Magical Mission: Portal to a New Home

Chapters

Chapter 1: Science (Non)-Fiction
Chapter 2: First Contact
Chapter 3: Welcome to Our World
Chapter 4: Twilight the Expert
Chapter 5: The Boutique and the Party
Chapter 6: Catching Up with Myself
Chapter 8: There You Go
Chapter 9: Compilation of Coming Through
Chapter 10: Those Hands
Chapter 11: Split Pathway
BONUS: Chapter 2 from Applejack's Perspective
Chapter 7: Small Talk That's Actually Big

Chapter 1: Science (Non)-Fiction

Author's Note

It's finally here! After a record-long period of 23 days without me finishing a single chapter, what is so far my most ambitious and difficult story is out!

Chapter 1: Science (Non)-Fiction

There's a bit of an environment here.

An environment that, upon first glance, looks as ordinary as ordinary can be. Possibly even boring. But at second glance, it's an environment that's the beginning of a massive, life-changing story.

Up on the second floor of a suburban townhouse, in a small, light-tan-colored room holding only a few basic things within its borders, is me. An Earth human, who is, as it turns out, trying to leave Earth.

Where I'm trying to get to? Equestria.

I had been a fan of the show "My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic" for quite a long time now. By this point, the show had glued itself to the top of my favorite shows lists, and looked impenetrable at that spot. In my mind, there was simply no other show that could ever live up to MLP: FiM. The characters of that show, the activities the characters did in it, the dialogue, the storylines, all of those had individually taken their #1 spots. Now that's some power.

And that power, on this day, June 11, 2016, has gotten extra powerful. Right now, my passion for this show was so red-hot that I felt an equally red-hot desire to go to its setting. To be in Equestria, with all of those wonderful ponies. To be with them. Talk to them. Explore Equestria. Go to the places in it. Make friends! I had just been watching the show right before this current point in time, and while I had been wanting to go to the ponies' land for a while, the urge never felt as strong as it did now. At this moment, I so badly want to go to Equestria. I want it so much.

But basic reality, it seems, blocks the way. Because that's utterly impossible. The show isn't real. It's just a cartoon.

Or is it?

The thing is, science is weird. It has always surprised us, and will continue to do so. Plenty of things that we previously thought weren't possible ended up being. With this in my mind, I am now wondering if that principle could apply in this situation. I want to look deeply at the science, and hope, that it might, just might, be possible that all these supposed "cartoons" we watch are actually real.

With my urge to go to Equestria rising on the heat scale, I make a commitment to fully studying this. I decide to commit to long days at my desk fully dedicated to this one topic. I then quickly put everything else on delay, not wanting it to get in the way of my adventure to fulfill my biggest dream. All the other activities that I had going on or planned had to be put on hold. I love those other activities and want to go back to them eventually, but there's nothing I want to do more in this present moment than go to Equestria. I want to fully go for it right now on studying this science to hopefully find out that my dream can come true.

I begin in just a few minutes. Situated in my trusty work station, I fire on my electronic friend, my laptop, and dig in to all the possible science that could lead me to my destination.

A while into my project, it begins to seem that this "long period of continuous work" that I had expected and scheduled just probably one hour ago might not come to fruition in that way. I realize that I had stormed ahead of schedule by a mile, uncovering probably enough information that I can start my new-world trip today!

It felt absolutely insane. Before I started working, when I was mapping the schedule out in my head, I thought it stood to reason that it would take me at least a week to get to Equestria. I had expected that June 11, today, would be the day I just made some progress. Not really uncovering anything big until June 12. Then I'd spend June 13 and 14 learning how to spawn a portal, June 15, 16, and 17 working on it, June 18 would be the "last loose ends" day, and my Equestrian adventure would begin on June 19.

Yet here I am, with, from what I can tell, everything that I need and it's still June 11.

Here is what I figured out: This whole thing begins with sheer existence, no matter in what form. If cartoons are real enough to be displayed on our screens, well, then they have to be made of something. Ones and zeros, is that it? Yes. But now get this:

There are probably other universes. Why? Well, it's basically to do with the fact that space and time stretches out infinitely and continues to stretch further. As this occurs, things begin repeating, as there are a finite number of ways that particles can be arranged, and in addition, the inflation isn't consistent. Some spaces inflate more slowly than others, or not at all, giving rise to universes that are more different than simple repeats.

So that means it eventually has to get to the point where these shows do exist. Because the alternates just keep multiplying. There's no stoppage. And then there's the fact that other universes have different laws of physics and fundamentals than this one. It's more than just alternates and parallels. That would allow for these characters to exist.

Which leads to this: if there are alternate universes, and these shows are able to be displayed to us with our technology, then there has to be be a connection. If the alternate universes are infinite, then that means infinite possibilities. There's nothing that could never, ever exist.

And then, since we on Earth can view these shows, there has to be some way for us to access its location.

So we've got that! Equestria and its inhabitants have to exist! The science says it!

I pace around my room in excitement and disbelief, unable to comprehend what I am doing and what I am about to do. My brain can't register it. I'm actually going to get to meet the ponies? What?

But then, I quickly stop pacing as I remember that there's another phase to get through here. I know Equestria exists, but now I need to know to get there.

Powered by my enthusiasm at the propsect of going, I swiftly sit back down on my orange chair and get to work on how to spawn that portal.

After about two hours, I uncover that in order to get to Equestria, I must find a way to trace the binary code, that myriad of ones and zeros, displaying the land on my screen back to its point of origin, wherever in the multiverse it is, and get it to use the physical force that will allow for a pathway.

Luckily, this is also fool-proof. Because the exact same binary code can never repeat twice. One slide on the screen has its code, and that's it.

But wait. The code is hidden inside the computer! You can't see it or get to it, can you? Well, we thought you couldn't, but once again, science has surprised us!

Extracting those kinds of codes was something I had already been engaging with, inside my online science group. We had been specializing in doing some nifty software experiments involving this very practice. So that's covered!

I reach into one of the storage compartments in my desk, take out the code extraction box, and plug it into my laptop, sucking it from the computer into a small, usable space. The process is complete, and now, I have the code right here in my hand, sitting in an SD card.

Now, the way to spawn a portal is to connect the code to its origin point. When the code feels that connection, it is unable to resist attaching itself, and since the code cannot escape from the SD card, it will cause a rip in the fabric of space and time, providing a pathway to the code's destination that anything, anybody, can go through.

The way to get this to happen is to expose the SD card to a bit of sunlight. The light of the sun will travel infinitely through the multiverse, eventually finding its way to the code's origin point. The code will see its origin point through the light, and will not be able to resist.

But wait a minute! Even only this universe is so unfathomably huge that it takes light over four years just to get to the nearest star to the Sun. Now how long would it take to reach this alternate universe?

Actually, there is a way around this that will occur on its own, even. The code will feed off of multiple light sources at once, and there are an immense number of them besides the Sun. Like the alternate universes, the light just keeps multiplying. As so many new light sources come in every single second, covering more and more space incredibly fast, the card will find its way to its origin point in quite a short time.

With only one more thing to do to get the pathway to my dream to appear, I'm sure feeling it. Taking a deep breath to try and calm my shaking body, I slide open my bedroom window and let the card have it.

It takes about an hour, but eventually, the SD card containing the code for a shot of Equestria sees the light it's looking for.

With an enormous amount of energy brewing inside of it, the card shakes.

It shakes and shakes.

Then it summons itself over to the area of my room between my desk and the door, and explodes into a purple portal.

There it is. The gateway to my dream land.

I just can't believe it. Not only was this really real, but I had done it all in one afternoon. I started at about 12:30 (PM, to be exact); it is now 16:30, (a.k.a 4:30 PM) and I'm about to go to the place where my favorite characters that I've been dying to meet are located. A mere four hours of work to achieve my grand desire. Not bad, if I do say do.

But before I jump in, there's a few loose ends I need to tie up.

And I am able to do so. I know from the science that the portal will not go away until something enters it.

The first thing I do in these final moments on my native planet is write a letter to my family, so that they don't get worried sick when I mysteriously disappear. Well, they probably still will anyway, given that this whole thing definitely doesn't sound believable at all. But I still want to do it, because I'd feel better.

I pick up the pen and drag it across the white paper.

Dear Family,
I know you won't believe this, but I'll still write it anyway.

If you are reading this, it means that I have whisked myself away to a magical land that seems like the computer-generated setting of a fictional cartoon show, but through science, I was able to figure out that it was real and find a way to travel to it, which I have done. I have gone to meet my TV heroes.

Again, I know with almost complete certainty that you don't believe this. But still, please don't file a missing person report or anything like that. It is 100% true what I am doing, and I will provide photographic evidence as soon as I can.

See you whenever I am able to come back.

- Your Son and Brother

I lay the letter down on my desk for them to see, and then step over to my bedroom door to make sure the door it is unlocked. They need to be able to get to the letter in the first place.

I also remember to send the message out to my online coworkers, who, outside of the ones in the science group, likely weren't going to believe it either, but I wasn't going to read the replies, so it's whatever. I also double-check that my job is secured and won't be affected by this, which it won't be. I'm in a very fortunate position here where the job I work is completely voluntary. The only thing you'll lose by not doing any work is the pay. That was no matter to me right now because I was essentially going to be starting all over in Equestria. And I knew from experience that my science group could get along just fine without me. So it's all good.

After hitting enter on that last letter to my virtual workplace chat room, I try to think of anything else I need to do, and find nothing.

Guess it's time to go, then.

I close my black laptop for the last time in likely a while, and say goodbye to it.

Now standing up, I am still stalling, because I want to take the time to give my bedroom a goodbye as well, even though it's not a permanent goodbye. If I can get to Equestria, there's no reason to believe I can't get back. But even for temporary leaves, I still like to say my farewells, especially in this case. I love my room, a lot. It's where I spend most of my day. It's my home within a home. It won't feel very comforting to not be here.

But discomfort will be a natural product of my journey, as I'm going to a brand new world with a completely different species filling the "human role", as we call it on Earth. It won't be just a room thing. So I'd better be ready for that.

Oh, and not to mention that going into a portal was scary, even though I had all the science. There was really no way this could fail or cause any kind of tragedy, but it is an intimidating look, having a swirling hole in the fabric of space and time right in front of you and waiting for you to go into it.

After a few fake "last looks" where I ended up doing it again, I do what I must do, and take what really is my final look at my bedroom for now. Saying my goodbyes and looking straight into the portal, I shift my mind over to Equestria and how much I want to be there. I use that technique to push myself past my comfort zone, and leap into the portal.

Inside the portal, I find myself in an area that is shaped like a tube. The tube shares the color of the portal, purple, and in front of me is a round black abyss. Around me is a bunch of white sparkles and lines whizzing by as I make this inter-dimensional travel.

My speed continuously picks up inside this fantasy-looking place. Making my way to Equestria, I fly faster and faster, faster and faster, until I take a direct hit from a sudden, large flash of white light, after which everything goes completely dark.

Chapter 2: First Contact

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 3: Welcome to Our World

I did end up falling asleep eventually... sort of. I probably wasn't asleep for very long, so a shot of caffeine would sure be of some assistance. Hopefully it exists on this world. But at least I fell into deep sleep at all. After hours of failed attempts to turn dreary-eyed exhaustion into full rest, I had convinced myself I would never make it. So I did get something.

As I wake up from that long-awaited slumber and emerge into the sunlight of Day 2, I feel quite a bit more collected than I did last night. There were still plenty of things my mind could race on about, nothing had really been solved, but I sit up in my red guest room feeling ready to take everything on. I'm not being overrun by worries that keep piling on top of each other. No longer.

I've got this. Just take it one step at a time, and remember to reap the benefits of being here. You wanted to be here. And all the problems will be solved eventually. This will pass.

One day at a time. June 11 is behind you, now it's time for June 12.

Yes, things are looking better today. But before I dive into the second part of my Equestrian adventure, it's time for some morning food. I'm not a person who can not eat breakfast.

Remembering what to use to determine if it's ready, I look outside my window. The first thing I notice is not whether the barn lights are on, but rather that Applejack is already out there doing chores. This is somewhat odd to me; I do know that it's her habit to wake up at the crack of dawn, but it's not like I got up really any later. I was a dawn-riser myself, so I figured she would at least still be having breakfast. Maybe I got up later than my usual?

I look over at the clock and it's 7:14. Yeah, that's about an hour late for me. Although it does make sense, given how long it took for me to fall asleep.

I was a bit bummed that I wouldn't have my closest contact with me at breakfast, but hey, I've had a good time talking to the other Apples as well. I set off from my guest house into the morning Sweet Apple Acres that is currently covered by a sunrise orange glow. Looks like Princess Celestia did prefer to raise the sun gradually. That's something I had forgotten about since coming here; it seems from the show that Equestria goes straight from pitch black to sky blue. But I guess that's not the case anymore.

I don't have to walk for long before I can smell the breakfast aromas coming out from the main barn. Well good, they've got it going already.

I enter the barn, where all three of the other Apples are still there and are excited to have me for their first morning with the new human. Applebloom begins the interactions of my second day on this world.

"Good morning, P4! Did you sleep well?"

Goodness, she's so happy to be with me that it really sucks to tell her the truth here.

"Sadly, no, I didn't sleep well.", I say. "It took me forever to completely fall asleep, and it probably didn't happen until close to the end of the night. Do you have coffee in Equestria?"

"We sure do!", Granny Smith says, walking over to a blender. "Tiredness needs a quick fix the same way it does on your world; ponies sure do love their coffee!"

"Oh, thank goodness. Thank you, Granny Smith, you can go ahead and start the blend. I'm ready for it at any time."

She graciously does so.

"In the meantime", I say, directed at Applebloom, "What do we have in the Apple family breakfast?"

"Oh, loads of things!", she says, hopping over to the table that is already completely full. "From apple strudels to apple fritters, apple cereal, we have multiple choices for you, just like at dinnertime!"

Oh wow, they have cereal too? That's another thing I won't have to give up! I've always been a huge cereal eater; it was always my go-to breakfast despite the multitude of other options that I do enjoy. I have nothing against waffles, pancakes, etc., but cereal was my thing. Naturally, it's what I rush over to as my starter this morning.

No surprise, it had apples. This cereal that the Apple family made themselves was basically granola cereal with a natural apple-flavored coating, and apple bits in between. Quite tasty, if I do say so.

"I think I'm going to get addicted to Sweet Apple Acres food.", I say as I dig my spoon into the cereal at a fast pace.

The others giggle. Wouldn't be a surprise if I'm not the only one who has said that.

I wanted to gorge on 4+ bowls of that stuff, in fact, that was the usual for me, but today, I decide to branch out to other foods, seeing as how there were so many of them. The rest of my debut breakfast in this new world consisted of mostly apple strudels and other similar foods, i.e. foods that seem more like dessert than breakfast. But I was used to that coming from Earth. It's not like I didn't eat chocolate cereal in the morning...

After breakfast ends, I, fueled by the hearty Sweet Apple Acres food and luckily-obtained coffee, set out with no fatigue into the farm's green grass field, which now has a blue sky above it, to go back to my guest barn and get ready for the big day that was today; the events of Sunday, June 12. Applejack told me yesterday that this would be the day I'd go into the rest of Ponyville to meet other ponies, including the rest of the Mane Six. So now it's time for me to get dress...

Wait a minute.

I stop in my tracks.

Um... I have only one set of clothes, don't I?

Yep, I do. As I was talking about yesterday, I couldn't take anything with me on the portal ride. The science was what it was; it just couldn't handle more than one thing. So I was left with only these clothes that I had been wearing continuously for nearly 24 hours now.

Yet somehow I fell asleep last night, still with my regular clothes on? Huh, I guess I had occupied my mind so much with that anxiety that I completely forgot about pajamas. Still really weird, though; I was someone who was highly picky about that. Forgetting my pajamas on a vacation, for example, would easily get me a bit heated.

And now, not only have I become aware of that, possibly making it so that I'll feel uncomfortable in bed tonight, but I also can't change into new clothes at all, for anything. I do feel quite a bit dirty in these; after all, I got dressed every day back on Earth, even if I wasn't going anywhere. It just felt better to me. I felt clean when I did it.

It's also at this same moment that I realize... how am I going to get clothes? There aren't other humans here... yeah, sure, Rarity could help, but... how do I explain to ponies why us humans even feel the need to wear clothes all the time? How can I possibly explain that without getting, uh... graphic?

Oh boy. As if I didn't already have enough things to worry about...

Not to mention that I was feeling great just a few minutes ago! It's really crazy how a few random realizations can completely turn your mood around...

But I can't let it keep going. I push myself out of that spiraling train of thought and try to rationalize how I should handle this situation. I tell myself to follow my own advice of taking it one step at a time.

Maybe I should go talk to Applejack. She might be able to help.

Having gained some rational thought, I decide to brave the embarrassment and go do that, veering off from the path to the guest barn over to where I had spotted my first-contact pony when I first walked out here earlier. I correctly guessed that she was still stationed there.

"Hey Applejack.", I say, walking up into the tree area. "Um, I just wanted to let you know that I don't have any way of changing into new clothes. As to why I wear clothes all the time... well, that's something to be talked about later, but I'll just put it out there now that I'm stuck in dirty clothes.", I say nervously.

"Well, ah've got Rarity as a friend, ya know!", Applejack responds. "She can help!"

Okay, so she was thankfully holding off on questioning the clothes thing, even though she did seem confused, being a creature who doesn't usually bother with them.

I respond. "Yeah, I do know about her, but... the awkward part. I even feel awkward saying this. I know I can't delay it forever, I'm going to need new clothes, but I'm going to get embarrassed.", I say while facing barrage of thoughts on what could happen at the boutique.

It's almost like Applejack already knows me well on our 2nd day of knowing each other. She continues the routine she had been very effectively using ever since my first few minutes here in Equestria, walking closer to me and trying her best, using a soothing voice tone, to avenge my embarrassment. I kneel down to her level and get in the listening zone.

"Like ah was doin' yesterday, ah'm gonna help in any way ah can for you to feel comfortable.", Applejack says.

"Rarity is the same way; ah'm sure she'll help you as best as she can. You will get clothes just fine."

"But, for now, let's take it one step at a time. We've gotta get you in Ponyville and acquainted with the locals first!", she says, attempting to get me back on schedule.

Right. One step at a time, like I was telling myself earlier. And yes, remember what comes first.

"That's right; we do. We should worry about things in order.", I say, standing back up and regaining my normal voice tone. "When will you be ready?"

"Should be 'bout half an hour or so. Ah'll meet ya in the guest barn."

"Good.", I say, hoof-bumping her.

Applejack was right. Since Rarity's boutique was in the main area of Ponyville, not far away in the outskirts like Sweet Apple Acres was, clothing was something that couldn't be figured out until I made my presence known to the crowd. You can't get to an area inside town without crossing into town first, where you'll definitely be seen, especially if you're a big stand-out like me.

Which, of course, was another thing to do. No, I don't believe for a second that I'll be given a hard time, after all, the thing about us being in the ponies' folklore and such. They know about us. But it's still scary, to be a brand new species that's thought to be a myth and walk into a place full of the locals who have been told you are a myth. It wasn't like yesterday, where I was introducing myself to a mere four ponies, one at a time.

Furthermore, how would Lyra react?

Looks like I was in for a long day with an outcome that can't be predicted, if I'm going to be honest. I'll just have to go in and see how everything turns out.

After finally finishing that walk where I was going slowly to collect those thoughts, I return to my guest barn, where the necessary morning things aren't completely lost! The Apple family had given me a toothbrush and toothpaste, and the pony versions of those things were really no different from the human versions. At least not different enough that I'd have trouble using them. Plus, the toothpaste is probably better than what I had on Earth anyway; Equestria seems like a place that prides itself on using natural ingredients.

As for bathing, the shower looked good too. I didn't need a shower right now, but it looked very much like what I was used to. The showerhead wasn't super low or anything. Makes sense, given that the stallions are nearly as tall as I am. The sink was at a pretty good height too, for the same reason. This was a good-looking bathroom as well, being coated in white.

So at least it was mostly covered. Putting on new clothes was the only one I was missing... for now. It wouldn't be an easy process, for sure, but I'd get it figured out.

It isn't worth wearing the same dirty clothes day after day just to save a little embarassment. You have to go to Rarity's boutique, and you'll get through it.

Just trying to keep myself in check.

After the end of the morning getting-ready routine, I make my way outside the front doors of the guest barn, where Applejack is standing right behind them, ready and waiting for me.

"Alright, P4. We're goin' into Ponyville, so ya can introduce yourself to our home. Ah know it's a long way, so we'll take a carriage."

Hmm, so this was interesting. A carriage, she said?

Yep, that's one difference I'll need to adjust to here in Equestria. I seriously doubt that cars exist here, as I've never seen any evidence of them from the show. Same with airplanes and buses. The most advanced Equestrian transportation I knew of was what Applejack mentioned: pony-pulled carriages.

Although, they have pegasi here. I was probably too heavy, but for the winged ponies themselves, they had transportation far more advanced than what we humans have! Interesting comparisons here.

Of course, Applejack and I would need to take the carriage, but hey, at least it's something. I won't have to walk everywhere, thank goodness. My legs won't be chronically upset with me.

We walk over to the nearest place to Sweet Apple Acres that carriages stop at. I knew from the show that they operated more like taxis in the main city areas, so looks like we've got a double here. You could either wave or wait.

The carriage arrives and the two of us hop on. I must say; it's already shaping up to be a nice ride. The carriage did have some covering, and hopefully there was a way to cover it more when rain arrives, but the overall open-air nature gave me more exposure to the fresh Equestrian air that I can only bet was far less polluted than what I breathed on Earth.

We're a long way out from central Ponyville, so I get a decent amount of time to think during the trip about how I'll approach and talk to the large number of ponies I'm almost certain to see. In fact, probably a larger number than usual; today is Sunday, so they probably weren't at work.

For the most obvious situation, I do remember how I had done it with Applebloom. Playing along with her excitement did seem to help. Maybe I should do that for Lyra too, if that is how she reacts?

Yeah, I think that's the route I'll go.

Now what about other scenarios? Because surely not everypony will react the same way. Is it still necessary for me to explain myself? Should I say that I'm not here to hurt them?

Well, mentioning that I love their show should definitely work; why wouldn't it? They'd have to no reason to be scared of someone who came here for that reason.

So I do think I should do that, but maybe it isn't necessary to explicity say "I'm not here to cause harm" or anything like that. The preceding sentence should be enough to confirm that.

A lot of things could happen, and I could easily be unprepared, but my overall plan is to just act like myself, talk to the ponies nicely, mention my love for the show, and overall, just do what I did with the Apples! I see no reason to change that approach at all. Furthermore, I had made the decisions quickly. We were probably still in the early portion of the ride. So that should be even more evidence for me to keep doing what I've been doing.

Applejack and I arrive at the tree and river area of Ponyville which borders the pink bridge crossing into downtown; somewhere I recognized. We direct the carriage puller to drop us off here, which he does so. After which, Applejack pays the bits.

It's time.

Whatever the other parts of the ponies' reactions, I was definitely going to get gawked at... a lot. As if I were a zoo animal. But hey, you can't really blame them, can you? I mean, not only have they never seen my species before in real life, but the ones among them who had read about us in books would probably be even more excited, given that they're having an exciting legend confirmed as true. So no, I'm not going to call them out on that or anything. I totally understand those reactions.

And that one particular pony we're all thinking of? Well, I just do the same thing I did with Applebloom. It worked that time!

Applejack notices my stalling in the open field as I collect these thoughts. She does give me a bit of time to do what I usually do in an uncertain situation, but we can't keep waiting forever. She calls out to me from the bridge leading into the Mane Six's hometown. "Come on P4; they're in for somethin'.", she says.

I oblige and follow her into the hub of the city, telling myself to just go for it. Fewer than ten steps in after the end of the pink bridge, I can already see ponies, some of whom already see me.

Remember what you did before. Remember the techniques you used that got the Apples trusting of you. You were polite and explained that you were here because you loved the ponies' show. That had to work; why would it not?

I do exactly this as I get closer to the first batch of ponies who have their eyes laid on me and my (in this world) unusual human form.

Look, they're not running away! They're giving you a chance to show you're safe to be around; don't blow it!

"Hey there.", I say to the ponies, smiling and making direct eye contact with their curious faces. "I'm here cause I already love you all. You've got that show, remember? It has tons of fans, me being one of them! Believe me, the thought of causing harm to any of you all disgusts me!"

The majority of them smile after I say this. They ended up believing that statement on the spot, and had to be happy that I had already crossed out the risk of me being a danger to them, and the prospect of a new friend!

"Well, good!", one mare says. "Welcome to Ponyville, mister human!"

"You do seem nice!", another one says. "Yeah, don't worry; you're not scary to us!"

Both these two ponies then go back to what they were doing, as do some others.

Alright! Things are going well!

It was quite packed here in Ponyville, probably because it was a weekend. As I went further along the path of FiM's main- focus city, with its signature-designed buildings, decorative gardens, and everything Ponyville-like all around me, the mixture of mares and stallions, some with fillies and colts, coated in every color you could think of, indeed had the mixture of reactions I was expecting. Some looked a bit scared, possibly from experience with changelings. Which I get, and try to remedy by using my trusty techniques. Being nice, calm, and telling them about my love for the show continued to do nothing but work wonders. After I displayed this, they saw no reason to see me as a threat.

And then there were the excited ones. I could hear one pony saying "A human? An actual, living human, for real? Weren't they just a myth?" That pony stayed where she was, but others sprinted right up to me, clearly excited to know what we were real. "Hey there!", one says, looking like a wagging-tailed dog. "I've always wanted to meet a human!"

So Lyra isn't the only one!

"You're lucky that I was able to come here!", I say, hoof-bumping this red-coated mare.

She appears satisfied with that little bit for now, as she then returned to her garden.

So despite all that excitement, she left. Come to think of it, nopony has followed me or asked any questions yet. So it looks like they're going to wait on all that and let me ease in, just like the Apples did! Goodness, these ponies were so awesome...

Applejack and I continue our human-reveal walk through town, where we eventually spot the pony we've all been waiting for.

"What are ya gonna do here?", Applejack asks me.

Hmm...

"Honestly, I can't really think of anything specific.", I say as we hide behind a building to stop and think this over. "I was thinking maybe I could surprise her, but... nah. I think that would be creepy. I don't think I'm really going to do anything, to be honest. Should the stereotypes be true, I'll just let her pounce on me. The ground is soft anyway."

"Uh... okay.", Applejack says, reluctantly letting me do that. She was probably concerned about potential injury, but I didn't see it that way. Even meeting a creature you've been after for so long, I think anypony would have enough discipline to not cause too big of an impact.

I do no further thinking on this. I emerge from the shadow of the building and slowly walk up to the minty-green mare and her friend, who are sitting on a bench in front of a fountain.

Was it necessary to go slowly, though?

I'm just putting things off here. Let's go.

Nah. I increase my speed to what it was before, and I become visible to the two BFF ponies.

Almost instantly, I hear a loud combo of gasp and squeal, the starting hallmark of this pony's expected reaction, although it was very short by virtue of how fast I got tackled to the ground. Well, at least I was right that it was soft.

"Hi! Oh my goodness, you wouldn't believe it. You would not believe how long I've been waiting for this life-changing moment! I finally have proof here! I'm not crazy!", she says, moving her face ever closer to me and consistently failing to stand still. Also breathing heavily and continuing to squeal.

Remembering what I did with Applebloom...

"Hello to you too!", I say, starting to sit up and not losing any of my voice tone. "Yes, that's awesome! You're having it confirmed! This should be exciting for you, Lyra! And yes, I know who you are! As for me, I'm Player 4, and I watch the show; that's why I'm here! In fact, what you're feeling right now is how I felt yesterday!"

This. This very fact has to be helping a lot. Yesterday; of course! When Applejack walked up to me, I didn't go crazy only because I successfully contained it, after trying very hard. That definitely wasn't a task everybody could accomplish. So no, I wasn't going to be bothered by Lyra's actions.

She is very clearly grateful for this, as she continues smiling. I doubt she would be doing so if I talked to her frustratingly.

Over to my left side, Lyra's friend Bon Bon was both pleased and displeased.

"Well, Player 4," she says, "I'm glad to hear you're cool with my friend; I appreciate your patience with her, but, please, Lyra. That's not how we behave..."

Lyra's mood does seem to turn in the other direction upon taking a careful listen to her friend here. She steps away from me with a sadder face.

"Sorry.", she says, sighing.

"It's alright", I tell her, reassuringly. "Sure, I don't want to be tackled to the ground, but like I said earlier, I experienced this too. Just like humans here on this world, you ponies are thought to be a myth on my world! So when I discovered the truth and found my way here, believe me, I felt the same thing you did. But if you still feel bad, apology accepted."

I turn over to her friend. "So Bon Bon, you don't need to be upset. I understand good behavior and all, you definitely don't want ponies doing that, but I'm cutting Lyra a lot of slack. I try to do that."

Bon Bon accepts. "Well, okay.", she says.

I turn over to Lyra and gladly give her an opportunity to finally feed her curiosity.

"How about I hold a Q&A session with you?", I say to her. "I'm not sure about schedule and location and whatnot, but I definitely want to do it. I'd be happy to."

"That would be awesome!", Lyra responds. "Thank you! I'll wait for the schedule, see you there!", she says, running back to the bench.

I give them a wave goodbye as I head back behind the building.

Alright, so that part is over with. I guess I have confirmed my technique's effectiveness here! For the excited ponies, playing along with their emotions really does seem to help! It's also useful that I have first-hand experience with what they're going through. Again, yesterday. I had to really try to keep myself from going crazy there.

In any case, I was definitely getting back to Lyra; this was only the beginning of her interactions with humans. In fact... what time is it now? Is it getting close to lunchtime?

It might be. Either way, I was hungry.

Hmm. Hold on a second...

Things start to rapidly piece together perfectly in my head. Lunchtime entails a sitting-down environment, where you have lots of time to talk...

Yes. This idea just has to be good.

I jog back over to Applejack with this manifesting in my head, and bring the idea up to her.

"Yo. I just came up with a huge idea. You know how I told Lyra that I'd hold a Q&A session with her?", I say.

"Yup. Ya know when and where you wanna do it now?", Applejack asks.

"Yes! I'm getting hungry for lunch, so I thought we could bring them over to a restaurant and hold the session there!"

"I agree! That would be perfect!", Applejack says.

