My character wakes up and looks around. I'll have control over him as soon as he stands up, in just a few seconds.

Alright, now my character is under my control. I look around, and notice a small group comprised of three stallion ponies approaching my character. One of them, a green pegasus, jumps at my character, pushing him backwards.

My character absorbs the impact without falling, and returns to a standing position. Now's my time to talk.

“Ow! Why'd you attack me?”

The pegasus that attacked my character answers, “Because you're a human. You shouldn't be here, you're not welcome here.”

Another of the ponies, a light-blue unicorn, raises a rock with azure-aura magic and adds, “We're giving you the next five minutes to get out of Ponyville, or face your punishment.”

The last of the ponies, a dark pink earth pony, turns his back to my character and starts kicking dirt at him while saying, “So, you have any problems with that?” Then, he props himself on his front legs and kicks at my character.

There, perfect timing. My character just caught the earth pony's hind legs, and now he's pushing him faster than he can walk backwards, which should, and does, make him fall.

The unicorn is evidently getting furious with me. Clearly he's not thinking very clearly, because the rock he's holding with his magic is falling. Never mind, he's getting his composure back; the rock's rising again. He starts saying, “Why, you …“

My character doesn't let him say more; he grabs hold of the unicorn's horn, keeping him from being able to magically support the rock any longer.

As the rock falls, the light-blue unicorn struggles and complains, “Hey, leggo my horn!”

Once again, I speak: “Not until you hear me out.”

Just then the pegasus tries to tackle my character again, only for my character to punch the pegasus in the chest, just below the throat.

My character turns to him, and I add, “That includes you.”

The pegasus coughs, the unicorn continues to struggle, and the earth pony manages to get to his feet.

Once on his feet, the earth pony turns to look at my character and asks, “So, which will it be?”

My character lets go of the unicorn's horn as I say, “You may do with me what you want, but first you must listen to my story.”

I have to remove my head-mounted microphone so it won't pick up my laughter after the earth pony says, “We're all ears.”

When I regain my composure, I replace the microphone and say, “Before I came here to Equestria, in my own world I served a mission in a place known as New Zealand. One event that'd take place once a month or so was a meeting of us missionaries to share lessons with each other, testify of things as we were lead by the spirit, and have a meal.”

The pegasus has stopped coughing and appears to want to say something. But, he is evidently unable to make a sound.

Instead, the unicorn says, “Yes, that's very nice. But, what's that have to do with us?”

I continue, “One of the meals after one of these meetings was served by the missionaries from an island country called Tonga. One of these things served at this meal was a minced meat in a gravy.” While I can't see her, I'm sure Pinky Pie is listening near one of the houses. I continue, “The meat was kind of stringy; but, I have to say, it tasted pretty good. So good, in fact, that I went back for seconds.

“It was while I was going for seconds when it was revealed what that mystery meat was; and I didn't find out until I got back without seconds that we'd been served horse meat.”

The revelation is received with shocked expressions from all three ponies.

I continue, “I will admit, if I'd known what that meat in the gravy was before I'd had a first serving of it, I would likely have not even had a first serving of it. On the other hand, I must admit, if I'd known what that meat was after the first serving and before I went for seconds, I would still have still gone for seconds. And, if I could've gotten seconds, even knowing I was eating horse meat, I admit I would've done so. I have to hand it to the Tongans, they did a really good job preparing that horse meat.”

If there's any idea that Equestrian ponies don't consider themselves horses, or even closely related to them, the response of these ponies completely ruins that idea.

The unicorn slowly backs away from me, shaking his head and saying things like, “No, it can't be.”

The earth pony also backs away, but is whimpering.

The pegasus, has taken a step or two back, but has started gagging, and now he's vomiting.

I continue, “Now having said that, I'm more interested in making friends of the ponies here than making meals of them. And, I have a rule of thumb that I don't kill and eat my friends.”

The only pony of the three that has the presence of mind to change his behavior is the earth pony. He stops and holds his ground, saying, “Just keep away from us.” Then, he goes back to whimpering.

My character strokes the pegasus' mane as I say, “I don't want to eat any of you. As I said, I'd rather make friends with you.”

The pegasus seems to have stopped vomiting, although I have to wonder if he's expecting another spell.

I continue, “If I can't be your friend, I hope I can at least not be your enemy. I'll be going now, but I promise you I won't harm you. Ki tahi au.”

The last three words serve as more than just my declaration in Maori that I intend to keep my word, it's also a signal to the computer to pause everything except my character. It also makes doors soft, or, in other words, intangible to my character, so I can pass through them. I also have a word, 'continue,' to say to get out of this sort of debug pause mode.

Another advantage of this debug pause mode is that I can move freely and find ponies or other characters that I couldn't find while in the regular play mode. So, I decide to search for Pinkie Pie to see her evident reaction to my conversation with the three stallions that met me when I first showed up. Sure enough, I find her running, angry expression and all, from behind one house and, I reasonably assume, towards Sugar Cube Corner. I don't want to interrupt her run, so I proceed past her and continue walking around the outskirts before saying, “Continue.”

Here's also where I save the game and quit. So far, so good. I'll continue the game later.

Author's Notes:

Thus far, the game designer, and tester at this point, has made his first contact with three stallion ponies, as well as something of a first contact with Pinkie Pie. In the next chapter, First Meeting with Pinkie Pie, the first seeds of what Pinkie will become will be planted, and we'll learn that the game designer does not intend to be a bad guy.

I've decided on releasing subsequent chapters, as well as the concluding chapter at the end, in two-week intervals from the day the introduction and first chapter were released.

Also, I've decided not to release the cover art until I've released chapter nine, as it'll serve as a spoiler. While I personally find that the journey from the beginning to the end of a story is frequently more interesting than the beginning or the end, I'm also willing to respect those that don't see it that way. In the mean time, I hope you enjoy this and subsequent chapters.