Chapter 9 - Welcome to Ponyville
With their lunch done, the group made their way to Twilight’s library. The creature kept taking in the sights of Ponyville, but every time he met a pony’s eyes, he seemed to become increasingly shy from their staring. After a quick walk, they found themselves in front of the library. The creature’s eyes opened wide and a grin made its way on to his face as he went to examine the tree. He was pleased to find out that it was an actual tree, and not just a building made to look like one.
The group entered the library, the creature having to watch his head a little bit as he came in. Twilight set her saddlebags down near the front door.
“Spike, could you go and make us some tea?” She asked her draconic assistant.
“Sure thing Twilight.” He said and made his way in to the kitchen.
“I’ll go and help him.” Fluttershy offered and followed after him. Rarity and Rainbow had already made their way towards the shelves, Rarity doing a bit of tidying up and Rainbow looking for any interesting books to read. Of course, by Rainbow’s standards, an interesting book usually meant either a Daring Do book or something closely resembling one. Twilight had tried her best to get Rainbow interested in other forms of literature too, but it was a slow process.
The creature’s jaw was hanging open as he walked around the library, looking at all the bookshelves and the architecture. He seemed to hesitate for a moment, before reaching out and picking up a book from the shelves. Twilight’s ears perked up in excitement and she made her way next to him. Could it be possible that the creature can read? It would make sense. He has that device after all, and if the symbols were indeed a language, then perhaps he could also read their language.
She held her breath as she watched the creature flip the pages in the book. It was almost comical watching him squinting and studying the book that looked slightly too small in his hands. After a while, Twilight let out a small, disappointed sigh. It didn’t look like the creature had any idea what was written in the book. He seemed to be more interested in the pictures in the book that he was currently holding. When he noticed Twilight standing next to him, he placed it back on the shelf and rubbed his neck awkwardly, like a foal who had been caught with his hoof in a cookie jar. She giggled slightly, and patted his leg to let him know that it was alright for him to look at the books. She then made her way down to the basement to get some items she needed for the tests she planned on doing with the creature.
Fluttershy and Spike returned to the main area with a tray full of teacups, and Twilight joined them soon after, levitating a bunch of different gadgets and gizmos with her. They sat down to enjoy the tea while Twilight sorted her devices, except for Rainbow, who flew up to a small alcove and focused on a Daring Do book instead. Spike also found a comic book that he started to read with the creature, who had an amused look on his face as Spike read it out loud to him. Rarity and Fluttershy focused on talking about the juicy gossip that Rarity had heard yesterday.
“Ahha!” Twilight exclaimed when she got her devices set up. Spike and the creature looked up from the comic book.
“What’s that Twilight?” Spike asked as he looked at a weird device.
“It is a Thaumatic Resonance Analyzer, or Thaumometer for short. I’m going to use it to measure the creature’s thaumatic capacity by channeling my thaumic energy in to this highly sensitive crystal, which will cause his thaumic pool to resonate, which I can then measure!” Twilight said enthusiastically.
Two ponies and one dragon blinked, confused. Twilight’s face fell slightly. Fluttershy she could understand, magical theorem wasn’t her field of expertise. Spike, he should have had at least some idea after being her number one assistant for so long. But Rarity? She was a unicorn, and even she looked to be completely lost.
“I’m going to measure how much magic he has.” She said in a slightly frustrated deadpan.
“Aaaah.” They responded in unison.
Twilight motioned for the creature to come closer, who was looking at the contraption with some suspicion. The Thaumometer wasn’t a terribly large device. It had a bracelet with wires going in to box that had all sorts of blinking lights, crystals and weird indicators which purpose only Twilight knew. It looked a little bit like it had been designed by a supervillain from one of Spike’s comics. The creature eventually sat down next to Twilight, who took the bracelet and attached it on to his arm. She also gave him the crystal to hold in the same arm, and made last few adjustments on the device.
“Okay, it should be good now.” She said and turned back towards the creature, who was closely examining the two things he was holding. Twilight motioned for the creature to hold his arm out straight and keep his palm open that she could see the crystal. All the other occupants in the room were watching in anticipation, Rainbow having flown down since things were getting slightly more interesting.
Twilight started to power up her horn to channel her magic in to the crystal, but the creature flinching made her stop immediately. He looked unsure about what she was doing.
