After the long transatlantic flight, the 787-9 Dreamliner floats into a landing at London’s Heathrow airport. The wheels touching down jolt everyone that was sleeping over the seven hour long flight awake. Principal Celestia shakes her head for a moment, then looks at the students on the plane with her, she smiles as she packs away her laptop and picks up her purse. The plane slows down as the flight attendants unbuckle themselves from their own seats to start assisting passengers. It only takes a few minutes for the plane to approach the gate.
The overhead speakers crackle to life, “Welcome to London, United Kingdom. The temperature is a balmy seven degrees centigrade, or around forty-four degrees Fahrenheit for our American passengers. It’s a typically rainy late fall day, so make sure you have an umbrella. As you de-plane, head to customs for your entry. And once again, welcome to the United Kingdom and thank you for flying American Airlines.”
The plane stops as Rainbow Dash bounces in her seat, first the flight to New York, then the transfer to this big plane for the transatlantic flight has been nothing more than a source of frustration. The wide bodied jet is quite a bit bigger than the smaller jet they used to get to New York, but she’s still been fighting claustrophobia for most of the last day. Her nap during much of the flight has only made her energy levels high, she pulls out her phone and presses the button to power it up. It connects in a few moments and she looks at the time, “Is that for real, it’s only 8:15 in the morning?”
“Time change, Rainbow Dash.” Sunset Shimmer murmurs softly, “We’ve been in the air for about seven hours, but when we left, it was night, now it’s morning.”
“Oh dear, all I want to do is sleep.” Twilight Sparkle says from her seat next to Sunset.
Sunset shakes her head, “We’ve got to check in, and then we’ve got to get to the school. Jet lag sucks, but if we power through most of the day today, sleep well tonight, we should be mostly adjusted by tomorrow. Luckily we have three days before the competition really starts.”
Rarity sits forward, running a brush through her hair, “Sensible people slept through the flight, Rainbow Dash.” She folds up her sleeping mask and pushes it into her purse, “It’s a bright and…” She glances out of the window, “dreary, rainy morning. But remember, we are in London! Just think, all the shopping, all the fun things we can do here. And don’t forget all the fashion.”
Sunset smiles at Rarity, “Don’t forget, we get to perform at the end of the week. Show the kids at the Latymer School how we do music back home.” She looks hard at Rainbow Dash, “So, no ponying up. Got it Rainbow Dash?”
Rainbow Dash blushes faintly, “Yeah, we don’t need to show everyone what we can do, right?”
Sunset smiles as many of the passengers stand up and wait impatiently, Principle Celestia had told them when they took off to wait until most of the people are off the plane, it makes them getting off that much easier. It takes about five minutes for the majority of passengers to get off, then the students from Canterlot high stand up themselves. They gather up their belongings and head up the jetway into the terminal.
They line up and follow Principal Celestia, she stops at a barrier kiosk, “Principal Celestia with her students for entry.”
The gate attendant smiles and gestures to the pad, Celestia taps her visa on the pad and the bar opens, she steps in and looks at the camera for a moment, then the other set of bars swing away to let her through, the second set closes, and Sunset taps her visa as the other students produce theirs as well.
The attendant steps forward, “Sorry, Miss. Per UK rules, no head scarves or sunglasses.”
Rarity jerks for a moment, then removes her head scarf and folds it into her purse, he smiles, “Sorry, security concerns.”
The rest of the entry procedure is easy, due to them being pre-screened before they left the US. This trip is sponsored by Quiz UK, the International Academic Quiz Tournament. Several schools from Europe and the US have all gathered, and Canterlot High was among the few US schools to qualify. Soon they are boarding a bus and getting on their way.
Twilight is looking at her phone, “Oh Sunset, we have to do some shopping today, they have lots of book stores!”
Sunset smiles, Twilight in this world, Twilight at home, the same Twilight. She nods as she looks at her own phone, “We will, but I want to look at the Thames. There’s lots of fun places to go all around London.”
