Interdemensional Magic and Loyalty, plus Sarcasm

by Inkpad_Pawprints

Rating: everyone
Tags: Rainbow Dash, Original Character, Comedy, Slice of Life, Human, Twilight Sparkle, My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic
Length: 23046

Twilight and Rainbow do research on a new world in line with Equestria, Earth. By diving right in.

When a new world joins Equestria on it's magical leyline, The Princess has to send somepony to make sure they'll be friendly neighbors. Who better than the Elements of Harmony? Only able to send two, Twilight and Rainbow Dash bravely volunteer to venture out to study a new world, risking losing both magic and wings for Equestria.
Of course, the new world looks fine at first. They make a few new friends, and find it a nice place. This is the story of two equestrians discovering Earth, with it's culture and it's many differences.

Published 2012-07-28 22:04:01 UTC
Last updated 2012-09-07 22:29:33 UTC

Day 1

Rainbow Dash opened her eyes lazily to see clouds above her, and she was lying on her back. She didn't feel like moving, she simply watched the clouds roll across the blue sky above her. Eventually her half asleep brain worked out a thought.

'those clouds... are really high...'

Following her astute observation she reached upwards towards one of the clouds. No pastel blue hoof attempted to fluff the cloud though. A peach colored limb ending in, oh, what did diamond dogs call them... hands, yes a hand did in its place. Rainbow waved the limb lazily in front her, It was nearing a minute before she realized it was her limb. If she wasn't in as much shock as she was from her discovery, she would have screamed. (Not that RAINBOW. DASH. was scared. She'd NEVER be scared of something so stupid. Really.)

Thankfully for Rainbow Dash's pride, her brain kicked into egghead mode and recalled the request from the Princess, volunteering with Twilight, Luna's warni--. Wait.

'Twilight!' Rainbow sat up quickly, looking frantically for her fellow interdemensional traveller. She caught a glimpse of a violet stripe on deep purple to her left and quickly turned to see if it was the aforementioned.

Well, It had Twilight's hair, but no pony was underneath it. A creature, after a quick self inspection, much like herself was instead. Rainbow, still thinking at a rather nice pace, deduced it must be Twilight, since Twilight would have transformed the same way she herself did. Therefore, Rainbow did the only logical thing.

*poke*

"Twilight, wake up..."

*poke* *poke*

"Up and at'em Twi..."

*poke* *poke* *poke*

*poke* *poke*

"Ooo... Squishy..."

*poke* *poke* *poke* *poke--

"Stop itttttttttttt!" Twilight bolted upright, rubbing her cheek. She quickly noticed that the hoof she was rubbing her cheek with wasn't a hoof, and her eyes went wide with panic. Rainbow once again turned to logic and dove on top of Twilight, newly discovered hand over the latter's mouth. She then watched Twilight's face go from confused to more confused, to angry then to realization, at which she slowly reached for Rainbow's hand, taking it off her mouth, so she could speak.

"Ra...Rainbow?"

"The one and only!" Rainbow internally exhaled in relief that egghead was back, and outwardly flashed her trademarked cocky grin. This garnered a smile and laugh from Twilight and Rainbow quickly did the same. The two continued for quite a while before Rainbow rolled off of Twilight and Twilight got a good look at who she was now. Or what, depending on how you look at it. She sat up and began running over last night's conversation with the Princesses in the throne room in her head while simultaneously digging through the portable library others may refer to as her brain for relevant information. As watching Twilight think, as amazing as it is, is incredibly boring, Rainbow began to experiment with her new muscles and body. Her ears weren't something she could express with anymore, but even if her face was now flat her facial features were the same. 2 eyes, one nose and mouth. Her body still seemed rather athletic, strong. 'Maybe it's just athlete's intuition' she joked to herself. Her wings were... wait...

Twilight had also came to a world shattering conclusion at that very moment, which just like Rainbow, she felt she must share. However when the two spoke at once...

"Twi-nbow, we wings humans missing!"

The two both stopped. Then Rainbow tried speaking and Twilight had the sense to wait. 'Not like Rainbow is ever patient...'.

"Twilight, my wings are missing!"

"So is my horn. Rainbow Dash, did you actually think about Luna's warning? That we'd be changing forms? That meant we might not have horn or wings. Which she was right about."

Rainbow Dash pouted. She's done it before. But for some reason it was more expressive, more effective. So much so, even Twilight was affected. Twilight tried, but she eventually sighed and gave in.

"We'll... We'll look into it once we have our bearings here, okay?" Twilight compromised. Rainbow nodded in agreement after a moment, then motioned for Twilight to say her two bits (badumtish).

"Right! I know what we are now, Lyra came in to the library the other day asking about human myths! We are humans!" Twilight exclaimed, her scholarly side taking over, Rainbow stared blankly.

"So... what's that mean?"

"I'm glad you asked. Let me explain..." And so Twilight recited.

MEANWHILE a perfectly normal teenage boy walked through the very same park on ex-pony was explaining humanity to another. He had dirty blond hair and a bored expression on his face. He wore a black deep v neck hoodie and a pair of faded blue jeans and he was also carrying a messenger bag. His thoughts did not make him stand out either, only listening to the birds tweet, idly. If one were to ask why he is any different than the other people in the park, it would because of the conversation he just caught wind of.

"And those are humans." A soft, feminine voice said matter o‘factly.

"Twilight... did you just spend ten minutes explaining that humans evolved from monkeys?" A second female voice responded, though it was slightly lower, making it sound like a tomboy. But why would should he judge?

"Well... yes."

"Ugh, Twilight! Important information only!" Her frustration was audible. 'Or would it be exhasperation?' he thought to himself. After a pause the other voice quietly replied.

"Sorry. You know how much I tend to over explain..." 'Daw. She sounds pretty cute when she's timid.' But that thought was only in passing.

"Twilight... It's okay. But let's try asking somepony else. Like... that guy!" The boy's face made a smirk, visible to no one. "Hey, you! With the blond and black mane!" The boy stopped his pace along the path, and turned to the meadow where he was called from.

The two girls, looking to be around 17 years old, were beyond interesting. The first girl was soft featured, probably the owner of the soft voice he heard. She had black hair with a violet stripe through it, and her bangs were pretty much straight across her forehead. She wore a large deep purple v neck sweater which sleeves nearly gulfed her hands and a long white skirt. The clothes don't reveal much in the way of her figure, but she seemed quite pretty. Especially if her soft face was an indicator.

Her companion was equally amazing... no, the correct word seemed to be awesome. She had a cool pale blue hair color, cut right around neck length, and it had one section that was rainbow color. Her strong featured face clearly showed her excitement, and her posture was one of an athlete. Her clothing consisted of a blue windbreaker over a red and white baseball T with blue jeans. Her figure was only slightly more apparent than her companion’s, but it was definitely one of an athlete, matching her posture.

All in all, it was quite a different sight for the boy, who was simply walking back from school like any other day. He nodded to them as he reached speaking distance.

“What can I do for you two ladies?”

“Explain humans. Like, what are they?” He had never had to try so hard to not make a wisecrack, smirk, and laugh. Truly, it was just as interesting as he expected.

“Let’s see. Humans are the most advanced race on the planet, and pretty much the only truly sentient ones. We use tools to make more tools to advance our technological capabilities and skills, as well as to make life easier. We vary between countries, from our culture to political views. This had caused wars in the past and will inevitably do so again. How's that?" He felt it was pretty good, for an answer he made up on the fly.

His feedback was delayed, by the fact his audience was still staring at him attentively. The athletic girl's face, the one who asked, read 'processing, please wait'. He let a small smirk float through his friendly demeanor.

"Hello...?"

"Oh, oh!" The soft featured girl must have just realized the description was over. She looks pretty bookish, probably just had gotten wrapped up in thought.
"Thank you very much. Sorry for the strange question." She smiled apologetically.

"No problem. It was the most interesting question I've been asked in months." He smiled back before turning around and slowly heading back to the path, same pace as earlier,

"Let's follow him!" Rainbow said. She had made motions for it to be a whisper, but her voice still carried.

“Why Rainbow?” Twilight didn’t bother with trying to whisper.

“Um... Right, he might lead us to something interesting. Like what we’ve been looking for, the sah-” She stopped short, covering it with a cough. “a library. You could get lots of stuff there right? Books. And stuff. You know.”

Twilight stared straight at Rainbow. For Rainbow, it felt like an eternity statue’d like Discord. Finally Twilight smiled.

“You’re right! When did you become such a sleuth Rainbow Dash? After the MMM mystery?”

“Um...” Rainbow looked away from Twilight and unconsciously rubbed the back of her head. “Fluttershy.” She was spared another scrutinizing gaze. Rainbow internally grinned; she got away with using a line from Daring Do on Twilight! This one will have to go down in the record books when she gets home.

“Ah, right. Don’t want to lose him.” Rainbow said mostly to herself, and she stood on two legs like he did. Then she copied his walking motion. His leisurely pace hadn’t gotten him too far, so Rainbow could complete see how he was doing it.

But she still fell. Face first, off the first step she took. Twilight gasped, and stood to get to her fallen friend. She crashed just as quickly, right on top of Rainbow. The boy, who had still been within earshot (especially when they weren’t whispering in the slightest) turned and jogged back to the two.

“Jeezus. What did you two do, try and stand while your legs were asleep?” Twilight had rolled off of Rainbow, and the boy extended a hand to Rainbow. She took it begrudgingly, and stood once again.

“Best thing for sleepy legs is to move em a bit.” He jogged in place, as if to get Rainbow to. She took the chance to watch his movements and copy him, quickly mastering it. She is an athlete, after all. While she jumped around a bit, he crouched next to the sitting Twilight and offered his shoulder. She placed her arm on it, and he propped her up. She took a bit longer finding her balance, but he stood there to she’d have something solid to grab on to. ‘A kind gesture’, she thought absentmindedly.

“Seemed like you had it worse.” He said with a small smile. She returned it, thanking him and doing a small jog herself. Rainbow ran back over, and the boy waved once again to leave. Then he apparently decided against it, and turned back to them.

“I don’t mean to be forward or anything, but would you girls like to grab some late lunch?” The two looked to each other, and Twilight opened her mouth to speak. Her stomach spoke for her though. She blushed, and nodded.

The boy unconsciously smirked as he turned back towards the path. “I know a decent place a few blocks from here. Shall we? The name is Trey, by the way.” Twilight made an important connection as he introduced himself, and Rainbow entirely missed it.

“Yeah! I’m Rainbow Dash.” She gave him a lopsided grin, though he entirely missed it. Twilight on the other hand, facepalmed audibly, quite impressive for someone who doesn’t know what a palm is.

“Twilight Sparkle.” She said, mixed with a sigh. ‘Oh well.’ She thought. ‘Maybe only he has a strange name.’ Ever positive, , she moved to catch up to the energetic Rainbow and the nonchalant Trey.

~~~

Trey had a headache. He’d lived in New York City for a few years now, he was used to that noise. The noise that gave him this borderline migraine was actually quite simple. So simple, it could be summed up into two. Horrible. Words.

“What’s That?!” Ever since he left Central Park with the two girls, they’ve been asking that god awful question. At first, he tried to answer. Then he was cut off by another one. And another one. And so the pattern continued. Around the 5th attempt to answer the hellish question he gave in, steeling himself for the longest 3 blocks he’d ever walk.

Finally he reached the promised land. Behind him he heard one of them comment; “Rarity would love this place”, but he ignored it. He decided to gamble on the theory he was mulling over on the way here, and he would do so with flair. So when he stopped infront of the door, he looked over his shoulder.

“This is a pretty nice place. I think you’ll like it.” A mild pleasantry with a smile, then... He turned back to the door before finishing.

“Oh. And I can tell you really aren’t from here at all. You know, this world.” With that, he walked in and began speaking to the staff.

~~~

Rainbow gulped next to Twilight. Twilight was stuck on loop, caught in her own thoughts.
‘Princess said don’t let anyone know where we’re from, Princess said don’t let anyone know where we’re from, Princess said don’t let anyone know where we’re from...’ was all that was going through her head. Through the haze of repetitive messages, she saw Trey wave for them to come inside, being lead off by the serving staff of the restaurant. Rainbow stepped forward, bravely venturing in to the fine dining establishment after the guy who senses ponies. Twilight followed on auto pilot, still thinking about the Princess’s disappointed face.

They approached the corner table where Trey had been directed. Rainbow sat down opposite him, Twilight next to her. Twilight had a short distraction from her looping thoughts in the object Trey was fiddling with; a small black rectangle, with one side emitting light from behind a glass pane. He put it away after the girls sat, which once again left Twilight with the tormenting thought of failure.

When Trey looked up from his phone, he got a look at the chaos he caused. Twilight’s face was stressed, worried, and ready to cry all at once and Rainbow’s was firm; though it didn’t match her personality, making it feel like a front. He sighed.

“Jeez Twi. I figured you would ask about my cell the minute I took it out. What’s eating you?” Twilight had to fumble with her response.

“You... were supposed... just... how... how did you find out?” She stammered. He smiled in response.

“Relax Twi. Just a hunch that by some ungodly lucky chance proved true, at least judging by your reaction. Most, no, even more than most wouldn’t even harbor the thought two random girls in Central Park were from another world. I just thought it would be interesting. It is, for that matter. But don’t worry. I’m not about to bust you to the mass media or anything.” Twilight thought about what he said, particularly on the judging by your reaction part. Gears whirred in the unicorn’s head, to the point where she voiced her thoughts.

“You... were just gauging our reactions...? And then as they kept coming back positive...” she mused.

“Bingo. You-” He stopped the conversation as the waitress came over. He took on a practiced, respectful tone when conversing with her, ordering 3 waters and a salad for the two girls. He also ordered a cheeseburger (this word baffled the two ponies, but they expected different food in another world) for himself before she left.

“You are correct. Before we continue, go get your food. The sign over there, that says salad bar? It’s buffet. Trey realized a possible error. “You... do know what those are right?”

