I awoke to the sound of my alarm going off. I blinked a couple of times to try and evade the clutches of sleep before turning off the alarm and slamming the screen of the laptop down.
“Too… fucking…early,” I mumbled before climbing out of bed and walking over to the en-suite and turning the shower on.
I stepped out of the shower feeling much more awake. I dressed into my clothes and fixed the armour in place. I switched off the laptop before unplugging it and placing it in my rucksack. I noticed a letter and bag placed atop a dresser located in one corner of the room. I opened the letter:

Dear Vuur Koning,

You will find enclosed with this letter:

• Proof of citizenship card.

• A return travel ticket to Ponyville

• Approximately 1000 bits (Equestrian currency) to cover the cost of food and any clothing you require

A guard will be waiting outside your door to escort you to the railway station and Twilight will meet you at the station in Ponyville.

Signed Princess Celestia

P.S. I would see you off but I am afraid I have royal duties to attend to.

I put the letter back on the table and picked up the money bag, carefully placing it in my rucksack before putting the rucksack and sword on my back and placing the camera bag on my shoulders using the shoulder strap. I placed the tickets and the citizenship card in a pocket on the camera bag. Satisfied that I had everything I walked out the door and I saw that, as stated on the letter, there was indeed a guard outside the door. I nodded in acknowledgement towards the guard.
“Morning,” I said.
“I’m guessing you wish to go to the train station now,” he said.
“Lead the way,” I said, gesturing down the hallway. Eventually we came across hallways that I was unfamiliar with. There was noticeably more ponies walking about and some of them stopped to stare at me as I walked past. ‘Oh great, here we go again,’ I thought as we exited the castle and walked out into the fresh air. As we walked down one of the streets I noticed two things: One, I was the tallest person in the street and two, as a result of this I was noticed by every pony walking through the streets and many of them gave me a really wide berth as I walked past. The ones that didn’t had their noses pointed so high up that if they were any higher they would have been classed as astronauts. After walking for about 10 minutes we arrived at the train station. I stopped and turned towards the guard.
“Thank you. I can probably make my own way from here,” I said and the guard nodded before walking back in the direction of the castle. I made my way over to the entrance of the station and found myself in a large hall. On the far wall was an active notice board displaying the times of the next trains. I walked closer and looked for the next train to Ponyville. ‘Let’s see, aha, train calling at Ponyville, platform 7,leaves at 10:30, current time 10:00.’
I walked past the information board towards the platforms, following the signs as I went. Walking onto the platforms I saw steam locomotives of varying sizes from mighty Express locomotives to humble little tank engines. If I didn’t have a train to catch I would have taken my camera out and started photographing each and every one. I walked over to platform 7 where I found a small train of coaches similar to tramway coaches from the UK. The locomotive was similar to the Double Fairlie type of locomotive. I walked into one of the carriages about halfway down the train via the steps at one end. The interior of the carriage was an open style (meaning no compartments) and there were quite a few groups of ponies but not enough to make it seem crowded. I chose an empty table seat about halfway along the carriage and placed my rucksack and sword in the luggage rack above the seat but retrieved one of the books from the rucksack before taking my camera bag off and placing it on the table. I sat down and, having nothing better to do, opened the book and started reading.
As I read the book I started to hear whispers across from me. I looked to the other side of the carriage to find a group of unicorns sitting at the adjacent table whispering amongst themselves whilst frequently glancing at me. I sighed before turning to them and said.
“What? Can’t a man have a hobby?” They quickly started looking anywhere other than at me. I shook my head slightly before I resumed my reading.
After about 5 minutes I heard the locomotive give a high pitched whistle and seconds later the carriages gave a jolt before slowly pulling out of the station with the chuffs of the two driving wheel-sets going in and out of synch as it sped up. I resumed my reading as the train made its way down the mountain.
