Home Shenanigans 2: Electric Boogaloo!

Home Shenanigans 2: Electric Boogaloo!

I awoke from what felt like the best night of sleep I’d had in a very long time, despite how completely insane the events of the day before went. However, I found myself in a position very much unlike the one I’d gone to sleep in; The first thing I saw when I opened my eyes was a shaggy mass of navy blue with a streak of dark purple and pink in it. My hoof was resting on something that was… rising and falling in a familiarly slow, steady pattern.

“Ooh, wow…” I thought as I finally realized what happened. I somehow wound up cuddling up to Twilight in my sleep. “I hope she won’t be mad about this… Maybe if I just move REAL slow, I can—!”

A sudden yawn coming from the ball of blue, pink, and purple stopped my thought process dead.

“Good morning…” Twilight whispered.

“Uh… g-good morning, Twi…” I fearfully babbled.

“Oh, shit! It’s too late! I am so f—!”

“Sleeping with me wasn’t so different this time, was it?” she calmly asked as she rose from under my foreleg. I had no clue how to respond.

“Uh, I-I… um… huh?” I was baffled by her surprisingly calm reaction.

“You moved around a lot in your sleep last night. I didn’t think you were ever gonna stop… I was about ready to wake you up until you did something that surprised me; you wrapped your hoof around me and settled yourself almost instantly. I didn’t know what to do when you did that… I wanted to move, but since you finally calmed yourself down enough to lie perfectly still, and you seemed so peaceful, I decided to make the best of it and go back to sleep myself. I’ll admit, it was… nice. It felt almost like when you were a human.”

“Wow, I’m sorry…” I said as I sat up. “I guess bein’ a pony messed up how I sleep, too…”

“I’d guess so as well. From the way you were moving, it seemed like you were trying to find positions of sleep that were physically impossible for you to take in your current form, until you unconsciously found me and hugged me. I assume that was the most familiar position you could find, considering we’d slept together for three days in a row now.”

“Makes sense… I guess,” I concurred, moving a hoof to scratch my head. Something felt out of place, though… like the side of my afro mane was pushed up in a goofy fashion. Twilight’s giggling confirmed that I had a bad case of bed-head.

“Your mane… it looks so lopsided.” The unicorn kept chuckling.

“D’oh, blah,” I responded with a dismissive hoof wave. “Your hair ain’t lookin’ so hot either, scruffy.” Twilight scoffed.

“Touché… Why don’t we wake Spike and get ourselves cleaned up so we can tackle today’s tasks?”

“Aight.” With that, Twilight and I woke the dragon from his sleep (something he was none too happy about, to my amusement), got ourselves clean, and straightened our crazy-looking bed-manes up into their shapelier (in my case), more organized and publicly presentable nature. Washing up here was no different from washing up back in my universe. Despite this world being one where the dominant species was magical horses, therefore less advanced in terms of technology, it had many essential utilities and other things that humans used every day. I wondered if this world was only as different as it was because of the fact that magical ponies ruled it.

“Alright, Ty. Let’s crack open that notebook! I can’t wait to gather more information to report to the Princess for when we meet her! Which reminds me… Spike? Take a letter.”

“Okay,” Spike obliged as he grabbed a feather and a sheet of paper. “Ready.”

“Dear Princess Celestia… My guest and I were wondering if we were able to make an appointment to visit you today. He’d love to meet you and make your acquaintance. In addition, I’d like to share with you the knowledge I’ve gained from my experiences in his universe. While I am currently unsure exactly how the information I’ve acquired has any ties to my primary studies on friendship, I am sure that this information is worthwhile and may even be able to be documented, as well as open a new area of study on an entirely new subject of magic, which I will dub M.I.T.: Magic Intergalactic Travel! I’ve memorized the spell I utilized to send myself to the alternate universe, but I haven’t had much practice with it, which causes it to burn up a considerable deal of energy as of yet. As such, I currently can’t use it very often. In short, I hope to hear from you soon! Your faithful student, Twilight Sparkle.”

“Aaaand… done! Except I might need you to proofread it… Some of those words sounded way too hard for me to spell.”

“Ugh, Spike…”

“I got it. Lemme see it,” I said. Spike looked at Twilight, who gave him an affirming nod. He reluctantly handed me the letter, seemingly ashamed of his work. “You lookin’ like somebody died. It ain’t that bad, is it?”

“…read it,” Spike mumbled.

“Alright, let’s see here… Dear Princess Celestia, my… apoin ment…? akwaintence…? nalege…? e-experianses…? a-a-acwired…?” At this point, I was trying VERY hard not to laugh at the poor little dragon’s illiteracy. I was noticeably failing, because every word he spelled wrong made me either snort, puff out my cheeks, or scoff. I was also grinning the entire time.

