Kevin and Firecracker Burst looked around the decorated gymnasium as the pep rally for the Friendship Games began. Even in his human form, the forgeling could sense a high amount of competitive aggression coming from the students of either school, as well and the noxious amount of greed coming from the rival school's principal.

"I've infiltrated a few schools back when I was still a changeling, but I don't think I've ever been in schools that were this competitive before." he commented, completely ignoring the odd looks that everybody else—mostly the Crystal Prep students—gave him.

Cracker sniffed, "Yeah. Honestly, I think these kids are taking this way too seriously. At this point, all of that glaring just looks stupid."

She turned to the armored man, "Also, what did you turn into when you're in a school?"

Kevin looked up for a moment, trying to sift through multiple decades' worth of memories not in hibernation.

"Mostly into popular colts or fillies with a lot of ponies crushing on them. Sometimes, when I'm feel a little daring, I turn into a special somepony to get some more potent Love." he finally answered.

Cracker blanched at the thought. She was reminded yet again how existentially terrifying her friend's former species was.

"Ah, r-right..."

Thankfully, it was time for Principal Cinch's opening speech, pulling everybody's attention towards the stage. The second third pony to ever enter the school couldn't help but stare at the two main authority figures of Canterlot High.

Cracker scratched her head, "It's so weird to see the ponies who're basically responsible for the day-night cycle as faculty memvers in a school here..."

Kevin nodded in return, "Oh, right, the Sun and Moon Princesses are basically deities to you ponies, aren't they? It must be quite surreal. Like seeing the Queen start baking muffins or something."

The transformed unicorn could only shrug.

"Huh, there she is..." the praetorian muttered, looking off towards the gathered Crystal Prep students.

Cracker followed his gaze, and saw the human counterpart of Twilight Sparkle, secluding herself from her fellow students.

"What was Spark's warning, again? Don't let her get too close?"

The armored man nodded once more, "'Don't get close to her, don't talk to her, and don't, under any circumstances, channel our magic whenever she's present until the end of the Games. No matter how weak magic is in this dimension' is what he said."

Cracker the held up her hands and touched her forehead, feeling the lack of her familiar curved horn.

"At least that last bit's gonna be pretty easy to do."

As Cinch finished her, uh, 'speech', the two Equestrians decided to regroup with their extradimensional clone-friends. They seemed to be talking about Princess Twilight's counterpart.

Sunset turned towards the newcomers with a concerned expression, "Hey guys, any of you seen the other Twilight? I don't know why, but I have a feeling something is going on with her."

Kevin tapped his chin, "Considering how Spark gave us orders to avoid her at all costs, it appears that she does indeed some sort of significance. I don't know what, though."

Rarity crossed her arms, "Avoid her at all costs? Now whyever would we do that to the poor dear? She might not be the same Twilight we know and love, but that doesn't mean we should give her the cold shoulder."

Cracker shrugged, "Those warnings are for Kevin and myself. If you girls want to be friends with her, then go ahead. We just know that whatever Spark says, no matter how cryptic, usually means that something's important one way or another."

"And this time, he actively refuses to share. The only thing I got was that apparently, the portal being unavailable was 'the same as canon'." Sunset finished with air quotes, along with mimicking Spark's deeper voice

"So what are we gonna do about her?" Rainbow asked. Clearly confused.

Applejack adjusted her hat, "Guess we should just carry on with the Friendship Games like usual. If she starts doin' somethin' odd, we'll confront her together."

The Academic Decathlon was about to begin, and the students had gathered in the school's foyer to listen to Dean Cadance's announcement. Kevin and Cracker stood off to the sidelines once more after taking a picture of the assembled competitors.

"I have a feeling they're gonna sing a heartsong for this." the human-unicorn commented.

"Maybe. Camera's on?"

Cracker looked to the screen of her MortarTM camera, "All good here. First is chemistry, right?"

Kevin gave her a nod, "Yes. And they're already off, come on."

BOOM!

An explosion from Ditzy Derpina Doo's vial spread throughout the classroom. Every other competitor turned their heads in surprise at the sudden development.

With a click, Cracker took a picture of the soot-covered girl as she was taken to the school nurse.

"Reminds me of my early days." she chuckled, "My parents got me my own workshop just so I can stop scorching the house. Good times..."

Kevin paused his recording before raising an eyebrow, "While I am no expert in chemistry, shouldn't we be worrying about that just a little bit more? If the chemical that she created exploded, who's to say it won't have any adverse effects on her as well?"

The pyrotechnician turned towards the wall-eyed girl, who was busy cleaning herself. She still had a big smile plastered on her face.

"She seems fine. Maybe humans are resilient to random explosive chemicals or something."

The praetorian crossed his arms, a gesture he had grown to frequently use in his human form.

"A significant part of me is seriously doubting your words, but Spark isn't here and I'm not knowledgable enough to know if what you said was true. So I guess you're right."

Next was baking. Neither forgeling nor unicorn were expecting much from this, as they never really cared about the minutiae of such an activity. A good cake belongs in your mouth, a bad cake belongs in storage, never to be touched ever again unless it starts to go rancid.

