Becoming One With The Beat: Prodigy

Chapters

Prologue
Chapter 1: Culture Shock
Chapter 2: Settling In
Chapter 3: First Day
Chapter 4: Shocking, Isn't It?
Chapter 6: Branching Out
Chapter 7: Not So Fast
Chapter 8: Rarity Saves The Day!
Chapter 9: Nth Base
Chapter 5: Put Your Money Where Your Muzzle Is

Prologue

I guess I should clear up some misconceptions towards cutie marks before I go into what I'm sure you all want to hear.

I got my cutie mark by complete accident. Well, if by accident you mean unintended. I got it back when I was about to graduate kindergarten. The only thing I remember about it was standing up to some losers who were picking on this kid for... Whatever he was doing. Now that I think about it, I don't know if they even had a reason for bullying him.

Anyways, I guess I just got mad with them and created a lightning storm that covered half of Ponyville. Scared those jerks half to death. The guy and I were laughing all the way home on the bus. Some ponies tried to play it off by saying that a pegasus pony got mad and kicked a cloud too hard, but that wouldn't explain why I noticed a picture of blue crackling lightning on my butt when I got home that day.

At first, I thought it had something to do with my personality. Then, my dad told me that I might have the same affinity for magic that he does which leads me to the first misconception.

Cutie marks don't determine somepony's destiny. I got my cutie mark seven years ago and back before everything happened at C.A.A.M, I still didn't know what I wanted to do for a living. It's fun to believe that you get your cutie mark and *bam*! You automatically know what to do with your life.

Not me. Or at least, not until I went to C.A.A.M.

The second misconception about cutie marks is that they're straightforward and easy to understand. Nope. My dad's cutie mark is a bunch of weird alien symbols and he still hasn't told me what any of them mean except for one or two. I think that's because he doesn't know what they mean either.

Oh! I almost forgot.

My name's Angel Bolt. My parents named me Angel because my dad and my grandpa used to call my mom that a lot. I didn't get the second half of my name until that cutie mark incident happened. Until then, my name was just Angel.

Everyone else my age would probably whine about having terrible parents and a terrible this and a terrible that. God, I can't stand those ponies. I really can't complain. I have two of the best parents in the world and we never have to worry about money because my dad's really tight with royalty.

He told me about all the times he risked his life to save the princesses and my mom, but the fact that he's not really from Equestria took me the longest time to wrap my head around. He's cool and I love him to death even though he tends to be really quiet sometimes.

My mom is my ultimate role model. She's chill and laid back just like my dad but she can get really crazy sometimes. According to my dad, she’s not as energetic as she used to be. She used to make some killer music back in the day and she still does now, just not as much.

I listen to some every so often; it's not really my thing.

I also live with my auntie Octy. She's not really my aunt, but she looked over me a lot when my mom and dad were both busy so she’s almost like a second mom to me. She started teaching me good manners and etiquette at age six. I'm glad she did because it’s likely that I wouldn't have learned anything like that from anypony else in the house.

I guess if I were to begin somewhere, I'd start my story after I finished high school. Not because high school wasn't important, but...

Okay, high school wasn't all that important to me.

They didn't really teach me anything useful, you know? The only thing I've ever been interested in is shock magic ever since I got my cutie mark. Just thinking of all the sorts of things electricity can do makes me have goosebumps.

But did they teach me anything about shock magic? No. Even after my dad came up and talked to the teacher about it. They just said "We don't currently have a class that has that wide of a scope."

So, I ended up learning a bunch of crap that isn't really important except for all those physics classes that taught about neutrons and electrons and positive and negative charges and all that stuff. Like I said, I'm fascinated by everything electricity. I had a couple meteorology classes after my dad... Negotiated with them, but they never really got around to the specifics of lightning.

After that, my dad kept pushing me to go to some boring academy. I looked at all the curriculum choices they had and none of them had to do with magic or shock magic. Sure, they had stuff like electrical engineer and advanced physics and meteorologist, but I wanted to do something more worthwhile with my magic. I didn't really know what I wanted to do for the rest of my life, but I knew that I wanted to learn more about my talent.

Money wasn't the issue. My dad's really friendly with Princess Celestia and she sends him a sack of royals every month. I just didn't want to waste four years of my life doing something that didn't matter to me. I still remember what my mom told me way back when I started high school.

"Sweetie, I went to music school for four years when I was a filly and I didn't learn a single thing that helped me in my career. The only thing I don't regret doing there was meeting Octavia."

Even my dad had some things to say about it. Apparently, he was going to some sort of college before he got zapped here to Equestria. He doesn't talk about it much, but when he does, he always has this look on this face that says:

"Dear Luna, please don't make me remember that shit."

Anyways, I knew that old ordinary colleges weren't for me and I wasn't really planning on joining one. It was saddening knowing that there wasn't really a place for me to go to learn more about my particular set of interests.

That is, until my dad brought up C.A.A.M.

Author's Note

Thanks for reading the first entry of Becoming One With The Beat: Prodigy! Got some good things in store for you guys! Stay tuned~~

If there are any grammatical or spelling errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 1: Culture Shock

How was my life after high school?

Boring.

Nearly everything I did every day since ended up being boring me in no time. Maybe it was because I just had nothing I was specifically required to do anymore, leaving me purposeless and without motivation or a clear goal.

I let myself wishfully think that one day I'd have something to do much more worthwhile than laying in my bed and listening to the latest album of Colt Sweat. However, after throwing away the letter of denial for the fifth and final college within a hundred mile radius, I found it harder and harder to wishfully think anymore.

It didn't matter. I didn't really wanna join those colleges, anyway.

Sighing, I popped a few sparks in the air above my face. It was another habit I formed when I got bored. Mom would always ask me to stop since it was a little loud even though her room was on the other side of the house. Thankfully, she wasn't here to stop me.

I still wasn't used to all the white in the house. Nearly every wall and every corridor was painted white. The ceilings were white, the cabinets were white... The abundance of windows in the house made it worse since it lit up every white thing it touched.

I remembered my old house growing up and how relatively small and cozy it was compared to this. My parents, aunty Octy and I moved here a few years ago. The princesses said they wanted to keep my dad "safe" and thought it would be best to move them way out here on the outskirts of Ponyville.

Don't get me wrong, I love my house. Not many girls my age get to live like I do, mostly because they don't have a dad as important as mine.

I stopped my sparking and stared at the ceiling for a while. I had just accidentally reminded myself of one of the most annoying and depressing ideas that I had stuck in my mind since as long as I could understand it.

Nopony really knew me because of... Well, me. All they talked about was "Alex's kid" this and "Alex's daughter" that. I didn't really mind and I never called them out on it, but it began hurting my confidence after a while.

But, what was I supposed to do? The only thing I knew I wanted to do was learn more about the kind of magic that I liked to use, and no college I applied for had a curriculum that had anything to do with that.

I bobbed my hoof up and down on the end of my bed in sync with the beat of the song that was doing a swell job of drowning out most of my doubts about my future. Even with my eyes closed, the sun-illuminated white walls seemed to drill into my corneas, which was the only thing reminding me that I was still awake.

"ANGEL!" I heard a voice suddenly yell, managing to cut through my dense headphones.

I took them off and opened my eyes before seeing what my dad was freaking out about. My black mane with my single bolt-like blue streak had somehow managed to sweep in front of my face, so I pushed it out of the way so I could see. I liked to keep it like my mom's hair except for a short ponytail in back, and just like her mane, it had a bad habit of getting in my face at times.

There were sparks of electricity going everywhere across the room making extremely loud noises as they zipped back and forth.

Losing control of my magic was only something that happened when I wasn't aware that I was using it. It often happened when I was doing thing like I was earlier. This time, though, it was probably because I got a little frustrated about the whole "Alex's daughter" thing.

It didn't take much effort to stop the semi-chaos, even though my mischievousness wanted to make it keep going.

"Heheh. Sorry, dad..." I sat up in my bed.

I wasn't really expecting him to scold or punish me since he never was the parent who did that. I never got in much trouble, but when I did, it was usually my mom who handled punishment. I guess you could say that I was a good kid and I didn't have to deal with that too often, though.

"It's okay... I just don't want you to hurt yourself." He calmed down a bit as he turned to walk away, but he paused and came back in.

"Yeah?" I asked, hesitating before putting my headphones back on.

"Are you... Okay?"

The way he asked confused me a little. He seemed unsure... As if he knew something that I didn't.

"Yup. Just getting bored, I guess."

"Alright... Oh, by the way, I found this academy in Canterlot..." He said as he pulled out a brochure. "Canterlot Academy for Advanced Magic."

As you probably guess, my ears perked up once I heard the name of the school.

"I'll leave it here if you're interested."

He tossed it onto my desk on the other side of the room and it slid a little before stopping when it bumped into my lamp.

"Don't blow your ears out with that music, Angel." His voice echoed through the hall outside my door as he walked away.

"'Kay!"

I turned the volume up on my headphones and closed my eyes, but not before getting up and retrieving the tiny piece of printed paper sitting on my desk. The song that came up next wasn't my favorite, but it was alright since I was more interested in what I was holding in my hooves.

There was a big "C.A.A.M." on the top of the front page in a font that looked old and fancy. It had a picture of the academy below it. I was a bit confused since the architecture looked so similar to the royal castle. I thought at first that it was located inside the castle, which made me a bit nervous at first, but I could tell by the lack of guard ponies around it that it was different.

I opened the first page and it looked just like any other spiel to get ponies to sign up. Pictures of ponies smiling and having a good time, a bullet list of "core values" or some crap... They conveniently left out the part about how much it would cost. That didn't surprise me.

Other than that, it looked too... Preppy.

I could picture in my mind going there and being assaulted by sassy vicious goody-two-shoes "my dad is really important and he'll sue you if you look at me the wrong way" type mares every single day. Then again, that wasn't all too different than high school; I suppose I was used to it by then.

The only thing keeping me from throwing the thing in the trash was the name of the place itself.

"Advanced Magic, huh?"

I flipped through the rest of the pages, hoping that they'd have a list of the different curricula they had. Of course, they conveniently left that golden piece of information out as well.

I sighed and fell back onto my back on the bed.

I guess I could send them a letter and ask... Ugh. That would take weeks, though...

I thought to myself, turning off the music since it was getting in the way of my thinking. The particular song that was playing wasn't doing it for me, anyway.

"Oh, and guess what?" Dad's voice cut through the silence suddenly and I looked down to see his head peeking around the corner.

"Princess Twilight is the headmistress there. She's the one who told me about it."

A princess is the headmistress?!

My eyes widened; I couldn't help but to feel a bit shocked.

"That's not all-" He leaned against the door frame to my room; I knew he could tell that I was interested. "I told her you were looking to learn more about shock magic and she said that there was a curriculum for that as well."

I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I was afraid that she was maybe trying to sell her product too high, but a princess wouldn't do that... Right?

I was too surprised to speak, so he continued.

"Well? What'cha think? Who'd be better to teach you the extents of magic than the element of magic herself?"

It was unlikely that she'd teach me herself, but her being at the head of the school was definitely promising. I kept trying to think of reasons why it wouldn't work out, but I knew that I wouldn't get a setup of this magnitude anyplace else. I could handle stupid classmates and teachers if it meant learning more about shock magic.

"Angel? Hello?" Dad grinned at my obvious awe of what he just told me.

I rose up from my bed; I couldn't help but smile once I snapped out of my daydreaming.

"When do I start?!"

Nine months.

That's how long I'd be away from home. It took me a while to come to grips with it; I had been going to bed at home nearly every day of my life.

I guess dad forgot to mention it earlier, but since the school was so far away, it was more feasible for me to stay in their dorm in Canterlot. Of course, both my parents really wanted me to stay home, but the three hour train ride there and back every day would start to get exhausting after a while.

Leaving the house and boarding the train for the first time was the hardest part for my parents.

"Please make sure you write to us, Angel... We're going to miss you a lot..." My mom was stable enough not to cry, but it was obvious that she was a little emotional about the whole thing.

I was at the Ponyville Train Station, a place I rarely visited. Surprisingly enough, it wasn't as crowded as I thought it’d be.

There wasn't any place to sit and we got there thirty minutes early, so we were forced to stand on the old worn boards that held the station up.

"I know, mom. I will."

"And just be sure to talk to Twilight if anything bad happens. I'm sure she'd be happy to help you out." My dad added in as he rubbed my shoulders; they were so achy from standing for so long... The two heavy saddlebags full of clothes and other random stuff didn't help, either.

I had only met her once or twice, but she acted as if I were her best friend when she did. It was awkward; it felt so... Wrong... To have such an intimate and informal relationship with somepony of her status. I always called her "ma'am" and "Your Highness" just to be safe, but she always corrected me when I did.

Either way, it was nice to know that there would at least be one pony there that actually cared about my existence.

Not many ponies are ever excited to go to school, but I had to say that I was. I was anxious to see just how extensive magic could go. No more introductory beginners spells, and no more training books for ten-year-olds....

No. From that point, I was determined to do what I wanted with my own talent and take it as far as I wanted to without the damned bureaucracy getting in my way.

~Forty Minutes Later...~

I could hear the train coming from literally a mile away; it blew its horn several times to let everypony know.

It was a lot longer and bigger than I expected it to be. I had only ridden the train once, but I was far too little to remember all the specifics.

A cloud of steam and smoke covered the station as it pulled in and it took several moments for it to clear. When it finally did, there was already a tall stallion standing next to an open car door with a fancy blue cap on and a golden chain watch in his hoof.

"That's you, sweetie. Be careful, okay? You can handle anything they throw at you." My dad encouraged me and kissed my head. I smiled, embarrassed.

"And just *zap* ‘em if they piss 'ya off, okay?" Mom said as they both hugged me tight. "And don't be shy if you find any cute girls there!"

"Mom!"

"Just teasing." She added, but gave me a wink to let me know that she really wasn't teasing. I rolled my eyes at her and grinned.

"All aboard for Canterlot Downtown!" The train stallion yelled out and half the ponies that were waiting there with us began piling in.

"Bye, Angel! Love you!"

"Love you too!" I shouted back to them both as I disappeared behind the smoke cloud and into the train.

I expected it to be kinda grungy and dirty inside from multiple years of abuse, but it was actually pretty tidy. In fact, it seemed as if I was in the first class car. That couldn't be, though, since that was all the way in front and the one I hopped onto was midway through the train.

It wasn't difficult finding a seat. Everypony filled up the first class car, so I almost had this one all to myself.

I picked the closest one to my right and sat down, scooting over to the window and putting my two saddlebags on the floor beneath my hind hooves.

It felt nice to sit down after so long, and the cushions on the seats were actually pretty decent.

I looked to my right and saw my parents waving at me as the train shuddered into motion. The windows were apparently not tinted; they could obviously see me clearly.

Despite my nervousness, I smiled and waved back until they were out of my field of view.

The view was dull at first, but it got better as we made our way into the countryside.

The door behind me opened abruptly. It was the only noise I heard other than the train engine for a long time since the car I was riding in was relatively empty, thankfully.

Whoever came in was obviously out of breath and when she walked down the aisle, she sat right across from me on opposite row of seats.

We both made obligatory eye contact.

Her egg yolk colored fur complimented the rays of sunlight shining on her. She had brilliant blue eyes, too, which made my dark brown ones look cruddy and mundane.

"Hi." I smiled, trying to be as friendly as possible since she would be only company on the trip there. I reached into my bag and pulled out my headphones to listen to music.

"Hey! Are you going to C.A.A.M too?" She responded way friendlier than I did.

I rested the headphones on my lap for the moment since it would've been rude to talk with them on.

"Oh. Uh, yeah."

"Me too! I'm so nervous... I heard it was huge!" She reminded me a little of Pinkie Pie: one of dad's friends. Except, she wasn't nearly as crazy and bouncy.

"Heheh. Yeah." I admit I could've been more talkative, but I always had a shyness problem with new ponies.

She got up from her seat and sat next to me in mine.

"Sorry. Lightweight. Nice to meet ya!" She held out her hoof and I shook it, enjoying the friendliness.

Her mane hung down when she leaned forward and I got of a whiff of whatever kind of shampoo she most recently used. It smelled like coconut which complimented its beautiful angelic white color. It was tied up in a ponytail in the back, but she let the front part of it out which made it somewhat difficult to see her eyes at times. It was a lot like how mine was styled, but a little neater and less wild than mine.

I almost wanted to sneak in another whiff... It was nearly intoxicating.

Her cutie mark was a large grey weight that had "1 ton" written in black within the boundaries. It was hard to guess what her talent was.

Like I said earlier: Just because you have a cutie mark doesn't mean your life purpose has anything to do with what it is.

You're probably wondering why I was being so observant about her appearance, so I'll get this out of the way before I continue. You might've picked up on it when my mom made that comment about girls back at the station.

I like girls. Yeah, I know, you can call me a dyke all you want, I don't care. I'm used to it by now. All I know is that I've never really been attracted to colts in the same way as nearly every other girl out there. I start feeling flutters in my chest whenever I see a beautiful mare the same way a straight girl would when she sees a handsome stallion, and I was feeling that a little when Lightweight came to sit next to me. It was obvious that she was more beautiful than a lot of the other mares I tended to meet back in Ponyville.

I've been in a few relationships with mares before, but none of them really worked out. A lot of girls nowadays just say they're lesbian so they can get more attention from the guys, and I was able to pick out the ones just labeling themselves for the attention as soon as I started getting serious with them.

Also, if you're perverted enough to want to know... I'm usually the dominant one. I guess I get that from my mom's assertiveness.

Anyways... Where was I...?

"Angel Bolt. Same." I started to warm up to her and moved closer to the window so she would have more room. I knew I was being a bore to talk to so far, so I chose to not let the following silence hang for too long.

"What'cha going to study for there?" I put my headphones back in my bag; it seemed as if I wouldn't need them.

"Oh, this and that. I really hope I can learn more about telekinesis magic, though."

Sounds kinda like me.

I sat quietly and listened.

"I help my dad at his construction sites lifting equipment and stuff. He said that I could lift more than most of his employees, so he insisted that I learn more about it."

"So I guess Lightweight is..."

She chuckled. "Yeah. Kinda annoying, right? All my co-workers joke about it, but I don't care. I know they know I can lift ten times my weight."

Lightweight crossed her hooves to her chest and gave a "Hmph." out of pride. I always appreciated a sense of self-confidence in somepony; I guess that's why I took such a quick liking to her.

"Ah, sorry for rambling." She giggled at herself. "What about you?"

Thank goodness she didn't just keep talking about herself...

"W- Well..." I couldn't really think of anything noteworthy. "I'm kinda the same; I'm going to learn about shock magic."

"Ooh... Shock magic...? I don't hear about many unicorns interested in something like that. What do ya wanna do with it? Fight? Work...?"

"I dunno. That's another reason I'm going to C.A.A.M, I guess."

The train went over a bump and it made us bounce up slightly before going into a dark underground tunnel. The dim lights on its inside flashed by us as we continued to talk.

"That's fine if you don't know, don't worry." Lightweight put her hoof on me to reassure me. I couldn't tell whether to take it as supportive or patronizing. I gave her the benefit of the doubt.

"Thanks... Small world, huh?"

She giggled more. "I know, right?! I hope we get the same classes together; that would be awesome!"

I didn't follow up with anything else since I couldn't really think of anything. I wasn't that great at conversations.

The tunnel ended abruptly and I had to squint my eyes to adjust for the blinding orange sunset over the horizon.

"So... How are your parents like? O- Oh, I'm sorry, do you have parents? I didn't mean-"

I couldn't help but grin at her little airhead moments. I could tell we were already set on being good friends.

"Nah, I have parents. My mom is Vinyl Scratch; she used to make music way back when. My dad..."

I wasn't sure whether or not it was a good idea to bring up who my dad was since everypony everywhere went goo-goo when I spilled the beans about him.

Lightweight cocked her head to the side and gave me a funny look, probably wondering why I was sitting there like a buffoon and not saying anything.

Why not? She doesn't look like somepony who'd take it the wrong way.

Before I could follow up, though...

"Wait..."

I could almost see the gears turning in her head.

"Scratch... You wouldn't happen to be..."

"Yeah. Just... Please don't make a scene, okay?" I whispered and gestured her to lower her voice. I looked around to make sure that nopony else noticed.

Her eyes widened and her hooves covered her mouth.

"Oh goodness gosh!" She exclaimed in a hushed tone. "I didn't know they had a daughter!"

The only reason I didn't stop talking to her after she said that was because I knew that it wasn't her fault for not knowing.

"Yeah..."

I tried to keep my mood up, but I couldn't help but feel a little unimportant whenever people said they knew me because of my dad instead of me. My self-confidence balloon was quickly deflating.

The promise of making a name for myself at C.A.A.M. was the only motivation I had so far. It was too late to turn back even if I wanted to.

"So, like... You got earth blood in you, don't 'cha?"

Lightweight poked my shoulder to tease me and it kinda helped cool off my internal stress.

"Heheh. Yeah, I guess so, if you wanna think of it that way." I looked back out the window. The sun had turned a beautiful red and half of it was already hiding behind the horizon.

"So, you're from Ponyville?" It was a stupid question since she got on the same train that I did. I was just trying to avoid awkward silences.

"Eeyup. I'm more on the outskirts, though. Can't stand being right in the middle of town."

Sounds just like me...

"Same here." I said with a smile. It was odd learning just how many things we had in common.

"Cool! Hey, you think we'll be roommates?! Omigosh that would be so fun!" She *squee*d and giggled.

I couldn't help but notice how cute she was. I had a feeling she made a lot of other girls jealous.

"Hope so. Better with you than some schmuck I barely know." I said, still staring out the window. I hoped it didn't come off as insulting, but she didn't seem like the kind of mare to take offense that easily.

I could barely see the outline of Canterlot sitting on the side of the mountain. The specific buildings weren't distinguishable since the light was dimming by the second, but I knew we were getting close.

"We could help each other study since we'll be in the same classes... Do whatever we want... Gosh, it'll feel so nice being away from my parents and having my own place for once."

"Yeah, same here. My parents are pretty lax, but I don't really get to do many things on my own very often since they're so protective of me."

"Well, I don't blame them! You're a very important-"

I put a hoof to her muzzle gently. It cut her off, but I hoped it wasn't rude.

"Oh... S- Sorry... Forgot."

I couldn't help but to fall asleep with my head leaning against the train window for the rest of the way despite Lightweight's energetic conversations. She didn't try waking me, though, which means that she was a considerate mare as well.

I appreciated that.

I woke drowsily to the jolt of the train hitting the brakes and it was completely dark outside the window save for a few street lights lined up beside the track.

A large yawn escaped my mouth and I instinctively stretched my legs, feeling them crack a little from stiffness. My eyes were still half open when I sat back up and looked over at Lightweight, who had dozed off as well. Her head was leaning against my side and I blushed a little from the unintended intimacy.

Her fur is so soft...

"Hey..." I tried gently shaking her shoulder.

It probably wasn't enough, but I didn't want to be rude.

Nothing.

I tried a little harder this time.

"Lightweight... We're here."

Still, nothing.

Looks like her name doesn't reflect her sleeping habits, either...

The lights outside started getting less far apart and I figured we'd be stopping soon.

I had an idea.

I reached down into my saddlebag and looked for the chocolate energy bar that my mom packed for me. I didn't really need it, but I was glad that it was in there now.

I took it out and unwrapped it, already smelling the strong aroma of cocoa and caramel. It was a silly idea, but it was more subtle and polite than shaking her more.

Tactfully, I put it under her nose and held it for a moment.

Almost as if on cue, her body began to shift around and she groaned softly.

Luna... It actually worked!

"H- Huh... Are we there?" She rubbed her eyes and sat up. "And what's that smell?"

"Mhmm. And, uh... Nothing..." I hid the bar back in my pack before she was awake enough to notice.

I was glad that I was sitting back up when the train engaged the brakes harder or else my head would've collided with the seat in front of me.

"Whaaah!" Lightweight fell forward and I caught her since she was too drowsy to catch herself.

"Geez, where's the seat belts on these things when you need them?" I complained as I helped her back up.

"T- Thanks..." Lightweight's cheeks turned a shade redder and her eyes averted me.

Was she just embarrassed about falling over? Or, was she just delirious from recently waking up? I couldn't tell why she seemed so shy all of a sudden.

There were a few moments of silence as the train completely stopped and we waited for someone to tell us to get off. I looked out the window and there was only one way to describe what was outside.

Culture shock.

"Whoa!" I couldn't contain my curiosity and awe of such a drastically new environment.

My eyes instantly magnetized towards the tall buildings. They were ten times taller than any building I'd remembered seeing. Some of them were so tall that I couldn't even look high enough to see their tops due to the window only being so wide.

The ponies there were all... Different, too. Some looked just like me, but most could simply be labeled as gaudy. It was like they were constantly trying to out-do themselves with how big their jewelry was and how crazy their clothes were.

Lightweight and I giggled a little and one particular mare that walked right in front of our window wearing a hat that looked like it had come out of a crane's nest.

We heard the doors open abruptly followed by the same conductor shouting out from the front of the train car.

"Downtown Canterlot!"

Author's Note

If there are any grammatical or spelling errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 2: Settling In

"C.A.A.M. first years, form a line here!" An elizabethan-style voice rang out through the crowd to our left right after hopping off the train and I saw an important-looking older mare standing on a two-step high pedestal. There were already three long lines in front of her.

