Rainbow Dash moped to herself as she walked with the other five toward the castle's dining room, and she kept staring at the colt walking in front of her who told on her to one of her friends. She couldn't believe that colt would sell her out like that after acting like all is forgiven, he even talked about her like she was some malicious foal beater. If Question Mark's words get out to the rest of her friends before hers, it might cause a huge problem for her, especially if one of her friends decide to tell somepony else before she gets a chance to explain, though she shouldn't have a hard time figuring out which one it would be. Suddenly Smiley Face walks to Question Mark's side and started whispering to him, Rainbow leaned her head closer to listen to what they could possibly be talking about now.
"Hey, why did you do that?" Smiley Face asked quietly to the colt.
"Do what?"
"You know what I'm talking about!"
"Well the candy you bought was so good and I just couldn't help myself..."
"No, I'm talking about Rainbow Dash!"
"Yeah, I knew that. I was just messing with you." Question Mark snickered while Smiley just looked at him unamused.
"Alright, alright. I mean, that LGBT supporter just knocked a tooth from the left side of my mouth, now I have to chew with my right side that has a shattered tooth, do you know how much it hurts to chew with a shattered tooth?! Not very pleasant. And besides, did you really think I would forgive her for hitting me in the face that quickly? I'm not the type that just forgives someone *snap* just like that without getting at least a little revenge."
"But lying to her friend accusing her of child abuse, don't you think that's a little too far?"
"Eh, well. What ends up happening to her social life is none of my concern."
"Why are you such a jerk?"
"I don't know. I just am." the colt answered plainly.
"You really need to stop it, because if it goes on my sister and my parents will forbid me from ever seeing you again."
"Well, they're not here right now, are they? Look, I really hope you stop getting on my case for these gullible idiots, they're none of our concern. All we should focus on is gathering the stuff necessary for research and evidence, find a way to get back home and not get too attached with this place. Ever read stories where characters got too used to being at someplace that they abandon their home?"
Everything the colt has said just confirms her doubts about him. Evidence? Gullible idiots? Now Rainbow was sure this colt was up to no good, and he clearly remembers his home more than he's admitting judging from how much he wants to leave. Dash first thought they might be changeling spies but then she remembered that that was a long time ago and that she just accidentally had an extremely xenophobic thought so she tossed that theory out the window. All of their known enemies are defeated, so if this colt is a threat then he's definitely a new one. First, she's gotta warn her friends that Question Mark and possibly his friends are not to be trusted. And luckily she doesn't have to worry about her friends calling her crazy because of their encounters with Cozy Glow, which is one thing she can be thankful about with that monster of a filly so they never underestimate where their enemies can come from.
They finally arrive in the dining room where sure enough, Sunburst and Trixie, who are now Starlight's herdmates were sitting there drinking and eating their afternoon breakfast. Sunburst looked particularly exhausted, and Rainbow couldn't tell if it was from studying all night or...something else. Or it's probably because Starlight woke him up early again, you never really know with these two.
Sunburst looked up from his mug to the visitors and seemed pretty happy to see them, while Trixie just yawned pretending not to notice them. "Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy! Nice to see you again. How have you been?" Sunburst got up from his seat and trotted towards them.
"Hey there, Sunburst. We're just...y'know, doing what we always do." Rainbow answered. She then looked to the pony behind Sunburst. "Hey, aren't you even gonna at least acknowledge us being here?" Rainbow said annoyed.
"Oh, sorry. Didn't see you there. I was a little busy thinking about one of my best performances to notice you" Trixie finally looked toward the two pegasi's direction, not even trying to hide her sarcastic tone, causing Dash to become even more annoyed.
"Yeah, sorry about that. Trixie can be a bit of a pain to be around, but she's a really nice mare once you really get to know her." Starlight said a little awkwardly, followed by a smile and nod from Sunburst as she said exactly what was on his mind.
"Trust me, I'm fully aware of the first part." Dash said through clenched teeth, Starlight's reassurance apparently failed to calm her.
"Who are these three? Do they need our help?" Sunburst said finally addressing the three strangers accompanying the two pegasi mares.
