The floor hurt.

“Woah there, partner. Take it easy.”

An orange hoof entered my vision, and I slowly raised my head to see the pony it was attached to. She wore nothing save a Stetson, which seemed ridiculous even with what I knew about ponies. I tried to get a look at her cutie mark, but quickly stopped before I looked like even more of a tourist. Hesitantly, I took the offered hoof. “Sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was going.”

The pony nodded, taking a step back and looking up at me. “I could see that. Where ya headed?”

“Uh… Equestria, I guess.”

“Well, ain’t that a thing. Same here. C’mon, then, let me show you the way. Can’t have you falling over any more, can we?” Without waiting to see if I was following, she was already moving off. For a moment, I was relieved. Then I realized several other ponies were watching me expectantly, and I hurried to catch up. That seemed to satisfy the bystanders, and they were all smiles again.

I took a moment to look the pony over. Now I could see that she sported a trio of apples on her flank, which raised more questions than it answered. What was she doing all the way up here?

“You’re new to the system, ain’t ya?” the pony asked, breaking my train of thought. She was looking over her shoulder at me, a slight smile on her face. At my nod, she continued, “Well, I’m glad I got the chance to welcome ya, then. Name’s Applejack.”

“Like the drink?” I blurted, before my brain could catch up with my mouth.

Applejack chuckled, not seeming offended. “Sure, if you like. To me, it’s just my name.”

I resisted the urge to start stammering apologies, and instead offered my hand to shake. “Uh, it’s Robert. Robert Wright.”

Applejack made no motion to shake my hand, and eventually I put it away, feeling silly. She seemed to be playing with my name in her head. “Robert, then. Nice t’meet’cha. What brings you to Equestria?”

I opened my mouth, and then closed it again, trying to come up with an answer I could actually articulate. Somehow, “your species is just so fascinating” sounded creepy in my head. And “I’ve got nowhere else to be,” was too pathetic even for me. Ever since the Equestrians had shown up at the edges of our empire with an inexplicable combination of impossible magic and absolutely no desire to conquer anyone with it, the relations between species had been… strange. Ponies weren’t allowed on Earth, as they were a security risk. The Equestrians had responded by fully opening their borders to humans. Not many had taken them up on it. We had too many stories of that going badly, after all.

And yet here I was, on an Equestrian space station, only one short jump from their homeworld, talking to a pony who seemed to think this was the most normal thing in the world. I wasn’t ready for this level of real interaction. I hadn’t gotten my story straight. I hadn’t expected to need one yet.

“I guess… curiosity?” I didn’t say it with much conviction, but at least it wasn’t entirely a lie.

Applejack looked me over. “You’ve come a long way just fer being curious, I reckon. Still, I’m sure everypony will be glad to see you.” She turned and started walking again.

I followed her in silence, taking the time to look around. The station was nothing like what I was used to - brightly colored, the walls covered with murals, or cut away into small markets manned by smiling ponies. None of them seemed surprised to see me, but they all noticed my presence. I expected that. What I didn’t expect was that they all seemed pleased about it, instead of suspicious. The vendors waved cheerily as I passed, and no less than three ponies had asked if I needed help before Applejack had come along. At least politely refusing had worked, until I’d tripped over my own two feet.

“Applejack?” I ventured. “Can I ask you a question?” The words were out of my mouth before I could think better of them.

The orange pony paused again, cocking her head in a way that reminded me once again how not human she was.

I swallowed, my mouth suddenly dry. “Why… why is everyone so happy to see me? It’s… not what I was expecting. At all.”

Applejack took a moment to consider that question, weighing her answer. Finally, she spoke. “You don’t know much about ponies, do you?” She didn’t seem to need an answer to that. “Well, we know a lot about you. You’ve fought with nearly every other species you’ve encountered, and the ones you didn’t were because they knew they couldn’t fight you back so they didn’t even try. And now you’ve found somepony that don’t fit into one of those boxes, and ya ain’t sure what to do about it.”

I started to open my mouth, but it seemed she wasn’t done. “We’re not like y’all. We have the magic of friendship, and friendship is fer everypony, even if they done bad in the past. We’re friendly because that’s what it is to be a pony. And if you’re here, it’s because that’s something you want, one way or another.” She smiled again, and patted my arm with one hoof. “So we’re here to welcome you to Equestria, friend. Now c’mon, the sooner we get planetside the sooner I can get you some of Granny’s famous apple cider.”

I paused for a moment, and then, slowly, I smiled. “I think I would like that a lot.”

A few moments later, we were at the gate. It could have been a doorway to a castle or a cathedral back on Earth, except that instead of the wall behind it, all I could see inside was a swirling pool of colored lights. Technically, I knew the Equestrians had wormhole tech. But actually seeing it in action was something else entirely. Ponies just stepped through it, like they didn’t know - or didn’t care - how many rules of physics it broke.

Applejack chuckled at my expression. “Come on, now. Just think of stepping into a pool, and you’ll be through in no time.” She pushed me towards the swirling barrier with one hoof.

I reached out with one hand to touch it, and found my fingers disappeared without any sensation at all. I took a deep breath, closed my eyes, and stepped on through.

Author's Notes:

This chapter contains some after-the-fact editing to bring up the word count, and to address some critiques left on the original entry. Thanks to Lofty Withers for the thorough comments.