Sonic, Shadow, and Silver have retreated to their little hiding spot in the school library, musing over their next move after their failed attempt to get the first chaos emerald they found in this world. Sonic was slouched against the bookcases twiddling his thumbs, Shadow was leaning against the entrance to their hideout, his head hung low as he thought about their next move, and Silver sat on the makeshift bed make of books, skimming through the books that lined their hideout.

Sonic let out a frustrated sigh as he laid his head back against the bookcases, not only sick from not having his powers, but also frustrated that the first chaos emerald they found is practically sitting right in front of them, yet is so far away.
"Sigh So what's next?" Sonic said to Shadow, still sounding depressed. Shadow took some time to think as they were in a complicated situation

"This is a tough one, even for me." Shadow admitted to them. Sonic and Silver both drew their attention to him, for it was unusual to hear him say that. Shadow knew that without his powers there was only so much he could do. Even though he had his chaos senses back, his physical abilities were still that of an average human of this world.
"If we do nothing, this world will most likely fall into chaos." Shadow speculated what actions they could take, and the outcomes they might have. "But if we overstep our bounds and get caught......."

".......who knows what will happen to us." Silver finished Shadow's sentence for him. Shadow looked over at Silver and grinned at him, glad that his head was in the right place, unlike someone else he knew.

"What? Are they gonna put us in captivity and study us like aliens or somethin'?" Sonic spat out sarcastically.

"We are aliens dummy!" Silver refuted Sonic's statement. "To them at least."
Sonic sighed frustratedly, irritated at the prospect that they couldn't do anything at the moment.

"Look, we have to do something. Who knows what that girl is gonna do." Sonic stated. The group were at a loss, unsure of what to do at this point. Sonic looked over and saw Silver pull out a book from one of the bookcases. Silver looked at the books cover and saw that it was the school's year book from three years ago. Silver's interest rose as he sat down on the make shift bed and prepared to read it.

"I wonder what this book is?" Silver thought out loud, unaware of what a 'yearbook' is, since he has never been to a real school in his life.
"Hey Sonic. What's a yearbook?" Silver asked him, wondering if he knew what it was. Sonic tried to think of an answer, only to realize, that he himself have never been to school either, so how would he know that?

"How should I know? I've never been to school" Sonic replied.

"It's basically a collection of student photos from years back." Shadow explained for them. "It's something they do for sentimental reasons."

"Sentimental reasons?" Silver replied. He decided to open the book and look what's inside. What he found genuinely surprised him. Just like Shadow said, the pages were a collage of pictures from the previous years of the school.
"They......they all look so happy." Silver noted how all the students in the photo's were smiling and happy. He continued turning the pages observing the students, however he double taked when he saw a familiar face in the corner.

"Oh hey! It's Rarity!" Silver said outloud. This got Sonic and Shadow's attention. "Oh she's also with those other girls we met at P.E."

"Wait? Does that mean-" Sonic got up and sat next to Silver to look at the book. To his annoyance, he saw Rainbow Dash among the girls in the picture. "Oh there she is! That little-" Sonic angrily vented at the sight of her. Silver gave Sonic a weird look.

"Dude, will you give that a rest." Silver reprimanded Sonic. He looked back at the picture of the girls and saw that they looked younger then they when they saw them yesterday. He also noticed that Fluttershy and Pinkie Pie was among them, not to mention the two girls he tried from the mess hall that he tried to get the chaos emerald from.
"Huh? These pictures must be from a few years back" Silver noted at their younger appearance. "I wonder if there are other pictures of them in here." He began looking through the pictures for any more of them. He found a picture of Rainbow Dash cheering as she crossed the finish line in first. "I will admit she does seem full of herself." Silver admitted that he agreed with Sonic on her being arrogant.

"Sigh Silver why don't you put that away Silver, it's not like it's gonna help us get home faster." Sonic complained tiredly, slouching against the bookcases. Silver gave Sonic an irritated look.

"Well, too bad I'm reading it anyways!" Silver retorted before sticking his head back into the year book. Sonic grunted frustratedly. He was at a loss for words, so he sucked it up and admitted that Shadow would have a better idea.

"Well Shadow, what's the call for tomorrow." Sonic asked Shadow, who has been quiet during their small conversation. Shadow said nothing for a moment. "Pfft, always the silent treatment" Sonic scoffed to himself.

"Silver, you just said that those two girls have friends right?" Shadow asked Silver, recounting their conversation about the year book.

"Huh? Oh right!" Silver realized that Shadow was referring to the yearbook he was holding. He held the book up and pointed to a picture of the girls. Shadow glanced over to look at the picture. To his surprise and his dread, he recognized three of the girls from earlier, as he eavesdropped on their conversation regarding Sonic.

"Sigh For now lets wait for an opportunity to grab it. We've only been here two days, so we should observe their movements before trying to grab it." Shadow explained his plan, which unfortunately cued an unsatisfied grunt from Sonic.

"And what if something happens to them while we wait?" Sonic interjected. Shadow once again said nothing as he thought of an answer. He was silent for one full minute before he turned to speak to them.
"I don't know." Shadow finally said. Sonic was taken aback when Shadow said that, it wasn't often that he heard Shadow admit that he doesn't know. He didn't know what to say in response. Silver was also somewhat unnerved at what Shadow said.
"But make no mistake." Shadow interjected, getting Sonic and Silver's attention again. "We're gonna get it back, regardless of what happens." Shadow stated strongly. Shadow's confident statement caused Sonic to grin a little in admiration of his confidence.
"Why don't you two go to sleep. It's only going to get harder from here on." Shadow told them.

"Ok dad." Sonic scoffed sarcastically, as he climbed and laid on the book bed, closed his eyes, and tried to fall asleep. Shadow ignored Sonic's snark, and looked out towards the library from the entrance to their hideout. Silver looked up at Shadow, wondering what he was going to do.

"Uh....hey Shadow, are you gonna go out and explore again?" Silver asked him.

"No. Without my powers there's only so much ground I can cover." Shadow explained. Silver nodded in understanding.

"Yeah, we should probably wait for the weekend." Silver added. He was about to return to reading the book on his lap but he stopped when he heard Shadow yawn. He looked up to catch a glimpse of Shadow covering his mouth as he yawned. Silver was surprised, for he's never seen Shadow tired before, yet alone see him yawn. "Er...you....tired Shadow?" Silver asked him.
Shadow tensed up a little in embarrassment. The last thing he wanted was to come off as weak, so he had to deflect the issue quickly!
"What are you talking about? Do I look tired to you?"" Shadow tried to play dumb. Unfortunately Silver wasn't that gullible.

"Uhh....I saw you yawn." Silver stated what he just saw, not falling for Shadow's deflection. Shadow tensed up even more, and actually started blushing a little. He scowled, trying not let the embarrassment get to him.

"You didn't see anything." Shadow deflected Silver's question again and turned away, signaling that he didn't want to talk about it anymore. Of course Silver didn't buy Shadow's facade. But, knowing that he wouldn't get Shadow to talk again, he decided to let it go.
Shadow did find it rather concerning that he was beginning to feel tired. It was something he rarely felt given his immense power and enhanced abilities. He looked down at his hand, and tensed his muscles to see what he felt. While he would usually not feel much, he actually felt his arm strain a little as he tensed it. The more he thought about it, the more he came to understand how Sonic felt. (Though he wished that his attitude would be better.) He looked back at the two, to see that they have fallen asleep.
As he looked at his two companions sleep, he realized that right now, he himself should rest. For without his powers, he is mortal, like them. While the thought tugged at his pride, he sucked it up and sat down against the bookcases, looking up at the moon through the glass dome ceiling.

2:00 am

Twilight lay in bed trying to fall asleep. However her dry throat eventually forced her to open her eyes. She let out a sigh as she forced herself to sit up and pull the covers off. However as she got up from her bed, her foot slipped causing her to lose balance.
"Wah! Whoa!" Twilight exclaimed as she wobbled on one foot. However she managed to regain her balance and put both her feet on the ground, granted her legs trembled a bit.
"Sigh Come on! I've been here for almost a month. Why am I not used to walking on these legs?" Twilight was frustrated at her body not being able to adapt to this world. However she pushed the thought out of her mind for now. She was thirsty, so she tiredly walked out of her room and down the stairs. Arriving at the bottom of the stairs she headed to the kitchen, and opened the fridge, and began searching for something to drink.

She returned to her bed room while sipping from a water bottle. She was about to climb back into bed, but her magic sense prevented her. She turned in the direction her magic sense was going off in. She looked at a small drawer in her desk. Instead of going back to bed, she set her water bottle on the dresser next to her bed and walked over to her desk. Her magic sense strained more as she got closer. She slowly opened the drawer, which emitted a bright yellow glow. Twilight shielded her eyes momentarily before looking back in the draw. Inside was the yellow emerald, laying on a piece of cloth.
Twilight gazed at the emerald, still not fully believing that it came from outer space.
She carefully grabbed the cloth around it as to not touch the emerald itself. Carefully, she placed it on her desk, then sat down in her chair as she continued to look at it, as it's glow illuminated her room.

She glanced over at the pile of history books in the corner of her desk. By her count she had fully skimmed through all of them. And not one of them held anything on the emerald. However she then got out her backpack, and brought out the only book that might had something to do with this.
She set it on her desk and turned to a random page. Already she was confused. It wasn't just the fact that a book on the 'Void Era' existed that confused her, it was everything else in it. Just vague descriptions of certain periods of time. With names like 'The Great Separation' and 'The Year of Black Sky'. There were even terms like 'The conceptual plane' and 'Rasenkon', which Twilight thought was outright another language. If she looked at this without context, she would've thought these were the ramblings of an insane lunatic.

She glanced back at the emerald and pondered just what connection that it had with what was in the book.
"Maybe there's a mention of it in the appendix." Twilight said to herself, as she began flipping to the very back of the book. However as she turned to the last few pages, she saw nothing on the pages.
"What the-?" She skimmed through the remaining pages only to reach the back cover, finding nothing new. Twilight grunted in frustration as she slouched back in her seat.

“Twilight.....you yawnalright?” Spike drowsily asked as he was temporarily woken from his sleep. Twilight looked back at Spike, feeling bad that she woke him up.

“I’m fine. Just go back to sleep Spike.” Twilight to,d him. Although spike was tired, he sensed that she was having trouble understanding the emerald.

“Hey don’t worry Twilight, you’ll figure this out.” Spike encouraged Twilight.
Twilight smiled at his compliment, but her smile faded as her mind went back to the emerald and the book.

“I wish I could Spike.” Twilight replied sadly.

“You will....!” Spike said enthusiastically as he jumped out of his basket. “Right......?
Twilight thought to herself if she indeed could figure out this emerald. However she then wondered if she should, as her mind flashed back to when she met that dark figure in the library. She held her head in anguish as she remember the hallucinations he gave her. However she managed to force the thought out of her head and focused back on thinking about her approach to solving this mystery.

“I’ll probably talk with Sunset about it tomorrow. Perhaps she has a different way of thinking about this that I’m ignoring.” She said as she finally put the emerald away in the drawer. Twilight then got up from her seat, strolled over to her bed, climbed into bed and pulled the covers over.

“Well, just don’t overwork yourself Twilight.” Spike got comfortable in his basket, as he prepared to go to sleep.

“Thanks Spike.” Twilight said as she pulled the covers over her shoulders, and rest her head on the pillow. While she wanted to close her eyes, she found it hard to do so on account of her mind still on the emerald.
“Sigh Whatever you are.....” she looked back at the drawer where the emerald was held, her magic sense highlighting it. “....please don’t hurt my friends.”

8:00 am

"YAAAAAWWWNNNN Oh man....I didn't sleep a wink last night" Sonic yawned loudly as he and Silver walked down the hall to their first class, pushing their way through the crowd of students.

"Seriously, do you gotta be so loud?" Silver expressed his annoyance at Sonic's laziness. Shadow had already separated from them to go to his other class, leaving Sonic and Silver on their own.
As Sonic and Silver walked into their History class, Sonic looked around for any signs of Rainbow Dash. To his surprise, he didn't see her anywhere, causing him to breath a sigh of relief.

"Sigh Finally I can get some peace and qui- DAHH!!" Sonic felt someone pull on his blue hair/quills, followed by a familiar, yet annoying giggle. He turned and to his dismay saw Rainbow Dash, who was still giggling from her little prank.

"Geez don't do that! The quills are sensitive ya know!" Sonic complained, rubbing the back of his head.

"Uh....quills?" Rainbow Dash raised an eye brow when he said quills. Sonic froze up, realizing what he said.

"Forget that you heard that." Sonic quickly deflected her question, and went inside the classroom. Dash, while still confused by Sonic referring to his hair as quills, shrugged it off and went inside as well.
The three took their seats in the class and proceeded to wait for class to begin.
"Oh by the way.." Dash leaned over to speak to Sonic, who proceeded to roll his eyes in annoyance. "P.E was canceled today." This was enough to get Sonic's attention.
"So our rematch will have to wait for now." Dash finished.

"Why was it cancelled?" Silver asked, overhearing their conversation.

"I dunno. I think it had something to do with the P.E equipment or something." Dash shrugged her shoulders.
Much to Sonic's dissapointment that he won't get his rematch with her, at the same time he was somewhat glad that he now had time.

"Well, so how are we gonna settle this then?" Sonic asked, still wanting to finish what they started. Dash thought for a moment about how they were going to have their match.

"We'll just do it after school, the entire field is empty after school, so there won't be anything to bother us." Dash explained. "Just you and me."
Sonic appeared to be satisfied.

"Heh! So were doing this after school?" Sonic smirked, ready to show her how fast he really was. Dash smirked back, not about to lose that easily.

"You bet!" Dash enthusiastically replied, her competitive spirit showing through and through. She offered him a fist bump. Sonic while he was reluctant to give his current rival a fist bump, decided to return it anyways out of respect. Dash gave a satisfied smile to Sonic.
With that, they both continued waiting for class. Silver, who was listening in on their conversation, was rather surprised that they were able to get along for a least a few seconds.

"You know, despite what you may think, you guys are very si-"

"Shut up." Sonic and Dash cut him off before he could finish his sentence.

10:20 am

Fluttershy was slowly walking to her next class, with Pinkie Pie hopping along behind her, chewing on a lollipop, humming cheerfully. However in contrast to Pinkie's cheer, Fluttershy had her arms crossed shyly, and walked pigeon toed as she made her way through the crowd.

"Uh excuse me- ow! Sorry!" Fluttershy apologized as she pushed and bumped her way through the crowd. Pinkie on the other hand was just playfully skipping through the crowd like it was nothing, munching on a cookie this time.
Fluttershy managed to get to the edge of the crowd, but then her skirt got caught on someone's backpack.
"A-Ooh!" Fluttershy exclaimed as she stumbled forward a bit. She looked back to see her skirt caught in the zipper of someone's backpack, who was unaware of Fluttershy's predicament.

"Gasp Oh no!" Fluttershy blushed as she saw her skirt being lifted. She tried pulling her skirt, but it wouldn't come free, surprisingly the person wearing the backpack still didn't notice her.
Her face got even redder from the embarrassment.
"Come on!" She pulled even harder, hearing the stitches of her skirt tear and stretch, until-
RIIIPPP!!

"AHH!" Fluttershy fell forwards onto her knees. She let out a whimper as held her aching knees in pain, tears forming in her eyes.
"Oooww...." She whimpered as she tried holding back the tears. However she gasped when she saw that her skirt was torn, which made her even more sad. She sighed as she held her torn skirt, her insecurities tearing at her heart once again.

"Hey Fluttershy! Out of the crowd alread-" Pinkie Pie poked her head out of the crowd looking for Fluttershy, stopping when she saw Fluttershy trembling on the ground, clutching her knees.
"Hey Shy! You practicing for drama class or somethin'?" Pinkie hopped over Fluttershy and knelt down to her eye level. Fluttershy looked up at Pinkie confusedly, tears still in her eyes.

"N-no, I....I-I just tripped" Fluttershy said, wiping tears from her face. She sighed, disappointed in herself that she was so sensitive.

