On the road, it was a lot easier to get acquainted with the others. So even though we could be really spread out, we just crammed ourselves in the front of the charter bus, now on our way to Sacramento, CA... Home of the MLP: FiM studio. I got a spot next to Dash (My face: /)*3*(\ ). Win. "So, Dash, umm... What do you think of Earth so far? I mean, I know it's not that different in terms of landscaping and wildlife, but what about stuff like physics? Coping well? And how did last night go before the Celestia incident?" I said to her.

"No. Not coping well. I was a lot... Freer in Equestria. Or more free. Whatever. It just seems like I'm so... Limited here. Physics are dragging me down... And now that I think of it, I realize how structured the way Earth works is. It's like everything has rules and nobody breaks them. In Equestria, compared to here, it's almost like we just... make up everything as we go along. I mean, for example, pegasi could walk on clouds... And unicorns/Earth ponies couldn't. Nobody questioned why, it just... happened. And about last night, we learned how bizarre the world can get. Flying is a lot more... Satisfying here. There's a good breeze in your mane... I mean, hair instead of the hurricane speeds that I'm used to, being a racer. We were all out front of Bill's house before we got interrupted by Pinkie and all hay broke loose... But that reminds me... Nothing in Equestria was really ever explained. And, I might add, now everything in Equestria seems so... undetailed. Like... Well, a human cartoon. And here you have to use... Fingers." She held up her hands. "So complex compared to a hoof, and yet, can do the exact same things. Like a few Earth ponies can... Wait a second. Earth ponies. Earth... What the hay. This makes no sense."

"Well, everything does make sense here, but you don't have to question it. Discovering that kind of stuff along your lifespan is one of the things that makes life worth living. Among many others, of course... Anyway, you were saying?"

"Earth ponies... In Equestria. AAUGGH!! WHY DOES THIS HAPPEN?!? Hay! Anyway, some Earth ponies can play piano. That doesn't make sense now..."

"Yeah, I guess you can compare being a pony to being high. Everything makes sense until you're... Well, not. Knowledge falls apart, and all that you're left with is a yearning to go back to the state from which you came."

"High, huh? Never though humans could get high."

HOLD THE PHONE, BITCH!! "WAIT A MINUTE! Are you telling me that there's a... darker side of Equestria? Like, bad stuff and crime you don't see in MLP?"

"MLP? What the hay is that? And yes, I have learned that there is a darker side to everything."

"Dammit, I thought Discord told you. MLP is the show that we watch. It's just you guys, just the stuff you do. It's what Discord was a part of. It's a good show, but the fanbase that us original humans were a part of... That's what everyone liked to be a part of. We drew pictures of you guys, although some sexual, we wrote stories about you, and in some cases, even pretended to be you. There are a lot of people here that would kill to be you. So what I'm getting at is that here, as well as in Equestria, you are pretty buckin' famous."

"Show? Prove it. Prove you've seen me before."

"Okay, let's see. You got your cutie mark by breaking the sound barrier."

"Holy bit..."

"And you still have it too." She lifted up her shirt just enough to spot a rainbow storm cloud on her side.

"Wow. I guess I have no choice but to believe you... So what else have you seen us do?"

I told her everything about the show. Everything from the 'fight' with Nightmare Moon, to AJ's insomnia, to the CMC, to Pinkie Pie's funk, to Twilight cracking. It must have been an odd realization that their entire world was a source of entertainment for humans. Oh yeah, I didn't forget about the fanbase. Told her about that, too. She didn't believe that ship-pics existed until I whipped up the laptop and showed her that. More awkward reactions. The worst ones came from the ones with her and Soarin'. But still, it must have been another odd realization for RD that some humans take enjoyment in portraying her and AJ as naked human lesbians. Well, she was bound to see it eventually. But what alarmed me was what she said afterwards...

"We do this too... Porn, you would call it. We don't have a name for it, though. Kind of sad... But different. I don't want to explain." RD looked suddenly sad.

"That's okay. I can understand. Or at least try too. But that saddens me too... Just to find that the being we long to be are just as flawed as we are. Wait a second... That means there could be truth to some of the darker fanfics out there. Cupcakes..." I regretted saying that instantly, because I knew she would ask about it and I would have to answer.

