Chapter Two: Introductions

"...And that is how I know a great deal about Ponyville, you, and your friends."

"But that doesn't make any sense. Maybe you hit your head harder than you say," Applejack replied, obviously confused and perhaps overwhelmed. Another pony might have pretended to understand, but Applejack was the manifestation of the Element of Honesty. She probably thought I was insane, which was an entirely reasonable assumption to make.

"I know it doesn't, and you don't have to believe me," I said. I was slowly realizing how insane this situation was and was somewhat overwhelmed. I was transported to a fictional world and was talking to one of the main characters of a television program that I was rather fervently following. The characters are what made the show interesting to me, and I was speaking to one. This is just like those silly self-insertion stories that other bronies write. I had not gone into detail about the brony community and had hardly touched on the fandom. That would make my story even less credible and more like my own situation- insane and weird.

"You say that Equestria and everypony in it do not actually exist in your world, and are instead parts of a story? How could you say that now? You're here, and it looks pretty darn real, don't it?"

"It does, which is more than a little bit distressing, as I don't know how I got here. I should probably try to get home. Maybe a certain purple unicorn could help me if you could-"

I looked about. I had no idea how to navigate this strange land.

"-lead me to her," I got up from my sitting position, finding my height to be about a foot and a half taller than Applejack.

"You think Twilight could help ya?" Applejack said, sounding a bit uncertain for a moment.

"That makes sense. If anypony could, it would be her," she answered her own question.

As we walked along the trail among the apple trees in silence, I wondered more and more about how this could have happened. After concluding that it would be impossible to tell at the moment, Applejack broke the silence.

"You haven't told me anything about yourself or your kind. What are you like? I mean, you know so much about us, but I have no clue what you- or your world- are like. Do we have any reason to fear you?"

She stopped and eyed me suspiciously.

"We should wait until we're at Twilight's library, I have a feeling she'll have the same questions. But I will tell you this. If I were hostile, I would have not fallen on a rock and gotten a concussion or something on my way here and would probably have brought a weapon."

I continued walking, and again Applejack took the lead, satisfied with my answer for now.

A minute or so passed, and we were approaching the edge of the orchard. Up ahead, something caught my eye. In a tree I saw what looked to be the edge of a pillow on a branch. I had no doubt in my mind even before I noticed the multicolored tail hanging off of it. Rainbow Dash was taking a nap in a tree. Applejack had noticed as well, and hollered out to her.

"Hey, Rainbow!"

The pillow and the tail shifted, and a second or two later, the blue pegasus poked her head around the branch and into our line of sight.

"Hey, Applejack! Where are you off to? Who's your friend?" she replied quizzically, with a slight look of concern.

"This is Zach. He's not from around here, and we're off to Twilight's to see if she can help him get home."

"Pleased to meet you, Rainbow Dash."

"You know me?" Only slightly surprised, unlike Applejack.

"Well I don-"

"Of course you know me, I'm the fastest flier in Ponyville!" she interrupted.

"Uh, yeah, you are. I knew that."

"Am I really that famous? Do I have lots of fans where you come from?" She was very, very excited.

"I can explain all this when we get to Twilight's house."

"Alright!" The pegasus joined our growing ensemble, making three.

And with that, we continued along the path and soon entered Ponyville. It was hard not to notice Pinkie Pie, with a large number of balloons tied to her torso, floating a few meters above the ground. It took her a moment to notice her two friends and a stranger approaching.

"Wheeeee!" she squealed in excitement, dangling her legs and laughing, clearly having a good time up there.

"Hi Applejack! Hi Rainbow Dash! Hi-" She paused.

"Welcome to Ponyville! I've never seen anypony like you before! I'm Pinkie Pie!" The now very excited pink earth pony somehow lowered herself to the ground.

"We have to throw a party! Everypony that arrives in Ponyville gets a party!" she said as elevated her head up to mine, stretching her neck impossibly. "What's your name?"

"Um, hi Pinkie, I'm Zach. We can have that party sometime later in the week, okay?" I said, somewhat sheepishly. There are times for parties, and this was not one of them. I had to get home.

"Aww, okie dokey lokey! Where are you three going?"

"Twilight's place, Zach here doesn't know how to get home. He also has an interesting story about us ponies," Applejack answered.

"Well that sounds neat!" Now with a bouncing Pinkie in tow, we approached the library and opened the door.

As our foursome entered, Twilight Sparkle sitting with her back to us, reading a book.

"Hi Twilight, we have something we need help with," Applejack began.

The reading unicorn started to turn around.

"Sure Applejack, what is it?" She finished her turn.

"Who is this?" She cocked her head in curiosity.

"This fellow here has an issue," Applejack explained.

"I'm Zach, pleased to meet you, Twilight Sparkle."

"Have we met?"

"Nope, never. I'll explain."

"Your friends led me here. I have a problem, you see. I'm not from Equestria, I am from a different universe, I guess. I was hoping you could help me."

"A different universe!? Describe it, please!"

"Before I get to my problem, I would have to explain the position of Equestria in our world. Us humans- that's what I am- live in a world without any other sentient species, and completely lacks magic.-"

"It lacks magic!? What do you mean by that?" Twilight asked, confused by the concept.

"There is no magic in our world. No being on Earth- our world- can practice magic. Telekinesis and teleportation are myth, as are many of the creatures found in your world."