“Well duh.” Rainbow said as she pushed Twilight of her seat. Twilight tried to keep to talking to Trey, but she was dragged to the food before she could even formulate a sentence. She gave in and surveyed the salad bar. Most of the food was a familiar sight to her, though she wondered where the sunflowers were. They only had the seeds. She began with a plate, taking note of the container of metal objects next to then. It looked familiar to her, but she couldn’t place where she had seen the pitchfork like objects before. She racked her brain as she made a salad. It clicked when she was putting the final touches (the aforementioned sunflower seeds) on.

“Forks!” She said aloud, happy she remembered the strange tools used by the Canterlot elite when eating. She only saw them when she was a filly after all. She then noticed just how loud she said it, the rest of the patrons at the salad bar were giving her a funny look. One boy, younger than her judging by height, was even pointing to the forks innocently. Twilight blushed and grabbed two (expect Rainbow to have never heard of them before) before quickly heading back to her table.

She smacked her head with her offhand when she turned the corner to the table. Trey was barely concealing his roaring laughter at the sight of Rainbow attempting to eat a salad with her, well face. She watched Rainbow slowly make the connection that didn’t work without a muzzle, which made her face grow progressively more and more red. She finally looked up at Trey, completely red.

“Wha... What?”

Twilight never saw someone stop laughing that fast. He averted his eyes from her and mumbled out an apology within seconds. Twilight though she saw a bit of red on his face now. She (ever oblivious) sat down and showed Rainbow how to use a fork and Rainbow quickly regained her composure. It was a little different from using magic with one, but it wasn’t hard once you tried it for a bit. Trey eventually (what felt like quite a long time later) sighed and rested his head on the table.

“I... didn’t expect that. They both have such expressiveness... Hell, that face could take out an army...” He muttered. With a final sigh, he pulled himself back up to earn quizzical looks from Twilight and Rainbow. He ignored them.

“Anyway. Why don’t you tell me about why you’re, shall we say visiting? That might be a good place to start.” Twilight nodded.

“Just, well probably just yesterday, It depend on just how long the skip was from between midnight when we left and when we woke-”

“Twilight. Important information only.” Rainbow cut her off before she resumed eating with gusto.

“Ah. Right. Sorry. We are from Equestria. It’s a land of peace, populated by ponies of earth, pegasi, and unicorn variety. Last night, as far as we know, the Princesses Celestia and Luna called the two of us and our other four friends to the capitol, Canterlot. She told us that somepony... someone, you said right?” Trey nodded. “Someone had stumbled on that this world here had joined ours on the magical leyline.” She gave Trey’s slightly confused look a sympathetic smile. “I’ll explain in detail later. For now, it just means that we’re interconnected in some ways. Granted, it takes the Princess a month to gather enough energy to really send more than two ponies extra dimensionally. She asked us to come here and... observe a bit. We haven’t had a war in a thousand years, and if this world that just connected to the leyline was a warring type... We’d have to, shall we say adjust. Plus, it’s always good to know your neighbors. Such as if they’ll be coming for a visit anytime soon. Though...” She paused, thoughtful. “I don’t think you have magic here, so it isn’t very likely. With that, we’re mostly here as a study on the culture, and in case of danger to forewarn the Princess. We weren’t supposed to let you know we were here though...” She looked down, slightly depressed. She shook it off only a moment later though. ”Anyway, after some pointers on dimensional travel, and warning that we might not look the same on the other end...” She paused and stared at her hands. Trey could guess by the sad smile she wasn’t quite as happy about being human than she had been expressing. “We left at midnight, when Princess Luna was strongest. She has affinity with the moon, raising it nightly and all. We’re to go back with these necklaces” She raised hers, a starburst pendant, “at the first sign of danger. If we don’t come back in a month, the Princess will send the rest of our friends here to help us with the research. When we arrived we woke up in that park and, well...”

“I know the rest.” Trey smiled and finished for her. She returned it and began eating her forgotten salad. Trey’s food came at just the right time to let poor Twilight eat some of said salad. Trey finished talking to the waitress in short order, and stayed quiet for a bit. He spoke after a few minutes, once Twilight sated some of her hunger.

“Well... I get the gist of it. Magic huh?”

“She’s the Princess’s private pupil. Her special talent is magic, she’d know plenty about it.” Rainbow pointed a thumb at Twilight. Trey wondered where she picked up the motion from. ‘No, no. Important information only at the moment.’ He thought.

“Heeeh. Regardless, I’ll be honored to show you... humanity. Though I get the feeling it won’t be half as interesting as your world, I’ll show you as much as you need to know.” Twilight visibly sighed with relief, and Rainbow continued to look bored. Trey could tell she wasn’t the type for long exposition long before now, and his suspicion had only proven correct.

“Well, number one. We eat meat here.” He pointed to his cheeseburger. “Ponies don’t right?” Trey expected utter shock and possibly some magic death attack in his face. Sure, Twilight looked a little sick and Rainbow made an unhappy face... But no death ray. Rainbow spoke up.

“Well... it’s definitely not in our diet. But we aren’t the only creatures around. I had a friend when I was a filly in flight camp, a griffin. I saw her eat meat. It’s life. Fluttershy’s animals eat meat, and so do all the creatures in Everfree forest.” She grinned. “Thought we’d flip out?”

Trey smirked. He went to speak, only to catch himself. He had to deal with the unconscious urge to say whatever had floated into his head for a minute before continuing.

“N-no. Just warning you. You two have the teeth now to eat meat, and it’s common place in the world. People live without out here, vegetarians, but they aren’t too common.” He took a bite out of his lunch to demonstrate that he wasn’t one such vegetarian.

“That’s... alright then...” Twilight’s green coloring fade out.

“Oh, so if you’re good with magic you must be a unicorn, right Twi?” Trey said between bites.

“Yes. Rainbow was overemphasising before though, I’m not that good.” Twilight said modestly. Too modestly, Rainbow was mouthing ‘she’s lying, she’s amazing’ out of Twilight’s line of sight, and Trey was inclined to agree. Though he choose to let her think that until he saw for himself. If he ever did. “And Rainbow is a-”

“Pegasi, and not just an ordinary one! I’m the winner of the Best Young Flyer competition, future Wonderbolt, and the fastest in all of Equestria!” Rainbow Dash was leaning half way across the table as she listed off her skills. Trey smirked once again, and just has before he seemed to have to stop himself from saying something. It earned him quizzical looks from the best young flyer and the modest magician.

“Ah-hem.” He recovered. “I see. Now, why you girls? Don’t the Princesses have other people... Ponies who could do this job? Like, ones old enough to live on their own legally?”

“We all live on our own...” Rainbow said, confused. Trey let a little shock show through his face.

“Wow. Equestria must be a lot different in more than a few aspects. I’m still in school at 17, and you look the same age as I do. If not younger.”

“We’re all 16. Well, except Fluttershy. She’s a year older.” Rainbow clarified.

“Heeeh.”

“And as for why us...” Twilight started. “We’re the Elements of Harmony. There’s a whole adventure as to why, but the six of us represent the six aspects that make up the power and magic of Harmony. Fluttershy is the aspect of kindness, Rarity the aspect of generosity, Applejack is honest, Pinkie Pie is laughter, Rainbow here is the aspect of loyalty and I’m the aspect of magic. Our friendship is one of the most powerful magics in the world.” Rainbow picked up after her.

“And because something need a reminding of Harmony, like the Spirit of Chaos Discord... We run into some pretty strange situations. Hence, we get called on for the really crazy stuff, instead of the Royal Guard or Twilight’s brother or somepony.” She finished, pride leaking through her voice. Trey smiled, he could imagine just how much Rainbow Dash enjoys being a help in those crazy situations. But one thing they said hung with him.

“Friendship... is magic?” He asked.

“Yes!” Twilight was ecstatic. “I didn’t believe it either till I made such great friends. Now I do research on that for the Princess, and it’s so much fun!”

“Alright, I have to hear this one. Tell me the adventure behind friendship being magic, please.”

~~~

The girls retold the adventure that brought them together throughout the rest of lunch. They even had time for the story about Discord during dessert. Trey watched them happily describe their stories, relishing the good and the bad moments with each other. He too found himself laughing with them, enjoying the story and memories they were sharing. Time (and the end of the cookie sundaes) brought an end to the story telling. Trey handed a card to the waitress with the check, and turned back to the girls.

“So. Here’s another important question. What are you two going to do for a place to stay?” Rainbow spoke first.

“Well duh. I can just sleep... on a... clo...ud....” She realized halfway through her remark that she couldn’t fly to the high clouds she saw before. She flashed a sheepish look.

“We haven’t gotten that far yet. It was all so short notice, I didn’t even have time to make a checklist...” Twilight pouted like that was the more important issue. Trey sighed.

“Alright. It works I guess. I have a spare room in my apartment. I’m on my own for a few reasons, though my parents still foot the bills.” Trey took a second to mentally note the irony, him using living on one’s own as a difference between the worlds when it in fact wasn’t a difference at all in his case. “You two can stay there while you are here.” Twilight’s eyes lit up.

“Thank you! You’re too kind. Or should I say generous.” That innocent smile forced his next statement to be blunt and to the point.

“So thing number two bout Earth. Never accept an offer like that from a stranger. Not all people are good and kind here. You don’t have any reason to trust me, do you?” He said much like a wise old man.

“You helped us up.” Rainbow responded immediately. Trey was expecting something weak as an argument, but he was taken aback by that.

“That’s... that’s it. All it takes for you to trust someone... is that they give you a hand.”

“Yep. Besides, I know a liar when I see one.” She said that with such an air of confidence he knew she completely believed that she was a human lie detector.

“Besides. Would someone bad tell the target their intentions, even in an ambiguous fashion?” Twilight said with a wink. Trey lost to that cold logic. ‘She must have read books on social engineering. That has to be it.’ Trey thought to himself while he sighed.

“Okay. Fine. But it’s still important advice.” They nodded like they hadn’t just destroyed the meaning in 10 seconds flat. The waitress came back with the receipt, and Trey stood.

“Well. We could just go to my place, but what fun is that? How about we walk the city a bit? Just keep the questions to a pace I can answer them in.” The two girls agreed, and they left the restaurant in a much happier state than they had entered; with a new friend instead of someone who discovered their secret.

With the questions at a manageable pace, Trey actually began to enjoy himself walking the city in the girl’s company. Cars were first, and Trey never thought he’d be explaining cars the way he did. That lead to explaining fossil fuels which was a little more challenging, but Rainbow saved him by asking why humans all wear clothes. Trey’s response was blunt, frank, to the point, and left no room for argument.

“Humans always wear clothes. This is not optional. We never go around naked, ever.” Rainbow paused for a moment.

“B-”

“Ever.” He cut her off. It earned him a death glare from Rainbow Dash.

“BET Rarity would love that, T-Wi-Light.” Trey smiled a bit at the childish over pronunciation to make a point.

Twilight nodded absentmindedly, before switching the topic to electricity. That conversation lasted a long while. Trey had to test his knowledge of electrical engineering and electronics answering Twilight’s varied and complicated questions. The conversation only slowed when Twilight stopped to think about something, or Rainbow had a question. Some of which were on topic, usually asking for clarification on what the things were that Trey mentioned, such as TV and toasters. The others were about things she saw on the crowded streets, billboards, and even a few people’s T-shirts. From baseball to Broadway to Dr Pepper.

“A doctor that makes drinks? He sounds fake.” Trey couldn’t help but laugh before clarifying.

A few hours later, after some window shopping and the view of Times Square, the trio boarded the subway. After explaining briefly (with their new knowledge of electricity and prior knowledge of trains, it wasn’t much to grasp) they sat down and the subway left. For the first time today, Twilight seemed exhausted of questions. It didn’t surprise Trey. He’s only read a few books on electronics and electrical engineering, and he had to use everything he read to answer Twilight’s questioning. He actually thought she knew more than he did now, that she had managed to reverse engineer concepts from his descriptions. Trey slumped into the seat at that. He glanced over at the duo, Twilight deep in thought (per usual, it looks like) and Rainbow people watching. He felt no motivation to sit up till the passed the first stop on the way. He pulled out his smart phone.

Even with explaining electricity to them, the phone still took a while to grasp. They passed another stop before they finished. Trey didn’t mind however; it was interesting to hear a viewpoint on cell phones from someone who didn’t grow up with one. He described just about everything on the phone, though he intentionally left out the Internet. He had a hunch that the net would blow Twilight’s mind, and felt it better to wait before showing her that. She’d try and read the whole thing like this.

Trey eventually showed the girls Angry Birds. He did so mostly to tease them a bit with the exploding birds. They were a bit shocked that he nonchalantly blew up a bunch of birds and pigs, but no where near as much as he expected they would be. Then they turned it around on him, understanding that it was only a game only seconds later. Hell, Rainbow asked to play. Trey gave her the phone, and she quickly picked it up. He watched with interest, she wasn’t very good with the touch screen yet so it was quite amusing. Twilight was mumbling something while she watched, what Trey though might have been the quadratic formula. Whether or not it was the formula, Trey had no interest in understanding just what she was calculating. Partly because he wasn’t sure he could keep up with that brain of hers. Well. At least not without a calculator.

~~~

The sun was setting as they reached the door to Trey’s apartment. He deftly unlocked the door and led them inside. It was an average two bedroom apartment. To the left of the entrance was a small kitchen. It wasn’t a chef’s setup, but it had a lot of the things you’d need. Past that was the living area. It was scarce at best. Nothing hung on the walls, the only furniture was a coffee table, and armchair, a sofa, and a black box the girls recognized from the description earlier as a TV on a stand. A couple of boxes were wired to the back of the TV, with other things wired to them. The things were quite strange, Twilight couldn’t even figure out what to guess they were. They hung a right before actually entering the room though, into a very small hall with 3 doors, one left, one right, one forward. The one on their right was open, it was a nice little bathroom. Trey stopped with his hand on the knob of the left door.

“Um... it’s a bit of a mess but...” He opened the door.