"Well, your not going on any trips if you're gonna stay down there!" Pinkie got up and offered her hand to Fluttershy. Fluttershy looked up at Pinkie with her innocent eyes. Pinkie's cheerfulness eventually made her smile and took her hand.
She yelped in surprise as Pinkie yanked her up from her feet. Pinkie giggled cheerfully, happy that Fluttershy was smiling. Pinkie then proceeded to skip on ahead humming cheerfully. Fluttershy looked at Pinkie as she skipped down the hall, envying her cheerful personality, wishing that she could be like that. But knowing that she should get to class, decided to move on.

She rounded the corner of the hallway to catch up with Pinky. But she bumped into someone causing her to stumble backwards against the wall.
"Ow! S..s-sorry. I- Gasp!" Fluttershy looked up, and froze in terror at who it was. Scrouge, who was looking at her with and anger filled stare. Fluttershy couldn't even move as her body only shook as she backed up against the wall. Scrouge continued to glare at Fluttershy as she trembled before him, terrified of what he would do next. The two stared at each other for a good minute.
But the staredown was broken when Scourge finally let out a grunt and continued walking down the hallway. Fluttershy thought her heart had stopped as she remained perfectly frozen in her terrified position.
Pinkie, who came back to check on her, looked at Fluttershy quizzically.

"Um....Hey Shy?" Pinkie hopped all around Fluttershy's frozen body, wondering what made her frozen. "Last time I checked, it wasn't winter yet...." Pinkie then poked Fluttershy a few times to try and get a reaction, still no reaction from Fluttershy, queuing Pinkie to tilt her head quizzically.

"Yawn Hey Pinkie, what're you tilting your head fo- Huh?" Rainbow Dash, who was going to her next class, happened to stop by to see what Pinkie and Fluttershy were up to. She was looked just as confused as Pinkie, queuing her to tilt her head quizzically like Pinkie Pie.

"Um....Fluttershy?" Dash then proceeded to poke Fluttershy in the arm like Pinkie did. There was no response from her for a few seconds, then suddenly she let out a relieved sigh before fainting and falling over towards Dash and Pinkie.

"Whoa Whoa Hey!" Dash exclaimed as she quickly caught Fluttershy in her arms. "Fluttershy what's gotten into you?" Dash looked down at Fluttershy, who was out cold in Dash's arms.

"Oh! I think I saw that Seymore person pass by me a few seconds ago." Pinkie replied. Dash was confused at Pinkie's statement, not seeing how it related to Fluttershy fainting.

"Seymore? Pinkie what're talking ab- Wait!? HIM!?" Dash figured out who Pinkie was talking about, her face flushing red with rage.
"Why I OUGHTAA!!" Dash threw her fists up in a fury, unaware that she was still holding Fluttershy.

"Ow!" Fluttershy cried out as Dash dropped her, causing her to hit the ground below her.

"Huh?" Dash looked down and realized her blunder. "Oh shoot! Sorry Shy!" Dash apologized quickly.

"Ow....I-it's okay." Fluttershy replied as she got up shakily while rubbing her aching bottom. Dash then looked around for any sign of Scourge, wanting to give him a piece of her mind.

"Drat! He's not anywhere. That bastard!" Dash cursed at the air, causing other students passing by to take notice. Fluttershy was somewhat embarrassed that Dash was getting angry for her sake.

"Um.....It's okay Dash....he d-didn't do...a-anything..........I think." Fluttershy blushed slightly, while Pinkie decided to do some drawing in the meantime.

"Tch! No it's not okay! He can't keep bullying you like this!" Dash retorted angrily. "Sigh I swear Fluttershy, this is why I keep trying to encourage you the way I do." Dash crossed her arms and sighed disappointingly. This didn't do much to raise Fluttershy's spirits.
"So, why do you even take it from him anyways?"
Fluttershy blushed even harder as she didn't know how to respond to that question.

"Uh...well I.....um.....It's just....." Fluttershy went pigeon toed as she looked away in shame. Meanwhile Pinkie was doing some drawing on the floor while they waited.

"Well, what's your excuse then?" Rainbow Dash said rather callously, causing Fluttershy to cower backwards, shuddering a little.

"I....I..I...." Fluttershy studdered as Dash scowled at her. Eventually Fluttershy couldn't take the pressure anymore and proceeded to run off towards her class.

"Uh. Hey Fluttershy!" Dash called out to Fluttershy as she ran down the hallway with tears trailing from her eyes. At that moment Dash realized that she pushed Fluttershy too far.
"Sigh Dammit. Guess I went too far." Dash said to herself. As much as she was annoyed by Fluttershy's cowardly tendencies, she knew that it was literally how she was for as long as she knew her.

"Hey Dash!" Pinkie said behind Dash.

"Huh?" Dash turned to hear what Pinkie had to say.

"You looked funny when you're mad. So I drew a picture of you mad! See?" Pinkie held up a crudely drawn picture of Dash in her angry state from a few moments ago, which only served to infuriate Dash once again.

"THAT DOESN'T LOOK ANYTHING LIKE ME YOU DUMMY!!" Dash blew up cartoonishly in Pinkie's face.

12:30 pm

It is lunch time and the two mobian otherworlders Sonic and Silver were heading to the lunch room, expecting to meet Shadow there. Sonic was pumping himself up for his rematch with Dash, while Silver couldn't take his mind off of the chaos emeralds. Sonic noticed Silver looking worried about something, so he decided to chat with him.

"Hey whats up? You don't look so good." Sonic asked him.

"Sigh Sorry, can't take my mind off that chaos emerald. It feels like were so close to it, yet we can't reach it." Silver shared his disappointment with Sonic.

"Yeah, I know. I myself can't stand it either. It's annoying." Sonic agreed with Silver. "Next time we see her, lets go get it ourselves." Sonic proposed.

"What? No! Shadow said to hang back and wait for the right moment to move in!" Silver objected to Sonic's proposal.

"Hey wait! SHH!" Sonic pulled Silver to the side. Silver felt himself jerked to the side as Sonic pulled on his collar.

"Ow hey! what's the b-MFFF!" Silver was about to object but was pulled by Sonic who put his hand over his mouth before he could say anything. The two hid around the corner as they looked down the hallway. Silver wasn't entirely sure what Sonic was freaked out about, so he forced Sonic's hand off his mouth to speak.
"What's going on? You look like you've seen Iblis." Silver whispered to Sonic irritatingly.

"It's her. The girl who has the Chaos Emerald." Sonic whispered back. Silver looked down the hallway and, to his surprise, he saw Twilight and another girl further down the hallway. This cued the both of them to be silent for the moment.

Twilight and Sunset were talking at the end of the hallway while Sonic and Silver spied on them from afar.

"You going to the library again Twilight?" Sunset asked Twilight worryingly.

"Yeah. There's something I've been wanting to look into more the last time I went there. I also wanted to discuss with you about this book" Twilight explained, getting the book out of her backpack and showing it to Sunset. She took a look at the books cover.

“I never seen this book before, let alone here.” Sunset examined the book’s cover, but she didn’t recognize it. “Well, it looks interesting, so I’m happy to talk. Besides I can’t let that guy from before get you.” Sunset added.

"Thanks Sunset. You sure you want to skip out on lunch?" Twilight knew that she was skipping out on lunch each time she went to the library, so she felt bad that Sunset was skipping lunch just to protect her. "Besides, I have Spike with me. He's has to count for something." Twilight vouched for Spike's ability to protect her. This qued Spike to poke his head out of her backpack.

"Hey! I've been with Twilight far longer than you Sunset. I think I'm more than qualified to protect her." Spike bragged to Sunset. Sunset chuckled at Spike's comment

"Oh I'm sure you are. But what's a little puppy gonna do against a devil like me?" Sunset joked as she booped Spike on his nose.

"HEY! I'M NOT A PUPPY I'M A DRAGON!!" an enraged Spike objected at Sunset's joke. Sunset and Twilight laughed at Spike's reaction.

"Okay then, let's get going shall we Sunset?" Twilight hiked her backpack up. Sunset nodded in agreement and the two girls set off towards the library. Meanwhile Sonic and Silver were eavesdropping on their conversation from behind t.

"Looks like their headed for the library. Wonder what their up to." Silver pondered. Silver was about to continue walking to the messhall, but Sonic said nothing as he began running down the hall.
"Er- Sonic where are you going?" Silver asked from behind the corner that they were hiding behind.

"I ‘m gonna take the emerald from them now! I can't wait any longer!" Sonic stated loudly. Silver double-taked at his statement.

"WHAT!?" Silver objected loudly.

"SHHHH!" Sonic shushed Silver as he probably shouted loud enough for them to hear. He looked around for any signs of students who were looking at them funnily. Fortunately for them there seemed to be no students nearby. Sonic sighed with relief and decided to explain his reasoning to Silver.
"Listen. We might not get many chances until something bad happens. So we gotta take every chance we got!" Sonic explained fiercely, determined to get the chaos emerald no matter what. Silver on the other hand did not approve of his plan.

"What are you crazy!? You saw how I almost got caught by those two! I don't think I can do that again!" Silver further objected to Sonic's plan, remembering the chills he felt down his spine when those two girls noticed him trying to grab her backpack.
Sonic let out a frustrated groan at Silver's lack of motivation.

"C'mon man! This could be our last chance like I said!" Sonic held his ground. "Besides I've gotta plan. So c'mon!" Sonic waved Silver to follow as he rushed forward down the hall. Silver wasn't sure whether he should follow him or not. He knew that Sonic was crazy, and forming plans that actually work wasn't his strong suit.
But then again......he thought that maybe a crazy plan is exactly what they needed. With that, he finally decided to run up and join Sonic.

Meanwhile in the mess hall, Shadow was waiting for Sonic and Silver to show up, which to his frustration, weren't here.

"Where are they?" Shadow grunted angrily at their absence. He didn't bother getting any food for he wasn't hungry. He figured that he should go and look for them since they weren't here. He was about to go an look for them when he noticed someone walk up to him.

"Hey. You're Blue Boy's bro aren't you?" a sassy voice said to him. He looked to his left to see a Rainbow haired girl talking to him as she leaned against the table across from Shadow. To his shock he recognized the her as one of the girls who was talking about them.
"No offense, but your bro, he's a handful." Rainbow Dash told Shadow, her voice full of snark. Shadow while rather put off by her snarky tone, he couldn't help but agree with her.

"Hmph. You're not to far off." Shadow smirked, but something in him didn't like the notion of someone else mouthing off his little brother.
"But I'd appreciate it if you don't bad mouth him. Got it!" Shadow glared back at her. Dash while a little intimidated by Shadow's glare, she eventually chuckled at his comment.

"Heh heh heh! You really are his brother. I can respect that." Dash laughed off Shadow's intimidation, while admiring his big brother disposition. Dash then got up from her position walked closer to Shadow.
"I should tell you that me and blue boy are having a race after school." Dash relayed her deal with Sonic to Shadow.
Shadow snarled internally "Damn it Sonic! I said not to get involved"
"He lost pretty badly to me last time. So he challenged me to a rematch." Dash further explained. Shadow clenched his fist tightly as his anger increased. "Sonic.......you......son of....!"
Dash then snickered as a funny thought entered her head.
"Oh. And get this. He calls himself 'The fastest thing alive' HA! Priceless." Dash got carried away and started mocking Sonic despite Shadow's protest.
"Ha ha! I'm sorry....I know you asked me not to make fun of him. But it was just too funny!" Dash apologized halfheartedly. To her surprise Shadow actually seemed to calm down.

"Yeah. He's a big show off." Shadow admitted. "He's thickheaded and doesn't know when he's in over his head." Dash was rather surprised at how Shadow was suddenly willing to talk about Sonic that way.

"Well, at least we agree on some things." Dash smirked at him.

"Hmph, the same thing could be said about you." Shadow fired back towards her.

"HEY! HE AND I ARE NOT ALIKE GOT IT!!" Dash blew up in Shadows face. Shadow maintained his disinterested expression without even flinching.

"Ahem! Hmph! Well, he and I are gonna have a race later, and I'm gonna show him whose boss just like last time." Dash managed to compose herself, and started walking away, not wanting to continue the conversation. But Shadow wasn't going to let her walk over Sonic's pride that easily.

"Be careful. He may be an idiot, but he's better than you think." Shadow warned her, not looking back at her. Dash double taked as she stopped walking, also not looking back at Shadow.
"Trust me. He surprised me when I underestimated him." Shadow continued, reminding him of their fight on space colony ark.

"Geez! first Applejack says that and now this guy? What's going on around here!? "Dash was becoming increasingly irritated. "Hmph! Well we'll see soon enough!" Dash retorted arrogantly, and she continued walking off.

In the library Twilight and Sunset were searching through the library history section for any mention of 'The void Era'. Twilight had a list of terms that she had written down from the void era book, and was thoroughly looking through each book that was on the table she was sitting at.

"Oh come on! It has to be here somewhere!" Twilight rapidly flipped through pages of a history book. "Sigh No good!" Twilight snapped the book shut and threw it on the stack of books that was almost as high as the table, she then got out another book that was on the table and began flipping through the pages. Sunset came around the corner straining to lift another stack of books.

"Hch! This is the last of the modern history section Twilight." Sunset said as she dropped the pile of books on the table with a loud Thunk!. She wiped some sweat off her forehead, worn out from carrying so many books. "Gee, I think this is replacement for P.E" Sunset said tiredly. Then she heard a grumble come from her stomach. She rubbed her stomach, realizing she was hungry from skipping lunch. Twilight overheard Sunset's stomach growl.

"Sunset you can go if you want. I'll be fine. Promise." Twilight felt bad that Sunset was skipping out on lunch for her sake.

"Yeah!" Spike said from around the corner. The two looked and saw Spike with a large encyclopedia in his mouth, straining himself to keep it upright.
He swayed back and forth trying to keep the encyclopedia upright, before finally thumping down beside Sunset's leg.
"She has me! Remember!" Spike said proudly. Twilight and Sunset both laughed at his statement.

"Not a chance. I'm not letting that guy get the jump on you again." Sunset's tone suddenly shifted to be more serious. Twilight sighed in defeat.
"I guess there's no convincing you. Thanks Sunset." Twilight thanked her. Sunset smiled back sincerely, ignoring how her stomach was growling and how hungry she was. With that she sat down and started perusing through the books with Twilight.

The library was silent for a few minutes as they looked through book after book. Sunset occasionally looked around for any signs of people spying on them.
"Ugh! Nothing again!!” Twilight slammed the book shut and pushed it across the table. Sunset flinched a little at Twilight’s outburst. Spike gave out few dog wines.

“This really seems to have stumped you Twilight.” Sunset commented as Twilight held her head in disappointment. Sunset went over to her side and put a hand on her shoulder. Twilight looked up at sunset, regretting her outburst.

“Sigh Sorry Sunset. Guess I am stumped.” Twilight apologized. “It’s just I can’t stand not understanding something.”
Sunset then remember the other thing Twilight wanted.

“Say, you wanted to talk about that book right Twilight?” Sunset asked, bringing the book over to them.

“Oh right. Eh...why don’t you take a look at it. You’ll see what I’m so concerned about.” Twilight said.

Sunset opened the book and they read what was inside. Sunset was awed at what she read. She couldn't even believe that she missed a book like this in the library.
"Why would there be an era that even history books don't cover?" Sunset wondered why there was even a 'Void Era' to begin with.

"I don't know. Even this book doesn't really cover anything. It's just a lot of speculation, theories and rumors." Twilight explained. Sunset looked more closely and she realized that the book didn't have any pictures. Just vague descriptions of certain periods of time. With names like 'The Great Separation' and 'The Year of Black Sky'. There were even terms like 'The conceptual plane' and 'Rasenkon', which Twilight thought was outright another language. If she looked at this without context, she would've thought these were the ramblings of an insane lunatic.
"I don't know what to make of this book. Are these things in it even real?" Twilight held her head as she speculated.

"Not only that. If it's called the 'Void Era' and there is supposedly no information on it, why does this book even exist?" Sunset pointed out that despite having such a name, a book like this still exists.
This question really stumped Twilight as she somewhat mentally strained herself to come up with an explanation. Yet none came to her head. She sighed as she slumped back in her chair, unable to even think of a slightly plausible explanation for not just Sunset's question, but all the things in the book as well.

