> Isaac's Storm
>  by EquusStorm
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

> 1. Curiosity Killed the Colt
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Isaac let out a long, frustrated sigh. The news was not good. According to the message from the PC manufacturer, his beloved laptop's hard drive was completely dead. And he had not backed up his pony folder on the external drive in several months. "There goes four months of saved pony images, macros, fanfics, and music." He mumbled to himself for a few minutes before dragging himself into his bedroom. The 21-year old navigated through piles and stacks of merchandise, indicative of his obsession to the show. "Guess I'll fire up ole Rusty and get started." He plopped down in a cyan-coloured computer chair and looked over his compuer desk for the cable to his external drive. "Where did I leave that thing..." he growled, under his teeth. 

Suddenly, he heard a loud knocking on his door. "Coming!" he groaned, once again forging his way through mountains of pony-related goodies. He opened the door to reveal his mother, hands full of neatly folded clothes, smiling at him sympathetically. 

"Did you get the message from the computer people? They said that your-" 

"Yes, mom, I am aware." He cut her off and sighed once more. "Now I'm just trying to get the desktop started so I can start getting back what I lost." 

His mother shook her head. "Isaac, don't you think you need to take a break from all this? You're stressing yourself out over this whole thing. Step away from your computer for a bit and go out for some fresh air. It'll do you good." 

Isaac frowned and crossed his arms, replying "Mom, I'm not stressed out. Just frustrated is all. I have to go in and start over again because I didn't back up everything like I should have." 

With a chuckle, Isaac's mother handed over the clothes she was carrying and said, "You look pretty stressed out to me. Just take my advice, okay? You might even be able to find a job. Think about it - more money to buy pony stuff!" 

Isaac rolled his eyes and groaned. "Mom, I don't really want a job right now, okay? I mean, money's nice but..." His voice trailing off, he looked around his horribly cluttered room before looking back at her. 

"Now I have to run some errands and go shopping in a bit," she said, "so why don't you clean up this room of yours and get your clothes put away. Then I want you to spend some time outside, all right?" 

"Yeah, okay mom. I will. Have a nice day in town. Love ya."  

Beginning to walk down the hallway towards the kitchen, she giggled and replied, "Bye dear! Loves!" As she disappeared from view, Isaac closed his door, threw the clothes on a desk, and returned to his chair. 

"Yep. Sure, I'll do that mum. Now for an evening of nothing but ponies."

A few hours passed. After finding the cable, he began to browse pony-related sites on his desktop computer. A bit slow, but functional. He scanned through Equestria Daily and Derpibooru before settling in to a long Ponychan browsing session. Now to /pic/, he thought. But another thought was also struggling to rise to the surface, from deep within. A thought he had tried to dilute somewhat. It reminded him that, deep down, he knew that his mother was right. He was 21, unemployed, and still living at his mom's house. No ambition, no career plans, nothing.  Aside from an interest in history and meteorology, his entire spoiled life revolved around ponies. Since Season One aired, he had cut off nearly all contact with the outside world and let his social ties wither away. And occasionally, his mind would drift away from ponies long enough to ponder these things. But he would always return to pony. Not much else really mattered. He was obsessed to an unhealthy level. 

Did this bother Isaac? He would love to have brushed it off as little consequence, justifying his obsession somehow, but it did affect him  subconsciously, at least rather subtly. He knew he needed fresh air and friends. But the allure of MLP:FiM had distracted him for the better part of a year. It's just a phase, I'll lose some of the obsession and be back to just a normal brony before too long, he told himself. But really, if it wasn't ponies, it was something else. Simply put, he was a spoiled young man. Despite never really knowing his father, his mother and his extended family always made sure he had everything he wanted. He never had to work for anything. In fact, he had never worked at all.  Perhaps he was just a spoiled fellow, but at 21 he ought to have at least some idea of what he wanted for his own future. Never mind that, he told himself. There would be time later, but he had to replenish his pony folder.

Just down the street from Isaac's home, the local utility crew was doing routine maintenance on lines. All seemed to be going fairly well for most of the endeavour, as the crew worked well into the early afternoon. Isaac's mother had waved at the supervisor on her way to town. But an inexperienced member of the team was becoming exhausted by the task at hand. And when exhaustion begins to take over, things start to go wrong. A slight mishap caused him to lose his grip on a piece of equipment, which fell into a transformer. Immediately, the entire crew was greeted by a gigantic shower of sparks, and a noise not unlike that of a small explosion. The crewmember fell off the pole and onto the grass below, stunned. Simultaneously, the entire neighborhood lost electricity, including Isaac's home, where the brony had been watching a fan video. 

"Dammit!" he shouted, as the screen suddenly turned black. Now what was he to do? Spinning his chair to face the east wall, he stared at a pile of recent online pony purchases and decided that it was not worth the effort to dig  through the mess to find something to do. "Guess I'll go find something to eat..." he dryly droned, and shuffled his way to the kitchen. Guided by the natural light streaming in from the windows, he scoured the cabinets for any hint of food. Pickings were sparse on shopping day.  

Eventually settling for a small bowl of stale cereal, he sat at the ornate table in the center of the kitchen and shook his head. "This is just not my week for electronics." He slowly emptied the bowl, lost in thought. But as he got up to put the bowl in the sink, he looked out the window and noticed that the sky was a beautiful blue, with a gentle breeze. "Maybe I should listen to mom and take a little walk. That'll help pass the time, and I could get some fresh air." Isaac donned a pair of tennis shoes, a light coat, and his cell phone, then headed out the door.

Isaac's cold indifference about the week's events gradually turned into a smile as he admired the colours on the maples and oaks lining the street. Upstate New York was beautiful in September, with perfect temperatures and bright sunshine. The breeze lifted leaves off the ground and sent them gracefully somersaulting through the air before landing again. The piles of fallen leaves reminded him of diving into similar piles in his own yard when he was quite young. The nostalgia drew his attention away from ponies for a few moments. Well, almost. "I wonder when the Running of the Leaves will take place this year?" He chuckled to himself, noting that he could find pony references in almost anything. After walking down the street for 20 minutes, he realised that time -and daylight - had slowly started to slip away. "I'd better head back for the house soon." 

However, the sight of a densely forested cove just ahead reminded him of another memory - exploring the old- growth tract at the end of the street. "Oh man, I almost forgot about the forest! I wonder how much it's changed in the last 10 years!" With an excited grin, he jogged over to the edge of the woodland. Ahead, a gentle slope led into a fairly deep valley, and beyond that lay another rise, which leveled out before dropping again into a small valley, flanked by short rocky bluffs. The entire area was covered with large trees of myriad species. "It's just like I remembered!" he whispered to himself, and stepped a few paces in. Isaac took in the scenery, looking at the tall woody columns rising above an understory largely devoid of shrubs and vines. In the summer, the cove took on a cathedral-like feel, with scattered beams of light penetrating into the dark shadows below the canopy. It was a wondrous place.

The young man snapped out of his nostalgic trance when he noticed a gigantic grey stump several paces further down into the cove. He had never seen a stump so large! He ran over to it to inspect it, but quickly realised that the stump was indeed a rock outcropping, eroded away into a stump-like shape. Chuckling at his mistake, he looked the rock over. Something quite odd caught his eye. On the other side, facing away from the road, there was a crude figure etched into the rock. Squinting, he could make out the shape of an animal. Perhaps a horse? But the proportions were off... it was if the horse had a small torso and an extremely large head. Similar, in fact, to a familiar creature. Isaac's mind quickly jumped back to MLP:FiM. The figure looked uncannily similar to the style portrayed in the show! A chill ran down his spine, but he quickly calmed himself and said aloud, "Okay. Whoa. It looks similar, but that's just my mind playing tricks on me. Nothing more." He chuckled a bit again. "I dub thee... Pony Rock!" He turned to leave, but something caught his eye near the top of the ridge. "Is that a game trail and a campsite in a clearing? Never seen that before." 

Suffice to say, Isaac was not one for keeping his attention focused, and he decided to detour through the valley to the clearing, all the while following the well-trodden game trail. Upon reaching the barren spot, he quickly assessed that the campsite had not been used in quite a while, as no ashes remained in the fire pit. Three logs, serving as makeshift benches, had largely rotted away. But the most curious thing was the five small, polished, and nearly round stones surrounding the fire pit. They lay in a star-shaped pattern, in what seemed like hand-dug depressions in the soil. "Hehe, the Elements of Harmony. This is interesting indeed." Isaac knew the things he had noticed since entering the woods probably meant absolutely nothing, and his desire to associate them with ponies was a product of his overactive imagination. A pony-controlled imagination.

Noting that he probably had roughly two hours before the sun would begin to set for the day - and probably the same amount of time before his mother returned - he decided to stay in the clearing for a bit and set his imagination loose. "When the five are gathered, a spark will cause the sixth to appear!"  Gleefully acting out some of his favourite scenes without fear of anyone watching his antics, he spent a great deal of time role-playing at the campsite. So much time, in fact, that he completely forgot the time until he looked up and noticed the vivid orange of sunset. "Well damn, I spent longer here than I thought." However, what he had failed to notice was the stone that had inexplicably appeared in the center of the five rocks - amidst the fire pit. And the rocks had begun to glow very faintly. 

Isaac turned back towards the game trail to leave and came to another realisation - the trail was no longer there. In fact, the forest in that direction had changed significantly. That can't be right, he thought to himself. Becoming slightly concerned, and more than a bit confused, he quickly looked around to see if he could find the trail, but it was no use - the trail was not there, and the trees had taken on a slightly different shape - the forest towards the valley now contained different sizes, forms, and species of trees than he had recalled before. Isaac was starting to sweat, rather concerned, and tried to call for help, only to realise that he suddenly had no cell coverage - almost as if there was an interference. So he started to run, the last option he figured he had. But he got only a few hundred yards before yet another frightening discovery stopped him in his tracks - the valley was no longer there. In its place, was a seemingly bottomless pit!

Isaac was scared. What the hell is going on, what the HELL is going on. Isaac's pace was frantic, and his heartbeat elevated. Was there any sort of logical explanation as to why there was now a bottomless chasm where the valley once was? Though only about ten feet across, it extended laterally as far as the eye could see in both directions. The forest behind him, further into the woods, led only to rocky bluffs. He had no idea how he was going to get out of the forest, and time was rapidly running out. "Mom is going to absolutely go ballistic when she gets home and notices I forgot to lock the front door..." He sat down and ran through every possible idea for crossing the fissure. Then, the answer dawned on him: He would find a suitably long log, and somehow use it to bridge the gap. Brilliantly simple and obvious, why didn't I think about that in the first place. But there was a major flaw in this plan - how could he carry a log large enough to fit over the pit, and place the other end on the other side? Frustration set in, and he slouched over and placed his face in his hand. He was no McGyver - it wouldn't work. 

He peered over the edge of the pit and looked it over in what little sunlight was left. A cool breeze drifted down the length of the gorge, much cooler than the surrounding air. And it felt... strange. Somehow. With far more questions than answers, Isaac began to get up and head back to the campsite to search for any sort of clue or alternate route. However, as he stood, he heard the sound of dirt tumbling, and felt the sickening sensation of the ground beginning to slip. Before he could react, he - and the chasm edge he was standing on - had begun to fall into the pit. He was unable to reach for any kind of root or rock face to save himself, and realised that he was at the mercy of gravity, and the chasm that had now claimed him. Soon, Isaac had reached terminal velocity in the pitch black of the pit. What was no longer than a minute  felt like hours as he watched the sunset sky above rapidly disappear from view. Exhausted from screaming, numbed by his high rate of speed, and more terrified than words can express, he began to lose consciousness. And in his altered state of awareness, he felt a sudden  shift from complete darkness to blinding light, while still falling rapidly. Was this the end? The light at the end of the tunnel?

