That court session afterwards was more like a press conference, if I'll be honest. There were only so many attendees that could be in the hall, so it was mostly press members from various papers and a few other ponies. It was so tedious, answering the same questions over and over again.

I've done more boring things mind you, like joining the Sea Cadets, or going to the Birmingham Motor Show when I was a kid. There was only one redeeming factor of going to that show.

That XJ220 though...

Anyway, I met a few members of the press, some of whom I managed to keep in contact with afterwards, and became friends. Others were indifferent, which I didn't mind. I didn't expect everyone to be friends with the big, scary-lookin' human. There was a member of that Canterlot Chronicle who was a bit of an arsehole, and made it clear he didn't like us.

Not that he was much of a bother, mind you. I just laughed and stood up, and he never bothered any of us again.

After quite some time, ponies started to clear out, and I called it quits. I walked out the castle and headed to one of the local pubs in the city, a place called The Crystal Barracuda. While I was there, I managed to get a pint of beer (the first was on the house, which was pretty cool in my opinion), met with some of the locals and started a few conversations with them. These conversations mostly revolved on how my world worked, but I didn't care.

They were shocked to learn that Earth has a more-or-less equal sex ratio, and I was - well, gobsmacked - to learn that the pony sex ratio was four mares for every stallion.

Yeah, I can't explain that one either.

But yeah, I had a few more beers and I played darts with some of the locals. My aim was usually good when I played with Brodie, but I hadn't played in at least four years, and the guy I was up against was some form of pro.

It's fair to say I got my arse kicked.

It was all friendly sport though, so it didn't really matter.

Anyway, after another few hours of socialising, I was persuaded by the barman and the pub-goers that I should play some "human music" on. I whipped out my phone, turned the volume up and played Take On Me by a-ha.

Needless to say, they weren't disappointed.

There was questions asked about them, but I didn't know all that much about a-ha. I tried to answer to the best of my abilities, but there was a few "I don't know"s. After all, I'm a Queen guy.

Eventually, I left, apologising to the barman for not actually buying anything to drink, as I didn't have any money on me. He was OK with it, as I was quite friendly with the folks there, so it wasn't much of an issue.

When I got back, Shining was there on the step. He looked over at me. "Where did you go?"

"Some place called The Crystal Barracuda."

Shining's eyes lit up. "The Crystal Barracuda? That's the place some of the guys go when they're off duty. I went with Flash and a few others before. It's a good place, isn't it?"

"Yep. It's even better than the regular place we usually go to in Glasgow."

"What's that?"

"The Finnieston. We go every fortnight and have a few drinks and just have fun. Sometimes we did bicker a bit, which is why we're here."

Shining chuckled as we walked back up the stairs. "Sounds like a good place."

The rest of the day was uneventful. We had dinner, and then we let Cadence and Shining watch the original Star Wars. Because the prequels suck.

They liked it a lot. Shining liked this more than Rush, but mainly because it was more exciting than Rush. They also liked the chemistry between the actors, especially between Alec Guinness and James Earl Jones.

Everything else was boring. I headed back up to my room after that and finally fell asleep at half past eleven or something along those lines.

On Wednesday I met some of the guards while they were off duty. Two that I decided to hang around with were notorious in the castle for being pranksters. One was a unicorn stallion by the name of Thunder Bristle, and the other was a pegasus mare called Anomaly.

You know how I said earlier on that the guards here are mostly purple, with a few exceptions?

Well, it's not actually like that. The guard's body armour actually has a special magical spell in it that makes ponies look the same. Anomaly actually had this navy blue-ish coat, almost like Luna's, but slightly more... blue. Her mane was this type of dark red - think cherry, for reference.

Thunder Bristle, on the other hand, was... well, the exact opposite.

It turned out that they were brother and sister - the mother was a unicorn by the name of Prized Fortune, who lives in Canterlot currently, while the father was a pegasus living in Cloudsdale, which is... a city in the clouds.

Yeah, don't ask me how that one works. I don't know either.

Anyway, we quickly became friends and we spent the day pulling pranks on various ponies in the castle, including switching the laundry piles for the maids, switching the sugar and salt in the kitchens, putting glue on Nathan's seat, putting an air horn behind one of the doors, and changed some of the toilet rolls with duct tape.

We did try to put post-it notes onto Thomas' door, but he caught us when we started to write messages on the post-it, things like "good luck trying to get these off quickly". I personally thought it was hilarious.

Thomas... let's just say he didn't enjoy it as much as me.

We actually had to run through a court meeting just to get away from Thomas. When we burst through the doors, everybody looked so confused. Although people began to see who we were, we ran quickly out.

"I am SO sorry about this," I said to Cadence as I ran out, who was giggling at who I was running with and hazarding a guess as to what had happened. Which was confirmed half a second later when Tom burst through the doors and fixed his glare on me.

