Along the train tracks leading up the mountain towards Canterlot, a train was huffing and puffing along as it climbed up the mountain. In the third car of the train sat Twilight Sparkle and her circle of friends, all of whom were being summoned to the castle by princess Celestia, so they could be introduced to the six creatures that fell from the sky. Which was great for Twilight because ever since she saw them her mind has been buzzing with questions, she wanted to know who and what these creatures are and why did they come to Equestria. And if there were possibly more of them and many other questions. And while the unicorn was excited to see these creatures again, her friends were mixed on the whole thing, even as they departed from the train and were making their way through the castle, to where Celestia would meet them before they would meet the strange creatures.

“So Twilight what do you think these creatures will be like?” Applejack asked as she followed behind her violet friend while the rest of their friends followed behind them.

“I’m not sure. But from what Princess Celestia said in her note they’re rather, reclusive. And they don’t seem to trust any pony.” Twilight replied as she and her friends started to climb a flight of stairs.

“Not even the ponies that are helping them?” Fluttershy asked as she looked at her friend with a questioning look.

“Apparently. They don’t even leave the medical room unless they do it in pairs, or as a whole group.” Twilight retorted.

“Seriously?” Rainbow quipped as she hovered over her friends while Twilight nodded. “Wow, they seem really paranoid.”

“You can’t really blame them Rainbow Dash.” Rarity said as she and the others reached the top of the stairs and continued on their venture through the castle. “The poor dears obviously went through a terrible ordeal, and I’m fairly certain they’re the only members of their race in all of Equestria.”

“Well I hope the party I’ve been planning for them for the past week will lift their spirits, and don’t worry girls, I remembered to pack my party cannon this time.” Pinkie Pie bubbled as she bounces beside her white-furred friend.

“Well we’re about to see for ourselves what these creatures are like.” Twilight said as she re-adjusts her saddlebags while making sure not to jostle the inkwells and other supplies she’s stuffed inside them.

Walking through another one of the halls of the castle the ponies continued to trot along, following Twilight’s lead as she guided her friends through the castle halls. Luckily, Twilight has been to the medical wing several times whenever she went to visit her brother whenever he got hurt during training, or his old superior officer decided to go hard on him and the guard during their work outs. Soon enough the six ponies came upon the final length of their little castle trek, and as they rounded the final corner they saw Princess Celestia and Princess Luna come out of another hallway, talking amongst themselves till the princess of the sun noticed Twilight and her friends.

“Ah! Twilight you’ve made it, perfect timing.” Celestia said as she approached her student, and nuzzled her for a brief second.

“It’s good to see you again Princess.” Twilight replied as she accepted the nuzzle before she looked over to Luna, who gave the unicorn a small smile as Twilight bowed her head. “It’s good to see you as well Princess Luna.”

“And you as well young Twilight.” The midnight alicorn said as she gave a curt bow of her head. “Are you all ready to meet our otherworldly patients?”

“E’YPPER-RONIE!” Pinkie Pie all but belted as she bounced into the air, her excitement causing her friends to giggle and roll their eyes while dawning knowing smiles.

“Then follow us.” Celestia instructed as she and her sister took the lead.

Twilight’s group followed after the two princesses as they made their way to the medical wing, which they reached within the span of a few minutes. When the group had reached the medical room and proceeded to enter it, the eight mares could hear very joyful talking going on, and when they actually entered the room they got a good look of the creatures. All six of the bipedal creatures were gathered around a table close to the left side of the room, and they appeared to be playing some sort of card game with a trolley of food and drinks next to the table. The group stood a few feet from the table of creatures, and since they were now close up to them Twilight & her friends noticed just how big they are, especially the dark skinned one as he looked far bigger than Celestia.

“Alright boys, show your hands.” The dark brown haired one of the group said as he flipped his cards face up, followed up by the others. Once the cards were flipped a bunch of moans and groans came from five of the creatures, while one of them leaned back in the chair with a smirk on his face.

“Read ‘em & weep boys, full house!” the blonde hair creature said, causing the other five creatures to groan and slap their cards onto the table, while the winner of the game began gathering up the bits on the table.

“So whose up for another game?” the tanned skin one of the group asked as he started to shuffle the deck.

“Actually we might have to put our game on hold.” The dark brown-haired creature said as he looked directly at the ponies. “We got company.”

The other creatures turned in their chairs to look at the ponies, and almost immediately their happy and cheerful demeanors just faded away. And now they’re looking at the ponies with either a neutral expression, or something that looks like a slightly annoyed look. Twilight and her friends actually felt a little off putted by the sudden change in mood, but this is why she & her friends are here, to help these creatures feel not so jaded or guarded around ponies. And help them open themselves up so that they didn’t have to feel as if they are among untrustworthy ponies.

“Something we can help you with?” the reddish brown haired creature said in a rather rude tone as he looked at the princess, before looking over to Twilight and her friends. “And who are they?”

“This is Twilight Sparkle, and her friends from the nearby town of Ponyville.” Celestia said as she moves behind the mare’s. “And my little ponies these are the humans Plasma, Steel, Wave, Snap, Burner & Circus.” Celestia said as she used a wing to gesture to each of the humans as she called them.

