Every man, no matter how tough, how strong he is, has their moments where all of that comes crashing down. From the beaches of Normandy, where brave men cried out for their mothers as they perished in the sand, to the tears that run down a man’s face when his eyes first set on his newborn child. Everything breaks under pressure, this is a simple universal truth.

I knew this well and accepted it, because there really was no point in trying to resist. That does not mean crying at the drop of a hat, but it does mean, sometimes, you just have to let go and fall into the abyss of emotions.

Finding myself in a rather odd way, not to say I didn’t remember how I got here, either. No, I remember every moment. However, it was from a very detached place, observing outside the body so to speak.

I remember hearing cries of worry, my name being shouted as I stood there in the middle of that vault, looking at a message from mankind that simply should not be here. It should not exist in this world, just as much as I should not exist here. I, however, was locked in place, frozen in the moment that seemed to go on for ages.

Funny how one looks at that moment and think to yourself, why? Of all the things I have gone through in life, and this moment locked me up like a kid in the pitch black of night, had me stuck in place like glue beneath my boots.

I remember tugs on my hand, then a rope, a lasso of all things falling around my body, being yanked back onto my ass and dragged out of the vault. I remember watching the door swing closed and lock with the dull metallic echo, almost the sound of doom itself in some ways.

Now, I found myself beneath several blankets, resting with my back to a desk. We were once more outside the main vault door, and a lot of very worried faces were in view. Shock is a hell of a thing, it takes reason and thought and throws all of it right out the window.

“Princess, what is wrong with him?”

Celestia looked down at Dash with a soft worried look to her face. “He is in shock, Rainbow. He will be okay soon.”

Still trembling, head down as I sat there, my knees pulled up, arms wrapped around them. There must have been three or four blankets over me. Thick things, too, as it was getting rather warm under them. I remained like that, listening to what was being said outside for now, not quite ready to talk yet.

“Ah still don’t understand why y’all couldn’t just pull him out with yer magic.”

Now that is a interesting thought, why couldn’t they? Leave it to the bookish princess to already have a theory.

“I am not sure, Applejack, but I have a theory already. When I tried to grab his hand, my magic kind of... slid off like it was a slippery surface. I could get grip, but just not enough to pull him, if that makes any sense at all. Then, trying to pull on his clothing was futile. It felt just like the paper note he sent.

“Well, lucky for y’all, ah had ma rope with me.”

Another voice, this one coming from the armored white unicorn stallion who had his head lowered down, looking at my face.

“He is all right, other than being in shock,” he said, glancing back to the three princesses over his shoulder. “As best as I can tell, I can’t get a good scan on him. It's like... well, it’s like Princess Twilight said, like trying to grab a oiled-up pig in mud.”

Celestia’s voice once more came with the soft tone she almost always had. “Thank you, Sergeant Cortland.”

Applejack was just in my sight line, and I noticed her ears perk. “Cortland? Now that there is a kind of apple, I know a Cortland Apple, Little unicorn colt, fourth cousin on Granny Smith’s side.”

The armored stallion turned and gave a dip of his head. I had to guess he was smiling some.

“Sorry I could not make the last reunion, cousin.”

“Well, ain’t that a how do ya do? We got ourselves a guard in the family. You dun all grown up on us.” I could very well hear the pride in Applejack’s voice.

I took note of the smiles on everyone—everypony’s face. I suppose it was time to join the living, so to speak. My eyes lifted, and I looked up from my seated place, right up to the solar diarch's face, licking my lips to wet them a bit, I croaked out, “H-how long?”

A small crack caught my attention in her armor. Her eyelid twitched, and the fact her ears started to pin back before she caught herself. A look of profound sadness crossed her face as she said in a very soft tone.

“Over five hundred years ago, it fell to Equis in the Badlands, near where San Palomino is now, just this side of the Equestrian border with Mexicolt.”

“Celestia, did Luna know of this?” Twilight questioned, a tone of worry and sadness in her tone.

Luna glanced to her sister as I turned my head to watch, then back to the youngest princess. “I knew, yes, Twilight. However, I only learned of this a few months ago as I have been catching up on history and what I have missed.”

“Twilight, I am sorry I had to hide this from you. However, I knew you would want to study it, that you would never let it go.”

She looked a little hurt, but I did spot her nodding. “You are right, but, I don’t agree with hiding it. I also understand some secrets must remain compartmentalized... even from your fellow princesses.”

Celestia’s wing came to rest on top of Twilight's back. “I am sorry for that.”

In the meantime, I chewed on the information. Five hundred years, how did it get here? How long since it left the system, did it find its way here? I had so many questions right now and no answers just yet.

Still in thought, I unwrapped my arms from my legs and pushed the blankets off, it was getting a bit too warm. Sergeant Cortland moved a hoof up to stop me.

“Keep still for a bit longer, you were in shock pretty deeply.”

I had to give the unicorn a slight smile. “Thank you, but, I really need to stretch out some, get the blood pumping in the legs again. Plus, the stone floor ain’t what I would call comfortable. We humans have bony backsides.”

