“Let’s see, Phone,” you pat the right side of your upper thigh checking for your favorite device, and with much relief, it was there, “Check-” you then pat the other side of your thigh, to see if you had your wallet, “Wallet,” pat-pat “Check, and my passport is in my…” you pat the backside of your navy-blue jeans to check for the international id, “back pocket, alright, I think I'm ready," you say, as you walked to the door, but stopped once you realize something was missing, Hmm, you hummed to yourself, "Why do I feel like I'm forgetting something," You did one final re-check, going through the procedure once more.

I have my phone, wallet, passport, and I already had taken Allie to the kennel you scratched the back of your head as you tried to remember, but that's when it hit you like a baseball bat, "Oh, my hat," you turn to face the view of your apartment living room, and on the kitchen counter, was your favorite green cadet cap almost staring right back at you.

You jog up to the counter, swiped your hat, and swiftly placed it atop your head, "Can't forget about that," you said to yourself, "I need to make a good impression, I mean when's the next time I'm gonna visit an alien world!"

This young twenty-something man is mister Alton Perlstein; an aspiring cartoonist, fresh out of college graduate, an employee at a local library will be one, of the many others, to vacation in Equestria; an alien world that was discovered some four and a half years ago.

It all started back in 2008: Barack Obama was just elected president of the United States, iPhones, and smartphones dominated the tech-market, and new changes were coming to not just America, but the rest of the world as well.

However, one thing that came about this year was the portals; these portals first appeared just in major cities around the world, but soon, they began to show up in national capitals as well.

But it wasn't just their appearance that surprised the human race, but it was what was on the other side that really shocked us. Behind these portals, there was a magical, mythical, world known as Equuis; in that world, sentient creatures such as Griffons, Dragons, Ponies, Hippogriffs, and even Yaks, inhabited the planet and structured not only simple towns but even some Empires and colonies.

As interesting as this was, relations with Equuis were shakey at first, when a completely alien race suddenly come out of nowhere, especially showing up in a post-9/11America where some saw them as a threat, you could see how things were a bit rough. But, as the respective rulers of Equuis began to having trade and peace talks with the leaders of each different country of Earth, relations between the humans and Equuis began to slowly improve over time, with Equuis heavily declaring themselves not only to be a peaceful world, but also how they were willing to let researchers, and as well as some military personnel, to explore and research the lands of the countries inside Equuis.

Once trading began between the two worlds, relations positively rose, as Equuis would trade large amounts of food and even some potions that could heal the worst of diseases, and Earth would trade some of their own food over to the more, omnivorous countries, as well as some technologies over in hopes of technologically advancing Equuis.

To make a long story short, as the years went on, Equuis was largely accepted by many countries around the world, they even had their own seat at the United Nations, which was later named to the United Inter-Dimensional Nations (or UIDN), and trade with the nation as lead to the end of many major diseases from Cancer, to Influenza, and other such things.

Not to mention how much Equuis' leaders have helped bring an end to terrorist organizations and helped rebuild certain areas caused by said organizations.

As for Equuis, they recently just opened their first power plant in the royal city of Equestria, Canterlot, which as largely contributed to the usage of electricity and lighting for many of the city's residences, there are also some talks of helping fix up cities like GriffonStone, where a large majority of the housing development in the city looked very underdeveloped.

About a few months about ago, at the beginning of 2012, plans were announced to allow normal citizens to visit and vacation into Equuis, and around spring of the new year, the first vacation advertisement was televised for the public and went on something along the lines of:

Are you bored, feeling a little down? Then what are you waiting for, come over and visit Equestria! All the magical, out of this world fun you can have, see and experience the cultures of places such as Griffonstone, Canterlot, Ponyville, the Crystal Empire and so on, Enjoy the food, and most of all enjoy the times you make with your friends as you take the trip of a lifetime!

It was because of that advertisement that the idea of visiting such a fantasy-like world immediately peaked your interest, and around the time summer began, you about your tickets, and prepared for your journey to the not-so-new land.
Luckily for you, you lived in Seattle, so you quickly drove over to the portal-station, where you would end up sitting your other group of first-time travelers, as well as two Equuis beings; one was a unicorn mare with mint green fur and a dark-green mane, the other was an earth-pony mare who had cream colored fur, and dark-blue and pink mane.

The mint green pegasus stared at you with a wide grin, her eye's wide and pupils dilated, "Um," you began, as you stared back awkwardly at the mare, "h-hey?"

The cream-colored mare looked over to see what was going on, and quickly reprimanded the unicorn, who blushed in embarrassment, "Lyra," she groaned loudly

"Oops," she said, rubbing the back of her head as she turned back to you, "sorry about that, I'm just really excited to finally meet an actual human,"

You smile back at her, although her first impressions were a bit odd, you could really blame her for being this interested in your species, "No problem," you reassured her, "I would probably be just as excited if I meet a completely alien race-" you extended your hand to better greet the two, "Name's Alton," you greeted.

"I'm Lyra Hartstrings," she stated happily as she pointed to the mare next to her, "and this is my partner Bon Bon," the earth mare waved at you, "Were were actually just her on vacation, and now we're heading back,"

"Hmm," you hummed in surprise, "what a coincidence, I'm actually about to visit Equuis today,"

The mint colored mare eye's widened with elation at your words, "Really!" she exclaimed gleefully

"Yeah," you affirmed, causing the mare to squee in excitement, "I'm visiting some place called-" you pull out your plane ticket to check your destination, "Ponyville?"

The grinning mare squeed in happiness once again, "No way, that's where BonBon and I live, you should totally visit us when you get there" the cream-colored mare behind her smiled at her friend's excitement.

