I didn’t spend much time in the library after Twilight teleported away. She was a big girl and could handle herself. I also had no idea where she had teleported to, so it wasn’t like I could track her down and see if she wanted to talk. More to the point, I hadn’t been outside the castle yet. So I decided it was time to remedy that. I had important things I could be doing in town.

Once I opened the doors to the outside world, it really hit me. Seeing Ponyville sprawled out before me, the clear skies, the wonderfully warm sun, it really sank in that I was, in fact, in another dimension. And I couldn’t be happier. I only barely clamped down on the desire to shout for joy.

I walked into town and realized that, no matter how much I had watched the show, I had little idea where I was heading. Well, the Carousel Boutique was an isolated building that was taller than most of the other houses. I could’ve probably jumped on a rooftop to try and get my bearings, but I wasn’t nearly familiar enough with my new body to want to risk something like that.

So that left me with asking for directions. I was tempted to just wander aimlessly to start getting the residents used to me. I could even claim I was fulfilling the male stereotype of hating asking for directions if I was asked later. However, the feeling of my shirt rubbing against my chest and my pants rubbing against my ass very much incentivized me to get to Rarity ASAP. I very, very badly needed underwear.

A lot of people had been looking at me with various levels of discretion, so I probably had my pick of guides. Derpy was an appealing choice, but I might wind up at Sweet Apple Acres if I followed her direction. Until I knew more, Spoiled Rich was right out. Lyra and Bon-Bon looked to be out on a date, so I didn’t want to interrupt them. When the market and Big Mac came into view, I decided to try my luck with him.

Now the only question was how to approach him. I didn’t have any money, so I couldn’t claim to be casually buying an apple. Had Applejack mentioned me to him? I decided there was no use dallying around and approached. Unsurprisingly, Big Mac was a mountain. A plaid flannel shirt of red and simple blue jeans were what he wore, but his size and muscles from life on the farm really made an impression.

“Er, Hello, Big Mac,” I greeted.

“Howdy,” He returned.

“Uh, did Applejack maybe mention me?” I asked hesitantly.

“Eeyup,” I let out a sigh of relief, “What can I do fer ya, Ms. Ranma?” Being called Ms. was definitely a surreal experience. It was one I could easily get used to. No, I had to focus!

“I was wonder if you could point me in the direction of Rarity’s Boutique. I am in need of her services,” I explained.

“Walk down ta tha edge of the market, turn right on Canter Street. Follow it till ya get to B Boulevard an’ take a left. Ya’ll should see Ms. Rarity’s place sooner or later,” Big Mac directed.

“Thank you, you’ve been a huge help. Once Twilight pays me, I’ll stop by and buy an apple or two!” I promised.

“Take care,” Big Mac bid me farewell.

“You too,” I replied before heading on my way. Once I was away, a huge grin broke out on my face. I HAD JUST TALKED TO BIG MAC! I was gonna have to get over this sooner or later, but just talking to my favorite ponies made me so gosh darn happy…and they were almost all my favorites!

I followed Big Mac’s instructions and sure enough, I eventually spotted Rarity’s Boutique. I double checked to make sure it was still within business hours before letting myself in.

“Welcome to Carousel Boutique, where everything is chic, unique, and magnifique!” Rarity called out before she looked up at her new customer, “Oh, Ranma, I wasn’t expecting you so soon…or any time today, really. I thought Twilight would keep you tied up for at least the whole day.”

“We wandered onto some sensitive subjects so Twilight decided to end it for now. I thought I’d do something productive in the mean time and so here I am to get measured for clothes and stuff,” I told her.

“And Twilight isn’t with you because..?” Sharp as a tack, this one.

“I actually have no idea where Twilight is. She ended the interview by teleporting away. I wasn’t gonna let that stop me. I have to figure out my way around sooner or later,” I shrugged like it was no big deal. I was worried about Twilight, but as I’ve said before, she’s an adult who can more than take care of herself. Rarity pursed her lips before speaking.

“Well, I suppose I’ll just have to talk to her about that later. For now, if you would be so kind as to follow me into my backroom so you can strip and I can get your measurements?” Rarity requested. I was blindsided by her bluntness and meekly followed her with no fuss, “Strip.” She commanded and I followed with no hesitation. I was overcome with a flush of embarrassment and tried to cover up with my arms and hands.

“Is this necessary?” I asked timidly. Rarity looked at me with a calculating eye.

“Yes. Now, I don’t believe you need a bra-”

“Yes I do!” I earned an arched eyebrow for my outburst, “The feeling of my…uh…my…”

“I deal with naked people all the time, Ranma, you can say breasts in front of me,” Rarity chided.

“My breasts rub up against my clothes and it’s very distracting,” I forced myself to say.

“Ah, of course, you were a male full time before. Silly me, it slipped my mind. How did your world handle bras? Did you use cup sizes like we do?” Rarity inquired.

