Cross examined his new flat. It wasn't very spacious, of course, for he didn't have much of a budget. There weren't many business opportunities in Canterlot for DJs, as one could imagine. His mother offered to help pay for a nicer home but he declined knowing that if he couldn't afford it alone then future payments would be a serious issue. There were three rooms: the main living area (which accounted for the majority of the flat), a narrow bathroom on the right of a short hallway across from the front door, and his bedroom opposite the bathroom that was about twice its size. Perhaps a bit less. The kitchen was included in the living area, it was located in the corner to the right of the entrance. A waist-high counter separated it from the rest of the room. The pegasus exhaled in exasperation. Unpacking was always worse than packing. Before getting back to work, he heard a knock come from his door. Or more of a tapping, rather. Cross walked to the door and pushed it open with his hoof; on the other side he spotted a purple mare and small dragon to match. He was under the assumption that the dragon's claws were what made the tapping.

The purple unicorn eyed him from behind the dragon. "Hi there! You're the new pony in town, right?" Cross was confused, for he hadn't even spoken to anypony in town yet. How could she have known?

The colt stammered a bit, "Er- yeah. That's me. Just finishing up unpacking." It was then that he noticed the unicorn had a piece of parchment and a quill levitating next to her.

"I'm Twilight Sparkle! Pleased to meet you!" The pony gave him a cheesy grin and extended her hoof. He could swear he heard some kind of 'squee' sound when she smiled, but ignored it.

"Pe- er, Cross. Cross." The colt responded. He extended his foreleg and gave the mare in front of him a light brohoof. She put on a puzzled expression for a moment but shook it off. The dragon simply stood where he was silently. It was almost creepy.

"And this is my assistant, Spike!" Twilight gestured toward the dragon who just stared up at him. "But let's get to business, shall we?" The parchment and quill floated over to the pegasus.

He glanced at it, not caring to read anything. "What is it?" Cross said flatly.

"It's just something I need you to sign. I keep everypony in Ponyville well documented. Think of it as a census." Another grin.

"Uh... Alright. Sure." Cross didn't feel comfortable signing things for strangers, especially since he'd only just arrived. At this point, however, he was unaware of how things were run in Ponyville so he just played along. The pegasus took the quill between his teeth and scribbled his name onto the line at the bottom of the parchment. It read, 'Penny Pincher.' He knew he had to use his real name for official documents so he hoped Twilight wouldn't notice. Unfortunately for him, she did.

"But isn't your name-"

"Please, just don't ask." Cross' ears dipped a bit, displaying his disapproval of the topic. The mare got the message.

"Well," she began. "as long as I'm here, you want me to show you around Ponyville?" A hopeful smile grew on her face and Spike simply face-clawed, implying that he didn't want to go cantering about Ponyville giving tours. Cross looked back at the boxes that remained behind him, and then back at Twilight whose smile was noticeably larger.

With a long sigh, he said, "Okay... I guess I could use a break." There were quite a few boxes left and he figured being friendly to the locals would be the best approach for now. He didn't want to make a bad impression on anypony.

"Yay!" Twilight exclaimed, "Okay, Spike, where should we take him first?" The mare looked to her companion.

Spike turned and said, "I think we should show him the tree house first so I can go home and sleep." Cross made notice of the dragon's irritation and lifted a hoof away from him, as if to keep a safe distance.

"Uh- why don't you just head home and rest for now? You've definitely earned it!" Twilight smiled big, too big. It was clear that it wasn't an honest smile.

"Yeah, sounds good to me." Her assistant left in a huff; he'd be stomping away if his feet weren't so small.

The mare turned back to Cross, "Sorry about that. We've been on a busy schedule today so he's a bit cranky. Once I found out we had a newcomer in town I just had to squeeze in a visit. But now I guess I'm giving you a tour so everything will have to wait until tomorrow; which, luckily for me, is my planning day for the month so I can just hurry that up and get it done and finish my-" Cross put his hoof up, signaling her to stop. "Er- sorry. I tend to ramble sometimes... Anyway, should we get going?"

The pegasus looked back again before responding. "Yeah, let's go." He emerged from his house for the first time since entering that morning.

"Great! First I'll take you to Sugarcube Corner so we can grab a quick snack. I haven't had lunch yet." At this moment Cross realized how hungry he was, for he hadn't eaten yet either. He thought it had to have been three, four-o-clock? He wasn't sure but he had a general idea. "Uh, Cross, was it?"

"Yeah, that's it." The pegasus stretched his wings, they were stiff from lack of use all day. He'd taken the train to get to Ponyville instead of flying so as to keep better track of his things. "Is it cool if I fly?"

