"Checkmate!" the human moved the rook into its final position, ending the game.

"Aww... I got completely destroyed!" his opponent, a green unicorn mare said, then turned to the earth pony, who was standing there, watching their game. "Drops, you have to defeat him! Revenge me!" she told her, trying to sound as dramatic as she can while the pony she was talking to just rolled her eyes.

Lacy chuckled. A few days after sending the Rubik's Cube and Uno ideas to Fancy Pants, he waited for their answer of what will happen. He remembered that there is a chess club in Ponyville and he was welcomed there. Turns out, though he was rusty, he was still better than he remembered. Tricky Move defeated him after a long game, and now he won against Lyra Heartstrings and then Sweetie Drops.

He later played a match against everypony there. Doctor Horse, a unicorn stallion, who was a doctor at Ponyville Hospital. Thunderlane, a pegasus stallion who came here with his little brother, Rumble. Octavia Melody, an earth pony cellist. The doctor won against him, Thunderlane and Rumble lost, and Octavia managed to get a draw. Overall, Lacy enjoyed himself.

Later, he was walking back to the library. The sun was closing to the horizon and ponies were on their way home. Still, most of them had the time to stop for a minute, say hello to Lacy, some even having a brief chat. It was something he was still adjusting. He grew up in a little, friendly town, but Ponyville was a whole next level. At first it was really strange for him, especially after living in a bigger city for years, where if someone started to talk to you on the streets, it was asking for directions, asking for money or food, advertising something, or trying to rob you. After living in Ponyville for weeks, Lacy started to ease off and welcomed the short talks with random ponies, who later became acquaintances.

He got to the library, but before entering, he heard that there were multiple ponies inside. Since customers were rare, Lacy guessed the girls came over. This time he wasn't happy for that. He promised Twilight another memory viewing in exchange of teaching him how the money works here.

Fucking idiot! That's what I am! I shouldn't have offered it to her, she probably would teach me without asking anything for exchange. And now probably the others wanna watch it too... Fucking great. Well, headache, I didn't miss you yet you always find a way to come... Well I can survive it, just have to show her a funny moment with my friends so she could study it.

With a sigh, he opened the door. Just as he guessed, the six girls and the dragon were there, talking about Rarity's new designs. At least, she was talking about that, but not everypony were paying attention. When he entered, Rarity stopped talking and all of them turned towards him.

"You're here!" Twilight said with no greeting. "I hope, you don't mind, I invited the girls and showed them the other memories."

"What?" Lacy was confused. "How did you show them?"

"The spell, Princess Celestia gave me also included the saving part. You know, she also did this, when she was here, so she could study it further, re-watch it, in case we missed something. I also sent her those we watched since I got the spell, of course with my analysis and findings."

"And why didn't you tell me about it?"

"Well, um... um... I... forgot?" she smiled sheepishly and blushed a little. "Sorry. But now you know, so problem solved."

This is really the last fucking time! Let's give her something really vulgarly.

"Let's get over it." Lacy said with a sigh. He wasn't happy about it, but a promise is a promise.

"Oh... one thing before we start." Twilight said while her horn started to glow. "The princess gave me a few tips how to improve my casting and I've been working on it. I couldn't test it but theoretically it'll last longer and the headache should be gone or at least weaker." she informs Lacy, who only nodded, then she cast the spell to the board that was already placed, the ponies all sitting before it, waiting for the show.

I was sitting at the desk in my dorm room. The place was rather small. A room with four beds, two at one wall, two at the other against it. Above each bed was a lamp and a shelf. In the middle of the room was a table with four chairs, barely enough space for the four of us. There was a smaller room connected to this place. There was the door to the floor, four cabinet and a sink with a mirror and a shelf next to it.

I was sitting in my chair, looking at my laptop. My roommates, Victor, Adam and Chris were all sitting at the desk as well, looking at me.

"I don't fucking know why it doesn't find your lobby!" I said. I was frustrated. On my monitor, the game was open, I was in the multiplayer menu, searching for lobbies, but I couldn't find the one opened by Victor.

