The discussion with the mayor ended becoming excruciatingly boring once I had assured her that we wouldn't simply go out and hunt ponies for any reason she came up with. Thankfully, Twilight did most of the work after that, and we finally decided that Pinkie's party would be more than enough to make sure the townsponies knew about us.

So we left town hall, on our way to Rarity's 'boutique', whatever that was, to ask her to make me new clothes. There still wasn't a pony to be seen outside, though, making the town look a little bit creepy. I'm sure saw the eyes of some ponies hiding behind a pair of shutters, but apart from that, it looked like we were in a ghost town. Isn't that exciting? Spike and I were looking at each other, certain that a zombie would just jump at us at every street corner we came across, but sadly, nothing this exciting happened. Instead, we just ended up in front of what looked like to be a roundabout made home.

I think I'd like to meet the architect of some of the town buildings. It must be a funny one.

As soon as we opened the door, a small carillon signaled our arrival and we heard Rarity's voice asking us to way from another room. I didn't mind the least, as I was looking around in wonder. The entire room was colored in lavender, purple and smooth white tones, a few manik... ponykins, I guess, wearing really elaborated sets of clothes dispersed around the place. I could see a handful of shelves carrying what I recognized to be colorful sets of fabric hanging around. Rarity herself was sitting in a chair, using a sewing machine I recognized from a documentary I watched with Verso. I decided to go and look at the clothes to wait for the unicorn seamstress to finish her task.

The sewing machine stopped its sound and Rarity turned the chair to face us, revealing her red glasses and the white cat sitting on her lap, looking down a us even though our head was easily a meter and a half higher than it was.

"Ah, I've been expecting you, Recto," she said, hushing her cat away, while I had a strange impression of déjà-vu.
"Yea, Twilight says you could make us some new clothes, as we only have this one," I explained to her, pointing at the Institute's clothing.
"Of course! And, besides, I still owe you something for assaulting you yesterday."
"I already told you it didn't..."
"I'm afraid I am not somepony to accept 'no' as an answer, my dear. I insist."
"Okay, thank you," I said with a shrug. Who am I to refuse free stuff?
"Even though, I must admit it's the first time I have to make clothings for somepony with your... build," she said as she stood up from her chair and levitated some paper sheets and a quill from somewhere nearby. "What exactly do you need, darling?"
"I'm curious too," Twilight said, making her own writing material appear out of nowhere. "I don't I've ever seen a species wearing clothes constantly like you do. It must be interesting!"

I looked at the purple princess, confused.

"You think wearing clothes all the time is... interesting?" I asked, slowly coming to a realization that just stood there under our nose since we arrived in Equestria.

None of those ponies were wearing anything! They... They were naked! I blushed heavily. They were girls, for heaven's sake! I was been talking with naked girls for two days straight and I didn't even realize that!

"Of course I do! Is that a normal habit for humans?"
"Well, we kinda get cold if we just stand out naked. You know, no fur and all..." I answered, adverting my gaze, blushing harder and harder.
"Are you alright, Recto?" Rarity asked. "You're sweating. Is it too hot for you in here?"
"N... No! I'm fine!" I exclaimed, effectively hinting that I wasn't, judging by how the two mares glanced at each other.
"If you say so..." Twilight said, unconvinced. "So, humans wear clothes for protection? Why do you also wear them inside buildings then? It doesn't get cold in there."
"Well... I... Verso should be the one talking about this, really!" I yelped, now blushing so hard that I'm pretty sure I was emitting light. "I'm not really all that great with explaining stuff!"
"Well, I'm sure he can come out and answer what you can't," Twilight said.
"He's sleeping right now! Won't come out for a while!"
"'Sleeping'?" Rarity repeated. "Does he always sleep in the middle of the day?"
"I think he likes to sleep. But seriously, I just can't answer these questions."
"What? Why is that?"
"Well, I've only just realized that you're naked..."
"Yes, and?" Twilight asked, not seeing where I was going.
"Well... Humans usually only... We... We only undress in front of our partner!" I squeaked, not daring to look in their direction.

The awkward silence that followed lasted for a solid five minutes. I swear I heard a few pins dropping on their own. Judging by their own mighty blushes, I'm guessing that at least, I wasn't the only one feeling embarrassed anymore. Twilight tried to form a sentence and just gave up, and Rarity was just staring into the space between spaces if her expression was anything to go by. Spike was just trying not to laugh one again.