“Ohh, this is why I wanted YOU to do it, Twilight!” Spike complained, causing Twilight to scowl at me.

*Ahem* “Sorry. Sorry. Okay, I’ll get serious now,” I assured the dragon after I took a deep breath. “Awright then… pry marry…? What the... what is this…? Doc, you meant it? *SNORT* *AHEM* uh, where was I…? Oh, yeah… Oh, no… i-innergolacktick??” I completely lost it in a fit of laughter at that one. I dropped the paper and fell back on my haunches cracking up. I tried in vain to put a hoof in my mouth to control myself.

“Ty! That’s not nice!” Twilight scolded.

“I-I’m so s-s-sorry-hee-hee-hee-ha-ha-haaaa! AAGAHGGH! Oww…!” Twilight zapped me with a small jolt of magic to stop me from laughing.

“Are you finished?” the unicorn impatiently asked.

“Yeah… yeah I am…” as soon as I said that, Spike started stifling laughs of his own. “What?”

“Y-your hair…!” Spike choked out between laughs.

“My hair…? What… Oh, uh-uhh… No you didn’t…!”

“Take a look,” Twilight said as she laughed and levitated a mirror towards me. My jaw almost hit the floor when I saw what she did to my mane. It looked like the hair of an anime character! It was so frizzy and unruly, with every strand of hair sticking upwards in crazy zigzag patterns that made it look like I was trying to brush it with a balloon. The unicorn and dragon were howling with laughter.

“I hate you both SO much right now… Heh heh… I guess I deserved this, though. Alright, lemme proofread this letter so we can get on with the day…” I picked up the letter and corrected every mistake the dragon made (there were a LOT of them), and handed it to him. “There, happy now?”

“Thanks, Ty,” Twilight said, smiling. “That wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“Oh, hardy har-har,” I dryly responded as I walked up to her and poked her side. As I expected, she flinched and lifted a hind leg up to cover the side I'd poked.

“H-Hey, I told you not to do that!”

“Nooo, you told Tyshawn the human not to do that. I am Ponder Memoir the pony. Ponder Memoir does not recall Twilight Sparkle tellin’ him not t’ do this,” I joked as I began to hit Twilight with a barrage of pokes, which erupted into me tickling her half to death again.

“Hahahaha! T-Ty! St-st-sto-ha-ha-hop!”

“Sure… If you fix my hair,” I demanded as I kept tickling her. Of course, this didn’t last long as she once again used her magic to lift me off of her and drop me on the ground a few feet away.

“Okay… that’s… enough… distractions…” She breathlessly stated as she got up.

“I knew you were ticklish, Twilight, but wow…” Spike chimed in with a chuckle.

“If you try anything, Spike, I will turn your claws into pudding,” Twilight jokingly threatened as she giggled. “Now Ty, come here and let me fix you up so we can get started on this notebook.” I obliged as I picked my face up off the floor and walked toward the unicorn. She zapped me once again. I felt my mane with a hoof to make sure she didn’t try anything funny. “Spike… the letter.”

“Oh! Right!” Spike attentively complied as he grabbed the letter, rolled it up into a scroll and sent it on its way to Princess Celestia.

“Okay. Now that that’s out of the way,” Twilight murmured as she magically levitated the notebook from a nearby drawer and handed— I mean “hoofed” it over to me.

“Okey doke, where did we leave off…?” I mumbled. “Ahh yes, the sun-and-moon question… Alright… next up… ‘Are horses here able to communicate with humans?’ Nope. They don’t even speak. In fact, other than the basic biological similarities between horses and ponies, horses in my world hardly even LOOK like ponies here.”

“Wow… what DO they look like? What do they eat? How do they communicate with one another?” Twilight asked again and again.

“They’re much bigger than ponies— although not nearly as cute or multicolored—, as far as I know, they eat basically everything a pony eats— minus the sweets, among other things—, and they’re only capable of neighing. Basically, they ain’t nearly as intelligent as ponies are.”

“Darn… I wanted to meet one, too…”

“Bummer. Next up… ‘How is time measured here?’ We have seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months and years. There’s sixty seconds in a minute, sixty minutes in an hour, twenty-four hours in a day, seven days in a week, four to five weeks in a month— depending on the month—, and twelve months in a year.”

“Our worlds are exactly the same there.”

“Interesting… next… ‘How do humans communicate with one another over long distances?’ Well, we have traditional mail, which is sent an’ delivered by people. But then we have all kinds of crazy things, like phones, computers, walkie-talkies, and so on. Humans have TONS of different ways t’ communicate with each other much faster than mail. It’s hard for me to explain it because there’s so much in all that stuff that I couldn’t even comprehend it or condense into a simple explanation for ya.” Twilight and Spike just gawked at me like I was an alien… But then, I technically was.

