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The Appeal of Books
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“Come on, Twilight!” Dash encouraged, walking through the courtyard on her way to the TARDIS so she and Alex could be taken back to his world, “Come with us! It’ll be an adventure!”
“Look, I don’t need you and Alex throwing me a pity party,” Twilight shook her head, instantly regretting her decision to see the two of them off, as Dash had been bugging her since they left their rooms in the castle, “Besides, you and Alex will just be spending all your time together!”
“No we won’t!” Dash retorted instantly, “I think he wants to really catch his uncle up on everything, just the two of them. I need some company!”
“Then take some of the other girls with you.” Twilight answered dryly, “You don’t need me specifically.”
“All the girls are gone back to Ponyville!” Dash insisted, “Come on!”
Twilight refused to meet her gaze, as they kept walking. She was trying to think of excuses to blow Dash off, but the only ones that came to mind were obviously lies.
“Think about this,” Dash said, jumping in front of Twilight, stopping her in the road, and forcing her to look up in surprise, “How many books must there be to read?”
Twilight paused. That… was actually appealing.
“Even I know that Equestria has an incredible history!” Dash continued, her smile growing as she clearly began to convince Twilight more and more, “I’ll bet that his world has one just as interesting! And I’ll bet Alex will let you bring back as many books as you can carry!”
“And I don’t suppose you’d just bring me back as many as you could carry?” Twilight asked, her eyebrow raised, confident that Dash wouldn’t.
“You know,” Dash said, looking away faux-bashfully, “I’ve already got my own luggage… I just wouldn’t be able to carry any.”
“What about luggage for me?” Twilight said quickly, thinking that this was her out, “I can’t go with nothing packed, Rainbow Dash!”
Dash flashed a smirk.
Flaring her wings, a dark blue aura surrounded her wings, as a purple suitcase flashed in to existence in front of the both of them.
Dash panted and laughed, “I guess that’s all your problems solved!”
“How are you able to use skilled magic like that?” Twilight asked in awe, shocked that Dash was able to even use her magic at all.
“It’s so easy!” Dash answered, “Even a meathead like me can do it!”
“Dash, you’re not a meathead,” Twilight said, grabbing her bag in a levitation spell and pulling it behind them as they walked, obviously having accepting the invitation, “I think out of all my friends, you’ve read the most!”
“Well, I mean, that was all studying to save Alex,” Dash answered, “I could tell you the seventeen different forms of petrification, and describe how you would go about curing eight of them. But I couldn’t tell you the plot of any story… aside from Daring Do.”
“Reading is reading,” Twilight said sternly, never being one to short change her favorite pass time.
Dash sighed. She had spent so long fighting her reputation as an egghead, and here Twilight was, talking about that flaw as if it were fact.
“Hey guys!” Alex said, running to them from the TARDIS, just a few houses down the road, “You ready to go?”
Twilight furrowed her brow, “How did you know I was coming?”
“Dash seemed confident that she could convince you,” Alex laughed, as Dash give him a nod, suppressing her laughter, “She used books against you, right?”
Twilight smiled for the first time in what seemed like weeks. Even though she had done it so much just two days before.
“Come on,” Alex said softly, levitating both bags from the girls, and holding them above his head, “The engine’s running, and we’re ready to take off.”
////
“Rainbow Dash! It’s great to see you again!” Derpy said, smiling as Dash walked in to the ship, “Alex! You too!”
“It’s great to see you too. You two have been gone for years!” Dash smiled, walking over and tapping her hoof on the top of the greeting mares, “What have been up to, hmm?”
Derpy blushed as the Doctor stepped out of the door opposite to the entrance, “Alex! Rainbow Dash! I’ve missed trotting you lot around through time and space! Welcome back to the TARDIS!”
“I’ve got nothing but fond memories of this place,” Alex laughed, leading up to his joke, “Except the time you tried to push me out in to space. That was extra fond.”
“I apologized for that!” He laughed, looking over their shoulders to the purple mare, “You’re coming along also, I take it?”
