The warmth of the sun was beating down. Even without opening his eyes he could feel the morning sun glittering down, filtering through the trees. A light breeze drifted past, rustling the long grass and tickling his arms. Opening his eyes he sat upright and took in what he saw. He was indeed in a sparsely wooded field, grass and flowers stretching out in all directions. As his eyes adjusted to the light he took in more of his surroundings. Over a light copse of trees a few hundred yards from where he sat he could see smoke drifting up. Likely a chimney he concluded. Birds had been singing up until a few moments ago. Most likely he had spooked them when he sat up.

Taking a moment to re-evaluate his circumstances, he stood up and stretched. God that feels good. That's the best stretch I've had in years. Continuing to glance about, he was disappointed to find that there was no other outside signs of where he was. The only sign of life so far being the smoke that he'd noticed before, it wasn't a difficult decision as to which direction he should go to find a telephone to use. Even if the inhabitants of the assumed house didn't have one he could use, they could always point him in the direction of one. As he started to wander down the slope in the direction of the smoke, he dropped into the long grass surrounding him, hearing whispers just ahead. He strained his ears to make out the conversation, but the voices were too low.

"Look over there girls!" Applebloom whispered to the assembled trio- with her were Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. The self-proclaimed Cutie Mark Crusaders, were crusading for cutie marks. Crouched in the same long grass a few meters off. "Ah ain't never seen a pony like that before!"

"Applebloom, you don't think..." Sweetie Belle began.

"...he could know what..." Scootaloo added.

"...our cutie marks are s'pposed to be?!" Applebloom finished. "Ah don't know, but why don't we go ask him?!"

Sweetie Belle scrunched up her face and though about what Rarity would say. She could almost hear her sister's voice in her head. Sweetie Belle, really. You three are always getting into such trouble trying to find your cutie marks. So very unladylike. So uncouth.

"You know, if my sister was here she would be telling us that it was too dangerous or undignified or unscrupulous."

"Yeah, and when's the last time that you listened to Rarity?" snarked Scootaloo.

"Never." Sweetie Belle laughed. With that, the three of them slowly wandered through the grass, being careful to lay low, in the case that, as was usually the case, their plan went awry.

He could see them coming and vaguely made out their shapes, small and not very threatening. Safely assuming he could take the three of them if need be, he slowly stood, calling out to them.

"Hey! I see you three there."

"Did he just speak to us?" Scootaloo called to the others under her breath.

"Y-y-yeah Ah think so... he's... he's huge!"

"Scootaloo, you go talk to him." Scootaloo's eyes went wide at the white filly.

"M-me? You're the one that suggested that we go talk to him!

"Ah believe that was all of us! Sweetie Belle you do it!" Sweetie Belle swallowed and stood higher, approaching within a few feet.

"Um... hi. I'm S-Sweetie Belle and um... hi. What are you?" Looking down, he twisted his head, perplexed at the diminutive pony talking to him. Shaking off his initial confusion, he responded to her.

"Well I'm a human obviously." He could see the other two ponies slowly backing off, edging closer and closer to the edge of the long grass.

"Right, of course. A human. I'm s-s-sorry to ask but..." She glanced behind her and noticed herself that her friends had become more distant. "Hey, girls, where are you going?"

"Ah'm sorry Sweetie Belle... Ah'm out!" Applebloom turned tail and tore off towards the direction of the smoke. Scootaloo followed suit calling over her back.

"Let us know how it goes Sweetie Belle! Make sure you ask about our marks too!"

"H-hey! That's not fair!" She turned back to the human, continuing to stutter. "I.. uh... I... uh... gotta go!" Sweetie Belle wasted no time trying to catch up with her friends, scolding them as they trailed off in the distance. "Some friends you are! What if he ate me!!?!”

The early morning sun continued to glow hotter as it slowly rose over the trees nearby and warmed the ground around him. Immediately, he felt thirsty, not remembering the last time he had had anything to drink. He wiggled his toes in his boots, stiff, ill-fitted and uncomfortable, and grimaced at only having the one pair available to him. Bemoaning that chances were he would have to put up with them for a while yet, he sighed and resigned himself to walking on. Stripping off his gloves and jacket, and tying the latter around his waist, he set off, following the direction that the fillies had run.

"It's true! Some sort 'a strange animal was up in one the fields. Its fur looked mighty ragged..." Applebloom shouted while the other two crusaders nodded their heads in agreement. After seeing the animal out in the field, the three had immediately run to Sweet Apple Acres. Applejack, for her part, blew a stream of air out the side of her mouth and carefully scrutinized her younger sister. It wasn't the first time the filly had told a tall tale, not that Applejack hadn't done her best to raise her to be honest. Usually though, she could see through her fibs. The fact that Applebloom seemed sincere was troubling.

