//------------------------------// // The Bane of Two Worlds // Story: Wings // by Silent Bob //------------------------------// The Bane of Two Worlds CD-12 wasn't anything remarkable. In fact, it was about the same size as Tom's school, that being a building about the size of a small warehouse. However, if the number '12' meant anything, apparently the city was littered with schools. Judging by the city's size, that meant there were probably five schools per square mile. His whole county only had one. He shook his head in slight disbelief with a smile before 'entering' the front of the school, entering meaning phasing through the oddly solid door to the cloudy building. With that, he made is way through a small lobby before peering into its classroom. It, like the school itself wasn't that much different from his own. There was a chalkboard, a ton of desks, and most importantly; a teacher. She was a somewhat elderly looking mare pegasus with old-style glasses, the kind of sweet old lady who would be someone's favorite grandmother. The only difference about this classroom and his was the fact the desks were made of clouds. He shrugged at this. It must have saved the pegasi cost to build them out of cloud instead of having them made out of regular materials like some of the other furniture he had seen. There must have been about thirty students in all, all looking very, very bored. He looked around, trying to spot Dashie. Eventually, with his eyes widening with delight, he found her sitting in the back of the class, her cheek against a hoof. He chuckled to himself at that. School wasn't fun on any planet it seemed. Silently, he began creeping towards her. "Alright class. Today's lesson will be about our neighbors to the East, the Kingdom of Gyphonia," the teacher said, her voice as sweet as he imagined it would be. Apparently, every... pony(?), that's how Rainbow Dash usually said it, had just gotten to school. "Does anybody know anything about the gryphons?" "Yeah! Equestria kicked their lion flanks in the Crimson Islands War!" an overly gungho pegasus called from the middle row that earned a disapproving look from the teacher. A number of other pegasi, both male and female chuckled at that, one even giving the pony equivalent of a high-five, a hoof-bump to the colt in question. Dashie, however, seemed to go alert upon this. Her eyes widened as her hoof moved away from her cheek. Tom could detect a hint of... sadness upon her. His heart sank upon seeing it. "Now Stormfront, let's try to keep the topic of conversation away from more modern times," the teacher said, trying to keep her voice as civil as possible. "Blah, who wants to hear about the stinkin gryphons other than stories about them getting stuck!" another pegasus yelled, this one a filly. "Them getting stuck, eh? Check it out, then. My daddy killed like three in the last war!" another pegasus said proudly. "No way!" "Haha! That's awesome." "Class!" The teacher said, her voice rising in volume. "Keep it civil! This is a very sensitive topic." The boy could sense a hint of regret in her voice at that as he caught her giving a worried glance towards Rainbow Dash. Apparently this wasn't really the best topic to cover. And this was the attitude of kids in the same city with an embassy to that nation? At that, Rainbow sunk her head into her arms. Though he wasn't exactly sure why Rainbow was so bothered by this conversation (other than the fact these kids seemed to be very racist), he was now determined to cheer her up. He couldn't judge the colts and fillies, though, for he held the same views on the Germans on his homeworld. They were one of the same. Still though, the fact that there were racist, hateful adorable little ponies and pony wars was really, really strange to him. He was now ever-so close to Rainbow, him passing in front of a yellow-coated pegasi whose eyes held the same concern as the teacher's as she gazed upon her more gung-ho classmates. Ignoring her for the moment, a second later, he stood by Dashie's desk. At this point, her face was still in her arms. He was trying to think of some cool first-words to say to her, though there was nothing his mind could conjure that didn't sound cheesy. Sighing to himself in defeat, he eventually settled with: "Hey Rainbow! You have a neat house!" With that, Dashie's face shot up from her arms, her eyes widened in disbelief. "T-Tom?!" She nearly spat. Tom grinned at that, not only out of amusement from her reaction but at the fact that she could still see him. It did truly work two ways. If it would continue that way, he'd have the most interesting 'imaginary' friend a kid could have. "Haha! You should see the look on your face." "Rainbow?" her teacher asked, raising an eyebrow her way. "Who's Tom?" Dashie threw her an embarrassed look. "Uhhhh.... nothing Ms. Sweetsong, just woke up from a...." she smirked slightly. "A very weird dream." "Oh, alright dear," Sweetsong replied, her smiling Rainbow's way slightly. "Try not to sleep in class though, please." Rainbow then looked back towards Tom, her face riddled in disbelief. "How in the.... how did you get here?!" she whispered. "The same way you got to my place, a big universal road trip!" Tom beamed. "Wah?" Rainbow said, raising an eyebrow. Tom gazed at her curiously. "You know... flying through space, seeing the galaxies melt away to nothing... or in your case I guess the galaxies would be..." Dashie furrowed her brow in confusion. "Tom, I have no idea what you're talking about...' "Y-You don't?" Tom said. "Wait a minute... do you remember how you got to my house? What was the first thing you saw when you went to bed?" Rainbow thought for a second before saying, "all I remember was waking up in your corn field and seeing that weird gas masked imaginary trooper attacking you." She then grinned deviously. "And you know what that means? Since I could see your imaginary creations in your universe that means.... well, turn around...." Tom cocked an eyebrow at this. His trap senses were tingling, but nonetheless he complied only to be faced with... His eyes widened in horror. There, standing before him was a clown... A PONY CLOWN. "OH SWEET JESUS!" he shrieked before stumbling