Chapter 1: Arrival and Confusion

“Arghh, what the hell just happened? That portal, the thing walking towards me, now my head hurting? Could it get any worse?” I wondered to myself, keeping my eyes shut. “Alright, let’s see where I am.” I slowly opened my eyes, and nearly died of a heart attack. There, standing in front of me, were six pastel-colored mini-horses. And they were all staring at me with their oversized oval eyes.

A horse with a purple coat stepped forward and cleared her throat. “Hello, My name is Princess Twilight Sparkle, the princess of friendship. Um, I’m not sure what to call you because I don’t know WHO or WHAT you are.” She said, poking my leg with its hoof.

“Wheee! A new friend! I can’t wait to throw you a ‘Welcome to Equestria Party! And I’ll invite everypony and we will have such a good tim--” The voice was cut off by a hoof stuck in its mouth by Twilight.

“Sorry about that,” She said, looking at me sheepishly, “Pinkie Pie can be more than a hooful .”

“Okay, that was pretty weird,” I said, “Well, I’m human, you know, homo-sapiens and all.” I said hopefully. I started to hyperventilate as a horrifying thought came to mind.“There are humans here right? I’m on Earth aren’t I?” I said with a panicked tone.

“Where’s ‘Earth’ and what are ‘homo sapiens’?” Twilight asked me. “But the real question is, how do you speak Equin?” She asked again, quite confused.

“So let me get this straight, there are no humans on this planet?” I asked them.

“No, what are ‘humans’?” The yellow one asked, so quietly I could barely hear her speak. “Do you eat ponies?!” It said, its voice raising in terror. “Eeep!”

“Now look, it went and scared Fluttershy. Hey, hey it’s fine. I’m sure it didn’t mean any harm.” The blue one with a rainbow colored tail and mane said.

I assumed the yellow one with a pink mane was Fluttershy. “No, I don’t eat ponies, though other humans do, but only a few.” I said to Fluttershy.

“Hey! I’m not scared of you!” It responded towards me. “Rainbow Dash isn’t afraid of anything, especially some monster!” It yelled at me, emphasizing the second sentence with a jab at where it’s chest is.

I didn’t respond, and instead looked towards Twilight and said, “Well I’m sure of we all can get along and figure this problem out and get me home as soon as possible. Not that this world has anything wrong with it that is.”

Twilight said her ears perking up, “Alright, we can do something of that sort later after we get you all settled.” She said, looking at me with those huge violet eyes, waiting to eat up any words I spoke.

“Alright, fine.” I said, eliciting a satisfied sigh from Twilight. “But I expect an explanation in turn.

“Good,” she said, levitating a notepad, an ink pen and a bottle of what smelled like ink. "So....should we start?”

“Okay, where I come from is called Earth, a continental life-bearing planet, third from our Sun.” I said, “I lived in Minnesota, a state within the country of the United States of America. Which is located on the continent of North America.” Taking a breath, I looked towards Twilight and saw her scribbling faster than I thought was possible onto a scroll.

“Is that it?” She asked me, her wide eyes looking straight at me.

“Well, no.” I said, “Do want me to continue?”

“Yes please,” Twilight said. “I want to know everything.”

“Okay,” I started again. “The main species that inhabits Earth are homo sapiens, or a human if you will. There were about seven billion people at the last estimate. That’s a lot of people. As far as language goes, there at least a few thousand languages spread over the world. I speak English, and apparently so do you, which makes it a lot easier to communicate.” I said

“Wow! Seven billion humans? That really is a lot,” Twilight said, still scribbling on the parchment.

“Um, hi there, um what’s your name?” Fluttershy said quietly.

“Hello Fluttershy, my name is Justin Marshall.” I said looking at her fondly. I glanced over to Twilight, she was still writing.

“I w-w-wanted to k-know what y-you ate on y-your planet.” Said so quietly, trying to hide behind her long pink mane. “I h-heard you say that you,” She sniffed, “Eat horses.”

I shook my head “Oh Fluttershy, I didn’t say I eat horses, I said that some other people on Earth eat horses. I mostly eat poultry, beef and pork..” Apparently I had said something that scared her.

“Oh no, please don’t eat my animals.” She said so quietly I could barely hear her. “Our animals are very smart, we don’t eat meat, just plants.” She started to cry.

