The crisp morning breeze felt good against Spike’s human skin. Before going through the portal, he rarely felt such a sensation with his scaly skin. But now, it felt amazing. He had come outside to get fully woken up while Twilight was still at the library researching what she could. With the portal closing in three days now, she needed to hurry up.

“Such a nice morning.” Spike said as he walked down the concrete walkway between buildings.

“Hey Spike!” Someone shouted as they zipped passed him.

Spike looked and saw that it was Scoots, wearing a dark green bag on her back and a purple helmet while riding a scooter, the type that required the rider to use one of their legs to propel them forward. Scoots had her metal leg on the platform of the scooter while the other leg was used to move. She seemed to be wearing almost the same outfit as she did yesterday, but was wearing jeans instead of her shorts while she was still wearing her jacket.

“Hey Scoots, how’s it going?” Spike asked.

“Just getting some scooting done before school.” Scoots said as she removed her helmet, revealing her purple hair. “You seem pretty early.
We’ve still got a little over thirty minutes or so before the bell rings. Did you spend the night here or something?”

“Uh no, what makes you think that?” Spike asked, knowing that Scoots couldn’t be further from the truth.

“Just joking around.” Scoots said. “Anyway, you want to grab some breakfast? They give it out for free in the cafeteria.”

Free breakfast? How could Spike refuse?

“Sure lead the way.”

Page after page Twilight was learning something new about this world. From how America was founded, the destruction of the Monarchies in Europe, and that humanity had made it to the moon. “Luna would love to hear this.” Twilight thought.

As she cracked open a book about someone named “William McKinley”, the lights in the library suddenly turned on, which caused Twilight to drop her book.

“Uh oh.” She said.

She then began to gather the books she had found the day before and rushed to return them to their original places.

After returning half of the books she had collected back to their proper shelves, returned to the table only to find that someone found them. This someone looked rather familiar.

“Pinkie?” Twilight said, recognizing the girl.

Pinkie turned to face whoever was talking to her. This time she was wearing a pink t-shirt with a light blue jacket and pair of white pants. She also had her puffy hair in a ponytail.

Pinkie gasped as she saw the former unicorn before.

“Twilight, hi!” She quietly shouted as she pulled Twilight into a tight hug. “It’s so nice to see you! How are you this morning?”

Pinkie let Twilight go before she answered.

“I’m doing okay.” Twilight said.

“More importantly, how did you get her before me?” Pinkie asked. She then gasped. “Did you camp out here all night?”

Twilight thought of the first excuse she could think of.

“Actually one of the doors wasn’t locked that well so I just let myself in.”

Pinkie’s eyes went wide.

“Really? I’ll have to take a look.”

“So what are you doing here?” Twilight asked.

“It’s my turn to work the front desk of the library today.” Pinkie answered. She then turned her attention to the large amount of books on the table. “Speaking of which, you want me to check all these out for you?”

“No, just this.” She then picked up the yearbook dated “2013”

“Okay, just follow me.”

Pinkie led Twilight to the front desk, where she took hold of book and used this strange device to shine this red light on a white square which caused a loud beep to go off. Pinkie then opened the book to the very back and used an ink stamp to put the due date onto the card that was sitting in a pocket attacked to the back cover.

As Pinkie performed this familiar process, Twilight noticed that Pinkie was wearing some sort of necklace which bore what looked like a lower case “t”. It was just like the necklace Flash wore, but looked to be silver, not gold.

“What symbol is that?” She asked.

Pinkie looked down her necklace before answering.

“It’s just my Cross necklace.” She answered. “I attend the St. Faust Baptist Church. The pastor there gave this to me when I first moved here.”

This caught Twilight’s attention.

“Moved here?” She asked. “Where’re you from?”

“You see, I’m originally up from Pennsylvania. My father worked at one of the quarries.” Pinkie explained. “We liked to call it the “rock farm” as a joke.”

“What brought you over here?”

Pinkie sighed.

“It's complicated."

Twilight understood and decided not to ask any further.

“Anyway, thanks for the book.” She said.

“No problem Twilight.” Pinkie said, her hair returning to its puffy form. “By the way, what classes do you have? Maybe we could run into each other.”

