Eight PM. That's what Pete's cell phone said when he checked it. Seven full hours of sleep, and odd dreams. Part of him wanted to explain away the ponies he was sure he had seen as a dream, or a sleep deprived hallucination. But he could hear the TV from his room, along with general clatter. He groaned loudly, and got out of bed. Putting his glasses on, he opened the door of his room and into the main of the apartment.

He was greeted by a sight so full of chaos Discord himself would shed a tear of pride. Rarity, in her attempt to quell her distaste for the human's living space, had pulled everything out and away and was rearranging them however she saw fit. Not stopping until she found the exact way she wanted it and loudly declaring “Fabulous,” before moving on. Pete opted to leave her alone, as any kind of decorating sense was better than his complete lack of one. Even if it was a woman's … or rather a mare's in this case.

Twilight and Rainbow Dash were investigating human entertainment via the large television. The purple unicorn had the remote in her magic grasp and was casually flipping through channels, occasionally stopping on one or two for a while and taking notes. Behind her, sitting on the couch, was Rainbow Dash. The sky blue mare stood out on his black-blue, curb- side-rescue couch, and was notably the only one on it.

Fluttershy was nearby, trying to stay as out of sight as possible. She seemed very daunted by the large buildings in the distance, and more so at the idea that, if they were seeing those buildings from so high up, that meant they were at least that high up. As Pete thought about it, he realized that his actions earlier that day had been very Fluttershy-esque, the hiding and panicking. She had always been one of the ponies he'd thought himself the least like, next only to Pinkie Pie, but his actions had proven otherwise.

Finally, he looked across the room, suddenly wondering where the pink party pony was. She and Applejack were looking through his fridge, a trash can between them, the doors wide open. Pete watched with curiosity, which quickly turned to shock, as they pulled out several pounds of hamburger and casually dumped it into the waiting bin. His mouth gaping slightly at the sight, the human dashed across the room with speed he was unsure he had. Bounding over whatever object Rarity had been levitating, and causing Twilight and Rainbow to blink as he passed by, wondering what they'd just missed.

“What the HELL do you think you're doing?!” Pete was gasping for air, the length of his apartment being more than a casual sprint. Still, the anger in his tone was not unnoticed.

“Ya know there's meat in here, right?” Applejack asked, looking at the human with utter disbelief that a creature could consume meat. “Like, other livin animal kinds of meat?”

“Is there another kind,” Pete half asked, in a sarcastic manner. “Look, I'm an omnivore,” he pulled open his mouth and pointed out his sharper canines, “I need meat to LIVE.” He strained the live part. Pete wasn't a huge fan of vegetarian diets, even if his consumption of meat would upset his surprise guests. “Look,” he said calmly, noticing the farm pony's apprehension, “It's cow meat, and here cows don't talk. I'm not even sure they think really, just kinda eat grass... and poop.”

Applejack looked back in the freezer at the few remaining packages of meat with worry. She didn't like the idea of living with a creature that might decide she and her friends were dinner. This was quickly brushed aside, however, as Celestia reentered the room. The sound of the doors on the far, far, FAR, other side of the room caught Pete's attention. He watched as the regal alicorn entered, shutting the door to the room behind her with magic.

“I see you're awake,” she called out calmly.

“I thought Fluttershy was supposed to tell you all not to go outside,” he replied, a hint of resentment in his voice.

“I didn't think there would be any humans on the roof of such a large structure at this hour, and I was right. Though there seem to be many of you out on the streets. There's also much more light than I would have anticipated.”

Pete stepped forward and nodded, “Yeah. Light pollution is actually kind of a big deal. The government spends tons of cash on all sorts of projects, but for a lot less we could enjoy the night sky in the city just as well as someone could in the dark country side. Not that many care. The darkness is still considered scary thanks to primal fears in the back of the mind, course the predators now are more likely thieves than animals.”

“You speak as though you do not fear the dark,” Luna chimed in.

