can we just go looking? Maybe there really is something good hidden there,” he tried to convince her and putting on what he hoped was a winning smile.

With another long sigh, Twilight agreed and followed the happy human inside the small store, the rest of the group following shortly after.

“Ah, hello there, traveler,” a middle-aged unicorn came over from the counter as soon as they had set one foot over the door. “Come on in and take a good look, my friends. Prepare your mind to be overwhelmed by what you are about to see,” he enthusiastically greeted them in a deep accent Steve had never heard before here. The salespony examined Steve from top to bottom with his hazelnut brown eyes before continuing his talking, “Never before on my journeys I have seen someone like you but be assured I have exactly what you need. Come with me, quickly!”

Out of the corner of his eye he could see Twilight rolling her eyes but she kept quiet and followed him as the storekeeper dragged Steve over to a vitrine filled with various amulets. The unicorn opened the vitrine and pulled out a cyan blue amulet with a sapphire embedded in the middle. “This here is a true treasure, crafted by Queen Thandokazi herself during the Second Zebraician War against the seaponies, granting the bearer the ability to breathe and move underwater like a fish.”

Fascinated, he stretched his hand out towards the amulet and the salesman gave it to him with a wide grin on his face. “Yes, hold it, hold it, can you feel the power?” he asked Steve as he handed him the amulet.

Hmm, doesn’t really feel special but I couldn’t feel anything either when Twilight was casting her magic so maybe I can’t feel magic as a human, he wondered as he weighed the amulet in his hand. He shot a short glance over to Twilight to see if she had to something about it but he could only see her face turning red.

“Not impressed?” the storekeeper asked him before he had the chance to ask Twilight what was wrong. “I knew from the first moment that you are looking for something far greater, my friend.” He took the amulet back and carefully stored it back in the vitrine before pulling out a gallant wooden box that he presented Steve. Slowly he opened it revealing a pitch black pair of bracers.

“How could I think someone special like you would waste his time underwater? You look like someone who is striving for strength! This should better suit your needs.” Carefully the unicorn took the bracers out of the box and held them before Steve’s eyes. “Forged by Asterios, the ancient lord of the minotaurs himself, completely out of obsidian, these bracers will bring your strength and endurance on levels you could never even imagine in your wildest dreams. With the help of his creation, Asterios was able to beat an Ursa Major in a fistfight!” the unicorn eagerly told him as he noticed the fascinated glance in Steve’s eyes. “With them…”

“ENOUGH!” Twilight shouted angrily, interrupting the speech of the unicorn, causing everyone to turn towards her.

“What it is, my…” the storekeeper wanted to ask but was once again interrupted by Twilight.

“I will not stand idly by while you keep on telling your lies!” she snapped at him, fury evident in her eyes. For a moment, Steve could have sworn that her mane seemed to have caught on fire.

“I assure you, I would never tell lies. These are the true stories, all of them accurately written down in…” he tried to calm her but it was of no use.

“No! They are not! There never was a war between zebras and seaponies, Zebraica does not even have a coast! How can you tell such a blatant lie everypony with only the slightest understanding of geography could see through?!” Twilight angrily pointed out.

“I… ehm… well…” the unicorn stammered, pearls of sweat began to run down his face.

“And if you have read anything about the minotaurian history you would know that they never had lords but a clan system and there was never a clan leader of the name Asterios mentioned. There really should have been some mention for the first reported defeat of an Ursa Major, don’t you think?”

The storekeeper continued to stammer some incomprehensible words, his pale yellow coat now completely bathed in sweat, almost collapsing under Twilight’s angry glare, a few tears leaking into his eyes. “I… uhm… I heard something in the storage! Excuse me!” he quickly spat out and ran as quickly into the bowels of his store as his legs would carry him.

“See?” Twilight said toward Steve, a contented smile upon her lips, her anger rapidly draining away after the seedy salespony had fled. “Told you this was only a scam.” She looked around to see that all her friends were staring at her with open jaws. “Uh… girls? Is everything alright?” she asked them carefully.

“Twilight,” Rainbow slowly began. “That… was … AWESOME!” she shouted out with a loud laugh. “I never thought you could smash another pony like this by reading all these books. Well done egghead! That liar deserved it for trying to scam us!” she cheered loudly.

“I just did what had to be done, no big deal,” she waved it off but couldn’t hold back the blush that now appeared on her cheeks. “Come on, let’s go to a real shop,” she called them and stepped outside again.

Steve quickly caught up to Twilight. “Should have listened to you about these artifacts,” he muttered, feeling embarrassed about the whole ordeal.

“How could you have known? You told me you don’t have magic on Earth, right?” she asked to which he nodded. “There is no way then you could have actually felt that there was no magic inside that trash.”

“You can feel it if an object is enchanted?” he asked, surprised.

“Yes,” she nodded. “Every act of magic leaves behind traces that can be felt by anyone correspondent to magic. It does require a lot of training though, and only a few unicorns can clearly determine if and sometimes even what magic was used.”

“Wow, magic sounds really cool,” he replied, fascinated by the revelation.
“It sure is,” she agreed with a smile.

“But that makes me wonder. You told me that there are some magical artifacts. What can they do then? Could they even work on a non-unicorn or even me?”

“Technically, it is possible to lay every spell on every item, but in practice it is a bit more complicated. Magic is very volatile. In order to enchant something the magic has to be stored in the item otherwise the spell could go off way too early or the do something completely different, or the magic will simply vanish.”

“Diamonds are the best way to store magic. The higher the purity of the stone, the better it can store the magic. The purest diamonds are able to preserve their stored magic for thousands of years,” she explained to him carefully so he would understand it correctly. “To come to your question, yes, it is possible to make magical artifacts like the ones that pony described but there is a huge problem.”

“There are two types of enchantments. The first one is quite simple and is done by a unicorn casting a spell and storing it into a diamond. Anyone, even creatures without any magical abilities, will be able to use a spell stored inside a diamond, which comes incredibly handy for non-unicorns. I once found a ruby that had a fire spell stored inside and could be used as a powerful lighter, but only for a few usages. These kind of enchants wear off, if not with time, then with usage, just like the Wingblade I explained to you yesterday,” she reminded him.

“The second type of enchantment are those that are quite powerful. Instead of unicorn magic, they rely on wild magic,” she explained and stopped after that part for a few moments. “Wild magic is a complex phenomenon that only exists in a few places of Equestria. There are plenty of theories about how wild magic was created. Some say that it was created by accident through a failed spell of a unicorn or they are the work of Discord’s chaos magic. Anyway, wild magic, stored inside a gem could do nearly anything without ever to lose its power.”

Twilight stopped to take in another deep breath to continue her explanation, and Steve could already feel the but coming. “The downside is that nopony has been able to securely handle wild magic. It requires many years of excessive research and training and in the end the chances of a magical backfire are immense. Almost nopony with their mind in the right place would be willing to take such a risk, but the few times it worked it was a massive breakthrough. One of the most powerful outcomes in history was the Alicorn Amulet. It pushes the magic abilities of the bearer into limitless regions. There is almost nothing you are unable to do if you wear it. This can of course be very dangerous in the wrong hooves so there are very strict regulations including all enchantments using wild magic.”

Steve needed time to process the amount of information Twilight had just dropped on him. “Wow,” was his final response, after a few moments, unable to come up with something more eloquent at that moment. “Could you show me that sometime? I mean the storing a spell into a diamond. I would love to analyze it,” he asked her.

“Of course,” she replied happily. “Maybe with your… technical stuff… we would be able to score a huge breakthrough in this subject.”

“Great,” he cheered. “But now that we are on the subject, you told me that there are no restrictions in which spell can be stored. Are there any restrictions then on spells in general?”

The question caused Twilight to stop. “You just stumbled upon one of the greatest mysteries of magic,” she giggled. “It is actually unknown. There are spells that nopony has ever managed to perform but despite centuries of research we aren’t able to say it is because it’s impossible to perform such a spell or it just requires more magical power until we find a more efficient way. Most of these spells are related to teleportation or creating objects out of nothing for example.”

Twilight would have continued talking, but for the timely complaint by Rainbow Dash about being kept back by egghead stuff. They continued walking, yet all Steve could think about was the possibilities that would follow if he would be able to perform magic. So many things would be easier.

As they wandered now again between the stores he made sure to keep away from any that would sell any sort of magical trinkets that sounded too promising. Although they had a huge selection to choose from, nopony had decided on anything to buy yet. Looks like I have to push them into actually going into another store again instead of just looking from the outside, he decided and began to look around for a store that looked interesting.

“Hey, Twilight,” he called out as a small shop at the end of the alley stuck out. Dim light fell out of its thick windows and a large wooden sign with runes of a language he didn’t know stood outside the door. “Think we should check out his store over there?”

After a short while of looking at it from the outside Twilight agreed, “Why not, maybe we can find something in there.”

They entered the store which was much larger on the inside than it looked from the outside. An old earth pony mare with a long fiery red mane, which seemed to be unaffected by her age, greeted them with a scratchy, yet enthusiastic voice, “Hello there, my dears. Oh, how long has it been that such a group of nice young ponies has come into my store.” She came around the counter, her emerald eyes quickly wandering between the ponies as she asked, “Do you need anything specific?”

“No, thanks,” Twilight replied politely. “We will just have a look around.”

“Ah yes, do that. Call me if you need anything,” she said, the smile she was wearing dropping as her gaze fell on Steve. She wrinkled her nose and muttered something he couldn’t understand but he didn’t pay much attention to it.

It’s probably just because I’m human and she has never seen one before, I guess. I bet it’s not often she has an alien walking through her store! He waved it off and began to wander around the store, looking through the various artifacts the store had to offer, all the while under the eyes of the storekeeper. He pulled out a few items from the shelves around him but didn’t find anything that really caught his attention until he pulled out a large brown box, buried under a large pile of old books.

Carefully, he blew the dust from it, revealing a board game that hid underneath. Settlers of Equestria, the inscription said. Curiously he checked the box for more details.Expand your own empire with more cities and settlements… mine for resources… trade with or dominate your neighbors…, he browsed through the description on the backside. Yep, that’s definitely the equestrian equivalent to Catan. Awesome! he concluded, if that wasn’t obvious by the name itself.

He brought it over to Applejack and showed it to her, “What you think about it? It’s a pretty cool board game, I bet your little sister and her friends will have a lot of fun with this.”

Curious, the orange mare took the box in her hooves and looked at it from all sides. “Hmm, ah’m not sure ‘bout that,” she replied after giving the box a long look.

“Why not? I’ve played games similar to this a lot back on Earth. They’re tons of fun, require some thinking and you can play them over and over again without getting bored,” he tried to convince her. “Maybe they will even discover their special talent is gaming.”

“Hmm.” She scratched her chin with a hoof, considering his words. “But fifty bits is mighty expensive for a simple game,” she finally said and pointed towards the price tag in one corner.

He sighed a bit. It wasn’t as easy to convince her as he hoped to but he wouldn’t give up. Before he could think of more reasons to buy it however, Rarity trotted over to them and also took a glance at the board game in Applejack hooves. “Well, my dear Applejack, how about this. We could gift it together. It is a group game after all and Sweetie Belle will surely play it with your little sister sometimes. If we share the cost it won’t be very expensive,” she said calmly, causing the orange mare to think again.

“Wait,” Rainbow Dash threw in, who was now also hovering beside them and glanced at the box. “I’m in as well. I need something for Scoots as well and we can just give it together for their whole club.”

Applejack looked between the two mares and finally at Steve. “So ya’ say this really is a good game?”

“Yes, I guarantee they’ll have a lot of fun with it,” he assured her. “If it means anything, I would buy it if I had the money,” he added and laughed.

“It’s settled then,” Applejack finally agreed. “Ma’am, I’d like to buy this,” she called the storekeeper as she walked towards the checkout, holding the board game in her mouth as she walked.

The old mare grabbed the box Applejack had put on and packed it accordingly after taking the bits from Applejack. “Bold and reckless stallions these days. Back in my day, they wouldn’t even think to persuade a mare into buying something,” she muttered angrily, this time loud enough for them to hear.

Steve looked confusedly at the mare and the other ponies around, completely irritated by the mare’s reaction. He wanted to ask them right away but they all looked down to the floor so he waited until they got a few steps away from the counter. “What was that?”

The ponies looked a bit uncomfortable at each other, unsure what to say. It was Applejack who was the first to speak after she stored the game in one of her saddlebags, all the while avoiding looking into his eyes. “Ehm… nothin’, Sugarcube,” she said and tried to smile but failed miserably.

He knew something was wrong. Applejack’s attempt to lie was easy to see through and the other ponies were getting tense as well but no one would say anything. He was about the pry further when Twilight spoke up, “Why don’t you just look around for something to buy for yourself? Here, you can have some bits.” She held a small bag in front of him.

Confused at the sudden change of subject, it took him a few moments before he asked, “Did I do something wrong?”

“No, no, of course not! You did nothing wrong,” Twilight replied and shifted nervously on her hooves, her ears already firmly flattened to the side. “It’s… erm… nothing, okay? Just look for something for yourself to buy.”

“I don’t really want to buy something off of your money, it was hard enough to buy the food at the market already. I don’t feel comfortable using other people’s money,” he said, still wondering what was going on and slightly pushed the bag of bits back towards Twilight.

“Please, take it. The princess is funding me with more than enough money for my studies, I would really like to have you some joy with it,” she replied and put the bag right into his hand.

“Fine,” he reluctantly gave in and closed his hand around the bag, weighing heavy in his hand. “But I promise to pay it back to you as soon as I can.”

“If you insist,” she said and brought a light smile to her lips but he could see that she forced it.

He began wandering around the store again looking for something else that would catch his interest while the ponies remained standing there, quietly talking about something he couldn’t understand. His mind was still focused on their strange behavior but he hoped that they would tell him what was wrong later when they were outside the store so he increased his speed of searching for something special, all the while making his own theories what was going on but couldn’t come up with a clear solution.

It didn’t take long until he stumbled upon something that caught his interest. Before his feet stood a box filled with a large stacked up pile of paintings. What do we have here? he thought while going through the paintings. Most of them were portraits of ponies, often of Celestia, which he quickly laid aside. Though a lot of them were of decent quality, it was not what he was looking for.

He was almost done with them until he found one painting different than the others. Instead of a portrait of the pony it was the portrait of Canterlot, showing the city during a sunset under the same golden glare he had already admired yesterday. This will make a nice memory, he thought, looked a bit closer at the picture to see if it had any flaws. Finding none, he took it and walked towards the counter to pay it. He showed the mare the painting and was about to pick the appropriate amount of bits out of the bag.

She just stared at him, an angry glare rising in her eyes. “What you think you are doing, boy?” she snapped at him.

“I… Uh… What?” he stammered, confused and irritated, having no idea what was going on again.

“Are you blind or can’t read or are you just stupid?” she asked with an angry voice, hostility dripping with each word, as she clopped with one hoof at a small sign next to the register so that the dust could fall from it and he was able to read it.

All purchases must be made by a mare or in the company of a mare.

“Now go and bring your mare with you if you want to buy something!” the old mare snapped at him.

“What the hell is that supposed to mean?” he replied, his confusion now mixed with anger as well. “I can buy this by myself!”

“How dare you talk back to a mare!” she yelled sharply, glancing angrily at him. “Stallions like you should know their place!”

He was completely shocked, unable to think of a proper response. He had no idea what was going on right now. Luckily the other ponies, alarmed by the noise, already came over to him.

“Hey!” Rainbow Dash shouted at the old mare. “What’s going on here?” she demanded to know.

“Watch your tone, missy!” the old mare countered sharply. “You should all keep better control of your stallion. An ugly one like him should better not lack any discipline.”

The ponies looked shocked at her statement; although it was colored with some embarrassment as some looked towards the ground, faint blushes appearing on their faces.

“He’s not our stallion!” Rainbow Dash yelled again, this time more angrily.

“How dare ya talkin’ like that to us!” Applejack joined the argument, glaring at the older mare. “What do ya think of us, that we should be controlling him?!”

“This one isn’t even from your herd?” the mare asked, more shocked than angry. “Oh, if that would happen back in my time, a stallion running around without his mare and acting like this would have been whipped until he knows where his place is!” she lectured harshly, jabbing a hood in the direction of a motionless Steve.

These words were the last straw that broke the camel’s neck and Rainbow Dash was about to jump at the mare. Before she could lift herself off the ground and on the mare, Rainbow found herself in a strong powerful grip as purple glowing ropes appeared around her body and held her back.

“Let me go, Twilight!” Rainbow shouted at the unicorn now struggling with holding her friend in place. “I’ll show her what she gets for talking like that!”

“You are a disgrace to Canterlot!” Rarity now also yelled at the old mare, stamping a delicate hoof on the floor for emphasis. For a graceful pony like her, she could get very loud as well. “You are a cruel, nasty old mare, living in the past. No wonder this shop is in such a filthy place. Nopony in their right mind would go shopping here!”

“You don’t talk to me like that in my own store! Get out of here right now and take this ugly alien with you!” the old mare nearly exploded and stomped on the counter, pointing with one hoof towards the door.

Slowly the group moved out of the store, angrily glaring and growling back at the mare on their way out. Twilight had to carry Rainbow Dash in her magic all the way to prevent her from attacking the mare, Pinkie Pie, whose mane had deflated escorted Fluttershy out, who had not stopped trembling since the shouting had begun, while Applejack was pulling Steve out with them. All the time since the ponies started yelling he had stood stunned, next to them, his mouth slightly ajar, not able to process what just had happened right before his eyes.

After a few moments, Twilight finally released Rainbow Dash and they were all trying to calm themselves down again, panting heavily and walking in circles. Fluttershy eventually ceased her trembling as Pinkie slowly rubbed her withers, the gentle motions seeming strange coming from the normally hyperactive party pony. Although still looking extremely agitated, Rainbow Dash didn’t seem to be making any movement towards the store again, although Twilight and Applejack still kept a wary eye on her. Slowly Steve seemed to become aware of his surroundings, although he still seemed dazed. “What….. the hell just happened?” he asked faintly, looking shocked at the ponies assembled in front of him, still trying to wrap him mind over what had just happened.

“Don’t think about her. She is a stupid old mare. Luckily, almost nopony think like that anymore. It has been a very long time that I’ve heard someone talking about that,” Rarity managed to grind out between her clenched teeth and heavy panting. Through the anger and confusion that currently overwhelmed him, the thought that he had never seen the elegant fashionista so flustered wafted through his mind, but he quickly shoved that thought aside.

“But why did she react the way she did? I don’t get it, I just wanted to buy a painting and she told me something about getting my mare,” he muttered, a headache beginning to dully pound the inside of his head.

As his words left his mouth, an awkward silence fell over the group and they shifted uneasily on their hooves, Rainbow Dash stopping her muttering and even Pinkie Pie ceased comforting Fluttershy. Steve continued staring at the ponies, who all seemed intent at looking everywhere except at his face, and he was about to repeat his question, this time more forcefully, until Twilight finally decided to answer his question, “Well…. you see, it was not very long ago that stallions did not hold the places and positions they do nowadays. Mares have always been the dominant gender in our demographics and all higher positions were held by them. Stallions were looked down upon for a long time and were only seen good to use for physical labor and… ehm….” She began to stutter, squirming under his hollow gaze.

“And what?” he inquired, glaring down at the purple mare shifting uncomfortably in front of him.

“Well… mating,” she finally said and looked back to the ground.

To say that he was shocked at what she had just told him would probably have been an understatement. Not even in his wildest dreams he would have thought their almost utopian society would turn out this way. Immediately, his mind travelled back to some of the darker moments of humanity’s history, suddenly afraid of what he was about to ask them, yet knowing he had to ask.

“Were they… slaves?” he asked, fearful of the response he might get.

“What? No!” the ponies shouted in unison, their eyes simultaneously widening in shock at the question. At any other time Steve would have laughed at the sight. Fluttershy, who had been relatively calm, looked though she wanted to cry, why Rainbow Dash seemed to be almost insulted by the question.

“And what is it about the whipping then? Because where I come from, we didn’t whip regular people like that!” he shot back.

The awkward silence returned until once again Twilight answered him after a few seconds, “Some families did use whips to keep their stallions in line.” As soon as she noticed how the look he shot at her, she quickly added, “Only very, very few ever did this. That was never a common practice!”

The silence return upon them once again he just stood there in front of the mares, just having found out that they thought of males of nothing more than tools to use left him completely dazzled. The ponies gave him apologetic looks but refrained from talking, letting him processing the new data he just got and worried that he might take anything else they might say the wrong way.

After a while, a rather forlorn smile formed on his face and he quietly said, “Well, I guess that’s one way this world and Earth are alike.” The ponies looked confused at him but decided not to ask what he meant by that, while he thought about how on Earth, woman had been the ones being treated unfairly for a long time, while here it was the other way around.

“Are you alright?” Twilight asked carefully after a long pause.

“Yes, I’m okay, I just had to process that, that’s all,” he replied and tried to put on a smile that didn’t look forced, though he felt his cheeks stiffly moving upwards, as though his face wanted to betray the emotions he felt inside. “Let’s move on, shall we? I think you all still have some presents to buy, right?” he proposed brightly.

“Are you sure?” she asked again, hesitant at moving on so quickly.

“Yes, most certainly. Let’s go,” he said, giving a resolute nod.

His sudden switch to a happy mood confused the ponies and they were sure that things were certainly not okay for their human friend but they didn’t want to set him off again, so they agreed for the moment and moved on, albeit reluctantly, trying to sneak a look behind them, concern in their eyes. All the while Steve was walking silently next to them, straining to keep the smile plastered on his wooden face, while still trying to absorb the news he had just found out.

How the hell could these ponies be so sexist? Can’t be for too long that this changed, I doubt ponies live that much longer than humans and if that mare had lived in those times, that couldn’t have been much longer than half a century ago where the males only were good for ploughing the fields and… well, ploughing their fields, he almost had to laugh out loud at how bad the analogy was.

Caught up in his thoughts, he had barely spent any attention to his surroundings, so it was only until now that he noticed they were on the main road again. He could hear Twilight say something about their more modern views here but only nodded in his response. He could feel that the ponies were getting a little too worried about him so he decided to ask them a short question from time to time or proposing a gift to buy when he saw something interesting while they wandered through the stores but otherwise kept quiet. He offered to help carrying their bags in order to keep himself distracted, which they refused at first but then eventually gave in, not wanting to upset him any further.

He was glad that they were not pushing him into talking very much so that he could quietly think. How come I haven’t noticed this already? I barely see any stallion so I could have guessed that there maybe was something going on with their positions in terms of power, he wondered and tried to remember to other events during his stay that might have indicated the blatant sexism that used to be common here and obviously still is for a few. All the while, he kept an eye on the mares walking the street, looking to catch any looks of disapproval at him. While a few did give him a few weird looks and some even stopped to gape at him, he guessed it had to do less with the fact that he was a ‘stallion’ and more to do with him being a bipedal alien. At least…. he hoped so.

“We should return to the castle now,” Twilight said with a cheerful tone, hoping he would start talking more than one sentence. “The train will be leaving soon and Princess Celestia would like to bid us farewell.”

Her voice interrupted him from his deep thoughts and only now did he notice that they were all very packed with a lot of bags and the sun had dipped slightly in the horizon. He didn’t even know what they bought them as gifts. All he could remember was that they had made some purchases in a pet store where he proposed a collar for Applejack’s dog whose name he had already forgotten again. He looked back at Twilight, who was staring at him expectantly but only lightly nodded his head, causing her to sigh.

They arrived at the castle rather quickly; the guards at the main entrance were already holding them the door open. Guess these guys are only good enough to fight their wars too, he thought as he watched the armored stallions with their stoic expressions, feeling a sour grimace trying to come to the surface.

The group stepped inside only to be met by both princesses, who were already waiting for them in the entrance hall. Twilight quickly approached Luna as the ponies all bowed. “Princess Luna, pardon me for asking, but how come you are awake in the middle of the day,” she asked the Princess of the Night.

“Oh, we just wanted to bid thee farewell on your journey back to Ponyville,” Luna replied with a smile.

“That we do,” Celestia agreed in her motherly tone. “It was a delight to see all of you in Canterlot again and I hope you enjoyed the time here as well, though it was rather short.” She looked over the bags they were all carrying and added, “I see you have bought yourself some reminders.”

“We did enjoy our time here very much, Princess,” Twilight spoke for the group. “Thank you.”

“Oh Twilight, how many times do I have to tell you, you do not have to call me by my title,” Celestia laughed softly before she turned Steve. “And to you Steve, I want to once again apologize for what has happened and assure you I will do anything that is in my power to get you back home as soon as possible. Until that day comes, I sincerely hope you will enjoy your time here as much as possible.”

Steve was on the verge of confronting her who she could allow such a blatant sexism from which he had to suffer today to exist in her empire for so long but he managed to keep the snark and bitterness inside his head and replied in a neutral, emotionless, if somewhat tight tone, “I do too.” The last thing he wanted right now as another confrontation.

Celestia raised her brows in confusion at this unexpected tone but didn’t press the matter, taking this as the best she could achieve right now, with the anger he still felt against her. “If you wish to contact me again, just turn towards Twilight Sparkle. She can contact me directly. You are left in good hooves with her and her friends.”

You are probably right about that, he thought and for the first time in a while a genuine smile crawled on his face as he remembered them defending him.

Luna stepped up next to her sister. “We also bid you farewell Steve, and may you have a safe journey.” She looked as though she wished to say more, yet nothing more was said.

“Thank you, Luna,” was his response, not wanting to risk saying more; in his state of mind, the last thing he wanted was to reopen the wounds that had been partially healed only the night before. Luna looked rather disconcerted at his short speech, but contented herself with giving him a small smile, understanding in her eyes.

After they all had said their goodbyes the group left for the train. The train was already waiting in the station and looked exactly like the one they arrived in, the only difference now was that the station was not flooded by guards.

Just like on the journey there they got an empty cabin for themselves and settled down on the soft benches, Steve taking a booth for himself a bit away from the ponies. They looked at him with worry but thankfully they left him in peace.

The train started and slowly they were on their way back towards Ponyville again. The journey back was uneventful, Steve mindlessly watching the passing scenery out of a window while the ponies were talking with each other. Occasionally they tried to draw him into the conversation, but the only words that they got from him were, “I’m a bit tired and need some rest.” A lie they easily could see through but once again let him have his space, all hoping that he would be talking with them soon enough again.

What if they think less about me as well because I’m male but I just didn’t really notice? he began to ask himself but quickly shook off the thought. No, that can’t be. They were so nice all the time and never showed any signs of that. They even defended me. But still… it was not long ago since that was how things were working here. Maybe the younger ones don’t have these thoughts but what about the rest of the village?

What if next time I go into town some old mare says I can’t buy her goods or I have to sit in the back of a restaurant because I need to have a mare with me? he thought and was afraid of how his stay could turn out here. On the other hand, nopony has ever shown any signs at all before today. It could very well be that she was a rare exception even among the older ponies.

He looked at the group of six ponies and how they gave him worried looks from time to time during their conversation. I really doubt I ever have to fear a reaction like this from them at all but what if there are more customs and norms that I simply can’t reconcile? I’ve barely scratched at the surface of their culture, what if they have some crazy beliefs I just haven’t witnessed yet? he asked himself, starting to get worried about how his long term stay in this alien world would turn out.

One part of him couldn’t believe that something like this was going on, but on the other hand he wouldn’t believe that sexism existed either if he hadn’t seen it with his own eyes. After all I am alone on an alien world… how could I compare anything that happens here with home?

He spent the rest of the train right in silence, thinking about the possibilities, what else he would discover about this world during his stay here, for thinking was the best he could do right now.

“So, what ‘ya gonna do back in Ponyville now?” Applejack asked, trotting up to him as the small town came into view through one of the windows.

“I’ll have to go back to my ship. There are a few things I have to do,” he replied shortly.

“Mind if ah walk ya home? We both have ta’ walk the same way,” she offered in a friendly tone he couldn’t deny even if he felt confused right now.

“Sure, why not,” he replied hollowly, signalling the end of their conversation again.

Soon the train began to slow down and finally came to a halt as they rolled into the station. The group descended along with only a handful of other ponies. The afternoon sun that shone up in the sky was now dipping into the horizon and it would only take a few hours for it to be completely set and for the moon to rise. He felt very comfortably at the mild sunlight shining in his face, warming his skin.

The group set moving quietly through Ponyville, from time to time one of them dropped off as they neared their homes. First was Pinkie Pie who couldn’t resist saying goodbye in her usual extreme manner but he didn’t mind it that much. There was something about her that made him never feel angry at her, no matter what she did, she even brought him to faintly smile again.

More and more ponies dropped off from the group and when Fluttershy left, it was only him and Applejack left. He could feel that she wanted to say something for the whole time they kept walking silently side by side, but she kept it to herself until they arrived at the point where their ways were about to part as well.

“Look, Steve,” she said and stared at him with her large green eyes. “Ah know what ya found out today must have been a real shock to ya, but ya should know that nopony here thinks this way. We are all good ponies here who wouldn’t ever judge you because of your gender. Please don’t think about us this way now, okay?”

He looked down at the pony in front of his feet and could not deny the honesty in her words. Slowly he dropped on one knee and put a hand on her shoulder. With a troubled stare, he looked back into her expectant eyes and whispered silently. “Goodbye Applejack, I hope you get home safe.”

He got up again and turned around, walking off towards his ship. He could hear a sigh behind him and her saying, “You too.”

He came to a halt and turned around to her again. She hadn’t made signs of leaving yet, only staring after him. “But thank you,” he said after a short while and turned around again, finally making his way back to his ship.

He couldn’t wait to see the familiar ship again and was happy to hear the sound of the unlocking airlock as he came closer. Eagerly he stepped inside, greeted by the AI right away.

“Hello and welcome back, Steve. I started to get worried about you. I have to inform you that I was not able to contact the...”

“I know,” he interrupted her. “You can stop sending the signal.”

“Error. Sending a distress signal is part of the emergency protocol.” Sarah interjected.

“Just do what I say okay?” he replied, annoyed by the AI’s stubbornness

“Your tone of voice as well as choice of words imply a status of minor depression. Is there something wrong?” Sarah asked in her robotic voice. Her emotionless voice couldn’t show him any sympathy she might have felt, if he could even say that about an AI, so he couldn’t bring himself to care about her attempt.

“No,” he replied tiredly as he made his way towards the bedroom. “Just leave me alone until tomorrow, I have to get some rest.”

“Acknowledged,” the AI complied.

With another long sigh he flung himself in bed and shifted around to find a comfortable position, trying to forget what had happened, not only today but from the whole visit to Canterlot.

Oh, how much easier the world was a week ago…

Chapter 11 - ... and night

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Slowly Steve set one foot in front of each other, his feet sinking in a few centimetres into the freshly ploughed soil with every step as he stepped out of the unusually quiet forest and into an empty field. He closed his eyes, taking in a deep breath through his nostrils, filling his lungs with the scent of nature that surrounded him, enjoying the tranquillity and peace that he was immersed in. After a while, he opened his eyes again and began looking around, trying to spot something familiar. In the distance, at the end of the field, he was able to spot a large red barn as well as some other wooden buildings next to it.

Is that Sweet Apple Acres? How did I get here? And what am I even doing here? he asked himself, feeling bewildered as he trudged towards the farm, apple trees appearing at his sides as he trudged up the dirt road. He tried looking around, hoping to locate Ponyville in the distance but the glare of the sun seemed to increase rapidly, forcing him to turn his attention away. His question soon got an answer as he saw an orange pony galloping towards him from the line of apple trees to his right.

“Hey Applejack!” he called out to the mare, waving a hand at her direction as she got closer to him, a cloud of dust rising behind her from the high speed. When she arrived in front of him, she glared at him with a strange spark in her eyes, her mouth twisted in an ugly frown. He raised a brow in confusion. “Applejack? What’s going on -?”

Applejack gave him no time to even complete his sentence. Instead, she quickly spun around, every muscle in her body getting tense while she stabilized herself with her forelegs as she lashed out with her hind legs. It all happened too fast for Steve to react and the next thing he felt was immense pain as the pony’s legs hit him directly in the stomach.

He fell to the ground, writhing and groaning in pain as he held his trembling hands over his stomach, clutching it tightly. Tears shot into his eyes and he had to sharply breathe in air, trying to soothe the pain as much as he could.
His eyes fell onto Applejack who had turned around again, slamming her hooves on the ground closely in front of his head, causing him to flinch in fright and looked down on him, her eyes filled with contempt.

With a loud cough, he tried clearing his throat and looked up at the mare, fighting the waves of agony that ran through his body. “What the fu…” he was able to press out under the pain before being cut off by Applejack.

“Whatch ya think yer doin’!?” she yelled at him, her voice filled with an anger he never heard from her before. It sounded dark, menacing even, holding the promise of pain if he made the wrong move. “Back on the fields with ya!”

The confusion he felt got overwhelmed by anger, the feeling surging through him, making him feel stronger. He opened it his mouth to curse her, but before he could even get a word out, Applejack had already pulled out a whip which was now being held in one of her hooves. “Don’t ya’ think about talking back to me now or you’ll see how a whip can cut through flesh.”

Any attempt he had in mind to retaliate from the pain Applejack just inflicted on him got annihilated as she cracked the whip close to his face, causing him to wince at the loud sound and as the small draft of wind passed over his face from the closeness of the weapon.

“Now, we’re going back to the fields, ya got me?” she snarled and held the whip ready. Without waiting for a reaction, she grabbed one of his arms with her mouth and roughly pulled him onto his legs.

His body had begun trembling uncontrollably, completely unable to understand anything that was going on right now, failing to notice the small but steady trickle of blood that had begun to fall from the wound where the farm pony had bitten him, its crimson thickness tainting the ground in small drops.

“Move,” she ordered in a tone that tolerated no dissent and pushed him forward. He almost fell on the ground again but was able to catch himself in time. He started to turn around again but the crack of the whip caused him to stop his motion.

“I ain’t gonna say it again. Move!” she repeated, her eyes boring into his, daring him to contradict her.

His mind was racing. Nothing made sense to him anymore. Although every fibre in his body was screaming at him, urging him to tackle the pony to the ground and shout at her till his lungs were burning while repaying her cruelty, he was too afraid of the whip that she still held in her hooves, so he had no other option than to comply and he started moving, his body still aching from the kick.

“Faster!” Applejack ordered and pushed him from behind, causing him to stumble a bit. “Yer lucky to get off this easy for trying to sneak off the fields.”

Shortly after they arrived at the fields Applejack had in target. Steve stood in terror as he witnessed the scenes unfurling right before his very eyes. A group of stallions were desperately trying to plough the field under the eyes of Applejack’s five friends, ponies Steve would never have thought to be so cruel and completely devoid of compassion as they all marched up and down the fields, surrounding the hapless stallions, each one brandishing a whip, either in their mouths or levitated by magic. The stallions all looked horrible, deep rings under their eyes, the bones in their malnourished bodies clearly visible underneath their fur, riddled with old scars and new wounds, judging from the puffy, raw-looking gashes that dominated their entire body as they desperately tried to pull the heavy plows behind them. As soon as one of them slowed down or even stopped, he was screamed at and felt the sting of a whip until he continued working again.

His frightened eyes, almost comical in the way they were so wide, fell on a smaller, light brown stallion, looking as though he had barely reached adulthood, seemed to be struggling more than the others, unable to pull a plough that was almost the same size as him through the fields. Silently he watched as the stallion grunted and strained, muscles heaving as sweat dripped down into his eyes as he tried desperately to advance forward, yet the plough would only budge forward ever so reluctantly. It wasn’t long before his body was overwhelmed by the effort, his trembling limbs unable to keep his body upright as he collapsed onto the soft dirt, his sides rising and falling harshly as he panted for air. His rest was short as Fluttershy appeared behind him, a scowl on her face. The otherwise demure mare began yelling something incomprehensible for Steve to understand, before she kicked the stallion in his sides.

Horrified, Steve could only look on as Fluttershy mercilessly began pummelling the stallion with her hooves as the stallion lay there, unmoving, staring ahead blankly as the mare continued to rain blow upon his body. The screams of pain only came when she grabbed her whip and continued her assault on her victim that never raised a hoof in his defence, new welts covering the old ones. On and on it went, Fluttershy keeping a steady rhythm until she gradually slowed down and then stopped, grinning wildly as she surveyed her handiwork as the stallion lay at her hooves, trembling as blood slowly seeped from his wounds, whimpering to himself. She seemed to signal to one for one of the stallions, who had all continued to work relentlessly while making sure they avoided looking at their comrade. He shuffled forward as Fluttershy pointed him to the red barn. Nodding his head in obedience, he reached out and latched onto the broken stallion with his teeth and began dragging him in the direction of the barn, slowly at first until a whip to his back spurred him to move faster.

Not caring about the consequences and unable to contain himself any longer, he turned towards Applejack and yelled, “You sick bitch, how could…” He abruptly stopped as the enraged mare charged at him. He quickly threw his arms around his head as he braced for impact, narrowing his eyes. However, the blow didn’t come the way he expected; Applejack had instead galloped behind him and lashed out with her hind legs once again, kicking him in the back of his knee, causing him to tumble, before she sent him sprawling into the dirt with a quick swipe of her hoof to his head. She had already planted a firm hoof on his abdomen before he could even think about fighting back, looming over him ominously, her face darkening in rage at his actions.

“Why are you doing this?!” he yelled desperately, his eyes filling again, the pain from the blow to his head and tears blurring his vision. “P-please… don’t…” he whimpered as Applejack raised her whip, ready to swing it. Shaking, he wiped his eyes as he noticed several shadows above him, blocking the harsh sunlight as they surrounded him.

“This one’s been giving you trouble?” came a voice he knew too well. Rainbow Dash, he thought, as she came into focus. She grinned at him, not the cocky smirk of pride he had known before, but one of pure malevolence as the rest of the mares came into view, sneering down at the wounded human as Applejack nodded her head in response to her question, but lowering the whip, much the relief of the human.

“He certainly doesn’t look like much,” Rarity said, snorting in disdain as he slowly tried to sit up from the dirt, making no effort to help him.

“Useless stallions shouldn’t be kept around for long,” Pinkie Pie growled. Steve stared at her, almost not recognizing her. Gone was the bubbly mare that wanted to throw him parties and hug him until his bones started to creak. Instead, she looked at him, her mane flat against her face and eyes utterly devoid of emotion, although a crooked smile was on her face as she reached into her saddlebags to pull out a knife. A knife, Steve observed faintly, that seemed to be crusted with old blood. Pinkie Pie noticed his stare and slowly, almost seductively, brought the knife to her face and began licking the blade clean, twirling her tongue in an erotic dance, seeming to take cruel delight at the horror etched upon Steve’s face.

“Oh, I wouldn’t say he’ll be completely useless,” Twilight said, as she trotted up to his prone body, swaying her hips. Gazing down at the human with half-lidded eyes, she began slowly rubbing her hoof up and down Steve’s battered body sensuously, smiling at him lasciviously as she drew the human closer. “If he can’t work the fields, he can always be used in differently. I can think of a few activities he and I can do that we would both find extremely….. pleasurable,” Twilight murmured, whispering the last sentence into his ear before taking a playful nibble at it.

That intimate contact finally spurred the shell-shocked human into actions, scrambling backwards on his hands and feet, trying desperately to create some distance between the group of mares and himself. It was a futile endeavour as once again Applejack stormed up to him and delivered another painful kick to his stomach, his agonized scream cut short as he began hacking up and spitting blood. Clutching his stomach, he turned towards his attacker, who once again brandished the whip for him to see.

“Please….. no more,” he wheezed, begging her with her eyes. Below him, the ground began to shake as he quivered in fear.

“It didn’t have tah come tah this, but ya asked for it,” she replied and swung her whip.

Terror filled his eyes as he saw the whip approaching him. The world began to slow down and he wanted to scream, hold his arms in front of his face, do something but he couldn’t. It was only a few heartbeats until the whip would hit him directly in the face…

The ground below him rumbled heavily, the land itself seeming to groan……

The sky above him glowed brighter, blotting out the background in its powerful glare….

And then, the whip made contact…

“AHHH!” Steve shouted and shot up in his bed. Panicked, he looked around in the darkness that was surrounding him frantically, panting heavily, a cascade of sweat running down his body. Oh thank god… it was just a dream, he thought, a trickle of relief flowing through his body as he tried to calm himself down. That was the third one already, he sighed and slowly sank back into the sweat soaked sheets of his bed. He slowly pulled them around his shaking body, resting a damp hand on his head, a dull headache already on its way to beating a rhythm inside his head. As much as he tried, he couldn’t stop the vivid images of his dreams from playing across in his mind, the horror and fear he felt in them still resonating. He sighed, a ragged, pitiful thing, and squirmed around, trying to make himself comfortable despite knowing that the chance of him actually falling asleep again were slim. Not that he wanted to, if those dreams were what awaited him. Can’t get a single night of peace anymore…

Chapter 12 - Resolutions: Part One

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“I’m glad you could all come here so early,” Twilight greeted the group of ponies as they walked into the main room of the library. She tried her best to sound casual but even she could hear the worry leaking into her voice, causing her to wince slightly.

“Sure thing, Sugarcube,” Applejack replied, looking downcast and frowning a bit to herself.

“Where’s Spike this morning?” Rarity quietly asked Twilight, looking around the room, not seeing the baby dragon in sight.

“I thought it would be nice for him to be able to sleep in this morning, all things considered,” Twilight answered just as quietly. Rarity nodded in understanding, moving back a few steps.

“I guess you already know why I called everypony here,” Twilight continued and looked into the worried faces of her friends. They all silently nodded in agreement, even Pinkie Pie. “Has anypony even seen him in the last three days?”

“Not since we came back from Canterlot,” Rainbow Dash admitted and looked to ground, sullenly avoiding the gazes of the other ponies. “I went to his ship yesterday and tried to talk to him but he didn’t open the door.” A sad look appeared on her face as she remembered standing in front of the door for over an hour but receiving no answer to her calls.

“Ah… well ah wanted to but… but ah thought we should’ve waited for him to clear his mind… Ah didn’t want tah force him tah talk,” Applejack uncharacteristically stammered, nervously tilting her hat with her hooves.

“I understand, Applejack,” Twilight said softly, trying to comfort her friend. “I thought he would just need some time alone too, but I’m getting really worried now. I thought a day off would be sufficient but now I believe we should do something.”

“But I tried talking to him yesterday already and he wouldn’t answer,” Rainbow Dash interjected, flapping her wings in agitation. “What else could we do?” she asked while expectantly looking into Twilight’s eyes, hoping to find an answer there.

Twilight couldn’t answer her immediately, mulling over the question in her head for a few moments. “I don’t know,” she finally admitted, much to the other ponies’ dismay. “Not yet, at least,” she added quickly.

“What if he couldn’t answer because something happened to him?” Fluttershy whispered anxiously, her eyes widening with trepidation while she spoke.

The ponies went silent at what Fluttershy suggested and looked at each other with worried expressions, while the pink-maned pegasus herself looked to the floor, immediately feeling guilty at bringing up the subject .

“I don’t think so,” Twilight intervened before the room could get even gloomier. “If nopony saw him here then the only way he could go would be into the Everfree Forest. He may be upset at what happened but I told him it’s a dangerous place. I don’t think he would just run into it.” Twilight tried to sound confident but the words felt flat as they left her lips.

“Can he even live in there for so long?” Pinkie asked quickly. “Don’t you think he needs some sweet goodies to eat and drink? And what about teddy bears? What if he ran out?!”

“Relax, Pinkie. I’ve been in there and I saw how well supplied he is,” Twilight assured the pink pony. “Although it could be better in quality,” she added, the small smile she that she had tacked on for Pinkie’s sake instantly vanished as the taste of the meal he had offered her came back to her mind, causing her to grimace faintly at the memory.

“Hey, about a care package then?” Pinkie Pie proposed. “He could need it and he would see that we care about him. Even if he doesn’t want to talk to us, we could just leave it there and he would still see it!”

“That….. actually sounds very good, Pinkie. We should do that,” Twilight agreed slowly, her brain mulling over the idea before smiling at her friend, feeling rather bewildered she had gotten over such a straight and sensible answer from her somewhat erratic friend.

“Then we should go right away! We don’t want him to wait any longer, do we?” Rainbow Dash asked impatiently, flying into the air, her powerful wings flapping frenetically to keep her in place, all the while eyeing the door to the library, looking as though she wanted to speed off on her own.

“Yes, we should get going right away,” Twilight agreed, starting to head over to the door before hesitating, looking over her shoulder at the group of ponies trailing behind her. “Just let me do one more thing quickly and we’ll be good to go,” she said, trotting over to the nearby desk and pulling out a sheet of paper and quill from it. “I think I should write a report for Princess Celestia about this. She would want to be informed if something happened to Steve, don’t you think?” She began thinking of how she should phrase her letter, mumbling to herself as her horn lit up, levitating the quill to the parchment as she prepared to write. ‘Dear Princess Celestia’ is as good a place to start, she thought, scribbling it onto the parchment. “Do you think the Princess will…” her voice trailed off as she turned to her friends who had been whispering amongst themselves before abruptly ceasing, the sudden look of nervousness and unease instead of the previous determination on the faces of her friends causing her to stop. “What is it?” Twilight asked them, holding the quill in place as she looked at her friends, wondering at their change in demeanor.

For a moment, the room was quiet as they shifted uncomfortably, doing their best to avoid Twilight’s gaze. Just as she was about to ask again Rarity stepped forward, looking back at the group of ponies behind her for support before facing the now thoroughly confused lavender unicorn.

“Twilight darling…..” she began delicately, beginning to falter already before clearing her throat and pushing on. “Are you… quite sure that we should tell the princess?” she pressed out, looking almost relieved at having finished her sentence.

“Why wouldn’t we?” Twilight asked, feeling even more confused at her friends’ reluctance. “Don’t you think that she should be informed about this matter?”

“Well, actually….. we don’t think so,” Rarity said, automatically taking a step back from the unicorn across from her even as her other friends nodded their heads in agreement.

“But we have to!” Twilight exclaimed, starting to feel irritated at them not understanding what she was trying to do. “Princess Celestia entrusted us with looking out for Steve! What would she think if something happens to him and we don’t tell her?” she argued, stomping her foot on the library floor to emphasise her point.

“Well…. Um, well you see…” Rarity stammered, taking another step back from the vexed mare, starting to sweat lightly, adding to the discomfort she was in.

Fortunately for her, Applejack stepped forward, trying to reason with her friend. “Well, Ah reckon that might be true Twi, but look at it this way,” Applejack carefully began to explain. “If Princess Celestia found out that he hasn’t been seen fer a few days, she might probably come here to Ponyville herself. Ah don’t think Steve would like that. The two of them don’t seem like they see eye tah eye,” she said, recalling how tense they had been around each other in Canterlot.

Twilight thought about what Applejack had told her. It made sense, but on the other hoof she still felt the obligation to report to her mentor. “Still, it wouldn’t take too-” she managed to say before Applejack interrupted her, holding up a hoof.

“Ah reckon the princess is busy doing… uh, princess stuff, Twi,” she tried again. “Ah just don’t want the princess tah come out here and waste her time if it turns out nothing happened tah Steve.”

That seemed to drain the fight out of Twilight as she closed her eyes, thinking about what Applejack had just said. While she still wanted to tell Princess Celestia about their situation, Applejack’s words had struck a nerve; she internally winced as she remembered how embarrassed she had felt when the princess had to come and reverse the effects of her Need It Want It spell because of her reckless actions. The last thing she wanted was for the princess to feel the need to come to Ponyville for something that might be end up being a wild goose chase. She had also seen and heard for herself how tense and uncomfortable Steve had been around her mentor. While trying to convince Steve that the princess wasn’t as bad as he seemed to think was something she would try to convince him of later, she couldn’t deny the logic in Applejack’s words.

Sighing, she looked at her friends who were all waiting expectantly for her to respond. “Fine, no letter,” she reluctantly agreed. The other mares sighed in relief at her concession with Pinkie following it up with a loud hurray. Once again, however, Twilight levitated the quill to the parchment and began scribbling on it.

“Uh… Twilight? Ah thought ya said ya weren’t going tah send that letter tah the princess? Applejack ventured, a sinking feeling settling in her stomach at the thought of her friend going against her word right in front of her, almost as soon as she had given it.

Twilight let out an exasperated huff, rolling her eyes as she continued her writing. “This isn’t for the princess, Applejack, this is for Spike so that he’ll know where we’ve gone and his list of chores for when he wakes up,” she commented dryly. That’s if he wakes up before we reach back! she thought, chuckling to herself.

“Oh… well that’s er… a good idea, Twi,” Applejack said, once again feeling a wave of relief wash over her, along with a niggle of shame at having doubted her friend’s trustworthiness like that. Before the feeling could spread further, she noticed Twilight had stopped writing and was levitating the scroll onto the desk.

“There we go. Now, can we finally go now?” Twilight asked, a hint of snarkiness creeping into her voice as she levitated her saddlebags onto her back. Clearing her throat, she directed another question at her friends. “So, what should we get for Steve?” she asked, levitating the basket she normally used for the picnics she had with her friends, dusting out some old crumbs that had stubbornly resisted earlier attempts of cleaning.

Unfortunately for Twilight, that question destroyed the last remnants of Pinkie Pie’s bid to remain silent (which was really a futile endeavor from the beginning). “Ooh, ooh, ooh, I know!” she gushed excitedly, a wild glimmer in her eyes as she rushed up to Twilight, dragging her towards the exit before Twilight could protest. “We could get him some banana bread and some apples and some tomatoes and some lettuce and some…..” Pinkie kept up her list of things they could get Steve as she threw the door open, hooking a hoof around Twilight’s neck as she bounded out the door with the hapless unicorn in tow, cheerfully ignoring her friend’s complaints and assertions that she could walk on her own, thank you very much.

Rainbow Dash simply watched the spectacle unfold in front of her until the duo’s voices began to grow distant, before snapping out of her reverie, a small shake of her head at Pinkie’s antics before landing next to Fluttershy, causing her to jump backward with a small eep. “Come on, Fluttershy, let’s catch up to them,” she urged the skittish mare, starting to herd her out of the room.

“Um…. alright then, but can we stop by my house before we go into the forest…. If you don’t mind, that is,” Fluttershy whispered as they both left the library, leaving the two remaining ponies alone in the room.

Rarity rubbed her head tiredly, feeling tired already from trying to convince Twilight. “I must say, darling Applejack, that while I admire Twilight’s devotion to the princess, I must confess that there are times when it can be particularly…. aggravating,” she said, wrinkling her nose in faint disgust from having sweated in nervousness.

Applejack chuckled wearily at the fashionista’s complaints. “You’re telling me, Ah’m the one who saved your behind just now. Still, Ah’d rather spend a day wearing your frou frou dresses than try and come between Twilight and Princess Celestia like that again.”

The dirty look Rarity had aimed at the apple farmer for calling her masterpieces “frou frou” had quickly dissolved into a mischievous smirk. “Very well then, Applejack, the next time Twilight has a panic attack, I will be certainly be looking forward to your assistance for the entire day, I’m sure Rainbow Dash or perhaps Fluttershy would be willing to step in to calm her down,” she said, giving a gracious yet mocking bow at the flustered earth pony, before dissolving in giggles at the full-blown panic in Applejack’s eyes.

“Wha- Hey now wait just a apple bucking minute, Rarity, Ah wasn’t serious! Ah was just joking! One of them ‘figure of speeches’” she protested. Rarity’s attempt at stifling her giggles by placing her hoof at her mouth was futile as she continued chuckling even louder at the apple pony’s expense.

“Now, now, haven’t you always said that an Apple keeps her word, dear Applejack?” she mirthfully continued as she headed towards the door past the dumbfounded earth pony, trotting gaily out of the door. “Come on darling, let’s not keep the others waiting!”

For a few moments, Applejack just stood there, fuming to herself at having been tricked so easily by her friend before a rainbow-coloured blur swept into the room, signalling the theatrical arrival of Rainbow Dash, who was looking down at the still unmoving farm pony.

“Are you coming, or are you just going to stand there all day?” she demanded as she hovered above Applejack.

“Yeah, yeah, Ah’m coming, no need tah get so impatient,” she shot back, walking towards the door.

“Whatever, just get your butt into gear!” Rainbow Dash replied, sticking her tongue out childishly before shooting back out the library, Applejack having to hold on tightly to her Stetson to keep it from blowing away. As the wind died down, she finally headed out the library door, letting the warm sunshine hit her face for a few moments before shutting the door close behind her.

“Consarn it, Rarity,” she muttered to herself before trotting off to look for her friends.

Steve sighed in contentment as he felt the warm water running down his body, washing away the sweat that had clung to him since he had woken up struggling and panting on the verge of downright panic. He couldn’t remember how long he had been standing in the shower already; the steady flow of water soothed his mind and served as a means to restore some vitality to his tired body. Ever since the first nightmare that had terrorized him the night after they had returned from Canterlot, his mind tended to focus mainly on the horrifying scenes during the name. Even though he tried everything to distract himself, spending hours cleaning and repairing his ship, it was inevitable that he would stray and allow the lingering fears he had crawl back inside his head.

“Why can’t I just get it out of my damned head?” he asked aloud, his voice the only sound except for the steady flow of water, the words of the old mare from Canterlot sounding through his head once again, causing him to shiver slightly. Sighing, he stood in the shower for a few more moments before turning off the water. Rubbing a hand over his face, he stepped out of the shower, drying his feet on the mat just outside.

Go to Canterlot they said, meet new ponies and their leaders they said, it’ll be fun they said. Well, that turned out just peachy! he snarked to himself, going over to the sink and wiping off the steam that had clouded the mirror. Peering into the mirror these days made him grimace at what he saw; dark rings featured prominently under his eyes as though they had taken permanent residence, reflecting just how exhausted he felt. Using his fingers, he spread his eyelids open, taking note of how his eyes seemed unusually red today. Letting go, he passed a hand across his face, feeling the unshaven bristles that came with not shaving for a few days. Can’t even grow a proper beard when I don’t shave, he thought sourly, looking at how patchy his facial hair had grown before looking around for a razorblade.

Finding one, he quickly lathered up his face with shaving cream, dipping it into water before bringing it to his face. Carefully, he let the blade glide over his skin, removing the stubbles to leave smooth skin behind, always paying attention to avoid accidentally cutting himself. What is wrong with me? he wondered as he carefully let the blade glide over his cheek down to his jaw, wiping the excess shaving cream off with a towel as he continued the process. I already know Twilight and her friends would never do such things, they were the nicest peop… well, ponies I’ve ever met. They’ve gone out of their way to try and make me feel welcome here, I’m sure they had other things they wanted to do and yet they still made time to come with me to Canterlot. They haven’t shown the slightest hint of being anything like in my nightmares. Hell, they didn’t even hesitate to defend me against that old bag and apologized afterwards even though they didn’t even do anything wrong! Even though a lot of the ponies in Ponyville seem uneasy around me, I guess I can understand why but I don’t think they’ll suddenly try brandishing a whip in front my face! At least… I don’t think so…. Gaah, there I go again!

I need to do something about this or I’ll go crazy! he thought, setting down the razor blade while running his hand over his face to cheek if he missed any hairs. Satisfied with the result, he washed his face before pulling on his clothes and leaving the bathroom, heading towards the kitchen.

“When do you plan on living the ship again, Steve?” the AI greeted him as soon as he had set foot into the room, causing him to jump, momentarily startled. “You have had no contact with the outside world in the last sixty three hours, twenty eight minutes and thirteen seconds.”

Thanks for the reminder, Mom, he thought sarcastically and walked over to the fridge, grabbing a MRE he had stored there. “So what?” he asked dryly. “I have enough supplies to stay in here for months.” He pulled out some canned bread and cheese from the box and made himself some breakfast. Right now he wished he could have some of the fresh local food, especially when compared to what he was going to eat. Just the memory of the sweet, warm and soft banana bread Pinkie had given him a few days ago made his mouth water.

The AI remained silent for a while, giving Steve a glimmer of hope that she would not push the issue. That hope was dashed as she finally said, “Although social interactions are no longer required, I would still highly recommend it.”

He let out a long sigh. On the first morning after his return he had told her, now to his regret, what he had found out from Celestia about how their stay on the planet would likely be a permanent one. She hadn’t reacted in surprise, he wasn’t even sure how far she could feel anything at all, but seemed to accept it. He was unable to delete or change the mission protocols but at least got her to not remind him about them every time, until now it seemed.

“I was busy,” he countered somewhat weakly, looking deeper inside the box to find some different toppings for his bread.

“I have noticed that. You rearranged your bedroom, fixed all remaining technical problems from the landing and made a full inventory count of all supplies and equipment. That was when you were not busy watching TV, but you have refused to tell me why you are doing all that,” Sarah said. Although no emotion flowed from her voice, he felt like she sounded hurt that he had rarely talked with her. Or maybe it was just his guilty conscience making him hear things.

“Turns out I’ll be staying here longer than I’ll ever want to so I want it to be comfortable here, alright?” he snapped at her, his defensiveness making him sound sharper than he intended to. “Is it such a big problem if I just want to watch a few movies?”

“I fail to understand your sudden interest in documentaries over the role of women in the past,” the AI responded primly.

“It’s just curiosity. Do you know how many countries have had woman suffrage for less than a century?”

“Yes, I do,” it responded almost instantly, almost sounding smug in its assertion.

Of course you do, he thought, rolling his eyes in annoyance. “Anyhow, it’s just interesting to see what you can learn.”

“And how is that related to your lack of social interaction with the natives of this planet? I need more data to establish a connection.”

“Fine, you win,” he finally gave in. “I planned to go out again this afternoon anyways but it seems better for me to go right now if it gets you to stop bugging me about this.”

“But I did not do anything wrong,” she replied. Steve could swear she was trying to sound innocent.

“Whatever,” he replied, exasperated at the AI’s behaviour, turning his attention towards his breakfast. Delicious, he thought sarcastically while holding up the bread with a slice of cheese on top. So where should I go first? he wondered, taking in a large bite. Maybe Applejack? She lives the closest to the ship and I bet she’s out on her apple orchard already. Plus, after last night….. it seems as good a place to confront this thing head on. Mulling it over in his head, he decided it would be the best course of action.

“Where will you going then?” the AI spoke up again after he finished the last bite of his largely tasteless meal.

“Probably to Applejack’s first, after that I’ll play it by ear,” he replied and stood up from the chair, dusting the crumbs from his clothes and making his way towards the bedroom to put on some shoes.

“I will await your return,” Sarah bade him farewell when he returned as she opened the door to the airlock and let him step outside.

“I doubt you would be going anywhere else,” he chuckled and left the shuttle, unable to hear the response of the AI in time.

A few minutes and a short walk later, he had already found himself on the path to Sweet Apple Acres. A shudder went up his spine as he walked up the dirt road, recalling the horrifying scenes from his last nightmare. Enough of this, he mentally berated himself, trying to clear his mind and focusing on the movement of his feet in order to keep his mind busy; every now and again he would look around sharply whenever he thought he heard rustling in the bushes or movements from his peripheral vision but thankfully there was nothing jumping out to scare the hell out of him. A few minutes later and he already stood in front of the main entrance, panting slightly from the brisk walk.

He walked up towards the barn and began curiously looking around but couldn’t spot Applejack anywhere. A small flash of red between the trees closest to the farmhouse however caught his attention. He approached the trees where he saw it but stopped as he heard a loud grunt, followed by a thud and a faint trembling of the ground. What the… was his immediately thought but his unasked question got answered as a large red stallion stepped into his field of view from behind the tree, two large baskets full of apples balanced on his back and just like the first time he saw him, his wooden yoke around his neck as he plodded along among the trees.

“Hey, Big Mac!” Steve called out and approached the stallion.

Big Macintosh’s head whirled around at the sound of his name, trying to find the source. Seeing Steve, the small traces of suspicion that had been on his face melted away as he adopted the neutral expression that Steve had come to associate with the stallion. “Well howdy there…. uh, Steve, right? Big Macintosh asked, the steady manner in which he spoke making the question almost a drawl.

“Yep, that’s me,” Steve replied. Perfect time for a talk, I’ve rarely talked with any of the few stallions I’ve seen since I got here. I just hope he is a bit more talkative than last time.

“So, what’re ya doin’ round these parts?” Big Mac asked him.

“I was looking around for Applejack actually. Shouldn’t she be working on the fields with you?” Steve wondered. She doesn’t look like the type of perso- pony that would let her brother do all the work, right?

“Usually she does but she had to go to town this morning. Something ‘bout meeting with Twilight,” Big Mac shrugged.

Wonder what it could be about, I hope everything is okay, he mused for a few minutes, trying to ignore the stab of guilt in gut from avoiding his newfound friends for so long. Seeing Big Macintosh standing there waiting patiently for him to respond, he snapped out of his thoughts. “Well okay then, thanks for the info,” he replied with a smile. He looked at the stallion, he could tell there were powerful muscles hidden beneath all the fur that glistened lightly with sweat from working in the fields, yet he didn’t seem out of breath or winded as he stood there balancing two baskets of apples on his back. Indeed, the farm pony seemed to be the picture of health, especially since the last time Steve had ‘seen’ him: in his nightmares. Well, this is as good a time as any, he thought, hoping the stallion wouldn’t take offense at what he going to do. “Hey, uh, Big Mac,” he started again, trying to sound casual yet even to his ears it sounded rather forced. “Mind if I ask a few more questions?”

“Sure, ain’t no problem,” Big Macintosh replied, shifting a bit to work the apple baskets on his back into a more comfortable position.

“How’s life for you here with all the work and stuff, you know, as a stallion?” Steve asked, stuffing his hands into his pockets.

“Well uh, things are going pretty well here at our farm. Good, honest work and ya can see the result of yer labor at the end of every day. Ah reckon there’s a lot of folks who wouldn’t want to get their hooves dirty and some probably think that being a farmer is too low fer them.” His face darkened a bit before returning to its usual dispassionate expression, the change almost imperceptible that if Steve hadn’t been focused on the stallion’s face he would have missed it. “But that’s their problem, fer me I wouldn’t trade it for anything,” he finished proudly before a confused look crawled on his face, one which he directed at Steve. “Ah hope that answered yer question but what did ya mean by ‘as a stallion’?”

Well there goes my attempt at being subtle, he thought, mentally facepalming at his effort. He didn’t want to just bluntly ask the stallion if there had ever any overt or extreme sexism shown towards him. He didn’t think that any of the ponies in town would do something like that but he was the stranger, not only to the town but to the entire world…. he had to make sure. “Well… it’s just that I found out that stallions were seen as er…. the lesser sex, so to speak, so I was wondering if ever any mare had ever….. you know, mistreated you for being a stallion? Physically I mean,” he carefully asked, hoping not to upset the large pony.

The reaction from the stallion dashed that plan. Confusion turned to shock and then to bewilderment played out in Big Macintosh’s expression as he tried to wrap his mind around the question even as he involuntarily stepped back, snorting in incredulity. In the back of his mind Steve was faintly surprised that the normally even-tempered farm pony had such a wide range of emotions. “What?” Big Macintosh blurted out, feeling rather surprised at himself at being taken off-guard so easily. “Of course not! Where in Equestria’s name did ya get that idea from?!”

“Oh er… it’s not important,” Steve hastily said, although the look the stallion gave him suggested otherwise. “So you’re sure no mare ever did anything- ?”

“No!” Big Mac cut him off emphatically. “Ain’t anypony ever done something like that! Why would they?! You think ah would….” His spirited defence suddenly tapered off as he seemed to remember something, his eyes drifting off a bit as he mumbled to himself, “Well, there was that time when I was being courted by….” Realizing he had an attentive audience of one intently listening, he abruptly stopped his musing. “Er, well… it ain’t never happened,” he quickly finished.

“What did you just say?” Steve inquired. Did I just hear what I thought I heard? he wondered, trying to look directly into the stallion’s green eyes, a difficult task seeing as they were wandering nervously around, avoiding the human’s gaze.

“Ahm… nothin’,” he stammered, his cheeks starting so red that Steve could distinguish it from his coat. “Ah gotta go back to work now, if ya excuse me, bye!” he said quickly and started a fast trot towards the barn, losing a few apples from his baskets on his way.

I did, he thought, a small smile on his face reflecting both his amusement and bemusement at the situation. So… nothing untoward going on at Sweet Apple Acres. That’s a good sign. This would probably be the first place to find something like that, seeing as how it’s far from Ponyville, he thought, composing himself and headed back towards the path that would take him from the farm. I should visit Twilight, if Applejack’s there I bet so are the rest of her friends.

He made his way back towards the barn and the path to leave Sweet Apple Acres again but stopped in his movement as soon as he heard a dull, creaking sound that seemed to be amplified in the quiet of the farm. Looking around, he spotted another pony at the farmhouse next to the barn he hadn’t noticed before. Slowly and as quietly as he could, he approached the lime green pony that, now that he was closer, he could see was seemingly asleep on a rocking chair, the noise from its creaking motion revealing the source of the sound he had heard.

Is this Applejack’s mother? he wondered as he stepped closer. Or maybe her grandmother, he amended as he noticed how old the pony actually was. Her entire skin was lined and wrinkled and her mane, which had been tightly tied into a bun save for a few loose strands, had turned completely white. She also looked considerably thinner than any other pony he had seen so far as she lay motionless in her chair. That’s a bit too motionless, he thought, beginning to worry at the thought of Big Macintosh finding him with a dead pony on his hands as he quickly stretching his arm out to check her pulse.

Before his hand could reach her neck, her eyes suddenly flew open, startling him as her hoof struck out to bat his hand away from her, causing him to wince in pain; whoever this pony was, she certainly was stronger than her feeble appearance seemed to indicate. “Whatchya’ think ya doin’ there, boy?” she snapped in an extremely scratchy voice.

Steve tumbled back a stop, being caught completely off guard by her sudden awakening. “I… I’m sorry, I just wanted to check if you were alright,” he managed to stutter out, his heart jackhammering inside his chest.

“Do ah look like Ahm not alright?” she asked and glared at him, rocking harder in her chair.

Steve turned red and stumbled something incomprehensible. She let him continue in that vein for a few more moments before holding up a withered hoof. “Ahm just jokin’,” the old mare laughed, her laugh quickly turning into a loud cough. “Ah ain’t nearly crazy enough to not know if Ahm alright or not.” After carefully inspecting him from top to bottom, she asked, “Are ya that stallion mah Applejack has been talking ‘bout? Thought ya’d look different. She said ya wasn’t a pony, guess ah thought mebbe you had ‘bout ten eyes and tentacles and all them crazy things the youngsters talk about these days,” she chuckled to herself.

“Well uh…. I guess that’d be me, minus all the eyes and tenctacles. Steve’s the name, ma’am” he replied and offered her a hand. Thanks a lot for that Applejack, he thought dryly.

“They call me Granny Smith,” the old mare replied and shook his already battered hand with surprising force. “If yer looking for Applejack, she ain’t here, she’s gone tah town to meet her friends. Ah can’t see her doing anythin’ else than working or hanging out with them.” She laughed again and added, “Ah wasn’t much different than her. When ah was not working ah was only here to eat and sleep. Those were some good times back then.” She sounded a bit saddened and her eyes slowly began closing.

“Granny Smith?” Steve asked carefully.

“Huh? What? Who’s talking!?” she shoot up in her chair and looked around. “Ahm sorry, ah was just lost in mah thoughts.

Steve struggled with the thought of asking her more about the old times. If there was anything that had happened with the stallions like the old hag had alluded to, she would probably be the best bet at finding out. On the other hand, he didn’t want to sound rude and risk being chased off the farm, the reaction from Big Macintosh fresh in his mind. Can’t get some answers without a risk sometimes, he decided and asked, “It’s alright. I just have a question…” As with Big Macintosh, he asked her the same thing, stuttering nervously throughout the entire thing.

Granny Smith’s eyes had focused sharply on him the entire time and she remained fairly motionless, the vigour in her rocking just a few minutes ago ceasing as the chair came to a stop. She remained silent for a few moments after he had finished, taking a few seconds before replying, her eyebrows furrowed. “Ah heard about that when ah was very young. There were some stories from other towns, especially Manehatten, where the stallions had a rough time but no Apple ever turned his hoof against anypony. We are good, honest ponies here. Now tell me, where did ya heard that story from?” She had spoken with an unusual loud and clear voice, making it obvious that she meant her words and her question demanded an answer.

He reluctantly told her the story about her trip to Canterlot and the unfortunate incident with the shop pony and how it had left him thinking that what happened to stallions was normal at times in this land. All through the story the wrinkled mare sitting in the rocking chair seemed to be growing more and more red in the face that Steve had begun to grow concerned that steam would start pouring out from her ears and cause her to faint, only a slightly less problematic situation than Big Macintosh finding her dead.

“If ah had been there when that mare was going on like that, ohh… she wouldn’t do that ‘gain!” Granny Smith furiously replied jumping out of her rocking chair with a speed that seemed to defy her aged figure, balancing on her back hooves as she held her front hooves in front her face like a boxer would. “Ah would have given her some of THIS!” she replied, jabbing her hoof at the air sharply. “And some of THAT!” She served an imaginary enemy a fierce uppercut. “Then Ah woulda finished her up with some of this! GAH!” She lunged upward then suddenly stopped as her back made an audible sound of protest that made even Steve wince, as she dropped onto the ground with a grunt of pain.

He quickly scrambled to help the aged pony, assisting her as she struggled to make it back to her hooves. “Phew, Ah keep forgetting Ah ain’t as young as Ah used to be,” she muttered, hobbling towards her chair, trying to slap away his assisting hands. “Keep yer hands to yerself, youngster, dontcha think Ahm a bit too old fer you to be groping?” Still, he guided her to the chair although he was unable to completely hide the grimace on his face at that thought. I’m going to have a different kind of nightmare from now on, he thought, shuddering at the images that came to his head.

Fortunately, he was finally able to put her back into the chair, releasing her as she panted lightly, her face slightly red from exertion or at least that was what Steve fervently hoped it was. A few minutes passed as Granny Smith finally caught her breath and regained her composure while Steve struggled to maintain his. Finally, Granny cleared her throat, looking steadily at the human in front of her. “So…. that’s what kept ya’ thinkin’ and hurtin’?” she asked, continuing before he could give an answer. “Ah heard mah granddaughter talking ‘bout ya, saying ya needed some time to think, right?”

“Yeah, it’s true,” he admitted, trying to forget what had just transpired.

