private Slice of School (1x1 with Reality Check)

[Skylight Scintillate]

"You see, I was thinking to myself about how how some other species thought that they were too good for this school from earlier on one of my classes, but I guess I had unknowingly said it outloud. It must have sounded something like this," The reformed changeling explained. "And then Ash was like 'us griffons and dragons are so much better than these ponies and their lame school of friendship'. However, I wanted to say something to them but I was too shy to speak up. I guess I ended up talking to myself in the corner of the library and you both overheard," The changeling explained, perfectly mimicking Spark's voice when she mentioned what the dragon said. "Thanks Reality Check for helping me for when I was too shy to explaining it to them directly."

Sweetie Belle dispersed the muting spell as the two creatures arguing calmed down with the changeling's explanation. "Well that was a rather pointless argument," both of them said simultaneously. They burst into laughter when they realized what happened. 

Skylight Scintillate glanced at the title before nodding. "Well, it looks like it's the right book. Let's go," he suggested.

[Reality Check 627]

Reality wasn't surprised in the slightest that the changeling changed voices, not even batting an eye to when she mimicked the words she heard. "Yeah... no problem." He muttered, after calming down from his internal anger.

After Sweetie let the two creatures talk again and them jinxing each other, RC couldn't help but rolls his eyes and smile a little. After Skylight grabbed the book they were looking for, he turned his attention to it. "We should read this in our dorms. Or at least, one of our dorms." Reality suggested. "That way we can also try out this magic out without others disturbing us."

[Skylight Scintillate]

"Yeah I'm glad we were able to resolve this dispute because fighting is like, the opposite of friendship..." Skylight joked.

"Oh! Can we see the dorms? I always wondered what the dorms looked like..." The CMCs asked. 

"Oh, you see, the things is, I actually live in Ponyville, so I don't stay in the dorms. My house is like, five minutes away from here. I mean, my parents don't mind visitors, so we could also do it at my place, or we could do your dorm. What do you want to do?" Skylight asked. 

[Reality Check 627]

"Well..." RC thinks for a minute, remembering that he has a place other than the dorms he can stay in as well. "I actually don't have to stay in the dorms either. I have a brother that lives here and I'm thinking about staying at his place during my semester here in the School of Friendship." Reality explained as he shook his head.

"If I'm being honest, my brother doesn't mind what I do with my time, so long as I don't disturb him or not come back for a long time." RC affirmed. "So I'm ok with doing it at your place as well, just as long as I don't stay longer than I need to."

[Skylight Scintillate]

"Sure, we can do it at my place," Skylight said as he led the way to his house. it was a relatively short walk from the castle to his home. His home was a relatively ordinary looking home in Ponyville and his parents hadn't returned from work yet, but they didn't mind visitors.

Once the quintet arrived at Skylight's bedroom, Skylight flipped open the book. The book was dense with information, and it talked a lot about how magic could be used to store information. the book even had a section for how drawings or other art could be converted to information to be stored and vise versa to be displayed. Finally, at the end, it said that the spell needed to start this required a lot of magic and that it was advised to see Starlight or Twilight for help.

"Hey, this was what Starlight was using when we enetered her office!" Sweetie Belle noted. "And the section about drawing with it seems to apply to Reality Check."

[Reality Check 627]

Reaching their location didn't take long at all, only a few blocks aways from the castle. The five of them soon reached Skylight's room, digressing that his parents aren't at home. Once inside, they took a look inside the book and what kind of information it contains. Needless to say, it had a lot of information about magic, almost enough that RC wanted to just look away because of how dense the info is.

After reading through the whole book and Sweetie made the connection about one of the chapters talking about RC's magic, it was easy for him to see why. "I mean, it does kinda sound similar to how I do my magic. In fact, some parts sounds it applies to how the spell works." Reality spoke. "Parts like 'converted to information' sounds like when I spawn and retract them out and 'to be displayed' is like when I let them roam and interact."

"What about the part about using magic to store information though? Do you think it has something to your talent Skylight, like when you made that abacus?"

