A few days passed since they came back from Cloudsdale. Much to Lacy's surprise, Twilight didn't pester him about the incident in the Weather Factory. He got his hopes up she forget it completely, but today Twilight finally made her move.

"Can we talk about your behaviour towards those pegasus stallions?" she asked out of blue. Lacy only groaned, annoyed. He really hoped she won't bring it up.

"Look. I told you it's my way to treat the likes of them. And beside, it already happened, can't do anything about it."

"But it's not the right thing to do!" she forced the topic. "You were threatening them of taking their lives and eat them!"

"And you believe I would've done it for real?"

"What? No! Or course not! My point is that you insulted them, just like they did with Rainbow Dash. It's not a nice thing, but if you doing the same, that means you sink on their level."

"Alright." Lacy sits down, accepting that he won't escape from the situation. "Let me tell you something. I will never be down on their level, because there is a key difference between our actions. They had no valid reason to offend, upset, and laugh at Dash. I, on the other hand, had a good reason to threaten them. I defended Rainbow."

"And you think that is a good reason? Or that it's a good method?"

"The end justifies the means. Also, I learned a long time ago to never be the initiator and know when to stop."

Twilight expression softened. Not because she agreed with him. She discovered something along his lines.

"You said, you had to deal with bullies before, right?" she asked. Lacy raised an eyebrow, then nodded. "Would you show me? I asked Princess Celestia to send me that memory re-watching spell. It's rather hard to perform and I won't be able to hold on for hours, but it should be enough."

"And why should I allow you to enter my mind? I was okay with Celestia doing this because there was a chance, that we will find information about my arrival." Lacy didn't like this. His mind was already messed up and though when Celestia used this spell on him, it actually helped a little but there was a chance if Twilight perform the spell on him as her test subject, it would end up badly.

"I'm your friend, Lacy! I just want to understand you better." Twilight tried to reason. "Just want to know what happened, that made you this was, that you saying that what you did is a good solution for this kind of problem."

"What if I just tell you one story when it worked for me?" Lacy suggested, having enough of it and also getting Twilight's point.

"Please! I really would like to try that spell and also see more of the world you're from." Twilight, however, didn't want to compromise.

"So that's the real reason..." Lacy sighed. "Alright. Let's try it, but you have to promise that if I tell you to stop, you stop immediately." Twilight nodded, then brought a whiteboard, the book she was collecting information about humans and of course something to write with. Her horn started to glow and then on the whiteboard, the memory movie started as Lacy remembered the situation he agreed to tell her.

"I was thirteen years old at that time, the school year just started and we got two new classmates." he explained the time of the events.

I was sitting in the classroom, looked at the clock which showed 7:48. Still had some time before the first class starts. This was that kind of classroom, where each student had their own school desk. My desk was placed beside the window. Before me was a girl with long, blond hair. Behind me was an empty desk, and at my right side was Victor. He looked younger than his age was at that time. No one would've guessed he was thirteen, like me.

I was waiting for the first class to start. Pens, textbook, notepad were already put on the table. In my hand, there was a Rubik's cube, which was almost solved.

"Hey! You're the nerd?" I turned my head to the voice. A boy was standing close to me. He was as tall as I and had short, black hair, wore a black shirt and gray pants. He was one of the new guys, just came into this class, this year. He wasn't talking to me. He was looking at Victor. "I hope you can help me out with the tests later."

"Sorry, but I don't want to get into trouble for helping you to cheat." Victor answered to him. I already knew where this was going but remained silent for now.

"You got it wrong. I wasn't asking you." he said slowly. "But I think you understand now, what I mean." he leaned closer to him. I could see the fear in Victor's eyes. He couldn't really defend himself. But he was lucky that he had a friend who could help him out in situations like this.

"Are you retarded or what, that you didn't understand what ‘no’ means?" I asked after putting the puzzle cube on the desk and stood up. He instantly turned to me a little confused at first. The whole classroom went silent when they heard me. "If you are so stupid that you can't even get a two on the test, then you should go back to first grade and start again."

"And you supposed to be his wanna-be-cool-and-strong boyfriend?" he asked, trying to offend me. "Maybe you should help me out too to make sure he gives me the right answers." he tried to make himself look intimidating, but it didn't scare me.

"Maybe you should learn who you can fuck with before actually doing anything, though that would require effort and brain and you clearly lack both." I told him and heard a few giggles from the people in the classroom.

He then made the worst mistake. He pushed me. My butt landed on my chair. I stood back and looked around.

"You saw him attacking me right?" they nodded.

"So what?" the bully asked and pushed me again, making me sit back to my chair again.

