By the time Oddball and company had entered the town proper, Rainbow Dash had rocketed off to find Discord, while Applejack and Rarity had opted to take more direct routes toward their respective homes.
Oddball had decided to remain quiet and take in her new surroundings, unless she saw something worth questioning or someone initiated a conversation with her. There was a lot to take in, between being in a cartoon universe, among sapient equines, and a town whose architecture appeared to be inspired by several cultures or something that came straight out of someone's fanciful imagination.
Since Fluttershy was the caboose in their group, she couldn't help noticing Pinkie Pie and her merry pronking ahead of them. She'd often wondered if perpetually positive people actually existed, especially since she had almost always seen them through a camera's lens. Life hadn't given her much reason to believe that it was great to be alive, so, while she could accept happiness that was fleeting, beyond that she had to wonder if it was just a show, a lie, or — perhaps — a way of coping with reality. She decided that it might be worth asking Pinkie Pie about her behavior at some point, if it proved to be normal for her, since she had never had the opportunity to find out if such behavior was ever genuine or not.
Eventually, as they ventured into an area with more traffic, she noticed that she was drawing attention, and not necessarily the good kind. At least, with how expressive the ponies' cartoon faces were, she was fairly confident that she recognized nervousness and fear. And if that weren't apparent enough, many avoided eye contact when she glanced at them, and some even hurried indoors or around a corner to avoid being seen entirely.
She found these reactions puzzling, because she had seen enough of herself to be fairly certain that she looked like they did. Before she could ask Fluttershy or Twilight Sparkle about it, her attention was caught by a fast-moving object out of the corner of her eye, which was traveling down the street that they had just begun to cross. The object in question turned out to be a wagon hitched to a scooter, with the latter being driven by a young pegasus. Said pegasus seemed to be propelling the scooter with its wings, while two more ponies of a similar age were riding in the wagon.
Before the trio of young ponies drove by in front of them, she caught the eyes of the pegasus, which she recaptured on the other side of Fluttershy's head. She watched as they skid to a halt, much to the surprised yelps of their companions, then pointed in her direction while her ride continued to cross the street. She couldn't make out much of what was said, beyond a "Fluttershy" and "safe", likely due to emphasis, but it appeared that the pegasus had needed to make a bit of an effort to convince the ponies in the wagon to disembark and make a beeline toward her.
As they approached, the pegasus called out, "Hey, Fluttershy!"
Her ride stopped to receive them, and Twilight Sparkle followed suit since she wasn't going to abandon the subject of her letter, who was a big unknown to everyone. She got a better look of the three ponies as they drew near and surmised that all three were fillies, with one of the pegasus' companions having a horn and the other having neither that or wings.
It was quite obvious who they were really there for as they lined up beside Fluttershy, since they had a lot of trouble keeping their eyes on the mare, even as the unadorned filly asked, "Who's the filly?"
"And is she an alien?" The pegasus pressed, much to the consternation of the filly who had spoken first and the chagrin of the one with the horn.
"Um..." Fluttershy hesitated, both from the forward nature of the confrontation and not knowing what she could or couldn't divulge.
Before Twilight Sparkle could decide on how to answer in her stead, Oddball elected to raise a hoof in greeting and say, "I'm Oddball, and I am an alien."
Twilight Sparkle applied a hoof to her forehead while the fillies regarded Oddball with wide eyes, and it wasn't long before the pegasus blurted out, "So little, green maretians are real!?"
"Even her eyes are black!" The ordinary filly observed.
"Hold on, girls," Twilight Sparkle interjected, as she stepped up to them. "She's not that kind of alien."
"That's right," Oddball concurred, filing away the color of her eyes for later. With a straight face, she added, "Your bum holes are safe."
The fillies looked confused, and the unicorn turned to her friends and asked, "Bums make holes?"
"What would they use them for?" Returned the ordinary filly.
"Who cares!" The pegasus directed at the other two, before turning her attention back to the apparently non-maretian alien. "What kind of alien are you?"
Oddball hummed in consideration before deciding on, "The from-another-universe-and-transformed-into-a-pony kind."
"Whoa!" The pegasus gasped. "You're from another universe!? That's even cooler!"
Twilight Sparkle cleared her throat and tried to get a handle of the situation. "Be that as it may, we really must be going. Princess Celestia needs to be informed about Oddball's presence, you understand." And decide if she's safe enough to live among us, she added to herself.
All three fillies were clearly disappointed, with the unicorn being the first to say, "Aw... Okay."
The pegasus wasn't going to leave it at that, though, who regarded Oddball and asked, "Where will you be staying? We can come and visit tomorrow or something."
Oddball pointed at Twilight Sparkle. "I'm with the purple one."
"Great!" The pegasus replied, before seeming to realize something. "Oh! My name's Scootaloo!"
"I'm Apple Bloom!" The ordinary filly introduced herself.
"And I'm Sweetie Belle!" Followed the unicorn.
They said goodbye and began to leave, but Apple Bloom's gaze reflexively went to Oddball's flank before she fully turned around, now that she wasn't so focused on the new filly being an alien, and couldn't help doing a double-take. "Hold on!" She guided her friends to look where she was looking. "Oddball doesn't have a cutie mark!"
"Hey, you're right!" Came Sweetie Belle's excited response, before her brow furrowed. "Wait. Can an alien get a cutie mark?"
"She could join our club and find out!" Scootaloo eagerly suggested.
While they were still delighting in that idea, Oddball quizzically asked, "What's a cutie mark?"
"A cutie mark represents a special talent that makes a pony unique," Twilight Sparkle succinctly answered, before turning to the three fillies and offering them a smile that didn't quite hide her impatience. "Now, we really must be going..."
Catching the hint, the three fillies began to make their way back to their scooter and wagon, conversing among themselves as they did so. Twilight Sparkle and Fluttershy began to move shortly thereafter, and it was only then that Oddball noticed Pinkie Pie's absence. The last time that she remembered seeing her was right before Scootaloo had passed by on her scooter.
In the middle of wondering where she had disappeared to, she was interrupted by a familiar trio of voices from the street that they had put behind them, as they yelled, "Cutie Mark Crusader alien teachers! Yay!"
Spike shuddered and thought, "Why do I have a bad feeling about that?"