"I'm at loss." said Applejack.

"I don't understand, what's going on either, but darling, must you use such foul language so often?" Rarity asked.

"Well, lately I try to hold back because my boss asked me, and I always tried to watch myself when kids were nearby, but with those guys, it could go really far." Lacy smiled, but after others also questioned what was he doing, he began to explain. "It's a video game, like a board game, just with more possibilities. Anyway, in that, you can choose a dynasty from a part of human history. You can conquer new provinces, get more and more titles, manage vassals, manage your lands and of course your family, like finding someone to marry, or promise your kids to someone so your bloodline will continue. There are many more things, and it'd take too long to explain so..." suddenly he was cut off by the memory and it scared everyone.

"ACHOO!"

I suddenly felt many wet drops landing on my face. I turn to my left, where Adam is sitting and looking at me, trying not to laugh. Victor and Chris failed this as I hear them. I look at Adam with a mixture of 'What the fuck?' and 'I will kill you' face.

"Sorry... I just... usually turn my... head when... and forgot... you're here..." Adam managed to say after loosing it too and starts laughing. I still just looking at him.

"I really hope that soon you'll be giving birth to a pineapple and a hedgehog at the same time." I decide to react somehow, trying to keep myself low, sounding more threatening. "And I also hope that you'll be pissing shampoo for the rest of your life. Gesund-fucking-heit." thinking that it was enough, I turn back to my laptop's screen.

The ponies got a good laugh at this until Lacys response. Then they started to look at him weirdly and commenting about his words towards his friend.

After we got over the whole thing, I continued to curse my game for not finding the lobby, my friend opened. After a few minutes of browsing the internet for possible solutions, I heard my phone ringing. I looked at the screen which read 'Mother'. I let out a sigh, then muted my phone, making my mom think that I'm unavailable at the moment.

"Who's calling?" of course, Victor had to ask...

"Take a guess." I simply answer.

"Your mom?" I nodded. "Is it still about the university thing?" another nod from me.

"We replay the same fucking conversation about this every weekend, I don't want to hear about it every day so I don't talk with her." I told him, then quickly changed the topic. "Anyway, I'm gonna reinstall this shit, hope it'll make it work, though it'll be some time."

I closed the game, then went to my steam library, deleted the game, and started the installation.

"Well, it'll take some time with this piece of shit internet..." I commented, then stood up and went to my bed and took the book that was just lying on it.

"You know, while we waiting, you could start fulfilling that Amnesia walkthrough, you owe us." Chris said. The others nodded as well.

"Hell fucking no!" I yelled. "That was a dirty bet and you know it! Besides, I don't have any change clothes in case I shit myself and I don't want my heart rate to multiply and making my heart thirty years older than the rest of my body in one hour."

"That was totally legit." Adam commented. "Besides, with company it won't be that bad."

"Well... I guess I have to pull out my key argument here... That game isn't downloaded. See?" I showed them my steam library, proving my point.

"So... what now?" Victor asked.

"Dunno..." I gave my 'useful' answer.

"Well, I'm going to take a shit, be back in one hour." Chris said.

"That is one way to pass the time." Victor said. "I think I’ll cre-"

Suddenly the memory movie stopped, confused looks were directed to Twilight who were groaning.

"Sorry, everypony." she said. "Looks like I still need to work on the spell." she then levitated a notepad and turned to Lacy. "Did you feel any different from the other times?"

"I don't have a headache this time but I have this feeling." he told her, unsure how to describe that uncomfortable feeling he was having. He tried to say a few words about it, but then decided to leave it.

"Such uncouth things to say." Rarity said her opinion.

"It was super funny!" Pinkie exclaimed. "Especially when your friend sneezed on you and you were very angry and said those mean things but I knew that you didn't mean it because you are not a meany pants and don't want to hurt your friends' feelings and-" an orange hoof shut her mouth.

"We get it, Pinkie." Applejack told her. The apple farmer gave a disapproving look to Lacy but said nothing.

"That wasn't very nice, how you behaved." Fluttershy told him, in her low voice. "Even if you didn't mean it." she added even more quietly.