I stood up the third time and raised my right hand, while clenching it into a fist. He immediately raised his own hand for defending his head. Mistake. He didn't notice in time and couldn't avoid my left fist. I hit his stomach with all my strength. With a painful grunt, he grabbed his stomach, then tried to run into me and knocked me into the desk. The hit on my lower back was painful but full of adrenalin, I could ignore it and attack again. He couldn't defend himself against a left-handed opponent and was fooled again with the false strike from my right hand. This time my fist contacted his nose I might even broke it. He yelled and tried to back away, but I didn't intend to stop now and pushed him with all of my strength. He fell on the ground and I wanted to kick him a few times, but some of my classmates grabbed me and hold me back.

"What is going on?" we all heard the teacher shouting from the door. She just arrived at this moment. She immediately noticed me. "Lazlo! You again?"

"He attacked me first! It was self defense!" I told her. To my relief, most of the students nodded, or said something, confirming my claim. The kid though, who stood up, his hands on his nose, blood dripping between his fingers, tried to frame me.

"Go to the nurse." she commanded him, then turned to me. "And you, Lacy. I think you know what comes now." I nodded.

The spell suddenly ended. Smoke emitted from Twilight's horn and she was panting heavily.

"I'm sorry! But this spell is hard, and I couldn't keep it up. Ugh... my head."

"I hope, you could watch it because I don't want to do this anymore." Lacy told her as he rubbed his own head. This time he felt a rather heavy headache, though luckily it didn't last long.

"Yes, and it's horrible, but to be honest, I don't understand. That human threatened your friend because he didn't want to help him cheat?"

"There are worse cases, like taking your money, making you basically someone's slave and others. Kids can be so cruel sometimes." Lacy said in a bitter tone.

"And that's what I don't understand! I mean, there are mean ponies in school here as well, but not the situation isn't that bad. And most of the time the teacher can handle the conflict. Why didn't you try to ask the teacher for help?" Twilight asked.

"Because it's useless." Lacy looked at her. "Because they can only say that what they're doing is bad, maybe call in their parents, but it's all futile. It never makes them stop. I know it! I tried before. But what I did actually worth something. Some of them tried a few more times to bully me or my friends but then I beat them up, or throw their things out of the window, or something else, the point was that always make things looking like it was self-defence, or couldn't be proved, that I did it. A cruel way to end cruelty. Fighting fire with fire." Lacy sighed. "I don't want to talk about it more. I'll try to reduce my aggression, since I'm just a guest in this world and I should behave, but it was like reflex back in Cloudsdale."

What surprised Lacy is that the purple pony walked to him, and wrapped her front hooves around him, giving him a hug. Of course, she didn't let him go without saying that she wants to hear more later, when the man is ready to talk about it.

Soon she headed out saying, she wants to go Zecora to get some of her favourite tea or something like that.

Lacy remembered that Twilight talked about her at some point. In fact, she told Lacy about her adventures with her friends since the princess sent her to Ponyville. Lacy's favourite part of it was when she talked about how everyone was afraid of the zebra. When Lacy asked the mare, why were ponies terrified of a zebra who looks really similar to them but somehow not showing any kind of fear towards a griffon who is a carnivore creature. Twilight only gave him the 'When you think about it...' kind of answer but since it was mostly the others who were so afraid of her at from the beginning Lacy asked them as well if he won't forget.

Not long after Twilight left, Lacy decided to leave as well to take a stroll in the town. As he walked aimlessly, ponies all smiled and waved at him, which he returned. It was strange to him to see such friendly residents, though they probably acted like this so the Zecora incident won't repeat. It didn't matter to him right now. He was just enjoying the fresh air, the town's own beauty and the sight of the colorful locals.

He somehow ended up in the same park, he was a few days ago with Twilight. As he sat down on the same bench he was then, he compared Ponyville to his hometown, where he lived before moving to the big cities with better schools and more possibilities for working.

Even though that little town was peaceful, it couldn't measure up to Ponyville. The inhabitants were most friendly, few interesting things happened, the air was fresh, and big crowds were rare. These were true for his hometown and this one seemed similar, yet mainly because of the ponies and maybe this world as well. This place was more colorful and radiated happiness and peace.

His train of thought were interrupted when he heard his name. He turned towards the voice and saw a pair of familiar ponies with one who he didn't recognise. The unknown pony was an earth pony stallion, who had a light brown coat and a dark grey mane. He could see his cutie mark. And of course there was Perfect Mane and little Amber. His first guess was that the mare and the stallion were probably married.

"Hello, Lacy!" welcomed him the unicorn mare as they got closer. "It's good to see you again. Amber surely wanted to see you again." she said and Lacy couldn't help, but giggle at the sight of the little filly who was on her mother's back and watched him with awe and when they were close enough, she tried to reach towards the human.

Soon her mother put down the little foal, who immediately ran towards Lacy and demanded ‘upsies’. Of course, the human couldn't deny her wish. As he wrapped his fingers around her little body and lifted her close to his face, he could see her sweet smile.

