Tag der Niederlage

"Hey... You okay? Don't be scared. I'm not gonna hurt you."

The white mare took a few steps forward, her tender eyes never leaving mine. My brain slowly shut down, failing to process the situation at hand. Am I dead? There was no other possible explanation. Unicorns aren't real, let alone talking ones. Yet there she was, like a mother tending to her hurt child.

"Sie- sie können sprechen?" (You can talk?)

She looked at me quizzically, failing to understand my language. "Sorry, what was that?"

"Wer bist du.....? Was bist du?" (Who are you? What are you?)

"What do you mean? What are you trying to say?"

I took a deep breath, trying my best to relax and form a coherent sentence. Doing my best to remember my days in the University of Berlin, I began putting together a sentence. "Uh... Vho are you?"

"Who am I?" she asked, giving me a smile. "I'm Twilight Velvet. My husband and I found you and brought you here."

They found me? "You... found mich? Vhere?"

"Mhm," she nodded. "We heard a noise coming from an alley on our way back from the theatre, and there you were, unconscious. We couldn't leave you there to die, could we?" She let out a nervous chuckle, notably uncomfortable about the subject. She walked towards the bed and sat beside me. "So, what's your name?"

"Mein... name...?" I paused for a moment. Why would she care...? "Johann. Johann Bosch."

"Well then, Johann Bosch, it's nice to finally meet you." She extended her hoof towards me, as if expecting a... handshake?  I stared at the hoof for about three or four seconds before understanding what she expected. I returned the gesture, feeling her soft fur brushing my skin.

"Likevise... Frau Velvet."

"If you don't mind me asking... What exactly are you, Mister Bosch?"

After our first encounter, and finally breaking out of my initial mental breakdown, Twilight Velvet and I walked downstairs, to the dining room. The first thing I noticed upon entering the room was the size of the furniture around the house, designed to accommodate for the horses' short height. Even the dining table was lower than usual, and, to my surprise, lacked chairs. Instead, it was surrounded by very small stools, which seemed specially made for these horses' anatomy.

While I busied myself studying the furniture, the white unicorn made a short trip to the kitchen, bringing back with her a small tray with a cup of coffee and some biscuits. I was a bit intrigued by her method, carrying the tray on her mouth and gently resting it on top of the table. An impressive display of jaw strength.

"Danke", I said, grabbing my cup and having a sip."And Ich should ask ze same to you, Frau Velvet."

"Me? You never met or heard of ponies before?"

"Common ponies, ja. But colourful, talking ponies vith horns in zheir heads, nein. Und, to ansver your question, Ich am a human, Fraulein."

"How strange... Where are you from?"

"I vas born in Düsseldorf, Deutschland. And believe me, Fraulein, zis is the first time I encounter a talking pony."

"Deutsch- what?" she asked, puzzled by the name. "I've never heard of that place before."

"Was (What)?" I put the cup down on the table, trying to make sense of her words. Didn't she recognize the Swastika on my chest? Or the Reichsadler? "You never heard of ze German Reich?"

"Um... no? Where in Equestria is that?"

"Equestria...?" I muttered. This doesn't make any sense... Unless... "Scheiße..."

"I'm sorry. I don't know where that is."

...

*Sigh* "It's fine, Fraulein," I said, feeling lost and defeated. Well, if I'm gonna be stuck here, I better gather some information. "So... where am I, then? What is zis place called?"

"Right now we're in Canterlot, the capital city of Equestria."

"Equestria? Is that ze country ve're in?"

"Yes... kind of. The Principality of Equestria is a union of many city-states and kingdoms, which respond to the Royal Sisters," she explained. "Each state is allowed a certain level of independence, as well as their own elected governments and administrations, but we all pay tribute to Canterlot and the royal family."

"I see. An empire, then?"

"More or less, but each state, Canterlot included, is responsible for it's own internal affairs, as well as defence."

"Oh?" Now this piqued my interest. "You don't have eine imperial army?"

"We used to, but that was a very long time ago. Back in the day, the Equestrian Army was divided into two major branches: The Solar Guard, who responded to Princess Celestia, and the Night Watch, commanded by Princess Luna. But sadly, the Lunar Civil War ended up putting these armies against one another."

"A struggle for power, I assume," I said, taking another sip of coffee.

"It's... a long story. But yes, they did fight over the throne of Equestria. After the war, Princess Celestia thought it best to completely restructure the army, causing the complete disbandment of the Lunars, and the fragmentation of the Solars. Each Solar regiment returned to its home region, and became it's army."

"To avoid another mass uprising... how long ago was zis?"

"Oh, very long. One thousand years, to be exact."

"A thousand Jahren (years) ago? But... How did Equestria defend itself since zhen?"

"We never had to. The only major conflict was the Griffonian War, about seven hundred years ago, but only the Kingdom of Cloudsdale was engaged. The other states only gave monetary and medical support."

"Impressive, Frau Velvet. Both your nation's administration und your knowledge of military history."

She sheepishly looked away, a slight blush radiating from her cheeks. "Well, my son Shining Armour's in the Canterlot Guard... I learnt a few things. And, please, you can call me Twilight."

"He's ein Soldat?" I asked, raising my eyebrows in surprise. Well, that explains it.

"A Captain, actually... In the Princesses' Own Royal Guard..."

I could sense a tinge of pride in her voice, the one only a mother can have for her son. An officer in the monarch's personal guard? I thought. Now that's something.

"You must be very proud of him, Fraulein."

She looked back at me, giving me a truly warm, motherly smile. "Indeed I am, Mister Bosch. Shining Armour and his sister are the biggest accomplishments of my life."