“Dash told you she could convince me to come too, I take it?” Twilight asked, exhaling at her friends abundance of confidence.
“No… There’s just a purple bag that matches your coat,” He laughed, having clearly missed something here, “But, I’m happy to have you along!”
“Oh, sorry,” Twilight blushed, embarrassed at her attitude toward the relative stranger.
“That’s alright,” He replied, pressing few buttons, flipping a switch, and pulling a string, sounding a train horn-like sound, “I never pick fights with scorned women!”
Dash growled audibly at his in-your-face attitude about Twilight’s pain.
“Well! I think it’s time we got this show on the road, don’t all of you?” He said quickly, not wanting to incur any wrath from the women, “Are we all ready to go?”
Everypony said ‘yes’ in one way or another, as he smiled and hit his hoof against a large red button, sending the machine in to a terrible series of tremors, as they were all knocked to the floor.
“You could have warned us about the--!” Dash shouted as the engine came to life, and began pumping within the chamber in the center of the ship, shaking them with even more ferocity.
“I forgot how bad this was!” he shouted over the banging and grinding that was currently filling their ears, “I’m sorry!”
The entire room suddenly began to glow, as the top of the ship began to change from it’s usual, animated style, to a much more realistic looking roof.
“We’re going through to your dimension right now!” The Doctor shouted, as the realism slowly worked its way down the walls, until it reached the ponies, and began changing their bodies to their human counter-parts.
Alex lifted his hoof up, and watched as the line of reality made it’s down his arm, changing it to a human hand.
Then after a few more seconds, the rest of his body followed, completing his transformation in to a human, along with all of his companions.
The, after another few seconds of intense quaking, the ship came to a stop, having landed just outside of Alex’s house.
Dash inhaled and exhaled quickly, her chest rising and lowering as she tried to get her head on straight.
“Celestia…” Twilight muttered, looking at the ceiling, unsure if she was going to be sick, “Why didn’t I just use the spell to get us back here?”
“I don’t remember it being that bad,” The Doctor laughed, as Derpy giggled, hopping on to her feet, and stretching.
“That was fun!” She said, walking expertly over to Twilight, and holding out her hand, “We should do it a few more times!”
Twilight happily took the assistance, and stood herself up, trying to remember everything she had taught herself the last time she was here, when it came to standing up and not falling down.
Alex managed to right himself and get Dash up in about the same time, as they all situated themselves.
Dash clearly had some trouble balancing herself, as she shifted her weight several times to keep herself from falling.
“It’s been too long since I’ve done this!” Dash said, as she fell, only to be caught by Alex, as he wrapped his arm around her waist, and allowed her body to put its weight on him, “How is it so easy for you Derpy?!”
“This world has so much more balance!” She said, as if that was some kind of explanation they would understand.
“Any help?” The Doctor said, still lying on his back.
////
The moon was high in the sky as they all stood outside of the TARDIS. It was obviously the middle of the night, and Alex was a little upset that he wasn’t going to get to talk to Chet right away.
“So, how long should we wait before we come and pick you up?” The Doctor asked, braced against Derpy in a similar way Dash was to Alex, “I know there’s a time difference, so how much are you willing to lose in Equestria?”
“Well, one day works out to three, right?” Twilight asked.
“About, yeah.” Alex nodded, “So… would you be able to do a week?”
“Twenty days?” Twilight asked, obviously unsure of such a great number, “I mean, are you sure you guys can give that much up?”
“I can,” Dash said shrugged, “I go back to work as a Royal Guard beginning of next month.”
“I’ve got literally no life.” Alex added.
“A week it is!” The Doctor said, as he shifted his weight backward, signaling to Derpy that it was time to go back inside, “I’ll be back at this time in twenty days!”
“But what if we need to go back sooner?” Twilight asked quickly, “What if there’s an emergency in Equestria?!”
“How would we know if there’s an emergency?” Dash asked, genuinely thinking that she was just missing the point, “I mean, unless the Doctor came and told us about it…”
Twilight pursed her lips.
