Before long, the half-transparent earth pony found is way into a huge apple orchard, apple trees as far as the eye could see. Though he only stopped to appreciate the view for a moment before his hunger reminded him why he was there.
He hastily trotted up to the nearest tree, and looked up at the branches, dotted all over with lucious red apples. There are so many apples here... would it really be that much of a crime if I took one or two...? the starving and lonely pony thought to himself. However, it didn't matter whether it was a crime or not, because the unfortunate creature soon realized that he was far too little of a pony to reach any of the branches.
"Oh... looks like I'll have to find whoever owns this orchard, anyway..." he mumbled to himself, continuing to walk in hopes of finding somepony. "Hopefully they'll spare some food... or at least be able to see me..."
As he kept walking, he noticed that many of the trees' trunks were lined with empty bushels, most likely for harvesting. It must take forever to harvest so many apples if nopony can even reach the branches... he thought to himself. Maybe they're all pegasi, like the ones I saw in the sky earlier, or-
His thoughts were cut off by a feminine-sounding "Hi-YA!" from not too far in the distance.
The young stallion's ears perked up at this, and of course he raced towards the sound in the hopes that it was somepony who would see him. Weaving his way through the trees, he soon came across an orange-colored pony, bucking the trees with her hind legs so that the apples fell neatly into the buckets below. Ohhhhh... he thought for a moment, before eagerly trotting up to the mare, hoping she would be able to see him.
The timid pony-country then tried to get her attention in his usual quiet tone. "Excuse me, um, I realize you're busy working, but-"
"Phew, buckin' season sure is a hassle..." the pony mumbled to herself in a thick country accent, not seeming to notice the pony right in front of her at all. She walked right over to the next tree, paying him no attention whatsoever.
"W-wait, please..." he called timidly, running after her. "If you don't mind, could you spare an apple or two? Or give me a place to live until I figure out how to get home? I'll explain everything later but right now I just need someone to help me and preferably something to eat, too."
Unfortunately for him, the pony simply bucked another tree and went on her way, trying to finish her work for the day.
Before long, he just sighed and gave up. The odds she would be able to see him were never very high. After she had left, he looked down hungrily at one of the barrels of apples left sitting there. They were well within his reach, unlike the ones in the branches. He felt a bit guilty about stealing, but... Surely I won't be noticed, at least. he thought before taking one into his own hooves. Although before he could even think about taking a bite, that same cowpony's voice rang through the air.
"Hey! You!" she called angrily, suddenly re-appearing from where she had dissapeared.
The timid pony dropped the apple in surprize, rather startled. Oh... now she notices me... "I-I'm sorry! I was just-"
"Who do you think ya are, tryin' ta steal our crops like that, hm?" she questioned, clearly quite upset at him.
"My name's Canada..." he answered quietly. "And I'm in quite a bit of trouble right now... I don't know where I am or how I got here, and I don't have any place to stay or anything to eat. I'm sorry, I tried to get your attention but you didn't notice me at all... I didn't want to steal..." he explained, hanging his head sadly. The situation only seemed to get worse for him.
"Now ah guarantee ah haven't ever seen you up until ah caught you stealin'." she replied sternly. "But... you mean it 'bout not having anywhere ta live and all that? Now how'd ya wind up in that kinda situation?" she asked, sounding a bit more concerned this time.
"Long story..." Canada told her. "But, for now, could I just have some food and a place to spend the night, please?" he asked humbly.
"Awww sure thing, sugarcube." she replied, suddenly feeling a lot more sympathy for this poor pony. "Sorry ah snapped at ya, 'bout the apple and all. You can have one or two. And by the way, mah name's Applejack."
"Thank you, Applejack..." Canada replied quietly, taking another apple from the bushel.
"Here, I'll lead ya back ta the barn and introduce you to th' rest of my family, hopefully we'll be able ta help ya." Applejack told him, leading the poor pony towards her barn. "And by th' way, ah noticed that yer cutie mark's a maple leaf of sorts, do ya make maple syrup for a livin' or somethin'?" she asked.