> 2. A World Away
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pain. An intense, searing pain. This was the first sensation he felt after having fallen into this strange place. Reluctant to open his eyes,  being terrified of what he might find, he lay on the cool ground for several moments as he regained full consciousness. With his right arm Isaac felt the ground around him. It felt much like a forest floor - perhaps the forest he had been in only a few minutes ago. Maybe this whole thing was all a bizarre hallucination and I just fell over a log or something! A glimmer of hope lit up his face as he opened his eyes, hoping to find himself in the old-growth tract, and in the state it was before the pit appeared. But he quickly saw that the forest he had awoken in was much unlike the upstate New York woodlands he knew well. Giant tree trunks - many with a gnarled, menacing appearance - stood high above the forest floor, holding thick crowns of leaves heavily festooned with vines and moss. Dense undergrowth filled many corridors, and low ground not far away held a swamp. Clusters of blue flowers swayed in the breeze. But the most bizarre thing about this forest was its very character: There was very little texture in anything other than clumps of dirt that had accompanied him in his perilous fall. Everything was flat and two-dimensional. 

Surely, such a place could not be real, and he pinched his arm twice in an attempt to wake up. But he was really in this strange new place. Looking around with a mixture of apprehension and curiosity, he noticed that the sky was mostly dark, indicating that it was probably the same time here as it had been back on his home street. Assuming, of course, that he hadn't been unconscious for a prolonged period of time. Isaac remembered he had carried his cell phone, and whipped it out to provide a bit more light for exploration. As he slowly stood up, thoughts of ponies began to once more fill his head, and a cold realisation hit him. A chill ran down his spine as he slowly muttered, "I must be in... the... Everfree Forest."

Isaac racked his brain, trying to ascertain exactly how he had wound up in a fictional world. Or, rather, in a world that until now he assumed was fictional. "This can't be happening! I mean, apparently it is, but... I can't... how can... if I was... how did..." If ever there were a feeling that could not be expressed properly in words at all, this would be such a feeling. It was a mixture of elation, confusion, terror, apprehension, and curiosity. On the one hand, being in Equestria was a brony's ultimate dream. On the other had, his mother and family would be searching frantically for him, and would eventually assemble a massive manhunt, throwing his sleepy little town into disarray. Furthermore, the front door had been left unlocked. What if someone had broken in while he was wasting time in the forest? "This can't be happening! This is not possible! Am I really in Equestria?" Sure, Isaac had read plenty of human-in-Equestria fanfics in his time, but to actually be living his very own story was more than he could comprehend. Seth's gonna love this one... if I ever manage to get home. Isaac's mind was, predictably, spinning in a maelstrom of thoughts. Had his obsession led him to somehow dream himself into this situation? Had Isaac's fragile brain finally given up and thrown him into fatal fantasies? No. No. No no no no no no. No no. No. I can't be... this can't be... The possibility of this happening was unfathomable to anyone in their proper mind. Surely there was an explanation. Surely there was. Surely any moment he would wake up in the woods he 'fell' from. Or at a hospital. There was no chance that this could actually be occurring. The sweat pouring off his brow attested to his excruciating attempts to rationalize the situation. He had no idea how to properly react.

After about 15 minutes of his slow descent into madness, he found himself lying face-down on the forest floor, attempting to wake up. Wake up, dammit. Wake up. Really bein' here would be the most awesome thing ever but I never get lucky. He wanted this to be real, he really did... but he had to be rational. How could this be happening? And why was he unable to justify how real the place felt? The air was clean and crisp, just like in the forest near his home. The dirt felt cool and the leaf litter crunched nicely under his fist, just like at home. The whole atmosphere of the place, while looking like a cartoon, felt undeniably real. None of his dreams had ever been this realistic. And... what would happen if this really was Equestria? Somehow, it must have been. Surely. There was no reason that he could logically be here, but there was no reason to deny his new surroundings. And all the pony-esque stuff he had found in the woods... did that have a connection? Did the sudden change in surroundings indicate something bizarre had happened with the very fabric of reality? What about the pit, that made no sense... neither did surviving such a violent fall with virtually no serious injuries. Denial and horror started to fade into acceptance, and within a few minutes, he started to feel more excited than he had ever been before. "This makes no sense whatsoever..." he muttered to himself. "...but I guess... I guess I can... wow. Since I'm, here... if I'm really here... if this really IS Equestria... oh god, I could meet my favourite ponies!" But with that thought, he began to hear distant voices coming down the trail through the forest.

"AGH, I'm not ready for this yet!" With heart wildly pounding, Isaac leapt off the ground and  behind a shrub and hid himself as best he could within its twigs. He listened very carefully to try to determine which character the voices belonged to. He quickly recognised the first as one of his favourite characters - Twilight Sparkle. The thought of actually being in the same realm - indeed, the same forest - as a character from MLP filled him with feelings he could not quite describe; the excitement was simply overwhelming. And utter disbelief still held a part of him. I must be dreaming. I must be dreaming. I must be dreaming, this simply is too incredible to be true. The events were taking their toll on his head. How could this be even possible? Suddenly, he identified the second voice as that of Zecora. "They must be on their way back to Zecora's home deeper into the forest!" he whispered to himself. This was going to be amazing, as much as he feared that his disappearance was going to cause chaos back at home. An adventure in Equestria... there could be nothing better! But wait... what if the actual characters were not like they were portrayed to be on the show? What if this was a fundamentally different Equestria than he had fallen in love with? This fear only increased his heart rate more, as he sweated profusely. He tried to remain as quiet and still as possible as the two ponies passed by mere paces away. To his relief, he noted that neither of them had apparently spotted him. Perfect, more time to plan my next move.

Isaac attempted to catch a few more passing glances of the ponies he had thought to be completely fictional as they rounded the next bend, but darkness hid them from view. After a minute or so of waiting, to make sure he was completely out of their line of vision - if indeed they would detect him in such low levels of light - he emerged from the shrubbery and timidly stepped back onto the path. "Now that that's over with..." Isaac suddenly realised another feeling that had been steadily trying to make its presence known amongst the confusion. The stale cereal from earlier had satisfied his appetite very little. He was hungry. However, having just landed in such a place, and knowing nothing of his surroundings other than what he had seen on the show - and roughly an hour of experience - he had absolutely no idea if anything in this world was edible to a creature such as he. 

The young man looked around using his cell phone light, attempting to find some harmless-looking berry or seed to taste. As a test, of course. Because if he couldn't eat the food here, and was stuck here, how would he survive? "Well, looks like I'm actually IN Equestria, so then I'd probably be able to interact with the place... surely I can eat." After a few moments of stumbling down the dark trail, he happened upon a plant loaded with what he could only assume were blueberries. "Well... I guess there's no harm in at least trying something here... if I don't then I'm just gonna die." He carefully picked one and looked it over from all angles. He smelled it, licked it, tried to analyse it any way he could before actually eating it. After all, how could he know if it really was a blueberry? The very laws of reality were different here, surely the plant life would be too.

If it smells like a blueberry, feels like a blueberry, and looks like a blueberry, it probably is. At least in our world. Realising the potential for trouble here in the Everfree, home of the poison joke and many fierce creatures, anything could bring harm. But surely... surely this was safe. And if it wasn't, surely he couldn't be blamed for eating it, since he had done all he could do with such limited time and knowledge to analyse it. "The hell with it! Why am I being so dramatic over a damn blueberry!" With that, he suppressed his concerns, threw it into his mouth, and bit down. The sensation in his taste buds that followed would be remembered for a very long time. It was indeed a blueberry... however, its taste was so vastly superior to that of earth blueberries, that it could hardly compare. It was the most amazing thing he had ever tasted. "MY GOD!" he exclaimed, completely forgetting his plan to go incognito for as long as possible. But the berry was simply too good. He craved more. MORE. He had to get as much of this stuff as possible. He began to cram handfuls of the fruits into his mouth. Handful after handful were plucked from the bushes to feed his cravings. 

Nearly half an hour must have passed since he began to contemplate eating an Equestrian blueberry, but he scarcely cared. His initial fears had been virtually forgotten, and his mind had drifted away from his near-encounter with Twilight and Zecora. So, too, he had forgotten that he was supposed to be hiding whenever he heard hoofsteps or voices. He had wandered a few paces off the trail but was still close enough to be vigilant, if he hadn't been distracted by his feast. And so, predictably, his presence in Equestria was seconds away from being revealed. He backed up, onto the trail, nearly full, and pulled out his cell phone again to help light the way to a place in the woods that he could stay the night. But as the light came on and he turned in the direction of Zecora's cottage, he found himself face-to-face with a purple unicorn. 

Both screamed and jumped back, startled to say the least. Immediately the little unicorn's horn began to glow as she rapidly backed away from him. On pure reflex, and without really thinking, he lunged towards the pony, yelling "Wait! Don't leave! I-" With that, he landed right in front of her, and was caught up in a blinding flash. Suddenly and instantaneously, he felt like his very molecules were reappearing a great distance away. 

> 3. First Impressions
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Isaac awoke yet again in intense pain. "What is is with Equestria and pain?" he thought groggily to himself. Half-awake, he noticed that he had burns on his extremities and his jacket was horribly singed. He was also laying amidst a huge pile of books, in front of a broken book shelf. He began rapidly taking in his surroundings upon becoming alert. He was, as he suspected, a victim of a teleportation spell, and had wound up inside an immense hollow tree. The Ponyville Library. Oh come on, that's... ouch... how these fics always go... His eyes quickly cut to a wide-eyed figure standing across the room staring at him. A rather terrified purple unicorn. 

"Please stay back!" she pleaded, trembling slightly. "I don't want to hurt anypony - or whatever you are, just... don't move!" 

Perhaps it was his three-dimensional appearance, or perhaps his size, but Twilight was clearly frightened by the strange being in the library. "Wait, please d-" 

"I'm warning you! Don't come this way! Stay down!" 

His eyes met Twilight's, and he said in the calmest voice he could muster, "Hey, please, calm down, Twilight, I..." 

Immediately, the look on her face went from that of fear to that of nervousness and bewilderment as she wondered aloud "How... how did you know my name?" 

Oh dear, here we go, he thought. Now he had to explain everything. Or maybe not, if he was careful enough with his response. "Never mind that..." he replied, trying to defuse the situation, "... I just... I found myself in Equestria and I don't know how to get back... and I... well, I..." 

"Just tell me, who are you and... what are you?" 

Isaac struggled to find words as he carefully answered, "Umm... my name is Isaac. I'm a human, I'm 21. Sorry for... um..." 

Twilight's eyes brightened at the reply, and said, "Oh! A human! That's very interesting!" 

He was taken aback at the extremely abrupt change in Twilight's demeanor. In a matter of moments, she had gone from terrified to curious. "You mean you ponies have... heard of humans?" 

