//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Bit by Bit 
// by Knight Tyrfang 
//------------------------------//

Chapter 2
                
It took a few minutes for Dim to get used to walking on all fours, but after he learned how to, he quickly grasped the concept of how to canter, and then how to gallop. It obviously felt quite different, compared to walking on two feet, but he felt significantly more nimble. He wondered if it was because he was now an equine.
 
                After Dim learned how to walk, they were just about ready to go out and tour Ponyville. Twilight had Spike make a considerably long list of all the major landmarks and important places within Ponyville, while she quickly scanned through a book that was titled Equestria For Foals. Dim noticed, the cover of the book was designed quite similar to the For Dummies series back home. He had about three copies from it, including “Economics For Dummies, Chemistry For Dummies, and Evading Bookies For Dummies”. He also had the oddest feeling that the last book wasn’t published legally.
 
After she and Spike were done, Twilight quickly checked a piece of parchment lying on her writing table. “Oh, great! It’s going to be a beautiful day today.”
 
                Dim, curious, looked at the parchment, and saw that on it was a list of what the weather was going to be for the following week. He assumed it was a weather forecast, but it seemed odd to him that the worn parchment was titled: “Weather Schedule”.
 
                “Um, Twilight? What’s this?” Dim asked, curious.
 
                “Hmm? Oh, that’s just the schedule for the weather this week.” Twilight said, taking a final sweep of Spike’s list. After she finished, she made two check marks with a quill. One on “Make a List” and one on “Double Check the List”.
 
                “Schedule? What’s that supposed to mean?” Dim asked.
 
                Spike cleared his throat, and opened a dictionary he was holding. “’Schedule: A plan for carrying out a process or procedure, giving lists of-‘”
 
                “I know what a schedule is.” Dim said, cutting him off.
 
                “Oh…okay.” Spike said. He then went to the shelves, and climbed one of the ladders to put the dictionary back where he got it from.
 
                “What I don’t understand is, how can you ‘schedule’ the weather? Isn’t it unpredictable?” Dim asked, directing the question towards Twilight.
 
                “Unpredictable?” said Twilight, surprised. “Oh, does the weather work differently where you come from?”
 
                “Um, depends on what you mean by ‘differently’.” Dim said, confused by the concept of weather working differently in a different world. “It just… changes, on its own. We’re only able to use tools to predict what’ll happen. It’s pretty accurate, but not accurate enough to create a schedule around it.”
 
                “Hey, that’s just like the Everfree Forest!” Spike said from the top of a ladder.
 
                “Everfree Forest? Well, it’s obviously a forest, but what kind of name is that…?” Dim thought.
 
                “It certainly does, doesn’t it?” Twilight said. “Wait… humans have tools that can predict the weather? How do they work? …Actually, never mind, I can ask you that later. See… Here in Ponyville, the weather doesn’t actually change by itself. Instead, we have pegasi regulating the weather. Moving clouds, making it rain, and so on. They hand out a schedule of what they have to do every week.”
 
                “Pegasi? As in, winged horses?” asked Dim.
 
                Twilight nodded. “They’re just one of the three races of ponies that live in Equestria.”
 
                “Ponies regulating the weather…Heh, what’s next, magic?” mumbled Dim, chuckling at the idea.
 
                “Um, yeah, actually…” Twilight said sheepishly. “That’s what the third race does, the unicorns. They use magic to help them do things around their daily lives.”
 
                “…Wait, seriously?” Dim said, taken aback that his little quip was actually an accurate observation. After some thought, it didn’t seem as far-fetched as he first thought, seeing as he did live in a world dominated by colorful, talking ponies. He did hear them talking about spells earlier, but Twilight looked like a perfectly normal pony to him. He then noticed there was a horn on Twilight’s head, previously obscured by her bangs (Dim couldn’t help but wonder, would you still call them bangs if they were part of a mane?) He then asked, wanting some visible proof, “Well, if that’s true, then can you show me some magic?”
 
                “Well…I don’t know if I should…” Twilight said hesitantly.
 
                “Hey, why don’t we show him that trick? You know, Number 25!” Spike said, looking quite eager.
 
                Twilight smiled, amused. “Sure… I guess it wouldn’t hurt.”
 
