Project Peacemaker: Finding Paradise

Not Alone

Kevin had done it.

He had arrived in Equestria; on a lush grassland on the outskirts of the village. It provided an excellent vista point for not only the quaint little town he knew and loved, but the majestic mountains beyond it. And Kevin knew that, in the silhouetted castle hanging precariously off the mountainside, lived its even more regal residents. He let his jaw hang open as he indulged in the sight. It was perfect yet all too real.

It was like something right off the television.

No amount of eye-rubbing, pinching or useless mental exercises convinced Kevin that it was only a dream. Even if it was, it didn't matter to him. All that mattered to him now in his overblown elation was that he was here. He had done what any other brony in the expansive fandom could only dream of, possibly even kill for.

But in retrospect, he actually had done nothing. All he did was watch helplessly as his body almost accidentally fell into the psychedelic hole that appeared before him, one grey rainy day in the county of Sussex. As he stood there, still unable to look away from the cartoony splendor that had become a reality, he decided he wanted no explanation or reason. He just wanted to enjoy it. It appeared his walk back to the dorm had taken a turn for the better.

How long had he been staring and gaping he never knew, but after a while, he realized that there was a better way to enjoy this little miracle that he had the luck to receive. As cliched and overdone the concept was in every single bad piece of fan fiction he read, it felt like the right thing to do. After all, what could one expect from a town named 'Ponyville'?

Ponies, of course.

Kevin composed himself, wiped the sweat from his brow and straightened his school jersey. As appropriate as it felt  to be jumping for joy right now, it wasn't the right time. He figured that, given how nopony would have seen a human before, he would already receive a rather mixed response on arrival.

"Alright," he said to himself, taking deep breaths, "I'm in Equestria. This is a fact. I'm in Equestria. This is not a dream. I'm in Equestria." At least he thought it wasn't a dream... and he hoped so too. Fortunately, all evidence so far was against that deduction.

"Just be cool, walk into town, and don't do anything stupid." Giddy with excitement and a sense of confidence, the unexpected visitor made his way into Ponyville with a skip in his step.

He kept a calm exterior, but it was killing him on the inside. As he walked briskly closer and closer to the village, his mind was swirling with questions and possibilities: How big are the ponies? Is there really magic? What will their response to a human be? All these questions merely fed that anticipating flame in the pit of his stomach. In the end, Kevin could not withhold the grin that spread across his face with the thought that maybe, just maybe, he would be able to meet the Mane Six!

"This is crazy." He muttered, "This can't be real. Even if it is, this is really overdone..."

As overdone as it was, what else would one do in this kind of situation? Walk towards the Everfree Forest? It also comforted Kevin knowing that sooner or later, he would have to talk to somepony, whether it was to ask for directions, to spend the night, and maybe even to find a way home. But honestly, going home was far far at the back of his frantic mind at the moment.

So on he went, droning to himself about how it could not be real and yet it was, asking himself questions and talking to himself in excitement, like a madman who escaped from the asylum. He kept doing so until he was at the edge of the town, where a row of hay-roofed houses began to dot the landscape.

Kevin couldn't believe it. The houses, the environment, the partly medieval setting! True to the series, everything depicted in the was accurately portrayed right in front of him in life size! He couldn't help but let out a little squeal, which he hated to do, even when watching the show. He spun around, as he kept on walking, taking it all in.

"Um... hello?"

He clumsily halted at the sound of this new voice. A rather girly voice if he ever heard one. His heart turned into a rock, pounding against his chest when he knew he was about to talk to his first pony. Slowly, he turned his head around to where the voice came. Down the road, which he didn't notice he had wandered into, stood a mint green unicorn. A bit of her similarly-coloured hair hung over her mellow yellow eyes, and her mane looked like the furry equivalent of toothpaste.

And Kevin knew who she was immediately.

"L-Lyra!" He exclaimed, almost yelping in delight. It was followed by a quick clasped hand to the mouth.

"I thought I heard a squeal down this way." The unicorn teased. She approached the human with a small smile on her face, unlike Kevin whose feet had decided to glue themselves to the ground.

Wait a minute, the human thought, this wasn't right. Lyra was known in the fandom for being obsessed with hands and everything human. This was her first time ever seeing a human. Why was she not clinging to him like an overly attached girlfriend?!

Not that he wanted that of course. Kevin disliked clop.