After about 5 minutes the guard entered through one end of the carriage calling out for tickets. He eventually made his way towards me and I retrieved the tickets from my camera bag and passed them to the guard. He checked off one of them before passing them back to me. I placed them back in my camera bag before once again resuming reading yet again the book.
It was about ten minutes before I was yet again interrupted from reading and I looked up from the book to find that it was one of the unicorns from the table across from mine. He was green with white hair and he didn’t look too happy.
“You don’t belong here,” he said pointing at me with malice clear in his voice.
“Excuse me?” I said with a feeling I knew where this was going.
“You heard me. You don’t belong here in this country. You’re not a pony so you don’t belong,” he said. ‘Great,’ I thought ‘hardly been here a week and fate has given me a xenophobe to deal with’
“Look,” I said, “I don’t want to be a problem and if I bother you that much I can move to another carriage if you want.”
“What I want is for you to get back to your own land before you spoil this country with you foreign ways,” he said. ‘He can’t possibly be serious,’ I thought.
“Two things. One, I can't get back to my, as you put it, ‘own land’ and two,” I said retrieving my citizenship card from the camera bag and showing him, “I’m technically a citizen of Equestria so I am not actually classed as foreign.”
“That changes nothing, freak,” he said. I froze before slowly, deliberately putting the book on the table, standing up and leaned towards the pony.
“Would you care to repeat that I had a little trouble hearing you from all the way over there,” I said pointing towards the seat that I had occupied.
“You heard me. You are a freak,” he said, trying and failing to intimidate me.
“You know you really don’t intimidate me. In fact I find it downright hilarious,” I said standing up to my full height.
“You watch your tone, freak, before I do something to make you regret ever coming to this country,” he said pawing the ground with a forehoof. ‘Ok, that’s it,’ I thought as I turned around and grabbed my sword. I turned back around to face him and stabbed the sword into the floorboards of the carriage.
“You shouldn’t make threats unless you know you can go through with them or else there comes a certain point when you stop looking brave and start looking like an arsehole trying to cause a fight,” I said leaning on the sword and absentmindedly looking at my left hand, “Do you like my sword? It’s very sharp.” The pony started looking really nervous and started backing away. He turned towards the other unicorns at the table.
“Let’s go. It’s not even worth the trouble,” they started walking towards the next carriage and he turned back to me, “Just remember, I will be reporting you to the guard.”
“Oh really? Who was the one who threatened who first?” I said. They walked into the next carriage rather quickly and once they were gone I noticed that it was completely silent except for the frequent beat of the carriage wheels rolling over the joints in the track… and that everyone was looking at me. I placed my sword back on the luggage rack and turned around. I clapped my hands together before saying, “Sorry for the disturbance everyone. I was happy to move to another carriage and forget about it right up until he called me a freak and I promise I won’t disturb you any more,” I sat back down and tried to resume reading the book but found myself distracted. I sighed before closing the book and standing up to put it back in the rucksack. I then collected everything together and walked out of the carriage heading towards the rear of the train. After walking through several carriages I ended up in the guard’s compartment and he was there signing what looked like a time keeping book.
“Excuse me?” I asked. The guard looked up from the book and look startled momentarily before composing himself, “Do you mind if I stand on the rear veranda for the remainder of the journey?”
“Go ahead,” he said, “jus’ don’t be goin’ an’ jumpin’ off” he said in what sounded like a Texan accent. I walked outside and placed my bags on the floor, making sure they couldn’t fall off, and stood there for a few minutes listening to the sound of the wheels rolling over the joints and allowed my mind to go blank. Some people find it distracting but I’ve always found it a relaxing sound. I took my sword off of my back and placed it down on the floor, sat down and I rested my head on the wall and closed my eyes.
