//------------------------------//
// Chapter 2 
// Story: Bazinga! 
// by MrPengu1n 
//------------------------------//

	Pinkie Pie shrugged, and looked up at the sky, "It's getting pretty late," she observed.
Sheldon looked up as well. The sun was low in the sky. "It doesn't seem like it's been that long. Maybe days are shorter on this planet," he theorized, then scoffed, "I suppose you think your 'princess' is lowering the sun."
"Well, what else would?" Pinkie Pie asked innocently.
Sheldon opened his mouth to explain the day/night cycle being caused by the planet's rotation, then decided against it, simply shaking his head. "I guess I won't be getting any more work done today. I'm going to need someplace to stay," he observed.
"You can stay with me!" Pinkie suggested friendlily, grinning from ear to ear.
Sheldon thought it over, "Well, I suppose if that's the best I can do, I will bear it for a night. If it's necessary for my survival."
"Yay!" Pinkie cheered, then took Sheldon by the hoof and lead him off, "this way!"
Sheldon barely kept up with Pinkie, still somewhat new to four legged transportation. Pinkie lead him to what appeared to be a large bakery in the middle of town.
"Here we are!" Pinkie cheered, depositing Sheldon in front of the building, "The Cake's Cake Shop!"
Sheldon inspected the building, "Interesting," he observed, "Your species seems to have developed business if you have shops. What do you use for currency? Do you barter?"
"What's a barter?" Pinkie asked, "We use Bits!"
Sheldon thought that over, "Alright." he said.
"Come on, let's go inside!" Pinkie then suggested, pulling Sheldon through the saloon style doors.
Sheldon was greeted with a surprisingly pleasing aroma of baked goods. Cakes and other pastries lined counters and display cases, "Amazing," he marveled, "How did your kind manage to build all of this without hands?"
"With magic!" Pinkie Pie answered, not knowing what hands were.
Sheldon looked at her, "I'm going to assume you're joking, and instead of a formal answer I will simply cast you a look of haughty derision," and he cast her a look a haughty derision.
Pinkie Pie looked at him, "What?"
Sheldon shook his head, "Magic isn't real, Pinkie!"
Pinkie was confused, "yes it is," she said, "I see Twilight use it all the time!"
"Do you ever use magic?" Sheldon asked.
"Well, no-" Pinkie answered.
"Then how do you know what Twilight does is magic?" Sheldon reasoned.
"Because all unicorns can use magic," Pinkie explained, "silly!"
Sheldon looked out into space, "Hmm..." a theory was beginning to form in his mind, "Maybe..." he thought, then turned back to Pinkie and said, "I think I need to have another word with Twilight."
Pinkie laughed, "Well you're going to have to apologize if you want to do that!"
Sheldon said nothing. His eyes twitched once, "Maybe we'll do that tomorrow," he suggested, "Now where do I sleep?"

One restless night spent on a mattress full of hay in a room above the bakery later, Sheldon stood outside of Twilight's library once more, with Pinkie Pie. Pinkie nodded at him, and he knocked on the door.
Twilight opened it, smiling at Pinkie, "Hello, Pinkie!" she greeted warmly, then frowned at Sheldon, "Hello, Sheldon."
"Greetings," Sheldon said, then opened his mouth and gave his previously prepared speech, "I think, yesterday, I might have acted unprofessional-"
"You got that right," Twilight agreed.
Sheldon said nothing, and continued his speech, "I am lost in this parallel universe, and you are the only creature here that can help me. I would-greatly-appreciate your help."
Twilight looked him up and down, "Do I get an apology?"
Sheldon's eye twitched, "I-am-sorry," he said in a stattacco voice, "That you have no knowledge of science."
Twilight rolled her eyes, knowing that was the best she would get out of Sheldon. Sighing, she opened the door wider, "Come in," she said dismissively.
"Thank you," Sheldon nodded, and he and Pinkie entered the library.
Twilight used her odd horn-levitation trick to float over a cup of tea to her mouth, "now what can I help you with?" She asked, sipping out of her floating cup.
