"It's a good thing our nerdy Unicorn friend isn't here to geek out about the cool tech you just bought," Scarlet said two hours later as she and Zecora both lay on the bed on either side of me as I typed on the new laptop I'd recently bought. She pulled out the earbud she had in her ear, which was connected to her new smartphone.
As it turned out, there was a large plaza on the other side of Morien Street. It had a couple fast food restaurants, a Walmart supermarket, a Target and another Best Buy. Scarlet insisted we at least look at the McDonald's just to see if there was anything there they'd be comfortable eating. Unfortunately, any salad options they had they didn't want due to there being meat in them. Zecora and Scarlet didn't begrudge me the chance to buy a burger from there, however, so to make it up to them I took them to the Walmart where I bought them some refrigerated sandwiches, a few packaged salads and some fruits.
When we finished that, we went to Target and I bought the girls a few changes of clothes, shoes and some undergarments. After that, I decided that we needed to purchase a laptop so I could use the hotel's guest wifi to do some research. I bought a decent looking Toshiba, then decided that we all needed cell phones. I bought us each three smartphones through Virgin Mobile, a Samsung Android with a keyboard that slid out from it, then connected them to the network with addon cards. After that, we went back to the room where I immediately logged onto the internet and began doing the research on this world. After helping Scarlet connect her new phone to the guest wifi, I knew I'd lost her. She was watching YouTube next to me with her earbuds in. Zecora, on the other hand, was leaning against my shoulder watching my fingers flying over the Toshiba's keyboard.
As it turned out, Vancouver Island in this reality was named Avalon Island instead. I didn't know much about this island even back on Earth except for its name. My curiosity got the better of me and I googled its history.
What I found was somewhat unusual. Apparently in the year 1770 a large group of settlers from England set sail for the New World. They didn't want any part of the growing unrest among the New England colonies, so they approached the Spanish government who had already laid claim to the Pacific Northwest at the time in the hopes of negotiating a small piece of land for themselves.
Thinking themselves clever, the Spanish negotiators granted them a cheap bargain on an island where a previous Spanish expedition had found no natives on the island. According to natives on the nearby mainland, the island had been cursed for over a hundred years. Apparently, some mysterious illness caused those who tried to live there to go mad with anger and kill each other off. They called it the Island of Blood.
Of course, the Spanish didn't divulge this to the prospective colonists, so they went in completely unaware of the potential danger. They established a small settlement called Williamstown, later named Wilton City, on the southernmost tip of the island. It was named after the lookout who was the first to spot the island from one of the ships.
Upon coming to the island and stepping ashore they discovered a small grove of apple trees. Inspired by the Arthurian legends of old, they named the island Avalon after the legendary island. From there, the colony grew and began spreading further inland.
However, what the natives warned about soon began coming true around ten years later when the colonists began to bicker and quarrel among themselves. Records indicated that it began when two men from opposing farms began to quarrel over a woman's affections. The fighting got so bad that ten deaths occurred during one of the last fights to break out, two of which being the men involved. As a result, the feuding families cast out the woman and the two others with her and established a lasting friendship with each other.
As the years passed, families grew and Wilton spread across the southernmost tip. In 1834, a large group of the younger generation decided to travel north and establish their own colony. They sailed up the coast to the northern tip, landed, then explored inland until settling in the city that would eventually become known as Pendragon. When Washington state joined the union in 1889, Avalon was considered a part of the Washington territory thanks to trading agreements between Wilton, Pendragon and the mainland Washington settlements near the island.
I took a bite of my Big Mac. "If we have time and find Sunset before we need to go back, I can buy her something."
"You'll give her an aneurism," Scarlet joked as she looked over my shoulder, one earbud removed. "So what are you looking up anyway?"
"The history of where we are."
"Should we not be focusing on looking for Sunset Shimmer?" Zecora asked.
"Yeah, probably," I said, opening another tab. "I'm just not sure where to start. Hmm…"
"Well, maybe it's a shot in the dark, but maybe her name?" Scarlet asked.
"Yeah…probably won't work. But…worth a shot, I suppose," I said, entering Sunset Shimmer Pendragon in the search engine. When nothing came up, I searched for Camelot College Sunset Shimmer. Again, nothing. When I searched for Camelot College incidents, all I could find was a fight that had broken out between a group of Camelot students against a rival college, Jasper Preparatory College. Several arrests were made on either side and expulsions were handed out. It apparently happened during an inter-college competition a lot like the Olympics when one side accused the other of cheating. It devolved into a fight after that.
Next, I tried searching for other terms, such as Equestria and Princess Celestia, but nothing presented itself. I groaned and rubbed my forehead. "Nothing. This isn't getting us anywhere. For all we know, Sunset Shimmer is either far away from us or dead." I swallowed, not really looking forward to seeing if that was true. I really wanted to meet her despite her current mindset.