That is, until they saw Pinkie Pie recreate the Mona Lisa within a massive cake.

Kevin switched the camera to one hand and turned to Rainbow Dash, who was standing right beside him.

"I'm surprised she hasn't gotten worldwide recognition for her talents. I'd imagine a cake like that would be at the very least, newspaper-worthy."

Rainbow shrugged, "The cakes don't usually last long enough for people to really notice."

Cracker chuckled, "Can't argue with that. Even in another dimension, Pinkie's still the top baker in town, huh?"

The young athlete nodded with a smirk, "Heck yeah she is!"

She the glanced off towards the assorted cakes before turning back to the pyrotechnician.

"Say, how do ponies bake when they don't have hands? I've tried the other Pinkie's cupcakes when Spark invited us over for his anniversary rewatch thing, but how did she make them?" she asked aloud.

The sudden question about Equestria garnered her fellow Rainbooms' attention, as well as a few students who were genuinely confused at how horses could relate to baking. Ever since they were invited over for a certain metalsmith's celebration, they've gotten a lot more curious and pushy about the Land of Friendahip and Harmony. Mainly caused by Twilight not allowing them to venture into Ponyville proper.

It seemed like Rainbow found this to be the perfect opportunity to ask.

Sunset remembered how it was like when Rainbow began to ask her about Equestria, and tried to interject before Cracker gets smothered by a billion questions from her friends.

Unfortunately, she wasn't fast enough.

"Well you see..."

And so, for the following matches, Cracker went on to explain the ins and outs of Equestrian society to anybody who wanted to listen. Sunset herself was quite surprised by how in-depth her explanations were. From the everyday life of a shopkeeper, down to how taxes worked post Nightmare Moon. Even a few bits of culture from the pyrotechnician's own region of origin

Kevin also had his time to shine. Sharing his patchy knowledge of Equestria's history from the day of his hatching to the invasion dhring the Royal Wedding, to which he recalled the fighting capabilites of the Rainbooms' pony counterparts.

He might have also revealed a few government secrets for both Equestria and the Hive, but nobody really noticed.

The praetorian also just so happened to indirectly reveal the fact that he was effectively over three hundred years old.

Sunset raised a hand, "Now wait a minute! Three hundred years old? Kevin, I may not be an expert on either changelings nor forgelings, but that sounds like a load of horseapples."

The native humans of the surrounding group gave her an odd look at the odd phrase. Only the students of CHS shrugged it off for some Equestrian slang.

The transformed forgeling shook his head, "If you don't want to believe me, then by all means. But know that I can prove it to you by recalling everything that happened prior to us getting trapped in a volcano for a few decades." he crossed his arms, "Everyling my age swore we were there for at least a century, but I believe the heat just got to them earlier. Typical drones..."

Nobody knew what to say to that. The Rainbooms, along with a few of the eavesdropping spectators, could only stare at him with disbelief.

"Dude... you're a fossil." Rainbow managed to mutter.

Cracker snapped her fingers. A gesture the transformed unicorn had started getting used to doing.

"Oi! We're moving on to the math-stuff-and-things! Come on everypony, move it!"

"Sweet Celestia... that equation's got more letters in it than my alchemy thesis!" Cracker exclaimed as she snapped a picture of the blackboards upon the stage.

Principal Celestia glanced at the second ever unicorn in her school, but quickly remembered that her extradimensional counterpart supposedly moves the sun back in Equestriland. What a weird world they live in.

Kevin stuffed his mouth with a leftover slice of cake from the baking round, "Thahs a maff ekwasun?"

The pyrotechnician leaned away from him, "Swallow before you talk, dude."

And so he did.

"Solid food... so many gimmicks..." he mumbled, "I said, 'that's a math equation?'"

Cracker gestured exaggeratedly towards the blackboards, "Maybe?! Are humans super-geniuses or something?!"

Kevin discreetly turned to Rainbow Dash before looking back at her.

"I don't think so."

"Oh believe me, darlings, this isn't something they would teach at any grade. Except in, perhaps some esoteric STEM program." Rarity assured.

Pinkie nodded, "But Sunset is really, really, reaaally smart! That's why she's the one competing!"

"She's always gotten top marks in every subject." Fluttershy commented, "Except for history, apparently. But I guess it makes sense, since she's more familiar with your world's history than ours."

"Eeyup. I bet it's 'cause she was the royal student or what have ya' back in Ponyland." Applejack added.

"Equestria." both natives corrected.

The farmgirl awkwardly rubbed the back of her head, "Uh, yeah. Equestria. Of course..."

Cracker turned back to the stage just as a visibly nervous Sunset passed by. The pyrotechnician then firmly grabbed her fellow unicorn by the shoulder.

Sunset turned around, "Huh?"

"I admit that I never was the beast at math, but if there's one thing I learned from Mr. Circumference's classes back in highschool, it's that you shouldn't rush these things. Take it nice and easy, even when the clock's ticking away. That way, you won't miss the small things in life." Cracker encouraged with a smile.

