//------------------------------//
// Chapter Five: Introductions 
// Story: The Interdimensional Field Trip 
// by Fussan 
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                                                                  Chapter Five: Introductions

Equis, Equestria, Ponyville Hospital
I figured that since we may be here a while, we should get to know each other. I walked over to my classmates and teacher and thought of the best way to explain things. I decided I would tell them the truth. Not the whole truth, just what they needed to know. So after I gathered all of my thoughts together, I tried my best to tell them what was going to happen. I knew I could do it; I was a born speaker. Talking was what I was good at. I had no doubt in my mind that I could make them see my way. After I was finished speaking, I would have them believing that I was the one they should follow and that they should do anything and everything I say. "So... uh, listen, we, kinda need to talk about some things." I said that like I was not sure of the words that were coming out of my mouth.
God damn it, I thought, that sounded way better in my head.
I needed to continue before any of them got any doubts as to who was in charge. It was me, and they needed to know that if they wanted to survive here. I thought it might be best to tell them how we need to work together, and how things were. "Listen, I know I told you how we got here, but that doesn't mean we can get back the same way. So I think we're kinda trapped here, but only for a while."
They all got freaked when I said that, so I had to hurry to continue my speech or they would get even worse before long.
"But only for a little while! I'm sure they're already working on a way to... fix things, and then all you little whiners can be safely tucked in by your mommies when you get home." I said the last part in a mocking tone which made them angry. It was my plan though, to get them angry. If they were angry, then they were not panicking and running around mucking everything up. "Now listen," I continued, "If you would calm down, I can get things straightened out, and everything will be fine. So, will you all calm the fuck down so I can actually do something to help you?
They all nodded in agreement and looked at me with scared faces.
"Okay, I already told you how we got here, so now I'm going to introduce you to our hosts; the ones who will make sure we get back home safely." I said the last bit in a tone so that they knew just what I was saying. "So, without further a due, I give you- drum roll please," then I made a drum roll with my tongue, "the Mane Six! Spelled 'M-A-N-E-', not 'M-A-I-N'." I said the whole thing in a voice that sounded like a ringmaster at a circus, and I was pretty convincing, if I do say so myself. But unfortunately, they were too freaked, so the effect was lost on them.
I led them over to where the six ponies where standing, looking uncertain. I looked back to my fellow Humans and started. "This is Twilight Sparkle," I said, pointing to the lavender colored pony with a horn and eyes that matched her coat. She had straight purple hair with a steak of hot pink running through it. Her tail was just about a perfect match to her mane. She could tell I was introducing her, and smiled at all of us. "She's the princess's prized pupil, and possibly the most talented unicorn in all of Equestria. She's also the one who cast the spell that went wrong to bring us here."
Then I walked over to a pony with bright blue eyes, and a big poofy pink mane and tail, and a coat almost the same color. "this, lady and dudes, is Pinkie Pie- scientific name: Pinkieus Pieacus." When she saw that I was introducing her, she got a big smile on her face- almost impossibly big. "She's also known as the 'Party Pony', and rightly so. She can throw some of the best parties this world has ever seen."
I then stepped over to a white pony with a horn and a exquisitely styled mane and tail, and intensely blue eyes. "This, my friends, is the lovely Rarity." She must have known I was introducing her, so she tossed her head so her mane came over her eyes, then fell to the side, and gave a dazzling smile. "She's the most talented fashionista you've ever seen, and has the ability to make the most amazing clothes you've ever seen."
I took a few steps toward a timid, butter yellow pegasus with a long, light pink mane and tail, and a gentle shade a green for her eyes. "This is Fluttershy, the most adept animal care-giver since... well, since ever, really." She backed away when she saw that we were all looking at her, and I decided it best not to prolong this one. "She's very shy, but when she needs to, she can seriously fuck you up. So don't mess with her," I said in a warning tone.
I walked to the pony next to her, a light orange one with a blond mane and tail done up in a- get this- pony tail, light green eyes, and a big stetson hat resting on her head. "This here is Applejack of the Apple Family, the best baker around, and the most honest of people you'll ever meet." Applejack tipped her hat at us when she figured I was introducing her. "She's the toughest cowgirl you'll ever lay eyes on."
Then I waked over to a cyan pegasus pony with magenta eyes and an unruly mess of a mane with every color of the rainbow in it. "Last, but sure as hell not least, is Rainbow Dash, the fastest flier in Equestria, and the winner of the 'Best Young Flier' award." Rainbow took that as her cue to strike a pose. She stood up straight with her front-left hoof out to the side slightly, and the front-right hoof held up like a pointer dog. To top it off she put on a winner's smile and winked at us. I rolled my eyes and went on with the introduction. "She's going to try out for the Wonderbolts when the time is right, and I have no doubt that she'll make it."