As we found the shortest line and got in, I couldn't help but notice the diversity of everypony around me.

The fact that they were all unicorns was probably the only thing they all had in common. Some groups looked like they were from farmland with their calloused hooves and un-kept manes while others looked like they were born and raised right here in Canterlot.

"Line one will follow instructor-"

"Hey, what's this line for?" Lightweight whispered to me. Her eyes were glued to the tall buildings too. I couldn't really blame her since she was from the same area as me.

"Dunno... Maybe class assignments?" I tried to look over everypony to see what was going on, but I was too short to see over some of the taller stallions.

"Oh! Good thing we're in the same line, then!"

"And line three will-" The older mare continued and pointed her stick looking thing at us.

"Hey, that's us!" Lightweight whispered again in a hushed yet excited tone.

Suddenly, our line started moving quickly and I could see a middle-aged pony in a suit jacket leading us from the front. He had a strange mane style that swirled into a ponytail in the back; half of it was black and half was silver. Then again, strange mane styles were commonplace in Canterlot, so I wasn't sure why I thought it so odd.

Everypony in front of us and the few that were behind us were chatting quite loudly and it was starting to get on my nerves. I was wondering when the stallion in front would put a stop to it, but he never did. Ponies had to talk over other ponies to be heard and other ponies had to talk over those ponies to be heard and eventually, I was starting to get a headache.

I was glad that I had Lightweight with me to make me feel guilty if I lost my temper and told everypony to shut up, otherwise I probably would have.

"Get a load of this place, huh?!" She leaned close to my ear to talk instead of just raising her voice.

"I know, right?" I said, even though the chattering was making me lose focus.

I looked up and there were tall buildings with roofs that penetrated deep into the night sky. The farther up I traced them, the more they blended into the dark blue of the atmosphere to the point where they were indistinguishable from it save for the few lights in the windows on their very tops.

There was an abundance of activity going on at the ground as well. Countless fancy restaurants and clothing shops lined the streets left and right and tons of important looking mares and stallions were filtering through them nonstop. I couldn't help but to take everything in because of how different it was from Ponyville. Back there, all business stopped after sundown. I dunno if it was because it was founded mainly as a farming community or what, but Canterlot certainly seemed to be just as lively after dark as it was before dark.

Smells of fine dining filtered through the restaurants and out into the streets, making me feel hungry. I wanted so badly to just sit down and munch on a nice hot corn dog with mustard, but I had a feeling such "barbaric" types of food wouldn't be found here. I hoped to Luna that there would be some sort of food at the dorms for us.

I took a peek inside some of the clothing stores along the way as we curved left and right through busy cobblestone streets towards what I assumed was C.A.A.M. Lightweight and I shared some looks of excitement when we passed by a few clothing stores that looked fun to shop in.

I tried my best not to be a typical frilly girl, but I guess that part of me was genetic by nature.

Ninety percent of them were filled with the same kind of weird outlandish outfits that everypony was wearing around us, but there were a few diamonds in the rough with more toned down selections that looked worthwhile to visit when we had some down time.

I was beginning to notice, as my hooves got more and more sore from trotting on the streets for so long, that said shops and restaurants were starting to thin out in quantity. I had a feeling that we were getting close because the architecture of the buildings was beginning to look more fancy and intricate. Smoothed stone became white brick and concrete, and I saw more and more buildings with royal flags flying above them.

"Looks like we'll have plenty to do when we're bored and don't have classes, huh?" Lightweight leaned over and whispered again. I thought that I was feeling culture shock, but she looked like a filly in a candy shop compared to me. Her eyes were wide with awe and her muzzle was smiling nearly the whole way.

I couldn't get over how cute she was at times. When I wasn't looking at the new atmosphere around me, I often caught myself stealing glances at her. Thankfully, she didn't notice me even a single time because she was so affixed to everything else. The lights from the street lamps lit up her mane gorgeously and made her blue eyes sparkle in a way that made me jealous in several aspects.

I knew she was taken. There was no doubt that somepony so beautiful and friendly had already drawn the attention of every colt within her five mile radius wherever she went. As the streets started to lose more and more of its tourist spots the further we went, I found myself getting bored; I was daydreaming about how it'd be if I was able to land a relationship with somepony like her. It was wishful thinking, but it was still fun to consider it only for a moment or two.

I suddenly felt a gentle tap on my side and my ears perked up as I came out of my thoughts.

"Hey, there are the dorms!" Lightweight held a hoof out past my face and towards the tall majestic castle-like buildings that were spread out before me. At first glance, it looked like some sort of royal courthouse or something.

"Wow... Really? Those are our dorms?!" I tried to whisper back, but I was too surprised to keep it down to just a whisper.

"Yeah! I overheard some guy behind me saying that the senior dorms are way bigger, though."

"Geez... How could it be bigger than that?!"

After we crossed a huge courtyard with a statue of Princess Twilight sitting in the center, we finally arrived at the front doors. Half our group split up and I saw all the stallions going to the building to the left of the one we were walking right towards. The only thing I could see above everypony's head in front of me was a golden plaque above the door that read: "C.A.A.M. Freshmen 3 G". Going off of my intuition, since there were two other large lines that split off from our line at the train station, there were two more buildings just like this for freshmen. I guess it was then that I realized just how many unicorns just like me were enrolled in this academy.

As expected, we waited outside for what seemed like no reason at all as bugs nipped at our legs. Mine were so achy and worn out that I was considering sitting down on the wet grass beneath me until the doors opened, but merely seconds before I was committed to doing so, they finally did so. Cheers followed as we all piled in and a fresh wave of cool air swept over us while we made our way through the doors.

Our mouths both dropped and we both looked up in a similar fashion to when we first arrived off the train. Staircases spiraled up either side of the gigantic elegant room, branching off to each one of the six floors that were all visible from the main lobby. A huge chandelier hung in the middle with thousands of tiny crystals dangling from it in a circular pattern.

Before we could fully take it in though, the stallion in front spoke up and announced that we were to split up by first name to each floor where we'd get our room number. The well-formed lines quickly turned into a group of scattered ponies as they all went left and right to find their rooms.

"Oh, no!" Lightweight said with a troubled set of eyes looking right at me. I quickly came to realize what she was worried about. "That means we won't get the same room..."

My heart sank.

Wait that means... Damn. If we can't room together that means whatever shot I have at her is kaput- Wait, what am I saying?! Sweet Celestia, Angel, stop thinking like that!

"You think they'll make a compromise if we ask?" She asked me after I snapped out of my thoughts yet again.

"I dunno. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. Come on."

I took point and sneaked through the unorganized group of ponies with Lightweight closely following behind me. I had to, as politely as I could, nudge some of them out of the way since they had a bad case of standing still in the most inconvenient spot and chatting.

God, that annoys me.

We finally got to the stallion in front, and I had a better chance to observe him now that we were five feet apart. Like I saw back at the station, his mane was curled in a fancy way that was similar to other middle aged stallions in show-biz. He had a goatee that was a bit scruffy on the edges, hinting that it hadn't been shaved for several days. Overall, he looked like a nice enough dude; he was smiling at the ponies that he was talking to before he got there.

"Excuse me, sir!" Lightweight interjected even though the stallion was mid-sentence with somepony else.

He simply held his hoof up, gesturing for her to wait while he finished chatting with one of the other freshmen. We both gave each other nervous looks.

"Terribly sorry. What is it you need?" He spoke in a raspy yet refined tone as the other mare trotted off.

"W- Well... My friend and I were hoping to room together, but our names start with 'A' and 'L'... So..."

It was obvious that she was nervous talking to him. She probably should've let me handle it since I could've been more assertive.

"Hmm... I see. Hold on a moment." He took out his flip pad and flipped through several pages. "We typically don't re-assign classmates since it would cause a lot of inconveniences with other ponies... What are your names?"

"I'm Lightweight-" She held a hoof to her chest and then pointed at me. "And this is Angel Bolt."

I was hoping he wouldn't recognize my name because of my dad, but part of me wouldn't have minded since it could change his mind.

Sure enough, his eyes widened and he stared at me for a few seconds, clearing his throat quickly to regain his composure.

"L- Let me have a word with the dorm manager; please excuse me."

I felt a nudge on my shoulder and Lightweight was giving me a mischievous yet happy grin.

"There you go! Maybe he'll let us room together because you're so important!"

"Because my dad is important... Not me..."

I admit, I could've been more cheerful, but it was starting to get to me like it always did.

"Oh... Um, sorry..."

"No, no. It's fine. That's why we're both here, right? To make names for ourselves?" I gave her a reassuring smile to make up for my depressing response earlier.

Her cute smile returned to her face.

"Mhmm!"

The stallion came back rather quickly and he had a different sort of look on his face this time. It was like he was scared or something, but I didn't know why. I mean, it wasn't like I was gonna sue him or anything.

"We've... Made some arrangements for the two of you to room together this semester. I'm terribly sorry about the inconvenience, Miss Scratch."

He handed us our room keys and a little brochure.

"And please give my most sincerest of thanks to your father. All of the staff here at C.A.A.M. are-"

"Okay, will do. Thanks."

I had to cut him off. It didn't take much to make me sick and tired of the same old "Omigod your dad is so cool tell him I said hi" stuff. There was line where I simply couldn't stand it or else I'd either fall into a depressive void or go on a burning angry rant.

My irritation was partially caused by my hunger, too.

I looked closely at the key he handed me as I trotted away, but not before giving him a quick smile of appreciation to make sure he didn't think I was being completely rude. Even though I was in this for myself, I still understood the importance of not giving my family a bad reputation.

I let out an exhausted sigh as we made our way up the stairs. Our room was 527, so it was most likely on the fifth floor.

Even though it annoyed me, I couldn't help but to feel guilty for slightly losing my temper about what the stallion said, especially when Lightweight was standing there watching it all.

"Sorry about that... I try not to get worked up about it all, but-"

"It's totally fine. I can understand why you'd feel that way."

For some reason, just hearing her voice made me feel better.

She continued after giving me a gentle teasing push on my shoulder. "Just be sure not to snap if somepony really important does that, Miss Grumpy-Butt!"

"Yeah, yeah... I'll try." I rolled my eyes and smiled. She giggled cutely as we passed up the fourth floor.

"Five-two-four, five-two-five..." I mumbled as I walked past the doors. Even the hallways were extravagant. The soft off-white carpet beneath us had tiny little designs made into it and it felt just like a five star hotel.

"Here we go; five-two-seven." Lightweight said happily trotted in front of me to open the door. I couldn't blame her for being excited. I was too, to a certain extent.

The door opened and yet again, we were silent and in awe of what was inside as we quickly walked in.

The first thing I noticed was the huge window on the opposite side of the door, allowing a gorgeous full view of the courtyard as well as the statue in the middle. The moon shone down and lit up the carpet beneath it as well as the curtains on either side.

My eyes quickly snapped to the large black vinyl couch sitting in the center of the room facing a huge flat screen T.V. I could even see one or two video game consoles lying on the shelves beneath it with drawers that almost certainly held controllers and games.

"Whoa!" Lightweight walked further inside and looked all around. "This place is huge! This is supposed to be for two ponies?!"

"I guess so..." I weakly replied as I inspected the kitchen; it had a full set of kitchen appliances with everything one could possibly need plus a granite island bar table in the middle.

"Omigosh, Angel! Come see!"

I turned around to see that she was gone and had already moved back into a hallway that most likely held the bed and bath.

I chuckled a little at how giddy she was and walked back around the kitchen to join her.

"Look at this! Two queen sized beds!" She said right as I walked into the bedroom and she dove onto one of the soft bouncy white mattresses.

There was a large window in the bedroom, too; it had the same view as the one in the living room and the fancy white silk curtains in front of it as well. The beds actually weren't all that bad, either. They were neatly made, of course, and had several pillows on each one. The smaller one sitting on top of them had "C.A.A.M." sewn in gold onto its front.

"Damn... How much did this place cost?! I didn't even bother to look at what the tuition was..."

"Oh! Uh... It's two thousand bits for base tuition and dorms are another thousand. So, something like... Three thousand three hundred? With tax?"

My eyes widened not only because of the insane amount of money that my dad apparently paid, but also because Lightweight's dad must've been way more successful than I thought previously.

"Geez... Your dad must be hot shit back in Ponyville..." I asked as she rolled around on the soft fluffy mattress.

"Yeah! Well, I forgot to mention that he does a lot of jobs for the mayor... Sooo... Yeah! Hehe."

I was hoping for a more detailed description, but she was having too much fun taking everything in to focus on it. I didn't mind. It was impossible to be mad at her, anyway.

I was going to test out the bed as well, but my stomach complained at me with a loud growl and I was uncomfortably reminded of how famished I was.

Lightweight apparently heard it.

"Come on, let's see if there's anything in the kitchen for 'ya." She quickly got up and trotted past me. It gave me a chance to steal another whiff of that intoxicating shampoo she used recently and I couldn't help but blush a little from her leg brushing against mine.

Keep it cool, Angel. Don't creep her out or anything...

I took one last look in the bedroom and assumed that she'd want to sleep in separate beds. Luna... If she suggested sleeping in the same bed I might've gotten a nosebleed. I just couldn't help it and I couldn't deny it any longer.

I was attracted to her. I knew how risky it would be given that she probably wasn't gay. Not only that. Even if she was, there was no way some other mare wouldn't have jumped all over her already. My heart was pounding as I trotted back to the kitchen and I knew that my conscience would make me ask her if she was interested in girls eventually.

Then again, maybe it wasn't all that bad. Maybe she'd just blow it off as me being curious or... Heck, I dunno.

I tried my absolute hardest to not stare at her butt as she rounded the corner to the kitchen. It was really the first time since I met her that I could've gotten away with it.

"Okay... Let's see..." Lightweight opened up some cabinets with her magic and bent over to open some drawers at the same time. Like a fool, I just sat there and watched, not wanting to get in her way. I feared that doing so might reveal my reddened face to her, anyway.

"Here we go!" My ears perked up as she opened the fridge and started pulling out lettuce, ranch, carrots and croutons. "Wow, they got everything you need to make like a dozen salads!"

"Sweet." I walked up and grabbed a salad bowl out of the cabinet that she opened earlier with my magic.

"No, no, I'll make it for ya!" She said, quickly yet politely taking the bowl from me and dumping the lettuce into it.

"You sure?"

"Yeah. It's the least I can do for you being so friendly to me. I dunno how I could've managed going to school here with zero friends..."

"Aw, come on. You probably would've made plenty of friends all by yourself." I leaned back against the island and watched her even though I felt guilty for her doing all the work for me.

It didn't take her long to find a cutting knife and a chopping board and she quickly and quite efficiently started to chop up the carrots. Apparently, her skill with lifting things with telekinesis also extended too insane levels of dexterity.

"Wow... That's some pretty fast knife-work..."

"Oh, thanks!" She smiled back at me and cut a second carrot into eighth-inch circles in just a couple of seconds while not even bothering to look at what she was doing.

"You know, I haven't really seen your magic yet..." She pondered but then quickly realized the risk. "But, I guess there's no need for that, huh?"

I guess it was my prideful side that led me to pop a few sparks of shock magic around me in a circle.

Lightweight jumped at the loud noise and flashes, nearly dropping the knife she was so craftily handling only a second before.

"Ah!"

"Oh... M- My bad..." I quickly dispelled it and lowered my head. "It sucks having a talent that's so dangerous sometimes..."

"Aw, it's okay!" She smiled, but I could tell that she was still nervous. "I completely understand. Hopefully they'll have something for you that lets you... You know... Let it rip?"

"Yeah. I hope so..." I replied, still a bit embarrassed that I made myself look like a fool in front of her.

She proceeded to hum a soft tune to herself as she squirted some ranch into the bowl and tossed it with two forks. The air was getting awkward fast.

"So... Um... Do you have a coltfriend?"

I didn't even know where it came from. I wanted to find out if she liked girls too, but I was planning on at least waiting a while before trying to pry it out of her. Though, I had to give myself credit for thinking of a way to introduce the subject in the most innocent manner possible given that it was practically ad libbed.

I could see her cheeks redden, as expected, and she didn't respond for the first few seconds as she chopped up the lettuce into smaller bits.

"Sorry, I was just curious... You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Lightweight. I was just askin'" I tried to smile apologetically.

"It's alright. No, I'm... I have a marefriend..."

My heart jumped out of my chest.

I didn't know whether to feel overjoyed or jealous. In the end, it was a good mixture of both as I struggled to maintain my composure and not look like a buffoon.

Still....

Whoever snagged that mare is one lucky-

"S- So what about you?" Lightweight quickly directed the subject to me.

"I'm the same, but I'm single." I said as straightforward as I could, trying my best not to give away the fact that I already had a certain degree of interest towards her.

"Oh, I see..."

She put the salad into two smaller bowls and gave me one of them. When she turned around, her head was lower than normal, probably because I was being too pushy and nosy.

"But... Yeah. We haven't really gotten along too well, though." She stirred her salad with her fork.

I was already hoofing it down. I was too damn hungry. It took a second or two to realize that she was talking about her and her marefriend.

"Oh? What's wrong?" I gulped down what was in my mouth, understanding that she was getting into a touchier subject and that it would've been rude of me to talk to her about it with a muzzle full of lettuce. "Are you... Alright?"

"Huh? Yeah! I'm good!" A quick yet sincere smile on her face made my unease dissipate. "I just... She hasn't talked to me in a while and... When she does, she usually doesn't sound that happy to hear from me..." Her smile still remained, but her head was looking down at her hooves.

Her fork was still twisting around in her salad; she hadn't eaten a single bite yet.

"I'm sorry... Maybe she's just shy? Or...?" I tried my best to make her feel better.

"No, it's not that..." She paused for an uncomfortably long period of time and I took the hint that she didn't want to talk about it despite her reassurance earlier.

I figured I was done being nosy for the night and joined her on her side of the kitchen, leaning against the counter and leaning against her not in an affectionate way, but in a friendly way.

"Don't worry about it. Hey, if she ever starts being mean to 'ya, lemme know and I'll *zap* 'er." I snickered and it seemed to lighten her up a little.

I was instantly reminded to my mom's comment back on the train station when I said that. It was weird how similar I was to her.

She giggled and leaned back against me. "Thanks."

After finally taking her first bite of her salad, she moved some of her mane out of her eyes before continuing.

"You know... I only met you today, but... You've been so much nicer to me than any of my friends even though you barely know me."

I blushed a little from the praise.

"It's nothin'."

"No, I mean it..."

I felt a hoof wrap around my neck and she pulled me closer to her, hugging me gently. Her warm fur and mane brushed against me and it almost made me choke from how nervous I was for having such an attractive mare so close. Her warm cheek squished against mine cutely.

I was so surprised by the gesture that I almost forgot to hug her back, but I finally did. It was a sweet moment that only lasted for a few seconds, but it felt way longer to me. If not for the scant amount of shameful arousal I felt, then the warm fuzzy feeling of sharing a hug with a friend.

"You probably think it's nothing, but it means a lot to me." She said, releasing me and setting her salad bowl aside. Apparently, she wasn't nearly as hungry as I was.

As she trotted away, I couldn't help feeling proud of myself that I was able to be so nice and friendly to somepony even with her attractiveness discounted, especially since some of my peers and even my parents often described me as somewhat cold to new ponies.

I don't know what it was. Even if I threw aside the fact that I was attracted to her, I couldn't fathom why I couldn't help being so nice to her. For any other pony, I knew based on my track record that I would've just said "hi" and carried on about my business.

But, for some reason, I actually enjoyed talking to her... Being around her. And it was strange because I'd met several ponies with similar personalities that didn't cause me to have that sort of reaction.

I caught myself staring down into my salad, daydreaming.

"Hey, you gonna come to bed too, or are you gonna stay up for a while?" Lightweight raised her voice from what I assumed was the bathroom.

"Nah. I'll be there in a sec."

I could already hear her brushing her teeth with the sink running in the background. I usually had a bad habit for staying up too late, but I knew that the next day would be awful if I didn't get enough sleep for it.

I completely failed to notice that there was a tiny cherry filled chocolate treat on top of the pillow on the bed when I first inspected everything earlier, and my sweet tooth simply wouldn't allow me to pass it up. Even though the taste of toothpaste made it a little weird, it was all I needed to calm whatever nerves I had left over from the trip there.

The sheets were super thick and I was thankful that Lightweight liked to sleep with the air conditioning turned down; right before she slipped beneath her sheets, she cranked the thermostat down seven degrees. The sheets would've made me break a sweat otherwise.

"We gotta wake up at six tomorrow for the opening ceremony, so we should probably hit the sack..." She said after a yawn, fiddling with her alarm clock.

"Aw, man. And I was hoping for a girly frilly pillow fight..." I snickered and did the same, making sure it was set to five.

"Really? You don't seem like the kind of girl that'd be into that sort of thing..." Her hoof propped her up on her side facing me and the dim light from the lamp made her blue eyes glow beautifully.

Damn... You could put her in a wasteland and those eyes would still look just as pretty...

"Sarcasm." I laughed lightly.

"Figured... Heheh." She turned the lamp off and all the light from the room vanished, leaving only the dimmer splash of neutral white light from the moon radiating in from the window.

We both let out a sigh, relaxing ourselves from the long journey there and relishing finally in the feeling of a warm soft bed against our backs.

I was wondering whether she'd say goodnight or something since she stayed silent for a while.

She finally whispered and broke the silence.

"I'm really glad I met you, Angel..."

I could feel my face flush from embarrassment.

"Me too..."

She let out a cute giggle that sounded as if she was happy that I said that.

"Night."

I looked out of the window through the tiny space in between the translucent curtains, admiring the full moon for a few moments before closing my eyes and quickly feeling sleepiness wash over me.

I opened one eye and peeked over at Lightweight.

To my surprise, she was looking back at me with half-open eyes as well. We quickly closed our eyes to keep from sharing an awkward moment. It, along with other subtle hints that she'd given me over the course of the day, made me curious about how she thought about me.

Sure, she already let me know that she liked me a lot as a friend, but... What if she was attracted to me as well?

I took into appreciation how lucky I was for her to be in a somewhat open relationship. From the way she talked about her marefriend, she didn't seem too nice to her.

Who knows... Maybe I have a chance...?

I thought to myself even though the thought made me a feel a bit naughty. I respected other ponies' relationships, but that didn't mean I didn't participate in proactively putting my hoof in the door in some situations from time to time.

I shrugged off the thought, knowing that thinking too hard about it would most likely keep me awake all night. I let my body relax and the distant yet barely audible crickets outside helped my weary self slip into a well needed, well deserved sleep.

Author's Note

If there are any grammatical or spelling errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 3: First Day

I squirmed around in bed from the agonizing ache of not getting enough sleep. Quickly, after shutting off the alarm, I found myself drifting off again.

I woke back up to my side being nudged softly by two hooves.

"Come on, Angel, wake up! We need to leave in ten minutes!"

"Nghh..." I rolled over again and pulled a pillow over my head.

"Don't make me tickle you, sleepy head..." Lightweight giggled and poked my shoulder a few times.

My ears perked up quickly and I rolled out of bed on the opposite side of her. I didn't know if she was actually going to do it, but I couldn't risk it. I was extremely ticklish.

Once I was able to get myself on four legs, I stumbled to the bathroom to fix my mane. I could already tell it was a mess; it felt like a bird's nest up there.

I levitated a brush, knowing I didn't have time to wash my mane, and combed it down while simultaneously tying a ponytail band in the back.

"You're so cute when you're groggy." Lightweight's voice startled me and I looked around in the mirror to find that she was standing right in the doorway with her mane already done, staring at me.

I was too tired to feel embarrassed.

"Are you high?" I chuckled with as much energy as I could, teasing my bangs just a little to work out some split ends that managed to develop during my slumber.

"High on life!" She smiled wide and hummed to herself, retreating from the bathroom to pack some things up.

I shook my head and smiled as well, not understanding why she was so giddy but enjoying her ability to lift my mood.

Looks like somepony's a morning pony...

My mane obeyed as much as it could and, after being satisfied by it, I brushed my tail a few times just for good measure.

"I already got your backpack ready!" I heard her call out while zipping up what I assumed to be backpacks.

"Oh..." I was surprised, but then again, acts of random kindness were commonplace for her. Or, at least, since I'd known her.

"Thanks!"

"No problem!" Lightweight sang.

Feeling my drowsiness start to wear off, I trotted into the living room where she had already packed both of our bags with supplies. The lights in the hallway still caused my eyes to strain just a bit, which reminded me that I still wasn't fully awake.

"Where'd you get those from?" I pointed to the textbooks sticking out of the backpacks.

"They were right outside the door when I woke up this morning. Thank goodness they supplied them to us so we didn't have to buy them ourselves!"

"Heck yeah."

"Ready to go?" She followed up cheerfully, levitating my backpack over to me.

"Ready as I'll ever be." I took it and strapped it to my back, taking a quick moment to adjust the straps so it would make a snug fit around my body.

I was surprised since it was only the middle of fall, but I felt a fairly significant chill run up my spine when we walked out of the front doors and into the courtyard where thousands of ponies were already standing. I had packed a thick blue scarf in my bag, but I assumed that I wouldn't need it given the current season. I regretted not opening the window and feeling the outside air before leaving.

"Sweet Celestia, look at how many ponies there are!" Lightweight whispered as we crossed into the cold dewy grass.

