“Next stop, Manehattan! To anypony that is leaving, be sure to bring all your belongings and mind the gap!” A voice called out, I gathered the papers I had spread on the seat next to me and placed them back in the bag.

I had been on this fuckin' train for five hours! This awful, loud, cramped as hell train was really putting a number on my patience. Hell, I couldn't even stand up and stretch properly! The train started slowing down until it finally came to a halt.

I walked out of my cabin, hunched over slightly. I grabbed my sunglasses from my left suit pocket and quickly put them on as I walked out from the train. I threw my bag over my right shoulder and pocketed my left hand.

Now... Where the hell is Blueblood's office? I looked around, several ponies were staring at me but most were ignoring me. Shit, I could have sworn some mares and even a stallion or two were giving me the eyes.

I decided not to think about it too hard so I plugged in my earbuds and started walking away from the station. I gotta admit, so far everything looks kinda similar to what was in New York back on my world. I got an odd feeling that I was being watched. I removed my left earbud and turned around.

Behind me stood a rather tall and lanky stallion. His coat a very light green and his mane was a couple of shades darker that was split down the middle of his forehead with his horn poking through. He was staring up at me with viridian eyes covered by some black square glasses.

“...Can I help you?” I rumbled, slightly weirded out by him.

“Are you...” He looked down at a journal held in his magic. “Mr. James Andersen?”

“I am. May I ask who's asking?” I removed my earbuds and rolled them up, then jammed them in a pocket.

“I'm Poindexter, I work as an assistant at Platinum Industries.” He walked forward and raised his right hoof.

'Don't laugh. Don't you dare fucking laugh.' I coughed in the crook of my left arm to hide it, then reached out with my right hand and shook. "Well then, a pleasure to meet you P-Poindexter..." I smiled at him.

He sighed. “Look, I know what my name means. Believe me, I heard it a lot in school.”

Shit! Salvage!

“Well, is it alright with you if I call you Dex instead?” I released his hoof and took a step back.

“Why not, it's what my friends call me!” He smiled at me.

"Well, my friends always call me Jay," I stretched. "so should we head to the company?" He nodded and started walking. I followed him to a road and he stopped and raised a forehoof. Almost instantly, a cart painted like an NYC-cab stopped in front of us. Dex climbed in before me and I went in after him.

The stallion pulling the cart turned around. “Ay, ay, no pets in my cart!” He stared at me. I exchanged a glance with Dex. Before he could speak, I cleared my throat.

“I'm sorry sir, but did you just call me a... pet?” My glare hardened. “Do you know who I am?” He shook his head, staring at me.

“Well, I'm the person who will make the rest of your pitiful life a living hell if you ever talk to me, or any of my associates like that again. Do you understand?” I glared him as if he would set on fire. He mumbled out his reply. “I said; do you understand?!”

“Yes, sir!” He nodded as if his head was about to fall off.

I turned around nonchalantly and waved the back of my hand at him. "Take us to Platinum Industries HQ. If you take us there in time and forego the fare I won't have a talk with the prince about this disrespectful behavior."

“O-of course, sir!”

“Very good.”

With that, the cart started moving at a pretty good pace. I closed the divider to the stallion who nearly pissed himself and leaned toward Dex, taking off my sunglasses with a smirk.

"Step one of human business practices: Intimidation."

We arrived at a h-u-g-e building downtown nearly ten minutes later. It had been a bit of a bumpy ride due to my... convincing but here we were. I stared up at it and whistled. I had seen large skyscrapers before. Hell, I even visited one being built once when I joined my brother at his job for a day.

I tried to think of something to say about it to make it justice, but since Dex was starting to stare at me I just went with whatever was on the tip of my tongue.

“That's one big ass building.”

Yeah...

“Well Mr. Andersen, it's one of the oldest buildings in the business district.” I glanced down at Dex with a frown.

“Didn't I tell you to call me Jay?” He sighed.

“You did. Several times. You told me that if I didn't stop you'd 'tell Bluey that I'm being a meanie.'”

"Damn right and I'm banking on that," I said as we started walking up the steps to the building. Before we entered, I stopped and adjusted my tie and then straightened the jacket. Taking a breath to hype myself up, I stepped forward and the doors opened on their own.

Immediately, several sets of eyes settled on me. I felt a few beads of sweat form on my forehead. Dex marched forward calmly and cleared his throat.

“This is Prince Blueblood's guest, James Andersen. I'm sure most of you have been told but I expect all of you to treat him with proper respect, yes?” He spoke up without missing a beat as his eyes roamed over the gathered ponies.