“Ya don’t have to worry ‘bout that. Ah would know if anypony like that would be livin’ here and ah can assure ya, that’s not the case,” Granny Smith stated firmly, confident in her assertions.

“Well, thank you for answering my questions,” he replied honestly.

“A pleasure, mah dear,” the ancient farm pony replied and resumed her rocking on her chair.

“I think I should go meet with Applejack now.” Hopefully Applejack won’t think I was hitting on her grandmother. “Thanks for the talk,” he said, beginning to back away from the farmhouse.

“Anytime again. Bye,” she bid him farewell.

“Goodbye,” he said and turned around, an increased bustle in his step as he hurried away from the apple farm, heading towards a certain tree inside Ponyville.

“Ya think he’ll answer us?” Applejack asked the group of ponies walking over the field near the Everfree Forest.

“We can only hope for the best,” Twilight replied who was levitating a small basket in her magical grip and once again was going through its contents to make sure everything was there. She hoped he would take it as a good sign and maybe talk to them again.

“I’m sure he won’t stay there forever. Although… it could’ve been avoided if a certain somepony had been more persuasive when she was alone with him,” Rainbow snarked, shooting a glare towards Applejack which did not go unnoticed.

“Hey!” the farm pony shouted indignantly. “Ya didn’t even come along enough with us to know whether or not he would have listened. And we all decided that we would give him time, remember? So don’t blame me if he decided to lock himself up. Ahm surprised you even know a big word such as persuasive!” she added cattily, smirking at the prismatic pegasus.

Rainbow began hotly, “Yeah? Well we saw how that worked…”

“Girls!” Twilight stopped and raised her voice loudly, causing everyone else to halt. “This is not helping. We should focus on reaching Steve’s ship.”

Ashamed, Rainbow hovered over towards Applejack. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she said contritely, giving her friend her best apologetic smile.

“It’s alright, Sugarcube,” Applejack replied, nodding towards her friend.

The group continued walking again until they stood at the top of the hill behind which the ship had landed. “Here we go, girls,” Twilight said as they quickly ran down the hill, her eyes falling over the features of the strange vessel, its exotic nature yet to have lost its interest to her.

“Steve!” Twilight called out loudly as soon as they stood in front of the closed door. “I hope you can hear me, it’s me, Twilight. Listen please! We know what you found out had to be shocking for you but we assure you that something like that will never happen to you here.”

Her small speech would have sounded rather formal and serious if it wasn’t for Pinkie Pie bouncing around the ship, before popping up at different points of the ship. “Steeeeevieeeeeee oh Steeeevieeeeee,” she called out merrily. “Stevie oh Stevie oh Stevie! Come out and play!”

Trying her best to ignore the ever convoluted greetings her friend was coming up with, she waited for an answer but none came. “We would really like if you come out and talk to us. We are here to help you!” she tried again.

They all waited again quietly, save for a certain pony who was now trying to climb atop the ship, hoping for a response but still there was nothing forthcoming. “Can’t you just open the door with your magic?” Rainbow suggested impatiently.

“I don’t know. Maybe I could but I’d rather not try it. I don’t think he would be too fond if I broke anything,” Twilight replied, shaking her head. “We have to wait for him to come to us,” she said and levitated the bag in front of the door.

“We brought you a present,” Twilight shouted again. “You can take it once we are gone!”

She waited again for a response but was disappointed once more. Saddened, she prepared herself to march back towards Ponyville. She took the first few steps, ears flattened firmly against her head before they perked up, stopping immediately as soon as she heard Applejack calling out. “Hey girls! Look at this.” The group rushed towards Applejack who was standing a bit to the side of the path.

“What is it, Applejack? Something wrong with the dirt? Aside from being its usual icky self, that is,” Rarity asked, giving her a confused look after staring at where Applejack was pointing at.

“No, Rarity, look. A footprint,” she replied and the ponies looked closer again to where she was pointing at. “Could be his and it looks fresh. Maybe he just ain’t home right now after all,” she suggested and looked at Twilight, waiting to hear the unicorn’s judgement.

“Hmm,” Twilight said slowly while inspecting the footprint. The size did match and she could think of no animal that would leave such a footprint. “I believe it is his,” she concluded after a few moments. “But…. if we didn’t see him in town then this could very well mean he is inside the forest! We should check there immediately! Let’s go to Zecora, maybe she has found him wandering around there already or maybe we will find any signs of him on the way,” Twilight suggested, getting a bit worried at the thought of the human bumbling around in the forest, not fully aware of its dangers. While she didn’t want to believe that he was in the forest, she couldn’t simply discount the possibility.

“We shouldn’t waste any more time then! Come on Fluttershy, we’ll look out from above!” Rainbow ordered and immediately shot into the sky, not waiting to hear any objections from her friends.

Fluttershy stood there trembling, seemingly unwilling to fly as high or as fast as her fellow pegasus until Twilight walked up to her, putting her hoof around her timid friend. “We’re counting on you, Fluttershy,” she said firmly yet not without sympathy. Getting a small nod from her, Twilight stepped back as Fluttershy took to the air, a bit wobbly at first before she seemed to balance herself in the air, steadily following where Rainbow Dash had shot off to.

“Come on girls, let’s get going,” Twilight said, turning from the alien ship hulking over them and trotting off as her friends gave several murmurs of assent (and one excited cheer) as they began the walk to Zecora’s house.

Author's Notes:

This story is co-written by me and JBL, who has put a lot of effort into this story beyond regular editing. I strongly believe you will like this “change” and the improved quality that has come from it.

Co-author’s note: It is I, JBL, the wrestling GOD and your ~~lord and master for all of eternity~~ new co-author. Yes, the shadowy power behind the throne who has been pulling all the strings has emerged. Like Morgan Tsvangirai did to Robert Mugabe, my army has wrested partial control of the story and forced Gron into a power-sharing agreement. Yes, I just compared Gron to Mugabe…….

Also, Granny Smith is a combination of Bill Cosby and Fred Sanford. Take a minute to imagine that….

Also, if you have any ideas for a cover picture, feel free to send us any ideas you might have for it.

Chapter 13 - Resolutions: Part Two

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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!

Chapter 14 - Preparations

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“Welcome back, Steve, you have had multiple visitors during your absence.” Sarah greeted Steve over the hissing of the airlock doors as they sealed shut behind him. “I saw that you spoke to one of them outside and have brought in what the others have left you. What is it, if I may ask?”

“Hey, Sarah,” he greeted her absently. “I haven’t really checked it yet, though I’m hoping for more supplies,” he replied, peeking through the top of the basket, but his attempt at perusing the contents was blocked once again by the large loaf of banana bread. Mmmm, this is going to be great, he thought, his mouth beginning to water as he quickened his pace. He entered the kitchen and placed the basket on the counter, pulling away the chequered blanket that covered what lay within.

The small smile that had formed on his lips and had remained ever since he had found the basket immediately grew wider. Oh yes, all of my yes! he thought cheerfully while going through the contents of the massive basket the ponies left him.

“How was your trip?” Sarah interrupted him while he was eagerly unpacking his prize like a little child on Christmas Eve, while continuing to grin down at the basket.

Steve looked up from the small cheese wheel he just had taken a deep breath from. Its strong scent filled his nostrils and reminded him of something close to cheddar. For a moment he wondered how they were producing their cheese without rennet, but stopped himself from wandering into that direction as he replied to Sarah. “Good, very good actually.”

“Care to elaborate?” the AI persisted and Steve thought he could hear a tone of annoyance in her voice, or maybe he was just imagining that he did.

“I followed your advice and started to socialize again,” he began telling her his story, half distracted by the goodies he found in the basket. “I went through town and spoke to some ponies, getting information about their way of life here on certain matters on first hand, or should I say first hoof experience.” He stopped for a moment, taking out the loaf of banana bread he had smelled and seen already and searched for a knife. Before continuing, he cut himself a slice and took a large bite out of it; it was still warm on the inside and even more delicious than the last one. Did she use less sugar this time? he couldn’t help but wonder as the distinctive taste of the sugar overdose from last time didn’t kick in. “Anyhow,” he continued, turning his attention back to Sarah, “afterwards I had a short talk with Twilight and her friends. It appears they were very worried and came here to talk to me but I just missed them. Speaking of which… Rainbow Dash told me she was here yesterday. Why didn’t you tell me about it?” he muttered to the AI, his voice thick with irritation as he narrowed his eyes, though the effect was wasted since he couldn’t focus it on her.

“You told me you did not want to be disturbed and muted me. I was unable to inform you,” she replied innocently.

“Really?” Steve asked and raised a brow, ceasing his rummaging through the basket for a moment. “I know you’re no longer bound to obey me and even when you were supposed to, you tried to find a way not to if possible,” he reproached the construct, trying to sound angry. While it got on his nerves from time to time that she acted the way she did, he was happy about it as well. Not following a strict code made her seem slightly more human and if it meant that he had to put up with her messing with him from time to time in exchange for at least the slightest human interaction, then he would gladly pay the price. It was far from perfect, but in his position he didn’t have the luxury of a choice and took what he could get. “You could have at least told me afterwards,” he added after a moment of silence in which the AI didn’t reply, trying to sound slightly hurt although he was not sure if he could instill the feeling of guilt into her.

“Would it have helped you if you had known earlier?” she asked him, but he remained silent, unable to reply to that question. She took his lack of an answer as a response. “I thought so. I was acting in the best way possible to help you. It would only have torn you up more than you already were,” she finished, a hint of what suspiciously sounded like smugness creeping into her voice.

I wonder if she really did this to help me? He remained motionless for a while, thinking it through. Could be the case… but I don’t need her to look after me like that if it means that she controls what I do and don’t get to know. With a loud sigh, he turned back to resume unpacking the basket, albeit more slowly. “I can take care of myself quite well,” he waved her off, trying to sound as dismissive as possible.

“I have noticed that.”

The simple remark got to him, although it lacked an incisive tone. He stopped again, his eyes slowly began to drop from the shiny red apple in his hand down to the counter. After a while, he let out yet another long sigh and returned to his work. “Anyhow, I was invited to a party later today, sounds like fun and I’m quite curious how exactly these ponies party,” he told her, trying to subtly change the subject, though his attempt seemed to come off poorly to his ears he hoped she would go along with it.

“A party?” she inquired; she seemed to accept the change of direction in their conversation, causing him to sigh in relief. “Do I need to remind you that any and all consumption of alcoholic beverages is strictly forbidden for the duration of the mission?”

Annoyed, he rolled his eyes. “Yeah and how often do I have to tell you not to remind me of the mission protocol?”

“Until it is no longer any fun,” her reply quickly came, bringing a light smile to his lips.

He chuckled while carrying the new supplies he had gained over to the fridge, storing all the food the ponies had brought over for him. The sight of fresh fruits and pastries as well as some cheese, butter, eggs and milk that would last him for at least a week was pleasant and welcome news.

Satisfied, he picked up the still slightly damp, half-eaten slice of banana bread back from the counter. After gulping down the last bite, he said to Sarah, “Is there anything else that needs to be taken care of? Otherwise I will go take a nap.”

There was a short moment of silence before the answer came. “Scans show that all systems are operational and the supplies are well-stocked, save for the lack of hydrogen for the engine.”

“Great,” he replied happily. Maybe I could find a way to get the engine running again here. Maybe they have hydrogen supplies or could at least help me create some, I’m sure with magic that would be quite easy. Well, that’s not important now, but IF the spell to send me back works, I want to keep the shuttle with me and that would work easier if it can fly. I could also move it a bit closer to the town, it’s quite a walk from here to there.

Busy grappling with his thoughts, he quietly left the kitchen and began walking to his bedroom. The distance from the town to his ship was not much of a physical problem; the relatively high amount of training he performed during the travel over the last two years had greatly increased his stamina and overall strength, but it was still a bit inconvenient to have to walk a few kilometres to get into the town, not to mention that he was living on the border of a dangerous forest.

Ah well, that’s a problem for the future, he thought and yawned loudly as he jumped onto his bed. “Can you wake me in …” – he stopped, peering at the clock beside him – “about five hours?” he asked Sarah.

“As you wish. Timer set. Have a good rest, Steve,” the AI complied.

“Thanks,” he murmured before pulling the blanket over his head. The lack of good rest over the last few days caused him to quickly drift into sleep, one without nightmares this time, or at least he hoped.

***

“I’m boooooooored!” Rainbow Dash intoned, said emotion almost dripping from her voice as she rolled back and forth lazily on her cloud, oblivious to the dagger-like glares Twilight was sending in her direction.

“Rainbow Dash, just how many times do I have to tell you not to bring any clouds inside the library?” she managed to get out through gritted teeth. “You nearly soaked some of the scrolls I was about to send Princess Celestia the last time you brought one in!” she huffed, bringing her books towards her in an almost protective gesture. “Besides, I don’t have any spare time right now. I’ve fallen behind on my studies ever since Steve arrived in Equestria…. although I suppose an alien appearing unexpectedly would probably be more important than studying…. maybe,” she mumbled the last part to herself before shaking her head and returning her focus back to the lazy pegasus who was looking at her with glazed eyes, looking for all the world like she was going to fall asleep any moment now. “Why don’t you go find somepony else to help you with your boredom? Or maybe you could actually find something constructive to do?” she pointedly asked.

Rainbow Dash only stood up and stretched, her wings flapping loudly as she worked to eliminate the drowsiness threatening to drag her into another nap that would no doubt cost her several hours. “Nah, nopony else had time to do anything awesome with me. Fluttershy had to go feed her animals again, Applejack ran off to the farm because she didn’t want Big Macintosh overdoing it again and leaving nothing for her to do.” She rolled her eyes as she said that; why would a pony NOT want somepony to do their work without complaint? Shrugging inwardly to herself, she continued, “Rarity said she got some sort of inspiration for a dress or something - you know how she is – and Pinkie Pie had the party to organize. So that left you,” she grinned down at the unicorn.

Twilight, however, was not amused. “Gee, guess you had to be realllly bored to want to hang out with an ‘egghead’ like me,” she said sarcastically, levitating a few books over to herself and flipping through them.

“Exactly! See, I knew you would understand!” Unfortunately, Twilight’s sarcasm had missed the pegasus and sailed straight over her head, her grin widened in triumph before faltering slightly as the unicorn facehoofed below her.

“Like I said, Rainbow Dash, I still have a lot of catching up to do and there are only a few more hours until the party,” she said, a note of exasperation leaking into her voice. “Speaking of which – SPIKE!” she yelled, slightly startling the pegasus (not that she would ever admit to it).

A long-suffering groan was the first thing they heard before Spike appeared, dragging his heels wearily as he came into view. “Yes, Twilight?” he asked tiredly.

“Could you bring me a copy of The Mysterious and Extinct Species of Equestria? I think I left it in my room.”

“Sure, Twilight,” was all the baby dragon said as he shuffled away.

“After we came back from Canterlot, it started to sink in, I mean really sink in,” Twilight offered as she caught the quizzical look on Rainbow Dash’s face. “We actually know an alien! A real live alien! I had always wondered if there was intelligent life out there, but I never really paid a lot of attention to it.” She got off her seat and began pacing back and forth agitatedly. “Now it makes me wonder what else I could have dismissed as just speculation and rumor that one day could be proven to be real!”

“Umm, easy there, Twilight,” Rainbow Dash warned, feeling like kicking herself in the flank for not escaping when she had the chance. Heck, Twilight wanted to be left alone and she had only bothered her and now she had a ranting unicorn on her hooves! Her rising panic at being overwhelmed in the eggheadedness that was Twilight Sparkle was stilled momentarily as said unicorn jabbed a hoof in her direction.

“He speaks Equish, Rainbow Dash! He speaks our language!” she exclaimed, speaking as one who had been bottling up her enthusiasm for far too long while totally ignoring the pegasus’ mutterings of regret. “Imagine the possibilities! Maybe long ago there were humans here on Equestria and they had a whole civilization that we haven’t even discovered yet. Maybe they left this planet ages ago and they somehow kept the language alive throughout the millennia! But no, then the princesses would have known about it….. unless even they weren’t around when it happened. But maybe-“ Twilight’s rant was cut off by Rainbow Dash’s loud coughing.

“Er…. I know you’re supposed to be the smart one here, Twilight,” she started off slowly, a departure for the usually brash pegasus, “but why don’t you just ask Steve and see if he knows anything?”

“Because, Rainbow Dash,” she sighed and there seemed to be a hint of despair in her voice, “I don’t want to pressure him for answers so soon. Adjusting to a whole new world is something I don’t want to ever have to experience and I know it can’t be easy for him. I still remember how angry he was when he was told he couldn’t go back home and how confused he was when we encountered that old mare. I just don’t to push him too far too soon, I suppose, no matter all the answers he might have,” she said wistfully.

“Well uh…. I guess it wouldn’t hurt to find out if he’s willing or not,” Rainbow Dash said awkwardly. “Maybe you could ask him at the party tonight!”

Twilight looked up at her friend. “Maybe…… you think he would say yes if I asked him if I could run some experiments on him?” she asked hopefully.

Rainbow Dash’s ears only flattened at the question. “Like I said, you should ask him that.” She then chuckled to herself as a mischievous thought crossed her mind. “Or is it that you just want to get his pants off?”

Twilight jerked back, surprise evident on her face at the unexpected question. “Wha- No, of course not. I mean, if he would be willing to take them off, I wouldn’t mind, I could probably….” She trailed off as she caught sight of the lecherous grin Rainbow Dash was shooting at her and realised the implications behind it, and what Steve had said about humans wearing clothes clicked in her mind, causing her to splutter. “Rainbow Dash! I hope you aren’t implying what I think you’re implying! He isn’t even a pony!” The only response was the pegasus’ loud laughter as she rolled on the cloud, clutching her stomach as Twilight’s face grew red.

After a few moments, her chuckles slowly subsided and she wiped a tear from her eyes. “Whoo, sorry about that Twilight, couldn’t resist. No harm no foul right? Umm….. Twi?” her chuckles became a bit nervous as the unicorn stared at her, her horn glowing slightly.

“You have until the count of three to get out of here, Dash,” she said quietly, trying to look as menacing as possible.

“H-Hey now, it was just a simple question, no need to get so upset about it,” Rainbow Dash said, gripping her cloud and backing away slowly.

“Two and a half.”

“What! That isn’t how it’s supposed to go.” Twilight’s horn flared up even more at her words. “O-On second thought, I’m sure there’s something awesome out there, out of this library, so…… see you later tonight, bye!” she rushed out before zipping out of the library in a flash.

Twilight paused for a moment before chuckling to herself, feeling better despite Rainbow Dash’s teasing. Or maybe it was because- wait…. no, she wasn’t going down that road. Turning around, her smile slowly flickered out as she viewed the scattered scrolls and parchment that had been blown to all corners of the room due to the hasty departure of Rainbow Dash. Taking a deep breath, she took a moment to settle her thoughts and exhaled loudly, back in a state of mind where she could get some work done. “SPIKE!”

***

Rainbow Dash wasn’t having much luck since leaving the library and taking a nap. She wasn’t about to go bother Rarity twice in one day; doing so would no doubt increase the chances of the fashionista trying to coerce her into modelling a dress or going to the spa. She had tried pulling a prank on Applejack but she had only gotten an apple to the head as a reward for her efforts. She had spent some time actually helping Fluttershy feed her many animals but that got boring way too quickly. Besides, that rabbit had it out for her and she didn’t like being in a position where smacking the tar out of him would make Fluttershy cry. She had even offered to help Pinkie Pie with the decorations but the party pony had met her at the door and refused to let her in, insisting that she do it alone. Well, Rainbow Dash wasn’t one to offer free labour twice. She couldn’t even find her number one fan, though Celestia knew what she and her friends were up to now.

I wonder what Steve’s doing right now, maybe he wants some company? she wondered, increasing her flapping to compensate for a sudden but brief gust of wind. Well, one way to find out!

*******

Among the hundreds of apple trees that spanned the entirety of Sweet Apple Acres was a treehouse. However, this was no ordinary treehouse, to call it that would be a gross disservice. Indeed, over time it had served as a base of operations for tactical planning, reconnaissance missions and a safe haven from unwanted or curious eyes, especially those of the sibling variety. There was no doubt that this was a place where the greatest of all ponies debated the importance of both philosophical and practical matters that could affect Equestria for a long while to come.

“Urk… pass me some more of those hay fries would you, Sweetie Belle?” Scootaloo groaned and then let out a resounding yet satisfying belch that ricocheted off the walls of their clubhouse, patting her swollen stomach with contentment as she remained sprawled out on the floor on the flat of her back, staring up at the ceiling.

“Are you sure you want more, Scootaloo? You don’t look too good.” Sweetie Belle eyed her friend with concern, holding the bowl with the desired treats close to her. The first response was another loud belch, followed by a happy moan.

“Yeahhh,” Scootaloo slurred, struggling to pick herself off the floor and failing miserably, “I still got room for more.” With a shrug and a muttered ‘don’t blame me when your belly starts hurting’, Sweetie Belle hopped off her chair and made to give Scootaloo her fries. Unfortunately for them, the third member of their group chose that moment to break her silence, slamming her hoof down onto the weathered table in front of her. Sweetie Belle jumped at the startled noise and in the process, the bowl went flying out of her grasp, sailing majestically through the air with a grace that many a pegasus would be envious of, before landing with a splat near the prone Scootaloo, covering her from head to flank in hay fries.

“Y’all ain’t taking me serious at all, are ya?” Apple Bloom shouted as Sweetie Belle kept apologizing to Scootaloo and helping her off the floor. Scootaloo shot her a dirty glare, then looked down at the now spoilt hay fries lying there motionless on the floor, tragically no longer fit for consumption.

“Yeah yeah yeah, you saw a monster from the Everfree forest, right? Plenty of them in there. That’s kind of the reason why we’re not supposed to go in there unless we’re with an adult.” Scootaloo’s voice was bored as she recited the line that many a pony had tried drilling in their minds, to limited success.

“No, ya got it completely wrong!” Apple Bloom huffed in frustration. “Ah saw it after school when it came to the farm. It walked kinda funny, on two legs like Spike does and it was wearing clothes!” She paused dramatically, looking to gauge the reactions from her two friends.

Scootaloo, for her part, was started to look faintly interested. “Maybe it’s some kind of weird pony that lives in the forest?” she offered, dropping down on a chair with a thud.

“Or maybe it’s some kind of alien!” Sweetie Belle squeaked. The two other fillies turned to stare at her, their minds running through the possibilities and ramifications of the creature really being an alien.

“That…… would be so AWESOME!” Scootaloo exploded after a few moments of silence, jumping up from her chair and flapping her wings frenetically.

Apple Bloom, however, was less enthusiastic than her pegasus friend. “Ah don’t know, it could still be some weird kind of animal…. maybe somepony keeps it as some kind of creepy pet and dresses it up in clothes,” she offered, her theory causing Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo to roll their eyes. “Look, Ah don’t care what it is, Ah want to know why it was on mah farm!” She pounded her hoof on the table again.

“Well since you were the one who was spying on it, what did it do?” Scootaloo asked, settling herself back onto her chair.

“That’s the funny thing, it just kinda talked to Big Macintosh and Granny Smith and then left.” A horrible thought crossed her mind and she blurted out, “Maybe it brainwashed them so nopony would say anything!”

Scootaloo snickered. “Yeah, well it wouldn’t take a lot of work to brainwash Big Macintosh!” she exclaimed, her chuckles turning to full blown laughter. Suddenly, she had an angry Apple Bloom directly in her face, pressing her muzzle directly against her.

“You take that back right now!” she yelled, her face red with anger. Before Scootaloo could reply, Sweetie Belle wiggled her way in between her two friends, effectively separating them.

“No fighting, you guys!” she sternly warned them. Turning to Scootaloo, she admonished her, “Now, tell Apple Bloom you’re sorry for making fun of her brother.”

Scootaloo opened her mouth to protest, but the glare that Apple Bloom was shooting at her plus Sweetie Belle’s disappointed look caused her objections to die in her throat. “Sorry for making fun of your brother, Apple Bloom,” she mumbled, avoiding the gaze of the irate pony across from her.

Apple Bloom gave her a hard glare before sighing, her anger slowly melting away. “Just don’t ever say that about Big Macintosh again.” The quick nod from Scootaloo was all she needed to accept her apology. “Ah’m just worried fer mah family, Scootaloo. Suppose this thing attacked them out of nowhere.” Her former angry expression changed to one of worry.

“Weeeeellllll, if you’re that worried about it, then why don’t you come to the party Pinkie Pie is throwing for it?” She giggled at the stares the two others suddenly aimed at her. “I heard Rarity talking about it. She said he lives in the Everfree forest in this huge spaceship! Plus Pinkie Pie dropped off an invitation in the mail after school today. She even gave me an extra one!” She went over and grabbed a small envelope that had escaped the sight of Apple Bloom and Scootaloo, dropping it onto the table. Opening it, the friends pulled out the card that invited them to attend a party that night to celebrate ‘a friend that had never been seen before’, as it grandly proclaimed.

“Wow… it really is an alien,” Scootaloo whispered, her voice filled with awe.

“We should go check this out.” Apple Bloom just stared at the letter as if it had grown wings.

“Huh, I dunno. Will we be allowed to go to a party so late? Did Applejack or Rarity say anything?” Scootaloo’s question caused Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle to look at each other, then shook their heads.

“Naw, mah sis didn’t say anything about a party. Maybe she doesn’t want me to go.” Sweetie Belle nodded her head in agreement. Scootaloo jumped up from her chair, determination flashing in her eyes.

“Alright Crusaders, first order of business is to get access to that party!” They all abandoned their seats and headed to the door.

“CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS, GO!”

*****

“Wake up. Wake up. Wake up! WAKE UP!” Sarah constantly repeated in ever increasing volume.

“ZZZZ- Wha? Huh?! Yeah, I’m awake, I’m awake! Stop!” Steve yelped as he shot up wide awake, threw the covers off himself and jumped straight out of bed, frantically looking around. “What’s wrong!? Fire? Earthquake? Alien invasion?!” he shouted anxiously over the shrill ringing in his ears.

“You have a visitor.” Sarah calmly replied, ending the rapidly flashing red lights that had appeared all around the room.

“What?” he gasped out. “You scared the crap out of me like the world was ending because of a visitor? Geez, you could’ve woken me up a bit softer,” he snarled at her and threw an angry look at the nearest camera he could find.

“After you missed the last visitor and were not happy that I did not inform you, I thought it was imperative that I woke you up as fast as possible,” she replied, causing him to shake his head in response.

“Who is it?” he asked as he made his way over to the airlock, adjusting his clothes on the way. Is Luna paying me a visit again or is it one of the other ponies? Steve wondered. “Also, what time is it?” he asked the AI.

“It is ten past five and your visitor is the same that was here earlier today and yesterday, the one you referred to as Rainbow Dash,” she replied.

“Rainbow Dash?” he repeated. “What are you waiting for then? Open the door,” he ordered.

Sarah silently complied and the outer door was opening. On the small camera screen at the door control panel he could see the pegasus standing on the ramp outside of the door, looking a bit confused around, obviously unsure if she should enter or not. I need an easier door than this, he idly thought to himself before he ordered Sarah to put his voice on the outdoor speakers. “Please just step inside, Dash,” he said loudly, causing her to quickly spin around, searching for the source of his voice. “I’m on a speaker,” he explained to her. “I can’t open both doors at the same time; you have to enter the first one first.” From her quick nod that followed, he guessed that she understood and a few moments later she crossed the first door. He saw her fascinatingly looking after the door as it closed again and quickly spun around as she heard the one that would finally allow her to enter open.

“Hello Rainbow Dash, sorry about that. It’s a bit confusing, I know,” he greeted her with a light chuckle and pointed at the door as she finally came into his sight.

“Hey, Steve,” she replied, a sly grin on her face as she unfolded her wings, flapped them rapidly to gain some air and hovered until she was on his eye level, before she finally entered, hitting him lightly on the shoulder with her hoof as she flew past him. “Don’t worry, I don’t get challenged by some door,” she added with a small laugh.

“Sure,” he chuckled. “So… what brings you here?” he asked and followed her movements with his gaze.

“I’m just here to bring you to the party,” she replied casually, turning around to him again.

“Isn’t that not until like in two hours or so?” he asked, raising an eyebrow at her statement.

“Yeah, but I got bored. Everypony else had something to do and I already had my pre-afternoon nap, so I decided to swing by a bit early,” she explained. “I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” she asked and eyed him for a few moments. “You look a bit sleepy.”

“No, no, I was just having a nap but I needed to get up anyway,” he replied hastily and quickly straightened his hair again. In the corner of his eyes he saw Rainbow Dash grinning amusedly at him. “What?” he asked and stopped his poor attempt at trying not to look dishevelled.

“Nothing, it just looks funny what you’re doing,” she giggled. “It’s not that bad looking. Or at least not ‘Rainbow Dash, would it kill you to use a brush through that bird’s nest of a mane every once in a while’ bad,” she said, giving a pretty decent impression of Rarity’s voice.

He rolled his eyes and decided to leave his look as it was for now. I’ll have to get ready later for the party anyway, no need caring that much about it now, he thought. “Yeah, you’re probably right,” he agreed good-naturedly. “So then, what do you want to do? There is plenty of time until we have to go.”

“I dunno, that’s why I came here,” she replied and shrugged. “What did you do to kill time around here the last couple of days?”

“Nothing that interesting, to be honest,” he admitted and scratched behind his ear. “Most of the time I spent fixing the minor damage the ship still had after the rough landing.”

“Nothing else? Come on, there must be some cool thingies under all this science stuff,” she persisted.

“Well, yesterday I read a brilliant paper about an efficient planarity test algorithm using p-q-trees and…,” a quick look towards Rainbow’s confused face told him that this was not exactly what she was hoping to hear. “… and that pretty much doesn’t fit in with your definition of cool,” he concluded, to which she only nodded with an awkward smile. “Alright, don’t worry,” he told her while stroking his chin, trying to come up with anything that would also be interesting for her. “Err… hmm…… yeah that could work, follow me,” he said, motioning for her to come with him while leading the way.

“What is it?” Rainbow asked eagerly, slowly hovering behind him.

“I have no idea, I hope it would come to me on the way,” he admitted and shrugged. “Didn’t work out well,” he added as soon as they stood in front of the door of the cargo room. “Hold on! I actually have something neat,” Steve suddenly exclaimed and entered the room, Rainbow Dash close behind him.

“Where is it….. got to be around here someplace,” Steve mumbled while he was going through the different boxes stored in the cargo room, searching for the item he had in mind. Behind him, Rainbow Dash aimed a curious look over his shoulder. “AHA!” he shouted after a while and turned around with a small black device in his hand.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked and sniffed at the thing that was in his hand.

“This, Rainbow, is called a LPS tracker,” he proudly exclaimed. “It will allow me to track and pinpoint your exact location and movements while you’re wearing it.”

“And this is a good thing because…?” she asked hesitantly, eyeing the device with some suspicion. “Being spied on all the time doesn’t sound like a whole lot of fun,” she said, still keeping her eye on the strange thing in his hands.

“Well when you put it like that of course it won’t be any fun, but I haven’t told you what I was planning to do with it. First of all, we would have to set up some scanners in the perimeter to pick up a clear signal and send it straight back here. Three are enough to triangul… err, find out exactly where you are as long as you stay in this zone and are wearing the tracker and…” he explained hastily but stopped at the confused look Rainbow gave him. “Okay, I should first tell you what my idea is. When you go to practice your flying, especially new stunts, we can save the exact route you will take. I could then visualize it afterwards and we could go over it and I might be able help you to optimize your tricks.” Eagerly he waited for her reaction, but he got nothing more than a dumbfounded expression on her face. “So? What do you think about it? You could practice on a whole new level and I would get some data about pegasi flying abilities. Win-win situation for both of us,” he proposed again.

For a few moments she seemed to be mulling the matter in her head. “What exactly do ya mean by ‘optimizing’?” she finally asked.

“Umm, well it’s simple.” Or at least I thought it would be. “When the tracker,” he held up the small device in his hand again, “saves all the moves you’ve made, we could go over them again and see where room for improvement is. Like taking a curve a little bit faster or in a sharper angle, for example. I would have to do some research about aerodynamics and maybe a crash course in pegasus anatomy,” he explained to her and finally the spark of excitement he had seemed to leap over to her as well.

“You can really do that?” Rainbow asked, excited at the thought of improving her stunts being made even cooler by alien thingamabobs.

“Sure,” he promised. “Getting the data is relatively easy and should be done quickly. I just don’t know how long it will takes to evaluate it, maybe I could get Twilight to help us with that. I’m sure she would be interested as well.”

“Oh, I have a feeling she would be more than interested,” she chuckled, then quickly headed him off as he shot her a puzzled look. “Can we go do it right now?” she asked, her voice filled with excitement. “This sounds really cool if it can help me improve my tricks.”

“Why not? The sooner the better. I just need to grab the scanners to set up the perimeter. A flat area surround by a few hills would be perfect,” he said and turned around to the boxes again, searching for the remaining equipment.

“Can I see the tracker?” Rainbow asked.

“Sure,” he said and held his hand out behind his back for her to grab it. “We also need something to strap it onto you, preferable around your chest,” he mumbled more to himself than to her while digging through the various boxes.

“Uh-huh,” Rainbow replied distractedly, paying him scant attention as she turned it over in her hooves. “Is this thing already working?” she asked curiously.

“No, you have to press the button on the side to turn it on,” Steve replied, turning his attention back to the boxes in front of him until he heard a loud cracking sound, followed right after with a sheepish “oops” from Rainbow Dash.

“What happened?” he quickly asked, looking shocked as he turned around and saw the broken tracker on the floor, its cover completely shattered and a few loose cables poking out from its interior.

“I just pressed it like you told me to and it broke,” Rainbow quickly justified herself, yet an apologetic look was on her face and her ears were pressed flat against her skull, hoping he wouldn’t be too mad. “I laid it on the ground and pressed it with my hoof but as soon as I heard the cracking noise I pulled back. I didn’t know it would break so easily!”

“You did what!?” he asked her, bewildered and looking at her in disbelief.

“What?” she retorted and pointed her hoof at the broken tracker. “You told me to press it to start it.”

“Right, press it, not step on it! Ah, I should have seen this coming,” he sighed and waved it off, closing the box he had been rummaging through.

“Aren’t you mad? I broke it after all,” she asked, confused at his reaction. “Not on purpose, of course,” she added with a sheepish grin.

“No, not really,” he chuckled ruefully and shook his head. “I have a few of them to spare anyways. And honestly, I don’t even know what I expected when I told you to press a small button with a hoof.”

“Hehe, yeah… I kind of thought it was a bad idea from the beginning but hey! I thought you would know more about this stuff,” she joked, punching him in the arm lightly.

“Apparently not,” Steve commented and sighed as went down on his knees and carefully began piling up the remaining parts of the tracker from the ground, looking thoroughly around for any missing parts.

“So, what now?” Rainbow asked. “You said you have more of these, right? We can still do it, can we?” The note of disappointment was clearly audible in her voice though she looked at him hopefully.

He looked up from the ground and into her face and saw the regret he had heard confirmed in her features as she looked down at him. “Sure, there are plenty left, I just need to find the rest of the equipment and we are good to go,” he assured her, causing her face to lighten up again. “Sarah,” he called out to the AI. “Where is the rest of the localization equipment? I could swear there was a box for that.”

“Top shelf behind you, second box to the right,” she replied instantly, causing Rainbow Dash to whirl around, searching for the sound of the voice again like she did when she first arrived.

“Thanks,” he said to the AI before turning to Rainbow Dash. “You’ll get used to it and stop searching for the source, but if you want to know, the speaker is up there,” he told her and pointed to the top corner of the room, right next to the door. Steve got up from the floor and the small pile of smashed hardware in front of him to search for the box where Sarah had told him to. How convenient. That makes it so much easier to find it, he grumbled to himself while pulling out the box which had ‘GPS’ written on one side in large letters.

“Please, stop that.” Steve could hear the voice of the AI behind him, this time not clear as usual but streaked with static. Quickly, he turned around to see Rainbow Dash hovering in front of the speaker and lightly tapping against it.

“What are you doing?” he asked and arched a brow at the pegasus’ behaviour.

“How is her voice there?” she wondered and turned her head around to him, still continuing to tap against the speaker. “Is she inside there?” she asked, causing him to snort.

“A coil between two magnets, one pointing with its negative pole towards…” he began, but stopped and shook his head. “Never mind, just stop tapping it!” he quickly ordered her.

“Fine, whatever,” she shrugged and landed again, whipping her tail in direction of the speaker as she trotted over to him. “What do ya’ have there?” she asked and peeked into the box he held in his hands.

“Huh? Oh, I found the rest of the equipment,” he replied and took a look inside the box as well. It was filled with from top to bottom with all sorts of devices: trackers like the one that had just been destroyed, larger versions that could help with the mapping, and what he was looking for, the scanners to set up the perimeter. “Everything we need,” he told Rainbow with a content smile on his lips. “I say we go right now, okay?” he asked her and she eagerly nodded. “Great, let’s go,” he said and took the entire box with him, Rainbow quickly following up.

“Do you need help you carrying that? Looks kinda heavy,” she offered and eyed the box in his arms as a single bead of sweat began its long journey down the side of his face.

Sceptically, he looked a few times between the box and her eager face. “No thanks, it’s alright,” he finally replied.

“Aww come on, I won’t break anything… again. Promise,” she persisted, trying to sound serious despite the sheepish grin that once again found its way onto her face.

“It’s not because of that, it’s just not very heavy, I can easily carry it,” he tried to bluff his way out of her assistance.

“Oh really? Your muscles seem very tense for lifting something so light” she pointed out bluntly. He winced slightly; she had caught onto him. “Come on, it was an accident and I’m sorry,” she apologized again, feeling awkward for saying sorry more times than she was accustomed to. “I will have to carry some of this sooner or later anyways, dude.”

“Point taken, I suppose.” He made a show of sounding reluctant to accept her help though his muscles were beginning to burn, placing the box on the ground. Guess I do need to start working out more often. “If you’re that eager to help, take…” he stopped, looking through the contents for something that she could easily hold in her hooves and still be able to walk.

Rainbow went straight ahead and picked up one of the lengthy, heavy scanners, laying on the top with her hooves.

“Sure you can take it? Not very handy,” he commented and watched as she tried to fit the well over half a meter long cylindrical tube anywhere comfortable. A few tries later she tried holding it with her mouth. Steve couldn’t resist to laugh at the sight of her carrying the lengthy tube in her mouth, sticking out on both sides over her body but it didn’t look like she was having any problems with it.

He could hear some muffled noises from where Rainbow Dash was standing which he interpreted as a question as to why he was laughing. “Nothing,” he chuckled and picked the box, which was now a bit lighter, back up and stood up again. “Let’s go.”

He stepped out of the cargo room and headed for the airlock, but stopped shortly after because of the lack of footsteps and a few muffled sounds behind him. Turning around he saw Rainbow Dash struggling to get past the door as the scanner was wider than the door but too heavy for her to balance diagonally.

“Still sure you want to help?” he dryly asked, watching her struggling with a small frown on his face.

A few failed attempts later, she finally spat out the scanner and Steve’s heart stopped for a beat as he already saw it crashing against the ground before she caught it in her hooves and tucked it in beneath her wing. “Joke all you want, I saw how you did it on your own,” she retorted and lightly whipped him with her tail as she walked past him.

A little ashamed for teasing her, he looked at the ground. “Sorry, I should have been more grateful for your help,” he admitted, his voice sounding morose. “Thank you Rainbow Dash, for this and also helping me gather more data. I’m sure this will prove to be useful or at least interesting,” he added hopefully.

“Hey, don’t sweat it,” she waved it off, though a tinge of redness appeared on her muzzle briefly and she glanced at him appreciatively for his words. Nothing wrong with being thanked, after all. “I’ve said it before, just like everypony else, I’m happy to help. Aaaand it’s not like I don’t get a profit of it too, if what you promised turns out to be true. Now come on, I don’t wanna wait any longer,” she urged him as she looked back over her shoulder to see him still standing at the door.

A smile crept on his face as he quickly caught up to her. “Sarah, open the door,” he ordered while moving and they both stepped in the airlock and stood outside the shuttle only a few seconds later. As soon as they were in the open, Rainbow quickly shifted the scanner from under her wing back into her mouth. “Why don’t you just carry it under your wing like before?” Steve wondered.

She muffled something but he couldn’t understand any word. Annoyed, she rolled her eyes and took out it again. “Wings are extremely sensitive, they would start to hurt and convulse if I’d carry something like this for a longer time.”

“I see,” he acknowledged. “Now we just need an area to record the data. Preferably a flat field surrounded by a few small hills to set up the scanners, making sure nothing will block them, although it should be working fine either way. We could use this hill right here,” he explained and pointed to the hill which hid his shuttle from the view of everyone who was walking on the nearby road. “The second one close to Sweet Apple Acres and the next one somewhere in the direction to Ponyville, maybe a little bit more to the west and not just that far, perhaps a little bit up the road that leads to Fluttershy’s house,” he suggested.

Rainbow, who had the scanner back in her mouth, agreed with a quick nod, though he doubted she had anything to interject anyways and together they stepped up the small hill.

“Make sure to look carefully, it’ll be much faster if you go to the other two places and set them up,” he said as he put down the box and took one of the scanners out of it, as well as a tripod. “Can you carry two things at once?” he asked her. She responded with a deadpan look that made his question sound downright ridiculous, and she quickly grabbed the tripod from his hand, holding it now in her hooves. “I take that as a yes,” he proceeded and took another tripod out of the bag. “Just set up the tripod and fixate the scanner by spinning this wheel,” he explained and pointed at a small wheel at the side of the tripod to tighten around the object she now held. “Then just gently press on the large button on top of the scanner, I will take care of the rest. Got it so far?”

She nodded eagerly, the scanner in her mouth close to losing its balance from the shaking but she managed to hold it in place. He couldn’t help but feel nervous for its safety, though.

“Good, I have to set up one more thing over there, near the road,” he said and pointed to the small dirt path that had led him to Ponyville the few times he had visited. “Meet me back there once you’re done. Make sure it is set up safely, on a small hill if possible and not behind a tree or large rocks. Also, don’t step on it again! Just press lightly! Okay?” he reminded her to which she only rolled her eyes in annoyance, but eventually she again nodded in agreement. “Great, I’ll have to set up one more thing between them. Just go ahead and set up your scanner and then come back to me to pick up the next one. I’ll be waiting somewhere by the road for you,” he reminded her again.

With that, Rainbow Dash unfolded her large wings and slowly rose into the air, carefully balancing the equipment she was carrying. For a second he was impressed by the amount of caution she was showing, but that lasted only until she shot away with a few highly powerful beats of her wings, letting him briefly see her tense muscle underneath her coat before she was too far away.

He shook his head at the scene but seeing as it was too late to advise her to be prudent now, he got on his way as well, hoping everything would turn out alright and everything would remain in one piece. A few steps before he reached the road, a blue blur appeared in front of him as Rainbow Dash quickly shot passed him. She came to a quick halt and landed with a satisfied grin in front of him.
“Ha! I even got here first,” she exclaimed and proudly puffed her chest.

Did she really take this as some sort of competition? he wondered, but instead of giving his thoughts a voice, he instead sat the box down onto the ground while giving her the next scanner and tripod to set up. “Nothing’s broken, right?” he asked as he handed her the scanner which she picked up with her mouth again, straight out of his hands. Quickly she shook her head. “That’s good. You know where to place the next one?” A quick nod answered his question. “Alright, I’ll be waiting here.” With that she shot off into the distance again.

He gazed at her retreating figure for a few moments this time. Wow, she took off way faster than the first time. Probably got more used to the extra weight, but this still seems insane. I wonder how developed her muscles are compared to a regular pegasus who did not dedicate his or her life towards flying and stunts? Maybe I could ask Fluttershy if she would let me take some measurements from her as well? He mulled these thoughts over in his mind while going through the contents of the box, searching for the last item he needed. He pulled out a small, black, metallic cube with various buttons, switches and a small antenna on top. Hmm… how does this thing work? he asked himself and searched the outside of the box for any labels that might help him. Not finding any, he gave the inside of the box another rummage through. Hmmm….. Ah, here we go… this should help, he thought and pulled out a small black folder that had been labelled ‘Manuals’ on its front. Quickly, he flipped through it until he found what he was searching for and began reading.

“Done!” a loud voice cheered, causing Steve to gasp in surprise and look up at Rainbow Dash, who stood in front of him, her still unfolded wings showing him she just had landed.

“Excellent, well done, Rainbow Dash,” he commended her once his heart had returned from the brink of a heart attack. “Now let’s see if it works,” he said, mumbling more to himself than his pony companion as he pressed a few buttons on the small machine in front of him, holding the manual next to him to avoid making any major errors in its operation.

“What’s that?” Rainbow asked and took a step closer to him, also throwing a look inside the folder he held in his hand.

“This is a receiver that should pick up the signals of the scanners you just set up,” he responded slowly, still going over the manual. “If I didn’t do anything wrong it should be working in a few… perfect!” he exclaimed as three small green lights popped up in the upper right corner of the machine. He looked up into Rainbow Dash’s confused face. “It picked up the signals, now we just need the tracker,” he explained and pulled out one of them from the box again, as well as a lengthy strap where he could fasten it onto. “This has to stay close to you at all times. Where is the most comfortable part for you to wear something while flying?”

“I dunno,” she shrugged. “I think around my chest would be fine.”

Steve nodded and kneeled down next to her. “Okay, please hold still and tell me if it hurts. It will have to be strapped on a bit tight, seeing as how you’re going to be going pretty fast up there,” he explained and proceeded to put one arm over her back to grab the end of the strap he hold in his other hand below her chest. Rainbow was holding still, only moving her head to try to see what he was doing back there. As he moved his hand back across her back, he briefly brushed over the base of her wings, causing her to yelp loudly and immediately flinch away from him.

“Oh god, I’m so sorry!” he shouted, shocked at her sudden reaction and immediately pulled back his hands. He lost his balance at the sudden shift of forces and fell down on his rear, sitting on the ground now as he looked at Rainbow, her wings spread out wildly, making her look larger and more intimidating than usual. “D-did… did I hurt you?” he asked anxiously, not knowing what exactly just happened, but judging by her extreme reaction he knew he had messed something up pretty badly.

He could hear her breathing heavily for a few moments before she started talking again. “No, no, you didn’t hurt me,” she soothed him. “It’s just… uhm…,” she seemed to struggle with the words and licked her lips as she was nervously looking around, and he could see a hint of red underneath the cyan coat around her cheeks. “It’s just a very….. s-sensitive spot for a pegasus,” she finally said, her uneasy eyes meeting his for a short moment.

“Oh… I’m sor...” he began to stammer but stopped as the full implications of what she had meant kicked in. “Oh…” he repeated more faintly this time, and a deep red blush appeared on his face and he quickly looked at the ground to avoid her gaze. Well….. this is awkward, he muttered to himself, not daring to look up at Rainbow again, wishing the ground would open and swallow him up.

“I-It’s not your fault, you couldn’t know that and it was an accident,” she tried to soothe him clumsily, eventually bringing him to look up at her again. She was standing in front of him, her wings back at her side, the faint blush had disappeared from her face, as well as the shocked expression, which was now replaced by a light smile, though he could still see her struggling to keep her eyes from wandering around. “Now come on, things like that happen,” she tried to wave it off and offered him a hoof.

His mind was still racing about how he unintentionally seemed to have found such a spot for pegasi. I just basically molested a pony, he thought, feeling slightly disturbed. He needed a few moments before grabbing her hoof with his hand and she pulled him back up from the ground, not even looking like she felt the strain of his body weight. “I’m so sorry. I really didn’t want to make you feel uncomfortable,” he apologized again, this time managing to look her in the eyes while talking.

“Aw, it’s alright. You couldn’t even have known, I should’ve told you earlier to watch out there. Now stop thinking about it!” she ordered him, making him nod slightly.

He cleared his throat, trying to get the memory out of this head and focus back on what they actually came here to do. “Let’s get back to it then?” he offered and picked up the tracker, which had fallen on the ground during the little accident.

“Sure,” Rainbow agreed eagerly, the uneasiness she had just shown a few moments ago was completely gone as her eyes were back on the goal.

Again he tried to wrap the strap around her, this time paying attention to avoid touching her wings again. Through the strap in his hands he could feel still feel her slightly shaking. Wow, this must be an extremely sensitive spot. Or is it just this much because she was flying a minute ago? he wondered but quickly got rid of the thought again. He didn’t want to think about that right now, he had more important things to care about. This time he had put the strap around her chest without any incidents. “Tell me when it gets too tight,” he said and slowly began to tighten the strap.

“Stop,” she said after a while, causing him to stop and lock the strap in this position.

“Looking good,” he confirmed after pulling at the tracker to see if it would hold in place, then he turned it on. “Now let’s wait for the sig… ah there it is,” he said and looked over at the receiver where another green light had flashed up. “Wonderful, everything’s working,” he declared and clapped his hands.

“And now it knows exactly where I’m flying?” Rainbow asked incredulously.

“Yes,” he confirmed. “Every position of the tracker will be saved in here and from that I would be able to create a visualization to make it easier to see and from there we can start analysing the date. As I said, this might take some time but I need to do some research first anyways.”

“As long as it works,” she shrugged.

“It will, don’t worry,” he promised. “If you’re ready you can start flying now, do whatever you want, just try to stay between the three scanners and don’t go up too high, it might falsify the data.”

“Got it!” she acknowledged and was off in the air again, leaving behind only a faint colorful blur and a slightly scarred human.

Steve’s gaze shifted between the figure high in the air and the receiver to see if the signal was still coming in. Looking good so far. I hope it’ll work, I made her so optimistic that this would get results and I don’t even know how well all this works at high speed, he worried. I hope it stays that way once she gets started.

From below it looked like Rainbow Dash was testing out how much the tracker was impairing her, judging by the many small loops and sharp turns she made that didn’t look like they belonged together into one maneuver. Good, she’s not overdoing it at the start, he thought as he followed her every move, entranced by the rapid moves she was showing. He was too far away to make out many details, but he could see that she was starting on her actual stunts now. Her speed increased, the angles of her curves got sharper; all the while the tracker kept notice of every move. For a moment he thought about not having just one tracker attached to her, but many for all her different body parts to exactly see what she was doing but he quickly discarded the thought. No way could she fly comfortably while wearing so many things. Plus I don’t want to accidently touch her anywhere inappropriate.

He continued watching her soaring through the skies, looking over to see if the signal was still good every now and then but mostly enjoying the show. After what had seemed to be only minutes for him, she began descending again. A look at his watch told him she had been flying for over three-quarters of an hour already. Time was really flying by, he thought, amazed at how long they have actually been out here, then chuckling at the poor pun he had inadvertently used.

“Ahh,” Rainbow gasped as her hooves touched the ground again. “How was it?” she asked eagerly, an expectant smile on her face that was dripping with sweat by now.

“From down here it looked wonderful,” he cheered. “I have to wait till we get back to the shuttle to tell you more but that should definitely have given us enough material to work with.”

“I hope so, that was pretty exhausting,” she admitted, still panting as she ruffled her feathers. Her muscles were still tense from the effort and her coat was soaked with her sweat.

“You’ve done a very good job,” he commended her and smiled, giving her a light tap on the shoulder. “This won’t be for nothing; thank you very much for your help.”

“No probs,” she replied between two heavy breaths. “It wasn’t hard to fly with the tracker either, got used to it quickly,” she told him and pointed at it. “But now I’d like to get rid of it,” she added and laughed.

“Sure,” he replied and moved over to her. With a few short yanks and tugs, he had untied the strap again and pulled it out away from her. Free from it, Rainbow streaked with her hoof over the place where it had just been to smoothen it out.

“Feels funny,” she laughed and Steve had to smile as well as he watched her in her movements. “Oh crap!” Rainbow suddenly shouted.

“What’s wrong?” Steve quickly asked.

“The party!” she shouted, hastily pacing around on the ground. “I completely forgot about it! How late is it?”

“Don’t worry,” he calmed her and raised his hands. “We still have almost an hour before it starts.”

“Oh, good,” she sighed in relief. “Pinkie Pie would not be happy with me if we ended up late because of me. But I’d like to take a shower before that,” she said and sniffed at her coat, causing her to wrinkle her face. “I’ll be heading back then. See you later, okay?” she asked and prepared to fly away again.

“Wait!” he quickly stopped her before she had the chance to get off the ground. “I could really use your help getting my equipment back,” he said. Not to mention that I don’t even know where half of it is right now, he added to himself.

“Oh yeah, almost forgot about that,” she admitted, looking sheepish. “But I’ll have to hurry with that to get back to my place in time after that!”

“You can use my shower if that’s easier for you,” he offered, already packing all the equipment they had brought along back into the box.

“Really? That would be awesome. Thanks dude,” she replied.

“I have to thank you for your help so it’s the least I can do,” he said. “But we better get going or we won’t have enough time left after all.”
“Yeah, I’ll meet ya back at the ship, gonna pick up the scanners!” she shouted over her shoulder and bolted into the air again, leaving him to walk alone back towards his home.

A few minutes later he stood in front of his shuttle again, expectantly looking into the sky for the familiar blue blur that told him Rainbow was near.

“Looks like I’ve beaten you this time!” he called to her as she was landing in front of him, again holding a scanner in her mouth, and the tripod clamped at her chest. She put tripod on the ground and spit the scanner out in her hooves to lay the devices next to each other.

“Unfair! I was exhausted while you could rest the whole time!” she retorted, a hint of annoyance in her voice as she pointed at the equipment before her on the ground.

“Relax, it was just a joke, I’ve seen you flying, I don’t really consider it to challenge you for a race,” he chuckled and moved towards her to pick up the remaining equipment. “Thanks for that.” Boy, she sure is competitive.

“Sure, no probs man. Was easy,” she replied, her pride seemingly mollified, but he could see how much power it had cost her to help him in her already exhausted state.

You won’t admit that anything was challenging, will you? he wondered and eyed the heavily breathing pegasus. “Looks like you really deserved your shower. Now, let’s get these inside.”

As soon as he stepped in the airlock with her, he noticed just how much she needed the shower. He didn’t let it show but she filled the small chamber quickly with the musky smell of her sweat. He was thankful for the fresh flush of air that blew into his face as soon as the inner door opened and stepped inside.

“Welcome back, Steve. Welcome back, Rainbow Dash. I hope your excursion was successful,” Sarah greeted both of them.

“Hey, Sarah,” he greeted her back. “Yeah, it went pretty well. I might need your help analyzing the data though, or at least to visualize them. Do we have any simulation programs? I tracked movements and want to look at them again.”

“The required programs will be loaded, although this might take a few minutes,” the AI replied.

“No rush, won’t be needing it today anyways. There are more important things to do right now,” he said and eyed Rainbow Dash. “The bathroom is right here,” he told her and took a few steps forward until he reached said room and held the door open for her.

“So…. this is what human bathroom looks like, huh?” she asked and curiously stepped inside, quickly scanning the room.

“That’s one version of it,” he replied briefly. “The shower is over there, pull the handle for water to came out, tilt it to change the temperature, there is a bottle of shampoo too. I think it should work for ponies as well, nothing poisonous inside,” he explained and pointed at the small cabin at the end of the room. “Do you need anything else?”

“Nah, I’m good, thanks,” she replied and walked over to the shower.

“Okay, I’ll be next door, call me if something’s wrong,” he said and closed the door behind him. He proceeded storing the equipment back into the cargo room, except for the receiver. “Sarah, can you validate the data on this thing?” he asked and held it towards one of the cameras so she could see.

“Certainly,” she replied. “Come over to the laboratory.” Following her order, he stood in the laboratory a few moments later, plugging in the receiver. “No corrupted files found. Shall I create a visualization?” she offered.

“Yes, please,” he replied and sighed with relief. Perfect. Everything worked out fine it seems, he thought, smiling with contentment.

A short moment of silence later, Sarah responded. “Understood. This will take around two hours.”

“Take your time, I’ll be leaving shortly and won’t return until later tonight.”

“Acknowledged. I will give you a progress report when you have returned then.”

Pleased with the results of today’s efforts, he left the lab with a smile. That went smoothly, he thought as he strolled down the hallway, heading for his bedroom to take a small rest while Rainbow was getting ready. As he passed the bathroom, he could hear the water running. Sounds like she got it working well enough, he thought, relieved that his day seemed to be spared from any more incidents.

Finally he had reached his bedroom and sat down on his bed. A long sigh escaped his lips as he moved his aching arms behind his hand and slowly laid down on his bed. Finding a comfortable position, he stared at the ceiling, trying to clear his mind. His attempts were not met with any great deal of success as his thoughts were overwhelmed with excitement about the data they had gathered. Hopefully this will give me some more insight about how pegasi can fly so fast.

His thoughts kept mulling around the subject for a little longer until he got interrupted by the sound of someone harrumphing and water dropping on the ground. He sat up in the bed and looked towards the source of the noise. His eyes had already adjusted to the dim light of his bedroom so he couldn’t directly look at the bright light that was shining in through the door where he made out someone standing. “What is it, Rainbow Dash?” he asked and got up completely, his eyes slowly adjusting to the bright light again, wondering what caused the sound of the water dropping.

“Sorry, didn’t wanna wake you, but I’m done showering and couldn’t find a towel,” she replied and looked down at the ground, a sheepish grin appearing on her face. Now that he was closer he could see why and stopped suddenly and starred at her. Her coat was soaked with water and myriads of droplets dripped down on the floor, forming a small puddle below her. “Sorry ‘bout that,” she said as she saw the mess she made.

But that wasn’t what had caught his attention. He was entranced by the way her soaked mane clung to her face, the few drops of water that ran over it, down her short snout, and the light that shone from behind her and reflected in every little drop, making her whole body shine as she stood there in front of him. Entranced by her looks, he couldn’t avert his eyes from her, seeing her in a whole new light for the first time. Wow… was all his mind was capable of thinking at the moment.

“Uhhh… something wrong?” Rainbow asked and tilted her head as she noticed how he stared at her, his mouth slightly opened. “Sorry if it’s ‘bout the water,” she said and looked at the, by now quite large, puddle of water underneath her, as well as the trail of water she had left behind her.

Finally he snapped back into reality and quickly shook his head. “N-no no,” he stammered. “It’s… uh… nothing… I, uh… you needed a towel, right?” he managed to press out and could feel a burning heat in his cheeks. “Right,” he repeated quickly as he saw the confused look she was throwing at him. “There should have been some in the bathroom but I have some over here as well,” he said and turned away from her, finally able to speak somewhat normally again as he headed over to his closet. He grabbed a fresh towel, stored in one of the top shelves, and turned around to her again.

She already stood behind him as he had turned around and eagerly grabbed the towel with her mouth; in the process of doing so, a few drop of water from her coat sprayed at him. “Thanks,” she said, her voice muffled by the towel in her mouth.

“Uh-huh,” was his simple response, his eyes already locked onto her. Luckily she didn’t notice as she was too busy drying herself with the towel, rubbing it around her face, soaking in the water that had seeped into her coat.

Rapidly he shook his head, trying to get a clear train of thoughts again but it was of no use. What is going on?! he was on the verge of shouting out. What am I even thinking?! Did… d-did I just think she looked… pretty? he questioned himself. No! he quickly denied the thought, although he knew very well that it was of no use. Well, she did look pretty… pretty with her mane so wet and the colors shining so brightly, he admitted after his eyes fell onto her another time. Still busy drying herself she didn’t notice the looks. Stop it! he ordered himself and managed to take his eyes off her again. ARGH! What am I even thinking!? She’s a horse! Uh... pegasus I mean, but still! This doesn’t even make sense, I…

“I’m ready,” Rainbows voice interrupted his confused train of thought. Baffled, he looked back at her, meeting her large, expectant magenta eyes. “Something wrong?” she asked as she noticed his expression. “You’re acting a bit weird, to be honest,” she said, raising a brow at the suddenly nervous human.

“Oh no, no, everything’s alright, it’s, uhh, I’m just excited that’s all. I really hope that the effort for getting the data from your flight earlier wasn’t for nothing,” he quickly responded, putting on a fake smile.

“Yeah, don’t worry so much ‘bout that, dude, it’s gonna be alright,” she assured him. “Now come on, the party’s gonna give you something else to think about,” she added and put on an excited grin. As she walked past him she whipped her tail lightly against his leg. “You coming?”

“Y-yeah,” he replied stutteringly and followed the cyan pegasus out of the door. And to think the day looked fairly good until now…

Chapter 15 - Let's get this...

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“Huh, what?” Steve said, confused, blinking a few times at Rainbow Dash who was hovering to his left. He lifted his hand up onto his forehead to protect his eyes from the late afternoon sun that had settled over this strange world. After his eyes had adjusted to the change of brightness, he saw Rainbow Dash staring at him with a strange look in her eyes.

“I asked if there’s something wrong?” she repeated herself, looking at him from top to bottom. “You’ve been so… I don’t know… distant since we left the shuttle.”

“Uhh w-well…” he stammered. What am hell am I supposed to say? he thought hastily. Hey, Rainbow Dash, I just found you looked sexy with a wet mane. Just thought I’d let you know. Yeah right. He had to resist rolling his eyes at his thoughts. There must be some kind of logical explanation to it. I mean, now that she’s back to normal, I don’t see her that way. Right? He found the question hard to answer in his state of confusion. Argh, damn it. Wait… didn’t she just say something? I should probably answer. “I-I just… it’s just that I am kind of curious about the party, that’s all,” he replied to her. “I’ve heard quite a lot about it now, and it’s very kind of Pinkie Pie to throw me one.”

“She does that for everypony that’s new to town! And everypony loves it!” she cheered. “Oh wait, you’re not a pony.” She glanced at him and shrugged. “Well, you’re going to like it too; it’s always so much fun, especially when AJ brings some of her cider along.” Her eyes widened in excitement at the thought, and she licked her lips.

“Cider?” Steve wondered, relieved that the changing of the subject worked so well. “You mean with alcohol?”

“Sure,” she answered immediately. “Well, at least most of it is. She makes some soft cider for the foals too, you know. But either way, I promise it’s the best drink you can get in the whole world.” She gave him a confident grin.

“Sounds promising. I’ve never had any cider before, and now you’ve got me curious.” The thought of the party didn’t seem so bad after all. It looked like he would be spending an evening with peo… ponies he could get along well with and would get the chance to meet even more. Also, the thought of alcohol was a pretty tempting hook. While he had never been a regular drinker on Earth, after all this time the thought of guzzling some alcohol was alluring.

“Never?” she wondered out loud, aiming a raised brow in his direction. “Oh man, you’ve really missed out on something. Now I really hope AJ brought a barrel.”

He could see her licking her lips with her tongue again in excitement and had to chuckle at the image. It must be really good if it gets her that excited. Oh well, I’ll see it soon; the town’s not too far away, he thought as he turned his gaze up ahead again and saw the outskirts of the town in the distance, just shy over a kilometer away.

“Are you always so… thoughtful?” he could hear Rainbow asking from the side. Again he looked at her; she was somehow managing to hover vertically. Her body was turned towards him, yet she flew to the left when flapping her wings. He was so confused at the strange act that it took him a moment to reply.

“I’ve heard that a few times in the past already,” he replied and shifted his view again to avoid being confused. “It only happens sometimes, mostly when I’m trying to solve a problem or I get thrown into a new situation. I tend to zone out then. Sorry about that, I don’t want you to think it’s because I’m bored or something.” Although it happens more often when I’m bored, he added in his thoughts but kept that part to himself. Being bored was not a very common state he had found himself in ever since he came here. The battle between the fear and anxiety of never returning home and the excitement of adventure had been ongoing ever since the visit to Canterlot, with each side shifting in force. As of now, he was cautiously optimistic. While the chances of success of finding a spell were dim, he also knew that he could not contribute to a solution in any way and therefore tried to make the best out of what he had now. And right now, that looked like partying and drinking with colorful little magical horsies. I’ll drink to that!

“Too much on your mind?” Rainbow inquired, scoffing and waving a hoof in casual dismissal of his words, all the while managing to keep herself steady while flying alongside him. “Tell me about it! But I’ve the perfect solution to that!”

He raised his brow in confusion. From what he had heard and seen so far, Rainbow Dash spent most of her time either sleeping or flying, and even though he didn’t want to sound disrespectful, he couldn’t quite imagine how many things would be on her mind. “And that is?” he wondered, trying not to sound a bit sarcastic. Fifty bucks on flying, he bet himself.

“Flying, of course,” she simply replied, bringing a sly grin to his face. “Soaring through the skies, feeling the wind underneath your wings, going faster and faster, faster than anypony else… it makes you feel alive.” He looked over to her as she continued talking. She slowed down in speed a bit and had a thoughtful look on her face. He slowed down as well and waited for her to continue talking, curious about what flying meant to her. “You can think about nothing else, just focus on flying, the flapping of your wings, using the airstreams to make you go even faster, and when you look back at the ground, everything has become so tiny. It really puts things into perspective and always makes me think about if—” She had suddenly stopped mid-sentence and quickly shook her head. Steve wondered what was wrong, but before he could ask, she continued talking again. “Uhm, yeah… it’s pretty cool,” she said awkwardly. He wondered why she stopped so suddenly. “Anyways, I’ll just go flying if something’s on my mind. That or sleeping.” She laughed loudly, and Steve joined in with a giggle.

Pretty much what I expected, he thought but still pondered about her sudden stop. Was she afraid of sounding like a philosopher because that isn’t very cool? Or was it something she’s embarrassed about? Steve wondered. “That sounds good, but juuust in case you haven’t noticed, I have no wings, making flying a bit hard for me,” he noted, a hint of humor leaking into his voice.

“Oh yeah, I forgot that.” Rainbow replied and grinned sheepishly. “Anyways, soon you’ll have other things to think about! Look, we’re almost there!”

He looked around and noticed that they were at the entrance of the town already. As with most of his visits, the town was almost deserted. That didn’t have to mean anything bad, however. He saw a few ponies walking through the streets, not enough as earlier today but still more than usual. Why do I even expect to see more of them on the streets? There are about… what did Twilight say? Three hundred? It would be more unrealistic to see many more of them right now, especially if they are practically all invited to this party, if Pinkie Pie was not using metaphors all the time. Somehow I doubt that though.

A few minutes later, Sugarcube Corner came into their sight, a building so unique it would have been impossible to miss. He threw a quick glance at his watch. Five to seven. Almost perfectly on time, he thought with a satisfied smile while they were approaching the bakery. From the outside he couldn’t see any difference to it, though he could make out some shadowy figures on the other side of the windows. The warm light from the bakery reached down onto the streets, illuminating the both of them. By now the sun was so low that it was casting long shadows from the surrounding buildings, engulfing the street in a dim darkness.

The two walked over to the door, which was closed. Unsure whether to just enter or knock, he stuck with the latter and raised his hand. His fist was a few centimeters from making contact with the pink wooden door before it swung open, revealing a pony of the same color behind it.

“HEYA STEVE! HEYA DASHIE!” Pinkie cheered excitedly, wrapping a hoof around their necks and pulling them inside. The force of her tug was so strong that he would have surely fallen over if he hadn’t been held in a bone crushing hug that made the air in his lungs quickly fade away.

“Pinkie… stop….” he managed to press out from underneath the pressure.

“Oops, sorry!” she said sheepishly and quickly released him. Stumbling backwards a bit, he was able to quickly catch his breath again, and now saw that Rainbow Dash had to endure the same procedure as him; the pegasus also looking quite relieved that it was over. “I was just so happy that you two made it! I was so excited that I could have just burst!” A few streamers and some confetti flew out of her hair as she said the last part while jumping through the air. “Ohhhh, that’s where I left them,” she noted as she saw the decorations flying around and made a noise that sounded like a giggle and a snort combined, which Steve instantly found adorable.

Steve threw a confused look at her and then over to Rainbow Dash, who just shrugged when she noticed his stare. “Umm, yeah. Of course we’d make it, Pinkie,” Rainbow replied for them, running her hoof across her chest to soothe the pain and unruffle her feathers and mane that Pinkie’s cheerful greeting had made into an even more dishevelled state than usual.

“Well I know that now! I was just so worried. What if you got lost? What if you forgot? What if you overslept? What if something happened on the way and nopony knew what happened and everypony thought you wouldn’t come to my party because you didn’t like me and—”

“Pinkie!” Rainbow loudly interrupted the rambling pony’s almost endless stream of words.

“Oops, sorry,sorry,” she apologized once more, catching herself again and giving a small smile this time. “I’m just happy that you made it. Now you’ll finally get your party!”

“Thanks, Pinkie. I’m glad to be here.” Steve returned her smile. He truly meant what he said. Even though he had had his misgivings about attending a party in his honour, not being the type of person that thrived on attention, he found it hard not to be caught up in Pinkie’s enthusiasm.

He eagerly looked around to see what Pinkie Pie had prepared. She had really outdone herself from what he could see so far. The large room that only had a few tables scattered through it the last time he was here was completely rearranged. The small tables were gone, replaced by multiple, significantly larger ones, lined up together at the side of the room where the windows were. Most of them held the plethora of food and drinks she had prepared. Indeed, he could hardly believe his eyes at the sight of all the treats she had on display. Cakes and pies in all forms, colors, and sizes took up most of the space, demanding his worship, taunting him with their arrogant delectability. But there was still more. Between the large cakes were various trays filled up with different snacks. Unfortunately, he couldn’t make out from afar what exactly they were, but he was sure to find out later. His stomach insisted on it, promising vile retribution if he dared do otherwise. Four large bowls of punch promised refreshments for the guests.

On the opposite wall some curtains he hadn’t noticed during his first brief visit were pulled back, revealing two larger booths embedded into the wall with a large couch encircling a round table. The middle of the room was empty aside from a gramophone that was perched upon a small stool between the two booths. There was only one thing he could tell that was truly missing from such a setting. Ponies.

There were only about a dozen ponies in the room, which wasn’t a bad thing for him by any means, but he had expected more. From the usual group of ponies, he could only spot two more. That included Twilight, who had noticed the newcomers and was gesturing to them, two other ponies at her side - Applejack and a beige earth pony. As they drew nearer, he could see that the strange pony had a bright grey mane and was wearing a saddlebag on her back. With the small glasses that balanced perfectly on her muzzle, she was also one of the few ponies he saw here in Ponyville that actually wore any kind of accessory.

In the second group, he could see the back of a large, red stallion with an orange mane and a wooden yoke. That must be Big Mac then. Haven’t seen any pony to match his size yet, he thought, looking over to three little ponies - fillies, he reminded himself - that were sitting on the opposite side of the table, barely able to look over its edge. He couldn’t quite see it clearly from where he was standing, but it seemed like they were snickering. For some reason it sounded ominous, and he had to suppress an unintentional shudder.