Perhaps it was my sincerity, or the joke I managed to make. He gave a nod and his consent in the form of helping peel the blankets off. I went to stand and he moved closer.

“Use your hoof on my back to help yourself up.”

I lifted an eyebrow at this, then gave him a soft nod. “Hand, and thank you,” as I did just that. Standing slowly, my knees both popped rather loudly. I saw almost every pony in the cave like room wince. Pinkie Pie looked up with a... well, a signature Pinkie Pie smirk.

“Wow, that was louder than my dad when he gets up after laying down too long!”

I exhaled and nodded, looking around. I took note of a lunar pegasus holding my hat out to me. I took it from him, “Thank you,” and I put it back on, turning back to look at the three princesses.

“Any other surprises?” I wasn’t the happiest of campers right now. In fact, I still felt like hell, and the stress had its hooks on me good. I noticed all three half-lay their ears back, and it dawned on me perhaps I spoke a bit too harsh. I held up my hand. “Sorry, that came out a bit harder than I meant it to.”

Luna dipped her head. “We understand, Shane. You are under a great deal of stress, confused, feel lost, and recovering from an incident.”

Letting out a long, deep exhale, I nodded my head. “Still, you have all treated me fair, some of you even treating me as a friend already. I just, well... I guess I could do with some food, and to relax some.”

Celestia nodded her head to me. “We can go and rest, I will gather the press up for an announcement tonight to be put in tomorrow’s paper. Will you be alright to do an interview later, and perhaps a press conference in the morning?”

I had to think on that, then I found myself looking over at the one stallion among them all who had earned my respect so far.

“I was thinking, Princess, back home, it was always good to have the backing of the working folks. The people who were just like the rest, not a politician or royalty, someone who could answer some questions asked that would not be my place to.”

She glanced to the unicorn who seemed to be in thought. “Captain, would you be agreeable to stand with our guest?”

Again, the solar guard captain looked at me, then back to the alabaster alicorn.

“The hu—sorry, Shane... has proven himself honorable so far. If it is your wish my princess, I would be proud to support him. He has earned my respect.”

A slight smile crossed my face, and I dipped my head to him. “Thank you, Captain. It will mean quite a bit to a lot of very scared folks, ponies, to see someone—sorry, somepony of your standing support me.”

Celestia again smirked a bit as she looked at me. “Shane, are you sure you were not a politician yourself?”

I frowned some at that. “No, ma’am.”

---

The rest of the day flew past in a blur. I didn’t really have time to think or ponder on my situation. First it was a light lunch, where we talked about what I could and could not eat. It seemed to surprise them I could not eat things like hay, unprocessed oats, and so on. Twilight had come to the conclusion the human diet most closely resembled that of griffons.

After lunch, it had been a whirlwind of meeting other ponies, from the castle staff, to the ten ponies that were part of the castle press corps. No real questions had been asked during that, but quite a few pictures were taken.

Finally, I was whisked away to a room. Not too bad of a room all things considered, a lot more opulent than any place I had ever stayed, that was for sure. The rooms vaulted ceiling must have been a good ten feet above my head, almost dome shaped in form.

The walls had long roman-style columns every six or seven feet. Speaking of the huge bed, good god, the thing was three times as big as the bed back in my cabin! I had asked about that, why so big, and been told the room was kept for visiting Minotaur and smaller dragon dignitaries.

Off one side was the door into the bathroom. That had come as a bit of a shock, and would take some getting use to. The setup was much more Asian in form, rather than a raised toilet you sat on, you squatted over it. Worse yet was no toilet paper, rather there was a second ‘toilet’ of sorts, with the magic three sea shells.

Lucky for me, I had used a bidet before so that wasn’t too hard to figure out. I did, however, discover the hard way that Equestria reversed the sides of hot and cold from back home. Remembering that hot was on the right and cold on the left was going to be something that annoyed the hell out of me.

I heard a knock on the door as I was unpacking my three day bag, a chunk of beef jerky hanging from my jaw as I worked. Knowing most would freak seeing that, I took it out, swallowed what I had chewed off, and tucked the rest it into a pocket on the bag.

“Come in?” I called out.

A guard that stood outside the door opened it and three ponies walked in. Twilight, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, all three had a smile. Twilight was carrying what looked to be a newspaper in her magical grip.

“I thought you might like to see this before it hits the stands.”

I blinked as the paper floated over to me and I grabbed it. Front page, well, wouldn’t my momma be proud of me? There was a picture of me standing with Luna to one side, Celestia to the other, Twilight and the five in front of me.

Examining over the article, but I had seen the press release, so I knew most of it. It had explained what I was, that I came from another world—but not by choice. It went on to explain more about myself, about what I would be doing, and how ponies could help. All sorts of little details filled the front page and two full columns top to bottom after. It really was quite a detailed release, far more so than anything back home would have been.