[Skylight Scintillate]

@Reality Check 

"Huh, that certainly is interesting," Skylight Scintillate said as he examined the book. "Yeah it does strangely similar to what I did. However, I guess it makes sense that out of all the ponies to create it, it would be Twilight Sparkle with her obsession of information, organization, and magic," Skylight Scintillate noted. "The spell does improve on a lot of my ideas though. The idea that by casting a very powerful spell at the very beginning, the spell is able to remember information between uses. My abacus calculator idea isn't bale to remember information between uses."

"Oh, my favorite part was when the book talked about being able to turn sound and music into information to be stored. If I could change the information, then I would be able to make all my songs I sing sound perfect! I will call it autotune!" Sweetie Belle said as she gestured with her hoof in the air. This got strange looks from Scootaloo and Apple Bloom. "I'm kidding!" Sweetie Belle admitted with a nervous laugh.

"Hmm, the book goes quite into depth about the uses for such magic, but I can't seem to find any information about how to cast this spell. The only thing it says about it is to see Starlight or Twilight," Skylight mumbled, scanning through the pages of the book but failing to find anything.

"Oh, maybe it's to make sure the information doesn't fall into the wrong hooves!" Sweetie Belle said, suddenly striking a ninja pose.

"When did Starlight say to meet her in her office again?" Skylight asked.

[Reality Check 627]

RC didn't care much when the CMC were tossing around ideas and explanations, since he didn't feel very interested in listening to it in the first place. Though when Skylight brought when to head back, they thought back to when they were talking to Starlight.

"I... think she said to meet her after we got the book right?" Scootaloo asked.

"Ah I think so, I don't remember telling us when exactly when we have to head back and meet her." Apple Bloom added.

"In that case, let's head back right now. We just read through the whole thing after all and we agreed to see her about how to do the spell right?" Reality suggested. "If we wanna ask her about that, I'd say now might be the best time."

[Skylight Scintillate]

"Yeah let's head to her office now. I hope she's still in school this late in the day," Skylight noted as he lead the way back to the school. Starlight was still at her desk when the group arrived. "Oh, you're all back. I expected you to be back sooner, but it doesn't really matter. I assume you all know how this spell is related to your cutie marks?" she said with a slight smirk, waving her hoof around in the air while using the magical tablet that Skylight saw from earlier. Skylight handed her the book and she quickly flipped through it. 

"Oh yeah, I remember this part! So all of you are going to need to charge up as much magic in your horns as possible. This spell is going to pull a lot of magic, and you need to provide it with enough magic without hurting yourself or the spell will fizzle out," Starlight explained. Skylight charged up his magic and noticed that all this magic was making all the unicorn horns glow very bright. For a spit second, it was a bit hard to contain all the magic in such a concentrated place, but then that was quickly replaced by a tugging sensation as the magic was shaped into all different kinds of complicated spells as it left his horn.

Just when he thought all his magic was going to be drained, the spells stopped, and he felt something vaguely familiar in his magical aurora. He opened his eyes and noticed that the spell had worked and he was levitating his own magical tablet. He smiled when he realized that it worked. 

"Thanks Starlight," he said. "No problem," Starlight replied.

"Yes, it worked, it worked!" Sweetie Belle cheered jumping up and down on the couch. She was also levitating her own magical tablet. "Starlight said I was too young for the amount of magic it needed, but it worked!"

"Yes, yes it did, and I'm interested in seeing the things that you do with this given your cutie marks," Starlight replied.

[Reality Check 627]

After hearing Starlight explain, RC lit up his horn just as the other unicorns did. As instructed, he charged up as much magic as he could to his horn. Thankfully, since he had practice with his kind of magic, he has a bit of endurance when charging his magic. Even still, Reality had a bit of a hard time charging more magic than he usually does, almost getting the feeling that the magic would be ripped out of him as well.

Fortunately, just when RC felt like he was gonna reach his limit, the spell was done and tablets was formed, one for each of them. He stared at it; fascinated by it as it was never like anything he's ever spawned before. Skylight thanked Starlight for teaching them while Sweetie is was jumping with glee.

"Honestly, now that you brought it up, it does kinda look like my cutie mark..." RC pointed out. "Still though, I think I can imagine that maybe this'll come in use every now and then."

[Skylight Scintillate 1,851]

"Well it's getting late. We should probably get going now." Skylight noted, glancing at the time feature on the magical tablet.

