Canterlot Royal Infirmary
Equstria, Canterlot
Unknown
1921
"Captain Peters allow me to introduce my recently returned sister, Princess Luna,". Celestia had spoken with the caution and tone of a diplomat introducing me to the new pony as if I was Earths ambassador to Equestria meeting with my counterpart for the very first time.
I chose not to respond to Celestia's comment, instead, I continued to analyze the new pony in front of me as pieces of the puzzle began to collectively manifest inside my head.
Within a few seconds, the last piece of the puzzle clicked into place. Under normal circumstances, I would have scolded myself for not figuring this out earlier, however, given my current predicament I was willing to let such a mental blunder slide under the rug for now.
Part of me felt angry, another scared and the largest part of me just felt general confusion at my current situation.
The Pony standing in front of me was no doubt some part of the demon horse that had attacked me back at Luigos mansion however at the same time all I could see was a scared light blue horsey thing. On any world even in one so magically fucked up as this, the situation still didn't make any sense to me.
"Captain?" I turned my head away from the new pony to face Celestia (all be it hesitantly) to see what she had to say now.
"Yes?" I inquired, trying to keep one eye on the blue one and the other on the white.
"Is there something wrong?" Celestia asked as her eyes began to slowly shift between me and her "sister".
I was about to respond when another voice entered the awkward fray.
"Sister, maybe... Perhaps it would be best we left and..."
"No,". I stated. Turning immediately I plunged both my eyes into the pony causing her to shrink back into a smaller form of herself.
Sensing a palpable tension Celestia tried to speak up. "Captain if you would allow me to explain then I..."
"Shut up,". I snapped in Celestia's direction this time causing Celestia to recoil slightly, although not to the extent her sister had.
"You don't need to explain shit to me,". I remarked my frown slowly disappearing as a smirk appeared across my face.
"I know this is your sister, who judging by the look is also a Princess and I suppose something shit happened and she ended up being turned into an "evil villain" and tried to take over the world and it just so happens I got caught up in it and ended up getting shot by her before she was magically restored to her no doubt lovely self!" I yelled as both the sisters looked on with mixed looks and emotions scootching close to each other as I continued.
"This is the most cliche shit I have ever heard and you know what? I'm more than happy to spend the night with little blue here, we can be the best of friends whilst you can go somewhere else and stop asking me questions and find a way to get me home!"
For the ten millionth times today, an awkward silence descended upon the room.
Well, Danny. Your diplomatic skills are top par! Why join the army when I could have been working for the UN as a chief negotiator?
Sighing I calmed myself down looking away from the two princesses opposite me.
"Look, guys, I'm just a soldier, I'm not used to what I'm assuming we would call a first contact scenario with another race, that shits above my head by a million miles." Pausing I looked back up to see Celestia somewhat relaxing as she began to return to all fours pulling her sister up with her.
"This has been the most stressful situation I've ever been in and that's saying a lot considering my job is getting shot at, I apologize for the way I've been talking to you and the tone I've used. That's not humanity so please don't judge us upon my behavior here,". I finished talking as Celestia listened to my words.
Either they believe me or they just think I'm Bipolar either way, I need to get some kind of relationship established here.
Finally, Celestia cleared her throat. "Capt... Daniel, I won't judge your species based on your actions over the past few days, I understand your situation is a lot to go through and I promise you I will allocate resources to finding out how you arrived here in the first place and hopefully how to get you back home, all I ask is patience and understanding,".
Wow. That went better than I had expected.
"Thank you," I said. Pausing I turned my head slightly to her sister, "Luna" I think it was. At present, she was still standing behind her sister as if I was going to leap out and attack her at any moment.
"Luna was it?" I asked locking eye contact with her again.
Luna appeared to shrink back at the mention of her name being uttered by me but tried to pull herself back up into a respectable form. "Um, yes its Luna," she muttered under her breath breaking eye contact with me to face the ground.
Shit, it's almost like she's afraid that I will bring down my hammer or retribution any minuet now for her actions in the castle.
"Ok, Luna, just so we're on a clear page where I want you to know that I don't really know what kinda stuff you went through that led up to you shooting me with a laser beam and at this particular moment its not the most important thing in the world,"
Sensing the calmness in my voice Luna slowly peered up towards me as if ushering me to continue.
"Your big sister does seem to have a point here, we've both been placed into a situation that we're not too familiar or comfortable with, so it seems that maybe whilst I'm here we can help each other out, what do you think?" I asked trying to put on my best smile to show her my genuine kindness that I showed so very often.
A few seconds of silence followed as Luna appeared to contemplate her decision at moments switching her gaze between myself, her sister and the door positioned behind her. However, after a few more seconds of hesitation, she spoke up.
