Dale had been standing in the same place for the past couple of minutes trying to grasp the situation. Out of any reality that could have been chosen for him to live in, why did it have to be one based of My Little Pony? He would've accepted anything other than this place if he had the choice. Dale began to question what he did to God that made him decide that this was going to be the reality he was going to spend his life in. If this world is supposed to be the one from My Little Pony, then why were there so many creatures that were trying to kill him earlier? Dale thought that this show was supposed to be all sunshine and rainbows, not filled to the brim with bloodthirsty branch wolves, and furballs that wanted to take his head off.

"I shouldn't just stand here forever. I've been trying to fend for myself for a while, I deserve a break at least," Dale thought to himself as he begrudgingly began to walk across the bridge that leads into the town. Dale pulled up his holographic map to see what this new location is called. The map was filling out little by little with each step he took; he looked at the top corner of the map and read the name out loud.

"Ponyville?" Dale said while cringing at his own voice, "You've got to be kidding me," Dale was very unimpressed with the name, he thought that at least he now knows what he's getting into. Dale decided that he should at least try to look for the creator of this world while trying to rest up; Hopefully, they were still human.

Once Dale reached the town entrance, he looked at his surroundings. The houses were actually made out of hay, it wasn't just his mind playing tricks on him. Dale began to awkwardly walk through the town, trying his hardest not to make eye contact with any of the multicoloured ponies. Dale thought it was really strange seeing what cartoon characters would look like in real flesh and blood, it also didn't help that these were talking animals. Dale stood out like a sore thumb in this place, he knew that he was at least getting eyed up but didn't want to pay attention to what they were saying.

Despite this town being populated by horses, it functioned surprisingly well as a society. Dale had entered what he assumed was a marketplace as there were multiple vendors occupying street space. It was beginning to get a little cramped for Dale, it didn't help that he was significantly bigger than the ponies that were trying to do their shopping.

"They don't call it My Little Pony for nothing," Dale placed his hands in his pockets as he began to look around. He had no idea where to go or who to talk to in order to get any leads. Dale decided that he should just talk to anyone and see if they know anything about another human, maybe if he got lucky it would be over quick. Dale walked up to one of the market stands, the pony behind it was selling an assortment of fruits. Every fruit was separated in their own baskets, all of them were neatly organized. Dale noticed that the dark blue mare behind the counter had a horn sticking out of her head; he tried his hardest not to stare at it.

"Wow, I've never seen anything like you before," The mare behind the counter said, "You must not be from around here. Where are you from?"

Dale scratched the back of his head, "It's a long story," Dale wasn't really surprised that the mare wasn't freaking out at the sight of this new creature. After all, the Everfree forest was filled to the brim with different creatures that Dale had never seen before. The mare probably assumed he was friendly at the very least, "Anyways, I'm just passing by this town. I'm looking for someone and was wondering if you've seen them. They should like kind of like me... But different," Dale couldn't think of a good way to describe the person he was looking for. He had no idea who he was looking for himself.

The mare sat there for a moment, thinking to herself, "I'm sorry, but I can't say I have. If there's anypony you should be asking, it would be Pinkie Pie. She's friends with everypony in Ponyville!" The mare responded excitedly. Dale wasn't surprised by the name at this point, he's come to terms with the kind of place he's in.

"Where can I find her?"

"She's usually at the bakery called Sugarcube Corner. You just need to head down the marketplace and go to your left, you can't miss it" The mare said while pointing her hoof in the direction for Dale to go.

Dale's arm brace suddenly began beeping rapidly; This caught him off guard. Dale quickly took a look on his holographic menu to see what the issue was. The section titled "Quest Log" was slowly blinking.

Quest Log

Current Quest

"The Creator"

Find the creator of this reality to hopefully receive answers to why you're here.

Current Objective:

Go to Sugarcube Corner and talk to Pinkie Pie.