The last pony in the room was a grey pegasus mare with a blond mane standing at the buffet. She seemed to be busy eating something she held in her hoof, but he couldn’t make out what exactly it was from so far away. She did seem pretty excited by it though, judging from the way her wings were fluttering, which caused her to lift off into the air before landing to grab and munch on something else.

“Don’t worry, more ponies will come. They always do. It’s not even seven o’ clock yet!” Pinkie said as she noticed him looking around at the sparsely populated room. He looked back at her, and though she sounded cheerful enough, her eyes were rapidly wandering around, and her smile didn’t seem to be as bright as usual. In fact, Steve dared to imagine that it had shrunk somewhat since they arrived.

Before he got the chance to reply, however, the first group of ponies he had seen stopped in front of him. “Howdy you two.” Applejack greeted them with the tip of her hat before turning to Pinkie Pie. “See Pinkie? Told ya they were gonna show up. Wasn’t no need to panic.” Pinkie sat listlessly in front of the door again and stared at it, seemingly willing to remain in that position until the next party guest arrived. She didn’t even seem to notice that Applejack was saying something.

“Hello Steve. Glad that you came,” she greeted him, her eyes falling on Rainbow Dash. “Good to see you here too Dash, though I guess I shouldn’t be surprised that you’re actually early for a Pinkie party.” Applejack smirked, nudging the pegasus in the side playfully with her hoof. Before they could return the greeting or retort, in Rainbow Dash’s case, she pointed at the pony standing next to her, who was looking on at their interaction keenly. “Steve, I would like to introduce you to Miss Mayor Mare. Mayor Mare, this is Steve, the human I told you about.”

Mayor Mare? Is that seriously her name? Do they ever bother taking a stab at originality or unpredictability every now and again? “Hello, how do you do?” he held out a hand, but she only stepped back instinctively, looking at him with confusion. He let his hand drop to his side quickly before he made things even more awkward. “Ahem… so, let me guess, you’re the mayor?” he asked rhetorically, hoping to move things along.

“Yes, that’s right. A fine hello to you, Mr Steve. I finally get to meet the new resident of our small town, even if it is one who err… is from so far away. I apologize it took so long for this meeting, but my schedule was very tight the last couple of days,” she said quickly and ended with an awkward laugh. “Twilight has told me a lot about you already, and even though you have been here for a few days, you have not officially been welcomed to the town yet. And what better welcome could one get than a Pinkie Pie party?”

“None, from what I’ve heard so far,” he replied and looked around at the almost empty room again.

“Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way, I hope we can discuss something a bit more serious.” She straightened herself, peering up at him from behind her glasses. “I have been informed that you will be enjoying an… extended stay in and around Ponyville, and even though it was on short notice,” she said the last part in mild annoyance, “I have organised and drawn up a permanent visa,” she pulled out a sealed scroll from her saddlebags, which she then gingerly handed over to him, making sure that her hoof never came into contact with his hand. “This document will allow you to legally reside within our town’s jurisdiction, along with the provision of various other privileges and rights. You can read it all in there if you so desire. The document will become valid as soon as you attach your signature and return it to either me or my office, where it will be processed and approved.”

He looked up from the ponies to the scroll in his hand, breaking the seal that held it together and then unrolled it. It was so long that the other end almost touched the ground. “Uhhh,” he murmured intelligently while skimming over the first few lines. Now that he was reading a longer text for the first time, he noticed that the ponies even used the same English letters here just like on Earth, even though they made use of pictograms quite often. How they could speak and write the same language as humans was a mystery, but one for another day. “Thanks for that, I guess,” he said, more to himself than anyone in the group, still skimming through the document.

“It was my idea,” Twilight threw in, stepping forward to stand next to the mayor. “It wasn’t until today that I realized that you were not officially allowed residence here in Ponyville, even though you’re living in the Everfree forest. So I pulled some strings, helped the mayor organise the paperwork, and now everything is settled.”

He looked up from the scroll and saw Twilight beaming at him and looking quite proud of herself. “Umm, thanks for that. I will look at it tomorrow though, if you don’t mind,” he replied, rolling up the scroll again.

“That’s perfectly fine. I think in your special case we can make an exception,” the mayor agreed.

“Great… now where I can put this? I don’t really want to carry it around the whole evening. It is a bit big,” he pointed out, hefting the scroll in his hand.

“I will take care of it,” Twilight said. In the next moment, her horn began to glow, and the scroll in his hand was encased in the same purple light that always appeared when he saw her casting magic. He could feel the power of her magic as the scroll was pulled out of his hand, sending a strange prickling feeling shooting across his hand and up his entire arm, almost as if he had fallen asleep on it. The feeling remained for a few seconds after the scroll had left his hand, before it slowly faded away. Curious, he looked at his hand and stretched his fingers a few times, but he could see no visible change to them, though he could feel some phantom tingling every now and again.

“Okay, I put… is everything alright?” he heard Twilight ask, causing him to look up from his hand. Only now did he notice that they had all been watching him while he had stared in fascination at his hand and wiggled his fingers.

“Uhm…” he began and awkwardly looked around at the mostly confused faces of the other ponies. “It’s just that this was the first time I ever felt your magic directly. It feels really… weird.”

Immediately, and without saying a word, Twilight grabbed his arms and pulled them towards her. Inquisitively, she looked at them from up close, turning them around a bit, and let out a contemplative sigh.

“Err…. Twilight? What are you doing?” he carefully tried to pull his arm back, but the pony’s grip was surprisingly firm.

“Oops, sorry.” Twilight grinned sheepishly, quickly releasing his arm. “I just wanted to make sure everything is alright. I have never tested the influence of magic on humans. This is just so exciting! Tell me exactly what you felt.” A wide, excited grin appeared on her face and she looked at him expectantly. “Please,” she added quickly, seeing his reluctance, “It’s for science!”

“Alright, alright, I think we’ll just leave you two babbling about yer fancy magic while we get something to eat,” Applejack said, stepping forward and effectively interrupting the conversation before Steve could give an answer to the unicorn’s passionate plea. “You should eat something too, Dash. You don’t want me to drink you under the table again if you go in unprepared again, do you?” Applejack nudged the pegasus once again, much to her annoyance. Steve turned to her in mild surprise; he had almost forgotten about Rainbow Dash standing slightly behind him. In his defence, he had never seen her remain so quiet for so long a period of time.

“Oh, it is on!” Rainbow glared at her, a determined grin on her face as they left, making a beeline towards the buffet, leaving Steve, Twilight, and Mayor Mare behind.

“Well, I don’t want to get in your way then. I’ll just go…” the mayor slowly backed away from them and looked at Pinkie Pie, who was still sitting in front of the door, staring at it. “… over there! Yes, right there,” she continued, pointing at the single grey pegasus at the other side of the room who seemed to be chasing her own tail for some reason.

He watched, bemused as the mayor scooted off, before he felt a tug on his hand and turned towards Twilight again. “So? What did you feel? Did it hurt? When did the feeling start? Did it get more intense over time and fade off again or was it there with full intensity the whole time? What…” she kept babbling on, giving him no time to answer before she finally realized and stopped herself. “Sorry,” she grinned again, her eyes sparkling with excitement.

“Hehe, no problem,” he waved it off. At least her enthusiasm seemed limited to one area as opposed to Pinkie Pie, who he guessed could find something to be thrilled about while watching paint dry on a wall. “It’s the first time I felt it, I think it’s because I directly touched the scroll while you had it in your magic. My arm started tingling like I had slept on it for a while. The numbness faded away a few seconds after the contact was broken. Feels perfectly normal now.” He waved his arm in front of her face.

“Hmm,” she slowly said and tapped her forehoof against her chin. “If the effect was not intended, then you shouldn’t have been able to even feel magic. At least, that is how it works on ponies and other beings here in Equestria, and I did not even target something at you directly. Even wild animals, as far as I know, don’t actually feel magic like you described,”

“And what does that mean for me now?” he asked, starting to feel a twinge a worry creep over him at the serious look on Twilight’s face.

“I can’t tell. Like I said, a phenomenon like this doesn’t usually happen here. I would have to run some more tests,” she replied slowly and peeked at his arm again, pensively tapping her hoof against it.

“Tests?” he asked carefully, not liking how ominous that word seemed to sound. “You don’t mean that you’re actually going to cast some spell at me and see what will happen, right?”

“Why not? That would be the easiest way to gather empirical data. Just imagine how much we could learn from that. For now, it seems that you could be vulnerable to magic, but you could also work as an amplifier,” she explained quickly, hoping to get him to share her excitement. However, the thought of him being used as her lab rat for some magic experiments wasn’t exactly a comforting thought for him at the moment.

“I don’t know Twilight, don’t you think it’s a bit dangerous?” he asked and gave her a doubtful look, hoping she wouldn’t push the topic.

She seemed to consider it for a moment, judging by the thoughtful look on her face. “Maybe a little,” she admitted after a while, looking a bit saddened at the thought. “I guess you don’t want to take the risk then?”

“Not particularly, but maybe we’ll find another way that doesn’t sound too dangerous,” he proposed. “But right now,” he looked around for a moment, “I would rather enjoy this party instead of thinking how to run some tests.”

“Oh, of course,” she agreed, perking up a bit, though she still had a small frown on her face. “I hope more ponies are coming. This is extremely unusual for a Pinkie—”

Twilight was interrupted by the sound of the door being slammed open and a faint yelp as Pinkie Pie, who had been sitting on the floor next to them the entire time, suddenly pounced on the newcomer.

“P-Pinkie… can’t breathe... please….” They could hear a muffled voice from underneath Pinkie Pie pleading with her.

“FLUTTERSHY!” Pinkie squealed in excitement at the yellow pegasus below her before moving off of her, squeezing her tightly and then releasing her, causing her to look around nervously and confused. Twilight shook her head as she met her look, silently telling the newcomer that she should not question what was going on, not that Fluttershy needed any reminding.

“Uhm… yes, Pinkie? I’m sorry for being so late, I just was so caught up with preparing dinner for all the critters that I barely got here in time,” she whispered while slowly getting up from the ground where Pinkie had dumped her upon releasing her. “Hi,” she said quietly in the direction of Twilight and Steve.

“Pinkie Pie?” Twilight said to her pink friend, who had returned to her spot and resumed staring at the door again. “Do you maybe want to join us and get some snacks?” She waited for a few seconds but no reply came. “Pinkie?” she repeated.

“Later. Have to welcome the guests first.” A short reply came this time, her eyes not leaving the door for a moment.

Twilight looked worriedly at Fluttershy, who returned the look before gesturing at Pinkie Pie. “I think it might be for the best if we just let her do it for a while longer. At least until Rarity arrives,” Fluttershy whispered to Twilight so quietly that she had to strain to understand what Fluttershy was saying. Meanwhile, Steve looked around the sparse room and at the few ponies mingling with one another, wondering if they knew what was going on with Pinkie Pie.

Twilight nodded shortly and motioned for her two companions to follow her as she headed towards the buffet. Once they were a suitable distance from Pinkie, and the sounds of the conversations their friends were having could prevent her from overhearing them, they could talk freely. “What is going on with her?” Steve looked back at Pinkie Pie. She had slumped down onto the floor now, almost looking… defeated. In his admittedly brief time he had known her, he had never seen her looking anything but cheerful.

The two ponies looked at each other, and Fluttershy nodded. Twilight turned towards Steve and said, “Well, Pinkie is very… joyful most of the time, so on the few occasions when she isn’t it can be… worrisome for us. Right now, the fact that almost nopony has showed up for the party so far is hurting her.” Twilight’s ears folded back as she looked to the floor, her frown growing larger. “You should have seen how excited she was earlier when I arrived. She was singing about how she happy she would be introducing you to all her other friends. And now, she’s like this.” She sighed, running a hoof through her mane distractedly. “I’m not talking about the usual disappointment one would feel either. When Pinkie gets sad… it’s almost as if she falls into depression.”

He threw a worried look over to Pinkie Pie; the mare seemed to be frozen in place as she kept her vigil. “That sounds awful. Shouldn’t we help her somehow?”

“Yes,” Fluttershy softly agreed, “but we should wait until Rarity is here to show her that at least all her best friends have come.”

Steve didn’t seem quite convinced. Seeing Pinkie’s usual happy spirit drain away made him sad as well, especially now that he saw how much she had pulled off for this party in the short amount of time she had since earlier that day. For some reason, he felt a small ball of discomfort growing in his stomach, gripping and twisting his insides. “Hmm… if you think it’s for the best,” he said, uncertainty lacing his voice.

“I would rather do something now, but Fluttershy is right. It’s not easy to convince Pinkie of something when she is in this mood, and we should wait until we are all here,” Twilight declared, sounding resolute in her statement. Steve wished he could be as confident as that right now. “But you shouldn’t worry about that tonight. Enjoy the party. We will handle Pinkie Pie,” she said, trying to sound cheerful. To Steve, it rang just the tiniest bit hollow.

As much as he would have liked to simply enjoy this evening, there was still one question that was bothering him as he dragged out a chair that was much too small for his frame and struggled to squeeze himself on it. “How come so few of the townsfolk have shown up? From what I have heard, Pinkie’s parties are famous, and when I walked through town earlier today, the ponies didn’t seem to be bothered by me in any way. I would have understood that in the first few days I was here, but I thought they had gotten over it?”

Twilight sighed, a long, drawn out exhalation that seemed to destroy the veneer of cheerfulness she had been trying to display earlier. In its place was a mare that looked frustrated and forlorn. “I don’t know how things are for humans, Steve. There are a lot of things I don’t know about your kind because you haven’t really told me anything.” For a second, she seemed to glare at him harshly, but she was back to looking completely stressed out so quickly that Steve had to do a double take to make sure he hadn’t missed anything. “What I can tell you from my observations and personal e-experience,” her voice faltered slightly as she uttered her last words; she shook her head and continued, “is that ponies usually don’t react or adjust to sudden changes well. And you are an alien, Steve.” She trotted up to him and hesitantly placed a hoof on his hand. For once, he didn’t mind sudden bodily contact. “I didn’t want to tell you this so, I guess bluntly is the word I’m looking for, especially during your first Pinkie party, but…. although most ponies are no longer completely scared of you like they used to be, it will take a long while for them to completely overcome these fears. Until then, I’m afraid they are going to avoid you. Do you remember what I told you about Zecora?” she asked softly.

“The zebra?” he muttered after a moment of thinking. It was hard trying to focus on something she had told him a few days ago, after she had just bluntly told him that the entire town was avoiding him. While their initial reaction wasn’t to be totally unexpected – he might have had a similar response if he had seen an alien casually walking through his home back on Earth – but it was hard to shake that sudden, lonely feeling of being labelled as an almost total outcast.

“Yes, the zebra. A zebra is far more similar to a pony than a human, and even then, Zecora needed a lot of time for us ponies to drop our initial fear of her. I’m not even sure all of them have. I know there are still some stores that close any time she comes into town.” She explained with a shake of her head. “To be honest, I did not expect many ponies to show up, although a bit more than that,” she admitted and looked around the almost empty room. “I hope a few more will come a bit later. It is just barely past seven.”

“I don’t really mind that much if not that many show up. I don’t like large crowds much.” Well, that was only half true. While he didn’t really like large gatherings, he didn’t want them to disappear because of his presence. “I just… feel really bad for Pinkie.” And that, he realized, was the crux of the matter, the thing that left him feeling so uncomfortable. Though eccentric and overly energetic, Pinkie Pie had probably done the most to make him feel welcome in Ponyville. Just looking at what she had done to the room with the gaily colored decorations, the amount of food and snacks she had probably spent her entire evening baking, caused a brief surge of anger to flow through his body when he thought about everything going to waste. I think I remember Pinkie saying that everyone in town was her friend. Can’t say I can see it from tonight, he thought, the good mood he had arrived with threatening to make an early exit.

“I know, so do I. But she would definitely want you, and us, to enjoy this party.” Twilight’s voice broke through his muddled thoughts. She was giving him a look of concern, the stressed out and tired looking pony from before gone. “We will cheer her up as soon as we can. For now, all I can say is try not to think about it too much. So, what do you say we do this for Pinkie?” She gave him a bright smile, though he could detect a certain amount of steely determination that lay behind it.

He ran a hand through his hair, mussing it up slightly. “I guess so.” While their conversation had soured him somewhat, just thinking about Pinkie’s reaction if her guest of honour didn’t enjoy himself made him feel uneasy. He gave Twilight a smile to reassure her, and she trotted past them. Steve wiggled out of the chair, having to struggle a bit as it briefly stuck to him, and made to follow the unicorn. Before he could get too far though, he felt something poking his sides, causing him to turn around. Fluttershy scrambled back as he turned around to face her, the pegasus looking abashed. He thought she might have wandered off as he was talking to Twilight, but it seemed she was listening all this time.
“Umm… Are y-you going to be okay?” she asked, peering at him hesitantly from beneath her silky mane. “I hope you d-don’t hate everypony in Ponyville now,” she whispered, looking downcast.

Trying to break my heart, Fluttershy? he silently asked her. She could cause Ebenezer Scrooge’s heart to melt with pity with the way she was looking at him. His own heart seemed to stop momentarily. “Of course I don’t hate everyone,” he reassured her. He really didn’t. Their avoidance of him wasn’t enough to make him truly dislike them. “As for being okay… yeah, I will be.” That was a half-truth. He didn’t hate them, but he wasn’t sure how he was supposed to feel. For now though, he would have to try and brush aside his misgivings, for Pinkie Pie’s sake.

“Oh, that’s g-good.” Instantly, the sad pegasus was replaced by a gently smiling Fluttershy. It made Steve feel better about lying to her. “Just remember that you can always talk to me… if you want to.” She pawed at the ground nervously, peering up at him. “I’m a good listener. W-Well, at least my friends think so.” She smiled shyly at him.

“I’ll be sure to pick you up on that some time.” He wasn’t going to unless he couldn’t help it. He was sure that she was busy taking care of her animals; he wasn’t about to needlessly add to her burden, especially if it was something they couldn’t help fix. “Should we go join Twilight?” he asked, looking to turn the conversation solidly in another direction.

To his relief, she meekly nodded, and they walked over to where Twilight was perusing the mountains of food that Pinkie had provided for her guests. She motioned them over to her. “Look at all this delicious food... I’ve barely eaten anything since lunch, I can’t wait much longer to get something to eat here.” Her growling stomach supported her words causing her to giggle, a light blush appearing on her cheeks. “Hmmm, I think I’ll have some hay fries,” she said and her horn began to glow.

Steve looked over to the tables that held the buffet and saw a large bowl next to him glow in purple light and its contents, which looked to be something that resembled fried chips, emerged out of it. Twilight levitated the food over to herself and ate a few of the hay fries, as she called them, with a satisfied smile. Curiously, he took a single fry out of the bowl and held it closer for inspection. It was about the length of his index finger and very warm, but not too hot to burn his hand, and also very thin. The color, which he expected to be yellow, was a dark orange. A quick sniff at it gave no smell away. He shrugged and popped it in his mouth. It was tasteless. So it really is just fried hay, he thought, grimacing slightly as he searched for a napkin where he could safely dispose of the remains.

Finding one, he made sure no one would see him spit the chewed up remains into it. Maybe hay was tasty for the ponies, but he preferred something else, preferably something that would agree with his stomach. He found a pile of plates in one corner and began to move along the tables, scooping everything that looked appealing onto his plate. Tasting one of the cakes, he was once again reminded of how considerate Pinkie was – she had made sure to use less sugar in them so he could eat it. At the middle of the second table, however, he noticed that his plate was already overloaded. That should do. For now. He turned away from the mountain of food, heading towards the booth the other ponies sat in.

***

“Aww… don’t be like that. We’ve seen you two going to picnics and stuff. Ya can finally admit it that yer really datin’.” Apple Bloom pointed at the two adult ponies across the table who sat a comfortable distance from each other as they awkwardly tried to avoid each other’s gazes.

“Girls…” Cheerilee sighed and turned towards the three little fillies that had been intent on watching Big Macintosh and herself with wide grins ever since they had arrived here at the party. Pinkie Pie had dropped by after classes had finished and handed her an invitation to one of her parties, it had sounded like a lovely idea for her to come here, especially after she found out Big Macintosh would be attending. There was nothing official between the two of them yet, but after the fillies had tried to set them up a while ago, they did start to do more things together – having a picnic occasionally at Sweet Apple Acres, Big Macintosh often swinging by the schoolhouse to help her, sometimes even before she knew she needed it.

Slowly but steadily, they had grown more and more accustomed to each other until they reached the point where they thought of each other as more than just friends. As things stood, neither of them wanted to miss out on a chance to spend an evening together. They rarely found time to spend with each other, with both of them working during the day, and Big Macintosh often being very exhausted after a whole day out in the orchard bucking apples or doing repairs around the farm. Until the two of them could firmly acknowledge and agree that there was something serious between them, they didn’t want to reveal their budding relationship to the public. After all, some ponies couldn’t help but stick their noses in other ponies’ business, good intentions or not. However, apparently neither she nor Big Macintosh could hide it from the three, more than just curious fillies that immediately took a seat next to them after they had arrived at the party. She couldn’t blame them though; they had put a lot of effort into getting them together the last time and were surely happy to see that it worked out in the end.

Still, she had to at least try to cut them off before their enthusiasm went too far. “Haven’t you three learned anything from the last time? Remember that these are the kinds of things left to the ponies involved, and that you should give them time?” she lectured.

“Yes, Miss Cheerilee. Sorry, Miss Cheerilee,” Apple Bloom, Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle disappointedly chanted in unison and turned their gazes downwards. They couldn’t wipe the grin off their faces, however, as they exchanged some quick glances between each other.

“Very good, girls. I have to say that I’m rather surprised to see you here in the first place. It is quite a late party for such little ponies, don’t you think?” she asked and carefully looked at the snickering fillies.

“But don’t you know who this party is for?” Scootaloo piped up and met her teacher’s confused face.

“Pinkie only said something about a new friend, but I suppose it’s going to be that human, right?” she guessed.

“Eeyup,” Big Mac replied shortly and nodded.

“I have to admit, I’m a little curious to see what he… it’s a him, right?” She stopped for a moment and after seeing Big Mac nodding again, she continued, “To see what he really looks like. With all the rumors spreading around at school, it makes it hard to separate the truth from the wild imaginations of various colts and fillies. Though some of their parents aren’t much better,” she added dryly before focusing on the three fillies that seemed determined to add excitement into her life when she desired none. “But that makes it even more questionable that you came here. All I’ve heard from the others was that some weird monster from the sky now lives in the forests and eats little foals with his sharp teeth. Total nonsense of course if you ask me, but the others at school seemed so scared of him.”

“That’s why we’re all here,” Apple Bloom spoke for the group. “Ya know how much we value community here in Ponyville, and we’re gonna welcome him appropriately.” She and her friends aimed their most innocent smiles that had devastated the hearts of ponies across Ponyville. Unfortunately, their teacher had developed a resistance to such displays over time.

Instead, Cheerilee simply cast a dubious look in their direction. “Just don’t do any of your crazy crusading things on him.” Cheerilee told them sternly.

“Us?” Sweetie Belle chirped with exaggerated surprise and pointed a hoof at her own chest. “We would never do something like that,” she added determinedly and shook her head, causing both adults to roll their eyes.

“No, of course not. It is not like we’ve ever experienced what you three are capable of, right, Big Macintosh?” Cheerilee asked, a light giggle escaping her as turned towards her companion for the night.

“Nope,” the stallion replied and returned the look with a soft smile on his usually motionless face.

The grin on the fillies’ faces widened again as the two ponies began to scoot a bit closer together.

“Hey, look at the door!” Scootaloo suddenly hissed to her friends while she pointed over to the entrance. “That must be him.”

Her two friends immediately looked away from the scene of the soon-to-be couple showing their affection to each other, instead peeking over at the door.

“Positive contact,” Apple Bloom quickly confirmed, nodding her head resolutely. “See the clothes he’s wearing! And two legs! Two! I told ya!”

“Alright, what’s the next step in the plan? Getting in here was surprisingly easy, I didn’t think your sisters would let you come. Now what?” Scootaloo asked and expectantly looked over at Sweetie Belle.

“I’ve got it all here,” she said and pulled out a small notebook from underneath the table. She skimmed over a few pages until she found what she was looking for. “Ahh, here we go. Step one, accire… wait, that’s a mistake. Do you girls know how to spell acquire?”

Scootaloo and Apple Bloom rolled their eyes. “Ah don’t care ‘bout step one, we’ve already done that. Go to step two!” Apple Bloom ordered harshly.

“Alright, alright,” Sweetie Belle snapped back. “Step two… observe the alien.”

“That’s all?” Scootaloo asked and raised her brow.

“Umm… yes,” Sweetie Belle replied after she skimmed over the lines one more time. “See?” she asked and held the notepad in front of Scootaloo’s muzzle. “Why are you so surprised? We made this plan altogether. Did you forget that already?”

“Argh, forget the notes, we have to improvise,” Scootaloo decided after she read the two lines of text on the page of the notepad that was otherwise only filled with doodles.

“But how? What should we d— AHH!” Sweetie Belle yelped as a hoof wrapped around her neck and pulled her underneath the table. “What the hay was that for, Apple Bloom?!” She pointed at her earth pony friend and rubbed the back of her neck where she had been grabbed.

“He was looking over here. We can’t risk blowing our cover now,” she hissed at her two friends and motioned them to stay hidden. Slowly, she moved over to the corner of the booth and quickly sneaked a peak. “Alright, he’s still at the entrance talking with the mayor and Twilight. Come on, girls. We have to reposition!” she ordered her friends and they swiftly ran alongside the wall until they reached the area behind the counter near the entrance.

“Did he see us?” Sweetie Belle squeaked, her voice filled with fear.

“I don’t think so,” Apple Bloom replied and sneaked another peak around the counter. “Nope, doesn’t look like it; he’s still talking with Twilight. Good work, Crusaders.”

“Now what?” Sweetie Belle wanted to know. “We can’t just hide behind here.”

The three fillies sat down in a circle, each of them tapping a hoof against their chins while trying to come up with an idea. “I got it!” Scootaloo cheered excitedly, her wings fluttering briefly. The expectant eyes of her two friends immediately rested upon her. “Apple Bloom, lift me up so I can look through the glass of the counter. I’ll tell you everything I see, and Sweetie Belle can write it down,” she explained hastily.

“Urgh, why do I have to carry you? Can’t you just look around the counter?” Apple Bloom retorted, sounding annoyed at the idea of having her friend stand on her.

“No way,” Scootaloo replied and shook her head. “If he looks over, he’ll immediately see me if I look around, but I’m hidden this way. You’re also the strongest of us. Or do you have a better idea?”

“Argh… no,” Apple Bloom grumbled after a while and positioned herself at the counter, waiting for the orange filly to climb upon her back. “Just hurry up, will ya?”

Sweetie Belle, with pen and paper ready, watched excitedly as Scootaloo carefully climbed upon Apple Bloom’s back. “Oof, ya shouldn’t have eaten so many hay fries. Yer heavy!” Apple Bloom complained with a muffled voice as soon as the pegasus’ full weight was placed upon her.

“Hey! I’m still lighter than you,” Scootaloo hissed down at her.

“Are ya saying I’m fat?” Apple Bloom snarled and slowly lifted herself off the ground so that Scootaloo’s head was at the same height as the glass vitrine of the counter, where she could look through beneath a chocolate cake and some muffins to spot the human.

“Uhm… no… I….” Scootaloo stammered. “I found him! Sweetie Belle, get ready,” she ordered, relieved about the distraction. “Wow…”

“What?” Apple Bloom grumbled. “What do ya see?”

“He’s… eating hay fries?” Scootaloo explained, surprise evident in her voice.

“Hay fries?” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom chorused, confused. They figured the alien ate snails or boogers. Something ordinary like hay fries never crossed their minds.

“Yes, hay. And he’s grabbing them with his claws. Write that down, write that down! He’s eating hay!” Scootaloo quickly ordered Sweetie Belle, who scribbled the notes down. “He’s walking again. Heh, that’s some funny walk. Only one leg moves at a time; it looks like he’s always going to fall down. Now he’s… oh, ew! He’s spitting out the hay fry into a napkin! Guess he doesn’t eat hay after all… He’s going to… oh shoot.”

“What?” both her friends piped up in unison once again.

Carefully, Scootaloo stepped off from Apple Bloom’s back. “I can’t see him from here. He’s in the other booth with Rainbow and her friends,” she told them.

“Dang it! Now what?” Apple Bloom asked around.

“We have to move, of course. If he’s going to brainwash anypony, we have to catch him in the act. So far everypony seems normal, but who knows when he’s going to try some of his funny business,” Scootaloo replied quickly. “We can hide underneath the buffet. Maybe he’ll be too distracted to see us on the way.”

“Alright, Crusaders! Move out!” Apple Bloom ordered and swiftly dashed around the counter, her friends closely behind her.

***

Careful not to drop anything, he carried his plate over to their table and took a free seat next to Applejack. He looked around, spotting Twilight and Fluttershy again, who were quicker in filling their plates than him and now sat next to Rainbow Dash, Mayor Mare and the unknown pegasus he had seen before. “Mhh… looking good what ya got there,” Applejack said between two bites from an apple pie as she threw over a look from her already almost empty plate.

“I hope it tastes good too,” he added, his mouth began watering while he decided what to try first. “Oh, that reminds me,” he said a bit louder, and the ponies looked up from their meals. “I just wanted to thank you for the care package you left me. It was amazing and greatly improved the quality of my supplies. I sure hope it will last for a while, after eating some of your local food I just couldn’t go back to my regular rations.”

“Yer welcome,” Applejack replied for the group and gave him a pat on the back. “We all added something to it and hoped you’d like it.”

“I haven’t sampled everything yet, but it looked great during the unboxing. It was much appreciated,” he thanked them and looked around the group with a smile on his face. He stopped as his gaze went past the unknown pony. Her blond mane matched almost perfectly to her light brownish golden eyes. Her eyes caught his attention for a while, with one pointing at a plate filled with a few muffins in front of her, and the other pointing towards the ceiling. At the sight of the wall-eyed pegasus, he now realized that he had never seen a pony so far with any medical issues or visible illnesses, making him curious if their diseases were similar to the ones known on Earth. That thought also served to worry him a bit since he’d had so much contact with this alien planet that he could have easily caught an unknown virus that could’ve easily resulted in a painful death, seeing as his immune system would have unlikely been able to fight off any other-worldly pathogens. He shuddered a little at the thought and was relieved that so far nothing had happened to him. He shouldn’t have simply taken the entire environment as safe after checking the atmosphere and a few food samples. His thoughts would have kept drifting, but he didn’t want to zone out again, and he had already stared at the pegasus for a while now, luckily without her noticing.

“Hello...” he said to her. She looked up from the half-eaten muffin in her hoof, cocking her head to the side. “I don’t think we have met yet, I’m Steve.”

“Hi,” she replied with a warm smile, her voice raspy yet friendly. “I’m Derpy, or at least that’s what everypony calls me. You can call me that too, even though you’re not a pony.”

“Well, it’s nice of you to come, Derpy,” he replied and returned her smile.

“Pinkie makes very good muffins, and her parties are always so much fun. I wonder where all the other ponies are. Usually they’re all here. Maybe they got lost?” She looked around confusedly.

“I don’t kn—” he began but was interrupted by a loud scream from the door, causing all the ponies to raise their heads and look at the source of the sound.

“STAY AWAY, PINKIE PIE! YOU WILL NOT MESS UP MY MANE AGAIN!” That was clearly Rarity’s voice as she shouted at her pink friend, who was lying on the ground where Rarity must have stood only a split second ago. Apparently, she had tried to pull her into the same cheerful greeting all newcomers had to endure, but the fashionista had managed to sidestep just in time.

He glanced briefly at the other ponies at the table, and they nodded. Now that their usual group was all here, it was time to help Pinkie Pie. Leaving Derpy and the mayor behind at the table, the group made their way towards the door.

“Pinkie! We saw each other not even two hours ago. Don’t be so clingy now.” Rarity spoke in a more mild mannered voice this time as she had calmed herself down from the surprise attack. “Ah, I’m delighted to see you have all made it,” she said as she noticed her friends and shot them a confused look. “I do hope you can tell me what is going on here.”

Surprisingly, Fluttershy was the first to speak. “We think Pinkie… uhm… is going through one of her…. phases again,” she said quietly, pointing a delicate hoof around the room.

“Ohhh,” was all that escaped Rarity’s mouth as she saw how empty the room was and quickly picked up on what was bothering Pinkie Pie. “I understand.”

“We figured it would be best to wait for you so we could all deal with her at once.” Twilight now stepped in and pointed at Pinkie, who was back in her apathetic pose in front of the door, only her eyes twitching ever so slightly now and then.

“Alright,” Rarity agreed and cleared her throat before turning towards Pinkie Pie. “Pinkie darling, don’t you want to come over here with us?” No reply came. “You are missing out on your own wonderful party,” she added after a short moment, causing the otherwise so cheerful pony to turn her dismayed face towards them.

“How can it be a party if nopony comes to it?” she asked and hung her head, her eyes focused on the floorboards of Sugarcube Corner.

"Why, are you saying that I’m a nopony?” Rarity gasped in shock, causing Pinkie to shake her head furiously, not allowing her head to rise. “Oh, darling, don’t you see that we are here?” Rarity stepped in front of Pinkie Pie and lifted her head with her hooves, turning it to her group of friends, all returning her look with a genuine smile.

“But what about the others?” Pinkie retorted sullenly. “Don’t they like me anymore?”

“Don’t be silly, of course everypony loves you and your parties,” Rarity assured her and looked her straight in the eyes, daring the downcast mare to deny the sincerity within them.

“But why didn’t they come then? I wanted this to be the perfect welcoming party, but now it’s ruined.” Her gaze shifted towards Steve, a single tear forming in the corner of her eye.

Although he wanted to let the ponies resolve the conflict as they were more familiar with her behaviour, and he didn’t want to accidently cause more trouble than there was already, he couldn’t stand by and let Pinkie beat herself up over something that wasn’t really her fault. “Pinkie, it is perfect,” he said and stepped over to her, putting a hand on her shoulder while looking in her eyes.

“B-but I wanted you to meet everypony and have fun and… and…” she began but dropped off, now on the verge of bursting into tears, sniffling loudly.

“What do you think I would rather do? Spend an evening with a room full of ponies that, deep down, are still afraid of me, or an evening with the few ponies who have acted like true friends ever since I came here?” he asked and she returned his look, staring deep into his blue eyes. “For me, the choice is quite obvious, and I am happy with how it is now.”

"Really?" she sniffled, but the corners of her mouth formed a faint smile.

“Yes. I know it’s not what you had planned, but I can’t complain about it at all. Now come on, don’t be sad and enjoy the party.” Impulsively, he patted her mane like he would do to an actual horse. Thankfully, she didn’t seem to mind. In fact…

“AaaaalRIGHTY! Let’s get this party started!” she exclaimed, and in the blink of an eye, she was back to her usual hyper, energetic, cheerful self. Steve and the other ponies sighed with relief, happy that they were able to cheer her up so quickly. “Soooo... whatcha wanna do first? Play some games? How about ‘Pin the Tail on the Pony’? It’s my favorite! Or some dancing! Dancing is fun!” she spoke quickly, springing up from her sitting position on the floor and resuming the animated bouncing that only she seemed capable of.

“Easy there, sugarcube,” Applejack stepped in before Pinkie’s surge of enthusiasm threatened to blow them all away. “We’re all still eatin’. Why don’t ya join us, and we’ll think of something to do afterwards?”

“I could go for some chocolate muffins… mhhh… sweet, sweet, chocolatey muffins with creamy frosting…” she said more to herself than to the others, and Steve could see her mouth was watering, literally.

“Uh, Pinkie?” he asked her as she seemed lost in thought, and he could see some saliva dribbling out of her mouth. After waiting a short moment for a reply, he loudly snapped his fingers in front of her eyes, and she snapped back to normal. Well, normal for Pinkie Pie at least.

“Oh, right. Onwards!” she shouted and eagerly bounced towards the buffet. While she was busy shoveling more and more food on her plate, the others returned back to the table, their conversations more animated as they’d managed to cheer their friend up.

“Is she alright again? I don’t like it when she’s sad,” the grey pegasus from earlier piped up. It was hard to tell with her crossed-eyes, but she looked worried. She and the mayor had stayed behind at the table and watched the drama from afar.

“Back to normal, I would say,” Steve replied and met the agreeing nods of the other ponies. “Maybe a bit bit hungry,” he added as he looked over to Pinkie and noticed how much food she was cramming onto her plate.

“Nah, that’s pretty normal,” Rainbow replied and took a large bite out of the last cinnamon roll on her plate.

Steve raised his brows in confusion but refrained from questioning it further. If anything, he had learned not to question Pinkie, although he still wondered how she was planning on eating more than everyone else combined, considering the already large amount of foods on his plate as he took a small bite out of a cookie with a few sprinkles on top. I wonder how many tons of sugar she uses per day, he thought with a sour look on his face as he placed the too-sweet treat back on his plate and eyed some grapes.

“Chocolatey goodness,” he heard a muffled voice and looked up. On the opposite side of the table a pile of food almost as high as himself, had appeared. Muffins, pancakes, donuts, candy apples, even an entire cake were piling up almost half a meter over the table. The only indications of someone sitting behind it were the two pink hooves that held the tower of food in place.

Quite curious how she would be planning to eat that entire mountain of food, he kept on watching her for a while longer. For now, she only seemed to struggle with keeping the tower in balance, making him wonder even more how she even managed to get it in place.

“Sorry, I’m a bit late,” a voice cut through the sounds of the feasting ponies. They raised their heads to look at the newcomer, and immediately after discovering who stood there Steve rolled his eyes and had to resist burying his face in his hands and moaning in frustration.

“Oh, hey Lyra!” Pinkie hailed the mint green unicorn and was joined by a few muffled greetings from the others who still had their mouths too full to speak clearly. “No problem, take a seat and join us. Hope you brought enough energy for this party and enough space in your tummy for some goodies!”

Steve didn’t want to meet the golden eyes that stared at him, so he shifted his gaze back to Pinkie Pie. His jaw almost dropped as he saw that the plate in front of her was already empty, only a few crumbs showing that there had ever been any food on it. I… wait, what? No… what? his mind whirled around like a punch drunk boxer. Even with all the regular flouting of the rules of physics here, that’s going a bit far. There is no way she could have eaten all of that in under two seconds. Even if she tried to hide it all under the table, there was not nearly enough time. A few crumbs that were viciously sucked into her mouth as she licked her lips, and the fact that her stomach had almost tripled in size, however, spoke of a different story.

“Thanks. Don’t worry, I’ll make sure to have enough energy for tonight,” Lyra replied with a sly grin on her face as she pressed herself on the bench next to Steve, pushing him aside a bit.

Oh dear Lord, why? he thought, still hoping that she would act a bit more normal today, but her reply, paired with the grin she gave him, quickly had his optimism running away screaming. He looked around, hoping that one of his friends would help him out, but they were all busy either eating, engaged in some small talk he couldn’t understand from where he was sat or in Rainbow Dash and Pinkie’s case, having a cake eating competition.

“Soooo, what have you been up to today?” he heard Lyra say, nudging him slightly to get his attention. He felt no real desire to talk with her, finding her advances frustrating. On the other hand, he would still feel bad for completely ignoring her, and there was the small, tiny part of him that was actually happy that someone other than Twilight and her friends was so eager to speak to him.

With a sigh, he turned towards her and met her expectant face. “Not much, just doing a bit of this and that,” he replied shortly and turned back to his meal, picking something up that resembled a breaded mozzarella stick.

"Me neither.” A long sigh escaped Lyra’s mouth. “I’ve been quite lonely lately, searching for someone to tug at my heartstrings. I think I’ve found somepony who can remedy that, though.”

“Uh huh,” he replied absently and took a bite. This tastes like grass, he thought and looked at the half eaten stick in his finger. Its insides were dark green and could have very well been compressed grass with some herbs for seasoning. Doesn’t taste that bad though. He shrugged and put the rest in his mouth. Maybe it’s just some edible plant that Pinkie cooked beforehand and then stuffed it… Wait, what did she say? he wondered and looked at her again.

“Umm… I’m sorry, I just mean I would like to know you better. Taking over the reins is not my biggest strength, although I’m quite good at it sometimes,” she smirked again but only met his confused face. “I-I just… well, tell me something about yourself. Found a special somepony yet you might want to have a proper buck with?” she asked bluntly, wiggling her eyebrows in an exaggerated fashion.

“What?” he asked confused. He could make neither heads nor tails of her behaviour. Just what the heck was a ‘buck’?

Before either of them could say anything further, Applejack leaned over to them and piped up, “Lyra, are you sure you’re alright? You seem a bit tired. Why don’t you get something to eat?”

“Oh no, I don’t really feel hungry, but thanks for your concerns,” Lyra replied, looking at her for a short moment with a sweet smile to assure her that everything was alright. Steve looked back at Applejack, who didn’t seem to buy the story if he could interpret her facial expressions correctly.

“I still think ya should go eat something. Pinkie would be very disappointed if you couldn’t fully enjoy this special party, ‘specially if you don’t end up eating anything,” Applejack insisted, her voice carrying a hint of steel in it now. Lyra seemed to take the hint. Giving a long sigh, Lyra gave in and left, aiming for the buffet.

Relieved that she was gone for now, Steve moved over to the spot where she just sat, hoping she would sit down next to Pinkie Pie, who was currently pouring a seemingly endless torrent of words onto Twilight, who didn’t seem to notice her at all. As he looked closer, he could see some sort of faint purple light glowing from her ears. Did she just mute her ears? Steve wondered and almost laughed out loud.

A bit more serious, he turned towards Applejack, who was still looking at the disgruntled Lyra as she placed some random items without caring onto her plate. “Does she seem a bit weird to you too? She is starting to creep me out a bit.” That was the understatement of the century, but he wanted to be careful in his choice of words.

“Umm, w-well,” the orange mare uncharacteristically stammered and grabbed her hat, her eyes flickering to the sides while she was searching for the right words. “It’s nothing.”

He was beginning to recognize the behaviour Applejack displayed when she was not telling the truth, though it was quite obvious even if he hadn’t seen it before. Her rapidly shifting eyes and sudden fidgeting didn’t exactly help her cause. “I don’t really think it’s nothing. She has been very… insistent, to put it mildly. And I don’t really get what she just said to me either. Something about bucking. Do you know what that means?” he asked the farmer again, hoping she wouldn’t try to avoid his question again.

Again, she flipped her hat around in her hooves, and her eyes tried to avoid his while she stammered something about not knowing what he meant. Slightly annoyed, he turned away and was about to ask someone else who could give him a straight answer, but then he heard Applejacks voice clearly as she said, “Well, bucking is nothing strange for me. It just means kicking an apple tree until the apples fall off. Simple as that.”

It didn’t make any sense. Why would she ask if I have harvested apples with a special… whatever pony she said. He looked at Applejack doubtfully, but she was no longer looking as though she was being interrogated, so he had to believe her for the moment. Now he just hoped that he could avoid Lyra until someone could actually explain to him what was going on with her. He threw another helpless look at Applejack, who was still looking in his direction and noticed it.

She looked down at her hat again, flipping it a bit harder, chewing on her lip as though she was struggling internally with telling him the truth. Eventually, she gazed up into his eyes again and asked, “How long has this been going on?”

“Well, when I first saw her on my second day here she barely spoke a word. As for now, she is… well….” Apparently hitting on me for some strange reason! He completed the sentence in his mind, not daring to say it out loud.

Applejack nodded at his words, as though he had confirmed her thoughts. “Well, I know that she can be a bit rude, but it’s for the best to just ignore her. It’ll pass soon.”

He was still not satisfied with the answer, not liking the idea that one of the ponies he trusted was keeping this information to herself. Why do I never know what’s going on here? Argh, this really is an alien world. He felt like pounding the table in frustration, but that would only call unneeded attention to himself.

“Just don’t go into what she’s saying, unless ya wanna be tied up to…” Applejack continued to talk but stopped suddenly and quickly turned away, causing even more confusion for him. She had turned her back towards him now so he couldn’t see her face, but for the split second between her sudden stop and spinning around, he could have sworn that her cheeks were a deep red.

Before he had the chance to question what was happening, he heard the sound of a plate dropping on the table, causing him to his left. Lyra expectantly stood next to him, waiting for him to scoot over. He would have sighed again if Lyra’s expression had not suddenly changed from excited to scared. Her eyes shot wide open, and the hoof that still held the plate started to tremble. “S-She’s here, isn’t s-she?” she whispered faintly and suddenly spun around.

Author's Notes:

Still made it this year! Still in 2013!!
I figure since it took over a month to write it also takes over a month to read so you should read this somewhere around February.

Hope to see ya all in the next year when the story continues. Let me and JBL know what you think of this chapter, we always like to hear feedback.

Credits where credit is due:
Thanks to Tofty for proofreading this chapter
Obviously also thanks to JBL as a co author he has again put a lot of work into this, hopefully granting you once again an enjoyable chapter.
Of course he has some words to say too...

JBL: Aaaand here’s another 10K+ chapter out of nowhere! Consider this my gift to all you readers on my birthday. Wait, isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? Eh. My wish is for this story to be featured and for it to reach 200 likes before the end of the year. Juuuuust throwing that out there. As a reader, I’ve always hated it when writers would just pummel me with cliffhangers. So, now that I’m on the other side, I can say…. it feels delicious. On that note, have a bright and prosperous new year, ~~and may the clop rain~~ and may 2014 be even more awesome!

Chapter 16 - Party...

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Steve followed Lyra’s gaze as it turned towards the door, curious to see what had caused the sudden swing in the unicorn’s mood. In the entrance stood a beige coated mare with a cobalt blue mane that had light fuchsia stripes running through it. As he recalled, he had seen her together with Lyra earlier that day when she had pulled her… eccentric friend away from him. Bon Bon, if he had heard her name correctly between the pleas of the mint colored unicorn. Finally! It’s about time somebody actually tried to stop her, he thought and couldn’t help but smile as she marched over to them, her eyes locked onto her quivering target.

“Lyra Heartstrings,” she hissed at the scared unicorn, who had stood there petrified with shock the entire time the earth pony had stalked over to their table, menace seemingly radiating from her every step. Her voice was filled with both anger and disappointment; it was impossible for Steve to tell which emotion was stronger. “I knew it! You promised me that you would not come here!” Behind him, he noticed how the conversation had died down as all the ponies focused their attention on the newcomer.

“Bon Bon, pleaaaase,” Lyra begged, finally able to speak after the dramatic entrance of her friend. She shuffled back while looking imploringly at Bon Bon, who simply kept glaring at her. “I just—”

“No,” Bon Bon interrupted her harshly and raised a hoof in the air, causing Lyra’s pleas to wither away with a nervous gulp as she scrambled back even more, slightly brushing Steve. “No more excuses, we are going. Now!” she barked in a voice that brooked no dissent. Despite the tension in the room, he couldn’t help but notice that the only time she didn’t seem to be even slightly apprehensive about his presence was when she was blindly enraged at her friend.

“Silly, you can’t go nooow. You just arrived!” Pinkie Pie exclaimed from behind her. Bon Bon quickly spun around to face her, startled by her sudden appearance. Steve also wondered how she had gotten there. He had been watching the entire drama unfold before his very eyes ever since Bon Bon had arrived and hadn’t seen Pinkie moving from the table either. She just seemed to… teleport behind her. He couldn’t remember if Twilight had ever mentioned anything about earth ponies using magic. “Hey girls, look!” Pinkie unnecessarily called out to her friends, who were still quietly watching the scene. It wasn’t like they could have missed the commotion occurring around them. “Bon Bon’s also here!”

A few murmurs of greeting sounded from around the table as Bon Bon turned from them back towards Pinkie. “Sorry Pinkie, I just have to talk with Lyra really quickly in private if you don’t mind.” Bon Bon was met with a long, searching look from the pink pony, her anger momentarily displaced as she was inspected from top to bottom by the hostess of the party.

“Okie dokie lokie,” Pinkie eventually chirped and bounced away, leaving two confused ponies and a human behind.

Bon Bon shook her head and turned towards Lyra again. “And now to you. Will you come with me quietly, or do I have to drag you out of here?” Try as she might, it seemed she couldn’t make herself as angry as she was when she had first stormed into the bakery. Seems like Pinkie Pie works in mysterious ways, he noted dryly.

Steve looked around, but none of the other ponies seemed to be paying attention to the conversation ever since Pinkie Pie had intervened. Instead, they had returned to either eating or listening to the story she was telling, the energetic mare already back in her seat and commanding a small audience. A short glimpse told him it was a discussion about what she had eaten for breakfast and who she had eaten it with. Bemused, he shook his head and looked back at Lyra and Bon Bon, hoping that he would be able to figure out what the deal was with those two.

Lyra was still pleading with Bon Bon to let her stay, but she remained steadfast. “Just… just let me explain, okay?” she said, pulling away from her friend. It seemed like it was her last attempt at convincing Bon Bon. Eyes downcast, she avoided looking at her friend. Lyra seemed so saddened, so downtrodden and so defeated, that her fragile state finally seemed to dawn on Bon Bon, a hint of worry briefly appearing on her face.

“Fine, go ahead. Explain,” she demanded firmly, erasing any outward hint of sympathy as she waited for an answer. Neither of them paid any attention to Steve, who was leaning over as inconspicuously as he could, trying to keep them within hearing range as they slowly drifted away from him. If the ponies kept refusing to tell him what was going on with Lyra’s behaviour, then he would have to try and figure it out himself. The fact that they seemed to have an idea as to why Lyra was acting the way she was and yet refused to tell him did not sit well with him, especially when Applejack had basically lied to his face about it.

"Not right here,” Lyra insisted adamantly with a shake of her head, exaggeratedly shifting her eyes towards Steve, and then motioning Bon Bon over to the corner at the other side of the room.

Bon Bon and Steve both rolled their eyes at the antsy display. “Fine, but you had better start talking quickly,” she warned, stalking off, followed by the sulking Lyra. Steve had to watch as the two ponies walked away. No! Dammit, I want to hear too, he thought, disappointed. For a moment, he considered whether or not he should follow the ponies. After all of Lyra’s creepy behaviour, I think I deserve to know just why the hell she was acting like that.

He would have gotten up if he hadn’t heard his name being called, causing him to turn towards the other ponies. “What?” he asked in their general direction, clueless as to whom to talk to.

“Oh, I just asked what you did today,” Twilight repeated her question, looking at him expectantly. “You told us that you had some preparations to do earlier, and I’m curious.”

“Oh, that. I just went to bed. Didn’t sleep very well the night before,” he admitted and scratched the back of his neck, feeling slightly awkward that he had made a short nap sound important. “That was until Rainbow Dash showed up, and we went on a field trip.”

“A field trip?” Twilight inquired, sounding interested and a tiny bit jealous. He was quite sure that she would have enjoyed seeing some of his machinery at work, but that would have to wait for another time.

“Yes, we were… Well, I actually think Rainbow Dash should tell you that; she can probably describe it better from the eyes of a pony,” he replied and motioned towards Rainbow Dash, who sat with a wide grin, clearly eager to bask in the spotlight. Now with that out of the way, let’s see if I can find out what they are talking about, he thought and turned back to look at the place where Lyra and Bon Bon had wandered off to. Huh? Is she crying?

***

Lyra was trapped. There was no way she could escape from it now and have even the tiniest shred of dignity left. Her eyes flickered around nervously, avoiding the impatient look from Bon Bon.

“So?” Bon Bon repeated curtly. “Are you finally going to tell me? I let you off the hoof last time you acted so weird, but I will not allow you to behave this way in front everypony. Now just give me one reason why I shouldn’t immediately drag you out this door.”

Lyra met her eyes, trying to melt Bon Bon’s heart with her patented saddened look that had gotten her out of trouble on more than one occasion, but it was of no use. Bon Bon just kept on staring at her, waiting for a response while tapping a hoof against the wooden floor of the bakery impatiently. Reluctantly, she sighed and mumbled, “I-I’m… in h….”

“Huh? Speak clearly,” Bon Bon demanded.

“I’m in….” Lyra repeated but dropped off at the end, looking down at the floor.

“In what?” Bon Bon asked, growing more and more annoyed at the unicorn’s fumbling speech.

“I… Argh, to hay with it! I’m in heat!” she blurted out, louder than she had intended to. Panicked, she whirled around, frantically looking to see if anypony had heard her outburst. To her relief no one seemed to do. It felt good to finally tell her the truth, but it didn’t help her hold back a few tears from running down her cheek. I knew staying in Ponyville would be a mistake, she thought miserably.

“Oh…” Bon Bon blanched, taking an involuntary step back. They had been roommates for over eight years now, ever since Lyra had moved to Ponyville from Canterlot to practice playing her lyre. For the first few months, she had struggled, trying to get noticed with various gigs until she finally got accepted to the Ponyville Orchestra. She had seen her in many emotional states over the years, but now that she thought of it, she didn’t think she could ever recall the unicorn being in a state of heat. Not that she had actively kept tabs on Lyra’s activities. There were some things a mare needed to keep to herself, after all. “That is still no excuse for what you have done,” she replied sharply as she overcame her short moment of empathy. “You’ve made a complete fool out of yourself! Don’t think that nopony else hasn’t noticed how you’re acting! Haven’t you learnt anything about controlling yourself during your… time?”

Uneasy, Lyra scratched the back of her neck. “No,” she admitted, “I need it, Bon Bon. I just… can’t control it. I get all hot and… Well, you know what it feels like.” No, Bon Bon couldn’t say she could; at least not the way Lyra seemed to be insinuating. She certainly wasn’t one to parade around so blatantly in public during her time of the year. Some magazines and some of the usual medicinal teas available for mares usually served her well. She pushed her reproachful thoughts away as Lyra kept on speaking, her voice hollow and devoid of the usual cheerfulness she usually exuded. “Usually I would just go to Canterlot… I know more or less when it’s going to happen, so I know when it’s time to leave. There are plenty of options there; plenty of ponies looking for an easy lay. Spend the time riding it out there with a nice, strong stallion... or mare.” She sullenly avoided looking at Bon Bon who wrinkled her nose in antipathy.

“So why are you here then? And why Canterlot over Ponyville?” Bon Bon eyed her friend suspiciously, her erratic emotions not sitting well with her.

“Stay here? As if!” she shot back almost defiantly, a wild gleam in her eyes. “Don’t you know how they talk behind my back, thinking I won’t notice? In a small town like this, you can’t even talk to somepony without everypony knowing what you said. If I ever hooked up with a stallion here, everypony would already know what was going on before I was even finished with him. At least Canterlot ponies know the meaning of discretion and value it above making it their morning gossip! I have to keep up my reputation you know!” she huffed, almost sounding indignant to Bon Bon’s astonished ears.

Oh, I can see how much you value your reputation. I just wonder which one you’re talking about, Bon Bon thought but kept it to herself, letting Lyra continue in her explanation. She couldn’t help but shake her head at what she was hearing though.

“Plus, I won’t ever forget the time I tried hooking up with a stallion here in Ponyville, and he couldn’t stop talking about how he was going to enjoy ‘breaking’ in a unicorn!” she exclaimed, causing Bon Bon to splutter in shock, a feeling she had had to deal with more than she expected today.

“It’s not like everypony in Ponyville is like that you know!” Bon Bon fired back, shaking her head for what felt like the umpteenth time today. “Unless you really think all the ponies here are just some busybody, gossiping, earth pony hicks who just so happen to hate all unicorns, because apparently unicorns are the master race,” she said sarcastically.

“I never said everypony was like that!” Lyra avoided shouting it out just in time, barely able to bring her voice down to a hiss so nopony else in the room would be able to hear her. For her part, Bon Bon just stared at Lyra, feeling as though she had lost control of the conversation. “And just so you know, I wanted to leave for Canterlot. I had bought the tickets already since I knew the time would be coming soon, but then I saw him...” she trailed off and looked over to Steve, a dreamy look replacing the stressed out and agitated façade that had been evident on her features just moments ago.

Bon Bon followed her look sceptically. “I don’t know, Lyra. Don’t you think that love at first sight wouldn’t really apply during heat? And even if you’re not, that definitely is not the right way to approach a stallion… or whatever they call their males.” At least they could try and get back on the topic that had caused her to barge into the bakery in the first place. She would have to sort out everything else she had learned about her friend today when things had settled down. For now, trying to dissuade Lyra from doing anything more was her priority.

“What?” Lyra asked, sounding genuinely surprised. “Who’s talking about love? No no no.” She quickly shook her head, her mane becoming even more dishevelled than before. “Haven’t you seen his hands?”

"His what now?” Bon Bon raised a brow.

“Hands! No hooves,” she explained, once again becoming more excited. Unfortunately, her friend didn’t seem to be on the same level with her as Bon Bon’s bewildered face seemed to indicate. She let out a sigh, trying to think of a way to convince Bon Bon to see things her way. “You really need to go into the city with me from time to time, seeing that there are more creatures than just ponies living there. Of course you know hands; haven’t you ever seen Spike, that little pet dragon of Twilight? He has hands too.”

“He’s not her pet but her assis—”

“Whatever,” Lyra cut her off, her exhilaration overwhelming her. “Don’t you know how amazing fingers feel? They are so much more agile and dexterous than hooves, and there are ten of them! Ten! And we’re not talking about dragon claws where you actually have to be careful not to cut each other, totally kills the mood by the way, but these are blunt fingers. I mean, hooves can’t even begin to compare; they’re rough and they can’t really reach in the way fingers can. Ohh, I can already imagine them wriggling inside me, squirming about—” She seemed to shudder with excitement as Bon Bon cut her off.

“Okay! I got it! Thanks! No need to make it any more graphic!” Bon Bon hurriedly said before she would tell her any more details, becoming more revolted by her words.

“He’s also the first alien, and you know how curious I am. I can’t let this chance slide by,” Lyra told her eagerly, still trying to convince her that she was acting with only the best of motivations.

“Urgh,” Bon Bon waved her off, looking away in a disgruntled manner. “You disgust me sometimes.”

"Hey! It’s not my fault you’re such a puritan,” Lyra defended herself hotly.

“Enough of this now!” Bon Bon cut her off with a stamp of her hoof. “I don’t want to talk about this here anymore. We’re going home now, where you’re going to stay until you’re no longer in heat and stop making a fool out of yourself.”

“But Bon Boooon…” Lyra dragged the words out and gave her the saddest look she could manage to pull off.

“No more buts!” Bon Bon remained as unmoved as before, just about reaching the end of her patience with what had turned out to be one truly bizarre day. “I can maybe understand what you’re trying to do,” she had to almost force herself to say, “but it was still very wrong, and you’re lucky you didn’t get into any trouble with the way you were behaving. No more discussions. We’re going home. Now!”

Tears returned into Lyra’s eyes. “Bon Bon, please don’t! This might be the best chance I’ll ever get,” she begged.

“You’re completely out of your mind! I heard the way you were talking with him, like one of those mares who think using cheesy pick-up lines would get you anywhere with a stallion!” Lyra reeled back as Bon Bon advanced. “And now you want to do the same in front of the Elements? For Celestia’s sake, Lyra, he’s an alien! Who knows what kind of diseases he can give you if you… be with him! And speaking of Princess Celestia, don’t you think she had Pinkie Pie and her friends look after him?” She took a deep breath, trying to funnel out all the anger, stress, impatience, the constant need to throttle Lyra out of her system. It was only slightly helpful. “It was quite clear that he isn’t going to fall for your… approach, so stop that or they will,” Bon Bon said more calmly, attempting to have her friend see reason once again.

“Stop me? You sound like you’re afraid of them,” Lyra wondered.

“Of course not, but you know how hot-headed some of them can get. Just look at Applejack and Rainbow Dash. Do you really think it would be the best idea to behave like you did in front of their muzzles?” Bon Bon retorted and pointed a guilty hoof at Lyra.

“Well…”

"It’s enough for now,” Bon Bon said before Lyra could say anything else. “You’re apologizing to him and then we’ll go home.”

“Oh Bon Bon! Come on. Can’t we not just go and forget about this? I don’t want to apologize while you stand next to me,” Lyra muttered, leaning back on her haunches and folding her forehooves with a huff.

“I’m not going to let you talk with him alone. So, are you coming with me, or do I have to make you?”

***

Steve kept both ponies in his peripheral sight, all the while trying to keep up with the conversation flowing around him. He would have loved to be able to hear what they were saying, but unfortunately he was out of audible range. Instead, he had to guess the nature of their conversation based on their animated gestures and facial expressions. And they certainly weren’t being subtle about it either; he could still make out the angry look that seemed permanently etched on Bon Bon’s face as she quarrelled with Lyra, who seemed to switch from being gloomy to happy to angry every so often. The hooves occasionally jabbing in his direction and the pointed looks they both sent his way did little to ease the tension and curiosity he felt from the situation.

“Right, Steve?” he heard Rainbow Dash saying from his right, nudging him lightly with a hoof. She had spent the past few minutes explaining to her friends what they did today in her own graphic and unique way. Although he was a little curious to hear how the experiment had gone from her viewpoint, he had paid almost no attention to her, more interested in attempting to eavesdrop on Lyra and Bon Bon’s conversation. Only when he heard his name did he snap back into reality, and he saw the expectant look on the ponies’ faces. He had no idea at what point in the story Rainbow had reached, but she seemed to have caught their attention.

“Ummm… Yes, absolutely,” he replied, hoping it was a valid answer to the question.

“See? Told ya!” Rainbow crowed out triumphantly to the others.

Content that his answer seemed to be correct, he excused himself and went to one of the food laden tables, hoping to observe them better. He turned back around to Lyra and Bon Bon, thinking that now they would be in audible range. The only problem was that they were no longer in the corner they had occupied for the last few minutes. Instead, Bon Bon was dragging a resisting Lyra by her ears over to the buffet table. What the hell did I miss? Nopony else seemed to notice them; they were all focused on Rainbow’s storytelling.

Eventually they arrived at the table. Lyra’s face was fixated on the wooden floor of the bakery, while Bon Bon looked at him uneasily. It seemed that the usual nervousness that she had displayed the only other time he had met her was back once she had gotten rid of the anger she had arrived with. Expectantly, he waited for them to make the first move, alternating his gaze between the two ponies.

Eventually, Bon Bon cleared her throat and spoke up, not before shooting an angry scowl towards Lyra, who was still purposely avoiding their gazes. “It appears I have to apologize for the behaviour of… my dear friend.” She aimed another venomous glance at her ‘dear friend’ before continuing. “Even though she is a grown mare, it seems she does not fully understand how her actions can affect others. And I would like to personally apologize, since it seems I didn’t do enough to stop her earlier. I hope you don’t think badly of her now. I promise it won’t happen again.”

After she finished talking, she jabbed Lyra in the side, causing her to flinch and look up at him as well. She then pouted and turned away her head away with a sullen huff, her ears pressed firmly against her head while her tail lashed against the ground violently. Bon Bon let out an aggravated sigh as she rubbed her forehead with a hoof, frustration evident on her features.

He looked between the surly face of Lyra and the stressed countenance of Bon Bon, knowing something more was brewing between them both. It didn’t take a genius to figure that out or to hazard a guess that it somehow involved him. “I’d like to know what happened first,” he politely said. No sense morphing into Jack Bauer and shaking the answers out of them, he thought, internally smiling at the image briefly.

“Well umm… Lyra hasn’t been feeling very well recently. I-I will bring her home now where she’ll stay until she feels better,” Bon Bon explained after a few moments. It was obvious she wasn’t telling the truth, or at least left out most of the details. Her rapidly shifting eyes and beads of sweat that stood out on her fur made it quite obvious.

Annoyed, Steve rolled his eyes at the lack of information and the poor attempt at subterfuge. “Fine, fine…. Apology accepted,” he muttered, much to Bon Bon’s relief as she audibly sighed. I really hope this will change when I’ve stayed here for a little longer.

“Thank you very much.” She gave a slight bow, though she never took her eyes off him. We won’t bother you any longer with this. We’ll be going home now, so…. enjoy your party.” She glared at Lyra one last time, but the mare had already started dragging herself to the door, despair seemingly radiating from her with every step she took.

“Bye,” he waved them off as they quickly disappeared out of the room. Both of them failed to acknowledge him, and he ended up holding his hand in the air limply before awkwardly lowering it.

Steve slowly returned to the table, mulling over what had just occurred. With a quiet ‘Pardon me’ to Rarity as he sat down beside her, he looked to follow the conversation of the other ponies. Rainbow Dash was getting to the end of her story, telling them how she had recovered the equipment before they had returned to the ship. He didn’t know how she could make a simple drop off to the ship sound so adventurous, but she certainly pulled it off.

“WAAAIIITT!!” A loud scream interrupted her story, however, and everyone looked over to Pinkie Pie who whooshed out of her spot and out of the door.

“What’s up with Pinkie Pie?” Rainbow asked, cocking her head in confusion and a hint of irritation, no doubt disappointed that her retelling of her ‘heroics’ had been disturbed.

“Lyra and Bon Bon just left, and I think she now noticed. From what I’ve seen tonight, I don’t think she would like that a lot,” Steve replied, and the ponies exchanged worried looks. “Do you think she’s going to have a bit of a relapse?”

“Possibly,” Twilight replied after a few moments. “But why did they leave anyways? I know we were a little boring,” she pointedly ignored Rainbow Dash’s ‘speak for yourself’, “And we haven’t done anything much, but we were basically just waiting for more ponies to show up while we ate, and we’ve just finished with that. Pinkie was about to prepare some games.”

“I wish I knew.” Steve shrugged. “Bon Bon just said something about Lyra not feeling well, but I think there was more to it than that.” And I know at least one of you have an idea why she kept harassing me, he thought, looking over at Applejack who was busying herself with what looked to be an apple pie.

“I haven’t talked with her recently. I just hope that there’s a good reason why she was acting like that. I thought maybe Bon Bon and Lyra had an argument, and I didn’t want to get in the middle of marefriends like that.” She frowned to herself and looked to be internally debating something judging by the way she seemed to be concentrating on the donut in front of her. For his part, Steve was confused. Sooo… Lyra and Bon Bon are a thing? But then why was she hitting on me even when Bon Bon was around? Maybe they’re in an open relationship or something.

“I better go after them and check if everything is alright,” Twilight declared. As soon as she finished speaking, a short bright flash came from where she just sat. When he looked at the spot again, it was empty. “At the very least, I should make sure Pinkie’s alright. I’ll be right back… I hope,” her voice appeared from his left.

Surprised, Steve spun around to her new position. Oh yeah, teleporting. I forgot. That really comes in handy sometimes. “Should I come with you?” he offered, seeing how well it had worked then last time.

“No, it’s fine,” she quickly denied his offer and shook her head. “This is your party, and you should enjoy it.”

He wanted to make an objection but stopped before the first sound left his already open mouth. She’s right. I haven’t even met everyone who’s here yet. I know Big Macintosh and some other ponies were already here, he thought, standing up. “Alright, if you say so. I’m just going to say hi to the other guests. I just realized I missed a few. I hope you can turn them around. Oh… and if you find out what exactly is wrong with Lyra, please tell me.”

“Okay,” Twilight replied slowly and raised her brow, but didn’t ask any further questions before vanishing with another flash of light, giving none of the other ponies a chance to join her. Her reappearance was marked through a short light that dimly fell through the window from outside.

“Should we maybe follow her?” Fluttershy spoke up, flinching lightly everyone at the table turned towards her.

“Eh, I dunno. Lyra’s always been kinda… out of there,” Rainbow Dash spoke up, lazily rubbing her slightly swollen stomach, her plate licked clean.

“Be that as it may, Rainbow Dash, we should aspire to help any pony who is in need, no matter the… eccentricities they may have,” Rarity haughtily said, dabbing her mouth with a napkin delicately.

“I think,” Applejack began slowly, “that we should just be minding our business on this one. I’m sure whatever them two have got going on will sort itself out right as rain. Sure there ain’t nothing more to it than a simple misunderstanding, that’s all.” The small looks she aimed at him when she thought he wasn’t looking didn’t escape Steve. “Besides, are ya sure ya want to be running through Ponyville at this hour, working up a sweat like that?”

He could almost see Rarity visibly deflate at that. Applejack knew her friend too well, it seemed. “Oh… Of course, Applejack. You are most certainly right; it would be incredibly rude prying into the business of other ponies,” she agreed lightly, laughing weakly.

“That’s what I thought.” Applejack smiled before turning to Steve. “If ya want to go ahead and still meet anypony else, well go ahead. We’ll be sticking ‘round right here. Ya can go talk to mah brother over there.” She pointed to another table on the other side of the room.

He mulled things over, looking around at Derpy and Mayor Mare. Having not spent much time with either of them, he would have liked to join in on the discussion they were having, but he guessed he had other plans for now. “Sure, I’ll go ahead and say hello again,” he said, getting up from his chair. As he left, he could see Applejack letting out a sigh of relief, causing him to bite the inside of his cheek in frustration. I’ll get the answers out of her, one way or the other, he vowed.

“Hey, Big Mac,” he called for the large red stallion as he walked across the room and stepped around the corner of the booth.

“Oh, howdy Steve. Ah didn’t notice ya were here already,” Big Mac replied and looked over to him. Only now did Steve notice that the stallion wasn’t sitting there alone the whole time. Instead, he was snuggling up against a cerise colored earth pony mare. He had placed one of his hooves around her neck, while she rested her head against his chest. Her large, bright green eyes looked out underneath from her pale pink mane, traversed by a single bright stripe in the middle, and focused on him. Quickly, she pulled away from the stallion’s grip as she saw the human looking at the two of them, and her cheeks turned even redder than they already were from her natural color. It seemed like Big Mac was disappointed with the actions of the mare and sighed loudly as he pulled his leg back.

Yeah, looks like you were busy. No wonder you didn’t notice me when I came in. Steve smirked, eyeing the stallion. “Oh, hello to you too, Miss…?” he said to the mare that had scooted over to her own spot.

Her gaze turned towards him, the blush on her cheeks slowly disappearing. She replied in a soft voice, “Hello, my name is Cheerilee. I’ve heard a lot about you. I expected you to be a bit different.” she said, looking hesitantly at him, then back at Big Macintosh.

