Miles narrowed his eyes at the creature. He could have sworn that little lizard just-

"Twilight! You brought a monster here!"

"Spike, please, calm down!" A feminine voice spoke up from Miles's left, but when he looked over to confirm the source, Miles saw to his bewilderment that the voice had come from a small, purple equine. However, it was distinctly shorter and less vascular than any equine he had ever seen, with a much shorter snout and large, orb-like eyes. This, combined with its voice, made it seem almost... Human.

"Twilight, ready your horn! We know nothing of this creature's origins; it could be wielding immense magical power!" Miles peered over to his right only to see three more of these equines of varying sizes, although all seemed to be relatively small. The one that had just spoken was the tallest, with the tip of its horn likely reaching up to around his jawline. Miles couldn't help but notice that the horns of all three of these equines were alight, and they had a dangerous look in their sapient eyes.

Miles took a few more deep, steady breaths, trying not to laugh in utter bewilderment. He frowned and firmly patted himself down, feeling for any painful spots he might have been injected by a needle. The glowing from their horns increased as he did this, threatening him to remain still. Miles sighed after discovering no needle pains and closed his eyes for a few moments to collect himself. Eventually, he opened his eyes once more, put on his most charming smile and held up his hands in a non-threatening manner.

"Now, now... Ladies...?" he questioned with a slight tilt of his head. "Let's not get too antsy. I'm honestly not quite sure what's going on here, or where here even is, for that matter. But, I do know that it would be better for all of us if we just... Talk." Miles's voice seemed to work its magic immediately, as the light from their horns dimmed, but did not cease. Miles noted that across the room, a few more of these equines were huddled together with the lizard from before. They all quivered, eyeing him with uncertainty.

However, most startling of all these creatures was the tall, mismatched monstrosity slightly off to his left. It looked to be about 9 feet tall at full height, with a long, serpentine body. Its eyes were yellow, and sported a pair of red irises of differing sizes to each other. It appeared bipedal, although all four of its limbs were from a different animal, such as the paw of a lion and the talons of an bird. The creature did not appear startled by his presence, unlike the rest; instead, it seemed to look upon him with a keen interest.

Miles heard the small, purple equine to his left clear her throat, grabbing his attention once more. "Y-Yes, I agree... Let's all just calm down. Girls, can you please lower your guard? I don't sense any magical energy coming from him whatsoever." At her word, the light show to his right ceased, albeit not without some small grumbles of reluctance.

The purple equine stepped towards Miles with trepidation and said, "So. How about we get ourselves off to a better start? I understand you're probably confused right now... Uh, i-it seems quite clear you're not of this world. Your being here is my..." She sneered over at the tall creature, which avoided her gaze and folded its arms. "Our fault. Weirdly, it seems we even speak the same language, which should make this a whole lot easier!" She held out her hoof in what Miles assumed was a greeting. "My name's Twilight Sparkle, Princess of Friendship, and these are all my friends!" She briefly gestured around the room with her hoof.

Miles pursed his lips and reflexively sucked in a short breath. What sort of name is 'Twilight Sparkle'? Hesitantly, he reached down and grabbed the equine's hoof. He held it gently and knelt down to her height.

Her face immediately began to crease and tighten as he came close. Miles was astonished to find that the face he was presented with appeared overwhelmingly human, with the only notable differences being the colour and the large eyes.

Her face gradually smoothed over upon being greeted by his warm smile and velvety voice. "Well, it's a pleasure to meet you, Ms. Sparkle. My name is Miles, and I must admit this is beyond anything I could have imagined would happen to me today." He briefly looked down and shook his head, appearing lost for words for a moment. He sighed. "But, my dear mother once taught me to roll with the punches, so to speak." As he spoke, Twilight became visibly more and more relaxed, as though she were melting into the soft melody of his tones.

Miles soon released her hoof and stood upright, turning to face the rest of the room. Twilight blinked owlishly, as though she'd just been released from a trance. "W-Well, Miles," she trotted up to his side as he gazed around the room, "you can get to know everypony better soon. But for now, how about we all go through to the living area and get a little more, uh... Settled?" Most in the room muttered their agreement, before shuffling quietly towards a door with the occasional frightened glance in Miles's direction.

Miles noticed that the tall, white equine from earlier remained with him, as well as the large mismatched creature. The others looked back at Miles, but as he moved to follow them, he felt a gentle tug on his left hand from an unseen source. The other alien horses in the doorway quickly dipped their heads and left the room.

Both of the remaining creatures were standing in silence, peering at him cautiously. Miles walked up to the equine, making sure to stand as close to her as he was able, and looked down into her eyes. She did not so much as flinch. Miles opened his mouth, however she was the first to speak.

