Celestia and Luna took their respective places on their thrones in front of us.
“So, let us start…”
“Umm… May I suggest something, princess?” I asked.
“Yes, yes you may.”
“Since we both have questions for each other, I suggest we exchange questions.”
“Great idea!”
…
“Ladies first”
“Thank you. Can you tell us what you exactly you are and where you come from?”
“Of course! As you know I’m Brendan, I’m a homo sapient, or human for short. I come from a planet named Earth. I was born on May 23rd 1996 in the quaint village of Schinveld in the country of the Netherlands. One of the hundreds of countries in the world.”
“Hundreds?!” Twilight exclaimed. I noticed she was taking notes of everything I was saying.
“Yes, Hundreds of countries, with even more languages.”
“How many do you know?”
“Exchange in questions, remember?”
“Oh, right.”
“Okay, Where am I now?”
“You’re in the land of Equestria, in the capital of Canterlot. The others here are from Ponyville, just south of here.” Celestia Explained.
“Okay, thank you, that clears things up a bit.”
“Do you always wear clothes, and why then?” Rarity chimed in.
“Umm… Yes, we always wear clothes for two main reasons. Firstly, as you all have probably noticed, I have no fur except on my head. So it’s a good thing to keep myself warm. Secondly, well, there are certain… Areas we’d like to keep covered at all times, since, unlike with ponies, they don’t cover themselves. Nudity is frowned upon in my world.
The ponies blushed a bright crimson at the thought of the latter reason.
“Oh well, sorry for asking. I shouldn’t have intruded into personal matters like that.” Rarity apologized.
“Oh it’s not a problem; I figured the question would come around.”
I gave them a warm smile, reassuring the ponies to let them know I was fine with it.
*Ahem* “Well… Now, how many of those languages do you know?” Twilight resumed.
“If you take my dialect into account, five: Dutch, English, German, Limburgish Dialect and French.”
“Wow, how do you remember them all?!”
“I don’t know. Once you get them it goes by itself.”
“Can you give us some examples?”
“Alright, but you owe me 2 questions!”
“Okay.”
“Nou dan begin ik maar eens met Nederlands. Und dan wechsel ich zu der Deutsche sprache. Dan liekt ut dialect op ut Hollesch. Et le plus dernière est le Français.”
“The first was Dutch, second was German, third was the Limburgish Dialect, and last was French.”
“What about English?”
“I’m speaking it now.” I retorted.
“Oh, it’s called Equestrian here.”
I could have figured.
“Okay, now I have two questions, what are those marks on your flanks for?”
“They’re called; cutie marks. Luna Explained. They appear when a pony finds his or her special talent, and it represents what it is. Humans do not have these?”
“Nope, we all have things we excel at, but we don’t have specific special talents.”
“Okay, next, what was that glowing of your horn back in the dungeon?”
“That was magic.” Twilight explained. “You’ve never heard of it?”
“Yes I have but there is no real magic in my world, it’s all tricks an illusions.”
All the ponies gasped in shock.
“How can you live in a world without magic?!” Twilight asked in shock.
“With technology. Very advanced technology. My bike, the thing on two wheels back downstairs, it just a very small example.”
“Wow, a world with advanced technology, but no magic. This is a very interesting thing” Twilight said while writing all of this down.”
“Okay, your turn again.”
“How are your countries ruled? Like we have the princesses?”
“Monarchy was stopped a long time ago, there are still a few out there but it’s very unpopular, because the highnesses were selfish when it came to big decisions. Not all of them, but still most of them. So now we can be ruled by a President, Prime Minister, Premier, a Parliament, or even a Dictator, but you’d rather not, it’s like a very bag king.”
Twilight’s quill was writing like crazy, trying desperately to keep up with my explanation.
“Okay, now what do you have princesses for? No offence, but you seem like a culture that lives in peace, with princesses who are just as friendly.”
“Why thank you. As for your question; We are the princesses of the sun and the moon, I raise the sun when it’s time, and Luna here raises the moon when I lower the sun.”