"Well of course we have! A few of us, anyway. It's just that we don't usually have them here in Equestria. In fact we don't really know too much about them besides the basics. I do have several books that mention them, though." She levitated a well-worn, thick book from the pile on the ground. Reading the cover aloud, she continued "Creatures of Equestria, by J. J. Audopon." She effortlessly flipped through the pages looking for a specific chapter. "Ah! Here we are! Human. Homo sapien. An intelligent, sentient species. Occasional in Equestria, mainly ranges elsewhere..." Her violet eyes rapidly shifted left and right, reading the entry. Suddenly, she set the book down and faced him directly. "Listen, um, human, it isn't that I don't trust... I mean, I know that you're... what I mean to say is..." 

Isaac cut her off. "Isaac. My name is Isaac. And don't worry, I come in peace." Trying to shift around to get himself free of the pile of books, he continued. "In fact, I don't even know why I come at all. I just... got here somehow." Twilight still eyed him cautiously. 

"Well then, Isaac. Um... I don't know how to... well, how about this. Let's start this over. You knew my name. Tell me, what ELSE do you know?"

Isaac sighed. There appeared to be little way to get out of it now - he had tell her, if he didn't want the situation to be any more uncomfortable than it already was. Or, perhaps, he could push her patience just a little further, hoping despreately that it wouldn't break. "Listen, I... I don't know if I need to talk about that now, I... I mean, I'll tell you and all, but... " Nervously searching for the words to say, he glanced nervously about the library, before settling his gaze once again upon the pony standing across the room from him. "... but this is kind of... awkward, and I'd... I'd really like to just start with the basics. Let's... um... pretend I didn't even say your name. Let's start completely over." Isaac took a deep breath. "Um... hi, I'm... I mean, my name is, Isaac. I'm a human. It's a pleasure to meet you, miss!" He tried to pull off an innocent grin as Twilight arched her eyebrows and sighed. "And what a lovely home you have. What's your name?" 

"Twilight. Twilight Sparkle. And eventually you've still got to tell me why you knew my-" 

"Now then! That's out of the way!" Isaac was sweating profusely. He'd been thrust suddenly into this confrontation without preparing himself, and he was having a rather difficult time making conversation with a beloved character he didn't think even existed an hour before. His excitement was very hard to contain, and he felt like a fool for having made this first encounter spectacularly awful. Trying to lighten the mood a bit, he stammered, "Well, is... is there anything you'd like to ask me? I mean, do you have questions for me or anything? Well, besides how I... um..." 

"Well of course. I've never met a human before, and you don't seem too threatening, so I would be happy to learn more about your race." 

Isaac felt relieved that things appeared to be calming down, and he thought he could make out a hint of a smirk as Twilight replied to his question. Maybe this will turn out okay yet, he thought. "Well, feel free to start any time you'd like!" 

"All right. First of all, why did you leap towards me in the forest? I thought you were trying to attack me." 

Isaac's heart sank a bit. Of all the first impressions he could have made, why did it have to be that? "Oh, I'm... wow, yeah, really sorry about that. See, I was so excited to meet you that I..." 

"So excited to meet me? I'm just a unicorn. Plain old Twilight Sparkle." Twilight seemed serious enough, but at the same time perhaps slightly amused. Isaac's awkwardness reminded her somewhat of her first day in Ponyville. 

"Well you see, I'm not from Equestria and I've never seen... you know, you kind of startled me coming down the path and I just kind of didn't want you to leave because I don't know my way around, anditwaskindofasplitsecond..." Visibly flustered by his own attempts to explain his behavior - and his fascination with what was, in Twilight's opinion, surely an ordinary creature - he put his head in his hands and groaned. This was going to be a difficult conversation. "I've never seen a, you know, talking pony before, or any kind of..." 

"Wait, you mean you don't have ponies where you come from?" 

"Oh, well we do, but they're... they're different. They're not sentient and they're... well, they're not the same." 

Twilight stared at him quizzically. "Well where exactly DO you come from anyway?" 

"It's a world called Earth. Humans are the top species there, I suppose, and so I'm not from Equestria or anywhere around here." 

The confused expression only grew as Twilight continued to look him over. "Well then how did you GET here, to Equestria? And if humans are your ruling class, are your princesses also human?" 

"I've been trying to figure that out myself, actually. I fell into a hole in the woods. And we don't really have princesses any more. We kind of... I guess, elect people to serve as rulers... at least in... in my country... or, rather, the country that I... I live in..." 

The pony continued to focus on him, seemingly staring into his soul. This made it hard for him to concentrate. It was hard enough suppressing his excitement, refraining from gushing about how much he idolized the pony that had only known him for an hour. And how would he get around the issue regarding the ponies being fictional characters? 

No. Not fictional, Isaac told himself silently. Clearly they were real. Clearly, somehow, this was some sort of alternate dimension. Or, perhaps, the work of a very severe hallucination? No. No, the pony who stood before him, eager to learn more about humans, had to be real. Pain was obviously real here. It made no sense that he was in a world that by all rational reasons could not exist. And yet Isaac had to accept it. Even if it was somehow a dream or a hallucination, which by now was looking unlikely, he ought to conduct himself with as much grace as he could muster, to avoid alienating himself. He was a stranger in a strange land, a drifter in a different world. He was really in the Ponyville library. He was back in the village that he had seen so many times via cartoon, but this time he was actually a part of it. And unless he could find his way around and survive, he was probably never coming home. Twilight's residence seemed a perfect sanctuary, but... he had to consider who he was. Humans had a reputation for not dealing with others - themselves, even - so pleasantly. Equestria was a peaceful world, and Earth was a war-torn and unsettling one. Once Twilight learned of the evil that men do, would the thin layer of trust and acceptance that he had gained be wiped out?

"Isaac?" 

He snapped out of his musings and quickly answered the unicorn. "Oh, uh, sorry. I suppose I just..." 

"You know, I think that fall of yours might have messed with your head a little." She giggled. 

Isaac blushed. "Heh, no, I was just... you know, thinking. An hour ago I was walking through the woods near my house... you know, on Earth... and then suddenly, I fell and woke up in the Everfree Forest, and now I'm in Twilight Sparkle's home in Ponyville. I don't know what to say, what to do, where to go... it's all... yeah, I'm still pretty shocked." 

A smile lit up the little unicorn's face as she said, "Well actually, it's the Ponyville public library, but I'm also living in it while I'm studying here. Pretty crazy, huh?" 

Isaac couldn't help but feel slightly relieved, as it seemed the tension in the air was starting to lessen. She was comfortable enough around this strange, two-legged guest that she could laugh a bit. This was a good sign. Maybe... just maybe... I've not totally ruined things just yet.

Isaac stood up, dusting himself off. He still ached from the collision with the bookshelf, but felt that he needed to change his tactics a bit should he wish to keep things going smoothly. "Well, I had... I had better leave, seeing as it's well after dark and you're probably needing to go to bed, you know, so I'll just..." He hoped that his gesture would provoke Twilight into offering him a place to stay for the night. As luck would have it, his ploy was successful. 

"Wait!" 

Isaac stopped and turned to face her. 

"Do you know what could happen if any of the other ponies in Ponyville saw a human just walking around the street? Let's just say it wouldn't be good. You should stay here tonight, at least until I can figure out what to do with you." 

Isaac smiled and said "Well, if you insist, but... I wouldn't want to intrude or anything." 

"It's fine. But I'm not going to be sleeping, I'm going to be up learning as much as I can about humans through the books I've got, and trying to figure out how I'm going to explain this situation. In fact I probably need to write to the Princess about this. I really don't know what to do."  

"Oh, well don't let me slow you down. I'm just going to... um... lay down in the floor over here..." 

"I have a guest bed you can use," Twilight mumbled as she levitated scrolls and an ink well towards her, "I wouldn't want you to have to sleep on the ground. But I've got so many more questions to ask tomorrow. Don't go anywhere." 

"Oh, I won't. I bet I'd cause a panic by going out during the day." 

"Yeahhh...", Twilight sighed, "that's what I'm afraid of."

Isaac pulled out the cot from under the stairs. It was extremely small, just pony-sized, so he pulled the sheets off and made himself a little nest on the wooden floor of the hollow tree trunk that housed the library. Sure, he was too excited to be sleepy, but he needed to at least try to get some rest, despite the questions he still had and the absurdity of his situation. The thoughts running through his head were still storming about, and he had to ignore most of them to avoid a complete meltdown. "I am here, in bed, in Equestria. I am here, half the room across from Twilight Sparkle, in another world. I am here, trying to sleep, in a fictional place." The rational side of his brain was still trying to deny this situation. But the other side... the other side was telling him to sleep. Just sleep. Things would be better in the morning. Things would make more sense. And even though he was not sleepy - not to mention it was still hours before his typical bedtime - the flickering lights in the library and the sound of turning pages and quills scratching scrolls slowly lulled him into a very light sleep. 

Just as he had fallen asleep, he was awoken by a tap on his shoulder. 

"Hey Isaac?" Twilight whispered. "Sorry to wake you, but it says in this book that humans are rumored to sometimes have ponies as pets. Is that true? Are ponies on your planet really kept as pets?" 

Still half-asleep, he rolled over and answered, "Umm... yeah... they're the... the non-sentient kind, but... it's a long story..."

"Wow, that's weird. Okay, you can go back to bed. Sorry, I just was curious. We'll talk in the morning..." 

Isaac had drifted off to sleep again when he felt a gentle tap on his shoulder yet again. Rolling over, he came face to face with Twilight. 

"Sorry to wake you again, but it says here that an adult male human is called a 'man', rather than a stallion. Would you be considered a 'man', then?" 

"Yes, Twilight... but you can call me a stallion or whatever, if you like... or something..." 

"Okay, sorry. I'll let you sleep." 

Isaac buried his face in the pillow and closed his eyes again. Within minutes, he was asleep. But before long, he felt another tap. Groaning, he looked up. 

"Hey Isaac, sorry to wake you up again, but I found this little glowing thing by the shelf. It folds open like this. Is this yours? What is it? You're not trying to bring weapons in here, I hope..." 

He groaned. A good night's sleep was obviously not in the cards for his first night in Equestria.

> 4. Some Secrets Are Hard To Keep
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Morning came far more quickly than Isaac could have expected... even despite the constant stream of questions from the curious pony.  As sunlight began to fill the room, he began to stir. He had dreamed a bizarre dream of being thrust without warning into the world of ponies. Still thinking of this dream, he slowly opened his eyes to begin his morning ritual. The scene that greeted him momentarily startled him - he rapidly remembered that he was indeed in Equestria, and much of his dream simply replayed events that had already happened. Isaac had survived his first night in Equestria. So much for this whole event being a dream, he thought. Glancing around the room, he saw a disheveled stack of books filling the center of the library. Behind the stack lay a purple unicorn, sleeping soundly. He smiled. "Looks like she didn't pull an all-nighter after all."

Isaac took this as his opportunity to carefully explore the innards of the massive tree that served as the Ponyville Library. Last night's events had left him with no time to actually take in his surroundings. He noticed that the whole thing was, for the most part, one very large and expansive room, with alcoves and small closets scattered throughout. It was a rather open structure with sleeping and storage space on the second level, accessed by a staircase and a ladder. Behind the staircase lay the kitchen, and, in a revelation he had previously thought little of, a small bathroom. "Sanitary little critters." He wandered slowly towards the main door, the door that served as the entrance to the library. I could sneak out and look around... just for a few seconds... before any others in town are stirring, he mused. There's no harm in that I suppose. But just as he reached for the handle, he heard a surprised shout from behind him. 