"For now, let's keep digging and hope that something from this book is mentioned somewhere else." Twilight explained her next course of action.

"Right" Sunset agreed with her. They both started perusing through their collected books once again, searching for any of the names or terms that were mentioned in the book they found.

"Yawn Yeah well you do that. I'm gonna take a nap okay?" Spike yawned as he climbed into Twilight's backpack to take a nap.

Meanwhile nearby, Sonic and Silver were spying on Twilight and Sunset. While they heard most of their conversation, they weren't exactly interested in thatas they were in finding an opening to try and steal the chaos emerald back.

"Looks like they aren't going anywhere." Sonic said as they spied on them from behind a bookcase across from the girls. Silver peeked out from behind Sonic, noticing the two girls. His shivered a little as he remembered how they nearly caught him yesterday.

"Uhh....I don't suppose you have a plan do you?" Silver asked Sonic, half expecting the answer to be no. Sonic turned and smirked at him confidently.

"Heh! Course I do." Sonic said proudly. Silver was slightly surprised that Sonic actually had a plan in mind, though he wasn't very excited for what it was.
"I'm gonna go cause a distraction near them, then while they go over to see what it is, you go and get the emerald from their backpack." Sonic explained his plan, which Silver to his surprise wasn't too excited about.

"Why do I have to go get it!? You saw how they were glaring at me! They must think I'm some sort of creep!" Silver reminded Sonic of how he failed to get the emerald the first time. Sonic sighed disappointingly.

"Look, it’ll be easier this time. I just have to draw them away, and you sneak over and grab it. Simple!" Sonic tried to convince Silver again.

"Oh? And how do you intend to draw them away?" Silver questioned Sonic, not showing any confidence in his plan. Sonic smirked confidently again.

"Just watch me! You circle around behind them and wait for the right moment, while I distract them got it!?" Sonic explained to Silver.

"Uh I-"

"Good!" Silver didn't have time to reply as Sonic interrupted him and began sneaking closer to the two girls. Silver sighed in defeat and decided to follow Sonic's orders and circle round behind them.

Sonic slowly but briskly crept up to where the girls were studying. He stopped about four bookcases away from them, peeking around the corner. His instincts told him to be wary of the yellow and red haired girl. But that didn't worry him, for his plan didn't involve him getting seen.

"Okay let's do this!" Sonic stretch his fingers as he began putting his plan into action.
Silver crept up slowly from the other side of the two girls. He was incredibly nervous as he didn't want to face the glare of Sunset again. He hid behind a bookcase about fifty feet away from them. He looked across from them to see that Sonic was preparing to do something. His eyebrow slowly raised as he was not excited for what he was planning.
But then he heard the faint sound of books being stacked on top of each other. Then he happened to see a stack of books coming from between the tops of the bookcases where Sonic was.
"Sonic, what are you doing!!" Silver fumed through his teeth, as he saw Sonic stack another book on top.

"Okay! Good to go!" Sonic said quietly as he stacked one last book on top. Now came the next part of his plan. He rubbed his hands in preperation. Then he strained himself as he proceeded to pick up the large pile of books.
"Hrrrg!! Hch! Okay! Wha Whoa!" Sonic briefly lost his balance and stumbled backwards a little. Silver pulled at his hair in panic as he saw Sonic's pile of books almost fall over.
However Sonic managed to regain his balance before he fell over. To his relief, the two girls haven't noticed him yet. He stabilized himself before he initiated the next part of his plan.
"Sigh Okay. Here goes nothing!" Sonic said to himself knowing that he was going to humiliate himself with this part of the plan.

Silver wiped some sweat off his forehead as he nearly had a panic attack from seeing Sonic's blunder.
"Geez Sonic, you're gonna give me a heart attack." Silver whispered to himself.

"Oh mah! These books are so big and heavy!" Sonic said in the most feminine voice he could muster. Silver cringed at what he just heard.
Twilight and Sunset looked in the direction of the voice, their suspicion rising.
"Oh I wish somebody- Hrg! would come and help me with these books!" Sonic continued, trying to maintain the obnoxious feminine voice.
Twilight and Sunset looked at each other unsure of what to do in this situation.
Silver unable to handle Sonic's embarrassing performance, proceeded to facepalm, a little too loudly.

"Wait. I heard something." Sunset looked in the direction she heard a faint slap, cuing Twilight to look in that direction as well. Silver scrambled to hide as he covered his mouth.
"Crap!" Silver's heart raced as he panicked on the inside.
Sonic noticed that the girls were looking over in the other direction. He rolled his eyes frustratedly as his performance wasn't enough to draw them over.

"Grr. Fine!" Sonic decided to take drastic measures.
"Whoa whoa whoaa! OW!!" He intentionally fell backwards causing the large pile of books to fall on top of him. This caused the two girls to redirect their attention back to Sonic, who was in excruciating pain from all the books that fell on him. Silver poked his head out from the corner to see what happened.

"Oh no! I dropped all my books! Would someone please help me!?" Sonic tried maintaining his feminine voice, although it noticeably cracked a few times. But he didn't care for the two girls attention were now on him.

"Looks like someone had a nasty fall." Twilight closed the books she was currently skimming through and got up to go help whoever fell.

Sonic, hearing the girl's footsteps get closer and closer, knew it was time to book it.
"Oh geez! Time to go!" Sonic said in his normal voice as he scrambled out of the pile of books and ran out of the aisle away from them.

Twilight peeked around the corner to see who fell over.
"Hello?" She said. She saw no one, but then she gasped when she saw a large pile of books strewn all over the aisle.
"Geez. What a mess. Somebody needs to learn to put their books away." Twilight commented on the mess of books. She was confused as to where the person who asked for help went, but she knew that she couldn't just leave these books on the ground.
"Hey Sunset. Can you help me put these books away?" Twilight called over to Sunset.

"Hmm? Oh sure." Sunset got up from her chair and walked over to Twilight. Sunset also gasped in surprise when she saw the mess of books.
"Yikes! Who the hell did this?" Sunset asked.

"I don't know. Whoever was asking for help just disappeared." Twilight shrugged her shoulders.

"Sigh Well I guess we better start cleaning up." Sunset sighed frutratedly as she stretched her arms. With that, she and Twilight started cleaning up the books.

Sonic watched the two girls clean up the books from a moderate distance. He looked at where the girls were sitting and saw the backpack that held the chaos emerald on the ground beneath the table unattended.
Sonic knew this was the perfect opportunity to grab it. He looked further to the right to see Silver about two book cases away from the table.
"Come on Silver. This the perfect moment! Go get it!" Sonic whispered. But for some reason Silver wouldn't go get it. He just continued looking at the girls as they cleaned up the books.
"What are you doing!?" Sonic said as he increasingly got more frustrated. He waved over to Silver to get his attention.
"Hey! Silver! Psst! Over here!" Sonic said loud enough so Silver could hear him, but not too loud to get the girl's attention. He waved his arms frantically to get his attention.

Eventually, Silver noticed Sonic waving to him from the other side of the library. After Silver made eye contact with him, Sonic started vigorously gesturing and pointing towards the table. Silver knew that Sonic was telling him to go get the chaos emerald while the girls were distracted. But Silver was too nervous to go get it, and was too afraid to mess up. He looked back at Sonic and shook his head, telling him that he didn't want to.
Sonic put on an annoyed and disdained face.

"You serious!?" Sonic said through his teeth, his frustration rising even more. He proceeded to aggressively gesture towards the table, as if he was commanding Silver to go over there. But Silver wasn't having any of it
Silver aggressively shook his head and crossing his arms in an X shape at Sonic, telling him 'NO'. The two spent over a minute arguing with each other using crude sign language.

"Come on! This may be our only chance." Sonic said through his teeth. Silver sighed as he finally gave up and decided to give it a shot.
He gulped nervously as he crept closer to the table. He occasionally glanced over at the bookcases across from the table where the girls were cleaning up the mess that Sonic left. He finally reached the book case nearest to the table. His eyes immediately went to the backpack that sat on the ground.
He gulped nervously as he slowly crept towards the backpack.

Twilight was about to put some books back on the shelf, but she paused when she felt her magic sense tingle in the direction of their table.
"What is.....that?" Twilight questioned what her magic sense was alerting her to. It felt like a person, but she didn't recognize who it was, which concerned her.
"Eh, it's probably just Spike" Twilight shrugged it off and went back to cleaning up books. She figured the reason she didn't recognize Spike's magic is that she sensed it through multiple bookcases.

Sonic kept watch on the girls from afar to make that they didn't notice Silver. Silver eventually started crawling under the table.
"Almost there......you know what? This actually might wor- Ow!" Silver accidentally bumped against one of the table legs, causing a stack of books that was on the table to fall over with a loud thud. Silver froze up, panicking inside.
Sonic tensed up as he watched the books fall over. He looked over at the girls expecting them to notice. But to his surprise, the girls didn't seem to hear the books falling over at their table. He sighed with relief and he gave Silver the thumbs up, telling him that it was okay.
Silver saw Sonic's thumbs up and continued crawling under the table. Eventually, Silver finally was just within arms reach of the backpack. Silver smiled with excitement as he was about to get the chaos emerald.

"Whew! That was a tough one." Twilight said as she put the last book away.

"Yeah you bet." Sunset said as she wiped some swat off her forehead. "Let's get back to studying shall we?"

Silver gasped in panic as he heard the two girls conversation. He needed to move quick other wise he was going to get caught again! He reached for the bag, but he found that just couldn't reach it from where he was.
"Come on! Come on!!" Silver said through his teeth as he stretched his arm as much as he could. Sonic's teeth chattered as he watched Silver. Then Sonic gasped as he saw the two girls exit the aisle to return to their table.

"Oh god hurry up Silver!!" Sonic panicked as the girls got closer.

Silver stretched and stretched his arm until he finally grabbed hold of the bag. The second he got a hold of the bag, he bolted out from under the table and booked it down the aisle. He disappeared down the aisle just before the girls rounded the corner.
Sonic thought his heart stopped as he watched Silver run away. Then he let out a huge sigh of relief as he slumped on his back. Just watching Silver made him feel like he was in his shoes at the moment.

Silver took deep gasps of air as he held the backpack close to him. He couldn't believe that he managed to pull it off. But....he did. He smiled with pride in his accomplishment, and pumped his fist enthusiastically. But now the moment of truth. He put the backpack on the ground and began opening the backpack. As he did, the bright glow of the emerald began leaking out, causing Silver to shield his eyes a little.
He pulled open the backpack and even though the glow was bright, he was certain it was the chaos emerald.

"Wow! There it is! We got it!" Silver smiled as his excitement grew. But his cheer was cut short when he heard a menacing growl come from the bag.
"Uhhh......" Silver grew suspicious of what else was in the back. He leaned in forward to take a closer look, when suddenly a barking purple dog leapt out of the bag at Silver!

"AHHH!!! What the heck!!" Silver cried out as he tossed the bag away with the dog still in it. The dog leapt out of the bag and continued to snarl and bark at him.

Twilight and Sunset were about to sit down when they immediately turned their heads in the direction of the barking.
"What the heck is that?!" Sunset asked. Twilight's heart skipped a beat when she recognized the barking.

"That sounds like Spike!" Twilight shouted. She and Sunset rushed over to where the barking was coming from.

Sonic was both confused and panicked at what was going on. He had no idea what Silver did to pull a dog out of the bag, but he knew if he didn't move fast, they would both be busted. He rapidly paced back and forth pulling at his hair and biting his nails at what he should do.

Silver was also panicking as he tried looking for a way out of this mess, which wasn't easy due to him up against a wall with a small purple dog barking loudly at him. He frantically looked for an escape route.

"Spike! What's going on!?" Silver heard one of the girls nearby, causing him to panic even more.
Sensing that he had little options, he quickly scrambled to his feet and started running in the opposite direction. He saw Sonic over where he was watching him and began running over to him.

"Sonic! Sonic! Sonic! Let's get out of here!" Silver said as he rushed through the bookcases over to where Sonic was. Sonic grabbed Silver's arm as he ran past him.

"Hey Hey Hey! What the hell happened!?" Sonic demanded that Silver explain himself.

"No time! Let's go GO!" Silver insisted that they leave as he pulled at Sonic's shirt frantically. Sonic decided to not question him and proceeded to book it along with Silver. They frantically ran downstairs, past the computers, burst through the doors and slammed them shut.
The two took repeated gasps for air as they calmed down from the frantic series of events that just occurred. They both slumped down to the ground from pure exhaustion.

"Okay.....now tell me. What the hell just happened over there?" Sonic demanded once again. Silver was still too shaken to say anything.
"Did you at least get the emerald?" Sonic asked. To his disappointment and frustration, Silver shook his head slowly.

Back in the library, Twilight and Sunset were talking to Spike about what happened.
"Spike, what happened? And why is my bag way over here?" Twilight asked Spike as she sat down to talk to him, her concern growing as she glanced around for anyone besides them.

"Someone tried to steal your backpack!" Spike blurted out, causing Sunset and Twilight to gasp in fear. "Good thing I was in there huh?"

"Calm down. Spike. What did this person look like?" Twilight asked Spike, wanting to know if it was the person who was in her room last night.
Spike visibly tried to remember what the person looked like, but he yawned as he realized that his eyes were very drowsy when he hopped out of the bag considering that he was napping at the time.

"Sorry, I didn't exactly get a clear look at his face." Spike relayed what he saw, much to the disappointment of Twilight and Sunset. Twilight tried to rationalize the last few minutes in her head. She remembered sensing something earlier as she was cleaning up the books. She assumed it was Spike, but now that this happened, she figured that it was someone else. In fact, looking at Spike now, she saw that his magic energy was very small compared to what she sensed, so it couldn't have been Spike that she sensed.

"I.....I think I sensed someone back when we were cleaning up those books" Twilight told them about her magic senses going off, getting Spike and Sunset's attention.

"Really?" Sunset replied, wondering why her's didn't go off.

Sonic and Silver had retreated to the cafeteria where they were catching their breath from their second failed attempt at retrieving the chaos emerald. Silver had just finished explaining what happened to Sonic, causing Sonic to fume with anger.

"For the love of...! A stupid dog!? Really!?" Sonic couldn't believe that his perfect plan fell into ruin because of something so absurd. "Who keeps their dog in their bag anyways!?" Sonic continued to angrily pout as he slammed the cafeteria door open.

"Calm down! It's a miracle we even got out of there unnoticed." Silver tried to get Sonic to settle down, but his words did little to calm him down noticably. They spotted Shadow over near the table that they usually sat at.
Sonic proceeded to storm over to the table, not really caring about other students giving him weird looks, cuing embarrassment from Silver.
"Uh... heh heh. He's having a bad day." Silver apologized as they walked past the other students.
Shadow glanced over to see the two walking over.

"About time." Shadow grunted with anger at their lousy punctuality.

Sonic and Silver were about to reach their table when they were stopped by a familiar voice.

"Hey blue boy! Don't forge-" Dash said from a table near them, where she was sitting with Applejack.

"WHAT!!!?" Sonic blew up at her, furious at being interrupted, especially by her.

"WHOA! Hey! What's your problem!?" Dash got up in Sonic's face, not willing to take any of his crap.

"Yea! Wut gives!?" Applejack pitched in her protest. Sonic and Dash stared each other down, sparks flying between their eyes as their fierce spirits sent chills down Silver and Applejack's spine as well as other nearby students. However Dash broke the tension as she held up her palm telling Sonic to stop.

"Let's save it for our race later alright?" Dash told Sonic. To Silver's surprise, after a few seconds, Sonic managed to calm himself down.

"Fine then." Sonic stepped back, finally settling down. The two looked each other in the eyes. While Sonic was annoyed by her presence, at the same time, he couldn't help but think that she was kind of similar to him, being hyper competitive and brash. Dash was thinking the same thing, but the one thing she couldn't put her finger on is, why he was like this to begin with. He was still like this even though she beat him two days ago.

After about a minute of staring at each other they both went back to their respective tables. Shadow did not look pleased as Sonic and Silver sat down. Sonic happens to notice Shadow's disdained expression.
"........What?" Sonic tried playing dumb with him, although in the back of his mind he knew it wouldn't work on Shadow, for he was too sharp to be deceived by him.

