I'm not really the best at author's notes, so I'll just say that I hope you guys have enjoyed the story so far. It won't be super long or anything, but I've got some fun stuff planned, some drama planned, and everything in between.

Clyde opened the door to his home, flipping on the light as he stepped inside. The door clicked shut behind him, and he made his way toward the living room. It was still, for the most part, unfurnished. Just a couch, an end table situated on its left, and a coffee table that he never even used for coffee. To him, it had a much simpler purpose: being his leg rest. As he plopped down onto the sofa and helped the table fulfill that very purpose, he looked at the items in his hands.

His conversation with that cream-colored earth pony had caused the apple to slip from his mind entirely, and by now his appetite had subsided. With a sigh, he gently placed it down on the end table. That just left the bouquet Roseluck had given him. He wasn’t exactly sure what he wanted to do with it. The idea of simply tossing it entered his mind for a brief moment, but he shoo’ed away that thought as being needlessly rude.

After a few moments, he settled on going to the kitchen and filling up a glass with some water. It would have to do for now, since he didn’t have a vase. Once that was finished, he crumpled up the paper the flowers had been wrapped up in and threw it out. With a little splash, he dropped the bouquet into the cup and placed it onto the kitchen counter. He’d find a place for it later. For now, he needed to shower.

“Roseluck, where the hay did you run off to?”

“Yeah, we were totally worried about you!”

Roseluck gasped for breath, putting a hoof around Daisy’s neck for support. Maybe galloping halfway across Ponyville hadn’t been such a good idea after all. “I… followed… Clyde…” she huffed, taking a deep breath when she completed her sentence.

Lily rolled her eyes. “Gosh, no wonder everypony thinks we’re overdramatic; Rosie can’t even breathe after a minute of running…”

Roseluck finally got her breath under control and shot her younger sister a look. “Hey, it was more like a minute and a half!”

“Nevermind that. You followed Clyde? Why?”

Roseluck turned back to Daisy and shrugged. Was it not obvious? “He looked like he could use some cheering up.”

“And? Did you cheer him up?” Lily asked. She and Daisy kept their eyes focused intently on the middle sister as she trotted back into place behind her flower stand. For too long, as far as they were concerned, she remained quiet. It wasn’t until the tiniest of smiles tugged at the corners of her mouth that Lily spoke up again, hopping behind her own stand. “Look, Daisy! She’s smiling!”

“Ooh, tell us what happened, Rosie!”

Roseluck giggled. “Nothing, girls. I just gave him some flowers, and we talked, that was it!”

“Oh, come on, you wouldn’t be smiling if that was it!” Daisy teased her. Roseluck ducked beneath her stand, grabbing a few flowers to put on display. At the same time, Daisy leaned over the stand, her and Roseluck’s snouts almost touching. “What did he say?”

Roseluck rolled her eyes and raised up a hoof, using it to push Daisy back. “He said he liked talking to me, and…”

“And…?” Lily leaned in towards Roseluck as well, who was beginning to feel pretty cramped. But she was used to her sisters’ silly behavior, and remained unwavering in the face of their onslaught of questions. “Aww, come on, tell us!”

“You girls are so nosy,” she tittered. “He said he wanted to talk with me more tomorrow.”

Her sisters remained quiet for a few moments. She looked back and forth between them, just waiting for one of them to continue their inevitable teasing. The next thing she heard was the sound of a mare clearing her throat, and all three flower ponies turned back towards the busy street.

“Sorry, I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” the mare asked.

She was standing right in front of Roseluck’s stand, so the middle flower pony could only assume that she was speaking to her. She shook her head, and the mare smiled. “I was hoping to buy a bouquet for my husband today, Roseluck.”

“Well, I’ve got a wide variety of bouquets in stock today, Ms…?”

“Velvet,” the older mare finished for her.

Roseluck’s eyes lit up at that, and she clapped her hooves together. “Oh, you’re Twilight’s mother! She told me you’d be coming by later today!” she exclaimed giddily. “Like I said, go ahead and browse through my selection,” she said, raising a hoof and motioning towards all of the arrangements she had on display, “and let me know which one you’d like!”

Twilight Velvet did just that, looking around at her options. While she did that, Daisy and Lily turned their attention back to Roseluck. “You totally have a new friend, Roseluck!”

“What’s the big deal, Lily?” she asked, raising an eyebrow. It wasn’t out of the question for ponies to befriend one another. After all, they were one of the friendliest races on the planet, if not the friendliest. “All we did was talk.”