"I think it was funny." Spike commented. "But there were many words, I don't understand. What does 'fucking' mean? And-" now he was interrupted, this time by Twilight, who started to explain him, why forget all these words.

"And what was so scary about that Amasa?" Rainbow Dash asked.

"Amnesia." Lacy corrected her. "It's one of the scariest horror game ever made."

"Doesn't sound scary at all."

"It's just the title. You wouldn't last ten minutes in the game."

"Oh yeah? Whatever monsters are there, I'll beat all of them!" Rainbow stated.

"Just one simple thing. In a game there are rules. You can't fight with those monsters, you don't have any weapon, you are not a warrior, just a guy with amnesia. You can only hide or run to survive in the cold, dark castle, where you will slowly lose your sanity in the darkness but you have to move in there, because in the light, they'll find you." Lacy spoke, trying his best to sound like some kind of creepy storyteller. It was somewhat successful, because he saw Dash shaking. He smiled proudly. He won this one.

"Lacy!" Twilight called his name, after finally finished her lesson to Spike about why must he forgot those words. "Please next time try to remember something, that doesn't contain such language. It isn't popular here and think about Spike, please." The unicorn explained.

"Twilight. There won't be next time. I don't even know why exactly did I accept this many times."

"But... But... There are so many things, that I want to see and study. I want to see more of your technology, more of your culture, more human behaviour, more of your world. It's fascinating, and I want to know as much as I can, and since you can't answer all of my question, I have to see more and more things and deduct from those." Twilight reasoned.

Lacy was ready to continue arguing when an idea came.

"Alright." he said. "Next time we're going to watch a movie, but only if we can watch it with no interruption."

Suddenly Pinkie jumped between the two.

"Sound fun! Can we join? Can we? Can we? It will be super fun! We will eat popcorn and laugh on the funny scenes and cry on the sad scenes but then our spirits will be lifted because we know that the ending will be happy, because if it doesn't have then we can't be happy but the point of the movie is to entertain us and the point of entertainment is to make us happy and have a smile on our face." Pinkie rambled excitedly.

"Alright. It really does sound good." Twilight said. "But I remember, you telling me about movies and those are much longer, than I can maintain the spell."

It didn't click for her that it was a trick. Later of course she realised her mistake and tried to make Lacy change his mind, but this time he was stubborn.

A few days passed, and Lacy got a package. It contained a prototype of the Rubik's cube and the UNO as well. There was a letter saying that if he approves with them, then they are ready to manufacture them and soon it'll be available for purchase.

The Rubik's cube was easy to test, he just had to solve it. There was nothing wrong with it, though it'd be hard to mess up a simple thing like this. The UNO was a bit different in design but overall like some cheap copy, which doesn't even bother to change name. The rules weren't hard to understand either, it was confirmed, when Lacy showed it to Twilight, who invited her friends to try out.

Everyone understood what the cards meant and had fun playing expect Rainbow who only won once and after several times losing, she just quit and became an observer.

Rarity almost fainted when she heard that Fancy Pants was here with Fleur de lis. She heard a few gossips about it but nothing concrete. She also mentioned how generous was the contract Fancy Pants offered. She also begged Lacy that next time he meets him, he would talk about her, or even bring her. After all Fancy Pants is the most important noble in Canterlot.

Lacy had to disappoint her. He didn't want to have too much attention, he preferred to keep a low profile and manage somehow until he can go back to his world. Sure, he agreed to go to Cloudsdale, but that was because it was such a unique opportunity to visit a city on clouds.

Fancy Pants offered him in a letter which arrived with the prototypes, that he is welcome to go to any meetings or be part of the advertisement but Lacy rejected his offer, after all he just stole someone else's ideas to earn money and it didn't feel good to him even though it won't have any consequence. He let them handle everything and honestly didn't even care if they send them less money than they've agreed on. Just have enough to get by and repay Twilight for her kindness.

Lacy was alone in the library. Spike was out with Rarity, hunting for gems. The fashonista got an order from Sapphire Shores, some celebrity for some clothes with lots of gems.

