Returning to her cottage, Fluttershy placed her chicken back in its pen, but left the plywood where it was. She walked towards the forest, seeing Ozean on the outskirts, probably still looking for the chicken.
“Don’t worry,” she said, “I found the chicken.”
“Oh, good,” Ozean replied, “Uhh…where was it?”
“It was in a clearing deeper in,” she replied, “There was a cockatrice there, too.”
“Really?” Meer replied as he emerged from some bushes a few yards from Fluttershy.
“Well actually two of them, but one was turned to stone,” Fluttershy replied, “And some other creature, too.”
“Two cockatrices,” Meer said in amazement, “And what was the other creature?”
“I don’t know,” Fluttershy replied, “But it looked like a person, except it didn’t have a face and it had lights on its clothes, or body. I’m not sure which.”
“Wow, that’s quite a find,” Ozean said. Meer nodded in agreement.
“I know,” Fluttershy agreed.
“Oh, sorry if we woke you,” Ozean said as Fluttershy went back to her cottage.
“Oh, no I woke up on my own,” she replied, “It wasn’t your fault.”
“OK, good,” Ozean replied. With that Fluttershy returned to the cottage and Meer caught Ozean staring at her.
“What?” Ozean asked when he noticed his friend looking at him disapprovingly, “She’s hot, and I know you agree.”
“I do,” Meer said, “But I know when to eyeball girls and when not to.”
“Well she can’t see us with her back turned,” Ozean replied, “When would be a better time?”
“Touché,” Meer replied with a smile on his face.
The Germanes stayed outside for the rest of the night, careful not to go back into the forest in case that cockatrice was still around. They soon went to bed when they saw the sun’s glow just beyond the horizon. Meer crawled into the spare bed on the second floor while Ozean took a few blankets and lay on the floor. They both shut their eyes and tried to sleep until it was the afternoon. Normally, they would stay awake well into the morning, but they were both worn out from the chicken search.
When the afternoon came, Meer awoke from a poor sleep. The sun was shining right on his face for most of the morning, and the room seemed almost unnaturally bright as there were no curtains on the window. “Perhaps I shouldn’t adjust,” he thought to himself. Considering the sleep attempts futile, he got dressed and went downstairs to see about eating something. Surely Fluttershy wouldn’t mind if he ate her food, considering he was paying her and helping with the animals. As he passed the landing and his head came into view from behind the second floor, he heard Fluttershy say his name.
“See girls, this is Meer,” she said, “One of the Germanes.” Ozean soon followed, perhaps awoken by Meer or he was already awake and just bored.
Meer came into the living room, followed closely by Ozean where they were greeted by Fluttershy, her rabbit, and five other girls. One who they recognized was the pastry chef who couldn’t make a strudel to save her life. Just as he looked at her, she gasped like she saw a ghost or something and quickly ran over to them, her pink, cotton-candy like hair bouncing up and down. Ozean silently rated her a nine.
“Hi!” she exclaimed, “I’m Pinkie Pie! I saw you yesterday, remember? I made you that strudel…”
Meer tuned her out while still looking at her, knowing exactly what she was going to say: none of which was going to be a question that required his attention. Eventually, she stopped talking and Meer looked at her with a grin; he also noticed Ozean seemed very in-tune to the conversation, but he knew he wasn’t paying attention to Pinkie’s words.
“So anyway, how are you?” Pinkie Pie asked him.
“Oh, you know…kinda tired,” Meer said, “a little bit of a headache now,” he muttered under his breath, which Ozean clearly heard; he indicated this by giving Meer a slight bump with his fist, telling him “Be nice.”
“Tired?” another girl asked. She was about Fluttershy’s age, well they all were, and she had purple hair with a pink and light purple stripe in the middle, “How could you be tired? Germaney’s only a couple hours ahead of us.” Ozean rated her a nine and a half.