"Oh, yeah. Apparently Fluttershy and Rainbow here found them leaving the Everfree. This is Question Mark, Smiley Face and...was your name 'Doofus'?" Starlight pointed to each of the three newcomers before stopping on the scrawny young stallion.
"Well, uh..." the stallion looked around nervously while looking at Question Mark, who glared at him as if warning him. "Yes, it is." Doofus finally answered with his ears drooped really unhappy with his answer, while Question Mark let out a quiet sigh of relief.
"The Everfree?! What could they possibly be doing in there?" Sunburst said a little surprised by what he heard.
Then Question Mark stepped into the conversation to explain their situation. "We don't know as well. We suddenly woke up in the forest with absolutely no memory of where we came from...well actually, we do have some memories about who we are and where we come from and what things were like there, but we don't really remember where exactly we came from. I think things also worked differently where we came from because we have absolutely no idea how things work around here, but I'm not 100% certain. I think we're suffering from amnesia, but if that's the case why do we still remember our names and what our home was like? I don't know, I'm not a neuroscientist. Look, the point is: we don't remember how we got here and we're completely clueless as to how things work here."
"Wow, that's a lot of information coming from such a little colt." Trixie says, finally joining in.
"Yeah, if you didn't understand a thing I said, I don't blame you. I don't really think that much information would fit in such a small storage anyway." Question Mark replied.
"Prob...wait...HEY!" Trixie exclaimed, taking her a few seconds to understand what the colt was implying, getting a snicker out of Starlight.
Sunburst rolled his eyes and brought his focus back to Question Mark. "So you really have no memory of where you came from, except that it functions differently than here?"
"Pretty much the gist of it." the colt replied.
"Well, that's gonna be tough to narrow down since that's barely really a starting point."
"The colt said it doesn't work as it does here, so we just have to look for places that aren't Equestria!" Trixie thought out loud.
"Trixie, every place in Equestria functions differently than Ponyville, and even if you're right that still doesn't narrow it down." Sunburst said unimpressed by Trixie's conclusion.
"Eh, Trixie did what she could." she shrugged.
"Actually, Question Mark did give us a few hints as to where they came from was like." Fluttershy said.
"Really? What did he say?" Sunburst asked.
"Well, he didn't really say too much but a lot of his questions implied a lot about what his home was like. Apparently where they came from is a patriarchal, male dominated and very stallion-centric society." Fluttershy explained.
"A patriarchal and male-centric pony society? That's odd. I've heard of pony kingdoms with a lot of stallion leaders or having stallion historical figures, but they were never really stallion-centric." Sunburst said.
"I mean, I can't really say it's really patriarchal or guy-centric since we guys have to really give a lot of respect to the girls. Like, we have to give them presents, gifts, and especially attention." Doofus Dweeb explained.
"Yeah, but the girls still keep on fighting for equal rights to this very day and we still need more empowering, so it's probably still pretty patriarchal." Smiley Face explained as well.
"Yeah, but most of those people are just a bunch of whiny idiots trying to get their way instead of equality so I don't really think that's 100% true." Question Mark said to the pink filly.
"Wait, mares fighting for equal rights?!" the five ponies of Ponyville exclaimed all at once, unable to comprehend what they just heard.
"That can't be true!" Rainbow said refusing to believe the words of the pink filly.
"Yeah, throughout history stallions were the ones oppressed by the ruling female class forced to do all the physical labor, treated like objects to be traded around when confronted with a 'better' stallion, and most of all only used for means of...er...reproduction and...bedroom toys." Sunburst explained, hesitating a bit at the end to explain in front of the mares and especially the foals.
"It's probably just a bunch of lazy mares who want to turn back time and make stallions do all the work for them, not that Trixie would mind too much, I could use more assistance." Trixie shrugged while her herdmates gave her frustrated and disapproving looks. "Though, Trixie can't really blame them too much. They're probably just tired of having to suck up to perverted and silver-tongued stallions all the time as society expects them to, Trixie is as well. Just like the time with my wagon and that Saddle Arabian stallion, remember, Starlight?!" Trixie says to her herd sister.
