As Twilight and her new acquaintance walk through Ponyville, Tim is treated to the norms and virtues within pony society, he takes it all in, asking himself a series of questions as to why this world is better than the one he came from. The more he ponders on it, the more his feelings of dread return.............
Twilight and Tim had just past Town Hall and were headed for Sugarcube Corner. Tim began to look at the town, this time with a less numerous and more patient escort. The more he looked at it, the more he began to critique it. The buildings looked fine, and less primitive than he initially thought. He found the choice of straw roofs very poor, as that didn't seem very sturdy and usually led to infestation of rodents. Color choice was okay for the most part, he found the use of pink just a little too girly for his tastes. Then again, it was the only town that he'd ever seen, he figured this might just be normal around here. Although he had a few nitpicks about the town, he didn't vocalize his displeasure, lest he insult his host, which was the last thing he wanted to do. The two continued walking, when they finally reached their destination.
"Well Tim, here we are!" said Twilight.
As she raised her hoof to show it off, Tim could only be described as dumbfounded. The structure didn't even resemble what real architecture should look like. It looked like one of those gimmicky stands one would find at an abandoned theme park. The roof of the place looked like a gingerbread house with white frosting all over, and the overall shape of it was lopsided. At its center was a large spire jutting up, and resembled a giant pink cupcake, something Tim had seen on old, torn-up, pre-war advertisements.
"This is where we're eaten'?" he said uncertainly.
"Yep, you won't find better sweets and treats in town." she exclaimed.
Twilight opened the door, and with it came the ring of a bell, signaling someone had entered. Tim reluctantly entered the building with her, ducking his head down under the small door frame. The interior was thankfully more to Tim's liking. Inside were a few booth style tables, and several displays filled with baked goods and the room as a whole smelled like a bakery. Although the use of the color pink was still excessive.
"Looks like we're the first ones here." stated Twilight. "Come with me."
Twilight used her magic to set down her saddlebag and sat at one of booth tables, with Tim squeezing in on the opposite side. They then sat there waiting for someone to come and take their order. Tim however was unaware of how this procedure worked. He found it odd that his host promised breakfast but they weren't up front asking for it.
"Excuse me Princess, what exactly are we doing?" asked Tim.
"We're waiting for somepony to take our order."
Tim gave her a peculiar look.
"Order? What?" he said confusedly.
The sudden realization came to Twilight.
"You mean to tell me you don't do this in your world at all?"
"No, we usually go up front and ask for our food directly. They give us the portion for the day, and then we go sit down somewhere and eat."
"Sounds like a cafeteria." said Twilight.
"Exactly, me and my buddies call em' mess halls, but folks back home call em' "Distribution Centers". We've got a bunch of them all around where we live."
Twilight had a notion of disbelief at his claim.
"Come on, you don't eat all of your meals like that? Do you?"
"We do. Some take their food home to eat and people who know how to cook sometimes make it in their homes, but most of it is distributed out and eaten at one of the centers."
"Doesn't sound particularly appealing." she said sympathetically.
"It's not so bad, least ya' have people to talk to while ya' eat."
"Oh, so like what we're doing now?"
"Oh no, not even close. Usually there's about some fifty people to a table. And trust me, it is loud."
"Whoa, sounds like quite the crowd. Do you ever feel like it's an invasion of your privacy, do you ever eat alone."
"Not really, course' if I'm having an off day I usually eat outside, but my buddy Achmed ain't too far behind. Being alone in my world's really not such a good idea. Everyone needs somebody to fall back on."
"Sounds like your environment is rather friendly, on a social scale at least."
Good to know friendship survived in his world, otherwise living there would be a real disaster. She thought to herself.
"Well, when ya' put it like that, I suppose it is. I think of my friends as family, known em' for a good six years now, and the lot of us got our own share of scars from The Conflict, so we make the best of things we can."
From the back room came the sound of a door opening. Out stepped a somewhat hefty mare with a light blue coat and a mane of dark pink. Twilight immediately recognized and called out to her.
"Mrs. Cake, good morning."