"COME HERE!" Thomas shouted in a tone that made Tony from The Bill look soft.

We eventually managed to get away, but only because I got yanked into the barracks by Anomaly and used the five lock mechanism for the barracks.

It took him a good fifteen minutes for Tom to leave again, during which I showed the other guards in the barracks my phone, and even managed to take a selfie with them.

Do not ask me to show you the picture, though. I look like a fucking idiot in it.

Anyway, after a while I went back on my way out and did some work for the Crystal Barracuda. It turned out they needed some extra hooves - or hands in my case - because somepony got sick.

I did some work from lifting crates to doing some serving behind the bar. I even got paid for it - I got 40 bits (which is the currency of Equestria) for six hours.

Now I went away and looked at products for sale that could give me an idea of how much it was worth. From what I'm able to work out, 1B is equivalent to about £1.20. That's not bad - well, for working at a bar, anyway.

The rest of the day was as uneventful as the day before after that. Nathan and Tom got me back for the pranks I pulled earlier, namely by putting a whoopee cushion under my chair for dinner, after I had finished working.

How they managed to get it is beyond me, but from the smirk on Shining and Cadence's face, I suspect they had something to do with it. I went back to my room after we had dinner, to find my room in - let's face it - a pig's sty.

The bed looked like it went into a fight with Francis Begbie from Trainspotting (or Trevor Phillips from Grand Theft Auto V if you don't know who Begbie is) - and lost. The mirror was about as clean as a Land Rover Defender's engine, the coat I had from the first day here was now lying in a heap on the floor - inside out, and there was a piece of paper folded up amongst the bed sheets.

Curious, I walked over to the pile and unfolded it - and found some writing clearly aimed at me.

Nobody's immune to pranks.

I knew immediately who had written it.

"Thunder," I muttered under my breath.

Great. Now I have to tidy this shit up.

The following morning, I got up at around 8. I did my usual - got up, got dressed and had breakfast with Cadence and Shining before heading back out to the Barracuda to help out.

I worked for most of the morning and the afternoon. The regular guy was still sick, so the manager was pleased that I could help out.

I did whatever I could - lifting crates in, serving ponies, cleaning glasses - whatever needed done.

There were a variety of folks coming in to the pub - miners from the Crystal Mines slightly south of the city came in, along with others, including a librarian and a few of the guards.

Eventually, at around four o'clock, Thomas came into the bar, although not to have any drinks.

"Alright, mate," I said as I cleaned the beer glass from the last customer. "What can I get you?"

"You forgot, didn't you?" he asked, with a wooden expression giving off the feeling he was slightly angry about something.

"About what?"

Thomas just raised his eyebrow at me, expecting me to remember something. And so I thought for a few seconds, not really sure what he was getting at. And then it hit me.

"The suits."

He nodded. "We're supposed to get them today."

I nodded and then turned to the bar manager. "Excuse me, you don't mind if I-"

"Oh, no, no, it's fine. You've done more than enough, anyway," he replied before turning around again and walking off. "Let me just get you your pay for the day."

As he walked back out the door again, Thomas turned back to me. "You're getting paid for this?"

I nodded. "Aye. The regular guy was sick, so I offered to help out here in his place. Besides, it's something I can do while we're here."

"I suppose," he exhaled. "I'll admit, I was never good with that shite. I got the bar job once - and you know how that one turned out."

"Yeah," I laughed.

Back when he was a student at Strathclyde Uni, and I had just landed my first full-time job, he got a part time job as a bartender at some pub now that doesn't exist anymore. He wasn't very good at it - he got some orders wrong and was dismissed in three weeks. He did full-time work at the weekends, but as I said, not very good at his job.

Brodie and I actually listened into that entire conversation the bar manager had with Tom.

"What the bloody hell do you think you're playing at, boy?"

"Well, sir, I may have gotten a few orders wrong, but-"

"A FEW ORDERS?! I've been getting all sorts of negative feedback about this bar, all these negative reviews - and they all started when YOU started working here!"

"Well, sir, mistakes were made-"

"This pub has had a good reputation since my father started it back in '66. Do you have ANY IDEA how important this place means to me?"

"Sir-"

"And you're tainting the reputation of this place by screwing up order after order?"

"Well sir, I've never done this sort of thing before-"

"And it shows."

"But-"

"Get out."

"Wh-what?"

"You're fired. GET OUT OF MY BAR, AND NEVER COME BACK!"

It was safe to say Tom never put that on his CV for when he went for SSE.

But, whatever. We all make mistakes.

Soon, the unicorn manager came back out with a small bag. "There ya go," he said as he put the bag on the table with his magic. "55 bits. 50 for your work, and another 5 as a thank you, if you will."

"Cheers mate," I replied, taking the money before turning back to Tom as we walked out. "Where we headed?"