After some time I opened my eyes when I heard the carriage door open. I looked towards the door to see, not the guard as I expected, but an orange pegasus with slightly unkempt maroon hair.
“You come here to find a quiet spot?” I asked and she looked startled when she saw me, “Don’t worry, I don’t bite.” she hesitantly sat down.
“Unless somepony insults you?” she said in a distinctively Trottingham accent. At least that’s what ponies called it. To me it just sounded like she was from London (think of a light ‘cockney’ accent).
“I’m guessing you saw my little ‘outburst’ then, if you are here to tell me the same thing as the other pony then you can just piss off,” I said pointing a thumb towards the door. She just snorted.
“I didn't come here to pick a fight,” she said, “I came to say good job. Not many ponies could scare off somepony like that.”
“For a start I’m not a pony.” I said, “It also helps when you have a ‘fuck-off’ sized sword,” I pointed to the aforementioned sword with a smirk and she burst out laughing.
“The look on his face when you stabbed it into the floor and said ‘do you like my sword’,” she said in between giggles and I suddenly realized something.
“Why are you taking the train when you could just fly? Your wings seem to be in good enough condition to be able to do that” I asked and she became really serious as I said that.
“Truthfully?” she asked.
“What do you think?”
“I’m a special ops guard that’s been assigned to assess whether you are suitable for enrollment.”
“But Celestia said that the side effects of my conditions, specifically the hyperawareness and the fact that I take in everything I see, would mean I would have more chance of being accepted for training.”
“Yes, but we have to assess every aspect of your conditions. That fact that you are a completely new species complicates things even further. I’m also assigned to act as a guide… long term,” she said.
“As in during training or whilst I travel as well? I asked with one eyebrow raised.
"As in until you finish your little adventure around the world," she said.
"Why would I need someone to act as a guide for me all that time? I could be gone for months or even years," I said shrugging.
“Do you speak Germain?... or Griffin?... or Minotaur?” She said, pointing at me.
“If the first one is the language I am thinking of then a little bit, yes” I said, shaking my hand is a 'so-so' motion.
“What language are you thinking of?” she asked.
“Guten Tag, hallo, gut, ‘Feuer Frei ’, ‘Waidmanns Heil’, ‘Gott mit uns’, nicht, Ja, Jawohl, Scheißer, Auf Wiedersehen,” I said, listing off my complete vocabulary of German, “There are also a couple of songs in that language that I can sing although from what I have translated… they’re not the sort of things you should sing about in public,” I said, shuddering a bit.
“That’s Germain, what did you think it was?” she asked, head cocked to one side.
“German, in their language it’s called ‘Deutsch’,” I said “Care to tell me what the other two sound like?” I asked.
“‘detta är vad grip låter som’ and ‘mae hyn yn beth Minotaur swnio fel’," She said and I gave a low whistle.
“I can’t speak a word of either language although the first one sounds Swedish and the second one sounds a lot like Welsh which is a beautiful language in my opinion. It also has one of the longest words in any language. Just a second and I’ll show youm” I said digging into my rucksack and retrieving my laptop. She seemed confused as to what the laptop was. I turned it on and brought up a word document and I typed in the word before showing her: ‘Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch’.
“Have a go at pronouncing that,” I said smirking. She stared at the screen for several minutes before trying to sound it out a couple of times before ultimately giving up.
“… I can’t pronounce it. I may be able speak the language but that doesn’t mean I can say mile-long words," she said, looking rather annoyed "if you find it so funny then why don't you say it,"
“I think it's pronounced along the lines of-" I stopped to inhale, "-‘hlan-vairay-poohl-guin-gihl-gogery-u-queern-droboohl-hlatisilio-go-go-goch’… I think,” Her face went blank for a couple of seconds almost as if she was trying to process what I had just said.
“But that’s just describing the place it's located in,” she said throwing her hooves into the air, “That’s the stupidest thing I have ever heard"
“And that’s why it is always referred to as ‘Llanfar-P.G.’ when used in a letter and by people that don’t have time to say all of it, the reason they added ‘P.G.’ is because there are several other towns in Wales called ‘Llanfair’,” I said, “Anyway, you never told me your name. if you going to be my guide for god knows how long then I will need to at know at least that.”
