After leaving Fluttershy's cottage, the small group continued onward through the town, touring the various prominent locations across the small village. While most of the buildings were thatched roof houses that Galen wouldn't find out of place in a medieval village, there were also a solid number of buildings that stood out among the rest. One such building happened to be the local bakery, Sugarcube Corner, that was modeled after a life-sized gingerbread house.

Galen looked upon the building, impressed. "Woah. That's a pretty crazy design. Am I gonna be accosted by an evil witch that wants to eat me when I go in?"

Twilight snorted in surprise and slight amusement. "What? No! this is the bakery where Pinkie Pie works! Is that supposed to be some sort of reference to something?"

"Yeah, it's one of those classic cautionary fairy tales from my world. But enough about that. I'm assuming this is our next stop?"

"Yep! I figured we should stop and get something to eat while we're here as well."

"Sounds good to me. I'm getting pretty hungry myself. Um, I hate to be rude, but I'm assuming you'll be paying? I doubt this place takes credit, let alone the American Dollar."

Twilight giggled. "Of course. It's the least I can do. Besides, this is your tour after all."

The group walked into the store and up to the counter to place their orders. The pony at the counter gave them a smile.

"Well, hey there Twilight, Rainbow. Oh, and are you the new pony in town? I'm assuming the girls are showing you around today?"

Galen gave the pony an awkward wave. "Uh, yeah, I guess. I'm Galen, and you could certainly say I'm new around here."

"Oh, don't worry about beating around the bush, Pinkie already let us know about everything. She waltzed in after meeting you for the first time and couldn't stop talking about the whole experience!"

Galen rolled his eyes. "Greeeaat. Is there anyone around here who doesn't know I'm an alien from a different world? I haven't even been here half a week."

Rainbow looked around the building in confusion. "Speaking of, where is Pinkie anyway? She's usually working this time of day. You have any idea where she's gone Mr. Cake?"

The now identified Mr. Cake gave a small laugh. "Oh, I have no clue! Pinkie requested the day off today, saying she had something 'super-duper important' to do. She didn't specify, but I can take a guess at what she's on about."

Rainbow gave a sudden look of understanding. "Oh, I gotcha. That's good to know, hehe..."

Galen, Twilight and Spike looked between the two ponies in confusion. "Um, is there something going on that we should know about here? I just got a sudden chill up my spine."

Rainbow gave Galen a knowing look. "Oh, you'll figure it out soon enough. C'mon, let's go eat already, I'm starving!"

Galen sighed as he followed the others to sit down. "That does not help me feel better, in fact it makes me feel worse."

The small group sat down and began to enjoy their respective snacks. Galen tried and failed to pick at the slice of cake he had gotten with a fork, before sighing in defeat and lowering his muzzle into the dessert.

"What's the point of even giving the fork a handle if ponies can't pick it up with hooves anyway? I get that they can be used with magic and all that, but it's weird to me that the design still seems to be made for hands."

Twilight swallowed what she had in her mouth before replying. "Well, the design has multiple factors that go into it. Without the handle, silverware would be small enough for a pony to accidentally swallow. In addition to that, there are many species such as Griffins or Minotaurs that have claws or hands that are capable of holding silverware by the handle as well. As a matter of fact, I believe that I read somewhere that forks actually originated from-"

"Sweet Celestia make it stop! Galen, dude, you need to learn not to ask questions around Twilight! She'll rant your ears off about the most boring things ever!"

Galen gave Rainbow a side eye. "Y'know, you could try and be a little less rude about asking her to stop. She wasn't even talking that long." I actually have no idea how long she was talking for, I tuned her out after I got the answer I wanted.

Rainbow shrank back in her seat a little bit, sufficiently cowed. "ahah... yeah, you're probably right about that. Sorry Twi, didn't mean to make fun of you or anything."

Twilight gave an awkward giggle "Oh, it's alright Dash. I know that I can get a little... carried away when It comes to things I have knowledge on."

Galen could clearly see that Twilight had taken at last a little offence to Rainbow's outburst but decided not to press the matter. Instead, he looked over to see what Spike was eating, only to recoil in shock as the small drake scooped a spoonful of gem-encrusted sundae into his mouth.

"Dude, what the hell?! Are those things real?"

Spike gave Galen a strange look. "Uh, yeah? What's so strange about it? Dragons eat gems all the time. Wait, are gems like, rare in your world?"

"They aren't in yours? That sundae you're eating would sell for like 250k at least back home!"

Spike looked at his sundae in surprise. "Really? Huh." Before he went back to eating it as if nothing had happened.

Galen shook his head. "I cannot believe this world man."

Twilight and Rainbow laughed at Galen's shock while the aforementioned unicorn went back to eating his cake, trying to shake off the surprise. After another few minutes, the group finished up their food and set off once again.

Rainbow lifted off into the air and turned around. "Hey, I'm gonna try and figure out what Pinkie's up to. I'll see you guys later, kay?" Without waiting for an answer, she shot off into the sky.