You smile, "Don't worry I'll be sure to-" you paused mid-sentence as the stations P.A came one

"Now will now be taking passengers for portal 2-B, portal 2-B, you looked down your ticket to see the same portal number as what was announced, "Oh, I gotta go," you quickly said as you quickly walked over to the line for 2-B, "But like I said, Lyra, I'll be sure to visit!,"

"Okay, see you soon," the unicorn shouted back, as the two mares waved at you.

You walked over to the line, where once again, you could spot one non-human in the line, who appeared to be a grey griffon-hen who was carrying a tan, satchel, luggage bag, Wow, you definitely don't see that every day, you thought to yourself, as the line shortened, slowly getting you closer to the portal, which allowed you to see the other side of what appeared to be an Equestrian train station.

After a few minutes of waiting it was finally your turn with the TSA agent, who swiftly patted you down, waved you with a metal detector wand, and finally asked to empty your pockets to present what was Inside, "Just my phone, wallet, and passport, sir," you assured him.

"Alright," the agent turned his direction over to a middle-aged woman, who sat at a table behind a large computer "he's good," the lady nodded, as you approached her to show your passport.

She took up your passport, and looked it over, before going back to typing on her computer, "Okay sir, do you have your ticket?" she asked. You pulled out your ticket and gave it woman, who used a small black wand that was connected to the computer to scan my ticket and then quickly went back to typing.

"Business or Pleasure?"

"Pleasure," you answered simply

"How long will your stay be?"

"About a week"

"Do you have any allergies, Illnesses, mental illnesses that the ponies of the Canterlot Express or the Equestrian Transportation Team should know about before you board?"

"Nope," he replied happily, "Perfect bill of health,"

With a few final clicks on the keyboard, the blonde women returned your ticket and passport before finally allowing you to enter the portal, "Alright, enjoy your visit to Ponyville, sir,"

You instinctively waved back at the woman, "Thanks, you too," you said as your body was fully enveloped by the portal. Once you entered into the Canterlot Express station, your eyes widened in realization of what you just said, sigh you sighed with an annoyed expression, "Dammit,"

The black train sped through the Equuis lands as it was headed for a well-known small town where a certain princess, as well as her seven friends, waiting for the train at its stop.

Inside the speeding train, while most of the passengers on the train were ponies, and others were the various other species of Equuis, there were a few humans who boarded the train; those same humans being the first civilians to visit Equuis.

One of those first civilians was you, sitting in the window seat of the train, next to a mother mare and her colt, your headphones bumping some not-too-old school rap music as you nod your head, and occasionally hummed to the beat. You really should thank your old High school friend for introducing you to this album, memories of working at that old fast food restaurant back in the day while listening to this brought a nostalgic smile on your face.

After finishing up with the woman back in Seattle, and mentally chastising yourself for what you said to her, you went through the same procedure as over there, only this time with ponies, and after giving them your information you decided to exchange some of your money for bits, which were these small gold coins that were the main currency in Equestria.

Afterward, you quickly walked over to the train which was luckily already at the train stop when you got there.

As you continued to listen to your music, you notice out of the corner of your eye that, the colt sitting next to you was staring right at you with inquisitive eyes. You couldn't really blame the young colt, this is possibly the closest thing he's seen to an alien, so he'd understandably intrigued, but just like with Bon Bon and Lyra, the mother mare reprimanded her child before quickly apologizing, "Razor," she hissed, "It's not polite to stare-" she turned her attention to you "Sorry about that,"

"Eh, it's alright," I said, "if I were in that kid's shoes, I would probably be pretty weirded out too,"

The mother mare chuckled, "Yeah, you're right," she admitted before she stuck her hoof out which you instinctively shook, "My name is Groomer, how are you?"

"I'm good," you responded, "name's Alton, by the way, I'm actually going to Ponyville right now,"

The mother mare's eyes widened at your explanation, "Wait, are you one of those humans on that visiting trip?"

"Yeah," you replied with a cocked eyebrow

An expression of excitement quickly spread over the mare's face, "oh my goodness," she exclaimed, "You're going to be on that tour trip with Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

Oh yeah, her you thought as you quickly remembered the royal princess, based on certain facts, it seemed that the portals were caused by a scientific accident. But that accident would turn out to do some good as because of it.

But besides that, from what you could tell, apparently Princess Twilight Sparkle was the Princess of friendship, which was a little odd to hear at first, but this is a world where magical talking ponies exist, so I guess it's not that weird, "I guess so," you replied, "Huh, never thought I would be getting a chance to talk to royalty,"

"You guys are so lucky," the mare said with a bit of a jealous tone, "This must be super exciting for you right?"

Not really "Yep"

"I know I would be, She such an inspiration to ponies everywhere, gosh if I could just me her one day-" the mare stopped mid-sentence as she soon realized how much she went on, "Oh sorry about that, I didn't mean to stop you from listening to your music,"

You held up my hand in reassurance, "It's alright, we still have a few minutes before the train stops in Ponyville, so I'll just jam out the rest of the way,"

The mare giggled a bit at you lingo, "Alright then," she turned back to her foal, who was seemingly fiddling with a small gaming device he brought with him, "Razor-" she called to her son, who looked up at his mother, "Would you like to say hi to the Mr. Alton?" The brown colt shyly, yet lazily, waved at you, and you back at him, before the two of you went back to doing your own things.

Back to my jams, you thought to yourself as you placed you headphones atop your head and over your ears, playing back to the last part of the song before listening to it again as the train made its way to the quaint village.

Author's Note

Ooo, Heaven Knows