It was a bedroom, yes. It had a bed, a pair of dressers, and a desk. However there had to be close to a hundred books everywhere, on top of things, the floor, anywhere they wouldn’t fall. Twilight’s eyes just shined brighter and brighter in the door frame.

“It’ll need some picking up... My parents keep sending me books ‘cause the think I might be interested in whatever it is...” Trey trailed off. Rainbow Dash sighed.

“Twilight, we’re stacking them in the corner. No, you can’t read any until we’re done.” Rainbow marched into the mess. Twilight quickly followed, quietly telling Rainbow to be careful, and treat the books right. Trey had his doubts on how gentle Rainbow was going to be, but it wasn’t important.

“I’ll be right back, k?” Trey left the door open, and the girls heard the front door open, but not close. A half minute later they could hear Trey talking to someone.

“Hi, Principal Gibbons right? God you work late. Don’t you have a family to go home to?” “Special circumstances. You know me, I’m not about to do anything unless something interesting is happening.” “I’ve got two out of town friends staying with me. I want you to tell the teachers for 3-A that they’re allowed to shadow me for a while. They want to see our prestigious school.” He said prestigious with a rather heavy dose of sarcasm. “Ugh, spare me the great school story. I know the truth, I go there. That will be a yes then?” “Don’t give me that, trust me, they’ll fit right into your perfect school daydream.” ”Why? One is smarter than I am. She has a better understanding of advanced electronics than I do, and I was the one who taught her them. She knows more than I do now, she reverse engineered what I told her to understand topics I don’t even know about.” Twilight blushed at his words. Though she didn’t think she knew more than him... “The other is a top notch athlete, if you’re lucky maybe she’ll train our wonderful sports teams.” “Heh. No, I may not be polite with you principal, but I don’t lie. That’s all true.” “Yeah yeah, I wouldn’t bring you trouble. I owe you that much. Thanks.” “Don’t push your luck, sir.” The sir dripped with sarcasm as he reentered the apartment.

The girls quickly scrambled to resume cleaning, they stopped without realizing it as they listened. He rejoined them and helped out. With the three of them, the books were quickly stacked nicely in the far corner of the room. Trey dusted himself off and stood up.

“You heard all that?” Twilight shook her head frantically while Rainbow shrugged. A soft chuckle escaped Trey. “It wasn’t a private call, relax. I was only going to tell you the result anyway.”

“That’s why we couldn’t hear the other person! You used the phone!” Twilight put two and two together excitedly, before she realized she admitted her eavesdropping. She looked down and smiled sheepishly. They started walking towards the living area.
Trey resumed. “So I got the principal to give you permission to visit. Humans spend the first 21 years or so of their lives in school, it’s the best place for you to learn culture.” He settled into the armchair, letting the girls share the couch. “Oh, and sorry there’s one bed. It was only a storage room before now so...” Trey gave them an apologetic smile.

“No trouble. Just like a sleepover at the library, right Twilight?” Rainbow shrugged.

“Yep! Those are always so much fun!” Twilight giggled in response. “And you’ve been kind enough as it is, not everything can work out perfectly. The odds of that are...” Twilight paused.

“Twi, don’t bother. Really low is sufficient.” Trey remarked. Twilight smiled sheepishly again.

“Jeez egghead. Just use the expression.” Rainbow teased, laughing a little. They all laughed a bit, and conversation broke out.

They spoke for hours, comparing schools in Equestria to Earth schools for a while before Rainbow decided to share the time Twilight snapped about being late for a friendship report. Twilight founded the retelling just as funny as the other two, and the night wore on. There was a short break so Trey could get up and brew some coffee (black for him and Rainbow, milk and sugar for Twilight) but soon midnight loomed and Trey felt it time to sleep. They said their good nights, and split up.

Trey stared at his desktop monitor, the screen saver bouncing around like it was all day. He knew he had some research he had to do, but he decided to wait till tomorrow. He smirked as he thought about tomorrow.

“It’s going to be... very interesting.”

~~~

Omake (Bonus Page)

Transcript: Rainbow: Are you thinking... what I’m thinking?
Twilight: I... think so.
Both: Isn’t sleeping in your clothes... Rather silly?
Bottom: They thought too hard on Trey’s warning

~~~

A/N: I’ll spare people the crap about how in no way in hell I ever thought I’d write a fic, blah blah blah etc. Cause I didn’t.
Some... I don’t know, self justifications.

Forks: I looked in a few episodes. I never saw anyone with one. Either only unicorns eat or they just didn’t feel like showing the forks. Whatever, it’s really just a mild thing anyway. I thought’d it be a funny joke.
(Speaking of that, can anyone guess the restaurant? =P)

I’m kinda playing alot of emotion jokes here and there. One, I’m not a good writer so they don’t sound good AFAIK, two, i figure humans have a bit better range of emotions. However, ponies are more expressive. So really expressive + more expressiveness? Rainbow Dash’s pout became so ungodly powerful she could start a war. It also means they hide their emotions less if at all tho.

No way in hell will this involve shipping. If it DOES, future me will be rebelling against current me’s opinion. And he’ll pay for that.
I’m a primary anime fan. Hence I’m sure, if they haven’t already, plenty of anime tropes might slip in. The goal is to not let that influence anything though. If they are there it’s one thing, if the story keeps calling to them as, shall we say crutches, it’s a massive problem. Mostly cause half of us bronys don’t have the dual background. =P

The Omake is one of those ^. They’re usually joke strips at the end of a long story line or the back of the book. I was bored (and by that I mean prepping to fail the final) in my summer class and doodled that... I’m in no way a good artist, but hay. I keeping doing it.. Hopefully it didn’t burn your eyes out. Cause then you couldn’t go read a better fic. =P

If you want a decent rendition of human Rainbow and Twilight, the one’s I’m basing off of are

http://applestems.deviantart.com/art/Twilight-Sparkle-Human-307022622?q=gallery%3Aapplestems%2F30482447&qo=7 the middle one, though not the clothes.

http://applestems.deviantart.com/art/Rainbow-Dash-Human-306103036?q=gallery%3Aapplestems%2F30482447&qo=8 and the middle one.

You’re an awesome artist Applestems. Hence why I felt like giving you props. =P

However much we love and tolerate, I can’t tolerate subpar work. So be cruel if you must in any commentary. If it’ll make me suck less, I can’t complain.

Here’s to Hasbro and Lauren Faust and all the people out there who made the show. You guys rock. Credit to you guys for Twi and Dash, and everything else pony.

Oops, Author’s notes became author’s page. Tehehe.

Day 2

Twilight Sparkle awoke, telepathically swatting her alarm off. She had a sleepover with Rainbow Dash, her weary mind told her, so she lifted the covers up with her magic delicately as to not disturb Rainbow's sleep. 'As if that's possible' she mentally joked. Twilight stumbled into the bathroom, magically reaching for one of the washcloths. She scrubbed her face, then sent her magic to recover her... tooth... brush...

Twilight finally woke from her morning daze when she saw her new human reflection in the mirror. More interesting was the familiar purple glow she saw when she uses magic, which is something she can’t do anymore. She tried to figure out what was happening, but as she tried to examine the glow it fizzled, dropping what was probably Trey's toothbrush into the sink.

"Ah...hahaha..." She laughed quietly to herself, a sweatdrop rolling down her head. She picked it up and ran water over it, thought for a second, then put it back in it's holder. She reasoned guys tended to be messy anyway, and the 5 second rule surely applies to toothbrushes. With her crime disguised, she quietly went back to Trey's second room. The lights were out in the living room and kitchen so their host must still be asleep, and she didn’t want to wake him. She sat at the old desk and started thinking aloud.

"I was doing magic somehow, wasn’t I? I was able to do so subconsciously, meaning that it is fundamentally the same as it was back home. However casting spells in Equestria involves focusing on the tip of one's horn to create a focal point. I..." She touched her forehead. "have no horn. If that's the case, this new body also must has a focal point, and it's in the exact same point as where my horn was. I can assume this because subconsciously I would be trying to cast using muscle memory, from where I normally would as a unicorn. If that was successful, and it was, the point is proven. Then where ever my horn transferred to is my new focal point, and I just have to consciously recognize it to cast magic. Hmm... Ah, and if I was a spell that turned a unicorn into a human..." She tapped her forehead again. "I would just have the horn slide inward, joining the forehead. She clapped her hand together happily. “With my hypothesis formed, it's time to experiment!"

And for the next 15 minutes, at six o’clock in the morning, Twilight made various strange faces trying to summon her magic from random points on her forehead. She would have kept at it, if she didn't eventually find success. She couldn't help smiling. It was so comforting to know she hadn't lost what it was that had made her special. She practiced a bit and was quickly just as proficient with telekinesis as a human as she was when she was a unicorn. Feeling confident, she decided to tackle something else, and quietly went to the kitchen.

Trey woke at the same time he had for years, six thirty. He stumbled his way out of bed, silently lamenting the cruel joke fate played on him, forcing a teenager out of bed early every morning. He groaned in his over sized T-shirt and basketball shorts; he didn't have a good feeling about today. That meant his still idle computer could wait, coffee was his first priority.

He too, in a half asleep state, had forgot yesterday's events. So when he entered his kitchen to see a beautiful girl pouring tea, he nearly tripped over his own two feet. After checking his balance and kick starting his memory, he looked up to not only see the beautiful girl (Twilight, now that he was mentally functioning) handling three tea cups, but doing so with some form of magic. He watched, stunned as she finished placing the full cups on the counter facing the living room. Watching the purple aura fade, he felt like he could move again. The first thing he did was yawn though. Then he joined Twilight in the kitchen.

"Well if I didn't believe you were a unicorn two days ago, I sure as hell do now..." Twilight jumped.

"Oh, Trey. Don't sneak up on some... someone like that. Good morning.” She smiled. “I discovered this morning that I could still use my magic-”
She had been levitating her teacup across the kitchen to where she was standing. The magical aura faded while she was talking and the cup fell to the floor, shattering. Twilight was dumbfounded. Her mouth made speaking motions, but it took a moment before sound came out.
“I, I'm so sorry! That was a filly's mistake, I mean a child's! I'll clean it up right away!" She stared intently at the shattered cup. Trey counted ticks on the microwave clock as she kept staring. After a minute he yawned and took one of the remaining cups.

"Well I'd say something to the effect of it's not going to clean itself, but you seem to be doing just that." He said, and leaned against the counter. She pouted in his direction for his wise remark, before attempting the feat again. It was just as successful as last time.

"I... don't understand... A magic focal point doesn't change, and I know where it is now... So why can't I cast anything... It's like... I ran out or some-" She stopped mid thought. She closed her eyes and focused intently, Trey could see it on her face. He smirked. 'Ironic, she reads like one of her books.' he mentally snarked. A few moments later she exhaled and relaxed.

"Problem solved. Well, more like defined." Trey raised an eyebrow, and she took that as motion to continue. "I normally have a very large pool of magical, shall we say power to work with. However, humans can't store magic power well-"

"Not surprising, considering we can't do magic," Trey cut in. He earned himself a scolding glare for it.

"Humans can't store magic power as well as ponies, and yes, odds are they don’t produce any naturally. But I was unicorn originally, so I do. But I can’t hold even a fraction of what I normally can, and even with light magic like telekinesis, a human’s maximum capacity burned out in only a half hour...” Trey realized she had stopped explaining to him and began running through theories in her head. He let out a sigh, put his cup of tea down (it was quite good, considering the last time he had tea was when his parents came to visit) and went to get a dustpan.

After a half hour of toast breakfast and tea, Trey begrudgingly said it was just about time to leave. Twilight volunteered to get Rainbow up, and Trey went back to his bedroom. It took Twilight a whole 5 minutes to get Rainbow to move. She lazily followed Twilight to the waiting Trey, and the trio had left with just enough time to spare.

Rainbow didn’t wake up till they were half way there. She had asked if she missed anything, and Trey snarked about the teacup. She laughed for minutes, waking up somewhere in that time. Twilight was trying to explain herself too, which only made Rainbow laugh harder. A block later the two had calmed down, and the trip became a bit more uneventful. Trey managed to get a laugh out of the earlier misunderstanding with wearing clothes all the time, and ended up clarifying that humans do wear clothes all the time, but also change clothes. Both sides felt rather stupid, Trey for not clarifying properly to two ex-ponies, who only wear clothes for fashion; and the girls for being a bit too literal. They stopped talking for awhile.
A few more blocks, and they turned the corner to the high school. It was new, nicely designed, and even had a courtyard while you walked in. The girls noticed everyone was dressed the same as the walked to the gate, a black blazer over slacks or skirt, depending on the gender. They both looked to their companion, and noted his grey v neck hoodie from yesterday, a T shirt, and jeans. Trey caught them looking him over.

“Oh, the uniform thing? Yeah... I don’t bother with it.” He shrugged, though by the smirk on his face the girls could tell there was more to that story. It would half to wait though, since they were at the gates of a school much bigger than Cherilee’s back home.

Trey walked through the halls of his home away from home without much note for it. He figured the girls were either amazed or bored of it already behind him, or a mix of both. He followed his typical route to the classroom, though when he turned to the staircase he sighed. The line of photographs on the wall were of the highest ranking testers, and he was the most recent. And since at least one of them will be interestedly looking around...

“Wait, Trey? Isn’t that you?” Twilight asked.

“...” He choose to not answering, hoping she’d let it slide. Instead, he got a slap on the back from Rainbow.

“Dude. Don’t ignore somepony who asks a question.” She scolded him. And she can’t even adapt to the speech differences. She was lucky the halls were too noisy for anyone to hear her. He sighed again.

“Yes. I scored highest on the entrance exams for the school. They put that picture up without telling me. Some people might like the attention, I find it annoying. Shall we?” He made an exaggerated motion to move towards the stairs. The two did so, thought Twilight’s face was brimming with questions. ‘Little did she know... she’d beat my score on that stupid test without trying.’ He amused himself with that thought before taking the lead again.

“Oh. You know how I described high school yesterday? With the changing classes and what not?” He asked over his shoulder.

