In Another World

"SURPRISE!"

He almost fell back. He never would've guessed that he will get a welcome like this. He got so scared for a moment that he even forgets to scream or ask what the hell is this. But he doesn't know who was more surprised. Him or all the ponies who were in the library. Yeah... there were a lot of ponies inside. After they all shouted the 'Surprise' they got almost the same effect. It looked like they weren't told, who will they be meeting.

Everything went silent and a staring contest began. However, this didn't last long, because of the pony who met with him earlier but run away, suddenly appeared before him, her face is uncomfortably close to his with a big smile.

"This is the best 'Welcome to Ponyville' party ever! Not only you were surprised but everypony else as well!" she says, clearly excited about the situation. "Let's get the party started!" then faster, than it would be possible, she runs away.

He looks around. There was a big "Welcome Lazlo" banner.

How did she know my name? She ran away before I introduced myself.

The ponies are still shocked.

"Say something." he hears Twilight whispering.

Lazlo is unsure what could he say, but he knew, she was right, he was the newcomer, the alien, and the potential danger to them. Earlier when he mentioned Twilight, that he's an omnivore, he immediately regretted saying it and became afraid that they will fear him, or lock him up, or something like that but they quickly reassured him, that it wasn't a problem for them if he swears that he won't kill and eat any sentient creature. He told them, that it would be very bad of him, but then he learned, that most of the animals are somewhat sentient here, even if most of them are unable to speak, but they understand their language. What remained are the insects and fishes.

Well, fishes will do for me if I have to stay for a while, which I'm hoping won't be too long.

"Hello, every... um... pony?" he finally managed to say. "My name is Lazlo, but you can call me Lacy." some of them murmured 'hello's and 'hi's. "Thank you for coming, and now party time!" he got the courage to shout and look like the ponies are fine with him now because the yelled happily and the party started.

Lazlo didn't even get a moment to breathe when the pink pony returned.

"Are you enjoying the party? Huh? Huh?" she began bombarding him not caring about personal space.

"Well, I never was a party like this since I was eight years old," Lacy answered.

"What do you mean?"

"Well this party looks like a birthday party for a kid in my world," he answered again as looking around, seeing sweets and drinks on a table, ponies playing games, like pin the tail on the pony (this one really surprised him) and just talking and enjoying themselves.

"But it's fun!" shouted the pink mare. "There are balloons and streamers and confetti and cupcakes and other sweets and..." as she went on and on about every single thing that was here at the party, Lacy decided to interrupt her and try to get to know her and ask her a few things.

"So Pinkie Pie wh-" Lacy started but was quickly interrupted.

"When I saw you, as being new in Ponyville, I run in the town and asked everypony to come to the library for a welcome party. Everypony or other creatures got one because when somepony is new here, that means that they have no friends here and if you don't have friends, that means, you are lonely and if you are lonely that means you won't smile but I want everypony to smile all the time, and I want everypony to have friends, so I become friends with everypony and then I make them laugh and the same applies to you. Also, I work at Sugarcube Corner and also live there but you already know that and my second job is being the best party pony in Ponyville, I also like to prank ponies with Rainbow Dash so you should be wary and now I'm going to entertain others so you can get to know my friends as well. See you later." before Lacy could react or ask how did she know what he was gonna ask, Pinkie disappeared.

I need to sit down

"Don't mind her, darling." he heard a voice and quickly found the source when he spotted the white unicorn just stopping near to him. He remembered, that she is Rarity and she owns that boutique and working as some kind of fashion designer. "I want to know more about your clothing and fashion. Mind a little chatting? Twilight is a dear friend of mine but I would have been happy if she'd have let us talk with you some earlier."

"I'm sure you all have still questions, so do I. Come, let's find somewhere to sit and get some drinks." she nodded and they both walked to the table.

While most of the ponies sat on the ground, there were some chairs.

He poured some drinks into a glass and offered the white mare, who took it with her magic. It was really strange feeling the magical aura against his skin, the best description he could give was, like touching some kind of jelly which is moving constantly, but it wasn't accurate either, just the closest expression he could think of.

"I'm interested in the fashion of your world. You know, I'm not just a simple seamstress, I like to consider myself an artist, and just like, every artist, I need inspiration, and I think fashion from another world could give me many ideas. I also won't be ungrateful, I'll try my best, to make you some clothes, if I remember correctly, you told us earlier, that your kind is almost always wearing something." she took a sip from her drink, the man did the same.

"Sure, umm... let's see, what you see on me is normal, everyday wear. Well maybe not the pants, that's more for what I wear when I'm home if I'm going out, or at work, I usually wear jeans but to be honest, I can't really describe to you that, sorry. Also at some important events, men usually wear a tuxedo while women wear some kind of dress, they have one for every type of event. I don't know how much did you understood about this, it's interesting, that we speak the same language but there are always the possibilities that there are words that aren't the same or don't exist here."

"Don't worry, I perfectly understood everything, there are many similarities, so it didn't give any idea right now, but I'll still help you out with your clothes problem. Come to my boutique tomorrow and I'll see, what I can do. Anything else, you could think about right now?"

He took another sip from his drink. There were other things, though a little embarrassing to talk about, seeing as he had little choice if he wants to wear clean clothes, he had to tell her.

"Well there are other things, I didn't mention. We have underwear as well." Rarity shot him a confused look. "It's kind of small, and around our crotch." Both of their cheeks turned red for a little time. Lacy, wanting to end this state, quickly continued. "Also I usually wear socks, like these." he showed her his own pair, which were on his legs. "Also shoes, which is something I missed, but I didn't wear any when I got here. Those are mostly for protection for our feet, and we usually wear it outside."