backwards and through Rainbow's desk. He caught himself right before he toppled over. Dashie could barely contain her laughter at that, holding an arm to her mouth in an attempt to muffle it as Tom performed a vain attempt to compose himself. "That was just cruel," he said, shooting her a glare. "I told you I hated clowns!" Seriously, there should have been a Geneva Convention for both human and pony comedians and pranksters that forebode that kind of thing. "Oh relax, it was all in good fun," Rainbow said, sticking a tongue out and evaporating the evil thing. Eventually though, her face morphed into a smile. "Still, it's really good to see you." "Minus the horrible abomination you just produced..." Tom returned the smile. "Likewise." "But yeah, so you got here by sleeping too?" she asked, her voice still a whisper. Tom nodded at that. "Yeah, when I was falling asleep I wished really hard to see you again and well... here I am." he then glanced around the room, chuckling slightly. "And you thought my planet was weird...." "Heh, well, it's really only like this in Cloudsdale." "I know," Tom nodded. Rainbow quirked her head. "Huh, how did you know? I never told you." "Well.. I kind of flew here. I saw a lot of Equestria, including that princess person you were talking about... at least I think it was her." Dashie's eyes widened. "You saw Princess Celestia?!" "Bout three feet tall, wears a golden crown and has wings and a horn?" Rainbow nodded rapidly. "Yep, I saw her then, though it was only for a second when I flew right through her throne room." "Wow, that's so cool!" Dashie beamed. She then narrowed her eyebrows. "But wait, you can't fly!" "Not on my own," Tom said. "Have you ever flown in your dreams before? It was kind of like that... only twenty-times crazier. I wasn't in control of where I was goin' though." Dashie shook her head in disbelief. "That is so weird..." she then pouted slightly, "I wish I got to fly when I visited you..." Tom glanced at her sympathetically. "Maybe you'll be able to do it next time you fall asleep?" Her face perked up at that. "That'd be cool! I kind of want to see a little bit more of your world..." As the two conversed, they failed to realize that the yellow-coated pegasi was gazing at them. "Um... Rainbow... if you don't mind me asking.... who are you talking to?" she said, her voice almost like a mouse's squeak. Tom smiled brightly at it. It was so adorable. "Ummmmm...." Rainbow said, her mind desperately trying to come up with an excuse. Eventually though, she sighed and leaned towards the pony. "Can you keep a secret, Fluttershy?" she whispered. The petite yellow pony nodded lightly. "I'm talking with a creature called a person who I met on another planet during my dreams that only I can see. He's really afraid of clowns." Tom nodded at that. Indeed, clowns were the bane of existence. He then waved at her with a smile. Fluttershy merely gazed at Dashie blankly, though. "Oh... uh...." A beat. "Ummmm..." She narrowed her eyebrows, unable to think of what to say. "Neat?" Tom nearly burst into laughter. Rainbow chuckled. "Yeah, it's weird." Fluttershy then smiled slightly. "He's afraid of clowns?" Rainbow and Tom nodded. "Mhmmm, and I don't know why; clowns are hilarious!" Rainbow beamed. The yellow pony shivered at that. "I wouldn't say that..." Tom smiled her way. Clowns didn't just suck to him, it seemed. Rainbow rolled her eyes incredulously. "I'll never get the two of you. Especially you, Tom. How can you not be afraid of creepy gas-masked soldiers but when clowns come calling you go into rabbit mode?" "It's just...." he paused, shaking his head. "Clowns...." he shivered. "Fluttershy, Rainbow! I hope you're talking about gryphon history back there," the teacher said sternly. Both of their eyes widened before they turned towards the teacher. "Uhhhh.... Sorry Ms. Sweetsong." They then sweat-dropped. Sweetsong sighed slightly, a hint of a smile forming on her face. "Just try to pay attention, alright?" she said, her voice still stern but taking on a sweeter tone. "Yes Ms. Sweetsong..." the two reluctantly replied. The two pegasi continued to gaze forward as the teacher rekindled her lesson. She was currently talking about ancient gryphon history, or so Tom thought. Something about how an ancient, evil mage of a species... or people called Teranids once fused lions and eagles together in order to make the world's first chimeras. Apparently, they were to be used to conquer some place called Algaria, home of the Arctic Vættir and... yeah...Tom's head was about to burst. She was making so many references to things and places he had no clue about. This lesson was going to be impossible for him to follow unless he really payed attention, and his curious side really wanted him to. This world was just so much less boring than his own. With that, he heard Dashie whisper, "We can talk about it a bit more after class..." Tom twirled around to see her leaning towards Fluttershy again, apparently confident the teacher's gaze was averted. "Hey Dashie, is this lesson important or something? I mean... we'll probably have all day to spend time together and stuff," Tom said, simpering. Dashie shook her head with a cocky smirk. "Na, it's nothing, and it's so freakin' boring anyway..." she whispered. Tom furrowed his brow. "I don't think it's boring." Dashie rolled her eyes. "You would, ya egghead!" Tom smirked. "And you're saying you wouldn't be curious about a whole nother' world's history?" Dashie made a 'hmph' sound before folding her arms. "Nope!" she said. The boy folded his arms as well. "I'll hold you to that if you pay me a visit while I'm at school, then." Rainbow's eyes widened at that, but nontheless she quickly re-forced her apathetic glance. Tom's smirk widened at it, forcing an eventual sigh from Dashie. "Oh alright!" she finally groaned. "Though only a little..." "I have an idea, then," Tom said. "We both pay attention and then later I can help you with your homework or something." Rainbow threw him a look that could warm the heart of a banshee. "You'd seriously do that for me?" Tom merely smiled. "What are friends for?" Huh.... Mmmmm.... Hermmm.... Mehhhhh.... Yeah, that was pretty cliche.