"Let's go!", I respond.

We walk back out into the sunlight over to Lyra and Bon Bon, where I make my suggestion that allows Lyra's lifelong-waited event to come faster.

"Hey there.", I say to them. "I'm back because I now know when and where we should hold the Q&A session. It's getting close to lunchtime, so how about Applejack and I invite you two over to a restaurant? We can hold the starting session there.

Lyra instantly perks back up into what she looked like when she first saw me.

"Oh yes, thank you!", Lyra says, hopping off the bench and walking up close to me. Panting in excitement, her mood sure has been restored. "Oh my goodness, I'm so happy this is real!", she says with her human passion. "And you're such a cool guy!"

"I'm happy too, Lyra!", I say, reciprocating her elation. "I came here because I wanted to meet you ponies; that surely includes you! In fact, you were among the ponies I was most interested in!

She smiles a ton, and I give her a mane pet. I think we could be friends!

Applejack, who had stayed back during this ordeal but close enough to see, now makes her status with me known to Lyra and Bon Bon.

"Alright y'all, which restaurant shall we go to?", she asks.

Turns out, there's no need for thinking. Lyra knows.

"I know exactly where P4 should go!", the minty-green mare says. "The cafe with the mushroom seats; it's only the best restaurant in town!"

"Sounds good!", I say. "Lead the way!"

The now-four of us set off for lunchtime, moving into the next phase of this busy day.

We arrive at said cafe. I had known about it from the show, but I was feeling odd at the prospect of sitting on mushrooms, let alone having one as a table. That certainly wasn't something we did on Earth.

But that's all that's here, so Applejack, Lyra, Bon Bon, and me take sets at a round table with four well-placed seats; indeed all mushroom.

The seats and table were a bit squishy, but not a lot. They were definitely able to be sat on and have things placed on them. And it did create a nice aesthetic; it gave the restaurant a more "natural" or "Earth-y" look. Although that probably wasn't the name of this planet.

Having gotten time and a walk through this peaceful town, Lyra seems to have gained some composure.

"I just want to say, Player 4, thank you so much for being patient with me. I know I can be kind of a handful, especially when it's my biggest dream coming true."

"Yes.", Bon Bon adds. "Thank you for playing it cool with this hyper girl."

I didn't like the sound of that, but Lyra giggles. Guess they were used to doing this with each other.

I continue to keep playing it cool with the duo.

"Hey, don't sweat it.", I say. "It's part of my personality; I do have the problem of assuming bad intentions at times, but not always. I do try to cut others some slack. And I'm here to give you what you've been waiting for, Lyra. Starting with the Q&A."

"Awesome!", she says. "I am ready! But uh... looks like we need to have another Q&A first.", she says, pointing behind her to the pony waitress at our left, whom I hadn't noticed.

"Yes, we always need a Q&A here at restaurants!", she says, giggling.

"But in other news,", she says, "I see we've got a human here today! I learned a bit about you from some ponies at town square, before I started my shift!"

Well, good thing ponies were spreading the news around. I sure wouldn't want to keep explaining myself over and over again.

"And you seem to be receiving good treatment from the ponies!", she says. "Anyway, though, what would you like to eat?"

This was something that definitely needed to be asked of me, in a more deeper way than simply picking out something from the menu. Lyra realizes this as well.

"I know we haven't started the actual Q&A yet," she says, "but it looks like we need to know now what humans eat. If there's anything your system won't allow for."

Indeed. I couldn't afford to eat something that would make me sick.

"Well, I don't think there are that many differences, at least not from what's in this restaurant.", I say, reading through the menu. "Humans can't eat hay or grass, but we can eat lettuce, strawberries, carrots, all that stuff. So I can eat plenty of things on this menu."

I decided to hold off on telling them about meat for now. Even though I don't think they'll be bothered or scared, based on the fact that there are meat-eaters in Equestria, including some that ponies keep as pets (i.e. Opal), I feel like it's something I should talk about later.

"Okay, good! Yeah, you shouldn't have a hard time with this menu then.", Lyra says.

No, I wouldn't have trouble at all. There are plenty of things I'm familiar with on Earth, including cheese sandwiches, which is what I usually ate at lunch. I'll go for that.

The others decide on their orders, the waitress comes back, and we all place the orders.

Now with another long gap underway, the Q&A session starts.

"Alright.", Lyra says. "I'll start with this one; what does it feel like to have fingers and toes?"

"Hmm, I don't know if I can really describe it, it's just what's natural to us.", I say. "We don't really think about it. As for how useful they are, I'm not really sure. It seems like you ponies can grasp things with your hooves pretty well.

"Yeah, we can.", Bon Bon says. "Not all of us are unicorns, and we can't hold everything in our mouths. So we practiced it and have, through generations, learned how to hold things with our hooves."

"That's really cool!", I say. "So yeah, I'm not sure if our fingers are that unique. And there are creatures here with them. Lyra, you know about Spike, right? He has fingers and toes and is bipedal, like me."

"Yeah, I've interacted with Spike before. He is a lot smaller than you, but yeah, he has those similarities."

"It is nice to have that.", I say.

Lyra moves on to the next question.

"So, what do humans do all day? How do you live? What are your activities?"

"We live just like you in a lot of ways.", I say. "The adults have jobs, the kids go to school, we do things like bowling, eating at restaurants, like we're doing now, all that! Humans have a really similar civilization. I'm sure there's explainable science behind it, but it's really interesting how two worlds so far apart have such similar ways of life."

"Yeah, that is some coincidence! You'll have to go to my friend Twilight for why that is.", Lyra says. "But for now, you were talking about school and work, do you have a job yet? If so, what is it?"

"I do have a job.", I say. "I am called a data specialist, which is something that might end up with me getting employed over at Sweet Apple Acres. While that title sounds very broad, what I usually do is take a piece of info that has its overall answer unknown, and use the pieces that I do have to figure out the answer. I did this yesterday, by looking at interviews taken by Applejack about what color apple ponies preferred and used that data to figure out what percentage of each color should be grown."

"Wow! That's a job that could get you to a lot of places!"

"It could! But I'm not sure how far I want to go, given that I do have other career aspirations, including one that I think matches with you! Lyra, you are a musician, right?"

"Yes! You can see my signature instrument right here with my cutie mark!", she says, pointing to the lyre there. No wonder she has her name!

"Well, I am a musician too!", I say with elation over this shared hobby. "I haven't told Applejack about this yet, but yeah, I am a guitar player, who doesn't have a band yet, but sure will be working to get one."

"Well, awesome! We've got another one!", Lyra says, reaching closer to me.

I give her a happy hoof-bump.

Right after that, the food arrives.

Oh yes. I can't wait to know what an Equestrian sandwich tastes like. To me, this seems like a place that would pride itself on being natural, or at least that's how I think of Ponyville, so I don't expect any added sugar or preservatives here. It would probably be different from the bread I was used to.

Picking the sandwich up from the white plate, I go in for it and take the first bite.

It really did taste natural; and it was great! The bread wasn't bitter or anything, it tasted like how bread should taste! Then the cheese definitely had its power.

With my pony pals enjoying their Equestrian meals too, we continue, just talking about ourselves, our lives, and the like. I was told that Bon Bon runs a candy store, followed by them saying I should go to it, we talked about other work and life topics, and the like. And wow, was it great. It really helped me ease into this place, getting to socialize some bit. Get myself integrated with the locals. And I was sure grateful that everything happened the way it did. Yes, Lyra did pounce on me, but like I said, can you blame her? I could have easily done the same thing had I not contained it. Of course she'd be thrilled to see me, just like I was with Applejack!

Food, talking, and the beautiful environment also served as distractions to the problems I was facing. Being surrounded by the fresh-aired Ponyville during a sunny afternoon in addition to food and socializing, I just feel content at the moment. I know everything isn't great, but right now, it feels like it is.

The lunch eventually comes to an end. Wow, that cheese sandwich was delicious. Definitely better than the ones I ate on Earth! Probably because it was all natural. The absence of added sugar in the bread made for a great taste.

As the waitress comes to gather the dishes and collect the money from us, we leave the mushroom-tabled cafe and cross the door into the next part of the day.

"So, are you ready to go eat dessert?", Lyra asks as we take our after-meal walking across the Ponyville grass. "Go to Sugarcube Corner for the first time?"

"Oh yes!", I say. "I've always wanted to know what their treats taste like."

"You are in for the taste of your life!", Lyra responds.

Didn't Applejack say that yesterday?

Either way, this was huge. Not only was I finally going to find out if Sugarcube Corner treats are really the best, I would also get to meet Pinkie Pie! That's two more "firsts" to add to today's record!

The four of us, still with the group intact, have walked into a housing area along our trip to Sugarcube Corner, when have our stroll to the bakery paused by a summon.

"Yo!", one mare calls out from her backyard.

We decide to approach.

"Hey there, mister human!", this pony says more quietly as we get closer. She has a yellow coat, puffy and curly orange mane, and was standing in front of a carrot farm. Yep, I knew who this was.

"Hi, Golden Harvest!", I say excitedly. "Did you already know about me prior? I'm Player 4, for reference."

"Yes! I haven't physically seen you until now, but I was told by plenty of ponies when I was walking around town earlier that there was a human here. A real one! And here you are, right in front of me!"

"Indeed, I am here! What's up?", I say, giving her a hoof-shake along the portrait of a bed of growing carrots and a lovely brown house in the background.

This was a mare I always wanted to meet. She's one of the most recognizable background ponies, and I had been totally in on that. So it was out of the blue, but here's another thing to add to today's resume!

"I'd just like to ask you", Golden Harvest says, "How can we here in Ponyville help you ease in better? I know you're probably going through a lot."

"I am.", I say. "While I am here on purpose because I love your show and am being given food, water, and shelter by Applejack here, there are some problems. I have no way of going back to my old home or making contact with it, or seeing it. I have no idea how my parents are feeling, because, in my world, you ponies are thought to be what humans were here; a fictional fairy-tale. They probably don't believe for a second that I'm here, so who knows what they are doing.", I say, coming back to this sadness.

But Golden Harvest is extremely helpful. "Well, me and others are going to help in any way we can. In this town, we treat the newcomers the way a hotel should treat their guests. The whole place is your hotel! And you may have noticed that we're not bombarding you with questions about your species or the like. We must keep you comfortable."

Her words here almost instantly succeed at making me feel better already. It appeared that I might go into another downward spiral after she correctly guessed that I was going through a lot, but Golden Harvest drained it right away with her warm-welcome attitude.

"Thanks a lot, Golden Harvest.", I say. "You're already helping."

"That's what I do!", she responds. "I will ask this: what kinds of things help you live your life happily? What do you need to feel at home?"

"Well first, I need somewhere to sleep and such. I need a place to call home, which I'm already being given by Applejack. Then, I like to be in a place where I can go out and still feel at home. By which I mean, I instantly recognize the area I'm travelling in, I know where the path to my house is, I have a favorite grocery store, etc. It extends beyond the walls of my house."

"That is perfectly understandable.", Golden Harvest says. "And I can tell you right now that you will get that. It will take a while for you get used to the area, especially when you're in a completely different country. But it's a natural process. Over time, you will get used to things."

"Yep. I just have to wait for that, but I can say that Ponyville seems to be speeding up the process."

"Yes! The town is built for that. We keep the place simple; easy to navigate, usually only one establishment for any service; for example, Ponyville has only one spa and only one dance club. It's not the same for everyone, but from most I've met, a simpler town is easier to get used to."

"I think that does apply to me. I've always liked living in suburban areas; I've lived there pretty much my whole life. Right now, I live in Sweet Apple Acres, so I will be adjusting to the country life, and I'm sure Applejack will help me with that, but I do enjoy places where it's not too big, but there's stuff to do."

"Ponyville is the definition of a suburb!", Golden Harvest says. "And that makes me think more and more that this is the right place for you. But I do want a bit more, so can you tell me about your hobbies? What you usually do during the day, and if we can accommodate that?"

"Well, not everything can be accommodated, given that my home world has technology that doesn't appear to be present here, and I used that technology on a day-to-day basis, so I'm going to have to find a lot of substitutes."

"I see.", Golden Harvest responds. "But do you know of any things you like that you've already found here?"

"Yes, I've found some. The four of us here just got back from a restaurant, I love eating at restaurants, and back home, I'm getting an opportunity to continue with the job I held back on Earth."

"Well, good! And about that technology thing, well, I'm sure we can accommodate somehow. Maybe you'll find some things here that are more similar than you think. And even if not, given the way that this town is, I'm sure you'll find your way through, learning how to fill the day with happiness. Because that's how we are here. And you've already got the love of suburban life, plus being a fan of our show, you might even consider moving here eventually. I can see it; you will love Ponyville."

Wow! This is amazing, and unexpected! I thought this pony was a carrot farmer, not a living hospitality commercial! If she has time, she should definitely get a job in the latter field! Because the sheer way she spoke all those sentences, how she essentially got into my mind and dug out connections I hadn't even been aware of, she stops nowhere short of succeeding at making me feel better about being stuck here. And she did make sure to remind me about my FiM fandom. I told myself this morning that I wanted to be here and should reap the benefits! That's right!

Needless to say, I am eternally grateful.

"Thanks so much, Golden Harvest.", I say. "You helped a ton; now I feel better about not being able to go back home right now. And you're a really cool pony; could I schedule a longer meet-up with you, preferably at a restaurant?"

"Oh yes! I don't know when, I'll have to look at my schedule, but we'll keep in contact and figure it out! I'd love to get to know you better!"

I give her a smile and hoof-bump, which she reciprocates, although she was already smiling before.

But she's not done yet.

"I've got one more thing for you.", she says.

The carrot-loving pony walks over to her red wheelbarrow full of her signature vegetable, and pulls out a basket containing a good number of them.

"This is my welcome gift to you. That's part of our hospitality as well. I do my best to make the carrots as great as they can be, and I hope they help you in your new adventure by being tasty. Every time you eat one of these, you'll remember how much you love Equestria."

Could she get any nicer?

"Wow, thanks! You're so awesome!", I say.

She smiles big, as do I.

My impression of Ponyville as a town full of sweethearts seems to be true! That was one reason I chose this town over anywhere else!

And then Applejack offers to carry the basket around. How much further could it go?

Well, there's really no reason to really believe it can't go further. It's just the feeling of it that makes more seem impossible.

If the hearty treatment I was receiving here in Ponyville wasn't helping me ease into its society, I don't know what would. I feel so great here on Day 2.

And I can only bet it was going to become better, as we were now headed into Sugarcube Corner.

After reaching the end of the walk that featured plenty more welcoming ponies, we enter the bell-ringing door of the sweet bakery, where the ponies enter first.

"Hey there, Pinkie Pie.", Applejack says. "We've got somethin' big for ya today; a long-lasting legend has been confirmed as true, and the evidence is right behind us."

"Humans are real!", Lyra says. "They're really real!"

"Oh! Well, bring them in!", Pinkie Pie says.

I enter into Sugarcube Corner, giving the party pony her first sight of a human.

"Hi, Pinkie.", I say while walking up to the transparent treat counter, where Pinkie is standing. "My name is Player 4, and I'm a fan of your show who came here to meet you all. Nice to meet you.

"Nice to meet you too, Player 4!", she says, reciprocating my hoof-shake. "Awesome to know that humans exist! Ooh, it's a good thing you're here at Sugarcube Corner too, because you're getting a welcome gift! We always do that here!"

"You mean the party?", I ask. "Like what you did with Twilight?"

"That is correct, and the party is already scheduled for 17:20.", Pinkie says. "Make sure to remember! And if you want, I can hop over to where you're at when it's time! I'll be your reminder machine!"

Um... okay, I know Pinkie is Pinkie and is not to be questioned, but how did she schedule the party literally seconds after first realizing I existed?

Eh, guess I won't question it. Rather, I'll just focus on the fact that she had that good of a reminding tool.

"That would be great, Pinkie. I do have a tendency to forget things."

"You are very welcome!", Pinkie says. "And here's something else; all first-time customers here at Sugarcube Corner get one free treat in addition to the rest of the order!"

So that's a thing here too.

"Wow, thanks Pinkie.", I say. "We did arrive here because we just finished lunch, and are looking for dessert, and looks like I'm getting a bonus!"

"Oh yes! You get the party, with a special cake, and the one free treat on an ordinary visit! Go ahead and find a table; I'll take the rest of your orders, and you can dig in!"

Still with Lyra and Bon Bon, the four of us do just that. We head to the slightly-darker east wall area of the bakery and sit at a booth, which I didn't know the place had. Maybe they were new.

Pinkie had reacted in the exact way that I expected her to. And it wasn't a bad thing in the slightest; she had done all of this! I get a bonus dessert, and that welcome party that was already scheduled? It turns out, I did want a welcome party! I just hadn't really been thinking about it in these past days. Pinkie Pie sure knows her stuff. And based on that plus other things, I do intend to pursue a friendship with her. I'd have to schedule a meeting.

Pinkie Pie arrives at our elevated-from-the-ground booth to take our dessert orders. My original plan was to get a basic cupcake, which I still will, but based on this being my first visit to Sugarcube Corner, I was getting a bonus item. So what should that be?

I don't know. This menu is huge, like, it's almost as tall as the stack of napkins. There are far too many options for me to choose something when I don't already know. So I ask the expert.

"Pinkie, what do you think I should get for the second part of my order? I know I'm going to start with a vanilla cupcake, I want to start with the basics, but what else should I get?", I ask.

"If you're starting with the basics, go with the other side of the duo! Get a chocolate cupcake too!"

That makes sense. I'll go with that.

The other ponies place their sugary orders too, and in not too long, it arrives. Pinkie really was a speedy pony.

Looking at my plate, it turns out, the cupcakes here were quite a bit larger than I expected. They probably had different sizes that you could choose from, but I hadn't really paid attention to that, and I didn't specify what size I wanted. So maybe Pinkie just picked at random, or she went with the large ones because I was a newcomer.

Either way, though, these two cupcakes were big. Probably about twice the size of the ones I usually had on Earth. I'm really not sure if I'll finish both of them.

Well, even if I don't, I have plenty of room to give both the vanilla and chocolate cupcakes the taste I need to give them a rating. I start with the vanilla one, taking my next "bite of truth" since coming to Equestria, and...

Yes, the reviews were absolutely accurate.

Sugarcube Corner's vanilla cupcakes tasted like no other cupcake, of any flavor, I had eaten on Earth. It was the cake equivalent of the apples back at Sweet Apple Acres; just all-around perfect. The cake itself was perfectly chunky, moist, and flavorful, the icing was sweet but not too sweet, and it tasted more home-made and natural than processed. I am very, very, happy with the results.

"I am definitely coming back here for much more, Pinkie Pie. I'm not sure if I'll be able to get enough of these cupcakes, and there's still so much more here I need to try!"

"That's what I was hoping to hear! You can never get enough of this stuff!", Pinkie says.

No kidding. More business was great for them, and I couldn't be the only one to have said that. I wonder if Pinkie Pie is rich.

I still hadn't tried the chocolate cupcake yet, so I do that. Yep, just like the vanilla one, it was all-around perfectly balanced. Easy five-star rating without a doubt; nothing negative to say as far as you can think. If Pinkie and the Cakes aren't rich, they definitely should be.

I dig further and further in. Maybe I will finish both cupcakes after all.

What was I talking about earlier, before we starting eating? Oh right, I was asking how much further the kindness could go.

The answer: definitely further than I thought at the time.

I vocalize this to the ponies around me as we continue to eat dessert.

"Y'all here, you've done the best you could at helping me ease in. After I was coming into a completely different world full of creatures who didn't think my species existed, having to be an immediate stand-out and likely subject for research, and not being able to go home for possibly a long time, you've just been nothing but calm and caring. Doing everything you can to help. And you trusted me. No runaways, no captures, nothing. Despite all that could have gone wrong, I'm already feeling like part of the family. Thank you."

The ponies seem touched by this; they're all smiling, and most with closed eyes, bringing it further.

"Good to know we succeeded, because that is exactly what we were trying to do.", Bon Bon says in her red booth seat across from me as she and the others look into my face. "Welcome to our world, P4."

Wow. That mere four-word-long sentence is just perfect. It basically sums up the entirety of these wonderful ponies' behaviors with my delicate situation. This is exactly what they were thinking.

"Welcome to our world."

Chapter 4: Twilight the Expert

Author's Note

Going with a shorter chapter this time, enabling me to nail this one down in only three days. (I skipped the first two days after the last chapter's publishing). I think this story's chapters might be shorter from here on out; I'd rather them not take as long as the previous three have. Note that I wrote Chapters 1 and 2 in conjunction, so no, Chapter 2 didn't take only as long as the dates appear to show. It was much longer; probably about three weeks.

Chapter 4: Twilight the Expert

"Welcome to our world." That was probably the single most beautiful, heart-touching sentence that had ever been spoken directly to my face.

No need to go through it all again; we know how these ponies are. They are just too sweet and welcoming to believe; I mean, it's as if they just adopted me right away! All it took was a little bit of basic friendliness and display of knowledge about them, and they don't even bother asking me if I've ever done anything threatening. It really does go a long way!

And then they know ever so well how to talk to me about the bad things I'm going through. Golden Harvest especially; coming across her turned out to be lucky.

I continue to hold all of this in me as we walk out of the awesome Sugarcube Corner; I am both full of delicious dessert and gratitude. As if the residents of Ponyville hadn't already done even more for me than I expected; like, I really didn't need a bonus free treat. I didn't resist, I'm letting the ponies be what they are, but I do feel kind of spoiled right now.

But again, they apparently don't see it that way.

"I hope we were able to satisfy you in every way you needed it, P4!", Bon Bon says to me.

"Oh, you have. 100%.", I say. "I just overall feel good right now, and it's thanks to you. I just feel good right now. I don't think anything can derail my momentum."

That's right. With things going well here in the middle of June 12, 2016, it's now time for the day's next phase.

The next phase has something to do with that "world" part of the aforementioned sentence that I named the most beautiful. Now that dessert is done, I'm about to learn some cool, and hopefully helpful, stuff about worlds. Specifically, I'm going to go to the Castle of Friendship and have a meeting session with Princess Twilight Sparkle about how I can get back to my world, and, if there's time, other things such as what Lyra and I were talking about: how two planets in completely different universes have such similar civilizations. But we'll mostly focus on how I get home.

And we begin our journey there back as a duo. By this point, Lyra and Bon Bon had left the group; they had their own things to take care of in today's second half. Bon Bon needed to go back to her candy shop to open it for the afternoon shift, and Lyra, being the shop's taste-tester, had to return as well. Looking back on the time they were with us, it was downright awesome to spend time with those two roommate ponies. I'd definitely go visit them at some point, probably starting at the candy store. I'm a candy lover; I have to get a taste of some of those bonbons one day. (Pun intended)

Oog, though. After all that dessert, even thinking of candy right now is making me a bit sick. So I think I'll... stop.

Which I can do so fairly easy, as I'm hitting a striking visual aid. Applejack and I begin to cross out of Ponyville's downtown area, reaching another outskirts part. As the number of buildings and their distance from each other continues to dwindle as we walk by, I can occupy my mind by wondering if we're in the area I think we are.

I had guessed right; we caught glimpse of the building I was thinking of. These more remote areas on this other side of town, completely opposite from where Sweet Apple Acres is, are the home of the Castle of Friendship, in all its glory.

Boy, does it really stand. Both in terms of height and standing out. It's instantly recognizable from a long distance, and you don't have to get over the planet's curve that much to see the top of it.

I do really hope Twilight has heard the news of my presence so that I don't have to explain everything again...

Yeah, I was getting a bit tired of that. Hopefully somepony has told Twilight that I'm here.

We go up and give the royal front door a knock, where it soon opens to reveal the Princess of Friendship herself. I was expecting Spike, as I know Twilight is usually busy, but that appears to not be the case right now. Maybe she, like us, had just gotten off of lunch break and hadn't had time to return to work before we knocked.

Me, not wanting to potentially give the purple alicorn too much of a shocker right now, step out of the door's view window and let Applejack kick things off; the same thing I did with Granny Smith and Pinkie Pie.

"Oh, Applejack! What brings you here?", Twilight asks in her sweet, joyful voice.

"Ah came to ask ya if you've heard the news that a human came to Equestria.", Applejack says.

"Matter of fact, I did hear about that!", Twilight responds. "Spike and I left the castle to run some errands, and a couple ponies came up to us saying things about it! Are you here at the castle because the human wants to come here?"

"Yup, and he's here right now!", Applejack says. I move over from the side into Twilight's view. "This is Player 4.", Applejack says.

"Hi there, Player 4! Nice to see you in our world!", she says, giving me a hoofshake.

"It is an honor to meet you, Your Highness.", I say, bowing.

"Oh, you don't need to be formal; just call me Twilight.", she says. "So, since you must be from another world, are you here to learn about that stuff, like alternate universes and such?"

"Yes, that's exactly it. Great guess.", I say. "For me, I have an interesting situation because I figured out the science on how to get here. I made a portal. But I can't make a reverse portal; I have no way of going back home. So I'm mainly here for that."

"Okay, that sounds good!", Twilight says. "You've come to the right place; just follow me!"

I take my first steps into the notorious Castle of Friendship; it looks even cooler in person. The whole place shines and sparkles right at you from every direction, and the color scheme of blue and purple is ever so fitting. Very Twilight-like and magical.

I don't have to worry about navigating this maze-like residence right now; Twilight, being a resident, knows exactly where our destination is. I get to do nothing but follow her down this place's massive halls into her chosen area for a long discussion to be held.

Twilight, Applejack, and myself reach a more hidden area of the castle and arrive into a dark-purple room that has less shine and sparkle, being bordered by generic walls and floors, and featuring almost nothing but a fairly large table and a couple of small bookshelves. I suppose it did make a good environment for a small-group meeting room; it's more intimate.

"Have a seat!", Twilight says to me. "We'll go through everything on your mind, one step at a time, and I'll do my best to explain everything!"

I do what she offers, getting myself situated for what should be a big game-changer in my Equestrian journey. Seated to my right on the light-brown table, Applejack faces towards me, causing me to remember what she said to me last night. Even without any words, I could tell she was saying "It's okay. You're in good hands; you'll get the problems figured out." And I know it must be true; we're talking about Twilight here. She may not be able to answer everything, but she has to have access to enough info that last night won't repeat. There's no reason to believe otherwise.

Applejack really has earned her title as the Element of Honesty!

Twilight picks out a few books from the shelves that she can decipher will be relevant to our discussion. After gathering them all, she takes her seat at the other side of the table and begins the meeting that should clear up most of the things that are still plaguing me here in the middle of Day 2 in Equestria.

"So, Player 4, you told me what's on your mind first and foremost is figuring out how to get you home, correct?", Twilight begins the conversation with.

"Correct.", I say.

"Can you tell me how exactly you got here? What you used to make that portal?", Twilight asks.

Well, this is going to be tough. I was usually able to just explain this in layman's terms, but I couldn't do that here. Twilight needs a lot of detail to give me the answers I need.

I must do it, so I give myself a push, telling myself to just say what comes to me. And this does appear to work.

"Okay, so what I did was, using the device I would watch your show on, I paused it while it was on a screenshot of Equestria, extracted out the binary code holding that image, then held the SD card carrying the code up to the sunlight, where it attached itself to a multiplying path of light, going through space, back to the point where it came from, which was here. Being overwhelmed by that desire, it exploded into a portal going here, and I jumped through it."

"I really hope you can find info about this, especially because that particular device I was talking about might not exist here. In fact, I'm not sure about binary codes either."

Right. I didn't say the word "computer", but still, now the "how do you know" question is being turned back over to me. The ponies here clearly do know that FiM exists, but as of yet, nopony had asked me how exactly I'm able to watch the show. I hadn't taken time to think of this, because I hadn't needed to. But now, with incentive to think about it, I don't suppose that TV, computers, tablets, etc. exist here. Looking at the show, they don't seem to. Owning up to that, do Equestrians have any technology that necessitates binary codes? Does Twilight know what in the world I'm talking about?

Well, we just have to wait.

I keep myself stable by reiterating "Focus on this present moment only. One step at a time, like always."

Twilight gathers this info sooner than I expected, and in fact, she found what she was looking for on the first book she tried.

"So what you were saying was, you were using some kind of video viewing device to watch our show."

Well, can't beat around the bush now.

"Yes, I was, and do you here in Equestria have anything similar? Because the technology between here and my world seems very different. Like, do you know about this thing called 'TV?'", I ask.

"TV? Yeah, it's not common here, but it exists. And we do have movie theaters in Equestria, so we know about video watching.", Twilight says.

Oh my goodness, she's right! They do have movie theaters; you can see one in the episode "Babs Seed!" How could I ever forget?

Yeah, I'm relieved, but also embarrassed.

"I just remembered, Twilight, that yes, there is an episode showing a movie theater. Somehow, I just forgot about it.", I say.

"Oh, don't worry about it.", Twilight says. "We all forget sometimes. And it doesn't matter to me what you were using; just that you have video viewing on your world, correct?"

"Yes."

Good, so I wouldn't have to explain computers yet.

Twilight switches to a different book, looking for the second puzzle piece of this study.

During these silent parts, I took time to admire this room of the castle. It had a very nice vibe to it; the dark purple color of the walls, the feeling of the carpet on the ground; the library look, with the table and bookshelves; I can definitely see why Twilight chose this as the castle's small-group meeting room. It feels very intimate and calming.

Inside that kind of environment, Applejack and I also exchange silent communication, with me knowing that she's saying in her mind "It's all coming together. Twilight will figure things out."

Yes. She definitely will; she's Twilight.

The bookworm pony takes a lot longer this time, but eventually does find some useful information about that code extraction thing.

"Okay, so what you were telling me about extracting the binary code out; I think I know what a binary code is. We use them for video games, which we also have here. That collection of 1s and 0s that determines what's on the screen, correct?"

"Correct."

That's right; they have video games too! I remember that from "Hearts and Hooves Day!" And of course there's a binary code there!

So I was getting really lucky, but this brings up even more questions: the technology thing is now looking very inconsistent. If TV and video games did exist here, then why weren't they in heavy use like they are on Earth? If they do have this technology, then why are they still using paper delivery to get the news out and conversing over long distances through physical mail?

Well, those are questions to be saved for later, as Twilight is ready again, and now is the time to focus on how fortunate it is that these ponies do have reference for the things I used to get here. Imagine what my situation would look like if they didn't!