The pony turned her head to the source of the call out.
"Oh, Twilight, I thought I heard your voice in here, I-"
She cut off when she saw Tim, freezing all movement in the process.
"Oh! .....Um!....Uh!" she said nervously.
"Mrs. Cake, there's no need to be afraid." said Twilight getting up from the table and walking to her.
"I'd like you to meet my new friend, Tim, he's new here as you can probably tell."
"I see..." she said, still too nervous to approach him.
“This song and dance again?” Tim thought to himself, clearly catching on to what was happening.
He got up from his seat and carefully walked up to the frightened earth pony. He knelt down to her eye level and stretched out his hand in a friendly gesture.
"Pleased to meet ya'. My name's Timothy Berfield."
Mrs. Cake's sense of fear began to die down, as she realized he didn't seem dangerous. In fact, the motion he gave indicated he was downright friendly. She shook her head slightly to come back to her senses. She returned the hand gesture with her hoof, which was odd for the both of them, and shook.
"Sorry if I got a startled there." said Mrs. Cake with a slight smile. "I guess I was just caught a little off-guard. I don't think I've ever seen anything like you before. I'm guessing you're not from around here?"
"Indeed, I am not." he said with a laugh.
"I'm guessing you're the Monster who was causing all the hullabaloo yesterday?"
"Yeah, well, none of it was intentional, didn't mean to frighten nobody. Guess my curiosity got the better of me."
"He's actually a human." stated Twilight. "He somehow entered our world by unknown means, we've been trying to find a way for him to get home, but so far no luck."
"I'm sorry to hear about that, dear. But if I may ask, why would you come here if you're trying to find his way home?"
"Well actually, we're kinda of taking a break from that. At least till Princess Celestia responds back to my letter. We weren't able to find anything last night, so I requested help from the Princess. For now, I thought it be nice if I treat our new guest to breakfast at the best place in town."
"Well then, I think you've chosen the right place in. If you want to sit back down I can have a few menus ready for you."
Twilight nodded with content and she and Tim returned to the table and sat down.
"By the way Mrs. Cake, where's Pinkie? She's usually the one to sit customers, right?" asked Twilight.
Mrs. Cake returned to the table with two small menus, placing them before them.
"Yes, but she took the day off. Said she had something important to do. I would have asked but she darted out the door before I could."
"That's a shame." said Twilight. "I'm sure she would have loved to join us."
Tim had mixed feelings about Pinkie. He could have sworn she read his mind yesterday morning, but he couldn't say for certain. As he continued thinking, Mrs. Cake pulled out a little notepad and pencil with her teeth, and placed them on the table.
"Can I start you off with something to drink?" asked Mrs. Cake.
"Yes." said Twilight. "I'll take a glass of orange juice if you don't mind."
Mrs. Cake once again picked up the pencil and scribbled the order down on the notepad. Tim though about how odd it was she could write legibly with just her teeth.
"How about you, dear?" asked Mrs. Cake, interrupting Tim's train of thought.
This was the first time he actually asked what he wanted to eat, or drink in his current circumstance, so he gave it some thought before coming up with what he wanted.
"Y'all got any coffee?" he asked dubiously.
"We sure do, what kind of sugars or creams do you want in it?"
"I'll take it black, if ya' don't mind."
Mrs. Cake was kind of shocked with that request, as was Twilight.
"Okay, black it is then."
And with that Mrs. Cake wrote it down on the notepad and tucked the pencil and paper back into her apron. She was heading back to get their drinks when Twilight questioned Tim's decision.
"Black? Why would you drink it black?"
"What? I like it black, nothin' wrong with that."
"Other than its nasty, you don't like it sweet?"
"No, I think all them sugars ruin the taste. In my book coffee wasn't meant to be sweet. You got you're preferences and I got mine."
Twilight just rolled her eyes, seeing he was stuck in his ways, and pulled the menu up to look over the various breakfast options available. Tim did the same, only to find difficulty in choosing one, as there were various options available. He looked to Twilight for guidance.