“I…” Twilight wasn’t expecting this question. “…I need to get some studying done. See you.”

Twilight then almost ran back to her table.

“See you at later Twilight!”

“Thanks again for breakfast, Scoots.”

Spike and Scoots were now outside after getting breakfast from the cafeteria. This time each of them with several food items. Scoots had a two biscuits, one with chicken in it, the other with something called sausage in it, and two drink bottles, one with chocolate milk, the other orange juice, carrying it all in a small paper bag, holding on to in the same hand that his holding onto the left handlebar. Spike had two egg and cheese biscuits and two bottles of orange juice, all in a bag as well.

“No problem Spike.” Scoots said. “CHS has some awesome breakfast.”

The two found themselves at what appeared to be a large playing field. Spike saw that it looked really similar to the playing field at the school Shining Armor and Cadence had gone to back in Equestria.

As the two found a bench, which sat a blue school bag, Spike saw someone out of the corner of his eye running around the brown colored track.

“Dash!” Scoots shouted. “Dash, over here!”

Spike recognized the name immediately.

Before the former dragon could think any further, the runner screeched to a halt. She had the same dirty blonde hair as in photo, one blue eye and one green eye, and skin that was lightly tanned but still rather light. Instead of wearing that uniform, she was wearing tight black running shorts, a pair of rainbow sweatbands on her wrists, and a black sports bra that revealed much of her midriff. She also looked to be rather lean but had a generous amount of muscle.

“Hey Scoots.” She said with an almost all too familiar voice as she gave the one legged girl a brief hug. “Bring me breakfast?”

“Sure did.”

Scoots then handed Dash one of the biscuits and the bottle of chocolate milk.

Dash bit down on her sausage biscuit before noticing Spike.

“What’s up dude?” She asked with a mouthful. She then swallowed. “What’s your name?”

“Spike.” Spike answered. “Spike Spencer.”

“Spike Spencer? Like the voice actor?” Dash asked before taking drink of her milk.

“Note to self, find out who Spike Spencer is.” Spike thought.

Dash then swallowed her milk. “That’s awesome. I’m Rachel. But everyone calls me Dash; guess you can call me that as well."

Suddenly, several napkins that were in the bag that contained Dash and Scoots’ food blew away in the wind.

“I got em!”

Scoots got up from her spot on the bench and ran after the loose napkins.

Spike stared after the girl, amazed that she was able to run so easily with an artificial leg. She wasn’t running too fast but still was impressive that she is able to do so without difficulty.

“So is Scoots treating you good?” Dash asked from her seat.

“Yeah, she is.” Spike answered. “I assume she’s told you about my little run in with a girl called ‘Tiara’ right?”

“Yeah, she did.” Dash said before taking a swig of her chocolate milk. “Scoots is cool like that. She’s pretty much the best sister you can have.”

This caught Spike’s attention.

“She’s you’re sister?” He asked. “No offense but you two don’t really look alike.”

“Technically she's my cousin, but she might as well be my sister." Dash explained. "She stays over a lot due to her dad being deployed over in Afghanistan."

Spike nodded, despite not knowing where Afghanistan was.

“But no matter what, she’s still pretty cool, right?"

Dash smiled.

“Yeah. Twenty percent cooler, even.”

Spike smiled at this, a smile that faded quickly as he remembered that he was holding a bag of food in his hands.

“Sorry, I got to get going.” He said. “My sister and I haven’t had breakfast yet.”

“Okay.” Dash said as Scoots returned with the scattered napkins. “We’ll see you around dude.”

“So you really found Rainbow Dash?” Twilight asked.

“Yeah I did.” Spike said. “And she’s pretty much the same as back in Equestria. You know, just without the wings.”

Several hours have passed the two woke up in the library earlier that day. Despite staying in one place for so long, Twilight wasn’t bored at all, especially if that place was a library. Spike couldn’t complain either, especially since he found a section of the library that had graphic novels and something called “manga”, of which he found a series of manga books called “Dragon Drive”. The title being the obvious selling point for him.

As the two former Equestrians made their way down the hall, a familiar voice caught his attention.

“Hey, Twilight!”

Twilight turned and saw that it was Flash, dressed in the same jacket as yesterday, only this time he wore a blue shirt underneath that said “Reagan Bush 84” on the front of it.