The calm returned after that. Holy shit Dex, way to go! He started walking again toward what looked like an old-timey elevator. I followed him. Once he got close, the doors to it opened. He walked inside and turned around, facing me. I lowered my head and stood beside him.

He pushed a button and the doors closed and the familiar feeling of an elevator going up. It went up for several minutes until a bell chimed and the doors opened again. We walked out to a fancy-looking hall where the left side was all glass-panels so I got a good look at the entire town. I could have sworn I saw a pony version of the statue of liberty way in the distance.

Dex stopped outside a door and waited for me to join him. “Get ready...” He told me before he raised a hoof and pushed a buzzer. A couple of seconds later the door clicked and it opened.

Dex walked in first and I followed close behind. At the far end of the room was a big oaken desk, surrounded by a liquor cabinet in the far right corner, two fancy-looking lounge chairs were in front of it and behind the desk, Blueblood was sitting and writing on a paper. He glanced up at me and smiled. He got out from his chair and walked around, heading toward me.

“Hello there, Jay” He reached forward with a hoof. I shook it. “How was your trip from Ponyville?”

I tilted my head to the right and my neck popped. “It was okay, a little cramped but nothing I'm not used to since coming here.” He motioned toward his desk and I sat down in one of the chairs, He circled it and sat down. Dex positioned himself to the left of his desk.

Blueblood smiled and leaned forward. “I see, must have been quite the change for you.” I nodded. “Well, since I assume you are tired from your trip we can get straight to business...” He passed me a note. “We'll start off today with just a little meeting so you can meet my advisors. They were rather... persistent in meeting you. I hope that's not a problem?”

“Absolutely not.”

“Good. Tomorrow I was thinking about doing some orientation and perhaps visiting the workstation where your prototype is being built.” He then stood up and turned to Dex.

“Poindexter, could you tell them to come to the conference room? I believe we better get started...”

"Of course, Prince Blueblood." Dex nodded respectfully and then left the room. Blueblood and I sat around and just talked about random stuff, just to make some time pass as we waited. Eventually about twenty minutes later, He stood up.

“Come, let's walk to the conference.”

We walked in relative silence, the only thing that disturbed us was a pony sometimes coming to us and asking Blueblood a question that he quickly answered. Eventually, we reached a large set of double doors.

Blueblood opened it with his magic and walked inside. I straightened my suit again and ran a hand through my hair before walking inside. Blueblood walked far into the room, sitting down at the table and getting comfortable in his seat.

There was one empty seat and it was right next to him. I walked confidently forward, placed a hand on the back of the chair and swiveled it to me, then sat down. I knitted my hands and ran my eyes over the gathered ponies.

Most of them looked like the snooty upper-class ponies I had seen back in Canterlot for most of my visits.

And what followed was probably the most boring two hours of my life.

I sat in an office I had been provided with for my stay. I had removed my suit jacket as it was rather warm in here, I let my arms dangle freely as I leaned back and groaned and stared at the ceiling.

I sat there for what felt like forever and did nothing until I heard a knock on the door. I immediately sprung forward and grabbed a paper and got ready. “Come in!” I yelled.

The door cracked open and an older stallion walked inside. He was white and his hair was a faded red, his eyes were a bright red color that stood out. I recognized that geezer, he was at the advisor meeting that made me want to blow my brains out.

“Am I interrupting anything?” He asked with a knowing grin.

“No, I was about to take a break.” I leaned back in my chair and motioned for him to come inside.

“Well, if you say so...” He walked forward to a chair in front of my desk and sat down, looking over at me with a small smile. “I heard you were from Ponyville?”

“You can say that...” I smiled. “It's where I settled after arriving here. It's a nice town.”

He chuckled. “It is a rather lovely little town, is it not?" His eyes hardened for a split second. "Now, this may seem intrusive... But, my granddaughter moved there a while back and I would like to ask if you know her?”

Signals blared inside my head and I strained to keep my smile on my face.

“I might...” I tapped my left hand on the armrest of my chair. “I'll need a bit of a description.”

“She's a small, unicorn mare. She's rather shy and soft-spoken. An absolute sweetheart that I'd do anything in my power to protect...”

Oh.

“Her name's Strawberry.”

Oh, sweet Jesus.

Author's Notes:

STRAWBERRY IS FOR HUG, NOT FOR FUG
STRAWBERRY IS FOR HUG, NOT FOR FUG
STRAWBERRY IS FOR HUG, NOT FOR FUG
STRAWBERRY IS FOR HUG, NOT FOR FUG