“Oh really?” he wondered. “What did they tell you about me?” Curiously, he took a seat at the opposite side of the table where he now remembered he had seen three little ponies sitting. However, it seemed as though they had disappeared. Spending no time wondering about it for now, he turned his attention back to the mare, hoping glean some information about how ponies saw him from someone he had no prior interaction with. The mayor hadn’t given him much information on that matter, only that she seemed a little intimidated by his size, while the other pony, Derpy, showed no strange reaction at all. It was as though he could have been a normal pony.

"Well, not that much you could rely on. I doubt anypony has told you this, but I am the teacher at the primary school, so I get to hear what the little fillies and colts are talking about.” She tried to wave it off. “Nothing that really matters.”

“I’d still like to hear it though. Kids say the darndest things, don’t they?” He chuckled, hoping to hide his genuine interest to lure someone into telling him the truth for once.

“Oh…” She fell silent for a short moment, her eyes wandering around quickly. “Well, if you really want to know…” she dragged out the words, making Steve expectantly lean forward slightly. “They kept talking, and I’m just putting it in their words, about a strange creature that came from the skies and lives in the forests. With hooves that end in claws and only two legs needed to run. They got that sort of right, I see.” She looked at his fingers for a short moment before continuing, “No fur except a yellow mane and….” She cut herself off and looked down at the table.

Expectantly, he looked at her, waiting for her to continue. “Aaand?” he cajoled when no answer was immediately forthcoming, leaning ever further forward. In response, she seemed to shrink back even further while unconsciously scooting further towards Big Macintosh.

Uneasy, she tried to avoid his gaze by nervously looking over the table. Eventually, as they all remained silent, with the only sound coming from Rainbow Dash pounding her table from across the room, she looked back up and met his gaze. “If you really want to know, and this is just their words, not mine,” she hastily added on, “they also said that ‘the creature had teeth sharp enough to rip flesh,’” she responded carefully, followed by an awkward chuckle.

"Oh," he replied slowly, “well, they weren’t too wrong about that, I guess.” With that, he gave her a big grin, revealing the top row of his teeth, making sure she could clearly see his incisors and canines. His grin grew even wider at her reaction. Startled, she flinched at first, but he couldn’t exactly blame her for that. As a teacher in such a small town, even if it seemed just like something similar to an elementary school, she most likely covered general education. It appeared to be quite clear for the ponies with some knowledge in biology thus far that based on his teeth he was an omnivore. “Don’t worry, I don’t bite.” He chuckled and hid his teeth behind his lips again.

“Umm, yes… sorry about that,” she apologized for her reaction and sat down normally again, shooting him a timid smile.

“Don’t worry about it. I’ve had worse first encounters here already.” He waved it off and leaned against the back of his chair, drumming his fingers against the table. So they think I could eat them. Maybe that I’ll sneak inside their houses and steal them out of their beds too, he concluded while thoughtfully staring into space. That’s rather unfortunate, not to mention bad for my image. Although I guess that my image already isn’t too nice right now, seeing as so many ponies made sure not to be seen here tonight. Scaring Cheerilee like that probably wasn’t too smart either since she’s the one looking after the most impressionable ponies here. If she sees me as a threat, whatever she tells her students would be no doubt passed on to their parents, along with any ‘enhancements’ to the story. The last thing I need is them forming some kind of mob to chase me out of town. He sighed, frowning to himself as he slouched down in his chair.

“Oh, don’t worry. It’s like I said; these are just stories of little colts and fillies, nothing to be taken too seriously,” Cheerilee quickly assured him once again, catching sight of his frown and misinterpreting its cause.

Yeah right. That’s easy for you to say, he thought sarcastically. “Oh, of course not.” He dismissed her words again with a wave of her hand, sitting up in his chair so that he was no longer slouching. “It’s just that I love stories, that’s al. And on this world, I’m sure that there are plenty to find.” Unlike his last statement, he was actually serious this time. Even if some of what he was going to find out here would be unpleasant, as his last couple of nightmare riddled nights had proved, he wanted to learn as much about this world as he could.

“There are,” Cheerilee agreed and nodded. “I bet you have some to tell as well.”

“I suppose.” He shrugged, but then an idea occurred to him. Spreading some good news about me through the teacher would actually be pretty helpful. If I can somehow convince her to tell her pupils that I’m not actually dangerous, it might speed up the time it takes before they no longer fear me.

Looking back at her, from the way she was fidgeting and biting her lip, she seemed to be wrestling with some internal conundrum. “Would you like to be a guest speaker at our school someday?” she blurted out before staring at him with wide eyes. She appeared to have surprised even herself by vocalizing her request, as she looked to Big Macintosh, who simply nodded. “W-What I meant to say is that it has been too long since I did something special for my students and it is hard to keep the attention of some of the fillies and colts.” She sighed, pausing a bit as she looked around the room again. Either not finding what she was looking for or content with what she saw, she continued, “I’m sure they would be interested in hearing something about your world, as well as meeting somepony who is… well, a real, living alien.” She looked at him expectantly, smiling slightly.

Well… that went far easier than expected, Steve thought, surprised. Can’t see any real downside to it either. Doubt they will run away screaming if I’m in the presence of their teacher. At least I hope not. “Of course,” he agreed with a nod, much to her pleasure as well. “That sounds like a good idea.” The image of terrified young ponies screaming in horror and trampling upon him tempered his pleasure at not having to needlessly try to convince her.

“Wonderful.” She beamed at him and clapped her hooves together, creating a clopping sound. Excitement filled her voice as she continued, “When would you be available for such an arrangement? I would prefer to do it sooner rather than later, but it is up to you, Mr Steve.

“My schedule is not that tight; I can work with pretty much any date. Oh, and it’s just Steve,” he replied. I really need to find something to do here. Something that could occupy my time for a while, he mused, cracking his knuckles, the unexpected noise causing Cheerilee to flinch slightly. Big Macintosh, as usual for such a stoic pony, paid it no heed. Hiding myself in the shuttle, watching movies, dealing with a smart mouth AI and having nightmares was fun and all, but I should find something else to do in the future. I also need a source of income at some point. I don’t really want to live off Twilight and her friends’ money much longer; they’ve done more than enough to help a stranger. Good thing I only need their food as a luxury item though since everything else is taken care of. Once again he was amazed by how lucky he was to be stranded here in this ship. To be fair, if he had been in one of the other ships, he wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place, but mainly because he would have died during the crash-landing on this planet.

“I would have to look at my schedule first to know that,” she replied after a few seconds of thoughtfully looking at the ceiling, not noticing that Steve’s own thoughts had drifted off as well, causing a silence that only she now broke.

“Sure. You can come by my ship if you work out a date. Do you know where I live?”

She nodded and looked over at Big Macintosh, whose only reaction was to shift in his seat. “Big Mac showed me from afar where it was. The E-Everfree Forest,” she murmured, not looking keen on the whole idea, “I honestly don’t think I can walk through there by myself, Steve, even if it isn’t too far in,” she confessed, twirling her forehooves around on the table nervously. “I heard that there aren’t as many creatures as before the past week or so, but… I’d really rather not be in there unless I can help it.” She shot him an apologetic glance.

Huh… that could be a problem. He frowned, considering what to do. While he had never encountered any problem travelling to and from Ponyville to his ship, the ponies – Twilight in particular – had stressed the importance of being careful while traversing the woods. It stood to reason, therefore, that ponies like Cheerilee would be especially cautious of its dangers, presumably having lived near it their whole lives and maybe even encountering some of the hazards it held. It all boiled down to whether or not she showed up at his door, as unless he encountered her by luck in town, they wouldn’t be able to iron out when he could visit. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was show up at the school unannounced. Unless… he eyed the red stallion sitting across him as the thought floated across his mind.

“You know, you don’t have to go through the forest alone, Cheerilee,” he casually said, smiling inwardly at her puzzled look. “Big Macintosh could always walk you to the ship with no problem. I doubt anything in those woods would want to wrangle with a big and strong fellow like him.” That finally shook Big Macintosh out of his zen-like state he always looked to be in as his head swung around and gaped at Steve, the unexpected suggestion leaving him with a look that seemed to be a combination of surprise and bewilderment.

Cheerilee looked over to the stallion, a dubious look in her eyes. “Oh, I don’t know about that. Would you be willing to come with me?” she asked almost shyly. Steve grinned, knowing he had them now. Cheerilee was giving him The Look, the expression that few men could withstand for more than a few seconds before crumbling. And neither, it seemed, could stallions. At least that was one thing that remained constant across worlds, he thought with a smile.

“Eee…yup?” was the only thing that left Big Macintosh’s mouth. He was rewarded by a happy smile by Cheerilee, who made a move towards him before catching herself.

“Well then, I guess should expect you at the ship sometime soon then?” he asked for confirmation, smiling innocently.

“Eeyup,” the stallion agreed and fell silent again. For a moment, Steve could have sworn the stallion shot him a murderous look, but it was so brief that he dismissed it.

“You keep saying ship,” Cheerilee continued while looking at Steve, “I really couldn’t really see it that well from the road. Is it really a ship? That sounds very strange. A ship that works on land?”

“Eh, it’s probably not the kind of ship you might be thinking of. I think it will be better to see it for yourself instead of describing it. Same goes for most of my equipment,” he explained to her dismay, judging by her disappointed look. This feels like Twilight all over again. I should really consider staying away from teachers, scientists and such for a while. At least she didn’t mention performing any experiments on me. Maybe because she isn’t a unicorn…

“I suppose I will have to wait until we clear things up then. I just hope there will be enough time left. Nopony could tell me this far, but you’re the only human here, right?”

“Oh… yes I am,” he replied carefully. Right, the details about my arrival here are most likely unknown to the other ponies, he concluded. Makes sense, though I wonder what they had been told. Surely someone would ask a question if an alien landed on their planet.

“I only got a few details when I picked up a book from Twilight’s library earlier. She seemed very busy, so I didn’t ask her too many questions. There are still so many things I’d like to find out. If you don’t mind me asking, there is one that I can’t wait to hear the answer to,” she inquired, looking at him expectantly, the eager glint back in her eyes again.

“Sure, go ahead,” he replied slowly, bracing himself. I’m guessing something along the lines of how my name sounds so weird, or if we can read minds, or if rain falls upside down on Earth.

“When will more humans arrive? I’m sure you are not the only one of your kind, right?”

Okay, that was actually a pretty logical question, though it does tell me that they have no idea at all about my arrival here. I sure saying “your blessed and almighty Princess Celestia screwed me over” would not exactly sit well with them, he thought and quickly went through various answers he could give her to satisfy her. “No, I’m not the only one,” he answered the second part of her question. “However, I can’t give you many details about my mission at this point. That includes further arrivals. This information requires security level four or higher,” he told her, looking directly into her eyes and trying to sound as serious as possible. “You would have to consult the princess for that; it is outside of humanity’s jurisdiction.” Did she buy that? And keep on resisting smiling! he ordered himself.

“Oh,” came her reply a few moments later. “Well, I understand,” she accepted his lie, bowing slightly, though the hint of disappointment clearly stood out.

Perfect. “Don’t worry though,” he assured her, “there are plenty more questions I would be able to answer,” he promised and looked around the room. His eyes stopped on the buffet for a few moments before he looked back at her. “If you would excuse me for a moment. You can continue where you left off before I interrupted you.” He smirked at Big Macintosh as he stood up from the table, only to be met by a small smile and a nod from the stallion.

***

“Come on, Scootaloo! What do you have pegasus eyes for if you can’t tell us anything...” Sweetie Belle impatiently huffed towards her friend while rapidly knocking a pen against her notebook.

“Alright, alright! Hold your horses.” Scootaloo waved her off in annoyance before she turned towards her friends. “He’s sitting there with Big Mac and Cheerilee.”

Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle both rolled their eyes. “We can see that as well. Tell us something new,” Apple Bloom replied for both of them.

“Fine, I’ll have to get a better look. Hold on a second,” Scootaloo said and peeked out from underneath the tablecloths on the tables that held the buffet. Careful not to be seen, they had snuck into their new hiding spot here. Now they could only be seen when they occasionally stuck their heads out from under the tablecloths, which was exactly what she was doing now, knowing she had to be quick. A few moments laterm she pulled her head back in, only to be met with expectant looks. “Okay, so it’s true. He’s wearing clothes like you said.”

“Told ya,” Apple Bloom said triumphantly.

“Yeah, but they’re really weird clothes,” Scootaloo added, “Nothing I’ve ever seen before.”

“Ha! Even more proof that he’s an alien.”

"He does have a mane. It’s kind of yellow, but I couldn’t see the tail. He probably sits on it,” Scootaloo pointed out, momentarily closing her eyes while she tried to recall everything she had seen.

“Noted,” Sweetie Belle said and scribbled something down in her notebook. “What about the rest of his body? Could you see his face?”

“I don’t know. It looked so weird. It was so round, but maybe that’s just because I was looking from the side.” Scootaloo shrugged and opened her eyes again. “Oh, and he doesn’t just walk like Spike, he also has claws like him!”

“Claws?!” Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom shouted in unison only to be met by a quick hiss by Scootaloo, motioning them to be silent.

“Wait just a minute…” Scootaloo began and thoughtfully looked at her friends. “Don’t you remember what Snips and Snails told us in school a few days ago?”

“Huh?” Apple Bloom asked in surprise, brow raised. “Nah, not really,” was her reply as she shook her head. A shrug was all that came from Sweetie Belle.

“Urgh, no wonder Cheerilee has to tell you off so often for not listening if you can’t even listen to the gossip the others tell us.” Scootaloo sighed and had to resist the urge to facehoof.

“Yeah, like yer grades are any better than mine,” Apple Bloom retorted and rolled her eyes again.

Scootaloo’s next response got cut short by Sweetie Belle impatiently tapping one of her hooves. “Girls, don’t get off track now… again. We have a mission.” Both her friends looked at her than at each other before nodding. “Good. Now, Scootaloo, what did they say?”

“Yes… right.” Scootaloo had to concentrate again. “They were talking about some monster they saw a couple of days ago. Maybe it was even a week ago… I don’t really remember.”

“So?” Sweetie Belle inquired and shot her a doubtful look. “Not to be rude, but those two are not the most reliable ponies. Maybe they just wandered off in the Everfree again and were frightened by the first scary tree they saw, so they made up a story about a monster instead.”

“Yeah, that’s what I thought too,” Scootaloo agreed but her look stayed determined. “At first at least. But they were talking about a monster that came from the skies, that had long hooves that ended in claws, and it only needed two of them to walk.”

Now she had gotten the attention of her friends. “Now that sounds more like it,” Apple Bloom said quietly to make sure they were not easily heard by the other party guests. “What else did they say? They probably saw something important. Did they see him mind controlling other ponies?”

“For the last time, Apple Bloom, Big Mac is not being mind controlled. He just looks like that all the time.” Scootaloo rolled her eyes in exasperation.

“Well excuse me for bein’ worried ‘bout mah brother!” Apple Bloom glared at Scootaloo angrily, her eyes narrowed dangerously.

“Aaanyways…” Scootaloo ignored her statement and continued recalling what she could remember from Snips’ and Snails’ stories. “They also said that—”

“That what?” both Sweetie Belle and Apple Bloom asked as their friend suddenly stopped and her eyes went wide.

“T-That…” Scootaloo began but had to stop as a shiver ran down her spine. “They said that h-he steals little foals out of their bed and e-eats them.” Her eyes went wider and wider, her pupils were only a small black dot by now, while her voice was filled with panic.

She was met with an equally terrified look from Apple Bloom and a less shocked, but more questioning one by Sweetie Belle. “And you really believe that?” the latter asked, raising her brow yet again. “You would really think that my sister and her friends would let a monster like that wander through Ponyville?”

“M-Maybe he really can mind control ponies so that the older ones don’t notice that!” Scootaloo tried to explain.

“Ah told ya!” Apple Bloom agreed and scooted away from the open side of their hiding space until she stood with her back against the wall.

“Shush,” Sweetie Belle quickly ordered them, “or they will hear us. I can’t believe that you’re so easily tricked into believing them. Did Snips and Snails actually say they saw him take anypony and… e-eat them.” Even though she didn’t believe that part of the story one bit, she still had to gulp as she gave voice to her thought and had to suppress any images her mind might conjure up.

“Weeeeell...” Scootaloo dragged the word out and scratched the wooden floor with her hoof. “No, I don’t think so.”

“See? Told you that…” Sweetie Belle began but got interrupted by Scootaloo.

“But they saw his teeth. Sharp enough to tear through flesh they said,” she told the unicorn, her level of fear rising again after the short moment of relief that followed Sweetie Belle’s logical assumption that the story was fake. “What else could he have so sharp teeth for if not for eating ponies?”

That made Sweetie Belle wonder for a few moments, though she shook her head shortly after. “No, I don’t believe this, not until we have seen that ourselves. You saw his face. Were his teeth sharp or not?” Though she tried to keep her voice steady, she didn’t manage to completely hide the fear that slowly began to rise within her.

“I-I don’t know,” Scootaloo replied. “I didn’t see them very clearly.”

“Girls…” they heard Apple Bloom call faintly as she trembled, but they both ignored it.

“Then go out there and look again,” Sweetie Belle ordered her with a weak voice.

“Go look out there yourself if you want to find out,” Scootaloo returned. “You said they made it up, so you can check it too.”

“I-I guess I could,” Sweetie Belle said and nervously scratched the back of her neck.

“Girls...” came Apple Bloom’s voice again, but they paid her no attention once again.

“Then do it,” Scootaloo told her and pointed towards where Big Macintosh’s table was, but her eyes were still locked on to Sweetie Belle.

“But you have better eyesight, I might not even see it from here! And we risk blowing our cover for nothing...” she tried to talk her way out of the situation.

“Ha! And some ponies call me a chicken. Guess we know better now,” Scootaloo taunted her.

“You’re not going to look either!” Sweetie Belle hissed back.

“I already did; it’s your turn now.”

“Girls….” This time Apple Bloom’s voice was merely a whisper, but in the silence that surrounded them, they could still hear it clearly.

“What?” they asked in unison. Apple Bloom stood there, a look of pure terror on her face along with a few pearls of sweat, while her hoof was pointing at some place between them. Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo looked at each other first for a couple of seconds, both with open mouths and wide eyes, before they slowly began turning their heads in the direction Apple Bloom was pointing at.

“Hello there.” They were greeted by an unfamiliar voice, but they clearly saw who it belonged to, having just seen whose mouth those words escaped from. All three of them stood as stiff as a statue as they stood face to face with the alien they had been observing and were just talking about. He stood only centimetres away from them, just at the tables, lifting the tablecloth with one of his claws. He was squatting on his haunches, his upper body bent forwards so that he was on the same eye level as them. His other claw rested idly on his knee.

His face was round like Scootaloo told them, and besides some stubble around what should be his chin and cheeks and a small patch of hair above his bright blue and very small eyes, only a rough, relatively short yellow mane was sitting on top of his head. The rest of his face was covered by bright tannish skin. They presumed the rest of his body was as well, but that was covered by his clothes, a tight material of dark blue color that tightly laid over the rest of his body, leaving only his face and claws uncovered. Underneath the clothes that covered his arms, they could see a hint of muscle.

Now so close to him, there was no doubt for them that this was an alien. Never before had they seen a creature like that, and living so close to the Everfree Forest, the hatchery of vile creatures, that meant a lot.

A few seconds passed in which they stared at each other in silence, the alien’s eyes wandering between the three fillies who all stood there in shock and looked back with wide eyes.

“Crusaders, retreat?” Sweetie Belle whispered faintly, her eyes still locked on the alien only mere inches away from them. He only raised his eyebrows and shot her a questioning look while moving his claw to up to his face to scratch his chin.

“Can’t… move… too scared,” Apple Bloom replied behind her, her voice not louder than a whisper either.

“What shall we…” Sweetie Belle began but fell silent as the alien opened his mouth.

“Crusaders. Hmm… where did I hear that from?” His voice came so quiet that it seemed like he was talking to himself, a look of concentration on his face as if was he trying to remember something. Suddenly, he snapped his claws and his smile grew a bit wider. “Oh yes, the Cutie Mark Crusaders, wasn’t it? Applejack told me about it. You must be her sister then,” he said cheerfully and pointed with his claw at Apple Bloom.

Finally, Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo managed to avert their eyes from him and looked back at Apple Bloom who gave them a baffled look back. “Umm… yes,” she replied carefully, quickly followed by a nod.

“Ah, very good. Nice to meet you all. I’m Steve,” he replied in a friendly tone and reached out his claw towards them. A bit startled, they moved away from it at first but then stopped and looked at each other, confused after nothing more happened. “Oh, I forgot. Handshakes are not that common here,” he chuckled and pulled his claw, or hand how he called it, back. “Soooo, what exactly are you doing down here, hiding under the table? Maybe something to do with how you weren’t allowed to come to this party and yet you still did, and now you want to avoid being caught, hmmm?” he asked them and looked over his shoulder, back at the other ponies.

“N-No,” Apple Bloom stammered, causing him to look back at her again.

“Good. Why don’t you come out of there then? That looks a bit uncomfortable, sitting there in the dark,” he proposed and took a step back, motioned them with his hand to come out.

“What shall we do?” Apple Bloom quickly whispered to her two friends.

“Follow him?” Scootaloo asked and nervously looked at him, then at her friends.

“Are you nuts?” Apple Bloom retorted. “We can’t go out there.”

“Why not?” Sweetie Belle piped up. “If he wanted to do anything to us, he wouldn’t tell us to come out so that all the grown-ups can see us.”

“Well,” Apple Bloom began but stopped, having no idea how to argue against that. “Yer making a good point. Still….”

“Follow me then,” Sweetie Belle said determinedly, and slowly marched out from their hiding spot. Scootaloo and Apple Bloom looked at each other with concern one last time before following their friend.

Dazzled by the light, they had to raise their forehooves in front of their eyes for a few seconds until they adapted to the new lighting. Once their vision was clear again, they could see the human patiently waiting for them, still in the same position as before. “See? It’s much nicer out here,” he pointed out and smiled again. “Will you tell me now what were you doing down there?”

Unsure what to say, the ponies looked at each other for a few moments. “A-Are you an… alien?” Scootaloo asked and looked up at him. Even though he was making himself as small as possible, he was still taller than them, so they had to look up at him.

“Technically yes,” he agreed and nodded. “To be more specific, I’m a human, but you can also call me Steve.” After a short pause, he added, “That’s my name, just in case you’re wondering.” Instead of a reply, he only saw the ponies exchanging confused looks again.

This doesn’t seem like a wild beast at all, Sweetie Belle concluded but didn’t want to say that out loud to her friends, seeing as this Steve could speak their language quite well. The looks on her friends’ faces, however, told her that they were thinking the same.

“Umm, what are your names then?” the human asked, expectantly looking at each of the fillies.

Apple Bloom cleared her throat and replied, “Ahm Apple Bloom, this is Scootaloo and this is Sweetie Belle.” She pointed at the pegasus and unicorn next to her as she mentioned them.

“Nice to meet you,” he replied and nodded. “I hope I didn’t scare you under there. For some strange reason, my appearance sometimes has that effect here.” He laughed, but his eyes told a different story.

After a few seconds of awkward silence in which neither of the ponies could decide who should speak, Scootaloo jabbed Apple Bloom in the side, causing her to flinch a little. “Ouch… I mean, no of course not. We were just….” Quickly, she looked around, searching for an excuse but was only met by shrugs from her friends. “Umm… playing hide and seek! Yeah, hide and seek, that’s it.”

“Aha. So you three were hiding underneath there?” he asked and was met by quick nods of the three fillies. “Then who’s the seeker?”

“Uhhh… you?” Apple Bloom asked carefully and tried to put on a smile, but the human only gave her a confused look. “We’ll hide better this time. Count to one hundred!” she quickly ordered him and grabbed her friends by the neck before running off with them towards the kitchen, leaving a confused human behind.

Author's Notes:

So.... here we are again. First of all someone else has some words to say about this.

JBL: Apologizing for taking so long for a new update is getting old. I blame Gron for focusing on such silly things like ‘duties’ and ‘responsibilities’ and ‘getting an edumacation’.

I plead guilty to the charges above.

This chapter got split up (again) because it turned out to be extremely long (what she said). Don't worry, this time I assure that you don't have to wait that long again for the next update.

Anyways. I hope you liked this chapter and I think I speak for both of us that we are very happy that this chapter is finally out. It took like forever.

As always a big thanks to Tofty for his proofreading.

While you are waiting for the next chapter I'd recommend reading this story in the meantime:
Journey

Chapter 17 - Started!

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That was… something. Something weird, Steve thought as he watched the three young fillies quickly disappearing behind the counter near the door. And I tried so hard to not scare them. He let out a long sigh and continued staring after them for a few more moments. Well, at least I tried. He saw Cheerilee gently snuggling up against Big Mac’s side again, so he didn’t want to disturb them, he shrugged and made his way back to the other ponies.

“So, you’ve met mah sister?” Applejack asked him as he sat down next to her. When he looked over to her, he saw a mixture of confusion and worry on her face. A quick peek around the table showed equal expressions on the other ponies except for Rainbow, who looked like she was holding in laughter, and Derpy, who calmly looked at him with one eye and at the ceiling with the other.

Oh crap. They saw that, he thought and scratched the back of his neck while trying to put on a smile. “Yeaaah, I just… Well, I don’t really know what happened there.” He shrugged and looked around, a touch bewildered. “I just said my name and asked them why they were hiding under the table, and they just ran off. I really didn’t try to scare them, I promise.”

Applejack sighed in relief. “I know; they can just act weird sometimes. Probably got one of their crusadin’ things stuck in their heads again. I’ll talk to them about that later,” she assured him.

“Good, I was afraid it was because of something I did,” he said, sounding relieved. Wouldn’t have been the first time that happened, he noted to himself. “I don’t really want to end up being the bogeyman here.”

“The what now?” Applejack asked and raised a brow. The other ponies didn’t seem to understand what he meant either, judging by their faces.

“Just a term where I come from, don’t mind that,” he explained and shook his head. “Anyway! What’s the plan now?” he asked, trying to change the topic.

“Well, we are kinda waiting for Twilight and Pinkie to return; she had some games planned and—” Rainbow began but was interrupted by a flash of light, causing them all to turn around. “Aaand there you are,” Rainbow said to Twilight and Pinkie Pie who had reappeared in front of the group.

“Again! Again!” Pinkie cheered wildly and bounced excitedly in front of Twilight.

“No, Pinkie. For the last time, teleportation is not something to play with,” Twilight stated patiently to the giggling pink pony in front of her. “Can’t believe you convinced me to do it in the first place,” she quietly muttered.

“Awww,” Pinkie wailed and put on a sad face. “Pretty pleaseeeee,” she dragged out, trying to convince Twilight.

“Ugh, fine,” Twilight reluctantly agreed, and before Pinkie could cheer again, they both disappeared in a flash of light only to reappear in the same spot not even a second later.

“Wheeeee,” Pinkie giggled. Confused, Steve looked at her, but the other ponies didn’t even seem to mind.

Steve cleared his throat before addressing Twilight, “Everything went well?” Pinkie’s good mood was promising, considering two certain ponies hadn’t returned.

“Oh yes,” Twilight quickly replied. “I managed to convince her that the party would still be fun, but that it required her to be there too. I think you noticed what reason she had for coming back so easily. Did we miss anything?”

He scratched his neck again before replying, “Nothing important.” Twilight nodded. “So, Pinkie,” he turned towards the other mare, “I heard you have som… AHH!” His sentence got cut short as he was grabbed by a strong hoof and pulled away from his seat.

“You bet I have,” she answered his unfinished question. “And you even get to be the first to play my favourite game,” she continued before starting to spin the still wildly confused human in her hooves around on the floor. Steve was too baffled to open his mouth for more than some incomprehensible babbling. Before he even knew what was going on, his vision turned black.

“What the…” he stammered after he came to a sudden halt from his spinning movement. Quickly, he tried to feel what was blocking his eyesight and felt some smooth cloth lying over his eyes. “Pinkie! Why did you blindfold me?!” he shouted out and tried to pull the blindfold over his head but was quickly stopped by her surprisingly strong hooves.

“Silly, pin the tail on the pony doesn’t work if you can see,” she laughed and pulled her hooves away again.
“Pin the what on the what now?” he asked, now a bit more calm and resisted taking off the blindfold this time.

“The tail on the pony,” she repeated. Even though he couldn’t see, he could almost sense that she wore that big innocent-looking smile of hers right now. “Here’s the tail,” she said and put something in his hand which he firmly grasped, “and the pony’s over there… Oh silly me, you haven’t actually seen it. It’s, umm, over there, halfway to your right and then a bit leftish.”

“Pin the tail on the pony?” he repeated questioningly to which Pinkie quickly agreed. Oh, like the children’s game, he finally concluded. But isn’t that with a donkey? And why are we playing this here?

“Uhh, Pinkie?” he heard Applejack’s doubtful voice from the side. “Don’t ya suppose it would be better to at least ask him beforehoof?”

“Lighten up, AJ,” Rainbow’s voice sounded. “It’s all just in good fun, right?”

“Of course it is,” Pinkie Pie agreed eagerly and grabbed him by his shoulders. “Righty-o, Steverino?” she yelled into his ears. Maybe it was just because he couldn’t see and was focusing more on his other senses, but that sounded louder to him than it should have.

“I guess one little game can’t hurt,” he carefully replied and shrugged. Unless I run at a wall or something. I can’t see anything through this thing, he thought and resisted pulling off the blindfold once again.

“I knew you were gonna say that!” Pinkie chirped next to his ear, causing him to flinch a bit. “Then off you go!” she ordered and pushed him forward slightly so he would get moving.

“Uhm, Pinkie?” he asked, a bit confused.

“Yes?”

“I have no idea where I have to go.”

“Oh yes. Turn right,” she ordered and he quietly complied, slowly turning to his right.

“Stop, that’s too far,” Rainbow’s voice appeared. “A bit back to the left.”

“Now that’s too far left,” Applejack piped up after he turned into the new direction Rainbow gave him.

“I think that was just fine,” he heard the faint voice of Fluttershy in the background.

“Stop confusing me!” he said loudly, cutting off the various different directions that they proceeded to give him even though he had stopped moving.
“Now just one at a time,” he told them after a moment of silence, hoping that they would get this over with quickly.

***

“Phew, that was close,” Scootaloo pressed out between two gasps after she came to a halt next to the oven in the kitchen of Sugarcube Corner.

“Ah know,” Apple Bloom agreed as she stood behind the pegasus and quickly wiped a single drop of sweat from her forehead. “Is he following us?” she turned around and asked.

Sweetie Belle, the last of the trio, still stood at the door to the kitchen peeking out. “No,” she replied, eliciting a relieved sigh from her friends. “He’s still standing there… Wait! He’s moving,” she told them and gasped. “Oh no, he’s just going back to the others.” After one final look to check if that observation was true, Sweetie Belle headed back to her friends. “Now what will we do?” she asked them.

They all exchanged clueless looks. “Ah have no idea,” Apple Bloom replied.

“Me neither,” Scootaloo chimed in. A sigh went through the round again.

“And what shall we make of this situation then?” She was met again by clueless faces. “It didn’t really look like he wanted to attack us, did it?”

“Nah, not really if ya ask me,” Apple Bloom agreed. “But we couldn’t stay there like that. The plan was to secretly watch him. We need a new plan.”

“Any ideas on that?” Scootaloo asked. “He found us really quickly, and there aren’t exactly many other hiding spots out there.” The three young ponies sat down, each of them trying to come up with an idea.

“Aha!” Sweetie Belle said after a few moments. Immediately, her friends turned around to her, expectantly waiting for her idea. “So we can’t hide anywhere where he won’t see us, right?” They nodded. “Then we hide in the open.” Her triumphant gin was only met by the confused looks of her friends.

***

“Now just a teeny tiny bit forward aaaaaand you got it!” Pinkie Pie cheered happily.

About time, he thought, relieved that this game was finally over and he was able to take off his blindfold. The last five minutes he had spent trying to follow her directions that were more confusing than explanatory. Although he had to admit it was quite fun, it was not an experience he wanted to repeat. Now with his eyesight slowly returning, he finally got a look at his surroundings. His arm was still reaching out, holding a strip of cloth that reassembled a pony’s tail with a pin at its base, which he had just pinned near the flank of a picture of a blue earth pony with a yellow mane that was missing its tail. Letting go of the fake tail, he turned around to the wide grin of the pink mare next to him.

“That was fun, wasn’t it? Huh?” she asked expectantly, leaning in close to his face. He leaned back slightly to get a bit of distance from her and nodded. “Sooooo, what do you want to do next?” she asked and waved a hoof around. Following her hoof, he looked around the room. Only now did he notice that the gramophone he had seen earlier was now playing music. A soft melody that he had not noticed while he was focusing on his direction came out of the machine, causing Fluttershy, Derpy, and Twilight to move rhythmically to the music while Rarity stood next to them, levitating a cup of punch in her magic and having a chat with the mayor.

One thing he was sure wasn’t there before was a big wooden tub situated in the middle of the room. He was baffled how they moved it there so quickly. It was bigger than a bathtub and almost completely filled with water with some apples floating on the top. Applejack leaned against it, a grin on her face while she seemed to be discussing something with Rainbow Dash. “Hmm?” Pinkie Pie hummed. “How about bobbing for apples? That’s always pretty funny,” she proposed and pointed over at the tub.

Well, not what I had in mind about this party, but I guess I’ll take it. At the very least, it would make Pinkie happy, he thought while staring into her bright blue eyes. Don’t want to let her down by not playing a few of her games. I was also promised cider, so it shouldn’t go on like this for the rest of the night. The thought brought a little smile to his lips. “Sounds like a plan,” he agreed and nodded.

“Heya again, Dashie and Applejack!” Pinkie greeted the two ponies standing next to the tub.

“Howdy there,” Applejack greeted them back and tipped her hat. “Up for bobbing some apples?” She pointed towards the shiny red fruits floating in the water behind her.

“Maybe you’re gonna be better at this than at pin the tail on the pony.” Rainbow laughed and looked at them from the side.

“Rainbow!” Applejack chided her and shot her a stern look. Unfortunately though, Steve had to admit that she was right. Judging by the amount of directions he needed shouted at him and the light giggles he heard in the background from time to time, he must have been horribly bad.

“Just sayin’.” Rainbow waved her off. “Wanna try it? Just grab an apple with your mouth, no hooves… err, hands allowed.” She turned towards him and shot him a challenging look.

“It is on, Dashie,” he replied with a sly grin, using the same nickname Pinkie Pie had used as he stepped forward.

“Don’t!” came her harsh reply. He stopped in his movements and looked back at her, raising a brow at her sudden reaction. “Only Pinkie can call me that.”

He looked at her for a few moments, but her face told him she was dead serious. “Fine, sorry,” he said bitingly, rolling his eyes and raising his hands.

“It’s okay; you couldn’t have known. It’s just… I don’t like to be called that,” she replied and looked at the ground. He decided to leave it at that. Instead, he moved over to the tub and looked around for an apple he could easily reach with his mouth. Since the tub was made for the much smaller ponies, he had to kneel down in front of it first, his waist resting against the top of the tub.

Alright, this one looks about right, he thought after spotting an apple that seemed to be somewhere where his mouth was soon to be and leaned forwards. The distance was estimated correctly, but he just couldn’t get a grip on the apple. His teeth tried to cut through the skin and into the juicy flesh, but the apple just submerged a few centimeters more before popping out of the water next to his head shortly after. He could feel the ponies’, especially Rainbow’s, expectant looks on his back, so he didn’t want to give up now. In one final attempt, he opened his mouth as far as he could and tried to get a hold on the apple, but it was in vain. Instead of an apple, he ended up with a large amount of water in his mouth which caused him to cough it out and abort his attempt.

“Ha!” He heard Rainbow laughing next to him and felt her hoof firmly tapping on his back while he was still coughing out the water. “Stand back and look how an expert does it,” she declared, and in one quick movement, her head shot down into the water and up again with a big red apple in her teeth. “See?” she boasted, her voice muffled by the fruit, tossed it into the air with a quick swing of her head, and caught it mid-air while it was coming down again, gulping it down in one single bite, a triumphant smile on her face.

“Not fair,” he said sourly after spitting out the last drops of water. “Your mouth is way bigger than mine,” he pointed out, “I can’t fit it in there as easily as you can.”

“All I hear are excuses,” she replied and smirked. “Wasn’t too bad for a beginner though, but looks like ponykind wins once again.”

Oh, now it is so on, he thought determinedly and quickly threw his head into the water again. His teeth tried to bury in the apple, but the apple just slipped out of his grip before his teeth could cut through the skin every time. He almost wanted to give up, but then he finally managed to get a hold of one. He buried his teeth deep into the fruity flesh before pulling out his head, showing off his prize. Satisfied, he grabbed the apple in one hand and took a large bite out of it. “Ahh, the sweet taste of victory,” he said triumphantly and looked over to Rainbow Dash.

Much to his surprise, however, he found the little orange pegasus filly he had seen hiding under the table with her two friends earlier standing next to Rainbow Dash. “Hey there, Scoots,” Rainbow said to the filly who stood close at her side. Noticing Steve’s look, Rainbow leaned down to the little filly and whispered something in her ear.

The filly nodded and a shortly after she said in a slightly trembling tomboyish voice, “I’m S-Scootaloo.”

Surprised, Steve raised a brow. This is a bit different from our last meeting, he thought, wondering what had caused the filly to change her mind about clearly showing herself to him, and why she was alone. “Well, hello there Scootaloo, I’m Steve.” He greeted the filly again, still on his knees from the apple bobbing, however he was still a little taller than the mares around him, so he believed the young pony wouldn’t be too intimidated by his size right now. “Sorry if I scared you earlier,” he added and smiled, trying to dissolve any troubling thoughts she might have.

“Oh no, we weren’t scared.” She was quick to dismiss him and shook her little head. “It’s… uh…” she stammered, obviously trying to come up with an excuse. “Just playing a game… yeah,” she finally said and nodded her head quickly, causing her short magenta mane to bounce up and down.

Likely story, Steve thought but decided not to pressure her into saying more about it. He was content with how things were now, and putting her in an awkward situation wouldn’t help him. “Good, good,” he replied and smiled again. “But speaking of which, where are your other friends? There was three of you when I saw you earlier,” he pointed out.

“They’re over there,” came her quick reply and she pointed behind him. He turned around to see the yellow earth pony filly with the bright red hair with a bow tied into it standing next to Applejack, who had been chatting with Pinkie Pie while he was bobbing for apples. The white unicorn with the two colored mane was standing next to Rarity and both were looking over to him.

He was certainly no expert on pony genetics, but two white unicorns, both a color and a race he had observed relatively few of here in Ponyville so far, was a good indication that they were related somehow. Then again, it could also be due to the fact that he had seen very few ponies here so far.

If this Apple Bloom is standing next to her sister it is only logical that, umm…. He struggled a bit, trying to remember their names, Sweetie Belle would also go to someone she is related to. Question is, mother or sister? I have no idea how old these ponies are and at what age ponies usually give birth. Hmm, how can I ask them without it being completely awkward? he drifted off in his thoughts again. Ah, of course. A straight up question to Twilight, he decided was the best way to approach pretty much any question about a pony’s physiology. Or any question in general. That pony doesn’t seem to think anything is awkward, he thought while looking at the purple mare dancing to the music with moves that would have even shamed Commander Shepard. Suddenly, he realized that he had started to zone off again and quickly focused on his surroundings. As he turned around again, he could see that Applejack and Apple Bloom stood next to Scootaloo and Rainbow Dash already.

“Steve, I’d like ya to introduce ya to mah little sister, Apple Bloom,” Applejack said and pushed the little filly next to her forward a bit, much to her dismay. “The one that was so rude to run away,” she hissed into the filly’s ear and glared at her, but her voice was still loud enough that Steve could hear it.

Before either Steve or the filly got a chance to speak, Rarity cleared her throat as she entered his field of view and said, “It appears my sister has not yet introduced herself so I have to do that for her. Steve, this is Sweetie Belle. Sweetie Belle, say hello to Steve.”

The three fillies exchanged a quick look then grinned slightly before all three chanted in unison, “Hello, Steve.”

So that answers the question about their relation, Steve thought, mildly confused about what they were doing. I’m just going out on a limb here and I’ll say that Scootaloo is Rainbow’s sister, he concluded and looked at the three ponies and fillies in front of him. So, was their plan to stick with their sisters? Steve wondered. It’s kinda logical that they feel safe around their family, but it’s worrying at the same time that they think this would be necessary. He held back a sigh. “It’s nice to meet you all,” he said and put on a smile again. “Are you enjoying the party so far?”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo was the first to reply, “Pinkie’s parties are always awesome.” Her two friends nodded in agreement.

That seems to be a very common opinion here, Steve thought and chuckled.

“It’ll get even better when mah sister brings her cider along,” Apple Bloom added, earning her a surprised look from the grown-ups.

“Apple Bloom! Were ya drinking the cider? I told ya that it wasn’t for little ponies,” Applejack asked angrily and shot her little sister a stern look.

“Nah, of course not Sis,” she replied quickly and shook her head. “But it’s funny to watch.”

“Yeah,” Scootaloo agreed. “Especially when Rainbow tries to fly while drunk and crashes into the nearest shelf.” The three fillies laughed while the adult ponies looked at each other uneasily. Steve had to admit that the thought was pretty hilarious.

“And stop right there, Squirt,” Rainbow ordered harshly after she had caught herself again. “Not everypony should know about that.”

“I have to agree with Rainbow Dash there, Scootaloo” Rarity joined in indignantly. “A lady does not tell stories of her friends when they had a drink too much,” she chided the young filly.

“So why do you tell these stories so often to me when I can’t go to the party myself?” Sweetie Belle asked and looked innocently up at her sister whose white coat had turned red around her cheeks by now. Rainbow glared angrily over at Rarity, who was trying to hide her nervousness under an awkward chuckle.

Before any of the fillies could tell another private detail about their sisters, Applejack stepped in. “Well would you look at the time? I’d say it’s time for young fillies to hit the hay now,” she said loudly.

“Quite so; you should be in bed by now. It is getting too late for you.” Rarity had managed to get a hold of herself as well, the red that had crawled on her cheeks vanishing quickly.

“But we’re not even tired,” Apple Bloom complained and looked at her sister with large eyes, just like her other two friends.

“Nope. No arguing about that,” Applejack remained firm. “Somepony has to bring y’all home.” She looked at the three fillies with a look that brooked no dissent. “Big Mac!” she called out to her brother.

“Eeyup?” his deep voice resounded after a moment of silence.

“Can ya take Apple Bloom and her friends home? I think it’s time for them to go to bed.”

After another moment of silence, the red stallion appeared at their side, Cheerilee trotting behind him. He looked over the three fillies shortly, then back at Cheerilee briefly who nodded, then replied, “Eeyup.”

“Ah, thank ya Big Mac,” Applejack said firmly, interrupting the flow of protests that began to come out of the fillies’ mouths.

“A fine gentlecolt indeed,” Rarity agreed in a smooth voice and slowly walked towards Big Mac.

Cheerilee, who was waiting in the background, coughed slightly and stepped forward to Big Macintosh’s side. “I think I should leave now as well. It is getting quite late already, and I have a few things to do tomorrow.” She put a hoof on Big Mac’s shoulder and gave him a long look. “If you’re already at it, would you bring me home as well?”

The stallion gulped at first, before pressing out a nervous, “Eeyup.” Without further ado, he grabbed the three protesting fillies, threw them on his wide back, and signalled that he was ready to go. “See ya,” he said to the other party guests.

“Thanks for the invitation. I hope you enjoy the rest of the party,” Cheerilee bade them goodbye as well.

Pinkie Pie, who had overheard their conversation, suddenly appeared next to Steve, she seemed to be a little saddened by their departure but made no attempts to stop them. Instead, she thanked them for coming and hoped they could do this again soon.

“I think I will be leaving now as well,” Mayor Mare’s voice appeared behind them as she, and the other ponies joined them. “The office doesn’t close at weekends, so I still have plenty of work to do.”

“So am I,” Derpy joined in. “Mail has to be delivered too, and I don’t want to be late again.” She shot an apologetic smile over to Pinkie Pie. “But thanks for inviting me. I had a great night. You’re such a good friend, Pinkie,” the grey pegasus continued and gave Pinkie a quick hug.

An exchange of goodbyes later, a group of seven ponies left Sugarcube Corner dispersing in different directions, leaving a group of six ponies and one human behind. “So, what’s planned next?” Steve turned towards Pinkie Pie and asked eagerly with a clap of his hands.

“Weeeell,” Pinkie began and looked over to Applejack and quickly raised her eyebrows like she wanted to tell her something.

“Huh?” the farm mare asked, confused. “Ahh, sure,” she said a few moments later after she seemed to understand what Pinkie was telling her to do and quickly left the room, heading into the kitchen.

Confused, Steve looked around between the other ponies. “What is it?” he wanted to know. Rainbow’s eager grin told him that it would be something good, but he preferred a clear answer.

“Oh, you’ll see,” Rainbow replied with a smirk and looked back at the door to the kitchen from where a rumbling sound caught his ears.

He perked up his head to see what was causing the noise but could only spot Applejack slowly walking behind the counter which was blocking the view of the lower part of her body. As she turned around the corner and entered the main room, he could finally see what their next plan was. “Who’s up for some cider?” Applejack asked loudly and stopped the barrel that she was rolling with her forehooves.

***

“Here ya go, partner,” Applejack said affably and held a tall mug of cider in front of Steve’s face.

"Thanks,” Steve said eagerly, taking the mug out of her hoof and looking at the golden liquid inside. It looked so inviting that he wanted to take a large sip right away, but he patiently waited for the other ponies to get their mugs filled as well.

“Thanks, but none for me.” Twilight declined the cider Applejack offered her, waving it off with one hoof.

“Lighten up, egghead,” Rainbow said and waved her own mug in front of the eyes of the purple unicorn, causing a few drops to spill over. “It’s a party. One drink won’t kill you.”

“I guess you’re right…” Twilight said slowly, looking alternatively between Rainbow’s and Applejack’s reassuring faces and the mug of cider the latter still held in her hoof. “But just one drink!” she declared as she grabbed the mug with her magic.

Shortly after, all the ponies were well supplied with drinks. “Wonderful!” Steve said aloud and raised his mug in the air, causing the ponies to look at him. “I don’t know how you usually handle things here, but for me, this is pretty nice. A party just for me to welcome me here,” he aimed his mug towards Pinkie Pie, “nice company,” he looked at each of the ponies individually for a few moments, “and now some fine drinks,” he finished and held his mug in the middle of the group. “So cheers, prost, skål, or whatever it is you say around here. To a great time together!”

“To a great time together,” the ponies joined in and clinked their mugs against his.

Wow, was his first thought as the cold cider ran down his throat. It was again a bit too sweet for his taste, but that would be something he would have to get used to here. Nevertheless, it was absolutely delicious. It tasted fresh, with a clear note of apple, was chilled perfectly, and surprisingly strong as well. Or maybe it was just too long since I drank anything with alcohol, he thought and took another large gulp of the drink. I should probably go easy on this. A hangover is the last thing I need right now.

“See?” Rainbow, who had by now almost emptied her drink already, prodded him in the side. “Told ya it was amazing, right?”

“Yes, you were right,” he agreed. “This tastes amazing.” He took another sip.

“Thank ya’ kindly,” Applejack joined in and tipped her hat. “It’s one of our most popular products, and we’re very proud of it. For some ponies, cider season is the best time of the year, eh?” She smirked at Rainbow Dash who only shrugged it off and took another sip of her drink. “Do ya have cider on Earth?”

“Yes, but I wasn’t much of a fan of it back there,” he admitted and thought back a bit. “I was more into whisky, but my roommate while I was still in university absolutely loved cider. I had no idea where he got the money from to buy so much, but I’m not complaining. He gave me some for free from time to time.” He smiled at the thought as he took another sip, allowing the warmth to settle him.

“So ya had a good time there back then?” Applejack asked after a few moments. He was drifting off in his thoughts again, and her voice made his head perk up.

“Pretty much. It was so easy back then, when the thing that worried me the most was the score I got on a test. Sometimes it just seems like yesterday, but it has been over two years since I’ve been home. And now I-I…” He started to stutter, and then his voice dropped off. It’s okay. You got this, he said to himself and tried to focus again. “It’s just a bit of homesickness I guess,” he dismissed their worried looks, hiding his own worries behind a quick laugh.

“I can promise you that the princess and I are doing everything we can to help you get home again,” Twilight joined in their conversation.

“I have no doubts about that,” he replied honestly, and a genuine smile appeared on his lips this time. “I just always felt so ready to go on this journey, but now… I don’t know. It appears that planning one’s life can only work up to a certain point.” He sighed. “Great, now I almost sound like my mother,” he admitted and laughed. “Always telling me that I was spending too much time thinking about the future instead of living in the present.”

“I can tell you that you’ve got nothing much to worry about when you’re living here,” Rainbow said and gulped down the rest of her drink in one go.

“Sounds like a welcome change to me,” he agreed and took another large sip of cider.

“Still not done, eh?” Rainbow asked as she peeked into his mug. “Thought you could hold your drink better with your size.”

“Haste makes waste. Also, I haven’t drank alcohol for a long time. These crazy party nights at uni were way too long ago,” he told her but still took another sip of his drink.

“Got a good story ‘bout that? How do you humans party anyway?” she asked curiously.

“Well, there might be a story or two. I wasn’t that big of a fan of parties as I told you, but even I couldn’t say no forever,” he admitted.

“Go on, tell!” she demanded. “I bet you were completely wasted.” She grinned.

“Not really, I wasn’t drinking that much. Mostly.” He added the last word quietly but she still picked it up.

“Mostly?” she repeated, her grin growing wider.

“Well…” he began but stopped again.

“Come on, tell me,” she demanded.

“N-No, it’s just…” he tried to fend her off but she remained persistent. “Ugh, fine,” he eventually agreed and sat down on the floor to be more comfortable, and so he could look the ponies in their eyes. “It was… I think at the end of my second year. My roommate, Victor, this crazy Danish guy who loved cider so much, was dragging me to some party in the student dorm. Exams were over, and I was running out of excuses at that point, so I eventually had to agree.” Rainbow nodded quickly. “So before we actually went to the party, we were doing some drinking in our room. I can’t even remember how, but he managed to make me drink an entire bottle of Malibu on my own.” The thought of that drink made him shiver. Seeing the ponies’ confused faces, he explained, “That’s a type of rum with a coconut flavour. Tastes pretty good with cherry or passion fruit.

“But anyways, there we were, drinking a bit, chatting about… I don’t even know anymore, but he somehow made me drink glass after glass until I emptied the entire bottle by myself. I was so pissed, I felt like falling asleep right there, but of course he made me go this party instead. I don’t think I resisted much, all I know is that we were going out of the door and then nothing!” He stopped for a moment in his speech and emptied his drink, looking down at the now empty mug, somewhat saddened.

“The next thing I remember was waking up in my bed. I had completely forgotten what happened the night before, so of course the first thing I did was sleep for a couple more hours. My head felt like someone had beaten it with a hammer over and over again. My rest was short as Victor bumped into my room, wildly laughing. In that moment, I knew I should have never agreed to his plan. I was still not in the best position to do anything, so he just went on telling me everything that had happened the previous night.” He stopped again for a bit.

“So what happened?” Rainbow asked eagerly.

An awkward chuckle left his mouth as he looked down to the ground. “It turned out that the party we were going to had a karaoke set. Do you know what that is?” he quickly asked around to which the ponies nodded. “Good, I think you can figure out the result of a combination of a microphone and a guy with no singing talent and way too much alcohol.” From the grins of the ponies, he suspected they could. “And now praise the wonders of technology as I got recorded during all that.” His cheeks turned almost as red as on the day when he had listened to one of the recordings for the first time.

“At least that resulted in a few positive things too. Firstly, I got complimented a lot on my very dramatic interpretation of My Heart Will Go On, and I could use it as an excuse against Victor for not having to go to parties I don’t like,” he added and chuckled. “Also, I ended up hiding in my room for most parts of my holidays after that evening. I finished some papers I had to write for my next semester so early that I could actually do something besides studying during the semester.”

“Just some drunken singing? That’s not too bad,” Rainbow said and laughed. “You’d have to prove it if you were really singing so poorly.”

“You really wouldn’t want that. I swore to never get that drunk again.”

“Oh look, you’ve got nothing to drink,” she said with a sly grin on her face and grabbed the mug out of his hand. “I’ll get you another one.”

“But, I—” he began, but she was already gone.

“Don’t ya worry none, partner; we’re not gonna let ya sing if ya don’t wanna.” Applejack snickered and slapped him on his back.

He looked at Rainbow Dash for a short while before turning to Applejack and nodded. “At least you don’t have video cameras, so I’ve got that going for me if I ever get too drunk.” He chuckled.

“Actually we do,” Twilight threw in. At his shocked expression, she quickly added, “But they are so bulky and expensive that we don’t actually have one here with us.”

“Don’t have what here?” Rainbow Dash asked as she joined their conversation while handing Steve back his mug, this time filled with cider.

“Nothing.” Steve cut off that topic before it headed down a dangerous route and took a small sip of his drink.

“If you say so.” She shrugged and took a sip of her cider too. “So, got any more stories to tell?” She shot him the same sly grin from before.

“I think that one should be enough for now,” he denied her request, much to her dismay.

“Aww, come on. Don’t be so boring. It doesn’t have to about drinking, just anything,” she pressured him, only stopping to drink some cider. “You never talk about yourself. Lighten up; it’s a party.”

“I guess so.” He sighed. “But I don’t know what to talk about. I could talk about my home, sure, but it would all be just empty names to you, places you would never see or hear of again.” He stopped to take a quick sip of his drink. “I’m sorry, I just don’t want to think about it too much at the moment.”

While Steve switched his attention to his cider for the moment, the three ponies exchanged some worried looks. “Sorry for pressuring you into telling these stories,” Rainbow said and stepped over to him and softly patted his back.

“I’m sorry as well,” Twilight joined in. “I didn’t know you didn’t want to talk about it, and I kept on asking you about your world.” She shot him an apologetic look and scratched the floor with her right foreleg.

“It’s okay. I have no problems with talking about Earth in general, but I would prefer to keep my personal life to myself for now. There are just too many memories,” he told them and forced a smile on his face. “Now stop worrying about that,” he ordered. “I spent way too much time the last couple of days thinking about my sorry ass already; there’s no need for that now!” He downed a good part of his drink.

“That’s good, but ya might wanna go easy on ya drink, partner. It’s stronger than ya might think,” Applejack said, relieved and a bit concerned at the same time.

“I think I-I… I can handle it,” he assured her and tried to alter her doubtful look with a smile. “Like you said, it’s a party and all just in good fun, right?” he turned to Rainbow Dash who still sat next to him.

“Yeah, right,” she agreed and clinked her mug against his. “Come on, you two,” she ordered her two friends who had joined in with their drinks shortly after. “Really, Twilight? You haven’t drank anything so far?” Rainbow said, doubtful as she looked into Twilight’s mug.

“I have!” she retorted quickly. “I told you I’m just having this one drink.”

“Yeah, but the cider is going to waste if you wait too long,” Rainbow persisted.

“I’m pretty sure that is not how it wor—”

“Whatever,” Rainbow scoffed, waving a lazy wing in the unicorn’s direction. “If you don’t wanna have some fun with us…”

“I also don’t see the benefits I would gain from drinking this. Why would I want to intoxicate myself and lower my cognitive abilities?” she wondered and raised a brow. “I mean, it does not taste bad, but I just can’t see a long term benefit from it, and I certainly don’t need it to have fun.”

“But it helps you loosen up a bit,” Rainbow returned and slapped Steve on his back again, causing him to almost spit out the cider he was just drinking. “See how well it works?”

“I don’t think I would need that,” Twilight replied and shook her head.

“Well, how about a little deal then?” Steve asked after putting down his mug of cider. Twilight shot him a questioning look. “If you drink, I’ll agree to those tests you wanted to do. You know, about me and magic.”

“Really?” Twilight asked surprised and he nodded. “Oh, that would be perfect. I guess then I ca… wait! Are you sure about that? You seem a bit drunk, and I don’t want to use that to my advantage.” She eyed him carefully.

“Like I would get drunk from one cider,” he laughed, and Rainbow joined in.

“This is your second one,” Twilight pointed out bluntly.

“Exactly!” he agreed cheerfully. “So, do we have a deal?” he asked again and reached out his hand.

Twilight looked a few times between him and her mug before eventually shaking his hand. “Fine,” she agreed. “But don’t you think you can convince me to do this again so easily.” With that, the unicorn set the mug to her lips and took a large gulp. She stumbled backwards a little, but Applejack reacted quickly and held her before she could fall over. “Wow, this really tastes much better than I thought.”

"Ha! I knew you would like it!” Rainbow cheered and raised her mug to Twilight.

“Rainbow, dear. What is it that is making you talk so loud?” Rarity inquired, walking over to them from the side and giving Rainbow a sceptical look. “Some of us would prefer a sound level where you can actually hold a conversation.”

“Rares, look! Twilight is actually drinking!” Rainbow pointed out, ignoring her friend’s complaint.

“Don’t be silly now, Twilight never drinks. It interferes with your magic too much as you always put it, right, darling?” Rarity asked and looked over to Twilight. “Oh my,” she said, surprised as she saw that actually a good amount of Twilight’s drink was missing. “And how did you manage to achieve this if I may ask?” she turned back to Rainbow.

“Steve did it. He told her if she drank and had some fun, he would let her do some tests in return, right?” she laughed and slapped him on the back again. He nodded with a sly grin.

“I see. This does seem like a cheap way to trick a lady into drinking,” Rarity harrumphed and gave them a reproving look. “But I have to say that I have never seen Twilight drunk, so I would be willing to let that slip past,” she replied, her face softened again and a grin appeared on her lips.

“Hey!” Twilight called out. “Stop talking ‘bout me like imma not even here,” she complained loudly but seemed to have some trouble figuring out who to talk to, as she was looking neither at Rainbow nor Rarity, but inbetween them. Shrugging, she proceeded to take another large sip from her drink. “I can h-h-hicks…” She was interrupted by a small hiccup but acted like it didn’t happen. “Hear you,” she murmured her sentence, causing Rainbow Dash to burst out into laughter. She was joined by Steve and the other ponies who still managed not to sound as boisterous as Rainbow.

“Oh Twily,” Pinkie chirped into her ear. During Twilight’s muttering, she and Fluttershy had joined them as well. Fluttershy was balancing her mug of cider on her wings while Pinkie’s was balanced atop her head. The former gave Twilight a worried look first and then gave her other friends a quick deprecating stare. “You sound so funny when you’re drunk,” the pink mare squealed, oblivious to the look Fluttershy was giving.

“I’m n-not dru… drunk,” the unicorn mare stammered. “I just… urgh!” she groaned loudly. “Hold on, I just have to concentrate real quick.” Twilight laid down on the floor and closed her eyes, her mouth silently forming some words.

The other ponies looked at her confusedly until her horn began to glow. “Twilight, I don’t think it’s a good idea to use magic now,” Rarity quickly said in an attempt to stop her friend.

“Is it dangerous?” Steve asked, worried.

“Usually not. Most unicorns will just shoot some sparks from their horns if they try to cast a spell while they are drunk as they can’t concentrate well enough,” she explained to him. “But Twilight isn’t like most unicorns, and she has never been drunk before. I have no idea what is going to happen,” she added, clearly concerned, before looking down at the purple unicorn, still lying on the ground.

“Can’t we stop her?” Steve wondered.

Rarity quickly shook her head. “Only with words. If we break what little concentration she has now, the spell could backfire even more. We just have to…” A flash of light interrupted her. “… wait,” she finished her sentence.

Twilight seemed to have completed the spell and stood up from the floor again, her eyes still closed.

“Twilight, are you alright?” Fluttershy whispered through the silence that had followed.

The unicorn rapidly shook her head a few times and then opened her eyes again. “Yes,” she replied in a clear voice. “Now I am.”

“What happened?” Steve asked, confused. The other ponies nodded encouragingly, obviously not knowing what had happened either.

“Just a simple mental rejuvenation spell,” Twilight replied. She saw the looks on her friends’ faces and explained, “It clears your mind so that you can think again. Princess Celestia taught it to me a long time ago. Back when I was still studying in Canterlot, I needed it to pull off all these all-nighters in a row and still be able to learn something. I thought that if it would work when I’m tired then it would work if I’m drunk as well.”

“So you can just skip over hangovers and tiredness?” Steve asked in surprise. That would be amazing. If she can do that to me I don’t even regret offering myself for the tests.

“Only to a degree,” she replied and shook her head. “It only postpones the effect. I have to go to sleep at some point, and then it’s going to be a long sleep. I don’t know how it will work with alcohol, but I guess can have a clear head for the rest of the night and maybe sleep it out tomorrow.” She raised her mug that had fallen to the ground in the meantime, now completely empty. “Looks like I have held my promise. One mug of cider, check!”

“Hey, that’s cheating!” Rainbow said loudly and pointed at her.

“I drank it; you never said I would have to be drunk,” Twilight countered and grinned. “At least not now,” she added quietly.

“Pfff, so ya don’t want to play fair. Fine by me,” Rainbow replied and emptied her mug of cider again. “There is still one more we have never seen drunk before.” She grinned at Steve.

“What? No!” he quickly denied and raised both his arms defensively. “I told you I wouldn’t let myself get that drunk again.”

“And what if I drink with you? Just until one of us has enough?” she offered and grinned slyly.

“A drinking competition?” he wondered and she quickly nodded. “I don’t know… those usually don’t end well.”

“Come on, I’ll even go easy on you. The others will watch out for you. Fluttershy, you would stop him if he would get too drunk right?” she said to her friend who flinched at the sudden mention of her name.

“S-Sure…” she stammered out from behind her mane. Seeing the focus of her friends was on her, she quickly turned to her cider, taking a large gulp before coughing delicately, her cheeks beginning to look slightly reddened.

“See?” Rainbow asked again. “It’s completely fine.”

Fluttershy’s behaviour was not very convincing, but when he looked around the group of ponies, they gave him an encouraging nod. Well, as long as we have one reasonable person or pony left here, he thought as he looked at Twilight. They would surely stop this before it gets out of hand, and I could get back at her for my failure earlier. “Okay then,” he agreed.

“Awesome. AJ, you’re the judge,” Rainbow ordered her friend and dragged them both over to the barrel. “Rules are simple. The first one who can’t empty their drink loses.”

“Or it’s a tie when you both have had enough but can’t see it, right?” Twilight raised her voice and gave Rainbow a long look.

“Sure, sure,” Rainbow replied absently while AJ was filling their mugs. “Any last questions?” she turned towards Steve who shook his head. “Great. Then may the best pony win!” she cheered as she grabbed her mug and held it to her lips, waiting for him to do the same.

Oh God, what have I gotten myself into? he asked himself after taking his filled mug from Applejack, also holding it to his lips. “For Earth!” he declared determinedly, throwing his head back and allowing the sweet golden liquid to run down his throat. In the corner of his eyes, he could see Rainbow Dash doing the same.

He gulped quickly, not only because of the cider but also because he saw that Rainbow Dash had no problems in keeping up with him so far as they both put their mugs down at the same time.

“Well? Feeling something already?” she asked cockily and grinned towards him while waiting for Applejack to refill their mugs.

“Should I?” he shot back in return and raised a brow. I’m not going to be beaten by a pony. Wings or no wings, magical or not, he thought as he took back his mug and downed it again in one go. This time he struggled a bit more than before, and he had to force himself to swallow down the last bits of the chilled drink. Such a shame for such a good drink, he thought, a bit disappointed as he took the empty mug away from his lips again and looked at the last few drops that were still inside.

“Not bad,” Rainbow commented from his side. He looked over at her and saw with fear that he had gained no advantage. “For a beginner,” she added with a sly grin as she took back her refilled mug.

“Ya’ll might wanna go easy this time,” Applejack advised from the side, a faint hint of disapproval on her face. “Or this thing will be over before the next five minutes is gone.”

“Aww, don’t be a poor sport now, AJ.” Rainbow Dash snorted, flapping her wings energetically a few times. “Everyone goes at the speed they like, eh?” she nodded to Steve, who did not respond.

“No,” Twilight interjected firmly and gave the brash pegasus a stern look. “We promised to not let this get out of hoof, so I can’t allow you to drink too irresponsibly.”

“Ugh, fine. I’m sure you’ll probably put the Party Pooper award you’ll get one of these days on one of your bookshelves,” Rainbow agreed, glaring at the unicorn before huffing in annoyance. “Have it your way then,” she grumbled.

Today really is my lucky day, Steve thought, relieved at Twilight’s responsible attitude, agreeing with her wholeheartedly. “If it has to be that be that way, sure.” He shrugged and took his refilled mug from the orange earth pony.

Carefully, he let a large amount of the drink run down his throat, feeling the searing effect it had on his throat as it went down. I really hope she’ll give up soon. This stuff is really strong, he thought as he felt the effects of the alcohol kicking in. His vision began to blur slightly as he felt his face heating up, feeling the sweat already beginning to bead. A quick glance over to Rainbow Dash was not promising. So far, he couldn’t see any real effect of the alcohol on her, but that could also have been due to his less than perfect sight. What he could see was that she had raised her mug again, ready to take the next sip, and so he followed suit. Steve knew that he had reached the point where he would usually have called it quits. He would have stopped, but defeat was not an option that his stubborn mind would have allowed him at that moment.

Drop for drop, the cider disappeared into their throats, only to be refilled as soon as they finished. Steve had no idea how long this had been going on for now; his feeling for time had been completely destroyed, but it couldn’t have been that many rounds. The more he drank, the longer the next round seemed to drag on as his speed decreased. The only positive thing was that Rainbow was now struggling just like him. Their mugs were being refilled at the same time, so she couldn’t be far ahead of him. This was the only thing he really noticed from here on. The surrounding ponies were completely blocked out. From time to time, he thought he heard them cheering or maybe just calling their names, but he couldn’t tell for sure, even less if they were cheering for him or Rainbow.

After what seemed like an eternity after they both started and finished just another round, Twilight raised her voice, causing the two drinkers to look at her while they were waiting for their mugs to be refilled. Or maybe her general direction, he wasn’t quite sure anymore. All he knew was that all four Twilights were glaring at them and shaking their heads disapprovingly. “Alright! This has to come to an end now. Your alcohol level will reach a critical point soon, and in good conscience, I can’t let you go on with this.” She stamped a hoof on the floor, causing him to shake slightly.

“Tw… Twisl…” A hiccup interrupted Rainbow’s attempt at conversation. Just like him, she had preferred to stay silent a while ago, and he could see that they both were better off not talking. “Twi,” she stammered out, deciding that any other name would be too long right now. “Don’t ya s-shee that he… he… he’sh gonna loosh.” Uncontrollable laughter erupted from her throat as she pounded a hoof against her chest in a pre-emptive celebration, her wings buzzing sporadically at her sides.

“Now lishen here, you little horshie!” Steve said as clearly as he could and pointed at Rainbow with a raised finger. He then had to struggle to keep it upright as gravity wanted to pull the digit down.

“We are not horses!” Twilight angrily retorted, glaring at the inebriated human.

“Shush!” he ordered her and turned back where he suspected Rainbow Dash to be. “I haven’t travelled… uh… one, two…” He started counting with his fingers and remained silent for few seconds. “Dozens! Dozens of light yearsh and entered a para… parallel universh to lose in a drinking game!” he shouted out and grabbed his mug that had been refilled while Twilight told them to stop. Fortune seemed to smile on him as Twilight switched her glare to Applejack, the farm pony smiling sheepishly and quickly avoiding her gaze. “Down the hatch! Lash man shtanding wins!”

“It ish on!” Rainbow replied as determinedly as a drunk pony could sound, grabbing her mug in her shaking hooves.

With his common sense screaming doubts about the effectiveness of his plan, he decided to remove them by drowning it with the wave of sweet cider that ran down his throat. In his state he wasn’t even able to struggle with downing it in one go anymore, let alone care about the drops that went awry and soaked his skin and parts of his clothes wet with alcohol. All he cared about now was winning, even only if it was just to prove the point that he could show her he was better than her in this one thing.

He belched loudly as he set down his mug, ignoring the complaint about his rude manners that Rarity threw at him as he stared at Rainbow Dash. “Feeling it? The dizziness, the blurred view, the heat that’s rishing in your body?” He took in a deep breath and closed his eyes, while trying to make Rainbow realize how drunk she was, hoping that if she would concentrate on it, it would make her fall over first.

“Stop it,” she snarled back and shook her head quickly, swaying slightly.

He grinned. Now was the time. “Can’t you feel the world shpinning around you? Like you’re sitting in a car… caruas… roundabout. Going around and around and around.” His plan was working. He could see her starting to stagger. Unfortunately, his plan was working too well as his view began to spin around as well. He wanted to reach out for a table to stabilize himself but quickly called that off. No! She’s just gonna think I cheated!

It was just a question of time now. Which one of them would go down first? With all his remaining concentration, he focused on his breathing. A slow steady flow of oxygen in and out of his lungs. Just something that would distract him from the terrible dizziness that he felt and his urge to just lie down and sleep. He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. If he weren’t so drunk already he would have noticed the distinct smell of alcohol in the air. He briefly wonder just how much cider Applejack’s barrel could hold. Just a bit longer… he thought to himself, trying to stay focused.

Finally the sound he was waiting for came. A thud broke through the silence that had built up, followed by Applejack’s voice declaring, “And we got a winner!” He opened his eyes again to see the rainbow-maned mare lying on the ground in front of him. A satisfied grin appeared on his face. He reached for a table next to him and carefully stood up, looking down at his defeated opponent. She looked like she was asleep already: her eyes were closed, her chest rose and fell steadily, and her mouth opened and closed slightly. If he would have listened close enough he would have even heard her snoring as some drool escaped the confines of her mouth. If he had turned his attention to the crowd, he would have noticed Rarity wrinkling her nose in disgust and turning the slightest shade of green.

Now to declare my victory, he thought with a sudden breeze of clarity that had followed his win. Carefully, he began to climb on shaky legs up onto the table where he was still stabilizing himself, ignoring the warning shouts of the other ponies that quickly rose as they saw what he was up to. Unable to make out any clear words of their shouting, he just climbed further up until he was completely standing in the middle of the table.