“Hey Flash, how’s it going?” Twilight asked.

“I’m hungry that’s what’s going.” Flash said. “I overslept this morning and I didn’t eat any breakfast. Did you know that alarm clocks work when you turn them on?”

Twilight chuckled.

“That’s happened to me before.”

“So you two want to have lunch?” Flash asked. “I’m buying.”

“I don’t see why not.” Twilight answered almost immediately.

“Cool, let’s go.” Flash said. “Before my stomach starts eating itself.”

The cafeteria was packed with students as Twilight and Flash got their table, especially since it was, as Flash called it, “Taco Tuesday”. Flash had gotten two tacos, a bag of something called “Doritos”, an apple, and bottle of lemonade. Spike and Twilight both got the same thing with an apple and a bottle of water, thanks to Flash.

“Your food good?” Flash asked as he finished off his second taco.

“Yeah it is.” Twilight answered.

She looked upon Flash’s tray, where his tacos used to reside.

“I see yours were good.” She said.

“Like I said I missed breakfast this morning.” Flash said as he opened his chip bag. “How about you two, did you have anything for breakfast?”

“They had a couple of biscuits.” Someone else said, answering for Twilight and Spike.

The three turned and saw girl, who Spike recognized, sitting down at the table. She wore a blue sleeveless shirt with the collar propped up, a white shirt, and, too Spike’s surprise, a dark pink skirt with two white strips going down each side.

“Hey Dash, how’s it going?” Flash asked.

“Nothing much.” Dash answered as sat down with a tray similar to Flash’s. “I see you met the new meat.”

Suddenly Twilight, felt the odd sensation she felt when she met this world’s Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie, and Fluttershy. Could this be the Rainbow Dash Spike met earlier today?

“Name’s Rachel.” Dash said, holding out her hand in greeting. “People call me Dash, so I guess you can call me that as well.”

“Twilight.” Twilight said, shaking Dash’s hand.

“What did I sit here for again?” Dash asked aloud. “Oh, right! Since we don’t have any classes this Friday thanks to the Formal, Commander says we’re practicing drill tomorrow, so Flash, you’ll need you’re uniform.”

“Gotcha.” Flash said with an assuring nod.

“Drill?” Spike asked. “What’s that?”

“It’s what we do in JROTC.” Dahs answered. “It pretty much helps establish discipline.”

“Oh, okay.” Spike said. “What’s JROTC?”

“What, have you been living under a rock?” Dash asked.

“It stands for Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.” Flash explained. “Essentially it’s the best class to take if you’re planning on joining the Military. Almost every single school in the country has their own program. Each with their own branch, whether it being Army, Navy, Marine Corps, Coast Guard, or Air Force.”

“The branch we got here is Air Force.” Dash said after scarfing down half of her taco. “Which is good because me and Flash plan on becoming pilots."

“After a psychological evaluation of course.” Flash said with a sly smirk on his face.

Before Dash could even reply to Flash’s comment, something zoomed passed her head and hit Twilight right in the chest with a SPLAT.

“What the hell was that?” Dash asked as she leaned forward to look at whatever it was that was thrown at Twilight.

What had hit the girl was a possibly the grossest taco she’d ever seen. It was soft shelled and was over stuffed with meat, melted cheese, hot sauce, sour cream, and the standard vegetables of tomato and lettuce. What’s worse, is that due to the grease and cheese, it almost stuck to Twilight’s shirt as it slid down before plopping onto the floor.

Dash spun around shouted.

“Okay who threw that shit?!” She asked angrily. “Come on, fess up!”

Instead of a verbal answer, Dash got her answer in the form of a half full drink can hitting her right square in the head, causing her hair to be soaked in apple flavored pop, her favorite drink. She staggered for a moment before regaining her composure. Without another word, Dash grabbed her half eaten apple and chucked it as hard as she could in the direction of where the pop can had come from, unintentionally hitting a girl with mint and white colored hair right in the back of the head. In response, her friend took her carton of milk and threw it right at Dash, leaving a large stain of chocolate milk on her white shirt.

Almost immediately, an unseen boy shouted.

“Food Fight!”

This signaled for everyone to grab whatever food item they could and throw it at the first person they laid their eyes on.

