That night was uneventful. I'd gone back up to my bedroom before everybody else and just played on my phone for a bit. After... say, half an hour, I decided to call it a day and switched my phone off. I got out of my clothes, except for my boxers and got in my bed and waited to fall asleep. You know, nothing too out of the ordinary.

Unless you count me having another nightmare... again.

This one was slightly different. Whereas in the one I'd had the previous night was basically me reliving that Sunday, this one was... slightly surreal. It was about some form of carnage... even now it's really hard to recall anything. The only thing I could remember is that there was screaming and someone had died...

It's not exactly the happiest things you could think of, I know.

The weird thing was not the actual dream itself, nor its disturbing content - but at the time, I swore to myself that I was almost lucid near the end - or as if something on the outside was trying to get in...

I woke up in a similar fashion to the previous night, 3 or 4 in the morning. This time, I couldn't go back to sleep no matter how hard I tried... even the reverse psychology thing didn't work. After about half an hour of tossing and turning, I gave up and poured myself a small glass of wine. Taking a sip, I realised that I hadn't actually wine in about two years, not after that incident.

I wonder how Cassie will react to hearing about this, I thought.

With that thought in my head, and me mapping out all of the possible outcomes I could think of, I went into the bathroom and washed my hands. I didn't really know what to make of these dreams I've been having, as I hadn't had any recently before coming to Equestria. As far as I can remember, for the last few years or so, I hadn't had anything like those dreams, yet my first two nights in another world, and I've had nightmares worse than when I was a child?

I threw some water over my face, not that it was a good idea or anything, considering I was trying to get back to sleep, but I just felt like doing it, while the water was still running.

After drying my hands and face, I went back over to my glass and sipped again, the good taste calming whatever left of my initial panic that was still left. After taking the rest of the wine, I went back into the bathroom and washed the glass out with a tea-towel, and put the glass back where I'd got it from. Walking back to the bed, I was only thinking about one thing.

What was that fucking dream about?

I slumped back onto the bed and waited for myself to go back to sleep.

It took longer than I thought.

The first thing I was aware of when I began to wake was a sort of wet drop on my face. As my vision began to clear, and I could begin to make out shapes, I saw something that still frightens me to this very day.

An angry Princess Cadence. Along with a slightly worried looking Shining Armor, Thomas and Nathan sneering like nobody's business, and a Flash Sentry that was warning me of something.

With a bucket of water held in her magic.

Whatever Flash was trying to mouth was lost on me.

"Cade-"

Splash.

I had managed to close my eyes just in time to avoid the water going to get in my eyes.

My face, hair, mouth and pillow did not share the same fate.

Nathan and Tom started laughing as I coughed back up the water that had went into my mouth.

"Cadence!" I coughed, trying to regain my composure. "What the hell are you trying to do!?"

Cadence simply glared at me so fiercely even William Wallace would surrender.

"Well... you see..." Shining began, but was quickly cut off by his wife.

"Do you have ANY idea what time it is, Mister Luss?" Cadence scolded, her glare boring into me.

I would never admit it to her or Tom or Nate... or Flash... or Shining, for that matter - but I was quite scared of Cadence at that moment in time.

Still wasn't as scary as my mum when she found out I'd failed the Standard Grade English prelim, but still pretty scary nonetheless.

Deciding not to say anything to make her angrier, I looked at the clock in my room - and saw immediately why she was so pissed.

The clock read 10:46.

We were supposed to be giving the statement of our arrival in about fifteen minutes. I was still in bed.

Ah.

"Well..." I began, ready to give an explanation as I got out of bed. "I may have slept in a bit-"

"SLEPT IN A BIT!?" Cadence yelled.

"Relax, Cadence," I replied, walking into the shower room. "I've been in a worse situation than this before."

"Oh have you, now, Mister Luss?" I could hear Cadence shout as I turned the shower on.

"Aye, when I was supposed to go for my first job interview, I overslept and had to get ready in the time I would've taken to drive my car there. I just managed to get there on time and I wasn't the first to be interviewed so I landed the job," I explained.

Although I wouldn't have done it without that Golf GTI, I thought.

I showered and dressed in the space of two minutes.

Cadence stood there when I came out, dressed, as if she'd just seen a new world record be set, with Nate and Tom doing the same. Shining and Flash were not surprised, however; I suspect their nods were that of approval.

"Well, what are we waiting for?" I asked, slipping my shoes on. "We've got a statement to make."

Everyone in the room, bar myself and Cadence, started laughing. Cadence's glare lessened.

"Try not to sleep in if something like this happens again," was all she said as she walked back out the room.

I turned to the others. They had only stopped laughing at that moment and so the two ponies walked out of the room. Looking at the other two, I saw they still had smirks on their faces.

"Well, let's go," Tom sighed, as he walked out of my room, with me and Nathan following suit. Walking out, Nathan nudged me and leaned over to whisper into my ear.

"Was that interview story true?"