"So, how did the knowledge come about that you could 'extract' this binary code and make a portal by holding it up to the sun?", Twilight asks me.

"It's a really long story that's hard to explain,", I sigh, "but I'll try as best as I can; I know you need this. So, back at home, I was a member of a science group where we experimented with things a lot. One day, somebody in the group hypothesized about the possibility of taking a binary code out of its system and using it elsewhere. We tried it, and it turned out to be true."

"Then, on the day I knew I really wanted to come to Equestria, I remembered this after I learned that other universes existed. Then, how I knew that light was the way to do it was because light was the only thing I knew of that could travel to another universe. I saw no reason to believe that it couldn't, but had every reason to believe that most other things couldn't. And with that, I assumed that the only thing that could possibly connect the binary code to its point of origin, when it's that far away, is to make it travel along a light source. Actually, multiple light sources, if you don't want it to take millions or billions of years."

"That was a lot of info, did you get all that?"

"Yeah, I'm good! I'm still writing it down, but you're good. I got that.", Twilight says.

She finishes writing. "So then, how did you figure out that doing this light thing would cause a portal to appear?"

"Basically, since the code naturally wants to be where it came from, allowing it a clear path to where it came from, but not allowing it to directly go there, will lead to the code doing anything it can to take itself there, which in this case, is exploding into a portal; that becomes the only pathway for the code to return to its home. And the reason I was able to go through the portal was because it was located in my world. The laws of physics and such are always confined to the location of the portal's beginning, and they change as the portal goes along. Though somehow, I didn't feel any changes while traveling through."

Yeah, that was interesting. I even still looked like my Earth self right until the end. Huh.

"And now, I can only assume that the reason I can't go back is because I no longer have the SD card. It exploded, obviously."

Twilight takes time to write all of this down.

"Is that all I need to know?", she asks.

"Yes ma'am.", I say.

Twilight takes a good look at her notes, then refers back to the books, and back again. Back and forth.

Eventually, she closes the books, and begins her part of the conversation.

"That was some really neat stuff you did there, let me tell you that. Being able to figure out all that complicated science and get here from another universe; that's really impressive, Player 4. And since you're here by your own choice, I say welcome! I hope you will love your stay here, however long it is. Now, getting into that, there is a lot going on with regards to getting you home. I do think it will take quite a long time. But again, you came here on purpose, so I hope that doesn't bother you."

Oh right, this thing!

"You're right, I did want to be here, really badly, and I am happy that I'm here. It's only the second day and I'm already loving Equestria. But what is bothering me is the fact that I can't tell my family what's going on. Because, here's the thing: on my world, it is not believed that you ponies or your land exist. You're believed to be a piece of folklore, just like humans were here. I did leave a note explaining what I was doing before I left, why I would be gone, but needless to say, they probably don't believe it, and who is to say what they're feeling right now, not being able to find me."

Twilight notices my progressively sadder face as I say this, and, being Twilight, comes up with a brilliant idea.

"How about, since you wanted to be here,", she says, in a calming demeanor, "I'll work on the family thing first. Before we figure out how to get you home, I'll figure out how you can send pictures and video to your family, so you can prove that you are here without having to leave here. You'll have that worry crossed out, but you'll still get to be in Equestria as you intended. Does that sound good?"

I recover into a happy mood very quickly, because wow. That sounds brilliant. Twilight is right; it's not that I want to go home by any stretch; I'm excited as heck to be in Equestria! It's just I want the people at home to know that I really am where I am. I want to get rid of those sleep-depriving thoughts that manifested last night.

So yes, I will go with this. For sure.

"Yes, please do that. That is what I am looking for. Thank you, Twilight."

It is what I'm looking for. That's exactly it! It will remove the problem of not being able to tell my family where I went without having to do something I can't do! My stay in Equestria wouldn't be plagued by these worries!

"You're so welcome, P4!", Twilight says. "I'll get to work on it as soon as I can. And, as soon as both of us can, how about we schedule a meetup where we can get to know each other better? Something that doesn't involve working?"

"Yes, that would be wonderful! I'll have to check my schedule, but I'll figure it out! See you then!"

"See you then, P4!"

Actually, hold on, the meeting isn't quite done yet.

"And Applejack," Twilight says, "you came here with him, so am I right that you are the one who is taking care of Four here?"

"Yup. He showed up right in Sweet Apple Acres, ah was the first to see him, we got 'im acquainted with Granny, Big Mac, and Applebloom, he's got a guest barn, he's gettin' food and water, all that. He's doing just fine at the farm, he'd say."

"She's right.", I respond. "I'm in a good place at Sweet Apple Acres."

"Well, good! I hope you two become friends!", Twilight says.

Sounds like something she would say; she was the Princess of Friendship. And I agree with her. The prospect of a friendship with Applejack sounded awesome to me well before I came here, and it has the perfect breeding ground, with me staying over at the farm!

Hmm. Will Applejack become my next best friend?

Sure was something to think about!

After a meeting and study session that clearly deserves nothing short of a "success" check mark, Twilight ends the ordeal. "Well, looks like that's it!", she says. Here, I'll walk you out."

She leads us backwards along the path where we came from, taking us through the castle and out into the sun.

"I wish you well on your adventure, P4!", Twilight says as she waves to me as we walk out the door.

I smile at her, feeling ever so good right now. Remember what I said to Bon Bon after we had just left Sugarcube Corner? Well, given that I had to talk out loud about the problems I was facing and ask if they could be solved, that statement could have aged very badly! But... it didn't! Equestria, as it turns out, does have the necessary technology, and all the info was right there in Twilight's hooves! I will get to confirm my presence in Equestria to my family! How awesome is that?

I'm happy.

Now, about that casual meet-up thing: checking my schedule was something I definitely needed to do. I had now agreed to three meet-ups with four ponies; Golden Harvest, Lyra + Bon Bon, and Twilight. And none of them gave me any scheduling on their part. Yeah, this wasn't going to be easy.

Hey, at least there was the welcome party today; I'd get to have some meet-and-greet there, and hopefully those four ponies, or at least a few of them, would be there to fill some of the space and talk to me about scheduling.

Speaking of which, how long is it until the welcome party?

I look at my watch, which Bon Bon had given to me before she left. It's 14:19, so about three hours. Pinkie Pie said it was starting at 17:20. So, what was next?

I ask Applejack. "We still have three hours until the welcome party starts, so what do we do next?", I say.

"Well, mah mission today is to have ya meet up with all of mah friends. So far, we've done Pinkie and Twilight, so we still need Rarity, Fluttershy, and Rainbow Dash. Ah'm thinking we go to Rarity next, cause you need some new clothes, pardner."

...Oh gosh.

Chapter 5: The Boutique and the Party

Something has gone wrong. We don't seem to have an archived copy of that chapter.

Chapter 6: Catching Up with Myself

Dear Diary,

I'm writing to you today because I want to take some time to fully collect my thoughts here on my third day in Equestria. With the hectic nature of the the previous two days, I haven't had time to fully comprehend the things I'm feeling that have been brewing in my mind. They keep getting drowned out.

I still think back to these times, so I guess we'll start at the beginning.

I remember, it came on so suddenly and unexpectedly. I had wanted to go to Equestria for nearly as long as I had been in the fandom, but never did the desire feel as tenacious as it did on that fateful day of Saturday, June 11, 2016. (or 11 June 2016, as they seem to prefer in Equestria.)

It's honestly not explainable why this occurred. It was randomly, simply on that day that I just so happened to want to go there really badly. It was no longer a "Oh yeah, that would be nice." More like a "All I want in life right now is to travel to the land of my pony heroes."

But of course, it appeared that I had a 100% probability of being disappointed. Nobody on Earth thinks that the show is real; we on that planet know the ponies as computer simulations that appear nowhere but our screens and our minds.

Now, what makes things interesting here, and this is something I haven't realized until now. I guess I'll number the new things I've been thinking, so I'll call this "new thought #1":

Under normal circumstances, I would have "accepted" the supposed reality, if you will. In fact, this was a durable component of my long history in this fandom; any time I had fun thoughts about myself going to Equestria, making myself happy in the process, the switch would quickly flick to unhappiness, as I would follow along with the consensus on planet Earth. I always plopped back down to either my desk chair or my bed, and tried to tell myself,

"Look at you, such a crybaby. Getting sad that you can't go to the world of an obviously fictional show."

And the next time, that same old routine happened again... and again. Rinse and repeat.

But on June 11, things were different. When the time arrived for me to "snap back into reality", I wasn't having that reality. This time, my thought process was "Well, what if there's an even vague possibility? I mean, you can't just rule it out."

I have utterly no way of explaining why this was the case. Why my attitude was suddenly so different compared to every other time. It just was. Unlike on those days, I did honestly start to believe that I could possibly, actually go there, and that I might as well give it some research.

A decision that we of course all know what led to, given I am in Equestria right now as I write this entry. But we're getting ahead of ourselves here.

This brings me to new thought #2: what if I had not decided to do the research? What if the "give up because of sheer reality" streak had continued? How would these past two days, and the portions of this day that have now passed by, have looked like? It's just interesting to think about, seeing as how this Equestrian adventure is such a huge game-changer in my life.

When such an event happens to you, it's only natural that we wonder what would have been if the status quo had kept itself going, don't we? I sure do, every time. Maybe there's some science behind it. I could go explore the librar...

Am I still getting ahead of myself?

Uh, yeah, I am. Let's get back on track.

What was I saying before? Oh yes, so my urge to go to Equestria was so fiery-hot at this point that I concluded I should at least try to see if the place was real. The two phrases that really pushed me into action were "Science has surprised us many times before" and "Well, the probability isn't zero, is it?"

Right. And there I went.

Inside the research project, it was only about ten minutes after I looked up "Could cartoons exist?" that I started to sense a good chunk of progress. The first result I stumbled upon was an article, with a document attached, by somebody who believed in answering "yes" to that question. I read their long, science-filled paper thoroughly, and the author made plenty of convincing cases. The basic premise of their argument was how other universes more likely than not exist, and how those universes behave in a cartoon-enabling way.

After reaching the end of that paper, I clearly knew I had a wide-open gateway. Of course, I crossed into it. For the next phase, I began searching for more articles about how alternate universes repeat infinitely, and how bubble universes with different laws of physics get created due to inflation. Those two puzzle pieces of information clicked together to create the consensus that Equestria has to exist, because if there is never-ending expansion of alternate universes, then nothing could not exist.

I started the project at about 12:30, and when the research was complete, the clock at the right of my desk read 13:27. It really only took close to an hour to figure out that yes, my dreamland did exist, and it was possible to go there, by virtue of it being a place we could view. If something physically exists, you can get to it. It's a law of the multiverse.

My reaction at this point, needless to say, was to breathe heavily, shiver, and pace around my room. There was still that small part of me that wanted to disbelieve it, seeing as how we get told our whole lives that the shows we love aren't real... time and time again. So that was somewhat still activated, but I shut it down by referring back to my completed research paper. Every time I looked at it carefully and found absolutely no holes in what it said, no credible evidence that it was wrong. No possible doubt was left.

I continued with the pacing for a bit, but then stopped myself as I remembered Step 2 was still not complete. I not only needed to figure out that Equestria was real, but I also had to figure out how to even get there.

To get back on track, it only took a small amount of talking with my crazy-science buddies for me to find the way. The process of extracting a scene from the show's binary code and attaching it to its place of origin in the multiverse, through sending it on a light ride.

So now, there were no tasks left to do other than carrying out that process. Here was the perfect amount of fuel for me to get extremely excited, which I did.

I mean, how could I not be? I was actually going to get to go to Equestria! I was so goshdarn happy, my mate.

It's a good thing, though, that I remembered to tie up the loose ends after I finished spawning the portal. I used what would be my final moments on Earth for a while to notify my coworkers and family members that I was going away for some time. But this was no easy, ordinary vacation announcement. In fact, there was a gaping hole: I couldn't tell them where I was going. I mean, I could; I did write in the letter to my parents that I was going to MLP land, but I thought for sure they'd laugh in the face of it and go looking for me. So would my coworkers outside of the science group in that they'd spend time talking about how I just made up a silly excuse to go on vacation from work, my thinking went.

This meant I was leaving out crucial info, in that my coworkers and loved ones don't have any way of knowing for sure where I am. I mean, when someone's gone, it's hard not to worry if you don't know where they're located, right?

Not to mention there's no telling when I'll be back. Science cannot be on a timeline. Who knows when Twilight will be finished with the two-way portal.

We all know how this realization manifested; on my first night here, I was worried sick about my parents possibly (or likely, rather) being worried sick.

...And I'm getting ahead of myself again. Let's stay on the timeline here, yes?

Back to my Earth bedroom: So I carried out the successful process of spawning my portal, said my goodbyes to my room, then after a inter-dimensional space ride, found myself in the dreamland known as Equestria. Specifically, I landed in Sweet Apple Acres; the rustic country home of Applejack and Co.

Now, the fact that I landed in this place specifically; this brings me to new thought #3: Here on day 3 (ironically enough), I might have made an interesting afterwards discovery with regards to portal transportation. The way I got to Equestria was extracting the binary code of a scene from the show into an SD card, which I then sent on a light ride through space, causing the code to attach itself to its point of origin, and explode into a portal because it could not escape from the card. I thought the location of my landing would be completely random; I don't get to choose.

But now that I think about it, might I have ended up here because the screenshot I put into the SD card was displaying Sweet Apple Acres? On top of that, was the center of the screen on the exact spot I landed? Is that how it's determined?

I mean, the way I got here was to use code information from a screenshot of the show, after all. It does make sense to me that the screenshot I took would match up to where the portal would connect to. So is that way I got put there? My memory on what was on my screen at the time is foggy, but from what I do remember, I consider it more likely than not that it was showing Sweet Apple Acres!

And I thought the studying of my entry was over!

So that's surely something to go to the library for! But again, let's go back to the timeline.

As I arrived in Equestria, the first pony to notice my presence was Applejack, who treated me with top-tier care right off the bat. She not only spoke to me in a calm, friendly tone and reassured me that I didn't look like a threat, but also took time out of her busy work day to sit down next to me and explain how she already possesses knowledge about my species. Her demeanor was just... something special. I felt my nerves calm down in an absolute jiffy.

She then proceeded to expand on this process by walking me around Sweet Apple Acres, giving me time to comprehend the thrill of my dream coming true by giving a tour of the peaceful place. After that came a very successful meet-up with her family members, which further led into me having a delicious dinner with them, being graciously offered to stay with them at the farm in the meantime, and even applying for a job at the farm! Yes, really! I applied for a job on my first day of being there; in fact, I had only been there for a couple of hours! Crazy, right?

Now, this segways into the big, primary thing that's really thriving in my mind right now, the all-mighty new thought #4. New thought #4 is this question: Could I, maybe, be forming a close friendship with Applejack? Will I become a new best friend forever of hers? Someone comparable to other Mane Six in that regard?

The thing is, I don't recall a time where I've called AJ a friend out loud as of yet. (Notice the word "yet.") But I know I have thought of it in my head, for example, the time where I went back to her after first meeting Lyra, I remember having the sentence "Alright, now let's get back to my friend" in my head.

As I look back on these past days and examine it, I think it might be true.

Going in order, take a massive note that I clicked with Applejack right from the very start. We were already equipped with the ability to have smooth conversation with each other. Applejack listened to my worries effectively; never downplaying them at all. No "not a big deal"s from her. Oh, and remember what happened in (TK.) Even just a few minutes in, Applejack practically stopped an anxiety attack from festering in me... before it even started! To me, anyone who can do that is high potential for a friend.

For something that applies to the entire day, note that she didn't pressure or force me to jump into anything. She let me decide when I was ready to lift up off the ground, start moving my legs, say hello to her family members, everything. Never once was she pushy.

After that, at dinner, we discovered a common interest; our work lives. Then, at bedtime, which is when things really started to tumble downhill for me, AJ did help to roll it back up quite a lot. She took time to think of the correct response to my vents, and eventually found a way all the things I was worrying about would get cleared away, and she was correct.

Already, my bond with Applejack is clearly meeting many of the hallmarks of a good friendship. I enjoy being around her. She's always there for me; whenever I talk about the struggles I've been facing, she listens closely, and offers up help. She clearly cares about me. We get along. We have activities we can share together.

Now obviously, there's no way in Eqqus that a super-close friendship could complete a development into such a stage in only three days, and I don't know yet if AJ reciprocates these friendship feelings. But I'm calculating by chance here. Out of all the ponies I have so far interacted with, based the amount of common interests shared, how much time I've spent with them, and how much happiness I feel when around them, I have to believe, from a data perspective, that if I am going to find a #1 best friend forever here in Equestria, it will most likely be Applejack.

Which sequences into new thought #6, another one I just have to talk about: What does my future here in Equestria hold?

If a BFF friendship between Applejack and I does happen, and, for a double, if I also get into a job I love and want to remain in, will I ever feel a desire to return to my old home? I mean, yes, I will want to see my family again, 100%, but what if my life in Equestria gets to the point where I've become highly fond of it, and in full-time terms, genuinely don't want to go back?

Then there's something else that fits under the job topic: How would me being close-heart friends with Applejack affect our lives career-wise? Even if I do land a Sweet Apple Acres job, I don't intend to have that as my long-term thing. My ultimate dream is to play music, full stop. But of course, that's not Applejack's first-and-foremost life passion. We all know what hers is.

But then with that, the thing is, note that "first-and-foremost." I know Applejack does play music as well. Despite seemingly being short on time for practicing enough, she is a highly proficient multi-instrumentalist in the country and bluegrass genres, which I enjoy too, and she even sings on occasion. That's really useful for me, because I don't sing.

That "me" and "I" there; am I getting at something? Yes, I am. One day, I'm definitely going to tell Applejack that I want to start a country duo with her.

And now, here's where my thinking gets ocean-deep; what if this country band of ours blows up? Consider a scenario in which we decide to release one of our songs as a single, and it ends up becoming a smash hit. What will happen to Applejack's career then? How will she possibly juggle both farm work and music work? Will a band that could have potentially become a national sensation get squashed because both members didn't want to give up their other careers?

When I say "both members" there, I do mean it. I don't want a country band to go full-time for me either. I work primarily with the rock genre.

And that leads me to another new thought, numbered #7: If I end up in a rock band that becomes huge-stadium popular, like I intend, and let's say I hold a job at Sweet Apple Acres by this point, how will I possibly break the news that I have to leave? I don't think I can juggle both at once, and what if I've been working at the farm for so long and have provided so much great work that the Apple family has become pleasingly accustomed to my presence and would hurt to see me leave? Like, what if I end up doing something revolutionary within the apple business? That would act as a big roadblock to my music career.

Or, can I do both at once? I don't know!

I guess the overarching theme of this diary entry is that I have a habit of cooking up these "what if"s. Things that I know we'll have to simply wait and see, but I just can't block this stuff from thriving in my head. Whether I will stay here permanently, how my career choices and results could impact mine and Applejack's lives; overall, how my future in Equestria will look; there are practically endless possibilities. It's hard to not start diving into the realm of endless possibilities.

But, I know the correct thing to do is to take everything one day at a time. When you do that, the amount of progress you've been making will fly over you until directly look up at it. All these questions will be answered when it's their time to go free.

In the timeline of this diary entry, we have now reached the present. It's still morning, and I even have something I know I will be doing today; checking my schedule. Yesterday, I agreed to have one-on-one meetings with several ponies, so, yeah, I need to go arrange those right about... now.

Talk to you later, diary!

I set my black pen down and close up the notebook.

The notebook that I had asked the Apple family of its existence (the first thing I did today, in fact), following the night where my mind started to generate all these thoughts.

Which didn't occur until I woke up in the middle of the night. The events of yesterday were occupying my mind too much previously. I fell asleep really happy, not thinking about potential friendships, the future, etc. at all.

But that all changed when I did wake up in the dead of night later on. Nighttime awakeness possesses fiery fuel to give me a racing mind, with everything being quiet. Not much noise, no potentially-distracting awake activities going on. So it went into full gear. Everything I had just finished writing down in my diary started smoking up... all in very short succession! I did eventually fall asleep for the home stretch of the night, but it was difficult to do so.

There was such a frenzy going on in my mind that I really needed a diary to write in. I needed time to catch up with myself. So today, I asked the Apple family, whom I'm staying with, if they had any random notebooks I could use. Luckily, they did. And so I used it to carry out the perfect method of clearing out your mind; writing it all down.

Let me tell you, it definitely did work, perfectly! By writing them, I moved all these thoughts out of my head and onto the paper. If I try to race about them again, it doesn't work, because they've moved. The paper is their home now. That's where I must refer to if I need to look back on any of the thoughts.

Thanks to that, I was cleared to focus on the rest of today. Now that I've gotten out all of those probably-distractions from the previous night, I need to, as I said at the end of the entry, check my schedule. Well, actually, not check it, because, funnily enough, I haven't actually put anything on the schedule yet!

Let's do that, shall we?

Author's Note

Yay, only a seven-day gap this time!

Chapter 8: There You Go

After Golden Harvest and I finish lunch and say our farewells for now, I, without any negative thought about doing it solo, eagerly jog over in the direction of the Castle of Friendship for an impending update on how much longer it will be before I can show proof my Equestrian presence to my family.

Oh yeah, and there's the research in the library too! Double, my mates!

Even with the between-destination traveling being played solo, I feel good. Not scared at all. I can only chalk it up to the nature of Ponyville. I sure wouldn't be doing this in Baltimare or Manehattan, given the stories I've heard about those places from the Apples.

I never thought I'd do fine walking around in public by myself at this young age, but... here I am.

Indeed!

After a journey of exiting the crowded area and taking in sights of the houses near the city border, I arrive at the magnificence that is the Castle of Friendship and give the door a probably louder-than-usual knock. Twilight is the one to answer this time from the entry room as I walk in, and also the one to do the greeting this time around.

"Hi! You ready?", Twilight says, correctly guessing what I must be here for.

"Yes.", I say, 100% ready.

"Follow me.", Twilight says.

The fire of the anticipation of a massive result like this sets off in me. I hope Twilight can't hear, but I am breathing rather heavily as I walk down these halls, getting ever closer by the second to the residing place of my destiny. And yes, "destiny" is an accurate word here.

Will I finally be able to make it clear to my parents that I'm here?

How soon until I can get home?

The answers to these questions are about to reveal themselves with our walking into the dark-blue room that is the portal room.

"So, I called you here for a big reason.", Twilight says. "What I must inform you first is that the portal will probably take a long time. It's supposed to involve reverse-engineering what you did to get here, but I can't do that since we don't have the same technology. Either I have to somehow gain the technology you do, or find another way."

"Well, do you think you could give some kind of estimate? It's okay if you don't.", I say.

Twilight touches her hoof to her chin in thinking. "As of now, I'd say September or October at the earliest."

It's June right now. So that means three months before I can go home even just once, for a minimum estimate.

"Well. Looks like I have a long way to go, then.", I sigh.

"Yes.", Twilight says. "However, and this is the exciting news, I got the picture delivery spell completely done. It's a lot of science to explain, but that part was rather easy to do. I mean, that first meeting we had took place only yesterday, the fact that it took me this short of a time says something!

"I sent out letters to Applejack, Lyra, and Bon Bon asking them to come here so we can show that proof!"

"Awesome!", I say.

So there is that! I may not be able to know when I go home, but I can finally get rid of that piece of plague about wondering how badly my family might be doing!

"Yeah!", Twilight responds. "It will probably be later in the day, when they get off work, I'm thinking maybe two hours from now, but I'm sure they'll come. And I hope you have plans in the meantime."

"I do.", I say. "I also came here to do some research in the library."

"And about the progress; I'm okay with it. I will get homesick a bit, but that's natural, and I know Equestria is a great place to be."

"Happy to hear positivity from you, Player 4. You're understanding of my time and are making the most of what you have.", Twilight says.

"That's what I try to do!", I respond.

"Always love to see that!", Twilight says. "Now, are you ready to go into the library now?"

"Yes.", I say.

"Good." Twilight steps out of the portal room and leads me to the book paradise I was about to indulge in. It really is a book paradise; rows upon rows and shelves upon shelves full of multi-colored, multi-topic, multi-everything books can be found.

"I'm going to go back to work on the portal now.", Twilight says. "Have fun, P4!"

"I will!", I say.

Twilight steps out and closes the door, leaving me to investigate into the things Lyra and I were talking about at yesterday's lunch; the things about the separation and similarity of these two worlds.

It turns out, finding info on these things is hard. I kind of expected that, since the human world was not known about by Equestrians until, well, three days ago. So, not much luck there, but I still found some cool info. I learned about how the multiverse may have always existed with no beginning, what other planets lie in this solar system, and how physics are different here. For example, there's oxygen in space in this universe. Who knew?

At around 16:45, my reading of science books gets paused by a knock on the door. I can only guess who was there, so I ended my library session and walked to the entry room, where Twilight was to greet the guests.

There they are. Lyra, Bon Bon, and my closest contact Applejack arrive for the photo shoot.

"I heard what was going on. I'm so happy for you right now, Player 4!", Lyra says, going up to me for a hug.

"I know!", Bon Bon adds. "I had no idea you were without any sort of way to show your family back on your world that you're here."

"Yep.", I say, flashing back to that brutal first night where I was pent up with worry about it. "I knew I was taking risk by coming here, in that my family would probably freak out, seeing as how this place is not believed to exist on my world."

"But you still chose to come here anyway... because?", Bon Bon says.

"Because it was what I wanted to do. Not coming to this friendly and safe place, when I knew I could, would have done bad for me. I would have felt sad and deprived."

"Right.", Bon Bon says.

Lyra tightens her hug on me as I continue to kneel down for her height. I'm not really a hugger, but it was clear that gaining the knowledge of my family situation was making her sad, so I let her have her relief and sympathy hug.

Lyra seems to like me a lot. I wonder if she wants to be friends. Well, if she does, I do too!

Twilight gets down to business. "Alright, are we going to do the photo now?", she asks.

"Sure.", I say. Let's go ahead and do it.

The five of us take a trip through the castle halls over to the room currently set up as a photoshoot area. Spike is designated to be the camera holder, and there he is, getting set up, and in fact, both he and I realize we haven't met yet!

"Hey, Player 4.", Spike says, giving me a handshake as I kneel down for his height. Sorry I couldn't get to you yesterday; I was out shopping with Rarity. But Twilight told me about you, so that's how I recognize you."

"That's alright.", I say. "Nice to meet you, Spike."

I like how this is turning out! I'm in a group with my closest contact, the expert who got me to this point, two new potential friends, and in my first encounter with Spike! Right now, things are good.

With nothing else left to be done beforehand, Twilight hands me a piece of paper and a pen.

"I suggest you attach a letter to this.", she says.

"Oh yes.", I say. "I should definitely attach a letter to my family onto this picture."

"Get it all out to them, P4. You've been waiting with worry; you deserve this moment.", Twilight says.

I eagerly begin writing, finally getting to do this.

Dear Family,
You got my first letter, right? Well, if you didn't believe at all what was said and went looking for me, that's what I fully expected.

I'm here now to ease your worries once and for all, because the legend known as Twilight Sparkle has come up with a spell where I can send a photo back to you. At the bottom of this paper, you will see photographic evidence of me in Equestria. And visible magic will appear when the letter comes to you.

Twilight is also working on a spell that will get me back home. So don't worry, I will be back. However, it must be noted that I will probably not return for a couple of months. Twilight is saying September or October at the earliest.

While I am here, please let me know that I love you, miss you, and am perfectly safe. The city I am residing in, Ponyville, is full of the most wonderful ponies around who have been doing nothing but helping me. I also am safe with food, water, and shelter, courtesy of Applejack and her family. You know who Applejack is, right? Well, she's the one I've been staying with. I have taken up temporary residence in the farm known as Sweet Apple Acres.

I also have applied for a job, and if I am still here when the school year rolls around, I'm sure something will be figured out.

Again, I love you and miss you.

Without further ado, here I am with my pony friends:

(picture area)

- Your Son and Brother

I hand the letter to Twilight for safe storage. Then comes time for the second part of the letter; the photo.

"Ready for the shoot, everyone?", Spike says.

"Yeah.", I say. "Let's do that."

The five of us line up in front of the dark-purple wall, with Lyra on the far left of the frame, Bon Bon on the far right, Applejack in the middle left, Twilight in the middle right, and me in the center.

Spike counts down, 3, 2, 1. The camera's flash goes off, and there it is. The evidence. The once-and-for-all that I am not missing or in danger.

Spike hands the picture to Twilight, who performs the moment of truth. She completes the process by attaching the letter to the photo by stamping it at the bottom of the page, then, using her unicorn magic, sends it off through the portal.

I breathe out a giant sigh, which the ponies can tell right away is a sigh of relief.

"How good does it feel to finally have that cleared out, Player 4?", Bon Bon says.

"Really good. I definitely needed that in order to get to Phase 2 properly.", I say.

"And what would Phase 2 be?", Lyra asks. "Or Phase 1? Or any phase?"

"What's Phase 1 is all the predictable things that were bound to come during the first days; excitement, disbelief, worrying about my family, being thrown in a place so different from where I come from, etc., I feel like that's all done now. Even only on day 3, I do feel comfortable here with you all, and I'm ready to start really making this place feel like home."

"Awesome!", Bon Bon says. "And did anypony help you realize that?"

"Well, I think I had the initial realization myself," I say, "but just a little bit ago, when we were having lunch at a restaurant, I remember Golden Harvest telling me things like how I was open to fixing the drawbacks of being here in order to experience the benefits, how I have not had any strong desire to go back home already, and how I know what I want out of my time here."

"She's right!", Bon Bon says. "That ties into what I talked to you about earlier; you came here despite the drawbacks for a reason. If you believed the downsides would be too large, you wouldn't have come."

Totally!

"And you must remember this, Player 4.", Twilight says, "you are surrounded by a world of opportunities to achieve happiness while you are stuck here. We live in Ponyville; you already applied for a job, and, based on the vision of none other than me, you and Applejack seem to be developing a friendship."

Hmm, so the Princess of Friendship herself thinks we are? Well, that definitely tips the scales in favor of a friendship between Applejack and I, and I can see this for myself as AJ looks up at me with a smile.

But it doesn't tip the scales in favor of not being homesick.

"I know all that, and I love it. I love you all, I love being here, and I think AJ and I could become friends too. I just wish I didn't have to sacrifice seeing my family for it."