"Now Applebloom, Ah've told you before that the mark of an Apple is honesty. Ah won't stand here and let you tarnish our good name just so you and your friends can have some fun..."

"But Applejack!" Scootaloo jumped in. "We really did see him! Not only that, Sweetie Belle talked to him! He talked back and everything!" Applejack glanced over to the white filly.

"Is this true?" Sweetie Belle nodded vigorously.

"We swear on our soon to appear cutie marks!" they said in unison as if they had rehearsed it. They probably have thought Applejack.

"Did you happen to catch his name?"

"No, just that he was a human." Applejack blew out another long drawn sigh. Glancing between the three fillies, she processed what she had been told and looked towards town.

"Alright, let's go find somepony to talk to about this an' figure out who he is. I'm warnin' ya though Applebloom, if the three a' yous are spinnin' me a yarn..."

He continued his slow stroll to potential civilization, keeping an eye out for anyone, or anything, else that might be around. Satisfied that the only signs of life he currently saw were a few birds and a squirrel, he allowed himself a calming sigh and approached the edge of the trees separating him from the smoke. The light copse of trees barely concealed the view to the other side, and after only a few steps, his suspicions were confirmed. Not only was there a chimney belching grey wisps of smoke, but there was an entire village spread out. While many of the houses seemed very basic and plain in nature, standing in rows with conjoined roofs and a variety of flowers and ornaments decorating their exterior, a few seemed designed by someone with less marbles and more dust in their skulls, though very obviously indicative of their function and who they housed. The chimney adorned one in particular was beyond ridiculous, looking like a gigantic gingerbread house. The smell of cakes and sweets drifted through the air, he noted that it was probably a bakery either that or a dwelling for cannibalistic witches.

Taking another look about the village, he noted that the other various businesses he could identify were indicated by signs with pictures only; something he noted seemed to be straight out of a medieval painting. No mater where he looked, colour painted the scenery. Holding back his initial curiosity, he crouched down inside the bushes and kept an eye out for the inhabitants of the town. If his greeting party was anything to go by, the rest of the village was likely just as bizarre. Sure enough, he caught a glimpse of some of the other inhabitants, all standing on four legs similar to his initial contacts, but larger, reinforcing his earlier suspicion that the three had met had been youth of some sort. Ponies? I can deal with that. How bad could this be? Remembering that the three youth had run yelling in to town, he watched a little longer to gauge their reactions.

Around an hour later, he was getting bored. Not seeing any sort of panic or worry develop, he decided there was no point to keep waiting on the ponies to do anything, and stood up, brushing himself off, and started to make his way through the trees. Making it a few steps, he was suddenly greeted by a bubbling pink ball of energy bounding up behind him.

"Hi!"

"Ahhgh!" He jumped and spun around, glaring at whatever had made the sound behind him. Seeing it was another one of the ponies he relaxed a little, but the glare still remained on his face. "What? Who are you? Why did you sneak up on me like that?"

"Oh silly, I didn't sneak up on you! If I wanted to sneak up on you, I would be really low to the ground and pretend to move really, really slow and I wouldn't wait until you started moving I would just come up to you I mean I've been watching you for like... forever... and I was getting so bored just watching you sit there watching the town and why were you just watching the town for somepony who's not a pony you sure are funny like a pony oh right my name's Pinkie Pie!"

"I'm sorry I asked. Well, nice to meet you Pinkie Pie. You said you were watching me? For how long?" He shook his head, praying to whatever god he believed in that the ponies were not all like this. He couldn't take a town full of bubbly, crazy ponies.

"Like, forever. Or twenty minutes. Whichever one is shorter, though it felt like it was longer. Applejack was telling everypony that some new creature was in the field and I came to see who it was while they figured out what to do. You're right on time!"

"Right on time for what...?"

"To be here silly! So what's your name? You must have one."

"Uh... Nathan. It's Nathan."

"Oh yeah? Wow that's cool! That sounds so different. I don't know any Nathans. I don't really know any humans though either. You're the first. Want to be my friend?"

"Uh..."

"PINKIE!" Their dialogue was cut short as a group of colourful ponies wandered up. The yell came from an orange pony in the same drawl that the earlier youth had exhibited. "We told you to wait before talking to this human! He could be dangerous." Pinkie just laughed.

"Oh Applejack, you're so funny. Of course he's dangerous. That's why I needed to talk to him first!" Nathan and Applejack shouted in unison at the pink pony.

"WHAT?!"