“I don't really. The darkness itself isn't frightening, just what could be hiding in it. If you know how to work in it, the dark can be your best friend. However, again, usually it's thieves or worse that use the dark to their advantage.” Pete saw Luna's face fall a little, then quickly said, “I'm far from the only one to think like this though. There are many, many people that find the night to be a place full of creativity and intimacy. I- … hold on.”

Pete moved back across his apartment and disappeared into his room for a minute. When he emerged he held in his hand a laptop, though the ponies had no idea what it was. He seated himself on the floor in front of the couch, with Rainbow on the couch behind him on the left, and the others slowly encircling him. Within moments he pulled up an image of Van Gogh's “Starry Night.” He showed the screen to Luna, who stared in wonder.

“This is what Vincent Van Gogh, a famous painter, saw when he looked at the night sky. Not a blanket of cold darkness and despair, but a varied light show of hues and color. A display that tantalized the senses to anyone that cared to actually look and appreciate the beauty. At least, that's what I think, not only of the painting, but of the night itself. You just have to stop and really think, take it in, see it and suddenly it's something completely new.”

A few of the ponies were impressed with the painting, except Rainbow, who scoffed slightly. Applejack was still in the kitchen area, deliberating on tossing the remaining meats. The one that mattered though, the one that Pete was trying to score brownie points with, Luna, was absolutely taken back. The Princess of Night was half to tears of joy, her lower lip shaking slightly, and a smile spread on her face. A moment later she was crouched with her forelegs around the human's neck, hugging him tightly.

“Thank you, human! This is a most wonderful gift,” she literally cried. As the dark blue alicorn pulled back she wiped a few tears from her eyes.

“It's nothing at all,” he replied, “It's not like I painted this, I just shared it.”

Luna smiled, “But the words you spoke, they were your own?” Pete nodded. “That was just as important. To command language at a moment's notice like that is nothing short of wordsmithing, a rare and valuable skill for any. Do not doubt that what you have shared here has been anything short of wonderful dear … I have just realized, we do not know your name!” Luna's face turned to complete shock at this discovery. “We have been guests in your home for hours now, and it has occurred to none of us to find out the name of our gracious host! Please, excuse us, we should have asked sooner.”

Pete was flustered at the barrage of compliments and flattery. Many of which he hardly felt deserving of. He was just showing off to his fan favorite pony, and his 'wordsmithing' was his college English degree in action. As for gracious, his actions the previous day were still burned into his mind. He was anything but gracious. Still, they should at least know his name.

“It's Pete D. Powell,” he said, looking at Luna, “Just Pete is fine, by the way.”

“Well, Pete,” Luna responded, smiling, “Thank you, from the depths of my heart.”

There came a sudden gasp from Pinkie Pie, who began bouncing excitedly. “OHMYGOSH! We have the same initials!”

Pete blinked at this outburst and did a mental check. Pete D. Powell, Pinkamena Diane Pie. A moment more passed as this registered in his mind and his jaw slowly dropped. How many years was he a brony and only just now, with the mare herself in front of him, did he figure this out? It was appalling to say the least. Pinkie noticed his look and slowed to a stop.

“You don't like it?”

“It's not that,” Pete assured her, “It's just... weird. I knew about you all for a long time, a LONG time. Several years, and I never noticed that.”

“Yes,” Celestia said, rubbing her chin with a hoof, “You did mention something about us being a cartoon. I've been wondering about that myself for quite some time now. Would you care to elaborate?”

“On one condition.” Pete held up a finger to emphasize his point. “I want to know how you know that I'm a human.” Shock swept through the group, even Celestia's jaw fell slightly. “See, you called me human before you could have figured out what my species was called. You knew what I was.”

Celestia closed her mouth and looked at the young man. He was sharp, much more than she'd expected. She slipped up once and he'd picked it up. Just a moment ago she'd had to reevaluate the human, acts of kindness towards her little sister rarely went unnoticed by the elder, and his method of choice had proven eloquence and a level of intellect. This now proved that he could use that intelligence for other purposes. So Celestia debated internally. After what felt like forever, she began.

