//------------------------------//
// A Town Without A Map    
// Story: From My World To Theirs 
// by Mr Scribe 
//------------------------------//

"I can't believe this place doesn't have any bloody town maps!" I said quietly in frustration as I walked out of the Ponyville tourist center. 

I thought it would be a good idea to grab a town map as I was passing the tourist center, but that was completely pointless seeing how they didn't have any, due to a large group of tourists taking all of them before I got there, from what the woman in behind the main desk told me.

But even then, if I had shown up here earlier, I might've been able to join their town tour and just left their group once we got close enough to Twilight's library. Though, then again, I'm guessing that these people paid to be on the tour, and without any of their money, I couldn't get or do much anything.   

Well, looks like I have to find Twilight's library the old fashioned way. I mean, how hard is it to find a large tree? I thought to myself as I started walking again.

While walking, I took notice of a few things that I had seemingly missed earlier.

The first one was that there were a few people flying around now. Were there people flying around before? If so, how the hell did I miss that?! I thought confusedly. 

Maybe I was in denial or something, and decided not to see them. I can't really blame myself for it though. I mean, who ever looks up nowadays, unless something up there grabbed your attention? Although, that probably should've, I mean, c’mon! I said in my head while shaking it.

But just then, I remembered something from the show, realizing why I didn't see them earlier. Very few pegasi lived in Ponyville, the most they did is visit or work. Once they’ve done whatever they were doing in town, they headed back to Cloudsdale or wherever else they lived. 

The second thing I noticed was this town’s level of technology. Seeing people here having and using smart phones,iPods (or something similar to them), laptops, and, hell I thought I saw a game console of some sort and a few Tv’s in a shop window. It was kind of weird, seeing how they were from a TV show where they don't normally use this type of stuff. Though, then again, in the show they always pulled out random bits of technology at the right time.

The last thing I noticed was how female dominated this town was. However, compared to the show where you saw two male characters for every ten female characters, now I clearly saw more men around here, but the women still outnumber them, if only by a bit.

I kept on walking, thinking more about this while keeping my eyes open for anything else.

20 minutes later...

As I continued walking around Ponyville, I still hadn’t found Twilight's library, or for that matter, any other landmarks from the show, besides Sweet Apple Acres. Hell, I don't think I passed Rarity's shop or Sugarcube Corner, at least I thought that I hadn't passed either of them yet, all of the buildings looked the same and so modernized here, I wouldn't be surprised that Twilight's library wasn't a tree anymore.

As I continued walking, I was starting to feel more exhausted than before. It didn't really help that I still hadn’t eaten anything, and then Rainbow dash crashed into me. I was starting to regret not taking up Applejack's offer on something to eat, even though I thought she was some insane fan of the show at the time.

After walking around for a few minutes longer, I found myself another bench in a small park nearby to sit down for another quick breather. While sitting down, I started working on another plan to find Twilight's library. 

I thought about asking someone for directions, but changed my mind due to the town being bigger than what I originally thought, and the fact that I couldn’t tell apart the people who live here from the ones who were visiting at the time.  

Another idea I had was just finding and asking one of Twilight's friends for directions, but there was a flaw with my plan, seeing how Applejack still might be at Sweet Apple Acres along with Rainbow Dash. From what I could tell by her phone call and seeing how it was way out of town, I wouldn’t walk back there for directions, and then back to town. Fluttershy would possibly be at her house near the Everfree Forest, so no help there. Pinkie Pie might be at Sugarcube Corner, or just randomly walking around town, and lastly Rarity might be at her shop working. It also still didn't help that I don't know where either of those shop were.

I honestly didn't know what to do. I could've just kept walking around until I found Twilight's library, but seeing as my money was useless here, I couldn't buy any food to get my energy back.

I had lost track of time, so I decided to take my phone out to check the clock. It was just after 3PM. If time worked the same way as it did in my world, then it should start getting dark at about 5PM-6PM, unless they had Daylight Saving time here, as well.