"What what? I didn't say anything!" With that, she bounded over and joined the group and sat there, the smile never leaving her face. Strange names, they talk, and they come in more colours than a crayon box. Oh. Joy. Well, at least the orange one seems more or less sensible, at least compared to that pink one.

"Hello, human." A grey pony in front of the group bowed to him gracefully. "I am the mayor of this town. Welcome to Ponyville. Might you explain to us how you came to our village today? The fillies told us they found you in the field near here. I'm sure I don't need to tell you that having you sitting in the woods watching us is slightly unsettling." Nathan opened his mouth to answer, but it was cut off as one of the ponies cut in.

"A predator! You eat meat!" At these words all of the assembled ponies shuddered and shared looks of horror. A predator had wandered into town and no one had noticed. "Alright answer me! what's your name?" She had a horn on top of her head, not unlike a unicorn from fantasy. Was her horn starting to glow? It was a nice day, so the light must have been playing tricks with his eyes. Colorful ponies, okay I could plausibly accept that. Colorful ponies that independently developed speech, I'd probably need some more time and probably some time in denial, but okay. Colorful unicorn ponies that have glowing, possibly magical, horns? Less okay.

"Twilight," a white one, also adorned with a horn similar to her hostile friends, "how can you tell that he's a predator? I must say if this is true then it is cause for concern, but really, come now." The one identified as Twilight shook her head and turned to her friend.

"Rarity, look." She pulled out a leather bound book surrounded by a soft glow. Somehow. Without using her non-existent hands, or any of the appendages that she did have. "This is a book I've been studying for the last few weeks, all about biology. Look at these pictures- here's our teeth. Nice and flat, good for chewing and grinding, mostly for grass, hay, and the occasional cake. You can easily see that the human here has narrow sharp teeth on the front. A predator." She looked back accusingly at him.

"Hey! I have the flat grinding teeth too in the back!"

"Fine, so you don't only eat meat. You still eat meat." She wasn't backing down from the point.

Flustered with her sudden demand he scrambled to come up with an answer. What could he say? A predator? Yes he ate meat, but he wouldn't call himself a predator. The pony who called herself Twilight was obviously angry and scared and he didn't want to push his luck. They were all smaller than him, but there were enough of them assembled that they could probably easily knock him out or worse. Those horns, glowing or not looked like they could do some damage. One of the ones with wings flew up- those things actually work?!- Got into his face and tried to pressure him. It was the one with a rainbow mane. While slightly intimidated by this new pony, he couldn't help but chuckle at the gaudy absurdity of what he was seeing. A fluttering bright blue furred rainbow maned pony.

"Yeah! What in the hay are you? WHO are you? Where are you from? What's so funny?! We better get some answers or else!" The orange one with the southern drawl quickly rebuked the hostile flyer.

"Now Dash, Ah don' like the looks of him any more than any of ya'll do, but ya gotta give th' critter a chance ta answer. So pipe down." Compared to the others she WAS a little larger, but carried herself with enough self-assurance she fit right in. It was now that Nathan was noticing that each carried their own distinct brands on their flanks. The rest of the scene continued to perplex him, and that just added to his confusion. The cyan colored one flew back to where the apple pony was sitting. With an indignant sigh she poured out her lower lip.

"Fine! But if this thing gets any ideas and decides to make a snack out of one of the fillies, I'll be the first one to kick it in the teeth.”

"First of all, yes, I have a name, it's Nathan. And I got here..." He thought for a moment, trying to remember the sequence of events that lead to him waking up in a field. "...I can't actually remember how I got here. I'm going with a bad night of drinking until proven otherwise. I don't know where here even is. And don't worry, I am hungry but I don't think I'd be even able to stomach your 'fillies' even if I tried eating them." The apple marks on the side of the one were making him hungrier. For a split second Nathan mused over what a magic talking pony would taste like, but shook the idea from his head. Joking around wasn't going to get him anywhere with these folks being so aggressive and serious.

"Well... well... that's not good enough! You must know more than that! And we don't have any food for the likes of you! I'm the mayor of this town and if it's true that you're a predator, we simply can't tolerate you being here.” While Twilight hoped that he was hiding something, or not telling the whole truth, she could see on his face he was likely telling the truth as best he could. The glow finally went out of her horn at this point, and he heard a clatter behind him, a rock lay about two meters from where he was standing. He wondered where it came from. Nobody was behind him. The only “concealed” pony he noticed was a yellow one with pink hair hiding behind a tree without much success. The fear in her eyes was palpable, as if she was struggling every moment with the decision of whether to flee or stay.