The little filly wanted to play with his hair again. She tried to grab some with her magic and also tried to get closer to his head. He obeyed to her will.

"Forgive me, I forget for a moment." said Mane and pointed at the stallion with one of her front-hoof. "This is Tricky Move, my husband."

"Nice to meet you!" the stallion offered a hoof. Lacy wasn't exactly sure what kind of meeting procedures were common for ponies, so he did what he would've done with a human male. He took his hoof and gave it a shake. Meanwhile, his other hands held their daughter, who was leaning to his shoulder and still occupied with his hair. By the look of Move's face, it was what he expected.

"Likewise, I'm Lazlo Kis." he introduced himself.

"Looks like my little Amber taken a liking in you." the stallion said. He and his wife sat down beside Lacy on the bench.

"To be honest, I don't know what she or other children see in me, probably because I'm the weirdest thing they ever saw."

"I think, it's sweet." joined in Perfect Mane.

"Well, it feels good." Lacy told them. "She reminds me of my youngest sister."

"Really? She wants to be held all the time as well?" the mother asked.

"Well, not that. She loves to mess with my hair as well." memories came to the human of her little sister. He remembered how he was sitting on the couch, while she was standing next to him, so she can reach his head, and while combing his hair, she talks about random things. It was one of the few things that could occupy her for more than a few minutes.

"Lazlo?" a male voice pulled him back from his mind. He shook his head, then after Amber, who was still there, and trying to twist part of his hair into some kind of form, let out an angry growl, because her 'work' vanished. Lacy gave her a quick apology and patted her head.

"Sorry, just remembered something."

"Alright. Tell me, what kind of job did you do in your world?" he asked.

"Not sure how much do you understand if I say, I'm a programmer." he answered.

"You mean you were some kind of event manager?" Move guessed.

"No." Lacy almost shook his head, but remembered that the little filly was still there and wouldn't appreciate it. "How do I explain it?" he spoke to himself. "We have machines, that can do many things." he began to explain. "For example, I once created an inventory management program for my grandpa, that he used to keep track of the products in his shop. It saves every product and information about each one like it's cost, the quantity, any kind of description if needed. It's really useful, and this is only a small fragment of the whole thing. There are millions of things, you can create and I'm working at a big company, that makes programs and applications to other companies by demand. At least, I hope, I'll still be when I get back."

He knew this explanation wasn't the best. It was problematic enough with Twilight who was really smart, but because ponies were technologically behind humanity by many years, it was expected.

"I see..." Move said unsure of how much did he get it. "I won't pretend, I fully understand what you said, but I guess your species is on a different level in technology."

"More or less."

"Anyway, I own a bar in Ponyville. It's a friendly place, where you can drink many kinds of alcoholic and non-alcoholic drinks, eat snacks and chat with your friends or meet new ones. Also, there is a secluded area for club meetings. For example, every Wednesday afternoon, from two to six o'clock I run the chess club there. You have chess in your world?" Lacy nodded. "You can play?"

"Used to play when I was a kid. Later though, I had less and less time for it so I'm a little rusty now." he answered.

"Then why don't you join us?" he offered. "It's completely free and we play mostly for fun, though sometimes I organize a small competition nothing too serious."

"Sound good. Thanks!" Lacy accepted. "So where is that bar?"

After learning the bar's position, the pony family excused themselves, saying they still had some errands to run. Of course Amber wasn't happy that she was taken back to her mother's back. Lacy asked if there are baby carriages here. The answer was yes, and they also told him that Amber doesn't like it.

Just like Maya...

After saying their goodbyes, Move and Mane started to walk away, Amber trying to reach towards Lacy, hoping, he will get up and come after them, or her mother would turn around and go back to him but since it didn't happen, she cried. Her parents tried to calm her, but like last time, it will take several minutes.

Soon Lacy was on his way to the library. He wanted to know if Twilight got back. Also he started to get hungry. It was late afternoon as he stepped inside the tree building. He found Spike in the kitchen, preparing some food for dinner.

"Hey Spike, Twilight's back?" he greeted him.

"Not yet, I'm starting to worry." the dragon answered. "The Everfree Forest is a dangerous and scary place. Not for me, of course. I'm a brave dragon!"

"Naturally." he said, unamused. "Anyway, if you don't mind, I'm gonna eat, then go looking for her."

"Alright."

Spike and Lacy placed the plates and the food on the table, then began eating.

"Hey Lacy. Does your world have comics as well?" the dragon started some chatting.

"Yeah, we have. Tons of them."

"Cool. So what kind of superheroes do your comics have?" Spike wanted to know more.

"Many kinds. Though, I'm not the best person to ask about them. Never was big fan of these superhero comics, or the movies."

"Movies? Like that thing we saw when Princess Celestia was here?" even a full mouth didn't bother the small reptile.

