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The Gang's Video Game: Expansion Pack

(Takes place after Chapters 56-59 [The Chapters about Celestia and Luna talking to The Gang])

Joe's POV

I and Big Mike had spent all of today watching that My Little Pony show. I told Big Mike that I was only going to watch the important episodes that I needed to know about. And after skimming over each summary for the episodes, it was obvious that there were few episodes I needed to watch.

So I ended up watching just the Season One's episode's one and two, the Nightmare Moon episodes as they are known as. Then Season Two's episode's one, two, twenty-five, and twenty-six; The Discord and Canterlot Wedding episodes. And then finally the Season Three's Episode's one and two, which were 'Sombra's' episodes.

After that, I quickly read up a few blogs or written analysis on each character and came back to the barn. The barn had an upper level, which was where I did my 'plotting' I suppose you could call it.

I told Big Mike that he could watch whatever he wanted, he knew how to figure out choosing different episodes. So he was probably watching a few more episodes that had more 'Action-y' names to them and he would then go out on his morning run. Meanwhile, I planned on staying to plan, strategize, and plot our next course of action.

I couldn't come up with any plans about busting Morgue out yet, because I was unsure about what help the ponies coming here could really do. I mean, what, was Fluttershy going to 'Stare' the entire law enforcement down while Rainbow Dash 'Sonic-Rainboom-ed' herself into the Juvenile Hall? Or could Twilight Sparkle really teleport her way into Morgue's cell and just beam him out?

No. There were too many variables I was unsure off. No matter how smart 'Brony-Analysts' might be, they can't be correct if they're given incorrect information from a Toy-obsessed company with a smiley-face for an emblem.

So planning the escape wouldn't be possible right now. Meaning that the only thing I could plan for right now was preparing them for coming to this world. And as the Goddess of Horses told me, Zeke was part of their group now too. So hopefully he had been explaining to them just how our world works. All that was left was to show them how it worked.

As to how to do that, I was limited on options. Obviously a few of them would be bored with me only showing them clips about important points in time or just flat out teaching them about it. So instead I had to find something interactive.

Like a video game for instance.

Luckily for me, we have our very own video game. I had been updating it for a few years now, and it had the latest game engines installed on it for the 360. Graphics and sound were up to date, and I never had to worry about Copyright or anything since this was our game and our game only. Just one copy.

It used a Dynasty Warrior game-engine for the story-mode games, used a Soul Calibur game-engine for multiplayer exhibition matches, and just miscellaneous small game-engines from multiple games for the mini-games.

So deciding on just fixing up the video game for them, all that I could do was just work on the game until they arrived. Meaning I had to create characters, build stories, and make mini-games for each of them.

All while explaining through the game how video games work...Try and wrap your head around that.

That being said, I suppose I'll just explain how I turned all of them into video game characters. And while I'm at it, I might as well go over me, Big Mike, and Morgue's part of the game as well.

Applejack

First is Applejack. Her character was easy enough to create. Just use the same character design that I'd use for all of them, but just slap a hat on her. Probably the only identifiable trait about her, other than apples. Which, by the way, I had covered as well. Her attacks focused on strength like the normal punch and a 'Buck' attack as well. Creating the majority of combos and so. And then for a long-range throwing projectile, I had her throwing apples.

Yeah, raise your hand if you're surprised.

Her story was simple enough. The anti-Applejack, called Rotten Apple, suddenly came in to take over Sweet Apple Acres and turn it into a pollution-filled factory. Opening up with Applejack in the game explaining what a game was, just in time for a 'Meteor Shower' to crash into the barn of Sweet Apple Acres. Then after the tutorial, Rotten Apple would use machinery to build the factory in only a few seconds. Making Applejack have to save both the farm and her family. All while destroying this factory and its workers piece by piece.

Big Mike

Big Mike's story was actually a little troubling. Seeing as how everything was too simple about him to really create anti-version of him, I needed to go King of the Hill route. As in do what the TV show of King of the Hill does and take the main character, in this case Big Mike, and make the problem come to him. In the end, I made it so Big Mike would be forced to compete in a Worldwide Fighting Tournament. Which has attracted pretty much every famous character that would want to compete.

Such as comic book characters like The Hulk and Deadpool, video game characters like Little Mac and Bowser, TV show characters like Finn the Human and Peter Griffon, and pretty much just any other character I could think of that would be interesting to fight a wrestling match in a video game.

His game was really a mixture of Punch Out and Mortal Kombat combined instead of everyone else's Dynasty Warrior themed story modes, but it still worked.

Blitz/Zeke

For Zeke, I didn't know what to do. When I made the game, I had no idea how to make him a character in a game with moves and all. But luckily I made them all relate to either robotics, or construction since those were the two things I knew about him, plus electricity just to add to the effect, which thankfully worked out in the end.

And luckily I guessed right and only had to change two things when he and the others arrived. Such as give him a sword that resembled his 'tail' and give him the ability to fly. And since I modified the engine to support flying characters, I only needed to slap wings on the back of his character.

As for the story, I went in a similar route to Big Mike's. Zeke had a Space Station that he had built so he could safely test any bionic abilities. It also acted as a satellite to watch over the world in case he wanted to test his bionics against crime. Except, there was a group of people capturing all cyborgs, robots, and scientists in the world.

All the cyborgs, robots, and scientists were from TV shows, other video games, and so on and so forth. So obvious people like Dr. Eggman, Shadow, Metal Sonic, and Tails, Franky from One Piece, Jack Spicer from Xiaolin Showdown, XJ-9 Jenny, GLaDOS, Gir, Invader Zim, Number 6 Bradley the Skunk, Ridley, Samus, Ben Ten, Megamind, Inspector Gadget, Darth Vader, the list goes on. They were all under the control of some evil group called The Controllers and Zeke was the only surviving Cyborg left. Meaning he was the only one that could rescue all of them.

Fluttershy

Now hers was actually pretty easy to come up with. She loved animals, yet hated violence and bringing harm to others. The solution? Have her face inanimate objects.

Anti-Fluttershy, or otherwise known as Doctor Shudder, kidnapped all animals and mutated them with living piñatas, from the video game Viva Piñata, to make the ultimate Sour Piñata army. Forcing Fluttershy and whatever normal living Piñatas that were left to take Doctor Shudder down. And whenever Fluttershy's character 'killed' a Sour Piñata, the real animal would break free unharmed and the Piñata would just magically piece itself back together in its original form.

It was hard to create a Dynasty Warrior parody where the main character could fly, but I managed.

Joe

Mine was actually pretty difficult, but in the end was simple enough to follow through. One day, something supernatural caused my shadow to rise and abandon me. Much like Peter Pan in a way. But instead of just being mischievous, it wanted to control everyone else instead of being controlled itself. So it started hypnotizing everyone and started coming after me to make sure he was free for good.

Basically, it was me fighting zombies. Only, they weren't dead and I had to save them from being mind-controlled by 'Shadow Joey'. Not that original, but whatever. Sounded entertaining to me, and it was my story mode after all. So what I say goes.

Morgue

His game was actually custom-made for him to play. He wanted me to make it so it would use a Rockband Guitar Controller. This in mind, I made a Rhythm game for him. It was like Rockband, except you had to stop an evil group of Sirens from taking over the world through song.

The songs were always on the highest level by default, and so much as ten notes wrong and you've failed not only the game, but the world.

Out of the three of us, only he could beat the game. Which is kind of sad since I made the darn thing.

Pinkie Pie

Simple enough, Cupcakes. Or...That's what I wanted to make her story based off of. But not knowing how much violence all of them could take, I had to tone it down. Way down.

What I ended up making was an Anti-Pinkie, whom was called Devil Cake, which tricked others into eating cupcakes that would make them pass out. She didn't try to cut them or anything, she simply put them all in cells. From there on out, she would have her henchmen- It was Video Game Anti-Pinkie Pie, don't question it –either convince the remaining survivors to eat the cupcakes, or just capture them by force.

That's where Pinkie Pie would come in and save the day. She destroyed the harmful cupcakes and save every pony. 'Pinkie Pie Style.'

Rainbow Dash

Rainbow Factory. Since I had been looking for reviews about the 'characters' in the 'show', I learned of a few infamous stories. And with that, I chose to just go the simple route and use that story as the storyline. It wasn't as bad as Cupcakes, so I only had to tweak it a bit.

The Anti-her, whose name was just 'Rainbow' backwards since I had gotten lazy, had kidnapped Zeke, Fluttershy, and two or three of Rainbow's role models and has planned to use them as victims to create rainbows. Meaning Rainbow must save them and destroy The Rainbow Factory once and for all.

Nothing was gory, and if Rainbow lost the level or didn't save all of them before the time limit ran out then they would just yell in pain off-screen. I'm not that uncaring after all.

Rarity

Rarity was a bit of trouble as well. Seeing as how only her love of making dresses stuck out to me, I decided to call anti-her 'Other Rarity'. It would be based off Other Mother from Tim Burton's Coraline and would be after the original Rarity to take her place.

Rarity would end up going between worlds to make sure that Other Rarity was stopped before it was too late.

Spike

Now Spike's story was actually pretty interesting. Since Spike was played entirely different from everyone else, I wanted to use that as an advantage. So instead of facing an anti-version of him, he instead fought something else.

The basics is that an island of villagers are tired of being forced to offer sacrifices to the Volcano God Dragoon, which is a living mass of lava that takes the form of, here's a surprise, a dragon.

The villagers perform a ritual and Spike ends up being summoned. Meaning he's the 'chosen one' that is destined to save the island village from the Volcano God and his enforcers. Which are smaller dragons, or teenage dragons, that are also walking blobs of lava. Sadly at the end of it all when he's defeated the Volcano God, he's brought back home and no one believes him.

Twilight Sparkle

This one had to be one of the hardest of them all. Sure I knew about her book obsession, perfectionism, and her constant worry about even the slightest thing going horribly wrong, but that wouldn't work. Instead, I needed to have anti-Twilight, Dawn Shining, steal a dangerous dark magic book from Twilight's library.

And after the stereotypical 'villain saying their plans aloud' dialogue, the story would make Twilight have to try and stop Dawn from gathering all the ingredients to cast the world into darkness and blah-blah-blah.

After all of those games were created, all I had left to do was wait and hope that it'd work out. Since magic and flying was about to be added onto the list of things to deal with, I had no clue what to expect. But at least now they'll be distracted by video games long enough for me to come up with a plan.

...Hopefully.

Disclaimer: I do not own MLP. All I own is Blitz, the gang, and the idea.

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ACT I

Enter the Mane Humans!

AND

Introducing: The Honorable Thieves!

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Station: Obstacle Course

1st Rotation - 3rd Station

Team Earth Pony

Applejack's POV

"Ready. Set. GO!" Blitz yelled before Spike started the timer. Pinkie then bounded forward happily. Not really running, persay, it was more like a jog. With Pinkie's happy bouncing added in to it.

Blitz flew beside her on the inside of the track, not really sure whether or not to give a penalty or something for her bouncing. To his credit though, I wouldn't know either. She kept going through all the obstacles without messing up. She went through the tires one at a time, jumped from one slanted platform to the other, swung across the rope swing. She didn't mess up once, and she was going at a fast enough pace.

One by one, she breezed through each challenge. Not giving Blitz any chance to give a negative comment like a coach normally would. And as soon as she passed over the rope climb, somehow jumping halfway up the climbing section, she cartwheeled down the other half. She then immediately lay face down on the ground for the low crawl.

"WEEE!" Pinkie Pie cheered as she rolled under the low crawl ceiling as if she were a freshly cut tree rolling down an empty hill. Getting from one side to the other with record-breaking time.

"Uh..." Blitz tried to say something, anything, but Pinkie just jumped up and quickly ran up the ramp that led to the roof. Acting as if there was no such thing as gravity and the ramp was just a flat bridge.

Pinkie then fearlessly jumped off the roof and down to the fall cushion below. Having the time of her life. As a matter a fact, I was sure I saw her belly-flop onto it. But I'm not too sure because she somehow rolled out of it like a ball. Jumping back to her legs and sprinting onwards towards the finish line at full speed.

And as Blitz finally flew around the barn and over to Pinkie Pie, she passed the finish line and happily slid to a full stop

Luckily, Spike was able to hit the stop button right as Pinkie crossed the finish line. And with no screw ups as far as any of us could tell, Spike called out her time with a cheerful expression. "One minute and twenty-three seconds!"

"Whoowee, Pinkie! Ya beet the time on yer first try!" I marveled in amazement. It may've been Pinkie Pie being Pinkie Pie, but it worked none the less, didn't it?!