“Yeah, what about it?” Rainbow was the one who answered.

“This school doesn’t do that.” He passed the second floor door. “They feel it promotes a better intellectual environment or some crap like that to have the same people around you all the time. It’s not a big deal, just means you know 20 people really well instead of kinda knowing your whole grade level.”

“Why don’t other schools do it, if it promotes such a better environment?” Twilight asked.

“Cause it’s not actually proven. The principal of this school thinks that way, and he runs the school. So bam, whole school does what he wants.” Trey shrugged. “Oh.” He stopped at the door into the 3rd floor hallway. “And as you found out yesterday, telling someone your name when it’s something like Twilight or Rainbow is a dead ringer you’re... from outta town. Let’s see... People have nicknames, so just say that’s what your real names are. If they ask for your real name...” Trey thought for a minute. “Uh... Tara... and... um... Ashley. I don’t think there are any of them in my class... Yeah, those’ll do. So, Tara?” Twilight raised her hand. “And Ashley?” Rainbow raised hers. “Good.”

Trey walked into the hallway, and headed for his classroom. He gave no greeting to the other 12 kids in the room, who were all studying at their desks. They all sat in the first 3 rows of desks, and Trey made his way to the seat in the far back, right next to the window. He looked detached from the others, being so far back. Twilight and Rainbow followed him, and stood there as he sat down.

“You might as well sit. the one in front of me has someone there, but other than that...” He looked over the other kids. “Yep, they’re all here.” The three of them stared at the studying rows.

“Um... are they like, robots or something?” Rainbow asked finally. Twilight glared at her, but the comment earned a chuckle from Trey.

“Kinda. This is the super smart kid class. I placed into this class too but... I like to have fun, unlike those guys. They all work way too hard. They’d have me beat anytime. So I’d like to think.” He smirked. Then he nudged Twilight. “Actually, you could blow them all outta the water.”

“No, they all look much smarter than I am...” She looked bashful.

“Maybe at taking praise...” He muttered, and Rainbow borrowed his smirk.
“It was at that moment, when noise entered the room.” Trey narrated as a girl, also in plain clothing, entered the classroom. “Oh, I’m sorry. That was aloud, wasn’t it?” He flashed her a smirk as she walked up to him.
“Trey, what’s this? Did you actually make some friends?” She joked with Trey.
“No no, I just picked up a few strays.” He smirked.
“Oi.” Rainbow cut in, before the two kept up the joke.
“My. Don’t going make jokes about us girls, or I’ll tell Kent.” The girl mock scolded him.
“Tell the stick in the mud. He’s too honorable to actually do something.” Trey scoffed.
“Pfft.” Twilight started laughing out of no where. The other three smiled. “Sorry, sorry. What you just said reminded me of someone.”
“Heh. It must not be someone fun to think about, if Kent reminds you of them.”
“Trey... You know you two are best friends, right? You are waaaay too smart to miss something that simple.” The girl gave him a slightly sarcastic, but worried pout.
“Before you go worrying about me and captain perfect, try introducing yourself. Those with manners would have done so already.” He snarked at her. It earned him a whack.
“You’re right! If only there was someone common link between us who could fill the awkward gap.” She grinned evilly at him, before turning to Twilight and Rainbow.
“Well. I hope you enjoyed the show. I don’t know how long you’ve know him, but sometimes it’s just too much fun to not play with that prick attitude of his.”
“I’m in ear shot.” He got whacked again. “Ow.”
“I’m Nanami, and yes, its completely stupid for an American girl to have a Japanese name. My mother is half Japanese, and she thought it was a good idea to keep the family linage or somethin like that.”
Nanami was just that, an American girl. She had brown hair cut short, neck length, and bright eyes. Her clothing consisted of a half length jean jacket over a solid T shirt, and skinny jeans. Not that Twilight or Rainbow had seen a Japanese human, but if they had they could have confirm what she had said, she looked nothing like a Japanese girl and it entirely clashed with her name.
“That’s okay, we’ve got some strange names ourselves. I’m Rainbow.” Rainbow said.
“Nicknames Rainbow... I’m Twilight.” Twilight covered.
“Oh, that isn’t that bad, those names are totally cute!” Twilight blushed and Rainbow grinned, and conversation sparked between the three in a way only females can pull off. It drove the forgotten male in the corner just a little nutty.
“Oi. Can you spare me the girl talk?” He groaned sarcastically.
“Now who’s a stick in the mud?” Nanami countered, and the bell covered Trey’s response. Nanami sat down in front of him, Rainbow took the diagonal, which left Twilight next to Trey in the back row. She hesitated for a bit before sitting, and Trey ended up trying to figure out why all 1st period.

Twilight had been staring at the monotone teacher the whole period, so the moment the bell rang, Trey covered his ears. He stared as Twilight turned to him and began talk rapid fire. It didn’t end for what felt like forever. He had time to see Nanami’s stunned face at the rambling, and Rainbow facepalming, and she was still talking. After a minute of watching the clock tick slower and slower, Twilight realized he had his ears covered and stopped talking. A tentative few seconds later, he slowly took his hands off his ears.
“Whew. Nanami, are my ears bleeding?” Nanami gave him a confused and disappointed look.
“Sorry...” Twilight looked downtrodden.
“It’s nothing to worry bout Twi. I just kinda expected that.” He shrugged. Twilight looked up and smiled sheepishly, before Nanami snuck up behind her and grabbed her in a hug of sorts.
“I told you he was a prick. Really, don’t take anything this guy says at face value. Really, he’s pure scum.” She smirked at him as she talked in Twilight’s ear. Trey called up a response, though not before seeing Rainbow’s amused face from the corner of his eye.
“Please Nanami, you may not like me, but don’t share that sentiment. Some ladies present might get the wrong idea.” He overemphasised ladies.
“You really are in a great mood aren’t you?” Nanami leaned back and whistled. “Something... goooood happen?” She set her sights on him. They bantered for the rest of the between class break (10 minutes), before the bell rang again. Before Twilight sat again, Trey poked her.

“If you want to move up, just do it. I know you like learning.” He whispered to her, not making eye contact. Twilight warmly smiled.

“Okay. You are a good guy, aren’t you?” She whispered back and headed for the seat at Rainbow’s right. As the teacher entered, Trey sighed like he was unhappy about her sentiments, but the smile on his face betrayed his intentions. He shrugged it off, thinking ‘Well who doesn’t like a compliment. Even if it’s a bit off the truth?’.

Trey looked up from the stick figure driven tank he was drawing on his notebook. He saw Rainbow with her arms hanging from her sides, and her chin flat on the desk. It would be obvious to a five year old she was bored out of her mind. He smirked at bit. He folded up his paper into an airplane, and lightly tossed it at her back. It soared a bit higher than expected, and hit the back of her head. She turned around a glared at him, before she broke the glare and just grinned. He smirked back. They resumed paying attention (which ironically, neither actually was) and the class wore on...

Nanami left the classroom at the bell, and it left the girls with Trey again.

“Dash. You doodled your way through school right?”

“Does it look like I went to art school?” She deadpanned.

“Yes. Anyway, you guys have some kind of writing implement at home, cause this is what we use.” He held up his pen. “Pointed end writes.” He scribbled on his notebook page. Twilight seemed more interested in the pen itself, and Dash was unimpressed.

“What about it?” Dash commented.

“Humans can hold things like Spike and the rest of dragonkind, it allows them, us all to write without magic aid... and well, too...” Twilight was mumbling to herself again.

“Well, you two don’t have to take notes. Considering you’re guests. But I’m guess Twi wants to anyway...” She nodded, snapping back to attention. “And you’ll want to doodle Dash. How I deal with these boring classes...” He pulled out a spare pair of pens, and tore some pages from his notebook.

“Why do you find this boring, actually more like how could you?!” Twilight nearly shouted. Oh no. Her eyes were alight with curiosity and that studious nature he had heard so much about. Trey decided ignoring her might work this time.

“Well, anyway-” Twilight crouched down an put her face right in front of Trey’s.

“How Trey?”

“I’ve heard a lot of it before. America has a history dating back 300 years. Over 11 years of studying it, the topics tend to repeat. I’ve heard about the, what was today’s lesson?”

“Someone named Martin Luther King Jr, who fought in protest for equal rights. I think I’m missing some of it, but it sounded like he was a magnificent person!” Trey took note Twilight had already adapted from the pony speech patterns.

“That he was. But I’ve had lessons on him countless times. I know all about him, and before you ask I won’t recap it all for you.” Twilight looked angry at his wise remark, before breaking in to a sheepish smile.

“Fine, but I still think this could never be boring.” She pouted, but got out of Trey’s face. He took a glance at the clock, break would finish soon. The girls followed his gaze and came to the same conclusion, considering they went to sit down. Trey had one more thing to say though.

“Oh, by the way. If you wanted to, you could probably trust your secret to Nanami as well. Known her for three years now, and... she’s just loud. Not bad.” Twilight nodded quietly, but Rainbow made a three sixty and grinned in his direction.

“So, you can be honest!” Before he could fire off a retort, she headed right back for her seat. He choose to sigh, instead of raise his voice loud enough the front row robots could hear him. Not they would care, but it’s still none of their business.

Another two classes moved by, and the entire school went on lunch break. It was a simple lunch in the cafeteria, but the four of them enjoyed themselves. Rainbow noticed Trey wasn’t being quite as much of a smart alec now. She didn’t think much of it though. She and Nanami were able to keep up the wisecracks for the group, while Twilight attempted to read the textbook from class, eat, and be involved in the conversation. Surprisingly, she was managing rather well. The two ‘foreigners’ also noticed that the whole school wasn’t a bunch of robots, the other classes had people just as lively as Trey and Nanami. Nanami seemed to have many friends, as people kept coming over to say hi, or to ask her about something. Trey made a wisecrack about her being the most popular person in the school with the girls, and Nanami nearly knocked him out with the whack he got. Rainbow on the other hand, felt like she could relate to Nanami in some strange way. She shrugged it off with a second observation.

‘Nobody comes over to see Trey, huh...’ She mused, then she deadpanned herself. ‘Of course not. This guy is way to sarcastic for anyone to talk to him, normally. I guess he’s nice enough, but it’s like he doesn’t want to be if he doesn’t have to. Kinda goofy if you ask me.’

Twilight tapped Rainbow’s shoulder. “It’s time to go Rainbow...” She said. Rainbow jumped to her feet, startled. She recovered quickly, and hurried on Twilight. Thankfully, Twilight didn’t seem to catch on that Rainbow, of all ponies, at gotten lost in though. Rainbow figured she must be tired or something.

The last class of the day was gym, which had 3 classes in a single period. Trey had stepped onto the sports field when he realized his two guests didn’t have gym clothes. Didn’t bother him in the slightest though. Not like guests are required to play gym. So he was (if dully,) surprised when they came out in gym clothes. When he asked about where they had got them from, Nanami had winked and said to never underestimate a girl’s ability to find clothes. His subsequent wisecrack about wondering why Nanami would know of this ability earned him yet another whack to the head. However, this time he dodged with a smirk. She grinned in response, some kind of unspoken challenge happening between the two. Twilight was entirely lost, and Rainbow was looking forward to crashing the contest.

Gym consisted of two things, a soccer match on one half of the field, and kickball on the other. The Nanami and Trey headed towards soccer, and opposite teams. Twilight followed after Rainbow, who went to join Nanami’s team. After quickly assessing how to play when the game started, Rainbow dove head first into the athletic challenge. (Twilight, for all intents and purposes, stood in next to the goal trying not to get in anyone’s way.) Rainbow turned out to have had her athleticism in the sky translated to her feet, quickly matching the best players on the team. One of which, was Nanami, who seemed to be skilled at the sport itself. The two marched their way up the field towards the other team’s goal, at which Trey stood guard.

Considering Trey is a slacker and has gotten by with just his intellect for seventeen years... The two athletic girls scored. Multiple times, over and over. The end game score was 10-2, the two scores by one skilled kid from the soccer team who had to test his skill trying to score alone. Soccer is a team sport after all. The class ended, Nanami and Rainbow both trading compliments in a way only athletes can, with a fair dose of jeering at the only member of the losing team in the small group. Trey took them without retort.

While heading back to the classroom to get their stuff, Trey asked if Nanami would like to (he gulped and rolled his eyes right here) go shopping for his two friends. His cover for the fact they had nothing with them was that the flight from somewhere had lost their baggage. Nanami readily believed it, and Trey’s nightmare began. Thankfully, the girls worked on their own, and he could stand outside the various stores they visited in the mall without a care in the world. Whatever females talked about while shopping was their thing. He could care less. He mused on why someone would pen an expression for not caring at all with a phrase that literally means that the speaker cares in some degree. It lasted him a few stores. Though the chatter between them? It was impossible to blot out. In his defense, He tried really hard. Hours upon hours (to Trey anyway) later, they sat in the crowded food court and got themselves some food. Nanami commented on the girl’s apparent vegetarian diet. Trey choose not to cover for them, and figured they might decide to explain their story. It would be more interesting than listening to more inane conversation. They didn’t, and he groaned. ‘It’s their choice to share the story with anyone else, but not more everyday normal conversation...’ He mentally sighed.

“Trey, you’ve been quiet.” Twilight commented. ‘Was that a twinge of worry in her voice? Jeez, these two are far too nice to be humans.’ He thought.

“Na, I bet he’s still grumpy about getting trounced this afternoon.” Rainbow chuckled. Trey corrected his thoughts, one of the is far two nice to be human. Rainbow and Nanami high fived.

“Oh, that couldn’t be it Rainbow... could it?”

“No Twi. Just... tired, shall we say? I normally could care less (he mentally noted his used the strange phrase again) about gym class, but competing with Nanami, and then Rainbow...” He groaned. Then he caught Nanami’s grin. A knowing grin. Crap.

“No no no, don’t lie Trey. I bet you’re just bored of this normality.” He sighed.

“Fine, yeah. You know me. Once I’m bored of something, it’s just not worth doing anymore.” He sarcastically waved his hand like he was swatting away things. Nanami gave a softer smile, and explained a bit more.