Rewards:

100 EXP

50 Bits

5 App Points

(To complete a quest you must first complete all of the Quest Objectives. Quest Objectives are not listed until activated)

Pending Quests

N/A

Completed Quests:

N/A

"Um, are you okay, mister?" The mare asked Dale, this caused him to snap back to reality, "You've been just staring at your band thingy for the last couple of minutes," This caught Dale off guard, could she really not see him in his menus? Dale thought this was a thing that everyone could do. Maybe it's because this reality counts people who don't have any arm braces as NPCs from a video game? It would fit with the rest of the theme the creator was going for.

"S-Sorry," Dale stuttered, "I was just... zoned out for a sec. It happens all the time," Even Dale thought his own excuse was poor.

The mare smirked, "well, it was nice speaking to you. You can take a free sample of fruit if you want," she offered.

"Really?" Dale said in disbelief. That's something that would never happen back on Earth, he thought she was just trying to secure a customer for next time. Dale was too hungry to ignore the offer, he's been fighting monsters for a while and hasn't come across anything to eat yet.

"Of course," The mare said while her horn began to glow. One of the pears that were sitting in the basket became wrapped in a dark blue energy field and slowly began to lift out of the basket. The pear slowly levitated into Dales' hands while there was a faint humming sound.

"Thank you very much, ma'am!" Dale said happily before beginning to gobble down the juicy piece of fruit. Dale was kind of shocked that he held a normal conversation with a talking animal. To him, it felt more like he was speaking to another person back home. It felt strange, but he won't let that get in the way of what he's after.

"We've arrived at your destination, Master Dale" Alex's voice range from the arm brace as Dale reached the building he was looking for. This building looked nothing like the other ones he saw in town. Rather than being made out of hay, this building looked to be made out of gingerbread and icing, almost like one of those gingerbread houses he made when he was younger. The building looked oddly nostalgic to Dale, even though he's never seen it before. It was probably because gingerbread houses reminded him of his parents.

"It's probably best not to think about them now," Dale thought to himself as he swallowed his sorrow. Dale walked up to the door covered in icing and pushed it open; A bell chimed as he entered the store. Even though the outside of Sugarcube corner was themed as a gingerbread house, the inside looked totally normal. At least as normal as a bakery being run by ponies could be. Dale could see ponies all around him snacking on various sweets, it almost made him jealous in fact. Almost.

"Hey there, stranger! How may I help you today," The stallion behind the counter greeted Dale as he approached. The stallion had an orange mane and tail, a white apron on with a bow tie slightly above it, and what looked to be pictures of cubed pieces of cake on his flank. Dale found that strange as the ponies around here seem to all have the same quirk of having different pictures on them; he wondered what it meant.

"Hey there, I was told that a pony named Pinkie Pie usually hangs out around here. Is it possible you could tell me where she is? I need her help to find the person I'm looking for," Dale explained the situation as directly as he could, he didn't want to waste any more time; especially now that it's slowly becoming sunset. The last thing he wanted was to be left out in the dark without anywhere to stay.

"Of course, she's actually one of my employees. I can go grab her," The store owner walks away from the counter and into the back. After a few minutes of waiting, a pink pony started to bounce out of the back happily. Her pink curly mane and tail bounced in rhythm with her and the pictures of balloons on her flank really made her stand out.

"Who is it?" the pony that Dale assumed was Pinkie Pie called out. When Pinkie Pie made eye contact with Dale, she immediately gasped loudly and bolted out of the store in a streak of pink. Dale stood there for a couple of seconds trying to process what just happened until he realised that the pony he was looking for was getting away at an incredible rate.

"Wait! I need to ask you something!" Dale called out as he gave chase as fast as he could. Dale was trying to avoid running into as many ponies as he could while chasing Pinkie Pie, she was proving to be too fast for him even though his current Agility stat was level 4, "Excuse me! Sorry!" Dale shouted out as he bumped into a stallion almost causing the both of them to fall over.

