Striding up to the strange group of new students, Spitfire reviewed her assignment from Hurricane. "You look lost. Can I help you newbies with anything?"

"Spitfire?" Rainbow Dash recognized the woman as the biker she'd met at the drag races she'd gone to weeks ago. "Sorry I couldn't check out your riding club, things got a little crazy."

The voice reminded Spitfire of someone, and it took her mind several seconds to click to who it was. When that happened, she also put a name to the girl-pony talking to her. "Rainbow Dash, riding a rice-rocket, right?"

"Yeah, though I'm still trying to figure out how to do that again now my legs don't reach the pedals. I had to build my car specifically so I could reach everything." Jerking a wing to gesture back at her T-bucket Ford, she pointed with one feather. "Just got it how I like it."

"Nice wheels, but there's two too many." Smirking at Rainbow's dented pride, Spitfire moved on with the introduction. "Anyway, we need to get all of you to orientation groups. Follow me and we might make it before Hurricane has finished his speech—if we're unlucky."

Sunset reached a hand out to touch Rainbow's arm, dragging the pair of them into a featureless void together. Focusing her mind around the place, Sunset produced a comfortable couch to sit on. "You know her?" she asked.

"Yeah, I know her. This is your head-space thingy, right?" Rainbow looked around a bit before sitting on the couch. "How much time passes in here compared to outside? Are we just standing there?"

"We've got a few minutes before anyone would notice anything."

"Okay. I met her at a drag strip after watching some races. We chatted a bit about bikes. Didn't say anything else. I guess that kinda happened before all this—wait, I'm not a pony!" Waving her hands, Rainbow stared down at herself in surprise. "This place is weird."

"Huh, I guess I just pictured you as you from before. Anyway, I just wanted to check on that. Since the Adagio and Aria thing, I don't want to risk any of us getting mind-whammied again." That sorted, Sunset dropped them both from the mental simulation.

Staggering, Rainbow tried to catch her movement and was only able to thanks to having four legs. Glaring at Sunset, she didn't want to think what would have happened if she'd been flying. Her own strange sense of time and speed let her judge that the rest of their group had barely taken a step in the time it took them to have their chat.

The walk took the group to a huge gathering of new students on the open sports field. At one end a man on a stage was talking, "… with that I'll pass you over to your orientation week guides!" Hurricane turned off his personal mic and stepped off the stage to let the guides start organizing things. Just as he stepped down, he spotted his star pupils. "Perfect."

"Okay everyone, welcome to Canterlot U!" Bouncing up and down, Surprise didn't care that her chest had a lot of bounce or that her skirt showed off her thighs—she was too excited to help a bunch more students find their way at college. "Now, we need to split you all off into groups, and we'll try to bunch you up by your degrees, okay?

"Surprise, that's me, will be taking all you awesome math nerds—you know who you are! Then Soarin, this stud-muffin here, will be getting all the science majors—though we'll have to split you up further since there's so many of you. The hottie waving at you now is Fleetfoot, she'll be taking all the art majors. Finally Spitfire, there will be taking the engineering majors. If everyone else could wait here for the next group to come, that'd be great!" Bouncing her way from the stage, Surprise made her way to an empty spot to await her own crowd.

"Wait," Twilight said to her friends, "that means we have to split up."

Rainbow shrugged her shoulders. "Well, yeah. I mean, it wasn't like we'd be in the same classes for all of college. Heck, this place is huge—we'll have to schedule time to hang out." Her eyes slid to Spitfire where a few students were starting to gather. "Let's go—well, those that have somewhere to go yet. You okay, Fluttershy?"

"I—I will be." Taking a huge breath, Fluttershy let it out slowly. "I'm sure they'll be really nice." Her time spent as front-man for the Rainbooms had boosted her ability to cope with strangers, as had Bridget's efforts to make her live a little more in the moment.

Twilight looked at Applejack and Marble as she walked to the guy who was handling sciences. She still felt a little overwhelmed when around a big group of people, but with Applejack on one side and Marble on the other, she felt safe from the tall strangers.

"Alright, newbies, you're all going to spend the next four years studying harder than you'll ever study again for the rest of your lives, but until school starts next week, you can relax." Unable to stop herself from repeatedly looking at the literal pegasus in the midst of her group, Spitfire nonetheless forged on with purpose. "First, we're going to head over to the admin building. That's where you pay all your dues and stuff, collect any official documents, that kinda stuff. Come on."

Flapping her wings, Rainbow flew up to head-level and kept her beat going while the rest of her group moved so slowly it hurt. They went and saw the admin building, then the lecture halls, then the study rooms, then finally the engineering labs.

There were computer labs as well as industrial manufacture areas, and Rainbow drank in the sights of both. Every detail and every word Spitfire spoke was absorbed and filed away in her mind while she looked around the rooms.

Even as lunchtime rolled around, and her horniness grew, Rainbow was a little too distracted to take care of herself at first. When Spitfire told them to meet up again after lunch, however, Rainbow felt a pang of need.

Walking stiffly out of the school's cafeteria, she spread her wings and felt time slow down just like it had when she'd fought against Aria and Adagio. Somehow, she seemed to be even faster in the air than on the ground, which Rainbow used to get to her car in well under ten seconds.

She'd tossed her handbag into the car and hadn't thought to bring it with her when she got out initially, but now she pondered her choices. "I could grab one of my friends in here and find somewhere private, or drive home and do something…" Her wing was already reaching into the bag and feelt the two vibrators with her feathers. "That'd take way too long. Now, where's the nearest bathroom?"