"U-Uh... yeah... um...." He was lost for words, talking to his first pony. He took a second to examine the pony close up. It turns out they were a lot bigger than the show wanted you to think. They were smaller than regular ponies, standing at shoulder height with Kevin, who was five feet nine. But she still had the appearance of a cartoon character! Her hooves weren't hooves, they looked like cut-off blobs! Her mane was way too nice for any earthly pony he had ever seen. And her eyes -by god, her eyes- could be best described as small dinner plates. Accompanied with her stubby snout, it made her look cute. But no doubt that such huge eyes could look crazy if it wanted to.

"Is something wrong?" She asked with genuine curiosity.

"Uh, erm, no! Everything's fine. Hi." He pulled out his hand and waved it, a little too closely, at Lyra. This helped Kevin confirm that he didn't in fact turn into a pony too. But this confused him further.

Why wasn't she going crazy?! She's not even surprised to see a human!

The sight of a human hand did not get the response that Kevin had expected. Lyra instead took a step back, having been made uncomfortable by the hand that was shoved right in her face. The moment hung for one awkward moment.

"Well... if nothing's wrong, I'll best be on my way then." She turned to leave, revealing the cutie mark of a golden lyre on her flank.

This caused the human to be frustrated. He was confused, upset even, that the first pony he had ever seen showed little interest in him.

"Wait wait wait wait." His excitement had been tossed aside, replaced with a stern confusion that needed answers. Lyra didn't seem to mind giving them.

"Yes?" She said, turning her head.

"I gotta know. Why aren't you going crazy seeing me? Aren't you supposed to be obsessed with hands or human behaviour or-or something?! I figured you'd be flipping your sh-coat right now!"

Lyra considered his statements for a moment with a blank expression. Then bursted into laughter. Now Kevin was not only confused, but a tad irritated. There was something going on around here, and he didn't know what it was. And this -a pony that looked like she was laughing at him- was not exactly the kind of welcome he was expecting. He seethed in his own bewilderment, waiting patiently for Lyra to compose herself.

She wiped a tear from one of her ridiculously big eyes, and went on a lot more cheerily this time, "Well, sir, I don't know how outdated your information is. But I got over that phase long ago!" She giggled, "I guess that explains why you acted a little a weirdly. I figured all of you guys would've known by now."

This answer made no sense to the human whatsoever. 'Got over that phase'?! 'All of you guys'?! What?!

"Anyway, I really gotta run. Always a pleasure to meet a human though!" And with that, she hummed a tune to herself as she trotted around the corner.

Kevin was left standing there again. And yet again, with his mouth open. But not with amazement this time, it was more disbelief. The first pony he met, and she passed him off like a normal acquaintance. That was far beyond what anyone he thought could wind up in Equestria and expect. Nonetheless, he did not let this little 'setback' slow him down. That was only the first pony he met today. Maybe he would get a different response from the others? Maybe even answers?

He trudged onward, adding these new statements from Lyra to his long list of mysteries of Equestria.

The further he walked into Ponyville, the more disorientated he was. Not because he found out that everypony around him was not surprised to see him, but because everything in three dimensions made it hard to navigate. It took the young man a few moments to get his bearings, learning for himself that a two-dimensional representation of something made it feel so much smaller. And he carried on this way; wandering the town, getting disoriented again, saying hi to background ponies expecting a response and then getting confused again. It would have all been rather tedious if Kevin did not remind himself that there was a whole new world out there. A world of magic, mystery and adventure! He figured he'd probably get to that soon enough, but right now things weren't exactly going as he expected them to. Maybe he had read so many stories that he expected it to always go that one way. Sure, they were friendly and nice and equine, but their lack of astonishment really astonished the human in this situation.

Having thought the whole thing over, Kevin gave up on that inflated idea. He decided to appreciate that he was even here in the first place. Better yet, he became aware of the second most sensible thing to do that would almost make it worthwhile.

"If I were a pony with a lot of questions, and needed some kind of magical yet logical explanation, who would be the best pony to ask?" He also became aware of how he had been talking to himself more. And without a single doubt in his mind, he tried to map a way from memory the route to a certain purple unicorn's library.

The thought of being able to see at least one of the Mane Six brought renewed energy to this two-legged creature. There was a bounce in his step, especially after he spotted the dark green top of the large oak tree in the distance. As he neared his destination, he began to think about how he would act around her and what questions he could ask without sounding too silly. Not that Twilight hadn't had her own share of crazy characters.

Unfortunately, that encounter never had the chance to occur.

