(POV - Jason)

As soon as Lyra had left, I was finally free to do something about the number one problem that was on my mind: I was insanely hungry! I got up from the couch and walked over to the room where I thought I heard Lyra scream when I arrived. One of my footfalls didn't sound like it should have, and it felt like I stepped on something - I looked down, and saw the frying pan that Lyra had smacked me in the head with. I picked up the pan and walked over to what I was sure was a stove; sure enough, it was. Next on my list of things to do was to check the fridge for anything. I silently hoped that Lyra at least had some eggs and some other things to with them, as I was damn sure that she didn't own any meat.

I opened the fridge and sure enough, there was a bunch of food in the fridge. I looked through and grabbed what I thought was provolone cheese, a green and red pepper, and some spinach. Next was to cut up the peppers and spinach, while I cracked and beat the eggs in a bowl with a bit of milk, and heated the frying pan on the stove. After the pan was heated a bit, I cut a piece of butter off the stick and made sure the pan was nicely coated before I put the egg on. Then the peppers and spinach got sprinkled on while I ripped the cheese into small pieces and dropped it on the egg. Just before I folded the egg over, I checked the window, and saw that Lyra was about a minute out from the house. I made sure the omelet was fully cooked, and placed it on the plate right after I turned off the stove and moved the pan to one of the other elements on the stove. I snagged the knife and fork I grabbed earlier, and took the omelet to the living room, where I reclined on the couch and took a bite of the omelet.

'Holy crap, that's good!' The omelet was like a little piece of food nirvana; soft and fluffy eggs, flavorful and crisp peppers, the cheese was insanely stringy, and the spinach accented the whole thing wonderfully. I expected the food to taste at least a little different, but I never expected it to taste this amazing. I suddenly knew what the Planet Express crew felt when they tried Bender's food after he trained under that old chef who gave him that bottle filled with "the essence of pure flavor." To taste ordinary mundane food your whole life, only to taste something this awesome, it was like heaven.

Just then, Lyra and the guard came in through the door; I couldn't help myself and said the first thing that came to mind. "Oh hey, you're back. And you brought a friend along, how cuuuute!~" I could see that Lyra had to fight to keep herself from snickering, and the guard just facehoofed.

"Sometimes I feel I don't get paid enough to deal with some of the stuff that happens in this town..."

Lyra just walked inside, "Come on, this town's not that bad... most of the time..." She looked over to the guard, "So what happens now?"

The guard took a look at me for a few seconds, and then pulled some sort of crystal from... behind him? Oh, hammerspace. "What happens now, are a couple of things. I'm going to use this to alert Princess Luna, and she's going to come straight here. When she gets here, you two will greet her with respect, and she will quite obviously ask a few questions. If all goes well, I'd say that our newest guest will be given a free pass."

I listened to what the guard had said, and couldn't help but bring up something. "Wait a sec, I heard that this place is ruled by two princesses; what happened to the other one?"

"Princess Celestia is currently out of the country on foreign affairs. Princess Luna has been temporarily granted Princess Celestia's authoritative position on matters that happen during the day," the guard said curtly.

Shortly after the guard had finished his latest comment, there was a blinding flash, and a sort of snap sound. Seconds later, a literal royal blue pony came into view, with a regal billowing mane and tail that looked like a beautiful night sky. Princess Luna stood in front of me, clad in decadent silver armour; the designs looked embossed right into the armor during forging, which would require either a very good smithy, or someone well versed in the arts of smithing with magic. What seemed to stand out though was her crown, which looked as if it were made from the very fabric of darkness itself. Her very presence demanded attention and respect, while extruding a very commanding presence. One could say that she wasn't just the guardian of the night, but was night itself, personified.

Needless to say, when she pointed a hoof at me, I was very nervous as to what was about to be said.

"You, who seems out of place in this realm; where did you come from? You reek of Chaos magic, and leave me in a very precarious position."

Though I wasn't as nervous as before, I still had a little niggly feeling that wouldn't leave me alone, and it was really annoying. It really showed when I spoke to Luna.

