Chapter 2: Day 1 and an Evening Away From Home

Applejack was waiting for us at the library. Spike was apparently away running errands for Twilight.

"Where in tarnation were you guys? And what is that?"

"I'm Josh. Nice to meet you." I said in a sarcastic tone.

"He can talk too? That's pretty nifty."

We walked inside and Apple Jack tied my arms to my sides with rope so that Twilight didn't have to keep me constrained with a spell.

There was a surprising amount of books and not much furniture on the ground floor, but the upstairs looked pretty well furnished. We proceeded upstairs into the living area. It was well lit due to a massive window that took in sunlight. I then had four inquisitive and slightly suspicious ponies standing over me.

"Alright, start from the beginning. Exactly who, and what are you, and what are you doing here? You seem to know quite a bit about us, now we want to know some things about you." Applejack said.

"That seems fair enough. I'm Joshua, and as far as I can tell, I'm from a completely different dimension. All I can really remember is that I was incredibly tired and then I suddenly started falling. I hit a tree branch, then toppled to the ground. I'm surprised that I wasn't hurt more than I am…"

"You were hurt? Let me see." Twilight said.

I lifted up my right arm and lifted my shirt up. The expressions on their faces were priceless.

"You don't have any hair on your body! Why in the world-"

"No, no I don't. That's regular for us as humans. You don't happen to have any bandages around do you?"

Twilight's horn glowed and she pulled some things off of a nearby shelf before procuring a roll of bandages along with some paper and ink.

"How do you manage to keep warm then?" Twilight inquired.

I pulled at my clothes. "Well, this is my sweatshirt and it's what keeps me warm in more serious conditions." I unzipped it and took it off. On a regular day I just wear a shirt and pants."

"…Pants?" Applejack asked. "What do those do?"

"They are there to keep my legs warm, and also has pockets to hold objects that I need to carry around with me."

"I see…" Twilight was scribbling down some notes. "Are you a young human, or are you older?"

"I'm almost 18, which I guess would be considered relatively young for a human, but I'm on the taller end."

I stood around about a foot taller than most of the ponies; I had thought that they would be shorter. Twilight was furiously creating notes about humans, and the whole time I was watching her levitate the quill.

"How does that work?" I motioned to the floating quill.

Twilight looked bewildered. "You mean you humans don't know how to write?"

I rolled my eyes. "That's not what I meant. I was wondering how you got the quill to float. It's magic right?"

Twilight motioned to her horn. "All unicorns and alicorns can use magic due to their horn in combination with another internal organ. It requires a great deal of focus and concentration."

"The reason I ask is that we actually don't have magic where I come from."

Twilight was even more amazed. "What? How do you move the stars around then?"

"That's just it, we don't have magic, so we can't use it to move the stars. The stars do move though, that's not a problem."

Twilight looked as if her head was going to explode from questions. "No magic but you can still move the stars? How in the world do-"

I cut in before she could get started. "Look, it's not really important at the moment, and when I get the time I'll try to explain it to you. Just for now, can we focus on the problem at hand?"

Twilight gave a heavy sigh. "Oh all right…"

By the time they were done asking questions, it was well past noon.

"Anypony here want to get some grub?" Applejack asked.

"That sounds good right about now." Twilight replied.

I looked up at them. "Before we go, can you guys take this rope off?"

There was a bit of a disagreement as to what exactly they were going to do with me, but eventually the agreed to take the ropes off. It was also agreed that, for at least the first couple days, I would join them in whatever they happened to be doing.

As for lunch, we settled on a nearby outdoor restaurant a couple blocks away. Twilight and Fluttershy ordered apple pie, Applejack ordered an apple cupcake and lemonade, and Rainbow Dash ordered a form of strawberry shortcake. I was still in a bit of a shock from landing in Ponyville and I didn't have much of an appetite.

"How can you guys just have all that sugar? Isn't that like…bad for you?"

"Not at all." Twilight said. "This is what we normally have. Besides, we need our sweets; it's part of our regular diet."

I sat there thinking about it. "You guys are lucky. Where I come from, we need to watch our sugar intake. Having more than two or three cupcakes could make some ponies sick later, but others have more of a resistance to it."

"Sugar? Making somepony sick? You DO live in a crazy place." Rainbow Dash said in astonishment.

I smiled. "You have no idea."

"So, at 3:00 this afternoon we are getting to meet up with Pinkie Pie and Rarity to have our hooves polished. You're going to have to come with us." Twilight said.

"That's fine, I'll just watch I guess."

A while later we met up with Rarity and Pinkie Pie outside the hoof salon, both of whom had different reactions to seeing me.

Rarity took it quite calmly: "Oh? Who is that? And why are you wearing black? That's not a cheery color…"

I hadn't even thought about my clothes yet, and they were a bit of a mess from my earlier adventures. "I'm Joshua, and I think I'll be staying around here for a while until I can find a way to get home…

Pinkie took a more direct approach: "HEY! I've never seen a pony like you before! Where did YOU come from? What do you like to do in your free time? Have you ever played the game…" and so on.