"I know; it is very hard to be separated from them.", Twilight says. "But here is what you need to know: You're with us, you like us, and I also have this: You being stuck here in Equestria hands you the opportunity to integrate with the place. If you were able to keep going back to your old home, then, how would you ever adjust to your new one?"

"The answer: You wouldn't. You need time to spend exclusively here for a while, so that, when you can go back, you'll be equipped with the opportunity to switch between worlds without a problem."

You know what, that definitely is true. Adjusting doesn't work if you keep letting the progress bar drop some of its filling. It must be allowed to fill at all times, until it is full.

"Thanks, Twilight. I know talking to a pony is something I can always count on."

"That's what we do here, Player 4.", Twilight says. "I also have a question to ask."

"Shoot it.", I say, with my hands in my pockets for listening mode.

"When you decided to come here, how long did you intend on staying? Did you come intending to move here permanently, to just visit, or something else?"

"You know, I don't think I really had an intention.", I say. "I came here because I wanted to know what it was like, and I basically left open the possibility that I'd want to move here. So you could say I came to visit, but acknowledged I might want to take it further."

"Okay. So, as of now, how much 'at home' do you feel here in Ponyville?"

"I'd say I definitely feel more at home than before, very quickly at that! Even though it's only the third day, I woke up this morning fully ready for a breakfast with the Apples, in their family barn. That was a contrast to Day 2, when my brain was still trying to cling on to my old breakfast setting."

"I'm nowhere near fully used to it yet, but I am in the process of it."

Twilight, being Twilight, begins writing the things I say down on paper. I hope she'll get a good use out of it, whether for herself, or for talking to me, or something else.

"So, that sounds to me like you're in the process of becoming a resident. If you were here just to visit, would you be getting used to things?", Twilight asks.

And here's a big eye-opener from these intelligent ponies.

"No. I guess not.", I respond, finding myself wanting to conspiracy-theory that Twilight has access to my mind.

"Right! Something's happening here.", she says.

She's right! There totally is! I was in the process of making Equestria my new home without realizing it! Wow!

"Now, I will ask this.", Twilight says. "Do you like the idea of living here? Would you take the opportunity if granted?"

"Oh yes!", I say. "A life in Equestria does sound really good to me."

"And do you know what your goals would be for a life here?", Twilight asks.

"What I hope to get is a high-paying and big-name career that I love while having at least one best friend to live with."

"I considered Equestria, and Ponyville in particular, as a potential place to live primarily because I felt that finding a BFF would be easier here. I haven't had any luck with it at home. Plus, I could tell from the show how awesome you ponies are. There's a reason I wanted to meet you in the first place. And I do already know that I could live here, for sure."

"Aww, you're sweet.". Bon Bon says.

After I say that, the lightbulb in Twilight's mind has a large, bright flash. After finishing writing my last statement down, she walks up close to me for eye-opening mode.

"Four, you said that your thinking went that finding a BFF would be easier here, and another thing that you want is a good career."

"Well, I also think it would be easier for you to do that here, because you're the only human! You'll organically stand out!"

"When a new species comes to Equestria, of course we're interested in the things they do! And when you make yourself heard that you're going to do something, whatever it may be, you'll have a built-in advantage!"

And Twilight has managed to flick on my lightbulb to high-brightness mode!

"Wow, you're right! I... do have an advantage! That gives me bigger incentive to go for my career when Phase 3 comes around!"

"That's the spirit, P4!", Twilight says, giving me a hoofbump.

Bon Bon then comes in with the next piece of her part in this meeting.

"So, Four, do you know exactly what it was that was preventing you from having the full, happiest-possible experience in Equestria?"

"Yes. It was not knowing if I could tell my family, which has now been cleared out."

"Yes, it has been cleared! Now, what else?", she asks.

I'm confused here. Rewinding through this mind movie, I completely fail to find anything else related to being here that was bothering me; I thought it was just the family thing. "What else?", I say.

And here's another instance where a pony knows something happening to me that I don't know. Bon Bon knows, and she is about to reveal it to me.

"For one, the cultural things that you're losing.", she says. "The food and such. Didn't I partially solve that with the candy selection?"

"You did.", I say. "With the similarity-searching feature in your store."

"Yes.", Bon Bon says. "And here's what else I'm thinking of: the scheduling. Did you know exactly how you would navigate your first days here?"

"No, I totally didn't.", I say. "And I didn't feel like I could, because I wasn't presented with any sort of path. I didn't even know where I would spawn at."

"Okay. So then... look where you are now!"

Bon Bon leaves her sentence at that, tasking me to put the pieces together here.

She's right. These ponies have paved me a perfect path for my Equestrian life after I came completely without one. Starting from my very first interaction, with Applejack giving me that peaceful farm walk led by meeting her family members... I don't think I would have met them the same way if not for that walk! Then she let me apply for a job... and everything else that's happened since... yeah! I see what Bon Bon means!

And yeah, outside of that, the cultural food thing that she talked about earlier. The pony named after candy herself has lended me a hoof in filling a hole there.

Then there's also the family thing solved with the picture today, and...

hold on...

...everything! This applies to my entire experience so far! The worry about being treated as an alien... that got washed away by these ponies. The unknown-to-me-at-the-time potential problem of no career... that's been burnt out by multiple ponies!

All the way through my adventure, at every corner of these three days, was Ponyville friendship magic clearing my way to a happy life in my new country, new world.

I set my hand on top of my yellow baseball cap while holding a frozen smile and heavier breathing, having put together the full comprehension of what these ponies were all thinking of the whole time in this meeting.

"Yes, I get it now!", I say. "I know what you guys were getting at! Every possible large barrier to me being here... you've bulldozed them all away!"

"Yep.", Bon Bon says. "There you go, P4."

And there's another one. Another quote that deserves to be framed on a wall.

Twilight invites us all to go to a restaurant in celebration of this meeting's wonderful outcome, which we do so, with all of us, including Spike, together. The entire way through the delicious event, I hold Bon Bon's quote in the front of my head. And it only continues to gain more and more relevancy, as I realize towards the end of the restaurant time that I'm still not thinking about my old food, and I also ate the new candy I got from Bon Bon's shop today while on the carriage back to the farm, to good results.

More reasons to repeat the quote "There you go."

These ponies did what they have been doing best since I arrived. They opened my mind up to things I wasn't noticing, paving way for a path to bigger and better things. Except, this time, they gave an upgrade, by causing me to fully realize that this paved pathway even existed!

As I put day 3 to bed by shuffling into bed, I fully know that my goal as of right now, and on the agenda for tomorrow, is to spend quality time with my new home and make it feel... like my home. And guess who has allowed me to ever have gotten to this point? That's right; the ponies.

Project Phase 2: onward!

Author's Note

This story has rightfully earned its title as my most ambitious so far. With me portrayed as going through a heavily emotional experience involving looking back to previous days, there's a whole lot of info to consult. Then there's the length; over 43,000 words despite only eight chapters. And there's still a fairly big chunk left to go.

I hope you're appreciating this story! Writing it is a tough task, and I say that when writing in general is a tough task! This one is above average!

Chapter 9: Compilation of Coming Through

Day 4 in Equestria - June 14, 2016 (Tuesday)

Here we go. As I articulated previously, onward. Into the depths of Phase 2.

After a fairly hard-achieved sleep session due to eagerness for today, the interim period between activities that is the nighttime passes itself by yet again, and out comes the rise of making Equestria qualify as my home.

Hello, Phase 2! Today's the day!

Before I really get into that, though, I must jump out of bed and into the family barn, which I do so. I'm unable to schedule anything upon waking up, because I mean, I just woke up. Breakfast and coffee hadn't occurred yet, so I was bound to be a little hazy.

However, that haze didn't cover up the notice I take to the presence of Phase 2 with regards to my mornings while on my way across the field. In that, I went to sleep and woke up with anticipation of the guest barn and Sweet Apple Acres firmly cemented in my mind. In fact, I don't think I ever gave any thought to my old bedroom during any of these past nights other than the first one.

I also 100% anticipate the Apple family morning signatures of the greeting from Applebloom, a breakfast stuffed with apple everything, and two other morning routines they had introduced to me: well... they're hard to explain, but I assure you they're awesome. So, the loss of my old style featuring watching TV in the morning had little effect. I enjoy this new way of beginning my days.

And today is no exception.

I finish breakfast and get myself washed up and such. I even brought out a debut, in taking my first shower in Equestria today. The shower itself is incredibly high-quality. The spray is smooth, the area is clean and glossed in a white coat, and best of all, the Apple family seems to have a rather large water heater; I was able to remain in there for probably about 30 minutes and never lose the hot water. That's not something I can say about every place I've lived.

Alright, now that the prelude is done, I take a seat at my desk in the guest barn bedroom; the exact same location of that whole scheduling session I had yesterday.

Huh, that really was a full day ago! Wow!

Yep, that was yesterday morning; about 24 hours ago. That amount of time later, a new schedule is coming to town!

I begin the process of writing this new schedule by honing in my focus on the overarching theme. I vividly remember the theme: it's spending quality time with this new home and making it feel like my home.

Didn't I already do some of that, with breakfast?

Indeed I did! The fact that I put to use and enjoyed all these new Apple family morning activities fits perfectly under the description of what Phase 2 is all about!

So that's the morning part, already got that done...

I decide that I should take it period-by-period throughout the day. What activities at breakfast fit under Phase 2, what activities around noon, etc.

Starting with the after-breakfast portion; well, step #1 there is getting ready, which I also already did, and accomplished a piece of Phase 2 with the new shower experience. I must also note that I have grown to appreciate my new bathroom, toothbrush, and the like.

I am already in the process of accomplishing Phase 2, in many cases without even realizing it!

But there's a lot left to do; the time still remains at morning. So, what should entail in the period between getting ready and eating lunch?

Using the comparison as a foundation, what entailed for that time back in my old home was firing up my work day. So, what about doing that here?

...Nope. My application results for that data entry job at Sweet Apple Acres have yet to come. So that's crossed off.

Looking ahead into the rest of my old-home days... nothing else really took place in the late mornings. I filled up that entire time with work.

But luckily, my lightbulb flicks on.

Wasn't there a time on Day 2 where Golden Harvest asked me to list things that make a place feel like my home?

Yes, there was! It was that time she summoned on while on our way to Sugarcube Corner and made herself sound like a travel agent! I remember that! And I also remember one of the things I listed: grocery shopping.

Oh...

There we go! That's something I could do!

Except... do I even need to shop? Are the Apples low on food? I mean, even if they are, they make a ton of it themselves, so who knows how much grocery shopping they even do?

Well, I'm sure they eat some foods other than their own, and the only way to find out is to test, so let's test.

And hey, maybe I can go to Bon Bon's candy shop again.

Wouldn't be a bad idea at all for me to do so. I had already nearly exhausted the bag of assorted natural-juice-filled fruit gummies... when I bought only yesterday. With my own money, I also have the opportunity to consume more candy now then at home, so yeah. Why not restock?

I can't really give a sensible reason for this decision, but what I finalize is that if the Apples don't need any refilling of their kitchen cabinets done, I will for sure return to the candy store. If they do need grocery shopping, I may or may not go on the second trip.

Done.

As for what's up next... well, let me reveal some info to you: I'm tired of lining my days with a set schedule. I don't want to write down activities and times anymore. After all, I didn't do this back on Earth. I did plan things, like, I set goals for each days, and some things did need to be timed, like movie theater visits, but I never penned down a physical schedule. I just could never stay on top of it; I always get spontaneous desires to do things, some times get moved and I don't know what to fill them with, etc.

By the way, I was already planning to discontinue this practice as soon as I completed all of those one-on-one meetings, which I successfully did on Day 2. I did know exactly what I wanted to do yesterday, but I didn't write down times yesterday.

It must also be noted that those grocery store and possible candy visits I talked about above; I didn't write those down. I've done this whole schedule in my head so far.

And now, I honestly feel like the period feeling like I've got all the planned stuff done, I decide to ditch the schedule.

Therefore, the protocol I used back at home will reappear: not scheduling any part of the day in advance where you don't have anything predicted. Let that part come later and let the day surprise you. I did this before, I will do it now.

I'm ready to go. I head out of my guest barn and ask the Apples how much outside-of-farm grocery shopping they do and if it would help them for me to go and do the shopping for them today.

It turns out that they do enough of it to justify going to the store, which Granny Smith usually does due to the hefty work schedules of the other three. In fact, that's one of the very few instances in which she leaves Sweet Apple Acres.

But today, they could use more food, and Granny did offer me to do it for them.

Alright! Let's see what grocery shopping in Ponyville is like!

I still had plenty of bits leftover from that "starting pack" Applejack gave to me; the bag doesn't even appear halfway empty yet. But, I again choose to not take the carriage to Ponyville. I feel like I have an even bigger reason for that today; after all, the shopping. Especially if I'm doing a full-brown grocery shop. Okay, maybe it's not full-blown, after all, we're talking about the Apple family here, but I do hold fears of running out before I've run down the grocery list, so I won't risk the bits.

How exactly do I feel about grinding my legs like this? Especially when I have to grind them even more with that long hike back to Sweet Apple Acres? Honestly, yes, it is annoying. When I say "grinding my legs", I mean it. Far too many times in my life have I just barely made it to the precious front door after pressuring my legs across concrete, grass, dirt, and whatever else for who-knows-what durations.

Believe me, I'd be thrilled to ride the carriage. But, it looks like money is the golden exception that can get me to sacrifice my leg comfort.

On another uncomfortable note, today is also a day when work is overtaking Applejack, not allowing her to come with me on this trip.

However, the notion that I'm doing it solo... might not be coming to fruition.

Near my cross into downtown Ponyville, Pinkie Pie bounces toward me. I was perplexed as to why she was out of Sugarcube Corner at 11 AM on a weekday, and asked her likewise, to which she responded "I asked Mr. and Mrs. Cake if I could have some time off to see you! The bakery isn't busy right now, so they said yes! I can be with you until noon!"

And she knew exactly where I was?! Exactly where to go to see me?!

Oh, right. She's Pinkie; she can do things like that.

In any case, I am enthralled to gain another player with me. While I managed fine with traveling in solo mode yesterday, "fine" is the key word there. I can't say I like it. So I instantly accepted Pinkie's join-in, told her what I was up to this morning, and asked her to direct me to the location of Ponyville's grocery store. She agrees to do so, bringing out the bouncing in front of me as she heads in the correct direction. The lovely "locals' knowledge" is in its use to help a foreigner. Yay!

Upon my arrival, I am hit with a site my eyes somewhat don't want to believe is being seen. It turns out this "grocery store" in Ponyville bears quite a lot of difference from the places I'm used to shopping in back at home. This place is covered by the open air; not a single "door to the store" in site. Then, there is an aisle of multiple separated stands, each with separate cash registers, for different categories of food. One stand for bread, one stand for watermelons, you name it.

"So, you have to pay for all these things separately?", I ask Pinkie, sensing a great deal of inconvenience coming my way.

"Yep!", Pinkie says, casually. "That's how we do it here in Ponyville!"

And here's the anticipated arrival of culture shock. Due to me both being an avid viewer of FiM and retaining all my memories of it upon arriving in its world, the reeling fact that I was the one and only human around these parts and surrounded at every turn by talking ponies hasn't really been affecting me, in all honesty. So culture shock was a ball I had dodged... until now.

When I'm in a "grocery store" where I could rained on as I'm looking for food due to no enclosure, and where every time I pick out bread, apples, etc., I have to pay separately for each?! What the heck?

I decide now isn't the right time to talk about this. I feel like I'd be risking it by talking to Pinkie when I'm somewhat frustrated about not having what I like, and I think it's something I'd prefer to wait on for whenever I have a "culture discussion" with ponies, if you will. So right now, I'm going to roll with the new way and see how it goes.

It also gets reminded to me that the Apples are who they are, so there's no need for me to fill an entire whole bag of groceries to the top. So it's not like I was losing the full experience right now; this was a short trip. Plus, there comes the pleasing advantage of being able to talk face-to-face with multiple cashiers across a trip, rather than just one.

As I also reminded myself would most likely happen, there are cool discoveries that come my way. In addition to the Apple family stand that shows up at this place, which I had already been told about, there's also a wooden stand for Bon Bon's candy shop. I know that's what it is; I can recognize the colors and logo. The stand is definitely representing the candy store I have gone to. There's nopony behind the register, so it isn't open right now, but still, this is interesting.

Bon Bon's Bonbons (Yep, that's the name) does have its own full store, that is enclosed and much larger than a stand. I would know; I've been there.

And then there's the Apple family stand, representing Sweet Apple Acres...

So... is that how the grocery store industry in Ponyville operates? Individual companies that specialize in one category of food and run their own larger dedicated stores specifically for that food all collaborate together to create a "store" featuring mini versions of the stores, in the form of stands, across one long aisle?

I ask this to a cashier, and it turns out... I was right!

Huh! So, there's a really cool fact Ponyville and its culture! I have to say, it is a neat way of doing things. It's unique, creative, and shows the level of communal nature this city holds.

Still, I was sure going to miss those grocery store adventures I had at home. The game of winding through the place in protection regardless of the weather, picking out my choices of food, and ending the journey with one single check-out and looking-forward to starting a new food cycle; that can no longer be the way I do things in Ponyville.

I'll definitely want to have a chat about this with ponies someday.

At least the honeymoon effect allowed me to have fun with the new way. Eventually, after jumping from stand-to-stand, taking sights of some cool-looking Equestrian food and picking the gems out, catching small talk with the workers plus some shoppers, the grocery list for myself and the Apples has been run down, and this activity comes to an end.

"So, what are you going to do next, Player 4?", Pinkie Pie asks as we leave the store.

"Well, I just bought food and it's getting close to lunchtime, so I'm going to go back home and eat.", I say, flashing the bags in both of my hands.

"Then after that... uh, I have no idea. I couldn't schedule anything for after lunch today, and I still can't."

Guess who does have an idea, though? Pinkie!

"Well, Four, I noticed you've been out and about a lot these past days.", she says to me. "On your second day here, and Applejack told me this, you went to a restaurant, Sugarcube Corner, Twilight's castle, Rarity's boutique, then back to Sugarcube Corner for the welcome party I gave you."

True...

"Then, on the next day, you went to Lyra and Bon Bon's place, then another restaurant, then Twilight's castle again, then another restaurant."

Wow, I've been to a lot of restaurants!

"What I'm getting at here, Four, is that it seems like you haven't been spending much home time with the Apples."

At this moment, Pinkie has set off a bombshell in my head. She's totally right; I haven't been spending home time with the Apples! The longest continuous time I did was on Day 1, and in terms of the Equestrian portion, that took up less than half of the day! She is also fully correct that Days 2 and Day 3 featured me being out the whole day, running from place to place.

Yes. What Pinkie said is what I must do. Go to the farm, and stay there for the day. Start getting to know the Apples as my roommates. Sink into their daily routines other than the ones in the morning and at night. Do new things with them. Spend time with them.

I, with a very-obvious smiling face, say "Bye, Pinkie! Thanks a lot!", as I rev up my walking speed, heavily excited about my impending activity.

I'm coming, Apples!

Come to them I did. I understood they had work to do, so I didn't gather them all to a meeting for revealing my plans. That would have to be an after-the-fact surprise for dinnertime. Heh, that should be fun.

Anyway, I was to approach each Apple one-by-one and split time with them, as they're all working in distanced-apart stations. Starting with Applejack.

"Hi Applejack. I'm here for something I'd like to apologize about and start doing.", I say.

"I was just with Pinkie Pie, she was shopping for these here groceries with me, and she told me that, despite living with the four of you, I haven't really been spending time with you here at home. I've been out and about a lot these past days, going to restaurants and the like."

"If you feel like I'm not with you enough, I'm sorry. And I really want to start being with you more, so I'm going to stay home the rest of the day, and, in whatever way works for y'all's time, do activities with you. Just spend time with you."

Applejack's movement continues to be stalled with her looking in my eyes. She then puts down whatever farm tool she was holding and walks up close to me.

"There ain't no need for you to apologize, pardner. I understand; you're in a brand new world and ya wanted to explore the place. Don't feel bad 'bout that."

Goodness, she's so reassuring...

"But I sure do like what you're doin' now, Four. We'd all love to have ya here, hangin' around with us at home. Thanks for choosin' that today!"

"Good!", I say, giving her a thumbs-up.

Applejack smiles back. I wouldn't be surprised if she's using my response to (correctly) guess that she's fixed everything I was concerned about on the spot.

I was about to ask her what she wanted to do, but I snap into the idea to check my watch first, which does give me the perfect idea.

"It's about noon; do you think you could take a break and have an outdoor lunch with me? Like, at that picnic table over there?", I say to her, pointing to said table.

"Sure, pardner! That sounds swell!", Applejack says, her front legs rising off the ground a bit in excitement.

"Awesome!", I say.

So there we go. I kick off this special afternoon by having an outdoor lunch with Applejack on a picnic table, where we chatted mostly about work. I asked Applejack about how she makes it through all of the physical labor, how operations between orchards in the extended Apple family work, progress on my job application, what could entail if I get it... definitely a great conversation.

After Applejack had to go back to work, I moved my company to Applebloom, who, at the time, was washing a pig. But she told me that she would be done in a minute and had a "special activity" she had been waiting to do with me. I agreed, excited for what she had in store.

What she had in store was sitting down with me and going through a photo album. Specifically, she showed me a photo album containing the timeline of when Applejack was a teenager and Applebloom was just about to go to kindergarten. That's a time period I never gave much thought to, and there definitely were a lot of interesting pictures.

"This picture shows my very first day of school.", Applebloom says to me. "Applejack took me there."

Ah yes. The bond of those two ponies. Applejack really does act like a mother to Applebloom in some ways.

Another feature of this photo album session that I develop another question in my head: How old is Applejack exactly? I definitely want to ask her someday.

Who's next after Applebloom in this event? Big Mac. I was wary of having a conversation with him given that pretty much all he says are "Eeyup" and "Nope", but I didn't want to feel that way. He deserves interaction with me, regardless of how he talks. So I go for it.

While there, I didn't even really need to change my pattern of speech to accomodate him, in fact. Nearly everything I said could be responded to with just a simple "eeyup" or "nope." Due to him prepping to be stationed there tomorrow, our primary topic was the Apples' stand in Ponyville's outside grocery store, which Big Mac didn't know until now that I had just been to.

Last on the list was Granny Smith. She doesn't work due to her age, so I was able to get in a good long conversation with her. Topics we talked about? Honestly, way too many to list. She's such a great pony to talk to; her long existence had far too many stories to tell. However, one story that really stuck out to me is when she talked about an explosion of Zap Apple Jam. As in, it splattered itself all over the grass, tress, barns, etc. Uh, what? That can happen?! Interesting, if I do say so.

While in the chat with Granny, I look at the clock and it's now 16:22. It was 12:13 when I last looked at it just before I put away the groceries, so I've killed off four hours, and have left the day with only about an hour until dinnertime, by being at home and interacting with my new roommates.

And I do correctly believe that the last remaining hour can be filled by continuing to talk to Granny Smith, so I do. After which, we have another awesome Apple family dinnertime, which had been skipped yesterday due to Twilight's restaurant invitation that Applejack was part of. It's good to have it back.

This dinner in particular featured the debut of apple brown betties (the dessert, not the pony) on my taste buds, at dessert time. No wonder these are popular, I thought to myself.

After dinner, I have my second participation in the Apple family night routine of telling old stories and looking at photo albums, often both at the same time.

"Remember this?", Applejack says, pointing to a photo and giggling. "The time when I fell off a swing at the playground?"

The others giggle too... except me. Um, that's sure not something I'd be giggling at. Like, ouch. I can't imagine how I'd react if I fell off a swing.

Well, Applejack isn't remembering it negatively, I guess.

The hour count of the day reaches 19, 20, and beyond, where it eventually becomes time to put Day 4 to bed.

My thoughts at the end of this day? I absolutely love living with the Apples, and today was a great debut of a day spent at home with them, even if I was out shopping for a bit.

Another thought is that I rammed through this day with hardly any thoughts about my laptop or how much I missed it. I found great replacements that quickly!

Of course, there was still the occasional bout of missing my old home and developing sadness, but that was going to happen regardless, and I always ended up getting distracted by Equestrian activities.

It's a surefire sign of how I'm accomplishing the goal of Phase 2: coming through.

Let's see what I do for that on the next day!

Day 5 in Equestria - June 15, 2016 (Wednesday)

Hello, Day 5.

What do you have in store for me?

Well, again, let's have breakfast give me decision-making fuel first. Off to the family barn I go!

I couldn't be bothered to process any info in my brain other than the beauty of Equestrian sunrises during today's morning trip to the main barn. Let me just say that I really like this morning routine; I've already gotten used to it because it's so fun.

Screw walking. I'm going to run to the family barn.

As I'm in that barn and that fuel comes to me, another thing comes to me: a problem. A new stuck key that needs to be turned.

How much time should I spend out in Ponyville vs. here spending time with the Apples?

Because I mean... I want to do both.

My first reaction is to think "You've got your helpful roommates surrounding you." I hop outside for a bit in the middle of breakfast, leaving my cereal bowl idle, to consult Applejack for an answer to this question.

"I think ya should do whatever the day calls for.", she says to me. "You spent most of yesterday with us 'ere at the farm because ya hadn't done that yet. How you thinkin' it should be distributed today?"

"I'm thinking it might want to be equalized today.", I respond. "An even amount. And that doesn't include breakfast, dinner, and night, since those times are by default with you four."

"That sounds 'bout right to me.", Applejack says. "So it's 09:12 right now, and say ya get home for dinner at 17:20, that gives ya eight hours. Four with us, and four out in Ponyville."

"Although, what that bein' said, if ya need to spend longer or shorter out there, do it. Like I said earlier, do whatever the day calls for, and let it make its decisions gradually, not schedulin' the whole thang."

Yep. She is right. If going out wants more time, it should get it. And if it's run out of time, it shouldn't be stretched.

Just follow the principle I set for myself yesterday; put it in the day's hands.

I thank Applejack, and after finishing the rest of breakfast, go off to do so.

...And discover what should be my first activity rather quickly. I notice that my candy bag has run out, so I determine my first Day 5 stop as the candy store. Preferably with a different candy this time.

With nothing else left to do in the meantime, I head straight there.

As I'm approaching the building, Bon Bon herself walks out and up to me.

"Hi there!", she says. "You here for more candy?"

"Yep.", I say, showing her the bag of bits in my hand. Bits I'm willing to spend for this occasion.

"That's awesome, go in,", she responds, "but... I recently thought of something else for you to do today."

"What?", I ask, deciding to delay my walk into the store.

"Do activities that will expose to the cultural differences between your home and Ponyville.", Bon Bon says, "Yesterday, Pinkie Pie dropped by here to tell me you were surprised by the grocery store layout, after which Lyra looked it up, and indeed, they do it very different on your world."

"A big part of integrating into a new country is letting yourself go through the cultural differences, and I was thinking you might want to go straight at them, rather than letting them shuffle towards you."

There could be some truth to that. I was afraid of getting overwhelmed, but then again, I didn't react that badly to the grocery store thing.

"Okay. I can roll with that, especially when I don't have today planned out."

"Good.", Bon Bon says. "Now, I won't be able to do this with you since I have to run the store, but you know how I mentioned earlier that Lyra was looking up the culture things?"

"Yeah."

"She'll be the one to lead you in this project."

"That's right!", Lyra says, jumping out from the house's front door and suddenly beginning her part. "I just did a ton of research and I know where pretty much all of the biggest differences can be found, so I'll be your culture shock guide!"

I giggle at that last part. "Culture shock guide." Now that's a pretty funny term. Sure, I'll roll with it. I do feel ready for this; I think it would be fun to intentionally expose myself to the differences, rather than waiting to randomly encounter them. I like Bon Bon's idea.

"Have fun, you two!", Bon Bon says as she retreats inside to her candy shop.

And now I have Lyra as my guide.

"Alright.", I say to her. "So, what places are we going to go?"

"Well, where I found the biggest differences are with clothing, physical touch, currency, and technology. I'll leave out the first one since I hear it's a sensitive subject for humans, but the rest just involve going out into Ponyville and roaming around, pretty much!

"Good!", I say.

"Let's go!", Lyra responds.

I tag along with her for the beginning of the culture project... except, shoot, I almost forgot what I was at their house for in the first place!

LOL! Let me rephrase that: Let's go after I pick out a new candy.

After I clear out that part, Lyra directs me to the front of a department store, which is the perfect place for the first thing she wants to talk to me about; currency.

"So, I'm guessing you know how to pay with bits, but what I'm curious about is what currency you grew up using and the mathematical comparisons.", she says.

"Okay.", I say. I'm ready to tell her about my world. "So on Earth, the planet I come from, there are nearly 200 countries and many use different forms of currency, but the one specifically from my country, we use these things called 'dollars' and 'cents.' I'd say cents are equivalent to bits and dollars are like a larger category. Like, you could compare it to the minute and the hour. We don't say '120 minutes', we say '2 hours.'. Likewise, in my country, rather than saying '200 cents,' we say '2 dollars.' A dollar is made up of 100 cents."

"Dollars... hmm, we do have those here and they work the way you described, but they're not common.", Lyra says. "Even for really large pays, we tend to bring large bit bags and say '1,000 bits.'. Dollars are really only used for small stands, where a large gift bag might take up too much space."

Huh. That is really interesting. I can only imagine the difficulty of carrying a bag with that many bits; has anypony ever had to use a wagon for them or something? And yeah, I can also picture the scene of a pony behind a stand trying to stuff a 1,000-bit bag inside that narrow place while leaving room to run their operation. Probably wouldn't be fun.

My previous thought "That is really interesting;" Lyra holds that same sentence in her head.

"So that's really interesting!", she says. "So, have you yet had any trouble paying with bits at all?"

"Not yet, since the prices are posted and I've only been buying small things. But I do feel like it could become a problem when I start buying big things. Like, how easy is it to get dollars, and how would I carry a bit bag so large and heavy?"

"I'm sure you'll figure something out.", Lyra says. "And if you need any help, we're here."

That is true. Ponyville ponies are who they are.

We continue with this project, starting with Lyra's first task of having me go into the store and read price tags with higher bit numbers. I told her I had been to the grocery store today, but she rightfully pointed out that those little stands could only go so far with the size of their products, and likewise the prices.

She wanted me to get a glimpse of how on average things are priced in Ponyville, so I can be more prepared when my buying does progress to further points.