"Ya know...I really didn't know how to respond to that." Blitz admitted with a smile. "I guess I'll start by saying you passed! Congratulations Pinkie!" He cheered happily.

"YAY! Do I get a sticker?!" Pinkie asked with a hopeful smile.

"Uh..." Spike said, not sure how to respond to Pinkie's question. "We don't have any stickers...Sorry Pinkie Pie."

"Aww..." Pinkie frowned in gloom, only to perk right back up in an instant. "Aw well, that's fine! I always keep a pile of stickers with me! In case of sticker emergency!" She then reached into her hair and pulled out a sticker that was still on the paper. And peeling it off, she stuck it to her shirt and wore it proudly. Showing us that it said 'Good Job!' with a pony winking in the background.

"Ahehe...Nice picture Pinkie." Blitz recovered from the amazing record breaking and looked towards me next. "Well Applejack, think you can beat her time?" He asked, putting on his coach attitude once again.

"Yeah Applejack, you can do it!" Pinkie cheered as she held up another sticker she got from inside her hair. "It says so on this sticker!"

"Alright, alright. S'ppose I gotta give it a shot sooner er later." I agreed while going up to the line. I didn't know if there was a stance for humans when they were about to run or not, so I just put my left foot farther back than my right foot so I could push off running. "Oh yeah. Hey Blitz. There's somethin' I've been meanin' ta ask." I started.

"Yeah?" He perked up as he stood on the inside of the track to follow and see if I failed any of the parts.

"Do ya mind if I ask ya a question while I'm goin' through the course?" I wasn't planning on actually passing the test the first time around, I just wanted to go through it all first.

"Uh, sure. What is it?" Blitz asked as he gave Spike the signal that I was ready.

"Well, I ain't sure if any of us asked, but I've been wonderin'...How ya holdin' up? Ya know, now that yer a human again?" I asked him with a small frown. He and Spike were helping us all get used to being human, but none of us were really asking Blitz about this.

Or Spike for that matter.

"..." Blitz stayed silent, but as he thought it over, he held up his whistle. "Ready. Set..." He started to stay, signaling me to get ready to run. "Go." He said with much less enthusiasm than when he signaled Pinkie to start running. But he made up that enthusiasm by using the whistle to make sure Spike knew to start the timer.

Regardless, I took off. Going at a slow-ish speed that was still just a bit faster than Pinkie. And as I did, Blitz flew beside me. He looked in deep thought, but eventually spoke up.

"It's kinda like riding a bike. You just never forget being a human." He told me as I came to the tires. And while I might not've known what a 'bike' was, I still understood what he was saying.

"Sounds. Like. There's. More. To-Gah!" I tried saying one word per tire to get a rhythm or something, but I ended up tripping and falling flat on my face on top of the last three tires.

"Here..." Blitz quickly helped me up back in the same spot I was in. Meaning I still had to pass through the last few tires. "Gotta take two seconds off." He said as he made a mark with an indifferent look.

I then finished up and ran to the slanted platforms. "As I was sayin', sounds like there's more to it than that. Is it them thieves?" I asked as I got to the platforms and jumped from one to the other. Thankfully getting through that part without messing it up.

"No, Joe and Big Mike aren't as bad as I remember. And Morgue's not around yet. But it's just..." He paused again and after I passed over the rope swing, nearly missing my jump since I almost forgot how to let go of the rope. But after making sure I landed safely, he spoke again. "You probably don't wanna hear about it."

"Aw, come now Blitz. Don't be goin' on, givin' that excuse." I told him as I reached the wall climb. There was a single rope on this side that I would use to pull myself up over the wall.

So as I started climbing, I saw that he was going over what I said. Even he knew that what he said wasn't too good of an excuse. "If ya don't wanna say it, then ya don't got to. But none of us mind if ya wanna say somethin'." I told him as I tried to get one foot over the top of the wall.

"..." He stayed quiet. Not sure himself if he could respond at all. But soon enough, after I finally got both feet over the top of the wall, I jumped and landed on the ground. It wasn't that big of a fall, but I wasn't used to landing as a human.

Ponies usually landed front hooves first, quickly followed by our back hooves. But with humans, they land on their back hands and if they have to, then they crouch down and use one or both of their front hands to keep from falling flat on their face. So it felt like I was landing backwards.

Still, I managed and ran forward towards the rope-net climb. Glancing towards Blitz as if to signal him to go on and say something. If he wanted to, of course.

"...It's my family." He finally said, nearly causing me to stop dead in my tracks. But seeing as how I was already at the rope, I just started to climb a bit slowly so he'd be able to explain some more. "Before coming to Equestria, all of my family was angry at me. And I don't mean just my Dad and my brother. Every. Single. One of them were mad at me...Now that everyone thinks I ran away, they're probably madder than ever..."

When he finished, I was on the top of the rope climb. It had probably been a minute and a half by now since I started the course. And not sure how to respond, I rolled down the rope climb silently. And after standing up at the bottom, I looked up to Blitz as he started flying towards me.

"Blitz..." I started to say as I walked only a little faster than I would normally. Now I get why he wasn't too sure to tell me why he was so upset. "It..." I got to the ground and started crawling under the low crawl net. "Blitz. You know that they go no reason ta be mad about ya. Yer sure not even one of 'em are worried about whatever happened to ya?" I asked from under the low crawl tarp.

"..." Again, he didn't say anything. But since the tarp was so thin, I could see his flying shadow above me though. Flying solemnly before just going ahead and landing at the ramp as I got out and made my way to the ramp.

He wouldn't even look up. He just stood with a frown on his face, staring straight down to the ground. With how he was looking down, I couldn't even tell if there was a tear in his eye or just a reflection from the whistle or something.

But one thing I could tell was that he was done talking. And there wasn't any way that I'd be able to talk him into saying much else.

"Uh..." I hummed, trying to think of something to say.

"After going up the ramp, jump down to the cushion and run to the finish. Tell Spike that I went to build Dash and Fluttershy a flying course." He then flew off towards the nearest cloud, leaving me to finish the course by myself.

He needed some space. Besides, with him in the air, there was really nothing I could do. If I was more used to being human, maybe I might've been able to catch him with my lasso. But even so, this wasn't my place to barge in.

So I just gave a silent nod and focused on finishing the rest of the course. If he wasn't okay by the time Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got here, then they'd help in an instant.

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Station: Video Games

1st Rotation - 3rd Station

Team: Unicorn

Rarity's POV

"Ugh, that shade of dark blue is much too dim for a night sky. And those unattractive clouds are not helping." I noted as I made my character run forwards towards the end of the level. This whole time, my character had been roaming around in my villain's world, Other World.

It seemed unoriginal to me at first, as did the name of my opposite self, Other Rarity, but I soon understood just why Joe went with that name. Other Rarity was supposed to be so similar and unoriginal, because that was the point of her character. To be another version of me in this, well, Other World, where there aren't any living creatures present. Instead, it was filled with creatures called Husks.

Husks weren't like any living creatures in Equestria. They were in a way, shape-shifting Changelings. But instead of using ponies to drain emotions from, they instead wanted to use ponies as 'vessels' so they would be complete. The game referred to that ability as merging. They would wrap itself around a vessel and merge with the victim. Taking control of their movements and actions. But not their thoughts.

Also when they had successfully merged with a pony, instead of surrounding the pony like you would expect, Husks instead dissolve into them. So instead of being layered on top of the pony, they would control them from the inside out. As if they were wearing the pony. So the pony on the outside would be forced to watch the Husk do whatever it pleased with their new body.

And if all of that wasn't terrifying enough, they looked truly horrid! All there was to the appearance of a Husk was a tattered grey coat, fake doll-like hair for the mane and tails, and dark black buttons for eyes. Not Blitz's coal black mind you, but a maleficent black. Although...It may be murky black now that I think about it.

And to finish off their atrocious design, they all had sewing needles either hanging by some thread that was hanging from their manes or just sticking directly out of their coats. Coupled with their smile which was so wide, only some pony with no jaw could match it. The mouth of a Husk was just cut out to a permanent grin with the jagged edges from the top and lower lips acting as 'teeth' in a way.

"Wait. I thought it was supposed to look evil though..." Big Mike said out loud, confused about the sky. I doubt it really mattered to him however, considering how in awe he was at the fighting my character was doing.

My character, modeled after me of course, had fought the Husks in graceful and beautiful yet fierce and creative way. Joe had each of our characters fight based on what we liked. So while Twilight's character fought with spells, beams, and tomes that circled overhead, I had fought with my designing tools, some light self-defense, and luxurious fabrics.

This in mind, my character stood against the small group of Husks. Most likely about fifty or so of them were slowly trudging towards me like fictional zombie-ponies with their offsetting cut-out grins. But whether it was five or fifty, taking large groups of Husks weren't a problem. So once they got in mid-range, I attacked. My character summoning a roll of shimmering fabric that swept most of them four times in a row before knocking them into the air.

I then finished them off by dismissing my large roll of fabric and striking them with a storm of gems that arose from the ground as if they were raindrops. Luckily, this attack even took out those few Husks that had managed to avoid the fabric from before.

"Oh, it does look evil Big Mike. Rightfully so." I agreed with a nod as I continued on towards the gate that led to Other Rarity. "But I was simply saying that it could've looked...Um...Eviler." I explained to him, using a simple term.

"Oh..." Big Mike said, realizing what I meant. "...I don't get it..." Or, perhaps not.

"Rarity, what are you doing?!" Twilight asked, extremely confused now. "Why are you going towards the boss?! You haven't taken those last two places on the map!" She pointed to the screen as if I could tell what part of it she was pointing at.

Still, I wasn't surprised that she was so caught up on that small little detail. Especially since her story required her go to each area to collect these ingredients before her alternate-self could collect them all. Of course she argued that if she had one of the ingredients, then how could her alternate-self make the spell at all. But she kept playing anyway.

That was another thing. Playing this game was foal's play for the both of us. These video games were just like using magic. The screen resembled whatever we were focusing on, and the controller was like using our magic. Each specific combination of buttons was a different spell for us to use. And it worked so well for both of us.

So much so, that Big Mike said that so far, we were the best at video games than all the others! That is, not counting him, Joe, Morgue, or Blitz. He also said that we were on par with Spikey-Wikey's skill.

I think I'll just have to try and see which one of the two of us are better when we're done with these stations. I'm sure he would be overjoyed to play a game against me.

"Twilight, I don't mean to discredit you're method of playing, but wasn't that tip the game told us a...tip? I mean, that is what the game called it while it was 'loading' my level." I pointed out to her, turning towards her for a moment as I let my character continue towards the gate. Activating a 'cut-scene' as it was called.

"We...Well, yeah, I guess that was what it's called." Twilight blushed a little in embarrassment. "But still, the tip said that the more areas you take over, the easier the boss will be! And you already raised the difficulty from Wimp Easy to Fighter Hard!"

Although the difficulty levels had some immature names to them, they made sense. When Twilight was fighting her anti-self, Dawn Shinning, the gimmick of the fight took a minute to understand, but after that, Dawn was a pushover. Wimp level indeed if you ask me.

"Oh come now Twilight," I said with a giggle. "I believe I can face a pile of wasteful fabric without issue. After all, it's not like she's going to be as different as any of the other..." I bit my tongue as I sat in awe at what I was witnessing before my very eyes.

"Oh dear Celestia..." Twilight muttered, just as shocked as I was at what was just up ahead.

First was the overall setting. It was a spine-chilling view to say the least. That ever present dim, dark-blue sky and clouds were still hovering above as my character stood in the beginning of a large, worn down courtyard. With weeds growing out from in between pieces of cement, which had been cracking and losing its pure white marble color.

On the opposite side, stood a castle. From my point of view, the castle seemed two-dimensional. Doubled by the fact that it wasn't made of the usual material at all. It was all a design made of...Fabrics...

Along the edges of the castle, I could make out the faintest...stitching. The castle was stitched up to the reality itself that was behind it!

It wasn't as if there was an outline the castle was stitched up to, it was just anchored in place by the impossible stitching! And I knew that was the truth because one of the tallest towers, hung limp. No longer connected to anything since the stitches were severed at some point.

Everything else, from the windows, to the gargoyles sitting upon the edge, to the large doors that appeared made of wood, were all just fabrics. Just like Other Rarity was made of. Meaning that everything aside from my character in the Other World were made of mostly fabrics and other materials.

All except for one other thing.

"Sweetie Belle!" My character yelled out in shock, finally breaking the silence that all of us had made.

