Lazlo didn't do much after Celestia left him in his room. He went in, unpacked his luggage, and then looked around the room. Along the walls stood almost all the furniture: a wardrobe, a dresser, a full-body mirror, a desk with a big chair, and a bed, though that wasn't along the wall but reached toward the middle of the room. All of them were a little bigger than the average ones in his world. He guessed that this guestroom was originally for minotaur guests, but it fit him very well. Like most parts of the castle and the entire Canterlot, white and purple were the dominant colors here too. The walls were white and had many drawings hanging, showing different landscapes of Equestria.

The ceiling had a light purple coloration and a huge, golden chandelier hanging in the middle to give light if needed. The floor was similar in color to the ceiling, but had a darker tone, though Lazlo barely noticed the difference. Colors were one word to him, in this case, it would be purple and not whatever they could come up with. While the floor was made of stone, it wasn't as cold as he expected.

Two carpets were placed in the room. One under the bed reached several centimeters beyond it, probably for protecting the floor from the legs of the bed, but also to give some comfort to the tired individual to take his last or first few steps to or from the bed not on a cold floor, which gave out a loud clip-clop sound when hooved creatures walked on it. The other was a circular one, placed in the middle of the room. Its light blue color made the room look more lively, if only slightly.

Three doors broke the continuity of the walls. One was the entrance, one led to the bathroom, and one, made of glass and placed between huge windows, led to the balcony.

Lazlo thought about walking around the castle, but a clock on the wall showed him that dinnertime would come soon, so he remained there, trying his bed, which was very comfortable. Not too soft that would make him sink deep into it, but not hard as the floor.

He almost fell asleep when someone knocked on the door. It was a maid who informed him that the princesses would have dinner soon, and she escorted him to the dining room.

This time, among the dishes, there was one plate that had a relatively big fish on it. The servant asked if it was good or enough for him and told him that it was a freshwater bream. Lazlo thanked her.

The fish was delicious. It had a slightly different taste than the ones he ate in his world, but that applied to basically every food. Twilight told him that food made or farmed by earth ponies tended to be healthier, more filling, and had a better taste. It was most likely because of their connection to the earth, their magic. But after telling her that fish caught by Fluttershy tasted differently, she updated her theory, adding the fact that in Lazlo's case, magic was also responsible for it. Since there wasn't any way to test it, they had to accept it as the most likely reason.

This time, they talked about less emotional subjects. Celestia asked Lazlo if he found everything all right with his accommodation. Luna told them, well, more the other princesses about her meeting with the head of Canterlot City Development. He couldn't really follow what she was talking about, especially since he was trying to get a fish bone that got stuck between his teeth out. Cadance was curious about what fish tasted like, but he couldn't explain it better to her than when Twilight tried to explain what hay tastes like. Celestia could provide an explanation, since both she and Luna had tasted different kinds of meat in the past. She compared it to some kind of mix of different flowers and spices, which was quickly lost on the human, as he didn't know what those flowers tasted like, and also didn't recognize every one that was listed.

After dinner was finished, Lazlo decided to go back to his room and leave the exploration for tomorrow. He wanted to have a bath anyway. He rarely had one, usually showered, but now he had an opportunity to do so, as his home had only a shower corner.

He enjoyed his bath in the huge bathtub. Like with everything else, the bathroom facilities were bigger than normal too. Fortunately, not that much bigger to cause any issues, so he wasn't in any danger of falling into the toilet. When finished and dry again, he left the bathroom.

He noticed that Celestia and Luna had moved the sun and moon while he was taking a bath. It was dark outside. Glancing out through the glass door, he could see the capital city below. He quickly put on some warmer clothes and went out to the balcony.

The view was breathtaking. He wasn't on top of one of the castle's towers, more like around the middle, but whoever assigned this guestroom to him chose the perfect one. From his balcony, he could see a good part of Castle Town and most of Canterlot City. The night was still young, so he saw lights from many windows. Canterlot also had public lights on most of its roads.

Looking away from the city, he could see the stunning landscape. He could see the green, flat lands, the forests, the hills around north to the mountains on which Canterlot was built. Other mountains were visible far away. And all were shining in the silver light the moon provided. He couldn't see any other town as Ponyville was in the other direction, and no other town or city was close to Canterlot. The only thing he could see, though only partly, as the angle wasn't the best, was a train
station at the base of the mountain. Its main purpose was for transferring between trains easily, without the need for many of them to climb up to Canterlot, so only those lines would go up that ended in the capital.

As he gazed at the incredible sight, memories rushed into his mind. Memories of different times, happier times when he and his mother would spend a week in a region of his country they hadn't visited before. They did this every year. They would always ascend to some kind of lookout when they were in a place with mountains or hills. With all the conflict in his life momentarily forgotten, he wished she was standing beside him, just like many years ago. They would take some pictures and then find a restaurant to eat at. He only snapped out of his thoughts as he felt a single tear running down his cheek, realizing that it would never happen again, and the only thing that remained was the memory.

"May we join you for some conversation?" a voice interrupted his thoughts.

He then heard the sound of wingbeats and looked in the direction of the sound. Luna was floating in the air near his balcony. He had been so lost in his thoughts that he hadn't noticed the wingbeats.

He nodded, and the princess landed on the balcony.