“Phones? Computers? What the hay…?”

“Sounds like you’d need t’ pay another visit to my world t’ get what I mean. Basically, just like how you’re able to use Spike as a magic messenger, it’s just like a thing called e-mail in my world, where people are able to instantly send messages to each other, no matter how far away they are.”

“Ohh… I guess that makes a little more sense… I suppose I will need that extra trip…”

*BURP*

“Speakin’ of instant messages…” Spike caught the letter and handed it to Twilight. She quickly opened it and began to read:

Twilight Sparkle, my most faithful student,

My apologies in advance for the shortness of this letter, but I’m currently very busy settling an issue between two nations in the far east who have cut each other off from valuable resources due to disagreements between their leaders. I will have time for you to pay me a visit, but it may not come until this evening. Your letter has given me much to discuss with you two, and I wish to see you as soon as possible. Give your guest my regards.

Regally yours,

Princess Celestia

P.S.: If you’re having difficulty with spelling, please let me know. This letter was very hard to read with all the spelling corrections.

Hearing that last note made me laugh.

“Great. That puts a bit of a damper on our plans for today,” Twilight stated in disappointment.

“Not necessarily. Like you said last night, we could take this as an opportunity for me t’ give you more info about my world so you can be better prepared for—!”

*SLAM*

“What the h—!”

“HELLOOOOOO, TWI AND TY!!” shouted Pinkie Pie as she joyfully bounced into the room like a rabbit with a picnic basket and blanket on her back. Following her were Fluttershy, Rarity, Applejack, and Rainbow Dash, each of whom had miscellaneous supplies of their own.

“Well hello, girls!” Twilight greeted. “What brings you all here today?”

“Umm… well we were just wondering…” Fluttershy began.

“…if you guys wanted to come along for a group picnic!” Rainbow Dash finished. “Somepony else is covering my weather patrol shift for me…”

“…while I got up bright n’ early to finish all the chores I missed yesterdee…” Applejack continued.

“…and I don’t have any huge orders to fill today,” finished Rarity.

“We’re all free as birds to do anything we want today! Like party, or eat cake, or have a picnic, or go on a ridonkulously crazy adventure like we always do, or *GASP* PARTYYY!”

“But… you said party tw… Mm?” Another hoof found refuge on my face. No shock there. The shock came from the fact that the hoof was yellow, and that it gently, yet firmly pressed itself against my lips. So, with a mouthful of Fluttershy, I huffed and took an annoyed deadpan glare at the Pegasus.

“Oh! Um… I’m sorry,” she apologized with a sheepish smile. “It’s just that ponies here know not to question Pinkie Pie on anything she says…”

“Fankf fo da hezf uh, Fwutterfy,” I flatly mumbled with the Pegasus’s hoof still firmly planted on my lips. She took it as the cue to finally take it off.

“Oops. Hee hee, sorry…”

“So anyway… You guys down to hang with us today? Or are you two lookin’ ta get romantic on your own,” Rainbow Dash teased with a wink and a nudge on Twilight’s shoulder.

“Rainbow!” shouted a flustered Twilight, her cheeks a light pink. I shook my head and sighed as the ‘dating Twilight’ rumor became fresh in my mind once more.

“Not in front-a Spike, Rainbow! What would the neighbors think?” I jokingly warned in a melodramatic tone.

“Hah! Good one, Ty!”

“Yeah, thanks. Anyway, I suppose we got the time to go on that picnic witch-y’all. How ‘bout it, Twi?”

“Sure, why not?” she responded with uncertainty. “I was hoping to learn a bit more before we did anything today, though…”

“You’ve got all the time in the world to learn stuff, egghead! Come on!” Rainbow Dash teased.

“Alright now, Rainbow. Lay off ‘er,” Applejack interjected.

“Yes, it’s entirely up to Twilight on what she wants to do. There is no need to pressure her,” added Rarity. With that, the room went silent as everyone waited for Twilight’s answer.

“Hmm… Umm… I don’t know…” Twilight was in deep thought over what she wanted to do.

“Any day now, Twilight!” Rainbow Dash rudely commented. It seemed to go unnoticed by the purple unicorn as she was still figuring out what she wanted to do.

“Y’know what? Why don’t we turn this into a learnin’ experience for all of us? Sharin’ is carin’, ain’t it?” I suggested.

“That’s a great idea!” Twilight agreed. “Okay, my mind’s made up. We will go on that picnic with you!”

“HOORAY!” everyone but Twilight shouted. With that, the unicorn gathered some supplies of her own, including the notebook, and we were all on our way…