"Um, cutie... mark...?" Canada echoed unsurely. He did a quick self-inspection of his pony body and noticed the red maple leaf imprinted neatly onto his flank. "Oh, that... I guess so. Yeah I guess I make a lot of syrup." he answered back quietly.
"HEY BIG MACINTOSH! GRANNY SMITH!" Applejack called as she strode into her barn, though it was seemed rather empty. Not another pony in sight. "I FOUND A HOMELESS PONY WITH NO FOOD OR NOTHIN', CAN WE KEEP HIM?" she called, but again no answer. "Huh, that's strange..."
"Applejack?" a younger-sounding female voice called out. "Oh there ya are." the voice revealed itself to be that of Applebloom, Applejack's younger sister, with Big Macintosh, her older brother, following behind her. However, neither of them noticed Canada standing next to Applejack, of course. "Hey big sis, you'll never guess what Granny Smith and I found hangin' out in the orchards!"
"Huh? Whatcha find?" Applejack asked, momentarily forgetting about Canada.
"We found a homeless unicorn wanderin' about!" Applebloom exclaimed.
Applejack let out a small gasp at the thought, Canada forgotten. "Really?"
"Yyyyyyup." Big Mac nodded.
"Well where is he?" she asked.
"B-but wait, what about me?" Canada asked timidly.
Ignored.
"Hey, where is everyone, like, dissapearing to?" Another voice spoke up. All heads turned to see the pink unicorn with a blonde tail and mane approaching the rest of the group, Granny Smith following behind. "You two totally just left without saying anything!" he said to Applebloom and Big Mac, sounding a bit annoyed. Then his attention turned to Applejack. "And like, who are you?"
"Huh? Oh mah name's Applejack, and who are-"
"Poland? Is that you?" Canada spoke up, though his voice was barely above a whisper. He felt so relieved to know that he wasn't the only nation who had wound up in such a strange world, and if he and Poland were there, that probably meant everyone else was, too.
"Ummmm..." Poland droned, looking blankly at the tan earth pony in front of him. He knew he looked familiar but he was drawing a complete blank on the name. "Like, who are you again?"
"OH RIGHT!" Applejack exclaimed, suddenly remembering. "Guys, this is Canada. Found 'im out in the orchards, too. And I think he and Poland are in the same situation. Probably from the same place, too."
"Huh? Canada?" Applebloom asked, looking around the barn a few times before she finally spotted the poor forgotten colt. "Oh! Him! How in Equestria did I not notice him till now?" she asked, sounding slightly confused.
"He, um, seems ta have that effect on others..." AJ explained.
"Yyyyyup." Big Mac agreed, nodding.
At the same time, one of the beings present at that fateful world meeting found himself thrown quite a distance away from the others, who had woken up in peaceful Ponyville, and appeared in a small griffon town thriving amongst some high cliffs.
And while he was still asleep, as the others were when they had arrived in Equestria, so was the nearest griffon, who deemed it un-cool to wake up so early in the morning. (Despite the fact that it was nearly noon.) And thus the griffoness was only beginning to wake up at this time of day, yawning and stretching her wings, back and arms. "Man, I guess I stayed up a bit too late flying last night..." she mumbled to herself, crawling out of bed.
It was then that she was just awake enough to feel... something, fast asleep on her head. "Huh?" she said to no one, feeling the small creature's warmth between her feathers. She reached onto her head in hopes she would figure out what this thing was, but she didn't have time to grab it before it awoke with a startled cheep! and leaped from her head.
"Da hell!" Gilda exclaimed in surprize, flinching and ducking her head down. Though when she looked up the griffon realized that the creature she had startled was nothing more than an equally confused, fluffy yellow chick, cheeping madly and flying around in circles. "Oh, it's just a lame little bird." she scoffed, smoothing out her feathers and regaining her cool.
Just a second ago, the bird had been mainly concerned over who and what this creature was, where his master was, and where the bird himself was, but at that moment, he was mainly focused on how this being had just mistakingly called him lame. He was not lame. He was one-hundred percent awesome.
The chick landed on the nearest perch he could find and fluffed himself up, trying to indimidate the griffon and show just how not-lame he was.