“A long time ago, in our homeland of Equestria, humans lived happily with the other races of our world.” Another ripple of surprise moved through the group, even causing Applejack to abandon the kitchen and trot over to listen. “Of all the races they were the most fit for nightly duties. They were not only easily adaptable for it, but thrived in it. However, they lived under constant scrutiny. They were not as strong as an earth pony, lacked the speed and flight of a pegasus, and their hands were nothing compared to a unicorn's magic. They were the bottom of the barrel of the sentient races.”

“There was one thing they exceeded in; however, it wasn't good. They were masters of deception; lying and were quick to corrupt. On the other side of the coin though, they were the most capable of passion, and love. This often led them down dark roads, forcing others into their own views of right and wrong, loving with so much of their heart, mind, and soul that being removed from the person or creature of affection caused them to nearly snap. Equestria was a much more dangerous place back then, and the guard could not be everywhere. Accidents happened, and blame was shifted to the ponies whose lands the humans had inhabited. Eventually it grew to unacceptable scales. Humans began their own kind of retaliation, the end result sometimes being nearly catastrophic, and often involved bloodshed. Our ancestors, thousands of years past, met with the leader of the humans to try and make an arrangement. The human leader was barely more than a figurehead, however, and he pleaded for their banishment.”

“With a great deal of difficulty the human leader got what he wished. The human's banishment was delivered via magic, a potent spell that left our ancestors, the king and queen at the time, exhausted for weeks. As soon as they were well they set out to erase human kind from the world. Removing any trace mention of them in books, lore, and even art. Some things were too precious to deface, and were locked away. Over the years a few have found hints, but since humanity was removed from Equestria there was no evidence. Humans became legends, tales told in taverns late at night by old folks.”

The room sat in wonderment at this story. All but Pete. Pete laughed cynically on the inside, everything he'd said had essentially been proven. Humans were too evil for Equestria. It hurt, but often the truth does. He didn't know how long the ponies would stay, but when they left he knew how he would feel, empty, envious, and spiteful. The same as if they'd never shown up.

With a long sigh, Pete stood up and walked over to his TV. Plugging the HDMI cable from his Playstation into his laptop, he navigated to his stash of MLP episodes before stopping. He could pick anything, even something from the future. Sparing a quick glance at Twilight, he discounted anything past season 3. She didn't have any wings. Rubbing his forehead with his left hand, he turned to face the ponies in his crouched position.

“What was the last major event to happen?” He tried to sound somewhat casual.

“What do you mean?” Celestia asked, a brow raised.

“Well … okay see, if the show is an exact, or even rough, parallel to your world, then it's possible that I've got the future stored on my computer.”

Pete said this with slight apprehension in his voice and, better, to a crowd of ponies that suddenly went bright eyed at the idea of knowing the future. It was a rare opportunity after all, and while it was obvious that many of the mares considered asking a question, only one actually did. In a split second Rainbow Dash, who had been half prone on the couch, shot up and was face level with Pete. Her hooves somehow grasping the neck of his shirt and holding him in place like a bully would his victim, but with a look of glee on her face.

“Do I become a Wonderbolt?!” She shouted this with such excitement on her face that Pete couldn't help but smile, causing her own smile to widen.

“I-I can't say,” he said, quickly breaking eye contact, but still grinning at her face.

“Sure~” she chuckled, her smile almost breaking her face with its sheer size.

“Okay,” Pete chuckled, “So, I need to know something major that happened recently. Like, it's obvious that the girls here have defeated Nightmare Moon,” looks of shock registered on the mare's faces, “so something like that. Some event that could have been more catastrophic than it was.”

“Would you perhaps mean the recent changeling invasion of Canterlot during the royal wedding?” Luna asked slowly.

“Yup, that works,” he nodded.

Selecting the season one folder, he opened up “Griffon the Brush off” and let it run. It was a tense twenty something minutes for all. The ponies were shocked at the sight, it was as though someone had recorded the entire event without their knowledge. Many gasps were had, mostly from somepony wondering if they had really looked like that on that day, or if that was actually what they'd done or said. It was a jarring experience for the mares. However, Pete slowly loosened up over the course of the episode, even smiling a few times. This change was noted by Celestia, who continued her evaluation of their host.

