Ditzy winced as Duffy plunged the set of tweezers into the wound. Her leg twitched as the cold metal probed around inside the flesh on her hind leg.
“Sorry,” the soldier muttered. “Normally a proper medic would do this, but they’re a little busy.”
Dizty nodded and clenched her teeth as he groped around inside of her wound for the small piece of shrapnel stuck there.
“Does it always hurt this much?” she asked as he missed the offending piece of metal, causing her to flinch again.
“It’d help if you weren’t jumping all over the place.” Duffy said roughly. He adopted a more gentle tone before he continued. “We’ve got medicine which makes it less painful, but this is a fairly minor wound. Also I’m not sure what would happen to you if I gave you morphine, so let’s stay on the safe side here.
“Minor?!” Ditzy yelped as he grasped the piece of metal and started gently removing it.
“It’s minor you softy. I was shot in the arse a few months ago. I suppose you could say it was a real pain in the arse.” He paused for a moment to let his incredibly lame joke sink in.
“That’s not funny.” Ditzy grunted.
Duffy shrugged and continued. “Just a flesh wound luckily and I was back into it within a few weeks.” He said with a hint of amusement. “There we go, got the little blighter.” He held a small piece of metal in front of Ditzy so he could see what had hit her. “Maybe you can keep it as a souvenir.” Duffy joked, wrapping Ditzy’s wound efficiently with a small bandage. She nodded silently and cast her eyes out the back of the metal wagon Duffy had called a ‘truck’. The skirmish that afternoon, while at first an unwelcome surprise to the British men, had been wrapped up quickly and with minimal losses. According to Elliot, ‘Jerry’ had severely miscalculated the strength of the column and had paid dearly for their negligence.
Several hours had passed since then; night had fallen, causing the convoy to come to a stop by the side of the road. Several men were still moving quietly around the large armoured vehicles that Duffy had explained were ‘Shermans’ and ‘Cromwells’. She hadn’t quite figured out the difference yet, but she had absorbed so much information since stumbling upon the nice British men that it honestly didn’t surprise her. She had spent most of the afternoon bouncing around in the back of the packed truck trying to ignore the pain in her leg and learning about this strange and dangerous new world. The other men that she had ridden with were gone now though, out on watch or in other trucks eating or sleeping.
“Oi, got you your food, a fine choice of ration packs and some other tasteless shit.” Elliot said with mock cheer as his face suddenly appeared around the back of the covered truck. He handed Duffy a small pot and jumped up into the back of the smelly truck. He was joined by two other men that Ditzy didn’t recognise.
“Evening chaps.” Duffy remarked as the two clambered inside. “You met Ditzy yet?” he gestured to the sprawled out Pegasus taking up some of the truck bed.
“Heard about her.” One of them remarked, munching enthusiastically on his meal.
“Finding a talking flying horse don’t exactly stay quiet around here. I reckon you two must have lost your mind when you bumped into her.” The other remarked.
“That’s an understatement.” Elliot chuckled.
“Hello.” Ditzy said looking up at the two men. A small flash of surprise crossed their faces. Although they had heard a few rumours about her, they were still surprised to hear her talk.
“Nice to meet you Ma’am, I’m Charlie. I’m these two clown’s boss, one of them at least.” The tall rugged one said, nodding politely.
“Charlie here is our sergeant.” Duffy piped up. “Makes sure we’re remembering to point our guns the right way and not dicking around too much.”
“And I’m Sergeant Harris.” The other one said smiling. Ditzy noticed with confusion that he had a slightly different uniform and wasn’t quite as rugged as the other three. “Most of the lads call me Harry though.”
“Harry is one the tankies, he’s the gunner on that one over there.” Elliot explained. He pointed to a Sherman with a longer than normal barrel that was partially shrouded by the dark night. “We’ve only been with his unit for a few days but Harry is shaping up to be a fine scrounger for us Paras.”
“Of course being a tankie, some of the lads say he should get out and run a bit more.” Duffy added with a snicker.
“Well I think some of the lads should shut their fucking mouths.” Harry remarked, giving Duffy a scathing look.
The other men chuckled lightly before returning their attention to the Pegasus.
“That’s a nice little wound you got there.” Charlie remarked, tugging the bandage wrapped around her hind leg. “How’d you get that?”
