Yesterday’s introduction with the humans didn’t go as planned as the ponies expected, as the ponies learned why the humans were reclusive in trusting the ponies. But they weren’t deterred in their task in helping these humans feel at ease and safe in Equestria. And to ensure this, the ponies believe that they had come up with a rather good plan to start getting to know the humans, and help make bonds with them.

Today Twilight was going to meet the humans and try to learn a little bit more about them, getting to know more about each of the humans as individuals, and make personal connections with them. Unfortunately, Twilight’s friends couldn’t stick around for this and had to return to Ponyville, so the unicorn would be spending the first few days alone with the humans. And in all honesty, Twilight was rather excited as she not only would befriend creatures from a different world, but might be able to document about said other world, and the creatures that live there. As well as possibly learn the root of the humans pain, and then help them overcome it. However in order to even start this idea of theirs, Twilight would have to find the humans first. After walking through the west wing of the castle the unicorn made it to the north wing where the humans were moved into a large chamber yesterday, and as she walked up to the door Twilight gave it a few knocks and patiently waited for one of the humans to answer the door. But after a few minutes go by, and no one has answered the door, Twilight knocked again but again after another few minutes of waiting Twilight got no answer. So deciding to go against common curtesy for privacy, Twilight took a quick peak into the room.

But just as she was about to open the door, a small tremor halted her action. Looking around herself for whatever could cause the tremor, Twilight didn’t notice anything or could see what could cause the tremor, however a brief flash of red & yellow light caught the unicorns eye when she glanced at a nearby window. Moving over to the window where the light came from, Twilight looked out and saw that down below in the guards open training field, she saw two of the humans fighting each other. From appearance, and use of powers, it would seem that Steel & Burner were having some kind of sparring match, however unlike the guards they seemed to be going all out, and actually attempting to hurt each other rather than make the other submit. As she looked down from the windowsill Twilight could see a collection of guards just sitting on the side lines, and appeared to be either be watching or actively cheering on the fight.

Concentrating her thoughts Twilight teleported herself down to the training field, and appeared behind two guards and who were so engrossed in watching the fight, that they didn’t even notice her literally popping out of nowhere. After teleporting into the training field, the unicorn nearly jumped out of her skin when a massive wave of fire just rose up from the floor, and came crashing down onto the field as a roaring tide, burning and searing the dirt covered floor. Yet when the flames vaulted back to Burner, Twilight saw Steel just standing there in the burning area, his metallic body searing red hot and seemed to be totally unharmed. The unicorn then watched as Steel then thrusted his right arm into the ground, piercing it like a spear of hot iron and slowly pulling it back out, and somehow yanking out a large rock that was the size of two full grown stallions right out of the ground! Twilight along with the guards all collectively ‘awed’ at the display of raw strength, and watched as Steel proceeded to throw the large rock at Burner. But the fire controller just launched himself into the air with powerful jets of fire, effortlessly dodging the attack yet allowing the rock rocketing towards the far wall. Though before it could do so, or any pony could do anything, Snap just appeared on top of the rock and disappeared with it in a flash of light. Twilight and the guards then saw Snap re-appear standing beside the other humans, with the rock sitting by his side.

“Try not to destroy the place to much guys.” Plasma called out as he continued to watch the others from the opposite side of the field.

“Right.” Both Steel & Burner said before they continued with their sparring match. When the two humans continued on with their little sparring match, Twilight then looked over to a nearby guard and approach the mare.

“How long have they been sparring like this.” The guard turned to look at the unicorn with a surprised look before calming down and answering Twilight’s question.

“They showed up around an hour or so and asked if they could also train with us, and when we said yes they just started, and we’ve all been watching them since then. These two have been fighting for about ten or so minutes now.” The guard said before a bright flash of light caught hers and Twilight attention, and saw a large fireball crashing into Steel which he swatted away by back hoofing it into the sky, where it dissipated due to being hit with such force.