As I became more frustrated by this situation, and the fact that I might be sleeping outside tonight if I didn't find Twilight's library soon, I decided to try something from the Assassin’s Creed games, which is to climb the highest building I can find and see if I can locate Twilight's library that way. It sounds like a stupid idea, I know, but it's the only thing I can think of, but to be fair I might have come up with something better if I had something to eat.

I started looking for the highest building I could find while I was sitting down, only to realize that the "highest building" was close by. It was a two story building with some crates in the alleyway stacked against the building.

"I suppose this'll have to do." I said to myself as I started walking towards the side of the building and up to the crates.

In the past, I had no problems climbing up the side of a two-story building, as I used to do it back at home, while living with my parents. If I accidentally locked myself out or just forgot my keys, I would’ve just climbed up to a window and unlocked the door from the inside. However, back then, I wasn't so hungry and energy-deprived. Luckily for me, with these crates here, I was able to climb up the building without using much of the energy that I had left.

I quickly looked around to see if there was anyone nearby, seeing how the last thing I wanted was someone calling me a thief or something, and/or calling the police. Which left me thinking, Does Ponyville have a police force at all, or do they just use the Canterlot guards? Luckily for me, there weren't many people, guards or police (if there is any of the latter two) around the park or the buildings nearby.

However, before I started climbing, I quickly checked the crates to see if they could hold my weight, seeing how the last thing I wanted was to fall through them and hurt myself. After checking them and feeling reassured enough that they could hold my weight, I started to climb up the first few crates while quickly looking around to make sure no one showed up. Once I reached the top of the crates, I started looking up at the side of building trying to plan my way up to the roof.

Once I had figured out my way up to the roof, I was ready to go. I hoisted myself onto the first crate, and prepared to climb the second. However I was interrupted by a voice below me.

"Hey Mister. What are you doing up there?" 

I quickly stopped what I was doing as I sort-of recognized that voice. 

I turned around, looked down and saw three young girls looking back up at me. One rode a scooter while she pulled the other two in a red cart attached to it. If I had to guess their age I might have said they were between the ages of 8 or 12, though I wasn't sure which one. Now if these were any normal young girls, I might have bluffed my way out of it somehow, but these weren't any normal girls and I knew who they were.

The three girls were a group called the Cutie Mark Crusaders, or CMC. Pretty much in a nutshell, these girls tried everything they could think of to get their cutie marks.

The group was made up of Apple Bloom, who was Applejack's younger sister, Sweetie Belle, who was Rarity's younger sister and lastly, Scootaloo, who was a major fan of Rainbow Dash. But I wasn't entirely sure, it could've been different here. I'll look into that later.

"I was… uh, looking for someone's house." I said nervously.

Still standing on the top crate, I decided to hop down to ground level and sat on one of the boxes, while getting a good look at the girls in front of me, I was able to tell the three of them apart mainly due to their hair color and what they sounded like from the TV show.

Apple Bloom was wearing a cream, checkered short-sleeve shirt with short light blue overalls and a large red bow in her red hair.

Next to her in the cart was Sweetie Belle, guessing by her lightish purple hair with light pink streak. She wore a sleeveless dress, as for what type of dress I had no idea, seeing as I wasn't a fashion expert, but by the colors on the dress, which were the same as her hair, just done in layers, it must have been made by Rarity.

This meant that Scootaloo was the one on the scooter. I then couldn't help but mentally facepalm myself while rolling my eyes. Well, no shit Sherlock, who else rides a scooter around here? I thought. Scootaloo had a reddish, dark purple-color hair, she was wearing a sleeveless sports top similar to Rainbow Dash's, but instead it was a dark red, and she was also wearing some longboard shorts that were the same color as her hair.

