Jonathan slowly drifted back to consciousness, his senses starting to register his surroundings.

First sense to come back was feeling. It was chilly, the kind of chilly which is found during late autumn. He felt the spikey tips of grass pinching his exposed skin. The smell of grass also confirmed this sensation.

He couldn't hear anything, just the quiet ruffling of leaves. Even with closed eyelids, he could guess it was night-time.

Opening his eyes, he found his guess was correct. It was night-time, with the moon shining some light to the grim-dark landscape.

"Where am I?" Jonathan thought with his confused mind. He had no idea where he was, how he ended up where he was or why he ended up at the foreign place. He couldn't remember what had happened before this. He felt like he had lost a week worth of memory.

"So, a small concussion, with its nice sideserving of memory loss and a tasty headache. This is going so well.." He said to himself with a sarcastic tone while pulling himself up.

Now fully aware and thinking straight, Jonathan corrected his glasses and took notice of his surroundings more carefully. All around him, he could only see dark trunks of trees, their leaves covering the starry night sky. There also were leaves on the ground, a clear indication of the upcoming or already in progress autumn and its cold nights. He knew he had no chance of surviving the night without some sort of shelter. Wearing only a pair of camopattern sweatpants, a black hooded shirt and a pair of sneakers, the level of cold resistance was low.

He started walking at a random direction, hoping to find a place to keep himself warm.

***

Jonathan didn't know how much time had passed. Thinking his current situation and trying to remember what had gotten him to this place took over his sense of time. If the feeling of tiredness and cold were anything to go by, it had been at least an hour or two. His stomach groaned, noting that he probably hadn't eaten much before this happened to him.

He started to get increasingly worried as he walked among the dark tree trunks, seeming to be unable to find the shelter he needed.

Soon, Jonathan arrived at a large clearing. Immediately he noticed the two large building-like shapes. The farther one, looked like a mix of a church's bell tower and a barn, at least that's what he could make up from the dark silhouette. The closer one resembled a good, old, ordinary barn with its curved roof and overall size. He thought that it wouldn't be a good idea to disturb a dark house located in the middle of a forest;  a house of which that who knows how far away from society it is. He opted to check out the barn.

He approached the dimly moonlit building, hoping the insulation was decent enough to keep the place a few degrees warmer. Opening the wooden door, he felt a slight rush of warmer air brushing his face. He quickly darted inside, closing the door behind him.

The barn was pitch-dark. Jonathan started to walk forwards, while slowly scanning the floor with his feet, in the hopes of finding something soft to rest on. The cold and walking for god knows how long had taken all the little energy he had left and he desperately needed some sleep.

His foot touched something soft; at the very least it was something that was softer than the hard, wooden floor. He crouched down and touched it with his hands. It was hay.

"Well, what else could there be in a barn?" He wondered to himself with slight amusement. He crawled on top of the pile. Taking a comfortable position and laying some hay on top himself, he already felt slightly warmer. Jonathan closed his eyes and drifted to sleep.

***

"What in 'tarnation are you doin' in mah barn?"

Startled, Jonathan sat up quickly. Still overwhelmed from the sudden wake-up, he squinted his eyes in an attempt to see something through the bright sunlight. The barn door was fully open and the sun shined right inside, blinding the suddenly woken up Jonathan and casting a dark shadow in front of him. He couldn't make out the silhouette from the doorway.

"Wait, I was just.." he managed to say, before he saw something in a form of an apple flying towards his face.

Before his neck muscles could even react to the evading order, everything went black.

***

"Now AJ, are you sure?" A calm female voice asked.

"Sure as sugar Ah'm!" Responded another female with an accented voice, with a hint of frustration in it.

"I think he's waking up." A third female voice said, much closer to Jonathan.

Jonathan grunted and slowly opened his eyes. His eyelids felt heavy and overall he felt a little under the weather.

"You're at the Ponyville Medical Clinic." The answering voice was soft and reassuring. "May I ask what your name is?" The closest female voice continued.