"Aye," I replied. "I realised I slept in, and got into the clothes I was going to wear for it that I had prepared the previous night, got into my car and drove to the interview. Thankfully, it wasn't on the other side of the city and I was driving a Golf GTI at the time."

"Oh, yeah, that GTI," Nathan commented. "How is that old thing?"

"I sold it in 2005 for a dreary old Ford Focus," I explained. I saw him gesture for more info, so I continued. "And in '08, I traded that car for a newer Focus... and you know the rest. I don't actually remember what happened to that GTI after I sold it. It's either been crushed by now or sitting on Auto Trader for about three thousand pounds."

"Yep, I missed it when you drove with that thing," he sighed. "Going round for a spin in Easterhouse at the weekend was a good laugh back in the day."

"Aye," I replied with a laugh. I remember it now, the best time we'd ever done that. We were at the pub on the Friday, and had one or two pints at some bar in Easterhouse- no clue why, and we got back into the car and I was going to drop Nathan back at his house, as he walked here, and I would drive back - but Nate saw something else before I started the engine.

"Look, Jack!" he said, tapping on my shoulder. I looked up to see what Nate had seen. Considering the area was quite rough, I knew who they were and likely what they were doing.

"Neds," I muttered, as I saw the group of four teenagers - couldn't be more than sixteen years old.

"Wonder where they're going?" Nathan asked.

I turned to him, and a cheeky grin was on his face. He was thinking exactly what I was thinking. I turned the ignition key when they were out of sight, and because it was only a 20mph zone, we tailed them up the road to this old abandoned building. I don't know what it used to be used for, but it was abandoned for at least 10 years.

And they walked into what could only be described as a party for neds: teenagers wearing hoodies, trackies, trainers, caps that were on back to front were present, with some of them having either cans of beer or bottles of Buckfast or Smirnoff in their hands, and others on their Nokias, probably prank calling people.

Yes, Nokias. Unfortunately, iPhones didn't exist in '02.

Anyway, after they went in, we pulled up across the street and looked at the place. There were teenagers everywhere - drinking their bottles of Bucky (Buckfast), others playing on their phones, or chucking rocks around, and I even saw two older ones smoking, and thought I saw one try to take cocaine.

Disgusting.

I looked down the road at the street name, and then counted the buildings to get the rough number of the address of this building. I leaned onto the dashboard to write it down, as to report it later to the police.

"Uh, Jack, we got a problem," Nathan said in a shaky voice.

Curious as to what made him sound so nervous, I looked up to where he was looking. I remember my own eyes widening at the sight of two of the neds walk over to the car, both having angry looks on their faces.

One of them was about 16 years old, and was holding a cigarette in one hand, and a knife in the other. The other one, however, was the one I was more scared about. If I were to guess the age of this one, I'd probably say sixteen - but this guy was well built for his age, so I wouldn't be surprised if he were older. He was holding a golf club in his hands, and at the time I couldn't help but think what he could do to the car, never mind us.

So I put the car into first gear again and sped off before the brawny one got anywhere near the damn car. We got to the end of the road in about five seconds. Any attempt they had of trying to keep up was hopeless for them. The one with the cigarette fell over while trying to run to us - so my guess was he was steaming. The brawny one did make some sort of attempt to chase us, but he gave up after we pulled out of the T-junction and went back on the road to the safer areas of Glasgow.

"Wow... fuck, man, that was a bit scary..." Nathan breathed.

"I know," I said, as we drove back to Nathan's parent's house in Scotstoun, as he was still only at uni at this point, whereas I was working.

"Alright, see you sometime, whenever my time is free," Nathan sighed as he got out of the car and walked back to his house. I watched him go back into his house before driving back to my own house.

We reported the area to the police, who said they'd look into it and see what they could do. I never went back up there to check the results for myself, but some ned up there got done for assaulting a police officer, so I knew something was being done.

"Yeah, looking back on it, it was kinda scary, but we were younger then, so I guess we could just laugh now," I laughed.

Eventually, after some walking down the corridors, we arrived at the balcony where Cadence would be talking from. Cadence did this breathing thing that I guess is supposed to calm your nerves, although she's probably done this loads of times before so I didn't see why there was a need to do so.

"Okay," Cadence started after finishing her breathing technique. "Here's my plan. I'll go on and explain a bit about you at first. I'll then explain what happened and what is being done at the moment, and they you can say a few words if you want."

"Sure, that sounds alright," I said, with the other two nodding their heads in agreement.

Cadence nodded as well, before looking at the clock to see that the time was 10:59, which then turned into 11:00. She then regally walked onto the balcony with her wings outstretched. As she did so, the croud's already audible chatter had turned into a roaring cheer.

"Lots of ponies out there," Shining commented, looking out of the window. And as I walked over to look out as well, I saw there were hundreds - and possibly more than a thousand of ponies in the streets below. Seeing this now caused me to become nervous, and I facepalmed.

