See How the Night Sky Glows

Just as they had been at Manebridge High, Wednesdays at Canterlot High were an hour shorter than any other day of the week. This also shortened each class period by ten minutes each. Today, as Sky and the twins walked out of their History class and headed toward the gym, they were laughing over something that had happened to one of their classmates.

"So, I heard Captain Planet got suspended again yesterday." Sky remarked.

"Yeah, for smoking weed in the bathroom!" Cloudchaser giggled. "That's the third time this year!"

"He got suspended twice last year too." added Flitter. "I swear, one of these days he's going to get expelled!"

"He probably will!" said Cloudchaser. "Plus, he seriously needs to shave off that mustache!"

Sky chuckled. "That too!"

The three friends passed through the atrium and began heading along the corridor to the gym. Suddenly, Sky heard a familiar voice coming from around the corner and stopped. He peered around the corner and saw Noteworthy repeatedly trying to initiate conversation with Lyra, while Lyra kept moving away and trying to ignore him.

Sky felt anger boiling up within him. Flitter noticed this and asked Sky what was the matter. Sky pointed to Noteworthy. "Just look over there."

Noteworthy saw Sky and smirked at him. Upon seeing this, Lyra glared at Noteworthy, flipped him the middle finger and walked away. Sky watched her turn the corner at the other end of the corridor and disappear.

"That's it!" said Sky to the twins. "I'm getting to the bottom of this." He stormed over to Noteworthy. "What the hell was that all about?!" he demanded.

Noteworthy, still looking as smug as ever, shrugged. "What? I was just talking to my friend Lyra."

"She's not your friend!" Sky snapped. "She clearly didn't want to talk to you, so why were you trying to talk to her?"

Noteworthy smiled knowingly. "Why do you think? I know all about your feelings for her. I saw that picture of yours, and I heard everything you said to Sherbert and Curly."

"Oh my gosh, Sky likes Lyra!" Flitter whispered to Cloudchaser.

Cloudchaser rolled her eyes. "Yeah, I already sort of knew that. He's really bad at hiding it."

Sky was at a loss for words. He struggled to think of something to say. Finally he sighed, and muttered, "Fine. You got me on that." Then he suddenly realized something. "Wait a minute! You're still mad about gym class on Monday!"

"Yeah, no sh*t, Sherlock!" Noteworthy retorted. "I've never been more humiliated in all my life! And it's all your fault, because you cheated and made me lose!"

"I did not cheat!" Sky shot back. "You know full well that I beat you fair and square! It's not my fault that you totally sucked out there, and came up with about a million bullsh*t excuses. Newsflash - no one believes you anymore, and everyone, including me, is tired of you. No offence, but you're an asshole."

Noteworthy couldn't think of anything to say in response, and seethed in silence. Sky smiled. "Silence, eh? Smart move."

That was all it took to push Noteworthy over the edge. "F*ck you!" he shouted, and pulled his arm back to punch Sky.

Cloudchaser and Flitter had watched the entire ordeal unfold, and as soon as Noteworthy threw the first punch, they rushed in, ready to defend their friend. But there was no need for that. Sky blocked the punch and busted Noteworthy square in the nose. Noteworthy fell to the ground and covered his bloody nose with his hand.

At that moment, Vice Principal Luna rushed to the scene, having seen the whole incident. "Sky Scraper! Noteworthy! Both of you come to my office now!" she yelled.

Sky sighed heavily and followed Luna. Noteworthy got to his feet and followed Sky. As the two boys walked behind Luna, Noteworthy shot Sky a deadly glare. Sky ignored it and looked down at the knuckles on his right hand. There was some blood on them from punching Noteworthy so hard.

Once Noteworthy had gone to Nurse Redheart's office and had his nose bandaged, both he and Sky sat before both Luna and Principal Celestia. After hearing both Sky's and Noteworthy's sides of the story, Celestia spoke to the boys.

"As I'm sure you already knew, Canterlot High has strict rules concerning violence. There is to be zero fighting within this building. In light of what just happened between you two, and in accordance with our non-violence policy, I'm afraid I must take action and suspend you both from school for three days. That means that neither of you is permitted to come to school tomorrow, Friday or Monday. Now then, I will call both of your parents and tell them what happened." She picked up her phone, and Sky watched as his mother's number was dialed.

After their respective parents were called and they were both sent home, Sky and Noteworthy left Celestia's office and went their separate ways. Before parting, Noteworthy pointed at Sky and said, "I'm not done with you. I'm going to get my revenge, and you're not going to like it." He turned and walked out the door to the parking lot.