"You're late..." Shadow replied darkly, his arms crossed and a cold stare coming from his eyes. "Mind telling me what you were doing?"
The two brother's sat silently as Shadow eyed the both of them, waiting for them to speak. Silver, intimidated by Shadow's glare, nudged Sonic so he would say something.

"Hey.....say something.." Silver prodded Sonic through his teeth.

"Wha....why do I always do the explaining?" Sonic muttered back at Silver.

"You're the one who prodded me into your stupid plan!" Silver protested back, getting louder.

"Oh yeah!? Well your the one who didn't nab the emerald when it was right in front of him!" Sonic proceeded to get louder as he argued with Silver.

"Oh shut up! You got a lot a nerve to-" The two eventually devolved into childish bickering. Shadow's expression changed from disdained to annoyed. He thought that he was literally babysitting for these two. He let out an exasperated sigh as he ran his hand down his face. He spotted Dash and Applejack in the corner of his eye, literally looking at the two as they argued with the most bewildered expression.
Dash noticed Shadow looking at them.

"Uhh......is.....this what you go through on a daily basis?" Dash asked him, feeling a little sorry for Shadow. While he was reluctant to reply at first, but he sighed again as he couldn't help with agree with her.

"Yeah...it's a living." Shadow said sarcastically. Dash chuckled a little at his comment. She was about to reply back, when she was interrupted by Sonic and Silver's annoying argument.

"Tch...WILL YOU TWO CUT IT OUT!!" Dash erupted at them. Applejack just kept the same disinterested expression despite Dash's overreaction.

“Hey girls!” Applejack heard a familiar voice in the crowd of students. She and Rainbow Dash saw Twilight, Sunset, Rarity, Pinkie, and Fluttershy waving to them.
The rest of the main seven sat with Applejack and Rainbow Dash, and they were sharing their stories of the day.

“I.......I...ran into Scourge again.” Fluttershy shyly told them, trying not to shed tears. This cued a gasp from the rest of the girls save for Dash and Pinkie. Fluttershy blushed slightly at the notion that all of them were worried for her.
“It....it’s no big deal.” She clutched her arm in embarrassment.

“It is a big deal! We can’t let some bully keep picking on you!” Sunset stood to her feet in anger. Fluttershy just looked away in shame.

“Damn straight! I could slog him in the face if I had the chance.” Applejack stood to her feet as well. Twilight sensed no good to come of them getting angry and decided to intervene.

“Girls! Calm down! Getting angry won’t help anything.” Twilight spoke firmly, standing up as well. Sunset and Applejack fell silent at Twilight’s firm voice, cueing them to sit down. Rarity on the other hand wasn’t willing to let the subject go so easily.

“Forgive me Twilight, but I still firmly believe that it’s an issue that needs addressing” Rarity stated civilly, wanting to continue the conversation in a more civil manner.
Inside Twilight agreed with her, but she couldn’t easily come up with a solution. She sat down as she searched her thoughts for a more nuanced answer.

"I know what you mean. But I've never dealt with people like him back on the other side of the portal." Twilight explained holding her chin as she was deep in thought. "And he's stubborn too!" Twilight added, slightly annoyed at the fact.

“Well, maybe it wouldn’t be such a big issue if Shy wasn’t such a crybaby.” Dash interrupted Twilight’s train of thought. Her statement cued the rest of the main six to look at her, surprised, and put off that she made such a callous statement. Fluttershy just looked away in shame, for she knew part of it to be true.

“D-Dash! How could you say such a thing?!” Rarity was the first to break the silence as she slammed her palms on the table.

“Yeah Dash! Why say that?” Twilight added, sharing Rarity’s anger. Applejack growled under her breath as she clenched her fists.

“Hey! I’m just saying. Fluttershy is......well......sighshy. So it’s only natural for a bully like him to pick on her.” Dash defended her point. “Bullies pick on cowards. That’s all I’m saying.” Dash added further. This however did not sit well with Applejack and Sunset.
Applejack stood up and proceeded to grab Dash by the collar of her shirt and pulled her up to her face. Dash gave out a grunt in defiance.

“Hey! You callin’ Fluttershy a coward!?” Applejack angrily questioned her.

“No I’m not! Well I...uh” Dash grabbed Applejacks wrist and pried them off her shirt, however she trailed off when she could formulate an answer. Twilight’s anger rose as she stood up once again.

“Girls that’s enough! Can’t you see what your bickering is doing to Fluttershy!?” Twilight gestured over to Fluttershy, who was on the verge of tears. Applejack and Dash were quick to realize their mistake.

“Oh man. Sorry Fluttershy.” Applejack apologized to Fluttershy, clearly regretting fighting with Dash.

“Hmph. Yeah sorry.” Dash begrudgingly said. Looking over at them, Sunset was glad to not have participating in fighting with Dash.

“Sigh Can we please keep on track girls?” Twilight said as she sat back down. She felt like a parent trying to manage a whole family. “You going to be okay Fluttershy?"
Fluttershy wiped the tears from her eyes, trying not to cry.

"Y....sniff....yeah.....I'll be fine." Fluttershy attempted to regain her composure, although the other's could see right through her that she was clearly hurt by their fighting.
Twilight gave an annoyed glance at Dash, some anger still residing in her, but breathed deeply as she was determined to get back on track.

"Alright.....well our first piece of news from me and Sunset is, according to Spike someone tried to steal the element of harmony from my backpack." Twilight reported. This cued yet another shocked gasp from everyone aside from Sunset and Twilight.

"Okay! Who's the guy Spike!? Cuz I've got something for their ass!" Dash stood up and cracked her knuckles.

"Yeah! Whose the rascal!?" Applejack shared Dash's fighting spirit, much to the chagrin of Twilight.

"Uh...Well I....uh.." Twilight didn't exactly know how to put it.

"Well cool it you two. Because I don't know." Spike popped his headout of Twilight's backpack and answered for her. "I was sleeping, so I couldn't get a good look at their face." Dash and Applejack's expressions turned from fierce to disappointed.

"Aww....." Dash slouched back down in her seat.

"Dadgummit" Applejack swore under her breath.

"Sigh Thanks Spike. Although....." Twilight thought about Sunset's hunch about Shadow. "Sunset do you think it may be Shadow.....or any one of them?" She asked Sunset.

Sunset turned to look at the three otherworlders sitting a table away from them. Silver and Sonic were still bickering with each other. Shadow had the most tired and miserable expression on his face. He let out a groan as he let his head hang backwards.
Sunset raised an eyebrow for a second, not sure what to think of them, though she was definitely more skeptical of Shadow.

"Well, despite my reservations on Shadow, our three newcomers don't seem to be causing any trouble." Sunset relayed her thoughts. However Dash wasn't so sure about that.

"Wait, what about that time blue boy over there picked a fight with Scour-......" Dash glanced over at Fluttershy, who looked at Dash with worrying eyes. ".....uhhh....Grass head." Dash substituted his name with something else.
Fluttershy blushed in embarrassment.

"_{You don't have to not say his name for my sake}" Fluttershy said under her breath.

"Oh come on Dash, you meet all sorts of people here. I'm sure there are plenty of thickheaded and wily people like him." Sunset disputed Dash's point.

"_{Heh Heh Like yourself}" Applejack snarked under her breath.

"I heard that!" Dash snapped at Applejack, who apparently didn't speak softly enough.

"What about you Rarity? Anything for you and Pinkie?" Twilight turned to Rarity.

"Well, our Silver haired boy over there hasn't done anything suspicious. I think he's just a little shy." Rarity explained to the group.

"Okay anybody else have anything?" Twilight asked.

"Ooh ooh! Me and blue boy over there are gonna have a rematch! Anybody wanna come?" Dash suddenly blurted out.

"Uh....no offense Dash, but that doesn't seem like news to me." Sunset replied to Dash, unimpressed with her statement.

"It is!" Dash retorted. "I mean, he was pretty torn up about it. So maybe he wasn't at his best." Dash continued to explain.
The others looked at each other for a minute, deciding whether or not they should go to Dash's event or not.

"Ehhh. Sorry but Macintosh called me earlier today and said I needed to get back as soon as possible." Applejack replied. Rainbow Dash was not happy with this.

"What? Aw come on!" Dash complained.

"Um, I'm afraid I'll pass as well Rainbow Dash." Rarity added regretfully. Dash looked over at Rarity in disbelief.

"Yeah Rarity wanted me to try on some new clothes she designed." Twilight further explained to Dash.

"Like anyone would watch you win for the millionth time." Spike spited Dash under his breath. Twilight frowned slightly at Spike’s comment, cuing her to nudge him slightly.

“Bah! Come or not I don’t really care.” Dash scoffed, resting her head on her hand. She glanced over at the three otherworlders, particularly at Sonic.

“Well, now that Dash said her piece. Does anyone have anything else to report?” Twilight asked everyone. She kept her ears open to whoever had to speak. She looked around the table and she was met with either silence or a head shake. She last look over at Sunset to see if she had anything else to say. Sunset looked back over at Shadow, scratching her chin as she thought of what she should do regarding them.

“Sigh I guess I’ll tag along with Dash to her little match with blue hair over there.” Sunset admitted, getting Dash’s attention.

“Heh, so now you show interest.” Dash snarked in response.

“Well I’m not exactly going to watch your match, I just wanna keep an eye on those three.” Sunset replied, gesturing over to them.

“Um.........” Fluttershy raised her hand, cuing everyone to look at her. “..........I-I’ll come along...Sunset.” Fluttershy said quietly. Sunset was rather surprised at Fluttershy’s statement.

“Uh......why?” Sunset asked, raising an eyebrow. Fluttershy opened her mouth but didn’t say anything, for she was too shy to tell her why. She glanced over at Sonic, blushing slightly.

“Well I guess it couldn’t hurt to have another pair of eyes.” Sunset admitted. Twilight took another look around the table to see if anyone still had something to report. She was met with silence.

“Well then, if no one has anything else, I guess we can call this meeting adjourned.” Twilight announced to everyone.

“Right!” Everyone replied. The group proceeded to go back to eating their lunch. Rainbow Dash took a bite out of her sandwich as she looked back at Sonic. Her eyes gleamed with competitive spirit as her resolve to beat Sonic made her heart beat increase. Across the table, while the others were eating their lunch and engaging in small talk, Fluttershy before she was about to sip her juice, she looked over back at Sonic. She didn’t forget what he did for her two days ago, blushing as she thought about him.

1:30 pm

Shadow, Sonic, and Silver were the first to leave the cafeteria. After the two explained their second failed attempt to grab the chaos emerald, Shadow knew that they had to put as much distance as possible between those girls.

"Listen. Under any circumstances do not talk to them. Got it!?" Shadow told the two, trying to contain his anger with them.

"Yeah yeah, whatever." Sonic halfheartedly replied.
Shadow watched as the two walked to their classes, letting out an annoyed grunt.

“Ugh....how much you wanna bet they’re gonna cause more trouble.” He mumbled as he dragged a hand down his face.

“Ooh I know!” A cheery and hyper voice said.

“What the-?” Shadow looked to his left, but he saw nothing. He looked to his right, nothing. Little did he know, Pinkie Pie, was keeping out of his vision by rotating around him.

“Down here!” Pinkie poked her head between his legs.

“What?” Shadow looked down. But again nothing. His eye twitched, his ire slowly growing and growing. Then he felt a tap on his shoulder.

“Grr!” Shadow spun around frustratedly with a snarl on his face. He saw a girl with poofy pink hair with a innocent and beaming smile. After a few seconds his snarl faded.

“What the hell do you want?” Shadow asked, still annoyed but not snarling. Suddenly Pinkie held out a coin in front of his face. Shadow didn’t know what to say.

“Heads or tails?” She said quickly.

“Uh..........heads?” Shadow said a random side, not that he cared about the result. With that Pinkie put it on her thumb, then she flipped it high. Shadow followed the coin with his eyes as it spun in the air. The coin then impacted the ground and spun on its rim. Shadow and Pinkie waited for what side for it would land on. It spun for a good ten seconds, then it slowly started to slow and slow until.......it stood on its rim not falling on either side.

“What are the frickin odds?” Shadow thought, baffled at the fact that the coin landed on its rim of all things. Suddenly Pinkie got on the ground and looked at the stood up coin, with her eye cartoonishly stretching out at it, leaving Shadow bewildered and confused.

“Hmm.........hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmMMMMMMMMMMMMM!!!!!!!” Pinkie thought hard about what the result should be. Then she stood up, and leaned in closer to Shadow.

“I’d say 50/50!” She finally said. Shadow’s confusion did not stop.

“I....don’t think that’s how it works” Shadow questioned her logic. Pinkie giggled at his response and then zipped right next to him.

“Oh why not? One fifty for each bro!” Pinkie explained her version of ‘logic’ to him, which still made no sense to Shadow.

“That’s still not how it works.” Shadow retorted again.

“Oh I wouldn’t waste time arguing with Pinkie about that” another female voice said. They both looked down the hallway to see Sunset Shimmer leaning against the lockers with her arms crossed, appearing to have been observing their banter.

“Oh it’s you.” Shadow said. Suddenly A frown appeared on Pinkie’s face and she jumped over to Sunset.

“Hey! Her names not ‘you’! It’s Sunset Shimmer!!” Pinkie pouted. Sunset let out a little chuckle at Pinkie sticking up for her.

“Heh heh, thanks Pinkie. But I can handle myself. Even around guys like him.” Sunset snarked as she flipped her hair and approached Shadow.
Shadow sensed that Sunset wasn’t as friendly the last time. Regardless, he didn’t want to do anything to make her suspicious of him, though he wondered what made her less friendly right now.
Although Sunset took Twilights advice to heart that it wasn’t Shadow that attacked her in the library, part of her just couldn’t be sure. Nevertheless she brushed off her jacket and tried to appear pleasant.

“She your friend?” Shadow asked, glancing temporarily over at Pinkie Pie.

“Yeah, she’s a handful.” Sunset agreed with him, looking back at Pinkie who was sitting on the floor drawing a crude picture of sorts, who didn’t seem to notice them looking at her.

“Hmph, I agree.” Shadow replied. “You need something?”
She approached Shadow, still maintaining an air of confidence to show that she wasn’t scared of him despite his dark demeanor.

“Oh just checking up on the new transfer students.” Sunset replied nonchalantly, as she played with a strand of her hair “You still getting lost?” She joked as she leaned in closer with a smug look on her face, alluding to their first meeting.
It didn’t cue any response from Shadow, though he was slightly annoyed.

“Thanks, but I know my way around here” Shadow replied, and he turned to walk away.

“Hmph!” Sunset pouted as she placed her hands on her hips and tapped her foot in annoyance of Shadow’s stubbornness. “Still stubborn as usual.” Pinkie popped out from behind Sunset, Both of them observing Shadow as he walked down the hallway. Not content with letting him go so easily, she started walking after Shadow.......with Pinkie still popped out from behind her, for Pinkie was hanging on to her back with her legs, giving the illusion that she was popping out from Sunset.
Sunset however was only willing to put up with her antics for so long. Sunset then ran an exasperated hand down her face.

“Pinkie...........get off please” Sunset told Pinkie.

“Hmm? You say something?” Pinkie apparently didn’t hear what she said. Sunset groaned in annoyance and then proceeded to partially take off her jacket and shook it vigorously.

“Huh- wha! Whoa!” Pinkie yelped as she fell backwards, bouncing cartoonishly on her head a few times before rolling to a stop. Pinkies eyes spun as she was dizzy from her pratfall. Then she shook her head and looked up and saw Twilight, Rarity and Fluttershy looking down at her.

“Hee hee, having fun?” Twilight joked as she leaned down to talk to Pinkie.

“Hmph. It was fun...” Pinkie turned pouty as she got up. “....until Sunny became like that shadowy character. “ The three were confused at Pinkies statement.

“Shadowy character?” Rarity questioned.

“Oh I think she’s referring to Shadow” Twilight answered her.

“Wait.....his name was Shadow?........weird.......” Pinkie scratched her head. This cued laughs from everyone.

