Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Equstria, Canterlot
Unknown
1742
It had been a few hours since my meeting with the princess of Equestria, who apparently wanted to introduce me to some more of her people. In all honesty, given the way that the ponies were going about this, I would have thought the king or queen would have paid a visit by now to say hello to me. However, as the minutes ticked by no such people arrived, thus I was forced to keep myself entertained with my PDA.
The PDA was an old invention that had really just been altered slightly during the second half of the '20s for combat use. It didn't rely on internet use as it used an internal memory core making it ideal for soldiers to take with them into the field for whatever purpose they may have.
Personally, I just used mine for mission-related activities, medical diagnostics and keeping up to date with all the new SOP's that were rolled off of the assembly line every two months.
Currently, I was trying to get the PDA to get a fix on my location using whatever means necessary. If cut off from satalite connections say for instance, if you were trapped in a cave. The PDA was designed to work on internal sensors to show a basic map of the immediate surroundings to prevent people from getting lost.
I had only been able to map the room that I was currently in as the door was shut but my hope was that once I was allowed to move about id be able to get a better idea of where I was should I need to escape.
Celestia seemed like a nice enough pers... Pony. However, there was something about her that I just couldn't trust. If anything she was too nice. Releasing my restraints, giving me my PDA, talking to me. She had played good cop the entire way through the interview. She had managed to obtain lots of information from me and my PDA whilst I had only a tuppence to show for it.
If my theory was correct then I suppose that sooner or later I will be meeting the pony version of the bad cop to try and frighten me into giving up all of my secret plans for conquering pony land.
A small knock on the door caught my attention and pulled me out of my mullings.
"Enter," I said in a loud enough voice as to let whoever was knocking here my response.
A second later the door slowly opened as Celestia's head popped through the door the same smile plastered all over her face.
"Captain," She said walking over to me closing the door behind her. "I hope you don't mind but I brought you some visitors that I thought you might like to see again,".
See again? I thought to myself trying to think of who it would be.
"Uh, yeah sure that would be fine by me," I replied civilly.
"Oh, wonderful!" Celestia explained as her magic involved the door to my room. "Girls, you can come in now,".
My eyes widened as six colourful ponies trotted into the room. Well, Five colourful ponies trotted whilst one seeminly bounced into the room. In all, there were 2 Unicorns, 2 Pegasi and two. Um, two normal ponies. I immediately recognised them as the girls that I had tried to save whilst I was in the forest, including the princesses purple student.
"Captain may I introduce, Applejack, Fluttershy, Pinkie Pie, Rainbow Dash, Rarity and my personal student Twilight Sparkle,". Celestia spoke pointing with her hoof to each pony as she told me there names.
God, these names are going to get some getting used to. I thought as I tried to figure out why ponies would have those sorts of names in the first place.
Amidst my personal thoughts a range of "Hellos," and "Heys," followed as the six ponies all gathered around my hospital bed. One of the ponies, the princess student, Twilight I believe stepped up the closest to me and cleared her through as if preparing for a speech.
FYI I hate speeches, expect from when I'm making them of course.
"Captain Peters, on behalf of my friends and myself we would personally like to thank you for trying to save us from Nightmare Moon. If it were not for you intervening when you did Equestria would most likely be wrapped in enternal night right now," Twilight explained.
"That's very thoughtful of you to say, um Twilight was it?" Twilight nodded. "Yeah, that's very thoughtful of all of you to say, but all I did was run in and fire some shots before getting shot myself, id hardly call that saving the day," I explained to them.
"Yeah but dude, you totally swopped in there all hero style to save Twilight, now that takes some guts!" The blue one, Rainbow dash explained as she hopped into the air and remained hovering above me using her wings to steady herself.
"I'm a soldier," I reminded her hoping that she would accept my thanks and back off.
Unfortunately, that seemed to have the opposite effect as Rainbows smile doubled. "That just makes you even more awesome, you know, risking life and death and going on super cool missions!" She exclaimed throwing both her front hooves up above her for added effect.