"Go right ahead!" Cross noticed that Twilight was unusually chipper. Not unusual for her, but for him. He was used to dignified Canterlot ponies. Sure, she almost seemed like the type, but not enough to make him uncomfortable. He spread his wings and flew low beside Twilight as she lead him down the cobblestone street.

They passed a number of different houses and shops on the way. The mare told Cross all about each one. Who lived here or there, what this shop sold and who owned that shop. They saw a couple mares sitting on bench outside some store called 'Beds and Lampshades.' The colt made a mental note to go back there later to replace his bed. He also noted that of the two mares, a vanilla colored one with a blue and pink mane and a mint-green one with a light blue and white mane, the green one sat in an odd position. Her rump rested on the bench and her hind legs hung down to the ground below. She sat upright? Ponyville just seemed to get more and more strange as the day went on. Soon after, however, Cross and Twilight reached their destination, Sugarcube Corner.

The bakery stood tall, Cross saw four sets of windows at different elevations. Four floors and maybe a basement. The roof of the main part of the building looked to be made of chocolate cookie with vanilla icing on its borders. In the center of the roof was a presumably two-story tower, a vanilla-colored base piece topped with... a giant cupcake? There were candles and everything... The cobalt pony was staring in disbelief. 'W-what? How? Why...?' his mental questions were left unanswered, for Twilight had gestured for him to follow her inside. Walking up the stairs, Cross eyed two columns at either side of the door that looked like candy canes. He hated candy canes.

Stepping in slowly, cautiously, the pegasus scanned the interior of the bakery. It seemed perfectly normal on the inside. No gum drop chairs or chocolate chip walls. There were, however, more candy cane columns placed as supports.

"Is this... y'know... safe?" The colt looked toward Twilight for some reassurance.

She looked puzzled. "What?" she squinted a bit, indicating that she was thinking. After a few moments, her face lit up. "Oh! You mean structurally? Is the candied building structurally sound? Of course it is! It was built by earth ponies so it's as safe as safe gets!" The mare smiled and planted her hoof to the floor to prove her point. They heard a muffled crash come from below. Her ears dipped and cheeks turned red from embarrassment. Not to mention she may have just broken somepony else's stuff. Just then, a blue mare with a swirly pink mane and tail appeared from two swinging doors behind the counter, the kind you'd seen in a saloon.

"Why, hello there Twilight!" She had a heavy accent.

"Hi, Mrs. Cake! I'm here on account of my friend," Twilight gestured to Cross. "his name's Cross and he just moved to Ponyville! I'm showing him around." The unicorn looked proud of herself, as if she'd done something noble.

"Is that so?" Mrs. Cake directed her attention to the pegasus in her shop. "It's nice to meet you, Mister Cross!"

"You too." the colt said with a smile.

"So what can I getcha?" The blue mare seemed eager to serve her customers.

"Just a couple snicker doodles will do. You like snicker doodles, Cross?" Twilight turned to him, looking for some sort of confirmation.

The pegasus cursed under his breath. "Uh... I forgot my money at home..." he said sheepishly. "I can just fly back and grab it real fast." He began to turn around when Mrs. Cake intervened.

"Nonsense! These doodles are on the house! In fact, I'll give you a whole batch. Think of it as a housewarming gift!" The mare gave him a grin and retrieved a paper bag from under the counter. It just happened to have a dozen snicker doodles in it.

"Well that was awful generous, Mrs. Cake. Thank you!" Twilight grabbed the baggy from the counter and brought it to her winged friend.

"Yeah, thanks Mrs. Cake." Cross took the baggy and held it beneath one of his wings. Just then, the door opened behind him and a pink pony bounced in. The colt turned to look. There stood a pink mare with a bubbly pink mane and tail, her eyes wide and jaw dropped to the floor. Literally. Her mouth stretched all the way to the floor, like in a cartoon. She gave out a sudden loud gasp and zipped away in an instant. Taken aback, Cross turned to Twilight for an explanation, an expression of slight fear on his face. "The buck was that?"

Instead of commenting on his language, Twilight just answered the question. "Oh, that's just Pinkie."

"Just Pinkie? Her jaw was literally on the floor!"

"Yeah... You kinda get used to that. There isn't really any explanation for it. Believe me, I've tried. I'm sure it'll make more sense later." She and Mrs. Cake giggled, as if some kind of inside joke were made that Cross didn't understand.

"Well, whatever. Ponies sitting upright, candied buildings, and complete disregard for the laws of physics... This place just keeps getting better and better." The colt meant it only half-sarcastically, for he kind of liked the oddities of Ponyville. It was an entirely different place from Canterlot.

