The Ceterian: Beginnings

The first thing Erik noticed upon waking up was a heavy blow to the gut from a hoof, making him let out a puff of air as he falls out of the bed, gasping for breath as the mare he met earlier yelled out. "Get outta bed ya damned lazy human shite!"

Erik sits up, rubbing his stomach in pain as he grumbles out. "Good morning to you too, Clare..."

"Oh don't be polite, we're not friends." She trots in front of him. "Ye just happened to be saved by a mare who enjoys having others owing her favors."

"Great... So what do you want?" Erik asks as he examines her. He didn't notice it before, but her coat was a soft light brown, with a crimson red mane, a flaring red and yellow tail, and a pair of bright blue irises as she also had adorable freckles on her... Surprisingly attractive face... Wait... What?

"Ah, glad ya asked." She trots to the side and pushes a bucket to him. "Start cleaning the top deck, an' make sure to make that metal shine."

"...You're a damned trafficker..."

"Want to say that again, Blondie?"

Deciding not to get skewered alive, he shakes his head. "No, ma'am. I'm good."

"Good, now get to work!"

Erik grunts as he gets to his feet, picks up the bucket, and gets to work. The cleaning of the top deck takes a little over an hour, and he was currently scrubbing some rust off of the metal when he took notice of land nearby, making him mutter silently to himself. "Land... Maybe there's some information there as to what happened to me earlier..."

Suddenly he gets a whack over the head by Clare. "No nodding off!"

Erik rubs his head in annoyance. "You abuse all the people who help you?"

"Mainly humans." She trots over to the railing. "It's nothing personal towards you, I just don't like the idea of humans taking over the pony homeland, and with the war consisting mostly of humans..."

"I see... I guess I can see your dislike of humans in general with that kind of stuff going on."

"Aye. I guess I could cut you some slack, but I'll be keeping an eye on you."

"Fair enough, so long as I actually get a chance, then I'm good."

She gives a simple nod as she trots back to the computer at the main helm, while Erik simply continue washing the deck.

...

Erik wipes his brow as the ship docks at the bay of a rather sophisticated, European-like town consisted of mainly ponies, all wearing different types of barding or armor. Taking this into note, Erik decides he'd rather stick to the ship while Clare did whatever it was she needed to do. However he's suddenly greeted to Clare grabbing his hand and dragging him off the ship and into town. How in the hell did she manage to grasp his hand?

Shaking his head, Erik awkwardly followed after her, not exactly enjoying the cautious stares from the pony populace as the two head into a large looking house. Upon entering Erik stared at the impressively decorated interior of the building as Clare leads him into a nearby room, and motions to it. "This here will be your room." ...What...

"Um... I'm staying with you?"

"Of course you are! We need you to be ready at all times, and what better place than here in the building? I'll get you your meals, and you'll help keep the house clean alongside helping me test my inventions."

"What kind of inventions?"

"Depends on what I'm working on, dumb shite." She trots to the door. "Now, I got work to do, so make sure to stick around the room here for now."

"Great..." Erik collapses into the bed as Clare leaves. Sighing softly, he checks his pockets to see if he had anything, and discovers that he at least had his smartphone. Checking it by turning it on, he gives out a defeated sigh when it reveals that the water had short-circuited the screen, but at least the phone itself was alright... Now he just had to get a new screen... But how? In this world? Damn...

Rolling onto his stomach, Erik rested his head for a while, tired and unsure what to do at all. He wants to enjoy being alive, but how the hell does he do so with stuff he knows nothing about? Heck, did they even have games here?

Grunting in annoyance, Erik sits up as he begins looking around the room for anything to do. Sadly there was very little, however he does find a few blank books, ink, and quills. So old fashion, but regardless, he grabs a book, and the writing supplies as he opens it up, and begins writing, mainly a journal about what happened so far and how he currently felt. Once he managed to write enough down, he looks at the door for a moment, before looking some more, and soon found a chess board with pieces. He will have to play it against himself, but it's better this than nothing.

After about three hours, Clare barges in, making Erik jolt as he drops the chess piece he had, looking at the mare as he asks with a awkward look. "Can't you knock?!"

"Takes too long." Clare waves the request by as she grabs his shirt. "I need your help testing my latest prototype!"

"...Eh?"

...

Erik blinks as he carried a double barrel shotgun with a massive load of custom weapon modifications added to the design, blinking a couple times as he stared at it, before looking at the mare. "What am I supposed to do with this again?"

"Shoot the target, duh!"

"Right..." Erik aims the shotgun at the nearby target, and pulls the trigger. The shotgun had an immense kick that threw Erik onto the ground and hit his head against the floor with a loud thud, while the target itself was electrified and disintegrated beyond recognition. Groaning, Erik sits up while rubbing his head as he looked at the mare. "You're an insane mare!"

"Maybe, but we gotta be prepared for defense, right?!" She shouts back at him, before looking to the side. "Besides, the shotgun was a success, if a bit stronger than anticipated. I'll need to tone down the overall power it produces."

"Yeah, no kidding." Erik sits up as he rubs his head some more. "God, that hurt."

"Oh don't be such a cat, you did fine, and we got the results we needed. Now I need you to head back to your room until further notice."

"Great!" Erik yelled in annoyance as he gets up and goes back to his room, and gets some much needed sleep.

...

Among the ocean, outside of the Germane Shores, a single frigate roamed across the waters as a single woman with a telescope eyes the land beyond with a cautious look, before lowering the telescope to reveal a pair of black eyes with brightly glowing orange irises, long white hair, a tattoo along her right eye, and was currently wearing a heavy suit of Imperial Rubedite armor. Looking over at the other soldiers, she barks out. "Prepare for landing!" She looks at the shores. "It's time we start our work."

...To Be Continued...