"So, uh, Twilight. What are you gettin'?"
"I was thinking of getting the Whipped Pancake Platter. I just been itching for some pancakes lately."
Tim instantly dropped his menu and stared at her with deadpan eyes.
"You have gotta be kiddin' me, out of all the food that I know you have, you choose pancakes, the most bland thing that I've ever had in my life."
She in return shot the same look at him.
"You have got to be kidding me?" she said inconceivably. "How are pancakes in any way, bland?"
"It's just bread! Just flat, round, pieces of bread! I'm told that people went gaga for em' before the war, but I can't see why. Me and my buddies cooked up a whole batch of them one time when we found a whole closet full of the instant batter that was used to make them. We started chowin' down on the first batch when we realized what it was. Sent the batter back home, used the rest of the cooked batch for target practice."
"Come on, how can pancakes be that bad, with that right amount of maple syrup an butter an-"
Twilight noticed the strange look of confusion across Tim's face.
"Just what the hell is maple syrup?" he asked.
Twilight's jaw dropped in disbelief. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.
"Oh, Tim, it's settled. You're having what I'm having."
Tim's eyes shot up.
"Now, now hold on there just one sec! I never said I-"
"Tim, I simply can't let you go on with your life without eating a proper set of pancakes. Trust me, you'll like them."
"Princess, I already told ya' why I didn't like em', ya' really gonna make me-"
"Tim, it comes with sweet maple syrup, whipped cream, and a cherry on top to finish it off. What's not to like?"
Now Tim had knowledge on what a cherry was, on account of finding them on occasion in the canned variety. However the other two things Twilight mentioned were completely unknown to him. He'd heard of syrup before, a lot of boxed foods had something called "high fructose corn syrup" in them, but he'd never actually seen the stuff in person, and he had no knowledge on what a "maple" even was. As for whipped cream he could only guess what it was, only creams he'd seen were used for medicinal practices, so it wasn't sounding particularly appealing, or appetizing. However her description of it being sweet caught his attention, as he had a love for things that were sweet since he was a child. He considered it one of his many "Great Finds" along with ammo, books, Twinkies, and a T-90.
"Sweet, huh?" he said skeptically, rubbing his fingers across his chin. "Alright I'll give you the benefit of the doubt and take a go at it, but it better be damn near to perfection!"
"Trust me, you won't regret it."
Mrs. Cake had returned with a platter carrying their beverages. After she placed it on the table, Tim and Twilight grabbed their respected drinks and Mrs. Cake once again pulled out the pencil and notepad
"So, what will you two have?" asked Mrs. Cake.
"We'll both be having the same thing, the Whipped Pancake Platter." said Twilight.
With that she once again wrote down their request and was on her way to cook up the order. Tim took a sip of his coffee. As he retracted his lips away he took the taste with great surprise.
"I'm getting a surprise every second it seems, this might just be the best cup of Joe I've ever had."
"Cup of Joe?" said a confused Twilight. "What the hay is that?"
Tim took another sip before answering her query.
"It's just another name we call coffee." he stated.
"Okay. Not sure why they would call it that. Listen, Tim, I know were kind of in the middle of the whole breakfast thing, but I've been really wanting to ask a few more questions about you humans and Earth."
Tim looked at her with uncertainty, he still felt a little uncomfortable about the subject. The Survivors were being held together by a thread as it is, revealing any sort of vital information on them would be putting humanity as a whole at risk. But then again, he felt like he may have to eventually if they were going to help him find a way back. Not to mention the fact that they had been so friendly to him, he felt like he owed them for all the work they were putting in to help him. He let out a sigh.
"Alright, seems only fair, besides I did promise to answer them, but I wanna leave some of the more important ones for somewhere with less ears listening?" said Tim, gesturing towards Mrs. Cake.
Twilight had trouble coming to grasp with Tim's urge to withhold information but accepted it nonetheless, as he did explain why he did so the day prior.
"Okay, save the important ones for later, got it. Although I hope you don't mind if I write down a few notes on what I learn, do you?"
"I'll tell ya' what's okay to write down and what's not, deal?"
