Rainbow approached the large, cold metal plating of the building. Her hoof lightly grazed the tile, sending cold shivers down her spine. It was taller than any building she had seen, except for perhaps Celestia's wing of the castle. The metal took on more of a grayish blue, the more she looked at it, but perhaps that was just the light coming from the moon. Charles opened the door, waiting for Rainbow Dash to finish... whatever she was doing.
"Rainbow Dash?" Bettie asked in a small voice, grabbing hold of her hoof, gently trying to coax her into the building.
"What is this?" Rainbow whispered, almost to herself. She didn't look at Bettie, who was slightly pushing her towards the door. Rainbow look at Charles, waiting for an answer she wasn't going to get.
"Come on." Was all he answered, as he walked into the building. Rainbow looked at Bettie, wondering if she could trust the two who had brought her here.
"RD, come on!" Bettie whined.
Rainbow tried to tear her hoof away from Bettie, but still she was determined to hold her hoove. Rainbow swung her hoof wildly, sending Bettie into a summersault and into the wall. Rainbow stood back up with all four hooves now.
"Don't call me RD." She said, biting down on her lip. She walked into the open doors, into wherever Charles had gone.
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Rinbow walked into the cold room, the air much colder than it was outside, if you could even call it outside. Rainbow had yet to see a tree, a plant, or even a weed anywhere. Her mind wandered to her conversation with Charles. Perhaps is that what he meant? Ugh, all this thinking was making her brain hurt. She muttered to herself and sat beside Charles. She heard the door close, and looked to see Bettie at the front door, frowning. Rainbow turned her head away, ignoring Bettie's massive frowns at the back of her head.
"Hey Rainbow Dash, what kind of technology do you have at your planet?" Charles idly asked. Turning his head for the first time towards Rainbow Dash since they entered the building.
Rainbow thought for a moment. "Well we have um... trains and I guess lamps. I don't know. That is really the thing you should ask Twilight..." Rainbow's ears dropped. She paused, looking at Charles in frustration, her wings flapping akwardly.
"I may never see them again..." She deflated, falling back onto the couch. Rainbow felt one of the creatures claws rub her back as if to comfort her. She wiggled out of their grasp and walked off the couch. She looked at the walls around her. The dark grey walls were drab, almost depressing other than electric blue lines that ran into the ceiling. She watched as some lit up, and some dissapeared into the grey of the wall, only to lite up again. She stared, wondering how her friends were doing, if they were worrying over her.
"Rainbow Dash." Bettie quietly voiced. "We can worry about that in time. Now let's watch television."
Her ears perked, catching the unfamiliar word. "Television?" She questioned wordlessly.
Bettie patted the couch next to her, beckoning Rainbow in a manner she could understand. She sat next to them, watching in confusion as they stared forwards at the grey wall-
Bursts of color popped, moving as though the objects were there before them. Rainbow moved her hoof in front of her, trying to reach the distant objects, her hoove only meeting air. Slowly, she crept forwards, her eyes determined until she ran into glass and toppled over. She became panicked, shooting into the air, only to akwardly forget how to catch herself, and fall back onto the floor.
She heard barely uncontained laughter behind her, Bettie giggling like a madmare. Charles just smiled, and sipped his yellow drink. Bettie toppled over onto the floor with Rainbow Dash, laughing hysterically. Rainbow begrudgingly stood, dusting off her coat and her... wing. She sat back on the couch, stepping over Bettie as she continued to laugh uncontrolably.
"Guess you have never seen a television, have you?" Charles chuckled.
Rainbow grumbled a response.
Charles rolled his eyes. Even he could see Rainbow was barely over her teenage years. Still just a child, in his eyes. "Rainbow Dash?" He asked. Rainbow looked at him without a response. "How was your first time watching television?" He smiled brightly, which only worsened her mood.
She looked back at the T.V., now knowing the effect was just an illusion, she began to enjoy it. so much that, she wanted to watch it all. She saw all of the sitcoms staring her favorite human. "Greg" was almost on every channel, every show. He had light brown skin light walnut wood. Nopony was purple, or red, or any color. At least Rainbow could tell Bettie and Charles apart. Bettie was dark like Chocolate, and Charles had dark tan skin.
"Charles, why do all of these shows have the same person, as like, every character?" Rainbow whined.
"What do you mean?" Charles asked.
"Look! There is Greg, and there his is again!"
Charles just laughed. "I didn't think of different species would work too." He almost said to himself. "Rainbow, it's called the cross race effect, or I guess the cross-species effect. You can't tell us apart because you didn't grow up with us. If you were raised here as a baby, then I guess you wouldn't have this problem, because-"
"My brain hurts!" Rainbow shouted. "You could tell ponies apart, I mean, I'm blue, and Twilight is purple, and it is so easy to tell us apart! Why can't you all look different?"
"I dunno." Bettie butted in. "Marketing scam?"
Charles frowned wordlessly at Bettie. "What? Um, what are you talking about?"
"Don't listen to her," Charles rolled his eyes.
She sat on the couch beside Charles, watching the many shows the screen had to offer. They laughed, and they cried. Bettie was on her belly in front of them, watching everything like a child watching cartoons. Rainbow started to see subtle differences in the characters, one had long hair, another had spiky blue hair. She could tell the difference, even if she struggled a bit. All the while Charles talked to her during the 'commercials'. He talked about hands, and fingernails, and he talked about super gross things, like when ponies kissed and licked each other. Even though in the back of her mind Rainbow knew she was learning, she didn't think it was uninteresting. It wasn't like reading a book, it was... living a book, seeing how these ponies could design, and draw, and do stuff. It was all so exciting.
"Rainbow?" Charles asked. She immediately snapped to attention, and realized Charles was no longer beside her. "It's 3 in the morning."
"I'm not tired!" Rainbow whined, reluntantly looking away from the T.V. to look at Charles.
He sighed, rubbing his hands on his head in frustration.
"Besides, I didn't even get up until, like..." Rainbow stopped trying to count the numbers in her head.
"Fine." He said, too tired to argue. "Just turn the volume down, I'm trying to sleep."
Rainbow grabbed the remote in her mouth and searched the buttons for the volume. The remote was obviously designed for somepony with fingers. Rainbow grumbled in frustration as her entire hoof pressed almost every button at once. The T.V. started to buzz, and the screen only showed black and white dots furiously flickering. Frantically, Rainbow started to press even more buttons, and turned up the sound and made the T.V. beep constantly. Rainbow started to panic, the television louder than ever. Quickly, she ended the madness when she hit the 'off' button.
Perhaps Rainbow should go to bed...