"Hey, watch where you're going!" The stallion called out in his thick accent.

Dale raised his arm brace up to his mouth, "Alex! Is there any way you can track Pinkie Pie? I'm starting to lose her!" Dale shouted as he began to lose sight of the pony that was moving at a blinding speed.

"I'm sorry, Master Dale. You do not have a function installed that is capable to do that," Alex responded. Dale wanted to curse out the worst profanities he could think of, but that would make him run out of breath faster which was the last thing he wanted. Dale began to slow down as he ran out of breath, Pinkie Pie got away and she was nowhere to be seen.

"How the hell... is she so fast!" Dale yelled while trying to catch his breath. When Dale looked up after panting for a second, he saw multiple eyes staring at him awkwardly. Dale found out the hard way that cursing is frowned upon, even if it's the smallest of words.

What at one point was a sunset, turned into the dead of night. All the streets of Ponyville have been cleared of civilians and shops have been closed. Dale sat down on the bench that was outside of a giant tree and sighed. He spent the rest of the day trying to track Pinkie Pie down, only to turn up empty-handed. Dale felt like he has fallen behind on what he's supposed to do and just needed to vent out that frustration; or at the very least, distract himself.

"Hey, Alex," Dale said into his arm brace, "Can you tell me something about this world?"

"I'm sorry but you do not currently have the Glossary function installed, Master Dale," Alex asked.

"Of course that's the case..." Dale decided to lie on the bench that was just a little too small for him, one leg dangled off of it. Dale looked up at the moon that was in the sky, it reminded him of the home he once had.

"Is something on your mind, Master Dale?"

"Yeah, a lot of things actually. I don't even know where to begin," This past day has gone by in a flash for Dale, so much has changed that his old life felt like years ago even though it hasn't even been a day yet.

"You can just say whatever is on your mind," Alex tries to egg Dale on. Even though ranting to Alex would be about as effective as ranting to a brick wall, Dale gave it some thought. Even though she was just a computer program inside his arm brace, just letting out his thoughts could at least help out a little.

"If you were to ask me where I thought I was going to end up after college, I would've told you 'working my dream job on a movie set' I wouldn't have cared what I was doing, I just wanted to work on movies. Just as it seemed my life was about to go somewhere, everything just vanished in a flash of light. My family, my friends, my entire fucking planet. All of it was gone, and there was nothing I could do to stop it. I don't even know if I'd rather be dead right now than be alive with nothing left. Even if I do end up finding whoever created this world, what would I do? What could they do? I'm probably only doing this to get some sort of closure on what happened, there's no way to get that old life back. There's no way for the creator of this world to get their old life back, and the probably wouldn't even want it since this is their idea of paradise," Dale rubs his face from the pent-up stress and anger. He could tell he was holding back tears, but no matter how much he could cry or scream there's nothing he can do right now to change anything.

"You should not lose hope, Master Dale. I believe that it will all work out in the end if you do what you feel is right," Alex says with a tone of understanding, "You should just focus on what is happening now and what you can do this second rather than later. I am only here to support you, I don't have any control over your actions. It is up to you if you chose to listen to my advice or not. I'll be supporting you in any way I can," Alex's words touch Dale in a way he thought they never could. Is it even possible to be friends with A.I?

"Thanks, Alex. That means a lot," Dale continued to sit in silence for a while, his thoughts swimming through his head. He believed that Alex has a point and that he should just try to focus on what's happening now rather than dwelling on the past or worrying about the future. Even if it doesn't seem like it right now, everything can be worked out in the end if Dale tried his hardest.

Dales' thoughts are interrupted by the vibrations of music being blasted through the town of Ponyville. He thought that everyone already went to bed, why is the music being played so loud. It didn't really sit right with Dale to remain laying down any longer, so he decided that he was going to investigate what was going on. Dale stood up from his position and looked back up at the moon one last time before heading towards the source of the sound.