"What."

Alena couldn't believe what was going on right now, and apparently, neither could Placidia. "Seriously, I tell you something as earth-shattering as us being in another universe, and all you can say to that, is "What?" Where's your tact?"

Placid left the family room to see exactly what Alena was talking about, mostly because she didn't believe her at the moment. When she got to the door however, her comments died in her throat, as she beheld Twilight in all her pony-ness. Placidia couldn't contain her excitement when she saw Twilight, and promptly ran over Alena to get to her. Placid grabbed Twilight in a hug and wasn't letting go anytime soon. "Oooooh, you're just soooo cuuuuuuute!" She moved back and took a look at Twilight, "Awww, you've got wings! They're so adorable!"

Alena smiled awkwardly, "I'm sorry about my friend here, she just can't contain herself when she's near things that are insanely cute."

Twilight blushed at the implied compliment, "Thank you. It's just a relief to find someone that doesn't worship the ground I trot upon and kiss my hooves all the time. You wouldn't believe all the ponies and other people that treat me like some kind of goddess just because I've ascended into Alicornhood. It's starting to get annoying. Anyway, back to my original question, what are you two?"

Alena had read enough fanfics to know exactly what to do in this kind of situation; just because she's a pony, and that she's a princess, doesn't mean that she has to pull punches and hide things from her when explaining the situation. "Well, we're called humans, my name is Alena Noel, and the cuddly ball of affection is Placidia Shores. We've come from another universe most likely, and I can shed some light on how it happened. At some point in our world, there formed a tear in space, which started spewing energy from right under my home; as I was conceived during that time, and my mother had stayed home the entire pregnancy, I have been enabled to use magic, probably to a larger extent than other humans if they were to come here. I don't know if I am the direct cause, but probably sometime during the night, my house was tossed through the rip in space, and landed here. The likely cause would probably be that over time the tear grew bigger, until my house was taken through it." Alena left out the bit about her father, as Twilight didn't really need to know that at this point in time.

Twilight's eyes widened as Alena told her story, due to her being a sponge for all that raw magic that seeped through a crack in space. No doubt the magic energy had been changed somewhat as it travelled from one realm to another, as Alena's energy seemed a little different than most ponies' magic. It seemed Placidia also had magic within her, but only had two thirds the amount that Alena did. Seeing what this magic would do to either of them over the next few days would prove interesting.

"Alena, do you mind if I ask you about your race's history?"

Alena shook her head, "No, no, it's fine, ask away; though I think it would be best if we all went inside into the common room, don't want to keep a curious princess standing in the doorway all day."

Placidia finally released her grip on Twilight, and the three of them sat on a couch, Alena on the far left, Twilight in the middle, and Placidia on the other side of Twilight. The princess seemed to come up to Alena's chest, the top of her head was just below her neck. Twilight conjured up a notepad and pen, instead of the usual quill. It was a simple invention that was taking Equestria by storm, as it didn't need to be constantly dipped in ink, and were very cheap - quite a bit cheaper than quills. This thought reminded Twilight to thank Ball Point for the massive package of pens she received for her birthday.

"Now," Twilight began, "let's start with your race's origin, then we'll get into politics, religion, and then recent history; I'm only really interested in the last three hundred years." Alena excused herself, walked into the kitchen, and then came back into the room with a full carton of red Fruitopia. This was going to be a long history lesson...

Twilight couldn't believe what she had heard, what she had written down. The human race was much more violent than ponies, even today, but she couldn't blame them, as they had no magic to help content with their environment. Not having a physical god or goddess in their lives meant that there were a whole bunch of different belief systems, and due to that, a lot of wars based on religion alone. As they had no magic, they had learned to do things fast and efficiently; sadly including weapons in that mix. Their diet was omnivorous, which Twilight could understand, as their biology didn't allow their bodies to synthesize the different proteins and nutrients that they could only get from eating meat. What had really interested her however, was the idea of Alena's government structure. Sure, it had its benefits, but it had become corrupted by allowing money to stay in politics, which is exactly what Equestria didn't need.

Alena poked Twilight, "Twilight, do you mind if I ask you to keep this between us for now?"

Twilight looked at Alena, a little curious, "Why do you ask?"

"Well, I just don't want to get into a mess with the government here at the moment. Just let us settle in, and then we can deal with whatever the governing bodies want to throw at us."

Twilight just smiled at Alena's comment, "Oh, I don't think you'll get much trouble from the government, but I'll give you two some time before I bring my findings to Princess Celestia and Luna." Just after, Twilight looked out the window, "Oh, shoot, it's getting late, and I haven't done any shopping yet. I was on my way to the market to get some groceries and a few books for the library."

Alena took a second to let that comment sink in before she gave a reply, "Oh, you're going shopping? Would you mind if we went with you?"

Twilight considered Alena's request for a moment, before she questioned her motives, "Why would you want to go with me to the market, by chance?"

"Well, I figured that if we're going to get the town used to us being around, what better way would there be than to just walk around with the local princess? I mean no offense, it's just that if we're seen chumming around with you, that the locals would think twice about either attacking us or hurrying everyone inside. They worship you, and in turn if you're seen with some strange creature and you haven't blasted it to bits, then you must somewhat trust them to be on their best behaviour."

Twilight let the thought roll around in her head for a moment, "Hang on, what if I'm being held hostage by you two, and I'm only cooperating because I don't want you to bring harm to myself or anyone else in the town?"

This time Placid gave a soft chuckle, "Twilight, I'm sure that the ponies would notice the difference between us actually being non-threatening and us just playing nice; they'd pick up on your distress in an instant, and take any given opportunity to help you out by attacking us. Plus, if we were holding you hostage, we'd have something on you that would keep you in line to make sure you don't do anything rash." Placidia blinked, before she added, "Wait, I just said something completely unnecessary and stupid, didn't I?"

Twilight shook her head, "No, you were spot on, the townsponies would instantly pick up on my distress and do something about it. I don't think we have anything to worry about. Let's go, before the market closes."

The three of them exited Alena's house, and walked side by side to through the town and to the market. Alena and Placid were right... well, mostly right, anyway.