I felt Scarlet scoot closer, pressing herself against me. "Why don't you just relax for a bit, alright?" she cooed into my ear. "Momma Scarlet knows just what you need."
"Scarlet, this isn't the time," Zecora said with a hint of warning in her voice.
"Poo, you're no fun," Scarlet said, moving away and getting off the bed. "But I'm right. You need to relax. Why not just turn in a bit early tonight? Start fresh in the morning?"
Closing the window, I began shutting down the laptop. "Yeah…not a bad idea," I said. "Maybe a good night's sleep will help. After the day we've had, my mind is telling me to shut my eyes and hit the hay."
"What should we do tomorrow?" Zecora asked as I got out of bed to brush my teeth.
"Well, first after we do some more internet research, I guess we'll just have to go back to Camelot College," I said. "Do some old-fashioned investigating. But first, I should check in with Celestia."
Grabbing the journal, I opened it and began to write:
Hello, Celestia. Checking in.
Report goes as follows: After I put the journal away, I found out a few things about where we ended up. We ended up near a college campus at the northern edge of a city in Earth's northern hemisphere. That's correct, we're on Earth, but not my Earth. As far as I can tell, this world is almost identical to the Earth I left. The only difference I can find is that the country I am from has a slightly different history, and the fact that we arrived twelve years prior to the year I left.
At any rate, we were extremely lucky to find that the bits I brought with me had turned into local currency, and a lot of it. I haven't counted it, but I presume they're the local equivalent of what I brought. We found a hotel where we could spend the week as well as a means to do some research, but so far we've not found anything, not on Sunset Shimmer or anything else that might lead to Equestrian interlopers in this world.
We're all going to sleep to try and clear our minds before we return to the place where we found ourselves yesterday for some additional research. I will keep you informed of any progress we make.
Jethro out.
I put the pen down and waited. Soon, Celestia began to write back:
Hello, Jethro.
I am pleased to find that you have found a safe space where you can rest and work from. I have informed the others of your progress and they are just as relieved. Twilight and Spike in particular are still begging me to let them through, but so far I have not allowed them.
They have all requested to stay at Canterlot for the week, and I have allowed it. If something does occur on the other side, I may have to send a few of them, if not all of them, through. Please report in to me daily.
Celestia out.
I smirked as I closed the journal and put it on the nightstand between the beds and lay down. "Well, now that we have checked in, let's get some shut-eye, shall we?"
Waking up in a hotel room after months of sleeping in my old Earth bed and the main bedroom in my Victorian house was a bit jarring, but made all the better by feeling the warm presence of my Zebra-turned-human girlfriend sleeping next to me. Looking over at the clock, I saw that it was just past five in the morning. A good night's sleep had been exactly what I needed. My head was clearer and more focused, and I was rewarded for it by seeing just how sexy Zecora's sleeping outfit was. She'd worn a very short mini-T which exposed her slender midriff and a pair of small sleeping shorts which showed off plenty of her legs. Had Scarlet not been with us and had the situation not been so serious, I'd have jumped her right there, but there were more pressing concerns.
I knew I wouldn't be able to sleep thanks to the different time zones, so I quietly got up and decided to use the time to research even more. Out of curiosity, I googled my own hometown, only to discover that it was an abandoned western town. Googling myself proved to be just as lacking in results. Hesitantly, I even googled Trixie's name, but got nothing.
Then again, googling people's names probably wouldn't work, I thought, especially since Trixie never had a Facebook account, and neither did I.
I did attempt to log into my bank accounts here just out of curiosity, but nothing. I apparently didn't exist on this Earth.
An hour later, the other two got up. After getting ready for the day, we had a quick breakfast downstairs. Having not had a good breakfast sausage in months, I practically gorged myself on Earth breakfast meats. Zecora and Scarlet went for eggs, cereal, and pancakes, but to my surprise Scarlet tried one of my breakfast sausages. She admitted it was delicious despite it being meat. After we ate, we headed back up to the room, turned the laptop back on, and resumed our research.
Thanks to a clearer mind, I began searching for broader search parameters, such as Camelot College Pony and Camelot College Arthur Statue. The latter only revealed a different statue located in the courtyard of the college campus, but the former yielded one obscure result. However, it wasn't one that we could use, since it was referring to an incident where a somewhat unstable male student rode a pony through campus wearing nothing but a loincloth three years prior.