It was then that I remembered something. Since Sweetie Belle was a unicorn in the show, she must have a horn here. Just like how the characters from the show that are pegasi had wings even though they are somewhat transparent. Hell, I could see Scootaloo’s orange wings from where I was sitting, though they weren't as big as Rainbow Dash's. That was probably because of how much younger she was. 

However I couldn't see a horn on her head, even if it was somewhat transparent, like the pegasi wings, I should be able to see it. Seeing how they were human, maybe they use their hands for magic instead of horns like their TV show counterparts, which made sense.

The three girls glanced at each other for a minute and then Scootaloo glared at me with a suspicious look on her face "Looking for someone's house, right. Or maybe you were about to look inside someone's house!" she almost yelled in an accusing tone and pointed at me.

I wasn't surprised by this, and from their point of view, it did look like I was trying to attempt a break-in. I thought it prudent to try and turn this around in my favor.

"Look, I'm ne—"however, before I could finished that sentence I remembered something that made me shut up immediately. I almost forgot about the one sentence someone should never utter in Ponyville "I'm new in town." If I started saying that around here, word would spread and sooner or later Pinkie Pie would pop up. However, even if she did pop up, I doubt she could help me get to Twilight's seeing how she would want start setting up a welcome party rather than helping me.

I cleared my throat and started again. "Look, I'm a traveler and I never been to this town before, so I don't know my way around. I wasn't trying to break into that house. I was just climbing to the roof to see if I could find the house that I was looking for." I told them.

Scootaloo was about to say something until Sweetie Belle interrupted her "Whose house are you looking for minster?" she asked in a curious tone.

"Uh, what was her name, I have it on a bit of paper on me somewhere." Once again, I decided to play dumb. I started going through my pockets, hopefully from their point of view I was looking for a card with a name on it, but in reality I was just looking for a random bit of paper that I can use for my act.

Finally after grabbing a random business card that was half sticking out of my wallet, I pulled the card from my pocket and pretended to read it, and I made sure that the girls couldn't see any of the writing on it.

"I don't know whether or not you know this woman, but I was looking for a... Twilight Sparkle? Do you girls know her?" I asked them, knowing fully well that they did.

"Yeah,sure, we know Twilight." answered Apple Bloom.

"Well seeing how you know Twilight Sparkle, do you mind if you can show me where she lives, please?" I asked nicely.

From the looks of things, they would've taken me to Twilight's house straight away. However, before Apple Bloom could give me an answer, Scootaloo quickly put her hand over Apple Bloom's mouth and stopped her. 

"Sorry, but we need to talk about this first." Scootaloo said as she pulled Sweetie Belle and Applebloom away from where I was sitting and into a group huddle so they could talk.

It had been a few minutes and the three girls continued to talk away in their small huddle. I tried to listen to what they were talking about, but due to how quiet the three of them were whispered, I couldn't hear them and just decided to wait until they finished.

Finally after another couple minutes, the girls broke up their group huddle and turn back to face me. Scootaloo spoke first "Ok, we have decided to take you Twilight's house, however seeing how your ne-" but I knew what she was going to say before she said it, so quickly interrupted her "Hey, I'm just here for business." 

The three girls looked at me weirdly for minute, then Apple Bloom seemed to understand what I was doing. "Oh, I get it, you must of heard about what Pinkie Pie does to new people haven't you?" she asked me. 

"Yeah, a friend of mine came here once, and he ended up telling me that some woman with curly pink hair crushed tackled him after he arrived in town." I lied to them, the three girls nodded finally understanding what I was getting at.

"Anyway," Scootaloo continued "we thought it would be a good idea to show you around whole town, before we take you to Twilight's."

I quickly thought about the CMC's offer. While I did need to get to Twilight's library, I could gain an advantage of sorts here if I knew where everything in town was in case anything went wrong, although that's unlikely.

"How about instead of you girls showing me around the whole town, you just show me the main sights that everyone goes to?" I asked them nicely, putting on a smile. "That way you don't waste the rest of the afternoon showing me around the whole town."

