Pony P.O.V.
It was a bright, sunny morning in Ponyville. Twilight Sparkle and Spike were hastily on their way to Sweet Apple Acres, accompanied by an eager Pinkie Pie, a disgruntled Rainbow Dash, an interested Fluttershy and a completely distracted Rarity. Applejack had requested their presence in a hastily scribbled note, hastily burped out by Spike and hastily read by Twilight.
It had been a pretty hasty morning.
As a matter of fact, Twilight, Pinkie, Fluttershy and Rarity were cantering, Rarity with quite a lot of disapproval etched on to her face. Rainbow was flying a few feet in front of them, hooves outstretched. Spike was riding happily on Rarity's flank, only after Spike had begged the latter to let him in the first place.
The ponies galloped along the path and right into Sweet Apple Acres. Twilight skidded to a halt, but was then bumped into by Pinkie, who Fluttershy smacked into, who Rarity smashed into. All in all, the ponies ended up more like a pony pile.
"Pony pile!" squealed Pinkie.
Suddenly, an orange, cowboy-hat-wearing pony cantered up to the heap of ponies. "Ah, I'm glad y'all could make it," Applejack said, relieved. A few seconds later, Rainbow flew up to them and pulled Twilight to her hooves.
"T-thanks, Rainbow," said Twilight truthfully.
"No prob," said Rainbow. There was a strained look on her face, an expression mirrored by Applejack, who was dancing frantically from hoof to hoof.
"Er, gals, ya better come see this," she said anxiously, glancing over her shoulder in a jerky fashion.
"W-what is it?" asked Fluttershy timidly. "I-is it a d-dragon?"
"There aren't any dragons here, Fluttershy," said Twilight exasperatedly.
Spike cleared his throat.
"Aw, guys, just follow me, lickety-split!" exclaimed Applejack.
The others nodded and obeyed. They ran all the way to the front of the barn, by which time everypony except for Rainbow and Applejack were pooped. Ponies don't normally run so much. Rarity was whining that her hooves were hurting so much. Applejack clamped a hoof to her mouth and led them around the barn.
"Gals, better be prepared for the shock of ya life," said Applejack, trembling like a leaf caught in a hurricane.
"Ooh! Is a giant cupcake going to jump out and sing the Cupcake Song?" said Pinkie eagerly.
Everypony stared at her.
"Rainbow, would you be a dear and look and see what's there?" inquired Rarity. "Applejack is shaking like a blender, you see." Rainbow gave her signature salute.
Rainbow peeked around the barn cautiously. There was a giant heap of bodies there, but there was no blood as far as the pegasus could tell, and yet they didn't look familiar at all. In fact, they didn't even look like ponies.
"All clear!" she whispered nevertheless.
The ponies scurried out from behind the barn, Rarity impatiently dragging a petrified Fluttershy by the tail along with them, Spike eagerly helping out. When they finally reached the others, Twilight had summoned her magic aura around her horn. The pile of bodies began to glow, then Twilight seperated them one by one and laid them down on the grass.
"Who are they?" said Twilight, curiously approaching the nearest one.
"What are they?" exclaimed Rainbow rudely.
Fluttershy shakily walked up to one of them. The creature had blue skin, a short pink mane and wore red, cat-like glasses. She wore a white suit and grey pants. "D'you know what they are, sugercube?" asked Applejack nervously.
"N-no," said Fluttershy quietly. "I... I've never seen them before..."
Suddenly, Pinkie let out a gigantic gasp, jumping into the air. She was then gone in a blur of pink.
Twilight stared after her. "What is that pony up to?" she wondered aloud.
"Maybe she's going to get her notebook for the giant cupcake's autograph!" said Spike, chuckling.
"Spike!" snapped Twilight. "Go back to the library and get me that book called Other-Worldly Creatures. And hurry!"
"But Twiiiiiii-liiiight," Spike began, looking longingly at Rarity.
Twilight gave him a glacial stare. Spike started gabbling and zipped off.
Meanwhile, Rainbow had approached the blue-skinned one and was poking its face.
"How vulgar!" exclaimed Rarity, who had cautiously walked over to the largest one. It had a brown scruffy beard and bulging muscles. Applejack looked hastily at her own back legs, who looked like toothpicks compared to those muscles, and blushed slightly.
