Chapter 1: The Beginning

A dark grey sky provided a steady rain that soaked the ground by the time I got home. I locked my car, walked inside, and headed upstairs. I was tired, it had been a long day at work, I still had college work to catch up on, and I hadn't slept well the last night. I didn't even bother to change into evening clothes, or even to take off my sweatshirt. I just flipped the light switch off in my room and collapsed on the bed, or what should have been my bed. I never actually hit the bed. I just kept falling.

Me? Well I guess I could just be considered an average Brony. I was almost 18 and almost precisely six feet tall with deep green eyes and brown hair. A person who, like tens of thousands of others, had grown to like the My Little Pony series. If you would have told me that I would have been watching My Little Pony 6 months ago, I would have blown it off as a poor joke.

But somehow, it grabbed my attention. It was different than all of the other shows out there. No violence, no crass language, but yet at the same time, was fun to watch and also had a good storyline. What made it so good? Maybe it was the sheer girliness mixed with references only us as computer geeks would get. Or maybe it was the "Oh-no-this-is-really-embarassing-I-can't-look-but-I-should-be-able-to-at-my-age" tension. Either way, I was hooked.

With a sudden wind flying at my face, a rush of adrenaline flew through my system. I was wide awake now, and the ground was coming up fast. Really fast. I braced myself and with a sharp CRACK my body connected with a low lying tree branch, snapping it off. I continued my descent another ten feet or so until I hit the ground. Surprisingly, I managed to pull myself up and brush myself off. The injuries weren't terrible, but I would be sore for a couple days at least.

Slightly dazed, I heard some voices in the distance.

"Did anybody else see that?" An exicted voice cried out.

"No, what was it?" another chimed in.

"I'm not really sure, I'll go check it out." The first replied.

"I…I think I'll just stay here, where it's safe." Another one whispered.

Out of the corner of my eye I saw movement. I glanced over, and it was what appeared to be a pony.

Two more followed. But these weren't just any ponies; I realized it was Twilight Sparkle, Rainbow Dash, and Fluttershy. They were looking for something, which I assumed was me.

I was dumbfounded, and I figured that I was dreaming. Three of the mane six were right in front of my face. There was no way it could be real, and yet…I wanted to believe that it was. I looked again, and then felt my side where I had hit the branch. It stung like crazy. This was definitely real.

I forced myself up and waved at them from where I was standing. "Hey guys!"

That was a mistake. Fluttershy screamed, jumped up, and hid under a bush. So much for first impressions…

"Look, I'm not going to-" I managed to glance over to my left in time to see a beam of light headed my direction. I stepped back just in time, and it flew by me. Twilight's was preparing some sort of spell. There were five more magic bolts in quick succession, and I managed to dodge all but the last one.

When the bolt hit me, I was paralyzed, held firmly in place.

"Twilight I'm not here to-" A sharp blow caught me in my side as Rainbow Dash tackled me (just for good measure).

Rainbow Dash stared me down. "Alright, who are you...and what exactly are you?"

Trying to pick myself up (a little hard when you have a pony sitting on top of you). "If I can finish my sentence, we can start with names I guess. I'm Joshua, but you can call me Josh if you want to. And I happen to be a bit…lost."

"Alright, Josh is it? What are you doing here?" Twilight said with a frown.

"I just said, I really don't know exactly where I am…"

"What WERE you doing until you got lost?"

"Believe it or not, I was trying to get some sleep. The last thing I remember was falling onto my bed, and I wound up flying through the sky and making a pretty hard landing."

"You can explain it to us at the library I guess." Twilight said. "We're going back to Ponyville, and you are going with us."

Considering that I couldn't really argue since I was being held in place by a spell, I went along with them. Twilight used a spell to hold my arms at my sides while I rode on Rainbow Dash.

The whole way there I was being flooded with questions, some of which were a little hard to answer. The ride wasn't exactly smooth, and I was still sore from my freefall.

Twilight started the conversation. "Let's start with some basics. What exactly are you…Josh? And how do you know our names?"

"I'm a human, but I take it from your first reactions that none of you have met a human before."

It was a unanimous "no".

"And I can't really explain to you how I know so much…but I do know a bit about you guys."

I looked at Twilight. "You're Twilight Sparkle, and you studied as a student of Princess Celestia in Canterlot. I'm currently sitting on Rainbow Dash, one of the only ponies to ever perform a Sonic Rainboom, and the shy one over there is Fluttershy, who has a natural ability to relate to animals."

I also went over some of the things that had happened in season one of the TV show, and I also covered the Discord events of season 2.

"…and then you all used the Elements of Harmony to seal Discord in stone. Did I get all of that right?"

Twilight was genuinely impressed. "Yes you did, with astonishing detail. How do you know so much about us? We've never even met before."

"You're right." I said with a sigh. "We haven't met before. I don't think you would really understand it even if I did explain it…"

"At least try." Twilight said irritably.

I pondered the question for a moment. "Well how can I explain this…You guys have a storybook called 'The Mare in the Moon' right?"

"You know that story?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Yes, in a manner of sorts. You all thought that it was just an old ponies tale until it actually came true, right? I guess in the same way, we have stories about you ponies, but I would have never thought that this place was real. This is Equestria isn't it?"

Twilight giggled. "Of course it is silly! Where else would it be?"

Author's Notes:

I had a hard time choosing how "I" should meet the mane six; usually people do something where the mane six find the character unconscious somewhere. I tried to change this a little, so while the mane six were looking for me, I was the one who called out to them.

I'm not sure if it was a great idea, but I went with it anyways.