“It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.” She said in what she hoped was a reassuring voice. Fluttershy gently leaned against the creature to give her own support to him.
“Twilight, let me.” Rarity said and walked next to Twilight. She powered her own horn, and instead of directing it at the creature, she levitated one of the library’s books up and showed it to the creature, before putting it back to where she picked it up. She then pointed at Twilight, and then the crystal he was holding. The creature looked at the book, then back to Twilight, and nodded slightly.
Twilight powered her horn again, and slowly reached out with her magic for the crystal. The creature was nervous, yet had a spark of curiosity in his eyes as he watched the crystal starting to glow. The ponies noticed his arm shuddering slightly as the glow intensified. Some of the glow from the crystal seemed to seep in to his arm, and the machine started to make beeping noises as it came to life.
They sat there like that for a few minutes, before Twilight stopped the flow of magic from her horn. The crystal slowly dimmed as the last of her magic dissipated from it. The creature blinked a few times, and looked at Twilight as if to ask if that was all. Twilight took off the bracelet from around the creature's arm before she focused on the machine and the data she now had. The creature scratched his arm, and Fluttershy noticed that the hairs on his arm were all standing up.
“Hmm…” Twilight mumbled as she examined the paper that the machine was printing out.
“What does it say, Twilight?” Rainbow asked as she looked over Twilight’s shoulder at the paper.
“According to the Thaumometer, he has about 21,8 thaum capacity.”
“Okay...How much is that?”
“Well, a unicorn foal usually has 10 to 20 thaum capacity, although they can go over it if a magical surge happens. A unicorn filly or a colt can have up to 45 thaums, and an average unicorn adult has about 100 thaums.”
“Okay…how much do you have, Twilight?”
“Oh. When I was last measured, I had 196,7 thaum capacity.”
“Woah. That’s like, twice as much as an average unicorn.”
“I’m the element of magic, that has helped me out. I’ve noticed a steady increase in my magic for some time now.”
“So, what does this all mean for the big guy?” Rainbow said and turned towards the creature, who was patiently waiting for them.
“It means that he most likely doesn’t have any active way to channel thau-…erm…to use magic, like a unicorn. His magic probably manifests in passive ways, like with pegasi and earth ponies.” Twilight said with her lecturer voice.
“Okay…hey, how come I have never seen this kind of device before?” Rainbow poked at the machine.
“Thaumometers are usually only used in magic schools, research work or maybe in a hospital. Knowing your thaumic capacity is not something you usually need to know, except for unicorns when they are practicing magic. Knowing your capacity allows teachers to know what kind of spells you are able to cast, and thus teach you accordingly. Since pegasi and earth ponies can’t cast spells, it is not as useful to measure your thaumic capacity.”
“I…I think I understand…” Rainbow scratched her head, trying to wrap her head around all of it.
“So wait.” Spike said. “Are you saying that he has just slightly more magic than a foal? Isn’t that…too little?” He pointed at the creature, who seemed to be wondering what they were talking about.
“Not necessarily. Like I said, this is compared to unicorns, who have higher thaumic capacities. For example, most animals rarely have over 20 thaums. Adult pegasi and earth ponies might have anything between 30 and 60 thaums, depending on what kind of work they do. Since we don’t know what the average is with his species, we can’t really say if his capacity is low or high.”
“Hey Twilight, can you measure me too?” Rainbow asked and flapped her wings in excitement.
“Sure, if you want to.”
********************
After measuring Rainbow’s capacity with the Thaumometer, Rarity, Fluttershy and Spike also wanted to take a turn to see how much magic each of them had. Fluttershy had the least of them, with only 31,7 thaums. This wasn’t a big surprise to any of them, considering that Fluttershy doesn’t fly for long periods of time that often, which would help it grow. Spike turned out to have 72,0 thaum capacity due to his draconic heritage, and it would grow even higher once he grows up. Rainbow had an amazing capacity of 78,5, undoubtedly contributing to her high speed when flying. While not knowing it for sure, Twilight theorized that many of the Wonderbolts would probably have a number close to Rainbow’s. Lastly, Rarity was just barely above the average, with her thaumic capacity being 100,1.
