The next day, I woke up a little later than I usually do, made myself breakfast and after I ate it I headed out. I wandered around by myself a little and then decided to go visit Twilight to study a little bit. We had taken a couple of exams by that time but I needed to be ready for the rest, though it sure got way easier with History being deleted from exams.

I got there and Twilight welcomed me in. She was studying too so she pretty much didn’t mind me joining her. We studied calculus and chemistry a little and worked on geometry; overall we did pretty great. We even got to play a game of chess, which she won (no surprise there). We started chatting a little bit and talking about our teammates.

“So, how is your project going?” I asked.

“Not bad, though I wish Rose could have helped a little more.”

“Why? What could she have done that she hasn’t done?”

“Nothing, I just want her to make sense of things. She needs to read a little more, and not just copy things into our work, although I believe the information in those books I gave her are great. I guess it helps that someone has a Ph.D. degree in the subject.”

“I see what you mean. I wouldn’t want more marks being subtracted from me for copying, either.”

“Don’t remind me! Speaking of project, how are you doing?”

“Well, considering that we’ve missed working on our project for about three days, I say we are doing OK.”

“OK? Am I talking to the girl that defined working with Flaming Star as not OK?”

“To be honest, that’s my question too.” It still was pretty interesting for me how fast my thoughts changed about Flaming Star.

After our little chat was done, I asked her if I could borrow her laptop. I needed it to make my slideshow for the History project. She said I could. I didn’t waste time and plugged my phone into the laptop and started working, though I wasn’t sure to how to make a slideshow.

“So, uh, what do you use to make slideshow?” I asked.

“Silver Slides! The icon looks like a shining sheet of paper.”

“Oh yes, I see it! Thanks!”

“No problem!”

After she said that she went outside and left me and Spike together. He jumped on the bed and looked at the screen.

“So, what are you doing?”

“Making a slide show for my history project.”

“These are just pictures and paintings.”

“Because we are going to explain what we found and we need to have something as a cover.” He then jumped off the bed. I guess it didn’t interest him much. It didn’t take me long to finish my work, and after I was done with it I transferred it to my phone. By that time Twilight came back with some chips.

“I hope you don’t mind a break.”

“Actually, I’m done. So, no.” All of that studying and work made me hungry, too. She also brought some dog snacks for Spike. While eating I started to wonder about their magic research.

“How is your research going, by the way?”

“We are almost done with the books you gave us. Steely Armor tried his best to keep up with me but he couldn’t keep up mentally.”

“I think we finally found something that you two are not alike at.”

“What? No, we are much, much more different than you think.”

“Your grades say something else!”

“You could say we are both nerds, but you have to admit I can never make my inventions as complex as he can, and on top of that he can relate subjects to one another very easily.”

“You literally came up with new ways to teach us math! You related our talents to math!”

“Yes, but, to be honest, he knows mechanics better than me. I mean, he came up with a way to attend every single class in school, undetected.”

“Twilight,” I held her face, “he might be a really smart kid who created super cool robots and has a really great sight that allows him to see magic pulses and everything with more details or whatever. But remember that you know so much about stars and planets you should a Ph.D. in that stuff!”

“What do you mean?”

“I mean, you were able to decrypt his secret format, so if you’re not smarter than him, you are as smart as him.” She looked impressed by my words.

“Thanks. Sunset.”

“No problem.”

After all of that I said goodbye and left. It was almost noon so I thought I’d head to a restaurant and have lunch there.

I bought myself a pizza and ate it for lunch. It wasn’t bad, though who puts pineapple on a pizza? Anyway, after I ate lunch I texted Flaming Star and informed him that our slideshow was ready. And I send him the file for the slideshow. After a couple of minutes he responded.

You sure about the order?

yes

I guess I have to wait and see

I was going to shut my phone off but then he messaged me again.

when/where are we going to practice on our presentation?

haven’t decided yet. Will tell you when I was sure about it.

OK

Afterward I tried to think of a place for all of us to gather. Sweet Apple Acres farm wasn’t a bad choice but I didn’t want to interrupt the Apple family work, so it was out. Pinkie’s house had one thing going for it: she’s surrounded by chocolate! And bringing Flaming Star there was like killing him. I tried to think of other possible locations, but nothing came to my mind. I couldn’t just choose a random park and tell everyone to come there; how was I supposed to even show our slideshow in that way? I was lost.

Having no idea of where to tell everyone to gather, I took a walk near the park. As I was walking I came to the conclusion that I don’t know any place suitable for us. I decided to tell Flaming Star.

you there?

After a while he replied yeah

I tried to look for a place but I couldn’t find one.

so?

so could you please look for a place instead?

Fine. Then come to the Cars Graveyard.

For a second I thought he was joking, but no, he was not.

seriously?

you wanted a place and I found one.

I couldn’t disagree with that. So I started calling the girls and informing them that we were gathering tomorrow. One by one I told them that we want to practice our presentation and we need them to act as audience and judge. I needed to tell them about the time so I thought noon would be fine. They all accepted. I headed home to finally have some time for myself and play some games, but I couldn’t get the thought of how he is going to set up the condition to show our slideshow so I called Flaming Star and asked him.

“Yeah?” he picked up.

“Hi, uh, so I was wondering how are we going to showcase our Slideshow?”

“Don’t worry, Steely’s got it.”

“But how?”

“Do you really think I know how? I just know he can!”

“Ok, then, remember I told the girls to be there at noon.”

“Ok, I’ll remember that. So be there before them.”

“Why?”

“Because you know how you are going to talk about our research. And you need to explain it to me.”

“Oh, OK, then I’ll meet you tomorrow.”

“Bye.”

I didn’t get much in the way of answers but I guess now I didn’t have to worry about that so much. I literally played Warriors’ Destiny for the rest of the night, made myself something to eat, and before I knew it I was in bed sleeping.

Author's Note

Special thanks to my editor Daniel Drazen.

Make sure you check out the other chapters too.