Meanwhile Shadow was walking to his last class of the day. He planned to observe Sonic’s race later today. Not he wanted Sonic to do it anyways. Under normal circumstances he would stop Sonic from doing it in the first place. But knowing him he wouldn’t listen to him anyways. He rounded the corner, but then he stopped when someone bumped into him.
“Ah tch!!” A callous voice said.

“Sorry. I didn’t see you” Shadow quickly apologized. He was only met with a menacing growl. He looked at the person to see it was a green haired boy wearing a black jacket. He noticed that his hair looked uncannily looked like Sonic’s hair. The person glared at him for a few seconds, trying to intimidate Shadow. But Shadow wasn’t phased, though he remained on guard.

“You......you’re that blue rats brother.” Scourge seethed at him. Shadow tensed up slightly. He then he connected the dots in his head, and realized who it was.
“You stay out of my way, because he’s mine.” Scourge leaned in closer as he leered at him. Shadow kept his perpetual frown. “Unless.....you want to be next?” Scourge threatened him. Despite the fact that everyone could see and hear their conversation, the other students didn’t say anything or want to get involved.
Shadow clenched his fist as his rage grew as his big brother instinct kicked into action. He so wanted to teach him a lesson right here and now. But his realistic side stopped him, for he knew that if he caused a scene, it would put not just him, but also Sonic and Silver in a heap of trouble. Not to mention he didn’t feel as confident in his fighting abilities without his powers. Not wanting to start anything, he pushed his way past Scourge, not even making eye contact.

“Hah! That’s right! Run away you loser!” Scourge mocked him as Shadow walked down the hallway. Shadow ignored him as he pushed past the other students. “Can’t believe the little brother has more balls than the big brother!” Scourge threw in one last insult before he lost sight of Shadow.
That last insult hit more close to home than Shadow expected, his eye twitching slightly with rage. But regardless he kept it in.

2:30 pm

Over in the art class room, Silver was doing his best to try and follow along, with various results.

"Now if I just...." Silver attempted to draw the curvature of the bowl that was on the desk. Unfortunately, his hand wobbled as he pressed against the paper, ruining his straight curve.
"Oh come on!" Silver voiced his frustration, proceeding to turn to a new page and starting over.
Rarity was finishing adding the final details on her fruit bowl when she notices Silver hasn't even successfully drawn anything, in fact, he had restarted over ten times judging from the number of pages he's folded over on his drawing pad.
Then she overheard Pinkie giggling on her opposite side. She looked over to see Pinkie not even trying to draw the bowl, and just doodling with her crayons all while humming childishly.
Rarity let out a defeated sigh at Pinkie's childish antics. She then turned to Silver to help him.

Silver again was struggling to try and draw a straight line, but once again his line veered off into a messy scribble. He slumped back in his chair, letting out a frustrated sigh. He didn't dare look at the other students work and feel even more bad about his lack of artistic skill.

"This assignment is graded you know darling." Rarity grabbed Silver's pencil from his hand. Silver looked over at Rarity who had his pencil in her hand. He blushed slightly as he didn't know what to reply to her with. She moved her stool closer to Silver so she could draw on his pad.
"May I?" She gestured towards his drawing pad, asking if she can draw on it. Silver took a while to process what she was saying before finally snapping back to reality.

"Huh? Oh! uh yeah sure!" Silver finally managed to blurt out. Rarity giggled at his embarrassment, then proceeded to lightly sketch on his pad. As he looked at Rarity's hand seemingly glide over the paper, he felt both amazement and utter defeat at her skill as he felt that it would take forever to get to her skill level.

"Geez...you make it look easy." Silver commented as Rarity already finished off the bowl and two of the fruit. Rarity giggled again at his comment.

"Oh please, it takes a lot of practice. You don't learn it overnight darling." Rarity replied as she finished off the banana. "Just relax, and use smooth strokes." She then handed the pencil to Silver.
"Now you try."

Silver took the pencil from Rarity and internalized what he saw Rarity do, as well as what she said. His eyes darted between his drawing pad, and the grapes in the bowl. He started sweating as he was nervous if he could do it. Rarity noticed that he was nervous.

"Sigh Look relax. You'll never finish unless you try." Rarity said to him, getting kind of irritated with his hesitation.
Then Rarity noticed the teacher get up from her chair.

"Alright class five more minutes and the assignment is over." The teacher announced to the class. Silver gasped in panic.

"Speak of the devil." Rarity commented. Not content with leaving nothing on the paper, Silver decided to just go for it.

"Eh! Eh! EH! Come on!" Silver furiously waved his pencil over the paper, with Rarity giving him an awkward look. He furiously drew for about four minutes straight until he was out of breath. He caught his breath for a few seconds, and then looked up to see the results of his furious scribbling.
To his shock and confusion, the drew the grapes...as cubes!
Rarity was just as bewildered as Silver.

"Uhh....not bad I guess?" Rarity commented, she had to give him points for creativity at least. However she looked at the time and saw that there was only a minute left.
"You better put the finishing touches quick, she wants this fully rendered!" Rarity tore off the page with her drawing from her pad. Silver looked around to see the other students turning in their drawings, and they all looked fully rendered!

"Oh shoot! Uhh..." Silver once again started furiously waving his pencil all over his drawing pad. But then Silver paused for a second, when he realized that he was getting way too into this.
"What am I doing? I have a mission to do here. I can't get too into this" Silver thought. Despite what he was thinking, it didn't stop him from shading in his drawing. In fact it helped him calm down, causing him to draw much more cleaner.

"Alright! Pencil's down please!" The teacher announced to the class. "Leave your assignments on the desk.

"Aw what!" Silver exclaimed as he was interrupted.

“If you didn't finish, you can finish it tomorrow after I give feedback." The teacher further elaborated. Silver breathed a sigh of relief and proceeded to tear off his page and brought it up to the teacher's desk. He walked up to the teacher's desk and placed it on her desk.
Pinkie skipped over next to him and put her page on the desk. Silver looked over and double-taked at what Pinkie drew. It was an extremely crude drawing in crayon of Rarity, and him holding hands, with a heart in between them, with the fruit bowl they were supposed to be drawing above. Silver's face flushed red with embarrassment. He looked over at Pinkie, who had a childish yet innocent expression.

"HeeHee! You two should kiss!" Pinkie playfully teased him. Silver froze up with his jaw hanging. He legitimately didn't know what to say to that. Then Pinkie stuck her tongue out at him and skipped away.
Rarity, who was packing her stuff, noticed Pinkie skip back to her desk, and noticed Silver frozen up by the teacher's desk.

“Sigh What is it this time?" Rarity said as she put her purse down and went over to Silver.
"Something wrong?" She asked him. Then she saw what Pinkie drew. Like Silver she fell silent and her faced blushed red. The teacher, who was busy erasing the board happened the notice the two at the front of the desk.

"Um.....is there a problem you two?" The teacher asked them. Rarity was the first to break the silence.

"Huh? Oh! Uh nothing! Nothing." Rarity explained frantically, her face still flushed red with embarrassment. Silver was the next to speak.

"Yeah! Yeah! Uh......I'll just be going!" Silver played along with Rarity, and he proceeded to speed walk to the door and disappeared into the hallway. Rarity and the teacher looked at the door as it closed. The teacher was curious about their relation to each other.

"Um.....do you two......have.." The teacher was about to ask about their relationship, but Rarity cut her off.

"No we don't! No we don't!" Rarity quickly insisted, even though she didn't know what the teacher was asking. Rarity however didn't know what to say after that. She went pigeon toed and brought her knees together in embarrasment because of the awkward situation she was in.
"I'll.....just be going now." Rarity backed away towards her purse, quickly grabbed it and left through the door. The teacher had the same awkward stare on her face.

"Sigh Kids these days" The teacher slouched back in her chair.

3:00 pm

The bell finally sounded and students flooded the halls once again. Sonic burst out from his class and immediately started heading towards the field for his rematch with Dash.

"Alright Dash, here I come. You're not winning this time." Sonic spoke to himself as he made his way through the crowds of students. The crowds were not as crowded in the direction he was going since most students were going home right now.
As he walked however, his mind started to drift. He began thinking about if they would ever get home, and why they were even here in the first place. His brisk pace slowed to a stroll as he was deep in thought.

Nearby Twilight was on her way home alongside Sunset,Rarity and Fluttershy. Twilight was a little on edge after Spike told them that someone tried to take the element of harmony inside her backpack. Rarity happened to notice Twilight with a worried face.

"Twilight dear. Worrying about this 24/7 is unhealthy for your complexion." Rarity advised Twilight stopping to talk to her. Twilight stopped to listen to what she had to say.

"Yeah, we shouldn't let this muddle our plans." Sunset added. Fluttershy shyly nodded in agreement.

"Oh, don't worry about me girls. I'll be fine." Twilight replied cheerfully, although she wasn't exactly cheerful inside. She was still thinking about what all of this is, even though she told herself that she shouldn’t worry so much, for both her and her friend’s sake.

"Well, whatever you say. Just let us know if something's wrong." Sunset replied then continued walking, with Rarity and Fluttershy following. Twilight sighed, knowing that she wasn't completely fine. Since she was the leader she couldn't afford to burden the others with her troubles. She tugged at her skirt a little as she thought about what to do about her uneasiness.

"You're not okay, are you?" Spike poked his head out from her backpack. Twilight looked back at Spike, and sighed as she admitted that he was right.

"Yeah.......I think I'm starting to get homesick again." Twilight speculated. She leaned against the lockers as the stress of this whole situation was taking it's toll on her.

"You going to be alright?" Spike asked. Twilight looked and smiled to try and not worry him.

"Oh I'll be fine. I just need some sleep and I'll be fine tomorrow. Besides, it's the weekend, so we get to sleep in" Twilight explained, remaining optimistic about the situation.

"Oo Oo!! Can we go get some chicken wings?" Spike began drooling at the mouth. "With Blue cheese dressing?" Twilight giggled at his excitement.

"Sure. Just don't stuff yourself alright?" Twilight replied. With that she went ahead to join up with the others. She made her way down the halls coming up on the front entrance. However she gasped slightly when she saw the Blue haired boy from her dream come into the light that shone through the glass dome above.

Sonic looked up to see the Lavender haired girl from his dream come into the light. Their eyes remained locked on each other as they approached. Everything seemed to be in slow motion as they maintained eye contact.
They both were overcome by am irrational yet surreal sense that.....they knew each other. They both knew that they have never seen each other, yet this feeling still purveyed through them nonetheless.
As they passed each other, they both simultaneously turned to look each other in the eye. They looked into each other eyes, both confusion and curiosity going through their minds. They stared at each other for a solid minute before one of them broke the silence.

"Uh.......do......we...know each other?" Sonic finally spoke. Twilight's eyes darted from side to side as she tried to search for an answer in her head. She didn't know if she should say yes or no.

"Ummmm.........I.....don't know...." Twilight replied, chuckling nervously as she rubbed the back of her head. Sonic joined in on the nervous chuckling as this was a very awkward situation. Twilight looked at him closer and realized that he was one of the new students.

"Hey, you are one of the new students here right?" Twilight asked him.

"Huh? Oh yeah. I don't think we've met." Sonic replied. Twilight stepped forward and introduced herself.

"My name is Twilight. Twilight Sparkle." Twilight smiled as she offered her hand to him. Sonic was surprised and heartfelt by her sincerity.

"Sonic. Sonic th-'cough' Genesis." Sonic shook her hand. They fell silent once again after they released hands, unsure of what to talk about. They both waited for each other to break the silence between them.

"Twilight, I don't like this guy! He doesn't smell right." Spike poked his head out from her backpack.

"Tch! Spike!" Twilight pushed Spike back down. Sonic raised an eyebrow as he spotted Spike poke out of Twilight's backpack. Twilight looked back at Sonic, worried that he may blow her cover. She chuckled nervously as she tried to think of an explanation.
"Sorry. Spike he's well....uh...." Twilight unfortunately was drawing a blank.

"Hey...Don't worry about it." Sonic replied. Twilight relaxed a little. "Where I'm from, you see all kinds of things." While he was definitely surprised at Spike's ability to talk, it didn't really bother him that much. Twilight breathed a sigh of relief, though she was now curious as to where Sonic was from exactly.

"Where are you from anyway?" Spike poked his head out again. Twilight didn't object to him speaking this time as she was curious about that as well.
Sonic hesitated for a moment as he needed to be careful about what he said.
He put his hands in his pockets and stepped back a little.

"Let's just say, I'm from out of town. " Sonic said. Twilight raised her eyebrow slightly as she wasn't exactly satisfied with his answer.

"Um....where exactly?" Twilight questioned him further as she tilted her head quizzically. Sonic tensed up slightly as he was close to blowing his cover with her.

"It's a place called Emerald Town. It's near the coast, but it's not even on the map." Sonic quickly remembered Shadow's explanation as he pointed his thumb in a random direction thinking that he was pointing at the coast of the place. Twilight noticed the direction that he was pointing, which wasn't towards the coast.

"Uh....that's not where the coast is." Twilight pointed out to him. "It's that way." She pointed in the opposite direction that he was pointing.
Sonic tensed up again.

"Uhhh....." He was drawing a blank this time. His eyes darted back and forth nervously as he tried to come up with a response, all while he could sense Twilight becoming more and more suspicious of him.
"Well crap. I should've paid attention in geography class." Sonic joked as he scratched the back of his head.
Twilight, while confused at first, she giggled at his sincere albeit lackadaisical statement. Sonic chuckled back, as he tried to lighten the mood.
Twilight stepped back from him giving him more space.

"It's okay. When I first got here, I didn't know where things were either." Twilight joked back. The two fell silent once again, unsure of what to say. Sonic then noticed the clock to his right and read the time.

"Oh shoot! I'm supposed to be at the field now. See ya!" Sonic then dashed off in the direction opposite of Twilight.
Twilight was rather surprised at his sudden departure. However as she watched him run off, she heard the sound of a metallic object drop in front of her. She looked down and saw gold ring on the floor.

"Is that....a gold ring?" Twilight assumed it must belong to Sonic. She was surprised that he had it in the first place, for she didn't notice them on his wrists. She bent down to pick it up, but then she paused when her magic sense went off suddenly.
"What the-" Twilight paused before her fingers touched the ring as she wondered what was making her magic sense go off.

"What's wrong?" Spike poked his head out of the bag. Twilight didn't answer him, which only made him more concerned.
"I must be imagining things." Twilight then moved her hand to pick up the ring.

"Ah! Tch!" Twilight's jerked her hand back as she felt her hand get zapped like a static shock.

"You alright!?" Spike jumped out of the bag in front of Twilight. Twilight rubbed her fingers which stung from being shocked.

"Yeah.......... Weird." Twilight looked back at the ring on the ground. She assumed that it was just a common static shock one would get from a door handle, but her magic sense was still tingling. But then she realized that it felt similar to the shock that she felt when she touched the emerald. She froze up, as more questions formed in her mind, particularly about Sonic. She looked back up to see Sonic just as he ran around the corner.
"Just.....who......"

She knelt down and got a tissue out of her backpack and used it to pick it up to prevent her hand from contacting it. She stood back up as she examined the ring more closely. Spike pawed at her leg, curious about what she was thinking.
With her other hand, she lightly touched the ring with her index finger. Yellow energy immediately arced from the ring to her finger, giving her a small shock, confirming her hunch.
But while her suspicion was at an all time high, she still felt she should return it.

"Come on Spike." Twilight put the ring in her pocket along with the napkin, then she picked up Spike and put him in her backpack.

"We going home?" spike asked. Twilight shook her head.

"I'm going to return this ring to him." Twilight replied. She then proceeded to walk to the field.

"But what about Sunset and Rarity?" Spike asked as Twilight was completely sidetracked. "Shouldn't we tell them?" Twilight paused for a second to think.

"Well, I’ll go tell them that I’ll be attending Dash’s race after all.” Twilight told him, as she put the ring in her pocket and ran off to find them.

Meanwhile, Silver was sitting beside the library door waiting for Shadow. He couldn't stop thinking about Pinkie's little drawing of him and Rarity holding hands.
"She's not insinuating that........I like her? Right" Silver was irritated at the thought. He shook his head as he tried pushing the thought out of his head.
"Where's Sonic. I haven't seen him since lunch." Silver stood up and looked down the hallway for signs of him, but didn't see anything.