“She was unlucky enough to be around when one of those German Stick bombs went off, just a few little scratches and a small piece of shrapnel though, nothing too serious.” Duffy explained, remembering Ditzy whinnying in pain when the grenade had exploded. It was a sound he never wanted to hear again, a heart-wrenching sound of a small and helpless creature in a cruel and uncaring world. Although he had only known Ditzy for a few hours, he was already growing fond of the small winged pony.
“So where are you from?” We don’t see many…” Harry trailed off.
“Pegasus.” Duffy helpfully reminded him.
“Right, We don’t see many Pegasus in these parts.”
Ditzy shifted her weight off her hind leg and made herself a little more comfortable on the hard metal before she started.
“I’m from Ponyville. It’s one of the large border villages in Equestria. You haven’t heard of it have you?”
Charlie and Harry looked at her with confusion. “Never heard of it.” They said in unison.
“I assumed as much.” She sighed sadly. “I don’t know where I am. When I was outside before, the stars in the sky look completely different, the constellations we have back home are gone. Nothing looks the same. I’ve never even heard of France or Europe before today.” She said quietly. Duffy and Elliot had shown her a small map of France earlier that day. Much to her surprise, the land looked nothing like Equestria. The familiar mountain ranges and fields were gone and replaced by dense forests and rolling hills.
“So… You’re not from around these parts then.” Charlie said obviously, placing his now empty food dish on the floor of the truck with a soft rattle.
“Yeah.”
“Suppose you’ve travelled between worlds or something. Like Gulliver or Alice maybe?” Harry piped up. Unlike the others in the truck, he was an avid reader and enjoyed imagining the fantastic and the impossible. The other occupants of the vehicle looked at him like he gone mad.
“Why would you say that?”
“Well I’ll be frank Ditzy, you’re a Pegasus. While that might not seem strange to you, to us, you’re kind of legendary. A Pegasus is a mythical creature so by general common sense you shouldn’t exist. By that, I think you must have come from somewhere else. I mean Alice fell down a rabbit hole and look what she found. What if Ditzy did something similar?”
“Mate, that’s a children’s book. Think seriously here.” Charlie said dryly.
“She isn’t even supposed to be real.” Harry countered, “Maybe you should open your mind a bit.”
The truck was silent for a moment. While Ditzy understood that Harry was just trying to help, she couldn’t help but feel a little hurt by his comment.
“Tell us about your home… Where you come from. What’s it like?” Charlie ordered.
Ditzy blinked at stared at the roof of the truck, thoughts swirling in her head. What if she wasn’t in Equestria? Then what? How would she get home? What would happen to Dinky without her?
“Ditzy?”
“Yeah… Um. It’s nice. Really nice. It’s beautiful, I’m sure you’d like it. The fields are full of lush grass and crops, the forests are green and lush and when autumn comes around they turn a beautiful red and orange as the leaves fall.” She let out a sad sigh, she was already homesick. “Ponyville itself is a small village in the south of Equestria. It’s bordered by a large snow-capped mountain range to the south and sweeping fields all the way north to the capital Canterlot which sits on the side of a mountain. From there, we are ruled by our two princesses who raise the sun and the moon each day. Princess Celestia rules the day while her Sister, Luna, rules the night.” She sniffled quietly. “Sorry, I guess you never realise how good something is until it’s gone…”
Duffy gave her a reassuring pat on the head. “You’ll get home, somehow, but you’ll get there.”
Charlie whistled lowly. “That’s a pretty hard tale to believe. How the hell do your princesses raise the sun and the moon?”
Ditzy shrugged. “Magic.”
“You can’t seriously believe in magic can you?”
“All unicorns in Equestria can use magic. I don’t know how it works, but it does. I guess it’s just normal for us. Don’t you have magic here?”
The truck was silent again for a moment as the four men digested this new information.
“Just cheap card tricks and illusions. Not real magic like you’re talking about.” Elliot said
Charlie shook his head in disapproval. “Magic isn’t real mate. No such thing. Look, it was nice meeting you Ditzy, but I’ve gotta head off. Unlike these three, I’ve actually got some work to do.” Charlie muttered. He pulled the back flap of the truck out and leapt down gracefully.
