"... So I made the guest room look as best as I could, but what if he doesn't like it? Maybe I should have brought a bigger bed? But that's way too many Bits though. But what if his back hurts from that old thing? Oh Celestia! Why is this so hard!?..."
I sigh as I tuned out the soft mutterings of Fluttershy who flew a few paces in front of me. She's been doing this since the hospital and has enlightened me to a few key things about this new world I was in. That mostly being that their form of currency was called 'Bits' and that this 'Celestia' was some form of God or deity. At least with the way she uses them that's what I had managed to puzzle out.
It also made the churning guilt in my guts even worse. As I now realize that of course Fluttershy had to spend a significant amount of money to be able to take me in. Hell, back on Earth this sort of thing would have been hellishly complicated and put a decent dent in a couples wallet. So I could only imagine how this would effect a single person.
Er... Pony.
So I tried my best to keep up with her on the way back to her home. She was stressed enough as is, and a little bit of walking didn't hurt anyone. Plus, it let me practice walking on all fours. Not that I needed much after the amount of physical evaluation they made me do back at the hospital, but a little more never hurt.
With all this walking that I was doing also got me to appreciate just how clean the air was here. Back on Earth I lived in the city, and a running joke that many of my friends had was to take a deep breath and immediately choke on the bad air. It wasn't truly that bad, but when compared to here. It would be like the difference between eating five day old sushi and eating the professional made sushi in Japan. One was clearly better than the other.
While in this grand journey of mine I also got to see most of the town of Ponyville (still a stupid name). Most of the buildings I saw were what one would typically expect from medieval times. What with their wooden supports and cobblestone walls. However, there were plenty of exceptions. The top contenders being a building that looked (and smelled) like a gingerbread house, a carousel that had mannequins displaying different assortments of fancy clothes and outfits (ponies wear clothes!?), and I believe that I saw a house in the distance that looked like it was made out of solid cloud.
I like to think that I merely saw these outrageous designs and simply accepted them for the insanity that they were. But I couldn't help but gawk at how... different they were compared to earth. From what I could tell these buildings were mostly for shops or restaurants. So I could assume that the unique designs these buildings had were for marketing purposes. That didn't make them any less silly in my eyes though.
It gave me the image of a fantasy village, almost like the starting town for one's own grand adventure. Plus, with magic being real here I could easily see this being the starting point for a hero and their group of friends to save the world or whatever.
Maybe they could even find me a way back home...
As Fluttershy kept mumbling her doubts about taking in so much responsibility and me politely ignoring her. I happened to catch a dash a pink near the corner of my vision. Immediately after I heard a gasp of surprise from behind me and before I could even turn around whatever it was had already left. At least, if the pony shaped puff of smoke I saw meant anything.
What.
I shook my head. 'Whatever, magic is real here. Just ignore it.' I thought.
Heh, for a world so much more different from my own. The people (or should I say ponies?) here acted like if they were just humans in pony form. Or at least that's what I got from listening to the occasional pony who strayed close enough for me to eavesdrop on their conversations.
I didn't really know what to expect from the average pony on the streets as I had spent most of my time here listening to professional medical staff who just so happened to look like ponies. It didn't really give me much of an idea for what the social norms were, or what was okay to ask or to talk about. And while Fluttershy did her best, she didn't really seem to be the most social. Rainbow Dash helped a bit more in that regard, however... her stye of talking tended to be about her being the best in the room. Not exactly what I wanted, but it gave me a few more clues on how to act like a pony, so there was that. I guess?
But what really surprised me was just how normal most of their conversations were. They talked about the weather or what they had eaten today. A few of them talked about work and if it was a good or bad day. The few children (foals?) that ran past me were screaming and laughing in joy with whatever game they were playing at the time. And the occasional loner who either walked to wherever they were going in total silence or hummed something under their breath.
It comforted me how similar it was to just walking down the street back on Earth.
But all good things come to an end I'm afraid, as Fluttershy made a slight correction in her flight path as we headed into a secluded road up a small hill. It shook me a bit on how abandoned it was. Yeah sure there were a few branching paths that led back into town and not too far away I saw a group of ponies in the distance. But other than that we were alone. The constant mumbling coming from Fluttershy finally ceased as we traveled further up the hill to what I could only guess was her home.
As the hill evened out I started to hear running water from a stream, and the pleasant singing of birds all around me. The dirt path we were traveling on slowly transformed into a well traveled field of grass and flowers. The sounds of Ponyville seemed to completely disappear as a peaceful silence seemed to dominant the area. What little trees I saw seemed to be well taken care of and had multiple bird houses nestled between their many branches. Eventually the well worn path terminated into an almost natural bridge over a stream of water that was lively with all sorts of fish. And behind it stood a two story cottage that almost looked like part of the hill itself with its roof covered with grass and it's walls nearly hidden behind the amount of planted fauna. All around it stood bird houses of all shapes and sizes and many animals traveled through the expensive field that was the backyard of the cottage. And behind that stood a towering forest with its many trees and wildlife.
It was beautiful sight to look at.
Before I could even speak animals started to run towards us, with their squeaks and chirps they seemed to almost welcome me and Fluttershy as if they could speak.
And to my surprise, Fluttershy responded back.
"Oh my. Hello everypony, I hope you were behaving while I was gone." She said, and for once not a whisper.
From within the group of animals, a single rabbit hopped forward and started to wave and point towards me. The carrot it was holding whipping randomly throughout the air as it did so.
"Oh, um. This is Aerial Ace, you remember? The colt I saved near mister beaver's dam? Well he's going to be staying here for a while. Is that okay with everypony?" Fluttershy said. Every other animal stared in silence. Well, except for the rabbit, who seemed to strongly disagree with my presence here. At least from what I could tell from it's body language as crazy as that sounded.
Oddly enough however, Fluttershy simply ignored him in favor of the other animals.
Fluttershy smiled. "Great!" She said, before turning around to face me.
"Well, here we are. Home sweet home." She said bashfully to my dumbfounded face.
"You... You can talk to animals!?" I asked in disbelief.
"Oh, no. Not really, I just sort of understand what they are trying to say." She responded, digging one of her hooves into the floor.
"Oh. Cool." Was all that I could say.
Apparently I lived with a Disney princess now. All that was missing was that she was a great singer and we were golden.
As I stood there thinking about stupid crap, Fluttershy turned around and reached for the door. She immediately stopped after she glanced into the tiny window she had near the top of the wooden door.
She fidgeted in place for a bit before calling out my name. "Um, Aerial Ace. Do you want to go inside before me? I live here after all, so do you want to see it by yourself for a bit? If that's okay with you..." She said, her words growing quieter as she kept talking.
I grew confused until I realized that she wanted me to go in first. Most likely because she wanted me to get used to the fact that I was going to be living here for the foreseeable future. Taking the hint I walked towards and pushed the wooden door open.
The inside was dark, as most of the windows that I saw outside seemed to be closed from within and let very little natural light to enter. Before I could even ask Fluttershy where the light switch was or if she could open a window, I heard a very distinct snort.
Whipping around I stared into the pitch black room, looking for anything that could have been amiss. As I walked forward, I was suddenly hit with many smells. Smells like fresh grass, a lemony sent and... cake?
Before I could react the lights suddenly turned on and a massive shout of "SURPRISE" was echoed throughout the room.
.
.
.
I didn't scream, and I will fight anyone who says otherwise.