"Cupcakes?" Here we go.

"Yeah... It's a famous fanfic where... Yeah, Pinkie Pie goes crazy and brutally murders you. I have not read it and never plan too."

"Ugh. I disapprove. But if anybody goes legitimately crazy, I guess it would be Twi or Rarity. Something about unicorns... I don't get them. But I just wanted to bring something up that you could take interest in. We actually swear on the show. Though as far as I'm concerned, we've only used 'hay' in front of you. Equivelant to hell. And in some cases, 'holy bit' means the same as 'holy s***'. Same thing with 'buck' and 'f***'. Make sense?"
"Yeah. But on a happier subject, I'm kindova thrill junkie. Coaster enthusiast... Did you have anything like that in Equestria?"

"Yeah, of course. We have amusement parks, if that's what you're looking for. Some have roller coasters... Giant wooden creations that send a special train screaming over rails. I've never been on one, but supposedly Pegasi get a similar feeling with flight. So I don't have too much use for them."

"Hah! Wow... Only wooden ones, huh?"

"What do you mean, 'only'? What else would you build it out of?"

"Steel. Apparently humans have better ways of getting resources than ponies. Here, look at this." I pulled up Roller Coaster Database on my laptop and showed her some of my favorites (Magnum XL200, Maverick, Rip Ride Rockit, etc.). She was really interested after she found out that the steel ones could invert. I showed her around some parks on Google Maps, then that sparked some obsession. Good, at least I'm not the only one here obsessed with them. After a while, she got a little crazy and told me we had to go to Cedar Pointy (as she called it) after this ordeal was sorted out. I agreed. Again, /)*3*(\.

And then it was time for Alex to turn the wheel over to Steph, and that meant a breakfast, finally. I reclaimed my laptop and pulled up my phone to see where we were, and as it turns out, we hadn't gone far. We were only on the road for two hours. I was never happier to go to McDonalds, to be honest. BREAKFAST BURRITO FTW. I don't know who (or what) was paying for a group of sixteen humans (half of which, I might add, had only been human for a mere fourteen hours), but all I can say is that I was grateful. I plopped down next to Jackie (who had pancakes) and tried to spark a conversation. Regretted that shortly after we found out that her table wasn't big enough for two smartasses (morning person FAIL.) and just decided it was best to go to where AJ and Walter were.

"Hey, Tyler. What's happenin'?" Walter said with a very welcoming tone of voice.

"Tiredness. And frustration, you could say." I replied.

"Why is that?"

"Trying to explain everything to Dashie while she tried to explain Equestria. Wore me out..."

"I heard yah. Sittin' behind you the whole two hours we've already been on the road. I never thought you would have the nerve to bring up Cupcakes. I even shudder at that thought..."

"Anyway, how did last night go for you?"

"Interesting. Pinkie Pie went a little nuts with the human variation of cookies and wouldn't stop tearin' up the kitchen. Took a half an hour to pry her away from that, and then Celestia showed up. Pinkie dashed out to the Pegasus group and let them know, who supposedly let you know." Applejack chimed in.

"Well... Sounds funnier than what happened to the rest of us."

"And what would that be?" Both of them said in near-perfect unison. I told them about my real power with electricity, then the cutie marks (Walter's was a bike), then the pegasus part of the story before getting to the Celestia. Dammit, I need to stop calling it that.

"Well, can't say it was bad. Well, I'm done here. How about you, AJ?" Walter said finally. Applejack agreed, and soon all of us were back on the bus waiting for Steph to drive. And this time around, I got stuck with Flootershai. You know, I'd call this whole ordeal a dream come true if it weren't for the fact that the fabric of the friggin' cosmos was in our hands.

"Hai." Well, it was a start.

"Uh, hi. What brings you over here?"

"I dunno, I guess I just wanted to try and start a conversation about your thoughts on where you're from and Earth."

