Randy trotted up to the crystal tree of a castle that the Princess was residing in. He was feeling confident and trying not to think too hard on how nonchalant he was without most of his clothing and just chalked it up to the info-dump and being a pony. After all, horses don’t need clothes, so why should ponies? Trotting by the carousel building did raise more questions when spotting the dresses on the mannequins -or perhaps ponyquins. Once they were on the other side of town, he was finally at the large double doors with two pink hearts, one over the other on it. Overall, the thing looked very girly to him, but then again, this was a land of colorful, magical, talking ponies. Though a crystal tree as a castle was still cool. Once up the stairs, Randy knocked on the door with a forehoof, before taking a step back and waiting for a response. He got a “Coming!” from inside before they opened and revealed a small dragon.
“Seriously, a dragon? That’s bruce!”
“Bruce?” The small purple dragon inquired. “That’s like cool, right?”
“Indeed, indeed. Anyhow,” Randy attempted to get back to the original topic at hand, “is the Princess in? I would like to talk to her. I had a question about a really strange guy named Discord.”
The dragon’s face morphed quickly to a deadpan at the mention of the name. “Oh boy, what’d he do? Wait, let me just get Twilight. She might be able to help.”
“Thank you.”
“Why don’t you come in and wait. Name’s Spike, by the way.”
“Nice to meet you Spike, name’s Randy,” Randy said as they shook hoof and claw. Once properly inside, Spike showed him the central room. It had six large chairs, each with a mark on the top-most part by the point. A seventh was a bit smaller and lacked a mark was closest to the chair with the purple star mark. Seeing all the pink star motifs and the huge six-pointed star on the top of the castle were telling him that this might be her cutie mark or just a symbol she really likes. Though the expo-dump was trying to tell him the former. In the center of the chairs was a non-descript circular crystal table though above it is what caught his eye. A chandelier made of roots from a large tree had multiple crystals of different colors. As the light caught different crystals, faint images flashed within and sometimes briefly reflected on the walls. He scarcely heard Spike say something and chuckle as he left. It wasn’t long before the clicking of claws was replaced by a set of hooves marching towards him. And a few other smaller sets?
Turning around, Randy saw the purple alicorn Twilight Sparkle followed by three young girls -no fillies- and it seems like they were wrapping up a class of some sort. The fillies were one unicorn, one earth pony, and one pegasus at a brief glance with matching cutie marks.
“Now remember girls, keeps practicing, and you’ll keep getting better and better. Now let me see what Discord did this time,” she said kindly to the three fillies which chorused an okay to the mare. Twilight then strode to Randy as a kind smile was on her face. Ponies are really friendly around here, huh? He couldn’t help but think to himself.
“Hi, I’m Twilight Sparkle, now what’s this I hear about Discord? What’d he do this time?”
“Oh wow, he’s a, uh, bit of a prankster, huh? Gives me some ideas,” Randy trailed off, hoof to his chin.
Twilight had to have seen the glint in his eye as she cut off his train of thought, “As intriguing as that sounds, it’s actually a really bad idea.” She eyed him up and down. “Now that I think about it, you’re not from here, are you?”
“Nope! I’m Randy, and I’m from Norriseville,” he said as he reached out his hoof for a shake. The princess reciprocated, before Randy continued, “I don’t know why he got me here, though. Just popped me to his place for a bit of a ‘chat’,” he used one of his hooves for an air quote, “and then popped me just outside of town!”
“That’s weird. He hasn’t done that before,” she spoke with a contemplative look on her face, “Where is this Norriseville, I haven’t heard of it.”
“That’s probably because it’s in another world. Did you know his house is in some dimension where gravity sorta works and sorta doesn’t?”
A different expression overtook her features as Twilight became some combination of upset and disappointed. “Okay, I’ll have to see if I can find him. He probably knows he’s in trouble now, so he might be hiding somewhere I can’t find him.”
“Wonk. Well, there something I could do while we wait for him to show up then?” Suddenly, the three fillies that Randy thought were gone were suddenly by his side, eyes wide and excited.
“We could show you around Ponyville!” a small white unicorn chirped.
“We could show ya some of the places to eat and hang out at!” a yellow earth pony drawled.
“We could also show you our clubhouse!” an orange pegasus with wings a few sizes too small for her body all but shouted.
“Girls, I thought you already left!” Twilight said, exasperated.
“Nah, we got interested in seein’ the newcomer, too! What’d ya think? Wanna hang out for a bit? We know Ponyville like the back of our hooves, seein’ as we’ve lived here our whole lives.” The young filly’s red mane swished about as she looked between Twilight and Randy. Then, all three fillies looked at Twilight with a pleading look as they sat on their haunches, brought their forehooves up to their chest and said, “Please~!” Twilight had her face set and was just about to object when she looked and saw that Randy was doing the exact same thing.
“Oh! Fine! Okay, but nothing too crazy. I don’t know how long this will take.” Everypony then cheered. “Now, first, however, since your so far from home, why don’t I show you a place you can stay. Being from another world probably means you don’t have any of our local currency.”
“I wonder if Discord took care of that….” Randy then sifted through an outer pocket of his jacket and found his wallet. As he did so, he caught that the unicorn filly attempts a closer look at his flank. Lightly embarrassed, he tried to keep the jacket close to his flank to prevent her from seeing his blank flank. He then finally managed to hook his wrist -perhaps fetlock was the better word- around his wallet and examined the interior. Paper bills were all that showed. “Nope, just regular money from home.” He then hastily shoved his wallet back into the pocket.