"Oh, one more thing before you leave. Tomorrow, Head Master Twilight wants your class to meet her at the amphitheater to start the day. She has something to tell you. And no, nopony is in trouble for your information," Starlight said. 

"Ok then, noted. Goodbye Starlight; See you tomorrow, Reality," Skylight said as he left the office.

The next day, Skylight Scintillate arrived at the amphitheater to notice a large crowd already there. If he could see Reality Check in the crowd, he would go sit by him. Else, he would save a spot for Reality. Skylight noted that just about every intelligent species that lived in or near Equestria could be seen in the crowd, from dragons to diamond dogs.

[Reality Check 627]

"Right, we should head back and rest for the day." RC responded. When Starlight told them that Twilight wanted their class (not because someone is in trouble), he was admittedly somewhat curious, but noted it nonetheless.

"Aight then, bye Starlight; Night Skylight." He said before leaving for his brother's place.

Next morning, Reality reached the amphitheater, just like Counsellor Starlight told them. Just as he got inside, RC immediately noticed the place was pretty crowded. It wasn't exactly easy to find his friend among all the other creatures in the crowd, but he wandered around, hoping to find, or at least, bump into Skylight.

[Skylight Scintillate]

Skylight noticed Reality Check and waved him over. The amphitheater quickly quieted down when everyone saw Twilight Sparkle walk onto the stage.

"Hello everypo-one, I'm Head Master Twilight Sparkle, and I have an exciting announcement to make. Here at this Friendship school, we believe that the best way to learn about friendship is to try to actually do it. That is why today, we are starting a new project. You all will go around Ponyville and complete friendship quests, which could be anything from helping ponies with any problems they might have (you will be surprised what you will find once you get them to open up), to spending time doing activities bonding with others. The citizens of Ponyville are aware of this project, so they will be expecting you. I think that this project has a lot of potential, and I cannot wait to see where this leads you all," Twilight said, which got a loud round of applause from the crowd when she finished. Twilight pulled up a large list of ideas to help the students get started. and the crowd quickly went up onto stage to see what options there were.

"Huh, well that certainly is an interesting idea, I certainly can't say I didn't expect this from a school of friendship though," Skylight remarked. "Come on, let's go see what options there are available," Skylight said, waving to Reality.

[Reality Check 627]

As soon as he saw Skylight waving at him, RC immediately when up to them and took a seat next to each other. Once everyone sat down in silence, Twilight, who arrived not too long after, began speaking.

She explained the latest project and how everyone will be heading around Ponyville completing tasks, almost like a scavenger hunt or role play on a much larger scale. Though the fact that they're objective is to interact and help ponies does make RC wonder about a few things. At the end of Twilight's speech, everyone have gave a round of applause before heading on stage and receiving a list for students to look through. One which provided them with options on where to start first.

"Same, I definitely didn't expect something this big from this school, let alone of any kind." Reality responded. before following him on stage. It was a long line towards the stage since many students were heading there at the same time, but after a bit of patience, they both got to the stage and got a list of tasks they could go through. "Maybe we should read this on our way out? It could save us time."

[Skylight Scintillate]

“Yeah, let’s do that,” Skylight agreed as they filed out of the amphitheater together. It was crowded, but the crowd quickly thinned out as they got further away from the amphitheater. 

“Let’s see, what do we have? Give a student who doesn’t live in Ponyville a tour, teach each other magical spells, fly stunts together, learn about and care for some creatures together, learn about and buck some apple trees together, shop the latest fashion trends together, bake something together, throw a ‘new project’ party, heh, I have a pretty good idea who wrote which idea,” Skylight laughed.

“Help somepony out with a-“ Skylight stopped. Someone was copying him. Skylight turned around and noticed a dragon and several other creatures right behind him. However, there were no other students in sight.

”with a friendship problem,” A dragon with a raspy voice finished. “Uh, what are we, babysitters?! Us dragons are so much better than that. Like if ponies really have that many friendship problems, then maybe they should go to friendship school, but don’t drag dragons into this! I still can’t believe that dragon Lord Ember made me do this. Let’s do something cool like wrestling or breathing fire or something,” the dragon complained.