"You're here." A deep voice said behind him.

"Oh Geez!!!" Silver jumped in shock. He turned his head to see who it was. He breathed a sigh of relief to see that it was Shadow.

"Tch! Don't do that. Your voice isn't exactly pleasant to listen to." Silver complained as he caught his breath.

"Hmph. I'll take that as a compliment." Shadow joked back.

"By the way. Have you seen Sonic anywhere?" Silver asked him since Sonic was on his mind at the time.

"My guess is he's at the field." Shadow replied, looking back in the direction of the field.

"Huh? Why?" Silver replied again, the answer escaping his mind.

"He's challenged that Rainbow Haired girl to a race." Shadow told him, slightly annoyed at Sonic's impulsiveness. Silver took a few seconds to think.

"Oh shoot! I forgot!" Silver slapped his face. "We should go. I don't wanna miss this." Silver told Shadow.

"Might as well. Don't want Sonic to blow our cover." Shadow replied. Silver nodded in agreement and the two proceeded to walk to the field.

"Ya think Sonic can win?" Silver asked Shadow. No answer came from Shadow as he didn't really care if Sonic won or lost. He was just worried about Sonic doing something stupid.
Silver raised an eyebrow at Shadow giving him the silent treatment.

"You're not still mad at him are you?" Silver asked Shadow again.

"I'm always mad at him." Shadow bluntly stated. Silver was rather put off by his response. He tapped his chin as he tried to think of what to say next.

"You're not mad at me as well are you?" Silver asked sadly, as he didn't want to disappoint Shadow.

"You......not as much." Shadow replied. While it certainly wasn't as harsh as he expected, Silver was still bothered by Shadow still being somewhat mad at him.

"Why?" Silver had to know why Shadow was mad at them. Shadow sighed frustratedly as he wasn't in the mood to discuss his personal feelings.

"You shouldn't be getting too close to these people." Shadow stopped and turned to talk to Silver.

"But....Were just blending in." Silver tried to explain, but Shadow didn't seem convinced.

"By that I meant only interact with them when you need to. Not get close and personal with them." Shadow reprimanded him. "It's not their fight." Shadow then turned around and continued walking. However Silver clenched his fist in anger at Shadow's statement.

"This is their world right?! So shouldn't we at least tell someone!?" Silver raised his voice. Shadow stopped walking. Fortunately most of the students have gone home so they didn't have to worry about anyone getting suspicious of them. Shadow thought about what Silver said.

"I'll admit, he has a point. As it turns out, the inhabitants of this world are capable of manipulating some form of energy. But...... " While Shadow found the prospect of asking for help tempting, his current relationship with Sunset prevented him from fully trusting people here.

"Sigh They wouldn't understand. Just don't attract unwanted attention." Shadow continued walking.

"But......Sigh" Silver gave up trying to reason with Shadow as he rounded the corner. With that he picked up the pace to catch up with Shadow.

CHS Field

3:30 pm

Sonic was leaning against the side of the bleachers with his arms crossed, waiting for Rainbow Dash to arrive for their rematch. He tapped his foot and tapped his fingers impatiently for he couldn't wait to show up Dash.
But part of him was worried. He knew that he didn't have his powers, and he knew that Dash was incredibly athletic just from observing her. Then again, he did notice that he himself was slightly more athletic and strong then most people here. However he shook his head vigorously as he didn't want anything to discourage him from winning.

"Okay. Guess I should warm up." Sonic began to do his usual routine of stretches. I won't let her win this time.. He admitted that despite having a human body at the moment it still felt relatively the same, save for a few places feeling out of place. He stretched for two minutes before finally stretching his arms up high.
"Whew! Okay." Sonic exhaled as he finished warming up. "Now where is that skittle haired brat?" He looked around for signs of Dash.

"Well well, looks I found myself a Blue Hedgehog."

"Wuh?!" Sonic double-taked and looked up behind him to see Rainbow Dash sitting on the side of the bleacher looking down at him from the highest seat with her legs dangling.

"Uh....Heh, took you long enough." Sonic tried to appear confident in front of Dash despite his flustered reaction.

"Oh can it Blue boy. I've been here long before you even got out of class." Dash crossed her arms as she snarked back at him. She then proceed to drop down from the 25 foot high bleachers and landed on her feet in front of him as her Rainbow hair trailed behind her.
Sonic smirked as he was glad that his chance at payback has arrived.
"So....you ready to get this on?!" Dash got right up in Sonic's face as she asserted her will to dominate him in this race.

"Ha! This won't be anything like last time!" Sonic asserted his will to leave her in the dust. Spark flashed between their eyes as their wills collided. With their spirits ready to compete, they both started to head to the track.

"Hey Dash! Sonic!" Another female voice caused stopped them in their tracks. They looked behind them, to see Twilight, Sunset, and Fluttershy who had just exited the school.

"Oh....Hey guys!" Dash greeted them cheerfully, jogging over to them. She looked around to see Applejack, Rarity, and Pinkie were absent.
“I guess the others went home already huh?” Dash said disappointingly.

“Yeah, Applejack went to help Macintosh, and Rarity wanted to get back home to try on some new dresses she made” Twilight explained.

“Oh.....” Dash replied. Twilight looked behind Dash to see Sonic watching them talk.

"Heh Looks like we have an audience." Sonic commented as he walked over to them. Twilight noticing Sonic walking over and figured it was a good time to give the ring back to Sonic. She was about to reach into her pocket to grab the ring that was wrapped in a tissue, but before she could take it out she heard Sunset step forward to talk.

"So, you're Shadow's brother right?" Sunset approached Sonic, with her hands on her hips, not wanting to seem hostile, but still on her guard. Fluttershy hid behind Sunset as spoke too shy to speak to him.

"Huh? Oh uh...yeah I am." Sonic double taked in surprise to Sunset speaking to him. "Why? You've met him?" Sonic was suspicious of why she would ask him that.

"More or less." Sunset replied, trying to diffuse any suspicion he had. But she saw that he still had his eyebrow raised. "Let's just say......he's a handful." Sunset recounted her last meeting with Shadow. Sonic smirked at her statement.

"Heh.....tell me about....it" He trailed off when he realized that he'd seen Sunset before, but he didn't know where. He began thinking about where exactly he saw her. Sunset, Twilight, and Rainbow dash waited for him to say something.

"Uhh....something wrong?" Sunset didn't know what he was thinking about. After a few seconds, it finally hit Sonic.

"Oh yeah! You're that bacon-haired girl I saw in the principal's office." Sonic blurted out.

"Wha-!?" Sunset double taked with her jaw hanging open, absolutely flabbergasted at what he said. Rainbow Dash, Fluttershy, and Twilight also were surprised at what he said. Though they realized that they should be more concerned about Sunset’s incoming fury. Sonic eye's darted from side to side, unsure of what warranted such a response.
A scowl slowly formed across Sunset's face.

"Wha......what did you call me!?" Sunset said angrily as she leaned towards him aggressively causing him to lean back. Fluttershy got scared and went to hide behind Twilight. Then Dash spat out air as she tried to contain her laughter. Sunset’s eye's darted to Dash who instantly covered her mouth to hide her expression as well as contain her laughter.
"You....you didn't just laugh at that did you?!" Sunset's anger continued to rise as she stomped her foot. Dash spat out air again as she snickered under her breath. This did not help Sunset's mood at all.
"Grrrrrr!..........STOP LAUGHING!!!!" She snapped at her. Behind her, Twilight held back a chuckle, for she too couldn't resist finding it a little funny. But it wasn't enough for Sunset heard her anyway.

"Oop!" Twilight covered her mouth in embarrassment as Sunset looked at her in complete disbelief.

"Not you too Twilight!" Sunset complained.

Rainbow Dash managed to regain her composure and walked over to Sonic.
"Nice one" Dash playfully punched his arm lightly. "Though I wouldn't advise saying it again." She whispered in his ear .(human ear).

“Gotcha” Sonic smirked as he nodded with her.

While arguing with Twilight, Spike who overheard Sonic's comment burst out of Twilight's backpack laughing.
"Tch! Spike!" Twilight reprimanded him, which didn't help Sunset's mood. But before her temper exploded, she just let out a frustrated sigh and straightened her hair as she regained her composure.
Fluttershy peeked out from behind Twilight as things calmed down.

“Sorry, I let my uh........temper get to my head.” Sunset apologized to the group, fiddling with a lock of her hair.

“ I-I didn’t know you s-so sensitive about your hair Sunset.” Fluttershy said to her, coming out from behind Twilight. Sunset was rather confused by her statement.

“No I’m not....!” Sunset blurted out, only to regret doing so for now she was wondering how her hair looked. “Well uh.....yes i am. It’s just.....” she looked back at Sonic, still ticked off that he had the nerve to call her hair something so humiliating.

“So are we gonna get this race on already?” Dash grew impatient.

“Yeah let’s get it on before the author continues dragging this chapter out!” Sonic replied

Hey! I’m going as fast I can Sonic.

Sonic and Dash began to head to track to start the race.

“Well I guess I’ll start the race for them.” Sunset volunteered to be the referee for the race.

“Alright. Oh wait! I wanted to talk to Sonic first.” Twilight said. She ran over to Sonic and Dash.
“Hey Sonic, wait!” Twilight called to him. Sonic and Dash stopped and turned to hear what Twilight had to say.

“What’s up Twilight?” Dash asked, wondering what Twilight would want with Sonic.

“Sorry, it’s just that you dro-“ She was about to reach into her pocket the grab the ring from her pocket, but she was interrupted when she heard the school doors slam open.

“Pant Pant I thought you said you knew the layout of this place!” Silver complained, apparently tired from walking around the school. Shadow pushed his way past Silver.

“Oh be quiet. I just made a wrong turn that’s all.” Shadow dismissed Silver’s complaint and walked ahead towards the group.

“Oh sure you did.” Silver sarcastically remarked.

Sonic and Dash looked over to see Shadow and Silver approaching.
“Oh look it’s my bros” Sonic looked behind Twilight to see them walking towards them.

“Here to cheer you on I guess? I can support that.” Dash commented. Sunset, Twilight, and Fluttershy also noticed Sonic’s brothers approaching. Silver noticed Sunset and Twilight in the group, and shuddered a little, since he had a few close encounters with them.

“What’s up with you?” Shadow noticed that Silver was shaking a little, as well as had an uneasy face. Silver then leaned in closer to whisper to him.

“Those two are the girls who almost caught me trying to get the emerald.” Silver explained to Silver. Shadow let out an exasperated sigh.

“ Just stand back and let me do the talking” Shadow told him. Silver decided to heed Shadow’s advice and hung back.

“Well, look who showed up.” Sunset approached Shadow as he approached them. Fluttershy went and hid behind Twilight, for she was slightly scared by Shadow’s perpetual frown. Sunset then noticed Silver next to Shadow. She then remembered where she saw Silver from.

“Oh it’s you.” Sunset said to Silver, causing him to freeze up in panic, for he thought that they knew that it was him who tried to snag Twilights backpack.
“You still looking for your contact lenses” Sunset joked with him. Silver was silent for a few seconds, still nervous from his cover almost being blown.

“Oh! Uh yeah! Heh heh. Those things are annoying right?” Silver played along with Sunset.

“Yeah, that’s why I don’t wear them.” Sunset replied. Silver was about to reply back again when he felt Shadow elbow him lightly.

“I said let me do the talking” Shadow whispered to him. Silver was about to object, but Shadow walked to Sunset before he could say anything.
“I’m just here to make sure Sonic doesn’t cause any trouble” Shadow explained. Sunset looked back at Sonic and Dash, and failed to see what the trouble was.

“Why? They’re just having a race?” Sunset asked.

“Well you don’t know him like I do.” Shadow replied dismissively, then headed to the bleachers to watch. Silver wanted to stay and talk to Sunset, but Shadow pulled him aside before he could say anything.
Sunset scratched her looked at the three other newcomers with a bewildered expression. Apart from her suspicions of Shadow, and her still lingering fury at Sonic, she just didn’t know what to think of them.
Twilight, who was observing their conversation, had similar thoughts. However she remembered what she came here for. She quickly turned around, and grabbed the ring I her pocket which was wrapped in the tissue she picked it up with and prepared to give it back to Sonic.

“Hey Sonic I-“ However she stopped when she saw that Fluttershy was in the middle of talking to him already.

“Uh......I.......th-thank you....for h-he....helping me last time.” Fluttershy shyly thanked Sonic.

“Huh? Oh sure....it was nothing.” Sonic replied. He was about to turn and go to the track , but then he felt Fluttershy grab his arm. He looked back at her, wondering what she wanted now. He looked back over at the starting line, to see Dash stretching. He figured that he should go over there lest he get taunted by her a second time.
"Well I better go see ya." He waved goodbye to her and headed off to the starting line.

"Oh uh.....bye." Fluttershy meekly waved goodbye.
Twilight who was observing their conversation, suddenly realized that she was supposed to give the ring back to Sonic.

"Uh.....wait Sonic!" She ran past Fluttershy, who was still blushing from her interaction with Sonic, towards the track where Sonic was heading to talk to him. But she was too late as Sonic was bickering with Dash some more. She sighed in disappointment. She looked back at the ring she held in her hand, wondering if she would ever get it back to him.
"Sigh I guess I'll give it back after he's finished his race." Twilight told herself.

"What's wrong Twilight?" Fluttershy asked Twilight, walking up behind her.

"Oh it's nothing." Twilight turned to Fluttershy. "Let's go to the bleachers and watch." With that, the two girls went to the bleachers to watch the race.

Shadow kept his eyes on Sonic as he sat with Silver atop the bleachers. He was still not pleased with the situation, and would prefer to have kept their distance. But then again, he was dealing with Sonic, so it's not like he expected him to listen.
Silver on the other hand was still nervous in the presence of these girls, considering that Twilight and Sunset were the one's that they attempted to steal the chaos emerald from.
He looked over to see Twilight and Fluttershy approaching them.

"Uh....Shadow...." Silver nudged Shadow's shoulder repeatedly. Shadow grunted under his breath in annoyance.

"I see them. Just relax." Shadow told Silver to calm down, though it didn't really do much to stop Silver sweating profusely. He looked over to the left to see the two girls reach the top of the bleachers. Shadow didn't even look over at the two girls as they approached. Silver noticed Shadow not looking at them and figured that he should do the same.

"Hey Shadow, and uh.......sorry I didn't get your name ." Twilight greeted them but failed to recall Silver's name, with Fluttershy retreating behind her as usual. Despite trying to follow Shadow's example, Silver could not help but turn his head and greet them.

"Uh.....heh heh....eh Hi.." He meekly greeted him. Twilight raised an eyebrow, wondering why he was acting like Fluttershy behind her. Shadow rolled his eyes in embarrassment at Silver's attempt at 'blending' in

"You okay?" Twilight asked him.

"She still doesn't know that we tried to steal her backpack." Silver was somewhat relived that she didn't know about their failed (and lousy) attempt at burglary. But something in his gut prevented him from feeling completely safe.

"Gasp!! Pant pant I can barley breath in the- Huh?" Spike burst out from Twilight's backpack, gasping for breath, but then he double-taked when he saw Silver.
Silver froze up when he saw Spike pop out out of her backpack, then it occurred to him that he was the dog that was in Twilight's backpack!

"It's him! Why that little!!" Spike bared his teeth at Silver.
Twilight was unsure of what to make of Silver's behavior now.

"Uh......is...it alright if we sit here?" Twilight asked. Silver didn't hear her question at first, as his eyes were still locked with Spike who was silently leering at him from Twilight's shoulder.

"Huh!? What!? Uh.....yeah sure....no problem!" Silver smiled nervously as he managed to snap his mind out of his frozen state. Twilight gave him grateful smile and she sat down next to him with Fluttershy, while Spike was still glaring at him. Silver blushed slightly as they sat down next to him.
"Say um.....where's Rarity?" He asked, expecting that she would be with them.