Now that I've introduced all the ponies to them, I have to introduce all of them to the ponies.
Man, I thought, Being an interpreter must suck.
***
The Human, Django, had just introduced all of them to the other Humans. None of them liked that they could not understand what he was telling them. They hoped it was something good, and not all a bunch of bad stuff.
"Now," he said, "I'm going to introduce all of them to you girls, Okay?"
He was speaking Equine again, so that they could understand him. They all nodded in confirmation to let him know he had been understood.
He didn't seem to do a lot of moving around, probably because he was just in a major accident. So instead of doing what he did with the ponies, he just stood to the side and pointed to them as he went.
"That's Lewis; he's small but tough." He pointed to a male shorter than him by three or four inches. He had black hair and a wiry build, and he looked tough, but also like he was friendly. "He's probably the one that I hang out with the most out of all of them. We like to play cards while we're pretending to do our school work."
He then pointed to the male who had skin that was so black it looked like it had been burnt by the sun. "That there is T-boy- I'm not sure if that's his real name, but it's cool with me." He had his hair braided thickly with the ends on the back of his head pointing outwards. He was bigger than Lewis, and he looked like we was strong. "He's a refugee from Liberia; showed up in our school not too long before I did, and he's been the star of the soccer team almost the entire time he's been with us." They saw a sneer form on Django's face. "Can't hoop for shit though."
They were confused; they did not know what he meant by that. But before they could ask him he went on.
Django pointed at a male, the tallest of the bunch. He was black, like T-boy, but not as dark, and had hair so short it almost looked like he had none at all. "This is Tyrence, he's a bit slow, but don't let that fool you. I'm sure he can be fast if he wants to... maybe." He had his hands over his chest, rubbing them together while he watched them, a look on his face that was not quite 'intelligent'.
"That's all the juniors of the class, so now I'll move to the sophomores."
Twilight decided to speak up. "Um, excuse me-"
The Human interrupted her with a smart remark. "I don't smell anything," he said with a smile.
Twilight blushed and Rainbow and Pinkie giggled a bit before she continued.
"No, that's not what I meant. I wanted to ask what 'juniors' and 'sophomores' were."
"Oh," he said, "juniors are eleventh grade, sophomores are tenth, and just to keep any other questions out of the way, freshman are ninth, and seniors are twelfth."
Twilight made an 'Oh, I get it' noise, and motioned with her hoof for him to go on.
He pointed to two more darker males, one taller than him by less than an inch, the other a lot shorter. The big one had some extra weight on him, but only a little bit, and had very big fluffy-looking hair. The smaller one was built more like Lewis, only he was smaller and did not even look strong compared to the others, and his nose was pushed up into his head like it had been broken very badly in the past and never healed right. "The big dumb one is Demetrion, and the little dumb one is Dante. They're cousins, but I didn't know that until just recently- I had no idea that more than one person in a family could be that ugly."
This got another giggle from Rainbow, but all the others stayed silent.
Django then pointed to a lighter-skinned male who was nearly as tall as himself with bad acne and sandy blond hair and a dumb look on his face. "This here is Bird, one of the only semi-sane people with us. He may look dopey, but don't let him fool you, he's smarter than he looks. He's a bit different though; while most other guys our age dream of  girls, guns, and glory, he just dreams of cars- he's obsessed with the damn things."
Django pointed to two more males, one was about the same height as himself and looked like he carried some weight, and had a slightly crooked stance and eyes that did not go quite straight and short dark blondish hair. The other one was smaller, with light brown skin and big eyes with dark brown hair with a bright blond patch on the right side that looked as it might have once been a streak, but now they could not tell because it had started to grow out into something that vaguely resembled the beginnings of an afro. "These two are my best buds, George, and Rasheed. We've been through so much together it would be hard to remember it all. We've been hanging out even before high school. We were PEP kids! We're the original 'goon squad'! Special Ed. representin' room two-two-two!" He held his hands up to his chest and put the finger on the side and the finger next to the smallest one down and put his hands together so that the small fingers were touching and he held the two bigger fingers together as well.
They all looked at the Human with questioning stares. They have never heard of anything called PEP before, so they wanted to know.
"What's PEP?"
He looked at them with a puzzled expression.
"You don't have that here? Wow, what a bunch of softies."