Twilight and Spike ducked under the table as open water bottle clattered on it. Flash and Dash ducked down to their level.

“You guys okay?” The latter asked.

“I’m fine.” Twilight said. “Just little dirty.”

“A little?” Dash asked. “It looks like someone threw up on you.”

Another, less greasy, taco flew into their direction, hitting Dash in the back.

“Flash you get Twilight and Spike out of here, I’ll cover you.”

“Right.” Flash said.

He then grabbed Twilight’s hand while Spike grabbed Twilight’s backpack.

“Ready?” Dash asked receiving a nod from the three.

Dash sprung from under the table, grabbed a tray, threw its contents off and began to smack several items out of the air.

“Go!”

The three then made a break for the cafeteria door with their heads down, before stumbling into the hallway.

They weren’t alone in the hallway, as there were several other students who had escaped the edible quagmire. One of them wore a pair of purple sunglasses with black hair with thick blue streaks, of which had what looked like a wrapper was caught in it. She was brushing off her friend who had black stylized hair and a bow tie who had caught the full front of a food barrage.

“Thank you, Vinyl.” The latter said as the headphone wearing girl saluted her with two fingers as she tried to wipe cheese off of her vest.

The other escapees were three girls. One of them was curled up in a ball, practically covered in food, in tears while one of her friends comforted her. Spike recognized the three girls.

“Hey, you guys okay?” He asked as he approached the three.

He looked down at girl who was on the floor, with tears pouring down her cheeks like a waterfall.

“What happened to Belle?” He asked as he crouched down.

“That piece of work Tiara saw an opportunity and pretty much covered her in food.” Applebloom explained while crouched beside her friend.

“She even took her sweet time to crack open not one, but two cans of pop and poured them on her. Fucking bitch.” She mumbled the last two words.

“Sylvia even took pictures, which is why she’s so in shock.” Scoots explained. “That’s why I had to carry her out army style.”

Flash removed his jacket and put it around Belle.

“Are you okay, Belle?” He asked.

Belle sniffed and shook her head, no.

Flash pulled her into an embrace, an act which Belle returned, in which she began to sob into Flash’s chest.

“What is going on in there?” Someone asked.

Everyone turned and saw Rarity walking towards them. Before anyone could tell her what had happened, her eyes went wide upon seeing her younger sister in such a state.

“Belle!” She said as she ran over to her. “Oh my God what happened to you?”

“A food fight broke out.” Flash said with his arm around Belle.

“You’ll be seeing what happened on Sylvia Spooner’s Facebook.” Applebloom added.

Rarity groaned with anger.

“Ces petits morceaux de merde."

Twilight wasn't sure what Rarity said, but she assumed it was something very unladylike.

She then took her younger sister in her arms as she sobbed.

“It’s okay Belle, your big sister is here.”

She then looked at Twilight and the other two girls and then heard the chaos coming from the cafeteria.

“Alright, here’s what’s going to happen.” She said as she looked around. “Scoots, I want you to go and get Vice Principle Luna, she’ll break up the foolishness inside.”

Scoots saluted and ran off.

“Applebloom, I want you to go to my locker.” She tossed the pink bowed girl a set of keys. “There are several white bags in it, you can’t miss them. Spike and Flash, I want you two go and help her.”

“On it.” Flash said. “Let’s go, Spike.”

The two boys made their way down the hall as Rarity faced the rest of the girls.

“As for everyone else, follow me into the bathroom so we can get cleaned up.”

“How many clothes do you have in that locker of yours?” Twilight asked.

She, Rarity, her younger sister Belle, and two other girls, named Octavia and Vinyl, were in the girl’s washroom, not far from the cafeteria. One would be amazed by how clean you can get with a simple washroom sink. What is even more amazing is how many pieces of clothing Rarity had in her locker, who of which explained that she works at the local boutique, and was practically an expert with clothing, even calling herself a fashionista.

“Just a few changes in the event of a fashion emergency.” Rarity said, answering Twilight’s question. “You’ll never know when one could occur. I’ll see what I can do about cleaning your clothes, so this set will have to do.”