"We would like to ask you some questions," she began after her hooves made contact with the floor. "But first, we would like to inform you that your dreams seem clear, without any nightmares." Lazlo noticed that her speech was a bit different.
She wasn't using the old English but the modern one. He guessed that she was taking lessons but needed more practice. Not that he was ever an expert, he could barely get by in the language for everyday communication. "We are still working on a way to help you remember your dreams," she continued.

"I'm not sure that's necessary," he said. "I mean, the few I remembered were very weird, so I think I can live without it."

"We do not wish to force you," the princess reassured him. "But dreams can be important. They can reflect your deepest thoughts, fears, worries, or sometimes provide a key to solving a problem or helping you move on," she argued.

"I will think about it."

"You have time. We haven't figured out how to resolve the situation yet," she nodded, seemingly satisfied with his words. "If we are still welcome on your balcony, we would like to ask our questions," she then said, moving on to the topic she wished to discuss.

Lazlo bit back a comment about this being more like her balcony and simply nodded.

"Why did your kind go to the Moon?" she asked.

While the question was somewhat unexpected for the man, he wasn't surprised that she knew about that, as he had already told Twilight, and she always relayed what she learned to the princesses.

"I don't know exactly," he shrugged. "I guess it was part of the arms race during the Cold War."

"Cold war?" Luna
asked.

"If my friend, Chris, were here, he could talk about it for a year, or even more..." he said. "Anyway, the short version is that not so long ago in human history, the whole world was divided into two factions, well, three, because there were neutral countries as well. But basically, the two strongest nations, we called them superpowers, had many countries under their influence. They were enemies and constantly competing, never starting an open war, but the tension between them was always there. They waged wars through the countries that were under them, though. And that's why we call it the Cold War," he gave a quick summary. "But maybe it had nothing to do with it. We just wanted to show that we are capable of this too after going into space," he shrugged again.

"Ah, yes, we know that your kind knows violence," Luna said. Though her words might seem judgmental, her tone didn't give off any negative vibes. It was just a fact she was stating. "But we still find it fascinating that you got so far without magic. Even if the past me, or Nightmare Moon, would be furious about some things in your world, like the idea that the Moon only reflects the Sun's light, or that it's much smaller than the Sun, or even that all the stars that shine during the night are just like the Sun but are far away," she continued to speak, showing him that she had read all the things Twilight had sent to her and Celestia.

"Well, it is what it is," he shrugged. "Besides, I think it's more fascinating, if not a lot frightening, that someone here needs to control the Moon and the Sun. I mean, if it would happen in my world, then we would've destroyed the planets in that system a long time ago."

"Indeed. We do have a lot of differences between our worlds."

"Yeah, I guess that would explain how you could survive on the Moon for so long. I mean, without any air, food, water. Now, I'm a little curious. How was it? If it's not too hurtful, of course."

"We weren't technically on the Moon," she said, then clarified her statement. "It was more similar to how Discord was turned to stone, but instead we became one with the Moon. We did not have a physical body on it," she explained. Lazlo nodded in acknowledgment.

Silence fell upon them for a few seconds before Luna changed the subject.

"Last time we sang with you here," she said. "How did you call upon that magic?" she asked.

"What magic?" Lazlo asked, clearly confused. "I mean, I remember that I was singing, and I felt forced to do so, but I don't know what it was."

"You never asked?" Luna seemed shocked at that. "But it is a form of magic, and it was clearly your doing."

"Really? I guess I just forgot about it. I mean, there were many other things on my mind back then. I could've asked Twilight about it, but it just never came up," he admitted.

"We will discuss this with our sister and the scientists," Luna stated. "This could mean that you are capable of some kind of magic, even if they only found Magiconnector in you."

"Okay, so what is it exactly?" Lazlo asked. "And how could I do that?"

"It is a special kind of magic. Every creature is capable of it, but it's rarely, if ever, a conscious spell. To our understanding, it is usually triggered by a strong emotion. In this case, it was your feelings about the unfortunate news of you being stuck here. You involuntarily cast a spell that affected you and many around you. The range of it is never constant; in that case, it also affected me and several guards, but it can vary from a simple creature to whole towns. At least that is our current knowledge about it," she explained. "As to how you were able to cast this spell, it is beyond our understanding. As we mentioned, we will speak with our sister and the scientists about it."

"Well, it might be just another mystery, like how did I get here, or how did I survive here," he said, but he felt his chest tightening at the last part. It was still a terrifying thought.

"You never know. We remember times when we only had a small fraction of our current knowledge and believed in things that would sound ridiculous today," Luna said, trying to sound comforting.

"Yeah, maybe you're right," he shrugged. "I know my world changed a lot even in my short life there," he said, mentally comparing the technology of his early years to the ones he had before getting here.

"We believe it is time for us to depart and let you enjoy the night as you wish," Luna spoke again, and Lazlo realized that they had spent a good amount of time here, talking.

"Okay, I think I'll go to sleep soon," he said, feeling somewhat tired.

"Then we bid you a good night and continue to make sure you won't have nightmares," she said before jumping off from the balcony and flying away.

Lazlo looked at her as she soon flew out of his view before going back inside his room. Before going to bed, he decided to check where to go tomorrow. There were some books in the room, and one of them contained maps and descriptions of different parts of Canterlot and its notable buildings. Right now, he was more interested in the maps.

After browsing through the book for almost an hour, he found several spots he wanted to visit. With those plans in mind, he finally headed to bed.

Author's Note

I know, it's a shorter chapter, but I hope you enjoy it nonetheless.

Next time, another day in Canterlot.