Where the sun doesn't shine.

Chapter 1: Where the people don't smile

He arrived at the city which took his breath as soon as he saw it. The buildings were beautiful, there wasn’t a single scratch and no crumbling parts, unlike most buildings back in Terra; the stands and stores were supplied and organized almost perfectly, even their location was impressive since they were placed where everyone could see them, but at the same time the crowds they would make wouldn’t bother anyone; the roads were paved without mistake, as if every stone was specifically created for the place they occupied. There was just a particular problem there: Not a single living soul was present, as if everything was abandoned minutes before he arrived. Such a sight would strike fear into anyone’s heart; it might have been abandoned for a reason, or far worse, it might be an ambush; the Terran gripped his rifle as hard as he could while looking for answers. What he didn't see, however, were the terrorized citizens entrenched in their homes, fearing what this visitor from another world might be here for, and more importantly, just what kind of creature he is.

After walking around the seemingly abandoned city, he spotted a large building that stood out from the others. Seeing as he had no success in his search for a sign of life, he decided to test his luck inside it. He closed in and tried to open the pair of giant doors, but failed as he found out they were locked; he tried kicking them open too but backfired as he landed on his back. Standing up and shaking his head he decided to use more brutal means, he backed off a few metres and aimed his rifle at the lock; the sound of a gunshot echoed through the city’s silence and scared a group of birds resting in a tree nearby. The lock was utterly destroyed, and with a solid kick the doors opened. The Terran walked in with his gun ready, his eyes looking at every corner; he realized he walked into the city hall, still with no signs of life. He walked upstairs and stumbled upon the governor’s office, intact as if this place wasn’t abandoned at all. On top of his desk were 2 stacks of papers and a pen, nothing out of the ordinary. He decided to examine the papers, his hope being finding out something related to his sudden appearance here, but found out nothing more than taxes, trade routes and several of the city’s policies.

As he was flicking through the governor’s documents, a strange figure crept in the shadows behind him. The shadow silently grabbed a chair and started closing in on the Terran, who couldn’t hear anything due to the sound of paper being shuffled. The shadow was directly behind him and made a wrong move, making a lot of noise and alerting the Terran; but as he turned around the shadow already flung the chair in his direction, knocking him out without being able to react.

Hours later, the Terran woke up; he shook his aching head as he regained consciousness and part of his sight. He tried moving his hand to his head, but failed to even lift it; he looked at the source of the problem and found it immediately, he was tied up to a table. Trying to set himself free just made the ropes tighter and would ultimately rip part of his skin off. He looked around the room to find something to escape but found something entirely different, he spotted the silhouette of the creature that attacked him and realized it got closer and closer; desperation started to sink in as he tried to free himself from the ropes, no matter in how much pain he was.

“Calm down, you’re going to hurt yourself. Can you understand what I’m saying?” The shadow spoke softly, trying to get him to stop.

“What…Where am I…? What happened…?”

“I’ll take that answer as a ‘Yes’, then.” The shadow said while closing in. A beam of light revealed that the creature was actually a white-haired pony. “I see you’ve got questions, but before I answer them you’ll have to answer my questions first.”

The Terran was speechless at the ridiculous sight of a talking pony. Such was the surprise that he was also petrified, and the fact that he also had a hat, sunglasses and scarf that covered his head completely didn’t help to portray how wide his eyes were at the moment.

“I take it that you agree with what I said?”

The petrified quickly nodded a few times, returning to the posture he has been for the last 2 minutes.

“Alright.” The white haired pony spoke as he picked up the chair he threw to the Terran and sitting on it. “First, what are you?”

“I’m a…Terran…”

“Well that wasn’t so difficult, even though I have no idea what a Terran is. Now, why have you come here?”

“I was struck by lightning and woke up far away from here, then I saw this city in the distance and thought I’d get some answers. Sadly, I received a chair to the face.”

“Well I’m sorry for that, but not only have you scared my citizens enough to entrench themselves in their homes, but you also broke into this building and spied on my documents.”

“This city was abandoned when I arrived…”

“I can safely assume nopony in this world has ever seen something like you before. Being scared and hiding away would be the natural reaction to something that you can’t even understand what it is. Even more so that you broke the lock without even touching it, just by pointing that…magic stick or whatever it’s called.”

“That’s a Karabiner 98 Kurz, for your information.”

The pony stood still for a minute while silence engulfed the room.

“It’s…a weapon from the place I come from…” Added the Terran.

“I see. From what you’ve told me there’s no danger in setting you free. After all, you’re just lost and confused. I’ll untie those ropes now. Hold still, you’ve put so much effort in trying to break free you tore your skin. My name’s Atticus, by the way.”

Atticus, after untying him, helped him up and returned him the rifle. With a head gesture, he signalled the Terran to follow him, and so he did. They got outside the city hall, the Terran still holding his head due to the severe pain of receiving a chair to the face, and Atticus raising his hoof in the air. The Terran was confused as he didn’t see the purpose of such action, but minutes later he could see how hundreds of ponies slowly got out of their homes into the streets. He was petrified once again, the only thing he could do was walk behind Atticus and look in disbelief.

They both arrived to an apple stand, Atticus took out a small bag with gold coins inside and bought 2 apples with it. He turned to the Terran and threw him an apple, which he barely managed to catch due to the distraction of the scenery in front of his eyes.

"I’m afraid I don’t have the answers to the questions you’ll ask. I don’t really know what a ‘Terran’ is, nor have I ever heard of a sudden lightning that makes people appear in other places. But, every journey starts somewhere. I am the Governor of Stallinox, an independent city in the lands of Cabalderio, far to the west of Equestria."

The Terran, upon hearing those words, opened his eyes as wide as humanly possible and almost choked on the apple he was eating, making him spit it all over the floor while violently coughing.

"EQUESTRIA?!"