Twilight was out with her other friends on a get-together. She invited Lacy, but the man choosed to stay. He often felt awkward since most of the time he was in the company of a female friend group. Of course there was Spike as well, but he was just a kid. So he just decided to stay in the library, at least he gets some alone time, which he missed. He lived alone for years and he got used to it on that level, that it didn't really bother him. Sure he went out with his colleagues and friends, after all humans are social creatures, but Lacy was completely fine being alone as well.

Twilight assured him that the girls don't mind his company, but that didn't convince Lacy. Instead, he offered to clean up. Of course he helped earlier, keeping the place in order and helping in whatever he could. It was the least he could do after Twilight let him live here. It was his current payment for the food and the bed.

Suddenly the door burst open and Spike run inside, looking like he just ran the Marathon. He seemed panicked, looking around, until he spotted the man.

"Lacy!" he shouted, then ran to him, trying to grab his hand. "You've got to come and help me! Rarity is in trouble!" he yells to him.

"What happened?" Lacy asked.

"She's been kidnapped!" Spike answers, still trying to make him move. "Come! We have to save her!"

"What? We should alert the authorities!" Lacy tries to reason.

"It'd take too much time! We have to save her NOW!" Spike stayed stubborn. "Please, Lacy! You have to help me! Please!" he begs.

Lacy wasn't fond of the idea of him going to some kidnappers. It is something that usually the police deals with, but he had to learn that here in Equestria, there isn't some kind of police force in every town. There are in the bigger cities and there are the Royal Guards who could be called to any cities in a situation like this, but it takes time and Spike didn't want to wait.

In the end, he gave in. These ponies were mostly peaceful and easy to scare, at least according to what Twilight told him, about her adventures with her friends and Lacy made the assumption. Though Lacy wasn't a great athlete, and he gave up on brawling years ago, he believed he could deal with a few ponies if needed, they are strong but they aren't as agile as a human, even someone like Lacy, who wasn't an image for fitness. Also, he owed Rarity a lot. She did make clothes for him completely free of charge.

Since Spike was tired after running back to the town, Lacy offered to carry him, which he gladly accepted. Lacy didn't run, though Spike tried to make him, but he didn't want to exhaust himself but walked faster than usually. As they approached the place, Spike told him that Rarity was kidnapped by diamond dogs. Lacy found it amusing and confusing as well. Twilight did tell him about some other sentient creatures, like griffons or minotaurs, but never mentioned dogs. He also learned that Spike wanted to be some kind of hero here, saving the damsel in distress. Lacy wanted to tell him that this is not some kind of game, this is about someone's life but he didn't and just continued his way to the place, Rarity was kidnapped while questioning himself, why does he still doing this.

Soon they arrived and saw many holes in the ground. There was a complete tunnel system below them. Without waiting Spike jumped in one of these holes, not giving Lacy a chance to react so he had to jump after him.

"Spike. This is serious. You can't just go there alone. They're probably dangerous." Lacy scolded the young drake.

"I have to! I have to save Rarity!"

"Well... now where?" the man looked around in the strangely bright labyrinths of tunnels. There were many holes on the surface which let in light, but it still wasn't normal. Soon it was answered when he noticed many torches on the walls of the tunnel but he didn’t know how did they gave light, after all it wasn’t fire.

Spike took the initiative again and started to walk to a random direction. Lacy followed him.

"So..." Spike started, "Have you ever had a crush on somepony?"

"No, but I had on humans." Lacy answered, Spike shot him an unamused look. "Why do you ask?"

"Promise to keep it a secret?"

"I promise." Lacy nodded. Spike stopped, then motioned him to lean close. Lacy did as he asked.

"I have a crush on Rarity." the dragon told him quietly. "That's why it must be me, who saves her. I just need help. Also, if you could give me a few tips..."

"Really?" Lacy was a little surprised. Sure, he saw Spike's behaviour around Rarity, but he guessed that was because she was the one who sometimes gave him gemstones. "Is it okay here? I mean different species relationship?"

