Unfamiliar Languages

Sunset felt immensely out of place, she had known that the girls who had allied with Twilight to take her down were going to keep her company. But she had also assumed it would be more parole officers or teachers, not a casual hangout of some sort. She was terribly unfamiliar with these things, she hadn’t really spent any time around others for casual purposeless interactions since before she became Celestia’s student, and even that much was sparse.

She was able to get away with being quiet during lunch, there were enough of them all she had to do was answer a roundtable question once or twice a day. There were usually a whole five of them she had to be around, but right now it was only her, Applejack and Rainbow Dash. They were sitting in the Rainbow’s room, in a semicircle with Sunset in the center.

She didn’t quite know how to approach interaction with them. It seemed like they were having trouble as well, given they stopped before they even started an activity. Her assumption was quickly shut down when Applejack asked, “I can’t imagine all the hobbies here are the same as in yer homeland. Rainbow and I had been trying to think of common ground before you got here but realized we really dunno much about over there.”

Sunset took a deep breath before speaking, still not used to the casual nature of it all, “Magic studies, mostly. That’s what I did on Equus at least. Spells and artifacts, other regal skills - although that was more for visualizing a goal than of personal interest. Can’t really do those over here, most I ever did on Earth was music and art, maybe a little coding as well.”

She noticed they seemed pretty active in their listening, it made her uncomfortable, as it lacked any familiar intentions. There was a short moment before Rainbow’s mind grasped something, she perked up and quickly spoke, “So you’ve never seen the Daring Do movies?”

Applejack gave a quiet, “Oh no, here we go.”

Sunset blinked twice, “The what? Why would I have seen any movies?”

Rainbow jumped up from her seat, rushing behind herself to one of her shelves filled with disc cases, comics and figures, and without even skimming grabbed one of the disc cases from standing eye-level. Sunset immediately assumed the placement was intentional, that she perhaps valued it more than most of the other things on the shelves. She then immediately had to stop herself from trying to put that into her mental bank dedicated to information to abuse later for some sort of manipulation, something she was starting to get used to.

Her vision was somewhat covered by Rainbow holding out the case, which Sunset slowly took as she listened, “It’s only the best, most awesome action movie series there is, Daring Do is an adventuring historian interested in various artifacts, trying to secure them away from the clutches of those who want to find it for money or from large monsters, or even just trying to verify their existence by going through the most risky temples one could ever dare to enter! It has nearly twenty books by now, and only five movies - but they’re coming out with another one next year!”

Sunset wanted to be interested, if only to better deal with her own growing disinterest. Although she guessed the unappeal was more about the social pressure of matching Dash’s enthusiasm than the actual series itself. She stopped herself from saying anything that would crush the current social environment, “Any other options? Like maybe something that isn’t just potentially pseudo-historical adventure?”

Rainbow then took the case back, looking toward the ceiling at the thought, “It’s mostly just adventures and sports, which I guess sometimes has some drama to it, like Rocky, maybe some comedy to it like Sandlot.”

Sunset then gave up trying to find something to be interested in and decided to simply subject herself to whatever there was. Recalling her reaction, she looked at Applejack before saying, “Whatever Applejack chooses, we can watch.”

That got Applejack to smirk a little, Rainbow giving a slightly whiny “Aw, maaan.” The country girl made her way to the shelf - plucking the case from Rainbow’s hands to return it while she looked. Sunset would have questioned if she made the right choice, if it was the right feeling to want to smirk at Rainbow’s abstract defeat, but Applejack’s own response was enough permission to revel in the choice lightly herself.

Applejack then spoke, “Twilight had said somethin’ about you pony folk having control over yer weather, right?” Sunset hummed an affirmation to let her continue, “Then a real people versus nature film will be fascinatin’ from that angle at least, and I dunno about meteorology much but hopefully that bit will tickle the nerd in you a bit too.” She stood near Sunset with a disc case, holding it out for her.