“The big deal is that he’s the only human on the whole planet,” Daisy scoffed at her sister’s nonchalant attitude. “This is huge!”

Well, she couldn’t really argue with that. Still, they were making it out to be a much bigger deal than it really was.

“I’d like this one.”

Roseluck was quick to turn back towards Twilight Velvet and took a quick look at what she had picked out. It was on the larger side, and featured an assortment of roses, carnations, and peonies. “Ah, the ‘Pretty in Pink’ arrangement. That one is very popular on weddings and anniversaries,” Roseluck beamed. “I’m sure your husband will love it. If you don’t mind me asking, though, why are you getting him flowers?”

“It’s our twenty-sixth anniversary, and we’re in town for the week,” Twilight Velvet smiled warmly. “We always surprise each other with bouquets.”

“That’s sweet,” Lily piped up.

“I have to agree.” Roseluck took the bits she was offered and gave her best wishes to Twilight’s mom. Once the mare had walked out of earshot, she placed the bits in her drawer and finally replied to Daisy’s earlier exclamation. “Daisy, you only think it’s a big deal because it’s someone other than you.”

Daisy feigned a hurt expression, one that Roseluck could see through right away. “I assure you, that’s not the case! I’m simply proud of my little sister for making friends with such a rare creature!”

“Yeah… sure,” Roseluck rolled her eyes again, something that was becoming somewhat common whenever she spoke with her sisters. “Well, he’s going to be coming over here to chat tomorrow. Maybe then you can talk to the rare creature.” She laughed at the expression her sister gave her. “Oh, lighten up.”

She could hear Daisy grumble, “You lighten up…”, but a pony walked up to Daisy’s stand, keeping Roseluck from replying. While her sister chatted with that pony, she looked up at the sky, finding herself wondering what the rest of the day would hold for her.

Clyde stepped out of the shower, quickly wrapping a towel around his waist. If there was one thing he was glad existed in Equestria, it was showers. The Sun was almost always beaming down brightly on Ponyville, as if Celestia herself was watching them. That meant that any time it wasn’t either raining or snowing, it was hot.

‘Hopefully Fall will be better, whenever that is…’

He had yet to grasp the concept of how exactly the ‘seasons’ in Equestria worked. He’d heard something about a ‘Winter Wrap-Up’, but had yet to actually see it happen. Whatever it was, he was sure of one thing. It had to be weird. But hey, with no possible way to get back to Earth, Clyde knew he would find out eventually.

As he began to dry out his hair, he thought back to his earlier meeting with Roseluck. The little pony had clearly gone out of her way, going so far as to leave her flower stand, just to try and brighten up his day. She had been a little weird, sure, but he was willing to talk with anyone by this point. Clyde had actually seen the flower trio a few times, rolling around on the ground and shouting about how terrible things were. They were definitely a dramatic bunch, if nothing else.

‘Maybe it just runs in their family,’ he chuckled to himself. With that thought in mind, he threw his towel over the shower rack and and pulled on his boxers, ready to lie down in bed and read a book before going to sleep.

Roseluck sighed as she went through her cart, getting all of her arrangements set up for yet another long day of work. Last night had been too long for her taste. Lily’s latest shipment of gardening supplies had come in late, and she found herself roped into helping lug all of them inside into the late hours of the night. Her back was sore, her legs were sore, and she was sore. If there was any consolation in all of this, it was that the weekend was over, and that meant business would be slow.

Gently placing one of her larger arrangements onto the uppermost rack of her stand, she glanced back at her cart with a tired expression on her face. She still had plenty of smaller bouquets to put on display, as well as some potted flowers. This was going to take a while…

As she went to grab one of those potted flowers, struggling to pick it up, she felt it leave her grasp. Looking up, she was surprised to see Clyde holding the plant with one hand. “Sorry if I surprised you. You looked like you needed a hand,” he said, smiling down at her.

To say she was relieved was a massive understatement. However, it was nonetheless early in the morning and there were only a few ponies milling around outside. None of them looked half as tired as Roseluck felt, though. “What are you doing here so early, Clyde?”

Grabbing another flower pot, Clyde replied, “My shift at the Boutique starts in ten minutes,” and walked over to her vendor stall. “Where do you want these?”

“On either side of the stand.” She smiled, rubbing her eyes and yawning shortly after. “Thank you. Lily kept me up all night to help with a shipment that came in late.”