”I don’t thinks that’s a good idea...” one of the other creatures spoke up.

Edited August 15, 2022 by Skylight Scintillate

[Reality Check 627]

As they left the formerly-crowded amphitheater, they looked through the lists of tasks. Needless to say, there are a lot of tasks with various differences. Some of them even look like they were written by the teachers themselves. "Heh, yeah I think we both have an idea on a lot of them." RC smiles, when they got to tasks like 'fly stunts together' and 'bake something together'.

When Skylight and Reality heard someone copy them, they both turned to see the creatures of different races. None of them appear students, yet a lot of them looks as if they were following the dragon that's in front of them.

As soon as RC heard them talk, he immediately didn't like them. RC hated pompous creatures, he always has. He's not afraid to let out a little anger, yet when it becomes too much for him, he tends to hide it. After a while of listening to them, RC ripped his the top of his list a little. Immediately, he turned to Skylight, trying to keep a straight face. "Hey Skylight? We should just leave. We have tasks to do after all." Reality said, wanting to get out of there before a red storm cloud can appear on his head.

[Skylight Scintillate]

At first, Skylight thought about helping them, but with the way Reality was annoyed at them, Skylight ended up feeling a bit suspicious of them. "Uh, why are you following us?" Skylight asked, gesturing to the fact that nopony else could be seen around them. 

"Uh, I'm going to find an abandoned castle in the middle of the Everfree Forest or something," the dragon grumbled as she flew off.

"Why were we following her in the first place?" one of the others (a kirin) asked. "She didn't seem like the kind to take friendship seriously, but we are all interested in learning it. We should probably try something on the list. Hmm, a tour of Ponyville sounds interesting, especially since we are new here. Is one of you from around here?"

"Uh yeah, I could do that, Reality, you said you were new here too. Do you think a tour of Ponyville would make sense? I mean, it seems like it was just the dragon that wasn't interested, so maybe we should help them?" Skylight suggested. "If not, we could do something else from the list too. What do you suggest?"

"Please show us around Ponyville?" the kirin turned to Reality and pleaded, giving him the filly eyes look.  A changeling next to him noticed and tramsformed into a filly, giving Reality the same look.

Edited August 20, 2022 by Skylight Scintillate

[Reality Check 627]

RC felt slightly better after the dragon left, though he can't help but feel a pit in his stomach when they did. He can't exactly place why, but it's something that he feels inside nonetheless.

When the kirin suggested showing them around Ponyville and Skylight volunteered to do so, he didn't hesitate to get to know his surrounding better. "Sure, I wouldn't mind a tour around." Reality said. "That and I'm pretty sure I have to since I'm gonna be staying here for a long while."

RC then turned to the kirin and changeling, who he didn't care that they gave him filly eyes. "Also you know you don't have to give me that look to come along right? All you have to do is ask. Plus I'm not from here so I wouldn't even know where to begin." RC replied. "So... where should we start?"

[Skylight Scintillate]

"Oh, ok then," the changeling said, transforming back to his original self. "Sorry, this whole friendship thing is new to me and I thought you didn't want to be around us, not just the dragon," the changeling admitted, rubbing the back of his head nervously. "Anyways, the tour right?"

"Oh, yeah, right this way," Skylight said, leading the group towards Ponyville. "Feel free to interrupt me at any time, I tend to ramble when doing things like this."

"Anyways, this is the castle of friendship, where Twilight Sparkle lives. You should be able to see either the town hall or the castle of friendship wherever your are in Ponyville, so it's quite hard to get lost knowing those two landmarks. Right now, we are in the uptown, or northside of Ponyville. This is the town's entertainment district. There it the ritz, the billiards bar, the theater, the bowling alley, And the town's hayburger. Over slightly closer to downtown is the bookstore. Now the interesting thing about Ponyville's hayburger is that on weekends, the restaurant hosts the comedy club. Whenever Pinkie Pie participates, everypony knows it's going to be a fun time. I'm pretty sure one of these buildings is the one for trivia trot too, which Twilight is very good at. Any questions before we head downtown?" Skylight asked.