After the store, Lyra's next project is taking me to an (outdoor) arcade, to show me the technological comparisons with video games.

While we're going there, though, another point-out spontaneously shows up: how often ponies touch each other in public compared to where I come from. I took notice to this, finding myself thinking People in my country sure aren't this physically affectionate in public. I saw ponies petting each other's manes, hugging, and even letting their friends rest on their lap while on a bench. Definitely an unfamiliar sight to somebody from the United States.

As I was thinking, and as Lyra mentioned, there will be more I'll have to learn about and possibly get shocked by, but that's why she has another one of these sessions on her agenda. It's an ongoing thing.

After the video game portion is done (result: video games in Equestria only go as far as basic arcade-style machines), Lyra looks over at a nearby clock and notices hunger time approaching.

"It's almost noon.", she says. "How about we go to a restaurant together, since we're already here?"

"Oh yeah, that sounds awesome!", I say. "You're right; it does make sense, and I get to spend quality time with you!"

Lyra smiles and leads me to the restaurant of her choice. She had asked me to list which ones I had been to by now, to which I had replied the mushroom cafe and that dark-blue diner Golden Harvest took me to, so Lyra chose a new one. She wanted me to get restaurant #3 in the books here on Day 5.

The place she goes for ends up being a coffee shop; something I didn't know Ponyville had.

"I think you'll like this place. It's really relaxing with the dark brown walls, and in addition to coffee, they've got cookies, bread, sandwiches, all kinds of things.", Lyra says to me. "I like to grab lunch here if I'm out and about at the time."

I don't think Lyra knew that I enjoyed dark restaurants, but both she and Golden Harvest did choose right, for sure!

Due to me having already caffeinated myself with coffee today and not wanting to put any more of that stuff in my system, my drink choice from the menu was hot chocolate. I had a great time with it despite the current season being late spring, close to summer. Maybe it wasn't as good as in winter, but whatever.

As for the rest of the meal, I had another cheese sandwich, a comfort food from my old home. Then both Lyra and I had a symbol of togetherness with matching chocolate chip cookies.

Other interactions between us? Mostly basic updates on how I've been feeling. Lyra, being in a different house and not having made her first appearance until Day 2, hadn't really been caught up on the emotional aspect of my experience here, so I tell her the story of stories, one of which being what I went through at Rarity's boutique. Lyra didn't know about that.

Which sets off a reminder in me that I'm still wearing the exact same clothes as on June 11... four days from then. Let me tell you, it was uncomfortable. I luckily didn't have this in the front of my mind very often, but when I did... I badly wanted out of it. I understand and respect Rarity's time, she's a busy pony and honestly deserves more rest than she gives herself, but I sure do hope she's giving the clothing project for me extra priority. Despite that shower, I still feel rather gross in these old things.

But I try to brush that off, so for other topics, I asked Lyra what books about humans and our culture she had been reading that apparently helped her with this project. She did name a few titles, so I decide to put another visit to the library on my future agenda, to see if Twilight has those books. Now that I think about it, it would be rather interesting to read about my species from the perspective of a writer who has probably never met one of us.

After we finish up at the coffee shop, Lyra declares the culture shock project complete for today, and with no more out-and-about activities left on the horizon for me, I make the decision to fill out the rest of the day by spending time with the Apples. I say farewell to Lyra and travel the backwards route.

The first pony to notice my return to the farm is my closest contact Applejack, who declares herself too busy to do much with me at the moment, but then notifies me Applebloom has been waiting to read more photo albums with me. I agree to do so for the filly, but it's at this point that I realize I haven't spent much one-on-one time with Applejack. That's something I will definitely add to the schedule for tomorrow.

In the meantime, I do join Applebloom for her photo album activity, where she continued with the timeline. I found out on this day that the Apples organize their photo albums by chronological order of picture, and that there is a series of albums. The current one we're looking at features the time when Applejack was in high school and Applebloom was between preschool, kindergarten, and 1st grade. Huh, the school progress thing works the same way here as on my world.

Around 17:00 (5:00 PM), when I'm sitting in the main barn's livingroom and feeling excited whilst expecting an Apple family dinnertime, Applejack and Big Mac enter in from the front door and make an announcement + suggestion that shifts the course of things.

"Player 4, I just realized that Big Mac is havin' a bowlin' game today,", Applejack says, "and I wanted to ask; do you like bowling?"

"Yeah, I like bowling.", I respond. "I don't do it a lot; I'm far from good at it, but I do like going to a bowling alley."

"Good!", Applejack says. "Well, would ya like to go with Big Mac then?"

I would like to in a sense. But, looking at the clock, it would require making a sacrifice.

"I could, but then I'd miss the Apple family dinner.", I say. "I really like those."

"Aw, we ain't got no problem with it.", Applejack says. "Big Mac won't be here for dinner either with the bowlin', you were here for it yesterday, and I think this is a new experience that will be good for ya."

"Yeah, and I do like bowling alley food,", I say, "but I've been wanting to spend more time here with you four after I was out and about a lot these past days. I feel like I would continue that pattern of not seeing you enough by going to the bowling alley."

"Well, ya can stay if you want, but it sounds to me like you do want to go there.", Applejack says.

"I do want to go, but I don't at the same time.", I say. "There's a battle. Plus, and this is directed towards you, Applejack, we haven't really spent one-on-one time together since I came here outside of the first day. I know you've been busy, but I feel like we have a lot of potential together, and so I was wondering if we could have a hangout day."

This was a desire I only just began to realize as I spoke it. I didn't want to spend more time with just the Apple family, but Applejack in general. It feels like the mare who is supposedly my closest contact is getting fewer visits from me than other ponies.

Little did I know, the unexpected appearance of this desire sets off a lightbulb in Applejack's mind that shines enough to brighten up everything.

"I got an idea, P4.", she says. "You go to the bowling alley tonight, then tomorrow, the two of us will have a day where we hang out together, like you want. I still might have to do a bit of work, and I wasn't plannin' on this schedule, but I'm gonna do everythang I can for us to spend a day together. I agree with ya; even Twilight told us she thinks we could become friends. And let me tell you, I am havin' fun with ya."

Wow! That is such an amazing idea. Now I wouldn't have to make a sacrifice! I get to do both things! Oh yeah, and Applejack thinks the same way I do in regards to friendship status? My mates, this is some luck!

"I like that, AJ. Let's do it.", I say, lifting up from my chair and giving her a hoof-bump.

So I pair up with Big Mac and follow him along the walkway to Ponyville's lone bowling alley, where he introduces me to his bowling group, all the members of which welcome me in with open hooves.

Another feature of Big Mac's group is that it's all stallions interacting with me here. This comes to my knowledge as I arrive at the bowling alley; that these are the only stallions other than Big Mac I've talked to since I came to this town. Ponyville is a heavily female city, and most of the ponies I both knew about and really wanted to meet prior to my appearance are female. An interesting experience for me, a male. So here at the bowling alley, it was a unique experience, to be surrounded by stallions this time.

The number of bowling games that featured me was only one; I put the title "spectator" on myself from there on out and also take time to watch the sports on TV. Being a sports fan, this was something I had to get to eventually. I know about buckball, but not really any Equestrian sports other than those.

I want to give ponies a taste of the sports I grew up with. American football in particular. Ponies watching the NFL; oh yes. I've got to get at least one pony I know to do that.

Eventually, the stallions take a break to order the bowling alley dinner, which I have a spark of excitement for, but... then there's a problem: no meat.

The thing is, I had mostly been shielded from wanting meat back due to the honeymoon effect of trying Equestrian food for the first time. But again, honeymoon effects don't last, and now, I was feeling the absence of hamburgers, chicken quesadillas, and taco salads. I can tell something is missing.

Well, hey, there are meat-eaters in Equestria. Sure, ponies dominate, but for example, Rarity has a carnivorous species as a pet. Her cat. So does Twilight with her owl. And Fluttershy... I mean, she has to have some meat-eaters to feed. I don't think they'd be scared or bothered. So here's another thing to slap onto my agenda; tell somepony about human's omnivorous diets and ask if I can get any access to meat.

Sounds good.

The food later arrives, and while my hunger for meat was turning into a borderline craving as I thought about it more, the soda and sandwiches were still really enjoyable.

I remained a spectator during the entire second round of games, and the post-dinner period at the bowling alley also consisted of a lot more conversation than pre-dinner, mostly to the other stallions in the group who were kilometers more talkative than Big Mac, but even then, Big Mac spoke more words than his usual while caught up in competition. I can only guess that was the reason.

At the end, as I step outside the doors to join Big Mac on the walk back to Sweet Apple Acres, I remember in a flash what Applejack gave me as a reason to go where I just was. Her promise that tomorrow, she would adjust her work schedule to allow for the two of us to have a day where we can just be together. I'd say it will be a "friendship test" day. If my emotional state is in the green tier at the end of tomorrow, I think that will be the cross of the boundary where I can start calling my bond with Applejack a friendship.

Tomorrow is housing an amazing thing to look forward to.

When I make it to the point of setting foot in my bedroom and staying there for many hours, symbolized by the darkening of the sky, I organize my mind around what all has been going on recently, and I conjure up the idea to write down each component of Phase 2.

- Experience your new surroundings and integrate it into your life
- Adjust to Equestrian culture
- Find the extent of your bond with Applejack

The time at which these processes are completed should be when Phase 3 can begin.

There we go.

So, the first two dominated Days 4 and 5. That, then creates a perfect environment for the third one to control Day 6.

I can't wait for tomorrow, Applejack, I think to myself as I let Day 5 fade into the night sky and go to sleep, paving way for Day 6 to come seemingly faster, and most importantly, not be tired during it.

Day 6 in Equestria - June 16, 2016 (Thursday)

Today's the day. Today's the day I can finally let in the proper activity that allows for knowledge on if a friendship is blossoming. But, as is the case in my life, I can't do that without internal conflict.

Do I even want to "test" for a friendship, though? Isn't that wrong? Aren't you supposed to just let things happen?

Well, I mean, there eventually does have to come a point where you do officially figure it out.

And Twilight has said she thinks we're becoming friends...

Honestly, I don't know. I'd rather just dive into what is planned for today and see what happens. Try not to get drowned in one-person conflict.

So I leave my room and run out into the main barn, and I really mean run. Forget about my morning walk this time around.

And uh... is that an indicator of something?

It could be...

Well, we have to wait and see.

Despite today being centered around Applejack and I, we still leave open Applebloom's space to perform the daily greeting towards me.

"Mornin, P4!", she says. "Ya here to have fun with my big sis?"

"That's it.", I say. "I recently felt like we haven't spent enough time together for what we seem to have going on."

"You're right 'bout that.", Applejack says. "I took care of ya when ya first came, I've been helpin' ya with things since ya got here, Twilight told us we've got potential... everythang."

I feel my heart rise in temperature at the uttering of these words. I think that tells me something too.

"So let's put it into action.", I say.

Applejack nods.

The morning routine continues as normal until we meet each other in our designated "home base" near the start of the apple forest. We select two-player mode for the better part of this day; it's time to really get to know each other one-on-When the time comes, the hangout begins.

"So, Four, what ya wanna do today?"

Normally, asking that question of me yields a "Uh... I don't know" response, but today, Applejack has opened the gates for an idea that has been buzzing in my mind for hours.

"Oh. What I want to do today is something that's been on my mind for a while and I've been really wanting to talk to you about.", I say.

Applejack walks forward in interest. "Okay.", she says. "Shoot it."

"Did I ever tell you that in addition to a data specialist, I'm also a musician?", I say.

Applejack's facial expression moves from shot-open eyes to tapping her hoof to her chin with a smile on.

"Erm, I can't quite remember if ya told me that or not, but if ya did, I had forgotten. That's so swell, P4! I bet ya know that I am one too."

"You are!", I say. "And that's why I was thinking; what if we played music together? For reference, I'm a guitar player, and I'm sure there's some of those around here, I know you play them too, but due to the business of these times, I haven't played guitar in six days."

"Sure, pardner! That there's a perfect way for us to bond; common interest! Here, I'll lead ya to the area."

We take the trip across farm hills to a location I didn't even know existed; an entire barn specifically for music playing. Well, I guess it makes sense to avoid noise disturbance. Either way, the barn's color is a lovely dark brown, and inside indeed was a music utopia. Guitars, fiddles, banjos, a drum set, etc. could be found.

"So ah know ya like country music, and ah do too.", Applejack says, walking to one side of the barn. "Ah'd say we go for that; after all, we're in a country environment."

"I agree. We are in that environment!", I say.

"Swell! Let's get goin'!", Applejack says as she picks a guitar off a nearby stand. "Here, you can use this guitar.", she says, handing a flattop steel-string acoustic to me. "You know what, I'll start on guitar too.", she says, picking up a nearly-identical instrument.

Despite much appreciation for the genre, I'm somewhat lacking on experience in country guitar; my specialty was playing rock music. Owning up to that, I also dedicate much more playing time to electric guitar than acoustic. But hey, country music does have electric guitars too, and I still can play acoustic pretty well. I did always make sure to practice on the other one as well.

Her making the choices in her (given by me) role as Player 1, Applejack places a sheet stand in front of me and slides on it a tablature sheet, which at the top bears a song name I had no recognition of.

"The first thing I want to do with ya here is a little somethin' song that two of mah extended family members wrote. It's a song with two acoustic guitars and two voices."

"Although, ah guess I should ask ya about your abilities.", she catches herself with. "Are you better at playin' lead or rhythm guitar, or equal, and can you sing?", Applejack asks of me.

Ooh, good thing she asked this question! I sure didn't want to be given a role that I can't do!

"I've always played in bands as the single guitarist,", I say, "so I'm both a lead and rhythm player. But if I'm playing with a second guitarist, as I am here, I always take the lead role. And... I don't sing. Or, even lip-sync, ever. I'd say I'm weird in that regard."

"Okay. No problem.", Applejack says. "Here, I'll take that sheet then. That one shows the rhythm part; it's blocking your view of what you're gonna be playin'. And in fact, ah don't need it anyway, ah know how to play this song from memory."

"Good choice, then.", I say.

So the lead guitar part of this Apple family original song is now in my view. But uh... I don't really have a frame of reference.

"Hey Applejack, I've never heard this song before, so do you think we could play a recording of it and like, give me an idea of what I'm playing?", I ask.

"Sure, pardner.", Applejack says. It takes her hardly any time to get the recording on, as there's a vinyl record of the song right there in the shelves by us.

Whoever put those in this barn, good thing they remembered!

As the record spins and sounds through the gramophone, my impression of the song upon first listen is that it is very well-written. Not exactly a surprise to me as I knew the Apple family had a good stock of musicians, but I was pleasantly stunned by how good it is. Country, heartfelt, well-produced, everything.

I listen primarily to the lead guitar part while also referring to the tab sheet, getting a feel for what I'll be playing. Through a second listen to the song, repeated plays of individual riffs, and a couple practice takes of the song with both of us, we reach the level for the full playthrough.

"Alright P4, I reckon we're good enough. Ya ready to start the actual performance now?"

"I am.", I say. "Let's do it."

"Ah'll do all the singin'.", Applejack helpfully says. "You're good."

So now this was to be an even more juicy experience with that coated on. From the songs "Raise This Barn" and "Apples to the Core", I know I really like the sound of Applejack's voice. But we haven't really gotten to hear it other than those two songs, so I was even more ready for this than previously.

In this song, the rhythm guitar kicks things off first, so Applejack is the one to play first, after which my part comes in, then the vocals.

This song turned out to be a lot softer and melancholy then my mood was wanting. Applejack's vocal command did give off a heavily emotional feel. It's a great song, but I couldn't help but feel like my mood was blocking me from appreciating it fully. If I'm not having a sadness session, I can't exactly process sad music properly.

After the song finishes, I ask if we can switch to fast bluegrass, which Applejack agrees to do. Due to more instruments, we use a backing track for this song, but AJ handled the vocal and banjo parts simultaneously, which was rather impressive.

After we do a few more songs, we already click very well as musicians. We like the same types of country and bluegrass, and we communicate really well on our instruments. So much so that I feel like we can start writing songs together. I tell her this, and she replies "I'd like that, P4."

Right now, though, I'd like to move to the next activity, which is a game of horseshoes. I had asked Applejack what games she liked to play, and buckball and horseshoes were her answers. The first one was definitely out of my league, so I challenged her to a game of horseshoes.

For horseshoes, I declare Applejack Player 1 and myself Player 2. There wasn't room to get to the number in my name, but my name also means that I try to always be the last player by number, regardless of how far it extends.

Using the standard of one, two, or three points per throw, Applejack finishes with a score of 21, compared to my 16. I expected a loss, as I hardly ever played this game, but I still end up drawing pretty close to her.

We continue with the rest of the beautiful day, going into activities like talking about work, old memories, etc. That second one in particular seemed to spark something in us, as we emitted positive reactions to hearing personal details about each other. If that's not a sign of friendship, I don't know what is.

And then... at the end, something else of the sort appears! After dinner and close to bedtime, Applejack and I chat in my bedroom for a bit; first occurrence since Day 1. And the sentence I speak to her before she leaves is "See you tomorrow, my friend."

She went out the door without saying a word, but I take notice in a flash that I had just called her my friend.

Well, I guess that's the confirmation.

Day 7 in Equestria - June 17, 2018 (Friday)

So, the first thing I do post-breakfast on Day 7 is consult back to that Phase 2 checklist I made and measure how much progress I've built up.

Experiencing my new surroundings and integrating them into my life - well, there was something missing there: I haven't yet asked Applejack to show me the ropes of country living. Hopefully her schedule today will allow her to do that with me. Status: incomplete.

Adjusting to Equestrian culture - I've only done one part of that project with Lyra so far. Status: incomplete.

Finding out the extent of my bond with Applejack...

Honestly, I think we are friends now. Hear me out: AJ did amazing at guiding me through the first day and all the baggage it carried. She got me loving the place by my very first dinner with her family, and comforted me as I had, well, we all know what happened that night.

By the way, she called me "sugarcube" in literally the third sentence she ever spoke to me. Then as well, Twilight isn't the only one who has seen a potential friendship between us. Applejack herself said it on the first night.

And her direct Applejack awesomeness towards me did nothing but continue to manifest in full form as my journey continued. She's done way too many great things for me to list them all.

When I take a moment to examine the status of my bond with Applejack, "friends" is always the word that takes control in my mind. And while I haven't had a conversation with AJ about this yet, every sign I remember points to her reciprocating my feelings. In addition to "sugarcube", she's called me "partner" a ton, she helped me get through the embarrassment of talking to Rarity about clothing, she agreed to mess with her work schedule in order to spend fun time with me... I really don't see any doubt.

I will go to her for a confirmation, but a confirmation I fully anticipate, and if correct, it will be an absolute sunshine moment in my life. One of my reasons for coming to Equestria was to pursue friendships, after having almost no success with it at home. And it will also confirm Ponyville's status as "friendship city" in my eyes.

Later on, when I look back at my schedule, I discover another giant something to be said about this day:

Wait a minute. This is Day 7, so that means...

Yep! The weekly anniversary of me being in Equestria occurs tomorrow!

From that, I decide, what better way to cap off my first seven days here then blending together all these Phase 2 activities? Yeah, yeah! So long as everything remains stable (i.e. no black swan events), I'll integrate them all into one day! Even the one with its status labeled as "complete." And in fact, it can be part of the adjusting to surroundings thing, since my targeted activity (learning about country living) in that area involves Applejack!

I'm excited for today, my mates.

I dig up another thing I've been wanting to do in talking to Sea Swirl and Sprinkle Medley again, but I decide to save those for Day 8. Currently, what I'm going to do is a Phase 2 blend. I go through the breakfast portion of the day and head outside to my closest contact.

Luckily, Applejack did possess enough free time to give me a tour of what country life is like. It basically rolls around with being surrounded by tons of living space, appreciating the nature and quietness, and the animals. Lots of animals.

Space? Oh yeah, there's space. Sweet Apple Acres is massive; if you were to stand in at the home of the pig pen is, the music barn would be nowhere in your eyes' range. Similarly, when I look out the window of my guest barn, I have no visibility of the farm's border edges.

I was then given a few lectures on how the food-grow works; after all, it's an amazingly helpful skill to have when every grocery store is located acres away from you. My presence was probably making trips there easier, due to my mobility and (currently) lack of work, but of course, the Apples will continue to get their food from their own turf, and I love that.

Overall, becoming one with country life was to be a drawn-out process, but I'm ready for it, especially when the country folk I live with are Applejack and Co. I'm excited to start living country life. (Except wearing the farm clothes. I'd look ridiculous in those.)

After all of Applejack's pre-planned activities were exhausted, I used up the rest of the morning playing music with her, joined by Applebloom for a handful of songs with too. After lunch (which held the distinction of being only my (shoot, can't remember what number) lunch at the farm due to frequent restaurant visits), comes the time for me to go back to Lyra and tackle culture project #2.

Result? It goes well. Learning new things every day.

Over the course of the next three days, I rinse, but not repeat, the cycle until Phase 2 is complete. I mean, it's never really going to be "complete," life will always be full of learning and discovering, but I'm clocking the end of Phase 2 as when I'm accustomed enough to Equestrian life to walk into Phase 3. When I feel ready to start moving into my career.

At the end of Day 10, which is Monday, June 20, Applejack and I have a chat at my bedside as I declare Phase 2 over.

"Tomorrow, I'm going to start looking for a career.", I say, prepping my body for a lay-down. "My first choice is music, and I do want that farm job, but I'm always leaving open more possibilities.

"I like that, pardner.", Applejack responds, giving my blanket a tug. "Ya allow things to come your way sometimes, rather than tryin' to stick to a pre-made path."

Wow, hearing her say sure that is interesting. I always thought I was a stubborn status-quo guy.

Maybe I'm growing?

"I'm excited for tomorrow, whatever it may bring.", I say.

"Swell, pardner! And, uh...", she begins to show slight blushing and is biting her lip after this sudden shift-and-pause of her speech.

"What is it, AJ?", I ask.

She takes a large breath, seemingly to give this probably-embarrassing info a release.

"There's uh... somethin' I want to ask you about pardner. Uh...", she says, her embarrassment still trying to resist the shoot-out.

"Ya know those extra things you have on yer hands that we ponies don't have? Those digits?"

"Yeah, my fingers.", I say.

"Fingers. Yeah, that's it. Spike has 'em too.", Applejack says. "And uh... that's relevant to what I'm about to say here; ya know that... time when Spike scratched my back and I liked it?"

"Yeah.", I say.

I decide to give my friend a challenge and cut to the chase on her. "Are you asking me to use my hands on you?"

Applejack's blush very clearly shows now.

"Yup.", Applejack says, full of fluster. "Could ya give me just... a little scritch behind the ears?

This is not a surprise to me. I began my journey here with almost complete certainty that I would receive ponies requesting to experience touch from a human hand, and the feeling was mutual from my side of being the one with hands! It's really odd that it's taken so long for this to show itself; petting and scratching the ponies was something I had been looking forward to and had on my mind well before Day 1. It just kept getting drowned out by the other activities, I guess.

"Yes, Applejack. I'll do it.", I say. "In fact, I've been do this to you ponies. Use my hands. Why it laid in wait all the way until Day 10... I don't know. But it's here now, and I'll scritch you."

"Aww, thanks pardner.", Applejack says. She plants her front hooves on my bedside, offering the bases of her ears. I sit up on my guest room bed and begin to work the magic of my fingernails on an Equestria resident for the first ever time. I use my right-hand index finger to scratch behind her left ear.

Applejack's eyes didn't change appearance at the first seconds, in fact, they may have shot a little bit wider open. But as the sensation registers in her, she begins closing her eyes dreamily and relaxing her head, summoned by the sensation.

"Land sakes... that feels good. Ooh, keep goin, pardner.", she says.

I fulfill her desire, continuing to softly rub my fingernail at the base of her ear as she keeps her head lowered down, her eyes closed, and the dreamy smile on. No doubt she's enjoying this.

Deciding to take it a step further, I move my finger over to AJ's right ear, to which she also lets out an "Aww, yeah."

An even bigger step I take in surprising her by scratching under her chin. We didn't talk about this one, but I figured there needed to be a bit of a change here.

Applejack moves her head up in motion with my hand, and it looks like she might be enjoying the chin scratching even more. She lets out a soft hum and even sticks her tongue out like a dog for a brief second. She quickly retracted it, probably due to embarrassment, but that's a lost cause. I already saw it.

"This feels like a spa treatment.", she mutters out.

Hmm? Could that mean something?

Author's Note

My first chapter to hit 10,000 words. I honestly did not think that would ever happen, to be honest!

What do you think of this different compilation-style chapter, where a series of days are packed into one, rather than each day getting two or three chapters?

Chapter 10: Those Hands

The spa. The spa. Could I get a job there? Most ponies have never felt human hands before... what if they all react the same way Applejack did? I mean, they probably will; ponies in this town love being touched!

My hands, these things, could become revolutionary!

These are the thoughts manifesting at high energy inside my head, and I'm willing to bet they will do so for the entire duration of this night. Good timing, because Phase 3, the career phase, is due to begin tomorrow. The excitement of these two things on top of each other will likely reduce my number of sleep hours tonight, so big thanks to whoever discovered caffeine!

As for what will go down with the spa thing, well, the only way to find out is to test it, right?

Day 11 in Equestria - June 21, 2016 (Tuesday)

Which I get to do in the sunrise hours of the morning. Right after we finish breakfast, Applejack calls me up into her bedroom for more human hand work, which I agree to follow. In that dark brown room, two more feel-good techniques get added to the list. In addition to a repeat of the ear and chin scratching from last night, Applejack brought out the debuts of belly rubs and mane strokes. The former included her muttering "Now I know why Winona likes it so much...", which put a smile on my face. That's what I thought she'd say!

She also let out a few giggles and squirms during that part, showing her ticklishness, which, well, that info has been around for a long time. Refer to the episode "Magic Duel", released over three years ago from today in June 2016. I wasn't caught off guard by it.

When we moved over to mane stroking, Applejack reiterated the claim that she felt like she was in the spa, which she then added on to by telling me I should apply there.

"Your hands are paradise, pardner. The spa is a perfect place for ya.", she whispers.

Yep, "paradise" and "perfect place for me", referring to the spa. I had been expecting, and hoping, that ponies would melt under these fingers I have; doing this to them was something I found myself thinking magical thoughts about all through last night, and I still thought that comment was a bit off the deep end.

Plus, why would I even have a chance at getting to work at the spa? I ain't got jack of prior experience in the industry. I've never undergone an ounce of training to be a massage therapist. The furthest I ever went back at home was petting a dog or cat.

Well, if I keep doing this to ponies, I will get better at it...

And I sure do love doing this, I think as I continue to stroke my fingers through Applejack's golden-colored mane. Between the draping across my lap, dreamy smiles, and giggling, her behavior during this session is top-tier adorable; like, I can feel my heart succumbing.

And then, to give it a tasteful ending, AJ sits up, stretches out her forelegs, and falls onto me for a hug.

It couldn't get any cuter? I guess not. Apparently, cuteness doesn't have a maximum capacity.

However, I didn't quite pass out from an overload of it, so I'm able to reciprocate, marking the first ever hug Applejack and I have had, which is a statistic I didn't even realize until now. "Beautiful" is all I can describe this moment as. And I find myself enjoying the hug, which really is uncharacteristic. I avoided hugs back on Earth.

After the touch session ends, I tell Applejack that I am open to working at the spa, but that I think my touch skills still need a lot of work, and that I'd like to perform it on other ponies in casual settings, to get myself eased into it. The professional aspect is on too far away of a step right now, I insisted.

"Well then, how 'bout Lyra? You know her fairly well.", Applejack says almost instantly.

And so does the word "instantly" apply to my reaction. Oh yeah; this makes 100% sense. Lyra is the human-curious pony, and has been spending a great deal of time with me to begin with. In fact, if I were to make a list of "most likely future friends", she would probably be at #1.

So her and Bon Bon's house is where I head off to; a place I'm making my third overall trip too, but first with Applejack.

On the ride there, what my brain works on thinking is the fact that this is not the start to Phase 3 I was looking at back when this phase was in the future, but it is a good start, because it's so dang adorable.

Does it continue to rightfully have that label? Absolutely. Lyra, like Applejack, practically melted at the first few seconds of ear scratching, and responded to chin scratching with "Human hands are even better than I thought they would be, and that's coming from me, the human-obsessed pony! Everypony should try getting scritched by these. Ahh...". Then she flops onto her back.

And here came the cuteness overload bug trying to knock me out again, when that happening would stop the ponies from receiving the scritching... must... resist!

Think about football for a bit!

Phew, I succeeded. Thinking about another topic for a spell did seem to have its power.

Bon Bon, who asked for a session too, didn't dive quite as deeply with number of areas affected, but she does go for ear scratches and mane strokes, which, when I gave to her, she muttered out "Oh yeah. Now I get why Lyra finds them so interesting." I couldn't help but giggle at that.

I ask all three ponies on what scale quality my touching is at and how much improvement it would take for me to reach spa-tier levels. Their overall response was "None I can think of. It already feels amazing." Which I still wasn't buying into, to be honest. It's the spa, y'all...

I guess I should talk about this: Do I like the idea of working at the spa? Oh yes, for sure! I get to give pets and scritches to these adorable ponies all day long; count me in!

However, I can't just flat-out say "yes" to the prospect right now. I must reconcile it with my other job aspirations of music and data entry at Sweet Apple Acres.

To give Phase 3 a proper introduction, here's what I wrote on my paper for it last night, before I used my hands on Applejack for the first time:
- Wait for the result of my Sweet Apple Acres application
- Decide how you want to start your music career

As I ride back to the farm, the first thing on my mind's to-do list is that I must add "hone your skills at affectionate touching of ponies and apply to Ponyville Day Spa" and "Figure out a balance between all of this" to Phase 3's entry.

Yeah, um... which one do I shoot at first? For the application result at Sweet Apple Acres, that one is in waiting, so I can't engage with it right now, but the beginning of my music career is a beginning I do have control over. So, what should I put on the agenda for today; music or massaging? And how do I create a balanced split of them for the following days?

My brain did go on a wild run there, however, I get it to chill when I arrive home. I continue to whip out the always-helpful protocol of letting things come to me. If what's in my current desires is doing music, I'll be doing music. If an affection session is in the cards, I'm headed there. The activities drive their own cars.