Ditzy looked after him sadly. “Doesn’t he believe me?”
Elliot flashed a supportive look at her. “Don’t worry about him darl, It’s a bit much for us to just accept. Things are much different here. Sure the world is full of beautiful places like yours is, but we are a lot more…” he trailed off as he searched for the right word. “Skeptical.” He said. “Most people wouldn’t believe what you said. Most people wouldn’t even believe you exist. We’re really not a nice lot to be around, in comparison, your world sounds like a fairy tale.” He explained.
“But you’re nice…” Ditzy said looking between the three men. “Everypon- Everyone” she corrected “I’ve met here seems really nice.”
“Humans are bastards. Ditzy, we’re fighting a war remember? Have your people ever fought a war against your own kind?”
She shook her head.
"My point exactly."
“I suppose.” Ditzy muttered grudgingly, laying her head down on her forelegs. She was unwilling to simply accept that all humans were bad people. The three men in the truck with her were living proof that they weren’t. A gentle pattering started on the canvas above their heads.
“You know, I’m starting to think with all this rain, that God‘s a fucking Jerry.” Duffy muttered turning his eyes up.
“Can’t you just control the weather? Move clouds around and stuff?” Ditzy asked, used to how Equestrian weather control worked.
Duffy laughed. “That’s rich. If I could move the clouds, I’d let all the goddamn Nazi’s have em.”
“What’s a Nazi?” Ditzy asked.
“There are the people we are fighting. Well to be fair, that’s the government. Not all the Germans are Nazis.” Harry rumbled. “Adolf Hitler is their leader. He’s an evil man.”
“Why?” Ditzy asked, turning to look at the sergeant.
The question threw the man a little. He had never had someone ask him that before.
“Because he stated this bloody war, that’s why.” Duffy muttered angrily, filling in for his comrade. “Germany wasn’t enough for him. Bloody tosser he is.”
“War….” Ditzy rolled the unfamiliar word around.
“Yeah, an entire world war. World War Two.”
“World war?” Ditzy asked. “I don’t understand.”
“Harry, chuck me that paper will you? I’ll draw it for you Ditzy.” He pulled a rough pencil out of his pocket and drew a rough map of the world on the crumpled sheet. Once he had finished he circled roughly where Germany was.
“Right, September 1, 1939. Hitler invaded Poland. We, the United Kingdom and our allies declare war on Germany. Despite this, we offer no real support and he conquers the country quickly. In May, Hitler’s armies then push through Belgium and Belgium in a matter of weeks. France is then attacked and surrenders by late June. Italy also joins Hitler. In the meantime, Japan is invading China all the way over here.” He pointed to the respective countries. “Japan then joins the alliance with Italy and Germany forming the main Axis powers. Germany and Italian forces also attack northern Africa." he paused to take a breath. "Skip forward a year. The Axis powers turn on their former ally, Russia and are only held back by the Russians tenacity and the timely arrival of winter. The Japanese attack the Americans in late 1941, dragging them into the war as well on our side. Skip forward to 1944. We’ve retaken North Africa already and launched the largest invasion ever seen to retake France. By now, almost every country in the world is at war. The will of one man effectively hurled the world into another world-wide war a mere twenty years after the last one ended.” Duffy scrunched the crude map up and hurled it out the back of the truck in disgust. “Millions of men, women and children dead because of him and the entire world is thrown into turmoil, that's why he is evil..”
Ditzy looked at him, mouth agape. The idea of an entire country at war was hard enough to think about, ever mind an entire world. The idea didn’t seem possible to her.
“And… And this is normal?” she asked shakily.
“It bloody well feels like it.” Duffy snarled. He silently brooded for a moment, lost in his own thoughts. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have gotten angry like that. I just want to go home. See my family again.” he tugged out a small photo out of his pocket and held it in front of Ditzy. A beautiful woman holding a small child was captured on small piece of colourless paper. “That’s my wife, and that’s my daughter. She’d only be turning seven this year. If we get through this deployment, maybe I’ll get to see them again.” He explained, holding the picture in front of her before putting it away carefully “Do you have family Ditzy?” he asked quietly.
“Yes. I have a husband and a daughter. I miss them already.” She said sadly.
