Spike really didn't get tired of dragging me all the way to the Carousel Boutique. It reminded of the episode where Rarity was dragged by her horn in front of the stone, and my inner reaction was just about the same as hers. The Boutique didn't lie with its name; it really looked like a carousel from the outside. The round building was supported by several wooden beams which hung slightly over the roof and were similar to the beams of a carousel. The front had large, half-moon-shaped windows which showed a selection of fashion. All I could say was that it looked very classy. So nothing for me. Spike opened the door, and a small bell chimed to indicate to the owner that customers had entered. Everywhere in the Boutique were little ponyquins which showed off all sorts of fancy fashion. My browsing was interrupted by a white unicorn who slowly came down the stairs at the end of the room.

"Coooming..." she sang more than said as she approached us. Spike stood there, frozen, and I admired his crush as she seemed to be elegantly flying through the room. I don't know if it was my inner pony, but something told me that she was a beauty. Her mane was styled as always, along with her tail.

"Spike, darling, what can I do for you?" I was still standing behind Spike, which seemed to hide my little faux pas concerning the boxer shorts. The dragon stammered some words and stepped aside. Rarity dropped her jaw like a snake that was about to choke down a camel. I was waiting for a sofa to appear, but my shorts started to lightly glow blue instead, and when they left my body, I lost my footing on the floor beneath my hooves. It landed on a sofa in the room.

"Darling, how can you walk around in public with something like that?" I was still lying on the floor, all four hooves away from me, and I didn't intend to change that in the foreseeable future. I was literally clinging to the floor.

"Umm, could I have my boxer shorts back?" Rarity ignored me, and Spike was still on cloud nine. She got a measuring tape out of a drawer, looked down at me, and cleared her throat.

"Darling, would you please have some courtesy and step up on the pedestal?"

"Err... no?" Last thing I wanted to do was walk around naked.

"Spike, honey, would you please inform your friend that in order for him to get new clothes, he must step onto this pedestal?" Spike snapped out of his trance and searched for me until he looked down.

"What's going on?" he asked, and I gestured him to come closer.

"What?" he asked once more, and I got him even closer.

"I don't want anypony to see me naked," I whispered in his ear. He just looked at me sceptically and then pointed to himself and then to Rarity, who watched the scene with a questioning look on her face. I still didn't move an inch, and so Spike started to try to get me on my hooves. Luckily, I was too heavy for him.

"Spike, what's the problem?" The dragon made a desperate gesture in my direction.

"Well, he doesn't want anyone to see him naked." Rarity looked dubiously at me, just as Spike had a few seconds ago.

"Listen, darling," she said to me. "As much as I love clothes, I'm not wearing any and neither does almost everypony else in Ponyville. We're all friends here, so you don’t have to be ashamed." Rarity could have talked even longer, but a habit of twenty years of wearing secure clothes couldn't be simply talked away. She waited maybe for half a minute, but I didn't move of course. Groaning, she yielded and threw my shorts to me with her magic.

"Please make sure nopony sees you leave my Boutique with these rags, else there might be some rumours," she said angrily and went upstairs. As soon as she was out of sight, I put on my shorts and left the shop. Spike caught up to me at the door.

"Dude, what the hay was that about?" I might have made him look bad in front of his secret crush but that couldn't be helped now anymore.

"Where I come from, clothing isn't optional. What I'm wearing now is just the minimum, and you can actually be sentenced for that," I explained, which only led to the dragon punching my shoulder.

"You're right about the sentence! Do you have any idea how I look now to Rarity?" I didn't answer since we both knew the answer.

"So, where to next?" I asked to change the subject.

"Maybe you should walk around on your own a bit. I have to go to the library and look for Twilight," he said with a hint of anger in his voice and left me outside of the Boutique. I felt somewhat sorry for him, but my privacy was important to me as well. At least I could discover the town on my own now and didn't have to think of a reason to visit Applejack and Fluttershy. Concerning Rarity, I could still make it with the spare shorts in my bag. I would just wash the shorts I wasn't wearing and that should do the trick. In matters like that, I was always very pragmatic.