"Well, I trust Rainbow Dash told you that Equestria isn't as good as you may think... So I might as well tell you what I think of Earth... Almost the same in a lot of ways..." She rambled around with that until I realized that she basically just said the same thing as RD. It was worth it just to hear it in her voice, to be honest. But by the time she was done, the other thing that dawned on me was that I was leaning on Fluttershy. And to be honest, I really only found that after Bill and Francine (who were sitting behind us, BTW) daaw'd in sync at us. I quickly backed away and told her I wanted to show her something. I recalled my laptop and pulled the memebase site for MLP and showed her all of the memes for 'flutterwry' and 'flutterrage'. She was a bit embarrassed about it at first, but then found it funny after I showed her the remix for the 'your face' incident on Youtube.
After another hour or so of derping around on memebase, it was around 11:30 and so we decided to go for an early lunch in Laughlin, Nevada. There were casinos everywhere, so finding a restaurant wasn't hard either. And therefore we went to a buffet. HAH! Victory. Well, it wasn't much for socializing, but at least the shrimp cocktail was good.

Back on the bus, Walter was up for driving, which meant I was with Celestia this time. That was an interesting conversation, mainly because she kicked it off with a bizarre question.

"How does Earth's government work?" Okay not bizarre, just a weirdly legitimate question. And knowing very little about how America actually works, I almost didn't know how to respond.

"Well, it's kind of weird. It's called a democracy, and rather than having one or two royalty figures, we have a president running the country, and that person changes every four years. The citizens vote who gets to be the next president rather than the president. We think it works better than a despotism or a monarchy, so that means that our country is rather new. How does your country work?"

"Well, things are bizarre like that. The history of Equestria is rather... Well, interesting. Earth ponies, pegasi, and unicorns weren't always united."

"Sorry to bust a bubble of yours, but I've already known that. Season 2, episode 11. Bazinga."

"What? How do you know?" Here we go AGAIN.

"DAMMIT! WHY DIDN'T DISCORD TELL YOU THESE THINGS?!"

"Calm down! Nothing is accomplished with yelling!"

"Augh. Okay. Remember how Discord told you about him actually being an inter dimensional explorer?"

"Yes..."

"Well, his discoveries came through to Earth and some of Twilight and her friend's adventures made it to us in the form of entertainment. That's why we knew a lot about Equestria before we even got there. So pretty much nobody here knows you actually exist. Make sense?"

"Us? Entertainment? This is an outrage! Some of the little 'adventures' we had were downright dangerous! Serious as can be... And nobody thought we existed. Fools." She stuck up her nose.

"Celestia, listen. For most of us, having it called entertainment would be an insult. Fun fact: Even this 'show' was supposed to be for females aged eight to twelve, 80% of the audience is over the age of fifteen and is male. Even crazier is the fanbase." Again, as I was compelled, I pulled out the laptop and showed her My Little Brony. I was alarmed to find out that she actually found it funny. Although I didn't explain Rule 34 to her (You're welcome, dammit.).

After much time spent being generally weird, I took a leap forward in seriousness when I decided to show her the actual show. I figured episode 4 of season 2 would be a good one. After finishing the episode, I realized what a look of shock Celestia had on her face. It was a while before she would say anything. Eventually it came to this: "Wow. That really happened. And is it really true that..." She looked at the bottom right corner of the Youtube player. "Is it true that exactly 63,596 people have seen this?"

"I'm as sure as you could ever be. The point is, everyone in Equestria is well respected. You most of all."

"Wow... Thanks. I don't know what else to say."

"Don't mention it." And with that, I decided it was time to talk with someone else. But it wasn't a good time, since we were about to switch places and drivers (Francine was next up) while fueling up our bus. So, in a nutshell, nothing interesting happened. And again, we made our way back to the bus, where it was announced that our ETA was in two hours, meaning no more stops and one more social visit. I had to choose fast this time, so I figured, why not Pinkie Pie? I had just realized how much she reminded me of myself in the way that nobody really knows how or why we do things. E.g.: A few days ago (Earth time), I found a way onto my roof without using a ladder and cranked out four free-verse poems in ten minutes when I was up there. That let me go off on a tangent with myself, making me realize that all of my weird ideas come to me when I'm in the shower with the heat turned up as high as I can bear it. NVM.

Once sitting next to the small pink pony, I laughed at how silly she looked sitting down. Kind of like a cat sitting up, but more comical. Actually, just picture the Sitting Lyra meme.

"What?" She yelled jokingly.

