Grass. He was laying in grass. He could feel the cold, damp dirt on his back, and his face was being tickled by the soft breeze. Ethan opened his eyes to nothing, realizing it was the dead of night, and he was still human. What had happened, he had no idea what. All he knew was that he wasn't a pony, and he was nowhere near the camp. He rose to investigate.

    There was a highway nearby, with cars zipping past. The once-soft breeze now felt alot stronger when Ethan stood on his two feet, and he almost fell a few times while trying to walk. The sedative Rarity had given him was probably still affecting his movement, he suspected, and walked deeper into the grass.

    As he plunged deeper into the grass, Ethan could hear voices echoing. He wasn't totally sure whose voices they were, but they sounded familiar. They were calling his name, but not in the cliche mysterious, spooky, ghost-sounding way; in an urgent, rushed, and even scared way. Ethan felt like he needed to come after these voices, as they grew louder as he ran deeper into the now waist-high grass.

    "ETHAN! WAKE UP!"

    Ethan felt a hard slap to his face as he woke up from the dream. His eyes shot open and he looked around. He was in a huge library, with books lining every wall, and the ceilings reaching higher than any library he had ever seen. A familiar purple pony was looking at him, annoyed, but worried.

    "Oh, thank Celestia, you're awake!" Twilight said, relieved that Ethan was alive. The unicorn trotted to her desk across the expansive main room.

    "Wha...? Where am I, Twilight?" Ethan mumbled. His voice sounded slurred, as if he had been on novocaine from the dentist's office.

    "You're in my library. I've brought you to Equestria."

    After hearing that, Ethan drew his own conclusions as to what had happened to him. He struggled to raise his head, and look at the body that he now had.

    He had a light navy blue coat, with a blonde tail to match his mane. Again, his mane was almost identical to his hair as a human, and had kept it's light blonde hue. The next thing he noticed was his wings, which opened at Ethan's will as he stared at them, mesmerized. Twilight walked back to the bed Ethan was laying on, and started poking him in different random places.

    "Well, the ponification seemed to have worked like a charm." Twilight said astutely.

    "Why am I here? Shouldn't I be back at the camp, or something?"

    "I'll explain in a minute, I need to wait for the others to get here." She responded. Twilight sounded a little rushed at this point, as if she really didn't want to talk right now.

    Ethan could faintly hear snoring in another room, but he paid no attention to it, assuming it was another roomie of Twilight's. He got up slowly, landing on his stomach in the process. He put one hoof on the ground, then another. Soon he was standing, albeit very rigidly, afraid to move. The standing was very easy to get used to, and Ethan compared it to learning to skate or ride a bike in his head. Walking was a different story. Having four legs to worry about now was the biggest difficulty, and he sometimes forgot to move one of the legs the first few steps he took. However, learning to walk was a breeze after a few minutes of pacing around the library.

    Twilight looked back at Ethan and noticed he was finally walking. She nodded with approval, "Don't try flying yet. I don't want you knocking over any books. Spike just cleaned up." She warned him, before returning to the big book laid out on her desk.

    Ethan, kind of distraught that he can't fly yet, resumed walking around the library. Suddenly, Ethan and Twilight heard a light tapping on the door, much too quiet to be a knock. If it had not been deathly silent in the room, they would not have heard it. Twilight trotted over to the door and opened it softly. Fluttershy came in nervously, then noticed that Twilight and Ethan were the only ones around, and was a little relieved.

    "Oh, um...hello, Twilight. Who is this pony?"

    "That's Ethan, remember?" Twilight said, hinting at something Ethan couldn't make heads or tails about.

    "Oh, I see it now! I'm sorry, the last time I saw him, he was human...Ethan, how is it being a pony?"

    "It's...odd. I'm getting used to it, though."

    "Good! That's wonderful." Fluttershy seemed much more comfortable knowing the pony was Ethan.

    "Do you know when the others are coming over?"

    "I think they're all coming in a group. Rainbow Dash is probably going to come here first, because she's so fast." Fluttershy said matter-of-factly.

    After a short pause, Fluttershy looked off into the distance, then focused on Ethan's wings, "Oh! You're a pegasus?"

    "Yeah, I guess I am." Ethan said, almost boastfully.

    "That's great! We should fly sometime...oh, I mean...if you're free...um..." Then Fluttershy let out a little squeek.

    The door knocked again, breaking the increasingly awkward silence between the two ponies. The door opened, then four other ponies trotted in one by one. Ethan recognized three of them from the camp, but the fourth was a complete mystery, and the look on his face made it obvious. The fourth pony, an orange earth pony with a straight blonde mane and a cowboy hat, walked up to Ethan, firmly gripped his hoof and shook it.

    "No need to be confused, mister. I'm Applejack. You must be Ethan. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." The pony said, and Ethan finally realized who she was.

    "Oh! You're the one who called me down during dinner on the speaker!" Ethan said.

    "Yessir. Pinkie Pie normally does that stuff, but she was helping Rarity prep the pony-transformin' doohicky, so I had to do it. Glad to finally meet you."

    The rainbow-maned pegasus flew up to Ethan, seeming to prefer flying than walking, and stared at Ethan's wings.

    "Awesome! You're a pegasus, too! I should totally teach you how to fly, I could show you all of my awesome flying tricks!"

    Twilight got up from her desk and turned on the lights in the library, "Now, now, Rainbow Dash. Let's not rush our new friend. Everyone take a seat while I wake Spike up."

    As the six ponies quietly found the closest chairs and took a seat near Twilight's desk, they could hear a rather annoyed Twilight waking up what Ethan assumed was Spike from upstairs.

