I slowly turn around and stare at him, then back at the horse. She looks rather annoyed. She…smiles at me, raises her right hoof to her chest. Raises her hoof to her chest. Horses can’t do that. Did they even have extra joints?

“I’m Queen Ira, and this is-“ My units start screaming and backing up. I can’t look away or move. The map falls from my hands to the ground. The white horse, who just addressed herself as Princess Ira, looks surprised at our reaction.

“I…I apologize! Have I offended you?” She stares at me with sympathy. My soldiers keep backing up, murmuring to each other about how this wasn’t possible. I slowly shake my head in disbelief. The mostly black horse looks at Ira, then back to me and tries to speak. This...Ira interrupts her by raising her left hoof to her company's chest.

“Giiiiiiive them just a minute. I don’t think they’re from here…at all.” Her tone is royal and articulate. It is what I would expect from a powerful queen, but not from an animal.

We stand there in complete disbelief. Talking rainbow horses…talking horses. I just couldn’t even begin to process this. My brain turns on and I accept the fact that at this point, anything is possible. We could easily be in some kind of afterlife even. All bets were off about where we are. Perhaps their country had domesticated super intelligent creatures. That raises one simple question though: what exactly did she mean by Queen Ira?

I slowly nod my head and weakly wave hello with my right hand.

“I…I’m Captain Raiden. We’re…um…where we come from…your species hasn’t…um…well they don’t talk. They’re for riding and labor like any other animal could be...not that I'm saying you’re animals it's just... I…I’m sorry it’s just…talking horses…I…”

The black one interrupts me.

“Ponies. We’re actually ponies. Don't get me wrong, we do have horses here, but they're technically another species.It’s a cultural thing, no big deal honestly.” I turn my head slowly to her. She even has a slightly different female voice as well. It’s slightly deeper with a bit of sass to it. She sounds younger, and less interested at coming across peacefully. I try to say something, but my head screws everything up and I make a strange knocking motion in the air with my hand. She looks me over awkwardly.

“I’m Princess Lefana by the way.” She glances angrily at Ira, then back to us with a subtle smile.

“Welcome to Equestria! If there’s anything we can do to make this less-” she stops trying. She can tell we’re still wrapping our heads around this. I turn to Emeris.

“Wh…what…what should we…” He shakes his head.

“You’re first captain; it’s your call. I’m not dealing with this crap. I’m still processing the fresh grass.”

Ira and Lefana giggle at his comment.

They actually cover their mouths with a hoof while they do it too. They’re mannerisms were so human it catches me off guard.

“I…uh, maybe if…would you excuse me for just a second?” They both nod. I instruct my units to turn around. Everyone reluctantly does. I subtly look over to my left and pat my chest twice with two fingers, signaling Tara Beik to relax. They all have their bows drawn. Their dark green leather armor with a few pieces of the local vegetation, makes them almost invisible. Lieutenant Termin commands Tara Beik and makes sure to stay where we can clearly see each other, but not the enemy. She nods at my hand signal and creeps back behind the small patch of trees. I take in a deep breath, knowing it was time to put on my friendly mask. Emeris and myself had always been a good tagteam for conversations. I get the information across, he glosses it up with humor.

“Okay…regardless, we are guests in these lands, and we’ve just received an introduction. We will act with respect, accept it, and…um…talking horses, I just can’t even-“

“Ponies!” Lefana calls from behind me. Several of my soldiers chuckle.

“Okay…talking ponies. We need to accept this, and treat them like any other nation. Is that understood?” I hear grunts of yes from everyone. We all turn back around. I take a deep breath, and exhale slowly. I redo my introduction despite my body wanting to shake violently, but somehow I stay in control.

“I apologize, I’m First Captain Raiden, and this is my second in command, Captain Emeris. We are the nation of Taraska. We were somehow teleported to your land during a war. We mean you no harm and are desperately trying to make sense of this world.” Ira and Lefana give me large smiles. Ira takes a step forward.