“Alright guys I think it’s time we take a break.” Circus called out to the two brawlers before they all started walking off towards the exit, while thanking the guards for letting them spar in their training area.

Steel reverted back to his normal self while wiping away sweat from his forehead, while Burner used his power to fully snuff out any lingering fires on the training field, while Snap teleported the large rock back to the hole it was ripped from. With help from Steel in making sure it was situated correctly. Once that was over the three joined the others, and started to make their way out of the training field. Twilight then made her way around the guards and headed straight for the group of humans, and as she got closer to them she spoke up to get their attention.

“I see you guys were having a morning work out?” Twilight said to the group who all turned to look at the unicorn.

“No worst then our usual work outs.” Wave said as he started walking backwards as the group continued to walk through the hallway they all entered. “You’ve should’ve seen Plasma try to use his Burn Saber on me.” Wave snickered which got a chuckle from Plasma.

“To be fair, while I wasn’t able to hurt you in your water form, you can’t do much against my Burn Saber either.” Plasma said through his chuckling. Twilight is actually happy to see these humans be in a rather happy mood, as yesterday she only saw the humans being stand off-ish, guarded, and maybe slightly jaded. So to actually see these humans be happy was a nice change.

“So Twilight did you need something, or were you just enjoying the show?” Circus said as his head floated in front of Twilight after detaching from his shoulders. The act of seeing a floating head was still nerve wracking for Twilight, but she quickly shook it off before responding to the question.

“Actually I was wondering if I could do an interview with each of you, so I can get to know you all better and the world you came from.” The humans then looked at each other with slightly confused looks.

“You want to interview us, like a journalist?” Snap asked as he tilted his head.

“In a way, yes. I believe it would help us not only to form a connection, but also to help you all open up and show you that we ponies really do wish to be friends.”

The humans turned away from Twilight and looked at one another for a few moments, as if having a silent conversation with each other. A moment later the group looked back to Twilight and agreed to the interview. Once the agreement to the interview was consented Twilight followed the humans to the dining hall, where they were going to get something to eat and relax after their workout. As the group made their way to the dining hall, Twilight listened in on the humans conversations with each other, which was mostly about how they were feeling being in a new world, and being surrounded by ponies. And speaking of ponies, Twilight noticed that the guards they passed kept a curious gaze on the humans, while the nobles seemed to just sneer or turn their noses up at the humans, all the while strutting past the group. The unicorn figured this would happen, she wasn’t proud of it, but her fellow Canterlotian ponies are usually not very accepting of none ponies, and from what she’s seen of the passing nobles they were living up to their reputations. But the humans either’d just ignored them, or didn’t even notice them.

Eventually the group made it to the dining hall and Twilight just made her way to the table, having already eaten before she left her own room, after taking a seat at the table Twilight just watched each of the humans gather food, and she just seemed fascinated in how they did so. Unlike ponies who used their hooves or mouths to gather goods, or hold objects, the way the humans hands did all the holding and gathering interested the unicorn. They looked so delicate, and dainty compared to any other creatures with hands or claws. Twilight then started to look over the humans entire bodies, marveling at their tall and lean builds and wondering on how it would be like to walk on two legs. The humans then came to the table after a minute or so, and took a seat around the table with half of them on Twilight’s right side, and the other half sitting on her left.

“So.” Plasma said as he looked at the unicorn, who was already laying out parchments, her inkwell and levitating a quill in her magical aura. “What do you want to know first.” Twilight thought about it for a moment before something came to mind.

“What is your world like?” Twilight asked and after chewing on a piece of orange Steel spoke up as he peeled the rest of the fruit.

“What part do you want to know?” the tall dark skinned human asked.

“How about your culture. What’s human culture like compared to ponies? I’m sure the princesses told you a bit about our world while you all recovered.” The humans nodded in unison as they each ate some variety of fruit.

“Well to be honest, there’s not much of a difference between our cultures, aside from a few small details.” Snap said before taking a bite of a sandwich he had instead of the apple he held, sighing slightly as he began to chew.