I knew Sweetie Belle wouldn't say anything though. Joe didn't know what she sounded like after all, so she couldn't possibly have a voice. Still, it was shocking enough that he knew what she looked like!

"Oh come on, did you really think that I would only go after you? Because if that is the case, then you are much more narcissistic than I had first thought!" Other Rarity commented with a sinister laugh.

She looked just like every other Husk did, except she resembled me in a sense. Instead of being grey, she had a slightly whiter but still tattered coat with fake doll-like purple hair for her dirty, curly mane and tail. Also her buttons were a misty blue color instead of murky black...Then again, maybe I was right the first time when calling them maleficent black...Though perhaps they were malevolent black.

Whatever! The point was she had misty blue buttons for eyes! As well as a black platinum crown stitched to the top of her head. But the most notable thing about her was the needles sticking out of her.

They acted like tendrils. Hovering above her body absent-mindedly until she needed them to do something. They were still connected to her body by threads so small, it was almost impossible to see without trying to spot them in the first place. The strange part was that she didn't have a horn like I had. In fact, no Husks had wings or horns to fly or use magic respectively. They attacked by either throwing needles at their target or scratching the target while the needles stuck out from their hooves.

"As much as I hate to admit it, Other Rarity does have a point." Twilight admired hesitantly. "Only a complete foal would go after only one potential 'vessel' and never even try to go after any pony else."

Okay, that was a good point. Usually every cliché villain from every story ever only went after the one main character. So it was actually pretty clever that Other Rarity decided to go after some pony else that was much less prepared to be kidnapped than I.

BUT! Whenever that villain goes as far to take that main character's little sister!...Well then, they very well cross every line that ponies should NEVER CROSS!

"Maybe she does Twilight, but nevertheless, I WILL DESTROY HER!" I screamed out as my character dawned a similar amount of rage and summoned a large pair of fabric scissors that she balanced on top of her back while using magic to keep up with the weight of the mighty silver weapon.

"YEAH! RARE'S GONNA TAKE OTHER RARE'S COAT AND USE IT AS A WELCOME MAT!" Big Mike yelled, scaring the Tartarus out of Twilight seeing as his booming voice only made his huge statue all that more intimidating. But that didn't concern me since one, he was on my side.

And as for number two...

"THAT. I. SHALL!" I agreed before just waiting for this cut-scene to end so I could rip Other Rarity's head off seem-by-seem! "AND I WILL MAKE IT THE TACKIEST WELCOME MAT THAT EVER WAS!"

"YEAH!" Big Mike cheered, glaring at Other Rarity with as much anger as I had!

"Uh, R-Rarity," Twilight said cautiously. Now scared of both of us since she was all alone in a barn filled with two angry, yet determined individuals such as ourselves. "You...You do know that this is only a game...Right? Sweetie Belle's not really in any danger."

"Oh, of course I know that Twilight." Chuckling a bit by how she sounded scared about my well-being. "It's just that the twist the story of my game had given me is just so surprising, that I can't help but actually feel invested."

"You release Sweetie Belle right-GAH!" As my character tried to charge forward to fight Other Rarity, she suddenly tripped and fell to the ground. Her magic releasing the scissors and let them fall just ahead of her. The camera view then panned out to show that her front left hoof had been sewn to the ground below her thanks to the sewing needle tendril that was withdrawing back towards Other Rarity.

Other Rarity simply laughed once more at my pathetic figure and began waltzing back into her reality defying castle. Dragging the gagged Sweetie Belle behind her by her sewing tendrils. "How clumsy of you." She said with mock surprise. "Now I'm glad I chose to just abduct your young sister instead. Besides, you're probably too old to last long anyway."

"..." Needless to say, that last comment had me about ready to blast the TV.

"Ta ta~!" She said with a sick, sing-songy tone. The doors closing directly behind the two of them as my character finally levitated up her scissors and made quick work of the stitching around my hoof. Stitching left no permanent damage to whatever they fused together, as both my hoof and the fabric-like concrete below returned to normal as if we were never sewn together.

My character quickly charged forward and begun cutting at the door they had gone through. But since the fabric was too thick or perhaps layered oddly, it took a minute or so. To which the game cut to a loading screen with a picture of my character trying to cut through the door with fabric scissors the size of a pony.

"Well..." I said slowly. The other two looking at me cautiously. "Now it is personal... And although I have said it once, and I shall say it once more...I WILL DESTROY HER!" I yelled out at the top of my lungs. Resulting in some pony tripping on top of the barn in surprise and tumble down towards the cushion below.

"I'm okay!" Applejack called out from outside. "...ow..."

"Rarity..." Twilight dared to say. "You need to calm down...Try thinking of a good memory." She suggested.

"A...A good memory?" I asked while huffing and puffing out air like a story-time Timberwolf.

"You mean like a story?" Big Mike asked, instantly recovering from his fit of rage. Much better than I was doing, I'll admit.

"Yes, like a story." Twilight nodded. "A good story will probably help you calm-"

"Yay, stories!" Big Mike cheered with his arms up in the air. "Big Mike loves stories! Can it be about your sister?!" Big Mike asked me, instantly making me think of all the memories I had off-hoof about Sweetie Belle.

"Uh, Big Mike I don't think that's such a...Actually...That's not such a bad idea at all. Thank you for the idea Big Mike." Twilight thanked him while turning to look at me.

"Just using my Big Mike Logic!" He said cluelessly.

"A story about Sweetie..." I hummed in thought as I kept my eyes closed. Opening them just in time to see the next part of this level, which was inside the castle itself. The castle was smaller than the maze of the entire Other World and it didn't have any places to take over, but it was still a decent enough size with Husks swarming everywhere.

"Aha! I have the perfect one!" I announced as I began moving my character towards the first large group of Husks. Firing a small barrage of gems their direction as I got closer. "It happened just a few days after that boat race we all competed in..."

---

*Flashback*

Sometime After the Boating Race

Told by a 3rd Pony POV by Rarity

At the Carousel Boutique

It had been a long week. I had cleared all of my orders but one, and it was due tomorrow. Everything else had been so easy, yet the one I thought would be the easiest is what gave me such an issue.

This one school for gifted fillies of all species had a few sports teams. There was a rely race team, golf team, and the most loved of them all, a ton of track and field events. And since they were about to begin their first competition against a rival school for gifted fillies, there was at least one of those gifted schools in all the bigger cities, they had asked me to make the most beautiful cheerleading outfits for the girls there.

Luckily for me, all fillies were the same build. It was a one-size fits all kind of age for them.

But the thing is, their design was so difficult to come up with! They needed to be able to have a well amount of mobility, so no gems or delicate designs allowed. So color was going to be the most important part of the design.

"Rarity! Hey Rarity!" Sweetie Belle called as she ran inside the Boutique and into my planning room. Looking up at me with an excited expression. I wasn't exhausted or anything, it was about three in the afternoon or something. I was just stressed out since the order was going to be overdue.

"Oh. Hello Sweetie Belle. How are you, um, doing today?" I said, going from stressed to nervous instantly. Since I accepted this order, the school was so thankful that she offered me two tickets to the fair where they'd be having their first competition at. And because all my friends had their own special way of attending the fair, they didn't need the extra ticket.

Rainbow Dash and a few other trainee Wonderbolts were going to be performing as an opening act for the real Wonderbolts. She was also allowed to bring a friend, so she brought Scootaloo since every pony else was able to come.

Pinkie Pie and Twilight were helping to plan the fair, so they was automatically allowed to go for free with one friend each. So Pinkie invited Applebloom and Twilight invited Fluttershy.

Pinkie also gave the main planner the idea to hire Blitz and have him help build some of the games there. And with how good of a job he did, he was allowed to go for free with a friend. Which Twilight asked Blitz if he could bring Spike so all of us could end up coming.

And finally, Applejack and Granny Smith were supplying the fair with some baked goods, so they each invited some pony. Applejack inviting Big Mac, and Granny Smith...Actually, I'm not sure who she invited to come with her.

It was pretty clever all things considered. But in order to accomplish this idea, one thing had to happen. We had to do what we were hired to do in the first place. And if I couldn't make the new uniforms, then Sweetie couldn't go.

"Me and the other Crusaders were talking about everything we were gonna do at the fair tomorrow!" Sweetie answered, making me even more nervous.

"Oh, well, yes. That is going to be, um, fun!" I stuttered with a pathetic smile to try and hide my worry. But sadly, it was so bad that Sweetie was able to see right through it. She wasn't so good at telling when ponies were sarcastic or lying, so you knew you were doing something wrong when she spotted your lie.

"Rarity, what's wrong?" She asked, immediately getting worried. "Are we not allowed to go?"

I sighed and looked to her with a frown. "I'm not so sure Sweetie. You see, we're allowed to go if I can finish the cheerleading outfits for the School for Gifted Fillies from Manehattan. But I'm having some trouble."

"Ugh, them..." Sweetie said with a small glare thrown towards the papers I had tried to design for their outfits. Some time when I was a foal myself, me and my family lived up in Manehattan. And once Sweetie was born, we couldn't afford to live there and moved to the smaller town of Ponyville. And since Sweetie Belle was born in Manehattan, that made her legible to attend that school if she applied.

But she didn't apply. Instead, she was offered an invitation to attend that school!

To be offered to attend a Gifted Fillies school was nothing less of the highest honor! Not even Twilight was invited to attend the School for Gifted Fillies in Canterlot! She had to apply!

They noticed that since her sister was not only a successful designer, but an Element of Harmony that personally knew higher class ponies such as Fancy Pants, Sapphire Shores, and Princess Celestia herself! Not only that, but Sweetie Belle's recent activity with the boat race me and Blitz had accidentally set up for the town was noticed as well!

Sweetie Belle ended up basically tying with the 'royalty' that was Prince Blueblood. And she would've even beaten him if it wasn't for her magic overpowering the scooter in the boat. And as word of that got around across Equestria, the School of Gifted Fillies discovered that she was born in Manehattan and wanted her in.

Only, there was a small problem. The letter explained to her that she'd have to leave Ponyville, her friends, possibly her family, and obviously her old school to live in the dorms of their school. And because of how it was stated, Sweetie was angry and considered this 'personal'. So she told me and our parents to decline them in a way that was just as rude as they had been.

"So, we won't be able to go?" Sweetie deadpanned, very disappointed right now.

"No! Don't worry Sweetie Belle! Whether I finish this or not, I'll make sure that you get to go!" I told her. Tickets to go were expensive considering how big of an event it was, but I would never let my sister down like that!

"Bu-But what about you?" She asked, a little relieved that she'd still go, but now worried about me.

"Oh...Well...I'm not too sure. Making the outfits will take no time at all, but designing them is the hard part." I reminded her.

"Oh, right..." She said, not sure how to respond. She wouldn't have appreciated the fair as much if I didn't get to come with her. She loved doing activities with her big sister. And since she knew just how hindering she was to the designing process of dress-making, she slowing trudged out of the room.

It was starting to get late at that time, so she just went straight to bed. Not even wanting something to eat. I wanted to help her but the only way to cheer her up was to make these outfits so both of us could go. So for as long as I could, I tried to find the best design my fabulous mind could muster!

Only, as the hours went by, I kept failing. I couldn't find a way to make beautiful designs without making them have enough maneuverability for a group of cheerleaders. And by midnight, I knew I was too tired to make any decent designs. I had to rest and try to wake up later and finish.

But, little did I know, Sweetie Belle had a plan to help me.

Sometime later into the night- Sweetie had told me that she thought it was about three or four AM as far as she could guess -Sweetie Belle snuck out of her room and went into my Planning Room.

She had fallen asleep early that night, about eight or nine, so she had a good seven or so hours. Just enough to be rested for the day to follow. And since I wasn't to get up until seven o'clock, she had a clean three hours.

That was more than enough for Sweetie Belle to make a design and try to create the outfit. Because of the invitation telling her just how 'great' the School for Gifted Fillies was, an idea was fresh in her mind.

Their school colors were a primary navy-blue and secondary cardinal-red. I tried to design those two colors to make the perfect costume, but it was so impossible! Not only that, but their school mascot was a domesticated Timberwolf! I could make part of their costume out of wood or something nature oriented, but then it wouldn't be easy for them to move around.

Except, Sweetie Belle had a solution.

She drew the best outline of a pony she could on one of my blank designing drafts, and then just colored in where she thought the colors of the outfit should go. And after coloring in the picture like a coloring book, she drew some leaves on the sides of the outfit.

Her design was that the front legs and skirt would be colored cardinal-red, and the body would be navy-blue with the design on leaves being blown in the wind along the sides of the body.

