Hopping out of my car, I grabbed my backpack and made my way to the front entrance of the school. Passing the Wondercolts statue, I pulled out my phone to text-

"Boo!"

With a yelp, I jumped back, my phone flying into the air. My foot got caught on the base of the statue, and I landed right on my ass. I put a hand to my chest, feeling the machine gun-like heartbeat. In front of me, a pair of long amber legs ran to my left, sighing in relief as they caught my phone before breaking into hysterical laughter. I turned to face the perpetrator.

"Holy... fuck... you... Sunset," I breathed. I put on the most stern look I could muster, but there was no stopping her amusement.

"Oh Celestia, you should've seen the look on your face!" Sunset Shimmer bent over, wrapping her arms around her sides. "I- I can't- I can't breathe!"

As the warmth of embarrassment climbed up my face, I felt compelled to get back at her, so, in a fit of mischievous spite, I crawled over to the girl dying beside me, straddling her. Immediately, her laugher stopped, and she gave me a look of bewilderment, a tinge of red forming on her face. I took both hands and loosely wrapped them around her neck. I pulled up. Then, I pushed down. Sunset dead-weighted as I shook her, and she gave a fake groan as her head lolled around.

"I'll teach you to not mess with me anymore," I grumbled, taking one hand and forming an "OK" gesture just above her eyes. Before she could react, I flicked my finger, smacking her forehead with a loud "Thwack!"

"Ow!" she shouted, rubbing her wound with a playful grin. "I'm sorry!"

What can I say? I'm a spiteful guy.

I pulled my index finger back for another attack.

"Oh, I'm sure you are," I deadpanned, brimming with evil.

"No!" Sunset weakly shuffled beneath me, giggling. "Stop, please! I said I'm sorry!"

Thwack!

She screamed once more, grasping for my wrists to wrestle them away, but a slow clap interrupted our playfight.

"Bravo, Sunset."

Coming up from the parking lot, a yellow girl with orange hair walked up to us. Like Sunset, her hair looked fiery, but this girl's short, swept-back color and style was more of a genuine flame. I tried to look into her eyes, but the mirrored sunglasses she wore only gave me a view of my own face. She wore black joggers below alongside a white shirt and blue bomber jacket combo up top.

The girl crossed her arms, a frown perpetually stuck to her face. The look of judgement she gave us was extremely intimidating, and Sunset seemingly shared my sentiment.

"Oh... Hey, Spitfire," came from beneath me.

Noticing Sunset's discomfort, I quickly climbed off her, and she stood up alongside me.

"Man, I just wanted you to scare him," Spitfire gave an arrogant shrug. "I wasn't expecting you to make out with your boyfriend."

Sunset appeared to recoil at that last word. "He's not my boyfriend," she snapped back.

I ignored a pang of sadness for the time being.

Unconvinced, Spitfire waved dismissively. "Yeah, yeah." Her head tilted down, orange irises peering back, and she pulled out her phone to refer to it. "I'll hit you up the next time I wanna hang out, friend." Pushing her glasses back up, she started strolling to the front door of the school.

"Well," she rubbed her neck, "I'm gonna go to talk to Rarity. Thanks for playing along, I guess." She brought a fist to punch my arm, but for a moment, she hesitated, only following through after a second. I said nothing, watching her follow the crowd of students filing into the building without a second glance.

Ding!

Reaching into my back pocket, I pulled out my phone, which had magically made its way in there. Sunset had still held onto it the last time I remembered, though I didn't dwell on it. Instead, I clicked the power button, reading the notification.

"Forgot to tell u, hanging w girls at lunch. Sry."

Shrugging, I put my phone away. Sunset liked to split her time among the different cliques, so I thought nothing of it, finally joining the students walking through the main doors of Canterlot High.

"25/25."

I put my pen off to the side, piling the final paper on top of the other graded worksheets and cracking my knuckles as I basked in the satisfaction of completing another set of work. Careful not to drop any, I slowly picked up the entire stack before exiting the back pod and entering Mr. Whooves's class. The class of juniors glanced up at my entrance, though their eyes diligently flickered back to their papers almost immediately. Taking another step to let the door close next to me, I turned to my right, holding the stack over the wall of computer monitors.

"Here's all the worksheets from last Friday."

"Alrighty, thanks, son!" He flipped through each one like a deck of cards before sliding them into a manila folder on his desk. I spotted a glint of excitement in his eyes, and he rolled his chair further into the corner. "Wanna play? You've got about...," he peeked at his watch, "ten minutes to get destroyed in Dr. Mare-io."

Flashing a toothy grin, I jabbed back, "Are you sure? I don't think you want your next class to see you crying when I stomp you."

Bringing a hand to the console under a monitor, Mr. Whooves pushed the power button. "Oh, it's on!" He shoved a controller into my hand, catching the attention of a couple students in the front rows.

Within seconds, we were deep into battle, stacking pills upon pills in an attempt to beat one another. Diving headfirst, I targeted the viruses, hoping to win by killing them all first. On the other hand, Mr. Whooves was setting up stacks of three, hoping to use the combo system to send pills over to my side. To prod me, he completed two adjacent stacks of colors, sending one onto my side. Immediately, I used my next capsules to destroy the offending pill, but by the time I had gotten the right colors to do so, another one began falling onto my side. My eyes flickered over to my teacher, who had almost completely set up his side with stacks of three. Sensing an imminent barrage of capsules, I doubled my efforts, dropping more and more pills hoping to resume my strategy of killing the virus. In a stroke of luck, I dropped a blue-yellow capsule, only to find another...

And another...

And a fourth! I tapped down on the directional pad, smiling at the accomplishment of sending another pill to his side.

However, my stomach dropped as a pill spawned at the top of mine. Then another... and another... and one more... and...

As if on cue, the bell rang, and the students (who had been captivated by our match) scribbled their last answers and shuffled out the room, leaving their worksheets in a pile at the table by the exit.

"Checkmate, son, or... overdose, if you wanna look at it that way." Mr. Whooves put a sympathetic hand on my shoulder as capsules piled up to the top on my side. "But don't worry. You've been doing leagues better than Sunset did last year, so you can still brag to her about that!" He chuckled triumphantly.

"Uh huh," I grumbled. "How do you do so well anyway?"

"It's all in the strategy." Seeing my eye roll, he continued. "You're trying to kill every virus and destroy every pill I sent over, but you should take you time. Next time, do what I did, and set up combos for one big push. Sure, having you send a pill every now and then was annoying to deal with, but since I took the time to set everything up, my attack was still big enough to take you out, right?"

I nodded. "Yeah, I guess."

As I picked up my bag and walked to the exit, he called out to me. "Get Sunset to help you; she's been trying to use my strategy, too, so you two can practice together!"

I waved back in acknowledgement, stepping out into the hallway.

My eyes scanned the sea of students all flowing towards the cafeteria. Among the plethora of colors, I spotted a familiar group of girls walking. Navigating around the different parties of students, I made my way across the hall to join Sunset and her friends... except Sunset was missing.

Slowly, the girls spotted me, stopping to give me a variety of unique waves.

"Greetings, darling! It is so good to see you." Rarity leaned over for a side-hug, so I obliged.

Applejack held a fist out, so I bumped it. "Nice seein' you, partner."

Rainbow Dash crossed her arms, rolling her eyes. With a smile, I mimicked her, earning a scowl in response.

"Hey, girls." My eyes scanned again to make sure I wasn't just missing Sunset in the crowd, but any other stationary individuals would stand out in the steady stream of students, thus confirming my concern. "Where's Sunset? She told me she was eating lunch with you all."

They glanced among each other in confusion, and then Rarity to give me an apologetic look.

"Our apologies, darling. After class, she told us to go to lunch without her."

I cocked an eyebrow. "Oh. Weird."

"You 'n' me both." Applejack frowned, deep in thought.

"Wait, I know!" Pinkie Pie began bouncing excitedly. "Maybe she's planning to throw a surprise party for us!" There was a pink blur, and as if by magic, I instantly felt hands from behind, pushing me towards the cafeteria. "As the party afficionado, I can't have us ruin the surprise!"

Annoyed, Applejack pulled her off me.

"Sorry we couldn't help, sugarcube. Maybe try texting her."

I nodded in agreement, pulling out my phone, but to my surprise, they started walking away, the cowgirl carrying a feral Pinkie away.

"Uh, don't you wanna know, too?" I called out.

I received a handful of dismissive shrugs.

"No!" Pinkie's neck stretched out from Applejack's bearhug, head almost hovering towards my face. "That'll ruin the surp-"

"Why do you care anyway?" Rainbow Dash covered Pinkie's mouth. Defeated, Pinkie's head retracted back to Applejack, and the girls continued walking, save for Rainbow, who returned to me. Sensing her usual hostility, I frowned at her.

"Why don't you?"

She groaned. "You don't get it, do you?" She made a gesture conveying a mind explosion. "She doesn't wanna hang out with you. What a shocker!"

Wait. Whoa, hold on. I was used to the banter, but that was low. An intense heat rose to my face, and I clenched my fists.

"It's not- We- That's not the point!"

Why couldn't they understand? Sunset Shimmer never lied to me! Ever!

"What's 'not the point?' The fact that you've been stuck to her like a zit on her ass?" My eyes widened with shock, but she glared right through me. "Dude, you've been practically nonexistent before she became your little 'pity pal.' Why would someone as awesome as Sunset want to hang it with you? All that time she's wasted on you could've been spent on someone worth a damn, like me. Especially when I-" Catching herself slip, the blue girl looked away for a moment, sad frustration painted on her face.

I was like a pot filled past halfway, threatening to boil over. My hands, now shaking, ached for something to hit. I debated starting with the bitch in front of me. Everything was hot, and I couldn't stop moving. I had to hit something. Why did she say something like that? I need to hit something.

Calm down.

I mean, what the fuck is wrong with me? How about, what's wrong with her?

Calm down.

Since when did Rainbow Dyke care about me hanging out with Sunset?

My fist traveled up a couple inches... and it fell back to my side, unclenched. I sighed. Who was I kidding? There was no way I was going to win a fight against her anyway.

At my silence, she huffed in annoyance. "Listen, did it ever occur to you that constantly trying to hound her is maybe annoying her? I mean, c'mon, girls aren't gonna fall for pests like you." She shook her head, and with that, she chased after the other girls, leaving me in the now-empty hall. Immediately, I returned my attention to the phone in my hand. I swiped until I had Sunset's text conversation up.

"Rarity n co told me you said you weren't going to lunch w them. Is everything ok?"

The sickness I felt at her words lost me my appetite, so I turned around, electing to just wander the halls during the break. I greeted acquaintances relaxing along the lockers, hoping to see Sunset among them, but unfortunately, my search proved fruitless. Reaching the end of the hall, I leaned against the wall, sighing in defeat. I checked, double-checked, and triple-checked my phone, hoping a notification would light up the screen.

"Hey, Sandalwood, pass it over already!"

I did a double take, eyes darting wildly to identify where Spitfire's familiar voice came from.

"Yeah, yeah. Here."

I turned towards the janitor's closet, leaning over with my ear up against the door. I identified the click of a lighter, then the quiet flicker of something burning. Someone inhaled, the burning more audible, then gave a breathy exhale.

"Shiiit, that's good. Here, friend."

"Oh, um, ok."

Sunset's voice! I moved my hand towards the doorknob, but I paused. Remembering what Rainbow Dash had said earlier disheartened me, and the thought of facing the intimidating glare of Spitfire made my stomach flip. Discouraged, I figured it'd be easier to just confront Sunset later, so I dropped my hand and continued listening.

After a short pause, Sunset coughed violently. A hand clapped against her back.

"Hey-o! Don't worry, friend. Just take another hit."

"Hit?" The tight feeling in my stomach grew. Is she taking...?

Sunset inhaled slowly, this time exhaling successfully.

"Whoa..."

"Got that right. You'll feel it in a bit, now hand it over."

"Hey," Sandalwood interrupted, "aren't you gonna pay me?"

A pause.

"C'mon, friend, do you have any money?"

"W- what? I only have lunch money!"

"Which is...?"

"Only like a couple bucks!"

"Spitfire! The money."

I held my breath.

Spitfire groaned. "Sunset, you're my friend, right?"

"Y- yeah."

"Cool. Sandal, we'll do the 'other thing.'"

"Works for me."

I heard the sound of a belt unbuckling and Sunset gasping. My hand shot up to the doorknob again, but I hesitated once more. Sure, I'd open the door to save Sunset, but then what? There's no telling how many students would hear the commotion and check. Not to mention, Sunset was smoking... something, and regardless of what that "something" was, she'd get suspended for it.

Blow a guy or be known as the girl who smoked during lunch and almost blew a guy; it was a lose-lose.

Dejected, my hand came down again. I checked the time on my phone. There wasn't much of break left, and I didn't want to spend another second here. I stepped away from the door, aimlessly walking until eventually stopping in front of a familiar room, giving it a quick knock.

"Come in!"

I pulled the door open. A man at his desk put his controller down, but looking up at me, he picked it back up, holding a second one over to me.

"Back for another smackdown?"

I gave a weak smile.

"Nothing's set in stone."

"True. This time, there's only five minutes to obliterate you."

Chuckling together, I took the controller, hoping to distract myself from whatever was transpiring in that closet down the hall.

Author's Note

And here I was, thinking the narcotics tag was just for a video game pun!

Jokes aside, when proofreading this chapter, I realized that I made a substantial assumption regarding the school's classroom layout, but I couldn't find a good way to explain it narratively.

At my high school, we had "pods" which were center rooms connected to groups of four classrooms. You can imagine it as an X, where all four ends of the letter are the classrooms while their point of convergence is a pod. At my school, upperclassmen could enroll as teaching aides as an elective, and they often worked in the pods so as to not disrupt class. It was essentially a schedule freebie, doing a bit of busywork for your favorite teacher and then relaxing for the rest of the class period, hence why Mr. Whooves has had Dr. Mare-io buddies for two straight years.

To my (limited) knowledge, I don't think CHS has pods. Also, I'm assuming the school offers classes that can be taken in multiple grades. For instance, calculus can be taken as a junior if you're on the standard advanced math track or as a sophomore if you, say, took an earlier math class over summer. (Amusingly, Common Core impacted the academic class after mine so that this scenario is virtually impossible. USA! USA!) Please excuse my narrative liberties.