"That's hard to imagine, continue," she urged, still not quite understanding.

"Equestria does not exist in our world physically. It is fiction, like so many books and stories. We enjoy these stories using a piece of technology called a television. These stories are crafted by groups of humans, giving millions of people a large amount of insight- not necessarily useful insight- if they observe many of these stories. I have observed many of these stories, so I know much about Equestria, including you and your friends."

"Hold on just a second! This doesn't make sense, how could you be here if we don't exist?" Rainbow Dash countered.

"That's why my situation confuses me. I can't be here because this world doesn't exist in mine. Well, ponies exist, but they are not sentient, and are domesticated like dogs are here."

"But you aren't in your world anymore, you're in ours," Applejack interjected.

"As I see it, I must have been brought here through magic or something. Which is why I came here, Miss Sparkle. I need the help of you fictional beings- if I can call you that anymore- to get home, if that's possible."

"Wait a second, you said that you would tell me about my fans in your world!" Rainbow Dash was impatient and bored by this conversation.

"Well, the stories set in Equestria have been crafted mostly for small girls because human males typically enjoy less cheerful and bright things. I am part of an older male group, known as the 'bronies' that follow these stories and enjoy them despite stereotypes telling us we should not. A lot of bronies have a specific choice in who is the best of the Elements of Harmony character-wise. The stories focus mainly on you four, Rarity, and Fluttershy, with Spike having a few stories about him in particular as well. Many bronies really like you, Rainbow Dash, because we think you're awesome."

"However, no brony has ever actually met any of you, until now, it seems. I feel pretty lucky right now. That, and concerned, since..."

"Wow! I have a fan club in another universe! Sweet! Who's your favorite?" Rainbow interrupted.

"If you could call it a fan club, I couldn't say. It's not every day that someone suddenly meets fictional characters, is it? What would you do if you met Daring Do? I mean, I feel quite lucky to be in the presence of adorable, fictional equines."

"Adorable?" Twilight said, quizzically.

"You know, cute, cuddly," I replied, feeling somewhat awkward.

"...Odd."

"It would be like, the best day ever if I met Daring Do!"

"Now that we know why your situation is so odd, why don't you tell us about yourself and other humans?" Twilight inquired. I figured she was curious about the workings of an organism from another world.

"Well, humans are omnivores, we eat both animals and plants. My hands as you can see them are similar to Spike's, good at manipulating objects but less pointy. The vast majority of humans wear clothing that conceals most of their bodies because we lack a coat of fur, having a far sparser covering of hair than say, you ponies. Otherwise, the structure of a human body is rather similar to that of a pony-"

"I mean't to ask about you and your society."

"...Oh. Uhh, there's little to tell. I'm fourteen years old and I live with my family. I like games and I think of myself as being quite smart."

"What's your cutie mark?" asked Applejack, having remained quite silent, listening. "Your name don't tell us much, unlike most ponies."

"Humans don't have cutie marks."

"You don't? How do you know what your special talents are?"

"You have to discover them for yourself."

"Oh..." Applejack looked down, thinking about it.

"That's downright unusual, but I suppose your world doesn't have any magic to make them appear."

"Right. About human society. I couldn't tell you a lot about humanity, but you must know that we have a very violent past, having wars of grand scale a number of times."

"Why would anypony reasonable do that?!" Applejack exclaimed.

"Unfortunately, different groups humans have greatly differing ideals, from fanatical warriors to pacifist monks. A major part of it is greed. Humans have instincts unlike yours, lacking a sense of the need for the well-being of all and being highly opportunistic, being programmed to only value a family unit and oneself. At the most primal of levels, anyway. There are many reasons why humans go to war, and they don't have significant merit for doing so in many of cases, often doing so because of a dispute in ideals or for the gain of the governing body. It's terrible, but it has been happening less and less."

"That can't be all about your people."

"Oh, of course not, that's just the worst point, really. Our civilization is highly advanced technology-wise," I said, this time with pride. "We have machines that can hold dozens of libraries worth of information, that can do mathematical equations extremely quickly, display images or play games."

"Wow. Do you have any of those machines?" Twilight had an extreme interest in this, no doubt.

I still had my backpack on from when I left school. I opened it and produced a handheld gaming device, which had run out of battery power.

"This one plays games with you. But it doesn't work right now."

"How does it work?"

Twilight levitated the device and rotated it, examining it.

"Well... I don't really know. I didn't make it."

"Are you sure it's not magical?" she said. Her horn glowed brighter.

"Umm..."

The device powered on as Twilight strained with concentration, but only for a second before the battery case emitted smoke and it ceased to function.

"Oops..." she said, apologetically.

Rainbow Dash and Pinkie Pie erupted in laughter, and Applejack spoke up.

"Sugarcube, I think you broke it."

"She did. Probably fried the parts inside," I said with an annoyed sigh.

"Maybe that's... enough of that," Twilight said nervously. "I'll do some research on anything like this happening anywhere else. Maybe you should show Zach around Ponyville, girls."

"With pleasure!" said Pinkie Pie.

"I should get back to work, see y'all around." Applejack trotted out.

"I've gotta split too." Rainbow Dash followed.

"Sorry about your game device thing, I was just trying to make it work."

"Don't worry about it," I said, "I have much greater concerns right now."

"Let's gooo!" called Pinkie Pie. I hastened my pace, and exited the library.