Chapter I: Welcome to Germany
Rebirth
by Alligator
Told in the narrative of Herman Frederick
Chapter I: Welcome to Germany
"Looks like we're in for a good rain tonight," I said to myself, looking out one of the windows of my house. It was barely a house suitable for even a peasant, but alas, it is the most I can afford. It's expensive for a peasant to live these days. Most of my funds were given to me by my good friend Heinrich von Dresden, a Niederer Adel noble with a somewhat moderate amoundof money. That was the norm for nobles: Not as low as peasants' cash, yet not as high as the king's or that of the Hochadel. Often it occured to me if Heinrich were a Hochadel or any higher rank, he would no longer care about me and find richer, more powerful friends. Such is the life of a German.
Nevertheless, not long after I predicted a storm, Heinrich came to my house, seeming bursting with news to tell me. "What is it, Heinrich?" I asked him. "There's a storm over Bohemia, should get here in a few hours," he said. "Not just that, but some scholars from Italy are saying a time called the 'Renaissance' has begun." So it seemed my prediction was correct. But hey, it's easy to predict storms when the clouds in the sky are so grey, they look like they could burst. "What does 'Renaissance' mean?" I asked. "I think it means rebirth, or something like that in Italian." replied Heinrich. Hm, rebirth. I didn't quite understand that, but then again I found it hard to understand anything that came out of Italy.
We talked a bit, then the storm had reached my countryside home. The rain pounded on my roof like the gallop of a thousand horses. After a while of me and Heinrich trying to find ways to ignore the annoying loud noise, it began to get louder and louder. Eventually the thousand horses on my roof grew to ten thousand, then hundred thousand, and finally a million. By this point thunder was booming somewhere every 10 seconds. I was very alarmed, worried this thunderstorm would get worse. I glanced at the noble visiting me, and he had the same distressed expression on his face. "Strong storm, huh?" he said to me, trying to avoid the situation getting awkward. "Probably the worst in the Holy Roman Empire," I replied.
Just after I finished my sentence, a large bolt of lightning struck the fields near my house, not far at all. The strike was followed by thunder so loud it could have caused me or Heinrich to go deaf. Startled by the noise, I ran to the window, only to find a field nearby on fire. Before I could warn my friend Heinrich, the heavy rain completely depleted the flames. Now the countryside was only engulfed in smoke as well as rain. As the smoke cleared up, I could barely make out what I thought was the figures of animals. I barely paid any attention to them as I returned to the table Heinrich was sitting. The forst thing he asked me after that was what happened. I explained the situation to him as the storm got lighter.
We talked more to pass the time, as the storm was still to heavy for either of us to dare to go out. "Really, I can pay for a better house for you. This place is too shabby for you, or especially me." my friend told to me. "I'm not sur— hey look, the storm's clearing up!" I told him, looking out one of my windows for probably the fiftieth time that afternoon. Heinrich looked out too, and indeed the storm was getting lighter. In minutes the storm was gone completely, going off to find other places to do whatever storms like to do. But this wasn't on Heinrich's mind, he immediately pointed to six figures. "Look, there's horses out there! Um..they don't look right," he said to me. I looked too, seeing six ponies that looked like the shadows I ignored a short time earlier that day.
He was right, they definetely did not look the way the should have, one had a horn, two had wings, and one had both wings and a horn. Two had neither, and all were in strange pastel colors that belonged in some children's painting. The one with both wongs and horns also bore a crown, like some sort of royalty. With me being a peasant, I had never seen anyone close to royalty, much less the real thing. The closest person I knew with that kind of power was Heinrich, and he was even not much better than me. But he was still better than me.
Heinrich noticed everything I did too, and the first thing he did after I saw them was that he asked if I thought we should go outside and find out more about the pastel equines. I gladly accepted, partly because of my curiousity and partly because this was a one-in-a-million situation. I doubted anyone else would ever witness thos again for at least a millenium. So me and Heinrich went outside, close to where they were while stille remaining unseen. While we hid behind the wall of my house, the ponies noticed the house (but not us). I heard them talking before heading straight towards me and Heinrich:
"Look, a house!" said the purple one, with both wings and a horn. "Let's go see who it belongs to!" said an energetic cyan one with a rainbow-colored mane. "A-are you sh-sh-sure..?" said a nervous seeming yellow one. "Yes darling, it'll be fine," a white one assured the yellow one. Then out of nowhere, a pink one jumped out with some sort of artillery, a very dangerous looking war cannon. "Let's throw a party for whoever's in it!" the pink one said. "Now everypony, be careful, we dont know the pony that lives here," said the purple one. "If it's a p-pony there, it might not be!" the yellow one silently squealed. Then the whole group headed for my house.
Heinrich was especially eyeing the pink one. I could understand he was afraid of the cannon as much as I was. "I think that cannon is for...them to fight," he nervously said. He showed a large amount of dread as he spoke. "Do think we should go talk to them?" I said, confused they could talk. Before he could say no, I had already retreated from my hiding place. "Um, hello?" I said to them, instantly regretting that decision. "What are you?" the cyan pony said. "I'm a human." I said. Then, mustering up enough courage to show himself, Heinrich came out too. "My name is Heinrich von Dresden, and this is Herman Frederich." he said, introducing the ponies to himself and me.
"Do you know how to get us home?" asked the purple one. "No, I don't know where your home is," I said. "We're from Equestria." said the white one. "Equestria? I never heard of th—" I said before I was interrupted by the pink pony making the war cannon appear from nowhere and firing it at us. But to our surprise, it didn't kill me or Heinrich, it launched strands of shredded rainbow-colored paper instead. The pink pony called it 'confetti.'
"—at place." I finished my sentence. "But since you're here, welcome to Germany!"