“I can tell that you’re pretty tired,” he chuckled, placing the plants down at the sides of her stand. “You’ve got bags this big under your eyes.” He held his thumb and index finger a couple of inches apart, and she giggled.

“I guess I’m not really a morning pony. Do you like mornings?”

“Oh man, mornings are great!” he replied happily, grabbing a few more bouquets for her and placing them wherever she pointed. “There’s so much you can get done in the morning that’s just impossible to do once everyone starts getting up.”

“My sisters both adore the morning,” Roseluck said, placing a few bouquets in their spots before wheeling back around to face him. He seemed to be in a much better mood than the day before, which was improving her own mood a little bit. “They’re actually both sitting at home just to watch the sunrise.”

Clyde turned about to look at the sun, which was just about halfway above the horizon, then back to Roseluck. “Well, I’ll be gone by the time they get here.”

“Hasn’t it been ten minutes already?” Roseluck guessed.

Clyde lifted his arm up and glanced at his watch. His eyes went wide, and he immediately took off in a full-sprint towards Rarity’s home, shouting back over his shoulder, “I’ll have to meet them when I get off!”

Roseluck snickered as he ran off. It was definitely going to be interesting when he met her sisters later that day. But for now, she had to finish getting her own little shop ready for business.

Clyde burst through the Carousel Boutique’s front doors. They slammed against the walls, and Rarity looked up from the front counter in shock. “Clyde! Are you okay?”

“I’m… sorry I’m… late…” he panted out, hands on his knees. Much to his chagrin, Rarity simply chuckled.

“Dearie, you’ve been on time every day, I’m sure you can afford to be a couple minutes late once or twice.”

“R-really?” he asked, bewildered. He had never known the fashionista to be especially lenient since he started working for her, but he supposed that perhaps that just came with the title of ‘Generosity’.

“Of course, Clyde. You’ve helped me more than enough over the past few months.” Rarity nodded, giving him a warm smile. “Now, we have a few appointments set up for later this afternoon, so let’s go ahead and get everything ready.”

For the next few hours, the two did just that. By the time the first customer waltzed into the boutique, everything was ready. Clyde was quick to take the pony’s measurements, and then he was on to the next customer. Every so often, he found himself looking towards the clock in his area, counting down the hours until he would be done. The cycle continued like that until it was finally time for him to leave, and he waited at the front counter for Rarity.

“Alright, Clyde, here’s your pay for the day,” she said, tossing a sack of bits onto the counter as the last of her customers left the store. “If you don’t mind my saying, you’ve seemed a bit… distracted. Is everything alright?”

“Sorry, I’ve just been looking forward to meeting someone,” Clyde looked back towards the front door as he pocketed his bits. “Do you know Roseluck?”

“Of course! I often go to her for assistance decorating the boutiques I own!” Rarity’s eyes lit up at the mention of her name. Obviously, she was very fond of the flower pony. “Is she the pony you’re meeting?”

“Yep. I talked to her a bit yesterday and we hit it off, so I told her I’d chat a bit with her after work today.”

“Well then don’t let me keep you, darling. Go on, and have a good night!” Rarity bid him adieu as he left the store.

The door slammed shut behind him, and he shielded his eyes from the sun as they readjusted to the light outside. Once they had, he lowered his hands and looked around. Ponies were shuffling around outside and running all sorts of errands, and it looked like the sun was about an hour away from setting.

He set off towards the market, hands in his pockets the whole time. That was another thing he was glad the ponies of this world knew about. The moment Rarity had seen his original clothes, she had set out to make him a complete wardrobe, and the results had been spectacular. He had even managed to get her to make a shirt for his favorite band. It confused everyone, but to him, it was a reminder of something he’d never get to hear again.

The walk was an uneventful one, aside from a few colts and fillies approaching him, but he was used to that by this point. Many ponies would visit from other towns to trade, and they would often bring their children. To them, he was somewhat of a celebrity, which he certainly didn’t mind in the slightest.

“Whoa, you’re weird looking!” most of them would exclaim. Their parents would scold them, and Clyde would assure them that it was perfectly fine. They were just kids, and after all, he was weird for Equestria from what Twilight told him. He had grown used to this.

By the time he arrived at Ponyville’s town square, the crowds were beginning to thin out. He spied Roseluck in the very spot he’d helped her unload her stock that morning. Shuffling his way between a few ponies, he called out to her. “Hi, Roseluck!”

