"Watch as I work my gypsy magic, eye of a newt and cinnamon," I absentmindedly sing to myself as we pull into my drive way. This makes Robby chuckle and shake his head. I looked back to see how the girls were doing, and they all had looks of wonder planted on their faces. Fluttershy's eyes were thankfully open now, but she still kept a soft hold on Rarity's shoulder.

"Were here," I announced, nearly kicking the door open.

"You'll be back with Twilight an' the others later, right?" Applejack asked Robby before stepping out of the car.

"Yep, gimme about an hour," Robby replied, "And don't let Olly here do anything stupid while I'm gone."

I stuck my tongue out at him, and made my way to the door. Stepping inside, I was surprised to see a lack of mess from when the other three were here alone. I was sure Pinkie would have caused some sort of tornado in here, but there was surprisingly no such thing.

"Huh," I shrugged, walking up to the table.

"What're we to do with all these bags, darling?" Rarity stepped in the door as well, followed by the other two.

"Just put them in your rooms," I yawned, "We'll find some good closet space later."

I sat at the table and carelessly pulled my laptop toward me. As much as I hated to admit it, I did have homework I needed to get done. I sighed, if it were anyone else in my house, I would've pretended to blow it off. But since I didn't know how long these girls were going to be here, I had to be responsible. I couldn't just pretend I didn't care, and then do it late at night when everyone was asleep.

I logged onto our school's "communication site" to see what I had to do. It was like a Facebook for school related purposes. I groaned when I read over the history homework, and realized I had a lot more to do than I had originally thought. Blowing off the history for just a little bit longer, I started my math homework. It wasn't that I didn't like history; it was probably one of my favorite classes. I just didn't like all the work that had to go into it.

"So what'chya doin?" Applejack asked once she was done putting her clothes away.

"Homework," I sighed.

She sat down in the chair next to me, "Is the school system here like the one in Equestria?"

I thought for a minute, "Yes and no, I think. From what I can tell, Equestrian school focus majorly on finding your special talent and building the skills needed for it. Since humans don't exactly HAVE special talents, we have to be in school a lot longer, and we all have to learn the same curriculum."

"What'ya do in school if yer not learnin' about your special talents?"

"We get more advanced than fillies in Equestria," I explained, "While fillies just learn basics of every subject in order to help them figure out their special talent, we go beyond the basics in every subject. For example, in math I'm guessing the Equestrian schools just briefly touch on simple division unless their talent has to do with mathematics."

Applejack nodded slowly, and I turned my computer toward her, "Well, in human schools, most of us learned simple division in second or third grade. That was seven years ago, for me. Now we're working on algebra."

Applejack stared in confusion at the letters and numbers jumbled together in order to make up a polynomial. I watched her in amusement for a minute, before looking at the clock.

"Oh, sorry, you guys hungry?" I said, standing up.

"Oh… I can wait a bit if you're busy…" Fluttershy said, coming down the stairs.

"Nope, I insist. It gives me a bit of procrastination time, anyway," I laughed, "I'll just make something real quick so it'll be ready when the others get here."

I rushed into the kitchen and began making something. It was beginning to grow hard to think of things to make that didn't contain meat. Eventually, I thought of something that sounded okay. I got to work, and Rarity and Fluttershy sat at the counter as I did so, talking amongst themselves. Applejack stared at my computer, every so often going back to my math homework and staring at it in that same confused fashion.

"So what do you guys think of Robby and Kendall?" I asked the two sitting at the counter.

"Robby's… well…," Rarity tried to think of the right words.

I chuckled a bit, turning to Fluttershy, "Any opinions?"

"He… likes to laugh," Fluttershy said with a small grin.

"Exactly," Rarity perked up, "He seems to laugh at every situation, no matter what it is."

I shrugged a bit, "I think you would too."

"Whatever do you mean?"

I paused for a minute, trying to find a way to explain this world subtly, "To make a long explanation short… this world sucks. A lot. We both hate it."

Everyone in the room seemed to raise an eyebrow at this. I guess that was what I had expected, since I had tried to make their stay so far as peaceful and nice as possible.

"Trust me, if more people were like us, the world would be fantastic. But they're not. Human nature is terrible, and the society we have here is awful."

"But," Applejack stood, joining our conversation, "I don't understand why this makes ya'll laugh at everythin'."

I smiled, "Because once you've lived with it this long, it's the only thing that really keeps you going. Why bother getting upset over the world's problems? People like Robby and I find it a lot easier to just laugh it off, and focus on the good things."

"What… what do other people do?" Fluttershy asked.

I thought for a minute, "Well, it all depends on who you are. You have people like my girlfriend and her sister, who spend a lot of their time trying to fix the problems… I kind of admire them for that."

"Why don't you try to fix things?" Rarity asked.

I sighed, this was where things got complicated, "A lot of reasons… For one I'm defiantly not as outgoing as those two. I find it a lot harder to be around a bunch of people than they do."