Galen gave the trail Rainbow had left in her wake a suspicious look. "I don't like the sound of this whole 'Pinkie plan'. It's putting me on edge."

Twilight gave Galen a reassuring smile. "I'm sure it's nothing. Pinkie can be a little odd, but she wouldn't do anything bad to anypony."

Galen let out a sigh. "Well, I guess I'll just put it out of my mind for now. I'm pretty sure we've seen most of the places in town by now, yeah?"

"Yep! We just have one place left to go, and it's my favorite place of all!"

Twilight, Galen, and Spike stood in front of a large tree that appeared to double as a building. "Welcome to Golden Oaks Library! It also happens to be where Spike and I live!"

"Woah. That's nuts. Is that a real tree? How is it even alive if it's been carved into like tha... nevermind, magic BS again I'd figure."

Twilight opened the door and invited Galen inside. The first thing that he saw was what had to be thousands of books upon shelves stretching up to the ceiling. The shelves themselves looked as if they had been carved out of the trunk of the tree house.

"As well as being the personal student to the Princess, I'm also Ponyville's local librarian, and Spike is my assistant!"

Spike smirked proudly. "Her number one assistant at that!"

Twilight chuckled lightly. "Of course, how could I forget your proper title? Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be many avid readers in town, because we rarely get much business. I don't mind that much though! It just means that I have more time to enjoy all these books myself! Speaking of, how do you like reading Galen? I could always suggest you a book or two if you're interested."

Galen gave a few of the books on the lower shelves a quick glance before replying. "I do enjoy a good story, but I do most of my reading online. That, and I still can't decipher your written language without that translation sheet you made. I'll be able to figure it out eventually, but for now I'll need it on me if I want to pass for literate."

Twilight sighed. "Right, I almost forgot about that. That is unfortunate though, I doubt you'll get much out of any of these books without that sheet."

Galen shrugged. "It's really not that big a deal. I mean, at least we can understand each other. I can't imagine how awkward it would've been if I showed up and we couldn't even understand what the other was saying."

"Now that you mention it, it's pretty crazy that we speak the same language. It's almost too crazy to be a coincidence! Perhaps our two worlds have converged before, and that's why there's been weird parallels like this?"

Galen rubbed his head. "I'm not in the right headspace to get into weird existential theorizing like that right now, but it might be something worth looking into. I still have no idea how Lyra knows anything about Humans, and my world actually does have quite a few myths about Unicorns, Dragons, Griffons and the like."

Twilight danced on her hooves in excitement. "Oh, this is so interesting! Are you sure you wouldn't want to help me do some research about this? With your world's information and that 'Internet' of yours, we could figure out so much, and maybe even piece together a way for you to return home!"

"I think you're getting a little ahead of yourself here. It might give us some clues, but I don't want to get my hopes up." Galen paused his train of thought and pulled his phone out of his saddlebags. "Y'know, it's starting to get a little late, isn't it? I should probably get home before too much longer."

Twilight gave a small nod in acknowledgement. "You're probably right. I hope you enjoyed the tour of Ponyville ! I know it's probably not much compared to your world, but I hope that you'll enjoy living here for the time being!"

Galen gave a little laugh. "It was actually much more enjoyable than I was expecting! There's certainly more to do around here than my boring ass neighborhood back on Earth. For one, I can go shopping without having to hike a full hour."

"Haha, well then that's score one for Ponyville! I hope you don't mind if Spike and I accompany you back to your house."

"Not at all. Thanks for taking me on the tour, maybe now I can navigate myself around without looking like a total fool."

Twilight and Galen continued to banter as they walked back to his house. After a few minutes though, Galen started to notice something.

"Hey, is it just me, or is it really empty in the streets right now? It's not that late. Do you ponies just pack it up early or something?"

Spike looked around nervously. "No... this is definitely not normal. I hope everypony is okay..."

Twilight gave a nervous smile. "Well... perhaps everypony just decided to turn in early today! I'm sure everything's fine!"

"That is the opposite of what you're supposed to say in a situation like this."

Galen walked up to the door and sighed. "Hey Twilight, can you use your magic to open the door? I really need to figure out how to do that myself."

"Of course! I promise I'll help you out with getting started on utilizing your magic as soon as I can."

Twilight enveloped the door handle in her aura and opened it up. Galen strode into the house, looking around anxiously.

"The blinds are down. They were up when I left. Something's-"

All of a sudden, the lights turned on and Galen's ears were assaulted with a very loud cacophony of a single word:

"SURPRISE!!!"

Author's Note

Hey, I'm back again! Like I said in the update post, I'm sorry for fucking off so soon after 'returning', I just fell off of writing for a while.

I'm not really proud of this chapter. It feels more like a stream of consciousness rather than anything properly thought out, I just wanted to finish up this whole tour segment and move on, since I was running out of interesting ideas and interactions. The next chapter onward will be better thought out, I promise.

I'd also like to say that I might stop titling chapters, because frankly, it takes me too long to think of anything passable. hope that won't be an issue for anyone still reading this.