The new neighbor

Fifteen, maybe twenty minutes; that's about how long the walk to Ponyville was gonna take. So, to make it pass a little faster, and to satisfy my own curiosity, I asked Fluttershy a few questions about this place. And since she looked like she wanted to ask some herself, but seemed kinda reluctant to do so, I offered to go one-for-one with her.

Safe to say, I REALLY doubted I was still on Earth...

According to her, I was now in a realm called Equestria...appropriate in a way, given the populous. Though, from what she said-didn't quite catch all of it-there were other races like griffons, minotaurs, even freakin' HYDRAS!

Again, I geeked out a little. I admit, I have a fondness for fantasy stuff: Dragonlance, Song of Ice and Fire, Lord of the Rings; even joined up with the campus' games club play a one-shot session or two of Warhammer Fantasy on occasion. So, yes, I found that cool as hell.

Her-surprisingly happy-remark of "So that's what you look like!" when I said I was a human made sense after she told me about this Twilight Sparkle chasing a thief. Somehow they had gone through a portal of some sort that sent them into a world with human versions of them.

Slightly outlandish, maybe. Though, being in a world of humanoid ponies can make a quick believer.

As for ponies, I learned they more or less had three...I guess, versions: Earth Ponies, your standard type, for lack of a better term. They were the ones with a knack for growing things and were the primary food producers, which explained the size of that farm.

Next were the Pegasuses, or Pegasi, which Fluttershy happened to be one of. Their job, at first just seemed too out there to be really believable. I mean, physically manipulating the weather??

Well, that skepticism lasted until she pointed out above the town, saying "There's a couple of them. I think their prepping for the rain tonight."

I followed her finger, and sure enough, two...I couldn't fully make them out, but there were two other Pegasi flying up there, and moving the clouds! And I don't mean using their wings to blow them around; they had a hold of a cloud each and were friggin' PUSHING them like wagons! Damn near slapped myself again to be sure I was all there!

Then there were the Unicorns, who were basically the local magic-users. A bit of me was still skeptic at that, but after seeing what I had just saw, that bit got bitch-slapped back into its hole pretty fast. Most of them seemed to focus somewhat on scientific studies and research

Others, along with some of the Pegasi and Earth Ponies, pretty much seemed to prefer various other professions that they felt suited them better.

The whole place apparently was a Monarchy of sorts, given that Fluttershy had said that the two princesses Celestia and Luna were in that Canterlot place, and they were basically in charge.

Judging from the state of it all, they weren't doing too bad a job at that.

Speaking of the weather, it was pretty nice outside and even though it was just a lab coat, it felt kind of silly to still keep it on. So, I took it off and draped it over my shoulder, at least until I could get it washed. It was also then that I saw Fluttershy looking at me out of the corner of my eye. She seemed to be a little curious about something.

"What's up?" I asked.

"Um..uh...W-what was your name again..?" She blushed, in embarrassment if her tone was any indication.

Couldn't really blame her, what with the slightly stressful circumstances the two of us met under. So, after fighting back the urge to flat out hug her (Seriously, why does she have to look so damn cute doing that? For that matter, HOW does she do it?? If her fellow ponies are anything similar, I'm in a LOTTA trouble...), "It's Spike. Spike Dracson."

"Oh! I've never met another Spike before." She said, perking up a bit. I guess with names like 'Celestia', 'Luna', and 'Shining Armor', finding someone else with the same name is uncommon enough to warrant that comment.

I just grinned and shrugged a little, "My parents used to joke that they really wanted a dog. So...is that what you were wanting to ask?"

"Hm? Oh! Oh, I-I didn't mean to pry, but...um, I couldn't help but wonder what your Cutie Mark meant."

'Cutie Mark'?? What the heck was THAT? "My..my what?"

She pointed to the Linken Park logo I had on my shirt, "Your Cutie Mark." She tilted her head slightly as she examined it.

That's when it dawned on me. "Oh, no, heh. This is just the logo of a band I like. Don't even know what a 'Cutie Mark' is."

Her head tilted to the side in confusion (AGAIN with the cute! I swear I almost HNNG-ed this time!), "It's what ponies get when we discover the skill we're really good at." She turned her hip a little to show me the butterflies on her skirt, "Like mine shows my connection with animals and how much I love caring for them."

"So, you're kind of like a veterinarian?" I asked. After seeing the chupacabra with its head bandaged, that makes sense.

"Mm-hm." She nodded.

"That's cool. However, humans don't get Cutie Marks."

It might've been the wrong thing to say, 'cause as soon as I did, she took on an expression that was either worry or alarm, "But...but how do you know when you've found your special talent?"

"Well, we usually decide what we want and work on getting good at it. On occasion we'll get luck and find something we have a natural knack for."

"Ohh." She said, "But still...no Cutie Mark?"

I shook my head, "'Fraid not."

The next few seconds were a slightly awkward silence; I think mainly because we kinda ran out of stuff to use as smalltalk at the moment. Thankfully we'd already reached the outer buildings of the town so it wasn't that big a deal. The streets were rather empty at the moment-guessed it was like that this time of day.

It was also the moment my stomach decided to protest my neglect of it again. "Yeah..." I grinned sheepishly, "I guess I better take care of this soon."

"Oh! Yes, Sugar Cube Corner is this way." She turned and started down one of the wider streets towards a brownish two-story no far off, "I'm sure the Cakes..."

Unfortunately, I didn't get to hear the rest of her sentence. I was about to follow when she was cut off by a loud cry from up above us.

"FLUTTERSHY! LOOK OUT!"

Two seconds later, I was promptly taken off my feet by something flat, quite solid, and very, VERY fast meeting the side of my face.

Think it was blue as well...