The CMC looked at each other for a minute then went back into their group huddle to talk things over. This time, I was able to pick up some of their conversation. From what I heard, they wanted to try something that might get their cutie marks before heading home for the day and something about lumberjacking. Well ok, I might have misheard that last part, but they were going to find trees or something after they took me to Twilight's.

Finished with their little meeting, the CMC turned to face me again. "Is there anywhere in Ponyville you want to look at first Mister?" Asked Apple Bloom in a happy upbeat tone.

To be honest I didn't really care where the girls take me first, as long as they take me to Twilight's library like they have promise, but knowing them they will, so I have nothing to worry about. "I don't know, how about you girls decide on what to see first." I told them.

The three girls started talking to each other on where to take me first, however Apple Bloom stopped the other two and turned back towards me. "Sorry mister, where are our manners. My name is Apple Bloom. This here is Sweetie Belle." Apple Bloom pointed to Sweetie Belle, who gave me a small wave along with a smile. "And this is Scootaloo." said Apple Bloom as she pointed over to Scootaloo, who nodded to me in acknowledgement.

"And we are THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADERS!" shouted the three of them in unison. I couldn't help but let myself smile for a minute, remembering what it was like for me at that age, however old they are, but I quickly dismissed that thought, as one of the girls started talking to me.

"So what's your name, sir?" Sweetie Belle asked me in friendly tone.

Crap I didn't know what to do here; I could just tell the girls my name. I mean, I already told Applejack my name, what's the harm in telling her sister and her friends. However these are children here and children, especially these three will go on asking questions. Questions I didn't want to answer, well at least not yet anyway and not to the CMC. Then again, I could lie to them, again.

"My name? ...uh" I needed to think of something fast, otherwise they'll think I'm lying. Luckily for me, like any good gamer or role-player, I can think fast on my feet and it was then that I thought of a good name and job for myself.

I cleared my throat and started again "My name is Seeker; it's nice to meet the three of you." I told them, while mentally patting myself on the back for thinking up a clever name for myself on the spot.

Feeling satisfied with my answer to them. The girls went back to their meeting on where we should go first in Ponyville. This time I really didn't need to listen that hard to hear what the three of them were talking about, as the three were talking at a normal volume They had no more reason for to whisper, I guess, seeing how we introduced ourselves to each other.

The girls yelled out places or shops in town that they could take me first, however, whenever someone said one place, it would often get shot down by one of the others for some reason or another. Someone, I'm guessing it was Apple Bloom, suggested to take me to Sweet Apple Acres, but luckily for me Scootaloo and Sweetie Belle said no, complaining how far away it was and also saying that if we went there, they wouldn't have time to do the stuff they wanted to do before heading home for the day.

After a few more minutes, from the looks of things, it seems that Sweetie Belle won in terms of where we are going to visit first as she was jumping up and down in victory. I guessed it was my cue to step in.

"So where are we going first?" I asked the girls, who turned back around to face me.

"We're going to visit my older sister’s shop first." Sweetie Belle squeaked out as she and Apple Bloom climbed back into the cart, while Scootaloo got back on her scooter and started using her orange wings to push the scooter and the cart forward. The CMC started heading to Rarity’s shop but stopped once they got to the front of the building that we were next to. 

Scootaloo turned around to look at me "Are you coming or not?" she yelled expectantly. 

"A little impatient are we?" I muttered under my breath, "Yeah hang on." I yelled back to Scootaloo as I started walking to catch up to them.

"Are we good to go?" I asked the three young girls next to me. 

"Eeyup, just follow us, THE CUTIE MARK CRUSADER TOUR GUIDES!" Apple Bloom yelled as the three of them bawled out the last bit. 

"If you can keep up." Added Scootaloo who looked like she was going to break the sound barrier or something, but both Sweetie Belle and Applebloom gave her a stare of some sort. 