"Jonath.. What?" He couldn't believe what he just heard. He quickly sat up and looked around, before noticing he had lost his glasses and couldn't see anything except for three strange shapes of color, that stood out from the dull, grey background. The closest one, right next to his bed, was white as snow with a little hint of light pink around. The other two blurry shapes were purple with darker features and orange with blondish features. Jonathan tried to squint his eyes, but it didn't help. A small trace of confused panic started to pick up in his mind.

"There's no need to panic, you're safe here." Said the white one, with a motherly caring voice.

Jonathan didn't know whether or not to trust that. Being in a room with almost no ability to see who was talking to him and the closest memory being hit by an apple so hard he lost consciousness didn't help him to calm down.

Surprised by the tone of voice, he managed to gather up a big question, for him it was a big one.

"W-who are you?" He said with a voice that seeped confusion and mild panic.

"I'm Nurse Redheart" the white shape said, with the same caring voice. "But may I ask your name again?"

Jonathan replied, this time telling his name in full. Looking at the purple shape, he wondered; Why did they wear so highly saturated outfits? And why were they so short? They didn't seem to be much taller than the hospital bed he was sitting on.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle, nice to meet you Jonathan." Said the purple shape with a polite tone while stepping closer to Jonathan's bed.

"And Ah'm Applejack" The orange shape said with a neutral voice from farther back, not moving.

Jonathan wondered what happened to his glasses. Without them, he was practically blind, which was a little unnerving in this particular situation.

"You don't happen to have any sort of glasses around?" He asked, rubbing his eyes.

The now closer Twilight and Nurse Redheart appeared to look at each other, at least that's what Jonathan could make out from the blurry colorful shapes. A slow hum filled the previously silent room and a few seconds later Jonathan felt something touch his hands. Taking them into closer inspection, he knew right away what they were. Reading glasses.

"I always carry a pair if I need to read something." Said the purple figure. "I hope you can see with them, they are not very powerful ones."

Jonathan winced at the fact they were reading glasses, they won't work on his negative-sided eyes. In fact, they would make his vision worse. Still, he tried them on and noticed he could see quite well with them.

"Wait, if these are reading glasses then how can I..." The sentence was interrupted by the sudden confusion that flooded his mind. He now could see the figures more clearly, albeit not perfectly. Still, it was enough to make his brain go blank from what he was seeing.

They were horses; no, ponies. They were brightly colored ponies. Polite and apparently caring and friendly, brightly colored ponies. His mind desperately tried to process what he was seeing.

"How are you feeling?" Asked the blue-eyed white pony, with a nurse's hat on.

"I.. my.. my head hurts a bit" He wasn't sure anymore if the pounding in his head was from the apple or from the attempts to comprehend his surroundings.

"That's from the concussion you suffered earlier." The nurse-pony said, giving a blaming look at the cowboy-hat wearing orange pony. "Aside from that, you have no other injuries," Turning to look at Jonathan again, the blaming look now replaced by a genuinely caring one. "But we still have to keep you under observation for a while."

Jonathan felt quite surprised that he didn't suffer from a cracked skull. Taking a hit from a frozen fist-sized apple with enough force to knock you out wasn't a small thing. Jonathan's eyes turned to the purple unicorn.

They both watched each others' eyes for a few seconds, before the one with purple eyes slightly tilted her head. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing really. It's just that where I'm from, there are no talking brightly colored ponies, not to mention unicorns." He said, his eyes still locked with the purple ones.

"Where are you from exactly? We haven't seen anypony, or should I say anyone, like you in Equestria before."

Jonathan didn't know how to answer that question. He was probably in a different planet or universe or something, how could he explain where he was from?

"We humans are from a planet called Earth.." He began. He recalled the history of humankind as best as he could, telling how the humans evolved from simple hunter societies to an intelligent and technological race. Apparently in Equestria, war and terror wasn't a recent or well known subject. Hearing about the stupid wars of humankind and their results drew horrified gasps from the three listeners. Aside from that, the two others didn't react much or say anything. The technological advancements particularly seemed to interest the purpled one a lot.

Not knowing what to tell anymore, Jonathan ended his long speech. He couldn't make out what the trio was thinking after this enlightening, maybe not so happy, history of humans. He just hoped he hadn't made his situation worse.