"Greetings, Miles. We can save the pleasantries for later. I understand you're likely confused, and maybe even a little frightened; but, I must inform you that the safety of my little ponies comes first and foremost." Celestia remained stoic as Miles folded his arms and tilted his head at her with a deadpan expression. She continued, "Unlike the others, I am not shocked by your presence enough to fail in noticing the blood drying on your skin."

Miles looked down at himself and silently cursed. So much for first impressions. Celestia said, "I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt here and assume this presence of blood is innocent. However, during your stay here, I will be keeping a close eye on you. Is that understood?" Her features went from stone-faced to bemused as Miles began to lightly chuckle in amusement, wiping and scratching at the remaining blood on his hands and face.

"Oh, dearest horse. Firstly, I must offer my thanks for offering to look after an alien like me. However, I assure you I am not in the slightest bit frightened. I mean your 'ponies' no harm whatsoever." Miles now leaned down to meet the equine's gaze, narrowing his eyes. "Besides, if that was my intent, you'd all know about it already!" Miles flicked the tip of her horn and threw his head back in jovial laughter, only for it to dwindle into nothing as he noticed a shadow looming over the both of them, its source standing directly behind him.

Leaning down to lock its gaze firmly upon his was the towering, mismatched creature from earlier. It did not look happy at all, as its face was now mere inches from his.

Instinctively, Miles whipped around and made to shove the creature away; however, his arms simply fell through its form like a hot knife through butter. Its body seemed to simply reattach the parts where his arms had gone through without affecting its stature, as though nothing had happened. The creature folded its arms, before raising an eyebrow at him and snapping its talons. Miles immediately lost all feeling in both of his arms, and to his horror, they appeared to now be made out of thin strips of cloth, limply hanging down by his sides.

"What in the-?!" Miles attempted to flail his arms, but they were merely phantom limbs as the strips flapped down by his sides like silly string. He stepped backwards, knocking into the equine behind him. Suddenly, he felt weightless as he was lifted into the air by a glowing, yellow light.

"Miles. Don't joke about such things so lightly around me, or else Discord here will ensure you lose more than just your arms next time. Also, I am not a horse, I am a pony. Now, I will ask you again... Am I understood?" Miles was snarling down at the pair as he was held helplessly in the air. He soon sighed and nodded his head reluctantly. "Good," she said. He was lowered back down to the ground and the light ceased. "Discord, please give him his limbs back. Miles, I am sorry about this show of force, but we know absolutely nothing about you and I don't like taking chances." Another snap rang through the air and Miles was suddenly able to feel his arms again, as they had been returned to normal.

For the first time since Miles's arrival, Discord spoke. His voice was charming, masculine and yet playful as his demeanour shifted from aggressive to condescending in a heartbeat.

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I could really use a nice, crispy bowl of snacks after all this drama..." Discord rolled his eyes and wafted his paw at the pair. "I'll be waiting through in the lounge. Tata!" With another snap, Discord suddenly vanished, leaving Miles alone with the white pony.

"Follow me," She simply put as she walked calmly towards the exit of the room. Miles rubbed his arms briefly, getting over his bewilderment once again with some steadying breaths. He relaxed his features once more as he made to follow the pony out of the room.

It still seemed most likely to Miles that this was some kind of drug-induced fever dream. Either that, or some very convincing illusion work. There's no such thing as magic.

The journey across the establishment was silent, with Miles walking several feet away from the pony the entire way. Eventually, they arrived at a dimly lit room, littered with couches and other such comforts. All of the other creatures from earlier were already seated in silence, scarcely daring to glance at Miles as he made his way past the white pony, who had held the door open for him. At first, Miles could not see Discord; however, upon looking up, Miles noticed him resting upside down against his own couch on the ceiling, eating what appeared to be crinkled bits of paper from a salad bowl with a disinterested look on his face.

"Please, take a seat." Another one of the ponies spoke up. This one was a little taller than most of them, with a deep blue coat and a glistening mane and tail. Miles remained silent, making his way over to a free seat across from Twilight Sparkle, where he seated himself promptly. Twilight opened her mouth as she made to speak, however seemed to catch herself before she could do so. She put a hoof to her lip in contemplation for a moment and then made her way over to the doorway, beckoning the tall, white pony to follow her outside before shutting it.

The room's eerie silence returned with vigour as one could hear nothing but their own breathing. All of the ponies in the room looked down at their laps, seemingly unsure of what to do or say next.

"Tough crowd..." Miles mumbled to himself. After about a minute of silence, the door reopened, revealing a dishevelled-looking Twilight and a frustrated white pony.

