William looked up to see a grey unicorn mare standing just a few feet away from him, with a pitchfork aimed in his direction.
"Let me rephrase, what are you doing in my carrot patch?" Said the grey unicorn.
"Uh... it's... A... Pony..."
If his mental sate wasn't already torn to bits given the the past few days, seeing an actual, in the flesh pony sure did it.
His body let out a small twitch.
"Usually I'd just lie in a situation like this and get away scoot free, but this time, given the circumstances, I think I'd be better off just telling the truth."
"Mam, I'll have you know that I have not eaten in 2 whole days."
The Unicorn lowered her pitchfork.
"Well why didn't you just say that!?, I've got some pea soup on the stove, come on in!, name's Greystone by the way, what's yours?" The mare raised her hoof in his direction.
"It's William, pleasure to meet you Greystone." William gave the extended hoof a shake.
He let out a sigh of relief," At least my first meeting with ponies went well, although that might change if I told them what brought me here, or what I'm capable of, best keep quiet about that."
"William, That's a strange name."
"Family inheritance," He replied.
Greystone led William inside her house, a medium sized cottage surrounded by pine trees.
"15 minutes later..."
"Mumfh, that was some of the best pea soup I've ever eaten, thank you." William said as he finished his bowl.
"Back my world, most people wouldn't react quite as peacefully if they saw an armor clad stranger devouring their garden"
"You're welcome" Responded Greystone." Might I ask, what are you?, and what did you mean by haven't eaten in 2 days? And what's that strange black stick the you're carrying, and the armor, are you some kind of soldier?"
"I'm a human, and I have been wandering around the forest, lost for the past 2 days, looking for a way out"
"It's not the entire truth, but in this case, it's be better to keep all of this a secret." He thought.
"As for the armor and, well, this." He gestured to his m4 "That's classified. But don't worry, I'm not going to hurt anypony."
"Well, That's... reassuring," said Greystone.
He got up from his seat, and turned towards the doorway.
"Thank you for the food and hospitality, but I must be going now."
Were are you going exactly?"
"Ponyville."
"Well I hope you aren't planning on walking the whole way there, its a good 130 miles southeast of here."
He groaned, "Ain't no way I'm walking 130 freakin' miles."
You should try taking the train instead."
"The train, why didn't I think about that before?"
"Uhh... I don't have any money, and I highly doubt they would let a never before seen creature like me just get on a train full of paranoid ponies."
"Don't worry about it, I happen to personally know the conductor." Greystone responded.
"Alright then, lead the way."
"This day just keeps getting better." He thought to himself.
The 2 of them walked down the dirt path towards town.
"Well William, welcome to Greengrove!"
As the 2 of them walked down the town's main street towards the train station, he noticed that everyone, sorry, everypony was staring at him, some with confusion, a few with fear. But to his surprise, none of them ran and hid from him. And the stares soon stopped.
Just then a red ball came flying out of nowhere and hit him on the helmet.
He growled in anger, and turned to face the direction that it came from.
"Who threw that!?"He yelled out, raising his fist.
He spotted a group of pegasi and earth pony colts, now looking at him in terror.
Greystone looked at him nervously." Uh, William, what are you doing?"
"Sorry Mister, it was an accident." One of the colts replied.
William sighed and lowered his fist, "Don't worry about it, I'm ok." With that he tossed the ball back to the colts and continued walking.
"What was with that?" Asked Greystone.
"With what?"
"The way you acted towards those colts, they were only playing."
" I know that, which is why I didn't pop their ball and then keep yelling. As my grandpa always said, 'your right's end where my nose begins'."
"He sounds like he was very wise."
"He's still alive, you know."
"Oh..."
The 2 of them walked up to the ticket station.
"One ticket Please"
A dark blue unicorn greeted them.
"Hey there Greystone! And-sweet Celestia, what are you!?"
He's a friend, and don't worry, he isn't going to hurt anypony, Right William?"
"Yep." "So long as they don't hurt me first." He grumbled out the last part.
"Well, anything for you Grey, just him?"
"yes."
"Were to?"
"Ponyville." Said William.
"Alright, here you go." The blue unicorn levitated the ticket over to William, who grabbed it out of the air.
"Thank you for everything Greystone."
"Bye William, Glad I could help!"
He gave her a small solute, turned, and stepped onto the train. he looked around the aisle. To his surprise, most didn't bat him a single eye. He walked to his seat, sat and waited for the conductor to come by and pierce his ticket. The conductor walked up to him, a bat pony to his surprise. And a rather cute one at that.
"So, your Greystone's friend?" The conductor asked as he clipped William's ticket.
"Well, yes."
" Don't go makin any trouble. "
"I don't plan to" responded William.
The conductor turned and walked back to the engine room.
William began to fiddle with his rifle.
"Next stop, Ponyville!"
He heard the conductor shout out, a whistle blew and the train pulled away from the station.
The sun was getting low on the horizon.
"Best time for me to turn in soon." He thought to himself.
Now that he was surrounded by creatures that didn't want to murder him, eat him alive, or both. He felt at ease.
"I hope at least now that I'm relatively safe, I'll be able get some sleep without keeping one eye open."