"She had some things to do at home." Twilight explained. Spike peeked out from Twilight's backpack again, and leered at Silver again.
Silver tensed up again. He tried to not look at Spike, but his fierce expression seemed to pull his eyes to Spike's.
Spike let out a low growl at Silver, making his hostility blatantly clear. Twilight heard Spike's growl and noticed that Silver and Spike had their eyes locked.

"Oh Spike! You want to come out for a while?" Twilight asked. She unzipped her packback and lifted Spike out and next to her, all while Spike was giving Silver the stink eye.
Silver was now even more uncomfortable now that Spike was out, but he couldn't let it show, he needed to ease the tension.

"Uh....nice dog." Silver smiled nervously as he tried to maintain his friendly appearance.

"Oh thanks! His names Spike." Twilight said merrily, petting Spike on the head, which didn't do anything to change Spike's hostile expression. "Why don't you say hi Spike?"
Spike double taked. Like hell he going to be all hunky dory with him! He continued giving Silver the stink eye.
Silver slowly reached his hand out to attempt to pet him on the head, only he hesitated and just rubbed him on the nose lightly.

"Uh......nice doggy.." Silver said nervously. But Spike's growl only grew louder and louder, until he suddenly snarled and bit his finger!

"OW!!!" Silver jerked his hand back, clutching it in his other hand as he rubbed the bite marks.

"SPIKE!!" Twilight yelled as she yanked Spike away from Silver, with him still growling.
"Eh...uh...I'm terribly sorry! He's usually so nice!" Twilight apologized quickly to Silver, then turned away to reprimand Spike.
"Spike what's gotten into you!?" Twilight whispered to him fiercely.

"He's the one who tried to steal the chaos emerald!" Spike whispered back just as fiercely. Twilight raised an eyebrow at Spike's statement, then glanced back at Silver, who was sucking on his bitten finger while trying to hold back tears, which didn't help convincing her.

"Uhhh.......him? Really?" Twilight was reluctant to believe Spike's theory.

"I'm serious! He's in cahoots with that blue haired dude!" He motioned over to Sonic down at the track. "And I bet that Shadow guy is in on it too!" Spike explained as he whispered, let out a few dog whines hoping that Twilight will believe him.
Twilight looked back at Shadow and Silver. Now that she focused more, she realized that they both had a faint but noticeable magic signature. She remembered sensing a faint magic signature back in the library, but she knew that it could've been any other student's magic she sensed. She felt the same sensation with Sonic's.
All other people have a very faint magic signature, compared to her friends, who have very pronounced and defined magic signatures.
Then again, looking at Shadow's magic signature, she still sensed that something was off about it.

"I......think you've been sleeping too much Spike." Twilight told him, cuing a dejected jaw drop from Spike. "I wouldn't go accusing everyone of being the culprit." With that she went back to observing the match. Spike facepalmed at Twilight's reluctance to believe him. He peeked out from behind Twilight to glare at Silver. Silver who was still sucking on his finger, glanced over and saw Spike glaring at him.
Spike proceed to give him the 'I'm watching you' gesture with his paw, which only proceeded to weird Silver out because he didn't even know what it meant.
Fluttershy, who just decided to stay out of the whole ordeal, thought she might calm him down by rubbing him on the head.
While it didn't stop him from glaring at Silver, it at least stopped him from growling, for in his dog form he couldn't resist a good headpat.

As Shadow looked down at Sonic, who was just about to started the race with Dash. As much as he angrily disapproved of Sonic's decision, he let out a groan as he realized that it's too late to stop him now.
"Just don't do anything stupid faker" Shadow thought.

Down at the track, Dash and Sonic were doing some last stretches before they begin. Sunset was waiting for them to finish, before she starts the race.
"So.....you nervous blue boy?" Dash asked him snarkily. Sonic was almost insulted by her question.

"Heh! As if! Do I look like I'm nervous?" Sonic snarked back at Dash. Dash finished stretching her left arm, but she was not convinced.

"You know I'm wondering something." She replied. "If I beat you last time? What makes you think you can beat me now?" Sonic double taked for she made a good point. He didn't show it, but part of him was starting to ask that very question.

Sunset was sitting on the bench near the edge of the track waiting for them to finish. She looked at the time and figure that it was time to start.

"Okay. Are you two ready get started? I have a lot of makeup homework to finish back home." She said as she got up and walked to the middle of the track a few meters away from them. The two noticed her walk to the middle of the track.

"Well, that's what you get for playing videogames all night." Dash jeered at her. Sunset let out an annoyed sigh, not even acknowledging her taunt. She shook her head as she wanted to get back on track.

"Okay, so we going four times around right!?" Sunset yelled to the two, her hands on her hips.

"You said it!" Dash acknowledged, hopping a few times to finish her warmup.

Over on the bleachers, the others saw that the race was about to start.
"Oh look, I think they're about to start!" Silver said excitedly. Shadow rolled his eyes and looked away in disapproval for Sonic.

"Oooh..." Twilight shared Silver interest, along with Fluttershy watched quietly, secretly rooting for Sonic.

Before he got into position, Sonic looked up at Twilight and Fluttershy seeing that they were watching. Twilight noticed him looking up at them. She smiled while giving him a thumbs up. Next to her Fluttershy shyly waved back at her. Sonic smirked back at them while also giving them a thumbs up. Twilight giggled a little at his response, while Fluttershy held her cheeks as they turned red.
Sonic looked to his left to see Silver, who was also waving at him. However Sonic's smile faded when he saw Shadow, who only had a look of disapproval. Sonic scowled as he was frustrated at Shadow's current disposition.

"Looks like your older bro couldn't care less about this huh?" Dash commented, noticing that Sonic was looking up at Shadow.
While Sonic was determined to beat her, he was somewhat comforted that she understood him somewhat.

"Yeah, you get used it." Sonic turned back to face down the track.

"Okay! You ready!?" Sunset said to the two.

"RIGHT!!" They both said in unison.

"Okay. Then on your mark!" Sunset pointed at them as she began the countdown, cuing both of them to assume the running man position. Sonic inhaled a big breath of air into his human lungs, remembering how he ran out of breath the last time he ran.

"I may not have my powers yet, but at least I know how much stamina I have unlike last time. So I swear! I'm not losing this!!." Sonic strengthened his resolve.

"Get set!" Sunset raised her hand. Dash glanced over at Sonic and smirked, ready to show Sonic whose the fastest in Canterlot High.

"Your out of your league blue boy. I'm show you just how far behind you really are!" Dash too strengthened her resolve to win. The others on the bleachers (except Shadow) watched with anticipation for the race to start. Silver was shaking his leg while Twilight and Fluttershy were on the edge of their seat.

There was a brief moment of silence, as the tension rose and rose until........

"GO!!!!!!" Sunset swung her hand down cuing the two to bolt from their starting line at breakneck speed.

"Whoa!!" Sunset exclaimed as the two rushed past her, causing her hair to blowout behind her from the immense backdraft that followed them. She looked back as she saw them make the first turn.
The two racers rounded the first corner within the first few seconds. Sonic looked to his left and saw Dash maintaining pace with him. She glanced over and him and smirked as they exited the first corner and into the straight away.

"So......how you holding up. You tired yet?" Dash taunted him. Sonic didn't say anything and just focused on running. While his heart was pounding, at least his lungs didn't feel like they were about to explode at the moment. They both ran neck and neck with each other into the next turn.
"Oh don't worry, you'll be tired." Dash mocked him again.

"I'm not even gonna tell you to shut up!" Sonic spat back as he pulsed his legs, increasing his speed making him pull ahead of Dash. Dash was surprised at his resolve to win, which made her resolve to win grow as well.

"Heh Heh! That's what I like to hear!" Dash increased her speed as well. The two exited the second turn and into the straightaway, crossing the finish line completing the first lap.

On the bleachers, Silver was on the edge of his seat as he watched the race while Shadow just observed with a disinterested expression. Twilight and Fluttershy were watching as well. While she didn't show it, she was secretly rooting for Sonic.
Shadow looked over at Twilight and saw her backpack at her feet. He was tempted to try and grab the chaos emerald inside now, but he reminded himself that it would be too risky.

While she was watching, Twilight accidentally knocked her backpack off the bleachers, causing it to fall in between the gaps in the seats.

"Ah! Oh great!" Twilight sighed at her clumsyness. "Hang on, I dropped my backpack. I'll be back." She was about to get up to go get her backpack.

"Um don't get up. I'll go get it." Shadow sensed an opportunity to get the chaos emerald, and got up quickly to go get.

"Huh? Uh...that's okay. I'll go-" Twilight was slightly embarrassed by his courtesy, but she was interrupted by Shadow.

"I insist." Shadow dismissed her objections as he moved past her and went down the stairs. Twilight raised an eyebrow at his sudden courtesy.
Silver was curious as well. But then he realized what Shadow was doing.

"Wow Shadow, you're a genius!" Silver grinned as he went back to watching the race to avoid suspicion from the two girls.

Sonic and Dash finished the second lap and were still moving at max speed. Dash looked to see Sonic was still keeping pace with her, which impressed her since she knew that he got tired earlier the last time they raced.
"Okay not bad! And I was beginning to take you for a phony!" Dash snarked at him as they exited the first turn.

"Ha, you think I'm going my fastest right now. Where I'm from, I am much faster than this!" Sonic taunted her back. To his surprise he hasn't gotten tired yet.

"Oh pfft yeah rig-WHOA!!!" Dash's lost her footing slightly, causing her to stumble and lose speed. Sonic looked back to see that Dash was falling behind. A excited grin grew on his face.

"Ha! What's wrong!? You getting tired!?" Sonic taunted he pulled ahead of Dash.
Dash managed to regain her footing, letting out a frustrated grunt as she began to pick up her pace again.

"Yeah. That's right. Just tire you're self out like last time." Dash said, keeping a steady pace as to conserve stamina.

Coming up on the next turn, Sonic sped into the curve still maintaining his current speed with a wide grin on his face. He was going to win!

"Ha ha! Ha! Look's like I'm on a roll!!!" He yelled excitedly as he came up to the finish line. However just as he was about to finish the third lap it happened. His lungs started tightening up, his heartbeat skyrocketed, his breathing became erratic, and finally his arms and legs started shaking.
"Pant Pant Pant Pant Damn! Not again!" The debilitating feeling of being out of breath permeated through his body. His pace slowed and slowed as he stumbled across the finish line. He tried to increase his pace, but to no avail as his body gave into the fatigue, and his pace slowed to a slow jog.
Sunset who was watching the match from the bottom most seats, noticed Sonic staggering across the finish line. She remembered Dash describing how Sonic lost their last race. Looking at him, it looked like Sonic was going to collapse.

"Hey! You gonna be okay?" Sunset called out to him. Sonic didn't answer for he didn't even had the energy to speak, and he just trudged along forward at a staggering pace. Then she heard brisk footsteps to her left, realizing who was catching up.

"Later slowpoke!" Dash taunted as she rushed past the staggering Sonic at full speed.

"What!?" Sonic yelled in surprise as she sped past him entering the last lap. He again tried to increase his pace, but his body just wouldn't let him. The agonizing feeling of fatigue made his body shudder.

"Oh no! It's not looking good!" Silver stood up as he grasped his head in panic at Sonic about to lose. Twilight was also concerned as it was hard looking at Sonic struggle to keep up, and Fluttershy had her hands over her mouth as she panicked from seeing Sonic about to lose.

"No, No, No!! Damn it! DAMN IT!!!" Sonic swore in his mind as he tried to keep his pace up but Dash just kept getting farther and farther away down the track. . "I can't lose! I don't want to lose! I have to win!! Sonic felt his resolve to win fading as his fatigue began affecting his mind.

"I........want to win................................"

"Hey........... A gruff old voice said in his mind. "HEY!!!"
Inside his mind, Sonic looked up and saw a blue mobian hedgehog. However he noticed the two tuffs of grey hair that extending from the middle of his head.
"Why don't you stop feeling sorry for yourself and buck the hell up! The hedgehog said. "You want victory? You want to win!? Have you forgotten why you trained with me in the first place?! It was at that moment that he knew who was talking to him.

"No............I haven't" Sonic replied, his resolve slowly rebuilding. The figure then turned to face Sonic, and smirked at him in the same way that Sonic did. Sonic smirked back not only at the fact that his resolve is restored, but also at the sight of the person's face.

"Then what are you waiting for?" The figure asked. With that Sonic's mental world dissolved in a flash of light as he returned to reality. He was right back where he was on the track. He saw Dash about to exit the first turn of the final lap.
His hands were shaking, his lungs felt like they were about to burst, but he didn't care anymore. He wasn't about to let Dash show him up again.

"Come on, come on, come on, COME ON, COME ON!!!!" Sonic yelled as he forcefully willed his body to move faster. He felt the fatigue and pain in his body increase exponentially, but he forced his mind to ignore the pain. Surely enough Sonic's speed began increasing drastically and he began to catch up with Dash as she sped down the straightaway.
Silver stood up in surprise when he saw how Sonic was speeding up through sheer force of will.

"Come on Sonic! Go for it!" Silver yelled from atop the bleachers, stood up from his seat to cheer on his brother. Fluttershy tightened her hands that were on her chest as she watched Sonic strain his body. Her body got more tense as she silently rooted for Sonic in her mind.

"Sonic, I know you can win! Please.....do it!" Fluttershy thought.
As Twilight watched, she was bewildered by Sonic's demeanor.

"He's out of breath, yet it's as if he's........yelling at himself to run faster. And.....his body is listening!?" Twilight thought as she observed Sonic doing just that. "Just.....who is he?" She continued to think.

Sonic was now running as fast as he was when he started, and was getting faster and faster by the second. Soon enough he was right on Dash's tail, who was at the halfway point.

"GRRRRYYYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!!!!!!!" Sonic let out a battle cry as he came up on Dash's six.

"What th- WHA!!?" Dash looked behind her to see Sonic in a full sprint, albiet he was sweating like crazy and his breathing sounded erratic, but in his eyes she saw the spirit of someone desperate to win.
"Wha.....how're you......how di-" She was at a loss for words as Sonic gradually closed the gap between them.
"You're supposed to be out of breath! How are you sprinting!!?" Dash exclaimed, absolutely flabbergasted at Sonic's sudden burst of speed.

"PANT PANT PANT Like I'm gonna lose PANT....TO THE LIKES OF YOU AGAIN!!!" Sonic spat at Dash between breaths. They were neck n neck as they entered the last turn of the track, approaching the home stretch.

"Me PANT......out of breath!? PANT PANT Bullshit!!" Sonic now felt like every cell in his body was on fire, and his bones were about to disintegrate.
"I......WON'T LOSE............AGAI-ah!" Sonic lost his footing, causing him to trip. Everyone looked at Sonic as he flew forward. Dash gasped as she saw Sonic about to hit the ground face first.
"No.......it can't........it can't end like this!!" Sonic despaired as fell towards the ground, he didn't even have time to brace himself.

Sonic then hit the ground face, sliding to a stop, his body going limp. Dash looked back to see Sonic on the ground, then looked at the finish line which was a few meters in front of her. Victory was right in front of her.
Suddenly, Dash slammed on the breaks skidding to a halt right before she crossed the finish line, where Sunset was just about to announce the race over.

Sunset was surprised that Dash stopped just before she was about to win.
"Uh Dash?" Sunset said to her, wondering what was going through her head. Dash then suddenly turned and ran to help Sonic, who was still face down on the ground.

Twilight honestly couldn't believe what Dash was doing. She was putting Sonic's well being over her victory.
"Oh Dash." Twilight thought, proud of Dash for what she was doing.

Silver looked on, and he admitted that his opinion of Dash grew as well. But before he could go over to check on Sonic, he heard a voice whisper in his ear.

"Psst! Silver!" Silver heard Shadow whispering.

"Huh? Shadow? Where are...?" He looked around but didn't see Shadow anywhere.

"Down here." Shadow whispered again, Silver looked down to see Shadow beneath the bleachers.
"Meet down here quick!" Shadow told him.

"Uh...why?" Silver asked. Shadow responded by holding up Twilight's backpack, which had fallen between the cracks. Silver had to stop himself from gasping with excitement, lest he alerted Twilight. He looked over at Twilight and Fluttershy who had left their seats and were heading down to check on Sonic.
He proceeded to discreetly head down the bleachers with them and then run to the back to meet up with Shadow.