"What?! Are you seriously still holding that against me? That was a long time ago! I thought we've forgotten all about it by now!" Starlight said outraged.
"Yes it was, but what you did was an act of the betrayal of trust! And considering our current relationship status, Trixie's pretty sure that would count as infidelity!" Trixie yelled back at the purple unicorn.
"Now see here...!" Starlight shouted before being interrupted by a loud voice.
"ACTUALLY...!" Fluttershy said in a loud voice to prevent the argument between the two mares, Question Mark seemed relieved as well since he looked frustrated at the bickering going on over what Smiley Face said. "I've heard there are actually a few protests for equal rights by mares since they felt that mares are always expected to take care of stallions all the time that it spoils stallions and stallions start to take advantage of that norm. "But I don't really know too much about it and I've only seen them in places like Manehatten, so..." Fluttershy explained, becoming a little nervous at the end.
"Manehatten? Seriously?" Question Mark whispered.
"See? What did Trixie tell you all?" Trixie pointed out Fluttershy's explanation.
"Trixie, be quiet." Starlight said.
"You don't tell the Great and Powerful Trixie to be quiet!" Trixie said with a dramatic tone.
"Oh, my god. I can't take another second of this..." Question Mark said visibly exhausted listening to the ponies in the room.
"OH! That's another thing! They also say 'God' instead of 'Goddess'!" Fluttershy pointed out.
"God damn it."
"Wow, their home sounds really male-dominated." Starlight says surprised.
"I've never heard any pony society having that expression. Maybe they came from a place inhabited by a patriarchal species, like the griffins. Wait, do the griffins even believe in a god or that kind of stuff?" Sunburst theorized, whispering to himself at the end.
"Yeah, can I sneak out of the room while none of you are looking? Because you guys are about as pleasant to listen to as a nail-filled barbed wire glove scratching a 20-meter blackboard. Unless someone out there actually enjoys the sound of scratching a blackboard, which I actually wouldn't be surprised at all." Question Mark said unenthusiastically.
"Ah, sorry about that. Must've gotten lost in the...Oh, Goddess! What happened to your face?!" Sunburst exclaimed after noticing the large bruise on the side of the colt's face.
Rainbow Dash hadn't noticed until now, but the colt was purposefully hiding his bruise from everypony's sight for whatever reason and only made it visible now.
"Oh yeah, almost forgot about that. Apparently, Rainbow Dash here struck this colt in the face!" Starlight glared.
"What?! Rainbow, how could you do something like that?!" Sunburst asked in disbelief.
"Oooh! Trixie has got to see this!" Trixie said excitedly getting up from her spot to where Sunburst and Dash were standing.
"Yeah, I'm just gonna stand over there where I can't get involved." Doofus said scampering away from the ruckus to a far corner of the room.
"I actually want to go somewhere you wanna go for once." Question Mark said following his scrawny young adult friend, not wanting to listen to anything else the other ponies in the room have to say.
"But, guys...shouldn't we help clear up this misunderstanding?" Smiley Face said meekly to her two friends walking away.
"No!" They both replied, which caused Smiley to instantly give up and join them, leaving Rainbow Dash alone with her friends.
Rainbow looked back at the three other ponies staring at her disapprovingly, except for Trixie who was clearly pretending to look disapproving but Dash could tell she was just watching this for her enjoyment.
"Well, Rainbow. What do you have to say for yourself?" Starlight asks aggressively.
"Come on, I didn't mean to actually hit him! Not that hard, and that colt already said it was o..." Rainbow tried to explain before being interrupted.
"What do you mean 'not that hard'?!" Starlight asked again. Dash tried to calm her down but accidentally ended up making the fire bigger than it already was.
"Wait! Sorry, that wasn't what I meant to say!"
"So you did mean to hit him!"
"No, I didn't want to hurt him. He was saying bad things about me and Fluttershy!" Rainbow attempted to defend herself.
"So you hit a little colt in the face because he said mean things about you. Oh, this is too good!" Trixie said, unable to hold back her smile and control her laughter. None of the others were amused by her enjoyment of the situation.
