//------------------------------//
// Chapter VIII 
// Story: Kaiserreich 
// by ObiWan 
//------------------------------//

Twilight looks at her reflection in the mirror and sighs, this is the day, the day that she will meet this being from outer space, this human. She puts on her favourite saddlebag, the one with her cutie mark on it. She begins to take several things for the interrogation, including a notebook, a pencil, an eraser, and other things that can be useful. She is well organized, her mane is combed and she is wearing her crown. 

Suddenly, the door of her guestroom is opened. A night guard enters the room with a serious face, saluting before talking, "your highness, it is time."



Peter's eyes shot open thanks to the sound of the iron gates opening. He slowly stands up, receiving its visitor with his eyes filled with a red colour. Princess Luna entered the cell, her features are softened, and her eyes are much bigger of what he could remember of.  His fists clenched, as he watches the Lunar princess walk towards him.

"Commander," Luna begins softly, "I suppose that thou rested."

Peter doesn't say anything at first, but after some seconds, he sighs while rubbing his temples, "you could say that- at least of what rest is normal for you.

She frowns but doesn't says anything, as her attention changes to a broken bowl on the corner of the cell, "have thou ate?"

He chuckles a bit before responding, "you surely added something toxic to that," he says, pointing at the bowl, "and who in the right mind would just eat alien food."

Luna frowns, "we didn't add something toxic to it, why would we do that?!"

He jerks, frowning at her exclamation, "you can go to frick yourself, I won't fall for your freaking lies."

She was going to continue this small bickering, but she stops herself when she glances at Twilight, who is behind of her nervously looking the two fight. Luna sighs, shaking her head, "commander, I want to present somepony to thou."

Luna glances Twilight to move, and after a little bit of hesitation, she enters the room with a nervous face, halting herself at the sight of the alien. They both exchange glances, Peter's frown changes to a confused face, tilting his head.

"You are purple," Peter states, something unexpected to Twilight, who raises an eyebrow.

"Lavender is the correct word," she responds, beginning to walk towards the alien.

"My God," Peter begins, shaking his head, "this world has the strangest horses I've ever seen in my whole freakin' life."

"Why strange?" Twilight questions, ignoring how he referred to them.

"Well," he begins, rubbing his palms, "you are purple and she is blue," Peter points at them respectively, "the only ones that are at least normal is ummmm Celestia? I believe, and these assholes," he finishes by pointing at the door, obviously referring to the guards.

"Commander sh-" Luna is interrupted by Peter.

"Who are you," Peter asks, looking at Twilight.

She remains silent for some seconds before responding with a small smile, "my name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, princess of friendship."

He snickers, what the frick is that title, but decides to eat that for himself, "what the hell do you want?"

This time Luna intercedes, "commander, she is going to ask thou some questions that we still have, if it's not a nuisance."

He stares at Luna and sighs, "it is a nuisance, but I don't have much of a choice right?"

"You are correct, you don't have much of a choice," she responds with a smile, as Peter frowns again. He looks back at Twilight who has already taken one of her notebooks out of her saddlebag, ready to write any piece of information this alien could provide to her.

"All right, what do you want to know?" Peter says defeating, causing Twilight to smile. Before she could respond to him, Luna speaks again.

"I will leave you two alone," she glances at the human, "I hope we can further cooperate Commander."

"Yeah, we are going to see that...."

Luna exits the room, leaving the two alone. They both remain silent for some seconds before Twilight speaks again, "Ummm- I-I would like to know about your home planet."

Peter snickers, "hmmm all right Princess, ummm," he puts a hand on his neck, "it is called Earth, but I suppose you know that already."

She nods, motioning for him to continue.

"What else ummm it is made up of 71% percent water-" he is interrupted by Twilight.

"71% percent water?" she begins to write furiously on her notebook, even making Peter flinch slightly, "interesting.... continue."

"Ehhhh, well there are several biomes like deserts, forests, jungles-" he is interrupted again.