                Twilight then closed her eyes in concentration, and then pointed her horn at Spike. Dim watched in amazement as her horn glowed, and then with a small poof, a curly black mustache appeared on Spike’s upper lip.
 
                “Wow, that’s amazing!” Dim said, clapping his hooves together. Doing that worked more effectively for clapping then he thought it would, making a clopping noise every time he patted them together.
 
                “I know, doesn’t it look cool?” Spike said, stroking his mustache proudly.
 
                “Not that… it kind of looks odd on you, in all honesty…” Dim said. Spike stopped stroking his mustache, and it drooped a little. “I mean the magic! Can you do other stuff as well?”
 
                Twilight blushed a little from the praise. “Well, I can levitate things, but that’s a simple spell a unicorn learns when they’re a little foal.”
 
                “That’s incredible!” Dim said, wide eyed with amazement.
 
                “Not really… it’s quite simple.” Twilight said, shaking her head. “…I take it that humans don’t have magic, do they?”
 
                Dim shook his head. “Nope, we have none whatsoever. All we have are magic tricks, like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.”
 
                “Oh, Twilight can do that too.” Spike said, with a look of pride. He looked so proud, you’d think he was the one who was able to do all that magic.
 
                “Yeah, well, the rabbit is usually just hidden in a box under a table cloth, while the hat had a hole in it. It wasn’t exactly magic, but it tricks one to believe it to be.” said Dim
 
                “Ah, I see… An illusion… We should write this all down later. I mean, it all seems so fascinating.” Twilight said, looking genuinely intrigued. “This is probably the only time in history, that anypony has first-hand, accurate info on humans!”
 
                “I feel like I’m some kind of newly discovered animal…Come to think of it, I technically am…” Dim thought, feeling uncomfortable.
 
                “Anyways, we should really show you around. Let’s start off with the Town Hall.” Said Twilight, making the door open with magic. It still amazed Dim that it opened on its own.
 
 
                “…By the way, Dim, what’s your cutie mark, anyways? I can’t figure out what it could be...” Twilight said while they were trotting towards their first stop in the tour.
 
                “Huh? Cutie mark? What’s that?” asked Dim. He couldn’t help but think that if he had something like that, his masculinity level would go down many levels. The sound of it was so… girly.
 
                “It’s a mark that’s located on your flank. We aren’t born with it, but it usually appears when we discover our special talent.” Twilight said, turning and showing him hers. There indeed was a mark, and it looked like a large pink star, surrounded by a few little stars. “See, a cutie mark usually represents a pony’s special talent. Mine represents my talent with magic, and my love of astronomy.”
 
                “Huh, really?” Dim said. He turned his head to look at his flank to see what was on it. On it…was a dim light-bulb. He would’ve smacked his forehead in disbelief, but he thought it’d probably hurt if he did it with a hoof. Dim wondered if stupidity could even be a talent.
 
                “Hmm? Anything wrong?” Twilight asked, noticing Dim was frowning.
 
                “H-huh? O-oh, it’s… nothing. A-anyways, I actually don’t know what it is…” Dim said, lying. He lied to both cover his embarrassment, and because he doubted they even knew what a light bulb was. Seeing as the only detectable light source he saw so far was a candle stick on the desk, back at Twilight’s house, it was very unlikely they even had electricity. Twilight looked at him carefully, but decided to drop the subject.
 
                “Anyways, if that’s what a cutie mark is, how come Spike doesn’t have one?” Dim asked.
 
                “Didn’t you listen? Only ponies have them. I’m a dragon.” Spike explained, rolling his eyes.
 
                “Oh, right… but I still don’t believe you’re a dragon, you’re too small!” Dim said, still skeptical.
 
                “Well, that’s because he’s still a baby dragon.” Twilight said. “If you want, he can breathe fire to prove it.”
 
                Spike then took a deep breath, and then belched. A short stream of green fire came out of his mouth with the burp. Dim blinked a few times, surprised, but impressed as well.
 
                “Huh, I guess you really are a dragon then.” Dim said, shaking his head in amazement. “Though, it’s hard to believe you’re a baby dragon, Spike. You seem more mature then that.”
 
                Spike puffed out his chest with pride, head held a little higher. Twilight couldn’t help but smile, and roll her eyes.