As the episode drew to a close, Pete got up and selected something edgier, to illustrate his point of knowing their world. The season two opener. No one was left undisturbed this time, and worse a kind of fear lingered in the air. Discord's appearance caused everypony to gasp, and sent Celestia into a minor shock, almost ready for the cartoon to come to life, as the real Discord might have done. When the episode ended the silence was deafening, consuming. The tension was palpable, and even the Princesses were left speechless. After several minutes, Pete broke the silence.

“Well,” he cleared his throat, “In his defense, Tom was a pretty awesome rock.”

Rarity's mouth gaped open, a retort obviously in the works, but the response died suddenly and the mare simply stormed out of the room and onto the roof. Most of the others laughed, Rainbow the hardest, and Applejack the least. The tan farm pony's ears went flat as the fashionista stormed out of the room and she sat on her haunches giving Pete a look of despise.

Celestia remained neutral, but continued her silent evaluation of the human. While his joke may have been hit and miss with those around him, it was obvious his intention was to break the rising tension the room held. Seeing Discord had proven to shake everypony, even the Princesses. The alabaster alicorn kept eying the human more and more with each new action he made. For every hate filled word he'd spoken against his kind he turned around and shown the opposite, though not consciously perhaps. The princess had seen how seriously Pete felt about what he said. He seemed to sincerely hate both himself and humanity, at least in the moment he'd spoken about his world, though she still held doubts about it all.

Applejack stepped out after Rarity, leaving the rest of the room to recover from the giggle fit, and the pair returned after everyone had settled. The fashionista gave Pete a slight nod upon her return, the human hoped that signaled at least minor forgiveness, and quickly the room fell back to silence. While less oppressive than before it still made Pete nervous, as if he wasn't supposed to be there or was expected to leave and let the group of foreigners to discuss matters. This time it was Celestia that broke the silence.

“I can certainly see why many would consider this show childish, though things did not quite go as smoothly as we saw.”

“Don't tell me Discord actually hurt someone,” Pete half whispered, his heart quickly falling. Moments before he was laughing, smiling at the episode. Now he was on the verge of being possibly told that he was smiling while off screen ponies died.

“No,” Celestia said quickly, “There were a few minor injuries from the sudden shift, but it took us nearly a month to get weather patterns, crops, and buildings back into line.”

“What we just saw,” Twilight interjected, “Was only the confrontation with Discord. The aftermath lasted much longer.”

Dash spoke up next. “Yeah, putting the weather back in order was a pain even for me!”

“All of the animals were so afraid,” Fluttershy finished from behind the far corner of the couch.

Pete eyed his TV with a slight look of revulsion. It felt like he'd been lied to, even though he knew there was no way for the writers of the show to have known about an actual Equestria in another universe. Every illusion slowly crumbled in his mind as he mentally went through each episode and tried to predict the fallout from each conflict. How long did it take the pegasi to clear up that dragon's smog from season one? How much worse was Chrysalis' invasion of Canterlot? It almost made him sick thinking about how much he and others had enjoyed what were real conflicts for others.

“Pinkie didn't drink that chocolate rain.” The group looked at Applejack confusingly. “The Pinkie on there got distracted after we all came back together to defeat Discord. Ours didn't.”

Celestia rubbed her chin with a gilded hoof. “Perhaps our world isn't the only Equestria out there. Maybe the one 'imagined' here fared much better than we did.”

The idea both unsettled Pete and calmed him. It calmed him to think that there was still an ideal world out there, but it also meant there were far worse ones. The human rubbed his face a little bit, then stood up carefully and went to the bathroom without a word. The ponies watched in equal silence as he left the room. After removing his glasses, Pete splashed some cold water on his face and stared into the mirror. When he returned, he sat down on left end of the couch, opposite Rainbow Dash, and looked at the princesses.

“How do we get you all home?” He asked without a single ounce of hesitation.

“If we knew, we would be gone by now,” Luna said sadly.

“We looked over my student's notes on the matter,” Celestia gestured to the kitchen and the table that Pete had seen cluttered with papers, “but neither myself, Luna, or Twilight could find a fault.”