Sheldon nodded towards the floating cup, "That-what you're doing right now-Pinkie Pie has informed me all unicorns are able to do, and that you call it magic."
"It is magic," Twilight insisted, sipping her tea.
"That's what you call it," Sheldon conceded, "But from where I come from, magic is nothing more than myths, trickery, and smoke and mirrors."
"And where is that?" Twilight asked flatly.
"A planet called Earth," Sheldon answered truthfully, "but that's beside the point. I think, that what you call magic, is actually a form of superscience-science that is sufficiently advanced that it appears as magic, but is based on scientific principle-and I think that your 'magic' can help me get back home."
Twilight looked Sheldon in the eye, set down her tea, and observed honestly, "You're crazy."
"I'm not crazy," Sheldon said, "My mother had me tested."
Pinkie Pie giggled. Twilight rolled her eyes.
"So will you help me?" Sheldon asked.
Twilight sighed, "If it'll get you away from me sooner, then yes."
"Great," Sheldon answered, then pulled out a pad of paper and pencil he had procured for this purpose. He also pulled out some duct tape and managed to tape the pencil to his hoof so he could write with it. "Now then," Sheldon said, "I want to ask you some questions about 'magic'."
Twilight eyed his strange setup, then nodded, "Alright,"
Sheldon jotted a title down on his notes. "Now then," he started, remembering all the questions he had thought up the night before in preparation of this, "Have you always been able to use magic? Since birth?"
"Yes," Twilight answered, "All unicorns are born with the ability to use magic."
"And only unicorns are born with magic?" Sheldon clarified. Twilight nodded, and Sheldon jotted that down. "Next question," he said, "does the strength of magic vary throughout unicorns?"
Twilight nodded, "It all depends on the unicorn."
Sheldon nodded in confirmation, extrapolating theories already, and jotting down Twilight's words, "Would having two strong unicorn parents increase the strength of their offspring?"
Twilight thought for a moment. She couldn't deny that these were interesting questions, "Well, my parents are unicorns, but my magic is so strong because magic is my special talent."
"Special talent?" Sheldon asked.
Twilight nodded, "Yeah, see?" She turned her body around and showed Sheldon a small image of a star on her lower flank.
"What is that?" Sheldon asked.
"It's a cutie mark," Twilight said, "duh! Everypony has one. Mine shows that I was born to use magic."
Sheldon's thought process was interrupted, "You said 'everypony' instead of 'everybody'," he observed, "Why did you do that?"
Twilight looked at him, thinking the observation was strange, "I-I don't know," she answered unsurely, "That's just what you say."
Sheldon looked out into space for a moment, then returned and nodded, "Alright," he said, "Now then. This, 'Cutie Mark', what is the purpose of it?"
Twilight laughed, thinking that maybe Sheldon actually was from another planet. "The cutie mark shows you what you were born to do. Everypony gets one sometime in their life."
"Mine is balloons," Pinkie Pie added, showing Sheldon her mark, "and it means that I was born to make ponies happy!"
Sheldon thought about that, "interesting," he said, "We don't have anything like that on earth."
"Well you have one too!" Twilight pointed out, gesturing towards his own flank.
Sheldon looked down. There, on his flank, was a small image of a circle surrounded by a few ovals, each one with a smaller circle on it. "Now that's interesting," he observed, "It appears to be an atom-well, a Rutherford-Bohr atomic model, to be precise-perhaps it would represent physics, after all I am a physicist back on Earth."
Twilight had no idea what Sheldon just said, and it showed on her face. "What?" she asked.
Sheldon sighed, forgetting that these ponies had absolutely no knowledge of physics whatsoever. How did they manage at all? Shaking his head, "Forget it. Next question."
Twilight shook her head, obviously thinking Sheldon was crazy, even though his mother had him tested. "Maybe we should continue this sitting down.
Sheldon nodded, and Twilight walked over to a couch, seating herself on the far right seat, 'Now what's you're next question?"
Sheldon slowly walked over to Twilight, who eyed him warily as he walked nearer and nearer. Sheldon surveyed the room, testing the air, testing the acoustics, and finally walked over to where Twilight was sitting and looked down at her.
"That's my spot," he said.