The first thing I noticed as I tried to make my way to Fluttershy was that I didn't have any orientation. Even in my world, I couldn't go twenty miles without a navigation system before losing my sense of direction just like my mother. Once, when we wanted to spend our vacation in Switzerland, she managed to somehow land us in Italy. So I headed back to the library in order to get a sense of direction. From there, I would probably think of something. Although I got lost a few times, after a short time, I finally saw the remarkable tree one just couldn’t miss in the landscape of Ponyville. With that done, I made my way to Fluttershy.

It had to be late afternoon since the sun had already started descending, and some foals crossed my way carrying books. They were probably on their way home, and I had to think about my own way to school. Two kilometres every day to the bus and later again back home. Gosh, how I hated that. I still silently celebrated every new pothole on that street. While walking down the path, I started thinking about how to spend my time here. In any case, I wanted to learn more about magic to turn myself into my old form if I wanted to. Being a pony was fine when paying a visit to Equestria, but in my world, it was more of a curse, especially after what my brother did to me and Twilight. Another goal was to get one of Fluttershy's famous "yay"s. In the series, it was already heart-warming. I could imagine how it would only be in reality. I also wanted to try cider, but I didn't know when Sweet Apple Acres sold it. In the series, it was when they needed the money to come in, so I guess it was during fall. That might have to wait until another time then. Last thing was the party Pinkie Pie wanted to throw tonight, so I scratched the cider off my list.

I noticed I had gotten myself lost again due to thinking and not paying attention to my way, but I wasn't unsatisfied with my result: Sweet Apple Acres as far as the eye could see. A small white fence made the border between the trees and the path, and I saw how far it was to the actual entrance, so I decided to take a little shortcut. I climbed over the fence and made my way over the big yard. Again, I was lucky and found a small yellow house hanging low on a tree. The drapes were lightly blowing in the wind, and in the house, you could hear some cute but familiar voices. I placed myself beneath the house and listened to the Cutie Mark Crusaders making plans for their next action.

"How about hoofball?"

"We had did already, Scootaloo."

"Really?"

"Yeah, three weeks ago. You were hit on the head so hard that you had to get off the field."

"Now that you mention it, Sweetie Belle, so you have an idea, Apple Bloom?"

"Gimme the book..." Although I could perfectly understand Apple Bloom, I still heard a slight accent. The spell made the German version really endurable, I thought to myself. Someone behind me cleared his throat, and scared, I turned around. Applejack and Big Macintosh were standing behind me and were glaring death at me.

"Hello there!" I said, but they didn't even blink. "I'm new around here and took a tour through the town. I saw your farm from there and wanted to see if I could get an apple." I put on my best smile, but it was hard since the situation made me feel really uncomfortable.

"Customers usually use the main entrance," Applejack said. "And you got more the impression of a fillyfooler peepin' on them foals. Watcha thinkin', Big Mac, that a customer?" I knew that the stamina I didn’t have would be needed very soon.

"Noope," the big red stallion said as I prepared for a dash. I stopped talking and started running towards the fence. Big Macintosh was right behind me, and I didn't even had to look back to know that. The ground was shaking underneath his big strong hooves as he chased me between the trees. I only could keep a distance by zig-zigging since the big rock of a pony had problems with quickly changing directions. I didn't know how long the chase went on, but I had problems breathing, and if I couldn't reach the fence soon enough, bruises would be the least of my problems. I just wanted to turn around when something grabbed my throat and pulled me roughly to the ground. Before I knew what was going on, I was lying on my back, tied to a package. Before my eyes, I could see a smiling Applejack.

"Thanks, Big Mac, I got 'em. I think I'm gonna show Twilight what I caught, then the Royal Guards can deal with this fella," she said, more to me than to her brother. Again, I could hear her accent.

"Eeyup," Big Macintosh said and slowly went in between the trees. Applejack took the end of the rope and started dragging me over the ground like a sack of flour. I couldn't feel that much, though, but it was still anything but comfortable. I couldn't see where I was dragged since my view was fixed to the sky, so I used the time for some further thinking. I guessed the cider might have to wait for some other time. Enough about apples for now.