“And to answer your question Burner, we’ve asked them here to help you acclimate into our society, as well as hopefully to help in showing that we wish to be your friends.” Deciding to take the initiative Twilight stepped forth to begin introductions.

“Hello sirs, as the princess said I am Twilight Sparkle, and I am a student of Princess Celestia. And these are my friends.” Twilight said as she stepped to the side to allow her friends to step forward and introduce themselves.

“Howdy ya’ll, mah names Applejack. Pleased ta meet ’cha.” The farm pony said in a cheerful tone as she tips her hat, but none of the humans seemed to react at all. Seeing as how her introduction didn’t seem to get much of a reaction Applejack stepped to the side to allow the rest of her friends to greet the group, which prompted Rainbow to zips forward and strut her stuff.

“The names Rainbow Dash, fastest flyer in all of Equestria and future Wonderbolts Captain.” Rainbow said as she does a few aerial loops before striking a pose, which only got deadpan stares from the humans. Surprised that the humans weren’t wowed by her proclamations Rainbow tried to amaze them by doing a few more tricks, which was possible as the room was quite spacious. But still, the humans were not impressed. That’s when Rarity stepped forth and gently brought Fluttershy up with her, while Twilight pulls back the stupefied cyan pegasus.

“Hello darlings I am Rarity, and this is Fluttershy. Do forgive her for her timidness, she’s very shy around others she doesn’t know yet.” Rarity said simply while Fluttershy gives a small smile and a small wave. The blonde human actually gave a small smile in return and actually waved back.

“If you don’t mind me asking, do all of you wear clothes often?” the fashionista asked as she looked at the clothes that the group of humans were wearing, and to Rarity’s surprise the humans actually responded by nodding their heads, while the black haired one actually spoke in a polite tone.

“Yeah but since we only have the one pair, we had to get new clothes made by the royal tailor. Except he doesn’t really do good work for none pony bodies.” After hearing this Rarity took the opportunity to try and form a connection with the humans.

“Well my dears you are in luck.” Rarity said in a very confident tone. “I’m a clothes designer, as well as a tailor. And if you would allow me I would like to make you some clothes.” The humans took a moment to look at each other and seemed to have a silent conversation, before looking back to the unicorn.

“We’ll give you a shot.” The dark haired one, Plasma as Celestia introduced him as, said with a gracious smile which made Rarity very happy and gave a courteous bow and moved back with the others along with Fluttershy. And just as the unicorn and pegasus joined the others--

“HELLO FUTURE NEW FRIENDS!”

Pinkie Pie screeched at the top of her lungs as she jumps over her friends, as music just started to play out of nowhere, which actually surprised her friends and even the princesses. Pinkie Pie then went into a very peppy musical number which was her typical greeting to new ponies, but as she landed on the final lyric and slid into a final pose Twilight saw that the humans just looked at Pinkie with an assortment of dumbfounded reactions. Which was a valid response Twilight thought for any creature meeting her excitable friend for the first time.

“And to commemorate our new friendship, I’ve got a fully stocked party cannon ready to give you your first party!”

But just as Pinkie pulled out her cannon from behind her, Twilight watched as a claw just came flying out from the group of humans and pushed back the cannon a few inches. But what really caught the ponies attention, even the princesses, was the fact that the claw wasn’t connected to anything! Twilight looked away from the claw, looked up at the table, and saw the one called Circus having one of his arms stretched out, and it was missing its clawed appendage.

“How about no to the party.” Circus said as the hand started floating back over to him, and reconnects with his wrist. Needless to say all the ponies were shocked at what they just seen, and yet, Twilight quickly recovers from her shocked state and immediately shifted into her scholar mentality.

“How did you do that!?” Twilight asked as she made her way to the forefront of the group, a piece of parchment and quill at the ready. And then to hers and the others ponies surprise, and horror, Circus then separated his own head from his body where it then slowly floats over to the unicorn, and stares right at her.

“You mean how I do this?” Circus asked with a sly smirk, to which Twilight just slowly nodded her head as she kept eye contact with the floating head with a clear expression of shock & awe etched on her face.

“This is my power, Body Manipulation. I can separate any part of my body in any way I can imagine.” Circus demonstrated by separating his arms from his body and then separating them in various ways. Then the pieces of the arms then spun around in a ring formation, before re-assembling themselves and then crossing with each other.

“And as you can see, I can freely manipulate every piece of my body, as long as they remain in a certain area of another body piece.” Circus said as he reconnected his head & arms back to his body, while Twilight wrote vigorously on the piece of parchment she held in front of herself. The unicorn then looked up at the other humans with a now more curious expression as she spoke up.

“Do all of you have a special power!?” Twilight excitably asked as she looked at the group, and she wasn’t the only pony whose curiosity was piqued by this question.