The ever-working flower pony, who had been readjusting her stock, lifted her head up and noticed Clyde walking towards her. “Hello, Clyde!”

To say he was expecting Daisy and Lily to practically fly out from behind their respective stalls and get in his face would have been a blatant lie. “Um… can I help you?” he asked.

“So you like Roseluck?!” “Is it true that you’re stuck here?!” “Why do you even wanna talk to her?!” “Is it true that human wear clothes because they can’t conceal their genitals?!”

“Lily!” Roseluck shouted, blushing madly. “That question is completely inappropriate!”

Lily scoffed, stepping a bit away from Clyde. “I only asked it because it’s what everypony has been wondering since he got here.”

Clyde backed away from Daisy, who was still right up in his face. Looking back to Roseluck, he asked, “I knew you and your sisters were odd, but is this normal for them?”

“I’m afraid so,” Roseluck sighed. “Why don’t you come have a seat? I brought a stool out here for you when I took my break.” She pointed to a stool right behind her stall, which would place him right between her and the one he now knew to be Lily. “Lily and Daisy thought you weren’t coming since it was getting late, but I knew you would.”

“Yeah, sure, just throw us right under the carriage, why don’t you?” Daisy replied, rolling her eyes. She and Lily both moved back behind their stalls, and Clyde hesitantly took a seat in the stool he’d been offered. “I still want you to answer my question, by the way.”

“I think Roseluck is alright,” he offered. “She didn’t try to get in my face the moment she approached me.” He chuckled.

Daisy was about to reply when Lily piped up with a question of her own. “Are you really stuck here? Like, for forever?”

Clyde nodded. “‘Fraid so. Twilight thought she might be able to find a spell in some old books written by this ‘Starswirl the Bearded’ guy, but she didn’t have any luck. That was her last resort, so… here I am.”

“If you had a choice, would you stay here?” Roseluck asked. Clyde didn’t even have to think about that and shook his head almost right away. “How come? Don’t you like Equestria?”

“That’s silly, of course I do,” he smiled. “But I’ve only been here for about four months. I left an entire life back on Earth, so it’s not really a contest at all right now.”

The girls nodded collectively in agreement at that, but they still had more questions for him. Daisy was the next to ask a question, one he knew was coming. “What’s that logo on your shirt mean?”

“It’s the logo for a band I really liked back home,” he answered. Man, he missed them. “Of course, I’m pretty sure their music wouldn’t be very popular here,” he laughed, “unless you like hearing songs about sex and drugs.”

“Yeah, but what do the letters mean?” She repeated. That was when Clyde finally understood that she was asking if it was an abbreviation or not.

“Oh!” He smacked himself on the forehead, chuckling. “Sorry. It means ‘alternating current/direct current’.”

“That’s a pretty dumb name,” Lily blanched at it.

“Well nobody actually called them that, they just called them by the abbreviation.”

“My turn for a question!” Lily shouted, seemingly having ignored his reply. “Is what I asked earlier true?”

“C’mon, Lily,” Roseluck scolded her, “he doesn’t need to answer that.”

“No, no,” Clyde raised a hand, “it’s fine. To answer your question, Lily, yes. That is why humans wear clothes.”

Lily’s face turned bright red at that, and she fell onto her haunches. Roseluck and Daisy couldn’t help but laugh and poke fun at their sister for being unable to handle the answer to a question she’d asked. As Lily sat back, embarrassed that he had actually answered her question, Roseluck took the opportunity to ask another question of her own. “So why did you want to talk to me? I mean, I’m just your average earth pony, I’m certainly not special like the Elements.”

“Everyone is special in their own way,” Clyde replied. “You struck me as someone, er, somepony, that would go out of her way to help others.”

“He’s right, just like last night,” Daisy reminded her. “Besides, you’re definitely special. You grow the best roses in Equestria!”

“Yeah, well, that sort of comes as a given with a name like Roseluck,” she giggled. “You think mom and dad knew what flowers we’d all end up being best at gardening?”

“Hay, no! They took a shot in the dark and got lucky!” Daisy laughed.

“But hey, enough about me,” Clyde spoke up, his eyes meeting with Roseluck’s. It wasn’t until now that he noticed how well their color went with the rest of her features. “How long have you been in Ponyville?”

“I think it’s been… eight years?” Roseluck asked, turning towards Lily, who, finally and hopefully returning to normal, nodded. She turned back to Clyde. “Yeah, eight years. We actually moved here together from Manehattan.”