"To the train station. Nathan's already headed there, and the train leaves in about twenty minutes."

We walked down to the train station in relative silence, still taking in the beauty of the city. I've said this before, but it's more radiant and more radiant than any city I've ever seen or been to before. It still takes my breath away to this very day.

We got to the the station in about ten minutes and, sure enough, guess who was waiting.

"Well, about time," Nathan sarcastically commented. "You showed up really early."

I ignored his comment. I really wasn't in the mood for it.

While we waited, the conversation we had varied form what I did to what they did. Thomas had tried some pranking, but most of it seemed to backfire. Nathan went to the local library and read through what he could of literature and see who was good.

He had come across this book series which seems awfully similar to Indiana Jones - a book series called Daring Do by an A.K. Yearling.

Now who could that possibly remind me of?

Apparently it focused on this pegasus mare by the name of Daring Do, an adventurer who goes around saving artefacts from various different places.

Wonder how ponies would react if they saw Indiana Jones, I thought to myself as Nathan explained the setting of the first book - Daring Do and the Quest for the Sapphire Statue or something like that.

Eventually, the train arrived and we climbed aboard the train, ignoring the looks everypony was giving us. We sat at this little four seat spot that allowed us to see out the window. While we waited, Nathan handed Thomas that Daring Do book he was talking about so he could read on the way to Ponyville.

In Nathan's words, "Maybe you'll keep off that damned phone for once," referencing the time that he went on his phone after he drove his brand new Audi out the showroom - and almost crashing into the car in front.

This comment was met with fake laughter and a two-fingered salute from Tom.

As the train started to move, I pulled out my phone out of my pocket, put my earphones in and played this playlist I had on my phone that was specifically for long distance travel. If you're interested, the list was filled with old Queen, AC/DC and Fleetwood Mac songs - Don't Stop Me Now, Another One Bites The Dust, We Are The Champions, Invisible Man, Black In Back, Thunderstruck, Highway To Hell and The Chain, just to name a few.

They just don't make songs like this anymore.

Eventually, when we got nearing this small town up ahead, I felt a slight tug on my shoulder. Pulling out my earphone, I turned to Nathan. "Yeah?"

"Just letting you know we're almost at Ponyville," Nathan explained, while putting the Daring Do book back into this bag he'd taken from my room. "Because you were too busy listening to your music."

"Alright," I replied as I wound up the earphones and put them back into my pocket. Checking my phone, I saw the time was around half past five. Should be back for no later than eight.

We got up and headed to the doors, while attracting the looks of many ponies on the train; most of these stares were of amazement. These looks were ignored as the doors opened and the ponies waiting at Ponyville Station all turned their heads to look at us in awe.

There was silence as we walked off of the train and onto the platform. It continued for quite a bit, and began to make me feel uneasy.

"Good afternoon," Thomas said in a somewhat nervous tone.

The ponies stopped staring and went back to what they were previously doing before - whether that may be meeting people from the station, getting on, getting off, whatever.

Well, that happened.

"There you are, darlings."

We all turned to the source of the voice.

"Rarity."

"How are you all? No problems at all?"

"Doing alright," I replied, with nods of agreement from Tom and Nate. "We got a few looks on the station, but that's to be expected I suppose. Apart from that, everything's fine."

"That's great to hear, darling. Now, why don't we head round to my place?"

"Alright."

And with that, we started to walk over to Rarity's house - or boutique as we found out later. On the way, we started talking with Rarity.

"Are you just by yourself at the moment?" Thomas asked.

"No, I live with my little sister, although she's out with her friends at the moment."

"What's her name?" Thomas asked.

"Sweetie Belle. She goes to the local school and is the one of the few ponies in her year who doesn't have her cutie mark yet."

"Oh," Thomas replied. "She doesn't get too worked up about it, does she?"

"Sometimes, she does," Rarity sighed sadly. "She and her friends have this club to help ponies get their cutie marks, and they try lots of things to try and see what their cutie mark is, but they don't get much success."

"Ouch, that must suck," I commented. "Where is she now?"

"She went with her friends, Applebloom and Scootaloo, to a Rodeo in a town called Appleoosa, to watch Applejack and her cousin, Braeburn."

"Would I be right in hazarding a guess and saying that Applebloom is Applejack's little sister?" Nathan asked.

"That you are."

And before we knew it, we were at Rarity's boutique, which was titled Carousel Boutique. I suppose it was rather fitting when you considered the building was circular and - well, looked like a carousel. Kind of.

"Come in, darlings," Rarity said as she opened the doors with her telekinesis. "Please, do sit down. Make yourselves comfortable while I go get your suits."