“You two might not know, knowing this kid for a day or two. He’s just bored. Of everything. It took me a lot of hard work to get into class A, and this guy did it without studying. He’s just too damn smart, so everything is something he’s read about before or somethin. So he’s always trying to find something different, or interesting you know?” She had a sympathetic smile on her face. Trey wouldn’t admit it, but she managed to peg him down pretty well. Though she puts it in a better light.

Twilight seemed to be understanding life, the universe, and everything with the way the her face was reading. Rainbow just continued to eat. Trey sighed.

“Yep, shopping is way too mundane for me to care. Now, if we need to analysis someone, I think it’s you Nanami. I don’t think it’s possible for a girl to be as much of a tomboy as-” He got whacked again, and the jokes and laughter resumed. Trey slipped back into the background of the conversing after a while, softly smiling as he listened to the happy conversation.

‘My personality isn’t interesting... But happy faces aren’t bad.’ Trey thought to himself. Eventually, they left the mall and split up, Nanami boarded the subway while the trio walked back to the apartment. It was quiet, for New York. The girls were talking about what kind of person Nanami was, and how kind she is. Trey didn’t wisecrack. Mostly, cause he agreed with what they were saying. Privately, of course.

Much later, after getting home, girls unpacking their shopping trip spoils, Trey finally doing that research he kept putting off, Trey knocked on the door to the second bedroom. Twilight opened it, and stepped out, motioning to Rainbow, who had crashed already. Trey handed her a small leather bound book.

“You had mentioned you write letters to the Princess about friendship, right? Well we don’t have interdimensional post, but you could write them as a journal. It might help you remember stuff about Earth when you go back, for when you report about it. Besides, a bit of normality is always nice.” Twilight gave him a lopsided grin.

“I though you don’t like normal.”

“It’s boring, yes. But it’s not bad.” He shrugged. “Don’t think a 10 second description of my personality from Nanami of all people is going to sum up my personality.” He smirked. “You have a long way to go before you can understand the likes of me.” What Twilight did next, completely surprised him.

“Well, I have a month to figure you out. And trust me, I will. Thanks for the book.” She winked and went back into her room. Trey slumped against the wall and sighed. ‘They know not of the power they wield.’ He thought to himself, and he went back to the research he was working on.

Dear Princess Celestia,
Today was day two in this dimension. It’s a planet called Earth, and it’s populated by creatures called humans. We’re in a big city, and we’ve settled into things somehow. We made a friend right after coming here who has been a great help to us. He’s a bit rough at times, but he’s kind under that. We had let it slip that we were strange, and he was willing to cover for us. Now he’s helping us out in studying the Earth. He even took us to see his school, which was much different than our schools. This world has no magic, but they make up for it with inventions and innovations that I can’t even hope to understand yet. I will though, and I’ll be sure to write a proper report on them soon.
It’s different being a new world, but somethings are always them same. Rainbow Dash still sleeps way too much, and I still can’t stop studying. But the friends we’ve made are kind, and I think we’re going to learn a lot from them. Friends can be found anywhere, no matter how far from home you are, and there’ s nothing wrong with make friends everywhere you go.

Twilight closed the small book, and placed her pen on top of it. However much the pen interested her, it seemed like she should get some sleep.
‘I hope tomorrow is just as interesting as today. And everyday past that.’

Omake

Transcript:
Trey: Oi, Dash.
Dash: Hmm?
Trey: You aren’t human, chivalry doesn’t count. Why am I carrying your stuff?
Dash: That rule is interdimensional. Besides, we’re your guests.
Trey: ...Tsk.
Trey: But then, why do I have Nanami’s stuff too...

A/N:
This one probably sucks more than the last one. I’d bet on it. But that’s not my decision, is it. I wasn’t going to continue this, I only posted the last chapter cause I wanted it out of my hair. (Once it’s posted, there’s nothing left to be done with was the line of thought.) But then EQD was like, ‘It’s Pony Writing Month’ and I was like, ‘Well shit. I guess I as well try. I’m half way there.’.
But yeah. This probably isn’t half as good as last time, and if I reread it, I’ll end up deleting in rage. So... it’s gunna be like that. And I’m going with, for a lot of things about discovering Earth, skipping over the actual thing. We know american history, the story shouldn’t be able to replace your history book. Its about Twi and Dash reacting to that history, from their viewpoint. So that’s my logic on why I’m going to skip somethings, like lol class itself. If that makes any sense.
And Nanami has a japanese name cause when I was thinking about the character that name popped into my head and wouldn’t leave. So whatever. =P

EDIT: Btw, i'm not from New York. So anyone from new york city could probably tell you just how not like new york schools is. The idea is that it's a private school, therefor has lots of money, therefore can look completely outta place. Or... Artistic License. =P

Day 3

Rainbow Dash slowly opened her eyes. She was indoors, judging by the ceiling she was now staring at. She lay there, slowly waking up while sorting through the last two days in her head. After she finished, she turned her head. A desk clock that had been in the room blinked Saturday, 10:00am. She sighed.

She swung around to be sitting on the bed, then stretched. ‘This human form sleeps weird... Stretching after waking up at home was far better.’ She idly thought, changing clothes. ‘This whole clothing thing is weird too... I mean, I like wearing clothes once and awhile back home, but this? It’s just plain nutty.’ She finished, yawned, and walked out of the room.

Trey sat on the one of the two stools on the living room side of the counter. He seemed just as tired as she was, sluggishly eating cereal. Twilight was, surprise surprise, reading. She had curled up in the armchair, with a stack of books half as high as Rainbow in this form. Neither of them seemed to notice her. She decided to be mischievous, crouching down and sneaking into the kitchen. She grabbed a pot quietly from the cabinet, then slowly stood in a corner of the kitchen. She held the pot in front of her and...

“Guwah!” Trey fell backwards off the stool. Rainbow nearly doubled over laughing, Twilight seemed startled as well. Though she looked more like she had seen a ghost, frantically looking around for whatever made the noise, all while hugging the book to her chest. She noticed Rainbow while Trey worked on getting up, being tangled in a stool.

“Rainbow! Can’t you be courteous to our host?” Twilight scolded, but Rainbow could her the tinge in her voice that indicated she knew it was a rhetorical question.

“No... no...” Trey groaned from behind the counter. “It was... one hell of a wake up call...” He propped himself up on the counter. “But don’t expect to pull it off again Dashie.” He was smirking. Rainbow couldn’t help but return the expression.

“You know, I’m the best prankster in Ponyville, no, probably all of Equestria.” Rainbow bragged, subtly. Twilight snickered.

“Twilight, I’ve gotten you so many times, don’t you even think about disagree-” Rainbow started.

“No, no... That’s not it Rainbow... I completely believe you’re the best...” She was still laughing over something in head. Rainbow decided to count what she said though. (Little did Rainbow Dash know, Twilight had heard stories of Princess Luna’s pranks from Princess Celestia.)

After that, Trey pointed out the cereal, Rainbow took some, and they sat eating. They both were more interested in their breakfast than talking, and nothing short of another dropped pot could tear Twilight from her book. Physics, the Rules of the Universe it read. Rainbow sighed and stretched. Trey finished before she did, and he sat down on the couch, grabbing the tv remote off the coffee table. He clicked it on.

“Next on the morning news, trains slowed to a crawl due to visits to the-BZZT-” He pressed a different button. “By the power of grey-BZZT- Now put the butter into the pan, and heat to-BZZT- Tonight the Yank-BZZT- In the name of the moon-BZZT- These ruins contain the mysteries of generations past-BZZT- Omg Kim, look-BZZT-.” He grimaced as he pressed that last one.

“Hell, saturday mornings are bad for everything but cartoons...” He shrugged and pressed the number keys. A rabbit and a duck appeared on the screen, arguing about a season. It took until Daffy got tricked for Trey to notice his two house guests staring at the tv with the utmost wonder. He chuckled. They laughed at every joke Bugs pulled. His theory was that they didn’t have this brand of comedy in Equestria. Which lead him to think about what other kinds of comedy they’ve never heard, and made a mental note to switch to comedy central later. The mere thought made him smirk.

They ended up watching 2 hours of Looney Tunes. Even Trey was laughing at some of the gags. (Because really, who doesn’t?) When the block ended, Trey stood up and offered to make grilled cheese. It was a quiet affair, as he seemed to be too tired to wisecrack and the girls were glued to the tv. He finished and brought the food into the living room. The two ate happily. Twilight returned to reading as she ate (‘she has some really bad habits’ Trey decided mentally) and Dash kicked back on the carpet, leaning against the far side of the couch. If someone were to look in on this scene, they would never suspect two of the three humans in the room were once ponies. Or that one could do magic. Trey became decidedly annoyed at the thought. Something should happen, different that norm. ‘Character driven storyline.’ He joked in his head, reminded of a movie he saw a few years back. He headed for the stack of games by the side of the tv.

“Yo, Dash.”

“Mmfph?” She replied through a mouthful of gooey cheese. Trey acted unfazed.

“Let me show you something else that’s awesome. Called video games.”

“Mm... Mmp, Mmfy.” She still had cheese talk.

“Cool, we’ll do that.” Trey took her mmfy as okay.

“Um... Trey, did you really understand her...?” Twilight asked, seemingly worried, not confused as he expected.

“What, do you think I’m going crazy after living a few days with ponies? No, of course I didn’t.” He flashed her a shining grin. She fell out of her chair.

“You... I sometimes wonder if the testing for your school is as rigid as you say...” She deadpanned after getting back into the armchair.

“So anyway, what are these video games?” Dash said, regaining the ability to speak.

“Here.” Trey didn’t answer, instead he tossed her a controller. “You play with that. It’ll make sense, don’t worry.”

Trey put in Halo. The first one, as he wasn’t a fan of the latter. Not much of a gamer to begin with anyway, it didn’t bother him. He quickly navigated the menus to split screen, and kicked it on with a word to Dash. While it was loading, he took a glance at his alien killing teammate. She was jamming the A button in a ridiculous fashion. He smirked. Hard mode won’t be too hard. Maybe.

Dash paid close attention to the tutorial section in the beginning of the game. Trey was surprised, he may have ruined her life forever if she takes to the whole game with this kind of focus. As the npc started talking about the war with the covenant, Twilight spoke from behind them.

“This is a game... about a war?” She sounded apprehensive.

“Yup. You play as the hero of the humans in the war with the evil aliens.”

“But... why would you want to play a game like that?” Trey smirked. This went exactly as planned. Introduce humanity’s obsession with war and show Dash video games, two birds, one stone.

“Humans have had wars since we’ve had history. I’m sure you’ve have wars in Equestria, right?” Dash was the one to respond, now that they were just wandering after a soldier through the ship.

“Not in a thousand years.”

“You mentioned that... crap...” Trey shrugged his forgetfulness off, blaming it on the weekend. “Well humans end up fighting all the time. The world is large, and there are hundreds of countries. Someone disagrees with someone, and bam. War. The large scale ones go in history books, the others are just written off.”

“Equestria does have good relations with it’s neighbors, but there are only a few...” Twilight didn’t sound comfortable with what he was saying.

“It does help your leader is a goddess princess who's been alive for longer than a thousand years. We just have regular humans leading countries.” He smirked. “Though it depends on one’s perspective, if all of humanity is scum like politicians are...” He muttered in a dark tone. He could sense the quizzical looks as he lead Dash the last of the way to the captain. “People who should be in power almost never are, because they don’t crave power. Those who do come into power and usually power hungry fools. Regardless, politics is one of the things in the world that has no truth, or so they say. So that’s just my opinion on the topic.” He shrugged. “Great leaders are far and few in between, and there are not enough for every country. If we all had a Princess Celestia of our own, maybe we wouldn’t be so fight crazy...” He stopped talking as the Captain debriefed him and Dash. It gave him a moment to think about what he just said. It sounded rather... optimistic. Were they rubbing off on him? The Captain finished, and Rainbow killed the earlier conversation.

“This thing is a weapon?” She asked, pointing at the handgun her chief was now holding.

“No guns in Equestria? No wonder you’ve had no wars. Do you have bows, crossbows?”

“Well, duh.”

“Oh Dash,” Trey smirked. “You say that like you’re the normal one here.” She turned at him with a comeback on her lips, but she couldn’t say it. So she settled for giving Trey an angry pout. (‘With a little blush to boot, she must really not be used to being on the receiving end of the joke’ Trey noted with amusement.)

It was, as normal, super effective. Trey quietly described the gun and how to use it, and they played the game quietly for a few minutes before conversation resumed. (Though Trey could swear he heard a muffled giggle from behind him. There would be revenge.)

“Well anyway. You’ll hear more about the real wars in history, or when you find the right book Twilight. This one is completely fictional. Actually, aside from that the game might interest you Twi.”

“Why?”

“It’s set in the future, where are our earth technology has allowed us to colonize other planets. The genre is called science fiction.” Trey waited for her response, but it didn’t come. He left the grunts left to his trigger happy partner (for someone who didn’t know war, she enjoyed shooting things) and turned around. Twilight must have entered some kind of happy daydream, cause her eyes were sparkling with happiness. Trey gave a small sigh, with a smile. She really was an egghead, Dash had that right.

So he threw a pillow at her. She snapped out of her daydream looking around.

“What... huh?”

“Did you space out there Twi?” Trey said, holding in his urge to chuckle. Dash had it covered for the both of them after all, giggling up a storm under her breath.

“Oh... I must have... Sorry Trey...” Twilight took Trey’s bluff, and Rainbow was rolling on the floor laughing. Trey lost it too, and it took Twilight getting in their faces with a similarly powerful pout to shut them up.

“You guys are jerks.” She said with a huff, after hearing the details.

“Don’t space out then Twi, you’re just lucky I didn’t have a rain cloud!” Dash was unaffected by Twilight’s pout. It must only affect humans, Trey hypothesised.