"I came from another world, Your Highness, and was brought here by another being named Discord. I was offered a one-way trip here, and the ability to use magic, with absolutely no strings attached. If me being given magic upsets you, I'd hate to disappoint, because I'm sure that it was fused with me as soon as I crossed over here. I'm going to take a guess and say that if it were to be removed, you'd end up killing me in the process. Humans don't normally possess magic, so our bodies have no idea how to interact with it. The only place for the magic to go would be our souls, so removing it would make it insanely dangerous for us."

The Princess looked thoughtful for a moment, tapping a hoof on her chin. Lyra looked distressed and had started pacing as I finished talking to the Princess. The guard just stood right next to Princess Luna, as stoic as ever.

Finally, after a few minutes, Princess Luna spoke again.

"I have one thing to ask of you, Human. What are your intentions for this world?"

"To be perfectly honest, Your Highness, I just plan on trying to make a life for myself here; either find someone I can stay with for a few days as I get on my feet, or go out and find some sort of forest and possibly build a home for myself out there. Then it's off to look for some place to work at. Once I get over that hurdle, I don't think I'd have many more goals. I just want to be able to live a happy life somewhere. To give you a straight answer about what you're possibly asking in an unsaid question: no, I have no intentions to cause harm to this world, nor to any of its people or government bodies. I'd rather not start something I would have no way to finish. Even if I did have the ability to finish it, it wouldn't be worth it in the long run to begin with; it gets lonely at the top, so I want to stay far, far away from it."

Princess Luna nodded sagely, and Lyra looked as if she were about to have a heart attack. Probably because of the direction my little speech went. She really needs to learn to chill out sometimes.

"One last thing, Human: We must ask you your name. If you wish, you may give Us a name you would like to use in place of your given name. But be warned, once We go back to Canterlot to file the paperwork, you cannot get it changed. There have been many cases that were thrown out because criminals have changed their names just after committing crimes, thus leaving the court systems with an enormous mess in their hooves in terms of legal paperwork that had to be filled out and filed to different offices just to retrieve the criminals' previous names. We and Our sister finally put a ban on the practice of changing names, so the courts wouldn't have to deal with the nightmare of legal paperwork to go through."

That... I didn't even know what to think of that. Sure, I could give a different name, but I had to make sure that it was one that I wanted to stick with me for
the rest of my life here in Equestria...

I started thinking of a name, when there was suddenly a small whisper that seemed to be carried on the wind, or magic. It took a minute for me to figure out what it was saying, but I concentrated on it for a minute, and I was finally able to make it out: 'Nova.' Huh. I should probably put a last name to go with it though, or else it'd just be weird. For whatever reason, the only last name I could think of was 'Strider.' "I've decided. Princess Luna; I, Jason, request that my name from now on be Nova Strider."

Lyra looked at me with a very confused face, whereas Princess Luna just raised an eyebrow, "Art thou sure, Sir Jason, that you wish to forsake your name and go with 'Nova Strider?' Once We reach Canterlot, We cannot change it for you later."

"Yes, I'm sure, Princess Luna; I'd like to change my name to Nova Strider."

The Princess smiled gently, "Very well, We will make the preparations necessary for the citizenship registration to take place. You can expect it to come in your mailbox within a couple of days, Miss Heartstrings. For now, We bid thee farewell."

With that, the Lunar Princess teleported out of the house, leaving Lyra and I with the guard from earlier. After a moment of awkard silence, the guard left the house as well, trotting out the front door with a "Good day, Heartstrings and Strider."

(POV - Lyra)

Finally, the guard left the house, so it was just Jason - err, Nova and I. When Nova was telling the Princess about his intentions, I just couldn't help but get nervous. The things he said, it just made me start to panic; I really thought that the Princess was going to just blast him right there. Just, poof, done. But no, she took it in stride and seemed to understand where he came from with his explanation. I'm actually really glad the way things turned out. The only issue now would be to figure out where he could stay until he gets his own lodgings... Although, seeing that I don't have a flatmate now since BonBon left, I guess I could put him up here for a little while. It couldn't be all that bad, having him live with me for a while. I'd have to set some ground rules and establish some boundaries. That comes later though, because I still have a few errands to run.