“Look,” Alex said, placing his hand on her shoulder, “If anything happens, I can take us back in an instant. Even if you’re truly feeling homesick.”
Twilight nodded slowly, clearly still nervous.
“Besides! This’ll give you plenty of time to pick up an entire new library,” Alex said reassuringly, “And you and Dash can catch up on stuff. I think I’ll be spending a lot of time with Chet this week.”
“Are you going to tell him right away?” Dash asked, secretly dying to see how Chet reacted to the truth behind Alex and his vanishing act.
Alex nodded, “I’ll just pull the Band-Aid off quickly.”
“See you in twenty days then!” The Doctor saluted, as she motioned to close the door.
“Wait!” Alex said, as the walking-challenged man look to him, “I thought we’d catch up a bit! Why not stick around a while?”
“Oh, we have a prior engagement,” The Doctor said, as Derpy nodded along excitedly with him, “There’s this star about to go supernova back in our universe, and it destroys a planet made of diamond! Its shimmer is said to be one of the most beautiful things to ever happen through the course of history, and we’ve got front row seats!”
“Sounds romantic.” Dash teased, as the Doctor frowned, and promptly closed the door.
The three outside laughed as the ship instantly began to fade from existence, leaving nothing but a flat patch of grass in its place.
“So…” Alex said, reaching in to his pocket and pulling out a key, happy that it hadn’t somehow vanished from his clothes while he was in Equestria, “Either of you hungry?”
“I could eat.” Dash nodded.
“No meat though!” Twilight said instantly, “…I still can’t believe Fluttershy ate that stuff.”
“In her defense, she didn’t know it was meat, or that it was horse.” Alex chuckled, walking over to the door with Twilight in tow behind Alex and his fiancé, “I’ll make you guys some tomato soup or something. Then we can rest up.”
“Where’s the nearest library?” Twilight asked, no longer trying to hide her enthusiasm toward reading all about this world, as they walked inside of Alex’s home, “I’d like to be there tomorrow.”
“Well, it’s in town,” Alex answered, glancing at the clock and seeing that it was just shy of one o’clock, “I’ll get you down there tomorrow after I talk to Chet in the morning. Just sleep in, I’ll take care of you when the time comes.”
“Are you gonna come with me?” Twilight asked Rainbow Dash, as the mare gave a conflicted look to her.
In one hand, she could go and read up on all sorts of cool things this world would have to offer… But, at the same time, she would be revealing herself to be a full-blown egg head.
“Um…” She said, showing just how much she wanted to go, without outwardly saying it, “I guess I could see what kind of cures they have for petrification in this world!”
Alex only laughed as he helped her on to the couch in the living room, and made his way to the kitchen.
“Work on your walking while I cook for you guys!” Alex called out to them, “I’m gonna tell Chet that I’m a pony last! So you guys have to try and pass for humans until then!”
“Got it!” Dash shouted back to him.
Alex silently grabbed a pot out of the cupboard, only to hear the sound of someone fall on the floor with a painfully loud ‘thud.’
“How are you so bad at this?” Twilight asked, standing up and expertly helping the girl back on to her feet, “I mastered walking faster than Rainbow Dash!”
“H-hey!” Dash said, instantly jumping in to defense mode, “I mastered it years ago! I’m just rusty!”
“Suuuuure!” Twilight giggled, giving Dash a small push, knocking her off balance, and causing her to drop on to the couch.
Grabbing her arm, Dash yanked Twilight down on to the couch, both of them laughing as they went.
Alex exhaled happily. If they could help Twilight forget about Alpha for a while, this trip would be a complete success. The poor girl just needed some distraction.
And now, with it just being the three of them in the house, he’d finally be able to try and go for that three-way he always—
“Can it, Dax.” Alex muttered, knowing exactly where that last thought came from.
Because no sensible guy would ever want two girls at once. Nope.
Never.
That thought definitely came from Dax.