After Trixie's dramatic exit Flash and the Rainbooms started to leave the stage.
"Um, Twilight I…I'm really sorry for how I behaved earlier." Flash rubbed his arm regretfully.
"Aw don't fret, you were mind-controlled anyway." Applejack waved her hand.
"Yeah, those meanie-pants' magic could turn even the sweetest person into a jerk." Pinkie nodded. "It wasn't your fault."
"And even if it was your fault, I've already forgiven you." Twilight smiled.
"Even so, I do want to make it up to you. How about I treat you to dinner? Or…do you need to leave soon?" Flash asked, hoping that Twilight didn't.
"No, I have some time before I need to leave. In fact I'll probably leave tomorrow, I'd like to get a good night's sleep before I go home, so I'd love to have dinner with you." Twilight smiled before chuckling: "Besides, Trixie and her band had us locked under the stage for hours so I'm honestly very hungry."
"They what? Geez, in that case I'd be willing to treat all of you to dinner if you'd like." Flash offered to the Rainbooms.
"Oh no darling, you and Twilight deserve to have a proper date." Rarity shook her head.
"Yeah, you two go on ahead." Sunset nodded in agreement. "We'll go somewhere else on our own."
"Actually…I would like all of you to join us." Twilight decided. "I'm going to tell Flash more about Equestria, so if you joined us then I can tell all of you at once."
"Sounds good to me, been wanting to hear more about my pony self anyway." Rainbow Dash grinned. "I bet she's really awesome."
Applejack, Fluttershy, Rarity, and Pinkie agreed, so it was settled. They did search for Vinyl Scratch so that she could join them, but she had already left so they went ahead to an inexpensive restaurant that allowed dogs.
After getting a table Twilight started to look at the menu…and increasingly looked disturbed.
"Chicken?" She cringed, horrified. "There's meat on this menu!"
"Oh yeah…you're a pony…." Flash winced, wishing that he had thought to warn her earlier. "Um, humans are omnivores, we eat both meat and plants. Dairy too but…would it make you feel better if I got a vegetarian meal?"
"It…it would." Twilight admitted, relieved. "Thank you."
"I know how you feel, it took me a long time to get used to that fact." Sunset chuckled. "Come to think of it, I'm surprised you didn't notice earlier."
"Had my mind on other things, like figuring out how to become Princess for the Fall Formal and writing a counter-spell song to defeat the Dazzlings." Twilight shrugged. "I'm really relieved that I never had meat by mistake."
"That's right, you just went with whatever Fluttershy selected." Rarity remembered.
"Well, I am a vegetarian." Fluttershy smiled. "Closest I get to eating meat are veggie burgers and veggie dogs. Unless you count dairy products and eggs of course."
"Glad my instincts are that good…." Twilight muttered.
After ordering Twilight started telling them more about Equestria. They were all fascinated by how Equestria was founded, and when Twilight explained how Ponyville came into existence Applejack laughed.
"Not too different from the foundin' of our town." She said. "Mah family does mostly run an apple farm, but when Granny Smith and her parents came here the apple trees they brought didn't bear fruit at first. So to make ends meet until the apple trees started bringin' in profits they took up horse breedin', since horses were really needed as more settlers came. One horse named Zap Apple turned out to be really fast, so he was entered in a race at Rich's Racetrack, founded by Stinkin' Rich who's relatives owned a similar one in England. Zappy won, earnin' Stinkin's interest, so a deal was made between the Apples and Riches. Basically as long as the Apples trained his horses for half of what the salary was back then we could enter our horses for free, and every time one of our horses won we split the winnin's with the Riches with the Apples gettin' the majority. We Apples used the salary and those winnin's to keep our farm goin' until the trees bared fruit, includin' buyin' more animals for meat, milk, and eggs. Stinkin' used his share to invest more into the town, eventually openin' a store that sold everythin' the Apples produced. The Riches still own that store, but the racetrack is mostly a museum and historical landmark now. Sometimes races are still held, but mostly on Founder's Day, and the Riches switched to investin' in businesses as well as openin' new ones of their own. I even heard that Filthy - Stinkin's grandson - is lookin' for a place to open a spa."
"So the Riches and Apples are friends here too?" Twilight said.
"Sorta, the Riches have gotten a bit big for their britches but they are respectful towards mah family. Luckily Filthy's daughter Diamond Tiara is really nice despite bein' a mite spoiled, she's even sorta-friends with Apple Bloom. They only don't hang out often because Apple Bloom isn't much interested in fancy activities."