Without a word, Rarity silently stood up and walked toward the nearest dress room, got the first dress she found on her way and disappeared behind a curtain. Not twenty seconds later, she walked out, got behind Twilight and pushed her inside the dressing room too, throwing her a dress on the way. Spike gave up and exploded in laughter, at least until Rarity smacked some sense in the back of his head and gave him a small tuxedo.

All in all, it may have been the most awkward moment of my life so far.

"Are you feeling better now, Recto?" Rarity asked.
"Ye... Yes, thank you. I'm sorry."
"It's fine, dear. Now, I still have to know what you need me to make," she said, levitating her writing material again.

I started to describe as precisely as I could each piece of clothing we were wearing, sometimes Twilight and Rarity both taking notes. I must admit, describing underpants was kinda awkward too, but thankfully, neither of them asked embarrassing questions. But they strangely got excited when I got to the shoes, particularly when I told them they were partly made out of plastic, an undiscovered material in Equestria. I got the feeling that they were a bit disappointed when I told them that I had no idea how to create it, though.

Rarity then took our measurements and said that she would have made a set, minus the shoes, for us to test pretty soon. We were about to step outside when we realize a problem: Twilight had to get the dress back. And besides, I doubt that everypony outside would suddenly change their habits just because of us. That wouldn't make sense.

How I wish Verso was awake to help...
Who's calling my name now?

I nearly screamed in surprise. I totally didn't feel him waking up!

Verso? How long have you been awake?!
Just woke up right now. What was that about me helping?

Of course, he quickly reviewed my memories from the moment he went to sleep up to then, laughed for a moment and finally sighed heavily.

You have the most pathetic sense of observation of all mankind, you know that?
What? You mean you realized and didn't tell me?
Wha... Of course I didn't! It was obvious! How couldn't you have noticed that!
Yeah, well... I didn't, but now, I do! And it's really awkward!
Why would it be? Do you think a dog or a cat should wear clothes?
Well, no, but...
They're not the same species as we are. I don't get how this could be awkward.
Bu... But they're not like dogs! They talk! Like humans!
Listen, just think of them as small horses and it will be fine.
But I can't! Now that I've realized that...
Recto, look over there, it's shiny! He said, mentally pointing it the direction of a small trinket, that was effectively shining under the sun's rays.
Okay, it's kinda pretty, but what does it have to do with OUCH! I mentally yelped, feeling like someone had just put a burning pin in the middle of our brain for an instant. Did you feel that?
Of course I did. We share this brain, you know?
Do you know what that was?
Probably me helping you not to feel too embarrassed around ponies by partially implanting how I feel about them in your memories. Sorry about that.
What?!
I must confessed that I'm pretty surprised. Brains aren't supposed to be able to feel pain. I figure it's just some form of mind placebo.
I didn't know you could do that!
Neither did I! Isn't that fascinating? But, did it even work? Twilight is undressed again, do you have a problem with that?
What do you mean?
Perfect.

Leaving me on this cryptic note, I walked out of Rarity's shop , waiting for Twilight and Spike to follow me. She glanced at us, mildly blushing.

"Will you be alright?"
"Yeah, Rarity will probably make great clothes. She can't be that obsessed with them and accept a bad set, I think."
"That's not what I meant. Are you sure you won't have a problem with ponies' dressing code?"
"I don't think I understand..."
"He'll be fine," Verso said. "I gave him a bit of help. Don't worry about us."
"Oh, you're awake!" Twilight said with little stars in her eyes, as she levitated material to take some more notes. "Recto told me you could be more precise than him about humans' habits!"
"Oh, boy..." he whined.

We started our tour of the town, Verso answering as good as he could Twilight nearly nonstop flow of questions while I stayed in the back and simply looked around through our eyes. Verso quickly decided to try and let me control our eyes alone while he used his sensing field to keep walking without looking, which probably really strange for an outsider, was funny as hell for me. But it eventually started to gave us an infernal headache too, so we had to stop. Still, we just had to try that one again.

We eventually arrived where Twilight was leading us, a big field just outside the town with trees covered in red fruits. A minute or two later, and we saw a big red barn behind a porch that read "Sweet Apple Acres". I immediately forced Verso to look at the fruit that my brilliant mind immediately identified as 'apples'.

Wow, they really do look like Applejack's butt-picture... Was my first thought.
"Welcome to Sweet Apple Acres, Recto and Verso!" Twilight announced. "This is the home of the Apple family."
"Let me take a wild guess and bet that your friend Applejack lives here," Verso's brilliant-er mind deduced. "And I think it's also safe to assume that they are apple-farmers?"
"You're right," Twilight confirmed with a nod. "They make the best apple related products in all of Equestria! But let's continue our tour."
"Hey, do you think it would be okay with Applejack if we took one of these?" I asked her, pointing at the deliciously red fruits.
"Ah don' see why I wouldn't let ya try one, partner," Applejack's voice said from behind us, startling me and pressing Verso to take the commands.

