( First message, on November 29th )

Second message, on November 30th:

The same pegasus as before, although he's a lot calmer (while his wings still unfold and refold involuntarily, he isn't abjectly panicking), sporting a grin more sheepish than horselike. He's also adjusting the scroll properly before he speaks.

"Hey everypony... sorry if I freaked you out yesterday. Just a bit more of a shock for me than for some of the other new guys. I'm okay now." He thinks about this, shakes his head, and amends: "Well, I'm gonna be okay."

"I'm Joshua Preston. I'm gonna try to find a place to stay and work to do while I figure out how to get home. Home..." he grimaces. Home was a whole barrel of apples he wasn't going to get into, not immediately. "...needs my help. But I've got a question for you, if ya don't mind answering."

He takes his hoof and reaches into the pockets of his forest cammo coat - as long as he doesn't THINK about the fact that he hasn't got fingers and this shouldn't work, it does work - and produces a thin silver circlet. Four diamonds gleam with an inner light, three triangles bracketing a larger hexagon.

"This was on me when I rainbowed in, and it wasn't on me before. I had my knife and my rat bars - and I KNOW it was my knife, because of how it was scratched - but this crown thing and a necklace aren't mine. Weren't mine. Did everyone get somethin' like this coming in?"