Twilight Sparkle squinted at the book, struggling to make out the tiny writing. The spell she was trying was very complicated, and if she messed up, there was no telling what might happen. She closed her eyes, concentrated on her magic, and-
"Twilight!" Pinkie Pie burst into the room with a shout. "Twilight, I have something important to tell you!"
Twilight Sparkle groaned with annoyance. "Pinkie Pie! What could you possibly have to tell me that's so important?"
Pinkie Pie kicked the door to the library closed behind her and looked around to make sure that no one else was around. "Remember those bronies I told you about?"
"You mean the humans" Twilight rolled her eyes. "That supposedly watch our every move?"
"No, silly." Pinkie Pie said. "Not our every move. Just some of our moves."
"What about them?" Twilight sparkle asked.
"I talked with one!" Pinkie Pie grinned.
"You what?" Twilight replied incredulously.
"I talked with one. His name is Bryan, and he's a colt, and he really really really wants to come here and meet all of us and ask us questions and be our friend and-"
"Pinkie!" Twilight interrupted. "What in Equestria are you talking about?"
"He made a portal to come here!" Pinkie exclaimed happily.
Twilight was at a loss for words. A human? In Equestria? Twilight hadn't even decided if she believed in humans, much less if she wanted to meet one.
"Did somepony say humans?" Lyra gleefully entered the library.
"I sure did!" Pinkie Pie grinned. "And one's coming here!"
Lyra's mouth dropped open. She squealed in delight and ran out of the library.
"Now look what you did!" Twilight complained. "She's going to tell everypony, and then we'll have a problem on our hooves!"
Pinkie Pie didn't hear her. She was too busy jumping around in delight. "A human's coming here!" she sang. "A human's coming here!"
Twilight sighed; even if Pinkie Pie had spoken with a human, there was no way for them to get into Equestria. For that to work, they'd need magic, or at least a-
"It worked!"
Pinkie Pie stopped jumping around, and both ponies stared at what had just entered the library. It was at least twice as tall as they were, and had pale tan skin. It's mane was short and brown, and there was no tail, at least that they could see. It wore a loose shirt and baggy pants, and it had an excited look on it's face.
"It worked!" the thing yelled again, doing a hoof pump in the air. Except... it didn't have hooves. Instead, it had five long... thingies at the end of each arm. Twilight had never seen anything like it.
For the first time, the thing seemed to notice Pinkie and Twilight. "Oh gosh." it said, eyes widened with amazement. "It's you. It's really you!" He walked over to them in two longs strides and grinned widely. "I'm Bryan. I'm a big fan."
Twilight stared at Bryan, her brain rushing to comprehend it. It was a human.
"Welcome to PonyVille!" Pinkie said happily. "Do you want a tour? Because I can-"
"One second." Bryan cut her off. He walked to the other end of the library, where a small circular door had suddenly appeared in the wall. Twilight watched as Bryan opened the door, but she couldn't see what was inside.
"You guys have to see this." Bryan said to somepony on the other side of the door. "It's amazing."
He opened the door wide, and in mere seconds they were everywhere. Humans. They had yellow, brown, black, and orange manes, and they were all staring around them in amazement. A few of them even had dark brown skin.
"Pinkie Pie!" One of the girl humans shouted.
Pinkie giggled as she was suddenly at the middle of a human pile. At least a dozen of them had launched themselves at her, all laughing loudly.
"Twilight!" one of the boy human's stared at her with wide eyes. She backed towards the door of the library, not very eager to be attacked by these humans. She began to push the door open with a hoof, when all the humans gasped at once.
"Derpy!" they yelled in unison.
Twilight Sparkle screamed and dove for cover as the humans rushed past her to a light grey pony that was sitting outside in the grass, blowing on dandelions. The pony was soon mobbed by a hundred of these humans.
"Help!" she cried. The humans had formed a circle around her and were grabbing at her mane and tail.
"Humans!" Lyra jumped up and down with excitement. "See Bonbon? I told you!"
Some of the humans noticed the pair of ponies and screamed, racing towards them. They all began to shout things at once.
"Lyra, sit down on that bench!"
"Bonbon, how come your voice changes?"
"Are you two in looove?"
Twilight sparkle could only watch in horror as, one by one, ponies arrived and were mobbed by humans. Pinkie Pie was in the middle of a giant tug-of-war. Rainbow Dash, flying low to check out the humans, had been caught by the tail and was now anchored to the ground at least two dozen humans. A large group of ponies surrounded Fluttershy and Big Macintosh and were shouting, "Kiss! Kiss!" Rarity had barricaded herself in her dress shop, trying to keep out the humans that were begging for dresses. Applejack was nowhere to be seen. Luckily, the humans hadn't noticed Twilight Sparkle yet.
Twilight crept around the side of the library, taking care to keep out of sight. She noticed Spike surrounded by a crowd of humans, all giggling profusely. Twilight wondered what terrible things they were doing to him. She pawed the ground with her hoof, ready to charge in and rescue Spike, when his voice floated over to her.