Twilight laughed and said, "Yeah, that's pretty much how things work around here." Work.

Cross looked up suddenly and said, "Work! Is there a club or something around here?" He'd just remembered that he still needed a job.

The unicorn looked at him, confused a bit. "A club? You mean like... the Cutie Mark Crusaders?"

"No, honey, I think he means like one of those dancing clubs. With the loud music?" Mrs. Cake saved Cross from having to explain himself.

"Oh!" Twilight exclaimed. "Yeah, there's one further down the road. But, it's a little early for something like that, don't you think?"

Cross face-hoofed. "No, I'm a DJ, see?" He turned to show his cutie mark, a record stamped upon his flank. "I need to see if I can get some work."

"Oh... Okay. That makes more sense." Twilight blushed a bit from embarrassment. "But, yeah. There's one down the road. If you want to do that, you'll probably have to talk to Vinyl Scratch. She's the town's DJ." A fellow DJ? This piqued Cross' interest. He'd only met a handful of other DJs in his life.

"Thanks. What's this place called?"

"The Omni. Want me to take you there?" The pegasus thought it over. Clubs don't start getting business until later at night, six or seven at the earliest. He looked around for a clock somewhere. A quarter to five. 'Wow...' He'd been out much longer than he thought. Though, if he got there soon enough, he could probably catch the DJ while she was still setting up.

"Yeah," he began. "let's see if we can get there while the DJ's setting up. I wanna see if I can talk to her real fast." Cross started walking back out of the bakery. "Thanks again, Mrs. Cake!"

He heard her shout a response as Twilight came out as well. "Goodbye! Nice meeting you!"

Cross heard a raspy voice come from above them, "Twilight!" A cyan pegasus with a rainbow mane and tail flew down to them at an incredible speed. "Is this the new guy?" 'How'd she know too?' Hovering above them, the mare looked over to the colt standing next to her friend.

"Hi, Rainbow Dash. This is Cross. He just moved in earlier today." Twilight said. "Cross, this is Rainbow Dash."

Rainbow Dash lowered onto the ground and gave Cross a brohoof. "Nice to meetcha! You can call me RD for short."

Cross lowered his shades a bit, checking out the mare in front of him. "Twilight didn't tell me she had such good-looking friends." He gave Dash a wink and Twilight face-hoofed.

"Heh, easy there Romeo. You're not really my type."

"Aw, can't you make an exception?" The colt hadn't flirted with anypony in a long time, but he definitely wasn't rusty.

"Maybe next time, big guy." She turned around and flicked her tail at him. 'Tease.' he thought.

Dash walked back to Twilight. "Yeah, I just came to see who the new guy was but..." She turned back and gave him a playful look, "I'm pretty sure I got it now. So I'll see ya later." She leaned forward and looked as if she were whispering something to her purple friend. A mutual nod was exchanged and Dash flew off.

"Bye, Rainbow!" Twilight said; she was gone in an instant, a perfect rainbow left in her wake. "Well," the unicorn began as she started towards Cross. "that was... interesting." A half smile grew on her face, as if mocking the DJ. "But you'll have to excuse Rainbow, she's kind of always had to shake off colts making passes at her."

Cross put on a pseudo-innocent expression, forgetting about the suspicious whispers. "What? She into mares or somethin'?" She gave a small nod of confirmation. "Oh... That's pretty hot."

Twilight rolled her eyes and said, "C'mon, lover boy." She started walking in the direction they'd come from earlier.

"But I thought we were going to The Omni?" The pegasus was confused.

"Just a quick detour. We need to head back first."

"But I really need to talk to this DJ, I have to work y'know."

"Don't worry, you'll get your chance. C'mon."

The walk back was less interesting than the first time around. Twilight didn't give anymore explanations or info, for they'd already gone over it. It was growing dark and there were pegasi fluttering about, lighting the streetlamps. Most notably, the mare that sat upright was gone as well. Not that it came to a surprise, that'd be an awful long time to sit in one place. Still, Cross enjoyed the abnormality of it. After about twenty minutes or so, the two ponies had returned to Cross' flat.

"What're we doing back here?" The cobalt pony asked, his confusion worse than before.

"Just go inside." Twilight gestured to the door.

"Okay..." Cross was suspicious but he did as he was told. He raised a hoof to the door and slowly pushed it open. Inside was dark, as he'd left it. Except, there was one point in the center of the living room that was lit up. In the midst of the light, he saw something- no, somepony standing there. As if waiting for him...

Author's Note

Another reference here! Fellow music enthusiasts should catch it. To my readers, thank you! I'm glad you found the prologue interesting enough to continue!

Special thanks to my prereader!
The5Pieces