MLP: The Portal 2
Chapter 21: Return
The train pulled into the Ponyville station. Alex looked out the window, watching as the familiar setting of Ponyville slid into view. Then he found Rainbow Dash and the others all waiting for him at the station. Even Discord was there waiting for them.
As all of the Pony Tones came out, there the girls came to greet them all with hugs and warm commendation. Alex went to Rainbow Dash immediately, greeting her with a hug and a kiss on the cheek.
"Hey, babe. Welcome back!" Rainbow Dash greeted him with a grin. Alex smiled at her.
"Thanks. It's good to see you. How've things been while we were gone?" He asked.
"Just fine. I heard that things went really well! Word of the show got all the way back to the Wonderbolts locker room!" She said with a proud and wide smile. Alex nodded with some surprise.
"Wow, really? That's awesome!" Alex chuckled.
"You guys were awesome! I'm only surprised you didn't get more famous!" She exclaimed with a giggle, hugging him again. Alex chuckled and hugged back, but then something caught his eye…
"Oh, Fluttershy! Finally you and your special somepony have returned!" Discord exclaimed happily, wrapping an arm around both of them. Fluttershy giggled.
"It's good to see you, Discord. How are the animals back in the cottage?" Fluttershy asked.
"Right as rain!" Discord answered happily, pulling out an umbrella from behind his back. He opened it up, then turned it upside-down, causing rain to fall upwards from within it. He closed it again and tossed it aside.
"Thank you for keeping an eye on them." Fluttershy said with a smile. Discord scooped her up.
"Of course! That's what best friends do, after all!" He replied, hugging her. Alex, observing how close he and Fluttershy were, found it very off-putting, especially with Evan watching this and saying nothing.
"Oh, by the way, Evan, when you have a moment, I'd like to discuss something very private and very, very cool with you. Something that I hear you might be interested in." Discord said aside to him in a sly whisper. Evan shrugged and nodded.
"Yeah man, sure. Just let me know, and we'll talk." He said with a nod.
"We're glad that you made it back safely from the tour. I also wanted to show you something exciting!" Twilight said, clapping her hooves excitedly. Alex was the first to respond.
"Haha, alright. Lead the way." He said. Twilight gestured for him to follow, and he made his way with her way back towards her castle.
"While you were all gone, I was able to make construction arrangements. I don't know if anypony's told you about the School of Friendship idea that I had, but the building is almost done!" She exclaimed happily.
"School of Friendship? I may or may not have heard something about that. I mean, the way things are here, I assumed something like that already existed." Alex said with a chuckle. Twilight giggled a bit and shook her head.
"No, it doesn't. Since having to save Equestria from the Storm King, I have seen for myself just how many different creatures are out there, and they all need to learn friendship too. That's why we're opening a school!" Twilight said, gesturing forward to it.
Alex looked ahead and saw that to the right of her castle now stood an impressive structure. It was complete with a water-adorned walkway, it was quite tall, and it appeared to have other structures built into the sides of it. Alex looked on it in awe.
"Oh my god, Twilight! This is amazing!" He exclaimed, looking on it with wide eyes. Twilight grinned proudly upon seeing his reaction.
"You like it?"
"It's impressive! I can't even believe that it wasn't here at all when I left!" He said with an amazed laugh.
"Pretty soon everything will be ready, and then the school will be open. I just have to finish writing the curriculum. Once it's done, my hope is that creatures from all over will come to attend." She said.
"Well, the building design is definitely gonna turn heads, that's for sure." He commented with a chuckle.
"I'm glad you think so." She said with a smile.
"Oh, if you don't mind, I'd like to head back home to Earth for a little bit. And I'm taking Rainbow Dash with me." Alex informed her. Twilight nodded in response.
"Yeah, sure. When she comes over here, I'll send you two back."
"It's good to finally have you back." Rainbow Dash said, curling up next to Alex as the two sat back on his couch in his apartment. Alex smiled, wrapping his arm a little tighter around her.
"It's good to be back. I missed you while I was out on the road. Or the train." He corrected himself. Rainbow Dash giggled a bit.
"I missed you too. But I'm really glad that things went so well! Ponies are gonna be talking about you all over Equestria now!" She exclaimed excitedly.
"That's true, I guess. It still hasn't quite sunk in yet." He admitted, scratching behind his head.
"It's so cool though! We both perform if you think about it, 'cause I fly and you sing! How awesome is that?!" She exclaimed with a grin, stretching her arms out above her head.
"Heheh, pretty awesome, I'm not gonna lie." Alex said with a chuckle, sitting up a bit.
"Oh! So, since you came back, I was thinking that since we're, you know, a couple now, we should show each other things that the other pony likes, right?" She started.
"Uhuh?" He nodded.
"Well, I wanted to show you my favorite book series! I actually brought the first one with me!" She said, reaching for her backpack that she had brought with her and pulling out a book. Alex picked it up and looked at it.
"Daring Do?" He read the title character's name aloud.
"Yeah! All of the Daring Do books are so awesome, and it's even cooler because they're actually real!" She said giddily, her excitement growing just from talking about it.
"Oh, really?"
"Yeah! Well, nopony really knows that they are real, but the author: A.K. Yearling, is a friend of mine, and she's actually Daring Do herself! She goes on all of these adventures and then writes books about them!" She explained her inside knowledge.
"That's…actually really cool." Alex nodded in approval.
"I know! So, I was thinking that we could read the books together!" She said with a grin. Alex chuckled.
"You are adorable when you're excited, do you know that?" Alex said with a laugh.
"What? Pfft, I mean, no I'm not." She shook her head and blushed heavily. Alex grinned, pulling her up to her feet.
"Yeah, you are. However, we'll have to save your adventure book for another time. I actually have something I'd like to do with you first." He said.
"Really? Woah!" Rainbow Dash shrieked as Alex pulled her to the door and they went outside.
Alex unlocked his car, motioning for her to get inside. Rainbow Dash tilted her head curiously, not knowing what he was planning. She got in the passenger seat of the car, and Alex started it. He pulled out onto the road, making his way towards the nearest highway.
"Where are we going?" She asked, looking around curiously.
"Actually, we aren't going anywhere." Alex answered with a grin.
"What do you mean?"
"You wanna share things we like? Well, one of the things I like is to get out on the road and drive really fast with loud music." Alex said. Rainbow Dash grinned.
"This is gonna be awesome." She giggled.
"Yeah it is. Quick, click on the screen and pull up my phone." He gestured to her. She did as he instructed, connecting his phone to the car's sound system.
As they waited at a stoplight to get on the highway, Alex pulled out his phone, scrolling through and quickly choosing a song. Its title came on the car screen: Starboy. Rainbow Dash raised her eyebrow curiously.
As the car pulled onto the highway, the song faded in. Alex turned it up so the bass of the song made the car rattle a bit. Rainbow Dash sat up a bit as Alex turned onto the highway, quickly picking up speed. She could feel the car rushing forward, and there were barely any other cars around to stop them.
"Ooh." She grinned, opening up the window a bit. She could hear the rush of the wind blowing her hair back wildly. She laughed a bit, leaning out a bit and looking around.
"You're crazy!" Alex laughed at her as they drove.
They spent a good hour or so out driving. Alex played all sorts of fun dancey and bass-heavy songs all along the way. They finally got home close to midnight. By then, Rainbow Dash was already beginning to get very tired.
It was a lot of fun for the both of them…