“Now then!” he said loudly and raised his arms, looking towards the heavens which closely resembled the roof. “Mankind has once again emerged victorious over nature!” he shouted out, grinned dopily, formed a fist with his hand, and raised it even higher in the air. “It was an honor,” he added with a grin and bowed before the ponies, an act that proved to be a great mistake. His unstable balance before the bow was now completely thrown over, and he quickly waving his arms around to avoid falling over. The only thing he achieved by this, however, was to cause the table underneath him to shake as well as he tipped over the edge. The last thing he saw was the rapidly approaching floor before unconsciousness enveloped him.

Chapter 18 - Now STOP! Snuggle Time!

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The first thing Steve noticed as unholy consciousness gripped him was how shitty he felt. It might seem like a pretty obvious conclusion to arrive at, but his brain was still trying to revive itself. He could almost hear the rusty gears in his mind beginning to sluggishly creak along, their metallic grinding seeming to echo through his head. Despite his best efforts to clutch at the sweet embrace of nothingness, his mind had sadistically decided that he deserved no mercy and that it was time for him to wake up. Apparently it had also decided that the best way to do so was by inflicting as much internal pain as possible, signalled by a dull, rhythmic throbbing in his head, it was faint at first but increased in its tempo until it felt like there was a five hundred pound monkey stomping around inside his head, clanging a pair of cymbals in as chaotic a manner as possible.

He slowly cracked open his bleary, gritty eyes before slamming them immediately shut. Apparently someone had decided that sunlight should be allowed full access to the room, and the harsh rays of the sun took delight in bearing down on him in all of their searing glory. Even that brief moment when he had opened his eyes left him feeling as though his corneas had been pierced with a hot branding iron, leaving him feeling dizzy and causing bright spots to dance across the insides of his eyes. A muffled groan escaped him as he tried to wet his parched lips, but his tongue and indeed his entire mouth was dry. He swallowed reflexively only to dimly take note of the fact that his entire throat felt like it was full of sand, leaving him swallowing air to compensate for the need of water. He could smell his own breath, causing him to wrinkle his nose as the faint odour of stale alcohol, food, and even vomit permeated his breathing space. Breathing in deeply, he found something began to tickle his nose, and he squeezed his pillow tightly in annoyance. He nestled deeper into it, determined to wake up at a more tolerable hour, preferably when the overweight monkey in his head had tired itself out. It was when he heard a short, high-pitched squeak that he reluctantly decided to be brave and open his eyes. Hesitantly cracking them fully open, he dimly became aware of his surroundings. In doing so, he made a series of relatively important discoveries.

The first thing he noticed was that he was lying atop what looked like some bed sheets spread onto the ground. That small nugget of information also served to finally hammer into him that he was no longer in his ship and was in a strange room he had not seen before. Another thing he was forced to acknowledge was that his back had begun to flare up in pain, no doubt due to the fact that he had slept on the ground, with only a few thin sheets separating his body and the floor, leaving it feeling quite stiff.

However, all that paled in comparison to the realization that the thing that was ticking his nose was not dust or a piece of loose string, but the mane belonging to a particular pony. Then came the dull shock that the thing he was curled up and snuggling into was not a pillow like he first thought, but a warm, fuzzy, extremely soft pink body. But no, despite all that, the most jarring part had to be that the mare’s body – for he refused to believe otherwise – would press and wiggle against him in such a way that a certain part of the male anatomy also began to stir from its slumber and rise up against the firm ministrations being dealt to it.

“Bleughaaaa…. Wait…. What? was all he was able to process. Perhaps he might have been more articulate if his brain hadn’t already been reeling from the shock. The poor thing had already been combatting the raging headache rampaging through his head and now had to face this unexpected scenario.

To complicate matters even further, to his growing horror, the delightfully warm body he still had his hands wrapped around pushed back against him once more, causing him to groan, only for the mare – whose mane still took up most of his vision – to suddenly pull away from him and spring up. Startled, he quickly sat up as well and pulled the covers over his lap, groaning slightly as his stiff back flared up again, protesting about his night on the floor.

“Gooood morning, Stevie!” a way too cheery voice blared out. Or at least that was what it sounded like to his poor head, causing him to massage it with shaking hands.

“P-Pinkie?” he rasped out, his dehydrated throat making him sound like a long time chain smoker. Indeed, it had been the same mare who was now bouncing in front of him that he had been… cuddling with.

“Yeperoni, that’s me!” she cheered, bouncing behind him before wrapping her hooves around his torso and squeezing so tightly that he began to gasp out loud, a rapidly depleting oxygen supply and some ribs that would surely be busted if she kept on the pressure to add to his woes. I’m never ever never ever never drinking again, he vowed silently.

“P-Pinkie… ca… can’t b-breathe,” he managed to choke out, already managing to feel lightheaded already. A-At least now I’ll g-go back to sleep and pretend this n-never happened, he thought faintly. Fortunately (or unfortunately) for him, the pair of hooves quickly released him, allowing him to suck in a few deep, ragged, yet oh so precious mouthful of air.

“Whoopsie. Sorry about that, Stevie.” She grinned sheepishly, patting him on the back and causing him to wince. "It’s just that I never knew you were sooo good at giving hugs, I just had to give you one back in return! Seriously, you could probably win first prize at the annual Equestrian Hugging Championship. Believe me, if it’s one thing I know, it’s hugs. Well, and cupcakes. Oh, and rocks, and hot air balloons and…” She babbled on, oblivious to the confused human trying to collect his scattered thoughts.

“Just where the hell am I?” was his first coherent thought since Pinkie’s assault. He didn’t want to fully open his eyes again, not trusting the sun to treat him with kindness. All he could see was the side of a small bed, its sheets all tousled and dishevelled, as though someone had spent a restless night between them. Turning his head to the other side, he found that there was a large wardrobe there, meaning he was currently wedged between that and the bed. Its contents were fully exposed due to its door being open. Inside, he spotted what he assumed to be different outfits and apparels, though some of them made little sense to his addled brain. There was a yellow dress thing that was covered in black polka dots that had a frilly, puffed up collar, reminding him vaguely of a clown’s costume. There was a very short miniskirt that would leave little to the imagination, though he doubted that would be the case on a pony. Next to it were two pom poms, leading him to believe it was all part of some weird cheerleader getup. And was that a… black latex suit?

Shaking his head, which he immediately regretted, he turned back around to face Pinkie Pie, who was still talking about something to do with… macaroni? It was one small mercy that she was standing in front of him, partially blocking the sun from directly striking his face. Of course, there always had to be a caveat, the problem was that she was no closer to him than before, and he was afraid that she would notice a certain part of him still standing at attention and throbbing like his head. He folded his legs beneath him, adopted a sort of poor lotus position while gripping the covers, pulling them closer to his lap and hopefully concealing himself from her curious eyes.

“Umm… Pinkie? Can I ask you something?” he stammered, hoping to draw her focus to his face and nowhere near the area below the belt.

“Suuuuure, you can ask me anything!” she cheerfully replied. At least she was doing as he had hoped, though it was starting to creep him out that she began to concentrate only on his face, a small smile seemingly permanently etched upon her lips.

“Where exactly am I?” he asked, shifting his gaze away from Pinkie, his eyes catching a drawer that seemed to be filled with…. socks.

“Ohh, that’s an easy one! Right now you are in my room, also known as ‘Pinkie Pie’s room.’” She twirled around once before resuming her stare. “It is located in the top floor of Sugarcube Corner which itself is located in the town of Ponyville within the Kingdom of Equestria on the planet E—“

He held up a hand, cutting her off. “Okay. Thank you, Pinkie. That was very… accurate.” She just nodded her head once, though she seemed awfully pleased with herself.

“No problemo! Anything else?”

“Yeahh… Can you tell me whyyy exactly I’m in your room?”

“Weeelll you see, after you were all like ‘Victory for Mankind!’ last night, you kinda sorta fell off the table and you weren’t getting up. Twilight was all like ‘Oh my gosh! Is he okay?’ Then she ran up and started to shake you.” Pinkie gave a very good impression of her friend’s reaction, worry and panic prominent on her face, even exaggerating slightly as she shook her hooves wildly back and forth before continuing. “Then you woke up and was like ‘Wazzat? Noooo. Gooo awayyyy.” He had to admit that her impression of him being drunk made him wince.

“And then you fell asleep again, and Rainbow Dash started laughing like this—’’ She began rolling around on the ground while flapping her hooves in the air and laughing raucously before jumping back up and continuing. “Then Twilight was all frowny and worried and said ‘What are we going to do? We can’t go through the Everfree, not at this hour.’ And theeen – are you ready for it?” He just nodded dumbly, not knowing what else to say. “Then Fluttershy yelled out ‘Yeah, because he’s a fat flabby flanks!’ And then we were all like—“ She gasped theatrically, staring at him with shock, her lower jaw looking as though it was just about to detach itself and fall off. “—Well, except for Dashie, who started laughing harder. And thennnnnanananana Fluttershy said ‘Oh no, I-I didn’t mean that! I’m so so so so so sorry! And then she ran up and started shaking and apologizing and then I said ‘Silly Fluttershy, Stevie’s sleeping; he can’t hear you!’

“Then Rarity walked up and said, ‘I do believe that this fine gentlecolt should stay the night with one of us,’” Pinkie declared, adopting a formal tone while gesturing with a delicate hoof. She then started giggling and puffed up her chest, her grin almost blinding him. Or maybe that was just the sun. “And then I said ‘Oh oh oh! Me me me! I’ll take him!’ And then Twilight said that was a really good idea since you wouldn’t have to go far, which made me happy since whenever Twilight tells me I have a good idea it always makes me happy. So then everypony said goodbye and went home. I cleaned up downstairs a teeny tiny bit before I brought you up here. Aaand that’s the story of how Steve came to my room!” she finished with a flourish, panting slightly.

Steve, for his part, could only stare at her, mulling over her words, trying to make some semblance of sense of it. So, I spent the night here. But why am I on the floor? And how did I end up with Pinkie Pie next to me? he thought, feeling his face heat up slightly.

“Umm… Pinkie?”

“Yes, Stevie?”

“How come I’m on the ground?” Another memory wafted up from when Pinkie had been crushing his ribs, turning them into paste.

“And what did you mean by that thing you said about hugging? And how did we… end up, you know… here?” He gestured to the sheets that covered the floor.

He could have sworn that Pinkie Pie blushed, though it was hard to tell under that thick, pink coat. She trotted up to him, giving him a soft smile while looking up at him almost… shyly. She strutted around him, going out of his line of sight before she stood directly behind him. He felt two hooves resting on his back, and he flinched both from the suddenness of the action and because Pinkie’s head appeared over his shoulder and peered into his face as he turned towards her, the pain in his back making sure he couldn’t simply ignore its presence.

“Wellll Steve… after the kind of night we had on that there bed, it’s kinda not in any condition for us to sleep in… if you know what I mean,” she whispered dramatically in his ears, causing him to stiffen even more.

“No… no, I-I don’t think I do,” he stammered, feeling the heat of the warm body behind him press down even further on his back.

“I guess you could say that you and I had our own private after party on the bed,” she whispered huskily, causing his stomach to drop and his throat to clench, making him feeling slightly suffocated.

“Y-Y-You don’t mean,” he choked feeling the tiniest bit of panic starting to well up.

“Oh yes I do. I’m so happy you did it with me. Did you… Did you know that you were my first?” She nuzzled his neck as he felt his heart almost stop and his stomach clench, the pent up breath he had not even realize he was holding whooshing out of his body as he started to cough. Almost unperturbed, she continued, her voice almost sounding dreamy. “Usually I do it by myself, either early in the morning or late in the evening. I can *heh* get pretty loud, and I didn’t want to wake the twins or the Cakes up. Although there was one time I did it when the twins were watching and… it was kind of exhilarating, though it was sorta embarrassing afterwards.” She smiled serenely after her confession, oblivious to the slightly hyperventilating human.

“That was the first time I’ve done that with somepony else, and I’m happy I did it with you, looking back. It was so unexpected. I mean, I was trying to get you on top of the bed, but I was kinda having some trouble. Not that I think you’re fat or anything,” she added hastily, thinking he might get upset. At that point, he was too numb to even begin to feel insulted.

“And then all of a sudden, I just felt something grabbing me, and when I looked around, there you were hugging me.” She sighed softly, the gentle wind causing him to flinch slightly. “And then you whispered how you wanted to do it with me right there on the bed.” He felt the weight from his shoulders being lifted off as Pinkie trotted over back in front of him.

“I mean at first I was a little scared since I haven’t done it with any other ponies, much less a human,” she said once again. “But I was kinda sorta curious about it, and so I said yes. You were really gentle about it at first, but I got a little impatient.” She grinned somewhat embarrassedly, a strange look for this particular mare. “I have to admit that you were really good though. I mean, the whole bed was shaking, and all the springs were going squeak squeak squeak squeakity squeak. I kinda got worried that the bed might break since there was the two of us on it. But I guess I got caught up in the moment so I stopped worrying about it and just… let go. Oh oh oh, it was so exciting! It was like having a chocolate strawberry peach vanilla banana pistachio peppermint lemon orange butterscotch ice cream cone just exploding in my tummy!”

“Phew! I was so tired afterwards, but you just fell asleep. Granny Pie told me once that stallions would do that, but we couldn’t fit on the bed, so I just dropped some blankets on the ground. I could hardly move the way my legs were shaking like some gloopy jello. Then I had to drag you aaalllll the way over here, so that the sand pony could put us to sleep. I was just about to fall asleep and you just grabbed me again. I said, ‘Silly Stevie, we can’t do it again’, but you were just sleeping. I guess you just wanted somepony to hug, and I have plenty of hugs to give. But you didn’t even let me give you one!” She pouted before giggling again. “So that’s why I gave you a big one just now, and here’s another!” Before he could react, she bounded over and gave him another big hug, though she was much gentler this time. “So what I wanted to say is… thank you.”

He couldn’t move, couldn’t even react at first from what he had just heard. How could he? I did it… I did it with Pinkie… I did it with a pony…. He felt like he was going to throw up at first, feeling slightly nauseated, though that could have just been the after effects of last night’s drinking. Mixed in there was the slightest feeling of revulsion and anger. The disgust was for him doing it with a pony, and the anger was towards the mare in the same room as him. Pinkie Pie must have known that he wasn’t in his right senses when they did that, and yet she still went ahead and took advantage of him. The worst thing he felt, however, was the shame. While Pinkie had been whispering the story of their night together, he had become painfully erect and still remained so even now, even after all that he had been told, unable to control it, much less do anything about it. Unbidden images of what she had described played across his mind, taunting him, teasing him, honeyed words sultrily promising the sweet aches of pleasure. Along with the memory of her fuzzy body pressing up against him, he found himself trembling slightly, feeling wholly overwhelmed by everything that had occurred in such a short space of time. No… no, I-I’m not attracted to p-ponies… That was just an in the moment thing with Rainbow Dash… This… this is not happening, he thought, trying to force some more conviction into his thoughts. A particular part of his body certainly disagreed with him.

“Stevie? Is everything okay?” Pinkie gazed at him, concern shining from those big, blue eyes, her happy mood rapidly diminishing due to the clearly agitated human. No I’m not alright! What kind of idiotic question is that? he screamed at her inwardly, though not a word left his mouth. What am I going to do? Should I tell someone something? Are there even laws against what she did? His thoughts swirled around him, leaving him feeling almost powerful to stop them.

“No… No, I don’t think so,” he blurted out before he could stop himself. Pinkie was immediately at his side, rubbing his arm in what was meant to be a comforting gesture. For him, it took all his willpower to not flinch away, though why he refused to after all he had heard confused even him.

“I had a feeling you wouldn’t be.” She sighed, looking pensive.

“You… You did?” he croaked, staring at her disbelievingly. Why am I even in this room still? I should be running down the streets screaming. Though I wonder just how many ponies would believe me…

“Sure. I mean, I know it was a spontaneous thing we did, like throwing balloons at the train or trying to catch that those eels from Ghastly Gorge so we could race them, but I should have known there would be trouble after. She shook her head, seemingly disappointed in herself. “After all, I knew you weren’t feeling yourself. What I’m saying is that… I should have known that jumping on the bed when our tummies were full of Applejack’s cider would be a bad idea.”

For a few moments, not a word was spoken in the room, the only sound coming from a window as it creaked loudly. Meanwhile, the pony busied herself drawing faces on the dust on the floor while the human tried valiantly to close his jaw that hung open, yet was unable to do so after several attempts. Then…

“Pinkie?” he said quietly, catching the attention of the mare.

“Yes Stevie?”

“What…. did you just say?”

“I said we shouldn’t have been bouncing on my bed last night. Well, technically it was early in the morning, but still.”

“Uh huh. And when you say bouncing, what exactly do you mean?”

“Well, I mean jumping and hopping and flying up and down on the bed, silly.” She booped him on the nose, Steve unable to stop her as his limbs seemed to be glued to the corner he was huddled in. “What else could I mean?”

That got him out of his daze, as he tried to think of a way of explaining to her what he had been thinking that didn’t involve him just saying ‘Oh you know, I just thought you just took advantage of me while I was sleeping and had sex with me so much that we damaged your bed. Sorry about the misunderstanding. No harm done, right?’ He snorted to himself; the potent powerful properties of sarcasm helping him focus. “Oh no… it’s nothing…” he lamely said.

Silence reigned for a few moments before he broke it. “Hey Pinkie?”

“Yesss, Stevie?”

“When you said last night was your… first time, what did you mean?”

“Ohhh, I meant it was the first time I jumped on the bed with somepony.” She let out a frustrated huff. “You know, whenever I asked, everypony kept turning me down. One time I asked Rarity to do it with me, and she started making all these strange noises like—” She started spluttering and coughing, sounding like a mixture of a cat trying to hack up a hairball and a man being violently exorcised. “Then she said how I shouldn’t be asking other ponies to make my bed bounce! The nerve!” She harrumphed, turning her nose up in the air. “I gave her two less sprinkles on her cupcakes the next time she visited!”

He sighed, feeling the tension within him shatter at her words. Just Pinkie being herself, I guess. My heart wouldn’t be able to take more misunderstandings like that though! He passed a hand over his face that had become sweaty.

“Pinkie?”

“Yes Stevie?”

“Why exactly was it so important that someone jumped on the bed with you?”

She let out a horrified gasp, looking at him with wide, round eyes. “You don’t like jumping on beds?!”

“Err… well I haven’t done that since I was a kid. It just seemed like it meant a lot to you.”

“Wellll…. it’s kind of a personal story.” She peered up at him as though sizing him up. Nodding briefly to herself, she trotted up to him and plopped down directly next to him. Since he didn’t have to worry about a particular problem any longer, he stretched his feet out, his muscles almost audibly thanking him in their relief. “Buuut I’ll tell you it if you want.”

“Sure, I guess.” He scratched his head, wincing as he brushed his hand against a small bump.

“Well you see, when I was just a teensy weensy little filly, I used to live on a rock farm with my parents.” That made him pause his poking.

Rock farms… about par for the course, I guess, he thought. He broke off his musings as she continued her story.

“Things weren’t all rainbows and cupcakes back then, but Mom and Dad did their best to bring me up right and made sure that there was enough for everypony to eat at the end of the day. They would take me out and teach me how to tell when certain rocks were ripe enough and how often they needed to be in the sun.” She waved a lazy hoof in the air. “I never really liked it because it was sooo boring, but I knew that they needed me to learn it, and they would tell me how proud they were of me. That made me really happy, happy like when you get the bestest present on your birthday. And for a while, that was enough. Then my sisters were born.”

She shrugged her shoulders nonchalantly. “Things became kinda hard for everypony, and Mom and Dad had to stay out more and more while I had to take care of Limestone and Marble. I mean, I know now why they had to do it, but I used to get so angry and act like a big meany pants sometimes when they didn’t have time to play with me. It was always ‘Not right now, Pinkie’ or ‘Maybe next time, Pinkamena’ or ‘Why don’t you go and take care of your sisters?’” she said in a gruff voice, a heavy scowl etched on her muzzle.

He wasn’t sure whether she was doing an impression of someone or if that was how she was reflecting her mood. She must have seen something in his expression since she was quick to add, “I know, I know; you probably think I’m being silly. I know why they did it, and it wasn’t like they didn’t love me. I guess I still feel kinda bad because they were working soooo hard to take care of all of us, and I was only thinking about myself.”

She was mostly quiet for a few moments as she stared out of the open window, humming every now and again to break the monotony of the silence. “I used to feel so… stifled there sometimes. Not the nice kind of stifle, like when somepony is giving you an extra special hug that makes you feel all warm.” Steve had an inkling of an idea how that felt, though all he had felt was pain. “Dad used to get really really angry sometimes when I did anything silly. I thought he might turn into dust if I surprised him one day with something fun.” She chuckled quietly, though it wasn’t quite her usual one that was so merry and jolly.

“Everything was work work work work, and no time to play. I remember watching the clouds, wishing I could reach them and fly around like that, all free in the sky… The only time I used to really go all out was when we used to visit Granny Pie. Oh, she used to bake all kinds of yummy cookies and cupcakes and fudge and sugarcake just for us. And she used to want us to dance, though only I really did. I sometimes saw mom and dad dancing by themselves when they thought nopony else was watching.

She shook her head. “Sorry, I’m getting distracted. Anyhoof, Granny Pie had this huge bed; I mean it was so big, it was ginormous. At least I thought so when I was a filly. So one time when we were visiting Granny, my sisters had to get their own room since they had gotten bigger. At first I was angry since I got kicked out on my flank for them, but then I was super extra happy with sprinkles on top when Granny said that I was spending the night with her. That meant I had the chance to sleep in her bed! It was so comfy and warm; I felt like I could have melted and become the bed!” She grinned goofily, caught up in the memory. Steve for his part remained silent, content to hear some of the past of one of the few ponies that actually seemed to care for him.

“It really really was one of the best nights ever. Then in the morning, I was trying to wake her up, but she just kept sleeping. I kinda sorta got a teensy bit scared, and I just started shaking her and jumping up and down to shake her awake, and I just kept going. I saw when she opened her eyes, but I was having so much fun and couldn’t stop! And she just kept on watching me until I almost landed on her and she was all like ‘Bwaaah!’ I thought she was going to get angry with me and wouldn’t want me to stay with her, and I would have to sleep in the rock shed that was in the back of the house.” She frowned momentarily before beaming. “But then she started laughing, so I started laughing too. She said she was happy that I was happy and not all frowny and sad. You know what the best part was?” She invaded his personal space for the umpteenth time as she stretched forward, her muzzle nearly pressing against his face. Hastily, he nodded. “The best part was when she said that I could bounce on her bed whenever I wanted!”

“So that’s eeexactly what I did. Every time we visited Granny Pie, she would watch me while I bounced on her bed. One time Dad caught me and I knew he was going to yell at me, but Granny just told him to hush. He got kinda red in the face and left us alone. Bleh!” She stuck out her tongue, the almost universal sign of childish disdain. “It always made me a little sad that she couldn’t come play with me, but she said her back used to hurt her really bad, so I was okay with it.

“Then one day, I just sorta… stopped. Of course Granny noticed, because she was just that good, and she asked me why I didn’t want to do it again. I told her that I couldn’t keep having so much fun by myself, and that it was selfish of me to do it when she couldn’t; how it felt like I was being mean to her. She pulled me on her lap even though I was just a tiny bit too big, and she said she was very happy just being able to watch me while I did it because she felt young again. She pointed to the bed and asked me what it was. I was a bit frightened because I thought she had gone loco in the coco, but then I felt bad for thinking such a mean thing about Granny. So I told her it was just the bed and how she was being silly, and she laughed again. Did I tell you how much I liked to hear her laugh? It was kinda scratchy and sounded she could just cut you up, but it sounded like the nicest thing to me. I’m getting distracted again, right?” He silently nodded, caught up in the seriousness of the story despite her having her moments.

“Granny said the bed wasn’t just a bed, and I got really excited cuz I thought it was maybe a rocket ship or a time machine in disguise, but Granny said it wasn’t any of that, so I felt kinda disappointed. But then she looked me straight in the eye and gave me a big smile and said how the bed was a source of fun. I was confused and told her that I already knew that. Then she said how her bed represented how even the simplestest things in life could give joy and happiness to anypony, as long he or she was willing to look for it and allow it. She said how one day I would be able to share things like that with my friends, things that nopony would really think to be fun unless you had somepony to share it with.

She cocked her head at him, shooting him the most serious look he could ever remember her giving in the short time he had known her. “I’ve tried to do exactly that with all my friends,” she said quietly. “I’ve shown Twilight how you could make the snapdragon root’s pods go pop pop pop like fireworks when you put them in water. Sometimes me and Dashie play raindrop racing whenever the place gets all rainy and gloomy. I totally let her win sometimes though. I’ve done all sort of things with the girls, and we’ve had a lot of fun together… but I’ve never bounced on a bed with them. I know they probably thought that I was being stu— I mean, I was being silly, and that I was just doing it just for doing it, but I wasn’t. It’s kinda my way of remembering Granny Pie, so whenever I do it, I think back on all the good times we shared, and how it felt when I was a silly filly jumping on an old bed.

She leaned on him before wrapping her hooves around his midsection, squeezing him gently. “That’s why I was so happy that you did it with me. I know it might not seem like much, but I was really really happy that I could share it with a friend. Even if it is a kinda weird, smelly, sometimes frowny alien friend.”

He just squeezed her back and patted her mane, causing her to squeak cutely. He didn’t say anything because he really didn’t know what to say. She then surprised him even further by giving him a quick peck on the cheek before releasing him and stepping back, that small, contented smile back on her face. He couldn’t see his own face right then, but judging by the heat emanating from it, he was sure he had at least a small blush on his cheeks.

“Well, that wasn’t awkward at all,” he joked; Pinkie also joined him in laughing thankfully. “Umm… Pinkie?” he timidly started off, unsure how to continue after that unexpectedly heavy story. “Just so we’re clear… we didn’t do anything but jump on the bed, right?”

She adopted a thoughtful expression, causing a few flutters of anxiousness to run through his body despite himself before she answered, “Nope, nothing else I think. Why? Were we supposed to do something else?”

“Nope, just making sure.” He grinned light-heartedly to sate her curiosity as a wave of relief washed over him and he finally allowed himself to completely relax. He tried standing up, but his feet had gone almost numb from sitting in the same position for so long. Combined with his now troublesome back, he stumbled as he tried to take his first few steps for the morning and would have fallen if Pinkie hadn’t propped him up with her body. Nodding at her in thanks, he took a few steps to try and get the blood flowing back into his legs. Despite not moving much since he had woken up, he still felt somewhat dizzy. Never drinking again, he swore once more.

“Hey Pinkie, could I, ah… use your bathroom? I know it’s abrupt, but you were right about me smelling.” He smiled good naturedly. Of course he wasn’t about to mention that his bladder was about to cause him to embarrass himself and leave them with a big mess to clean.

“Oh sure you can! In fact, I absolutely, positively insist!” And back came the grin that he had come to associate with the mare as she pointed to a door at the end of the left side of the room. “You go on ahead, and I’ll get you a nice, soft, fluffy towel.”

“Thanks Pinkie. I really appreciate it, and everything else too.”

“Awww, if you keep that up, I’ll have to just keep hugging you.” She gave him a lopsided grin. “Now shoo!”

“Yes ma’am!” He chucked and started hobbling over to the door. Not two steps later did he nearly fall before catching himself. He could feel the intensity of Pinkie’s eyes as she stared at him, almost daring his body to try and fall again.

“Hey Stevie?”

“Yes, Pinkie?”

“Do you want help getting in?”

“No, Pinkie.”

“Okie dokie.”

***

Within the lower sections of Canterlot lived the working class ponies of the city: the maids, the delivery ponies, the street artists – those who took pride in putting their backs into their work to do their jobs well. Their homes weren’t all stately marble, stone pillars and imported crystal but were mostly of a simple design of wood and concrete. Nevertheless, they tried to maintain them the best they could, so that anypony who would visit them would be comfortable and feel at home.

Despite their humble nature, the building that was located at the end of their district made the ponies living there both immediately feel better about their own homes and wrinkle their noses in distaste. Three stories tall, the red bricks that made up the exterior were crumbling, often showering those foolish enough to wander past it with pebbles. With blackened walls that seemingly had never been introduced to a coat of paint and covered with thick ivy, it was a wonder that there was any pony foolish enough to live there. It was even more unbelievable that within it were the main operations for one of the most read newspapers in Canterlot.

Inside the building was slightly better. The open room was divided into tiny cubicles hosting all sorts of cameras, papers, and files that took up most of their desks. All through the room one could hear the loud rumbling of the presses as they chugged along, causing any of the ponies who milled about in the room to raise their voices if they wished to have even the semblance of a conversation. Occasionally, a few puffs of smoke wafted up from the basement to try and stifle the occupants of the room, and loud flashes followed by the spewing of profanities from the photography room were the norm.

Amidst all the activities taking place within the room, one group of ponies were huddled around a desk. A large, brown, earth pony stallion, his coat greasy and his mane unkempt sat there, rifling through a heap of different papers. A battered fedora lay on top of his head, and he chewed upon the blackened tip of a cigar as he drummed a meaty hoof on the table to a beat that only he knew.

“Alright, this is what we’re going to do. Hey hey, quit yer yapping, ya bums,” he gruffly called out, causing the ponies around him to immediately cease their conversations. A few meek mutters of ‘sorry boss’ fluttered through the air from some of the newer hooves, while those who had been part of the operation simply rolled their eyes. “Silver Script, I want you to tackle the courts today; see if there’s anything worth more than a pint o’ stale piss that we can slap in tomorrow’s papers.” A silver mare with a pink mane and an unravelled scroll for a cutie mark nodded and trotted off, levitating her saddlebags from her table as she passed.

“Fine Dining, there’s some sort of Heh-tinke and Petty Bucks… or something like that.” He peered at the paper, trying to pronounce the name before shrugging. “Anyway, there’s some kind of cheese love fest thingamajig down at Grana Padano’s mansion later today. The good thing is that it’s open to the public. That’s your kind o’ fetish, ain’t it?” He tossed the sheet at a navy blue unicorn mare with a neatly braided mane, who merely wrinkled her nose in faint disgust as she caught it with her magic and perused it briefly before sending it over to her own cubicle.

“I’ll have you know that it is pronounced Petit Basque which comes from Prance, and Hirtenkäse, a Germaneighan mountain cheese that—“ she began tartly before her boss cut her off with a lazy wave of his hoof.

“Baby, unless you’re going to pour some of that melted cheese on me and use that sharp tongue to lick off every drop, I really don’t care.” He leered at her and winked lewdly in an exaggerated fashion.

In return, the mare merely snorted in faint indignation, already having weathered most of his insults during her tenure. “Sorry, I like stallions who don’t actually smell like they bathe in a dumpster. Besides, I’d probably need a month to get the taste of ash out of my mouth.”

She turned and trotted off, though not before he got in a parting shot. “No wonder you can’t find one with standards so high. Keep that up and you’ll end up old and alone.” She merely swished her tail as she left the group. He grinned at his assistant, who was shaking her head. “Gods, I love me this job. Alright, maggots, listen up.”

He waited until they settled down again before continuing, “The Awesome and Obese Princess Celestia is hosting some sort of fancy shmancy party in her ‘Royal Gardens’. You know, the one which is so freaking amazing that we have to capitalize their first letters every time we print something about them.” He grinned inwardly to himself as he saw some of the younger reporters shift nervously as he insulted their leader. Heh, it’s always fun when they aren’t totally jaded and cynical, he mused, puffing on his cigar even more. “According to the little info I got, it’s gonna be this big shindig that’s gonna have the who’s who of society. I hear Sapphire Shores is going to do some sort of duet with Octavia, and that’s the only thing I was guaranteed of. There’s speculation that most, if not all ambassadors within the capital will be invited, and you know there’s going to be the usual hoof lickers and brown-nosers which you colts and fillies know as the noblestallions and mares of society.” He turned around from the crowd of ponies at his desk, gritting his teeth as his gaze hardened. Breathing in deeply a few times, he turned back around, adopting his half serious, half smirking look.

“Problem is that the press ain’t allowed in. Hell, we weren’t supposed to know about it. Guess we aren’t soo-fees-tee-cated enough for ‘em.” He tipped his beaten up fedora at the crowd as he stretched the word out, his Detrot accent becoming more evident as he did so. “So I’m gonna need details: who exactly is going to be there, pictures, their entire conversation if you can get it. I don’t care how you do it as long as it won’t come back to bite me on the ass. Slip the guards some coin if you want, or fuck it out of ‘em.” As expected, that earned him some reddened cheeks while others merely rolled their eyes.

“Right. I’m going to need more than one of ya on this one, so I’ll let you volunteer first.” Several hooves shot up, and he looked over at them, nodding in approval. “Alright, Harper and Bright Quill can have a look around the castle; see if you can get lucky and find a place where you can get a few shots in without being noticed. Paper Thin and Tran Script, check out the nobs’ houses, see if you can make their staff talk for a bit more coin. He walked over to one of the unassigned stallions, his overbearing presence causing the younger pony to back away instinctively. “Ho ho ho, well well, Ribbon Twirler. I guess I know what you’re going to be doing, eh? Guess some lucky guard is going to have himself a good time, eh? A bit o’ heat between the sheets? Rumble in the jungle?” Before the stallion could stammer out a response to his snickering colleagues, he waved him off. “Like I said, I don’t care how you do it as long as you get it done. Now get out of here, you bozos.” The ponies in question gathered their belongings before heading out, the trembling Ribbon Twirler the first to leave.

“Alright you schmucks, listen up…” He proceeded to assign the rest of his active reporters to different beats, some within the city while a few were given assignments outside of Canterlot. Soon the crowd thinned out around the desk he had appropriated until only his assistant was left. Satisfied, he rolled his shoulders a few times in a futile attempt to relieve the stress that had settled there before heading back to his office where, without the racket from the other room. He tossed his hat onto his battered desk before jumping onto his rickety chair which squeaked loudly as he rocked back and forth on it. He closed his eyes for a few moments and allowed the mask that he usually wore to slip, allowing the tiredness that came with his profession to become evident on his face. He could hear Page Turner shuffling some papers that were on his table before she cleared her throat.

“Talk to me,” he said, not bothering to open his eyes.

“Mister Wheel from Wheelie’s Pizza has asked that he run his new ad at the old rate even though—“

“Tell Wheelie he’s got to cough up more dough if he wants his ad to go through.” He chuckled briefly at his weak joke. “Damn thing is about twice the size of the last one. Friend or not, he’s gotta pay.”

“Very well then, Chief.” Page Turner set the paper aside.

“So… talk to me,” he said once again.

“That was the only thing that needed to be addressed now, Chief.” She stood at attention in front of the desk, her face devoid of any emotion. News Flash knew better, though.

“No it ain’t. You’re angry at me about something,” he shot back, grinding out the remains of his cigar before proceeding to rummage through the drawers in his desk, looking for a fresh one.

She cleared her throat, narrowing her eyes almost imperceptibly. He was still able to notice it. Yep, she was boiling. “Some of the staff have been rather agitated by some of your less… tasteful remarks as of late,” she dully noted, staring past him.

“I’ve already told you; they need to grow the buck up and grow a thicker skin, that’s all.” He lit his new cigar, taking a few deep puffs to settle himself. “Look, if this is about Ribbon, I’ve already told you that even if he’s a fag—“

“The more accepted term is coltcuddler,” she growled, slamming a hoof on his table, earning it another dent to add to its collection. “Do you even know how much trouble we could be in if they ever decide to grow a pair? Discrimination, sexual harassment, and openly mocking the princesses could bring anypony from either the Royal Guard to the courts down on our heads! Hell, you’re just about one lawsuit away from being wiped out, and you know it!” She jabbed a vicious hoof in his direction.

News Flash, on the other hoof, simply watched her with impassioned eyes, having already gone through the same song and dance multiple times. “As I was saying before being so rudely interrupted,” he said, rolling around her words as though she had never uttered them, “I don’t particularly care if he is a coltcuddler or not.” He grimaced as though even uttering the word left a bad taste in his mouth. “As long as he’s able to do his job, I don’t care what he does in his own private time.”

“And what about Fine Dining?” she challenged hotly.

“Fine and I go back some. Believe me, she doesn’t need you to fight her battles for her. Try getting her riled up and that fine, suave voice of hers disappears pretty quickly.” He chuckled, causing Page Turner to grit her teeth in annoyance.

“And what about the others, hmm? The ones that come crying to me about how you’re an asshole, how you’re out to get them, how you’re just trying to wring every bit of life out of them to use it for your own goals?” She leaned over the desk, glaring at the stallion, who took it all without batting an eyelid.

“And every bit of it is true,” he calmly responded. “Look, we both know what our jobs are. I have to keep this craphole from going under, and you get to hold their hooves and tell them how horrible I am but don’t actually mean it. I’m doing them a favour.” He stood up from his chair and began pacing, the amount of smoke emanating from him showing just how agitated he was becoming. Then again, he had always said Page Turner brought out the worst in him. “They come in here all bright eyed and full of ideals. It’s my job to strip them of all that until they learn to keep their own opinions to themselves in pursuit of the goals of this place.”

“Yeah yeah. The truth.” She snorted derisively. “The truth has gotten us in more trouble than we needed. Like the time you exposed that noblestallion’s affair? Or how that company was using shoddy parts for their equipment? Like it or not, the law doesn’t always like or agree with the truth.” She flopped down onto her chair, the fire and rage that had fuelled her outburst exhausted as she looked just as tired as he.

“Well, that’s been a problem of our precious Princess of the Sun ever since I’ve known myself. Always coddling her sycophants while ponies who can’t defend themselves get used and abused.” Page Turner sighed, having heard the speech in several different variations over the years they had known each other. Now she merely shook her head whenever he started mouthing off against Princess Celestia. “Well, it’s my job to expose the truth, whether they like it or not.” He slammed his hoof down upon his desk.

“You find a way to make the truth pay the bills and stop the Royal Guard from hounding us, and I’ll agree with you there.”

“What a coincidence that you should say that. I might have just the thing.” He pulled open the last drawer of his desk and pulled out a single photograph, sliding it across to Page Turner. She picked it up and squinted at it. It was heavily blurred and seemed to be singed slightly. From the ponies wearing armor, she could guess that they were the Royal Guard, along with some other ponies. The main point of interest, however, was the tall creature that was in the middle of them. At first glance it seemed to be a diamond dog, but it seemed too thin and didn’t seem to have any great amount of body hair. Maybe some sort of gorilla?

“Just what the hay is this thing?” She peered at it quizzically, trying to make sense of it all. In response, he smirked, glad to see her interest piqued and her anger at him at least momentarily displaced.

“That thing apparently arrived on the train with the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony and marched right into the castle with Celestia’s pets. I’ve heard all sorts of rumours that range from it going on a stroll through the city to threatening to kill old mares. And this… this is the only proof we even have of its existence! He snorted angrily, feeling himself getting riled up. embracing it. “Nopony is talking. I can’t find anypony who was there to witness its arrival to either confirm or deny its existence. None of the guards are talking, there haven’t been any sort of press releases from the Royal Courts. Hay, even staff at the train station have been replaced. ‘Sorry sir, but they’ve been transferred to the Crystal Empire to help train new workers,’” he mimicked in a singsong voice. “What a load of crap! Anypony with half a brain can see this is a cover up. A plot. A conspiracy. Call it whatever you like, it’s happening.” He took a few deep breaths to calm himself, allowing Page Turner to chime in.

“Or maybe it’s because nearly nopony will have anything to do with us because of your ‘in your muzzle’ methods,” she commented dryly. He ignored her, snatching the photograph from her hoof.

“It doesn’t matter. I want answers, and I want them soon. Whatever this thing is, it’s going to be big. And I plan on cashing in on it.” His smirk returned.

“Oh really? And how do you plan to do that?” She looked at him dubiously, an eyebrow arched.

He beamed at her jovially. “In this business, my dear Page Turner, sometimes you have to flush out some of the lies to get down to the truth. Fortunately, I know just how to do that.”

She merely groaned, slumping down in her chair. “I think I’m going to need a drink for this.”

“Me too, Pagey, me too.”

“I told you to stop calling me that.”

***

Steve stood slightly hunched in the shower, letting the cold water pour all over his body, rejuvenating it and helping with the hangover. He had spent several minutes fumbling with the controls, trying to get the water to come out. He had to end up calling Pinkie over to show him how to operate it. She had cheerfully done so, only asking him if he would be showering with his clothes on. As he had tried to explain his situation, a spray of water had squirted out from the showerhead and got his clothes slightly wet. Fortunately, it had been nothing too serious and wouldn’t cause him to go without clothing for the day, though Pinkie had profusely apologized afterwards. He had accepted it and told her there was no problem, and she had proceeded to bounce back out, the door closing with a click.

As he was wont to do, he had been doing some retrospection; in this case, spending the past few minutes trying to recall what had occurred at the party last night. He could barely remember what had happened after they had started drinking. All he could remember was something about giving a victory speech atop a table. That had led to him musing about the information that Pinkie had willingly shared with him about her past. It contrasted so wildly against the mare he had known for an admittedly short period of time that he found himself still trying to wrap his mind around what she had divulged.

It was of some shame to him that he had realized he had subconsciously cast her in some sort of one dimensional mould. From their initial encounter, he had seen her as just a happy go lucky sort of pony, one whose entire life seemed to revolved around parties, her friends, and sweet treats, a perpetual sweetheart who kept on smiling for everyone around her. Certainly, some small part of his mind feebly tried to defend this, and she had done nothing to dispel the notion. While last night had been the first time he had seen her look sad and disappointed, it had only been because so few ponies had chosen to attend her party. Her behaviour this morning had struck a chord in him, mainly because of how melancholy she had been while recalling her past, the wistful and sometimes regretful tones that blended into her voice made for a sharp contrast to the usually energetic mare. The fact that that had surprised him had played on his mind since. The only thing he should have been surprised at was that she had chosen to share an intimate moment of her life with him and seemingly not her friends. On a subconscious level, he knew that she was an intelligent per… pony, one who would have had different emotions and various experiences that would have shaped who she was today. And yet here he was painting her with a broad brush.

Sighing, he closed off the shower and stepped out, reaching for the towel Pinkie had provided. The entire bathroom area was surprisingly utilitarian: no mess anywhere or hundreds of beauty products lying around, and neither were there any balloons or streamers like he had first envisioned. Drying himself off with the towel before wrapping it around his waist, he headed to the small mirror above the sink.

The first thing that caught his attention was how haggard his face looked. His slightly damp hair hung over his forehead, and his bloodshot eyes stared back at him dully, tiredness from his lack of sleep evident from the bags under his eyes. Running a hand through his hair caused a short burst of pain, causing him to wince. Upon closer and careful inspection, he located the tender spot. It was a small but sensitive bump at the side of his head. Just slightly poking it caused it to throb in pain, augmenting the headache he had woken up with which had only now begun to recede. He recalled something Pinkie had said… something to do with him falling off a table while being stone drunk. Shaking his head slightly at his foolishness, he moved away from the mirror and began redressing himself as quickly as possible. While doing so, he noticed the bruises that had begun to form where Pinkie had tried to squeeze the life out of him. Poking one tenderly also caused him to wince reflexively, and he decided he would have to have a talk with her about any future spontaneous shows of affection. The last thing he wanted was broken ribs.

Just as he was about to zip himself up, he heard someone knocking on the door. “Steve? Stevarino? Stevearambamalama?” he heard Pinkie call. “Is everything hunky dory in there? Did you get stuck? I can help pull you out if you want. Unless it’s some sort of human tradition. Is that like a kind of human holiday or something where everypony has to get stuck on the toilet and the first pony out gets a prize? Heeey, wait a minute!” Her voice sounded indignant to his ears. “You’re the only one in there, so only you can get the prize! Or are you?!” She gasped loudly, shock and surprise clear in her voice. “Are you having a competition in there with other ponies and… you didn’t invite me?! I thought you were my chum, my compadre, an old buddy old pal old friend of mine?!”

Rolling his eyes while his mouth twitched in amusement, he pulled the zipper up and opened the bathroom door before she could work herself up into even more of a frenzy, and for him to avoid hurting her feelings somehow without him even saying a word.

She marched into her bathroom with a purpose, a dangerous glint in her eyes. She looked around the room frantically, alert for any sudden movements. “Alright, where are they?” She eyed him suspiciously, pointedly raising her eyebrow.

Resisting the urge to chuckle, he tried to remain as straight faced as he could. “There isn’t anyone else here, Pinkie.”

“Uh huh, that’s what they all say.” Sighing, he patted her head and hobbled out, his back still bothering him, although the shower had helped.

“Everything alright, Stevie?” she asked as she followed behind him.

“Yeah yeah… guess I didn’t sleep too well last night.”

“Oh… well, you could always take a nap if you want,” she declared brightly.

“Well… I guess so. What will you be doing?”

“Oh, I have to go to work soon. Mr and Mrs Cake always give me a few hours off in the morning after a party, but I try to go down as early as possible.”

“Well… okay then…” He eyed the tousled sheets on the ground, not particularly relishing having to sleep there again.

Pinkie must have caught his expression as she said, “You can sleep in my bed if you want. It’s suuuper comfy.” She waggled her eyebrows at him.

He looked at the bed, noting specifically how the legs seemed to be slightly bent. “Hmmm, I don’t know. Didn’t you say it was damaged?” As the words left his mouth, the realization finally struck him, and he resisted the urge to both cringe and facepalm simultaneously. It was basically because of him that her bed had been damaged in the first place. Good job, moron. You put one of the few ponies who actually don’t seem to mind being around you out of a place to sleep. Sighing in embarrassment, he turned to face her. “Hey… uh… Pinkie?” he began awkwardly, “Listen, I’m really sorry about the bed. If you want I cou…” he trailed off. Could do what? Buy her a new bed? Nope, I don’t even have a cent on me here. Fix it? With what materials? I guess I could try and get one of the beds from the ship and bring it here, but I doubt I could carry it all the way…”

Fortunately, Pinkie stepped in to interrupt his self-recrimination, cheerfully saying, “Oh, it’s no worry. I mean, I was just as responsible for it. Mister Cake can fix it up lickety split. Or if he’s too busy, I could always get Hammer Time to do it in no time at all. Oh, he’s the repair pony in Ponyville,” she explained, seeing the confused look on his face.

“Oh… well, if you’re absolutely sure,” he said uncertainly.

“Absolutely, positively!” She was resolute, saluting for some reason.

Walking over, he sat down upon the bed gingerly, testing his weight upon it. As he did, a thought came to the fore. “Hey Pinkie? If the bed was strong enough to sleep in, how come you didn’t just leave us there?”

In response, she giggled as she said, “Silly Stevie. If I did that, then I wouldn’t have had any place to sleep last night.”

“Oh… right,” he smiled sheepishly, feeling stupid for even saying that. Did he really think himself that entitled that she would put herself out of her own bed for him?

She shook her head as she explained, “You see, there wasn’t enough room for the both of us, and I didn’t want you to get all cold by sleeping alone. And when I spread the blankets on the ground, you just grabbed me, remember?” No, not really, he thought. “But now that I have to go to work soon, you can have the bed all to yourself!”

“Now then, that’s enough talking. Let’s get you all tucked in.” She also hopped onto the bed and pulled the sheet back. “Now, in you go!” Reluctantly, he eased back onto the pillow and stretched out. She was right: there was little room for another pony to fit comfortably on the bed. Quickly, she pulled the covers over him and beamed. “There we go! Do you need anything else?”

He shifted around, trying to get more comfortable. While the bed was soft and pleasant to lie on, his feet hung over the edge if he stretched them out fully, forcing him to have to curl up slightly. “Umm… Yeah, everything is good.” He reached out to grab the pillow, finding it a tad too hard.

Seeing what he was doing, she hurried over, saying, “Oh no no no no! You lie down right there and let Uncle Pinkie do it.”

“I’m just feeling a bit under the weather, Pinkie. It’s not like I’m an invalid or anything,” he muttered. It wasn’t like he was trying to be ungrateful, but still…

“But suppose when you tried to reach for the pillow— GUMMY!”

Eh? “Gummy?” He felt Pinkie’s hoof dive under the pillow, before moving back out, causing the hardness to vanish and his head to sink into the pillow.

“So this is where you’ve been hiding! Steve, I’d like to introduce you to my pet alligator, Gummy.” She jumped back in front him and held out something small and green, two beady eyes staring at him.

“A-A-Alligator?” he stammered. He knew Pinkie had some strange habits, but he didn’t think owning man eating animals were part of that.

Pinkie gave him a knowing look. “Hehe, everypony has that reaction when they first meet Gummy. Don’t worry, he’s harmless. He wouldn’t hurt a fly. Look, he doesn’t even have any teeth!” As if to prove her point, the creature clamped his jaws onto her nose tightly, so that no matter how hard she shook him, he still remained locked on. “He’s just a sweetheart, isn’t he? He must have been sleeping under the pillow all this time. Here, do you want to play with him?” She pulled the alligator off her face with an audible pop before dangling it in front of the slightly terrified human’s eyes.

Okay, deep breaths; it’s just a small harmless animal that resembles something that can rip you from limb to limb. He reached a hand out to the creature, but it wriggled out of Pinkie’s grasp before scampering down onto his chest and wriggling under the covers. He could feel it running back and forth along his legs, and he kicked them up frantically, trying to get the thing off him. Oh shit oh shit oh shit!

“Gummy! You come right back here, mister!” With that, Pinkie also dived under the covers. He could feel both of them as they scampered over and around him, and he reached down under the covers, trying to grasp one of them futilely. He felt the claws of the alligator hook on him as it climbed atop his lap. That was his only warning before Pinkie jumped up, taking the covers with her before she launched herself onto him as well, causing the air to whoosh out of him. Peeping into the covers, he saw Pinkie holding down her pet triumphantly as it tried getting away from her. “Silly Gummy. Now isn’t the time to play catch!”

He shook his head, bemused. Maybe he should be more upset or confused, but right now, all he felt was sleep trying to get a hold of him, despite attacks from alligators and pink ponies. “Good job, Pinkie.”

That was when the door creaked open noisily, and he saw two ponies staring at him, their jaws ready to fall out in shock.

***

“A-Are you sure about this, h-honeybun?” the voice squeaked, sounding almost odd coming from a stallion.

“It’s alright, Carrot. We just have to make sure Pinkie’s alright,” Cup Cake reassured her husband as they gingerly climbed the stairs to Pinkie Pie’s room. When they had gone down to the bakery area that morning, they had discovered the remnants of Pinkie Pie’s party from last night. There were still streamers and confetti everywhere, and one of their tables was overturned. Cup Cake had made a mental note to give a gentle reminder to the younger mare to make sure to take better care of her messes. Celestia knew that getting angry at her would not end well for all parties. At least she had done all the dishes, so that was one problem out of the way.

Still, it had struck the older mare as rather strange, since Pinkie would usually clean the entire area and leave it in an even better condition than before. Then they had found the note she had scribbled that said how she was taking the alien up to her room and would actually let him spend the night there. She had acquiesced to Pinkie Pie’s request to hold the party, but to think that the alien had spent the entire night under their roof! Why, it could have come into her room and gobbled her and her foals up! She had to spend ten minutes trying to calm her husband down.

“Why would that filly even allow it to stay in the same room as her? Who knows what it’s capable of? Why didn’t she mention anything about it?” Carrot complained as they neared the top of the stairs.

“Calm down, dearie. Pinkie did say she was having a party for a friend, though I didn’t think it was the alien. Sometimes she can be rather… oblivious to the dangers of things,” she said soothingly. Her stallion was trying to be so strong for her. Although she was trembling on the inside, she knew she had to be the cool head here. She had heard all sorts of wild things from her customers for the past few days. Some were worried, some were fearful, some were excited, and there were even those who were completely uninterested in Ponyville’s newest addition. She had decided to err on the side of caution. Besides, the Bearers of Harmony would protect ponies if the alien tried anything… right?

They reached the top of the stairs, Cup Cake breathing heavily from the trip. Now she remembered why she rarely visited Pinkie at her room. Nodding at each other, they began walking over to her door. As they nervously approached, they could hear the bed groaning loudly, almost rhythmically. “Pinkie?” she called softly. She could hear muffled voices on the other side of the door. Taking a deep breath, she pushed the door open.

Her eyes immediately fell to the creature on the bed. It was hard not to as it took up most of it. Her attention was then diverted to something wriggling under the covers. It twisted and turned, seemingly bouncing on top of his hindlegs. Then he heard it mumble “Good job, Pinkie,” and the head of the mare who she was looking for popped up from under the covers. What was she doing? Was she actually… with the alien?! Is that why she brought him up here last night? Pinkie Pie… Her face flooded with red as the implications of the sight in front of her hit her. Dazedly turning to her husband, she could see him trying to work his jaw, seemingly coming to the same conclusion as her. She tried to step back, but the door creaked open further; the loud sound causing the two… companions on the bed to turn to her.

Pinkie wriggled out of the covers and jumped on the floor gracefully. “Hi, Mr and Mrs Cake!” she greeted the two stunned ponies cheerfully. “Whoops, guess I must be really late for you two to come up here to look for me. Oh oh, Mister Cake, Mister Cake!” She turned to the poor stallion who was clearly unable to deal with the scene in front of his eyes. “I’m glad you’re here. You see, we kindaaa sorta wore the bed out last night, and now it needs some fixing.” She grinned sheepishly at the couple.

The only response was Carrot’s body hitting the floor as he fainted.

Author's Notes:

JBLSomewhat nervous to see the reaction to this chapter. It’s been a long time since I sat down and wrote something from start to finish like this. Had to pick up the slack since, at the time this chapter was written, Gron decided it was a good idea trampling across Europe to visit all manner of sex dungeons… Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing this.
Also, who can spot the references in there? There are some, though I can’t remember them all.

'Tis a lie! I was just sick instead
This however turned out in your advantage as you now will be able to read a chapter entirely written by JBL. I'm very curious to see how the reaction for this will be. And was the snuggling to your expectations? What a twist that it was not Big Mac.

Praise him! Praise Tofty for his proofreading.

While you are waiting for the next chapter I'd recommend reading this story in the meantime:
Journey

Chapter 19 - Whispers of the Mind

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If one were to ask somepony living in Detrot to describe their city, there was a good chance the answer would be ‘crowded’. They would not have been lying. The population of the city far exceeded that of Canterlot, so much so that businesses and houses had long spilled out of the original city boundaries. Numerous factories that lined the skyline were the main distinguishing feature of the city – that and the black smoke they constantly belched into the atmosphere. Complaints and petitions had come and gone; eager politicians had tried to seize the opportunity to gain a support base, and promises that the city would clean up its act had been made so often that they had come to be seen as a sign of normalcy by the city’s inhabitants. Eventually, all that came of it were token measures that were ignored as soon as the furore had died down, and the same politicians who had pledged to fight for their cause now lambasted them and were labelled as potential saboteurs and terrorists who wanted to destroy the economic life of the city, their pockets heavy with the bits ‘donated’ by the factory owners and investors.

The architecture and general maintenance of their buildings and infrastructure also sharply contrasted to the capital city. Whereas even the areas where the less affluent ponies resided were still kept as clean and beautified as possible in Canterlot, Detrot’s citizens seemed to show less concern for their surroundings. A fair number of their buildings had been covered in soot for so long that trying to guess their original colours was an exercise in futility. Privately owned homes were a rarity in this city, most of them having been bought out to construct large apartment complexes to house the workers. They had quickly become dilapidated, crumbling messes, yet were eagerly paid for because of the lack of a suitable replacement. Health and building inspectors had repeatedly condemned the structures when they bothered to show up, but their letters and notices were repeatedly ignored.

The crowds would often clog the narrow streets, slow moving traffic a given at any time of the day. Carriage operators would so often hurl obscenities at one another as they slowly moved through the gridlock that they could have been taken as a form of greeting or endearment. The sidewalks were also jam-packed during most of the day and a considerable portion of the night, ponies bustling to get to their workplaces, often bumping and jostling into each other. Such encounters would usually end in either one or both parties hurling vulgar remarks that were a poor replacement for the birds that had long abandoned the city.

The ponies themselves were fairly unremarkable, each one merely trying to grind out their daily jobs, some simply wanting to put food into the mouths of their family. Then there were those who sought out the various clubs and underground parties that dotted the city, desiring a temporary escape from the drudgery of daily life. One could always find other - if illegal - means of pleasure. There was always a pony with that oily smile that never quite reached his eyes wearing an oversized trench coat, displaying his goods for sale. Mares and even the occasional stallion could also be sought, flashing sultry smiles that immediately announced their trade and promised a good time for a small price, their makeup accentuating their features. Most wore nothing – not even a trench coat – or wore several strategically placed, skimpy clothing that drew the eyes of potential clients to their ‘goods’.

One could even find a few vagrants wandering around, begging, or sleeping in flimsy cardboard boxes, often their only protection against the biting cold. Unlike Canterlot, the politicians had stopped caring about the city’s image a long time ago, only ensuring that the Palace did not see fit to stick their noses in their affairs. If anything, they embraced the hard and fast image they portrayed to the rest of the kingdom. It was certainly easy to do so from the lap of luxury.

Towards the northern end of the city was a walled off section where security was heightened. Ordinary ponies had long learned not to bother trying to gain access unless they were the maids or pool boys. Unlike the rest of the city, the streets here were well maintained - no potholes or missing cobblestones to trip anypony. Here the bankers, the politicians, the merchants, the minor nobility who had been displaced from Canterlot all lived in their opulent mansions, smiling at each other while scheming and plotting behind their backs. Even amongst these grand estates, one stood out. Not because it was too run down or ramshackled. It was a three story building, built of thick slabs of concrete and steel. Functional and keeping aesthetic appeal to the barest minimum, it contrasted so much to its lavish surroundings that its neighbours had filed several complaints against it, claiming it had violated one arbitrary building code or another. Their protests had fallen on deaf ears; the mayor, who was usually quite receptive to their advances, had been unusually stubborn and obstinate whenever the topic had been raised. Their shrill cries had tapered off, and the unfortunate souls had to grit their teeth and bear with their unwanted neighbour, their only recourse being complaining to their friends at their lavish tea parties. They would offer sympathies while being silently thankful they were not in the same position.

Still, it was of some curiosity as to why the Society for the Advancement of Magic and Technology had decided on setting their base of operations in this city all those years ago. For their long dead founders, it had been a simple explanation. It was the same reason that the level of corruption not seen elsewhere in Equestria had taken root here, while poverty, something other cities frowned upon its very existence, was ignored, why the seedy underbelly of the city could walk the streets without fear of reprisal. Why? Because the shadow of the alicorn sisters did not reach them as it once had.

***

The front door opened with a groan as the slender stallion slipped in cautiously, closing the door as quietly as he could. Despite his best efforts, the mere click as the door slid shut echoed through the empty hallway. He held his breath for a moment before releasing it in relief. The last time he had made as much noise, one of the research ponies had teleported in front of him and began screaming at him for disturbing their work. He shivered slightly, both from the memory and the coldness of the room. Even though he had once lived here for years, he had forgotten how cold it could get. Despite the overhead windows being barred shut, the room was almost frigid. He had asked his Master about it once but had never received a response. He knew better than to ask again.

He padded down the hallway, careful to keep his hooves on the plush red carpet that greatly aided in keeping his steps muffled. Down the narrow corridor he went, stopping occasionally to glance at his surroundings. At both his sides were wooden walls contrasting with the concrete material most of the exterior of the building was made of. They were a deepish brown and polished. He could swear that they glowed intermittently, though he never witnessed it directly, with it always playing out in his peripheral vision. At a certain point in his journey, he reached a section where a great number of life sized portraits fitted into golden frames of many of the Society’s more famous members. He could feel their lifeless stares glaring down at him as he passed, both at eye level and above him, pressing down on him, surrounding him, judging him. He unconsciously quickened his pace as he neared the end of his trip, counting the portraits as he went, never daring to look at them directly.

“Grayhoof the Pilgrim, discovered the pony pox virus, died when he injected himself and ten others with a strain that was supposed to act as a cure. Treebeard Fourcleft, invented the cloning spell, died when he exhausted his magic reserves, not knowing how much energy it took and was unable to cut the spell off. The Bright brothers, invented the hoof gliders that aided unicorns and earth ponies who wanted to fly. Died when they crashed into Mount Neverest.” His quiet, soft voice recited the words, letting the memorised yet still slightly disturbing facts about the ponies wash over him and lend him a sense of calm. Finally, he came across the last picture in the gauntlet, one that allowed him to smile to himself. It was of Goldwing. Unlike most of the stiff, formal looks of the ponies on the wall, she sported a wide grin, standing proudly with her wings flared, the challenge in her eyes reflecting back to him. He stopped for a moment to admire her golden plumage, the slender body of the mare down to the brown shield set ablaze by a phoenix that comprised her cutie mark. Of all the ponies here, she was his favourite, if for no other reason than that she was one of the few still alive.

He quickly moved on, finally having come to the end of the hallway, the corridor expanding into an open room. It could best be described as the closest thing the Society had to a reception area. This was also the only point where the other sections of the building could be accessed. A simple wooden staircase led to the basement where the different research projects, both by the Society members itself and members of their affiliated groups, were being carried out. Doors to the left led to the general infirmary where those associated with their organization could be treated if injured on most related ‘business’. To the right was the entrance way to the dining hall, which itself was connected to the sleeping quarters where most of the students in the Academy slept.

The reception area itself was sparsely furnished. There were a few vases of flowers within the all-white room. A few pieces of armor that had belonged to some of the most renowned fighters in Equestria were also on display, so meticulously polished and maintained that they looked ready to be worn at any moment as they did all those years ago. There were several windows in the room though they were blocked by thick blue drapes. Once, when he had been younger, he had dared to peek behind them. All he had seen were shifting shadows, writhing about wildly as though in pain, thrashing and banging about before the image turned to white as though covered with snow. He had been frozen in place, petrified at the haunting sight before he had started to shake uncontrollably. When he had finally turned around, he had found his Master staring at him. That had been the first time he had been punished.

In the center of the room was a single oaken desk, papers neatly stacked atop its surface. Behind it, seated on an unfortunate chair was Bitworth. He had the massive build of an earth pony and could have been mistaken for one if not for the short, stubby horn that barely protruded out from the large, ill-fitting red wig that he wore. Despite his size, which was unusual for a unicorn, what had once been rock hard muscle had melted down into fat as time and a great supply of rich food had taken its toll. His face had become droopy, flabs of fat hanging around his mouth in such a way that some of the braver souls and the younger students had taken to comparing him with a diamond dog. One of his eyes had become squinted and seemed to have become permanently fogged over though he never seemed to suffer from any sort of blind spot. To make matters worse, he had a nasty scar that ran horizontally from his ear to about an inch from his mouth. Well, he called it a scar, but it was as though somepony had simply dug out a chunk of flesh from the side of his face. Even after all this time that he had known Bitworth, it had remained red and inflamed, sometimes dripping unknown fluids while he continued his duties, seemingly oblivious to the wretched odour that would begin emanating from the wound, reeking of rotting fish and vomit to those that were unfortunate to stand before him. His girth had become so cumbersome that his stomach would have literally dragged on the plush carpet below his hooves as he waddled about his business. No doubt he would have eventually developed even more unsightly sores there if he had not decided to don a tight fitting cummerbund that constantly bulged and trembled with each breath the unicorn took.

Artecus trotted over to the desk, the trepidation in his stomach building, that nauseating feeling he would get whenever he had to come in contact with the older stallion coming back full force. It was not without cause. In his first days in the Society, Bitworth had taken a decidedly… unhealthy interest in the younger unicorn. He would always somehow manage to catch the unicorn alone, often pressing down on the frightened colt, whispering about all the things he would do to him, how he would make Artecus writhe and beg and plead for mercy, nipping him on the ear or flank whenever the opportunity presented itself. The colt would stand there, face burning in shame and humiliation at his words, wanting to do something, anything to contradict the older stallion yet afraid to speak out, terrified of being cast out just as he had been taken in. It was only until that incident occurred that he had finally been forced to stop, and even then he had still been allowed to continue his duties, still unrepentant for the trauma inflicted upon the younger stallion.

‘Now, young colt, you know well and good that it was your fault that happened. It’s your body that tempted him, therefore your responsibility,’ the Goodmare had scolded.

“See something you like, handsome?” With a jolt, he realized he had been lost in his own memories. The other unicorn winked at him with a lewd smile on his face. Artecus shuddered, feeling his lunch churn in his stomach.

“Not p-particularly.” He tried to put on a brave face for his tormentor, though the effect was partially ruined by the slight break in his voice as he quaked inside. Bitworth’s pleasant demeanour slipped for a moment, allowing the coldness in his eyes to shine through before he resumed what he probably considered his seductive look.

“Well now, that certainly is a shame. I would so love to get another chance to… discipline you.” He sighed softly, as though disappointed in missing a play instead of what he had just implied. “But I suppose that will have to wait. What do you want.” As had happened before, he switched moods almost seamlessly, going from flirty to professional in seconds. His eyes stilled roamed the slender unicorn’s body, raking over the silver mane that needed a trim, over to the greyish coat and down to the four blue stars that surrounded a quarter moon. Not for the first time, Artecus wished that his Master allowed him to teleport directly to his office.

“The Master has sent for me.” Better to be brief and get out of his sight. He levitated an envelope out of his saddlebags, the insignia of the Society prominent on the front. Bitworth took a brief glance and grunted once. His horn began to glow before the enchantment that blocked access to the higher levels fell.

He did not miss a moment, trotting past the desk and hurrying up the stairs, though not before he heard the repugnant servant mutter, “Guess I’m not the only one who likes ‘em young.” He increased his speed, face burning with shame and anger as the bawdy laughter chased him.

***

He sucked in a few deep breaths, the flight up the stairs and the subsequent walk to the other end of the floor having taken most of his energy. It was yet another reminder of how he had changed, having shed the quickness and agility needed to survive for the long hours necessary to be called the apprentice of one of the greatest ponies alive. It had been some time since he had felt the need to scurry away from danger; life on the streets had given way to a more ‘cultured’ upbringing as his Master had called it. He paused in front of the door for another few moments, ensuring that he looked as presentable as possible before pushing the door open and entering the room.

The first thing that one noticed was the large desk that occupied the middle of the room. It was hard not to, for it directly faced the door, allowing whoever sat behind it to immediately see who entered his abode. At both sides of the table were papers, scrolls, and folders in large stacks that cleared the desk in height and towered over it. There were some more sheets tacked onto the tower that seemed to indicate a certain order to the behemoth. Next to the stacks of paper were two boards filled with formulas, sketches, and jumbled words. Even now, Artecus could not make heads or tails out of them, and they seemed to change every time he visited, robbing him of the chance to study his Master’s work.

The oaken desk itself was devoid of most equipment one would usually think would be there. Only a Neighton’s cradle was there, along with several documents. Behind the desk, latched onto the wall was the insignia of the organization in the form of a giant shield – a blue background in which a golden hoof was crushing a green snake. The snake had its fangs embedded into the hoof, blood oozing out of the wound. Below the shield, the words ‘nemo me impune lacessit’ were written in black. He had once asked his Master what the words had meant, but he had only received a half smile in response.

To the left and right of the room were bookshelves, taking up the remaining space there. They were filled mostly with books, but there were some trinkets and artefacts interspersed among them. A few gems here, a few trinkets there, and a large seashell all played their part in giving the room some life. There was only one window in the room, covered by a dark grey curtain where the few cracks of sunshine that peeped through – aside from the chandelier above them – acting as the only source of light. A telescope resided to the side of window, ready to be used. There were also a few scrolls on the floor here as well: a few celestial maps, some scribbled notes, some blank sheets, quills and ink were all in a huddle, waiting until they needed to be called into action.

He approached the unicorn sitting on a simple wooden seat and bowed deeply, his head almost touching the carpeted floor. After an appropriate amount of time had passed, he rose and straightened himself. His Master’s eyes had never left the document in front of him. Artecus stood still, trying to remain as impassive as possible.

After a few moments had passed, the only sound being the shuffling of papers, his Master uttered a single word, his voice low yet commanding, “Sit.” He didn’t waste any time in following the order, hurrying yet ensuring that he took care not to damage the seat. According to his Master, it had been made in the immediate post-Nightmare Moon period and was worth a small fortune. Or as Bitworth had taken pleasure in informing him, it was worth his body several times over. He shifted around slightly, trying to get comfortable without calling attention to himself. Whoever had designed the seat had certainly not taken something like comfort into consideration. When he had asked the Master about it during a lesson, he had said that it was a reminder for those sitting on it that something valuable can also cause one no end of discomfort. He had then made him sit on the floor for speaking out of turn.

The Archmage sighed, a long, drawn out thing that seemed to drain him of all his seriousness and intimidating aura. Just for a moment, Artecus could imagine him as merely a tired, aged unicorn, probably waiting for his grandfoals to visit him. But that was only for a moment. He was back to his usual self, a pillar of strength though not one anypony could safely rely on. The Master simply did not allow it.

He shifted a few more papers in his hooves for a while before placing all but two back into his desk drawers, though he turned them over in such a way that you could not see its contents. He levitated the spectacles off of his wrinkled, grey face, turning his piercing blue eyes over to his apprentice. Artecus remained stoic, concentrating on breathing steadily, ignoring his pounding heart and the numerous possibilities of what he could have done wrong to warrant such a hasty summons running through his mind.

Ho ho ho, back to the streets this time, poppet? Or maybe back to the Madame? He could almost hear the sneer behind the fake warmth of the Earl’s voice. Maybe she’ll give you to that wonderful gentlecolt, that businesspony that made you call him daddy. Oh, how he loved that, and you loved it too, didn’t you, you naughty little colt.

Sick. Disgusting. Wretched. Pathetic. Scallywag didn’t waste any time in jumping in with her shrill voice.

No no no! You’re all wrong! You’re all wrong. The Master said he wouldn’t, and I believe in him. He took a few deep breaths, releasing them slowly, allowing the calm and repetitive nature of the exercise to soothe his mind and stifle the voices. He refocused on the Archmage, who was still quietly observing him.

“Do you know why I have summoned you here today?” If the Master had any idea of the turmoil running through his student’s mind, he gave no indication of it. He had heard rumours of the Archmage being able to read ponies’ minds just by catching their gaze. One look and all your memories were in his hooves, all for him to use for his amusement if he wished to. Though he had never asked his Master about it, it had once frightened him that somepony could be so powerful as to root through his mind. It was only later that he had accepted that, compared to his Master, the mages and scientists he worked with daily, he would be insignificant, unimportant to somepony as him.