"AAGH! There's a monster in here!" He turned to see a very shocked baby dragon. "Who are you and what have you done with Twilight?!" It was Spike, now awoken after sleeping through the previous night's events. And of all the times for Twilight to be hidden amidst a stack of books!

"Hey, um, Spike! Don't be afraid! I don't wanna hurt anyone, I-" 

He was cut off by a loud yawn. Both quickly diverted their attention to the pile of books. As if on cue, a drowsy pony stood up from amidst the fortess of knowledge, awoken by the confrontation. 

"Uggh... morning already..." 

Isaac quickly pointed to Twilight, and said "See? She's right there. Fell asleep while studying, looks like." 

But Spike was still startled by the whole encounter, and quickly hid beside Twilight. "Twilight! Thank goodness you're safe. There's a weird creature in the library!" 

"Oh, Spike. That's not a weird creature, that's our guest!" 

Spike stared at Isaac, looking him up and down, silently scanning the human. The library was in complete silence, punctuated only by birds chirping outside. Spike was the first to break the silence. "... and he's a what, now?" 

Twilight smiled and replied "A human. You know, those two-legged, nearly hairless creatures from that book about ancient Equestrian history that I gave you a few months ago?" 

He stared at Twilight, then idly traced the floor beneath with his foot. 

"... you didn't read it, did you?" 

"I... uh... didn't even look at the cover." 

Isaac smirked at the exchange, before speaking up. "Um... so, uh, yeah. Sorry for startling you. I guess I do kinda look weird. Let's start over." Walking over to the two, he extended a hand towards the dragon, and continued "I'm Isaac. Nice to meet you." 

With hesitation, Spike shook his hand. "I'm Spike. But I guess you already knew that."

For about half an hour, Isaac watched Twilight go through her morning routine. Ever the organized pony, she had to make sure every little thing was in its place as she looked through her schedule for the day. Spike helped check and double check the items on the list as the tasks were completed, albeit slightly begrudgingly. The bed had to be made, the book piles organized and re-shelved, and breakfast had to be planned. Indeed, the mess in the main room was so significant that they would have to pick up the books before starting breakfast. Isaac half-heartedly volunteered to help, but Twilight was too deep in concentration to answer as she effortlessly levitated each book into its proper place. Spike, however, seemed more than willing to relinquish his job for the day. As Twilight made sure her quill drawer was properly stocked, she gasped and turned to Isaac. "I'm so sorry, I almost forgot to ask what you want to eat! It's only fair to invite you to join us for breakfast." 

"Um... well, I usually eat a couple of scrambled eggs for breakfast back home." 

Twilight thought for a moment before replying "Um... sorry, all out of eggs. I was going to have a daisy sandwich, I'll make you one if you like." 

"Well humans don't usually eat daisies... I'll just..." 

"Oh! You don't know what you're missing!" 

"No, that's fine... I'll have some bread..." 

"Are you sure? Because they're really good!" 

"Yes, I am quite sure."

And so, Isaac's first 'proper' meal in Equestria consisted of little more than a few slices of plain bread. It was a bit bland, but it would certainly suffice. 

"You must be hungry, though. You really need to eat more than that, especially since you're... well, pretty big. I read last night that..." 

"Oh no, that's fine. I am still quite full from my meal last night." 

"Wait, what did you eat last night?" 

"I found these really tasty berries in the forest before I bumped into you, and I-" 

"Hold in a second. Berries in the Everfree Forest?" 

"...yes? Is that bad?" 

"What did they look like?" 

"Well they were kinda purple and blue, and they grew on a little bush..." 

Twilight eyed him for a few moments and slowly said, "... so you ate a whole lot of trueberries." 

"Whatberries?" 

An amused grin began to grow on Twilight's face. "Trueberries. Once they take effect, you'll be forced to tell the truth in whatever question is asked until they wear off." 

Isaac's countenance fell. This might complicate things quite a bit. 

"Everypony knows you shouldn't eat anything out of the Everfree Forest without knowing what it is." 

Isaac grimaced. "Ugg... that's not good." 

Twilight giggled and repiled "Why? Afraid somepony's going to ask you some personal questions? Like how you seem to know so much about Equestria despite never having been here?" 

"Now don't you dare start that! I'll tell when I am good and ready!" 

"Just teasing you. Don't worry, I'll take pity on you until it wears off." 

Isaac let out a sigh of relief. The whole 'you're supposed to be just a cartoon character' speech could be further postponed. Hopefully.

Twilight looked at the clock hanging on the wall. Levitating the schedule book over to near the table, she said "I'm supposed to have Cheerilee pick up some books I ordered for her in about half an hour. It's 9:45 now. So you'll have to go somewhere and hide until she leaves." 

"Not ready for any other ponies to see me, huh?" 

"No, it's not that... well, actually, yes. You just got here, and there are so many things that can go wrong." Twilight got up and began to clear the table, as per her schedule for the moment. 

Isaac stood up and walked back into the main room in the hollow tree, the library itself. Everything was in its place, freshly cleaned and organized. He decided to browse some titles on the shelves until it was time to hide. A Brief History of Fillyosophy, Sewing for Silly-fillies, Astronomy for Equestrian Observers... indeed, it seemed as if nearly every subject was covered. How To Make Friends and Influence Ponies, Daffodil Soup for the Soul, Flora of Ponyville... so many books to choose from. Cloudsdale Weather Bureau Climate Reports, Pony Prophecies and Predictions... 

Suddenly, his browsing was cut short by a hushed scream of "Hide!" He glanced out one of the windows, and saw that an orange pony wearing a Stetson was heading for the library door. He quickly sprinted to an alcove and covered himself in the sheet he had slept under. No sooner had he done this than the sound of a hoof knocking at the library door resonated through the room. Twilight looked his way, ascertained that he was hidden well enough, and nervously headed for the door. She opened it after quickly making a last look in Isaac's direction. 

"Hey, Applejack! Didn't expect to see you here so early in the morning! I mean, not that I don't like you visiting, or anything... I mean, uh, hey AJ, what do you need?" A bead of sweat trickled down Twilight's brow. 

Applejack eyed her suspiciously before replying, "Howdy Twi. Ah'm just here to return this here book ah borrowed." Her eyes drifted towards the inside of the library. "You got company or somethin'?" 

"No, not at all!" Twilight quickly countered, stepping in front of the orange pony.

At this, Isaac felt a very odd sensation. As if by magic, he blurted out "YES." Not loudly, but enough to be heard. Shit, he thought, great time for those to take effect! 

Twilight's eyes grew wide as AJ's head snapped to the direction of the sound. "Hey! Actually, I, uh, wanted to show you something out here! Lemme show you!" And Twilight ushered a confused Applejack out the library door. 

"Now hold on there, ahm the Element of Honesty, I know yet tryin'-" 

"HEY look it's such a lovely day out! Let's not worry about returning that book right now, don't worry about it! Also we're out of eggs so I was wondering if you could-" 

As the door slammed shut, the two left the building swiftly. Isaac was safe for a few moments more. A couple minutes of silence followed, during which he remained perfectly still, half expecting Applejack to barge through the door at any moment. But no, nothing. He then used this opportunity to carefully peek out from behind the sheet to look around, checking to see if anypony else was approaching. He glanced at the clock. It was 10:13... almost time for Cheerilee to drop by. And as Spike walked past with an armload of magazines, he heard a knock on the door. 

"Coming!" the dragon said, setting down the load and heading for the door. 

"No! No! Don't open it!" Isaac whispered, but alas, he was too quiet. He pulled the sheet over him and stood as still as he could. 

"Hi, Cheerilee!" 

"Hey Spike! Is Twilight here?" 

"Nah, she went out for something. But I've got your books right over here." 

He heard the two walking across the library. He tried to ascertain exactly where they were headed, being unable to see from under his disguise. However, after a quick listen, it seemed as though the two were coming straight for him! Or, rather, the table that happened to be located right in front of the alcove he was hidden in. He held his breath as the two stopped mere feet from him. He heard their banter as Spike placed the books in the basket on Cheerilee's back. He hoped desperately that she wouldn't notice him. And of course, he hoped even more that Spike was aware that he was supposed to stay hidden! Cheerilee seemed happy to stay and chat with Spike for a few minutes, so he hoped Spike wouldn't say anything to alert her to his presence. The topics seemed to stay safe until he heard the conversation rapidly turn in a direction he wished it hadn't. 

"Yeah, I got a scare this morning when I woke up and there was this huge mess in the room and I couldn't find... um..." 

"A scare? Because the room was a mess?" 

Spike seemed to realise his mistake and tried to shift away from further questioning. "... ummm... yeah, because the room was a mess!" 

"NO." 

Isaac didn't even try to stop it - he knew he couldn't resist correcting Spike. The trueberries' effects were at their full potency. Though he was still blind under the sheet, he could feel two pairs of eyes focusing on him as the conversation stopped cold. But what happened immediately thereafter surprised him. 

"Oh! I've been practicing my ventrilo...ventrilla... throwing my voice! Like it?" 

"IS... notmph" 

Isaac half-stifled his reaction to the lie and listened intently for Cheerilee to speak. He sensed the heavy tension in the air. Cheerilee was a school teacher - she knew a lie when she heard one, and this wasn't going to be easy to get out of without revealing himself. 

"Um... Spike? What's that under the sheet?"

Just then, as if by a miracle, the door of the library flew open. Twilight, a bit frazzled from trying to keep AJ from asking too many questions, plodded into the room. She gasped when she saw Cheerilee and Spike so close to the alcove. "Cheerilee!" she called out, teleporting between the two and Isaac. 

"I totally forgot about the books! I was talking to Applejack and I didn't realise it was already this late and I... um..." Twilight tried to quickly invent a diversion, carefully considering the effects of the berries on Isaac. "... I have an... um... a secret over here, and I really don't want to spoil the surprise so soon! Let's go over there and finish our business!" 

It wasn't a lie, it didn't set off the trueberries, and best of all, it didn't reveal Isaac's presence. He breathed a very quiet sigh of relief as the two walked towards the kitchen.

"So been up to anything recently? Anything going on at school? Well besides, you know, school, which is normal - for a school of course! That's not unusual! What I mean to ask is..." 

Twilight's awkward attempts to break the tension with conversation didn't appear to be going so well, and Isaac could still hear them, so he clamped his hands over his ears to block it out. Unbeknownst to him, it also had the effect of blocking the trueberries - if he couldn't hear a question, the berries in his system couldn't react. He was safe. At least for now. Assuming, of course, Cheerilee didn't come sprinting over and yank the sheet off. But Cheerilee wasn't the kind of pony to do such a thing - she trusted Twilight's explanation, and that was that. Even through his blocked ears, he could detect the front door closing.

"That was a close one..." 

Isaac carefully uncovered his ears as a magical aura pulled the blanket off him. Twilight stood in the center of the room, clearly frazzled by the back-to-back close calls. 

"I think it would be best if you went upstairs. You know, so nopony can see you from down here." 

Isaac groaned. "Aw, fine." Isaac made his way to the stairs carved into the wood and began his ascent. 

"But don't hit your head on the-" THUMP! "...low ceiling." 

This was going to be a long day.

> 5. Lost In Translation
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

There are worse fates than being exiled to the second story of the Ponyville public library. Still, it was extremely boring, especially to a young man who was used to browsing the Internet or playing video games all day. Neither of these could be found here - just a pony-sized bed, Spike's little sleeping arrangement, a few chests full of various items, and, of course, numerous books. Isaac laid on the floor for a bit mulling over his predicament before deciding to snoop through Twilight's stuff. Clever idea, that.