"Ugh, what do you want, bird-brain?" she squawked. "You know I'm too cool for you, so why don't you fly down to where those lame ponies live and leave me alo- OW!"
The highly pissed-off chick had just delivered a well-deserved peck on the head to the "totally cool" griffon.
"Oh you are definitely getting it now..." she hissed back, rubbing her throbbing head. Though before she could lunge at the pest and tear it's insides out, she was distracted by the sound of someone calling her name.
"Gildaaaa!" someone wailed. "Come out here, you GOTTA see this!"
Thinking fast, Gilda grabbed a nearby wastebasket and threw it over the annoying bird, which not only left it trapped but also sort of smacked it to the ground in the process, which pleased Gilda.
"What? What is it?" Gilda called out her window, looking around for her friend.
"Check this out." the voice of her friend replied. She was a griffon, much like Gilda, but the type of person where you can just look at them and tell they're up to no good. Her feathers looked like they had originally all been a golden brown, but the ones on her head and the tips of her wings and tail had been dyed a deep black, and looked like they had been dyed a thousand times before that. The feathers on her head were short from being styled and cut too many times in the recent past, and her eyes were so shrouded in makeup they could barely be seen, not to mention the piercing stuck inside one of them, as well as one in her beak. You know, the type of person you see and automatically think 'troublemaker', 'delinquent', all sorts of words like that.
Probably more eye-catching than the griffon herself, though, was what she held dangling helplessly in her talons by the tail. "I found this puny little pegasus wandering out here." she told her friend, holding the young, tan pegasus for Gilda to see. Apparently, he wasn't too good at flying, otherwise this frightening griffon letting him dangle like that wouldn't be as threatening. "What should we do with him, G?"
"Aw man, what a score!" Gilda exclaimed, leaping out of her window, and forgetting the bird she had encountered just moments before. "You, Isadora, are awesome." she complemented her friend as she flew out to join her.
Ok... the young pony thought to himself. This looks bad, but I'm sure there's nothing to worry about. I guarantee I'll figure out how to solve this problem... hopefully...
"Ja, cupcakes are great and all, but how about you help me figure out how I got here? Or how to get home?" the sandy-colored unicorn reminded the earth pony once again.
"Oh! That's right!" Pinkie chirped. She had gotten lost in her usual thoughts and had forgotten about the serious problem at hand, a poor pony like this Germany guy who doesn't know how he got to Equestria or how to get home! "Sorry about that, you think I should call my friend Twilight? She's good with magic, like super-duper good! I bet she can help you!"
It took Germany a moment to respond. "Magic...?"
"Yes! Duh! Magic!" Pinkie Pie exclaimed. "Of course magic'll help you get home! It's probably magic that brought you here, too!"
Germany couldn't help but agree with that statement... England had used magic to send everyone to some magical, colorful land full of ponies and magic. Hard to believe, but one-hundred percent true. He sighed, "Ja, that makes sense..." he replied, wanting things to return to normal as soon as possible. "You go... call your friend... see if you can straiten this out..." he told her unsurely. This whole concept was foreign to him. All he knew was that he wanted it all to be over. He wondered for a moment where Italy had gotten himself... and all the others... he hoped to God that he wasn't the only one out of everyone that got blasted to pony-land.
A/N- Wow. Wrote like the second half of this all in one sitting. Sorry if it seems a bit rushed, I just really wanted to update this already.
Anyways, I had originally planned on only 9 countries being included in this fic, and that's the initial 8 plus Canada. But due to some requests, and my desire to keep an even number of earth ponies, unicorns and pegasi... that has been boosted to 12, and now I'm finding it increasingly difficult just to give all the characters a decent debut and not forget about the ones I already have! Gah! I realize that last part about Germany and Pinkie Pie was short... I just didn't want to forget about them for a whole other chapter...
And as one or two of you may know, namely Cheetay and possibly Animegal, Isadora is indeed based off of a real person... I needed an obvious trouble-maker so I thought she fit the bill pretty well. Hey, basing characters off of real people saves you some effort, no?