The town was still quite a good distance away.

But as we drew ever closer, thoughts began to run through my head.

This Pony, Daring Do, is most likely a streaker. I mean, why else would she not have any pants on?

She covered up with a cloak, but I'm still shirtless, underwear-less and pants-less. All I've got protecting my dignity is some dead wolf skin…

So not much. A simple breeze and literally everyone would get a good look at my organs.

I'd rather not embarrass myself, so first things first is finding a tailor and getting myself some clothes…

With what money.

Oh yeah I'm broke.

No matter, I'll just find a job.

Who would employ someone who's wearing this? Hell, who would employ a human?

Also, why did she call this a small village? This place is massive!

Problems after problems after problems…

At least I'm in a functioning civilization though.

I was still a good distance away, but it seems I overestimated the accepting nature of these ponies…

Because literally every being in the town had stopped what they were doing and stared at me.

Glared, even. A few even dashed off into their homes.

“Sure are a friendly bunch…” I manage to mumble out.

”They’re just scared, must've never seen a…” She stops, and for the first time gives me a real good look up and down, ”Centaur-Minotaur Hybrid?”

“Human,” I say with a sigh, two more species added to the ever growing list, “Why don't you go get yourself patched up, I'll try and deal with this myself, okay?”

Daring sighed and began to walk away. Despite how rural the village looked, we had managed to catch glimpses of a rather large Hospital out on the other side, so that's where she was headed.

I need to get directions to a store that sells clothing…

Which means I need to talk to the residents of this fine village.

Which means… I had to tap into a subject I never really learned much about.

Psychology.

I know of different ailments as well as their symptoms and such, but I never really got around to learning the ins and outs of it.

Same with most medicine, there's a reason doctors spend years at Med School.

Like most medical subjects, it’s incredibly vast, however it's unique in the fact that it's very distinctly objective and person specific, so the exact opposite of the hard and thoroughly researched topics I usually dig through the wiki pages of.

More specifically though, the aspect I'm the worst at. Social Psychology.

The Psychology of Communication and Social Interactions. A very important subject, but my status as a freelance programmer who stays inside all day without a lick of interaction with the outside world (except for the occasional calls from my Amá) has made it a subject I'm particularly weak on. Like most things though, I have the most rudimentary understanding.

Which is more than enough for the situations I find myself in right now.

The situation had calmed down now, as some of the ponies stopped staring. Yet they still stole as many glances as physically possible.

They were all on edge, ready to run at the drop of a hat.

First I need to establish trust…

I put on my friendliest face and simply walk through the crowd

The ponies seemed to have three subs-species. Ones with wings, ones with horns and some with neither.

There may be more actually, but those are the only beings I had observed…

Shouldn't I already know this though…?

After all I scrolled throughout the entire race list before settling on human.

Strange, I don't really remember much from it in all honesty

Shouldn't Unforgettable make it possible for me to do so?

[UNIQUE - Unforgettable: What was once learned cannot be Unlearned. Heightened Resistance to Mental Attacks]

What was once learned… perhaps it isn't photographic memory like I had initially assumed…

I can remember topics I hadn't indulged myself in for years with ease, yet something I saw merely a month ago is completely gone…

Does it perhaps mean that knowledge stored into long-term memory is impossible to forget, and therefore gets recalled instantly? That would seem to be the most sensible theory…

Let's think… all the other races have a naming scheme related to Mythology, considering the Cockatrice, Minotaur and Centaur…

It's plausible to assume this rule follows through to other ones. So in order, it would be Pegasus, Unicorn and…

Horse?

I mean that just doesn't seem right…

I'll ask Daring about it later.

Also, everyone is nude.

I'm trying my genuine best to avoid staring at any one of these naked beast's private areas.

And it's a challenge… the worst part is that there was just way too many of them.

Everywhere I look, BAM! Dick. I turn around and BOOM! Pussy.

There is also a severe lack of males. I counted mentally, for every ponies, there are 9 females I only a single male…

Is that why it's stated to be a disadvantage? There's just not as many as on Earth?

But why would that be a disadvantage? Socially I mean. My brain just isn't able to wrap around why…

Am I just an idiot?

…

Stop getting side tracked! You've found, or rather, have been brought to a village!

Who gives a shit about psychology, or social disadvantages, or the system, or anything else!

I'm just gonna assimilate into this society, meet up with a wizard and have them find me a way back.

But again… Clothes, I hate being clothed so little, even when everyone else is naked. It makes me feel indecent…

I can't just steal someone else's clothes, because one, they would be too small for me, and two, I have no clue if they even had any…

My glance turns to a pony nearby.