"Oh, I don't know. I just wanted to ask a question."

"What would that be?"

I dropped the bomb. I needed to... "Did you know what a human was before getting here? It's because of MLP... The show you were on. You seemed to interact with the audience. We called it you breaking the fourth wall, but I don't know what you would have called it..."

"Interacting... Yeah, I did know about humans here. It was weird though... All that I saw was one in a chair in an office. That started everything. It was after we were leaving Appleloosa after that crazy incident with the buffalo. I noticed a small glowing portal-thingie in front of me... It was closing slowly... I remember saying something, then sticking my head into it. Everything was dark in there, but then something happened. A human's face appeared in it... Then after that, the next few nights were plagued with dreams of more of them watching me. But when I woke up, none of them were there in real life. Then, every single 'episode' we had every single week, I would see that first portal-thing everywhere. I guess, talking about that show, that face was... filming me. I was scared at first, but then I started screwing around with it just for fun. I never thought that would mean that humans would think I was interacting with them... I'm sorry." The sadness that showed on her face scared me.

"No, don't be sorry. That's one of the main reasons humans love you so much." I whipped up the laptop again and googled 'pinkie pie fourth wall'. It relieved me to see she was in a better mood afterwards. And for a long time afterwards, knowing that she, a previously normal pony, had turned into a human icon, brony or not.

Knowing that she was happy made me probably just as happy for the rest of the bus trip. Which, by the way, was spent with Twilight trying to explain the concept of movies to her. And believe me, that was hell. Not as much as the 'minecraft affair', though.

"So people actually just watch these with friends? In a theater? This makes no sense."

"Twi, it's entertainment. It doesn't have to make any sense. Like, to us humans, you are entertainment to us, and you definitely don't make any sense here on Earth."

"But still, you call going to a theater with friends a social outing, even though you don't really socialize with each other."

"Well, we yell at the screen and do mad-libs and such. So there. Close enough."

The hell was stopped when a pissed of Fluttershy started the quiet game and I agreed (she was still cute as a human, what else could I do?) while Twilight disagreed. We went our separate ways, while staying in the same two seats. It was one hell of a long ride from there. But, like everything, it came to an end as a tired Francine pulled up at a motel after being guided by a GPS that I had summoned back at Bill's.

"Well everyone, it would appear as though we are here. If you had anything with you when you got on here, please be sure to take it off." Bill and Alex were the only ones to move at this point. Bill pulled out a duffel bag while Alex conjured a bicycle. Winning.

As it turns out, we wouldn't be staying here yet. At least not for the night... A crazy idea waddled into my head and made me walk up to Discord with a question.

"How did we get from Silverton to Sacramento in only eight hours? Were you speeding?"

He smirked. "You'd be amazed what some simple enchanting will do to human items."

I cringed and said no more as I walked back to the bus, but before I could make it, Discord made an announcement to all of us: "Oh yes... One more thing. We need to do a little... Surveying of our target location before shutting down the generator. We can do it easiest now, while nobody is working."

We reluctantly agreed to it as we loaded back into the bus once again. Luckily, it wasn't that far to the MLP headquarters, so we were there in about five minutes. Well, not really there... but on the pretty-damn-close lookout nearby. I call it close enough. Once there, Discord gave us instructions to try and locate the machine, then find a path to it. "Use these." He then conjured several pairs of binoculars and told us to look around. The facility was rather bland, with the notable exception of an eight-story tower in the middle of it, surrounded by power lines and studio warehouses. Gee, I wonder where all that electricity is going. By now, everyone else was using their binoculars, while mine were still sitting beside me. And being the crazy idea maker that I am, I got another wicked idea of what else I could do with magic from a Harry Potter book. The phrase? Extra-sensory charm. The purpose? Duh. Increased vision. And, of course, I needed to try it. And although I have no idea how, I did. And it worked. Everything went sharp as hell, and suddenly, I became instantly aware of everything around me. Everything was louder, felt better, and looked way better. Using this, I quickly located what looked like a dangerous generator (villainous cliche?) through a window in the tower. Bazinga. My work here is done. AnI let Discord know, and soon enough, we were back at the motel. At this point, I figured: Tomorrow's gonna be crazy.