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// Chapter 2: New Friends, Old Ideas 
// Story: The New World 
// by jt45fan 
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	The dual princesses of Equestria were looking right at us. Remember that feeling you get in the principal's office at school. That was nothing compared to the feeling of being judged by the God-Princesses of an alternate universe. The elder alicorn spoke first. “I would only assume that the six of you I have never seen before are the humans?”

“Yes, Celestia, Princess of the Sun.” was my response. I then bowed to the her,  taking her by surprise at my knowledge of her name and titles.

“Well, it is good to see that you know more of our customs then I originally thought.” she responded to me. By this point the rest of my friends were also bowing to the princess.

“I could explain why, if you would like me to.” I returned to her.

“Do be honest, I truly don’t care. I only wonder what you are doing here, as you are the second through seventh outsiders to show up in my world.” the controller of the sun said, cutting straight to the chase.

“I, nor anypony with me, were brought here by choice. We all awoke in a bed in Lyra’s house. And as for what we do here, I can only speak for myself, but I wish to better Equestria.” The princess was dumbstruck.

After several moments, the second alicorn in the room spoke up. “My sister, we do not think that they mean us harm.”

“You are correct, oh Princess of the Night.” said Diana walking up be equal with me. The rest of my friends did the same.

Celestia then responded to Luna “You say they mean no harm but look at his cutie mark.” She then motioned at me. More specifically at my cutie mark, the blue saber.

“Let me stay you fears princess.” I responded. “I will not attack anypony, unless in self-defence.”  

“I accept your pledge” Celestia responded, but she continued to eye me warily.

“As do we.” said Luna, abet more confidently than her sister. Then nopony decided it was time to talk, creating an awkward silence.

“So tell us about where you come from. We know so little about it, except from that strange Doctor pony.” said Luna, trying to break the silence.

I spoke to the princess in a rather curt fashion. “Luna, if I may call you that, our history is not exactly, harmonious.”

“You may call us Luna. And tell us anyways, it can’t be that bad.” was her response.

“Fine, but I’m going to do this right. I’m going to start at the beginning and I’m going to go up to where we left our world.” And so I did. I talked of Egypt and Babylon. Of Persia, Greece, and three hundred soldiers. I spoke of Rome and the Han dynasty in China. Of Charlemagne and Barbarossa. Of the English and the Spanish Armada. Of revolutions in France and America. Of wars tearing apart countries over slavery. Of dead leaders and poor new ones. On trenches filled with blood and bullets. Of madmen who wanted to exterminate their foes. Of mutually assured destruction. And of terror and the beginnings of another global conflict. And all throughout my lecture, the faces of the three ponies in attendance grew more and more grave. At the end of my speech I  thought I saw a tear in the eye of Celestia. I had explained to them the tragedy of the humans.

“There is no way I would send you back against your will now.” said the Celestia, blinking rapidly, voice wavering with sadness. She paused for a moment and drew a deep breath, composing herself. When she spoke again it was with authority. “But since you're staying here we need to come up with a plan to allow you acclimate yourselves to pony society, being that, from what I understand is an inherently violent society.”

All the ponies in attendance thought for a period of time, on what to do now. Finally Luna came up with a plan. “What if they were to spend time with the Elements?”

“Actually that might work.” said Celestia, with a renewed determination to allow us to stay in her kingdom. She then turned to Lyra and said “Gather the Bearers of the Elements and tell them that they are needed here.” Lyra left the house, and the princess asked  “You never told us much about yourselves. What did you do for fun on your home world?”

“We were the outcast. We had fun by writing and playing video games.” I explained to the dual monarchs. “As those on the fringes of society, we were never popular.” The door opened and in walked six ponies. Leading them was Twilight Sparkle, the Element of Magic. She was followed by Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Pinkie Pie, who was hopping as usual. When she saw me and my friends she began to wave wildly. Then the six elements saw the princesses in the room and stopped. They then proceeded to bow down before their monarch.

Twilight then looked up and asked “When did you get here Princess Celestia?” looking up the the sun princess.

“I have only been in town for a few minutes. But there is a more pressing concern. Do you see the six ponies in front of you?”was her response.

“Yes I do princess, but what do you want us to do with them?” said a southern accented voice from the back, Applejack.