"Journals... replacement parts for a telescope, apparently... some still-packaged ink wells... an eyepatch... an - I don't even know what this is... geez, there's nothing in here I can do."

It didn't help that the books in the library weren't quite as easy to read as he had first envisioned - despite the titles being more or less in English, he had noticed, when idly flipping through some random book on spells, that the lettering was a bit odd. There were more symbols than letters, and what he thought was English was a strange conglomeration of the language he knew and a cartoonish, ponified version. Recalling the flyer in Sisterhooves Social being similar to the language he found here, and yet the banner in Swarm of the Century being in English, it made very little sense. But these questions, among others, would probably be answered in time.

He had been up there for a couple of hours, long enough to hear a couple of ponies come and go. One had apparently been Rainbow Dash - his favourite pony not too long ago - and the other some unknown pony whose voice he didn't recognise, but he had resisted the urge to run downstairs and see the ponies in person. Or in pony, rather. This resistance, though, was beginning to wear off, and he was out of things to do - despite being in a world that most of us could only dream of. There was only so much to do in Twilight's room.

"Hey Twilight, is the coast clear?"

"Huh?"

"Can I come downstairs yet"

"Isaac, it's still the middle of the day! Anypony could show up at any time. Just stay away from the windows and wait a little while longer."

Isaac sighed. No use in trying to change her mind in that, he reckoned. But the window did seem an inviting opportunity. For some reason, he hadn't thought of watching the streets of Ponyville through the bedroom window. But there was a risk of discovery in such an action. Any random pony on the street that glanced at the window would see an unknown giant bipedal creature staring back at them - and that would probably cause panic. Especially, he mused, if said pony happened to be a member of the flower trio, the three that always panicked at the silliest of things.

The window, then, was a no-go. At least for now. Things would get better, he would eventually be introduced to the town, and he could live out all his dreams in the land of magical pastel-coloured miniature equines. He just had to wait it out. No sense in ruining things by being hasty!

But... boredom! So much boredom!

"How about now?"

"Isaac, seriously, be patient! There are plenty of books to read."

"Yeah, but there's a problem with that."

"A problem? With the books??" Twilight bolted up the stairs to her room before Isaac could even react. Seeming quite worried, she asked "What's wrong with them??"

"Umm, that's not really what I meant - what I meant was I can't read them."

"Oh! That's a... wait, you mean to say you can't read? I thought-"

"No, I can, but most of them seem to be written in another language."

Twilight levitated a book off the shelf and flipped through it. "Another language? These are written in the same language as all the rest..."

"But I can't read that language, for some reason. I don't know how but..."

Twilight looked rather confused. Placing the book on the shelf, she said "Wait, how can you understand what I'm saying if you can't read the language we write and speak here? That doesn't make sense!"

"I don't know. You're speaking in English, but these books are a mix of English and something else."

"English? What the hay is English?" Twilight asked, clearly puzzled.

Equestria was a land of many mysteries. All the blatant puns, ponies speaking in English and behaving like humans, the animated nature of everything - it all seemed obvious that everything here was a cartoon made by humans. How, then, could he be here, and how did any of this make any sense? Time for a long and serious talk with Twilight, whenever time would allow it.

"Yeah, I have no idea what's going on."

"You humans are strange." Twilight looked around a bit in thought, and continued, "You know, even though I've been reading and studying about your kind all morning from what books I have on the subject, it's becoming clear that we know very little about humans. I'm going to clean up downstairs, and I'm going to start asking some questions. For science."

"Err, okay, that's fine." Isaac was totally fine with spending time with his idol.

"It's obvious I'm going to get more information from asking you than I have by reading about humans. And I need a little more information so I can write a report to Princess Celestia as soon as possible. She'll know better what to do with you than I do."

"Sounds like a plan."

With that, Twilight headed back downstairs. Listening carefully, he could hear Twilight ask Spike if he would take care of library duties downstairs for the rest of the afternoon so she could do some intensive research upstairs. He also heard Spike groan, before begrudgingly accepting his task. After a few minutes - during which he assumed Twilight was tidying up her little research area downstairs and re-shelving the books - she returned to her bedroom, shutting the door behind her. She also lowered makeshift shades over the window so that the two could have complete privacy.

"Now then. I've got a lot of questions to ask, and I hope you'll be able to help me out by answering them." A quill, inkwell, and scroll magically hovered towards her, followed by a couple of reference books from the shelf. "I assumed we could do this later this evening, but I'm all out of books on humans to read now. And it's pretty important we get to the bottom of this and figure out why you're here and exactly what humans are all about. Shall we begin?"

"Anytime you're ready."

"Excellent!" Twilight's face lit up, in the way that only she could manage. It was adorable. But there was serious business to take care of. "All right. First of all, the language issue." Analysing him closely and readying the scroll, she continued, "You're clearly able to speak Equestrian, yet you're not able to read it. Right?"

"Yeah, I guess. Is Equestrian the language we use here?"

"Yes, yes it is. I presume it's similar to what you said earlier? En-something?" Twilight couldn't quite remember the word she had heard earlier.

"Yeah, English. Our languages are similar but aren't written the same way."

"Very interesting!" The sound of scratching quills filled the room. "We'll look more into that later. Okay, so, you came to Equestria through the Everfree Forest, correct?"

"Well, sorta. I was messing around in the woods behind my house and I found these strange rocks - I thought they looked like the Elements of Harmony - and I was playing around, then suddenly I was lost and there was a deep chasm-"

"Wait, you've heard of the Elements of Harmony?" Isaac had inadvertently revealed more about his prior knowledge of Equestria. Twilight's eyes were as daggers, piercing him to the core. Just begging for him to tell her more about how he knew about Equestrian society. "How could you have possibly known about them?"

"Oh wow." Isaac sighed, and after a pause, replied "I guess it's time to fess up about how I know so much about Equestria even though I've never been here before."

"Yes, yes it is."

Isaac couldn't skirt the subject any longer. The tension from last night was gone - as were the trueberries - so now would be a better time than ever to confess. He hoped it wouldn't ruin his chances of living peacefully here, much less making friends and keeping panic to a minimum. "Okay, well... you see, in our world, there are cart... these things called cartoons, see, and they come on a box thing that projects moving pictures for entertainment. They're made by humans and... um... well it's hard to explain but..."

"Similar to projectors, then?" Twilight wasn't as hopeless grasping some concepts as Isaac had feared. He now remembered the projector in Hurricane Fluttershy. The arcade game in Hearts and Hooves Day crossed his mind as well, which actually led him to wonder if things such as televisions and computers existed in Equestria. He would have to ask that sometime.

"Yes, a lot like that" he replied, "only with more colours and... and, well, it's kind of similar, yes."

"How does that explain anything about how you knew about the Elements of Harmony?"

"Well I'm getting to that. See, your world in our world is a cartoon... I mean, Equestria and all the ponies are in a cartoon, and it follows you and your friends' adventures."

"It does WHAT? How can we be on this... box in your world?"

"I don't know. I'm just as clueless as you are. Until yesterday, I thought Equestria was... you know... fiction."

"Fiction?" Twilight was even more puzzled than before. "But... I'm clearly real, so are you. How could we be fictional?"

"I just don't know, okay? This is all so new to me!"

"Ugh. Well, there's another thing that I'll have to ask the Princess about. How humans are able to watch us, if what you say is true, is kind of creepy." She shuddered a bit. "Okay, so, now we know that humans are into trans-dimensional voyeurism..." she smirked "... so let's move on."

Isaac wasn't sure how to take that, but he returned her uneasy smirk in the spirit of fellowship - and in hopes of dashing any awkwardness. "Yeah, that'd be great. Next question."

"All right. Let's see... oh! Science! Yes! It's been so long since we had humans here, it would be great to know what kind of scientific discoveries humans have made so we can compare notes!" Twilight's demeanor rapidly changed to that of excitement, realising the prospect of sharing knowledge with another intelligent race. "How about astronomy? What kind of discoveries have humans made? Well, assuming humans even study astronomy."

Isaac wasn't a scholar of astronomy. These questions had quickly gone further than his knowledge would carry him. Why couldn't a scientist who knows what he's talking about have fallen into Twilight's house instead of someone as stupid as me, he mused. "Uh, well, we... we went to the moon a few times. That was pretty neat."

Isaac immediately realised what he said, and knew what was coming next. After a bit of laughter, Twilight retorted, "The moon? That's nothing! Princess Luna was there for a thousand years!"

"Haha, interesting." Time to play ignorant, to try to avoid more 'how did you know' questions. "I'm not much of an astronomer, but I do know some about weather, if that's something relevant."

"Meteorology, huh? All righty then, how do you humans control the weather?"

Isaac, in his excitement to be here, continued to forget these little things that he knew about Equestrian society. Another awkward question and an equally awkward answer. "Err, well, we don't... it just happens. We're able to predict it usually, but we aren't perfect at doing that just yet."

"That's weird. Ponies control the weather here. Well, over most of Equestria at least - the Everfree Forest's weather works on its own. Everything else there works on its own, too. Pretty dangerous place."

"So I've heard. Seems like there are a lot of scary and unusual things in that forest." Time to change the subject a little.

"Yes, all kinds of dangerous creatures. Manticores, cockatrice, you name it!"

"Heh, in our world we don't have creatures like that. At least as far as I know."

"So you mean to say..." Twilight eyed him, "... that the weather controls itself, people watch our world on a magic box, and there are no monsters roaming around anywhere at all? Your world is a bit strange."

Isaac looked around him. Before him sat a magical talking purple unicorn, in the sky was a sun controlled by a tag team of pony princesses, surrounding him were books written in an odd half-English language and comprised of puns based on familiar terms, and he was on the second story of a library carved into a still-living tree almost more massive than any tree on earth in the middle of a village full of magical ponies. "Yeah, Earth is strange."
> 6. Midnight Train to Canterlot
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

Night fell upon Ponyville as Twilight continued to interrogate Isaac. She had gone through many subjects, both very important ones and minor ones. He had faithfully answered them to the best of his ability. Aside from the awkwardness in explaining human anatomy and a few prodding personal questions, things seemed to be going smoothly. Twilight and Isaac were rather comfortable with each other's presence by now, and the hours seemed to fly by.

Isaac had gone over human engineering, science, mathematics (Twilight seemed to enjoy that discussion particularly) , artistry, holidays, religions, architecture, and all sorts of other human world achievements. He had successfully managed to carefully skirt over potentially awkward topics, such as the human diet, war, crimes, and other things that Twilight would probably find unsavory, along with avoiding discussing the show and its fandom any more than necessary. Twilight did try to pull more information out of him, but he seemed to be finally learning how to carefully avoid having to comply with these demands.

Several hours - and scrolls - later, the discussion took a slightly more personal and casual turn, and Isaac found himself regaling the unicorn with tales of his hometown, his family, his hobbies, and his daily routine. Pretty much everything about his life deemed worthy of discussing was covered in full. 

He told her about the time he tried to fly by jumping off the roof when he was in Kindergarten, and the time he sneaked lizards into his mother's sock drawer after she made him eat spinach at dinner. He told her about the day at school when he and a friend tried to get out of school early by pulling the fire alarm and running down the halls screaming "FIRE!" He told her about the subsequent suspension he received as a result of this act. He told her about the Christmas he got a sweater that was several sizes too big, but he wore it anyway. He told her about how his father had just lost interest in being part of the family, and separated from his mother when he was eight. Twilight seemed genuinely touched and saddened by this particular story, as it was hard for Isaac to talk about. He assured her that those wounds were in the past, and he could talk about the situation now without feeling too sad. A bond was definitely forming between the pair as the chat continued well into Luna's gorgeous night.