The group was surprised as all of the humans confirmed that each of them did in fact, have a special ability or power unique to each of them. The ponies were then treated to a special showcase, as they all watched each of the humans demonstrate their powers. Wave showed that he can actually turn his body into water, and started to zip around the room, before vaulting over the group and turning back into his normal form while perfectly landing back into his chair. The ponies were startled when Snap suddenly vanished in a small burst of light, and a snapping sound, and started to appear all around the room in fast flashes of light, show that his power was teleportation based. Now in Equestria teleportation is one of the most difficult spells for unicorns to learn, let alone us as you not only need the ample amount of magic to use it, but also the knowledge of how to use the spell initially and safely as well as where you intend to go. So to see this human perform rapid teleportation’s as if they were nothing, was truly amazing.

After Snap reappeared back at the table amongst his friends, the tallest human Steel stood up from his chair, and started to grow in size while his skin turned to a shimmering metallic silver color. Seeing the giant human was certainly intimidating, and even when Steel shrunk back to his normal height and lost his metal coating, the ponies still felt a slight twinge of fear for the human. As Steel sat back down, the ponies then looked over to Plasma as he just out stretched his right hand, and watched as a 5’ft long shaft of blue fire form in his hand. When the shaft was created Plasma showed his control over it, as he started spinning it around in his hand and controlling its size by shrinking it and elongating it at will. After Plasma finished twirling his weapon around and held it in his hand like a knife, the ponies watched as a strand of blue fire started to waft off the small shaft, before watching it burst into a flaming orb that was the size of a full grown pony as it floated over Burner’s raised left hand. Then from the orb of fire a giant flaming snake started slithering out of it, and started to coil around the humans before it raised its head up and stared down at the ponies. Who actually curled up under the snakes gaze. The snake then withered away until it was only a small flame, like a candle light, and float over to Burner and just floated in his now lowered palm.

“This is incredible!” Twilight blurted out as she started to write down everything that she just witnessed.

“All of you have such unique and incredible powers, and are totally unique from each other. Like a special talent.” Twilight said in an excitable voice.

“Must be pretty cool to have super powers!” Rainbow commented as she looked at the humans and started to wander what they could do with their powers. But all she got were some rather depressed looks from the humans as they just stared at the table.

“There’s nothing great about having these powers.” Burner said in a low tone as he clenches his hand, snuffing out the little fire in his palm.

“What do you mean? These powers of yours make you each unique.” Celestia said as she approached the table.

“…not if you burned your house down, and killed your own family with your own power.” Burner said as his clenched fist tighten turning his knuckles white as it starts to shake a little, which caused the ponies to look at Burner with confused, as well as slightly terrified looks, while the other humans just looked down casted.

“When I got my powers I set the entire house on fire, and burned my family to smoldering husks. It just happened when I blew on the candles of my ninth birthday cake, and caused flames to spew from the candles and burned everything around me down. It was beyond my control but ever since then, I was looked down on as a monster.”

As Burner finished telling a little portion of his life, and when he first got his powers, all of the ponies were shocked to hear this. But before they could fully process everything they just heard; the others then started to talk about their powers. Wave scared his family nearly to death when his body suddenly, and uncontrollably started to turn into water which he said they thought he was literally melting away, and then grotesquely reforming that they left him to the whims of their government. Snap said that when he was playing with an old childhood friend of his, he accidently teleported both of them fifty feet into the air, and then started to randomly just teleport around till they crashed into a building. Leaving his old friend greatly wounded and left in a comma.

Steel gained his power when he was fighting bullies that were picking on some of his old friends, but he ended up breaking most of their limbs and almost killing two of the kids. Circus’s situation was similar to Wave’s, in that his body just continued to separate un-controllably, and like Wave, Circus’s family thought he was a monster and abandon him. And finally for Plasma he nearly decapitated his own sister when they were playing one time, and because his power was also flame based he almost burnt his own house down, but the damage was already done and his family gave him up to the authorities, and then the government itself. Each and every one of the ponies were just utterly speechless at what they had just heard, all of the humans had just told them how their powers only seemed to cause them grief in their younger years.

“I think this little visit is over now.” Plasma said as he and the others got up from the table, walked past the group of ponies, and exited the room.

As the humans left the room the ponies seemed to understand a small portion of why the humans were, reclusive. They probably thought of themselves as dangerous individuals, and because they were either abandoned or feared by others because they had no grasp of their powers. Which could also explain why they don’t trust anyone that isn’t amongst their exclusive closed circle, as they feel that only those who knows what they went through could be trusted and understood.

“Clearly, these humans have had a rough life before coming to Equestria.” Luna summarized as she looked up to her sister who nodded in response.

“Indeed.” Celestia said in a slight somber tone.

“Well, now that they’re here, we can change that.” Pinkie Pie said with a cheery amount of optimism.

“We can help them feel better, and help turn their sad frowns up-side-down. And show them that all of us can become friends!” The ponies nodded in agreement with what Pinkie had just said.

“Question is though, how do we go about doing this?” Twilight questioned as she tapped a hoof on the floor, before the group of eight ponies tried to come up with ideas in how they could help the humans feel more at ease, and show them that they can indeed trust them not to fear them. As the group of mares bounced ideas off of each other, Twilight looked to the exit of the medical wing and hoped that she and her friends could indeed help the humans.

Author's Note

It would seem that these humans are going to be harder to make friends with, than what the ponies are used to. so let's see how the ponies will try to make peace with the skeptical young men.