She was carrying baskets filled to the rim with apples on her sides and was looking at us with a smug expression. Verso wasn't really amused, but I was giggling in the back of our mind.

"Thanks for the jump scare..." he grumbled.
"You're welcome, sugarcube," she answered with a grin. "Now, Ah thought you two wanted to try one these beauties?" she asked, using her tail to grab an apple and giving it to us.
"Thank you," he said before retreating in the back of our mind.
"Thank you so much!" I exclaimed as soon as I was in control, hugging the orange pony.
"Wow there, no need to be so..." Applejack started with a laugh until she was interrupted by the 'crunch' sound of human teeth encountering apple flesh.

Now that I've said that aloud, I realize it sounds pretty messed up. Bah.

Anyway, I kept hugging AJ and eating the most delicious fruit ever for a minute or two, and we continued our tour of the town, aiming at Fluttershy's home. I must admit, the place was mighty pretty, and the cute little critters roaming freely around the house made me squee in awe. We continued, walking across another road on the outskirts of the town, bordering the creepy-looking forest that surrounded Ponyville.

"This is the Everfree forest," Twilight said. "I'd highly recommend you not to ever enter it. It's full with dangerous monsters, strange plants and is simply just... wrong."
"'Wrong'? What do you mean by that?"
"The Everfree just isn't natural!" Spike said. "The weather changes on its own, plants grow all over the place and animals take care of themselves! This place just doesn't work like it should!"

Verso and I just shared a mental dubious stare with each other, before he raised an eyebrow at them.

"Let me get this straight : the Everfree Forest is 'unnatural' because it doesn't need ponies to take care of it?"
"Yeah!" Spike nodded. "That's weird, don't you think?"
"I'd call that 'home sweet home'. Our entire world acted this way."

Spike's pupils turned to pinpricks and he hold his tail against his chest, while Twilight's eyes just lightened up and she made some more writing material appear out of nowhere.

"It sounds horrible!" Spike cried in horror.
"It sounds passionating!" Twilight shrieked in excitement. "Tell me every..."
"Hell, no! Whatever question it is you're about to ask, it's likely to be a lot too complicated to be explained on a stroll around the town; so just store your questions for later, please."

Twilight grumbled something and we kept walking. Soon, she had showed us most of Ponyville and decided that we should stop and have lunch at some restaurant where we saw other ponies for the first time in what felt like forever. Sadly, when we arrived, they all stopped what they were doing and just stared at us, baffled. A tumbleweed made its way in front of us in absolute silence, and I decided that I had enough of these awkward moments.

"Uh, hi?" I tried, waving a hand.

To be fair, we were both expecting them to freak out like Lily had earlier. It would have been logical, as they were obviously hiding away from up to this point. But, kind of unrealistically, a good half of them shrugged and resumed their business, the other half just deciding to ignore us.

I didn't really know how to feel about it.

What is... I don't... How? Why?!
"Well, that was unexpected, but I guess it turned out for the best," Twilight said, a bit taken aback too.

We sat around a small table and looked at the menu. Well at least, we would have if it was written in their usual gibberish. How they could even believe that it is readable is beyond me. Thankfully, Twilight and Spike kindly translated it for us, revealing the secret alimentation of small colorful magical horses. Which, sadly, didn't go all that well with human stomachs, according to Verso.

Is there anything we can eat?
I guess the sandwich's bread wouldn't be horribly poisonous or indigestible, but I think we're going to have to learn to cook while we're here. Damned herbivores... Try some fruits too.
"Can we just order bread and fruits? Verso says we can't eat anything else here."
"Of course you can. It reminds me," she said, taking out her notes again, "that I'm going to need to know what exactly you can eat if you want to live around here."
Is she going to note each and every little thing we do? It's getting annoying.
Are you saying she shouldn't? I thought you were a fan of this kind of sciency thing!
Oh, I am. Doesn't mean it's not annoying anyway.

Verso started to describe plants and and food we could typically eat while a pony server with a funny mustache got our order, later bringing us food. That's how we found out that Spike, being a dragon, could (and loved to) eat gems, which didn't surprise Verso as much as I thought it would. At least until he started to told me about several legends about dragons eating rocks or precious metals to form their scales, which would probably have been quite fun if he hadn't done it in a boringly analytical way. But, the fact that she saw him telling me a story picked Twilight's interest.

