A Different World

I really don't know what happened. One moment I was walking with my escort through the city, and the next I was laying in the middle of a park, allowing a group of foals to play king of the hill on my back. Captain Ivy and the other fours ponies were close by, watching in amusement.

"Well, I don't know what you were expecting," Captain Ivy chuckled as a colt barreled his way up my back, knocking children left and right. Boy they played rough. Why couldn't my childhood have been like that? "You can't just join in a foal's game and not expect to be treated a like a jungle gym."

"I wanted to see where they were running," I responded as the colt clumsily tried to scramble atop of my head. "I thought maybe there was an ice cream truck or something."

"It was a race, and you took a part in it," she smirked as she watched a few fillies try and gang up on the colt, attempting to use their hands to drag him down before he won.

"So, no ice cream?" I asked, giving her a mock pout.

"We'll get some later, Sir Selfen," she reassured me. She watched as the colt managed to shake off the fillies and finally reach the top of my head, where he grabbed my horn and gave an animalistic victory screech. The captain nodded with a smile. "That one's gonna be an alpha for sure."

"No fair," one of the fillies complained from where she had landed on the ground. Ooh, I just wanted to hug them all. But, I will not commit a cultural faux pa. That's the last thing I need with my perfect track record. "I don't wanna play this game anymore."

The colt slid down my neck and onto my back, striking a pose and letting loose another victory screech. Yeeowch. Did colts scream back on earth? And why did he seem so... predatory? If I did that when I was a kid, my parents would have beaten the hell out of me and told me what an awful child I was.

Speaking of parents, I'm gonna assume that these kids' were in the crowd of curious onlookers that surrounded me at a distance. Well, as long as I didn't do anything stupid and scare the kids I would be just fine. Some of those stallions looked about ready to rush me, and I was in no mood for a fight. Thankfully, the mares seemed to be able to hold them back with gentle words.

The colt leapt off my back and proceeded to lock horns with a couple other colts, a large amount of Canterlot's population was unicorns, and then turned to face me, lowering his head. I half expected him to charge, but he remained still, as though waiting for me too... oh.

I slowly lowered my head and gently crossed my horn with his. Then he squealed in delight and rushed off, the rest of the foals following close behind. Finally, I was free... and wishing they would come back. I hope to have a whole bunch of them one day... Hmmm

I rose up onto all fours and chuckled. "Well, that was a fun experience. So, ice cream now, right."

Captain Ivy rolled her eyes as she jumped up my back. "Well, such a well-behaved young colt does deserve a treat."

"Hey, I am a fully functioning adult," I responded childishly. She just chuckled and pointed me towards a path that supposedly took us to ice cream.

Gelato actually. Chocolate and peanut butter. Good to know they weren't so primitive.

"Sergeant Pomegranate, please come out from under there," Princess Luna said, standing at the foot of the Selfen Sert's bed.

Obediently, the bat pony mare extracted herself and saluted her. "First Sergeant Peeled Pomegranate reporting as ordered, Princess Luna."

The dark alicorn rolled her eyes. "You may dispense with the formalities, Sergeant. I'm here to thank you for helping out our guest."

The bat pony relaxed and smiled. "My pleasure, Princess. The big goof is just about the most pleasant post I've had the honor of protecting."

Luna smiled. "I should hope so. Sharing a bed with a stallion like my poor nephew would be a trial."

"Well, he is quite bullheaded, ma'am," the sergeant snickered.

The alicorn rolled her eyes good-naturedly. "That what makes him a prime stallion for the royal herd. The children we would bear from our union will be great leaders."

"Do wonder if the colts will talk like their father?" mused the sergeant.

"That would be a marvelous thing," Luna said in a tone that said she had already considered it.

"My mother once told me that if a stallion could ever talk all he would do all day is ask to mate."

The alicorn groaned. "Yes, I have met your mother."

"And now it's hard for my brothers to attract mates do her cucking them," Peeled Pomegranate snorted disdainfully. "Subjected the poor guys to 'gentlecolt training'. Turned their instincts inside out and backwards."

"Were this a more civilized age, the other mares in your mother's herd would have driven her off and taken her children as their own," Luna muttered. "How my sister let thing grow so corrupt in my absence I will never know."

"She had to rule alone for a thousand years," the bat pony pointed out. "I would imagine the stress caused her to just let some things slide."

"And many stallions became cucks as a result," Luna huffed. "Back before my banishment it was not uncommon for stallions to stand boldly at the head of their herds and even compete for the affection of unclaimed mares."

"As much I am enjoying this conversation, was there something important you wanted to talk to me about?" Sergeant Pomegranate spoke up, not wanting the subject to be derailed in some sort of rant.

"Ah, yes, forgive me," Luna said, clearing her throat. "I wished to inform you that the future prince will, perhaps no longer need you guarding him from beneath his bed. Looking into his mind and speaking with him, we can be sure that he is no threat to Equestria."

Pomegranate almost seemed disappointed. "Yes ma'am. Shall I return to my old post?"

Luna shook her head. "No. From here on, you are his personal guardian in the night. A proper hanging bed shall be brought in so that you may sleep at the foot of his bed. The floor could not have been so comfortable."

Peeled smiled in realization and nodded. "I was raised clinging upside down to my mother's breast, Princess. Sleeping on the ground is not for thestrals."

Luna nodded. "Of course, if he ever wanted company in the night, you wouldn't decline to sleep beside him on the bed."

Peeled was taken aback and began stuttering. "P-princess Luna? I-I would n-n-never a-assume such an a-action."

Luna rolled her eyes. "I trust you would limit it to merely snuggling. However, after he claims his harem, we would not be opposed to him taking on a few concubines."

"C-concubine?" The sergeant did not know what else to say.

"It will be your choice, Lieutenant Pomegranate," Princess Luna smirked as she turned and headed for the door.

"Uh, it's first sergeant, your highness," the thestral pointed out.

The alicorn stopped and looked at her critically. "Are you calling me a liar, Lieutenant?"

"N-no ma'am," squeaked Lieutenant Peeled Pomegranate.