“Sorry Twi.” Trey said, still not managing to hide his amusement from the whole thing. Twilight took the apology anyway. Trey and Dash resumed shooting aliens, Dash trying to not get killed by an elite. She seemed to be completely surprised by the idea that enemies could get shields too. Of course, it was equally surprising when she got the assault rifle and punched through him with ease.

“This thing is SO. AWESOME.” She said with glee. Trey was right before, he had made a monster. Of course, this ‘horrifying’ thought only caused him to smirk in amusement.

“I’m sure the aliens agree. It’s an assault rifle. It fires bullets rapidly, the functions called automatic fire. Weaker bullets, but power in numbers.”

“That’s why it isn’t as small as the pistol? The automatic fire?” Twilight asked.
‘Electrical engineering, physics, gun architecture... ‘She really does want to know everything.’ Trey nodded.

“Part of it. The are a lot of factors in how guns work. How it’s fired, loading mechanism, the barrel it fire down are all part of the design.” Her curious tone faltered a bit.

“It’s so sad... Something so amazingly innovative and interesting is just used to hurt others.” She sighed. Trey smiled.

“Yeah, they are tools made to hurt people. But they are also used to protect people. There are those, for now let’s say evil people who do want to harm others, and use guns to do so. At the same time, the police uses the same weapons to defeat them and save people.” Trey said, noting to stop being so philosophical on weekends.

“I see...” Twilight said. She was quiet for a bit. Which was fine, as Trey had to cover his partner as they climbed a set of stairs with close to twenty enemies waiting for them. Most annoying part of the level, in his opinion. As the last jackel fell, she spoke up again.

“That’s not all that bad then.”

“It’s a positive way of thinking, but... Anyway, Most people don’t go near guns. Lots of us play games like this, and know of weapons. But nobody but cops actually use them.” He left out independant weapon owners, but decided to take it one step at a time. Those guys were a different breed in itself.

“That’s true too. But if they wouldn’t want to use them in reality, why would they in a game?” Trey opened his mouth to respond, but it was Dash who answered.

“You feel like a hero.”

“What...?” Twilight turned to her friend.

“You know how Scootloo thinks I’m a hero? Or how everyone thinks your brother is?”

“Yeah...”

“A game like this lets the player be the hero. I’m saving the human race right now. But I don’t have to be as brave as I’d have to be to actually do it, you know? It’s like getting to be Shining Armor for a day.” She chuckled. “Not that I couldn’t save the human race right now, or top Shining Armor anyway.”

“That’s... surprisingly deep Rainbow...” Twilight said. “And modest.” She continued, deadpanning.

“And on spot. It’s what I was going to say. I think.” Trey shrugged. “I don’t know Shining Armor for myself but...” He didn’t bother finishing.

“What?” Dash turned around confused as to why Trey and Twilight were surprised. “I can think about all this new world stuff too Twilight. I’m not just here for kicks.” She winked.

“Sorry Rainbow... Normally you don’t like to think about things like this...”

“Yeah, it’s boring!” She grinned, and went back to clearing the corridor of elites. “But I’m here to help you Twilight, and that’s what I’ll do, okay? Don’t go underestimating me.”

“mm!” Twilight nodded happily. ‘Friendship is magic... huh...’ Trey thought, his face contemplative.

Then he smirked. “You say these wonderful things, but...” His wise remark died on his lips. He could comment about how she was killing things while talking about friendship, but... He felt that would be a crime against some nature, be it earth or otherwise. They were definitely rubbing off on him. “Nothing.” He said to their quizzical looks, before leading the way to the escape pod that ends the level.

The girls were sad to see the npc allies die in the landing on Halo.

“It’s just a game...” Trey said sheepishly, but they were quiet. It took them awhile to take that to heart, and the good mood returned. It came accompanied by a sigh of relief from Trey. He really didn’t want to depress them, even if he had swore he would tell them the bad with the good of the Earth.

“So what are we doing?” Dash asked as they marched up the hill, killing a few more grunts.

“Saving the other stranded survivors.”

“Sweet!” Dash pumped a fist and dove headlong forward. She died in the process. She dropped the controller, shocked, until about five seconds later when she respawned behind Trey.

“What...?” She vocalized her surprise, as Trey hadn’t noticed her expression fending off alien reinforcements.

“It’s... the other thing about video games. You don’t die. It’s not a tragic event if you just respawn when you die right?” Dash flashed a rather evil looking grin.

“Sweet, bring it alien scum!” She barked, making Trey doubt she was once a pegasus.

Twilight had read three books, and the dynamic alien hunting duo had made it to the level where you sneak aboard a covenant ship. Dash wasn’t much for sneaking. She had found a shotgun, and well... it suited her. It was somewhere around four or five in the afternoon. Trey saved Dash from yet another invisible elite. Twilight didn’t start her fourth book for the day yet, she decided to watch the game. Trey knew where he was going in the tunnels, but was apparently letting Rainbow lead them into all the enemies. She could imagine just what this would look like with the two of them actually in that green armor. The thought made her chuckle.

“Craaaaaaap, hunter Dash. Back up and-” Trey barked, frantically moving to cover.

“I got this.” She replied, jumping to dodge the hunter’s arm cannon.

“Like you had the room with two of them? They destroyed you. I don’t want to have to go through all the tunnels again Dash...” His arguments, while valid, were ignored. But he knew they would be, considering he too dove at the blue alien monster.

“Just let me get to that crate and... BOOYAH!” Dash broke into a shot, firing off shotgun blasts into the hunter’s weak point as it fired on Trey, nearly killing him. He chuckled as it feel.

“I do all the heavy lifting and you get the kill. Jeez, what a horrible partner I have.”

“It’s called teamwork, try it sometime.” Dash smirked at him as she idly grabbed ammo.

“Like you would know it, diving head first.” He snarked.

“That cause I can trust my teammate to protect me~” She sang her retort a bit.

“I can TK you you know.”

“Do it, you won’t!”

Twilight smiled at the verbal play. It seems Rainbow is settling in fine. She picked up the next book (Atomic Chemistry) and cracked it open with a contented sigh.

She got a word in before the was a huge boom from the game, causing her to jump and roll out of the chair.

“Dash, you just kicked the volume button on the remote.” Trey deadpanned.

“I’m sorry, I only had my entire body changed a few days ago, I’m not completely used to it yet~” She sang the retort again, while he snatched up the remote and fixed the volume.

‘Guys... it’s great you’re getting along... but don’t forget about me...’ Twilight thought, climbing back into the chair.

The day finished in a similar fashion. They all sat at the counter for a simple dinner (Dash rather liked this Mac & Cheese), Trey and Dash continuing to butt heads about the game. Twilight managed to get in a few nice shots, without even noticing no less. More Halo was to be had afterwards, with Twilight giving it a shot directly after dinner. She wasn’t the type to keep up with everything, but she gave it a valiant effort on the digital beach. She traded off with Dash after only a little while, and resumed her reading. The science that exists on the Earth was amazing to her, the way they did things that a simple spell could do at home was so interesting. She couldn’t stop reading. The duo stopped at a level called the Library, and Twilight took that as cue to sleep as well. With a wave, they split up and slept off their lazy day.

Omake

A/N: I really do suck at this. Writing skill aside, I can’t imagine simple slice of life stuff. The getting to Earth, the meet Nanami, plot events. The time killing between them? It took twice as long to get right. There were like, 3 drafts of this.
Ha... The word count is getting smaller. I think I’m outta juice for... well, ever. =P
The omake is in color cause I've been doing color stuff for the New Artist Training Grounds. And I forgot these were B&W.
And I don't own a 360, nor have I played Halo campaign in years. Artistic License.

Day 5

Sunday went by much like Saturday. Trey Twilight and Dash went food shopping before wasting the day on video games, but Halo was finished and Twilight book read count was twenty plus.

Monday, as mondays usually do, started groggy. The three stumbled out of bed at the earlier hour, following the same order as the last few days; Twilight waking up first, and Trey and Rainbow to follow shortly afterwards. Twilight made coffee in her extra time, which Trey and Rainbow would be thank her for extensively.

Rainbow yawned. They were only a few blocks from the school building, but Rainbow was still sleepwalking. Not that Trey was much better.

“You...” His sentence was interrupted by his own yawn. “You’re going to end up in the middle of the street if you can’t wake up walking the streets-” Trey noticed she was doing that mid sentence, and quickly pulled her back onto the curb. “Slash that, you already have. No need to warn you...” He muttered.

Twilight giggled. “Isn’t this a case of the pot calling the kettle black?”

“No, no it is not. For as you can see, I am not a pot, nor is Dash a kettle. To be honest, I’m not even sure why you would think I was to begin with.” He yawned again, making his snarky attitude seem less snarky. “Do you think I’m fat or something?”

“No no no! I just read that idiom in one of the books you gave me and-” Even with the yawn, Twilight was ever oblivious to sarcasm. Trey waved his hand to cut her off.

“Joke Twi, relax... Too early for apologizing...”

“Oh...” She blushed a bit behind him. They were silent the rest of the way to the school gate. They probably wouldn’t have spoke till they got to A class, but there was a bit of an interrupting in their casual morning. On that started with a slap on Trey’s back.

“Sup Trey. I bet you’re just raring to go to class today, aren’t cha?” Nanami was a morning person, and made point to remind Trey every morning by shouting into his ear. Needless to say, It was irritating.

“No Nanami, for it is MO.N.DAY. The worst day of the week, along with the rest of them. I want nothing more than to go to sleep in my bed, at home, not come to this god awful school with all it’s high ass expectations and listen to some old man ramble about an event in history I read about when I was six.” He added an addendum. “If said old man is behind me as I rant like a fool, please ignore my previous statement. I’m most sorry, I love your class. It’s great for sleeping.”

“Chatty this morning huh.” Nanami whistled. “Kent’ll love that.” Trey’s eyes narrowed and he stopped walking. (Rainbow did bump into him, but he ignored it as she rubbed her nose.)

“God... Damnit. He’s back today isn’t he? From that fencing tournament.”

“Yes, yes he is.” Nanami replied with a smirk. “And I’m sure he has plenty of wonderful things to annoy you with.”

“He always does...” Trey put a hand over his face and resumed walking, mumbling incoherently.

“Nanami... whose Kent?” Twilight asked, the three girls matching his pace.

“His the only other person in A class with a personality. However... He’s a upper class guy, which does make him a nice, intelligent, strong, and dare I say handsome gentleman... But it’s because of those things Trey rubs him the wrong way.” Nanami said, clearly enjoying talking about the two.

“So they fight?” Rainbow asked.

“No, funny thing. They argue all the time, Kent always has something to nitpick on Trey. The uniform thing is a constant, for example. And he’s challenged Trey to Duels,” She made air quotes while she said duels “but Trey only pisses him off more by refusing. Granted, it wouldn’t end well for him.” Nanami mused while climbing the stairs. “He’d get crushed, Kent is a high ranking fencer. Trey wouldn’t stand a chance, the guy has no athletic skill at all.” She snickered. So did Dash.

“Yeah, you’re probably right about that one. Trey would completely fall apart in a fair fight.” She added.

“Honestly, it may be cowardly, but it’s for his own safety to refuse. And he knows Kent won’t attack him without Trey’s permission cause he’s a gentleman, so he’s set. Just has to keep being a coward.” The two were still snickering. Twilight looked appalled at their joking.

“I can hear you two damnit. I could take that rich boy anyday, It’s just not worth the time or the effort.” Trey snorted and entered the classroom.

Nanami stopped the exequine duo and whispered. “All that may be true, but the two are best friends. It’s hilarious, you’ll get it when you see them. They argue and argue and argue but they can’t fool anyone. Well, except the robots in the front.” She winked, and twirled into class.

“Twi...?” Rainbow started.

“What?” Twilight replied.

“The more we’re here, the more I’m starting to think Trey’s a little different from the typical human.”

“Funny you say that Rainbow.” Twilight smiled. “I think the opposite, he is the norm. They just have a different definition of normal.” Twilight walked calmly into the classroom, leaving Rainbow to ponder her statement. Which she didn’t, and chased in after her to make a wisecrack.

This Kent character only entered the room as the bell rang. Nanami pointed him out, it looked like he was talking to the teacher before class. He was tall, and quite well built. He wasn’t any Big Mac (the best the girls could imagine a human Big Mac anyway) but he was definitely in the realm of strong. He wore the uniform perfectly, buttoned up jacket with a tie tied tight on his neck. His blond hair was cut shorter than Trey’s dirty blond mess, but still managed to have a nice flow to it. Twilight and Rainbow could tell just how much of a gentleman he was, by watching his actions. He basically seemed storybook perfect, at least for humans.

“Bet Rare’s would love him, huh?” Dash whispered to Twilight. It caused Twilight to giggle uncontrollably, and earned her a look from the old history professor. She made herself very small the rest of that class.

The bell rang, and Nanami started counting off just loud enough so Rainbow and Twilight could hear.

“5... 4... 3... 2...” She smirked.

“Mr. Morin.” Kent walked down the aisle of desks. “I believe I had asked, as class president, to respect the school’s rules and wear the uniform by the time I returned, is that not correct?” His voice even sounded like one of nobility. (If only Blueblood could see this guy... Dash thought to herself.)

“I forgot.” He wrote off Kent, continuing to start out at the street below. Twilight nearly fell from her chair. Dash covered her mouth trying to stop snickering.

“Forgot you say? That doesn’t cut it, Mr Morin-”

“My father is Mr Morin, it’s damn unnerving to have someone my own age refer to me as mister. Seriously, what era did you get unfrozen from?”

“You’re sarcastic insults just show how little you respect proper class. I will call you Mr. Morin, Mr. Morin, because as an adult I can show respect to people who won’t return the favor. I do apologize, for I don’t mean to imply you are incapable of showing respect.” Twilight was . He apologized mid insult.

“Sir, you have offended me. I would most appreciated you leaving my presence.” Trey mocked formality in his retort.