 

 
                So, Dim followed Twilight and Spike around, as they showed him around Ponyville. They visited the Town Hall first. It did sort of have a town hall like feeling to Dim. It was a large, tall, round building, that was quite pointy. There were also many windows set in rows, so he couldn’t tell how many floors there were. There was a second floor porch, held up by beams connecting to the ground, and surrounded by a fence. There was also a podium set to the side of the entrance. As they came closer to it, a mare noticed them, and approached them. The mare had a tan colored coat, and had a short, flowing grey mane. Dim doubted that was from age however, because she seemed quite young to him (for a pony that is. He really had no way of telling the age difference between ponies, besides wrinkles, and he spotted no wrinkles). On her flank, was a rolled up piece of parchment tied with a green ribbon.
 
                “Oh, Twilight! It’s good to see you.” she said, “I see you’ve been practicing your magic.”
 
                “Huh?” Twilight said, confused. The mare pointed at Spike, and Twilight noticed he still had a mustache on. “Oh, haha, yeah... Looks like I forgot to get rid of it...” She said in embarrassment. And with another poof, she made the mustache disappear.
 
                “Aw, darn it. I was hoping you wouldn’t notice…” Spike said, disappointed.
 
                The mare then noticed Dim. “Oh? You’re a face I’ve never seen. Are you new to Ponyville?” the mare asked.
 
                “Oh, this here’s Dim Bulb. Dim, this is Ponyville’s Mayor.” said Twilight introducing him to the mayor.
 
“Dammit, the nickname’s spreading!” thought Dim, annoyed “Okay, okay, calm down…they’re not using it as an insult…” he said to the mayor, that it was nice to meet her, as politely as he could.
                
“It’s nice to meet you too, Mr. Bulb.” The mayor said. “When did you arrive though? Usually, we would have noticed you come in earlier, from somepony walking around. But nobody noticed anything.”
                
“Um, yeah. Ms.Mayor, He came in today, thanks to a spell of mine. Unfortunately, I kind of messed up. You see, he’s hu-” Twilight began.
 
                Dim immediately covered her mouth with his hoof, before she could say ‘human’.
 
“H-hungry. I’m from another land, you see, and I… haven’t had a bite to eat for a while.” Dim said nervously.
                
“Oh… I-I see.” The mayor said, a little confused by what had just happened. She brushed it off quickly though. “Well, I could give you a few recommendations for where you could eat.”
                
                She then went to a small table, with many shelves in the back of the Town Hall, each one holding multiple scrolls. She picked up one of them with her mouth, carried it back to Dim, and dropped it in front of him. Dim was a bit hesitant to take it with his mouth, for he was afraid he’d get end up getting something weird in his mouth, eventually. But he had no other choice, since he had a lack of opposable thumb, or fingers, for that matter. Unfurling it, he found the scroll listed all the places he could buy food within Ponyville. The list included a few restaurants, some food shops, and many food stands.
 
                “Ah… thank you very much. I can’t wait to try the foods of Equestria.” Dim said, rolling the scroll up and picking it up, bowing his head in thanks.
 
                “Why, it’s not a problem at all!” the mayor said. “We don’t get many visitors to Ponyville, especially from other lands, so it’s the least I can do. It was a pleasure meeting you, Mr. Bulb.”
 
                “You too, Ms. Mayor.” said Dim, voice muffled by the scroll in his mouth. He then pushed both Twilight and Spike away from the town hall.
 
 
                After they got a considerable distance from the town hall, Dim stopped pushing the two, and he took his hoof away from Twilight’s mouth.
 
Twilight glared at Dim. “What was that for?”
 
                He spit out the scroll. “Well, I’d prefer if fewer people…I mean, ponies, knew I was a human.” Dim explained, trying to placate her. “I don’t want to attract too much attention to myself…And besides, if we told them, they’d all think I’m crazy, wouldn’t they?”
 
                “Well, yeah, I guess…” said Twilight, realizing what would’ve happen if ponies found out he was human.
 
                “Anyways, let’s go get some food to eat. I wasn’t lying about the being hungry part…” Dim said, his stomach rumbling. “Any of these you’d recommend?”
 
                Twilight picked up, and unrolled the parchment with magic. She looked down the list, and then pointed out that a few of the options would be on the way to where she was planning to take him next, but the closest one was a restaurant. So they decided to go there and eat.