I couldn't help but smile. "Good to hear it, Tvilight. Und you can call me Johann. No need for formalities with me."

"Alright then, if you insist. Is there anything else you would like to know?"

"Actually, ja. I vould like to know more about this world, specially the Equestrian society und government."

"Well, to be honest, I don't really know much about other cultures..." she said, jumping off the little bench and getting on all fours. "Equestria is very diverse, but I'm sure you'll find what you need in my daughter's old library. Come, you'll love this."

Standing among Maps

-Imperial Glory Soundtrack-

When Twilight Velvet mentioned a library, I expected no more than a few shelves with ten or twenty books each. Needless to say, I felt overwhelmed upon entering this 'library', which encompassed the entirety of a -huge- basement. Everywhere I looked, the sight of books filled my eyes, tome after tome of nearly unlimited knowledge. There was a book for just about anything, be it physics, chemistry, history, sociology and even, believe it or not, magic.

To my surprise, the magic section was the biggest one, covering the entirety of the left wall.

While I busied myself with the books, I heard Twilight mention something about cooking dinner, followed by the noise of a door closing. Now, left alone to focus, I started looking for the social sciences section. To my surprise, I stumbled upon an aisle dedicated to different languages, which contained a few translation dictionaries and learning guides. Apparently, languages in Equestria are very similar to those back on Earth, save for their official names. English was called 'Ponish', French was named 'Chevalaise', and so on. I even found the local equivalent of the German language, called 'Pferdisch' by the local population.

Before moving on, I grabbed one of the 'Pferdisch-Ponish' translation dictionaries, figuring it might be useful for future reference.

I spent the following hours reading about Equestrian history and pony society, as well as the customs and traditions of the most prominent regions of the principality. It took some time to grasp the concepts of magic and immortality as actual realities in this world, as well as a few demonstrations from Twilight Velvet to fully convince me of their existence. In the end, bewildered as I was, I ended up accepting them as facts. After all, in a land of colourful, talking horses, those things shouldn't surprise me.

What surprised me the most though, leaving magic aside, was the unnatural lack of armed conflicts within Equestria's borders. Just as Frau Velvet said, the only war fought since the Lunar War was the Cloudsdale-Griffonian war, which took place seven hundred years ago. Since then, Equestria maintained a very strict policy of neutrality and pacifism, which seemed to rub off on other neighbouring nations.

What a place to be a soldier, I thought. I guess I'll need a new job.

There was also the topic of racial equality among ponies, something I particularly found quite shocking. I found it hard to believe how Earth ponies, Pegasi and Unicorns have lived in harmony for centuries, rarely having any sort of conflict, whereas on Earth there's been a brutal race war going on for the past five years.

I kept on reading about the three tribes, completely dumbfounded by their friendly coexistence. The Führer had taught us about racial superiority, and how the strongest race was supposed to dominate the others... but here, although one could argue the Earth ponies were the inferior of the three, all three tribes treated each other as equals, regardless of their capabilities.

What if this could be applied to us too? I thought, thinking back to what I was taught in the Hitlerjugend. Why couldn't whites, blacks, Asians, Latinos, Arabs and Jews coexist in a similar way?

I then moved on to more modern subjects, like politics and economy. I ended up skimming through the pages, rather than reading, focusing only on what could be useful for my possibly extended stay in this new world. Once I armed myself with enough knowledge to survive, I returned the books to their respective shelves and returned to my room.

___________________________________________________________

The rest of the afternoon was uneventful. I spent it mostly checking and organizing my equipment, making sure everything was still in place and whether or not I had enough supplies. After a short ammunition count, I moved on to my battle pack, making sure all my belongings were still within it's pockets. As expected, both my cleaning kit and rations were still inside, barely making enough room for me to put away my camouflage smock.

Having some time to waste before dinner, I decided to go ahead and disassemble my rifle for cleaning. Sitting on the bed, I grabbed the gun and unscrewed the cleaning rod, then using it to dismantle the bolt mechanism, safety and magazine.

However, it appeared that the clean up would have to wait. A knocking on the door broke my concentration, followed by a male voice calling my name. I stood up from the bed and opened the door, greeting a light blue unicorn standing on the hallway.

"Ah, Mister Bosch, good evening."

"Guten abend. I take you are Frau Tvilight's husband, ja?"

"Mhm," he nodded. "I'm Night Light. Pleasure to meet you." He extended his hoof towards me, meeting my fist in a 'fistbump', or 'hoofbump', as the local ponies call it. "Do you mind if I come in?"

"Ja, sure," I said, opening the door wider. "Is zhere anything Ich can help you with?"

"I just wanted to check on you, that's all," he said, walking in and sitting by the desk. I closed the door and sat on the bed, carefully moving the dismantled pieces of my carbine to a side. "I hope you're comfortable here."

"Eh, do not vorry about mein comfort, Herr Night Light. Ich am more than happy with just some food und shelter."

"Haha, you're too modest."

"Ja, but still. Danke. For everything."

"You're welcome. It's the least we could do, after finding you in that alley and all."

"Vhy did you help me, though?" I asked, getting a confused glare from the blue unicorn.

"You're kidding, right? Why wouldn't we? You were completely wrecked back there!"

"Ja... but what did I do for you to vant to help me?"

"What do you mean? My wife and I couldn't just leave you there, now could we?"

...

"You could have..."

...

"... Why are you saying all this?"

"Because..." I gave a long sigh. "Because, vell, where Ich come from, nobody would have done ze same."