"Wow. That's a lot of information! Thanks, Isaac - you've given me so much insight into the human world that I'd almost be able to write a book about them!" By the look of the piles and piles of scrolls that had been filled through their little discussion, she basically already had.

"Well hey, it was so great talking with you. It's just amazing to be here, in Equestria, and I'm glad I can help."

"It's getting kind of late, so I'm going to write a letter to the Princess. I think I have more than enough information now to complete my letter, so you can do whatever you'd like until I get that done."

At this moment, both heard a groan coming from downstairs.

"Oh no! I totally forgot that I left Spike in charge of the library! Poor guy, I have to go and relieve him of his duty!" Twilight took off down the stairs.

Isaac laid back flat on the floor and stared at the ceiling above him. He let his mind wander a bit, and the incredible realisation that he was in Equestria blossomed again. I just had a ten-hour chat with Twilight Sparkle. I'm in the bedroom of a pony that I watched on my laptop two days ago. I'm really a human in Equestria. This is absolutely unreal. He also began to notice that he could really use a bath, not to mention something to eat. He'd only eaten bread all day, and was used to gorging himself with junk food from dawn to dusk! But he could wait till Twilight finished her duties downstairs and sent off her letter before asking her for a snack. No way he was getting up to get something to eat - it was late and he was worn out from talking. That's a good enough excuse to make somepony else do something for you, right?

After quite a while of his musings, Twilight returned to her bedroom, a weary Spike in tow. "I hope having this human guy here doesn't mean I have to do all that work EVERY day," the dragon mused aloud.

"Everything is done! Now we'll wait for a reply and see what Celestia wants us to do next."

"Hey Twilight, it's been a while since breakfast. Would you-"

BEEEEERRRRRRRRP! Out of Spike's mouth came a neatly wrapped scroll bearing the royal emblem. "Huh, that's odd," Twilight said in a somewhat confused tone, "I don't see how Celestia would've had time to read the whole thing yet. My letter was about five scrolls long."

Twilight opened the scroll and began reading. "What'd she say?" Isaac asked.

The unicorn's eyes widened a bit as she scanned the scroll. "This is odd. She wants us to come to Canterlot immediately."

"It's, like, almost midnight. So are we going out tomorrow or..."

"No, according to this, we need to go right away! Princess Celestia says it's not an extremely urgent situation, but that she needs to discuss some things about humans in person as soon as we can. And, that you need to come along as well."

At first, this was not welcome news to Isaac. He wanted to sleep, not travel. But then again, he hadn't been outside of Twilight's house or the Everfree Forest since he got to Equestria - he'd finally be able to get out and see more of the world he had been in awe of!

"And that might actually work for the better, because we won't run the risk of scaring anypony in Ponyville at this hour... we can get you to the train station before anypony sees you and starts a panic."

"Train station? You mean we're going by train?"

"Well yeah, what did you expect? Did you think I could just zap us there in an instant?"

"You could, couldn't you? After all, you've got a lot of magic skill."

"Hah, well, teleporting the both of us all the way to Canterlot from Ponyville? Not happening. That's not really feasible. We're taking the train."

Oh well, at least he'd get to sit down for a while, maybe catch up on some sleep in the meantime.

"Hey Twilight," he called out as they made their way downstairs, "exactly how long does it take to get to Canterlot from the Ponyville station anyway?" This was not made clear in the show, as some trips to Canterlot seemed a lot longer than others in different episodes.

"Twelve hours, more or less. I'll need to close the library tomorrow, since we'll be gone all day. We might need to pack something to eat along the way. And a blanket, both to hide you with if necessary and to sleep under along the way. And a few books for reading during the trip. And... actually, well, how about this. Spike?"

The dragon brought his palm to his face, and dutifully grabbed a quill and a scroll to begin making a checklist.

"Wow. That's why you're my number one assistant!"

After several minutes of dictating, writing, collecting, checking, packing, double checking, preparing snacks, and triple checking, the two were ready to go. Spike would stay at the library, getting a well-earned night of sleep. 

"Stay here for a second, I'm going out to make sure there's nopony out on the street." Isaac stood by the door, waiting for Twilight to make her surveilance sweep. Moments later, she returned. "All right, we're ready to go. We need to hurry, so follow me to the train station. Don't get distracted by anything - you'll have plenty of chances to explore later."

Isaac followed her out the door, and, for the first time, found himself on the streets of Ponyville. It was a beautiful place even at night, the quaint charm obvious even at this late hour. The sky was clear, and the moon was especially bright - the path was rather well-lit by the glow of Luna's astral entities. Constellations filled the vast expanse, framing the midnight landscape with thousands of little dots - each a distant star. It was so bright out that he could clearly see Sugarcube Corner, the Day Spa, and so many other places he recognised despite the hour. But this beauty came at a price - should anypony be out, that would make him that much more visible. Isaac kept this in mind as he followed Twilight at a brisk pace towards the Ponyville station.

"HEY TWILIGHT! Whatcha doing?"

A familiar, hyperactive voice pierced the calm, and both Isaac and Twilight nearly jumped out of their respective skins. Before Isaac could react, a heavy blanket was thrown onto him with great force and speed, nearly knocking him over.

"Pinkie?! What on earth are you doing out here this late?"

The pink party pony giggled and replied, "Silly, it's not late! It's exactly 12:03, which means it's actually really early! It's a whole new day! Are you out here welcoming the new day too? Huh? It's so pretty out here tonight! There are stars and more stars and the moon is so bright and-"

"Pinkie, please, I'm busy - I'm... uh... delivering a statue to the train station."

"Oooh! A statue! What's it a statue of? Can I see? Can I help? Where is it? Ooh is it under that blanket ovet there? It's pretty tall! Can I-"

"STOP!" Twilight instinctively jumped between Pinkie and the 'statue' and quickly added, "I mean, no, it's a secret. I can't tell anypony about it until I get it, uh, delivered."

"Ooh! I love secrets! I can keep secrets really really well! Tell me please? I won't tell anypony, cross my heart and hope to fl-"

"No. You'll have to wait. I'll tell you about it later, okay? For now, though, I need to get going, so, um, go back to welcoming the new day. It IS pretty nice out here."

"Okie doike lokie! La la la~" The bubbly mare hopped off into the distance, almost as if the previous confrontation had never happened. Somepony really needs to get that girl on some medication... or at least get her to lower her daily sugar intake.

Or not. She's doing fine as she is.

"That was a close one, Isaac." Twilight looked around for any other ponies, and, seeing no signs of activity besides herself and her 'statue', lifted the blanket, neatly folding it and putting it back in her saddlebag.

"You know, I DO want to meet some of the other ponies one of these days." Isaac goaded jokingly.

"You will, but we've gotta figure out a way of introducing you without causing chaos."

The Ponyville station wasn't far off, and if it were daytime, it would be easily visible from the second story of the library. Ponyville is a small town. The two reached the ticket booth in short order. The problem now was, it was probably going to be necessary to reveal Isaac to the railroad employees, as there was no way she was going to be able to sneak a 'statue' so large onto the train, even at this quiet hour.

"I have a royal order to deliver somepon... someone to Canterlot." Twilight tried her best to prepare the stallion at the station entrance for the sight of the strange creature she had with her, if need be. Isaac was standing back a ways at the entrance to an alley, where he'd be less likely to be seen.

"All righty, so then that'll be two tickets to Canterlot, on the 12:30 train?"

"Yes sir." She paid for the tickets, and pulled out the blanket again. "Let me go get our guest."

"Do I really have to walk with this thing over my head?" Twilight threw the sheet over Isaac once more and prodded him into following her back to the station.

"I don't want to have to reveal you if I don't have to. Then again, I don't think the railroad operators are going to mind that much. But we have twenty minutes until the train leaves."

"I'm not gonna stay under this thing for twenty minutes!"

"Ugh, fine." A purple aura pulled the blanket off and back into her saddlebag... not as neatly this time.

The two made the short walk to the train station. "Leave the talking to me, Isaac. I think I can get us through this without many problems. I hope."

"Well what a strange... guest?" The operator at the booth was clearly not expecting such a creature.

"He's a human. Don't worry, he's harmless, and I have orders to take him to Canterlot."

"Hmm... interesting. Nice to meet you, um, human!"

"Isaac. My name's Isaac, Isaac the Earth human. Thanks sir!" Isaac bowed and followed Twilight into the passenger car.

"Well that went much better than expected." Twilight shrugged.

"And you said I had to stay inside all day so that no on-nopony would panic," Isaac retorted, "when I coulda been out here exploring all day!"

Both smiled. Looks like the worst was over. But first, a long train ride. And a snack. He STILL hadn't eaten since the morning!

"Hey Twilight, since we're on the train now, can I have a snack? I'm starved!"

"Oh dear! I'm sorry. I got so caught up in research that I forgot to make lunch, or dinner! Silly me!" She pulled out and opened the snack bag. "We have grass, two daisy sandwiches, some hay bites... what would you like?"

"Erm... on second thought, I think I'll just sleep on the way there."

Before too long, the door to the passenger car was slid shut, and the locomotive roared to life. It was time to depart. Isaac stretched out on the seat - as much as he could in a pony-sized seat, at least - and wrapped himself in the blanket, content to take a nap for at least part of the journey. The train soon began to move, and the long journey to Canterlot was underway.

Isaac looked across to Twilight, who was still feverishly taking notes for some reason or another. He then glanced out the window, seeing bits of scenery here and there amidst the shades of night that covered the land. Anything to get sleepy, he thought to himself. Tired from the interrogation earlier, yet still very hungry, he slowly started to drift off into sleep. The rhythmic chugging of the locomotive and the gentle whine of the wheels on the track helped lull him into a deep sleep.

...

When Isaac awoke, the sun was beginning to rise. Celestia went about her sun-raising duties whilst awaiting the arrival of Isaac and Twilight. He marveled at the spectacle, the controlling of the day cycle by magic and the two sisters. If only things were that magical back on Earth.

Isaac also realised something else. Twilight had said that the trip to Canterlot usually took twelve hours. If it was just sunrise, that meant that there were still several hours to go before they would arrive in Canterlot. He groaned, and the groan was helped along nicely by his growling stomach. At this point, he mused, I'll eat anything. Noting Twilight was finally sound asleep, he carefully stood up and made his way over to her saddlebag. In rummaging through it by a desperate attempt to find anything edible, he noticed the purple pony beside him was beginning to stir.

"Hmmmmgh. Spike don't pull the... covers... it's too early to be... -yawn- morning... and stuff..." She shook her head a bit and yawned once more, adjusting her eyes to the morning light. She then noticed Isaac going through her bag. Now fully awake, she inquired, "Hey, what are you doing going through my saddlebag?"

"Oh, sorry. I was just so hungry I'm just looking for anything to eat..."

"Ah, my bad. Here, let me find something for you." With that, she levitated the bag with the daisy sandwiches out into view. "I made two, one for each of us. We should definitely eat." She passed a sandwich over to him.

"Ehh, thank you!" Isaac feigned interest, but then decided that it was better than nothing, and, hopefully, edible for humans. The first bite made him doubt that.