Twilight gave a confirming nod and pulled out a scroll, notebook, and quill with her magic.
"First question." she said, unrolling the scroll in front of her.
The scroll was written up during the few moments of Twilight's free time during their book search yesterday. It was filled to the brink of possible questions she wanted to ask.
"What magic do humans possess?" she asked. "Although from your reaction yesterday it sounds like it was the first time you came into contact with it?"
"We humans don't have any magic. It's referenced in a few works of fiction and some really old history books say older civilizations believed in it, but for the longest time, everyone's just kinda accepted it as being made up or fake. Although now that I've seen it, guess it just doesn't exist where I come from."
"No magic? At all? How's that even possible? How do you control your weather? Or move the sun and the moon?"
Tim was now staring at Twilight like she was crazy.
"Uh, we don't."
"But how does your world change from day to night then?"
"Princess, last time I checked the sun and moon have their own schedules and weather can only be predicted, not controlled."
"But how is that even possible? I can maybe understand the weather part, as the Everfree Forest does the same thing, but what about the sun and the moon? What moves it?"
"Gravity, I think? From what I've learned our world orbits the sun, and the moon orbits the Earth. Been like that since the beginning of time. Least that's what I was told. As for weather, you'd have to ask somebody with a little more knowledge than me. All I know is to stay the hell away from radstorms."
Twilight was writing all this down as they were speaking. Despite his love of reading, he wasn't the intellectual type.
"So if you don't have magic, what do you have?"
Tim pondered a bit for an answer until he got one that would satisfy.
"Well, science and technology. I can tell ya, we have created a ton of shit. And pretty damn fast now that I think about it. We went through like six different tech ages in the span of a century, makin' stuff left and right. Although with recent events like you already know, technological breakthroughs have pretty much went to a standstill."
“So his world revolves around technology, I had a theory, guess it was right.” Twilight pondered.
"Any idea why?"
"Why? Like why as in why we built so fast, or why we built at all."
"The first one."
"Well, it really began after what we call World War II. They built a weapon that.........."
Tim stopped as he realized what this would lead to and had the inclination that telling her about the single most destructive weapon in human history, might not be the best idea.
"Let's save that one for later." he said.
“That subject can wait, at least for now, the less they know about our capabilities, the better.” Tim thought to himself.
Twilight was just getting intrigued too, so his request was met with a little disappointment. But Twilight still had many more questions to ask, so she finished writing down in her notes and she asked another question.
"What do humans eat? Since you can eat pancakes I guess you're herbivores like us, right?"
"No, we're omnivores."
"Really!?"
Tim bared some of his teeth and, with his finger, pointed out the canines he had.
"So you eat meat?" she asked.
"Meat, grains, vegetables, fruit, and everything in between."
Other ponies might have been revolted at the thought of anything that ate meat, but Twilight was honestly more amazed at how much food variety was available to them. Plus, Twilight knew of many other races that ate meat, such as the griffons.
"That's quite a lot for a daily diet." she exclaimed.
"Yeah, well, like I told y'all earlier, we have a bit of a problem finding food in general, so we take what we get."
The sound of doors opening interrupted the conversation.
"Speaking of food." said Twilight.
Walking towards them was Mrs. Cake who currently had two plates of pancakes setting on a large platter. As she sat the platter down on the table Tim was in awe of just how much food was on his plate. Before him sat five pancakes stacked one on top of the other, with a brown syrup dripping from the sides, melted butter, a mountain of whipped cream, and a cherry to top it all off. It was something straight out of the old pre-war IHOP advertisements he came across on occasion.
"Enjoy." said Mrs. Cake, and with that walked away.
"Well, Tim, go ahead and dig in." said Twilight.
But Tim just sat there, not moving, just looking at his plate. This lasted for two minutes and made Twilight feel a little dismayed.
"Uh, Tim, you okay?" she asked.
He stopped staring at his plate and looked at Twilight.
"I....is..this all for me?"
Twilight saw that as a silly question, and thought he was joking with her.