After recording the creature’s magic potential in her report for Celestia, Twilight continued on with a few more tests she had in mind. She tested his hearing and sense of smell, both which further gave proof to the theory that the creature wasn’t a predator by nature, since he seemed to lack any way to best the other hunters in the Everfree. She also took a small blood sample, just to make sure that the creature didn’t have any diseases.
While Twilight was furiously writing on a scroll, the creature’s device suddenly started ringing. The tone was slightly different than last time Twilight had heard it. He took the device out of his pocket, and flicked his finger across it, which silenced it.
“Wow.” Spike said as he put the comic book he had resumed reading back down again. “That’s neat. What is it?” He asked and leaned in to look at the device.
The creature gave him a smile and moved his finger across the device. Soon the rest of the ponies gathered around him to see what he was doing with it, and hopefully get some answers. As the creature moved his finger on the device, the pictures it was displaying changed.
“What is he doing?” Rainbow asked.
“I don’t know.” Twilight responded. She could see a smaller picture of a camera, a letter, and a clock, but there were other ones that she didn’t understand. The creature pressed one with a music note on it, and a bunch of symbols covered the face of the device. He kept moving his finger, making all the symbols move so fast that Twilight could hardly follow them with her eyes. Finally, he stopped, and pressed his finger on a string of symbols. Beautiful music filled the room.
“Wooooah.” The ponies and a dragon said in amazement.
“His device can play music? How can it do that? Where’s the record?” Twilight asked as she practically pressed her snout against the device, trying to wrap her head around the fact that this small device could play music.
“It’s very lovely and relaxing.” Rarity said, her eyes closed and a small smile on her face.
“Mmhm.” Fluttershy agreed.
“Eh, kinda boring.” Rainbow said. “But it is cool that he can just have music wherever he goes with this thing. I wonder if he has any music with more speed to it?”
They went silent and listened to the music until it ended. The creature pressed a few things again on the device, before he looked up to them and smiled widely. He ushered them close to each other, before bringing the device up to his face. There was a noise, after which he motioned them to come closer again. There, on the device, was a picture of them.
“WHAT?” Twilight said, aghast.
“Hey look, it can take pictures too! That’s so awesome!” Spike said enthusiastically.
“It’s a really good picture too.” Fluttershy said.
“It can play music and take pictures? But…but how? How can it do that? Why can it do both of those things? It doesn’t look anything like a camera! Or a record player!” Twilight paced back and forth.
“That. Is. So. Cool! What else can it do?” Rainbow said excitedly as she practically sat down on the creature’s lap to get a better look. The creature blushed slightly from the sudden contact, but luckily, only Rarity seemed to notice. She hid her amused smile behind a hoof.
The creature pressed another picture on his device and started humming a song with his deep voice.
“I wonder what he’s doing now.” Spike said while they waited. The creature stopped shortly after, before pressing a few more things. His humming started again, but this time, it came from the device.
“It can play music. It can take pictures. It can record sounds. How can his device do all that?” Twilight said, completely baffled.
“I do not know, darling, but it does seem to be a rather useful device. Perhaps it’s from outside of Equestria?” Rarity asked.
“Maybe…”
“I wonder if I could get one of these?” Rainbow said. “It would be so cool to listen to music while I’m working out!” She turned towards the creature. “What do you say big guyyyyy…” It finally registered to Rainbow that she was sitting on the creature’s lap, and was now nose to nose with him. Her ear twitched when she started to hear giggling from behind her, and she turned her head around to notice that the other occupants in the room all had smiles on their faces. With a quick flap of her wings, Rainbow shot upwards, a furious blush on her face. “I didn’t…! I mean…uhh…”
“Aww, you looked so sweet sitting with him like that, Rainbow.” Twilight said.
“I often sit close to my animal friends too. It's usually me who is holding them, though.” Fluttershy continued with a smile. The creature rubbed his neck awkwardly.
“You’re not helping!” Rainbow squeaked, much to the amusement of others below.
********************
With all the tests done, and Twilight quickly writing down notes on what she still needs to add to her report for Celestia, the group left the library. The creature had taken out his clothes from Twilight’s saddlebags, and looked like he was going to head back to the Everfree for today. It was already dusk, and soon the sun would make way for the night. There were fewer ponies around than during the day. Most shops were closed, and some ponies were heading home for dinner and to relax after a long day. There seemed to still be one pony, however, who was full of energy.