Principal Celestia leans over, “Will you girls stay together?”
Sunset looks up, “Oh yeah.” She looks around at the other students, “I worry about Pinkie Pie, but I think we can stay together.”
Principal Celestia smiles, “I promised Vice Principle Luna that I would get her a few things while I’m here. I’m going to trust you, Sunset.”
Sunset blushes, “they are my friends, we can do it.”
“I know you can.”
Soon they’ve pulled up to the hotel, Sunset gets out of the van and looks up at the brick building, “The Beaconsfield?”
Principal Celestia looks at the building, “Yeah, the school wanted inexpensive accomidations, five rooms here are within our price range. It will be two per room, and you girls will have to share the bathrooms.”
“It’s a bar.” Sunset says flatly.
Principal Celestia blushes faintly, “It’s a sports bar, the food is supposed to be pretty good.”
“It’s a bar.”
Principal Celestia huffs, “It’s what we could afford, it’s already paid for, and you’ll be living there for the next ten days.”
Sunset shrugs her shoulders and looks around. Rarity is taking a selfie in front of the sign, “Have fun, girls. You all have my phone number, stay in a group, and be safe.” The principle says as she opens the door.
Sunset smiles, “Of course, Principal Celestia.”
It doesn’t take them long to get their bags into the rooms. Pinkie and Rarity share their room, and it takes Apple Jack and Pinkie Pie both to help bring in Rarity’s luggage. Sunset looks at her small suitcase, “Why did you pack so light?” Rainbow Dash asks as she pulls her larger suitcase up the stairs.
“I’ve always traveled light, Rainbow. Just need some clothes, my phone charger and my tablet.” She lifts the small bag, “I don’t need much.”
“Not even a football, or anything fun to play around with?”
Sunset shakes her head, “They play a different football here, Rainbow.”
Fluttershy walks in, she drew the short straw and has a room to herself. They all agree to meet in the lobby after they get things settled in and Sunset walks slowly up the stairs towards her room.
An hour later, Sunset sits on her bed in her room, watching Twilight Sparkle move around the room, getting a few things situated, then there’s a quiet knock on the door.
Twilight bounds to the door, she opens it with a smile, “You have him?”
The young man carries an animal carrier into the room, “He just cleared.”
Twilight smiles as she opens the kennel, “Spike!” She hugs her beloved dog.
“Your dog was very quiet, but during the drive, it almost sounded like he said something.”
Twilight nuzzles Spike, “Oh, he can sound pretty human like at times.” The door is swiftly shut as Twilight continues holding Spike.
Sunset watches, “We can’t have our competition without our team mascot!”
Spike looks at Sunset, “Yeah, you try riding as baggage again. It was not fun.”
Sunset picks up Spike and hugs him, “Glad you could be here.”
Spike hops from Twilight’s arms and sniffs around the room, “So, when are we going to the school?”
Sunset smiles, “Tomorrow, we check in at the Latymer School for the competition. And today,” She stands up and opens the curtains, “We need to explore. I’ve never been outside of your home country. This is going to be fun!”
Twilight smiles, “Most American’s haven’t been outside of our nation, Sunset. Have you been outside of Equestria?”
Sunset frowns, “No…Actually, I’ve never left Equestria. Well, at least before I came to this world. I spent most of my schooling days in Canterlot. Learning from the Princess.” She smiles, “I want to expand my horizons, learn everything I can.”
Twilight reaches into her bag, pulling out a slim case, Sunset moves forward as Twilight opens is, “Oh, that’s pretty.”
Twilight blushes, “Flash gave it to me, he finally understood I’m not the same Twilight as the pony from Equestria, but it seems he likes me too.” She picks the necklace out of the case and puts it on, she twirls around with it on, “I like it.”
Sunset smiles, “I do too.”
An electronic trill interrupts them, Twilight picks up her phone, “They are ready, let’s go.”