At last, after having walked and gotten lost a couple of times, Kevin made it to the base of the large oak tree! Well... the back of it anyway. Somehow he managed to circle half the town at one point, blaming it on how the average houses looked quite the same. He imagined that Twilight was just beyond the circumference of the professionally hollowed tree. And having already seen a good amount of ponies, he could picture what Celestia's star student would look like. But seeing it for real was what really built the anxiety. Suddenly, the sound of her voice, ridiculously similar to her voice actress, rung through the Kevin's ears.

"... and everything you asked for should be in that bag, but you might want to check again because I only checked it three times."

Kevin found himself plastered against side of the tree. Her voice sounded a lot closer than expected.

"Ah, we'll take your word for it." It sounded like another pony. A stallion as it were. "After all, if we're missing anything, we could always come back. It's not that hard, really."

Kevin settled on revealing himself there and then. It's not as if he was going to get a worse welcome, and everypony was generally kind anyway. On top of that, he thought he looked a little ridiculous hugging a tree like this.

With a deep breath and more questions than answers, he walked round to the door of the library. He was confident that he would have to be noticed then. Maybe she could explain the reason why he was here.

How wrong he was.

Indeed, Twilight was not along at the library entrance. Just the sight of her made Kevin's stomach flip, like the reaction of seeing your favourite celebrity. Indeed, she was talking to someone, and paused mid-sentence when she spotted the human. But that wasn't the end of it.

Kevin's jaw dropped for the umpteenth time that day. But this time, it was sheer shock. He couldn't believe his eyes when he saw who Twilight was talking to. Standing there, a lot taller than the small horse and a few meters from Kevin stood...

Another. Human.

The thick silence was held by the three of them, two of them gazing startled at the third, and the third gazing startled at the second. Kevin's racing mind managed to take note of a couple of things in that moment.

One. He was not alone in this world like he had imagined. Which explained to him why other ponies were not surprised to see him.

Two. For some reason or other, this other man was wearing wings. Worn over a white long-sleeved shirt and strapped to his body, folded onto the man's back.

The second made so little sense, Kevin decided to concentrate on the first two before he went insane.

"Oh..." The word escaped the other man's mouth, huddling a bag of scrolls on one arm. "Well... this is awkward."

This stoic and humorous response was the last thing Kevin heard. A hard thud followed.

"Oh geez..." The words echoed in his mind.

WIthin a few minutes, they were gathered inside the library. Twilight swiftly flipped a library sign to 'closed', and diverted her attention to this new situation at hand. She walked up to the group before her, and was visibly more concerned than either of them.

"Damn it, Addy!" The man that this new human had spotted said, "You didn't have to hit him so hard!" He caressed the lump that had appeared on the back of the unconscious being's head.

The third human was a young lady, clad in a casual hoodie and jeans. She sounded typically american. "I'm sorry, okay? I'm still getting used to my gloves here!" She reasoned, "But we don't know how much he's seen or how long he's been here. I have no sedatives for this kind of situation!"

"Twilight," the man asked, "have you seen this guy around before?"

"No, Chris, he looks new." The purple unicorn gently pushed pass Chris, the apparent winged man, "And with a knock like that, who's to say he won't be forgetting it."

Kevin's body was limp, but was put upright in a chair. Nobody knew how long he would stay out. The three other conscious creatures assessed the situation. Even though humans were around now, it was not every day a new one would show up like this.

"Asian," Addy commented, "but school jacket is from the UK."

"Oh, Ben would love that."

"A teenager in the upper bound, a little chubby if you ask me."

"Teenager?" This caused Chris to be alarmed, "Addy, we can't have kids here for too long. They have families that will be worried as hell!"

"Sounds like a typical HiE fanfic, don'tcha think?"

The two humans chuckled at this little joke. They knew what they were talking about. Twilight on the other hand, was not as amused.

"So what do we do now?" Twilight was the one to ask the important question.

"You don't have to do anything, Twilight." Chris kept his calm composure, allowing a little grin, "With luck, he'll be out for a couple of days. But we'll sedate him-"

"What?!"

"-harmlessly, of course, so that we can get him to PC safely."

"And what then?"

"When he wakes, he'll decide." Addy finished, "Just like everyone else."

"And what choice does he have?" Twilight poked, relaxing into the situation, "He might just end up like one of you guys!"

"Hey! That's not a bad thing." Addy playfully retorted.

"Well, that's his decision." Chris put his hand on the limp body's shoulder, "If he wants to leave, the portals are always open. If not..." he ruffled the hair on Kevin's head.

"... then we have ourselves another Peacemaker."