Rarity sighed. "Again, I'm so terribly sorry about Opal, Catbug."
He batted a paw. "It's ok!"
"Now then, do you remember the directions to Applejack's I just gave you?"
Catbug nodded, smiling.
"Excellent! You go run along now, darling. Enjoy yourself, and don't bother her too much, alright? I'll certainly be finished in time for your party tonight! Why, I haven't seen Pinkie so excited in ages!"
"Ok! Bye, Miss Rarity!" He waved enthusiastically.
"Goodbye, Catbug, dear."
With that, he buzzed through the entrance, climbing into the air above Ponyville. Scanning back and forth, he found the road Rarity had instructed him to follow. As he did so, Catbug hummed a little tune to himself bobbing his head. He was about halfway across town when something bumped into his back.
Perplexed, he stopped to hover in place. Turning around, he caught a glimpse of a grey pegasus wearing large saddlebags, grinning sheepishly as she flew away backwards.
After a quick shrug, not one to pursue fleeing strangers, he continued onwards through the sky to the vast patch of green treetops now visible in the distance. Spying a wooden gate, he descended towards it, excited to meet this 'Applejack'.
After landing on the soft grass, he took a moment to sniff around. Mouth watering, he did, in fact, confirm that this was an apple orchard. Or, at least, a place with a bunch of yummy apples.
However, just as he was about to fly up to the nearest tree to pluck a ripe one for himself, his ears twitched, perceiving the sound of multiple hoofsteps behind him. Afraid to be caught in the act of taking food without prior approval, he hid himself in the tree and waited.
As he sat on a branch, Catbug gazed in the general direction of the sound as it slowly increased in volume. Soon, he was able to identify the source: three ponies, smaller than those he had met previously. Noticing the specific traits of one in particular, he leapt downwards to greet them.
All three stopped moving and flinched visibly as he approached. One of them screamed.
Turning to his target, he greeted her. "Hi, I'm Catbug! Are you Applejack?"
Immediately, their expressions returned to normal, pacified by the sound of his adorable voice. The filly in question blinked twice, then shook her head. "Uh, no. I'm Scootaloo."
Catbug tilted his head to the left. "Really? But you're where Rarity said you'd be. And you're orange."
The yellow one giggled. "Close, but not quite. Ah'm Applebloom, Applejack's sister. My fam'ly does live here on the farm, though."
"I'm Sweetie Belle, by the way," chimed the white one.
"How could you even get us mixed up like that, whoever-you-are?" asked Scootaloo, frowning. "Not sure what you're supposed to be, but I'm a pegasus, and a filly at that."
Now, Catbug was even more confused. "What are those?"
Sweetie Belle gasped. "You don't know what a pegasus is? How in Equestria does that work?"
"Equestria? Is that where we are?" Catbug paused. "Sorry, I just got here this morning."
"Now wait a minute," said Applebloom, coming to a realization, "Are ya meanin' to say that ya'll aren't from Equestria?"
"Yeah!" he confirmed, smiling. "Twilight says I'm from whole 'nother universe! I've already made lots of new friends, but I still don't really know about this place."
As this new information sunk in, the three fillies all had the same idea, turning to face eachother. Slowly, excited grins crept onto their faces. Then, as one, they shouted "CUTIE MARK CRUSADER CULTURAL AMBASSADORS, YAY!"
* * *
Catbug then found himself being unceremoniously dragged out to a small, well-made treehouse in the middle of the orchard. The Crusaders had told him to wait, and that if he did, the three of them would educate him on all the joys of ponykind. So, that was what he did. As they scrambled all over, gathering supplies, he sat on his butt, rocking slowly back and forth. He rambled on about all the stuff he'd learned and done today, so they knew what to present him.
After about twenty minutes, the fillies were ready. They had assembled in front of him, with Applebloom on the left and the others on the right. A crude, free-standing presentation book, the kind with pages that flipped over, stood on the hardwood floor between them. Catbug's eyes widened in anticipation.
"Are you ready?" asked Sweetie Belle.
"Uh-huh!"
With that, she flipped over the first page, revealing a crude sketch of the three. "The first thing you need to know about Equestria is that it's filled with ponies. They come in three types. I'm a unicorn," she stated, pointing to her picture. "Unicorns have horns. They can use magic to do all sorts of stuff."
She then demonstrated this fact by grabbing a small crayon in her green aura, lifting in into the air in front of Catbug, face contorted into an expression of concentration.
When he began clapping his paws loudly at the display of skill, Sweetie jolted, dropping the object with a blush.
"Ah'm an earth pony," continued Applebloom. "We're stronger that other ponies, an' can grow crops real good too."
"And I'm a pegasus," finished Scootaloo. "We have wings," she said, stretching them out for Catbug to observe. "Pegasi can fly, but I can't quite yet."
Sweetie flipped to the next page, which showed Princess Celestia and Princess Luna rearing up on their hind legs. "Equestria is a nation of ponies, run by the princesses."
"They're special!" exclaimed Scootaloo. "They get wings AND horns!"
"Celestia, on the left there," pointed Applebloom, "raises the sun ev'ry mornin' with her magic, an' Luna raises the moon. You already met Twilight, she's the princess o' friendship!"
A small, cyan hand shot up.
"Yes, Catbug?" she asked.
"That's not how the sun works. I've been to space. The sun, and all the other stars, don't really move. The planets are what move in, uh, orbits!"
Eyebrows were raised. Sweetie Belle shook her head. "Maybe where you're from, but here, the sun moves."
"I dunno. Still seems fishy." Mmm, fish, he thought to himself.
Moving on, Applebloom jumped topics. "Ponies here get Cutie Marks once they find their special talents, and they use 'em to earn bits fer buyin' food 'n whatnot. We've been tryin' to find ours for a while now. There're as many things to do as there are ponies!"
Sweetie Belle nodded. "You've already met a bunch of ponies around Ponyville, so I'm sure you've figured that out."
"Oh!" interrupted Scootaloo. "That reminds me, could you get Rainbow Dash to sign this for me? You can never have too many autographs!"
Catbug suddenly found a small poster had been shoved in his face. It depicted Rainbow in an overdramatic pose, framed by explosions. The caption read: 'She's the fastest thing alive!'.
He smiled. "Sure, Scootaloo!"
She sqee'd with delight, prancing about.
Applebloom rolled her eyes. "Anyway, Ponyville is only one of many places to go 'round the country. There's Canterlot, where the Princesses live. It's all clean and shiny, and the ponies are a tad high-strung."
"Then there's Cloudsdale!" added Scootaloo. "That's where they run the weather, and the whole city is made of clouds! It even moves! Not to mention that Rainbow Dash grew up there!"
Catbug raised his hand again.
"Yeah?"
"How do they build things out of clouds?" he asked, confused once more. "They go 'poof' when you touch them."
"Oh, right. Only a pegasus can touch clouds. Probably should have mentioned that."
He 'Mmmed' in understanding. "Gotcha."
There was a long and awkward silence. Sweetie Belle inhaled. "Anyway, we'd be here all day if we tried to cover everything at once, though."
"Yeah," agreed Applebloom, nodding. "It's better to learn through experience!"
"This weekend, we could totally show you around!" proclaimed Scootaloo. "Maybe you could even come crusading with us!"
Catbug stood up. "That sounds like fun! Let's do that!"
"That does sound fun! Though, not nearly as fun as your super-duper-califragilisticexpialidocious party is going to be!"
All four heads in the room wheeled upwards in a heartbeat, attention drawn by the sudden addition of a bubbly new voice to the room. There, somehow hanging upside-down from the ceiling, was Pinkie Pie, an enormous grin plastered on her face.