"Here we are, the Golden Oak Library!" Twilight proclaimed as she opened the door and waved a hoof for Antonius to go inside the building. Seeing how small the door was in comparison to the gigantic Space Marine, she added with a sheepish smile:

"Um, perhaps you should crouch? I better go in first and clear up the space you'll need."

Twilight went through the door and took a look around, before saying:

"Hi, girls. I see, you already cleared up for our guest. Very good. Then let's welcome him."

Then, she turned to Antonius and told him:

"You can come in now."

The Space Marine crouched and took a look into the tree.
The room he saw was almost as wide as the tree trunk. Lots of shelves, filled with books and scrolls, were built into the walls. Above and sometimes between them were windows or doors. On the opposite side was a stair leading upward. There were some small reading desks near the walls and a bigger, round one in the centre of the library, decorated with a wooden, stylized pony head.

In front of this table, he could see five ponies and a small creature he identified as a dragon.
One of the equines was the yellow pegasus he had already seen, another one was Applejack. Then, there was a white unicorn with an extremely styled purple mane and tail, as well as a blue pegasus with a rainbow-colored mane and tail and a pink pony with a poofy mane and tail in a darker shade of pink. Last, the little dragon was purple and had green spikes.

After this check of the library's interior, Antonius squeezed through the door. When he stood up again, he was almost as high as the ceiling, which was decorated with a large picture of a sun.

He carefully closed the door and took a step into the room. The eyes of the ponies who met him for the first time were incredibly wide and the blue pegasus let out a quiet

"Whoa."

Just as Antonius wanted to introduce himself, Twilight did exactly that for him.

"Girls, this is Mr. Antonius Varus from the 'Imperium of Mankind'. Mr. Varus, these are my friends"
she said and pointed with her hoof at the ponies she was referring to,
"Fluttershy", the yellow pegasus
"Rarity", the white unicorn,
"Rainbow Dash", the blue pegasus,
"Pinkie Pie", the pink one,
"and you already know Applejack. Oh, and this is Spike," the dragon.

Being already - although not quite properly - introduced, the Space Marine simply said:

"Greetings."

That was followed by a short silence, until Rainbow Dash flapped her wings, took off the ground and hovered a bit closer to Antonius, where she said:

"Hey, you are an alien? A real alien? That's awesome! Well, at least if you aren't a spy or try to probe us or anything."

"Rainbow!" screamed Twilight.

"What? Have you never seen one of those movies?"

"Rainbow, this is NOT a movie!"

Twilight sounded a bit stressed.

"Of course not!" interrupted Pinkie Pie,
"Though it would be great if it was!"

Suddenly, a pink blur appeared directly in front of Antonius.
His transhuman reflexes kicked in and he caught the blur with his left hand, his right hand on the hilt of his combat knife.
The blur turned out to be the pink pony, dangling on her mane in the Space Marine's grip with a huge smile on her face. The other ponies and the dragon looked rather shocked.

"Hey, you are pretty fast!" Pinkie said, still smiling.
Then, she switched to a serious expression and asked almost conspiratorially:
"You are an OC, aren't you?"

Antonius had no idea what she meant, so he answered:

"I am a Space Marine of the Ultramarines chapter. You should stop doing things like that."

He turned to Rainbow Dash:

"As for your questions: From your point of view, I am an alien. Just use my name to address me.
I am not a spy. Spies usually tend to be inconspicuous. I don't think you can call me 'inconspicuous'.
And I certainly do NOT want to probe anyone!"

Calling himself an alien was really disgusting, but from their point of view, it was not exactly wrong.
The whole idea of him wanting to 'probe' anyone was completely ridiculous, though. What was he supposed to find there? What kind of movies did this mare watch?
He felt a little angry, but he suppressed that feeling immediately. He needed to stay calm to be efficient.

His attention was caught by Pinkie again, who tried to reach his helmet with her hoof.

"What are you doing?" he asked.

"I'm trying to give you a welcome-boop!"

"A what?"

"You don't know what a boop is? That's terrible! Could you take me a little closer to your head, then I can show you! Pretty please?"

A stressed
"Pinkie..." came from Twilight.
She was obviously beyond the state of 'worried' and close to 'panic'. The others did not fare much better.

Antonius quickly thought about the situation.
He was not the only one who needed to stay calm for this uncommon mission to be a success, he needed his hosts to be relaxed, too.