As of this 11:00 AM hour, nopony else has requested a touch session, so I'm bringing my guitar out. Yes, I do have one. After another lovely music meeting we played yesterday, Applejack gifted me two specific guitars, one electric and one acoustic, for me to use. She even said they would continue to be mine if I were to move out of the farm. How sweet!

Nothing too noteworthy (no pun intended) comes out of this guitar session. I just jammed out random guitar sounds. No new songs or any specific-activity upcoming plans on the horizon right now.

Downstairs at the Apple lunch table, when food and chatting are the things I'm honing in focus on, with no planned appearances from anything else, a feature of a previous day comes back for another visit: a letter from Twilight.

"Another one?", I say, pausing my eating in surprise.

I set my fork down and get straight to rolling open the letter, really curious as to why it's here. It's um... for sure something.

Dear Player 4,

It has come to notice of Ponyville that, according to Lyra, human hands are wonderful and you should consider volunteering to get touched by them. She successfully brought it to the newspaper, after claiming she experienced the hands themselves. And since you're the only human around these parts... well, you're caught, P4. Hehe!

Anyway, so a bunch of ponies have said they really wanted a session from you, and they agreed to not swarm you and let only a handful of ponies get the first slots, so would you be so kind as to come to each of their houses and let them experience your hands? And um... can I, uh, have a session too?

- Twlight Sparkle

Applejack, who had moved two chairs over and sat behind me to read the letter with me, instantly got on board with Twilight, bringing up both the spa opportunity and the ability to make a bunch of ponies happy.

To which, I fully agree with her. I absolutely will do this. It should be awesome, to go to ponies' individual houses and make them feel comfort. The fact that they get to do it in their homes should add to the comfort, or at least that's what I think.

So I'm ready to go as soon as lunch finishes, but then I notice a problem. Twilight was the only pony specifically pointed out who wanted a session, who else was I to give it to?

As I'm thinking this, a second letter shows up. I hope this is the list of ponies.

Letter:

Forgot about this: Here's which ponies are waiting for you and your hands today:

- Berry Punch
- Golden Harvest
- Sprinkle Medley
- Sea Swirl
- Amethyst Star

By the way, my session will have to wait until tomorrow, I'm too busy today, but I'll have lots of free time tomorrow, so that's prime time for what you've got!

- Twilight

"Good. Now I know which ponies want it.", I say to my friend behind me. "And this is a great list, too! I get to see all these ponies again!"

"Ya sure do, pardner! Those five are amazin' ponies, and I know you've been wanting to come back to 'em."

"Oh yeah!", I exclaim, in conjunction response to both statements. "I'll get started as soon as we finish lunch here."

"I agree, pardner. Go use those hands!", Applejack responds, moving back to her chair.

I do exactly that, going on a run around Ponyville to the front doors of each listed pony one-by-one, and the results end up in perfect harmony with my predictions. Whether it be ear scratches, belly rubs, mane pets, or any of the others, everypony looked utterly in bliss as my hands touched them; continuous smiles, happy hums, deep breaths, you name it.

They then described their aftermath feelings as "super relaxed", "drained of every worry", among other things, tagged my hands with the word "amazing" and, with support to my dream-chasing, "revolutionary." After I broke the news that I was considering a job at the spa, they all agreed I should launch the consideration into action.

On my mind back home was the insane, mind-boggling thought that something I did could truly become revolutionary. Me, out of what number of people and what low number of chance. I mean, I have been shooting for those stars my whole life, but this old, uninvited (though I guess important) thing called "realism" of course kept making itself heard.

I was immune to it this time, though; all I see in my future goggles is success. I make my first priority upon getting home to send off a letter to Twilight about the results of today and ask the when and how of applying to the spa.

And yet, here comes another walk on the balancing bar as music wants to put itself on the schedule. In fact, when I sat with my guitar for the second time today, this session featured the dawn of a really cool new riff, when I didn't even have songwriting on my plans today! I just fretted on the neck and picked one of my strings, and the note I received from the randomness led to me reaching for another note that complimented the first, and everything else flowed out like a waterfall.

I really like this riff and want to develop it further. So, hmm...

The way things are going, it would seem that affection is my job destiny. But I really like this song in the making, and the result for the farm job is still pending.

I think I can sense a split coming.

And that's pretty much what I think about through the rest of Day 11. Music wasn't on my immediate horizon earlier today, but now, it is...

I have a split pathway coming for me, I think many times from now until bedtime.

Day 12 in Equestria - June 22, 2016 (Wednesday)

Twilight's affection session ended up getting postponed to this day due to work commitments, and she requests my visit to come in the morning, so it's the first thing I run towards after the traditional home morning things pass themselves by.

The new, overarching theme on my mind while trekking over there is how crazily fast the events of this whole thing have happened. I've gone to a new world in a new universe, made a friend, gotten much used to the culture and have eased into my routine, and now am working to get a job... all in only 12 days? Wow.

I wonder if things naturally progress faster in Equestria. Maybe it's just the way the place is.

Whatever the speed, I was eager for the reveal on how much progress would be added by me using my hands on Twilight. It stood to reason that she liked being touched, otherwise, why would she have requested a session? But there is always the awkwardness of doing something like this to a member of royalty, especially when it's something so intimate.

Although, I reckon I'm just falling for the trap of forgetting that they are individual creatures just like you and me. In fact, I recently caught wind to the knowledge that Princess Luna likes to cuddle. Plus, maybe the "respect for monarchs" standards are more loose in Equestria. I mean, I have seen Twilight herself request no formality, as she did with me back on Day 2.

Wow, that was ten days ago.

I arrive at the large doors of Twilight's castle, and she opens them solo to squeal with excitement.

"Player 4! You're here!", she says. "Oh, I can't wait to see what human hands are like. I've been needing relaxation too, so it couldn't have come at a better time!"

That is lucky timing, I must say.

"By the way, Four, I think that your session with me is the determining factor. If I like what you do here, then I'd say you should apply to the spa."

Already?

"Uh, but I don't think I'm qualified yet.", I say. "Like, I literally just started petting the ponies here the night before the last, so that's like, two days. Don't ponies need decades of experience before becoming good at spa practices?"

"Well," Twilight responds. "It might be different on your world, but here, remember that ponies get their cutie marks when they're still really young. Them having their marks shows they've already gotten a lot of experience, and of course that continues into adulthood. Most ponies here land their dream jobs straight out of high school, or even in high school.

"In fact, you can look at the age of the ponies for the spa specifically; Aloe and Lotus are considered spa veterans and they're only 26 years old. As you might expect, most of the other workers there are younger."

That is indeed miles away from my world. I used to hear all the time from the Internet about how you shouldn't expect to have your life together by your early 20s. Well, I guess that's the norm in Ponyville. And she is right; most of the ponies in the CMCs' classroom already have their cutie marks, and they're in elementary school.

But I mean, there's still a massive time difference. They do wait until they're adults to actually apply for the spa job, so that's still a long time of honing their craft.

"Okay, but that's still years of experience, from when they got their marks to when they graduate high school. I'm literally in my third day of massaging ponies.", I say.

"Well, did you have pets back at home? Did you pet them?", Twilight asks.

"Not a lot, but I did.", I respond, not really buying into what she's saying yet. Petting a pet and massaging another sapient being are on different ends of the spectrum.

"And do you not have hand dexterity for other things?"

...

"Well, no.", I say. "In fact, I might have more than usual because I play the guitar and worked an office job where I was typing a lot."

Twilight is beginning to see me as a target for her wisdom. "Okay. Yeah!", she says. "And then, you did this to all those other ponies and they loved it, right?"

Um, well, yeah...

"Yeah, they did. I regularly get my pets and scratches described as 'paradise' and such.", I say.

Here goes Twilight, in for the gusto.

"Well, that clearly shows you already have the natural skill, don't you?", she says.

...

The results don't lie, dude...

"I... I guess I do, but it doesn't make sense! Again, two days."

Twilight wants to respond to this, but what I came here for in the first place comes to her mind, and she sighs this whole thing off, realizing it's causing a delay in her touch pleasure.

"I propose this be something we do research on later.", she says. "Right now, I'd just like to have my touch session, if you're alright with that, Four. Sorry for speaking up."

Oh shoot. Right. I'm delaying that, aren't I?

"Oh, yeah, we can go ahead and do that. I uh... didn't realize how deep we were diving into this suddenly-appearing topic. Sorry about delaying your hand experience."

"It is a good topic, and I hope you can find time to research it with me after we have the touch session.", Twilight says. "No need to apologize; you seem to be someone who goes into deep thinking a lot."

Heh, that is true. I wonder if Twilight caught that by what happened on the photoshoot day.

"Sure!", I say. "Thanks for understanding; I do go into deep thought. Like, all the time. My brain is an active place."

"So is mine!", Twilight responds. "That's why I think you'd be good at research. But anyway, let's go do the hand session now."

"Yes.", I say. "Let's."

I head into the Castle of Friendship for the third time in my Equestrian journey; I've begun to remember the entry room pretty well.

"By the way," Twilight says, as she closes the door to the room for our session, "don't worry about the delicacy or whatever of performing physical touch on a princess. Believe me, I don't give an ounce of care about my status when in a comfort zone. Just do it to me how you would any other pony."

"Thumbs-up to that", I say, simultaneously performing said gesture as I sit down on the couch in this mini-library. This is a room I haven't been in before; it wasn't the same library as where I researched that stuff about space and such back on that picture day.

How long ago was that?

I can't remember, but it feels like quite a while ago...

I don't have time to think about this right now though, as Twilight sits to my right side on the couch in a dog-or-cat-like sitting position. She's ready to start, with the technique I started this whole thing on.

"Can we start with ear scratches?", Twilight says.

"Of course.", I respond. My brain did pick up on the fact that I was about to scratch the ear of a royalty member, but Twilight's calm nature and persuasion that she's no different from anypony else in this situation pushes me over the edge.

Like most other ponies receiving an ear scratch for the first time (it was what I usually started with), Twilight takes a few seconds to register the sensation, then when she does, the soothing nature sends her face in a relaxed downward direction.

"Aww yeah... I know why ponies love it so much.", she mutters out.

She does indeed look super relaxed; I hope I am draining her of all that work stress from yesterday that led to this session being a part of Day 12, rather than 11.

I move my finger over to her right ear, to which she responds "That feels soooo good..."

That feeling also extends to my side. It really does feel good to make someone else feel good, especially when the technique you use is something you've always wanted to do.

I take the next step in moving my hand down to scratch under her chin. When my nails hit that area, Twilight flops herself against the back of the couch, still sitting upright, but absolutely possessed by the scratching.

However, she does retain enough consciousness to turn to the side and drape herself across my lap on her back, for a familiar sight. Out of the seven ponies I've used my hands on so far, belly rubs are the only technique to make an appearance in every session.

It was also the technique to hold the most power in revealing the different body figures in these ponies. Looking at them in regular settings, it would appear that the mares and stallions respectively have identical figures to the others in their gender, and to an extent, they do, but, like humans, some are more thick than others, such as Twilight, who has a more pudgy stomach compared to Golden Harvest and Sea Swirl.

In any case, Twilight appeared to be falling asleep as I stroked around her belly. She, again, seemed possessed by the touch. Maybe that's a sign it is effective enough for the spa?

Twilight, who claimed that she was about to fall asleep but tried not to because she didn't want to delay the rolling ball of progress here, sits back up in her original place and position.

"That. Was. Amazing.", she says. "I don't know if I've ever felt that relaxed, and that's coming from a pony who's been cuddled by Princess Celestia!"

Wow. I took first place in Twilight's "comfort tier" ahead of a pony Twilight's known her whole life? Shoot! I honestly didn't think I held that much power.

"So Celestia likes to cuddle?", I say, in response to the second part of Twilight's sentence.

"Oh yes!", Twilight says. "She says she wants to do it more, and that it's a drawback of royal duties, to not be able to ask for cuddles without it being awkward, simply because you're a monarch."

"In fact, when she has the time, I can bet that Celestia would like one of your sessions. She loves touch."

Okay, so that would be even more awkward, to do it on the ruler of Equestria, but I did it with Twilight, I'm sure I could manage it, and... wait a minute.

Pointer finger up...

"Twilight, it's just occurred to me that I haven't met Princess Celestia yet. I probably should do that, since I'm a new species and all."

"You're right. I think you should too, not just because of your species, but also because the princesses are lovely to talk to. I would know.", she says. "But don't worry about scheduling right now; Celestia and I can handle all that, and we'll be too busy to do it anytime in the next few days. You just go about what you wanted to do for now."

My eyes shoot open.

"Wow. You'll really do that for me? Just handle the whole thing?"

"Yep.", Twilight responds. "It's the least I could do after you did all that for me."

True, that does make sense.

"In fact, if you choose to apply to the spa, I'll handle all the technical stuff and everything. You just work your hands."

Wow! Again!

"Also, I'm going to send you a surprise soon. You'll get it from Spike's magic, like you have before."

"Good.", I say.

"Now, what was it you wanted to talk to me about again?", Twilight asks.

"It's the timing of all this. Like, why would I want to apply to a spa when I've been doing this for literally two days? I know about the built-in dexterity thing, but that still seems really short. And even if ponies do get their cutie marks when they're kids, they still have a long way to go before they get to their career out of high school.", I say.

"Well, maybe they do in terms of making a full-time living from it and not having school to juggle it, but believe me, Aloe and Lotus have told anecdotes about how they successfully gave ponies massages when they were still fillies.", Twilight responds. "One of them even said 'I bet you'd be starting a spa business now if you were old enough.' So it was in the cards well before the Ponyville Spa existed."

Hmm. Okay...

"And then we must note the progress of other ponies. Let's take your friend Applejack. She couldn't always buck trees like she does now, but it only took her about a week to successfully do it without feeling pain and get at least a few apples down."

"Then for Rainbow Dash, remember that she did a Sonic Rainboom when she was a filly."

"Back to you, I'd like to point that your relaxation methods are really simple. It's not like you're doing deep-skin kneading or anything like that. You're just handing out a few pets and scratches. It's not complicated technique."

There is a lot of truth to what she's saying here...

"And the results don't lie. Everypony you've done this to, including me, has loved it. Not a single one of us felt any technique problems or physical discomfort. That's exactly what a spa would be looking for. The results don't lie."

That is true. They don't.

"So it doesn't matter that I'm only two days in?", I ask.

"I don't think so. Between the way ponies develop their skills a lot in their youth, the fact that you have built-in extra hand dexterity thanks to computers and guitars, and using really simple techniques, I think you're ready.", Twilight responds.

...Alright. I guess so!

"Okay. So when do you think I should apply?", I say,

"I'll work on getting your application set up after you leave the castle, for starters. Then I'd advise you to look at your schedule. What works best for you?"

"I can't really say," I respond. "My days are rather random; sometimes a desire to do something just pops out."

"Hmm. Okay, how about this. After Aloe and Lotus are ready for you to come, I'll ask them what date you should come, then I'll write you a letter."

"Okay.", I say. "I can managed one scheduled thing; in fact, I was doing it before. The first time I saw you, that whole day was operated by a schedule.

"Nice!", Twilight says. "Alright, good. We'll do that. And try not to stress too much about when it will be time for you to come to the spa. The day will come when it comes."

I give her a hoof-bump.

Over the course of the rest of Day 12 and into Day 13, my hands still get put to use for affection, though what they're put more to use for is guitar. That song I talked about has gone really far down its journey; I even have a possible title for it that is likely nearing confirmation, and the rough writing is solid enough that I consider it ready to be taken into a studio. I'm sure I can find one eventually; music gets recorded in this nation, after all.

Needless to say, there's a large case to unpack here. What I see in my future goggles needing to pay rent for a studio, which is further down the timeline. That starter pack of bits isn't going to get even close to cutting it, and Equestria, unsurprisingly, lacks the home studio technology I was always told about at home, so it stands to reason that I'll need to be working a day job before I start recording.

So it would stand to reason that music starts later, but I don't want it to.

The thing is, going to record in a studio isn't the only way to start doing music as a career. I've been wanting to find a path where the beginning could be for free. Like, get myself out there somehow without having any proper recordings yet. I have no idea what kind of thing would fit under that description, so that's why I want to look.

Plus, music is clearly on the rise in terms of prominence in my Equestrian life. Through these past few days, started by that jam with Applejack on Day 6 and my work with this original song, and in fact, a few more that I'm beginning to have bubbling up and will probably create an EP out of, I'm beginning to feel really excited for my music prospect. And of course, I still want to talk to Applejack about starting a band with her. There are already two music projects in my future goggles.

And pairing that with the Sweet Apple Acres and spa jobs if I get one of them, or both, much less? Yeah, I'm having trouble envisioning myself successfully juggling all of that. Like, what happens if I get an offer to play a concert and get hired to the farm on the same day? What do I do there? Would my job at the spa be adversely affected if I can't go every day?

And I don't even know yet which one will get its debut project first.

Well, I guess we'll just have to wait and see.

In this waiting period, I hadn't been thinking about the spa, really. In the rare instance it jumped to my mind, I just shrugged and said "It will happen when it happens", and targeted my daily routine towards the job prospects of music and data at the farm. Having thinking sessions about what their timelines could look like. What recognition I could gain from them.

On my 14th day in Equestria, Friday, June 24, 2016, it's the final day of Week 2, and while I'm celebrating that by eating lunch in the Apple family barn, another air letter with initial flaming shows up. What it probably is immediately jumps to my mind.

"That must be about the spa thing!", Applejack says from across the table.

"Let's hope it is!", I say as I open the letter.

Dear Player 4,

I am super proud to announce that Aloe and Lotus have accepted your application, and would like you to perform your hand techniques on them for a final verdict.

The time they will be looking for you is 15:00 today.

- Twilight Sparkle

My reading of this letter was a wave cycle of emotions. First came the emergence of an elation wave that my application got accepted. That I'd get to actually go to the spa and have a shot at proving myself. But then there came the crash of knowing, that I, someone who's been in this affection business for still only four days, would have to perform a spa treatment on the owners themselves. Ponies who are seasoned pros at helping others relax.

I mean, yeah, I know what Twilight said, but still...

"It's gonna be really hard for me to do it, Applejack.", I say. "I mean, I have to perform it on the spa ponies themselves..."

She sits there silent for a fair bit, looking to be at a loss for words. I wasn't surprised; I didn't think my concern had an answer either.

However, she eventually sounds off with the perfect response.

"Yup, you will have to perform it on them, but, and I know this because I've been to the spa a lot, that's what everypony who does massage practices there has to go through. Makin' the spa ponies happy with your practice is the determinin' factor in landin' the job. And if nopony had overcome the embarrassment and done it; then nopony except Lotus and Aloe would be doin' the nice touchin.' And I can bet ya that if that were the case, that spa would be hard to run, with so many customers and so few workers."

Well, she is right. Yeah, imagine a spa like that, with only Aloe and Lotus available for massage practices. The only other workers would be the laundry pony and such, and it would definitely be chaotic. That spa is popular.

Then, yeah, if Aloe and Lotus receiving the touch themselves is how to get hired there, then that's what everypony else had to do too. I'm not alone.

I'm not alone...

Maybe if there's another worker besides Aloe and Lotus, I could ask them to give me some support...

I clap my hands together, feeling another successful push over the edge by a wonderful pony friend. They were truly amazing at handling my hesitation.

"Alright. Let's go and do it then.", I say.

The wind storm of nervousness hadn't ended, but it was milder now, and on the ride to the spa, I make sure to keep the word tools Twilight gave to me in the front of my head. It's true; I'm not coming in with a complicated massage technique. I'm petting and scritching these ponies with really the same hand work I would use on a dog or cat. The fact that they find my treatment spa-worthy is from their perspective.

With that in mind, I wonder if our dogs find petting from us spa-worthy too, and just can't tell us.

And hey, I can only bet that my practice has a built-in advantage because it's coming from a new species. The ponies have never felt this kind of thing before.

Yeah. These exact things are what push me over the edge even further, helping me fill my comfort tank of performing it on the spa ponies even more. Or so, I think, as negative thinking can and does mutate to its advantage.

But... they're spa ponies. What if they don't think my techniques are worthy? What if they're too simple? I could easily not get this job.

Ah yes. The good old "what if" thinking. Hello, my biggest anxiety problem.

Seeing it as a threat to my performance, I try to smack the what ifs away and remind l myself a quote I love: The odds of succeeding are zero if you don't try. So I must try if I want the job. And again, everypony who has ever applied to my field in this spa had to go through this part.

So I carry this to the infamous building with me as I answer "Yes ma'am", to Aloe's "You are wanting to join the spa?", then get led into a white-coated room where both spa sisters lay on light-blue massage tables for this touch trial with my hands. Believing it would favor the technique's effectiveness and reduction of anxiety, I choose to perform it on one pony at a time, starting with Aloe. No matter how nerve-wracking it very much is to set my hand on a spa pony, I push it, and there it lands at the base of her right ear, where the nail begins to move back and forth, and from there, off goes everything else.

Result: Aloe, to quite my surprise, had the exact same, instantly recognizable reaction I knew from the "ordinary ponies." Her professionalism went on vacation, no doubt. From soft hums, to struggling to even say "This feels good", to flipping over on her back for a belly rub, she loved my hands.

I then move my hands over to Lotus, who, guess what, loved it just as much, and engaged in all the same "unprofessional" (I don't like calling them that) behaviors as her sister. They had requested all of my sub-techniques be tested, so belly rubs were in the cards for her too, then she couldn't help but hum and compliment just like Aloe.

After the trial ends, Aloe is the one to bring out the big sentence.

"Mr. Player 4, your touch is wonderful. It cannot be left out of this spa, and so it won't be. We are proud to offer you the position.", she says.

And there I sat, utterly at a loss for words.

Well, so I did it. I'm an employee at the Ponyville Day Spa, with my unique hands ready for use. Still not really sure what kind of crazy world this is where you can get hired to a spa after four days of your practice existing, but again, the results don't lie, and here we are.

I was about to get caught in the disbelief rumination of failing to process the sentence "I'm an employee at the Ponyville Spa", but Aloe moves another topic to the front of the line.

Here's a question that was bound to come up, but must yield an unusual answer in my case.

"So, when are you thinking you should start?", Aloe asks as we walk back out into the spa's lobby.

"I honestly don't know.", I say. "The thing is, I applied for another job and I'm still waiting for the results on that. Then there's another career I'd like to start pursuing.

"Very well, then.", Aloe replies. "How about this: we do not put you on a schedule until you know when you will be available. However, when you can determine it, we would like you and try and be here as much as possible."

"That's reasonable.", I reply. "Good. I'll make sure to work on things."

If only I knew how to...

"We look forward to having you as a worker here at our spa. Your hands do lovely work.", Lotus says.

"Thanks.", I say. "I'm looking forward to working here too, and I'll make sure to be here as early as I can."

Aloe nods.

As I'm already about to give a mind session what the heck I should do next, I hear the ring of the front door's bell and decide to investigate. For a completely unexpected event, Applejack had come.

"Hey, good news, Player 4!", she says. "I just got the results back from your color apple distribution entry, and it's workin' perfectly! Ponies everywhere are sayin' they're getting the exact number of colors for their desires! You clearly are special with data, and for that, you're hired!"

Now here's another loss-for-words occurrence in this day.

Yeah, that's awesome that I got the farm job, but all I can think about right now is that there are two great jobs in front of me that I just got hired to; within a few minutes of each other. Then there's a third one I want to try for...

What do I do?

Author's Note

Huge credit to user Blazewing with the story Affection Therapy for a great reference point on writing this topic. I don't know what this chapter would have done without that story.

Chapter 11: Split Pathway

(Cricket noises)

Yeah, um... what do I do?

Me standing like a stick in the open field while also being looked at in the eyes by several ponies all around me in the middle of the Ponyville Day Spa's lobby, this question was not finding its answer.

Well, at least we get lucky in that somepony decides to be the one to break the ice and prevent a drop into awkward silence.

"I'm guessin' you just got hired to the spa here, Four?", Applejack asks.

"Yup. I did.", I say. "And now I've just been hired to two jobs. On the same day!"

Indeed, and even if I use the protocol of letting things come to me, which I will, that can't always take effect. My spa job will have to be scheduled; it's not quite as flexible as my mind would want. Then what days do I work at the spa and what days do I not? What if an urgent Sweet Apple Acres project shows up on the same day the spa is having a building-packed busy day where a multitude of ponies want my hands on them?

Yeah, I'm stressed out. As I am prone to being. But, it must be reminded where I'm located. Help is on the way.

"I understand your worries, P4. It will be a balancing act. But remember that we're here for you.", one mare on the right side of the room says. "I may not have any specific advice for your situation, but since you've been such a great first human to us, we will support you in whatever way possible."

"I work two careers.", another mare sitting beside her said. "I'm sure I can help."

That does sound really good...

"We shall work with in scheduling too, Player 4.", Lotus says. "Just come to us with any concern you have."

I nod in response, feeling the initial shock get remedied somewhat. Yes, between the supportive nature of these ponies and the fact that there's one right there who works two careers, I can convince myself I'll be able to perform the balancing act. Especially if I'm committed to it.

But then my mind sets itself on fire in another way, by exposing me to another problem, in that this did not fall anywhere short of qualifying as a full-blown split pathway. Spa, data, and music, all three of them looking me in the eyes. My visualization is myself standing in front of three tunnels with the knowledge that I won't have to go down only one of them, but being incessantly buzzed around by the question (because it needs its answer before I can move out of this spot) "Which one do I go in first?"

And then, if this were a movie on a screen I was viewing in a theater, I'd be anticipating the next scene to feature me continuing to stand there in agitating indecisiveness, which fails to be solved and I end up shouting "Urgh!", and sitting on the ground in defeat.

Except, before that scene can come, somepony is sounding like they have access to my mind.

"What I would say is go for the one you're most excited about right now, then worry about the rest later. Take it one step at a time.", one stallion says.

"I second that. Then, try not to look ahead to the difficulties down the line. You'll handle them when they get to you.", the mare sitting next to him added. "In the meantime, take a bit of time to think which one you want to go for first."

I do manage to give these ponies' words a proper listen, after which they do sound totally right. I love the idea of going step-by-step and choosing an option in accordance with my current desires. I already do this and know the protocol well; I just needed it reminded to me, I guess.

Good. So, let's ask the question. Which of the three jobs has been on my mind the most lately?

Honestly, it has to be music. That song I've been writing has been popping into my head at times where it's rather uninvited, and... yeah, I don't want to wait until further down the line to work on it more. I've also been having daydreams about what kinds of awesome opportunities lurk out there for me in the music world. Visualizations of collaborations, studio sessions, and performances took center stage over anything related to data or spa work.

So yeah, music should probably go first. It's been front in line inside my brain.

And hey, it's actually behind the other two in terms of where the real-life progress bar is filled up to. I already know I'm headed into the other two fields, because I've been hired to them. Such is not the case with music. I haven't actually done any profitable actions, like releasing and performing shows, as of yet. With my current furthest point being working on my first song's pre-studio stage, any surefire money is yet to be determined, so...

Pointer finger straight up in the air...

Yeah! Music should definitely go first, because then, I can bring all three options to the same point, where each have a wide-open opportunity that I know I can capitalize on. Balance them out in the first way before balancing them out in the later way.

That sounds good. There we go, my mates.

So that's a fire of anxiety successfully put out once again thanks to the extinguishers that were these wonderful ponies, who, as I look, there's something else on my horizon here.

I feel the extent of my status in this town show itself to me. This light-blue spa lobby, out of all places, is packed to the brim with ponies looking straight at my face with smiles on theirs.

And I don't need any time to detect the source of this scene. These ponies, or at least some of them, were here when Applejack came through the doors and announced the result of my farm data entry application, topped off with how much enthusiasm sounded out in her voice as she spoke it. Then, they know why I'm standing in the spa over any other places; because I got hired here by virtue of exposing them to the touch of human hands.

It's a room packed to the brim with ponies who recognize me by appearance and know my name, and who genuinely believe that I am becoming a positive force in their land. Who appreciate me and what I do.

I'm being looked at, appreciated, treated... like a celebrity.

Wow.

My complete and utter inability to process the idea that I could claim this status tries to ensue, only for the balancing act of work to somewhat regain its original position in my mind. An occurrence of "Oh, right. That."...but not a total takeover.

This swirling combo manifests itself in an unplanned, but worthy of being, full speech.

"Everypony here, you're awesome.", I say to the crowd. "I cannot thank you enough for the experience you've given me in your land so far. This split pathway may be tough, but the fact that I've made it this far, to have two great career opportunities with ability to pursue more, in only two weeks,, that's a huge accomplishment that I couldn't have done without the helping hooves, kindness, and everything that you ponies have given me."

"I heavily appreciate your excitement for me working in this spa and at Sweet Apple Acres.", I say, thankfully remembering this part too. "It's heartwarming that you already believe that I can bring something great to you all."

"And I do plan to start working in both those places soon enough. I look forward to the results too. But right now, I have decided to go for music."

After I make that declaration that sounds to me like it possesses ability to disappoint and garner negative reviews, here comes nothing but a sea of support.

"That sounds awesome, P4. It's always good to have more musicians in town.", one mare says.

"Your life, your choices.", a stallion says.

"Yes. You do that, and we will see you at the spa soon.", Aloe says to me.

"I can wait on the scritches for a bit. With you trying to operate three careers, we won't pressure you.", another mare says.

Wow. It feels so good.

So here I set off into the first land of my job journey: music land. Out the spa doors and on a walk towards town square, to investigate what kind of community music playing offers Ponyville has.

With a positive pause on the way, though. Rarity found me outside and gleefully announced that my fresh set of clothing was finished and ready for pick-up.

Victory fist in the air, my mates.

Of course I want to change out of these grimy old garments ASAP, but, I don't want to have to carry all those clothes with me on the rest of this outside adventure, plus, the investigations into music opportunities is the final thing on my list before I head home for the day, so I decide to go to the boutique after that, which Rarity accepted and announced that she will see me there.

So I keep moving along on the predicted path, and soon enough, here I am, right in front of the board with "music" as its top label in large letters. I clap my hands together.

Let's see what we've got here.

Continues with Fusion Genres

Author's Note

And here's where the stories segway into each other! The backstory of Fusion Genres is finally filled up! :pinkiehappy:

This monster story isn't quite done yet, though! This is the end of the linear story that flows into the larger series, but this story has a bonus chapter coming, my mates! This particular bonus chapter will be an alternate version of one of the main chapters, in a certain perspective mode that I've never seen before. I'm so excited! :pinkiehappy:

BONUS: Chapter 2 from Applejack's Perspective

"Keepin' em comin, Granny?"