"Gee, pony Diamond Tiara acts more snooty than nice." Twilight was surprised.
"Probably is more spoiled or more into social climbin' than her human counterpart. Especially since the United States doesn't have royalty like Equestria." Applejack shrugged.
"You don't? Then who runs the country?"
"A combination of a government and a president." Flash explained. "The president enforces the laws the government makes, which has hundreds of people working together to make them. You see we used to be run by British royalty, but one king got too big for his britches as Applejack would say so our ancestors rebelled, went to war with them, and won our freedom. That's why we set up the three system government, the third focusing on courts and judges, so that we don't have to deal with another tyrannical ruler."
"Fascinating." Twilight grinned. "I would love to learn more about human history."
"Brace yourself then, because we're talking millions of years meaning thousands of books." Rainbow Dash laughed.
"Really?" Twilight grinned even bigger.
"You just made her dreams come true." Spike sniggered.
"Whoo boy…we'll have to discuss which books to select before sharing them with you then." Rainbow Dash winced.
"Yeah, if we just took you to the library and let you pick your own you'd probably be trapped in there for centuries!" Pinkie exaggerated.
Everyone laughed.
"So, how did Celestia and Luna's pony counterparts become rulers of Equestria?" Fluttershy asked.
"Huh…I honestly don't know. It was never explained in any history books. Never thought to ask them either." Twilight realized. "Of course Luna turning into Nightmare Moon over a thousand years ago became a legend, so maybe the story of how she and Celestia got on the throne became lost to time. Oh, to quickly explain: over a thousand years ago Luna was corrupted by jealousy since Celestia used to be more popular and grew powerful with dark magic, so she had to be temporarily banished. When she returned the Elements of Harmony freed her."
"What about you?" Rarity smiled. "How did you become a princess?"
"That…is honestly a bizarre story." Twilight chuckled. "You see this amazing unicorn named Starswirl the Bearded started to write this spell in his journal but couldn't finish it, so Princess Celestia sent it to me to see if I could. When I recited what he had written so far I mistakenly changed the backstories of the pony counterparts of you five. I didn't find out what happened until the following morning, when I saw that your pony counterparts had ended up switching jobs and were having a miserable time at them despite believing that they were meant to do them. I was distraught by the pain I had caused at first, until Spike's reassurance gave me the idea to encourage your counterparts to help each other with their new jobs. This in turn reminded them of who they really are, and afterward I realized how to finish the spell. After I did I got zapped with the Elements and entered a void where Princess Celestia met me, leading me to where I got my wings."
"Ah so that's how you became the Princess of Friendship, you used your friendship with our counterparts to solve the problem." Rainbow Dash grinned.
"Exactly!" Spike grinned proudly.
"Well, I for one am impressed by how you solved the problem, but I'm not sure I want to know what new job mah counterpart was given." Applejack chuckled.
"You probably don't." Twilight chuckled back.
"I'm impressed too, but I'm a bit disturbed by what the spell does." Flash admitted.
"I've always found it disturbing too." Twilight agreed. "Oh, you guys should know how the portal came into existence. After I returned from my last trip here Princess Celestia told me that Starswirl the Bearded invented the mirror that holds the portal on Equestria's end."
"Makes sense, his human counterpart Starswirl Earthenware was the one who founded the school and built the statue where our end of the portal is." Flash nodded. "There's another school called Crystal Prep in the city Crystal Province, which was here before our town Canterlot. Mr. Earthenware used to be a teacher there but he hated how strict and unfeeling the school was run. He soon moved to Canterlot and opened Canterlot High and it's elementary school counterpart as a more relaxed way of education, and made the statue due to the high school having a horse for a mascot. He was a pottery and stone carving teacher, and sold his own works on the side."
"Interesting…Starswirl the Bearded invented the amniomorphic spell, which shapes stone and clay into sculptures. Ponies could only do that by hoof before then." Twilight mused. "Hold on…how long ago did your Starswirl live?"
"Only over a century." Rainbow Dash shrugged. "Never memorized most info about him, but he was alive during the 1890s."
"But…Starswirl the Bearded died thousands of years ago!" Twilight gasped.
"Really? Huh…."