The former pony returned with her own slightly less confident and somewhat confused smile, "Oh. Um... thanks, Cracker."

She continued on her way towards her own blackboard. Though this time, it seemed liike she had lost some of that nervousness.

On the other side, the human Twilight Sparkle also stepped up to the stage. She appeared to be a lot more focused this time.

Seeing her like that reminded Sunset of the Twilight she was more familiar with. Ever since her... memorable introduction to Crucible Spark, the young princess had started to visit a lot more frequently.

Sometimes she'd follow along the eccentric twice-transformed human and would then go on her own way to visit the Rainbooms. Other times she'd visit alone, with nothing but her backpack, a few books to read, and the occasional paperwork she decided to work on in Mirror-Earth. It was during those personal visits that she would meet up with Sunset herself, and the two Equestrians would spend the day together, doing whatever it is they thought would be fun.

While Sunset did enjoy the company of her friends, there was just something... special, she supposed, about spending the day with Princess Twilight. Be it bonding over a book series they enjoy, or simply watching the princess make those cute faces when she gets frustrated by some discrepancy in her papers. It felt nice to relax and spend time with the same person who had helped her become the person she is today.

The former unicorn blinked, "Cute? Where did that come from?" she murmured.

She shook her head and set her eyes on the blackboard in front of her. Sunset couldn't help but feel overwhelmed by the sheer complexity of the equation written on it, but she remembered Cracker's words, took a calming breath, and began to write.

The match was nerve-wracking, the tension in the room was thick enough to be cut with a knife.

Both geniuses furiously wrote down numbers, calculations, and formulas; powering through the monstrosity of an equation with incredible speed and precision.

Sunset felt the urge to take a peek at the other Twilight to see how she was fairing, but resisted and continued on with her own work.

Twilight's scribbling faltered for a few moments, her eyes quickly glanced at her oddly serene-looking adversary. She went straight back to her calculations, yet this time, she seemed a lot less sure of herself.

As the two finally finished, Cinch raised both of her arms and gestured towards the blackboards.

"Both are correct." she announced. The silence of the room made the strain in her voice noticeable.

The students of Canterlot High erupted with cheers and claps at the announcement, many stood up as they did so.

Kevin was glad that he had kept his above-avrage height even in his human form, and only had to move his camera closer to his head to avoid the students in the way of the shot.

As the celebrations died down, Vice Principal Luna stood up from her seat.

"That means the first event of the Friendship Games have ended with a tie!"

The students of Canterlot High cheered once more. Crystal Prep merely shared a collective sigh. Some of them

Cracker looked around, "I don't understand, what's so great about it being a tie?"

Applejack turned to her with an excited smile, "This is the closest Canterlot's ever got to beatin' Crystal Prep!"

"And if we keep this up, we could finally win the Games for once!" Rainbow continued.

Pinkie ran up halfwat towards the stage, "Come on! Let's go see Sunset!"

As the rest of the Rainbooms went on ahead to congratulate their friend, the pyrotechnician looked to her armored friend. She noticed that he was focusing on something—or rather, someone—in the distance.

She nudged him by the arm, "What'cha looking at, bud?"

Kevin narowed his eyes, "That girl is hiding something..."

"Who?"

He nodded towards the human Twilight's direction, "That... thing hanging from her neck. I have a feeling that's the reason why Spark told us to avoid her."

The praetorian gave his camera to Cracker, "Hold on to this. I'm going to follow her."

The human-unicorn raised an eyebrow, "Really? I know you used to be this love-vampire-bug-super-spy, but I don't think tailing around this girl is a good idea." she pointed a finger to his breastplate, "Especially since you're wearing all of this."

Kevin crossed his arms, "Don't underestimate the abilities of an elite infiltrator. I'll have you know that I hold the title of 'Best Lurker' back in the Hive!"

The pyrotechnician held up her hands, "Okay, okay, I get it, your spy senses are tingling or whatever. Just... don't get into trouble, 'kay? Because if you do, they'll probably trace it back to me, and I really don't want to deal with that right now."

The praetorian sharply nodded and gave her a salute, "Yes ma'am! Understood ma'am!"

He then soundlessly followed the path the the purple girl scurried away to. His previously clanking armor so quiet that Crackle had to strain her less sensitive human ears to hear his steps.

"I have a feeling I'm gonna regret this..."

After a moment, she spun around and went in the direction of the cafeteria.

"Eh, that's future me's problem."

Author's Note

Think of these EG chapters as a minor B-plot to Spark's escapades (heh) that are made up of less words, so that we can see how Kevin and Cracker are doing when left to their own devices.

And yes, there will be the classic SunLight ship in this story, you can't stop me nor Spark in this endeavor. But since I am in no way experienced enough to write romance, it'll mostly be a background thing that pops up every now and again, until Spark finally notices and explodes in joy. Happy days, yeah?

If you want to share ideas on how this story should go, consider commenting!

Corrections and criticisms are more than welcome, I can't improve without those now, can I?
Have a good existence!
:)

"Remembered forever, the land of Equestria"