"Yeah, I'm pretty much the main character of the show. Twilight and all those other ponies are just background characters."
The humans began giggling again.
Twilight rolled her eyes and continued on her way. Spike would be fine.
"Pst, Twilight." the voice came from a bush. "In here."
Twilight looked around to make sure no humans were watching, and jumped into the bush, trying to ignore the scratchy leaves.
"Ow! Not on me!"
"Sorry." Twilight recognized Applejack now. "Have you seen what's going on out there?"
"Yeah." Applejack replied, shuddering. "What are those things?"
"Humans." said Twilight, remembering what Pinkie Pie had said. "More specifically, bronies."
"How do we stop em?" Applejack peered out through the leaves of the bush. "They're worse than parasprites!"
"Princess Celestia will know what to do." Twilight replied. "But I need Spike to contact her."
"Leave that to me." Applejack said. "I'll distract em, and you grab Spike."
Twilight nodded. "Thanks."
Applejack smiled and darted out of the bush. Twilight watched as she rolled her hooves high in the air.
"Yeehaw!" she shouted.
The bronies surrounding Spike all looked in her direction and squealed. They ran after Applejack, who raced away from them.
Twilight left the bush and ran towards Spike. "I need you to send a letter!" she said.
"Now?" Spike groaned. "But I just lost my fan club."
"Now, Spike!" Twilight summoned a parchment and quill from the library.
"There won't be any need for that." Princess Celestia alighted on the grass a few feet away from them.
"Princess!" Twilight exclaimed. "I'm so glad you're here; you won't believe what's happened!"
"Twilight, we don't have much time." Celestia said urgently. "Did you practice the spell that I sent you this morning?"
"I've studied it, but I haven't actually-"
"But you can do it?" Celestia asked.
"I... yes, princess." Twilight said nervously.
"Good." Princess Celestia said. "Then we should do it together, and fix this mess."
"Look, guys! It's Tia and Twily!" One of the bronies shouted.
Celestia opened her wings and was about to fly away when the mob of bronies reached her. They pulled at her mane and wings, climbing on her back and grabbing her tail. Twilight endured the same, overrun by bronies. One particularly annoying girl jumped on her back and grabbed her ears, shouting, "Giddy up!"
"Hey, it's the Cutie Mark Crusaders!" A familiar voice shouted.
The humans harassing Twilight ran off to find their favorite fillies, but many of the bronies around Celestia grabbed her wings and mane, forcing her to come with them as their prisoner.
"I never meant for this to happen." said the voice.
Twilight turned and narrowed her eyes when she saw that it was Bryan, the human that had started this mess. She snorted and turned away, but he put one of his strange non-hoofs on her shoulder.
"Can you forgive me?" his voice was full of sadness.
Twilight looked up at him and smiled. "Of course I can." She looked over at where she had last seen Celestia. "But how do we solve this mess?"
"Celestia said something about a spell?"
Twilight nodded. "A time reverse spell. But... it's really complicated, and I haven't practiced nearly enough and-"
"Please, Twilight." Bryan pleaded. "I know you can do it."
Twilight took a deep breath and concentrated. A blossom of pink energy spouted from her horn, enveloping both her and Bryan in a sparkling dome. The dome remained where it was, but large bursts of magic erupted from it, becoming larger and larger, until it shone from every angle with a brilliant light.
Twilight tried harder, putting the last of her energy into this spell. The light blinded her and Bryan, and suddenly, she was back in the library.
"Twilight!" Pinkie Pie burst into the library. "Twilight, I have something to tell you!"
"Yeah, yeah, I know, bronies, humans, all of that. Pinkie, I'm pretty busy right now. Come back later." Twilight Sparkle shoved a dumbfounded Pinkie Pie out the door.
"What if the same thing happens again?" Twilight asked herself. She was walking across the library to look at the spell one more time, when she noticed the small round door on the wall.
"Not again!" she exclaimed, rushing towards the door, but as soon as she reached it, it disappeared.
"Huh?" Twilight stared at the wall, a bit confused. It was a second or two before she noticed the letter that had dropped to the floor. She opened it and set it on the desk.
It read:
Twilight,
I am so sorry for everything that happened today. After sending this letter, I promise to destroy the portal to your world and never speak of it again. The bronies will never know what happened, nor will they remember. For some reason, though, I remember, and I will never forget. Thank you for giving me your forgiveness, even though I didn't deserve it.
Yours truly,
Bryan
Twilight re-read the letter and smiled. Although the day had been very hectic, it had also been very enlightening, and she had also made a new friend. She took out a new parchment and quill and began writing a letter to Princess Celestia.
Today I learned that some friendships can transcend even worlds. I made a friend in the strangest of-
Twilight was interrupted by a knock at the door. She opened it to find Lyra standing outside.
"Did somepony say humans?"