Sky headed back to the atrium and went out the main door of the school. He found his mother's car waiting right outside. Sky put his backpack in the back seat, then sat down in the front passenger seat next to his mom. To his surprise, Evening Shade did not look upset at all. "Hi, Mom." Sky said quietly. "You're not upset?"

"Not at all." Evening replied. "I'm just glad to see that you're okay. That other boy threw the first punch, so you had every right to hit him back. I'm proud of you for defending yourself."

"Thanks." said Sky. "Dad won't be upset either?"

"Nope. I've already called him, and he agrees that you had every right to do what you did in that situation. Even if you're suspended from school, you're not in trouble with either of us." She started the car and drove her son home.

Sky looked around the ice cream shop, an ice cream cone in his hand. It was around seven-thirty, and he felt like he needed some ice cream to cool off after what had happened today. He wasn't expecting to see any of his friends here. After all, this place was nestled deep in the city, and located much closer to Crystal Prep than to Canterlot High. But as Sky scanned the shop for an empty table, he spotted Sherbert and Emerald sitting at a table near the window. He immediately went to join them. "Hey guys, what's up?"

"Sky!" Sherbert exclaimed. "Sae guid tae see ye!"

"I see you finally found this place." said Emerald. "I don't know too many other people who come here." He took a bite out of his ice cream cone. "Best ice cream on the planet!"

"Well, I've been here a few times before." said Sky. "I guess we've just never been in here at the same time."

"Guess not." said Emerald. "Speaking of which, where were you this afternoon? I didn't see you at lunch."

Sky's response was short and blunt. "I got suspended."

Sherbert nearly did a spit-take. "Whit!?!" he exclaimed. "Why?"

"Yeah, what did you do?" Emerald asked. "What happened?"

Sky took a deep breath and explained the entire incident with Noteworthy.

Sherbert gave Sky a hardy pat on the back. "Guid on ye! That prat gat whit he desert!"

Emerald nodded in agreement. "Yeah, you did nothing wrong. If a guy takes a swing at you, you have every right to return the favor. That's how it works."

"Aye." said Sherbert. "But seriously, ye've got tae mak a muive oan Lyra suin. I mean, I ken Noteworthy anely did this acause he's pissed at ye for whit happent oan Monanday, but the langer ye wait, the bigger the risk ye run of her bein stolen fae ye. I leart that lesson masel back at the Fall Formal."

"I know, but I don't want to ruin my friendship with her if it turns out she doesn't feel the same way about me." Sky replied. "By the same token, I REALLY don't want to get stuck in the friend zone with her."

"I unnerstaund." said Sherbert. "I'm guessin she disna ken aboot yer feelins?"

"Not as far as I know." Sky replied.

"Then ye've gat tae gie her some hints!"

"Why should I try to tell her my feelings now? Like I said, I don't want to freak her out if she doesn't like me back. And when you say "hints", what do you mean?"

"I wis thinkin that ye coud tell her she's cute if ye get the chance. Dinna juist say it oot o' the blue, mak it suttle. Like if ye're talkin tae her ane day an' ye think she leuks espeicially beautiful, lat her ken!"

Sky pondered for a moment. "Hmm... I guess that could work. Maybe I could try."

Sherbert nodded. "Ye shoud!" He turned to Emerald. "D'ye hae any ither advice for him?"

Emerald shook his head. "Nope. Your advice sounded pretty good. Besides, you've got way more experience with relationships than I do." He pat Sky on the back. "Don't worry, I'm sure you'll do fine. After all, you're way less shy than me."

Sky nodded. He had now eaten his entire ice cream cone, and looked up at the clock on the wall. It was now eight o'clock sharp. "Well, I've got to be going, I'm afraid." he said to his friends. "It was nice to see you after the incredibly crappy day that I had. Thanks for the advice, Sherbert!"

"Nae problem!" Sherbert replied. "As I said, whan ye need romantic advice, ye can ayeweys coont oan me!"

Sky waved goodbye to his friends, then exited the shop and headed home. As he walked in the evening glow, he pondered what Sherbert had said to him. He definitely needed to give Lyra some inkling of how he felt, so as not to catch her off guard. However, that would require two things. One, he needed to be subtle and not make it completely obvious. Two, he actually had to build up the courage necessary to compliment her in that way. Sky wasn't sure which of those would be harder.