“They are not from here. Their home was torn apart by war and they need help on being a pony.” she responded the 	Element of Honesty’s question.

This time a cyan coated pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail said “What do you mean by ‘they need help on being a pony’? Aren't they ponies right now?”

“Yes,” responded Luna, “but they were not always like that. They are humans, and were until about three hours ago. When they entered our world something changed them into ponies. They will need help adjusting to our world, due to the fact that as they left theirs was about to be thrust into a third planet wide conflict in one hundred years. Do you girls think you can do it?”

“Yes we can!” responded the unofficial leader of the Elements, Twilight Sparkle.

“Then we will leave you to figure out a plan, as we have other things we must attend to. I’m sorry I can’t help you further.” said Celestia as she began to glow. A bright white light filled the room and she, along with Luna, disappeared.

“Now what do we do?” asked a voice from behind me. I spun around to see Rainbow Dash.

Twilight then decided to take charge of the situation. “Before we do anything,” she said in a commanding tone “I think it would be imperative that we learn more about you six. Are there any problems with that?”

I said “None that I can think of. So let's mingle.” And so started everything. Within a half an hour we were already talking with specific ponies. Twilight was Talking with Diana, probably about writing, her favorite hobby. Mo was talking to Fluttershy, about what I couldn’t tell you. Mo was a history nut, specializing in some of the brutal conflicts in history. Shamus was talking to Rarity, and I over heard the words “bowtie” and “fezzes”. That Doctor Who obsessed pony would not shut up. Devlin was conversing rapidly with Pinkie Pie, probably about some crazy scheme to prank me or something. Ryan was discussing with Applejack about farm life. He lived on a from in Texas before he moved to New York.

That left just me and Rainbow Dash, as well as an awkward silence. “So what did you do for fun in your world?” she asked, trying to break the ice.

“I would read, watch NASCAR, play X-Box-” I said before Rainbow Dash cut me off.

“You have X-Box?” she then asked rather excitedly. My response was the exact same. “Of course I do. What are your favorite games?” she then responded. I rattled off several games, Halo: Reach, Battlefield 3, Black Ops, and Forza 4. When I got to Forza her eyes lit up. “Are you good at Forza?” she questioned. I laughed at it. “No really, are you any good?” she continued to ask.

I stopped laughing and said “At one time I was ranked in the top one thousand in the world. Does that answer your question.”

Her jaw hit the floor. Wow, over exaggeration seems to be common here. “Are you serious.” she managed to say.

“I am always serious about Forza.” was my response.

“Good it’ll be fun to have some serious competition around here.” she said. It sounded like nopony else was even interested in the game. I looked around the room once more, trying to keep track of what was happening, my gaze lingering on Diana. Rainbow saw that too. “Is she your marefriend or something?” she asked.

“Yah, you could say that.” I responded to Rainbow.

“So what was your house like in the human world?” asked Rainbow, eager to change the subject. To be fair it was a bit awkward. So I obliged.

“It was small. Living quarters downstairs. Sleeping quarters upstairs. Good size yard. nothing special.” I said.

“You said something about something called NASCAR earlier. What is that?” she then asked. It was suddenly easier to talk to her so I explained what NASCAR is.

And we conversed for a long period of time. By the time Twilight called every pony over I was talking about Lynyrd Skynyrd,  my favorite band. “So although you get made fun of for liking that band you still listen to them?”

As I was about to respond, Twilight said “Everypony gather around. I have a plan.” We all gathered around. “Now as I’m sure you know there are six of us and six ex-humans. Now If one of goes home with one ex-human it makes a perfect ratio. Now I was thinking that we should go with who we were talking to. Does anypony have a problem with that plan.” Nopony voiced any complaints. In fact several were nodding in approval. “Good. Now I'm going home. Diana are you ready to go?” My, well I feel if I’m living here now I should get used the local vernacular, marefriend nodded and went upstairs to gather the few things she had here.

“Well, we should leave too.” said Rainbow Dash, nudging my side. I figured that it was a good idea as well. But I had something to do first.

I walked over to Lyra who was in the kitchen making pancakes. “I just wanted to thank you.” I said.

“Why? I took you away from your home and family.” she responded, a tinge of regret on her voice.