So with that idea in mind, she got more than enough fabric for the two colors for the body. She then opened the window of the planning room up and pulled out a few leaves from the tree that was outside with her magic to use for the design.

Speaking of her magic, she was able to do better with designing now that she had a small amount of control with it. The sewing aspect of it was easier and she could actually make an outfit with the right amount of holes in it for legs, the tail, and head without needing a mannequin.

Sadly, it still took her a while. Not only that, but she was 'freaked out' by those mannequins when there wasn't enough light around them. Which meant that she had to use her own body as a mannequin. So she didn't sew the dress, but instead used a few spells to create the dress around her own body.

It was one of the designing spells I had always practiced. And the one she had used was the same spell I used the first time Trixie had come to Ponyville when I made that dress out of her curtains. But since she didn't have enough magical energy or practice in her, she was left to try and put the leaves on with glue.

So while she was putting the finishing touches on her cheerleading outfit, I had finally began to wake up. And after passing the Planning Room, getting some coffee, and going back, I spotted the most adorable fashion disaster I have ever seen!

Sweetie Belle was standing on the modeling platform with the fabric not all set in place correctly. Meaning that extra fabric was hanging off the sides of her, dripping with glue that was left over from gluing the leaves together.

A pair of fabric scissors were stuck to her cheerleading skirt, and a few extra leaves were also left to be stuck to Sweetie's mane and tail, as well as her front hooves tangled up with some thread when she first attempted to sew parts of the outfit together.

If it wasn't for how funny she had looked right now, I would've been angry at her for breaking my rule of not working in my Planning Room. But I couldn't even try to be angry at her whilst she looked like this!

"Sweetie Belle...What happened?..." I asked with a very entertained look on my face. Talking slowly to just savor the humiliation my sister was going through. But not wanting her to be too embarrassed, I used my magic to dislodge the scissors on her skirt and the used them to cut the thread around her front hooves.

"Stop laughing!" Sweetie demanded with a heavy blush. "I...I didn't want you to miss the fair! So, I tried to make the cheerleader clothes for you..." She explained as I used my magic to take the leaves out of her mane and turned the scissors around to cut out the excess fabric that was hanging off of her. Followed by using the newly obtained thread to stitch the edge of the fabric into place. Without hurting Sweetie of course.

"Oh, Sweetie Belle!" I cooed as I got the leaves off her dress. "You didn't have to do that for me!"

"Yes I did Rarity!" Sweetie argued. "I saw how upset you were that you couldn't finish the dresses for that stupid school, so I wanted to try and make them for you! I remembered enough about them, and I thought my magic would help. But I guess not..."

"Well, as interesting as it would be to see that 'horrid' school wearing that as a cheerleading uniform, I don't think this design will work for them." I explained to her as I cleaned up her dress and made it more appreciative to admire. "...That is, without a small amount of work."

"Yeah, I know. I didn't try to make it look bad, it just...Wait, what did you just say?" She asked, not realizing what I said in time.

"Well according to your, ahem, design," I began looking over both the basics of the outfit she had on and the drawing she had made. "I think you've come up with something amazing!"

"You...Y-You really think so?!" Sweetie asked, getting excited immediately.

"Oh, I know so!" I answered, getting excited myself as I went over the dress in my head. "It just needs a few tweaks and it'll be perfect!" I said as I started to redraw the design on a new piece of paper. But before I finished, I turned to her. "Oh, um, you don't mind, do you?"

"Of course not! You're the amazing designing sister!" Sweetie said as she ran over to look at my new sketch of her design. "But what are you gonna change?"

"Well, we can't use actual leaves I'm afraid. They'll dry up and wither away. So we'll have to make them out of fabric and put the design onto the dress afterwards. But the leaves will be so small that it won't hinder their movement." I explained as I created a blueprint for the leaves' design to add on later.

"Yeah. Probably a good idea." Sweetie agreed as she looked to the glued on leaves. Noticing how one of them were still oozing with extra glue. Getting all over the carpet, may I add.

"Next, we need to fix up the skirt a bit. It's too lifeless without some creases of ruffles. So we'll make them knife-pleated." I told her as I edited the skirt part. She looked confused about the term, but just stuck with what I said with 'creases'.

"Uh, got it!" Sweetie answered.

"And...Actually..." That was it really. Those were the only two things I needed to change. Everything else was so perfect, yet so simple! To change anything else would ruin it entirely! "We'll be done." I said happily.

"Wait, that's it?!" Sweetie asked, looking a little worried. "But...But what about the colors, err...Or something!" She asked.

"Sweetie Belle, it's school colors. Those are the only two colors we're allowed to use. Meaning that this is entirely you're creation." I smiled at her. She may not have known how to make dresses, and I'm not sure if she may ever have the ability, but she definitely has an eye for design!

"You sure?... I mean, you're the designer..." She said with a frown.

"No Sweetie Belle, I'm not the designer. I'm the dressmaker." I then pointed to her. "You're the designer." She stood in disbelief at what I told her.

"Now," I began before she could say anything. Smirking in my clever, yet I'll admit under-hoofed plan. "Let's get that thing off you so you can try on the new design!" I told her as I began using my magic to create all Including cheerleading costumes. Including one extra for Sweetie Belle.

"Wait, why do I need to try on the new one?" She asked as she used her magic to take off her costume. She created it around her, so the only way it could be taken off was with magic. Another thing I had to alter about the costumes now that I think about it.

"Because Sweetie Belle," I finished the new first outfit in no time at all and levitated it over so she could hold it. "Whether this turned out well or not, you still disobeyed my wishes and came into this room to use my materials." I told her with a fake-sweetly smile. "You should've at least told me what you were up to before you put matters into your own hooves."

"But...But..." Sweetie sighed. "Okay, you're right. I'm sorry Rarity."

"Now it's alright Sweetie Belle. That is, as long as you promise to do one thing." I told her with an ever-growing smirk.

"What's that?" She asked, now unsure about my plan. So I simply levitated up the cheerleading outfit once more and gestured to it. "Wha?...Oh. Oh no. No. No. No. No! NO! I am not wearing that to the fair! All our friends are going to see me!" She said, immediately getting embarrassed at the thought.

"Oh come now Sweetie Belle, you'll look so beautiful!" I told her as I used my magic to put it on her anyway. And she looked so adorable! "Besides, all the colts are sure to swarm all over you!"

"But I don't want colts to swarm all over me!" She said, trying to take the dress off, although it was hopeless.

"Sorry Sweetie Belle, but that's the price to pay for being my sister." I told her, giggling at how embarrassed she looked right now.

"Oh...Alright..." She agreed after very little convincing. And after looking into the mirror, she slowly got over it and changed the subject. "So, when do we go?"

Now, if any pony had looked at this, they would think that I was doing this just to embarrass her. And of course, that was part of the reason. As I had said, she broke the rules. But that wasn't the only reason.

She was beginning to open up and move past her shy personality. I could tell, because I've seen stage-fright thousands of times. And her stage-fright wasn't like Fluttershy's. It wasn't that she didn't want to be noticed, it was that she was worried about what others would think of her. Besides, I knew that deep down, she wanted to be noticed like this.

After all, I barely had to convince her to wear such a beautiful outfit to a public fair. And if she was to ever get over that shyness, then she would need a light push in the right direction. Especially if her talent is what I think it is.

"Well, the outfits are done. You go ahead and get some breakfast and by the time you're done, I'll have packed everything." I told her with a smile. To which she nodded and began to walk out.

"Oh, I forgot to ask. Do you think we should say good morning to Button Mash and his friends? Because I could've sworn you mentioned something about you, him, Rumble, and Featherweight meeting up this morning to talk about that comic-"

"NO!" She yelled out as loud as she could before sprinting out of the room and down to the kitchen. "YOU CAN'T MAKE ME!"

---

Current Time

Rarity's POV

"AW, Becky Dell sounds so nice!" Big Mike said with a big smile. "She helped her big sister with the cheerleader clothes!"

I giggled a bit as I kept playing. I had been able to tell them the story and play this game at the same time, and now my character was in the middle of the final boss fight. Sweetie Belle tied to the wall by a bunch of stitches that Other Rarity had magically bounded her there with.

"Yes, it was nice of her." I agreed, not minding that he messed up her name. 'Sweetie Belle' was probably a difficult name for him to remember. "And I will never forget that polite act of kindness that she did for me. And neither will the pictures that the Foal Free Press took when they were at the fair."

"Wait, what happened next at the fair?" He asked. "Because at my school, some cheerleaders are really mean. So what did those cheerleaders do with, uh, Candy Belle?" Well, he got one part of her name right at least.

"Oh, right. Them..." I tried to hold in a fit of giggles as I used hit Other Rarity with a level one special attack, Gem Storm. Bringing her down to an inch of her life. "Well, during the fair, Sweetie Belle's friends were teasing her about her adorable cheerleading outfit! And when it was time for the Track and Field event, that's when the day at the fair turned from good to great!"

Just remembering that surprise brought me into yet another fit of giggles.

"Wait, do you mean when Sweetie was-" Twilight was about to spoil the story, but Big Mike shushed her. Which Twilight didn't mind since she was about to start laughing herself. All of us, this being all six of me and the girls, the other CMC, Blitz, and Spike all so enjoying the prank turned wonderfully well.

"SHH! Big Mike wants to hear what happened in Rare's story is first!" He told her. In his own way saying that he wanted to hear me finish it. "So, what happened?!" He asked, quieting down now.

"Thank you Big Mike. Now what happened next was amazing." I told him as I delivered the final blow to Other Rarity. Making her scream out in pain before the game showed us another cut-scene like when I confronted Other Rarity before. Only this time, I was on the winning team.

"There was an announcement saying that every pony that was to compete in the track and field games were to report to the stadium. This including cheerleaders as well." The very same slightly wicked smirk I had adorned that day returned as I recalled the story. "So Applebloom and Scootaloo, AJ and Dash's sisters," I explained to Big Mike as he nodded, snickering a little at what he was starting to figure out.

"They got an amazing idea and started dragging Sweetie Belle to the stadium, and the other cheerleaders were already there. And when they saw Sweetie's friends bringing her there, they instantly realized what was going on and 'accepted' her into the group. All while the cheerleading coach didn't notice a thing." I told them.

The character in the game, stood over the tattered remains of Other Rarity and summoned her fabric scissors once more to free Sweetie Belle from the wall. And once she was safely on the ground, both of them hugging each other with so much relief and thankfulness that it was all over now.

"So half an hour later, me and every pony else came to the stadium with Scootaloo and Applebloom looking more excited than ever. They didn't tell us what was going on, but they said that it would be the best surprise that we've ever seen! And. It. Was!"

"Was Tinker Belle there?!" Big Mike asked while trying to keep from snickering himself.

"Why, Big Mike, yes! Yes she was! And she knew just about every cheer there was by the time we arrived!" I told him before letting him burst out laughing in his chair.

"Ah man! Big Mike loves happy stories!" He cheered as the two characters on screen ended their hug. Sweetie Belle spotting something off-screen and running towards it happily.

"That wasn't even the best part! Diamond Tiara and her friend were there as well. Those two are smaller bullies that for some reason or another, every pony at the school adores." I explained to him. Frowning a little as I remembered them.

"Bullies? Were they Snobby Bullies?" He asked, frowning a bit after mentioning them.

"Snobby..." I repeated, trying to recall just what he meant by that term. "Why, I believe so, yes." I nodded, going along with it anyway.

"Then they don't sound too nice." Big Mike frowned at the thought of them.

"Well Sweetie has told me stories of what all they do, but I think they may be a bit over the top." I explained. "But either way, they were very jealous once they saw Sweetie wowing the crowd with her cheering!"

Big Mike started laughing again and cheering himself, happy that Sweetie's bullies were upset about Sweetie being more popular at the time than them. And as he did, the Sweetie Belle in the video game had come back into view. Levitating the black platinum crown that Other Rarity had been wearing all this time.

She then, after a little effort, levitated it onto my character's head. Smiling up happily as the two characters embraced in a happy hug once more. Making me tear up in happiness.

I wonder how Sweetie Belle's doing right now...

---

Station: Paperwork

1st Rotation - 3rd Station

Team: Pegasi

Fluttershy's POV

"Um...Joe?" I spoke up, hoping to get his attention. He was busy typing on his...Human Machine, and it looked pretty important. I guessed it was a typewriter, but it could fold in two like a case, so I wasn't sure. But whatever it was, I didn't want to bother him too much.

