“I can’t wait!”

“How much longer now?”

“Oh! Oh! The train’s pulling in!”

“Everypony in position?”

The entire population of Ponyville was currently gathered around the train station, waiting for one particular pony to step off the now-stopping train. Miss Mare had recently retired as the town’s mayor, and today was the day the new mayor would be arriving.

Near the front of the crowd was a mint-green unicorn pony, hopping in place excitedly. While the rest of the town was just waiting to meet their new mayor, she had been given the job of being the mayor’s assistant and secretary, and she couldn’t wait to get started. It felt like the train took hours to finally slow to a stop and the door to open.

A few ponies trickled out, having either arrived back from a trip or coming in to visit the town. They all seemed a little confused, and upon reaching the crowd, turned to look back at the train. Finally, the last one on the train came out, and everypony in the crowd went silent.

For one thing, this last one wasn’t a pony. It resembled more of a cross between a monkey and a diamond dog; it stood on two legs and had two arms, and wore clothes that covered most of its body. A few members of the crowd recognized it as being a ‘human’; beings that were rarely, if ever, remembered or even considered real by the public.

This particular human had a pink tie-dye t-shirt on, along with a pair of dark gray shorts and green shoes. Its brown hair was a little messy, but not to the point of resembling a bird’s nest. Its entire appearance was topped off with a simple smile on its face, which quickly turned into a look of confusion when it looked around at the equine crowd.

Finally, the mint-green unicorn stepped forward. “M-Mister Chuck, correct?” Her voice shook nervously. She never would’ve thought she’d get the chance to meet a real human!

The human looked to her when its - or, as it seemed, his - name was mentioned, and he nodded. The unicorn, after taking a deep breath to steady herself, extended a hoof.

“I’m Lyra...Lyra Heartstrings. I’m your assistant.”

Chuck, as his name must have been, grasped her hoof in a simple yet firm hand-hoofshake. He tilted his head in confusion when she mentioned being his assistant, and the ponies in the crowd could almost swear they saw a question mark literally appear over his head.

Lyra didn’t seem to notice Chuck’s confusion, as she turned to the crowd of ponies. “Fillies and gentlecolts, please give it up for our new mayor, Chuck!” She started to stomp the ground with her forelegs in applause. After a small hesitation, the rest of the crowd joined in, gradually getting into it more and more.

As this happened, the human receiving the applause appeared more and more perplexed. He finally managed to get Lyra’s attention by tapping her on the shoulder.

“Who’s this mayor?” he asked. It was the first time the ponies had heard his voice. It sounded rather young; like that of a school-aged colt, perhaps a little older. The ponies were unsure if that was just how humans normally sounded, or if this Chuck person was in fact barely in double digits; they had no idea how humans looked according to age.

Lyra tilted her head, then broke into a grin and laughed. “Oh, come on! Quit joking around. You know who you are! You told us which train you’d be arriving on.”

Chuck shook his head. “That wasn’t me!”

The unicorn shook her own head. “Nuh-uh, you can’t fool me. Everything’s as you said it would be. It’s all fine.” She giggled. “You’re such a jokester, you know?”

“W-Wait...” The human seemed to practically be begging now, but Lyra was having none of it.

“Let’s continue this discussion at the town hall, alright? We need to get you settled in.” From her saddlebags, the unicorn levitated a moderately large piece of parchment. “Here’s a map of Ponyville for you, Mayor Chuck. It should help you find your way around. Head on down to the town hall as soon as you can, okay?”

Seeming to give up, Chuck sighed and took the map, glancing at it before tucking it away into his pocket. How he managed to fit it in without folding or crumpling it, nopony knew, but they decided to think of it as ‘human magic’.

Feeling ecstatic, Lyra took off for the town hall, knowing Chuck would be joining her shortly. The rest of the ponies began splitting off, either going home or continuing to run errands around town. Not a single one of them noticed Chuck look over the scene, sigh, and facepalm.

Thanks to the map, it didn’t take Chuck very long to find his way to the town hall. He occasionally bumped into other ponies along the way, who surprisingly didn’t give him a wide berth like he would have expected them to do for someone of a completely different species. In fact, a couple of them were willing to chat with him if they weren’t already busy with something else.

After getting acquainted with a fair amount of ponies, Chuck reached the town hall. He opened the door and walked inside, seeing Lyra using her unicorn magic to sort through stacks of papers at the front desk. She looked up as he entered and smiled.

“Oh, hello Chuck! Good to see you found your way here without getting lost.” She giggled, and Chuck couldn’t help but laugh a bit himself. “Anyway, we should probably get right down to it. You’ll need to start your work right away, of course.”

The unicorn flicked through the stacks of papers some more before pulling out a few sheets of paper and looking over them. As she did, Chuck entertained himself by looking around the room. It was smaller than one would expect given the size of the building from the outside, but then again, this was only the first room. The rest of the building was likely used for other things.

“First things first. We should complete your resident registration,” Lyra finally spoke, breaking Chuck out of his thoughts. She levitated a quill, dipped it in a jar of ink, and hovered it over the paper. “So, first...what’s your name?”

Chuck raised an eyebrow at her, and she suddenly blushed. “Oh...r-right. Chuck...sorry.” She scribbled that down and quickly moved on. “A-And...your address?”

There was a long, uncomfortable silence.

“...Mayor Chuck...do you have a place to live yet?” she finally asked, slowly. The human sheepishly shrugged, and Lyra sighed. “We’ll have to find you a vacant house, then...hopefully that won’t be too hard.”

She began looking through some more papers, only to scrunch up her face in annoyance. “Really? Not a single house in Ponyville is vacant? How...oh, never mind.” She sighed and took a breath to calm down, trying to hide her annoyance.

“Alright...well, there’s a real-estate office right on Mane Street. If you just head down there, you...can...” She trailed off when she noticed Chuck laughing. “...what? What’s so funny? Was it something I said?”