"Shut up, Trixie! None of you were there, he wasn't saying typical foal insults! He called Fluttershy a broad and a rape victim! Does that sound okay to you?! Flutters, you were there. Tell them what happened!" Rainbow pleaded to her yellow friend, being very close to losing her temper. Starlight and her herd seemed surprised at what the colt apparently said, but didn't lose their dissaproving looks.
"Er...well...I-It's true, he did say those things about me. I was also really shocked to hear him say it." Fluttershy muttered, unsure of how to answer.
"But he's just a colt, he probably doesn't even really understand what he's talking about! Foals his age do tend to be pretty, um...aggressive? Frustrated? Overly emotional? I mean, just ask Starlight's father." Sunburst tried to explain, the last bit causing Starlight to glare at him.
"Oh, I'm pretty sure he knew exactly what he was saying! Did you all forget about Cozy Glow? Oh! And speaking of Cozy Glow, there's something I need to talk to you about Question Mark. But, um...can we talk about in the hall?" Rainbow said quietly at the end.
"In the hall? Why? If you want to talk about Question Mark, isn't it better to talk with him as well?" Starlight asked, confused at how secretive Rainbow was being.
"Starlight is right, talking directly with the pony you're having a problem with will help finish the problem faster. We should know, we're guidance counselors." Trixie said.
"I WAS a guidance counselor, you're the guidance counselor now." Starlight smiled at her herd sister.
"Actually, no. I don't wanna let that colt hear us, because it's not actually that kind of problem. It's something else that I think you should hear." Rainbow explained.
Fluttershy and Starlight's herd looked at each other and eventually agreed. "Fine, this better be worth our time." Starlight said. With that, the five of them went out into the hall.
As the five ponies of Ponyville exited the dining room, the white colt stared at them with an annoyed face.
"Urgh, damn horses. I thought they'd never leave." the colt said as he turned back to his friends after the door shut.
"Man, we got them questioning us a lot, huh?" the pink filly said.
"Yeah, gotta be careful about that. I don't wanna be tested in Pony Area 51." the white colt replied.
"How do you know they even have those here?" the scrawny stallion asked.
"I don't, that's why I'm worried. We don't know how they might react." the colt answered.
"Also, I think that rainbow chick really hates you. Not that I'd blame her." the stallion pointed out.
"Yes, I'm aware. But as long as they think she's a child abuser, I'll be fine." the colt said.
"Yeah, I doubt that'll last very long from what I've seen." the pink filly said.
"Do you think she suspects us?" the stallion asked his two companions.
"Probably, but I don't think she'll actually find out. At least not now." the colt answered.
"By the way, did you hear that stuff about how their gender stuff is like backwards? That's pretty crazy." the stallion said.
"Yeah, like the girls are the oppressors and ruling ones and the boys are the oppressed ones treated like objects. It's like reversed gender roles." the pink filly added.
"Well, obviously. Equines are a naturally matriarchal species, where we came from was naturally patriarchal, so of course the circumstances would be different. Were you two not listening back at the bakery? And also, I wouldn't say they're reversed, it's more of similar situations that differ because of the different factors." the colt explained.
"Yeah, but it's still pretty reversed." the filly said.
"Alright, fine. It's reversed." the colt said, knowing the information wouldn't get into the filly's head.
"Good news for me, that means the girls won't hit me anymore because that would be considered oppression on the fairer sex!" the stallion said happily.
"Even if that was the case, they'd still hit you." the colt replied, causing the stallion to frown.
"So, uh...Are we still going with the 'collect evidence' and 'find a way home' plan?" the filly asked.
"Of course! You're not seriously thinking about living here, right?" the colt asked.
"N-No, of course not! It's just that...finding a way home might take a while, so maybe before we know how to get home, why don't we just take in this place and get to know it." the pink filly explained.
"Eeehh, I don't know." the cold said hesitantly.
"I mean, think about it! It would be a waste if we came to a place like this and not try to find out all about it." the filly continued.
"Oh yeeaah, you're right. You finally said something smart for once in your life." the colt said after thinking about it, his comment at first making the filly smile and then scowl a second later.
The white colt then continued. "But we also can't let them become too familiar with us or else who knows what might happen. So for now, let's just play along."