"Yeah, it's really popular. So many superhero movies. As I said, not my favourite genre, but it clearly is loved because almost all of them are a success."

Spike didn't want to stop here. He wanted to know more about comics and superheroes from Lacy's world. In the next half hour, the man told more about some superheroes he knew about. Mostly about Batman and some characters from the Marvel universe. Spike was fascinated by it and wished for more and more until he wanted to actually get human comics and was really sad that it seemed impossible.

"What about tabletop role-playing games? You have them?" he asked, wanting to change the subject.

"Several. I only played one though." Lacy answered.

"Awesome! Maybe we can play sometimes? If we get other guys, then we can have a regular game." Spike offered.

"Well, I don't know how long will I be here, but I guess we could play a few games, maybe even go though a shorter campaign."

"Great! Then how about, later I teach you about Ogres and Oubliettes? That's the fictional role-playing game, I used to play back in Canterlot. What kind of rpg did you play? What kind of character were you?"

"I played Dungeons and Dragons. It's one of the most popular one in my world. It'd take too long to explain it to you. Anyway, I was mostly the game master only my first two games was I a player."

Spike told Lazlo some basic things about O&O and it turned out to be very similar to D&D. That was good for everyone. It meant that he will get into the game sooner. Now Spike only needed to find a few more buddies to team up.

It was dark already and Twilight still hasn't come home. Lacy sent Spike to bed and then decided to look for the missing mare. He asked Spike earlier if he could give him some direction, where to go. The dragon said, that there is a path near Fluttershy's cottage, that leads to Zecora's home. Since she is the only one living in the forest, it's hard to miss her home if you don't wander off the path.

Before he headed off, he went to the kitchen to take a knife with him. It wasn't much and he didn't think it'd help him much, but it was better than nothing.

I hope Twilight exaggerated about the forest, but since ponyland works like some kind of 'Fantasy Land: Kids Edition' I cannot be sure enough.

It was dark outside already. Lights come out of the windows. Not many ponies were outside. When he got to Fluttershy's cottage, he saw that the lights were on. He decided to ask the pegasus if she knows anything about Twilight.

After he knocked on her door, a little white bunny opened it. Lacy gave him a confused look, not sure what to do in this situation.

"Fluttershy?" he spoke, rather loud so the pony who lives here will hear him. To his surprise, the bunny shook his head and then shut the door.

What the fuck?

Just as he was about to knock again, he heard voiced from the direction of the forest. Soon he saw Twilight, Fluttershy, and three fillies coming out among the trees. Upon noticing him, the three smaller ponies run to him and started to talking about what happened in the forest. Lacy couldn't understand most of it, since the three were constantly talking and every one of them said the same things in a different order. He could catch a few things, something about cockatrice, stone, statue and staring.

"Lacy? What are you doing here?" Twilight asked after Fluttershy managed to get the kids inside and apologised for not inviting them in because she has to watch them but offering them a tea tomorrow morning.

"I'm came to looking for you. Planned to ask Fluttershy if she knows anything." he explained as they started to walk back to the library. "So... what happened?"

"On my way to Zecora, a cockatrice turned me into stone..." she began. She told Lacy how scary it was, how Fluttershy defeated the creature with her 'Stare' and why were she there with three fillies. She also told him she will ask Fluttershy tomorrow to help her write the friendship letter to the princess.

Lacy chuckled. From the moment Twilight told him that Princess Celestia, the ruler of Equestria, who raises the Sun, gave her the assignment to learn about friendship, he found it quite funny. He explained Twilight, that this is something most normal people learn, when they are kids.

When they got back to the library, they found Spike sleeping on the couch. They both found him cute, then Twilight took him to his basket bed with her magic. Meanwhile Lacy put some leftover food to the table, so she could eat some dinner.

After she ate, she began to read a book. Lacy knew he won't be sleeping soon, so he joined her. The book Twilight was reading was about dangerous creatures. It was open at the cockatrice page. When Lacy saw the drawing about it, he started laughing. It looked ridiculous.

Like those hybrid animals from Avatar: The last airbender.

Twilight of course didn't find it so funny.

Not much later, the man finally went to bed, hoping he would get a few hours' sleep.

The next day he sat with Twilight and Fluttershy at a table in the yellow pegasus' backyard, watching the fillies running around. Lacy rarely drank tea, didn't really liked it but here it was so good, he might consider start drinking it. Twilight, of course, was writing her next report to the princess.

Soon came Rarity to pick up the little girls. After their departure, Twilight and Lacy also said their goodbyes to Fluttershy.

"Any plans for today?" Lacy asked after they got back.

"Yes." Twilight answered. "I have and idea how you can earn some money."

Author's Note

Thank you all for all the follows, favs, comments, and of course, reading my fanfic.