“Well that’s fantastic! I must admit we were in complete shock when your city first appeared here! There was this massive black tornado that stretched from the sky to the ground then suddenly there was this dark city! Do you require any assistance? We should have an abundance of anything you may need.” Ira says with a remarkably friendly tone. Why were they so willing to help us? Did they plan on using us later? We didn't have any options so there was no refusing help at this point. I hold the map out to her, and somehow it flies out of my hand, and unravels in front of her with a yellow glow around it.

Ira looks over the map, completely unphased by the mystical floating paper in front of her. I hear Cy take in several huge, deep breaths and fall to a sitting position on my left.

“Permission to lose it sir?”

“Permission denied.” I tell him with a strict but humorous tone.

Emeris points at the map.

“Sir…our map is floating, how is that-”

Ira looks up at me startled.

“Oh I’m so so sorry! That’s um...magic. I apologize, it’s just so common for us. We’ll keep it to a minimum for now.” She gives us an anxious smile. Emeris and I exchanged bewildered looks. We stand there for just a minute. Lefana glances at Ira, then back to me. Suddenly rocks around us take on a purple glow and start rotating in a large circle in the air. Half my units scream and start running back towards our town. Lefana sits back on her haunches and wiggles her hooves at us.

“Oh no! It’s the deadly...serpentus spirit, come to destroy us!”

Ira gives Lefana a playful but rough smack on her foreleg. Lefana giggles and the rocks go back to the ground. Ira shoots her a sharp glare. “I apologize for my sister. She can be quite rude at times.” They were freaking sisters but they look nothing alike. I do my best to regain my composure.

“Is…um…I apologize if this sounds rude, but…is there anything else we need to know about your land?” Lefana thinks for a minute. She points at the massive structure behind them on the purple mountain.

“That’s Masat, our castle and palace, and we can also fly.” She rustles her wings a bit, extends them to about four feet on her sides, and retracts them.

Emeris sighs and shakes his head with his hands on his hips.

“Okay that’s it; I’m going back to rolling in the grass.” He starts to turn around until I clamp a hand on his shoulder. Ira and Lefana both start laughing.

I look at Lefana hesitantly. “So this grass, do you have it everywhere or just here?”

The sisters laugh again then stop when I don’t smile.

Lefana blinks at me with a completely plain expression. “...you’re kidding me, right?”

Emeris shrugs with embarrassment. “We don’t really have this where we’re from.”

Ira slowly rotates her head to the right. “You don’t have grass?”

I rub the back of my neck.

“We do it’s just...dead and covered in blood.”

The sisters look at each other and chuckle nervously. Emeris buries his face in his hands. “Seriously Raiden, the speeches.”

I place my hands on my hips and rock back and forth.

“Well I guess we should take you to see the King now that we’re...introduced.”

Ira smiles at us.

“We would be honored to meet him. Perhaps on the way there we can work through this little...mess we have.”

Emeris turns to me.

“You…you do know the King is the worst with surprises and whatnot right?”

I nod slowly, giving him a small smirk.

“Yes, it’s going to be hysterical. Make sure you take careful notes so we can share the story with the rest of our people tonight.”

More laughter from the sisters. The humor was helping us relax as well. Lefana clears her throat right as I go to turn around.

"Not to sound rude as well Captain Raiden, but is there anything we should know about you?" I stare at her in silence. The humor is completely gone as we lock eyes. There's only a few things I dare say to her.

"We're professional warriors and we're supposed to be dead." Ira and Lefana's eyes enlarge a bit. Emeris leans in front of me as if he was performing one of his renown plays.

"But we're plenty friendly!" He says, waving his hands. No one laughs but I stop tensing up. I hold the back of my hand across my mouth and whisper to Emeris.

"Sudo Tara Beik gai." Making sure Emeris got the hint to tell Tara Beik to fall back. Emeris nods a few times.

"Before we depart, may I take a small leak?"

Ira blushes a bit. “Do you mean you wish to travel to our palace or…”

Emeris does his best to casually speedwalk to the trees. He hums to himself, making his coded words to Tara Beik sound like a Taraskan song as he pretends to pee. I shake my head and sigh loudly to get their attention back on me.

"I apologize your highness. I hope we haven't offended you. This land is...more new to us than you could ever know." Ira smiles and nods. Lefana watches Emeris with a bit of suspicion and disgust. I swallow a bit, feeling like a stray dog in comparison to them.

