The days were getting chillier and the decorations mildly spookier as Nightmare Night was approaching by months end. The campus library that Moondancer frequented was participating in the festivities with a few bat and cob web decorations here and there. It seemed like they borrowed a display skeleton from the science labs to complete the ensemble.

“This university barely has a budget as it is, and they still spend it on this junk?” Dancer commented.

“I think it’s cute.” Sonata said, defending the googly eyed witch doll on the table they’re studying on. “It reminds me of what the ponies did back home.”

“The version from your world at least was about fearing a demonic princess that’s actually real. Ours is just some made up, pieced together crap about a witch named Tantabus that nobody agrees existed or not. Every story has her described differently each time too.”

“I think it’s interesting…” She trailed off.

“Whatever, Nightmare Night won’t be included in any history questions on the test regardless. If they were, I would have some complaints. Here, I brought the algebra textbook we’ll be reviewing.”

For about a week and a half Sonata was studying hard under Moondancer, already going through everything she would’ve learned during elementary school.

“Um, are you sure this is right?” Sonata asked. “It’s telling me to solve for ‘x’, but that’s a letter, not a number.”

As quickly as Sonata is able to learn, critical thinking was the hardest for her to grasp. Cold hard facts are easily memorized, but the moment she had to think for herself, she floundered. Moondancer was dreading having to go through the middle and high school curriculum, which she knew required a lot of comprehension.

“Look, even though it’s a letter you need to imagine it’s a number that you don’t know yet, hence the solving part.”

In all honesty, despite Sonata occasionally going off on her tangents, Moondancer was actually enjoying the time they were spending together. Sonata isn’t a dumb person like others would assume, just curious. It’s that curiosity that Dancer liked feeding into. She’s for sure appreciating this better than Treehugger ever would’ve.

“Well ain’t this cute.” A raspy voice said from behind them.

A frown grew on Moondancer’s face as she saw it was Gilda speaking to them, followed by Rainbow Dash. It looked like they just got done with soccer practice.

“Hiiiiiiii!” Sonata yelled as she got up to hug them both.

The librarian shot them all a dirty look, shushing them.

“S-sorry.” Dusk apologized.

“What are you guys even doing here?” Dancer said accusingly.

“Gee, friendly much?” Gilda said. “We were walking by this building and Dash said you’d be here right now, so we wanted to say hey.”

“Hey Sonata, if you’re being held against your will here, blink twice.” Rainbow joked.

She stared at them both, unblinking and unflinching.

“Uhhhh, you can start blinking again.”

The siren immediately shut and rubbed her eyes.

“Hey don’t touch that!” Moondancer shouted at Gilda, who was picking up one of the textbooks. The librarian shushed them again.

“Algebra huh? These are some fine school memories this is conjuring up.”

“Y’know it was a miracle that you passed every single math class with a D+.” Rainbow said with a sly grin.

“You bet your ass it was!” Gilda boasted, earning another shush. Not like she cared though. “Sonny, if you want some tips on how to cheese it with this math junk, just hit me up.”

“Thanks but no thanks.” Said Moondancer, answering for her. “We’re going to pass the GED as legitimately as possible. Now if you don’t mind leaving, we have a lot of work to cover. And that includes the foreseeable future as well.”

“Actually, that’s another reason why I’m here. Sonata won’t be able to study with you tomorrow.” Dash said.

“Excuse me? What could possibly be more important than this?” Dancer retorted. She looked to Sonata for a possible answer, but the girl was avoiding eye contact.

“Yeah, I had a feeling she wouldn’t tell you. Sunset and Twilight are gonna be in town tomorrow, and they’re gonna help us make Sonata a legal citizen of this very dimension.” Rainbow explained.

“B-b-but— “

“If we don’t do this then your plan completely fails.” Rainbow said seriously.

Moondancer crossed her arms and pouted in defeat.

“Alright, well, see you later in the dorm Sonata. Take it easy.” Dash said, taking hers and Gilda’s leave.

The siren waved them goodbye, and once they were gone, opened the textbook back to the last page they were on. The two of them didn’t really say anything for a while. The little comment that Rainbow gave her made her think about what she was doing. Again. And the guilt was starting to creep in. Again. Sonata was doing a problem, but she had to speak up or it would eat her up through the entire day.

“Hey, Sonata?”

“Sorry, am I doing it wrong?” Sonata said, worried.

“No, it’s fine. But, you already heard from Rainbow several times about how I’m probably taking advantage of you, right?”

“Mm-hmm.”

“So why do you keep doing this with me? You’ve technically known Rainbow longer than you do me, and there’s plenty of other qualified people who could help with this. Why me?”

“Oh, because I know you like me, and I don’t think you would help me unless you did. That’s what I think!” Sonata said cheerily.

It made her smile, knowing how much she was trusting her.

“By the way, I like you too.” Sonata continued. Moondancer blushed. She knew full well what the context was supposed to be, but it still gave her pause.

“Ahem, well, we’re going to skip ahead to the Pythagorean Theorem. I know it’ll seem confusing at first, but if you solved one triangle, you’ll solve them all.”

The teaching continued for the remainder of the day. Neither of them noticed how close they were sitting next each other by the end.

Author's Note

Here's hoping the next update comes in before Halloween