"Well, how is it?"

"It's, erm, delicious! I love it!" The awful taste of flower petals was thankfully partially alleviated by the bread, but it was still rather unappealing. But he would persevere. At least till Twilight wasn't looking, he would. Seizing a chance, he quickly stuffed the petals into his pocket and ate just the bread. 

The next four hours were filled with occasional snippets of conversation, a couple of naps, and Twilight reading an entire book. Finally, after a long journey, Canterlot was in sight. It had been visible on its spectacular cliffside location throughout multiple portions of the rail line, of course, but now it was clear that arrival was minutes away. After passing the guard station, the train was officially within Canterlot city limits. Isaac was awed by the amazing architecture and stunning beauty of the high-society metropolis, with its massive spiraling towers and spectacular views of all Equestria. He had never seen such a wondrous place in all his life. Canterlot was pretty cool to look at on the TV screen during episodes, but in person it was another thing entirely. He was almost sad to reach the Canterlot station, as then he would have to head straight for the castle before getting to see any more of the scenery.

As the train reached its destination, Twilight realised that she would have to find a way to prevent panic in getting Isaac off the train and to the station. "Isaac, we're going to have to get to the castle without causing panic, and unfortunately the streets of Canterlot are pretty busy, to say the least."

"So then what do we do? Do I have to be a statue delivery again?"

"No," Twilight chuckled, "but it would be a good idea to let me handle it again, to be on the safe side.

Isaac remembered the time when Twilight handled things in Lesson Zero and It's About Time, among others. But hey, she's been handling things pretty well this time around, so let's let her take care of the situation.

"Okay. This might not be the best idea ever, but here's what we're gonna do..."

Isaac was taken aback. Her solution was unexpected. They were gonna go Leeroy Jenkins style. No frills, no blanket, no sneaking. Right into the populace, in the hopes that the Canterlot natives wouldn't panic. All kinds of creatures had showed up in Canterlot before, after all, so maybe he'd not be so out of place. Unfortunately, many of these other creatures had turned out to be villains. Well, it's now or never. Here goes nothing...

The two walked out into the street.

Much to his surprise, Twilight's ambitious plan worked, for the most part. On the way to the castle - a short little jaunt from the station - he noticed several curious stares, a few fearful glances, and several ponies re-routing their walk around the two, staring intently. A few ponies seemed somewhat concerned, yes, but nopony was panicking. He could hear fragments of hushed conversations amidst those gathered.

"... that creature beside Twilight? It's..."

"... beside the purple unicorn! I say, I've never seen quite..."

"... run? That creature is twice as tall as..."

Soon, the odd couple were in front of the gates to Canterlot Castle. Isaac's jaw hung agape at the incredible sight.

"It's quite a sight isn't it?" Twilight beamed. "Come on, let's head inside."
> 7. Of Portals and People
> --------------------------------------------------------------------------

If one were to assume that the exterior of Canterlot Castle was the most amazing display of architecture and outright stunning beauty to be found in Canterlot, or perhaps even all Equestria, one obviously had yet to see the inside of it. While the vast expanse of the castle's interior had been captured on the show a few times, seeing it in person was a new experience entirely.

After Twilight placated the guards - having connections (and a brother who had essentially been leader of the royal guard at one point, of course) with Canterlot royalty certainly had its advantages - she and Isaac stepped into the grand entry of the castle. Isaac was completely in awe. The entry hall was decked in splendid and exquisite decor far beyond what he could have ever imagined. Sunlight beamed in through massive stained-glass windows on either side, flooding the room with many colours. Giant banners and royal emblems hung off intricately-carved pillars lining the path, which itself was an immaculately maintained red carpet leading into the next room, which Isaac assumed was the heart of the castle, where many similar halls branched off leading into the various wings of the massive structure.

"Twilight Sparkle!"

Isaac snapped out of his mesmerised state at the sound of a familiar voice calling out.

"Princess!" Twilight galloped to the alicorn standing in the doorway ahead.

"I'm so glad you were able to come as quickly as you could. There is so much that I need to tell you!"

Twilight looked slightly uneasy, fearing bad news, but at the same time, excited - any opportunity to learn was certainly welcomed!

"Oh! Um, Princess!" Isaac dutifully bowed to Celestia, which elicted an amused smile from the princess.

"Don't worry - that isn't necessary. Isaac, is it?" With a rather calm and commanding tone, she continued, "Welcome to Canterlot! I'm sure you have a lot of questions, but hopefully, by tonight, we'll be able to get to the bottom of all this."

Something about her voice made Isaac feel at ease. It was an almost motherly tone, one which conveyed both dignity and solace. Perfect, then, for her position as ruler of Equestria.

"Thanks, Princess! Yeah, I'm... hah, I'm still confused about lots of..." Isaac stammered, the realisiation hitting him once more that he was really in Canterlot, and directly addressing Princess Celestia herself. How he managed to not completely fall apart in confusion and elation is a mystery beyond the scope of this story.

Twilight giggled at his awkwardness, and a curious shade of red began to brighten his cheeks. "Hehe. You're going to have to work on your communication skills, Isaac."

"Twilight, come with me." Celestia glanced once more at Isaac. "And Isaac, please follow us - I'll need to talk with both of you." With that, the two dutifully followed the Princess deeper into the castle.

Isaac must have looked akin to a tourist in New York City as he trailed the two ponies through castle corridors - his head was craned upwards, admiring the beauty of the halls and chambers he was walking through. In fact, more than once he almost ran straight into a pillar while distracted - much to the amusement of Twilight and the Princess. He could pick out occasional snippets of the conversation the two ponies were engrossed in, but he was paying too much attention to the massive castle - and the fact that he was following a unicorn and a pony princess through said massive castle - to eavesdrop.

It was becoming obvious that, whatever secluded room Celestia had designated for their discussion place, there was no way Isaac could find his way back out after so many winding halls and staircases. Though the scenery was gorgeous - and the castle's beauty still fascinated the human - the length of the journey was wearing on Isaac. He'd still not eaten anything but bread since the night he arrived. With a sigh, he shoved his hands into his pockets... and was quickly reminded of the petals he had stashed there from breakfast. Too bad I'm not desperate enough yet to eat these. In truth, they hadn't been walking long - the castle was laid out for efficiency, after all, and their destination wasn't that far from the entry - but he was hungry and certainly not used to walking as much as he had today. He was finally getting some of that exercise his mom had tried to prod him into.

Finally, they arrived. Isaac gasped as he realised that the hall they now stood in was the very same one depicted in several episodes as the location with the stained glass representations of the ponies' conquests and victories - the artistic depictions of the battles with Nightmare Moon, Discord, Chrysalis, and Sombra filled the walls of the massive chamber. This was one of the most important rooms in the castle.

"Wow! This is... it's..."

"I'm glad to see you're enjoying the scenery," Celestia japed. "Feel free to walk around, but don't stray too far. I need to talk with Twilight, and then I'll need you to join the conversation. In the meantime, is there anything I can get you? Something to read? A drink? Food?"

"Food, uh, please!" Isaac graciously answered. "I've not eaten much-err, I haven't found much that I can, you know... I..."

"Yes, I assume your diet is quite different from ours." She thought for a moment. "Hmm. Do you like bananas? I've just received a shipment from the market. I had them placed in that storage room right over there." She raised a forehoof to point in the direction of a nearby hall. "And I think there are also some strawberries."

Thought that was going somewhere else, he thought, with much amusement. "Yes, Princess! Actually, I do! Fruit is good."

"Indeed it is." She smiled at him. Such a gentle, peaceful smile - any fears that meeting Equestrian royalty would be stressful or intimidating were being laid to rest. "Now don't go far - I've got to keep an eye on our special visitor, you know." She smirked. "And of course, you are perfectly free to listen in on our conversation. In fact you probably need to know about this as much as Twilight does."

"Yes ma'am!" Isaac obediently made his way to the crate, and began to indulge himself in fine, high-quality Equestria-grown bananas. No Everfree surprises with these fruits, hopefully.

In the meantime, Twilight's history lesson began.

"Twilight Sparkle. My most faithful student. I assume you've gone through all the books in your library already in search of more insight into humans, correct?"

"Yes, Your Majesty. I read all I could find about them, and then of course asked him a lot of questions so I could make my own notes." Twilight beamed, proud of her work.

"Well, there are a lot of things about humans you need to know that you won't find in any of your books, nor from Isaac. That's why I called you here."

Twilight's brow furrowed. "Really?"

"Yes." Celestia glanced at the hungry young fellow still helping himself to the much-welcomed food stash. "In fact, you'd have to delve deep into ancient Equestrian history to find any mention of our previous dealings with humans. Most books that contained information on that part of our history have been lost or re-written."

"Previous dealings? What do you mean?"

"I'm going to give you a history lesson, Twilight - a lesson in history that very few ponies are even aware of." 

Celestia's horn glowed with a magic aura, and before her developed a vision, a window to the past. In this vision appeared a pale and diffuse reflection of a long-gone era. A visual companion to the tale she would tell.

"Long ago, before Equestria was even founded, many things about this world were different. Pegasi were just beginning to discover the ability to control weather and use clouds as a tangible building material. Earth ponies were transitioning from gatherers to developers of the earliest stages of agriculture. And, perhaps most relevant to what we're going to be discussing, unicorns were in the process of writing, practicing, and perfecting the earliest forms of magic."

"So we're talking a VERY long time ago then?"

"Yes. About 2,000 years, to be exact. This was shortly after the Great Ones shaped our world and passed their duties on to my great-ancestors. In this time, most ponies were still nomadic. There were small settlements here and there, but for the most part, the world was wild and untamed, and ponies were just beginning to form societies and culture."

Twilight listened intently, mesmerised.

"In this time, ponies were beginning to discover and interact with the other creatures throughout the land, who were also developing culture and societies. Before long, it was determined that trade was beneficial, and earth ponies led the way to diplomacy with the ancestors of the gryphons, the dragons, and the like."

"So then they started interacting with humans?"

"No, we'll get to tha-"

"And I thought gryphons and dragons were, in general, not that fond of ponies and Equestria in general. How could we have traded and interacted with them so well in those days? Weren't our ancestors rather... primitive?"

"This was a very long time ago, Twilight. Much has changed in our respective societies since then. Our ancestors weren't savages, you know. They just had to learn how to use their respective skills, like every young pony born today."

"And the unicorn tribe, the pegasus tribe, and the earth pony tribe were at odds back then, right?"

"Well, yes, before the respective leaders learned how to get along peacefully - leading to the formation of Equestria, of course - the tribes weren't exactly on perfect terms. But they still interacted. And I think we're getting a little off-topic here."

"Oops! Sorry, Your Majesty."

"That's quite alright, Twilight. Now, back to what I said earlier about the early unicorns - seeing the earth ponies benefitting from trade with the various races that inhabit our world, the unicorns decided that they could do better, as they felt that they were the superior tribe. While you might think that early magic was primitive, you would be surprised at how quickly discoveries were made. Before long, unicorns had discovered the secret of dimensional portals, and found that other dimensions indeed contained sentient life."

"Wow, that's very advanced magic! How did they manage that?"