I slowly folded the paper up again and looked over at the three mares waiting for me to read it. Dash, as I was not surprised, looked bored out of her skull. Applejack was just watching me. She did that a lot, I took note of. Twilight had a expectant look on her face, a warm smile that was as genuine as they came.

“So?” she asked, leaning forward.

I looked back at the paper. “Well, I guess we'll find out when it hits the streets. If we see pitchforks and torches, I guess I gave it my best.”

Rainbow snickered, Applejack grinned, but poor Twilight just wrinkled up her muzzle “why would ponies have—”

I started to chuckle as Rainbow fell over laughing, and Applejack, bless her, was doing her best to laugh behind her hoof. Twilight put on this weird look, then shook her head. “Argh, you are as bad as Rainbow is!”

I chuckled a bit harder. “I will take that as a compliment, ma’am.”

She shook her head, then perked her ears. “Princess Celestia let me study the object, well, the drawings and such of it that is in the vault. I do have a couple of questions, if I may?”

I sighed out and sat on the edge of the bed. “Of course you do, I would not expect anything less of you.”

She gave a little smile then levitated out a few scrolls, opening one out that was clearly a rubbing of the plaque on the once-satellite.

“The two figures here, they are... humans right? A stallion and a mare?”

I blushed some and gave a nod. “Man and woman.”

The other scroll opened up and she started to take notes. Applejack and Rainbow Dash both leaned over and examined the picture.

“How come they ain’t got clothing on like you do?”

Gee, thank you, Applejack, just what I wanted to explain. I exhaled some and gestured. “They wanted to show whoever found this what we looked like.”

Rainbow perked her ears. “So, that thing hanging down is your…” she fell backwards, laughing even harder than ever.

“Laugh it up, Crash.”

She tilted her head from her back, looking right back up at me from the floor. “Hey! How do you know—oh, oh, yeah... right.”

Twilight snorted. “Now that we can stop acting like foals,” she looked at the multi-hue maned mare.

Looking back to me, the Princess of Friendship seemed to ponder her question before she pointed again.

“So, females only have two teats and up on their chest area, like the Minotaur do?”

Again, I gave a nod, still blushing. After all, here I was having what amounted to the birds and bees talk with one of the most powerful Alicorns to ever exist, the fastest Pegasus on the planet, and what was likely one of the strongest earth ponies out there.

“I would guess so, yes, ma’am, and the proper medical term for humans would be breasts.”

She again scribbled on her scroll as the other two sniffled and tried to stop laughing. AJ got a funny look and pointed at the picture.

“How come the stallion—what did you call it? Man? Has them things on his chest too, can they feed a foal?”

I let out a bit of a chuckle, “No, no, no, no,” I shook my head. “They are vestigial,” I paused. “Not to get too deep into biology, but when we are in our first few days of growth in the womb, we are genderless. It is the addition of a few chemicals that decides male or female.”

Again, Twilight was writing this down as fast as she could.

“One last question for now, then. You said womb, so like us ponies, you humans have live births. How long is gestation?”

Before I could answer, Rainbow piped up. “Eww, Twilight, why would they eat their foals?!”

Both Applejack and Twilight put their hooves to their faces. I, on the other hand, just stared blankly at the speedster Pegasus. Thankfully, it was Twilight that answered her.

“Gestation, not digestion Rainbow. You know, how long does the foal take to develop before birth?”

Rainbow looked at her, bewildered, then laid her ears back. “I knew that,” she responded, hiding her face a little bit.

I gave a nod. “Baby, or child, and nine months,” I decided not to say anything about Rainbow’s comment.

Now it was Applejack who piped up. “Nine months! I know a bunch of mares that would pay money to be done by then.”

I gave a bit of a laugh. “Let me guess,” looking to Twilight, “Eleven months?”

She nodded. “How did you know? Is that in the show?”

I shook my head. “No, just a guess, same as the creatures we call a horse back home.”

Dash got up in my face suddenly. “Hey! You don’t call a mare that word!”

I blinked, recoiling some. “I—what?”

AJ looked rather angry all of a sudden, but Twilight held up her hoof to stop them. “Hang on, you two. Shane, did you say the word... whorse?”

I blinked, then shook my head. “No, I said, horse. It is a creature much like pony, only a lot bigger and not sentient. We keep them for work, riding, and companionship. They are much bigger than even Celestia is, for the most part.”

Twilight exhaled as I glanced at Rainbow and Applejack, both mares seemed to be relaxing some now.

“Okay, there is a lot about your world and this world we are going to have to go over. For now, perhaps that word you used, you should keep to yourself. You see a whorse is... well, a mare of ill-repute.”

I blinked a few times, rubbing my hand down my face. “Oh, well, no, no. I didn’t mean to even imply such. I am sorry if I did.”

They all three shook their heads and Applejack spoke up. “No problem, sugarcube, things like this are goin' to happen. Your world and ours,” she smiled. “Sounds like ain’t the flip sides of the same bit, more like two bits. Same shape and color but not the same.”

I had to concur with that.