“Oh great,” Meer thought, “A thinker.” He made eye contact and said, “Well we worked the night shifts in Dresden Am Mane, so we just sort of became nocturnal, I guess.”
“Dresden Am Mane?” Fluttershy asked confused, “I thought you worked in Flankfurt?”
“I did,” Meer said quickly, “Ozean worked in Dresden, and I worked over in Flankfurt.”
“Oh, I see,” Fluttershy said.
“Oh darlings, you must tell me about your Germane culture,” another girl said. She had purple hair that was curled over on her right side. Meanwhile, the purple and pink haired girl stared at him quizzically, as if trying to figure out if he was lying about his whole life. Both Germanes rated her a ten, and she obviously knew she was one.
“Rarity, don’t pester the poor kids,” a girl said with a very southern accent, “I’m sure Germane isn’t anything like Prance in their fashion.” Ozean rated her a nine and a half as well.
“Alright, so I know Fluttershy,” Meer thought to himself, “Curly Purple there is called Rarity, who’s everyone else?”
“I didn’t catch any of your names,” Ozean said seemingly reading Meer’s mind.
“Mah name’s Applejack,” the country girl said.
“I suppose you already know my name is Rarity,” Rarity said.
“I’m Twilight,” the thinker told them.
“And I’m Rainbow Dash,” the one with the rainbow colored hair said. She had been quiet so far, “The most awesome person you’ll ever meet.” Her hair was strange: each color from the rainbow was found in her hair; regardless she was probably a nine or a ten despite having an athletic build instead of a delicate one.
“Well it’s nice to meet you all,” Meer said as he found a place to sit down, “I suppose Fluttershy’s told you my name already, but just in case, it’s Meer Reisender.” He chose a spot next to Applejack, the one he assumed would ask the least amount of questions besides Fluttershy.
“And I’m Ozean Reisend,” Ozean said as he sat next to Twilight, “Every girl in this country is hot,” he thought silently to himself, “I may move here permanently.”
“So why’re you awake, sugarcubes?” Applejack asked them as soon as they sat down.
“Dammit,” Meer thought, “I barely sit down and already she’s curious.” “Well,” he told her, “I figure since I’m not doing the night shift anymore, that I could try to live diurnally, like a normal person. Ozean and I have been doing so for a few days now, and it’s coming along well, but the night still makes us tired.”
“Oh, well Ah’m sure it’ll only be another couple o’ days,” Applejack replied. She was almost lying against the couch’s armrest, obviously very relaxed and comfortable despite being in the company of two people she never met. She was probably the friendliest person in all of Ponyville.
“Probably,” Ozean replied, “Anyway, we saw there aren’t really any inns in Ponyville, so where would the next best place to try to get a house be?”
“Canterlot,” Rarity replied, “If you go there, you must take me with you. I yearn to see such fabulousness again.”
“Well, I can agree Canterlot’s a great place,” Twilight said, “But for different reasons than its aesthetics.”
“Oh, yes,” Rarity said, “dear Twilight used to live there!”
“What’s in Canterlot, exactly?” Meer asked.
“The royal sisters, Celestia and Luna,” Twilight replied, “I’m Celestia’s…well I was Celestia’s student,” she said proudly.
“Really? What’s she teach?” Ozean asked.
“The Royal Sisters,” Meer said to himself, “You know I met Luna once.”
“Everyone’s met Luna,” Applejack replied to him as quietly as he had spoken to himself. No one else seemed to hear.
“Well Celestia had me come out here to Ponyville to learn about friendship,” Twilight replied.
“And I see you must’ve gotten an A on that project,” Ozean said regarding the five other women around him, then said in Germane, “All of whom I’d say earned a D,” to which Meer shook his head at.
“I think you’ve developed a problem,” Meer told him in Germane. He noticed Twilight giving him a very strange and skeptical look before facing forward.
“Well you could say that,” Twilight said with a shy smile, ignoring Ozean’s and Meer’s private conversation.
“Celestia made Twilight a princess,” Rainbow Dash told him.
