Being Normal in Equestria

When Guy awoke, the sun was just beginning to rise. He was surprised at how fresh he was feeling that day. Looking around, he noticed that Zecora had gone. He figured he might as well follow her advice and return to Ponyville to talk to the mayor. If he was going to be stuck here, he might as well find a place to stay or a job of some kind. What kind of jobs do ponies even do? Guy got up on his hooves and made his way outside. As he exited the hut, he frustratingly grabbed the handle with his hooves and tried to close it, but the door kept being uncooperative. At that point, he remembered that he could levitate things with his horn, so he focused on the door and attempted to shut it, causing the hinges to creek as the whole door glowed green and flexed. Guy then decided to instead focus on just the handle and pulled the door shut carefully.

Sighing, Guy started to head back to Ponyville. Along his walk, the soothing rustling of the trees kept him company as he thought about the average things he would love to do. He imagined with a smile his time back in the human world, where he could spend hours of his day standing in his company-standard apron, enjoying the consistent beeping of the scanner machine as he passed items over it and rang up a customer’s total.

As Guy left the forest, the shift in brightness was significant. His eyes took a bit to adjust, but as they did, he found himself seeing Ponyville nearby once more, in all its colorful presence. It occurred to him as he approached the edge of the town that he didn’t know where he would find the mayor. Did Ponyville have a town hall? As he thought of it, he spied upon a three-story tower at the center of the town. It looked like a town hall if he had ever seen one. As he approached it, he was suddenly interrupted by the loud pink pony, Pinkie Pie.

“Hey there, Colt! I didn’t see you at my party last night, but that’s ok! I’m throwing another one tonight, so I hope I see you there!”

“Thanks, Pinkie. I’ll… definitely have to check it out.” Guy felt unsure about it, considering he wasn’t much for parties. He was much happier staying at home having a moderate amount of fun.

“Ok then, see ya!” Pinkie said as she bounced away with a cheerful smile on her face. Guy couldn’t help but smile just a bit in response to her unbridled joy. He quickly remembered his task though, as he had to find out what he was going to do in this town. After all, he was essentially homeless with no training in anything pony.

Stepping up to the doors of the tower-like building, he pushed open a door with his hoof and stepped inside. He was greeted by a fairly standard-looking main room with a secretary sitting behind a desk filled with papers and a lamp. The secretary looked up from her book through her half-moon glasses and said,

“Can I help you?”

“Um, yes, I was told I could speak with the mayor about finding a place to stay in Ponyville? I’m new here.” Guy really hoped that this was the proper way to do this.

“The mayor is currently seeing somepony, so if you would wait over there, you can see her soon.” The secretary pointed toward a cushioned couch on the wall and went back to reading her book.

Guy approached the couch and considered that he wasn’t completely sure how to sit on chairs here. He tried sitting like he was used to, with his legs hanging from the front, but he felt it compromised his modesty, so he switched to sitting more like a cat. That seemed to work for him. It was during this time that Guy really got a good look at himself. It occurred to him that he hadn’t even noted the color of his own mane. From what he could tell, he was a kind of light tan coat, and had a white mane with a gray stripe through it. The neutrality of the color made Guy happy.

After a while of waiting, a couple of ponies walked down from the spiral stairs leading upstairs and went out the front doors. Guy noticed for the first time that every pony seemed to have a different marking on their hind legs. These two had an open scroll and a set of three stars, respectively.

“Mayor Mare will see you now,” the secretary said as she went back to looking at her book.

“Thanks,” Guy said as he went up the stairs he saw the ponies come down from. As he reached the second floor, he saw an open set of doors to his left that seemed to lead to an office. Walking inside he was greeted by a pony behind a desk with a slightly darker coat than his own and a grayer mane. She had a pencil in her mouth as she worked on some sort of paperwork, and when she glanced up, she set down the pencil,

“Hello there, and what can I do for you?”

“Hi, I’m Guy Colt, and I’m new to Ponyville. I was told by Zecora that you might be able to help me find a place to live?” Guy fidgeted as he talked. He was so worried that there wouldn’t be anything.

“Zecora, huh? As a matter of fact, I was just talking yesterday with the owner of the Quills and Sofas shop. He’s looking for somepony to move into a spare room of his. Since he’s also looking for someone to work with him, and you look like a healthy young unicorn, you look like you could manage that. What do you say?” The mayor looked very happy to potentially have something on her list of things checked off.

“Oh, wow, absolutely,” Guy said, as he imagined the possibilities of living a normal life at a shop, selling quills and sofas!

“Excellent! Here, take this letter of recommendation and he’ll know I okayed it,” the mayor said as she used her mouth to write a note on a piece of paper. She handed it over with her hoof, and Guy used his horn to levitate it toward himself.

“Thanks a bunch!” Guy said enthusiastically, but the mayor was back to her work already.