"Let me stop you right there skittles, risking life and death isn't super cool and for your information, I never go on as you would put it "super cool missions" I go out of operations to do my job. I appreciate that you think highly of my actions but I assure you I'm just doing my job,". As I finished my rant Rainbow deflated a little as she lowered her body to the ground clearly hit somewhat by my words.
An award silence seemed to linger around for a few uncomfortable seconds before Celestia broke the silence. "I do believe that Twilight wanted to ask you some questions Captain,".
I looked over from Rainbows face to Twilights. I Immediately caught sight of her clear anticipation to ask me a thousand different questions.
Oh joy, another one of those people I thought to myself knowing that trying to deny it would only lead to more pain. I suppose helping the personal student of the princess would put me in good favour down the road.
Deciding my course of action I smiled slightly at Twilight and spoke. "Alright Twilight, ask me anything,".
Twilights face instantly lit up as did her horn as she summoned a notepad as well as a, a, well I've honestly got no idea what it was, a quill I think they're called but I couldn't be sure. "Ohhh," Twilight cheered. "I've got so many questions to ask I don't even know where to start,".
"Well, why don't we try something I did with Celestia here?" I proposed. Suddenly the room went semi-still as a few feminine gasps could be heard.
You just addressed Celestia by her name and not her title in front of others you fucking twit I scolded myself. To be honest I believe rank is earned and until I knew more about Celestia then that's all she would be to me right now. Well unless I'm put in front of the King or Queen.
Celestia quickly stepped in again to defuse the situation. "Its alright everypony, please don't stop on my account Twilight,".
"What did you have in mind?" Twilight asked, curiosity creeping through her voice.
"Well tell me the first thing you would like to know," I stated as I brought out my PDA from my pocket.
"Um, Princess Celestia told us you don't come from this world, so, I suppose my first question is, where do you come from?" Twilight asked looking directly at me as did the other five ponies curiosity in all of their eyes.
"Okay, Computer answer Twilights question, where do I come from, give her the full description please,"
"Accessing,". All of the ponies with the exception of Celestia recalled back as the sound emitted from the PDA before all leaning in closer to see what I was showing them.
"Captain Daniel Peters. Aged 29, Born August 1st 2000 In Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, London, United Kingdom, Earth,"
"Amazing,". Twilight breathed gushing over the simple piece of technology before her. The other five seemed similarly in a state of awe. Even Celestia seemed impressed despite knowing most of the information.
"This United Kingdom you come from, what's it like?" Twilight pressed, dying to know more about my home.
"Your wish is my command. Computer, bring up the current file on the United Kingdom," I said into the PDA.
"The United Kingdom Is A Sovereign Nation Off The Coast Of Western Europe. It Is A Constitutional Monarchy, One Of The Few Nations Left With A Monarch As Head Of State. One Of The Most Influential Nations On Earth, The UK Is A Leading Member Of The United Nations, NATO And The United System Of Planets,".
Once again as the computer finished its monologue the ponies were left speechless. "Wait!" Twilight cried. "Planets?" Twilight asked making sure to put emphasis on the S at the end.
"Its a little hard to explain, its a really recent thing on Earth. Humans currently inhabit three bodies of mass in our solar system. Earth being the first, our Moon is the second and the closest planet to us Mars is the third. Although the second two aren't much more than a couple of scattered colonies as of now,". I tried to explain.
"So humans have the ability to travel into outer space and live on other worlds?!" Twilight asked begging for me to confirm her suspicions that weren't really suspicions at this point.
"Yes, however, we have only had that ability for less than a decade and it took a lot of trial and error to do it,".
Twilight once again scribbling down various short notes onto her notepad, whatever shes hoping to use this information for though I have no idea.
"Captain," Celestia interrupted. "If you don't mind I'm sure the girls would like to hear about Earth from you, and not from a machine,"
I turned my attention back towards the six small ponies that were positioned around my bed who all gave small nods as if to formally approve the idea.
"Uh, alright, well you know I'm from Earth. Its a busy little place, in fact, we just hit 8 Billion on the population counter last year..." A sound of loud gasps escaped the mouths of everyone present, including Celestia herself.