It was when I searched for Avalon Arthur Statue that the mystery began to deepen. There was an entire Wikipedia page on what was called the Statue of Avalon Mystery. According to the article, starting as far from before Avalon's European colonization, the Native Americans who'd live there before its cursed history reported seeing a strange statue which would sometimes appear for about seven days, and then disappear without warning. Each time it appeared, it would show up as something different. One man in the year 1885 swore that a statue of General Ulysses S. Grant had appeared on his farm for a week before it vanished.
"I'm pretty sure we can confirm that the statue we came through is related to this mystery," I said, pointing to the screen.
Scarlet looked at the screen, reaching over to scroll down using the mouse I'd bought the night before. She slowly nodded. "So the portal to Equestria shows up on this island somewhere," she said. "Why here of all places?"
"Your guess is as good as mine," I said. "but suffice to say that we have a new problem. If we don't get back there in a week, we'll have lost it forever. Even if Twilight manages to find out how to keep it open for a lot longer, there's no guarantee that it'll show up in the same spot. We're on the clock, people."
We all looked at each other, then as one we began to move. The girls went to grab their new winter clothes and I shut the laptop.
Despite the heavy snowfall we'd arrived in the night before, there wasn't that much snow on the ground at the moment. The streets were already pretty clear, presumably thanks to the traffic and slightly rising temperatures. It was a brisk thirty-one degrees, but it was partly cloudy and the sun was already poking through the clouds as we walked back to the 52 bus stop right next to the hotel. Other students were already at the bus stop, talking about their plans for the weekend, the latest RayWilliamJohnson or Epic Rap Battle video on YouTube, or even Thanksgiving plans.
I felt like I was in my early twenties again, and I smiled despite myself. Going back in time, even if this was another Earth, felt somewhat fun. Beside me, Scarlet had already become lost to her new smartphone. Zecora had done a bit of experimentation with hers the night before, but hadn't really shown much interest in hers except as a means of instant communication.
When the bus came, we all crowded in and found seats in the back. I was forced to stand since the bus was crowded. It felt even more unusual to see a crowded bus without anybody wearing a mask, although I did see an older Asiatic woman wearing one near the front of the bus in the handicapped section.
When we arrived back on campus, we all filed out and I pulled the two women towards the main building we'd been in the day before. I wasn't surprised to see more students in the chairs and couches. We found a set of three chairs in a small corner of the lobby and sat down. By now, it was just past ten thirty in the morning. The sound of talking students echoed through the massive room and the outside snow was melting faster with the increasing temperature and sunlight.
"Okay, love, what do you want us to do?" Zecora asked in a low voice as we huddled together.
"First things first," I said, "we should make sure that Sunset Shimmer isn't a college student here. It's highly unlikely that she was able to create a false identity in this world. I'm not sure how the show version of Sunset did it, but the fact of the matter is she came here without any form of identification. I looked through my bag before we left. I have no form of ID on me. Just the cash. You two don't exist here as far as I know, but I also don't know what your human names would be."
"So we should be able to move around better, right?" Scarlet asked.
"Yes and no," I said. "Remember, we're technically not students here. I doubt any campus police will ask for our student IDs, but it's best to be safe and come up with a cover story."
"What did you have in mind?" Zecora asked.
"Hmm, if anyone asks, we tell them that Sunset Shimmer is our long-lost friend," I said. "She ran away a while ago and we heard wind of her possibly being in this area. Now remember, humans aren't normally as trusting as Ponies are. Sure, you'll find a good number of friendly ones around, but for every good and friendly one you find, you'll find one who's not."
"The one we met last night seemed friendly enough," Scarlet said.
"True," I chuckled.
"Speaking of him, I think I see him over there with a couple of his buddies," Scarlet said, pointing over to a couch near the windows.
Turning, I saw the student from before hanging out with a rather muscular looking male student and a thinner one wearing thick rimmed glasses. They were all looking at the first student's phone and laughing. "Huh, must have a morning class," I said as I turned back to the girls. "We should actually talk to the school's dean. We don't know just how long-ago Sunset came to this world. Celestia said that she was sixteen when she ran away, and this was around…a year before she found Twilight. For all we know, time between worlds runs concurrently and she's a lot older. But first…why don't we start with asking them? Then try and find the dean's office."
"Heh, sounds good to me. Time to put these looks to some good use," Scarlet said, flipping her hair back in a relatively seductive way as she gave the three men a grin.
"Knock it off," I groaned as I stood and headed over to them. The two girls followed beside me.
When the first student looked up and saw me, he smiled. "Hey, nice to see you three again! Were you able to get a room?"
"Yes, thanks to you," I replied.
"Glad to hear it!" he chuckled. "So whatcha doing back here?"
"Well, we're actually looking for a former friend of ours," I said. "We were wondering if you might have heard anything about her?"
"Well, I can definitely try and help," the student said.