“Well… That’s new, then again what would I expect from a race that can use magic. In my world the moon and sun raise themselves, the Earth turns on its own axis and revolves around the sun, and the moon revolves around the Earth. So it makes day and night by itself.”
“What?! Really?! This is totally different from our world. I wonder how it can all work by itself?” Twilight inquired.
“Gravity, eh.”
“Next you’re gonna tell me that the weather controls itself too.”
“Actually, Yes, it does.” I deadpanned.
“What?! How can you prevent big storms or let it rain when you need it?”
“We can’t. All we do is predict how the weather will move and get the people out of there if the weather is extremely bad.”
“W-wow. Y-your w-world seems… harsh.” Fluttershy said with pity in her voice.
“Well, at least it’s not as bad as the two world wars were.
“TWO WORLD WARS?!” They all shouted in union.
“Umm… Yes. Those were horrible times.”
“How in Equestria can you provoke an entire world to war?!” Twilight asked with disgust.
“Well, the 1st World War wasn’t just one country that provoked all the other, rather what we call the domino effect. It started in 1914 when a Serbian assassinated the duke of Austria-Hungary, which led Austria-Hungary to declare war on Serbia, but because Austria-Hungary had a bond with Germany, they were pulled into the war, and Serbia had a bond with Russia which pulled them into the war. While Germany was mobilizing their army, France didn’t like that and so, mobilized theirs as well. And when Germany invaded France, France declared war, and when Germany invaded Belgium, who had a bond with the United Kingdom, the UK declared war as well. And, because Germany kept destroying US ships, the US finally lost its temper and also declared war on Germany. And because all those countries except for the United States had colonies, they were fighting against each other as well. It finally ended when the Allies, who were the good sides, were able to push Germany back and end the war in 1918.”
All the ponies were listening with their mouths to the floor, except for Twilight who, of course, was writing all of this down.
“The 2nd World War was started purely by Germany again, who after the 1st World War was weak, was built up again by a leader named Hitler, and he was a pretty good leader until he invaded Poland in order to gain ground. When he invaded Austria it was the tipping point for the rest of the world and France and The United Kingdom declared war once more. Germany had a bond with Japan, and Japan decided to attack the US in Pearl Harbor, and so, even though the US wanted to stay out of the war, declared war on Germany once more. When Germany tried to invade the Soviet Union, formerly known as Russia, opening a second front doing so, the USSR declared war on Germany. It lasted 6 years, from 1939 until 1945. When the USSR and the US and UK were able to cut Germany’s supply lines, push them back and end the World Wars for good. Germany was divided in 4 parts to prevent this from happening again. Now days however, Germany is one country again, but they will never again do something as bad as they did in the World Wars.”
Twilight finished writing all of this down and everypony just looked at me with shock in their eyes. Fluttershy was quietly sobbing, and Pinkie was on the verge of crying.
“I’m sorry you had to hear all that. I hope you won’t judge me on these happenings. I’ve never picked a fight in my life; I’ve always walked away from them.”
“Well…” Rarity started. “I don’t know about all of you, but I can see that I can’t blame him for all of that. He seems like the person that would rather not fight, and I won’t judge him on his people’s history.”
“Thank you Rarity. I appreciate your understanding”
“I think everypony here agrees with me, don’t we?”
They all confidently nodded and I was washed over with a feeling of relief.
“Any other questions your highness or anypony else?”
“I think we’ve asked enough questions for now.” Celestia said. “Anything you’d still like to ask?”
“No princess, I have no more questions”
“Well, I don’t know about you, but I believe it is lunchtime and I would like to treat our guest to lunch in the castle.”
They all nodded in agreement.
My stomach rumbled at the word of lunch. I blushed out of embarrassment and the ponies giggled.
“Thank you princess, I appreciate your offer.” I said.
We all got up off of the pillows, put them back against the wall and followed the princess through the long corridors to the huge dining hall.
“Please everypony, take a seat.” Celestia said.
We all took a seat at an empty table and a waiter came up to us with the menu.