I couldn't see over most of their heads, but my guesstimation was that there were well over a thousand, maybe even two. The only thing I could see over their heads besides the giant statue of Twilight was a large wooden platform that sat up about five to seven feet in the air that was accompanied by a podium and a microphone.

Lightweight gasped as we settled into an open spot on the grass in between two older looking colts. "Omigosh, you think Princess Twilight will come?!"

One of the colts turned to her. "Yeah, dude! That's what everypony's saying!" He said in a surfer-boy tone and I swore he took a peek at her body after Lightweight went back to looking forward.

Back off, "dude"...

I gave him a death stare even though he wasn't looking at me.

"Ahem..." The microphone squealed and I cringed to its high pitch before it settled down.

I looked up to see the same middle aged stallion who led us to the dorms standing behind the podium. He tapped the microphone a few times and several loud thumping noises emitted from the speakers on either side of him.

"Good morning, freshmen of Canterlot Academy of Advanced Magic!" He said with a smile.

The crowd cheered and Lightweight let out a "Wooo!" as well.

"It is marvelous to see such a group of aspiring individuals, eager to take on any challenge that may lie before them! This school will present several challenges for all of you, but I have faith that you will all be able to overcome them-"

Pff... Blah blah blah...

Lightweight obviously noticed the look of boredom on my face and nudged my hoof, subtly telling me to pay attention.

"-and to come out as masters of all branches of the school of magic!"

After his long-winded paragraph ended, everypony cheered again.

"Now, to properly welcome you all to our academy, Your Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle!"

I saw the purple alicorn that I had met quite informally on countless occasions trot up on stage. Events like this reminded me of what her true status was since she seemed just like anypony else face to face. With me, at least.

As expected, the crowd erupted in cheering again; it was twice as loud as before.

"Hello and good morning, students!"

The crowd didn't quiet down.

"Ahem... Settle down, please."

Absolute instantaneous silence spread all around.

"Thank you! Now-" Twilight spoke happily while pulling out a rather large stack of papers.

Oh crap, not this again...

I was all too familiar with her habits of public speeches. Thankfully, the stallion came up and whispered something into her ear. With a somewhat irritated response, she put the papers away and cleared her throat.

"Being the element of magic, I cannot express how glad I am to see so many ponies interested in the study of it. While my desire to personally teach is limited by my royal duties, I have full confidence in the staff and employees of C.A.A.M."

She paused and then acted a bit strange. Her head lowered just barely and she looked down at the podium.

"I know a lot of you are nervous..."

Did she just ditch her script...?

"But I was in the same position you were all in once before. Back before I became a princess, I stressed every night and day trying to fulfill my destiny: to learn everything I could about magic and friendship. I would pull countless all-nighters struggling to find answers... And... meanings..."

She sounded much more sincere now and from everypony's reaction around me, I could tell it was making an impact. For once, I actually listened to the speech, trying to apply it to myself.

"What I finally realized from my studies was that it wasn't about the amount of raw knowledge I retained, it wasn't about the number of complex spells I knew... No. It was about the friends I made and the lessons that we all learned together... That knowledge was more helpful to me than anything else and I found that having loyal, trustworthy, reliable friends that I could count on were more valuable than any spell ever invented. I know many of you are here to learn the extent of your magical abilities. Trust me, I should know how fun and fulfilling that can be. But the number one thing that will make everyone here truly remember your name is the value of friendship."

Normally, I tended to ignore such speeches. It sounded bland and typical, but for some reason, I was paying close attention to it.

"Remember this, students. No matter how famous, powerful or wise you become in your journey to mastering magic, it all means nothing if you don't take the time to make friends with others. Study hard and listen to your teachers, but above all, my most important request for you all is for you to bond together... And give yourselves the chance to see just how powerful the gift of magic can be when coupled with the elements of friendship! I know I may sound boring and generic when I say all these things..."

She was leaning into the podium now. I could tell she was getting into it.

"I failed in achieving the peak of my potential because I kept to myself... And didn't let anypony help me reach as high as I could go. If all of you can learn from and with each other as well as our professors, you'll be on a straight path to excelling much farther than I ever could when I was a student here."

She paused and stood up tall, looking at each one of us sternly, yet encouragingly.

"Face your challenges with friends by your side, and you will always succeed! No matter how hard the test, no matter how hard the challenge, only together can you make a name for yourselves and make a permanent impact on our world that will echo throughout the centuries! Without further ado, I send you out to learn all of these things with faith that you will one day become even greater than all the princesses combined! Newly confirmed freshmen of C.A.A.M., go now and make a name for yourself! Dismissed!"

I froze with my eyes wide open in shock.

Was it just a coincidence that she said "make a name for yourself"?! There's no way... My dad must have said something to her... But even if he did, why would she take that and wrap her speech around it?

The crowd went absolutely nuts, and I couldn't blame them. Of all the bullshit speeches I've heard, I knew I'd remember that one.

Loud thundering stomps of rallying hooves hitting the ground shook me to my core, but I just sat there with my eyes wide, still trying to take everything in.

"Wow... That was..." Lightweight was standing there just like I was when I looked over at her.

"I know... Come on. Let's do what we came here for." I took her hoof without thinking of the possibility that she might've taken it the wrong way since we were both lesbians.

Thankfully, she didn't shy away or pull back; she held onto my hoof and let me lead her.

"Aw..." Lightweight said in a depressed tone as she looked up at the classroom assignments.

"What's wrong?"

"There are a couple classes we won't be in together..."

"Yeah, but look at all those classes!" I pointed a little to her right where it listed six classes with both of our names next to them.

"I know... I was just hoping we could be in all of them together..."

"Oh, come on, at least we have six... Heheh."

She smiled and sighed. "Yeah, you're right. I guess we were lucky that we got even that many.

I found myself more excited than I was before, thanks to the speech. Somehow, Twilight's words struck home for me and gave me motivation to do well in all my classes so that I could make my parents proud.

"Come on! Our homeroom starts in ten minutes and it's on the other side of campus!" I put my legs into high gear and trotted in place.

"W- Wait, what? It says it's in the same building we're in now..."

"What building are we in now? Starswirl?"

"Nope." She pointed to the sign directly above the list of classes that read "Harmony Hall".

"Oh..."

Lightweight rolled her eyes at me teasingly and began trotting down the hallway while I followed close behind. I didn't remember what room we were supposed to be in, but I had a good idea that she did given the fact that she was bending left and right around corners like she knew the place.

"Hey! Wait up!" I sped up, trying to catch up to that elegant white tail swishing back and forth behind her.

The halls were empty thanks to most of the other ponies still staring at the board in the main lobby and it gave me time to take in my surroundings. Unfortunately, the inside of the place wasn't too different from your typical school hallway. Albeit, it was a lot cleaner and more polished. Bulletin boards lined the walls to my left; they were filled with miscellaneous pictures of professors, club flyers, maps of the school and the occasional colorful encouraging snippet such as "Welcome to C.A.A.M.!" and "You're awesome!"

Cheesy...

"Angel? Where ya goin'?" Lightweight's voice called out from behind me.

I let myself get distracted again. She was standing in the doorway of a classroom when I turned around and she was giving me a stare like she thought I was stupid, but in a funny way. I could see why; I had been acting really clumsy ever since I arrived.

I trotted into the room after her and saw a series of desks lined up to my left. I thought there would be more judging by how many students I saw earlier; my rough estimation was that there were only fifty.

There was nopony in the room yet, not even our teacher.

"Hey, don't you think we should wait outside until everypony shows up?" I looked around the room, feeling unsure and a bit uneasy.

"We're fine. Besides, maybe the professor will like us more for showing up early?"

Lightweight put her things down and sat in the desk directly front and center... I was usually a big fan of sitting in the back or near a window in classes. Being so far up front made me feel nervous. Since she'd be there with me, though, I reluctantly sat in the seat directly behind her, making sure my backpack was nestled safely underneath where nopony could snatch it.

"You don't wanna sit beside me?" She turned and asked with her books already out and ready to go on her desk.

"Oh, um... I don't really like sitting in the front..."

"Awh... Come on, don't be so shy."

I shrank back in my chair a little. "N- No... It's fine."

Turning back and flipping through her textbook pages, she shrugged while a few ponies finally decided to show up. Lightweight smiled at them cheerfully while I tried to avoid eye contact. It was a colt that looked just a bit older than me accompanied by two girls about my age. They looked like they'd be a perfect fit for the physics club. All of them had nerdy black rimmed glasses and both of the girls had pencils hung against their ear. I was glad that they were already talking to each other nonstop; it meant that I wouldn't have to deal with an awkward conversation with them.

"I can't believe Princess Twilight actually made an appearance this year! My brother went here for six years and he said he never saw her!" One of the nerdy looking girls said with a lisp that was barely noticeable until she started pronouncing her "S"'s.

"Whatever. You know she's just doing that for public relations. She probably doesn't do anything but sit in her office all day and goof around." The stallion followed up with a rather condescending tone while they all picked out seats in the back of the room.

Ass...

Lightweight turned back slightly and gave me a look that said: "Can you believe he just said that?!"

I just rolled my eyes and rested my cheek on my hoof on the desk. I knew more than anypony else that it was useless to confront ponies like that.

Another couple of ponies came in, then another, then another. Eventually, the room was filled with jabbering and I was made to hear every bit of it. I was hoping to Celestia that the professor would show up and make it stop. It was just getting louder and louder.

Lightweight turned around to check on me just in time to see a tiny spark pop off of my horn that made her jump and yelp. I guess I was getting annoyed too much by the mindless yelling between the other ponies, but I don't know who would want to listen to "My boyfriend did this" and "My girlfriend did that" stories.

The class was silent, but it wasn't in the way I was hoping for. They were all looking at me; once I realized what was going on, my cheeks turned red.

"S- Sorry... I didn't mean-" My eyes darted down at the ground.

For the next few minutes everypony resumed talking to themselves, but they were stealing glances at me at the same time. I knew that they were probably making fun of me behind my back, but I was too embarrassed to even care.

"Goodness... Are you alright, Angel? Where did that come from?" Lightweight seemed to be the only pony in the room who was actually concerned about me.

"Yeah... Sorry, I... I guess I got a little aggravated..."

"At what?" She lowered her head to try and make eye contact with me; I had my head buried in my hooves on the desk.

The professor opened the door and caused Lightweight to abandon her questioning. I was happy because it meant an end to the mindless banter, but I still couldn't get over how humiliated I felt. It was only the first day of school and I already had people talking about me behind my back.

Then again, looking back on my past school experiences, I shouldn't have been so surprised. Rumors and school go together like peanut butter and jelly.

For some reason, I was expecting the middle-aged stallion from last night to be our instructor, but the one who came in was much much older and had a completely gray mane and tail that was surprisingly neat and well-kept. He was wearing a suit jacket, but with a red tee-shirt underneath it that made him look like he was trying to capture his long lost days as a youngster.

"Good morning!" He said in a scruffy deep tone.

"Morning!" Everypony around me replied except for me.

"Let's start with attendance before we begin. Let's see..." He turned the pages in one of the notebooks he recently pulled out.

"Afterburner?"

"Here!" A bright, red-maned stallion raised his hoof in the back. I wouldn't be surprised if he was interested in fire magic.

"Angel Scratch?"

"Here..." I raised my hoof.

The professor paused and looked at me again.

Shit... Not this again...

"Well then... I'm glad to have you with us, Miss Scratch." He smiled warmly and I returned it as best as I could, but I could already hear other students whispering about me.

"Wait... That's Alex Scratch's daughter!" One of the mares' whispers wasn't quiet enough for me to not hear.

"What?! No way!" Another stallion, possibly the nerdy looking one from before, responded, but the professor tapped his hoof against the floor, making them shut up.

"Ahem... Backdraft?"

There must have been a lot of ponies interested in fire magic in the class because every other name had something to do with explosions or flame. I always had a thing against ponies who liked fire magic. For some reason, they were always either ass holes or extremely reckless with their abilities. I liked to avoid inductive reasoning when it came to personalities based on magic, but the trends were too strong to ignore sometimes.

At long last, the whispers about me stopped. I didn't know how much more I could take. At the rate I was going, I was going to be the class fool by the end of the week.

The professor closed his notes and pulled out a hefty textbook.

"Okay! Now, I know it's not too exciting to lecture on the first day of class, but there are some specific things that I want to cover as soon as possible."

The whole class groaned and I heard textbooks slapping against desks all around me. Of course, all Lightweight had to do was just sit there and look pretty since she was already prepared.

I followed suit and opened to the first chapter in my textbook. It was funny, but I never even took the time to look at what the book was about until I opened it.

"Intro To Advanced Magical Learning 101: Magic safety" was the title of the first chapter. It was to be expected since a lot of hot shots would be joining who didn't know the first thing about controlling themselves. I wasn't excluding myself, though. I was too self-conscious to forget about all those times I lost control of my shock magic when I was daydreaming or bored. Heck, I was the one who accidentally let out a spark not but a few minutes ago.

My eyes were glazed over from boredom when the bell rang; it snapped me out of my trance.

The professor cut off his lecture about friendly fire and tried to get everypony's attention, but it was futile.

"Eh- Don't forget to read over chapter two for tomorrow!" He announced as I rose up and packed my books away. Half the class was already gone at that point.

"So? That wasn't that bad, was it?" Lightweight said as she paused to let me out the door first.

"Boring... But, I guess it could've been worse."

She giggled at me, but I didn't know why. Her horn glowed as she pulled out a slip of paper and turned left into the hallway crowded with ponies.

"Looks like our next class is-"

Suddenly, I heard loud booming hoof steps behind me and I instinctively braced myself for a senior to freshman initiation routine. Everypony around me was looking intently at whoever or whatever was behind me and my ears flattened in fear as I turned my head around.

"Miss Scratch? Your Highness, Princess Twilight Sparkle, requests your presence in her office immediately."

I should've been shocked. It's what anypony else would've felt and I could see it on Lightweight's face when I glanced over at her. But no, I wasn't shocked. If anything, I was halfway expecting her to want to see me.

"Go ahead, Angel. I'll wait for you after class."

"Oh... Y- You sure?"

"Yeah!"

"Ma'am?" One of the guards grabbed my attention with a low-pitched intimidating tone.

"Okay, I'll see ya."

"Have fun." Lightweight winked at me and then quickly turned around to get to whatever our next class was. I would've felt a bit embarrassed from the playful wink even if it was just friendly, but I was too nervous to do so.

By the time I turned back to follow the guards, they had already begun walking down the hallway. I sped up to catch up to them and could feel everypony's eyes staring at me.

"Um... What's this about? If you don't mind me asking, that is..."

"Not here."

"Oh... Right... Okay."

We took a right up the stairs and started climbing. Thoughts started flooding my head. Was I in trouble already? I didn't do anything wrong. Maybe it was because of that accidental spark earlier...? Was magic not allowed on campus or something? But Lightweight used a levitation spell on that paper... Surely the guards saw that, too.

The only explanation I could come up with was that she just wanted to chat. But then, why pull me out of classes to do so rather than waiting until I was done with them? I was so confused.

Once we got high enough through the stairwell, my legs were beginning to get a bit worn out. I guessed that we were at the seventh or eighth floor at that point.

"Miss Scratch, do you see the mark on this door?"

My ears perked up and I looked at what the guard was talking about. At the highest point of the stairs where we stood, there was a single red door that had Princess Twilight's cutie mark on it.

"Do not use any door marked with this symbol under any circumstance. Understood?"

"Yes, sir."

"Good." One of the guards pulled out a key and unlocked it. The door swung open into another room, and I paused before going in even though they gestured for me to do so.

I could tell that it was some sort of spell because I could clearly see a thin film of something separating the stairwell and the room I was currently looking into.

"Basic level door portal. Nothing to be afraid of." The guard, oddly enough, smiled at me reassuringly. It was odd because I was so used to them showing zero emotion.

Still being cautious, I stepped in and the door closed behind me. They didn't follow me in.

The room looked like a librarian’s office, only without a desk. Bookshelves acted as walls and there were as many books as there were spaces for them. There was a brown leather couch with a glass coffee table in front of it. I took the liberty of sitting down since it looked so comfy and I sank into the cushion. I could feel a huge tension in my legs escape and I let out a groan as I relaxed.

It was absolutely silent in the room, which made everything even more peaceful. Looking around curiously, I began scanning over the titles of books on the shelves. Most of them were yearbooks and textbooks, but there were others that were just random.

I did see one that wasn't quite flush with the other books around it and it seemed as if somepony was using it recently.

I turned my head sideways to read it and I raised an eyebrow when I could make out the words.

"C.A.A.M. Building Schematics"

It was definitely odd because the subject of the book didn't quite fit in with the ones around it, but it was even stranger because whoever put it back in its place put it in backwards. The text on the spine was facing in the opposite direction relative to the other books beside it. Twilight was way too much of a neat freak to do something like that, so I had to assume that somepony else took it out.

My ears perked up and my attention snapped to a sudden movement out of the corner of my eye. The only thing I managed to see was some sort of black... Thing escaping through the partially opened window on the opposite side of the room. It was small enough to be a rat or even a mouse, but I doubted that something like that could get in here. I shrugged it off and dismissed it as a bird, sinking back into the couch.

I noticed a ticking sound that was only audible because everything else in the room was silent. It sounded like a clock and sure enough, I saw one sitting on the glass coffee table in front of me. It was probably one of the weirdest clocks I had ever seen.

The face of the clock was smaller than the size of my hoof, but it had a small glass tube running horizontally underneath it that was about as long as one of my legs. Inside of it was a ball of light that tapped against each end of the tube, travelling back and forth and making the second hand tick. I couldn't help but lean in and study it closer.

"Neat, isn't it?"

I jerked back and saw Twilight leaning against the door frame. She was focused on the clock, though.

"Took me months to figure out how to make an energy source that was stable enough to work for a clock. Never guessed that something as simple as sunlight could do the trick."

I sat there staring at her, not saying anything.

"Relax, Angel. You're not in trouble or anything."

Twilight calmly walked over to the couch and sat down next to me, tucking her wings neatly in between the back of the couch and her back. I let out a sigh of relief once I knew I didn't do anything wrong.

"So, what did you think?" She looked at me as if she expected that I knew what she was talking about.

"I'm... sorry?" My head cocked to the side slightly.

"My speech! How was it? I was so nervous..."

"Oh... Well, I actually liked it. A lot."

She looked at me like I had just given her a million bits.

"Really?!"

It amazed me how somepony of her status acted just like any other normal girl would at times.

"Yeah. And that's saying something because I'm not too big on motivational speeches. But... That thing about 'making a name for yourself'... Did my dad tell you something about that?"

"The only thing your father told me was that you were interested in shock magic. I assume you still are?"

"Y- Yeah, but... Nevermind."

She didn't back up my response and I was left listening to the solar light clock thingy behind me for several moments.

"Oh! You're probably wondering why I asked you to be here." She said as she got up from the couch and walked around.

"Is it about that thing I did in my class? I'm sorry... I-"

She giggled.

"Relax, Angel. I already told you; you aren't in trouble. Besides, I do things like that all the time when I'm nervous. Anyways, I'm sure your dad told you that I would be willing to teach you about magic personally."

"Yes, ma'am." I thought she'd never ask. I was starting to get excited, anticipating each word she'd say next.

"Well..."

She sighed and looked off into the distance, particularly towards the window at the far end of the room.

"I can't do that just yet. It would look like I was picking favorites. I'd need you to do something for me. Something that would make me want to give any ordinary pony that I had just met yesterday personal lessons."

"Like... What?"

She thought while pacing slowly back and forth and staring at the beige carpet beneath her.

"I don't know..." Twilight truly looked puzzled.

"If you're worried about your public appearance, then... We could always have them privately." For some reason, I knew she wouldn't think ill of me for suggesting such a dishonest and sneaky idea that was clearly against school policy.

She laughed.

"You think just like your mother, Angel Scratch."

"I'll... Take that as a compliment?" I raised an eyebrow and grinned. I felt like I was comfortable enough with her to tease her a bit.

"Yes, of course. I just wish I could afford to think that way every so often." She paused and looked up the ceiling. "Meet me at Gastoire's tomorrow night at eight p.m. sharp, and bring the textbook that you'll receive in the mail tonight. Oh, I almost forgot!"

A burst of light flashed in front of me and the scarf that I forgot to pack was floating right in front of me. Her horn shined a bright shade of purple as she made the scarf wrap around my neck neatly.

"It's chilly outside. Wouldn't want you catching a cold for our first lesson!"

I got up and tugged it snugly against my neck. "Thanks!"

"Don't be late." She winked.

I couldn't help but smile wide.

"Yes ma'am!"

Author's Note

A lot of my editors weren't able to meet the deadline for editing, so I'm posting this anyway. I did my best to look over it myself, but please don't kill me if there's any consistency or grammar errors.

If there are any errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 4: Shocking, Isn't It?

"Ugh..."

The bed, cool from the fan blowing against its sheets all day long, caressed my back as I fell onto it after walking nearly two miles around campus from class to class. I was exhausted, but in a good way. I had been lying around at home for months and months. Being able to get out and do something productive gave me an entirely different kind of exhaustion than I was used to.

Instead of it being like "Damn... I'm so bored. There's nothing to do. Might as well sleep.", it was like "I put in a good days effort and I deserve some rest for a while."

I sighed, then closed my eyes and smiled.

Due to our schedules, Lightweight had an extra thirty minutes of class than me each day, so I found out that I'd be getting back to the dorm earlier from then on. I didn't really mind, though. Even though she was a drop dead cutie, having a few minutes of alone time was super valuable to me.

The sun was starting its descent into the horizon and, at the same time, changing its color from bright yellow to orange. The atmosphere alone would've been enough to make me relaxed and drowsy if it weren't for a long day of classes and listening to boring lectures. There were still a few hours to kill before eight p.m. I really wished Lightweight was into video games as much as I was because it'd make our downtime alone a bit more bearable. I didn't quite get a chance to check it out earlier, but I assumed that it was the latest version of the Quest Box: the same one I had back at home.

I couldn't stop thinking about what Twilight might teach me. Something told me that I wouldn't be learning super O.P. lightning spells, but for some reason, as long as it was Twilight teaching me, I honestly didn't care. I knew that whatever she'd help me with would ultimately get me closer to becoming a high-level mage. Don't worry, I was completely grateful. Hell, it's not every day you have magic training with a princess. And, by the way it sounded, she'd be willing to have several more "meetings" in the future.

I did feel a bit guilty about it, though. I knew deep down that she wouldn't have even considered it if it weren't for my dad. I suppose she'd be willing to help out somepony who was really struggling; Twilight seemed sweet enough to do something like that. But, full-out lessons on a regular basis?

I said a silent "thank you" to my dad since he's the one who made all this possible. But, I knew from then on that I'd have to put forth the effort myself to pass this strange new school.

Eventually, I heard the front door open, followed by an audible exhale and an object colliding with the couch, making a gentle "poof" sound. The television clicked on and I got up shortly after, stretching my legs.

"Yo! How was class?" I called out from the bedroom.

"Oh! Hey, Angel!" I saw one of her light yellow hooves raise above the back of the couch to wave at me as I passed the hallway. "It was alright, just the same old boring introductions."

"Yeah... I guess it'll get more interesting as time goes on. You think?"

"Definitely! Erm, well, I hope so." She flipped through channels as I sat down on the couch next to her. I tried to sit far enough away so I wouldn't make her uncomfortable, but what if she picked up on it and deduced that I was purposefully trying to avoid her? I blew it off, knowing that I was probably over-thinking things.

I shook off the random thought and watched as she flipped, bored. The memory snapped back in my head and I realized I forgot to tell her about my plans for the night.

"Oh! Um..." I was about to finish the sentence, but I thought better of it since dropping such a big bomb like: "Hey! I'm having secret special lessons with the headmaster!" wouldn't make for the smoothest conversation. "What time do you usually go to bed?"

"Huh? Oh, usually around ten, but I'm exhausted... I might just doze off right here in a second..." Lightweight yawned and turned onto her side, lying down with her head close to one of my legs.

I sighed in relief knowing that I wouldn't have to explain why I was going out again so late and why she couldn't come with me. By the amount of exhaustion I saw from her, I knew she'd be knocked out hard enough for me to sneak out safely. On second thought, she could've tagged along, but it would've been more awkward than I was comfortable with since Twilight would probably think I was just in it for the popularity at that point.

It was funny. Every time she got closer to me, whether it was intentional or not, I felt my heart rate spike. I just couldn't get over how much raw beauty she had.

She sat back up and turned her back towards me.

"Hey, Angel? Could you gimme a little back rub? My back hasn't felt right all day..."

"Y- Yeah... Sure." With hesitation, I moved her golden-white mane away from her back and slid my hooves up.

I could already feel a considerable amount of knots under her shoulder blades, so I went to work on them first. She leaned back against me as I pushed my hooves up her back and I could feel her chest vibrate as she let out small moans of satisfaction. Her fur was bunching up near the tip of my hooves as they dug in and worked out some of the thickest muscle spots I'd ever come across.

"Geez, Light, how long has it been since you had your back rubbed?"

She let out another groan. "Ages. Nngh..."

My hooves were getting tired from rubbing, but I kept going; didn't wanna make her think I didn't care. Her body leaned back against me more and more and eventually, I was putting forth more effort into holding her up than actually massaging her.

Lightweight’s groans grew less audible and it became obvious that she was too relaxed to stay awake. Feeling somewhat proud of my work, I laid her down on her back.

"I take it that felt good?" I chuckled and looked down at her cute little face that was half-covered by her mane. She didn't respond. "Lightweight?"