“The name’s Autumn Skies,” she said holding out a hoof.
“Vuur Koning,” I said before grabbing the hoof and shaking it.
We sat there for some time just watching the world go by and after a while I turned to Autumn Skies and asked.
“I’ve been wondering. I’ve seen marks on the rears of loads of different ponies. What are they?” Autumn Skies looked at me as if I’d grown a second head.
“You’re kidding right? You’re telling me you don’t know what a cutie mark is?” she said one eyebrow raised.
“Alien, remember?” I said.
“A cutie mark is a mark that appears on a pony’s flank when they discover their special talent. For example, mine represents my talent for fighting using bladed weapons,” Autumn said pointing at her mark. It was an image two swords crossed in front of a sun.
“If that’s the case then what does Celestia’s and Luna’s marks represent?” I asked.
“They control the sun and the moon respectively,” Autumn said matter-of-factly.
“Hah I call bullshit on that. There is no way that they control the sun and the moon, which are all the way up in space, from their castle” I said, Autumn snorted.
“They use magic,” she said matter-of-factly ,“and if they don’t use magic then how do the sun and moon move through the sky?”
“Every celestial object generates gravity and smaller celestial objects, lest say for arguments sake, a moon orbits around a planet which orbits around a sun or star, depending on the point of view, which orbits around a galaxy. It’s one of the laws of physics and you can’t change those… unless you’re a black hole and they are the only exception.” Autumn was about to argue the point but the guard opened the door and looked at us.
“We’ll soon be arriving in Ponyville. If y’all are getting off there then y’all best make your way to the passenger compartments now,” he said before walking back into the guard’s compartment. I gathered up my stuff before walking through to the exit at the other end of the carriage with Autumn Skies following shortly after she stopped to collect a bag of some sort.
The train eventually pulled into the station and I could see Twilight standing on the platform. I stepped off the train and walked over to greet her.
“Good day Twilight,” I said, nodding to the alicorn.
“Hello Vuur Koning. How was the journey?” she asked. I chuckled slightly whilst pinching the bridge of my nose and I shook my head before saying.
“In a word, eventful. Oh if you see a green unicorn with white hair walking around in town let me know. Ok?” Twilight looked confused.
“Why?” Twilight asked.
“No reason. Oh by the way this is Autumn Skies,” I said pointing towards the aforementioned pegasus. They both exchanged a short greeting, “She’s a guard who’s been assigned to act as a guide of sorts and she evaluating whether or not I’m suitable to become a reserve guard.”
“Why a reserve guard? Why not become a full time guard?” Twilight asked.
“Two reasons: One it’s kind of pointless to have a weapon and not know how to use it and two I plan to travel the world once I have finished combat training and I would rather not get my arse handed to me like when I first arrived in Equestria.”
“What happened?” Twilight asked.
“I was set upon by Timberwolves,” I said, holding up my left arm to show her the damaged armour and she visibly winced, “That’s also why I came here. I have been told that your friend, Rarity, owns a boutique. I wish to have several sets of clothes made, and if possible get my armour repaired. Luckily Celestia gave me some money to pay for the clothes,” we all started walking into the town where I was once again on the receiving end of countless stares.
“Remind me to ask your friend to make me a cape with a hood Twilight,” I said.
“Why?” she asked.
“I don’t like being stared at,” I said as we walked towards a building shaped like a fairground carousel, “Doesn’t exactly fit in with the rustic aesthetic of the rest of the town does it?” I said and Twilight rolled her eyes. As we walked in a bell at the door jingled. Inside there were loads of dresses as well as the occasional suit on display on pony shaped mannequins. I heard a female voice call out from another room.
“Be with you in a minute,” she said in an upper class accent and I saw I white unicorn with purple hair walk into the room. She seemed startled at my appearance.
“AAH,” she screamed. I was about to ask her to calm down but she exclaimed, “Your armour!”
“Wait, what?” I said. I was not expecting that.