"Uh, our Celestia and Luna were born thousands of years ago too remember?" Spike reminded Twilight. "But the human ones were obviously born more recently. Maybe the human counterparts only come into existence when they're needed most."
"True…." Twilight conceded.
With that, Flash told Twilight a bit about his life and how he had gotten into music. It turns out that his mom is a film reviewer and his dad is a book reviewer, so he had been introduced to a lot of books and films from the past. Hearing the music in those films inspired him to create his own, so he tried different genres when he was a kid before falling in love with rock and roll. His dream is to make people happy with his music.
They couldn't stay long since the Rainbooms were getting tired - even Pinkie, sorta - so after eating Applejack spoke up:
"Sleepover at mah place this time. Granny Smith wants to treat the band to some apple pastries."
Everyone happily agreed, and after paying the bill started to head back to their cars. Flash and Twilight walked with their arms around each other, having realized that they really were in love instead of simply having crushes. Despite that, they were too shy to kiss after Flash walked Twilight to Applejack's truck, but they did hug for a minute.
"I am going to miss you again, but after hearing how much Equestria really needs you I can handle you leaving better than I did last time." Flash admitted.
"You handled it pretty well then." Twilight smirked.
"While I was with you I did, but after I pulled into the driveway back home I ended up crying. Not knowing how long it would be before I could see you again really hurt." Flash looked down sadly.
"After I got settled in bed back home I ended up crying too." Twilight said softly. "It was a shock for me since you're the first guy I ever liked that way. So even though I've been getting busy with my new princess duties, I'll do my best to visit again soon."
"Don't worry about it, helping your fellow princesses rule Equestria is more important." Flash smiled.
"Well, I actually don't do much ruling. I mostly just go around solving friendship problems, and my pony friends help with that."
"Which is still more important."
"He's right. But when you next visit be sure to tell Sunset through the journal first so that I have time to plan a party before you arrive." Pinkie grinned.
"Journal?" Flash said confusedly.
"Oh shoot." Sunset laughed, both amused and annoyed with herself, as she pulled said journal out of her backpack. "I'm so sorry Flash, I forgot to tell you about this. Back when I was Princess Celestia's student we used these journals to communicate with each other, kinda like e-mail. It's how Twilight ended up visiting again, I contacted Princess Celestia for help with the Dazzlings but she must've sent her journal to Twilight. I had thought about letting you share mine so that you could talk to Twilight as well, but so much was going on that I kept forgetting. I already offered for our friends to share it months ago, but Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy turned the offer down so.…"
"Yeah, because journals are supposed to be private!" Pinkie nodded empathetically.
"Indeed, it isn't proper to look into someone else's journal. Even if it had been offered." Rarity agreed.
"Unfortunately, you both have a point." Flash sighed reluctantly.
"Oh well." Twilight smiled sadly.
After another hug, Flash headed for his car and everyone else go into their cars and headed for the Apple Farm.
"How was the Battle of the Bands and dinner son?" Mr. Sentry asked.
"The Battle of the Bands ended up being a real battle, since it turned out the Dazzlings were creatures from Twilight's world with mind-controlling powers. Fortunately Twilight and her friends were able to break the spell and destroy the Dazzlings' source of magic." Flash chuckled.
"I thought you hadn't been acting like yourself recently. I'm glad you're back to normal."
Fortunately Mr. and Mrs. Sentry had already been shown proof of magic and another world existing, so that made talking to them about Twilight a lot easier.
"Me too. Dinner however was great, I learned a lot more about Twilight." Flash smiled lovingly. "She's really an amazing person."
"I don't doubt that, but…well, she is from another world. If things could somehow work out then I definitely approve but otherwise I'm honestly concerned about you being in love with someone who isn't even human let alone from around here." Mrs. Sentry admitted.
"I know, but it is personality that matters and pony or not Twilight is very human. And don't worry, I'm not going to even seriously think about being with Twilight until after graduation." Flash reassured her and Mr. Sentry. "If nothing else, Twilight deserves a lot better than a high school dropout."
Mr. and Mrs. Sentry smiled with relief.
A.N. I changed Crystal Empire to Crystal Province because the United States is more European in origin, where there are currently kingdoms instead of empires. It's especially more European in New England, where I believe Equestria Girls takes place.
Oh, also Twilight didn't react to the race horses part of Applejack's story because I figured that she already learned what horses and ponies were like in the human realm when the band was rehearsing at the Apple Farm.