"Okay, so... I've talked it over with Celestia, aaaaand I'm gonna just have a teensy little one-on-one chat with Miles elsewhere before we all begin to, uh... Mingle... Hehe..." Twilight began signalling towards Miles with her eyes that he should follow her out of the room.

"Alright. Well, I won't be long, folks. Don't go missing me too much while I'm gone." Miles winked at a small, white mare with a purple mane, who scrunched up her stubby muzzle in reply.

Miles had been following alongside Twilight in relative silence for a few moments before he decided to question her.

"So, would you mind informing me of just what the purpose of our little chat is going to be?"

Twilight looked slightly sheepish as she replied, "Well, I was thinking we could just... Talk over the basics of our world, and settle on some living arrangements for you, and... Stuff, you know? It's the least we can do, considering you being here is kind of our fault... You see, I don't quite know how to tell you this, but w-we don't know if we'll be able to send you back to your home world... At least, not yet..." Twilight ruffled her feathers, avoiding Miles's gaze, who simply looked down at her with an unreadable expression. "The spell we used that resulted in your being brought here is still experimental, and we don't know if the all the things we send through it survive in one piece, considering that as far as I'm aware, we don't know what happened to the object you seem to have been exchanged for."

Miles chose not to respond, instead bringing his attention to the nearest window. So he had been transported to another world... He approached the window steadily, looking out upon this whole new sparkling landscape with intrigue. Twilight halted in her tracks and slowly walked up next to Miles, cautiously glancing at his slightly slack-jawed expression before gently smiling and laying a hoof on his thigh.

"Welcome to your new home, Miles... I promise we'll try and send you back to your world, but for now I recommend you get used to Equestria and its inhabitants. We have at least 50 million ponies in our world, so that's a lot of new faces for you to meet!" Twilight giggled, before trotting back off towards their destination. "Now, come on, Miles. There'll be plenty of time for you to get accustomed later."

Twilight looked content as Equestria's newest inhabitant seemed somewhat calm about this whole ordeal. As she trotted away from Miles, however, she missed the grin now slowly spreading across his face. "Only 50 million, you say..." Miles whispered to himself with a chuckle as he followed in Twilight's tracks.

An instinctive shiver rippled through Twilight's spine for a moment. Upon turning around, she was greeted with Miles looking down at her with a gentle smile and a half-lidded gaze. He said, "I think I like this place already, Twilight. I can't wait for you to tell me all about it. Every single thing."

Twilight clopped her hooves together excitedly with a childish grin. "Oooh! Of course I will. I can't wait to tell you everything! There are so many interesting things to teach about my world!" Twilight turned back around, skipping off at a faster pace than before, muttering to herself like a maniac. "I've never had an opportunity like this before... Teaching an alien about our world from scratch with no prior knowledge of anything! I should take notes... This could be an important breakthrough for science!" Twilight whipped back to face Miles, eyes sparkling like a puppy at dinner time. "Oh, will you tell me about your world, too?! Please? We can swap information!"

Miles chuckled to himself for a moment in mirth, almost unable to believe his luck. He then walked up to the little purple pony and patted her on the withers. "Of course, Twilight. Anything you want to know. It seems we might be in for quite the lengthy and detailed conversation."

"Yes! Alright, let's go! Not much further to my room now. We can get settled in there, and I have all my notes there too." Without another word, the pair took off down the hall towards Twilight's room. Once outside, Twilight perked up with a small gasp. "Oh! I should let the others know we'll be taking longer than expected to be back with them. One moment." In a flash, the pony was gone.

Miles blinked and shoved his arm through where the pony once stood. He tsked lightly to himself upon feeling nothing. How is such a thing possible?

In another flash, Twilight reappeared in the same spot. She sighed and said, "Phew. Okay. Let's do this." Twilight entered first, holding the door open for Miles once she got there. Miles was somewhat surprised to see her room was unkempt to an extent, as she seemed like the organised, studious type. Pictures of various things hung from the walls, and Miles could not help but feel as though they were watching him.

Twilight took a seat at her desk after pulling up a lounging sofa directly across from it. "Okay, Miles... So, where to start...?" Twilight put a hoof to her chin in contemplation.

"How about your world's level of technology, and this strange 'magic' you seem to possess. Is it scientific, or...?"

"Well, our magic is inherent and very much 'magical', but science and magic do cross paths and work together very often. There are actually even some artifacts in our world which allow non-magical creatures such as yourself to perform magical feats! And- Waah!!!" Twilight gawped at the wall behind Miles with a startled expression, hiding into herself by pulling her hooves to her chest.

Miles looked concerned by her sudden outburst, however swiftly became aware of yet another shadow looming over him from behind.

Author's Note

This story is set before Twilight's coronation in Season 9, but very shortly before.

29/09/2024 - Touched up and some parts added/re-written.