"Well, at that time, there were few boundaries or rules to the use of magic. Today, the reason that such magic is nearly impossible to perform is that, as our society evolved, we have placed many safeguards and enchantments on dimensional boundaries and other high-importance, potentially dangerous elements of our world to prevent such easy access. Back then, though, any unicorn with enough skill could do things that are considered impossible today. Early magic carried very high risks, but, because it was unrestrained, it was actually a lot more powerful than most magic today." Celestia changed the vision to that of early humans meeting early unicorns. "Before too long, our ancestors discovered the world of humans through one such gate. Even 2,000 years ago, it was obvious that human society was advanced enough to make trade advantageous. So a few portals were opened up at strategic locations to allow humans access to Equestria for trade and alliances, in the case of the occasional war or skirmish that would break out in our early societies."

"And ponies could, then, enter the human world through such portals?"

"Yes, easily. However, few unicorns dared set foot in the human world. They quickly learned that humans were far more violent than ponies - in fact, their culture seemed to be based on warfare - and as such, they were reluctant to visit. While this tendency for violence made for a good allegiance in times of battle in our world, it also made many ponies very uneasy. Many thought that the trade and battle advantages were outweighed by the potential threat. Humans are omnivorous, after all, and seemed rather adept at hunting, even in these early times. Even more so than gryphons. The pegasi weren't quite as uneasy, as they had benefitted somewhat from learning early human battle tactics, leading to some rather skilled early warriors in the tribe. Besides, they were quite safe from human attacks in the clouds. This more milataristic approach to culture would continue to be a part of the Pegasi society until the formation of Equestria - and, to be honest, a lot of remnants of things we learned from humans helped to shape our culture. Earth ponies, though, joined the outliers in the unicorn and pegasi tribes in voicing their concerns over the new creatures that the unicorns had brought to our world. The highest-level unicorns of the tribe dismissed these concerns, and claimed that the concerned and fearful were merely jealous of the advances that the unicorns' connections had earned, and that, besides, humans were the safest and most advanced creatures they had brought into the world yet."

"So there were there other dimensions that were allowed access, too?"

"Briefly. Many other sentient beings were discovered through dimensional experiments, but humans proved to be the only viable species safe or advanced enough to bother with. All the other portals were sealed, leaving only the human world gates open, save for occasional experiments or further attempts at discovering other forms. But after a while, the human connection would also suffer the same fate." The vision turned dark and somewhat macabre, radiating an air of tension and conflict.

Isaac had long stopped his eating to stare intently at the vision and listen to Celestia's revelations, and, likewise, Twilight was completely engrossed in the story.

"It seemed as though the humans that went between the worlds had, with time, went from gracious at the opportunity to explore new worlds and make new and useful contacts, to desensitized and less friendly. Sometimes, almost hostile. I can only assume that, for a species that's accustomed to war for survival and territory protection, old habits are hard to break. One day, during routine transactions and interactions, a small band of humans turned on the unicorn tribe. Nopony is sure exactly who these humans were, what part of the human world - and portal - they came from, or whether they had been one of the longer-standing bands that had a stronger connection with the unicorns or a new, more hostile group of humans, but one fact is clear: with their sharp spears and fast footwork, they attacked the unicorns before they even realised what was going on." Both Twilight and Isaac looked away as the vision replayed a rather gruesome moment in time from two milennia before. "When it was over, the grisly scene finally convinced the higher-level unicorns that humans were becoming a bigger threat than benefit to their growing society. As such, at one of the very first tribal summits ever held, it was decided nearly unanimously that the portals would be sealed with a magic barrier, and, rather than destroying the portals entirely, which would run the risk of causing major damage to the very fibres of space and time, they would be moved to the furthest and most inaccessible regions of Equestria. It was also decided to wipe the memories of all known humans that had visited, but, of course, that couldn't be performed with a complete success rate, as that spell was rather new at the time." 

The vision transitioned to scenes of the wildest, least populated regions of the land. "One portal was moved to the frozen north, even further away than where the Crystal Empire is now. One portal was buried in a cave under the sea. One was taken to a desolate wasteland beyond the land of the dragons. And one was moved to high above the Everfree Forest, where I presume Isaac came from. With the gates sealed, and before it was learned that magic seals of this kind would slowly weaken over centuries without re-casting, it was assumed that no human would ever again be able to enter Equestria." The visions continued to show changing landscapes of various places from Equestria and beyond. "Of course, the portals to other dimensions besides the world of the humans were also moved to desolate places, in the same manner. These gates, dimension rifts, were determined to be too unstable to destroy, or, again, run the risk of damaging the fibers of the universe. Most of the other gates have been long forgotten, and even I am not positive that all are accounted for in our limited modern knowledge of trans-dimensional travel." With a slightly more serious countenance, she continued, "Since the gates were sealed, a few select unicorn elites have ventured to the known gates and re-cast the sealing spell, hopefully ensuring that they remain closed. But there is the possibility that a few have been forgotten entirely, and the spells haven't been refreshed, allowing them to degrade. I assume this is what happened to the one above the Everfree forest."

"But if humans were prevented from returning to Equestria, and very few ponies know of this history, why do we have the information that we do in the books that we DO have?"

"We've had humans occasionally since then, allowing us to study them before they find their way out or succumb to the changes in our respective societies. Just because the portals were sealed doesn't mean that humans can't wind up in Equestria from time to time. There are glitches in the fabric of the connections to our worlds, and, as it seems in Isaac's case, it is also apparent that the dimensional seals occasionally weaken or fade, allowing access." With a slight look of concern, and a slight pause, Celestia continued, "... I just hope that Isaac's entry doesn't mean that the seals are starting to wear off. That kind of magic does slowly lose its effect in time, if not re-cast, of course, and if the portals to the human world are starting to re-activate, that might mean that other, even MORE war-like worlds that unicorns discovered in the distant past may be able to take advantage of the weakness in the portal seals and enter as well."

"Could that really happen?" Twilight inquired, slightly disturbed by the implications.

"It has. A few times, at least. Occasionally a stray wanderer from another dimension has shown up throughout history, but we've been well-prepared to deal with the small threat that mere individuals posed."

"But what about... more than one?"

"Fortunately, that has yet to happen." The vision turned slightly brighter, moving closer to the present, then faded out. The magic aura dissipated. "Do you have any questions, before we invite Isaac to join us?"

"Well yeah, this is all so... new. And fascinating. First of all, these portals... did they stay open at all times, or did the unicorns have to 'open the gate', per se, to let the humans in?"

"Much like a locked door, the portals did indeed have primitive measures in place to control the traffic. Our side could be opened by any unicorn with enough skill or knowledge to do so, but the human side could be only opened by the repetition of certain incantations, as humans lack magic. The incantations were taught to the humans by the unicorns, so that, unless a human that had been taught the phrase or phrases told another in the human world, only a human that had been to our land before would know the correct method to activate the gate. This was to prevent humans with no knowledge of ponies from entering, hopefully ensuring that the unicorns would be able to control the flow of humans in and out."

"What were these incantations? Do we know? And how long did the gates between worlds stay open?"

"We don't. We only have a general idea that the incantations contained information that only one with knowledge of our world could possibly know." Isaac paid close attention. Incantations, he thought. Role-playing next to a portal, which happened to be in the forest behind my house. Wait, no, no. This is ancient proto-Equestria we're talking about. The Elements didn't even exist then. Couldn't have been that since I don't know anything about ancient uni- "We also know that, due to the primitive nature of the spell, the exact incantation wasn't set in stone, either in the knowledge required or the time it was active. Presumably, the portals could have been activated with the repetition of any knowledge exclusive to Equestria at any time - perhaps even today, with knowledge exclusive to even modern Equestria, if the seal is weak enough."

Welp.

"The gates only stayed open for a brief time, to avoid an army of humans coming in or a unicorn forgetting to shut the portal. A sentry would usually stay nearby and keep the portal open when there was the need."

"That's very interesting! We've come a long way, and yet... well anyway, about the gryphons and dragons - I know it's a little off topic, but I'm curious, you said they used to be a lot more friendly?"

"This was in the time before any of us really developed a culture of our own. With time, as ponies advanced, they had less need for the others, and various quibbles here and there led to hostility enough to divide the land into the regions we have today. Furthermore, the diets, lifestyles, and cultural traditions of the various species became so different that it was hard to get along as well as we all once had."

"Kind of like the opposite of the uniting of the pony tribes on Hearth's Warming Eve, then?"

"More or less."

"So what about, when the portals were shut... what if there were unicorns in the human world, or vice-versa? Did they make sure to check?"

"I suspect a scant few may have been trapped, but we'll probably never know. As memories were wiped as best they could, humans would've probably regarded the unicorns as an unknown oddity, and, as there are no indications that a population survived in the human world, they would probably be consigned into the realms of legend, much as humans have become legends to most of the general population in Equestria."

"Wow. Well... I think it's time we involve Isaac in the session then, maybe?"

Celestia turned to Isaac, who was still riveted to the questions and answers being thrown back and forth. "Isaac, your turn."

He stood up, legs slightly shaking, as he took in all the information that had just been passed on - and one last strawberry. It all seemed so bizarre, yet it somehow made sense - he might well have brought his fall into Equestria on himself.

"You heard all that I've told Twilight. Given that, you probably have some questions. I'll let you go first before I ask you my questions."

"I... I... this makes... this is weird. I can't believe... I mean... I don't..."

"I know it's hard to believe, and a difficult story to comprehend, but that's my best explanation, and I think it also explains how you managed to get here. You said you came through the portal in the Everfree Forest?"

"Yeah and I... but I... if what you said is true... you said the portals could be opened with, like, an incantation or... or knowledge of Equestria?"

"Yes."

"And maybe it could be... maybe even now, with stuff from Equestria today?"

"Presumably. If, of course, the seal is weak enough - as it apparently is where you fell in."

"Well, right before I fell through into the Everfree Forest, I was role-pl... I was, kind of, re-enacting my favourite scenes, and said stuff from the show, then the ground opened up. Could that have opened the portal?"

Celestia raised an eyebrow and inquired, "Scenes from the show? What do you mean by that?"

"That's one of the things I wrote in my letter," Twilight said, "what I said about our world being human-made fiction in his world."

"Fiction? Made by humans?" Celestia laughed. "Are you sure, Isaac, that you didn't hit your head really hard when you fell?"

"I'm sure. In fact I can... I know about just about everything that's gone on since Luna came back. I know about, like, um, Discord being revived from stone and causing chaos and getting sealed up, then getting un-sealed and reformed by Fluttershy. I even know about when your phoenix, Philomena I think, was stolen and turned to ash and made Fluttershy cry and..."

"I have no idea how you could possibly know about these things unless Twilight told you or you're some intergalactic spy," Celestia replied, still somehow unphased, "but I assure you that nothing here is fiction, at least not in the sense you seem to be indicating. It's as real as it gets."

"I see that, but... it doesn't make sense how there's a show and it's made my humans and not really real and..."

"Some things don't ever make sense." Celestia turned to Twilight, with a wink. "But sometimes you have to believe something is real even if you can't figure it out yourself." The unicorn smiled, remembering the whole Pinkie Sense fiasco not long after she moved to Ponyville.

"Well yeah, I believe it's real now of course, but that doesn't make it any more... yeah, never mind." Isaac shrugged and decided to brush that off for now. Being in Equestria was awesome, and it didn't require an explanation to see that. Still, the history lesson that he had been told bothered him a little. Suddenly the concept of a three-year-old girls' TV show had morphed into a real thing that apparently tied in with human history... IF what Celestia said was true. If Equestria is fictional on Earth, Isaac mused, then so are the history lessons and stuff that are told here.

But I'm still here, and it still seems so real...