“Well then, why don’t you follow me. I have plenty of room and one of these spare rooms would be perfect as a guest room for you.” She then turned and headed down a hallway. After a few minutes of walking, they found quickly a simple guest room. “Here we are. Found one closest to the exit for you so you don’t go wandering accidentally into a wrong room. Don’t want you misplacing anything here. If you’d like, you can leave your jacket here.”
“I’ll keep that in mind.”
“Okay! Now that you know where you’re going to stay until we can get you home, let’s show you around Ponyville!” The orange pegasus spoke up again, wings buzzing with excitement. “My name’s Scootaloo, and this is Apple Bloom and Sweetie Belle!” She then pointed to the earth pony and unicorn respectively.
“Sweet, my name’s Randy. Randy Cunningham.”
“That’s a weird name,” Sweetie Belle chimed in.
“Well, he is from another world if we heard right,” Apple Bloom put in.
“Come on! Let’s go, already!” Scootaloo was buzzing with anticipation -literally- and she raced for the palace’s front doors.
“I’ll, ah, keep in touch, somehow.” And with that, the three young girls pushed him through the front door.
They had walked scarcely a few paces when they all started talking at once.
“We should check out Sweet Apple Acers!”
“No, my sister’s boutique!”
“No way, we should walk around and see if we can spot Rainbow Dash!”
“Girls, girls! Calm down! How about this, I’ll choose a random building, and we’ll go there since I’m the one new to town, okay?”
“~Okay!~” All three of them now content, Randy took his time and spotted the closest one to him was the carousel building that he had passed earlier. “Okay, how about we check that place out first and get it out of the way?”
“Yay!” cheered Sweetie Belle.
“Aww,” was the remaining unanimous cry. However, all four of them trotted to the building.
“This is my sister’s business-slash-house, the Carousel Boutique!” Sweetie Belle decided to give Randy the rundown. “Her name’s Rarity, and she has this boutique and three others! One in Canterlot, one in Manehattan, and another in Baltimare!”
“Wait, are all the towns some sort of horse/pony pun here in this world?”
The three fillies stopped momentarily before resuming their trot, “Huh, guess so.” “Never realized it before now.” “Now that you mention it….”
Once they passed the threshold, a chiming of a bell and a pristine white unicorn with violet mane curled to highlight volume called out, “Welcome to the Carousel Boutique where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique! How can I- Oh! A stallion?” Upon further examination by her, she noticed the small equines surrounding him. “Oh, I see. Are you new to town? Sorry if my little sister and her friends dragged you here, I know that colts or stallions don’t typically like to walk in here, even if I do make clothing for them, also.”
“It’s cool, it’s cool, they were just showing me around and this was definitely a place to check out right out of the front doors to the castle. I know I don’t check out places like this also, but I figured I’d get it done first. They wanted to show me all of Ponyville.”
“Ah, I see! Glad to know you weren’t dragged in here.”
“Does that happen often?”
Rarity laughed, “Goodness, no. Not unless somepony got really excited about another pony’s date or some other thing, I haven’t seen it happen that often.” She looked closer at Randy, in a manner that was lightly off-putting for him. “Girls keep him here, I think I have just the thing for his visit to Ponyville!”
“Okay! Can I show him some of the stallion’s line?” Sweetie Belle asked.
“Of course! I have to just find it!” and with that she trotted to a backroom. While she did, Sweetie Belle’s horn glowed a light sea-green as a different door was opened and a rack with suits, shirts, and a few pants were wheeled out. Randy couldn’t help but whistle. They all looked sharp. Something he would have to save up his allowance to buy for that kind of party or even get a job to pay for the rent on some of the suits.
“Wow, she made these?” Randy asked.
“Yeah! It’s not that hard to do when you’ve got to manage four boutiques!” Sweetie Belle replied. “I think that would be the hardest part right now, for her.”
“That is the cheese! Some of this I’d have to save up for months before I can buy it! They’re that good!”
Apple Bloom became quizzical, “Why do you say stuff like ‘bruce’ and ‘cheese’?”
Randy adopted and ‘oh’ look and though briefly before replying honestly, “It’s the slang in my hometown. It replaces things like, ‘What the hay?’ or ‘That’s pretty cool!’ and stuff like that.” To emphasize his point, he twirled his hoof around at the end.
“Oh, neat!”
“I think you mean ‘bruce’!” Scootaloo said.
“I found it!” Rarity then trotted back, a simple box in her blue aura that emanated from her horn. Randy sat down so he could properly take and open the box. Inside was a thin cotton scarf that was red with two thin black lines at either end. “I though this would complement your fur and contrast nicely with your mane.”
“This is really bruce!” Randy’s face lit up momentarily before recalling something, “But I don’t have any money.”
“It’s no trouble really, think of it as a ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ gift!”
“Wow, thanks!” He then took the scarf out and noted it was just thin enough to wear for the season, though could keep his neck warm if we wore it in spring or fall. He wrapped it once around his neck. “How do I look?”
“Very chic, darling. It was very nice meeting you, but I think there’s still a lot of Ponyville to cover.”
“That’s right! Next place from here is the marketplace! We could show you all the different stalls!” Scootaloo said as she began to push Randy out of the store.
Apple Bloom then spoke next, “If we’re lucky, mah sister might be at our stall! Being an Apple, we sell apples of all kinds!” Suddenly a rumble was heard. “And it sounds like it’s lunchtime!”
With that the girls all did their best to hurry Randy’s hoofsteps along as he tried to take in the sights slowly. I wonder what culture shock feels like? Something like this?