"As comin' as they can be. You'll have your full supply for all those ponies."

"Yee-haw!"

My Granny Smith is still the determined worker, even at her age.

Howdy there. I'm Applejack, and I'm walking my hooves out to the green field for another long, hard day of work at Sweet Apple Acres. Caring for the farm animals, bucking apples off trees, sore muscles at bedtime, much more; the packaged deal that my lifestyle comes with. It sure looks like a simple life, and you're right, it is. But, honestly, y'all, that's the life I've got myself rolling with. Just being a farm girl is the dream I'm living.

What Granny and I were exchanging about earlier is a hefty order of Zap Apple Jam-filled pies that a group of bond-loving ponies are wanting to include in a family and friends gathering party they're holding. As the workers we are, we're dedicating our time towards baking up those pies and achieving the status "satisfied customer", and we're sure having a fun time doing it too. My work ethic is also heavily built on thinking about those happy ponies getting the specialty they wanted at a special party.

Right now, though, Granny's got that chore moving smoothly by herself, so my day is taking me is back outside to the trees. The regular apples get their priority too.

Opening the barn doors to the outside area of the acres, here I am inside its portrait of the Apple family life. The admiral well-cut and green grass, the apple-filled trees, wood barns, farm tools, and all that. It's a perfect relic.

"Woo!" I slide the hot sweat off my brow, a recurring symbol of the work life I live. I've sure been givin' these trees here a good buckin'; I can count 50 full baskets in my vicinity, two under each tree. That means I've hit 25 big bucks now, which I find to be a good stopping point, so I hand myself a few-minutes break to take sight of my surroundings.

The image east of my current tree-bucking station; yup, it's as crisp as the fresh apples. In particular with this image, because in front of my eyes are two big, beautiful hills. These hills ain't got no apple trees on them; they're the rare ones that remain empty. I sure do love my trees, but the plain hills are a lovely look.

However, as I'm relishing in all this, my eyes catch something off-hoof. At the highest point of the hill on the right, there's something distinguishing it from its left twin. There appears to be some sort of dark speck there. I can't right tell what it is, but it ain't been there before.

I lean closer and set my eyes to focus mode, which reveals the destiny-changing shape. And I ain't joking when I say destiny.

Why? 'Cause this, y'all, is the shape of a human.

The idea of a human in Equestria is a topic that Equestrian book authors have been tying their hooves in a twist about for a long time now. Granny raises up this topic to me quite often; how her parents used to read her fairy tales about humans, how some ponies truly believe they exist, all that.

"Believe they exist" ain't accurate no more, because I've got apple-hard evidence right in front of me! I can see a human with my very own eyes, right there on top of that hill, in my own home! And this human, y'all, is the first on deck.

I, I'm gonna be the first pony to meet a human? Well, at least sure the first in this generation! Maybe there was a human here thousands of years ago, but nopony I've ever heard of has claimed to have seen one!

I was barking with excitement, y'all. Out of all the possible ponies this could have happened to, out of those tiny, little apple-seed odds, I'm the one. I begin sprinting like a rodeo pony towards the hill. I'm going to be the first! But then, it waves into my mind that the best option would be to... slow down. While we ain't know a lot about humans, we do have knowledge that they ain't native to this land. I once heard Princess Luna say: "If you ever see a human in Equestria, they came from another part of the cosmos." Where exactly they live together is another matter, but it definitely ain't this here planet, and maybe not even this here universe.

So it does stand to reason that this human is probably scared. They've been placed in a completely different world where they ain't got any other members of their species with them. So I'm thinking I should approach cautiously. I sure don't wanna be scarin' away a new creature. So I ease off the rodeo speed.

I'm just going to greet them like I would any newcomer. A first-time customer at Sweet Apple Acres; a new Ponyville resident moving in... anything. Just do it the way I always do.

I hike my way up to the top of the large, tall, slanted hill and catch a close-up view of the human whom a talk-to is part of my schedule now. Looking at the human, this one appears to be male, and is sporting a solidly yellow outfit. Yellow baseball cap, yellow shirt, yellow pants. Huh. He must really like yellow.

I hit the stopping point right in front of him, and work the Applejack way.

"Howdy there. Welcome to Equestria."

This sentence gets followed by nothing but silence. The human does look straight towards me, but doesn't say nothing back. He continues to sit on the hill top with wide-open eyes and hands palm-down on the grass. He honestly does seem a bit frightened. Well, I'm here to help.

"I am not scared. I know your species.", I say.

Now here is the minute I appear to have set something off. The human is still uneasy and sputters out his speech as a result, but he does pump out a sentence: "Y-you do?"

"Sure!", I respond. "Although, I might wanna explain it a bit later, cause... you seem a bit shaky there, sugarcube."

Leaning in for a closer look, I do pick up this possibly-troubling sign.

"I am. I'm... really excited to be here.", he says to me. "The thing is... I'm a big fan of your show, and... I came here because of that. I've always really wanted to meet you, Applejack, and... another thing is, in my world, nobody thinks that you're real. They think your show is just a cartoon... generated by computers..."

Ah, so that's why he was shaking around so much. I'm like an idol to this human, and he's in thrill to meet me. That's mighty swell! And on my part, I'm liking it too! After all, I'm with the first human in Equestria since... however long!

Well, that's the area I'd primarily be talking about if it weren't for that second thing he said.

"Well, that ain't make no sense, we are so for sure real, but, uh, does that mean you're the first to come here?", I ask.

"I could be. I don't know.", the human responds.

Doesn't change a bit.

"Well, you are for sure the first in my lifetime! And Granny Smith's! She's never seen a human before either!", I say in excitement, hoping my sunny attitude will provide some emotional support.

"Well then, could you explain to me how you ponies know about us? I'm a bit confused.", he responds.

"Of course!", I say.

I'm always happy to activate my hospitality in situations like these. This human sure seems like a nice guy too. I take care and slowly sit beside him to his right, making sure to hold my smiling, calm face on, as I just state the facts.

"So, the big, intricate details of how we know is something to be explained by a more study pony, but to simplify, we have heard legends about humans before. They've been talked about in Equestrian folklore, and there are some ponies here who do believe in their existence, including one in Ponyville. So we are familiar with the concept, and... now we know you're real!"

There's a pause in the flow of responses, as this is quite the piece of info to process. Waiting for the results...

"Okay, cool!", the human says. "I, it turns out... I'm really grateful that you do, because, here's something big: I was worried about coming here because I didn't know how I would be treated. I was scared that I'd be seen as an alien, or assumed to be dangerous. I didn't know how ponies would react to seeing a new creature in their land."

Aww, is that Bridle Gossip episode getting to him? I think it is.

I can't blame him a single bit, though. Negative moments sure can have more sticking power in your memory compared to positive ones much of the time. I too catch myself hounding my own head about things that happened years ago sometimes.

So the correct course of action is to do nothing but comfort.

"Aww, well, like I said, I don't feel scared around ya!", I say. "Because I had no reason to! Ya don't seem dangerous! You've been nothin' but super nice to me, and all you were doin' was sittin' here. And not only that, but you were clearly scared. I could see it."

After this reassurance, he does appear more comfortable.

"So, y'all here learned your lesson from what happened with Zecora?"

Land sakes, he says "y'all" too? I wonder if he's a Southern one like me.

Besides that, though, what he was actually asking.

"We sure did.", I say in response to the Zecora thing. "We now know that we shouldn't just run away from a new creature like that. Unless they're causin' destruction or somethin' like that, we have no reason to be scared. I'm sure the ponies in Ponyville will welcome you in."

Of which, I truly am sure. I sure ain't any more special in hospitality or being nice in general than anypony else in the town of friendship.

"Wow, that's a relief.", the human says. "Thanks, AJ."

"No problem, sugarcube. It's what we do here; kindness is a virtue."

That virtue is one of my favorite features of Equestria. I wouldn't terminate my residence here for a billion bits.

The human appears to be cleared of all the emotional clog now, as he says, "Well, with that, I think I'm comfortable getting out of this spot now. I might need some time before I go and meet your family members, though, because... I'm still trying to process the fact that I'm actually here. I have to contain my desire to run around and scream."

I lightly giggle. Okay, now that is funny. I mean, yeah, he is interacting with a celebrity favorite of his and has gained access to the land of his dreams, but... picturing this boy running around and screaming like that... I couldn't help but let out the semi-laughs.

But as for that other topic, land sakes, am I mighty excited he's looking to meet my family. Introducing newcomers to Granny, Big Mac, and Applebloom could be placed near the top of my favorite activities list.

Of course, though, he said he ain't quite ready yet. He still needs time to become one with this truly magical moment in his life, which is 100% understandable. And I have an idea for helping him accomplish that.

"Okay then, how 'bout, we take a walk around the farm for a bit? A good walk always helps me calm down."

"That sounds good. Let's do it!", he says.

This human sure sounds like an open-minded one.

I also gather more new info about him. As this human lifts off the ground and stands up, he does have a chunk of height over me, but not a significant more than Big Mac does. The human is probably young, so maybe he ain't fully grown yet, but the size difference numbers that ponies writing about this species often predicted, the notion they'd look like towers to us... I sure ain't seeing that.

Heh, now this is reminding me of how mighty cool it is to be the first pony to make contact with a human. I've of course been treating this human like a normal newcomer, that's what I do, but since he is the first human, I sure do feel special, if I do say so.

Back to the height thing, it would appear that's in his mind as well.

"Wow, you're um... a bit bigger than I expected.", the human says.

Ain't sure why, but I catch a giggle from that sentence too.

"Yeah.", I say. "The name "My Little Pony" ain't exactly right. Us mares stand about 1.2 meters in height at full growth, and the stallions, 1.5."

"Huh. I'm about 1.7 meters tall, so I guess that means Big Mac is close to me in height.", the human says.

"Yup. So you don't have to worry about overwhelmin' me: I'm used to this size difference.", I say.

"Good.", he responds.

"Alright, well, let's walk around!", I say.

With the two of us moving into a period of less continuous talking, like a peaceful walk would be, I guess it's time for me to start collecting my initial thoughts on this human, who... wait a minute.

Gah. I wanted to give myself a face-hoof here. I had completely forgotten probably the most important piece of information for interaction with a newcomer... their name!

Yup, many sentences spoken to each other and I've still been referring to this human as "the human." Dagnab it...

"Aww shoot, I totally forgot about this! What is your name?", I say, turning back in the other direction.

"Well, I turn out to have an... interesting... name situation, I guess you could call it that, because... I don't use my real name. I go by a stage name. My stage name is 'Player 4.'", he says.

"Player 4... I like that stage name. Sounds cool.", I say.

It does sound cool, doesn't it? I wasn't bothering yet to ask what his name means, but to me it gives off a "powerful" feel.

Now that I've got the name, I can give a proper introduction!

"Well, P4, welcome to my home. I know you're just startin' out and are probably nervous, so we'll take it slow. Let's just have ya walk around, to try to get a bit used to things here."

I could be almost certain he already knew that, after all, we just talked about it, but it felt necessary to give an introduction using his name.

Four gives a thumbs-up, and I lead the way across the farm, guiding him around our lovely farm home that should be a great setting for settling in.

Alright, y'all probably want to hear my thoughts. What am I thinking about this unprecedented day? Quite a lot. For starters, this particular human is definitely not dangerous. He said he's a fan of me and the show I'm on; why would he come here if he wanted to cause harm to us? That ain't make an apple seed of sense.

I'll also note that he didn't disbelieve in the story that ponies weren't scared of humans. That's swell! It warms my heart to see evidence that I do deserve to hold the Element of Honesty. P4 sure trusts me with that element.

Moving on to the next topic: Me being the enthusiast for our home that I am, I hand out anecdotal details about the places Four encounters on our walk here. I was set on giving him a high-quality introduction to Sweet Apple Acres.

I decide to keep the tour going until Four said it should be over; after all, he's the one going through the biggest slew of craziness. We're both meeting new creatures mutually thought to be mythical, but I'm right near my house and he's probably in a different universe from where he came from.

The tour goes on for a hot minute, but eventually, he does say to me "Alright, I think I'm ready to meet your family now."

Alright! Here we go!

"Good!", I exclaim. "Follow me!"

Applebloom could be anywhere in this massive farm, but the most recent place I saw her was the pig pen, where I had tasked her with feeding the pigs, so I consider there to be the proper first look. I really hope she's still there; it would be a little embarrassing to go on a search for my sister with a guest behind me.

I peek over at the pens, and, yup, she's still there. Lucky!

"Hey Applebloom", I call out to her, "I've got a surprise for ya! We have a guest here who ain't from these parts."

My sister is a visitor lover; she right-away snapped to looking right behind me in wait for Four to emerge.

Shoot, y'all, there's suspense here! Who knows what will be her reaction to seeing a brand new species? I mean, it is on a higher level than meeting a new pony.

It turns out... I had forgotten she had been reading human books too.

"Wow! A human?! They exist?! And... ah'm meetin' one?!", Applebloom says.

She was stepping right in P4's direction as she said this, which summoned the big sister instinct in me to tell her "Now Applebloom, he's probably scared, be calm." What I did when meeting him.

However, Four looks mighty more comfortable here. He responds with "Yup! And you're among the first to see one!", and rushes over to the nearby lawn chairs where he allows Applebloom to jump on top of his lap. Huh. Sure wasn't expecting that.

Wait... I'm probably the one who helped him get to this level of comfort, ain't I?

Well, I was the only one who interacted with him before Applebloom, so, I had to be!

Four and Applebloom continue their interactions in a very lively manner, with Four continuing to play along with my sister's excitement and even giving her a rub on the head; definitely worlds apart from his reaction to meeting me.

It has to be true that I'm responsible for this, so I couldn't resist. I blush and hide my face a bit with my hat.. never did I think I held this kind of power.

And now I get a chance to test the extent of this power further, as my brother Big Mac emerges onto the scene.

"Oh, howdy there Big Mac.", I say. "Looks like ya've already seen; we got a human here. And he's bein' really nice to us."

"Eeyup.", he responds.

I'm thinking "eeyup" as well, because Big Mac sure seems to trust P4 too.

Goodness, I don't even want to think about the way this day would be going if Bridle Gossip had never happened. Yeah, it was darn no fun to be shrunken to tiny size like that; oh boy, was I ticked at that. But it sure did ingrain the lesson into me and my friends of not assuming danger out of a new creature just because you ain't never seen them before. Imagine if we hadn't learned that lesson.

Player 4 continues this day's proper and occurring pattern with a desire to get our whole family on his contact list.

"Alright, now I reckon it's time we go to into the barn so I can meet Granny Smith, and we can have... a meeting, of sorts.", he says. "I'll explain to y'all why I'm here and how I got here, and I'll give out some basic info about my species."

I giggle. I love hearing this boy say "reckon" and "y'all". He fits right in with us in that regard.

But in any case, I agree with him that it's time to go to Granny here.

"Sounds good!", I say. "Let's go in!"

I say that as it's not even possible to see our family barn from the pig pen; I had already taking Player 4 on a long walk before we got to meeting Applebloom and Big Mac; I sure hope I'm not tuckering him out.

Well, we made it the full way, and he doesn't seem tired, nor did he ever claim to be, so I can rightly proceed to breaking this beautiful news to my lovable Granny Smith.

"Hey there Granny.", I say, opening the front door. "We've come to note you: we got a new creature here in Equestria. I found him laying in the grass while I was workin', and we've been talkin' to him and introducin' him to Sweet Apple Acres. He's been nothin' but calm and kind to us. We're gonna bring him in here so he can meet you, and talk about his species, and all that."

Granny gives a nod, signaling she's comfortable with Four entering. Although, this wasn't anything planned by me. Four's practice of hiding out of sight before I say "there's a new creature here" was entirely his decision, and something I didn't even consciously notice him doing back in Applebloom's part.

In any case, Player 4 does make himself visible to Granny, and, well, going by her wisdom and experience gained in all of her years, she ain't giving him no hard time.

"Well, howdy there!", she says. "Nice to know you've been gettin' along well, especially when you're new here."

This is a nice day, ain't it?

Player 4 seems to be having fun with the socializing too. He's already connecting so well with all of us that he's about to tell the full story of why he's come here! And remember back when I first saw him? We've really made him comfortable!

All five of us sit in a circle with our eyes pointed towards Four, handing him the stage and microphone to tell us his origin story, if ya could call it that.

"Alright.", he begins. "So, what happened here is: I am a massive fan of your show, that Friendship is Magic series. Such a big fan that I always really wanted to come here, to Equestria, and meet you all. Where this story gets weird is that, on my world, it is not believed that the show is real. Almost every other human thinks that it's a cartoon made through advanced technology. But with my urge to come here on a very high scale, I decided to dive deep into the science, where I uncovered that this place is real. I then used more science to spawn a portal, after which, I ended up here. I didn't choose to come to Sweet Apple Acres; the portal picked at random. Oh, and my name is Player 4. I'm known by a stage moniker."

Swell story he's got! Lots of interesting info deserving to be looked into.

The first thing on my mind is: Why exactly do the other humans think we're just a cartoon? What exactly is blocking our existence out from them to such a degree that it took Four doing all that crazy science to prove otherwise? And for that matter, how did he do all that? Is he a scientist? He sure sounds like one.

Second, that's mighty interesting he landed here by random chance. Land sakes, yeah, that's sure something to be thankful for! His portal was random; he could have landed anywhere! What if his landing spot had been the Everfree Forest? Shoot, he'd be in big, big danger there, with that forest being the horror show it is and him being a new species; he must be thrilled he ended up here.

To that, I'm the same way. Am I liking Player 4? Yeah! He seems like a chill guy who does cool stuff, and he loves us ponies too! My family is also liking him. They engage in conversation about how he did a cool thing and how he has fingers; they do look to be having fun.

Still, pretty much all I'm thinking about is the speed at which Four warmed up to us. It's been, what, only an hour, I believe, and it he already seems to belong here. He just fits in with us like apple pie. That had to be coming from his end too, so we sure got a lucky alignment.

I wonder what the odds of this were, for him to land in such a perfect spot, out of all the places in Equestria? It's a big place!

I also draw some more info out of Four, when he added on to his travel story the problem of the time zone change he went through having a conflict with dinnertime. Yeah, I can relate to that. I remember crossing into a new time zone on my trip to Las Pegasus; it was only a change of one hour back, but I was hungry for dinner at a time when the restaurants were mostly empty. Crossing over time zones will do that to ya.

Four requested that we all eat dinner early in order to feed him at the time his body was calling for, which us Apples agreed to. Maybe we weren't ready for eats yet, but we don't want a starving guest. Plus, we ain't not go more work on schedule until after dinner anyway; it works.

As I entered the kitchen to prepare for this big dinner, big because it's our first with Player 4, I overhear conversation in my previous location that really captures my attention, possibly even slowing down the cooking process.

"So, what do you usually do to pass the time while you're waiting for dinner, Mr. Four?", Applebloom asks.

"Mr. Four"; heh, that's funny. I wonder if Applebloom is used to addressing creatures formally like that due to being in school.

"Hmm, that's an interesting question, because, back on my world, we have a lot of advanced technology that you ponies don't have, and that advanced technology has given us some... gadgets that have become staples in our day-to-day lives.", Four says. They are what we use to pass the time... most of the time."

Advanced technology that we ponies don't have? Shoot, that's interesting! I'm not a huge reader, but I sure have heard several parts of those science fiction "future technology" books that many ponies love writing about; it's mighty swell if Player 4 comes from a place like what's in those books! I'd have to ask him about this someday.

"Interesting!", Applebloom says.

"So, you've got a bit of changes to get used to, yeah?", Granny asks.

"Yeah, I do. And... I don't know what I'm going to do to the pass the time while waiting for dinner.", Four says.

"Well, do you like to listen to music? In particular, country music?", Applebloom asks.

"Yeah!", Four exclaims. "It's not my primary genre, but I have been listening to a lot more country music recently. I've been getting really into it."

And that one... that sentence took me out of my station, y'all.

"P4 and I have already found so much to bond over when we've known each other for less than two hours!", I exclaim, peeking my head out of the kitchen.

"Yeah!", Four responds. "It's interesting how much is aligning."

Sure is!

I complete the cooking and ring the dinner bell. It's time for Four to get a taste of our Apple family meals.

"I hope ya get some good impressions tonight, P4!", I say, sitting down in my chair.

"Well, let's find out!", he says.

The apples on this farm are what they are, so we always make sure to put the straight-up fruits onto our dinner tables. This is especially useful for Four tonight, as I correctly figured he'd want to start with the basics. He picks up a red apple off the plate.

This is my dominating moment of truth today, y'all. Me and the others work our tails off to make our apples on the farm as perfect as possible; bearing witness to somecreature trying one for the first time really gets me barking. I carefully and closely watch P4 as he goes for that first bite, uncontrollably shivering in wait for him to announce the result.

He gives it a good chewing, and here it comes...

"Well! I can already say, after just one bite, that was the best apple I've ever had!", Four says.

And here comes my blushing again... I'm just going to try to say it normally...

"Thanks, pardner!", I say. We do our best here at Sweet Apple Acres to make them so!"

"You do a great job! If this business isn't huge, it should be."

Ah, shoot. He brought up our money situation. Well, okay, I'm sure he didn't mean any harm, but this was a topic that I had been avoiding.

Full disclosure: Sweet Apple Acres technically is "huge", so Player 4 can be said to be getting his wish. We do sell a large number of products, with a sizeable chunk every day going out, and we've sure been boosted a bunch by our deals with the Rich family. We've gotten a lot richer (pun intended), since then.

But are we rich enough to go crazy with vacation spending and buy whatever we want like my friend Rainbow Dash can? No. Most of the money we make has to be invested into the farm, we have to split it between us, and Granny, as the leader, needs priority as well, so the amount of money that goes into my own pocket and that I can use for leisure spending is definitely negligible.

However, there is something to gain from this, in that Four seems to be a money-minded creature, which leads to my curiosity about what field he works in.

"Alright P4, so we've got info on your situation, now I feel like it's time to ask ya about you and what you do. Like, what's your job? What are your main hobbies?", I say.

"My job? Oh, well, it's something you might be interested in. I work as a data specialist, where the primary thing I do is look at info and fill in the blanks. I take incomplete info and piece it together to answer a wider question. There's more to explain, but that's the gist of it.", he responds.

Wait... what?!

Data specialist? Incomplete info to answer a big question?

Land sakes, y'all, that's a mighty useful job for Sweet Apple Acres...

And P4 is probably jobless since he just came here...

Let me offer something to him!

"Well, ya could work here then! That's the perfect job for Sweet Apple Acres!", I say in excitement.

"It sure is!", Applebloom adds. "Farm work is way more than just that physical stuff; we need them numbers too!"

"Of course!", I say. "P4, after dinner, how about I'll give ya a task, and if you do well, we're hire ya here."

"That sounds great; thanks!", Four says.

Success!

I want to set my mind's focus towards working with him on that; ya know, what assignment I'm gonna give him and such, but that gets put on hold by another important personal story of his.

"I feel especially grateful to you guys right now, for giving me this opportunity, because... I don't have any money right now.", he says, with his voice sounding sadder.

Uh... what?

I become the one to break the ice after a spell of silence.

"Really?", I say. "And, now that I think of it, ya don't seem to have anything with ya right now.", I say, concerned.

"That's true; I don't.", he says. "It was due to limitations in how much could go through a rip in the fabric of space and time. While this science was able to get me very far, where it couldn't take me was bringing my belongings. The portal could only handle one thing at a time."

Shoot...

This rock hits me so hard that my little sister ends up with my ice-breaking role here.

"So, ya ain't got nothin? Nothin' at all?", Applebloom asks.

"Nothing.", Four says. "I'm starting my Equestrian adventure completely from scratch. I have no money, nowhere to live, nowhere to sleep, nothing. And I don't know where I'm going to go."

Suddenly, with that statement, I feel a bright brain lightbulb beam at me, as everything clicks together here. No money? Nowhere to live? Nowhere to sleep? Don't know where you're gonna go?

...Not on my watch!

"Well, I can say ya do have somethin' now! We'll take ya in here at Sweet Apple Acres... for as long as ya need! We've got a guest barn here, and we'll give ya everything ya need to live!"

Totally! Of course I wasn't going to leave him out in the grass!

Though, of course, it ain't easy for the recipient to accept such hospitality.

"Really?", he says.

"Of course!", I respond. "Like ya said, you don't have the means to survive by yourself. It wouldn't be right to just leave ya out there. For as long as you need, the farm is your home."

Me and my family members all look simultaneously straight at him with smiles. We've got the "we're here for you" look. And he seems to have registered it.

"Wow! Thanks y'all; you're so great.", he says.

"But, hear me out, I insist on paying you rent. I really don't want to be a freeloader."

...And he couldn't quite get away from that one. Alright; I don't see any use arguing with him about it. I'm giving him a way to make money anyway.

"Well, we wouldn't mind if ya stayed for free, but... okay. We understand.", I say.

Dinner was going to be losing its heat sooner or later, so we make sure to finish that up. Four sure did enjoy it, and he shares our music habits, so this was a fun time.

And then there's something to look forward to after this.

In a great string of fortune for P4, there's been a work-needed task going on around the Apple family orchards that his field of expertise is perfect for.

So, what's been happening is that we've recently gotten a slew of reviews saying that our sold distribution of apple colors ain't good for ponies' tastes. The #1 problem being talked about is that the number of red apples is too high, whereas the number of yellow and green apples is too low. They say lots of red apples go uneaten because there aren't enough ponies wanting them to clear it all out, and then that fans of the yellows and greens often find their colors out of stock.

In that case, it seems like the simple solution is to just decrease the amount of red apples and increase the amount of yellow and green ones, but it's more complicated than that. In tandem with green and yellow lovers saying there's too much red, yellow lovers are saying there's too much green and not enough yellow.

That really spins our heads in circles. What exactly should the distribution be?

That's what I've called Player 4 for. He works in data, so he's the obvious choice.

In an attempt to get some preliminary data myself (which Player 4 does need), I recently conducted a project where I went around interviewing ponies about the color collection numbers. I wrote down the percentages of each favorite apple color and asked them what they think the distribution should be.

But it was still too mind-spinning. I primarily do physical work; I'm not good with data in this way. Plus, this was the first appearance of a complicated numbers question showed in my career. Of course numbers have always been a part of this business, but they've been low-difficulty enough that we could take care of them ourselves.

Plus, it's always nice to have an extra helper, ain't it?

I head to the barn housing that paper I used for the interviews and clip it onto a board for P4 to use. It's qualification task time.

"Alright sugarcube, so here's what ya gotta do. One criticism that we on the farm have been gettin' recently is that our distribution of apples by color ain't representative of what ponies' tastes are. Some ponies say there ain't enough green, or too much yellow, or not enough red."

"So I need you to determine what the percentages of color should be, based on what ponies like. Here's a paper of the results of some interviews I took. What I need ya to do is figure out the percentage numbers based on this.", I say, handing him the clipboard.

"Here's a pen too, and ya can work over on that there bench. In the meantime, I'll be buckin' trees over there. Just come to me when you're done."

Four gives me a thumbs-up, and I go to work at my own station.

And it has to be now, after Four is already seeing what I wrote, that I find out what I said to him about the colors was really misleading. I said "not enough red"; yeah, uh, that's wrong. It's too much red that ponies have been leaving reviews about!

Well, I'm sure he'll figure it out. He's a data specialist anyway, and the interview transcripts clearly say that ponies want less red. Not a problem.

Yeah. I just go ahead to tree-bucking.

While I'm there, I'm really getting excited at the prospect of having Four as an employee here at Sweet Apple Acres. I adore having him around, and it would be a great balance to have an office-style worker, specializing in numbers and data, working in a farm, an area with emphasis on the physical stuff. It would also lift the data work off of me and my family. All of us have never liked working with numbers quite as much as the muscles.

It also means more time to spend with him! I wouldn't have to worry about managing my work schedule the same way I do in meeting my pony friends; if Player 4 is working in the same place as me, we naturally get to see each other more! That would be a nice unique friendship to have!

I sure hope he does this well.

He's about to show me. "Done!", he says, showing up near me and handing the clipboard over.

Alright! Let's see what we've got with the color percentages!

So, Player 4 says: 60% red, 25% green, 15% yellow.

"Great work, sugarcube!", I say. "So we got the data here now; we're gonna experiment with those percentages you put down and see if they're accurate. If they are, you're hired!"

"Awesome!", he says, giving me a hoof-bump.

I am liking these numbers here. They may not have been tested yet, but they do make sense to me. I had always guessed that we grow red apples about 70% to 80% of the time, and yeah, I can totally see why those habits might render not enough green and yellow. Green in particular; many ponies do take big pride in their love of the sour ones.

Can't wait to put this to the test!

The sun is on its way down here in Ponyville, and as I look around and examine all the work stations visited on the farm today, I can consider all my tasks to be at a good stopping point, so I declare the work day over.

That means what's next is introducing Player 4 to where he's sleeping and all that, so I walk towards where he's standing.

In my head, I prepared the words and sentences I'd speak at his guest barn tour, but... there might be something else on my hooves here: Four ain't looking so good. He's bending down with his hands holding onto his knees. No way it's physical exhaustion; his work is more office-style. And then I can hear him breathing out sad sighs. This is a concern to me.

"Uh... is something wrong, sugarcube?", I say.

"Yes, something is wrong.", he says. "It's about my family. You know how I said earlier that pretty much no other human thinks this place is real?"

Oh, right. Yeah, that could be a problem.

"Yeah.", I say, feeling my mood dip along with him.

"Well, because of that, my family is probably really freaked out.", Four says to me. "I left a note explaining why I'm gone, but that probably doesn't help, given that they almost certainly don't believe it. What are they thinking right now? Are they going to go outside looking for me? Call the police?"

Yikes. He definitely ain't doing well right now.

Remedying this will be a tall task, but I sure ain't failing to find a way.

"Well, even if they did do those things, they'd never find ya, because you're here!", I say. "The police wouldn't get to ya either! Eventually they'd have to stop looking, and ah'm sure we can find a way to prove to them that Equestria is real."

"But that won't come until later; there's no way at the moment to send a photograph back to my world, or travel between the worlds.", Four says. "That portal disappeared after I arrived, and I can't respawn it. I know from the studying I did that there is currently no way for me to interact with my home planet at all. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep tonight with this in my mind, especially not when I'm in a new environment. I always have trouble sleeping in somewhere that isn't my own bed."