They talked a little more, but since Lacy didn't know much about fashion, only told Rarity more about some trends that he saw in advertisements.

Not much time later the white unicorn excused herself and Lacy alone. Although this didn't last long. Many ponies came to him, wanting to know some things about him or his kind. It surprised him that these ponies were so friendly with him, despite not only being another species but one that is unknown here. But that wasn't the only thing that was strange to him. He felt relatively calm. Thinking back he kind of got used to this pretty fast. It was like if he didn't travel to another world, only just another country. There were some differences in culture but many similarities as well, one is the language in which he was glad that English was kind of the common language here, and thanks to his job and friends his English was acceptable.
Another surprise was that children also took a liking in him. They wanted to be held up high, expect pegasi, but what all of them loved, even the adults, were his fingers. Twilight at some point said it is similar to what dragons and minotaurs have but not as sharp and more flexible. It was really good for scratching and massaging.

"Hey big guy!" he turned to the most colorful pony. She was on eye level with him, thanks to her ability to fly. "Tell me, can humans go as fast as me?" she did a flip in the air, a little show-off. "I mean nopony is as fast as me but maybe close to my speed."

"Rainbow Dash right?" Lacy asked.

"Don't tell me you can't remember the name of the most awesome pony in Equestria?!" the pegasus mare asked slightly irritated.

"Sorry, too many names to remember all, but I think I won't forget yours," he told her, the reaction was just an approving nod. "To answer your question, I don't know your speed and I don't have much knowledge about this, but I'm pretty sure we have some airplanes that can go multiple times as fast as the speed of sound."

That did it. Rainbow Dash, who claimed herself the most awesome pegasus in this land almost fainted when she heard him. She just stared at him in complete silence, which was broken by Twilight who appeared suddenly with paper and quill and wanted to know what are these airplanes. He gave her a quick summary, also told her, that his knowledge about these things is really limited.

"That. Is. So. Awesome!" they heard Dash. "I can't believe it! I can only fly at the speed of sound and that was only one time when I did the Sonic Rainboom, but I will do it again a few days later in the Young Flyer Competition," she told them, but only got a confused and skeptical look from Lazlo.

"A Sonic Rainboom is a legendary move when a pegasus reaches the speed of sound then came an explosion and the first soundwave looks like a rainbow, that's where it's named from," explained Twilight.

"It'll totally win me the best prize I can think of. The winner gets to hang out with the Wonderbolts. The best flyers of Equestria. I'll be one of them someday."

Lacy didn't understand much of it but not wanting to spoil the mood, gave her a thumbs up.

"Well, good luck with that, break a leg!" He got some confused look from Twilight and Dash in exchange. He then remembered that ponies don't have fingers, so they don't know these signals, he held up his thumb again. "Oh, this usually means something positive, like 'I'm fine', 'I like it', 'It's great', etc..." he explained, Twilight quickly wrote down everything.

"But what about the break a leg part? It doesn't sound very nice, why would you wish somepony something like this?" the purple unicorn asked.

"Oh, that. That's just an expression, used mostly to wish somebody good luck."

"Mostly?" asked Dash.

"Well, if we would be on bad terms then probably I would mean it more literally, but that's not the case right now, so it's a good luck wish."

"Your use of words and expressions are really strange and sometimes kind of morbid," Twilight stated.

"That's humanity for you."

As it became very late, and the time passed midnight, the guest started to leave. Some ponies who came here with foals left earlier, but the other stayed pretty late. Twilight offered to set up a bed for Lacy, who thanked her again for her hospitality. Despite being the middle of the night, he offered to clean up the place a little, while Twilight working on setting his bed.

"Oh, sorry for waking you up Spike." he heard Twilight from upstairs. He met Spike earlier and talked a little with him, but the baby dragon stuffed himself full of sweets and went up to rest then. Looks like Twilight accidentally woke him up. "I'm making a bed for our guest, but since you're awake, could you send a letter to the princess so when she waked up, she will know of Lacy?"

Lacy heard a groan, which he wasn't sure what it meant. Although the thought of the ruler of this land learns about him puts him in an uncomfortable feeling. He knew he can't avoid the eyes of the leaders and since her host was the personal student of the Princess, it just made things faster.

"Dear Princess Celestia!" he heard Twilight starting to dictate the letter. "Today we met a creature, who is from a different world. We don't know yet where he's really from and how he got here, it appears, his arrival wasn't planned for him. His name is Lazlo Kis, nickname: Lacy. His species is called human. I have never heard or read of them. I'll send you a full report of what I've learned from him in a few days, for now, I can tell you, that he means no harm, he seems nice, willing to answer my questions, and hopefully will agree to run some tests later, but I'll have to ask him first, but since he was cooperating so far, I don't think he will refuse. It appears that our culture has many similarities. What is surprising to me is that his world lacks magic and creatures that are native here, are only myths for them. I also would like to ask for your assistance in finding a way for him to get back to his world. Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle. Okay, Spike, now send it, but be careful. The Princess is probably sleeping so don't land it on her head, try to aim for her nightstand."

He heard a blow, then soon the snores of the young dragon.

He finished the cleaning and went up to the bed, Twilight set up for him, close to her own. He thanked her again, then laid on the bed, which was just the right size for him. But sleep didn't come easily for the young man. For more than an hour, his thoughts wandered around today's events. Before sleep finally overpowered him, one thought went through his brain.

It's not how I behave. It's not me.