"Deary, you look like you were in a fight with some dreadful thing. Your fur is ragged and falling out everywhere." Rarity stood shoulder to shoulder with Twilight, putting on a brave face. Now that Nathan was focusing on her, he could see she was also wearing a bit of make-up. Nathan was getting more and more confused at every turn. Just how weird were these pony-folk?

"Oh these are just my clothes, but yes it does look like something tried to get me." He stripped off the jacket hanging around his waist and dropped it on the ground for emphasis.

"Clothing? All over? And not even a party or event to go to? How... bizarre." the white pony replied, clearly confused. "Either way, I concur with the mayor. We're simply going to have to ask you to leave. You simply cannot remain in Ponyville any longer than you already have. Predators belong out in the Everfree forest. That's likely where you came in from. Your kind must live out that way." She had fear in her eyes, fearing that the demand would cause a violent reaction from the strange creature. Instead he merely shrugged. It was unlikely that, with their level of technology, that anything resembling a phone would exist, so it's probably best to just leave the strange equine creatures alone; Nathan heaved a sigh and replied

"Alright, I'll leave your town. I didn't mean to intrude.” With that the crowd parted in the direction of a forest. The one with the apple brand gave a quick look of internal conflict, and finally sighed.

“Hold on critter. Do ya eat apples?” She asked. She didn't trust the human, but it went against her nature to watch him walk off hungry, regardless of his origins or diet.

“Uh, yeah I do. Did you have any you could spare?”

“Alright, catch.” She reached into a saddle bag mounted on her waist, and pulled out an apple with her mouth tossing it to the human. Contemplating against eating something that had already been in a ponys mouth, he decided to suck it up.

“Thanks, I appreciate it... Applejack was it?”

“That'd be Miss Applejack to you, though ah reckon ya won't git another chance to use it again.”

“Well thanks anyways Miss Applejack.” She nodded a stern, but approving face towards him. At least he had manners.

Biting into the apple he turned around and started walking towards the woods. There was a quaint cottage surrounded by animal pens of all kinds he passed by, but Nathan didn't give them a second look. He just headed off into the dense woods. He thought he heard the yellow one squeak something at him, but if she did he could barely hear it, let alone make out what she was saying. This wasn't where he was supposed to be, and he needed to respect their decision, hopefully he'd be walking back where he came from. As the last branch obscured him from the townsfolk, they breathed a collective sigh of relief.

"That was very brave of you Rarity. I'm very impressed how you handled that monster." Twilight said to her friend, who now looked a little whiter.

"Oh you think so dear? That's good… I have to go use the little fillies room now though... I think I wet myself." With a blush she quickly trotted off in the direction of her home, the Carousel Boutique. Pinkie Pie, having remained silent through the remainder of the conversation with the human started to hum to herself and wander away, the smile having never left her face.

"Wait, Pinkie." Twilight put a hoof on her shoulder and looked at the relentlessly cheerful party pony. "I know you were talking to him and I know you like throwing parties, but you're not mad right?"

"Just a teensy weensy little itty bit." Her smile still etched on her face, Twilight was having issues appraising her claim. "You treated him like an ursa and sent him off into the forest without a party, or even a cupcake.”

"What? Pinkie?! Did you see him? He was as tall as Celestia! No, I think he was taller! He was a predator, you saw the teeth! What if he ate a filly, or one of Fluttershy's animals?! He belongs in the Everfree!"

"But you're not sure, are you?"

"Pinkie, what are you saying? You said yourself he was dangerous. Dangerous creatures come from the Everfree."

"But you're not sure, are you?" Pinky repeated, smile gone, slower and clearer so she was sure Twilight heard every syllable. Before a flustered Twilight could answer, the yellow one that had hidden in the back finally spoke up and cut in.

"No they weren't sure and barely let him speak. It was just awful! He didn't even take a second look at any of the animals. He was too busy eating that apple Applejack gave him. Because, you know predators eat fruit!" as tears started welling up in her eyes she quickly took to her wings and flitted away, heading to her cottage as fast as her wings could carry her.

"Fluttershy… Should we really have done differently?" Twilight whispered to nopony in particular. Maybe they had been too hasty... She quickly shook the idea out of her head. "I saw his teeth. He eats meat, so he's a predator. And the only nearby place that a predator could be from is the forest. He HAS to belong there, right?"

Pinkie Pie said nothing; she just shook her head and started the walk back to her place at Sugar Cube Corner, her mane and tail drooping down slightly. The rest of the assembled crowd also started to disperse towards their respective homes.

And for once, in a really long time, Twilight actually had nothing to say. What other choice did they have?

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Author's Note: While I do a majority of the writing, I would like to take the time to acknowledge the fantastic pre-reading, editing, and co-production of Tencentfriend.