[Reality Check 627]

RC and the others looked to Skylight as he started leading them across Ponyville. Usually he's able to recognize places that stick out more that the others, such as the town hall, castle of friendship, and bowling alley. Though places that blend with the surrounding are a bit easy to forget for him.

When Skylight asked if they had any question, Reality just shook his head, along with the changeling. Though the kirin did have a question in mind. "I have one," She started, "What's a ritz?"

[Skylight Scintillate]

"Honestly, I'm not really sure, but I'm pretty sure it has something to do with entertainment," Skylight Scintillate replied. Then, he walked towards the downtown part of Ponyville. 

"Here is the downtown area. This is where most of Ponyville's stores are, but there are plenty of homes here too. This is the town hall, with the river on one side and a large arc of stores on the other. There's the spa, which is a popular place for ponies to relax and unwind. There's the Jokes and Party Supply Store, which is frequently visited by Pinkie Pie. There's the Carousel Boutique, which is a clothing store where Rarity lives and works. There's Sugarcube Corner, which is  a bakery where Pinkie Pie lives and works. They also throw the best parties there. There's Flowers and Snacks, which is run by the flower trio. There's also The Quils & Sofas Store, The Toy Store, Pick of the Patch, Hay's Hardware, Mr. Breezy's Fan Shop, The Costume Shop, Cafe Hay, The Mayor's House, The Tea Shop, The China & Antique Shop, The Diamond in the Rough, Rich's Barnyard Bargains, The Lucky Clover and the marketplace," Skylight Scintillate explained, pointing each store from the area in front of the city hall.

[Reality Check 627]

Even though the kirin didn't get an answer, she simply shrugged as they all when back to touring. Once again, there was a ton of buildings in the downtown area, too many to count or remember in one tour. Though there are a few trends RC was able to notice: Pinkie tends to visit places that are about entertaining ponies or party supplies. This wasn't surprising as she was know all over Equestria as the party pony of the mane 6, it'd be pretty hard to find somepony that doesn't know her profession.

Having this many places however gave way for sparks pf inspiration, which Reality had every now and then when they pass each building. "For a place I've never been to, this place has a lot of buildings..." RC muttered under his breath.

"You can say that again" The changeling added

[Skylight Scintillate]

"Yeah other ponies think that Ponyville is a small town, and compared to other cities, it is, but I think it's more like a large town with lots going on constantly," Skylight explained. "Let's see, on the west side, we have the train station, the Golden Oak Library, which Tirek blew up, the retirement home and the hospital. On the south side, we have the school house and sweet apple acres along with some other farms. On the east side, well we have Fluttershy's cottage and some more farms. Like, there are a lot of farms around here. Even though Ponyville is a large town now, it still is a farming town. So that's about it." Skylight said, pointing in each direction from the town hall.

"Is there any particular place you want to visit and have me talk more in depth about?" Skylight Scintillate asked the others. "Reality, which cities have you visited before?"

[Reality Check 627]

"Yes, actually..." The kirin raised her hoof. "What do you mean by the Golden Oak Library blew up? Did something happened to it?"

"Yeah, I don't think I've heard about it either." The changeling added. "If it was back when I was still in the hive, then... well, that would explain it"

"The short version is that, it was collateral damage from a disaster that almost destroyed Equestria. I hope that answers it somewhat. But that aside..." RC turned to them. So after, he turned to Skylight. "Apart from Canterlot, since I pretty much live there, the other place I've been to is Manehatten. Though I only stayed there for a short while to visit my relatives."

[Skylight Scintillate]

"Yeah that's about right," Skylight added. "Well, let's see, why don't we visit Sugarcube Corner? That's on the list," Skylight suggested. He would lead the group over to Sugarcube Corner.

Sugarcube Corner looked like a building straight out of a fairy tale, with it's gingerbread roof and cupcake rotunda on top. In addition, Skylight could smell the fresh baked pastries there from a block away. Surprisingly, there were quite a few students inside, but nopony in line to order. Skylight would step up to the counter and ring the bell.

Pinkie Pie popped out of the kitchen in an instant. "Hey there, Skylight, Reality... What brings you to Sugarcube Corner? Do you want to order any pastries? Or do you all want to do some baking with me? I hadn't have any students take me up on that offer yet but I promise it's tons of fun!" Pinkie Pie said.