"How is that?" she raises an eyebrow, "our two planets have similar biomes...."

He shrugs, "there is a theory that says that any planet that contains life needs to have specific requirements, and even if it is almost impossible for this planet to have."

"Why?" she asks.

He hesitates but responds with a sigh, "because- your atmosphere is made up of Carbon Dioxide, which means it is very toxic to humans."

"But then how are you breathing?" she counters, continuing with a frown, "and what substance do you breathe."

"Answering your first question, thanks to your white and blue friends," he stops to scratch his chin, "and to the second one, oxygen."

"WHAT!" she exclaims, startling the astronaut momentarily, "but that is impossible, the oxygen is one of the most toxic gases in the whole planet!"

"Yeah," he begins with a sarcastic tone, "and you know what shocks me even more, how the hell do you know what oxygen is or even what carbon dioxide is, hmmmm," he finishes raising a brow.

Twilight tilts her head, "it is the name that our scientists gave to them hundreds of years ago," she taps her chin, "hmm, that is curious, how do our both species have the same name for those components."

He shrugs, "maybe it was the language spell that your friends gave to me."

"Could be..." she mutters. Twilight begins to write again on her notebook, and after some seconds of silence, she asks another question, "how the political system of your planet works?"

Peter gives her an amused face, "by nations, each one of them with different types of government."

Twilight begins to write again, and with her eyes fixated on her notebook she asks another question, "I heard you come from a nation called the German Empire, that is right?"

Peter nods uninterested.

"So that means that you have an emperor, so you have a monarchy, right?" she asks again.

This time Peter decides to talk again, "you could say that, even though I wouldn't call it exactly a monarchy."

She shows a confused face, "and why is that, you have an emperor right?"

"Yep," he simply says while shrugging, "but, he isn't the person that is actually in charge of my nation."

Now that confused Twilight, a lot you could say. She walks closer to him, "care to explain?"

"We have a government that is called a parliamentary monarchy, meaning that our emperor is the head of state, but the person that rules the nation is called the prime minister."

"What-" she tilts her head confused, "and this prime minister, he is elected from another royal family? if you have one of those of course."

Peter chuckles, "for being emperor, yep you must come from a royal family, that being the House of Hohenzollern," his face turns to an amused one again as she begins to write again on her notebook, "but the prime minister is elected democratically."

"Dem-ocratically?" she asks confused, "what does that mean?"

He raises an eyebrow, "wow, and I thought that idea was universal," he frowns, "it means that the population of a nation is the one that elects the leader," he stops at the screeching sound of the pencil meeting with the paper, "in our case, it is a prime minister, in other countries, that is called a republic and the leader of those is called a president."

She tilts her head, "and then, how many nations are on your planet."

That causes Peter to laugh, making Twilight uncomfortable, "I think that 183 if I am not wrong."

"183!" she exclaims again, her eyes almost boggling out of her head, "wait how many humans are in your world?"

"Hmmm," he taps his chin, "nine billion."

"W-wh," Peter puts a finger on her muzzle, startling her a bit.

"Yeah, no more shouting, thank you," he slowly takes his finger off her muzzle, as a sheepish grin appears on her.

"Sorry," she puts a hoof on her back, "but that is almost impossible, there are only 11 million ponies in Equus-"

"Wait what?" Peter tilts his head, "that is less than Berlin or New York."

"What are those," she asks again, "other nations."

"Nope, they are cities," she gasps, and to the amusement of Peter, he continues with a small smile, "Berlin is the capital of my nation, it has a population of 12 million I believe......" Peter finishes, tapping his chin.

Twilight looks at her notes again and glances at a question that has bugged her out, what is he supposed to be, or what is this job of being an astronaut is, "I-I would like to ask about your job."

He raises an eyebrow, "your princess friends didn't tell you?"

"They did, an astronaut right?" she receives a nod in response, "I would like to know more about it."

