The backs of two people stood over a table. One had long curly pink hair and light pink skin and was wearing a blue skirt and matching jacket, the other had wavy red and yellow shoulder length hair, light orange skin, and wore a white leather jacket, white jeans, and a gold shirt. Pinkie and Sunset, I guess. Twilight approached as Sunset smiled at Pinkie. She glanced at Twilight as she left.
Pinkie bounded up to Twilight. “Hiya! I know everyone here, and I've never seen you around, so that must mean you're new!”
“Hi, Pinkie.”
Pinkie's eyes widened as she gasped. “You know my name ever though we've never met? Are you psychic? Can you read my mind? What number am I thinking of right now?”
“I'm not psychic! Principal Celestia told me to come to you to sign up for the Princess of the Fall Formal election.”
“Great! Not many people have signed up. The more people at a party, the better!” Pinkie grabbed a clipboard off the table. “Even if the party goers are kinda late.”
Twilight picked up a pen and froze. I haven't had to write anything yet. Carefully, she started writing her name. “Well, I just transferred, and I wanted to jump right in and make some friends. This seems like a good way to start, at least.”
“See, I just walk up to people and say 'Hi!' and start talking to them, like I just did to you. And then we become friends! Except for this one guy, he was really cranky, like a donkey. But I managed to win him over in the end!”
Twilight put the pen down, smiling. “Reminds me of someone back home.”
Pinkie looked at the sheet and frowned. “Wow. Your handwriting is pretty bad.” She shrugged. “Oh well, as long as I can read it!”
“Was that Sunset you were talking to?”
“Yup! She likes to help plan the dances. She had some extra special decorations she wanted to put up, and she's going to bring them by later. Her parents are super rich, so they get all sorts of super fun stuff for us to use!” The bell rang. “Ooh! Lunch time! See you there!” With that, she skipped off.
“We haven't eaten since breakfast, have we?” Twilight asked aloud.
“I didn't want to say anything,” Spike replied.
Twilight chuckled as she left. The cafeteria proved to be easy to find, as many of the students were headed that way. “Things are going pretty well so far, actually. I thought this would be harder.”
“You still have to win the school.”
“I'm sure the library will have plenty of books on how to win an election. Besides, this Rarity already said she'd help us. Although it is weird that this world has such close parallels to my friends back home. I wonder if there's one of me here somewhere.”
“Maybe it's one of those parallel universes. Mostly the same, except for some stuff.”
“The same, but not. I didn't know you read my book on multiverse theory.”
“I tried one night when I couldn't sleep. It certainly fixed that.”
Twilight shook her head when a voice carried over the dull roar of the crowd. She worked her way closer and saw Trixie looming over a rail-thin, yellow skinned student with long pink hair who was hiding her face with a book. She wore a white t shirt and worn blue jeans.
“Do you always have to be in the way, Fluttershy? I know you're a doormat, but at least doormats don't get in everyone's way all the time.” Trixie started to walk away.
Twilight stormed forward and put a hand on Trixie's shoulder. “Apologize. Now.”
Trixie turned. “Why? Do you apologize to your doormat after you wipe your feet on it?”
“She's not a doormat, she's a person!”
“What's going on here?” a new voice said.
Trixie turned again and came face to face with a scowling Sunset Shimmer. Her teal eyes bored holes in Trixie's skull. “Nothing, I was just having a disagreement with a fellow student.” She looked at Twilight. “I think we're done, though.”
“Leave,” Sunset commanded. Trixie walked off, and Sunset turned her attention to the cowering Fluttershy, blue eyes now peeking over her book. “Are you all right?”
Fluttershy only nodded.
Sunset returned the nod, then turned to Twilight. “Standing up for a fellow student. Quite commendable. Just try not to get into any fistfights in my school.” She smiled and walked away.
Twilight's eyes followed Sunset out. She carried herself like practiced royalty. Twilight turned her attention to Fluttershy as students began to move on. “Are you actually okay?” Twilight held out a hand to help her up.
Fluttershy took Twilight's hand timidly and nodded.
“Fluttershy, right?”
She nodded again.
Twilight smiled. “Come on. You can sit with me. Is that okay?”
Fluttershy nodded again.
The two started walking in and headed for the lunch line. Most of the food looked somewhat familiar, though the ingredients were odd. And the smell of cooked meat hit her nose every now and then, and many students were picking up food that had to be made from it. She pushed the twinge of revulsion out of her mind as she grabbed foods that were more familiar.
“You don't like meat either?”
Twilight jumped and looked at Fluttershy, half of her long pink hair covering her face. “I've never had it, actually. It feels wrong, though.”
“I agree. There's no need to hurt animals that didn't do anything to us. I tried to convince people to stop, but they just made fun of me. One boy said that for every animal I didn't eat, he'd eat three.”
“Well, not everyone will agree. I mean, animals eat each other in nature, right?”
“I guess so.” The two finished getting their food and headed for an empty table. “I, um, wanted to thank you for standing up for me. Not many people do that.”