The truck lapsed back into silence save for the light pattering of rain on the canvas above them. Harry fiddled with a small trinket of his and Elliot had closed his eyes, trying to get some sleep.
“I think I’d better head back to my unit.” Harry said, standing. “Don’t want the leftentant thinking I’ve done or runner or something. Nice chatting with you as always. Nice meeting you Ditzy. Cheerio.” He pulled the back flap up, letting a light drizzle of rain in before leaping out with a wet squelch. The flap closed again, shutting the rain out leaving the three alone in the truck.
Duffy was about to close his eyes when Ditzy spoke up.
“Duffy, do humans always fight?”
He sat there for a moment, silent as he thought about what to say to the naïve Pegasus.
“Yes. We do. Whether it is for land, resources or revenge, we always fight.”
“Why?”
“Because that’s the way the world works.” He said back gruffly. “Now how about you be quiet and go to sleep. I’m sure you’ve had a crazy enough day, now get some rest.” He rolled over, facing away from Ditzy and closed his eyes.
Ditzy lay her head back down on her forelegs and closed her eyes. She felt a small tear creep out and run slowly down her face.
“I just want to go home.” She said softly.
Klaus opened his eyes slowly. He rubbed his eyes and yawned loudly. What a dream, talking ponies and magic! He let out a quiet chuckle; his imagination could run a little rampant sometimes. His mirth was abruptly ended when he realised that the surface he was lying on was far too soft for his barracks bunk.He was also sure the sun didn’t shine through the window in the mornings. He opened his eyes wide and slowly turned his head sideways. The room was the same one as his ‘dream’. ‘Maybe this isn’t a dream.’ He thought with horror. A soft cough interrupted his thoughts. Looking down, he was surprised to see the small foal from yesterday seated on the floor, looking at him expectantly.
“Good morning” it said curiously, Klaus guessed from its high voice that it was female. She pushed a large plate with food towards him with her curiously short, round snot.
“Guten Morgen.” Klaus said eyeing the food. His stomach growled at the sight.
“I didn’t know what you ate, so I kinda made you everything…” the filly said shyly.
“Sorry, I do not… Hear what you say. Could you say again? ” Klaus said rubbing his head.
The little pony repeated itself a little louder.
“Oh… Bitte.” Klaus said picking up the plate and examining the food. Some appeared to be hay of some kind which Klaus passed off as inedible. “Is this… Brot? Sorry… Bread?” he asked pointing at two white slices. He was much more used to dark rye bread and was not accustomed to such delicacies as white bread. The filly nodded in response.
“And this… Apple?” He asked pointing at the large apple looking fruit on the plate. While it may have seemed silly to ask such questions, he was curious to see what foodstuffs were named. Much to his surprise the filly nodded again. ‘Besides the ponies, this place doesn’t seem too different from home…’ he thought. Hauling himself up into a sitting position, he took a cautious bite out of the apple, pleased to find it sweet and juicy. Driven by his hunger, he scarfed down the rest of the meal quickly, the little pony watching him the whole time. He noticed with a hint of surprise a small horn poking out from under its mane. He looked around the room, again surprised to find a small bullet hole in the carpet. ‘This morning is just full of surprises.’ he thought dumbly. He finished the small meal and placed the plate back on the floor. He stood and nodded to the small filly. “I am thankful for the food and… urh… obdach.” He said gesturing to the house. “But I must go.”
He briefly looked for his personal effects but much to his chagrin, could not find them anywhere. Most concerning of all, his luger was missing. He considered asking the small grey filly where they were but did not know how to ask. Shrugging, he opened the door and walked outside, careful to duck his head so he did not hit the door frame. Thankfully the street was mostly deserted, the few ponies out either giving the strange newcomer a cautious look or running off. Mentally remembering the path he had taken to get here, Klaus set off to find his aircraft. A small splash behind him made him wheel around. To his surprise, he was being followed by the small grey filly. He knelt down and looked into her eyes. “Why… Why do you follow me?” he asked in broken English.
“Because I want to.” She responded as if it was plainly obvious. “I’m Dinky by the way.” She added holding a hoof up for him to shake. Klaus looked at it awkwardly for a moment before gently shaking it. Her fur was soft and warm to touch.
“Klaus.” He said simply before turning on his heel and continued marching out of town.