"Um, ok,". It wasn't much by any means but it was a start and I had to capitalize on what I had.
"Great, so how about we do something then? God knows I'm sick and fed up of sitting in this room," I said. Slowly I began to pull myself up from my current position in the bed as I swang both my legs over the sides of the small hospital bed.
I had expected that doing would have produced a lot of pain but, to my surprise, it wasn't nearly as painful as I thought and so I continued my struggle to get out of bed much to the surprise of Celestia and Luna who just seemed to stand there watching me.
I had half expected Celestia to show some sort of protest at my actions especially when I started to pull the plugs and lines out of my body in order to better free myself from the bed. However, instead, she just stood there albeit not looking overly happy at my actions but then again what was she going to do? Force me back?
Before I could attempt to stand up from the bed the door to the room swung open almost crushing little Luna as four ponies all dresses in nurses and doctors uniforms rushed into the room with what appeared to be a crash kit.
All of them came to a screeching halt however when they saw me sitting up staring right back at them. I began to once again enter a staring contest with some more random ponies, it was starting to become somewhat of a cliche at this point.
Eventually one of the doctors spoke up. "What are you doing out of bed?!" He half yelled dropping the crash pad by his side completely blanking the two princesses standing next to him.
"Uh, I'm going for a walk with my pal here," I replied motioning to the princesses that were still positioned behind him.
Upon hearing my answer the doctor spun round to see what it was I was pointing at. I could only imagine the shock he must have felt when he came face to face with the two rulers of the country staring back at him.
Immediately the doctor and the rest of the "crash team" dropped to their knees all muttering words of grace directed at the two monarchs.
"Rise my little ponies," Celestia said extending her wings as if for dramatic effect.
Slowly the ponies all started to rise as the lead doctor cleared his clearly dried throat to speak. "A thousand apologies your majesties for the intrusion but when our friend here disconnected himself we got a notification that he had gone into cardiac arrest, hence the quick response,". The doctor said motioning his hoof to the other medical staff behind him.
"It was very impressive, you should be proud of your diligence that your staff shows whilst on duty,". Celestia commented bowing her head in respect to the group of ponies that now surrounded her.
The doctor clearly hadn't prepared to be complemented by the ruler of the land as was apparently now finding it hard to stand on all fours as he muttered an incoherent "thank you".
"The Captain would like to go on a short walk with my sister, I will keep an eye and make sure that they do not encounter trouble whilst you and your staff take a little break,". Celestia spoke to the doctors in such a way that you simply couldn't argue with her even if she was talking rubbish.
The doctor seemed to hesitate, clearly not wanting to leave his patient (me) unattended. However, it seems that not even the royal doctor could say no to her majesty and so without uttering any form of rebuttal he simply bowed his head in acknowledgment.
"Of course, whatever you wish your majesty," The other medical staff followed once again bowing towards the floor in worship.
A small smirk appeared to form across Celestia's face as they did so.
Wait? Did she just... Did she just play them?! What a champ. Immediately I found it within myself to give her a little more respect from my severely depleted supply.
Slowly but surely the medical team shuffled their way out of the room leaving just me, Celestia and Luna inside in awkward silence.
"Now Captain, are you sure you feel okay to walk, your injuries were quite severe?" Celestia asked. Clearly, she was concerned about my wellbeing. Under usual circumstances I wouldn't be so quick to trust however, im need to keep reminding myself that these are hardly what anyone could or would call usual circumstances.
"Trust me I feel brand new, it's like I've never been injured," I replied as I flexed my limbs to show her that I was telling the truth.
Celestia was not convinced and moved to position herself directly in front of me. "Don't be fooled Captain, you may feel "brand new" as you say however it is nothing more than an illusion," Celestia stated.
"Illusion?" I said in an almost mocking tone. "What the hell are you talking about now?" I said as I tried to stand only to be held in place by a familiar golden aura.
Fucking magic bullshit. I thought as I glared at Celestia.
"Yes, if you'd allow me to explain without trying to force your way out of your bed" Celestia replied calmly never raising her voice as she maintained her hold.
Recognizing my disadvantage and in the spirit of diplomatic relations, I relented as I stopped pushing against the aura that had enveloped me.
As if detecting my drop in resistance the golden aura around me dissipated into nothingness allowing me to see normally again without the golden hue.
Smiling Celestia started to explain. "As I was going to say the hospital ward is covered in a regeneration blanket which is used to give an additional magical boost to patients healing. It also helps alleviate any pain you may be experiencing, however, the effects will quickly wear off once you leave the hospital ward,".
As Celestia finished her explanation I took a moment to gather all of her words together to analyze. Apparently, the moment I left the hospital wing I would become stricken with pain. Somehow I didn't buy it, I mean I felt completely fine. Plus she said it helps to alleviate pain not remove it and currently I was feeling no pain at all except for the sleepy muscles in my body.