“That’s a big city from what I’ve heard. Do you like it here more than you did there?” He asked.

“Uh-huh! The ponies here are a lot friendlier than the ones up North,” Roseluck smiled. “You’d never see somepony stop and ask if you need help like you did this morning. Thanks again, by the way. I was really out of it…”

“I could tell,” Clyde chortled. Who was he to simply walk past someone that needed help? He had been taught by his parents that if someone needed assistance and nobody was offering it, then he should at least try. “So how did you find out you liked gardening?”

“The funny thing is,” Roseluck looked to her sisters, then back to Clyde, “we all got our cutie marks on the same day. We found out there was a contest being held in our town for growing the best garden, and the three of us set out to do it together.”

“We totally owned that contest,” Lily boasted, making her sisters and Clyde laugh. “The next closest pony got like twenty points less than we did, and we got ninety.”

Clyde’s eyes widened at that. “Wow, and you were all fillies when you did that?” The trio nodded, and he took a moment to reorient himself on the stool and lean back against Roseluck’s stall. “That’s pretty impressive. What was the highest score you could have gotten?”

“There were three judges, so exactly ninety,” Daisy answered. “We actually got a perfect score.”

Clyde whistled, impressed. “Color me impressed. No wonder you three are the most renowned flower ponies in Equestria.” That led to another question. “How many ponies do you guys have come through town just to get some flowers?”

“I’d say about one or two a day for me,” Roseluck replied. Her sisters nodded; that seemed about right to them. “If it wasn’t for Rarity, we’d be number one in sales to ponies outside of Ponyville. But I actually had another question for you, if that’s okay?”

“Of course! We can’t get to know each other if we don’t ask any questions.”

“How old are you?” She asked. “ And I’ve heard that you age differently than ponies. Is that true?”

“On Earth, that’s definitely true,” he nodded. “But here, you guys seem to age at about the same rate that humans do.”

“And how old are you?” she repeated. He took a moment to answer, but she cut him off before he could. “Oh gosh, I totally crossed a line, didn’t I! I’m sure you don’t want to tell us how old you are, that’s why you didn’t answer it the first time!” To her surprise, Clyde laughed, and she felt a bit of pressure on her head. He was… petting her? “Y-you’re not mad?”

“Of course not. Gosh, I guess I wasn’t wrong to assume you three were over-dramatic,” he laughed, pulling his hand back from her mane. “Sorry if you didn’t want me petting you like that, but that usually calms down animals where I come from.”

“It’s fine. It felt… nice,” she admitted, a tiny blush forming on her cheeks.

Clyde, to his credit, decided not to poke any fun at the mare for that, no matter how tempting it may have been. “I’m twenty-seven, by the way. What about you girls?”

“Twenty-two!” Lily shouted. “Yay for being the youngest!”

“I’m twenty-nine,” Daisy smiled. “Boo for being the oldest…”

“And I’m twenty-six,” Roseluck answered. “Meh for being the middle child.”

That was… something, Clyde thought. These three could pass for frigging Powerpuff Girl clones back home, just in pony form. “Wow, so you didn’t get your cutie mark for a while, did you, Daisy?”

“Fourteen was when I got it,” she grumbled. Her sisters snickered, and that was when Clyde began to notice the sun setting on their conversation. “Looks like it’s about time to pack up, girls.”

“I can help, if you’d like,” Clyde offered. The three were more than willing to take him up on that offer, and the four of them spent the next few fifteen or so minutes loading up the cart with all of their supplies. Once they were done, he looked ready to head home himself. “Well, it’s getting pretty late, so I should probably head on home.”

“Actually, I was wondering if maybe you’d like to come home and have dinner with us?” Roseluck asked, her little blush returning. “N-not like, in a romantic way or anything! Just as friends!” She clarified.

Clyde tittered at her cute behavior. “No worries, I knew what you meant. I’m afraid I’ll have to pass for tonight, though. I’ve been itching to finish the first Daring Do book. Maybe tomorrow?”

Roseluck looked a little downtrodden at that, but managed a nod after a few moments. “Sure!”

The trio of flower ponies took that as their cue to begin their journey home, and Clyde did the same, wheeling around and heading towards the place he’d be calling home for a lot longer than he’d hoped he’d have to. One thing was certain, though.

Roseluck and her sisters were pretty cool girls, if a little crazy. The streets were now empty aside from him, and he laughed to himself. Tomorrow night was certainly going to be interesting.