"Of course, what kind of question was that?"
"I'm being serious." he said in a sincere voice.
Twilight looked at him, but the face she that greeted her was borderline fearful.
"Tim, what's wrong?"
"I ain't never seen this much food before, not on one plate. I feel...."
"Feel like?"
"Well, a little guilty to be honest. I don't mean to be rude to you, it's just, some guys I know don't even get a fraction of what's on my plate."
Twilight couldn't make out any words right now. She could tell he was being sincere, and just the expressions and vibes she was getting from him showed he was rather unsettled about this. She tried to come up with some advice to help him through this.
"You don't have to eat all of it in one go Tim, if you want we can save some of it for later. You don't have to do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable."
Her advice gave Tim a little comfort, but his conscience still told him that this was somehow wrong. He closed his eyes and sighed in an attempt to shake it off. He took up the tiny fork that sat beside his plate, cutting out a small portion and sticking it with the utensil. His eyes shot up when he took the bite. The common taste of bread wasn't there to greet him. Instead it tasted sweet, the flavor of it was incredible to his mind.
"Well, how is it?" asked Twilight.
Tim let a smile stretch across his face.
"This might just be the best damn I've ever eaten." he said with joy.
Twilight smiled, glad to know his conflicted feelings had vanished.
"Told you, you'd like them." she said.
Tim rolled his eyes and gave her a face that pretty much summed up to "whatever" and the two resumed eating their breakfast.
Tim and Twilight finished breakfast and walked out of the establishment. Tim only about half of his and saved the rest for another time. Tim looked down at Twilight.
"So, what now?" he asked.
"I actually need to run a quick little errand, I was going to do it yesterday but-"
"I showed up."
"Right, it's just a few things, it won't take long."
"If ya' say so."
"After we've made our stop, we can head back to the castle and see if the Princess responded back."
Tim followed Twilight further into town. Most of the ponies were out an about now. Tim saw he was getting strange looks from the locals, he honestly felt it was a little nerve racking.
"Uh, Princess, you sure it's okay for me to go this far into town? I'm startin' to get weird looks."
Twilight saw the base to his question, as she too noticed the looks he was getting.
"There just a little skeptical about new creatures, this town has had a bit of a history with monster problem, but as long as your with me and they see you pose no threat, I'm sure they'll settle down in a few days."
"Shit, I hope it's just a few days, this place is nice but I don't have plans on stayin' very long."
"Tim, I don't want to put a damper on your optimism, but if I couldn't find a spell to help you, it's highly possibly the search might last much more than a few days."
Tim's expression turned somber.
"I was afraid you were gonna say that."
"We’ll find a way Tim, it just may take a little time."
After several minutes of walking they reached the marketplace, which was bustling till the moment they arrived. As they passed by each kiosk the ponies began whispering amongst each other. Whenever Tim turned his gaze towards one of them they'd get scared and walk away. Tim just let out a sigh and continued walking.
"Don't take it to heart." said Twilight. "They're usually nice, they just haven't gotten to know you just yet, that's all."
"It's fine. I got thick skin. Besides if your teacher found a way to get me back home, they may not have to deal with me for very long. If not, well, I suppose I'll have to take your word."
"You'll find that the ponies here can be quite friendly to newcomers."
Twilight approached one of the kiosks, this one in particular specialized in selling ink and quills in bulk. Twilight rang the bell on the counter to signal that the salespony had a customer in wait.
"Just a sec!" said the voice from behind the counter.
Shortly afterwards a vanilla coated earth-pony mare with a brunette mane bunched up in a ponytail came up from behind the counter. Her cutie mark depicted a quill, inkwell and a green book with a brown star serving as the background.
"Good morning Princess, what can I-"
Like with Mrs. Cake, her voice immediately cut off at the sight of Tim.
"Princess.......you......are............aware...............that................"
"It's okay, he's with me, Tim, I'd like you to meet Novella Scribe."
"Howdy." said Tim, tipping his hat off to her.
"He....hello." she said nervously.
Twilight saw this was making her very uncomfortable very fast, so she decided to speed things along.