“What kind of differences.” Twilight inquired.

“Well for one thing, the gender ratios aren’t so skewed.” Wave retorted as he finished off his banana. “From one of the books the princesses gave us, you guys have a ninety percent female to a ten percent male ratio. How do you guys continue to prosper with so little guys to, you know, knock up mare’s and have kids with?”

“W-well…” Twilight hesitated as her face went slightly red. “Doctors have tried to figure out why our gender ratios are so skewed, as well as trying to figure out how to rebalance the genders. But the most common way that ponies work around it is…is where two mare’s…” Twilight’s face grew redder and redder as she continued to try to explain how her species continue to thrive.

“One mare has a spell, or use a potion, to give them a temporary, phallus.” the six humans just looked at Twilight who was now so red in the face that she could pass as a tomato, not exactly all to comfortable talking about such things, as it was pretty embarrassing.

“So mares have to grow their own dicks to do the business, if there isn’t a stallion around?” Burner bluntly asked after a silent pause in the conversation. Twilight closed her eyes, before giving a small nod. “Well that’s one way to work around it.”

“Can we please not talk about this, it’s pretty embarrassing.” Twilight pleaded as she was never comfortable talking about such lewd or improper things with any pony, the humans nodded in agreement as the unicorn shook her head to remove the topic entirely from her mind.

As the group started to get into the interview, Twilight continued to ask the humans questions, one question was about the politics of their world but all she got was a few basic details, as none of the humans were into politics. But Twilight also noticed something strange as the humans rushed through this question, as the statement was ended in a rather ominous tone. Especially when Circus made a rather unpleasant commented about their government. Another topic that was touched was of course, magic. Twilight wanted to know what human magic was like, but all she got was that human magic was just illusions and stage crafts, with references to cults and other sources in fictional books, or just being part of a fantasy based genre of media. Twilight was a bit disappointed that humans didn’t have magic so she could learn them, but she quickly got over her woes and continued on with the interview.

Throughout the morning some of Twilight’s follow up questions either didn’t get any satisfying answers, or gave her mind blowing revelations like how Earth was basically a world-wide version of the Everfree forest, where the weather, animals, and plant life all function and prosper all on their own without any pony aiding or controlling it. Yet what really made Twilight happy was seeing that the humans were genuinely smiling, and seemingly enjoying their time in talking with her. Hopefully, this really does help the humans see that she, and other ponies really do wish to be friends as well as being trustworthy.

~~Elsewhere~~

Far off in the eastern most end of the Apple families orchard, a trio of fillies were trotting along an old worn out dirt path all of whom looked defeated and downtrodden. The fillies were a group of friends called The Cutie Mark Crusaders, and they’re not especially in a good mood. For the past few weeks, the fillies have done all sort of crazy stuff, from being assistants to ponies working stalls, trying to be bakers, and many other things in order to get their cutie marks. But like always as it seems, their efforts were in vain, as their latest attempt to earn their cutie marks which was trying to be furniture sales ponies, didn’t go so well. Especially when the group started to really go overboard in how they try to sell things to ponies, to the point where they scared all customers away and the manager who allowed them to help out asked them to leave.

“Well that was another bust.” Scootaloo moped as she slowly propelled herself on her scooter as she kept pace with her friends.

“Don’t worry Scootaloo; well find out what were good at. Some day.” Apple Bloom said as she trotted next to her friend and patted her on the side.

“Maybe we can try something else.” Sweetie Belle said as she was about to suggest another idea, except all three of their stomachs growled and grumbled. “But first let’s get our lunch boxes from the clubhouse, and take a break.” The other two fillies agreed with the little unicorn.