"You know," she simply remarked between two 'bites' of her sandwich (she has terrible table manners, and we've never eaten with anyone else until the day before),"I'm intrigued with how your mind, or minds, work."
Oh, great, another one.
"What do you mean?" I asked, taking a bite out of our apple.
"Well, you share the same brain, and for what we know, memories are stocked in there. As far as I've noticed, neither of you have trouble doing anything, which means you can both use your brain completely. But for some reason, your memories are different. Why is that?"

Verso took abruptly commands, sadly just when I was swallowing, making us choke on our food for a moment.

"It's... That's because Recto has... well, let's just say he is interested in feeling life while I prefer to know things. So we just learned different things over the years," he explained, clearly stressed and avoiding to look at Twilight for some reason.
"Ok, I get it, but why can't he access your memories? Princess Celestia told me you were able to read his, but so far, he didn't read yours, did he?"
"Nah, I can't do it," I said. "Verso's better with all this 'memory' stuff."
"Why is that?"
"I don't know," Verso answered abruptly, getting more stressed by the moment. "I can actively access our subconscious and read nearly every piece of information either of us has experienced, but Recto can't for some unknown reason."
"What do you mean by 'actively accessing your subconscious'?" Twilight asked, curious, Verso relaxing somehow at her question.
"It means that I can at will break mental walls that normally prevent us from noticing excess information that our brain still records, and that I have a nearly perfect memory of everything that we've experienced or learned so far."
"That sounds amazing!"
"It kinda is," I told them, chewing our last apple slice. "I mean, he can learn nearly anything really fast! For exemple, he learned to shoot super-neat magic lasers just by replicating what Luna did yesterday. It gets kinda annoying when you have trouble learning anything."
Don't pretend you would have listened to any of those lessons on the quantum physics anyway, or that you would have spent your time learning survival methods for the outside. You simply get bored easily.
But the teachers where sooo boring! I don't get how you could stay awake all this time.

He made a point not to answer that and simply looked at the funny-looking pony server as he was bringing a piece of paper between his teeth. Twilight glanced at it and floated a handful of tiny shiny disks to him. For some reason, this made Verso choke on our glass of water, which he finally spat out all over the pony princess' in surprise.

"Thanks..." she groaned while Spike and I were giggling and Verso was catching our breath. "May I ask what terrible offense I did to deserve this?"
"Did *cough* What were those coins you used to pay?"
Oh, so that's what coins look like...
"Well, they were Bits. That's Equestria's money."
"Give me one," he ordered, making Twilight look confused, but she obeyed all the same and gave him one shiny Bit. One shiny, golden, Bit.
Oh, boy. Is it what I think it is?
"Not now, Recto, I have to check something first..." he whispered.

Verso used his sensory field and concentrated most of it on the tiny, but heavy, golden coin. A couple of seconds later, he slowly raised our head, looking at Twilight with a slight twitch in our eye.

"Did you just pay for a lunch for three with several coins made out of sixty grams of SOLID GOLD?!"
Oh, so it is gold! It's so shiny~
"Yes, why? Is that a problem?"
"No, everything is fine. One of these coins could have paid for at least twenty meals for three back in our world, but everything is fine. I don't want to know how your economy works, but I'm going to assume it's bullshit."
"Gold was worth so much on Earth? That's weird."
I don't... Just... Just get back to the front for a while. I'm going to sulk in a corner for the next... let's say twenty minutes. Yeah, twenty minutes sounds good.

He left the front and Twilight started to walk back to the center of the town, where we reached a building that just made me drool on sight: where we stepped into the Gingerbread Train to come to Ponyville, Twilight was now heading us toward the real Gingerbread House. By the heavens, it even smelt awfully tasty! Best purple pony glanced at us and smirked.

"I get that you would appreciate some sort of dessert?"

I didn't answer, just nodded : our brain was far too busy processing the terribly sweet smell floating around the place, and Verso was doing everything in his power to refrain me from trying and bite a wall.

"Welcome to Sugarcube Corner! The best bakery in all of Ponyville, and incidentally Pinkie Pie's home and workplace."
Wait, the Pink Monster lives here? Retreat! Retreat!
But it smells so sweet...

Twilight went ahead and opened the door for us, leading to a black abyss of sensory overload, seeing as the light inside was turned off. Choosing to follow our nose and stomach over Verso's general bad feeling. The sad thing being that the shop's darkness was made it really hard to see. At least until the door closed behind us and a huge 'SURPRISE!' was shouted from all around us.