“No, sir. I only received your letter.” He quickly opened his saddlebags and retrieved the letter once again, levitating it over to the old unicorn. The Archmage’s eyes briefly flickered over it before tucking it into the drawer as well.

“And that is all you know?” Artecus nodded cautiously. “Good, good. I would be surprised if you knew more.” To his surprise, the Archmage began to chuckle hoarsely, his mirth turning into a slight cough at the end. He looked up to Artecus almost expectantly.

Caught unawares by the strange behaviour, he stammered, “Y-Yes sir?” The Archmage’s smile fell slightly as did Artecus’ heart. It was a rare occasion that he saw his teacher smiling like that, and it was his fault that it was disappearing. Before his panic could rise, however, his teacher raised a hoof to pre-empt anything he was going to say, still looking slightly happy.

“It was simply a joke, colt.” Now his fright rapidly gave way to shock. His Master joking? He had seen him thoughtful, disinterested, impatient, and anger that gave way to livid fury on more than one occasion. The way the elder stallion was acting right now, however, a small smile still visible amongst the wrinkles in his face, was almost downright giddy.

“Oh… Of course, sir.” He chuckled weakly as well. Who could blame him? His Master merely rolled his eyes and snorted. “Sir… Is everything… alright?” He had to be cautious for one never knew when the Archmage’s mood would suddenly shift.

“Everything is good, colt. In fact, everything is more than good.” His jovial façade dissipated, and he adopted his usual serious look. “I have received some information that, if proven accurate, will cement my very legacy here in the Society.”

“I-I think you’ve already done that, sir.” Artecus fidgeted uncomfortably in his seat at the piercing look he received.

“Your words are appreciated, my student. However, if we secure this acquisition, not only I, but the Society as a whole will be on the tongues of every creature on this planet. Those charlatans at the Royal Guild will be finally forced to acknowledge that we are the superior organization.” There was a biting tone as he spoke the name of their closest rival. “No matter what they may say about us, all the lies, the propaganda, we will prove once and for all that it is our methods that produce the best results. No matter what the cost, the benefit of all comes before the cost of a few.” In that moment, the Archmage looked so grim as he finished uttering his personal motto, his jaws clenched and eyes narrowed, that he reminded Artecus of the first time he had seen a griffon, stalking down the streets, the glint in his eyes marking him as a predator. Thankfully, the look on his Master’s face soon passed, and the old unicorn relaxed into his own seat. “However, we will have to wait until a few others arrive before discussing it further. In the meantime, tell me: how has living with the Smallhammer clan been treating you? Have they given you any trouble?”

The younger unicorn’s ears perked up at the question. It was a rare occasion when his teacher enquired about his life outside these walls. However, he did not miss the underlying question beneath the seemingly harmless one, and hastened to reply, “Yes, they have been kind to me.” It wasn’t a lie, though at the time of him meeting the family, he had been ready to flee.

“Hmph, that is good to hear.” The Archmage gave a short, approving nod. Artecus remembered the first family he had been sent to stay with; how the main stallion had gotten increasingly agitated with his presence. To this day he had no idea why. None of the mares there had shown the slightest interest in him, and he had been too young and too scared to even think about that. He had been bullied for weeks by the earth pony, smacking the colt in the muzzle or punching him in the stomach any time his mares weren’t watching. He had used the threat of sending him back to the streets to keep him quiet. Oh how Scallywag had revelled in the beatings, cackling and egging the stallion on in that exaggerated cockney accent of hers that he had come to despise. He could only endure so much before he had finally broken down and confessed to his mentor. The Archmage had said nothing while the young colt tearfully recalled the torture. The next day, he had went to the house, only to find it completely deserted. The Master had refused to tell him what had happened to the family, though some of the other students in the Academy had whispered all sorts of rumours from the Archmage turning them all into frogs to selling them to griffon traders to incinerating them with just a look.

His wandering thoughts were interrupted as a soft knock sounded on the door before somepony opened it. His Master’s assistant, Violet Melody stepped through the doorway. Despite her name, she was a blue unicorn, her mane a mix of black with silver highlights that was neatly tied into a bun. Artecus smiled as she approached, with the mare returning the greeting. She was one of the few ponies here who did not care about who he was. After all, being the Archmage’s assistant was a position akin to that of being his student; a prestigious position that sacrificed any semblance of normalcy. It also helped that she was very pretty, though Artecus had never mustered the courage to do anything about it.

“The guests have arrived, sir.” Her warm voice seemed to clash with the sombre nature of the office, but that was fine for him.

“Hmmm. Send them in.” He nodded to her once, dismissing her silently. She quickly left, closing the door with a click. “Come stand at my side.” Startled, he turned around to face the Archmage. “You are my student. It is time for certain ponies to see you as such.” He scrambled to his hooves and made to move next to his teacher. “Just move them aside.” The Master nodded to his whiteboards with a resigned look as Artecus nervously levitated them further away and came to stand next to him.

They spent the next few minutes silently, him fidgeting slightly while the Archmage folded his forehooves, maintaining his neutral expression. It wasn’t long before Violet knocked and trotted in again. In strode three other unicorns, not sparing a glance at Melody as she left the room, closing the door behind her again.

The first one Artecus recognized was Professor Beaker. His eyes were usually concealed beneath a thick pair of goggles, while his once green fur was covered by a layer of soot and his grimy lab coat. His bright orange mane seemed to clash horribly with the rest of his fur, and Artecus wondered if it was his natural colour or the result of some freak accident from an experiment he had been conducting. The few times he had seen the professor, he had always been missing large clumps of fur in his coat which looked like it had been singed. He had never had much to do with the professor. He had always been distracted, often muttering gibberish, though his workers that constantly surrounded him always nodded and made sounds of agreement like he made sense. As far as Artecus was concerned, the professor had never raised his hoof against him, so he was in his good books.

Next to him was Lina Marin. It was rare for a unicorn to be so proficient in agriculture, working with herbs and plants. The fact that she had her own research department dominated by earth ponies was almost unheard of. Her very light brown fur was accentuated by a mossy green streak that ran through her mane and down her back. Some worn saddlebags were attached to her sides as she perused the book levitating in front of her. She barely glanced at him with her bright blue eyes before returning her attention to her reading. A red vial with two green bubbles made up her cutie mark. He had heard whispers about how she spent her time concocting all kinds of dangerous poisons and toxins, so much so that her department experienced an almost permanent high turnover of staff due to being exposed to her ‘experiments’. He shuddered to think of what could have led to her gaining such a cutie mark. He was just happy that her labs were located deep in the underground sections of the building, so that they did not come face to face often.

It was the third pony who caught his interest though. He moved slowly as though pondering every step he took. He was old, about the same age as his Master, he guessed, from the lines and wrinkles that featured prominently on his face. Perhaps the most interesting feature was the bandages that were wrapped around his left eye and going around his entire head. Another was wrapped around his two forehooves. A greyish robe blanketed most of his body, concealing his cutie mark from sight. Artecus gulped slightly as the elder stallion lowered himself slowly into the seat he had previously occupied, the two other ponies coming to stand at the side.

Yersinia Filaria. It was an odd name for a pony, but this stallion was anything but normal. He was prominently featured in the Academy textbooks of the younger recruits, his accomplishments there for all to see. He was one of the few ponies still alive who had their portraits in the corridor. Tales of his exploits were well known to those in the Society and outsiders, though Artecus was certain these stories had received their fair share of embellishments over the years. After all, nopony could have stopped an entire griffon raiding party all on his own fifty years ago, could he? Another popular rumour was that Yersinia and his Master had both contested the leadership of the Society, but his Master had come out on top.

“Well, Runic? Was it really so urgent that you needed to see me personally?” Unlike his Master’s voice, so smooth and enchanting yet commanding and strict when it needed to be, his sounded tired and weary as though he wanted nothing more than to crawl back to bed. Most stallions his age would probably be in the same position, though Artecus immediately berated himself for thinking that.

“Perhaps not.” His Master inclined his head towards his colleague. “I merely thought that you would like to see this for yourself.” Out slid a single photograph, levitated to eye level in front of Yersinia. The two ponies at his side studied it carefully as well, confusion and interest the most prominent emotion on their faces. The frown on Yersinia’s face grew deeper, the wrinkles on his lined face becoming even more prominent. After a few moments of quiet contemplation, Yersinia levitated it back to Runic, allowing Artecus a glimpse of what was on the photo. It was a creature he had never seen before; it walked on two legs like a minotaur, but lacked the horns, hooves, or body mass. In fact, much of the body was covered in clothes. Its eye seemed almost comically tiny, making him wonder if they were fully functional, or if it compensated with its other senses. The creature was facing slightly sideways, a frown on its face. Its hind hooves were blocked by what looked to be the manes of other ponies, though he could not recognize any of them.

“Someone’s exotic pet?” Yersinia’s voice was slow and measured, not giving any of his inner thoughts away.

“At first I believed so as well. However, there are no records of this creature having ever existed. According to my sources in Canterlot, it is a sapient creature and was escorted by the Royal Guard themselves to see the princesses personally.” If he had been slower, he would have missed the sneer that overcame Yersinia’s face.

“Then where did such a creature come from?”

“There is only one place near Canterlot that would explain why we haven’t seen or heard of this creature before.”

“Do you really believe Celestia would treat with a creature from that place?” Yersinia raised an eyebrow in faint surprise.

“If it was submissive and civilized enough,” Runic offered.

“Still, why should we concern ourselves with this? I doubt the creature was part of some ancient empire filled with treasure from years gone by. It has nothing to offer us.”

At that, the Archmage smiled widely, seeming pleased at the dismissive words. “Because, old friend, what if I were to tell you that this is no ordinary creature, that this is a creature from beyond the stars?” The two other unicorns stared at him in shock though no discernable emotion crossed Yersinia’s face.

“I would say that it is time you begin abstaining from putting that herb in your pipe,” he replied bluntly.

The smile on Runic’s face remained though the skin around his eyes tightened. “An alien, Yersinia. Apparently, there was a crash that occurred near Canterlot. If its craft is still intact, if we can… persuade this being to join our cause, I dare say that this organization will finally be able to put our names on the map and cast the Royal Guild into obscurity.”

Yersinia, however, seemed to be reluctant to share his leader’s enthusiasm. “If this is all true, how is it that there haven’t been any reports from other sources. I would imagine that there would be much intrigue amongst the Canterlot citizenry.”

“I have it on good word that Celestia has ‘requested’ that all news agencies refrain from publishing any information, rumour or not, until the Palace has put out an official release.”

“And what of those who saw it in public. That photo was clearly taken outdoors. Surely there were some who interacted with the creature?”

The Archmage shook his head. “None that we were able to talk to. Say what you want about the Canterlot nobility, if they know anything at all, it’s to not bite the hooves that feed them. We were unable to speak with their help for long as it would have only raised suspicion. While there were several working ponies who admitted to spotting the creature, unbelievable as it is, they only showed an initial interest in the creature, but were apparently reassured by the presence of the Royal Guard. “

“Well, is there anything else we know?” This time, a note of exasperation entered Yersinia’s voice.

“At this time, no. I have several ponies trying to gather whatever data they can, but we have scant information at this time. What I propose to do is to send out a standard three pony team to Canterlot, where they can dedicate their full resources to establishing what the creature is, where it is located, and after a period of observation, try to retrieve whatever data we can. Beaker, Marin. I trust that you can supply a member each from your departments?” Both unicorns hastened to nod. “Yersinia?”

After a few moments of silence, the other elderly unicorn nodded though more reluctantly than the other two. “I will select a mage to send personally.”

The Archmage allowed a small smile to shine through. “Thank you for your time.” He waited impassively as they trudged out of the office, Yersinia pausing slightly before closing the door with a click.

“Sir?” he said hesitantly. “Is that… really an alien?”

“Yes, I believe so. We won’t know for sure until we are able to study it further for ourselves. However, that is not why I called you here, not why I asked you to stand by my side. Well, not directly,” he amended. “You will also have your part to play in this endeavour.”

Artecus stiffened and stood at attention, his heart warming at his Master’s words. “I am ready and willing to serve in any way I can, sir.”

Runic smiled briefly. “I know, which is why you will be carrying out a separate task for me. You see, I was not lying when I said that the creature would be somewhere around the Everfree Forest. However, I may have failed to mention that I have a very good idea as to where the creature might be.” He chuckled again to himself.

“And that is, sir?”

“What they don’t know is that my sources have indicated that the creature was accompanied by a certain group of ponies known as the Bearers of the Elements of Harmony. While it is difficult to obtain information on them from official sources, I do know that they live in a rundown village called Ponyville.”

“Sir, if I may ask,” he began hesitantly, hoping his Master’s rare good mood would forgive his impetuousness, “Why did you not tell the others as well?”

His Master pondered the question. “We all have our agendas, colt. You will aid me in fulfilling mine. By giving them enough information, they will sate their own curiosity while avoiding any conflict that could have arisen from keeping them in the dark. Yersinia’s methods are also not suited to retrieving something alive. Allowing them to send a member from their departments will also give them the impression that there was nothing to hide. I know that whichever pony they send will no doubt be reporting to them as well, running the risk that whatever information I receive will be altered. The team will be sent to Canterlot, where they will begin the investigation from scratch.

He turned towards his young protégé. “As for you, my faithful student, you will be going on a journey of your own. I hear Ponyville is quite pleasant this time of the year.”

***

Steve passed his hand over his hair, making it appear even more dishevelled as it had previously been as he stepped outside the doors of Sugarcube Corner, allowing the door to close shut with a dull thud. He squinted, finding the sudden intrusion of the late afternoon sunshine a bit too much for him at that moment. Still, it was nothing compared to the assault by this morning’s sun and was better than the reception he had received after he had awoken a second time.

He had been relieved to see the room empty – no Pinkie Pie, no alligators, and no fainting ponies. It wasn’t as though he should have been surprised; Pinkie had told him to go back to bed while she had helped to carry the unconscious pony out of the room. He could still remember the looks they had given him when he had walked down into the bakery. The yellow stallion in particular had acted as though he was about to announce a holdup. It was a look that, he realized as he had looked around the room, was on display on most of the ponies’ faces. The usual array of emotions was there: the fearful countenance and folded ears, some staring at him openly, almost defiantly. Others avoided his gaze and whispered hurriedly to their companions. There were those that even seemed disinterested in him, sparing a cursory initial glance before returning to their meals. One mare in particular had been animated, talking loudly while wobbling on her seat in a manner that reminded him of… himself last night. Shaking his head, he had chosen to ignore the looks and leave, not seeing Pinkie Pie anywhere. He felt somewhat guilty about leaving without telling her, but he wasn’t sure how much more Pinkie Pie he could handle in a single day. An overdose of Pinkie would probably have seriously adverse health effects if exposed to her for too long, he had joked to himself.

Now here he was, looking around at his surroundings outside the bakery, unsure of what to do. Once again he was reminded of how he had almost always been accompanied by one of the ponies whenever he was out of the ship. It was as though he couldn’t help himself anymore. Shaking the errant thought away, he began wandering down the streets randomly, ignoring the looks he was receiving. As long as none of them felt the need to blast him with a spell or anything of the sort, he could tolerate the stares.

He walked for a while, trying to clear his mind, watching the ponies as he milled around. He stopped and looked at a few store displays on more than one occasion, but he did not go inside, not having any money on him. Though he was loathe to admit it, the memory of the last time he was in one had not gone too well, and that was when he had companions.

He tried to find Twilight’s house, but he was unsure as to where it was from his position. By the time he had gotten back on track, it had taken him over to the other side of the Ponyville. He still wasn’t sure if he wanted to meet her after all. Knowing he was sober would give her the chance of berating him for his behaviour last night, of that he had no doubt. Besides, she had won their little bet, and he wasn’t so eager as to let her cash it in so quickly. He wasn’t sure where Rarity lived, but he was certain he wasn’t quite ready to face the fashionista’s… unique quirks on her home turf. Besides, he reasoned, I doubt she’s the type who would allow people to just casually drop in for a visit. They would probably have to receive an engraved invitation beforehand so she could lay out the best silverware and what not. He didn’t even know where Rainbow Dash lived, or if she was in any condition to receive visitors. Plus, he wasn’t sure how badly she would take her defeat. She had been worse off than him after all. The same went for Derpy, the Mayor, and Cheerilee. He didn’t feel comfortable seeking them out. They might be busy doing their jobs, he reasoned.

A sudden call interrupted his brooding, snapping him into awareness of his surroundings. “Ice cream! Get your ice cream cones here!” A deep blue stallion was pushing his cart along the road, calling out to potential customers. His fur was extremely thick, reminding him somewhat of a German Shepherd. “Oh, hello there, sir! Would you be interested in an ice cream cone?” Steve pointed to himself, confused. “Yes, you.”

“Err, sorry. I don’t have any money. I don’t think you accept dollars, do you?”

“Ah well, too bad. Ice cream, get yer ice cream cones here!” Steve watched the stallion as he went off a bit before he was mobbed by a group of young ponies.

Guess the lure of a sale can overcome all fears. Heh, I’m willing to bet he’ll tell his grandkids how he fought a fearsome alien with nothing but an ice cream cone and still won. He chuckled at the ridiculous thought and continued walking.

After a while, the road seemed to lead him into what appeared to be some sort of open market. There were stalls lining both sides of the road, and he spotted several wagons full of stock as well. It seemed that each stall only had one type of product, be it eggplants, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, or corn among many others, taking note of them as they were yet another similarity to the products back home. He took a deep breath, taking in the smell of the fresh produce. It had been a long time since he had seen a sight like this up close and personal. It also seemed as though prices were flexible, shifting around to adjust based on their popularity and the specific customer. Peaches seemed to be the most expensive thing for sale, while eggplants and tomatoes were cheap.

Farmers called out to entice customers, singing the praises of their fruits and vegetables. He turned as he heard a familiar voice. “Get yer apples here! The best apples in Ponyville! We got all kinds: Red Delicious, Gaias, Honeycrisps and so much more! I know it, ya’ll know it, so step right up!” He followed the voice and soon spotted Applejack standing in front of a wooden wagon laden with her family’s namesake. She was smiling brightly, holding a few apples in her hooves, trying to lure in customers. Sure enough, there were a few more ponies that stopped to buy, earning them a tip of her hat as they left.

“Hey, Applejack!” he called to gain her attention as she slid the coins into her saddlebags, walking up to her cart.

She spun around at the calling of her name before her face relaxed into an easy-going smile. “Well howdy there, Steve. Glad to see yer up and about. Wasn’t sure you’d be walkin’ from the way you were last night.” They both chuckled, Applejack’s good-natured and his more rueful.

“Heh, yeah. Wasn’t sure I’d be here the way I was feeling this morning..”

“That’s why the Apple family’s cider is fer special occasions only. Can’t have ponies drinking their days away now.” A shadow seemed to pass over her face before she smiled again.

“Oh believe me, I don’t think I’ll be doing that again in a while.” Applejack nodded approvingly. “I was just wondering what to do now. Not that I expect you to drop everything; I know you have to sell your apples and what not.”

“Aw, there’s lots of stuff you can do ‘round these parts. You could always go visit Rarity. I’d bet she’d like ta talk with you since yer always wearing them clothes of yours.” She cast a critical eye over him. “At least they ain’t frou frou like hers,” she muttered. “Or you can go visit Twilight; I’m sure she’d like ta see you again.”

“That’s kind of what I’m afraid of.” He chuckled nervously.

“Don’t you fret none, partner. Twi can be excitable some, but she don’t mean no harm.” She scratched her chin thoughtfully. “Though come to think of it, I haven’t seen neither hide nor hair of that mare today. Same with Rainbow Dash too. Pinkie came by to buy some apples; said she was gonna make some sort of new… err… recipe….” She trailed off, looking uneasily at him suddenly, her eyes darting from his form to behind him. She sighed to herself softly. “Can you come with me fer a minute there, Sugarcube?”

“Uh, sure, I guess.” He followed her around to the back of the wagon, confused at her sudden change in demeanour.

“Listen, Sugarcube, I don’t want you to take this the wrong way, but… you think you can stop by a little later instead?” She shot him an apologetic look before averting her eyes, kicking the dirt with a hoof. “There’s ponies waiting to buy apples, but… they’re still afraid of you, I reckon. I just got to feed mah family. You understand, right?”

He looked to the front of the wagon and did understand. Several ponies were waiting there hesitantly, keeping a good distance away from the cart. They also averted their gaze when they saw him looking. “Oh…. yeah… I guess I’ll be going then.”

“You can stop by the farm later if ya want,” she said hesitantly, a hopeful look in her eyes. He had to look away.

“No… I think I’ll go back to the ship now. Just remembered I had some… stuff to do. See you, Applejack,” he said quietly, waving at her and walking off without another word.

He didn’t turn around to see their faces, but he wasn’t able to leave the area before he heard some pony saying, “Goodness, Applejack, I didn’t think the creature would come here!”

“Yeah, uh… I mean—“ That was all he heard as he finally went out of hearing range as he marched on to the town’s exit, the blood pounding in his ears, shivering as a frigid wind swirled around him in defiance of the bright afternoon sunshine.

Author's Notes:

JBL : Well, it’s this story’s one year anniversary! (To hell with your timezone, Gron!) Really didn’t think I would end up as co-writer when I first started reading, but shit happens. With nearly 250 upvotes and 300 favorites, I think we’re going along steadily. Know what would make an excellent anniversary present, dear readers? If you’ve favorited the story, give it an upvote too. Of course, you could give it an upvote all on it’s own!

This chapter is chock full of references. Let’s see who can identify any. Who is Artecus? Hell if I know. This was supposed to be just one segment of the chapter, but before I knew it, I had already written out his history, mannerisms, etc. Even had to cut some of his stuff.

Also, we have art! Holy crap! Huh, and Gron rejected mine, claimed it would scar the readers’ minds. Here it is:
I think we can all agree that I came in a very close second.

Yes, we all agree on that. So... this story has now a cover art! Yay!
Drawn by this guy. truekry

For more details about the anniversary look at my latest blog post.

I hope you have all enjoyed it so far and it will stay like that in the future.

Amazing proofreading was presented by: Tofty

While you are waiting for the next chapter, I'd recommend reading this story in the meantime:
Journey

Chapter 20 - Harsh Words and an Apology

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Spike was angry.

Despite all the time she had spent in Ponyville, despite how much she loved being with her friends and discovering the joys that friendship could bring, Twilight Sparkle would, if pressed, acknowledge that she was not the best pony at judging a pony’s character. Nor was she proficient in being able to tell how somepony was feeling just by looking at their mannerisms and knowing what to say or do to make things right. It was something she was loathe to admit for it sometimes felt like it was a mark against who she could be. She would also reluctantly confess that her inability to read the mood of a pony or environment had caused her to do certain things or say some things wrong. Having gone so far, she would finally say that by doing so, she had sometimes made the situation worse or caused some ponies to become upset or hurt, all inadvertently of course. Spending time with her friends had done her a world of good in overcoming some these problems. Twilight knew deep down, however, that there would come a time when she would do or say the wrong thing without even meaning to.

However, this was not one of those times. After all, somepony does not simply live in close quarters with another without being able to recognize a few signs of what they were feeling. After all, she reasoned, she had sometimes been able to tell when Shining Armor was feeling down when she was younger. It could be a facial twitch here or certain body language that was associated with a particular mood. And as sluggish as she felt right now, there was one thing she was certain of.

Spike was angry. Even worse, he was angry with her.

Perhaps the first sign was the fact that he had failed to wake her at the scheduled time as he usually did. Maybe it was because of the way he had glared at her without saying a word as she had stumbled down the stairs into the kitchen, lethargy sapping away at whatever energy she had. Then there was when he had slid a plate of fried eggplants across the table to where she was seated to take into account. Spike knew she hated eggplants. The way he slammed the dishes together and banged the cupboards closed as he cleaned the kitchen while she stared at her plate blankly was only more evidence for her hypothesis. What made her almost certain was the way he continued to glare daggers at her occasionally as he mumbled to himself. She was sure she heard her own name from the stream of conversation he was having with himself.

Twilight’s analytical mind could not help itself even though she wanted nothing more than to crawl back to bed. It twisted and turned the facts she had gathered from Spike’s behaviour and could only find one answer: Spike was angry with her. The only problem was that she was had no idea why.

She slowly sipped from the hot cup of coffee, grimacing at the bitter taste as the burning liquid went down her throat. Spike had dropped it off on the table after she had forced a few mouthfuls of the eggplant down. And she meant dropped; she dully wondered how the contents hadn’t spilled from the cup with the force it had landed with. No cream, no sugar, just plain black coffee.

Twilight sighed, feeling the tiredness and exhaustion in the sound. Even though she had spent most of the day after the party in bed recovering from the spell to dispel her… tipsiness, she still felt out of sorts. She grumbled to herself, feeling slightly aggrieved, both at a particular human for goading her into consuming alcohol and at herself for allowing herself to be persuaded. At least now she could finally squash that tiny bit of her that had been curious as to how it would taste. Never again, she swore. Still, she reasoned to herself, at least one good thing came out of it. I won the bet, so now he has to answer my questions and do the tests. A small shiver of excitement coursed through her body in spite of her grogginess at the thought of gaining new insight on a genuine alien. And directly from the source too!

However, her excitement was soon tempered by a dash of pessimism. She still wasn’t sure if it would be the ethical thing to hold him to his word. After all, he had already been drinking when he had made the challenge. Even though he had insisted that he was alright with it, the thought of making him go through with his promise caused her to feel guilty. He had already previously said that he was not comfortable with her doing any sort of tests on him. Another worrying scenario assaulted her. What if he refused to do it? What if he said that he simply didn’t care about keeping his promises? For all she knew, humans didn’t see the concept of fulfilling one’s vows the same way as ponies. And contrary to some of the rumours, she was most definitely not the sort of pony who would force him to do so against his will.

For the time being, she decided to discuss it with Steve and ensure he was okay with it. Right now I have more pressing matters to attend to concerning one particular baby dragon, she thought, wincing as Spike banged the mop bucket onto the floor, causing some water to splash out and create a mess.

“Spike? Is everything alright?” She tried to keep her voice as neutral as possible though some of her fatigue seeped out.

“… Yeah, everything is juuust fine. Nope, nothing wrong here.” Twilight resisted the urge to sigh again, knowing how it could be misconstrued as her being impatient with him. And she really wasn’t; she just found it difficult to concentrate right now.

“Spike, please; I know something is bothering you. You know you can talk to me about anything,” she said gently, smiling down at him comfortingly.

Even though his back was turned to her as he furiously worked the mop across the floor’s surface, she could almost feel him rolling his eyes. “Nah, I think I’ll just keep working. Only thing I’m good for around here,” he muttered the last sentence mostly to himself, but Twilight still caught it. She passed a hoof over her mane, feeling how out of place it was. Bed mane. Just something else she had to take care of.

Really, Twilight? Your number one assistant is upset, and all you can think about is how your mane is a little unkempt? she scolded herself.

“Now, Spike, you know that isn’t true. You do so much ar— Hey! Where are you going?” She sat up straighter on her chair as Spike placed the mop back into the bucket of now dirty water and began walking away.

“I’m going to reshelve the books. Apparently, some ponies can’t seem to place them back where they belong when they are finished with them.” The biting sarcasm almost dripped from the dragon’s mouth, and Twilight had enough. Her glowing horn was the only warning Spike had before he was enveloped into a magical sphere and floated back into the kitchen. He began struggling furiously, banging on the walls of the sphere.

“Twilight! Let me out of here now!” His little fists continued pounding as he stared at her, angry eyes burning a hole in her head. Her stomach clenched guiltily. She knew Spike hated when she used magic like this on him, but she needed to know what had happened to make him act like this.

“Spike, please… Just tell me why you’re angry. You know I’ll help you if you’re in trouble.”

In response, the dragon stopped his assault on the bubble and turned his back to her, sitting down in a huff and folding his arms, pouting. “I’m not saying anything.”

“Spike…” Twilight hated to use this voice. Even though she was concerned about him, it still felt like she was manipulating him since she knew he felt uncomfortable with her pleading like that.

“It’s nothing, Twilight. Can you just let me go?” His back was still turned to her though she could see him scratching his arms with a claw, the typical nervous reaction whenever she used that voice, Twilight noted, feeling worse that she had pushed her assistant like that. She quietly let the magic dissipate around him, allowing him to go free if he wished to. Spike, however, still remained seated on the floor, shoulders slouched.

She trotted up to him, chagrin eating away at her. It wasn’t like her to handle any pony like that just because she wanted to get answers. Well, not always… She placed a hoof on his shoulder and turned him around to face her. Still, the dragon kept averting his eyes. “It’s something, Spike. I know it’s hard to open up sometimes even to ponies closest to you, but you have to believe me when I say that I really want to help you. And the only way for me to do that is if you tell me,” she prodded him gently.

For a few moments, Spike remained silent as he still sat on the recently mopped floor. Then, just as Twilight was beginning to worry that he would not answer her, he said, in a voice that sounded weary and resigned, contrasting disturbingly for someone his age, “I really don’t want to talk about it, Twilight. It really isn’t that important, and you’ll just think that I’m being stupid or childish as usual. So can we just move on and pretend this never happened?”

That hurt more than Twilight expected it to. Did he really think she just dismissed his problems without a second regard? But… what if she had been doing it without even being aware of it. After all, why else would he just assume with such certainty that you would cast aside his concerns as a mere triviality if you haven’t already done it already? How many times did his worries be put down by the mare that is supposed to be the closest to him? her treacherous mind whispered.

Pushing aside her own questions of worthiness as a friend to the figure sitting prone before her, she gave him one last push, “No, I need to hear it, Spike.”

The small dragon gave a long sigh and shook his head before standing up and dusting whatever phantom dust that was on him. He then turned around to face her, meeting her gaze briefly as he played with his claws nervously. Finally, his voice tiny and uncertain, he whispered, “Why didn’t you let me come to the party?”

Twilight’s first reaction was one of befuddlement. She had expected something more to the nature of his discontent towards her sleeping in late or perhaps Rarity having a certain conversation with him. She had, admittedly, briefly let her mind run wild as it conjured up scenarios where Spike had done something to get in trouble with the authorities. That he hadn’t been was cause for her confusion to turn into temporary relief. However, that would not help her assistant right now. She racked her brain, trying to remember what had happened before on the night of the party while fighting down a headache that was threatening to form.

“You went to bed early, Spike, remember? We were doing research that afternoon, and then you went to take a nap. You were tired, and I didn’t want to wake you,” she reasoned slowly.

Spike snorted. “Yeah, then you could have woken me up when it was time to leave. You knew how much I wanted to go.”

“W-Well it also was late at night, and you know how tired you get when you stay up late.” Even to her own ears, Twilight sounded weak as she defended herself. You’re lying, Twilight. Even if you had made a conscious decision to leave him at home, that would have still been somewhat understandable, her conscience snapped at her. Admit it: you completely forgot about him in your hurry to reach the party. While your assistant was sleeping, you went on your merry little way. Her burning shame and confusion at how the morning had reached this point was further enhanced as Spike straightened up, looking like she had insulted his intelligence. With misery coursing through her body, she wouldn’t be surprised if she had done exactly that.

“Really, Twilight? Really?” He looked at her with an eyebrow raised, not impressed by her pathetic reasoning. “The Cutie Mark Crusaders were there! I know that because they couldn’t stop talking about how they met him when they came in here yesterday! The Cutie Mark Crusaders, Twilight! You know how those fillies are! It’s a wonder they didn’t try to capture Steve as a way of getting their cutie marks. Or they could have ended up blowing up Sugarcube Corner for all we know!” Spike flapped his hands wildly to emphasize his point. And you’re saying that those fillies were trusted to be part of the party?! They didn’t have to sneak in either; their sisters brought them along. But no, Spike has to stay at home because it’s too late, and he has to do everything by himself while a certain pony sleeps the day away.”

Twilight could only remain quiet. It took enough effort to stop the tears from falling. She knew that if she only tried to say something, they would begin escaping, and she didn’t think they would stop. She almost perversely wished that he would at least yell and shout at her. That small selfish part of her would have put it down as him being childish, and she could handle his immature behaviour. However, he had remained mostly unruffled as he calmly unleashed each verbal blow as they struck the defenceless pony not even putting up a resistance.

The fire in his eyes seemed to have reignited as he hurled accusation after accusation after her. However, he took a calming breath and continued, “But that’s how it’s been for the longest while, hasn’t it? I stay here in the library cooking, cleaning, helping you with your research, having to fix the library after you tear it apart to find one book. I almost never get invited to anything your friends do, and even when I do, I always end up having to remain here to take care of the library. He chuckled mirthlessly, a sound cynical and unhappy. A sound that no baby dragon should be making. “And you know what? I was actually hoping things would be different this time around. I was hoping that I would get to go to a party for an alien that actually took the time to help me with my chores. But that’s what I get for being stupid.”

He was silent for a few moments, running a hand over the green spikes on his head tiredly. “You know, I wanted to just start yelling at you so badly because of it, because I thought you knew how it felt to be left out like that. But then I thought: what was the use? Nothing would happen except me losing my gem allowance for the month and you feeling good about yourself for ‘doing the right thing’. That’s why I didn’t want to say anything, and I know this will end up biting me in the flank since I’ll regret saying anything.” He sighed, his gaze focusing on a far off distance. He took a deep breath and nodded once to himself, seemingly having reached some sort of decision within himself. He even gave her a small smile, though it was tinged with sadness. “Glad we could have this talk, Twilight.”

The purple dragon turned around and walked quickly out of the room, trying not to look back as Twilight slowly slumped onto the floor as the tears began to flow freely.

***

“Are you aware that your constant ignoring of my questions is considered rude amongst most humans?” Sarah’s voice sounded through his bedroom where the human was still lying in his bed, the blankets pulled halfway over his chest. With both of his hands folded behind his head he was dozily looking at the ceiling above him.

“Then I’m lucky that you’re not human,” he retorted and closed his eyes again. “Wouldn’t want you to think badly of me too,” he added a bit more quietly. The silence that followed his words was not a good sign, so he raised his voice again and said, “Sorry. What were you asking?” Still, the room remained hushed even with his apology. This was bad. A silent, angry woman was a dangerous woman even if the woman in question was artificial. With a sigh, he opened his eyes again and sat up in bed, pushing down the blankets. “Sarah, please. I said I’m sorry.”

“You did not seem that sorry when you came home yesterday and ignored me for the rest of the evening while you were spending an unhealthy amount of time watching television,” the AI this time replied quickly. Her robotic voice made it hard to tell what she was thinking about, and he still didn’t know for sure to which degree she was even able to think. However, the increase in volume on certain words showed him not only that she was making progress with her speech software, but also that she appeared to be hurt by his actions.

Oh dear God, really? he asked himself and looked up at the speakers in the corner above the door of the room. “Look, I’m really sorry. I just had too much on my mind yesterday, and I was trying to distract myself from it.” He would have shot her an apologetic look but since there were no cameras in this room (thankfully), he didn’t have to.

A short pause followed his statement. “Is this the reason why you returned so late yesterday?” she asked.

Confused, he raised a brow at the question, not seeing what that had to do with anything. However, he still replied, “No, I was just at the party like I told you. Don’t you remember?”

“Records of this event were noted.”

“Well then, what do you mean by that?” he inquired while slowly starting to get completely out of his bed, looking over the floor to see if he could spot some relatively fresh clothes.

“Your absence was of too long a duration for just a party. I demand to know what it was that kept you occupied there for so long,” the robotic voice sounded almost stern through the room.

Irritated, Steve stopped where he was as he was about to pick up the overalls he had worn yesterday to give it a sniff to see whether it was still wearable or needed to be washed. “Do I have a bedtime or something? Why is that important?”

“Not yet, but I may very well consider it,” she replied, now leaving the human completely baffled. “For your own safety, I might have to enforce a curfew. It is irresponsible to leave this shuttle for such long hours and also puts you in needless danger.”

“Danger?” he repeated, bewildered. “Do you even know how their world out there is? These ponies are way too scared of me for something to happen. Most of them don’t even want to come close to me.” Or they just do it because they have to, he thought sourly. “Also I—” he began but stopped mid-sentence, a suspicion beginning to surface. “Wait a minute. This is not about the possible danger out there, is it?”

“Incorrect. I have to ensure the continuous health of the security status of all operation members,” she recited from what he suspected to be part of the mission protocol.

“Wrong!” he said loudly and pointed a guilty finger at the speaker. “You don’t have to follow that anymore. And you weren’t complaining either when I left for Canterlot. I was gone even longer that time. And you never complained that I wasn’t talking…” Finally, it clicked in his brain as he figured out what was bothering her. “Are you angry at me for leaving you alone?”

The silence that followed his question again was answer enough. “Aha!” he shouted out, triumphant that he had figured it out. “Oh… I-I mean…” he stammered as he realized what this actually meant. So, I’m not the only one feeling a bit lonely here sometimes, and she had to stay here all the time. It had the effect of stirring up some guilt in him that he had acted so carelessly with her, having thought that she would not have any feelings about it anyways, but apparently he was wrong. “If it makes it any better for you, I didn’t plan anything for today, so I could stay here with you for a while.”

Steve hoped that the short silence that followed was just the time she needed to process what he said. A few moments later, her voice sounded through the room again. “Tell me why you needed time to contemplate yesterday,” she demanded.

Well, at least she’s not ignoring me, he thought, even though he had hoped that she would accept his apology. I feel like a man having to explain why he was out late while his wife is holding a rolling pin in her hands. “Okay, I might have to go far afield here. Contrary to the initial group of the ponies that I met here, most of the local population is pretty terrified of me. I can’t blame them that much, I suppose. I’m in a small village, they probably very rarely see other species here, and I’m an alien, so I expected a bit of fear. Unfortunately, that fear did not change a lot. Two days ago, I thought it would be getting better as I had walked through town, and they hadn’t seemed to mind me too much. I guess that was just due to the time I was there, and they were too busy to actually notice me that actively. Or maybe I was just lucky and met the more worldly-wise ponies for initial contact. When I was in Canterlot, I didn’t get that many strange looks either. They have probably seen weirder stuff than me.”

“I am not able to create a scenario in which a being with your level of charm, charisma, and kindness would receive such negative reactions,” Sarah commented on his story innocently.

“What do y— Hey!” he shouted back angrily and glared at the speakers, caught unawares by her seemingly sarcastic comment. “Anyways,” he waved it off and continued his story, “I was then looking forward to the party that Pinkie Pie, one of the members of the initial group, was hosting for me and thought that maybe some ponies would show up. And what do you think happened?” He left the question hanging in the room in for a moment.

“The attendance level was below a socially accepted threshold, I would presume.”

“It would have been easier to say that almost no one showed up, but yes, you’re correct,” he said and sighed. “Well, I didn’t mind too much to be honest. Some were there so it wasn’t a total disaster, and the evening was very enjoyable.”

“I fail to see your problem then. Explain,” Sarah inquired.

“Yes, yes, relax; I was just coming to that,” he calmed her and finally was able to test the freshness of his worn clothes with a quick sniff. Judging it as adequate, he threw the overalls onto his bed for later. “So, I then woke up earlier today and made my way back through town. I was still at Sugarcube Corner, where the party had been held, and the ponies were looking at me as scared as ever, perhaps even more. I have no idea if it was due to me being in the same room as them and they felt pressured, or thought I’d be angry that they didn’t show up last night.”

“Were you?” Sarah interrupted his monologue with a question.

For a moment he had to consider. “Not really. I think if they would have been there and were acting like they were acting today, the evening would have been a disaster. So it worked out better this way,” he replied confidently. ”But I sure would prefer if some things were different here.”

He quickly shook his head. “This isn’t the point now. After that, I thought that the ponies I met here on my first day could be considered the closest things I have to… friends. I know, I know. I’ve just known them for a week, and I’m an alien to them, but they were acting so kind and caring all the time that I just thought they were more accepting than the other ponies here,” he said and sighed, pressing his thumbs against the side of his head. “But as I was walking through town yesterday evening, I met Applejack, one of the day one ponies. She always seemed so… warm, friendly, honest, and hearty, but I suppose I was wrong on that one.”

“What leads you to this conclusion?” Sarah’s robotic voice wanted to know as he fell silent for a moment again.

“I saw her at the market and thought I should say ‘hello’ real quick and have a bit of small talk but instead she sent me away!” His voice went a bit louder at the end. “She sent me off because some of the other ponies felt uncomfortable buying her apples because I was around! Like I was some kind of stray dog that can be shooed away when he’s not wanted!” He spat out the last part and angrily walked towards the small wardrobe at the end of the room to get some fresh underwear.

“So, you were angry because she didn’t want to talk with you?” Sarah repeated with an increase in volume at the end, indicating it was a question.

“No, well yes, well… it’s not just that!” he retorted, annoyed, and turned towards her speakers again. “If she were busy, I’d have understood, but it was because she saw me as a negative influence. I mean, she does have a point, the ponies didn’t buy anything while I was there but Gods beware that I dare to disturb her monopolistic apple business for two minutes to ask her how she was doing.” He let out another long sigh. “Ever since then, I began to wonder how much of their time they have spent with me was actually out of their free will and not just because they got ordered by their princess to do so.”

“So you are feeling betrayed,” Sarah stated. Even though what she said was obvious, it was nice to hear another voice than his own in his endless rant he had with himself last night, even if it was just a simple remark that she was confirming his feelings instead of giving her opinion.

“Yes, pretty much,” he agreed and opened a drawer with fresh underpants. “She could at least have the dignity to not act like a friend if this is what she really thinks about me.” With fresh clothes in his hand, he went back towards his bed and let himself fall on it. “I just don’t know what to do, Sarah,” he groaned and stroked both hands through his hair. “I guess I need some time to think about it.”

“Are you going to spend your days hiding, sulking, and complaining about your situation in here again as you did in the past?” Sarah asked.

“Hey, I wasn’t complaining! I was contemplating about my status here!” he complained and waved her off. “But it’s not going to be the same as last time… I think. I just need something to do; maybe too much thinking isn’t good at the moment. Is there anything around the ship that needs to be done?”

For a short moment, it was silent as he suspected Sarah was running a quick check. “Besides the condition of bathroom number one, my quick scan shows that a water filter appears to be working with reduced efficiency. It appears to be clogged. If it does not get fixed, the water supply will not last for more than one week. You are taking too many showers,” she eventually reported.

“Very well, that sounds like an easy task,” he said and sat up on the bed again. “Give me a second to dress and then tell me where this filter is. And run a more detailed test in the meanwhile. I want a full status report within the next hour,” he ordered and began to change his underwear.

“Understood,” Sarah acknowledged and began her work.

***

"That should fix that problem," Steve declared as he pulled a mixture of dirt and hair out of the water filter. Disgusted, he stared at the dark ball that rested in the rubber glove that covered his hand.

"I will run a test once you get out of there," Sarah reported in. Steve nodded in confirmation and lifted himself out of the small hole in the ground and covered it again with one of the plates that made up the floor of his ship. At multiple locations in the shuttle, these plates could be removed to give access to the lower level architecture. He was now standing in the small cabin which contained the life support system, but the filters were clogged at a point he couldn't reach from above, so he had to go further down.

"Found anything else for me to do in the meantime?" Steve asked again as he pulled the small trash bin behind him and closed the door again.

"None so far. Scans completed to eighty-four percent. Further updates will follow," she replied a few moments later.

"Good, I'll be right back. The forest looks like it needs some fertilizer." Disparagingly, he looked down the bin again. "Or some poison. Don't think either one will hurt or help based from what I heard about it." He shrugged and made his way towards the airlock, Sarah already opening the door for him.

A few moments later, he stood at the edge of the forest, staring inside it. The trees were so thick that they blocked out the sunlight that shone down on them, making him unable to see further than about twenty meters through the darkness that held the woods in its grip. He wondered if the forest would be as dangerous as he was told, unsure if the ponies had been accurate in their descriptions. It was dark, yes, but that didn’t have to mean anything. And the ponies did live so close to it. Applejack's farm, he wrinkled his forehead in faint anger at the thought of the farm pony, was almost completely surrounded by the forest, and if he recalled correctly, Fluttershy's house was at the edge of the forest as well. He could hardly think that a pony who appeared to be often too timid to say a single word would dare to live near a supposedly dangerous place. He shrugged once again and threw the contents of the basket forcefully into the woods. A moment later, he heard a thud and turned around, only to halt in his tracks.

At the base of the small hill next to his ship stood the pegasus he was just thinking about. Fluttershy stood there motionless and just watched him going on with his business. How long has she been standing there already? Steve wondered as he raised his hand and waved towards her. "Hey!" he shouted as a greeting.

The yellow mare flinched slightly at the loud sudden noise but made no attempts to turn around as he marched towards her. "Hello," he could hear her faintly whisper as he got close to her.

"Hey," he repeated a bit quieter this time. "What brings you here?" Steve wondered. He was expecting that somepony would show up sooner or later, but he would have expected Twilight to collect the reward of their little bet from the other night. Or maybe Rainbow so that he could show her more 'awesome science stuff' or Applejack to come apologizing, but he had no idea what Fluttershy could want of him. Then again, he had rarely spoken with her. The pegasus had seemed quite content with occupying the background whenever her friends and her had met him, exchanging a quiet hello was the most he would usually get out of her.

"I... I just wanted to say s-sorry," she stammered and looked up at him. Even if he wanted to be mad at her for anything, her big, bright blue eyes, or rather just one eye since the other was covered by her long, pink mane, that looked up at him could have made him forget almost anything.

After a few seconds of staring back into her eyes, he quickly shook his head and asked, "Sorry? Sorry for what?" Did anything happen at the party? he quickly asked himself but couldn't recall anything from his memories, though he had to admit they were not the best about said night. Or is she apologizing for Applejack? he wondered, but before jumping to conclusions again, he waited for her reply.

Fluttershy looked back down at the ground again and mumbled something inaudible. "Come again, please," he said, trying to lower his voice to try and match hers.

"For what I said at Pinkie's party," she said in a quick breath and looked up from the ground again.

Okay, that answers one question, he thought, but still leaves another. "I honestly can't remember you saying anything bad. So I guess whatever it was it wasn't too bad anyways." He shrugged. "Or was it?" he asked slowly.

"Well... I... umm," she whispered uncomfortably and shifted her weight from one hoof to another repeatedly. "Please don't be mad at me, but… I said you were a f-f-f-f-fat flanks," she said quickly and hid behind her mane again.

He continued looking down at her, waiting for her to continue. "Is that it?" he asked a few seconds later when she made no further attempt to speak again. She nodded her head slightly in reply. Seriously? he wondered, feeling slightly amused despite himself. "Well, thanks for apologizing for that, and I accept it, but I honestly don't see where you felt the need to do that for those words. That sounds like a normal drinking conversation to me," he replied and laughed.

"So you’re not mad at me?" she wondered as she carefully looked up at him again.

"Of course not," he said. This is a nice one, he thought and crouched down in front of her so they were on the same eye level and smiled at her. "I've heard worse from sober people. Or ponies," he muttered the last part quietly.

"Oh, thank you, I'm so glad!" she cheered enthusiastically and returned his smile. "I was so worried that I said something wrong."

"Not at all," he calmed her and stood up again. I bet she could tell me a bit more about what the others think of me. She seems exactly like the type of person - or pony - who could overhear any type of conversation without anyone minding and actually know a lot of gossip, he figured, trying to think of a way to see if she knew anything he would find relevant. "Sooo..." he said after a short while to avoid allowing the silence that fell between them to become too awkward. “How were you after the party? I hadn’t seen many ponies yesterday, and you're the first one today."

"Oh, I'm quite alright, thanks," she replied hurriedly and fell silent again.

Well, so much for trying to get her into a longer conversation. "What did you think about the party?" he tried again

"It was... nice," she replied after a short pause and put on a smile that seemed awfully forced.

"Just a shame that there weren't so many there, right?" he inquired as he sensed that he might be on the right track here. "You don't happen to know why so few turned up, do you?"

Fluttershy looked around uneasily as she seemingly pondered how to answer the query. "I'm sorry, I have no idea."

Steve sighed. "Well, at least the ones that were there didn't seem to have anything against me at all, right?"

"Oh no, certainly not," she replied immediately and looked at him directly in his eyes, surprising him with the sudden eye contact.

For a moment, he had to consider. Maybe she doesn’t really know much about what the others think of me after all. She sounded very honest there and doesn't appear to be a good liar at all. He sighed again and decided to let go of the subject for now.

"So, umm, what are you doing today?" Fluttershy asked to his surprise. He hadn't expected her to ask questions as well.

"Not much. When you came, I had just finished fixing something in my ship. As for now, it doesn't look like there is much else to do," he replied and looked at the bin in his hand again.

"May I see it?" Fluttershy asked and her eyes went a bit wider.

"What?" Steve looked down at her, a bit confused.

"Your ship," she replied and nodded towards it. "I was wondering how humans are living since you arrived. I-If you don’t mind that is. I don’t want to seem rude."

Steve looked back at his ship, then at the slightly excited pegasus in front of him. "I can give you a tour if you want. I have enough time." As though my schedule is overflowing with commitments.

"Oh, that would be wonderful. Thank you," Fluttershy replied happily and clopped her forehooves together a few times, standing completely on her hindlegs for a few seconds.

"Follow me then," he said and turned towards the ramp that led up to the door. "Just keep in mind that this is not at all like a human home you would find on Earth, but I have plenty of pictures of that," he told her and marched up the ramp. Fluttershy followed him quickly and stood next to him in front of the airlock. Curiously, she looked at it, probably searching for a handle that would open it. The hissing sound of the unlocking process caused her to suddenly jerk back.
"Relax, it's just opening. There are two doors which are both hermetically sealed. This just means they are airtight. There is a small chamber between the two doors, and the pressure has to be adjusted to the outside pressure," he explained in a matter of fact tone and stepped through the first door that had completely opened by now. He motioned her to follow him, which she slowly did. "The first door will close again, and the pressure will be adjusted to the inside, then the second one will open and we are done. This is to keep the air pressure inside the ship the same and can also be used to avoid the mixing of the outside's atmosphere with the one inside the ship if it would be necessary. It is just sheer luck that I'm able to breathe your air.”

Fluttershy slowly nodded and didn't flinch back at the blinking red light and the hissing sounds of the doors. Instead, she watched them curiously as they slowly opened and revealed a view of the inside of the ship. She made no signs of stepping out of the airlock immediately, carefully sniffing the air first. "So, this is where I live," he said and stepped inside the ship and pointed around with his arms. He turned back around towards her and waited for her to follow him.

"It smells fresh in here," Fluttershy noted and stepped out of the airlock as well.

"Thank you. I keep track of the air quality and ensure that it is maintained at the highest level possible," Sarah spoke up in her robotic voice, causing the pony to immediately jump back into the airlock.

Steve sighed loudly. “Sarah, would it kill you to wait for me to introduce you in the future? It kind of freaks the ponies out,” he said loudly and pointed at Fluttershy trembling in the corner of the airlock. “Just let me do the talking, okay?”

“As you wish,” Sarah acknowledged shortly.

“W-Who… Who is that?” Fluttershy whispered from behind her mane. “I thought you were alone.”

“Well, yes, technically I am. Sarah is not another human - she is an AI, an artificial intelligence. She is like a robot, only with a very high level of intelligence. Sarah is just the name given to her. Her actual name is an incredibly long series of numbers and letters I didn’t even try to remember. Makes it a bit easier to talk to her and lets her seem more human,” he explained as he crouched down again to look her better in her eyes. “Don’t worry, she’s not doing anything to you. And sorry I didn’t warn you before. I completely forgot that you have never heard of her.”

Carefully and slowly, Fluttershy stepped towards the door again and looked around. “W-Where is she?” she asked suspiciously. “And why is her voice so…” She stopped, not knowing how to describe it.

“Well, everywhere,” Steve replied and waved around quickly. “She basically is the ship and is operating it all on her own. Her mind is actually just a very long sequence of electrons stored on a disk somewhere and she uses the hardware inside the ship to keep her brain running.” He hoped that he wasn’t throwing too many unknown terms at the pony at once. She probably had never heard most of these words before even though he tried to keep his explanation simple. Still, Fluttershy nodded. “Her eyes are cameras, her ears are microphones, and her mouth is speakers that are all around the ship. She can hear and see us, and by looking at certain keywords and matches them with what she knows, she can actually understand what we are saying and can calculate an answer which she is then able to tell us.”

“Is she alive?” Fluttershy asked. This was a question had going through his head for quite some time, so his reply came rather quickly.

“This depends on how you look at it,” he said and looked at the nearest camera to his right. “She is not breathing, she does not require food or drink for sustenance, she was not born in the conventional method, nor will she get sick and die one day. On the other hand, she is able to learn on her own and not simply because I write in her code how she should react to a situation. She is truly intelligent, just like you and I are. So I consider her just as much alive as a human… or pony.” While Fluttershy let that sink into her for a moment, he decided that it would be best to get a second opinion on this one. “Sarah,” he spoke up and woke the AI, “are you alive?”

“Am I?” was the only thing that came as a response.

Steve sighed. “I never can figure out if she is just getting sassy sometimes or if this is her way of learning,” he explained and chuckled. “She is the first actual AI that actually made it beyond the testing stage, but they have limited her abilities quite a bit. I think they just made her to show off to the locals how far our technology goes. Since she is operating the equipment, she has to follow a lot of orders at any time and is not allowed to think about it, just do it. They could have taken a regular board computer like our main ship had, but this seems more fancy, I suppose. Since she is so new, I actually have to do a bit of trial and error to find out what she actually can and can’t do. But it is nice. I have very interesting company.” He gave the wall next to him a few gentle pats with his hand. “Oh, and to answer your question about her voice. There were some time problems in her development progress and they didn’t manage to give her a new voice in time, so that is why it sounds so metallic. But she is learning. I heard her using emphasis earlier.”

Fluttershy stood there in silence for a few more moments, trying to comprehend the amount of new information he had dropped on her. “That is um… fascinating,” she eventually said.

“I will take that as a compliment, thank you,” Sarah reported in again.

“Oh, you’re quite welcome,” Fluttershy replied and smiled before she turned towards Steve again. “You are very lucky; I have never seen anything like this. It must be very interesting to watch her developing. I would have never thought this was possible.”

“Yes, technology is amazing,” he agreed and took his hand of the wall again. “Want to see more?” he asked and pointed at the rest of the ship behind him. “I’m sure there are more things here that you might find interesting.”

“Yes, please,” she said quickly and nodded her head with a happy smile on her lips.

“Good, follow me then,” Steve said and started their little tour through his ship. The tour was not much different from the one he gave to Rainbow and Twilight a few days ago. The only difference was that Fluttershy remained silent most of the time and only rarely asked questions if something she saw caught her interest, so he just went on and explained everything he saw in the room to try to drag out the tour a bit longer.

After they went through his bedroom and he had explained her why there were no pictures or other personal items, Fluttershy seemed a bit sad. “Don’t you have anything to remind you of your home?” she asked and looked up at him as they both left the room.

“Only in here,” he said and tapped against his head and chest once. “I try to not think too much about it and just hope that your great leader fixes her mistake soon.” He rolled his eyes at the thought of their princess.

“Oh…” Fluttershy said quietly and looked back down at the floor. “I’m sorry.”

“You don’t have to be sorry. It wasn’t you who messed up.” He waved her off and looked up and down the small hallway again. The only rooms he hadn’t shown her were the small lab and the armoury. He highly doubted that she would be interested in the latter one, so he had left it out deliberately, and most of the machines in the laboratory he didn’t even understand himself. There was only one thing left now he could show her. “You are the local veterinarian, right?” he asked to make sure he remembered that part correctly.

“Actually no, I just care for the woodland critters who get hurt,” Fluttershy said and shook her head. “We have an animal clinic where I could work. Cloudsdale, where I was born and raised, did not have the best veterinarian schools, but I still got my doctorate there, so I technically can, but I just can’t leave all my critter friends at home while I would be at work, so I choose not to even though they were asking so nicely at the clinic if I wanted to work there.”

Jeez, she must really like these animals if she even declines a job as a vet for them, Steve thought and looked at the yellow mare in front of him. “And what are you doing for a living then? The food and medical supplies you need to take care of all these creatures won’t be for free, right?”

“The animal clinic gives me some of their supplies if they have enough, and I look after the pets of anypony in Ponyville whenever they go on holidays. And at the end of the month, I receive some bits from the town as well for my services. I don’t want to take it, but they say that since I’m here, the borders of the Everfree are more secure. I just didn’t want to argue about it and accepted it, especially since it means I can take in more of my critter friends.”

“I see. Anyways, what I actually wanted to ask you was if you’d be interested in seeing a few animals from Earth?”

“Oh, yes of course. Are there any here?!” she replied instantly, sounding both interested and surprised.

“No, sorry to disappoint you. I just have a lot of pictures and videos,” he said and pointed to the computer terminal at the end of the hallway. Fluttershy still nodded eagerly and followed him as he went to the computer. “What would you like to see first?” he asked as he dropped down into the chair, and with a few commands, navigated to the wildlife section of the large encyclopaedia that was stored in Sarah’s databases.

“Oh… I wouldn’t know. I don’t know any animals from Earth,” Fluttershy bashfully said next to him as she fascinatingly watched the pictures on the screens appearing and moving.

“They are not much different from what I have seen here, but if you look here…” He stopped for a few moments and pointed at a screen. “You can see a list of the categories, and it should work for you to just tap on them to show the animals under this category. It is pretty much self-explaining from there on.” Fluttershy took a step closer to the console and looked up at the screen he was pointing at. Only now did he realize the height difference. “Oh, of course, take my seat. You should be able to reach it from there,” he said and stood up, offering the chair to the mare.

Awkwardly, she lifted herself onto the chair that seemed to be a bit too high for her. Steve wondered why she wasn’t using her wings to help her but didn’t ask. “Now just go and tap the screen. But lightly!” he reminded her, remembering how Rainbow Dash had treated his equipment at first.

Slowly, she reached out her right foreleg and alternatively looked at him and the screen in front of her. He nodded, but she stopped her hoof a few centimeters in front of the screen. “Just tap it where you want to go,” he repeated again. “You actually have to touch it.” She moved her hoof forward carefully until it made contact with the glass of the screen then quickly pulled it back. A moment later, the list under the tab that read ‘Mammals’ expanded and revealed more options to choose from. “Good, same thing again. Do these categories say anything to you? Strangely, our terminology seems to be very much alike, but I have had no chance yet to figure out why that is so.”

“Yes, I know these words,” Fluttershy replied and nodded while her eyes were focused on the screen. She reached out her hoof again, this time a bit more quickly and without stopping on the way, and touched the screen where it read ‘Rabbits’. She flinched back a bit as the list was pushed aside and instead a new page popped up.

She let out a quiet squeal of delight as the top of the page showed a large picture of a rabbit sitting in the grass and curiously looking up towards the camera. To the left of it, Steve could see a short description of them, including their scientific names, where their habitats were, and other information he didn’t really care about.

Her eyes rested over the picture a while longer before she said, “They do look a bit different. Yours have thinner bodies and shorter feet.”

Steve nodded. He didn’t really take much of this information in. It would have been more interesting for him if she would have actually encountered a major difference or a whole new species. But it was nice to see that Fluttershy seemed to enjoy looking at the pictures and reading through the articles at a surprisingly high speed. This must be like Christmas and a birthday on the same day for her, reading about all the animals of another planet, even though they’re not that different, he thought as he watched her reading for a bit more. “You can scroll further down if you swipe your hoof from the bottom to the top of the screen or use these keys,” he pointed out briefly as she had appeared to have finished reading the article so far and looked back at him. “Or tap against the list on the left to read about something else.”

Fluttershy smiled and nodded before turning her attention back towards the screen. Now she seemed to have grasped the idea of it and only a very few times did Steve have to give her directions to navigate. Aside from that, the mare was eager to read more and more. Quickly, she had skimmed through most of the categories and looked at a couple of animals each, giving a few remarks about their Equestrian equivalent after every few paragraphs. The differences were mostly minor though. Eating habits, sleep cycles, and general looks were almost identical for all of them. The only real differences seemed to be in the equines. From what she told him, it looked like they all shared similar features to the ponies he had already met here. Shorter muzzles, a mark on their flank, significantly larger ears, and an overall smoother appearance compared to Earth ponies.

It was something that had played on his mind since he had arrived here. The evolutionary progress on this world must have been quite similar to Earth’s, but with a few changes here and there, especially for the equines that made them become the dominant species while humans apparently never existed, or didn’t make it beyond apes yet. He wanted to ask her, but he chose to let her have a bit more fun browsing through the various articles. A quick glance at his watch told him that it wasn’t even noon yet, so he would have more than enough time for those questions.

A bit bored, he leaned against the wall and watched her looking at all these different species, only giving a few sounds of acknowledgement whenever she pointed something out. He was only half looking at the screen by now, but then one picture caught his eye immediately. Fluttershy was currently in the ‘Cats’ category, more precisely in the part about wildcats, with a large picture of a tiger with its prey partly in front of it and partly in its mouth. The unlucky animal could have been a deer, but with the amount of blood, he couldn’t tell clearly, and he was surely no expert.

This wasn’t important at the moment however. The thing that mattered the most was that Fluttershy was seeing it. If there was someone who couldn’t stand seeing an animal being killed and eaten, he was sure it would be her, and since she had remained on this image so long without moving, his thought appeared to be correct. Quickly, he walked over to the computer and was about to swipe with his hand over the screen to make the picture disappear, but her hoof stopped his arm before he reached the screen.

He raised a brow and looked at the yellow mare in the seat. Her eyes were wandering around a bit as she bit her lip, but she still spoke clearly as she said, “It’s okay... I understand that nature works this way. Often, it is not very different here.” Saddened, she looked down at the floor, her eyes downcast and ears pressed tightly against her head.

“I just didn’t think you would like to see that, seeing that you care so much about animals,” Steve responded and pulled back his arm.

“I don’t like it,” she agreed and looked up into his eyes again. “But I know that this is the way it works, and there is nothing I can do to change it.” A single tear formed in her eye. “I had to learn that very early in my studies. It… It still isn’t easy to think about it. And as much as I dislike the thought that one has to eat the other to survive, I have to follow that rule when I tend for my friends. My bird friends need worms to feed to their young, and I have to give a fish to others sometimes as well. I just wish they wouldn’t have to.”

Steve crouched down next to her and hesitantly placed a hand on her shoulder to comfort her. She looked back into his eyes, and he could see the inner conflict she was having. “Why do you do it?” Fluttershy asked.

“Do what?” Steve returned, raised a brow and pulled his hand back.

“Eat meat,” Fluttershy said bluntly. “Shouldn’t you know better or have alternatives and—” She suddenly stopped herself mid-sentence and looked at the ground again. “Sorry, I shouldn’t ask such a question. It wasn’t polite.”

“It’s fine, really,” he assured her. “It is a very valid question, and I don’t really have a good answer to it either.” He stood back up and leaned against the wall again. “Well, I’ve always been doing it since it is normal in our culture. Meat contains a lot of proteins my body needs. I can get these from vegetables as well, but meat was easier to get, and I often felt like having a burger over a salad. And it’s usually cheaper as well.” Steve shrugged and crossed his arms in front of his chest.

Fluttershy blinked confusedly at him a few times as he blankly stared back at her. “How can it even be cheaper? It is very rare that I have to buy meat - I usually take what nature leaves me, like fishes that get washed ashore - but it is still more expensive than exotic fruits.”

“Compare your number of farms to your number of butchers,” Steve simply returned. “For me, it is just as natural to eat meat for lunch as a salad is for you. And look at me,” he pointed down his body. “I’m not exactly thin.” His hands went over his stomach where a slight bulge could be seen through his clothes. “I was only eating comparably little because I was under stress. Well, at least it helps my figure.” He stopped and critically down his body. “Anyways, meat helps me to quickly consume larger amounts of proteins and therefore gives me longer lasting energy.”

“But you have the choice not to!” Fluttershy said accusingly and pointed a hoof at him. By now, he had figured out that she seemed to be having trouble managing eye contact, but not right now as she determinedly stared at him.

Steve let out a long sigh. “What do you want to hear? That I’m sorry? Because I’m not.” He met her look and this time she wasn’t looking away either. “The only thing I’m sorry about is that you probably think lesser of me now because of it.”

“N-No, it’s not that,” Fluttershy said quickly and shook her head, her fleeting determination abandoning her. “I don’t think you are bad or evil because of that. After all I grew up in Cloudsdale, a city popular for griffons as well. I have learned to live with it. I just never got the chance to ask any of them why they were doing it.” She left her head hanging and sighed as well. “I’m sorry I was bothering you with it. I should just never have asked.” She almost visibly deflated in front his eyes.

“No, no, it is just fair that you ask that,” he tried to assure her. “I just don’t have better answers because I don’t really think anything when I was eating meat. I just did it. There is nothing more behind it. It was available around me, I liked the taste, and it was a good source of energy. End of story. I’m pretty sure you’re unsatisfied with this answer, but there’s nothing more to it.” She peeked at him from the corners of her large blue eyes. “But I promise you that I’m not planning to go hunting here. I still have enough rations from Earth left for now.”

“Really?”

“Of course,” he acknowledged as she fully raised her head again. “I’m not that insensitive when I see how much the animals mean to you, and I still have my supplies.”

“Oh thank goodness, I was a bit worried, I have to admit,” Fluttershy said and grinned sheepishly.

Steve waved it off and smiled. “There is nothing to worry about. I’m not as dangerous and scary as most ponies think I am.”

“I don’t think you are dangerous,” Fluttershy told him and looked him straight in the eyes again. “Even though you do eat meat. I couldn't understand it, but I wasn't frightened of you because of it.”

“Thank you, Fluttershy. That means a lot.” A smile crept on the face of the yellow mare. “Do you want to go on? There’s still a lot to see,” he offered and pointed back at the computer, happy that she was even slightly more understanding than most of the ponies here.

“Gladly,” Fluttershy agreed and turned her attention back to the screen.

Author's Notes:

JBL: Yeah, that’s right, Twilight; that’s what you get for having Spike make twenty million nachos and then throw it away. Yep, that’s right, twenty million…. low estimate. What, you thought I would forget about old Spike and his absence at the party? Or did you forget about him too, reader? Gron certainly did.

Maybe I sometimes forget things all the time.
I mean... Spike is such a little dragon, he can be overseen so quickly!

Anyways: What follows now I have obviously not forgotten.
First: Praise Tofty's flank for his proofreading. I can only assume it is as glorious as his skills. And so shall you!
2: We hope you enjoyed this chapter.
C: I can't decide how to itemize and added the previous point mainly to demonstrate that. It still stands though.
IV: As some of you may know we translate a story (well, I translate, he edits) called Journey
Because we have lost control of our life we have started with another story of the same author as well: Nightmare. Maybe you want to give it a read as well.

Chapter 21 - Harden my Heart, Swallow my Tears

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“What are you doing, Tia?” Princess Celestia looked up from her comfortable spot on the large purple sitting pillow by the fireplace that allowed a pleasant warmth to fill the room. The steady crackling of the fire, often the only sound she heard besides the scribbling of a quill on parchment during long lonely nights, had begun to die down. Now, however, she was not alone, and so she turned away from the letter that was lying in front of her and towards the right where the sound was coming from. She was met with the deep blue eyes of her sister that were only mere centimeters away from her own magenta colored ones. Luna had tried to look over her shoulder in an attempt to find out what she was writing there, curious as she always was.

Celestia moved her head back a little, and Luna took a step back as well. “It is just a letter for Twilight, sister,” she explained calmly and looked back at the parchment in front of her.

“And what is it that you are writing to her?” Luna inquired and stepped closer again. In the corners of her eye, Celestia could see her leaning down towards the letter and trying to make out the words she had written.

"I want to make sure that the citizenship of our new subject will be handled as quickly as possible,” she said and dipped the quill into the jar of ink, letting it glow with a bright golden light.

“Why?” Luna returned, surprised. “We think this action would only bring more light on him, and is that not the reason we have arranged a meeting with the ambassadors this afternoon? To make sure that he will go on with his life here unbothered by their interests?” Celestia looked up from the letter again and returned her sister’s worried expression with a confident smile.

“It is not a meeting, dear sister. We merely have invited them for a tea party,” Celestia calmed her.

“You may call it what you want, but that does not change the point. What if they begin asking questions? We do not think this will turn out advantageously for either him or us.” Princess Celestia could clearly hear the concern in her sister’s voice. Her concerns were not without reason.

“I do not plan to give out any information,” Celestia replied without taking an eye off the paper, yet she could almost feel Luna’s confusion. “It will simply be a… friendly get-together if you want to call it that. You know just how much I dislike the tension that always forms in the negotiation rooms. And we have nothing to negotiate in the first place. We simply will have a nice afternoon in celebration of our long lasting good relationships. And while we do so, we will ask them about any news that they have heard of. Nothing more than informing ourselves about how far the rumors have spread already. No need to worry ourselves before we do not even know what they know.” After the explanation, Celestia raised her head again and watched Luna processing the information. She remained silent for a few seconds, her mouth hanging slightly open as she stared unbelievingly towards her.

Eventually, Luna closed her mouth again and nodded briefly. “Fine. I do not like the thought that we have to act this way, but I do not see a way in which we are not releasing information while gathering it ourselves which would not lead to a political conflict.”

“I know, my sister,” Celestia agreed quietly. “I have spent a lot of time thinking about how we should approach this situation.” A yawn escaped her lips that still formed a smile. “Maybe a bit too much.”

“Were you not sleeping last night again?” Luna asked, worried as she trotted over to her big sister and leaned down to her. As alicorns, neither of them were as dependent on sleep as their subjects, but it still served as an easy way to restore their powers that were drained by their daily duties. And even an alicorn as powerful as her sister would be showing signs of exhaustion after too many sleepless nights.

Celestia shook her head. “The faster we get this situation dealt with, the better,” she replied firmly although her tiredness was slowly gaining the upper hand. “Unfortunately, I have made no progress at all so far. I might have to consult Twilight for assistance again.” Another yawn left her mouth.

“You should get some rest, Tia,” Luna said as she put a hoof on her sister’s shoulder.

Celestia sighed. “Fine, just let me finish this letter first. How long until our meeting?”

“Three hours, sister,” Luna said and stepped away from Celestia. “I will leave you alone to catch some rest and inform the guards that you don’t wish to be disturbed. I will return later when the ambassadors arrive.” With these words, the Princess of the Night opened the door to her sister’s chambers with a swing of her horn. The two guards outside the door stood at attention as she walked past them.

“Let nopony disturb her for today,” Luna ordered them.

“As you wish, your Highness,” the unicorn to her left acknowledged and both stomped their spears on the ground once before crossing them over the door.