To defuse the situation, he took his hand away from his knife and decided to grant Pinkie's wish.
So he took her closer to his helmet. She reached out with a hoof, touched his respirator and said

"Boop!", smiling widely.

Then, he sat her down on the ground and asked:

"Is this 'boop' a standard greeting around here?"

Twilight relaxed again, took a deep breath and answered:

"Well, I would not call it standard, but it is quite common, nonetheless."

Antonius bent down, made a fist with his right hand, carefully touched Pinkie's muzzle, and flatly said

"Boop."

The pink mare jumped up and down.

"You got it! Now, that we are friends, I will throw a super-duper party for you!"

Friends? That was a bit too quick for Antonius.

"Hold your horses! I mean... ponies... whatever. I don't think we have already become friends, Ms. Pie."

Pinkie's mane deflated. She was almost crying as she asked:

"You don't want to be my friend?"

Emperor help him, these ponies were sensitive!

"I did not say that. But before I start a friendship, I prefer to get to know the person. Or pony, in this case."

"So I still have a chance?"

"Correct."

That may not have been the full truth, but it wasn't exactly a lie, either. Antonius simply had never thought of becoming friends with aliens, the idea seemed just too ridiculous.
After everything he had experienced that day, however, he did not dare to call it impossible. In fact, he did not dare to call anything impossible anymore.

Pinkie's mane inflated again, all sign of sorrow gone, as she almost sang:

"Okie dokie lokie!"

Her sudden and extreme mood changes were really strange.
Some kind of 'obsessive friendship disorder'? Did that exist at all?

Before the following silence grew awkward, Twilight suggested:

"I think some refreshments might be a good idea now. Then, we can start our little round of questions.
Spike, could you get us something to eat and drink?"

"On my way, Twilight!" answered the little dragon in a young male's voice and left the room.

That had been close. Too close.
Twilight really liked her friend Pinkie and has gotten used to her sometimes strange behavior, but this time it had just been too dangerous.
When Antonius had snatched her out of the air, she thought that something terrible would happen. As if Rainbow's comment hadn't been enough! She had heard the suppressed anger in her guest's voice. She had seen his hand on one of his weapons. Everything had been about to go awry, at least, that was what she had feared.

But the giant had immediately calmed down again. He had even allowed Pinkie to 'boop' him and had returned the gesture!
He obviously wanted this meeting to be a success! The refreshments would further help creating a relaxed atmosphere - if she could keep Pinkie under control.

Celestia help her.

Twilight just wanted to help Spike in the kitchen when she recognized the way Rarity eyed the Space Marine. She stopped.
Please, no discussion about the design of his armor! Considering the way he reacted to Applebloom earlier, he seemed to be rather sensitive about that topic. He had called his armor 'sacred', after all.

"Oh, Mr. Varus, please allow me to mention that your armor looks really magnificent! A lot of work must have been put into it. And the composition of this blue and gold is simply divine! Have you ever thought about exchanging the skulls for something more light-hearted, though?"

Great. Suggesting changes to his armor. Another way to possibly make him angry.
But he didn't sound upset when he answered:

"Thank you for your compliments, Ms. Rarity.
The design of my armor was developed ten thousand years ago. The color-scheme of my chapter is even older and known throughout the galaxy. The golden rims of my pauldrons tell you that I am a member of the second company.
About your suggestion: Please be aware of the fact that I am a warrior. If I wore something 'light-hearted' on my armour, it would be inappropriate."

"Hmm. You've got a point. And please, just call me Rarity.
You should really visit me at Carousel Boutique, so I can make a suit for you so that you don't have to wear this heavy armor all the time."

Had Rarity just suggested that her guest should get out of his armor? The first time they met?
He sounded a bit wary as he responded:

"Thank you for the offer, but this armor is not a burden, as it is not passive. It is power-armor; it uses an internal servo-system to actively move whenever I move. So, I don't feel its weight. Quite the opposite, it enhances my strength."

That was a fascinating idea. Armor that mimics the movement of its wearer. How did they achieve that?

"That is really cool!" Rainbow Dash interrupted,
"How strong are you with this armor?"

Antonius turned to her:

"I don't know enough about this world to come up with a comparison comprehensible to you, but I can assure you, I'm quite strong."

Rainbow grinned. That was rarely a good sign.
Luckily, before she could challenge him to a hoof-wrestling match or similar nonsense, Spike came back with trays full of muffins and lemonade.
He put them down on the central table.