I had to retell my whole story to them. It took a while, but they seemed satisfied with it.

I found that hoof polishing is comparable to humans getting their nails done, and that it's actually pretty close to the same process. In the lulls where they were waiting, I offered to answer any other questions they might have. Rainbow Dash was the first to speak up.

"…So Josh…" Rainbow Dash began.

"…Yes?"

"You told us that you knew about us from stories you guys have. What do these stories exactly say about us? I mean, is it good, bad, or something completely different? Like, am I as AWESOME as I am here?"

Twilight and Rarity both rolled their eyes in unison.

I chuckled at Rainbow Dash's enthusiasm. "The original stories explain how you all became the best of friends, and all of the lessons that you learn about friendship."

I figured I would skip most of the fanfiction stories/ideas, as those weren't exactly canon material.

"Although…" I smiled at Rainbow Dash. "In some of the fan-made stories, people pair you and Scootaloo up as sisters."

"WHAT?" Rainbow Dash almost jumped right out of her chair, and everyone else had a good laugh.

By the time they were done, it was about five in the afternoon. We walked in the door of the library, and I gave Spike quite the scare.

"Hey Twili-WHOAH WHAT IS THAT?"

I just smiled. "I'm Joshua. You must be Spike."

Spike had the usual questions I had been asked all day, so after answering things like "What are you?", "How did you know my name?", and "What are you doing here?" we got down to figuring out where I was going to spend the night.

"Look, I can sleep almost anywhere. I've slept on wood floors, concrete pads…it really won't matter all that much to me. As long as I have a pillow I'll be fine, but even then I don't really need one.

Rarity was the first to offer. "I can get you a pillow and a blanket for wherever it is that you'll be staying. I have dresses strewn all over the floor for this evening, but you can stay at the Boutique tomorrow night if you would like."

"Um, well, I guess you can stay at my house for tonight…" Fluttershy offered.

I felt bad imposing on them, but staying outside when the temperature dropped to near freezing levels wasn't an option.

After we had chocolate cupcakes and apple juice (supplied by Pinkie Pie and Applejack respectively), we all split up for the evening.

As Fluttershy and I walked back to her house, I asked her about some of the locations that the TV show mentioned. (I never actually told any of them about the TV shows, I just said that they were stories we had.)

"So Fluttershy…where exactly am I? I understand that I'm in Ponyville, but where are some local landmarks around here?"

"Um, well, from Ponyville, you can go west if you want to go to the Everfree Forest, you head southwest if you want to see the hills of Sweet Apple Acres, and my house is in between the forest and Sweet Apple Acres.

"Where is Canterlot from here?"

"Oh, it's a ways that way." She pointed up and to the northeast, but I didn't see anything except for clouds, mountains, and fog. She went on to explain that Canterlot is above the clouds on one of the highest mountains; high enough to overlook all of Equestria but close enough so that the journey wasn't too long to make.

When we were inside, she explained that some of the animals had already left to head south for the winter. While she was busy feeding some of the animals upstairs, I was busy taking mental notes. Fluttershy's house was well furnished, with a fireplace in the middle of the room. There was a winding staircase that went around the chimney, and the all of the colors were an earthen tone; greens and browns were the dominant colors.

I started a fire and sat down in front of it, pondering what had happened that day. I had fallen onto Equestria, met the mane six, but still had no idea how to get back home. I heard Fluttershy walk back downstairs after a while and she watched me for the longest time. I could tell something was on her mind, but she wasn't quite ready to say it.

Eventually she stepped forward and curled up near the fire. "Josh, what is it like where you come from?"

"It is much different than Equestria, I'll tell you that. Where I come from, about 70% of the planet is covered with water and oceans, and there are about seven billion humans on the planet's surface."

The number stunned her. "Se…Seven billion? Are there any ponies in your land?" she said inquisitively.

"Yes, but not like the ones here. They don't speak our language, and what they do speak, we humans can't understand. It's not the same, and although earth ponies exist, pegasi, unicorns, and alicorns don't exist." I went on to explain the deep green and densely clouded regions of the northwest United States, the vast expanses of plains on the deserts of Africa, and the spectacular mountains of Europe.

"That sounds amazing…"

She looked like she was done asking questions, so I took the opportunity to ask one myself.

"Fluttershy, can I ask you for a favor?" I asked sheepishly.

She looked up with questioning eyes. "What is it?"

"Well…can I feel your mane? I know that's kind of a crazy question, but I've always wanted to see how soft it is."

She was a little hesitant. "I guess so…"

Her pink mane was incredibly soft, far beyond anything I had felt before. I began to stroke her mane, and she seemed to like it. She closed her eyes and gave a little sigh of comfort. She yawned and said that she was going to head upstairs to her bed, but she ended up falling asleep right there in front of the fireplace. I swear that she was the cutest thing that ever existed. I continued stroking her mane for another half an hour until I accidently fell asleep leaning against her side. It was the first good sleep I got in days.

Author's Notes:

This was by far and away one of the most fun chapters to write. I wanted to convey a cute scene where Josh finally gets some sleep, but at the same time lets go of some of his distant behavior towards the ponies.