I paused for a second, and the three girls stared at me with what looked like curiosity.

"There's that… and my parents are kind of strict about what I do and don't do. They don't notice as many problems as we do, because they were raised not to."

Things were starting to get uncomfortable for me, as we were going into topics that I wasn't exactly ready to get into yet. I also didn't really want to explain politics and beliefs to them; that could take all night. I decided to try and change the subject.

"Anyway, what are your thoughts on Kendall?"

I could tell they didn't want to drop the subject yet, but they all seemed to go along with it anyway.

"She's… really nice," Fluttershy grinned.

"She did seem to get a bit angry at you when you started that game, though," Rarity pondered for a minute.

I laughed, "It wasn't real anger; probably more annoyance than anything. If she were actually angry with me, she wouldn't have played along."

Just then, I heard the door slam open and Pinkie bounced into the room.

"Hiya, bunny!" she bounced up to me.

"'Bunny'?" I replied emotionlessly.

"Yea!" she shouted, "While we were waiting for Robby, we found someone who said she knew you! She also said that she used to call you 'bunny'!"

My eyes widened a bit, "What was her name?"

At this time, all the others walked in through the door, including Kendall and Robby.

"We saw Ruby," Kendall clarified.

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"What's the matter?" Twilight asked suspiciously.

"No, sorry," I replied quickly, "I just thought you ran into my sister. THAT would be hard to explain."

"I thought your sister was in coll… collage?" Rainbow Dash perked up.

"College," I sighed, "And not her, the other one. I have two older sisters."

This took them all by surprise, even Robby and Kendall a bit, since I didn't talk about my other sister often.

"Why isn't she here?" Fluttershy asked.

"Because she's old," I laughed, "She's an adult now. Has a husband and two kids of her own. They live in their own house over by the mall… I think."

"You think?" Applejack asked.

"They just got a new house," I clarified, a bit embarrassed, "I haven't exactly gotten a chance to go over there yet…"

Dropping the subject, I walked over to the stove and turned off the heat, "I made dinner if you guys are ready for it."

"Whoa!" Kendall shouted, mock surprised, "Let me guess, microwavable stuff?"

"No," I stuck my tongue out at her, "I thought I'd impress you all today. But seeing as you're not interested…"

We both laughed and everyone crowded around the table. It was a strange sight, to be honest. We didn't even eat at the table when my parents were home. It was something last night, since the girls were just arriving, but it was just now hitting me how different my life was becoming with them here.

"Did you get that homework done that you were talking about yesterday?" Twilight suddenly asked, like and invisible punch in the stomach.

"I… started it…" I mumbled.

"Olly…" Kendall started in a familiar tone. Usually one she used before some kind of lecture.

"Sorry I got busy," I shrugged, not knowing whether or not I wanted to put on the careless act with the girls around.

"Do your homework!" Kendall shouted, as she had done so many times before. I rolled my eyes. This would usually be the point where I'd try to hold back a laugh and make up pointless excuses to defend myself, but the girls around made me a bit nervous.

"I did start it," I repeated, "I just got a little side tracked."

Kendall raised an eyebrow at this, obviously confused by my unusual response. I simply made eye contact with her for a second, and then got back to eating.

"You know what I don't have?" Robby butted in excitedly, "Homework!"

"Shut up," Kendall replied, pushing him to the side.

The girls seemed a bit confused, so I decided to clarify, "Kendall and I go to the international academy. The academics are more difficult than most schools, and it's a lot more work. Robby used to go to the same school, but he dropped out and went back to our normal high school a couple months ago."

"Why would you want to do that?" Twilight turned to Robby, almost sounding offended.

Robby shrugged, "I didn't have the motivation. I loved the school and the people, but if I didn't drop out soon I was gonna fail out anyway."

"And now he has to suffer the horrors of Romeo High School!" I raised a fist dramatically.

"H-horrors?" Fluttershy stuttered.

"Yes, horrors!" I growled, and then giggled a bit, "It's not THAT bad. The academics are good enough; it's the people that are the problem. Romeo is a prime example of how much our society sucks."

"Not even, really," Robby pondered, "Powell was the brutal one."

Kendall and I both retracted at the name of our middle school. I was a little over dramatic, yea, but there was a part of it that was serious.

"Yea… that place had ACTUAL horrors," Kendall laughed a bit.

The girls seemed genuinely concerned, but the three of us just laughed it off.

"Don't worry," I reassured, "Done of us have to touch that place again. As long as I can help it, never again."

"Never again," Kendall ended up repeating in a silly, ominous voice.

Robby looked up at the clock, "Kendall, I think we better get going."

Kendall nodded and the two of them stood, saying their goodbyes to everyone in the room. She walked up to me and ruffled my hair a bit. Robby did the same. Then they waved one last goodbye and walked out the door together.

"Well, they seem to be nice people," Twilight concluded.

I nodded, "So, you guys met Ruby today?"

"Yea," Rainbow Dash replied, "Don't really know where she came from; she just kinda showed up."