"8, 8 Billion?" Celestia whispered to me not looking convinced. If anything she looked kinda scared to me which definitely was a first.
"Yeah, why what's wrong with that?"
"Equastiras own population is around 5 million and we are the largest nation in terms of population, we can't say for sure what the population of Equss is because there never has been a full census recorded worldwide at any one time," Celestia clarified.
"I see," I said. Given their small population I had to assume that these ponies were mainly living pre industrially from the information I could gather from Celestia. However, the equipment that surrounded me in the hospital bed pointed to the exact opposite. It was beginning to become rather confusing and for now, I decided to let it go.
I had a feeling that these questions could take a little while longer.
The six ponies remained with me for the better part of the hour, all throughout that time I was bombarded by questions (mainly from Twilight) about my world and life. The questions seemed to range from animals to food, however nothing majorly political or world concerning surprisingly.
Eventually, however, the Nurse came in to give me a dose of meds and so the six ponies were slowly ushered out of my room leaving just me with the Nurse and the Princess.
"They're nice ponies," Celestia commented randomly.
Not being able to tell if this was supposed to be some form of conversation starter I just replied with a small nod and "yep,".
"Before I leave you for the evening I have one other pony that I think you should meet," Celestia told me as she walked around my bed coming along my right side in order to let the Nurse give me the new line of medication.
"I'm assuming the Queen?" I guessed figuring it was time I met the head honcho around here.
Celestia stared at me for a moment with a confused look in her eyes. "The Queen?" She asked me, her eyes should visible confusion as if I had just said something completely random. As I looked to my right I saw that the Nurse had stopped installing my latest line of medication and was now looking at me with the same confused gaze that Celestia held.
"Yeah, you know the ruler of um, Equestria like your head of state," I tried to explain as I carelessly fumbled over the English language to get my point across.
However despite my best attempts to explain to Celestia who I was expecting to see her confusion only increased as she looked at me.
"Captain, I'm sorry I thought you knew," Celestia said her confusion slowly dissipating as her warm smile returned.
"Knew, what exactly?" I asked.
"I am the Head Of State and by proxy the Ruler Of Equestria we have no King or Queen,".
...
"Um, why?" I asked, not really knowing how to continue the conversation.
Celestia seemed to sense this from me and quickly drew the line of questioning to a quick end. "I'm afraid it's a longer story than we have time for today, perhaps another time,".
I decided not to argue with her but was now left confused about who I was going to be meeting.
Celestia gave a slight nod to the Nurse that had finished inserting my new medication for the day. The pony quickly retreated out of the room to bring this new pony to me.
"I must ask you, Captain, to please give her a chance, she has been very close and shy since her return and will not openly talk to anyone, I hope that given your current predicament you two may be able to forge a connection,". Celestia's line of dialogue made me even more confused and curious than I was a moment ago and it was now getting to unbearable levels.
"Okay, what the hell is this. Are you paring me up with the kid that's been bullied and feels alone because if you haven't noticed I'm in a bit of a shit predicament myself and I'm not exactly in the mood for helping out kids right now!" I snapped. I couldn't believe that Celestia was trying to already put me to work in her kingdom.
"Captain, I believe you have misunderstood my intentions here, the last time you met her she was in a bad way and I feel like you two can support each other through this difficult transition," Celestia explained to me pacing back over to my bedside.
Wait. Met Before?
"Celestia for the love of God who is this pony your talking about!?" I all but shouted at the Princess.
As if on comedic queue the door to the hospital room was slowly pushed open, stopping my glare at the princess I shifted my head to see who was coming through the door to my room. As soon as I locked eyes with her I paused.
The pony was another Alicorn. She had a blue coat and a lighter blue mane. Her tattoo represented what looked like the Moon and Starrs dotted together on her flank. She was still larger than the average pony that I had seen so far but she was definitely smaller than Celestia was.
The new pony had also frozen when I locked eyes with her and the two of us remained in these states for several seconds as we processed and analyzed each other. All though for what purposes I could not determine.
Sensing the rising tension Celestia cut in. "Captain Peters allow me to introduce my recently returned sister, Princess Luna,".