“Heyja everypony!” Pinkie said as she merrily trotted to them.
“Hi Pinkie.” They greeted back.
“I was wondering how long you were going to stay in Twilight’s library. I was on my way to get you all.”
“What for?” Rainbow asked.
“For his ‘Welcome to Ponyville’ party of course!” Pinkie bounced excitedly and pointed at the creature.
“Now? Isn’t it getting too late for that?” Spike asked.
“Silly Spike. It’s never too late for a party!” Pinkie patted Spike’s head.
“I think he was going to head back to where he lives, so I don’t know how long he will stay.” Twilight said.
“Perhaps only a quick visit then?” Rarity said.
“It would be nice to welcome him here officially, if he wants to come to Ponyville again.” Fluttershy agreed.
“Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go to the party!” Pinkie said and started to hop towards Sugarcube corner. The others indicated to the creature that they should follow Pinkie. The creature looked at where the sun was, before shrugging and walking after Pinkie.
When they arrived to Sugarcube corner, the creature did a double take at the building in front of him. He had been excited to see Twilight’s library was a tree, but seeing the gingerbread like house made him chuckle to himself in amusement. He looked like he wanted to climb to the roof to see if it actually was gingerbread, and then possibly take a bite if it was. Pinkie had already gone in to the building, and when the creature followed her inside, he got startled when Pinkie blew in a party blower.
“Surprise!” Pinkie announced loudly and threw streamers in to the air. There were a couple of ponies waiting in the building, including Mayor Mare, Mr. and Mrs. Cake and Applejack. There were pastries and drinks on a table and a few party games as well. There was also a banner attached to the rafters that read ‘Welcome to Ponyville Scruffy’.
“Really, Pinkie? ‘Scruffy’ is what you came up with?” Rainbow asked.
“Eh, good enough.” Pinkie replied with a grin. “It’s at least as good as ‘big guy’, right?” She said and giggled.
“While I can agree that it’s something I would maybe use to describe his clothes, I’m not sure if that is something we should call him.” Rarity said.
“Aww but it’s just a nickname. I’m sure that Twilight will come up with some fancy name for him soon, like hippomuspotammus or something.”
“It’s hippopotamus.” Twilight corrected.
“Or maybe she’ll teach him to talk our language, so we can just ask what his real name is.” Pinkie said as she jumped up and wrapped her forelegs around the creature’s neck in a hug. The creature caught the pink mare in his hands and looked at her in bewilderment. “So until then, welcome to Ponyville, Scruffy!” Pinkie cheered.
********************
Twilight had to give it to Pinkie Pie, the party was actually a rather good idea. It was the perfect way to inform most of the town about Scruffy, as he was now dubbed. They would be able to recognize him, and would know that he’s harmless, so there wouldn’t be any misunderstandings, hopefully, if Scruffy decided to visit Ponyville again. Most of the ponies were curious to see the new creature that had been seen walking around in the town, and made sure to wave at the creature, who waved back at them. Scruffy was content to sit against a wall and watch as the ponies partied, and eat some of the delicious pastries that Pinkie had prepared.
As with all Pinkie Pie parties, it was top notch. Ponies were dancing and playing party games, or just hanging around with their friends and enjoying the treats. Or in Rainbow’s and Applejack’s case, having a friendly competition with each other. True to her word, Pinkie had invited the whole town to have a good time, and it seemed like most had decided to at least pass by. When the interior of Sugarcube Corner threatened to get too crowded, the ponies decided to move outside and keep dancing in the open air instead. With so many ponies there, they could easily move some of the tables and refreshments outside.
Twilight and Fluttershy had taken some time to try to tell Scruffy that that would be what they’d be calling him from now on. They would point at him and pronounce his new nickname clearly to him. They would also point at themselves and say their own names, and eventually he understood that they referred to him when they said Scruffy.
“S-S-Sh-Sh-Shru-Shruhhy.” He tried to imitate them, much to their surprise, since he hadn’t talked up to this point. However, it seemed that he had considerable difficulty getting the enunciation correct, no matter how much he tried. The same was met when he tried to say their names. They concluded that this was something they should look in to later, when they weren’t in the middle of a very loud party.