“They spent almost all that time you were asleep lookin at that stuff,” Applejack said rather defensively, “It's gonna take something more to get us gone.”

Pete rubbed his forehead in frustration. “What do we do then?”

“For now, we should rest.” The group looked at Celestia in shock. “I know, but we've done what we can for now. If I'm feeling tired from this interdimensional travel, I'm sure the rest of you are at least getting there.”

Dash stretched out next to Pete, who was surprised at how small the ponies could be. While Celestia was just over six feet, and Luna was tall enough to look him in the eyes, the rest of the ponies were around 3'9'' to four foot even. Rainbow herself was possibly the smallest of the bunch, and when she curled up on the couch like a cat, she could fit in Pete's lap. However, when standing, she was nearly up to his chest.

“I can vouch for this couch,” she said to her friends on the floor, “It's no cloud, but it's good enough.”

Once more Pete excused himself, rummaging in his closet, and returned with a cluster of various blankets and pillows. Telling his uninvited guests to work out whatever they felt would be best. Rarity was the loudest objector, insisting on sleeping in a bed, but Pete shot that down by saying his room was the only one she could not decorate. Eventually the six Elements were grouped together in a circle on blankets in the middle of the floor, a pillow to each, and Celestia took the couch, folding her legs underneath her and resting her head on the arm rest. It was a sight that Pete gaped at, confusedly, for a moment.

The human shrugged, eventually, and left the six to talk quietly amongst themselves to make himself some food. In the middle of his meal he was joined by Luna, who watched him consume a hamburger with the same kind of look a caveman might have given to a monkey eating bugs. With the food out of the way, Pete grabbed himself a soda and offered a drink to the princess. A glass of ice water later and the pair were having their own hushed talks in the middle of the night.

Luna was mostly curious about the human's history, which Pete provided his shaky knowledge of. In exchange, she told him some of Equestria's history, which she was essentially a scholar of. Rapidly he discovered that this Equestria was no perfect world, having suffered its own share of wars for stupid reasons. The main difference being the existence of two nearly all powerful beings to guide the world, which Pete had to admit would make anything better. He didn't believe much in god, but if one did exist and could just zap anything better with magic, he doubted many wars would break out.

The topic of occupation came up soon and Pete opted to show Luna his job, rather than try to explain. He quietly grabbed his laptop from the living room of sleeping ponies and guided the Princess of Night through one of his editing jobs. By the end she had to blink several times to correct her vision, and looked at Pete with slight amazement. It was no big deal to him, anyone could read and fix things, if they knew the rules. As he saw it, he was hardly important. He kept this to himself, however, and simply went to work on his latest jobs. Keeping three long term articles to edit, and having several short term, between 24-48 hours, jobs he managed to make more money than most, but still less than some.

Luna latched on to that topic, asking about the economy, and once more Pete gave what he could. 'Here's a dollar, it's worth one, I need thousands to live a month.' Luna rather quickly grasped, from his figures, that money would quickly become and issue, now that he had several more mouths to feed. She kept that to herself, however, intending to speak with her sister on the matter. There was no reason to burden their host further with their intrusion. Though he assured her he'd put a significant amount of money into savings, it did not sit right with her to take without giving something in return.

Around five in the morning Pete finished his jobs and excused himself yet again, this time to shower. He lingered for a while, thinking more than cleaning. Letting the steam of his hot shower nearly suffocate him before finishing. When he emerged, he found Luna on the couch and Celestia nowhere in sight. A short peak into his room made him sigh with exasperation. She was on the roof again. Stepping out onto the empty roof, he looked around and found her not only on the roof, but on the roof of his specific apartment. His apartment stuck out like a sore thumb, being the only one on the floor with roof access, and the block being only five rooms long. It was like someone put a single stand out Lego on top of a wall of Legos.

Climbing a ladder on the side of the wall, Pete stepped up beside Celestia and crossed his arms. The alicorn was looking out at the East, the doors to his apartment below them. It wasn't long until sunrise, and that made Pete itchy. He hated the sunlight.