A maroonish one, kind of like a velvety dull pink, with a pink mane and tail, a single stripe of a similar shade yet less saturated. Bright emerald green eyes and three flowers with smiles on them dyed onto both sides of her flank.

I squat down.

“Excuse me…” Alright, let's test out my common sense. From what I could tell the males (which I knew for a fact were males because I could actually see their genitalia) had more angular faces and stood a slight bit taller. It's hard to differentiate without looking, but this one had softer features and longer lashes, so I'm just gonna assume, “Miss, I'm Victor, would you happen to know where the closest clothing store is?”

Strangely, those same features are prevalent in humans and are the differences between males and females with them. Though it's not a 100% thing, I've met guys prettier than most women and women more handsome than most men. Also hormones can affect these differences a shit ton, I could be misgendering, but I'll put my odds pretty high on this bet.

”Eh-?” The pony was surprised. She was one of the few without wings or horns. I could sense a hint of fear in her voice, and I noticed something as she opened her mouth. A small, nearly invisible thin layer of… Something, by her teeth, ”Oh, that would be the Carousel Boutique, to the right of the Ponyville Town Hall…”

I could hear a small list in her voice, as I continued to stare at her teeth. It was a retainer…

This is important. Most retainers are made of a polyurethane-based material. Which means a few things, one being this world has plastic, crude oil, utilizes fractional distillation, and most importantly they have an understanding of biology akin to the 19th century. Or at least dental understanding to that level. Even more so, they have an understanding of Chemistry similar to my world.

This is confusing though… The Architecture of this world is akin to the middle ages, yet the chemistry… Maybe it's simply a design choice.

That also brings me back to the safari shirt that Daring had on. Quite obviously not polyester despite this world seemingly having the ability to produce it… Another clue to the technological level of this world.

There was a little less fear with every word, which seemed to show that it was purely just fear of my intentions and not of me.

I looked at her with a bit of confusion, before her eyes widened and she smiled awkwardly.

”Oh, yes,” She came to realise that I had no clue where the Town Hall of this city was, which I'm assuming is called Ponyville. She turned around and gestured with her nose at a road, ”Follow that road till you see a large building, then take the rightmost road and you'll find it rather easily.”

I did my head slightly, getting up and nodding at her.

“Gracias,” I began to walk along the road she showed, looking behind me to see her seem a bit confused at my last words before she simply smiled and waved at me, and I waved back. It seems the politeness of our interaction was enough to send a bit of relief through the other ponies. I could feel the tension melt away slowly, from minor fear to caution.

It took a while to find the town hall, bit once I saw it I knew what I was looking at.

A giant cylindrical building with a flared base and two floors, a balcony on each that spanned the entire circumference of the building.

The top of the building was domed with a sharp spike on top, and it had domes all around it.

The river which I had been living by had trickled down here and streamed around the building a bit like a moat, but it left a little after a quarter of the way to go in its own direction.

There were a few roads converging here, but the one to the right I'm assuming is the one the pony was talking about.

It was directly right of the hall, so if you turned exactly 90° from the centre of the building, it would point exactly to it.

I moved myself towards the road and began to walk.

I had gathered more and more stares but nobody really seemed all that worried. I guess they figured if I came this far without any screams then I'm not much of a threat. They seemed more curious than anything to be honest.

This town was huge, no denying that, but thankfully I seemed to have arrived pretty close to the economic district of this place.

Now I just need to find this “Carousel Boutique”…

I kept walking absentmindedly through the road, trying to mentally jot down every technological advancement I could see.

But it was hard to pinpoint what era this world was currently in…

I sighed to myself, this is a fruitless endeavour with simple observation… Right now I can say this place is late 1800s at the most.

I kept trying though. It's not like me to back down against a challenge of intellect.

That building is pretty weird though, it's so… frilly?

From what I could tell it was… Two? No four? No wait two? Nevermind, I couldn't tell how many floors it had. There were four main segments of the building. The first segment was ground level, being an irregular octagon, like one that had been squished.

The doorway was on the first face, which was just big enough to contain it, the opposite side being the exact same size, however the other sides were just normal, being the size of regular walls.

The walls were painted a lovely baby blue with a few intricate designs in a paler shade. Judging from the smell of fresh paint, it was rather new. Two large oval windows in the centre of the walls beside the door, which in of itself was painted a nice purple.

The door was cut in half… no, rather, it was cut one third up from the bottom, with an iron handle on each part. A small diamond window besides both as well.

The second segment reminded me a bit of a tent, a piece of checkered pastel purple fabric draped upwards towards the centre of the structure, but instead of fabric it was obviously just… A material, I'm not sure.