“She…just made you a princess?” Meer asked, “Just like that?”
“Well there was a coronation and everything,” Twilight said, “But yeah, just like that. In fact, Luna went on an expedition to Auflorsung, if you two have ever heard of it, and they placed me in her stewardship. She’s since returned but it was kind of fun while it lasted.”
“No, we don’t know Auflorsung,” Meer said.
“Well congratulations, Princess Twilight,” Ozean said, then he thought, “Perhaps I should look elsewhere if the ruler is making young women princesses on a whim. Still, hot women are always a nice touch…haha, there’s more than one meaning there,” He lost himself in thought until he heard his name being called.
“Ozean?” Rainbow Dash was calling him.
“What?” he asked coming out of his daze.
“You OK there, sugarcube?” Applejack asked him.
“Yeah, sorry,” he said, “I must’ve just fallen asleep with my eyes open.”
“Yeah, you should really try to be more aware,” Meer taunted him.
“Well anyway,” Rainbow Dash said, “What do the weather teams do in Germaney?”
“Weather teams?” Meer asked.
“Yeah, are they as good as us?”
“I don’t know, I haven’t seen you guys in action,” he said.
“What do they do, then?” Rainbow Dash asked Ozean, thinking he might know.
“I don’t know,” he said, “I’m not on the weather teams.” His tone implied he was very tired, so the girls allowed his ignorance to slide because of his state.
“How many of them are airship pilots?” Dash asked him.
“I don’t know,” Meer said, “Like…twenty? I honestly have no idea.”
“Darling, you don’t look so good,” Rarity said to Ozean.
“Yeah Ozean, Ah think ya better head on tuh bed,” Applejack agreed.
“You should listen to them, Ozean,” Twilight added, “You don’t go from being nocturnal to diurnal in just one day.”
“You’re all right,” he said, “I will go to bed.” He stood up and stumbled over to the stairs unaware that five hours had passed since he came down them, and Meer remained with the girls.
“So,” Meer began, “Tell me a little bit about yourselves.”
“Well,” Rarity began, “I’m the town’s seamstress; an amazing fashionista.”
“OK, so if I need a shirt hemmed you can do that for me?” Meer clarified. Rarity nodded with a smile. “What about you?” he asked Applejack.
“Ah’m one of the apple farmers over at Sweet Apple Acres,” she said, “The crop’s been good this year, so if yuh want some apples, we got a stand in the market.”
“Well, I do enjoy a good apple from time-to-time,” Meer said.
“I’m uh…the uh…town’s vet,” Fluttershy peeped out.
“Uh-huh, I figured as much yesterday,” Meer said, “But it’s good to clarify.”
“Apart from being Princess of Ponyville, I run the library in the center of town,” Twilight said.
“And you’re a scholar,” Meer said, “I can tell.”
Twilight blushed and smiled as she nodded.
“I’m the pastry chef, but you all already knew that,” Pinkie laughed.
“Of course, how could I forget such a wonder strudel?” Meer laughed with her, but did his best to spare her feelings.
“And I’m captain of the weather team,” Rainbow said proudly, “Also, I’ve flown faster than the speed of sound before.”
This got Meer’s attention faster than anything else. “How’d you manage that?” he asked her.
“Well, I took a small metal tube with a modified steam engine on it,” Rainbow began, “We hooked it up to the bottom of an airship and took the airship up really high and then let go of the small tube with me in it. The engine that Twilight helped design spat out fire instead of steam and it was powered by some of her magic,” she said, then quietly mumbled, “But it was my awesomeness that did the trick.”
“So you had basically an explosion pushing you straight down, and you broke the sound barrier that way?” Meer asked.
“Yep, and when the fuel ran out, I just pulled up and glided to a stop,” she said proudly to which Meer looked at with both wonderment and other things.
“Quite interesting,” he said, “My apologies, girls, but I must go and check on Ozean.” They said their farewells and Meer went upstairs.