Rarity quickly fell back from the monster, holding her nose disgustedly. "Ugh! He smells like a trash can!"
Suddenly, Pinkie Pie re-appeared right behind Twilight. She tugged on the unicorn's tail. Twilight leapt into the air, screaming, and hid behind Applejack, who laughed nervously.
"Now, now, Twilight," she said, laughing shakily. "It's just Pinkie Pie. Nothin' to be 'fraid of."
Twilight poked her head over Applejack's shoulder and saw the pink earth pony, a book clamped firmly in her mouth, her eyes looking interestedly at Twilight.
"Hi, Twilight!" she said, waving her hoof energetically. However, it came out sounding more like "Hfwi, Tihwiht!", seeing as Pinkie had a book in her mouth.
Twilight hastily stepped out from behind Applejack. Rainbow gave a loud snort of laughter.
The sound seemed to have disturbed one of the creatures, for one of them, the blue-skinned one, stirred. Fluttershy flapped over to her and started singing a lullaby to sooth her.
"Er, Pinkie, where did you get that book?" Twilight asked.
"Fwom yeh wibraree!" replied Pinkie.
"Excuse me?" exclaimed Rarity, stepping back from Pinkie. "Dear, maybe it would help if you took that book out of your mouth and told us?"
Pinkie spat the book out into Twilight's hooves. "From your library!" she repeated, smiling widely.
"I said take that book out of your mouth," said Rarity, who had received gobbets of spit in her mane and face from Pinkie. "Not spit it out like some vulgar creature."
"Why'd ya get a book, Pinkie?" asked Applejack, as the ponies crowded round Twilight.
"Yeah!" said Rainbow. "How's a book s'posed to help us with these freaky things?"
"Pinkie..." said Twilight slowly.
"Yes, Twilight?" said Pinkie, jumping up and down, apparently pleased that she had given Twilight a book, regardless of whether or not she needed it.
"What's this book called?" continued Twilight.
"Other-Wordly Creatures!" replied Pinkie happily. "Did you need it? 'Cause I'm super-glad you need it! 'Cause if you didn't need it, then I would have ran all the way to your library and back again to get you a book that you don't need, and how silly would that be? And I saw Spike, and he was looking for a book, so I got the book for him and I ran back here, 'cause it was supposed to be a super-duper-looper fun surprise!"
"Did ya get anythin' o' that?" asked Applejack quietly. Rainbow shook her head.
Twilight looked at the front cover and there it was, in bold golden lettering, Other-Worldly Creatures.
"I was looking in this book just the other day," explained Twilight, as she flipped through the book with her magic. "I saw something about these creatures called 'humans'. Those creatures out here match the description perfectly!"
She slowed down as they reached the middle of the book. Finally, she turned to two pages, the left covered by the picture of an upright animal with no mane or tail, yet strange growths on all of their hooves.
"What's it say, Twilight?" said Applejack.
Twilight cleared her throat and read:
"Homo sapiens, or humans, are a tail-less, mane-less species with a highly evolved brain. They walk upright on two legs, and require the use of things called 'feet' to move around. Humans also have things called as 'arms', two long protrusions from either side of the body. At the end of these arms, there are things called 'hands'. Each foot and each hand has five growths sprouting from each. The growths on the feet are called 'toes'. 'Fingers' are the growths on the hands. Humans used to ride on pony-like creatures called horses, long, long ago. Riding like this was called horseback. However, there is no proof that humans have ever discovered Equestria."
"Great gallopin' galoshes!" exclaimed Applejack.
"Riding on vulgar horses?" yelped Rarity in disbelief.
"Th-they sound scary," whimpered Fluttershy.
Rainbow smirked. "They're super-scary!" she assured the timid pegasus. "I once found a pack of them, and they had these... these things! They were so terrifying and dangerous! I barely escaped with my life!"
"Dash, I'm ready to bet you've never seen anything scarier'n Winona," said Applejack.
"That's not true!" snapped Rainbow. "I've kicked a full-grown dragon in the face! I've attacked a manticore! I've charged Nightmare Moon!"
" 'Bout the most foolish thing you've ever done," said Applejack.
"The beast is awaking!" exclaimed Pinkie.
Everypony stared at her. Again.
"What do you mean by that, Pinkie?" asked Twilight gently, yet genuinely curious at the same time.
"The humans!" yelled Pinkie. "They're waking up!"