    "Spike...Spike...SPIKE!" Twilight said loudly, and a thud was heard.

    "Hunh? I'm up, I'm up...jeez..." A second voice replied groggily.

    "Ethan's here, we're going to do the thing."

    "The thing?" Spike asked, dumbfounded.

    Twilight let out a heavy sigh, "The mission briefing."

    "Oh! That thing! Why didn't you just say so? I'll be right down."

    Twilight came down the ladder, and a purple and green baby dragon followed, holding a pillow in one arm, and his nightcap in another. Spike took a seat next to Ethan, and Twilight returned to her desk, shuffling a few papers before beginning.

    "Alright, I'm sure you all know why we're here."

    A silence followed this statement, only to be broken by Pinkie Pie.

    "Oh! Oh! I love guessing games! Uhhh...are we here to have a tea party? No! Are we here to...eat cupcakes and tell spooky stories? Waitwaitwait! Are we here to-"

    Applejack muffled Pinkie's speech by putting her hoof in Pinkie's mouth until she shut up.

    "Go on, Twilight." Applejack said, before removing the hoof.

    "Thank you. Well, that was the answer I was expecting, anyway. I haven't informed anyone about what we're doing today except Spike." Twilight then retrieved a map of the world from her desk, and presented it to the ponies, much like she did at the seminar when Ethan first met her, "Now, we all know that the humans are trying to get their people turned into ponies, so they can move in with us here in Equestria." She pointed to the small island adjacent to the east coast of the United States, "Does anyone know why?"

    "Sure I do!" Rainbow Dash blurted out, "It's because they didn't know how to control their greedy, fat butts from getting too greedy and fat for their own good, and now they're gonna dump all of the people over here!" Rainbow then looked at Ethan, who was a little shocked, "Er, present company excluded, of course."

    "It's fine, Rainbow Dash. I know us humans have trouble controlling their stubborn pride. All they want is more of everything. More money, more food, more industry and pollution. There's no reason behind it but blind greed and hatred."

    "Exactly, Ethan. Very well put." Twilight added, "And that's why they want this happening. Now, there's nothing wrong with turning into a pony. You lose that 'human nature' that keeps you greedy and selfish, and you become more carefree and friendly. Ethan and Barry would understand this more than anypony here, since they were humans only yesterday."

    "So, what is our problem with them? Can't we just simply let them come here? I see nothing wrong with that." Rarity said, genuinely curious.

    "Well, no one is volunteering to be ponified. People are too afraid to abandon their fleshy ape-bodies to live the pony life. They feel like the process in itself is way too risky to give a shot, even though tests have been made over the past ten years to confirm to the public that the process is completely harmless."

    "So, how is this bad for us?" Rainbow queried, "Let them stay in that manure-hole they live in, and we'll just hang out with all of the cool new ponies comin' in!"

    "That's the problem. They don't want to stay on their, quote, 'manure hole'. They want to live in Equestria, without going through the effort of becoming a pony, and abandoning their pride."

    Pinkie Pie piped up, "But what's so bad about that? Human bodies are icky and big and ugly and...and mean! Humans are mean!"

    "Well, they are." Ethan said, "But you have to put things in the humans' perspective. Lush, green fields perfect for farming? Nice neighbors? Weather always under control? Think of the money they could rake in from selling houses in Equestria!" The other ponies looked at Ethan with a look of disdain. "Oh! I think I got a little too into that, I'm sorry. That's not what I think, it's what they think!"

    "He is right. And that's exactly what the humans plan on doing. They want to move into Equestria, human form and all, and ruin the sanctity and peace-of-mind that this land has come to embrace over the last century!" Twilight was clearly getting riled up about this conversation.

    "Woah, woah there, sugarcube." Applejack said, attempting to calm Twilight down, "Isn't there some kinda magic force field thingy protecting Equestria from the humans?"

    Twilight took a few breaths, regaining her composure, "Yes, Applejack. But the technology the humans have made over the last few decades may be able to counteract the magic surrounding the land. Think about it, if they can turn humans into ponies, they can get humans here no problem."

    Ethan could hear the collective gulp the other ponies made, including him. Finally, he mustered up the strength to break the silence in the room.

    "So, why am I here?"

    "I'm glad you asked, Ethan. You're here because you know the ways of the humans. You know how they think. You can get into their heads in ways that us ponies just wouldn't be able to."

    "What about Barry? Should he be here?"

    "He already heard all of this. In fact, he helped me bring you here. At the moment, he's in Whitetail Wood practicing his magic abilities. I brought him not only because he's very competent in magic for a pony, let alone a former human, but because I felt like you needed a friend to accompany you. Another human."

    Ethan couldn't help but feel emotionally charged from that reasoning. But he was still confused as to what his job was.

    "Do you have a plan in mind? How will we go about stopping the humans if we don't know when they will come after us?"

    "Well, I haven't come up with an exact plan yet, but I think what we should worry about now is you getting your pony legs. Spend tomorrow learning the ropes of being a pony, and a pegasus at that. Rainbow Dash, I'll leave Ethan with you to teach him how to fly..."

    "Can I help, too?"

    Everypony in the room turned to look at Fluttershy in disbelief.

    "Um, I mean, if it's o-okay with Ethan, that is...um..."

    "It's fine, Fluttershy. You can help Rainbow teach me how to fly." Ethan said reassuringly.

    "Oh, okay." Fluttershy said, with more confidence.

    After a short silence, Ethan got up from his chair dramatically.

    "Let's do this."

    Pinkie Pie got up in a similar fashion, "Oh, boy! Here we go!"    

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