Verso panicked and forced his way to the front, activating his sensory field immediately, just as the lights turned on and revealed Pinkie Pie and all of Twilight's friends around us with big smiles, as well as Lyra, Bonbon and a bunch of other ponies, half of which wore curious expressions on their face rather than particularly joyful ones.

Pinkie Pie bounced right in front of us with a smile that looked slightly too large for her face.

"Do you like it? It's your very own 'Welcome to Ponyville, Equestria and Outside of a Mountain' surprise party!"
"You nearly gave me a heart attack, you psycho," Verso grumpily answered.
"Great! It means you were really surprised!" she chirped, oblivious to Verso's anger. "Now, why don't you go around and talk with everypony? I'm sure you two will be making friends in no time! I'll go and get the cake!"
"By the heavens, how I hate her..." Verso muttered for ourselves when she was out of earing distance.
What? Why? She's so nice! And she even threw a party just for us! Isn't that great?
You know I despise parties. I'll just let y ou on the front and... he started, stopping mid-sentence to stare at Lyra, who took that stare as an invitation to come have a chat with us.
Is there a problem? I asked. Or maybe you want actually want to be at a party for once! I gasped.
There's a problem... Something is off...
What do you mean?
"Hey there!" Lyra said. "Are you currently Recto or Verso?"
"Verso..." he answered blankly, before he started to walk around her, inspecting her appearance with a curious look.
"What are you doing?" Lyra asked, tilting her head.
"Just checking something... Hey, Twilight!" he called, interrupting a discussion she was having with Rainbow Dash.
"What is it?" purple pony princess asked when she arrived.
"You told me there were only three races of ponies, four if you take alicorns into acount, right?" he asked without moving our eyes out of Lyra, who looked somewhat curious with just a hint of worry.
"Yes, why?"

He didn't answer right away, instead choosing to turn off and on again our sensory field, which made him frown again.

"You can do magic too? That's just so amazing!" Lyra said, as she started to sweat a bit under Verso's constant stare and put on a smile even I could tell was fake. "What does this spell do?"
"That's your sensory field, isn't it?" Twilight asked, making Lyra pale heavily all of a sudden.
"Yes, it is..." Verso said slowly, still scrutinizing Lyra. He then suddenly turned our head and looked across the crowd while I felt he was concerned by something. "Are you sure there isn't any other race of ponies? Even a small difference?"
"Not that I can think of," Twilight answered, visibly getting more and more curious with Verso's question. "Why are you asking me that now?"
"Well, I'll be going out, hehe..." Lyra said with a nervous laugh.
"Stay here," Verso ordered, stopping Lyra in her tracks. "Twilight, what I'm going to ask is really, really important. Answer it as quietly as you can, but I must know."
"Why would..."
"It may be more important for you than it is for me, so please, roll with me here," he interrupted her, still visually picking some ponies out of the crowd. "Is there anything that looks like a pony, but isn't?"
"Well, not really," Twilight answered, and I heard Lyra letting out a breath she was holding. "Of course, changelings can..."
"What do they look like?" he rudely interrupted her.
"Kinda like bug-ponies, but they can change their appearance, so..."

Verso magically closed her mouth and looked intensely into her eyes. I heard Lyra gasping and trotting on her spot, visibly really anxious.

"Answer with a nod for yes and shake your head to say no. No words." Twilight stared blankly at him and nodded. "Are they dangerous?"

Twilight nodded and Verso tensed up. He glared in Lyra's direction, who was completely livid, fear all over her face. He hesitated for a moment and finally let Twilight go.

"Thank you for your cooperation, Princess Twilight Sparkle. You can go back to whatever it is you were doing. Have a nice party."
"What? That's it?! You had me worried here for a moment!"
"I'm sorry. I'll make it up to you," he said, still staring holes into Lyra's livid head.

Twilight walked away fulminating, leaving us relatively alone with a Lyra that looked like she was about to wet herself. Verso stayed silent for a moment, thinking deeply. He then walked up to the terrified unicorn, glaring down at her.

"I think we need a isolated place to talk, you and I."
"Well, I..."
"If you even try to escape, or to pass a message to anyone, I'll instantly crush your skull like an over-sized egg, is that clear?"

She gulped and nodded, walking toward a nearby door..

Why are you scaring her? I know you didn't like her jokes, but...
Oh believe me, it's not about the jokes... It seems that our pony hosts are currently having a bug infestation.

Author's Note

And here's another one! I must admit, I was kinda looking forward to finally arrive to that moment. Finally, some action is on the horizon!
In the next chapter: mind-crushingly bad puns, more bugs and... is that a Queen I see?
As always, I look forward to see your comments guys.
See you all soon!