"Princess Lefana, you said the palace off in the distance is called...?" She turns to me, almost embarrassed.

"Oh! Masat!" They both turn to look at it for a second and that's all the time I need. I pat the back of my head with two fingers and see my stealth team bolt backwards as fast as they can, disappearing into a much larger forest behind them. The princesses turn around, but Lefana watches me curiously, probably picking up on the sudden relief I probably expressed. I was going to need to be more careful around her. I could only hope that Tara Neiz saw my commands too, as the hills to our right could easily conceal them.

I have our soldiers walk ahead of us towards our castle, while myself and my captains walk alongside the sisters. Their guards covered our rear. Ira tells me about their various responsibilities, the different towns, the different types of ponies, and warns me how common magic is. I decide it’s best to probably hold off on mingling for a bit until my soldiers get more accustomed to this new world.

I stop as the sisters let out loud gasps. Their eyes scan our destroyed homes and buildings. In our walk, I had completely forgotten about the destruction. There were literally five houses in our massive city that still technically stood up. Our city had been raided so many times, that we rebuilt homes with the intention of them being turned into temporary fighting quarters. Their shutters were metal, and could be closed from the inside. The wood has a special coating on it to make it more resistant to arrows and swordswipes. They were hideous, dull, gloomy, basic, and I owed my life to several of them during the last invasion.

Ira’s eyes go from the buildings back to me.

“Do…do you require any assistance?! Your entire city is destroyed!” Emeris shrugs casually.

“It’s fine, it always looks like that.” I punch his arm. He wasn’t entirely wrong though. Lefana swallows before taking a few steps forward.

“We would be more than happy to send you our most skilled artisans and builders so you have proper homes! And I’m sure we could spare plenty of hay for beds and anything else you may need!” Ira glances at her sister and nods rapidly.

“Yes certainly! I hope you’re not sleeping on the ground!” Emeris shrugs again.

“No of course not, there’s perfectly halfway-clean stone in the Castle to sleep on!” I cross my arms and shake my head at the ground.

As we walk along the street, random debris is cleared from our path from the sisters. I’m still getting used to it. All my men gasp whenever they see debris go flying. Ira stops clearing it, as Lefana seems to enjoy all the attention from lifting everything. She trots along, proud as can be; smiling at every gasp as she effortlessly clears the ruins without even slowing her pace. I catch myself staring at her frequently, as she begins to return my glances.

“So…you rule at night?” I say awkwardly.

She nods happily.

“Every night!”

“That would be nice being able to bask in the moon whenever I wished. Never cared much for the day honestly.” I glance at Ira.

“No offense.” I add in casually. She turns to me, smiles, and continues forward. I see Lefana with a massive wide-eyed grin staring at me out of the corner of my eye. I begin to get nervous and do everything in my power not to glance over again.

"So if you don't mind me asking, Captain Raiden, what exactly is Tara Beik? I heard you whisper it to Captain Emeris, then he hummed it to himself earlier." My blood turns cold.

"Tara Beik is a term for...home. More like "Our dearest home"." I exhale through my nose in relief when she nods, happy with the response. My face suddenly contracts into confusion.

“Something else has crossed my mind, Princess. I find it odd we speak the same language.”

Her eyes widen and those gorgeous teal pearls make me flinch as she looks up at me.

“Oh that! We don’t actually speak the same language. A long time ago, a great sorcerer of our people decided to unite all the races by casting a global spell that allows us to understand each other. You hear us speaking your language, we hear you speaking ours. It took many years to create and many more to store the magical power needed to cast it. It’s not perfect and has issues with certain other languages, making the speaker sound...odd, but it doesn’t take long to at least get the basics down. I’m afraid this magic was before our time and we’ve grown so accustomed to it, that very few ponies even know of its existence. It’s also noted in our ancient logs that the spell is also gradually changing every species speech to all be the same language. Even if it were dispelled, it would only be our two species that would have difficulties most likely.

We reach the castle and all the happiness I had spills out onto the blood-covered stone of the gate room.