“The roof again,” he sighed, “Is this going to be a thing?”

Celestia sat quiet for a moment, causing Pete to drop his facade and look at the princess with concern. She made a note of that, just before the sun started to rise on the horizon. Pete turned around and shaded his eyes, hissing audibly at the light. Slowly, carefully, Celestia spoke to him.

“Yesterday this was my job. I was up before everypony else, and I started their day. It wasn't the best job, long hours in summer, busy in winter, but it was mine. Now here I am. Those six don't need constant supervision, and the sun raises itself. Yesterday I had a kingdom, I was a goddess. Today, I'm as normal as can be.”

Pete scoffed, “Well that sounds egotistical.”

“Is it?” Celestia wondered aloud. “It's all I've ever known, Pete. Just like Applejack has only known working on her farm, or Rarity fashion. Take that away from us, what makes us special and what are we left with?”

“Magic, friends, wings, the fact you're a talking horse. ...okay, look, all joking aside, you're not suddenly useless. First off, I don't know those mares as well as watching potential futures would seem. If something starts to go off, you're my warning system. You know them, and they'll confide in you. If something is wrong, tell me and I'll fix it. As best I can anyway. And secondly, you're still their leader. You're the most respected here, so it's going to be up to you to try and keep things in line. The last thing we need is for Rainbow to decide she needs to stretch her wings outside and get sucked into a jet engine.”

After a short explanation of what a jet engine is, and what it would do to anything living, Celestia gagging, and Pete openly considering suicide as a form of repentance, they moved on. “Basically, they need you, and I do too. Not to mention that without this rune you all mentioned last night, Twilight is going to need all the magic she can get to drag you all back home.”

The alicorn princess thought on that for a long time. “Pete,” she said slightly quietly, “Do you really believe you and your kind are pure evil?”

“... Sort of? It's more like, what we've been raised to be. Ever since the days of cavemen, if that's even real any more, things have been take and keep for yourself. Saving others only when it can benefit you. Back then it was what you did to survive, but now … Now we have people that hoard money and power that could be used to help everyone, but because of that old mentality few do. They pass it on to their children, who probably end up wasting it, and then what? Nothing. It's wasted. Lining the pockets of someone else instead of feeding the hungry, housing the poor, anything. I'm not saying I have all the answers, but something just seems WRONG to me. I don't know how to fix it, and it just pisses me off.”

“I'm no saint, don't get me wrong. I'm just as guilty as the next guy, but that doesn't mean I have to like it, or myself. Hell, I'd say that I'm bottom of the barrel in terms of human goodness. Well, okay, there have been worse, but I'm not some shining example of humanitarianism.”

Celestia chuckled, “The next time you start feeling that way, remember this. You did something here that was exceptional. You took in a group of strange creatures from an alternate world, and gave them shelter. Perhaps you're not the best, but you did something good. And if the worst, in your eyes, can do good, then there's hope yet for the rest of you, and this world. Equestria is no utopia, so don't just compare them like that. It's a process that takes time, dedication, and good hearted creatures.”

Pete rubbed his face and nodded. “Yeah, I get it. I lost it yesterday. I just … I'm jealous, okay? You saw the show, all the adventure and color and stuff.”

“Yes, I did. I can see why you would be envious of such a picturesque world like that, but if that world exists it is not ours.”

“Yeah...”

Celestia turned around and nudged Pete with her flank, “I believe it's time for us to get going. I hear my little ponies stirring and there's something you over looked.”

“What?” Pete finally pulled his hand off his eyes and looked at the alicorn next to him.

“We can't eat the meat in your freezer, and you probably don't have enough soap for eight 'horses' as you said.”

Pete's heart sank, there was no way he could explain all that soap and food to the people at his local grocery store. His usual place probably didn't even stock that much. That meant a bus ride across town, and a lot of money. As he entered the apartment, he heard Pinkie Pie ask how exactly they were supposed to use his toilet, as the Equestrian version was apparently built into the floor. With an outward groan, Pete thumped his head against the wall. Today was going to be the longest day of his life.