Tristan's heart seemed to have leaped from his chest. The disorienting flash, combined with the forceful shock wave, had him feeling less than great. The soft knocking continued from the other side of the door. Tristan stood, his legs shaking violently, but he still managed to make his way to the door. There seemed to be idle chatter coming from the other side, He pressed his ear to the door to gain a better listen.

Who could possibly stand to live in such a run-down area? It's simply uncouth!

Ah don't believe the Princess ever said it'd be a palace, there Rarity.

I hope he likes cupcakes! I baked a whole lot of cupcakes just for this occasion! Oh, my goodness, I'm just so excited! A brand new world, who would have thought it existed? And...

It looks pretty boring, to me. I just hope he's cool and not a total rule nut.

I just hope he's nice...

Ugh! Will he just open up already? He must have gotten the letter by now!

Calm down, Spike. I'm sure he's just taking his time. Maybe I should knock again.

Tristan's eyes widened as the talked, and then felt another small knock at the door.His heart racing, he undid the locks and slowly opened up the door. What he saw shocked him to the core. They weren't little girls, which his hearing had led him to believe. They were... ponies. Not just regular ponies, but multicolored ponies. He noticed that two of them had wings and two of them had horns, like they were pegasi and unicorns, while the other two just looked like normal ponies. Accompanying them was a small lizard looking thing with purple and green scales that seemed to walk on his back two legs, like a human. It almost looked like a baby dragon.

Ponies? Pegasi? Unicorns? Dragons?

This couldn't be real.

Tristan just stood there, dumbstruck and practically paralyzed from what stood before him. There's no way he's imagining this. He went to speak, but it appeared that the purple unicorn, who was at the front of the group, started to talk before he could even exhale.

"Hello, Mr. Tristan. My name is Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia, and I would just like to--"

Tristan couldn't catch the rest. His hearing faded, his legs completely gave up on him, and he fainted. As his unconscious body began to fall, Twilight quickly stepped forward. Her horn and Tristan's body began to glow a magenta color, and Tristan began to levitate. Twilight let out a sigh of relief, then called back to the others.

"Come on, everypony. Let's get him back inside." she said, slightly out of breath from holding Tristan up. The other ponies and the baby dragon quickly hurried inside, shutting the door behind them and redoing all the locks.

As Tristan came to, the first sense that returned was his hearing. There was more chatter from the voices that he heard earlier. He was only able to catch bits and pieces, but he quickly started regaining his other senses. He could feel his couch beneath his body, and he could feel the warmth of a blanket that had been draped over top of him. His nose caught whiffs of light dirt, perfume, apples, and... cupcakes? Finally, he regained full consciousness to see seven faces staring down at him in curiosity. Tristan then did what he believed to be the only sensible thing a man in his position could do: scream.

He immediately sat up, scooting backwards as far as his couch would let him. "W-who... better y-yet... WHAT are you?"

Twilight, who was slightly scared herself, took a step forward and swallowed. "M-My name is Twilight Sparkle, personal student to Princess Celestia and sole librarian of Ponyville. It is my great pleasure to meet you." She tried to smile the best she can, hoping to appeal to Tristan's better nature.

Tristan, shakily extended a hand. "L-Likewise." Twilight extended her hoof, happy that the human had finally calmed down.

Tristan was slightly shocked again when his hand touched Twilight's hoof, causing him to flinch. Twilight flinched also, withdrawing her hoof.

"Sorry," Tristan said softly. "I wasn't actually expecting physical contact." Twilight chuckled at this, almost as if he was joking.

"How do you think you got in here once you fainted?" She replied, a bit of a smirk on her face. She motioned towards her horn that parted her primarily purple hair. Tristan slowly cocked his head sideways. He began to put two and two together.

"You used..." For some reason, the next word wasn't coming out easily, despite all that he had just seen. "...magic?" he stammered. As ridiculous as he thought it seemed, the purple unicorn nodded.

"Precisely." Twilight beamed, giving a look of pride. Then, as if she forgot something, she started laughing nervously. "Oh, where are my manners? I didn't introduce you to everyone else." She motioned towards the baby dragon. This here is Spike, my number one assistant."

Tristan looked over at Spike, who was slowly making his way over. "Sup." the dragon said excitedly. Spike thrust out his claw for a handshake, and Tristan returned, feeling Spike's cold scales as opposed to warm fur and flesh like he was accustomed to.

Twilight nodded over to the orange pony. She went to make another introduction, but was immediately cut off.

"No need, Twi. Ah can introduce mahself." the mare said, using a thick southern accent that Tristan had only heard in movies. She trotted over, smiling, and tipped her Stetson. "Mah name's Applejack." she announced. "Ah help run things at my home farm of Sweet Apple Acres. Pleased ta meetcha!" She grabbed Tristan's hand by both hooves and shook rigorously, her hat nearly falling off and revealing her golden mane. Tristan swore for a second he was going to get whiplash. The pony finally let go and backed away.

The blue pegasus took this opportunity to fly up to Tristan, hovering so that their eyes were level with each other's. "I'm Rainbow Dash!" she proudly shouted. "The fastest flyer in all Equestria!" She gave a salute-like gesture and a wink, then landed on the floor just below where she was flying. Tristan caught himself staring at Rainbow's mane, which he assumed was her namesake. A white unicorn with a well-styled purple mane shoved her out of the way.

"Rainbow, the way you handle delicate matters as these is simply unprofessional." she declared. The spoke with a faux-English accent, hinting at a more high-end lifestyle. Rainbow Dash blew a raspberry at the unicorn and stomped away. The unicorn then turned her attention to Tristan.