Dash ran over and knelt down to attend to a downed Sonic.
"Pant pant Hey! You okay blue boy!?" Dash said worryingly. She shook Sonic, only to get no response, which worried her even more.

"Wow Dash, haven't seen you this concerned for a guy. What's going on?" Sunset said mockingly as she knelt down beside Dash.

"Oh shut up!" Dash spat at her. She proceeded to flip Sonic over onto his back so she could see his injuries. To her relief he was still breathing, but he had bruises on his hands, knees and face, and his nose was bleeding.
Sonic eventually managed to open his eyes. His entire body ached and was taking repeated gasps for air. He looked to see Dash looking down at him, with a concerned look on her face.

"You okay?" She asked him. Sonic took a moment to process what was going on. The last thing he remembered was he was running his lungs out, and falling face first onto the ground. He struggled to sit up on account of his sore body. He looked at Dash, and a frown formed on his face when he realized what happened.

"I.......lost again didn't I." Sonic said, the feeling of defeat setting in his stomach.

"Well, not exactly. Dash hasn't crossed the finish line yet." Sunset mentioned, gesturing to the finish line. This didn't do much to improve Sonic's mood. He felt pathetic. Dash sensed that he didn't look to good, and figured that she should say something.

"Hey, don't feel so down. At least you managed to make it interesting for me." Dash smugly proclaimed. She proceeded to stand up and offered him a hand up. Sonic looked at Dash who had a half sincere, half smug smile on her face. Despite her attempt at sincerity, all he felt from her was pity, which made him even more angry.
Sonic proceeded to get up, ignoring Dash's offer for help. His hands and knees shook from the pain as he stood.

"I don't need your help." Sonic stated coldly as he wiped the blood from his nose. Sunset was rather miffed at Sonic's response.

"Hey! Dash offered to help you and all you can say is-" Sunset angrily reprimanded Sonic, but Dash cut her off.

"Sunset, stay out of this." Dash interrupted. She walked closer to Sonic. "Hey tell you what. Since I didn't technically cross the finish line, lets just call it a draw! How about it?" Dash proposed. Sunset and Twilight were even more surprised at that Dash was willing to call it a draw.
Sonic thought about for a moment, a solemn expression drew across his face.

"No." Sonic spoke. Dash was confused.

"I'm not going to settle for a half assed victory like that. " Sonic proclaimed. Dash crossed her arms defensively, but still listened to what he had to say.
"If I want to beat you. I'm doing it for real!" He proclaimed strongly as he put his fist to his chest.

Dash didn't say it, but she couldn't help but respect his conviction. She let out a sigh and a smile grew on her face.

"Well, your call blue boy." She flipped her hair and then began to walk back to the entrance. But before she left she turned and said. "By the way if you want to beat me, you gotta get on my level. And you're a long way from there Blue boy." This only served to anger Sonic more, as if she was adding insult to injury.
Sunset rolled her eyes at her comment.
Sonic let out a exasperated sigh as he watch her walk off. He wanted to be angry, but he didn't have to energy, or the motivation to let it out.
Sunset noticed that Sonic looked depressed so she walked over to him to try and console him.

"Uh....hey. If it makes you feel better. You're probably one of a few people who made Dash consider a draw." Sunset told him. Sonic looked up at Sunset, who had a caring smile on her face.

"Sigh Don't talk to me." Sonic turned away, his pride starting to make him bitter. Sunset was irritated at how head strong he was. She was about to open her mouth to say something, but she then realized that he was sort of like Dash, which made her come to the realization that maybe arguing with him wasn't the best thing right now.

"Sigh Whatever." She adjusted her hair and straightened her skirt before following Dash. As Sunset left. Fluttershy ran up to him. She shyly played with a strand of her hair as she tried to think of what to say.

"Um......S...sorry that you lo....." Fluttershy trailed off for fear of making him angry. Sonic glanced at her, seeing her nervously grasped her arm and shifting her knees.

"Forget about it." He looked away again. Fluttershy looked at him with eyes slightly tear up, and pulling at her skirt,fearing that she made him angry at her. Unable to take his rejection, she ran off following Sunset. Twilight watched as she ran off to join the others. Twilight figure that she should say something. She walked forward to him, thinking of what to say to him.

"Well. There's always next time." She said half cheerfully. Sonic didn't respond, he just leaned against the fence separating the bleachers from the field. Twilight sighed, unsure of what to say.

"Look, It's not the end of the world just because you lost. I mean it could-" Twilight tried to reason with him, but Sonic cut her off.

"You don't understand!" Sonic snapped at her, however he instantly regretted it when he saw her shocked expression.
"Please just.....leave me alone." He said in a more calm, yet sad tone. He looked away from her, wallowing in his depressed state.
Twilight wanted to say something, but she felt the more she tried to talk to him, the more she made things worse for him. It was obvious to her that this meant a lot to him for some reason.
She let out a defeated sigh and she walked over to join the others.

As Sonic leaned against the fence, his mind wandered back to the fated day that he obtained his immense speed. However, it was also the day of his greatest failure.

"I'm....I'm gonna get you out!" A young Sonic cried out as he tried to lift a piece of debris pinning a young mobian woman down. He was surrounded by flames and burning debris, as he desperately tried lifting the debris off her. As he struggled and strained, he saw noticed the woman crying.
Suddenly another adult mobian, picked up the young Sonic and carried him away from the woman.

"NO! NO!!! NO!!! PUT ME DOWN!!! I CAN SAVE HER!!! PLEASE!!!" The young Sonic cried as the man carried him out of the burning building. He reached out to the woman, wanting to save her. However it was all in vain, as more burning debris fell on the woman ending her lift.

Sonic held his head in anguish as the memory played out in his head. He thought he had escaped those memories years ago, yet they have come back to haunt him all the same. And this memory made him utter words he dreaded hearing.

"I.........wasn't fast enough."

Meanwhile, Shadow and Silver were about to open Twilight's backpack to see what's inside. Shadow could feel the immense energy coming from within the backpack.

“Well what are you waiting for? Let’s open it and grab it!” Silver prodded Shadow impatiently. Shadow wasted no time arguing and quickly unzipped her backpack. Immediately a bright purple glow emanated from the backpack, quint the two to momentarily shield their eyes. A grin grew across Shadows face, for it was about time they made some progress.
He reached inside to grab the emerald, only to be met with a sharp stinging pain.

“DAH!!” Shadow jerked his hand out of the backpack. He proceeded to drop the backpack with its contents spilling out onto the ground, including a golden crown adorned with a vibrant glowing gemstone.

“What the-?” Silver’s eyes immediately went to the crown on the ground with the glowing gemstone. He got closer to it, slightly shielding his eyes. He proceeded to touch the gemstone on the crown.

“Ow!!” Silver jerked his hand back as a surge of energy arced from the gemstone to his fingers. He sucked on his finger a few seconds after. “That is not a chaos emerald.” Silver said with absolute certainty.

“Definitely not” Shadow added. The two got closer. While Shadow didn’t show it, his chaos energy sense was hemorrhaging from the sheer energy the crown was emitting.

“Um Shadow what is it?” Silver asked him, wondering what something like this was doing in her backpack.
Shadow was about to say what he thought it was, but then he saw Twilight and her friends about to leave in the corner of his eye.

“I think that’s the least of our concerns.” Shadow replied. Silver noticed Twilight and her friends as well and knew exactly what he meant. “Put her stuff back in quick!”
The two scrambled to put Twilight’s books and pencils in her backpack. Finally Silver delicately picked up the crown with the tips of his fingers, feeling them sting as the energy conducted from touching the metal, and dropped it into her backpack. With that Shadow zipped the backpack, and began walking over to Twilight.

Twilight, Sunset, Dash, and Fluttershy were about to go back into the school, when Twilight suddenly stopped as she touched where her backpack was supposed to be.

"Oh shoot! I forgot my backpack." Twilight finally realized.

"I think you dropped it in between the bleachers." Spike added. Twilight was about to go retrieve it when she saw Shadow and Silver run up to her, with Shadow carrying her backpack.

"I believe this is yours?" Shadow handed over the backpack to Twilight.

"Oh, thank you." Twilight took the backpack from Shadow. Spike proceeded to glare at Silver from Twilight's shoulder. Silver retreated a little, rubbing his right index finger, remembering how Spike bit him.
'Why don't you get in Spike." Twilight held open the backpack for him to get in.

"Hmph!" Spike looked away from Silver with completely disapproval, and proceeded to hop into the bag.

"Seriously what is with him today?" Twilight thought. She proceeded to swing her backpack onto her shoulders after zipping it up.

"Say um......how's Sonic?" Silver asked the girls, feeling more comfortable speaking now that Spike was out of sight.
The girls looked at each other, unsure of how they should respond.

"Well.....uh....he was-" Fluttershy tried to speak first, but she was interrupted by Shadow.

"He lost didn't he?" Shadow asked.

"Well......kinda." Dash interjected. Shadow and Silver looked at her confusedly, unsure of what she meant.
"I proposed that it would be a draw, but refused and accepted the loss. " Dash continued. Shadow was confused.

"Why?" Silver asked, just as confused as Shadow. Dash didn't say anything at first.

"Well, something about wanting to beat me for real or something" Dash shrugged. "I'll admit, that's something I can definitely respect. Your bro is something else" She smiled at the two. Shadow and Silver were still confused.

"Well, smell you later" She then walked ahead as she proceeded to go head home. Silver let out a small grunt, irritated at her snarky quip.

"Look's like your bro is taking it pretty hard." Sunset spoke to him. "No offense, but he's kind of a sore loser."

"Sunset!" Twilight reprimanded her, put off by her sudden rudeness.

"I'm just saying, he seems to be really upset about it" Sunset replied defending her position.
Shadow let out a frustrated sigh.

"Don't worry about it." Shadow replied. "That's just how he is."
Sunset didn't know how to reply to him, neither did Fluttershy or Twilight.

"Well If I were you. I'd give him a pep talk." Sunset advised Shadow. " I'm sure he'll listen to his brothers more than us." Sunset then followed Dash back into the school.

"Uh...eh...e-excuse me!" Fluttershy shuddered as she excused herself from the group. Only Twilight remained of the girls. She looked back at where Sonic and Dash's race took place, then looked back at Shadow and Silver. Shadow was silent, for he didn't know what to say and only had his stoic expression on his face.

"Come on. Lets go." Shadow said to Silver. Silver only let out a defeated sigh. Shadow and Silver were about to head over to Sonic.
"You know......I don't exactly understand why he's torn up about this.....but....." Twilight finally said to them. Shadow and Silver stopped to hear what she had to say. Twilight looked back at where Sonic was. "......I think deep down he's a good person" Twilight stated.
Shadow was surprised to hear Twilight say that about Sonic. Silver smiled a little at her comment.
Twilight knew that her friend's opinion of Sonic was low, but she felt like she had to have some faith in him despite everyone else not liking him.
"Sigh I'm sorry....just speaking my mind." Twilight apologized, feeling bad for not just sharing her personal feelings, but also for Sunset and Dash's behavior. Shadow didn't respond, for he didn't care that much for what she said at the moment. But Silver stepped forward to say something.

"No.....thanks for saying that." Silver thanked her. Twilight smiled at him.

"Well.......goodbye." Twilight then headed into the school to rejoin her friends, but not before Spike poked his head out of the bag and gave him the stink eye. Silver ignored it and turned to Shadow.

"Hey.....let's go check on Sonic." Silver said, worried about how he was doing. Shadow let out a sigh, while he wasn't exactly happy with Sonic, he did need to make sure he didn't do anything stupid.

"Yeah....might as well." Shadow begrudgingly agreed with Silver.
So Shadow and Silver walked back to the track, with the sun just on the horizon turning the sky a vibrant pink. Upon looking around, Silver saw Sonic sitting in the middle of the field looking out into the distance. He raised an eyebrow, wondering what he was doing.

"Wonder what's up with him?" Silver asked.

"I dunno, I could never fully understand him." Shadow shrugged off Silver's question. He approached Sonic, who didn't seem to notice him.
Shadow wasn't entirely sure how Sonic was doing now, but he decided to take whatever he would say.

"You seem depressed" Shadow said honestly.

".......Yeah......" Sonic admitted. Shadow was surprised that Sonic didn't fight back.

"That's new." He replied. But then he remembered the time. They needed to get back to the library before the school closes, otherwise they'll have no place to sleep.

"We should get back. The school's gonna close soon." Shadow explained to him. Sonic looked back at Shadow with the most depressed look on his face. Shadow was rather put off at seeing Sonic looking so depressed. But he pushed his mind back to the topic at hand.

"Come on let's go already. You don't want to sleep out here do you?" Shadow prodded Sonic to come along. Sonic let out a sigh.

"......Sure...." He replied rather dismissively. Then he proceeded to get up from his episode of moping. With the three together, they finally decided to head back into the school.
As they made their way towards the library through the mostly empty school halls, save for a few students who remained. Sonic walked slowly behind the other two, the same vigor that he once had was completely gone. Silver looked back at him, concerned if Sonic was actually okay.

"You don't look so good. You gonna be alright?" Silver paused briefly to talk to Sonic. Sonic didn't respond at first, proceeding to slowly walk past Silver with the same depressed expression.

"Don't mind me...." Sonic mumbled as he walked past Silver, not even looking at him. This didn't do anything to lower Silver's concern for him. He wondered if Sonic's second loss against Dash caused him to be like this.

The three entered the library and headed up to the second floor.

"Hey Shadow, you think Sonic's gonna be okay?" Silver asked him. Shadow briefly looked back at Sonic who had the same dejected expression.

"Don't worry, he'll bounce back.....I think" Shadow reassured Silver. They made their way up the stairs and headed towards their little corner.

"Yawn Man I'm tired. Looking to getting some sleep tonight." Silver stretched his arms, as he was sore from walking around all day. But then he bumped into Shadow who suddenly stopped in front of the entrance to their hideout.

"Uh....Shadow? What's wrong?" Silver asked.

"I.....think we've been compromised." Shadow whispered to them. Confused as to what he meant, Silver and Sonic peeked around the corner into their hideout. To their surprise and displeasure, Miss Cherillee was organizing the books. The three just stood there, waiting for her to notice them. Believe it or not, she did eventually notice them. She raised an eyebrow, wondering what they were standing there for.

"Ummm.......can I help you boys with something?" Miss Cherillee asked them, somewhat annoyed at that there were students in the library close to closing time. Sonic, Shadow, and Silver said nothing for a few seconds as they all were afraid that what they would say next would completely blow their cover. The situation continued to get more and more awkward, when suddenly, Silver quickly grabbed a random book from the cases.

"I uh- wanted to- to check out this book." Silver studdered. Miss Cherillee looked at the book he was holding, and was even more confused.

"Um......a book on the history of chalk?" Miss Cherillee pointed out. Silver was sweating like crazy as he was both terrified and embarrassed, embarrassed that he grabbed a book on chalk of all things. Sonic noticed that Silver was in trouble so he decided to help him out.

"Uh yeah! Heh heh! It's for our......our uh......" Sonic wasn't sure how to continue his excuse.

"Our history assignment. " Shadow blurted out.

"Yeah!" Silver agreed with him.
Miss Cherilee still gave them a skeptical look, and wondered why exactly they were here so late. But she let out a sigh and figured that they were innocent enough, plus she was too tired to bother.

"Okay.....follow me." She waved them to follow her.
So the three followed Miss Cherillee to the librarians desk and she checked out the book for them, and then quickly pushed them out of the library.

"Next time, don't come so close to closing time." Cherillee told them. Then she closed the doors on them. The three finally dropped their pleasant façade.

"Well that's just great!! They discovered our hideout!" Silver angrily vented. Sonic just let out a sigh while Shadow just hung his head in utter disappointment.

"What....what do we do now?" Sonic worryingly said. Shadow didn't respond for he was trying to think of a solution to their problem.

"I......don't know." Shadow finally said. Sonic and Silver's hearts dropped. If Shadow didn't know what to do, then they were in a huge mess of trouble. They were stranded once again.