As we did so, Rarity walked up the stairs in a hurried pace. I looked round the place and saw everything you would expect to find in a designer store like hers; mannequins - or (pony-quins?) in this case - mirrors, movable screens. It even had this small stage that I suppose is used for display. But it was all laid out in a way that was likely to make you not forget the place, even if you only came here once. And in a good way, at that.

"There you go, Nathan," Rarity shouted from the top of the stairs as she levitated the suit down to him. "That one's yours. Try it on from behind the back of that screen there."

"Thanks," Nathan replied before getting behind said screen and started taking his clothes off.

"That one's yours," Rarity continued, levitating the hanger to me, while also getting the one for Nathan. "And this one's yours, darling."

"Cheers," we replied as we walked over to behind the screens and put on the suits. When we came out from behind the screens, we were in awe of what we looked like.

My suit wasn't just something like what I imagined - it was EXACTLY the way I imagined it, right down to the button size. It really was amazing how accurate to what I'd hoped for. If you want to see what it looked like, imagine the tuxedo from the Monte Carlo scene from GoldenEye, except a bit flashier.

"This is... exactly how I imagined it in my head," I commented aloud. "I... don't know how you pulled that off, Rarity."

"Oh, a mare has her ways, darling," Rarity replied with a smirk.

OK, I won't question that one again.

Thomas' was more or less the way he described it. It looked similar to the suit he wore for the school's prom in '02 that I saw in his photos, except it looked, again, more flashier, while still managing to look smart.

Nathan's was a little bit different. His was more or less the way he had described it as well, and don't get me wrong, the suit was excellent. It's just... he didn't suit it. And I don't mean that in a bad way for Rarity. It's just that... you know how certain people only look good in certain clothes - like Jason Bourne would look ridiculous in a tuxedo, and Nicola Sturgeon in racing overalls would just be plain wrong?

Well, Nathan's a bit like that. He just looked... weird in it.

Maybe that's because he never went to the school prom due to leaving at fifth year to go to uni, or the fact that his job never requires him to dress as such, but you couldn't deny that, despite this, the suit did look good on him.

"Apart from the fact I've never seen you in a suit," Thomas commented, thinking more or less what I was thinking. "That looks really good on you."

"Well, I've been to job interviews," Nathan retorted. "But thanks anyway. And thank you, Rarity."

"You're welcome, darling. Now, do they fit properly?"

"Yep," was the answer that came from all of our mouths in unison.

"Splendid. Now, I also made some more casual clothing as well," Rarity replied, levitating more hangers downstairs with her magic. "Try these on for me, will you?"

"Sure," Thomas replied.

And so the next half hour was spent trying on the other sets of clothing that Rarity had made for us. For me, they consisted of a few shirts, some underwear, a couple of pairs of trousers and a few pairs of socks. While I was trying the latter on, I found out that Rarity didn't know what to go for with the socks, as socks were seen as a form of lingerie for ponies.

Yeah, don't ask why.

Anyway, after we found out everything fitted more or less perfectly, Rarity put the clothes into three separate jute bags and put them on the counter along with our three suits for the Gala.

"So, how much will the extra clothes cost?" I asked.

"Oh, this will be on the house as well, darling," Rarity replied, making all of our mouths open in shock.

"Are you sure?" I asked, unsure. "I mean, I have money that I've earned from working at one of the local bars for the last few days and-"

"Oh, no. Don't be silly, darling. Think of it as a gift from me. And besides, I don't think you would have enough money for all of the clothes."

I looked away to the floor for a few seconds. While I didn't feel it was right for her to put in all that effort for nothing, technically speaking I couldn't argue with her on the money terms. I only had fifty bits on me at the moment, and to be honest, those shirts looked like they would cost at least 20 bits each. I looked back up. "Alright, Rarity, thank you."

"You're welcome, darlings."

"So, this where we part ways for now?" Thomas asked.

A smirk worked its way onto Rarity's face. "Not yet."

Thomas' eyebrow raised in confusion. "What do you mean?"

"If you would follow me..." Rarity said cryptically as she opened the front door with her telekinesis and walked out of the boutique. Confused as to what she was doing, we all followed her as she walked through the town. As we did so, I noticed that the town was... quite quiet, contrary to earlier on.

Weird.

Eventually, we arrived at this place called Sugarcube Corner. It was styled as if a cake had just been plunked down on the spot and had various bits of it on the inside cut out to accommodate people, which gave me the impression that this was a cake shop.

But why is that name so familiar?

Rarity opened the door with her magic and stepped aside to let us through. "After you, darlings."

Raising an eyebrow at her suspicious behaviour, I walked inside first. Only to find a room that was completely pitch black.

Wierd behaviour? Check. Lights out? Check. Nobody around? Check.

And then it dawned on me. Pinkie Pie said on Monday that she works here.

Oh, wait a minute...

At the moment I had put all the pieces together, the lights turned on, revealing a rather large gathering of ponies.

"SURPRISE!"