As the group walked out of the forest, they encountered more of the bogs Marcus had trudged through earlier. Most of the ponies just flew over, but Marcus and Twilight lacked such capabilities. He offered his arms to ferry her across. The unicorn shook her head with her horn briefly shimmering as she tensed up her eyes. Twilight Sparkle then proceeded to skate across the bog. He remarked to nobody in particular, “Just like a water strider.”
Fluttershy heard him and asked, “Excuse me. What’s a water strider?”
His voice was uncharacteristically cheerful. “It’s an insect that skates across the surface of the water. We got them all the time when I was a kid. We had this pond behind my house, and it would always be full of the things every summer. My father was an entomologist.”
She gasped. “You have bugs that walk on water?” Fluttershy focused intently upon him. Twilight’s ears turned fixedly in his direction.
“We sure do. What, you don’t?”
“I’ve never seen any,” answered the pegasus.
Twilight interrupted, “We have things like them, just not in this part of Equestria.” Marcus nodded. As they neared the forest's edge, Marcus took point and led them onward. Princess Celestia was immediately behind him with Princess Luna to her right. Following a short distance behind them were the rest of the ponies. They cleared the forest and existed into the meadows near Fluttershy's house. The Spartan paused to admire the unspoiled scenery. He bent down and picked up a dandelion in his fingers, gently bringing it up to his visor as if it were a precious jewel. He then twirled the stem between his fingers until a breeze came through the golden mid-morning and scattered the seeds into rustic autumnal.
It was several seconds before he turned and addressed the party. "Well, where to? Keep me here or set me loose upon this world? It’s your call, your royal highnesses." Marcus looked them hard in the eyes and curtsied. The princesses turned to each other and exchanged looks. Celestia nodded at Twilight, who stepped forward.
She lifted her front hoof in a nervous kicking motion. “You’ll be living here for a while, so we’d better get introductions out of the way. Try not to frighten anypony, okay?”
“Me? Never…”remarked Marcus with false outrage. They walked on past some of the outer homes, but it was not long before ponies caught sight of them with mixed reactions. Some ran, some stood, and some ducked behind cover. Marcus was used to this No pony here had ever seen a human, and the first one they had ever seen was a faceless giant clad in ominous armor and carrying strange devices. They likely didn’t even know the word for him. Some screamed that aliens had invaded. The entire street emptied before them. Ouch. Marcus knew what it was like for aliens to invade your home. Now he knew what it was like to be the invading alien.
"This isn't going too well, guys," whispered Rainbow Dash. Marcus looked over at her and almost gave her a 'you don't say' face, forgetting she wouldn't have been able to see through his visor. They had encountered nopony else after that first street. Marcus glanced down an abandoned street, only to see a tumbleweed blow across perfectly on cue. Presently, the party reached the almost wholly deserted town center. Its only occupant was a violently pink pony with a very poofy, unruly mane who kept bouncing up and down with a huge smile seemingly etched onto her face. Marcus wondered which hurt more, its lips or its knees. His gave a quick glance towards his companions. They didn’t act as if anything were amiss as the peculiar wingless, hornless, pony walked up to them, suddenly pulled out a cannon out of nowhere, and fired it with a sound almost entirely unlike any artillery he had ever heard. Marcus dodged the obvious attack, rolling and bringing up his assault rifle! He took aim at the pony and was about to fire when a deep purple aura surrounded his gun and tore if from his grasp.
"MARCUS, RESTRAIN THYSELF!" Luna barked with her echoing voice. He looked around, and noticed... confetti? Were those streamers there before?
A second, orange, pony in a cowboy hat appeared from behind him. "It’s just Pinkie greetin’ ya is all." The orange pony walked up to him with her head and mane coated in glitter, confetti, and streamers. She also didn't have wings or a horn, so Marcus guessed she was just a regular pony. Right, regular. Is that even possible here?
There was no time to think, for Marcus’s senses were suddenly overwhelmed by something loud and pink. “'Hiya! I'm Pinkie Pie, like Applejack said, and that's Applejack, just like I said! You must be new around here, because I've never seen you before and I know everypony in Ponyville. And because you’re new here, you must not have any friends, so I thought that I’d welcome you and be your first friend!" At that, she gave a big laugh and began to bounce like a damaged Ghost again. This one is way too happy. Looking over to Fluttershy, he asked her if she was always like this.
"Actually, well, yes. You should see her at parties though. That's when… well, she’s extra happy." Marcus nodded at that. This was going to take some getting used to. More worryingly, she would not do his nerves any favors. Marcus looked over at Rainbow Dash.
"Where did she get that cannon?"
Rainbow just shrugged. "It’s just Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie.” How helpful! “She does the weirdest stuff sometimes. There was this one time where me and her were at the pool and she jumped in. I’d asked her to take it a bit easy, so right before she hit the water, she just slowed down to a complete stop and then slowly sank in."
Pinkie exploded, "OOOH- I remember that one, Dashie! That was a funny day, what with all the me’s and all!" Marcus just shook his head, confused. He took Rainbow's advice and just ran with it. Princess Celestia cleared her throat, causing everypony to suddenly remember that they were in the presence of royalty.
"Everypony, this is Marcus. He's not from here. He's a human. I want you all to take care of him and show him around, make some friends, and adjust to life here. He may not be able to go back to his home for a long time."
Applejack inquired, "Well, where is the feller from anyways, Princess?”
Celestia sounded like a mother trying to avoid an awkward subject with a young child. "That is a tale for him to tell. It is not my place. Now, Luna and I must be off. We have business to take care of. Marcus, Luna will be checking in on you every now and then. I hope you have a pleasant stay here."
Luna finally spoke. “We too wish you good fortune.” Then the same aura surrounded the rest of Marcus’s weapons and stripped them from his body with remarkable ease. “Equestria is a land of peace. You shall have your arms restored once you have proven yourself worthy of being trusted with them.” At that, Celestia and Luna suddenly disappeared into thin air with bright flashes, leaving Marcus totally bamboozled.
Twilight gave him a quick explanation. "They teleported back to Canterlot.”
“What is Canterlot?” His intonation implied something closer to amusement from a clever pun.
“It’s our capital city. The princesses rule from the castle there.” Twilight beamed up at him. The Spartan saw no additional activity on the motion tracker. At least the stares had stopped.
He had to know more about it. "I take it that the concept of limited, elected government is foreign to you.” The stares answered him. He waved them away. “Forget I asked. If I cause trouble for any of you, I'm sorry. I didn't mean for any of this to happen." He got the distinctive vibe of being stuck in a particularly vivid bad dream.
Fluttershy smiled warmly at him. "It’s alright Marcus, we understand." He returned her smile with the Spartan gesture of two fingers over the visor. She had grown quite improbably comfortable around him.
They all had noticed, but it was Applejack who finally voiced their concerns. "Fluttershy, you’re not scared ah this stallion? He's HUGE!" She waved her forelegs for emphasis. Fluttershy just shook her head, a little embarrassed. Marcus tapped his foot and cut in before anyone else spoke.
"The word’s man, and I’m right here, y’know; I’m not deaf and I know exactly what you’re saying.” He folded his arms. “Well, where will I be staying? From what I've seen, I can squeeze into most of your buildings.”
Twilight Sparkle was about to answer the man when a snow white mare with a splendidly groomed purple mane arrived and hijacked the conversation. "Honestly, darlings, what is all the commotion about? Is there a monster? In Ponyville? Ple-" she stopped dead in her tracks once she finally noticed Marcus. First, her pupils dilated. Secondly, she summoned a demon out of nowhere. And then she screamed bloody murder while fainting onto a near by bench!