Twilight bristled at the comment, but decided it was better to let it pass.
"No," she said, "we don't know what that is. Can you maybe tell us?"
"Well," he started, "do you know what prison is?"
Twilight nodded.
"That's half of it. PEP is like if prison and school got drunk one night and had a kid in the back alley behind the bar."
Twilight and the others gasped at the description he had given them.
"Don't worry," he said, "it's much, much worse than it sounds." He gave them a sad smile. "But it was the best years of my entire kidhood."
" 'Kidhood'?" asked Twilight.
"I never like the word 'child'; it sounded like you were young and helpless, everything I really wasn't. So instead of saying 'childhood', I say 'kidhood'."
"But you still are a kid," said Rainbow Dash.
"No, I'm a teenager; there's a difference. I got the puberty and the raging hormones to prove it!"
Rainbow made a 'calm down' gesture with her hooves and said, "Okay, there's no reason to get excited there Django."
He smiled at them all and said, "Yes there is, I finally get to meet you all."
They were about to respond, but he went on with the introductions.
He pointed to a small male with a chubby face and body with black hair. "This here is Mike, he may act like he's tough shit, but he's sweet as they come. That bum standing next to him is Tyler." He pointed to a male with brown hair and pasty skin with bad acne- a lot like Bird- and looked like he had trouble breathing through his nose. "He thinks he's cool, but he's not. Don't listen to anything he says about me either, he's just mad 'cause I beat his ass pretty bad."
They all looked at one another, suddenly very nervous to be in the same room as him.
"Now for the freshman," he announced.
"That's David," he said as he pointed to a darker skinned male with short hair and a small build. He was shorter than Django, but not by a lot. "He's pretty smart, and is always talking about fireworks, and blowing things up, like the toilets in the girls bathroom."
Rainbow and Pinkie laughed a bit at that before he continued.
He pointed to the one they guessed was a female, and were soon proven right. "That's Ms. Francis, our teacher from back in school. She's a cool teacher, helping the slower kids when they need it, and all that jazz."
Twilight looked at the female. She was barely more than an inch taller than Django, and had dark brownish-red colored hair, and had curves where none of the males had them, and also a small podge. But she stood with a posture of somebody who was in charge of things.
"What do you mean, 'slower kids'?" asked Applejack.
Django looked at her with a steady gaze. "What I mean," he said, "is that she helps the ones who aren't smart enough to learn on their own."
Twilight looked confused for a second, then she decided to ask a question that was nagging her at the back of her mind.
"Why were you in PEP?" She asked it, but immediately regretted doing so when Django looked at her with an angry face.
"Because ignorant little ass-wipes don't know how to keep their mouth shut, so I would do it for 'em. Because unlike a lot of kids, I had to actually work to get things done. Because unlike most kids, I'm not a FUCKING ASSHOLE!" He said the last two words loud enough to hurt all of their ears.
Twilight flinched away from him when he yelled at them, they all did. But after he yelled, he apologized and told them not to worry.
"I'm sorry," he said in an apologetic tone of voice, "I shouldn't have let my temper get the best of me. It's just," he took a deep breath before going on, "I don't really like talking about my past. So if it's all the same to you, I would rather just leave it be."
Twilight and the others were speechless for a few minutes, but then something they did not expect happened: Rainbow Dash spoke up.
"I know how that is Django, I really do, I was picked on constantly in flight school, so I know what you're feeling. I'm sorry that you had that kind of stuff happen to you, but you don't have to yell at Twilight for it."
Django took on an angry face again, and he glared at Rainbow. He looked like he was ready to kill something, and it actually scared Rainbow a little. "You don't know shit Rainbow," he snapped. "Yeah you got picked on, but did you ever get into fights, and not those fights where a few swings happen, then it's broken up before anybody really gets hurt? The kind of fights where you were bleeding all over from cuts and had something broken if you weren't lucky? The kind of fights I was in from the day I was fucking born?! Well, are those the kind of fights you got into Rainbow?"
They were all stunned, to say the least. They figured he had been in fights from when Celestia had said he had older scars, but nothing like that.
"There's no way you were in that kind of a fight when you were young," Rainbow scoffed.
"Oh yeah," he growled," I got this when I was three years old." He pulled up his shirt to show them a nasty scar on his side that was at least four inches across, and almost double that long-ways. "Some kid got angry at me 'cause I beat up his younger brother. Didn't matter to him that I was a lot smaller than his brother, and a whole lot smaller than him, or that his brother started the fight and had two friends with him when they tried to beat me up. So what he did was get a big fallen tree branch and sharpen it up into a spear and jab me in the side with it. But he was stronger than I was, so it went into my side and nearly punctured my lunges. But I fought back and took away the branch and beat him in the head with it, over and over again, until he stopped moving."