Luna nodded absently and slowly made her way back to her own quarters. Oh sister, what game are you playing again?

***

Twilight lay in bed, staring up at the ceiling of her room. The night had already begun its daily retreat against the slow march of the incoming day. If this had been an ordinary day, she would have already been out of bed, preparing for a day of studies and going over her checklist one final time. It was a Friday after all; what was a better way to start the weekend than with some light reading in the form of Starswirl’s ‘Theoretical Conjurations, Fourth Encyclopaedia’, after all? She had even scheduled some time for helping Pinkie Pie bake some cookies for the patients currently warded in Ponyville’s hospital.

However, the events of yesterday had turned the new day into a swirling mass of uncertainty, one Twilight found herself resisting the need to tackle. In her young life, she had fought against a corrupted night princess, stopped a lord of chaos in his tracks, and even stood up to a changeling queen when nopony else would stand with her. And yet despite all that, she was unsure of how to handle the angry barbs flung her way by the dragon she affectionately called her number one assistant.

Unbidden, her mind took great delight in reminding her of what had occurred. After their… confrontation, she had spent the remainder of the day in an unproductive daze, the combination of exhaustion and her indecision to confront Spike so soon afterwards rendering any plans she had futile. Spike, on the other hand, had thrown himself into his work, sweeping, dusting, washing, polishing, and mopping with a vengeance, his small body seemingly containing endless energy while a perpetual frown constantly adorned his face. For all that time, he had refused to even look in her direction. She had been unsure as to whether or not to be relieved at that. While him not wanting to see her certainly hurt, him constantly glaring at her would have been much worse.

Her eyes shifted over to the empty basket at the foot of her bed. The sheets were neat and unruffled, evidence that Spike had not slept in it last night. She had waited patiently to see if he would be in a more amiable mood as the day had progressed. By the time the clock had struck ten, she had had enough, quietly tiptoeing down the stairs in search of her charge. He had neither been in the library section itself nor the kitchen. When the first pangs of panic had begun to rise, she had finally found him in the basement nestled in between two of her machines, a thin sheet the only barrier between him and the cold floor. An old dirty blanket had covered his body, rising and falling as he breathed. He wheezed quietly on occasion from the dust in the room, probably the only place he had not managed to clean that day. She had stood there for a while, indecisive as to whether or not to leave him there or to carry him back to her room. Eventually, she had slunk up the stairs, leaving the unsuspecting dragon behind, feeling as though she had somehow abandoned him.

Now she was left with the additional feeling of guilt to gleefully mix with the other emotions that had been rolling around inside her ever since their fight.

She groaned to herself, lifting and then slamming her head down onto the pillow while blowing a few errant strands of her mane from her face in frustration. She took a deep breath before exhaling, trying to collect her thoughts from their current chaotic state in order to try and analyse the situation she had gotten involved in.

Spike was angry with her and had been so for quite a while. After all, he wasn’t somepony to be so enraged to have acted like that on impulse. Sure, he could sometimes become annoyed or grumpy on occasion, but he was good-natured for the most part and could take a prank or practical joke and wave it away with a laugh. So why had he exploded at her like that? While she believed he was being truthful about being angry with her for not taking him to the party, his own words had revealed that it was just the catalyst in a long list of grievances that he held against her.

‘You’ll just think that I’m being stupid or childish as usual.’ That had been the first direct accusation he had hurled at her. She took another deep breath, trying to block the hurt that had been associated with the memory. She was only partially successful. She took a moment, allowing herself to think back, attempting to recall as much of their interactions as possible. She had known him for so long, from the day he had been hatched. Their time in Ponyville had only increased their closeness, and yet Twilight found that there were times when her memories of Spike just melded together, the recollections of her studies overriding most of whatever memories she may have had of what he had been doing at the time.

The only thing she could be certain of was that she had never intentionally thought of him as being stupid. It wasn’t fair to compare their intellects since they both knew how to do things the other couldn’t do. She couldn’t recall ever feeling a sense of superiority over anypony just because they didn’t know the theory and history behind a shield spell while she did, and that went especially for Spike.

However… there were times when she had felt impatience with Spike over his questioning as to why she was doing something a certain way or if she was certain something would work, then having to slowly explain it to him. Was she being… condescending? Her eyes widened as the thought struck her, and she swallowed, suddenly feeling lightheaded as it seemed to strike home. But most of the time, those moments had been when she was in a hurry; she had never meant it in a way to belittle him! And yet it appeared that the young dragon had taken the tone behind her words the wrong way, taken them to heart.

‘Can we just move on and pretend this never happened?’ This was the one sentence that had caused her the most discomfort, the one that caused the guilt hungrily gnawing away at her. Even now, when she could think without being blindsided, her initial reaction to the accusation still rang through. The tired resignation that had been present spoke of his belief that whatever he had to say would amount to little. Could she honestly say that she had always taken Spike’s opinion into consideration? The answer was a swift no. She could argue that there were times when following his opinion would have led to even more damage, like the time he had decided on going with the other dragons. However, had she taken it a step further, done it to such an extent that he had come to realize that arguing with her would be a futile endeavour? She found that she could not give herself a satisfactory answer.

The accusation that he was the one who had to clean up after her was one she, having mulled it over several times, found difficult to comprehend. Not because it wasn’t true – since it was – but because she didn’t know exactly what she had done wrong. Spike was her assistant after all, and it had been his job to do the cooking and cleaning while she was studying. Nothing had changed in that regard. Except… ‘you tear it apart to find one book.’ As much as she hated to admit it, it was something she had done more than once, leaving Spike to start from scratch. She groaned again. She was doing it again, looking at things from her point of view and not taking his into consideration. He no doubt saw it as just another way she continued to treat him unfairly. Yet another red mark against her.

‘I almost never get invited to anything your friends do, and when I do, I still end up having to stay here to take care of the library.’ This was the one that had stayed with her the longest despite the fact that it was the charge she had been the most willing to accept. It still didn’t make it easier to think about. In her defence, she had insisted on Spike remaining behind on most of the adventures she and her friends and been on for his own safety. She would never have forgiven herself if she had allowed him to accompany them only for him to end up being hurt. She still sometimes had nightmares of their trip to the Crystal Empire, and a fair few of them involved her assistant. Yet… even in Ponyville, it had been so easy to continue that pattern, to leave him in the safety of the library whenever she had gone out to meet her friends.

It all added up to a conclusion that she desperately wanted to ignore, a conclusion that her conscience kept waving in front of her, demanding to be acknowledged. She felt almost nauseous, the rollercoaster of emotions not easing in their intensity on her psyche. She wanted nothing more than to just slink back under her covers and have another crying session. Her tears, however, had long dried up, and despite herself, she found herself struggling to get free from her blanket before dropping down onto the floor. She sluggishly dragged her way to her door, mustering whatever little reserves of energy she had to brace for the new day. Stepping out and closing it behind her, the most noticeable thing immediately roused her attention, the very nature of the assault on her senses causing a tiny spark of hope to tingle in her stomach.

For now though, the only thing that was running through her mind was, is that... pancakes?

***

Spike laid his weary head onto the kitchen table, allowing the coolness of the surface to seep into his body. His back ached from the rough night on the basement’s floor, and he had accidentally squeezed his right hand in one of the cupboard doors whilst trying to wrestle out his favourite cast iron skillet. Still, when all was said and done, a stack of pancakes stood tall in their steamy goodness next to a cup of hot coffee, one lump of sugar with a slight amount of milk. It was a simple breakfast but it counted as Twilight Sparkle’s favourite.

Spike sighed, the sound louder than intended in the quiet of the kitchen. He had really done it this time. He pounded a fist half-heartedly against the table. Why did Twilight have to go and push him like that? He was content to just keep grumbling to himself but nooooo, Her Majesty’s student just had to be in one of her pushy moods where she wouldn’t take no for an answer. Goaded beyond his control, he had let out all his frustrations, all his anger, all his grievances on her in one go, finding himself unable to stop once he had started talking. He had left her there, walking out on her though not before seeing how her expression had crumbled into misery.

It was that face that had haunted him throughout the day and well into the night, and he found himself too ashamed to face her when it was time for him to sleep. Instead, he had snagged a sheet from the laundry basket and used an old blanket he had found in the basement and huddled next to one of Twilight’s whacky machines, all the while thinking of how he could end up fixing the mess he’d made.

He sighed again, rubbing a scaly hand over his eyes to try and stave off the tiredness that always seemed to be nearby these days. He knew he was probably going to be in a lot of trouble sooner rather than later; he had said as much in the heat of the moment yesterday. Twilight might end up telling the rest of the Bearers what had happened, and he cringed at the thought of all six mares ganging up on him. She could also tell Princess Celestia what he did, guaranteeing that he would be receiving a stern lecture from her. He shuddered at the thought of her eyes that were filled not with anger, but disappointment. The last time he had received that look was when he had knocked over one of her valuable vases which nearly fell on top of him while running. This time she might even declare that he wasn’t fit enough to be Twilight’s assistant, and who knew what would happen to him then?

Why did I have to open my big mouth? he asked himself bitterly. The answer came to him almost immediately. It was all because of Twilight. Ever since they had come to Ponyville, they had spent increasingly less time with each other, and when they did, it was more in the role of him just taking care of the library while she focused on her work. And when she wasn’t studying, she would be out with her friends while he took care of the library. And they would go off on grand adventures while he took care of the library. And they would throw each other parties while he took care of the library.

He shook his head in an attempt to get his jumbled, disjointed thoughts in order. Deep down, he knew that the reason he was feeling this way was not because he was wrong. No, Spike liked to imagine that he would admit to any wrongdoing he did… eventually. Despite how guilty he felt for putting Twilight through all that, he knew that the bottom line was that he was right. She had been the one to leave him behind for the party, she was the one who kept piling on the chores, she was the one who kept ignoring him. So why am I feeling like I’m the one who did something wrong?

It was a rhetorical question; the answer was one which Spike had been coming to accept even though he tried to fight it. She was simply more important to a lot more ponies than he could ever hope to be. His biggest fear was the feelings of selfishness and greed that welled up whenever he thought of her leaving. Yet he knew that no matter how much he wanted to go back to the days when it had been just the two of them, he knew that it wasn’t fair to Twilight. She had ponies who depended on her, both friends and Equestria at large. And if he was the one to be left behind, well then that was oka—

“…Spike?” Twilight’s hesitant, quiet voice caused his head to rocket off the table, staring at the pony as she peered at him uncertainly. He grimaced inwardly as he noticed the puffy bloodshot eyes and the dark circles around them.

Good job, Spike, he sarcastically congratulated himself before turning to the unicorn. This was it. Time to smoothen things over. Time for her to move past this. “Good morning, Twilight.” That’s it, keep it steady. “I made you breakfast.” He swept his hand over to the mountain of pancakes awaiting her.

“Oh. Thanks.” She levitated her chair out and took a seat while Spike hurried over to serve her breakfast. She simply stared at the plate for a few moments, a tense silence filling the room. Spike took the opportunity to get in a few words.

“Twi, I just wanted to apolo—“ was all he was able to say before her head shot up, eyes wide in shock.

“No! I’m the one who should be apologizing! And I am. I am sorry, Spike,” she blurted out in a rush. Silence reigned again before Twilight took in a shaky breath, finally managing to make eye contact with the dragon. “Spike,” she said, her voice steadier this time, “I’m sorry. I should have woken you up that night for the party. I should be taking better care of the library because you already try so hard to maintain it. And I just wanted you to know that I n-never thought you were anything but a smart young dragon,” her voice seemed to break towards the end, the shards stabbing into his heart. “And I promise that—“

It was then that he held up a claw, the gesture enough for her to falter. He didn’t want to do it, but he wanted to stop her from making promises he knew she wouldn’t be able to keep. “Twi… I accept your apology.” If it had been any other situation, he would have wanted to laugh at how quickly her forlorn look evaporated. “… And I want to offer my own. I never should have taken out my frustration on you. I knew I should have spoken to you, and I know you would have listened.” It just struck him as… sad the way her entire posture just seemed to slump over in relief. “I was angry, but that didn’t give me the right to take that anger out on you. I said a lot of things I didn’t mean, and for that, I’m sorry.” To complete his apology, he bowed deeply, knowing it would catch her off guard. Sure enough, a purple aura surrounded him, and he was enveloped in a bone-crushing hug the next moment.

“Oh, Spike! Please don’t do that!” He could feel the dampness of the tears as she squeezed him even tighter. Just for that one moment in time, he ignored the discomfort and allowed himself to return the embrace, to enjoy the feeling of being so close to the pony he had known the longest. His Twilight.

He patted her sides and stepped back. Twilight took the hint and released him, allowing him to breathe once again. “Are we okay now?” she asked uncertainly.

“You bet, Twi!” he returned enthusiastically. I’ll make sure that at least you will be. “Now how about some breakfast?” And just like that, the tension between them fully dissipated, and she gave him a smile, a real, genuine smile.

It won’t be long before it all goes back to normal. She’s going to start ignoring me and leaving me behind again, he thought to himself. But as long as she’s happy, that’s okay.

Author's Notes:

JBL: Yep, no Steve this chapter. Fuck that guy! We’re replacing him with this guy!
Strange turnabout for Spike, isn’t it? Don’t worry, I’m going somewhere with this. At least, I think I am. Maybe. I don’t know any more. What am I doing with my life?! *Cue mental breakdown*

Poor Steve, JBL has no love for him.
Don't worry though, I managed to sneak him into the next chapter as a background character. Maybe I can even get him a line of dialogue. Or the entire chapter. Who knows?

Tofty again put a lot of time and effort into proofreading. A lot of thanks to him.

We, the dynamic duo, translate stories for another author here. Worth a read as well while you are waiting for our next chapter. Including a more mature story you can find under the stories of the author. Obviously I can't link you to it directly.
Journey
Nightmare

Chapter 22 - Testing 101

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Let T be the target and S the source where S can be any kind of magical conduit and T can be any receptor. For the calculation of the maximum flow, every path from S to T, as defined in chapter nine, has to be modified by the weight of the path of the least resistance. In contrast, the weight of the path is defined as the sum of the weight of all nodes on said path. The weight of a node is equal to the magical resistance of its material. The following is a list of the most commonly needed resistances. A full list can be found at the end of chapter twenty five.

Twilight eagerly flipped through the book to find the mentioned chapter. As she turned page by page with her magical grip, letting the book on the floor glow in a faint purple light, she stretched her back and was rewarded with a loud crack. Ouch, she thought and rubbed her back with her right forehoof. She had been lying for hours on the hard wooden floor of her room in the upper level of the Golden Oaks Library.

Melancholically, she looked up to her comfortable bed one floor higher. It was unfortunately already occupied, denying her the option to find a more comfortable place for long term reading. Twilight sighed, released the book for a second, and turned to the occupier of her bed. “Rainbow Dash!” she called loudly. A moment later, the head of a certain blue pegasus with a rainbow colored mane peeked over the bed.

“What?” Rainbow retorted, sounding somewhat annoyed. “I’m in the middle of like, the best scene ever. Daring Do is in the middle of the Zebraican Deserts, searching for the evil ponies that stole a holy stone from a village of peaceful zebras, causing the zebras to be doomed. And she was just spotted by one of the thieves as she sneaked into their camp to retrieve it…” she drifted off, her eyes filled with excitement. Then she quickly shook her head and looked back down at Twilight. “So why do you have to yell like that?” she demanded.

“Sorry for interrupting you there. You know how much I like it that you are reading even though I would have hoped that, after all this time, you would have started with something more challenging than another adventure story.” Rainbow waved her off and dropped down on the bed again. “And I’m always happy for some company as well, but if you are going to take the best spot in the house, then you can at least do me a little favour.”

Rainbow’s groan was the only response she got at first. It took a few more seconds before her head appeared over the bed again. “Hey, you were the one who stopped me from bringing my clouds in here, so I need a new spot. It’s not my fault that everything’s so uncomfortable here.” A sly grin appeared on the pegasus’ face, and Twilight couldn’t deny that it wasn’t a bit contagious.

“And have you finally remembered the reason why?”

“Yeah, yeah, something about hum… humil… they are too wet,” Rainbow said from atop and waved her hoof around languidly.

“Humidity, yes, it’s not good for the books,” Twilight agreed contentedly and nodded. “But anyways, I would like to ask you if you could visit Steve and bring him here please,” Twilight said, making her request clear.

“Why?” Rainbow asked and raised a brow.

“As you may remember, or maybe not given your state, he and I had an agreement for further experiments at the party. I would like to take him up on that if he is still up for it,” Twilight explained.

For a moment, Rainbow’s eyes wandered towards the ceiling before they fixated on her again. “Yeah, I remember something like that. But why do I have to go? Can’t you do it yourself?”

“I don’t have the time. I might be onto something here, but I need further proof.” Twilight pointed at the open book behind her. “Come on, if you take the best seat in the house, you can at least do this for me.” Despite her wheedling, the only reward Twilight received was a long sigh from Rainbow as she fell back on her bed, blowing her prismatic mane out of her face. She then decided to change tactics. “Rainbow, please. Don’t make me take severe actions.”

Now a loud laugh came from Rainbow. “Severe actions?” Rainbow repeated and burst out into laughter again, snorting in mirth.

“Well, I happen to have already read that same book you’re reading, and it would really be a shame if someone told you how it ends, right?” Not even half a second after she finished the sentence, the pegasus stood in front of her and stared at her with wide eyes.

“Y-You wouldn’t…” Rainbow Dash stammered, horror etched on her face.

“Wouldn’t I?” Twilight retorted and grinned innocently though her eyes, which gleamed like those of a predator.
With a long sigh, Rainbow gave up. “Fine, fine. If you really have to use such cheap tricks, I’m going to let you win.”

“Very good, Rainbow. Thank you sooo much for your help,” Twilight said and returned the cold look of her friend with a cheery smile. “Now, I’ll have to prepare a few things first, so take your time.”

Rainbow mumbled something incomprehensible as she stomped over to the balcony door, opened it, and was off into the distance a heartbeat later. Twilight looked at her for a few seconds as she quickly flew southwards. No time to waste, Twilight thought to herself as she picked up the book from the floor with her magic and took it downstairs with her.

***

The warm, early afternoon sun shone down on her as Rainbow Dash steadily glided over Ponyville, only occasionally helping out with a few strong flaps of wings while she let the airstreams do most of the work. She loved flying this way. Maybe not as much as flying at the peak of her capabilities, challenging herself to go faster and faster, but in a different way. She felt relaxed, giving time to order her thoughts which were mostly occupied on Daring Do. As much as she liked reading what would happen next, she enjoyed having her mind play out various scenarios about how the story would go on even though it worked directly against her usually short patience. And her versions almost never proved to be correct.

As she looked down again, she noticed that she had left Ponyville southwards already. The slight north wind had helped her out a bit on her flight and was now carrying her over the soft meadows outside of Ponyville that would soon flow over into the dreadful Everfree Forest. She had never understood how someone could live directly next to the forest, be it Fluttershy in her little cottage or Applejack and her entire family with their large apple farm that covered most of the area south of Ponyville, that was not taken by the forest of course. And now there was one more who she was heading to. Sure, the creatures of the Everfree rarely left their home, and the few that did were mostly not dangerous, but still, the mere thought of living so close there made her uncomfortable. Not that she would readily admit it to anypony. That was why she had moved her house away from it, north of the town. The clouds there were nicer anyways, and she could avoid mixing them up with the strange ones from the Everfree that drifted in so often.

Rainbow shifted into a slow descent and headed towards the lengthy metal thingamabob their newest citizen was living in. She still found that weird, especially with the strange-sounding magical voice that sometimes blared out, but she shrugged it off as some human quirk to live in such a place. As soon as she landed in front of the ramp, she quickly walked up it and knocked emphatically against the metal door. The sound of her knock resonated for a few more seconds through the air while she waited for him to open the door. What a needlessly complic— she thought, but a voice behind her made her quickly spin around.

“Over here!” the voice repeated clearly this time, and now she saw Steve sitting on the grass, one arm raised high in the air as he waved towards her while the other was struggling with putting on those strange clothes he always wore. He had been lying in the grass only a few meters away from his house, just out of sight for Rainbow to spot him there while she was flying. Curious, she jumped off the ramp again, bringing herself higher into the air, unfolded her wings and let herself glide over to the human. It was the first time that he didn’t seem to be wearing his clothes, and she wanted to know what was so special underneath them that he didn’t want to show it.

However, by the time she reached him, he had already pulled up the zipper of his overalls and sat, with the exception of his hooves, completely dressed in front of her. Or not really hooves; what had he called them again? They reminded her a bit of a griffon’s paw, only that they ended in five blunt and very short claws, just like his fingers, but way shorter. The deficit in length of the claws was made up by the length of the rest of the paw. His boots were standing next to him on a large, dark grey blanket he had put out on the grass. “Err, hello, Rainbow Dash,” Steve said, and she looked up in his face again just to see confusion there. Only now did she realize that she had been staring at his paws for a few seconds without even saying a word.

She quickly took a step back again and grinned sheepishly as she replied, “Hey, whatchya doin’ there?”

He blinked a few times before rubbing his eyes, but the confusion was still there. “What does it look like?” he asked and raised a brow. “I’m sunbathing of course; haven’t you seen how pale—” He stopped mid-sentence, and a look of sudden realization replaced the confusion which, in turn, transferred over to Rainbow Dash. “Right, of course. I keep on forgetting sometimes. I don’t have a coat like you that protects my skin. So the sunlight has some chemical reaction with the skin, or something like that. I don’t even know exactly, so I’ll have to ask Sarah about that. Anyways, to put it simply, I will turn darker the more time I spent in the sun and will get paler again if I stay out of it.”

“Really?” Rainbow asked in surprised and raised a brow. She liked to bathe in the sunlight as well but mostly because it made her coat comfortably warm. Never had she noticed a change of color in her blue.

“Yes, but it doesn’t affect your coat like I said. I’m not really a fan of the sun, but I got a bit too pale even for my standards.” He looked down at his clothes and then disgruntledly over to his ship. “And I think I will go mad if I spend every single second in there.”

“What’s so bad about it?” Rainbow wondered and looked back at the metallic construct as well. “Thought you liked it in there, and you have someone to talk to.”

“I do, but not twenty-four hours a day with an AI that’s slowly developing,” he added sourly. “She’s been giving me one menial task after the other recently. Clean this pipe, dust off the drawers, this cable has to be replaced, blah blah blah.”

Rainbow looked back at him and raised a brow. “Why’s that?”

“I don’t know, I…” Awkwardly, the human grinned and scratched the back of his neck. “Well okay, I wasn’t very nice to her most of the time either. But I’m doing my best!” After a short pause in which Rainbow just looked at him with bemusement, he decided to subtly change the subject from the awkward topic they had reached. “Anyways, how are you? Haven’t seen you since the party. Got over your defeat already?” A sly grin crawled on his face.

“Ha, don’t let it go to your head. I let you win so that you didn’t get your flank kicked at your first party here,” she waved him off and laughed.

“Sure sure, if you say so,” he said, the grin still on his lips. “But what brings you here now?”

“Umm, yeah right. Twilight sent me. She wanted to remind you of your bet you had at the party, something ‘bout experiments or such.”

“Yes, I remember. I was wondering when she would come back to that. But why did she send you instead of coming herself?”

“Said she had to prepare something,” Rainbow said and shrugged.

“Hmm,” he said slowly and scratched his chin which was showing slight signs of hair growth. “Well, I guess that sounds better than sitting out here by my ship all day long. Just hope I don’t cause a panic this time,” he added with a light chuckle followed by a sigh.

“Huh?” Rainbow tilted her head slightly in puzzlement and looked at him. “What do you mean?”

“It’s nothing; I shouldn’t have mentioned it. I’m just overreacting a bit, don’t mind it.” For a short moment, he forced on a fake smile and looked at her before averting his eyes and staring down at the blanket. This whole feelings stuff had never been something Rainbow Dash had been particularly good at, but it was clear even to her that something was bothering him.

"Hey, you can talk to me; that’s what friends are there for,” she said and placed a hoof on his shoulder. He looked up again, and Rainbow could have sworn that the smile that crept on his lips this time was honest. He didn’t look away either.

“It’s fine, really. I was just overreacting because some ponies were unreasonably scared of me, and I heard them talking about me behind my back, but after some think—”

“What!?” Rainbow shouted out as she pulled her hoof back and stomped it on the ground. “Who was it, and what did they say?” He flinched back at her sudden outburst and held both hands in front of his chest, his palms pointing towards her, motioning for her to calm down. But she didn’t want to calm down, not after the memories of the obnoxious old hag from Canterlot, treating not just him but also her and her friends so rudely, shot into her head.

“Hey! Easy there,” he said quickly; she just responded with a snort. “They didn’t say anything too insulting. They just weren’t that comfortable around me,” he calmed her again and slowly lowered his hands. Rainbow’s breath went back to normal, and the angry glare slowly faded away as well.

“Sorry,” she apologized for the outburst. “I just thought it was like that thing in Canterlot. I dare anypony here to behave like that.”

“Oh, no no no,” he quickly replied and shook his head a few times, making his short blond mane whirl around. With a short laugh, he continued, “I don’t really know why, but a lot of ponies still seem uncomfortable in my presence, especially since the party. I think they’re just afraid that I might be mad at them for not showing up, but who knows.” He shrugged.

“And that doesn’t bother you?” Rainbow said, the irritation obvious in her tone.

“Well, of course it does, but not that much. I would be happier if there was at least a real reason to it. This way, I just have to sit it out until that fear is finally gone.” He shrugged again. “I just don’t care that much since I don’t have to constantly live with them. And there are ponies who aren’t afraid and who come visit and talk to me from time to time, so it’s not that bad.” He finally decided to stand up and stretch himself. Now with his arm reaching high into the air, Rainbow was once again struck by how much taller he actually was compared to an average pony. Even if she were to stand on her hind legs, she could probably only reach up to somewhere around his chest. It had been a while since she had seen one, but in general shape, he was pretty similar to a minotaur, even though not quite as bulky and a bit smaller, while also more appropriately proportional. A quiet crack from the human’s back brought her out of her thoughts. “Let’s go then. Maybe it’ll be better this time with the other ponies while you are with me, and I’m curious to find out more about magic as well.”

“If you say so,” Rainbow replied cautiously. She was still a bit confused, but on the other hoof, the party was a few days ago and he must have had time to think about it. And as long as he was okay with it, why should she be needlessly worried about it? She shrugged as well and made her way next to Steve as they began the journey back to the town.

It was quiet at first as they stepped over the meadows between his ship and the dirt path to Ponyville, but after a short while, he broke the silence. “Thank you,” was all that left his lips.

“Huh?” Rainbow perked up and looked at him.

He was still looking up front but slowly turned his head towards her now. “For everything. You immediately wanted to defend me, you have always been nice to me, and you accepted me here in this world so quickly, seeing me as a friend as well. So thank you for that. I don’t take that for granted,” he said with a soft smile on his lips.

“Heh, you don’t have to thank me for that; that goes without saying,” she waved it off with a light chuckle while trying to hide the faint hint of red that she could feel as heat on her cheeks.

“Maybe not, but I’m sure my settling-in period would have been much worse if not for you and your friends,” he added and slowly turned to face the front again as they had reached the small dirt path. For a moment, it was silent between the two once more before he spoke up. “Oh, I almost forgot to tell you. Our little experiment has gone well from what I’ve seen so far. The data is usable, and Sarah visualized them. I would need to refresh my knowledge about aerodynamics a bit. Maybe I’ll borrow a book about pegasi flight mechanics since we already have to visit Twilight.”

“Really? That’s amazing!” Rainbow cheered and jumped into the air, unfolding her wings and performing a quick loop in the air. “Thanks, dude.”

“No need to thank me. Sarah did all the dirty work,” he waved it off and chuckled. “I’m honestly amazed at what she is capable of. I just give her a few commands and she will execute them just the way I had it in mind, sometimes even better.” The rest of the way he spent explaining to her how exactly he had planned to optimize her flying, but Rainbow didn’t really pay any attention after a few sentences. He threw out many terms she hadn’t even heard Twilight use before, and even if she tried to listen carefully, she knew that she would understand none of it. But she let him talk, seeing that he was enjoying it, only sometimes giving a few acknowledging sounds from time to time.

Time was flying by, and before they even knew it, they entered the small village of Ponyville. It was a sunny Saturday at midday, and just as expected, the streets were filled with ponies that were mingling about. “Why are there always so many ponies out on the streets?” Steve leaned down a bit to her and asked. “Twilight said there was something like three hundred ponies living here, but I see so many, especially ones that I have never seen before. It’s like the entire town is out on the streets all the time.”

Rainbow just shrugged as they made their way through the crowd and said, “It’s the weekend. Ponyville is pretty popular for short holidays for ponies from Canterlot and Manehatten.”

Steve just nodded in return. It made sense to him. He had only seen Canterlot so far, but he doubted their other major cities were any less hectic. Now the buildings with the large signs in front of them made sense to him as well. They were hotels. He occasionally spotted ponies of all kinds with larger saddlebags on their backs walking around, apparently still on their way to their accommodations. He also saw others with relatively fancy accessories compared to most of the population of Ponyville that always ran around naked, like sunglasses or sun hats, wandering through the streets, probably on their way to the nearest park or the outer parts of the town. Some tourists looked over at him sometimes, a brief wondering look as they sized him up before turning away with a shrug again. Living in a larger city must have made them used to seeing other species wandering around as well.

Now this was the side of Ponyville he liked, being able to walk among them without receiving any overly strange looks. He couldn’t tell if it was because he was with one of the Elements, or they had realized by now that he didn’t bear any grudges against them and that he wasn’t a danger to them either. Maybe they felt safer because there were so many other ponies around in general, but he didn’t care as long as he could enjoy his walks through this relatively quiet town.

A few minutes later, they arrived in front of the hollowed out tree near the town square. Without knocking, Rainbow went ahead, kicked the door open, and entered the library, Steve right behind her. “Twilight!” she shouted into the empty room. “I’m back, and Steve’s with me!” she added and waited for a response.

A second later, the unicorn in question appeared in a bright flash of light directly in front of them with a wide grin on her face. “Perfect! Just in time,” she said happily. “Oh, but first of all, hello Steve.” She turned towards the human. “Did Rainbow explain to you—” He cut her sentence short with a quick nod. “Excellent. Thank you, Rainbow,” she said and turned to the pegasus again who blankly stared back at her.

“No problem. You need me for anything else?” she asked and peeked upstairs.

“You are welcome to watch. You might learn something new and exciting,” Twilight offered and expectantly looked at her friend.

Rainbow stroked her chin for a moment, seemingly giving great thought to the offer but then replied, “Nah, I’ll stick with Daring Do, thanks.” A moment later, she stood at the top of the stairs already, leaving only an airstream behind. Steve looked perplexedly after her as she opened the door to the room on the upper floor softly and entered.

“Who’s Daring Do?” he asked irritated after a moment and looked back at Twilight.

She stared at him with wide open eyes like he had just insulted her. “You don’t know…” she began to hiss but then she realized. “Oh, of course. She is an archaeologist who searches for ancient artefacts all over the world,” she explained and pointed to a bookshelf to her right. “I have all the books here if you want to read them.”

“Maybe later,” he said and followed her hoof for a moment. “But first things first.”

“Right,” Twilight agreed and nodded. “So… I have to apologize; I really shouldn’t have accepted your offer at the time during the party. You were clearly intoxicated and I had taken advantage of that.”

Jeez, why are these ponies always apologizing for the most minor things, Steve wondered. “It’s fine,” he said, hoping she wouldn’t press the issue.

“So you still agree to do the experiments?” she asked. “I wouldn’t be angry if you say no now.”

“Yes, I still want to do it. Finding out more about magic sounds interesting,” he assured her.

“Wonderful,” she cheered happily and clapped her hooves together a few times. “Do you want to get started?” she asked and excitedly shifted her weight between her legs. He nodded in return and followed Twilight to a door next to the staircase that already swung open in her magic, revealing another staircase that led down into the basement of the library. Wondering what she had prepared down there, he followed her with quick steps. However, as soon as he got to the door, he stopped abruptly as what he saw down there caught his breath.

Machines of all types and sizes stood all around the rooms. Various cables ran between them, and they were covered with buttons, lights, meters, and words that Steve couldn’t read from afar. Books were piled up in towers next to them, and countless scrolls and ink jars were spread all over the floor. Long metal tubes went from the bottom of the room up to the ceiling where they disappeared into the tree, with bars at the bottom probably serving as a ventilation system to the room that was surprisingly well lit even though it had no windows anywhere. Lamps all around the walls gave a steady white light.

Twilight Sparkle had already arrived at the bottom of the stairs, and so he slowly followed her, not taking his eyes off all the equipment she had there. From what he had seen of their world so far, he would have never expected something like this. It had seemed more like a nicer version of a medieval world where magic actually worked, but this machinery seemed far beyond their visible technological level.

Twilight followed his gaze and grinned awkwardly as his eyes turned back to her as he walked down the last step. “Is something wrong?” she asked carefully.

“Uh…” was all his mouth was able to say as a million questions shot through his head at once. He couldn’t decide which one to ask first. “What is that?” he decided to ask and pointed at one machine that stood in the middle of the room, multi-coloured cables hanging around it and with a large paper printer on the upper part and various meters with buttons and wheels at the lower parts and the sides.

“This is just a normal magical reader,” she explained and walked over to the machine. It stood on four legs with little wheels at the bottom so it could easily be moved around like most of the machines that stood at the sides of the room. There were no corners as the room was round like the rest of the library. It made sense seeing as the tree itself was round. “I will induce a small magical pulse onto you, and we will measure, at certain points, how strong it will be,” she continued and held up a bunch of red cables. “This way we can identify magical spikes in your body and your overall magical level.”

“Is it dangerous?” he asked carefully while he followed her to the apparatus.

“Oh no, not it all. It will just be a very light pulse. Just enough to lift a pen in the air should be enough,” she replied quickly and shook her head.

“And you are just going to shoot some magic at me and see how my body handles it?” He eyed her suspiciously.

“Kind of. I will direct it through the machine and this cable,” she said and held up a green cable. “I need to know exactly how much magic I use. My own feeling is only exact to the second digits.”

This raised another question in him. “How do you measure magic anyways? Like energy in joules?”

“Joules?” Twilight repeated questioningly. “I haven’t heard of that, but to answer your question, it is in mana.”

“Mana?” he repeated, baffled.

“Yes, mana,” Twilight confirmed and nodded her head. “One mana is the amount of magical power required to hold an object with no resistances one meter above the ground for one second.” She knocked against the top of the machine softly. “This weight is simulated over various springs inside. It is very sensitive, so we can only go up to twenty mana here, but that is more than enough for what we need. Usually, values between point three and point four mana are sufficient to get decent data. Just enough so that the magic is not nullified by the absolute resistances of your body. From there, I can calculate your magical level easily and also precisely if we can get a large enough set of data.”

That doesn’t sound too daring, he thought to himself and shrugged. What’s the worst that can happen? Something told him that this was a wrong question to ask, but now it was too late. “Alright, I hope you are right,” he just confirmed.

“Very good. Take off your clothes,” she ordered him and began to check each of the cables. As though she had noticed the shocked expression that stood on his face, she explained, her back still turned towards him. “The cables need to be placed directly on your skin. Clothes will falsify the data.”

Oh, right, that makes sense. “Topless is enough, I presume?”

“Let’s see…” she said over her shoulder and levitated a book that looked like the manual of the apparatus over to her. Quickly, she skimmed over a few pages until it seemed she had found what she was looking for. “Recommended measure points…” she said quietly and turned around to him again, looking alternately between him and the manual while inaudibly mumbling some words. “You said you have no cutie mark, right?” He just shook his head, causing her to look back into the manual again. “The cutie mark is recommended here, which makes sense since there is a high density of magic around it. Your flanks, even if blank, will have to do then.”

“Or we just skip that point?” he offered and grinned awkwardly. “Nothing against you, but I don’t really want to stand around naked here.”

“Why not? I’m not wearing anything either and you weren’t exactly protesting about taking off your upper clothes.” The purple unicorn gave him an irritated look.

“Because I want to keep some parts private,” he returned dryly. “I don’t wear anything more than shorts if I go swimming either, but neither do I wear anything less. Just like most other humans.”

Twilight let out a long sigh. “Fine, if you still want to stick to your traditions, then the scans on head and torso will have to be enough.” With that, he began to fumble for the zipper that was annoyingly hidden under the collar of his overalls. Twilight watched him the entire time with a curious gleam in her eyes. She probably wanted to know what it was that he was always hiding under his clothes. That the answer was nothing, just a bit of mostly hairless skin, would probably be disappointing to her. However, as soon as he had finally opened the zipper and freed his arms out of the overall so that he was standing bare-chested in front her, Twilight’s jaw almost dropped to the floor as she stared at his chest.

Just as he wanted to ask what was so shocking, she pointed a hoof at him and stammered, “B… B-But I thought you were m-male?!”

His brow rose even higher. “I am.”

“But… but why do you have teats?! And on your chest as well!” she almost shouted at him now, a quickly reddening tint appearing across her muzzle.

Steve looked down at his body for a moment and then shrugged. “I don’t know. Evolution hasn’t caught up yet, I guess,” came his reply that clearly didn’t please Twilight.

“What?!” She had caught herself enough to at least bring her voice down to a normal level.

“Nothing,” he waved it off. “They have no purpose for men. They’re just… there.” He shrugged after looking down at his chest again.

Twilight’s curiosity seemed to have been caught, and she slowly stepped closer, not taking her eyes off his chest for a second. Even though he had told her that being shirtless wasn’t that big of a deal - after all, most examinations at the doctor ended up that way, and even though she wasn’t a doctor, the situation came quite close - but now he began to feel a bit uncomfortable. As Twilight began to slowly reach out with her hoof, something he didn’t think she would be brave enough to do, he decided to end the somewhat bizarre scenario and coughed loudly. “My eyes are up here,” he commented dryly while having to hold back a chuckle.

The unicorn quickly shook her head before looking up at his face again and taking a step back. “Right, sorry. It’s just that I have never seen nor heard of something like this,” she explained, looking a bit bemused.

“It is fine,” he assured her. “So… back to the experiment?” He nodded towards the apparatus behind Twilight.

Twilight responded with her horn glowing and letting various red and a single green cable fly over to him. “This might be a bit cold,” she warned him while levitating the manual in front of her face again. “So, this one goes here,” she said and the green cable with a little suction knob at the end moved directly towards his sternum where it made contact with his skin, the little knob stuck tightly to it. Saying that they might be a bit cold was a clear lie. They felt like ice cubes that were pressed on his skin, and he had to resist the urge of flinching from the cold, but he still began to shiver slightly. Twilight seemed to be too busy with the manual and didn’t notice as she went over the remaining cables.

A few moments later, a cable clung to his forehead, shoulder blades, wrists, the outer side of his ribcage, and one on the middle of this stomach. She had decided to ignore all that were supposed to go below his waistline. Something about the clothes just being over the cables would interfere with the readings. And those places weren’t too important anyway if one didn’t have a cutie mark.

“Looking good so far,” Twilight said after checking the manual one last time. “Any last questions?” she asked and stepped next to the apparatus, but he just shook his head. “Good, I’m going to go very gently at first; just tell me when you feel something.” With those words, her horn began to glow in an extremely faint purple aura, and so did the cable that ran from the machine to his chest. Twilight had her eyes open and looked at him, waiting for a response.

“More, I feel nothing,” he said after a while. With a nod from Twilight, the glowing aura slowly got stronger as she put more power into it, but there was still nothing. The change of color told him that she was placing more force into it, but it was still nowhere near the level he had seen it at before when she was casting magic.

He was about to tell her that she could go faster, but then there was something. A slight tingling at his sternum, directly where the green cable ended. “I feel something,” he said. Twilight’s aura stopped at its current color. “It’s like a tingling, but very weak.”

“Very good,” Twilight replied and pressed a button on the machine, the printer on the upper half beginning to slowly spit out more and more of the paper roll. “Let’s see when we pick something back up here.”

“Go on then,” he said firmly. Deliberately but steadily, Twilight poured more magic into the pulse. The tingling feeling slowly increased in strength and spread out further through his body, only occasionally stopping when Twilight took a quick glance at the machine. He was no expert in this field, but after the magic flow continued for over a minute and Twilight’s face turned more and more worried, he realized that it wasn’t going according to her plan. “What’s wrong?” he eventually asked.

“It seems that your resistance is higher than expected. We are at one point two mana already, and the machine still says nothing. For a normal pony, this is usually the highest value needed to take test values,” she explained and quickly looked between him and the apparatus.

That didn’t sound like a bad thing to him, and so far the feeling was still only a slight tingle, with the only downside being that he wanted to scratch himself, but he resisted the urge. “More. This is starting to tickle a bit,” he said and Twilight nodded. The tingling feeling would soon reach the cable on his stomach; just a tiny bit more and….

ZAP! Steve was thrown backwards and off his feet by a sudden, extremely strong electroshock. It was like back when he was at school, and they did field trips to the countryside. He and his classmates had dared each other to see who could hold onto the electrical fences the longest, but this felt at least a hundred times worse. The pain of the shock itself was accompanied by the blunt sting that followed as his body hit the ground with his back first, and he felt the remaining air in his lungs rapidly leaving his body. Shortly after his landing, he heard a loud metallic clank, but at that point, he didn’t even care what it was and just laid there motionless.

Not even a heartbeat later, Twilight entered his field of view, an expression of pure horror on her face. She waved her hoof around over his body and face. An infinite stream of words left her mouth but were mostly just reptitions of ‘Oh my’, ‘Celestia’, ‘Gosh’, and rapidly asking questions he couldn’t quite make out. He heard a few plopping sounds as the suction knobs lost their grip on his skin. It seemed like he was still connected to the machine when he fell, which would also explain the sound of something metallic falling on the ground.

"Ouch…” was the first sound to leave his mouth, followed by a dry cough, immediately silencing Twilight. He tried to sit up but found that the room around him had decided to spin out of control. He quickly dropped down on the ground again, deciding to rest for a bit.

“Oh my gosh, are you okay?” Twilight repeated again and leaned over him. This time, she actually gave him the time to answer.

“Dizzy…” he groaned out shortly and began to rub his forehead with both hands.

“I am so sorry!” Twilight nearly shouted, still shocked by what had just happened. “I had no idea something like this could happen. I’m so sorry!” she repeated, the shock slowly turning into a worried expression.

Steve just raised his hand in response. Luckily, she had caught the hint that he needed some rest for a moment. “I’ll get you something to drink,” she whispered quietly, and the next thing he heard were quick hoofsteps over a wooden floor.

Steve groaned and took his hands away from his face again and tried to sit up. He was still a bit dizzy, but it was much better than before. The shock that went through his body had gone as quickly as it came, leaving only the effects of the fall behind. A quick look around showed him that the machine he was connected to had indeed fallen over and was now lying on the ground, the loose cables spread around it.

What the hell was that, he thought to himself. Something with magic, that was for sure, but Twilight wasn’t here to answer his question right now. Slowly, he crawled over to the wall behind him so he could lean against it. Shortly after, he heard the sound of hoofsteps again and looked over to the stairs where Twilight stood with a glass of water held in her magic. Her eyes widened as she saw him, and it looked like she wanted to teleport down to him for a second, but then decided against it and ran down the stairs as fast as her hooves could carry her. It seemed like she didn’t want to use too much magic around him which was probably why she ran instead of teleported to get some water in the first place. She probably feared that it might cause such a reaction again.

“Steve!” she shouted out loudly as she stood in front of him, placing the glass next to him on the floor before quickly slamming a hoof in front of her mouth in contrition, realizing how loud her voice was. “Sorry, but you shouldn’t be moving. That’s too dangerous in your position. Who knows what injuries you might have?” she said more quietly now.

He just slightly shook his head, grabbed the glass of water, and emptied it in one go. “I’m fine,” he assured her but only received a critical look in return. “Just tell me what the hell happened,” he murmured and put the glass on the wooden floor again.

“I…” Twilight began but stopped and nervously looked over at the machine on the ground and then back at him. “I don’t know,” she admitted and hung her head. “We were above the usual value, but not nearly far enough to create such a reaction. That was the amount of magic I would use to open a door, but that wouldn’t nearly be enough to push back an object of your size.”

He let her words go through him, but if it didn’t make sense to her, then what chance did he have of finding out what had caused it? “Are you saying I’m fat?” he asked accusingly.

Twilight’s eyes widened again as the shocked expression returned to her face. “What? No, sorry, I—” she began to say hastily but stopped as she saw a smile form on lips from which a slight laugh escaped that quickly turned into another dry cough.

“Ouch.” He whimpered in pain and rubbed his chest slightly. “I think I sprained my ribs a bit.”

She shot him an angry glare for a second, not finding any humour in his joke in that situation. “Do you want to go to the doctor?” she offered and now sat down next to him, the glare replaced with an anxious look that filled her large eyes.

“Nah,” he replied and slightly shook his head. “It doesn’t feel too bad, and they don’t know anything about humans anyways.” He carefully tried to stand up further, but Twilight reacted quickly and held him in place with her hooves.

“No,” she said firmly. “You really shouldn’t be walking around now. Lie down and take a rest.” He let out a long sigh but eventually agreed reluctantly. “Good.” She nodded at his acquiescence. “But are you really sure you don’t want me to get a doctor?”

“I’m fine; I just need a bit of rest,” he waved her off again, resisting the urge of standing up to prove it to her. “Just tell me how that happened?”

“I already told you I don’t know,” she replied, disappointment washing over her features. “Sorry.”

“Then just look at the machine,” he said and nodded towards the metallic box lying on the ground behind her.

Twilight abruptly spun around and gasped. “The magic reader,” she whispered and rushed over to the metallic box on the ground, straightening it again with the help of her magic. It didn’t seem to be too damaged on the outside. Only the glass in front of one reader was broken, and a few dents were in the hull here and there. The important part to her, however, was what the paper printer had spat out. She ripped off the piece of paper and took it over to him again so he could have a look into it as well.

The paper had a right-handed coordinate system printed on it, with time values on the x-axis and an occasional line with other numbers that stood horizontally to it in fixed intervals. But the important part was the long black line that ran over the bottom axis with a thin green line running slightly above it that sloped slowly. “That is the input,” Twilight said and pointed with her hoof at the green line. “The other lines will show each output, once they receive any. They haven’t picked up anything so far.” The graphs went on like this for quite some time, with only the green line increasing linearly until suddenly all the other lines exploded and shot to the upper end of the paper before they were cut off. Clearly the point where Twilight had stopped fuelling the machine with her magic.

Twilight stared at the lines carefully for a moment and stroked her chin with a hoof. “What does it say?” Steve asked after a while.

She let out a long humming sound first before taking her eyes off the paper. “What did you feel at first? A tingling?”

“Yes, just around my chest. It covered more and more space, and shortly before it reached the first cable… well, you saw it.”

“Hmm…” Twilight said again and looked back at the paper. “I haven’t seen anything like this before. We surpassed your resistance where you felt nothing at all at a slightly above average point, but nothing to be worried about,” she explained and pointed at the point where the green line began. “But this here,” – she pointed at the point where the graphs exploded – “just isn’t right. I have never heard that the output can surpass the input. No line should converge against the green one, but they just shot straight through it. Unless you could amplify magic as I had speculated at one point during the party… but then you wouldn’t have such a slow start. This should be impossible.”

Steve gulped. He didn’t need to be an expert in magic to know that it was generally not a good sign if something that was supposed to be impossible actually did occur. “But it still happened. So what’s wrong with me?”

She turned back at him and looked him straight in the eyes, an expression of disappointment and worry in her own. “I don’t know for sure. I would say that your body is unable to process magic up to a certain threshold before I surpassed it.”

“And that means?”

“This means that any spell directed at you before this threshold will be completely ignored or is only noticeable as the tingling you have felt before and anything beyond it…” she explained and looked down at the floor.

“And anything above it?” he asked, his voice slightly trembling already as he feared which answer might come.

A long sigh left Twilight’s mouth before she replied, “Will be rejected by your body. The effect you have felt yourself.” She looked up from the ground and carefully put a hoof on her shoulder. He could see a single tear form in her eyes before she said the words that he was afraid of, the words that hit him like a hammer slamming down onto an anvil. “I am so sorry, but sending you home just got a whole lot more difficult.”

Interlude I - Looking for a Shadow of Doubt

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He pulled the simple grey cloak that covered the entirety of his body tighter around him as the doors to the train opened to allow its captives to trudge out noisily. He turned to the grime-covered windows, peering out of them as best he could while simultaneously avoiding the gaze of any of the passengers who may have glanced curiously at the petite, covered figure in the corner of his seat. The pony who had been sitting next to him had certainly tried her best to strike up a conversation with him several times, finding herself silently rebuffed as he had refused to utter a single word at each attempt. It was only when she had tried to playfully snatch off his hood while saying ‘come and play’ in a singsong voice did he respond to her, snatching her hoof before it could touch the garment while firmly telling her no. She had sunk back into her seat sullenly, leaning back and folding her forehooves petulantly while turning up her nose at him. He hadn’t meant to come off as standoffish, but he could not understand why the mare had felt the need to keep pushing him. It had also given him something to muse on, and he had begun thinking of how, once one exhausted the thin surface of their geniality and friendliness, some ponies could be quick to turn sullen and angry.

It wasn’t really a new concept to him, though it never failed to fascinate him on how many ways it could manifest.

Even with the limited view afforded to him, he was still able to make out the train station that had made Fillydelphia its home. The only previous stop on his journey had been in Manehatten. It had been a rare occasion for him to leave Detrot since he had joined the Academy, and he had taken the opportunity to trot around the city while waiting for his connection to arrive. He had mostly stuck to the less crowded areas, content to simply observe the bustling crowds as they ebbed and flowed, going to their destinations with a quickened pace.

Even if his foray into the city of Manehatten had been brief, it had certainly proved fascinating. A slightly smaller city than the one he had been grown up in, the first thing he had noticed how clean the place had been. Even where large crowds had massed or where the residential areas seemed to be, there hadn’t been any large, week old piles of waste that caused the ponies around it to gag in disgust. Even more impressive had been the lack of any heavy dust in the air around him. Having lived around the smoke-belching factories of Detrot all his life, it had certainly been a strange thing to breathe in the relatively pure air that had blown around his cloak, threatening to expose his face to those around him. He remembered his Master’s words about his destination and could only wonder how the countryside would treat him.

There had been no thick layer of dust upon the buildings; indeed, the denizens of the city seemed to take great pride in the appearance of both their surroundings and themselves. Both stallions and mares had worn articles of bright, cheerful clothing, some of which that could have only been described as ‘gaudy’. There were frilly hats, covered with feathers of all the colours of the rainbow, that could do damage if it struck somepony, and flowing summer dresses that were sparkled brightly from the gems sewn into them. It all contrasted sharply to the subdued colours worn by the ponies of Detrot.

It was their hoofwear, which was, even by a forgiving estimation, unreasonably ostentatious, that had really drawn his attention. There had been shoes that curved around the hoof and came to a point which was capped with silver and studded with tiny gems, little more than chippings from larger precious stones, but they been polished and shone in the sunlight, sparkling in multiple hues with each step drawing the eye. There was one in particular, that had been worn by a young mare, that had complimented the ocean blue of her dress. The straps from the shoe had curled up and around the fetlock all the way up to her knees, with brass thread cutting tiny interlocking patterns along the thin strips of leather. The gold-leaf horseshoe underneath the boot was covered by the edges of the hoofwear, causing it to flash in the light each time the hoof lifted in order to walk. Those were shoes designed to be noticed and wouldn't take no for an answer. He had certainly noticed them and had stared down ruefully at his uncovered hooves that were slightly covered in mud, feeling decidedly underdressed.

It had not only been the ponies that had bared their flair for fashion. Though not as blatant as the ponies, even the normally dour donkeys or uninterested griffons seemed to wear something stylish and chic. That wasn’t the only difference he had noticed between the races. Here they seemed more at ease with each other, openly speaking and trading with one another. In Detrot, while there had been no restrictions on who could speak to who, they had always been an undercurrent of distrust and suspicion when dealing with those who were ‘different’. Then again, Artecus supposed that that was how it had always been.

“AAAALLLL ABOARD!” he heard the conductor calling and sighed in relief. He was eager for them to get on their way again. There was a slight rumble as ponies began trotting in, their pleasant countenance a welcome change to the tired grumbles of those who he had ridden with before. Not that he had spoken to any of them, of course; it was just nice to finally get a reprieve from all the mumbling, groaning, and complaining that had passed around. He felt somepony sink into the seat with a quiet sigh next to him. He looked out of the window still, not eager to have to have the inevitable attempt at conversation start before its time.

As the doors to the train closed and began to slowly accelerate, Fillydelphia gradually disappearing into the horizon, Artecus finally straightened out and settled back into his seat, easing off his hoof of his cloak. A mare with a cobalt blue coat, her mane a lighter shade of blue, had taken the seat next to him. In her forehooves, she held a small bundle wrapped in blankets. Unlike the chatty mare from before, she merely regarded his appearance with a quiet nod and faint smile, her tired eyes wandering over his features before turning her attention back to the gurgling sounds that came from the blankets. He patted down his mane that had become dishevelled, feeling somewhat exposed despite the mare not taking any particular interest in him, for which he was grateful.

Peering over his slightly uncomfortable seat that squeaked loudly with the movement, he looked around at the passengers. One thing that caught his attention was how casually they seemed dressed. One wore a Neighwaiian shirt; another wore a straw hat whose brim was entirely too wide and with fake plastic flowers perched atop, and to cap things off was the stallion who wore a red and black chequered shirt and dungarees that resembled what a lumberjack would wear. One of the things that gave them away as tourists were the shiny new cameras that hung around their necks. Indeed, judging from the amount of families there were, it seemed most of the passengers were headed to Ponyville for the weekend. He watched the fillies and colts run around and play with each other, their naiveté and willingness to form bonds ensuring that they quickly made friends with those they hadn’t even known for five minutes. A small filly, her yellow-orange fur accentuated by her white mane and large blue eyes, waved cheerfully when she spotted him looking at them. Caught, he sheepishly waved back before ducking back into his seat, not wanting anypony to think he was a creep.

Watching those fillies and colt frolic and play under the watchful eyes of their parents, he started to think back about his own family he had left behind in Detrot. After his attempt at fitting in with his first family had ended the way it did, he had been hesitant when the Master had soon organized another family for him to stay with. He had begged to stay at the Academy permanently as some of the other students did, but the Master had been resolute as always. When his Master had told him he would be staying with Samheul Smallhammer, he had been terrified. After all, he was an over eight feet tall towering minotaur that was missing a horn and had a visible scar that ran down the side of his face and over his left eye and visible through the brownish fur. In short, he was the type of creature that would have made even the bravest of ponies take pause. Throw in the fact that he had wielded a huge black hammer, its silver handle glistening maliciously, that he always carried around, and Artecus had been tempted to run away right then and there, almost unwilling to chance the unmerciful streets again. The only thing that had stopped him before he could bolt was the glare the Master had shot him and the thought of Madame finding him again.

In the end, he was glad he had not done anything so stupid. The minotaur lived with his wife, Good Living, an earth pony mare. He could still remember how flabbergasted he was when they had entered a relatively nice double-storied house in one of the safer sections of the city. The minotaur had crossed the room in a few long strides right up to the seemingly unsuspecting mare who was humming and tending her bubbling pot. Before he could shout or warn the mare of the impending attack, the minotaur had wrapped his beefy hands around the torso of the mare and had lifted her clean off her hooves, a move that had elicited a surprised squeak from the earth pony. His mind had scrambled between trying to help the mare, a move that he knew would prove futile and only get himself killed, and giving in to his instincts that had screamed at him to run as fast as he could. He had stood there, frozen to the spot, before he had finally noticed that the mare had returned the embrace with all her strength before peppering his face with kisses. That had finally broken him out of his shock, causing him to blush and avert his eyes.

Despite his initial misgivings, he found that the home was a hospitable one. Good Living was a homebody through and through, making sure he had felt welcome with surprising enthusiasm, though not so much that he would have started withdrawing. During his first few days, she had fussed over him, causing the other foals to complain of favouritism, albeit jokingly. They had five other foals of their own, though he had never asked if they were biologically theirs or not. Just thinking about the two of them in bed together now made him feel slightly nauseous.

With the experience of his first family fresh in his mind, he had been understandably cautious about letting his guard down around them. Eventually, as the days went by and no beatings had come about, he had slowly begun to interact with the small clan, answering questions posed to him by those who he would come to consider his brothers and sister, though he had had the sense to leave out the more… explicit details of his past. Being the only magic user in the household, they would often beg him to show them magic, and he would always acquiesce, revelling in the warm feeling of being wanted. Even the small sparks to light a candle or levitating a spoon would net him enthusiastic applause.

He had found an unexpected source of comfort in being around Samhuel. No one would dare interfere with him whenever they would walk together on the streets. It had made him feel safe… secure. Like he was something worth keeping protected. He had started helping out the minotaur in the smithy he ran, impressing his earth pony siblings, who had more natural stamina and strength, with his willingness and gusto. It had begun to feel as though it was too good to be true, and he had begun to feel uneasy. It wasn’t long before he had confided with Samhuel, confessing to him about the condition he had. With the Goodmare tutting disapprovingly, he had broken down and told him about the Voices, how they would torment him relentlessly. The minotaur had remained passive as the young colt had relayed everything. Just when he thought that he had had ruined everything, that he would be thrown out and discarded once again, the minotaur had swept him up in his powerful arms, hugging him tightly.

From then on, he had often sat with Samhuel, releasing some of the things that he had kept bottled up inside him. He had never looked at him with any sort of disgust or pity. The minotaur was a creature of few words, but that meant the ones he did utter had special meaning. He had told Artecus that as long as he wanted to, he had a home with them. As cheesy and slightly embarrassing as it was for Artecus to remember, it still brought a genuine smile to his face. And for a long while, it had helped keep the Voices at hooves’ length, muffling their biting commentary that had often left him in the throes of helplessness. They were never silenced for long however, and came back especially strong whenever he would have lessons with his Master.

That line of thought brought him back to the present, and he looked out the window, mildly surprised at how much time had gone by. The brick and wooden structures of civilization had long given way to the wide expanses of forests and plains. The mare next to him had drifted off, quietly sleeping and curled around her foal. He thought of his Master and the instructions he had received. Despite the uncertainty of the situation, he could not help but look forward to Ponyville.

Author's Notes:

JBL: Well, you all can have… this. Since Gron hasn’t quite finished the next chapter, I thought I would use some of the stuff I had cut out about Artecus’ past and cobble together a small chapter about him.
Also, thanks to Handyman for his help. He knows what he did. Already have that harem of flexing minotaurs being shipped to you as we speak, bud. I know you’ll put them to good use.

Yeah, readers! That's what you get for me being a slow and lazy writer!
As you may have guessed, Artecus will play a bit of a bigger role in this story in the future, further continuing the plotline of the Science Academy, thus he deserves some back story.

Let us hear us what you think about that, I know that I speak for both of us if I say that we love to read comments. I know that JBL is lurking this story 23/7 (he acts like he sleeps sometimes) and just waits to reply to any comment that you write. Don't be scared though!

In the meantime check out our translations:
Journey
Nightmare

Chapter 23 - The Same Old Song

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Chapter 23

A sharp whistle resounded through the small kitchen of the Golden Oaks Library, reverberating off the wooden walls and furniture and making it sound even louder than it was. The whistle quickly tapered off and was replaced by a bubbling sound, but Steve paid no attention to any of that, for he was sitting numbly on one of the wooden chairs, or rather just a small tree stump, as he stared blankly at the table. His left hand formed a fist on which he rested his forehead while his right hand drew endless circles with his forefinger on the wooden surface.

“Here you go. Just let it cool for a few minutes,” a voice murmured to his left. At the same moment, a cup with a steaming, clear liquid that slowly turned brown appeared in his field of view. Ever so slowly, he began to tilt his head to the source of the sound until he saw Twilight Sparkle standing next to him, a painfully forced smile on her lips. With the low chair and his low-hanging head, they were at the same eye level now.

It must have been just a few minutes ago that they both had been down in the basement and testing his magic resistance when she dropped the bomb onto him that had crushed the slim hopes he had had up until then. He couldn’t tell exactly how long it had been since then. After Twilight had told him the results of the tests, he had fallen silent up to the point where he was more in an apathetic stasis than aware of anything that happened around him.

He kept staring blankly at Twilight for a few more seconds, her smile turning ever so more awkward until she eventually broke the eye contact. Slowly, his head turned back into its original position, and he stared at the cup of tea that was now in front of him. “Thanks,” he muttered, barely audible, and pulled the cup a bit closer to him until it stood directly under his face. A pleasant scent of various herbs and fruits slowly wafted up to his nose.

“Oh, you’re welcome,” came Twilight’s quick response, and he felt her hoof on his shoulder. It was still a bit of a strange feeling with those hooves. They were much firmer than hands and far less agile, but at the moment, he didn’t care if it was a hand or a hoof that was patting his shoulder - it was pleasant and eventually brought a slight smile on his lips. “Do you need something else?” she asked softly and stopped the patting motion for a moment.

Some more hope would be nice, he thought with a hint of melancholy as he gave a long sigh and looked up from the table again, this time not to his left, but upfront. He was met with the sight of Rainbow Dash sitting at the other side of the table, playing a bit with the cup of tea that stood in front of her by pushing it from one hoof into the other. Her eyes were set on him as well.

Shortly after the incident downstairs, Twilight had helped him get up into the kitchen. Not that he needed help walking due to his injury, which luckily proved to be nothing more than some pain from the harsh landing on the ground that had mostly ebbed away as long as he didn’t twist his back too weirdly, but his awareness of his surroundings had dropped so much after the shock of the news that Twilight had to pull him by the hand so that he mindlessly followed her upstairs, his eyes staring blankly into the air, his mouth slightly opened. As soon as they got upstairs, she put some water on the stove to boil it and quickly rushed upstairs to inform Rainbow Dash about what had happened.

Since then, she had been sitting there rather quietly, or at least he assumed so, since he only recently even noticed her being at the table at all, obviously unsure what she should do now as she struggled with keeping eye contact. But he couldn’t hold it against her of course. It was a bizarre situation he was in, being trapped not only on another planet, but a whole different universe. He hated to even think about that. There was nothing he could do about it, besides hoping that Twilight and her oh so dear princess would find a way to fix the mistake of the latter. The only thing that followed his thoughts was the feeling of impuissance and also the fear of the unknown that flooded his body, yet it was a thought that haunted him more often than he would like to admit.

He already knew that his usual approach in solving problems wouldn’t help him here. Whenever something was bothering him, it had always been his strategy to think it through entirely first before being able to shove it somewhere into his head where it wouldn’t come knocking every few minutes again. Most of the time he found a solution on the way there, even if it was just a simple one as sitting it out, but he knew that wouldn’t be the case this time.

Despite knowing very well that he would not come up with anything, his head rarely gave him a minute to relax until the thought had been processed in its entirety. This behaviour was always something that bothered him about himself, yet he was unable to change it, too deep was it embedded into his brain already. The solitude during the journey of the last two years that he filled mostly with his own thoughts was the complete opposite of helpful in this manner.

So that left him only with one thing to do right now: thinking it through until he could focus on the more important things, namely preparing himself for his unintentional stay here to be longer than expected.

Rainbow coughed slightly and brought him out of his thoughts again, making him realize that he had been blankly staring at her for a while now, so he quickly shook his head. “You know that we’re here for you. If there’s anything you need, just say it,” she said and put on a smile that seemed miles more genuine than Twilight’s.

Steve tried to not fall back into his thoughts, but it was hard with this pattern stuck so deep in his mind. His mind had merely begun to scratch the surface of the thought and always threatened to drift back to it as soon as his attention was elsewhere. “It’s fine, thanks,” was all he managed to say before shifting back down at the table where he stirred his tea a bit, letting it take in a clear brown colour.

“No! It’s not fine!” Twilight almost shouted out, her hoof pulling at his shoulder, making him turn over to her before she took a small step back, eventually breaking the contact. Her eyes turned watery, and her lips shook as she began to speak. “I…” her voice began to tremble “I-I’m just so sorry for everything. So far, every attempt in figuring out how Princess Celestia’s spell brought you here was a dead end, and now we have a new problem to face. I just….” Her voice eventually dropped completely before she averted her eyes towards the ground.

Only now did he realize that this problem was not giving only him a feeling of impunity, it had worn down Twilight as well. So… she’s not only the Princess’ personal student, but also one of these Elements – Element of Magic too… He quickly went through his memories to collect the information he knew of her, leading only to the conclusion that she had to be one of their most skilled wizards. So if even she and the Princess are clueless…. He didn’t want to finish that thought. Instead, he quickly shook his head and focused back on the mare in front of him that had sat down on the ground by now, her head hanging so low that her deep purple mane covered her entire face from his point of view.

He couldn’t help but feel bad for her. Her reaction made it clear how hard this unsolvable problem she was facing had struck her as well. In one motion, he slid out of the chair, one knee resting on the hard wooden floor, so that he was now in strange crouching position directly in front of her and did the only thing that seemed appropriate right now.

Gently, he put a hand on her left shoulder. “Look at me, Twilight,” he said quietly, yet firmly. Slowly, she followed his order and raised her head again. Only now could he see the few tears that had formed in the corners of her eyes. If there was one moment that showed him how deeply she cared about solving this problem and was struck by all the setbacks that had come with it so far, it was this. “It’s alright,” he said and looked deep into her large purple eyes, his hand carefully stroking up and down her shoulder. “You have done nothing wrong, so you don’t have to be sorry for anything.”

Twilight opened her mouth to form a reply, but no sound escaped her lips. She sat in this position for a few more seconds until Steve felt two hooves wrapping around his chest and a head pressing against his shoulder. “It’s alright…” he repeated calmly as he felt the tears that formed in her eyes slowly soaking into his suit while leaning more into the hug, having to watch out for her horn that was pointing directly at his neck. Being impaled was not his favourite part of hugging someone, or somepony, not that he had done it very often. Still, allowing his hand to stroke through her soft and warm coat was quite enjoyable. Twilight seemed to enjoy it as well, judging by the satisfied muffled humming she made while his fingers ran through the coat of her upper back and neck, while his other hand had moved up from her shoulder and ran through her silky hair, while her hooves slowly tightened her grip around him.

A loud cough next to them brought them both back into reality as they both spun their heads towards the source of the sound, just to see Rainbow Dash having come around the table and looking at them with a smirk on her face. “Umm, yes,” Twilight said quickly before she wiped with her hoof over her face once to clean the remains of the tears that had unwillingly escaped her eyes and took a step away from him as the lavender-coloured coat around her cheeks took on a slightly red tone. “What I wanted to say is that despite the newest revelation, I won’t stop trying to solve this. I will find a way,” she said as she turned back towards Steve, now with a confident smile on her lips that could have almost hidden the uncertainty that stood in her eyes.

Steve returned her smile, albeit somewhat more awkwardly. He had been much more careful when it came to physical contact with the ponies, Pinkie Pie aside, so it felt somewhat strange to have just hugged and comforted Twilight like he had now that the moment had passed. However, she had certainly needed it and had no qualms about such close contact with him, so he filed that away to deal with later.

“Yeah,” Rainbow agreed loudly as she stepped over to Twilight. “Just give her some time. I know that Twi will fix this,” she added and gave the unicorn a firm pat on her back. “She’s the smartest pony there is!”

Twilight blushed at the compliment from her friend. “Thanks, Rainbow Dash.” She turned towards the pegasus. “That’s very kind of you to say, but I don’t see myself smarter than—”

“Hey, don’t speak yourself down,” Rainbow quickly interrupted her. “Everypony knows it’s the truth.” Steve watched the scene with a slightly bemused smile. From what he had seen so far, Twilight seemed to be against any sort of bragging or drawing comparisons, but who wouldn’t want to hear a compliment from their good friends? “Right?” Rainbow asked as she turned back to Steve and ruffled through Twilight’s mane, turning the slight mess that it was before into a disaster. “You know that if anypony can help you, it’s her, right?”

“Oh, I don’t doubt your abilities in the slightest,” he replied calmly back to Twilight who was trying to fix her messy mane with one hoof but stopped mid-motion as she heard his words. “I’ve seen you do things that I had considered impossible just two weeks ago. It’s just...” he sighed, “I’m almost out of fuel on my ship. The solar panels keep the systems running, but flight is out of question, and even if I had a full tank, it’s not suitable for any distance much longer than from here to the moon. So, even if you find a way to send me back into the right universe, I will be screwed if you don’t find my solar system. And do you know the chances of finding one system in the whole entirety of a universe?”

He let the question stand in the room for a short moment. “I never liked probability theory. Numbers have the tendency of being harsh, and with zero percent, they didn’t give me much to hold onto in the first place even before all this…” He waved with his hand through the air. “I just never really wanted to admit it to myself until now, I guess,” he said quietly, more to himself than to them. Quickly, he shook his head as his mind threatened to drift into a useless state of self-pity again that it had done so often during his time here. “The only thing I can do now is to hope. Hoping that I am not wrong in believing that you are as good as I think you are,” he finished and shot a light smile over to Twilight.

“Don’t you worry, Twi can do it,” Rainbow replied quickly for her friend and patted her on the back again. Twilight looked at Rainbow first for a moment before turning her gaze towards him. Her face didn’t met the level of certainty of Rainbow Dash, but the strong nod she gave as an agreement still seemed somewhat comforting to him.

“Good!” he declared loudly and clapped his hands together. He wanted to get rid of this topic for now. He knew that it would keep him sleepless tonight, but he didn’t want it to ruin his day as well. With one hand on the table, he lifted himself up into a standing position and swiftly spun his back to the left and right, happy that it caused him no pain.

“So, uhm,” Rainbow began to speak up and exchanged a quick glance with Twilight, “do you wanna do anything today? The weather’s awesome and will stay like that for a while longer. I would know - I made it like that this morning.” Steve threw a glance out of the window. She was right; it was a great day. The sun indicated that it was early afternoon, and they would have at least a couple more sunny hours.

“Sounds like a good idea,” Steve agreed, still looking out of the window and scratched over the beard stubbles on his chin that had returned quickly after this morning’s shave. “I’m spending far too much time in my ship already. Some diversity might be just what I need now and—” His sentence got cut short as it was interrupted by the grumbling of his stomach. “But maybe what I need first is something to eat.” He chuckled as he looked down his body.