I mean whatever he was doing, he had been working on before we even got here. Except, he wasn't working on his typewriter when we all started these stations. It wasn't even out as far as I could tell when Twilight and Rarity were first out here. He might've taken it out after talking to them, but I wasn't sure because at that point Rainbow and I were inside the barn.

"What is it?" He asked me, not looking up from his typewriter as he still kept typing away.

"Well, uh, if it's okay with you, we wanted to go ahead and-" "We're finished." Rainbow said, helping me get to the point as we both looked over to Joe, who now stopped what he was doing and looked up towards us.

"You're done? You've both answered every single question?" He asked, looking up from his typewriter to look at both of us.

"Duh! What else would 'done' mean?" Rainbow Dash asked, sounding angry at Joe for some reason. I know she didn't like them being thieves, but she wasn't mad at Big Mike about that.

Was she still mad about yesterday?

"Well considering how your alien ponies, I can't be too sure what done means to you." Joe said sarcastically, putting air quotes around 'done' before taking the papers and glancing over everything. "But, it seems that you two have managed to surprise me. Not even Ms. Sparkle and Ms. Rarity could finish this quickly. And this was the last thing I expected you to be quick at, Ms. Dash." He countered with another sarcastic jab.

"Oh shut it." Rainbow said as she crossed her arms and looked up towards the sky. But the thing that Joe didn't was that she did a lot more paperwork than most ponies thought.

In fact, there've been times where she asked me to watch Tank while she fell behind on paperwork. N-Not that she fell behind on her work regularly! In fact, it only happened once every month or so. And that was only if the Weather Patrol messed up with the weather schedule.

But yes, being the Weather Patrol Manager had its drawbacks. She had to review weather patterns, assign ponies to quadrants of Ponyville, organize all weather meetings, take charge in weather emergencies, all imported deliveries of clouds, rainbow fuel, and lightning charges, and finally there was all the paperwork for becoming a professional Wonderbolt.

And ponies always wonder why she loves naps.

As Rainbow Dash kept looking into the air, she spotted something interesting. "Huh. I wonder what's up with Blitz."

"Clouds most likely." Joe answered, closing his typewriter and putting it aside so he could have some space. "Can either of you explain just how you actually wrote this down so quickly? Your handwriting's surprisingly neat for two humans who didn't even have fingers two hours ago."

"It's like using our wings." Rainbow said as she just kept watching the huge clouds drift by. Some of them were so big, that it made Cloudsdale seem as small as Rainbow Dash's home. "We just pretended that we were using our hands were our wings. Each finger being one of the main feathers. Probably why the video games weren't all that hard either."

...Actually, that's exactly what I did too. "Y-Yes, what she sad." I agreed with a sheepish smile.

"Well, that's something I wasn't aware of. I'll need to make a note of that." Joe said to himself, putting Rainbow Dash's paper down and turning to me. "Well seeing as how Ms. Dash isn't willing to cooperate, do you mind if we start with your paper first?"

I could tell Joe was trying to be careful with how he talked to me. He didn't sound like he usually did when he tried to talk like this. He didn't sound caring, but it was nice to hear that he was mindful about being rude.

"Um..." I turned towards Rainbow Dash, not sure what she thought. But after I saw her shrug without a care, I turned towards Joe and nodded with a small smile. "Well, if it's alright with Rainbow Dash, then I'll do it."

Rainbow Dash let out a breath and looked completely out of it. She was still watching the clouds though, so I guess she just decided to ignore what was going on and watch the sky. She did say that she wanted to try out the Cloud Watching activity that Blitz told her about.

"Okay." Joe said, looking towards his list. "Well let's start at the beginning. You're full name is Fluttershy. Big surprise to us all." He said sarcastically. "Age is seventeen, same as most of the others surprisingly."

"Well, not Pinkie Pie, Twilight, or Rarity." I told him.

"I do believe I said most." He reminded me sarcastically. "And for family members, you have your father and mother, Loud Yap and Tender Heart...It might just be a hunch, but I think you just may take after your Mother a little bit more."

I couldn't help but giggle at that. "Yeah, that's what my friends say too. T-That's not to say my Dad's a bad pony or-" "Person." "Huh-oh! Right, I'm sorry." I apologized, forgetting that we had to get used to talking like humans. "He's not a bad person or anything but-"

"Ms. Fluttershy, its fine." Joe told me, not wanting me to freak out anymore. "Don't worry about it. I know you're not lying. Your father sounds nice."

"Yeah, he-he is." I said, taking a breath to calm down. I didn't want him to get the wrong idea. My Dad was really nice. After you get past how he's always yelling. But that's not his fault or anything, he can't help it. It's only because he can hear really well. So he thinks everything's louder than it really is, which is why he yells. And why my Mom tries to talk so quietly just for him.

"Alright, and next is...Something I don't understand at all..." He said as he looked at my measurements next. I couldn't blame him though, even Earth Ponies would be confused by them.

"Oh, well here. The first number is waist. The second is the length of the four legs. And the third is height from the ground to the top of your back." I explained to him. "But unicorns have a fourth number. It's the base width of their horn. It's only needed for headwear, but sometimes they also have to put it down for full outfits."

"Then why do you and Rainbow Dash have two extra numbers? Because unless their invisible, I don't see any horns." Joe raised an eyebrow.

"Both of those numbers are for our wings." I explained, pointing to our fourth number. "The fourth one is the base width of our wings, and the fifth one is the length of our wings."

Joe quickly wrote down what each of them all mean next to my paper, and quickly added the unicorn horn measurement on either Twilight or Rarity's. I couldn't tell what exactly he wrote down since he had written it down so quickly.

"Well, it all looks in order than, thankfully." Joe says as he looked at both the measurements and weight. Not going over them out of politeness. "Next up, strengths. You put, animals, being kind, and having good friends?"

"Yes." I nodded before spotting Dan laying down under Joe's desk. He looked so happy on his doggie bed, but was looking up at me with his tail wagging. "Hey there Dan." I said, waving at him with a smile.

"Hi there!" Dan barked in response, perking up and jumping out from under the desk to walk over and sit in front of me. And with how happy he looked, I couldn't help but pet his big happy head.

"You said his breed was a Great Dane, right?" I asked, getting a nod from Joe as an answer. "We don't have dogs like him back on Equestria. The only big dogs we have are Orthros' and, well, they're definitely not a Great Dane." I said with another giggle. It had been two years since I had last seen an Orthros now. But seeing a new species of dog was amazing.

"A-An Orthros?" Joe stuttered, taking off his glasses and cleaning them with the bottom of his shirt. Looking stunned. "Aren't those things two-headed dogs?"

"Two heads?" Dan asked, wondering what that meant.

"Yes. They're also said to be related to the Guard of Tartarus, Cerberus...Are. A-Are you okay Joe?" I asked, seeing Joe shaking a little bit.

"There's actually a Cerberus in your world?...And a Tartarus?...But. But what lies in Tartarus?" He asked, now sounding extremely terrified. It was very worrying, but I knew that he'd want an answer.

"Well...Not much, really." I said, hoping to change the subject. "Some evil scary creatures, and any pony that does something evil." I said, thinking of a way to change the subject. I was getting scared myself just thinking about the ponies that stayed there.

"...I guess...I'll have to have a chat with Morgue about that..." He said before slowly picking his glasses back up and carefully putting them back on. "Alright...Let's move on."

"Master? You okay?" Dan noticed how his owner, or second owner since Big Mike was his real owner, was worried. A dog could always sense those kind of emotions. But after walking over, Joe cleared his throat and pet Dan. Somehow masking his sense of worry so well that not even Dan could sense it

"Good boy." He told Dan before focusing back on the paper. "I was going to say something else about your strengths, but let's instead move on to weaknesses." He told me, earning no objections as Dan just walked back under the desk and laid down in front of Joe's feet on his doggie bed.

"For weaknesses, you put that you're scared of multiple things, that you're not as strong or smart as some of the others, and that you can't control The Stare...And The Stare is?" He asked me, not knowing what it was.

"Oh, um, it's kinda hard to explain. It's just something I can do whenever I need to. I don't like using it though since it can scare some of my animals." I told him with a shy look behind my hair.

"Noted." He said, writing something on another piece of paper. "Well, it seems that all the important parts are in order. So all we have left is to find you a new name."

"Like what?" I asked.

"Well, we'll need a first and last name. So as a first name we'll need something similar to yours. That way, it's easier for you to respond to. So that said..." He closed his eyes and thought it over. "How about Felisha?"

"Felisha..." I repeated, trying the name out myself. And if I did need a new name, then that one seemed nice enough. "Okay. May I ask what it means though?"

"Well you see, our names mostly have a meaning behind them. Your names are more simplified and direct. Like for instance, the name 'Felisha' means 'happy' in Latin. Most names have meanings like these or are based off of a historical or important figure. And your last name usually represents your family in an entirety. Much like Ms. AJ's 'Apple Family'. That being said, it may be in our best interest to find you a name that matches your nationality."

"Nationality?" I asked him.

"Yes. Interestingly enough, all of you have different nationalities. Ms. Sparkle and Mr. Spike both look Indian, Ms. Rarity looks more French than anything, Ms. Dash looks...I'd guess Italian, Ms. AJ looks American, Ms. Pie looks English, and finally you look, perhaps, Dutch...So what do you think of the name Schoonraad?"

"Schoonraad?" I asked, my nose scrunching up in dislike. Not that the name wouldn't be good for any other human. "And what does that mean?"

"It means refined council. And it probably sounds different because it's from an entirely different language." Joe explained to me. He did say it a little weirdly, but I guess that made sense.

"I guess our names are simple compared to yours." I mused with a small smile. "I mean, in Equestria, a pony would probably just be named Refined Council. But I'm fine with that last-" "I ACTUALLY WROTE THAT DOWN?!"

"eep!" I managed to squeak out before ducking away from whatever screamed out like that. Hiding behind my chair out of fear that some pony was mad at me or wanted to hurt some pony else.

"Ms. Dash!" Joe yelled out, leaning back in his seat as he was shocked just like I was. Holding onto his chest as if his heart was about to burst.

"I COMPLETELY FORGOT THAT I-" "Shush!" Joe said as he took the cardboard tube he had used when we both accidentally said 'every pony' out loud, and threw it right at Rainbow Dash's face. Hitting her right in the nose and causing her to flinch.

But I will admit, I was a little glad that Rainbow wasn't yelling so loudly...I should probably apologize to her for being glad about that.

"Calm down!" He said with some noticeable restraint as he tried to stay quiet. He didn't want to make her even more scared about...Whatever happened. "What's wrong with you?" He asked.

"Huh?!" She immediately looked to Joe, getting worried about him all of a sudden. "O-Oh! Um...What-What was I saying?" She asked, trying to recover coolly.

"Oh, I don't know," Joe began sarcastically. "It was pretty hard to hear since you were yelling bloody murder." Joe pointed out with a frown. "Apparently, you were upset about what you wrote down." He answered before picking up the cardboard tube and Rainbow's paper. "The real question is what." He said as he glanced at it.

"No, don't!" Rainbow yelled as she reached forward to try and take the paper back. But before she even got close, Joe smacked her wrist with the cardboard tube. And just by Rainbow's reaction alone, I knew that it hurt more than I thought it should've.

She retracted her hands, knowing that she couldn't just take the paper from Joe. So she just growled a little in frustration. "Gimme back my paper." She demanded.

"Gimme, gimmie never gets Ms. Dash." Joe countered without a care. "Also, we could go without the ol' scowl n' growl. But I guess there's no convincing you otherwise." He figured without a care. "So, let's go ahead and get this over with."

"Ugh..." Rainbow moaned in annoyance. Falling back into her seat with the scowl still on her face like Joe thought.

Meanwhile, I slowly eased my way back into my seat. Choosing to just stay silent and let this play out. Rainbow Dash could be really determined and stubborn about whatever she was focused on, so she wasn't going to go along with whatever Joe says. But it won't exactly be easy for her since she was up against Joe.

He was scary when he wanted to be. He already proved that yesterday. Plus he was supposed to be the Element of Persistence. Add to how he says that he can read-minds, and he could probably try to beat Rainbow's stubbornness with facts and his own determination.

"Now. Let's start with family names." Joe began. Putting the paper down and looking at them.

"Of course! Where else would we start?!" Rainbow asked with her own sarcasm. Glaring at Joe the whole time.

But Rainbow's glare didn't do anything to Joe. In fact, Joe just stared right back at her. Looking as emotionless as ever in hopes to scare Rainbow in his own way and while neither was backing down, I let out a small whimper. Becoming fast friends with my chair since I was hiding behind it so much.