"Great! She goes by the name of Sunset Shimmer. Strange name, I know, but perhaps you've heard of her?"
The three exchanged a confused look, then the first student turned back to us. "I've never heard of anyone by that name. You, Arnold?" He addressed the muscular student.
The man named Arnold, who had a short crew cut, shook his head. "Nah, man. Sorry. Never heard of any girl by that name."
"Me neither," the third student said.
"Hmm…alright, well she might have gone by another name," I said.
"Perhaps you boys might know about something else?" Scarlet asked, slightly biting her lower lip and giving the three students her best seductive look.
I smacked her upside the head, but lightly. "That doesn't work in real life. We aren't in a movie, so stop it," I said with a frown. Scarlet pouted, but apologized anyway. "Sorry about Scarlet. She loves doing that."
"No worries, dude," the first student said.
"But she does have a point," I said. "How long have you been going to Camelot?"
"About three years," he said.
"Okay, good. In all that time, has anything unusual happened? Maybe a strange girl appears, babbling nonsense about Equestria, Princess Celestia, and instead of using anyone and anybody, she uses the word anypony or somepony?" The three students looked at me as if I was some kind of alien. "I know, it sounds strange, but trust me, she would be saying that."
"Well, I've never heard of anything like that," Arnold said. "Flash?"
I froze. Arnold had addressed the student from before. I looked him over, then realized that this student did, indeed, look a lot like the Flash Sentry from the Equestria Girls universe. Flash shook his head. "Nope, not me. Frankie?"
The skinny student with glasses shook his head. "No, but maybe Jackie knows?"
"Who's Jackie?" I asked.
Flash chuckled. "Jaquelyn Smith. She's one of the longest attending students here. Her family owns a large farm right outside the city, so she doesn't have much time to actually attend classes and it takes her a long time to drive in, so she comes in mostly at the end of the week. We're pretty decent friends. Would you like me to text her? I think she comes in today."
Jackie…could she be…? I nodded. "Sorry if we're bothering you, but if you could? We're really worried about her ever since she ran away from home."
"Hey, not a problem!" He pulled out his older iPhone and sent out a text. "Why don't you three join us while we wait?"
"Thanks," I said as I sat down at the couch opposite theirs. Zecora and Scarlet joined me on either side. "Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier. I'm Jethro. This is my girlfriend Zecora and one of my best friends Scarlet."
"Nice to meet you! I'm Flash," Flash said. "These are my friends Arnold and Franklyn, but we just call him Frankie."
"Sup, bro," Arnold said with a wide grin.
"Nice to meet you," Frankie said as he pushed his glasses up.
"Pleasure to meet all of you," Zecora said.
"Cool to meet ya, boys," Scarlet said cheerily enough.
Flash's phone chimed, and he pulled it out. "That was fast," he said as he looked over the message, then texted back. "Looks like she just arrived. I asked her if she could meet us all here."
"Really? Thanks a bunch, man," I said gratefully.
"Hey, it's not a problem," he said with a smile. His phone chimed again, and he looked at it, then sent yet another text off. "She says she'll be here in five."
"Sounds good to me," I said. Then, as a way to try and make conversation, I asked, "So what kind of college is this? A standard four-year college?"
Flash chuckled and nodded. "Pretty much."
"It's been a while since I went to college," I admitted. "What are your majors?"
"I've been here three years trying to get an education major," Flash said. He held up the guitar bag. "Being a stage musician can only get you so far, you know?"
"I hear that," I smiled. "You like to play on stage, huh?"
"Yeah. I used to have a band, but they moved away after they graduated," he said, sounding a bit saddened by that. "We still keep in touch, but they're all over the country by now."
"I'm a computer science major myself," Frankie said. "I want to work in I.T."
"I'm here on a football scholarship," Arnold said, flexing his muscles a bit at that. "I'm going to apply to be a pro-football player! Yeah!"
Flash and Frankie just smirked and shook their heads at Arnold's antics. I smiled as well. These two were clearly from three different walks of life, but the fact that they were all laughing and smiling made my heart warm up. "Friendship really is magic, isn't it?" I muttered to myself before I could stop myself.
"Friendship is magic?" A very familiar sounding female voice asked from behind me. I turned and looked at the newcomer. She was wearing a pair of brown snowshoes, a pair of blue jeans that looked like they'd seen some hard work, a thick blue turtleneck with the words SMITH ACRES written across the top in an arch inside a red apple. Beneath the words was a stylized emblem depicting a barn house at sunset. She had gorgeous green eyes, a slightly tanned completion, freckles on her cheeks, and her long blonde hair was tied in a ponytail which came out of a very familiar looking Stetson hat. "Now that's an interestin' sayin' there, sugarcube. Whatcha mean by it?"