Twilight and Sunset bound down the stairs together, the girls get together and head outside. It’s a quick walk to the Manor House station, they walk down the stairs and get onto the Piccadilly line. A little over ten minutes and they are at Holborn station, where they switch trains and they end up at St. Paul’s station. Twilight follows the GPS maps on her phone and they emerge into the day. The rain had let up, so they walk through the wet streets.
“What’s that place?” Pinkie shouts, looking at a huge building.
Twilight checks her phone, “That’s St. Paul’s Cathedral.”
“It’s pretty.”
Rarity steps forward, “Ancient architecture is interesting, but where are we going?”
Twilight smiles, “The Millennium Bridge.”
They continue walking for a little bit, then they turn the corner, “That!” Twilight says, pointing.
The Millennium bridge was completed by June of 2000, and only open for a short time before it was closed because it would sway with the pedestrian traffic. Two years of being closed, and it was opened, the dampers installed had fixed the problem. But Londonites still call it Old Wobbly. The girls troop onto the bridge, Pinkie Pie looks over the side, “It’s green.”
Sunset giggles, “Yeah, that’s the Thames River. It’s a lot cleaner now than it used to be though, Pinkie Pie.”
Rarity brings out a camera, better than her phone for most of the pictures. She takes pictures of the shoreline and all around, “This is beautiful.”
“What’s that over there?” Fluttershy points.
Twilight looks, and smiles, “That’s a place we want to go to!”
Rarity squeals, “Oh the style, the culture, the costumes! It was a hub of fashion!”
Pinkie looks at Rarity, “Huh?”
Rarity looks back at Pinkie Pie, “It’s Shakespeare’s Theater!”
Applejack steps forward, “We can go, sugar cube, but we need to compromise and do things everyone else wants to do as well. Fluttershy had said she wants to visit the London Zoo.”
“But it’s got books too.”
“Books?” Twilight looks at the building in the distance, adjusting her glasses, “They have books about plays there?”
Sunset smiles “Only you, Twilight.”
“Fine we can go there.” Rainbow Dash interjects, “But we have to visit 222 B Baker Street.”
Applejack looks at Rainbow, “Seriously? You know he doesn’t really live there, right?”
Rainbow rolls her eyes, “Of course I know that, but that is one of the places in London I’ve got to visit.”
Rarity huffs, “Fine, but the Shakespeare Theater first.”
***
It’s getting on to the afternoon when the girls are shopping, Twilight had finally drawn them to Kings Cross. She’s spent the last couple of hours going into the multitude of book stores in the area. She finally bounces out of the fourth book store, Sunset stands up, handing Spike’s leash over to Twilight.
They start walking down the street, “Oh, all the books here, I could spend days reading everything here. Such wonderful old tomes. You know they have…”
She’s interrupted by a small feathery missile impacting her head.
“Twilight!” Sunset calls as she reaches down to help her friend, “Are you okay?”
Twilight rubs the side of her head, “What hit me?” They both look at the small bundle on the concrete.
“Why, it’s an owl.” Sunset says as she reaches for the small Scops owl. The owl shakes his head and hoots at Sunset, then spreads his wings and takes off between the two girls.
“My necklace!” Twilight calls out as the outstretched claw of the owl tangles in her necklace and rips it off.
“Oh no you don’t!” Spike calls as he takes off, slipping his leash from Twilight’s grip. He bounds after the owl turning down an alley, Spike barks furiously as he runs. The other girls run after Twilight and Sunset.
The owl hurtles towards a blank wall in the alley, and the wall swallows the errant bird up.
“Oh no, you aren’t getting away from me that easily!” Spike calls as he leaps into the wall.
Spike vanishes as well.
Twilight and Sunset skid to a stop before the wall, “Did they just?” Twilight starts.
Sunset nods, “We have some walls like this in Equestria.” She says softly, “Hold my hand, everyone hold hands, we are going through.”
Sunset pushes on the wall and drags her friends through as well.