"Well not at the finish line, I can tell you that much..." Joe countered as he rubbed his forehead while reaching for his flask again and taking another sip. "Ugh, I'll be drunk by noon at this rate..." He muttered, not caring if we heard him or not.

"D...Drunk?" I asked, peering out from my favorite chair in confusion.

"Well, I am a thief Ms. Schoonraad." He said, using my new last name that was still just as long as my original name. "I've committed enough illegal acts, so what's under-age alcohol consumption added to the list?" He asked rhetorically before putting the flask away.

"But you're older than I am." Rainbow said out of confusion, now trying to stay on this topic rather than move on with the paper.

"You're seventeen and I'm eighteen. Both of those ages are still under twenty-one. Ergo 'under-age.'" He explained in a simple way towards Rainbow Dash. Only making her mad again.

I did see how she was confused though. In Equestria, the age limit for drinking was only thirteen. It was probably higher here since this world was supposed to be more chaotic. Rainbow Dash knew the age limit more than any of us though because of how much she tracked Cider Season. And even right now, she was probably wondering if humans had Apple Cider.

"It's probably an older age limit because Equestria's less problematic when it comes to crime with alcohol." Joe assumed. Yep, I was right. If only we could have Joe talk to Berry Punch about Alcohol Problems...Oh! That came out too rude, didn't it?!

"By the way, you're not going to distract me that easily Ms. Dash." Joe warned her, figuring out Rainbow Dash's plan.

"...Dang..." Rainbow mumbled.

"So back to your family names, or, should I say family name, you've only put one down. Your father, Rainbow Blaze." Joe pointed out, "Is that really all you have? No brothers? Aunts or uncles? Grandparents on a rocking chair?" He listed off. "What about your sister we learned about yesterday?"

"Who, Scootaloo?" Rainbow rhymed accidentally.

"No, your other sister." Joe rolled his eyes, earning another glare from Rainbow Dash. "If Scootaloo's your sister, then why didn't you write her name down?"

"Well..." Rainbow deflated a little. "She's not...It's kinda-" "Don't." Joe interrupted. "Say no more. You don't have to explain anything." He told her, not wanting her to get upset about that. "Any other relatives?" He repeated.

"Nope." She sighed calmly as she fell back into her. "My Dad was an only child, like me. Never met or heard of my grandparents and the only aunt I'm related to, I've never met."

"You're avoiding someone Ms. Dash." Joe noted. "And by the sound of it, it seems like there's some history behind the two of you. Mind explaining just what's between you and your mother?"

"And why should I do that?!" She suddenly snapped, now glaring at Joe heavily.

Rainbow Dash never did like talking about her. The only ones that even knew just how much she hated talking about this was me, her Dad, and a few random Pegasi from our flight school. And it took so many years before she even wanted to say something about it to me. I doubt she would ever talk about it to someone like Joe.

"Ms. Dash, I simply asked a question. No need to get upset about it." Joe said calmly, shaking his head. "If you don't want to tal-"

"No, I'm not going to talk about her!" She yelled out again. "And even if I did, I'm not talking about it to a thief!" She only got angrier. "And I don't care how much hypnosis or mind-reading you use, I'm not telling you anything!"

"..." Her and Joe sat there. Rainbow glaring at him as if he was King Sombra or some pony bad, while Joe just matched her glare with a calm and emotionless look on his face.

"Is that what you really think I'm going to do Ms. Dash? Abuse my skills to simply get my way?" Joe asked.

"Well if that whole 'Torture Circle' hypnosis thing wasn't 'abusing your skills', then I don't know what is!" Rainbow yelled out, using her fingers to make quotes in the air around what Joe was telling us yesterday.

He then sighed, shaking his head. "Ms. Dash, not every situation is the same. Ms. Sparkle didn't understand the situation and-"

"And you ended up hypnotizing all of us!" Rainbow countered.

"Well if I remember right, all of you were acting unfairly towards me all because of biased opinions, save for two of you." Joe frowned himself now. "So you can't exactly call yourself a Saint, Ms. Dash."

"Says the thief!" Rainbow insulted once again. "Why do you even want to know about me anyway?!"

"Actually, I never did." Joe told her. "And if you calmed down for at least five seconds and get over the thieving aspect for once, you'd know that. I don't care how much you hate me, and I don't care how much you hate your Mother. I just wanted a name so we could get this over with."

"What?!" Rainbow squeaked out, her eyes growing wide with fear. "I! I-I never said I hated-"

"Ms. Dash, there's no point in lying!" Joe cut her off with another frown. Getting almost as angry as Rainbow Dash by this point. "And there is especially no reason, whether you think it's personal or not, to lie about your own Mother."

"H-How did you..." Rainbow backed down now. Terrified of Joe more than angry. "I didn't tell you about her...Un-Unless you-" "No, I didn't hypnotize it out of you." Jo interrupted again before Rainbow could find a way to get angry.

"I've said it before and I'll say it again. I don't abuse my skills for personal gain." He told her. "When I used hypnosis against all of you, it was to make Ms. Twilight understand her own stubbornness!" He told us with a scowl.

"Stubbornness? But, Twilight's not stubborn..." I told Joe while peeking out from behind my hiding chair.

"No, not usually." Joe sighed as he fell back in his seat, rubbing his forehead in pain. He gestured for me to come out from behind the chair as he reached in a drawer and pulled out a medicine bottle. Probably medicine for a headache he was starting to get. "But whenever she can't understand something, she has a hard time accepting that she's wrong."

"She does?" I asked, trying to remember a time when that happened.

"Here, I'll give you an example." He told us as I finally decided to come out and sit down. Both me and Rainbow Dash now staying quiet now. "Earlier before the two of you came over, Ms. Pie wanted to talk about whatever she was writing down. One of those being something called a 'Pinkie Sense'." He told us, pulling out a paper and showing it to us.

It was Pinkie's paper. Neither of us even had to look at her name, because we could tell it was hers from her hoof-err-handwriting. "I copied it in my own handwriting so it would be easier to read, but as you can try to read for yourselves, her second strength is her Pinkie Sense and its summarized definition...If you could call it that anyway, was a very simplified version of it." He added.

It was hard to make out, but I think Pinkie just wrote down a few of her combos and what they meant.

"Yep." Rainbow let out a deep breath. Kind of like a sigh of content, but more air then anything. "That's Pinkie Pie's alright."

"Yes." Joe agreed with a nod before putting it back in its proper place. "And when she saw how I was confused about it, she told me this story of Ms. Sparkle following her around all day."

"That's right! Both of them, Applejack, and Spike all ran to catch up to me at Foggy Bottom Bog to warn me about the Hydra attack!" I said, suddenly remembering.

"Hydra attack?!" Rainbow instantly snapped at attention. "When did this happen?!"

"Remember the day I asked if you could help me bring all the frogs to Foggy Bottom Bog since there were so many?" I tried to remind her.

"...Vaguely..." Rainbow muttered, probably trying to remember.

"That was the day." I nodded with a smile. "...Wait, didn't we tell you about that?"

"NO!" Rainbow yelled out, still very surprised about this news.

"Oops...Sorry Rainbow Dash." I apologized, feeling bad for not telling her all this time.

"Regardless, Ms. Pie told of how Ms. Sparkle refused to believe in the 'Pinkie Sense' strictly because she couldn't prove how it worked. And that's where her fault lies. She has no suspension of disbelief. In fact, whenever faced with a situation she either doesn't understand or that goes against what she knows and or originally believes, she'll refuse to figure out how to believe in its possibility." He explained to us.

"Oh come on! Twilight's not like that!" Rainbow Dash argued.

"Really now? That's what you think?" Joe asked with a raised eyebrow. "All in the course of not even a full twenty-four hours, she's questioned mind-reading, the idea of mentalism as a whole, hypnosis, TVs, the name of an imaginary character called 'Monkey D. Luffy', why pirates could be ruled by a single King, how a living being can be made of rubber even in a fictional story, the entire Genre of Fantasy books...Should I go on? Because I have about seven more things to add to that list."

"No, fine, we got it. Twilight doesn't believe in stuff." Rainbow said, not wanting to hear it. "Besides, I see your point. When I first met Twilight, she didn't believe me when I told her I could clear the skies in ten seconds flat."

"My point exactly." Joe nodded. "And that's the one thing I hate most about her. She claims that she won't believe in anything she can't prove, but that phrase itself is not only completely idiotic, but it's also controversial."

"Contra-who now?" Rainbow looked confused.

"It means that Twilight's saying or doing one thing that goes against something she's already said or done." I answered for her.

"Correct Ms. Fluttershy." Joe gave me a nod. "In order for her to try and prove something, she first has to go through the Scientific Method. And if she's not even willing to ask a question or conduct background research, the two prominent first parts of said method, then she locks herself away from the solution."

"Uh...What?" Rainbow looked even more confused now.

"She's too proud for her own good. Something that I'm sure you understand entirely." Joe said sarcastically. Resulting in a glare from the now no longer confused Rainbow Dash.

"That's why I was left no choice but to do what I did. If I didn't show her that her train of thought was very flawed, then she wouldn't trust me at all with any plans that I would create in the future since she would question my intelligence." Joe told us.

"News flash Joe, she still doesn't trust you. In fact, she outright hates you!" Rainbow reminded him. "I think it would've just been better for her to think you were crazy instead of being a jerk."

"Well here's a Special News Bulletin for your news broadcast Weather Lady," Joe began sarcastically. "I am a jerk. I don't expect people to think I'm caring or nice. I act like a jerk so it'll be expected of me whenever I tell people the cold hard facts that they're not willing to accept." He told her.

He then went from being cynical, to being deep in thought. "May I ask you a question Ms. Dash?"

"Uh...Sure." She agreed, not sure where this sudden change had come from.

"Thank you." He took off his glasses for a second and pinches the top part of his nose. "Have you ever ended up having to help someone, whether they were close to you or not, with a problem they had? Not a problem like a plant needing watered or anything along those lines, I mean a mental situation that they needed to get over."

"Like a fear or weakness. Except, they never asked for your help or want your help, because of some reason or another. You know they can't get over it by themselves, but they would be angry, embarrassed, or disappointed in themselves if you forced them to take your help. Have you ever ended up facing a problem like that?"

Rainbow Dash sat silently. Not sure how to quite respond to that. But after thinking it all over, wondering just if she actually had met some pony with a problem like that. But as I watched her go over it in her mind, she slowly turned to look towards me.

She didn't know what Joe was getting at, but she understood what he was asking. And of course, I wasn't the only one that she had this problem with. She was the Element of Loyalty after all.

Me, Scootaloo, Twilight, Applejack, Blitz, Applebloom. She met a lot of us that had that kind of problem. Some of us didn't want her help, some of us were glad that she came in and offered to help. But either way, she always dealt with stuff like this. All she had to do was pick one time it happened.

"Y-Yeah, all the time." Rainbow admitted. "This one time...Applejack went off to compete in this rodeo to try and win the prize money for Ponyville. But...She never came back. All that came was a note that said she'd send the money soon, but that she was never coming back to see her friends or family..."

"So obviously, me and the girls all left to go find her. And sooner or later, we found her at this Cherry Farm. But she still wouldn't come back with us." She went on. "So for the next week, we stayed at that Cherry Farm, trying to figure out what was wrong. But she never told us. She just wanted us to leave."

"If we did, we'd probably never see her again..." She started chocking up. Sniffling very faintly as a tear or two came out from her eyes.

"But you pressed on, didn't you?" Joe asked, looking directly at Rainbow without his glasses on...Which wasn't such a good idea since he was just a few inches too far to the left to look directly at Rainbow. "You kept trying to help her even if that was against her wishes, and eventually got her to come back. Right?" He asked her.

He sounded upset, but...He still had a calm expression. He looked much more sincere without his glasses. Almost harmless. But he didn't have any tears. No crack to his voice, no sniffling, nothing. Still just a calm expression if anything. It just didn't match up.

"Uh-huh...We found out that she didn't even get one blue ribbon at the rodeo. She felt like she let us down, so she didn't want to face us. She tried to just say that she liked the Cherry Farm and that it fit her just as well as Sweet Apple Acres, but it was all a lie." She said, trying to recover as quickly as possible.

"But eventually she forgave you, and realized that it was the right thing in the end. Correct?" Joe asked as he put his glasses back on and instantly focused on Rainbow Dash.

"Yeah. She did." Rainbow smiled. "I'm glad she wasn't mad at us."

"Well, that's good." Joe said with a nod before going to a frown. "Because a lot of the time, it doesn't end happily ever after."