"What 'bout you?" Asked the orange pony from farther back. She hadn't said anything after Jonathan had woken up in the clinic. "How you ended up in 'ere? In Equestria?"

"I have no idea how I ended up here. I woke up in the middle of a forest at night, unable to remember anything what happened to me. I can only recall memories from farther back like my childhood and some recent events." He answered. "But I can't remember anything what happened in like a week or so."

"Well, what can you tell us about yourself?" Redheart asked. Jonathan gave a sad smile at the question.

"Me? I'm nothing special. Just a lone student, with no friends." He said, lowering his eyes towards the soft sheets of the bed. "Or family.."

"I have never accomplished anything special. Nor have I felt much happiness during the last few years. I never had a real friend, never had a relationship, never felt true love, except for and by my parents." Sadness seeped through his features and voice. "After my parents died, I just drowned myself in computers and games, while trying to look forwards to get to my dream job." He paused for a few seconds and took a deep breath. "I still don't know how I managed to keep going. The only thing I really wanted was to find friendship and love and live happily for the rest of my life with my family."

"But, somehow that seemed impossible, from the bad experiences I got in trying to achieve that."

The room fell silent. For a few seconds everybody just stood there. Jonathan's eyes widened when he felt something touch his left shoulder. He raised his head and looked to his left. A pair of sad purple eyes were looking at him, with a purple hoof on his shoulder.

"You're not alone." She said. "Not anymore."

"How? You barely know me!" Jonathan said, disbelieved. "Not to mention I'm an alien to you."

"You may look different.." She said, those big purple eyes still locked to his light green ones. "But that doesn't mean you can't get friends. It's what's inside you that counts."

The room fell silent again, until a muffled shout broke the silence. "Is the monkey awake? Where is it?"

A synchronized wave of three frustrated sighs were let out by the three ponies accompanying Jonathan in his room. Nurse Redheart trotted to the door and exited, closing the door behind her. Jonathan got a good look at the red cross on the white pony's flank. He wondered, why they had their profession tattoo'd on themselves? Twilight turned to look at the door, as did Applejack. They both seemed to wait for something, but not in a very good way.

"Miss Dash, please quiet down. You'll wake up the patients from their much needed sleep with your shouting." The barely audible voice of Nurse Redheart said to someone.

"Oh, sorry!" Said a slightly high pitched voice, now with a similar volume to Redheart. "Is it in there? Can I see it? Is it awake?" The voice continued with excitement, almost forgetting to keep her volume down.

"First of all, it's 'he' and no, he still needs some rest." Two sighs of relief were let out in Jonathan's room, he wondered why.

"Aww, can I at least see him? Pretty please?" the higher pitched voice continued, disappointed.

"No. I will inform you when you can see him. Now please, keep your speaking volume..." The voice drifted off as they moved away from Jonathan's room. A few seconds of silence filled the room.

"Well, that was close." Applejack said relieved, breaking the silence.

"Indeed." Twilight responded and turned to look at Jonathan, he looking back with a raised eyebrow. "Long story. You should get some sleep. I'll come back to give you a small tour around Ponyville and find a place for you to sleep in, after Nurse Redheart allows you to leave, of course." She said with a small smile. Both Twilight and Applejack trotted to the door, the latter giving a dip of her hat as a farewell before exiting, Twilight just behind her.

"Umm, Twilight." Jonathan called. The purple unicorn stopped in the doorway and looked back over her shoulder.

"Thank you."

"You're welcome." She said with a soft smile, before exiting and closing the door. The room was now silent, except for the shuffling of the bed covers as Jonathan laid down and took a comfortable position. As his heavy eyelids pressed down on his eyes, he quickly fell asleep.

--------------------------------------------

A/N Well, that was the first chapter of my very first fan-fic. I truly thank you for reading this far!

Comments, ratings and overall feedback is appreciated!

26.12: Fixed (again) some mistakes I made and changed some oddly used words etc. to a more readable form. And consarn it, I know the difference between "its" and "it's", yet I keep making the mistake of using the wrong one sometimes..

27.12: A HUGE thanks to MrMusicalPony for making this more enjoyable to read!