She was asleep. That darned mare fell asleep as I was massaging her back... Lucky. It had been a while since I experienced a massage that good and it was kind of making me want one, too. Her belly rose and fell softly and I knew I couldn't just leave her there on the couch. I picked her up with my magic and kept my eye on her to be safe since she was way more important than the normal inanimate objects I levitated on a daily basis.

I was certain that she was out cold. Not only did she fall asleep within a minute of my massage; being levitated didn't wake her either. I slowed down so that I could carefully fit her through the door frame to the bedroom and soon enough, she was lying down in bed as I pulled the sheets over her tired body.

My perverted mind was particularly gifted at concealing itself until the right time, but for some reason, I thought about taking the opportunity to show her a little affection while she was sleeping. My cheeks felt hot as I leaned in, and my lips kissed her forehead right below her horn. It wasn't what I really wanted to do at that moment since I hadn't gotten laid in ages; it was the most I could do without having to do too much explaining if she did happen to wake up from it. As expected, her fur felt as soft as cotton against me and it made me feel all the more jealous of whoever her marefriend was.

"Night night, Lightweight." I whispered as I turned and exited, making sure that there was a small crack in the door for some light to come in.

I paused outside the door and sighed, knowing I was in the clear.

Alright, Twilight. Let's do this.

The air was chillier than it was the last time I was out. The pegasi must've ushered in a cold front within the few hours I was waiting at the dorm. I could clearly see the condensation in front of my face every time I exhaled thanks to the light that the full moon was giving. Everything was peacefully quiet on campus as I walked through the middle courtyard; most of the ponies were probably doing the same thing Lightweight was doing at the time.

However, I started to hear ambient background noise once I left campus and got closer to the streets. For a fraction of a moment, the dark alley that led to the middle of town made me worry about getting jumped on, but I quickly remembered that I could *zap!* anypony cold with a flick of my magic. I doubt any pervert would be dumb enough to jump somepony from the academy, anyways. After a while, I started to see street lights help guide my way.

Even though I usually didn't care about my mane, I remembered that I didn't fix it like I usually did before I left. It was still straight, but slightly parted to the left like my mom has her mane, but without all the spray to keep it spiky. I nervously and futilely tried to neaten it up with my magic so that I wouldn't get any strange looks from any of the aristocratic broads in town, but it just went back to the way it was before. I blew a puff of air up at it in frustration and it settled back over one of my eyes as if to tell me "buck you, I do what I want."

The only thing I brought with me besides my scarf was the strange book that was at my doormat when I left. It wasn't like a school textbook. In fact, when I flipped through it, none of the pages even made sense to me; half of the words were written in this weird language I couldn't understand. It was either made by a foal who managed to find a quill or a wizard so powerful that he made his own written code or something. I knew it was fairly important since it was straight from Headmistress Twilight's library, so I brought my backpack with me to keep it safe.

Surprisingly, despite the fact that most ponies in Canterlot were gaudy and judgmental of everypony that didn't dress themselves like them, I didn't get many odd looks save for the occasional stallion glancing at me to check me out. I was used to that, though. I pretended like I didn't notice a few glancing at my butt, but I knew they were. Ponies like me practically reeked of exoticism and that usually peaked interests.

I faintly remembered seeing a restaurant named "Gastoire's" when I walk through the night before with the new freshmen.

Let's see... If I'm not mistaken...

I thought to myself and tried to reconstruct the memory last night before remembering that it was a few blocks down. I looked around for some sort of clock, and there was one conveniently placed on the corner of the next four way intersection that said it was three minutes to eight.

Shit...

With any other pony, I wouldn't have cared so much about being late, but this was Twilight. Not only was she a princess and headmaster of my school, but I knew that she naturally had a peeve with tardiness. I sped up my stride and I felt my throat become raw and cold from the winter air.

I had pictured in my head the back alley of Gastoire's to be like any old ally you'd see on a daily basis: dark, damp, dirty and dangerous, but when I spotted the restaurant and stealthily made my way around it, I was glad to be wrong. It literally looked just like the busy street behind me, but it was more compressed and without an abundance of lighting. If it weren't for the steam rising up from one of the grates in the distance, I would've had trouble convincing myself that I was in a back-alley. The moon light hit the top quarter of the wall to my left which gave just enough radiant light to help me see where I was going. It was a good thing; it'd help me see anypony coming my way who was up to no good much faster.

Already, I could tell that Twilight hadn't shown up super early like she frequently did, unless she was using some advanced invisibility spell. The alleyway both behind and in front of me was devoid of pretty much anything save for the occasional rubbish bin here and there.

"Glad you made it, Angel." Twilight's voice echoed behind me.

Yup... Advanced invisibility. Why am I not surprised?

I didn't say anything at first, probably because I didn't quite know how to start the conversation that would lead into what I knew she came here to do.

"I couldn't buy any longer than an hour, so we should get started. You ready?" Twilight was fully visible now and she was wearing a white and blue striped scarf alongside a goofy beanie that had to be for some sort of disguise.

"Yeah... But, are you sure nopony will notice us? I mean, my lightning spells can get pretty lo-"

As if Twilight were trying to show off, a loud roll of thunder crashed in the sky above me. She was smiling when I looked back down; pride was practically painted on her face.

"I had some of the weather team make a local thunderstorm for the next few hours."

"Oh, right." I took a deep breath and cleared my mind. "Okay. I'm ready."

"Good!" Twilight approached me slowly. "Now... Lightning spells are perhaps some of the most lethal spells in a unicorns arsenal. They're quick, effective and extremely powerful. However, approximately eighty-eight percent of all lightning spells I've seen used by students lack in one aspect: accuracy."

She stopped a couple of yards away from me. "Your spells don't mean anything if they can't hit their target and a powerful, yet unstable spell is always less advantageous than a weaker, controlled one. So, we're going to work on your accuracy with your lightning. Oh, and don't worry about damaging anything. These back walls are three feet thick."

A hologram-like target appeared within throwing distance of me.

"Let's get right to it, shall we? Go ahead and try to hit the target."

I focused on the cartoon-ish red and white circles that collapsed into a single red bull's eye, charging up my horn and feeling the fur on my back stand up. I tried not to make it a big bolt. In fact, I was a little afraid, so I ended up making a charge that was much smaller than my typical ones.

The spell released from my horn and after a loud crack and a bit of smoke from my horn, I looked up to see that it missed high and right.

"Not great, but I've seen worse." Twilight stared at the black burn mark I made on the concrete.

I was glad she straight up told me that my shot sucked. Giving somepony praise for not doing their best was always one of my pet peeves.

She looked back at me. "Try not to close your eyes this time. Lightning always arcs and its completely random; the only thing keeping lightning magic from acting the same way is you. Try thinking of the lightning as an extension of your horn and keep your eye on the target. With enough focus, the bolt will obey you. Try it again, Angel."

It was very simple to understand what she was saying, mostly because it involved one of the very few things I actually enjoyed learning. I lined back up to the target and, even though I was a bit fidgety from the fear of the lightning sparking in my eyes, tried to center my vision on the red dot in the middle. My horn charged up with about the same amount of power as before and flew out.

This time, I saw the bright flash of it hitting the target instead of just opening my eyes to see the aftermath. It was still high and right but only a foot away from the center mark. I smiled.

Yes!

"Much better! Try a little harder to think about that extension bit I said earlier. Imagine your horn literally extending with your bolt and stabbing the target right in the center."

After catching my breath for a few seconds, I repeated my previous actions a third time. I did as the princess said and, like a laser, my bolt struck dead center of the target, making it shatter onto the cobblestone street before dissipating into the air.

"Wow, Angel. You learn pretty quick!"

I couldn't help but smile again, feeling an insane amount of confidence.

Thirty minutes later...

I was starting to get a headache, and therefore some irritation, from using up so much magic in such a short amount of time. Still, Twilight kept drilling me over and over again to make sure I had my accuracy down to a science. It definitely felt like training from an expert which was exactly what I was hoping for.

"Alright, Angel, you look pretty worn out. Let's do one last exercise and then we'll call it a night."

A while ago, there was no way anypony would be able to make me leave, but I actually was glad to be done then because of how strenuous it was.

"Yes ma'am."

"Now that you've got a better grip on your accuracy, let’s try tuning up your power. See if you can keep your bolts straight then."

I knew that I only had enough energy in me for one last big bolt; after that, I wouldn't be able to do so much as lift a pencil. Nonetheless, I spread my stance and readied one more, taking an extra second or two to let it charge up more.

I felt a trickle of sweat roll down my cheek as I gritted my teeth. For a second, I almost lost control of the spell. I was still able to fire it off, though, and it made a louder *boom* against the target about six inches from the center. I was happy enough with that for the time being.

"Very good!" Twilight trotted towards me and got close before looking me right in my exhausted eyes. "Now, do you think you could've hit that close with a bolt that large before?"

I hesitantly shook my head as the point of the whole training began to bring itself together. She didn't want me to just practice my accuracy, although that was a pretty helpful thing to know. What she was really trying to do was make me practice with lower level spells so my bigger ones would mirror the improvement. It knocked my ego down a level or two because it was basically as if she was saying "Angel, you're not experienced enough to do higher level spells yet." But, I supposed that was the whole reason I was going to C.A.A.M. at the first place. I needed a touch of humility from Twilight to realize that I wasn't special and that I had to push my limits every day to be where I wanted to be.

Though, seeing a step of improvement, however tiny it was, gave me some motivation that I really needed.

"Judging by that look in your eye, I think you know what I'm talking about already. You're not as slow as most of the other first years; I can tell that much." She put one of her wings over my back which made me blush from the sudden intimacy. "You did a spectacular job today, Angel. You're really showing some improvement after just one practice!"

"T- Thank you, ma'am... But," I eyed my backpack that still held the book she gave me earlier. It had been sitting on the edge of the curb since I arrived. "Weren't you going to use that book for something? I was just wondering since we hadn't used it at all..."

"Oh, that? You didn't need it for today, but be sure to read over chapter two for next time, okay?"

"Yes, ma'am." I said as I found myself naturally pressing myself against her side, tucking into her wing to shelter myself from the cold."

Wow... Her wing is really warm...

"Angel, Angel... Didn't I tell you not to think of me that way? I'm your friend, not your boss! Well, I guess I sort of am... But, try not to think of me that way." Twilight smiled and hugged me with her wing. "Anyway, you should be getting back. Don't worry; I'll give you a teleport. Can't in good conscience send you walking home so late at night..."

I thought she'd say a few more words at least, but her horn immediately started glowing and my body tingled from her magic. I felt my backpack being shoved against my chest and I held onto it for dear life, knowing that dropping an object mid-teleport usually ended up sour.

"Until next time!" The princess said happily whilst waving at me. I managed to return it before being thrown into the rift.

Before my next breath exited, I was in the middle of the living room at the dorm. My mind was dizzy after such a sudden change in scenery, but it only took a few seconds to settle down and cope. I immediately found the nearest thing that could cushion my weight, which was conveniently the couch behind me, and collapsed in it.

I had a massive headache, but not in the way most headaches were. I keep forgetting that some of you out there aren't unicorns, so it might be harder to understand.

Basically, headaches caused from over-using your magic feel like muscle cramps, but in your forehead. It's not something you can just take some medicine for and make it go away. Usually, you have to mix some kind of potion with special herbs in it. Twilight supplied my dad with it from time to time back at the house and a pony who thinks ahead would've packed some, but I'm not one of those ponies. I doubted there would be anything like that here at the dorm, anyway.

I leaned back and put my hoof over my face, admitting to myself that I'd just have to deal with it until it decided to wear off. My horn was throbbing terribly. It felt like being on a boat for months and months and then stepping back out onto land only to sway back and forth since the mind was used to it for so long. I could feel my mind involuntarily wanting to cast spells even though I had no intention of doing so.

As I relaxed and the ringing from all the loud lightning pops died away in my ears, I heard something strange coming from one of the back rooms. It was muffled, but it sounded... Like crying.

I forgot all about my sore head and got up to see what was the matter.

Lightweight was curled up in her bed sobbing when I opened the door. The sudden influx of light caused her body to recoil and I quickly closed it back once I walked in.

"Light?! What's wrong? Are you okay?!" I nearly galloped to her bed. Seeing somepony who was usually so happy turn sad always played at my heartstrings and it gave me more motivation to help.

All she did was sob. She didn't even pick her head up to look at me. I was getting nervous, thinking that it was somehow my fault that she was so upset. Ditching her in her sleep probably wasn't the kindest thing to do, but why would she get so worked up over something like that?

"Lightweight..." I said as I laid down next to her, facing her tear stained face. I was very close to her at that point and if it weren't for the touchy situation, it might've even been inappropriate. Nonetheless I wrapped my front legs around her and hugged her tight. I did it without thinking, without a single thought in my mind telling me not to for any reason.

"I..." She sniffed and her words were shaky.

"Shh, calm down... Its okay, Light... Just tell me what happened...."

After a few deep yet unstable breaths, she actually managed to settle down as she snuggled into my chest.

"M- My marefriend... Just sent me a *sniff* a letter telling me she doesn't wanna see me anymore..."

All my emotions centered on whoever her marefriend was at that moment and it took all the effort I had not to explode and go track her down for hurting Lightweight.

"What?! Why?!" I tried not to sound too angry.

"I dunno... She *sniff* just sent this letter and all it says is 'I'm tired of not being able to see you every weekend like I used to.'"

"Seriously? That's the only reason she gave?"

"W- Well, yeah... But that's my fault..." Thankfully, her sobbing had dried up and she was able to talk clearly.

"That's stupid. She can't seriously expect you to do everything with her every single weekend, right?"

She sniffed again. "She... Would always get mad at me if we couldn't hang out and she'd threaten to break up with me if I did it one more time... I told her I was going to the academy but she... I guess she didn't care."

I hugged her tight, not caring about the possible overly-intimate implications, and whispered into her ear.

"I'm really sorry... I know how it's like to go through something like this, but if it means anything, I don't think it's your fault at all. She sounds like a total jerk."

"R- Really?" Another cute sniff. "But..."

I held a hoof to her muzzle softly. "What she did, expecting you to spend time with her instead of going to school here... That was over the line. And if you ask me, I think you're better off without somepony like that.

My words seemed to cheer her up a little and seeing her quivering lip stabilize gave the confidence to keep comforting her as best I could.

"She was..." Lightweight giggled a little. "Pretty mean..."

"And you're the sweetest mare I've ever met... I- um..."

Shit, Angel... Don't go in too hard...

I felt her finally return the hug. It felt so blissful to be held that way from somepony other than my parents.

"I don't suppose you could beat her up for me?" Lightweight giggled again and nuzzled into my chest, making my heart rate spike.

"Um... I can, if you want me to." I smiled back, knowing that she was just teasing.

We laid there in silence for a few minutes. It would've been awkward, but the hug made it bearable.

"I'm sorry I wasn't here earlier..."

"It's alright, Angel. I probably would've ended up saying something I didn't mean... But, where were you, anyway?"

"Um..." I quickly attempted to decide whether or not to tell her about what actually happened, but I just couldn't find it within me to lie to her. "I was having some lessons with Twilight..."

Her ears perked up and she looked up at me from my chest. "Wow! Really?! How did you manage that?!"

It nearly broke my heart when I saw how red and irritated her eyes were from crying, but I stayed resilient. "I guess she saw potential in me and... I dunno. Maybe she owed my dad a favor somehow."

Lightweight didn't say anything back but resumed plugging her face to my fur. "That's great, Angel..."

It was best to drop the subject since talking about me too much would've come off the wrong way.

"You feeling a little better, Light?" I said as I rubbed her back.

"Mhmm... Thank you, Angel..."

My whole world stopped when she picked her head up and kissed me on the cheek. I couldn't say anything because I was so shocked, but she seemed confident enough not to apologize for it a second later like I expected her to. She didn't need to say anything, though. I knew what she implied and I was sure she knew the implication, too.

At that point, I couldn't take it anymore.

"Lightweight, I... I know this is a bad time but I need to tell you something."

"Hm?"

I could feel my face radiating heat from blushing and I was certain that she could feel my heart beating harder. Telling her would probably make her blender of emotions worse, but I just couldn't keep quiet about it anymore.

"P- Pretty much ever since we met... I..." I bit my lip, trying to fumble for the right words to say, but I figured it'd be best to throw it at her blunt and get it out of the way. "I've kinda had a thing for you..."

"I noticed..." She said with a surprisingly confident tone.

"Oh... Really? I- I'm sorry, I-" My speech was slowly beginning to mimic the nervousness I was feeling.

The next few moments would probably go down as some of the best I had ever experienced. Before I could say anything more, I felt her warm soft lips press against mine only for a second or two. My eyes never closed because I was too shocked.

Lightweight giggled again. "I guess you know how I feel too, now."

I wanted so badly to just blow it off as her just being emotionally unstable, which would've been a valid observation to make, but she didn't seem like she was losing control. Her kiss was soft and delicate and her body wasn't trembling at all compared to earlier when she was crying. No, it was obvious that she had been thinking about doing that for a long time. I couldn't sense a whiff of nervousness about her.

"B- But... You're sure that it's not too soon? I mean..."

"Well, to be honest, I was thinking of breaking up with her anyways and then asking you out after that."

I raised an eyebrow. "Then why were you so upset about her dumping you if you wanted me all along?" It felt weird saying it that way.

Her muzzle scrunched and she made a comical pouty face. "She was really mean... And called me a bunch of things that kinda got to me..."

"Oh. So, you..." I couldn't help but smile from how excited I was. "Like me?"

"Of course I like you, silly. You're beautiful and talented... Your personality is really attractive..." Her sentence dipped off as it went and ended with a yawn, hinting that she was getting sleepy.

"You're sure you're talking about me?" I blushed and couldn't help but feel a little ego trip coming on.

"Mhmm. And don't pretend like I didn't see you staring at me all those times, either." Lightweight booped my nose with her hoof and it caused an involuntary smile.

"Yeah... Sorry 'bout that..." I tried my best to match the confidence that she was putting forth so it didn't look like I was out of her league. "Everything about you is like eye candy to me."

"Oh really, now?" She teased with a mock-seduction tone.

We both giggled and snuggled a little more, both of us feeling the electrical tingle of nervous new love.

"But, I mean..." I paused to think so I wouldn't say something in haste that came out wrong. "Every time I'm around you, I just feel... Happy. I dunno what it is... To be honest, I just felt a connection to you since day one, which... Would be yesterday, I guess. I dunno... I just get this feeling when I'm around you that's totally different than every other mare I've met."

"I feel the same way, Angel..." Lightweight yawned again, the smile on her face not fading one degree. "Right now... Like we are right here... I just met you yesterday yet I feel safer in your arms than any other pony I've ever been with."

She was beginning to rub herself against me in a way that went beyond just hugging. It was slowly turning into passionate cuddling as her hind legs laced with mine.

"Well... You can stay right here with me tonight, if that's the case." I said, pulling the covers over us with my worn out yet barely functional magic. They covered up past her face so that I could only see her eyes and nose when I looked down at her.

Damnit, why do you have to be so cute...

"Just tonight?" She looked up at me as if she was a puppy and I just took away her favorite toy.

I giggled and squeezed her, kissing her forehead next to her horn. "Any night you want, Light."

She let out a girlish *squee* and nuzzled her face into my chest again happily.

I stroked her back fur slowly and affectionately, still somewhat oblivious to how lucky I was to receive my current circumstance.

"You're too cute."

Author's Note

This chapter took a while to finish and I apologize for that, I had a lot of other things going on that limited my time to work on it. Because of that there may be some mistakes that I missed, so I apologize for that in advance as well.

If there are any errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 6: Branching Out

There's only three guys here...

I thought to myself and mentally face-hoofed. I dunno what I was thinking, but I had the notion that this club would be a lot more popular than it apparently was.

The atmosphere became instantly awkward the second we passed through the door and the three dudes looked up at us and smiled.

"Oh!" was the only response I really had. I hope it didn't come across as anything rude.

"Hey, there you are! Come on in and have a seat!" Afterburner motioned us to come over to the table.

"Yeah. I just made some coffee..." Another shyer looking colt looked up and half smiled as he peeked out behind his shaggy bangs that were covering half of his face. I could barely understand what he was saying because he was so quiet.

I started drooling the second I heard "coffee" and trotted over to get some. I was addicted to the stuff. From the sound of it, Lightweight was close behind me, needing some as well.

"Oh wait! You're that new chick everypony's talking about!" The third colt stood up and pointed behind me at Light. My ego instantly assumed he was talking about me, but I was kinda glad he wasn't. He had black fur; a pretty uncommon color among ponies. I had only seen one or two colts with black fur in my lifetime. His mane was maroon, a few shades darker than Afterburner's, but it looked like he had just gotten out of bed by the looks of it.

"Who, me? Why is everypony talking about me?" Light sounded like she thought she was in trouble or something as I sat down, thanking the shy guy for pouring me a cup.

"Because you showed everypony up on the diagnostics, duh." I rolled my eyes at her, a little jealous but still keeping a respectful happy mood about it.

"You made everypony look like kindergarteners out there. Oh, my names Heat Wave by the way. Nice to meet 'cha." He shook Lightweights hoof and I held out mine for a hoof-bump, which he returned as well.

"Oh... I'm sorry- I didn't want to make everypony else look bad... Should I have not done so well?"

"Hey, if you've got it, might as well show it off, right? It didn't bother me, though, don't sweat it." He answered reassuringly as he sat down, messing with his mane.

I took a sip from the coffee and cringed before putting a few creamers and some sugar in.

"But... Angel really did better than me, if you think about it..." Lightweight tried to shrug off the attention and it was adorable, really.

"Aw... Thanks, Light." I hugged her in a friendly manner with one hoof.

"Yeah, she's got some punch in those bolts, doesn't she?" Afterburner leaned back in his chair and stretched, obviously feeling tired from it being so late.

"Um... Weren't we supposed to talk about something important, though...?" The shy one spoke up and brushed his black bangs aside slightly.

"Right. Right. Well, now that we have enough ponies to form an official club- I mean, er... That is, if you two decide to stay- We should start planning some activities. I say we-"

"S- Shouldn't we wait and ask them if they want to join first? It's the polite thing to do..." The shy one cut Afterburner off.

"Nah, don't worry. We've got nothing better to do so I don't see why not. You guys seem cool enough anyways." I responded before remembering that I still hadn't heard his name. "What's your name, though? Lemme guess: ice magic?"

His face turned a shade or two happier and he raised his head up. "Lance Frost... H-how did you know?"

"Eh. I have a bad habit of judging magic based on appearances. Plus, your fur's light blue and your cutie mark is a snowflake."

"Oh... W- Well I guess that does make it kind of obvious..." He smiled bashfully and looked down at the table in front of him.

"Pfft. Everypony does that. No sweat. So uh... Yeah, you in or not?" Heat Wave grinned and leaned against the wall, trying to look as cool as possible but somehow managing to fail miserably. I'm not really into guys anyways, but I'd guarantee if I was, I wouldn't get wooed by anything like that.

"Yeah, we're in." Lightweight smiled cheerfully.

"Ditto." I followed up.

"Cool!" Lance didn't come off as being happy all the time, so it was easy for me to notice that he was truly excited. "S- so, um... What should we do? We should probably do some exercises to work on our accuracy so-"

"Accuracy? Are you kidding, we should be putting all our effort into making our spells stronger. There's no point in hitting somepony if you're not gonna hit them hard." Backdraft countered.

Yeah, but there's no point in even casting a spell if you can't even hit the guy... I thought to myself and rolled my eyes at Heat.

"Well... Accuracy is important too, right? I mean, a spell isn't effective if it misses..." Lance retorted, making my eyes widen at the similarities between our thinking.

"I agree with Lance. We can work on our power once we get our accuracy down." I chuckled a little to lighten the mood. "It's not as if we have four years to work on everything, after all."

Heat apparently decided that my opinion was a bit more important than Lances since he didn't say anything after that.

"Heh. Typical fire mage, huh?" Burnie nudged Heat's shoulder teasingly and it caused him to grin a little, thankfully. With those types, you never know when they'll snap. "But yeah, that sounds like a plan, Lance. What do you have in mind?"

"Um..." He put on a pair of nerdy black rimmed glasses that flattered him a little, and read a few lines from one of his many textbooks on the table. "We should probably study out of these to begin with."

"Huh? Why can't we just go outside and practice for real?" I asked him.

They all looked at each other.

"There is the rec center that has some lanes for practice, but..." Burnie seemed troubled as he said it.

"But...?

"Those Night Society punks always take up the whole place and they don't let anypony else practice." Heat said with a bit of frustration in his tone.

"Night Society? What's that?" Lightweight shared in my confusion.

"Oh, they're bad news. They're a club just like us, but they practice dark magic a lot. I dunno why Princess Twilight lets them do it..." Burnie looked down with a troubled look just like Heat's.

"Have you guys even tried going in there?"

They stayed silent and looked down, Lance pretended to be reading to avoid confrontation.

"Oh come on, what are they gonna do?"

"I dunno... They just... I've heard really bad stories. Like last year, one of the freshmen tried to use the bathroom while their leader was in there and he came out missing a nose. They had to work on him for weeks to grow it back with a spell."

I had dealt with bullies before and whoever these Night Society dudes were, they seemed to fit the profile. Still, I had many ways of dealing with them that seemed to help when I was in highschool, so I wasn't really scared even though they screwed around with dark magic.