There wasn’t much I could choose from, I never was the salad type, and that seemed to be very common here. Then again, they were ponies; of course they’d have lots of salads.
I settled on a fruit salad with more fruit than salad, I love every type of fruit, and when the waiters came in in with all of our orders, I was baffled by the fruits. I had never seen so many different fruit at once, and my mouth was watering, ready to dig in.
Starting with an apple and a watermelon slice, Pinkie asked me; “What do you all eat back on Earth?
“Yeah, I noticed you have all kinds of teeth.” Rainbow added.
I nervously and audibly swallowed an apple piece and smiled nervously. I rather wouldn’t have had them ask that question.
“Well… we eat vegetables and fruits just like you, and… m-m-…”
“And what Brendan?” Celestia asked.
“M-m-meat? We’re omnivores.”
The moment I said that everypony stopped eating and turned their gazes towards me.
…
I nervously smiled, hoping it wasn’t too much of a shock.
“GUARDS!” Celestia shouted; her voice losing its motherliness and becoming one of anger.
Crap, now I’ve done it.
I was surrounded by guards in mere seconds.
“Take him back to the dungeons! I won’t have a half carnivore on the loose in my kingdom!”
“Wait! Can I at least try to explain?!”
“Hold!” She said.
I figured this was my queue and immediately began to explain.
“In my world animals aren’t sentient like here! With ‘most’ of the animals it is; kill or be killed, so in that case I really don’t have a choice! But we can live without meat; there are enough people in my world that resent it! Please!” Now I was pleading. “I’d never hurt anypony here, there’s no need to! I can live fine without it!”
I could see Celestia thinking about what I said. My future would depend on her choice now.
Celestia then got up and came over to me, placed her horn on my forehead. It started to glow and I felt a dull throbbing in my head. I looked around and the world slowly started to fade away until I blacked out.
“Hmm, It has never effected anypony else like that before” Celestia wondered.
Slowly the world started to light up again and I regained my vision. I looked at the princess who was standing over me.
“I’ve looked into your mind and have seen that you have no intentions to harm any of my little ponies. Guards! You may let him go and leave.”
Oh, thank God.
I let out a huge sigh of relief and sat back down.
“Well then, I’m sorry I jumped to such conclusions too quickly.” Her voice had returned to a motherly tone once more.
“I-it’s okay.” I stuttered; still a bit shocked.
We ate the rest of our meal in peace, but not without a few awkward glances my way, watching me as if I would attack them.
After lunch they seemed to have warmed up to me again, and I thank the heavens for that. I didn’t want to live around with ponies disgusting me for the fact that I’d eaten meat.
“You must all be exhausted of an almost sleepless night regarding current events.” Celestia started.
In all honesty, I wasn’t tired, but then again, I was knocked out half the time and they were all probably trying to figure out what happened.
“You may all rest in the guest rooms here in the castle for the time being” She finished.
For some odd reason Rarity’s face lit up and she sqeed with joy. Apparently she liked high class standards; then again she’s a fashionista.
“Thank you for your hospitality princess” I said.
“You’re quite welcome. Now, you can all follow the guards to your respective rooms.”
We all thanked the princess once more and turned to the guard.
“If you will all follow me please.” And we all followed.
After leading all the ponies to their rooms the guard led me to mine.
“Here you are Sir. Here is the key. Have a good night.”
“Thanks!”
The guard took his leave and I entered the huge room, there was a huge four-poster bed, a wardrobe and a door off to the side. There was a bathroom with a big tub and a toilet.
Nice quality rooms. I thought.
Well duh, It’s a royal castle, of course it high quality.
I walked back, over to the wardrobe. Empty.
Figured.
I walked over to the bed and let myself fall onto it. It was heavenly soft and I laid back and closed my eyes. As I tried to get some shuteye, I stared to wonder about back home, my family, my friends. They’re probably wondering where I am. It started to concern me if I could even get back, never being able to see my family again, my friends, and a whole life, gone.
As I tried to push those last thoughts away I finally managed to fall asleep. Dreaming about a, possibly, new life in a new world. As the only human in Equestria.