Twilight was now wearing a white dress shirt with a purple sweater vest over it with a matching tie, while still wearing her skirt that bore her cutie mark, as it, surprisingly, hat not gotten too dirty. Belle now wore a simple white sun dress while Octavia wore white slacks with a purple shirt and gray blazer. The only girl who wasn’t wearing new clothing was Vinyl, who had kindly refused Rarity’s clothes, saying that they were tad too girly for her taste. Rarity had also offered Applebloom and Scoots a change of clothing earlier, but they had refused as well.

Rarity turned to her younger sister.

“Are you alright now, Belle?” She asked.

“I am.” Belle answered. “Although I’m not going to hear the end of what happened earlier for a long time.”

Rarity put an assuring hand on her shoulder.

“Don’t worry about it.” She said. “If anyone does tease you about it, just ignore them, they’re not worth your attention.”

Belle smiled and nodded.

“You’re right.”

Rarity smiled and hugged her younger sibling.

After several minutes, Belle, Octavia, and Vinyl thanks Rarity for her help and left, leaving her and Twilight alone in the washroom.

“That was really generous of you Rarity.” Twilight said, checking her hair for any stray pieces of thrown food.

“It’s nothing really.” Rarity said as she looked in the mirror. “Since lunch period will be over in the next couple of minutes, what class do you have next?”

“I have free period.” Twilight answered. “I’m helping Pinkie decorate the gym for the formal.”

Twilight caught a glimpse of Rarity rolling her eyes.

“Well I hope I’m not too snooty for whatever she’s coming up with.”

Rarity looked back at Twilight, who had a concerned look on her face.

“Darling, are you alright?”

Twilight shook her head.

“Yeah, I’m fine, my brain went somewhere else.”

Rarity nodded understandingly.

“Well anyway, I should get going.” She said as she picked up her backpack. “Have fun with the decorating, darling.”

“Thanks. See you later.”

Rarity gave one last smile before walking out.

Twilight thought about what Rarity said earlier.

“Snooty?” She said aloud. “Did Pinkie call her snooty? What’s going on here?”

“I don’t know, what do you think?”

Twilight jumped, realizing that she wasn’t alone.

“Is someone there?” She asked.

“Don’t you mean, is some-PONY there?”

Twilight’s eyes went wide when she recognized the voice.

“Sunset?”

The washroom stall that said “out of order” opened and out came a girl with red hair with gold highlights, a black jacket, an orange skirt, and a pair of black and purple boots.

“The very same.” The girl said. “Princess.”

Sunset got closer to Twilight, to the point she backed her against the wall.

Sunset leaned on the sink counter, looking into Twilight’s newly acquired hazel eyes.

“I got to say, I like you’re look.” She said. “I have to admit that I didn’t recognize you at first, or your little friend. Speaking of which, you really need to wash his mouth out with soap with the way he was talking to me.”

Twilight remembered that Spike had a run in with Sunset the day before.

“I don’t know what you got planned, but it’s not going to work.” Sunset continued. “Because it doesn’t matter who you are, you’re not going to bring me down. I’m going to win the crown this Friday, whether you like it or not.”

Twilight looked into Sunset’s cyan eyes. For some reason, she actually found sunset to be rather intimidating, especially with how in her face she was.

“What? Got nothing to say?” The gold and red haired bully asked.

“Yeah.” Twilight said. “I’m not going to let you get away with it. Especially after threating Fluttershy like that.”

Sunset didn’t recognize the name at first.

“Oh her.” She said after her memory clicked. “Well, she shouldn’t be poking her muzzle where it doesn’t belong. Guess she’s the same here and in Equestria, a cowardly little bitch.”

“How dare you!”

Twilight then shoved Sunset away, causing her to stumble.

Sunset caught herself on the sink.

She then looked at Twilight with fire in her eyes.

“Big mistake you fucking cu..."

The school bell rang, signaling the start of the next class.

Sunset sighed.

“I’d love to beat the shit out of you, but I have class to go to.” She said. “So I’ll let you off with a warning. Either way, you’re never going to take me down.”

Sunset then gave Twilight a sarcastic grin before turning towards the door.

“And by the way, I hope you have luck sleeping tonight.”

Author's Notes:

Sorry this took so long. Anyway, I hope you enjoy.

*Update: I changed some of the dialogue between Dash and Spike when they first meet.