"Whatever. I think if we all go in there, they wouldn't bother us."

"Well, you've got guts, I'll give you that." Lance finally spoke up again.

"That's just because she's never seen them before." Heat said; I could tell that he and Lance didn't get along well from their back and forth-ing even though Lance seemed mature enough to not make it worse by coming back at him.

"Oh come on, we can't just let a few douche bags get in the way of us getting better at magic!" I was starting to get a little annoyed at their cowardice.

"Angel is right... I'd be willing to stand up to bullies if the opposite meant us never getting better..." Lightweight surprisingly backed me up.

Burnie sighed. "Okay, fine. We'll go after classes tomorrow. You two might be able to scare them off."

I smiled and leaned back in my chair. I wasn't about to give up on my dreams just because some assholes couldn't understand what sharing meant. I had to laugh a little at the thought of Lightweight scaring anypony off, though.

"S- so, what is our club called? We should have a name, right?" Light tactfully changed the subject to avoid awkwardness.

"We haven't really thought of one, yet." Burnie looked down at the ground and thought as he played around with a small fire spell.

"It was going to be 'Fire-nado' until Lance showed up." I instantly burst out laughing at Heat's proposal. "What?! It's a cool name!"

"How 'bout we all write up some ideas and we'll decide tomorrow?" Burnie got up and packed his things. "I dunno about you guys but I'm really craving a bed right now."

I could've stayed up a couple more hours, but I just had to get out of the habit of getting less than six hours of sleep every night. Lightweight stretched her front hooves over her head and groaned cutely and I couldn't keep myself from staring.

"Yo, Angel, how bout you come use my bed? I've got plenty of room." Heat winked at me and teased. I could tell he was joking and I wasn't prudish enough to get offended by it.

I got up and threw my backpack on. Turned out I didn't need any books after all.

"Nah. Sorry partner, my barn door don't swing that way." I replied humorously with a country twang that I learned from Applejack, another one of my mom and dad's good friends. Lightweight, along with everypony except for Heat Wave, chuckled and laughed as my new best friend/marefriend and I walked out. I tried to give my hips a little swing just to tease him and show him what he was missing out on and based on his silence, I figured he was sitting there feeling jealous as he tried to keep himself from staring at my butt futily.

The faint flicker of the lights from the television hit against our furs on the couch. Neither of us really felt tired when we got back to the dorm and Lightweight insisted that we stay up a little later and have fun since our first morning class together was cancelled for some odd reason.

I eyed the Quest Box underneath the VCR and sure enough, it was the newest model. The crossing swords logo on the side gave it away. Those things were easily six hundred bits, so I had to sit back in awe of how much of a budget C.A.A.M. had to get one of those things in each and every dorm room. That is, assuming there was one in every dorm room and my dad didn't just get us the best and most luxurious room available.

"Hey, you like video games? They got the new Quest Box here if 'ya want." I looked over at her and smiled.

She gasped and looked at where I was pointing and nearly came unglued from the cushion. "Oh my goodness! I never saw that! Yeah, I love them!"

"Sweet. You wanna play some? I think I saw Modern War Battles Five down there."

"Awesome!" She didn't waste any time getting down and reaching underneath the television to set everything up.

"I think it’s set to auxiliary four." I said as I scrolled through the channels. "There's two contro- tro... Llers..."

I got cut off by my heart skipping a beat in my chest. As she bent down, her light yellow colored ass poked up in the air at me and I got a front row seat of her small marehood peeking out between her ass cheeks. My cheeks felt red hot and my heart was thumping hard as I tried not to soak the couch from my girl boner.

"Huh? Two controllers? Yeah! Okay..." She dug deeper and her butt waved back and forth as I drooled, feeling extremely naughty for being able to stare at it for so long without her noticing. "Got it!"

I looked up at the ceiling and tried to take a few deep breaths to get over myself while she joined me back on the couch.

"You alright?"

"Y- Yeah! Yeah, great!" Okay maybe my cover up wasn't the best, but if you saw that ass that I saw... You'd know. "Oh, and just to let you know, I'm pretty good at M.W.B. My k.d. ratio is like two." I puffed out my chest comically and she giggled, trying my best not to give away what I was going through at the moment.

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that!" She stuck her tongue out at me as the screen came on and we began picking our classes.

I always picked the spec ops guy with a magic horn suppressor to hide the sound of his magic and an enchanted skin-tight outfit that could be used as active camouflage. All he had was a crossbow, but he made up for his lack of gear with extra points for enchanting my crossbow bolts.

Lightweight picked the buster mage, which was about the complete opposite of my character: loud and powerful spells everywhere without the slightest hint of stealth or tactics. I had unlocked one of the most powerful buster mage weapons in the game, so of course she picked that after saying "ooh!" when she selected over it.

I picked a map with lots of cover since I knew I'd need some against a buster mage.

"Heh. Better bring your "A" game, Angel!" She nudged my shoulder with hers, but it never really went back. She just leaned on me from then on and it made me feel a little warm and fuzzy inside.

"Oh you know it!"

We both spawned and it only took like five seconds for her to find me; it was before I could even activate my cloaking device when she launched a giant ice spear right through me, one-shotting me. She giggled while my mouth hung open in disbelief. If it were an online game, I would've started complaining about hacking because of how quick she snapped to me and blasted my face.

"Yay!"

Holy shit, she's good...

"Alright, Light! I see how it's gonna be!" I put my metaphorical try-hard cap on and respawned, no longer afraid to hold back under the notion that she wasn't any good.

"Oh shit, oh shit!" I was mashing buttons with the controller tightly wound in my magic, trying to get one last kill to break even before time ran out.

"Five!" The game announcer called out in a masculine bad-ass tone. I spotted Light on the ground below the catwalks I was on and jumped down with my stealth enabled.

"Four!" I knew I only had one shot at it, so I tried not to open fire until I was within range.

"Oh no! I hear you!" She leaned in close and focused, trying to find the slight distortion of vision that was the only thing keeping me from being completely invisible. She shot a couple of explosive rounds on the ground and one of them hit me, disabling my cloaking.

"Three!" Before she had another chance to shoot, I did my best to aim at her head, knowing it would be the only way I'd be able to kill her fast enough.

"There you are!"

"Two!" My reticle moved over her face within a fraction of a second and I opened fire, scoring a headshot and killing her as she brought me to five percent health.

"One!" The game ended.

"Ooohh damn!" I threw myself back against the couch, taking a deep breath from the anxiety.

"It’s a draw! Stand down, mages!"

"Wow! That was really close!" She said happily. I could tell she wasn't suffering from first person shooter butthurt, which was good. I wasn't either since it was impossible to be mad with her even though she was using all the O.P. weapons and skills that usually made me kinda frustrated.

"Woo! That was good..." I set the controller down as it went back to the lobby.

"Yeah, that was fun!" Light did the same.

"I didn't take 'ya for being a first person shooter whiz." I raised my eyebrow at her and chuckled.

"Oh, yeah. My dad and I used to play them all the time back at home. He said it helped sharpen his coordination between his eyes and his magic."

"What?! Your dad played video games with you?!" I sat up in surprise. "Lucky... I wish my dad did that."

"Your's doesn't? I heard your dad was like, really cool with kids." Lightweight tilted her face sideways cutely in confusion.

"Well..." I looked up at the ceiling and thought of him. "He's like me in a lot of ways, so I guess you're right."

"Really?" Light leaned towards me and smiled the sweetest smile she pushed her mane out of her eyes. "Tell me more, Angel. I like hearing about you."

"Oh, uh... Alright." I blushed, not used to the one-on-one attention, especially from a bombshell like her. My eyes were nervously darting left and right to try and avoid hers, but one way or another, they always worked their way back. "I mean, what do you wanna know?"

"About your dad. Or, I mean, how you're like him." She replied, looking a bit nervous herself.

"He's... Kinda quirky, shy a lot of times around new ponies..." I grinned. "Really awkward around my friends. I think he just does that on purpose so he can embarrass me, though."

She didn't say anything at first, she just laid there on her belly holding her head up with her hooves and staring up at me as if I were something to behold.

I kept going. "I would've gotten my mane all blue if it weren't for his genes, but I have a black one with this one blue streak here.” I played with it and straightened it out. “Oh, and I somehow got his really bad sense of humor."

"Oh? What'cha mean?" Light kept smiling and stared up at me, no longer seeming nervous as her tail flipped back and forth slowly, hinting she was interested.

"Geez... Like when we go out to eat and the waitress would say "My name's blah blah if you need me" or whatever, he'd say "what would your name be if we didn't need you?" I couldn't help but giggle at my own joke, or his, rather, but Light cracked up more than I thought she would.

"That's hilarious!"

"Yeah, it's really bad dad humor, but I'm starting to use it too now sometimes, so I guess he's starting to wear off on me." I rolled my eyes and leaned back, delighting in the irony.

"I didn't really think your humor was that corny..."

"Well, yeah... I guess I kinda laid off it since..." I paused, feeling the heat of embarrassment wash over my face.

"Since what...?" She teased and fluttered her long eyelashes at me, obviously sensing my flustering.

"S- Since, um... Since I didn't want to weird you out or anything..."

She giggled and hugged me, rubbing her cheek against mine. "Aw, Angel... You don't have to be so nervous around me!"

"Y- Yeah, I know..." I let her rub up on me and smiled.

She pecked my cheek with her tender lips and before I could question it, she got up and stretched.

"Geez, I'm beat... "

To be honest, her affection made a bit of adrenaline rush through me, so my drowsiness was temporarily overridden, but I figured once I got into bed, it'd come back quick enough.

"Me too..." I stretched my legs as well.

She turned off the console by tapping the power button with the tip of her controller, then headed for the bathroom to brush her teeth. I had a bad habit of not doing it every night, but if it meant not having her have to deal with my bad morning breath, I decided it'd be best to break my habit quickly. I had to cut out as many possible bad impressions as I could while I was with her even though she was just talking to me about not worrying about what she'd think about me.

Then again, not brushing ones teeth and not telling corny jokes were two different things.

Somehow, with her talent for telekinesis, she turned the faucet to the sink even though there were two walls separating them.

"Whoa, nice. You really are good at that, huh?"

"Yup! I kinda learned some stuff by myself for working with my dad."

"Yeah, figures. I guess construction work will do that."

The bathroom was wide enough for both of us to fit comfortably inside it, so we brushed our teeth at the same time as I felt the aforementioned wave of drowsiness wash over me already. Lightweight tied her mane in a ponytail as she did so, probably to keep it from getting too crazy during sleep. I would've done the same, but my mane seemed to look better the messier it was and the more it got teased. I couldn't help but feel lucky in that regard.

I took my turn rinsing my mouth out since I was closer and Lightweight did the same after me while I dried my muzzle off.

"Hey, we don't have to wake up 'till eight-thirty tomorrow."

"I know, right? So awesome..." I pumped my hoof and grinned as I opened the door to the bedroom.

Light giggled and was about to get into her bed, but she stopped and looked at me strangely, as if she had something to say but was trying not to say it in the wrong way. The tiny sliver of light coming from the hallway through the door hit one of her blue eyes and made it twinkle.

"Um... Do you..." She paused and looked down.

"Hm?" I said, getting into my bed and throwing the covers over me.

"C- Can I... Sleep in your bed again...?" Light had the cutest shyest face on her that I couldn't say no to even if I wanted to in the first place.

I grinned and rolled my eyes teasingly, lifting up the sheets next to me invitingly. A wide smile instantly grew on her while she joined me, instantly snuggling up to my side, warming me up and giggling excitedly.

"I dunno if I've already told you, but you're probably the cutest thing I've ever seen."

"Oh, um... Thanks." She blushed and I turned on my side to face her, only to realize that she was doing the same. We stayed there for several moments, just staring at each other.

Out of nowhere, I got over my nervousness and put a hoof around her side, pulling her close to me and hugging her a bit more intimately than most hugs were. Her face was about two inches away from mind and we could both feel each other’s chests thumping hard.

My nose booped against hers accidentally and we both giggled, but it wasn't long after that until Lightweight made the move and kissed me gently. I closed my eyes and let her lips do what they wanted to mine.

She took a deep intake of breath and her body wrapped around mine more as the kiss got deeper and a little more intense. I felt one of her hind legs rest over my thigh and I nearly moaned in anxiousness when her tongue began teasing against mine.

I had to pull back to catch my breath and when I opened my eyes, Light was giving me the most heated pair of bedroom eyes I'd ever seen.

"T- That was nice..." was the only thing I could manage to piece together. I could still feel her front hoof wrapped around my neck and her hind leg resting over my thigh, pulling my waist close to hers, and it was thoroughly enough to turn me on. Though, I restrained myself and waited for her to decide how far she'd be willing to go.

"Oh, really...? You thought that was nice...?" She grinned and kissed the nape of my neck, forcing me to let out a small moan of surprise as my hoof clutched her waist.

I was starting to realize that all her naughtiness that was devoid throughout the day tended to leak out in bed, not that I really minded, of course.

My body was trembling from how excited I was feeling and my fur was starting to stand up as she gave my sensitive neck a tiny lick along with a cute tiny giggle in my ear.

"L- Light... Ahhh..." I was breathing even more heavily then, not even attempting to hide how good it felt anymore. "I... I won't be able to sleep now, you goof..." I grit my teeth when I felt her soft wet tongue slide up against the grain of my fur and tickle under my ear: still one of my most sensitive spots to this day. When she flicked her tongue there, my whole body jolted and my back arched.

"Oh goodness..." She giggled again. "I think I found your spot..."

Oh no... Luna save me... I stared up at the ceiling and let her do whatever she wanted, which I quickly figured out was to lick my ear more.

I let out a few more moans, which just made her want to do it more and eventually, I felt her hoof rubbing gently on my belly.

"If you're too awake... I know a good way that'll make you fall asleep real quick..." She whispered and my ears perked up.

Author's Note

If there are any errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 7: Not So Fast

I originally thought she was just wanting to snuggle and play around a little in a non-sexual way, but as her hoof got lower, I began to realize what she was about to do. It was highly unfitting since we'd only known each other for less than a week.

I wanted it so badly... My body was shivering and squirming, telling me to let her hoof do whatever it wanted, but it just didn't feel right in the end. It wasn't that I didn't think she was the one (if that was even possible to know after just a few days). I guess I just didn't want to spoil the relationship and have it burn out in two week’s time, which tended to happen when I let mares get too close to me too fast.

"L- Light, wait..."

"Hm? What's wrong? Don't tell me this is your first time, Angel..." Her hoof didn't come off of my lower belly, but it didn't show any signs of going any lower.

"No, I... I just... I dunno, you think maybe we should... Take all this a little slower?"

Her hoof slid off and I could almost feel her happiness drain from her. I knew I was blue-balling her (or whatever the female version of that saying was) and I felt terrible for it.

I sighed and tried to sound as sincere and non-upset as possible so I wouldn't give the wrong impression. "I'm sorry, Light... I just don't want to spoil anything between us... I mean, we just met a couple of days ago."

She slid down under the covers to where she was before and I laid back on my side.

"You're right..." She closed her eyes, looking somewhat guilty. "I'm sorry, I... It's just been a long time and I couldn't help myself..."

"No, it's alright. I-"

Her voice got slightly unstable and she pulled the sheets over her face. "I'm so terrible... I didn't even think about whether or not you wanted it... I... Nnghh, what was I thinking?"

Whoa... Emotional roller coaster much?

"Hey, hey... Shh." Forced into an awkward situation, I wrapped my hoof around her waist and tried to calm her down. "It's alright, I promise."

She let out a couple of whimpers, hinting that she was on the verge of crying. I couldn't just leave it there, but I didn't really know what to say to calm her down. I couldn't just lie and say it wasn't too much of advancement.

I got an idea and pulled the covers down off of her face. She tried to pull them back, but I didn't let her.

"Hey, how 'bout we go grab dinner tomorrow? There's this place called Gastoire's that looks really fancy."

She wiped her eyes cutely, sniffed and looked up at me with puppy dog eyes. She couldn't have made herself look cuter if she had scripted it. "Y- You mean like... A date?"

"Well... Yeah." My eyes drifted off and I blushed. I never really had an issue with asking mares out before, so I couldn't really explain my nervousness then. "So we can just hang out and get to know each other better. I mean, outside of school and all that... Oof!"

Her smile came back and she returned my hug tight, almost squeezing the life out of me.

"You're the best, Angel..."

"H- Heh... Don't sweat it... Nnghh!"

Light finally realized she was hugging too tight and relaxed with a quick "sorry" and a wobbly grin through her dense blender of emotions she was feeling at the moment.

A couple of awkward silent minutes passed. It was apparent that neither of us were very tired after all that. My eyes were beginning to adjust to the darkness and I could easily see the outline of all the furniture in the room, along with the gentle curve of Lightweight's body under the sheets next to me.

"But, um... Hey, don't get the wrong idea. I still like you." I said softly before kissing her tender lips briefly.

"Okay... I really like you too." Her head tucked against my chest and my hoof, almost instinctively, stroked the fur on her back.

"What kind of conditioner do you use?" I said with my muzzle extremely close to her mane.

"Huh? Oh, it's this shampoo my mom always used. It's-"

"Coconut?" I couldn't help but chuckle.

"Yeah... Is it that obvious? If it's too much I can-"

"Nah, it's cool." I used the subject and the intimate embrace we were currently in to stuff my muzzle deeper into her mane and sniff without coming off as creepy and also to segway into learning more about her. "I like it..."

I paused. Her mane was gradually relaxing me.

"What's your mom like, Light? You usually just talk about your dad."

"Oh, my mom died a few years ago."

My ears flattened back a little, but I let her talk it out.

"When she had me, her body never really recovered and... We finally decided to let her go. It was to the point where she was on full life support, so we figured it'd be best to... You know."

"Geez, Light, I'm so sorry, I didn't know..." It made me cringe on my insides to imagine what that must've been like for her. My mom's such a strong mare; just thinking about what it'd be like to see her like that depressed me. It would've crushed my world.

"It's alright. I got to make a lot of good memories with her before she went." Judging by her calmness and lack of hesitation, I could tell that she was over it, though I noted not to push the subject any more than I had to.

"That's good... You're really strong for being able to pull yourself through all that."

"Thanks." She hugged my neck tighter for a second. "My dad took it a lot worse, though."

"Yeah, I can't even imagine... But he's okay, right?"

"Hm? Oh, yeah. He gets a bit spacey from time to time thinking about her but other than that, he's fine." She took a deep breath. "What about your mom? I mean, I know who she is, obviously, but..."

I chuckled softly. "She's like me, I guess. We'd always get into trouble together back at home and try to hide it from dad. Sometimes it felt like she was my best friend more than she was my mom. We didn't really do stuff like makeup or shopping together because she hated that, but we do just about everything together."

"She sounds really fun to be around..." Lightweight was looking up at me and listening attentively as if she was actually interested in what I was saying. "You do seem a little less... Um, out there than your mom, though." She smirked teasingly.

"Well, my dad keeps me in check for the most part. He's kinda like my buffer when I get too far away from what's safe. He lets me do what I want and lets me have fun with mom, but he'll put a stop to it if it goes too far."

"Really? He kinda seems like that passive type to me."

"Oh, trust me. He's pretty chill but when mom or I are in danger or in trouble, he turns into super protecto-dad nine-thousand."

She laughed a little harder and covered her mouth with the sheets.

"Super protecto-dad, huh?"

"Heh. Yup. He's a big sweetheart, though."

"He sounds that way... I kinda thought being married to Vinyl and being so important would go to his head, but I guess not."

"Nah. He's always been the same. Actually, he kinda helps mom keep her ego in check sometimes. It's pretty funny."

I felt her hoof play with the fur on my chest and she let out a yawn.

"I'm sure you've got tons of stories to tell..."

"Mhmm. Tons. I'll tell ya a few tomorrow night... If you behave." I booped my nose against hers and she giggled lightly.

"Mkay... S- Sorry again about earlier... I guess finding out more about each other can be just as fun." She admitted as her body relaxed into the sheets. I tried not to crack up from how corny it sounded, but she was right.

"Hey, don't worry about it. It's all under the bridge. Let's just get some sleep for now."

"Yeah... Right."

I closed my eyes and tried to focus on her scent to lull me to sleep.

"Night, Light."

"Night, Angel." She kissed my cheek and I rubbed her back a few times in an affectionate reply.

The bell ringing usually meant a sigh of relief for me, but it meant more than that on that day. Our plan to try and practice at the rec building was still a go and I have to admit, I was getting nervous despite my strong front the night before. The only threats I ever had to face with ass-hats like that were just rocks and punches being thrown at me, but the factor of them using dark magic made me more unsettled than usual.

Burnie and Heat were both in my end-of-the-day class, but Light and Lance weren't, so we had to wait outside for them.

"We're still doing this, right? I mean, you know there's a good chance-" Heat actually sounded a bit timid.

"Dude, just don't act afraid around them and it'll be fine. Trust me. Ponies like them tend to gravitate towards scaredy-cats." I tried to act as reassuringly as I could.

"Hey! What'cha mean scaredy-cat?!"

"I'm not calling you one, I'm just saying not to act like one."

Heat gave up, grumbled and pouted.

"I mean, there're teachers there, right? It's not like they can get away with everything." I turned to Burnie, the more level headed of the two.

"Eh... Yeah, but they're kinda tight-knit with some of them." He lazily replied whilst staring into one of his textbooks.

I rolled my eyes, knowing there was nothing I could really do about that. We ended up strolling around to the front of the building so it'd make it easier for Light and Lance to spot us.

"Actually, we might get lucky. I know most of the clubs have meetings tonight, so maybe they’ll be doing that instead." Burnie closed his book and looked out the window at the mid-afternoon sky.

"Then why did we have ours yesterday?" I raised my eyebrow.

"Well, since we're not an official club yet, we don't really need to have weekly meetings, so it doesn't matter. Oh, that reminds me: any ideas for a name?"

"I was thinking the 'Adepts'." I somewhat lied, thinking of the name on the spot. I had to give myself credit; it wasn't bad for the first thing that popped into my head.

"Hm... I like that. Nice and simple."

"Aw come on, that's lame. I sill think 'Fire-nado' is the best."

I was about to say something smart, but I felt something nudge me. Light was directly at my side when I turned and it made me jump a little.

"See? Even Angel's nervous. I'm telling you, this is a bad idea." Heat kept complaining and I was getting tired of it.

"Am not! I-"

Lightweight cut me off and smiled. "Let's just go. I'm sure if we're polite, they won't get mad."

Either her fear was being excellently hidden, or she had an admirable amount of optimism. Either way, I was glad she was coming with me. I stuffed my pride away and took a deep breath.

"We might as well go now before the rec center closes." Light walked ahead and opened the door for us with her magic. "Come on."

As she turned back and gave me a wink, I couldn't avoid noticing that she was just like me in several ways; not that I was narcissistic or anything, but I felt like I was talking to myself when we were together. Albeit, she was somewhat shyer and had more sensitive emotions.

We all looked at each other and then left, knowing that there was no turning back. Sure, I didn't want my nose to disappear via dark magic, but I'd rather that than just sitting at my dorm room fiddling my hooves whilst not making any progress with my magic at all. I think it was safe to say that the others felt the same.

As Burnie predicted, there weren't a lot of ponies out and about given the time of day. It was beginning to grow apparent that he knew a lot about this school that the rest of us didn't. I didn't know whether or not he was a freshman. If so, he obviously learned a lot about the school quickly. Either way, I didn't know because I forgot to ask him. Although... He did seem pretty mature despite his younger appearance.

None of us said a word as we crossed the courtyard to the rec center. Light and Lance were acceptable culprits of this, but it seemed a little out of character for Burnie and Heat. Especially Heat.

I didn't think much of it earlier because I was hyped up with motivation, but I was starting to grow a little worried myself the closer I got to the two story tall brick building that I took from context clues to be the rec center. I could've just convinced myself that Heat was chicken even though he put up a strong front, but my gut was telling me that it probably took a significant amount of unfortunate and disturbing situations to get somepony like that so worked up over a club.

One thing was for sure, though. No matter what happened, I wouldn't let anypony lay a hoof on Light.

"Alright... Here we go..." Burnie opened the the double glass doors with "C.A.A.M." and the logo on them in fogged material.

Most of my anxiety faded away when I stepped into the building where the main lobby was. It was something that I always did as far back as I could remember: being super nervous about something all the way until the actual event, then feeling fine when it came to happen. In that circumstance, as Burnie walked forward and talked to the semi-attractive mare working at the front desk, I thanked myself for having that trait because I knew that any visible anxiety still left in me would make me bully bait fast.

"Yes ma'am." He kept talking while the rest of us scouted around. It was impossible to see who was practicing in the gym-like area to our right due to a wall cutting off the view of everything behind it, but we could see the glossed wooden floors that resembled a basketball court, as well as hear one or two *cracks* and *pops* of spells. There were ponies in there, but thankfully, it sounded like there were only one or two.

"Thank you!" He thanked the mare behind the counter with a sweet smile and then went back to us, the smile fading into him biting his lip and looking into the gym. "Alright, we have an hour. You guys ready?"

The second we rounded the corner, our fears diminished drastically. There were about fifty or so lanes on the far end of the gym, each one wide enough to fit one pony, but we could only see one tail sticking out of them. Almost by instinct, we all went for the lanes on the opposite side of the one pony, putting as much distance as we could from whoever he or she was.