I know that I know a lot, but that doesn't mean I can just instantly identify a substance or material without a few inspections.

Anyway, the material was stopped halfway by a large pillar in the centre of the building, a few windows on it signifying it as either a room or stairway, which was the third segment.

The fourth was a small Hershey's kiss like, what I'm assuming is an attic, of a similar pastel checkered material that extended over the edges of the pillar by a good bit. A few spiraling bits of thin flat iron with two weathervanes (without the cardinal directions on them) stuck in the midpoint of the iron that were, instead of roosters, ponies.

Kind of like a carousel-

…

Oh that genius.

I changed my direction, now heading towards the building, before knocking.

Wait, it's a store, what's the need to knock?

I simply open the door and walk in. Thankfully it was big enough for me, though I had to duck my head a bit.

*DING*

A system notification? No, this was a higher pitch, and it came from… I looked above me, a golden bell right above my head. It must've rung when I came in.

“Oh! Yes I'll be right there dear!” I heard a voice come from upstairs.

The first thing I noticed was the absolutely blinding amounts of rose pink fabric all around, as well as the few blank mannequins spread sporadically around the place.

This place is new. Very new. Like opened this week new.

The few cardboard boxes all over the floor helped with this conclusion.

It may have just been refreshed but this seems like the most plausible answer… and if it's this new and people- er, ponies are already recommending it then it must be quite good.

Which means expensive.

Fuck…

Payment…

I may be able to pay it off with some labour.

My favourite thing ever.

That was sarcastic if you couldn't te-

”AHHHHH!”

*THUD*

A high pitched, ear piercing scream attacks my eardrums as I wince and turn to the origin.

I see a little below average height Unicorn with an eggshell white coat and deep purple mane styled into one large, though I have to admit, fashionable curl. The same being done to her tail.

She had a line of sewing tape around her neck and red cat eye glasses framed on her muzzle.

Her eyelids were closed in a relaxed manner, as if she was sleeping…

She was splayed on the floor, her front hoof on her forehead dramatically…

She fainted… due to fear? I'm not that scary… That must mean this is medical!

I rush forwards to her side.

Would human first aid even work on an animal? Whatever, who cares!

I place the middle finger and index finger of my left hand on what I would imagine to be her fetlock, trying to feel for a pulse. It was strong, that's a good sign.

I pry open her eyelids… her pupils are shrinking a bit in response to the light, so that's also good.

I lift up her head to see if you may have fallen on anything, being as careful as I could be. Nothing, no bruise from what I could tell either but the mane was in the way so that could be wrong…

Right now, she's just plain sleeping.

It was a bit awkward, because of the dreadful view I was given from any and all positions I had been in, so my only option to not get an eyeful of peach was to turn around and wait it out.

One thing I did notice were the three blue diamonds tattooed onto her hind, which seemed to be a common denominator between almost every pony, with the exception of young. Not diamonds, but just a marking of some kind dyed on the flank of every pony above a certain age that I've seen.

It felt wrong to just leave her here, and I still need my clothes so this is probably the best.

It turns out she did faint because she saw me… What an incredibly weak psyche, it's nearly impressive if it wasn't so strange.

I sat myself down with crossed legs, turned away from her besides her back hooves.

I gently shake her, trying to rouse her awake a bit sooner.

People usually only faint for a few minutes, most doing so for around 20 seconds. I'll call for a medical professional after three minutes or if she seems to be in danger…

Though those mental preparations didn't seem to be needed, as the pony soon shot up.

The sudden movement made me regretfully turn my head, as I tried not to focus on the pink in the corner of my vision and stared into her shiny blue eyes, before raising a hand and waving.

“Good morning…?” I got up and dusted myself off swiftly, as she did the same, “Have you gotten the shock out of your system yet?”

The pony just silently nodded, staring at me with a confused expression. Nothing I haven't experienced before.

“First off, are you okay? Does your head hurt at all?” I need to make sure there isn't any lasting damage.

“Er, Yes-” Her body seemed stiff. Holy shit this is getting old incredibly fast, “-I mean, no I'm feeling fine…”

“No need to be so tense, I'm not going to eat you,” she let out a breath even she didn't know she was holding from her expression, “I just came around to ask if this is the Carousel Boutique”

”Oh yes it is my dear!” Her face lit up and it was as if all the fear had disappeared, the tension washing away in the blink of an eye as her posh accent and professionalism took over, ”I’m so sorry you had to oversee such a sight! I’m Rarity, the tailor of this fine establishment…”

She turned her head slowly, ”I do apologize for the mess, I've only been open for a few days but I’m absolutely flooded with requests, being the only tailor in a small village like this…”

“Ah, well I don't mind it, I was just asking if I could put in a request of my own,” the only tailor here…? Is owning clothes that uncommon?