“I could eat a bit as well,” Twilight joined in. “I was so busy that I kind of skipped breakfast.” She grinned sheepishly and looked over to Rainbow Dash. “How about you, Rainbow?” The pegasus only replied with a grumbling of her stomach.

“Good,” Twilight acknowledged and nodded shortly. “Anywhere specific you want to go?” she asked and looked alternately between them. “Or I could try to make something here. I don’t have too much left though; I need to go shopping again soon. And I’m not that good of a cook. Unfortunately, magic isn’t as helpful in cooking as you might think.”

Steve awkwardly scratched the back of his head. “Well, I don’t really have the money to go out to eat and…”

“Oh, don’t worry that.” Twilight quickly waved it off. “I’m inviting you. It’s the least I can do to compensate you for your help with the experiment.”

Well, if she puts it that way, he thought to himself. Also, her tone didn’t sound like she would simply accept a no for an answer, and he didn’t want to crush any of their plans even though he disliked the thought of her having to pay for him. “Okay, thank you then. But speaking about that, I really should be looking for some kind of work here soon.”

“Oh!” Twilight suddenly shouted out, and her eyes went wide as she disappeared in a flash of light. Before he could even ask the equally confused-looking Rainbow Dash she had left behind, Twilight reappeared again with a scroll and a book floating next to her. “I almost forgot this!” she said. She was about to levitate the scroll over to him, but changed her mind mid-air and placed it onto the desk next to him instead.

“What’s this?” he asked as he unfurled the scroll and skimmed over it.

“You may remember at your welcoming party that I arranged a visa for you,” Twilight said as she stepped next to him. He just nodded quietly as his eyes wandered over the paper. “Well, we didn’t have time for you to sign it then, so I stored it for you.”

He gave a grunt of acknowledgement but just continued reading the paper. Hereby, in the name of her royal Highness Princess Celestia… blah blah blah… permanent visa…yada yada yada... legal citizen of Equestria… , he read from the scroll.

“And here is our legal code,” Twilight added as she placed the book that she was still levitating on the table next to him. On its red cover were the words, in golden letters, ‘Equestrian Civil Code’, with a picture of the sun and the moon on the back of the book. “I figured that you might want to give it a read. Most of it should be obvious, but I marked a few passages that might be of interest for you, given your special situation,” she said and turned the book around so he could see the countless post-its sticking out of it. From the looks of it, there was at least one per page.

Steve raised a brow and looked over to Twilight, who looked expectantly up to him and had already levitated an ink jar with a quill over from somewhere. “So why exactly do I need this again?”

“Well,” Twilight began and pulled the scroll a bit over to her, “as you can see here, here, and here,” she pointed at a few different points at the lower part of the scroll, “you will be granted an employment and residence permit, as well as being able to claim benefits from our social system,” Twilight explained slowly to make sure he understood. “Basically, you’ll be able to do what everypony else is able to do.”

Steve thought quietly about it for a moment. “So I would be a normal citizen if I sign this?” he asked carefully.

“Yes,” Twilight quickly agreed and nodded.

“Hmm….” Steve looked back at the scroll.

“Is there a problem with that?” she asked after a short while, her voice filled with worry.

“It’s just that I don’t really want to bind myself to any country here by becoming a full blown citizen. I want to interfere with this world as little as possible. I thought I was just going to get a permit to stay and maybe work here.”

“You don’t have to worry about that. This is merely a formality, and in the end, it only gives you advantages. You may revoke the citizenship again, as stated…” she looked over the scroll for a second and pointed at a line close to the bottom, “here. It is a standard procedure, especially in our larger cities with larger numbers of foreigners, which you technically are.”

Steve leaned in a bit closer to read the line she mentioned. It referred to multiple paragraphs from the law code, but it seemed like it would be a way out if he changed his mind. Well, might be a necessary step if I really plan to stay here longer, he thought to himself. “Fine, but I want to read it first,” he slowly replied, causing Twilight to give a relieved sigh. “I’ll just take it back to my ship and give it back to you as soon as I can.”

“Sure, take your time,” she replied and rolled the scroll up with her magic again and placed it on top of the book. “I’ll just leave this here while we are out.” Steve nodded in reply. “So, where do we go now?” Twilight looked back at Rainbow, who had watched their conversation with checked enthusiasm and was more focused on trying to balance her weight on a nearby chair so that it would stand on two legs.

“Dunno.” She shrugged, and with a quick flap of her wings, brought the chair in its usual position again. “I could go for some hay fries.”

“I don’t even know any places to eat. As long as they have something without hay, I’m good,” Steve replied as they both looked over to him. Twilight’s raised eyebrows caused him to quickly add, “My body can’t digest hay, or grass in general, too well.”

Twilight responded with a quick nod and stroked her chin with her right hoof for a short while before saying, “I haven’t been to Hay Burgers in a while. They also have non-hay food, don’t worry,” she directed the last part at Steve. With none of them having any objections to the idea, they found them on the streets of Ponyville just a few seconds later.

***

“Final stop: Ponyville! All departures here!” the voice of the conductor sounded through the wagon, causing Artecus to wake with a start. He must have been more exhausted than he thought, as the stress of the preparations for his mission over the last couple of days had taken its toll, making him fall asleep on the train.

Quickly, he shook his head to resist falling back into slumber while reaching with one of his hind legs below the seat to check if his bag was still there. It was. His biggest mission so far was about to begin. He would arrive in the Ponyville any minute now and would be able to prove to his Master what his years of training were worth. In order to do so, he had carefully planned his first moves, and soon he would see how well his plans could adapt to a real situation.

His Master hadn’t given him much information to begin with, neither about the subject nor the apprentices the other masters had sent. He only knew that they had started their search in Canterlot. He still felt uncomfortable about the fact that they were working against each other by not revealing their information to the other party. It would also mean he would have to keep secrets from them, but he doubted his Master would have told him to do so if he hadn’t thought it would be for the best.

The train began to slow down, and Artecus threw a look out of the window, an action that immediately caused his eyes widened in awe as he was met with soft, green meadows that turned over into slight hills and forests in the far distance. The sun was just past her zenith but still bathed the scenery in a warm and golden light. The feeling of a landscape actually being able to be beautiful that had struck him during his first stop in Manehatten came upon him again at the sight of this harmonic nature that was just inviting him to take a rest in the grass and breathe in the fresh air.

Quickly, he shook his head again and averted his eyes from the window. No, that had to wait. Maybe he would be rewarded with a holiday after he had fulfilled his duty to his Master’s satisfaction.

As the other ponies in the wagon slowly got ready to leave the train and got their bags down from the luggage racks, Artecus pulled out his own bag from underneath his seat. It was a simple, small, grey bag, but it contained everything he would need for this mission, including a quite large amount of bits to be able to live here for many weeks if need be. The thought of how the Society was not hesitant with its funding once a project gained its attention crossed his mind as he filled a small part of the bits into the purse underneath his cloak, enough to pay for the hotel room that was already booked for him.

The train slowed down further and eventually came to a halt. Shortly after, a loud whistle signalled the opening of the doors, and everypony immediately began to rush out of the wagon. Artecus waited until they all had left the waggon before throwing his bag over his back and followed them.

A rush of air, fresher and cleaner than anything he had ever breathed before was the first thing that greeted him as he set a hoof on the train station. He pulled back the hood of his cloak and eagerly filled his lungs with the air around him as his silver mane tussled and flew about in the wind. It was a wonderfully relieving feeling that brought a slight smile on his face. Something told him that he would enjoy his new temporary workplace.

***

“That will be eighteen bits please, miss,” the stallion said as he placed three trays on the counter between them. A moment later, a small pile of coins landed next to it. After a quick glance over them, he said, “Thank you, and enjoy your meal. Next!”

Twilight quickly grabbed the three trays in her magic and levitated them off the counter, handing one with a bowl of salad and a cup of water over to Steve and another with a large pile of hay fries and a red box, which probably contained a burger, over to Rainbow Dash, who lifted it onto her back. Meanwhile she kept the last tray where the exact same boxes were lined up next to each other.

“Are you really going to eat all that?!” Rainbow asked confusedly and waved at Twilight’s tray with a hoof.

“Mhmm, I’m a bit hungry,” she replied in return and began to look around for a free seat.

As Steve had found out, the Hay Burger was something like the Equestrian version of a fast food restaurant, ordering and picking up your food at a counter and then taking a free table, something which was sparse pickings at the moment. The place was filled with ponies that were clearly tourists from larger cities, judging by the small accessories and clothes they wore that Steve had so far only seen in Canterlot. With the place being so busy, nopony had even batted an eye at him, and he was glad for that, for now he just wanted to enjoy a peaceful and hopefully tasty meal with his pony friends.

“Over there,” Rainbow said and pointed to a table in the corner, right next to a window where a group of unicorns had just stood up. Before any of the other ponies that were looking for a free seat could take the opportunity, Rainbow had swooped for the table, causing the tray on her back to shake heavily, but she balanced it out with the help of her wings, so nothing fell over.

Steve and Twilight followed her and took the remaining seats. Curiously, Steve now eyed his meal. It was a Manehattan Salad, which told him absolutely nothing, but Twilight had suggested it. Since the names of the other dishes weren’t any more descriptive either, something that surprised him given what he had seen so far of their naming conventions, he just rolled with it. From the looks of it, it was a very, very mixed salad with a variety of fruits and vegetables, including tomatoes, potatoes, a few apple slices, cucumbers, peppers, and many more that he couldn’t identify right away or were still hidden underneath the lettuce. On top of it was a bright yogurt-like looking dressing.

Looking good, he thought and grabbed for the fork that came with it. It was surprisingly similar to normal forks, only that the grip was slightly wider so that the non-unicorn ponies could easily grab it with their hooves. “Enjoy your meal,” he said to his two companions and dug the fork into the salad, confirming his thought after the first bite. Despite it looking like an average fast food restaurant for tourists, this was one of the best salads he ever had. The lettuce was crispy without being dry, and every fruit and vegetable he tasted felt like it was freshly picked from the farms, while everything was rounded off with the ever so slightly too sweet dressing on top. Ponies just like the taste of sugar too much, Steve thought to himself. It didn’t really bother him much right now.

He looked up from his meal to see if the others were enjoying theirs as well, but as his eyes fell on Twilight, he couldn’t help but stare at her as she unboxed one burger after the other, levitating it in front of her snout with her magic and gulping it down in merely two bites before turning to the next one. She noticed his stare and stopped mid-motion, with her fourth burger just leaving the box while half of the third one was still in her mouth and the other half on its way down her throat.

“What?” she asked, her voice muffled by the mixture of buns and hay as she held a hoof in front of her mouth. “Do I have something on my face?” She wiped her hoof over her mouth quickly, cleaning off some of the crumbs that had found their way into her coat.

Steve just shook his head and looked down at his own meal again. Twilight shrugged and continued shoving the burgers down her throat. Either she drops all table manners once she is outside Canterlot, or she must be a tiny bit more hungry than she said, Steve thought and could barely hide an amused smile as he remembered the difference to their meal in the dining hall in Canterlot where she used the silverware with extreme precision, thanks to her magic.

“Guys?” Steve asked between two bites of his salad and broke the silence that had fallen amongst themselves as each of them was busy with their meal. The two ponies looked up and from their food, or in Twilight’s case, the massacre on their tray, and gave him a questioning look. “There is one thing I wanted to ask for a while now.”

“Shoot,” Rainbow replied and motioned him with her hoof to continue.

“You probably remember at the party that Pinkie threw for me, when Lyra and her friend left?” Rainbow and Twilight exchanged some quick glances at that. Steve was a bit irritated by that but continued regardless. “I just never got around to understanding what was going on with Lyra that evening. She was acting rather… peculiar, to say the least. I mean, she always acted rather odd around me, but was something even more wrong with her that evening? Was she sick?”

The first reaction from the two ponies was a loud cough from Twilight as she tried to quickly gulp down the food in her mouth and had to cover it with one of her forehooves to not accidentally spit some of it out over the table. With a raised eyebrow, Steve looked over at Twilight. “Umm…” she began and coughed again before she wet her throat with her drink. “Lyra has…” Again, not many words left her mouth, and Twilight quickly glanced over to Rainbow, who seemed more than happy that Twilight took the question as she had turned back to throw the remaining hay fries into the air and catching them with her mouth.

“She has her phases sometimes,” Twilight eventually answered and looked back at him. “We just try to not talk about it. She will go back to normal soon and then will feel embarrassed enough even without us making remarks about it. I’m very sorry if she bothered you that night, and I’m sure she will come to senses soon and apologize.”

“Oh, she already did, right before she left,” Steve quickly waved her off and poked his fork into the salad a few times. “I was just confused, and no one could give me a clear answer so far.” He still was a bit confused as what caused that behaviour, especially since it was recurring as Twilight mentioned, but he shrugged it off as some kind of pony behaviour, bringing him back to one of the original thoughts of why he wanted to go to Twilight’s library. “Twilight, would you mind if I borrow some of your books?”

A grin as wide as a mile immediately appeared on her face, and he knew that he surely had her completely undivided attention now. “Of course not,” she replied eagerly and nodded. “What do you need? History? Magic? Math? Maybe a novel?” she asked quickly and leaned a bit over to him.

“Biology,” came his reply. “Especially pegasi,” he added and nodded over to Rainbow Dash. “In regards to this little experiment that I have going on, it would be nice to know a bit more about the flying abilities of a pegasus.”

“Sure, I have plenty of those,” Twilight replied like a shot and stroked her chin for a moment. “I think you will be best served with Basic Pony Anatomy. It features all pony kinds and requires little to no foreknowledge. From there on, you can go to Advanced Pegasi Flight Mechanics. You would also be the very first one here to actually borrow that book.” Happily, Twilight clapped her hooves together a few times.

“Great,” Steve replied, pleasantly surprised that the search for the right book was dealt with so quickly. “And is there something like a guide to Equestria? You know, explaining social norms and general behaviour to foreigners?”

He was met by a quick nod of Twilight, who recited off a whole list of different books, most of them trying to sound funny by putting ridiculous puns in the title, probably to lure in unknowing tourists. After hearing The Mane Neighs and Yays for Equestrian Culture, he went deaf for the rest of the list and just settled for one of the few with an actual normal name: The Equestrian Guide. Now he just had a lot of reading to catch up to.

***

Artecus’ horn glowed up in a pale greyish light as he pulled out a small red brown purse from underneath his cloak with his magic and untied the small thread that kept it closed on the top. A pile of gold coins flew out of the little bag and landed on the counter in front of him. “And that’s forty-five bits,” he said and stored the bag away again.

The pale unicorn mare in front of him took the pile in her own cyan-coloured magic and counted them quickly before storing them away in a register. “And this is your key,” she replied and levitated one of the keys that hung on the wall behind her. Or at least he expected more to usually hang there, judging by the number of little anchors that stood out of the wall, each with a number below them. But now that the city was flooded with tourists, there were none left. “You are in room eleven,” she continued and pointed at the number that was imprinted onto the key.

“Just down that hallway, third door to the left.” She pointed towards her left. Following her hoof, he saw a wooden door with a large glass window in the middle, giving sight on a hallway that led further into the building, with more doors and hallways to the left and right. “Breakfast will be served from six to nine. The dining hall is just opposite to your room. You can’t miss it,” she added with a little smile that vanished quickly as she met the blank stare of Artecus’ brown eyes. “If you need anything else, feel free to ask at any time; the reception is always open. Enjoy your stay!”

“Thanks,” his simple reply came as he grabbed the key from the counter and his bag that stood close at his side before going on the way where the mare had directed him, all the while under her concerned look.

“That’s somepony who was long overdue for a holiday,” the mare mumbled to herself as Artecus went through the door before writing his name down in the guest book.

Meanwhile, Artecus had arrived in front of the door to his room that was marked by a large eleven on it. With a turn of the key in the lock and a slight push, the door swung open, revealing the surprisingly spacey interior. It was already larger than the room he had in his parent’s house. While it was very decent for Detrot’s standards, he always had trouble fitting all his study materials in his room so that they didn’t take up the entire floor, desk, or bed.

With a small smile on his lips, he entered the room and closed the door behind him with his magic. The rays of the afternoon sun shone into the room through two large windows at the opposite side of the room, bathing the wooden interior in a golden light. A bed that would have been large enough for even two ponies stood in between them, the green sheets and fluffy-looking white pillows just inviting him to take a rest there.

With quick steps, he stepped towards the bed but placed only his bag and coat on it. He hadn’t taken much with him from Detrot due to the fact that there was not much he could have taken anyways. A few notebooks, some empty, some full with notes already, and an ink jar with the accompanying quill found their way from his bag to the desk that stood next to the door, leaving his bag almost empty already. Besides a small sponge bag, only a few pictures were left.

One of them he had gotten framed a while ago. It showed him right between his brothers and sister, lined up in front of Samhuel and Good Living as they all stood, or kneeled in Samhuel’s case, in front of their house. It had been taken on the first anniversary of his arrival at their home. He had lived with them for years now, and it had been one of the happiest times of his life. He liked to keep the picture around with him. It always returned some of the happiness he had felt that day to him whenever he was feeling down.

Artecus smiled as he placed the picture onto the desk along the other ones, mostly pictures of him with his family, next to it before grabbing the sponge bag and moving on to inspect the bathroom. With a sink, mirror, toilet, and shower, it was simple but would serve its purpose well.

And all that for just forty-five bits per week, Artecus thought to himself as he left the bathroom and sat down at the desk. He let out a sigh and pulled an empty notepad, the ink jar, and quill over to him and began to write his first of probably many reports to the master. The surveillance would have to wait until tomorrow; he didn’t even know yet how the town looked like or where he could find the subject, but a little walk later today should change that.

***

“And you are sure you want to go back home already?” Twilight asked as she carefully placed the last book with her hooves on the pile that had built up on Steve’s hands.

“Yep,” he replied shortly and looked down at the books that were almost stacking up to his chest. “I have a bit to read now, and Sarah will get sassy again if I leave her alone for too long.” He rolled his eyes and adjusted his grip on the books a bit. “AI’s… You just can’t understand them.”

“Do you need any help carrying that?” Rainbow threw in and tapped with her wing again the books.

“Nah, I’m good, thanks,” he said and shook his head. “A quiet walk will help me sort my thoughts.” He looked back at Twilight. “Thanks for the books. I will give them back to you as soon as I have finished them.”

“No problem, and take your time. It’s not like they are frequently borrowed anyways. Most ponies here are not that interested in reading anything more than a novel,” Twilight remarked and looked over at Rainbow Dash.

“What?” the pegasus swiftly returned, pointing an accusing hoof at Twilight. “That’s not true! I’m not just only reading Daring Do. Remember Spitfire’s biography? That hardly contained any action, yet I read it.”

Twilight just rolled her eyes and turned back to Steve. “Anyways, take your time. I think I can turn a blind eye to the return date in this case.”

Steve just replied to that with a quick nod. “I think I might come to town a bit more often now. If I want to live here for a while longer, it would be the best to get to know it a bit better.”

“Good idea,” Rainbow agreed. “Hey, maybe you wanna join us and the other girls tomorrow. Pinkie was planning this picnic by the lake, right?” She shot a questioning look over to Twilight.

“Oh, darn, I almost forgot that,” Twilight shouted out. “Uh, yes, at twelve thirty, wasn’t it?” Rainbow nodded. “You can join us if you want to. Tomorrow is going to be another sunny day. You can just come to my place beforehoof, and I’ll show you where the lake is. Or just go north of the town; you can’t really miss it.”

“Sounds great,” Steve commented and quickly nodded his head, a genuine smile on his lips. “I think I’ll join you. Do I need to bring anything?”

Twilight stroked her chin for a moment before replying, “No, we are all set. We usually end up with enough leftovers for another six ponies, so don’t worry about that.”

“Wonderful, I shall see you tomorrow then.” He bade them goodbye, and just a few moments later, he was out on the streets of Ponyville again. The sun had slowly begun to set by now, and the first streaks of orange appeared over the horizon. He bathed his face in the light for a moment, enjoying the warmth on his skin, before setting his way to the south to head out of the town and back to his ship.

The trip went relatively quiet despite the streets being filled rather well for this small town. There were little groups of tourists, easily recognizable simply because of the fact that they were wearing clothes unlike the normal residents. Most of the ponies had cameras hung around their neck to dispense any doubts that they were locals. He noticed that with them being from what he only assumed to be a major city, they barely batting an eye at him, apparently being used to various species living among them. A slender-looking greyish unicorn stuck out the most to him, but since he wore no clothes, Steve just wrote him off as one of the locals.

Steve continued strolling through the streets until he suddenly heard a voice behind him saying his name. He stopped and curiously turned around, wondering who it could be. His question was answered by the image of a familiar orange earth pony with a Stetson that sat on her long blonde mane, while a brown saddle bag rested on her lower back. “Hello, Applejack,” he greeted the farmer, the sight of the mare bringing up some mixed emotions.

“Uhm, howdy, Steve, how ya doin’,” she returned the greeting, a bit of uncertainty in her voice while her right hoof nervously fumbled at the tip of her hat.

“I’m fine,” he replied briefly and waited for her to tell him what she wanted to say.

“That’s good, yeah… Well, Ah wanted to talk ‘bout what happened a couple days ago at the market,” she said, the uncertainty in her voice growing into a slight tremble.

“Look, Applejack, I understand what you did, and it’s fine. You have to make a living from selling your apples, and I was hindering you.” He came up before her and gave voice to the thought that the rational side of his mind had thrown into his mental argument of the previous two days. The mare let out a long sigh of relief.

“Oh, that’s great, sugarcube.” Applejack released her hat now, and a more genuine smile crept onto her face again. “Ah was just worried that ya might hold that against me. And let me tell ya, Ah lectured those ponies who wouldn’t want to buy from me while you were there ‘bout how rude they were.” For a moment, an angry glare appeared in her large green eyes. “Ah was just so puzzled at the moment it happened. Ah know that the ponies here are a bit reluctant to strangers, but Ah couldn’t believe what Ah saw there and didn’t know what to do.”

Applejack coughed slightly before continuing, “Ah just hope yer not mad at me or anything. Ah should have said something right away.”

“Oh, I’m not mad at you,” he replied swiftly. Well, maybe I was a little, he admitted in his mind but quickly got rid of that thought. “And thanks for standing up for me after all,” he added shortly after and returned the smile.

“Of course Ah did that. Ah won’t let anypony talk down mah friends.” She waved it off as her eyes trailed over to the pile of books on his arms. “So, Ah take ya visited Twilight?”

“Yes, she wanted to test the results of magic on me, and I needed some books anyways.” He shrugged.

“And how did the tests go? Ah know Twi can get pretty into things when she wants to wrangle something out.” AJ chuckled.

“Weeeell…” Steve dragged out the word as a series of the images of today shot through his mind. “Not quite as well as expected,” he finally answered and shrugged again. “But at least I got the books I wanted.”

“Yeah, Ah see. So, yer heading back to your home now?”

He nodded. “I want to read some of these now, but I’ll be back here tomorrow. Rainbow Dash invited me to join your picnic tomorrow.”

“Oh did she now?” Applejack wondered out loud and raised a brow. “Well, good that ya told me ‘cause now it looks like Ah have ta make one more apple pie if ya also want some.” She was met with an eager nod. “Great. If ya wanna see for yourself,” she grabbed with one foreleg into the saddle bag on her back and pulled out a shiny red apple “the latest batch is one of the juiciest and most delicious one we had in years.” She was just about to hand him the apple before she noticed that both his hands were busy with holding the books.

“Just place it on top,” he said and nodded down his chest. Applejack did as he told her. “Thanks, the last one was great already. Now I really can’t wait to get back to my ship. I’ll see you tomorrow then,” he said and gave a slight nod in her direction again.

“Yeah, see ya, sugarcube. Ah gotta go back to the market now.” The farmpony bade him goodbye and was back on her way into the centre of the town.

Good, one more problem solved, Steve thought happily to himself and looked after Applejack for a few more seconds before turning around again and continuing his way into the south over the sun-bathed dirt road.

Chapter 24 - Research and Reconnaissance

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“And there’s nothing else you can tell me?” The beige mare tried to avert her eyes from the gaze of the dark brown unicorn stallion in front of her, but the piercing green eyes looking deep into her own blue ones alongside the soft smile on his lips made it hard for her to look away. Eventually, she managed to do so and just shook her head. “Aww.” The stallion made his disappointment vocal and sighed heavily.

“I’m sorry. I’d really like to help you, Mister Zeal…”

“Oh, please just call me Ardent,” the stallion threw in, pouting slightly.

“… Ardent, but I wasn’t there that day, and I don’t know which of my colleagues were.” The mare looked back to see that the lovely stallion that had introduced himself to her just a few moments ago now had a frown on his face. She couldn’t help but feel as though it was somehow her fault, causing her to add, “But I still wish you best of luck finding somepony who might know more so that you can write that book of yours.”

With a half-hearted ‘thank you’, Ardent Zeal turned away from the mare and looked over the crowded platform of the Canterlot train station. A large clock told him that he had already spent over an hour questioning the train workers about the arrival of a mysterious creature about a week ago, but so far none had given him any information. But he would be damned if he gave up so easily. As he checked himself in the faint reflection of a glass window and made sure his silvery blue mane was ruffled to give him that slightly roguish appearance, his eyes were already set on the next train worker: a brown unicorn mare in the characteristic dark blue attire that made her stick out clearly from the crowd.

With ease, Ardent moved through the groups of ponies that were slowly strolling over the platform. Being born and raised in Detrot usually meant nothing good, but in this case it was playing in his favour. What seemed busy for the citizens of Canterlot was almost relaxing and peacefully quiet for him. Almost no shouting, no ponies that were bumping into each other and cursing the other for not paying attention where they were going.

In his mind, Ardent Zeal went through the story again he would tell the unsuspecting mare in a few seconds. Using the helpful nature of the working class ponies here, it was foal’s play to get the information he wanted. By merely telling them he was about to write a book about every species that lived in their dearest Equestria and beyond, the ponies were quick to answer all his questions. However, as soon as he had begun to ask questions about that one specific creature that had been here last week, they had all immediately clammed up. It felt like they had all been ordered not to answer any questions, but Ardent wouldn’t give up so quickly. Still, for somepony who was accustomed to having his charm do most of the work for him, it was somewhat off-putting. He was hoping for it to change as he began to approach the brown mare with a greenish mane who was currently overlooking the traffic on the platform.

His path, however, was impeded as somepony grabbed him by the shoulder and spun him around. Ardent almost lost his balance and was about to let loose a yelp of surprise, but as soon as he was met with a familiar pair of dark blue eyes which glared at him, even darker than the coat of the pony they belonged to, he closed his mouth again. “What’s the matter, Blue Streak?” Ardent asked, irritation marring the features that had caught the attention of mares and even a few stallions in his time. His voice was quiet even though he was sure nopony else was listening to their conversation in any event.

“I think they’re onto us,” the dark blue unicorn that had grabbed him hissed and quickly nodded towards his left. Ardent looked over and was immediately met with the sight of golden armour shining in the sunlight as two guards were talking with a hastily gesticulating train worker.

Ardent sighed. “Damn it, Blue! I thought I told you to act a bit more careful,” he scolded the blue unicorn and shook his head, his mane never becoming more than the slightly unkempt state it was usually in. He dusted off the almost non-existent dirt from his brown fur and frowned, wishing he had a mirror with him at the moment.

“Hey!” Blue Streak retorted angrily and pushed Ardent back while glaring angrily at him. “I haven’t even talked to this guy yet. Must have been Blossom’s fault.”

“Ugh, great,” Ardent groaned and quickly looked over at the guards again. Two more had joined them already. “Fine, no time to argue now. We have to get back to the hotel. I don’t think they have seen us yet.” He again glanced over to the guards who were overlooking the crowd by now. “Where’s Blossom?”

“Dunno.” Blue Streak shrugged, his newfound nonchalance not quite able to hide the tension he felt. “Haven’t seen her anywhere. I guess she already noticed the guards and ran off.”

“We should do the same.” Another glance by Ardent over to the guards showed him that they were already moving through the crowd. As he turned around again, he saw that his companion had already left. “Great.” Muttering curses that would have sounded strange coming from such a dainty stallion as himself, he quickly made himself a way through the crowd, and was quickly swallowed up out of sight.

***

“Mister Murray, I have been expecting you.” A metallic voice sounded through the interior of the ship as the inner airlock opened and Steve stepped through it.

“Have you been watching movies again?” Steve asked and raised a brow. The actions of the AI were still a mystery to him. Steve blamed her high learning curve for the erratic change in her character at some points. The degree to which his companion was actually autonomous had surprised him numerous times. When he had found out that the normal board computer had been replaced by an artificial intelligence, he had been sceptical if it would be anything more than a slightly improved voice command system that could also hold basic conversations, but now he knew better.

“I was bored,” was her simple response.

A computer is getting bored – that’s something new. Steve just shook his head as he walked into his bedroom and dropped the pile of books onto one of the empty beds he wasn’t using. He sighed as he took a look through the dimly lit room. At home, his bed and the area in a two metre radius around it had been a complete mess, with books, papers and clothes lying around everywhere or piling up, as long as they were still in reach. Not that he was generally a messy person, but he had liked to keep all the things he might need at some point in reach, and the bed he had had in his old apartment on Earth had been just so much more comfortable than the chair for his desk.

And now everything was almost too clean. A tablet was lying on the nightstand next to his bed for when he wanted to read something before falling asleep. Aside from that, there were only a few of his used clothes so far. They were fantastic to maintain – most dirt could be simply dusted off with a few strong beats, but in the end they still need a proper washing or they would begin to stink from his sweat. He would have to misuse the shower for that at some point since the ship didn’t have any sort of washing machine, and the nearest river was a bit too far away to carry all his clothes there and build some sort of improvised washboard.

Steve turned away from the emptiness of the room. There wasn’t really much to fill it with anyway. His personal belongings were still in the other universe, and all his reading material was stored on the tiny computers. Since the voice command system for Sarah was working flawlessly, there wasn’t really a need for anything.

“I see,” he eventually replied to the last statement of the AI and left the room again. “If you are bored, I suppose I can assume you have finished the task I had given you?”

“Indeed,” Sarah confirmed. “The data from your experiment is fully processed. An interactive animation can be viewed from the command centre.”

“Great.” He nodded to himself as he made his way towards his favourite room of the ship. “I will have a look at it later.” Steve opened the door to the entertainment room and jumped onto the large and surprisingly comfortable couch. When inspecting this ship for the first time, he had been confused about the existence of this room, as it served no meaningful purpose to him. But quickly he found out it had been built to keep his morale and that of his crewmembers up. With basically nothing productive to do all day, they had to find some sort of activity, and with its placement on the shuttle, it would have also served as a great equalizer for all the stress the ground team would possibly have had to endure during a longer stay on a distant, foreign planet.

As he tried to find a comfortable spot, Sarah spoke up again. “May I ask how long we will be staying here? I have failed to pick up any signal from the Columbus since we have been here.”

Steve looked up at the small camera in the top corner of the room and let out a long sigh. Before answering, however, he raised his brows and asked in return, “Haven’t I ordered you to stop looking for a signal?”

“You have,” Sarah confirmed. “However, by disabling the mission protocol, you have also freed me from having to follow your orders.”

“I see.” He stared at the camera slowly, somewhat taken aback by what she had said. That was actually something he had not considered so far. A long pause followed his words as he thought on how to explain it to her. “Have you ever heard of multiverses or parallel universes?”

“Are you referring to the hypothetical construct of a set of universes often used in science fiction stories?”

“Umm, yes. Long story short, we are in a parallel universe right now,” he said bluntly. Now that he knew that he was, in fact, at the mercy of the AI as she could just decide to never open a door again, he could only hope that she would handle this information well. He knew that the concept or thought of her somehow turning malevolent should worry him right now, but he felt strangely calm. Expectantly, he waited for a reply, but all he got was just a soft buzzing sound.

“How?” she eventually asked after a few minutes.

“Somehow a magical... accident opened a portal, and we flew in it. I don’t really know how exactly that worked, but it left us here. Twilight and Celestia are working on reversing that so we can go home.”

Silence filled the room again. “I do not understand,” came her reply, this time much quicker.

“I don’t fully understand it either,” Steve admitted and shrugged. “Just ignore the how and accept the situation as it is.” Too bad I still haven’t completely done so myself, he thought wryly. No response came through the speakers, so he continued, “Basically, this means that I now have no idea how long we will be here. But you can stop using energy trying to contact anyone – it’s just a waste.”

“Understood. Disabling all communication systems,” Sarah acknowledged. Steve just nodded his head. “There is but one more concern,” Sarah added.

“And that is?” Steve wondered aloud.

“I do not like this place. My scanners and sensors are often picking up interferences.” Steve stared blankly at the camera next to the speaker in the corner.

“And?” he inquired after she failed to elaborate.

“It tickles.”

He needed a few seconds to comprehend what she just told him and to wipe the grin off his face. “What is that even supposed to mean?”

“I searched through a dictionary and this seemed to suited my situation the best. I take you are unfamiliar with the feeling of electrical interference in your veins.”

“Fine, shall I have a look at it tomorrow?” Steve offered, his face turning serious again. “Maybe I can fix it.”

“Negative, it is a interference coming from outside. Judging by my readings it appears to be coming from the east.”

“The forest?” Steve raised a brow. “Interesting,” he said more to himself than to her. “Is there anything else that can be done?” he asked.

“I recommend turning off a few problematic systems,” Sarah responded quickly.

“Which ones?” Steve inquired, slightly worried. “I wouldn’t want to sit here completely blind.”

“The infrared systems. In the current state they are too unreliable to accurately tell if anyone is nearby. The installation of a remote camera on the nearby hill may prove helpful in identifying approaching individuals. The video feed of the outboard cameras is unaffected so far.”

“Okay, if it’s nothing more, shut them down.” Steve approved and shrugged. “I’ll do the setup tomorrow then.”

“Acknowledged. Shutting down infrared scanners,” Sarah confirmed immediately. “Solar panel energy generation now exceeding one hundred and eighty five point seven percent of daily usage. Power level of accumulators at ninety six percent. Recalculated expected lifetime at thirty seven hours.” Steve just nodded it off and made himself comfortable on the couch. “With that out of the way, may I choose tonight’s first movie?”

He sighed. “Do I have a choice?”

“No,” Sarah replied instantly, almost sounding cheerful. “We are watching 2001: A Space Odyssey. I have read that it is very inspiring.” The only response she got was a terrified stare from her human companion before calmly adding: “That last part was a joke.”

***

The wooden door closed quietly, and the bright green light of Ardent Zeal’s magical aura around it vanished. “So, Blossom…” His voice was calm and steady as he turned around to face a light green unicorn mare sitting on one of the two single beds in the room, directly beside the windows. The curtains were almost completely closed. Only a small ray of light fell directly onto the mare, letting her long, tied back, hazelnut brown mane sparkle a little.

“Mhmm?” Blossom mumbled, her eyes still locked onto the notepad that she levitated in front of her muzzle in a dark brown magical aura.

“What the hay were you doing out there!?” Ardent hissed angrily, trying to keep his voice down. “You blew our cover and ran off without telling us! We could have been caught.” He nodded quickly over to Blue Streak, who had jumped onto his bed immediately after their return to the hotel room, where they had found their missing colleague again. The blue unicorn watched the scene rather patiently, a behaviour Ardent hadn’t expect from the otherwise so hot-headed stallion.

Only now did the mare look up and stare at him with a pair of brown eyes, the same colour as her mane. “But you weren’t,” she replied simply and turned her attention back to the notepad.

“We are not done here yet,” Ardent snarled and took a step closer. “You were foolish and endangered our mission.”

“Careful, colt,” Blossom hissed angrily and glared at him for a few seconds. “Just because you are Beaker’s little favourite doesn’t mean you don’t have to watch your mouth. I am more experienced than the both of you, and you know it. Don’t question my methods.”

Ardent opened his mouth to retort, but the discussion seemed to be over for Blossom, as her concentration returned to her notebook. Completely baffled by her reaction, he looked over at Blue Streak. Ardent knew that Blue had worked with Blossom once before. Professor Beaker had told him as much during the mission briefing. All he got as a response from the stallion was a shaking head.

Ardent wanted to sigh loudly at that point. To say that he wasn’t content with the team he was assigned to would have been an understatement. Blue Streak – his mentor had told him a few tales about that stallion. As protégé of Yersinia Filaria, once a very high ranked candidate for the position of Archmage, he had learned the arcane arts from one of the most skilled unicorns in Equestria. Ardent knew that a unicorn that achieved that position shouldn’t be underestimated, and somewhere in that body must be a master of the arcane arts. Unfortunately, Blue Streak’s training at the Academy didn’t cover his persona. Ardent didn’t know if that cocky, impatient, and often even aggressive vibe had always been there or was something that Blue had gained over the years of competition. Truth be told, he knew almost nothing about the stallion. With himself spending most of the time in the alchemy labs in the basement rooms of the Academy, he had never met up with most of the other students represented there.

Those who belonged to the chemistry department preferred to stay among themselves most of the time. Only the biologists often directly interacted with them. Ardent had found that quite enjoyable since they were the only department that employed more earth ponies than unicorns, giving it a totally different vibe than the rest of the Academy. Even though the head of the department, Lina Marin, seemed a bit scary to him, and he never really wanted to know exactly what the next potion she ordered was used for, he had often hung out with her staff. Earth ponies had always fascinated him with their inherent magic and how they could affect the nature around them. The fact that there were some impressively built stallions there was only an added incentive.

He had seen Blossom there a few times as well, but never had the chance to talk to her. Most of the time, she was alone and looked just like a shy, new apprentice that hadn’t found her way into the group yet. He had been very surprised when he had found out that Blossom was over fifty years old already and had been with them for many years. She preferred to work on her own and was in fact not shy at all, just usually very calculating. From what he had heard, she was unmatched in manipulation magic and had a special sense for interacting with the natural flora and fauna, almost as if she were an earth pony herself. He had figured that this had something to do with her looking younger than he did, despite being about twice his age.

Aside from the fact that he knew almost nothing about that mare, he had only heard some rumours of her once having worked for the Royal Science Guild, but that description could be applied to so many of his colleagues that he had never probed into it.

Ardent gnashed his teeth before groaning loudly and saying, “Fine, just warn us the next time something like this happens.” Ardent walked over to the couch and dropped off his saddlebag while Blossom just nodded absently. Of course, with him being the youngest of the group, he would have to settle for the couch, but it wasn’t so bad. Even though the room was small, it was still nicely equipped, and the couch wasn’t much of a downgrade compared to his own bed in Detrot.

“Did either of you find out anything?” Blue Streak broke the silence and sat up on his bed, looking over at Blossom.

Ardent waited for her to answer, but she just remained quiet, so he began to talk instead. “No, nothing really. But something is definitely fishy here. Everypony I asked seemed to be uncomfortable as soon as I brought up the topic and gave me excuses about them not having been there that day or not remembering such a creature.”

“Same for me,” Blue said and nodded. “They were clearly lying, but I couldn’t get anything out of them. At least not in public and in the given time.” Ardent threw a scolding look over at him. “What? A bit of persuasion and they would have started singing. Heck, giving the right one even just a bag full of bits would have been enough.”

Ardent Zeal just shook his head. Ponies like Blue Streak were the reason for the bad reputation of the Society. He just thought it was easier to force someone to cooperate or to buy their help, instead of motivating them to do it on their own. Ardent felt his own hypocrisy here, he had also just been lying to the train workers to get more information, but he knew that the truth would block out any chances of help he could have gotten from an employee of the crown. Still, his ways wouldn’t involve violence or even the threat of it. There was always more than just one way to achieve something.

“Unlike you two, I have actually found something then,” Blossom suddenly spoke up and put down her notebook.

“Oh?” both stallions said in unison and looked over to her

“Indeed. An old… acquaintance of mine who works as an… assistant of sorts to the griffon ambassador. Apparently, there was a meeting with several other representatives of the various nations recently with Princess Celestia.” She adjusted her glasses. “Well, more of a tea party than a meeting, from what I heard it seems she made enquiries into some of the advancements in technology the griffon states have made recently.”

“So what?” Blue Streak threw in. “That doesn’t have anything to do with us.”

The slight glare she shot him spoke volumes. “It does when one considers that Celestia is not one who is usually overtly interested in the advancements of any particular country, so long as Equestria is safe. If the creature we seek is indeed an alien, it would put her questions into perspective.”

“Seems like a stretch to assume that the alien is connected to Celestia asking if the griffons have indoor plumbing,” Blue Streak shot back.

She shook her head, as though pitying his lack of insight. “My acquaintance seems reasonably sure that something more is at play here. Celestia rarely moves so boldly, so it must be significant. She has arranged for us to meet with the ambassador tomorrow. We can ask him directly.”

“Sounds like a waste of time.” Blue turned his gaze away from her as Ardent looked at her unsurely. “And who exactly is this acquaintance of yours? When did you even get time to speak with her?”

A tiny smile actually crossed her lips. “Oh, she just popped in and left just before you arrived. And as tenuous as the link may be, it is the best lead we have. Or perhaps we should return to the tried, tested, and failed method of questioning everypony until the guards are alerted?” Both stallions said nothing. “That’s what I thought.”

***

“We’re really going through with this, huh?” Page Turner’s voice was quiet, so much so that News Flash almost missed it from the groaning and spluttering that came from the printing presses that were long overdue for retirement. She had brought it to his attention on multiple occasions, but her concerns, as too many of them were, had been brushed aside. No matter the health and safety issues that would have brought the inspectors down upon them like a diamond dog hunting a sugar diamond. No matter that they actually had newer, more efficient presses that didn’t smoke the entire basement and threaten to suffocate everypony who dared to or were foolish enough to enter. No, every time she had broached the topic, he had protested and ordered her to ‘leave his girls alone’. She never really understood stallions and their proclivity for giving inanimate objects female names.

“Wasn’t any doubt about it.” Flash’s voice was unusually serious, none of the smarmy cockiness or rudeness present. He had been down here for hours now, coaxing out copies of tomorrow’s newspaper. Considering the time it took to print just one copy, and the fact that they were printing twice their usual output, Page Turner wasn’t sure that he planned on getting any sleep tonight.

His plans were ambitious, she had to admit. He had spent the past few days organizing and hiring more temporary colts and stallions who would take their share beyond their usual scope of operations. Pegasi in particular were in high demand, their ability to reach cities in comparatively less time would be invaluable. She didn’t know how he had managed to finance all this, and all queries towards unearthing answers were brushed off with his usual casualness.

“I just hope you aren’t going to cross any lines that you know shouldn’t be crossed. The last thing we need is Princess Celestia’s guards terrorizing my staff. I won’t let you take them down with you if things end up that way.” Her voice was firm, the strength behind her words telling Flash that this wasn’t something she was going to take any evasion or obfuscation as an answer for.

News Flash glanced at her from the corners of his eyes before turning his attention back to the rattling machines in front of him. He had grown up around these very presses when he was just a colt, and his father was the one who had ran this operation. Now he just used them on special occasions, occasions that justified dusting off the old girls to take them on one more spin. Tomorrow would certainly warrant it.

Tomorrow. Tomorrow would be the day that he turned around the fortunes of his passion. It would be the day that he would no doubt be harassed by some overzealous royal defender. Tomorrow was going to be the day that he got the truth, even if he had to wash it out in a sea of lies.

Author's Notes:

JBL Well, finally we get a chapter out. I put the blame squarely on Gron for having exams. I mean, trying to be educated and working towards gaining meaningful employment? Bah I say! Ponies are more important! I also blame Tofty for also having exams and wanting to take a vacation. Exams? Relaxation?! Humbug!
On a more serious note, if you like long stories, feel free to check out Bad Mondays Excellent story that’s nearing 300K words that I have to proofread. FML….

Complaining about our complaints yet complains about his own problems, jeez, and I have to work with that.

Well, anyways, here it finally is, feels like yesterday that I uploaded the last chapter *cough*
There is not much to be said about the chapter, only that I hope you are hyped for more. I am almost done with my exams and such, last one on Friday and then some relaxation at Galacon
Also meaning a bit more time for me to actually focus on writing, so there shouldn't be that long of a wait for the update.

And some good news for you readers! Guess who's back?
Tofty has joined us again in proofreading the chapter, yay.

So, what did you think of the chapter? Comment below, let me know.
And if you like to read more, click here
or here

Chapter 25 - Headlines and Headaches: Part 1

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It was the light thud against the front door that woke Cherry Blossom. The pink-maned pegasus jerked up with a gasp, her brain scrambling to orient itself with its surroundings whilst fighting the cobwebs of sleep that clung to it. Hearing a flap of wings as whoever it was presumably took to the air and flew off, she dove under the covers, trembling violently, her pupils dilated as she tried to regulate her breathing. She reached out with a trembling hoof, shaking the warm body next to her.

“M-Magnus! Magnus! Wake up!” she shout-whispered at her still slumbering husband. The massive earth pony continued his light snoring, much to her chagrin. What sort of stallion kept sleeping while his mate was in mortal danger? The one next to her apparently.

So, she used her most effective method for getting him awake: a sharp pinch on his behind. With a strangled moan, the stallion cracked one bleary eye open slightly before letting out a massive yawn. Reaching out a tired hoof for the blanket, he pulled it up and was greeted by the sight of his wife shaking in terror. “Cheer? Whazz it isss?” he mumbled incoherently, his mouth dry and his eyes resisting most attempts to fully open. He peeped at the clock on the table at the side of the bed. “’S not even sunrise yet.” With the loss of his blanket, he scooted over to the warm body of his wife and pressed himself against her, smiling lazily as he draped a hoof around her and snuggled her. Unfortunately, his wife wasn’t in a reciprocating mood.

“Somepony was at the door.” Her whisper squeezed its way through clenched teeth. “I think they were trying to break in.”

He popped an eye open. “’S probably the delivery colt bringing the morn’ paper.”

“Or it could be some axe pony trying to kill us in our sleep!” At her frantic pleas, Magnus raised off the bed unsteadily, passing a hoof through his tousled mane.

“Must we go through this every day, Cheer?” It was a rhetorical statement. There was no judgement or malice in his tone. He had long accepted that this was part of who his wife was and had come to learn how to bear it with patience, making incidents like this a routine part of the day.

“C-Could you just check and make sure?” He was already swinging his hooves onto the cold ground with a grunt, taking his time as he shuffled out of the room and to the front door. He opened it slowly and peered out carefully. While his wife’s paranoia had certainly dulled whatever caution he had, it never hurt to be safe. Looking around, he saw there was nopony around. Indeed, the entire street in their section of Canterlot was quiet, save for one or two early risers who waved at him, which he politely returned. Shivering slightly at the slightly nippy morning, he looked down at his doorstep, and lo and behold, there was the morning paper as expected. Picking it up in his mouth, he backed into the warmth of his home and nudged the door close. He turned around, only to be met with the sight of his wife holding a rolling pin in her wing while peering around the corner.

“D-Did you find anything?” she asked warily. In response, he dropped the rolled up newspaper and rolled it towards her with a nudge of his hoof. She eyed it for a while before picking it up.

“Just the papers like I said.” He twisted his neck a bit and checked the clock. He could probably still sneak in an extra ten minutes of sleep before he had to get ready for work. Ten extra, glorious minutes that—

A shriek of pure fright snapped him out of his thoughts, and he did not have any time to brace for the impact as his wife literally flew into him and latched onto his body. Though he was an earth pony of stocky build, he had to catch himself to avoid falling as Cherry trembled in his embrace. “W-We need to l-leave. They’re coming for us! THEY’RE COMING!” She burst into tears while hyperventilating, weakly pointing towards the newspaper.

“Wha? What is it?” Magnus had seen his wife in varying states of stress and panic before, but this was the first time in the longest while where she had been at the point of a total meltdown.

“A-A-A-Al—” And with that, her eyes rolled in the her head, and she slumped against him, her unconscious body going limp.

Magnus sighed. He was going to miss those ten minutes.

***

“Get yer Canterlot Daily here! Only a bit a copy!” The young colt was certainly somepony of considerable interest in Manehatten that morning, as those early risers in the city were eager to consume news from the capital city. It was not often that a newspaper from Canterlot made its way to them so quickly, after all. To the colt’s joy, they had begun selling like hot cakes, and soon he found himself with a nearly exhausted supply. His thoughts of how many bits he had made were interrupted when he found himself being stared down by two very peculiar ponies. Or rather, his newspaper was being looked at.

They were two lanky stallions, both near identical in their appearance: yellowish tan coat, blue and white pinstripe shirts with matching bow ties and straw hats, bright red manes and tails with clashing white stripes with bright green eyes. Their only distinguishing features was that one had a magnificent and neatly trimmed moustache with an apple with a slice cut out of it for a cutie mark. The other's cutie mark was just a slice of an apple with the stem and a leaf attached, almost as if it were cut out of the other's own mark.

“I do declare!” one said in exaggerated surprise.

“How absurdly interesting, I must swear!” exclaimed the other, twirling his moustache.

“Positively breath-taking!”

“So astonishing I’m almost quaking!”

“Most utterly chaotic!”

“And quite exotic!”

“Why, it’s almost—” Much to their chagrin, their enthusiastic conversation was cut off by the murmuring of the crowd around them as the newspaper colt backed away in wariness. Given their past… indiscretions, the pair had developed a keen sense of when it was best if they quickly left. Therefore, they both adopted their most winsome smiles.

“Sorry for the bother, folks. We’ll have one of your fine wares.” The moustached twin flipped the colt a coin as the other grabbed a newspaper, and they both trotted away hastily. They rounded the corner and came across their wagon. They both quickly entered and spread it open.

“Would we take the chance, brother?” the moustache pony asked quietly.

“I believe we should, brother. After all, with our last act being destroyed, it is time to find another.”

“But what about those troublesome ladies? No doubt they would try to halt out magnificent production!”

“Hmph, those marvellous mares may still be defeated. Perhaps it is time we try our hooves at seduc—”

Before he could finish, there was a banging at the side of the wagon, causing them to flinch before poking their heads through windows. Outside, an angry scowl on his face, stood a city guard. “I’ve been getting complaints about two unicorns matching your description. Harassment of ponies, parking your contraption illegally, said contraption not being registered…” The guard continued reading from his list before looking up to see what they had to say for themselves.

“Why, officer, nothing could be further from the truth!” Moustachio fixed him with his oiliest smile, but the guard was unmoved.

“Indeed, if all that were true, we would be nothing better than brutes!” The head of his brother disappeared back into the wagon.

“But I do suppose we need to now go.” At that, the guard made to move towards the wagon but was stopped as it started to shake and groan. He leapt back as a loud plume of steam shot out from on top, and the wagon began to move for itself.

“After all, the show must go on!” And with that, the wagon shot off, leaving a bewildered guard and crowd in its wake.

***

Blossom had been lounging in the grassy clearing near a quiet stream, surrounded by a wild and free garden of flowers and plants. She could make out some Epipogium aphyllum, Cypripedium calceolus, Cosmos atrosanguineus, and so many other rare and exotic beauties.

However, her focus was devoted to the handsomely rugged stallion in front of her. He was tall, yet stockily built, just broad enough at the withers to make his strong, muscular barrel stand out. His legs were thick, with unkempt fetlocks brushing over his hooves, his thick neck leading to a stout head with a strong, squared jaw line and solid muzzle. His mane was short and crisply cut, as was his tail. He had a large figure – not fat, but with enough muscle and meat on his bones to look like he could bring a house down if he wanted to.

It was his eyes, though. Eyes that made the butterflies in her stomach flutter. Eyes that promised she would be ravished and beg for more. Eyes that promised she would sing a song she had not sung in a very long time. Eyes that promised that every moan, every thrust would be even more fulfilling than the last.

That Blossom had actually been dreaming was surprising enough. She infrequently did so, often finding herself immersed in hazy blackness until she woke up. The fact that she had been having a pleasant dream made it even more of a rare occasion. So when Ardent Zeal burst into their room that morning, muttering gibberish, waving a newspaper frantically, and causing her to wake up from a pleasant state, Blossom was understandably somewhat… irritated.

Still, some might say that catching the idiot with green magical tendrils that shot out of her horn, wrapping him tightly, constricting most possible movement except a little needed to get some air in, and leaving him pressed up against the ceiling of the room may have been a bit too drastic.

“Mmmphh! Mhhhmmm!” was all that Ardent could get out as he futilely tried to struggle against his restraints. In response, they only wrapped around him tighter, making his supply of oxygen an ever-increasing precious commodity. Even worse, he had an angry mare below him who looked just about ready to pulverize him, and he had no escape in sight. While Ardent had dabbled in some forms of bondage with several of his past partners, this was not what he had in mind.

“What the buck are you doing?” she hissed at the captive stallion, who was still twisting as much as he could. Her face was contorted in anger and frustration. How dare this foal, this unimaginative, peppy floozy. How dare he just prance into the room and interrupt her dreams just as things were getting good?

Her internal shouting and cursing at poor Ardent was cut short as her magic was suddenly disrupted, causing the stallion to quickly fall towards the ground and drop onto the carpeted floor with a loud thud. As he lay there, prostrate, moaning quietly from the pain of the drop, Blossom swivelled around to face whoever had obviously wanted to earn her ire so early in the morning. Pushing aside her long, chestnut brown hair that was suffering a bad case of bed mane, her eyes landed on Blue Streak, the stallion coolly, almost lazily, regarding her from his bed.

“And what do you think you’re doing?” If Blue Streak noticed the scorn and derision in her voice, and it was very hard to miss, he either ignored it or didn’t care.

“Stopping you from murdering one of our team members simply because you were pent up,” he replied flatly, not bothering to even look in her direction.

“As though you care about whether or not he lives or dies,” she shot back, averting her eyes from the stallion, the faintest of red briefly appearing on her cheeks before disappearing. Meanwhile, Ardent had woozily made it back onto his hooves, his main concern seemingly to keep himself on them without collapsing again.

“No, I don’t particularly care. What I do care about, and so should you, are the potential consequences. I am not going to risk all that I have worked for to get to the level I am at and the position I hold just so that you could relieve your frustrations. I’m also not going to let you risk that. Disposing of one of the personal students of a department head would most certainly count as a risk. So leave him alone.” The deadly glare that Blue sent her poured some water on her inner inferno of rage. As impressive as her magic was, her talents were mainly involved with plants – she was no battle mage.

“Hmph. Very well then. Ardent Zeal, I offer my most profound apologies for my rash and impulsive attack. I do hope that, in time, you can find it in yourself to forgive this mare.” She finished with an eloquent bow.

“Uhh… no problem,” Ardent croaked as Blue Streak snorted in contempt, rubbing his delicate throat and gingerly moving about to make sure nothing was seriously injured. He was seriously beginning to regret accepting this mission so happily. Who the heck attacked somepony just because they were having a dream? Blossom, that was who.

“Why the hay were you running about like a headless chicken in the first place?” At the question, Ardent’s eyes opened widely. In the immediate aftermath of Blossom’s assault, he had forgotten the real reason he had been in such a hurry. The aches about his body temporarily pushed aside, he grabbed the newspaper that had been discarded and pushed it towards them.

“Check the front page!” He should have just saved his breath – the section of interest was right in front their eyes. Soon, Blossom and Blue Streak were both competing for the longest frown in the room, matching the same reaction Ardent had had when he had first spotted it in the lobby of the hotel they were staying in.

Blossom was the first to say something. She took in a deep breath before exhaling, adopting the neutral mask she had always worn. It was too late for Ardent in that regard – he had seen how she could be under that façade, and he didn’t particularly care for it.

“This is most troubling indeed.” A flat, stoic statement, contrasting greatly to the worry digging inside Ardent’s own stomach.

“Troubling is an understatement.” At least Blue Streak agreed with him somewhat. “If what is printed here is true, then this changes everything.”

“Perhaps, if and only if this is accurate. I have my doubts in that regard.”

“Still, it is one of the few leads we’ve had since he arrived here. I’d trust this rag more than the words of a griffon in any case.” Ardent winced. It seemed that Blue Streak had not forgotten about Blossom’s slight dig at them yesterday evening, and the frosty look on the mare’s face said that she knew exactly who he had thrown it towards.

“I still believe that our agreed to plan will be the best course of action.” Ardent took a step back as the mare advanced upon them. Having just so recently suffered her wrath, he was not in a hurry to get in the firing line with her involved.

“And yet from what you told us, your friend doesn’t even know if what went on with the meeting with Celestia has anything to do with the creature! This, on the other hoof, might actually lead us to it.” Blue Streak certainly wasn’t giving any quarter as he stood and drew himself to his full size, towering over the mare.

“Err, guys?” Ardent took another step back as both their heads whipped around to look at him. He had to gulp to wet his throat that had suddenly gone dry.

“What is it, colt?” Despite himself, he felt his pride flare up at Blossom’s words. Just like these two, he was still a personal student to one of the department heads, who was one of the most respected ponies in his field of study. He didn’t deserve to be treated like some hapless underling who slept on the couch and was thrown around and abused just because somepony was angry.

“I was going to say that we should just split up. Blossom can go talk to her friend in the Griffonian embassy, and you can go check out the newspaper and find out if what they’ve printed here has any truth to it.” Ardent resisted the urge to facehoof as the cold fury on their faces switched to speculative ones as they considered the fairly obvious course of action. For being two of the brightest minds in the Academy, it was as though they lost all sense of objectivity and rationality when they got angry. Unfortunately for him, they got angry all too often for his liking.

“Works for me.” Blue Streak twisted his neck to both sides and headed off towards the bathroom. Blossom chose to stare at him with an almost curious look on her face as he hobbled over to her vacated bed and slumped down on it.

“And what are you going to be doing?” He thought she would have said something about him occupying her bed, but she refrained from doing so. It was the first time that morning that her tone did not contain any anger, disdain, or contempt. She simply sounded interested in his plans.

Ardent let out a long, drawn out sigh, feeling the aches across his sore body wash over him again as he relaxed. “I think… I’m just going to lie here and try not to die.” He did not know whether to be annoyed or happy that she actually giggled at that.

***

The period just after sunrise was one quietly enjoyed by every guard, be it the the normal Royal Guard or Celestia’s personal Solar Guard. It was the time when there were no supplicants coming in from the city or from across the country to petition Princess Celestia, meaning that the Guards were free from having to run checks against those who wanted to enter the halls of Canterlot Palace and having to keep those who waited in line from becoming too impatient or belligerent.

It was also a break from having to keep several well-known nobles and Canterlot elites at bay. While most knew how to conduct themselves and go through the proper channels when they wanted to contact the princess, there were always those who thought themselves special, better than everypony else who patiently waited their turn. Perhaps they even thought that Princess Celestia would be anxiously awaiting their arrival and would drop everything in order to host them. Those were the ones who would often shout at the Guards, using every ploy such as ‘Do you know who I am?’, ‘Don’t you know who my father was?’, and the ever popular, ‘If you don’t let me through right now, you’ll be without a job within the hour!’ For all their threats, not a single guard had been stripped of his rank for not allowing through those who thought themselves more important than they really were. The Guard had been instructed precisely as to who were to be permitted preference to her Majesty’s presence. Needless to say, none of them were on that list.

No, this was a time for quiet patrolling, keeping guard, and generally making sure to stay out of the way of the various maids and castle workers who were bustling about, looking eternally harried as they got ready for the day’s work. So when Bronze Shield, recently appointed the new Captain of the Solar Guard, saw one of his soldiers galloping through the halls of the palace, he was somewhat miffed. For his duty was no longer patrolling the hallways himself, but making sure that the soldiers in his command did so, and what better way was there to check on them in person? At least for the beginning.

“Halt right there, soldier!” he barked, said guard doing so immediately. A quick glance over the armour showed him the lack of Celestia’s emblem over where the cutie mark of the stallion should be, telling him that it was none of his ponies, but just a regular Royal Guard. It would be so much easier if we had a more distinguishable armour like Princess Luna’s Lunar Guards, Shield thought to himself quickly and focused back on the pegasus in front of him. “Where are you going off in such a hurry?”

“I n-need to see Princess Celestia right away, sir!” the soldier gasped through his ragged panting. Bronze eyed the soldier closely. He was dripping down with sweat and was generally looking as though he had been running a marathon. Which, given the strict training regimen implemented under the former Captain, Shining Armor, and continued by Bronze Shield, really said something.

“What is it? Changeling attack? Rioters? Cult fanatics? Speak up, son!”

The pegasus did not answer, just reaching into the saddlebag strapped around him and pulling out a newspaper. He passed it to his captain, who snatched it up and began to read. As his eyes passed over line after line, his brows furrowed increasingly deeper until they could be seen through his brown coat, and his face began to turn redder and redder. He snapped the newspaper down, glaring angrily into nothing, his nostrils flaring open every few seconds in agitation.

“Of all the bloody—! You! Take this to Princess Celestia at once! We’ll need further orders on how to handle the backlash this will cause.” He shoved it back to the pegasus and galloped off.

Bronze Shield had a sleazy slimeball of a newspaper owner to speak to.

***

“Your Highness?”

Princess Celestia opened her eyes and blinked a few times to adjust her eyes to the light of her sun that was slowly appearing above the horizon in the east. With a contented nod she ended the magical flow from her horn that managed to raise the celestial body afar, sending it on its way to do its duty for today. It had again been a long and tiring day yesterday. While she had managed to sneak in a snooze, it seemed like she couldn’t take her well-deserved rest just yet. Her head turned around, but she remained seated on the large red cushion on the balcony of her private quarters, high in one of the many towers of Castle Canterlot, and saw one of her guards standing in the room.

She eyed him for a moment and saw that the white pegasus stallion looked nervous. A small smile crept on her face. Not many of her guards entered her private quarters on a regular basis, but this one had done so a few times. Still, he was nervous when doing so. Swift Feather, if she recalled his name correctly. While technically a member of her Solar Guard, he was usually the courier of urgent messages inside the castle and around Canterlot. He had served her well many times – perhaps it was time that he would be assigned with a more… personal task. Celestia’s mind trailed off a bit as it followed that thought, but she quickly caught herself again. “Yes, Swift?” she replied and motioned him to come over to her. She had found such a comfortable spot on the cushion that she had no desire of standing up and turning around to him now.

The stallion did as he was told, and only a few moments later, he stood in front of her, kneeled down, and took off his helmet, revealing his short, dark blue mane. She could see him nervously licking his lips. “Pardon me for interrupting you, my Princess.”

“You were not interrupting me,” Celestia replied calmly. “Rise.” The stallion did as he was told. “I suppose you have reason to come here.”

“Yes, your Highness,” Swift Feather replied hastily and turned his head around to grab the newspaper he carried in his saddlebag. Gently, he placed it on the ground in front of Celestia, who immediately picked it up in her magic and let it hang at her eye level. “This edition was issued earlier this morning. I came here as quickly as I could to bring you a copy.”

Celestia’s face was a mask while reading the paper, showing none of the many emotions that were going on in her head as she skimmed over the lines.

“Shall I inform Princess Luna, your Highness?” Swift Feather asked carefully.

After a few seconds, Princess Celestia put down the newspaper. “That will not be necessary. I will do so myself.” With those words, Celestia rose from her comfortable seat and stood tall in front of the courier. “You have done well, Swift Feather. You are dismissed.”

“Your Highness.” The stallion saluted and quickly marched out of her field of view again. His armoured footsteps on the ground soon disappeared after she heard the opening and closing of her door.

Princess Celestia sighed and looked slightly melancholily down at the cushion. So much for a relaxing morning, she thought to herself as she unfolded her wings and made her way towards the tower of her sister, the newspaper in her magical grip besides her.

***

Princess Luna, Guardian of the Moon, Protector of Dreams, Lady of the Stars, Sovereign of the Shadows and countless other titles, was lying sound asleep, as elegant even whilst in slumber as she was during her time spent awake. Indeed, many artists over the centuries, at least up to her banishment, had laboured to illustrate her as she did so, the mere act of placing her likeness onto a canvas in such an intimate setting as her private chambers being a private thrill to many of them. Indeed, knowing that such paintings would be frowned upon only acted as an extra means of motivation. As such, many paintings had been produced of her sumptuous form, ranging from her merely reclining on her luxurious bed to feeding imported grapes and various other fruits to different stallions and even mares. Despite the wide scope of the artists, one thing they had always made sure to capture was her sensuality, her gracefulness, the slightly haughty bearing of one who was assured and confident of her place in the world.

At least, that was what Luna liked to think.

As Celestia closed the door behind her with a soft click, she observed the sight before her with faint amusement. Luna was sprawled out across her bed while lying on her back, her stomach exposed to the world. Her mane, usually so ethereal and sparkling with small stars, hung limply in one big clump at her side. Her hooves occasionally twitched, and her tongue slightly poked out of her open mouth. Every few seconds, she would mutter words unintelligible, things Celestia could not begin to imagine the context of. Despite the new developments that had arisen, Celestia allowed herself to smile at her sister’s unintentional antics.

However, as so many of the simple things in life did, the moment passed all too quickly, and she trotted over to her sister’s bed and nuzzled her gently. “Time to wake up, Luna,” she said gently, shaking her. She knew Luna would not be pleased to be woken up only a couple hours after she had retired to her chambers, but this had to be dealt with, and she wanted Luna’s opinion.

At first, Luna’s hoof tried to swat her away instinctively, but Celestia persisted. Eventually, her sister’s eyes cracked open blearily before they focused on her. And there it was. Before the mask could be adopted, before her defences could be raised, before she could temper her emotions, there it was. The Look. As fleeting as it was, she had seen it enough times since her sister’s return to recognize it. A flash of confusion, recognition, then panic and unease before it disappeared – all of it at the sight of Celestia.

She had to bite back a bitter grimace that threatened to break out on her face. Happy though she was at having her sister back, she knew that it would be a long while for Luna’s scars to be healed. Even if they did, she had accepted that things would never truly be the way they once were.

“Celestia? ‘Tis time for mine moon to rise?” Luna asked as she corrected her posture and stifled a yawn.

“I’m afraid not, sister,” she said, allowing a small amount of regret to enter her voice as she levitated the newspaper in front of her. “It seems somepony has decided to shake the board and upset the pieces.”

***

Spike heard the heavy thud by the door as he was just about to put away the last dried dish. He had already made Twilight’s breakfast and cleaned the kitchen. Rainbow Dash had been stopping by a lot recently, and he had been around Twilight long enough to know that she wanted him to have the place as clean as possible, even though she didn’t ask a lot from him these days. Still, Rainbow Dash, being the sort of pony she was, wouldn’t have noticed anything and, depending on her method of entry, probably would have only upset everything else and added to the mess.

He shook the growing negative thoughts from his mind and wiped his cloth on the dish towel before heading over to the door. Just as expected, there was a large pile of mail waiting for him to sort through, along with the different magazines, periodicals, journals and newspapers that Twilight had subscribed through. First carrying in the regular mail, he then heaved up the stack of papers and managed to bring them into the kitchen. Sweating slightly, he began to sift through the envelopes and sort them out.

As the kettle began to whistle, he made himself a cup of tea before he sat down again to browse through the mail. Slicing through the blue string that held them together with a claw, he began browsing through them. Inevitably, the headlines of a particular edition caused his eyes to widen, and he nearly spewed out his tea dramatically onto the paper.

“Twilight isn’t going to like this…”

Author's Notes:

JBL:

A man of many words. Allegedly he has nothing to say about this chapter, despite him having written it.

Well, since I haven’t written it, I don’t really have much to say about it either, only that it is obviously there to build up hype for the next one. #hyped

And in case you are still reading despite my use of a hashtag, some of you may have read the blogpost about me rewriting the earlier chapters of this story. I have to say, it was pretty painful what I read there at times, and I had to do a lot more work than I originally thought. I haven’t uploaded a single updated chapter yet since I sometimes have to go back a bit to change a few small things here and there, and until that is not completed I won’t upload it. It will either happen all in a bunch, or once the final editing process for each one his completed.

And I’m not just going over the chapter and change a few words here, so far most chapters were increased by roughly 50% in length, despite having the same, or even slightly less content, only by presenting that which is there in a more believable and better descripted way. The earlier the chapter the more I have to change, but it also makes me happy to see the improvement I have made over the course of the story. Well, I’m sorry for all the new readers that might have caught onto this story with this update for having to read through the mess of the start, despite a better version of these being almost ready.

Good, that was a pretty long note, which could have probably made for its own blog post already, but whatever.

And of course as always thanks Tofty for proofreading.

So, what did you think of the chapter? Comment below, let us know.
And if you like to read more, click here
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Chapter 26 - Headlines and Headaches: Part 2

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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.

Author's Notes:

Wow, it's been a while. As you may know I've spent the time since the last chapter mostly on rewriting the beginning of the story. That has taken quite some while, but got finished eventually, and since then I moved on to the next chapter.

My evil henchmen,JBL, and I both have our hooves quite full with work, mainly because in the time between me finishing writing this chapter and now, I have been bombarding him with translations. And before that our dearest Tofty had to suffer from going over around 50k words of rewrite, who has also proofread this chapter here, so many thanks for that.

Anyway, we have managed to finish this chapter, but again have a guest appearance. I'm not really a reader of newspapers, especially not tabloids, and especially not in English, so when I was writing at the chapter I was completely clueless on what kinds of words even get used in there to gain the attention of the readers. So, to present you something of better quality, the article has been written by Handyman. Some of him may know him for his story Bad Mondays. (If you haven't, then you should read it now)
So big thanks to him as well.

So, what did you think of the chapter? Comment below, let us know.
And if you like to read more, click right here
or here. (Translations)

Contact

by Gron

Chapter 1 - Departure

Chapter 2 - Arrival

Chapter 3 - Coincidences

Chapter 4 - Town

Chapter 5 - Revelation

Chapter 6 - Night and Day

Chapter 7 - The Day After

Chapter 8 - Canterlot

Chapter 9 - Appeasement

Chapter 10 - Just another normal day

Chapter 11 - ... and night

Chapter 12 - Resolutions: Part One

Chapter 13 - Resolutions: Part Two

Chapter 14 - Preparations

Chapter 15 - Let's get this...

Chapter 16 - Party...

Chapter 17 - Started!

Chapter 18 - Now STOP! Snuggle Time!

Chapter 19 - Whispers of the Mind

Chapter 20 - Harsh Words and an Apology

Chapter 21 - Harden my Heart, Swallow my Tears

Chapter 22 - Testing 101

Interlude I - Looking for a Shadow of Doubt

Chapter 23 - The Same Old Song

Chapter 24 - Research and Reconnaissance

Chapter 25 - Headlines and Headaches: Part 1

Chapter 26 - Headlines and Headaches: Part 2