“And I shall, I soon as I have completed my job, and mission. As class president, I must help problem students rise to their potential, for the good of the class and themselves. It is quite doable, if only you would be cooperative. It would start, with you wearing the school uniform and not looking like a vagabond who snuck into this fine establishment.” Rainbow cocked an eyebrow. He could maybe convince her to wear that thing, if she was actually enrolled here anyway.

“Please. Fine establishment? The place is the principal’s sandbox; He just wants to have a japanese style of school system adapted into American schools. Which may mean well, but it’s ridiculous the way he’s going about it, and it won’t be successful no matter how hard he tries. The only reason this school is climbing on the national rankings is because of my test scores.” He finally turned to Kent, smirk rooted on his face and eyes narrowed with victory. “I think that earns me my... intellectual freedoms, don’t you say?”

For his credit, Kent didn’t even flinch. “Your scores are quite the contribution to this fine establishment, but your condescension of the school that gives you the opportunities to test that intellect is disheartening, and not proper in any sense. With only abiding the rules laid out on the student contract you signed entering this school, you can show your gratitude for the place that hones the intellect you are so proud of. Which i know you do have, for you are better than your abrasive personality would imply.”

“Thanks, but your expectations of me are far too high. This school was just conveniently close to my apartment is all. I don’t show any particular gratitude, for all things considered this is a waste of my valuable time, my only reason for coming to begin with is it being mandated that all children must attend school till the age of 18.” Trey noticed Twilight’s giddy expression behind his rival, he bet she liked the idea of mandatory schooling, as strange as she was.

“Then even if you personally could not care for this school, which you continue to lie about even though I have said I know the truth... You must abide by these rules for the class’s order to be upheld. What does it say about a class, from such a prestigious school, where a single person doesn’t follow the code the others do? It shows weakness, and disharmony. (Twilight and Dash’s eyes narrowed at the word, but it was only out of habit.) And not only does it show it, it promotes it. One being separate creates a feeling of isolation in everyone who sees them, and it spreads. We don’t have a tightly bonded class, even after 3 years, because we aren’t unified. Please, Mr Morin, help the class. You must feel it is better for us to be united, rather than separated?” Dash nodded behind the eloquent Kent. She knew this tactic, appealing to one’s need to help others. Maybe that’ll work.

“Hell no. I don’t want to associated with those boring study bots in the front rows.” He even pointed in their direction with a thumb. “I have better things to do with my time, and one of them is not listening to you recite your last psychology class’s lecture to me about friendship and it’s magic powers that will raise our class average higher than our already record setting high.” He scoffed.

“Uh Trey, friendship is magic, remember?” Dash scoffed unconsciously. She quickly covered her mouth when she realized that wasn’t part of hiding her pony identity. However, it went ignored as Kent spun around, mildly shocked.

“Oh my! I do apologize, ladies.” He gave a small bow. “I argued in front of you in such a brash fashion, when you must be here to visit this fine school. I’m humbled in apology.” Trey was barely concealing his laughter behind Kent’s back; He has both hands over his mouth and it was still completely obvious he was roaring with laughter. Twilight and Dash however, were stunned for a moment by the gentlemanliness being aimed in their direction. Legitimate this time, not like the ponies at the gala. Rainbow spoke first.

“Actually, we’re tagging along with Trey. Guests as he put it.” Twilight nodded in agreement. She went to greet him, but he had once again wheeled around to Trey.

“Trey! Bringing two young ladies as guests? However much I commend your sharing the class of this school with them, could you at least be a better host to them?!” Twilight nearly fell out of her chair, again.

Trey only snorted this time, his trademark sarcastic smirk wide on his face. “By all means, the lady in blue there would just love to be escorted. She’d get a real kick out of it. I even saved the campus tour just for you.”

“I see! Only a few minutes remain in break, but let me show you around quickly, so we won’t be late to another wonderful class!” He took Dash’s hand. She took Trey’s cue well, and kicked him in the shins as she pulled her up. He groaned.

“Unnn... I... do apologize, it was quite brash of me to take your hand like that miss.”

Trey burst out laughing. “Oh man Dash, that was perfect! Nice play there, I knew he would slip up after getting that worked up!”

“Are you alright Kent?” Twilight stood up to take a look at his leg,.

“Ah... Yes, miss.” He recovered, regaining his noble posture. “Please, I don’t wish to worry you. I can take a hit surely deserved, even if I was tricked into it.” Surprisingly, there was no malice in his last sentence, a true show of gentlemanliness. “And I apologize, for not introducing myself. I am Kent Reed the Third, and I am honored to make your acquaintance.”

Twilight smiled. “You can call me Twilight, everyone does. It is an honor to meet you as well, and I sincerely hope we can get along.” She curtsied. Trey didn’t think ponies knew what that was, did she read it in one of the books she read this weekend? (He then wondered why in all hell his parents thought he would need a book that involved curtseying, but was forced to put it on the backburner.)

“And I’m called Rainbow by everyone I know. The hair streak, if you were going to guess.” Rainbow winked. “Sorry bout kicking you, but it was set up so well it would be a crime to waste it.”

“No, no apology is necessary. I was too brash, and shall reflect upon it. I hope it will not impact any future relations we may have.” He bowed again.

“Um... okay, whatever that means. Trey’s friends are all good in my book, so uh... let’s get along, was it?” She looked to Twilight as she finished, getting a nod she got the phrase correct.

“We’re not friends.”

“We are not friends.” Trey and Kent both denied it simultaneously. Nanami started giggling, Dash was short to follow, though she was covered by the bell ringing and Kent quickly returning to his seat in the front. As the teacher began, Nanami passed Rainbow a note, reading.

“See? What did I tell you? Best. Friends.”

The apparently eternal conflict conflict between the two started up again when the period ended. Instead of listening to it, the girls held their own conversation.

“So, you get what I meant right?” Nanami asked.

“Absolutely.” Dash nodded.

“Sort of...” Twilight responded absentmindedly. “Don’t they run out of things to argue about?”

“Never. But sometimes they don’t immediately start, and have normal conversation leading up to it. That’s when you really see the being friendly.” Nanami mused.

Dash scoffed. “Bet that happens once in a blue moon.”

Nanami shrugged in return. “It’s not like I actually time this stuff. After a year of this, you just notice.”

“Just a year?” Twilight asked quizzically.

“Yeah. I was here with the wiseass over there since freshman year, but Kent transferred in this year. Come to think of it, I never did get the reason...” Nanami looked interested. “He’s pretty straight forward, I wonder why he hasn’t said something yet...” Really interested.

“Ah, well I’m sure he has his reasons...” Twilight offered. It seemed to placate Nanami’s curiosity before she went snooping, and that earned Twilight a sigh of relief. They stopped talking about the two arguing boys and began casual chatter, more Nanami talking than the two former ponies. She mentioned a few tv shows she watched, describing them when they didn’t recognize the titles. The break ended quickly like that, and they once again turned to listen to a teacher for 40 straight minutes. Dash couldn’t help groaning at the prospect.

Lunch couldn’t have come faster in Rainbow Dash’s opinion. She never knew this “dangerous mission for Equestria” involved school again. She still would have gone, the whole loyalty thing and all. But there would have been much more complaining. She might have even rivaled Rarity.

Rainbow, Nanami, Twilight and Trey all found a table in the cafeteria, something that prompted a “lucky~” from Nanami. Rainbow dug in the minute they sat down, but Nanami became preoccupied.

“Oi, Kent! There’s room here for ya.” She waved him over. He came over and sat, starting his own lunch with just a nod of thanks. Rainbow suddenly felt self conscious, popping french fries in her mouth with the surprisingly useful hands she now had while Kent was eating the same slowly, with a fork no less. Her stomach helped shrug that off, reminding her of just how hungry she was.

After a few minutes of eating, Trey broke the silence. “So what the hell did you do over in Europe? Fencing Tournament or something?”

Kent replied after finishing a mouthful of food. “Just that. It was a big one, so I was gone most of last week, as you know.”

“What did you place?”

“4th.”

“Not bad noble boy.”

“I’ll take the compliment and ignore the snark.” Nanami stifled a giggle and pulled Twilight and Rainbow closer to whisper in their ear.

“Aren’t they hilarious when they just be friendly?” She was beaming with amusement. Twilight had no clue why she was so amused, and Dash had just about as much luck as Twilight. So they both nodded, and returned to their food. It was quiet for another few minutes.

“Twilight. It’s an interesting nickname, Twilight. How did you happen upon that?” Kent asked.

“Oh, um...” Twilight was unsurprisingly a bit shy. Trey caught a glance in his direction. He only smirked to convey ‘You’re on your own’. “I um, always stay up till really late at night reading. And on a camp trip when I was younger, I uh...” She flicked a glare in his direction again, trying to get Trey to cover for her. He only continued to smirk in response. “Yeah, I stayed up late reading on the trip too... and the other kids said I should be the Twilight reader... but, um only Twilight stuck.” She grinned sheepishly, watching intently for the signs of disbelief to float onto his face.

“Oh is that it? What an interesting story!” He smiled and laughed. Trey dropped his head on the table. “What’s with you Mr Morin?”

“Oh, nothing...” Trey said quietly, contrary to his thoughts ‘How could someone be so thick...?’.

“If you say so... What kind of camp did you go to Twilight?” Kent returned his attention to Twilight.

“Um... book... camp.” It was Rainbow whose head hit the table now. 'That's it, we're busted. Hello government agents, take us away.' She deadpanned in her mind.

"Wow. Books are your thing huh?" Following the trend, Nanami's head hit the poor table. "What's with all of you? If you're tired, you should go to bed earlier." There was a collective groan.

"Um, anyway." Twilight attempted to refocus the conversation. "I've never really read about fencing, what is it?"

"Wonderful question Twilight, though its surprising you haven't heard of the sport. It evolved from old sword styles involving the rapier..." He continued to ramble, while the rest of the table finally sat up to finish lunch. Trey and Nanami didn't listen to the speel, but only because its not the first time he's given it. Rainbow listened in while finishing her fries, and Twilight was enraptured by his fantastic description of the sport.

His speech, as usual, was a good 10 minutes long.

"And that's fencing, simply." Kent finished.

"Real simple." Trey snarked.

“It has quite a history, doesn’t it.” Twilight smiled.

“I see someone has some taste here.” Kent shot a glance at Trey while saying that, then he turned his curiosity on Rainbow. “So where does your nickname come from? I’m going to guess that your hair didn’t always have that rainbow streak.”

She tisked. Trey took that as ‘damnit, he just shot down my reason.’ He wasn’t far from the truth. However, she didn’t need help coming up with a cover.

“I’m going to fly higher than a Rainbow someday. So people called me that.” She shrugged, like she didn’t care for why.

“You aspire to be a pilot then?”

“Um, yeah. Something like that.” She smirked a bit. “Don’t worry, I’ll be on the front page for the speed records I’ll be setting. You won’t miss it.”

“I see. I look forward to it.” He grinned.

“I’m going to be a pro lacrosse player Kent.” Nanami said with a dose of obviously false enthusiasm.

“Do you know what you plan to fly yet Rainbow?” He ignored Nanami, and got a plastic fork thrown at the side of his head. He caught it in his palm, dropping it with a grin to Nanami. She grinned back, and Trey smashed his head on the table for the uptienth time.

“Do you have a problem with a nice lunchtime conversation, Mr Morin?” Kent said, sounding much like a slightly annoyed father.

“Oh yes Class Prez. It’s too nice. Please, my diabetes is acting up. Make it stop.” Trey deadpanned in monotone.

“Why must you be so negative Trey, you brought your friends here, why shouldn’t they enjoy themselves?” Kent retorted, and they broke into another squabble of sarcasm and manner. It didn’t last long, considering they had talked away the lunch period. But it was long enough for Twilight to sigh, lamenting Trey’s subpar social skills.

The final bell rung and Dash jumped from her seat.

“So... very boring... Why didn’t you tell me you don’t have gym everyday?! I was looking forward to smoking you again!”

“That would have been a lot of fun, I must admit.” Nanami nodded, still seated. The two stared at Trey, unmoving on his desk. The clock ticked and the rest of the class shuffled out in their robotic fashion. Twilight scribbled frantically to get what was discussed in class on paper before even she forgot.

After two minutes. “Uh... Nanami, is he dead?” Rainbow asked.

“No. I mean, probably not. Kent left for club already, and the robot’s couldn’t hold a weapon without falling over.”

“Third party?” Twilight contributed from her desk.

“Not sure. He could have been taken out from the hallway if the door was open.”

“It was, there was a draft.” Rainbow confirmed.

“Then you have a murder case.” Twilight confirmed over her pen movements. They continued standing there until Twilight finished copying. She joined them.

“Girls... all jokes aside... is he actually dead?” Rainbow asked. “He still isn’t moving.”

“Oh, I know how to find out.” Nanami pulled a large stick with a basket on the end out from the other side of her desk.

“Thank you Doctor Nanami.” Rainbow took the lacrosse stick and bashed Trey’s head with it.

“The hell just happened oh my da...mn...” He started by frantically looking around but when he saw his assailants his voice stopped. “You all suck. If I have a concussion, you’re dead Dash.”

“Just a harmless prank~” She sweetly said.

“Harmless my ass, I can feel the lump daredevil.”

“Take a few more bumps to the head, maybe it’ll fix that snarky attitude.” She kept up the sweet act.

“Next you’ll tell me it’s character building.” He muttered.

Rainbow added sarcasm to the sweetness. “Wooooow! How’d you know I’d say that?”

“I’m psychic, didn’t I tell you?” He deadpanned and got up. “Well. Nanami, don’t you have to go beat girls with that stick now?” He listened to Twilight gasp in surprise. It was thoroughly amusing.

“Trey, that’s not what lacrosse is...” She winked to Twilight, reassuring her Trey was lying again. “It’s only part of it. Trying to get rid of me?”

“Na, figured I’d do my part as a guide, show these two the clubs. We’ll swing by.” He started walking.

“And I’ll even beat a girl with a stick. You were volunteering, right?” She smacked him on the back, running out the door.

“Now, was he serious then, or was he screwing with poor Nanami?” Dash came up behind him.