Deciding to put Celestia's warning aside, for now, I decided to take some action. Starting slowly I flexed my rigged muscles and flexed my body side to side causing all sorts of cracks to sound from within me causing my to release a pleasant exhale much to the bewilderment of the two princesses.
After properly flexing my body I threw both my legs down at the floor as I supported myself by placing both my hands onto the side of my hospital bed. It took a few seconds longer than normal but before long I was standing at my full height.
Happy with my accomplishment I sent a massive grin right into Celestia's face who I was now eye level with. Celestia seemed a little taken back by me now that I was standing at my full height. I was definitely taller than any pony I had seen so far with the exception of Celestia of course.
After establishing a proper balance and taking a first few shady steps I made my way across the room to the window. It had been one of the biggest things on my mind since I woke up and now I was truly going to see where I was.
Upon reaching the window I came to an abrupt stop as I measured what was before my eyes.
A CITY!!
A Huge, Medevil, Happy, Pony looking city was right there in front of me!
I couldn't even begin to describe it, the first thing that came to my mind was bright. The city was almost aglow with the colors of gold and purple, presence stone roads could be made out from the window and although I was far too high I swear I could see hundreds of little ponies walking around the streets.
I was so captivated with the city space that I didn't hear Luna walk up behind me before she spoke.
"It has been a, a long time since we saw our home," Luna said softly causing me to jump slightly at the sudden presence beside me.
"How long?" I asked not moving my gaze away from the cityscape.
When I didn't get a reply I managed to slowly tear myself away from the view to look at the smaller blue pony next to me.
Luna was avoiding eye contact with me her face locked to the ground with her ears pinned against her head. I looked over to Celestia who simply looked on with sad eyes neither of them speaking to me.
"1000 Winters,".
Luna spoke softly, her gaze never leaving the ground as I looked back to Luna in surprise.
"I'm sorry I don't really understand your timeframe here," I said looking back to Celestia for confirmation. "How many winters do you guys have in a year here?"
"One," Celestia answered also looking down to the ground.
"Huh," I said. "Go figure,".
Again under normal circumstances, I suppose id be freaking out around now but given the current state of my day it didn't seems like the strangest thing, although definitely in the top five.
"Well if you haven't been around the block in 1,000 years I guess we could both go out and have a little wander then," I purposed looking back towards Luna.
Luna looked up towards me upon hearing this. "You, you want us to go with you?" She asked in an almost bewildered tone.
"Yeah sure, since we're both relatively new here," I said. "What do you say?" I asked as I reached my hand out towards her ET style.
After what appeared to be hours Luna slowly reached her left hoof out towards my hand as I reached my hand out to grasp her hoof in a shake.
"Well, since were frien...," I began to speak but was cut off by a background buzzing. Without even having time to think about it my vision went white then dark as I could hear shouting and screaming around me.
BOOM
"MAN DOWN!" A voice echoed from around me as the buzzing got louder in my ear.
"THE CAPTAINS BEEN HIT BAD!" I could hear another voice shout from around me but I was too disorientated to focus correctly.
Crack Crack Crack
"RPG!!" The sounds of explosions tore around my body as flashes of white and yellow filled the corners of my vision.
"CAPTAIN!!"
"CAPTAIN!"
...
"Captain?" Opening my eyes I saw Luna standing in front of me again her hoof was now out of my hand and back on the ground. The sound was gone and my vision had returned to normal. Without even thinking I twisted my body around to try and identify the source of the previous sounds that I had heard.
"Captain?" Twisting my head back round I saw Luna now staring at me with confusion and, fear?
"Ye, Yeah," I answered.
"Are you ok?" She asked finally making full eye contact with me for the first time.
"Yeah, Yeah I'm fine Blue,"
"Are you sure Captain you seemed to be quite distressed?" Celestia asked moving closer to the two of us.
"Yeah, just a little glitch I'm sure, just getting used to my surroundings," I told her as I tried to build a story up on the fly.
Celestia seemed concerned but didn't seem to press on the matter much to my relief.
"Right, so Blue," I said capturing Luna's attention. The fact that she had taken to the nickname that easily was quite entertaining but unfortunately it did little to calm me down.
"Are we going to go for that walk or not?" I asked straightening myself upwards.
"Um, yeah if you want to," Luna replied slowly walking towards the door.
"Cool, Are you coming to Celestia?" I asked looking back to her.
"I would, however, I believe I should leave you to alone for now, if you need anything just ask one of the guards of service ponies for help," Celestia responded.
"Um, yeah sure," I responded. "Well let's go for a walk then," I said as I pushed the room door open and stepped into a whole new world.