After splashing through a few large puddles, Klaus found himself outside the edge of the town. Turning his gaze towards the fields, he saw his grey Messerschmitt standing out clearly against the lush green field. A small trio of ponies played around and investigated the strange craft. Much to Klaus’ surprise, they didn’t flee when he approached.
“Good morning Klaus. Did you sleep well?” A familiar voice said as he approached the plane. A purple head appeared from the cockpit. He drew back slightly in surprise but recognised the face.
“Urh… Sparkle?” he asked uncertainly.
The unicorn giggled. “Twilight.”
“Entschuldigen sie Frau Twilight…” He caught himself mid-sentence. ‘English!’ He reminded himself. “Frau Twilight, what are you doing in my Messerschmitt?”
“Oh so that’s what it is called?” she asked, ducking her head back inside and ignoring his question. The three ponies Klaus had noticed before were now sitting on the wing and staring at him with wide eyes.
“Ja.” He responded irritably. Her inquisitive nature was starting to bother him slightly.
“Was this what you wanted to show me?” she asked, her head popping back up, an excited smile on her face.
“Ja.” He said again.
“So… What is it?”
“Is Messerschmitt zwie-sechs-zwie. Schellste Flugzeug in die Luftwaffe und der erste Düsenjäger der welt. Bewaffnet mit vier 30 Millimetre-Kannonen fähig, sich einen amerikanischen schweren Bombenflugzeug in wenigen Einstellungen-.”
“English?” Twilight interrupted, cocking her head to the side.
“Sorry, I get… excited about it.” he scratched his head. “I do not know in English. Sorry. Maybe I can… zeichnen?” he asked miming drawing a picture.
“Draw?”
“Yes. I can draw maybe?”
She levitated a scroll, a quill and an ink well over to the German pilot. He took the offered items after a moment of hesitation; he would take a while to get used to her magical abilities. Walking to the wing, he laid the parchment out and began drawing what he had said as simply as he could. He paused for a moment and for a reason he couldn’t quite place a finger on, decided to not include the fact the plane was armed. The three fillies on the wing craned their necks and watched him curiously.
“’Excuse me mister, what’cha drawin’?” the one with a muted yellow coat asked.
“I am drawing this.” He waved at the plane.
“Wah?”
“Because I cannot speak.”
“Yer speaking fine ter me.”
Klaus looked up at the filly. “Ich spreche nicht gut Englisch und habe Schwierigkeiten, wie ist. Auch bitie die Klappe Halten.” He said angrily, immediately regretting that he had raised his voice at the small pony.
“Umm… Sorry?” She said, drawing back slightly.
“How about you three run off, I’m sure Klaus has enough on his hands without you three being around.” Twilight intervened.
“Okay…” they said together, walking sullenly back towards the town.
Klaus thanked Twilight silently and returned to his drawing.
“Sorry, am not usually mad like that. Bad day.” He explained.
“I can imagine.” Twilight said smugly.
“Ms Sparkle? What is this thing?” a little voice asked.
Peering down from the cockpit, Twilight saw Dinky sniffing one of the wheels curiously.
“Dinky! What are you doing here?”
“I followed him. I was curious.” She said abashedly.
Twilight rolled her eyes.
“Well since you ask, I believe this is some sort of crewed device for flying. But that’s impossible as heavier than air flight is impossible without magic. Unless you are born with wings, you can’t fly. But this is what gets me, just look at it! It’s aerodynamically sound, it has a large flat area capable of generating lift and all the other important parts something would need to fly. It’s clearly made to fly, but it just doesn’t seem possible! There is no way it could generate enough power to lift itself off the ground.” She said pointing upwards.
“Aerody-what now?” Dinky asked confused.
“Frau Twilight. Look” Klaus said, interrupting Twilight before she could lecture Dinky on the finer points of aerodynamics. He passed her a crudely drawn image of his plane.
She studied the image for a short time. “Oh! So they are engines?” she asked, pointing a hoof at the cylinders slung under the wings.
“Yes I think, I do not know word. They push plane forward. Make… fly?” he said, hoping he had used to right words.
“I see now. They must be very powerful, much more so than any steam turbine we have. How do they work?” She asked, ignoring the confused looks on Klaus’ face.
