I was walking through the halls of a crystal hallway with a Crystal pony guard by my side. “Why didn’t you tell me there was an unexpected intruder and that my friends are speaking to it?” I asked.

“It all happened so fast, luckily it only happened barely twenty minutes ago,” the guard responded.

He was right. I was helping crystal ponies on the other side of the kingdom when this unknown intruder was spotted on the far side. I do love helping these ponies but sometimes I feel like they rely on my tall human structure too much.

Yeah you heard that right. A human in Equestria story. A tale that some would say is a common fanfic trend in the pony fandom. At least that I would say. Still I wonder what this mysterious intruder is. Definitely not Sombra, as there wasn’t much panic around the place. My eyes widened a bit as a thought struck me. “Hey did this intruder look anything like me in a way?” I asked the guard.

The guard looked away as he was thinking. “I didn’t see, I only had the orders to find you.”

I nodded in understanding and continued my walk. As we got closer to a large door, I gestured to the guard to leave. He nodded and left. I heard what sounded like talking. I carefully put my ear to the door. And I heard the voice of Celestia. “It's been far too long since we have seen each other, TD."

I carefully opened the door a crack to see my friends and a stranger sitting at the table. "Sure has," the stranger retorted, setting the plate down. “Back then, you didn't have xenophobic guards.”

The Princess sighs. "You will have to excuse them for that. The ponies around here haven't healed from all of the wounds King Sombra inflicted yet, and a strange creature whose magical properties they have no idea of walks into their kingdom unannounced? You have to understand that they would be a bit wary."

He give her a deadpan look. "Wary is one thing, Celestia. That was something else entirely."

"Wordings aside, again, they feared the unknown,” she explains calmly. “Can you really blame them for that?”

"And it ain't like you helped your case any, sugar cube," Applejack pipes in. "You got pretty hostile with them too."

“Hey, I tried to be civil. They were the ones who wouldn't have any of it." He helps himself to another ladleful of soup and take a deep drink of crystal punch. “But I think I know what went on. They're suspicious after Sombra, and I'm sick and tired of getting a cold welcome everywhere I go because nobody on this planet's ever heard of a human before. I guess you could call it a series of unfortunate events."

"Where have ya been?" asks Apple Bloom.

He pauses to stir the hot soup before answering, "Everywhere."

Nopony says anything for a little while. "When you say everywhere," Twilight prods, "do you mean..."

"I really mean everywhere," he confirmed with a nod. "Griffons, Zebras, Minotaurs... I've even run into some Diamond Dogs."

Rarity gasps. "You've met Diamond Dogs? How ghastly!"

"It wasn't the most fun I had on my trip, I'll give you that."

"TD, tell us something: did you run into the..." says Twilight hesitantly after some thinking. "Did you run into the Changelings out there?"

He sighed and put his spoon down, placing his head in his hands and rubbing his temples. "Somehow, I ended up straight in their hive, if you can believe that."

"You met Chrysalis?” Celestia questions immediately.

He nods, and she grimaces, but she's interrupted before she can say anything else. "How was that?" asks Pinkie Pie.
"Honestly? She can be a bit of an idiot," he scoffed. "Seriously, some of the stuff she said..." he shook his head and slurped more of the soup. He must really like that stuff.

"What did she say?" asks Fluttershy with a quirked eyebrow.

He turns his head to the three fillies I considered little sisters. "It's generally not appropriate for foals," he remarked.

Apple Bloom gasps indignantly. "Ah ain't no foal no more," she complains. "We're all grown up, and even have our cutie marks!"

He smiles at this, as am I. It felt like only yesterday I helped them get one step closer. "Yeah, I noticed, and I think that's just awesome," TD says.

"You weren't there when we got them, though."

His smile falls as I hear the subtle bitterness in Scootaloo's voice. He nervously rub the back of my neck, with my eyes fixed on the food. "Yeah... yeah, I know."

“It's not just that we are mad about, TD,” Scootaloo picks up again, and from the little I can see of her expression, it's not something this new guy is gonna like to hear. "You didn't leave only us Crusaders in the dust. Do you know how our class reacted when we found out you had abandoned us? You've got no idea what it was like, how it must've been like for Miss Cheerilee to be put on the spotlight when all of us kept asking her where you had gone. She had to calm us down when she didn't have a feathering clue herself, you jerk!" Her anger mounts up until she slams a hoof at the table. At least the crystal is sturdy enough not to crack.

"Scootaloo, watch your language!" I said as I opened the door.

The whole party turned to the door that was now revealing me. The human, who I learned is named TD, just stared at me with his jaw dropped and eyes wide. The other ponies looked at me with mixed reactions. Some were surprised, others were…unreadable. But they weren’t my focus. After giving Scootaloo a stern glance I stared at TD who was still looking dumbfounded. Eventually he found his voice. “Who the fu-”

“That goes double for you too buster,” I said quickly. I went over and stood before him. “As for who I am, my name is Edward. Edward Richards. And you must be TD Powell. I heard so much about you. The man who couldn’t ask Pinkie to throw a farewell party,” I said as I rolled back my fist quickly to punch him.

Sadly the punch never came to him as I suddenly found myself on the floor. Sometimes I forget while I maybe a young fighter I still have some things to learn. Like how an opponent can be quicker.

TD turned back to the others. “Okay someone better start explaining.”

I got up and dusted myself off. Then flicked the back of his neck making him turn back to me.

“That's for making your friends sad,” I said as I quickly slapped him across the face with my other hand. He barely flinched. “That’s for making a mockery of humans at these DORK talks,” I said as I gave him a kick to the shin. The guy just took it like it was normal to him. It’s like it was a tap for him. “And that's for anything I missed.”

“Edward! Was that really necessary?” Celestia asked with a cold expression.

“Hey when I see my friends sad I take action, ask questions later,” I said looking back down at the sitting human who was rubbing his cheek. “Even if it's six years overdue.”

TD just looked to me with a mixture of confusion and annoyance. “Might’ve deserved that but now, I have so many questions right now.”

I looked down and smiled. “I’ll be glad to answer them mister Abandoner,” I teased, ignoring his scowl. “I’ll start with your obvious one, How did I get here? Well pretty much the same way you came in but I certainly didn’t assault royalty within the first few minutes of waking up. And it certainly wasn't because of a car speeding towards me.”

“What do you mean?” TD asked who was now slightly less annoyed and a slight bit more curious.

“Well…”

Author's Note

Yep since I heard Bronywriter was retiring I decided to do a take on his universe with a twist since there are a few other TD the non-brony stories.

Edit: Made some adjustments based on Bronywriters feedback but kept some things because I thought they were funny. Hope it’s more suitable.