FOR FUCK'S SAKE, JACK! WHY CAN'T YOU KEEP THAT FUCKING MOUTH OF YOURS CLOSED FOR ONCE? I screamed at myself internally.

"Good morning to you all, my fellow citizens and subjects!" Cadence shouted in a booming voice that you wouldn't expect someone like her to have. The crowd then gradually quietened down, allowing her to speak, albeit not as loud as before. "Thank you for being able to gather here this morning to hear the announcement."

She paused for a second, and spoke again. "Two days ago, three individuals from another world arrived in Equestria." The crowd began to start talk amongst themselves, not sure what to make of this new information. Cadence raised her hoof in the air in attempt to quieten the crowd again. They did so rather quickly, and so Cadence continued.

"These beings are sapient like you and I, and we have reason to believe that their kind has technology several decades ahead of our own. These beings are known as humans. They were transported here against their own will via teleportation, and have no means of return."

Gasps could be heard from the crowd.

Cadence continued. "You have probably seen them before, albeit in their cars, but I wish to assure you that they do not have any malicious intent; and in fact are actually rather friendly. "

Murmurs could be heard in the crowd as ponies started to talk again.

"They have been given temporary refuge in the Castle until a way back to their world is found," Cadence announced. "So I would like to welcome one of these individuals, Jack Luss, to speak more about his arrival, and I ask you all to do the same!"

She turned to look at me, with a smirk on her face.

Welp, here we go.

I stepped forward onto the balcony and took in the sheer numbers of ponies on the streets below, most of whom were either stamping their hooves, or cheering - or both. I assumed that instead of clapping their hooves, they stamp them off the ground to show gratitude.

I took in a deep breath, before speaking. "Hello, everybo- UGH, everyPONY!"

I looked down to see some confused faces. "Sorry, where we're from, we say everybody. That's what were used to. It might take a while to get used to the different terminology."

I hear some laughter from the crowd, so I assume I've made an okay start. "As the Princess just said, my name's Jack Luss. The other two people that Princess Cadence mentioned are my friends, Thomas Cooper and Nathan Lang. We were having a discussion over which of our cars, which you may have already seen, was the best. So we decided to race to a restaurant that we go to occasionally. First one there would be deemed the winner - and last one there had to pay."

There were a few chuckles from the crowd. For what reason, I do not know.

"During this race, however, a portal opened in the middle of the road we were driving on, and we all got pulled in. The portal closed before we could go back, so we do not have any method of return at this moment."

Some ponies gasped at this, although they've already heard this information. For now, I decided to ignore it and continue.

"I hope that, for the time being until we can return, we can live on friendly terms with each other."

I paused to see the response to this. Thankfully, it seems to be positive, as the crowd starts cheering again, accompanied with the stamping hooves as well. I turned to Cadence to see what her response would be. She walked over to me and put her hoof on my chest.

"Thank you, Jack. I just need to say a few words, and then we'll finish there," she said, with a smile of approval on her face. And so I walked off the balcony, and back into the room where Shining and the others were.

"Have you ever done something like that before?" Shining asked.

"No," I replied, although I have done something similar. "Well, kind of. It was a similar sort of idea, except it was for a school competition back in my second year of high school. There was only about twenty people in the audience there, but they were adjudicators for public speaking or something like that... THIS was a lot larger though."

We turned our attention back to the balcony, where Cadence was speaking.

"Now, as you've heard, the three humans arrived via portal. But from what we've been able to determine, considering that magic does not exist on this other world-"

Gasps were heard all around. I guessed the whole "life can't exist without magic" thing was actually common belief at that time.

"-their arrival was no mere accident."

Again, gasps could be heard from the crowd, and even from Flash.

Cadence continued. "The portal had to have been activated from Equestria in order to work, and considering the portal was grey in colour, it was opened deliberately by somepony with a vast knowledge of magic, particularly dark magic."

There was no audible response to this.

"If anypony has any information about this, I would advise that they contact myself or the other princesses as son as possible." Cadence looked around and saw that there was nopony that had any questions or the like. "If anypony has any questions, we'll try our best to answer them in court. We might not be able to see everypony, but we'll do our best. Thank you."

The crowd started cheering again as Cadence walked back off of the balcony. As she came over to us, she smiled. "You did good out there, Jack. Was that your first time doing something like that.

And so I explained my speech for this speaking competition that was being held. I was given high marks, but I never won.

"Although not on that scale," I laughed.

Cadence joined in as well. "It was the same for me, the first time I had to give a speech in Canterlot. I was much younger, and I was extremely nervous, but thankfully Auntie Celestia helped me calm my nerves enough. I eventually got better at it as time went on."

"I suppose practice makes perfect," I replied. "So, what next?"

"Well, we see which members of the press have turned up, and what kind of questions they'll ask."

And so we walked back down the corridors to the hall where we first met Cadence and Shining.

At least I didn't screw that one up.

Author's Notes:

I'm late again. Fuck.