“It looks atrocious. I mean just look at it. There’s mud on your shoes, the leg armour looks like it hasn’t been washed in weeks, the gold and silver armour looks like it’s never even heard of the word polish, and just look at your foreleg! This won’t do at all,” she said before promptly dragging me into another room using her magic. I looked back to Twilight and Autumn for help but Autumn looked like she was struggling to hold her laughter and Twilight just stood there with a look that said ‘you’re on your own’.
“Thanks a lot,” I mouthed to them but Twilight just shrugged and Autumn was still laughing. ‘Well fuck you too,’ I thought before accepting my fate but not before I could let out a totally manly scream as I was dragged into the other room. The unicorn, who by this point I had guessed to be Rarity, dragged me onto a raised platform before undoing the buckles on my armour and promptly removing them and my rucksack and camera bag, placing the armour on a table and my bags on to a couple of coat hooks.
“You could’ve asked you know,” I said to Rarity who was currently looking at the damaged part of the sleeve. She tapped her chin and hummed before saying.
“Well I’m not exactly an expert at making this sort of clothing but I’m sure I can sort something out. Please remove your shirt”
“Erm, ok…” I said before reluctantly taking my shirt off. She levitated it from my grasp and placed it on the same table as my armour. I walked over, curious as to how she would repair it. She removed the damaged scales plus any undamaged scales that surrounded them, leaving quite a large hole in the sleeve, and a circular piece of scale armour separate from the sleeve. She then levitated a micrometer of some kind over and measured one of the undamaged scales using it. She wrote down whatever measurements she took before levitating countless metal scales of varying sizes over. She started comparing the scales for a match with the ones from my armour, whilst keeping the other scales aloft. ‘I know females are supposed to be good at multitasking but this is ridiculous,’ I thought. She seemed to find one that matched as she compared it a couple of times with one of the undamaged scales and with the micrometer she levitated more of that size over and returned the ones that didn’t fit back into wherever they’re supposed to go. The sleeve was soon looking as good as new. Rarity then started cleaning my armour and polishing it and in the end I could actually see my own reflection on the gold helmet. She then levitated the shirt back to me before asking.
“Now what can I do for you?” I just stood there for about a minute just trying to comprehend what had happened. She just sat there the entire time and I finally found my voice.
“But… you’re not surprised at my appearance?” I said putting the shirt back on.
“No why should I be?” she asked.
“Look at me,” I said throwing my arms out.
“I am,” she said.
“Ok… anyway, I would like several items of clothing made,” I said.
“Ok let me take your measurements and you can tell me whilst I do that,” she said walking over to the raise platform. I followed her and stepped up onto the platform.
“You’re probably going to have to take some measurements while I wear the armour as I wish to have some cloaks made.” she nodded before levitating the pieces of armour over and refitting them on me all at once. ‘Damn, she’s good,’ I thought. She then went about measuring different parts of me, asking me to move different parts as needed.
“I never did ask your name. Hold out your left foreleg please,” Rarity said.
“It’s Vuur Koning,” I said and did]/color] as requested.
“Judging from your voice I would have guessed you were from Trottingham but your appearance says otherwise,” She said. I chuckled slightly.
“Pretty much everyone I meet says I have a ‘Trottingham’ accent. But no I don’t come from there,” I said.
“If you don’t mind me asking where do you come from? Right foreleg please,” Rarity said. I lowered my left arm and held out my right arm before saying.
“A nation called the U.K., its full name is ‘The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland’ and I come from a country called England which is located in Britain. I’ve noticed that the accent you ponies refer to as ‘Trottingham’ is the same as the accent that people living in the capital of my country have although I wonder if accents from other parts of my country exist here. I mean I don’t have the true ‘Trottingham’ accent as I used to live in the capital of my country. But until recently I lived in the north,” I said and this seemed to pique Rarity’s interest.
“The capital you say? What’s it like? Raise both forelegs please,” she said before measuring my chest and abdomen.