“I know almost nothing about bras,” I confessed. Rarity smirked.

“Aw, that’s so precious. Such a pure boy you are~” Rarity teased.

“I’m not pure!” I scrunched up my face in anger, but I was told later it looked more like a pout, “I looked up this stuff when I was younger, but it might have well been in another language. I just gave up after realizing D cup was big and A cup was small. I didn’t think I’d ever need to know any of it.”

“Well, allow me to demystify the subject. To find one’s cup size, you first measure the abdomen under the breasts. Then you measure around the farthest part of your breasts. The difference in inches is the cup size, starting at A cup with one inch. Let’s get you measured, shall we?” Rarity levitated a tape measure over to me and it wrapped around my abdomen for a moment before moving to around my breasts, “30DD, you’ll find most store bought in that size to be just a little bit loose. Naturally, I recommend letting me custom fit your bras.”

“Ever the savvy business woman,” I snarked. Rarity simply smiled at me.

“Now, there’s the question of what style of bra you’d prefer. Do you intent on doing a lot of physical activity?” Rarity asked.

“Yes,” I answered.

“So at least a few sports bras…” Rarity mused to herself, “You’d probably kill me for suggesting a triangle bra if you knew what that was, so that’s out. Full-cup and Longline are probably a good place to start you with.”

“I avail myself to your superior knowledge,” I said with complete seriousness.

“A good attitude to have,” Rarity remarked. A minute or so later and she had all the measurements of my female form, “So, is that offer to dress you in whatever I please still open?”

“Only my female form, but yes,” I agreed. Rarity’s eyes gained a predatory gleam.

“Yes, well, speaking of your forms, I still need to measure your male form,” She levitated a glass of hot water to me and dumped it over my head. I was not amused, but I didn’t say anything. Rarity soon had the measurements for my male form as well and I splashed myself with cold water when she was done.

“Thank you for doing this for me,” I said gratefully.

“Think nothing of it. I’ll have this done in a few days’ time. Now, are you absolutely sure I can’t convince you to let me whip up a special something for your male form?” Rarity fluttered her eyes at me.

“I…I suppose the worst that could happen is I simply don’t wear it,” I gave in. If Rarity wanted to do this, then who was I to stop her?

“You won’t be disappointed!” Rarity promised, "Until I've got your order ready, however, I have a sports bra in a size close enough to your own that it should at least be serviceable." Soon I had said bra and Rarity taught me how to put it on. It was still strange to wear such a thing, but it was miles better than before.

With my business at the Boutique completed, we said our farewells and I set about looking for Rainbow Dash. This time I was content to just wander around town, getting to know the lay of the land. I had never been great with following directions, but once I had a mental map of an area, I never got lost. My family had moved 20+ times growing up, so I had a lot of practice honing this particular skill. Before you ask, no, I wasn’t an army brat. My Dad just has one of the worst cases of itchy feet known to mankind.

By my reckoning, it took me about three hours of wandering before I finally spotted a shock of rainbow hair poking over the side of a low hanging cloud. I didn’t know if she was napping or simply lounging. It was certainly an option to just sit under her cloud and wait for her to make a move. I didn’t want to be rude and wake her up if she was asleep. I had no idea how light a sleeper Rainbow was. Fortunately, the problem was solved for me.

“Oh, hello Ranma. What brings you here?” I turned to find Fluttershy.

“I want to talk to Rainbow, who’s up on that cloud, but if she’s napping, I don’t want to wake her,” I explained as I pointed out the cloud. Fluttershy looked up and hummed to herself.

“She really shouldn’t be napping at this time of day. If she is asleep, I’ll go wake her,” Fluttershy decided and flew up to the cloud. I watched as she landed and soon heard talking a moment before Rainbow poked her head over the side of the cloud.

“Yo! What’s up?” She called down. Looks like she wasn’t napping after all.

“I need to figure out how strong I am and stuff! You know martial arts and stuff, so could you help me?” Rainbow blinked a few times.

“Yeah, sure, I can get something set up for you tomorrow. Are you just interested in how strong you are or do you actually want to learn?” Rainbow asked.

“This body is based off a top level martial artist! I don’t know if I inherited any of the muscle memory, but even if I didn’t I’d still like to learn!” I replied. Rainbow Dash flew down to my level to give me an appraising look. Fluttershy came down a moment later.

“I’m not gonna go easy on you,” Rainbow warned.

“This is Ponyville. Something weird and/or dangerous happens almost every week. Since I’m in this position anyway, I’d rather be able to make myself useful. Do your worst, Rainbow,” I said firmly.

“I like where your head’s at!” Rainbow smiled, “I’m gonna have to think about what styles to teach you though. You don’t fly, so that’s most Pegasus styles out the window. No magic means most Unicorn styles are worthless too. We’ll have to see exactly how strong you are before deciding on Earth Pony styles, but you might be a little too small to make the best use of those. I might have to call in a friend who specializes in the deer styles if we really want to find a good match for you.”