“Oh, so would it be wrong if I ate some other animals? Not yours in particular?” I asked Twilight and Fluttershy.

“Well, the animals here are quite intelligent, some even sentient.” Twilight said, walking over and comforting Fluttershy. “They have ways of communicating with us, and some can speak and reason as well. So that wouldn’t be a good idea.”

“I understand,” I said, looking at them, “I’ve always wondered what it was like being a vegetarian.”

“Essentially, yes.” Twilight said to me. “We kind of frown upon eating anything but plants. Except for the griffins, they eat fish. Because well, they need protein.” She put a hoof to her chin and thought for a few seconds then said, “Well, we could probably give you fish and eggs to eat if you really need to eat something with protein. Or I could find a spell that puts more protein into the food that grows normally around here and give it to you. Hm, that would be interesting.”

“The eggs and fish sound fine for now.” I said gagging at the thought of high protein lettuce. “Well, enough about me. Tell me about you, and what you are I guess.”

“Well, I am a unicorn, and so is Rarity here,” She said, pointing to another white pony with a horn and a gorgeous purple mane. “And Rainbow Dash here is a Pegasus,” She said, pointing to the hovering pony looking at him suspiciously, “and so is Fluttershy but I you’ve already met her.” She said pointing to the yellow pegasus lying on the floor hiding behind her pink mane. “And Applejack here is an Earth Pony,” she said, pointing to a orange pony with a Stetson looking like hat on her head and a grain of straw sticking out of her mouth.

“Pleasure ta meet ya’.” Applejack said grabbing my hand with her hoof and giving it a shake.

“And here we have Pinkie Pie, she is our party pony. As you probably already knew.” She said.

“Hiya Justin!” Pinkie Pie said, lunging forward grabbing me in a bear hug and pushing the air out of my lungs.

“Can’t…… Breathe…... Help.” I said, gasping for air.

“Oops, hehe, sorry my strength runs away from me when I get excited.” She said backing up to the spot she was in before.

I gasped for air when she released me. “Whew, that was a pretty strong hug. Well, that’s all of you then?” I asked.

“Yes, all six of us are here. It is getting quite late,” She said, looking out the window.

“What time is it?” I asked, “What time did you find me on the ground, wherever I landed.”

“We found ya by Fluttershy’s cottage at the edge of the Everfree forest. Ah was delivering some apples for Fluttershy and ah saw you fall out of a hole or somethin’ and hit your head on the ground. Must’ve knocked you out cold .” Applejack said. “Ah think it was about a few hours after sunrise.”

“So I was knocked out for almost half a day and I didn’t know it?” I said. “Well, good thing I woke up.” I chuckled lightly.

“That fall was no laughing matter, you could’ve died!” Twilight said raising her voice with concern.

“Good thing Flutters over here helped me get ya inside and lay ya down on a bed. We contacted Twilight over here and told her we found some sorta weird monster in the forest and she rushed over here as quick as she could.” Applejack said matter-of-factly.

“Well, the Everfree forest is another conversation entirely. We should let you sleep. The hit on your head would have made you dizzy but I healed you just fine with my magic. So you should be good.” Twilight said, quite proud of herself.

“Wait a minute, you can do magic?” I said incredulously. “Can you show me some? Well, tomorrow anyway?”

“Sure, but now it is probably best if you rest. Heh, I’m turning into Zecora.” She said chuckling.

“Zecora?” I asked. “Who’s that?”

“Oh sorry, that’s also another conversation for another day. Well, sleep tight Justin” Twilight said. “You’re going to need your energy for tomorrow. We have much to talk about.”

“Good night, guys, I mean girls.” I said.

“Goodnight Justin.” They said.

I heard hoofsteps, then a door open, then close softly. A lamp turn on, and turning of pages, presumably from Twilight. “Goodnight Twilight.” I said.

“Goodnight, Justin.” She said.

“Her voice sounds so cute.” I thought to myself. “Wait what did I just say? Am I liking this pony? Or am I the alien here.” I thought. “Hm, well, I’ll think about this tomorrow. Time for sleep.” I pulled up the covers and snuggled against the pillow and quickly slipped into unconsciousness.

Author's Note

Well, another chapter cranked out in one night. Geez. I need to get a life. XD