"That's perfectly understandable!", I respond. "And I'll tell ya this; we're gonna do everything we can to make ya comfortable. Whatever ya need to calm those worries, or sleep better, we're here for you."

Yup. Continuing the pattern.

"Thanks so much.", he says. "Well, how about we start by seeing where I'll sleep?"

"Right over there!", I say, pointing to the family's guest barn.

"Here it is.", I say, walking P4 into what will be his living space for now.

"The bedroom would be right in that corner!", I add.

We walk up the staircase and across the brown loft into the southeast corner of the barn, where I lead P4 into the red guest bedroom.

“Ya have any questions?”, I say as he tests out the white bed.

“Well, Applejack, I know that you ring a bell when breakfast is ready, but with me being so far away, how am I supposed to hear it?”, he says.

I hadn't yet bothered to check if our barn is visible from this room or not, so I take a look at what the viewing area of the window beside Four's bed is. Fortunately enough, the barn my family and I reside in is visible.

“Well, you can see the barn from here, right?”, I say.

He looks out the window. “Yeah.”, he says. "I can see it."

Good!

"You can come in when we turn the lights on.", I say.

Little did I know this ordinary home practice would become of usefulness to a guest!

"Okay, sounds good.", P4 says.

Yup.

"Is that all?", I ask.

"Yeah, I think that's all the questions I have for now.", Four responds. "I just don't know how I'm going to fall asleep with all that's going on."

Ah yes. The good old first night effect. I totally feel for P4 here; I sure know what it's like to not sleep in my own bed. Successful sleep is hugely dependent on comfort, and when you can't sleep in your comfort zone... it ain't fun. And in Four's case, think about the barrage of other emotional ailments he's got. No wonder he feels his sleep is in trouble.

Well, in helping him with this, the place to start would be asking him what he usually does.

"Well, that's what I'm here for.", I say to him. "What do you usually use to help with you sleep when you're stressed?"

"Well, what I usually use is those technologically-advanced things that Equestrians don't have.", he says. "I'm without any of the comforting night gadgets I'm used to."

Darn... well, that's out.

Hey, I've got a good reference point on this problem, though!

"Okay, what about the calmin' techniques I use on Applebloom then?", Applejack says. "Want me to bring ya a glass of milk? Sing ya a lullaby?"

Okay, hear me out. I don't know Player 4's age; I mean, he does appear to me as older than Applebloom, and also male, so that's saying something. But I did at least want to entertain the chance he'd go for these "childish" sleep techniques. I sometimes get a lullaby sung to me; Twilight did it for me once when the two of us were having a sleepover at her castle and I was struggling to sleep outside of my own bed. Much like Four tonight!

Or, maybe not.

"I don't think those work on me.", he says. "I don't know why; I'm just difficult to calm. I have anxiety problems, and I'm being handed a combination of being in a new environment and having no way to know what my family is feeling right now. I can't think of anything that will help."

Shoot. Anxiety problems? Yeah, that would rightily explain his "doom and gloom" thinking here. Which I've had experience with. The time Rainbow Dash was hospital-bound with the broken wing that led to her beginning to read Daring Do; before she made that dramatically life-changing decision, I remember her worrying about "a few years" before she'd ever fly again. Player 4 ain't that much different here.

I do have a struggle in responding to this, though. I may technically have experience, but I myself didn't say anything to Dash when she was having those worries. That role was relegated to Fluttershy, for a good reason.

But I can't let Four down, and the knowledge that he's got something to look forward to tomorrow fortunately waves into my mind.

"Well, sugarcube, I can tell ya you'll have questions answered tomorrow.", I say. "We'll meet up with Twilight, and hopefully she can find a way for you to send a picture to your family, and figure out how to get ya back home, all that. Does that comfort ya?"

"Yeah, I guess it does.", he says. "Knowing that this situation will end."

There ya go!

"That's the spirit!", I respond. "Alright, ya think you're ready now?"

"Yeah, I guess I'll try to go to sleep.", he says.

"Okay, pardner. Me and the others had a great time with ya today; just know that. We're already likin' ya a lot. A new friendship might be in the making. See ya tomorrow, pardner!"

As I walk out the guest bedroom door for the trip back to my own room and the transition into the second day of all this, the sentence I spoke above... I do believe is true.

Well, this was one big apple of a day, wasn't it? An ordinary, anticipated Applejack work day morphed into a meeting with possibly the first ever human in Equestria, and my family and I being the possible first ponies to come into contact with one! And getting friendly with him too!

I had promised Player 4 I'd take him to see Twilight and have his worries washed out at least somewhat, and he does need it; he's hurting. So this means I need to reconcile it with my work habits tomorrow.

As I lean out the window and look at my beloved farm from above, I can smell chores needing to be done. I'm Applejack; I have that work instinct. But on the other side, there's a brand new creature to this land, who's separated from his family and has no possible way to know how they're reacting, who seems to be putting trust in me to guide him into his new life.

Measuring the two sides' weight of importance, number 2 almost comes to the ground. The choice is clear. The unbalance is so high that it leads me to telling myself something that, under any other circumstance, would have me spitting at it and calling it "self-blasphemy". But today, it's different.

Work can wait.

Chapter 7: Small Talk That's Actually Big

Alright. It's schedule time.

For writing the schedule, I draw up the idea to rip out a piece of paper from the notebook and tape it onto the barn wall so that I can easily consult it without having to pull out the notebook and flip to the right page.

Turning the pages over to the first empty space following the end of today's diary entry, I slowly rip the paper out of its original place, and for once, successfully keep its shape intact! I push the notebook to the back of my guest desk and set the to-be schedule paper in front of my eyes, for it to be worked on. I then reach for my primary pen and point it towards its destination.

So, what black-colored text needs to be written on this page?

Well, the Equestrian adventures I'm trying to schedule are all these one-on-one meetups with ponies I had agreed to doing during my introduction-to-town journey through Ponyville yesterday. There were quite a few requests for those.

The ponies didn't give me any scheduling on when they start and end their work days, where in Ponyville there houses are, and the like, and I am millions of light-years away from the reach of an iPhone or any kind of instant messaging, so I'll have to create this schedule using predictions and estimations.

Let's take it step-by-step. Where is the proper place to start?

First off, I decide I should give the first meeting honor to whoever asked first; I think first request should get first dibs. Yeah, I'll go in order. So, who was the first pony I agreed to a hangout with?

I can't exactly remember, so I put into action the technique of running through my time here, taking note of everypony I've talked to so far in chronological order, and whether or not a meeting invite took place.

Applejack, no. She's my closest contact, so we're already in the habit of talking to each other in two-player mode. The other Apples, no. None of them have asked for a session like that with me.

Moving on to Day 2: Lyra and Bon Bon... yes! Right before their departure from the hangout with Applejack and I yesterday, they told me they wanted to see me at their place, partially for checking out Bon Bon's candy shop.

So, there we go! That is where I shall go first!

Now, what time?

I look at the clock during this sunny morning - 09:13.

I haven't the slightest idea what time Bon Bon's candy shop opens. Well, if I arrive and the doors are still closed, I could hang out in their house for the time being. Those doors should be open.

Except... what if they're not? What if I arrive at Lyra and Bon Bon's residence and they're still in sleep mode? That sure wouldn't be a nice drop-by. I also am completely blank on what the two mares' wake-up times are. Goodness, how am I possibly supposed to schedule this?

Well, let's go by what we can calculate as the "safest" time. I don't imagine a store would wait that late into the day to open, especially not with the current day being Monday. So 11:30 is probably overkill.

And the store being open means that Bon Bon would have to be awake. So we're good on that.

Picking 11:00, though, might cause problems since lunchtime lies just an hour away from that. I do desire more time than a single hour with Lyra and Bon Bon.

Plus, it is a must for me to take into account traveling between destinations. Choosing 11:00 would leave even less time than one hour with Lyra and Bon Bon, because I need time to go from one place to the next. I don't have teleportation magic. And who knows what the travel times are?

Erm... yeah, the travel times could easily complicate this whole day. There is little to no reference for how far apart my targeted locations are from each other, or whether I'll be using carriage or foot transportation.

Houston, we have a problem.

I guess this is why I try not to operate on schedules...

Well, let's use our thinking. For one, I seriously doubt ponies would be that picky about my arrival and departure times. This is Ponyville, after all. They'll understand if cutting down on time spent with them is needed, and I'm sure they'll help me with the scheduling should I need it.

Honestly, you could say that the scheduling really just exists to make sure every event takes place. To prevent you from letting one activity eat up so much time and memory room that you end up having to apologize for never showing up to the next activity.

So yeah. The times are flexible, and really much more of a tool than an instruction sheet.

Problem solved.

Returning to the track, let's figure out how we choose a (rough) time for meeting up with Lyra and Bon Bon.

Well, I'm in Sweet Apple Acres, so I can say their house is pretty far away. Regardless of carriage or foot transportation, whichever happens, it's far away. I also have to take into account the "getting ready" time of the day that occurs before any outings start. Progress so far: I had eaten a full energy-tank-filling breakfast today, but was still in bed mode with my pajama attire.

I gauge from this that I should give myself about 45 minutes of breathing room.

It's currently 09:15, I should get there earlier than 11:00, and I want to give Lyra and Bon Bon time to wake up.

The final decision: 10:30.

Alright! There we go; 10:30! That's what we have chosen! Now I can finally write!

10:30 - Go to Lyra and Bon Bon's house; test out Bon Bon's candy for a possible purchase.

Alright! There's the first entry!

Now here comes the second. Who was next to ask for a meeting?

Restarting the timeline from the last occurrence, after lunch with Lyra and Bon Bon was finished, we were summoned into a conversation by Golden Harvest while on our way to Sugarcube Corner, and I did indeed agree to having a one-on-one get-together with her.

Alright, here we come to the time again. So, if my time at Lyra and Bon Bon's place starts at 10:30 and I want it to last for at least an hour, then giving myself breathing room for travel times, I gauge the right time to set the meeting with Golden Harvest as noon, a.k.a. lunchtime. Assuming she's available for a hangout at that time, by doing that, I can go to a restaurant with her. If not, well, I can pick another pony in town. There are plenty of friendly, hospitable creatures to be found.

Sounds good!

12:00 - Lunch with Golden Harvest (If not available, some random pony walking around)

I feel comfortable with only a 30-minute gap for travel, since I will be inside central Ponyville after leaving Lyra and Bon Bon's house, not having to come from the far reaches of Sweet Apple Acres this time.

Which leads to me thinking, as I look over the schedule...

Uh, yeah, I probably should have put the ending times there too. But... there's no way to turn back; I'm writing on paper here. I can't just add it in either; there's not enough room.

Eh, whatever. The times are flexible anyway, and I think I can memorize the end points by checking the time periodically, and also letting the meals decide. After all, what I'm trying to set up with Golden Harvest is lunch.

Good. Two entries down now!

Back to the timeline: after the sweet talk with Golden Harvest came the also-sweet visit to Sugarcube Corner, where neither Pinkie nor myself asked each other for a one-on-one get-together, but I am wanting to try for a friendship with her. I'd love to have a playdate with Pinkie and see if there's any friendship potential.

I'm working with the time right after lunch here, so... how about I make a third trip to Sugarcube Corner for dessert and see if I can grab at least some small talk with Pinkie Pie?

Yeah! Let's do that! Great timing!

13:30 - Dessert at Sugarcube Corner

Due to the nature of cooking and eating times, it's virtually impossible for me to predict how long lunch and dessert will last. But it's important to me to have some kind of scheduling for this day, even if it was likely to be broken. It just made me feel more organized. So I randomly go with 1 1/2 hours and pick 13:30 for approximately the time I open the Sugarcube Corner doors from outside, and about 14:15 for when I do the same in reverse. And I should be able to see Pinkie; she works at the bakery.

So, who's next?

Twilight is the answer to that question. Yesterday, after the first Sugarcube Corner dessert came the meeting with Twilight where we discussed getting me back home and showing proof of my presence in Equestria.

Oh yeah! I should go over there and see how the progress on that is going! Plus, there are a couple things I wanted to research in the library! Let's go there!

Heavily eager to even potentially see progress on that, and to engage in research inside the library of the one and only Twilight Sparkle, I write this entry at rapid-fire speed.

14:45 - Go to the Castle of Friendship, check with Twilight on portal progress, research at library

While the start and end times of Sugarcube Corner dessert can't be predicted, based on my previous random choices for that event's scheduling and continuing to use the 30-minute travel gap, I feel like 14:45 is a reasonable prediction.

Anypony else?

Not Rarity; I already had a hangout with her after we worked on my clothing. So the welcome party is where we need to go to next.

Looking ahead to there, I did receive an awesome meetup with Sea Swirl where I found out she was a pony I really wanted to talk to again, and, like Pinkie, look for the possibility of building a friendship with.

But today is Monday, and Sea Swirl works for a company, so she's probably there, and I have no idea when her shift ends. I also don't know how to get to Big Blue. An iPhone would really be useful here...

Well, I guess the best option here, if I really want a meeting with her specifically, is to just wait until our physical paths cross again, whenever that may be, and we can try to work something out from there.

After Sea Swirl, I also told Sprinkle Medley I would come see her again, in high part because of the adversity she's been facing. But I also don't know what times she works. Heck, I don't even know if she lives in Ponyville. I mean, I've seen her in Ponyville plenty of times through watching the show the show, but she can also be seen in Cloudsdale. Who knows which city she's in right now?

I'll just do the same thing as I chose to do with Sea Swirl; wait until I come across Sprinkle Medley again.

Looking through the timeline more... yep, that's all the ponies.

I guess what I should do now is look at the last event I scheduled and see how much time there is left.

If I spend two hours at the library, that makes it 16:45 at end time, so I'll probably want to go back to Sweet Apple Acres for dinner. Especially since it's a far ways away from downtown Ponyville. I'll probably want to avoid staying at the library for two hours precisely because of that.

Is this schedule complete?

I think it is!

I do the victory symbol of flinging my pen down at my desk in celebration of the completion of a schedule written without any modern-day Earth technology to help.

The preparation isn't done yet, though, as immediately after the scheduling gets checked off; a new question spawns on me: Will Applejack be able to come with me on my adventures today?

I mean, she has to return to her normal work routine someday. She graciously sacrificed some time of what's most important to her in her life to keep me company while I navigated my initial arrival in this new world, but she can't keep doing that forever, and today might be the day it becomes time for her to discontinue missing a chunk of duty.

I'm leaving that choice up to her, so let's see what choice she has made. I leave my guest barn and make my way to the apple tree forest, where AJ is currently working.

"Hey Applejack.", I say. "So, I've made plans to go out today; I'm going to be holding those meetings I agreed to have with Lyra + Bon Bon, Golden Harvest, and Twilight, and while I'm with Twilight, I'm also going to check in with her on the portal progress and do some library research."

"And I'm wondering if you can come with me. I know you won't always be able to, as you can't keep taking time off work."

Applejack hears the exact thing she's been thinking this morning spoken to her by someone else. She comes in with her hard-to-swallow, but correctly honest, response.

"You're right pardner; today must be the first day for me to say I'm too busy to do all that with ya. So ah declare today as the day ya go out into Ponyville on yer own for the first time. I know it will be hard. But remember that you're in Ponyville here; anythin' that ain't goin' right for ya will be tended too.

"Plus, ya were talkin' about those there meetings you're havin'; you'll still have company!"

"Go out and do it, pardner. It's yer time."

I wanted to be frightened at the idea of going out in public on my own. That was an activity I had never engaged with in my entire life, partially because I was scared of it.

But Applejack is right about the company and Ponyville aspects. My reason for going out today is to spend time with ponies I had already interacted with and I know are friendly and helpful. And should an anxiety-spiral-style worry become real, there would have to be somepony right there who would lend me a hoof.

And then that "Go out and do it, pardner. It's yer time.", quote from Applejack; that felt nothing short of powerful. Seeing my friend look me in the eyes and display that much belief in me successfully worked at getting me to take the plunge.

"Alright, AJ. I'm going out by myself. And when I come back, I hope I can give a good anecdote."

"That's the spirit, pardner!"

I give her a big thumbs-up.

As I spend time in my guest barn bathroom, getting ready and such, quite a few swirling thoughts are present in my mind besides the anxiety of going out into Ponyville by myself.

I come to the realization that scheduling will probably increase in difficulty level from here on out and how much progress I've made. This day only feels somewhat organized because of how many ponies wanted one-on-one meetings with me and how I had enough time to have them all in one day.

Then, even though it was only my third day in Equestria, it feels like the "honeymoon effect" is already wearing off. The crazy feelings of getting here for the first time, finding out how the ponies would react to the presence of a human, going out into town for the first time, etc... all that was finished now.

So I do feel confident in saying I am now in phase 2 of my journey. The part where I begin to experience the place more and slowly but surely get used to it. I'd rather wait to try and start a career until after that. I need some time to settle in to this place.

And there's not really any way to do that other than to let time pass and to keep experiencing the place.

Well, hopefully these meetings with ponies will naturally provide that. I think they will, because they already have.

So I set off to get things going, beginning with my meet-up with Lyra and Bon Bon at their house.

I decide to take the trip on foot rather than waiting for a carriage, because, I don't carry bits around, I don't have Applejack with me, (I mean, I could ask to borrow bits, but I'm shy about that), and I'm also shy about paying for things on my own, yeah, I'm just not going to bother.

I have plenty of energy anyway. I had coffee and apple consumables at breakfast; good enough fuel.

Wait a minute... how do I get to Ponyville, though? I don't know the directions...

I backtrack to ask my first contact.

"Applejack, I'm taking the trip on foot here; how do I get to downtown Ponyville?

She decides not to question my decision here, instead just giving me what I'm looking for.

"It shouldn't be hard. Once you get beyond the gates, just turn left and keep walkin' from there. Should work just fine."

"That's great.", I say. "Thanks, Applejack!"

"No problem, pardner."

I give her a happy wave, which she reciprocates as she fades from my view. I set off for real this time, turning to my left as soon as I exit the farm gates and trudging along the green grass to Ponyville.

My beginning destination here on Day 3 is Lyra and Bon Bon's house, both to hang out with them and to test out Equestrian candy for the first time.

I choose to go to their actual house first. I give the door a knock. Bon Bon is the one to answer.

"Hey there, Player 4! You came to us! Ready to get your first taste of Equestrian candy?"

"Yes I am, and I did come to you!", I say. "You were the first ones to suggest that I come see you again after our first meeting yesterday, so I chose to come here first!"

"Lucky us!", Lyra says, walking into my view.

Bon Bon smiles and leads me through the livingroom, down a back hall, and into her gray-coated and sunny candy shop. Lyra also tags along.

"So, what kind of candies do you usually eat?", Bon Bon asks, standing in front of a large sweetness display featuring full tubes of various candies.

"I mostly like fruity candies.", I say. "Whether they're hard, chewy, or soft, naturally or artificially flavored, anything fruit-flavored is my go-to. They take the top spot over chocolate, caramel, etc."

"Excellent choices!", Bon Bon says. She picks up a candy scoop and brings out a sample of a strawberry-resembling candy. "Here, try this.", she says, handing it to me. "It's a gummy strawberry that has actual strawberry juice inside."

Oh wow, that sounded really interesting! While I don't mind artificial flavors at all, I definitely had a knack for the idea of natural fruit flavor inside a candy.

I normally suck on gummy candies, keeping the sweet flavor in my mouth for a longer period of time, but right now, time was limited. I was supposed to be sampling a candy with natural juice inside and telling the maker what I think of it, so, as much as I didn't want to, I had to just bite into it.

Bon Bon was totally right. It was a gummy, but inside the core of that gummy was totally legit natural strawberry juice, which I could confirm in seconds. I know that flavor when I taste it.

"Very good.", I say, giving a thumbs-up.

"Alright!", Bon Bon responds, clapping her hooves. "So, what do you say to buying a full bag? Which, by the way, it's not just strawberry. There's a whole rainbow of fruits in this particular candy set. Orange, lemon, lime, blueberry, grape, and raspberry are there too. You also don't need to have them all at once. I have the option of getting a bag of each flavor individually."

Wow, Bon Bon really does take the liberty with her options! I like seeing that; more choices should mean more satisfied customers, since they're more likely to find what they're looking for!

But right now, I'm going with the standard blended version.

"I'll go with the mixed bag.", I say.

"Will do.", Bon Bon says. The candy mare hands me a ready-for-purchase pouch of those naturally-flavored gummies she has so brilliantly crafted. It's a purple bag with the candies peeking out through a window, and images of the fruits the candies represent decorating the front. I wonder who makes the art for the packaging? Whoever it is, they're awesome.

I hand over to her the listed price of 7 bits. For as much as I tried to resist it, Applejack gave me a handful of bits (50, to be exact) for carrying around whenever I ventured out into Equestria on my own. I didn't want to accept free money, but she did have a correct point. I do need them.

After the candy store portion becomes complete, the time is nowhere near noon, so I offer to hang out with Lyra and Bon Bon in their house for a while. They happily accept, and lead me in the reverse way we came, back to their livingroom from the candy shop.

While there, I hesitate on eating the candy now, saying that I'd prefer to wait until I'm back home and it's after dinner, which was my standard practice throughout my whole life. Bon Bon accepted this, but she then found something in me that I wasn't even aware of.

"So Player 4, one of the things that inevitably comes with moving to a new country, not to mention a new world, is the loss of some cultural food you loved. How have you been managing that so far?

You know, I hadn't really thought about this, in all honesty. In these beginning days, I had been far too possessed by the excitement to try Equestrian food to start missing my home food.

But I could be sure that missing my old food would manifest down the line. Obviously, the honeymoon period won't last forever.

"Well, it hasn't really occurred to me, but I know it will eventually.", I say. "Bon Bon, is what you're getting at with talking about this, that foods like this candy should help me get used to your culture more?"

"Yes, that's exactly what I was thinking!", Bon Bon says. "For every food you start missing, I hope that you find a suitable replacement. Losing things we love sucks even more if we can't fill the space. And I want to play my best part in helping you on that. Finding yourself remembering a candy you loved back on Earth? Come to my shop and I'll look for what's most similar to it!"

Wow. If that ever wasn't a brilliant idea!

"Thanks, Bon Bon. I will certainly do that. You're awesome."

She smiles big.

As my watch gets closer to noon, I say goodbye to Lyra and Bon Bon and head back into the outside to meet up with Golden Harvest and take her along for lunch.

Thanks to the lack of phones in Equestria, she couldn't tell me where to meet up. I had no idea which restaurant we were going to or where I'm even supposed to find her. The best I could do in that latter regard was to ask Lyra and Bon Bon where Golden usually hangs out when waiting for somepony, which they provided satisfactory answers to.

I have to say, that's a really creative strategy!

You know, there are some advantages to the lack of advanced technology. By forcing you to be more creative, it spawns really cool stuff!

Lyra and Bon Bon suggested my destination should be the fountain that Junebug can be seen drinking out of in Secret of My Excess. They said that Golden Harvest tends to use that spot for resting while on an outside trip and waiting to see if anyone who desires to pair up comes her way, and that Monday afternoons are a good time to catch her there. Lucky!

As I find said fountain and approach its vicinity, I look over there, and... nopony's there.

I was about to prepare myself for a long search and a potentially late lunch, but then... the pony I was seeking called out to me from behind.

"Hey! Did somepony tell you I often wait there?", she says, giggling.

"Yep. Bon Bon and Lyra told me. That's why I looked."

"Well, it's ironic, because I was going to wait there and see if you decided to come to me today! You just happened to already be there!", Golden Harvest says.

Wow! That is definitely something!

"Yep, you got lucky!", I say. "I did choose today, because I have all of it free. My job application results haven't come back yet, so I'm still in meeting mode."

"Good! I'm honored you're doing this one-on-one with me.", Golden says.

"I am too!", I respond.

I then ask her where we're going.

"So, since it's that time of day, my plan for what to do with you is go to a restaurant. Any idea where we should go?"

"I do. Since you're the new guy, my Plan A was to give you the choice, but I also conjured up a Plan B, where I picked a restaurant for the potential case of you not having a suggestion. Just follow me."

I begin doing so, but then realize something.

"Wait a minute. How did you know I wanted to go to a restaurant and that I would try and see you at noon? We never talked plans yesterday."

Golden Harvest giggles. "Well, turns out, I didn't know! You're right; we didn't make those plans, so I had no idea. I randomly picked noon as the time to lie in wait and see if you would come. I was taking a risk, for sure. But we got lucky!"

Wow! We sure did!"

"That is some alignment!", I say. "I guess it's now time to take advantage of it. Restaurant, here we come!"

Golden Harvest begins walking.

I fully move into the next phase of this day, pairing up with Golden Harvest one-on-one for the first time and taking the trip over to our lunch site.

I set foot into the diner that is coated in a lovely dark-blue. It's bustling here at the dawn of lunchtime; a multitude of ponies had taken to this place for their food-and-talk breaks, which, despite the timing, I wasn't really predicting would happen. I have been told that the mushroom cafe, where I went yesterday, is the most popular, but it appears there is another big-name restaurant I was totally missing.

"Table for two, please.", Golden Harvest says.

We get led up a ramp, to the right, and onto a booth seat that is placed on a loft above the front desk. It overlooks the front door too. That's a really cool place to sit, in my view.

Almost right away, the waiter pony introduces herself and asks what we want to drink. I choose lemon-lime soda.

At the waiter interaction, today featured a first. This waiter was the first pony to come into contact with me and not make any mention of what species I am.

I guess that's pretty cool. It would get tiring after a while.

"So," Golden Harvest begins the conversation with, "What's on your mind right now?"

"What's on my mind... hmm, it's a long story, so good thing we went to a restaurant."

"Right.", she says, sipping her drink. "Go ahead, tell me the whole thing."

"Alright.", I begin. "So, a new thought I picked up on my way here was that it would be useful to divide my first 100 or so days here into phases."

"Phase 1 was the shock period; first arriving here, feeling my dream come true, starting to feel homesick, getting jarred by the changes."

"Today, even just three days in, I feel like I'm getting out of that phase. There are still plenty of things I'm getting caught off guard by, and I do sometimes think 'Oh right, I'm not home.' But I am at the point where I wake up knowing my routine. Emerge from bed, go to the main barn where you'll see the Apples, and Applebloom will be the one saying 'Good morning; did you sleep well?"

"Yeah, there you go!", Golden Harvest responds. "That definitely is a sign of progress; you're easing into the routine."

"What else entails in Phase 2?"

"Well, it involves getting used to the ways of my new world. Like I was talking about yesterday, I can't use the traditional routine of easing into a move, because my most common comfort tools don't exist here."

"This has made it extra hard for me to adjust. Sometimes I reach over to grab a device that isn't there. I get the idea to type something out... and I can't. I've had to rethink a very big chunk of my days."

"And the last two days, with them being what they were, this didn't really matter. But now, since the initial shock has worn off; the welcome party is over and everything, I need to start getting used to regular day-to-day life here. And I don't know what to fill the spots with."

Golden Harvest readily rockets in with a fuel tank of help.

"My advice would be, take it on a case-by-case basis. Any time you encounter a period where you're missing something, explain to whoever you're with what that thing is, and what can be put in place of it."

"It naturally will be hard at first. But that changes with time."

"And on the way, Equestria will continue to give you things that you couldn't get in your old home. Keep that in mind."

This pony has such a way with words...

"Thanks, Golden Harvest. Have you ever been tasked with any kind of hospitality thing? I know you're primarily a carrot farmer, but you would make a great tour guide."

"Well, I was tasked with hanging the welcome banner at Princess Celestia's visit to Ponyville back in 2010. Of course, that one got ruined by parasites, but I did have the role!"

"Hospitality has always been a second hobby of mine. Any new resident to Ponyville; I want to do my best to welcome them in and give them all the help I need."

"I also wanted it to be even more powerful in your case, since you came from an entirely different universe and are an entirely different species."

That makes sense.

"Once again, thank you.", I say.

Golden Harvest continues.

"I also want to add; it's admirable that you're open to this process. I have not seen a single sign of you wanting to go back home to regain the things you lost. While not everything crossed your mind, it's clear to me that you knew what you were getting yourself into by coming here, and made the determination that the benefits outweighed the drawbacks. Then you're open to fixing the drawbacks."

"Overall, you know what you want out of your time here; you're accomplishing it, you're still getting used to things; you're making natural progress on that. And you are being open-minded to whatever comes your way. To me, that signals doing the right thing.", Golden Harvest says.

That is true.

"Thanks so much for this conversation.", I say to her, as the food comes.

With that part finished, Golden Harvest and I proceed to talk more casually. The subject shifted more towards her this time, and it was enjoyable.

However, during that time, a surprise occurs. A flare of green flames passes by and drops down a bow-tied paper message.

"It must be from Twilight and Spike!", Golden Harvest says.

"I bet it's Twilight letting me know something about that portal progress.", I say.

"Well, let's open it!", Golden says.

I do so, unwrapping the red bow, unrolling the paper by its sides, and glazing my eyes over the text.

Dear Player 4,

I am calling you to the Castle of Friendship for an update on the progress of getting you back home and letting your family know that you are here.

Yours truly,
Twilight Sparkle

"It's a letter from Twilight letting me know about the portal progress.", I say.

"That doesn't match up with the schedule though. I was planning to take you to Sugarcube Corner for dessert after our lunch here."

"Well, which one are you more excited for?", Golden says.

"I guess seeing the progress.", I say.

"Then go. When we're done with lunch here, go there and see it. You can take me to Sugarcube Corner any other time; right now you've got major news waiting for you.", Golden says.

"Okay. I will do that.", I say.

I will do that. If Twilight was telling me to come to the castle by her bidding, then there must be something magical going on. Usually, checking in with something Twilight's up to starts with you. She's too busy to consistently send out updates on every project.

So it just has to be known as soon as possible why she did it this time.

Author's Note

...And here's another long gap. This chapter had me for a loop with decision-making at some parts, and when exactly it should end and let the next chapter take the reigns. It also took me a while to even decide what this chapter should entail.

Sometimes, finishing a project involves just going with what you already have. Overthinking can be a problem, and I did detect that I was doing it here. But I didn't realize that until it had already been over two weeks.

And sometimes, starting a project involves letting it develop on its own. But then that comes with the drawback of it taking longer to come.