Thunderbolt, now almost twenty feet from nose to tail, stood at the front door of Canterlot High School and nodded. He'd said his piece, and now he wanted an answer.

"That's an odd request to get." Though the school didn't open for another week, principal Celestia was there preparing for another year. Finding an ancient and mythological beast tapping on the front door had been a surprise, but then her life had been full of surprises lately.

"Is it? This is where Rainbow learned. I wish to learn." As he spoke, a slight hint of smoke trickled from Thunderbolt's nostrils—he wasn't angry, just a little upset that Tree Hugger had been too busy to spend the morning with him, Spicy had been at work, and Twilight had been with Rainbow at their new school.

Celestia almost opened her mouth and told Thunderbolt she couldn't help. Almost, but didn't. The fact was she'd started teaching to help others learn. She'd personally taught many students all the way through from junior high to graduation, and as principal she'd assisted other teachers to pass knowledge on to many more.

Here was someone who wanted to learn, and it cut Celestia's spirit to the bone that she almost told him no. "This will take some contemplating. You seem well-spoken, have you had any learning already?"

"Ma'am, three months ago I was a dog with the desires, mind, and outlook of a dog." Smiling, but managing to not show off his teeth, Thunderbolt lifted a fore-claw and gestured at Celestia. "I know that I know nothing."

That got Celestia's full attention. "That you know those words indicates that you are a prime example of the Socratic paradox. That makes me wonder how much more you don't know. Come inside." Unlocking both front doors, Celestia stepped back to allow Thunderbolt to walk into Canterlot High School's main building.

"I have read about philosophy. Friends suggested it to help me find a comfortable moral level." The doorway was easy to slip through, though Thunderbolt had to duck his head a little to get under the top of the frame. Once inside, however, he had plenty of room. "You know about the incident a month ago?"

"It's been the talk of the town. I've asked everyone I know, but no one will talk."

"Adagio Dazzle and Aria Blaze returned and were drinking people of all their hate until they died. We stopped them." Thunderbolt remembered his fight with Adagio. His blood still burned hot at the memory, but he no longer entered a rage just thinking about her.

Celestia was glad to have someone willing to confide in her, but something stuck out. "And what of the third siren? Sonata Dusk?"

Though Thunderbolt hadn't had any special time with Sonata, he had seen the power she wielded first-hand. "She fought at our side and defeated the other two sirens. She is a friend." The last words almost came out with a lick of fire, but Thunderbolt managed to keep his fervor down. "She also makes tasty food." He didn't include that, after a day of smoking with Tree, Sonata's food tasted a thousand times better still.

"That explains much of that incident. Come along, and try not to set off the smoke detectors." Celestia led the way down the hallway and toward the teaching offices. The one she was most interested in was her sister's. Behind her, she was barely aware of Thunderbolt's presence, which given his size was strange for her—she expected rumbling footsteps that would set off seismographs, but he was silent as a cat. Only the heat of his breath let her know he was still there.

Luna's door was open, so when her sister leaned into the opening to knock on it, she just raised her head and looked at Celestia. "Yes?"

"Our first student is here. He—" Celestia paused and turned to Thunderbolt. "You are male?"

"Yes." Thunderbolt didn't hold it against her for not knowing.

The deep, bass voice drew Luna's complete attention. She tried to peek around the door jam, but from her desk she couldn't see Thunderbolt.

"He needs an assessment for all subjects, so we can properly work out how to fit him into our school." Keeping herself in the doorway, Celestia was building up the surprise for her sister. "I'm sure you can handle that?"

Luna narrowed her eyes, suspecting her older sister of some kind of game. "Only if you take over these class rosters. I'll need a few hours with our new student to get the basic tests done." Standing up, Luna walked to her cabinet and opened it to get the appropriate paperwork out, then caught sight of what was in the hallway outside in a reflection off one of her framed credentials. She froze, staring at a dragon in the corridor. "Y-Y-You're a dragon?"

Thunderbolt was unmistakable as a dragon. He had four legs, two wings, more scales than anyone knew what to do with, and a tail that had a good pair of spikes on it. "Yes."

Biting back any shock or sarcasm she might otherwise use, Luna nodded. "Very well. You can hold a pen, or will you need accessibility equipment?" When Thunderbolt looked confused, Luna tried to figure a better way of asking. "Would a computer be better for doing the test?"

The confusion Thunderbolt felt at not knowing some words cleared and he nodded slowly. "A computer would be good. I have used Rainbow's computer and she got me one of my own." He thought back on Tree Hugger's words; the last piece of advice she'd given him before sending him off to the school—don't ask the teachers or students to have sex. It was annoying advice, but he could abide by it.

Intrigued, Luna nodded. "Please, come with me and we can see what you know and what you'll need to learn. You have a computer, so you can read and type. Have you been studying on your own?" She stepped out into the hall and gestured to one of the classrooms that she knew had laptops for students to use.

Author's Note

Ask Spicy: Why do you still drive to work since the extra limbs on your back is not just for show?

"Because sometimes I bring my work home with me, and flying while carrying a box of toys to test on my girlfriend is a little too much for my wings." Stretching his wings out, Spicy showed their leathery surfaces off. "And could you imagine if a bird hit me or something and I dropped the box? There'd be dildos and vibrators everywhere!"

So I do this "Ask X" thing. X can be any pony within the story. You can ask them anything and they will definitely, hopefully reply. Keep the questions appropriate to the age-rating of the stories, and they will answer the best question in the author notes of the next chapter. The more votes a comment has the more likely I will get it to the right pony to answer. Try to keep it to one question per post! They will pick one question per chapter.

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