“I do not understand.” He said
“Work.” Twilight asked slowly, “How do they work?”
“Work?” Klaus took the picture back and drew a rough image of the engine. He had a basic understanding of how a jet engine worked and drew a detailed diagram as he could for the unicorn. He handed it back to her when he had finished.
“Fascinating.” She remarked. A sudden squawk from the cockpit scared her and sent Klaus scrambling. He had heard a transmission, he was sure of it.
“What was that?” Twilight asked a small amount of courage returning to her voice.
“It sounded like a bird.” Dinky added, trying to be helpfully.
“Nein. No. Was radio noise. Am sure of it.” Klaus said frantically fiddling with his receiver. “Did you turn on?” he asked remembering that he had flicked the device off yesterday.
“I-I don’t know. I scrambled around in here for a little while so I may of. Did I break something?”
“Nein, is good thing.” He said, making some small adjustments to his instruments.
The noise returned faintly, but it was there. Klaus pressed the receiver to his ear excitedly
“…sie dies hören, zu reagieren.Wiederholen. Oberleutant Klaus wenn sie dies hӧren, zu reagieren.” A static-laden voice, as if being transmitted over a long distance, said.
“Das ist Oberleutant Klaus, erhalte ich Ihnen.”
“Herr? Dies ist Obergefreiter Yost der zwӧlften Luftwaffen-Feld-Divisionen. Wir verfolgen Ihre Funksignal an dieser Stelle. Wo bist du? Ist Ihr Flugzeug intakt? Sind Sie verletzt?”
“Nein es geht mir gut. Mein Flugzeug ist intakt. Wie wiet bist du?”
“Meine Herr, wir sind genau da, wo sie das Signal wom Ursprung ist. Können Sie uns nicht sehen?”
Klaus’ face paled visibly. “Was?” he asked back. “Ich bin in der Mitte eines Feldes!”
“Wir send in einem Wald.” The voice said slowly back before the signal suddenly vanished in a roar of static. The radio whined sympathetically before it exploded in a small shower of sparks.
“Verdammt!” Klaus yelled, scrambling away as the device failed. “Hallo! Hallo!” he yelled before throwing the transmitter away in disgust. Foolishly he had left the cockpit open yesterday, the heavy rain must have seeped in and ruined the fragile electronics in the device.
“What happened?” Twilight asked appearing over his shoulder.
“I do not know... There was a search team that was looking for me. I pick up their radio. They say they find me but I am nowhere to be found. I do not see search team, they do not see me.” He hung his head. “I do not think I am in France now. Where am I?” He said slowly, unwillingly accepting his fate.
“Do you think you could have travelled across worlds? Across different planes of existence. You came from your world into ours?” Twilight asked, an inquisitive look forming on her face. It was a long shot, but she had a possible theory.
Klaus looked at her in confusion. “I understand only some words you say.”
“Sorry, let me explain.” She levitated the scroll to her. “Let’s say you live here. Your world.” She drew a circle.
“Ja, World.” Klaus said, unsure of where was going.
“Now this is my world, where we are now.” She drew another circle. “Now what if you suddenly went from your world to ours? Like you crossed between the two worlds.”
Klaus shook his head. While what she was saying would explain what had happened, he did not understand how it could have happened.
“What make you think of this?”
“I sent a letter to my teacher last night asking if she had heard of your kind. She hadn’t so I thought that maybe you aren’t from this world. I mean, you have technology which we have nothing comparable to for one and we’ve never had any recorded contact with any creatures like yourself.” Twilight rattled off faster than a machine gun.
“But how? How could I ‘cross worlds’ as you say. I do not understand.” Klaus asked scratching his chin in confusion.
“Have you ever heard of a parallel world?” she drew a set of parallel lines when Klaus looked at her strangely.
“Parallel?” he asked. “You mean like does not meet?”
“Sort of. Now it has been thought for a long time amongst our scientists that the universe has multiple realities. She drew many other circles. “Many different worlds where things are different, but they all run at the same time.”
“I think I understand.” Klaus said. “You think where I am from is different… reality?” he asked, using the unfamiliar word.
“Yes. If we can find out how you got here, maybe we get you back home.”
“Do you really think?”
“Maybe.”
“But this not explain how I get here.” Klaus said throwing his arms up. He crouched down on the damp ground next to Dinky.