I laughed, "That sounds like Ruby."

"How exactly do you know this 'Ruby'?" Rarity asked passively.

"She's my best friend," I replied casually, "Known her ever since I moved here. We go back a while."

"Um… I have a question…," Fluttershy slowly looked up at me.

"Hm? What is it, Fluttershy?"

"Are… Kendall and Robby… well…"

I chuckled a bit, "Yes, Kendall and Robby are dating."

They all seemed to nod, satisfied by my response. There was a while of silence as we all sat, eating a little more but mostly just staring off into space. Or at least, that's what I was doing. The girl's talked quietly amongst themselves, but I wasn't present enough to listen to their conversations.

"You want help clearing the table, Olly?" Rainbow Dash asked, snapping me out of my trance.

"Nah, I got it," I yawned, "Oh, and then I'm going to retreat to my room for a while. I got a couple things I need to do."

"Like what?" Twilight perked up curiously.

"History homework, math homework, lit homework, new My Little Pony episode," I mumbled the last part a bit.

"What does My Little Pony have to do with homework?" Twilight asked skeptically.

"Nothing to most people," I shifted uncomfortably, "But I'm part of the analysis section of the fandom… so I need to watch the episode a couple times."

"Analysis?"

"Yea," I responded, "I don't really get into it as much as the rest of the section. I don't make videos with my OC or anything… thought I've thought about it. I just post reviews on a blog though, just to get myself started."

I sat thinking about analysis for a while. I guess it wouldn't be appropriate to say that anypony is out of character anymore… since all this actually happened. In fact, what was there to analyze anymore? This thought made me extremely uncomfortable, and I decided to just pretend it was all made up while I was watching. That way I could analyze like normal.

"You guys gonna be okay down here?" I asked them quietly.

"Yea, we'll probably jus watch TV nd' go to bed," Applejack replied, smiling as she did so. I couldn't help but think she did this in order to make me feel better.

I couldn't help but laugh out loud a couple of times. The new episode was 'Somepony to Watch over Me', and the humor of the episode was so good. Admittedly, the plot was a little strange, but the humor made up for it.

"Olly?" I heard the door opening.

"Ah," I was a bit startled. I looked over at the clock to see that it was two in the morning, "Rarity, what are you doing up?"

She sat on the edge of the bed, looking a slightest bit concerned, "I was only up for a second. However, I decided to see if Twilight had said was true."

I raised an eyebrow at this; unsure of what she was talking about. Then I remembered the conversation we had at the mall earlier, and how she said Twilight had found me awake in the middle of the night.

"Yea, it was," I shrugged, "I don't remember denying it."

"Also… do you have any… well… health concerns?" she asked quietly.

"Health problems?" I felt a knot in my stomach, "Well…"

"I found this in the bathroom," she pulled my inhaler out of her shirt pocket. My eyes widened and I felt the knot in my stomach get a little tighter.

"I'm sorry," she looked sincerely apologetic; "I didn't mean to look through your belongings. I was just looking for a comb, I assure you. But when I found this, and remembered how tired you got in the changing rooms as the mall… well…,"

I sighed, "Fine, you got me… I have asthma. It's nothing you have to worry about though, really. I've been okay at taking care of things myself. It's not that horrible of a condition if you know how to take care of it."

"You're quite sure?" she asked sadly.

I sighed again, "Yea, I know what I'm doing. I may look like I'm being reckless sometimes, but I'd never do anything I wasn't sure I could handle."

"Well… alright," she finally sighed, "But still, why are you up this late in the night?"

"I don't know," I replied casually, "Like I said before, I don't sleep much, anyway. It's not like this is unusual for me."

"Really…" she pondered quietly.

"I think it might be side effects from the meds…," I thought out loud, "My dad said it was supposed to help me sleep, but I don't think that's working very well."

"What… 'meds'?" Rarity asked.

"Oh," I mentally hit myself for saying that out loud, "I'm on stimulants and a couple other things. Nothing to get freaked out over; just a bit of ADD and breathing problems."

"Breathing problems?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Yea," I replied simply, not wanting to get into it anymore, "Again, nothing major you'd have to worry about."

She reluctantly nodded and let out a small yawn, "If you're quite sure…"

"Positive," I reassured, "I've been okay this long on my own, haven't I? Trust me on this."

"Alright then… I'll just be heading back to bed then…"

"Okay, goodnight Rarity. Sleep well, and wake me up earlier this time if I'm asleep when you wake up, okay?"

She seemed to pout at this, but sighed all the same, "Alright Olly. Goodnight."

"Night, Rarity,"

With that she shut the door, and I was left to think over the conversation that just played out. I really wished they would stop worrying so much; if anything, I should be worrying about them. They're the ones that are in another world with no way to get back.

I turned to my computer to see a couple of Skype messages from Kendall. I thought about reading them, but decided against it. It could wait until tomorrow. I walked over to my desk and starting writing about the new episode, hoping to have it done by the morning.