The next day, Sky got to sleep in because he didn't have to get up early for school, but he still had to keep up with the assignments from his teachers during his suspension. He had to go online and print many of them out, and it took him quite a while to do all of them. He was relieved to finish before dinner.

After dinner, he could finally relax. Since there was some light rain outside, he decided not to go for a walk, and instead stayed in his room and surfed the Web on his phone. Suddenly his phone began ringing. He figured it was just some random telemarketer, since his friends usually texted him, rather than calling. But to his surprise, Lyra was the one calling him. He felt himself blush a bit as he answered the call. "Hi, Lyra. What's up?"

"Hey, Sky!" Lyra said on the other end. "I heard things have been rough for you recently, so I figured I'd call you to cheer you up!"

Sky could hear Lyra giggling quietly and blushed again. Lyra's giggle was so adorable! "Yeah, I got suspended yesterday for getting in a fight."

Lyra gasped. "Oh my gosh, are you okay?"

"Don't worry, I'm fine." Sky replied. He chuckled. "Trust me, my opponent came off way worse than I did."

"Well, that's good, but who'd you get in a fight with?"

"Noteworthy. He got suspended too."

Lyra sighed. "Oh, that guy. The guy who tried to hit on me just because he was mad at you over a badminton game."

"Yeah... I saw that. I confronted him just after you left. What exactly did he do?"

"Well, I was minding my own business when he came over and got really close to me. I tried to back off, but he wouldn't leave me alone. He used horrible pickup lines and called me pretty over and over again, but I could tell he wasn't being genuine about it."

What Sky said next just sort of came out all at once. "Don't listen to him. You're not just pretty, you're beautiful."

There was a long silence. Sky began to worry that maybe he shouldn't have said that, and that Lyra had reacted the wrong way. But eventually Lyra broke the silence. "Do you... really think so?"

Sky scratched the back of his head. "Well, maybe that was a little forward, but yes, I do."

"Thanks." Lyra replied, simply but sweetly.

"No problem." said Sky. "Anyway... back to what happened yesterday?"

"Oh, yes. Well, he kept bothering me until you came along, then he looked at you and smirked. I then realized that not only was he not even interested in me, but he was only hitting on me because he wanted to get even with you. So I just straight up left at that point, and I'm glad I did."

"Yeah, you shouldn't bother with people like that. Anyway, I saw you leave, and went up to him to find out why he'd been bothering you. I soon came to the same conclusion as you did, and called him out on pretty much all of his past behavior up to that point. Then he took a swing at me, but I blocked it and hit him in the face. Vice Principal Luna took both of us to the office, and we were both suspended for three days."

"You know what, Sky? You did the right thing! Noteworthy had it coming to him."

"That's what pretty much everyone else has said, including my own parents. Since I didn't start the fight, they didn't punish me at all."

"Wow! You're lucky!" Lyra remarked. "I've never been in a fight or gotten suspended, but I guarantee you my parents would ground me and take away my phone if I did! Anyway, I've got to go now. I'm meeting Bon Bon at the gym for a Friendship Games training session."

"All right, see you later!" said Sky. He hung up and leaned back in his chair. He couldn't believe it. He'd complimented Lyra and she'd clearly appreciated it. Sherbert's advice had worked wonders.

He took a shower and went to sleep feeling much better.

Friday brought more rain and more schoolwork, but on Saturday the sun shone. It was very warm outside too, with not a cloud in the sky. Since the weather was so good, Sky had taken a walk down to the diner at the Canterlot Mall, and was now enjoying a refreshing vanilla milkshake as he made his way back to his apartment. As he passed by Canterlot High, he noticed several girls running laps around the track and doing various other workouts. He recognized Lyra and Bon Bon immediately, and could also make out Rarity, Applejack, Pinkie Pie and Rainbow Dash. He was not as familiar with the remaining two girls. One had fiery red hair with yellow streaks, and Sky assumed that she was the Sunset Shimmer that Sherbert had told him about on his first day. The other had very long light pink hair, and if Sky could recall correctly, her name was Fluttershy.

However, Sky's gaze soon shifted back to Lyra. All of the girls were wearing tank tops and short shorts, and they all looked really hot. But of course, Lyra was the hottest of all no matter what she wore. Sky found himself so mesmerized by the sight of his crush jogging around the track that he wasn't looking where he was going, and he bumped into a girl. "Oops! Sorry!" he said.

"You should really watch where you're going." the girl replied bluntly. Sky recognized that voice. He looked at the girl and immediately recognized her as his cousin from Crystal Prep.

"Oh, hey!" Sky exclaimed. "Long time no see!"