"Alright, so we're gonna work on accuracy, right?" Light said as she took her lane and sized up the targets, finding a bucket filled with stone spheres and placing them on the table in her little booth.

"Yeah, but since you and Angel seem to already have it down, you mind giving us a few pointers?" Lance humbly said while taking his glasses off and cleaning them. From context clues, I assumed that he was nearsighted.

"W-Well... Angel could do that, but I'm just good at throwing rocks straight..." Lightweight shyly and humbly shrugged the responsibility of helping onto me. I was never one to be braggy. I probably got it from my dad, but at the same time, I liked being a leader and helping ponies learn what I already knew.

"Alright, if you say so. Um..." I tried to think of what to start with as they all stared at me awkwardly. Even Heat, who came across as bossy and rash, seemed compliant enough to listen to what I had to say.

Thinking back to Twilight's lesson, I figured that the same principles would apply even though the type of magic changed.

Worth a shot, I guess...

"Alright, well... I guess go ahead and start shooting spells, and I'll... Tell 'ya if there's anything you're doing wrong? That sound good?" I said with an awkward sense of uncertainty, trying hard not to come off as bossy.

"Gotcha."

"Yep!"

Lance nodded his head silently, and they all went at it. In the beginning, Lightweight was just casually lobbing rocks at targets and humming to herself, but the velocity of her telekinesis increased the more she threw. After a while, though, I stopped watching the stones and taking the opportunity to take peeks at her plot. Her tail was slightly in the way of the money shot, but that was only to be expected since it would've been weird of she was lifting it up for everypony to see.

For a split second, I almost regretted stopping her last night.

When I turned back to the other three, I blushed and tried to play it off because Lance was looking right at me. He must've seen me checking out Light's ass because I wasn't trying to hide it; I thought nopony was looking.

"Um... Y-You need help with something...?" I smiled awkwardly and trotted over to him. He returned it with a creepy grin like he knew exactly what was going through my mind and whispered back.

"You like her, don't you?"

Nervously, I glanced over at the rest of the group and made a *shh* sound. Thankfully, he wasn't cruel enough to spill the beans. At least, at the moment.

"Actually, there is something you could help me with..." He flicked off some sort of ice bolt that I'd never seen before and it went straight for a few yards, but then quickly spiraled off and struck the side of the wall, leaving a dense splatter of ice where it hit. "I don't know what it is... I'm firing them straight, but..."

I asked him to shoot another and studied it closer that time. To me, it seemed like he was concentrating hard enough before and at the time of him firing it, but he lost all interest the spell as soon as it left his horn. It was a common mistake I used to do with my bolts all the time, even though it wasn't as much of an issue with me since a vast majority of my spells didn't include actual projectiles.

"Are you like... Concentrating on the path of it after you shoot it, or just doing a 'fire and forget' thing?"

"Fire and forget..." He replied as if I were asking a silly question.

"Um, try and stay focused on the spell while it’s in mid-flight and think of it like you're pushing it forward; see what happens."

"Uh... Alright." If his general character wasn't the shy and sweet type, I would've taken his reaction as snotty, but I'm sure it was just because I was telling him something he'd never heard of before.

I stepped back and looked at Heat and Burnie, leaving Lance to practice by himself. I knew from experience that having somepony hover over you for too long got annoying real quick when you were practicing. The other two didn't seem too too bad, but they were clearly lacking in the accuracy department, as I predicted.

The cool thing I noticed about Heat Wave was that he wasn't just using conventional fire spells. Instead, judging by the distortion of the air in front of him after he cast spells, he was heating up the air molecules. It was an ingenious idea that I'd never thought of or seen before and I had to give him credit for stepping outside the norm. I could see where he got his name from, too. Still, it was obvious that his spells were completely unpredictable in both direction and strength. Burnie had the same problem. I didn't even have to look his way to know; I had his performance at the diagnostics to prove it.

On the off chance Heat hit the target, the heat that he generated was so hot that the target instantly combusted into flames. Luckily, the floor and the lining of the walls were made of some sort of fire retardant material; the spells that missed simply *poofed*, causing no visible damage.

I sighed and tried to strengthen my patience since I figured I'd be spending more time helping the three boys practice rather than practicing myself.

Looking around the gym and trying not to hover too much, I saw that the area was polished to the highest degree. The bright white stadium-grade lights above shone on the wooden floor, revealing a spotless and unblemished surface. The nicest touch, though, was the giant C.A.A.M. emblem on the middle of the floor with elegant old english lettering. The only time I had ever seen it was on the small brochure my dad gave to me a few days prior. It was nice, though. It made the school seem more royal and elite.

My attention directed to the one pony at the end stepping back and packing up. I wondered what I'd do and honestly, the only two options I had were both attractive. A: I would give a friendly smile and then turn back to my friends or B: I would completely ignore her.

It turned out I had to go with option A when she trotted right in my direction, her eyes fixated on me. The prolonged eye contact made me a little uneasy and I tried to snap my eyes away a few times to keep from making things more awkward.

Conversation was unavoidable.

"Hey." I smiled as casually as I could.

"Angel Bolt, huh? I thought you'd be a little more intimidating." She grinned smartly and brushed her jet black emo mane aside. Her voice made her sound like she had just hit puberty and was trying to act deep-voiced and mature even though she was clearly just as old as me or maybe older.

"Oh, w- well..." I giggled nervously, not knowing what to respond with.

"And what are you doing hanging around with these losers? You should be practicing with ponies your level." She glanced at my friends and held her hoof to the side of her muzzle.

Okay... Obviously not the nice type... I thought to myself. Still, I tried my best not to be ugly back.

"Eh, they're cool."

"Pfft." She chuckled and glanced over at my friends again right in time to see Burnie shank a fireball off and almost escape outside the lane, going haywire. To make the image worse, Lightweight was tossing around rocks like she was playing rather than practicing. "You sure about that?"

I didn't respond; I was a bit embarrassed, to be honest, despite my gut telling me not to be.

"Anyway-" She leaned close and gave me a smirk. "If you ever wanna join a real club where ponies actually practice, go try out for the Night Society. You'd fit in perfectly there."

Not with ponies like you there, I wouldn't... I suppressed my urge to talk back and defend my friends.

"We use magic for real. Not like little fillies do at playgrounds." She started to trot off and her dark green tail swished in my face rudely.

"Seeya there, Bolt. That is, if you're unicorn enough."

"Um... Okay..." I raised an eyebrow at her as she walked away and she simply responded with a short chuckle as if what I said was lame or pathetic.

It wasn't the type of behavior most bullies used, but it was still enough to aggravate me. My friends didn't seem to notice the altercation since they were still whizzing away spells.

Still, she made me admit something that I had been pushing back for a long time. With the exception of Lightweight, the ponies I picked as friends... Kinda sucked at magic. It felt bad to put myself above them but the truth was, if this kept up, they'd end up holding me back.

For a moment, I thought of dropping by one of their meetings just to humor myself. The instant mental reaction of "Don't do that, they're bullies" flashed in my head, but I had to give them the benefit of the doubt. I mean, there had to be at least one pony in that club that wasn't a jerk, right?

I let out a large exhale of pent up tension from the encounter and made my way back to the others, doing my best to push down that feeling you get when you finally convince yourself of something you denied for so long. When I looked back at my friends, I didn't see them with the same optimistic and helpful attitude I did before; I looked at them like they were below my level and not worth my time if I wanted to get better.

And I hated myself for thinking like that, so much that it almost made me vomit. Lightweight was a beacon of hope in that regard since it was obvious that she had just as much skill as I did, but the others...

"Hey, Angel? You alright over there?" Light was the first to notice that I was still standing back, obviously in deep thought.

"Y- Yeah! I'm good!" I trotted back towards them, hiding my conflicting emotions.

Once Heat Burnie and Lance split up and headed off towards the boy's dorm, the conversation took a quiet turn between Lightweight and I. We casually walked through the lobby of our dorm and I couldn't avert my eyes fast enough to miss the same Night Society mare I met at the rec center sitting on the sofa, chatting with some of her friends that looked even darker than she did. She gave me a wink and a grin and I tried to smile back, but I had to hide it significantly to avoid Light's detection. I was quick enough to look away to miss the rest of them turning and looking at me, which would've been just too embarrassing and awkward.

"So how did the boys do? I didn't see because of the lanes." Light finally broke the silence.

"Eh. They were okay. They're not as good as us." I nudged her shoulder teasingly, trotting down the smooth carpet in the hallway towards our room.

"Aw, I don't think so. I'm sure they'll be great once they practice more!"

I had to give her credit for her optimism and I couldn't quite admit that she was entirely wrong. Besides that, it was tough to disagree with her on just about everything; I didn't have the heart to tell her.

"Ooh! Brr..." Lightweight shivered as the door opened and a blast of cold air escaped. "Forgot to turn the a/c off..."

I smiled and shook my head at her comically while she quickly went to the other side of the room to flip off the switch to the unit affixed underneath the large window overlooking the courtyard. I mentally questioned why she turned it on in the first place.

I had almost forgotten about our little "date" to Gastoires. It only occurred to me then that I should've made a reservation.

"Ah, shit..."

"What's wrong?" Lightweight closed the curtains with her magic and sat down on the couch.

"Well, we should've made reservations for tonight. I didn't even think about it."

"Oh..." She looked troubled but her face lit up again promptly. "Hey, maybe they'll let you in because of your dad!"

I gave her a "Really...?" look.

"Or... Not. Well, we can always try someplace else."

"Yeah..."

I picked up one of the little brochures on the kitchen counter that had been sitting there since we arrived. Flipping through, it was challenging to find a place that didn't cost two hundred bits but wasn't shady or a hole in the wall.

"I got it." Lightweight jumped up from the couch and trotted towards the door. Somepony had been knocking at it, but I had just then noticed it.

I didn't have time to really contemplate why I didn't hear it at first before Light unlocked and opened it. Her face had awe and shock written all over it before I could even see who was there, and when I trotted around to see, I understood Light's reaction.

It wasn't until I saw her insanely pampered mane and eyelashes that I realized who it was. When she saw me, she picked me up in a big warm hug.

"There's my little Angel!" Rarity said whilst squeezing the life out of me. I almost had to cough from the dense amount of perfume she was wearing.

"Nnghh... H- Hi, Rarity..."

Oh Luna, help me...

Author's Note

If there are any errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 8: Rarity Saves The Day!

"So... You're here because of a client, you said?" I asked whilst sipping some of the tea she brought for us, sitting on the couch next to Lightweight with Rarity taking up the reclining chair to the side. It wasn't bad, actually. The tea, that is. And that's coming from somepony who usually hates it.

"Well, yes, but I thought it would just be rude to not pay you a visit! I haven't seen you in so long... I was beginning to miss my little dress-up doll!" Rarity squeed, most likely reminiscing on the times she used to dress me up in the outfits she made for me. Luna, was that embarrassing.

"Little dress-up doll?" Lightweight apparently picked up on it.

"Oh goodness, she was simply adorable back when she was a little filly and I would dress her up in all sorts of things! I only wish I remembered to bring pictures!

"I'd like to see that, actually..." Light shot a mischievous glance at me and I rolled my eyes at her.

It was at that point when my eyes rolled around the room that I glanced at the digital clock beneath the television and realized that we only had an hour or so before our "date", if you could call it that. I nudged Light while Rarity was still blabbering about my young filly days and pointed it out to her. I knew that she noticed, but she chose to ignore it for the time being which only fueled my impatience further.

"Well! Enough of my rambling." Rarity giggled and waved her hoof at us very effeminately. "How are your classes going so far, Angel? And, who is this lovely mare you managed to befriend?" She turned her attention to Light. "I must warn you, Angel here has quite an interest in the opposite side of the fence, if you catch my meaning."

We both blushed and looked away from each other.

"Y- Yes, ma'am... She... Already told me about that..." Light stuttered out, obviously embarrassed. I thanked her mentally for not spilling the beans about us then. "I'm sorry for not introducing myself earlier; my name's Lightweight. It's very nice to meet you, Miss Rarity."

"Charmed, but please, just Rarity will do." Rarity said back.

"R- Right... Sorry. Well, as for our classes, we've only had a few days, so it's not really difficult so far but we did have our diagnostic tests. Angel did really well!"

"Whatever... You did better." I crossed my front hooves against my chest.

"Nuh uh! You should've seen her, Rarity! She was throwing out lightning bolts like a Canterlot battle mage!"

"Come on, they weren't that good..." I smiled from the praise.

"Oh, I believe you, Lightweight. I remember back in the day when this little mare accidentally poked her horn into one of my electrical sockets and shorted out my electricity for an entire hour!"

"Y- Yeah... Sorry about that..."

"No need to apologize, sweetie. It certainly made quite the story!"

"I'll say... She hasn't told me about that one yet..." Light raised an eyebrow and looked at me as if she was picking at me for not telling more about myself.

Rarity sighed and relaxed in the chair. "But, I digress."

I looked over at the clock again and Rarity noticed.

"Is something the matter? I hope I'm not interrupting any plans!"

Light and I both looked at each other awkwardly and she decided to speak up after a few seconds.

"We were... Actually about to go to dinner at this place called Gastoire’s and... Well, um..."

"Gastoire’s?! Oh Celestia! I certainly hope you have something fitting to wear! That restaurant is ranked as one of the highest class restaurants in Canterlot!"

Another "oh shit" look was shared between Light and I.

"For heaven’s sake, don't tell me you don't have any formal attire! You can't be serious!"

"Yeah, well... We didn't really know how high class it was so..." Light twirled her mane around her hoof nervously.

"That simply will not do. Come on, girls." Rarity suddenly got up and made her way to the door.

"Huh? We're going somewhere?"

"Yes, Angel. We're going to find something nice for you girls to wear and I will not take no for an answer!"

Rarity's confident and determined smile was hard to argue against and since Light didn't protest, I didn't either.

"Come along, now! Chop chop! Fashion waits for nopony!" She held the door open for us, treating us like her children which wasn't really odd for her personality. Light and I both shared a shrug and got up.

"Honestly, what kind of establishment did you two think Gastoire’s was?"

We walked past her and I purposefully held my breath to keep from being maced by her perfume. It took all the willpower I had not to grimace and risk being rude in front of her. Celestia knows my parents would hear about it...

"Well, I saw a little brochure thingie that made it seem like a little family-owned place... You know, somewhere off the grid and low-key?"

Rarity looked at her as if she just said purple was a flavor. "You've got to be joking..."

If you guessed I didn't like dresses and makeup and all that, then bingo! You win!

In all seriousness, though, I'd actually rather babysit all of Fluttershy's pets for one day than have to wear one dress for an hour straight; I hated the things.

That being said, I loved shopping for them. Yeah, I know it’s hypocritical, but there are just some things my chromosomes won't let me not like. Shopping for dresses is one of those things.

Wearing them? Not so much. Hopefully, you understand now.

Lightweight, on the other hand, couldn't restrain herself for even a second before going all googley-eyed at the dresses on the mannequin's behind all the store windows. I rolled my eyes at her even though I thought it was adorable and that secretly, if there weren't as many ponies around, I'd probably be joining her.

"Miss Rarity?" I tried to be polite as I could to her. "Which one of these stores do you think we should try?"

"Oh. We aren't going to be fitting you with one of those pieces of commercial filth..." She acted as if she was getting sick just looking at them. "No. We're going to put you two in a couple of my dresses. I have quite a few left over from my meeting with a, um... Client. It just so happens I have about a half dozen that would fit you perfectly! Of course, I won't know for sure until we break out the measuring tape, but your body size-"

I tuned her out at that point and I was sure, despite Light's apparent appreciation for apparel, that she wasn't that interested in so many details, either.

Turns out, she had a pretty pricey suite just off of the main road with all the shops and stuff. When she pointed it out to me, I wasn't really impressed compared to the other hotels and condominiums scattered all over town. All it looked like was a seven or eight story apartment building with windows along the front and sides.

Once we walked in, though, it transformed into something completely different. It was like a five star condo camouflaged as a crappy motel. It made sense once I thought about it; it was a good location for famous ponies to stay and not attract a lot of attention.

As I expected, her room was on the top floor. We had to wait another couple of minutes while Rarity looked through her bag to find the one key out of fifteen that worked.

"I know it isn't that delightful, but please bear with it for the time being." Rarity said after sighing and putting all of her things on the nearby kitchen table. It was funny; the room was about the same quality as our dorm back at school, but neither Lightweight nor I had the heart to tell her. She probably spent half a fortune to get a room this close to the middle of town while we were practically getting to stay in something just as good for free. Well... Free for us, at least.

Rarity had several racks of dresses which came in a seemingly endless variety of shapes, sizes and colors. Light and I took the liberty to sit down and rest our weary hooves on the nearest couch we could find (the only one in the room) while she meticulously picked out the ones she apparently thought would go best on us.

"Alright, ladies! Try these on first; they'll give me a good idea of what size you both are."

I was trying to go fast because I didn't exactly want to stay out until midnight. I didn't know what Canterlot's crime rate was, but it was my intention to not find out the hard way. The dresses Rarity ended up giving me were way too gaudy and flashy for my tastes. Eh... I dunno why I'm even saying that. I don't have a taste for dresses at all.

But, the one I finally settled for was... Pretty okay. Lightweight stared at me until it almost got awkward when I had it on, so I knew it had to look good. I could care less what anypony else thought of it. I was wearing it for Light, that's all that mattered, really.

There wasn't anything special about it, which was probably why Rarity kept whining and prodding me about it for so long. It was blue, which matched my mane and tail fairly well, and sleek. Its tails slid down my hind legs elegantly and it was long enough so that it hid most of my tail underneath it.

It was all brought together with a silver-lined small-ish crystal that wrapped around my neck and was sewn into the fabric, as well as a pair of sapphire and silver earrings that were a tad on the heavy side. I settled for them since they didn't tug at my piercings too terribly bad.

Geez, just talking about that frilly stuff for that long makes me feel a little nauseous.

Light's dress was cool, too. Again, I'm not a fan of formal attire, but it did match her mane and her eyes pretty well. It would've resembled a wedding dress if it weren't for the shorter length and off-white color.

After everything was done and all the measurements had been taken, Rarity collapsed in an overly-dramatic way onto the couch with us, letting out a distressed sigh as measuring tape fell down upon her. Her mane was... Not really neat anymore.

After a fit of panting, she started to relax.

"Thanks a lot, Miss Rarity... You didn't have to do all that for us..." Light looked down beside her at the begruzzled Rarity and smiled.

"No problem at all, dear. I still owed our friend Alex a favor. I suppose paying it back via his daughter works out... Oh, well."

Wait... Owed him a favor? For what?

"Ooh, geez... We should probably get going soon..." Light sounded rushed as she took a peek at the fancy watch Rarity was wearing. I didn't get to question her about said "favor" like I wanted to, but it'd have to wait.

Thankfully, the contours of the Canterlot streets seemed to divert the water from the recent rain down onto the sides, so our dresses didn't get dirty as we walked towards Gastoire’s. Our hooves clopped against the cobblestone as we came closer to the street where most of the high class restaurants were. The sounds of nightlife were all around us. Dogs could be heard barking in far away alleys and the muffled tone of sophisticated music from the nearby restaurants filtered out onto the streets. We could probably spend the rest of our week going in and out of all those establishments and not even finish with half of them. I always appreciated a city that had a vivid nighttime scene, and Canterlot surely had that. If I weren't in school at the time and weren't single, I'd probably be hitting up the bars around there.

Rarity was oddly quiet most of the way. Maybe it was because she was so worn out from earlier. The only times she spoke up were when we passed by sketchy looking places, telling us to stay away from them. They looked fine to me, but wasn't the type of lady to go to those sorts of places, so I could understand where she was coming from. Places like that probably got tons of bad rep from high class ponies that were too picky and/or scared to try them out.

We got some pretty positive looks from random ponies passing by and it felt nice. I still remember how they looked at us like rugged outsiders when we first came there. I almost wanted to rub their faces in it.

I could tell we were getting close to Gastoire’s once I started noticing that the bars and partygoers were starting to thin out. It was the only real hint that we were going through the "upper" part of town.

Some pretty hefty bouncers were sitting at the front entrance and they apparently didn't care about us as we walked right between them. They were probably there to scare off all the ponies that usually went to the part of town we just went through earlier.

We could hardly see anything past the lobby area where the uptight looking reservation guy was. The only things cutting through the scant amount of light were candles set at each table and booth. The place smelled wonderful, but not like food. It was like a fruity-minty smell that somewhat soothed my senses.

"Reservations for...?" The guy up front spoke in a silly fancy accent and adjusted his glasses.

"Um... W-We don't have one, but... Is there a long wait?" Lightweight acted polite, but it was still obvious that she was nervous.

He looked really annoyed and looked down at the book he had on the table next to him.

"We are not taking reservations tonight, madam. I apologize."

He didn't seem sincere at all with that apology.

Rarity, after getting distracted looking around the place, came up from behind us and the guy apparently recognized her.

"Herold!" She approached him, not bothering to abide by personal space, but he smiled once he saw her and gave her a hug. "It's so good to see you! Oh, it's been ages!"

"You've certainly grown more beautiful than last we met-" Blah blah blah... They small-talked for a while and we were getting bored as our feet started to feel a little sore from the walking.

It might have not been the best way to handle it, but I let out a small cough to try and snap Rarity out of it. Light just stood there being a goody two-shoes as always, not saying a word and pretending as if she was interested.

"Oh! Right. Anyway, Harold, these two are very good friends of mine from the academy and they couldn't make a reservation because of school schedules. I know it's too much to ask, but... Would you mind?" Rarity batted her eyelashes at him and smiled.

He still seemed conflicted about it even when Rarity asked. "I'm not sure, Miss Rarity... I..."

"Please...?" She kept up with her flirtatious looks, but when she saw that it wasn't working, she leaned in and whispered something into his ear, smiling. The guy's face went blood red and he grinned.

"Hm? Just this once?" Her hoof was poking against his side. From his reaction, I had a couple of ideas about what she offered, but I kept it to myself.

"V-Very well, Miss Rarity..." He scribbled something down in his book and motioned for a waiter to come for us.

"You're a darling, Harold. Thank you so much." She kissed his cheek, turned, and gave us both a wink.

"Thanks!" Light whispered and I nodded to her in approval.

As she walked out, the waiter came almost instantly. He was kinda dorky and probably was working there to pay off student debt or something. In fact, he kinda looked like somepony in my physics class. Who knows, could've been him.

We were led all the way in the back since most of the other tables were full, and sat down at a booth for two with a small but big enough table coming out from the wall. There was a single rose in a vase next to where the wall and the table came together and an oil candle sat in the middle, illuminating Light's eyes beautifully.

We ordered our drinks and, despite my inner conscience telling me not to, I ordered a pomegranate martini. I only knew what it was because my mom used to drink them all the time. The waiter didn't ask for my age, luckily.

Light just ordered water. The guy shooed off once he finished writing it down.

"Sorry, I just wanted to try it..."

"Huh? No, it's fine! I don't mind at all. My dad gives me beers sometimes, so I don't really care."

I took a sigh of relief; I probably should've waited until I knew it was okay with her before ordering it, but I really needed something to help me relax since this was technically our first date.

Light pushed her bangs behind her ear and looked down nervously.

"So, um... How are your classes going?" I had to do my best to be talkative until my drink arrived. The alcohol would make me pretty chatty, then.

"Huh? Oh, they're good. One of my teachers is pretty strict about homework, but... Other than that, I have all A's so far, so..."

"Well, duh. Of course you have all A's." I said sarcastically and grinned.

"Come on... I'm not that smart..." My compliment was embarrassing her.

"Says the mare with all A's." I tease-kicked her leg underneath the table and she cracked a grin.

Our drinks came and I took a sip of mine. It was kinda tart, but that was good because it took the edge off of the liquor that was in it. It was still strong, though. I decided to take it easy so I wouldn't get drunk.

"I wish I could do that well... I mean I've tried flash cards and everything."

"W- Well, some ponies are more practical, I guess. You're definitely more talented than I am out in the field." It was cute how she was desperately trying to be humble and defend me. "All I know how to do is move rocks around..."

I took another sip and grinned. "Well, all I know how to do is shock things."

"That's not-" She stopped once she saw what I was doing. "Okay, I get your point..."

There was a little pause while I leaned in and looked into her eyes. "You're a great caster, Light. Don't let anypony else tell you otherwise."

"Thanks..." Light smiled and stared down into her glass.

Right as I was starting to feel the alcohol take effect, the waiter came back and broke our conversation. He didn't say anything, but I assumed he wanted to take our orders. I was so caught up in talking to Light that I didn't look at the menu sitting right next to my hoof.

"Uh..." I flipped it open and found the first thing that caught my eye. "The, uh... Seared grouper, please."

"Bisque de Canterlot." She never looked at the menu, but somehow knew what to get. It wasn't surprising given she was a know-it-all, but she probably just looked at one of the signs outside with the specials on it.

I liked the waiters there. Once they were done writing, they didn't bother you or waste your time. They just do what they came there to do and then leave.

"What the heck is that?" I looked at the menu for what she ordered, but it didn't have a description or anything.

"A bisque? It’s a soup, but it’s really creamy and brothy. I hear the one they serve here is awesome."

I had never heard of a bisque before despite living with auntie Octy for so long. I figured she'd mention something like that at least once. I never tried grouper, either, but I liked fish in general. It was a safe decision.