“You never told me how you got here. Maybe there is something there which could help us.” Twilight said, hopping down from the cockpit.
Klaus thought back to yesterday. “I was in plane. Fliegen.” He said sticking his arms out and moving as if he was flying through the sky.
“Flying?”
“Ja, I was flying with my gruppe. I see strange lights. Lights then… I do not know word… Attackieren me. I panic when I see purple light around plane. After is black, then I am here.”
“Purple light? Describe it.”
“Ah… Light was urh… Unscharf. Like your fur. Unscharf.” He said again, rubbing Dinky’s fur.
“Fuzzy? Soft? Warm?”
“Urm… Fuzzy. I think.”
Twilight looked up with interest. “Where did it appear?”
Klaus stood up and walked over to his plane.
“It first appear here and here.” He said rubbing his hand along the tips and leading edges of the wing.
“Did you hear buzzing?” She made a buzzing sound so he understood.
“Ja.”
“Interesting, what you seem to be describing is something we call Celestia’s Fire. We’re not exactly sure what causes it, but it can precede large storms. It usually appears around sharp objects like the lightning rod on my house. It can appear on cattle's horns and grass in particularly rare cases.”
“What does this mean?”
“Well it means that whatever brought you here has something to do with electricity.” She frowned. She paced backwards and forwards in front of Klaus talking to herself.
“Maybe some of the energy from the lighting storm seeped through to your world? Maybe they are running much closer than we thought?” She snapped up and looked at Klaus. “When you were brought here, what was the weather like?”
He was taken aback by the strange question. “Sun. Not storm like here.”
Apparently satisfied, she resumed her pacing. “Well that seems like a possibility. Perhaps the Celestia’s fire appeared around this thing more easily as it is made of metal. Might have to test that... Maybe a lightning strike hit something here, and leaked enough power to rip through the barriers separating the worlds?” She threw her hooves up in the air and snorted in frustration. “I don’t know. It could be possible but…” She grunted and pulled an annoyed face.
Klaus looked at her with an expression of concern and confusion. “Frau Twilight, are you ok?”
“Fine Klaus. Just confused. I have a possible theory on how you got here but I need to check some books.”
“What does this mean?”
“If I’m right I can get you home. Or possibly have a bolt of lightning strike your craft and have it explode into a fiery flaming fireball.”
Klaus gulped nervously.
“But that probably won’t happen. Maybe. Can you get this thing to fly?”
Klaus hung his head. “No.”
“Why? Is it broken?”
“No is working. Just… No fuel.” He thumped the fuel tank in the nose of the aircraft and was rewarded with a hollow thud.
“Can you get more?”
“I do not know. Maybe.” He thought for a moment. The apparent lack of industrialisation probably meant that these ponies were still to discover crude oil. He remembered from a chemistry class in his distant past that coal could somehow be liquefied and refined into diesel but immediately scrapped that idea, he had no idea how he could perform such a process.
“What fuel do you even need?”
“Benzin… Urh… I do not know English. Fuel needs to…” He mimed an explosion. “We use… Oil I think it is. Oil or diesel.”
“We have oil. We use it for cooking."
“Es ist nicht gut genug. Is not, um… Pure enough.”
“So… you need refined oil?” Twilight asked, cocking an eyebrow.
“Ja, I think so.”
“Well we will figure something out, somehow, now if you excuse me I have a lot of books to read. Maybe I'll find something about your oil while I'm looking.” She leapt off the plane deftly, levitated her things into a bag and set off back into town.
Klaus stood there blinking for a moment before looking down at Dinky. “Is she always so… crazy?”
“Yep.” Dinky replied simply. She stared after the unicorn before returning her gaze to Klaus. “So… Mr Klaus.” She said, having trouble pronouncing his name, “Since you might be here for a while, would you like me to show you around Ponyville?” she asked timidly.
“Urh, okay.” He said, a little unwilling to leave his aircraft unattended. “One moment. I just make safe.” He clambered onto the jet and pushed the canopy down, sealing the cockpit off. He didn’t want anything else getting inside. Satisfied that his jet was as secure as he could make it, he jumped back down, landing with a squelch as he hit the damp ground.
“Okay, Show me this Ponyville.”