"I'm just here to pick up supply of ink, have any in stock? I was-"
Novella practically dashed for the crate filled with ink bottles and crammed it into it Twilight's face.
"Here! Gotta go! Bye!"
And with that she shut down the metal cover to her stand. Twilight frowned as she levitated the crate out of her face. She feared everypony was giving off a bad first impression for Tim. But when she looked at Tim he was somewhat smiling.
"Damn! She moved fast, she'd make short work of packin' stuff, tell ya' that much right now." said Tim
"I didn't even pay her." said Twilight.
"You know the whole having to pay for stuff might take some getting used to."
"Guessing you don't have currency back on Earth?"
"Nah, we do, or we did at one time, but currency is better suited for a non-survivalist world, so we pretty much hand out necessities whenever someone needs em'."
Twilight popped out the notebook once again and wrote down a quick note in light of the recent discovery. Not too important, but it was good to know humans knew what trade was, even if they didn't practice it.
"So, we headin' back to your place?" asked Tim.
"We are indeed." said Twilight.
Twilight was about to start walking when Tim stopped her.
"Ya' need me to carry that?" said Tim, gesturing towards the crate currently levitating in the air.
"Oh, well, that's very kind of you, thanks." said Twilight.
"Ah, don't mention it, least I can do since ya' took me out for breakfast. Plus what kind of man doesn't take the opportunity show how much heavy stuff he can lift by himself?"
"Well, seems bravado passes over the species gap." Twilight retorted.
The two shared a laugh as Twilight moved the crate towards Tim's hands, and he in turn grabbed it just before Twilight let go. Once that was finished the two set off to return to Twilight's castle.
Twilight opened the front door to her home and stepped inside along with Tim. She shut the door and Tim turned to her, still carrying the crate of ink with him.
"Where do ya' want me to set this?" he asked.
"Over by that small hall stand is good, I'll put it somewhere else later. Now let's go see if Celestia wrote back."
Tim sat the crate down like Twilight requested of him and the two made their way down to Twilight's room. Once inside they saw that Spike was finally up and about, just finishing snacking on a gemstone.
"Hey Spike!" said Twilight. "We're back!"
"Hey guys, was wondering when you were going to show up." said Spike. 'So Tim, how was breakfast?"
"Best meal I've ever had." said Tom "Pancakes no less"
"Doesn't surprise me, those Cakes sure know how to bake, figures Twilight would take you there to butter you up."
Twilight shot Spike an unamused glare, but Tim couldn't help but clap, a slow, methodical clap.
"Wow." He remarked. "That my friend, was amazing. Real punny I would say."
"EEEYY!!! Another pun enthusiast!" Spike exclaimed. "You wouldn't believe how rare that is around here."
"For the love of Celestia, please don't encourage him." Twilight requested to Tim. "Speaking of whom. Spike, did Princess Celestia happen to respond to the letter I sent?" asked Twilight.
"Yep, I laid it on the bed."
Twilight turned her head and sure enough sitting on the edge of the bed laid the letter with the celestial seal. She trotted over to it, unwrapping the ribbon and unwinding it to read its contents out loud.
" My Dearest Twilight Sparkle," she said with utmost clarity. "I am glad you shared this information with me, while I respect your decision to aid the human I must ask you to cease doing so until me and my sister arrive in Ponyville this afternoon. Keep him within the castle if you can. We look forward to meeting him for ourselves. Your Friend, Princess Celestia."
"Was there anything on a way back home for me?" asked Tim.
Twilight looked over the letter again to see if there was any information on a way home for Tim, but to no avail.
'I'm afraid not, but I wouldn't worry, she and her sister, Princess Luna are both coming, it's likely that at least one of them has something that can help."
Tim was still anxious, as the letter felt like it was merely a formality, to him at least.
"So, can't leave the castle till they get here, huh?" said Tim. "So what do we do to pass the time?"
Twilight slowly pulled out the notebook she'd been carrying around and smiled with anticipation. Tim knew what that meant. More of Twilight's questions.