Sunset was slightly surprised she was even showing it to her, she had given her the go ahead regardless of the choice. The front of the case read “Twister”, having such a simple title in itself slightly fascinated her, and Applejack's spiel about it sold her pretty well compared to anything else.

Rainbow took a peek and then seemed to remember something as she smirked largely at Applejack, “You don’t want to put on some country romance or something?”

Sunset was caught off guard by that and looked to a now flushed AJ, who quickly stuttered out with a bit more volume, “Th- N- I wasn’t even considerin’ that, don’t say stuff that’ll make me wanna air my lungs, Dash!”

Rainbow retorted, smugly, “You totally would pick one though, just to show off when you win the movie choice.”

Sunset couldn’t help but mirror Rainbow’s expression as Applejack tilted the rim of her hat to cover her face, and yet still slightly turned away, “I ain’t picked that stuff in years. Could we move on?” She quickly stepped her way back to her spot, lightly hitting Dash on the back of the head to get a ‘Hey!’ as she went there. She took a deep breath and regained her natural color before slightly facing them again.

It was weird for Sunset, it felt like she was sitting in something timeless, something not meant for her. It was positive, unusual, definitely something she was out of practice on being around, and out of place in. She then handed Rainbow the case as she spoke, “Guess it’s Twister time, then.”

Sunset - despite all given up expectation - found herself enjoying the movie once she understood the heart of the goal of the film. But that felt like a lot in itself, the pair had actually been pretty quiet throughout the whole thing, outside of some rooting for or scolding characters here and there. She dared not mention how Rainbow let out a tear or two at some point, Applejack near such herself such that she tilted her hat a short moment. Sunset was surprised by their responses and tried to ignore the feeling it left in her own chest, like something was out of place again. She was relieved when they called it afterward, as she really wasn’t used to any of this.

Sunset was surprised when Rainbow had actually pulled her aside as they left lunch, asking to hang out again. She was nervous about what task - or activity rather - they were going to do. She was hesitant to accept, but did, in hopes of simply avoiding the feeling of isolation. She wondered what else there was to connect over. At least that’s what she assumed Applejack and Rainbow were trying to teach her last time, she wasn’t sure if she was reading into it.

The ride to Rainbow’s place was quiet, as though she didn’t quite know how to start off. Sunset more appreciated the silence. It was broken as they entered her room, Rainbow starting, “I had an idea of something to try, to see if you like it.”

Rainbow pulled a box out from under the television, running a couple cords to the back of the screen before some controller was connected to what Sunset now assumed was a console. She had vague knowledge about video games, but never really looked into them. One of Sunset’s eyebrows escaped her, trying to figure out how Rainbow thought this was suited to her, “What did you have in mind?”

The athlete spoke while she turned on the device, “I thought that maybe you’d like the chance to play some games,” she then grabbed a few cases from a totally different shelf than the movies, “sounded like Equestria didn’t have any, and you seem to like things that have goals - even if none of it’s sports. So I thought maybe this could work for you.”

Sunset was surprised by the amount of thought that Rainbow seemed to put into this. And then Rainbow smirked a little, “Also seemed like a good chance to get my turn to introduce you to some of my favorite games.”

That made Sunset shortly wonder about if she actually should have judged Daring Do so fast, but it was quickly put on the backburner at the shock of seeing a historically villainously acclaimed centaur on one of the disc cases that were put down. She quickly gravitated toward it, grabbing it.

It wasn’t until she saw Sunset that Rainbow continued, “Rise of Tirek, a tactical role playing game about trying to dethrone a power-sucking centaur before he can conquer the land. Figured it would suit your more strategic brain - plus there’s actually a sidekick shortly into the story that can be used as a second commander.”

Sunset was stunned, and slowly accepted the idea that was in front of her. She was surprised he even made any sort of appearance in this world. As she glanced over both the front and back of it, nothing about it stood out in the face of any other game in this world, outside of the very clearly familiar depicted figure. A smirk came over her as her curiosity rose, “Sounds like it could work, let's go for it.”