A blue something flew over the sky and dragged me out of my thoughts. I tried to get her attention, which somehow succeeded. Rainbow Dash looked down on me and Applejack and rubbed her eyes before breaking into laughter mid-air. I couldn't hear it since she was too far over me, but I could clearly see her in the evening sun. After a minute or two minutes, she was finished laughing her tail off and started to go on her way again. Applejack didn't see any of this and just kept on dragging me over the street. In the corner of my eye, I could see the first houses of Ponyville, and I wondered what the rest of the citizens would say about my situation. Unluckily for me, there was nopony who could see me, so I made myself as comfortable as possible since I had to wait until Twilight explained everything. The city hall gave me a sign that it wasn't very far any more to the library and I prepared myself for a long explanation on my side. I heard Applejack opening the door, and the next second, yelling started.

"SURPRISE!" The shout echoed through the small tree, the lights turned on, and ponies came out of every corner. I wasn't completely inside and saw everything through Applejack’s legs.

"Aaww, it's just Applejack," I heard Pinkie's voice saying. "I thought you were the new stallion who came into town today."

"Ah, I'm sorry, sugarcube. Who is this new fella in town?"

"Well, he has blue fur and a white mane, but he didn't look very old. That reminds me, I didn't ask him for his name." I could hear Applejack swallowing through the talking in the room.

"Ya don't mean this fella here, sugarcube, do ya?" She pulled the rope, and I slid over the floor, passed Applejack, and stopped at Pinkie’s hooves.

"Oh, there he is! You came with Applejack? Are you friends already? My name is Pinkie Pie and what's yours?" I didn't even try to talk. Twilight made her way through the crowd and looked at the scene before her.

"Applejack! What is going on?" she said angrily when she saw me lying on the floor.

"I, umm..." Applejack stammered. "Me an' Big Mac found him on the farm and took him for a fillyfooler. He was peepin' on them foals and had this strange smile so I wasn't thinking of anything good." Twilight used her magic to free my snout. I stretched my jaw.

"Applejack, would you please free him? I assure you, he's a good guy," Twilight said to her friend.

"If you say so..." Applejack started to untie me, and not a minute later, I was standing on my hooves again.

"I'm mighty sorry, but what were you lookin' for? If you wanted an apple, you could've just used the gate," Applejack said to me.

"Let's just say we both made some mistakes. My name is Tio. Nice to officially meet you." This time, I was the one who reached out with my hoof which was instantly shaken.

"Mighty strange name you got there, partner. If there’s something I can do for ya, you just say the word, will ya? The Apple family will always welcome ya as long you use the front door," she added with a smirk. Rarity and Rainbow Dash came to us as well. Fluttershy wasn't anywhere to be seen. Perhaps she was in some corner, trying to be as quiet as possible.

"There is still one thing to talk about, girls. Where can Tio sleep tonight? As I already told you, except for Applejack, he's new here. Actually, he is from another world, which means he has nowhere to sleep right now." Twilight was looking at everyone.

"Only if he loses that monstrosity on his flanks, darling," Rarity said, and I just snapped my teeth. She turned her head away, and Rainbow Dash and Applejack had to force themselves not to laugh.

"I'd let him stay here, but since I have Dawn, there is hardly enough room for the three of us," Twilight said.

"You seem to be alright, but you can't stay in my house since you have no wings.

"As I was sayin', sugarcube..." Thanks for the awesome spell, Trent! "The Apple family always welcomes ya. We always keep a guest room free for visitors," Applejack said, still a little embarrassed about our little incident.

"As long as you tell your big friend it was all a misunderstanding, I gladly accept your offer, Applejack," I said to put a little salt in her wound.

"Since everything is now taken care of, it's party time!" Pinkie Pie cried. "Pinkie Pie style!" she added with a big smile.

Author's Notes:

Again, thanks to Beks who translated this chapter.

Edited by JBL. Thank you!