"Why wouldn't it be?" Spike asked, not understanding what the man meant.

"Well..." Lacy was in trouble. Spike was considered a baby dragon, though he mostly acted like a teenager around the beginning of puberty. If he tells him things he's not supposed to know until later, then Twilight would be mad at him and Lacy started to like living there. "I don't know. In my world, there are only humans. If you fall in love with other creatures that way, that's unacceptable. Eh... I'll ask Twilight about it later."

"Okay." the dragon said, his voice not hiding his confusion. "So then? Any tips?"

"There is the age difference though." Lacy told him, ignoring his question. "You are a kid, she's an adult. If she'd start to date with you, then she would get into trouble."

"So then I should just wait until I'm an adult?"

"You can, but there is always the possibility that she finds someone during that time." Lacy let out a loud sigh. "Sorry, but I'm the worst person you could ask about it. I don't know much about how things works here. Also, I'm not the best to ask about love tips. I was in relationship three times, none lasted longer than a few months."

Before Spike could've reacted, they heard a voice from behind. As they turned back, they saw five familiar ponies running towards them.

"Spike! Lacy!" Twilight shouted as they stopped a few meters away. "Thank Celestia we found you! Somepony told us. She saw Spike running back to the library in panic, then saw you two leave in a hurry. We thought, that something happened, so we came to help."

Lacy quickly filled them with what happened. They heard crying not so far away, which sounded like Rarity.

"She must be in there!" Rainbow pointed to a door. Lacy turned towards where she was pointing, surprised he hadn't noticed it earlier. "Let's go!"

Suddenly five diamond dogs jumped on the ponies from several tunnels and put a rope around their muzzles. Spike run to Twilight.

Lacy wanted to go help too, but another dog appeared behind him and grabbed his upper arms.

"More workers." said one of them.

Lacy was struggling to free himself from the dog's grasp. He was a little taller than them and though their arms were strong, their legs looked small and weak.

"Motherfucker." he hissed and then used all his strength to move backwards, pushing the dog behind him and hoping that it's legs really that week. They were. The dog couldn't stop him, and soon they hit the wall of the tunnel.

The dog grunted in pain and let go of Lacy, who also felt the collision, but he momentarily forgot it because adrenalin rushed through his veins. He grabbed a rock and was ready to hit his attacker with it, but the dog was fleeing already. Lacy got confused at that. Turning back, he saw the mares, who also got rid of their attackers and came back to help him.

They went back to that door. Spike was on Twilight's back and had a stalactite and that rope which was still on the unicorn's muzzle in his claws. Lacy found the sight hilarious. He even laughed when Spike managed to convince Twilight to play along with this 'Prince Charming comes and saves the Princess' act.

When they broke through the door, what welcomed them was a surprise. Three dogs running to them and start complaining about how unbearable Rarity is. They begged the ponies to take her back and even let her take many carts filled with gems. Lacy had only one thing to say.

"What the fuck?"

"Argh... My back" Lacy groaned loudly as he collapsed on the couch the moment they got back to the library.

He helped Rarity by also bringing a cart. The problem was that the only way he could pull the cart is to attach it above his shoulders so it'd stay there, but he also had to hold it in place with his hands. That wasn't the only problem, though. Since he was tall, considered to almost everything here, he had to bend down as much as he could otherwise the front of the cart would be raised.

"Stop whining!" Twilight said. "The one I pulled was the same. It wasn’t that hard."

"Because it's designed for quadruped creatures. For me, it was a really uncomfortable position. Plus, all those years of mostly sitting on my ass didn't do good for my back. Sometimes I feel like at least twice of my actual age."

"I don't think that forty-four is that much worse."

"Me neither but I heard a few times, if you are over forty, woke up and nothing is in pain, you are dead." Lacy laughed.

Twilight just shook her head and went to write a letter to the princess.

Author's Note

Well, this took longer than I anticipated or wanted. My apologies, but sadly I cannot keep a fix rate, I relase the chapters.

Still I hope that you enjoy my work and thank you all for the faves and follows and everything else!