The party lasted for a long time, with ponies coming and going all the time. Eventually, Scruffy slipped out of the building in to the cool and fresh evening air. Fluttershy followed him outside, having noticed his absence. He smiled at her as he stretched his limbs. They both stopped and stood still when they suddenly heard an instrument playing that wasn’t coming from Sugarcube Corner. They followed the sound around the block to find a mint green unicorn sitting on a fountain with her eyes closed, playing a harp.
“Hey Lyra.” Fluttershy greeted as they approached.
“Oh, hey Flutters-…Woah!” Lyra almost fell backwards in to the fountain when she opened her eyes and noticed Scruffy. “So...you must be Scruffy, huh?” She continued.
“Pinkie came up with that name.” Fluttershy responded for him as they sat down next to Lyra.
“It does sound like her.” Lyra grinned and shook Scruffy’s hand.
“Why are you out here alone? If you…umm…don’t mind me asking.”
“Wanted to play my harp. Couldn’t play it at the party, with all the noise everypony is making.”
“The song you were playing...it sounded very beautiful.”
“Would you like to listen?”
“Mmhm.”
Lyra picked up her harp again, and started playing. All three of them closed their eyes as Lyra weaved her magic in to the night, and calm music filled the air. Scruffy had a serene smile on his face as they listened to Lyra’s music. He opened his eyes just in time to see the sun dip below the horizon, the last rays of sunlight disappearing, marking his first day in Ponyville to be over.
Oh look! I finally had enough time to just sit down and write the dang chapter! Better late than never, eh? 
Lots of things happening in this chapter, and I would consider this the end of the 'first arc' of the story. Scruffy has been introduced to the ponykind, and there is no getting rid of him now, especially with all the food they are giving to him!
We'll be getting to the slice of life part of this story, where we'll have Scruffy interact with the denizens of Ponyville. I'll probably be following a sort of short story style with the coming chapters, with each telling about it's own encounter with somepony. We'll see. 
Hopefully you enjoyed the chapter, and as always, do leave a comment and criticism if you have any. 
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You should show them videos, in order to once and for all make them realize that he is very intelligent and belongs to another civilization, I like this one https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xgWYlo_qIc , this will let them know how many are there and how complex we are, just an opinion.
I like the slow build of this story, severely limiting the ability to communicate with each other makes for interesting opportunities for comedy and character exploration. Having it solely from the point of view of the ponies is a nice touch. Too often the authors of HIE stories focus so much on the Human that the characters native to Equestria are left to languish. It seems that the apparently older man has found some sort of portal to the Everfree forest in his world that is open enough that he can get back and forth and apparently has cell service near the portal. I am very interested in how this aspect develops and whether it turns into an Equestrians on Earth story in the future.
7958693 But that would make it so easy
7958698 Then perhaps later, when a lot of misunderstandings occur, or something because it appear that you want to make the girls suffer, or the guy, anyway as I said before, just a suggestion.
Wonderful chapter!
7935368
^This. I completely agree. Considering the number of shared mannerisms, stories like these which question the displaced being's intelligence or reasoning skills (be it a human or a pony) just make the native species look stupid.
7958698
So, is that also the reason why Twilight and Fluttershy can't tell that he's a persistence predator?
And elderly fellow named Scruffy huh?
0.media.dorkly.cvcdn.com/21/45/b14ba08dd07386a05826ed5fdeb39c2f.jpg I approve of this immensely.
7958882 They have no reason to think that he is much of a predator. For all they know, he lives in the Everfree, and it is filled with timberwolves, manticores, hydras and such. What does he have compared to them? A fancy mustache.
They are assuming that he is a scavenger, rather than hunter.
Lovely music, great story!
Humans having magic?
Maybe the thaums read something else
It feels too.... belittling imo that humans need magic , it's like it insults our technologiCal alternative to magic
I'll keep reading anyways
actually making the video thing happen would be pretty cool and refreshing
almost all stories goes with the "hard way" where it takes forever for them to notice that the human isn't a beast. and almost all of them because the human acts dumb as fuck for some reason.
and they could start to wonder how he got there,if there are more of him, if they are that advanced powerful ponies might get interested in the guy. depending on how you want to go with this it could actually lead to the more interesting part of it.
Have you tried speaking in fancy?
Great Chapter!
Hail Scruffy! Scratcher of pone-pone ears!