"W-What?" I asked, not sure what he meant. He looked sadder after saying that. As if there was a part he left out. I wasn't sure if he was being polite, but since he said he was a jerk, I wasn't sure. Of course, I didn't want to call him a jerk. That'd be too rude to do.

"Some of the time, people will never ask for your help. They'll just stay quiet and try to handle the problem by themselves. They ask and plead for the space that they want, instead of asking and pleading for the help that they need." Joe told us. "And if you back down and give them what they want, then they'll never truly recover."

"But if you do give them the help they need, then they might not appreciate it right away..." He then chuckled once. "In fact, they may never appreciate it. But at least they'll have a better chance in the end. Something I'm sure you can understand Ms. Dash." He told her.

"...Where...Where is this all coming from?" Rainbow asked, as confused as I was about why Joe was telling us all of this to begin with.

"You told me that Ms. Sparkle thinks of me as a jerk and that she hates me, right?" Joe asked, Rainbow just nodding along. "Well good. Because that's exactly how she should see me. I purposely come off as rude so that whenever they need some help, they won't be mad at a friend for getting in their business. They'll just think a jerk is getting in their way, when in all actuality, it's the very opposite."

"But...If you do that, then won't they always hate you?" I asked, now feeling bad for him.

"Perhaps. But then again, I'm not a nice person to begin with. And my brother and Morgue are all I need 'friend' wise. In the end, everyone wins." He said before checking his watch and getting ready to stand up.

"But...What if you have a problem that you need help with? Then all the people that hate you won't want to help." I said, thinking about what would happen then.

"Then that'll be the first time something like that has ever happened. After all, I've never been one to be stopped by some problem like that..." After thinking over what he just said, he chuckled a few times and finally stood up. "Now that I think about it, perhaps Princess Celestia was right. Maybe I am the Element of Persistence."

He then picked up a piece of paper. "Well, we have exactly two minutes and twelve seconds left. I wanted to try and get all of your names situated in the first rotation, but I suppose we'll have to figure out your name next time Ms. Dash. Instead, can you please finish your paper? You forgot to put a third weakness down." He handed Rainbow her paper.

"Wait, what?" Rainbow quickly read her whole paper, and went wide-eyed. "Wait! I-I thought I wrote it in pen though! How did you-"

"Welcome to the Human World Ms. Dash." Joe said as he walked over to the megaphone and bell. "The world of TVs, video games, and White Out." He said without a care.

"White-what?" Rainbow asked, not knowing what White Out was since it wasn't from our world. But she quickly gave up asking about it and put the paper down to write something else.

"What did you put down?" I asked, wondering what it was.

"I wasn't thinking straight when I filled that part out." She said, sounding extremely relieved. "So I accidentally admitted that I knew how to sew and other girly stuff. But he erased it or something." She told me while she wrote down 'Kind of naïve' as a third weakness.

She was fine with telling me about that. She considered it a weakness, even though it was more of a skill if anything. In fact, she was actually so good at sewing, it might as well have been considered a second talent. She's even the reason I know how to sew in the first place. And she hated that she knew how to do all that stuff. And I was the only one that knew about it.

Well, obviously not counting the person that taught her how to do all that stuff in the first place. And that pony was-RINGADING-RINGADING-RINGADING!

After Joe rung the bell, he spoke into the megaphone for a third time today. "Alright everyone, time to go to the next station. We only have one more rotation to go, so let's wrap everything up now." He said.

After Rainbow Dash wrote one last thing down, she got up and turned to me excitedly. "Come on Fluttershy, let's hurry. With how fast Blitz builds, he's probably already done on the flying course!" She seemed much more relaxed now. As if there wasn't anything she had a problem with right now.

"Um, Rainbow Dash? Don't you mean, Coach Blitz?" I asked with a giggle as I got up myself.

"Ugh...Don't get me started." She said with a roll of her eyes. "Now let's hurry! I want to get used to using my wings again!" She said, shaking off my little joke.

...Wait? Did I go too far with that joke? Maybe I'll apologize to her just to be sure...

---

After Second/Final Rotation

Joe's POV

The rest of the training went very similar to the first. And thankfully, it all went without any more issues. Since all the names were situated, I only had to take care of two more things. The first was just a quick picture, while the second was simply talking to them about whatever they wanted to know more about our little human world.

They were all pretty obvious. Twilight wanted to know about fantasy genre. Solution? Lord of the Rings. The critically acclaimed centerpiece of the fantasy genre. And within minutes, she was reading it as if it was a letter from a long-lost relative. I gave her the whole set, so she would probably be quiet for the day.

Hopefully.

For Rarity, it was actually pretty interesting. Although she barely tried to put any effort in running the course the first time, she still wanted to know some self-defense. I thought that her using martial arts in the Discord two-parter was just a comedic joke, but considering how well the training went, I was definitely wrong. Apparently they had a technique called 'Uma-jitsu' which is basically translated as 'Horse-Martial Arts' from Japanese. It was basically Karate focused more on a Kickboxing aspect. Pretty obvious considering an equine's strength was mainly in their hind-legs.

Good news, she only managed to get one kick in before that station was over. Bad news, my head will be ringing louder than the Liberty Bell. I just pray that my head doesn't crack the same way.

Then after them, Pinkie and Applejack came back. Taking Applejack's picture, without her hat, was easy enough. But taking Pinkie's picture without her treating it like a photo booth was the real issue. Still, I figured out how to get her to stand still for three seconds.

"Pinkie Pie, stand still!" I said after ten minutes of frustration.

"Ha! Got ya, soon-to-be best friend!" She cheered happily before standing still and smiling for the camera. "That's one!"

Yeah. One...And only time I'm ever going to be manipulated by her.

So after that twelve minutes wasted, I talked to them about what they wanted to know. Pinkie Pie wanted to know all the holidays and celebrations me, Big Mike, and Morgue celebrated. I gave her the list of usual American holidays, which she apparently already heard about from Zeke. But the holidays he didn't talk to her about was Dia de los Muertos, or, Day of the Dead, usual teenager parties, movie nights, and most surprising of them all, how birthdays work.

Wonder why Zeke left out that celebration...

And Applejack, oh I bet this'll be a shocker, wanted to know about apples and farming in general. Luckily, with us being thieves and all, we need to be a little adaptable for whenever we don't have the money to buy food for three teenage boys. And since my part-time job alone can't cover the house, two cars, entertainment, and whatever else you want to add to that list, it's a good thing we grow our own food.

So while I let Pinkie look at all the scrapbooks and party planners I've kept over the years of all the parties Morgue's hosted here at The Homeland, I showed Applejack our greenhouse. It was just outside the fence that ran around our land, and since we lived in scenic nowhere it didn't have a size limit to it. We just expanded and planted whenever we wanted.

Who knew that a girl like Applejack would actually squeal with joy like a fan girl at a One Direction concert at the sight of a greenhouse? Seriously, not even hippies are this excited by plants!

But soon enough it was time for them to go, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy to return. And oddly enough, those two didn't mind my rudeness as much as before. I guess being honest with them actually paid off.

When I sat Rainbow down to figure out a name, I was surprised to see that she also put down what her Mother's name was. She was called Light Rain. Still, I suspected that her name wouldn't help me decide on Rainbow Dash's knew name, so I had to create one myself. And as a result of that, we finally chose Rachel De Palma.

That being said, talking to them was thankfully quiet enough. Rainbow Dash just wanted to know about sports in the human world, primarily of the racing verity. And not wanting to show them more videos just yet, I told her about the sports team Morgue was on. That being cross country. So it was something Rainbow Dash was willing to listen to.

Fluttershy simply wanted to know more about animals. But since I wasn't too knowledgeable about them myself. Neither was Big Mike or Morgue. So to try and make up for that, I let her play with Dan. Which she was more than happy to do instead.

All and all, my stations worked out perfectly in the end. And to continue the trend, Big Mike and Zeke's stations worked out just as well.

For Zeke, Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy got there and immediately got to work. Fluttershy was able to skip going through the course again since she had gotten it right the first rotation around. So it was flying lessons for her while Rainbow Dash had to catch up.

Ironic how their roles had switched so perfectly.

But still, on her first run, Rainbow beat the time to beat. Sadly for her ego, she was twelve seconds behind Zeke's time. But the second she got used to her wings as a human, she caught up with Zeke with no issue.

Then after them came Twilight and Rarity again. Twilight's decision to go about the obstacles carefully paid off, and she beat the time soon enough by seven seconds or so. Rarity was a different story, however. This time, Zeke took charge and made sure Rarity actually ran the course this time. And every time she started to take it easy, Zeke threatened to throw some of her make-up into the woods.

Now why couldn't she kick Zeke in the head with her Uma-jitsu?

But after that bit of 'encouragement', she beat the time and left their group with twelve extra minutes. So with that time left, Blitz threw balls and Frisbees into the air for them to catch with their magic. As well as Spike having Twilight practicing some of her other spells as well.

Except now, Spike was stuck with a dumb looking mustache. Guess he'll have to learn how to shave while we're here too. Sadly for him, we don't have an electric razor.

And finally, there was Pinkie and Applejack for a final time. Both of them had already beat their times on the first try though, so that left them with something else. So that in mind, I asked Zeke and Spike if they could test their strength with some dumbbells and such. And as I predicted, Applejack had next to no problem.

In the show, Applejack was apparently the strongest physically out of them all. And while all that strength was originally in her hind legs from kicking apple trees, it became evenly distributed in upper and lower body strength when she became a human. Making her both a fast runner and strong lifter. Not Big Mike levels of strength, but certainly nothing to sneeze at either.

Pinkie was above average strength too, but I chalked that up as part of her unexplainable skillset. And with the amount of crazy she was, no one objected to that.

Then finally was Big Mike's station with video games.

Needless to say, everyone beat their story modes and final bosses. So with that taken care of, I told Big Mike to just have them battle one another in the game. That game mode was like a 3-Dimensional fighting game with flying and platforms mixed in. Their ordinary attacks were the same as before, but their main attacks were a bit different.

When Pinkie and Applejack went up against each other, Pinkie won by a close battle. In the end, she used her second finisher to take Applejack down. That finisher was her using her Pinkie Sense to her advantage. She would pull the other person by their tail, save for the four people that didn't have tails in which case she pulled them by their shirt, and drag them behind her as random stuff just fell on top of the victim. Such as anvils, boxes, bowling balls, flower pots, and whatever cartoon prank you could think of.

Next was Rainbow and Fluttershy, and Rainbow won by a landslide. And to add insult to injury, she finished off Fluttershy's sliver of health left with her first finisher. Which was just her using a Sonic Rainboom after backing up by half a mile or so and flying in towards their face.

Then finally, Twilight and Rarity. They both managed to use their first finishers, but eventually it was Rarity that won the battle. Their battle was probably the closest of them all, but in the end Rarity still won. She used her first finisher, which was her summoning a storm of gems from below.

All of them still wanted to know what their third finisher was, but I kept that a surprise. Might as well make the reveal of that a little interesting, right? Besides, I planned to reveal that along with the other two secrets I had created ahead of time.

But soon enough, the final call came and the stations were soon over with. Twilight and Rarity came out from the barn with Big Mike, Pinkie Pie and Applejack had finished lifting some light weights, and Rainbow Dash and Fluttershy were getting up from their seats.

It was about eleven o'clock now, and this day was about to get much more interesting.

---

Forty Minutes Later

Twilight's POV

Outside the House

"Alright, I'm giving you all the next twenty minutes to have some time to yourselves. Then we'll have to get going." Joe announced as everyone was lounging near the pool. Rainbow Dash and Rarity were talking amongst each other, as were Applejack and Pinkie Pie, and Fluttershy was playing with Dan and the animals that had snuck into our luggage to come with us. Meanwhile, I just kept reading the books that Joe gave me.

By this point, it was now 11:40 or so. After the last station we had to go to, Joe told us to get ready to go somewhere. So he gave each of us a new set of clothes and sent us off one at a time to take a shower and just generally get ready to go.

He sent us off by alphabetical order with our new names.

First was April Jeanette Smith. Joe told us that Applejack still could referred to as AJ or just April, but that was about it. We couldn't risk saying her real name around humans. We all understood that part, but Joe made sure to remind us.

Next was me, Ashley Armor. Every pony was actually confused as to why I chose to go by a whole different name, but since my original reasoning wasn't much of a reason at all, I simply shrugged and told them that the name just looked interesting to me. So I had went in and took my shower.