”Why of course! Though firstly I personally think you should do something about that awful muck staining you!” She quickly maneuvered herself around me, pushing me with her head towards a corner of the room, ”Why in Celestia's name would you let yourself be so…”

Wait a minute, she's so relaxed, just a few seconds ago she was shocked enough to faint…

Why the sudden switch? This Pony is obviously someone who cares about looks, she owns a boutique and has diamonds on her rear which further exemplifies her care of looks and perhaps maybe even greed…

Is it that she fainted, not because I'm a bizarre creature, but simply because… I'm dirty? But I'm not dirty, what the hell could she be talking about!?

Whatever.

I really couldn't do anything as she pushed, I tried to plant my feet but I simply just ended up sliding across. I felt her horn poke into my back, as it seemed to heat up a bit, the rose red fabrics swirling around without warning. Revealing a wall stacked full of rolls of beautiful fabrics, however out of all the materials, the item that floated up was a rag.

“E-excuse me, muck?” I managed to respond, as the rag came up to me, she came back into my field of vision as it began to rub across my arm rather forcefully.

”Those strange specks all over you!” She said as she sniffed the air a bit, ”You seem to be quite the hygenic pony, er, creature, so I'm utterly baffled by how you would let yourself get like that!”

“Strange specks…?” I say, as Rarity's sewing tape floats off her neck and begins to float in front of me with practised expertise. I looked down at my arm to see what she was referencing before my jaw literally dropped, “I'm sorry if this comes off as rude, but are those glasses the correct prescription…?”

”Glasses…?” She stopped for a second, before her front hoof raised to her face, touching them a bit before pulling them off somehow, ”Oh my sincerest apologies! I completely forgot I had these on!”

She let out a small chuckle, before getting a good look at me without them on, rubbing my arm a bit harder.

”Now what is this! It isn't coming off no matter how much I rub!” I was just baffled.

“That isn't anything… it's a scar,” Yes, what she was trying to rub off my skin with a rag was my scars. I'm assuming she couldn't tell initially because of her glasses, which considering her occupation, are nearsighted which make things far away blurrier. To her these scars must've just looked like random white blotches all over my body.

”Scar? Now you've piqued my interest, I've never heard of such a thing!” She's never heard of scars…? Now this is confusing… Does nobody here know what a scar is? Or is it just her? If that's so that might explain the looks I was getting…

“You don't know what a… scar is?” She had stopped rubbing by now, but her sewing tape on the other hand had now wrapped around my waist. This is less the acts of a clothing store and more of a tailor…

”No, should I? Is it some kind of trend I've accidentally missed from the latest issue of Vanity Mare?” Vanity Mare? Sounds like a magazine… they have those here? That means printing press, considering the fact that fashion magazines most likely have coloured printing- No, hold your horses, the first ever fashion magazine, Mecure Galant, was created in 1672 so it doesn't necessarily need coloured printing. Don't try to fall into fallacies…

“I would hope so, it's a medical thing,” with those words Rarity backed down a bit, pulling back a bit, her sewing tape unwrapping from my waist and slowly floating its way back to her… How does that work…? My first real encounter with controlled magic and I'm doing it at a tailor's. It's good that I'm at a tailor’s though, pretty sure a regular shop wouldn't have anything shaped for humans.

”Is it contagious…?” She spoke with a smaller voice. Oh wow, like really wow. That's… Something. If this was a genetic condition I probably would've been offended, but with how bizarre the situation was I couldn't help but find it funny. I tried to stifle a laugh, and thankfully succeeded.

I rose both hands and showed off all nine of my fingers.

“You see this hand? It's got five fingers,” I lowered my left hand and flipped her off with my right hand, showing her the cauterization scar, “This one should have five, but I lost one of them, this is the scar that formed afterwards.”

That was the best demonstration I could think of at the moment to be honest, she seemed to understand though.

”So you used to have… fingers…all over?” Or maybe she didn't.

“Scars form wherever there's been a big enough wound and its had enough time to heal,” I explained as simply as I could, “From what I know, all creatures get scars, how do you not know about them…?”

Actually, now that I think of it, ponies grow fur, fur that would most likely cover up any scars they have, so anyone who had scars wouldn't be able to show them to anyone else without shaving it off. It's likely those of a medical profession would know of them but to the average pony anyone who's been hurt would just heal after regrowing their coat without a single cosmetic difference.