They all looked horrified; they could not believe somebody so young would do that, they just could not!
"I didn't kill him though," he said after a breath, and they sighed in relief. "But I wish I had killed him. After that the fights got worse; me up against two guys, then three, then five. Then they started bringing weapons to help them, but it didn't matter, they lost, and I won, every... single... time."
They did not know what to say to that. He was dangerous when he wanted to be, and they really did not want him to be dangerous.
He pointed to a long, thin scar running from his shoulder to the middle of his chest. "This was the only fight I came close to losing. There were six of them, and they had baseball bats; all, but one. The leader of their group had brought a knife."
That made them gasp when he had said this. They had a hard time picturing a child having something like that.
"I was a lot older then, I was eight, and I had grown up a lot and was stronger than all of them. When he came at me, I got a cut on the chest, but I got the knife and turned it on him. I put the knife deep in his gut, making him cough up blood. After that, all the others ran off, but I got them at school the next day, made them pay for hurting me."
They did not know if they were still breathing after he said that, they were in such a state that everything felt cold and distant.
Django looked at Rainbow after a few seconds of letting them take in the tale he had just told them. "Are those the kind of fights you got in, eh, Rainbow?"
She just shook her head, not sure what to say- not even sure if she was able to say anything.
He looked down at the ground. "This is why I don't like talking about my past; it either makes people scared of me, or sad for me. I don't like when that happens, so can you just forget I said any of that?"
They were not sure if they could ever forget hearing something like that, but they nodded to make him feel better. They did not want to make him angry by disagreeing.
"Let's get off this topic shall we?"
They nodded in agreement. They had regained their composure, but they were still more than a little bit scared of him, and would rather him not talk about things that made him angry.
"That's all of us, well, all of us that are alive, anyway."
Twilight gasped. "What?!"
"Didn't you know? Two of the freshman didn't survive the crash. Their names were Shaun and Ramon."
Django seemed to think for a bit, then he started speaking again. "If it's not too much trouble, I would like to cremate them, you know, for a final goodbye."
Twilight's head was swimming, mixed with emotions. First off was shock, she was shocked because two children had died. Also she felt betrayed, because Celestia, the person she thought she could trust more than anybody else, had lied to her. She also felt admiration, because this young male, just a boy, really, had taken this like an adult would: Calm, determined to do right by the fallen, and did not seem to want to take 'no' for an answer. She also felt fear, because if he was this calm, then he really had lived through some terrible things in his short life. But on top of all of that, she felt a great saddness, because two young boys were dead because of her and her carelessness with the spell she thought she had mastered. She looked around her, and saw that all of her friends were thinking along the same lines she was.
"Yes, I think that can be arranged."
"Good, thank you. But I want this done the Human way; with a pyre, and I'll wrap them in canvas so nobody has to actually see them burn."
"Yes, I can help with putting everything together and get things organized," Twilight told him.
"I can help you build the pyre," said Applejack, and he nodded her thanks to her.
"Me too," said Rainbow.
"I can help too, um, if that's okay." Fluttershy sounded unsure, but Django smiled at her to let her know he appreciated her offer.
"I can throw a party afterwards to help make everypony feel better," Pinkie said, her voice happy as always, but tinged with sadness.
"I can make some proper funeral attire so that they will look smashing in their last moments on the world," Rarity offered.
Django looked at all of them with a warm smile. "Thank you," he said. "Thank you so much." With that he leaned down and pulled them all into a hug so strong it nearly snapped their backs. After a few seconds he put them back down and saw that they were in pain. "Sorry, I guess ponies aren't quite as tough as Humans."
"Why did you hug that hard?! You almost broke our backs'!" Twilight was shouting at him now, she did not care if he was dangerous, that really hurt!
"Actually, I was being way gentle with you. If you're as fragile as this, I could snap your neck with just one hand no problem."
Twilight looked scared for a second, then spoke in a rushed voice. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to yell, I really didn't! It just slipped out! Please don't kill us!"
Django looked at her with a blank expression. Then he started to laugh. "I was just stating a fact. If I really wanted to kill you, do you think I would be your friend?"
Twilight gaped. "So, we're friends? As in, friend-friends?"
"Yes," Django said laughing. "Friend-friends to the end-ends."
End Chapter: Chapter Five: Introductions