“Serious. I can’t say I was doing my job just giving you video games and books.”

“But books are wonderful sources of information!” Twilight caught up with them.

“They can be, but they also can be outdated in a matter of minutes. You’re better off seeing things with your eyes, in this case.”

“If you say so. Books haven’t failed me before though. Those textbooks have so much in them! I wish I could take one back with me.”

“I can ask, you know.”

“Or you could just take it... I bet they won’t miss it.” Dash suggested.

“Rainbow, what happened the last time you tried to take a book?” Twilight glared.

“Yeah, that only happened cause I couldn’t fly. Don’t think It’d happen again.” Dash retorted.

“You can fly now?” Trey deadpanned.

“Oh shut it.” Dash huffed.

“I’d love to properly read through a textbook, it be wonderful if I could borrow one Trey.” Twilight returned to the prior topic.

“I’ll ask the teacher tomorrow. Since we have classroom sets for everything, and A class doesn’t get busy work we’d need the book at home for...” He stopped at a door on the first floor. “Now, this floor also doubles as the club floor after school. To your right, you have cooking club, sewing club, and astronomy club. To the left, the school newspaper has it’s own room due to the supplies they use, math league, SADD-”

“Why would someone make a club called sad?” Dash asked.

“Students Against Destructive Decisions. They teach kids not to do various bad things. After that is-”

“Like what...?” Twilight interrupted.

“Drinking and smoking. No I will not explain further, go bug them. After them is the Student Council room. Now, questions.” Neither of them said anything, and Trey facepalmed. “Well, might as well go check one or two out. Clubs love possible new members. Take your pick.”

They decided to look at the newspaper room first. They were taken on a short tour of the room, shown how the articles are written and put, and even given a copy of last week’s issue. After escaping the pushy chief editor, Twilight took them to the Math League door. Trey groaned, but followed with Dash.

The Math League had tried to recruit Trey before, and were ecstatic to see him walk in. He quickly shot them down, and directed their attention to Twilight saying that she puts him to shame. They were skeptical, to say the least. They asked to have a little competition with Twilight, betting Trey joining the club if she couldn't solve problems faster than them. Trey smirked. Then accepted.

It was a simple affair, a complex math problem was written on the board, and show to Twilight and the club president at the same time. Whoever came up with an answer first said it, and of it was right they earned a point. Trey and Dash watched, both thoroughly amused as Twilight solved the high level problems in only a moment,with scrap paper no less. The poor Math League president just fell apart, and it ended Twilight 3, Math League zip.

Needless to say, they tried to recruit her. They offered her presidency they were so impressed. But Trey shuffled Twilight out before she could consider it, reminding her it wouldn't be a good idea to take over a club in another dimension. Trey closed the door behind them and slumped against it.

"Damn it Twilight. You're too damn smart." He sighed.

She twirled a piece of her hair as she responded. "I'm... sorry?"

Trey winked. "Don't be. It's just amazing is all."

Rainbow patted Trey's shoulder. "You get used to it. That wasn't even her true egghead mode."

"I have an egghead mode?"

"Remember when you messed with time?"

"Unfortunately."

"Did you see the stuff you had on those chalkboards? Major egghead mode." Twilight pondered. Trey sighed,

"Well I wasn't there, so this example is moot. So how bout we head out to find the sports clubs?" While Trey phrased it as a question, he had already started walking back down the hall. The two followed him without a word.

Trey lead them to a smaller, single story building next to the soccer fields. Various teams were practicing on the fields, but Trey paid them no mind. He showed them into the smaller building. It was a large wooden floored room. A sign on the opposite wall read Fencing & Kendo club room, and various pairs of white clad masked people were doing what Twilight and Dash could only assume was the fencing Kent had described at lunch. Next to nothing else was in the room, only a wheeled cart with various holes in it's top.

Most of the pairs had stopped their matches, and every one of them turned to watch the last one. A well muscled male figure fought a fast paced smaller figure, most likely female. It was mesmerizing watching the ball topped weapons dance between the figures. The fight continued for minutes, neither combatant waving in the slightest, gaining and losing ground in a rhythm that matched their weapon strikes.

"Kent's showing off, huh..." Trey said quietly, amused.

"That's... Kent...?" Dash mouthed. As if noticing, the larger figure sped up, sliding past the smaller and thrusting straight into its chest. It didn't seem to hurt, but signalled the end of their match as they both took of the helmets off, laughing and high fiving. The other members were actually clapping for them, something they both waved for them to stop. Kent was the larger figure, and the smaller was a girl with short blond hair. Kent noticed the three guests in the room and excused himself from his club, walking over to them. Behind him the blond girl spoke to the whole group, probably a leader of some kind.

"Why, I didn't expect to see you three here. To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"Just showing our guests the various clubs. Your show with the Captain was more than enough though."

"It was quite impressive Kent. I couldn't even follow the tip of the foil." Twilight smiled.

"Though I'm sure the Captain was annoyed you weren't fighting your best." Trey snarked.

Kent looked back at the club Captain. "On the contrary, she was taking it easy on me."

Trey glared. "Bull, Mr International Tournament runner up."

"No, honestly. Talent is far different from experience. She's fought hundreds more opponents than I have, and if she were to draw on that experience she could outclass me with ease." He winked. "One should also never show off, especially not a gentleman. We agreed to extend our bout a bit to show some advanced moves to the younger members. She's explaining that now, as you can see."

The four watched as the Captain slowed down the moves she was making in the match, coaching the rest of the class through it. Twilight saw a smile of admiration on Kent’s face. It reminded her of the way she looked at the Princess, and the thought had her smiling too..

“Well, feel free to observe as much as you wish. I have to resume my duties as Vice Captain.” And Kent jogged back to the group.

Trey slouched against the wall. “Well. There’s one more place we had to hit, but clubs have another hour left. You two bemused?” Twilight nodded.

“Yeah, this is a lot cooler than he made it sound.” Dash said with a nod.

The three waited on the sides for the small lecture to finish and the fencing team broke up into pairs. The Captain and Kent wandered between them, pointing out mistakes in their team’s movements, occasionally re showing a technique. It was obvious (enough even Trey had to admit it) Kent was not only an excellent fencer but a born leader as well, well liked by his peers and regality of his personality letting him set the bar for others without being discouraging to their efforts. He paid his visiting friends no mind as well, solely focused on teaching his peers the best technique they can have. After a half hour of observing, Trey tapped the girls on the shoulder, motioning for the door. They left quietly, unnoticed as to not disturb the hard working club members.

As soon as the door closed, Rainbow sighed and grinned. “Okay, that was a whole hay of a lot cooler than he made it sound! It’s not some nobleman sport, it’s a fight, skill versus skill, blade versus blade-” Twilight giggled, and Trey chuckled.

“Yeah, he does suck at describing things... Didn’t think you would be quite that fired up though.” Trey said.

“An athlete can respect another’s skills, not that you would know. How many times did I smoke you friday?” Dash retorted, sticking her tongue out.

Trey gave an over exaggerated bow, and started away from the fencing building. He angled away from the building though, he was headed towards the fields. There were two fields, one after another.

Passing the first, Dash commented. “Oh, baseball.”

“No funny equine term for it then?” Trey asked from ahead of the two.

“No, it appears there are more than a few links between these worlds...” Twilight faded off into mumbling about theoretical things.
Trey pointed out the other field. “SInce you know baseball, no point to stop. The field you want to see is the far one.” As they approached, Dash started to make out the players. All of them were girls, and had sticks with baskets on one end in hand. They were flinging something between them using the baskets, and the field has goals set up like the soccer game friday. They reached the border of the field when Dash saw Nanami running on one of the teams, tossing the ball to her teammates.
“Nanami isn’t going to share the history of the sport with you, but she may try and recruit you.” Trey smirked.
“Hey, if I can stretch my wi...” Dash paused for a moment, wincing in the corner of Trey’s eye. “If I can stretch my legs, I’ll be fine. I could use some exercise after all that video gaming.”
“Don’t tell me you think you’re fat or somethin, that’s way too cliche.” Trey deadpanned.
“I think one person I know has a fat ego, but aside from that no cliches here~.” Dash teased. Their banter would have continued if Nanami hadn’t noticed them and came running over.
“You made it!” She grinned, addressed Dash and Twilight. “Did you two find your way here fine?”
“Oi.” Trey barked.
“Well, let’s not worry about it. You wanna watch, or maybe play a bit... Lucky I brought a spare stick and...” Nanami tried pulling Dash towards the pile of sports supplies.
“Wasn’t that just caused you’d break yours over someone’s head today, again?” Trey tapped Nanami’s shoulder.
“OhhelloTrey.” She spoke in monotone. Then she spun around, placing her hands on her hips and glaring at him. “Didn’t I chase you outta here the other day when I did that?”
“Yeah, when I brought you your cell phone outta the goodness of my heart.” He deadpanned.
“pfft.” Twilight failed to stifle a giggle. Nanami and Rainbow took it as a sign to giggle themselves, while Trey just smirked.
Someone still on the field called over. “Hey Nanami, stop messing around! We got a game coming up!”
“I’mma coming!” She called back. “Dash, you actually want to try, or just watch? The rules aren’t too complicated.”
Dash actually thought about it. “I’m going to watch. But I’ll definitely give it a whirl when i know the rules, k?”
Nanami grinned. Must have been close enough to what she wanted, because she did a cartwheel on the way back to the team. The resumed play, Rainbow Dash watching intently. Trey couldn’t help but note that she is a true athlete. She can focus on the movements of others, move the same way herself, has an undying competitive spirit, doesn’t give up, and has the power to back all that up. She, beyond a doubt could become a pro athlete here without any difficulty. But she did mention the... Wonderbolts, back on her world... she’s probably going for joining them. Stunt flyers, I believe...
“Trey?” Twilight woke Trey from his monologuing.
“Oh. What?”
Apparently Dash was the one who had the question. “What’s the limit on hitting people with the stick? I can’t make it out if it’s just stick to stick on you can hit the body.”
“Good eye. If I remember right, women’s lacrosse only allows stick to stick, but body checking, that’s what the hitting is called, is often... ignored.”
“Okay.” And Dash was back to following their every move. Twilight was less interested than she was in the fencing, but she too watched Nanami blaze past her opponents. It was over in a blink of an eye though, and with all the clubs and teams ending for the day, Trey, Twilight, and Dash left for the apartment.

Pizza was ordered for dinner. It was different for the equines, but Trey wasn’t cruel enough to order pepperoni. It went over well, and everyone settled in for some evening activities. Rainbow Dash was flipping through some other game cases, Twilight was, surprise surprise, reading, and Trey, being the only one who actually has to do homework, worked on that.
When he finishes, Trey tapped Rainbow on the shoulder and motioned for her to follow him. She paused Gears of War (she seems to like FPS) and did so. Twilight didn’t notice as the slinked off to Trey’s room.
When he motioned for her to go in, she raised an eyebrow. “Wait. You don’t mind?” She whispered.
“Why the hell would I mind? I invited you into my house, and I barely knew you.” His deadpanned was less effective when whispered.
“Huh. We thought you closed the door all the time to keep us out.” She mused as she walked in.
“No, I just like my privacy when I’m sleeping.” He muttered, and slowly closed the door to not make noise. Once he did, he returned to normal speaking voice. “So. You know Twilight far better than I do. I need your opinion on something.”
Dash smirked and went to speak, but was cut off like clockwork. “No, that’s not it. And no, don’t think looking sad will help. Or pouting.” Little did Dash know that both of those would have an effect, and Trey wasn’t snubbing her, but keeping himself out of eye contact.
“Fine. What’s up?” She relented.
Trey sat down at his desk and woke up his computer. “This is a computer. Its a powerful tool, that can be a game system, a type writer, and a library all at once. It’s potentials are limitless. Digital mail, instant communications... It’s a wonderful tool.”
“Yeah? It sounds like Twilight would love it.” Dash on the other hand, seemed completely uninterested.
“Yeah, but remember how I said library?” He opened Google Chrome {shameless plug} and started typing in the search bar. “This is the internet. You can get files from it, you can get information from it, and it’s limitless. For example, these are the rules to mens, womens, box, and field lacrosse.”
Dash leaned in to see the screen. “Heeh. That’s neat. And everything is on this internet?”
“Pretty much. And you can access it from other things, like the xbox outside or even my cell phone. But the thing is...” He fiddled with a lock of hair while he found the right phrase. Then he decided to be blunt. “Twilight will get obsessed with it, and never put it down. You thinking the same?”
Dash thought about it for a moment. “Yep. It’s a possibility. Can’t fault her for loving knowledge, but she can get a bit obsessive. Probably not a good idea to show this to her till she’s read up on the world more. Once she stops asking questions and starts being able to answer them. Shouldn’t be long, knowing her.” Rainbow shrugged. She righted herself, looking around Trey’s bedroom.
It was very simple, a closet was on the wall to the right of the door, along with a dresser. His desk was in the upper left corner, on the back wall, and his bed directly opposite it. A pair of bookshelves were in between the dresser and desk, and they had a lot of things on them, books included. Plastic human ninjas, bouncing balls, alarm clock... His desk was very clean, part of it completely cleared off for writing on while his computer was on the other part. There was fan spinning on the ceiling, and that was the entirety of his room.
While Rainbow was surveying, Trey had stood up and gotten behind her. He tapped her on the shoulder when she looked up. “Interested in something?”
She shrugged, also not surprised. “Na. That all you got for me?”
“Pretty much.”
“Co-op?”
“Co-op.”

And so the night ended, with Co-op Gears of War and books. Rainbow promised to keep quiet about the internet until Trey figured out a way to introduce Twilight to it gradually, and Twilight was none the wiser.
“Really.” Trey thought. “That book trance will get her in trouble sometime.”

Omake

A/N: I moved into college half way through this so... It may be a bit disconnectee. But I think I think I’m settling into this more. Besides, with the NATG done I have nothing to work on. =P
Speaking of NATG, I hate my omake this time, i haven't drawn humans in like a month. =P Next time won't suck, I swear.