"Scootaloo, please go slow for mister Seeker, remember he doesn't know his way around yet." Sweetie Belle reprimanded as Scootaloo let out a frustrated sigh and shrugged with a "Whatever". The three of them started moving again, but this time at a slower pace, just slow enough for me to keep up to them while walking next to them. I was laughing on the inside at how slow Scootaloo had to go, going against everything that she was.

Over the next 15 minutes, as the four of us were on our way to Rarity’s shop, the three girls started pointing out people in town that they knew, what they did as a jobs or their special talents and some random shops that we weren’t going to stop at. (However, I knew most of this already from of the show)

As this was going on, Apple Bloom asked me a question, "So mister Seeker, what's your special talent, if you don't mind me asking?" 

"I'm really good at finding things." I quickly told her as I continue walking. 

"Is that also your job as well?" asked Sweetie Belle who turned to look at me. 

"Kind of, I get hired by people who are looking for something rare that they can't normally find themselves, so I go out, find it, and bring it back for them." I was thanking god (no not Celestia) that I picked a fake name and talent that go hand in hand with each other and that I can easily make up as I go along. 

"What rare stuff do you find anyway?" asked Scootaloo as she kept on riding her scooter. 

"I mostly find old books, paintings, weapons, suits of armor; you know stuff you may normally find in a museum." I answered Scootaloo. 

"So nothing cool then." said Scootaloo in a dull tone.

However before I could say anything back to Scootaloo, Apple Bloom cut me off. "Scootaloo that was mightily rude of you."
 
"What?" Scootaloo said innocently. 

"It's ok Apple Bloom, most people don't really understand what I do. But it’s my job, in its own way it’s a good one." I told the three of them.

The four of us continued heading toward Rarity’s shop, while the girls were still pointing out people, shops and other places along the way.

After another 10 minutes or so of walking later, we finally arrived at Rarity’s shop: The Carousel Boutique.

The outside of The Carousel Boutique looked somewhat like it did in the show, except for a few things. 

Firstly, the shop doesn't have any pony signs or models on it or around it. There was less of a, forgive me for using this term, ‘girly’ feel to the outside of the shop, mainly the main color of the shop isn't pink or a different shade of pink and has been replaced with purple, which in its own way looked good for the shop. Also from what I could tell from where I was standing, there were both male and female mannequins in the front windows on the ground floor, each of them were dressed in custom made clothes by Rarity no doubt.

The four of us stood outside of The Carousel Boutique for a few minutes while Sweetie Belle talked about the shop. Most of this stuff I already knew about.

It was only just then that I remembered something that I had to ask that I need to know. "Hey Sweetie Belle, did your sister hold a fashion show lately?" I asked her with curiosity.

It took a minute or two before Sweetie Belle answered my question "She did have one a couple of weeks ago, but it didn't go so well." She uttered whilst rubbing her hands together nervously. 

"It didn't go so well is putting it lightly" Scootaloo said while performing air quotation marks "It was a complete disaster." Scootaloo finished as she turned around to face Sweetie Belle and Applebloom. 

"It wasn't a complete disaster, I saw Rarity make up for it with a private fashion show for that classily fashion designer! Plus she showed off the real dresses that she made for the gala and her own dress as well." Sweetie Belle told Scootaloo with a bit of anger in her voice.

Well at least I know where I’m in terms of time for the show. I thought to myself as I looked at Rarity’s shop.

It was then that I remembered the argument that was going on in front of me between Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo. Maybe I should step in before things start getting ugly. I thought to myself as Sweetie Belle and Scootaloo continued arguing, while Apple Bloom was trying to stop them.

"Ok settle down you three." I said in a calm but commanding voice. The three girls look over to me; all three of them had gone quiet, I was kind of surprised by this. 

"The last thing we need is any sort of fighting between you three." I told them as I was pointing to the three of them. 

"Anyway I think its better off if we move on to somewhere else now anyway." I said to the three of them.