"Hmph," he looks at the ceiling, "I am an explorer, and I represent my nation in that work."

"An explorer of outer space...." she taps her chin, "it almost seems like fiction."

That causes Peter to chuckle, "yeah, that is exactly what we used to say."

"Since when did you do these, journeys," she asks with a raised eyebrow, something that makes Peter shift uncomfortably.

"In my case, let's say 6 years, something that seems to have ended with Freiheit"

"Freiheit?"

"The name of this program," he then points at the door of the cell, "it was designed to explore this unique planet, that being serious, hasn't failed to astonish me."

"You came with other hoomans right?" she questions. Peter frowns, as he silently nods.

"Yes..... and how I wish I would have left with them," silence resounds until Peter breaks it again in a harsh tone, "what was the thing that attacked us?"

"Excuse me?"

"Yeah, a beast attacked us, that incredibly, looked a lot similar to the mythology of my world, hmph," he tilts his head, "you are all mythology in my world."

"What?" Twilight asks confused, "what do you mean by mythology, y-you know what I am?"

"A unicorn..... with wings?" he says hesitantly. Twilights respond firstly with a blank face, which changes to a frown.

"No, I am an alicorn," her face softens afterwards, "but you know what a unicorn is... how?"

"As I said, mythology," Peter stretches before continuing, "that- being more exact, came from a place called Greece."

"Is that a nation in your world," she asks.

"Yes," he begins with a small smile, "where the most famous tales of mythology came from, the Greek gods like Zeus and Apollo, the heroes like Hercules and Achilles, the mythological creatures," he points twilight with his finger, "like unicorns and pegasus, and also mythological places like the Olympus and Tartarus."

"You said Tartarus," Twilight asks confused, her eyes wide and her mind full of curiosity.

"Yep, Tartarus, ruled by Hades," he finishes with. a shrug, "if you ask me, I am an enthusiast in mythology."

"But how do you know about Tartarus?" she asks very confusedly, "are we talking of the same thing?"

"Peter raises an eyebrow before shrugging again," I believe that you might have a real Tartarus here," he taps his chin, "issssss your Tartarus protected by a three-headed beast called the Cerberus?"

She nods enthusiastically, "yes!!!"

"What did I say about no shou-"

"Could our worlds be connected..... what is the meaning of all of this..... it is a-"

"Coincidence?" Peter mumbles, but audible to Twilight. 

"Could be..... but how do your people know all about this?"

A thought just crossed Peter's mind, as he scratches his chin, "let me ask you another thing, do you know what the Leviathan is?"

She nods, a smile spreading on her muzzle, "there must be a connection..... and that could resolve the mystery of the minotaurs if our worlds are really connected!"

"And why is that," he asks.

"Well," she begins, making circles with her hoof, "for years, we have tried to figure out what is the other half of the minotaurs."

"Other half?"

"Yes, the head of them is the one of a bull, but the body has never been resolved......" she glances at the body of Peter, "until maybe now."

He chuckles, making Twilight confused, "in our mythology, a minotaur has also the head of a bull, but the body of a man."

"A man?" she says with a raised eyebrow, "meaning..."

"I," he simply responds, "I am a man, and the opposite of being a man is a woman."

"Woman, so I would suppose that they are the mares of the humans right?"

"Ehhh yes I suppose so," he responds uncomfortably.

Her magic flicks on, startling Peter momentarily. She gives him a sheepish grin before standing straighter, "commander, I believe that my time here is done."

Peter doesn't say anything at first, before shrugging, "ehhh, I guess it was an interesting talk."

Twilight begins to walk towards the door, glancing back at the human with an apologetic smile, "I think that your intentions are not bad, and being sincere, I never imagined aliens being like this."

"And what makes you believe that?"

"Well," she taps her chin with her hoof, "we have always thought that aliens were mindless species that only want to enslave others."

Peter chuckles, "then we aren't too different I suppose."

"No... I don't think so."