"Oh, darling, do forgive her. She can be quite reckless." she said. "My name is Rarity. I am the owner of the Carousel Boutique, the pinnacle of fashion in our small town of Ponyville. It's a pleasure to meet you at last." She smiled, giving her mane a movie star flip. He noticed the baby dragon had been captivated by Rarity's mane flip, and gave out a small chuckle.

"Something funny?" Rarity asked, confused.

"Oh, no. It's nothing" Tristan lied, wearing a sheepish smile.

"I'm really glad you laughed! I thought for a second you were going to end up being a Meenie McGrumperPants!"

Tristan looked to the spot on the couch next to him where the high-pitched voice came from. Sure enough, a pink pony stood beside him, smiling from ear to ear. Her mane was poofy and smelled oddly of cotton candy.

"Hi! I'm Pinkie Pie! But my friends call me Pinkie. But everyone's my friend, so since you're part of everyone and everyone's my friend, that means you're my friend! YAY!" Pinkie began bouncing up and down on the couch cushion adjacent to the one Tristan occupied. He started to get a mild headache, but his attention was turned away from it with the smell of cupcakes that he discovered a little bit ago.

Pinkie Pie set down a tray of eight cupcakes next to him on the couch, then beamed back up at him. "I made these for you as thanks for letting us stay with you!" she cheered. Tristan looked carefully at the tray, then back at Pinkie, who seemed to be waiting for a taste test. Tristan picked one up and inspected it. How bad could it be? Slowly, he took a bite. The euphoria that filled his taste buds easily was the greatest pleasure he had ever experienced while eating something.

"This is the best cupcake I've ever had!" Tristan said, stricken with awe. He seemingly inhaled the rest of the cupcake, grinning as he did. Pinkie Pie bounced with approval.

"Wait." Twilight interrupted. "Where's Fluttershy?"

Tristan looked around the living room where they had all been sitting. Twilight was right. One of the ponies was missing. He glanced towards then end of the couch and noticed a small tuft of pink emerging from the other side of the arm rest. He pointed Twilight in her direction.

"Fluttershy," Twilight began. "You can come out. Everything is okay."

The pink bit of mane moved, revealing a much larger, heart-shaped mane with a yellow pegasus attached to it. She quietly made her way over, making very little eye contact. Tristan tried to appear as friendly as possible, hoping to not scare her away again. "Hello" he said softly, trying to smile. She warmed up a little and finally spoke.

"Hello. I-I'm Fluttershy. Nice to meet you." she said, almost in a whisper. She let a small smile spread across her face.

Now that the formal introductions were out of the way, Twilight took this opportunity to ask some questions of her own. "What do you do for a living, Mr. Shay?" she inquired.

Tristan smiled. "You can call me Tristan, if you'd like." he corrected. "To answer your question, I work at a factory that builds cabinets and other furniture."

Rainbow Dash made herself part of the conversation. "So your cutie mark has something to do with building stuff, right?" she asked.

Tristan looked slightly confused. "Cutie mark?" he echoed.

Rainbow Dash showed him her flank, which bore a thundercloud sporting a multicolored lightning bolt. "That's a cutie mark. You get them when you realize your unique talent. I got mine for being so awesomely fast" she boasted, doing a quick, mid-air lap around the room.

Tristan looked at all the other ponies cutie marks. "I'm going to guess: Twilight's talent is... magic?" He looked at Twilight, who gave a nod of approval.

"Very observant!" the unicorn praised.

"Applejack, your's is... apple harvesting?" The farmhand smiled and nodded. Tristan got a lot of enjoyment from this little guessing game. "Pinkie, yours is balloons. I'm going to say you throw great parties. Rarity's is diamonds.... maybe for your career in fashion?" he questioned.

Rarity blushed a tad, which slightly annoyed Spike. "Well, yes, but I can also use my horn for detecting where hidden gems are located. I must say, my business wouldn't flourish like it does without it." she said, looking up at her horn, which she made glow a faint blue.

Tristan looked over at Fluttershy, seeing a trio of pink butterflies. Bug catcher? No, that couldn't be it. He shrugged in defeat. "I'm stumped."

Fluttershy giggled quietly, then spoke again, only this time she was a little louder and more confident. "I take care of animals. Big and small. I just love knowing that I'm able to do good for them."

Tristan's heart seemed to swell a little. "That's very admirable." he replied, smiling. Fluttershy smiled in return.

Twilight hopped up on the other side of Tristan. "I just have so many more questions for you. The economy, your government system, the human anatomy..." Tristan blushed as she mentioned the last one.

Applejack cut her off. "Woah-ho, there. We don't need to be doing any anatomy explorin'."

Twilight tilted her head slightly. "What do you mean?"

It was around this time that rumbling of many stomachs were made, Spike's seeming to be the loudest. Applejack smiled nervously. "Heh, seems like we're all a mite hungry after our trip."

Tristan nodded in agreement. "I'll see what we've got." he said. He went to get up, but was pushed back down by Twilight's magic.

"Don't worry about it! We are all extremely greatful for this once in a lifetime learning experience you've been able to give us! Please allow us to cook for you!" She offered, smiling. Can ponies cook? He thought to himself. They probably could, but he didn't want to take chances. He stood to object, but was nearly knocked over by the stampede of ponies. There was mixed, excited chatter as the others planned their dinner.

Tristan felt a slight tug on the bottom of his shirt. He looked down to see Fluttershy, still standing in the living room with him. "Um. Could I possibly, uh, you know, set the table?" she asked carefully.

Tristan fell back down to the couch in defeat. "Sure" he said, feeling slightly uneasy. Fluttershy grinned and skipped into the kitchen with her friends.