“It’s nothing like Canterlot that’s for sure. Imagine huge city full of skyscrapers and office blocks. It’s not much to look at in terms of aesthetics but places like Buckingham Palace and Trafalgar Square are nice.”
“A palace, you’re ruled by royalty?” she asked, wide eyed.
“We’re ruled by a Queen, Queen Elizabeth the second, although we have a parliament that makes most of the decisions nowadays.” I said.
“Anyways what sort of cloaks would you like?” Rarity asked finishing off the measurements and levitating a quill and piece of paper over to the table. I thought for a few moments before deciding.
“I have two distinctive cloaks that I want to have made,” I said, “I want both of them to be hooded but the first one I would like to be a thin material for spring, summer and autumn weather with preferably a dark coloured material, black if possible, with red velvet on the inside. I want it to be rather loose fitting to help get rid of excess heat and conceal my exact form. Not everyone is as discrete or polite about their reaction to me as you are but it can’t restrict movement too much and needs to be easy to remove if needs be. It also has to have an opening in the back so that I can remove my sword. If possible I would also like the outer material to be waterproof,” she started taking down notes as I described what I wanted and when she finished I continued.
“The second one I intend for use in winter or snowy conditions so it has to be good at trapping heat. I want it to be white in colour to blend in with the snow and maybe a piece of material separate from the hood at the front to keep wind and snow out of my face but it needs to be able to see so have it stop just under my eyes,” she took down notes for the second one before turning to me.
“I will be able to have then done by… three days from now how’s that sound?” Rarity asked.
“That’s sounds great how much will it cost to make both of them?” I asked going into my rucksack and retrieving the bag of coins but Rarity shook her head.
“Consider them a gift,” Rarity said pushing the bag of bits away from her.
“What?” I said doing a double take.
“I love a challenge or anything unusual,” she shrugged, “And the design of your armour has given me lots of inspiration for my next line of clothes.”
“Are you sure?” I said feeling guilty.
“Yes I am sure,” she said with a smile and I gathered up my stuff and walked back into the main room where I found Autumn and Twilight talking. Rarity noticed them as well.
“Oh Twilight. When did you get here?” Twilight and Autumn burst out laughing.
“Laugh it up fuzz-balls,” I said crossing my arms. Twilight chuckled a couple more time before responding to Rarity.
“We walked in with Vuur Koning. You were so busy fretting over how he looked that you didn’t even notice us,” she said with a knowing look on her face. Rarity blushed from embarrassment.
“I guess I can get carried away sometimes,” Rarity said. Twilight then turned to me.
“Have you done everything you need to do here?” She said and I nodded, “In that case then we best be off. I hope to see you again soon Rarity.”
“Most certainly and I bid you farewell Vuur Koning,” Rarity said.
“Auf wiedersehen,” I said and with that Twilight, Autumn and I walked out the door. Twilight turned towards me.
“So, do you have any other plans for today Vuur Koning?” She asked. I was about to reply when I heard a yelling coming from the sky.
“GET AWAY FROM THEM!” I was promptly sent flying through the air by something blue and I landed on the ground hard.
“Ow, that hurt,” I muttered. I could hear Twilight saying something. Almost like she was having an argument with someone though I couldn't understand what she was saying. I was too focused on the dull pain in my chest and the pounding headache I now had. I sat up and took my helmet off before rubbing my forehead. I could see small grey pegasi with blond hair flying around my head. I shook my head to clear my vision but that just made the headache worse.
“Hey, Vuur Koning are you alright?” Autumn asked.
“Did anyone catch the number of that L.N.E.R. A4 locomotive?” I said before promptly blacking out.

Vuur Koning stat increases:

+5 intimidation to enemies
+5 to armour

Canterlot city added to map

Perk unlocked: 'your friendly neighbourhood human'
you're now a certified citizen of the Diarchal kingdom of Equestria, try not to get into trouble.

perk unlocked: 'Are you taking to me!?'
ponies are starting to realise you aren't to be messed with, but don't take it too far

Character unlocked: Autumn Skies.

+1 teamwork

perk unlocked: 'Oorah!'
you're long-term guide is a special-ops royal guard, try not to piss her off and you'll build a strong friendship