Along the way to their clubhouse, the Cutie Mark Crusaders all thought back on today’s misadventure, and how rough it was for them. It reminded them the time they tried being assistants to both Aloe & Lotus the week before, though that time they were actually doing pretty well and surprisingly to them they actually didn’t break or ruin anything! But at the end of their brief work period they still didn’t earn their Cutie Marks. Both spa sisters were sad for the fillies and thought that they would have made excellent spa ponies, though the sisters decided to congratulate the three for doing an excellent work; and gave the three foals a good amount of bits for all their hard work. When the Crusaders have reached their clubhouse as they recollected about past adventures, they all noticed that the door was left open, and that on the ramp leading up to the clubhouse was a thin trail of some kind of red paint. Yet something else caught the fillies attention as they looked at the ramp. Next to the trail of red paint were some kind of drag marks in the same color red, but what really caught their eyes was some strange looking prints. To Apple Bloom the prints looked like Wynonna’s paw print, but with five longer lines stretching out from the central paw pad.

Following the trail the Crusaders slowly climbed up the ramp to the door, and nudged it open ever so slightly, but what they found inside was something that they never saw before. What the three fillies were looking at was some kind of large strange-looking creature. It was laying on its side, curled up, and was wearing heavily tattered and torn clothing, and everything was covered in red. Which the Crusaders soon realized that the red trail, & prints wasn’t made from paint, it was all blood. Blood that was pooling on their clubroom floor from the large, possibly injured creature.

“What is that!?” Scootaloo whispered as she and her friends continued to look at the thing in the middle of their clubhouse.

“Ah don’t know! Ah’ve never seen anything like it.” Apple Bloom said as she started to feel sick as she looked at the blood that was covering the floor.

But while Scootaloo and Apple Bloom were terrified of even seeing the creature, Sweetie Belle felt sorry for the creature as she saw the blood and heard the soft whimpering coming from it. Then to the surprise of the other fillies Sweetie Belle trotted passed her friends, who tried to stop her, but the little unicorn continued to trot up to the large creature. And really seeing just how big the thing was compared to herself. Circling around the creature Sweetie Belle came face to face with the creature, which had the head of a dragon, well at least a head that looked like a dragon, but the rest of the body didn’t look like anything she thought a dragon would be like. Or anything else that the filly could think of.

“Sweetie Belle get back here!” Scootaloo pleaded as she tried to look over the giant creature.

“Girls I think its hurt.” Sweetie Belle said as she looked over the creature, but when she looked back at the creatures head, she saw the eyes starting to flutter open. The unicorn gasped slightly and stuttered back a few paces, as the piercing amber eyes of the creature looked at her, which conveyed such sadness and fear that the filly could actually feel it. That’s when she was further surprised when the creature spoke to her.

“Please…g-get away f-from me.” The creature said in a very sad, almost scared, or even terrified voice that trembled and stuttered. The little unicorn felt her heart ache that such a large creature sounded so frighten, and approached it cautiously. Not noticing that the fin on its head started to shutter, like it had a very bad twitch.

“Don’t worry mister we’re not going to hurt you.” Sweetie Belle said in the most gently and calming voice that she could give as she sat before the creature, but it seemed her remark only made the creature more upset, and the fin started to extend up a slightly.

“No, y-you don’t under—” The creature stopped in mid-sentence as it clutched its head, while also groaning in pain.

Sweetie Belle slowly backed away from the creature as it started to fidget and shiver un-controllably, and his pained groans becoming feral sounding snarls. Then, the creature reared up on its legs, his back and head crashing into the roof of the clubhouse, and unleashed the most terrifying roar that destroyed the roof of the little building, as the fillies ran away screaming. But as the creature ceased its roaring, it started snarling as its eyes slowly moved to where the fillies were, as a puff of fire exited his snarling maw. Then in one big jump into the air, the creature landed a dozen or so feet from the fillies before it started chasing them. All the while its eyes glowed red with hunger and bloodlust.

“RRRRROOOOOOAAAAAARRRRR!”

Author's Note

Things are about to really heat up now, as the ponies are about to see just how devastating the powers of these humans.