“Somebody needed to. With the way she acts, I'm surprised more people don't.”
“I guess everyone expects someone else to do it.”
The two sat. “Crowd mentality, I guess,” Twilight sighed.
“Twilight, there you are!” Rarity joined them. “You're making waves. The whole school will know you by the end of the day.” She looked at Fluttershy for a moment. “You're that girl who keeps trying to get volunteers for you animal shelter, aren't you?”
“You haven't met?” Twilight asked while Fluttershy decided to study her fruit salad.
“I've seen her around, but we've never been introduced.” Rarity held out her hand. “I'm Rarity. And you are...?”
Fluttershy mumbled something, timidly taking Rarity's.
“I'm sorry, I didn't catch that.”
Fluttershy mumbled again, slightly louder.
“Flute Shine?”
“She's Fluttershy,” Twilight interjected. “Anyway, Rarity, I signed up for the Fall Formal, and-”
Fluttershy choked on her food momentarily, staring at Twilight in horror. “Don't you know?”
“Sunset always wins, everyone's told me. But I need that crown, and I'll need help. Rarity's agreed, and I was going to ask if you wanted to. If you're okay with that.”
“Well, I, um, I don't know what I could do to help. I-I'm no good at public speaking and I don't have many friends...” Fluttershy played with her hair as she spoke.
“I'm sure there's a way.”
“I can't believe she had the nerve to talk to me like that!” Trixie slammed her lunch tray onto the table. Snips and Snails recoiled and shifted away.
“She's new, though. She'll learn,” Snips spoke up.
Snails chimed in as well. “We can help make her learn!”
“Good, I'll need the two of you to help me.” Trixie turned to the two smaller students who looked on her with idolizing eyes. “But the two of you need to promise you'll do exactly what I say, when I say it, and nothing more. I had some helpers last year who nearly ruined the Spring Fling because they got over eager. Do you understand?”
Snips and Snails nodded.
“Good.” Trixie pulled out her phone. “Now, let's get started.”
“You know, I think we can handle this,” Twilight said, headed towards the library.
“Who knew winning a popularity contest would be so easy?” Spike said sarcastically.
“Well, we have to do it, or we don't get the crown. Besides, now we have to do research on this school and the world, which we can make notes on and send back to Equestria. This is probably the best adventure we've had yet!”
“I kinda liked Discord, myself.”
“Oh yeah, having all my friends turn into horrible ponies was great.”
“I got to be Rainbow Dash for a day, so I'll take that as a win. Plus, cotton candy clouds.”
“I hope he keeps it all to his corner of the world, then. I still don't trust-” Twilight gasped as she entered the library. Next to they gym, it was the largest room in the school, bookshelves high across the walls. Round tables sat holding boxes with shiny black windows on them, gray boxes below them. A librarian in a purple skirt and white blouse was busy stocking shelves.
Twilight walked forward, taking it all in. Spike poked out too. “It's as big as the library in the castle,” he said in awe.
“I know...” Twilight said dreamily. “I don't know where to begin.” She took a breath to collect herself. “Okay, we should probably start with voting systems. I'm not sure how similar our world is to this one. We can spread out from there.”
Hours passed as Spike and Twilight pored over books, Twilight filling several notebooks with information from them. She attempted to use one of the boxes, being told by the librarian that they were computers, but after pecking at the keyboard for a while (with her fists before remembering she had fingers), she returned to the books. Biology, anatomy, sociology, geology and more subjects formed her own little castle on the upper levels of the library. She was deep into a book about democratic governments when an announcement came over the loudspeaker, announcing the close of the library.
“We never figured out a place to sleep, did we?” Spike asked, dropping a book.
Twilight got up and looked around. The library was empty besides them. “I guess we can stay here.”
Spike shrugged as only a dog could.
Twilight gathered her notebooks and put them in her backpack, then wrote out a quick note on a piece of paper. “Spike, take this to the portal and get it back to Equestria. It'll let the princesses know what's happened so far.”
“Got it.” Spike reflexively tried to breathe fire on it, then remembered he couldn't do that and simply ran off with the note. By the time he returned, Twilight had fashioned a bed from the books. “I've fallen asleep on books before, but not like this.”
Twilight chuckled. “You didn't happen to poke your head through the portal, did you?”
“No, sorry.”
“All right, then. I just had a theory that time flows differently here. When we left, it was nighttime, but when we got here, it was morning. Equestria could have had a few days pass while we've been here for close to 12 hours.” Twilight curled up on the makeshift bed.
Spike hopped up beside her. “We can find out when we get back.”
“I learned something else. At least, I'm pretty sure I did. According to some of the books on mythology, magic used to exist. I think it still does, but its practitioners have either gone into hiding or no longer exist. If we had more time here, we might be able to harness the magic here as well!”
Spike yawned. “If you figure out a mind control spell, let me know. Then we can get out of here sooner.”
Twilight scratched Spike behind the ears. “You'll be the first to know.”