Introductions
All the way in the Canterlot Palace, Twilight Sparkle sat at a manageably sized desk, scribbling notes on a piece of parchment on Starswirl's theorem of magic regeneration. Spike accompanied her to Canterlot but was too busy indulging himself to a tower's worth of comic books he raided from the local comic book store on the way.
They occupied a small guest room in the eastern tower, overlooking a large portion of Canterlot and the expansive terrain of Equestria. The room had a large king sized bed, which was being occupied by Spike, and was beautifully decorated with tapestries and a range of expertly crafted furniture.
Princess Celestia requested Twilight's presence at Canterlot and, being the faithful student that she was, she accepted and took the first train to Canterlot just to arrive as early as possible. Though Spike didn't need to come with her, he convinced Twilight to take him because of a new comic book series being released. Both of them were unsure of why the princess called, however, the letter reassured that it was nothing on a catastrophic level. Strangely though, the letter encouraged Twilight to bring a surplus of paper and ink, and so she bought a saddlebag's worth of supplies.
"Spike, can you get my book on Star Swirl's studies?" Twilight asked the purple dragon, still buried deep in the papers.
Spike sighed as he tossed aside the comic he was reading and went to the unopened luggage bag that was tossed carelessly on top of the bed. Luckily they packed light for the visit, instantly noticing the large book which read 'Magic of Starswirl'. He passed the book to Twilight, who quickly thanked him before going back to her studies.
Spike rolled his eyes, climbing back onto the bed and delving back into the comic he was reading before being rudely interrupted. A knock came from the door. "You can get this one Twilight," Spike said quickly.
The young alicorn huffed, annoyed that she needed to put her studies to one side to answer whoever's at the door. Twilight dragged herself to the source of annoyance, and upon opening it, revealed a small maid on the other side. She had a bright yellow coat and a ghostly red short cut mane.
"Hello your highness," said the maid as she bowed.
"Please, you don't need to bow to me, I'm no different than anyone else here." Even months after being crowned a princess, Twilight still felt uncomfortable about ponies treating her so... differently. Though she understood that it was pretty much customary for them to treat royalty, no matter how new, with the utmost respect, it felt extremely odd having done towards her.
"Princess Celestia will see you now in her chambers," the maid informed Twilight with a kind smile.
Twilight nodded and thanked her as she sent the maid on her way, telling the maid that she knew where she was going. Twilight shut the door and quickly went to levitate he saddlebag onto her back, securing the straps around he bod. Spike spared a single glance at the mare but shrugged before going to his comic.
"Spike, I'm going to Princess Celestia. You sure you don't want to come?" She asked hopefully.
"Nah, I'm good, I already got what I came here for anyway," Spike replied disinterestedly, not taking his eyes off the page.
Twilight rolled her eyes before she left and started to make her way through the halls to the princess' chambers. As Twilight paced herself, she wondered why she needed all this paper and ink.
***
Fredrick groaned loudly, thumping the back of his head against the spine of his chair. He didn't want to be there, like at all. At first, he didn't mind at all, he actually favoured the idea. But now that he was here, waiting for the purple alicorn to come, it didn't sound so great anymore.
Celestia, on the other hoof, was sipping away on a small cup of tea, sitting opposite to the impatient and annoyed Fredrick. Though she didn't show it, Celestia was smirking on the inside. She found the show mildly amusing.
"Fredrick, this isn't as bad as you're making it out to be. All she's going to do is ask you a few questions, and I trust her to not do anything too uncomfortable." The tall alicorn reassured Fredrick who only ignored her.
"No, ponies don't understand my world. I say one thing then suddenly it turns into a full blown argument about how wrong it is, with theories explaining what might be happening in the background. They just don't understand context; our worlds are a universe apart but they don't listen." Fredrick lost it after the tenth pony who decided to argue against what was classified as his reality, trying to input their theories on how his world worked using their laws of magic. Of course, they didn't listen to him when he tried to explain to them about his world, and had almost completely lost hope in pony intellect.
"Twilight isn't your average pony, I'm sure she'd understand," Celestia told him.
"I hope," he mumbled quietly to himself.
The two waited silently, Princess Celestia still sluggishly drinking her tea while Fredrick just looked bored. He quickly came to the tragic realisation that this universe still hadn't discovered electricity, and that fact had started to wear down on him. Oh, how he missed his computer and the WiFi that came with it, but he could do nothing to fix or replace the void. Maybe if he knew a thing or two about creating computers, then maybe he'd be able to build some sort of prototype while a more sophisticated device was being developed. But of course, he knew nothing of the sort.
A knock emanated for the large twin doors, which then opened to make room for Twilight's head to poke into the room. She gave a smile as soon as she saw Fredrick and Celestia in the room waiting patiently, however, felt confused as to why the human was present.
"Twilight, come in, I'm happy to see that you've made it. Hopefully, I didn't cause to much trouble, but I required somepony of your intuition and expertise." Celestia greeted as she pulled out a chair for Twilight to sit on.
Twilight accepted it, undoing the straps of her saddlebag and placing it down on the floor. "It was no problem at all, you know you can count on me to be here early," she grinned proudly to her teacher which earnt a small chuckle from her. "Also, what do you mean that you need somepony of my 'intuition'," she asked confusedly.
"Ever since Fredrick came to Equestria, we've been trying to help him and integrate into our society and make some friends. It worked, and now he's a fully fledged citizen of Equestria. However, we know next to nothing about his species or of his planet as a whole except for minor details. That is why I want you to interview him. Are you able to do it? It is fine if you can't." Celestia explained to Twilight.
"I'd love to do it! Think about all the things I can learn from this experience! I would've done it earlier but I never had the time, this is a perfect opportunity," she excitedly bounced on her seat, grinning madly with the possibility to learn of unheard knowledge.
As endearing the sight was to see, Fredrick couldn't stop himself from feeling unsure about having Twilight interview him. It wasn't because it would surface any unwanted memories, or them eventually delving into topics too personal for him to answer, but it began to worry him about what type of world he lived in. Though where he lived was relatively peaceful, Fredrick dreaded in telling about the things people did to others and what they're doing now. Because of how peaceful the pony race is, he doubted that telling them about the ongoing wars in the world was going to put the human race in a positive light.
"I still don't like this," he mumbled silently to himself.
His comment was just loud enough for it to be picked up by Twilight's ears. "Come on, it won't be that bad. What could possibly go wrong? At least it is me and not some stranger right?" she said hopefully.
Fredrick stared into her wide and pleading eyes, her lips puffed out in mock sadness. He looked at her for only a few moments before he sighed in defeat. "Fine, you can have your interview. Just make it quick," Fredrick replied sharply.
Twilight squealed with delight, almost launching herself from the chair in excitement. The princess chuckled at her student's joyful behaviour. She looked behind her at the tall clock at the back of her chambers, and after noticing the time, she placed he tea down onto the table and stood up, causing the other two to turn to her.
"I must make my leave. Both of you may use my chambers for as long as you need, and don't worry, the staff and guards are already aware of this arrangement so they won't bother you," she told them.
Fredrick and Twilight said goodbye to the princess before she left the room, leaving the two in silence. The human sighed, leaning back in his chair for Twilight to break the silence. With Princess Celestia no longer within the room, there was no talking himself out from Twilight's questioning.
"Let's get started! Sorry, I don't have any questions ready, due to such short notice, so I'll just have to improvise."
"Yay," Fredrick commented nonchalantly. Today was going to be a long day for him.