“It sounds like you’re looking at a full plate, Ranma,” Fluttershy noted, “Helping Twilight with her research, learning martial arts, eventually looking for your own place, learning more about our society, and whatever else you might get up to.”

“To do anything less would be an insult to the opportunity I’ve been given!” I proudly declared. Fluttershy smiled serenely at me while Rainbow failed at trying to hide her snickering behind her hands. I thought it was cool.

“Well, if we’re gonna do that, I’ve gotta go start preparing. Catch you later!” Rainbow took off at speed without waiting for either me or Fluttershy to respond.

“I have shopping to do in town…would you maybe care to join me?” Fluttershy asked hesitantly.

“I would love to join you,” I answered and I followed her back towards the market.

The sun was setting as I returned to the castle. I had quite enjoyed the sedate shopping trip with Fluttershy. With her by my side, the townsfolk had contented themselves to just looking at me instead of any of them being brave enough to talk to me. I knew that'd likely end as soon as the CMC set me in their sights. But all good things must come to an end. As soon as I opened the doors, I heard two people being very loud. I couldn’t make out the words, but it sounded like their voices were carrying all the way from the library. Ever curious, I made my way there.

“Starlight, stop struggling~!” I heard as I stood outside the door.

“Get off me Twilight! You always do this when you’re drunk!” Starlight complained.

“I’m not- I’m not drunk! I’m justa little tipsy, is all!” Twilight was making a good effort, but she was slurring a little too much to be as sober as she claimed. A part of me wanted to just go to my room. Yet, this was also somewhat my fault. Also, leaving Starlight to her fate would be an awfully cowardly thing to do. With all this in mind, I opened the door to the library.

Two heads snapped instantly in my direction. For a moment, we all just stared at each other. Both ponies were sitting on a couch and Twilight was draped all over Starlight, who looked very uncomfortable. The Alicorn was also pretty flushed, probably from alcohol. So, Twilight was a cuddly drunk, was she?

“Ranma, run, save yourself!” Starlight warned. Twilight grew a very predatory grin.

“Ranma!” Twilight teleported on top of me before I could react. She started rubbing her body all against mine, “I haven’t had a new person to cuddle since Starlight! Yay!”

“You really shouldn’t have come in here,” Starlight sighed.

“This is kinda my mess and- EEP!” I squeaked as Twilight started groping my breasts.

“You have some nice boobies, Ranma,” Twilight giggled absently.

“Twilight’s a full grown mare. It was her choice to get drunk. You don’t have to go white knight,” Starlight shook her head.

“What kind of man would I be if I didn’t help those in need? ACK! Twilight why are you touching me there?!” I shouted.

“Don’t look like a man. Don’t feel like a man,” Twilight mumbled.

“What do you mean ‘what kind of man would you be’? It’s a mare’s job to protect the stallions,” Starlight sounded confused.

“Where I come from men protect the women,” I replied as Twilight continued her cuddle assault, “I don’t know enough to say if it’s a full gender reversal though.”

“Huh, I guess your home has a better female to male ratio then?” I was a little bit annoyed we were talking shop while Twilight was all over me, but I had asked for it.

“Yes, almost perfectly 50/50,” I answered.

“50/50?!” Starlight shouted.

“Twilight had that same response. How come?” I asked.

“Magic influences life very heavily here on Equuis. Generally the more magically inclined the species the more the ratio is in favor of females. To put it simply, Magic is Life and females produce more Life. It has backfired in the past though. Pureblood Reindeer went extinct three hundred years ago after a plague killed all their males. All that’s left of them are hybrids. Originally, Reindeer had an eight to one female to male ratio,” Starlight explained. During her explanation, I noticed Twilight had stopped moving. Thankfully, she had fallen asleep.

“Uh, so am I just going to sleep on the floor tonight? I don’t know how you ponies deal with hangovers,” I remarked. Starlight got this odd, almost fond look on her face. She lifted the sleeping Twilight off of me telekinetically.

“Don’t worry, ‘hero’, I’ve got you covered,” Starlight and the slightly snoring Twilight left the library, leaving me on the floor. Despite its crystal nature, it was almost comfortable. Still, I had plans with Rainbow the next day. Also, Twilight touching me everywhere had left me a bit horny and taking care of myself in a public place would be in poor taste. So I got up, went to my room, locked the door, and started settling in for the night.

A little bit of lore, a little bit of characters being warm and fluffy, this is exactly what I needed. I was gonna leave the drunk Twilight scene off until next chapter, but decided next chapter would be full enough with the start of Ranma's training and a certain someone coming to pay a visit.

BTW, I don't say this enough, but I'm super duper happy that so many of you are enjoying this little bit of self-indulgence.