"Oh, I know where we can go next!" Apple Bloom shouted who then leaned over to Scootaloo and whispered something in her ear, who nodded to Apple Bloom in agreement of some sort. "Come on mister Seeker, follow us." Apple Bloom shouted as the three girls started moving again.

I had one last look at The Carousel Boutique before I started walking. As I was walking away, I thought I saw someone on the top floor of the shop/house in one of the windows. I couldn't see the person due to a curtains being pulled down, but from the look of the silhouette it was a woman who is sitting at a desk. It must be Rarity. I thought, however due to the curtains in the way, I couldn't be too sure it was her, but it didn't matter. It wasn't like I was going to pop in there and see her.

After a minute or two I managed to catch up to the CMC as the four of us kept on walking through Ponyville. 

Like before, the girls pointed out people, their jobs or their special talents and some more random shops that they didn't point out before as we continued walking to the next place where we were going to.

After ten more minutes of walking, the girls stopped in front of a shop that I just sort of recognized, Sugarcube Corner.

Like The Carousel Boutique, Sugarcube Corner looked like it did in the show, but with a few changes to its design. 

From the look of the building in front of me, it had three or four floors, two of the floors were a part of the house, while the other floor/s is in something of a tower, well at least that what I'm going to call it anyway. The only change to the shop that I could see was that the roof of the house didn't look like it was made of gingerbread; it just looked... plain for lack of a better word and the top of the tower wasn't a cupcake either, it just looks normal room with a roof on it.

Like at The Carousel Boutique, the four of us stood outside of Sugarcube Corner while Apple Bloom this time talked about the shop, again most of this stuff I already knew, but I nodded along to it anyway.

After a few more minutes, the CMC wanted to keep on moving and quickly finish up showing me the rest of Ponyville.

After what seem like half an hour, the girls decided to end the tour at the road that leads to the Evergreen forest and took me to Twilight's library, finally.

To be honest, I was surprised at how large Ponyville was compared to the show. I guess it wasn't really my fault that I couldn't find Twilight's library anyway, it wasn’t like they ever showed a decent map of Ponyville on the show, and you could never really trust the maps of Ponyville that people drew up on the internet.

Another ten minutes of walking later, we finally got there, the place I been meaning to get to all afternoon, Twilight's library.

The library was the same as it was in the show, tree and all, but like Sugarcube Corner and Carousel Boutique there were changes to its design, though not much. The main door and the windows on the lower half of the building didn't have little roofs made up of branches and leaves, they were just plain and simple small green roofs. Other than that, nothing else I could see had changed.

As I was looking at the library, the three girls were chatting quietly about something, but I wasn't paying attention to them. 

Maybe I should thank them, I mean without them I would’ve still been walking around lost in town, or worse yet ran into Pinkie Pie. Randomly shuddering at that thought, but I was right, the girls deserved thanks for their help.

"Hey can I say something to you three?" I asked as crouch down to their height to face the girls. The three girls turned to face me with a questioning looks about them. I took off my fedora and started scratching my head, trying to quickly think of something nice to say to these girls for their help. 

"I would like to thank you girls for your help today, if it wasn't for you, I might not have found Miss Sparkle’s library, or known my way around town." I told them with a thankful tone and a smile on my face.

Each of the girls returned the smile I gave them, as I got up and put my fedora back on. I quickly took out my phone and check the time. It was just after 4:30PM and the sun didn't look like it was going to set anytime soon, maybe in the next hour or two by the look of things.

"You know you three, if you had something you wanted to do this afternoon don't let me hold you up." I told the CMC, knowing full well that they had stuff they wanted to do before the day was out.

It took a minute or two before the three girls picked up the hint that I gave them. The girls quickly said their goodbyes to me and started heading off back into town. As they were going each one of them gave me a wave, the only kind thing to do here was for me to return the wave to them. And just like that the CMC were gone from my sight.

With that over and done with, I started walking towards the door of the library. Hopefully ready for what comes next.