“Because I have a feeling that I’m going to be needed here. And trust me, my home was no Babylon.” I said to her. “But now I must take my leave. I’ll see you around.” I turned to go to grab my stuff, but before I left the kitchen, Lyra walked over as well.

“I should thank you as well. I nearly quit researching humans, and summoning you was sort a last chance.” She said to me.

“Don’t mention it.” I said back as I left the room and went upstairs to gather my things. I grabbed all of whatever was on the small table that got taken with me and threw it into a drawstring bag, the one I  got a Pokèmon regional championships last year. I was glad that was here. Had lots of good memories of that event. I walked back into the living room. Devlin and Pinkie Pie had already left by the time got back downstairs.

“You ready?” asked Rainbow Dash. I nodded affirmative. “Good.” she said as she walked out the front door of the house. The sun was just beginning to set on my first day in Equestria. We walked to a remote part of the town before she said “Here we are.” I looked up into the sky, a huge cloud palace towering over me. She jumped into the air and began to fly.

Now as a former human, I have no idea on how to use wings to fly, other then in theory. I experimentally flapped my still new to me wings several times, causing Rainbow to swoop down and ask “What are you doing?”

“Humans don’t have wings.” I responded. “Hell, I’ve only flown a couple of times in airplanes. Which are not at all like having your own wings.”

“So you’ve never flown on your own?” she asked, clearly dumbstruck at the idea of no sentient beings with wings.

“No, but I’m a fast learner. And I think I got it.” I said excitedly as I shifted my weight back. I then sprung into the air and flared my new wings, feeling the air underneath them for the first time. I then flapped them like I had seen both birds and my accompanying pegasi do. Within seconds I was several yards above the ground. At this point I decided to make several slow turns, eventually angling myself towards the cloud house above me. “Are you coming?” I said to my perpetually equine companion.

“You’re doing OK hotshot, but I’m still top flier around here.” yelled Rainbow as she rapidly gained on me. By the time she caught up with me though we were landing on her balcony/front steps. She opened the front door of her house and walked inside.

The interior of the house was much more light then I had expected. I looked up to see that the roof was open to the sky. I should ask Rainbow Dash about what happens when it rains sometimes. She motioned to a door on the side of the living room and said “There’s the guest room. You can put your stuff down in there.”

I walked to the room. It was very simple, A cloud bed and a chair next to a lamp. next to the bed was a table, with a single drawer. On the walls were two windows, each on a different wall. One of them looked out over Ponyville and the second watched out over what I believed was the Everfree Forest. I decided to put down my bag and then take a tour of the house.

As I walked over to the bed to put my bag on my left rear leg was jolted with pain, dropping me face first to the floor. Well now I know that this isn’t a whole new body. Knowing that old injury would continue to trouble me throughout my life here, it was somewhat comforting, a tie to the world that I had originated from. I lifted myself off the cloud floor, which was deceptively hard, and limped over to the bed, which was much easier due to the extra two legs. After I placed my bag on the bed I limped into the living room.

As I did the other pony in the residence took note. “Are you ok?” she said clearly worried.

“I’m fine, this is an old injury. I busted up this ankle so many times, it’s permanently messed up.” I said to her.

“Good then you can get over here. I got the X-Box on already.” I looked a T.V. that I had overlooked on my initial inspection of the room. On the T.V. was Forza 4. With cars. That was odd, but I wasn’t complaining. I limped back to my room and grabbed my hard drive for my X-Box, in the bag because the previous day I was at my friend Ben’s house and I wanted to use my actual cars in Forza when I played him. When I got back into the room with the X-Box, Rainbow Dash asked “Why did you grab that?”

“Because you can import your profile onto here, but I can’t get mine onto your hard drive. My profile is weird like that.” I responded to her inquiry.

“Fair point.” she responded. I happened to look at her game collection as I was putting in the hard drive. Modern Warmare 3, and Battlefield 3, the only games standing out to me. After several annoying minutes of waiting for her gamertag to download, we started the game. The track names were changed, like it was now Apple Valley instead of Maple Valley, and Le Manes instead of Le Mans, but the tracks themselves were the same. We chose to race at Rally di Positano, a twisty road course. I have a special car for that track, a heavily modified ‘71 Mustang. But I forgot about the special paint job. One of Rainbow Dash.