7935368
7958863 ... they did have a me Tarzan, you Jane moment. Right when they got to the party, when they were saying their names to him. In any case, they did say the name was temporary until they got to the point where he can actually speak their language coherently.
7958921
Maybe his registering at a roughly animal level on the thaumometer is just what happens to any organism in a magic-rich environment if their biology doesn't do anything to select for or against it. (Sort of like how all matter will eventually match the ambient temperature if no effort is made to prevent that.)
(Under that hypothesis, minor variations would be noise rather than signal, as an unintentional side-effect of other variations from organism to organism which just happen to affect how much magic they absorb and retain.)
Probably for the best that Twilight didn't try to measure Pinkie's thaum level.
Silly Twilight, if you can't read his language, how can you expect him to read yours?
7959336 I AGREE
Yay, we are back. Good chapter, it is pretty amazing what s modern phone can do. Think eve twenty years ago and that stuff was kind of redicuilous to think about. My dad had a cell phone that was in a bag that he took for emergencies. Anyway, I'm excited for the next chapter. Hopefully the chapters aren't too short, it's easy to get in the habit of short chapters, which can make the story feel paced oddly.
7959229
Well that makes sense, it could also be from consumption of magical foods.
If what we are saying is true, then I hope the ponies realize not everything is made up of magic, or at least the proud humans being different
7959744
That interpretation reminds me of how the main character in Arrow 18 would have been entirely immune to a Cockatrice's gaze if he hadn't been consuming local foods.
7959386 Wishful thinking
7959336 The only question is, would the crater have been as wide in meters as her thaum capacity is.
7959051 They don't really think he's that much of a beast. I mean, they threw him a party and all.
They just don't know anything about human civilization yet, so they probably assume he's more primitive than them. Maybe something close to the buffalo?
7959336 It would probably be Eleventyschmeven to the power of Ω
What country are you from? I'm used to seeing decimal points where all those commas are.
7960071 I'm from Finland.
Let's be honest, if most of us were in his position, we would've shown the ponies something along these lines.
7958698
I think it's fairly obvious to a smart pony like Twilight that Scruffy is either from an advanced society, or belongs to one like a wandering pet. Either way, the phone by itself should have blown her mind (and did). Kinda wondering if Rarity got a chance to check out the clothing? From the "scraps" left, they should have some clues as well such as a zipper, socks, artificial materials, and machine stitching which would place him at least as advanced as ponies are.
The phone ringing was unexpected. Or was it an alarm? If it was an alarm then there's nothing more to say about it. If it was actually receiving a call... whoa. There's a portal back to Earth somewhere, leaking all of humanity's electromagnetic spectrum into Equestria too. Remembering how he looked like a hobo when first met, I suspect it was an alarm. But if he's been here that long, how the hell did the phone last so long? Mine doesn't even go a single day if I don't use the battery-saving features. Is Equestria's magic-saturated environment trickle charging it or powering the device entirely since the battery died off on the first day? Does he have a solar charger stashed away somewhere?
Kinda glad they don't have my phone. Too much pony on it to avoid the story going meta. Granted, there's a few videos on it which aren't pony and 30% of the music isn't pony (perish the thought!).
Also, hoofbump on the nickname Scruffy. He probably sounds like Scruffy too.
p.s. Would cuddle and pet the hell out of a lap pony. Their inherent adorableness can not be denied!
7960324 Hmmmmmm but why?
He has one device that they have never heard about before and is really wonderous, but that is not enough to jump to the conclusion that there is a super advanced civilization hiding in the Everfree forest. 
And it's not like ponies don't have such things, they have cameras and Vinyl's weird music thingy with wheels. 
Scruffy just has something that is way smaller, yet equally as good, if not better, than what they have. If something similar happened on earth, we would probably suspect aliens, but in Equestria, it makes much more sense that this device (and possibly Scruffy) has come from a different country. Perhaps minotaurs build the device, or griffins, or saddle arabians etc.
I pondered about Rarity checking the clothes, but unfortunately, I just don't know enough about fabrics and such to make the scene good enough. I could work, or it could just be horrible for those who actually know about things. Although, I'm pretty sure ponies have zippers.
Scruffy is actually a master engineer who has build a water dam out of rocks and vines in the Everfree to get electricity.