"S-So... You look really beautiful..." Light said out of nowhere after a semi-awkward pause. My face flushed a little.

"Oh, thanks... You do, too. That dress really brings out your eyes. I wish mine were like that."

"What are you talking about? Your eyes are pretty, too."

"Brown is pretty?"

Light nodded and I felt her leg rub gently against mine under the table again. I let her do so and took another sip of my drink as she stared at me.

"So about us..."

My ears perked up once the serious topic came up. "Y-Yeah?"

"You really want me as a marefriend?"

"Yeah, of course. I mean, if it's okay with you..."

"Could you tell me why? I'm just curious."

My nerves were getting the better of me, but the alcohol in my system helped push me through it and think of an answer.

"You're really cute, friendly, attractive, fun to be around... You're really good at cheering me up even when you're not trying to... And..." I was getting into deep emotional territory, so I thought carefully. "I just get this feeling when I'm with you that tells me that I can trust you and that you like me for who I am."

I smiled and waited for her response. She seemed flattered.

"That means a lot, Angel... It really does."

"What about me?" I was curious, but I also didn't want her to feel too embarrassed at the same time, so I moved the conversation along as I noticed that my martini was already half-empty.

Light didn't even hesitate despite her shy mood earlier. "I feel like I belong when I'm with you."

It took me a second to catch up to what she said and I had to admit, I was smitten by her words. My heart thumped hard in my chest and I became lightheaded from the emotions mixed with the liquor. As I looked back up at her, I felt like I was falling in love with her all over again.

"Sorry... I know it wasn't as long or thoughtful, but-"

"No, it... It's fine."

I wanted to take her right then and there. I wanted to plant a deep kiss onto her and show her how much I liked her, but unfortunately for the both of us, we were still in public. Her leg rubbing was itching at my desires.

I didn't need elaboration on her answer. I already knew at that point that she liked me enough so that I didn't have to worry about her true intentions.

Though, from time to time, it became difficult to concentrate on her due to the constant murmuring of a not-so-quiet group behind us. If it wasn't such a high-end place, I probably would've turned around and politely asked them to quiet down, but doing so would've made a scene here and I was hoping to attract as little attention as possible.

It wasn't their presence that made me unsettled, it was the few words I managed to pick up from their conversation. I knew for a fact that one of them mentioned the Night Society once or twice, but he (I could tell it was a stallion) didn't talk about them with a dissentful tone. I guessed that he was either a parent of somepony that was in it, or one of its members that happened to come up with enough money to pay for luxury.

Nevertheless, it didn't bother me enough to warrant a reaction; it just tickled the back of my head that was already worrying about the consequences of popping my head in their door one night.

I was starting to space out and think about it again when Light snapped me out of it, lowering her head to look at me since I was staring down at my already eaten dish.

"Oh! S- Sorry..." I smiled apologetically. Maybe it was because I was nervous, but I spilled a little more information out than I intended. "I was just thinking about... You remember back at the rec center, right?"

"Mhmm?" She gave me a questionable look since it only happened a hoof-full of hours ago. I was just being stupid partly because of the alcohol making my head feel lighter.

"Well, you remember that one mare that was there? Real scary looking one?"

"Um... I think I remember you talking to somepony, but I was busy popping off spells, so..."

"Anyways, she was with the Night Society-"

Lights slight smile weakened and I instantly realized it was a bad topic to bring up on an otherwise peaceful dinner.

"And she was trying to get me to join and all that..."

"Really, now? Why in Equestria would they want you?"

"I dunno... Maybe they need someone to make their group look better from the outside?" I smirked and it made Light giggle a little.

"Still, wouldn't they want someone like... More evil-ley? Wait, you're not planning on..." She looked immensely worried all of a sudden when she put two and two together.

I hated to lie. I hated even more to lie to those I loved, but... Damnit, I couldn't really blame it on the alcohol, either. I couldn't tell her yet. I mean, I wasn't going to join them permanently, so it wasn't a big deal, right? I was just going to dip my hoof in the water to see how it felt. No, I had to lie. I had no choice.

"Pfft. Nah. I like you guys a lot more. Besides, they probably go around hazing students and locking fillies in lockers and stuff..."

"Yeah... I couldn't see you doing that..." She looked up and smiled and it just made me feel worse inside. When she did, I noticed some of her bisque had settled on the tip of her nose. It was so adorable...

I lifted my napkin to her and she nearly crossed her eyes trying to focus on it before I wiped it off.

"Oh… T-Thanks..." She said with a hint of embarrassment. It worked in the sense that it distracted us from talking about the Night Society, but it still sat in the back of my mind and subconsciously had me in a state of unease for the rest of the dinner.

"Ohmygoodness that creme brulee was sooo good..." Light was still salivating with her dilated eyes closing as she bit her lip.

"It was that good, huh?" I held the door open for her and we both left. The warmth that the alcohol shielded me from the chilly wind that hit us shortly after. Our dresses did little to nothing in terms of warmth.

"Wow, I mean... I know Rarity paid for it and all, but I probably would've paid for it myself if I knew it was that good..."

She must've been feeling the cold, too; I leaned against her gently for the sake of body warmth when I saw her shivering slightly. She was still going on about whatever that dessert was back there, but as soon as she felt me touching her, she stopped.

"Hey... Um... Thanks for going out with me. It was really nice." I said nervously, but with the help of the drink from earlier taking the edge off.

"Yeah, it was... You're really fun to hang out with. I can't remember the last time I felt like this."

Her head rested underneath my chin affectionately, making me smile. Her coconut shampoo filled my nostrils as her mane acted as a miniature pillow while we started walking again. One of her ears was tickling my neck and I assumed that it was on purpose; it made my heart beat faster and got me more excited.

"Like what?"

"Like when your parents give you fifty bits and say you can go out with your friends for the night and do whatever? Or when you used to have sleepovers at your friends’ houses and do girly stuff?"

The reference was a bit obscure, but I think I understood where she was coming from.

"But, like... It's even better because it's with somepony I really like..."

"Oh? I didn't know you liked Rarity that much..." I smirked my usual smirk and teased. "I didn't take you for the posh fashionista type."

"Oh come on, you know that's not what I meant!" She pushed against me a little more and giggled.

Our hooves clopped and occasionally splashed in the few puddles that lined on the way back to our dorms. They weren't even an inch deep, so I didn't really care. Light never complained about it even though one particular puddle got some of her dress wet, which acted as more evidence that she wasn't one of those prudish fragile girls that I tended to not like in general.

We were both yawning by the time we reached the dorms and the cold dew that dotted the courtyard grass made my hooves slightly numb. Luckily, there were a couple of decent-sized wood fires going inside the lobby that made us feel better.

We had almost forgotten that we were walking against each other like a pair of hopeless young lovers until we saw some ponies walking down the hallway to the stairs. We separated quickly and tried not to act ashamed.

In the back of my head, even as I was nervously fidgeting to unlock our door, I couldn't stop thinking about what happened last night: Light's rather forward gesture in bed. Now that we were a little more comfortable with each other in public... I didn't really mind at that point. Though, I couldn't just ruin the moment by saying "Hey, Light. Wanna buck?" I had to just act natural and see how it played out. I didn't want her to feel guilty for last night either, which might've made her scared of trying it again. I was sure that if anything happened, it’d have to be because I instigated it.

My heart was thumping like a jack hammer in my chest from the distinguishable feeling that I was falling more in love with her. My hormones were yelling at me to move the relationship along quickly, but my head knew that it was a bad idea. To make matters worse, the drink I had earlier was wearing off, so I was no longer comforted by having my nerves dulled. I was back to acting like a bumbling idiot around her which still, by some miracle, didn't turn her off.

The first thing I did when I got in was take off those earrings. I wasn't used to wearing earrings and when I did, I just wore studs. Having a pair that hung and were decently-sized, even though it was generous of Rarity to supply them, was starting to make my ears sore.

"It was really nice for Miss Rarity to give us these outfits..." Lightweight admired her dress for several moments even after taking it off.

"Yeah, it's cool." I didn't pretend to be more interested in them than I was. I slipped out of mine and hung it up. I'd have to send it to the cleaners, but I had no clue where that would be. I'd have to find it out eventually.

"You don't like your dress?"

"Huh?" I had to raise my voice a little since she was still in the living room and I was in the bedroom. "Yeah, it's cool and all. I'm just not a big fan of really girly frilly stuff, 'ya know?" I didn't bother messing up my mane again since it wasn't really bothering me and Light seemed to like it when it was neat.

"Oh, good. I guess since you don't like girly stuff, I'll take dibs on first bubble bath?" She trotted by my door and stuck her tongue out at me with a mischievous smile.

"Aw, hey, come on!"

She giggled as she closed the door to the bathroom and I rolled my eyes, grinning.

Light sighed as she sunk further into the couch as I dried my mane with magic, walking from a recently exited relaxing bath.

"Isn't it nice to have a nice hot bath when it's cold outside?" Light said as she flipped through channels on the T.V.

"Yeah, especially when you don't have to wait for the other pony first." I teased and tossed the towel aside, sitting next to her. She caught it in mid-air and threw it into the dirty laundry bag.

"Hey, you could've joined me..."

My face went red and I stuttered. "I- Well, I mean, I didn't want to-"

"I'm teasing, you goofball!" I was about to come back at her, but felt the accelerated force of a soft object collide with the side of my face. The pillow was pretty large, so it almost knocked me off the couch.

I smiled and threw it back at her with my magic. It hit her square in the face and, in a comical coincidence, her horn pierced through it and came out the other end. I couldn't hold back my laughter.

"Omigosh, I'm sorry!" I held my belly and rolled around on the couch as she slowly removed it. A few fluffles of stuffing came out from the horn-sized hole left in the pillow.

"Are you sure you want to start this war, Angel?" Light said in a suddenly calm tone that almost had me convinced that she was mad until I looked up and saw a grin on her face.

"You wanna go?" I mocked in a funny accent.

Before I knew it, I had three pillows pelting my face and it took me a second to recover and retaliate. I rolled onto the floor, laughing the whole way down, and grabbed the nearest fluffy mass I could find. The couch acted as good cover and I rolled behind it whilst returning fire.

"Hey, whatcha doin hiding over there?!" Light rushed around the couch and kept up her assault and I put up a minor magic barrier to protect me, but it did nothing to stop her from grabbing a pillow with her bare hooves and whacking me around the side.

I used another couch pillow as a shield instead while I threw one or two more up at her face. I saw that she was using her front hooves to attack, so her hind hooves were exposed with all her weight hinging on them. Since I was on my back on the floor at that point, I lurched forward and grabbed them, knocking her off balance and making her fall back on the couch. I quickly climbed on top and took the advantage, giving her a good hit in the face as our laughing got louder. I stopped shortly after she gave up defending herself and we sat there, with me on top of her, panting heavily with wide smiles on our faces.

It took a moment for our mood to drastically change and the realization of our current position started to come upon us. My face turned red and the pent up energy and sexual frustration I was feeling back at the restaurant was starting to leak through along with my playful energy earlier. I think if it weren't for our pillowfight, I might've been able to restrain it, but... Given the circumstances, it was too much.

"I thought you-" Lightweight said between pants, looking up right into my eyes. "Didn't like girly stuff like pillow fights..."

A spark popped between us and we both instantly knew what we wanted. It was like some kind of instinct that triggered for both of us at the same time.

"I..." My voice grew unstable as I succumbed to my desires for her. "I guess..." I leaned down and got closer to her face. "You have a way of wearing off on me..."

"Angel-" Light said in a desperate tone before I cut her off with a quick and passionate kiss that made her moan in surprise inside of my mouth.

My hooves wrapped around her waist and I pulled us together; our emotions exploded in one instant and we were lost in desperate intimate love for one another. We gasped for breath in between kisses and each time we reconnected, it got more and sloppier until it evolved into the wettest, dirtiest french kiss I had ever given a pony.

Even though I was caught up in the moment, I only had one thing on my mind:

The bedroom.

Author's Note

Hey guys, long time no see! Turns out I have a little more time than I thought before I can ship out due to some medical wavers I need to get first. I apologize for the conflicting and inconsistent information; sometimes these things can get a little uncertain and change at a moments notice. In the meantime, here you go! I'll be able to post quite a few additional chapters so enjoy! :heart: :twilightblush:

Also, I have a blog post that goes more into detail about my current situation including my new patreon I just made. If you're curious as to why I need one, again, it's explained in my blog post. It would make my day if you could help out and donate, but of course, you don't have to and I won't bother you about it enough for it to be annoying. http://patreon.com/canadianbrony91

If there are any errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 9: Nth Base

We mutually discovered who was more talented at being the "top" when I carried her to bed and fell down on top of her, continuing our makeout session there. I didn't even bother closing the door in my lustful haste, but I managed to flick the light-switch off, sending the room into almost-darkness save for the ambient light coming in from outside the window and the yellow streak across the floor from the bathroom light outside.

We got hot and bothered pretty quickly and it wasn't long before I found myself kissing around her neck instead of her succulent lips. She was moaning my name as I kissed her sensitive spots under her jawline. Judging from the night before, I guess it would've looked like I'd be the submissive one in the relationship but if you knew how my past relationships were, you'd know how dominant I liked things.

Her fur brushed against mine and it tickled me in certain areas as my kisses went further down her chest, making little matted damp spots along the way.

"Oh god... Angel..." Lightweight's breathing intensified.

She shouldn't have had any doubt as to what I had planned once I went lower. I didn't know to the best extent what her experience in bed was, but she certainly seemed to be on the same page as me. I could feel her cute little belly rising and falling faster as I kissed down it, getting closer and closer to her hot marehood that started to release a thick sexual fragrance in the air.

"Mmm..." I moaned a little to tease her; I was gently spreading her hind legs apart with my hooves. It was met with a little resistance, but all it took was a few gentle pecks around her inner thighs to get her to loosen up and let me in.

"A-Angel, I... T-This is my first time really doing anything like this, so..." I felt her hoof run though my mane and grab a bit of it, staring down at me with a look that could make a corpse blush.

Needless to say, I was surprised she was a virgin. I stopped what I was doing and felt a bit of concern for some reason; it was like I didn't wanna mess up taking her virginity in a way that felt slutty or something.

"W-Wait what? I thought you said you had a girlfriend before..."

"I know, I know... I guess we just didn't get around to doing that kinda stuff... I mean, she tried to get in my pants a few times but... I never really let her because-" She paused and looked at me as if she'd just realized something. "Maybe that's why she left-"

"Hey..." I cut her off before she could guilt-trip herself. Eating her out could wait, this was way more important. "Don't tell yourself that... If somepony's gonna break up with you because you didn't let 'em in your pants, they're not worth it, alright?" I resumed my recent position on top of her but it was more intimate and loving than before since I was trying to comfort her now in a more emotional way. "Are you sure you're okay with this? I mean, I don't wanna-"

It was Lightweight that cut me off this time, but with a gentle and romantic kiss that took my breath away. It was weird... It wasn't deep or messy or sloppy or anything, but for some reason it just sent my blood rushing... Like, it made me want to just latch onto her and never let go for the rest of the night; it was so romantic... I'll probably remember that kiss for the rest of my life.

"I know you're not forcing me, Angel. You wouldn't do that." She replied with her gentle smile as she eased off of the kiss. "I really wanna do this with you..."

I don't go "Aww" normally, but the way she said that really made me want to. I hugged her tight and nuzzled her neck tenderly, keeping a slight amount of pressure on her inner thigh with my leg to make sure she was still getting teased and didn't get turned off.

"Thanks, Light... That really means a lot..." I got a slight smirk. "Don't worry, I'll make sure your first time's awesome..."

"Mmm... Please do..." She moaned slightly and responded in a somewhat provocative tone.

Her hooves were rubbing and gliding right above my butt and it was turning me the fuck on. One of my biggest kinks was having my ass played with but at the moment, it was my job to make sure she was properly taken care of. My leg that was pushing and teasing against her inner thigh pressed up until I felt her warm raw marehood touch it. She was starting to moan again from the excitement, but I shushed her pretty quickly by leaning back down and making out with her, extra sloppy this time. In fact, I don't even think I used my lips at all. Most of it was just our tongues dancing around each other and slipping against themselves.

That didn't last long, though. Her hoof slid up behind my head and pulled me down so our lips connected. She started to move her hips up and down against my leg and I returned the favor by pressing against it a little harder. She was throbbing so hard; I could feel it without a doubt against me, as well as her fluids starting to drip down my leg and matting my fur. Her excitement levels were rising fast and I wasn't sure if I was gonna be able to keep up with her at that rate. Just when I was about to give in and start scissoring the ever-living shit outta her, she pulled my head back a little and broke the kiss, letting lose some pants and moans that were previously trapped inside my mouth.

"I... I want you to do that thing you were gonna do before..." Lightweight bit her lip adorably.

"Ohh okay, I see how it is... Finally getting used to me, huh?" I smirked back and made my lick down her body a little faster than last time since every morsel on her body was giving me signs that she wanted it now.

I didn't waste time. My long lick ended with a drag over her clit and slid down her slit until it got to her base. Her body jolted and twitched when I did that and I heard her gasp.

My original plan was to be all lovey and romantic with her but... I could tell when a mare wanted it rough and I was more than willing to oblige.

I went back up with my tongue and the tip slipped beneath her slit a little. She let out more moans. I knew I was getting somewhere.

"Heh... Sensitive, aren't 'ya?" I looked up at her from behind her pussy with the best pair of bedroom eyes I could put on.

"A... A little..." She smiled sheepishly. It made me wonder if she was trying to pull at my heartstrings on purpose, or if it was because she was actually this cute. I gave her the benefit of the doubt and went with the latter.

And, with that, I went to work. I used my hooves to spread her pussy open a little more and started with the tip of my tongue, swirling around her entrance lightly and getting a pretty good taste of her. Granted it wasn't great tasting, but I'd be worried if it was. Only whores and prostitutes tasted that good.

Please don't ask me why I know that.

"Ahnn..." Light let out another girlish groan. She was staring down at me the whole time which would've kinda made me self-conscious about what I was doing if it weren't for the fact that I've done this dozens of times before. I closed my eyes and focused on the task at hoof, digging my muzzle into her cunt a little further. My tongue slipped inside of her pussy after minimal resistance and despite feeling one of her hooves gently push against my head, I started swirling it around inside.

Her panting was getting worse and worse the further I got. I only hoped I was doing more than she ever received from any mare. My nose was scrunched against her clit as my tongue kept at it for several more moments. I even let loose a couple low groans to peak her pleasure. The soft vibrations coming from it must've turned her on.

Light was gripping my mane and actually pulling my head into her cunt more, now. I was trying to decide whether to keep going at it or switch it up a little, but she seemed to answer for me.

"Mmphh... Angel, that feels really good..."

I smirked with confidence at that and started fucking her pussy with my tongue. I slid it in and out of her at a medium pace and the thick scent of her was making me really fucking horny. It was like the musk a stallion gave off when he had a hard on but ten times more potent. My hormones made it real hard for me to not just jump on top of her and scissor with her until she passed out.

My muzzle was being scrunched against her little throbbing clit as I tried to curl my tongue up to reach her g-spot. At that point, Light was panting like a whorehouse regular. She was so out of it that she'd forgotten to give me time to breathe and I was forced to remind her after a few more licks. I tried pulling my head back despite her grasp on my mane and tapped her side as if I were tapping out of a wrestling match.

When Light finally let me go, I pulled back and gasped, trying my best not to cough on her fluids that were starting to build up down there. One one hoof, I really felt bad for giving up after getting her obviously so close, but I guess passing out while doing so was just as bad.

Light didn't seem to realize what she was doing until well after I caught my breath.

"O-Oh! Gosh, Angel, I'm so sorry... I guess I kinda got carried away there..." Angel blushed cutely and innocently. I swear, it was impossible to be mad at her for anything with that look on her.

"S'alright." I tried to keep my seductive persona and climbed on top of her like a horny stallion, looking down at her body like it was a fresh meal waiting to be devoured. I'm sure I was making some sort of face that was making her embarrassed, but if I was, I wasn't paying attention to it.

I laid down on her body and felt her warmth send shivers of excitement down mine. I couldn't wait to get off to that angelic mare that I'd been drooling over for so long.

I got real close to her and hugged her tight around her waist, enveloping her lips and tongue in the most romantic and lusty kiss I could give her. My eyes were barely open when I kissed her just to see her cute facial expressions, and that's just what she gave me. I was giggling a little under my breath as I explored her mouth with my tongue and watching her enjoy every second of it.

That was just a distraction, though. My main plan took place when I slowly lifted up one of her hind legs and exposed her little cute swollen marehood so that I could get in there and scissor the shit out of her like I'd been wanting to all this time. I went slowly at first, still keeping my kiss planted on her as my legs went into position, wedging her waist in between my legs and finally feeling her warm throbbing pussy against mine.

She let out the cutest yelp I'd ever heard from any mare. Or, was it a moan? I was too caught up in the moment to notice, but the important thing was that it was adorable. She didn't stop returning my kisses, so I kept on going with my plan. I slowly rocked and grinded my hips back and forth against her, grinning into her kiss while I did so. Our clits were rubbing and sliding together and it felt like heaven. I was even starting to let loose some moans into her mouth as well.

I only hoped that the ponies in the other rooms couldn't hear us because I had no intention of slowing down, either. Her lusty sex-filled moans only got louder when I broke off the kiss and stared into her eyes. I pushed down on my hips a little more and bit my lip, feeling even more pleasure than before. She was throbbing so hard against me, I was convinced that this girl was gonna make me pop earlier than I intended.

"Nnghh... Angel, don't stop... Ahn! Oh goodness... You're so good at this..." She spoke with heavy breaths and a high pitched tone. I only wished I had some of my toys with me; then, I could show her how good I really was.

"Mmm... I ain't stopping anytime soon, babe..." I leaned back down and licked up her ear seductively with a wide grin. Her ear, along with the rest of her body, shivered in response from what I could assume was excitement. I almost wanted to turn the lights back on so I could better see all the pleasure on her face.

As she pushed her hips up against mine and helped our sexes "shlick" and slide together, I couldn't help but feel a sense of accomplishment. This mare was easily in the top ten list of the sexiest mares in school from what I'd seen, and here I was. I got under the sheets with her before anypony else could.

Score.

We were moaning together at that point. There were no social barriers between us. Our friendship, over the course of about an hour, had suddenly transformed into something much greater. In other words, it was freaking badass.

I kept on nibbling and licking her ear since she liked it so much, but it became obvious that it was pushing her over the edge much more quickly than I'd anticipated. It was alright because I was getting pretty close as well. It helped me catch up to her.

There wasn't a single inch of fur on her below her belly that didn't feel soaked to me. We were making a royal mess but neither of us gave a single buck about it.

Right when I thought she was about to start cumming, I felt a pair of hooves grip my plot super hard. She squeezed it and pushed me down on top of her, keeping my hips still as she did all the work and grinded up against me. I was about to pop too, but her being so suddenly forceful and me seeing how desperate she was for an orgasm made it happen much quicker than I expected.

"Ahh! F-Fuck, I'm cumming!" I felt the familiar clenching and muscle spasms between my legs and my body locked up, hugging her and pushing my pussy down on hers. The best part? When she bit down on my neck fur and moaned out really loud. It was one of my secret fetishes to get bitten from sexual excitement and it made me feel like I was in heaven as our marehoods throbbed and pulsed together. She didn't say a word back; she just came and came and came against me, moaning into my neck fur the whole time. We were locked in a tightly woven two-way ball of girlish groans and involuntary sexual bodily reactions.

I shivered as we came down slowly. She kept biting down on my neck as I panted and I wondered when she'd let go of me. That being said, I didn't really want her to. Even though the room reeked of sweat and sex, her normal scent still lingered enough for me to enjoy it.

I thought that's where it'd end, us just getting our satisfaction and then going to bed. It was similar to every other sexual encounter I've had and I wouldn't have thought of her any differently if she did the same. But, there was something different I felt afterwards that I hadn't felt before. It took me a minute to understand what it was, not because it was a complicated feeling, but because I just wasn't used to feeling it.

For the first time in my life, I had sex and actually thought of it as something more than releasing tension. That's why I couldn't figure out what it was at first.

I couldn't help but smirk as I laid next to her in bed. Our post sex panting stopped after we both showered off and relaxed. She took the liberty of tucking herself in but I just laid there over the covers in my pajamas, wishing I could smoke inside the building.

"That escalated quickly..."

She giggled back and just snuggled up to my side. "I'm glad it did..."

As I felt her nuzzling my neck, I felt a euphoric warm and fuzzy feeling grow inside of me. I felt ashamed that someone actually being so affectionate to me without the backburner intentions of getting in my pants surprised me. Then again, she'd already gotten in my pants...

I was probably thinking about it too much. It was too early in the relationship to speculate on hidden agendas.

I don't even remember her saying goodnight that night, or... Anything else happening for that matter. It was probably just because we fell asleep right after; we wore each other out.

I had to get some coffee after I woke up. Even though I woke up before she did, which was a miracle, my body was whining that I didn't get enough sleep. Or, maybe it was that I didn't get enough sleep to recover from all the physical activity I did the night before. I smiled at the tiredness and wore it as a badge of honor as I got dressed and fixed a pot.

I was starting to wonder if she'd ever get up when I got to the bottom of my cup and squinted from the sun peeking over the horizon and shooting its beams through the semi-open blinds at the other end of the living room. My guess was that she wasn't used to sex as much as I was and her body needed to recover from it more. Still, I couldn't just let her lay there and miss a day of school. I rinsed out the cup and headed back in there.