Twilight stepped over to Antonius.

"Here are muffins and lemonade. I hope you like them," she said.

Then she realized that it would be impossible for her guest to eat while he had his helmet on.
Would he take it off? Or would he refuse the snacks?

The question was answered when he reached up for his helmet. The ponies could hear a click, then Antonius lifted his helmet and put it to his belt.

Twilight stared at the face of her guest.
No muzzle, but a little hump in the middle of his face; his nose. Below that, a mouth. His ears were to the left and right at half height. His mane was very short and brown, the rest of his face was bare skin. His eyes were small and had blue irises. All told, he looked really alien. Noticeable was a scar above his left eye.

The eyes of everypony in the library were on him. He looked around and asked:

"Frightened? Or disappointed?"

His voice was different now without the helmet.
It was still deep, but the metallic rattling was gone. The voice was surprisingly smooth, a voice you could listen to for hours if it told a story.

"Neither." Twilight quickly said.
"It's just... we have never seen somepony like you before."

Antonius nodded and reached for a muffin. Twilight expected him to accidentally crush the little piece of food, but he picked it up without the slightest problem. He even squeezed it once to test its consistency and eyed it carefully. After that, he sniffed at the muffin. Then, he took a bite and started chewing.
Finally, he swallowed and waited. No second bite. He just stood there and waited.

Twilight started to get worried just as he spoke again:

"This food is quite good."

The rest of the muffin was gone in two bites.
Twilight relaxed again. She had never thought that muffins would cause her stress.

"I think you'll also like the lemonade," said Twilight and poured him a glass.

He took the glass - without breaking it - and started the same procedure again:
He pivoted the glass a bit, eyed it carefully, sniffed at the lemonade and then, he took a sip.
A bit later, he swallowed and waited. Again, no second sip.

After a few seconds, he turned to Twilight:

"You were right, your lemonade is also good."

The rest of the liquid in his glass was gone in no time.

The purple mare was a bit bewildered when she asked:

"Thank you, but, please tell me, why did you wait after the first bite and sip? It doesn't really make sense to us."

"I've got a special implant, called 'Neuroglottis'.
By chewing the food, I'm checking it for nutrition value and poison.
If the food is acceptable, I swallow, and a second implant, called 'Preomnor', performs a final examination of the food and tries to produce an antitoxin, if necessary.
Only if these two tests are passed, the food is put into my actual stomach for digestion."

Twilight was baffled. Implants? The ability to produce antitoxins? Wait... antitoxins?

"You thought we would try to poison you?"

She had wanted to create a relaxed atmosphere with the refreshments. That had obviously gone wrong. Antonius had thought that...

"No," he stopped her train of thoughts.

"Please remember that I am from a different world and a member of a different species.
Food that is perfectly safe for you might not be suitable for me. Though I have to admit, the chance for this is just miniscule. Thanks to my Preomnor, I can eat almost anything, and it is virtually impossible to poison me with food.
Your food is suitable, though. It's actually more than just suitable, it tastes very good.
The nutrition value is a bit low, despite the quite high amounts of sugar, but that was to be expected. All told, I really like it."

To illustrate that further, he took a second muffin and ate it.

Twilight was relieved. Nothing had gone wrong. But she should have thought about the fact that pony-food could have been inadequate for her guest. Luckily, the digestive systems of ponies and this human were obviously compatible.

Now, she, her friends and Spike also made use of the refreshments. It did not take long until nothing was left and Spike cleared away the empty trays.

The ponies started to gather on the floor in a circle, when Antonius pointed to a location near a wall and said:

"I would prefer to sit in this location. It this possible?"

Twilight was a bit confused as she asked:

"Of course it is possible, but do you have a particular reason why you want to sit there?"

The Astartes answered:

"I don't like sitting with my back to doors or windows, at least not when I'm in an unknown environment."

Rainbow Dash immediately understood:

"Yeah, to prevent that somepony gets a chance to attack you from behind, right?"

Antonius nodded.

"Exactly."

"Do you really expect to be attacked here?" Twilight asked a bit disappointed.

"Not really," answered the Space Marine,
"but we have a proverb: 'The Emperor protects - but caution never hurt either'."

Twilight thought about this. To grant his little request would be easier than to convince him that nothing would happen, so the ponies left an appropriate gap for the Space Marine and everyone sat down.

The round of questions could finally start.