7960247 Who has videos like that saved on their phone?
I barely have music on it anymore.
Freaking-A, it IS that guy from Futurama!
static.simpsonswiki.com/images/thumb/1/10/Scruffy.png/250px-Scruffy.png
7960424
Er, I have about [made me go count them] 4906 tracks on mine. Only a few videos tho; a handfull of PMVs, one very fun AMV and two goofy videos (Yeah Toast! and Move Your Feet)
7960079 Do you use any sort of punctuation to delimit thousands, millions, and so on?
7960424. You show the ponies thoughts but maybe you can switch back and forth between perspectives with the ponies and scruffy. Give us his thoughts
7961062 I don't think so. At least personally I don't, and I'm trying to think really hard back to high school, and I don't remember us using it. It's just a comma if you need to say one and a half, 1,5, and even in my bill its 72,75 €. In fact: http://www.statisticalconsultants.co.nz/blog/how-the-world-separates-its-decimals.html and http://www.statisticalconsultants.co.nz/blog/how-the-world-separates-its-digits.html
7961044
I see. I doubt that Scruffy has many videos on his phone, but maybe he has some photos that he can show to the ponies at some point. 
7961219
South Africa appears to be the only English speaking country that uses the decimal comma instead of the decimal point. Probably thanks to their Dutch colonial roots.
7961230
I wonder if there's any... awkward photos? You know the kind. It looks perfectly fine to you but to an alien species with different social rules, they might see something sexual in it or blatantly offensive. Heck, if we took a typical grocerystore rack magazine back 100 years you'd probably get arrested for pornography.
Still waiting for the moment when one of the girls asks, "Is that a... pony?" In a mix of curiosity and mild horror when faced with a picture of an Earth horse.
I have been enjoying this story immensely, especially with how much subversion there is towards the cliches and tropesfound in other HIE fics. Meaning, this story has many brand unique and new things to exploit. I will be looking forward to more chapters in the future.
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Love this story!
Thid storu is great, but i have one question. How does his phone still have power?
7970349 If I go hiking for a length of time, I bring a portable solar charger. 18W at 1.4 lbs. It would mesh with having a second phone too. Stuff to keep in a bug out bag.
Aww, I've always preferred when a story realizes that humans break all magical rules.
"Sweet Celestia! He has ZERO magical capacity.
Life without magic should be impossible!
Plants, insects, heck even a glass of milk has it's own (if tiny) amount of non-ambient magic, it's necessary for life!
If a pony drops below *insert minuscule number of arbitrarily named units here*, they lose consiousness, at *slightly lower number* their heart stops. A little lower, and the body goes into early stages of necrosis!
Everything we know about the interactions between life and magic says that this shouldn't be possible!"
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I had this idea once that a human in Equestria would have zero magic, but still be able to do seemingly magical stuff while also being highly resistant to magic. The reason being that everything in Equestria is somewhat less real than they are, making reality softer and more malleable than it is in their own world.
On the other hand, I also like the idea of humans becoming magically charged over time due to exposure to ambient Equestrian magic, leading to unusual abilities.
Yay, Lyra isn't a human fanatic! Remember kids, stereotyping is bad
I read Scruffy and immediately thought futurama
Rainbow Dash flirted like a little girl? Now I see everything.
THIS CHAPTER REALLY BOTHERS ME... NOT BECAUSE IT'S A BAD CHAPPY (WHICH IT ISN'T, BECAUSE LIKE THE REST OF THE CHAPTERS THIS ONE WAS GOOD), BUT BECAUSE OF HOW BAD YOU ARE AT MATHING.RGGGGGAnyways, when you are talking about the thaum stuff, it would be 31.8, not 31,8 (and 72.1 rather than 72,1, etc, etc.).31.8 means that there is 31 wholes with 8-tenths extra. 31,8 Implies that there are actually two sets of numbers, and could arguably be actually a coordinate on a graph, rather than an actual number.I have no clue why that bothers me so much, but it does...7960079
OH
For some reason I thought it was kinda universal that a decimal separated the two parts. I guess I was wrong (not the first time lol).
I find that really cool now to be honest. I ended up doing some research, and found that the comma and decimal are reversed. Where I would go 1,000,000.98 you would write 1.000.000,98.
I couldn't find much else though, do you guys use different digits as well? What else changes?