Luckily, I had understood enough of my rewired magic and decided to use it while I could. So after taking my shower, I used a drying spell followed by Rarity's favorite spell to adorn my new outfit within seconds. My hat and gloves I put on normally as I walked out of the house.

After me was Diane Quartz's turn. All of us were confused as to why Pinkie Pie got to use the second part of her name, but Joe explained to us that Diane was actually a normal name for humans. Quartz was a bit of a stretch, but Joe promised us that with how different Pinkie Pie looked no human would really find the last name the most off thing about her.

Then went Felisha Schoonraad. Which seemed to match since the 'F' part of both her names sounded very similar. And as soon as Fluttershy was finished, she came right out and started playing with the animals, much to Rarity's dismay since she hated seeing brand new clothes getting dirty.

Rachel De Palma went next, even though she was hesitant to do so. By this point, all of us had well-adjusted to wearing clothes regularly since they were a nice substitute for not having fur, but Rainbow was still having a hard time going along with it. My guess was that she thought that all clothes were just too girly or something.

After she got out, all that was left was Renee Belle. And while she was very eager to take a long hot bath, Joe told her to only take a quick shower like the rest of us. She originally started to argue, but accepted it when Joe threatened to make the water freezing cold. That convinced Rarity well enough.

So now here we all were. Just enjoying ourselves now until something happened. We were all resting on the deck that we were sitting around yesterday when we first met Joe. But thankfully, it was under much more relaxing circumstances.

"Rain- Rachel," Rarity corrected, talking just loud enough for every pony else to stay quiet and listen to what she had to say. "I keep telling you, you cannot simply jump in the pool. You don't have the proper attire."

"Proper attire?" Rainbow raised an eyebrow. "Since when do I need the right kind of clothes to jump in a pool? What's the worst that could happen if I get my clothes wet?!"

"Well considering how much of an idiot you'll look like, pretty much every human that sees you will be either laughing at you or think you're just that stupid." Joe said with a frown as he kept typing away on that machine. "So you might want to put 'public humiliation' on that list."

"I could care less what they think! It's not like I'm staying in the human world forever or anything." Rainbow rolled her eyes. "Besides, if it's just looking weird, I'll manage."

"Pretty sure Blitz wouldn't appreciate ya gettin' water all over his truck whenever we leave." Applejack added. "Still, I'm kinda confused too. Why d'we need different clothes for swimmin' in?"

"Apparently, humans wear swimwear whenever going out for a swim whether it's in the ocean or a pool." Rarity explained, using her newly learned knowledge of clothes that Joe explained after their self-defense lesson. "Men usually wear swimming trunks, and ladies wear a wider variety of options, but primarily where a bikini."

"Ugh, forget it! I'll just stick to staying on land..." Rainbow sighed and sat back in her lounge chair, deciding to just give up having a chance to swim at all.

"And will that be in casual clothes or sports wear?" Joe asked just to tick Rainbow Dash off more. Earning a few chuckles from the others, Rainbow included. That is except for me.

I didn't see his little comment charming at all. The others may have seen it as Joe making some kind of joke, but I knew better. And I wasn't about to try to laugh along with him. He was nothing but rude to all of us. As far as I was concerned, he didn't deserve anyone siding with whatever he said.

Sadly, I couldn't exactly go along with that train of thought myself. Every pony didn't exactly trust Joe, but while we were in the human world, no one really had a say to trust him or not. Joe knew everything about what was going on, and it would just be stupid to go against him.

So until I understood enough myself, I listened to him. But that didn't mean that I was going to appreciate him.

"Shoot, ya really like them books, don'tcha Twi?" Applejack asked me. She was curious since I had just been sitting off to the side silently. Reading The Lord of the Rings trilogy. I had read The Hobbit first, and was already halfway through the first book of the set. And for a genre I hated the idea of, I'll admit it.

I loved the Fantasy Genre completely.

Since my seat was nowhere near a table, and I didn't want these books to simply lay on the floor, I was using my magic to keep them suspended in mid-air. The book I was reading right now, The Fellowship of the Ring, was levitating just a few inches above the palm of my right, outstretched hand. So while it looked as if I was holding the book normally, I wasn't in contact with it at all.

Not only did I keep it in the air above my right hand, but I was also using my magic to keep the book open to the same page. And every half minutes or so whenever I was finished with the page I was reading, I flicked my right thumb towards the rest of my fingers on my open palm like a human that was using a phone. Still not making contact with the book itself.

Also the rest of the set, both books I've yet to read and The Hobbit which I already finished, were all floating above my head in a clockwise pattern like a carousel. I had been twirling them around this whole time with the magic emitting from my left hand, which was idly pointed upwards with one finger as it moved in the same pattern as the books that were moving.

I had learned how my magic was rewired into my hands while I was at the obstacle course with Blitz, Spike, and Rarity. It turns out that instead of the magic focusing into the single tip of my horn, it now focused into eight different areas around both hands. My horn was still atop my head, but it was more of a warehouse than anything now. The hands are where the magic emits from, while your horn is what stores the magic and/or spells that you're not using at the time.

But with your hands, it was divided even more. The magic focus points were on the first two fingers, the thumbs, and in the center of the palms of both hands.

The first two fingers, apparently called the index and middle fingers, controlled the simple, not so advanced magic. Like for instance levitation, manipulation, and any spell that requires a small beam to make contact with the target like the moustache spell that Spike got stuck with by accident.

But for the more detailed spells, those took the focus points on the palms of your hands. Like elemental spells, advanced spells, and specific spells all came from the palms of human hands. Like the ice spell, light spell, perhaps teleportation as well. But again, teleportation could have very threatening consequences if done incorrectly. So I didn't test that out.

As for the thumbs, it was just for directing the spells. If levitating something, the thumb would be used to further manipulate something if the first two fingers were preoccupied with using a different spell.

"Yeah, they're much better than I thought." I told her with a smile. But knowing that I'd probably have these books finished by the end of the day, I looked towards Joe with an indifferent look. "Excuse me, Joe?" I spoke up, hoping to get his attention.

"The floor recognizes Ms. Sparkle." He said sarcastically, still not looking up from his machine. Not even caring enough to give me even a little bit of respect.

I rolled my eyes, but just ended up ignoring that comment. "Do you have any other fantasy books I can read?" I know he said that these were one of the best books of this genre, but I still wanted to read a bit more. Because if fantasy was such an imaginative genre to create entire different worlds, then each author's book was like looking into a whole new universe!

"Only a few others, I'm afraid. I'm more of an alternate reality and post-apocalyptic type of enthusiast." He told me. Oh great, so he's probably someone that believes in zomb- "And before you question the credibility of something like that, let it be known that zombies are indeed a reality here."

"Of cou-" I froze at what he said. "There are actually...N-no, that's not possible." I stuttered, not sure what to believe about that. And neither did the others as they all turned towards him.

"Calm down, calm down. There are no problematic zombies." He clarified, making us stop tensing up a little bit. Some of us even let out an audible sigh. "It's more of a bacteria than anything, and it only exists with bugs. So there's no harm." He explained further. "But, it's still something that's interesting to me none the less."

"So in other words, there aren't really zombies, are there?" I asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Well if they're not zombies, then what do you call a mind-controlling virus?" Joe asked, stopping his typing on the machine as he finally looked up at me with a frown.

"...I'm not talking about this." I eventually said, not wanting to get sucked into this dumb argument. "But you didn't answer my question."

"I have perhaps one or two other fantasy books, but they won't last long with the words you read per minute." Joe told me, going back to his machine. "There's that Daring Do fantasy book your A.K. Yearling wrote, but Ms. Dash has 'reserved' it already. So you'll have to wait until she's done."

"Sorry Twilight." Rainbow apologized with a wave.

I sighed and looked back to my current book. "No, that's okay. It's not like I expected Joe to have all fantasy books in existence." In a way, that was kind of a stretch for him to have too many more.

"My apologies." Joe said emotionlessly. "But perhaps you can get a few when we leave." He told me.

"...We're going to a bookstore?" I took a shot in the dark.

"In a way." He answered...Sort of. "By any chance, is there a place called a 'mall' in Equestria?" He asked all of us as he kept typing on.

"Mall?" Applejack repeated. "Uh...No, don't think so. We got 'halls' but not malls."

"Well in that case allow me to explain what they are. A mall is...Let's call it a complex marketplace. That's indoors." He added with a nod. "It has a number of stores that are for multiple types of items. Food, clothing, entertainment, camping, jewelry, the list will go on. And that's where we'll be going in about fifteen minutes."

"Is that where Spike and the others went off to?" Rarity asked, now fully invested in the conversation. Probably because of how Joe explained the mall.

"Yes. I needed Big Mike to pick up a few things for me and the other two are going to take a test. That is, after Spike takes care of that facial blemish of his." He said as he looked away from the machine and towards a bag that had been sitting beside him. It was the same bag that he had taken out yesterday, but he still hadn't told us what was in it.

"Wait, did you say test?" I asked, accidentally dropping the books that I had been levitating above me. "Hold on, Spike and Blitz are taking a test right now?!" I repeated, now dropping the book I was reading into my right hand. Luckily, it was still on the same page.

"I thought I already said that." He said sarcastically. "But yes, that's exactly what they're doing right at this moment. And what you'll all be doing soon enough." He told us.

"We'll be taking the test too?!" I asked, letting the book fall out of my grasp. I couldn't really care at this point. Not because I always looked at the page number before reading the actual page itself, which I always do just in case news of a pop quiz or sudden quest comes to light. But the bigger problem was that I HAVE A TEST?!

"What's the test about?!" I jumped up to my feet.
"How long do we have until it's time to take the test?!" I ran over to his desk.
"Is it on being a human?!" I stopped in front of his desk.
"Does it have to do with magic?!" I leaned forward on the desk. Looking directly at Joe.
"Did Princess Celestia set it up?!"
"Will we be given a review on the material?!"
"Are we even allowed to review the material?!"
"How many questions are there?!"

"WHAT HAPPENS IF WE FA-Ow..." I flinched as Joe hit me in the horn with that annoying cardboard tube thing. "Will you stop hitting me with that thing and answer my questions?!" I demanded with a glare.

"Ms. Sparkle, you need to stop freaking out." He told me, now facing me with a frown. Not caring that I was leaning over the desk either. "And it's a paper towel tube." He answered before putting it down.

After he did though, I levitated it up and tried to teleport it out of existence. Of course, it just burst into flames, but it works just fine either way.

"Well aren't you childish." Joe noted before looking into that bag he had beside him and typing some more on that machine. It looked like a small TV. "But to answer all your questions in order:"

"Everything you've learned about being human."
"Until we get to the mall."
"Yes...Sort of."
"It's not intended, but if you can use your magic then more power to you. Literally."
"No."
"No."
"You can try."
"No questions."

"And..." He paused. "If you fail then you won't be able to help us." Joe looked at all of us now. Not looking threatening or anything, but only the slightest bit...Worried?

"Did you say no questions?" Rainbow spoke up. "Sounds like my kinda test! What's it about?!" She smiled excitedly.

Joe sighed and pressed a few more buttons on his machine before folding it in half. "Well...That's a bit harder to answer..." He said ominously.

---

And that'll do it for this chapter! Glad we're finally done with all those stations, right everyone?

Also, again I'm sorry it took a while to get this chapter up. But now thankfully, I got everything in order now. I got a schedule set up, so you'll be able to see these (hopefully) soon enough.

The schedule is:

1 chapter of this story. (Generally 15000-20000+ words)

1 Video on YouTube.

2 chapters of a second story. (Pokémon-based. Those chapters are around 5000-7000 words.)

3 chapters of my third story. (Total Drama based. They're three part episodes like this story usually is. Also around 5000-7000 words.)

And then it goes back to A Brony Life and repeats like that.

With that in order, I'll finally be able to concentrate and get something done. No more 'do everything at once' crap, you know?

Anyway, I'll see you all next chapter! And it'll be as good as this chapter and not like the past few horrible chapters I've been writing recently. Promise!

QotC:

Thank you all for the help with the last QotC! You might not've realized it, but you all helped me construct a mall for the Mane Six to go to! Well, most of it anyway! Which leads us to this next QotC.

What kind of stores do you think each of the Mane Six would go to in a mall? Also, do you think this mall of ours should be a flat, one-story mall or have a second level to it?

That's right, this QotC is a two-for-one deal! Chose wisely, because now that I'll have a little bit of fresh air between now and next chapter, I'll be incorporating what you answer into next chapter! Just try to keep it realistic alright? Don't want any made up stores that don't exist, we need the real thing! I'm counting on you all!

Until then, goodbye every Brony!