”Really?” She seemed quite intrigued by this information, before she realised what she'd been doing all this time and her eyes widened, ”Oh, I am truly sorry, I had no idea! Honest!”

“No no, it's fine!” The moment I said this she furrowed her eyebrows…? Now that I think of it they have eyebrows? No, it looked more like if someone without eyebrows furrowed them, the contour and shadows told me more than the actual hair did, “Are you sure dear?”

“Yes I'm sure, it's fine if you really didn't know,” Her calling me dear reminds me a bit of David's mom, it's a bit weird to be honest, “And, Victor is fine.”

“Well then, Victor, if it's just something simple, I could get it to you by tomorrow!” Really? She only measured my upper half- wait, considering these ponies' tendency to flash others…

“With pants…?” I questioned slightly, as she rotated her head a bit in her own questioning.

”Pants…?” As I thought, better snip this in the bud before it gets too…

I let out a small sigh.

“Can you get me a pencil and paper?” She nodded and quickly floated a notebook nearby.

There was something written on the cover, a language I couldn't read… FUCK! I completely forgot! This is another world, if they speak English, that's great, but there's no 100% guarantee they write in English as well! There goes my plans of visiting a library… I need to find someone who can teach me how to read and write before anything.

I picked them both up, the first few pieces of paper were covered in writing, paired with rather nice doodles and drawings of different dresses.

I turned to a page that had nothing written in it And began to draw a simple pair of pants.

“I'm not the best artist, sorry, but something like this? To cover my lower half,” I drew some stickman legs to show how I could put my feet through them.

”This is fine, but why would you want to hide your hindlegs? Yours seem quite nice, albeit a bit too muscular,” She responded, floating the pencil up behind her ear.

A bit too muscular…? I looked down, and yeah I had turned up the muscularity slider a bit during character creation, but it wasn't THAT muscular…

Also why would being muscular be bad? Are legs not something to hide in this world?

This world’s common sense is confusing…

“Well, either way, how much do I owe you?” To this question she seemed to light up a bit.

”Oh it's on the house dear” This time I was shocked. Is this place full of commies or something? Kidding.

“Are you sure?” She simply smiled, bringing her tape to my ankles and measuring the both of them, as well as the length of my leg to my waist.

”Of course dear! Consider it my apology for before,” She said, before continuing, ”Consider my payment the exposure you'll give me when walking around, a creature such as yourself wearing my clothing is bound to bring a few customers!”

Someone actively wanting to pay in exposure? What kind of sorcery is this? This world truly is twisted…

“¡M-Mil Gracias!” I slipped into espaniol accidentally as the words shot out of my mouth in gratitude, this Pony is so… What's the word? Oh yeah, Generous!

It's so jarring to meet someone this kind just randomly.

She seems confused at what I said but just smiles and nods, ”Though it might take a bit longer with the, what did you call them? Pants?”

“Ah yeah, no that's fine, I just want to get out of this as fast as I can,” I gesture to my leather skirt and she snickers a bit.

”I can see why, its quite the… fashion statement…” Was that supposed to be a jab at me? Whatever.

I quickly say my goodbyes and come out feeling a bit more rejuvenated.

Next is trying to find a profession…

Lets think about my skills, not the ones listed but my applicable ones.

A librarian was my first choice, but since I found out that I'm illiterate, there's no way I could…

I could try… working as a mechanic? Nobody has cars. A chef? I can't cook that well. Baker? Whilst I can bake decently and make some absolutely to-die-for brownies, it's probably not the best choice…

A waiter? Customer service isn't for me, and would probably hurt the business more than anything… What else, What else…?

I mean I could always just break bad, but that's just a last resort…

A dishwasher? Something that customers don't interact with, nor something that requires much skill, as well as a job nobody really wants to do… Perfect!

Now I just need to find somewhere that needs their dishes cleaned.

Author's Note

NEAR FIVE THOUSAND WORDS I COOKEDDDD!!!

I hope I didn't absolutely butcher Rarity's character but with the Carousel Boutique being New you can now understand where on the timeline we are. Also, can anybody guess who the pony with the retainer was? Hint, she had braces in her teens (and she's enough of a main character we have pics of her in her teens)

ALSO TYLER, THE CREATOR HOPPING ON THE HEY NOW BEAT! YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS? KENDRICK X TYLER ALBUM SOON (I'm delusional)

Listening to "That Guy" and Coast Contra on repeat writing this

ALSO YORMSKY DROPPED THREE CHAPTERS TO BLESS OUR CHRISTMAS AFTER A YEAR OF WAIT LETS GOOOO (AND SO DID CORYXKENSHIN WITH A FIRE MANGA)