"So, Nova, I've got a few things I still need to do today."

Nova took a second to catch on to what I said, and then turned to face me. "Alright, what's on your list of things to do? I've got nothing to do all day today."

"Actually, I'd like to just go do them myself right now; I could use some fresh air and a bit of time to myself to reflect on things. It's not that I don't want to be around you, but having Princess Luna over was the last thing I needed today."

I sort of expected Nova to have some sort of problem with me leaving him on his own, but surprisingly he just shrugged and gave an "Okay, be careful though." Did he not care about me or something?

"Just so you know Lyra, it's not that I don't care about you, I just happen to understand that sometimes it's good to have time to yourself and just think."

"Wait, how-"

"Ponies' faces are a bit larger than human faces; adding that to the fact that you as a species tend to be a bit more expressive with your ears and other facial features, it makes it a lot easier to read you and gague your reactions."

Ponies are more expressive than humans? Huh, you learn something new every day, I guess.

I turned to the door and headed outside, "I'll see you later, Nova. I'll try and not be more than an hour or two at most."

"See ya later, Harp-Butt!"

I facehoofed and groaned at what was hopefully a one-time joke, before I headed out and closed the door behind me.

(optional YouTube background video: A Normal Day in Ponyville - FurtherProof (Neighsayer)

It was still a beautiful evening out in Ponyville, and judging by the position of the Sun, I still had time to make it over to the market and grab a few things and catch up with some of the townsfolk. I trotted off at a comfortable pace and went straight to the market square; the first stop on my list of places was AppleJack's cart - I needed a few Macintosh apples for the apple pie that I was asked to bring to Ponyville's neighborhood association meeting next Monday.

It was a couple of minutes before I made it to the stall, and it seemed that good ol' AJ was free of customers at the current moment. Perfect. AppleJack waved at me as I approached, and I greeted her with a smile.

"Hey there, AppleJack, what's new with you?"

"Not too much, sugarcube. Me n' Big Mac just finished harvestin' the last o' the apples from the orchard yesterday, an we have a might bit more than we thought we woulda' this season. We got so much that we've been sellin' em for a bit less than usual. The customers love it."

"That's good to hear. Say, how much for a bushel of Macintosh apples?"

AppleJack tapped her chin for a second, "Well, normally it'd be about six bits, so Ah'd say four bits oughta do it."

I lit up my horn and called over my bit bag to give AppleJack her four bits, and a second later I was the proud owner of a dozen delicious Macintosh apples.

"Pleasure doin' business with ya, sugarcube!"

"Likewise. I'd better be off though, I've got a few more stops for today before the market closes."

AJ waved goodbye, and I turned to head to my next stop: the Flower Sisters' shop.

I was about to head over to the shop, when I bumped into somepony just as soon as I turned around. A familiar voice reached my ears.

"Yo, Lyra, when are you gonna come over for that recording session so I can get some sweet vocal samples?"

"Actually, I was going to come over tomorrow, though something's come up so I might have to push that back."

Vinyl's ears drooped a bit, "Aww, I was so looking forward to that. You know how much I'd love to mix your voice into a few songs of mine." A second later they perked back up, "Hey, if you're not that busy, can I tag along with you?"

I thought about that for a second, before just rolling with it. "Sure, you can come with. I've just gotta go to the Flower Sisters, and then Zecora's. Then it's back home for me. If you want, you could come over for dinner tonight. I'm going to warn you now though, I've got an extra guest, so it might be a little weird."

Vinyl just laughed, "Lyra, we live in freakin' PONYVILLE! Nothing can top the weirdness of this town, not even a random creature showing up out of nowhere that nopony's ever heard of before!"

It was now my turn to laugh, but a bit awkwardly because of Vinyl's last comment. Vinyl just pumped a hoof into the air, "To the Flower Sisters, awaaaaAAAAAAYYYYY!"

I facehoofed and sighed for the second time that day, before turning back and heading off with Vinyl to the Flower Sisters' shop for some herbs.

The rest of today is going to be very interesting...