"You gonna wake up or am I gonna have to give ya a little shock?" I chuckled, assuming that she'd be awake already. She wasn't.

"Oh come on..." I rolled my eyes even though to some extent it was my fault that she needed that much rest. I trotted over to the bed and leaned against it, brushing the mane out of her face. It was almost unfair to reality how beautiful she was. "Wake up, ya dingus..." I said a little softer as I looked down at her.

"Hmm..." She groaned a little and stirred. I guess this is what it was like for her to try and wake me up. I shook her gently, feeling bad for interrupting such an angelic sleep. "I... I'm up..." She rubbed her eyes and then fluttered them open, fixating on me after a second or two.

"Morning." I said as I leaned down and kissed her cheek. Her smile grew almost instantly and before I could pull my head back up, I felt her front legs wrap around me and hold me down gently. "H-hey... If you pull me down in bed, I'm gonna fall asleep again." I chuckled but didn't really mind the affection. Missing school was an appropriate sacrifice for a cuddle fest with this mare.

I thought I really was gonna fall asleep again but I snapped out of it. I guess her sense of academic responsibility was rubbing off on me.

"Come on..." I groaned a little and sat her up with her still in my arms. She was stuck on me like a leech the whole time. "L-Light? You alright?" I smiled but began to grow more concerned since she didn't usually act like this. I mean, it was nice and all, having someone hold on to you and not let go, but... I dunno. Maybe I was just being paranoid.

"Mhmm..." She answered softly and yawned. "Just showing the best mare in the world how much I love her..."

I had to bite my lip to hold back smiling like a goofball from how sweet that was. I leaned forward and gave her a soft loving kiss for a few seconds before pulling back. Most ponies would've turned all that into an all-morning fuck-fest, but I just wasn't the morning kind of pony for that, or at least, not yet.

Finally, she slid out of bed and got on all fours. Despite what I just said, it took a great deal of self-restraint to not get horny from her leaning back and stretching in just her panties while groaning.

"I haven't slept that good in years..." She still had her smile on as she trotted to the dresser and pulled out a fresh set of school clothes.

"Lucky..."

I watched her cute butt all the way there and thought about how crazy last night was. It was probably the best sex I'd ever had and now that we were officially an item, I started thinking of so many naughty ideas for our future sex life. I thought about running down to the adult toy store that I glanced at when I arrived in Canterlot, but I wasn't sure if I was old enough to buy stuff there. It was worth a shot, though.

"I'm gonna jump in the shower real quick while you get all your stuff ready." I finally peeled my eyes away from her plot and walked towards the door. We had plenty of time to get ready. Usually it was thirty minutes, but that morning we had nearly an hour. Though, I didn't wanna push it. As any school-goer knows, when you're getting ready in the morning, time seems to fly.

"Alright." Lightweight responded as she was trying to find her skirts in her drawer.

Since we had a little time to spare, a somewhat naughty thought crossed my mind. I know, I know. I just said I wasn't a morning pony for sex, but... Damn, you'd change your mind if you had a girl like her. Right before I closed the bedroom door, I peeked in and giggled a little.

"You can join me if you want..."

I saw her ears perk up right before I closed the door. Hopefully my bait worked...

I went into the bathroom across the hall and kept the door slightly cracked for her in case she wanted to come in. As I took my panties off and turned on the water, I was starting to think she wouldn't, but as I climbed in and got my mane wet, I saw the door open through the translucent shower curtain. I heard the door shut as she took off her clothes as well and my heart started beating faster.

"Hey..." I grinned as she climbed in with me. Apparently, she got the message that I was in the mood for some fun because she went right up to me under the hot water and planted a wet sloppy kiss on my lips. I could feel my marehood pulsating and getting really warm already.

What I didn't know was that she was using her magic to pick up something behind me. I couldn't see her horn glowing because I was so into the kiss when she started slipping her tongue inside my mouth.

I felt it against my marehood shortly after and its texture confused me at first. It was smooth and slippery and long like a rod... Almost like a...

"W-What's that?" I broke the kiss despite how good it was. "Mmphh..." I leaned into whatever the object was that she was using. I didn't know what it was but damn it felt good. She brought it around for me to look at it and my eyes shot wide when she did.

It was a long purple dildo. A dildo: not something I thought Light would have. It wasn't textured or anything. It was just a long, slender, hard rod with a flat base at the bottom and a slightly flared head.

She could see the shock on my face and got slightly embarrassed. "I know... I used to use it when I was by myself and things got really... Pent up... I'm sorry, I..."

"What are you apologizing for?" I smirked and took it from her with my magic. I kissed her again, deeper this time, as I floated the thing around to her back end and began rubbing her marehood with its head. I really wanted to feel it inside me, but I wanted to see her cute little expressions from taking it in even more. I knew she could. Why would she have it with her otherwise?

I guided the kiss downwards until she sat down on the shower floor, then laid down on her side. I took the opportunity to roll her over on her back and get on top of her, shielding her from the water hitting my back. I started licking up her neck as I focused on bringing the toy behind us where our plots were pushing together and our pussies were rubbing against each other already.

"Good way to start the morning..." I said with a smirk and positioned the toy between our marehoods.

Light returned the smirk and grabbed two hoof-fulls of my ass, staring me right in my eyes.

"You bet..."

Author's Note

Sorry that took so long guys! I've been itching to get back to writing but I've just been so busy lately. Hopefully the next one wont take as long! :twilightsheepish:

Also, for those of you who are my patrons on patreon, this chapter is free thanks to me screwing up last time and accidentally charging twice for one chapter.

If there are any errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Chapter 5: Put Your Money Where Your Muzzle Is

There is no greater despair to be felt by a young scholar than that of hearing the teacher say "Pass up your homework!" and being empty-hooved. Of course I forgot to do my homework. I had zero time to do it the night before! Geez... I bet if those teachers had homework like we had, they'd be complaining just as much.

I passed over the stack of handouts from the pony behind me to Lightweight in front who somehow managed to do hers. No clue how that happened, but oh well. My backpack still had the archaic spell book that Twilight gave me, but there was something different about it from the night before. After pulling out my magic history one-oh-one textbook, the only other textbook in my bag, the spell book opened up slightly and I saw a loose piece of paper sticking out from the middle of its pages.

I had nothing better to do at the moment; all the homework was still being passed up, so I humored myself and took it out. My heart filled with glittery explosions when I saw what it was.

It was a fully completed copy of the homework handout, fully answered with neat hoof-writing. There was a smaller paper taped to it, though. I had to squint to focus on the tiny words written on it.

Figured I'd do this for you since I took up your time last night. You're welcome!
~PTS~

At first, I was worrying over whether or not the answers were right, but my conscience was sealed once I saw who initialed the note. There's no way Twilight would get any of these wrong... Right?

I quickly passed the paper up, nearly forgetting to turn it in due to how surprised I was at the whole ordeal. I had to tap Lightweights shoulder to get her attention. It was almost as if she wasn't even worried about me since she apparently knew I didn't do it.

That's right, old fart... I glared at the teacher and gave a triumphant smirk as I talked to him in my head. I've got Twilight on my side now.

My vengeful mental ranting derailed as Lightweight swung her mane from the left side to her right, giving me a heavenly whiff of the same coconut shampoo I smelled on her the first time we met. It was almost enough to make my eyes roll back in my head and I wouldn't have been surprised if she did that little stunt on purpose just to tease me.

"Alright..." The teacher mumbled to himself whilst stacking the papers neatly on his desk and then slicking back his old grey mane. "So today, I won't be lecturing-"

Half the class uttered a hushed "Yes!" which made the professor stop and clear his throat deliberately. His aged eyes stared at us through his reading glasses harshly.

"I won't be lecturing today... But instead, we're required to give diagnostic testing. There are two parts to this examination: a written portion and a field portion. Both of them will determine where you all are in terms of aptitude and skill."

He got up from his desk and started passing out papers to the front row students who all took one and sent the rest back.

"These will not be counted as a grade on your total class score, but please do try your best at answering each question as if it did."

My first instinct, as I pulled out my own paper out of the stack of many and passed it on, was to just answer with meaningless and mindless responses so I wouldn't have to bore myself with it, but it was an instinct that I had developed during High school: a place where I learned nothing and that I didn't care for. This was different. This school actually meant something to me, not only then, but to this day.

I looked at the first question, a quill already in hoof. It was a true/false question, easy enough to begin with.

"The first and most important priority for healing magic is to make your healing spells as powerful as possible."

Wow, really? I thought to myself and smirked, imagining what moron would actually have trouble with it.

On the black space to the right, I wrote "false" and moved on. The second question wasn't as soft-ball.

"Historically, fire spells have been the most effective in combat."

It felt like a trick question. I knew for a fact that there wasn't just one type of spell that trumped the rest; all types of spells excelled in specific circumstances and they all had weaknesses that went with them. Though, fire spells were commonly known to get out of hoof and create disasters.

I answered "false" again to be safe. When I was young, my mom and dad both told me that my first guess to a question was usually the best one and that I should trust my intuition, so that's exactly what I did.

Third question. It was multiple choice this time, which still wasn't as bad as fill-in-the-blank. "Approximately how many joules does an average lightning spell produce?"

There was no point in reading the possible answers because I had no clue. I knew that normal lightning that came from the sky was somewhere between two and eight billion, but magic lightning was totally different.

You know that one question on a test that makes you think "Oh shit... I should've studied more..."? Yeah. That was that question. I took a deep breath and tried to reassure myself that none of it counted. Still I felt terrible for not knowing something so simple, especially since it had to do with lightning magic.

And, of course, Lightweight was already halfway through her test.

You know that feeling when you're ninety-eight hardball questions into an exam and you don't know if you have the mental fortitude to answer the last two? I was feeling that right about then. I stopped thinking about the right answer to questions I didn't know about halfway through. Since I had no clue, I figured that thinking about it would just be a waste of time.

The last question, even though I was expecting it to be a propaganda-like question such as: "Do you like C.A.A.M.?" or something like that, was fairly simple in and of itself, and even with the worn down mentality that I had, I was able to answer it effectively enough. I let out a sigh and put down my quill, leaning back into my chair and closing my eyes. A quarter of the way through the test, the questions became fill-in-the-blank: infamously known to all students everywhere as the worst thing to ever happen to exams.

Lightweight had her head down on her desk with her front hooves serving as a make-shift pillow. I couldn't tell if she was asleep, but I figured it was possible since she finished so long ago.

"Times up. Please put your quills down and pass your papers to the front." The professor called out within two minutes of me finishing.

As I turned back halfway to take the papers from everyone behind me, I realized that Lightweight still hadn't picked her head up yet.

"Psst." I gestured whilst tapping the back of her shoulder gently.

Her body jolted as if she awoke from a falling dream and her head turned left and right. I couldn't help but chuckle under my breath at how cute the sight was. She hastily turned and realized what was going on, taking my stack of papers as I winked at her.

"Now that that's done and good, we'll move on to the practical portion. Everyone please stand and follow me."

We all did so and I helped Lightweight up since she obviously was in need of it; she was so drowsy that I could almost smell it on her. I had no clue as to why, though. Since we were so close in bed, I would've known if she wasn't able to sleep the night before. Or, maybe she was too excited to sleep and just didn't tell me? I didn't blame her either way.

I had to help her up from her desk a little, but it wasn't long before we were out of the classroom and following the professor down the halls and out into the cold air and cloudy skies.

There were already some ponies from other classes doing the drill we were about to do; some were levitating things while others were throwing their magic at targets whilst professors were behind them taking careful notes.

"You nervous?" I asked Lightweight quietly as a couple of loud *boom!*s made us flinch.

"Well, a little..."

"It's alright; I guess... Think of them as a way for them to figure out what you need to work on." I don't know why I was being so patronizing. I was jumpy, too.

We formed a line behind the students that were currently going through their test and it was then that we started to understand what we needed to do. From what I saw, there were four parts. On my left, we were going to balance a heavy object and see how long we could keep it in a certain area. There were several sizes of rock lined up next to each other with a ginormously huge one behind it that I thought not even Twilight could lift. Next to that, there was a station with several targets in front of it at varying distances that I assumed would test accuracy, another next to that with some sort of strange orb that ponies were shooting powerful spells at, and a final one where ponies were just doing.... Well, I didn't know what they were doing. To me, all they were doing is spamming a bunch of random spells at things.

After a minute or two, the students in front of us walked off with their professor looking exhausted.

"Now class, those students were all going at once. Would you rather go one at a time so we can... Push my lecturing back a few minutes?"

All my class mates replied with a unanimous "yes!” I guessed that the teacher didn't want to lecture just as much as we didn't want to listen to it.

"Very well!" He said with a hearty laugh. "Let's see... First up is Afterburner. Step up, if you please."

Oh, this'll be interesting...

This guy sounded like a hotshot with no bite and all bark and, like most fire mages, I figured he'd cast two really powerful spells and then pass out.

His levitation skills weren't great, but that was to be expected from somepony that specialized in fire magic. He couldn't even lift one of the fifty pound rocks for a couple of seconds before putting it down. There was some snickering, but he seemed to ignore it well enough and move on. The targets on the next part were at ten, twenty-five, fifty, and one hundred yards respectively and his small fireballs hit the first two decently. At the two further targets, he didn't even come close. I even heard somepony in the background yelling to put a fire out after he was done, which caused us all to laugh.

The third test was apparently some sort of spell power test. When he shot a larger fireball at it, the white glowing orb absorbed it and turned a light shade of orange. From my intuition, I guessed that it absorbed the spell and showed how powerful it was via colors. If that assumption was correct, the spell he cast was pretty powerful.

"Very good, Afterburner. Euh... Ah! Angel Scratch is next."

I gulped, not realizing how early I'd go until just then and frankly, feeling a little annoyed that he didn't say "Angel Bolt" instead. The grass felt even colder when I stepped up to the first lane and I took a deep breath, staring at the same rock Afterburner couldn't handle.

I grunted as I picked it up, but once I got it in the air, it was easy enough to maintain. I even managed to pick up another fifty pound rock and hold it next to the other one, but I got tired from that pretty quickly and put them down slowly.

"Very good, Angel. On to the next one, please."

The professor’s voice snapped me out of my hesitation and I moved over.

Yes! I grinned to myself as I looked at the targets, reassured because of my training the night before.

Without waiting too long, I charged up a bolt and sent it flying at the first target and then quickly followed it up with a second one at the twenty-five meter target. Both of them hit pretty much dead center. I had to concentrate a second or two before trying the farther ones.

Another bolt charged up; another hit. This time, it was a couple inches high and right. I was beginning to realize that was how I usually missed. Nevertheless, I shook it off and took a deep breath, trying to focus on the farthest one. I could barely even see the bulls-eye on it, but I let a bolt fly anyway. I know I shouldn't have, but instead of trying to straighten my bolt, I compensated by aiming a foot low and left.

"Whoa!" Somepony behind me couldn't contain his awe as I punched a four inch hole right through the middle of the 100 yard target. I felt my insides bursting with enthusiasm and joy as I moved to the next one.

It'd been a long time since I went all-out with one of my bolts, so I was looking forward to putting my all in to this one. I licked my lips and charged up a big bolt, then let it fly right into the center of the orb. To be honest, it would've missed if it was more than five yards away, but it didn't really need to do much aiming because of how close it was.

A large arc, about two feet thick, cracked into the orb and it vibrated a little before turning orange. It was a darker shade of orange than Afterburner's, so I was content.

I started to come up with some spells that weren't lightning spells and I had to admit, despite my criticism of that fire mage earlier, I had trouble coming up with any.

I looked down at the ground and cast one of the few odd spells I was good at; an enlarging spell at a butterfly that was resting on the grass. It grew and grew until it became a little larger than the diameter of a basketball. I was pleased enough with the results, but I knew I couldn't stop there. I-

"Time's up!"

"Wait, what?! Already? Come on, you're kidding me!" Admittedly, I was a little upset since I only got to cast one spell at the last station. It'd definitely take points off.

The professor didn't respond, though, and I grumbled a little as I stepped down to Afterburner to the right of everypony else. I tossed my bangs to the side in frustration.

"Hey, that was awesome!" Afterburner turned and whispered to me.

Wait, what? Did a fire mage just give me a compliment?!

"Oh, Thanks." I didn't really know what to say since I was taken aback. Everything about him, his red slicked back retro red mane, a flame cutie mark on his orange fur... Everything yelled out "pretentious douchebag", but his tone of voice and his smile as I looked at him just... Didn't fit.

"Where did you learn that size changing spell?"

I tried to return a slight smile to be polite. "One of my friends in middle school taught me."

"I wish I could do that. But I guess that's to be expected from somepony like you." He shook his head and looked down. "I made a fool of myself up there."

"Oh come on, you weren't that bad." I said despite my thoughts while he was performing. "I've seen worse, trust me."

He stayed silent as we both watched Backdraft try the course. He performed about the same as Afterburner, but a little worse.

"Hey, you know, to be honest, you're not really as bad as I thought you were."

"Huh?" I turned back to Afterburner.

"I thought you'd be pretty stuck up and spoiled rotten because of your parents... But you seem pretty cool. I guess I shouldn't have assumed." He held out his hoof to me. "Afterburner. I guess we never got formally introduced."

Wow... He's pretty polite, too.

I shook his hoof and smiled. "Angel Bolt."

We both giggled a little as Backdraft completely missed the orb that was five feet in front of him.

"So, you like Angel Bolt or Angel Scratch more? I don't wanna offend you or anything..."

"What? Oh, nah. It's no big deal. I kinda prefer Bolt, though since I kinda want my parents to be kept a secret as much as possible."

"Cool. Yeah, I can imagine that'd get pretty annoying after a while." He smirked with a voice that hinted that either had a throat cold or he had just hit puberty yesterday.

"I know, right?" I rolled my eyes.

There was only a few ponies left and Lightweight was up next. She looked super nervous.

"You got this, Light!" I cheered and she turned to wave with an awkward geeky smile that I couldn't help but chuckle at. It seemed as if her level of cuteness knew no bounds.

"That your friend?" Afterburner asked me as the rest of the class talked up a storm behind us.

"Hm? Yeah." I smiled, not wanting to give any more information than I needed to. Didn't want to telegraph the whole school that I had a thing for her.

I chose to ignore the fact that he was obviously ogling her.

When I looked back, I could see why the other students were talking so much; Lightweight was lifting up the one huge boulder that was easily twenty times her weight.

"Holy shit!" I couldn't help spurting out.

A single bead of sweat trickled down the back of her neck but other than that, it almost seemed as if she wasn't putting forth any effort whatsoever. Once she put it down, she let out a sigh and moved on to the targets. Everypony around me went silent.

I had been wondering for a while what she'd use for the accuracy targets, but she picked up a few hoof-sized rocks from the station to her left with her magic and put them down in front of her.

Duh, Angel...

I could've sworn she was humming a little as she zipped the rocks forward, going so fast that I could barely see them before they made a loud *crack!* on the targets. The only one she didn't bulls-eye was the farthest one, but I had a feeling that it wasn't far off.

I saw a look on her face like "Oh shit..." when she reached the orb; there wasn't really a way to measure levitation power with it from what I imagined and it didn't seem like she knew as many higher level spells that weren't associated with levitation and telekinesis.

"Um... Er, Lightweight?" The professor awkwardly spoke up and adjusted his black-rimmed glasses. "T- That won't be necessary. Please move on."

Apparently, lifting the rock was evidence enough of her power. Her "Oh shit" face was quickly replaced with a cheerful one when she went to the last lane.

The big butterfly I made was still flapping around in front of her and she admired it a little before wrapping it in her magic and concentrating. Before too long, I noticed the bug changing color and texture in a way that I, to this day, couldn't fully explain.

When a little cloud of smoke puffed up in front of it and it began to clear, my suspicions were confirmed, but in a degree much greater than I anticipated.

What came out of the smoke puff wasn't a butterfly; it was a tiny blue jay that sang happily and perched on her back.

"Oh my... Well, Lightweight, a very impressive display. Well done." The professor looked just as stunned as I was. He wrote down a few things on his clip board and gestured for the next pony to come up.

Lightweight trotted over to the rest of the group and she took a second to look around for me before joining. Her smile was still stuck to her face.

"Hey! Did I do okay?" She asked. Either she was being way too modest or she didn't have any clue how talented she was.

"Okay?!"

"Yeah, that was awesome!" Afterburner chimed in after me.

Lightweight blushed. "Oh... Was it really that good? I think I missed one of those targets..."

It hadn't struck me until just then, but it was funny how much she reminded me of one of my dad's friends. I think her name was Fluttershy, if I remember correctly.

"Lightweight, trust me. You blew the competition out of the water." I winked at her and her hoof played with the grass bashfully.

"Thanks, Angel... Oh! I'm sorry, who are you again?"

"Afterburner." He said as the two shook hooves.

"Oh! Right... Sorry, nice to meet you."

"Same. Hey, that reminds me." He said as another pony went up and performed less than mediocre. "Some of my friends and I are starting up a club for ponies who want to learn spells that they probably won't teach in our entry level classes. You know, so we'll be more prepared for more advanced ones. It'd be sweet if you two could drop by. You don't have to join if you don't want to, but we're trying really hard to get some more members and you two showing up might give us some positive attention."

My instinct based on my antisocial tendencies was to tell him I'd show up and then ditch. But, I decided if Lightweight wanted to go, then-

"Yeah, that sounds great! What do you think, Angel?" She gave me a look that I just couldn't say "no" to.

"Uh..." I looked at the both of them and they were like cute puppies asking for a treat. Twilight did say she wanted us to stick together, right? "Sure, why not."

"Yes!" Afterburner pumped his hoof victoriously and Lightweight giggled. "You guys wanna meet up tonight? I think we're gonna be in the physics building.

I didn't recall Twilight saying anything about lessons that night, so I figured it wouldn't hurt.

"Yeah."

"And it'd be awesome to have you two join. You guys obviously know a lot about magic already, so maybe you could help some of us?"

"Pfft. Me? Teach? You're kidding, right? Ow!"

Lightweight stepped on my hoof and cleared her throat. "We'd be happy to help however we can, er... Is 'Burnie' okay?"

"That's fine. Most of my friends call me that anyways." He laughed, but I felt as if it was just a knee jerk reaction to make the conversation flavorful.

My hoof throbbed a little from the pain but I smiled too, albeit it wasn't entirely genuine.

The last pony finished up and the professor took a few moments to write some notes down while the rest of us chatted up a storm. Well, everypony except me. If you hadn't noticed already, I'm not much of a chatter-box. Lightweight seemed to get along with Burnie for the most part. To be honest, it made me a little jealous even though I knew she wasn't into guys. Old habits die hard, I guess.

"Alright! We have about fifteen minutes left in class, but since you all did so swell today, you're dismissed early." He said before trotting off, notepad and pencil above his head from his magic.

It didn't hit me until after I stepped outside that I forgot my textbooks. Lightweight brought hers, of course, but I didn't like bothering others by having to borrow them.

In reality, I probably didn't need them. It was just supposed to be a club meeting, so I didn't expect there to be many activities, only talking and plan-making. Looking back, it's a good thing I forgot to bring them. Otherwise, I would've brought Twilight's spell book with me, which wasn't a great idea, but the thought that I probably shouldn't have shown it off in public didn't hit me until we were already halfway to the physics building.

The place looked totally different at night. Even though the light pollution from the city blocked the view of most of the lesser stars, the ambient surroundings of the silent courtyards and walkways were amazingly tranquil. The light posts were like a cherry on top. Not only were they floating in mid-air and had a sleek and elegant design, but they also cast purple lights from them down at the sidewalks which made the place seem that much more magical, in more ways than one.

I snapped back to reality and realized that Lightweight had been calling for me for the past few minutes.

"Oh! S- Sorry... What?"

She giggled. "It's alright. This place really is beautiful, isn't it?"

"Yeah... It's like I'm in another world or something. Us Ponyville folk are certainly fish out of the water here, huh?"

"Yup! But I kinda like that. Ponyville was sorta getting boring, anyways." She took a deep breath. "A breath of fresh air is always nice every once and a while and I don't think I'll be getting bored of this place anytime soon."

"You got that right. If I had to move in here after I graduate, I wouldn't complain one bit."

We rounded the corner to the physics building and we could see one light still on in one of the windows. There wasn't that much sound coming from it as we passed by to get to the front doors, so I just thought they were in the middle of a meeting or something.

The lobby and the hallways were almost completely dark except for the moonlight and the ambient light from the purple lamp posts outside leaking in through the window at the end of the halls. The room that they were in was simple enough to find; it was the only one with a thin sliver of yellow light coming from underneath the door.

"I hope this isn't awkward..." I sighed and rolled my eyes.

"Oh come on, it'll be fun! Don't you like meeting new poni-" She stopped herself, realizing that she was about to say something completely false. "Never mind."

I chuckled a little and nudged her shoulder teasingly. "I like meeting new ponies when they're like you, but otherwise, nah."

Lightweight smiled from my obvious flirting, but didn't respond. We got to the door and she paused a second before opening it.

"You ready?"

I took a deep breath and grinned, knowing that I was unable to back out at that point.

"Sure, why not."

Author's Note

If there are any errors, please send me a PRIVATE MESSAGE and let me know so that I can fix them asap. Thanks for reading! <3

Oh, and Merry Christmas/Happy Holidays! :twilightsmile: