Don't Go Out at Dusk

"Why, Miss Cheerilee, the answer to that is incredibly simple," Micro Chips declared with a brief clearing of his throat. Staring straight ahead at the blackboard in the science classroom, he quickly went through his calculations in his head, and nodded. "The arrow would leave the bow with a velocity of forty-seven point four meters per second." Confidently crossing his arms, he leaned back on his seat and grinned.

At the front of the classroom, Cheerilee sighed and slammed closed another textbook that was on her desk. Reluctantly, she added it onto a pile of other books, after straining a short distance, given its height. She held the stack steady since it wobbled after the new weight was added.

One of her eyelids twitching faintly, she smiled and declared, "Correct! Can we finally get to our actual lesson that—" She flicked her gaze to the clock on the wall over the classroom entrance. Softly under her breath, she finished with "—we only have fifteen minutes left in?" She slowly slumped forward and cradled her head in her hands.

"Hang on!" another voice interjected, and Micro Chips grunted and glanced over to his left. Sunset Shimmer had just finished lowering her hand, and he could see a fire in her eyes. Tapping a finger on her own desk, she snapped, "Hit me with another one!" At her demand, Micro barely contained a scoff while the rest of the class groaned.

Begrudgingly pulling herself back from her defeated position, Cheerilee hastily masaged a temple and then cracked open one last textbook she had at her desk. Although her grumbling was faint, Micro could catch her griping about what would happen to Mr. Fission when he returned from his best friend's wedding. Something about not finding bodies.

As he stole a peek at Sunset, she stuck her tongue out and folded her arms testily while leaning back in her chair. The rest of the classroom was mostly absorbed on their phones, as the impromptu, de facto, multi-subject competition that he and Sunset had might have gone for a minute or two longer than intended. Of course, if Sunset had not dared to correct him when he misspoke on answering one of Cheerilee's questions addressed to the class, then they wouldn't be in that situation.

After all, everyone knew that verbally messing up the formula for average velocity and acceleration happened every now and then. Besides, he corrected himself almost instantly, although she had gotten the answer right in Cheerilee's books. Therefore, defending his honor and the right to display his pocket protector was paramount.

As Cheerilee flipped through pages in the textbook, her bellyaching growing louder and more persistent, Micro ducked as he heard the characteristic windup of a spitball, which almost immediately flew over his head. Soaring through the air, it managed to land right on Cheerilee's desk. She slowly lowered the textbook.

A shiver worked down his spine as her face practically advertised all the unspeakable horrors she could inflict, despite only being the substitute teacher. Usually she was so cheery, which was the case when she arrived in that class, for the first two minutes of the fact-off. At this point, whatever joy she might have embodied had truly died.

For a few seconds, she kept her gaze leveled to whoever was behind him. He didn't bother to look. There were already only a couple of suspects.

Bringing the textbook back up just as glacially as when she lowered it, Cheerilee stated, "Okay. Sunset Shimmer, derive the equation for centripetal acceleration, given—"

At that point, Micro tuned her out. Knowing that it was just a derivative meant that it was going to be an easy question for Sunset. Which figured. Despite being an alien from another dimension, she seemed to be a favorite among the faculty. Probably something to do with saving the world a couple of times, or something.

It wasn't like he did that every day, or anything. Maybe it was virtual, in a video game, but still. The Zerg weren't going to be stopped by anyone else! If non-interdimensional aliens ever showed up, he'd know exactly what to do. So long as Earth had enough minerals.

With a loud hum, Sunset ripped his attention away from his thoughts, and she proclaimed, "Too easy, Miss Cheerilee." She kicked her feet onto her desk.

"Don't. Do that," Cheerilee warned.

Sighing and rolling her eyes, Sunset complied and finished by stating, "The centripetal acceleration is given by the radius times the angular velocity squared." It took a couple of seconds for Cheerilee to check the answer before she groaned and nodded. Pumping her fist, Sunset shot him a smug grin and whipped out her phone as Cheerilee added the last textbook to the pile.

After typing a couple of things into her phone, Sunset held it as close to him as she could, so he could see on the screen, "Six more answers than you!" When she had determined he had seen it, she snorted and shot him a lopsided grin before returning to watching Cheerilee.

He exhaled. If it was a battle of statistics, then he'd have to simply fire back. From the way that Cheerilee was holding herself, it potentially would be dangerous to his academic health if he suggested they go through some more from the previous books. Instead, he rolled his finger across the keyboard of his own phone, only having to fix a couple of typos from the prediction algorithms.

As Cheerilee slowly and painfully got up and started to wipe off the equations that she wrote out for the impromptu quizzing conflict, he let out a low "psst" at Sunset, and then flashed her his phone. He didn't need to guess if she saw it, since her face turned a flushed red. After all, he was merely rubbing in the fact that his ratio of correct to incorrect answers was one higher than hers, even after her previous question.

"All right! Now if that is finally over, let's get. To. Our. Lesson!" Cheerilee growled, shooting both Sunset and him a dissuading glare. Micro nodded dutifully, and Sunset merely shrugged her shoulders. "Splendid! Now, if—" Cheerilee halted mid-sentence as she heard another student sharply draw in a breath.

Suddenly growing a razor-thin smile, Cheerilee sweetly and innocently chirped while tilting her head slightly to the side, "Bulk, if you hock another spitball, I will make sure that you find out what exactly I can do with that straw and this pencil." Her grin expanded.

From behind Micro, he could hear Bulk Biceps gag and choke before wheezing a couple of times. However, the promise of a Spitball 2: Saliva's Revenge never came, as after coughing a few more times, Bulk did manage to squeak out, "W-What spitball?"

Instantly reverting to a more pleasant demeanor, Cheerilee clapped both her hands together and then cantered back behind the desk. "Perfect! Now, since we're in the last class of the day, I feel that holding you for a few minutes longer won't affect anything." She tittered. "After all, it's just a Friday, right? It's not like anyone had plans. Not at all!" As her giggle transformed into a low cackle, she started to scratch out some formulas from the actual textbook that they were supposed to be studying from.

Within a minute, she had sketched out with the chalk a diagram of heat transfer from one object to another. She checked the textbook, then a handful of notes that were on the desk. "Getting back to our study on the second law of thermodynamics, can anyone tell me what heat actually is?"

She started to tap a foot after no-one spoke up. "Anyone? Anyone?" Peering around at the assembled teens, her face conveyed all the conflicting emotions that she was probably feeling. Frustration? It was there. Anger. Definitely. Despair. Absolutely. "Ugh," she groaned. Without saying a word, she gestured to Micro and Sunset in unison.

Micro grinned as he adjusted his glasses. As he was about to stand up proudly to proclaim such a straightforward answer, a hand shot up, and Cheerilee whimpered a defeated moan. He also cringed. Two rows in front of him, a girl with an exceptionally long ponytail and spiked bracelets continued to wave it back and forth. "Oh, oh, oh!" she exclaimed.

"Yes. Sonata Dusk." Cheerilee didn't so much sound like she was asking, as she was stating that it was her doom. Again.

Whatever it was, Micro Chips was certain that it would lead to a headache. Aside from giving him flashbacks to being basically turned into a hate-filled version of himself because of Sonata and the other two members of the Dazzlings, she also simply had some of the most... out there questions imaginable. If it could be asked, she could probably, eventually figure something else out that would make the strangest question appear mundane.

Or, at the very least, make it related to Mexican food.

Had it only been a month since she started coming to CHS? It certainly felt longer, since she was in most of his classes. Thankfully, she was the only one of the Dazzlings that continued to attend after they somehow got on the roster of students. After all, his wallet was rather light while the other two were there. That one with the two pigtails, not that he even wanted to remember her name, enjoyed finding creative ways to get him and some of the other techies of CHS to "donate" their lunch money.

There were the classics, of course. A swirlie. Perhaps the occasional threat of physical altercations. But on top of that, there were the more original ones. For instance, although he was pretty sure that she was bluffing, she claimed that she once fought off an entire group of thugs with just her right pinkie finger. From the way that Sonata and the cheese puff haired one pumped her up, it certainly seemed like it was possible. Plus, the finger had looked... quite muscular.

However, Sonata had not really bothered him much after the Battle of the Bands. In fact, the only time that she ever pestered anyone was when she had one of her "Sonata questions" in a class. Granted, almost no-one interacted with her, because why would they? Sure, Sunset had convinced Principal Celestia to allow Sonata to keep coming to the school—provided the "menace" of Adagio Dazzle never returned lest she face multiple convictions of...he wasn't entirely sure—but that didn't mean all was forgiven.

Really, it was only Sunset and some of her friends who even bothered to spend time with the former—he quickly checked his memory from what he overheard Sunset say once—siren. What exactly those fish-horse projections were during the whole big fight at the school between the Rainbooms and the Dazzlings were, they sure as heck weren't sirens. Not enough bare skin.

That was the most entertaining part of Greek mythology, after all. Entertaining from a purely analytical point of view, of course.

"Sonata. You raised your hand," Cheerilee grumbled in another non-question.

At that, Sonata's head jerked like she had been lost in thought, and she gave a small titter. "Well, okay, this may be a dumb question—"

"No, there are no dumb questions, Sonata," snarked back Cheerilee. "Just inane ones. Nonsensical ones. Ones that should never be asked." She shrugged and smiled tightly.

"Right... Anyway, uh, these 'laws', okay? Were they, like, written up by some government thingy? Because I know that I didn't agree to any of them." At the chorus of groans and giggles that followed, Sonata whipped her head around and stared at everyone. "What? It's just a question!"

Cheerilee facepalmed. Tiredly pinching the bridge of her nose, she stated, "No, Sonata, they are not legal laws. They're scientific laws." In Micro's opinion, and not that he'd tell Cheerilee that, but she appeared to age about twenty years just from the sheer amount of density in the question. If it were a physical thing, it might have formed into a neutron star. Or maybe a black hole. A black hole of airheadedness.

"Hmm. Okay," Sonata mumbled as she furrowed her brow before turning back to face Cheerilee. In silent pleading, Cheerilee looked to the ceiling, probably so she could ask for release from further mental torment. Micro was sure that others would begin to bail if it kept up. Not that that was his fault.

As Cheerilee was about to open her mouth, Sonata cut her off. Cheerilee silently screamed into a sleeve as Sonata inquired, "So, does that mean that setting things on fire by setting the oven to nine hundred isn't breaking the law?" After a quiet few seconds, she added, "Don't ask me why I'm asking."

"Okay, ignoring that!" Cheerilee hastily moved forward, doing her best to avoid Sonata's eye contact and instead looking around for anyone who could possibly answer instead. "Could someone please just—"

"I think I can answer it," declared Sonata as she raised her hand again. Against everything Micro knew, he swore that Cheerilee's neck cracked with a sickening crunch as she whirled her head around to glower at Sonata. Regardless, though, she didn't have enough time to react before Sonata pointed with a finger to the ceiling and closed her eyes. "Heat is related to the movement and collisions of atoms and how much they're vibrating. As they lose energy, heat lessens and we perceive that as being cold. If all atomic motion stops, then we reach absolute zero, although nowhere has been observed to have reached that point."

After she finished, she smiled excitedly and pulled both her hands close to her chest. With an innocent blink of her eyes, she inquired, "Did I do it? Did I get it right?"

Everyone simply gawked. Inadvertently, Micro and Sunset exchanged shocked glances, and Cheerilee merely gaped, her posture slumped forward in complete disbelief. Even a couple of students that were walking by in the hall had turned to stare at why everyone else was gazing at Sonata. The whole, figurative world had stopped because of her answer.

Cheerilee shook her head and stammered a few times. Pinching her nose again, she mumbled something under her breath about not questioning non-human creatures disguised as humans and chirped, "Yes! That is correct!" Drawing herself a bit straighter, she added with a bit of a bemused tone, "And with even more detail than needed." She coughed into a fist. "Well, I suppose we have our answer, so I'll just—" she sauntered back to the notes on the desk "—look at what—"

Whatever else she was saying died out in Micro's ears as he locked gaze with Sonata, whose expression had transformed into a cocky, self-absorbed smirk directed entirely at him. When she wiggled her eyebrows to an exaggerated degree and then stuck out her tongue before forming a heart with her two hands.

He wasn't entirely sure what transpired in the next couple of seconds, as all he saw after that was red. Maybe she was going to almost all his classes. Perhaps he'd seen her hanging around where he normally frequented. Mayhap she was also someone who looked to need a bit of help with tutelage. Perchance she had also gotten this answer right by pure luck. Possibly she was rubbing it in at that very moment. But no-one mocked his academic ability without getting schooled.

By the time his faculties had returned to a loosely normal state, he had already shot up his hand and barked at Cheerilee, "Miss Cheerilee, we need to do another quiz. Stat!" At that, Cheerilee looked at him like he had grown three heads, not just a second. Behind the tired eyes, the bags that had formed only within the last hour while she taught the class, and the unquenchable frustration of an adult who was seriously questioning their life choices, he saw something break.

One of her eyelids twitched again, and she calmly—too calmly—rested her hands back on the desk and she leaned forward. In a dangerous tone, she hissed out at him, "I'm sorry?"

Although he could feel the attention of literally every other student in the classroom fixating on him, he mustered up what courage he could and repeated his declaration. When Cheerilee's practiced and placid demeanor started to crack after his emphasis, she bared her teeth through a thin grin, and inquired, "Oh? Really? Why is that?"

Thrusting an accusing finger toward Sonata, who was busily texting on her phone that she dug out of her pocket, he bellowed, "Because she must have cheated! I want to prove it!" Also, he fixed his gaze on Sunset and declared, "And Sunset clearly looked up answers, too." Sunset merely fixed him with a confused stare.

Cheerilee smacked her face into her desk, then looked at the clock. It was now only about five minutes until the class would normally let out. At least once before, the bell had already rung in the school, and sunshine was pouring through the windows, since they were on the west side of the building. Golden rays etched long canyons in Cheerilee's wrinkled brow as she whined, "Why couldn't this just be a normal teaching job? Why do both principals leave early on Fridays?"

"Oh! I accept your challenge!" Sonata proclaimed as she realized she was being singled out. Sticking out her tongue again, she snapped, "Prepare to lose, loser! Because you're the worst!"

Pinching her nose, Cheerilee frowned. "Actually, I think I have a better idea."

***

"And that's how to easily find the trajectory of a body flung at high velocities from a car accident, while also calculating its theoretical escape velocity!" Micro Chips declared triumphantly, although he didn't receive any response back. In fact, it was incredibly silent, and he could feel the glare of one pair of eyes on him. With a small cough, he sat back down and scratched the back of his head. "Anyway," he tittered, "uh, your turn, Sunset?"

"What part of 'you're in detention for this' didn't you get, Chips?" Sunset huffed. She testily crossed her arms and leaned back in her seat. At her glower, he shifted in his own seat and looked at the clock. Everything was ticking down so agonizingly. If he didn't get back soon, the slow-heating experiment he was running on some earthworms would probably go south. And by south, it meant "possibly explode."

Perhaps feeding them a small amount of nitroglycerin in their meals wasn't the smartest idea when one was on a trivia answering stint.

"I-It's not like Cheerilee is around to hear us," he protested, since Cheerilee had left them in the small detention classroom and then returned for finishing her class. That had been a couple of hours ago, and during that time, he'd been trying to pick Sunset's brain, and Sonata's, to prove that he was the best at random factoids. It would have been easier if he had had his phone, which was made all the more painful by Cheerilee confiscating them and locking the detention room door.

He could still imagine his device pining for his fingers to play upon it, looking up such interesting facts as the number of hairs on a walrus, or if Planck's Constant could be broken into a smaller constant. Instead, he had to resort to what he could recall in his head, which was enough to at least entertain Sonata. Although, she was currently still thinking on the question that she had been asked over ten minutes ago.

As if his thoughts on her finally roused some activity in her mind, she hummed and asked, "So, would it be E equals MC squared?"

He blinked at her. "How does the speed of light affect the rate at which your fingernails grow?"

"I dunno," admitted Sonata with a sad shrug. "More of that vitamin thingy?"

"Vitamin D?" Micro had to admit, she had gotten a number of answers right that he didn't expect. Still, in the mental tracking he had done, it was him at seventy, her at thirty-three, Sunset at sixty-nine. It was taking everything in his power not to gloat about it.

"That's what Dagi says when—" Sonata interjected, then gasped. "Oh, rotten taco shells! They're probably going to think I got lost in the apartment halls again!" At that, she groaned and smacked both her hands to her face. "Dagi's gonna be mad..."

As Sonata continued holding her head in her hands, Micro glanced toward Sunset, who was still simply glaring, and he quipped, "In case you didn't know, these were all facts I'd memorized." He cleared his throat. "And, by the way, you missed a step in deriving Newton's third law."

Yawning, Sunset checked the window, which was now looking out onto the empty, dark promenade that led to the entrance of CHS. The sun had long since dipped below the city buildings, and now any light that came through was from the street or the few lamps scattered around the yard of the school. For a brief moment, she seemed to longingly stare at the statue in the middle of the pathway to the front doors, but she shook herself.

With a groan, she glanced at the clock, probably to guess how much detention they had left. He did have to admit, time was ticking slowly, even for their level of doldrum.

Long since had the rest of the students been dismissed from their classes and sent packing for the weekend. Only one other student was in there with them, a regular, from what he could infer, since she had nonchalantly set up in the room about ten minutes after they were brought in and had fallen asleep. Which was good, given that it was Trixie.

Every so often, she'd mumble something about peanut butter or crackers, or making out with "the most amazing person she knew": herself.

As Micro was about to go onto a question relating to aardvark mating habits, there was a scratching at the door, and Cheerilee walked in, dark circles under her eyes, and grumbled, "You can go." She checked a watch on her wrist. "And now I can finally go home for my evening. Because teachers have hobbies, too!"

"I thought you slept here?" Sonata mumbled curiously, scratching her head.

At Cheerilee's contorted glower, Sonata meekly whimpered and ducked down, slipping out of the room and taking her phone which Cheerilee handed to her.

"Wait!" he exclaimed, although she had already disappeared before he could catch her attention. "I didn't tell you that you're the loser! Loser!" As he finished, Sunset facepalmed and rose, grabbing her backpack, and sauntered toward Cheerilee. She gave the teacher a bemused smile and a nod.

As she left, she turned and quipped, "Chips, don't forget that my average is five points higher than you!" In a singsong tone, she declared as she waltzed down the hall, "Good luck beating that before our last semester of our last year!"

At that, his blood ran cold, and he shivered. Cheerilee icily tracked him as he took his phone from her. A shudder ran down his spine as she motioned she'd be watching him, and then she left immediately afterward, making him the only one in his portion of the hallway. He flinched when the door to the classroom clicked shut. Shouldering his backpack, he hung his head as he made his way to his locker, which was a short distance away. For a second, he thought he heard pounding on the detention room door, but shrugged. There was nothing else important left behind.

Although he knew better, the darkened corridors of the school set his nerves alight. Aside from the echoing, fading footfalls of Cheerilee elsewhere, the school was empty, and the low illumination from the occasional ceiling light and the street wasn't enough to shake the eerie atmosphere.

As his shoes thudded steadily on the tiling, he sighed and slid his hands into his pockets. His earlier derailment meant he'd probably have to make things up to his classmates in some way later. While catch-up studying on his own wouldn't be a problem, some of his colleagues were a tad... less stringent. It was unlikely that, for example, Bulk would bother with the light reading of about fifty pages over the weekend, but that would be needed so he could keep up with the material.

Arriving at his locker, he visualized what could only be described as a "thinking face" for Bulk and that smoke would no doubt come from his ears.. All at a simple math problem of deriving the cosine of theta while simultaneously finding the correct formula for a quadratic equation starting with x to the power of five, and plotting it out on an intersecting graph with cos theta. Basic stuff, really.

With a groan, he fiddled with his keys to his locker, then swung the door open wide. Unlike both his locker neighbors, Snips and Snails, there was absolutely zero risk of an avalanche of things landing on him. All he had was a jacket, a small lunchbox, and some additional textbooks for later in the week. Nothing fancy, as there really wasn't any need.

Aside from one image of him and his, admittedly small, friend group, it could be forgiven if one might have thought that the locker was unassigned and someone merely forgot their belongings. In the back of his mind, he could still recall what happened in that picture. A surprise bowling alley treat by Sandalwood, who had gotten a new job, and he was razzing Micro about trying to map out all the possible trajectories that could be taken to guarantee a strike.

Despite the noogie he had received, he still managed to outscore Sandalwood by five points. After possibly using three hundred bowling to determine the best angle to bowl, that is. Slamming a hole through one of the floorboards was entirely an accident, and not premeditated at all, after Sandalwood managed to score two strikes in a row.

It also didn't cost him half his wallet, too, in order to keep testing the angles.

Definitely not.

Looking down from the picture which was resting at the back of the locker, near the top, he reached for his jacket. As he was leaning in, from behind him he felt someone collide, solidly, and he stumbled forward. With a small yelp, he tripped on the lip of the locker and whacked his head against the panel. For a second or two, he imagined he heard the sweet sounds of an angelic choir recounting pi's formula, and then he shook himself.

He pushed himself back then saw as he readjusted his glasses that Sonata had hit him. She was also wearing a jacket. She was still holding onto him, like she had just collided with him. Most peculiar.

When she saw that she'd been spotted, she suddenly exclaimed, "Woah!" She squeezed him a bit tighter before repelling herself off of him and reached out, overdramatically, to hold onto his arm. Then she acted like she slipped, struggled to rise, and then pulled to try and bring him close to her. Instead, she bounced away, in a clearly inaccurate representation of physics and screamed in surprise.

Stumbling back and trying to keep her balance, she basically did a full somersault before landing back on her feet, then carried a few more inches to hit the opposite wall, where she acted like she had to peel herself off a faceplant in the locker. The entire time, she was repeating "woahs" and "ohs", in probably one of the most thespian displays of overacting he could envision. When she had finally stopped, she woozily staggered forward a few paces.

"Oh, hi," she stammered. "Didn't see you there."

"I was quite visible the entire time." He gestured up to the light that was directly above him. Even if he wasn't effectively stationed right underneath it, he was also wearing his usual bright-yellow sweater, so it wouldn't be that hard to spot him in dim light, either.

"W-Well, I was coming around a corner, like, for realsies, and you know how it goes." At that, he simply arched a brow, because his locker was very much not near any corner. In fact, he could look to either side of him and not see the end wall from an intersecting hallway for a good fifteen feet on both sides.

Forcing a grin wide upon her face, Sonata kicked on the ground and tittered, "Uh... I was going too fast?"

"What are you doing here?" he demanded. Considering she had gone off in a huff when she was defeated, her still sticking around was unexpected. Not that it really mattered. The less he had to deal with her and remember the strangeness of her and the other Dazzlings' control over the school, the better. He peered more inquisitively at her. "Didn't have to run home?"

"Well, yeah, but, you know, I, uh, forgot, uh, where my locker is! Yeah, I forgot that!" Waving a hand in a dismissive manner, Sonata tittered and lowered her eyelids to flash him a confident, casual expression. "Because, you know, like, that happens to everyone, right?"

"Your locker is just outside room four-two-seven," he retorted back with a small puff of annoyance.

"Oh, I knew that." Sonata flicked another wrist. "I was just... wanting to make sure you knew that." At that, she stuck out her tongue playfully at him. He rolled his eyes. Carrying on without missing a beat, Sonata sauntered slightly closer to him, which made his heart palpitate a few times as a surge of adrenaline was dumped into his bloodstream.

"Why would I need to—" He cut himself off and squeezed his eyes closed as he felt a headache building. Holding up a hand to motion for her to stop moving, he flicked a thumb behind him at his locker. "Congratulations, you figured out I did. Now, can I go?" He started to tap a foot impatiently against the floor.

At that, Sonata bit her lip and then nervously touched her two index fingers together. A faint blush forming on her cheeks, she quiveringly declared, "Uh, not yet? I-I had something else..." She swallowed hard, and then hastily spurted, "Want to hang out sometime because I kinda like you?!" As soon as she finished, her eyes shrunk a bit and she gave a nervous smile.

He simply gawked at her.

Seconds ticked by, and Sonata started to fidget and tapped her fingers together, while she nibbled further on her bottom lip. All the while, he only held her gaze, not blinking, not speaking. Only staring. After a moment further, Sonata smacked her lips and then muttered, "Okay, so I know it may be a bit awkward, and definitely it might be seen as a bit weird, but, uh, yeah?" She whimpered nervously and twiddled with the end of her hair.

Lolling her head to the side, she indifferently declared, "Like, I know that me and my sisters were like, being the total worst by trying to take over the school, and the world, and all that stuff. Maybe I had a bit of fun by seeing if I could get anyone—like you—to put a knife through someone else—"

Finally snapping to his senses, he held up his hands and motioned for her to stop talking. "Wait, wait, wait." His heart pounded in his chest as he replayed what she just said. "You tried to have me kill people?!"

"What?! Did I say that?" Sonata laughed uncomfortably while she held a hand to her chest in an innocent manner. "That so definitely didn't happen!" Under her breath, she hissed as she craned forward, "But seriously, if the cops start looking for you, me, Dagi, and Ari will totally keep you safe." She blocked a laugh with a hand. "But that shouldn't happen!"

In utter shock and horror, he looked momentarily at his hands, then anxiously clenched and unclenched his fists. Without a word, he looked at her, then back at his hands, then back at her. He let out a near-silent, pleading whine. As he did, she reached over and patted him lightly on the head. "Don't worry!" she proclaimed. "You're good! Just don't think too hard."

"T-Then why would the police—"

"No reason!" Interjecting with a smidgen of bite more than she had probably intended, she tightly pressed his lips together with her index finger and thumb and smiled widely at him. For a split second, she blinked naively at him and tilted her head in innocent confusion. "Why would you think that?"

"You just said—"

"Nope! Nothing! I just said that we might have been a bit evil, but we're totally better now!" Her grin expanded further. "Or, you know, at least me."

Perplexed, bemused, and befuddled, Micro Chips merely stared at her as she let go of his lips and gazed deeply into his eyes. When he didn't speak, mainly because his brain was still trying to make heads or tails of everything that she was saying, along with a girl outside of Scribble Dee was actively trying to talk to him without it being related to class work.

Perhaps said girl was a little on the disturbing side, given that she had had a proclivity for world domineering, but still, a girl. He couldn't even help but smell that her hair smelled faintly of some kind of fruit, perhaps blueberries. That, in turn, only made him a bit more nervous as she continued to look at him.

After catching herself peering, she tittered awkwardly and scratched the back of her head. "Well, uh, I wanted to say that, you know, you were kinda nice to include me in that contest thingy back there."

"It was a contest."

"Right..."

Blowing out a small sigh and caressing her chest with her arms, she looked to the floor while absentmindedly twirling her torso from side to side. That, in turn, let him get a better whiff of her perfume, and he could definitely place it. Blueberries, for sure. Fresh blueberries and a hint of lavender, actually.

As he grew slightly flustered at the smell, he stammered and took a step away, before banging his head again on the locker. Accusingly whipping around to glare at the offending locker, he caught her groan in defeat and mumble, "It's just that not too many people are friendly to me, aside from Sunset." Before he could open his mouth to snark at her, she followed up with a pained, "Like, I know why!" She shrugged. "What were me and my sisters supposed to do, though?"

"Maybe just, not that?" Micro furrowed his brow and glared directly at her. As he had dropped his jacket, he began to bend down and reach for it. It was somewhere on the floor of the locker, but he didn't want to keep his eyes off Sonata. To say she was a tad erratic would be putting it mildly.

"I don't know, all that negative energy was pretty tasty." Sonata hummed and licked her lips. "But not as tasty as tacos!" Deflating and slumping forward, she mumbled, "But all that doesn't mean that it doesn't hurt when people don't really talk to me, and Ari and Dagi never really talk with me much. They're too busy working." She winced. "Something about spending too much money on buying a taco joint that went under yesterday."

"That seems oddly specific." At that, he found his jacket, then hastily donned it while keeping his attention on Sonata. Although she hadn't moved since her one little spring forward to claim he was now a wanted criminal, not keeping his guard up around her was probably unwise. After all, she just needed to start singing again, and probably she'd get him to do her bidding again.

If all that magic from this Equestria place was actually dumped on Earth like Sunset claimed, then how was he to know if she was actually toothless or not?

She seemed to be pondering for a moment, and with a light skip of his heart's beat, he started to slink away from her. Pausing for just a second, his throat welled up when he saw her hunch over and furrow her brow while she began to nibble on her knuckles. "Well, uh, see you around, I guess," he muttered, then spun back toward the exit hall.

"Wait!" Sonata proclaimed, which, against his better judgment, he obeyed and twisted back around to stare at her. She was zigzagging a foot back and forth and then looked down in shame. Although difficult to spot, she was blushing, if only barely. A couple of times, she started to speak, then cut herself off and paused.

At last, she cleared her throat and stuttered, "I-I just am trying to find another friend, okay?" She gulped, and he could see that a few tears were being held back. Wiping her eyes, she sniffed, "S-Sunset has been trying to help me when she can, but even her friends aren't too excited to hang around me." With hope glistening within her magenta orbs, she moved a bit closer to him, and softly added, "And you've been nice enough to me—"

"I accused you of cheating," he interrupted, his tone growing more curious by the minute.

"Like, duh, I have. But I didn't realize I knew so many answers." With a soft sigh, she stared off into space momentarily and her blush grew deeper. As she started twirling her hair around an index finger again, she mumbled, "And that made me feel kinda smart." She flinched. "I know that I might ask dumb questions, but it just helps me to understand, you know?"

"You still didn't answer half my questions right."

Pointing a finger at him triumphantly, she raised her chin in defiance and smirked. Somehow, he had a feeling that the idea of a failing grade didn't quite get through to her. "But," she began as she leaned in a bit closer, that smug grin still on her face, "that is better than less than a third!" She winked at him.

At that, he simply flushed further. Perhaps it was simply because he was already nervous and flustered from the fact that he was so late for coming back home, or he was close to someone else, or that it was a girl—and a cute, if demented, one at that—but he was far more discombobulated than he liked. When she passed close to him again, his heart started to heave faster, like it was gushing blood at a much heavier rate than was healthy.

If he were being honest, then he would have to say that he was almost flattered that she was trying to do this, but then there was the whole Battle of the Bands thing, magic twisting everyone, and the fact that she might have been playing with one too few marbles. Still, she was admittedly cute.

As he dumbly looked at her, he started to bite his own lip while she hesitated again. After a few seconds, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and blurted, "And you're also kinda cute!" She grimaced. "Okay, I said it. Now Ari and Dagi will just make fun of me." Slumping her shoulders, she added, "Like, you're nice, and cute, and I wouldn't mind sharing a bed with you, but Dagi keeps talking about this 'first base' thing, and like, I don't know what baseball has to do with anything romantic, but I guess that means we need to hang out first, and then bed sharing, also whatever that means, so I hope you don't snore, and—"

Every fiber of his being was screaming at him to stop what he was doing and just turn and forget that he was even speaking to her. Yet also his brain was trying to process what exactly she was saying, and the weird word soup that was spilling from her mouth. The best he could gather, from her rambling, was that she wanted to go on a date with him.

When that realization hit, his blood chilled and he felt like he had just been dunked on by an ice bucket. Sweat breaking out across his neck and forehead, he briefly took off his glasses to smear off a couple of streaks, and he stepped back. As his sight cleared again, he nearly screamed when he saw that Sonata had moved within half a foot of him, and she was starting to lean in to gaze directly into his eyes. Or, more accurately, his soul.

Drawing upon a bit of strength left in him, he puffed out his chest and mumbled, "You're honestly making a bit of a mistake." He stammered. This was maybe his one chance to get her away from him. "I-I'm pretty boring, and like, you know, can't really do much most nights." He shrugged. "You know. School. Family? Like, I'd be a pretty drab date."

Emphatically shaking her head, Sonata saddled up right next to him and rested an arm on his shoulder. Squeaking and fighting a nervous recoil, he twisted his head to look at her. She was biting her lip again. Probably attempting to be seductive, or something, although it just made her look more naive than before, given that she was also spinning her hair around a finger automatically.

As she was within a hair's breadth of him, she whispered, "Nope." She then pulled back and visually assessed him. Walking around him once, she stated nonchalantly, "Like, you're the only guy who's really, you know, talked to me? Like that last time we met in the hall."

"You were trying to chase me with a butter knife."

"Because you looked like you had butter on your shirt, okay?!" Sonata rolled her eyes. "It wouldn't have hurt. Much."

"And then there was that time where you walked into the wrong bathroom..."

"Okay, humans are confusing. Never had to worry about that as sirens, all right?!" Puffing out her cheeks and looking away, Sonata merely pouted. "But you really have been the only one who's paid attention to me outside of classes at all." She coughed. "And you're cute. So, I just wanted to get to know you better?"

As she finished, Micro merely stood still, his mind racing as he weighed pros and cons. Pro, she was cute. Con, she was related to the other Dazzlings. Pro, she was admittedly amusing. Con, she asked annoying questions. Pro, she was cute. Con—None other off the top of his head.

When he came to that conclusion, he gazed up at the ceiling for a moment and silently pleaded with whatever above to make him change his mind, yet there was nothing shifting him from the course that he had decided upon. Biting back a couple of nervous coughs, he stated, "Well, we could go to the planetarium on Saturday. I-I have a season pass, and I could probably get them to look the other way once for a plus one." He shrugged. "Then maybe some fast food afterward if we're hungry?"

As Sonata stared at him, he felt like he was going to melt in embarrassment. That was truly far from a romantic suggestion, since that seemed to be what she was hinting at. Besides, he still had to be back at home by ten on weekends, anyway, so it wasn't like they could do too much.

For what seemed like an eternity, Sonata still peered at him, and then her face brightened as she sprang forward. Wrapping him in a hug while she chuckled excitedly, she declared, "Consider it a date!" She squished him more tightly, allowing him to get another whiff of her hair, as well as whatever lotion she used on her skin, and he flushed further. Before she let go, she furrowed her brow. "Oh," she mumbled softly, "I don't need to tear any rums while I'm there, do I? A planet tear rum? How would I even do that with a planet? They're all in space." She gasped. "Unless there are mini ones there?!"

"It's just a fancy astronomy place," he deadpanned, and she shrugged.

"Oh, well, I better be going!" Like that, she skipped off, her hips swaying slightly. She momentarily looked back and blew a kiss. "See you next Saturday!"

When she rounded the corner of the hall, Micro let out a small, pained shriek, and he hugged his backpack to his chest. After a couple of seconds of parsing the entire conversation, he finally arched his brow and asked, "What just happened?"